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#(so I guess that's now in my head the same way as grocery store checkout machine 'put your. PINK LADY APPLE. in the bag.')
paradife-loft · 6 months
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so this "ethics & legal requirements for research involving human subjects" course I'm doing for class rn hasn't figured out that you don't hyphenate "cisgender," and yet has still somehow heard of "trans broken arm syndrome" and wants to inform us about it being a source of distrust in medical professionals among some trans people. what's happening here....
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lijojo · 9 months
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how the genshin men rizz you up
premise: although you two have been dating for some time now, they never keep trying to charm you. what are ways your boyfriend keeps you on your toes?
WILL get into your favorite books/shows and try to copy your favorite characters
sometimes while you’re just chilling, he’ll walk into the room reading one of your books or having your favorite show playing on his phone. and because your tastes aren’t always shared, you’ll raise an eyebrow in question. “i thought you didn’t like it.” 
he doesn’t say anything, just merely shrugs at you and simply goes on with his day. and after that point, whenever you try to playfully glance over his shoulder, he flinches away. you’re confused, but don’t really say anything else. you trust him. if he didn’t want you to know, you’d respect that. 
you’d never expect two weeks later to be greeted with the sight of him with a fake rose in his mouth dressed as your favorite character you’d been gushing to him about for the past two months. you’re 100% sure he ordered his costume right off of amazon, with the way it barely fits him.
“why hello there,” he greets, still with the flower in-between his teeth. outstretched in his hand is a bag of your favorite candies. there’s something about his wig that makes this situation seem unreal. even if your favorite character shared the same hair color as him, he still puts on the wig, as if to really sell it to you.
you don’t even bother trying to stifle your laugh. if your carrying anything, you drop it immediately to bend down, cradling your stomach. “oh my god,” you say in-between chortles, wiping away a stray tear, “you are so cute.” 
he pouts. “is it not good?”
you can barely contain your smile. “it’s perfect.”
“but you’re laughing. you’re not supposed to do that. you’re supposed to get flustered and play along while i sweep you off your feet.” 
you tenderly take the candies out of his hands and put it on the table, placing his terribly-placed wig down along with it. running your hands through his hair, you kiss him softly. he’s quick to reciprocate, quietly moaning and cupping your jaw. he matches your pace, if not a little more eager. 
“don’t you worry, you do that already.” 
alhaitham, zhongli, gorou, tighnari, scaramouche, xiao, thoma, ayato, baizhu
bluntly expresses his feelings towards you
almost painfully so. 
“you look sexy in that hoodie.” 
“i know,” you reply monotonously. “i also know that we’re in a grocery store right now and there are children here.” 
he’s not always straightforward about his thoughts, but on days he’s feeling especially affectionate, the words slip right through. 
“listen, i just think the way you wear them is really cute. not anyone can pull it off, you know? but you do it so effortlessly. it makes your butt look super squeezable,” he comments, grinning when you give him a glare. “your face in general is just very hot. it’s just my type. i didn’t even know i had a type. i think i have a crush on you, honestly.” he leans his head on your shoulder, nuzzling his face into the crook of your neck. “you always know how to make me feel like a nervous teenager all over again.” 
“that’s very sweet,” you say with a chaste kiss on his cheek, “but i don’t know if saying this in the middle of the self-checkout is appropriate.”
he huffs, scanning the fruits and vegetables. “it’s fine if the children hear that, though, right? it’ll teach them to be more expressive.”
“i guess that’s true,” you humor him, “still, i’d appreciate it if we could enjoy this moment where it’s quieter.”
he contemplates before nodding. “okay, if that’s what you want.” he fixes his posture. “anything for you.”
you smile. “thank you.” 
when you get home, he continues to shower you in compliments. as he takes the large haul of groceries out of the car, he rambles. like a puppy, he trails after you as you unlock the door to your shared house, letting him inside to put all of your groceries on the dining table. 
“i just don’t think i appreciate you enough,” he mutters. “whenever you get me coffee in the mornings, i never thank you, but you spoil me as if i did anyway. i know sometimes i get mad at you for disagreeing with me but later on i end up regretting it.” 
he takes out the eggs carefully as if they were his own children and puts them in the fridge. “you’re always looking at the pros and cons for me, even when i don’t want to hear them. i love you so, so, so, so much. i appreciate you and respect you. even when you sometimes don’t want to cuddle.” he laughs, taking the strawberries out of your hands to put them away.
“i love our relationship dynamic, did you know that? because i know that. we’re always making sure we don’t go crazy. like that one time you helped me calm down when i was having a bad day. i love how you and i always tackle our problems together, whether they’re shared out not. you never make me feel like a bad person, just in progress. and i love how you trust me enough to open up to me, i know it hasn’t been easy but i appreciate that you’re always trying. you make loving you seem like the only right answer.”
by the time he’s done talking, you’ve put everything away. he ends his talk with tranquil silence, gathering the empty grocery bags and setting them aside for later use.
this time, you’re actually flustered. “where did all that come from?”
he doesn’t always get like this. sometimes he’s a little quieter, sometimes he gives you a small “love you” and it’s all you need to know. 
he shrugs. “i don’t know. i just felt like you needed to know and i had to tell you right away.” 
he gives you a little kiss like it’s nothing and goes to turn on the tv, leaving you speechless. in your previous relationships, romantic or platonic, no one had really taken the time to acknowledge your efforts so directly. you’d spend hours if not days worrying if your affections were equally reciprocated (or at least appreciated). being so openly appreciated was a new feeling that left you feeling open and vulnerable, which you were beginning to learn wasn���t necessarily a bad feeling at all. 
thoma, childe, itto, gorou, heizou, kaeya, kaveh, venti 
writes love letters to you
he writes them everywhere. on post-it notes, on pieces of scratch paper, on the margins of your work notepad (although you’ve had to hide them at some point because they were starting to get outside of the margins and you still needed them to write in). 
in these little notes, he’ll write all sorts of different things. whether it’d be how much he loves you, about a particular moment you shared that he felt was precious (he’d write it in specific detail, as if it were an excerpt from a novel), or any miscellaneous thoughts he believed was important to convey (”you looked really cute in that dress that other day. i love how you looked so happy in it.”).
he writes things as he thinks them. sometimes you two will be watching a movie together and he’ll have an ‘aha’ moment, get up, and grab a piece of paper to write in.  
and then he’ll leave them everywhere. 
everywhere. you once found a note just as you were putting your clothes in the washer. (”oh, i must’ve left it there.”)
one day, you end up asking him why he writes them, even though sometimes they’re not even intended to be read by you.
“i heard that you remember things better when you write them down,” he started. “sometimes i’d get little thoughts of you and i thought it’d be a waste to forget them.”
you open your mouth to say something but he continues. 
“on anniversaries and stuff like that, i always end up forgetting what i want to say. i’ll get so nervous or in the moment my mind will go blank. i don’t like that. so i thought that if i wrote them down, it’d help me remember exactly how to put my feelings into words.” he turns to look at you and beams. “and if they also help remind you how much i love you, then i’d say it’s an added bonus.” 
alhaitham, diluc, cyno, kazuha, albedo, baizhu, zhongli, xiao
makings kissing a game
whoever gives the most kisses wins. of course, neither of you are keeping track, but that doesn’t stop him from planting a big kiss on your mouth in the middle of the movie and saying, “fifteen points!” 
and naturally, not one to lose, you take up the challenge. you plant two kisses. that is where it escalates to the point where you two are trying to kiss each other without being kissed. it ends up with a lot of strange head movement that results in a fit of giggles. 
he kisses you on the cheek when he hands you your coffee like it’s a habit. in early mornings, when the two of you are still waking up, he’ll whisper a soft “five points” with a raspy voice. when you lunge to get him back for it, he’ll dodge, rubbing his eyes and pointing a little finger at you. “haha missed me.” 
on days you have work, if you don’t give him his goodbye kiss he’ll catch you on the way out. he’ll follow you groggily, silently. mid-way with putting your shoes on he’ll plant his lips on yours. his hand comes up to cup your face, gently caressing the apple of your cheek. you’re expecting him to murmur some amount of points at that point. but instead, he smiles into the kiss and hums. “i love you,” he whispers, “have a good day.” 
you end up leaving with a racing heart. although you’re used to his antics, he never fails to remind you how swoonworthy a simple kiss goodbye can be. 
venti, childe, ayato, heizou, tighnari, kazuha, cyno, kaveh, thoma, kaeya
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after-witch · 3 years
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Hook Line and Sinker [Yandere Ransom Drysdale x Reader]
Title: Hook Line and Sinker [Yandere Ransom Drysdale x Reader]
Synopsis: You’ve broken up with Ransom Drysdale, and you mean it this time. But the freedom that comes with the breakup leads to a series of unexpected coincidences that leave you wondering: was it worth the price?
Word Count: 8955
notes: yandere, mentions of physical abuse, financial abuse, comfort sweaters
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Nothing lasts forever. Not even relationships--and certainly not love. What might start off as an intense, passionate relationship can (and did, in your case) eventually fizzle; things that you were willing to overlook when you were absolutely besotted would wear down with time, and eventually they became too much to ignore.
That’s what you tell yourself, what you remind yourself, in the moment after you tell him:
“It’s over, Ransom. We’re done. I’m leaving.”
It couldn’t last forever. Not with his inability to stay sober, not with his tendency to cheat on you with meaningless flings that somehow hurt more than any steamy single-minded affair. Not with his flare-ups of controlling tendencies that left you in tears on the bathroom floor as he asked you to please stop dressing like a slut in front of his family, is that too hard to ask?
You’d asked him to change. He swore he would; he never did. You forgave him, more than once, more times than you could count. But enough was enough. Maybe he thought you were too weak to leave him, especially three years into your relationship, when your lives were becoming so integrated, pushing you towards a potential permanent future. It was a future that left you feeling numb and anxious. Stuck in a marriage with someone who wanted to stay with you but treated you horribly, all the same. And that wasn’t even getting into the family dynamics that left your head spinning.
He stares at you now, and his mouth opens just a little bit in what you know is going to be a barrage of questions, insults, maybe even threats spurred on by your words. But instead he closes his mouth and shakes his head, letting out a soft, bitter chuckle.
“Well, damn. This sucks.” You can see the indent of his tongue in his cheek before he clicks and shrugs. “Guess that’s it then. Need help packing your shit or what?”
His response is so blasé that you’re genuinely shocked and, you must admit, a little hurt. He didn’t even ask for a second chance or beg you to stay or argue with you about your terrible timing because our-vacation-to-Hawaii-is-coming-up. So it’s your turn to look surprised, and you shake your head.
“No, I… already took care of it. It’s at a storage locker.” You didn’t have family left, and your close friends had pulled away from you one by one once you stayed with Ransom time and time again--so you’d had to pay movers to help you pack and transport everything to storage over the weekend, while Ransom was away and you were free to make a clean breakup.
He nods, sticks his hand inside his jacket pockets. He’s looking around the room, avoiding direct eye contact in a clear show of his discomfort. It’s weird seeing Ransom like this--the normally self-assured, cocky Ransom, looking for any excuse not to look at you.
“So… see ya around?” His tone is sincere, if still confused. The idea of you leaving must have really never crossed his mind. The look on his face when he finally faces you again appears genuinely puzzled.
He sticks out his hand and it feels almost comical for things to end this way, particularly considering the nights you’d spent imagining some big blow up, some big fight with Ransom screaming and you firing off the many reasons why it had to end no matter what he said.
But it didn’t go the way you expected at all. It was calm. Easy. A clean break-up.
So you shake his hand and grab your purse and the small roller-suitcase and give a half-hearted wave as you walk out the door; the taxi you’d hired to pick you up is waiting, car running, meter going. You would be staying at a hotel for two weeks, which would hopefully be enough time to find a semi-decent apartment; your credit score had improved so much since Ransom added you to his cards, to a shared checking account, and it wouldn’t be too difficult to get approved.
A new life, one where you could focus on yourself for once, was just around the corner.
**
"I'm sorry, miss, but it's definitely not the reader. The card is declined."
You've had this nightmare before. No, you've lived this nightmare before--years ago when your credit was shit and you ran up your cards and had to face the music in a publicly humiliating display with the longest checkout line you'd ever seen behind you. Only that was years ago, in a little grocery store, and since getting together with Ransom you never had to worry about problems like this. You never had to worry about the shame of not having enough, not being enough.
But this? This was happening now. In an upscale hotel. With your nice purse (a Christmas present) and designer clothes (casual, comfortable) and your cheeks flushed undeniably warm.
The hotel clerk has a tight, sympathetic smile on her face. A coworker who walks behind her glances at you, judging, and you just know he's going to head into some break room and tell everyone but yet another piece of discarded army candy with a declined credit card. You wish you'd kept your sunglasses on.
"Did it, um, say why? I don't--" you plaster a smile on your face, hating the way this all feels familiar, like a part of your past coming back to haunt you. "I don't understand, the card is good."
The clerk's smile flickers, just a bit.
"It says there's a fraud alert on this card. Perhaps you'd better call the company. Or would you like me to call them?"
Fucking. Ransom.
"Oh, oh no, don’t worry about it. I’ll call them myself. I'm so sorry about this." You turn away from the clerk as quickly as possible and step away from the counter, away from the person waiting behind you who will surely have no trouble with their card, away from the clerks giving you a passive side-eye. You lean against a cool cement pillar in the lobby and you know what you have to do.
You have to call Ransom.
You haven't deleted his number yet--you'd planned on calling him today or tomorrow to figure out how to split up your shared finances--so it's easy enough to find the number. It's not so easy to tap his contact, but you have to, so you force yourself to do it and stare at his photo as the call rings. And rings. And rings. “Hello?” Your breath catches but in an instant, when the message continues, you feel stupid. It’s his voicemail. Fuck.
You text him, instead. Emergency. Call right away. And of course: He leaves you on read. Fuck.
You call him again. And again. He picks up on the sixth call, but your heart is racing too hard and sweat is beading down your forehead and it takes you a moment to confirm that the "Hello?" wasn't part of the voicemail message this time. Fuck.
"Um. Hey," you say, keeping your voice as un-royally-pissed-off as possible, because if he did put in a fraud alert then you don't want to risk any additional asshole moves. "So there's something wrong with the card? The one that ends in 8921? The hotel said there was a fraud alert and--"
"Did you really think I'm going to keep paying for your shit if we're over?"
His voice is quick, biting--exactly what you'd expected from him earlier. Somehow it stings even harsher over the phone, where you feel more helpless, unable to avoid his words.
"I thought..." you wet your lips, trying to maintain your cool. "Look, my name is on them, so I thought send you my part of the payments until I can get cards in my own name."
He chuckles, low and short. "Yeah? What, you want to create a payment schedule or something?"
You fight back the annoyance in your tone. You hate having to be the bigger person, but your finances--your life--is on the line. "Yeah, actually, that'd be perfect. It wouldn't be for long. You know I'll pay them on time, I'm not looking to screw you over."
"You're going too pay me on time? For all the stuff you've bought, the stuff I’ve bought for you, this hotel room and god knows what else? How are you going to afford all that?"
He knows you recently earned a promotion at your work. He knows this, because you were so excited about it, and his half-assed congratulations over lukewarm leftovers left you feeling bitter and sad and useless. So you can't help it when bitterness seeps into your voice with your answer. "You know I just got a promotion."
"Did you?" It's said in such a casual tone that it gives you pause, but a moment later he simply hangs up on you.
Fucking. Ransom.
You shove your phone back into your purse, and the clerks at the counter are staring at you. Sweat has trickled down your back and your shirt sticks to your skin ever-so-slightly as you pull away from the pillar and approach the counter, awkward smile and cheeks hot.
"There is an issue with the card, they're working on it, so I’ll just call for a new reservation when it's fixed. I'm so sorry for the mix up!" Your voice is so peppy and high-pitched and fake and you feel like you’re back at your old job, feet aching with falling apart shoes, forced to deal with people returning old toasters laden with crumbs, calming they’d “just bought it the day before and it didn’t work.”
"Of course," the clerk says, and you know this is hotel clerk code for "You're a shitty liar."
You roll your suitcase out of the lobby with tears in your eyes and you shove your sunglasses on as soon as you've cleared the building. You feel exhausted, drained--so you use what little energy you have left to start googling for cheap motels.
**
The room smells musty. You pin the plastic sheet you’d snagged at a dollar store over the comforter and pray it will be enough to protect you from whatever is on the likely unwashed fabric. The TV is broken, there’s no WIFi, and there’s a few suspicious stains on the floor that make you wonder if this hotel has ever been featured in a porno, true crime show, or both.
But it’s all you could afford with the cash in your wallet. You only had enough cash on hand for 2 nights at a ragtag hotel that offers nightly and hourly rates. You didn’t dare use your debit card or any credit cards with Ransom’s name or information on them.
You just need some sleep. A good night’s sleep to feel renewed and ready to tackle retaking your life, bit by bit. In the morning, you need to go to the bank and withdraw your money from the joint bank account. Then you can reopen an account in your name, get a new debit card, and apply for a few credit cards afterwards.
Sure, it would have been nicer to do this without Ransom being an asshole. But deep down, you suspected he wouldn’t let you have a clean, lets-still-be-friends type of break. Not after all the times he’d pressured you into staying, manipulating you with words and gifts and promises, promises. Promises that were worth shit. 
The sheet crinkles underneath you as you scroll through your messages. You’d texted a few formerly close friends about the breakup earlier, hoping that they’d maybe want to reconnect. So far, you’d been left on read, blocked, and received only one response: “New number, who is this?”
So much for that. Not that you can blame them. There are only so many times they can rush over for a late night intervention in which you tell them every horrible thing Ransom does (he’s controlling, he doesn’t want me to meet with friends without permission, he tells me what I can and can’t wear, he cheats, he lies, he pushed me--)--before they get tired of you returning to him, again and again and again.
The only one who’d been texting you recently--okay, for the past year--had been Ransom. Mostly dick pics. And demands for you to send him something back, which you always did after a while, because you didn’t want to deal annoyed texts or voice messages accusing you of clearly cheating on him or hating him because why else wouldn’t you be willing to send him so much as a sexy selfie to your boyfriend? 
But in between those, there were conversations. Sometimes sweet ones, sometimes thoughtful ones that always made you remember why you fell hard for him in the first place. Late night conversations from when he was off on trips. You try not to wonder if he was fucking someone on each of these trips, if while you were sending him a late night ramble about a TV show and he was humoring you with jokes and quips, he was actually snuggled up with someone else. Laying in bed, naked, laughing at your dumb ass waiting at home.
The not-so-sweet conversations were ones that you had screenshotted and sent to your friends more than once, before they pulled themselves away. Texts asking where you were. Asking who you ate lunch with, and whether or not you were fucking them. Asking why your new office was connected to a certain co-worker’s, and how many blowjobs you had to give to get said new office because you didn’t tell him about the new office until after you were moved in, so you were clearly hiding him. Asking you to send him outfit pics so he could approve them or make you change if they were too slutty or not slutty enough or if you were only clearly wearing that halter dress to try to get with the bartender.
Yet your mind had always returned to the nice Ransom, the Ransom who made you laugh and squeezed you hard when had a shitty day of work and let you bury your face in his sweater as you snuggled on the couch. Maybe that’s why it took so long to leave.  You were waiting for him to stop being Ransom and start being the fantasy of Ransom you’d conjured in your head.
Your eyes feel heavy so you plug in your phone, turn the sound off, and lay down on the uncomfortable plastic sheet that crinkled over the pillows. It feels strange to lay on a lumpy mattress covered in plastic, after years of custom-made beds and memory foam pillows and all the other luxuries that Ransom was able to provide.
You try not to think about it too much. While you won’t exactly be indulging in all the luxuries you had with Ransom, but your job pays you well, and you won’t ever have to go back to living hand-to-mouth like you did before. You won’t have to worry about late bills and debt collectors and landlords who come late at night and demand inspections while you’re in your pajamas.
You have work in the morning. You have to get to the bank in the morning. Your thoughts are still buzzing with anxiety as you fall into an uneasy slumber.
**
“I’m sorry, but the account has been closed.”
You feel years of customer service training cracking underneath your skin. You can’t freak out. If you freak out, they won’t feel inclined to go the extra mile. You know this, from firsthand experience.
So you take a shaky breath. “Um, this just--it isn’t possible. It’s a joint account. I’m on the account. There was money in there, you can check--”
“I’m sorry, but the funds were transferred and account has been closed by the other account holder. There’s nothing I can do. I suggest contacting the other party in the account.”
You swallow and nod and walk away, this time having been smart enough to keep your sunglasses on to hide your humiliated expression. Why didn’t you insist on having your own account? Ransom said it was better to keep it joint, so you could just buy stuff whenever you wanted. You’d agreed because it was so generous, something you’d never thought possible at the time, when you were used to having to pay overdraft fees and cringing whenever you checked your balance.
Your fingers tremble as you bring up his contact on your phone. You tap. No answer.
You don’t have time to call him two, three, ten times--you have to get to work. So you steady your nerves. You breathe in, you breathe out. You get in your car and plug your phone in and decide to contact your lawyer. Fuck--your lawyer was Ransom's lawyer. But the anxiety eases when you remember that you’d paid him a retainer fee months ago, and Ransom couldn’t do anything about that. You could at least get a basic consult out of the retainer.
The call ringing sounds muffled through your car’s speaker but it isn’t long before someone answers, and you’re transferred to the lawyer Ransom insisted you have--gotta have a lawyer when you have money, babe--and that you hadn’t spoken to in ages.
“Hi,” you say, voice artificially bright, “this is--”
You don’t get a chance to finish.
“I know who this is.” The lawyer sounds tired, and his tone is curt and clipped. “I’m sorry. I’m no longer able to provide you with any legal counsel.”
You almost miss a red light and regret calling the office while you were driving.
“Is this about the debit card? Because I paid the retainer months ago--”
“The retainer has been refunded into the connected checking account.”
Your voice looses its artificial cheeriness and you stumble over your words in frustration. “That’s--it’s--it was a joint account, which is why I called, Ransom drained it and took everything. Isn’t there something we can do, because that was my money too and--”
“I am no longer able to provide you with legal counsel.”
You want to cry. You hate crying, as an adult. It makes you feel weak. Especially on the phone.
“I don’t understand. Why was the retainer refunded? Did--did someone call you?”
He clears his throat into the phone. “I am no longer able to provide you with legal counsel. Goodbye.”
He hangs up. Your hands shake.
You pull into the parking lot of your work and park the car and as soon as you do, you hunch yourself over the steering wheel and simply shake in frustration.
You have no bank account. Ransom drained it. You have no credit cards. Ransom blocked them. You couldn’t even talk to a lawyer, because--shock--Ransom made sure you couldn’t. Everything was in Ransom’s name. He insisted on adding you to his accounts, closing out your own paltry ones; insisted that he pay off your credit card debt, and making you close those, too, instead adding you to his cards. It was all to help you out, he said, at the time.
Wasn’t it? He was shockingly not judgmental about the state of your finances, and while you’d put up some protest, you didn’t exactly argue with him when he suggested wiping your debts clean and getting your credit back up. And considering that he wasn’t immune to needing a bail-out now and then (late night calls to his grandfather, snarky comments at his parent’s dinner table, come to mind) maybe he could sympathize with being in over your head. Even if your issues were rooted in poverty and shitty jobs and his were rooted in a total lack of financial discipline and, as you’d later found out, a drug addiction.
Still. He helped you before. He would help you now, once he realized how serious it was. For now he was just--reacting like an asshole, acting childish and ridiculous. He was an asshole. You know this. You’ve known this. You need to call him and meet with him and make him realize how ridiculous he’s being, and he’ll sigh and snark but he’ll agree to stop acting like such an ass.
But first you have to work. Life goes on. Even without Ransom--even with Ransom, screwing you over out of pettiness.
The air conditioning in the lobby is on blast, and the familiar smell of clean furniture and floor cleaner from the late-night cleaning crew is surprisingly comforting. Here, you can forget about Ransom--forget about the cards and the lawyer and the fact that your life has been upended in mere hours. If only until your lunch break, at least.
Anthony is working the front desk and you give him a a soft, if strained smile. There’s something in the smile that he gives you in return that reminds you of the hotel clerk. Sympathetic and judgmental.
Ah. You probably look like--well, less than your best, you realize. You did pack some toiletries in your suitcase but the water in the motel had streaks of brown and you didn’t shower, opting instead to rinse your face with what was left of a water bottle you’d bought earlier and layering on more deodorant to make up for the lack of a proper scrub. You probably looked a bit tired, haggard, not unlike some of the employees who got stuck with big clients the night before their paperwork was due.
Still. Nothing that freshening up in your private bathroom--thank god for the new office--can’t help. So you hit the button on the elevator and take deep breaths as you ride up, intent on working as productively as possible. The doors open and you navigate the familiar maze of open-plan desks for the lower-tier workers, desks surrounded by half-walls that always kept you staring straight ahead, lest you accidentally glance over and see a co-worker picking their nose.
Yet as you weave in-and-out of the familiar rows, heading towards the back of the room where the real offices, the ones with full walls and doors and privacy glass lay, you can’t help but feel that something is… off. 
No one calls out to greet you, though that can be easily attributed to the jealousy over your promotion. You’d been working there for far less than most of the lower level workers--Ransom got you the job, with his connections and a hefty revision of your resume and, you assume, some personal phone calls--and you’d already been promoted to senior management. That wasn’t technically Ransom’s work, though. That was all your own effort, your own blood, sweat, tears and intense devotion to each project that came your way. Sure, the connections he helped you make, the dinner parties, all that helped--but if it weren’t for your skills, the connections wouldn’t have made a difference. Right? 
Still, whatever bitterness existed in the people hunch in open-air cubicles, the receptionists always greeted you. But today they caught your eye then awkwardly glanced down, or pretended to be looking for something in their drawers. It was odd. Did you look that bad? That out of sorts?
You shake off the heavy feeling in your stomach and for once, you shut the door to your office instead of keeping it open for passers-by or people needing approval for this-and-that. It feels good to lean against the solid wood door and take a breath, a deep one, invigorating and calming.
A quick trip to the bathroom has you staring at yourself from all angles. You don’t look that bad, you reason. Just tired. But who wouldn’t be, sleeping on a plastic sheet in the shittiest motel in the area? You take a quick sniff under your arms but even that reveals nothing much but a faint hint of sweat and powdery deodorant.
There’s a firm knock at your office door and you glance at the mirror for a final once over before opening it up. It’s your boss. Did you have a meeting? You try to do a mental scan of something you’ve missed, but nothing comes to mind.
“Hi,” you say, wavering with uncertainty at the threshold. Should you invite him in? “What can I do for you? We didn’t have a meeting, did we?” You let yourself chuckle, dry and quick. “I’m sorry, I’m a bit scattered this morning.”
Your boss doesn’t return your chuckle, which immediately raises the hairs on the back of your neck. Something was wrong. Shit--you were working on a major project for a seriously important client. The type of client that could genuinely make or break a company, if you got on their bad side. You press your lips together and make a silent vow to keep it serious.
“I’d like to keep this conversation private.” His tone is low and serious and you invite him in without a second thought, shutting the thick door behind you, trying to ignore the way everyone was shooting glances as it closed. Fuck, fuck, fuck, your thoughts race--no wonder everyone was giving you the stink eye. Something was wrong with the client, and you were the one making primary contact with them.
Your boss takes a seat on the leather sofa pushed up against the wall and you immediately set yourself down behind your desk.
He sighs. Short. Frustrated. Annoyed.
“We have to let you go.”
The words don’t register.
“Go where?”
It’s only after you say it that you realize what he said, what it meant, and you feel like a colossal moron in every respect.
“It’s not working out,” he continues, staring at your desk and not at your face. “Since you’ve only been in this position for a month, you don’t quality for senior severance. The best we can do is to pay you what you’ve earned this week.”
Your mouth is so dry that you don’t know if you can talk. Your hand fumbles on your desk for a water bottle you’d left overnight, and that’s when you see it--the photo frame. You keep a photo of yourself and Ransom, cuddled together for a selfie, on your desk. The photo was lying on your desk, frameless, ripped in half--leaving only your vacantly smiling face staring up at you.
Ransom was here.
“Did he put you up to this?” You whisper. “Did Ransom tell you to fire me?”
You know he won’t answer. But you stare at him so fervently that he can’t help but look up at you, and you see it all in his eyes, in the subtle, embarrassed expression of his face.
You can imagine Ransom strolling in--maybe he called first--and settling in for a private audience with your boss in his office. He’d probably pull the chair up to the desk and put his feet on it, just to be an ass. Then he’d bring up… you. And why you had to be let go. Did he give a reason, did he tell your boss why a respected employee who he once secured a position for, who shot up the ranks through intense effort and work, needed to be fired? Did he even need to give a reason?
“This is absolute bullshit,” you say, finally, voice dry and hoarse and bitter. You want to say you’ll be contacting a lawyer. That this won’t stand. But you know--and he knows--that there’s nothing you can do.
Your boss stands, slow, and sighs again. “I’m sorry it had to end this way. Pack up your things as quickly as possible.”
He leaves, and you keep your eyes trained on the ripped photograph to avoid seeing the expressions of the people in the doorway before your boss mercifully shuts the door.
It takes all of your effort not to cry.
You don’t have much effort left.
**
Your things consisted of a handful of personal items, little touches you’d brought in to make your office feel more like “you.” A nice picture print. A pastel afghan to drape over the couch. A stapler with a floral design. You have the strong urge to dump them in a trash can, but that’s quickly quelled by the realization that you can’t afford to buy new things, or any things, at this point.
You don’t care if wearing your sunglasses as you power walk to the elevators makes you look stupid. You know someone, somewhere in this office is filming you and probably captioning it with something stupid to post to their Reels or TikTok, and it just makes you leave faster. A few people murmur comments your way, sympathetic in tone, but you’re not really listening. None of their platitudes matter, because Ransom was here, in your workplace, in your office, and he stole the thing you were most proud of from under your feet.
To his credit, when you reach the bottom floor, Anthony practically fumbles out from behind his desk and holds the door open for you. He mouths a “Sorry” and he probably is, but he’s probably used to dealing with rich assholes like Ransom who get what they want, when they want it; even when what they want is to fire a good employee on demand for very personal reasons.
The sun is beating down hard, even for the morning, and the stress of your situation makes you blast the air conditioning as soon as you get in the car. God, the car--how are you going to afford the payments? You wish you could call your mom. You wish your friends--are they even your friends, anymore?--would call you back.
You grab your phone from your purse and stare at the black screen. Maybe you should call the friend who didn’t block you. She would answer, if you called, because she knew you didn’t make calls unless it was serious. She might not rush to your side, but maybe she can offer you a place to stay, a couch, some advice. A kind word would do, right now, with how much anxiety and frustration has been packed into the last 12 hours.
But when you unlock your screen, your gut sinks. Five missed calls. From the storage company. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
You tap their number and bring the phone to your ear and pretend that your hands aren’t shaking.
The man who answers is the same one you talked to on the phone before, when setting up your move. “Hello, Move’nSecure Storage Company. This is Steve speaking. How many I help you?”
“Hi Steve!” You hate how chipper you sound. “I actually just got a few missed calls from you guys, I’m sorry, I was in the office and--”
“Oh.” His voice is surprisingly flat, suddenly flat, losing its customer service inflection in an instant before picking it back up. “Yes. We’ve been trying to reach you. For confirmation, the storage locker your purchased is A443, correct?”
You fumble in your purse for the receipt and confirm the little numbers printed neatly on the paper. “Yes, A443. Is everything okay?”
“No, it’s not.” You’re grateful that you didn’t have much for breakfast because you know it would be clawing its way back up at this point. “The card you gave us for the storage fee was declined.”
The debit card. You’d paid in cash for the move, and paid for 1 month of storage with the card. The card that was now useless, connected to an empty and closed bank account.
“Is there another card you can give us?”
“No, but...” You say, because no, there is not. There is not a card. There is not a job. There is nothing. “But if you could just hold my stuff, I’ll be there in less than a hour to get it.”
“We don’t hold items,” Steve tells you, a rehearsed banality to his tone. “Your items are currently outside the unit.”
You instinctively want to yell at Steve but, fuck fuck fuck, you’ve been there, behind the counter, dealing with people who couldn’t pay for shit and then had the nerve to get upset with you. “All of it?” You ask, your voice cracking slightly.
“Yes.”
You hang up, and toss your phone onto the passenger seat. The quicker you get there, the less chance that something will get broken or stolen or who knows what else.
The trip to the storage unit seems to take forever, and when you arrive you don’t even take a second to lock your car doors. Instead you sprint inside, startling Steve--looking at his phone, then at you, then at the sign plastered up on the wall leading to the storage locker floors. He points. Row A, separated into 100s, 200s, 300s, and--your number--400s.
You don’t remember if you say ‘thank you,’ because you’re speed-walking down the hallway and following the signs and it isn’t long before you see it: a storage locker with tons of stuff piled up, dumped, outside the now-empty unit where it was supposed to be safe and sound. Waiting for you to get an apartment and pick it back up and rearrange it into your new life, your new “you.”
The problem is immediate: You can’t fit all this in your car. You don’t know anyone who could take the stuff for you. You mind reels for options and the only thing you can come up with is ferrying your belongings to and from the hotel. You can pay for a few more days once you cash your partial paycheck. After that… you don’t know.
Pawn your things? Yeah. That might work. You can get enough cash by pawning most of your stuff, the good stuff. Enough money to get you into a shitty apartment with leaks and a bad landlord. Then you can a job that barely pays rent and you’ll be right back where you started, before you met Ransom. Before you thought leaking ceilings and $20 paychecks after taxes were a thing of the past.
You ignore the humiliation that makes your stomach curl as you take your things out to the car, handful by handful. Steve doesn’t bother holding the door open for you. You mention that you’re going to be back on your way out, and he offers a non-committal hum.
At least when you get to the hotel, the owner sees you fumbling with boxes and offers to help you out. It takes less time with two hands to get everything in the room, and once it’s locked up you head back out to the storage units.
You keep your sunglasses on for the second trip into the storage unit, even though you don’t know Steve or care what he thinks. He doesn’t look up when you walk in and it’s just as well, since you’re only heading back to the A-400s and don’t need his non-existent help.
But the sight that greets you when you round the corner to your unpaid-for storage locker makes your blood run cold.
Your stuff is gone. All of it.
You rush back to the desk, where Steve does look up, startled by your urgency.
“My stuff,” you spit out, “My stuff is gone! Someone took it!”
Steve shrugs. “Sorry.” He points to a sign behind him: “We are not responsible for the loss of items inside or outside storage lockers.”
“Are you fucking kidding?” You can’t the anger in your voice this time. “You just watched someone walk off with my stuff and didn’t say anything?”
Steve raises his eyebrows. “If it was that important, you shouldn’t have left it here. Or you should have given us another card.”
You feel like throwing your hands up but you just clench your fist and storm out the door, huffing as you reach your car. The anger melts into the sense of loss, the realization that you only have a few meager items that you’d managed to collect; you picked the lightest stuff, first. And in retrospect it was things that didn’t matter much at all. Clothes. Hair supplies. Makeup. You should have grabbed the box with your USB sticks, your memory cards, your photo albums; your personal mementos and sentimental shit. Instead you grabbed the box with your shampoo.
At least the clothes might get something in a pawnshop. The makeup, too, on Facebook or Depop or Instagram. But it wouldn’t be enough to put you up in an apartment. You’ll have to live in your car. Until they repossess it for lack of payment.
You don’t have your bank account, your credit cards, your job, a place to stay, or your personal possessions. And soon, you won’t have your car.
You have no friends. No boyfriend. No family.
All you have $20 left in your wallet and well, fuck it. You grab some McDonalds on the way home because, fuck it, and eat all the fries before you make it to the motel. The thought of eating in your dirty room makes your stomach turn and you decide to eat everything else you bought, the burger and the shake and the chicken nuggets too, tossing the wrappers on the floor. It feels like deja vu--getting cheap fast food to make you feel full, tossing trash on the floor of the passenger seat, all bringing back the way you used to when you’d grab something from the dollar menu on your way to work at the call center.
You almost wish you could stay at this hotel, brown water and all. The owner is decently nice. He smiles at you when you enter and doesn’t bring up that you didn’t come back with more boxes, like you said you would.  
You’re surprised at how grateful you feel for the dingy hotel room now that you won’t be able to stay here more than another day. Now that the alternative is sleeping in your car, then sleeping on the street, if you were lucky.
Your phone feels heavy when you set it on the table and stare at the home screen. Another photo of you and Ransom stares back up at you. You haven’t had time to change it up yet. He’s grinning. You’re smiling. It’s a good photo. You try to place it in your memory, try to remember what beach that was, but your trips blur together and you can’t.
Should you call him? If it was just the cards, just him being petty over credit and finances, it was one thing. You could try to placate him with returning gifts, just asking him to give you what you put in from your own paychecks. But making you lose your job? It was too far, too fucking far. And there was no going back from that. Fuck, someone was probably moving into your office as you sat in this dimly lit room mourning the loss of your entire life.
For a brief, very fleeting moment, you consider calling Harlan. You weren’t exceptionally close, but he seemed to like you well enough. He’d even asked you once, puling you aside at a tension-filled family party, if Ransom treated you right, told you to tell him if he ever got to be too much. Harlan felt like Ransom’s keeper--in more ways than one. You could never tell Harlan about the shouts or the occasional bruises from when Ransom really, really lost his temper--it’s not like you could prove them, anyway, as Ransom made sure to keep you away from his family when he lost control like that. No need for excuses about running into doors when he made sure you looked your best at family functions.
But the thought of breaking the uneasy stasis that Ransom had with the most significant member of his family made you want to vomit. There would be no coming back from that, and you knew better than to cross any line involving the great Harlan Thrombey.
You could call your friend--ex-friend? The one who didn’t block you or forget your number. You should. No, you will. Because what else do you have to lose.
But before you can bring up her number, you get a text--Ransom. It’s a photo and your curiosity gets the better of you as you click the notification.
“What the fuck?”
He’s sent you a photo of his car, trunk open. It’s filled with boxes, odds-and-ends. It’s filled with your stuff.
You text him: What??
He texts back: Hey. I’m in front of the hotel. Come out? Bring your suitcase. :P
It’s your stuff. It’s his car. He’s here. All reason is thrown aside as you grab your suitcase and purse and rush down the hallway, ignoring the owner’s confused response from behind his desk as you push open the front doors and look around the parking lot.
His car is parked to the side, not in front of the hotel’s glass double doors. He’s standing outside his car, leaning against it. He takes off his sunglasses and tucks them in his pocket when he sees you approaching, face confused and fuming all at once.
“What the fuck, Ransom, what the fuck is your problem--”
“Hey, hey,” he says, hands up in defense, “You’re not even going to thank me for picking up your stuff?”
You feel suddenly, impossibly rooted to the spot.
“What do you--what? You took my stuff?”
He shrugs. “C’mon, did you really think I’d just leave your stuff in some shitty storage unit? Someone would’ve taken it if I didn’t get there first.”
You swallow. “Why?” You ask, because Ransom never does anything for no reason. Or so you’ve learned.
His expression loses a bit of its cocky casualness. He tilts his head a bit, looking at you as if you’ve asked a particularly offensive question.
“Why do you think?”
To lord it over you? To make you think your stuff was gone and make you worried, sick, crazy?
“I don’t know,” is what you settle for in the end. “I really, really don’t. You--” You lick your lips, and try to calm down, calm the pitter-patter of your heart, and think before you speak. “You’ve done some pretty messed up stuff today. My job?” The last question comes out soft and pained, and you know your eyes are starting to tear up.
“Hey.” His voice is soft and placating and it makes your stomach flip as he approaches you, standing there on the sidewalk with your purse and suitcase. “Hey, c’mon. Don’t cry on me.”
You know this Ransom. The Ransom that holds you and pets your hair and offers to get Thai food delivered even though he doesn’t like it just to make you happy.
He puts his hand on your shoulder and you jerk it away. “Don’t.” That Ransom is a fantasy. Or an incomplete version, the version that pretends he doesn’t lie and cheat and hurt you in more ways than one. “Don’t you fucking dare, especially not after what you pulled today. My job? My job, Ransom? You’re a--a fucking asshole.”
He puts his hands up again, defensive, and takes a step back. But he doesn’t return to his car, and stays just a few steps in front of you.
“Look. Call me an asshole. Sure, fine, I can admit that. But do you know what else I am?”
He waits a beat, waits for you to look at him, before he continues. “I’m a realist. I like facts. And the fact is? You aren’t much without me. No job, no credit cards, no bank account. Without me, you’re just some broke chick scrambling to get an apartment in the shittiest part of town, working a dead-end job that don’t pay shit. With me though…. “
He leaves the words unfinished, but you know what he means. Flashes of your life, cocktails and smart business outfits and dinners at restaurants you didn’t even dream about attending before you met him. Phone calls with shakers in the industry and social media requests from people you’d never dream you’d meet. Connections that meant something, a career path, dinner parties with people who could offer tangible benefits to your career and your life.
It wasn’t that he spoiled you. He wasn’t a sugar daddy. You weren’t getting gifts for blowjobs. It was that his presence in your life boosted you, socially, financially, mentally, physically, in every which way possible.
His presence got you a job that you loved, which meant you weren’t burnt out when you came home, which meant that you had the time and energy to spend hours catching up on books or redecorating the house or watching movies. Good money meant you could order in whenever you felt like it, meant you didn’t have to worry if you burned dinner because you could just buy new steaks or order-in or go out, last minute, and still get a great table. It meant you had all the clothes you wanted, stylish and personally tailored; it meant you had easy access to a gym and exercise equipment and an indoor pool to keep you healthy. It meant you had a life that provided comfort in every way possible.
Being with Ransom Drysdale was like… like a little shot of privilege directly into your arm.
Privilege that he took away just as easily as he gave it. Just as easily as you took it. Just as easily as you took it and eagerly ignored the dark side underneath. Or maybe you didn’t ignore it. Maybe you liked it, maybe it reminded you of who you were underneath the designer clothes and expensive dinners.
Maybe you wanted to fix him, like he fixed you? He wasn’t totally bad, after all, he did make sure no one took your belongings. Maybe it was your presence that gave him the idea for that touch of sympathy, maybe with Ransom change was slow and muddled, not picture-perfect sweeping changes like the kind in movies.
“So?” Ransom’s voice cuts through your thoughts. “Are you going to come home or,” he waves his hands around dismissively, at the hotel, at you.
You feel very, very less-than right now. You look awful, your hair mussy and your makeup mostly melted off with sweat and sun. You probably smell more than you normally do, thanks to the lack of a shower. Your muscles, sore from the motel bed, ache for the large spa bathtub that Ransom had installed in the master bathroom just for you, stocked with bubbles and salts and overpriced bath bombs that were $10 a pop.
But your muscles had hurt before, when he pushed you against the dresser.
You have nothing, and no one. Except Ransom. Ransom who didn’t judge you when you instinctively saved plastic bottles and boxes, but merely nudged you towards recycling and took you out to splurge on a reusable water bottle and proper storage containers the next day. Ransom who asked you what sort of job you wanted, really wanted, and made it happen for you. Ransom who shrugged and wiped away your credit card debt without making you feel like shit.
Ransom who didn’t let you leave the house if your wrists were sporting fingerprint shaped bruises. Ransom who argued with you about talking to men, even men at work. Ransom who held you tight at night and said he never wanted to let you go, and wouldn’t you just make a fine-ass addition his crazy family. Ransom who took care of you, now that you had no one else.
“What do you want me to do?” The words feel slow, sluggish. Like they wanted to stick to the roof of your mouth and it took everything in you to get them out.
His voice turns low and serious as he stares at you with an characteristic expression. “Well, the first thing is to get down on your knees…”
You feel your eyes practically bugging out.
“What the fuck, Ransom?”
He laughs. He always did have a nice laugh.
“I’m just messing with you, Jesus. Take a chi-I-il pill. Just grab your purse and come sit your sweet ass in the front seat. Let’s go get some burgers, I’m starving.”
Your legs feel like jelly when you take that first step, and the sound of your roller suitcase as you pull it along seems louder than ever. Ransom pops the truck and you just manage to fit it inside with the handle closed, jamming it in between some boxes at an odd angle. The handle of the passenger side is familiar, warm from the sun.
You open the door and practically shove yourself into the seat, closing the door as fast as possible. You can’t do more than glance at him as humiliation and anxiety and just the smallest bit of relief washes over you. It’s been less than 24 hours since you broke up, and here you are--again.
He’s staring at you quietly, his expression difficult to place. He looks relieved. He looks annoyed. He looks like he wants to kiss you. He looks like he wants to slap you. Maybe he wants to do it all at once and can’t decide which to pick.
Instead, he puts his hand on your thigh. Gives it a squeeze. Hard, bordering on painful.  He’s staring straight ahead, at the worn-out sign on the hotel’s front door, one hand gripping the flesh of your thigh. He looks good in profile. “Don’t ever try to pull something like that again. I mean it. I really mean it.”
You turn, glance out the window, familiar tears at the edge of your eyes.
“I won’t,” you whisper, dreaming of the tub and bubbles and how good a warm soak will feel on your back, on your thighs, on your soul.
“Good girl,” he says, patting your thigh firmly. He plucks his sunglasses out of pocket and puts them on in a smooth motion. The car starts smoothly, its fine-tuned and expensive engine a familiar sound, and your hands feel robotic as you pull the seatbelt over your chest and click it tight.
“Let’s get dinner and get home. You have some unpacking to do.”
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lavenderbexlatte · 3 years
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stray kids  13.4k words female reader insert Reader x DILF!Hwang Hyunjin  EXPLICIT/NSFW
🖤 warnings: original characters (adult f and child f), single father, unhealthy family dynamics, relationship insecurity, oral sex (f receiving), vaginal sex, creampie, breeding/impregnation kink 🖤
🚨🚨 the unhealthy family dynamic warning applies to hyunjin and his parents, NOT hyunjin and his child! there are elements of emotional manipulation and emotional neglect of an adult child by his parents. please don’t read if you would find this content triggering!
connect with me! / masterlist
You prepare yourself for a lot of social what-ifs when you go to the grocery store, but a three-year-old almost taking you out with a headbutt to the knee isn’t usually one of them.
On this particular day, you’re standing in the coffee aisle, scanning the rows of beans, trying to pick between a new roast for your French press, or a new flavor for the automatic drip. You’re not having an easy time of it, either. They all look the same to you. And really, is a French vanilla that different from a caramel swirl? Why are some of these so expensive? They’re all just beans, aren’t they?
The coffee dilemma is taking up all of your conscious focus, so you don’t even hear the tiny footsteps clicking against the industrial tile floor. You don’t see the head of bouncing dark hair, barreling toward you. You don’t notice anything until a tiny body slams right into your leg, and little arms wrap around your knees.
You look down in shock, rocking back to steady yourself so that you don’t topple right over. Your phone nearly slips out of your hand, right onto the head of the very small human peering up at you with big round eyes.
It’s a little girl.
She has glitter extensions and a floor-brushing gown, looking royal and in control right down to the tiny Mary Janes on her feet. She doesn’t look confused or perturbed at all, not even bothered by clinging to a stranger like this. Well, that makes one of you.
“Hello,” the little girl says, her voice high but confident. “What’s your name?”
You tell her, and she nods wisely, in a way that looks incredibly bizarre for someone so young.
“Okay. I’m Minnie,” she says.
“Minnie,” your repeat.
The girl nods, her arms still clamped around your knees. “Like the mouse.”
She points at one of the barrettes clipped into her meticulously styled hair. It’s a flat metal cameo pin of Minnie Mouse, smudged with tiny fingerprints as if she touches it often.
“Cool,” you say awkwardly.
You reach down and gently unwind her arm from around you, freeing yourself, and you kneel down so that you’re at her height. She just looks directly at you, and you can feel the judgmental intelligence behind her gaze. It’s kind of scary.
“I’m three and three-quarters,” she tells you proudly.
“Where’s your grown up?” you ask her.
You don’t really think you’d be much help to this child. You certainly don’t want to have to be responsible for her for too long. Where are her parents, or whoever she came here with?
“My grown up?” she mulls it over, “You mean Daddy. He’s lookin’ at juice.”
“Why aren’t you with him?” you ask.
“Ran away,” she shrugs, “If I run, Daddy chases me.”
“Do you think Daddy likes chasing you?” you ask.
You immediately curse yourself inwardly for asking a preschooler a half-sarcastic question like that. You don’t know this kid from Eden, you can’t just mouth off at her. But Minnie is sharp, and she just smiles at you winningly.
“I dunno. Prob’ly not,” she shrugs again, and you marvel at the big attitude in this small person.
“What if he’s worried about you?”
“Then he should find me,” she answers.
And with that, the kid sits down cross-legged on top of your feet, settling her gown neatly around herself. You’re floored. Apparently, you’ve become the shade tree that this kid is gonna sit under until her poor father finds her. Are all little kids this weird?
You’re not sure what to do. If you move, if you take her and go searching, you could spend all day missing her father at every turn. That means you should probably just stay here and wait for her dad to come to you. At least this way you know the kid’s safe and not running around to meet strangers more dangerous than you.
You get back to your coffee dilemma, as Minnie just sits primly on your feet. It’s not like you could walk away without dislodging her, anyway. And as you pick out a package of coarse-ground beans for your French press, you hear it.
“Minnie!”
An exasperated voice, from the end of the aisle. You turn toward the sound, and the person that you see takes your breath away.
It’s a man, tall and slim, long legs in wide-legged denim. His hair is shoulder-length and blonde, the top half of it held back in a small ponytail at the crown of his head. His face is equal parts angry and relieved, dark thick brows furrowing. The guy is incredibly, distractingly beautiful. You kind of can’t believe it.
“Daddy,” Minnie pipes up, as if confirming it to you.
She leans back against your shins like you’re her personal throne. You look down at her, and then back up at the man as he approaches, dragging a half-full shopping cart behind him.
“I am so sorry,” the man is saying, “She has a mind of her own and sometimes-”
“I made a friend!” Minnie interrupts her father.
The man leans down and scoops his daughter off your feet, plunking her into the basket of his shopping cart.
“You’re in jail, princess,” he tells her curtly.
“I’ll get out,” she replies.
You’re sure that your jaw is actually hanging open several inches as the man turns back to you to continue his rambling apology.
“I really am sorry, um…” he pauses.
“(Y/N),” you fill in for him.
“Right. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” you dismiss, “She just wanted to talk. And I wanted to make sure she didn’t get lost. More lost.”
The man grins at you sheepishly. “I’m Hyunjin, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you,” you say.
“I like her,” Minnie calls from her shopping-cart jail cell, “She’s funny.”
“That’s a high honor,” Hyunjin tells you soberly.
“I’m glad to finally hear that someone thinks I’m funny,” you say.
Hyunjin laughs. He has a nice laugh, sharper and shriller than you would have thought, but full and honest. He looks just like Minnie when he smiles. You’re thoroughly charmed.
“Well,” you say, tugging yourself back to reality, “I have some more shopping to do, so…”
“We’re friends now!” Minnie announces.
Hyunjin glances at his daughter. “You two are friends now?”
“Yes!” the girl insists.
Hyunjin returns his gaze to you. “I guess you’re friends now. Any chance you’re up to see us again sometime?”
“See you again?” you repeat, nonplussed.
“Just for coffee, maybe. A playdate?” Hyunjin’s grin is teasing.
“Doesn’t she have other friends?” you ask, “Friends who are more…three years old?”
“Oh, sure. but Min is an equal-opportunity befriender,” Hyunjin says, “She likes everyone.”
You really don’t know what to make of this precocious little girl who’s just declared you her new friend and her very indulgent but admittedly very attractive father. You might consider that he was hitting on you, except that he’s clearly just bending to the will of his very willful child, and that he’s way, way, way out of your league.
“Sure,” you say, finally.
“Cool.”
Hyunjin pulls out his phone and offers it to you with the keypad open. You enter your number and call yourself, and you save each other’s data into your phones. ‘Hyunjin (Minnie’s Dad)’ goes in as your newest contact.
“We’ll text you to make plans!” Hyunjin promises, as he wheels his cart away.
“See you later!” Minnie calls.
She waves furiously at you until the two of them round the corner to the left, toward the checkout counters. You’re left standing there with your package of coffee and butterflies in your stomach.
Just like that, you have a new friend.
---------------
When you do eventually get a text from the number saved as ‘Hyunjin (Minnie’s Dad),’ it’s abundantly clear which of the two is doing the texting.
‘hello!!!!!!’ ‘yo u have to wear’ ‘princess dress!!!!!’
It’s a Thursday afternoon, and you’re at work, sat at your desk overlooking the production floor. Your lunch is just about to end, the boys in assembly below are already getting back to it, and you need to make this quick before your next meeting.
Hyunjin must have helped with the spelling, but that is definitely a message direct from Minnie. You’re debating how exactly to respond to this message, when a call comes in, instead. You answer it.
“Hello?”
“Hi!” The voice on the other end is unmistakable.
“Hi, Minnie,” you say patiently.
“Did you get my text?”
“Of course,” you answer.
“Good. Wear your princess dress,” she says decisively. “Talk to Daddy now.”
The phone clatters loudly like it’s been dropped right on the floor, and you hear a shout in the background. You wince at the noise, but keep the phone pressed to your ear until Hyunjin’s voice replaces his daughter’s.
“Hey, sorry,” he says, “She decided that PJ Masks are more important than this phone call that she DEMANDED I make to invite you for coffee on Saturday.”  
“Coffee, huh?” you repeat.
“Yeah, if that’s okay,” Hyunjin says.
You can hear real hesitation in his voice, and you’re quick to reassure him, “No, no, I think it’s cute. It’s okay.”
“She just never takes to strangers this fast,” Hyunjin explains, and you can’t quite fathom why that piece of knowledge makes your stomach swoop. “I wanna encourage her to see the world as kind of…safe and fun, y’know? Is that stupid? Like, she shouldn’t just run around with strangers, but she shouldn’t be afraid of the world, either.”
“That makes sense,” you assure him.
“We had a talk about it, I think she understands the difference.”
He’s kind of rambling at you. You wonder how often Hyunjin gets a chance to talk parenting with someone.
“No, really, I understand,” you say, “I’d love to do coffee.”
“Great,” he says, “You can meet us at this café…I’ll send you the address. It’s called Mama Dining.”
You’ve never heard of it, but you trust Minnie’s taste. Hyunjin, you can’t say for sure. But you trust that little girl with more blind conviction than is probably necessary.
“Okay, see you then,” you say.
“Cool.” You can hear Hyunjin’s smile in his voice. “Bye, (Y/N).”
“Bye!” comes Minnie’s voice, far away but loud, and you know that she must be screaming as loud as she can.
You laugh, and you hang up.
--------------- Mama Dining is a small glass-front piece of realty across from a folk medicine shop and underneath a square brick apartment building, a few metro stops away from the area where you live. It’s so stuffed full of potted plants and flowers in vases that there’s barely any surface area for anything else, but it’s clean and bright inside. The tables are mismatched with their chairs, and the whole place smells like coffee and sharp herbs and fresh bread.
It’s homey, that’s the word for it. Cozy, and homey.
You’d taken your pint-sized new friend’s advice to the letter, busting out one of the nice dresses that you save for special occasions. The last time you wore it was to a coworker’s wedding; it’s light and floaty and floral, a long floor-length skirt over a tighter inner slip. It’s the closest thing you have to a princess dress. But it’ll have to do.
You check your reflection in the glass as you pull the door open, bells tinkling above your head. As soon as you step into the café, a little voice shrieks at you.
“YES!”
Minnie is sitting at a table in the corner, in a different gown, her hair in an elaborate braided style, half-up and half-down. She’s looking at you with the utmost approval, and even though she’s a three-year-old, you still feel proud that you’re passing her test.
“A princess dress,” she says, satisfied.
“I tried my best,” you say.
You give a silly little spin on the spot, so that your skirt stands out for her, and behind you, someone laughs. You freeze, cheeks heating up.
“You look nice.”
It’s Hyunjin, because of course it is. You turn around to see him in casual jeans and a long sleeve tee, an apron tied around his waist. His hair is pulled back again, off his face. He’s gorgeous. But it kind of looks like…
“Do you work here?” you ask.
Hyunjin nods. “Easiest place to meet up is here, while I’m on shift. Hope that’s okay.”
“It’s fine,” you assure him.
“I’ll get you a coffee,” he says, “What do you like?”
You tell him your regular order, and he heads to the espresso machine to start it up.
“Oh,” he calls, over the sound of the grinder, “And if Judy comes in while you’re here, I’m sorry in advance.”
Judy? Your stomach does an awkward flip at the idea of him inviting you here if he has a girlfriend, or a wife. You don’t think you’ve seen a wedding ring on him, but…
Oh, well. Nothing you can do, at this point. You’re here for the kid, anyway, aren’t you?
You go over to the table where Minnie has set up camp, propped in a booster seat to reach the tabletop. She has a coloring book and a pack of glitter crayons in front of her, and you pull up the second chair to join her. Minnie stares at you for second, her cute upturned eyes so much like her father’s, and then she opens up her coloring book, flipping the pages as carefully as she can.
When she finds what she wants, she sets the book down and rips the page out. It’s a picture of a teacup and saucer on a table, with a pitcher of flowers behind it.
“This is yours,” she says, with the utmost seriousness.
“Okay,” you say, matching her tone, “Can I use your crayons? I didn’t bring mine.”
You kind of expect a kid as serious and assertive as her to be careful about her possessions, but Minnie just upends the crayon box onto the table.
“Yep,” she says.
She grabs a lilac color and dives right into her own coloring page: a dressing table covered in cosmetics and trinkets. You select a red crayon from the pile and join her, filling in the delicate pattern on your teacup.
You can’t explain why it doesn’t feel like babysitting, but it doesn’t. It feels more like…coexisting. Like this preschooler really is just happy to have your company.
What a weird kid.
Hyunjin comes over after a moment with your coffee. The café is empty aside from you three, so he sits down at the table with you, placing the cup with your drink down beside the precarious pile of crayons.
“Daddy can’t color,” the kid tells you.
“Really?” you ask, looking up at Hyunjin wryly.
Hyunjin raises his hands as if in defeat, “My talents lie in performing arts, not studio arts. Unlike this renaissance child, who can do it all.”
It’s obvious that Hyunjin adores his daughter. You can see it in his eyes as he watches her scrub her crayons across the picture, in the way he talks about her. You’re not around kids a lot, but you can tell that this little girl has a lot of love in her life. That’s probably why she’s so bold; outgoing, kind, and well-adjusted kids are usually well-loved kids.
You smile to yourself as you keep coloring, switching the red for a grey. And after a while, you’re aware of Hyunjin’s watching gaze focused not on his daughter, but on you.
Embarrassed by the attention, you look up and meet his eye. He’s just watching you, with a lopsided smile that shows all of his teeth and crinkly smiling eyes that emphasize the little mole under his bottom eyelid on one side.
“What?” you ask.
He gives himself a little shake.
“Sorry,” he says.
It seems like all he does is apologize to you when he’s done nothing wrong at all.
“I was just thinking, it’s really sweet that you’re here,” he admits.
“Sweet?” you ask.
He tilts his head. “Yeah. How many people do you know who would come across town just to hang out with a little kid?”
You take a sip of the coffee. It’s perfect. Maybe the best you’ve ever had. Is he even real?
“Well, she’s like the coolest person I’ve ever met,” you say, “Regardless of age.”
“Yeah, she is,” Hyunjin says fondly.
“I’m cool,” Minnie agrees.
The doors of the café open softly, and you and Hyunjin turn around simultaneously to see a young couple, maybe college students, seating themselves and talking softly. Hyunjin excuses himself to go help them, and you let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding.
What are you even doing here?
Did you agree to come on this very strange playdate because you were so taken by a strange child that you felt the need to keep a promise you made to her? Or, on some level, did you just want to see Hyunjin again? Neither answer is particularly good. Or sane.
“You and Daddy can be friends, too.”
Your head snaps up when you realize you’d being addressed, and you regard Minnie. “What?”
“You and Daddy can be friends. You’re my friend, but Daddy, too.”
You hum, as if you’re really puzzling it over, when in reality you’re about to collapse from the embarrassment of this child inadvertently setting you up with her dad. Or maybe advertently. You have no idea how smart she actually is.
“How does it look?” you ask instead, holding up your drawing.
Minnie puts down her crayon and scrutinizes your picture as if she’s a museum collections pro scouting for art.
“Do pink flowers,” she says eventually, and she returns to her own drawing with the same intensity.
“Good idea,” you say.
You pick out a rosy pink color and try to will all your nerves about Hyunjin away. He’s just a new friend. The father of you new littlest friend. You can’t make this weird just because he’s good-looking. Hyunjin himself has vanished into the back kitchen, tucked away to prepare something. You can hear a stove going, cutlery clattering.
The café door opens again as you’re idly listening to the sounds of the kitchen. This time, it’s a middle-aged woman with a long black ponytail and a practical, motherly outfit. She greets the young couple cheerfully, and then she sets her eyes on you.
“My Min!” the lady coos, and Minnie looks up from her drawing.
“Hi. I’m coloring.”
“I can see that,” the lady says, coming up closer to lean on the table next to your casually, “And who is this?”
“(Y/N),” Minnie answers.
“I see.”
The woman is smiling, but her eyes are regarding you coolly, as if she’s sizing you up. You just offer her a nervous smile, unsure who this is or why she knows the kid.
Hyunjin emerges from the kitchen then, timing perfect, a plate holding a large grilled sandwich in hand.
“Oh, hey, Judy,” he says, on his way past to give the couple their lunch.
Judy? This is the Judy that he mentioned earlier? Not to be ageist, you think, but she seems too old to be Hyunjin’s partner. But romantic relationship or not, you can understand why he apologized on her behalf; she’s already giving you incredibly intense vibes.
“(Y/N)’s picture goes on the wall with mine, okay, Judy?” Minnie says suddenly.
“Sounds like a plan,” Judy agrees, “Now, is someone going to tell me who this young lady is?”
Moving very quickly and pretending that he’s not, Hyunjin rejoins the three of you over in your corner, setting a comforting hand on Judy’s shoulder. You can’t help but wonder if he’s doing it as a means of subtly holding her back.
“Min made friends with her at the store the other day after one of her famous mad dashes,” Hyunjin says. “And we figured the polite thing to do after that would be to invite her for a cup of coffee.”
“I see,” Judy says.
Her face softens at Hyunjin’s words, even though she’s still looking you over quizzically, like she can’t decide how to feel about you being there.
“Well, welcome,” she says, finally, “I’m Judy. This is my café.”
She extends her hand to shake, and you take it. Her hand is slim and pretty, heavy with a few jeweled rings and slightly roughened on the fingertips from hard work.
“She takes care of us,” Minnie pipes up.
“I try to,” Judy agrees. “They need all the help they can get.”
“I resent that!” Hyunjin says.
“But really, I just use this pretty face to attract customers,” Judy continues, waving a hand at Hyunjin.
He squawks his outrage, and you can’t help the smile that creeps over your face.
“The teens see this face and they come right in. It’s like magic,” Judy says, as if she’s being purposefully oblivious to how much she’s embarrassing him.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you,” you say.
And you mean it, too. Hyunjin obviously has an unconventional support system going on, with this woman who he introduced by her first name and not by her relation to him. It leads you to believe they’re not blood-related or anything. It doesn’t really matter, though. She seems nice, if not a little protective.  
“Nice to meet you, too,” Judy says, with such heavy finality that you feel as though you’ve just cleared a hurdle.
And from the way Hyunjin’s whole body perks up at her words, maybe you have. Why do you get the feeling that this was the equivalent of a meeting-the-parents moment?
As quickly as the atmosphere had heightened, it settles back to the lazy calm it was before. Judy pats Minnie’s head fondly and disappears into the back of the café, not to reappear. Hyunjin returns to his work, and you take back up the task of neatly filling in the coloring page, careful not to upstage your tiny host and her not-quite-developed motor skills.
It’s a slow afternoon.
The young couple eats their lunch across the room, adding only a quiet hum of activity to your surroundings. Minnie tells you stories while you work, regaling you with the deep inner workings of preschooler life.
“Their names are Sage and Ginger!” she’s saying happily.
You haven’t been listening closely enough, clearly, because you’re stumped. “Whose names?”
“The babies!”
“What babies?”
“From Blue’s Clues & You,” she huffs.
Oh. You vaguely remember the original Blue’s Clues show, but you can’t say you know exactly what she’s talking about. Is she talking about…the sentient salt and pepper shakers? Do they have babies? Why do they have babies?!
“That’s cool,” you say, with level enthusiasm.
Minnie looks at you flatly, but accepts your words with a nod. “They’re cute. So little!”
It goes on like that, bits of kids’ programming trivia and input on your crayon color choices. The couple leaves, and you can see Hyunjin zeroing back in on you as he lets them out with a wave and a call to come back soon.
“How’s it going?” he asks.
You pick up your drawing, for him to see. You’ve been finished with it for a while now (it’s a children’s coloring book, so it’s not all that intricate) but you don’t want to appear unengaged, so you’ve been going over your lines and blurring out the crayon marks. His eyes crinkle up with joy at the sight of it.
“Done!” Minnie announces.
She brandishes her own drawing, too, and Hyunjin beams at the two of you with equal pride.
“Can I put these up?” he asks.
“Together,” says Minnie.
“You got it.”
He takes both rough-edged pages and whisks them away to the counter. Behind the register, on an expanse of wall, there’s a collection of doodles and coloring pages that you hadn’t noticed when you walked in. They must all be Minnie’s; the bold coloring strokes are all the same, her heavy hand immortalized in wax and marker and glitter pen.
Hyunjin tacks up the pictures side by side on the wall.
It’s the tiniest gesture in the world, really. You can’t even count how many scraps of paper, how many school notebooks and work memos that you’ve scribbled on over the course of your life. You’ve colored kids’ menus at restaurants, done detailed adult coloring books at mixers. Somehow, this one ragged coloring page tacked to the wall of a café seems like a turning point in your life.
You wonder when you got so sentimental. It’s silly, but it’s there; warm happiness in your chest.
When Minnie begins to wilt, saying in not so many words that she’s getting tired, you know that your playdate time is coming to an end. It’s only been an hour and a half, maybe two, but that’s an awful long time to keep such a young kid occupied on one activity. You’re proud of yourself, honestly.
“She’ll go down for a nap soon, before dinner,” Hyunjin tells you softly, “You can head out if you want. I don’t wanna monopolize your day.”
“I think I will,” you agree.
It’s been a nice time, but you’re not one to overstay your welcome.
You say goodbye to Minnie, who insists on giving you another crushing full-body hug, and you make it all the way to the door before you realize Hyunjin is following you.
“What are you doing?” you ask.
“Walking you out,” he replies.
“I’m just going to my subway stop.”
“Then let me walk you to it,” he says.
You struggle to hold back your smile at his easy grace. “Okay, sure.”
The two of you set out into the afternoon, side by side, for the short walk from this inner part of the neighborhood to the metro stop that will take you back home. The breeze tugs at your skirt and ruffles Hyunjin’s apron, and you can’t help but sneak sidelong peeks at him as you walk.
“I hope Judy didn’t scare you too much,” he says.
“She’s intense. But I can tell that it’s out of love,” you reply.
He laughs at that, and you continue your slow meander down the unlined streets.
“She’s like an adoptive mom to me,” Hyunjin tells you. “I’m lucky to have her.”
“Oh,” you say, curious but knowing that you shouldn’t ask.
The two of you walk a while longer in your quiet bubble, but eventually, Hyunjin sighs.
“I don’t talk to my parents,” he says, “It’s not that crazy. Just how it is.”
“You don’t have to tell me more if you don’t want, I understand.”
“And now I’m oversharing. Sorry,” he winces.
You shake your head, “It’s not a bother, I just won’t pry.”
Hyunjin considers this, and nods. “It’s just me and Min, so Judy’s been a livesaver. Mom and auntie and grandma all in one.”
Just him and Min, which means no wife and no serious girlfriend. That makes you feel a bit better. You’d hate to get in the way of a serious relationship, even indirectly. Minnie is a nice kid, and you like her, but you’re not her nanny or her babysitter or anything. You’d hate to be that kind of person, shoving yourself into a family where you have no business being.
“But…I wanted to know…would you wanna hang out again?” Hyunjin asks.
You laugh gently. “For Min? I’d walk into traffic. Yes, I’ll hang out again.”
“Not with Min,” Hyunjin says, voice soft and hesitant. “With me.”
The word that falls out of your mouth before you can stop it is, “Why?”
Hyunjin snorts, and then breaks out laughing, harder than you’ve ever heard him laugh.
“Because I think you’re cool?” he says eventually. “You’re cute and you like my kid, which is more than I can say about ninety percent of the people I meet.”
This was not part of the plan. Not that you had a plan, but come on. You were here to hang out with a super weird toddler, to entertain a precocious little girl because it’s cute and fun, not to be asked out by her dad. Her gorgeous dad, who’s so out of your league that it makes your head spin.
You spare a thought to wonder if he’s playing a prank on you.
“Unless…” Hyunjin draws away from you (when did he get so close?), “Unless you’re already seeing someone? God, I didn’t even think – I’m sorry, I just-”
“No, you cut in quickly, “No, I’m not-”
“Am I being weird? I’m being weird,” he laughs, and he almost sounds…nervous?
“You’re not being weird,” you assure him, “You just surprised me. I didn’t think…” 
“Then you’ll go out with me?” he asks.
“Yeah,” you say, surprising yourself, “Yeah. I will.”
Hyunjin’s smile is the fucking sun coming up. It warms you right down to your toes.  
“I’ll call you,” he promises, “I’ll call and we can make plans.”
“Okay,” you agree.
The dimly-glowing sign marking the subway entrance looms ahead, and Hyunjin falls back, as you approach the down escalator.
“I’ll call you!” he says, again.
You wave as you go down the escalator, and once he’s out of sight, you practically melt. You have no idea why life is throwing you this curveball, but you’re not complaining.
---------------
True to form, it’s Minnie who calls you some days later. Not Hyunjin, the adult who presumably has control over the phone and has to dial the call. No, it’s the toddler whose voice filters over the line, the toddler who is undeniably and ultimately in control of her father’s whole world.
“Hi, (Y/N)!”
“Are you supposed to be making calls?” you tease.
“It’s okay, I have a mission,” she tells you.
“A secret mission?”
“Maybe…” Minnie’s voice pulls away from the phone, and you can hear her shout, “Daddy! Is it a secret mission?!”
Hyunjin’s voice calls something in reply, and then Minnie returns.
“Yeah, a secret mission,” she says.
“What’s your mission?”
“We gotta know, do you like Japan food or Italy food better?”
“Hmmm,” you think out loud, “I think I just like food.”
“Me too,” Minnie agrees, “I just like food.”
There’s another shout from Hyunjin that you can’t make out.
“Daddy says it’s gonna be a s’prise, then,” Minnie reports.
“Surprises are fun,” you say.
“It’s okay?” she asks.
“It’s okay,” you confirm.
“Okay! I gotta go. Talk to you later!”
Minnie hangs up, and you burst out laughing so hard that tears pool at the corners of your eyes. She manages to make it sound like she has a high-powered meeting that you’re keeping her from. How does she hide all of that thirty-five-year-old boss energy in her cute little self?
But more important than the absurd circumstance of the call is the outcome. You’re going on a real date. With Hyunjin. You try to pretend that a whole swarm of butterflies haven’t hatched in your gut.
You have a date with Hyunjin.
---------------
The date goes well.
It goes incredibly well, in fact. If you thought Hyunjin was pretty and charming when he was in more domestic setting, with his kid and at his job, that was nothing compared to fully-focused-grownup Hyunjin on a date.
He dresses well, he’s funny and he’s gentle, he nearly cries because the dish you order to share is too spicy for him. He’s got all the puppylike charm of the young man that he is, and this underlying tired seriousness of the doting single father that he is.
You argue with him until he lets you split the bill for the meal, and he gives you a gentle kiss on the lips when he leaves you at your subway stop. It’s like a fairytale.
So you go out again, and again, and again, still. Sometimes it’s barbeque in your neighborhood, at an outdoor restaurant with great side dishes handmade by the older couple who own the place. Sometimes it’s just coffee and a long chat at a 24-hour café. You haven’t been to his home, yet, and he hasn’t been to yours, but it’s refreshing to just take things slowly with him, when the rest of life moves so fast.
Underneath the fun of being with Hyunjin, though, is the doubt.
Everything you see makes you more and more certain that he’s not a real person. He’s a dating sim come to life. He’s so good-looking that teenage girls stop to whisper and giggle about him, and passing aunties give him bold compliments. Dogs like him, service staff like him, little kids like him. And you understand it; you like him tremendously.
You’re not entirely sure why he likes you, though. Compared to him, you’re kind of reserved, kind of plain. It’s not that you don’t like yourself, but you’re a cottage to Hyunjin’s skyscraper, a woodwick candle to his disco ball. Just different realms entirely.
It doesn’t matter, you suppose, because regardless of his motivation or your understanding, you’re spending more and more time with Hyunjin, and Minnie.
You learn that it’s Hyunjin who does her hair every day, creating looks with pins and braids and tiny ponytails. He grew out his own hair to the length it is now to practice on, he tells you one day. You learn that Minnie only likes crunchy vegetables, raw carrots and the stems of lettuce, and that she can inexplicably eat much spicier food that her father can.
You’re comfortable being part of the mundane. But Hyunjin seems to have different aspirations for the two of you, in your casual and fluid relationship, still without titles or formalities.
“I want to take you somewhere nice.”
You glance up from your laptop, blinking to get the fuzziness out of your vision at you look at Hyunjin where he leans over the prep counter. It’s a weekend, but you have a pile of leftover work to get through before Monday, so you’ve set up camp at the café for the afternoon. Hyunjin is on shift, and he’s been slinging you snacks and coffees between customers. It’s been just the two of you, work obligations notwithstanding, and it’s been…domestic.
“This isn’t nice enough?” you quip.
“You know what I mean,” he rolls his eyes, “Like a real date.”
“Oh, so now you’re saying the first half dozen dates weren’t real?”
Hyunjin sticks out his thick lower lip in a pout. “What happened to the shy awkward person I met at the store? Bring her back, please, this (Y/N) is mean to me!”
You laugh. “Where did you want to go?”
“There’s this place I haven’t been to in years. It’s really nice, my aunt used to take us back when family outings were more my thing,” he says.
“Sounds okay,” you decide.
“You’d have to dress up,” he warns, “Like, for real. I’ll have to dig out a suit.”
“That’s fine.”
You turn your attention back to your laptop, trying to hide your flustered face at the idea of Hyunjin cleaning up extra nice for you, Hyunjin in a fitted suit and shined shoes. He might notice it anyway, though, if the smile that lights up his face as he turns back to the kitchen is any hint.
---------------
It’s decided that Hyunjin will pick you up from work and drive the two of you to your first fancy date. So that morning, you hitched a ride with a coworker so as not to strand your car at the office overnight, carrying your change of clothes in a bag. The downside of that was having to explain to your coworker what necessitated the change, and your team quickly found out that you have a date. The teasing hasn’t stopped all day, good-natured ribbing all during your shift, about stoic, shy supervisor (Y/N) going on a hot date with a mystery man.
You stand in front of the full-length mirror in your office’s nice bathroom, the one reserved for visitors who can’t pee with the staff. The one with potpourri on the counters and immaculate tile floors. You’ve gone for a menswear look yourself, wide-legged slacks and a silky blouse, and heels. Hyunjin’s already seen you in a nice dress, you figure, and besides, clinging to the businesswear that you already don at work gives you just a bit more nerve.
Somehow, a date at a nice restaurant that holds some sentimental value for him is more serious than anything you’ve ever done, more intimate than splitting cakes at the café and watching Minnie force the other kids to take turns on the slide at the playground.
You adjust your French tuck just a bit, make sure that your necklace hangs neatly, and deem yourself as good as you’re gonna get. You walk out of the bathroom, bag now holding your work clothes tucked under your arm, only to see a whole group of your production team boys waiting for you.
The company where you work is a decently large tech manufacturing plant, and as a production manager, you oversee a team of techs and assembly workers who tend to be on the younger side, and much more often are young men close to your age. They’re all nice boys who you’re quite close to, but they’ve already been on your case all day. Several of them are right here in the hall, now, ready to make fun of you the way that annoying little brothers are meant to do.
“Jeez, (Y/N), out for blood,” says Taehyun, his silica filter mask hanging off one ear.
“Don’t be gross,” you say, rolling your eyes.
“It’s true, you’re really going all out for this date, huh?” adds Jeongin.
“Quit it before I vom and then report you all to HR,” you say.
“Oh, come on,” says Taehyun, “I’ve worked for you for like two years and I’ve never seen you have fun on purpose before.”
“That can’t be true,” you argue, walking toward the front of the building with your little line of assembly-boy ducklings following behind.
“On your birthday, you asked us to get you a firm handshake and a new set of pages for your planner,” Jeongin deadpans.
“You’re Ron Swanson with tits,” Jaemin says.
“Charming,” you glance at him, and he shrugs.
“It’s true.”
Car headlights shine in the picture windows that span the front of your building, and you can make out a small red car sitting in the visitor’s parking right by the door.
“Please don’t embarrass me,” you implore the boys, as you haul open the heavy glass door to let yourself out.
“We would never do that,” Jeongin says, defensive.
“Maybe we should talk to your date, though,” Jaemin suggests, “Rough him up a little.”
“Yeah, please don’t ever do that,” you say, “I’m leaving now.”
The driver’s side window is rolled down, and you can see Hyunjin leaning out, waving to you. You walk around to the passenger’s side of the car as fast as you can, giving your stupid underlings as little time as possible to ruin things.
You slide into the seat and slam the door behind you right as you hear one of the boys yell, “GET HER HOME SAFE. BY TEN.”
“Oh my God, go, drive away,” you groan.
“Who are they?” Hyunjin asks, amused, as he backs out of the parking spot.
“They work for me,” you say. “They wanna intimidate you, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“They must really like you,” he says.
“No, they just really like being annoying.”
Hyunjin laughs, glancing at you as he maneuvers onto the main road.
“You look really great,” he says, sounding a little bit shy.
“Thanks.”
“The restaurant isn’t far,” Hyunjin says, “But I wanted to look cool and drive you.”
“I already think you’re cool,” you tease.
“Well if you’d told me that before, we could have called a cab,” he says.
“Nah, I wanted to see your car,” you say, turning around in your seat to get a full view of the interior, “Big pink carseat and all.”
“Min’s constantly telling me to just get a pink car to match,” Hyunjin says, “I don’t know if I could pull that off, though.”
“With your good looks and princess hair? I think you could.”
“Good to know. Next car, pink,” he says.
Hyunjin wasn’t lying about the restaurant being close by, because the whole drive is less than fifteen minutes. You’ve barely relaxed when he pulls up to the street parking outside a modest building with a pretty marquee and rough brick siding.
“This is it?” you ask, peeking out at the building.
“Yep.”
You scrutinize the restaurant as two of you get out of the car, and you can tell instantly that it’s an upscale place. Everything from the valet in front to the fabric of the curtains reeks of steaks that cost a paycheck and truffles in every possible dish. You’re kind of excited for it.
The maître-d greets you warmly, and brings you to a table against the window, with a view into a small back garden full of lanterns and lit trellises. The table itself is a delicate wooden thing, with full-course silverware and origami napkins. Candles dance on the tabletop, a single red rose in a vase brightening the whites and silvers of it all.
Hyunjin must know a thing or two about romance, because you’re properly wowed. It’s so stereotypically wonderful, it makes for a great sixth-or-seventh date. You’ve known him long enough that you know he’s not trying to blindly impress you, but just to treat you.
You wonder what kind of family he has, that they would bring him to a place like this as a kid or a teenager.
When the waitress, a pretty young woman in server’s blacks, comes over, the two of you order from the set menu and argue only a little about what dishes to taste and what wine to have.
“They’re barely Brussels sprouts,” you’re saying, “They’re covered in oil and bacon and shit.”
“They’re green vegetables,” he counters.
“They’re gourmet, don’t be a baby.”
Starters come and quickly disappear.
The main course comes, and by this point, you’re a glass or so of wine deep, and Hyunjin is only looking more and more handsome, as your stomach starts to be comfortably filled and the drinks warm you up from the inside.
Hyunjin’s gazing at you between bites of his dinner, expression so soft that you wonder if he’s gonna lean right across the table to kiss you. It’s tender, it’s lovely, and it’s unlike any other date you’ve ever had.
But a woman’s shrill, furious voice shatters the entire atmosphere with a single sharpened word.
“Hyunjin?!”
It’s almost comical, the way Hyunjin freezes with his fork halfway to his mouth, eyes wide and startled. It’s only almost comical, because this emotion seems to be very real fear on his part. He keeps his eyes on his plate, but you look toward the sound.
There’s a woman approaching your table, thin and elegant and beautiful. She’s got only the faintest age lines on her perfectly made-up face, and her clothes are designer, a plum-colored dress that brushes her knees and a handbag worth more than your whole closet. She doesn’t even spare you a glance, zeroing in on Hyunjin as she comes to stand right beside the table, puffed up in self-righteous anger like a provoked bird.
“Hwang Hyunjin!” she barks.
Hyunjin turns his head so slowly that you wonder if he’s even moving at all, until finally he’s looking at her.
“Of all the places – what on EARTH are you doing?!” she asks him, tone stiff and angry.
It’s the kind of tone that you can imagine her using to yell at waitstaff, or berate the hotel bellhop.  She’s that kind of wealthy, you can just tell. You’ve been dodging people like this your whole adult life, working your way up in the tech field, littered with its new and old money. You glance at Hyunjin, but the urgency in his face tells you to hold your tongue.
“I’m eating,” he says finally.
“Your aunt told me you were still in the city,” she says, “I can’t IMAGINE what you’ve been up to that you haven’t had time to even call, the nerve-”
“Mother,” Hyunjin says evenly, “You’re interrupting a nice time.
Mother. This is Hyunjin’s mother?
As if she’s just noticed that you’re there, she rounds on you. “And who is this?”
The disgust in her voice makes your stomach twist unpleasantly. It’s been a long while since someone has been so openly dismissive of you. Not since you were a student, you think, but God does it hurt.
“This is my date,” Hyunjin answers.
His words are clipped, like he really doesn’t want to say more.
“Well, obviously,” his mother sniffs, condescending, “What is her NAME?”
“You don’t get to know that,” Hyunjin says.
You know that Hyunjin is distant with his parents. He’s mentioned that they don’t talk anymore, and that they don’t really know his daughter at all. But it speaks volumes that he doesn’t even want his mother to know your name.
“And where did you meet this shining example of gilt wood pretending to be gold?” she asks, “The community center? The food bank?”
“There’s no need to be mean,” Hyunjin says, much more calmly than you would be able to, “We’re trying to have dinner. You should leave.”
“I’ve finished my meal. I’m on my way out,” his mother says haughtily, “But I saw you and I needed to come say something.
“No, don’t let us keep you,” Hyunjin says, gesturing toward the exit with his still-full fork.
“Hyunjin, when are you going to give up this ridiculous act and come back to make things right?” she asks, and though the tone is sincere, there’s no warmth behind it.
“Never,” he replies, “Things are just the way I want them.”
This woman, in her all finery and dignified air, stamps her foot on the ground like a child having a tantrum.
“You’re making a mockery of our family, you know that, yes?” she asks.
“You’re the one yelling at me and embarrassing yourself in a restaurant full of people,” Hyunjin points out.
“You are an aggravating and ungrateful child,” his mother hisses.
“Maybe,” Hyunjin agrees, “But I’m happy.”
Perhaps sensing that she’s starting to make a scene, his mother glances around at the other patrons, who are trying to hide the way they’re listening in with varying levels of success. Your waitress is lingering by the edge of the service floor, eyes glued on the scene.
“You’ll come to your senses,” she promises darkly. “And you’ll come begging for my help. We’ll see if I take pity on you then.”
And with that, she turns around and stalks toward the exit, not even pausing as she barks at the valet to bring her ride around. You watch until she’s outside and out of sight, and then you focus on Hyunjin.
His hands are shaking so badly that his fork clatters against his plate. You reach out and cover his hand with yours, easing the fork out of his grip and laying it down. You feel horrible, and kind of sick, but you know that between the two of you, Hyunjin is worse, so you have to push that discomfort down, just for a while.
“Let’s finish our dinner, okay?” you say, “And then we can talk about this.”
---------------
The rest of the date isn’t agonizing, but it is uncomfortable. You chat, and joke, albeit without the same easy grace as before. Seeing his mother, and having her speak to both of you that way has really seemed to rattle Hyunjin more than a confrontation usually would.
You settle the tab, splitting it like you always do, and then you find yourselves on a bench outside the restaurant, set away from the main road. It’s dark, and it’s chilly, but it’s comfortable with the gentle atmospheric music from the restaurant marquee and the sounds of traffic.
“Min’s mom wasn’t ready for a baby.”
You glance at Hyunjin at the sound of his voice. He’s fiddling with the cuffs of his blazer, still looking distinctly unsettled.
“Neither of us were,” he amends.
“Was she a hookup?” you ask.
“A girlfriend,” he says, “But not…she was just a girl from a good family. Someone my parents thought would be a good match, so we dated for a long time.”
“A good match,” you repeat, “A good match for you?”
“A good match for the family,” he says bitterly.
“What does that matter?”
“Oh, it matters. Way more than what I want,” he says.
“They’re really rich, aren’t they?” you ask, thinking about his mother’s clothes, and her attitude, and pretty much everything about her, “Your parents, I mean.”
“Disgustingly rich.”
“Oh.”
“She’s a really nice girl, a good person. But she really didn’t want to be with me forever, and she certainly didn’t want a kid,” Hyunjin says.
“So what happened?” you ask.
“She broke things off when she got pregnant, which made both of our families pissed beyond belief. The proper thing to do would have been to get married, right? But instead she ended the relationship, and moved home,” Hyunjin says, “They took care of Min for like a year and a half, her parents and a nanny.”
“Not the mom?”
Hyunjin shakes his head. “She just didn’t want a kid. Which is okay, more than okay. Our parents were the ones who wanted to keep the pregnancy, not her. I just wanted everyone to stop fighting.”
You just nod. Hyunjin is keeping this story so purposefully vague, not dropping names or placing blame or really showing any anger. You wonder how much time he’s spent thinking about this story, or telling it in different ways. He seems almost desensitized to it all.
“When Min was almost two, her mom asked if I would take on full custody so she could sign away her parental rights and be out of the picture for good. And I figured,” Hyunjin laughs bitterly, “I figured, better to have one parent that loves you the most than two while one is half-assing it.”
“No, I can see that,” you say.
“Minnie lived with me at my parents’ house until they realized that my ex was never coming back. They always figured we’d get back together.”
“Why?!” you ask, incredulous.
Hyunjin looks at you. “Because that would be the dutiful thing to do. Get married, stay together for the kid, avoid any embarrassing attention on the families.”
“Even if that meant you were both miserable forever?”
Hyunjin turns his gaze back at the ground, sighing. “My parents said they wouldn’t support me if I couldn’t even do that one thing right and convince my ex to do right by the families and marry me. But I wasn’t gonna force her. She’s a good person. just in over her head, and scared. And I can’t blame her for that. I can’t forgive her. But I understand.”
“So, what, they kicked you out?”
“Kicked me out, cut me off,” Hyunjin nods. “I used to be set for life, with their money to back me up. I could have fucked around forever, lived comfy. They took it all away because I wouldn’t marry a girl who didn’t love me and just wanted to live her own life.”
“You’re a good person,” you say.
“It was an easy choice,” he quips, some of his usual humor returning now that he’s gotten the stress of his story out of his mind, “Either my parents, who only love me conditionally, or my daughter, who loves the biggest and best out of anyone ever.”
You laugh, but you can’t shake the new strange feeling that has settled over you, now that you know all of this about him. Knowing that Hyunjin is the rejected son of a wealthy family, a silver-spoon kid with a heart of gold. It only validates some of those nagging feelings that in some unavoidable way, Hyunjin is far, far too good for you.
He’s given up a life of luxury and security for his daughter, and his freedom. You’re not about to make him compromise on anything else, ever. At all.
“Min doesn’t even miss any of them,” Hyunjin says thoughtfully, “Doesn’t even ask.”
“That’s good, I guess,” you say.
He shrugs. “Means that she’s not too fucked up from bouncing around like that as a baby, which is a fuckin’ blessing.”
“She’s safe and happy with you now, though,” you say.
Hyunjin grins at you. “But you know who’s been a great parent influence on her?”
“Who?”
“You.”
You laugh. “I’m no parent, trust me.”
“I dunno, you’re pretty great with her,” he says airily, “I don’t trust my kid with just anyone.”
“You gotta stop being so nice to me,” you say. “You’re gonna give me ideas.”
“Ideas like what? Afraid I’ll wanna take you out on a date? Introduce you to my kid? Oh wait-”
“Shut up!” you whine, nudging him. “I just…can’t believe you like me, sometimes. Like, that you really like me, like this.”
“Of course, I like you,” Hyunjin says, dumbfounded, “We’ve been going out for weeks.”
“Yeah, and that only started because Min told you that she wanted to be friends with me.”
“Did you really think that I got your number that day because I wanted you to be friends with my three-year-old?” Hyunjin asks.
“Yes!” you answer, totally honest, “Yes, I did. I think that you would do anything in the world for that kid, even something stupid like inviting me out.”
You stand up, suddenly needing some space, some air that isn’t warm from Hyunjin’s presence by your side or scented with his soft cologne. He just watches as you pace a few short steps away from the bench.
“It was maybe twenty percent because she was being so cute with you,” he says desperately, “But the other eighty percent was for me.”
You can’t believe that. Sure, part of you hoped for it, because it’s truly so insane to just let your preschooler make friends with random women in public. It makes sense for him to have an ulterior motive. You’d hoped that it was really him who was interested, even if he just intended to hook up with you and then cut it off.
It’s beyond obvious to you that you’ve fallen hard for Hyunjin, even in just this short time. The idea of him feeling anything like that for you is much harder to fathom.
“I know you care about me, at least a little,” Hyunjin says, standing up to join you, “At least, I hope you do. Something, some chance that you like me as more than a friend, or a casual date…”
“I do,” you say, voice strangled and tiny, “But you…you’re-”
“I’m what? I’m a father already? I have too much baggage for you?”
Your heart breaks a little bit more as he says that, as you imagine other people in the past dumping him with those exact words. The conviction in his voice is all that you need to picture it; a different person, a different night, the same outcome.
“No!” you insist.
“Then what?”
You bite the bullet, and you say it. “Because you’re beautiful, Hyunjin. You’re perfect. You have a wonderful kid and a nice life that you’ve built for her and yourself after all of that shit you went through. You…you’re too good for me.”
Hyunjin recoils like he’s been slapped. “How can you think that?”
“I just look at your life, and I can’t possibly picture you moving things around just to fit me in,” you say.
“How can you think that there’s not already space for you?! Can’t you see that you’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long, long time?” he asks.
“Because I’m…” you struggle, “I’m boring, Hyunjin, I don’t know! I’m not worth changing for.”
“That’s bullshit,” he scoffs. “You’re letting my mother get to you, which is just what she wants.”
“Then I’m just not right for you,” you say, trying to ignore his comment about his mother and how absolutely right it is. “You have this cute little picturesque life, and I have my normal job and my hobbies and my family and friends and I would just…be in the way.”
“You’re not in the way now,” Hyunjin says.
“We’re not a serious couple now!”
“Why can’t you just let me like you?!”
He’s practically yelling now, keeping his distance and nearly folding in on himself as he looks at you with eyes that are far too shiny. It’s not the yelling that gets to you, but what he’s saying.
“Because it’s scary!” you yell back. “I don’t want to lose you, or your kid, but I know that-”
“I can show you,” he pleads.
He draws in a little closer, like he’s afraid he’s going to spook you. Against your stubborn brain’s protests, you reach out to thread your fingers with his.
You don’t want to lose him.
But as disgusting and cliché and self-deprecating as it is, you just can’t fathom someone like him wanting to be with someone like you.
Hyunjin leans more fully into your gentle grasp, pulls you right up close to him so that the two of you are toe to toe, there on the street outside the restaurant, as cars pass by and streetlights cast their dim yellow light over it all. He’s looking right into your eyes, expression firm and warm and so, so Hyunjin. You can feel your heart fluttering in your chest as you scan his face for nervousness or insincerity, and find none.
He’s looking at you the way he looks at Minnie when she falls asleep on the couch watching Frozen 2 for the millionth time. The way he looks at Judy when her back is turned in the café.
“I’ll show you that I mean it,” he says again, “I’ll be here for you. I’ll support you the way that you’ve supported us. I’ll love-”
He can’t get to the end of that sentence, because you wrench your free arm around his neck and pull him down to kiss you. He startles, lets go of your hand, and you freeze, thinking you’ve miscalculated the situation and gone too far. But he recovers quickly, wrapping both arms around your waist. He adjusts you so that you’re flush against him, and kisses back, harder.
His plush lips are wine-sour and soft, and he molds them against yours like he’s starving for it.
“My place,” he says, pulling back just the slightest bit so he can speak, “My place.”
“But-”
“Min is at Judy’s for the night,” he says, “Please.”
You want to. You want to so badly that your head is spinning, that your heart is beating out a rhythm against your ribcage. He’s here in front of you, wrapped up in you, so handsome and so unattainable…
Well. You think that Hyunjin is making a mistake. But if he’s gonna make it, you’re gonna enjoy every minute of it.
“Okay,” you breathe.
“Okay, or yes?” Hyunjin says, “I need a real yes.”
You hesitate. You decide. You say it.
“Yes.”
Just like that, he’s pulling you down the road to his car and opening the passenger’s side door for you. His place is across the city from here, so you settle in for what’s sure to be the most impatient car ride of your life. Anticipation drags out the minutes, as the energy between you grows so tense that you’re sure one of you is going to snap and start things up before you even get there.
But you’re spilling out onto the sidewalk in front of his building before you know it, Hyunjin’s hand on the small of your back, guiding you.
You’ve been to his place before, to meet him outside for dates, but you’ve never gone inside before. It’s a regular villa building, boxy and painted a demure white, and he leads you up the metal stairs to the third floor.
“I’m not trying to pressure you into anything,” Hyunjin says uncertainly, as he unlocks the door.
“I know,” you say, “I wouldn’t have come up if I didn’t want…well…”
Hyunjin grins his understanding, and you follow him into the apartment, taking his lead as he kicks off his shoes. You peek around when he flips on the lights.
His home looks about the way you’d expect: modest-sized and full of plain, sturdy furniture that looks like it could take a few hits. The décor is understated, intending to be an atmosphere of minimalist modernism, except that a girly, demanding preschooler definitely lives here. Drawings cover the fridge, the corkboard on the wall, the dining table with its one normal chair and one pink booster seat. Toys, hair accessories, and art supplies sit on shelves, in baskets, on end tables.
“It’s cute,” you say.
“Hm?”
Hyunjin pops his head out of the kitchen, now sans blazer, where he’s switching on more lights. He obviously has a just-gotten-home routine, and he’s not about to abandon it just because you’re here.
“This place. It’s cute,” you repeat. “It suits you.”
“It’s small,” he says with a shrug, tossing his blazer onto the back of the couch, “But we each have a bedroom and that’s really all that I can ask for. You ever shared a bedroom with a toddler? Not cool.”
“I’d like to see your room,” you tease, cringing at yourself instantly for making the dumbest of the dumb jokes.
But Hyunjin’s expression is just dangerously joyful, like he’s really taking it to heart.
“I’ll give you the grand tour,” he says.
“Sounds like you’re plotting.”
“I did tell you that I would prove it to you,” he says, drawing in close to you again, “How much I care about you.”
“The only way you know how to do that is with sex?” you ask playfully, “That’s sad. Maybe expand your vocabulary, first.”
He looks down at you, amused and just slightly frustrated. “Why can’t you make this easy for me?”
“Nothing with me is easy,” you say, “You should get used to that.”
“I dunno. You’re kind of easy to love.”
There he goes again, with that word. You can feel your cheeks burning, unable to process such casual affection from someone you like so much.
“Can I kiss you?” you ask.
“As much as you want,” he promises.
You slot yourself comfortably into his arms and lean up to kiss him. He’s got such ridiculous plush lips, soft and sliding against yours, and he holds you like you’re something precious. It’s an overwhelming amount of attention, but you let yourself bask in it.
“C’mon,” he says, “I’ll give you that tour.”
He winks, and then he releases you, walking across the small living space toward the doors on the far wall. Following him is second nature, at this point, and you pad after him.
“This is Min’s room,” he tells you.
He cracks the door on the right, so that you can see a peek of the pink explosion on the other side.
“She picked all her own décor,” he says.
“I’m starting to think that pink is just your favorite color, and you’re using the kid as an excuse,” you say.
“You’ll never get me to admit it,” he grins.
He opens the door on the left, and this room is soft woods and earth tones. Definitely an adult’s room, almost stark in its lack of personal effects. It’s dark except for city lights filtering between the open curtains, casting the room into a seductive kind of shadow. You follow him into the room, grinning to yourself.
“Bed looks comfy,” you say.
Hyunjin sits down on the edge of the bed, strong thighs in dress pants drawing your eye shamefully quickly, and fixes you with a look.
“Come find out,” he offers.
You can’t keep being so self-conscious about this. It’s Hyunjin, it’s only Hyunjin, your friend. One of your dearest friends. With his supermodel face, and his long blonde hair falling out of its ponytail in wisps around his cheekbones, and the outline of his cock against his thigh-
Fuck.
Something in you snaps. You climb into his lap, settling yours knees on either side of his hips, winding your arms around his neck to pull his mouth back against yours. He laughs into the kiss, his hands landing on your hips and pulling you down harder into him.
“See?” he says, voice low, “It’s not so hard to open up to me, is it?”
“I think you’re making a mistake,” you mutter.
“You’re so mean to yourself,” Hyunjin chides.
You cock an eyebrow at him. “I can be mean to you instead.”
He just laughs again, grinding his hips up into you briefly. You can feel him getting hard beneath you, distinct even through the layers of clothes that separate the two of you.
“Can this come off?” he asks, plucking at the collar of your nice silky blouse.
“Yeah.”
His answering smile is dark and satisfied, conniving in a way that makes your pulse jump. Hyunjin is so calm and sweet most of the time, cheerful in a way that suggests naivety. You almost worry about him, sometimes, worry that to other he’ll come across as just pretty and dim. Why are you getting the feeling that you’ve stumbled across a very different part of him, tonight?
“D’you know how long I’ve wanted to do this?” he asks, against your collarbone, as he unbuttons your blouse down your chest, down your stomach.
“How long?”
“Too long. Way too long.
He’s pushing your shirt off your shoulders before you know it, reaching around to unhook your bra. His hands are firm and certain, the stumbling hesitation that he’d shown while asking you out nowhere to be found. Here, apparently, he’s absolutely comfortable.
Your shirt and bra are discarded carelessly, and you’re surprised that you feel no shyness at all when Hyunjin cups your breasts in his hands and thumbs over your nipples.
“Knew you’d be pretty,” he says.
“Shut up,” you mumble.
He gives you another one of those feline grins.
“Watch it,” he warns.
Hyunjin hooks one arm around your back and flips the two of you over so that he’s on top, all but dragging you up to the middle of the bed. You’re sprawled on your back under him now, bouncing gently on the mattress with the force that he’d used to move you.
“You’re even prettier like this,” he smirks, “I like the slacks, by the way, very professional. I didn’t tell you that earlier.”
“Thanks,” you reply, breathing heavy, unsure how to handle this new Hyunjin and his blinding confidence.
“Can those come off, too?”
“What about your clothes?” you whine.
“We’ll get to that,” he promises.
He only needs one hand to unbutton, unzip, and tug your slacks down to your knees in one fluid motion, and he move aside so you can kick them off all the way.
“These are so you,” Hyunjin says.
You’re confused, until you look down yourself to see the panties you’d put on that morning: light blue with a pattern of tiny white running llamas. They’re not all that sexy, but they’re comfy, and it’s not like you’d explicitly planned on anyone seeing them, date or no date.
“I wasn’t expecting to get fucked tonight,” you say bluntly, “Give me a break.”
“Should have at least hoped for it,” he grins.
“I try to keep my expectations realistic.”
“You need to give yourself more credit,” Hyunjin says.
To punctuate it, he leans down over you fully, caging you in, and kisses you breathless again. He trails his mouth and hands down your front lazily, scraping his teeth against your hipbone where it peeks from the waistband of your underwear. He lets one long finger trace over your panties, across your covered pussy, and you can’t help how you twitch.
“Bet you’re fuckin’ delicious, too. Am I gonna get to taste?” he asks.
“Jesus Christ,” you groan.
The mouth on him…you’ve never had someone talk to you like this before, so tender and affectionate but also so obscene. It sends arousal pealing through you, the idea that he can be so into this, into you.
“Use your words,” he says, “Come on, can I taste you?”
“Yes,” you say, “God, Hyunjin…”
“Oh, I like how my name sounds, like that, listen to you,” he purrs.
He hooks his fingers into your waistband and pulls your panties off smoothly. Those are abandoned over the edge of the bed, too, and Hyunjin has his face between your legs seemingly as fast as he can.
“Tell me if anything doesn’t feel good,” he says, warm breath fanning over your inner thighs.
“I will,” you say, “Don’t worry.”
“Fuckin’ gorgeous,” he mutters, and he licks into you indulgently.
He’s got one hand bracing himself against your leg, one hand holding your folds open for him so he can dip his tongue into your opening, drag it slow across your clit.
“Fuck,” he says, and you swear you can feel the word against you, “Can’t wait to feel this sweet pussy around my dick.”
You moan. You can’t help it, can’t help the way you’re leaking your arousal against his tongue, the way his words and his gorgeous mouth are working you over. He pulls away from your core much too quickly, and he smiles when you whine.
“Just a taste, I said,” he placates.
He sits back on his heels between your legs to strip off his own clothes, but you haul yourself up to meet him.
“Let me do it,” you say.
“Be my guest.”
So it’s your turn to undo his buttons and give yourself an unencumbered look at his body for the first time. He’s slim, working muscle like a dancer, gorgeous skin under your hands. You kind of want to take your time, leave marks all over him and get to know every inch. But it does seem like he has an agenda tonight, as he impatiently shrugs off his shirt and undoes his own belt.
He rids himself of his pants and underwear quickly, and you really should have expected him to have a cock like THAT. He’s tall, and pretty, and of course, this part of him matches perfectly, long and thick and beautifully flushed.
“I’m clean,” you find yourself saying, “And on birth control, so if you want…we can…”
Hyunjin grins at you. “You just want me to fuck you raw.”
“I do,” you agree, “Fuck, I do.”
“I’m clean, too,” he tells you.
He nudges your legs apart to make room for him as he crawls back up your body, giving you a gentle playful shove so that you lay flat on your back for him again.
“Is that what you want? Want me to fill you up, just like this?”
He’s looming over you, propping himself up with his hands planted on either side of your head. You can feel the tip of his cock nudging between your folds.
“That’s what I want,” you agree desperately. “Please.”
You don’t know why you’re begging him like this. Are you that easy to break?
But you can’t bring yourself to care how ridiculous you sound, because Hyunjin rocks his hips forward to dip the head of his cock into you, and you keen.
“What do you want?” he asks, with a knowing smirk.
“You know exactly what!”
“I can’t give you anything unless you tell me,” he says.
“I want,” you struggle, “I want you to fill me up. Please.”
“That’s a good girl,” he praises gently.
He rewards you with another thrust, a little deeper, sending a fantastic thrill through your body but still nowhere near enough. He works himself into you slowly, just a bit at a time, pulling completely out in between just to be able to sink all the way back in.
After what seems like an eternity, he slides in completely, hips flush against yours. You squirm, needing him to do SOMETHING, after taking his sweet time to get to this point, but Hyunjin seems content to just sit like this for a moment.
“I was right,” he tells you, “Feels fuckin’ heavenly.”
“Move, please,” you beg.
“Be patient. Maybe I just want you to cockwarm me for the rest of the night,” he teases.
“I would go home,” you say.
He laughs. “Okay, okay, you got me, that’s not what I want.”
So slowly that you know he’s doing it on purpose to torture you, Hyunjin draws back and fucks into you, hard and deep. It coaxes a punched-out moan from your throat, already so strung out though you’ve just begun.
He’s stronger than you would have imagined, driving into you with those narrow dancer’s hips and leaning down to press kisses to your cheeks, your mouth, the sides of your throat. His hands roam like he wants to be touching all of you at once: kneading into your breast, smoothing back your hair, bending your legs up farther so he can fuck you deeper, better.
“Look how well you take me,” he says.
You do look. You crane your neck up to look down the narrow space between you, as Hyunjin props up his body above you, and you can just barely see his thick cock working into you, disappearing with an obscene squelch that leaves no question about how much you’re enjoying yourself.
“So messy,” he teases.
“’m not messy,” you mumble, feeling sex-stupid but indignant.
“No?” he grins, “Not dripping wet for me?”
You want to argue, but he’s right; you can feel exactly how wet you are for him. You can’t remember the last time someone had you so desperate, so ready and eager to take what you’re given. Hyunjin falls forward to let your bodies press together, covering you and pressing a kiss to the shell of your ear.
“Sweet girl,” Hyunjin murmurs, voice soft and fond and dangerous, “So good for me. So good with my kid. We could give her a sibling, you know.”
It sounds like something that just slipped out, the way that it’s so honest and the way that Hyunjin nearly gasps at himself. But your mind has gone one hundred percent completely blank. You let out a moan that’s mostly silent, as you let the implication of that wash over you.
You didn’t think you had a thing for, well…this.
But Hyunjin, looking at you like this, talking like this, honest and filthy, right in your ear. You know that it’s just dirty talk, that he doesn’t mean it, not right this instant. You both know that you’re on birth control. But the game of it, the idea of it…
“Yes,” you gasp, “Oh my God-”
“Oh, you REALLY like that,” he purrs, “I can feel you squeezing around me.”
“Hyunjin!” you moan.
“Is that what you want, baby? You just wanna be filled up with my cum, is that it?”
You can’t believe the words coming out of his mouth, and you doubly can’t believe how much you fucking love them, how you’re nodding and clawing your fingernails down his back at the picture he’s painting for you.
“Please,” you gasp, “I want – I want-”
Hyunjin draws up so that he can look into your eyes. “Baby wants me to give her a baby. Hm.”
Never in your life have you been brought right to the point of cumming just from someone’s words, but that’s exactly what’s happening. You can feel that perfect fuzzy electricity in your toes, building up. If you cum untouched, just from this, you’re gonna have some real soul-searching to do.
He seems to be at a similar place, fucking into you at a breakneck pace, still murmuring at you mindlessly.
“Want to fill up this sweet pussy, put a baby in you…Jesus fucking Christ, so good,” Hyunjin moans.
“Inside,” you agree, “Please – I need you, I just-”
As if he couldn’t be more perfect, Hyunjin slips his hand between you, presumably to bring you over the peak with him. The instant his finger presses against your clit, starts to rub a messy circle in the wetness spreading across your folds and your inner thighs, you cum.
You feel like screaming, but your voice is strangled, constricted with arousal, “Oh-”
“Fuck!” Hyunjin moans, like he’s agreeing with you.
One, two, three, four deep strokes, and Hyunjin bottoms out, pressing into you as he cums. Your hips buck into him on their own accord as he paints your walls with his cum, and you can’t help the newly-awakened corner of your mind that thinks about what could happen, if you weren’t on your birth control, if you did this again…
Goddamn. You really have some journaling to do later, or something.
“So perfect,” Hyunjin mutters, letting his head fall, burying his face in your shoulder, “So fucking perfect, how did I get so lucky?”
You’re the lucky one, you think to yourself. Your brain is simultaneously too full and too empty to say anything coherent, so you just lay there, wrap your limbs around Hyunjin as well as you can. He gets the message, you think, because he snuggles more firmly into you and turns his head to press a kiss to your jaw.
He’s warm, and kind of heavy, but you don’t want him to move, or to pull out of you. Just let this minute last a little longer, you think. Just a little longer, before you have to talk about what all of this means.
---------------
You only know you’ve fallen asleep when you wake up.
There’s a weight on your chest, pressing you into the mattress. For a second you think you have sleep paralysis, until you get a face-full of blonde hair and realize that it’s just Hyunjin, fast asleep on top of you.
“Get up,” you say, pushing on him gently, “And, ew, let me clean up.”
You can feel his cum drying on the inside of your thighs, where it trickled out around his softened cock while you slept. It’s kind of nasty, but the memory of all the hazy lust-filled things you said to each other makes you not mind so much.
Hyunjin yawns audibly, right next to your head, and then he peels himself off you.
“Sorry,” he grins. “Are your arms asleep?”
“No. Doesn’t your neck hurt from laying like that?”
He presses a smacking kiss to your forehead. “No. You’re a good pillow.”
Hyunjin pulls out of you and climbs gingerly off the bed. You squint around the room until your eyes find a glowing digital clock on his bedside; it’s only just past midnight.
“Shower and then sleep?” Hyunjin offers.
“Sounds good.”
He helps you to your feet, laughing as your knees threaten to buckle despite the cooldown period you’ve had.
“I hope I didn’t cross any lines,” he says tentatively, “I took a risk with all that baby talk and-”
“I liked it,” you admit, shy.
“Really?”
You nod. “I mean, we shouldn’t do anything stupid. Not right now. But just to play with, in the bedroom…”
Grinning, you fan yourself dramatically with your hand, like you’re a proper lady being overwhelmed with the saucy behavior of your male paramour.
Hyunjin laughs again. “Good to know.”
He shows you across the hall to the bathroom, men’s hair and skin and shaving products lined up next to rainbow-packaged kiddie shampoo and a small bin full of bath toys. As the shower is warming up, steam and the sound of rushing water filling the bathroom, he nudges you with his elbow.
“I knew all along that you were just into me because I have a kid,” he says.
You consider it, as you pull back the shower curtain and test the water. It’s warm, so you draw the curtain fully back and step under the spray. Peeking out at him, water starting to run down your back and warm your skin the way that Hyunjin’s presence warms you on the inside, you smile.
“Guess you’re just a DILF.” 
💕💕💕💕
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shemarmooresfedora · 3 years
Text
Rebuilding Family
Summary: Y/N and Spencer were college sweethearts at Cal-Tech but once Spencer got accepted to the FBI Academy, he ended things deciding it was not fair to make Y/N wait for him. When they meet again years later, he discovers something unexpected.
Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader
A/N: hello, my loves! i am a senior in high school so the next two weeks are going to be extremely hectic for me with final exams and other senior stuff. i will try to get out chapters when i can but they may not always be on time!
Masterlist
Chapter 30
You returned home to see Spencer at the kitchen table with his laptop out and a bunch of papers sprawled out in front of him.
“What’s all this?” you asked.
“So you know how we were discussing moving into a slightly bigger house to have room for the twins,” Spencer said, “I found us a realtor and I have been printing out different houses that fit our requirements all day. You can go through them and I’ll send the approved ones over to her so she can schedule us a tour.”
“Alright, let’s see them,” you smiled, taking the seat next to him.
His hand immediately found its way to your belly and began his rubbing motions.
“This one is close to Jo's elementary school but she will only be there for 2 more years but the twins will be going there eventually. It’s just a little bit of a bigger yard than we have here. But, it’s pretty far away from your work,” Spencer stated.
He continued to go through the contenders, thoroughly explaining every pro and con that you wouldn’t even have thought of.
“This last one has the biggest backyard of them all. It’s about 8 minutes closer to your work than here. It’s even got a little sun room we can use as a book nook! It is farther from Jo’s school but it’s about a 3 minute drive to JJ and Will’s so we could start a carpool with them,” Spencer spoke.
“I think that one is my favorite as of now. And, I’m sure Jo wouldn’t have any arguments about being closer to her best friend,” you giggled.
“There’s also one more thing we need to brainstorm,” you began, “Names for the little ones. I honestly spent the better part of the day trying to think of some but I just can’t.”
“I have an idea,” Spencer smiled softly, “Ophelia.”
It was Spencer’s favorite song on your playlist that you played in the car. He even sang along to it sometimes, he actually had a nice voice when he wholeheartedly sang without caring about potentially embarrassing himself.
“Heaven help a fool who falls in love,” you grinned, finishing the lyric.
“I’m stuck on a boy name though,” Spencer huffed.
Jo came strolling into the kitchen to get her afternoon snack.
“Baby J, do you have any name suggestions for your little brother?” you asked.
Her face lit up and she ran back upstairs. She came racing back down with two books in her hand.
“Daddy, remember?” she held up a picture book.
“That’s the story I read you last night,” Spencer nodded.
“Name him ‘Oliver’ like the little baby elephant in the book!” she exclaimed.
“I actually love it,” you grinned.
“Ollie for short,” Spencer added with a smile.
“And for sister, Pinkalicious!” Jo beamed, holding up the other picture book.
“Aw, baby, I’m sorry. I think we already decided on ‘Ophelia’ for sister but we’ll keep that in the back of our minds,” you told her, giving her a pat on the head before she went back upstairs.
“I don’t know Spencer, Pinkalicious Y/L/N-Reid has quite the ring to it,” you giggled.
-
Your maternity leave had officially begun the week before you were due. You were lounging on the couch watching a nature documentary with Jo when you felt the sudden urge to use the bathroom.
As you stood, you felt the rushing of warm water trail down your thighs, effectively soaking your leggings, followed by a searing cramping sensation.
You immediately sat down on the hardwood floor, cringing in pain and exhaling sharply.
“Jo,” you breathed out, “I need you to call Daddy and tell him the twins are coming and get me a towel please.”
“Okay, Mommy,” Jo nodded, hopping off the couch and grabbing your phone.
She pressed Spencer’s contact as she ran upstairs to get you a towel.
Spencer was in the checkout line at the grocery store when his phone started to buzz in his pocket.
He fished it out, seeing your contact pop up, “Hey, love. I’m already in line but if you need something, make it quick so I can go run and get it.”
“Daddy! It’s Jo,” Jo announced from the other side of the phone.
“Hi, Princess. Is everything okay?” Spencer asked.
“Mommy peed a lot,” she started to say.
Spencer then heard your scream of pain in the background.
“And she said the twins are coming,” Jo stated.
“Uh-um-okay Jo, tell Mommy I’ll be there in 10 minutes. And um call Auntie JJ to come pick you up,” Spencer frantically spoke.
“Next,” the cashier called out.
“Um hi, I just got a call that my wife is going into labor so I have to go. I’m so sorry.”
The cashier smiled, “No problem. I think your wife needs you a lot more right now than these groceries.”
“Thank you,” Spencer rushed out of the store, breaking every speed limit on the way home.
JJ was pulling into the driveway at the same time Spencer was.
“Oh good, Jo called you,” Spencer said, exiting his car, “Thank you for taking her.”
“It’s no problem. She can stay with us for as long as you need,” JJ replied as they both rushed into the house.
You were still on the ground, sitting on the towel Jo retrieved for you.
“Spence, it hurts so bad like really really bad. Worse than Jo,” you grabbed his hand with tears running down your face.
“I’m so sorry, love, that I can’t take some of that pain away but we’ve got to get you to the hospital with doctors and nurses who can help,” he spoke softly, wiping the tears from your eyes with his thumbs.
You nodded and Spencer held out his arm for you to grab on to so he could help you up.
“Hospital bag?” you questioned.
“Already in the car, love. You’re doing so good, look we’re almost at the car,” he encouraged you.
“I’m going to ruin your seat,” you huffed out, motioning to your soggy pants.
“Love, that is the furthest of my concerns right now,” he assured you, helping you into the car and buckling you in.
-
“My wife’s in labor!” Spencer announced as he helped you hobble into the ER.
Immediately, a nurse rolled a wheelchair over to you.
“I called in the car. Dr. Collins is supposed to be on call,” Spencer said.
“Yes, right this way,” the nurse guided you to a room in the delivery wing where Dr. Collins was already waiting.
“Ah, the Reids! I guess the babies decided to come out a week early,” she smiled as Spencer and the nurse helped you into the bed.
“I’m going to check to see how many centimeters dilated you are. You can start pushing at 10,” she stated, “...and you are somehow already there. These babies are very eager to meet their parents!”
“I’m going to check the ultrasound real quick,” Dr. Collins rolled the machine over to you and scanned the wand across your belly.
“So unfortunately, we aren’t going to be able to have a vaginal birth today like planned. The baby girl is ready to come out first but she is in breech position meaning she is flipped the opposite way we want her. We’re going to bring you up to the OR for a C-section, okay?”
You looked at Spencer panickedly.
“Scared, Spence” is all you could muster.
“I can be in there with her, right?” Spencer asked.
“That is correct,�� Dr. Collins nodded.
“Love, you are the strongest and bravest person I know. You can do this,” Spencer brushed your stray hairs back, “I will be right by your side the whole time and then you can finally have Ophelia and Oliver in your arms.”
“Okay,” you nodded, wincing as another contraction intensified.
“I love you so much,” Spencer kissed the top of your head as they wheeled you up to the OR.
The nurse handed Spencer scrubs to put on over his normal clothes, “Love, I need to let go of your hand for just a second to put these on but then I’ll be right back.”
Spencer continued to give you words of encouragement and promises of all the things you were going to do together as a family with the new babies to distract you from the discomfort throughout the c-section.
When you heard the first cry, you started to get choked up.
“Oh god, she’s so beautiful, Y/N. We made that,” Spencer sobbed.
You squeezed his hand, “Go.”
“Are you sure?” Spencer asked.
“Ophelia is crying for her Daddy,” you smiled through happy tears.
Spencer stood and was out of your line of vision but you could still hear his occasional sobs and him calling out the weight and other things to you from across the room.
You heard the second distinct cry. You could already tell your babies apart from just their wails alone.
“Ollie’s here, love!” Spencer bawled, “He’s just as precious as Ophelia.”
You were stitched up and brought into the recovery room as the babies were measured, tested, and swaddled. Spencer rolled two bassinets into your room with the biggest smile on his face and watery eyes.
“I can’t believe they’re here,” you wept, “How are they so cute?”
Spencer gently lifted up Ollie and placed him into your left arm and then Ophelia in your right.
You held the cooing babies in your arms, looking down at them in complete awe.
“Spence, can you take one of them?” you asked, “I mean I would love to hold them both forever but I’m thoroughly exhausted.”
“Ollie seems to be on the same page,” Spencer smiled at the little boy snoozing in your arms, “I’ll take Ophelia for a little walk and make some phone calls to our families and the team.”
Sleeping didn’t seem to be on Ophelia’s schedule as she was staring around the room with her big wide eyes, trying to take in the whole world.
“Ophelia, that’s your Dada,” you explained to her even though you knew she couldn’t understand.
“Yes, I’m your Dada,” Spencer beamed as he accepted the baby into his arms.
taglist: (just ask to be added or removed!): @samuel-de-champagne-problems @g0lden-cth @spencerreid9 @averyhotchner @coldlilheart @k-k0129 @ickleronniekinsemotionalrange @harrystylesandthegoobs @cmily @rem-ariiana
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ghost-of-you · 2 years
Text
saw ur mom at the grocery store - ch
Tumblr media
Paring: Calum Hood x Original Female Character.
Warnings: General angst and drinking
Word Count: 3k
Authors note: who am I writing a one shot that stays a one shot???? Anyway, this is based on the song saw ur mom at the grocery store by Abby Cates (youtube spotify). I listened to it and I couldn't get this concept out of my head. It's pretty much drunk dialing Calum (the ex) after running into his mom lol. Shout out to @villainorigincal for reading it over for me, ily Blanca 💜💜💜💜. Oh, Italics are flashback because I guess that's my brand in writing oaskdoaksoaks
My Masterlist
_______
Erin is too distracted by both the podcast blasting in her ears and the quest she has given herself of finding the correct ice cream flavor to be aware of her surroundings. So she doesn't notice the woman eyeing her nor her slowly approaching, gently touching her arm to get her attention until she's right there. She tries not to look too startled as she pulls her headphones down as she's suddenly faced with the last person she'd thought she'd run into in the stupid supermarket.
"Joy!" Erin greets, the need to be polite taking over, as she ignores the fact that she wants the ground to swallow her whole.
"Erin, sweetie, I thought it was you," Joy smiles kindly, probably completely unaware of how much seeing that smile hurt. She looks so much like Calum at that moment, same eyes, same smile. Maybe the correct thought would be that Calum looks so much like her. Erin hadn't allowed herself to think about him in months, not that it really matters, he's tangled in a mess of feelings that tugged her all around. Anger. Sadness. Hope. But right now, looking at the woman who has eyes the exact same shade of brown as his, it feels like she grabbed the love thread and yanked it to the forefront of her mind. "How have you been?"
"I'm great," Erin lies, "I've been really busy." That part is true. How else do you get over the love of your life walking away from you after two years if not by burying yourself into mountains of distractions so you don't have to think about it? It's definitely not healthy, but it was the only way she could cope. "How are you?"
"I'm great! I'm happy I finally got to visit again," she continues to smile and Erin can't help the smile on her face.
"I bet he's happy you're here," she says, almost without thinking. She used to tease Calum all the time about how much of a momma's boy he is but she loves that about him. Wait, turn around, she can't let herself think about him. Or talk about him. "How's-" she clears her throat, "how's Mali?"
"She's good, Calum too, really busy, so I'm just making sure he has everything he needs at home," she motions at the full cart she's pushing around. The smile in Erin's face gets harder to maintain when she hears his name, and she can't think of what to say, but Joy seems to completely miss that, "I'm gonna finish this and let you get back to your shopping. But it was great to see you, I've missed you, I wish we got to see you more," she adds, and Erin nods.
"Yeah, I missed you too, I'm happy I got to see you," she says, trying to ignore how her chest feels like it's about to split in half. They bid their goodbyes and Erin is left staring at the freezer beside her.
"Yeah, there's no way ice cream will be enough today," she mumbles to herself, grabbing the carton and moving blindly around the aisles. She contemplates a bottle of wine before shaking her head and reaching for the vodka on the shelf beside it.
She goes through checkout in a haze, trying not to think too hard about anything and it isn't until she closes the door to her car, left alone in the silence, that she lets her thoughts flow back to Calum.
Maybe let it's the wrong word. She can't get in the car without thinking of him, the empty space in the dashboard that used to hold her radio screaming at her about him just as much as the empty passenger seat. She remembers pulling at a stop and basically clawing the radio out of the car the first time one of his songs came on while she was driving after the breakup and she didn't have the heart to get a new one. Music is so tied to him, she can't listen to it anymore. It was nearly impossible to not let the memories drown her when any song was playing.
Erin's gaze kept moving from the road to Calum, the windows down, the road speeding by them, the wind blowing through her hair, and Calum's voice harmonizing with the radio making her sure there would never be somewhere where she would ever feel happier.
His hand was resting in her thigh, his fingers tapping to the beat and he was singing melody, harmonies, and instruments making her laugh while badly following, too distracted by him to put any effort into sounding good. When the song ended he leaned closer to her, whispering “I love you” and kissing her cheek. At that moment she couldn’t imagine loving anyone more.
She tries to ignore the empty space next to her, focusing on streets that blend together as the memories continue to try and take over as she fights the urge to start screaming. I don’t miss him. I don’t miss him. I don’t miss him. She chants to herself, halfheartedly hoping if she repeats it enough it will eventually stop being a lie.
Walking into her house is just as hard, the ghost of him standing by the front door, sleeping on the couch, walking through the halls, making the place feel haunted. She drops her bags by the counter, moving to get a mug and a spoon, before popping the ice cream open, scooping it to the mug before pouring a few shots on top of it, sitting down by the counter while mixing the mess in her hands.
There was flour everywhere. There was enough flour floating around that even the top of Calum’s hair had a thin white layer over it.
“Baby, you’re making a mess,” she laughed as she walked into the kitchen, leaning against the doorway to look at him.
“No, I’m making you breakfast,” he said, pointing at her with the whisk in his hand.
“Those statements are not mutually exclusive,” she teased, moving closer to him, wrapping her arms around his middle and leaning against his back, her head on his arm.
“It’s just a little flour,” he said, turning to kiss the top of her head, making her chuckle.
“A little?” She said, kissing his shoulder and moving to his side, rolling the sleeves of the hoodie, Calum’s hoodie, she was wearing, “how can I help?” She asked and he gave a grin.
“I’ve got it covered.”
“Yeah, in flour,” she laughed and he pouted, dipping his finger into the batter and splattering it across her nose.
She’s definitely in for a bad night, she thinks as she moves blindly around the house. She had tried meditation in the days when her mind was too loud to exist in but at the moment the silence was too deafening. Maybe that’s why she ends up sitting on the floor of her closet, after pushing boxes around until she finds the right one, the one with everything he left behind, the almost empty mug beside her as she stares at the framed picture in her hands.
“Can you just stop moving, please?” Erin pouted, turning to look up at Calum through her lashes, hoping he would just indulge her for once.
“Why?” He sounded annoyed, but he was looking fondly at her.
“I want pictures,” she complained and he chuckled.
“You have pictures.”
“I have pictures of you, I want pictures with you, so I don’t look like a crazy fan or whatever.”
“Fans get pictures with us too,” he shrugged and she groaned.
“I hate you.”
“You love me,” he teased, pulling her phone out of her hands, and her against his chest, kissing her cheek while taking a picture.
Looking at the photo she honestly can’t figure out how they got to where they are. How did they get there? How did they get to screaming in the middle of the night and him walking out the door without ever looking back? Also, how did she manage to go this long without reaching out to him? She can’t think of anything she wants more right now than to just hear his voice. She carefully puts the picture back in the box, the lid on top of it, and hides it again between her shoes, before standing up and pulling her phone out of her pocket.
The phone app is taunting her and so is the little bubble with Calum’s picture, while she moves around her room, her finger hovering over the call button.
She slides to the floor, her back against a wall and she just closes her eyes and hits call before she can lose the courage to do it.
“Hey, I can’t answer right now, but leave a message… or don’t, I can’t tell you what to do…” his voicemail greets her as she mutters “This is so stupid,” before the beep happens and she just sighs into the line.
“I saw your mum today," she starts, picking at a loose thread in her pants, "I don’t know if she told you, but yeah, I saw her and… I don’t know. She asked me how I was and I lied. I said I was great. Hell, I asked about your sister even though I was about to have a breakdown in the frozen section of the supermarket,” she pauses, chuckling to herself, “‘Cause, what else could I do? Tell her I have no idea how to exist in the world after you?” She runs her hand through her hair, still shorter than she was used to, “I cut my hair," she blurts out when her fingers reach her ends, and that just makes her want to list the things she's done in silly attempts to not think of him, "I don’t listen to music anymore, I… I got a new job, I tried meditation," she rolls her eyes, "and that’s funny ‘cause when that didn’t work I thought about asking Ash for some pointers before I remembered he’s also not talking to me. How long has it been now? Five? Six months? And I still have no idea who I am without you.”
The music was loud and Erin’s heels were not helping her navigate this place, the people and the mess making her sure she was going to fall at any minute. Which happened a few moments after and she would’ve felt the irony if someone didn’t catch her and if when she’d looked up to thank them all thoughts hadn’t been replaced by the stranger's face. He looked familiar but she knew if she’d ever met him before, she’d remember, the tan skin, beautiful brown eyes, bright smile. He was gorgeous and he was looking at her in a way that made her cheeks heat up, her heart speed up and her skin was tingling where he was still touching her.
“I don’t know why called… Actually, that’s a lie. I called because I miss you. I’m sorry about that, I’m sure you don’t wanna be thinking about me, but I didn’t have the strength to not call anymore.” She sighs, dropping her head to her free hand, “‘cause guess what? Apparently, I’m not over you and all it takes for me to break is your mum being nice to me,” she laughs to herself, feeling the irony of the situation, “she has your eyes, actually, I guess you have her eyes, but I bet you know what I mean,” she rubs her eyes, before looking up at the ceiling, her head hitting the wall with a soft thud.
The clock in the microwave was blinking 2:58 am and it was the only source of light in the room, along with the glare from the street light coming through the window. She doesn’t know how the night turned into a fight. But lately, fighting seemed to be all they did. Her boss was pushing her too hard and tour prep was draining him, making both of them tick-timing bombs, ready to go off at any minute.
“I can’t do this anymore!” Calum screamed, knocking the air out of her lungs.
“What do you mean?” She asked, her voice suddenly too small.
“I’m not doing this anymore,” his voice was calm and clear, “it’s over.”
His words sank in slowly, and she stood motionless in the kitchen while he gathered his stuff. Her feet seemed to start working again when he walked down the stairs, and she followed him, speechless, unable to ask him to stay as he disappeared out the door without a single glance back at her.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea what to do. I guess I thought hearing your voice would change something. But nah… Still love you. Still miss you,” she finally admits, chewing on her bottom lip, but the weight in her chest is still there, “I’m gonna hang up now, you can ignore this if you want. I don’t even know if you’re going to listen to it, but, yeah," she clears her throat, "goodbye Calum.”
The phone slides from her hand down to the floor after she hangs up, and she hugs her knees to her chest, dropping her head and muffling her screams against her arm. What the hell did she just do? She shouldn’t be allowed to have a phone. Actually, maybe she shouldn’t be allowed to have alcohol.
She moves down to the kitchen, abandoning the mug in the sink, keeping the spoon in her hand as she takes the ice cream carton out of the freezer, abandoning the lid next to the bottle of vodka she decides to ignore, and moving to sit in the living room. Maybe she could distract herself enough so she would stop cringing to herself.
Calum was absentmindedly tracing patterns up and down Erin’s arm, their legs tangled together, her head resting on his arm, a movie she’s not paying any attention to playing on the tv while they cuddled on the couch. He kissed the top of her head and something clicked in her brain. She smiled to herself before turning so she could face him. He kissed the tip of her nose when she did and she giggled.
“Cal?” She whispered and he hummed a yes locking eyes with her. “I love you.”
The words were barely out of her lips before his lips collided with hers and he was kissing her with such intensity it was hard to breathe.
“I love you,” he said, smiling against her lips, before kissing her again.
The spoon is caught between her teeth, a blanket around her, the Netflix app on the tv while she tries to find something she wants to watch when she hears the doorbell ringing. She lets the spoon fall off her mouth, throwing the remote and the ice cream carton into the coffee table, tightening the blanket around her before moving to answer the door. She has no idea what to expect, it’s late and she doesn’t remember ordering anything, so when she opens the door she’s convinced she’s hallucinating.
“You called me,” Calum says, the second the door is out of the way, but Erin is too stunned by his presence to not stare at him. His hair is messy, he’s wearing sweatpants and an undershirt, his car keys in one hand, his phone, that he’s shaking as he speaks to get her to look at it, in the other, eyes staring intently at her.
“I’m aware,” she says, slowly, blinking at him as if she is waiting for him to disappear, “you wanna come in?” She asks, feeling weird standing by the door, moving back out of the way when he nods. She closes the door behind her, adjusting the blanket around her shoulders as she looks at him.
“Did you mean it?” He asks, anxious eyes, still holding his phone as if it would somehow vanish, and she frowns at him.
“I said a lot of stuff, I need you to be more specific,” she chuckles, awkwardly, and he steps closer to her, invading her space and stealing her breath away.
“Do you still love me?” He asks, studying her and she opens and closes her mouth a few times. What answer does he want? She considers lying, but his eyes on her make it hard for her to think of anything to say other than. “Yes,” she breathes, and his face softens in relief, his hands moving to cup her face.
“Thank God,” he whispers, before crashing his lips to hers. She kisses him back, the blanket falling off her shoulders as she grabs hold of his shirt. Her heartbeat is ringing in her ears, and she’s convinced she’s going to wake up at any minute. It feels like a dream, his heart pounding against her hand while his lips move on hers.
“Wait,” she pulls back, and he looks breathless at her while she pinches herself.
“What’s wrong?” He asks, anxiety coming back to his eyes, and she pinches herself again, “what are you doing?”
“I’m just making sure I’m not dreaming,” she laughs, and he tilts his head, eyes soft, “what are you doing?”
“I was kissing you,” he chuckles and she shakes her head, opening and closing her mouth.
“Why?” She asks, frowning at him.
“Because I love you,” he says, voice calm and clear, and she can feel her heart swell as she looks at him, a smile fighting its way onto her lips.
“You do?”
“I do,” he nods, and she nods back, pursing her lips.
“Does that mean you won’t walk out just because you’re frustrated again?” She asks, staring up at him.
“I’m sorry I did that,” he says, running a hand through his hair.
“I’m sorry I picked a fight in the middle of the night,” she says, apologetically and he chuckles slightly.
“I’m sorry I let you, and then left.”
“Maybe in the next fight, we can just…”
“Talk?”
“Yeah,” she chuckles as he moves closer to her, hands on her waist pulling her in.
“Sounds like a plan," he agrees, grinning at her.
“Okay, you can kiss me again.”
________
taglist: @mytlrh
25 notes · View notes
luvrgirl555 · 4 years
Text
she looks like you -- S.R.
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spencer reid x fem!reader
requested (x) not ()
request: Could you possibly write something about Spencer leaving the reader a couple years ago and him running into her with a little girl that looks just like him and lots of fighting and then fluff ??
warnings: swearing
gif credit: @lead-the-fight
word count: 1.1k
an: thank you for reading!! pls leave comments/reblogs and my requests are open <3 love u guys
check out my masterlist!
it was late.
especially late for a little girl to be out and about, but after working two jobs during the day this was the only time of day you could manage to go to the grocery store.
you were still in your tiny skirt.
the uniform from the bar and restaurant where you waitressed at night, and you could tell that the other people shopping were judging you.
they weren’t trying to stare but you could feel it.
maybe it was the fact that you looked so young and had a small child, or maybe it was the skirt.
either way, you just pushed the cart quickly up and down the aisles, desperate to get home and get to bed.
only to do the same thing tomorrow.
life was monotonous and cold.
even though you had your daughter, your greatest love, your Emma. you couldn’t shake the sadness from your soul. 
you were still young.
god, shouldn’t you be out? doing something? 
maybe it wouldn’t have had to be this way if you hadn’t gotten pregnant so young and so reckless in university. 
“you had so much potential”
was that all you were to everyone around you? wasted potential?
“it was such a good university”
it was good. good enough to meet the most intelligent man you’ve met still.
“you’ve never been one to screw around before”
that one made you the angriest. it wasn’t just screwing around to you, and you knew it wasn’t to him either. 
it was love that brought and kept you together. 
then it was love that let you let him go.
emma stirred in the cart as you made a hasty turn down the coffee aisle. 
“mama,” you heard her whine and you looked down to see her little hands trying to shove the brown curls away from her eyes. 
you gently tucked the small tufts behind her ears and let her hold your hand while you searched for the coffee you wanted. you couldn’t see it anywhere so you pushed the cart up the aisle without looking ahead of you and stopped when you felt a small crash.
“oh my god,” you huffed and immediately started to apologize to the man before you looked up and noticed who it was.
“y/n,” he breathed and you made direct contact with the same pair of warm brown eyes that you knew you could never forget.
“spencer,” your eyes close for a moment, trying to quickly process everything. 
“i haven’t,” he clears his throat, “i haven’t seen you in a long time.”
you can barely hear him over the beeping of the checkout stands. your mind tries to focus on the background noise, desperately trying to protect itself from the floodgates opening. trying to stop all the memories you pushed away to come running back and stop your body from instinctively heading towards his.
“yeah,” is all you can manage to say. 
“you live in DC now?” he asks. everything about the way he’s talking to you feels fragile.
“yeah, and i’m assuming you do too,” you sigh.
“still at the FBI,” you can tell how proud he is of himself. he’s trying to stop himself from beaming when he says FBI.
your lips slightly turn up at the idea of seeing him with a smile. 
“that was the job you had to run off to?” 
“yeah,” he looks down sadly, “i never got to apologize for that.” 
“i forgave you,” you immediately reply and you feel a little tug on your arm. someone was tired.
he smiled a little, but you know he had yet to forgive himself.
“who’s this?” he asks and your mouth runs dry.
“her name is emma.” 
he seems a bit frightened by her. “did you know that emma is originally a short form of germanic names that began with the element ermen meaning whole or universal?” 
you want to laugh but the pit in your stomach won’t even let you move.
“It was the third most popular baby girl name in 1880 behind Mary and Anna,” he continues and you feel like you might be sick. “it became the most popular in 1980 and then again in,” he gets cut off by you saying,
“she’s 18 months.” 
god, you might pass out. 
“what?”
for a genius, he sure can miss social cues.
“she’s 18 months old, spencer,” you speak more forcefully. 
he gulps and looks down, shoving his hands in his pockets. 
“if she -” his face folds like it always has when he’s thinking hard, “if she was born on her due date then she...” his hands cover his face and it looks like he’s rubbing his eyes.
“spence..” you try to speak. 
“what the fuck?” he speaks so instinctively, “how could you not tell me about this?”
“how could i?” you don’t mean to raise your voice. it just happens when you get defensive.
“yes, y/n, how could you? i have a fucking -” he begins to yell back, “a fucking child!”
“you were the one who ran away to your big new job away from school,” you shoot back. 
“you could have called! jesus christ, did you think i wouldn’t care, y/n?” 
you can’t even feel the tears running down your face because you’re so angry.
maybe you hadn’t really forgiven him.
“you didn’t even say goodbye to me, spencer! how the hell was i supposed to know that calling you would even be an option?” 
he pinches the bridge of his nose as you bury your head in your hands.
“were you ever going to try?” he asks. you know he’s trying to keep his voice calm.
“try?”
“to tell me?”
“if she ever would have asked, yeah,” you shrug and hug your arms over yourself. “i’m sorry -” you tried to start but he cut you off.
“i could feel myself falling in love with you.”
you were taken aback.
“that’s why i ran away from you. that’s why i left and i am so sorry,” he apologized which made you nod. 
your eyes wandered to your little girl. she was yawning in the cart and bouncing on her little bum. you unbuckled her seat belt and lifted her out gently. she clung onto your shirt with her little hands and didn’t look in spencer’s direction.
“can you say hi?” you whispered and planted a soft kiss on her head.
she rested her head on your chest and put out her fist shaking it around.
“that’s how she says hi,” you explained as he watched her eyes get covered by her hair.
tenderly he reached his hand out to tuck it behind her ear.
“i wave too,” he whispers. 
“she looks like you,” you say simply.
“really?”
“yeah,” you laugh, “you can’t see it?”
“i guess,” he sniffles.
suddenly the world didn’t feel cold and monotonous anymore.
“since i have, um,” he struggled to get his sentence out, “since i have coffee now. would you like to come over sometime to have a cup?”
“we would love to.” 
964 notes · View notes
so-writing · 3 years
Text
Sugar, Honey, Ice and Tea - Matthew Tkachuk (10)
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I posted a different part 10 a few days ago and hated it so I got rid of it and started over. This feels better, minimal editing though because I suck but you knew that, Enjoy!
all parts in the master list
--
The surge of confidence that had you messaging Brady Tkachuk on Instagram failed to remember what the bio section of your instagram read.
Your name.
Flames over everything,
Calgary or bust.
Of course he didn’t respond to your message, of course he told Matthew about it and, of course you had to deal with the wrath of the oldest Tkachuk.
You allowed yourself to sleep in late on the first day off you’d had in a while. Fully waking up at close to noon felt great, until you unlocked your phone.
You hit up my little brother? My brother? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me
Wake up and take responsibility asshole
You’re a fucking piece of shit
It probably pretty stupid of you to message Brady, knowing that Matthew would eventually find out at some point but this was just a little bit too aggressive for doing something as innocent as sliding into a stranger’s dms.
Having dealt with Matthew’s bullshit for far too many days in a row, you decided to ignore his messages. You searched for Brady’s name and sent another message, purely to fuck with Matthew.
Big brother is mad, gonna have to start DMing you even harder now!
That message got a response only a few minutes later, he really dislikes you that much, huh? Whatever you’re doing, keep that shit up.
You chuckled at his response before dropping your phone on the bedside table and heading for the shower to get your day started. 
++
Grocery shopping was the absolute bane of your existence. Children running wild, people standing in the middle of the aisle as they debated their choice of cereal entirely too long and people not knowing how to use the self checkout were only a few of the reasons why you started getting your groceries delivered years ago but it wasn’t an option today. 
Today you were going to have to venture into one of your versions of hell because there was no immediate availability for delivery you and needed to replenish your refrigerator. It was still pretty early and the parking lot was looking sparse so you felt slightly confident that the trip wouldn’t be too bad as you made your way inside with your list and grabbed a basket. 
It was going to be a quick trip, you were only there to get the essentials that would you get you through the day and you would place your bigger order for delivery for tomorrow. 
As you made your way toward the fruit and vegetable outer aisle, you caught sight of red curls and when you confirmed your suspicion, your stomach jumped into your throat.
He was the last person you wanted to see on your day off, but here he was, fucking Matthew Tkachuk was at the same grocery store at the same damn time you were and clearly he was also there to get the same fucking fruit—strawberries—you wanted too. 
You watched him as his eyes surveyed the plastic cartons, occasionally he’d pick one up and examine it before putting it back with the rest, and fuck, he was taking forever. 
“Jesus Christ, they’re all basically the fucking same, just grab a box and go.” 
Surprise lit up his features until he looked in your direction and realized who was talking to him and that surprised look grew into annoyance. 
“Shut up.”
“Fine, I’m not in the mood to deal with you anyway.”
You hurried over and stood right beside him, making sure to elbow him in the arm as you grabbed a carton of strawberries and threw it in your basket.
“There’s a bunch of mold on those but enjoy that I guess.” 
He didn’t look at you, continuing his seemingly endless quest to find the perfect bunch of berries. 
Thoroughly annoyed, you checked the box yourself and realized that he was right, there was a decent amount of mold on the fruit in the bottom left corner of the box. 
You had no idea what came over you or why you did what you did.
But you did it.
“Whatever, I don’t need them anyway,” you spat as you chucked the carton at Matthew as hard as you could. 
He wasn’t facing you and it hit him in the shoulder and neck area but the flimsy plastic broke and the box opened, sending strawberries flying everywhere. Some hit the side of his face, but most of them landed on the floor and also broke open, making quite a mess. 
“Holy shit,” you whispered in shock at your own actions, “holy shit.” 
“What the fuck?! Where the fuck are you going?!” 
You dropped your basket on the ground and speed walked away from him, toward the exit, as quickly as you could. It felt like you didn’t take a breath until you were out of the grocery store and in your car, slowly turning on the ignition and backing out of your parking spot with nothing in hand. 
*
He looked fucking ridiculous and he knew it. 
She had fucking bolted after pelting a carton of strawberries at his face and now he was alone with a mess. People were avoiding eye contact and he was standing there like a stupid fucking idiot with strawberry juice dripping down his cheek. 
“Sir,” an employee approached him, “are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just,” he wiped his cheek, “i’m fine.”
“Some other customers reported it, and she was gone by the time we realized what happened. Your groceries are on us today, for the inconvenience.”
“Not your fault or your problem, I’m happy to pay for my stuff. I just kind of want to walk away from this,” he motioned to the mess around him.
“Of course, finish your shopping trip, we’ll clean this up.” 
“Thank you.” 
What the fuck just happened? It was supposed to be an easy day off. All he needed was a single carton of fucking strawberries.
*
Not cool, hated one. Wish I would’ve seen it, it was probably funny as hell
The text was from a number you didn’t realize but you had a feeling who the sender might be. 
It was, you responded, you probably shouldn’t be fraternizing with the enemy though, he’d hate that.
Who cares? This is highly entertaining and I’m not even there
I really just tried to enjoy my day off and there he fucking was. 
He’s good at popping up when no one wants it, it’s kind of his thing
You were settled into your couch, casually texting Brady, when someone began pounding at your door and, once again, you had a feeling who the sender—knocker in this case—might be. 
Looking through the peephole, you noticed that Matthew’s hair appeared to be wet, probably because you exploded a carton of strawberries on him but whatever, you hesitantly cracked the door. 
“It’s bullshit that Brady is finding my misery with your annoying ass so amusing,” he didn’t bother looking at you through the small crack, “he’s really fucking loving this.”
“I wasn’t really intending for him to get humor out of our messages,” you opened the door all the way, “but it still works I guess.”
“The strawberry thing was not cool,” he turned his irritatingly lovely blue eyes on yours, “at all.”
“I know.” 
“Messaging my brother on Instagram with shitty intentions wasn’t cool either.”
“I know,” you repeated and he rolled his eyes as he pushed off the wall next to your door and headed toward the elevator. 
“You’re so fucking hot and cold with me, I don’t know how to deal with it,” you shouted at his back. 
“Yeah,” he turned his head slightly and ran a hand through his curls, “I don’t know how to deal with it either.” 
Matthew didn’t look back at you as the elevator doors closed and took him back up to his apartment while you stood outside your front door feeling irritated and, once again, completely fucking confused by Matthew fucking Tkachuk and his fence sitting behavior.
155 notes · View notes
beann-e · 3 years
Text
Mha characters reacting to you forgetting things in the store
Read Part One Here
Deku
You’d been traveling down different aisles for hours so many that deku found himself getting amazed that the store could even hold this many
he found himself thinking that the store just had its own shape shifting quirk that could change the aisles anytime someone went down them
that was the only way to explain it I mean It had to have one right because how did you find this new brand of ceral and he didn’t
How did you just pick up this new candy bar that he had never known abo—
wait candy bar
he snapped himself out of his trance drawing himself back into the real world finally hearing your voice and seeing your cart that was filled to the brim with different items from the original plan that he didn’t even know you two needed
“ oh god babe look — they “ you jumped in your shoes as you reached up to the top shelf “ they have hot chocolate “
“ we um y/n— baby”
you turned to him with a smile on your face
“ we don’t nee— “
“ deku could you get the hot chocolate it’s too far in the back at the top my hand doesn’t reach that way it’s at an awkward angle “
he looked to the floor for a moment before turning his head to look at the hot chocolate biting his lip as he stayed in his spot on the ground maybe if he just stayed here he could lie and say he’d been hit with a glue quirk you wouldn’t know righ—
your stare sent chills down his spine as he hurried over to pickup the box setting it neatly on top of the rest of the things in the cart shaking his head when he finally seen everything you’d gotten
He could never tell you no
all he wanted was for you to be happy he loved seeing you and everyone else happy he hated to see people with any other emotion it made him feel like it was his fault regardless of who it was
family or friend
villian or hero
he felt like everyone deserved to be happy which is why he was following every order you gave him like a puppy
his little protests every once and a while falling on deaf ears
“ my love we don’t need crackers “
“ but I want to make s’mores “
“ but baby then you have to get the rest of the ingredients for s’mores you can’t just buy crackers “
he moved to grab the box carefully putting it back a pout on your face as he bit his lip shaking his head in defeat and holding it out to you and looking to the floor
“ yay —now where are the other ingredients for ‘ em do you know deku ? “
his last attempt finally hitting you when you two were standing in line to checkout “ y/n “
“ yeah “
“ baby can —how about I pay for the stuff ok “
you looked at him in shock
“ I don’t —you just did all the shopping and I want to help and let you rest “
he reached in his pocket as he maneuvered the cart to be placed In line dropping his keys in your palm “ here—go sit In the car ok my love “
he kissed your forehead as he moved up in the line
“ but—“
“ no I swear I got this just go you’ve been on your feet all day “
“ but dek—“
“ look how about this “
he moved to stand on the side of the cart next to you “ you tell me what you really look forward to that your buying and i’ll make sure to get that first ok so you know that I got it and whatever else is in the cart i’ll pay for last ok “
you smiled as you listed off the ten things you’d originally had a taste for which, is why you guys ended up going to the store in the first place
you just wanted to get some groceries so you two could have some food in your new apartment
Deku had finally agreed to move out of his moms apartment thinking that she was ok and had finally come to terms with him being a real hero
allowing him more time to spend with you after making sure she was taken care of
The hero association offered him a house with no down payment after they found out but they were hit with your boyfriend saying no and explaining how you would both like to work hard for everything you two get in the future
sad thing is you wanted the house
you kissed his cheek leaving the store him putting every item you just said on the check out register watching it move up as he started conversation with the lady in front of him
“ yeah being a hero’s actually harder than I thought “
he laughed as he watched her ring everything up “ y’know actually could you do me a favor “
she shook her head small smile on her face as he gulped “ might uh — might be a weird request bu— “
“ no we don’t do hero referrals here “
“ wait no I — wait hero referrals no I “ he laughed uncomfortable with how many people were around “ no I don’t want to trade companies — uh let’s not uh “
he looked around making sure no one heard as he set his arms on the ledge speaking soft “ let’s uh let’s not say that aloud ok y’know —cameras—my company — and yeah “
he cleared his throat “ what I was actually y’know talking about was “
“ we don’t do — “
“ please allow me to speak “
she moved to scan his items as he sighed and started over “ again this may be a weird request but can you um — can you just like take this and put it back “
“ oh yeah of course you should of just said that “ she cupped her mouth as she screamed to her friend “ hey mari can you put his item back for me “
“ yeah sure —an item where’s it at ?“
“ oh it’s um not just one ite— “
“ it might be this — I don’t know who eats canned fruit so — he’s probably putting it back “
“ no uh — “ his eyebrows furrowed in slight annoyance “ actually my s/o eats those i’m not putting them back “
he whispered under his breath “ they’d kill me “
“ ok then where’s the item “
he laughed as he talked to her “ well um I meant could you actually put this back “
“ oh yeah sure if it’s just like 4 thin—- the whole cart“
her eyes widened as she watched deku push the cart towards her “ s-sir the — that’s like our whole store in one cart “
he shook at the comment
“ do you know how long i’m going to be walking around and putting things back where they belong “
his head dropped in embarrassment as he turned red his ears wiggling in fear “ oh trust me I know —i should be applying for manager with the way I know every aisle by heart now “
she shook her head and grabbed the cart as she rolled off
“ w-wait actually “
he ran after her as he rummaged through the cart “ ok yeah got it i’m done “
she stood stone faced as she looked to the male in front of her in pure annoyance and hatred
“ you stopped me to grab the things to make s’mores from the cart “
“ my —my s/o wants to try s’mores “
“ you have to be the best boyfriend ever or something because you allowed them to get all this stuff and waste your time and mine just to put it all back “
the lady at the register moved to grab his card bagging his stuff and handing it to him “ the fact you even acknowledged this and love them enough to let them run wild in the store for hours —like a child says a lot “
“ their not a kid “ he snapped eyes hard on the woman in front of him only softening when he saw her scared expression
“ yes I do — I love them and just being in their company so I love our trips when they get lost in what their doing and I just get to see them happy “
he left the store hand gripping at the backseat as placed the bags he held there
smile nervous and shaky while getting in the driver seat starting the car
“ babe I coulda sworn I got more stuff than that “
he shuddered as he sweated “ I—wh—no I —that’s all you l-left me in the store with babe—with —with your stuff“
his nervous smile widened “ got —got it all “
“ huh guess you did I was kinda out of it anyways “
you looked to him he looked away afraid to make eye contact
“ oh yeah deku did you get the stuff for us to make s’mores I totally forgot to tell you I left it off the list of things I wanted when you asked “
he took a deep breath as he turned his left turn signal on ‘ thank god I stopped her ‘
“ I got it y/n your good “
you smiled as you looked to the backseat again “ damn it is really bugging me that I really only had so little in a cart that looked so full “
his grip tightned as he pulled into your apartments parking lot “ god it all looked like so much in the cart“
“ yeah that uh that happens to people —it’s—it’s like science my love “
you moved to open the door to the backseat as he screamed at you through the cracked window from the drivers seat
“ hey uh babe you can go in the house I got it “
“ aw your so sweet deku you keep doing nice things for me “
he shook his head up and down as he watched you walk off to your new shared apartment
his head falling to the steering wheel as the horn went off in a slight honk jolting him head only moving over a bit mouth opening in a silent prayer
“ god of all might I ask that you don’t allow her to find out — and shit—theres no way to hide thi —wait I didn’t mean to curse don’t hurt me quirk gods please —i’m just stressed “ he almost cried when he thought about it
“ god we even live in the same apartment now there’s no way I can keep a secret or even the fact that I put her groceries back to myself all night “
he cursed as he thought about everything you were so happy about “ please I pray I haven’t left anything important or seriously i’m gonna cry “
he sucked it up as he got out the car walking through the hallway and placing the bags on the marble top walking over to go sit down trying to get as far away from you as possible
hoping if he could go to sleep or even stay out of your way he may be able to get out of this
his body doing what he wanted by almost falling asleep until he heard your voice pout out in front of him “ baby — have you seen my advil “
his eyes widened” I swear I bought ‘em because my head was killing m— wait deku babe why are you crying “
“ I— I i’m worsening your headache — I— I i’m making y-you hurt “
your eyes opened as you hugged him tightly “ no no why would you say that “
his voice was whiny as tears fell “ I put all your stuff back and only got what you could remember —which was only 10 things because I knew the stuff you remembered was the stuff you really wanted “
he sucked up his tears as he looked at you “ but I got you s’mores— I put everything else back but got you s’mores “
he choked back a cry “ baby I put your stuff back “
your voice was hot as you moved away from him flicking his head after turning your body towards the door “ you put my stuff back—all my important stuff that i was looking forward to “
he shook his head as you went to grab the keys “ asshole “
you slammed the door his body shaking as he heard the car start up wiping at his eyes
moving to the door to lock it only to hear the door open wide and present you who fell straight into his chest that was blocking the entrance
voice muffled as you spoke “ I can’t even remember half the stuff I picked up “
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luci-in-trenchcoats · 3 years
Text
A Place To Call Home: Oh Baby
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Summary: The reader and TJ decide to have their first baby together and the experience is anything but simple...
Masterlist
Pairing: Jensen x foster daughter!reader
Word Count: 3,600ish
Warnings: language, pregnancy, pregnancy/delivery scare
A/N: Enjoy!
______
“Hey,” you said, rubbing TJ’s bare back in bed after he’d gotten Allie down for bed. He groaned happily as you gave him a massage, sinking further into the mattress. “You’re rocking this dad thing you know.”
“Back at ya mom,” he laughed. “You really think so? Cause I’m scared shitless half the time.”
“Same. But she’s happy and healthy and safe. We must be doing something right,” you said. He patted your leg and you slid off of him, TJ rolling to his side and wrapping his arm around your waist to pull you down. “What are you thinking, handsome?”
“I noticed you haven’t taken any birth control this week,” he said. 
“We said we’d talk tonight about it. I wanted to be prepared,” you said. He brushed his hand over your cheek and your whole body felt warm at the touch. “This is way off base of our plan for kids. We can totally wait if you want to.”
“We could. But we said way back when we talked about this that when we had kids, we wanted to keep them not too many years apart. Allie will be more than two by the time we have one. I know our plans got changed completely when she came into the picture.”
“Well, the original plan was two of our own and then when they were in their teens, we’d look at adoption for number three. What do you think?” you asked.
“I think it doesn’t matter what our plan is today. It’ll probably change in some way. It already did,” he said.
“Do you want to make a baby?” you asked. 
“Yeah,” he said softly, sliding his hand down to your stomach. “I can’t imagine how adorable of a child you would make. Let’s start trying. Allie deserves a brother or sister.”
“Are you sure? We could wait until your student loan is paid off,” you said.
“Did I not tell you?” he asked. You shook your head and he smirked. “Work pays off my loan for me as long as I stay there.”
“Where’s the money in the budget for your loan going then?” you asked.
“It’s still student loan but it’s for Allie or kids to use. We got plenty and you got your raise and-”
“Raise? I didn’t get a raise.”
“Jensen said just the other night…oh I wasn’t supposed to tell you that,” he said.
“I’m getting a raise?” you asked. 
“Yeah. Like a big one. For how you’ve been stepping up lately,” he said. “Don’t let it out that I said something.”
“I won’t. So we can afford another kid, we have the time, the energy, Allie’s a good age...sounds like we got our ducks in a row,” you said. 
“Wanna make a baby?” he smirked. “And then love it forever and ever?”
“Fuck yes I do,” you said. “Now get naked and let’s have some fun.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.”
Six Weeks Later
“Want me to write down anything else for the grocery store?” asked TJ as you sipped on some coffee while Allie ate part of a waffle at the breakfast table. “I haven’t bought pads or tampons in a while. You’re probably running low.”
“Yeah, you can…” you said, staring at him. “I haven’t had my period TJ. I’m two weeks late.”
“I’ll get a pregnancy test,” he said, a cautious smile on his face.
“Yeah. I’ll call the doctor, see if I can get an appointment in soon,” you said.
“I’ll be back as quick as I can,” he said. 
“Momma, waffle,” asked Allie from her high seat, opening her hand up, her plate wiped clean.
“Sure thing, honey,” you said, TJ flashing you a quick smile before he was gone.
“Hey babe,” you said half an hour later into the phone. “You still at the store?”
“Heading for checkout now. Want me to pick up-”
“I just got my period,” you said. “Just now.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” you said. “We can do the test to make sure, like triple make sure and I still have an appointment for the afternoon.”
“Okay,” he said, sounding a little off.
“We only tried that one night,” you said. “And we weren’t really even trying. We were having more fun with not using a condom for the first time than actively trying really.”
“True. We got a little carried away,” he said, his hand rubbing the back of his neck and his cheeks sporting a light blush if you had to guess. “Do you want to like, really try?”
You turned your head and saw Allie sticking some pads to herself where she sat on the bathroom floor and you smiled.
“For some crazy reason, yes, yes I do. Also, I need more pads. Allie’s playing with them,” you said.
“Alright. I’ll pick up something special for dinner,” he said. “Love you.”
“Love you too, babe.”
Three Months Later
“Another beer?” asked your dad as he stood up from your back patio. 
“I can get it,” you said, TJ handing you his empty, Allie passed out on his chest from where the three of you sat around the fire. “I want a snack anyways.”
You ruffled his head and wandered inside, your dad following you in to use the bathroom. You took out a beer and set it on the counter before you opened the freezer and pulled out a pint of ice cream.
“Someone’s got a sweet tooth lately,” he said. He took out a beer for himself and cracked it open, smiling at you. “Been awhile since I’ve seen you have a drink. Not that you did a lot but the empty calories line doesn’t seem so convincing at the moment considering the tub of cookie dough in your hand.”
“You think I’m pregnant?” you laughed. He shrugged and you shook your head. “No way. Just been trying to eat healthier. TJ ate most of this anyways.”
“You’re really not?” he asked.
“No. When’s mom and everybody come home again? Tomorrow? TJ and I wanted to have everybody over for dinner,” you said.
“Sounds good,” he said. You stuck your head around him, looking at TJ outside. “What’s up?”
“Okay I kinda want your opinion on something. I got a present for TJ’s birthday but I’m not sure if he’ll like it,” you said.
“What is it?” he asked. You left and ducked into your office, smiling to yourself but wiping it off your face by the time you returned. You held out a box to him, your dad opening it up. He looked confused as he held up a pair of blue sneakers. 
Very small blue sneakers.
It took him a second but soon he was staring at you, a funny look on his face you remembered seeing on your wedding day.
“Liar,” he grinned.
“I know,” you said, getting a big hug from him. 
“You’re gonna have a little boy,” he said, resting his chin on your shoulder.
“That’s what the sonogram said. You’re the first person we’ve told. We wanted to wait a few months to make sure everything was okay before we said something.”
“How far along are you?” he asked as he peeled away, staring at your stomach.
“About three months. We found out the sex earlier this week,” you said. “You can touch, it’s okay.”
“I didn’t realize you guys were trying,” he said. He put a careful hand on your stomach, smiling to himself. “You made a baby.”
“We wanted Allie’s sibling to be close in age. We only like actually tried once. We were kind of surprised it happened so fast,” you said.
“Does it feel any different than Allie? It’s not like you’re a parent for the first time again but I imagine it’s got to be a little different,” he said, pulling his hand away.
“Obviously this time I’m actually going to be the one having him but I don’t know, it doesn’t feel that different.”
“Good,” he said, smiling still. “These two are gonna grow up and not even think about who was adopted and who wasn’t.”
“TJ thinks he’s gonna have his black hair.”
“He could. Boys are a spitting image of their fathers sometimes,” he said. “A little boy. He’s gonna grow up just fine with you and TJ.”
“Do you have any advice for boys?” you asked.
“Love him the same as you love Allie. Teach him boys can love and cry and feel their feelings and to help others and he’ll turn out to be just as good a man as TJ.”
“You’re not half bad either,” you said with a smirk.
“I could have been better, especially when I was younger.”
“Dad, you were shy. Mom’s told me stories. You’ve always been good. I know you feel stuff, you just like to process it inside and on your own sometimes, like me. Look at Zepp. What other boy do you know that talks to his dad about stuff the way you guys do?”
“Oh I could name a few,” he said.
“You’re doing good is all I’m saying cause you’re good. We just hope he’s kind and good too,” you said.
“Love ‘em and the rest of it pretty much works out on its own,” he said. “Oh. Changing diapers? Cover them at all times. Like every single time. You’re gonna get pissed on a lot more with a boy, especially in the face.”
“Oh god, dad,” you said, rolling your eyes.
“Just being honest,” he chuckled. “Not much difference though.”
“As long as he’s happy, I’m good,” you said. “Are you...surprised? Happy? None of the above?”
“You are a kickass mom. I can’t quite describe it but yeah, let’s just say I’m happy,” he said. “I’m so happy for you both and to have another munchkin around. I’m proud of you, kiddo.”
“Thanks,” you said. “Second one should be easier, right?”
“Should. It’s your first time pregnant though. I’m sure we’re gonna run into some fun things for sure.”
Five Months Later
“Hey dad,” you said, giving him a wave in the parking lot. He smiled and you walked over before you headed off into the park with him. 
��How’s work going?” he asked. “All ready to go out next week?”
“You know most people don’t take the month off before their due date,” you said.
“Most people don’t work for mom and dad,” he chuckled. “You’re covered. I see you back at that brewery for anything more than a beer run and we’re gonna have problems.”
“I know, grumpy. I’m good. Well, I was until I was driving over here to walk and my stomach started killing me,” you said. He stopped and you walked ahead of him. “What? You forget your phone or something? We can-”
“Fucking shit,” he said. He grabbed you and you made a face as he walked you quickly back over to his car. 
“Dad, what-”
“There’s blood dripping down your leg,” he said, not even bothering with his seat belt before he was backing out and speeding away. You glanced down, a small thin streak drying on your skin. You reached under your shorts and felt more wetness, a pit forming in your stomach. “Y/N, are you listening to me?”
“What?” you said as he ran through a red light.
“I said you need to call TJ right now and tell him to meet us at County West. You’re having the baby right now.”
“S’not supposed to be bleeding,” you said quietly. 
“I know. On the bright side, it could just be a little tear and that’s what it is and you and the baby are perfectly fine.”
“When has my life ever been on the fucking bright side,” you said. “Something’s wrong isn’t it.”
Your dad hit a few buttons on the wheel before the sound of ringing filled the air.
“Sup, Jensen?” said TJ.
“County West. The baby is coming. Move your ass now,” said your dad before he hung up.
“Oh, I’m completely not worried now,” you said. You shut your eyes and by the time you opened them, you were parked and the drivers door was open. Your dad ran over to the entrance and said something, somebody coming out with a stretcher. You rolled your eyes but let a few nurses and a doctor you were guessing move you on top of it.
“How far along?” asked the doctor.
“I’m-” you said, throwing your head back when pain shot across your abdomen. You screamed, a bit surprised at yourself honestly and suddenly were inside, your dad talking a mile a minute to the people that were rushing you down the hall.
“Y/N, I’m Dr. Astle. Are you having contractions?” she asked.
“I don’t…” you said, shouting again when pain hit you. “Gah, it’s not supposed to hurt that bad, right?”
“No, it’s not,” she said. You kicked when you felt it happening again, your dad grabbing your hand and using his other to run over your head. 
“It’s okay,” he said softly. “The doctor’s are gonna fix you and the baby up like that.”
“We need to do an emergency C-section,” said Dr. Astle as you realized your shorts had been cut off.
“Dad don’t look that way,” you said.
“You and me right here,” he said with a smile. “You’ll be fine. You’ll be just fine. Just breathe.”
“TJ needs to be here,” you said. 
“Tall munchkin I don’t think they can wait,” he said.
“They’re gonna wait over my-” you said, a flop of sweaty black hair running past the room. “TJ!”
“Hey!” he said as he jogged back to the doorway. “Are-holy shit. That’s a lot of blood.”
“TJ, up here,” said your dad. 
“We need somebody from maternity, Dr. Astle,” said a nurse.
“Baby and mom do not have the time. You’re the husband?” asked the doctor, TJ nodding. “If mom passes out, you’re calling the shots.”
“Please don’t pass out,” said TJ.
“I’ll try…” you said, something tearing inside and you were out before you could even register the pain.
You woke up in a quiet room, your dad sitting in a chair and bouncing his leg like crazy. You tried to stretch and felt your abdomen was flatter, hand instantly shooting to it. You looked around but saw no sign of TJ or a baby and swallowed.
“Dad,” you said quietly. His head shot up and he was out of his chair like that. 
“Hey. How you feeling?” he asked.
“Is the baby…” you swallowed.
“He is a perfectly healthy boy. Big boy. Your due date was off by a couple weeks they think. You were over nine months. He got a little too big for ya. The placenta started to tear and he was kicking at it they think which is why you were in so much pain,” he said.
“Okay,” you said with a big smile. “As long as he’s good, I’m good.”
“He’s up in the nursery with TJ, just letting him get some rest while you got some. You had some pain but you’re okay. Perfectly capable of more kids. Maybe we use a different doctor next time is all,” he said.
“Can I go see him?” you asked, surprised to not feel a bandage across your stomach. “I thought they did a C-section?”
“Well, you passed out pushing him out in one go. Doc said you’d be sore for awhile,” he said. “Let me go see if I can find your boys.”
“Dad,” you said as he turned to go. “Did I do that?”
You nodded to his bruised hand and he shrugged.
“Let’s just say in labor you is kind of terrifying,” he said. 
“Dad,” you said and he sat on the edge of the bed. “Thank you. I was freaking out before.”
“Little secret, I was freaking out more,” he said with a chuckle. “You, you were just thinking about the baby. Me, me I was thinking about the baby and you. Understand?”
“Yeah. Go get me my son, old timer,” you said, shutting your eyes again.
“Yes mam,” he said, rubbing your arm. “You did real good today, kiddo.”
“I’m getting a letter later, aren’t I,” you said. He laughed and felt him ruffle your hair.
“I’ll save it for when you guys head home. Nothing’s gonna top this,” he said. You heard the door open and opened your eyes, TJ walking inside with a bundle of blankets in his arms.
“You’re kind of a badass, you know that right?” he said.
“It’s why you married me, isn’t it?” you teased. “I want to meet him.”
“I told you I’d bring you back around to see mommy,” he said. Your dad slipped out as TJ sat on the edge of the bed and handed you over your son. You giggled when you saw the black head of hair under his blue cap. “Told you he’d have my hair.”
“It’s a good thing your daddy is pretty,” you said, booping his little nose. “How’d you get here so fast?”
“I was at work. I took the stairs and then sprinted over. The hospital’s only a few blocks away,” he said.
“Why are you in scrubs?” you laughed.
“May or may not have ripped my pants in the said sprinting. Your mom is gonna bring me some clothes when she comes up. Somebody had to go and be all dramatic with his entrance,” he said.
“Dad said the doctor got my due date wrong,” you said.
“Based on my math, you actually did get pregnant that first night we fooled around. Your period was super light when you had it and the doctor did say some people can have them during pregnancy, especially at the beginning if…”
“Dude. I know how it works,” you said. “He’s cute.”
“I know. There’s a couple of really ugly babies down the hall. We got lucky,” he said. You laughed and the baby looked up at you, quickly shutting his eyes. “Someone’s smitten.”
“He’s not the only one,” you said. “You ever decide on a boy’s name?”
“What do you think about Colin? I know it wasn’t on the list but-”
“It’s perfect,” you said, giving the baby a kiss. “Just like you, aren’t you Colin.”
One Week Later
“Dad,” you said when you caught him peeking over the back of the couch again. “He didn’t wake up in the span of the last three seconds you weren’t looking at him.”
“Your father’s in love,” laughed your mom as she set a bag of takeout down in front of you. “I got tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos and brisket per your request.”
“Mmm,” you said, TJ reaching his hand into the bag. You stared up at him and he slowly backed away. “That’s what I thought.”
“TJ, yours is in with the other containers,” she said, setting a few containers down on the counter. Your siblings all grabbed one and took off to the movie room, JJ taking Allie up with them and your mom and TJ wandering into the kitchen and talking quietly. Your dad was still looking over the back of the couch and smiling down into the crib. 
“He awake?” you asked.
“No. Just adorable,” he said. 
“Well get dinner grandpa,” you said, reaching over to the end table for your drink and pausing. You shut your eyes and felt it pass, your dad suddenly right there and helping you to your feet. “Thanks.”
“Still sore?”
“Oh yeah,” you said. You sat up at the counter, grabbing a taco first and taking a big bite. “I’ve been dying for one of these for months.”
“Hopefully the spice doesn’t bother you too much,” he said, stealing a nacho from your bag. He looked over at the crib, Colin making a half-giggle sound. “Kiddo. Do me a favor.”
“What?” you asked.
“Enjoy it. They grow up faster than you think,” he said.
“I know,” you said. He nodded and you saw him look sad for a split second. “Dad?”
“Hm?”
“Just cause I made a baby doesn’t mean I’m not your kid anymore,” you said. “Based on how you are, I’ll never grow up so win-win for you.”
“Loser,” he said, ruffling your hair with a smile before he took your burrito. “Speaking of which, I was gonna prank the trio once they start watching scary movies later. You in?”
“Duh,” you said.
“That’s my girl.”
___________
A/N: Read the Jensen’s Day timestamp here!
284 notes · View notes
lotusss-flowerbomb · 3 years
Text
My Hero
Clark Kent x reader
Warnings: Smut 
Disclaimer: There is unprotected sex in this story, so remember a condom a day keeps them babies away!
*divider by @writeyourmindaway​*
Word Count: 2,302
********
You were pushing your cart through the grocery store and scanning the many items you knew that you didn't need.
"This is why we never shop on an empty stomach," you said to yourself.
When you reached the end of the aisle your cart hit a man's legs.
"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Are you okay?"
"It's okay, I'm fine," a small laugh escaped his lips. "Y/N?"
You finally looked up at him, "Yes?"
"Wow, I thought that was your voice that I'd heard."
"My voice?" You asked, confused. 
Blue eyes, wide grin, deep dimple in his chin. 
"Clark?" Your eyes were wide with realization.
"It's me," he said.
"No way, look at you," you scanned him from head to toe. "You've come a long way from the scrawny kid who I used to walk home with from school."
You threw your arms around his neck for a hug and quickly pulled away. You would swear that you could feel every muscle in his rock hard body.
"So, uh, when did you get back in town?" He asked.
"Few days ago. My dad retired and moved to California. He's left getting rid of the house, to me of course."
"I'm surprised he left. He loved that house."
"Yeah, well, he says he needed a change since my mom passed away, but I think this Superman guy just freaks him out a little bit," you shrugged.
"Understandable," he replied.
"Well, um, how about you come over for dinner tonight, so we can really catch up?" You suggested.
"Oh, no, I couldn't impose."
"Why not? You got big plans for those TV dinners?"
He looked down at the four Hungry Man meals he was holding.
"That's what I thought. I'll see you at 8pm, Kent." You pushed your cart forward to the checkout line.
He watched as you walked away. Willing himself not to use his x-ray vision to look through your clothes.
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Clark showered quickly when he got home. He looked through his closet and cursed himself. How many flannel shirts does one man need? He settled on a blue and gray shirt and pulled it on.
"Where are you going?" Martha questioned him.
"Uh, you'll never guess who I ran into today. You remember Y/N?" He asked his mother.
"Of course, I do. How could I ever forget the sweet girl who walked my baby home everyday to save him from bullies?" She patted his cheek and laughed.
"Funny," he mocked her. "She invited me over for dinner tonight, so I needed to change."
"Oh, well, that's good. You haven't been out since, um... ever."
"Ma, it's really just old friends catching up. It's not a date."
At least, that's what he'd said out loud, but his racing heart was telling a different story. Martha raised an eyebrow and turned to leave. She didn't need enhanced senses to know her son was telling a lie.
Clark thought back to the day the two of you had become friends. He was a grade ahead of you, so you never really spoke until...
You trailed behind the crowd a bit, as always, with your black Cane Corso, Tiny in tow. He was massive, so his name definitely didn't match, but when he was just a puppy, he was so tiny that you carried him zipped up in your hoodie wherever you went.
Every day, Tiny would come to the school and sit with the parents waiting to pick up their kids. Even though he was huge, he was a sweetie and everyone loved him, so no one ever complained about him running around alone.
When the group ahead of you reached the junkyard. You heard Jessie, the school bully, telling Clark to get out of the truck. Once you reached the yard, you saw Jessie throw Clark to the ground and raise his fist as if he was gonna hit him.
"Come on, fight back! Get up, Kent!" He yelled at him.
"Why don't you leave him alone, Jessie? He doesn't want to fight." You said from behind them.
They all turned to look at you.
"Hey, stay out of it and mind your business!" He pointed at you.
"Make me," you said.
Tiny growled and crouched low to the ground when Jessie took a step towards you. You stayed in your spot as he slowly walked towards the other kids and came to a stop right in front of Clark.
The group backed away slowly with their hands lifted in surrender.
"I don't want to see any of you bothering him again, got it?" You asked.
"Y-y-y-yeah. Yeah, I got it. Just call him off."
"It's okay, Tiny, let them go," you walked closer to your dog.
He was almost as tall as you were sitting on his haunches.
You made a hand motion for them to go and they all practically ran away. You turned to help Clark off the ground and brushed some dirt off of him.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks," he said softly.
Mr. Kent made his way over to the two of you. Tiny wagged happily and waited for a few pets from the older man. He ran off plenty of times to the Kent's farm to play with their dog Hank. Plus, he and your father had known one another since childhood.
"I'm not sure how you resisted the urge to break his face, but good for you," you said before waving at Mr. Kent and telling Tiny to come along.
From that day forward, you and Clark had been inseparable. He'd walk you home and then head to the farm.
You'd developed a crush on him as the years went by, but never spoke up about it, because you learned very early that nothing was worse than losing your best friend over a failed relationship.
Besides, once he graduated, he took oddest jobs doing manual labor. It caused him to be gone for months at a time and you knew that wasn't a life you wanted, so after you graduated, you went out of state to college in Metropolis and got a job there.
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Clark clutched the bottle of wine in his hand as he knocked on the door. He couldn't understand why he was so nervous. He'd been to this house dozens of times.
"Hey," you greeted him when you opened the door.
"I brought wine," he held up the bottle.
"Thanks, the food is almost ready, so have a seat and I'll be right back." You hurried off.
Once the two of you sat down for dinner you laughed and talked as if you had never parted ways. He was still the same old goofy Clark Kent that you remembered.
You were now on the couch with your legs comfortably tucked behind you and staring into his eyes.
"What?" He asked nervously.
"Nothing, it's just been so long since I've seen that smile. I'm enjoying it."
His face turned red as he blushed at your compliment.
"I do have a question. Something that's been bugging me all day," you scooted closer.
"What's wrong?"
"You never wore glasses when we were growing up. In fact, you could see so far down the road that I thought you placed things just to be funny."
"What? No, I... um, I had an accident on a job site. There was fire and I was a little close. Messed with my eyesight a little...bit." He stammered over his words.
"You always were such a terrible liar, but I'll let it slide, because you're cute." You sipped from your glass.
"You think I'm cute?" He asked, shocked.
"Yes, I always have," you admitted.
"Really? Why haven't you ever told me that?"
"Oh, please, Clark, like you didn't know that I had the biggest crush on you when we were kids," you rolled your eyes.
"No... Well, I — uh... didn't know for sure."
"Mmm hmm," you straddled his lap. "I know you can hear the way my heart beats faster any time I'm near you." You grabbed his hand and pressed it to your chest.
He shifted beneath you. No doubt trying to will himself not to get an erection.
You swivel your hips ever so slightly. To a normal man, that would have been nothing. But to Clark, it was damn near a sensory overload.
He threw his head back and clamped his eyes shut.
"I know that you know how wet I am for you right now," you lifted your dress and dipped your fingers inside of your panties, swirling your wetness around with your fingers.
He was no longer able to contain his erection.
"Look at me," you said.
He opened his eyes and looked at you. You brushed one of your slick coated fingers over his lips before kissing him softly.
"What are you doing?" He was finally able to ask.
"Whatever I want," you said and slid his glasses off of his face.
He looked nervous. You may recognize him without his glasses, so he quickly kissed you.
You trailed soft kisses from his neck to his ear. Biting the lobe once you reached it.
The soft sigh that he released turned you on even more as you grinded into him again.
He shifted his position, so he could lie you flat on your back.
"Can I taste you?" He asks.
He didn't wait for you to reply. He pulled your already soaked panties to the side and licked at your center.
"Ssss, ooh," you hissed.
You threaded your fingers into his hair and grabbed on to those jet black curls. Rocking your hips slowly as he alternated between licking your clit and sucking it into his mouth.
First you felt one finger slide inside of you and shortly after another followed.
"Yes, baby, don't stop," you moaned.
Clark watched your face as he pleasured you. The way you bit your bottom lip and gripped his hair forced him to buck against the couch cushions for a bit of relief.
You squeezed your eyes shut as your orgasm neared, but felt your body being lifted and turned. Before you could grasp what was happening, Clark was now on his back and you were riding his face.
You grabbed on to the arm of the couch and placed one foot on the floor and the other by his head.
"Stick your tongue out," you instructed.
When he stuck his tongue out, you lined it up with your needy cavern and let him fuck you with it. You used your other hand to rub your clit and once again your orgasm was nearing.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" You chanted as the familiar feeling washed over your body.
Once again, he readjusted you as if you weighed nothing, bringing you face to face with him. You kissed him again. Moaning into his mouth as your tongues connected.
"Fuck me, Clark, please?" You asked as you unbuttoned his pants and wrapped your hand around his thick throbbing shaft.
He groaned loudly as you stroked him. When you were about to lower yourself onto him he stopped you.
"Wait, I," he cleared his throat, "I've never actually, um, gone all the way..." He admitted.
"I find that very hard to believe with the way you just ate my pussy."
"I learned from... ya know..."
"Good," you slowly lowered yourself onto him. Making sure to keep eye contact as he stretched you wide. "I'm sure you learned how this goes too."
He held on to your hips as you bounced up and down on him. Then he grabbed up the fabric of your dress and ripped it. Kissing the newly exposed globes of your breasts.
He turned you on your back. Lifting your leg high and pushing himself deep into your pussy. Giving you everything that he had.
He tucked his face into your neck as he fucked you.
"Yeah, that's it. Give me that dick, baby," you whispered.
"You feel so good," he groaned.
The closer he got to ecstasy, the more vocal he became.
"Shit!"
"It's okay baby. Give me all that cum. Can I have it?" You asked sweetly.
"Yes!"
"Mmm, yesssss," you clawed at his back as you started cumming. Your pussy tightening around him.
His body started to spasm as he released his load inside of you.
You held on tight until he stopped moving and you loosened your grip. It was only then that you noticed that you were floating in mid air.
"Clark!" You yelped and grabbed onto him again.
He chuckled. "Don't worry, I've got you," he slowly lowered your bodies back down to the sofa.
He pulled out slowly and laid his head in between your breasts taking in the moment. You twirled one of his curls around your finger.
You felt his body suddenly start shaking from laughter.
"What's so funny, Kent?" You asked.
"You just had sex with the kid that you used to protect from bullies. You were my hero,” he said.
"No, I just had sex with the grown man that saves planets."
"So, how long have you known?" He questioned.
"Since the moment I first saw you on TV," you replied.
"Hmm."
"Yeah, and if I hadn't already known, you recognizing my voice from the other aisle when I clearly whispered to myself would've been a dead giveaway."
"Not to mention the whole flying thing just now," he added.
"Exactly," you giggled.
You finally got up before ruining the couch and grabbed his hand to lead him to the bathroom. He looked a little confused at first.
"Surely, you have at least one more round in you, Superman?" You teased.
"I've got as many rounds as you can take," he lifted you and walked up the stairs to the bathroom.
277 notes · View notes
lunatens · 3 years
Text
frozen pizza & friday nights
-
requested by anon <3 thank you so much for your patience!!! i wish i could’ve gotten this to you sooner :( i actually probably shouldn’t have written this rn adflskdbfskj oops im procrastinating working on my assignments super badly anyways!!! i hope you enjoy :3 
prompt: “you look different,” “well yeah i mean it’s been what, five years since we last saw each other?”
word count: 0.8k
genre: slice of life au, fluff, y/n and hongjoong used to date but it ended on good terms lol
pairing: kim hongjoong x gn reader
ah, yes, friday. just one step away from freedom, you think to yourself as you head to your local grocery store. it’s been a long, long week, and you can’t wait to turn into a puddle of mush on your couch and probably fall asleep watching a movie. you grab a basket as you enter the store, avoiding eye contact with any employees or other customers; this is going to be a quick in and out trip--the faster you grab your frozen pizza and box of cookies, the faster you can be at home relaxing. 
outdated pop tunes echoing through the store’s tinny speakers are your soundtrack as you march through the aisles towards the freezer section, grabbing a couple of items on the way. you’d considered just ordering takeout, but you found yourself craving your favourite store-bought snacks and you needed a couple of groceries anyways, so you figured you’d just suffer through a quick trip out before relaxing for the night. you finally reach the wall of frozen pizzas, and you look for your favourite. luckily there’s one left just for you; you eagerly pull the glass door open and grab the cold cardboard box.
“ah, is that the last one?” a voice asks from behind you. you jump a little; you didn’t know there was anyone nearby.
“yeah, sorry, i-” you cut yourself off as you turn around, shocked to see the person standing in front of you. kim hongjoong looks back at you, seemingly as surprised to see you as you are to see him. 
“h..hongjoong?” you ask in disbelief, almost laughing at yourself as you close the freezer door. you haven’t spoken to your ex-boyfriend in years. the two of you dated for a couple of years in high school, but broke things off when he moved away for college. you ended things on good terms and kept up with each other for a little while, however as you each grew busy in your own lives you grew apart from each other. now, the only time you ever talk is when one of you wishes the other a quick “happy birthday” and only a “thanks!” is given in response. 
“hey y/n,” he greets with a nervous smile. “long time no see.”
“yeah, no kidding--how-how are you?” you ask. you wince at your own awkwardness; hongjoong was once someone you could easily talk to and joke around with, but now you find yourself stumbling over your words and possibly making a fool of yourself. 
“i’m good, i actually just moved back here,” he replies, and your cheeks warm as he looks you over quickly. “you look different,” hongjoong comments. 
“well yeah i mean it’s been what, five years since we last saw each other?” you tease. you let out a nervous giggle, looking down at your old sandals you threw on as you rushed out the door. you’re starting to wish you hadn’t changed from your work clothes into sweats before coming here; and you’re sure the store’s ugly fluorescent lighting isn’t making you look any better. 
“i meant different in a good way, i-uh, you look really good,” he says, picking up on your doubts. you sigh in relief, almost laughing at how a faint shade of pink has blossomed on his cheeks and ears. 
“thanks; you’re not doing badly yourself,” you comment with a cheeky smile. hongjoong’s dressed in a similar fashion to you, yet he still looks as beautiful as ever. 
“so, big plans for tonight?” you ask, leaning on the cool glass beside you.
“well, i WAS gonna have a thrilling night with myself and that pizza right there, but somebody came along and took the last one, so my plans have been ruined i guess,” hongjoong says, flashing a bright smile as he opens the next door over.  “guess i’ll just have to settle for a different frozen pizza, what a sacrifice,” he jokes, and an idea pops into your head.
“i mean, i guess i could adjust my super busy schedule to share this pizza with you; it’d be a shame to enjoy it all by myself,” you suggest, heart fluttering a little at the idea of hanging out with hongjoong again after so long apart. in the time you spent away from each other, you’d dated a couple of other people, but nothing too serious; honestly, nobody made you feel the same as you did with hongjoong. 
“it’d be an honour,” hongjoong replies, closing the freezer door with maybe a bit too much enthusiasm. “i’d really love to catch up,” he says as the two of you make your way to checkout together. 
“only if you’re okay if we watch the new episode of jujutsu kaisen first,” you say, and hongjoong laughs at your comment (wow you really missed his laugh). 
“anything for you,” he replies, and you don’t think you’ve ever been so excited for a frozen pizza.
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mymoonagedaydream · 4 years
Text
Only the Good Die Young (Part 1)
Summary: Coming home from college for the summer, you expected your days to be spent reading in your bedroom and sitting through tense to family dinners- but an old acquaintance had something else in mind for you
Pairing: Biker!Bucky x y/n
Word Count: 2.8k
Warnings: Language, strong anti-religious sentiment throughout, harmful relationship with parents, irresponsible motorcycle healthy and safety measures, smoking
Author's Note: Something a bit different, why the hell not. This story is based around lyrics from Billy Joel's 'Only the Good Die Young'. What a man.
---
'Y/n! You look… healthy.' 
Those were your mother's first words as you walked through the door of your family home. Not saying how pleased she was to see you or asking how your flight was, but commenting on how you looked with her typical passive-aggressive euphemisms.
This was going to be a long summer. 
Initially you were adamant about staying at your dorm, even on your own. All you wanted was peace and space. Then your parents threatened to cut you off if you didn't come home, so here you were. 
You traipsed upstairs. Approaching your bedroom, you saw the bolt haphazardly screwed to the outside of the door. Your father had installed it when you were twelve, after he caught you watching ‘ungodly’ TV shows in the living room at midnight- Doctor Who. 
Your room had been redecorated. It looked fucking dreadful. You glanced up at the wall and a little bit of sick shot up to the back of your mouth when you saw a ‘live, laugh, love’ sticker plastered up there. 
A long, long summer.
---
Your first errand was grocery shopping. Wandering around the store, you grabbed everything on the list and headed to the checkout. Through the front window you saw billows of smoke blowing past, but you couldn’t quite see where they were coming from. 
As you stepped outside, you looked over to see a pretty big group of guys in leather jackets, most of them with cigarettes on the go. They were gathered around the corner of the building, the one you had to walk past to get home. You kept your head down, gripping your grocery bags tight and passing them as quickly as possible, when you heard one of them pipe up. 
'Well holy shit. Y/n?'
You turned towards the voice. James Barnes. 
The two of you went to high school together but, apart from the occasional stilted conversation and reluctant group project, you’d never really developed any sort of relationship. Besides, he always hung out with people your mother didn't approve of. 
And he was what, now? In a motorcycle gang? Figures. 
'Hi James. Good to see you.' You mumbled, breaking stride momentarily. His friends seemed to find that funny. 
'People call me Bucky now.' 
Nodding feebly, you gave him a polite smile before moving off again. You noticed that your face felt warm and your stomach was involuntarily tensing. Sure, he was much more handsome and charismatic than you remembered, but you had no idea why being in his presence was making you this nervous. You heard approaching footsteps and in a second he was by your side, walking next to you.
'You moving back to town?'
'No, just visiting for the summer.'
‘Are your parents still religious nut-jobs?'
You stopped and snapped your head round, in complete shock at the brazenness of his questioning.
'I'll take that as a yes.’ Without taking his eyes off you he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, placed one between his lips and lit it. ‘Guessing you won't be having much fun this summer then.'
'Probably not your kind of fun.' 
He smirked and stepped towards you. ‘Man, you Catholic girls start much too late.’
‘I don’t think I asked for your opinion, James.’ It came out much softer than you anticipated, barely a mumble. Not the kind of back-off-or-else warning you were aiming for. He was really getting under your skin.
'You didn’t, but I’ll give you another.’  
You raised an eyebrow, watching him blow a cloud of smoke out over your head and chuckle at your expression. Against your better judgement, you waited for him to carry on.
‘I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.' He stepped closer again, bringing his lips close to your ear, and whispered. 'Cause the sinners are much more fun.'
---
You dropped the shopping on the counter. The whole way home you hadn’t been able to get James Barnes out of your head, hadn’t been able to stop picturing his smirk or imagining his warm breath tickling your ear. 
You wanted to know more about him, and if anyone had information it'd be your mother. She knew everything about everyone in this godforsaken town. Sitting down for dinner, you seized your opportunity.
'I saw James Barnes at the grocery store today.'
She abruptly dropped her knife and it hit her plate with a sharp clang, making you jump.
'You stay away from that boy.' She punctuated the words by pointing her fork at you. 'He's trouble. Him and his gang.'
You hated the way she spoke to you sometimes, like you were a child. You were in your twenties for fuck’s sake. 
'He seemed nice enough.'
‘That’s how it starts.’ Your father piped up. ‘Before you know it he’s got you hooked on drugs, living in a trailer, pregnant with his deviant child.’ 
And that was the end of that conversation. 
Being away, you’d almost forgotten how messed up your parents were. It was terrifying to think that you used to be just as bad. They had you completely brainwashed before you left for college and, even now, some of their intrusive religious dogma still lingered in your subconscious. 
---
Sunday. The priest was droning on about something but you weren’t concentrating, his dull voice just sounded like a janky old extractor fan whirring behind the altar. You stood, sat, stood, kneeled, sat along with everyone else like sheep being herded, singing and praying whenever prompted. This, every Sunday for ten weeks, was going to be torture.
An hour or so into the service, you felt yourself nodding off. Your shoulders relaxed and your head felt too heavy to be held up by your neck but, just as your eyes started to close, something startled you. Startled the whole congregation. The droning from the altar stopped and heads turned towards the door, where the disturbance was coming from. 
It sounded like a shuddering motorbike engine. Then another joined. In a couple of seconds the entire church was filled with an echoing cacophony of backfiring engines. 
Someone at the back stood up and ran to the door. There was some shouting and laughing, but the noise eventually moved away, fading into the distance. Looking around, you saw a sea of indignant and sour faces. The tension hovering in the air was palpable.
‘And that,’ your mother hissed through clenched teeth, ‘is why you don’t go near James Barnes and his friends.’
You had to suck in your cheeks to smother your laughter, nodding insincerely at her words. James’ voice echoed in your head…
The sinners are much more fun.
---
A couple days later, one of your old friends invited you to a house party- or ‘board game night’ as you told your parents. Parties were usually a little out of your comfort zone, but you’d do anything to get out of their house for an evening. 
Wandering from room to room, you checked if there was anyone else there you recognised. Nope. You skulked to the kitchen and opened a can of diet coke. 
There was a hard tap on your shoulder and you turned to see James Barnes’ wide smile.
‘Hey there.’
‘Hi James.’ You muttered, taking a sip of your drink. ‘I heard your little stunt outside the church last week. You make a habit of that?’
‘Nope. Just thought it’d be nice to welcome you home.’ 
Interesting. That whole thing was for you? Your stomach started to flutter with excitement despite part of your brain screaming that he was probably just mocking you, flirting with you for a bet. To save any potential embarrassment, you went on the defensive. 
‘Gee, thanks. Are you and your friends always that obnoxious James?’
‘Ah y’know.’ He leant against the counter, folding his arms, still grinning at you. ‘We might be laughing a bit too loud, but that never hurt no one.’
You raised an eyebrow, feigning disinterest and doing everything you could to keep a lid on how excited his deep chuckles were making you. He bit his lip and your heart felt like it was going to leap out of your chest. 
‘And call me Bucky.’ He pushed himself off the counter, disappearing into the crowd.
Hours passed and you eventually realised that you weren’t really having a great time. Everyone around you was borderline hammered but you knew if your parents got a whiff of alcohol you’d be locked inside all summer, so you were stone-cold. 
You snuck out the back door, swiftly sliding it shut. Focusing more on what was happening behind you than in front, you managed to unceremoniously trample over someone’s feet. 
James, of course it was. Brilliant. 
He was leant against the wall, finishing off a cigarette. Chuckling, he held out the pack to you, but you shook your head. 
‘Leaving so soon?’ He grunted.
‘Yeah, not really my scene.’
‘Same here. Want to go somewhere else?’ Your heart stuttered at his question. You struggled to form a reply, gazing at him wide-eyed. He smirked and looked away. 'It’s alright, I know the deal. Your mother told you all I could give you was a reputation, right?'
You couldn’t hold back your excited smile anymore and his eyes lit up when he saw it. Shrugging faintly, your mind scurried around trying to find something witty and attractive to say. He dropped his cigarette butt and crushed it under his boot before slowly approaching you. Stopping a couple inches away, he smirked down at your dazed expression.
‘Come out with me tomorrow.’
---
You told your mother that you were having a day at the local library. You weren’t necessarily lying- you had no idea what Bucky had in mind, so anything was a possibility. 
He was waiting by the monument in the town centre, like he’d said yesterday. 
‘So,’ you said, prompting him to turn towards you and smile, ‘what are we doing?’
He held his elbow out and you snaked your hand through it. 
‘You’ll see.’
Much to your surprise, he took you to the fair. You wandered around, hand enclosed in his, talking and laughing for hours. He bought you a hot dog and spent ages trying to win you a stuffed giraffe, but his aim wasn’t great. You couldn’t hold back your laughter after he missed for the fourth time, so he picked you up, swung you around and shouted that he was going to sell you to the carnival. 
When both of you were tired and full, he walked you to the park, pulling you down next to him on a bench and wrapping his arm tight around your waist.
‘Thanks Bucky.’ You said faintly.
‘For what?’
‘Didn’t think I’d be having much fun this summer, but I had a really nice time.’
He smirked and scooched even closer to you, his firm thigh pressed against yours and his thumb gently stroking your hip. There was a comfortable silence for a few seconds before he muttered to himself.
‘It ain’t right.’
‘What?’
He sighed, brushing his chin against your hair. ‘Your parents. Catholics, man- they just built you a temple and locked you away. You’ve barely lived.’
‘It’s not all bad.’ You whispered, relaxing your head against his shoulder and angling your face up towards his. 
‘Maybe.’ Adjusting himself, he turned towards you and put his free hand under your chin. ‘But that stained-glass never really lets in the sun.’
He pressed his lips against yours. Your stomach flipped. His hand moved from your chin to cradle the side of your neck and his thumb brushed softly across your cheek. He pressed towards you more firmly, sliding his tongue along your lips. He tasted like cigarettes and candy floss. Your knees tensed and your thighs started shaking. He must’ve noticed, because you felt a deep chuckle vibrating into your mouth, but that only made it worse. You melted into him, just about steadying yourself by gripping the lapels of his jacket. 
He pulled away, letting your head fall into the crook of his neck, keeping a tight grip on your waist. 
‘Not bad for a church girl.’
---
‘What is this?!’ Your mother burst into your room, looking horrified and holding her phone out in front of her.
You squinted at the screen, it was a photo. You and Bucky holding hands at the fair. Shit.
‘Where did you get that?’ You muttered.
‘Angela sent it to me. She saw you there, with him.’
You stood from your bed, ready to plead with her. ‘Look, he’s a nice guy, he’s-’ 
‘He is a criminal. And if you think you’re seeing him again, you’re wrong.’ She turned and started to storm away. 
You felt anger bubbling inside, nothing like you’d ever felt before. Everything Bucky had said, his anger at your parents- he was right. You’d thought about it before, of course you had, but all you’d ever felt was a kind of defeated acceptance. Now, you were pissed.  
‘I am not a fucking child.’ You screamed.
She jerked to a stop. Slowly twisting round, you saw her face was filled with venom. ‘We’ll speak again when you’re ready to apologise.’ She hissed, slamming your door behind her. You heard it lock.
Wow, that felt good. Really good. You flopped down onto your bed. Your head was spinning but you were grinning to yourself, still half in disbelief. You’d never stood up to her like that before and you were starting to regret not doing it sooner. 
Your phone started buzzing- Bucky.
‘Hi.’ You sighed into it.
‘Come to the window.’
Your gaze darted to the far end of your room and you fumbled off your bed. After briefly scanning the skyline, your eyes flickered down to the backyard lawn. Bucky was standing underneath your window, holding his phone to his ear, beaming up at you.
‘Came to ask if you wanted to come out, figured I probably shouldn’t knock on the front door.’
‘So you break into the garden?’ You chuckled.
He shrugged and flung his free arm out. ‘It’s romantic.’
‘Sure is.’ You grinned down at him before remembering where you were. ‘I can’t Buck. One of my mother’s friends saw us together yesterday. I’m locked in.’
‘Man, you’re living with psychopaths.’ You nodded and gave him a disheartened smile. ‘Look, I know they’re your parents, but you really don’t owe them anything. Especially after everything they’ve done.’
His words echoed around in your head, slowly becoming more convincing as you considered them. Before you could respond, the light from the room below you switched on and Bucky was immediately illuminated with bright yellow light. Without missing a beat, he sprinted towards the fence and vaulted into next door’s garden. You heard a breathy ‘I’ll see you soon babe’ through the phone before he hung up.  
Your father ran out of the back door, pretty quickly deciding not to give chase. He looked up at you with anger in his eyes but you didn’t waver. You were already locked in your room for the foreseeable future, what else could he possibly do?
---
He could force you to clean all the floors in the house on your hands and knees, apparently. Scrubbing for hours and hours with him watching over you like a hawk. Your parents had pretty swiftly gone from strict but harmless religious zealots to borderline prison wardens. As soon as he left the room, you pulled your phone out and hammered out a message to Bucky. 
Will you come get me? I need out.
You stared at your screen, willing him to reply before your father came back. After what felt like ages, it finally buzzed.
On my way. Pack a bag.
You jumped up from the floor and sprinted up the stairs to your room, grabbing handfuls of whatever you could reach and shoving it into your backpack. You heard your father scurrying around on the ground floor before stomping up the stairs, shouting your name. Before he made it to your room, the faint rumble of a motorbike engine started in the distance and your heart jumped.
Running into the hallway, you pushed past your father without even looking up at him and scrambled down the stairs. You pulled the front door open and a wall of fresh air hit you, allowing you to take your first clean, deep breath of the day. Since you woke up all you’d been doing was huffing floor-cleaning chemicals.
Bucky came round the corner on his bike and you almost felt like bursting into tears. Waves of relief passed through every muscle in your body and you ran down the front steps to meet him.
You leapt on to the back of his bike, still in your pyjamas, and wrapped your arms around his waist as tight as you could. It felt like you were running entirely on adrenaline. Your parents were screaming your name behind you, but they were quickly drowned out by the roaring of the motorbike coming back to life. 
‘Shit, I’m not exactly dressed for a ride.’ You mumbled into his ear through your heavy breaths. ‘Don’t even have a helmet.’
You felt him vibrate with laughter as he gunned the engine and sped away.
‘Ah, don’t worry, you’ll be fine darlin.’ He raised his arm and flipped off your parents. ‘Only the good die young.’
---
Part Two
---
372 notes · View notes
Note
I was just thinking about how sweet madix & riley, and alexi & micahs friendship. and it had me thinking....maybe would you write something where madix & riley are both laid up in bed with the stomach flu, riley being worse off. madix tries his best to comfort an emotional and sick riley, but it’s hard when he feels so bad himself. cue a quick phone call to alexi & micah to ask if they would mind bringing them a few supplies and perhaps some help. absolutely no pressure of course! <3
Ahh thank you so much for the lovely request! I’m really happy with this one :) 
-----------------------------
Madix does not consider himself a sympathetic puker. That’s why when Riley threw up into the bucket for the third time that night, Madix knew it wasn’t empathy that made his own stomach turn.
Riley shivered and spat into the bucket, feeling horrendous and entirely sick of this stomach bug. No pun intended because he was in no mood to be making jokes. All day, his head had been either buried in a bucket or hovering over the toilet. Currently, he preferred the bucket because it allowed him to sit on the couch. It was nice to be able to lean against Madix and have his shoulders rubbed.
Swallowing a sudden wave of nausea, Madix handed Riley a cloth to wipe his mouth. Riley reached for it, but stopped mid-way. His throat bobbed as his face got even paler. The boy still had one more retch in him. Madix, seeing this, brought the bucket back to his lap. He turned his head to the side so as to not trigger his own belly anymore.
With nothing left in his stomach to throw up, Riley dry heaved. His whole body quivered against Madix from the force of it. He might also have been shaking from the sobs that racked his frame. “Madix…make it stop,” he begged, with snot and tears running down his face.
“Oh love, I’m sorry.” Under normal circumstances, Madix might have said that he would gladly take the pain for himself, but he guessed it would be redundant at this point.
Along with the sadness, Madix also guessed that Riley was getting frustrated with this virus. He hadn’t been able to eat anything all day without it coming back up. Then again, they didn’t have much food in the house that wouldn’t unsettle his stomach. They were running low on supplies, and Madix was running low on energy.
He started to suspect that perhaps Riley wasn’t the only victim of this illness when the same nausea hit his system. This was earlier that day when he was trying to get Riley to eat something, meanwhile the food that he put in his own stomach was sitting uneasily. The nausea kicked in then, and he stupidly decided not to upset his stomach anymore by drinking water. No one had been nagging at him to stay hydrated, but now he wished there could be. Riley was much too upset and sick to tell – not that Madix could blame him. Still, he had to tell Riley something, before he threw up right then and there. That would absolutely not make the situation better.
Riley groaned and took the cloth to wipe his mouth. He was indeed frustrated. “I still feel nauseous…” he mumbled while hugging his stomach. “I hate this.”
“Believe me,” Madix said without making eye contact, “I know how you feel.”
“What do you mean?”
Madix rubbed the back of his neck. “I uh…don’t feel so hot either.”
Riley’s eyes grew wide. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening. Normally he could deal with Madix being sick if he was already sick himself. But the human brain is a clusterfuck of an organ, and sometimes it cannot be expected to act predictably. Sometimes your brain tells you that everything sucks, and that crying is the only solution, and that Madix being sick is the worst possible thing to happen right now. Who was going to take care of us?? How would we deal with a sick Madix while we’re sick?? Because apparently Riley’s brain thought of itself and Riley as two separate entities.
“Are you going to throw up?” Riley asked with an unsteady voice.
Madix immediately regretted telling Riley how he felt. He watched his boyfriend’s eyes grow ten sizes, and watched his chest heave frantically. He guessed the combination of having a fever and feeling terrible made the perfect recipe for panic.
Before Madix could lie about needing to throw up, Riley gagged into his hand. The emotions and nausea became too much, and his stomach was back at it again. Luckily Madix shoved the bucket under his chin just in time to catch the bitter yellow bile that spilled past his lips.
Without thinking about it, Madix stood up from the couch after handing over the bucket. Seeing the thick bile come from his boyfriend’s mouth was too much for his own stomach to handle. Saliva was quickly coating his tongue. “Ry, I have to…” he mumbled with a hand over his mouth. “…I’ll be right back.”
Madix felt bad for leaving Riley in the middle of vomiting, but he desperately needed to do the same. His legs led him to the bathroom where he fell to his knees in front of the toilet. The remnants of his lunch rushed up his throat and splattered into the bowl. A wet belch interrupted the stream, but was soon followed by another wave of vomit. Madix squeezed his eyes shut involuntarily, wetting his eyelashes with tears. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the rim.
His stomach gurgled loudly. He felt like the organ was getting revenge for being forced to wait so long. He wrapped his arms around his aching belly and moaned. It was hell, and now he knew how Riley truly felt. Madix couldn’t help but despair at the thought of going through the same things Riley had all morning. And he would need to do it alone.
In his hazy feverish state, Madix had a thought. The fact that his fried mind was able to come up with a thought was shocking, but there it was.
His phone! Where was his phone? He needed to make a call.
But first he needed to gag over the toilet bowl for another few minutes. For now, it seemed like his stomach just wanted to be an asshole and make him think that he was going to puke. The threat of puking never disappeared, but soon Madix got tired of waiting. And fuck, he could hear Riley calling to him from the living room. Riley’s voice sounded thick from having just brought up another sludge of bile.
Madix wanted to go to him, to rub his back and tell him that everything was going to be okay. But if Riley felt anything like how Madix was feeling, he didn’t think that anything would ever be okay. And guess what? What if Madix wanted someone to rub his back? He wanted someone to tell him that everything would be okay.  
That’s when he remembered the call that he was going to make. The phone was in his pocket, but even that felt too far for him to reach. Slowly, Madix propped his back up against the tub and called Micah. He put it on speaker so that he didn’t have to hold the phone to his ear.
Micah answered on the first ring, but could only hear heavy breathing on the other end. “Madix? Are you there?
Madix finally got the energy to respond. He was weak. “Can you…come over?”
“Madix? I can’t hear you very well. You sound all echo-ish.” Micah’s voice was so loud as it reverberated in the bathroom. “Are you okay?”
“No ‘m really sick. Riley too.” Madix felt sweat dripping down his forehead. “Please come over.” He hoped that Micah could understand his messy speech.
There was ruffling on Micah’s end before, “oh okay, okay. Just hang tight. We’ll be right there.”
“Wait…Bring stuff.”
“Bring stuff?”
“We’re…dehy…” he was going to say ‘dehydrated’ but there were some technical difficulties in his brain. The hardware was overheating. He found a solution. “…thirsty.”
                                                      …
With some deductive skills, Micah had a pretty good guess for what was ailing his friends. The echo of the phone call easily told him that Madix was in a bathroom. Dehydration plus camping out in a bathroom were not hard puzzle pieces to fit together.
He and Alexi stopped by the store for Gatorade, soup, and anything else needed to fight a stomach virus. While Alexi debated over which flavour of sport drink to get, Micah rushed him along. “Just pick one! Madix sounded horrible on the phone.”
“What if they don’t like the yellow kind?”
“Oh my god, let’s just go!”
“Fine…” Alexi muttered under his breath, “but if they hate it, it’s your fault.”
Micah accepted full responsibility if they didn’t like the drink, and raced for the checkout. They threw the bags into the car and off they went to help their friends once again.
Upon entering, they immediately found Riley sleeping on the couch with the bucket on the floor. It was still full of bile because clearly neither of the sick boys had the energy to clean it.
While Alexi placed the groceries in the kitchen and began to open the drinks, Micah crouched by Riley’s head. His skin was deathly pale. Micah woke him up with a light shake.
Riley jumped a little as he awoke from his restless sleep. He rubbed his eyes, not understanding what he was seeing. He could swear that Micah was in his house for some reason. And he was right. “Micah?”
“Hey Ry. How are you feeling?”
Riley looked around and spotted Alexi as well. His brow furrowed in confusion. “What are you doing here?”
“Madix called us,” Alexi answered while carrying over a bottle of Gatorade. “Can you sit up and take a sip of this for me?”
Riley did sit up and accepted the bottle. His mouth was insanely dry, but that’s not what he cared about in that moment. “Oh my god Madix. Go help him!” He looked worriedly between the two boys who just showed up. “I know he’s been throwing up in the bathroom, but I just – I couldn’t… I –”
“Shh, slow down,” Micah said softly. “It’s not your fault. I’ll go check on him right now.” As he left, Micah heard Riley ask if they brought any other colour of Gatorade. Yellow wasn’t his favourite.
Micah was scared that he was going to find Madix passed out in a puddle of his own vomit. That was not the case. He found Madix drenched in sweat, not passed out but barely lucid. Madix didn’t even react when Micah came into the bathroom. His head was resting on the toilet seat and it looked like he was fighting another wave of nausea. The bowl was full of half-digested stomach contents. Madix whimpered quietly to himself.
Micah slowly sat down, and immediately put his hand on Madix’s damp back. “Oh Maddy, look at you.” The heat from his back was astounding.
Madix did not open his eyes, but his shoulders lost a bit of their tension. “Micah?”
“Yeah, I’m here.” Micah’s chest ached when the boy reached out his hand to hold onto him. He was usually only very touchy with Alexi, but Madix looked like he needed it to survive. Micah scooted closer and brushed a hand over Madix’s cheek. Of course, he found it burning. Normally, Micah would feel very awkward touching a friend’s face but there was something about Madix’s desperation that made it okay. The way Madix leaned entirely into the touch made Micah forget about any apprehensions.
Madix squinted from the bright light. He hadn’t realized how long his eyes had been closed for. He also hadn’t realized how much he needed the presence of someone else. It was like drowning in dark water. No one around to pull him from the waves that kept pushing him under. No one to pierce the thick darkness where he found himself.
Then suddenly a lifeline.
A choked sob came from Madix. “I feel horrible, Micah. I can’t stop throwing up.”
“I know, I know.” Micah rubbed his back harder. He tried to hold back his own emotions. He had never seen Madix this vulnerable.
“I – I couldn’t…. st-stay with Riley.” Tears streaked down Madix’s face as he cried and struggled to catch his breath. “It hurts…my belly.”
Micah didn’t say anything. He just continued to let Madix know he was there. He wanted to let Madix be completely selfish for once in his life, God knows he deserves it.
If Madix were lucid enough to hear what he was saying, he would have told himself to stop making such a big deal about a little stomach-ache. The good news was that he wasn’t lucid enough, and this provided him with the outlet he needed. Somehow, his head found Micah’s shoulder and he rested it there while he feverishly rambled.
Micah let this go one for as long as he could, but he had to stop it eventually. Madix was hiccupping and crying, and generally working himself up to the point of making himself sick all over again. When the hiccupping turned into empty heaves, Micah spoke. “Okay, hon, you have to let yourself breathe. Can you breathe with me?”
And Micah took a long inhale, making sure that Madix did the same. Through sniffles and hiccups, he copied the rise and fall of Micah’s chest. “That’s it, Mads. Again.”
The two of them took another deep breath in, and Madix’s breathing slowly became less shaky. Micah smiled at the progress. “That’s it, Madix. Everything is going to be okay.”
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vortahoney · 3 years
Text
Doing the Shopping- Re-Animator
@dilfsisko @bashircore this is the 5 + 1 grocery store thing!!
Herbert did not like going to the grocery store. Apparently, it was unfortunate he had to eat at all. Thankfully, he now had a boyfriend who could do it for him, and Dan was more than happy to get away from the damned lab for a while.
Sometimes he purposefully took too long. Examining each product and making long conversation with anyone who would listen.
As he went along, he was looking for which register worker he would most like to talk to. He settled on a woman with dark brown skin, what looked like a tool belt under her store-issued vest, and a nametag that read ‘Amaya’.
“Good afternoon,” he gave a small greeting. “How are you?”
“Can’t complain.” Amaya shrugged.
“I couldn’t tell you the last time I left the house.”
“Been busy?”
“Ohh yeah. My um, partner-“ there was a snap of relief in Dan’s chest as he saw her excited reaction. “He doesn’t like doing the shopping. So I get stuck with it.”
“My girlfriend.” She put extra emphasis on the word. “Is the same way.”
“Well, my guy, Herb,” Dan continued, smiling widely with relief, as she rung up his canned peaches. “Well. He’s very passionate about his… work. He gets this look in his eye, real bright-like.”
“He sounds like quite the guy.”
“Oh he is, barely sleeps though.” He chuckled. “Oh um, I’ve got a coupon for that.”
She took it. “So what’s he do?”
“Hm?” He looked up as he put his grocery bags back in his cart.
“Your boyfriend. You said he’s passionate about his work. What is it?”
“Oh! He’s a doctor, kinda.” Dan smiled before leaving.
***
“Peaches again?” Amaya raised an eyebrow at Dan’s cart, which had a good twelve cans of peaches.
“Herbert’s been getting really into peaches.”
“Sounds um… obsessive.”
Dan laughed. “Oh yeah. He certainly can be. He’s in his lab right now, has been for awhile. He’s hell bent on his ‘experiments’. That’s how we met, actually.”
“Oh, you’re a doctor too?”
“Yeah, kinda.” Dan shrugged. “How’s Shauna?”
“She’s good. Just got a job at a sunglasses kiosk in Boston.”
“Pretty long drive.”
“Yeah. I guess it is.” She finished scanning the peaches. “Wait what does ‘kinda’ mean? Are you not a doctor?”
“You do not want to know, Amaya.”
“Alright,” she chuckled. “No further questions.”
***
Over the next few weeks, Dan went grocery shopping five times. Each time, Dan and Amaya grew ever closer. They always had new gossip for each other, about their partners or not. Dan talked about his books and his med school experience, Amaya talked about her job and law school applications. It was a great relationship.
“Amaya!”
“What’s the situation, Daniel?” She smiled. “Oh, no peaches today!”
“I got tired of them. We’re doing soup now. More variety there. Herb slept in his glasses last night.”
“They broken?”
“Just bent a bit. They’re all crooked now, it’s adorable.” Dan got out his wallet. “He slept at his desk over his notes.”
“Do you want me to help bring those out to your car?”
“Sure!”
Amaya grabbed a few bags. “So how was that book?”
“Hm?” Dan looked over at her.
“Oh, first time you came in. You bought a book called ‘The Saint’s Perversion’ from the newsstand.”
“Oh, didn’t finish it. It was erotica.”
Chortling, Amaya’s face scrunched up. “Did you expect it not to be?? It’s called ‘The Saint’s Perversion’, dude!”
He opened the trunk. A small green glint caught Amaya’s eye as she placed the bags in the car. Investigating slightly further, she noticed it was a syringe full of something glowing and green. “Hey, what is tha—“
Dan slammed the trunk closed. “Nothing! I gotta get back, good talking to you!”
“Alright! Tell Herb I said hi.”
“Tell Shauna the same!”
“Will do!”
***
Dan was unusually quiet in the checkout line, save for the small, angry murmurs to himself.
“So,” Amaya spoke up. “How’s Herbert?”
He gave a harsh laugh. “Busy as ever. Spending every day in that damn lab cooking up his…” he stopped before he could say ‘monstrosities’.
“I’m guessing you’re not on great terms?”
“No, we’re fighting. Again.”
“Again?”
“We fight more often than not these days.” He sighed, practically slamming his gallon of milk down on the counter. “He’s always working or yelling at something. The sex is… basically nonexistent. No, no, completely nonexistent. He’s too busy working. I’m too busy helping him! I told him today that I’m done with his sick power games and that I can either be his lab partner or his romantic one.”
“Why are you still with him?”
“I…” he paused. “I don’t know.”
***
Dan came in the next day, nothing but a pack of batteries in his hand. “Amaya!”
She leaned over her register. “You seem chipper. Get over your fight?”
“Sorta.” Dan smiled and looked down, bouncing on his heels. “You asked me yesterday why I’m still with him.”
“I did indeed.” She rested her chin on her palm. “I sense you’re going somewhere with this.”
“Well, I can agree that he’s a difficult person. Difficult to work with, difficult to talk to, difficult to love… sometimes.” Dan’s face softened and he wrung his hands together. “But sometimes… it’ll be late at night, I’ll be staring at the ceiling, and he’ll have been working for… forty eight hours straight. And he’ll crawl under the sheets and curl into my side.”
“Awww.”
“He doesn’t really sleep. Ever. So it’s more for my benefit than his. But he does get bored easily, and he does this cute little thing where he traces circles on my chest. Or- or I’ll ask him a question about his work and he’ll just light up. Or when there’s an accident in the lab and the first thing he’ll do is make sure I’m okay. He cares about me, and… I think the world would be a worse place without him.”
Lightly smacking Dan’s shoulder, Amaya let out a small laugh. “Dan!! That was so cute!”
“You think?”
“Why are you telling me?!” Her voice was a squeak at this point. “Why aren’t you saying this stuff to your boyfriend?”
“I’m going to!”
“Did you really need the batteries?”
“Maybe not exactly…”
Amaya snorted. “Dude.”
“I wanted to make sure it was okay!!”
“It’s more than okay.” She squeezed his shoulder. “You should bring him around sometime.”
“If I can get him out of the house.”
***
Something was strange about the next store visit. A man was on Dan’s arm, a shorter man with big glasses and dark brown hair. Scowling, his arms crossed, he looked like he did not want to be there.
“Hey,” Amaya nudged her coworker. “Be, do you mind taking my register? I’m gonna make some rounds.”
She nodded. “You got fifteen minutes, I get out at four today.”
“I’ll be right back!” Amaya hurried off, waving at her. “Promise!”
She jogged up behind Dan. “Hey you two.”
“Hey, Amaya!”
“Yes, hello.”
“So, you must be the famous Herbert, then.” Amaya stuck out her hand to shake.
He did not take it. “Unfortunately, not yet. You may be confusing me with a different, more famous Herbert.”
“No, I just mean that Dan talks about you a lot. You and your work?”
“The work?” The man glared at him. “What have you—“
“Nothing specific, dearest.”
“You know I loathe when you call me that.” The blush on his cheeks betrayed his statement.
‘This is Herbert?’ Amaya thought to herself.
“Amaya, you aren’t at the register today?”
“Nah, I’m a ‘can I help you?’ right now.”
As they were talking, the man started drawing small, impatient circles on Dan’s bicep. Definitely Herbert.
“How’s the work been going?”
Herbert perked up, eyes brightening. “Fantastically. Our specimens have been responding excellently to the— um, the prototype.”
“I see what you meant, Dan. He is passionate.”
“This work is important.” Herbert frowned.
“I bet. Anyway, anything I can help you guys with?”
Dan shook his head.
“Well I’ll leave you lovebirds alone. Nice to meet you, Herb, I see why Dan likes you so much.”
“Likes… me?”
Dan gave a small, breathy chuckle. “Well, tell Shauna I said hi.”
“Will do!” She waved at them as she jogged back to her register.
So that was Herbert.
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pillow-anime-talk · 4 years
Text
lost princess.
synopsis: They are tasked with finding the lost daughter of the Emperor of Japan.
# tags: scenarios; strangers/?; drama; but also a lil bit of fluff & comedy; sfw
includes: female reader ft. daisuke kambe & haru katou {fkbu}
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— DAISUKE
“... HEUSC, give me a preview of cameras all over Tokyo. She can’t be too far away.” The man touched the small, black earring on his ear, and his butler quickly realized the request, showing dozens of camera recordings from different parts of the city on a large, bright screen. “Compare the face of the Emperor’s daughter with all the faces from cameras of the last twenty hours, and if you find anything, give me the exact time of her last whereabouts.”
“... Princess Y/N was last seen at the grocery store, here’s the coordinates.” The butler answered truthfully and sending the details to the detective’s phone. “It was less than three minutes ago, so the Princess is still inside the store.”
Daisuke got up from his chair and walked towards the door, telling his butler to inform him of your changing whereabouts all the time.
It took the millionaire less than six minutes to get to you (of course HEUSC changed the traffic lights all over town for him, lmao). Then he parked in front of the building and got out of the expensive car. After a few seconds, he went inside, asking HEUSC which shopping aisle you are in.
It turned out that you were choosing a few unhealthy snacks at this point and an iced tea that you unfortunately couldn’t reach due to your height. Happily, Daisuke reached it and handed it to you, at which you smiled gently.
“Thank you.”
“The Princess should be in the palace now, not in the store, shopping.” He replied and looking at you, which you sighed and turned towards the white shelf, trying to not pay attention to the black-haired man standing behind your person. You just choosing something for tonight’s dinner, humming a song played through the speakers. “Are you listening to me, Princess?”
“Don’t call me that, please. Just let me pass my time like a normal human being. I’m tired of living in a palace like a pretty toy. I just wanted to... rest.” You grunted, turning to him again. “It’s nice that my family is worried about me and sending you to me, but it would be much more nice if they finally let me live with my own way. I’m too old to watch over me.”
“I understand, but my job was to bring you home, so let’s go.”
“Four hours.” You lifted your head slightly to meet his eyes. “Give me four more hours so I can feel normal.” You said softly, squeezing the colorful tea bottle. “Please.”
“Provided that I accompany you.”
“Okay, I don’t mind. Would you like something to eat too? Chips, chocolate or maybe... ramen?” You asked with another huge smile and the detective breathed out loud.
You were even adorable in his eyes.
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— HARU
Haru yawned softly as he pushed the heavy door and entered the McDonald’s restaurant. He quickly went to the checkout, ordered the selected products, and when those were ready, he picked up the red tray, walked forward. There was one empty seat on the couch next to the huge window, so he headed over there. However, when he got much closer, he noticed that a young woman wearing an oversized gray sweatshirt and black pants sitting on it.
“... Hello. Sorry, it’s a free seat?” He asked pleasantly, and you nodded, inviting him. The detective smiled gratefully and sat down in front of you.
“Hard day at work?” You asked shyly, starting a conversation and scanning his tired face at the same time. The man merely nodded, biting on a warm beef burger.
“You don’t even know how much. The last time I slept was probably two days ago or maybe three...? I don’t know.” He laughed sadly, and you frowned.
“So why don’t you rest a bit?”
“The detective never rests. Especially during a difficult mission.” He replied honestly, and you nodded once again, understanding his words. You two talked for a short while, until at one point you pushed the coffee you hadn’t even started in his direction. He looked at you with a raised eyebrow, and you smiled.
“Since you’re still working, maybe this will get you back on your feet. At least I hope so.”
He was silent for a moment, watching you more closely. He noticed some special marks on your face, scanned your warm smile and deep eyes, sighing to himself.
“... I guess, I’m done with my work right now, Princess, but thank you.” He chuckled softly and you tense all your muscles. “We’ll finish the food and we’ll go back to your house. Relax, you’ll be fine, it’s just that your whole family is very worried about you.”
“Can we... go back tomorrow? I wanted to go to the arcade, try the alcohol from the store, eat the ramen from the peper cup and…” You started to stutter, and Haru laughed much louder, seeing your embarrassed expression and pleading gaze.
“All right, Princess. According to your wishes.”
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