#didn’t mean to wait this long to post but work was exhausting this week

[beskarandblasters]

Bluffing Season

Enemies to Lovers!Frankie Morales x F!Reader

Main Masterlist | Frankie Morales Masterlist

Author’s note: Ya know like “cuffing season” lmao!! Thank you to @pascalispretty, @fhatbhabie, and @hyzer34 for beta reading! 🤍

Summary: Frankie Morales is your next door neighbor of the worst kind. To put it simply, you two can’t stand each other. But when his girlfriend breaks up with him right before the holidays he asks you to be his fake date for Christmas, not wanting to go home to his family single yet again. You reluctantly say yes and as you spend time with him you realize he’s not as terrible as you once thought.

Word count: 14.6k (what the fuck lol)

Warnings: reader is able-bodied, reader is a baker, two years post Triple Frontier, slow burn, enemies to lovers, fake dating, jealousy, made up lore for Frankie/his family tree, reader lowkey got mommy issues (just a shitty family in general), drinking, mentions of drugs, food/eating, Frankie describing his trauma, some Spanish used, oral sex (F receiving), vaginal sex, unprotected sex, cream pie, pet names (cariño), sort of ambiguous time skips, Frankie is either a Libra or a Scorpio!!, no use of y/n

Fic notifs: @beskarandblastersfics Fic recs: @kelbellsficrecs

Late October

Beep Beep Beep

Ugh. Another shit start to your day with shit sleep as per usual. Running your own bakery means a lot of early mornings. Normally you don’t mind waking up early since you love what you do. You bought a new house on Magnolia Drive eight months ago which made your commute to the bakery much shorter. However… Your realtor neglected to tell you that it came with the worst neighbor on the face of the Earth. His name is Frankie and you can’t stand him. When you first moved in, he seemed normal, an ex-military, single guy living on his own. The deception didn’t last long, though. Because after about two weeks of living next to him, the shitstorm commenced. And now you wished you picked literally any other house in this city. His friends are at his house all the time, one of them always blocking your driveway with their pickup truck. They stay until at least four in the morning, blasting music when Frankie knows you have to work early the next day. He’s probably the worst neighbor in the entire state of Florida. 

You’re getting in your car to start your morning commute for work when Frankie is grabbing the morning paper from his mailbox. You physically recoil when you see him. There’s a harsh line of demarcation separating your lawn from his because he cuts his grass once in a blue moon. It’s such an eyesore.  

“Have you thought about, I don’t know, cutting your lawn?” you ask before shutting your car door.

He shoots you the middle finger and mouths something you can’t hear. You roll down the window for him to take a few steps closer to your car and repeat, “Stop feeding the fucking stray cats.”

Okay, maybe you aren’t the perfect neighbor either. But doesn’t he deserve it anyway?

“Bite me,” you respond, rolling your eyes and backing out of your driveway.

He rolls his eyes, too, and storms off. You giggle to yourself, feeling proud that you got a rise out of him. If he’s going to piss you off the least you could do is return the favor. 

-

Work is fine, a little busier than normal. But the afternoon exhaustion is hitting. You can’t wait to go home, take a shower, and maybe get some sleep before Frankie’s friends come over. It’s Friday and they’ll be even more unruly than they normally are during the week. Don’t they have lives? Or like… a fucking family to go home to?? Probably not if they’re hanging out with the likes of him. 

But alas, it’s finally time to go home. You close up the bakery and get in your car to drive back, excited to just melt into the couch for a few hours. As you turn onto your street you see that Frankie’s driveway is empty, for now, that is. He’s not outside, either. So that means you get to just slip inside your house without a hostile interaction for once. Score!

You pull into your driveway, get out of your car, and start walking towards your front door when a disgruntled voice stops you dead in your tracks. 

“Hey!”

Not again. 

“What do you want now?” you say, whipping around and using the bitchiest voice you can muster. 

“Cut your fucking tree,” Frankie says, holding up a lemon. 

…Is he fucking for real? 

You have a lemon tree at the edge of your backyard and a few branches hang over the fence and into Frankie’s yard. You never thought to trim it because you assumed you were doing something nice for him, letting him have some of the lemons. But no, apparently he wants to complain about free fruit. 

“You’re complaining about… free fruit?”

He stutters a bit, tripping on his words as if he just realized how stupid he sounds.

“I guess not.”

“That’s what I thought,” you say, turning and heading into your house.

The fucking nerve of that man. 

The rest of the night is pretty uneventful aside from a bitter man complaining about free fruit. You hear Frankie’s friends next door and grumble to yourself. How do they have the energy to party every single day of the week? You turn in early and do your best to ignore how loud they are, getting ready for another busy day at the bakery. Tomorrow’s Saturday, the busiest day of the week, and you need to be well rested. Well rested as you can be with all the noise from next door. 

-

The morning’s been typical so far; wake up feeling exhausted, argue with Frankie in the driveway, drive to work, open the bakery; and the usual stuff. It isn’t until halfway through your business hours that something… interesting happens. A woman enters the shop and browses the cakes in your display case. 

“I’d like to get some writing on a cake.”

“Sure! Which one would you like?”

“That one,” she says, pointing to one on the bottom, a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and strawberries in the middle. 

“Okay,” you say, grabbing it out of the case and taking it to your decorating table, “What would you like it to say?”

“Well, it’s for my boyfriend, Frankie so I’d like it to say “Happy birthday, Franklin” with a fish. I guess his nickname was catfish in the military.”

You know for a fact this is for Frankie because of the nickname. You’ve heard his friends screaming it next door when they’re drunk. But you also know for a fact his name is not Franklin, it’s Francisco. You didn’t have to ask him or anything, Amazon has delivered some of his packages to your house in the past by mistake. So this is fucking hilarious. 

“Any specific color for the writing?” you ask, stifling a chuckle. 

“Black is fine.”

You get to work on the writing and have mixed feelings. It’s kinda shitty that his own girlfriend doesn’t know his full name. And it’s also shitty that he’s going to have a birthday cake at his party with the wrong name on it. You should feel bad but… Nah, this guy sucks. 

You glance over at his girlfriend before moving on to the fish. Although she clearly doesn’t know her boyfriend that well at all, you can’t deny that she’s beautiful. And all of a sudden you’re feeling… jealous? Wait, why are you getting jealous of her? For a guy you can’t even stand?

You gotta finish decorating this cake and get her out of here so you can try to deal with your conflicting feelings. You package the cake back up and walk it to the counter to cash her out. 

“Okay, your total is fifty-three forty-nine. Cash or card?”

“Card,” she says, tapping it on the counter. 

The receipt prints out of the machine for her to sign but before you hand it to her you look at the name printed on the bottom; Heather Ryan. 

“Okay, just need your signature and then you’re all set!” 

She signs her name on the receipt and slides it back to you. 

“It looks great! Thank you so much!” she says before grabbing the cake and leaving. 

Now that she’s gone you can process your weird and sudden emotions. You didn’t know he had a girlfriend and to be honest, it kind of surprises you that he has one in the first place considering his… lifestyle. But why are you jealous? He’s the worst. 

Although… When you first moved in, you did think he was kinda cute before he showed his true colors. He got you with his curly brown hair peeking out underneath his hat but the attraction didn’t last long. Once his antic began, the attraction dissipated. 

…Or so you thought.

Stop it, you tell yourself. He has made your life hell for the better part of a year. 

You bury down your weird and confusing feelings for now, trying to continue the rest of the day as normal. The rest of the day is pretty uneventful and soon enough five o’clock rolls around. Just as you’re locking up the bakery, you get a text from your friend, Ally. 

Hey, bestieee!! Drinks tonight?

You know what, why not?

You respond with: 

Oooh, what time and where?

You get in your car and drive home, excited to have something to look forward to tonight. And at least you’ll be gone for some of Frankie’s antics. As you pull into your driveway you notice his friends aren’t there yet, all the better for you. You  check your phone and Ally says;

7:30. Let’s go to the Harp tonight!! I’ll meet you there. 

She’s referring to a bar downtown but to you, it honestly doesn’t matter where you go. You need to blow off some steam and work through your weird feelings with your friend, get her opinion on this random burst of jealousy you’re feeling. 

You take a shower, change into a skirt and fitted tee, and do your makeup before getting ready to leave. Just to find one of Frankie’s friends blocking your driveway, of course. Why wouldn’t they do this shit on the one night you have plans?

Nah, this isn’t going to fly. You gotta say something. You march right over to his door and judging by the noise coming from inside, his birthday party is tonight. Alright, maybe you won’t be a huge bitch about this right now. Especially when you know how his birthday cake turned out…

You knock and someone other than Frankie answers the door. You recognize him as one of Frankie’s friends but you can put a name to his face. 

“Oh, shit! Neighbor girl is here!” he says, calling out to Frankie over his shoulder. 

Before you can ask him about the truck blocking your driveway he says, “I’m Benny. Come on in!”

Yeah, he’s clearly drunk. Whatever this will be quick. You reluctantly step inside and look around. You’ve never actually been inside Frankie’s house before. It’s honestly nicer than you expected considering his lifestyle and the way he keeps his lawn. You’re standing in his living room with Frankie and three other men. You’re feeling anxious all of a sudden but you don’t show it. Who knows what Frankie said about you to these guys? 

“Look who it is, Fish!” Benny says, putting a hand on your shoulder. 

“Guys, this is my neighbor,” Frankie says. He looks a little… nervous? You’ve never seen him like this before. 

“I’m Santiago,” a man with dark hair says, shaking your hand. 

“Nice to meet you,” you say, forcing a fake smile. 

“And this is Will,” Santiago continues, gesturing to a man with short blond hair. 

“You got anyone else coming, Fish?” Santiago asks, turning towards Frankie, “What about Heather?”

“Uh, she’s not coming.”

“Shit, man. Is everything alright?”

“We’re fine. But actually, can you help me with something in the kitchen?” Frankie asks, making eye contact with you. He looks bothered, like there’s something he wants to say but isn’t letting it come out. 

“Sure,” you reply, following him to the kitchen where he opens the refrigerator. The cake is sitting on the shelf in its box and your stomach drops. Poor guy. 

He grabs the cake from the refrigerator and sets it on the kitchen counter. 

“Can you help fix this? She put the wrong name,” he says, opening the lid to reveal the cake you decorated earlier today.

“I can try. Can you get me a butter knife?”

He opens his silverware drawer and hands you a knife. 

“Well, I think I can smear out the name and make a swirly pattern around the happy birthday?”

“Whatever you have to do,” he says softly. 

You take the knife and swipe away the “Franklin”, making a tie-dye design on the cake but stopping at the fish.

“You want me to leave the fish?”

“Nah, scrap it. Catfish is pretty much the only thing she knew about me anyway,” he says dejectedly.

“Right…” you respond awkwardly, swiping away your hard work from earlier. You can only assume he doesn’t know this birthday cake is from your bakery. But you fix the cake the best you can so it just says “Happy Birthday” with a swirly design. 

“That better?” 

“Yes. Thank you,” he says, letting out a sigh, “I just didn’t want them to see it.”

“I get that-”

“Let’s get this fucking party started!” Benny says, entering the kitchen and slamming a six-pack of beer on the counter. 

“Oh, actually I have to go-” you start. 

“What?? No way, you gotta stay,” Benny says, putting an arm around your shoulders. 

You could stay and just cancel your plans with Ally. But this is Frankie’s birthday party and you weren’t exactly invited. And you’re both aware of how much you painfully dislike each other. You look at Frankie, searching his eyes for an indication of how he’s feeling. 

“You’re more than welcome to join us,” he says softly. 

“Are you sure? I don’t wanna impose.”

“Nooo, stay,” Benny says, looking at you with a wide grin on his face. 

“By all means,” Frankie says. 

“Fuck yeah,” Benny says, “Can I get you a drink? We have all sorts of shit.”

“Hard cider?”

“A woman with taste. I like it,” he says, removing the arm around your shoulders and opening the refrigerator. 

You pull out your phone to text Ally. It has to be something inconspicuous. She knows you hate Frankie with a passion so you can’t exactly say you’re partying with him and his friends right now. Maybe just lie and say you’re sick? 

You do exactly that, saying your stomach is bothering you. Just as you press send, Benny’s hanging you your hard cider. And now it’s just the three of you in Frankie’s kitchen, standing around awkwardly. 

“I have some of the MMA guys coming, too. That alright?” Benny says. 

“Fine with me. The more the merrier,” Frankie smiles. But the smile seems forced. 

Just Frankie says that there’s a knock on the door and it’s the guys Benny was referring to. A handful of men pile into Frankie’s living room with Will and Santiago, and now you’re the only girl here. And also sort of regretting your decision to cancel on Ally. 

“Let me introduce to you some of my friends!” Benny says cheerfully, grabbing your hand and leading you back to the living room. You exchange hello’s with Benny’s friends, a group of four guys whose names you can’t really be bothered to remember. 

Soon enough the folding table is pulled out and all of the guys are playing beer pong. You decide to just stand and watch, sipping your drink and keeping to yourself… except for Benny, who has been by your side all night. At first, it was kind of annoying but now that you’re talking to him he’s actually pretty cute. Or it’s just the alcohol talking. 

“Can I get you another drink?” he asks when yours is empty. 

“Sure,” you smile, handing the empty bottle to him. 

Now that you’re alone for a moment your eyes are scanning the room again, and they lock eyes with Frankie, who’s playing beer pong but not really paying attention. Benny comes back with your drink, handing it to you and leaning against the wall with his arm raised over his head. 

“Frankie never mentioned just how gorgeous you are.”

“Oh! Thank you,” you respond, caught you off guard. You’re feeling awkward, not knowing what to say back so your eyes are searching the room again. And once again, they lock with Frankie’s, whose eyes are… angry? But why is he angry? Is he… jealous? Nah, no way. He has a girlfriend. But she’s also proved herself to be shitty. And besides that, you two hate each other. Unless… you really don’t?

You decide to do a little experiment. Benny is super hot, but maybe you could turn up the flirting a bit and see just how jealous Frankie gets. 

And that’s exactly what you do. You’re laughing at all Benny’s jokes, falling for every cheesy pickup line, doing the thing where you look from his eyes, down to his lips, and back up to his eyes, literally anything to flirt. And even though it’s for an experiment, you’re having fun and you could actually see yourself maybe liking Benny.

You look over at Frankie, and to your surprise (and also delight?), he’s looking directly at you. His eyes are almost pleading with you. But at the end of the day, you don’t owe him anything. And he’s taken. So why stop all the fun?

“I just can’t believe this is the first time we’re meeting,” Benny says, shaking his head.

“I didn’t know Frankie had such nice friends!” you respond. 

Benny leans a little closer to you, his eyes fixed on your lips. Oh shit, is he really gonna kiss you? Right here? Right now? In front of everyone? 

But also… why not? 

You lean forward more too, inching closer and closing the gap between you two. Just as your lips are about to meet, Santiago shouts, “Jesus, Fish! What are you doing?!” 

You pull away from each other and look at what’s going on. It seems that Frankie royally screwed up the round of beer pong because he and Santiago just lost. 

“Alright, alright. Don’t yell at the birthday boy,” Will laughs. 

Santiago sighs and says, “Best two out of three?”

The other men shrug but Frankie excuses himself, saying, “I need another drink.”

You can’t help but feel like that was your fault. Shit, maybe Frankie does have some sort of crush on you? Because why else would he get jealous over his friend flirting with you? Wouldn’t he want that to happen, as a means of burying the hatchet between you two?

“I have to use the bathroom,” you say to Benny. 

“Down the hall on your right,” he says.

You set your drink down on the coffee table and walk through the kitchen, but before you head to the bathroom you take a look at Frankie, who’s sipping a beer and looking at his birthday cake. A look of confusion and uncertainty on his face. You just can’t help but feel bad for him in some sort of weird way. But there’s also a nagging feeling deep down inside you that’s telling you that you shouldn’t feel bad for him. This guy has been nothing but a complete asshole to you. Why do you care so much about his feelings? 

You head down to the bathroom and pull out your phone. There’s a text from Ally and thankfully she wasn’t upset about the plans getting canceled. But you look at the time and decide, you should just go home. Besides, it’s getting a little boring watching the men play beer pong and you’re running out of things to talk about with Benny. 

You head back into the living room and say to Benny, “I think I’m gonna head home.”

“Aw, okay. I’ll catch you later. But maybe you can come to one of my matches sometime?”

“I’d like that,” you smile. 

You poke your head into the kitchen and tell Frankie you’re leaving.

“Happy birthday by the way,” you say. 

He nods and waves his hand a little before you bid your goodbyes to everyone else and walk next door. And the only thought on your mind is… What the hell just happened?

You flop down on your couch and the room feels like it’s spinning, your mind swirling with all sorts of thoughts and emotions. You’re feeling a weird mix of confusion, pity, and also… apathy? You run through the basics: 

1. Frankie’s girlfriend sucks. 

2. It’s shitty that his birthday cake was messed up. 

3. You really don’t mind Benny at all and can see yourself liking him. 

4. At the end of the day, Frankie is still an asshole. 

And that trumps everything else, no matter how bad you feel for him. 

-

Mid-December 

Several weeks have gone by and you haven’t seen much of Frankie, or his friends for that matter. Lately, it feels like you've been living at the bakery twenty-four-seven. Especially since Thanksgiving just ended. But that also means you’re heading into another busy season; Christmas time. 

The holidays are your least favorite time of year. But running your own bakery means that you get to keep busy during the holidays. It’s always the perfect excuse for when your mother calls and asks why you’re not coming home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. You can usually get out of one and not the other. This year you skipped Thanksgiving so you’ll be due home for Christmas… unless you can think of another excuse to stay home again. But then you’ll get another phone call from your father claiming that “you’re breaking your mother’s heart” or whatever. 

From what you can tell, Frankie stayed home for Thanksgiving, too. Though you don’t know if his family is around here or not. His friends didn’t come over for Thanksgiving so you assume they were with their own families respectively. And you’re not really sure what happened with his girlfriend. So the two of you were just… alone that day. For some reason, the thought makes you kind of… sad? But like you told yourself weeks ago, don’t feel bad for Frankie, like at all. 

But now that you’re thinking of Frankie… he’s been his typical self, but maybe scaled back a bit? His lawn hasn’t been cut in God knows how long and his friends still come over to party here and there. But it’s definitely been a lot less than usual. Maybe the holidays are tough for him, too. 

Just as you’re leaving to go open the bakery the week before Christmas, you get a phone call from your mom. You sigh and roll your eyes because you already know what this is about. And you’ve been dreading this phone call since Thanksgiving. 

“Yes, mom?” you say as you answer the phone. 

“Is that any way to answer a phone call from your mother?” she says. God, you can already feel the judgment and disappointment seeping from her voice, even over the phone. 

“Ah, sorry Mom. How are you?”

“I’m just calling to see if we can expect you home for Christmas this year.”

“Uhh-”

“You know, since you broke your mother’s heart and didn’t come home for Thanksgiving.”

“I think.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, I’ve just been really busy, uh, with the bakery and all.”

“That’s always the excuse. I’m getting sick of your shit. I need a straight answer as to whether or not you’ll be home for Christmas now.”

As you open your mouth to respond, probably with some poorly thought-out rebuttal since you’re so heated, you spot Frankie walking across his lawn toward you. Perfect escape from this phone call maybe?

“Shit sorry Mom. Gotta go. My neighbor’s coming up to me.”

As you pull the phone away from your ear and hang up, you hear your mom’s angry protests. But you’re too focused on Frankie to care. Because what could he want with you now? You haven’t done anything to piss him off lately. That you can remember anyway… 

“Hey,” he says with a shaky breath.

“Hi,” you say awkwardly.

“I need to ask you for a favor.”

“Okay…”

“Feel free to say no because it’s weird but I don’t know what else to do. And I’m sorry to drop this on you but-”

“Spit it out.”

“Will you come home with me for Christmas as my date? It would be fake, of course.”

Oh. You definitely weren’t expecting that to be the favor he needed. And for some reason him adding in “it would be fake, of course” is so funny. It’s so funny that you actually burst out into a fit of laughter. 

“What’s so funny?”

“You’re not being serious.”

“I am.”

“But… why?”

“My girlfriend broke up with me right before Thanksgiving.”

“Let me get this straight. She put the wrong name on your birthday cake and you let her break up with you first?”

“It’s not funny.”

“I know it’s not.”

“So, you’ll help me?”

“Why can’t you just go home alone?”

“Because I can’t go home for another holiday alone. I already skipped Thanksgiving. My family’s always pestering me about settling down and I can’t take it anymore.”

“What’s in it for me?” you sigh. 

“Uh, you don’t have to go home to your shitty family? I mean I’m just assuming from that phone call you just had.”

“Yeah and instead I get to go home to yours?”

“My family’s not shitty. They’re nothing like me.”

You can’t lie to yourself and say that the offer isn’t tempting. Because as soon as you mention the word “boyfriend” to your mother she’ll be all over it. Like Frankie’s family, your mom’s been pestering you to settle down, too. If you offer her some sort of crumb to give her the indication that you’re finally “settling down” maybe she’ll leave you alone for once. 

“Just think about it,” Frankie says while you’re contemplating his offer to himself. 

He turns to walk back to his house but you stop him before he goes anywhere.

“Wait!”

He turns around to face you again with a hopeful look in his eye. You can’t believe you’re actually agreeing to this.

“Fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” you sigh, “I guess it beats going home to my family.”

“Thank you,” he says, pulling you in for a hug.

“Alright, the fake relationship hasn’t started yet,” you say, wincing at his embrace.

“Shit, you’re right,” he says, pulling away.

“How long are we there?”

“From the twenty-third until New Year’s. That okay with you? I know you have the bakery and all…”

It’s a little earlier than you prefer to close and it’s quite a long time to be gone but you suppose you can make do. Maybe you can catch a short flight home if you need to be back to the bakery by then?

“Yeah, fine with me. Where does your family live?”

“Savannah, Georgia.”

Oof, five hours in Frankie’s truck, just the two of you… But it’s worth it.

“Okay,” you sigh. 

“Great. Thank you so much. We’ll leave around ten, okay?”

“Alright. Sounds like a plan.”

“Oh, one more thing. Can you bake something?”

You let out a sigh. “Yeah, sure. I’ll think of what to make.”

“Thanks again,” he says, putting his hands together like he’s praying before turning and walking back to his house. You’re left in your driveway questioning all your life choices that led up to this moment. But now you get to call your mom and tell her about this mysterious boyfriend you just happened upon. 

You get in the car to leave for work and call your mom again, making sure to act a bit more pleasant this time. 

“Hello?”

“Hey, mom,” you say, putting on your cheeriest voice.

“What happened with your neighbor?”

“Oh, nothing. He just had a package for me. Got delivered to his house by accident.”

“Oh, okay. So are you coming home for Christmas or what?”

“Actually, I’m not. I’m sorry. But I have a good reason?”

“And that is?”

“I’m going to my boyfriend’s family’s Christmas.”

“Boyfriend? You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend.”

“Uhh, it’s sort of new.”

“What’s his name?”

“Frankie.”

“Well, don’t fuck this one up. I want to meet him after Christmas, okay?”

Classic mom. She always has to make this about how much you suck.

“Of course. I’ll talk to you later, though. I gotta go open up the bakery.”

“Alright. Love you, bye.”

“Love you, too. Bye.”

That’s the best phone call you’ve had with your mom in a while. Maybe pretending to date Frankie will be a good thing?

-

It’s time to go. You're dressed in a comfy outfit for the drive. Everything’s packed and ready to go. You decided to make lemon bars from the lemon tree in your backyard. They’re packed away neatly in your to-go container. You head outside with all of your bags and Frankie meets you in your hard to help you. 

“Jesus, did you pack the kitchen sink, too?”

“Wow, you’re so funny,” you say, rolling your eyes. 

You’re already questioning why you said yes to this. But then your mother’s nagging voice is deep in the back of your mind. 

It’s better than going home, you tell yourself.

You get into the passenger seat and Frankie backs out of the driveway. You look at his lawn out the window as you leave. Still not cut, of course. 

For the first thirty minutes of the drive, it’s painfully silent. Until Frankie says, “You let me know if you need to stop to pee or something.”

“Okay…” you say awkwardly.

Another fifteen minutes goes by and he breaks the silence again. 

“You know, if we want to sell this we have to act like a real couple.”

You were dreading this conversation.

“Yeah…”

“For one, we’ll probably gonna be sharing a bed.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And we have to act like we somewhat like each other when we’re not alone.”

“I know,” you sigh.

“Think you can do that?”

“I said yes to this, didn’t I?”

“Right…”

You can’t sit through another uncomfortable silence again. You’ve still got like four more hours of this drive to go. 

“I guess we have to get to know each other.”

“Right. So what do you do? Oh fuck, I know you have the bakery but I meant tell me about it.”

“Uhh, right. I opened it four years ago. I just make desserts, like pastries and shit.”

“Gotcha.”

“What about you?”

“I used to be in the Army, specifically the Delta Force.”

“Oh, wow. How long were you in the Army?”

“I joined right after I got out of high school.”

“Long time,” you comment, “When did you leave?”

“About three years ago. I was just a pilot for a while.”

“Gotcha. What do you do now?”

“Not much. I’ve been living off my pension for the past two years after some shit happened.”

“We don’t have to talk about-”

“Our friend passed.”

“Oh, Frankie. I’m sorry.”

He says nothing more and you’re so curious for more information but you don’t want to pry either. It falls silent again and then you decide to pry for more information about a less heavy topic. 

“So… if you don’t mind me asking, what happened with your girlfriend?”

“She broke up with me two days before Thanksgiving.”

“That’s rough. What did you tell your family?”

“I pretended I was sick.”

“I’m sorry, Frankie.”

“Don’t be. I probably should’ve ended things a while ago. I don’t think she had any idea about who I really am.”

“Right.”

“She didn’t even know my full name.”

The cake that you made. 

“Yeah…”

“She put the wrong name and didn’t even get a cake I like.”

“About that.”

“Hm?”

“Do you know where she got that cake from?”

“No.”

“She came to my store.”

“…Did you know it was the wrong name?”

“Well yes, but what was I supposed to say? She’s the customer. I can't correct her. I just have to write what she ordered.”

“I know…” he sighs. 

“Regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that she was the wrong person for you, okay?”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I felt bad making it.”

“You did?”

“I mean, it’s kinda shitty if your girlfriend doesn’t know your name, right?” You chuckle. 

“Right again,” he nods, looking over at you from the driver's seat. 

“So what kind of cake do you like then?” you ask. 

“Chocolate. I’m a simple guy.”

“Noted. So now I know Frankie Morales used to be in the Army, used to be a pilot, and likes chocolate cake. Anything else I need to know?”

“That about sums me up I guess.”

“Oh, come on! There’s more to you than that. What do you like to do for fun? Besides partying.”

“Oh, uh, I like to play poker with my friends. I’m into cars. And we’ll go support Benny at some of his matches. That’s pretty much all I do these days.”

“And also not cutting your lawn.”

“Listen-”

“And complaining about free fruit,” you tease. 

“Alright, alright. I know I haven’t been the best neighbor in the past.”

“Uh-huh,” you say sarcastically. 

“I guess after what happened I went down a spiral. And I was just… selfish for a while. Only caring about what I wanted to do and not thinking how it affects others.”

“That’s fair. You went through something traumatic.”

He opens his mouth to say something else but no words come out. It feels like he’s hiding something or not telling the full truth. And he wants to tell you, but he feels just can’t, that you’re not ready for that just yet. 

It’s silent again and this time you find yourself dozing off with your cheek pressed up against the cool glass window. Somehow you’re able to fall asleep to Frankie’s music that he put on to fill the silence. You recognize it’s a Tom Petty song, but as you’re trying to put your finger on just what song it is, sleep fully overtakes you. 

-

You were only out for about an hour and a half. It’s hard to sleep for long periods in a truck. As you open your eyes and stretch a little, Frankie says, “Wake up, sleepyhead. You’re officially the worst co-pilot in the world.”

“Whatever,” you say sarcastically, also while stifling back a yawn. 

“I’m just teasing. You can go back to sleep if you want.”

“It’s fine. I probably shouldn’t sleep for too long anyway. It’ll mess up my sleep schedule.”

“Oof, my sleep schedule is pretty fucked up.”

You glare at him from the passenger seat. But he doesn’t get why, looking at you and going “What?” with a shrug.

“I noticed,” you say coldly. 

Everyone knows the best time to air your grievances with each other is when you’re trapped in a moving vehicle together!

“Okay… Why do you seem mad?”

“You and your friends are just… loud.”

“Oh.”

“And I have to be up early in the mornings to open the store.”

“Oh,” he says again like the realization is hitting him. 

“It’s alright…” you say awkwardly, even though it’s not. 

“It’s not alright. I wasn’t being considerate.”

“I know, but I didn’t say anything either.”

“You sure said something about my lawn,” he teases. 

“Because it’s a fucking eyesore, Francisco!”

“Be honest. You just wanted to see me mowing the lawn with my shirt off.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Don’t lie! I saw the way you looked at me when you first moved in.”

“Oh, shut up!” you say, playfully slapping him on the arm. 

“You’re not denying it,” he says with a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah whatever. Maybe I thought you were cute when I first moved in. Didn’t last long, though.”

“I know,” he sighs, “I’m trying to be better. Ironically enough I think Heather dumping me was what I needed.”

“I think so, too.”

Before either of you can say anything else, Frankie’s passing a sign indicating there’s a rest stop ahead. 

“Can we stop? I have to pee,” you say. 

“Sure thing,” he says, pulling off the highway and into the rest stop parking lot. 

“Meet you back here?” you say, opening the door. 

“I’ll go with you. All sorts of seedy characters hang out at rest stops,” he says, getting out of the car and walking around to your side. 

He helps you get out of the truck and walks inside with you, placing a hand on the small on your back as you cross the parking lot. His head’s in a constant swivel, eyes scanning the crowd for any signs of trouble. 

“I think I’ll take it from here,” you say, stopping in front of the women’s restroom. 

“I’ll be waiting here,” he nods. 

You nod back and look at what he’s wearing; a burgundy t-shirt with a black zip-up sweatshirt, gray sweatpants, and of course the Standard Oil cap. Now that you’re starting to see Frankie for who he really is… you don’t mind him at all? Seven months ago you never thought this would’ve happened, that you’d actually be civil with him. Maybe you just had to give him a chance. 

You do your business and walk back out to the lobby to meet Frankie. He’s on high alert, standing stiff as a board and taking in all of his surroundings. Until he sees you and his face lights up. 

“I got us some stuff for the road!” he says cheerfully, holding up a plastic bag. 

You look inside the bag and “some stuff” was an understatement. It looks like Frankie bought out the entire store. There are bottles of water, soda, different kinds of chips, candy, and gum- you name it, he bought it. 

“I wasn’t sure what you liked. So I just got a few different things,” he says, most likely noticing how wide your eyes got. 

“Thanks, Frankie. That was sweet of you.”

“Do you need anything else before we get back on the road?”

“I think I’m all set,” you nod. 

You walk back to the truck with him and he does the same thing he did before, placing a hand on your back as you cross the parking lot. He opens your door for you and you take the bag from him once you’re settled in your seat. He gets back into the driver seat and soon enough, you’re back on the road.

“So I should probably prepare you for meeting my family,” he says, reaching for a Slim Jim in the bag. 

“Oh god, why?” 

“They’re not bad. They’re just… a lot? But they mean well.”

“Okay.”

“So you have my mother, Rosa, and my father Francisco Sr. But he passed away when I was twenty.”

“I’m sorry, Frankie.”

“Don’t be. It was a long time ago. I have three older sisters.”

“You’re the baby of the family?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Nothing. It just tracks.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, thanks. My sisters are Ria, Isabel, and Laura. Ria is married to Emmanuel and they have two kids, Luna and Camila. They’re college-aged. And then Isabel is with her wife, Aurora.”

“Okay,” you respond, mentally trying to keep track of all this. 

“And then Laura is married to Rafael and they have three kids, Sofia, Anthony, and Marcelo. Sofia is twelve. I think Anthony’s nine or ten. And Marcelo is four. He’s my favorite.”

“Frankie! You’re not supposed to have favorites.”

“It’s not like I tell them that. I also have two aunts, Aunt Linda and Aunt Maggie. They’re my mother’s sisters. And then my Uncle Tommy, he’s my dad’s brother. And then there’s Cousin Ben, he’s Tommy’s son, around my age.”

You’re doing mental gymnastics, trying to memorize everyone’s names, ages, and who they’re married to. 

“Got all that?” Frankie says with a smirk, noticing the puzzled expression on your face. 

“I think so?”

“Don’t worry. Everyone will introduce themselves when we get there. They’re not gonna leave you alone so sorry about that in advance.”

“It’s alright. It beats going home to my family.”

“What are they like? I’m assuming they’re… not good if you don’t want to go home for the holidays.”

“Yeah, you’ve got it pretty much. My mom is super overbearing and nitpicking. I can’t do anything, or wear anything, or even say anything without her giving her two cents. My dad just sits there and lets her spew her bullshit without a filter. And then my younger sister, Erica, is just… perfect. She can’t do anything wrong in their eyes.”

“That sounds tough.”

“It is. I stopped going home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I try to just do one each year but I can’t take it anymore.” 

“I understand,” Frankie says softly. 

“My sister’s in medical school to be a cardiologist. So to my parents, running a bakery just doesn’t compare.”

“That’s stupid. Don’t they know how hard it is to run your own business?”

“No, and they probably don’t care to be honest.” 

“I’m really sorry.”

“It’s alright. Thanks for getting me a way out of Christmas this year, though.”

“Of course. You’re doing me a big favor.”

The rest of the drive goes smoothly and eventually, you’re pulling into Frankie’s parents' house in Savannah. The second Frankie’s truck is in the driveway, an older woman, probably his mother, is running out of the front door and into the driveway. He parks the truck and you get out to meet her. She immediately pulls Frankie into a big hug. 

“My baby’s home!!,” she says, embracing him and placing her hands on the back of his head. 

“You and that damn hat,” she says, “You have such beautiful hair, mijo. Why do you hide it?”

“You know I like the hat, Ma.”

She pulls away and her eyes are immediately on you. You’re nervous about her first impression of you, even though you’re not even Frankie’s girlfriend. But she thinks you are and you need to play the part. 

“It’s so nice to meet you!” she says, pulling into a hug, too. She gives the best hugs, rubbing your back and swaying just a little, even though you just met. 

“I want you to be comfortable here, okay? My house is your house,” she says, pulling back and grabbing your hands. 

“Thank you so much for having me in your home, Mrs. Morales,” you smile. 

“Please! Call me Rosa. Let Francisco get the bags and we’ll go inside, yeah?”

“Okay,” you nod, following her inside the house. 

It’s a beautiful home, decorated to the nines with the Christmas spirit. She leads you to her living film where there are pictures of everyone Frankie mentioned on the way here. On the coffee table, there’s one of Frankie’s parents with him and his sisters. You can really see the resemblance there between him and his mom. They have the same warm brown eyes and dimples. 

“You have a beautiful home, Rosa,” you tell her, sitting on the couch next to her. 

“Thank you, honey,” she says, “Tell me about yourself. It’s so hard to get Francisco on the phone these days. I feel like I know nothing about you.”

“I live in Tampa like Frankie. We don’t live too far from each other And I run a bakery.”

“Wow, good for you. It’s hard running your own business. Your parents must be very proud.”

“They are,” you say, lying through your teeth. 

“How has my son been? He’s been a little off since he lost Tom in Colombia two years ago. He’s not doing drugs again, is he?”

“Oh! No, to my knowledge, he isn’t?” you respond, stumbling over your words. That was a lot of information to take in, most of it Frankie hasn’t told you about yet. 

“That’s good,” she sighs, “I worry about him.”

“I get it. But I think he’s on an upward trajectory.”

“Thank you, honey. I know he’s a lot to put up with.”

Frankie meets you in the living room and plops down on an armchair across from the couch, letting out an exasperated sigh. 

“Tired?” you chuckle. 

“Yeah,” he pants, “Someone had to pack everything they own and the kitchen sink, too.”

“Francisco! You grew up with all women. Don’t you know this is how we are?” his mother says. 

“Yeah, Frankie,” you add sarcastically. 

“You two are gonna be the death of me,” he says, leaning back in the chair and closing his eyes. 

“Where did you put the lemon bars?”

“In the refrigerator.”

“You made lemon bars? Francisco told me you liked to bake.”

“Yeah!” you say, turning towards her again, “I didn’t want to come empty-handed.”

“Why don’t you both help me prepare dinner for tomorrow night? After you rest, of course. You had a long drive.”

“Oh, yeah. I need a nap,” Frankie says, getting up from the chair and heading up the stairs. 

“Get some rest, honey,” she says, gesturing towards the stairs. 

“Okay,” you say, feeling a little awkward that you’re supposed to just go lay in a bed with Frankie. 

Frankie’s waiting for you at the top of the stairs, smiling down at you. For some reason the sight makes your heart skip a beat. You meet him upstairs and he leads you to his childhood bedroom. His walls are blue and his bookshelves are filled with baseball trophies from when he was a kid up until high school. There are a few car posters scattered on his ealls. The bags are at the foot of his bed that’s tucked away in the corner of his room and thankfully, it’s not a twin-sized bed. Across the room is his desk, a few comic books stacked in a messy pile like he never left. 

“This is my room,” he says, gesturing vaguely to the space around him. 

“Cute,” you say, walking around and eyeing some of the stuff he has on his shelves. There’s a picture in a frame of Frankie as a kid with presumably his father right after one of his baseball games. He was a cute kid, wearing a toothy grin with some holes for the baby teeth he lost. 

“That’s my dad,” he says, noticing you looking at the picture. 

“Now that I’m looking at him, I can’t tell who you look like more,” you comment. 

“Definitely my dad,” he says. 

You turn to look at him and realize he’s right. A lot of his facial features match his father’s, but his eyes- those are his mother’s. 

“Are you tired?” he asks. 

“A little,” you yawn. 

“I don’t have to sleep in bed with you,” he says quickly. 

“I thought you said we were going to? You know, to keep up appearances or something,” you say, trying to ignore the butterflies in your stomach. 

“Oh, right. Just making sure.”

He takes off his sweatshirt and his hat, his curls matted down from wearing it on his head all day. He sets them down on the desk and walks over to the bed, pulling back the comforter and slipping in between the sheets. He moves to the side closest to the wall, letting you have the outside and the wall with the outlet to charge your phone like a true gentleman. You crawl in beside him, lying down side by side, mere inches from each other. 

“You don’t sleep naked, do you?”

He doesn’t say anything at first and you take that as a yes. 

“…I won’t while we’re home.”

“Cool,” you say awkwardly, rolling on your side and closing your eyes. 

“Goodnight?” he says. 

“It’s just a nap, but sure. Goodnight, Frankie,” you chuckle. 

…You do your best to fall asleep but to be honest, you’re freezing. You don’t really get why. You’re only a few hours north and Georgia doesn’t typically get too cold. Unless his mom has the air on or a window open; something. That doesn’t make sense, though. Don’t elderly people keep their houses entirely too hot?

“You’re shivering,” Frankie says, snapping you out of your thoughts. 

“What? No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. I can see you shaking.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You don’t have to be cold.”

“What’s your solution then?”

“I could tell my mom to adjust the-”

“No, do not do that.”

“Or there’s the other option.”

“Uh huh…”

“I could hold you.”

“…You don’t have to.”

“I don’t mind.”

“…Fine.”

You feel him scooch closer to you and all of a sudden his warm chest is pressed up against your back. The comforter lifts for a second before his muscular arm wraps around you, pulling you even closer towards him. You’re immediately feeling warmer. He’s like a human space heater or something. 

“Better?”

“Y-Yeah. Thank you.”

As much as you hate to admit it, you’re much more comfortable now. However, there is one thing that’s keeping you from falling asleep. And that’s Frankie’s bulge presses right up against your ass. 

…You don’t hate it, though. If anything it makes you feel… good? Knowing that you have that effect on him. Maybe he really was jealous weeks ago at his birthday party. All of this begs the question; when did his feelings for you begin?

Lost in thought and enveloped in Frankie’s body heat, you drift off to sleep. 

-

You wake up an hour or so later to the doorbell ringing. Frankie wakes up, too, stretching and removing the arm that was slung over your waist. You already miss its absence. 

Frankie’s mom is talking to someone at the door. And it sounds like she’s talking to… a pizza delivery guy?

Frankie rolls onto his back, stretching again and yawning. You fall onto your back, too, lying side by side. 

“I think she ordered pizza,” Frankie says sleepily. 

“That was nice of her.”

“Just so we don’t have to worry about making dinner tonight while we prepare tomorrow’s.”

“Make sense,” you reply, rolling out of bed and stretching once your feet hit the floor. 

“Did you sleep well?” Frankie asks, sitting at the edge. 

“I did. Thanks for keeping me warm.”

“You’re welcome but it wasn’t all for you, though.”

“Oh?” you ask, wondering if he could be referring to the hard-on he had while holding you…

“Yeah, I can’t sleep next to you if you’re shaking like a leaf.”

You roll your eyes and he chuckles, leading you down the hallway and down the stairs, straight into the kitchen where the pizza awaits. 

“Dinner’s here!” Rosa says cheerfully, gesturing to the pizza boxes on the counter, “There’s a salad and garlic bread, too.”

“Thanks, Ma,” Frankie says, grabbing a plate from the cabinet and handing it to you.

“Thank you,” you say, “Are you sure you don’t want anything towards it?”

“Nonsense! When you’re in my house, I take care of you,” she says, waving you off. 

A saint of a woman she is. Frankie’s lucky to have a mother like her. The three of you sit at the kitchen counter eating while Rosa talks about what Christmas Eve dinner will be. 

“So tonight we’ll prepare the pasteles. And tomorrow we’ll do the rice and beans. Ria is bringing rolls. Laura’s bringing salad. And Isabel’s bringing flan.”

“Ooh, I love flan. I can make gingerbread cookies for Christmas Day, too,” you say, finishing your slice of pizza. 

“Thank you, honey. We’ll have a great time tomorrow. And you’ll get to meet all of Frankie’s sisters.”

“How exciting,” you say looking over at Frankie. 

“Frankie’s the baby of the family,” his mother says. 

“I could tell,” you snicker.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“You just have little brother energy,” you shrug.

“What about you, dear?” his mom asks. 

“It’s just me and my sister. I’m the oldest.”

“Well you have older sister energy, so how about that?”

“So I’m wiser and more responsible?”

“Whatever,” Frankie sighs. 

“It’s true, Francisco. You can ask Ria.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll get right on that,” he says sarcastically, taking all your plates to the sink. 

You clean up from dinner with Frankie before preparing the pasteles. You’re standing at the kitchen island, stuffing the pasteles and listening to Rosa tell stories about Frankie when he was a kid. 

“He was my toughest kid to potty train,” she says, shaking her head. 

“Mom!” Frankie says, shooting daggers at her with his glare. 

“What? You were. And I have the pictures to prove it. For the first two years, you would only use the training potty. I’ll bring out the photo albums tomorrow.”

“No,” Frankie says quickly. 

“Oh yes,” you laugh. 

“Ughhh,” Frankie sighs while you and Rosa share a laugh. 

Soon enough all of the pasteles are prepped for tomorrow and the kitchen is clean again.

“Thank you both for helping me. Now get some sleep! You’ll need all the energy you can get to deal with this family.”

“Goodnight, Ma,” Frankie says, heading towards the stairs. 

“Goodnight. Thank you again for everything,” you say to her. 

“Of course, honey. See you in the morning!” she says. 

As you’re heading up the stairs, she calls out to Frankie, “Francisco! Make sure you show her where the fresh towels are!”

“I will, Ma,” Frankie says, calling down the stairwell. 

“You want to shower?”

Before you can respond he quickly adds, “Not with me of course.”

“I know,” you snort, “But sure. Where’s the bathroom?”

He leads you down the hallway and stops at a door on the right, opening to reveal a linen closet. 

“Towels are here. Bathroom’s over here,” he says, pointing to a door directly across from the linen closet. 

“Thanks,” you tell him, grabbing a towel and heading to the shower. You shut the door behind you and now that you’re alone for once, you let your mind wander…

What happened in Colombia? And what sort of drugs was Frankie on?

You turn on the shower and strip, letting the hot water run down your body as you think about all the possibilities. He did say he lost a friend. Maybe that’s what happened in Colombia. But that doesn’t explain the drugs. 

A knock on the door brings you back to reality. 

“Can I come in?” Frankie asks. 

“Uhh-”

“I just have to brush my teeth. I won’t look.”

“I guess.”

He opens the door and enters the bathroom, keeping his word and looking away from the shower curtain. In fact, he looks at anything else in the bathroom but the shower curtain, picking up a bottle of Tylenol from the medicine cabinet and reading the warnings. You poke your head out of the shower, watching as he brushes his teeth and reads the label on the bottle. And there’s something so… cute about it, so endearing. And now that you think about it, you wouldn’t particularly mind if he saw you in the shower. You can’t believe you’re actually admitting this to yourself. 

But before you know it he spits the sink and rinses his mouth, exiting the bathroom and leaving you with your confusing feelings yet again. You finish your shower and dry off, thinking about his mysterious past again. All of this strange information begs the question… What was he doing in Colombia in the first place? Does he have some dark secrets he’s hiding? And if so, how could he be so cute? 

You look at the toilet and see that Frankie also brought you your pajamas, flannel Christmas pants, a short-sleeved shirt, and a pair of lacy underwear…

That means he went through your bag, which should make you mad but the fact he decided to bring you your pajamas so you didn’t have to walk down the cold hallway sopping wet is adorable. 

You’ll ask him about his past later you decide. For now, he’s your cute pretend boyfriend and you’re going to live in that fantasy for a while. 

Once you’re dry and dressed, you hang your towel up on a hook and walk back to Frankie’s room, where he’s tucked into bed waiting for you. You crawl into bed beside him, lying down on your side and feeling his warm embrace again. His arm returns around your waist and soon enough you’re falling asleep, comforted by his warmth and his scent. 

-

The smell of food cooking downstairs wafts up to Frankie’s room, pleasantly waking you up. Frankie’s lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling with his hands folded neatly on his tummy. 

You roll over and ask, “You okay?”

“Me? Oh yeah, I’m fine. I think I’m just nervous.”

“Nervous for what? Your family sounds awesome.”

“They are. They can just be overwhelming, I guess.”

“I get it. It’ll be fine, though. Like you said, I don’t think they’ll leave me alone.”

“Right,” he says, shaking his head, “It’s stupid. Today’s gonna be fun.”

“Wanna help me with the gingerbread cookies?” you say, getting out of bed and stretching once your feet hit the floor. 

“Sure,” he says, sitting at the edge and yawning, “Do you need to get anything for them?”

“I could just DoorDash some stuff. I don’t want to raid your mom’s kitchen.”

“Ah, she won’t mind. Let’s go downstairs.”

He stands up and stretches, the short-sleeved shirt he’s wearing lifting a little and exposing some of his tummy. His flannel pajama pants are hanging low on his hips and he’s got a little bed-head going on, his curls slightly matted in the back. God, he’s just so… cute. You can’t deny it any longer. As much as you don’t want it to be true, Frankie Morales is a cute man.

You follow him downstairs to the kitchen where his mother is cooking away, stirring different pots and pans on the stove. 

“Good morning you two,” she smiles. 

“Good morning,” you respond, “It smells amazing down here.”

“Thank you, honey.”

“Ma, I think we’re going to make the gingerbread cookies if we won’t be in your way.”

“Go ahead! By all means. Maybe you can decorate them with the kids tonight?”

“Good idea! Do you need me to get anything from the store?”

“Nonsense! I should have everything you need.”

“Told you,” Frankie says, opening a cabinet and looking through the shelves with you. 

To your surprise, she has everything you need for the cookies. And as you sit down at the dining room table Frankie says, “This kitchen is always fully stocked.”

As you roll the dough you think about tonight, meeting the rest of Frankie’s family. You’re excited to meet them but you’re also wondering what you should wear. You packed a few different options for outfits because every family’s vibe is different. Your family tends to lean more formal when it comes to holidays but Frankie’s family could be the complete opposite. 

“Frankie?” you ask, cutting the gingerbread men out with a cookie cutter. 

“Yeah?”

“What does your family wear on Christmas? Like do they dress up?”

“Oh, we abandoned trying to look nice a long time ago. Especially once my sisters started having kids.”

“Oh, okay. So don’t dress up?” 

“Nah.”

That makes you feel at least a little relieved. For some reason, you’re dying for them to like you. And you don’t even get why. You’re not Frankie’s girlfriend. There’s a large chance you’ll never see them again after you leave and go back to Florida. 

Once the cookies are on the trays, you pop them in the oven and set a timer on your phone. Rosa’s just about finished with dinner for tonight and Frankie’s cleaning up the mess from the cookies. You look at the clock on the stove and ask, “What time is everyone coming?”

“Around five or so.”

It’s already two-thirty now. You should probably get ready soon, in case Rosa and Frankie need the shower. 

“I’ll pull the cookies out if you want to go get ready,” Frankie says as if he read your mind. 

“Oh okay, thanks. Fifteen more minutes.”

“Gotcha,” he says, leaning against the counter beside the stove. 

You go upstairs and into Frankie’s room, going over all of your outfit choices in your head. You decide to wear option 3, light wash jeans and an emerald green sweater, nothing too fancy. You grab your clothes and your makeup and head to the bathroom, taking extra time to get ready. The timer on your phone for the cookies goes off and you hope Frankie remembers to take them out. You continue your shower, anxiously thinking about meeting the rest of his family. 

Eventually, as you’re dressed and putting on your makeup, Frankie knocks on the door. 

“Can I come in?”

“Go ahead,” you say, leaning forward toward the mirror and putting on your mascara. 

He opens the door and looks at you, practically bent over the sink. 

“You look…”

“Huh?” you, turning your head towards him. 

“You look nice,” he says, eyes wide. 

“Thanks. I’m almost done and then the bathroom’s all yours.”

“No rush. Take your time.”

You finish your makeup and gather all your stuff, leaving him in the bathroom and heading back to his room. You plop your stuff down on his bed and think of what to do next. Might as well make yourself useful while he’s showering and get the icing bags ready for the gingerbread cookies. You head back down to the kitchen, where Rosa’s sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. 

“You look beautiful, honey,” she says. 

“Thank you,” you say, sitting down across from her. 

“Francisco’s in the shower?”

“Yes, he is. I think I’m going to get the icing bags ready for the cookies if that’s alright.”

“Of course,” she says, springing up from her chair and rifling through the kitchen cabinets. 

She pulls out an electric mixer, confectioners sugar, and food coloring, setting them down on the table. 

“Milk’s in the refrigerator and let me get you some Ziploc bags…” she says, reaching into the cabinet again.

“Thanks,” you say, getting to work on the icing while she sits across the counter and watches. 

“I know I’ve just met you but I want to say thank you, for taking care of my son,” she says. 

“Of course,” you smile, scooping icing into the ziploc bag for makeshift piping bags.

“He hasn’t been the same since Tom died. But now that he’s here, it’s like he’s his old self again.”

Tom. There’s that name again. You have to know what happened if you’re going to keep up this charade. This is the second time she’s mentioned it and you’re playing along like you know what happened. It’s bound to come up again. 

“I’m glad he’s doing much better,” you say, adding food coloring to the bags. 

Eventually, you hear the water turn off which means Frankie must be getting out of the shower. Rosa gets up from her stool and says, “Well now that Francisco’s finally done, I guess I’ll go shower. I’m sure he left me no hot water.”

You two share a laugh and she heads up the stairs. You’re left alone with your thoughts until Frankie comes back downstairs again. So for now, in the fleeting moments of solitude, you think of ways to ask Frankie about his past that don’t sound completely insensitive. You could ask him under the guise of just trying to keep the charade going. This whole thing was his idea. He’d have to understand, right?

“Hey,” he says, snapping you from your thoughts. You didn’t even notice him coming downstairs. 

“Hi.”

“These look good. The kids will have fun decorating them.”

“I hope so,” you say.

You’re both just standing awkwardly in the kitchen, not saying a word. You think to yourself that maybe now would be the best time to ask, in case you need this information for tonight to go smoothly. 

You open your mouth to ask, “What happened in Colombia?” but you’re interrupted by the front door opening. 

“Feliz Navidad!” a woman’s voice shouts. You’re assuming it’s one of Frankie’s sisters or aunts. 

He pokes his head down the hallway and shouts, “Ria!” 

You glance over at the clock and she’s early. Frankie looks over at you and says, “She’s always early.”

“She’s the oldest?”

He nods. It makes sense. 

She comes into the kitchen and pulls Frankie into a big hug. She looks like a younger version of Rosa, a little bit shorter than Frankie. Her husband and kids pile in behind her, her girls hugging Frankie and her husband shaking his hand. 

“So nice of you to show up for Christmas. Not battling some mysterious illness this time, huh?” she teases. 

“I’m not lying! I was really sick.”

You’re standing there awkwardly in the kitchen, not trying to interrupt the family reunion. It isn’t until one of Ria’s daughters looks over at you and asks, “Who’s this?” that your presence is acknowledged. 

Frankie walks over to you and snakes an arm around your waist, proudly saying, “This is my girlfriend!” followed by your name. 

“Nice to meet you!” Ria says, “It’s been such a long time since Francisco’s brought a girl home!”

This is the second family member to refer to him as Francisco and now you’re wondering if you should be doing the same. Before you can continue she motions her daughters over and says, “This is Luna and Camila. Luna’s in her junior year of college and my Camila’s a senior in high school!”

“Exciting times for both of you,” you comment, not really knowing what to say. 

But Ria continues anyway. “And this is my husband, Emmanuel,” she says, gesturing to her husband in the corner. He seems like the quiet type, letting his wife do all the talking in social situations. 

“Where’s Ma?” Ria asks Frankie. 

“In the shower. Are the others on their way?”

“Laura’s almost here. Isabel and Roro will probably be late as per usual. Will you grab the rolls out of the car?”

Emmanuel nods, again not saying much of a word at all before heading out to the car in the driveway. Ria and the girls take off their coats, hanging them on a coat rack by the front door. While Luna and Camila retreat to the living room, Ria takes the rolls from Emmanuel and puts them in the drawer underneath the oven, putting them on a low setting to keep the rolls warm until dinner starts. Soon enough, you’re all sitting in the living room together, awkwardly exchanging glances and waiting for either Rosa to come downstairs or for someone else to arrive. 

And for a while, it feels like the front door doesn’t close, a slew of family members coming in left and right. First, it was Aunt Maggie. Then it was Laura with her husband, Rafael, and their kids, Sofia, Anthony (who insists you call him Tony), and Marcelo, Frankie’s favorite. And Frankie wasn’t lying about Marcelo being his favorite, his eyes practically lit up the moment Laura walked in the door, carrying him on her hip. After Laura’s family, Uncle Tommy and Cousin Ben came. Frankie’s arm around your waist tightened when Ben looked you up and down which made your heart do somersaults. Aunt Linda followed soon after. And finally, last but not least, Isabel and Aurora (who goes by Roro) arrived. 

Somewhere in between all of the commotion Rosa returned downstairs. And you’re left with your head spinning, trying to keep track of everyone’s names and trying to make a good first impression. And you think you succeeded? Laura and her kids are really nice. Marcelo’s been hanging off you and Frankie since he set foot in the door. Isabel is definitely the coolest Morales sister out of the three of them. You don’t really have any complaints about Frankie’s aunts. And Uncle Tommy’s been dozing off on the couch, reminding everyone to wake him up when it’s time for dinner. You don’t mind Ben at all but he definitely has a little crush on you. You don’t spend too much time talking to him, just enough to learn he teaches high school English.

You also noticed that Isabel, Roro, Uncle Tommy, Ben, and his brother-in-law all call him Frankie and not Francisco. But his mom, Ria, Aunt Maggie, and Aunt Linda call him Francisco. And to the nieces and nephews, he’s Uncle Frankie of course. 

Eventually, Rosa announces that it’s time for dinner. Frankie and Ben set up a small folding table for the kids, except for Marcelo who sits on Laura’s lap. You sit in between Frankie and Isabel. Rosa sits at the head of the table and before everyone digs in she says, “Now who would like to say grace?”

“I will,” Tony says, raising his hand from the kids' table.

“Go ahead,” Rosa says.

“Grace. Okay, we’re done. Let’s eat, everybody!”

Everyone shares a laugh and Rosa decides, “You know what? It’s good enough for me!”

The rest of Christmas Eve goes smoothly. After dinner, you help the adults clean up before bringing out the gingerbread cookies to decorate. All of the kids, even Luna and Camila, sit around the table with you, decorating the cookies with your makeshift piping bags. Ria takes a picture of you guys, brows furrowed in concentration as you all try to make the cookies absolutely perfect. 

“Aren’t you gonna do one?” you ask Frankie, who’s standing beside you and watching. 

“Sure,” he says, pulling up a chair. 

He grabs a gingerbread woman and begins to draw a face on her. But before he’s done he gives her a frown and angry eyebrows, holding it up and saying, “Look! It’s you when I don’t mow the lawn!”

“Oh, shut up,” you reply, grabbing your own gingerbread man and giving him not only angry eyebrows but a yellow blob in his hand. 

“Look! It’s you when you complain about free lemons.”

The kids laugh even though they don’t know the full context of the joke. But once the last cookie is decorated, people begin to head out, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and saying goodnight. Once the main level is cleaned up you and Frankie say goodnight to his mom. She tells you that Christmas dinner is at Ria’s and that it starts at two. 

With that, you’re off to bed, returning to your rightful place of being spooned by Frankie. And for once, the two of you are alone again. Your mind goes back to Tom, what happened in Colombia, and Frankie’s drug addiction. You’re just gonna do it, rip the bandaid off

“Frankie?”

“Hm?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Well, earlier your mom was talking about your friend Tom and what happened in Colombia… I know it’s not really my business but should I know what happened? You know to keep up the act-”

He sighs and you fear you’ve overstepped.

“I figured it was going to come up sooner or later.”

He pulls away to rest on his back, staring at the ceiling and recounting what happened. You lie on your back, too, looking over at him as he begins his story. 

“A few years ago, I developed a really bad addiction to coke. And it cost me almost everything. I lost my pilot's license. Santiago approached me, Tom, Will, and Benny about going to Colombia to steal money from this drug lord, Lorea.”

“I see,” you comment, letting him continue.

“It seemed appealing at the time. I needed the money, you know?”

“I get it,” you say softly.

“The mission was a fucking shitshow. We took fucking two hundred and fifty million dollars and lost all of it. It was too heavy for the helicopter so we crash-landed in a cocaine farm. They thought we were DEA and Tom killed some of them. So then we had to pay them as some kind of reparation. We went through the Andes on mules and two of the villagers followed us. One of them shot Tom and we had to carry him, the rest of the money through the mountains. When we finally reached the coast, the getaway boat was there waiting for us but the town was filled whatever was left of Lorea’s crew. There was no way we could carry all that cash with Tom’s body and make it to the boat without being killed. So we had to dump most of it down a fucking ravine.”

He’s getting more and more upset as he tells his story. And you feel guilty you even asked in the first place. He didn’t need to tell you all the details. He could’ve said his friend Tom died on a military mission in Colombia and that would’ve been enough to quell your curiosity. 

“Somehow we made it to the boat, but not without a fucking car chase and shootouts. By the end, we were left with a little over one million dollars each, but we decided to give it all to Tom’s family,” he says, finishing with a deep breath. 

You roll onto your side and look over at him. He’s not crying but you can tell he’s visibly upset, his eyes misty. 

“Thanks for sharing that with me. I know it’s hard to recount a traumatic experience like that.”

“It’s okay. Figured you should probably know. My family thinks it was some sort of mission for the Army, not that we went rogue. I don’t want them to know the true nature of what it was… greed.”

“Understandable.”

“So after all that I came home with a dead friend and no money.”

“I guess the overgrown lawn and the constant partying make sense now.”

That actually gets him to laugh. 

“I guess it does,” he chuckles, “But thanks for putting up with me.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“And thanks for coming here and doing this for me. That happened two years ago and my family has been worried sick about me since. Whenever my mom calls me I just… I just lie. I think if she saw how I was doing now it would break her heart. But here with you, she thinks you’re like my saving grace.”

You don’t say anything because you really don’t know what to say. It’s nice his mother feels that way, but it’s all a lie. 

“I know that was a lot…” he says.

“You’re okay. I’m here to listen,” you reassure him. 

“You should probably get some sleep. You’ll need all the energy you can get to deal with my family for another day.”

“Okay,” you sigh, rolling over to your other side. Frankie spoons you again like he always does. This time you don’t feel something hard against your lower back, instead you feel Frankie’s breath by your ear. 

“Thank you,” he whispers, holding you a little tighter as he falls asleep. 

-

You wake up to Frankie still holding you just as tight. You’ve never had a Christmas like this, one so peaceful. 

And then it hits you… it’s Christmas. Which means you need presents, something you completely forgot all about. You were too wrapped up in pretending to be Frankie’s girlfriend. 

“Frankie?”

“Yeah?”

Has he been awake this whole time? And still holding you just as tight… 

Whatever, worry about that later. 

“I forget to get everyone fucking presents.”

“Already took care of it.”

“Really?” 

“Mhm,” he says, propping his elbow on the pillow and looking down at you, “You’ve never met them before. How could you get presents for people you don’t even know?” 

“Right,” you say, lying on your back. 

“Merry Christmas,” he smiles. 

“Merry Christmas,” you respond. 

“Let’s go exchange with my mom.”

You roll out of bed first and let him grab the presents from his suitcase. 

“What did I get her?”

“A sweater. It’s her favorite color.”

“Ooh, good idea.”

He hands you the present and it’s wrapped like a typical guy would wrap it. 

“I’m telling her you wrapped it.”

“Oh, she’ll be able to tell,” he laughs. 

You follow him down the stairs where his mother is sitting on the couch watching a Hallmark movie. She smiles and wishes you a Merry Christmas when she sees you, grabbing presents from under the tree. 

You give her the present “you” got her and she clocks Frankie’s wrapping job right away. 

“I can tell Francisco wrapped this,” she chuckles, unwrapping the gift and opening the box. She tells you she loves it and pulls you in for a big hug. Even though you didn’t actually buy the gift, you can’t help but appreciate the sense of approval. Your mom would’ve criticized whatever you got her, no matter how great the gift was. 

Rosa got Frankie a wallet with his initials engraved in the leather. She got you an apron with your name embroidered on it. Both presents were very thoughtful and as she’s pulling out the photo albums like she promised the other day, Frankie whispers in your ear, “She’s big on getting things personalized.”

The three of you spend the rest of the morning looking at photo albums until it’s time to get ready to go to Ria’s. For once, Frankie can’t wait to jump in the shower, anything to get away from the “embarrassing” pictures his mom is showing you. 

Once the three of you are ready you drive to Ria’s in Frankie’s truck, with the gifts piled in the back seat. He parks on the street and you head inside to the already bustling house. Everyone shouts “Feliz Navidad” as you’re taking off your shoes before joining them at the table. 

The menu for Christmas dinner is empanadillas, tostones, pernil, and arroz con gandules. And for dessert, there’s tembleque, the gingerbread cookies you and the kids decorated, and of course, the lemon bars. 

Christmas Day goes even better than Christmas Eve. All of the presents got for you to give to his family were a hit, but not without a sly comment from Frankie.

“You know… She did have some help,” he says with a smirk and a wink.

That earned him a smack on the arm.

Eventually, the evening is winding down. The kids are sitting under the tree playing with their toys and the adults are scattered around the house. For once, there’s no one paying attention to you two.

“Come with me,” Frankie says, getting off the couch and grabbing his coat.

“Where are we going?” 

“For a walk,” he says. 

You follow him to the front door, slipping on your shoes and coat. The two of you walk side by side on the sidewalk. It’s silent between you two but it’s a comfortable silence. But as you stop underneath a streetlamp, Frankie says, “I have something for you.”

“Frankie! You didn’t have to.”

“No, I really did. And I wanted to. It’s not just a Christmas present but it’s also a thank you for doing this for me… And also an apology for being a shitty neighbor,” he chuckles.

He pulls out a box from his coat pocket and hands it to you. You lift the lid to reveal a gold chain with a pendant, and a lemon stamped into the metal.

“Aw, Frankie… This is so sweet.”

“Look at the back,” he says softly.

You flip over the pendant and engraved on the back is your street name, Magnolia Drive. You look back at Frankie and his face is nervous, as if he’s waiting for your approval. His brow furrowed, his face dimly lit under the streetlamp, and his curls peeking out under his stupid fucking hat. All you can do at that moment is kiss him. He’s shocked for a second but it doesn’t take long for him to melt into your touch and wrap his arms around you. 

He pulls away for a second to ask, “I take it you like it?”

“I love it, Frankie,” you nod, leaning in for a kiss again.

And for a moment you two stay there, holding each other under the streetlamp on Christmas night. 

“I didn’t get you a present,” you admit, resting your head against his chest.

“You already did. You did me a huge favor. It’s a lot to deal with my family.”

“I didn't just deal with them. I liked being with them.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, like you said before, they’re nothing like you.”

“Shut up,” he says, pulling you in for another kiss. 

After a while he says, “We should probably get back.”

You nod and follow him back to Ria’s house where you bid your goodbyes to everyone and head back to Rosa’s for the night. She turns in early and now it’s just you and Frankie alone again. But being alone with him feels different this time. Not only because you just kissed but also because you think… you have feelings for him. Maybe it’s the holiday spirit talking or how vulnerable he was last night, but you have to admit to yourself that Frankie Morales is not only a cute man but a man you misjudged this whole time. 

Once you’re back upstairs to Frankie’s room, you’re sitting side by side on his bed. The silence is back and you’re wondering if you shouldn’t have kissed him earlier. Maybe all you are to him is someone who did him a favor, someone who’s just his neighbor and nothing more. 

“I’m sorry about the kiss. I-”

“You’re sorry?”

“Well yeah, I-”

“I’ve wanted to do that for so long, cariño.”

“How long?”

“Soon after you moved in next door.” 

“Really? I thought you hated me.”

“No, I never did. I just liked pushing your buttons. You’re cute when you’re irritated.”

Your brain is short-circuiting, in disbelief at what he’s saying.

“Even when you were with Heather?”

“Mhm.”

“Is that why you were so jealous of Benny at your birthday party?”

“...Maybe,”

“Mmm, you’re cute when you’re jealous,” you say, leaning in for another kiss.

This time the kiss is needier, and more passionate, like you can’t get enough of each other’s touch, scent, and taste. His hands caress either side of your face as his body leans into you more, coaxing you to lie down on his bed. His mouth leaves yours, trailing along your jawline and down your neck. Your breath hitches as he nips at your skin, immediately licking the bruised skin afterward. He moves down lower, lips moving along your collarbone, until he’s completely kneeling on the floor in front of his bed. His hands hook around the waistband of your pants, sliding them off in one clean motion before going to remove your panties.

“Frankie?” you ask, resting on your elbows and looking down at him.

“Yeah?”

“What about like… your mom?”

“She sleeps like a rock,” he says bluntly, returning to what he was doing before. 

He pulls off your panties and spreads your legs, looking at how wet your cunt is already. 

“Mm, so wet for me, cariño,” he muses, his warm breath tickling your core.

Before you can respond, he licks one long, slow stripe up your cunt, sending a shiver up your spine.

“Fuck, Frankie,” you breathe out, eliciting a chuckle from him.

He goes back in for another, licking up and down your entrance slow, enough to drive you crazy. And then, he moves to your clit, tongue swirling around it as your back arches up off the bed. He hooks his arms around your thighs, keeping you in place as he gets to work, nose grinding against your clit while his tongue licks your cunt. It doesn’t take long for you to cum, his face taught against your cunt as you do so. 

Once you’re done, he rests his head against your inner thigh, admitting the mess he just made. The lower half of his face is soaked, his patchy facial hair glistening. He returns back to your cunt for one more lap of his tongue, just to taste you one more time before rising from the floor and taking off his clothes. You sit up and take off your sweater and your bra, tossing them on the floor and lying back down. You inch up a little higher on the bed to make room for him as he hovers over you. 

“I have a confession to make,” he says, looking down at you with a sly grin.

“Oh??”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen you naked.”

“Uhh-”

“Your bathroom window faces mine.”

“...It does?”

“Mhm. Saw you drying off one day.”

“Oh yeah? And then what?”

He bends down and whispers in your ear, “Jerked off in the shower to the thought of you.”

Your whole body shudders.

“Touch me, Frankie, please,” you whine.

“Are you begging, cariño?”

“Fuck. Yes, I am,” you whimper.

“Good girl,” he whispers in your ear, his hand caressing the outline of your breast before moving to your nipple. His other hand gathers some of your releases and strokes his cock, getting extra hard before sliding inside you, all while he plays with your nipple. You gasp at the sensation, feeling his length stretch your walls; feeling like you’re being split apart.

“You can take it,” he softly commands, bringing his face away from your ear and looking into your eyes again. He studies the expression on your face; the open mouth and the tears in the corners of your eyes, and his lips curve into a smirk. He draws his hips back and thrusts into you again, your cunt feeling completely full. Your soft moans are like music to his ears but he needs to hear more, not necessarily more sounds but a confession from you, too.

“Be honest, cariño. You’ve thought about fucking me too, haven’t you?”

It’s actually insane that this is the same sweet man who gave you the most thoughtful Christmas present earlier tonight. The same man who confessed to jerking off in the shower after seeing you naked.

“Y-yes…” you confess.

“What was that? Didn’t hear you,” he says as his hand to your other breast, taking your nipple in between his fingertips. 

“Fuck, Frankie yes, I’ve thought about it.”

“When?” he presses further, keeping the same pace with his thrusts.

“All the time. Even when you piss me off.”

“Knew it,” he teases, slamming his hips back into you. He rests his elbows on the other side of your head, face to face with you as he fucks you relentlessly.

“Frankie, I’m gonna cum,” you whimper.

“Let me feel it, cariño,” he says, studying your face again.

You close your eyes as you cum but that just won’t do for him. He wants you to look directly into the eyes of the man who made a mess of you.

“Look at me,” he softly commands.

You open your eyes, locking with his as you cum around his cock, feeling your walls flutter and pulsate in rhythmic patterns.

“Good girl,” he praises, thrusting into you one final time before coming, too. He paints your insides with his cum before pulling out of you and lying down on the bed. You roll over and situate yourself in the crook of his neck, resting your hand on his chest.

“You’re amazing,” he says, taking the his hat off his head and propping it on the bed post before wrapping his arm around you. There’s his sweet side again.

“I can’t believe you saw me naked,” you tease, still sort of in disbelief.

“Two times now. It’s a Christmas miracle,” he jokes.

You have to agree with him. He feels you twitch against him and he whispers, “Goodnight. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” you whisper back, letting sleep consume you.

New Year’s Eve

You’re spending New Year’s Eve at a bar with some of Frankie’s friends from high school. Ever since the night you got together, you’ve been leaning into the girlfriend role more, feeling like it’s not a charade anymore. Frankie doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he welcomes it. This is what the two of you wanted all along, even if both of you didn’t know it.

You’re watching the ball drop in New York City on the TV at the bar with Frankie’s arm snaked around your waist. As the clock strikes midnight, you kiss, feeling like you’re starting the year off right for once.

“Look at you,” you whisper against his lips, “Ending the year in a fake relationship and starting the new year in a real one.”

“Wouldn’t want it any other way,” he whispers back. 

Tag list: @wannab-urs @noxturnalpascal @hiddenbabynyc @littlegrungegirlaf @hyzer34 @catchallfangirl @pamasaur @paleidiot @runningmom94 @butiknewyoudlinger @sydneyinacoma @yorksgirl @wilderwizard @hnt-escape @axshadows @fanficlover1414 @lavema @yazsos @tarot-freader @dundienominee @pedropascalfan221 @khindahra @janaispunk @tuquoquebrute @perotovar @clawdee @immarocketman @whoreofabuckethead @grogusmum @idungoofed @fluffygoffpanda @meveispunk @beefrobeefcal @magpiepillsjunior @pr0ximamidnight @elvinaa @survivingandenduring @lincolndjarin @missladym1981 @heavennumber2 @covetyou @anoverwhelmingdin @hellfire-state-of-mind @joels-shitty-puns @stevie75

#frankie morales x reader #frankie morales x you #frankie morales x f!reader #frankie morales fanfiction #frankie morales smut #francisco morales #frankie catfish morales #triple frontier fanfiction #triple frontier #pedro pascal characters #pedrostories #pedro pascal fanfiction

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Life in the City 5

Warnings: this fic will include dark content such as bad friends, creep behaviour, abuse of power dynamics, and possible untagged elements. My warnings are not exhaustive, enter at your own risk.

This is a dark!fic and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: You move to the big city and find yourself swallowed up by its chaos.

Characters: Clark Kent, Thor Odinson, short!reader

Note: Heloooooo.

As per usual, I humbly request your thoughts! Reblogs are always appreciated and welcomed, not only do I see them easier but it lets other people see my work. I will do my best to answer all I can. I’m trying to get better at keeping up so thanks everyone for staying with me.

Your feedback will help in this and future works (and WiPs, I haven’t forgotten those!) Please do not just put ‘more’. I will block you. No tag list, do not ask for updates.

I love you all immensely. Take care. 💖

As promised, you’re shown to your new office by the end of the day. You put your meagre box of belongings on the desk and unpack a piece at a time. Isn’t an exhaustive task so you take your time. 

You put your watermelon post-its by the base of the monitor’s pedestal and your cell phone screen lights up. It’s been buried in your bag for much of the day but you took it out to reconnect to your work accounts. Melanie’s name fills the top of the screen. You still haven’t responded to her since the weekend. 

You swipe up your phone and cross the office. You answer as you shut the door, eking out a tiny hello as you turn back and bite your thumb. You pace aimlessly as your stomach knots. You don‘t think you’re mad at her, just embarrassed about how it all turned out. She knows how many times your excitement was burnt to disappointment, you hoped she wouldn’t have added to your pile ashes. 

“Hey, girl, you busy? I’ve been calling you all week.” 

It’s Tuesday, you think to yourself. 

“I’m sorry, I just have a lot going on at work--” 

“That’s great,” she interrupts, “did you see my texts? I really am sorry about the other night. You know, I was stressed. Clark was out of town for his job and I hadn’t seen him all week. Really, I didn’t forget about you, I just thought we were meeting Saturday, not Friday.” 

Your mouth slants as you weigh her excuse. You don’t know if you believe her but it could be true. How long have you been friends? Doesn’t she deserve the benefit of the doubt?

“Everyone gets busy,” you say with a brittle laugh, “I totally get it. Next time I’ll be clearer, that’s all. Make sure there’s no misunderstanding.” 

“Of course,” her voice is trills and is overly affected, “I just wanted to check in since Clark said you were so upset.” 

“He did?” You frown as you stop by the desk and take your stapler out of the box. 

“Uh, yeah, he did. So, in the future, if your upset, you can just let me know, hon,” her tone drips like syrup, “we’re friends, aren’t we? I mean, it’s a big city and we gotta stick together.” 

“Erm, sure, I’m sorry, I didn’t think... I wasn’t upset. I didn’t say anything, you know, I was just tired.” 

“Whatever, hon, it’s behind us now, isn’t it? You forgive me?” She pauses, waiting. 

“Y-yeah?” You answer. 

“Aw, that’s so wonderful,” she chimes, “anyway, you sound busy. You must be working so I’ll let you go. Ciao.” 

She hangs up and you hold the phone to your ear for a moment after the line dies. That was weird. Like she wasn’t really talking to you, but more putting on a show for someone. Strange. 

You drop your arm and a knock comes at the door. You wince and put your phone screen down. You face the door and fold your hands. 

“Uh, who is it?” You call out. 

The door opens and a throat clears, “just me,” Thor says as he enters, “wanted to be sure you got some of the leftovers.” 

He has a container in his hands. You try to blow off the tension and force a smile. You drop your arms straight and drag a finger up and down the seam of your pants. 

“Thanks, that’s too sweet,” you chirp. 

“Ah, I made sure to get you some cinnamon cookies,” he nears and offers the container. 

“Oh, my, I shouldn’t,” you accept the box. 

“You shouldn’t?” He wonders, “you’re not on some diet, are you? You hardly need one.”  

You laugh nervously, “oh, no,” you back up and spin to put the container on the desk. You go back and reach into the box, “I just... I have a rotten sweet tooth, you know? Sugar keeps me up.” 

“Mmm, well, you should indulge. Enjoy. Nothing wrong with allowing yourself the small things,” he goads, “so,” he claps his hands, the sound making you jump, “your office. How do you like it?” 

He looks around theatrically as he pivots. You take out your small blue mug with the teddy bear on it and follow his gaze, “it’s nice. Big.” 

“Yes, I suppose you don’t take up much space,” he remarks, “if you need any supplies, you can just let me know.” 

“Oh, um, I shouldn’t. I... I could just contact finance--” 

“Come to me,” he insists, “accounting takes too long.” 

“Okay,” you agree. 

“Are you excited?” He asks as he turns to you. 

“Sure,” you answer. 

“Mm,” he hums, “you’re sweet, but I don’t want you to stress. If there’s anything overwhelming me, don’t be afraid to let me know.” 

“I know, thank you, Mr. Odinson.” 

“Thor,” he corrects you with a wink, “you don’t know want to know Mr. Odinson.” He grins and you look at him blankly, “my father. He’s an old grump.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” you put the cup down and rub your palms together, “it’s been a long day.” 

“It has indeed,” he checks his watch, “you’re almost done... I should let you finish.” He flicks his finger towards your desk, “tomorrow, the heavy lifting begins.” 

“Yeah,” you murmur. 

“Don’t forget your treats,” he points to the container, “you’ve earned it.” 

“Right, thanks again,” your smile trembles as fatigue nips at the corner of your eyes. 

“See you tomorrow morning,” he avows before he spins and goes to the door. 

You return your attention to the box as you sense him hovering at the threshold. You think he’s looking at you but you’re too nervous to check. Finally, the door closes and you exhale and close your eyes. You can’t believe how much today has taken out of you and the days to come promise much of the same. 

🏙️

You yawn as you come out of your building, eyelids heavy and itchy as you rub them with your knuckles. You hitch up your bag as you turn down the sidewalk and cross to the stop on the other side of the street. You barely slept through the anxiety and anticipation. The unknown stresses you out more than anything and you really have no idea what you’re walking into. 

You let your head lean back as you give another silent roar of fatigue. You roll your shoulders and urge yourself to wake up. You got to get with it. You can’t show up at the office half-asleep. 

The whir of an engine approaches and you look towards the direction of the bus route. Its too quiet to be a bus. Instead, there’s a vaguely familiar car that slows instead of passing. You squint and cross your arms defensively. You have to keep reminding yourself this is the city. 

The window rolls down as you bounce on your feet awkwardly, “hey,” your name rises in the deep timbre. 

You bend and find Clark smiling at you. Of course! That’s why you recognised his car. 

“Heyyyy,” you say, “what are you doing... here?” 

“Working on a story, actually. Was in the area and... what timing, huh?” He pushes his shoulder up as he keeps one hand on the steering wheel, “you on your way to work?” 

“Yup,” you answer brightly, swallowing another yawn, “bus should be here soon.” 

“The bus? Get in, I’ll give you a ride.” 

“Oh, no, you don’t have to... that’s too far.” 

“Where do you work?” 

“Tempest,” you answer. 

“Tempest? That’s right by the paper. I’ll take you, no problem.” 

“Really?” Your brows arch dramatically, “that’s so nice of you.” 

“Of course,” he pats the passenger seat and the door unlocks with a loud click.

“I owe you one." You open the door and get in, tempted to melt into the seat. It’s so much better than the stiff ones on the bus. Ugh, your head is tenuous at best. It could start pounding at any minute. 

“How are you?” Clark asks as you buckle in. 

“Alright,” you repress yet another yawn, “how are you? How’s Melly?” 

“Melly?” He chuckles, “she’s fine, I think. I'm... fine too.” 

“Oh...” you twiddle your fingers in your lap as he slowly leans on the gas and pulls away from the curb, “just fine?” 

“Yeah, yeah, we’ve just been... talking a lot. You know, relationship stuff,” he drives with one hand, combing his other through his hair. 

“Ah, right,” you nod, “hopefully it’s okay.” 

“Huh,” he scoffs and puts his other hand on the wheel, “you’re a good friend.” 

“I... guess,” you shrug. “I... I just think Melanie really likes you.” 

“Oh, I know she does,” he laughs, “doesn’t keep her from being... how she is. I like her too but we both know she can be very demanding.” 

“She can be,” you agree, “but I think that’s just her personality. Sometimes I wish I could be more like her.” 

“Why would you want that?” he asks. 

“Er...” 

“I just mean, you’re you. Everyone’s different right and you’re just so sweet,” he says, “this world has enough Melanies.” 

“Maybe,” you turn your head and cover your mouth as you yawn at the window. 

“I’m dying for a coffee,” Clark says, his tone shifting smoothly with the topic, “how about you? Green tea?” 

You look at him. He remembers your order? You rub your cheek and drop your hand to your lap. 

“I’m okay, but thank you--” 

“Really, it’s no big deal,” he flips the blinker on, “I need an espresso so, how about it? Iced, hot?” 

You bite the inside of your lip. You really could use a boost. You don’t often get the chance. Your bus ride is too long to factor in a cafe run. 

“Could I get a matcha latte, iced? I have some change,” you open your bag and shove your hand inside. 

“Don’t worry about it,” he waves you off. 

“Really, you’re giving me a ride. The least I can do--” 

“The least you can do is let me buy your drink,” he insists, “because I kinda have a big favour to ask you.” 

“You do?” 

“Yeah, uh, it’s for Melanie. You must know her birthday is coming up.” 

“Yeah, I know--” 

“I really wanna work through things with her and I figured if I threw her a party, maybe it’s better than all this talking,” he joins the queue for the drive thru, “and you’ve known Melanie a lot longer than me so you’re like an expert. Do you think you could help me out?” 

“A birthday party? Well, I... could try. Mel’s always been the one into parties and planning and all that.” 

“I’m not good at it either but you know what she likes. I could use help at least with colours or whatever,” he suggest, “I mean, obviously, you don’t have to. I’m not going to blackmail you with a car ride and a latte.” 

You laugh rockily, “well, I could try. It wouldn’t be so bad and I should do something special. We’re both finally living in the same city. Maybe this would help with us too.” 

“Us? You and... Mel?” 

You give him a look then look through the windshield. You fidget as he rolls up to the speaker and orders. You wait until he’s done. 

“Things were awkward the other day when I crashed your date night,” you say, “I’m sure you caught on.” 

“Yeah, yeah, she wasn’t very gracious,” his tone lowers sharply. 

“It’s okay. She didn’t mean anything. I’m not upset--” 

“Did she apologise?” He asks abruptly. 

“Uh, yeah, of course, but she doesn’t have to--” 

“I think you deserve the apology,” he interrupts again. “You know, you don’t deserve to be walked all over like that. Hell, if I had friend like you, I think I’d treat you a lot better.” 

“I’m not upset,” you assure him, his mood making you uneasy. It’s flattering he would be so upset on your behalf but you’d rather just put it all behind you, “she said sorry, it’s all good.” You wiggle your foot as you think, “alright, I can help with the party.” 

“Ah, yes, you’re a life saver,” he pulls up to the window and pays. He gets the drinks and hands you the matcha before he slips his in the cup holder, “great, I’ll get your number and we can throw around ideas when you have a chance.” 

“Oh, yeah, sure, I could...” the cup soaks your hands in condensation, chilling you, “I’ll do my best. I have a new assignment at work so I’ll be a bit tied up.” 

“No problem, whenever you can. Hope you don’t mind if I send you a couple of pictures I saw,” he says, “tryna come up with a vision, you know?” 

“That’s cool,” you pause to sip the matcha, nearly sighing at the refreshing flow that coats your stomach, “thank you so much for the tea.” 

“Any time,” he says as he pulls out into the street, “anything you need at all.” 

#clark kent #thor #dark clark kent #dark thor #dark!clark kent #dark!thor #clark kent x reader #thor x reader #fic #dark fic #dark!fic #series #life in the city #au #multifandom #dcu #dc #marvel #mcu #avengers #superman

[jasperhaleobsessed]

Dancing with the Cowboy

Jasper Hale x GN reader (requested by anon)

Notes: Sorry this took me forever I've been preparing for the holidays and school's been a bit stressful the last week or two. Thank You so much for your patience! :) This is my first x reader fic so please be nice! Posted this by accident oops! But it's fine it was practically done anyways! Not heavily edit sorry in advanced! Hope you still like it! :)

Warnings: None, pure fluff

Word count: 853

Tagging some mutuals/friends cause I need some love since this is my first x reader fic! @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @twilightsaga123412 @nobody0805 @naolvshan

You smiled to yourself as you popped in your ear buds. It was finally your 'me' time in the day. And to say the least today was exhausting and you needed some music in your life. Excitement rushed through your veins, it was finally time to listen to your favorite album and your favorite artist. You were bubbling with excitement, you just couldn’t wait. You unlocked your phone and tapped on your music app. You scrolled until you found your favorite album. Reputation by Taylor Swift. Out of her discography rep was most definitely your favorite and the best out of her other albums in your honest opinion. It was different and unique from the rest of her work that’s what made it special. Of course the rest of her discography was amazing but this album held a special place in your heart. 

This album always pumped you up. It always brought a smile to your face when you were down. When you were sad it made everything better. They say books can take you to magical places but in your case it wasn’t a book, It was Reputation and any of Taylor Swift’s music. Her music was magical in your eyes, her lyrics were like poetry, they’re beautiful. They’re amazing. It’s what got you through the good and bad. But it wasn’t just her music that helped a certain cowboy, helped as well. You blush at the thought of your boyfriend, he always had this effect on you. You tucked a piece of your hair behind your ear, smiling at the thought of your boyfriend. You also couldn’t help but feel excited to see him in the next 30 minutes. Currently it is 2:30 and he said he’d be at your place at 3:00. So you have about 30 minutes to listen to tswift and relax. This sounded perfect. You headed towards your room, you twisted the doorknob and flicked the lightswitch. 

Once you stepped into your room you plopped onto your soft, comfy bed. You hit play on Reputation and the first track started to play …Ready for it? The song started to play and after a minute you couldn’t help but move from your bed. It was a difficult move since your covers and pillows were ever so soft and comforted you greatly. But suddenly you were in the mood for a little dance even if you weren’t the best, at the end of the day it was all about having fun. You started to shuffle your feet, a giggle escaped your lips as you continued to shake your hips trying to match the rhythm of the song. Dancing hasn’t always been your forte and you haven’t always enjoyed it but when you're alone and not judged by others it feels good. It also helped you were listening to rep. Suddenly you felt a strong arms wrap around your waist. You squealed in surprise. And you may or may not be very, very ticklish. You whipped your head around to meet a pair of golden eyes. You put a hand over your heart, it raced fast. 

You swat his arm, “You scared the crap out of me Jazz.” He chuckled at your response. “Sorry Darlin’ didn’t mean to startle ya.” He smiled dazzlingly at you. 

You pulled your earbuds out of your ears to hear him better. You quickly pause your music and toss your phone on your bed. You admired his smile, you could never stay mad at him long. 

You shake your head and a small smile graces your face. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be here until 3:00?” You question, raising your eyebrow. 

“Sorry darlin’ I missed you too much.” 

“You just saw me like an hour ago, you know!” 

“Well excuse me darlin’ but I missed you and I’ll take any chance to see you.” You smiled at him like a dork. You blushed and closed the gap between the two of you. You pressed your lips against his cold ones. It made you shiver and yet it was a wonderful feeling. A warm feeling blossomed in your chest as you kissed him. You pulled away and giggled, you looked up at him and you couldn't help but look deep into his honey eyes. He smiled warmly at you, and caressed your cheek. “I also may or may not have felt that you're a bit exhausted and I wanted to do anything to help ya.”

Your heart melts, it's official you have the sweetest boyfriend. “Aww thank you Jasper, that is so sweet and considerate of you. I love you.” He beams and you lean in and hug him tightly. 

“May I have this dance?” You smiled at him and took his hand. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed play. The beat of lover came on, it was one of your favorites. 

He wrapped his arms around your waist and you rested your hand on his chest. You both swayed together and danced to the slow beat. 

You felt glad he came over. He always came when you needed him. It really helped that he could feel what you felt, it may or may not have come in handy at times. He has this wonderful talent of taking away your worries and making everything better. He had the best hugs and always knew the right words to say He really was the perfect boyfriend.

The End. 

#jasper hale #jasper whitlock #jasper hale x reader #twilight imagine #jasper hale x y/n #jasper hale x you #jasper hale x gn reader #jasper hale x gender neutral reader #twilight saga #the twilight saga #twilight #twilight fanfiction #twilight fanfic #request #requested #anon #anonymous #for anon #my fanfic #my fanfiction

[stupidasfuck]

Lando Norris x Reader

Soo this is my first fan fiction that I am posting. I have no idea if someone gonna read this or like it but if you read this I would be very happy about feedback.

English is not my first language and I am dyslexic so I apologise for any mistakes I made and didn’t find during editing.

Summary: after a long and exhausting race weekend Lando comes finally home and goes straight to you.

I am sorry I suck at summary’s haha have fun reading <3

Landos and your apartment 2:32 am

It‘s in the middle of the night when Lando comes finally home from a long and exhausting race weekend. One of the rare ones you couldn‘t attend due to your work.

Normally it‘s not a problem for you to fly with Lando to his races, some times a day later or two, but this time you had to stay at home because of a meeting that had to be held in person.

Lando hates to go to races without you. He needs you there, not just because you are his good luck charm but also his rock. He goes to you when he is overwhelmed, sad or just needs someone to hold him and tell him that you are proud of him, that he is doing amazing and that you love him.

But when your not with him he doesn‘t have that. Of course you talk on the phone or face time with each other but it‘s not the same.

He needs you with him, he needs to touch you in any way and if he just holds your hand in a meeting.

And on weekends like this when you are not with him, racing is even more exhausting. As much as he loves it, he loves you more and just wants to be home with you laying in bed, with his head laying on your chest, your hand brushing through his curls and watch the show you‘ve started a few weeks ago.

This means he is even more happy to come home and relax with you until his next race.

So when he opens the door to your shared apartment in the middle of the night he puts his bags down, hangs his jacked on the rack and takes his shoes of.

He then quietly walks to the bedroom. He opens and closes the door slowly so he doesn‘t wake you up. He strips until the only thing he is wearing are his boxer’s and crawls into bed next to you.

He slowly wraps his arm around your waist and puls you closer. You stir a little in your sleep and press your back against his chest and put your hands on his muscular armes.

Land smiles at the feeling of finally having you with him and being able to hold you again.

You stir a bit more and start to wake up realizing that the warmth your feeling is not just a dream. You open your eyes a little and blink a few times to see more clearly. You rub your hands over his armes subconsciously while your sleepy brain try‘s to realize what is happening. You turn your head a little to look behind you.

“Lando?“ you whisper.

“I‘m here sweetheart.“ He whispers back.

“I thought you wouldn’t be back until tomorrow?“

“Misst you to much to wait another night.“ He sais sheepishly.

“Oh baby.“ You chuckle lightly.

“Mmh go back to sleep Baby.“ He tells you burying his head in your neck smelling your freshly washed hair.

“Night Baby, I love you.“ You say snuggling back into the pillow and Lando.

“Love you to sweetheart, sleep well.“ It wasn‘t long until your breathing evened out and your sweet little snores filled the quite room. Londo loves the sound of your little snores it calmed him knowing you were there with him.

With your warm body presst agains him it didn‘t took long for Lando to fall asleep too knowing he was finally home with you in his armes.

So thats it. I hope you like it. If you found any mistakes please tell me. Hope you have a nice day <3

#lando norris #lando norris x reader #fanfic #formula 1 #f1 #f1 x reader #fluff #english is not my first language #ln4 #ln4 x reader #fiction

[ladylooch]

Nico smut where you finally get intimate after having a baby? maybe reader is insecure about her body so Nico just worships her

A/N: Mmmm intimacy and sex. We love to see it ❤️ Thank you so much for this request. My heart was literally exploding and aching and bouncing with joy writing this. I love these type of requests that make you feel as a reader and a writer. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for being patient while waiting for this one!

Part of What My World Spins Around AU.

Reminder: although I am posting requests right now, they are closed. I am just getting caught up.

Word Count: 2.5k

Warnings: SMUT 18+ Content, Body image issues, swearing, drinking, babies/pregnancy talk.

Across the table, my husband is absolutely salivating. 

And it has little to do with the sushi rolls we are currently stuffing in our faces. After 9 looooooong months without my favorite cuisine, it was a relief when Nico suggested this restaurant for the second visit this week.

But, again, the look on his face is not because of food. It’s because of me.

“Nico.” I snort after taking a sip of my mango martini.

“Hm?” He asks, thumb stroking across the top of my hand that he holds in the center of the table.

“Tone it down a bit.” 

“I can’t.” He shrugs. “I finally get to have you. And you’re just eating sushi over there like you’re not dying at the thought of feeling me between your thighs again.” 

“I’m still thinking about the other thing that was between my thighs 6 weeks ago.” I gesture with my other hand. “Ya know, our daughter.” His shoulders deflate a bit and I can tell I’ve bruised his ego. I bite my lip. I didn’t mean to do that, but it’s the truth. Birth is traumatic. A lot happens to your body before, during, and after. It’s a wild ride.

“I understand.” He nods, giving my hand a squeeze. “Sorry, I just assumed when they told you everything was okay today that you would… Yeah, that’s on me. I’m sorry. I should have-“

“Neeks, you’re absolutely fucking me tonight.” I cut him off. He visibly relaxes, happy grin stretching his lips.

“Okay.” We share a soft laugh, my cheeks tinting red at the obvious excitement returning to his face. He glances between me and my last piece of sushi.

“Patience.” 

“It’s been 8 weeks and 4 days since I’ve had you.” He blurts out. “And since you texted me the green flag earlier, I have been painfully hard.”

“It has not been that long since I helped you out.” He blinks at me, waiting for an elaboration. “I sucked you off in the kitchen the other day.”

“Oh I remember. Vividly. I just wanted you to say it out loud.”

“You’re such a slut, Hischier.”

“Only for you, Hischier.” He murmurs, gnawing on his bottom lip as the waitress comes to ask if we want anything else. “The check would be great.” Nico says without taking his eyes from me. I roll my eyes, hiding my smile with another sip of my drink.

When we get home, we both cross our fingers that our baby is asleep. Ryan Graves and his girlfriend, Clare, offered to watch Lucie so we could enjoy a night out. All three humans are passed out in the living room when we enter. 

“Gravy.” Nico snickers, poking the defenseman’s shoulder. He startles awake.

“Holy shit.” He mutters. “Sorry. This baby stuff is hard. I’m exhausted.”

“Welcome to the club.” I laugh, walking to Lucie and seeing her perfectly swaddled, on her back in her bassinet. 

“We just did the round of eating and changing, so she should be good for a bit.”

“Great.” I grin. “So you guys gonna have one?”

“Not yet.” Clare laughs honestly, but the look she gives to Ryan makes me think it isn’t too far off.

“When you’re ready, it’s literally the best thing.” Nico murmurs, coming to slide a hand around my waist. He presses his finger tips into my stomach, pulling me back to where he is rock hard against my butt.

“Well, we will get out of your hair. Gotta get my baby to bed.” Clare jokes, nudging Ryan towards the door.

“Why am I so tired? All I did was hold her?” Ryan mutters as they work towards the entry way. I follow, leaving my horny husband in the living room to cover his situation.

“Bye! Thanks again!” I wave to them, then shut the front door. The air in the house instantly changes when we are alone… with our sleeping baby.

I come back into the living room to find Nico staring at her. His brown eyes are absolute mush, taking in the center of his world. He brings his gaze to me. I lick my bottom lip then tuck it between my teeth. Nico begins to move towards me. I feel my breathing accelerate as he reaches for my hips. I toss my arms around his shoulders. Our mouths crash together, lips and tongues caressing each other shamelessly.

“I can’t wait anymore.” He whispers harshly against my mouth. “If you touch me, I’ll come in my pants.” I pull my head back to let out a loud laugh at his eagerness. Our baby startles in her crib. Both Nico and I hold our breath, clutching each other desperately, praying she settles herself back down. She stays asleep.

“We should leave this room.” I tell him. He nods, grabbing the portable baby monitor from the counter and hooking it to her bassinet. We both run up the hall as quietly and fast as possible.

When we get to the bedroom, all of my confidence begins to shatter. It starts when he brushes his hands innocently over my leftover baby pooch. I shiver, thinking of what that’s going to look like fully exposed. Then, his fingers run lovingly over my back, stroking a few bulges of pudge left there too. My eyes close, trying to enjoy his strokes on my ass, but I think of just a few inches forward, wondering if it’s all going to be the same for him. He’s been counting the days down; what if he’s disappointed in me now?

Nico kisses his way along my jaw. I squeeze my eyes shut as he works on the button on my jeans. I feel like every part of me is jiggling with his movement. HIs fingers brush against the baby pooch again. I react, gripping his wrist to halt his movements.

“What?” He asks, pulling back to look at me. My eyes are still shut.

“Can we turn the lights off?”

“Ah…” He chuckles. “I kinda wanna see you, babe. It’s been awhile.”

“Yeah I know. Um, and I’m different.” I say quietly. My eyes open to look at him. He wears an inquisitive look that stretches the corners of his lips into a deep frown. A wrinkle appears between his eyebrows. “I look different.” My voice is small as I reiterate what I know.

Nico steps away to take me in. I reach down to cover what is exposed of my abdomen.

“Put those hands down.” 

“Nico.”

“Baby.” I feel my bottom lip wobble as I drop my hands. “Beautiful. I wish you could see what I do when I look at you. You’re stunning. I want to worship you. I want to kiss every single part of pregnancy left on your body.” He reaches for my hand. I weave our fingers together, looking at our feet. He steps closer, nudging my chin up to look at him. “You have given us the greatest gift. And I love every single reminder of that on you now.” His hand, linked with mine, comes up and runs along the stretch marks fanning across my lower abdomen. “I’m going to praise every bit of it on you for the rest of our lives, starting with tonight.”

“Ugh, you are so sweet.” I mumble, stepping forward to kiss him hard. His hands go around my hips, into my jeans, then to my bare ass cheeks. He squeezes them heftily, grinding me against his front. 

Together, we undress each other. Nico’s shirt get tossed. My jeans are pushed down. He kicks off his pants around his ankles and we are both left in our underwear. He nudges me back towards our bed, sitting me down on it. I work my way back, without letting our kiss break. When I’m flat, Nico arranges one of my legs around his waist so he can rub against my folds. I moan into his mouth. While still giving kisses, his hand works it’s way between our bodies, feeling at my entrance. I hold my breath, listening to the sound of me slick against him. Nico pulls roughly away, pausing. 

“I need a minute.” He laughs, looking up at the ceiling. I reach for him, seeing the wetness puddling on his gray, boxer briefs. I stroke at the wet spot, feeling his slit as Nico hisses. “No. Stop.” He says horsely, gripping my wrist. “I was serious about cumming in my pants.”

I sigh happily as I stare up at his chin from my back. A smile stretches my lips, thinking that there isn’t much sexier than an NHL captain needing to wait so he isn’t a two pump chump. I trail my finger nails along the ridges of his abdomen, admiring my red nails complimenting his muscles. It looks sexy with light, pink trails popping up after they pass over an area. Nico tilts his head down to watch too as the goosebumps dot his skin.

“Ready?” He asks me, sweet eyes watching every flicker on my face.

“Yes.” I stare as he pulls his underwear down, kicking it off to the floor. My heart begins to beat fast in my body as I lift my hips for him to do the same to me. He gently spreads my knees so he can drink in the view. He moans, immediately leaning down and placing his lips on my folds. He kisses all along them as my breath quivers. My eyebrows crinkle in need when his tongue snakes out. 

“Fuck.” I moan, whimpering at the end as he digs in deeper. He circles my entrance with his finger, working it in, sliding it in and out. “Nicooo.” It’s been so long since I’ve had any sort of an orgasm. Nico pulls it from me with a few more strokes. He kisses up my abdomen as I recover. He comes to my lips, hovering there to look into my eyes.

“Ive missed this side of you, babe.” He nuzzles my cheek with his nose, kissing along to my jaw, then to my throat. “Your sweet noises. The way you whisper my name before you come.” I feel him place himself against my entrance, slowly rolling in a circle to get me ready for him.

When he pushes in, he is affectionate, mindful of his size and my sensitivity. I bite my lip, trying not to wince as his head inches in. This is much more than a finger. I can’t help but tense in anticipation with each slow push forward.

“Relax, baby. I’m gonna take care of you.” He feathers kisses along my breasts. My nipples are a no-go right now, but his mouth on my swells are enough to make pleasure seep from between my lips. Once he feels me relax, he slides in the rest of the way. He stays right there, filling me, pulling back to watch my face. “I love you so much.” He nuzzles our noses together then presses his lips over mine. “You are perfect. So incredible.” I bring my hands to his back, stroking his skin.

“I love you.” I repeat to him, leaning up to connect our lips again. “I trust you.”

“Tell me when.” He pulls out again, then slowly eases in once more. This time feels better, a flicker of fire dashing up my body, making a noise spurt from my throat.

“I’m ready.” I whisper in his ear as he places his head down by mine to focus.

He begins to move in and out, tenderly, then builds to a tempo that has me wiggling beneath him. He props himself up on his arms, biceps flexing from his weight as he pumps his hips- all the way in then almost all the way out. My mouth falls into an “O” heavy breathing falling from my lips as my fingers grip him tighter. Nico groans in appreciation.

“That’s it, baby. Dig your finger nails into me… just… like.. that.” He murmurs as he hits that spot inside of me. “Fuck. I’m obsessed with how you feel.” He is moaning with me now, barely able to speak his words.

I run my fingers in opposite directions on his back. One goes to his ass, pushing his bare cheeks into me harder with each thrust. The other goes to his hair, gripping his long strands as he fucks me deeper. Everything else has disappeared except for the points we are connecting with each other. Nico’s hand comes to my clit, rubbing me in large, dainty circles, just enough to get me to shake against him. He turns down to watch my face. “You look so beautiful when I’m fucking you, baby.” He is grinning, teeth shinning as he watches my breathing shorten more, cheeks flush, eyes close.

“Holy… fucking.. fuck.” I sob to Nico as I come. He unleashes into me immediately after my first wave grips him. Swiss German spews from his lips aggressively as pulse after pulse passes through us. I cling to him, muscles spasming, hovering off the bed before collapsing back onto the mattress, breathing heavy, sporadic puffs. His hands go around me and he rolls us, so I collapse on top of his chest. He pants beneath my body weight, stroking his hand from my hair to my butt cheeks. 

We lay there there for several minutes, neither of us able to speak.

Nico’s fingers run through my hair, gripping the strands in his fist to list my face up towards his. It’s gentle, but the act has me imagining the nastier nights we’ve had. I push out a silent breath, lips forming a tight O. He registers the depth of my gaze, lost in our old memories, then grins devilishly at me.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fantastic.” I tell him, chuckling. “Can’t believe you lasted that long.”

“I was pulling out all the stops in my mind.” He shakes his head, eyes widening. “Almost didn’t make it to stroke four.” I press my mouth to the underside of his chin. “Mmm.” He grunts in appreciation.

“Thank you.” I whisper. “You always know what I need to feel loved. I… was so worried earlier and you made everything okay. You always do.”

“You know you’re all I need, babe. And if you’re happy, I’m happy.”

“I’m pretty content right now, but a bath with you would really seal the deal.” I admit to him. “Maybe rub some bubbles on some dirty places…” I trail off, meeting his gaze.

“Yes, please. Once wasn’t enough.” He maneuvers me off of him and onto my side after a slap on the ass.

He gives me a smooch before disappearing into our bathroom to set the stage for round 2.

#nico hischier blurb #nico hischier fan fiction #nico hischier #hockey writing #NHL fan fiction #my writing #writing request #New Jersey devils

[plague-of-insomnia]

WIP Wednesday: Sebardagni Post-Apocalyptic Domestic Sickfic AU

I know no one cares about this idea aside from me, but this is the first thing I’ve been able to write in months, and I really fucking need the escapism of Sebastian having two men taking care of him even when the world has fallen to pieces.

I have a few scenes for this written I may end up posting on AO3 later, but for now, enjoy this scene.

The concept for this AU is this: the world ended a few years ago, and Bard, Agni, and Sebastian have been surviving together. Sebastian is chronically ill, so he and Agni mind the homestead while Bard goes off on excursions for supplies. It’s not an easy life, but overall, they’re happy.

~#~

Sebastian balanced carefully. The forearm crutches Bard had fashioned for him fit better than anything he’d managed with since the world collapsed and meant he wouldn’t do just that onto the floor—even if his muscles were weak.

He’d finally managed a few hours’ sleep, exhaustion and one of Agni’s herbal treatments helping to ease his breathing long enough to dream.

And what a dream it was. He couldn’t wait to hurry out of the small bedroom they shared in this tiny mountain cabin and tell Agni about it. As bittersweet as it was, it had felt so wonderfully real, he could almost ignore the perpetual tightness in his chest.

“Agni! Agni!” Sebastian cautiously eased the door open.

The cabin was cozy, a main room with a fireplace, kitchen, and sitting area, a bedroom and bath, and a cellar Sebastian couldn’t access—too many stairs— where they stored food for the winter.

The fire illuminated the room as Agni worked. From the way the orange sun had colored the bedroom, Sebastian suspected it was evening, which would mean Agni would likely be busy prepping their dinner.

Things had been harder lately, since Bard had been gone for weeks now—73 days, exactly, not that Sebastian had been counting—but they made do. Agni wasn’t as skilled a huntsman as Bard, but between their garden, preserved stores, chickens and goats, they managed. Agni had to coax Sebastian more often than not to eat as it was, so he barely dented their food stocks.

“I dreamed Bard came home and he found me medicine, and—“ Sebastian’s voice cut out immediately as he realized he heard Agni speaking to someone. And then he saw him. “Bard?”

The man was perched on a stool at the kitchen island, looking ragged and thinner than Sebastian remembered, but very much not a dream or a ghost.

“You’re alive?!” Sebastian’s eyes filled and he pushed himself to move as fast as he possibly could, dropping his arms from his crutches so he could throw them around his lover. “Agni and I were worried you were never coming home.”

Bard’s strong arms supported Sebastian in their embrace so he wouldn’t lose his footing, enjoying this connection. He smelt like tobacco and sweat and days out on the road, but more than anything, like hope.

Sebastian didn’t even care if Bard hadn’t been able to find any medicine for him. He was just so relieved he began to sob as weeks of emotions he’d been damming up broke free.

“Hey, hey, you’ll make your breathing worse. I’m all right. I missed you both and thinking of getting back here to you kept me going. You know I don’t die easy.”

Sebastian’s legs ached, and Bard sensed his growing instability and helped him sit down beside him. A moment later, Agni set a steaming mug in front of him. The frothy liquid was green. Another one of his herbal concoctions?

“It’s matcha. I lucked out.” Bard scratched his cheek. “Got caught in a bad storm a couple towns over and took refuge in a partly burned-out old asian market. I moved some shelves to help create a barcade and found a whole supply of the stuff that had been overlooked by scavengers.”

“The caffeine will help your breathing,” Agni said with a warm smile. “It’s not medicine, but it was a good find.”

Sebastian tried not to frown as he took a sip. It was bitter, but Agni had added some of the honey from the bees he kept to sweeten it. He didn’t want to ruin their happy reunion by suggesting, again, that maybe it was time Agni and Bard moved on and left him behind. He was too frail to travel, and Bard was having to spend more and more time on the road, detouring farther and farther from their home base in order to find any medicine to help ease Sebastian’s symptoms.

Even before the world fell apart, Sebastian had been ill. But after, the stress and lack of medical care meant his condition had deteriorated significantly, and if they hadn’t found this cabin by chance, he knew he probably would have died years ago.

Sometimes, he wondered if that would have been better for both Agni and Bard, even if he kept his mouth shut as he listened to them talking, Bard regaling some of his adventures while Agni finished prepping their food.

They’d have rabbit stew tonight, thanks to Bard’s catch, and Sebastian cherished the warmth of the mug in his hands as he tried to enjoy the limited happiness of this domestic snapshot.

He did like it here, in their little cabin. The woods shielded them from most of the horrors of the dying human world, and the fresh, dry air eased his breathing some. He loved their little home and garden, and enjoyed helping Agni with the animals when he was well enough to venture outside. He thought, despite his illness and the reality of their new world, he might be content, if Bard didn’t constantly have to put his life at risk for Sebastian’s sake.

Sebastian shivered as one of Bard’s coarse hands played with his long hair, curling a strand around a finger.

“I missed you both so fucking much,” he said. Sebastian could see the fear in those blue eyes, that he’d probably worried he might not make it back, or that by the time he did, only Agni would be waiting for his return.

~#~

Reblogs appreciated as always!

Liked this? You can see more of my writing on AO3.

#black butler #黒執事 #wip wednesday #sebardagni #sebastian michaelis #post-apocalyptic au #bardroy #agni #sickfic #domestic au #poi writes #poi og #snippet #disabled sebastian #bard

[miss-celestia13]

Good Girl

Jake x MC Smut One Shot

Words: 3.4k

A week apart. A clever little toy. Taunting Jake and refusing to back down means Manon is about to learn that playing with fire gets you burnt… in a very good way. Praise, denial of sex to make her beg, and a filthy dream that shatters her control. Shameless gratuitous smut!

It's been a while since I posted some explicit shit, and this was gathering dust in my drafts. Can be read on its own. You don't even have to know the fandom to read it. It's smut at its most indulgent and plotless self. I hope you enjoy it! It's a dual POV, switches from Jake to my MC and back again every so often, but I've tried to make it as clear as possible. Their names are bolded to show whose head you're in.

Manon: It’s a shame you have to work...

Jake: Why?

Manon: I was shopping earlier and bought something for us to play with.

Jake: …

Manon lay on her front on her massive hotel bed, legs crossed at the ankle and kicking up as his chat bubble told her he was typing and deleting repeatedly. It took another few minutes before he sent something else.

Jake: For us or for you?

Manon: Well, I was bored earlier, and it was definitely for me then, but I know you’ll figure it out when I come home.

Jake: Manon.

You should have waited for me.

Manon: You should know by now that waiting isn’t my strong suit.

Jake: How many times?

She considered lying, but part of her still thought he could read her filthy mind, and her thumbs moved before her mind could catch up.

Manon: Twice.

Jake: That’s it?

Pathetic.

A strangled laugh left her, she could hear his cocky tone, and already she wanted to go for round three. She decided to play a perilous game and prod at his need to claim, conquer, and own her in bed. Familiar heat made her muscles loose, and a hot flush crept up her neck to stain her cheeks pink.

Manon: There is plenty of time to make that number rise...

Jake: Do you want me to deny you, Manon? You didn’t like it last time.

Manon: I vividly remember enjoying the end results, though.

Jake: I see.

We’ll see how long you last this time.

Sleep well, Manon. ;-)

(Jake is offline)

Fuck. Her pulse flickered wildly in her neck as she stared at the screen and wished she could slap herself, turn back time, and not provoke him into another game of, “Let’s see how long Manon’s sanity can stretch before she snaps and begs.” Two days were her limit a few months back, and she hadn’t pushed him that far since. The safety of a luxury hotel and the temporary distance between them gave her a false sense of confidence, and she would be the loser if she couldn’t hold out. No. She refused to lose and wouldn’t see him for a week. It would be easy. A walk in the Godsdamned park. It would’ve been if Jake hadn’t shown up at her door the following morning and joined her for the rest of her stay. Her new plaything was soon confiscated, and her suffering began.

Five days. Five fucking days he slept naked beside her, joined her in the shower, touched, kissed, and grabbed her until she trembled and moaned, only to be released with a peck on the cheek and a sly smirk as he turned away. Her nerves were shot, a permanent tremor took up residence in her hands whenever he brushed past her or smiled her way, and she ran out of clean underwear two days ago, slick so often she had to change them multiple times just to get through the fucking day. He never let her out of his sight to ensure she couldn’t relieve the pressure building to an implosion inside her with her fingers. She was on a blade edge as she readied for another sleepless night.

Exhaustion dragged her down as she slid off her robe and clambered into bed, ignoring the smug look on Jake’s face as she put her back to him and slammed her eyes shut. She thought sleep was beyond the realm of possibility, but her body had been on high alert for days and demanded a break. She was asleep within minutes, barely cognizant of his gentle kiss on her temple as oblivion pulled her under. There was no respite from her constant simmering arousal inside her dreams. He was there, under her, on top of or lifting her up, and it changed each time she blinked and was so vibrant and real that she could feel the slip and slide of her essence on her inner thighs as he fucked her.

Unleashed and intent on making her crumble, she was helpless as dream Jake flipped her on her front and ordered her to get on her knees and hold on. Her shaking hands gripped the bedpost just as he slid inside her, every hard inch so familiar and real to her as she keened. Out of focus and constantly changing, she could only burn as the dream spun out of control. Seeing them from above, two souls twisted together on the bed, positions switching as she flung her head back and screamed. She flinched away from it and blinked, finding herself under him once more. Release was so close it was a coppery tang on her tongue as he urged her on. Ready to crest that peak, primed to detonate, relief and gratitude sinking through her…

She was unceremoniously dragged out of it and blinked stupidly at the dark ceiling as Jake jostled the bed and turned to face her.

 

She was soaked in sweat, her saturated cunt clenching in time with her furious heartbeat, and a moan trapped halfway up her throat as her thwarted orgasm winked out of existence. That was it. Her hormones had reached critical levels. She couldn’t take it anymore. Lust was a lead weight low in her belly. A swirling ache with its own pulse resided in her core, and she realized dimly that she was whimpering softly. She could take the edge off herself and hold off a little longer. The thought made her bottom lip tremble as sweat trickled down her face. She was soaked and unable to think or breathe through the violent arousal stealing her tongue. Sensing Jake watching her, she didn’t jump when his sleep-roughened voice rumbled too close for her jumpy nerves.

“Two words, Manon. Say them, and I’ll fuck the ache away.”

Oh, fuck, he never played fair. Her legs clamped together, and she was rubbing them slightly, seeking friction as his large hand wrapped around the back of her thigh. He’d feel how wet she was; it slid down her thighs to soak the sheets, and she knew he’d already noticed. She was proven right when his fingers crawled between her legs to delve into her slippery folds. Her whimper fast turned into a whine as he circled her entrance with the tip of his finger but didn’t penetrate her. It was cruel of him to tease her when she felt like an animal in heat. A creature of base instincts so devastating she feared she might die if he didn’t fuck her. The words were on the tip of her tongue, her mouth parted along with her thighs, and she was close to begging when he called her good girl.

She hated to lose. She would rather die than give in, but her body would not rest without his care and even if he allowed her to touch herself, it wouldn’t be enough. He was smirking, she could barely see him, but she knew he was as she loosed a quivering breath and his finger grazed her clit. No, she had no other option, and her mouth opened before she understood she was talking.

“You win. Please, I think I’ll go mad if you don’t fuck me.” She fully expected him to gloat, or laugh but he didn’t make a noise.

Suddenly, his mouth was on her neck, teeth scraping down the column as she jolted and let out a yelp that soon turned to a warbling moan as he slid two fingers inside her weeping cunt. The heel of his hand caught her clit as he moved it in and out, her fluttering inner walls holding his fingers tight. She could feel her sanity splintering and weakening as pleasure ignited like fire on gasoline. Jake murmured pure filth to urge her on.

“I need you relaxed, Manon. I can’t give you what you want until you come for me. I need to hear you. Then I’ll fuck the sense back into you.”

An unhinged laugh spilled out of her as her stomach tensed, the heat between her legs now an inferno as she ground herself into his hand. It was like sparking flint over dry brush. He coaxed her along, crooking and pulling his fingers, kissing her until she drank the air from his lungs. Besotted after all this time. She wondered how they’d be twenty years from then. Still obsessed with each other and deeply in love? She believed so, and as the first ripples of her release spread from her core, she knew she would always feel so utterly unglued around him. Everything in him was designed to pull her apart and put her back together. Her mouth opened, a dark wail and curse of his name as her body tensed and jerked with every pull of his hand between her thighs.

“There, let it take the edge off. You’re beautiful.”

Over time, Jake got even braver in the bedroom, and out of it, he was confident, a little cocky when needed, and completely aware of his effect on Manon. A few words, a couple twists of his wrist, and denying her for a short time, it was a recipe for heaven when she finally erupted. He’d hated every moment of denying her; he needed her touch as often as she needed his. All he had to do was think about her or catch a hint of her seductive scent, and he was rock hard, ready to taunt her body into unconsciousness. Oh, yes, he knew how strongly he could make her react. She was always extra touchy the following days after one of those animalistic nights. He tried not to use it too often, but she deserved that from him tonight. He knew if he fucked her right away, she would come too fast to savor it. She was a livewire under his influence; he only had to look at her over the last few days, and he could observe her struggle to keep the words that would end her torment trapped inside. Her quaking body flooded his hand with her essence, and he wanted to taste it more than he wanted to breathe.

“Jake,” she whispered as she took her first full breath since waking; he affirmed as he sucked his fingers clean and wordlessly told her to go on, “I need you. Now. “

“Do you want me to take care of you?” He needed her consent before physically committing to taking her control away.

Her soft, urgent whine made his smirk broaden as she said, “Yes. Don’t make me beg.”

He let go of a black chuckle, “You already are, Sweetheart.”

That was the trigger word, saved for these moments as its power over her was so explosive that she turned feral. His smirk transformed into a grin, and he caught her as she pounced and pushed him onto his back. Her tongue was in his mouth as his cock jumped against her ass, and she clawed his chest, sharp nails making him hiss into her mouth. He groaned and bucked his hips when he felt her drip onto his torso. His cock ached with the need to sink into her tight heat and feel her disintegrate around his length. She made a beast out of him, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. He never got bored of exploring her body and claiming new territory. He wrapped his hand around his cock and sighed as he applied pressure and stroked up and down a few times. Manon keened and found her voice.

“I’ve said the damn words, Jake. Stop playing.”

He didn’t respond; he let himself go and gripped her waist, flipping them so her hips cradled his and she was pinned. The heat pouring off her was scalding, and her skin was damp, salty, and musky as he inhaled slowly. His mouth watered as he stared into her lust-hazed eyes. She would let him do anything and trusted him so profoundly she readily handed him the reins. He didn’t take that for granted as he snapped his teeth at her plump bottom lip and stretched to reach under his pillow where he’d stashed the item that started all of this. He fumbled blindly until he felt the cool, smooth handle. It was a small clit sucking toy she mentioned once in passing, and he wanted to surprise her with it, but her impatient ass couldn’t wait. She already knew what he planned as she writhed under him and shook her head.

“Yes or no, Manon. You can stop me at any time. I’m doing this for you.” He rasped as she babbled.

Her voice never sounded, but she did nod.

“Will I keep going?” He double-checked, knowing he was being a little cruel.

“Yes! Fucking hell you are -” She sobbed as he impaled her on his thick cock and held her still, the insult she planned to spit at him forgotten as her eyes rolled back.

Her cunt held his cock in a taught clasp. A sensation of static flared under his skin as he made tiny shifts of his hips to open her up and stretch her to take him with force. Oh, her body would sing for him, primed to explode as it was. His small movements inside her turned into sharp darts of his cock that had her clinging to his shoulders. A sloppy kiss kept his own need to cum at bay as he experienced again how she melted like ice in July. He slid his hand up her thigh and paused at her knee, hiking her leg to change the angle enough to rub against that spot, making her wetness turn to a torrent of need. Still, he couldn’t make it too easy, when he felt the first pulse of her orgasm, he held her down with strength until the early flutters died out.

She was wound tighter than a reel of thread. One sudden move, and she would begin to unravel. Sobbing and distressed at being denied, she babbled “please” like a lifeline as he ignored his own lust and focused intently on her. He wished he could strap her down and drive her to the brink of insanity before giving into the want to hear her cry his name, but their restraints were back at home. She was too riled to wait for him to find something to tie her up. His sexual taunting earlier had affected her more than she wanted to admit, but he could feel it in the flood of essence drenching his cock and the raking of her nails down his skin. When she began trying to steal her pleasure, Jake pulled almost all the way out and slammed back into the hilt. Both moaned, and she was constantly making wordless noise like he’d made her forget English. He loved it and how powerful it made him feel. She liked to put on a show; her body kept him up all night more often than not, and he realized they never had been able to take things slow. Always fast, eternally burning, and all-consuming, it thrilled him.

“Use it now.” He ordered firmly, putting a good dose of authority into his tone, and she whimpered as she felt around the mattress for the toy. The quiet thrum when she turned it on seemed very loud as she worked it between their joined bodies to align it with her swollen clit. He knew she found the right setting when her inner walls clamped down on his length and tried to pull him impossibly deeper, her trembling making him shake as well.

He loved to overwhelm her. She was a force of nature in all she did and needed no one. Still, he knew she wanted him to take charge, to simply feel and not have to think for once. She always delighted in it once she let go of her pride and relinquished control, only doing so after she plucked away at his restraint to make him manhandle her. A distressed throaty whine made him smile as he taunted her with slow sensual plunges of his cock inside her flickering cunt. She was so wet, the toy was unrelenting in its efforts and her teeth were bared against the onslaught of sensations he could practically see moving through her. All he could smell was her sex and desire, a heady perfume he wanted her to wear every day. It took everything in him to ignore the tingling building low in his spine as she went rigid and arched into him, the sobs coming from her turning his lust into something sharp and dark.

“Now. Let go, or I’ll stop.” He clipped as he felt her tense and try to hold her orgasm off.

Her breath hitched as she turned the toy to a higher setting, and his thrusts became harsher to help her over the edge. He slammed into her again and again as her wail turned to a scream so ragged and raw he was proud of them both as she shattered. She attempted to move the toy away as her orgasm rolled through her, stealing his breath as her inner walls clenched around his cock, and he barked at her to stop.

“No, keep it there. One more time, you can do it.”

A helpless little sound trickled from Manon’s throat as her body jerked, and he mercilessly fucked her through it. All she knew was fire and desire so intense her mind struggled to comprehend what was happening to her. More brutal and rougher, he pounded into her and grinned down at her as she howled savagely and tried to breathe through the incredible pleasure surging through her aching body. It was too much. Her second orgasm still pulsed in her core as she felt another rising to swallow her whole. Jake sobbed above her, bending her further back, and a bite of delicious pain heightened the frenzied energy running through her veins. She couldn’t take it. Her mind fractured into jagged lines and red light, thoughts scattered like ash in the wind as his clever tongue filled her ears with praise.

“Good girl. You’re almost there. Turn it up for me.”

No, no, she couldn’t, the sucking sensation sealed around her over-sensitive clit was sending her farther into madness, but her traitorous fingers did as told, slipping over the soaked handle to find the right button to turn it up. The pattern of it changed. Every snap of his hips and the insistent suction made her thrash her head as her body convulsed. It blended into her second release, dragging it out and heightening it to a point where she could only wail and wait for the darkness at the edges of her vision to take her. Her breath came in harsh pants; his breathing was as rough as hers as he urged her on, and she gave herself over to the wildfire consuming her body and soul. She disintegrated into a million pieces like a house of cards in a hurricane. It terrified her how hard it seized her. Like she was having a fit as her mind slowly winked out, and she heard his cry of victory. Her name yelled into the sex-heavy air as he collapsed on top of her still-flailing body and smothered the noise she was making with his mouth.

Jake kissed her until she stopped kissing back. Knew she was on her way to sleep before his mouth was on hers, and he needed to soothe her before she fully slipped into a doze. Male pride at her twitchy, barely conscious body made him smile as he pulled free of her of her cunt. Tender touches to sweep her hair away from her face and wipe the sweat from her brow made her mumble his name and smile. She would sleep like the dead before long, and he knew she’d wake him for another round before they faced the outside world, so he carefully disentangled himself to go clean up. He picked up the still buzzing toy off the bed, turned it off, and took it into the bathroom to wash it off. He was done within minutes and soon crawled back into bed.

The sheets were damp with sweat and her essence. Never had he witnessed her so needy and vulnerable. Usually, he didn’t stop her from getting herself off to tide her over until she was desperate enough to let him win. She had nowhere to hide from him this time, and he’d taken full advantage. No matter where they were or what they did, they always ended up here. He thought they’d slow down after all the time they’d lived together. But somehow, it only became more apparent that they were addicted to each other and the pleasure they gifted one another. He loved it. He couldn’t wipe his satisfied smile away as he dragged the sheet over them and settled down to sleep. His last thought was that he couldn’t wait for her to get her own back and take it out on him.

**************************

Thank you so much for reading! I hope it was good. And thank you for any comments or reblogs if you feel like doing that too! I appreciate it 🥰❤️

#smut #shameless smut #duskwood fanfiction #duskwood smut #rough smut #praise #duskwood hacker #duskwood fanfic #duskwood #duskwood fandom #fanfiction #duskwood everbyte #duskwood game #duskwood mc #duskwood jake #jake x mc #duskwood jake x mc #jake x oc #original character #duskwood oc #duskwood oneshot #one shot #duskwood family #duskwood community #romance fanfiction #fanfiction author #female writers #everbyte studios #everbyte duskwood #no plot whatsoever

[katiesdailystruggle]

Okay yall. I quit trying to make this perfect. I'm well aware it's a little rough around the edges, and I'm also well aware not everyone will like it. Nonetheless, here’s my community service to the sickie bangtan lovers for this year <3

Drabble fic is below the cut. Thanks for waiting patiently! I truly hope you enjoy this pure indulgence lmao.

Title: one stormy night

Word count: 2.2k

Ship: namjinkook - caretakers namjin, sickie jungkook

Tropes: sickfic, fluff, lil bit of snz, basic flu symptoms (the good stuff ya know)

Set in a random AU where Namjin are lovers who own a small shop, Jin is a healer, Namjoon is a mage, and Jungkook is just struggling, ill stranger who manages to fall head over heels in love with his saviors, whilst namjin also fall hard lol.

Seokjin was startled abruptly at the sound of the iron knocker pounding the front door, pausing his job of drawing the drapes for the evening. He and his lover, Namjoon, shared a small cottage in the middle of the woods that was outfitted into a potion shop for the neighboring villagers.

It was well passed their closing time, and Jin knew they didn’t have any appointments on file this late in the day. His stomach clenched with nerves as his gaze shifted to his husband’s usual position by the hearth. “I’ll get the door,” he softly said, making his way over to gently coax Namjoon back down to sit in the armchair. “You had a lot of spells today. Rest a while, I can handle this.”

It was getting late, he was exhausted from a long day’s work, and he didn’t know who was pounding on the door. It would be easy to become frustrated and get rid of whoever beckoned them, but Jin wasn’t heartless. It was storming outside, and maybe someone needed help. The healer in him wouldn’t let someone in need fend for themselves, and he would much rather waste some time than have regrets in his consciousness.

Pulling his evening robes further across himself to help defend the evening chill, Jin released the deadlock and the binding spell on the door, cautiously opening it a crack to peer outside. An unfamiliar silhouette greeted him, though it was difficult to perceive little else due to the heavy rainfall.

“Good evening, stranger,” Jin’s eyes ghosted over the heavily soaked man before him, an oversized hood covering his features dripping rapidly as the rain continued to pour down relentlessly. “I’m afraid we haven't met before, is there something I can do for you?”

“Please,” came the drenched strangers’ reply. “I’m just trying to make it to eastern lands.” Jin took mental note of the thick rasp and nasally tone in his voice. “I just need a roof to block this storm for an hour or so. I’m very weary from traveling.” The stranger didn’t make any move to invade their cottage of his own volition, and he was leaning heavily against their meager porch post for support to stay upright.

The poor dear. Squinting in a fruitless attempt to see better through the storm, Jin took note of the stranger’s trembling frame, his soaked clothing underneath the heavy travel cloaks, and the poorly fitted boots on his feet. He’s been traveling for a long while, weeks at the very least.

“You’re welcome to come in and dry off for as long as you need,” a soft smile adorned Jin’s features as he reached out to help support the traveler’s weak frame for the short distance inside. “We haven’t got much to offer in means of transportation to the east, but you must at least rest here a while. You’re soaked through.” A familiar pang of sympathy pulsed through his heart.

Jin’s own clothing was becoming rather damp just holding the stranger’s underarms, it couldn’t have been comfortable in the slightest to travel through this disastrous weather heavily weighed down by wet cloaks.

At the sound of the door shutting behind them, Namjoon stood up abruptly, eyes narrowed skeptically onto the hooded stranger, but he made no move to turn him away either. Jin nodded in silent thanks for his husband’s trust, as the two made their way slowly across the foyer. "A traveler needs a place to rest tonight. Help me tend to him, Joonie?"

Catching him by surprise as he was speaking, Jin nearly tripped over himself when the stranger suddenly bent over, a series of thick, painful coughs erupting from deep within his chest. As he fought to pull in a deep breath, Jin gently tugged back his hood to better inspect the ailments plaguing him.

And - oh. What an absolute darling. The gentle scrunch of his nose, the soft doe eyes crinkled in irritation as the worst of the coughing fit passed. His cheeks were flushed from the cold air, and the fringe of his bangs dripped with rain water as they hung in front of his eyes. He was beautiful. Jin had only ever had eyes for Namjoon, but the sweet one before him brought up emotions bubbling within that he had not felt before. He always did get attached easily.

No matter though, he had a job to do, and the stranger needed medical attention regardless of his mysterious beauty. Jin was a professional, and he would tend to whatever ailment was present.

“That cough sounds awful, dear,” Jin spoke softly as he made to undo the poorly tangled cloak ties. “You can call me Jin-hyung, what would you like me to call you?”

“Jungkook is my name,” the little one managed to rasp out and Jin hardly concealed a wince at the painful sound of crackling phlegm in his throat. “I don’t mind what you call me though. I don’t have any means to pay, I’m sorry.”

Jungkook’s eyes were glistening with unshed emotion, and he was sniffling thickly, pawing at his nose and eyes desperately in obvious irritation.

Another pang of sympathy shot through Jin’s heart at the sight of tears, but before he could utter another word, Namjoon was already stepping around him to help Jungkook settle into an empty cot by the healer’s table. Jin easily recognized the look in the mage’s eyes as one of empathy and adoration. They were both so utterly hopeless.

“That’s quite alright, Jungkookie, you needn’t worry about such affairs,” Namjoon spoke in a soft whisper. “You can call me Namjoon hyung. Just lie back, and we will take good care of you. I promise.”

A mixed array of confusion and relief flooded Jungkook’s sweet features, and he blinked several times, allowing a few stray tears to trickle down his cheeks. “Thank you hyungs, I’m afraid I’m not well,” he briefly paused speaking as his breathing caught roughly, a small trembling hand still rubbing harshly at his nose. “It’s been weeks and this head cold just isn’t going away. My travels have just made everything w-worse…oh…e-excuse me,” His lovely eyelids fluttered shut, as several productive sneezes ripped out of his chapped nose, chest heaving wildly in a desperate attempt to quell his breathing back to normal. Jungkook let out a shuttering sigh afterward, teary eyes darting away from the healer every so shyly. “Pardon me, please. I can’t seem to stop sneezing.”

“Oh sweetheart,” Jin cooed gently, reaching out to wipe his messy nose with a handkerchief. “Sounds like a little more than a nasty cold to me. I’m a trained healer, and Namjoonie here is a mage. I’ll check you over and see if we can’t get some medicine and hot soup into you by the end of the hour.” His gentle, calculated hands were tenderly pulling Jungkook’s soaked downshirt off, Namjoon already having started freeing him of his trousers.

“We need to get you out of these wet clothes and bundled up to dry by the fire,” Jin wrapped a soft, cotton towel around Jungkook’s trembling frame, and the relief on his face was so genuinely innocent, that he felt his own emotions stirring up. “Joonie, dear, if you wouldn’t mind putting the kettle to boil, fetching me some blankets and a clean nightshift, please.”

Jungkook was finding it harder to pay attention to Jin’s words than it should’ve been. Time seemed to slow down as he lost the ability to function properly. His breathing was becoming labored and that ever-present aching in his chest was becoming a harsh sting now. When did it get so warm? Or was it cold? He couldn’t tell anymore.

He had begun to slouch so low into himself, and his eyes were starting to close tiredly. Jin gently pressed the back of his hands to Jungkook’s cheeks and neck, humming softly at the detection of his obvious temperature. The poor dear, so very exhausted from traveling ill. “It’s quite alright if you fall asleep now, sweetheart. Just lie back down, I’ll wake you when I have medicine for you to take.”

As if by order of Jin’s permission, Jungkook’s consciousness slowly slipped into a light doze, long past the point of exhaustion. His breathing evened down to labored short puffs of stuffy air, nose scrunched up ever so sweetly into a sleepy, ticklish expression. It only had been movements, but Jin’s heart was entirely stolen.

At the younger’s slip into a fitful sleep, Jin made quick work of checking his vitals, throat, nose, and ears - getting a specific reading on his rising temperature, a worrying one, no less. Namjoon was back a few moments after he finished pulling a thick comforter up over Jungkook’s sleeping form.

“Water just started boiling hyung,” he whispered as he placed a stack of wool blankets and a silken shift on the armchair. “Want me to fill a basin of hot water and get some ailment tea brewed?”

Jin’s eyes softened even further at his lover, unable to look stressed even in the face of the ill young one beside himself. “That would be lovely, Joonie, thank you. Help me dress him first?”

-------------------------------------------------------

Jungkook’s head felt heavy, dizzyingly so. There was also a nauseating spin of the room from lying horizontally as his ill body fought to stay sleeping. He didn’t know how long he’d been dozing off, time was passing unawares to him, though it didn’t feel near long enough before his consciousness was slipping back in. An irritating tickle was forming deep in his sinuses, whilst, unfortunately, his little nose scrunches were doing little to fight back. Having no wherewithal to cover, Jungkook released a flurry of wet, desperate sneezes into the firm chest next to him.

“Oh Jungkookie,” Namjoon softly cooed from above. “Blessings, you sound so poorly.” He was poorly, what a gods sent gift the hyungs shop was nearby. Sniffling desperately to contain the productive wetness that was now beneath his nose, Jungkook felt his eyes well up once more.

“My handkerchief is wet.” He whined softly, words muffled into the sweet hyung cradling him. He needed something to cover with, he needed to sneeze again. And what a tragedy it was indeed because the tickle persisted despite the fit he had just released previously. Damn, his ever-sensitive nose. Always getting in the way of comfort.

“I can’t blow my nose… and I need to…” He trailed off breathily, already starting to work his way into a hitch. A shuffling of movement briefly distracted his gasping speech, as his face was suddenly covered in a warm, large bundle of soft fabric. “Here, sweetie. All yours.” Jungkook felt Namjoon’s deep voice reverberate through his whole being, though perhaps that was also the fever chills shaking him through.

Noting he was now pressed against bare skin, not a cotton downshirt, his brain fumbled to keep up with the fact that he was presently leaking tears and mucus all over Namjoon’s shirt. He wasn’t thinking, the logical part of his brain long past gone, in the throes of his current predicament. If he had been, perhaps the prospect of using another man’s shirt in lieu of a handkerchief would’ve been embarrassing. One he had scarcely just met, no less. But he didn’t even have time for that. His eyes were watering, mouth falling open in desperate breaths, his nose burning ever so badly as it teased his need for release. Instead of granting him relief, though, the hitching just made him cough harshly, once again, all over Namjoon.

“Let’s get you in some dry clothes, sweetie,” Namjoon muttered, gently combing his hands through the young man’s hair. “I have a nice, warm nightshift right here for you.”

All Jungkook could seem to muster out was a small moan in response, shaky and once again, hitched, as he pawed at his nose in sleepy annoyance. “I know Jungkookie, almost there. I’m sorry, I know it’s chilly. Just gotta get this over your head now…there we go, left arm first, good boy.“ Was that Jin’s voice now? The feeling of cold air fading into warm silk on his skin caused a raspy whine to come out of his mouth before his thoughts even caught up. “It’s okay, it’s okay. All done.” Definitely Jin.

Despite the warm, dry clothing covering him now, chills racked his body relentlessly. It didn’t take but a few more hitching breaths before his face scrunched up in a defeated flurry of congested sneezes. “Bless you, little one. Come on, blow for me,” Jin whispered from his left, the down shirt coming back up to cover most of his face. Jungkook was ever obedient though, so he managed to huff out a thick blow at Jin's discretion. Gods this shirt was going to be so gross. Poor Namjoon. “There we go, all better. Good job, Jungkookie.” For someone whose shirt was now a makeshift hanky, Namjoon’s voice sounded awfully pleased with him.

A flush dusted his cheeks as he glanced up at both men in pure adoration, one not having to do with his fever. But the hyungs didn’t need to know that. Soft wool blankets were quickly wrapped around his shoulders, and he let out a relieved sigh when his feet were placed in a basin of hot water. The trembling didn’t stop, nor did the deep aches in his body, but the sudden warmth and Namjoon and Jin’s presence were enough to let him doze off for a while. He was safe. And for now, that was enough.

#sick jungkook #bts sickfic #bts sickfics #sickfic #caretaking #its hereeeee #i realize this might be disappointing #considering how long it took me lmao #but its my first fic since 2020 #so #im proud ig #pls let me know how it is #i crave validation lmao

[fanfictionismyaddiction]

When life catches up

Ch.3

The day at work came to an end and Y/n cleaned her desk so that she could get down to Craig which had texted her 5 minutes ago that he is waiting for her downstairs in the car park. She put the last paperwork of the day in her bag deciding that she would be finishing this one at home when she came back. Because why should she go to bed if she could still work and not think about what her life has come to. Not think about how tausend of people could die if she and the FBI would do one thing wrong.

She was afraid and she tried desperately to shut down her emotions. But it would not work and working her self to the point of exhaustion only worked for a short period of time. But that wouldn’t stop her from still doing it.

Gibbs was the only other person left in the building when she took her full bag and made her way to the elevator. “Good night Gibbs” he didn’t even look up from what he was doing. “Well I’m off” she turned around and pressed the button to call the elevator. “You know you shouldn’t take all that work home with you it isn’t good. I speak from experience” he still didn’t look up but it made her turn around to him again. “What do you mean?” She put her long fringe behind her ear.

At last he looked up he even stood up and moved over to her. “I haven’t said anything the last couple of weeks but I do notice things. You have been avoiding us. You don’t sleep and you take work with you. It isn’t healthy you know. You should rest” she exhaled. “I’m fine Gibbs. It’s nothing.” She couldn’t look him in the eyes knowing she was lying straight to him. “It wasn’t a question. I know you’re going through something right now what it is I have no idea as it seems you’re not comfortable enough to tell any of us… but you’re going on a break. Give me the documents.” He was holding his hand out to her. She was shocked. “What do you mean go on a break. I can’t… I… what would I even do? I can’t just stop right now!” A single tear was rolling down her cheek simply because of frustration and exhaustion. “You know what Gibbs here. Here you go” she was pulling out the folder of documents laying it down on the nearest surface. Without saying anything more she walked over to the elevator and got in. Leaving him behind.

He didn’t know how to feel. A man like Gibbs wasn’t known to have many feelings but right now he felt many emotions. He felt bad because she was clearly not in a good place. Bad because she wouldn’t let him help her and frustrated because he was helping her but she wouldn’t let him. He wanted to run to her telling her he was sorry and that she should let him fix things. Let him fix her problems. Let him hold her so she could sleep well. But he didn’t do that. He wouldn’t do that because their relationship wasn’t like that. She didn’t know about his feelings towards her. How he longs to hold her. Kiss her. But he’s only able to look from afar. Be her friend if you could call them that. Because she has a boyfriend now. How? When? Who? He wants to be that for her. But he can’t.

Meanwhile she was looking for Craig’s car in the parking lot. Still being frustrated about the current situation. She was pissed not only was she stressed about working 24/7 for ncis and the fbi now she was suspended from her normal job. She found Craig’s car opening the door and sliding in. “How was work honey” that was his attempt on a joke. “Craig’s please don’t right now isn’t the right time. I was just suspended!” She tried to sound nice knowing that he wasn’t at fault. Well in a way he was but she agreed to help so it really was her own fault. But it was still frustrating knowing she wasn’t able to keep her own live together. “Anyway where are we going now that I am able to commit 100%?”

After months of not posting I found time to write again. It’s short but hey. Hope you guys like it and are still interested in the story. Xx

@thecraziestcrayon @aleck-cross @yourdailymemedelivery @drakelover78 @xxbeckybeexx-blog @nighttimestarz @hotch-meeeeeuppppp @youretoosweetforme @kittenlittle24

#reader insert #fanfiction #gibbs x reader #jethro gibbs x reader #gibbs imagine #ncis gibbs #leroy jethro gibbs x reader #leroy jethro gibbs #ncis #ncis fanfiction

[bkdk-art]

The Ghost of a Touch

Chapter 2

Summary: Izuku and Katsuki attend a late night show, a game of dares resulting them into getting closer. They both react very differently to that, which makes both of them feel like they’re being rejected by the person they've been in love with for ages.

Fandom: My Hero Academia / Boku no hero academia

Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku, Bakusquad, Dekusquad

Pairing:  Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku

Word Count: 4,000

Rating: General / Teen

AO3-Link

Notes: Takes place after UA / Izuku and Katsuki are hero partners / i know it's been over a year since i posted a full fic, i hope you enjoy it!

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3

______________________________

Izuku was finishing up his report, totally exhausted from their patrol today. They've had to stop two robberies, each time going up against skilled fighters with powerful quirks.

Him and Katsuki had taken them down, of course, but they've had to go to the infirmary at their agency to get themselves patched up.

Izuku closed his eyes at the memory of Katsuki supporting him, one arm draped around the blond’s neck, because Izuku’s leg had been wounded. Having Katsuki touch him was driving Izuku crazy.

Over a week had passed since their appearance on the late night show and… their kiss. If it even counted as such, Izuku wasn’t sure. It had been a fan dare in favor for a charity project! And a short one on top of that.

But however short and whichever context, it was impossible for Izuku to just get over it.

He had accepted that Katsuki wasn’t into him. The blond was bold and confident, declaring what he wanted without hesitation. He had been like that their entire lives. If he would be interested in Izuku he would’ve done something about it. And Izuku knew he was pretty short on looks, not being a fitting match for Katsuki at all.

So… even though it was hard, Izuku knew all of that and most of the time, he was handling it all quite well. But that didn’t mean that there was no longing, no imagining.

And the feeling of Katsuki’s gentle touch against his cheek, the little tug, the soft huff against his lips when they had parted – all of this had Izuku just falling right into an endless loophole of yearning, filling his whole body up with heavy sadness.

He was just so hopelessly in love with the blond, it actually hurt.

All he could do right now was low key avoiding Katsuki without being too obvious because he just felt like crying every time he saw Katsuki outside of work. And as soon as he would start crying he would be ending up spelling his guts, which would make everything complicated and awkward!

Izuku let his face fall into his hands, groaning.

“Midoriya, are you ready?”

Izuku jolted in his seat but relaxed when he realized it was just Todoroki.

“Yeah, just give me two more minutes, okay?”

Todoroki nodded and pulled out his phone, probably checking the news while he waited.

Uraraka had demanded a group outing, to a) distract Izuku or b) give him the opportunity to talk about this mess, depending on what he felt like. But right now, Izuku wasn’t really sure what he wanted or what he needed.

He for sure wanted Katsuki but that wasn’t in the cards, that’s why they needed that get together in the first place. And had needed a bunch of those in the last couple of years.

Distraction, Izuku thought as his insides churned with his unrequired love, Distraction for sure.

~~~

Yeah, well, he should’ve known his friends wouldn’t let him get away with not talking at all about what had happened, since he had mostly blocked them out for over a week, even leaving them on read for two days straight after the show.

And of course, talking about it a little, meant it turned into talking only about it.

After eating at a restaurant they regularly visited, they ended up at Todoroki’s place because it was the closest. And now they – Izuku, Todoroki, Uraraka, Iida, Asui – were sitting in the living room, eating ice cream.

“I”, Izuku said with a thick voice, holding back tears, “I just don’t want things to be weird between us, but I can’t help it, I can’t face him right now.”

“That’s totally okay, Deku-kun”, Uraraka said, “You have to do what feels right for you. I will say though- no don’t roll your eyes!”, she reached out to gently grab his elbow, “I know we’ve told you a hundred times before that Bakugou likes you back and you don’t believe us but come on! He kissed you!”

Izuku shook his head, looking at his hands. “That was for the child-charity.”

“As if that was a selling point to Bakugou”, Uraraka said with an arched brow.

Izuku shot her a disapproving look. “You know it was, don’t say that!”

“Midoriya-kun is right, Bakugou-kun is an exemplary hero, even though his temper sometimes gets the best of him. He would do everything in his power to help children in need.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that”, Uraraka apologized, waving her hands in front of her.

“But still, kero”, Asui said, “Kissing someone because of a charity, is one thing, but for Bakugou-chan to do it without any complaints? For him just to go with it?”

“On national television!”, Uraraka stressed.

“They’re right”, Iida said, fixing his glasses, “It makes definitely more sense to think Bakugou-kun is interested in you than to think he’s not.”

Izuku looked back at his hands, playing with them.

“Then why hasn’t he made a move yet?”, he whispered, almost impossible to hear.

“Why haven’t you?”, Todoroki asked him back.

Izuku rolled his eyes, somehow annoyance was fighting its ways right past all the hurt.

“Because I couldn’t risk losing him! Not after everything, I mean-“

“I don’t understand you.”

Izuku’s mouth snapped shut. He just looked confused at Todoroki.

“I don’t understand you”, Todoroki repeated, “You keep saying that. ‘After everything’, this is your reason for not telling Bakugou your feelings since forever. But isn’t that rather a reason to tell him?”

Izuku swallowed hard, slightly shaking his head. “What do you mean?”

Todoroki started his sentence a few times but ended up pondering, holding up a hand as if to say “Give me a minute.”

“I think what Todoroki-kun is trying to say”, Uraraka said after a while, “is that you two have been through so, so much that it’s hard to imagen your bond would break because of your feelings. Because of anything, to be honest. And let’s face it, Bakugou kissed you, he did make a move! Either because he’s interested and saw his chance, or, because he knew nothing could ever tear you two apart, no matter what.”

Todoroki pointed at Uraraka while she spoke, heavily nodding, obviously agreeing with her. Izuku smiled at his serious face.

He had great friends.

“Tell him, Midoriya-kun”, Iida encouraged him, “It’s the logical next step to end your ongoing torment. Especially when your chances are looking this good.”

Izuku huffed. “I hope they not only look like they’re good.”

He still felt insecure.

It wasn’t like he didn’t trust his friends or their judgement. It was just…

“Guys, I can’t lose him”, and that’s when the tears started to pour, “As my friend, my partner, even as my rival, I can’t lose him, our lives are so intertwined! I cannot not have him in my life!”

“Deku-kun”, Uraraka put her arm around his shoulders, “You have to trust Bakugou on this! Trust him to feel the same way about you, regardless of the potential romance. Please, Deku-kun, believe that you can matter to others in a way they would never ever let you go!”

Izuku cried even harder at that, his sore chest telling him, Uraraka had hit ground there.

The others came close too and they merged into one big, warm, heartfelt group hug.

~~~

[Shitty Hair] Come on, some distraction will help you!

[Pinky] You can’t ignore us forever!

[Pikachu] Mina, don’t challenge him, please ＞︿＜

I said no, just shut it

[Tape] Man, come on, let’s just hang out for a while

NO

[Pinky] Okay Bakugou, then we will start our intervention here

[Pikachu] That’s right

I’ll block you all, no problem

[Shitty Hair] Dude. Just… talk to us

[Shitty Hair] Please

There’s nothing to talk about

I kissed him, he’s been avoiding me since then like I’m the plague or some shit

Which means he’s not fucking interested

And stop telling me he is, it’s fucking with my head!!

[Pinky] Oh Blasty….

[Pinky] But I really think he feels the same way, everyone can see it

[Tape] Yeah, it’s always Kacchan here, Kacchan there, Kacchan and the rest

Guys

I’m so serious right now

This is torture

Stop it or I will leave this group chat and block you all

[Pikachu] Tbh

[Pikachu] If you feel like he’s acting weird, then he def is. You know him better than any of us

[Pikachu] But I don’t think it’s just because of the kiss, that would make no sense! I kissed him practically under the same circumstances, at some UA dorm party playing spin the bottle

Thanks for reminding me there was a reason to absolutely hate your guts

[Tape] Come on, everyone in Class A kissed everyone

[Shitty Hair] Except for Mineta, no one wanted him around for those games

[Pinky] And neither was Blasty because he always chickened out

[Pinky] You could’ve kissed Midoriya ages ago

[Tape] Like the rest of us glorious members of The Bakugou Agency have

I hate you all

And I didn’t chicken out

I just wasn’t interested in your stupid drinking games

And had training to focus on

[Pikachu] So did Mido and he did fine

Fuck you

[Shitty Hair] For real though, that’s a good point! He never avoided anyone after those games, even if it was awkward as hell

[Pikachu] Right?? I don’t think it’s just the fact that you kissed him

Yeah well, thankfully there’s still the factor of me doing it on national television on a show, which was uploaded on the internet for every.goddamn.person.tosee!!

[Tape] Both of your popularity pools have gone through the roof though

Not the point

[Pinky] Yeah, everyone loves you

[Pinky] Respectively but also together!

Still not the point

[Shitty Hair] The point is that a little peck isn’t something that would make Mido turn his back on you. Not even the whole broadcasting thing, he would just scold you backstage and tell you, you went off the road with that

[Tape] I agree, it’s not like Midoriya at all to avoid you like that

[Pikachu] Talk to him, Blasty, most likely it’s just a stupid misunderstanding

[Pinky] I think so too

[Pinky] There’s no way he’d distance himself from you over something like this

Yeah but over me being in love with him when he’s not in love with me might be a good fucking reason, don’t you think?!

[Shitty Hair] ….

[Shitty Hair] Even though you might block us all for this but as Mina said, everyone who has eyes and ears, realizes how you two feel for each other and even if we are all wrong and dumb and were fooled into thinking so

[Shitty Hair] What’s your plan then? Avoiding him back for live?

[Pinky] Ei is right

[Tape] Bakugou?

[Shitty Hair] Are you still with us?

[Pinky] Blasty, why aren’t you replying??

[Pikachu] Oh no, did we push him too hard (⊙_⊙;)

[Shitty Hair] He hasn’t left the chat tho

Yet

[Pinky] Oh, there you are, thank goodnessssss

I know we’re going to figure this out

Eventually

It’s just that

idk

[Pikachu] You have to panic first

[Pinky] It’s part of your process

Tch

Shitheads, stop spending so much time on social media

And I wasn’t replying because there was someone at the door

[Tape] Omg

[Shitty Hair] It’s him, right??

Well, yeah

So

Stop blowing up my phone

[Pinky] Omg, Blasty, please, please, PLEASE be honest with him and tell him how you feel

[Pikachu] You can do it, Kacchan!!!

[Shitty Hair] But give us an update later!!

[Pikachu] If he won’t be too busy for that ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

Fuckingggg

Shut upp!!!

[Tape] Are you blushing?

[Pinky] He definitely is

[Pikachu] Cute

[Shitty Hair] Come on guys, don’t be like that

[Shitty Hair] Good luck, man! Not that you need it!

[Tape] Fingers crossed!<3

[Pikachu] Double crossed<33

[Pinky] Triple crossed<333

Katsuki scoffed and locked his phone.

They could be annoying as hell, but they were great fucking friends.

Katsuki took a deep breath before turning to Izuku who had settled on his couch, being a fidgeting mess.

“Hi, Kacchan. Sorry but can I come in?”, he had asked when Katsuki had opened the door, too stunned for a moment to say a word.

“Get inside, I’ll be with you in a second”, he had said and had rushed to the kitchen, trying to compose himself.

Izuku was here. After avoiding him for over a week.

Katsuki was finally able to make this right. Whatever that meant.

“Weren’t you supposed to be with your nerd group”, Katsuki asked now while also sitting down, for the moment as far away as possible. Not to give the nerd the creeps or something.

“I was, yeah”, Izuku said, his eyes nervously jumping all over the room, “But yeah, they, I mean, we… I…”, he let out a deep groan and buried his face in his hands.

Katsuki watched him with a pounding heart.

He didn’t know what to do.

~~~

Izuku didn’t know what to do.

After the heart-to-heart with his friends, he had just rushed over to Katsuki’s place, not being able to stand the tension anymore. The not-knowing.

And now he didn’t know what to say, tumbling over his own words.

“Nerd”, he heard Katsuki say, “Are you okay?”

Izuku let out a long breath and let his hands sink, finally meeting Katsuki’s eyes.

Even in sweatpants and an old Deku-Merch-Shirt – which made Izuku’s heart jump – he looked phenomenal, like some model.

This realization was almost enough to make Izuku sprint out of the apartment, ignoring all of his prior resolutions of confronting Katsuki.

“I’m glad you’re here. You for sure gave me silent treatment.”

Izuku gasped for air, surprised at those words. And instantly feeling guilty.

“Sorry”, he whispered back, “I know I’ve been acting distant lately. Sorry if I upset you.”

Katsuki slightly shook his head, lowering his eyes and the way his face twisted made him look so sad it was almost painful for Izuku to look at him.

“’s okay”, he said after a while, seeming a little hesitant, “I mean, was it… was it because of the kiss?”

Izuku watched as Katsuki played with a loose thread of one of his cushions.

Be honest, he told himself, Trust that you can work through it. Together.

“Yes”, he admitted.

Katsuki slowly nodded. “Are you mad at me?”

Izuku pressed his lips together before answering: “No.”

At that Katsuki’s eyes shot back to Izuku’s. “You’re not?”

Izuku sighed, shaking his head.

“Then…”, Katsuki started carefully, “why did you shut me out?”

Izuku looked at Katsuki for a few moments without saying anything. He just wanted to remember everything about Katsuki, taking in every little detail about him before he might ruin their relationship forever.

“Because I was sad”, Izuku said, his voice shaking.

Katsuki slowly shook his head, clearly not understanding. “What do you… I mean... why?”

Okay, Izuku thought, Be honest. Just do it.

“Because I… because I liked it”, Izuku burst out and his view got blurry with tears, “I liked it and I’ve wanted it for ages and when I finally got it, it was only for the tiniest moment and only the ghost of a touch and it just painfully reminded me of what I could never have and I… I just”, Izuku’s voice cracked, and he held up his hands to hide his face, not wanting to make this more of a scene than necessary.

For a moment there was just silence.

“I just thought I needed some time to reset myself”, Izuku hiccupped and when he was about to add an apology, he felt warm hands on his wrists, pulling his hands down.

“Izuku.”

Feeling Katsuki’s soft touch, hearing his gentle voice made Izuku’s stomach flutter with trillions of butterflies.

“Izuku, look at me.”

And Izuku did. He looked up and met crimson, tender eyes. Izuku didn’t dare breathe.

“Nerd”, Katsuki whispered, “Don’t play with me right now. Do you… do you mean all of that?”

The pleading in his voice had Izuku gasping, nodding forcefully.

“I do, Kacchan, I do!”

Katsuki's eyes grew wide. “I’m about to kiss you senseless, I hope you know that.”

Izuku made a surprised sound. “What?”

Katsuki clicked his tongue and closed his eye.

For a moment Izuku was able to simply look at Katsuki’s face. It was flushed, his brows furrowed only a little bit and a smile was starting to stretch over his face.

Once again, Izuku marbled at his beauty.

“I swear, Izuku”, Katsuki breathed out when he reopened his eyes, “You can have all the kisses and all the cuddles and just fucking everything you want from me, you just have to say it.”

Izuku blinked a few times. “You want me, too?”

Katsuki scoffed, shaking his head while grinning to himself.

“I want you, I love you, I need you, pick one, it’s all there, waiting for you.”

Izuku’s face flared up, heat washing all over his body. Was he dreaming?

“But…”, he started to protest, “But why didn’t you say something?”

“Why didn’t you?”, Katsuki shot back, just like Todoroki had earlier.

“Well, because”, Izuku huffed, “I mean, I didn’t want to scare you away and I was so sure you weren’t interested!”

“Don’t you have eyes, nerd?”, Katsuki frowned.

Izuku snorted. “I could ask you the same! And Kacchan, you just go around and claim everything you want and then earn it. I thought if there was the slightest possibility of you wanting me, you would’ve… you would’ve just-”

Izuku wanted to sound accusing, more in a joking manner, but instead new tears spilled out of his eyes, years of perceived rejection aching in his chest.

“Shit, nerd, don’t”, Katsuki whispered, letting go of Izuku’s wrists and instead placing his hands on Izuku’s face to brush his tears away, “I’m sorry, okay? I just didn’t think about how my usual behavior would make you think like that. But I get it now. I should’ve said something.”

Izuku sniffled, melting into Katsuki’s touch.

“Why didn’t you?”, Izuku asked again.

Katsuki let out a shaky breath, still caressing Izuku’s cheekbones with his thumbs, even though there were no new tears.

“Where do I even start with that…”, he mumbled, more to himself.

Izuku shrugged, studying Katsuki’s face. “Whereever.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, a small smile tugging on his lips. “It was just that…”, he started, “I mean. I wasn’t sure if you really liked me that way. Yeah, sure, you’ve always kinda been fanboying over me since we were little, but I thought that was it. Admiration. And even if it was more than that, let’s be honest – I just know I won’t ever be able to match your pure energy. How could I, probably the country's rudest pro hero, possibly deserve you? How could you want this?”

It hurt Izuku to his bones to see Katsuki gesturing to all of himself.

“Not to mention the shit I pulled when we were younger.”

“Kacchan!”, Izuku called out when Katsuki’s voice broke, leaning his forehead against Katsuki’s, “Please, don’t say that. Your heart is just as good, don’t put yourself down, we talked about this! You just show your affection and your care in different ways than I do.”

“Is this about your stupid love languages again?”, Katsuki tried to joke, but his voice was still shaky.

“Don’t call them stupid”, Izuku smiled softly, “They really help me to understand myself and others better. And to manage my expectations.”

Katsuki was silent for a while but eventually nodded. “I know. Same.”

Izuku made a content sound, taking in a deep breath to address something else Katsuki had said. Something that would always weigh heavy on Izuku’s chest: “And please. The past is in the past, we worked through it, and I forgave you. I hope you can start doing the same.”

Izuku could feel that Katsuki was holding back a sob. After a few moments passed the blond nodded.

They stayed like this for a while, eyes closed, sharing a breath.

When Izuku finally leaned back, he said: “I’m not that pure anyways”, he smiled a little, “I do get jealous and greedy and possessive and hostile. Like, a lot.”

Katsuki looked at him doubtingly, scoffing.

“I do! When it comes to you, I do”, Izuku explained, “I want you all to myself and I hate it when people talk badly about you and oh my god, Kacchan, I just get so mad when people get into your personal space! And whenever I see people flirting with you who are in your league and not just plain looking like me I could smash a whole building and I-“

“Hold up, hold up, hold up”, Katsuki interrupted him, squeezing his eyes shot while shaking his head, “Did I just hear you call yourself plain? Did that just really happen?!”

“Eh…”, Izuku was confused at Katsuki’s strong reaction, “Yeah?”

“Okay”, Katsuki suddenly let go of Izuku and got on his feet, waving at Izuku to join him, “I have to beat your ass for that, stand up, nerd, I’ll get some sense into you.”

Izuku couldn’t help himself and started to laugh. “So dramatic!”, he called out, holding his belly.

“Tch”, Katsuki clicked his tongue, “You’re hot as fuck, cute as fuck and beautiful as fuck, it’s messing with my heartrate regularly, so shut the fuck up about you being plain. The hell?!”

Izuku was quite stunned, all he could do was stare at the blond.

After a few moments Katsuki seemed to grow uncomfortable. “W-what?!”

Izuku just looked at him in awe for a few more seconds before saying: “I just love you so much and I want all of you, I still can’t believe you just asked that. There’s absolutely no question about that for me. Every mood, every emotion, every thought of yours, everything. I want it all.”

Izuku watched as tears pooled in Katsuki’s eyes.

“And I... I just can’t believe you love me back and that you like how I look and that I-“

Izuku got interrupted by Katsuki swooping forward, pressing him down on the couch, cupping his face and starting to kiss him. Like really kissing him this time.

Izuku immediately arched into him, kissing him back with a hunger only years of pining could create. And even though their bodies were pressed together, he couldn’t get enough. He would never get enough of Bakugou Katsuki. Never, even if they would get to spend a thousand lifetimes together.

“Fuck, nerd, I can’t believe every weird shipper’s dream will come true”, Katsuki panted when they parted to catch their breaths.

“Come on, don’t say that, some of them wrote really sweet stuff about us.”

“Yeah, and very, very smutty shit too”, Katsuki smirked.

“You read it!”, Izuku laughed disbelieving, running hot once again.

Katsuki barked out a laugh. “Well, you obviously did too, judging by the fact that you look like a strawberry right now”, Katsuki pinched one of Izuku’s flushed cheeks and lowered his face again, “Shit,I totally get why I bit you back then.”

“No, Kacchan, don’t, you will bruise me!”, Izuku started to laugh even harder, wiggling against Katsuki’s hold.

When Katsuki’s lips left soft kisses on Izuku’s cheeks and jaw and mouth, he stopped his protest and snaked his arms around Katsuki’s neck.

“As much as I hated this stupid show with their stupid made up dares, it finally made me make my shot”, Katsuki said in between kisses.

Izuku huffed, closing his eyes dreamingly. He was so happy they went to that show even though he had regretted it for the past week. And he was so happy he had decided to confront Katsuki even though he had dreaded it for days.

“Thinking about the dares, everything besides the kiss was so lame. It’s kind of pathetic to think they were preparing it all beforehand and didn’t come up with better dares.”

Katsuki snorted, grinning down at Izuku.

“You really can get cheeky, huh?”

Izuku used his newfound confidence that Katsuki’s words about his looks had sparked in him and grinned right back. “I guess you have to come find out, Kacchan.”

The look on Katsuki’s face was priceless.

#bkdk #bakudeku #bkdk fanfic #bnha fanfiction #katsuki x izuku #decchan #bkdk fluff #bkdk fluff and angst #idiots in love #mutual pining #mha #bakusquad

[imagine-knowing-a-name]

Stormy Weather

Summary: While you’re struggling to get home from a month-long mission, Jeff and Natasha seek comfort from missing you.

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Word Count: 1408

Warnings: None

A/N: Hiii, sorry I know I haven’t been posting much lately. I’ve had so many ideas, but I can’t seem to get them written in a way I actually like. Plus, my motivation to write only ever seems to come when I’m at work and can’t write 😭 I’ll try my best to start posting more regularly again but no promises, thank you all for sticking around :) comments and reblogs are much appreciated :)

This was also based on an ao3 comment from a fic MONTHS ago, that I just got round to actually writing 😭

Part of The Jeff Fictional Universe (you don’t need to read the others to understand)

—————————————————

Natasha rubbed her eyes harshly. Staring at the screen day after day was taking its toll. 30 days this would be; 30 days since you had gone on a mission that should have only been two weeks.

There were complications, and she knew you didn't have the time or the means to contact her directly. But she was exhausted, barely sleeping, needing to be there in case you *did* manage to get in contact. 

Natasha knew she couldn't have gone with you. No matter how much it would have alleviated her worries, she had other priorities. Working on the desk side of the same mission would be enough for her.

Patters of rain made Natasha jerk her head up. No light came through the window, but the circles of water indicated that the predicted storm was on its way. Natasha sighed; she'd been far too engrossed in work to even notice nightfall. She hoped Jeff had been okay with her absence.

After a sigh and a stretch, the door to the home office opened, and Natasha stepped out. A break was necessary, and some company would do her and Jeff some good.

—————————————————

Natasha reached the living room entrance before she paused, staying quiet to see a scene of innocence play out.

Jeff had padded right past her; the Blahaj he carried acted as blinders for his peripheral and even blocked some of his front-facing vision. Natasha watched as Jeff shuffled and hopped to see over his stuffed shark, before the sofa blocked her view. 

Natasha watched Blahaj’s tail slowly disappear before she followed. Jeff had been working longer than she’d seen, as pillows and blankets lined the sofa, along with a few stuffed animals you had bought for him. 

Jeff froze when he noticed Natasha was watching. The two stared, unblinking, for seconds that seemed to stretch. Then Jeff flopped, his back legs dropping into a seated position and his head bowing.

“Is that Y/N’s t-shirt?” Natasha asked gently, pointing at the white shirt half pulled over the Blahaj’s head. 

Jeff followed his nod with a dejected “mrrr”. Natasha knelt in front of him; she noticed tears beginning to form in his eyes. “Miss,” Jeff signed. 

The rain was getting heavier against the window, and Natasha knew the thunder and lightning were soon to begin. Jeff would need her comfort. 

“I miss Y/N too; it’s been just us for a while, huh?”

“Mrrr.” Jeff nodded again.

“Let me help you with this then,” Natasha stated, finally catching Jeff’s attention when she pulled Blahaj between them. Jeff pushed under Natasha’s outstretched arms to take a position on her lap, reaching out to pull the shirt on properly. 

Natasha’s expression softened; she could see how much Jeff missed you, yet all she could do was sit and wait with him. She hardly knew more about your whereabouts than the land shark, but at least he had the bliss that came with ignorance, lacking knowledge that you would ever be in danger. 

“Mrrr,” Jeff hummed, grabbing and stretching to wrap his arms around more than just the shirt. It pulled Natasha out of her thoughts, her focus returning to the room. A stuffed toy in her hands, the weight of the land shark on her lap, the sound of the rain and a distant rumble of thunder outside-

Jeff repeated his whine. Natasha bent her arms until Jeff could cling onto his plushie, wrapping his limbs around it as much as he could and squeezing it tight.

In turn, Natasha drew Jeff closer. Her hidden hand kept Blåhaj upright, knowing Jeff would reject the help but tumble off her lap without it.

Their peace was interrupted by the first - sudden - rumble of thunder. Natasha and Jeff reacted immediately; the Black Widow startled at the sound but reflexively pulled Jeff closer. Meanwhile, the land shark squeezed Blahaj tight and buried himself in Natasha’s lap.

“That was loud.”

“Mrrr.”

“Are you okay, Jeff?”

“Mrrr.” He shook his head, face still pressed firmly into the soft plushie. 

“The thunder is scary, I know-”

“Mrrr!”

“-but it can’t hurt you here. I’m with you. Why don’t we finish what you started? Turn all these pillows and blankets into the best fort we can make. How does that sound?”

“Mrrr.”

—————————————————

One month away from this warmth. One month away from your fiancee and your land shark. The need to find them filled your mind; there was nothing you wanted more, to finally be able to while the evening away, to do nothing but bask in their companionship. As suddenly as quiet settled in your surroundings, so too did the thoughts in your mind, trailing away until you felt at peace. The mission report could wait.

Flashes of the mission ran through your mind, of mess-ups, mistakes, twists and turns, of constantly battling to just get home. You hardly even noticed the pouring rain, too caught up in your thought; even on your way back, the weather revolted against you. A long sigh left you when the door clicked shut.

A cosy quiet came with it. Appliances and radiators hummed throughout the house, while the noises of the thunder and rain diminished the second the door shut. With the quiet, even your brain began to relax, focusing on the warmth and safety you had spent a long month missing.

One month away from this, away from your land shark. Away from your fiancée. Did they know you were returning? Natasha would be greeting you if she'd seen the mission success, but then again, data had been patchy on the field, and you weren't even sure it had been sent. 

And Jeff would be barrelling in to greet you if he'd heard the door shut.

It seemed, for once, you had the element of surprise upon your return. 

As quietly as you could manage, you shed your outer layer of clothes and hung them up to dry. Jeff would always be excited to see you, but you doubted Natasha’s enthusiasm if you traipsed dripping garments through the house.

Through the pattering rain, you made out the faint noises of the TV, soft voices that guided your search to the living room.

You’d missed home. Even a perfectly created mission left an absent feeling, a creeping loneliness you struggled to put your finger on. But it was this; missing the small captures of life: a scene too spontaneous to be planned and small enough to oft be overlooked. 

A dazzling fort of cushions and blankets adorned your sofa. You wouldn’t be surprised if Tony Stark himself had built it; it was a feat of engineering. However, the actual creators hadn’t strayed far. In the middle of it all lay your two loves; Natasha dozed with her arms loosely wrapped around Jeff. The pair of them held Blahaj tight against Jeff’s stomach. 

They still faced the TV, but from the look of the channel, sleep had taken hold of them far before you arrived. Orange chickens flooded the screen, seeming to be the focus of the program – Jeff’s worst nightmare. The land shark had been much more cautious around them since his encounter with Susan, the farm chicken who looked identical to those on TV. Jeff couldn’t have slept knowing his feathered foes were just a screen away.

You switched it off; just in time. Another wave of thunder rumbled, and you saw Natasha tremble in her sleep, her grip on Jeff and Blahaj tightening. Tight enough to wake the land shark.

Jeff awoke slowly; he sought comfort and warmth in Natasha’s arms while he blinked his way into full awareness. The moment he saw you was clear; his eyes and mouth widened, and his tail thumped up and down repeatedly. That is…until he remembered his situation. Very quickly, Jeff stilled, then moved a finger to his lips.

“You don’t want me to wake her?” you whispered, an estimated translation of his actions. It took a few more signs from Jeff for you to understand.

“Mother. Didn’t sleep. Tired. And scared.” 

"And you're not scared?" you signed back.

"Jeff brave."

"You’re the bravest, Jeff.” As you spoke, the thunder rumbled once again. Jeff’s fingers dug into his stuffed toy, with a slight whimper escaping that you pretended you didn’t notice. “Thank you for looking after Nat for me; you’ve done it so well.”

“Now… is there room for three in that fort? I think it’s time we napped.”

—————————————————

Jeff taglist: @unexpected-character​​ @wolferine​

#jeff the landshark #jeff the land shark #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff fluff #natasha romanoff x y/n #marvel #mcu

[douglysium]

Episode 6 TMP Quick Thoughts

Housekeeping and Prologue

Hello, this is Douglysium and you might not know me as that guy who wrote over 100 pages of analysis on the Eye (which can be read on Tumblr here (https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/735599414228484097/the-relationships-between-the-dread-powers-the) or Google Docs here (The Relationships Between the Dread Powers: The Eye- Knowledge is Fear and Ignorance is Bliss)) or as that guy who wrote an article on the Extinction (which can be read on Tumblr here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/717929126195003392/what-would-avatars-of-the-extinction-be-like-a) and Google Docs here(​What would Avatars of the Extinction be like?: A TMA Speculation)). Suffice to say I might be a bit of a TMA fan. Also, spoilers for TMP up until episode 4. You can read my ramblings on the last episode here (TMP Quick Thoughts 5).

However, Protocol offers a very unique opportunity and experience for me because I didn’t actually get into TMA until after it was over and I binged all of it. So this is my first time experiencing something even remotely similar to what the original TMA fans probably experienced when waiting for each episode week by week and slowly having to put everything together with the limited information they had. So I decided to throw my hat into the ring since this might be my only chance to do something similar. However, I’m working on some longer form TMA content so I can’t spend as much time on these articles giving a bunch of super detailed thoughts. I will try to keep these short and that inevitably might mean some could have questions about why I think or predict certain things and in those cases I would probably recommend you read at least some of the two articles I mentioned above to get a better idea of where I’m coming from. This also means I won’t be giving you a play-by-play of every single thing that happens in the episode so I encourage you to listen to or read them yourselves and feel free to comment if you feel something is important.

These reviews are probably going to end up focusing mostly on the Entities and their manifestations as they are what I have thought about the most and spent the most time interpreting and there’s been a lot of… interesting theories floating around about how the Entities are manifesting that I want to go over.

Finally, I’m just going to say it right now, spoiler warning for all of The Magnus Archives. I know that Jon and co said one could start with Protocol and be fine, and while that’s probably true, media like this tends to be made in conversation with or take into consideration what came before it in the irl chronology in order to connect them. While I’m sure you could skip The Magnus Archives, I don't really see the point of skipping over it when we are already getting characters from TMA showing up in TMP in Protocol. So to me it’s pretty clear that if we want to understand the full picture of TMP and all the things it is trying to say then we can’t just try to pretend TMA doesn’t exist or scrub it away. Just because you could understand what’s happening without the context in broad strokes doesn’t mean you're getting all the nuances.

These articles are meant to be quick and short so sorry if there’s typos and if I don’t address every possible question or possibility. I don’t want to repeat myself too much in this series outside of the prologue so be sure to skim some of my other articles.

Episode 6 “Introductions”

Like usual, we are perceiving the scene through a device (a computer in this case) to let us know something is watching the characters. It’s very obvious that with Sam’s talk of coffee and the commentary on getting curtains that this job at the O.I.A.R. has a lot of work hours at very odd or long stretches of time. The way Alice talks implies that she’s been in similar situations at this job, so it doesn’t seem like the extreme exhaustion Sam is experiencing is completely unusual or unheard of. Sam is so tired that he is struggling to stay awake and has dozed off at least once at his desk. Highlighting the O.I.A.R.’s stressful work conditions we hear of a new hire and Alice says “...but this job has kind of a high turnover rate, so Lena likes to hire a couple of replacements when an old-timer leaves.” This also contextualizes Sam’s hire a bit since it would imply that Sam was hired because a previous employee left. 

Whether they left simply due to stress and terrible working conditions or potentially something even more sinister and possibly even supernatural I cannot say. In TMA it wasn’t unheard of for Archival assistants (like Sasha and some of Gertrude’s assistants) to get killed or seriously wounded after some encounter with the supernatural due to the nature of their job. Even Michael ended with the terrible fate of somehow being merged with The Distortion and potentially also dying in a way in the process. However, based on how Sam’s job has been going so far there haven’t been any direct encounters with the supernatural due to the O.I.A.R. and we have yet to hear if the organization has some dangerous artifact storage and testing facility like the Magnus Institute did.

ALICE 

“Oh Sam. The sun is the enemy. It rules the world of light but we who dwell in darkness feel only its wrath. Get the curtains.”

And

ALICE 

“Then we draw lots and one of you gets eaten at the Christmas party.”

These do sound like concepts that could relate to The Dark and The Flesh so it’s possible that this could be some weird foreshadowing or dramatic irony or Alice is coping with vague concepts she’s heard before in statements by joking about them. But even I feel like this is really REALLY reaching here and I don’t think Alice is an Avatar or some secret double agent. There’s also nothing to suggest she is particularly aware of the possibility of Entities and if anything she is sort of in denial about the statements or believes them to not be real so I don’t think Alice knows what The Flesh is or something.

When Gwen is asked about the new hire she seems pretty confident that they aren’t sticking around which points to how stressful, possibly unhealthy, or potentially even dangerous, the O.I.A.R.’s job actually is.

The statement we get in this episode is interesting because it’s another one where the computers themselves aren’t reading the statements. This time it’s audio from an emergency hotline between an operator and someone the transcripts dub as “Needles.”

Describing what happened here is actually going to be a bit difficult but Needles calls the emergency line (999) and we are quickly made aware that Needles is with someone else. When asked for details about the situation Needles says “You’ll have to forgive him, he’s full of needles at the moment.” At first this sounds like Needles was just torturing this poor guy but we later hear

POLICE OPERATOR 

“Are you in any danger?” 

NEEDLES 

“(Amused) Me? Gosh no! No. I suspect he thought I was at first though. The way he postured and pulled out his little knife”

Which seems to imply that in actuality it was Needles who was attacked first. However, it is very clear that they are enjoying the torment of his assailant at this point and when they realize that calling the line didn’t immediately give away their location they say “Wonderful! I have longer than I thought. In that case, we’ll have a little natter at our end and call you back once we come to a decision about which service.”

After a weird and quick conversation Needles requests to get transferred to the police line and begins talking with a police operator. The description of what happened here is purposefully a bit confusing and vague. The way Needles puts it, the man postured and pulled out a knife (so Needles was probably being robbed or attacked) but they also say “Although I really wouldn’t go so far as to call him an attacker. In fact, in many ways it was an act of affection by the end. An embrace. A cuddle, even! Ha! Yes, let’s call it a cuddle.”

After being asked if they are in any pain Needles says “Of course it hurts, how couldn’t it? But I’ve come to rather enjoy the pain by now. All those teeny tiny holes bright and sharp… ” And when asked about the state of the man that attacked Needles we get.

NEEDLES 

“I doubt he’s going anywhere ever again.”

POLICE OPERATOR 

“Is he breathing? Does he need an ambulance?”

NEEDLES 

“Absolutely, but that isn’t the real question, is it?”

When Needles is asked for a location so that an ambulance can be dispatched we get-

NEEDLES 

“I know exactly where I am. I grew up here, you know. It was a decent place back then. Nice people lived here, you understand? Not like now. Now it’s a dreadful place. Not safe to walk at night. I take some pride in that, actually.”

POLICE OPERATOR 

“Sir, I need an address or a landmark. Tell me where you are.”

NEEDLES 

“Oh the land is definitely marked now, same as me, and it feels good. It satisfies in a way I never really thought anything would. It fills that hollow, lonely hole inside quite nicely. It’s not sadism, or masochism, I tried both of those already. I think it’s the fear, the look in their eyes once they realize their mistake, it just makes me want to hold them close, so I do.”

There’s been a common theory going around that the Entities are based on desire now instead of fear but Needles saying “It’s not sadism, or masochism, I tried both of those already. I think it’s the fear, the look in their eyes once they realize their mistake...” I think basically confirms that it is still the fear that is most important since if it was merely desire than sadism or masochism probably would have worked according to Needles. Additionally, we later see Needles trying to scare the police operator and get this exchange. 

NEEDLES 

“Do I frighten you? Mr. Operator.”

POLICE OPERATOR 

“Is that why you called? To try and scare whoever picked up?”

NEEDLES 

“Call it desert. But you’re not afraid are you? Unsettled, off-balance but nothing more. Why is that?”

POLICE OPERATOR 

“I guess I’m just not scared of needles. “

NEEDLES 

“(irritated) Not sca- This isn’t some poxy blood test, some little pinprick, this is hundreds, thousands of razor sharp points pushing into your flesh. We’re talking about the embrace of an iron maiden, an excruciating agony formed from a thousand tiny hurts.”

This isn’t any different than all the various Avatars from TMA harvesting fear for their Entities and draws comparisons to when Simon Fairchild asked Martin if he was afraid of rollercoasters for example. 

If we go back to the first quote, I mentioned that the comment about the land being marked is interesting. Usually, phrases like “marked” are used to refer to people who have been marked by one or more Entities due to an encounter or marking them as a target. However, there is a precedent for Entities having a strong connection to places. The Domains are an obvious example but there’s also the way Smirke’s architecture can interact with the Entities and the Entities themselves often physically manifest as places. It is possible to physically enter The Lonely or Buried through various means. We also know that The Web spent a lot of time around Hilltop Road making the gap in reality bigger and bigger. Maybe the place Needles is referring to has been marked as some sort of “hunting ground” for the Entities or maybe it is near the gap in reality / where the Entities emerged from in this universe. Assumedly, just because the Entities were pulled through the gap that wouldn’t mean it magically close.

Between the first and last interactions I mentioned the police operator tries to pass this situation off to his supervisor but Needles says “(suddenly sharp) If you leave this call I shall embrace him again and I sincerely doubt he would survive. (returning to jocular) You know what? I’d like to change my answer. I did stab him, yes. I certainly repositioned myself to 

make sure he got some in his face. In his eyes. Does that count? He keeps touching them like he’s going to be able to pull all the metal out but I told him it will only drive them deeper. It won’t last too long, thankfully, he’ll finish bleeding out any minute now, but in the meantime that fear wafting off him as he lies there, half afraid of death and half afraid of living with what has happened to him. It’s quite delightful. And it drowns out the aftershave nicely.”

With this Needles finally seems to manage to get a little bit of fear out of the police officer.

NEEDLES

“You don’t believe me. Yes, I suppose that makes sense. It is somewhat outlandish and that’s only exacerbated by the distancing effect of the phone. Yes, the more I think on it the more obvious it is that this call was never going to give me what I was after. I wonder, though, which of the police contact centres you’re hiding in Hendon? Lambeth?”

POLICE OPERATOR 

“Excuse me?”

NEEDLES 

“Lambeth, then and I am sure I could recognize your voice now.”

NEEDLES CONT’D 

“Ah, there it is. There’s the fear. Not much, just a little prick but we found it in the end, didn’t we?”

POLICE OPERATOR 

“I’m transferring you to my supervisor now.”

NEEDLES 

“Then I’ll be going. I’ve no interest in speaking to them, and besides, we agreed that if you left the call my friend here would have a last little cuddle before I go. I do hope speak again soon Mr. operator, see if we can’t find some other frightful little pinpricks we can explore together…”

And the victim of Needles is presumably left to his fate.

So what actually happened here? I don’t think we are going to get any straight concrete answers for a while but it seems like the gist of what happened is that someone tried to rob or attack Needles with a knife and somehow (in a rather confusing event) the assailant ended up hurt instead of Needles. Well, actually it does sound like Needles could’ve been stabbed since they say “Of course it hurts, how couldn’t it? But I’ve come to rather enjoy the pain by now. All those teeny tiny holes bright and sharp… ” However, there’s a bit of word play going on here so Needles could be talking about the knife sure but more likely it seems they are potentially talking about the Needles.

The two main possibilities I think is that Needles is referring to the pain the man is in or they are referring to somehow inserting the needles into themselves or experiencing it. They do mention that masochism doesn’t seem to have the result they were looking for (implying they may have tried it) and masochism is defined as “the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from one's own pain or humiliation.” and “(in general use) the enjoyment of what appears to be painful or tiresome.” Masochism tends to refer to inflicting pain on one’s self so could it be that Needles is implying that they have experimented with inserting needles into their own flesh?

Either way it ends with Needles hugging the man and sticking him with a bunch of needles. I don’t know if Needles became connected to one or more Entities in the moment of the attack or was somehow messing with the supernatural before this event via something like an artifact, encounter, specific ability, etc. and just now realized that fear was the key or if Needles gained the ability during the attack and was experimenting with how it worked as he tortured the man. Needles does say “Now it’s a dreadful place. Not safe to walk at night. I take some pride in that, actually” which could imply he might have something to do with the night becoming less safe. Maybe he was attacking people in the night and experimenting with either his abilities or something else?

I’ve been a pretty big advocate for the theory that Smirke’s 14 (with the potential addition of the Extinction but that is more up in the air) are still around to some capacity and most if not all their fears are still applicable to all of the statements up until this point but this is by far the vaguest encounter so far. Needles shares many traits that could apply to multiple Entities for different reasons. The needles could easily be the influence of a fear like The Slaughter or even Desolation, and how confused everyone seems could point to The Spiral while Needles’ ability to magically know the police operator’s location resembles The Eye and Avatars like Jonah and Jon’s ability to magically know things. If this event is taking place at night The Dark could be at play and Needles mentions “Now it’s a dreadful place. Not safe to walk at night. I take some pride in that, actually.” even though the time and area at which this encounter is taking place seems unclear. There’s a possibility for The Flesh with themes of body horror. Needles notes that the needles dig deeper into the man whenever he tries to pull them out, which is probably the needles reacting to the fear present or trying to draw as much fear as possible out of the man desperately trying to pull them out.

Is Needles some kind of Avatar? Maybe, but it’s hard to say. As Jon in TMA pointed out the term Avatar, Monster, etc. in TMA can be extremely vague and nebulous and bleed into each other as they aren’t perfect little boxes. An Avatar seems to be a person who grows close to an Entity and becomes favored by them and is thus granted various abilities at the cost of being tied to the Entity. They tend to be stronger than the normal person but grow weaker if they don’t feed their Entities with the proper fear for a long period of time. Some might even die from “starving.” Jude Perry describes it as being akin to the idea of “Feed it, fearlessly and without hesitation, or it will feed on you.” Becoming an Avatar is stated to require an active choice and some sort of death be it literal or symbolic (so like an ego death I assume?). It’s also clear that while becoming an Avatar requires a choice it doesn’t need to be a well informed choice. That is to say it’s not like the Avatar needs to know what Entity they are signing up for or even that the Entities exist. Not to mention they don’t need to know exactly what an Avatar is. So it’s possible to become an Avatar without realizing it.

Monsters are basically actually part of a specific Entity. They are kind of like an Entity’s “fingers” or some other body part if those parts were actually sentient. The difference between an Avatar and Monster is that Avatars tend to be more like people empowered by and addicted to / reliant on an Entity while Monsters are actually an aspect of their respective Entity. 

Someone who is marked by an Entity is usually someone who has basically been marked as prey or had some sort of direct encounter or contact with the Entities.

Being aligned with an Entity seems to just refer to someone one or more Entities like or favor (as seen with Martin being favored by both The Eye and The Lonely. So much so that he got his own Domain tied to both Entities in the Post-Change world) and in the case of monsters and artifacts it just refers to the Entities they are tied to or come from. This can also get weird since while we usually only think of Avatars, Monsters, and Artifacts as having powers Martin was able to gain abilities from The Lonely despite not being an Avatar. Additionally, the position of Archivist grants a person in that position a specific set of powers whether or not they are an Avatar. For example, Gertrude was not an Avatar and still had powers granted to her by The Eye (even if she didn’t like to use them) and Jon had some powers even before he became an Avatar.

Of course, the lines between these concepts can get vague and debatable. Especially since some Monsters can take the form of humans or show human emotions (such as the Distortion) and when Anabelle transforms into a spider she seems to be more like what many would think of as a Monster, and The Web is presumably the only thing keeping her alive (since apparently the skull of her human form was caved in). There’s also certain characters like Agnes who would technically seem like an Avatar or person but becoming an Avatar requires a choice and it seems like Agnes was granted her state via a ritual from the Cult of the Lightless Flame and the choice of her mother not herself. However, we see with characters like Martin and Gertrude it is possible to have powers without being an Avatar. We also see with Jon that you can have powers due to being aligned with an Entity and then become an Avatar later. So in all likelihood Agnes became an Avatar later in life after she was born aligned with or favored by The Desolation. In fact there’s a pretty good argument for this when you consider that Agnes and Jon both have similar roles as being the lynchpin for the rituals of their respective Entities and Jon didn’t start out as an Avatar either.

I was originally going to have a segment where I go over what Entities Needles most likely belong to but I’m drawing a bit of a blank. If I was forced to choose I would probably say something like The Spiral, The Flesh, or Slaughter. Is Needles just someone aligned with multiple Entities or is it just some weird overlap multiple Entities share? Maybe trying to view this interaction through the Entities is itself an act of hubris but it also wouldn’t be the first time a more nebulous manifestation has happened. I would go as far as to say that if there was one encounter that could debunk all my previous points it would probably be this one, but like I said before I would personally argue that it isn’t any more or less vague than what we have seen of the Entities in TMA. 

Is it possible Needles is somehow connected to every Entity? I mean theoretically that’s not impossible? In order for Jonah’s ritual to work he needed every Entity in it (including the seemingly clashing ones like The Vast and Buried / Eye and Stranger so while it might be tempting to say that it’s not possible for them to coexist in such an alignment we know that even seemingly clashing fears can have more overlapping or synergistic aspects with each other). However, this is kind of a reach given the information we have since there’s nothing to suggest The Vast even if you could maybe argue The Buried with the idea of feeling trapped depending on where the man is and maybe the needles prevent him from moving or something. Still seems like kind of a leap with so little information though and I’m not sold on the idea.

When Sam notes that the case seems like it just sort of ends and questions Alice on what the deal with that is she says “I barely hear my own. You tune them out after a while.” Which points to the whole “ignorance is bliss” themeing I’ve come back to over and over and a philosophy Alice seems to take to heart. One of the themes of the Eye I have pointed out previously is the idea of “seeing too much” and how this can drive you mad or otherwise endanger you and potentially harm you mentally. Something that I don’t thibk I’ve done a good job explaining is that when I point these out I am not saying that Sam and Alice are secretly Avatars aligned with The Eye or something. What I am arguing is that the O.I.A.R. is probably somehow connected to The Eye and that in TMA the Eye and The Magnus Institute seemed to attract people with certain qualities or personality quirks (like how someone who tends towards violence is more likely to fall to The Slaughter). What I am arguing is that Alice and Sam might unknowingly end up in The Eye’s clutches in the same way Jon ended up becoming aligned with The Eye via becoming the Archivist.

We are finally introduced to the new employee Celia and both she and Sam bond over how weird the interview is. Something we heard in one of the protocol trailers was Lena asking if Sam had any previous supernatural encounters. Celia mentions “I’ll be honest, I thought there’d be more people working here given the size of the building?” Which makes me wonder if more people used to work for the O.I.A.R. at some point or if they were expecting more people. It could also just be some weird ominous stuff or other parts of the building are being used for some other (probably shady) purpose(s). Maybe they have their own artifact storage somewhere? Maybe there are other people working there but they are somehow isolated from each other? Who knows.

Sam says that it’s just him, Gwen, Alice, and the IT manager (Colin) to which Celia responds “Four weirdos in a basement reading scary stories. Dream job.” Which is a funny description and one that could probably also apply pretty well to the Archives of the Magnus Institute (at least with Jon being a weirdo reading scary stories in a (possible) basement along with his handful of coworkers).

ALICE 

“Yeah, you got that hardened killer look in your eyes.” 

CELIA 

“Damn, and here I thought I’d hidden it behind a sweet and bubbly demeanor. Anyway, I’d better go.”

I get the gut feeling that this interaction between Alice and Celia was some sort of ominous foreshadowing I don’t yet understand considering how… shady Celia seems later but I try not to skip ahead too much when talking about an episode. 

We get some of the nosier parts of Sam’s personality when he reveals to Celia that he knows about Alice’s secret stash of biscuits (a cookie for us Americans) and Alice even questions how Sam would know this. Normally, I would go on a talk about Sam’s parallels with The Eye via curiosity and knowledge and all that but the answer is a much more mundane “It’s literally the same place you did when we were students – back of the top shelf in the upper leftmost cabinet. Where you think people won’t be tall enough to see them.” Alice does warn him not to tell other people but with how much she’s joking it’s hard to take the warning that seriously and I don’t think she cares that much.

Conclusion

Yeah, idk, definitely one of the weirder episodes so Feel free to leave any comments or corrections and I may say if I agree or disagree with them and why.

#tmp #tma #the magnus protocol #the magnus archives #discussion

[wizardofrozz]

Kix x mechanic!reader, Captain Rex, Hardcase

Word Count: ~1.9k

Warnings: swearing, mention of injury

A/N: I’ve been waiting to start posting my Life Day fics 😂 Most of them are my first time writing for a lot of these characters so I hope I’ve done them justice ❤️

Kix had been running himself ragged trying to keep up with the 501st and lending a hand to the 212th while their new medic was trained. With General Skywalker’s outrageous plans that had your workstation full of gunships and Kix splitting his time between the two battalions, you could maybe steal a few precious minutes over the last few standard weeks. It took Life Day getting closer for your schedule to die down but that didn’t seem to be the case for your favorite medic. 

You finally managed to scrub the last spots of grease off your hands, a rule Kix wouldn’t budge on if you wanted to visit him, and made your way out of the hangar. The walk to the medbay was uneventful since most of the troopers were lounging around in their company barracks, meaning you got there faster than usual. The door slid open, revealing a mostly empty medbay aside from Hardcase sleeping nearby, making it easy to find Kix sitting on a stool sorting through supplies.

         “Hello, my love,” you greeted, wrapping your arms around his unarmored shoulders. Kix jumped so hard he kicked a box of bacta patches across the room before slumping back against you as his brain registered your voice.

         “Maker above, cyare, are you trying to kill me?” Kix sputtered, scrubbing at his face.

         “Sorry,” you giggled, kissing his temple. “Been busy today?”

Kix grunted, glancing over at the only occupied bed. “Busy with idiots.”

         “What did he do this time?” you wondered, noticing the cast on Hardcase’s arm. 

         “Commander Tano initiated a game of hide and seek…again,” Kix grumbled, slowly rubbing your arms as he stared off, eyes a little glassy with a memory. “Apparently Jesse and Hardcase had the bright idea to hide on top of the same gunship so Jesse pushed him off.”

         “That’s what all that noise was,” you mumbled, resting your chin on his head. Short hairs tickled your chin, a foreign feeling when it came to Kix. “Hm, you need a haircut, dear.”

         “Yeah, add it to the list,” Kix huffed, using his foot to drag a nearby cart closer.

         “You also need a break,” you urged, gently tightening your arms around his neck.

         “No, what I need is to finish taking inventory so I can submit my order forms,” Kix argued gently, half of his attention already shifting back to his work. 

         “Kix,” you murmured, untangling yourself from around his shoulders to squat between his knees. Dull, tired eyes dropped down, your heart aching at the dark bags under his eyes. “You can’t keep doing this.” Kix sighed, his composure faltering and letting on just how exhausted he was. 

         “Then who will?” he countered. You knew his determination came from a place of love for his brothers and it only made you love him more. Although, it was slightly irritating at the moment. 

         “Yeah, I know,” you grumbled, massaging the bridge of your nose. “I just…I hate seeing you like this.” You gestured vaguely at his slumped posture before continuing. “And I - I miss you.” Kix’s eyes softened, a longing you understood well clouding his whiskey-colored eyes. 

         “I -” he started, his voice thick with emotion, “I’ll come by when I finish up here. I promise, cyare.” The sincerity in his voice lifted some of the sadness off your shoulders and you managed a small smile. 

         “I’m holding you to that,” you teased, getting to your feet and running a hand over his short hair. Kix’s lashes fluttered as he leaned into your touch before he caught himself.

         “Stop that,” he huffed, gently grabbing your wrist and dragging your hand out of his hair and down his face. You brought your other hand up to cup his face, forcing his eyes up. Of course, he shared a face with thousands of his brothers that you saw every day but as similar as they all were, they were each unique as well. You took a moment to just admire him, noting the warmth rising in his cheeks at your attention.

         “Prettiest trooper in the GAR,” you mused, swiping your thumb across his cheek. A smirk slowly lifted the corner of his mouth, and a flicker of pride lit up his eyes, making your stomach swoop.

         “Damn right,” he drawled, craning his neck to beckon you closer. You giggled but didn’t resist, aiming for a kiss until Kix stopped you by holding a single finger up. “Hold that thought,” he hissed, squeezing his eyes shut and raising his voice. “If I open my eyes and that bed is empty I’m going to glue your ass to it, Hardcase.” The strangled laugh that fell from your lips was extremely unflattering but it did make Kix smile faintly before his eyelids fluttered open.

         “How’d you even know?” Hardcase whined, drawing both of your attention. Hardcase was sitting upright in his bed, arms crossed despite his cast, and undeniably pouting.

         “Medic superpowers,” Kix deadpanned.

         “I believe it,” you teased, letting your hands drop down to the sides of his neck. “Now, give me a kiss so you can get back to work. The sooner you’re done the sooner I can kidnap you.” Kix snorted, rolling his eyes playfully but closed the space without further prompting.

It took every ounce of self-control you had to keep the kiss chaste and of course, Kix’s quiet groan wasn’t making it any easier. You scraped together the willpower to pull away, resting your forehead against his for a moment. 

         “You should go before Hardcase gets a show,” Kix rumbled, lightly trailing his hand down the outside of your thigh. 

         “Don’t stop because of me,” Hardcase called, a smile obvious in his voice. You laughed, pulling away from Kix completely, allowing him to turn a deadly glare on his brother. 

         “I’ll break the other arm if you don’t keep your mouth shut,” Kix warned and Hardcase just smiled wider. With an eye roll, you pressed a quick kiss to your boyfriend’s head before stepping out from between his legs. 

         “Be good,” you teased, tapping Kix’s nose as you passed. The sound of the brothers bickering drifted into the background as your mind started to put together ideas for how to spend the one night you had with Kix. 

Kix was ready to bolt when his assistant, Dart, finally came to relieve him. He was dead on his feet, barely acknowledging the greetings thrown his way as he trudged through the Resolute. Kix was halfway to your quarters when a familiar blonde clone cut him off.

         “Kix, hey,” Rex said with a tight smile.

         “Captain,” Kix sighed, rubbing at one of his eyes. “What can I do for you, sir?”

         “Hm?” Rex hummed, his brows pinching together. “I - nothing. You almost walked into me.” Kix blinked, his brow furrowing as he looked at his brother while his sluggish mind tried to process the last few minutes. 

         “Sorry, sir,” he settled on, opening his eyes wider than usual. Rex grunted, glancing over his shoulder at the other end of the hallway before moving to walk at Kix’s side.

         “Where ya headin’?”

         “Don’t ask stupid questions,” Kix yawned, picking up his previous slow pace. Rex chuckled, ducking his head.

         “Figured as much. I’ll walk with you,” Rex stated, switching his helmet to his other side. They walked in silence for a few minutes but Kix could almost feel Rex’s question threatening to burst out of him. 

         “What is it?”

         “How are you?” Rex asked without missing a beat.

         “Fine,” Kix grunted, glancing up to figure out where they were. “I just want to get to - I just want to go to bed.” Rex hummed, more questions obviously on the tip of his tongue but thankfully, your door came into view. Rex came to a slow stop outside your door, staring down at his boots as Kix waited for whatever he was mulling over. Then his brother’s expression changed, putting Kix on edge. 

         “I hope you like it,” Rex said with a half-smile. And then he was turning away, heading back the way they came from, leaving Kix to stare dumbly at the now empty spot. 

         “Finally.” Kix nearly jumped out of his skin for the second time that day, wide eyes zeroing in on your smiling face in the doorway. 

         “I’m gonna put a bell on you,” Kix grumbled, letting your drag him into your tiny quarters. He instantly noticed the wall of warmth he walked into, chasing away the chill of hyperspace that he hadn’t realized had settled in his bones. It took a few seconds for Kix’s brain to register what he was seeing. 

All the pillows and blankets in your quarters and some you had to have stolen from storage were piled up in the middle of your bunk like a nest. A portable heater was on low power against the opposite wall, giving off a faint glow in the dim room and Kix smelled something sweet lingering in the air. The room felt…cozy. 

         “Come on, get your kit off,” you urged, pulling his helmet out of his hand. Kix blinked at you, working through his foggy thoughts as he mindlessly unclipped his armor like he’d done thousands of times. You held out a pair of pajama pants you had bought him last Life Day and he didn’t hesitate to peel off his blacks. Kix stood at the edge of your bunk when he was finished, raising a brow at the mug you were holding out to him.

         “What is it?” he wondered, leaning forward to look at the dark, steaming liquid. 

         “Hot cocoa,” you answered, nodding at the mug. He carefully cradled the warm cup, letting the scent wash over him. 

         “Why?”

         “Well, drinking hot cocoa and curling up in front of a fireplace was one of my favorite things to do around Life Day on my home world,” you replied, patting the spot at your side. Kix watched you for a beat but relented, climbing onto the bunk. He hadn’t even realized Life Day was approaching but to be fair, he wasn’t even sure what day it currently was.

         “That’s not a fireplace,” Kix noted needlessly.

         “Thanks, smartass,” you snorted, taking a sip of your hot cocoa. “Can’t really have a fire on a Star Destroyer so I had to settle for the next best thing. Luckily, Rex managed to borrow General Skywalker’s heater.”

         “That explains it,” Kix hummed, taking a hesitant sip of his own drink. It had been a while since he’d had hot cocoa; it was probably last Life Day. He looked over at you, a soft smile lifting the corner of his lips as the warmth settled in his stomach, dragging him closer to sleep. “Thank you.”

         “Anytime, dear,” you sighed happily, resting your head on his shoulder. Kix couldn’t really remember drinking the sweet beverage, let alone finishing it, the warmth of the heater and the familiarity of your presence lulling him into a trance. He blinked sluggishly up at you when you took his empty mug and his eyes followed you around the room. You climbed back into the nest of blankets, carefully directing him to lay on his back so you could curl up on his chest. 

         “Love you,” Kix slurred, wrapping his arms around your shoulders. You propped your chin up on his sternum, your smile making his stomach flutter. 

         “Love you too,” you giggled, stretching up to reach his lips. Kix tried to reciprocate but the second his eyes closed, he already started to drift off. He managed to comprehend your suggestion to get some sleep before he was pulled under with the memory of your lips on his.

25 days of Life Day Masterlist

Taglist: @sleepingsun501​ 

#clone medic kix #clone medic kix x reader #kix x reader #25 days of life day #the clone wars #star wars #tcw #kix

[ecrisparfois]

little white lie

summary : levi and his girlfriend’s thursday night routine. college au.

warning (s) : lie (?) not proof-read

words count : 0.5k

A/N : I was planning on uploading exclusively-draco content, but, well, my inner levi fangirl kicked in. I’m supposed to be working on that one request submitted a couple weeks ago, but my fingers are possesed and somehow write this instead? like what’s happening? ignore that shitty title btw.

anw, I stole this idea from a request? I stumbled upon a popular blog (I think) with the request to write a story with this premise, but I read it and it’s nothing like what I was expected, so, I decide to write my own! Which, I’m sure not as great. Anw, if you requested or wrote something similar to this pls let me know bc I can’t remember! :D

.

Levi checked his wristwatch for the umpteenth time, growing impatient with every ticking second. You should have been out of the class five minutes ago. He was considering barging into the lecture hall you were supposed to be in. Thankfully, the door opened before he could; waves of students with tired faces broke out from behind the door. You were the last few ones that walked out; pale face, bleary eyes, shoulder slumped, hands looking down at your phone – texting him, probably. You looked up from your phone to be met with his eyes – the smile blooming on your face was immediate. You jogged to his side, murmured a quiet ‘hi’ once you stood next to the raven-haired man.

Levi isn’t one for public displays of affection, but seeing how much the day has consumed you, he planted a chaste kiss on your temple before offering his hand for you to hold; you welcomed the rare offer with a beaming smile. His heart practically swelled seeing how the small gesture could brighten your weary eyes.

“Have you been waiting for long?” you asked, eyes full of guilt.

“Don’t worry. I also just get out of class,” he assured, taking over the tote bag perching on your shoulder. When your usual refusal for the gesture never came, he knew it was a particularly exhausting day for you. 

You walked hand in hand in mutual silence. The only indication of each other presence was the occasional hand squeeze. 

“Tired?” he inquired when you let your head rest on his shoulder as you walked. You hummed in response. “I’ll cook dinner tonight,” he muttered, hand squeezing yours once again.

You sighed in contentment. Thursday night always goes like this with Levi; night class, him waiting for you, and ten minutes of walking hand-in-hand. Levi had an art history class at the exact time you had philosophy, and he always waited for you every time. It’s always energizing to see him waiting for you in front of the lecture hall after two hours of boring speeches. But you realized you robbed him of his much-needed rest with every other minute he spent, standing in front of lecture hall 205.

“You shouldn’t have been waiting for me,” 

“What, and walk alone the whole ten minutes when I could wait a couple minutes for your company?” he challenged. “Damn, didn’t know you want to get rid of me that much,” he added, shaking his head in faux disappointment.

“You know that’s not what I mean,” you slapped his arm playfully.

The sky was dark when you were outside, the crescent moon hung on the starless sky. The lamp post was standing tall every other meter had caused the moon to be completely lonely in the night sky.

“The moon is lonely tonight,” you pointed at the lone moon, somewhat melancholy. 

“Good thing you’re not then,” he replied.

“Alright, alright,” you chuckled. You pulled him to continue the walk back to your shared apartment. “Good thing you take that art history class, huh?” you asked after a few moments.

Levi flushed, glancing your way briefly to find you still entranced by the moon. “Yeah,” he mumbled.

It seemed like his lie would still keep on going. There’s no art history class for him. He took that last semester. But you don’t need to know that. He’ll tell you after finals. Maybe.

#levi ackerman #levi ackerman x reader #levi ackerman x you #levi ackerman fanfiction #college au #levi #ackerman

[cyarikakay]

In Every Universe I’ll Find My Way Back To You

In Every Universe I’ll Find My Way Back To You

18 +, Some little warnings to look out for, violence, captivation, age gap between reader and Joel in future (reader is in 20s), Adult language ,Clickers, and weapons.

That should hopefully be all. This is a series I have been working on for about a while now, there are multiple parts ready to be posted :) It has representations from both the game and show. Im super excited to share this with all of you and I am looking forward to you guys reading it, and hopefully hearing from you all. Granite This is a new account. 🖤

Chapter 1: The Fireflies

5 years, 180 days , you’ve been stuck here. Trying to find a way out of the fireflies' safe place isn’t the most simple thing to do. Especially when you are being held here against your will. You can’t trust anybody anymore, since the world fell apart, it's been everyman for themselves. Even the ones you loved the most could turn their backs on you. 

You were alone. Well not totally you had at least one of the miller brothers by your side. Thank god for Tommy, you wouldn’t have held up as long as you did if it wasn't for him.

Granite you didn’t wanna be here like Tommy did, you just wanted to be back at the QZ with the man you loved. But some dipshit in the QZ working with the fireflies turned you in for working in healthcare prior to the end of civilization. So naturally the fireflies came and took you and stuck you up in some crappy lab to help them find a cure. Not that you didn’t want to find a cure, but you lost everything, everyone, that you loved. You were gonna get outta here one way or another. 

There was a light knock on your door. It was a little early for them to be coming and having you go to the lab. The door knob slowly turned, and the old damaged door creaked open. You shot up outta bed from your thoughts. 

“Tommy?” 

“Hey, I gotta talk to you.” 

When Tommy spoke like this you knew it was serious, he looked tired, drained, just overly exhausted. 

“What's goin on Tommy?” 

“I found you a way out.” 

“What do you mean?”

“You want out, I know the way. But if you get caught…”

He looked nervous, maybe frightened. 

“Y/n if you get caught, you can't tell no one it was me who told you the way out.” 

He paused before he could get the next words out. 

“It's going to be tough, you're gonna have to fight, there will be guards but you'll be free. No more locked rooms in the lab.”

See the difference between you and Tommy was there are people who work WITH the Fireflies and people who work FOR the Fireflies. You worked for them. They didn't give you a choice, you weren't a freedom fighter like Tommy.

“How Tommy?” 

“I think you should hold off, maybe you'll get freedom like me but you gotta listen, you gotta follow the rules.” 

“No Tommy, I'm tired of waiting. I will not experiment on anyone anymore. I wanna go, I need to go…”

“There will be a surge tonight, they are going to be working on electricity.” Once it goes out you'll have about 10 minutes to escape the building and get to the tunnels two streets up. I dont know whats down there but there may be guards, there may be infected too . I know you can handle yourself , I'm not doubting you but it aint going to be easy.” 

You are ready for this, you have a bag ready. You have clothes, weapons, flashlights, enough to get you started. 

Tommy got up and headed towards the door. He looked sad in a way, as if he didn't want to be here alone. But he had more freedom than you did.

“Tommy, have you heard from Joel?” 

“I haven’t been able to radio him this week due to them working on all the shit around here.” 

“Do you know where he may be? Is he still in boston?”

“Y/n, I really don't know. Last I heard yes. But that's not guaranteed, you know Joel.” 

“Tommy, it's only been a week.”

“This is true, but you know how he is.”

“Tommy, if I make it out… I’ll try to radio you. I promise.”

He gave you a soft smile. 

“Be safe, kid.” 

You hated him calling you kid, granite you him and Joel did have an age difference. 

You were mature, you had to be your whole life. 

“What time is the surge gonna happen?”

“9:30, 10:00 , somewhere between then it's gonna be after curfew.” 

“Alright.” 

It was silent for a moment. 

Tommy and you weren't the closest, but he was all you had here. He was truly a friend. You walked up and gave him a small hug and he sighed.

“Please do give me that call when you get to wherever you're goin. And tell my brother hey if i don't talk to him before you get to him.” 

“I will Tommy, Thank you for being a good friend.”

Tommy left without another word, just a pat on the shoulder and handed you a lock pick to get out of the locked room, and simply left. 

You got your bag together and hid it under the old damaged bed you had slept on for the past couple years. 

It was currently 8:45, just a little bit more time needed to pass. 

You had decided to stay awake, you didn't want to miss this opportunity. 

Suddenly your the dim light on your nightstand started to flicker, this was the moment. 

You grabbed your back pack strapped your gun into your holster and waited for the light to completely dim.

A minute passed and you knew it was time, you quicly picked the lock with the lock pick Tommy gave you and started to make your way down the normally flourecent lit halls.  You approached and checked your corners to make sure no one was present, clear. Thank god. You sighed in relief. You knew that there would be guards at the front doors so side door it was since there was a surge it would sound an alarm. Now just to slip down the streets and into the tunnels. 

You reached the side door and gently pushed it open, carefully for it not to whine and creek due to lack of some WD 40. You carefully slipped out makung sure not to let it slam and scanned your area. Two guards stood upon either end of the building across. You knew it you quickly crossed and skimed against the wall the the following street you would have a chance. 

You quickly crossed the street and pressed your back to the cold bricks of the old guarded building, skimming to the following street praying to get out of here in one piece. 

You got to the end of the first street. You needed to find a quick ditraction to cross the street to get to the tunnels. Thank god the buildings were all torn apart and things were scattered in places they didn’t need to be. You quickly picked up a piece of cement that had falled from one of the buildings ages ago and tossed in the the oposite direction of you and the guards as a distraction. If you hit the old dumpster it would for sure cause to big of a scene, You needed to atleast his somthing small with a strong enough noise to distract them. 

Deep breaths, deep breaths, you got this. It will all be worth it soon right? 

Panic is setting in at this point just throw it, you got to. Its the only way out. You quickly chucked the piece of cement as far as you could praying not to hit the dumpster. 

FUCK! 

You hit the dumpster.

You could hear the guards muffled shouts, and as soon as the started heading towards the noise you booked it. 

You had to do this fast, your legs felt like they were working against you. They just werent moving at the pace you hoped. 

Snap out of it. You told yourself internally. 

You could see it now… 

Freedom was right at the end of this block. Just gotta get threw the tunnel. 

You did not want to shoot if you didnt have to. But you needed out, no more being held captive. 

Instincts are usally never wrong, there they stood at the tunnel. 

Two larger guards, thank god that the Fireflies had the supplies they did, this is really gonna come in handy. You quietly unzipped your back pack and pulled out the silencer for your gun that you some how managed to get a hold of and clipped it on. 

Making your way, sneaking threw the cluddered areas to get to the tunnel you needed to create another distraction. Quickly you grabbed an old can and tossed it to distract the first guard on the left side. 

He whistled to his partner and they went to circle the small shedded area to the tunnels. But of course not before locking the tunnel. SHIT. You quickly made your way to the doors. Trying to shove the lock pick into the entrance. 

*click*

*click* 

You suddenly felt a tap on your shoulder. 

Once you look up you recognise the first guard. 

“And what are you doing?”

Shit, shit, shit, you're panicking. Quickly sweeping his legs out from under and hitting him in the face with your weapon knocking him out, before the asshole could drag you back to base.

You quickly unlocked the door and stepped inside. Trying to find a way to lock your self in the tunnel so the other guard couldn't get in. 

Rope! You packed rope, you quickly started knotting the rope through the handles of the doors. 

“HEY! Who's in there!”

The door started to rattle. 

Quickly you tied the last knot and turned on your flashlight scanning the area, successfully keeping the other guard out temporarily. 

You made your way down the dark tunnel, making sure to keep an eye out for infected. 

You had this tunnel memorized. You studied the maps for months, maybe a year.  These tunnels feel like they just keep going. Even with the flashlight the darkness was still messing with your eyes, making them play tricks on you. You really needed to use your hearing at this point. Making your way around another corner you heard a slight crackling noise.  There shouldn't be anyone down here. 

Screeching noises to get closer, as you approached the end of the tunnel you were currently in. There it stood… tall, bloody, dirty, fungal infected. It cocked its head numerous times. You drew your gun up, trying to remain silent, it can't see but it sure as hell can hear. 

You went to take a step forward… 

*Crunch* 

Shit, you looked down at the pieces of broken glass splayed out among the old cemented floors. 

It let out a wretched screech and charged at you, FAST.  Causing you to fall back onto your back.

You quickly sat up and shot. Hitting it right in the chest, not enough to kill it.. 

“Fuck” you murmered to yourself. 

You quickly shot two more times. 

Its infected body dropped onto yours. 

Okay this is it, I'm gonna die. This is the end of it for me. Your thoughts raced in your mind. 

It didn't move. 

You got it.

You pushed its infected body off of yours and checked yourself for any signs of infection just to be safe. Your brushed it off, knowing you were close you needed to get out of the tunnels. 

You slowly came to the end of another and saw a small amount of light peeking out of what seemed to look like a sewer hole. You made your way and surely there was a ladder. 

Thank God.

Making your way up the ladder you heard some faint noise in the background. 

At this point you assumed it was just your banging on the covering above your head trying to exit. That was until something happened to brush your leg. You quickly kicked back and heard that familiar screech. Another one, stood below you waiting for your weak body to drop at any second. Trying to fiddle with your holster to get your gun out quickly the infected was getting too close. You gave it another kick hoping not to get bit. The gun finally slid out of the holster, and fit into your palm quickly enough for you to give him three shots to the head. He dropped. 

Using all your adrenaline you pushed the covering of the hole off and made your way to the top crawling out and landing onto pavement. Scanning the area seeing no signs of life, you tried to find a sign locating exactly where you were, that was if there were any signs left. After what felt like walking for years, you came across a large sign. 

WELCOME TO NEW JERSEY

New Jersey, not terribly far from Boston, you needed to find shelter. It was cold and you needed sleep, if you planned on making it to boston anytime soon. The sunset peeking through the clouded sky was beautiful, you had to say. You knew by the time you found a place to stay for the night and got to bed it would be too late to continue your journey for that day. 

After hours of walking you came across a small cabin. Wasn't nothing special, obviously, but there was water near by and a bed inside and the doors still locked. You boarded up the windows to the best of your ability and slipped outside to get some water from the crick. Locking the door behind you, you shedded your clothing and tried to wipe off a bit after being in those tunnels for practically 12 hours. You washed your clothing with the remaining water and hung them to dry, pulled out your sleeping bag and laid down onto the old bed. Soon you drifted off into a slumber. 

The following morning you traveled through the town trying to stock up on supplies trying to find whatever was left. A trick you learned from Joel, collect supplies, hide them in a good place, and make a safe house. This would be the safe house. Far away enough from the Fireflies and close enough to Boston in case you had to flee. The weather decided to downpour, postponing your journey back to Boston. You decided to camp here for a couple nights. 

A couple days later, you started tracking your way up to Boston. 

It's about a four day walk from New Jersey, 86 hours. With breaks for sleep and all that it would definitely take about a week. You had already been hiking for 2 of the days you needed to find a safe place so the next two days could go by and you'd be rested.  Once again you were searching for a safe house. Once you found a place with a lock you started to set up shop. It was still pretty early on in the day. You needed to go find supplies for this safe house as well. You figured since this area is real wooded the best bet would be to cut through the woods to the stores within the range. 

You tracked what felt like this whole place, you weren't exactly sure what the name of this town was. You just knew you were 2 days from Boston. Two days from your best friend. 

Everyday you got closer the further he felt away.  5 years is a long time, things change, people change. You grabbed a couple things and shoved them in your backpack. It was getting dark and of course it started to rain again. You were tracking your way down the last hill when you saw three flashlights in the distance. Gun drawn, flashlight on top , cop style you stalked your way down the last hill to the main road where you needed to cross to get to your safe house. Gently and quietly you made your way down and the flash lights stopped moving. You froze for a minute.

You heard a voice shout out, “Who's there?” It was a male. You stayed quiet for a minute when the flashlights got closer.  

“I have a weapon, I mean no harm. But if you get any closer I will shoot.” you hollard. The three lights froze in their place. One of the lights went out? Right? You couldn’t tell or hear over the rain.  Yep that light definently went out, you thought to yourself.  You went to stalk your way across the road, before you had been tackled to the ground by a large body. You kicked, punched, fought, to get out of their grip. That was until the other two flashlights got close and you could see who it was you were fighting. You gave them one more swift kick and the flopped onto you and pinned you down. The lights hovering above the two of your bodies. 

“Y/n?” 

The voice was familiar; it sounded happy but scared.

You looked for a minute trying to wipe mud from your eyes to refocus them. You saw locks of silver and dark brown hair, and those twinkling eyes. 

“Joel?” 

#joel the last of us #joel x reader #joel miller x reader #the last of us #the last of us hbo #joel x plus size reader

[jerzwriter]

A Perfect Date

Book:                   Open Heart (Post Series)

Pairing:                Tobias Carrick x F!MC (Casey)

Rating:                 Teen

Category:            Romance/Fluff

Summary:   Wedding plans are behind them, the holidays are over, and Casey's morning sickness is finally gone. So, Tobias plans a big night out on the town for them to celebrate. Not everything goes as planned, but it ends perfectly.

Words: 985

A/N: Day 2 of @creativepromptsforwriting 's 30-Day Writing Challenge: Day 3: Use the words: kitchen, date, music. Yeah, keep it under 600 words, Elsa, right... lol Also participating in @choicesjanuarychallenge Day 19 - Kitchen There is a bit of a nod to two of their past fics, Simple Moments and All I Need to Get By.

Tobias & Casey Masterlist 30-Day Challenge Masterlist

He’d been planning this evening for weeks and touted it as the “farewell to morning sickness celebration.” Casey knew Tobias loved spoiling her, so she had no reason to doubt his intentions, but she also knew how much he loved a night out on the town. And, ever since she unexpectedly found those two lines on that little stick, they managed to squeeze in an elopement and a full-fledged wedding, but nights out on the town… they weren’t happening.

Besides planning those events, working and puking defined the last four and a half months, leaving her completely exhausted. Date nights had been reduced to snoring on the couch as her loving husband read a book and rubbed her sore feet. So, tonight was special.

“I decided to get us a limo. We deserve it.” 

She could hear the excitement in his voice on the other end of the call.

“Tobias,” she giggled, “it’s like my prom all over again.”

“Good! Because I totally would have taken you to the prom.”

“Mmm.  Just to get me out of my dress after?”

“I mean, that would have been part of it!” He snickered. “But mostly, I’d just want to be with you and show you off. That’s what I’m going to do tonight. Maybe I should get you a corsage?”

“T! That’s completely unnecessary. You’re spoiling me enough already.”

“I love you, and you’re having our child. There is no “enough” when it comes to spoiling you. Besides, it’s been a long time since we’ve had a night like this. I’m pulling out all the stops.”

He told her to dress up, and dinner was at Sorellina’s. The rest was a surprise. But while he was planning a date to remember, the pre-show was all hers.

She smiled at her reflection in the mirror as she slipped on her diamond earrings, happy with what she saw. The black silk dress she bought for the occasion showed off her every curve. It took her some time to make peace with her fuller shape and rounded belly, but now, she loved how she looked. Tobias certainly had from the start, and she couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he saw her.

Now that she was ready, it was time to set the mood downstairs. After dimming the lights, she lit his favorite scented candles and placed the champagne he purchased on their first date on ice. He swore off drinking while she was pregnant, but tonight, she would insist. A little mood music was needed, so she put on some soft jazz and waited for him on the couch. With the butterflies she felt in her belly, it really did feel like prom night!

Tobias cut out of work early, eager to get home to his wife. After dinner at their favorite fancy restaurant, he was taking her to see Hamilton… again (because she could never get enough). Then, dessert at a little rooftop café, and if she was up for it, dancing too. He smiled as he slipped his key into the front door; this would be a night to remember.

His smile grew wider once he saw the ambiance Casey had created, a reminder of just how lucky he was. There was only one thing missing, the very thing he wanted to see most of all… her. 

“Case?” he called out softly.

When she didn’t answer, he assumed she was upstairs, and that’s where he was heading. A quick shower and change and their night would be underway. He was a quarter of the way up the stairs when he came to a halt. Sprawled across their plush white sofa was Casey, sound asleep. His face fell, but almost immediately, a soft smile appeared.

He descended the stairs a short time later, dashing in his finest Hopkins t-shirt and sweats, Casey's favorite plush blanket under his arm. He tucked it around her, then slipped beside her on the couch. A copy of The New Dad’s Playbook was in one hand, as the other lay gently on Casey’s baby bump.  

Two hours passed, and Tobias was now snoozing, too. That’s when Casey woke up with a startle.

“Tobias!” she blurted, anxiously shaking him awake. “Get up, get… what time is it? Why aren’t you dressed? Did we miss our reservation?”

“Sssshhhh,” he whispered, taking her in his arms. “Calm down, baby. You were out like a light when I got home. If you’re that tired, this is where we stay. We can go out another night.”

“But Tobias,” she frowned. “You were looking forward to it and put so much work into making tonight perfect! I’m so sorry!”

“Tonight is perfect,” he smiled with a gentle bop to her nose. “It’s perfect because I’m with you.”

Casey smiled tenderly, remembering every reason she fell in love with this man. 

“Still, if you had woken me, maybe we could have salvaged some of the night.”

“Well, there is one thing,” he said, standing up and extending his hand. “Come with me.”

Casey rose to her feet. “Where are we going?”

“Dancing.”

“Where?” she giggled.

“Where we’ve shared some of our best dances… the kitchen.”

“The kitchen?” She laughed.

He turned to her with a grin and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Are you telling me you don’t remember them?”

“Oh no,” she smiled, throwing her arms around his neck. “I remember every single one. Motown in the kitchen is sort of our thing.”

“It sure is,” he smiled. “So what do you say? Marvin? Smokey? Stevie?”

“Mmmm. You pick.”

Tobias took out his phone and pulled up Marvin’s “All I Need to Get By” as a smile crossed his wife’s lips.

“This kitchen’s seen that song before,” she grinned.

“This kitchen’s seen a lot,” he winked. “And tonight, it’s seeing another perfect date.”

“Perfect?” she asked.

“Like the song says, you’re all I need.”

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#playchoices fanfic #open heart choices #open heart #tobias carrick #tobias carrick x mc #choices fanfic #30-day writing challenge #day 3 #kitchen date music #choices fic writers creations #cfwc fics of the week #open heart fanfic #choices monthly challenge #🤡🤡 #<- Me and MJ lol