#entry one in the college roommates au | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

peachenle · 1 year

Text

captain’s log

pairing: park sunghoon x fem!reader

genre: college!au | fratboy!au | sexual themes (minors DNI)

word count: 8.7k

warnings: lots of drinking, profanity, a tiny bit of sexual content, suggestive language, sunghoon biceps, y/n is a serial party-goer, fake frats, lots of semi-unhumorous banter, ft le sserafim bc i needed more characters

༄࿔˚✧ synopsis: “If you’re trying to be subtle about checking me out, it’s really not working.” You were too drunk to care, and met his eyes, “Yeah, yeah you caught me. Life’s more fun without subtlety.”

The captain's log is a form of record-keeping used by sailors to keep track of incidents, such as weather, ship sightings, and any other information about the vessel and her passengers.

CAPTAIN’S LOG ENTRY 11:30 pm please I beg of a crumb of pussy

read the continuation of captain’s log here.

It took you approximately 46 seconds to sober up after the first whoop of the sirens outside the house. Red and blue lights peeked through the cardboard panels that were haphazardly stuck in between the blinds of the windows. From the continuing booming music, the thundering steps of the dance floor, and the bumping bodies, you realized you were one of very few to realize that the party was getting rolled. And you did not want to be caught in the mess of policemen shining flashlights into mascara stained faces.

You dragged your friend Yunjin out from the middle of the dance floor, much to her disappointment as she was swaying with one of the execs in the fraternity, and snuck onto the back porch. You two stumbled into a few couples who also had their fun interrupted by the sirens. Yunjin peeked around the side of the house and groaned, “It’s always the NKT parties that get shut down so early. Heeseung and I were finally dancing!”

Seeing her pouty face, you laughed, “And he’s literally the only reason we keep coming back. Their good music cannot justify the sins that occur in that household.” While NKT had some of the wildest hazing stories, their alumni donated well to your university, so it was easy to overlook.

You and Yunjin were crouched by a bush in the house’s side yard. She whispered, “Liar, you were so into President Jeno before…”

You snickered and responded, “Okay, and I still am, but he never comes to parties anymore. Plus, you did not just call him president.”

She laughed. “That’s who he is!”

The music shut off abruptly and you rolled your eyes after hearing screams from the partygoers. That meant most of the officers were likely already in the house yelling at kids to leave, so you and Yunjin quietly went through the side fence of the house to make it into the street.

Frat row wasn’t too far from your shared dorm with Yunjin, so you two opted to trudge through the neighborhood in your short skirts rather than call a taxi. It wasn’t until your head hit the pillow that you realized you were still very drunk. The you of tomorrow morning would not be happy.

Parties weren’t your thing until Yunjin joined a sorority this year and dragged you to come to a few, and you realized just how fun it was to be the messy one for once. You thought this was her way of trying to lull you into her sisterhood, and whether it actually was or not, you didn’t mind. It was funny to watch the unknowing first year frat pledges hit you with all sorts of philanthropy collab ideas at parties after you lied and introduced yourself as the president or outreach chair of some random sorority.

The next day, a Friday, you woke up with a throbbing migraine and with leftover eyeliner smudged on your pillow. You definitely missed your 10 am tutorial. Much to your surprise, you found Yunjin already awake, typing away at her desk, equipped with a sheet mask. She, too, missed her morning class.

After you returned from a shower, you called out to your roommate, “Wanna hit the dining hall for-” you looked at the clock, showing a valid 12:11pm at this point “-for lunch?”

Yunjin did not bother to look away from her laptop, “Can’t! But can you get me a sandwich or something? I have this killer paper due and I need to finish it before we go out tomorrow.”

You stared at her blankly, not that she would be able to see it, “What do you mean go out? Again?”

She stopped, “Why are you acting surprised?”

“I just assumed you’d want to go out with your sisters or something.”

“You know I prefer you,” she pointed a finger gun at you dramatically, “and you can’t admit that to anyone or else we’d both die. Also, this is a homecoming party of a frat house neither of us have been to yet! I don’t want to miss out.”

You thought about the long week ahead of you as you shoveled food onto your plate. You forgot to ask where Yunjin was planning on taking you, but it mattered less in comparison to the assignments you wanted to get ahead on before the weekend’s festivities took you completely. While you were wrapping up a sandwich and some food for Yunjin, as if on cue, she texted you.

you remember that Heeseung is in the hockey club right? he just invited us to a party at their house tonight … come thru?

“I think you have a problem, another weekend like this and you’re going to have to pay for my liver transplant,” you said to Yunjin when you returned.

She stuck her tongue at you and threw a crop top your way, “Take this as a gift in return for the food! And you’ll be wearing it tonight, thank you very much.”

---

Midterm season was upon you and with the addition of a frat-not-frat sanctioned event courtesy of Yunjin, you needed to get as much work done as possible. You made a deal with yourself that you’d complete at least one of two of your pending report papers, otherwise, no new frat homecoming party tomorrow.

You managed to find a table by the south side windows of the science library, and laid out your necessary notebook and textbook for the treacherous anthropology report you were about to bullshit the hell out of. Two hours into your frantic typing and at least 30 Google tabs later, you realized that one of the sources you wanted to use was locked online, and all the “legal” databases to surpass the paywall didn't have it available. Upon closer inspection, the source’s website indicated that it was available at certain universities, including yours.

You decided to take a break from typing. Your lingering hangover and the eye strain from your laptop screen were begging for a rest. So you cleaned your table and went to find someone to help you find the book you needed.

There was a crowd of 4 boys around the circulation desk, cackling over things unknown to you, and definitely distracting the boy working at the counter. They were exuding mischief, one of them trying to reach over to clack on a computer, and you recognized the one of them, Jake, jumping to sit on top of the counter. You stood in line, scrolling through your phone as you waited to be called to get help.

The areas of the library where the IT and circ desk were not necessarily meant to be quiet places, but you were surprised the group of boys didn’t get scolded considering how they were holding up the line.

A student walked by and shushed the group, interrupting them as they were doing their best to ruffle the boy’s hair over the counter. They scoffed at the passerby, but lowered their voices. You took this as an opportunity to clear your throat, finally grabbing the attention of the circ desk worker. He offered you a sheepish smile and shooed away his friends. The boy was about a head taller than you, sporting a black distressed long sleeve and now haphazardly messy hair.

“Oh, sorry babe - didn’t see you there,” snickered one of the boys. He had sharp features and a confident smirk. The group stepped backward to let you through to the counter.

The boy behind the counter shot the other guy a glare after that comment and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry about my friends; how can I help you?”

You fought the urge to roll your eyes and shoot a glare yourself, choosing to ignore the group. “Seems like you're new here or something. They seem to be excited to visit you.” You glanced pointedly, as two of the guys had their phones out, likely taking a picture of their friend.

The boy extended a hand out to try to cover his exasperated face from their photos.

You continued, holding up your phone to reveal a screenshot from the library website, “Wondering if this book was still available?” The boy squinted and nodded silently, typing away on his computer to look it up.

“Yeah, it is. We have one copy on the 4th floor. Are you familiar with how the books are sorted here?”

“Honestly no, I usually use stuff online, so this would be the first time I check out something from the library.”

The boy smiled in understanding, then glanced between you, his friends - now distracted by a couple girls you recognized from Yunjin’s sorority, and the empty line behind you. “I can help you find it, if you’d like?”

You gave him a small smile, “Yes, that’d be really helpful.”

“Sunghoon, by the way. And you were right, it's technically my first day off of training,” he said as he met you on the other side of the counter, by the elevators. Seeing him up close, there was no point in denying that he was cute, especially with the furrow in his brow he wore due to the thought of his friends. His friend group were still talking to the girls, one of them with an arm shamelessly around one of their waists. Sunghoon looked exhausted, but amused, just looking at them.

You laughed as you introduced yourself too. “Don’t worry, I get it. My roommate ate at my old part-time job every day I was working for the first month. Just try not to let them get you fired,” you advised jokingly.

The conversation between Sunghoon and you flowed smoothly. Over hushed whispers through the library shelves, you learned he transferred to your university that semester, and was studying Kinesiology.

“It’s kind of a jock major, I was surprised,” he muttered as he ran his fingers over the spines of some books, turning his head sideways to read the titles.

You frowned, “Why? You don’t play sports?”

“It’s not that, I just wasn’t expecting to have to take activity classes. It’s like high school P.E. all over again.”

Even though he was matching the library volume, Sunghoon was soft spoken, and he was funny without trying. You explained how you were studying Human Biology with a minor in anthropology, and he picked at your brain about the paper you were writing.

“No, Sunghoon, sociology and anthro are not the same.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Wait really? I took a socio class before and it’s literally what you’re describing.”

“I think you should stick to your kines classes.”

Sunghoon hummed. “We’d probably take some physio classes together, I reckon?” He suggested, realizing the science similarities in your degrees.

“Oh! Yeah, you’re right.” Judging on how well you two were talking even in this short amount of time, you added, “Maybe we can study together or something.”

A pause.

Sunghoon was distracted, squinted behind you at something. You bit your lip to try to ignore the disappointed pang in your chest and your internal facepalm for trying to make a pass at the cute boy from the circ desk. Following his gaze, you realized that he had found the book you two were looking for.

Your mild small talk continued during the walk back to the circ desk, and you exchanged goodbyes after he assisted in checking out the book for you, his group of friends no longer in sight.

“Hope I’ll see you around,” Sunghoon waved.

You spent the rest of the afternoon holed up at your desk in your dorm room, typing, flipping through pages, and blasting audible adderall playlists out loud. And from the corner of your eye, you could see that Yunjin was doing the exact same.

The two of you finished around the same time, and decided to bring food from the dining hall into your dorm to eat while you and a couple of Yunjin’s sisters pregamed for the night. You decided to omit your encounter with a cute boy in the library while you guys were discussing your afternoons.

Yunjin was laughing, “We were literally so crazy, rapid fire typing next to each other while Y/N’s stupid Mario Kart songs were playing.”

Mouth full with pizza, you argued, “Don’t act like that music didn’t help us finish our papers. This could’ve been avoided, but you want to drink at every opportunity possible.”

She mocked your tone, “Don’t act like you don’t feel the same!”

The other girls, Chaewon and Kazuha, giggled at your dynamic, and poured everyone another round of shots.

---

The hockey club was basically a fraternity of its own, Chaewon explained to you as you all arrived, just less exclusive. It was a place for brothers in different frats to have their own camaraderie between each other, and their parties were open to anyone. You could feel the vibrations of the music’s bass in your ribcage.

As you three pushed through the crowd into the kitchen, Yunjin off to find Heeseung, Kazuha pitched in, “I heard one of the players that just graduated agreed to supply all the alc tonight.” You stared at the tubs of jungle juice and the tens of lingering bottles on the back counter. Even the sink was filled with beers and seltzers.

“He must be fucking rich,” Chaewon yelled over the music.

“Mark definitely comes from a wealthy family,” shouted a voice next to you. You turned and realized it was a boy from the library, one of Sunghoon’s friends. He smiled, and leaned in closer to make sure you heard each other, “Library, right?”

You did your best to ignore the two piercing stares behind your head from your girl friends, and nodded. He was dressed in a sailors outfit, white yacht cap and all. You could smell the whiskey from his breath.

“Jay,” he extended a hand to each of your friends and flashed Chaewon the same confident smirk you saw at the library. “Would you all like a drink?”

“Y/N.” You shook his hand and despite the alcohol flowing in your veins, you replied, “I think we know better to not accept drinks from strangers.”

He teasingly frowned, “Hey, we’re on a first name basis; I’d think we’re at least friends now. Right?”

Chaewon gently nudged you with her elbow, sending you a hint. “Surprise us,” she said.

You took a deep breath before downing the cocktail Jay put together, a mix of coke and Hennessey. Mark, whoever he was, really was rich.

Safe to say it was just you and Kazuha left for this part of the night; you didn’t mind when your friends found boys to dance with, there was plenty of alcohol and music for you to have fun yourself. At some point in the night, Chaewon wove herself back through the crowd to find you two, her hair a little displaced and more intoxicated than you last saw her. She brushed it off as “It’s hot in here!” even though you caught a glimpse of her following a boy in a yacht cap. You left the dance floor to find the bathroom, heading to the front of the house where you saw a line of people before.

The music was quieter here, though the front of the house was still crowded with people cheering and laughing, at least you felt like you could hear your own thoughts again.

You cringed seeing the line of people all waiting for the bathroom. Desperately, you looked around a couple hallways for another open bathroom, but all other doors and staircases in the house sectioned off with caution tape. There were too many drinks in your body, you had to go.

“Now it looks like you’re the one new here.”

You turned around to meet eyes with Sunghoon’s neck, he was awfully close. He took a half step back upon seeing your surprised eyes, but gave you a smile.

“I didn’t know you were in the hockey club?”

“I know the guys - a bunch of jocks in my classes, remember?” Sunghoon looked more relaxed. His outfit looked identical to Jay’s, also sporting the yacht hat. You could see that his hair was now styled and less messy than what you had seen in the library earlier. And considering the heat of the house and your own sweat that clung to your forehead, you were surprised to still catch a whiff of his cologne. His white shirt was loosely buttoned, revealing several inches of his chest, his skin smooth. Sunghoon leaned down to whisper, “If you’re trying to be subtle about checking me out, it’s really not working.” He smelled strongly of coconut rum, explaining his boldness.

You were too drunk to care, and looked him right in his eyes, “Yeah, yeah you caught me. Life’s more fun without subtlety.” You grinned, “So what’s with the outfits?”

“The boys wanted to match, Naughty Nautical was their wording,” he shook his head with a smile. He noticed the quirk of your eyebrow, “and no, I’m still not on the team.” Sunghoon motioned to a long strip of poster paper hanging on a wall by a clock near the stairs. He pulled you towards it to get a better look at what was written. “You didn’t see the ship decor?”

---

CAPTAIN’S LOG

10:05 pm - You must refer to each player as Captain or Sailor tonight, or you will be kicked out.

10:06 pm - HOUSE SHOT

10:07 - TEAM SHOT

10:10 - LADIES SHOT HAHA

10:32 - Tri Delt is here!! <3 :)

10:33p who asked -Heeseung BRUH LMAO -jake

10:46 - HOUSE SHOT NUMBER IDK :D

10:52PM - ur gonna regret letting the freshman riki in >:)

10:58 pm - Riki just ate shit on the stairs -JW

11:12 pm - FUCK I MISSED 11:11, but I still wish for pu$$y

11:20pm - LOL Same.

11:23 pm- i a m drunk ..

11:30 pm please I beg of a crumb of puss for my boy Jay please add him on snap here: jjongseong420

You reach over to scribble something on the log too.

12:34 AM - where is the bathroom

Sunghoon laughed and offered a hand for you to take. You were surprised that his fingers intertwined with yours, Am I about to get laid tonight? you drunkenly thought to yourself.

Sunghoon lifted a strip of caution tape for you to duck your head under first, before following suit himself. You let go of his hand to grip the stairs’ side rail and heard him stifle a laugh or two behind you as you stumbled up. The first bathroom you two encountered was unlocked and you quickly shut it as soon as you opened it. You clenched your eyes and paused for a second to convince yourself that you did not just witness your best friend’s naked limbs woven between those of the frat boy she’s been talking about for the past couple of days.

Sunghoon didn’t take the hint and laughed out loud, “Holy shit, was that Heeseung?”

“I think I’ll need another drink after that. Maybe a whole bottle.” Sunghoon kept laughing at that.

After finding an actual available bathroom, you found Sunghoon waiting for you, typing on his phone with one hand, and carrying an unopened bottle of Malibu in the other.

“Ask and you shall receive,” he smiled, raising the bottle when he noticed you stepped out.

Your eyes widened, “Jesus, I didn’t mean I wanted to actually drink a whole bottle.”

“No, stupid,” Sunghoon chuckled. He was certainly more playful when he was drunk. “I was going to share this with you, and offer you to take the rest home.”

You rolled your eyes, but smiled. “Well, at least you chose my favorite.” Your hearing was a bit muffled after making it somewhere where the beats of the songs didn’t ring your eardrums. “This house is nice enough to have a balcony somewhere, right?”

Sunghoon nodded, “Follow me.”

The balcony was accessed through one of the bedrooms down the hall, you stared at the width of Sunghoon’s shoulders as you walked behind him. You didn’t say much as you two sat on the bench outside, overlooking the front yard. There were other patrons loitering outside, a beer pong table set up, and a couple or two making out by the fences. The midnight breeze lightly shook the branches within your reach.

Sunghoon was pretty much a stranger for all you knew, yet you didn’t mind letting him take you through the house. At least he was a very cute stranger, he seemed different from the other boys you’ve met at parties so far. By now, considering you two had been alone for a while, any other boy would probably have tried to stick his tongue in your mouth. And yet, the conversation continued as smoothly as before, or well as smoothly as a pair of intoxicated students could manage. Sunghoon talked about a story or two about some of his friends, and you told him about why you chose to pursue your minor in addition to medicine.

“It’s just fun to get away from the quantitative stuff, and learn more about the human experience,” you babbled. “I want to apply to this abroad program in Prague, where you spend 2 weeks on an archeology site.”

Sunghoon stared at you, amused, “It’s kind of ironic that you wanna dig up dead bodies, while learning how to treat live ones.”

You bumped his shoulder with yours, and watched as Sunghoon took a couple more swigs right from the bottle before offering it to you, letting his fingers graze yours for a couple seconds too long. You could still feel the rage of the party downstairs, and you found it nice to be away from the center of it.

“So, do you at least play hockey with them? Or is your friendship with the team solely professional and from class?”

Sunghoon smiled, “No, not a hockey person. We’re solely transactional, I do well on our group projects, and they give me free alc.”

You nodded, seemed reasonable to you.

He made a face at how you accepted that so quickly, “But no, yeah, I also help them train. I’m an assistant coach on the side? At the rink downtown?”

“I know our hockey team is mostly composed of skinny boys, which is already unusual… But you?” Your eyes traced down his slim figure, “A coach?”

He poked your forehead, “Hey, I know my way around a puck better than half those guys. But nah, I figure skate. Help kids break into their first set of skates. But with the team, it’s usually to help with movement, speed training.”

“Damn, I didn’t think you could get any hotter,” you blurted out, honestly surprised. Usually you’d feel at least some regret admitting that, but the way Sunghoon’s ears burned red? Priceless.

“It’s not something I really admit; I got teased a bit before I got close to the guys. Had to score a couple goals against those bastards before I got them to admit a triple axel was cooler than any dekes they’ve learned.” He smiled faintly.

“You finished your paper, yeah?” You let him change the subject a couple beats later.

“Yup, that book really helped.” Sunghoon lulled his head around with the faint music, “I was just cruising right after we found it.”

“Hmm, I feel like I deserve a reward for helping you.” You know what, maybe you were a bit wrong about Sunghoon. Maybe it was the alcohol, but he didn’t seem that soft spoken as when you met him earlier that day. You were suddenly aware of how much his leg burned against yours.

“I mean, I can think of some ways,” you slurred, the liquid confidence drawing out each syllable, the words leaving your mouth before you could think of the cringe it would cause you the next morning. Sunghoon was unabashedly staring at your lips and you couldn’t resist yourself from smiling. Maybe he wasn’t so different, but you didn’t mind.

It was he who made the first move, his hand pressing lightly on your thigh as he leaned towards you. You fluttered your eyes shut, fully anticipating his lips against yours, only to open your eyes in confusion a few seconds later after nothing. He was biting his lip to not burst out laughing, his hand now stroking the top of your thigh. “Sorry, I just- it’s fun to tease.”

You squinted your eyes at him, and pulled his hand off your thigh. His eyes widened as you moved to straddle him, the poor bottle of Malibu tipping over to flavor the balcony with coconut. “Try to tease me again and you’ll see.”

Any ounce of his playfulness was erased, one hand rushing to grab your hip and the other reaching for the side of your face. He sealed his lips over yours and you eagerly tangled your fingers in his hair, knocking over his stupid boat captain hat.

You felt his tongue press into your mouth and you let him in, your lips moving messily against his. You let out a groan as his hips grinded underneath you and you felt him smile.

You held onto a shoulder and one of his biceps, feeling it tense as he pushed your ass further down onto him. His other hand moved from your jaw to the front of your neck and you let out a loud whine; this time Sunghoon pulled away with a short chuckle, cocky as hell, whispering, “Be careful. The people under the balcony might hear you.”

“Jeez, Sunghoon, are you an exhibitionist or something?” You teased.

His fingers, now brushing the front of your throat. Under the dim light of the moonlight you could see the swell of Sunghoon’s parted lips. He playfully rolled his eyes and scoffed, but said nothing.

You smirked and continued, “I only want you to hear.” And you swore you felt Sunghoon throb under you.

He picked you up, which seemed easy for him, given his arms, and carried you back into the bedroom - whose ever it was. He reconnected your lips, a hand sliding underneath your skirt as soon as your back hit the sheets of the bed. You pushed him off for a second, your hands clumsily reaching for the buttons of his shirt, eager to feel what was underneath. He watched as you traced your hands up his now bare chest, and you pulled him back in. He pulled the strap of your tank down, exposing more of you as he traced his lips, then his tongue, down your skin. You felt the graze of his teeth and you drew in a sharp breath.

Though you had to help him with the clasp of your bra with a giggle from you and a shut up from him, his tongue moved expertly over your chest. Sunghoon’s other hand pressing into you over your panties, and as he began to tug on them to free you, you couldn’t help but push your hips up to rush him, eager for his touch.

And as you felt his fingers slip inside of you, the door swung open, another busy pair of bodies stumbling towards the bed. And, obviously in the darkness, you screamed, but so did Sunghoon. And so did the other couple. “Wait… Sunghoon?” The guy said, his voice sounding surprised and almost proud?

Surely you couldn’t show your face at the hockey house anymore after this, you thought to yourself as you hurriedly clothed yourself, thankful you were only topless.

It was your first time getting walked in on, and considering what you witnessed earlier that night, at least you and Yunjin had a common story to laugh about tomorrow morn- err afternoon. After pushing out of the bedroom, Sunghoon, however, was still burning red, maybe from the alcohol, but also the embarrassment. You laughed as you poked his cheeks.

“Well, I guess you should be out there with your friends, doing keg stands or something?” You asked.

He chuckled too, thankful you were nonchalant about everything, and leaned down to kiss you again. His lips were gentle this time, and still sweet from the liquor. He held your hand as you headed down the stairs together. Your activities sobered you up so you two headed to the kitchen for more fuel, finding Yunjin and the other girls. After a couple more drinks with your girls, you didn’t even notice that Sunghoon had left your side at some point. Craning your neck over the still plenty of dancing bodies, you frowned, unable to see his tall self.

Yunjin noticed your disappointment, side eyeing the crowd as well. “Who was that guy you came down with?”

“Just met him today, he’s no one I guess.”

---

CAPTAIN’S LOG

1:32a WHO TOOK MY FUCKING LEFT SHOE -yangyang :(

1:40am - I have a small peen -jisung (Delta Rho Pledge Class)

2:02a - LOL YO SUNGHOON VIRGINITY IS NO MORE! VIRGIN

2:20am - ^ NO FUCKIN WAY HOON???

2:33 am - ^ IT WAS ME I TOOK IT LOL -JAKE

WAIT THE SHOE NOT THE VIRGINITY

---

And again, you and Yunjin opted for stumbling through the dark neighborhood back to the dorms instead of calling a cab, the other girls begrudgingly joining you.

Yunjin slurred, “I can’t wait for the morning recap later,” her body landing on her bed with a soft thud.

You giggled at the thought of it too, although you frowned at the memory of Sunghoon leaving you in the middle of the night. It wasn’t wrong of you to be disappointed that he didn't want to continue what you had started, right? You thought of your conversations throughout the night, and even in the morning when you had first met him, wondering if you said something wrong. You grumbled in bed, bothered by how he made you question yourself, even though he knew you for less than a day. Just another night at a party, you convinced yourself, before drifting to sleep.

You woke up nauseous, your instincts kicking you out of bed to run to the toilet. After seemingly endless minutes of gagging and thoughts of regret, you lifted your face out of the toilet to see Yunjin in the doorway, looking at you pointedly.

“Damn, you had fun,” you muttered, letting out a pained giggle after seeing the marks on her neck.

She scoffed, helping you up from the floor to stand behind you in the mirror. “Look at yourself.” While not as dark or as many as hers, you traced a finger where some red bruises were trailing your collar.

After a hot shower and plenty of water, you met up with the other girls at the dining hall for breakfast. Yunjin and Chaewon were obnoxiously laughing, recounting the story about some freshman tumbling down the stairs in a Sailor Moon costume.

Chaewon laughed, and paused to think. “I learned that I might not be into roleplay as much as I thought.”

“No…” You glanced around, looking out for any eavesdroppers.

“He kept the hat on and referred to himself as Captain before he went down on me.”

Yunjin gagged. “My biggest takeaway from last night? I guess, him… the biggest…”

It was your turn to gag.

The other girls continued to pry for more detail, and you got up to get some more water before they could pounce on you for your story. Your headache was pretty much gone at this point, but the nauseous feeling lingered. You spotted a boy with dark hair by the drink station and felt your nausea take a turn.

“Hey,” you gave Jake a small smile. He was in your major, so you had chatted with him a few times in some shared classes. “Was wondering if you knew how that freshman was doing?”

Jake turned and looked at you, and snorted as he tapped on his phone to bring up an image of the poor child, Riki, he told you was his name, tumbling down the stairs in a skirt. “The attention he’s getting from that is distracting him from his concussion.” He tapped again to show a Snapchat story of the boy himself, the tools of a hospital examination room behind him, with the caption i’m ok. “See you at the HYB house tonight? I’ll make sure there's enough Malibu,” he flashed you a vague smile and walked off.

You frowned as you made your way back to your table, eager stares from the girls. “My night was uneventful! My takeaway is that it is far more fun to dance with you guys, than to be off in the corner with some guy,” you stated as you sat down. It was true - hookups weren’t ever on your party itineraries. Kazuha and Chaewon cheered you for that, but you met your best friend’s eyes and knew she was going to spare you just this time.

Jake’s comment bugged you the rest of the meal and continued through the rest of the afternoon, as you tidied your room and finished a bit of schoolwork. Give it up for frat boys to talk about you as soon as you part ways.

Since there was always room for school work to be completed, you decided to squeeze in some time at your usual library spot. As you passed the circulation desk, you half-heartedly snuck a peek to check who was working. For better or for worse, not who you were looking for.

The rest of the afternoon was less eventful, no need for Mario Party music to help you get through the last bits of a paper. Tonight’s pregame squad was larger than last time’s, with the inclusion of Kazuha’s classmate Sunoo and his best friend, the villain of the other night, Riki.

Yunjin groaned, “Are you sure they’ll even let you in?” She gave you a look that screamed, can you believe this kid? And you just laughed because forcing beef with a freshman was not something you were expecting to see from her tonight.

Riki squinted at her, “I know you. And I’m closer to Heeseung-hyung than you think, so you better watch it.”

Yunjin cleared her throat, “Alright, fine, but if they close the door on your face? I’m not gonna turn back.” Riki faked a smile and continued to sip from his solo cup.

The rest of your friends were finishing their makeup, taking shots, and obnoxiously laughing. “You know,” Yunjin pulled you to the side, “You never explained who you were really with last night.”

“You know it’s a peeve of mine to share everything I do with boys.”

“Hey! I’m just wondering if I need to keep an eye out for someone, in a good or a bad way.”

“Park Sunghoon, another kines major and groupie of the hockey team.”

Yunjin nodded slowly, obvious she was wracking her brain through all her social circles to determine what she knew of him. “Newest HYB pledge. Transfer. Ridiculously good looking and a rare attendee of HYB events - he barely rushed but he got a bid because everyone liked him so much anyway.” She paused, “I’ll err on the side of red flag since he’s too incognito in Greek, but he’s hot so just have fun?”

“Not sure if I’m going to try to indulge in that again. Didn’t even know he was in the frat. He seemed… like he thought he was above that mentality.” Yunjin gave you a side-squeeze, and a couple more glugs of her vodka concoction into your cup.

“He sure as hell looks the part though. That’s what makes ‘em fun.”

The HYB house was larger than any frat home you’d stumbled your way into. It included a nice, curved driveway - now crowded with shivering bodies - and a stairway entrance. Several signs, - in the chic-est of spray paint on bedsheet - cursing out your university rival, lined the top floor’s windows. And much to your chagrin, considering the run-in you had today, you saw that Jake was one of the door guys.

Your friends were going over the plan on how to get Riki in, “They’ve been begging Sunoo to rush HYB, so if they come in a pair, surely they couldn’t turn him down,” Kazuha rationalized.

Chaewon was doubtful, “Boy doesn’t know his tolerance, they might see him as a liability.”

“Can’t you just pass the door guy a couple bills and call it a night?”

“Bitch, I’m literally broke. If they say no, I’ll just sneak in from the side.”

“Well, well, well.” Jake looked your group up and down with a smirk. “Now y’all look like a bunch of troublemakers. Wait,” his eyes locked onto Riki, who was (mind you, 6 ft tall) subtly hiding behind Sunoo. “You ladies can go in, but I’m gonna have to ask about the boys.”

Sunoo rolled his eyes, “Look, we brought three girls, surely the ratio will be fine.”

“Hey Sunoo, I’m jus-”

Yunjin pulled you into the house, and hissed “I said I would not look back and I meant it.”

You were astonished by the glory of the inside. The historic style of the outside contrasted with the dark and sleek minimalism of the inside. They had invested in Real Quality strobe lights and a dedicated raised platform for the DJ set. The girls reflected your awe just the same.

HAPPY HOMECOMING was spelled out in much nicer fashion, on poster paper rather than bedsheet, along the second floor ledge.

Due to the nature of the event, the kitchen - just as pristine and sleek as the front of the house - was filled to the brim with bottles and fiending students. Frat boys were behind the island dishing out drinks.

“Heeseung’s not coming?” You asked Yunjin.

She shook her head, “His frat’s having a party at their house too, but this house is far nicer so naturally I chose HYB.” And judging by the line you saw outside and the amount of bodies pressing against you, so did everyone else.

An older looking boy even introduced himself to your group, a sober safety bro as he said, and offered a hit of his vape.

You’d be lying if you said that the possibility of Sunghoon being here (which was at least 90%) didn’t kind of bother you. Even amidst the dance floor, your eyes did an occasional scan of the perimeter. If it was paranoia or hope, you couldn’t tell the difference. You saw your genetics TA, some girls from your dorm suite, and, wait, is that Riki helping out the DJ?

Even Chaewon noticed your scanning and shoved her cup in your face, a universal signal to chill out, and enjoy the night.

It was a good time for a refill. The crowd to get drinks was less packed, but still full enough to block your vision of who was pouring.

You were using your front camera to fix an eyelash before realizing you had made your way to the front. Your vision of your reflection was immediately replaced with the embarassed? expression of Sunghoon as soon as you put your phone down.

“What can I get for you?” He slightly yelled over the music.

“Rum and Coke,” You heard yourself stammer, and hoped it would be mistaken for a drunk stumble.

Sunghoon nodded. “Yes, mommy,” he visibly cringed as you blinked at him. “Ugh, sorry, the pledges have to call the girls that tonight.” He turned around to pour your drink. You, too, turned to look the other way.

If it was any other guy, you’d be laughing, but seeing him again made you feel awkward enough already. The addition of frat pledge hazing was NOT helping.

“Here you go,” Sunghoon passed you the cup. And you stared at the clear liquid inside.

“This isn’t-“

“It’s Malibu,” he said with a smile and turned to help the next person in line.

Your many drinks later helped soothe you to your normal self, enjoying the moment with closed eyes, swaying your body next to your friends’.

At some point you and Yunjin decided to take a break from the dance floor and explore the house. “Some of Heeseung’s bros are banned from this house so they asked for pictures,” she whispered, ungracefully taking pictures of semi-occupied hallways and rooms with flash. You were so embarrassed for her.

She snickered going through the ones she just took. “This photo is so creepy; there’s a guy just sitting in this room alone, like a stalker.” The irony zipped above her head.

You two began to make your way back to the action. The DJ was hyping up the house, the music stopped - getting everyone to chant profanities about your rival school. Yunjin quickly rejoined the crowds, leaving you to stroll in through the kitchen without her.

You watched the back of Sunghoon’s figure as he poured a drink for himself, then raised his cup with the rest of the party in a cheer. He was so good-looking, even from behind.

Your mind reeled, you two hooked up and surely anyone would be willing to continue what… (rather, who) didn’t finish, right? Maybe it was self indulging, maybe it was the alcohol, but you didn’t want to stop your gravitation towards him. It was past 2am, surely you waited long enough.

“Hey again,” you said simply, tapping him on the shoulder.

“Hello, mo- Oh. Hey, Y/N.” He sighed.

You withheld your cringe. “Didn’t know you were a pledge,” you half lied (You knew.. you just learned a few hours prior!).

You were thankful that the people coming into the kitchen for refills were grabbing beers, rather than asking for mixed drinks. Sunghoon’s avoiding eyes told you he felt differently.

“It’s still a new development to me.” He was being so awkward, unlike the ramble-y, giggling Sunghoon you were with less than 24 hours ago.

“Am I speaking to Park Sunghoon, or did I meet someone entirely different last night?” You blurted out.

He offered you a polite smile, “Sorry, I just don’t really know how to go about this.”

Oh god. He was going to give you a rejection speech - a babble about how one night is one night, and how he isn’t interested in anything more. Your heart panged, were you getting desperate? Sure, you met him only yesterday, but getting ghosted already - he barely gave you any time to even recover.

He took your hand to pull you to a quieter side of the room. “Alright, if you’re not interested anymore I get it, I’m an adult, you can be straight up.”

“No! It’s not that,” Sunghoon stared at your sleeve. “It’s just that I wasn’t sure how to act… hooking up with someone at a party isn’t at all my type of thing.”

You resisted to quirk your brow at Sunghoon-the-alleged-not-frat-bro, frat bro. He noticed you were waiting for him to continue.

“And you… seemed like the opposite. I thought that you’d probably just leave me behind, so I decided it best to leave first.”

“I go for the music, the chaos, not the boys,” you shook your head. “But, I was kind of confused that you didn’t want to… continue?”

“Sorry for abruptly leaving, I didn’t really know what to say. Plus we were already walked in on, the guys are like helicopters over pledges - they’ll figure out everything so I - I don’t know - wasn’t sure I wanted to involve you.” He scratched his head, “I wasn’t expecting you’d come try to talk to me again.”

“Wow, Park Sunghoon, woman respecter, protecting me from the frat boy gossip.” You quipped. “You failed by the way, Jake made a comment to me earlier.”

He rolled his eyes and groaned - “It’s because of that stupid captain’s log. You should see the rest of it - Jungwon documented everything I swear.” Sunghoon stopped to look at your blank face, “I’m not giving a good explanation, am I?”

You shrugged.

“Fine. Let me make it up to you.”

You thought to yourself, now am I getting laid?

Sunghoon intertwined his fingers with yours again and you followed behind him this time up the staircase. The HYB stairs were tile, far smoother than your unsteady walk could handle. Sunghoon laughed at you, “If you’re like this walking on land, I wonder how you’d be on figure skates.”

“Are you suggesting you’d want to see me in public and on skates? And not in the haze of a dingy frat party?” You feigned surprise.

Sunghoon snickered, “Hey, our house is the least dingy in all of Greek.” He smiled again, “And yeah, I’d be down to see you without an absurd amount of coconut rum.”

You ignored the sirens going off in your brain about getting more involved with someone unpredictable like him, Yunjin’s just have fun, echoing in your head.

He unlocked a room’s door, revealing a typical single, dark bed sheets matching dark curtains. You noticed a few trophies on a shelf. Sunghoon frantically picked up stray clothes, “Sorry I don’t really, bring people back.” He looked at you as you leaned against the door frame for support, “Wait. You’ve had way more drinks than I have. I think we should just watch a movie? I set up pretty good speakers, my surround sound is elite.”

You snorted, “Woman respecter, certified.” You removed your shoes and climbed into his bed. The soft sheets felt good against your skin, the spinning of the room felt more obvious with your new position. The bed dipped as Sunghoon joined next to you, equipped with his laptop. The sirens in your head went off again as he slid an arm under you, pulling your heavy head against his chest. He still smelled of cologne - a tinge of spilled orange juice and fruity smoke, clinging gently on his shirt. You were more conscious of how you smelled to him, of coconut and pure sweat, most likely. Sunghoon gently rested his head atop yours. Oh god, there was no way he wasn’t breathing you in now.

Sunghoon mumbled, “You okay? Need water?” He was aimlessly scrolling through his front page of Netflix. You shook your head, then laughed pointing out Megamind under his Watch It Again list. He sat up, trying to cover his other recommendations that were all along the line of family movies. “It was for nostalgia, okay!”

You wrestled with his arm, revealing more of his lists. “Monster House I can get behind, but Boss Baby? Really?” He wrestled back, before he closed his laptop, suppressing his own embarrassed laughter with fake seriousness. Sunghoon climbed on top of you, lightly pinning your wrists against his sheets.

“You talk mad shit for someone who told me they listen to Mario Party music unironically.” You gasped.

“I did not tell you that! Plus, I’d rather be caught listening to Mario KART music, than watching a movie about a baby in a suit.”

Judging by Sunghoon��s expression, you knew you won that argument. He continued, “I might have asked around about you.”

You smirked, “Stalker, are we?” Then you realized, how did other people know that about you?

Sunghoon rolled his eyes, and decided against a comeback. He dipped his head to seal his lips over yours. He let go of your wrists, opting to grasp your chin with one of his hands, as his other supported his weight above you. You eagerly moved your lips against his, sighing.

Shamelessly, you mumbled against his mouth, “Couldn’t stop thinking about this.” Your arms wrapped behind his neck, tugging him closer to you.

You felt Sunghoon’s shoulders stiffen, as your lips trailed downwards, eager to trace lines against his jaw again.

“Hey,” he whispered. Your hand followed down the front of his chest, prying at the edge of his collar. “Hey-,” Sunghoon repeated, louder. He let out a soft groan, before you pulled away, satisfied.

“What?” you whispered, exasperated.

“If this is all you want from me, I can’t do that.” He said seriously. “I don’t want to just hook up with you, plus you drank too much.”

You cleared your throat. He was right, though he was just as playful, he seemed quite sober. Sunghoon resumed, “I’d like to just spend time with you, but if you’re seeking something else - no hard feelings.” You saw a gentle pout along his lips. You heard him, but you couldn’t resist placing a kiss against that pout.

“No! I don’t just want to sleep with you…” You looked at him, maybe the sirens going off in your head were just a false alarm. “Just promise you won’t ditch me?”

You felt his neck burn up, if it wasn’t for the room barely being illuminated by his digital clock on the wall, you knew his face would be flushed red. “It’d be hard to leave, considering we’re literally in my room,” he joked. He placed a kiss on the side of your mouth before lying back next to you, his arm sliding back under your head.

You giggled as you watched him quickly scroll past his Netflix recommendations, instead pulling up the anime genre page.

Eventually agreeing on watching Saiki K, Sunghoon’s gentle shaking from his quiet laughter began to lull you to sleep. Your last thoughts before sleep consumed you was how sweaty you felt with Sunghoon’s body heating you up, how you forgot to text Yunjin back about your whereabouts, and how criminal it was for someone to still smell so damn good.

Those thoughts were also the first ones that came to you as morning struck.

Much to your surprise, your head didn’t hurt, probably thanks to the water Sunghoon basically force fed you during the second episode. His arm was still under you, but he was now turned to face you, his other arm lightly draped over your frame - effectively trapping you in his arms.

You weren’t complaining.

Slowly, and quietly, you slid your hand to grab your phone in your back pocket. The most recent text from Yunjin, wear protection xx, with a selfie of her and RIki making kissing faces at the camera. Looks like their beef was relieved, you couldn’t help but to laugh out loud.

Sunghoon dipped his face deeper into your hair and neck, with a soft groan as if to shut you up.

Panic set in. You had to get out of there and shower. It would be an absolute disservice to this gorgeous man to keep allowing him to breathe you in.

You tried to shake him awake, Sunghoon pulled you tighter. You blinked at the intimacy of it all, sure he almost had his fingers inside you the other night but this felt far closer. It was pulling at your heart strings.

“Hoon, wake up, I’m stinky.”

Sunghoon mumbled, “I don’t mind.”

“Gross… I have to get to class.”

“Liar, Yunjin told me you have afternoon classes today.”

“Yunjin?” That woke him up.

He slightly pulled away, “I might have… inquired.”

You couldn’t hold back a satisfied smile. “Wow, I’ve known you for a weekend. This has to be a new record for me.”

Sunghoon brushed a few hairs out of your face. “You know, we actually met at the club fair last month.”

You tilted your head in confusion, “No, there’s no way - I definitely would have remembered you.” It was his turn to grin.

He bit his lip, “Well, it was more like I signed your friend’s petition, but you were at the table too. I was with Jake, you two were going over a lecture. You were too engrossed in genes or whatever, so I guess you didn’t notice.”

You hummed, “That lecture was so bad… Jake and I shared notes that night.” You watched Sunghoon’s now shy expression. “So a month, huh?” Maybe Sunghoon was a green flag.

Sunghoon covered his face with a hand, then teased, “Don’t forget you were all over me last night, practically begging for me.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“No, I think you just can’t remember with all that alcohol you drank.”

You squinted at his smug face, “Shall we call a truce?”

“Only if you let me take you out tonight.”

Tracing a finger along his jaw, you whispered, “That sounds reasonable.”

He grinned, placing a kiss on your cheek before getting up out of bed.

“Alright, I’ll take you home. Lord knows someone needs a shower.”

You pulled him back in bed to try to smother him with a pillow. He escaped quickly, laughing at your attempt and opting to practically pick you up. Sunghoon held your hand, leading you out of the remnants of the HYB house, only letting go for a moment to open the car door for you.

His hand found its way a top your thigh as he drove towards your dorm.

When he parked, you grabbed his phone from the cupholder, holding it out so he could punch in his passcode. Sunghoon grinned as you sent yourself a text.

“I’ll pick you up at 6?” He offered.

You returned his smile with a chaste kiss, “See you then.”

#enhypen fanfic #enhypen scenarios #sunghoon scenarios #sunghoon smut #sunghoon x reader #enhypen x reader #enhypen smut #enhypen fluff #sunghoon fluff #park sunghoon #sunghoon imagines #peachenle fic #based on actual events by me except not park sunghoon unfortunately #4:50 am user peachenle writes a story when she should be asleep #these frats are fake dont come for me #also i know nothing of hockey #fic: cl

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lattaeyongs · 2 years

Text

summer of love (ljn)

original gif

↳ pairing: lee jeno x reader

↳ word count: 15.2k

↳ genre: ‘90’s!au, brother’s best friend!au, summer!au, neighbor!au, slice of life(ish)!au, fluff, slowburn

↳ summary: The summer of 1997 was a weird time. As a person living in the modern era, you’d completely forgotten what it was like to live in the ‘90’s. In May 1997, you listened to the Backstreet Boys, flipped through TV Guide, and had an answering machine which seems so archaic now. But that isn’t the only reason why the summer of 1997 was weird. That summer was the time you fell for your brother’s best friend.

↳ warnings: minor cursing, making out

SUMMER 1997

Your second year of college is over. You’ve taken your last exam, and it’s finally time to ditch your dorm and lousy roommate to go back to your childhood home for the summer. It’s a three-hour drive with no rest stops from college to your home, but it took longer due to the gas station stops to get junky, sugary snacks and coffee. But eventually, you made it back home in one piece.

Your childhood home looks almost exactly the same as you left it: The old, green, flowery wallpaper that your parents keep forgetting the change still hangs in the kitchen, the brown carpet in the entry hallway with the weird stain is still there, and the pantry still has an endless supply of potato chips. The only thing missing are your parents.

“Y/N!” Renjun exclaims, coming to hug you. As your older brother's arms lock around you, you notice how different he feels despite last seeing him only two months ago; prickly stubble pokes at your skin, and he definitely has been working out.

He parts from you, moving to the answering machine sitting on the kitchen counter. “Where are mom and dad?” You ask.

“Out,” he says abruptly, playing the messages in the machine before clearing them out. “They’re shopping to make dinner. They thought you would come back later. And by the way,” he continues, “Jeno’s coming over.”

“Okay,” you respond back simply. At this point, you’re used to Lee Jeno; he’s practically your family, in that the Lees live only a few houses from yours. It is honestly a wonder how Renjun and Jeno have remained friends since they were five-year-olds running around the neighborhood grafitti-ing the sidewalks with colorful chalk designs without growing apart or finding people more apt to suit their developing selves as time passes. It seems that instead of growing apart because of the new scenes and sounds in their adult lives, they were growing together like two parallel vines despite the distance they had to combat in college. When you hear the doorbell a few moments later, you know it’s Lee Jeno.

He certainly looks different than what you remember with dark hair this time and a slight tan. You haven’t seen Lee Jeno since winter break when he was staying with his parents across the street. Just like you and Renjun, he’s back home from college after the school year, and you’ve seen him around a couple of times a year with all the school breaks.

“Y/N!” Jeno smiles in that very Jeno way that makes everyone’s heart melt. He leans down a bit to meet your eyes, taking his thumb and forefinger of his hand and squishing your cheek. You playfully bat his hand away.

“Quit doing that!” You giggle with a pout on your face. “I’m not a baby anymore! I go to college!” You say incredulously, a little bit of a whine in your tone.

“You’re always a baby to me,” he teases. You roll your eyes at this, moving over to let him in.

“Jeno!” Renjun yells, ditching the answering machine. He rushes over to hug the other boy. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too Jun,” Jeno replies. You smile at the sight.

“Let’s play pool,” Renjun says. Jeno agrees, nodding. Both boys go to the basement where your family’s famous pool table resides (your father having gotten it for free from some bar closing in the ‘70’s), and Jeno shuts the door loudly on his way out. You’re about to rain on Renjun’s parade and tell him to come back and clear the answering machine he left behind, but you think against it. You didn’t feel like interrupting a friendship that is so beautiful. So you sit on the chair that Renjun recently left, pressing the ‘listen’ button on the answering machine.

As you listen to the promotional spam calls from companies trying to sell you things that you didn’t need or couldn’t afford, you purse your lips. Seeing Renjun and Jeno together almost made you jealous; none of your high school friends were back from college, and through the few calls you all would have during the school year, they’re off doing bigger and better things than this sleepy town that you call home.

That night you were going to sleep in your bedroom filled with cassette tapes, posters and pink and yellow wallpaper that you picked out when you were seven. After satisfactorily wrapping yourself in your comfortable blankets that smelled of lavender detergent (your favorite scent), you stare at the ceiling. You couldn’t imagine not visiting this place.

So you have a secret. No, not of the deep dark kind, but something that would definitely earn you a lot of teasing if your friends and family found out about it. One of your biggest guilty pleasures is the movie series The Zygon Kingdom, a science fiction franchise about alien invasions. Stereotypically, people think this series is for losers, gamers, and nerds who live in their mom’s basement. When you’re in public, you try your best to refrain from comment or make fun of the series alongside others, but in private, you secretly anticipate the new movies, going to see it immediately when it comes to theaters.

And that’s what you’re planning on doing today. Today is the release of the fifth movie of the franchise, The Zygon Kingdom: A New World. Finally, you actually had plans; you were starting to look pathetic with how much TV you were watching; your parents were even joking that the most recent book that you’ve read is the TV Guide that was mailed a few days ago. On top of not having friends to hang out with this summer, Renjun, a fresh graduate from a pre-law program, has been running around town trying to find positions to start paying off his degree debts and to gain experience while also trying to study for the LEET exam to qualify for law school. All your friends and family being busy would be depressing to you on any normal day, this comes to your advantage today, for you don’t want to be seen.

“I’m going to see a friend. Love you.” You say quickly to your parents. With how immersed they are in Full House, their marked TV Guide beside them, you could have said that you wanted to get a tattoo, and your parents would probably not bat an eye.

“Okay, be safe honey,” your mother says dismissively.

Leaving through the basement, you go to your car outside, unlocking the door. Obviously, you’re carrying your big tote bag so you could sneak in snacks; you even went shopping at the convenience store to prepare. Once you’re finished with the ten minute drive from your home to the movie theater, you look in both directions before entering the line in the lobby of the theater to get a ticket. You’re going to pay in cash, not credit to make sure that this can’t be traced back to you, and you pull out a large flopping hat that you have saved in your car, placing it on your head the second you step out of the car. Yes, you were being completely paranoid, but the last thing you want is someone recognizing you as you go into the movie theater or your parents looking at your credit card statement to see that you went to the movie theaters to view The Zygon Kingdom.

The time you spent waiting in line is filled with you looking around in all directions, making sure to avoid gazes of anyone that went to high school with or parents whose kids you babysat. Gossip travels fast, and you didn’t feel like finding out how fast. This is a whole covert operation – you get in and you get out, hopefully with your reputation still intact.

“One ticket to the new Zygon movie,” you say quietly. The woman sitting at the counter almost doesn’t hear you because of how quiet you are or how loud the chatters are of high schoolers and adults coming to the movie theaters after a long week, but either way, she gives you your ticket.

“It’s in room B,” You’ve gone to this movie theater enough to know where everything is without needing a map or extra time to find your way around. Since you took into account Friday night traffic and the length of the line, you have about five minutes before the movie starts.

“Thank you,” you say, smiling quickly. Keeping your head low, you move your neck around as if your head is a moving surveillance camera, still trying to make sure that no one you know is seeing you walk into room B, which has a huge blue and yellow poster of The Zygon Kingdom: A New World right next to the door. Once the coast is clear, you head into the dark movie room, finding row sixteen, in the middle.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” you whisper to people who you had to cross to get to your seat. The room is at half capacity; a few advertisements are playing on the screen, for now you have three minutes before the movie starts (but it will probably be longer since ads play for at least ten minutes after the movie is supposed to start to give people extra time). You find a spot in the middle row, which is where the majority of those few people are because you can get a good view of the screen and the audio would be loud but not too loud.

Pushing down the foldable seat, you sit down. Bringing your purse to your lap, you pull out a bag of chips from your bag, opening it before the movie so that no one gets annoyed at you for opening it so loud. You adjust your sitting position, letting your left leg cross over your right one, and in the dark room, you accidentally kick the seat in front of you. It’s a loud sound, and you slightly grimace at the pain in your foot now. The person in front of you turns around, and you feel like you lost the air in your lungs.

“Jeno?”

“Y/N?”

After the movie incident, you and Jeno realize that you actually have more in common than you thought. Apparently, Jeno is in the same position as you when it comes to high school or local friends. Just graduated from college, his friends have found well-paying starting positions and internships, and except for a few people, he’s also been bored at home. Instead of finding a job immediately or stretching himself thin like Renjun, Jeno decided that it was best for him to take a break mentally after college, and then he would be on the job hunt. So now you two have been much more inclined to meet up.

This would have never happened a year ago. Sure, you would hang out with Jeno when Renjun invited you to hang out with them, and you would even have a good time, but by yourselves, you were a bit more than strangers. Now that doesn’t seem so.

“I still can’t believe that you like the Zygon Kingdom. Liking the Zygon Kingdom is so not you.” You say, grinning at Jeno. “I would never have pegged you as a fan,” You and Jeno are at an ice cream parlor, enjoying the shelter of this building better than the merciless afternoon sun outside. Lee Jeno, a college soccer star who gets all the girls liking a cheesy science fiction movie? That’s not something you learn every day. Picking at his chocolate ice cream, Jeno smiles at you too.

“I could say the same for you.” Taking a bite of your ice cream, you cross your legs under the table, a slightly pensive look on your face. Leaning forward, you put your elbows on the white table. “So what else do I not know about you?” You ask.

“Well,” Jeno tilts his head. “I like to dip my pizza in honey.”

“I know that,” you say. “Back when you and Renjun used to order pizza at the house, you would always ask me where the honey is.”

“You remember that?” Jeno asks, surprised. You shake your head, a disapproving frown on your face. “I only remember because you’re the only person in the history of humankind to dip your pizza in honey. Honestly, how do you even stomach that?”

“The same way you can eat that mint chocolate chip ice cream you have here,” he says, pointing to your cup. You gasp in mock offense, and he only continues. “That stuff tastes like toothpaste.”

“To make up for what you just said, you have to tell me something that I actually don’t know about you.” Jeno grunts and this, and you wait, tapping your foot against the tiles annoyingly.

“When I was a sophomore in high school, I went to one of Ten’s house parties,” he stops for a few seconds, and you look at him, your gaze willing for him to continue. “He brought in eight kegs of beer from God knows where, and I had a few drinks.”

“Shut up!” You say, pushing Jeno’s shoulder from across the table. You’re absolutely astonished. “You, Lee Jeno, student council representative for your entire high school career, got drunk while going to Ten’s parties?” You only know Ten through his reputation, specifically his outrageous house parties that he throws whenever his parents are out of town that almost always end with the cops coming to shut it down. They’re always the highlight of your high school class’s weekend in your sleepy little town, where the mall or the park are the most interesting places to go. You’ve never been to one of Ten’s parties yourself since in high school, you were never much of a partier (and you didn’t have the ‘contacts’ to get invited anyway), but you’ve heard that he’s the definition of a privileged rich kid with money to burn.

“Yes, that was me.” he laughs. “And, it gets better.” You lean farther forward, your cheek propped up by your fist. “I was so drunk that I couldn’t drive home, so I called Renjun at like midnight to pick me up. When I came into his car, it smelled like perfume, and he had lipstick all over his face. Yeri Kim was in the back of his car.”

Your eyes widened. “No way! Renjun told me he was studying for a history test!” You remember this day in-depth because it was the night of the freshman dance that you went to with your friends.

Jeno smiles at your astonished look before clearing his throat. “I told you something you didn’t know about me and something you didn’t know about Renjun, so you better tell me something good that I didn’t know about you.”

You sigh, tilting your head upwards. Pushing your tongue against your cheek, you’re deep in thought before you spring up in your chair again.

“Remember when you, me, and Mark would all volunteer at Taeyong’s animal shelter?” You ask. During your high school years, you were in desperate need of Honors Society hours to make you look better on your college applications, so you ended up signing up to take care of unadopted pets, either rescue or lost. Jeno, Renjun, and a few of his other friends had the same idea since it would be easy to carpool.

“Yeah?” Jeno responds. Bringing your palm against your mouth, you shelter some giggles before Jeno has a curious look on his face.

“Y/N? What is it?” You lick your lips before inhaling sharply.

“While getting in the parking lot with Renjun to get something from your car, do you remember getting hit by a bunch of water balloons?” Jeno squints for a few seconds as if trying to connect some invisible dots, and after a few moments, his eyes widen, his mouth in an “o” shape.

“That was you?” He says, astonished. “I blamed Chenle for that for an entire year!”

“Yup, it was me,” you say, giggling in between words.

“Why did you do it?” He asks.

“It was supposed to be for Renjun, but then you got in the way, and by that time, I already dropped the water balloons.” Jeno purses his lips, as if trying to picture you in the situation you described. This only leads you into another laughing fit.

“You should have seen your face, I will never forget how hilarious you looked and how you were like ‘Chenle if you’re working the dog walking on the ceiling, then I’m gonna kill you!’” You snicker, imitating Jeno’s voice by making it abnormally deep.

“I do not sound like that.”

“I do not sound like that,” you imitate again. Jeno crosses his arms, a brow quirked.

“Okay, I’ll actually stop this time,” you say, giggling.

After a few moments, Jeno laughs with you. The prospect of no friends in town seemed unfounded today, for there is a friend for you that has been sitting under your nose this whole time.

You’re sitting cross-legged on your bedroom floor as you organize your colorful array of CDs, different albums you’ve collected through various birthday monies and Christmas gifts. Not only are there CDs, but your shelf is loaded with cassettes. By this point, no one used cassettes anymore, but it was the easiest way to record songs from the tape radio and have to listen. You would simply put the cassette in your tape radio and press the ‘record’ button when radio stations would have their two hours ad free music. A mini cassette of free music was perfect to put in Renjun’s old walkman as you took a jog around the neighborhood. You learned this method two years ago from your father, who used this way to get free music in the ‘80’s, but now, you have a huge collection of songs that have become a pain to oragnize. You’re not exactly good at putting things back in their place, tending to grab your CDs and cassettes, use them, and then discard them on top of the little shelf you have.

Point is, this is an arduous task. This is why when you hear the phone ring in the living room, you run out to get it. Plus, if you didn’t answer it now, it would be your task to clear out the answering machine at the end of the day. So, now you had one less message to listen and clear out.

When you hold the house phone to your ear, you only hear a monotonous dial tone, signalling that the person hung up. You feel a little suspicious, but think nothing of it; sometimes, neighborhood kids find it funny to dial random numbers and not answering when the person picks up – like virtual ding-dong-ditching.

But your suspicion proves right when you feel wetness on your head. On the floor of your living room is a deflated balloon, and in your hair, you’re pretty sure it’s water. There’s only one person you think could be behind this, and he slowly comes out from the space he’s hiding in your kitchen. He smirks as he shows you a small corded phone connected to the wall, shaped like a lip (probably Jeno’s sister’s that he stole from her room). Before you can grab him in your kitchen, Jeno is running out onto the street.

“Lee Jeno what the hell?” You screech to the boy running down the street. You don’t bother to take your shoes, only closing the front door to prevent any animals coming into your house to take shelter from this hot weather. The heated pavement sings the soles of your feet as you run, but the feeling doesn’t bother you: you’re on a hot (literally hot) pursuit of Lee Jeno, and in the distance, you can see him.

“Damn these short legs,” you mutter. You run and you run through the neighborhood. Lee Jeno has you taking sudden turns, trying to get you to break your tail on him, but it’s unsuccessful. Finally when you’re close enough, you spring forward onto Jeno’s back. He sways at the sudden weight, falling to the ground. Thankfully, you’re on grass, which is cooler to the pads of your feet and breaks Jeno’s fall.

“What was the meaning of this?” You ask, pointing to your dripping head.

“It’s a little something called payback.” He smirks.

“Hey, there’s a difference,” you start off, “Mine was on accident. It was supposed to hit Renjun. Your’s was on purpose.” You cross your arms, pouting.

“Well, then this was supposed to teach you not to be mean to your brother.”

“Siblings in the same age group act like this all the time,” you say. You then put your index to your chin. “At least if you’re like me and Renjun.” If Jeno pulled something like this on his older sister Jihyeon, who is six years older than him, he wouldn’t survive to tell the tale.

The boy in front of you sucks in a big breath. “Let’s settle this once and for all then,” Jeno says. He comes closer, his body only a few inches from yours. “A game.” He smiles. “I have some water balloons at home. If you win–”

“You have to give me 20,000 won.” You finish. Jeno raises his eyebrow. “There’s a new Backstreet Boys album I want,” you say.

“Alright, fine,” Jeno says. “But if you lose,” Jeno stops midway, trying to bite his lower lip in a way to shelter the huge smirk on his face. “You have to clean my car.”

“Too easy, all I’ll need is a hose,” you wave your hand.

“Not the outside.” Your eyes widen at this new development.

“You mean…”

“Yup. The inside.” You’ve never been in Jeno’s car yourself since mostly when you would hang out with Jeno, it would be with Renjun, which means that you’re using Renjun’s car. But Renjun has told you, pretty infamously, that his car is messy and smells like a giant foot.

“That’s cruel and unusual punishment!” You say. Let’s just say if Renjun thinks it’s smelly, it’s probably smelly. Renjun has been a teenage boy before, and many teenage boys are a species that usually cannot detect the lack of hygiene.

“Those are the parameters of the game,” Jeno says. “If you resign now, that’s considered a loss, which means you have to clean my car anyway.”

You flatten your lips. Damn, you’re in a deadlock now.

“Fine. Game on.”

Lee Jeno destroyed you. But honestly, what else did you expect? Lee Jeno, who has played soccer his whole life and has had plenty of experience with strategy and planning, completely and utterly destroyed you. It wasn’t the smartest idea to go guns-blazing with water balloons at Jeno, but you didn’t have many other choices. Your long-distance aim and contact skills weren’t that good, for you never played “sports,” sports as in competitive sports since you only danced for a couple of years. You did use your surroundings well, hiding behind trees and bushes so you can stalk your way to Jeno, but that only did so much.

So now you are wearing an old T-Shirt and some jeans shorts, opening the front door and performing the ‘walk of shame’ as you walk to Jeno’s house, where boxes of unopened trash bags, air freshener, sponges, and soapy water sit.

Jeno is only a few feet away from the cleaning materials he left out, sitting on a beach chair.

“Y/N,” Jeno says, waving to you in a friendly way. “Thank God you’re here. I was worried you might happen to forget about the deal. I really need you right now,” Jeno chuckles, “because my mom wanted me to clean my car last week. She said that if I don’t clean my car by tonight, then she’s really gonna give it to me.”

“Good,” you say, laughing a bit to yourself. “Somebody’s gotta tell you. Back in high school, I was afraid to get in this car, or else I would never be the same again.”

Scrunching your nose, you peek your head inside Jeno’s car. It’s an old 1984 Nissan 300zx, most likely used because if his parents are anything like your parents (which not so surprisingly, growing up around each other, they are), they would never give their teenage sons brand new cars. The people in your neighborhood certainly aren’t tearing at the seams with money.

Gulping harshly, you decide to throw whatever junk you find in the car away. You pulled out wrappers, chip bags, old water bottles, and random coins that you pocketed (Jeno let you since even he knows how bad cleaning his car is – which is why he held off on it for so long). Jeno kept you good company, and you found yourself chitchatting with him as you organized every piece of junk in his car in a trash bag.

“Are you liking college so far?” Jeno asks broadly when chatter between you both slowly dies. No response.

“What’s wrong?” Jeno asks. He knows he’s right to think that when it takes you a few minutes to respond, a few moments for your gaze to focus on him.

“College hasn’t been that fun,” you confess to Jeno, the words falling out of your mouth faster than it should. “I haven’t made a lot of friends despite finishing my sophomore year, and my roommate is a pain. Her entire side of the room is so messy and acts like I’m unreasonable. It’s a small space anyway, she should keep it clean!” You huff, scrubbing the cloth seats in Jeno’s car harder. It felt as though a huge weight has been lifted off of your shoulders.

You were surprised that you confessed this to Jeno of all people. When you told Renjun this freshman year, he advised that it would get better after the first semester, and your parents said the same thing, but nothing really changed. You’re going to university on a significant scholarship, and you didn’t want to give that up if you decided to transfer somewhere closer to home, closer to your support network of familiar places and people. Ever since then, you didn’t tell anyone how miserable you were in college.

“Can I make a confession?” Jeno asks suddenly. You were worried that you were being way too personal after Jeno didn’t say anything for a while; after all, Jeno is your brother’s friend and not yours.

“Shoot,” you say.

“I didn’t have many friends in college either. Why do you think I always hang out with Renjun every summer?” You’re piling all the trashbags together near the edge of the Lee property for the trash truck to come later today, but hearing this is enough for you to turn around and look at the raven-haired boy quizically.

“I don’t believe that,” you scoff. “You have teammates and a hundred girls who would tattoo your name on their chests immediately.”

“They’re just teammates and girls. I got along with my teammates, but I don’t talk to them on a regular basis after graduating college.” Jeno sighs. “And the girls who liked me in college liked me because I was ripped. None of them really wanted to know me personally.”

The silence between you both is deafening. You purse your lips, sympathy in your voice. “I had no idea.”

“Most people don’t,” Jeno says. “I try not to tell everyone this,” he says, a slight humorous lilt in his voice.

“Those girls missed out,” you say, a soft smile on your face. “You’re hilarious and great to be around.”

“It seems like I have that effect on the members of the Huang family,” Jeno smiles, any sign of melancholy gone from his face.

“Say,” you start off, bending down to reach the mat on the car floor. “if I find something I think is of value in this car, then can I keep it?”

Jeno nods. “Sure, I guess. I can’t imagine what could be of value.”

“Now I’m 20,000 won richer,”

Jeno’s back instantly becomes more rigid as he sees you wave a few crumpled bills in the air, almost unrecognizable due to the amount of dust and grime accumulated on it. A couple of coins here and there were tolerable for him to let you keep, but 20,000 won is a lot for loose change in the car. “I tend to find 20,000 won very valuable,” you smile.

Jeno curses under his breath. “Touche.”

“I guess we both won.” You shrug your shoulders, “You’re gonna have a clean car for your mom, and I have enough money to buy that Backstreet Boys album.”

Just the other day, you ran into Taeyong, the owner of the pet shelter you used to volunteer at. You were at the supermarket, picking up some groceries for your parents when you saw the man carefully weighing a bag of Roma tomatoes. Although he is almost five years older than you, it certainly doesn’t seem that way with how youthful his face looked, and when he noticed you putting bananas in your shopping cart, he was glad to see you. You both engaged in pleasant conversation about your lives since you volunteered at his pet shelter, and he mentioned to you that he was short of hands. Recently, a full-time employee quit, and he needed people more than ever. He offered you a job on the spot, and you gladly took it – you needed something to do this summer anyway, and your parents were starting to get a little restless with how much you were at home, revolving your life around TV Guide.

You had been working for a few days at the store and got to know the two other employees, one of which is Doyoung, who you already knew from your time volunteering at this shelter, and Sungchan, a boy around Jeno’s age who had been working for a year. Compared to the last time you saw this shelter as a senior in high school, not much has changed. The only thing that was different was that the walls were recently wallpapered.

Taeyong greeted you when you walked in, and you already started following a routine you set up for yourself; the good thing about hiring you was that he didn’t have to teach you much since as a volunteer, you would feed and wash animals a couple of hours a week, which as an employee, that was the same thing on a fuller time basis. In the mornings, you liked to start off walking dogs in the dog walking area on the roof before the sun would shine mercilessly in the afternoon. Carrying a light brown golden retriever puppy named Dasom, you head down the roof stairs back to the lobby, where Jeno is sitting on a hard, metal chair.

“Jeno?” You ask. “What are you doing here?” You don’t ever remember telling him that you would be here.

Jeno smiles at you. “Your mom told me I could find you here. And some other guy said you were walking a dog, so he told me to wait here.”

You nod. He must not have meant Doyoung since he would already know him from his time at the pet shelter in high school. “So you must have met Sungchan.”

Jeno shrugs his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess. He said he was going to wash some of the new arrivals.” While speaking, Jeno’s lips curled into a small smile. “Remember when we used to do that?”

“God,” you say, shaking your head. “That was one of the worst jobs.” You said. If there was anything that dogs and cats hated was being in water. New arrivals, especially strays, haven’t been introduced to clean water in a long time and can get especially rowdy since they are also untrained.

“There was one dog that me, Renjun, and Chenle had to wash, and let’s just say that it looked like we took a bath too!” At this, you both laugh.

You lick your lips, looking at Jeno, good humor in your eyes. “I almost feel bad leaving Sungchan all by himself.” Crossing your arms and leaning your back against the wall, you look at Jeno, your head cocked.

“So what are you really doing here?”

Jeno looks fondly in the distance. “I think Bongshik needs a new playmate,” you smile at Jeno. For as long as you can remember, Jeno has always been a cat person, and after much convincing, his parents agreed to get him a cat seven years ago. They initially were only getting Jeno the cat to help teach him responsibility, because as a teenage boy, he had none, but slowly, Bongshik grew on them too. Ever since, the Lee family’s soft spot has been Bongshik.

“Do your parents know?” You ask.

Jeno smiles. “They were the ones who suggested the idea.” As Bongshik grew older, his energy hasn’t quelled, and for the lack of neighborhood cats, he follows the Lee family around everywhere in the house.

“What breed?” you ask.

“Maybe a Bengal. I’ve heard that they are energetic.”

“I think there are some Bengals. Let’s check the back.” You both go into the room adjoining the lobby, where the rescue and stray animals were stored. After a long night with Doyoung yesterday, the cages were cleaned, and all the animals looked happy that it was clean. You both are greeted with excited barks from the dog section of the room, and finally, you approach the cats in another room. Cats of various breeds occupied the segregated space, from Shorthairs to Bobtailed cats. Black, white, gray, and tabbies are all present, and they look at you and Jeno quizically.

Jeno also observes the felines intently. “Actually, Bongshik is full of energy, so maybe a bit of a quieter playmate to contrast,” Jeno taps his chin, thinking to himself. Some cats wave their tails at Jeno as if wanting his attention while some other cat mothers wrap their tails around their young, protecting them. There are two cats that seem to take his attention, two cats that are sitting together. They don’t appear to have any sort of genetic or familial relationship, for one cat is white with a few specks of black around the ears while the other is a gray tabby with a white chest; they both appear to be Shorthair crossbreeds, though.

“Can I hold that one?” Jeno says, pointing to the white one with the few black specks. You open the cage with the master key that you have in your pocket, and carefully, you take the cat out of the cage. Jeno has his arms open, so when you place the cat in his arms, he cradles the animal, the most adoring look on his face. The other cat seems to be annoyed and meows a lot, its gaze on the white cat, and the white cat starts meowing back.

You and Jeno both melt on sight.

“So cute,” Jeno murmurs, putting the tip of his nose on the crown of the white cat’s head. This cat does not seem to be bothered that it’s being held by Jeno (when most cats take some time getting used to a new human). It is as if they were both destined to meet. This cat does turn to face his companion still in the cage once in a while, still meowing.

“I think this one’s more concerned that its friend is not being held,” you jest. You stand on your tiptoes to grab the other, carefully cradling the tabby in your arms. It starts meowing for its companion, and you face Jeno.

“This one’s also so cute,” Jeno says longingly. He comes closer to you, bending a little, his face close to the tabby that you’re holding. His smile is wide, his eyes shaped like crescents. Carefully, he holds the white cat with one cradled arm, and with the other, he uses his index and middle finger to pet the other cat. The tabby meows happily.

As Jeno tries to stand upright again, his head almost bumps your face, but he stops before that, carefully meeting your gaze. For what feels like an eternity, you both stare. Jeno’s eyes are like brown pools, and you notice every detail on his face; how dark and pronounced his eyebrows are compared to his suntanned skin, how pretty his nose looks against his face, the fringe on his forehead that is so close to giving a lovetap to his eyes, how shapely his chin is, a small, stray mustache hair kissing his upper lip…

His lips. Pursed slightly as he drinks in the sight of the little details of your face as well. They look a little chapped –

“There you are Y/N! Is that you Jeno?” A familiar voice rings across the large room, and you notice it to be Doyoung. His gaze is focused on you both. You and Jeno immediately stop gazing at each other, as if Doyoung flipped a switch, and you both focus your attention on the raven-haired employee, his hair wet from a fresh shower. He usually comes to work at eleven or noon since he is not a morning person.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Jeno says, waving before repositioning his other hand to hold the white cat in his arms.

“Long time no see,” Doyoung remarks. “How’s college?” He asks.

“Graduated in the spring,” Jeno says. “I’m back with my parents now.” He says.

“Oh,” Doyoung says, nodding awkwardly. “Well, if you want a job, the door is always open here. Trust me, we need the help,” Doyoung says.

“Thanks,” Jeno says, smiling courteously at Doyoung. “I’m actually here to look for another cat. Maybe two,” Jeno looks at you, an eyebrow raised in anticipation. Suddenly, he sneezes.

“Jeno,” you chastise. “What about your cat allergy?” You suddenly remember. Jeno learned affirmatively after adopting Bongshik that he had a cat allergy, and his sister and parents tried to convince him to give Bongshik back to the shelter, but Jeno vehemently refused. After almost a month of bonding with the feline, he didn’t have the heart to give Bongshik back. Instead, he went to the drug store and got some anti-histamines to suppress his allergies and eventually got more personalized medicine from his doctor. At first, his doctor said the best (and cheapest) course of action would be to return Bongshik, but Jeno just took the prescription and has since then been refilling his prescription on a regular basis.

“What cat allergy?” Jeno asks, but he sneezes a few times. Cocking your head at the raven-haired boy, you snort.

“That cat allergy?” You say, leaning all your weight on one leg.

“It’s nothing,” Jeno says dismissively. “I’ll ask my doctor. I’ll probably just have to up my dose.”

It was Doyoung’s turn to snort. “Can you really be around three cats every day?” He asks. “The only reason your allergy didn’t get out of control while you were volunteering here was because I kept you with the reptiles.” You nod in agreement. The reptiles were kept in another room on the far side of this shelter, far away from all the cat hair floating around in this room. Jeno, though, still used to sneak a few minutes with the cats.

“I can be around three cats!” Jeno says defensively. By this time, the white cat is rubbing itself against Jeno’s T-shirt.

Feeling this, Jeno’s gaze softens, and he smiles at the kitten, whose brown eyes Jeno looks in to. “I am going to name you Seoli,” Jeno says in a soft tone and gazes at the cat in your arms. “And I’m going to name you Nali.”

“Did your parents agree to two new cats?”

“Well,” Jeno trails off, shrugging his shoulders.

“Lee Jeno!” You say.

“My parents grew to like Bongshik. They’ll grow to like Seoli and Nali.” Jeno reasons.

You roll your eyes. Lee Jeno is the only person in the whole world you know who has a cat allergy and still wants three cats. “Lee Jeno, you’re crazy, you know that?”

Seoli and Nali instantly got along with Bongshik. The three of them would sleep together, eat together, and roam the house together, only being apart momentarily. Like Jeno predicted, his parents grew to like the addition of Seoli and Nali to the family.

Hearing about the new cats from you, Renjun would visit Jeno, and you would come along with them and play with all three cats. Renjun started joking that you two started being best friends without him and that you were leaving him in the dust.

Renjun started a new job as a paralegal and became busier than ever; he was working to save enough money to live in an apartment closer to the law firm he worked at, which is forty-five minutes away from your house. The commute itself was tiring and he was working extra hard to get along with his coworkers, going to events, and establishing contacts.

Like many weekends, this weekend Renjun was hanging out with a few coworkers at a party at one of their houses, and normally, you didn’t mind this, only joking to him that he only came home to eat and sleep.

In mid-July, without fail, you and Renjun would always go to the beach, ever since he was old enough to drive; it was valuable “sibling time” that your parents supported and even suggested; as teenagers, you didn’t always get along, and your parents wanted you both to establish a close relationship because sibling relationships were the only life-long relationships.

This weekend, Renjun was busy, and for the next few weekends, he would be catching up with old friends and would even go on a few dates, for his dating life was pretty sparse with how busy college was. You were hoping that Renjun could blow someone off and come with you and not break the tradition, but your hopes did nothing to change reality after Renjun told you about his plans and apologized that he wouldn’t be able to come to the beach with you.

So you decided, if you can’t bring your brother to the beach, bring your brother’s best friend.

At 7 AM on a Saturday, you knock on Jeno’s door, a few doors from your house, dressed in a casual T-Shirt and jeans shorts. You’re ready to go, without a doubt in your mind that Jeno won’t come.

Jeno answers the door, rubbing his eyes. From the looks of the dark house, Jeno’s parents aren’t awake. As a means to hold himself up, Jeno leans against the door. He’s dressed in long pajama bottoms and a black T-shirt (that is littered with Seoli’s white cat hair). The white, spotted cat follows Jeno to the door, sitting a few feet away from the living room couch.

“Y/N? What are you doing here?” He asks, his voice heavy with drowsiness.

“We’re going to the beach, obviously,” you say matter-of-fact, in a voice that Jeno didn’t look like he wanted to argue with. He knew that you were hurting because Renjun couldn’t come with you to the beach any time soon, so he was ready to be called to go to the beach.

“Right now?”

“Yes right now. Don’t you remember that Renjun and I would leave early in the morning to get a head start to the beach?” The closest beach to your house is two hours away, and being landlocked during the college semester makes you restless for the yearly summer beach trip as well.

“Yeah I know but–”

“No ‘buts,’” you interrupt. “If we leave now, then we get the whole day at the beach. Be ready in thirty minutes.”

Jeno acknowledges with a sleepy grunt before closing the door, and you head back to your house to eat breakfast. If you left hungry, then you would be tempted to stop along the way for snacks, making the drive longer. So you ate a hearty bowl of oatmeal, a banana, and drank a glass of water before seeing Jeno standing at your door twenty-five minutes later with one of his sister’s peach-colored tote bags hanging on his shoulder, in casual shorts and a T-shirt, and a navy colored cap covering his black hair. You already had your things ready in a bag next to the dining room table, and you carry your bag and exit out the front door, saying a quick goodbye to your parents.

Out on the porch, you jog across the driveway to Jeno, and your parents wave to him. “Have fun guys,” they chorus, smiling. You roll your eyes.

“It’s like they’re leaving us on a playdate,” you say, and Jeno smiles, the tiredness in his eyes long gone.

“Want to ride in my car? After all, it’s clean now,” Jeno says. You sigh, but it’s not exasperated or tired.

“I should know,” you say.

Jeno’s Nissan sits in its usual place on the driveway, and Jeno takes his keys from his pocket, unlocking the car. As you both load your bags onto the back seat, you breathe in the air. “Minty fresh,” you smile, looking at the tree-shaped car freshener hanging on the rearview mirror. “You better keep this car clean because I am not cleaning it again,” you threaten, pointing your finger accusingly.

“I pinky promise,” Jeno says, he extends his hand, his pinky out, and you grasp it with your pinky, pinkies locking as well as your gazes.

Jeno’s hands are way softer than you expected.

The pinky promise lasts way longer than you expected, with you quickly pulling away and getting into the front passenger seat of the car. Jeno hops in the driver’s seat, and the car starts.

Jeno’s driving is smooth, and through the window, you admire the scenery. You pull out of your neighborhood, driving on local roads for a good few minutes, and you admire the beautiful scenery of houses, shrubs, and picket fences before getting on the highway. Now, cars are zooming past you both, of all sorts of shapes and colors, minivans to sport cars, black, white, gray, and silver.

“Turn on some music,” Jeno prompts. It’s easy to get distracted on the road, not by external forces such as a random bird flying by, but from the lull of the car when driving on the highway – when driving on the highway, the roads look the same, a cause for boredom and tiredness. The steady humming of Jeno’s car is particularly relaxing on this early morning.

“I thought you would never ask,” you say, in a voice that sounds mischievous. You twist your body to reach the back of the car, and you reach into your bag, fishing for something. When you pull it out, Jeno rolls his eyes.

“Seriously?” Jeno groans.

“What? You said you wanted music,” you say defensively.

“I didn’t mean the Backstreet Boys.”

You don’t listen to him and instead press the ‘CD media’ button on the front dashboard and insert your CD. The music is catchy, and you hum along to the songs that you’ve loved, namely ‘I’ll never break your heart’ and ‘Everybody.’

“I’ll never understand girls. I mean, what’s the appeal of boybands anyway?” Jeno says after some time.

“It’s the group dynamic, the interactions, the teamwork, and the songs are catchy as –” you stop yourself, cocking your head at Jeno. “Are you nodding along?”

“N-No,” Jeno stutters, purposely keeping his gaze fixed on the road so he doesn’t have to face you.

“Admit it,” you say, a smug look on your face. “You like it.”

“No, I don’t” Jeno argues.

“Yes, you do,” you argue back.

“No I don’t,” Jeno repeats.

You snort at this. “Look at us, we sound like two five-year-olds.”

“I think,” Jeno says with a joking lilt, “that we sound like an old married couple.”

“That too.” You look at the boy, an eyebrow arched.

After a few moments of silence, Jeno changes the topic. “I’m hungry,” he says. “Let’s get some instant ramen.”

“Where’s the microwave, genius?”

Jeno pouts. “Fast food?”

“We’re gonna be there in like fifteen minutes. I have some snacks in my bag.” Once again, you reach for the back of the car, fishing inside the tote bag for a bag of Cheetos.

“Here,” you say, holding the bag towards him.

“I’m driving, genius,” he says, emphasizing the last part in a mocking tone. You roll your eyes.

“I guess you’re gonna have to feed me,” Jeno says.

“Seriously?” You groan.

“Yes. If I could open the bag with my eyes and feed the Cheetos with some mad telekinesis, then I would.”

“Well, you would have to keep your eyes on the road, so you still couldn’t do that either.” Jeno grunts at your response, and you silently feel a small victory winning this conversation.

You open the bag and take a Cheeto in your left hand. Jeno opens his mouth, and you place the piece in his mouth. He crunches on it, and when you see his Adam’s apple move as he swallows the snack, you reach in and grab another piece. On and on this pattern goes until there are no Cheetos left in the bag, and at the final time you drop a piece of the snack in his mouth, he playfully clamps down on your fingers.

“Jeno!” You exclaim.

Jeno has a youthful, playful look on his face. “That’s what you get for forcing me to listen to this crap.”

“You like it too!”

Jeno rolls his eyes. “Here we go again.”

The rest of the car ride is filled with laughs, as though you were supposed to bring Jeno along to the beach this year instead of Renjun. The beach is filled with people wanting to soak up some sun, children playing games, and surfers swimming in the water. Luckily, there’s enough beach for everyone; the sands on this beach are well-maintained, and they go on for miles.

Suddenly, you grab the boy’s wrist, and Jeno looks surprised, a cute doe-like expression on his face (Jeno has the most beautiful, expressive eyes).

“Come on,” you say, a wide smile on your face. “I’ll show you a nice spot.”

Together, the two of you are lugging your tote bags across the beach, careful not to step on anyone being buried in sand or children playing games or other people sunbathing. It’s like the sand wants to absorb your feet, which is why your steps are labored, along with the load you are carrying.

The spot you take Jeno is more secluded, with sparse surfers coming about here and there. It’s next to a jagged, gray peak, perfect for divers. The small pieces of eroding rocks falling to the water make it less kid-friendly, but it’s still a good spot if you want to relax and get away from the noise. Right here is where you decide to set up, a few yards from the shore where the cold seawater can’t touch you.

Carefully, you unpack your tote bag, set up your beach towel, and place a book on the sand. The beach was always a way for you and Renjun to relax together, talk about updates in your lives, and strengthen your relationship. But sometimes you both liked to sit in silence, enjoying each other’s company while enjoying the words of an author, the introverts you both are.

Before sitting down, you also take off your T-shirt and shorts, revealing a navy, strappy bikini underneath. Picking up your book, you open it to the first page and sit down. Next to you, Jeno takes off his shirt, revealing toned abs. (What did you expect? He plays soccer). You don’t want to admit that your attention on your book is long gone.

When Jeno catches you staring, an immediate flare of heat hits your face, and you quickly try to bring your attention back to your book, starting at the first sentence. You’re unable to keep focus anymore, just re-reading the same sentence at least five times because your brain is too distracted to understand the sentence.

“You don’t have to look away,” Jeno teases. “Every girl wants a look at Jenabs.”

“That’s what you’re calling it? Jenabs?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?” Jeno asks.

“Obviously. It sounds so self-centered,” you huff.

“You’re just lashing out because I caught you red-handed.”

“Maybe you’ll get a red hand to your pretty face,” you challenge, a humorous look in your eyes.

“Ah,” Jeno says thoughtfully. “You think I’m pretty?”

Another hot flare hits your cheeks, with the heat of a thousand suns. “No,” you say.

“Yes,” Jeno counters.

“No,” you repeat, this time more confident. By this time, you both are gazing at each other intently in silence, until suddenly, you start laughing. Jeno does too. It was one of those times when the moment seemed so serious, but the argument was just so silly.

“Just admit that you think I’m attractive,” Jeno says simply.

“Every girl with a pulse thinks you’re hotter than a sidewalk in August.” You deadpan.

“I don’t care what they think,” Jeno says suddenly. You quirk an eyebrow at this statement. Quickly, Jeno recovers himself. “I care about what you think.” He smiles. “You’re the only person I’ve known that hasn’t ever brought up my looks.”

“Why should I?” You shrug your shoulders. “You know you’re hot.” At this you and Jeno laugh again together, but after a few moments, Jeno stops laughing.

“So you admit it?” Jeno asks curiously.

“Yes, I do.” You say sighing, hating that you’re giving him this victory. “Lee Jeno, you’re one of the most attractive men I’ve seen in my whole life,” you vow. “Now, can I get back to my book?” You ask.

“Fine.” Jeno obliges. He sits down on his towel laid out beside yours, lying down on his back as you read your book. His gaze changes from the ocean’s waves licking the sandy shores to the side of your face. You’re maybe a chapter in when Jeno interrupts your train of thought.

“Are you really gonna be reading the whole time?” Jeno whines. “I didn’t bring anything to do because I thought we were gonna go in the water.”

“Th-The water?” You ask. You look at Jeno as if he grew a second head.

“Yes, water. We’re at the beach per your request. Remember?” Jeno says slowly.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think–”

“You didn’t think about swimming at the beach?” Jeno asks incredulously.

“No,” you respond, your voice small.

“You’re literally wearing a swimsuit,” Jeno points out.

“Yeah, but that’s just to get a good tan,” you say. Now that you say it out loud, it does sound kind of ridiculous that you didn’t even make plans about getting in the water today. “And plus,” you say a bit awkwardly. “I don’t really know how to swim.”

It seems as though Jeno’s eyes are about to bulge out of his face. “You’ve been coming to this beach for years, and you don’t know how to swim?”

“I never really learned how. I mean, I did, but I wasn’t very good, and I’m super out of practice. I usually just come here to read or admire the scenery – Jeno!” You exclaim. Jeno snatches the book out of your hand and places it on the towel. He’s strong enough to hoist you up, and you’re left with no choice but to jog along with him to the edge of the shore, kicking up mounds of sand; you have a stinking suspicion about what he’s going to do.

“Today’s the day I’m gonna teach you how to swim.” He says.

“B-But,” you stutter, struggling for words. Jeno doesn’t look like he’ll take no for an answer.

“I promise I won’t let go of you, and we won’t go far from the shore.” He says, his gaze sincere. “Let’s start off with floating. Spread your arms out and kick your feet up. Act as though you want to lie down on the water like it’s sand. Like this.” Jeno demonstrates, going slightly away from the shore and deeper in the water, leaving you knee-deep, standing on the wet sand underfoot. Once Jeno has floated for a few seconds, he positions himself upright, everything except his neck and face submerged in water as he swims towards you, walking the last few steps to you.

“Now you try.” You look a little nervous but follow what Jeno says. You kick your feet up and try to treat the water like it’s the sand you rest your towel against; Jeno’s hand is on the small of your back as he holds you up. You’re not used to the feeling of water in your ears, and you’re struggling to stay afloat as you accidentally breathe in water. Hearing you cough, Jeno sets you upright, and you cough up the salty water.

“I don’t like,” you say between coughs. “The water in my ears. It keeps going in.”

“Trust me when I say that when you don’t want water to go in your ears and nose, it doesn’t. When you are thinking about water going into your ears and nose, it does. Now, let’s try again.”

“No,” you whine. “I don’t like swimming.”

“Please?” Jeno asks. “For me? After all, you did drag me out here so early.”

“Fine.” You relent.

“Like I said,” Jeno chides, “Kick up your feet and lie on the water like it’s sand. Don’t struggle too much right now. Unless you don’t think about the water around your ears and nose, it won’t go in.”

You repeat what you did earlier, kicking up your feet and lying on the water like it’s sand. This time you don’t move a muscle. You let the gentle low-tide waves of the water kiss your skin and wash over you again before it’s exposed to the refreshingly cool ocean breeze again. Jeno’s hand is against the small of your back as he leads you to deeper waters.

“What are you doing?” You ask.

“Floating is all the same. If you can float in knee-deep water, you can float in deeper water.” Jeno looks into your eyes. “Don’t worry, I still won’t let go.”

You don’t struggle against the water, and when you’re in the deeper water, Jeno helps bring you upright on the water. This time, your feet are unable to touch the ocean floor, and before the panic can settle in your eyes, Jeno is holding your waist.

“Upright floating works the same way. Don’t struggle. Hold your head up high.” You follow as Jeno says and observes how he does it. Jeno slowly takes his hands away from your waist and holds your arm instead. Slowly, he lets go, and here you are in front of him, swimming; you’re pretty amazed too.

“Oh my God, I’m doing it!” You say excitedly. Jeno shares your excitement.

“I know. To think you wanted to give up,” Jeno shakes his head.

Your bodies are close, so close that you can feel Jeno’s breath on your nose. Jeno looks almost angelic with the way the salty water glistens against his face as if his skin is made of diamonds. His jet-black hair is stuck to his forehead, and your hair is in thick, salty strands, but the moment still feels perfect; the shouting of children in the distance doesn’t bother either of you.

You almost want to ki–

Suddenly, you’re taken out of your thoughts when a splash of cold water hits your face. Jeno has already swum a few feet away, the culprit of the cold splash on your face.

“Tag! You’re it!” He says in between giggles.

“Jeno!” You exclaim, trying your best to swim and splash him.

He’s the most handsome, adorable dork you’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Every summer, city council organized a summer concert series held at the local park. They mostly featured student bands, cover bands, and lots of vendors. But most importantly: they were free.

The one happening tonight was the last one of this year’s series, and there would be fireworks. You hadn’t been able to attend the last few summer concerts because of your growing responsibilities at the pet shelter; you were becoming pet manager, a position where you would inventory what animals were available to adopt, and the numbers were changing every day. Also, Doyoung had gone on vacation along with many of the volunteers, so you, Taeyong, and Sungchan were left to cover for them.

Tonight though, you were given the day off, so you decided to see if Jeno was free to go to the concert with you.

You tell your mother your intentions, and when you’re done talking, she gives you a sly look.

“You’ve been hanging out with Jeno a lot recently. Is there something I should know about?” She asked. She doesn’t ask this in a condescending, strict-parent tone, but of one as a friend. For the most part, your mother was always the woman you came clean to and got advice from; there were truely only minal secrets you kept from her.

“Yeah Y/N, is there something we should know about?” Renjun asks.

Renjun. For a while, you had completely forgotten about him. He had started getting suspicious recently that you were harboring feelings for his long-time best friend. After the beach trip, he started getting suspicious, but he had been too busy to do anything about it, only sulking in the corner thinking about it.

You had to admit that you had a little crush on Jeno, in that every time you thought about him, your heart started racing in an exhilarating way. Maybe when Renjun was around, you weren’t as slick as you thought you were. “No,” you say, a little quieter than you meant for it to be. You clear your throat, making your voice louder. “Nothing’s going on. Jeno’s always available to hang out, which is why I’m hanging out with him.”

Your mother doesn’t say anything, knowing Renjun is in the room. Most likely, Renjun was worried that if you and Jeno got into a relationship, it would mess up the long-time friendship they had, and if you broke up, it would be even worse. You understood his sentiment, but it’s not like Jeno likes you back…

Right?

The way he looked at you, the way that when you talked, he was fully attentive, his soft, expressive eyes reacting, listening to every word you say.

That’s just because you guys have become good friends, right?

(A part of you wishes that it isn’t).

You’re wearing your standard summer uniform of daisy dukes and a T-shirt when you walk up to Jeno’s house and the door opens before you knock. Jeno is standing at the entrance of his house, already dressed in shorts and a sleeveless shirt, showing off his strong arms.

“Jeno,” you say. “Do you want to go to the summer concert together?” You ask.

“Actually,” Jeno says shyly. “I was gonna ask you the same thing.”

“Great.” Jeno invites you in and asks if you want anything. You said you would just have some water. He pours you a glass before heading to his room to grab a towel and some bug spray. Stepping outside, you both spray yourselves, and when he goes back inside to put the bug spray away, he tells his parents that he’s going to be out and will be back before ten.

The park is a short drive from your neighborhood, and it is just as scenic as you remembered it to be. It’s about sixty-something acres filled with walking trails that loop around your city, which city council has tried hard to have more “green” city planning, rather than letting this place become a concrete jungle.

In this park, there is lots of green space for people to lay their towels across the grass and enjoy the music. Most of the people here are young parents with budding families, in which a family-friendly free concert with a packed picnic and fireworks is the perfect summer activity. There are also older people like you and Jeno, showing up to the concert today because they were bored. The beginning of August signaled to high schoolers the start of school, and to college people that they would be moving back to their dorms soon. Either way, the park is packed. Tonight isn’t as hot and stuffy as most nights, which also accounts for why there are so many people here tonight.

“What’s the theme for this concert?” You ask Jeno when you hop out of his car.

“‘70’s American rock,” he says.

“Fun,” you say. You weren’t an avid rocker, but you turn on the oldies radio station, you didn’t mind listening to a few rock songs. “It’s better than working at the pet shelter every single night.” Jeno laughs. You loved your job more than anything, but you wanted a semblance of work-life balance.

“Now I’m glad I didn’t take up Doyoung’s offer immediately,” Jeno says.

“It isn’t usually this bad,” you say. “It’s just that Taeyong and many volunteers are on vacation, and I’m being given more responsibilities.”

“Maybe I could come in and volunteer just to help you out,” Jeno says wistfully. “I’ll have to find time in my schedule,” he jokes.

You raise a brow at the boy. “In your schedule of doing nothing?” You snort.

“It’s not nothing,” Jeno counters. “I’m just relaxing before finding a job. Jobs are going to be there after I take a little break from college,” he says. Renjun wouldn’t ever be caught saying something like this. For him, it’s always one thing onto the next. Renjun is a restless man, and taking a break without a job would drive him crazy.

While Renjun is ridiculously Type A, Jeno is the opposite. He’s used to opportunities coming to him, believing that everything has a way of working out in the end. It’s crazy how the two have managed to be friends with such vastly different outlooks on life.

You drop the topic, opting to lay out the towel that Jeno brought. There’s enough space for both of you to fit… but tightly. Even though you’re wearing bug spray, the sharp, freshly cut grass makes your skin feel itchy.

“I guess we’re gonna have to sit like this,” you say a little awkwardly. Jeno turns to face you, his face only inches from yours; your arms brush Jeno’s biceps, and you feel your throat become dry.

“Yeah,” he says softly. No witty reply.

The silence between you is broken by the cheers of the audience. The performers are here.

“What’s up Neo City?” The head performer asks the audience. He’s a man in his mid to late twenties, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans. Cheers are the response, filling the air.

“We’re Neo Culture Tech, and today we’re going to be performing some covers to end Neo City’s 1997 Summer Concert Series! We hope you enjoy the performance!” The man stops talking, and the park erupts with cheers.

The first note is played on the piano, followed by the addition of drums and electric guitar. The songs go on one by one, and Neo Culture Tech plays popular songs by the Eagles, ACDC, Fleetwood Mac, and Def Leopard. Parents are dancing with smaller children, singing along to the songs they listened to in grade school, while younger people sit on their towel and jam out to the songs less physically.

You and Jeno are bobbing your heads together to the music, stealing glances at one another. Jeno was able to sing along a little to ‘Shoot to Thrill’ and ‘Gold Dust Woman,’ while you were able to sing along to ‘Witchy Woman’ and ‘Hotel California’ after memorizing the lyrics so long ago. As the guy who was playing the guitar played the guitar solos for ‘Hotel California,’ people cheered.

“Before we start the fireworks show, I’d like to end off with a banger. Everyone stand up and find a partner to dance with!” the lead singer said. With that, the band started the chords for ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ by Def Leopard.

Jeno looks at you, a wry smile on his face. “Would you care to dance with me, partner?” He asks, holding out his elbow. You loop your arm in his.

“Of course.”

By this time, more of the younger people were standing up, dancing with their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, or wives. You and Jeno were dancing, not caring how you looked, your hands clasping and unclasping as Jeno twirled you around to the rock song. You both sing along to the song, knowing the famous song.

When the song ends, you’re out of breath, your chest against Jeno’s, but Jeno doesn’t look very tired; there’s only a small drop of sweat pooling at his forehead, and he’s able to control his breathing. While the crowd screams, cheering for the band that just performed, you and Jeno are in your own world.

You feel like you know what Jeno’s thinking.

Slowly, you start leaning in, and Jeno follows your example. Before long, your lips land on his. You only want it to be a peck, but your body refuses to listen to your brain, so here you were, for what feels like centuries kissing Jeno. You weren’t going to struggle against your feelings anymore, you were going to float like you were at the beach.

Kissing your brother’s best friend.

Kissing the guy that all the girls in high school drooled over, the guy that got so many sports scholarship offers, the guy that many thought was infallible.

But he’s just Jeno, the adorable dork who’s stuck with your brother for almost their whole lives through thick and thin.

The adorable dork that you’ve helplessly fallen in love with.

Reluctantly, you both pull away, your breaths hitting each others’ noses. You’re almost to scared to look Jeno in the eye.

You just changed everything.

While you’re too busy not looking at Jeno, he takes your chin with his thumb and forefinger and tilts your gaze upward, to look at him.

When you look into his beautiful brown eyes, you realize that you didn’t change everything with one kiss. The feelings were always there. While you were slowly falling for Jeno, Jeno started slowly falling for you.

“I-I think I’m in love with you,” Jeno says, his voice unsure, lacking that cocky athlete tone that’s synonymous with Lee Jeno. While one hand remained holding your chin up to face him, the other hand was on your waist.

You didn’t think you ever wanted him to stop touching you.

“No,” he corrects himself, clearing his thoat. Seconds felt like hours, and your heart is racing like crazy.

“I know I’m in love with you.”

You think the loud beating sound is just your heart, but when you look up, the black sky is filled with color, expressive fireworks shining before dissipating. Red, orange, blue, and purple fill the sky before gray smoke settles and floats away. The park is oddly quiet while at least two hundred people enjoy the fireworks and are held by their boyfriends or girlfriends. You look up with Jeno in the same position you were, his arm still on your faces close. Your jaw is close to touching his collar bone, your nose almost touching his neck.

“I love you too.”

It’s probably one in the morning right now.

Ever since you and Jeno confessed your feelings, all you were doing was hiding your feelings around your family. You didn’t want Renjun finding out about your relationship just yet, and Jeno had the same idea. You and Jeno wouldn’t advertise to your families that you were hanging out, and most of the time, you met up at the pet shelter, where Doyoung was the only one who knew about the true nature of your relationship (after the unfortunate man walked in on you two making out in the janitor’s closet). You and Jeno forced him to promise that he wouldn’t tell anyone or even give any hints if he ran into your families; in small towns like yours, word travels fast.

Other than seeing Jeno at the animal shelter, you would sneak Jeno into your bedroom at night. A little part of you thrived from the danger you felt, doing something secret and slightly forebidden (nothing this exhilarating ever happened to you in high school or in college). You live in a one-story bungalow (like all the houses in your neighborhood), and your parents’ room is on the other side of your room, with the kitchen separating your rooms.

However, only a wall was separating you from Renjun’s room. You think you’re safe right now since through the paper-thin walls, you can hear Renjun soundly snoring to himself. The iceing on the cake was that Renjun is a light sleeper.

You hear a knock on your window, and you look to see that it’s Jeno. You’re in your pajamas, just a shirt with some pajama shorts, and you get off your bed, systematically opening the latch to your window. Pushing the window, it opens now, and Jeno opens it a little wider, enough for you to let him in.

He’s dressed in a T-shirt, sweatpants, and red, drugstore flipflops. He rubs his arm a little bit, a small scowl on his face.

“You should really trim that rose bush,” Jeno says softly, his gaze following to the rosebush that is near your window. Outside your window, you had a good view of the garden, and your mother took great pain to maintain that garden; your father often joked that it was her third child. For Jeno to get access to your window, he would have to wade through all the plants and flowers, careful not to step on anything because your mom would notice the next day. “I think it roughed me up pretty good.”

“Let me see,” you whisper, pulling his arm. In the minimal light that came from the almost full moon outside, you’re able to see clearly. It’s just a little scratch, that was slowly turning into a red line. No blood.

“You’ll live,” you say rolling you eyes. Sometimes Lee Jeno was the most dramatic guy that you’ve ever met.

Jeno pouts. “I think I would feel better if you kissed it,” he suggests.

You heave a sigh. “I swear to God,” you mutter. You lean foreward, pressing your lips against his arm. “That better?” You ask, crossing your arms and leaning your weight to one leg.

“How about one here?” He asks, pointing to his lips.

You laugh a little to yourself. “Greedy little–”

Jeno interrupts you. “Don’t act like you don’t want to.”

Standing on your toes, you lean in, your nose touching Jeno’s for a brief moment before your lips collide. Jeno’s hands gravitate towards your waist as he tries to push you against the nearest wall. He pushes you to the wall with the window he climbed into your room with. There’s only a narrow gap of space between the edge of the window and the bookshelf that houses all of your albums. He pushes you there, his knee finding its place between you legs. He grunts a little as his lips trail from your mouth to your chin to your neck. He slides you against the wall, your elbow hitting the edge of your bookshelf, and something goes flying off of the top of your bookshelf.

Immediately, you and Jeno jump apart at the noise when the object hits the floor. You’re thankful that the carpet muffles the sound, but it’s still audible since it hit the edge of the wooden door. You bend down to examine the fallen object, realizing that it’s just a snowglobe. You pick it up, putting it on your desk instead. No one stirs. Renjun is still in his room snoring.

“We’re supposed to be quiet!” You whisper loudly, putting your index finger to your lips.

“I’m sorry!” Jeno apologises.

“God, you lumber around my room like you haven’t been here before,” you joke. “How about let’s go into the bed where there’s less chance of making a noise.”

Jeno quickly agrees, and you both go into your bed, under the covers. Jeno’s arms find their place around you once more, and you put your head on Jeno’s chest, feeling his heartbeat. Jeno kisses the top of your head. After a few moments of lying like this in silence, your lips find Jeno’s again. You’re on top of him, him straddling your hips, but quickly, it turns into him on top of you. You both kiss each other with a new kind of fervor, but Jeno pulls away. “How long are we going to be doing this?” He asks. “I don’t know about you, but this whole sneaking around thing is getting kind of old. I just want to call you my girlfriend in front of people.”

You kiss him. “Just until I get the chance to tell Renjun.” You say. “I have a speech prepared.” You clear you throat, shifting your position in bed so you can face your boyfriend. In the dim light in which you can barely see Jeno, you can imagine his beautiful features, barely believing that you are his girlfriend. “I love Jeno, Jeno loves me, we want to be together, and you can’t do anything about it.” Jeno waits for more.

“That’s it?” He asks.

You shrug your shoulders. “What else am I supposed to say?”

Jeno smiles. He finds directness to be one of your most endearing qualities. You aren’t scared to say what’s on your mind, even if it’s controversial. He puts a hand on your cheek and brings you closer to him, kissing you again. His lips smack against your’s and you’re pretty sure you can hear audible popping sounds every time you both mutually pull away for air, only meaning to come back.

When he pulls away, Jeno says. “Y/N, you should at least be a bit more considerate to his feelings. This is going to be a big change for him.” Jeno reasons.

You seemed to like the exact opposite of what Jeno sees in you. You liked the way he considered everyone, and although it sometimes makes it seems like he is a people-pleaser, people who are the most considerate to others’ feelings when it doesn’t align with their own are the people who are the peacemakers, the role models, the people who rule the world.

While you were the fire, Jeno was the water, who made you see reason. And your directness teaches Jeno to stand up for himself.

“I know, but if Renjun can’t accept it, then he needs to grow up.”

“I don’t think Renjun wants to grow up.”

After you hear the new voice, the lights turn on, and you and Jeno immediately jump apart to opposite sides of your twin bed (but it’s not possible without your bodies still touching). This only gives the onlooker a better view of the two parties involved. When you and Jeno finally decide to face the onlooker, you realize that it’s Renjun in his pajamas. He wasn’t wearing his contacts, but he doesn’t need them to recognize the two most important people in his life. His arms are crossed as he examines both you and Jeno, and together, you both struggle for an explanation.

“Surprise?” You and Jeno chorus together.

PRESENT DAY

Eventually, Renjun got over it. Or else, he wouldn’t have been able to give such a wonderful best man speech.

That’s right. After years of dating which helped you realize that no one was more perfect for you than Jeno, you and Jeno decided to get married in 2003 after you both were settled in your careers. Jeno, after a few months of relaxation, got a job at a marketing firm, and he worked his way up to become a lead account manager. You, after earning your degree in accounting, worked at a firm for a few years before quitting and becoming the book keeper at Taeyong’s pet shelter, which now you owned. Taeyong moved to his mother’s paid-off house in Seoul to take care of his aging mother, so he stepped down and gave you ownership of his beloved pet shelter. He now worked at his mother’s supermarket and visited you often.

Sometimes, it amazed you how far society has gone since your childhood. You would never have dreamed of touch-screen cell phones with the power of a full-sized computer or your fridge making grocery lists for you. It was convenient and fascinating, but at other times, this new world scared you; only recently has it been confirmed that your phone is listening to you and people are selling your online data.

“Kids, dinner!” You shouted up the stairs. Just after you were married, you became pregnant with your daughter, and five years later, your son came along.

“Coming,” your daughter Yoona said.

“Yeah!” Your son Hyuckjae yelled from his room. That wasn’t really an answer, leaving you signing by the kitchen.

Jeno is already sitting at the table, eating the meal that you prepared. It wasn’t that complicated, just some fried rice with some vegetables and meat, as well as potato soup since you were tired after your long day at work. You sat at the table next to your husband, and you know you don’t have to call for your children again when you hear thundering down the stairs. Yoona’s phone is glued to her hands, while Hyunjae finds his position next to Jeno. The food is on the table, but only three of you are eating; Yoona’s food remains untouched as she sits down and keeps her attention only on her phone, not acknowledging the presence of her family.

“Yoona!” You say, snapping in front of her face. Only when you put your hand between her phone did she actually look at you.

“What do you want mom?” She says, exasperated.

“Aren’t you going to eat your food?”

“Yeah,” she replies, “In a little bit,” Almost immediately, she only looks back at your phone.

“Yoona, put the phone away.”

“That’s right honey,” a new voice interjects, and it’s Jeno. “Put your phone away. We want to have a conversation.” Jeno adds.

“About what?” Yoona asks. She finally puts her phone down and looks at you both. “Are you guys having a midlife crisis?”

“Midlife –” Jeno stops.

“We’re not even that old yet!” You exclaim.

“Yeah Yoona,” Hyuckjae adds.

“Shut up Hyuckjae,” Yoona says, her voice snarky. “Buttering up to Mom and Dad isn’t going to get you a phone.”

“Says who?” Hyuckjae argues back. “Mom and Dad didn’t say anything.”

“Hyuckjae, you’re not getting a phone,” you say stubbornly.

“Oh come on, Mom!” Hyunjae whines. “I’m the only eighth grader without a phone!” Hyuckjae counters.

“Me and your father didn’t have a phone at your age. You’ll live.”

“That’s because you guys lived in the stone ages.”

Jeno scoffs. “The ‘90’s weren’t even that long ago.”

Yoona cocks her head. “The ‘90’s are in history books now.”

You and Jeno both look at each other, but Yoona continues. “The ‘90’s were like thirty years ago.”

You knew that time had passed, but it never really occurred to you the quantifiable number of years; someone born in 1990 is in their thirties now. You vividly remember 1990, being a thirteen year old. Jeno was fifteen. You wonder how he’s feeling.

“That doesn’t change why you should have a phone, Hyuckjae,” you say.

“What about schoolwork? I’ll be in high school in the fall.”

“You can use the family computer.” Hyuckjae groans; the desktop in the computer room right off the entrance of your’s and Jeno’s suburban home (originally the formal dining room) is a Windows 8.1, and somewhat slow.

“Hyuckjae, we’ll get you a phone your first month of freshman year, just like your mom and I agreed on.” Jeno says cooly. “That’s when Yoona got her first phone.”

Hyunjae grunts. “But that’s so long from now.”

Noticing how the conversation mainly was between you, Jeno, and Hyunjae, Yoona gestures to pick up her phone when you point at her.

“Don’t even think about picking up that phone right now, young lady,” you say pointedly, and Yoona’s hands immediately back away.

“Right that conversation we’re going to have,” Jeno says, redirecting the topic. “How was everyone’s day?”

“That’s the conversation you want to have?” Yoona says.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with it?” You ask, defending Jeno.

“Nothing…” Yoona trails away.

“I’ll start,” you say. “I had an overall good day. Taeyong gave me an extra 15% off groceries instead of 10%.” It was incredibly convenient that Taeyong’s mother’s supermarket was only eight miles from the pet shelter.

“Nice,” Jeno says, smiling in that same boyish eyesmile that you fell in love with all those years ago. “I had an average day. It would have been good, but the coffee machine in the cafeteria broke,” Jeno sighs.

You and Jeno both turn to look at Yoona. “I had a good day, I guess. I got a 100 on my calculus test.”

“Great job!” Jeno says. You reach over to rub Yoona’s shoulders.

“You see? I told you it would benefit to go to calculus tutoring,” you say.

“Hyuckjae? How was your day?” Jeno asks.

“Not good. You guys aren’t getting me a phone.”

“We just said we would!” You exclaim. “When you’re a freshman.”

Hyuckjae grunts at this and stands up, heading towards the sink to clear the remnants on his plate. You didn’t realize that Yoona and Hyukcjae had been eating particularly fast tonight, evident by their nearly empty dishes.

“I’m going to the computer room,” he says, not waiting for a response when he leaves. Shortly after, Yoona is done with her food. After rinsing her plate, she leaves it in the sink and snatches her phone off of the dining room table (as if you were going to take it and look at the texts on the notification bar).

“I’m going to my room,” she says. She waits for you to say a resigned ‘okay,’ and she heads up the stairs, sparing no time to look at her phone.

“What could be so important that she can barely stay a free moment without her phone?” You voice to your husband. You and Jeno are taking your time eating your meal at the table, now by yourselves.

“What isn’t so important at that age?” Jeno says before slurping the soup collected in his spoon. “When you’re a teenager, you see things with a different perspective than you would see if you were a mom, for example.”

You sigh at these words, the fresh perspective that your husband is giving you that you failed to see initially. Jeno is good at seeing all sides of the situation; that’s why Renjun always goes to him for advice.

“I guess,” you say, crossing your arms. “I can’t imagine being a kid right now.”

“I bet Yoona and Hyuckjae can’t imagine being a kid in the ‘90’s.”

You sigh. “Things really have changed, haven’t they?” When you and Jeno were younger, you weren’t trying to get the best gadgets to impress your friends, you didn’t have advanced TV’s and vacuum cleaners that were listening to you, you weren’t always on Instagram and Twitter, and the concept of a ‘social media influencer’ didn’t exist at all.

When you and Jeno were younger, you thought the future would resemble Back to the Future. Although there weren’t any hoverboards that actually hovered the ground in 2016, the actual future paralleled the movie in surprising ways with the fact that people were always so distracted with the screens in their hands.

“Don’t you ever just feel…” you start off. Jeno’s attention is on you while he eats.

“Don’t you ever feel that people are always in their own worlds?” You ask. “Always on their phones looking at the latest posts, listening to music, downloading photos? No one ever runs around the neighborhood and draws chalk or play with the neighborhood kids,” you sigh. It was like people preferred to type than to talk.

“Yeah. It wasn’t like that when we were kids,” Jeno says. You eat a couple of spoons of friend rice, the silence between you both evident.

“In a way,” Jeno says, “Things are still the same.”

“How?” You ask.

“Well, people still have the need to be social, whether it’s on social media or in person. And we are still trying to keep up with our friends,” he says. Without words, you know he’s talking about your son and how obsessed he was about getting a phone since his friends started to flash their iPhones and Samsungs.

“I still think life was simpler back in the ‘90’s,” you say stubbornly. “Even though we had to use TV Guide to find out what was on TV, it was still easier. I’m always looking over my shoulder these days,” you confess. “Every single second, so much data is being collected and sold, it makes me worried. On top of all that, social media isn’t good for young kids,” you say, redirecting the conversation back to Hyuckjae. You feel a little guilty seeing Hyuckjae so upset that he doesn’t have a phone, but it was the principle that mattered. You didn’t think phones were good for young kids, to be hooked up to the internet 24/7. Being fifteen and having a phone isn’t much better than being fourteen and having a phone, but you drew the line at high school. You couldn’t protect your son forever, no matter how much you desperately wanted to.

“There’s still something that remains simple, though,” Jeno says. When he gently squeezes your thigh, you think you have an idea.

“This,” he says. He leans over and kisses your lips, cupping your cheek. His lips are soft as they rub rhythmically against your lips. He pulls away, his voice soft. “I love you. We can be in 2092, teleporting to see our great-grandchildren, and I’ll be in love with you,” Jeno says.

You giggle. Nineteen years of marriage, and he still makes you feel like a young bride.

“We can be in 3092 with our brains connected to robots, and I’ll still be in love with you,” you counter, turning this into a competition.

“How about let’s think about right now,” Jeno says. He cups your cheeks in his hands and admires your eyes before he kisses you deeply, as if he isn’t going to kiss you ever again.

The world can change as much as it wants, as long as you have Lee Jeno by your side.

a/n: if you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading :) since this is my first slowburn, let me know what you thought in the comments or by sending me an ask! thanks again!

#nct #jeno #lee jeno #nct fluff #nct scenarios #nct dream #jeno fluff #jeno scenarios #jeno imagines #nct imagines #nct reactions #nct dream fluff #nct dream scenarios #nct dream imagines #jeno smut

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iiseult · 8 months

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RED-HANDED: Gyutaro x reader - College!AU (part 1)

CWs -> surprise! It’s pervy!Gyutaro, femdom reader, masturbation, degradation, spit play, public sex, slapping (only once and he likes it), calling Gyu a good boy, he’s pathetic and I love him

Note: Does this count as Kinktober? I really wanted to participate this month but I’m an engineering student in college, so enough said. I’ll make part two likeeeee whenever I feel like it. Pls lmk what u think!!!! <3

word count: 3k

It was Gyutaro’s turn to host the study session. All day he had been running around, cleaning his dorm room to eliminate anything potentially embarrassing. He’d never had a girl over before, let alone a girl like you, and he might have been overthinking it a little. Would you be turned off by the socks his roommate had left lying around? What about the smell? Should he hide the protein powder? He had such a big, fat crush on you, and every time he thought about the two of you spending time alone together, the intrusive thoughts would beat out the rational thoughts. In no time at all, he’d be succumbing to his sexual fantasies, fisting his cock desperately to images of you and trying to rid his mind of them to no avail. How was he going to survive a night of your undivided attention?

Originally, it wasn’t supposed to be a one-on-one thing. Every Tuesday, a different friend from the group hosted a late-night study session at their dorm, and everyone except Gyutaro had already volunteered. He couldn't avoid it any longer; he was doomed. It was supposed to be you, your best friend, his roommate, Gyutaro, and Gyutaro’s roommate, but everyone got frat flu the previous weekend and had to take a rain check. Even Gyutaro’s own roommate couldn’t make it, deciding to go home for the rest of the week and recover. So, everyone had canceled. That is, everyone except you and Gyutaro. He was thinking of just calling the whole thing off after that, secretly relieved to avoid having people over his place for a little longer, but you wouldn’t hear of it. Your midterm was on Thursday, and you couldn’t lose a valuable study session.

It was already 7:50 pm– 10 minutes before you were scheduled to arrive– and he was taking care of some last-minute, anxiety-fueled cleaning. The bed was already made, the garbage had been taken out, all his laundry was clean and neatly folded away, and his desk was set up for a long night of studying. He had even sprayed a few bursts of his roommate’s air freshener, making the whole place stink of “fresh morning dew,” whatever that was. In those last 10 minutes before your arrival, Gyutaro even found himself practicing basic hygiene– something a bit out of the ordinary for him. He brushed his teeth and tongue vigorously until his gums bled, washed his face, applied an extra layer of deodorant, and re-did the bun his hair had been rotting in all day. Now, he was ready.

At precisely 8:01 pm, he heard a knock at the door, and sprang to his feet as if the chair he had been sitting on was on fire. He had been staring off into space and nervously tapping his foot in anticipation, wringing his hands and chewing at his lip and fighting back dirty thoughts about what you might be wearing, and before he knew it, the time had come. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

“Evening, Gyutaro,” you said, half-smiling and leaning to the left under the weight of the heavy bag that was slung over your shoulder. As usual, you were well-dressed, sporting a white button-down, brown blazer, and a pair of blue jeans that fit you perfectly. He tried not to stare, but the top two buttons of your shirt had come undone, and he couldn’t help but notice how exposed your cleavage was. He gulped. This was going to be a long, long night.

“C-come in, make yourself comfortable. You can sit wherever you want,” he said, grinning nervously, stepping to the side and holding the door open to allow you entry. You nodded and brushed past him, your clothed shoulder grazing him gently. He shivered, hoping you wouldn’t notice. As soon as you entered the room, you made a b-line for Gyutaro’s bed, thrusting your bag onto it and plopping down unceremoniously on your back. You let out a sigh. The day had been stressful, and you wanted so badly to relax and release some tension, but there was work to be done.

After lying down for a few seconds to decompress, you noticed that it was oddly silent and sat up, half expecting Gyutaro to have joined you on the bed by now. But Gyutaro hadn’t moved from the doorway. He was still standing there, slack-jawed and staring. He couldn’t believe a girl was in his bed– you were in his bed– and she was there of her own free will. You had wanted to come, asking him not to cancel, and you had chosen his bed as the place to spend the evening. Not the desk and chair, not the floor, not the couch, but his bed. He gulped. He had imagined this many times before, and seeing you like that caused a specific few images to flash across his mind. His cock twitched. You were staring back at him.

“Gyu? Are you coming?” You asked, raising an eyebrow and readjusting yourself so there was room for him to sit next to you. He quickly shook himself out of his stupor and closed the door, walking awkwardly over to join you, hoping that if he put his hands in the pockets of his shorts you wouldn’t notice the growing bulge underneath them. When he reached the bed, he leaned his hips against the edge of it and crossed his arms, attempting to conceal his embarrassment. If you had noticed, you showed no signs of it, just crossing your legs and getting a little bit more comfortable.

“So, um… What subject did you want to study? Maybe we could work through some textbook problems together, or…” he trailed off, his eyes darting around and landing anywhere but you.

“Sure, sounds good. Hey, it’s hot in here, do you have a fan or something?” you asked, looking around and fanning yourself with your hand. Gyutaro frowned deeply and shook his head, suddenly feeling like a complete failure for not being able to provide you comfort.

“I’m sorry, I don’t. Maybe I could open a window?” he offered, gesturing to the pathetically small window on the other side of the room.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’ll improvise,” you replied. He was about to ask what you meant, but stopped short when your hands flew to your button-down shirt, undoing two more buttons from the top like it was nothing.

“Wh-what are you d-doing?!” He stuttered, looking away from you and at the wall instead to try and distract his racing thoughts. Even though he tore his gaze away as soon as he realized what you were doing, he still couldn’t help but see the very top rim of your nude-colored bra poking out from your shirt teasingly. Not to mention the swell of your plump breasts. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying desperately to calm himself down and stop his now fully erect cock from getting any bigger.

“Gyutaro? What’s wrong, are you okay?” You purred, leaning down so you were face-to-face. He opened his eyes. That was a mistake. From the way you were sitting, he had a perfectly unobstructed view of your cleavage, which was spilling out of your bra and unbuttoned shirt. He guessed that your nipples were just below where the fabric began. His eyes widened, and a jolt of electricity was sent straight to his cock, which was straining desperately against the side of the bed. He let out a tiny, almost inaudible whimper, but due to your proximity, it was not lost on you. You gently placed a hand on his shoulder, asking again if everything was ok, but there was a teasing undertone to your voice and a glint in your eyes that he hadn’t noticed before. Were you really…doing this on purpose?

“Uhm, don’t you think you sh-should, you know, b-button your shirt back up a…a little more?” he stammered, face flushed so red that he looked almost feverish. His eyes were still wide, and absolutely glued to your tits, like he was in a trance.

“Why? You don’t think I look pretty like this?” you teased, leaning forward even more and trailing your hand from his bony shoulder down to his bicep, which was, admittedly, larger than you’d anticipated. You wondered if anything else about him was larger than you’d anticipated…

“N-no! I mean, no, it’s not that! You…hah…look…” he rasped, not even able to form a complete sentence. He was no idiot. He knew what you were doing, playing with him like that. He knew you didn’t have any real interest in him, that you just wanted some easy attention from a pathetic virgin who would drool over anything with a cup size. It hurt, knowing that, and he didn’t want it to be that way. But just as much as that was true, he also wanted to know what it would feel like. Would it be as good as he imagined, cupping your heavy tits in his ugly, rough hands and running his thumbs over your sensitive nipples? Would you arch into his touch, begging for more?

Before you could even react, he was out the door, disappearing down the hallway towards the men’s room. You could only guess what he intended to do there. Probably cry, you assumed, having seen the expression on his face before he left. Instead of following him, you decided to give him a minute, hoping he’d come back before too long.

Meanwhile, Gyutaro knew what he had to do. He had to get rid of these feelings, get it out of his system once and for all. Thankfully, the bathroom was deserted and he had the luxury of solitude. He hoped he could get it done quickly before someone interrupted.

Gyutaro locked himself in a stall and pulled his pants down feverishly, finally freeing his throbbing cock and taking it expertly into his big hand. He wasted no time, pumping his fist up and down to the image of your tits in his face, imagining what it would be like to touch them, to take them in his mouth and suck them until they were black and blue. Before long, his head was thrown back and he was letting out soft, desperate pants. In fact, he was so enraptured in his fantasy that he didn’t notice when someone else entered the bathroom.

You had decidedly waited for him long enough, and went to go check to make sure he really was ok, but this was not what you were expecting to find. When you quietly opened the door, you were about to whisper his name when you noticed the wet slapping sound and choked-back moans coming from the first stall. You peered under the door and sure enough, your eyes were met with the sight of Gyutaro’s bottom half, shorts pooled around his ankles and legs shaking. You grinned. This was even better than you had hoped. Did that little trick you pulled really affect him this much?

“Gyuuu~ it’s just me! Open the door,” you said gently, hoping your sweet tone would lull him into a false sense of security. Suddenly, he went silent, freezing with his fist squeezing his cock. Panic seized him, and he was silent for a moment.

“Uh! Uhhh, h-how did you g-get in here?” he choked out, not knowing what else to say.

“Walked. C’mon, open up. Wanna see you,” you replied, now standing directly in front of his stall’s door. He hesitated for a moment, but soon made up his mind; he didn’t care anymore, he couldn’t stand it any longer and he wanted you to use him. He scrambled to quickly pull up his shorts and underwear, not even bothering to retie the drawstring, and opened the door hastily. His face was burning with shame, his eyes downcast, and his hair disheveled. To you, he had never looked more delicious.

“What are you doing?” you asked, taking a step towards him, forcing him to take a step back.

“Using the bathroom…” he lied, stuffing his hands back in his pockets again to try and hide his erection. Unfortunately for him, all it did was draw your attention downwards.

“You don’t have to hide it, Gyu. I already know. Why do you think I came tonight in the first place?” you asked, not even trying to hide the fact that you were eyeing his bulge hungrily.

“But-”

“Now keep going,” you ordered, and Gyutaro’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He didn’t move.

“I said,” you began, grabbing his chin between your thumb and index finger, “Keep. Going.”

He whimpered, biting his lip, but obediently dropped his pants and underwear back down to his ankles and released his dick, the tip of which was bright red and slathered with precum. You moved your hand from his chin to his shoulder and pressed down, forcing him to sit back on the toilet. Now, you were standing above him, looking down with a perfect view. You looked at him expectantly, and slowly, he brought a shaking hand down to his shaft, gingerly engulfing it in his hand and giving it a few weak pumps. You shook your head disapprovingly, frowning at him. His eyes widened.

“This won’t do. You need…extra encouragement. Open your mouth,” you instructed.

“Why?” he asked demurely, but did as you asked. You didn’t answer verbally, instead choosing to show him why.

You pressed your thumb past his lips and onto the middle of his tongue, and his reaction was almost immediate. He stuck his tongue out more to accommodate your finger, eyes half-lidded and gazing up at you with…love? Lust? It was impossible to distinguish between the two when it came to him. Without a second thought, he resumed stroking his dick at the same pace as before, his body seemingly acting with a mind of its own. You smiled, pressing down harder on his tongue. His brows furrowed and a string of saliva dripped out of the corner of his mouth, falling past his chin and onto the floor. He let out a pathetic, strangled sort of sound, breathy and high-pitched, and you giggled. He was even better than you had imagined.

“Wowww, what a good boy!” you praised.

“Do you think you can take another one of my fingers?”

“Uh-huh! Eea, I eeea!” he tried to say, coming across as incoherent, but you got the message loud and clear. You smiled down at him lovingly and swapped your thumb for your index and middle fingers, which were obviously longer and grazed the back of his throat. Immediately, he gagged, his eyes involuntarily screwing shut, tears pricking their corners, but you didn’t relent. He would adjust.

“Come on, you can take it,” you crooned, thrusting your digits even further back into his soft, wet throat. He gagged again and bit down, catching your knuckles between his jagged teeth. He hadn’t bitten you very hard, but still, the sting of your skin breaking slightly was enough.

Without warning, you slapped him across the face with the palm of your other hand, making him yelp and accidentally squeeze his cock a little tighter. The sound echoed throughout the bathroom, ringing in the silence. He was shocked, even a little scared, but for some reason, it was affecting him heavily. After hesitating only for a brief second, he started pumping himself desperately, even faster than before, feeling like all the blood in his entire body had rushed to his cock at once the second your palm made contact with his cheek. You grinned. You knew it, you just knew it. You had a feeling he would like that. It was a risky move, but one you were glad you made. He let out another moan, the first real unrestrained one you had heard from him. The vibrations made your fingers tingle.

“Mmm, good boy, you’re being such a good boy for me, Gyu. Bet you’re getting close now, aren’t you?” you asked, removing your fingers from his mouth and allowing him to answer properly.

“Y-yes!” he breathed, “‘m getting so close, ‘m gonna cum soon! Please, c’n I cum?” he begged, tear-filled eyes gazing up at you in absolute desperation. And how could you say no to that?

“In a second. Stick out your tongue.”

He did, closing his eyes, eagerly ready to accept whatever you would give him, but nothing could have prepared him.

You leaned down close and spit in his mouth.

Immediately, he came.

“Ngh- Ahh! Huh- ah- ah- mmh!” he whined, voice breaking as the thick, white liquid shot violently out of his aching dick, covering his hand, your shirt, and part of his own shirt in globs of it. He worked himself through it, a few more spurts bubbling out from his tip and leaking down the shaft. There was so much of it, you knew he was holding it in for so long because of you. His thighs shook from the aftershock, and his chest heaved, he was so fucked out. You wanted so badly to just take off your panties and sink down onto his glistening length, sheathing him inside your already soaking, tight pussy to hear him whine that it was too much, but that would have to wait for another time. Maybe a time when you weren’t in a public restroom.

“Clean yourself up and meet me back in your room. There’s something else I want to try.”

With that, you left him sitting there, cock in hand, covered in his own hot cum and wondering if it had all just been a dream.

(pt. 2)

———-

tag list: @sanemisstalker @vampcubus @flametrashira

ermmmmm idk how tagging ppl works but if I tagged u it’s cause I want u to read this shit but no pressure :-)

#idk what this is #there will be a part two #gyutaro x reader #gyutaro smut #demon slayer smut #demon slayer x reader #kinktober 2023 #dom!reader

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raccoon-eyed-rebel · 1 year

Text

Masterlist

Hello, yes, welcome to this list of things I have written. Most of it is smutty 18+ nonsense (and all of it is about Henry Cavill-shaped men), so if that's not you: turn around and walk away! This is not for you!

Don't copy, translate or otherwise post my work anywhere without my permission! I also explicitly forbid anyone to use my work to feed AI, that's gross and disrespectful, so please don't do the thing.

🍀- Drabble || 🌶 - Smut || 🍭- fluff || 🍷 - angst

Summary: The shenanigans of eight college guys who share a house...

(Mike, Charles, Napoleon, Sherlock, August, Sy, Marshall and Geralt - University Edition.)

Series Masterlist 🌶||🍭||🍷

Finished

Summary: Your weekend plans with August threaten to fall apart when it turns out he's been under a lot of stress. (Dom!August x fem!reader. )

Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4 -- Part 5 -- Part 6 🌶

Series summary: Life with Sy, what more can you wish for? The most amazing husband and father to a whole litter of cute little kids... Sometimes you wonder "how did you get here?" (Contractor!Sy x OFC (Lara))

🍂 Series masterlist 🍂 🌶 || 🍭 || 🍷

A reverse harem vampire AU ft. Mikey, Marshall, August and Sherlock

Series summary: Somehow, you've managed to live with your boyfriend and his roommates for months before finding out they're vampires, but the real shock first comes when they find out you have a special quality. A quality the guys would love to make use of...

🟣 Series masterlist 🟣 🌶 || 🍭 || 🍷

Summary: One of the best decisions August Walker ever made was sharing his princess with his college roommate Walter Marshall... (Dom!August Walker x reader // Dom!Walter Marshall x reader)

Part 1🔹Part 2🔹Part 3🔹Part 4🔹Part 5 🌶

Series summary: The cute barista from your regular coffeeshop takes a while to gather the courage to ask you out, but when he finally does... (Barista!Mike x reader)

Series Masterlist (finished) 🍭 || 🌶

Series summary: A story about two people falling in love in a time when that wasn't necessarily what they were supposed to do. (Melot x ofc (Tamsyn))

Series Masterlist (finished) 🍭|| 🍷 || 🌶

Masterlist for all @henrycavillbingo entries!

A little short (August Walker x reader) - 🌶 Summary: You try to prove August Walker isn't the boss of you. Turns out he is, and you're screwed.

Puppy love (dad!August vs. Teen Daughter) - 🍭 Summary: August is not happy when his daughter first starts dating 'that Syverson boy'. Puppy love II (dad!Syverson & son!Mike) - 🍭 Summary: Sy really can't be all that bothered that Mike is dating August Walker's daughter...

In all fairness... (Walter Marshall x reader) - 🌶 Summary: It's date night, and you found the perfect outfit... In hindsight it may have been a little too perfect.

Pumpkin Spice (barista!Walter Marshall x librarian!reader) - 🌶 Summary: You finally manage to get a date with the handsome barista from your favorite coffeeshop.

Taking cues (Mike x reader) - 🌶 Summary: Your favorite bartender offers to teach you to play pool.

Tongue-tied (Mike x reader) - 🌶 Summary: Mike has always wanted to try to tie you up...

You deserve it (Mike x reader) - 🍭 Summary: You’re feeling like shit, and Mike helps you feel less like shit. That’s it. That’s the plot.

Snowed in (Mike x reader) - 🌶||🍭 Summary: You were going to spend the weekend at your dad's cabin in the woods with your boyfriend, but he bails on you and leaves you - quite literally - out in the cold. Good thing your best friend's brother shows up...

Making a mess of Mikey (Mike x reader x Black!ofc) - 🌶||🍭 Summary: Mike is a little down in the dumps after a breakup, and you and your girlfriend try something to cheer him up that turns into a fun experiment.

Happy birthday (Mike x reader) - 🌶||🍭 Summary: Mike makes you breakfast on your birfthday...

Next door (Mike x reader) - 🌶||🍭 Summary: This new guy next door is really bugging you... Until - yet another - noise complaint one night gets a happy ending.

Jersey (hockeyplayer!Mike x reader) - 🌶||🍭 Summary: Mike thought it would be a good idea to teach you how to skate. It wasn't — so he has to come up with a different plan.

🍀 Get wet (Mike x reader) - 🌶||🍭 Summary: Mike is a little stumped that he made his girl squirt...

🍀 Not what you think (Mike x German!reader) - 🍭 || 🍷 Summary: When Mike comes home, you're looking to pick a fight. Until it turns out he hasn't been sneaking around. Well... Not like that, anyway.

🍀 Common fucking indecency (Mike x reader) - 🍭 Summary: Mike comes home from his exchange earlier than you expected, and you're real happy to see him.

Little brother AU Worth it (Walter Marshall & babybrother!Mikey) - 🍭 Summary: Walter is babysitting his little brother Mikey while their mom is away for the weekend. He’s also on a date… Astraphobia (Walter Marshall & babybrother!Mikey) - 🍭 Summary: Walter doesn't have quite the night he had planned on when a thunderstorm scares both his girlfriend and his little brother... Sunday dinner (Walter Marshall & babybrother!Mikey) - 🍷 Summary: Walter visits Mike in his dorm after the death of their mother.

Baby, it's cold outside (Napoleon Solo x OFC) - 🌶 Summary: A stewardess recognises a certain Mr. Jack Deveny from her flight earlier in the day. He just so happens to be staying at her layover-hotel.

Body Double (Syverson) - 🍭 Summary: You need to clean your house, and you get a good friend to help you...

What's the occasion? (Syverson x reader) - 🌶||🍭 Summary: You come home from a terrible day at work, thinking you have about a thousand things still on your to do list, only to find your husband has taken care of all of that, and has also made you the first thing on his to do list. The next chapter (Syverson) - 🍷 Summary: You come home to an interesting situation...

Don't knock it till you try it (Syverson x reader x Walter Marshall) - 🌶 Summary: Your friends Walter and Sy have offered to drive you home for the summer, and you have decided to turn it into a nice relaxed camping trip on the way...

Axes and O's (Syverson x reader x Walter Marshall) - 🌶 Summary: Sy invited you and Walter to his family's cabin, where you get to spend a few days alone with them before the holidays.

Fantasy AU

To become one (wood elf!Prince!Melot x dryad!OFC) - 🌶||🍭

Summary: The elven Prince Melot and his dryad lover share a lovely afternoon together in the forest.

What's in a name (wood elf!Prince!Mike x tiefling!OFC) - 🌶||🍭

Summary: At the wedding of his brother Melot, Mike is lured away by his little demon. A few months later, there is even more cause for celebration.

One of two kinds (werewolf!Geralt x halfling!Druid!OFC) - 🌶||🍭

Summary: When you find a wounded, new werewolf in the forest, you can't just leave him lying there. Perhaps the enormous man will turn out to be exactly what you needed...

#Raccoon-eyed-rebel's masterlist

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tolkienocweek · 10 months

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Tolkien OC Week

A fandom event for OCs and underdeveloped characters in Tolkien's world!

This event celebrates both characters of Tolkien's world and our own characters that need more love, by creating and reblogging all kind of fanworks, like fanfiction, fanart, fanvideos, fancrafts, headcanons, playlists, edits, moodboards etc.

The event is modded by @yellow-faerie, @elamarth-calmagol and @stormxpadme and will take place between 21st August - 27th August 2023 for the third year running.

NSFW text entries are allowed and we’ll tag them accordingly when we reblog them, but please put them behind a “read more”.

We'll also be tracking the tag #tolkienocweek during this week!

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Event schedule for 2023:

Day 1 (21st August): Family members

Tolkien often neglects to mention the family members of major characters: for example, leaving both Celebrimbor and Fili and Kili with only one named parent. In others cases, such as Bilbo's family tree, he gives a name and nothing else. Share a character who fills in a gap in a family tree, or create a speculative family member, such as siblings for Legolas.

Day 2 (22nd August): The Bad Guys

Share an OC who belongs to the wrong side of the story, whether they're knowingly evil, misguided, or just doing their job. Maybe they're an orc or a balrog, an unrepentant kinslayer, a Southron or Easterling soldier, or one of the hobbits who worked with Saruman in the Shire. Explore their life and point of view and why they went down the path they did.

Day 3 (23rd August): Diversity

Share an OC who adds diversity to Tolkien’s world, whether it is their race, gender, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, or another characteristic.

Day 4 (24th August): Forgotten Characters

As Tolkien created his stories, he abandoned some characters, such as Eriol the Mariner, and changed major characteristics of others, such as the idea that Erestor was a half-elven relative of Elrond. Other characters, such as the Dunedain chieftains fostered by Elrond before Aragorn, are forgotten by the fandom. Create a fanwork focusing on one of these forgotten characters or characterizations.

Day 5 (25th August): Shipping

Share an OC that you ship with a canon character. It could be a marriage, queerplatonic relationship, or one-night stand, canon compliant or AU, or any other sort of ship you want!

Day 6 (26th August): Alternate Universes

Share an OC who couldn’t be part of the canonical story, such as Boromir's child in an "everyone lives" scenario, a roommate or professor in a college AU, or a dimension-hopping "tenth walker".

Day 7 (27th August): Freeform

Did you have someone who doesn’t fit any prompts, or too many characters for one of them? Today, share any OC that you want.

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Since we want to celebrate creations about neglected characters all year long, the mods will occasionally reblog posts and fancreations about OCs and underdeveloped characters. If you would like to see your post on our blog, you're very welcome to tag tolkienocweek. Since tumblr's tagging system is often being faulty, don't hesitate to message us, too!

We are looking forward to see and share all the awesome work you come up with!

#lotr #lord of the rings #the hobbit #hobbit #lotr films #hobbit films #silm #the silm #silmarillion #tolkien #oc #original characters #tolkienocweek

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risuola · 1 month

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▶ ONE BEDROOM? — short memory about how you found yourself sharing a bed with two of your best friends.

contents: college!au, roommates to be, fluffy, silly Satoru, caring Suguru and all that jazz — 0,9k words

a/n: feel free to send me suggestions for entries of this series! any specific situations you think might be funny? any topics that sound interesting to you? let me know!

𝙇𝙊𝙑𝙀 𝙈𝙀𝘿𝙇𝙀𝙔 | series masterlist

“Alright, I found one,” Satoru informed, a grin of mischief tugging on his lips and both you and Suguru knew immediately that there are some gears turning below the mop of white hair of your best friend. “Near our uni, rent’s cheaper than any other we looked at, it looks nice, and there’s even a balcony for the addict. Available anytime.”

It sounded too good to be true, really. You’ve been looking for weeks now, desperate to find the right balance between the price and quality and it turned out to be the hardest thing you had to face in your lives. It was honestly a nightmare, turned out that you were way too late to find a rental with three rooms in the college area – everything was already taken and you were forced to scratch the idea of all having separate rooms. Two bedrooms, turned out, were just as hard to find. You were slowly coming to terms that you’re gonna have to either spend three hours in metro every day just to get in and out of uni or pay an unreasonable amount of money just to live even moderately close. In your head, you already saw yourself searching for the second job.

“Where’s the catch?” Suguru’s raised an eyebrow, his mind analytic as always and his questioning tone matched your thoughts perfectly. He wrapped one arm around your waist and reached with the other to snatch a phone out of Gojo’s hands, but the snow-whites grin grew even wider as he dodged the attempt. You could feel your friend taking a deeper breath behind your back, you were seated next to him, resting against his body whilst Satoru was on the floor, with his head comfortably on your thigh. “Is it one of those ‘rent a room along with ten other students’ kind of deal?”

“Nah, it’s a separate apartment. It’s not big, by any means, but as far as I’m concerned, it should be more than enough for us,” you reached your hand, but instead of giving you his phone, Gojo put his chin on your palm, smiling with the typical amount of cat-like mischief. “In fact,” he said, pulling the lollipop out of his mouth with a loud pop and threatening to lick you. The trail of sticky sugar covering his lips in a reddish tint from the cherry, his favorite, flavored candy. “I already sent a message to the renter.”

“Toru, spill it,” you pushed, pinching his cheek and with a theatrical roll of his pretty blue eyes, he put his phone into your hand, sticking the candy back into his mouth. You leaned back against Suguru’s chest again and with his head on your shoulder, you swiped through the pictures of the offer. “It… does look nice?”

“Sus,” the brunette mumbled, reaching to swipe over the screen with his own finger. “Very sus. What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing’s wrong with it,” Satoru said in fake offense and got up to his knees to peek on what you two were doing, sticking his nose in front of the screen so aggressively that you had to push him away. “But—”

“Wait, is there one bedroom in this apartment?” You noticed. The pictures you were analyzing all showed the same room and the living area with joined kitchen, the bathroom, and again the same room, and some weird kind of storage? and again the same room.

“That explains a lot,” Suguru laughed lightly and leaned back again.

“We can see the place in an hour” Satoru showed off his pearly whites. “Come on, let’s at least see it, yeah?”

“I guess we can see it,” you gave it a nod. “The price is really nice.”

“Alright… so let’s get going.”

And so, all of you hopped on the bikes, you behind Satoru, and took the ride to see the apartment. Turned out, it really was perfect. Despite the apartment having just one bedroom, it was spacious enough to fit all three of you. The bed was so big it could easily fit five and during the many years of friendship, you and two of your friends shared way too many single person mattresses, sandwiched and squished together to think twice about it. The odd storage room seemed to be a perfect candidate to become a guest room (later called: a fuck room).

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Satoru grinned, looking at both of you as he was bouncing his ass on the bed, testing it as if he was already the owner.

“It is nice, I’ll admit,” you said, looking at Suguru to hear his opinion, but the man seemed to be thinking still. “Sug?”

“For me, it’s perfect. But,” he looked at you, a concern clearly written in his eyes, “is it alright with you?”

Geto has a way of constantly reminding you why you love him. He doesn’t look like it, in fact, he looks quite intimidating to anyone who doesn’t know him, but to you he’s just the sweetest, most caring friend you could ever wish for. If anyone was to worry about your comfort, it was him because it is true that all three of you slept together already, sharing sheets and being as close and personal as it was possible, but a random sleepover doesn’t equal sleeping with them every single day.

“It’s fine with me, don’t worry,” you reassured him, squeezing his bicep playfully.

“If it’s fine with you, then I guess we have a place.”

taglist: @kibananya, @r0ckst4rjk, @rixo-19, @soraya-daydreams

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sleepyelliee · 1 month

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MODERN AU JACK MARSTON X GN! READER.

before you continue !

this is completely based off of @superunknoown drawings of modern jack and john marston. please send them some support since their art is literally amazing <3.

also jack header is from @reddorkredemption, the dividers are created by @/fairytopea

also, thank you sooo much @frozen-waters ! some things listed in this are from their headcannons!

warnings! mentions of bullying, this takes place in modern AU, financial issues briefly spoken, emotionally disconnected, implied death of a loved one, mentions about the VDL gang but is referred to "troublemakers", you're a college student who lives with roommates and you work as barista for a side job. lmk if I should add anything else! no mention of y/n. loosely proofread!

the smell of coffee brewed throughout the small cafe that was located in blackwater, other employees that worked alongside you were chatting amongst themselves about their personal lives. normally, most would've considered that unprofessional but the cafe you were working at was considered a small business due to hardly ever seeing new faces and most folks who walked in were a regular. Some regulars you enjoyed talking to like bonnie macfarlane, a sweet girl with a slight accent with blonde hair and the most beautiful looking eyes and faint freckles — sometimes you would catch yourself admiring her sweet features.

The cafe was typically quiet throughout the day, the only thing that was considered to be loud enough is the bell that would jingle anytime someone opened the door to allow one of the employees to tend to their needs. It was easy money for a broke college student who was already living with two other roommates in a small dorm room that was cramped.

Today seemed like one of those quiet and soothing days that managed to ease your nerves about stress about your financial situation and all your exams that were upcoming as you clocked in for work. As you washed your hands, you heard the bell above the entry door ring, indicating a customer arrived. In the corner of your eye, a boy who seemed to be around your age with slight freckles, a moustache and brunette messy hair that swung over his eyes walked in. He had a slightly muscular build and stood tall when he approached the counter.

"Hey, what would you like?" You inquired gently, making sure to keep in mind to speak softly to him because the eye bags under his eyes were noticable. Your hands rested on the edge on the counter as you watched his gaze fall into the menu, deciding what coffee he wanted.

"Just a black coffee, thank you." He muttered, the groggily morning voice underlined the exhausted tone in his voice, "Put the name down on the order as Jack; Jack Marston." He clarified as his hand slipped into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out a wallet and slipping out twenty-two dollars just like the price on the order was.

You nodded, taking the money and slipping it into th cash register, "It will take a couple minutes, okay?" You stated as your gaze fell back onto his face. You could nearly see underlying stress and exhaustion in his face as his jaw clenched — eye bags, how he speaks to you so quietly. After all, you have been that exhausted before and knows how that feels like after all the exams you had to take couple months prior.

After twelve minutes, you give him the black coffee he orders as you slip him a small packet of sugar if he wanted to add it. "Enjoy it." You muttered as you watched him nod his head in acknowledgment.

...

After that day, you notice how he would come back the day after and the day after...and the day after until it became a cycle that he would come every morning. You aswell started to notice he had multiple piercings in his nose and ears, something you completely disregarded until you took a closer look at him.

Eventually, you began to start developing slight feelings for the young man, he was good-looking, polite and genuinely minded his own business anytime the cafe would get a little too loud with your coworkers banter — something you thought would've been impossible since you were more focused on college. You spoke about this with Bonnie whenever she came around for her morning coffee and she immediately kept on teasing you before she revealed the fact she knew Jack's father — John Marston, a man with a rugged look, as Bonnie described. She encouraged you to make the first move, stating that Jack was a very quiet boy and having a crush on some stranger who comes into the cafe wouldn't be ideal.

You caved in, writing a small note to him regarding his multiple pericings as you gave him his order on another quiet mornings. As the young man opened the note, he could see the messy handwriting stating, love your piercings! I think you look good in them.

You could feel the embarrassment slowly seeping through you as you watched him cough on his coffee. Clearly catching Jack off guard with that compliment from a barista he hardly knew about.

...

When you told Bonnie about this incident, she immediately gleamed with a smile and immediately advised you to keep on writing more and more sweet notes when you would give him his coffee. Despite your rebuttal that you needed to focus on school more than some boy, you eventually get convinced.

Every time that brunette would walk into the cafe and order his coffee, you would slip multiple sweet notes when you would deliver it to him. Seeing his reactions made you think this was a bad idea, and maybe he wasn't into you whatsoever.

Jack soon started to take more time ordering as his gaze would be set on you, starting to analyze every feature of yours as he would fidget with one of his piercings, most commonly his ear pericing because it always gets your attention to be set on him.

...

You kept on telling Bonnie and then your other coworkers who have been seeing this whole ordeal and advised you to get him a gift and ask him out. You were in denial still, trying to convince yourself that this was a small crush despite the fact you wrote those sweet notes to that quiet boy.

You somehow found yourself in a small flower shop, buying a bouquet of tulips as another bag was in your hand that contained chocolates, a letter, and couple of other goodies your friends advised you to get. As you were paying up for the tulips, you could feel your mind going on overdrive as you found yourself standing here despite trying to be in straight denial for your small crush.

...

The next day morning, you heard the bell above the door ring and as you expected it was Jack Marston. You quickly muttered, "Good morning." As you tried to keep yourself calm as you slid over the bag of goodies and bouquet of tulips, you swore he was looking at you with a small smirk as your cheeks began to grow red.

It seemed after that confession, he was lingering around the cafe a lot more than usual, his gaze fixated on you as your coworkers would tease you endlessly about it. Soon this little ordeal would become into him giving you CDS with songs that reminded him of you, sometimes gifting you albums and CDs of artists you like and even delivering small candies when he noticed how stressed you seemed over college or how exhausted you looked over certain days.

When he finally asked you if he could stay over, you declined and you stated that you live with two other roommates, after all you didn't want him to feel overwhelmed in that small space you lived in. This caused Jack to immediately introduce you to his parents so you could stay over at his house instead of being cramped up in a small room — Jack always claimed, but in reality, he was afraid of loosing you due to hardly having any friends growing up.

Jack's father, John Marston wasn't bad of a fellow, he was just quite...distant per say, but he was still welcoming to you just like Abigail Marston, Jack's mother. Sometimes John would offer you one of his cigarettes or in most cases, full packs that weren't open yet as he would talk about the group of troublemakers he would be in, telling you crazy stories like how him and his group of friends would rob places, beat up couple of guys and always causing some ruckus.

Abigail Marston was a mother you never had, she was constantly worried about you and sometimes would ask Jack multiple of times if you were hurt, stressed, tired if you were even couple minutes late to a gathering.

...

When you and Jack officially became official, he would start to open up about his past and how he was bullied and normally was alone most majority of his social life. He would also cling onto you anytime he didn't see you for long periods of time, and sometimes he would even allow you to choose which pericing he is going to put on for the day.

His kisses were divine, especially the days where you were so tired and stressed, he would just pull you close and give you multiple kisses on your cheek, forehead, and neck as a way to make you laugh.

thank you so much for reading!! feel free to give back criticism because I'm still new to this! masterlist

#john marston #rdr1 #red dead fandom #red dead redemption community #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #red dead redemption two #rdr2 john #adult jack marston #rai's rambles.#rdr1 jack #jack marston x reader #jack marston nation #jack marston #modern au

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whumpty-dumpty-doo · 2 months

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“We Are TroubleD” Masterpost

Welcome to the "We Are TroubleD" masterpost! Here you will find a list of things related to my OC whump fic "We Are TroubleD"! If any links aren’t working, please let me know!

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Story Overview:

Two college boys have their peaceful lives ripped apart when a ransom-seeking stranger abducts D, the son of wealthy parents. The kidnapper gets more than he bargained for when T, D’s roommate is home during the invasion. In captivity the friends must lean on each other to survive their harrowing situation and find a way out of their shared hell.

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Rating:

18+ - contains mature themes

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Series content warnings, Chapters, FAQ and more below the cut!

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Content warnings:

Please note that each chapter/entry will have its own individual content warnings listed at the top of its page. Not all of these elements will appear in every chapter (especially the more intense and mature things, those will come much later in the story and will have clear warnings, so you should be safe for a while if you want to avoid that stuff!)

Overall warnings for this story’s content include (but aren’t limited to):

abuse (physical, emotional, and mental), blood, bondage, cages, captivity, crying, distress, drugging, dub-con, emotional whump, fear, forced participation (in sexual and non-sexual acts), gaslighting, hunger/starvation, hurtful language, injuries, insults, kidnapping, manhandling, non-con (both sexual and non-sexual), pet whump, physical violence, shocking, sickness, stress positions, swearing, things that are neither safe nor sane, thirst, threats, restraints

This list will be updated as things come up or need to be removed.

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Character Profiles:

Coming Soon!

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Canon story:

Coming soon!

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Misc. entries and one-shots (some might be worked into the canon story later):

Listed in chronological order, even if they were posted out of order due to an event/whump prompt.

Saturdays Are For Soup - (Pre-Capture) - T pushes himself too hard and needs a hand from D. - Day 9 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event!

The Capture (D's POV) – D comes home to an unwelcome surprise after a night out on the town – Day 1 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event!

It's Never Enough – D and T are in need of sustenance, but their captor likes to play sick games – Day 2 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event! --- 3 part mini story ---

Cut Me Loose – Part 1 of 3 - A crazy stroke of luck allows the boys a chance to escape if only they can cut through their bonds. – Day 3 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event!

A Shocking Offence – Part 2 of 3 - T must find help if he hopes to save both D and himself. – Day 4 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event!

Feeling Bushed – Part 3 of 3 - With their captor so close, T must be very careful to avoid being spotted. – Day 5 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event! BONUS CHAPTER!

Feeling Bushed - Trailing Behind - You never know who's watching...

A Breathtaking View - D is desperate to buy T more time to find help - Day 14 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event!

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak no Evil - D's captor returns from searching for the escaped T, and D is left wondering just what happened to his friend. - Day 8 of WoW's Birthday Whumpe Event!

White Out - D slowly loses himself mentally, physically, and emotionally. - Day 6 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event!

Reunited and Ignited - Things heat up when D and T's reunion does not go how they hoped it would. - Day 15 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event!

Burning For You - D has T's back, but who's got his? - Day 13 of WoW's Birthday Whump Event!

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Alternate Universes (AUs):

Coming soon!

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Art:

Coming soon!

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FAQ:

Are “T”, “D”, and “Their Captor” really these character’s names? For now, yes, but probably not forever! They are stand-in placeholder names until I can think of proper names for these guys. I wanted to get the entries that I wrote for WoW's Birthday Whump Event! posted in time, so they don’t have names yet. Can’t rush those things, yanno? Hopefully when I’m ready to post the actual canon story they’ll all have real names!

How old are the characters in your main story? D and T are college age, though Iʻm not sure what specific ages yet. Theyʻre both beyond legal drinking age, and D is slightly older than T. Thatʻs all I know for now, as Iʻm still writing the main canon story. They might be older or younger in side fics/AUs. If so, Iʻll state it in the post of the story entry itself.

Why is the “D” capitalized in “We Are TroubleD”? Because right now the characters stand-in names are “T” and “D”, so “T”rouble"D”! “We” are T and D, and they are in trouble because they are whump characters.

How often will you update the canon story? Hopefully frequently once I get it off the ground, but you can never really predict that. Iʻm going to try to have as much as I can done of the whole story before I start posting in earnest, so hopefully once it starts going you wonʻt have to wait long!

Can I draw/write about your characters? Sure! Though it might be a bit challenging without references or profiles for them yet. Fingers crossed Iʻll have those made for the future! The one thing I ask is that if you create anything with my characters, please link back to me and donʻt claim them as your own. Thanks!

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random-mailbox · 7 months

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Random-Mailbox's Favorite Sailor Moon Fics - College AU

I am back this week with some College AU stories! You can check out the previous 52 weeks of recs at the end of this Crystal Tokyo post (link).

As always, my apologies in advance for spoiling some of these for you (Fic Titles are linked to either FFN or AO3 entries).

Party On Campus - Luvdarain5

A bit of OG anime characterization on aged up Serena and Darien. Amy and Serena get invited to a college party by Zoi, which goes swimmingly until it doesn't.

i send you a sign, send you a signal - @hellomomo

Usagi decides to take a 300-level Emotion and Motivation Psychology class, solely because Mamoru mentioned he would be in it, making her term project on "goals" - getting Mamoru to fall in love with her (and writing a paper about it).

Wish You Would - @idesofnovember

Usagi slipped into a college party for the food, claiming to know the host's roommate TO the host's roommate, launching a sequence of exchanges that will drive Mamoru to seriously consider what he wants.

Better Than Dreaming - @wishwars

Returning a textbook Mamoru left behind at her library table should be quite simple. Except Usagi may have gotten more than she bargained for by going inside after hearing sounds emanating from his dorm room.

Stuff Tippy Wrote -- Sailor Moon edition: Chapter 5: right hand, yellow /Chapter 6: The day after Twister - @tiptoe39

At a college party, Usagi gets pushed into playing Twister by Rei and Minako against the one person who has been poking fun at her (no matter how cute he looks when he actually smiles!).

And we are lucky to get a peek at the day after too! Where Usagi and Mamoru try to figure what happened and what's next.

Summer's Day - Please, more like Moonlight- @midnightdrops

Starting with a disclaimer: this story is amazing BUT it is not complete - Dr @midnightdrops has an outline for the remaining chapters already completed but is currently drowning in work.

In this non-senshi College AU, Mamoru tries to figure out how he is feeling about his polar-opposite girlfriend, while external forces work on ripping them apart.

The Secrets We Bear - Tumblr Snippets - @lilliebellfanfics

This link is to some of the shorts that were published for Dendy Week 2022 (are part of a larger story that @lilliebellfanfics is working on) but are amazing as stand-alone chapters, exploring Mamoru navigating his new powers, university life and priorities.

And last but not least, you should explore @caelenath 's musings in her Mamoru in College tag here on Tumblr - amazing little snippets in there!

That's it for now! I will do another fic list post soon. In the meantime, you should explore some of the prior lists and all the amazing content coming from the @senshixshitennouweeks!

#sailor moon #usagi x mamoru #fic rec #fic list #usamamo #sailor moon fanfiction #college au #mamoru in college

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jaylaxies · 2 years

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𝗟𝗘𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗨𝗡𝗚 𝗠𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧

GUIDE:

M — mature | F — fluff | A — angst

O — one-shot | S — series | T — timestamp

DANCING DOLL

[ dancer au | m, f, o | 2.3k words ]

you've always noticed lee heeseung, the shy and innocent guy at your dance club. despite his covert behaviour, he was the best at executing the choreographies. now, what would happen if you get paired with him for a couple dancing competition? and what would you do if he wants more than just dancing?

1:24 PM

[ sub!heeseung | m, t ]

WORK FOR IT

[ office au | m, o | 2k words ]

lee heeseung is probably the laziest person you've ever come across, and coincidentally, he's also your personal assistant. to get him to work, you pull out the you're fired card, that's when he shows you how efficient he actually is.

THAT’S RIGHT, HE CAN’T ft. park sunghoon]

[ fwb au | m, a, f, o | 3.6k words ]

you were always curious about your best friend's roommate, park sunghoon, wanting to mess around with the innocent looking guy, however, lee heeseung doesn't appreciate your advances and shows sunghoon how you belong to him. the whole ordeal doesn't sit well with sunghoon, and so, he decides to take revenge for the same.

TWO’S A COMPANY

[ stranded together au | m, f, o | 7.2k words ]

a night at the abandoned cabin with your friends didn't sound bad to you, initially. it was a mere dare afterall. but what if the whole group bails on you and heeseung — the only guy you don't get along with, to spend the chilly night together with no way to go home in the heavy rainstorm? “fucking helps in production of body heat, y'know?” heeseung more or less offered. “yeah? i'd rather freeze. no, thank you.”

DINNER FOR THREE [ft. sim jaeyun]

[ university au | m, f, o | 2.7k words ]

university was stressful, the constant tests and assignments had drained you enough for you to look lifeless so, heeseung and jake, your closest friends, very graciously offered to study with you and also staying for a bowl of ramyeon, promising that they'll help you destress in their own way.

‎TO THE BOY: WHO TOOK MY V-CARD

[ camp au | m, f, a, s | 12.5k words]

[1/4 of to all the boys series]

you had first attended the summer camp at the age of thirteen, and since then, heeseung had been your companion and partner in crime, supporting you in every one of your rendezvous at the camp each year. now, at the age of eighteen, you are attending it for the last time, and he promises to make these three weeks an unforgettable experience for you — even if it includes breaking a few rules.

CAN’T YOU SEE ME?

[ childhood friends to lovers au | m, a, f, o | 11k words]

lee heeseung first met you when he was four. to him, you were the epitome of an angel, the one who was selflessly available for the bambi eyed boy. at the age of ten, he learned that he liked you, wanting you to be his babysitter and no one else. he knew what he felt for you was love by the time you were in your third year of college, him being determined to confess soon, also entering the college as a freshman. but will he be able to win your heart with the entry of your newfound boyfriend?

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

[ pool cleaner hee x rich girl au | m, o | 6.7k words ]

spending all his money on video games, heeseung was left with no other choice but to work part time to earn some extra cash, he was overwhelmed to find out how much your father was willing to pay for a pool cleaner, grabbing that opportunity and applying for the same, not knowing that he'd be dealing with a spoiled little princess, who's also a feast for his eyes.

do NOT copy, translate, rewrite or repost any of my works on any other social media platforms.

#[ ✎ ] — masterlist!#enhypen hard hours #heeseung smut #enhypen smut

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late-to-the-party-81 · 1 year

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Oki doki my loves!

This is…wow!

I never thought I’d get here (especially with the spam porn bot invasion of Winter 22/23), but 1k!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I can’t say it hasn’t been challenging, so that is going to be the theme of this celebration- Challenges.

If you are interested in celebrating with me, and you are over 18, then just head on under the cut!

Still here? Excellent!

So- easy bits first.

From now (18th) until 31st of Jan please feel free to send requests for little drabbles- gimme a babe (or several) and a challenge for one/all of them. Sweet, spicy or soft dark! It could be a little challenge. It could be a big challenge. Whatever you want. (See below for some challenge ideas) I write for Marvel characters, CE characters and SS characters.

Also, for the weekend of 28-29th Jan (GMT) I will be answering the usual game asks- FMK, OVA, Would you rather, Cast your Mutuals, and head-canons about the relationships in my various series - please see my masterlist for Marvel and non-Marvel series. You can send asks in advance.

Then the biggy- and this is a challenge for you lovely lot. A writing challenge. A Challenge Yourself challenge. What do I mean?

Is there a character you’ve never got around to writing?

A pairing?

A trope?

A style?

An Au?

A follow-up to that one shot you really enjoyed writing?

Now is the time! Challenge yourself! Stretch your comfort zone!

No word count limit, but please use a cut if over 250 words. All styles are fine (e.g. Fluff, Smut, Dark etc), but please use appropriate tags (and please, no Underage, Incest, Scat or Bestiality - monster fucking is fine).

The time limit for the challenge is the end of June 2023 and I’m asking you to use the Tags #Challenge Yourself and #Jen’s 1k Challenge so I can find all your lovely entries and make a master list. I’d prefer if you stick to Marvel/CE/SS characters, but that’s not a hard and fast rule if inspiration strikes.

You don’t have to be a moot to join in, but I’d love if you were a follower and that if you do send an ask for a drabble or game you interact with my response.

Have fun, and keep scrolling for some further inspo!

Trope ideas

Only one bed

Enemies to lovers

The grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one

And they were roommates

Sex pollen/Fuck or die

Identity porn

Miscommunication

Mutual pining/idiots in love

Didn’t know they were dating

Stuck in a cabin

Basement wife

Forbidden relationship

Sugar relationship

Undercover/pretend relationship

Style ideas

Fluff

Angst

Whump

Hurt/Comfort

Smut

Soft Dark

Dark

And combos of any of the above

AU ideas

No powers

Mafia

Medieval

Modern Royalty

Omegaverse

Fantasy

Vampire

Demon

Werewolf/Shifter

Apocalypse

Canon divergent (e.g. Avengers Tower fics or Hydra won fics)

Rockstar

College/Uni

Soulmate

Greek/Roman

Firefighter

Medical/Veterinary

Police

Cam/Sex worker

Coffee shop

Bakery

Florist

Tattoo parlour

School teacher

Biker

Challenge ideas for Drabble asks

Keep a secret

Be quiet!

How long can you take it?

How many can you take?

Switching

Build furniture

Meet a deadline

Babysit

Learn a new skill/language

Find the McGuffin!

Supermarket dash

Karaoke battle

Baking battle

New job

Fix the problem

Love you all so much! Let’s have some fun!

No pressure tags: @jobean12-blog @christywantspizza @navybrat817 @sidepartskinnyjeans @jadedvibes @lfnr-blog-blog-blog @mickeyhenrys @weekendgothgirl @yarnforbrains @strangeprincex @writerkenna @elvenfforestydd @doasyoudesireandlive @luxeavenger @wheezy-stucky @flordeamatista @goldylions @ohsymphony @krissy25 @bodeckersdiamonddoll @chrisdrysdale @sunshinebuckybarnes @lunarbuck @aquariusbarnes @beach-daydreaming

#Jen’s 1k Challenge #Challenge Yourself #jen’s follower celebration #1k followers #writing challenge #inbox games #Drabble requests

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seyaryminamoto · 2 years

Text

Leap of Faith: Sokkla Saturdays 2022

Day 5: College AU

On FF.net//On AO3

A/N:

And now... a lighter and much more comedy-oriented entry for today. I really hope you guys enjoy it, I had so much fun writing this one!

"Look, I get where you're coming from, I do… but every time we try to recruit more people, no one wants to join us!"

"But that doesn't mean we can't ask again, Zuko. We should give it a try!"

"Well, be my guest, but I don't think there's much point to it. The three of us can pull off another campaign just fine together, can't we?"

Aang sighed: Zuko's stubbornness could have its perks in certain circumstances, but sometimes it grated on his nerves instead, no matter how patient he tried to be with his friend. He glanced at Sokka, who sat with arms crossed on the couch. Their party's dungeon master stroked his stubble, raising an eyebrow slowly before saying:

"There's a rather important proverb that we must abide by, in these situations…" Sokka stated. Zuko scoffed.

"Proverbs? Who'd you think you are, my uncle Iroh?"

"Do tell, do tell!" Aang said, excitedly. Sokka cleared his throat before making his big, insightful revelation.

"The more, the merrier!"

Zuko groaned, and Aang laughed while clapping approvingly. Sokka chuckled: Zuko's despair always amused him, even if Sokka suspected that the grumpiest among the three of them would win at this particular argument, in the end.

Sokka had met Aang and Zuko in college. At first, they were brought together by their career choices, then their bond tightened over their love for tabletop games: so far, they had played through four short adventures in which Sokka had served as dungeon master. Aang and Zuko would build up powerful characters who eventually prevailed against the forces of evil Sokka controlled… and it was fun. Their grasp on their games strengthened every time, and Sokka had so many stories in mind to tell in the future…

But Aang wasn't wrong to believe it would be more fun to tell them with more players in their party.

Just so, Zuko had a point as well: all their attempts to invite other people to join their Dungeons and Dragons sessions went to waste without fail.

Typically, their games were held in the house Sokka and Zuko had been roommates in for well over half their college careers – by now, however, Zuko's relationship with Suki had advanced enough that he spent more time at her place than at Sokka's. Sokka certainly didn't look forward to finding another roommate once Zuko inevitably moved out, but he'd have to look for one anyway… which was a problem to worry about on some other day. Right now, all he needed to think about was who to recruit for their next, full campaign… one he hoped would be a much longer campaign than the ones they'd done so far. He had so many ideas for it, ideas he hoped Aang and Zuko would enjoy, but it would be so much better if more people joined them…

"Well, I'm not going to make a public post on social media to call for new players," Zuko growled, shooting down Aang's latest idea, one he had put forward while Sokka wasn't paying attention. "That sounds awful."

"Then we should just ask people we know! Why not, right?" Aang said, glancing at Sokka. "We could ask Katara…"

"She always says she can't trust me as her DM," Sokka admitted, with an awkward smile. "She thinks I'm going to kill her character on the very first action sequence just to be a shithead of a brother…"

"Well, then, swear you won't do that and she'll join in!" Aang pouted. "Come on, and there's others who could join too…!"

"Well, I don't know if…" Zuko grunted, but his words were cut off abruptly when the doorbell rang.

He frowned before rising to his feet. The living room of the small house wasn't far away from the front door, allowing both Aang and Sokka to see glance in that direction as Zuko pulled the door open… and he groaned immediately at the sight of the woman standing right outside.

"What are you doing here?" he blurted out at once. Sokka glanced as best he could, only making out a few details past Zuko's silhouette… enough details to bring him to suspect the identity of this visitor even before hearing her teasing voice.

"Well, now, my parents raised me to greet people properly before asking questions… especially asking them so harshly. How uncivilized of you, Zuzu."

"Oh, please," Zuko huffed, stepping aside and allowing Azula to march into the house, a devious smirk upon her face.

Sokka's heart jolted lightly at the sight of her: he was an idiot, of course, for having any manner of crush on his roommate's sister. It was a strange trope he wasn't sure he should be trying to live out, but curses, she was pretty. She was clever and devious, and the way she teased Zuko never failed to make Sokka laugh. His lips instinctively curved into a smile as he waved like a fool in her direction.

"Ah, see? Sokka's much wiser than you," Azula smirked, nodding in Sokka's direction.

"Good to see you," Sokka grinned – happy tingles in his stomach urged him to talk to her more, to make the most of any opportunity to spend time with her…

"Hi, Azula!" Aang smiled too, waving at her, and Azula sighed happily.

"Ah, thank you. You all prove my point marvelously," she said, turning towards Zuko with her mischievous grin.

"They're not your brothers, and they don't realize you're only here because you want something," Zuko grumbled, glaring at her… and then allowing his eyes to drift down to the laptop bag she carried with her. "You broke your computer again?"

"I… did nothing. The updates are at fault here," Azula said, raising a finger pointedly in Zuko's direction.

"And now I have to backtrack them for you, as usual," Zuko huffed, shaking his head. "Well, I don't have my stuff here, if it's too serious I won't be able to fix it right now."

"Heh. I did go to Suki's place first, seeing as you've basically moved there, but she told me you were here," Azula said, with a shrug. "And I wasn't about to pretend that I could leave my laptop at your apartment without personally requesting that you fixed it, you were bound to ignore it if I wasn't there needling you about it the whole time, so…"

"You do realize me specializing in computer science doesn't mean I'm your go-to IT guy, don't you?" Zuko grunted. Azula huffed, shaking her head.

"You're my brother, and you picked your career as you pleased. How is it my fault that you wanted to be an IT guy?"

"I'm not an IT guy!" Zuko squealed, as Azula sank in the couch, right next to Sokka. He tried not to react, but yet again, his idiot heart fluttered over her closeness.

"If you were studying to be a mechanic, I'd come to you for car trouble," Azula continued, nonchalantly. "If you were studying to be a doctor, I'd ask you about every single potentially alarming health sign I find, if I found any. Therefore…"

"That's just…! Ugh, at the very least pay me for my efforts!" Zuko huffed. Azula gasped, affronted.

"That's… you've gone too far. You'd charge me for your services? Me, your own sister?" Azula said, dramatically. Zuko groaned, his hands on his head while he heard Aang and Sokka chuckling at Azula's wicked teasing. "Oh, but you're so cruel…"

"Okay, now, not to brag but I've beaten your brother at grades every semester," Sokka smiled, folding his arms over his chest. "If you really need that fixed, I can do it for you."

Azula blinked blankly, turning her head towards him with undisguised delight… and Sokka saw the spark of mischief in her beautiful golden eyes well before she spoke anew.

"Why… such a generous offer," she said, showing him what she no doubt believed was an angelical smile – the deviousness was nowhere near gone, however. "I couldn't possibly impose on you, though…! How much should I pay you for fixing it?"

"Oh, so you would pay Sokka but not me?!" Zuko squealed: Sokka covered his face with his hands as Azula smiled brightly, her latest stunt to irk her brother achieving the expected effect. "You're just…! Ugh!"

"You're my brother. Different rules apply there," Azula said, smirking. Sokka chuckled, shaking his head.

"I'm not charging you, Azula, so different rules don't have to apply at all," Sokka said. Azula's teasing intent dwindled then, as she eyed him with curiosity.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I have no idea how tricky this is…"

"Rolling back an update isn't a big deal, I can do it right away. I'll do that and throw in a few security checks too to make sure things are running smoothly," Sokka offered. Azula smiled and shrugged.

"Well… be my guest, if you're serious. Thank you," she said. Sokka grinned proudly, hoping he wasn't blushing like the idiot he felt he was…

"Wait, so you're going to focus on that now?" Zuko huffed. "We were talking about the campaign, it's the whole reason why I dropped by…"

"We can take a break for now," Aang said, with a shrug. "And we can use the break to brainstorm ideas for how to get new players to join us!"

"Campaign? Players?" Azula repeated, eyeing Aang and Zuko with a dismissive sneer. "Oh, goodness. Another of your, uh, Rooms and Roaches game, I suppose…"

"Dungeons and Dragons! Seriously, could you be more of a textbook annoying younger sister?" Zuko groaned, dropping on his seat as Azula smirked deviously, shaking her head.

"Ah, he just makes it too easy, doesn't he?" Azula said, nudging Sokka gently with her elbow. "I imagine your sister torments you as often as I torment Zuko and you don't whine about it half as much, do you?"

"Oh, yeah. I've accepted my fate as her favorite source of entertainment," Sokka admitted. "Though Katara's very easy to annoy right back, you know? We get even sometimes. Zuko, though…"

"Anything I say can and will be used against me," Zuko growled, glaring at Azula, who smiled brightly at him.

"You know your fundamental rights, at the very least. Good on you," Azula said, nodding sagely. "Anyway, I had no idea the three of you were playing Prisons and Penguins. Did Zuko scare away the rest of your team's players with his temper, or…?"

"The right term is 'party', and no. It's always been just the three of us," Zuko said, bluntly. Azula hummed.

"Aang and I thought we should get more people on board, but Zuko says it's not going to work… and after hearing you call Dungeons and Dragons literally anything other than Dungeons and Dragons, I can't say that I'm surprised by his refusal to look for more players anymore," Sokka smiled. Azula offered him a devious grin of her own.

"Well, you see, if Zuko could explain reasonably how the game works, perhaps I would be interested in it. But every single time I asked him, he started talking about stats or whatever number of sides a functioning dice can have, and how 'the dice tell the story', which happens to be a concept I still can't pretend to understand… he makes it sound as entertaining and appealing as a visit to the dentist, in short."

"I… that's not true!" Zuko huffed, though his cheeks lit up – he had definitely tried to teach Suki how to play, only for his girlfriend to decide to stick with her favorite videogames instead. While he knew Azula made a sport of making fun of him, perhaps she wasn't entirely off-base with that assessment…

"Well, then, maybe Aang and I can do better," Sokka chuckled. "It's a roleplaying game, Azula."

Her eyebrows rode surprisingly high upon hearing those words. She stared at Sokka with a slowly growing grin, and Sokka blinked blankly.

"What?" he said. She bit her lip before leaning closer, covering her mouth as she spoke into his ear.

"Roleplaying, as in… sexual stuff?"

Sokka nearly jumped out of his seat upon hearing that: his cheeks lit up fully, much as Azula blushed as well while laughing at his reaction. Sokka's jaw dropped, he gasped, and then he shook his head quickly.

"N-no. No. Absolutely not. RPGs… have you never heard of them? Really?" Sokka asked, still flustered as Azula laughed against the backrest of her couch. "You… you're trolling me too. Just like you troll your brother all the time. You're a menace… a wonderful menace, but a menace anyway."

"The look on your face…!" Azula chuckled, covering her face with her hands as Aang and Zuko reached their own conclusions regarding what Azula had just whispered into Sokka's ear.

"Well… romance can be a thing in Dungeons and Dragons?" Aang clarified, with an awkward smile. "If that's what you meant…"

"Azula, seriously…" Zuko grimaced, shaking his head as he rose back to his feet. "I suppose I take it as a victory that you're choosing to mess with someone other than me for once…"

"Don't worry, you'll do something silly for me to ridicule any moment now. I'll just be patient until you do," Azula smiled. Zuko sighed.

"Well, then, at least hold back the ridiculing until I finish ordering pizza. Or else I'm not asking for pepperoni just to annoy you," Zuko huffed, pulling up his phone. Azula gasped.

"You wouldn't dare!" she said, dramatically. Sokka, beside her, yelped as well.

"Seriously, don't you dare!" he said, far more seriously than Azula had.

"Make sure mine's got none…" Aang, the sole vegetarian in the house, smiled awkwardly.

As Zuko busied himself with picking a delivery option, with Aang glancing over his shoulder to make him choose his favorite pizza restaurant, Sokka took it upon himself to begin patching up Azula's laptop – he sighed at the blue screen error that greeted him moments after powering up the computer, but he took to repairing the software quickly with the expertise he had developed over three years of studies. And as he worked, unless he had to ask any questions about the computer, Sokka explained more about Dungeons and Dragons to a surprisingly receptive Azula.

"… So, basically I'm the Dungeon Master, I come up with the story, the non-playable characters, the setting, all that stuff. The rules can be the ones established by the original game, or you can come up with a few new ones depending on whatever you feel like doing," Sokka said. "Basically, Dungeons and Dragons' system is more of a means to tell a story, you see? The idea that the dice tell the story isn't completely wrong, but without further context it probably sounds pretty weird…"

"Zuko never bothered providing any context, but I think I understand better now," Azula said. "You, the so-called Dungeon Master, build an adventure, you help your players build their characters too, then you have to be ready to either improvise with whatever their choices are, or plan so extensively to be prepared for anything they choose to do…? It seems a rather complicated way to play a game, frankly. Almost sounds like the Dungeon Master doesn't have as much fun as everyone else does."

"Oh, don't worry, that's not the case at all. Not once you get to the fun stuff of being the DM," Sokka chuckled: the computer booted up again, and this time, everything flowed perfectly. "Alright! It's running now."

"Ah, so quickly, too. Zuko would've kept me waiting for three days," Azula sighed, shaking her head.

"You're his sister, that's his revenge for all your teasing," Sokka said. Azula groaned.

"I know, but he's just so easy to annoy…" she sighed, before smiling at him again. "Thank you for your work, though. As for what Aang said before, though… romance is allowed in these games too? Is that how broad their scope is, truly?"

"Oh, yeah. Some people even livestream their games, get huge fanbases, their fans fall in love with their characters and with the relationships between those characters…" Sokka explained, with an awkward smile. "I mean, sure, it's a little crazy to roleplay being in love with a friend, I imagine, but if you're doing it right, I'm sure it can be lots of fun."

"Huh. Has Aang ever fallen in love with Zuko, then?" Azula asked, amused. Sokka snorted.

"Well, no. Though I had to play Aang's wife in one of our first campaigns," Sokka chuckled. "But that's what I get for being the DM, always got to play every other character in our D&D world. Anyway, I think as long as the players and DM are in agreement about romance, it's doable."

"Hmm… if so, I don't see why it's so hard for you to get Suki to play with you, Zuko," Azula said, raising her voice so her brother, finished placing his order, would hear her.

"Say what?" Zuko raised an eyebrow.

"Sokka says romance is a thing. Tell her that, and that you're at risk of being romanced by Aang… might make her jealous enough to join in just to make sure she keeps you to herself," Azula smirked. Zuko scoffed.

"We're not teenagers, she doesn't think Aang's going to steal me away," Zuko huffed. Aang chuckled.

"The characters are the ones who tell the story, though. If you happen to build a character that my character finds appealing…" Aang said, wiggling his eyebrows teasingly: Zuko scoffed in disgust.

"Maybe mine won't find yours appealing, then," he said. Aang whimpered, a hand on his chest.

"Unrequited love? Oh, no! Whatever shall I do?"

"Are you three in league today to pick on me or something?" Zuko huffed, glaring at his two friends and his sister, who laughed at his irate reaction.

"Oh, lighten up, Zuzu," Azula chuckled, shaking her head. "Anyway, I think you really ought to try recruiting Suki. She likes videogames, I bet she'd enjoy this if she gets the hang of it eventually. If she's too difficult to coax into it, though… hmm. Maybe not Aang, then. Maybe you should invite Mai to join in, too."

"No. I… no!" Zuko whimpered, cheeks flushing. "You're not getting my ex entangled in this just to amuse yourself, damn it!"

"Well, it would be amusing, but I'm not just trying to tease you," Azula chuckled. "Seriously, the way Sokka puts it, he wants to tell a big story, right? The more…"

"The merrier! That's what I said!" Sokka exclaimed, beaming. Azula smiled at his reaction too.

"For that matter, instead of pushing other people to join in, maybe you should consider doing it yourself," Zuko huffed. "How about it, Azula? Want to play a game of Jails and J-… J-…"

"Jellyfish," Azula supplied, helpfully, and Zuko huffed in irritation at her response. "What? Perfectly valid animal…"

"It sounds like you have a set for every possible synonym and word you can use for this joke of yours…" Sokka smirked. Azula blinked blankly, a hand on her chest as she acted utterly shocked by his apparent accusation.

"What, innocent old me, coming up with a whole reservoir of names for Chambers and Chameleons? Vaults and Voles? Oubliettes and Owls?"

Sokka couldn't hold back the laughter anymore. Azula smiled with undisguised satisfaction as Zuko rolled his eyes at her.

"Anyway… sure," she said, with a shrug. "I will require some thorough coaching so I won't mess up, as well as a copy of this rulebook and whatnot, but…"

"Wait, what?" Zuko's dismissiveness froze… transformed now into sheer terror. Azula blinked blankly, gazing at him questioningly.

"What? You just said I should join in, and I said I'm perfectly happy to attempt it," Azula said. Zuko's face paled. "Oh? Is this not the outcome you were looking for?"

"Well… maybe Zuko wasn't, but Aang and I? Absolutely!" Sokka grinned, turning towards her in amazement. "Welcome to the party!"

"Heh. Sounds even more fun when you say it that way," Azula grinned in a rather devious way at Sokka. Zuko winced. "Have something to say now, Zuzu?"

Zuko's jaw had dropped in sheer horror: it was one thing for Azula to visit once in a while over computer trouble. It was a very different one for her to do so on a weekly basis for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign… especially with his two friends basically enabling her constantly, laughing at her jokes and encouraging her to poke fun at him left and right.

He couldn't refuse her now, though: she was bound to show up every week even if he did, and Sokka and Aang would welcome her without a hitch. No… what he needed was backup. Strength in numbers. More people to help him keep her in check…

Which was exactly what he hadn't wanted to do, but damn, Azula left him no choice.

"I… will convince Suki," Zuko grimaced. Aang gasped happily. "Sokka… get Katara too. And someone should get Toph. Maybe Jet…"

"I'll tell Mai and Ty Lee, then," Azula grinned. Zuko grimaced but sighed: at this point, he'd gladly endure the awkwardness of being around Mai if it meant Azula might have someone else to bicker with at some point or another.

"See? That's better payback for computer repairs than money," Sokka chuckled, smiling brightly at Azula. "You convinced him all on your own! I'll finally get the big party I was looking for…"

"You needn't mention it, though… I do need that rulebook, don't I?" Azula asked. Sokka chuckled.

"We'll get you one. You might need help with setting up your character, but I can give you a hand, maybe on videocall if that's easier for you than coming here," Sokka said. Azula huffed.

"It's not that hard, my own house is barely a few blocks away," Azula said. "Technically, I would have been staying in the same place as my brother if only Zuzu hadn't been so adamant about finding a roommate so he could have an excuse to stop living with his wicked sister…"

"Well, he's bound to move out sooner than later. He barely comes here anymore," Sokka said, with a shrug. "Anyway, if you'd rather drop by, that's fine by me. No idea if you have a lot of work to do for your classes, so…"

"My semester shouldn't be that heavy. I'll be able to spare a couple of evenings to come here, be it for building characters or whatever you need," Azula said. "Just let me know when you're available and I'll swing by."

"Awesome," Sokka smiled – he wasn't stupidly misunderstanding this as a date of some sort, was he? No one had dates over Dungeons and Dragons… but that she'd be willing to visit even if Zuko was absent was a surprisingly agreeable sign. One that, of course, didn't have to mean anything, but he'd always welcome spending more time with Azula and her delightfully devious wit.

After comparing schedules – both, it seemed, were rather oriented towards planning their schedules to the utmost detail, something rather convenient for people who would play Dungeons and Dragons –, they chose to hold their character-building session four days later. Azula asked many questions about the game that night, while also reiterating her gratitude towards Sokka after he finished all checkups of her computer, confirming it was functional and that it would stay that way – at least, until future updates crashed it. Her numerous queries about Dungeons and Dragons were hilarious, especially the ones she blurted out carelessly while they ate, and Zuko groaned in despair at every devious concept Azula ran by Aang and Sokka, who seemed to find her ideas hilarious instead of painful.

By the next day, the four of them contacted the rest of their potential party and confirmed that their player group would increase in size considerably. Jet even offered to bring his younger brother, a faithful Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast who, while still in high school, was as experienced a player as Aang, Sokka and Zuko were. The kid in question agreed to help his brother with building his character sheet, and Sokka took care of helping Katara and Azula while Aang handled Mai, Ty Lee and Toph. Zuko's sole assignment was Suki, who still hardly understood the point or how to play the game, but she agreed to join it if just for her boyfriend's peace of mind.

As much as preparing a big campaign was the greatest highlight of his career as a Dungeon Master, Sokka looked forward to building Azula's character more than anything else. He welcomed her in his house, offering her refreshments, making the most of the opportunity to talk about their respective careers – it was rather amusing that Azula's demeanor changed so starkly once Zuko wasn't around, for while she snuck in a few barbs here and there to tease him, it was nothing compared to how she acted when her brother was present. Her attention was on Sokka constantly, even helping him in the kitchen when she noticed he was struggling with their dinner, and they ate together while exchanging ideas on the very first character Azula had ever created for a tabletop roleplaying game:

"So… I've decided I shall be a tiefling," Azula declared, with a proud grin. Sokka bit his lip and shrugged.

"They're a pretty popular choice for players… unpopular in-world, though. You're sure?" he asked. Azula nodded sagely, and Sokka smiled. "Alright, then. You'll get some intelligence and charisma bonus which, I suppose, is quite fitting…"

"Is it, now?" Azula smirked. Sokka chuckled.

"Not going to pretend you're not smarter than everyone in any room you're in, are you?"

"Well… I mean, I'd love to say that, but you're in this room too and that makes it rather difficult to sustain such a claim," Azula said. Sokka blinked blankly and glanced at her in perplexity. "What? You're not going to pretend someone as competent as you, with such an ability to grasp this crazy game and build an entire, massive narrative the way you seemingly have, isn't basically a genius, are you?"

"I'm not…!" Sokka snorted, cheeks flushing as he shook his head. "No, no, no. I'm not a genius at all, Azula, I… I mean, it's flattering that you'd say so, but I'm not."

"Suit yourself…" Azula said, smirking as she focused on her character sheet, as well as the many notes she'd made about her plans, some of which she had already discussed with Sokka and discarded. "I've thought about it a lot… and the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer sounds perfect for my character. Do you agree?"

"For someone who thrives in mocking the 'dragon' in Dungeons and Dragons, you sure seem to be a fan of them," Sokka smirked. Azula chuckled.

"Oh, that's just what my contract as a younger sibling entails, nothing more. I've always liked dragons. I've even wanted a tattoo of one, but I suppose maybe in the future…" she said, offhandedly. Sokka blinked blankly as Azula smirked at him. "What? Think it wouldn't suit me?"

"Might suit you too well, I'd say," Sokka smiled awkwardly. "Where…? Uh, where were we?"

No, he was not about to ask her where she wanted the tattoo, damn it. He had to focus.

"I'm a sorcerer," Azula repeated, smiling. "As for my personal storyline…"

They continued to discuss the details of her character, whom she named Fyrelith Krylla, the female tiefling who traveled the world on a quest to find a purpose in her life as an outsider to society. Once their main work was done, though, Azula continued asking questions about the campaign and, most of all, about Sokka's work as the Dungeon Master. He was surprised that she'd be so intrigued by it, but she wasn't secretive as to why:

"It's just… odd to me that it sounds like the Dungeon Master is the one who puts the most work into it while the rest of the players have lots of fun navigating the storyline you'd be creating," Azula said, raising her eyebrows. "Have you never wished to be a player instead?"

"Oh? Heh, I've done it and it's not as fun for me, honestly," Sokka laughed. "I mean, I'm not going to pretend I'm the greatest storyteller there was or so, but I love seeing the way people react to the twists and turns a story can take. I love improvising when things don't go as I planned… and honestly? My dice rolls are way better when I'm a DM. Or maybe I don't mind much when I roll poorly as a DM? Unless it's a big character, you know, by then it's unnerving to get lots of natural ones in a row, or so…"

"Well, then… I suppose I must ask you to forgive me for being judgmental, but this sounds like you're a bit of a control freak," Azula smirked. Sokka blinked blankly. "Not that it's too outrageous if you're one, I am one myself, but…"

"I wouldn't… say it's a matter of control, no," Sokka chuckled.

"Then you're just a self-sacrificial guy who wants his friends to have fun and doesn't care if he has to be the bad guy in order to help them do so?" Azula asked, her elbows on the table. She leaned in slightly, as if studying Sokka's true motives… and his heart raced far faster than it should have because of it. "It's very noble if that's how it is… but it feels unfair, too."

"Unfair because… what, you think I never win?" Sokka asked, amused, leaning slightly as well. Azula shrugged. "Zuko does say you're terribly ambitious and try to win at every game…"

"Suki's utterly frustrating in Mario Kart. I've probably only beaten her twice at it for as long as she's been dating Zuko," Azula said, an eyebrow twitching as Sokka chuckled at her confession. "But that's neither here nor there…"

"No, I'm sure it's not," Sokka said. Azula scoffed, though she smiled at his response.

"I'm just saying… it's very noble, but I wonder if I'm overthinking things," she said: her eyes wouldn't leave his, as if defying him, and Sokka refused to back down from the challenge she was offering him. "You deserve to live out your own epic story yourself, I'd say, rather than always building them for other people. Perhaps you're particularly good at that, but… aren't you curious about what might happen if you were a player instead?"

"I…" Sokka blinked blankly. Azula raised her eyebrows: she was trying to get at something that was absolutely going over his head… and that was her fault entirely.

She was so close. He was so close to her. The table was too big suddenly, no matter if they were that close indeed… he could push himself up slightly, lean in fully, catch her by surprise with a kiss, but would it even surprise her? The way she looked at him now, it was as though that was exactly what she wanted him to…

The sound of keys in the front door caused Sokka to gasp and jump to his feet, as if he had been caught by his mother or a schoolteacher doing something out of bounds. Oh, he was an idiot. A total idiot. His heart was racing and it wouldn't calm down – he hadn't really been about to kiss Azula, had he? And he hadn't just blown his first and only chance to do so, had he…?

"Guess it's Zuko?" Azula said as she pulled back too: Sokka's chest almost collapsed upon itself as he heard the front door swinging open.

"Sorry for barging in without warning," Zuko's voice echoed in the house, and Azula grimaced. Sokka smiled awkwardly as he stepped out of the kitchen: Zuko had a rucksack with him, and Sokka raised an eyebrow at the sight of it. "No, she didn't kick me out: she's spending a couple of days at her parents' place, and…"

"And you need someone to cook for you or else you'll order takeout for every meal?" Sokka asked, curtly. Zuko scoffed.

"I mean, if you don't want to cook enough for two…!"

"Three, actually," Azula announced: Zuko's face paled upon hearing her voice. Azula rose to her feet, stepping past the kitchen's threshold and smirking deviously at her brother. "How rude of you to interrupt us, Zuzu."

"I-interrupt… what?" Zuko said. Sokka's face flushed again and Zuko's paled just as much. "Sokka. Sokka. I don't… I don't want to be the Ross to your Chandler. So please tell me this isn't…"

"We were building her character for the campaign. That's all," Sokka said, with a dry grin, a hand on his face as Azula laughed deviously at her brother's utter horror.

"Azula!" Zuko roared, and she couldn't seem to stop laughing as she wrapped an arm around her stomach, bending over forward at his wild reaction.

Sokka couldn't help but smile as he watched her, no matter how flustered he was by her insinuation – it genuinely made him think he hadn't misread things at all before. Oh, he liked her a lot, and she was smart enough to realize it, Sokka guessed… he'd have to talk things over with Zuko if it looked like dating Azula was an actual possibility in his future. Zuko was bound to reject the notion completely, Sokka guessed… but Sokka couldn't help but be delighted by the sight of Azula's genuine laughter. She was beautiful when she smirked, of course… but her honest smiles were the best of them all.

Zuko wound up eating from the leftovers from their meal while Azula gathered her things, keeping all information about her character secret from her brother for the time being. Zuko seemed genuinely shocked that Azula would be taking the campaign so seriously, but he still eyed her warily constantly, until Sokka accompanied her to the front door while Zuko remained in the kitchen, eating to his heart's content.

"Is this it, then?" Azula asked, smiling at him as they stood at the front door. Sokka's heart was back to racing wildly just upon being alone with her. "I mean… I don't have to do anything else in preparation for the campaign?"

"Oh, uh, not really. I'll be painting the minis next week, but…"

"The… what?" Azula blinked blankly. Sokka smiled shyly.

"The stuff that makes us nerdier still, I guess. We make figures of our characters in Dungeons and Dragons, see? They help us keep up with what's going on during battle sequences. As the Dungeon Master, I place the minis on the maps where the fights are happening, that way I know how far anyone can move, the range of attacks and so on…"

"Ah… and you'll be painting my character?" Azula asked, amused. Sokka smiled.

"Everyone's characters, actually?" he said. "I'll ask for occasional input, send pictures to each of you of what it's looking like and what colors to pick, but…"

"Pictures? And how do I know you won't mess up Fyrelith by, I don't know, giving her a huge wart somewhere?" Azula asked. Sokka laughed, covering his face with his hands. "No, no, no. I can't trust you with this. You're too dangerous with all this power, Dungeon Master…"

"What are you saying? That you'll come by to help me?" Sokka chuckled.

Azula grinned.

Sokka's heart raced even faster.

He returned to the kitchen with wide eyes after Azula took off. Zuko continued eating, though he noticed Sokka's daze as his roommate sank in an empty seat. He bumped Sokka's knee with his own, grunting as though to make Sokka speak his mind.

"Zuko…" Sokka blinked blankly.

"The heck is the matter with you? Did she say something that drained all your happiness, or something?" Zuko asked. Sokka swallowed hard.

"I swear… there's nothing going on between me and your sister," he said. Zuko frowned. "But… would you kill me if I told you that I wish something was?"

Zuko stayed silent for a moment. He set down his fork after a moment. His face twisted slowly into a grimace… and then he dropped his head heavily on the table.

"My best friend and my sister…?"

The quote, spoken in an unusually soft, shrill voice for Zuko's standards, actually brought a burst of laughter from Sokka. He covered his face with his hands while Zuko groaned in frustration over the apparent, inevitable match that was bound to happen between Azula and Sokka…

A match that had another chance of cementing itself the next weekend: Azula was ready to exert her artistic chops and prove herself capable of painting minis along with Sokka. It was, without a doubt, the nerdiest thing she'd done, but she enjoyed herself thoroughly with it while Sokka's dumb, stupid heart continued to pound faster… she didn't really like him. She was just having fun, right? And that was great! He wanted her to have fun. But she couldn't possibly fancy him on any level, not necessarily because he thought himself lacking in appeal in any way… no, it was simply too lucky. He wasn't that lucky, was he? Unrequited love was typical, expected… he couldn't possibly have bottled up a crush on her since their very first encounter, when she had visited Zuko on campus once, only to discover years later that perhaps she felt the same way about him…

"Hmm… who's this?" Azula said, eyeing one of the characters she was painting with disapproving eyes. Sokka chuckled. "It looks like a plain, boring human…"

"That's Jet's character, actually. I won't go into details, though. You really shouldn't be here, you're getting spoiled, to a fault…" Sokka smirked. Azula raised her eyebrows.

"Really? Does this mean I, by some chance, am your favorite player already?" Azula asked. Sokka snorted. "It's quite alright to have some biases, I'd say. Better, even. As long as it means you favor me, of course, favor someone else and I'll decry it as utterly unfair…"

"Of course you would," Sokka chuckled, shaking his head. "You're the one who asked to be here, you said you couldn't stand letting me and my clumsy computer nerd hands handle your character, so…"

"Oh, I didn't say anything about your hands. They're not clumsy, I'm sure," Azula said. "As a computer nerd, I'm sure you have to work with some very… delicate parts, don't you?"

Her wording might not have been odd if it weren't for the inflection of her voice upon speaking them. Sokka didn't respond, eyeing her again as she smirked deviously.

"You… are really a menace," Sokka chuckled, and Azula laughed too. "Honestly…"

"Computer parts, of course! Goodness, Sokka, really… everything is an innuendo with you," she said, shaking her head. Sokka raised his eyebrows.

"Right. It's me. Of course it's me," he said, face red as Azula laughed again.

"Fine, fine, I'll stop if you're uncomfortable…"

"I'm… not that uncomfortable. But I admit it's kind of surprising that you'd poke fun at me with this sort of stuff," Sokka said. "I suppose Zuko will be grateful if you decide I'm your new target for teasing…"

"Oh, he'll never get out of being tormented by me. Sibling contract, remember? Lasts forever," Azula said, smirking. "But you're… fun to tease, in your own way, for sure. Still, it's just… I'm afraid my character is the prettiest of the bunch, you know?"

"Probably," Sokka admitted. Azula smirked at him.

"See? Of course she is. No wonder she's your favorite…"

"Yes, no wonder," Sokka chuckled: he'd do best to focus on the next figurine he had to work on, or else he'd never get anything done if he solely paid attention to Azula.

"Whereas the rest of them look lame," Azula sighed, shaking her head. "How could I possibly romance any of them?"

"Oh? That's the problem?" Sokka asked, amused. Azula nodded, feigning genuine consternation as she closed her eyes. "You might like their personalities, though…"

"Say that I don't…" Azula said, eyeing Sokka warily. "I suppose I'm just trying to set the record straight here… you play lots of NPCs, right? Non-playable characters?"

"I do," Sokka blinked blankly.

"Romance… isn't restricted to player characters, is it?" Azula asked, with a slowly growing grin.

Sokka's heart jolted. Azula raised her eyebrows, waiting for an answer as Sokka seemed to forget how to speak altogether. His lips parted, but no words came out as Azula chuckled, tilting her head to the side slightly.

"Oh, my: your blue eyes are flashing some weird code… it's a blue screen of death! Damn it. I guess I might need that USB stick to fix you, don't I? Where did you put it, I wonder…?"

"N-n-no need. I'm… here. Somehow. I think," Sokka swallowed hard. Azula chuckled, biting her lip as she eyed him questioningly.

"You played Aang's wife once, you said? Is it that much worse to come up with a character I could romance?" she asked. "A way prettier one than this lot, too…"

"Heh. I mean… I could, but, uh… probably not right away?" Sokka said, with an awkward smile. "I mean, I do have the whole campaign planned and all, so… might be better to save it for when we're close to the end, heh. T-that way… Fyrelith could even have a happy ending with someone. Right? Could be… that's the purpose she wants in life? Well, if we end up playing things and it feels right, of course…"

"Hmm," Azula said, frowning. "It's a little strange to plan the ending, though. I mean, you could, but I shouldn't be involved in preparing for that… no matter how much of a DM's pet I may be, right?"

"Uh, right," Sokka said, cheeks flushed as she pointed out he was being terribly unprofessional, quite accurately too. "You should roleplay, that's the point, heh. Just… roleplay with whatever feels right for your character."

"Whatever feels right?" Azula repeated. Sokka nodded promptly. "And… what about you? Would you set any boundaries, as a DM? You really should…"

"Well, if someone ever went out of line I'd definitely try to reel them back in," Sokka said. Azula hummed. "I don't think anything like that has ever happened… but I guess with so many new players, things might be different. Still… I think if anything makes me too uncomfortable I'd just say it, yeah."

"Hmm. I suppose that's how it is," Azula said, with a slow smile. "Well, then… I think my questions have been answered now. Fyrelith might be lucky, or perhaps not so much… we'll see depending on if you can come up with NPCs up to her standards, of course."

"That's not a lot of pressure, no…" Sokka chuckled, focusing on working on the minis once more now: his heart was still racing, but he felt slightly better now that Azula's curiosity appeared to be sated.

He really wasn't crazy for thinking there was a strange kind of energy between them, was he? It was an attraction he wasn't sure he had experienced in such a way ever before. Zuko nearly had a meltdown over the concept of Sokka and Azula dating, it was true, but he seemed to be over it by now – that was, as long as texting him links to the 'MY BEST FRIEND AND MY SISTER?' scene from Friends every two days meant he was over it – and his opposition to the concept appeared to be mostly over the realization that Azula would be the most obnoxious girlfriend to Sokka solely to make her brother uncomfortable… but that didn't mean this was a certain thing. Sokka liked her… he really did and he wasn't going to pretend otherwise. Sometimes, he couldn't help but imagine she felt the same way… but did she? Her satisfied smirk as she worked on Jet's character suggested she was up to something… and Sokka couldn't help but want to learn exactly what it was.

He didn't on that day, of course: before they could get too comfortable, before they could even hope to discuss whatever was going on between them, the doorbell rang and Sokka had to open the door to his sister, who was bringing a food parcel their parents had left her with… and upon finding Azula and Sokka were deep in the process of perfecting the minis, Katara rushed in to join them, delighted by the chance to work on her character as well. Thus, once again, their privacy was no more… but judging by Azula's pleasant mood that afternoon, she was genuinely unbothered by that. She and Katara had plenty of conversations about their expectations from the campaign, and Sokka laughed at their assumptions while clearing up his sister's questions and fielding off Azula's relentless, clever teasing.

By then, Sokka only had a few more preparations left before the campaign could begin, and he handled them as quickly as possible: the whole party agreed upon a regular schedule, and they would attempt to make their encounters a weekly appointment, if possible. Once Sokka was done with his final tweaks to the story, as well as with building the maps he expected he'd need, at least for the initial adventures, he texted the group chat to inform them of the date on which their campaign would begin, and he received full approval from everyone.

Thus, on the appointed day, Sokka's biggest campaign as a Dungeon Master was finally ready to begin.

Some introductions were in order, as several members of the group hadn't met before: Jet's little brother was adamant about being called The Duke, and he was entirely into his roleplaying from the moment he arrived. His character was a dwarven noble called Dain, an artificer with magical aptitudes. His brother, Jet, chose the most straightforward and simple character, a human fighter, only to irritate his brother by how utterly basic he was – and to top it off, he called the character Jet, too. Toph, on her part, chose to play as a male half-orc barbarian called Stout, and she warned everyone that she'd go all out with this game, seeing as it was finally a game where being blind wasn't much of a detriment, for she had Braille dice and she would be able to feel her rolls directly. Katara had chosen to be an elven wizard called Ilyrana, Ty Lee was a monk Air Genasi whom she had named, Aerya, Mai was a rogue aasimar with the name Andril, while Suki had chosen to be a gnome ranger called Selwyn. Aang's halfling druid was called Anrin, and Zuko had picked the name Ixuus for his dragonborn warlock.

Once everyone sat at the long table with their respective gear fully ready, the game finally began. Sokka weaved his storytelling wonders upon the group gradually, hoping to ease the process of introduction into the game for those who had never played Dungeons and Dragons before. He encouraged them to interact among themselves, Zuko and Aang helped him in teaching the others how to roleplay by example, though they hadn't needed to do so for the Duke, the only other experienced player at the table.

While things started slow, they picked up speed quickly: a set of missions gone wrong had caused all their characters, mercenaries attempting to make a living, to converge at a suspicious tavern that all leads had pointed them towards. A perfectly innocent innkeeper had provided them with no further information, though, as well as no means through which to investigate the inn's room where the suspicions were leading them.

"This guy's not going to crack easily, huh?" Jet said, raising an eyebrow.

"Not if we keep rolling so poorly," Aang groaned, glaring at the natural one on his dice tray.

"How about we just go upstairs, bust the door open and get this over with?" Toph growled, in-character, and the others shut her down immediately. "What? It'd make it way easier! Aren't we a bunch of scary mercenaries or whatever?"

"That doesn't mean we have to pick fights everywhere we go," Katara said, with a dry grin. "We could, uh, sneak in from the window, maybe? I don't know, I suppose Andril and Aerya might be able to do that…"

"What we require…" Azula cut in, her voice ringing with authority and a sultriness that Sokka shouldn't have found as appealing as he did… "Is a distraction, is it not?"

"A distraction?" Zuko replied. "Uh… okay? We're listening."

"If I can distract the innkeeper, you lot can, perhaps, find a spare key and head upstairs. Find whatever leads you can while I ensure the innkeeper is properly occupied…" Azula said, with a shrug. "And that way we'll finally make some progress."

"I think that sounds reasonable," The Duke said, firmly. "Let's listen to the tiefling, though I warn all of you, tieflings can be tricky, but…"

"Oh, please. What would I have to gain from tricking any of you?" Azula said, rolling her eyes. "I'm only in this for… uh, well, that's my business, isn't it?"

"That doesn't make you any more trustworthy, you know?" The Duke hissed. "But… we could use your abilities. So… do your best, tiefling."

"I have a name," Azula said. "But… to be entirely fair, I can't pretend I'd care if you use it. Anyway…"

She turned towards Sokka, smiling deviously. He chuckled and shrugged.

"You walk up to the innkeeper," Sokka said. Azula nodded.

"What does he look like?"

"Oh, uh… human, about mid-thirties? Dark hair, tan skin, not too bulky but not weak either, his duties at the inn keep him in alright shape," Sokka reasoned. Azula hummed.

"Good sir… may I ask for your name?" she smiled. Sokka slipped into character immediately and smiled.

"I'm Goldric, my lady. May I help you?" he said. Azula's smile widened.

"Oh, you may indeed," she said. Sokka raised an eyebrow.

"Is there, um, a drink I could bring you, or…?"

"Perhaps instead of bringing a drink here, you could, uh… bring me into your cellar instead? I have a good eye for the best wine vintages, you see," Azula said, with a wicked smile. "Perhaps we could even… share a bottle in private, if you would be so inclined?"

The whole table fell silent as Azula smirked at Sokka. He blinked once, then twice… then he cleared his throat, hoping not to blush too profusely.

"Okay, then… roll a d20 for persuasion?" Sokka blinked blankly – he had thought the innkeeper might have been a family man, with young children… but if that roll was too high, he'd scrap that notion immediately. Azula didn't need him to cause unnecessary drama for her character on the first time she had taken the initiative in the campaign, so…

Azula picked out the dice of twenty sides from her set, and she rolled into her dice tray. Aang, sitting beside her, gasped when the dice stopped…

"Natural twenty?!"

Sokka's jaw dropped. The entire table broke out in laughter as Azula stretched her arms out in a most arrogant gesture, clapping her hands as if to say her job was complete. Sokka, still shocked, blinked himself out of his amazement and smiled at Azula.

"Well, then. Heh. Okay," he said, swallowing hard before getting into character. "O-oh, uh… sure! That sounds lovely. I… gladly. Come, come. This way…"

"How very generous of you. I assure you, you shall be rewarded with sufficient generosity as well," Azula smirked. Sokka broke out of character with laughter as he shook his head.

"Congratulations: you seduced the innkeeper."

Azula raised a fist in the air in proud celebration while the others laughed at her unexpected solution for their predicament. Sokka chuckled too as he continued the story: the group took to rummaging through the innkeeper's things, found a master key and opened the door to their suspect's room. The man they were looking for was there… but not in good shape: a Shadow was sucking the life out of him, it seemed, and the party had to attempt to save the man in order to learn what his true purpose and intent were.

"Okay, so… roll for initiative! Roll your d20s and add your dexterity modifier," Sokka smiled. Azula frowned.

"Uh… this is to determine the order of combat, is it?" she asked. Sokka nodded. "I see."

"It is, so… why aren't you rolling?" Sokka asked, raising an eyebrow as the others began announcing their initiative numbers. Sokka ignored them, though, as Azula smirked at him.

"Because I'm not in combat, am I?"

"You… wait, what?" Sokka smiled awkwardly.

"A natural twenty means… a critical success, doesn't it?" Azula said, arms folded over her chest. "If I was that successful at persuading and seducing that guy… well, it's pretty obvious I'm going to be busy for at least the next, uh, fifteen minutes, give or take."

"Azula…?" Zuko blinked blankly, staring at her from across the table. Beside him, Suki snorted in amusement.

"You're actually fucking the innkeeper while the rest of us are in the middle of a fight?" she asked.

Azula's response was a perfectly shameless shrug: the whole room rang with laughter as she smirked proudly at an utterly flustered Sokka. His face probably had never been as red… for he had never allowed himself to picture, not truly, the notion of himself and Azula engaging in any manner of sexual activity. Nope. And he wasn't about to start thinking about it now. He wasn't going to. He wouldn't…

Oh, well. Why deny it? He'd pictured it now, and it was more than enough to send his brain into overdrive.

The combat scene was difficult to focus on, especially with the relentless teasing of the rest of the players, asking Azula to make performance rolls to find out just how well things were going for her and the innkeeper. Sokka told her not to bother – she still tried, scoring a 17 and a 15 on the first rounds, and Sokka's flustered face spoke for itself regarding what a successful result that was. Still, the battle against the Shadow resulted in victory for the party, Azula apparently was quite satisfied with her cellar adventures with the innkeeper, and their first session ended in utter triumph for the whole party.

"I know it caught you by surprise, but it was my very first idea on how to resolve the situation," Azula laughed that night as Sokka walked her to her car, parked right outside his house. "Did I go too far?"

"Well… I don't know. Depends on how you went about fucking the innkeeper, I suppose," Sokka said, with an awkward smile. Azula laughed, shaking her head.

"More like how he went about fucking me, I suppose, but…"

"Don't play coy now: your tiefling's got to be some sort of incredible dominatrix, accept the truth already," Sokka said, and Azula's laughter seemed to ring across the neighborhood at his accusations.

"Fine, then, fine," she smiled, pulling her car's door open. "You're sure it's okay, though?"

"It is," Sokka nodded, smiling at her. "I'll put my foot down if I change my mind, alright?"

"Sounds about right. I'll play nice if you do. And I'll keep playing naughty in the meantime," Azula smirked, winking at him before slipping into the driver's seat.

Sokka swallowed hard, struggling to suppress the shudder of delight that had rushed through his body over her words and gesture. Maybe he shouldn't be so thrilled about their next session merely for the sake of seeing Azula again, of being the target of her wicked teasing, as he had been today, but he couldn't quite help but look forward to it for that reason all the same…

On the next week, Sokka prepared himself as best he could for a wholly different adventure: the party's investigations into the previous session's events resulted in a journey that took them out of the city and into the wild forests beyond it. Sokka had a few plans for what they'd find… but first off, he wanted to cause some chaos by featuring a few surprise combat encounters along the way. The first ones weren't all that tricky to handle, but then he released his grand threat upon the party…

"Everyone: roll initiative!" Sokka declared, setting the large orc's mini on the map he'd prepared as everyone gaped at him in horror.

"Shit! I didn't think we'd get attacked by anything right before we got to the summit…" Katara winced, looking at Sokka in horror. "You're mean, Sokka! We're almost there, you said…!"

"Hey, it's the way the game works. Take it or leave it," Sokka smirked: everyone rolled, and everyone offered Sokka their respective initiative results as the battle against the terrifying orc began.

Of course, all was going well right until Azula's character stepped up to the orc Sokka had placed on the battlefield. The orc's turn came right after hers, he had already taken a few blows by the other players – ranged blows, mostly – and her choice to be in such proximity with the orc seemed a rather wild one to make…

"It's pretty unsafe to be in close quarters with this guy. He'll get an attack of opportunity…" Sokka pointed out, and Azula huffed, brushing through the rulebook.

"From what I understand, even if we leveled up to second level last week, I actually cannot use second-level spells yet?"

"Uh, you can't yet, no," Sokka said. Azula huffed, shaking her head.

"Well, that's too bad but I suppose Charm Person will do?"

Sokka's jaw dropped. The others let out a deep 'ooooh' while eyeing Sokka deviously, since that wasn't something he'd planned for at all. Azula smiled wickedly again, closing the book and shrugging.

"Mind making a wisdom saving throw for me, mighty orc?" she asked. Sokka huffed, shaking his head before rolling the dice.

"What's the DC?" he asked. Azula hummed before finding the right stat for Sokka to measure himself against.

"That would be a fourteen, yes," she said. The Duke, Aang and Zuko hummed at the surprisingly high number while at such a low level. "Indeed, my charisma is quite high. You're most unfortunate for that, my lovely orc."

"Well… the lovely orc has rolled a fifteen, so I'm afraid your spell didn't take hold," Sokka smiled. Azula gasped in horror as the table groaned.

"That's not fair," she said, huffing. Sokka shrugged. "And here I was thinking we could have so much fun…"

"Wait, what?" Jet snorted. "Again?"

"Are you slutshaming Fyrelith? Are you?" Azula asked, glaring at him playfully from over Aang's head. Jet cackled, covering his face with a hand as Ty Lee's jaw dropped.

"Azula! I didn't know you had this in you!" she said. Azula scoffed.

"Me? It's what Fyrelith wants, I'm only channeling what the character requires. Simple," Azula said, with a bright grin.

"Well, I'm afraid you're not going to bang an orc that's hellbent on trying to kill you for trespassing on his territory," Sokka said, with a sarcastic smile. Azula scoffed.

"I can still try again…"

"Don't waste all your spell slots on this nonsense!" Zuko squealed: Azula groaned, waving a dismissive hand at him. "Azula!"

The fight continued once her turn was over – and of course, Azula took damage from the orc once his turn arrived. He roared before delivering a sharp slap across her face: Azula dignified that with a whimper of pain… and then a devious smile.

"I see you like it rough, do you? How delightful…" she said, and the others laughed again as Sokka groaned, looking at her in disbelief.

"He attacked you! This is an unhealthy fixation you're developing with this guy!" Sokka said. "Don't try to bang people who hurt you, Azula!"

"Oh, now, I wouldn't! But Fyrelith is a whole other story, you see…"

"He's a hideous-looking orc! Look!" Sokka's voice cracked as he picked up the mini, showing it closely at Azula while the rest of the table roared with laughter. She tilted her head to the side, smirking and biting her lower lip.

"There's just this rugged handsomeness about him, though…"

"Holy crap, you're completely incorrigible," Sokka surrendered, setting the mini in place again as he smiled in disbelief at her. "I really hope you guys go to a temple soon. I feel like someone has to exorcize Fyrelith…"

"If only one of us were a cleric…" sighed The Duke, shooting a glare at his brother, who stuck a tongue out at him.

"Why should I be the cleric? You be the cleric…"

The sibling argument unfolded carelessly then as the fight carried forward: a full round was done, and the orc was not in the best of shapes once Azula's turn came around anew. Sokka shot her a wary look. She responded with a devious smirk. Sokka raised a menacing hand.

"Azula…"

"I… would like to persuade him," she said. Sokka's jaw dropped. "Regular, plain persuasion. No spells, or Zuzu won't let me live it down. So…"

"Right. Well, then. Go on and try!" Sokka said, with a disbelieving smirk. "Disadvantage, because you're talking to a dude who's bleeding pretty profusely after the rest of your party hacked away at him like nobody's business…"

"Disadvantage, then. I see," Azula nodded before breathing in and getting into character once again, eyeing Sokka luridly. "Please, now, we can resolve this in an agreeable way, can we not? A specimen as strong and sturdy as you… I'm sure I could heal your wounds from this fight and, I don't know, learn a thing or two about orc anatomy while we're at it?"

She wiggled her eyebrows and Sokka shot her a defiant glare. He gestured with his chin, and Azula picked up her twenty-sided dice: the first result was a fifteen… and the second, an eight.

"Well, then, disadvantage says you failed," Sokka smiled in relief… only for The Duke to hum, eyeing him questioningly.

"I'm not sure about that, you know? Because you probably should do an Insight check yourself," The Duke said. Sokka froze, glaring at one of the more experienced players at the table. "I mean, I don't know how smart you want to make this guy sound, but…"

"That's a good point. He doesn't sound all that smart to me," Aang laughed.

"This could work? You could actually seduce an orc with a roll as low as eight?" Mai asked, skeptical. Azula shrugged carelessly.

"I was about to accept my failure but if that sounds reasonable…" Azula said, smiling at Sokka again: his eyebrow twitched as he glared at Aang. "Oh, come on, it's an eight, isn't it? Hardly like you're bound to fail it."

"Well… the orc's wisdom modifier is minus two," Sokka revealed, and the whole table gasped in amazement. Azula blinked blankly, a slow smile spreading over her face. "And that's what affects insight. So… as long as I get ten or higher, sure, I'm fine, but… fuck."

He hadn't thought to do an insight check himself – it seemed to him that this orc could very well just be a violent asshole who was uninterested in a seductive tiefling. But it might be entertaining to roll against Azula's roll…

His d20 rolled in his dice tray before settling on a seven.

Sokka yelped. Azula gasped happily, even if she hadn't seen the number directly.

"Did it work?! Did it work?!" Ty Lee exclaimed: Sokka covered his face in his hands as a response…

And the entire table erupted in a spree of wild cheers. Azula laughed harder than anyone – she had assumed it wouldn't pay off, she seemed resigned to an adverse result… oh, but seeing her laugh that way was more than enough for Sokka. Even if it meant his orc was a smitten fool now, of course.

"U-uh, I, uh… What? What? You're, um… pretty," he said, roleplaying as the orc again. Azula laughed and nodded.

"Aren't I? That's wonderful of you to say. But now I'd very much like it if you would stop fighting my comrades?" Azula said, raising her eyebrows meaningfully. Sokka groaned.

"I… fight them. You're my snack for later," he decided, turning his focus on the others again: the whole table gasped at the way he had circumvented the situation, preventing a strange, diplomatic solution just when it seemed to be at hand.

"Wait, what?!" Suki gasped. "You can't just ignore her, she persuaded you!"

"She persuaded him of her value as a healer and as a snack, I suppose," Sokka smiled. "But you lot? You didn't persuade him of anything, he's not very bright, so he won't decide you're all harmless just because he thinks she is. See?"

"Let me at him, I'll tear that orc a new one…" Toph said, cracking her knuckles. "It's my turn after he's done with his, right? I'll finish him off…!"

"Wait… I have a bonus action, don't I?" Azula said, stopping Toph on her tracks.

"Sure…?" Sokka blinked blankly.

"I didn't really attack, so I'm not sure if this whole thing about offhand action is plausible?" Azula said. Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Can I bargain with you to make, uh, a manner of attack, I'd say?"

"A manner of attack?" Sokka asked. "What, you're going to smack the orc with your staff? Kind of a little too much if that's what you…"

"No, no, no… I'm going to flash him."

"You're…" Sokka started… then he froze on his tracks. His jaw dropped as the table fell utterly silent. Azula blinked blankly a few times, as if waiting for him to speak. "You're… going to flash him. Like… pull your corset open and…?"

"Exactly."

The table roared with laughter again at Sokka's utter perplexity. Azula shrugged, mimicking the potential action with one hand hovering by her chest.

"See, tugging the binding loose quickly isn't going to be that hard, then Fyrelith just has to push her chest out and…"

"Okay! That's a visual!" Sokka exclaimed, face red as he huffed, eyes wide in horror. Azula laughed, and even she was slightly flustered now.

"Too much for a bonus action? Damn. Guess Toph might have to finish him off, then," she chuckled.

"Azula… roll two d8s," Sokka sighed, shaking his head.

"Oh?" she asked.

"Yep. One for each breast," Sokka snorted: a gasp, and another spree of laughter overtook the table as Azula chuckled, rolling the two dice.

"What exactly is this roll supposed to even be?" Katara asked, eyeing her brother in utter confusion.

"If you must know… psychic damage," Sokka said, bluntly, and the others laughed again at his earnest answer. Azula chuckled.

"I wonder if you'd have picked a die with more sides if her rack was any bigger," Azula said. "I got a 12, by the way."

"Twelve?" Sokka asked, with a widening smirk as he eyed his creature's remaining ten hit points. "Azula… you did a great job! You killed a guy by flashing him!"

"What?!" Azula gasped, horrified as the others laughed and cheered her on. "B-but…no! I was trying to…!"

"You could definitely call it a killer rack now, I have to say…" Sokka smirked, as the others laughed even harder. "Nice move. Never knew it was a doable one, but hey! That was pretty damn clever of you. See how great roleplaying can be? You let the dice tell the story…!"

"Even if it results in death by tits," Toph smirked.

"Curses… this isn't over, DM," Azula hissed, raising a menacing finger in his direction. "One way or another… I will have my revenge."

"Well, be my guest and continue to attempt it," Sokka smirked, shaking his head. "You know, I thought your character was seeking a purpose in life…?"

"Apparently that purpose is banging every eligible individual in the realm," Mai said. Azula smiled deviously at her.

"Well, not every eligible one. As far as I can tell, you lot are single, ready to mingle and yet…"

She eyed everyone in the table with distaste and judgment, resulting in another spree of laughter by them all. She waved a hand dismissively in their direction as Jet, the more affronted of the group, cleared his throat.

"And what if I try to romance you?" he asked – Sokka scolded himself for feeling any manner of jealous pangs at the notion of Jet hitting on Azula, even if just her character. "I'm a human and, while my brother thinks that's the most boring thing in the world…"

"It is!"

"I'm perfectly handsome too," Jet grinned. "And, uh, I suppose technically my guy is still looking at your rack…"

"Oh, is he?" Sokka asked, raising an eyebrow. "Azula, roll another two d8…"

"Okay no! Okay, stop, I'm a decent guy! I'm not looking!" Jet squealed, as the table laughed again – it wasn't likely that he'd die over the result of that roll, but he wasn't willing to risk it.

"Ah, how unfortunate. How will I ever find anyone who can withstand looking at my chest without dying in the process?" Azula sighed dramatically, before nodding at Sokka. "And so, I tied up my corset again and my, uh, C-cups are properly hidden once more."

"Ah, and they're C-cups?" Katara asked, amused. Azula nodded sagely.

"You see, I'm theorizing that it'd be a d4 of psychic damage if it were an A-cup, a d6 if it's a B-cup so a d8 if it's a C-cup, I'm assuming, d10 for a D-cup, so…"

"Are you seriously coming up with homebrew rules for the psychic damage in terms of bra sizes?" Sokka asked, gawking at Azula in disbelief. She nodded sagely.

"Well, why not? The other girls might need to do this sometimes to get out of trouble, I'm just offering some helpful resources…"

"Yeah, you know what? I'm writing that down, definitely going to keep that damage chart handy for the future…" Suki declared, making notes of Azula's new ideas while Sokka struggled with his own laughter.

"This… is either the best campaign of all time or the worst. Still too soon to tell," he said. Azula chuckled, and Sokka was delighted to find her eyes seemed even sympathetic and slightly apologetic over the utter embarrassment she had subjected him to with her relentless teasing.

They talked matters over again afterwards, with Azula confessing she had worried that her latest idea was slightly too bold, but Sokka reassured her: this strange tug of war they were holding in the game was thoroughly entertaining for the two of them, as well as the rest of their friends.

So, after confirming yet again that no worrisome boundaries had been breached, their amusing clashing continued in the next sessions: every new character Sokka introduced was immediately a potential target for Azula's wicked ideas. Sometimes her checks succeeded, just as sometimes they failed: on occasion, Sokka would make up new, appealing characters on the fly just to mess with her whenever she was trying to have her way with another one, but sometimes Azula would improvise upon his choices, down to even having her character engage in a rather wild situation with a pair of elves, both too naïve to understand what she was up to as she dragged them into a private room. Her deviousness knew no boundaries, and the people at the table seemed to find her character's antics a grand highlight of each session: they'd even start placing their bets on which newly-introduced character Fyrelith might attempt to sleep with, while also even making their own attempts at bonding with each other as well as her character – Jet continued to attempt to flirt with her, and her deadpan responses caused everyone to roar with laughter as he continued to wonder what, exactly, was so unappealing about his human fighter.

It was a genuine miracle that their group managed to stick to their schedule almost flawlessly, and their campaign flowed quite successfully because of that. New friendships and bonds had been built between everyone, both within the story and outside it, and their genuine enjoyment of the campaign was palpable as their characters gained further strength, now having reached level seven and finally becoming a proper adventuring group, according to the more experienced players.

But something carried over from the first session until the fifteenth: Azula smirked in a telling way as soon as Sokka finished introducing a new character…

"Hey. Hey!" Sokka glared at her menacingly. "Careful where you tread, young lady!"

"What? I'm just thinking… a blacksmith? That's… interesting," Azula laughed as Sokka huffed, shaking his head.

"She's a married woman, damn it!" Sokka squeaked. "And besides… she's straight!"

"Oh, really? As if seeing a lady as hot as Fyrelith wouldn't cause her to question her sexuality at least a little bit…?" Azula said, smirking deviously at Sokka. He huffed. "Come on. Just let me roll for it. I swear I'll leave her alone if I fail."

"So… you're saying you don't mind that she's married?" Sokka asked. Azula shrugged.

"Well, I don't think Fyrelith would, no. She's terribly amoral, remember? Chaotic neutral," Azula grinned, with a careless shrug.

"If you become a homewrecker after this, you might actually be chaotic evil," Katara smirked. Azula rolled her eyes.

"Semantics…" she said, dismissively, and everyone at the table laughed. Sokka huffed, glaring at her meaningfully.

"You insist on giving it a shot?" he asked. Azula smirked.

"You do realize you're supposed to be the boss here? If you want to put your foot down and say this lady's days of experimentation are behind her, go for it. But if you think she'd be even slightly curious…"

Sokka held her gaze, and Azula's smirk didn't dwindle at all. He breathed deeply… before giving her his verdict:

"Roll for persuasion with disadvantage," he hissed. Azula laughed deviously.

"Oh, I don't know about this blacksmith but you, DM, have a soft spot for Fyrelith for sure…" Azula snickered, rolling two twenty-sided dice, as commanded…

Aang, beside her, gasped. Azula raised her eyebrows upon looking at the numbers on the pair of dice…

"What? What?!" Sokka whimpered. Azula smirked again, though there was a smidge of remorse as well.

"Natural twenty… and natural nineteen."

Sokka's eyes widened. His face paled. Azula couldn't muffle her laughter as the rest of the table broke out in laughter as well: Sokka groaned, shaking his head in horror before taking his own dice: he could do this, he could do this, if he rolled high enough he might counter her roll…

A nine, of course, wasn't going to be a high enough number to defeat her.

"Ugh. Fine. Fine. You win," Sokka groaned. Azula giggled wickedly.

"You could say I have a… weakness for strong arms. I'd never seen any quite so strong in a lady before, too," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Mine are pretty strong, though!" Ty Lee exclaimed, beaming: Azula shot her a deadpan glare, like the ones she typically shot Jet. "I mean, I'm not saying I'm interested, but…"

"I… found a much better offer right here. A delightfully strong woman, right? Right?" Azula said, teasing Sokka into roleplaying. His tense smile spoke for itself.

"I… I must say, I don't really know what you mean…" he said, trying to sound as feminine as possible while everyone laughed. Azula chuckled, gazing at him with teasing affection.

"Now, now, don't be so modest… though if you'd truly like to know what I meant, dear, there's one rather interesting way of going about it," she said, biting her lip. "Mind introducing me to your… forge?"

"Uh… sure! You'd like to see it? Perfect!" Sokka grinned awkwardly before letting out a deep sigh. "And so, Fyrelith has gotten laid, officially, six times."

The table erupted in cheers as Azula cackled with deviousness, clapping as well at Sokka's declaration.

"Does that include the two elves?" asked Toph, smirking.

"Six times, seven partners. The distinction is worth pointing out, I suppose," Azula laughed. "Ah, it could be more, but you have been terribly stingy with some characters, Sokka. Like that wonderful orc. He might have been Fyrelith's soulmate and yet…"

"Fyrelith killed him herself, so don't guilt me about it," Sokka chuckled, shaking his head.

"Come to think of it, shouldn't you roll the damage against the blacksmith lady?" Mai smirked. "Probably against all the people who've seen your breasts by now, Fyrelith…"

"Oh, well, it's not a combat situation, so I don't think it'll be necessarily damaging then…" Sokka said. Azula let out a happy sigh.

"Ah, I did worry about that, but it's good to know that's your verdict, Sokka," she said.

"You should do some sort of performance check to make sure it doesn't do damage, though," chuckled The Duke. "I mean, the lady's never been with a female tiefling before, right?"

"So, you think… what, that a low roll would mean she'd faint as soon as I take off my clothes?" Azula scoffed. The Duke shrugged, and Sokka grinned.

"Hey! That's a good idea! Performance checks to find out how this tryst turned out!" he said. "Come on, Azula, it's a performance check…!"

"Well, I suppose at least performance works with the charisma modifier, better than athletics for someone like me…" Azula said, raising her eyebrows as she picked up her dice and rolled it… and she snorted, throwing her head back in amusement. "Why can't I roll this well for initiative calls? Got a sixteen, my charisma modifier is plus four, so…"

"Another twenty?" Sokka's eyebrow twitched. "Well… I got a fifteen here. So… ehem. You guys are just waiting for Fyrelith to be done with her business which, I suppose, means that you'll get all your equipment repairs for free since a performance check that high would get you that much of a discount…"

"Hell yeah!" The Duke laughed.

"Okay, Azula: you're banging the clerk of the potions shops next time," Zuko said, smirking. "I wouldn't be encouraging you to do this, normally, but…"

"Ah, finally accepting my life's choices, brother: thank you. I've always waited for this moment…" Azula responded, dramatically: even though he was usually quite irritated by Azula's antics, it seemed her primary focus on Sokka during these games had eased up Zuko's tension and irritable behavior at his sister.

"After about thirty minutes or so," Sokka continued. "You see Fyrelith is leaving the forge room, looking… eh, like she usually does. Meanwhile, the blacksmith is following her with lovestruck eyes and trembling hands…"

"Oh, no!" Katara snorted, covering her mouth with a hand as Azula's eyes widened. Sokka smiled deviously at Azula.

"Oh, my lady! T-that was incredible! Where did you learn such techniques? I… I am, uh, of course, talking about forging techniques, haha! Yes, yes, do not judge me, please…!" Sokka roleplayed, acting bashful and shameless all at once as the rest of the table broke into laughter while Azula, for once, dropped her face in her hand. "My lady, would you like to stay? For a day, maybe! The night! Surely you need a place to stay! My husband, oh, he'll be delighted to meet you as well…!"

"I… don't think so," Azula said, with a weak smile. "Goodness, if you're this thrilled about my performance, I sincerely doubt he's any good in bed himself…"

"Oh, he's not! But you, my lady…!" Sokka said, his voice as greedy as could be. Azula couldn't keep a straight face anymore as she closed her eyes in laughter. "I'm sure you could teach him so much if you stay and…!"

"We… have a journey to continue!" Zuko cut in, with a dry grin. Sokka scoffed at him. "I'm afraid we cannot stay any longer than we have."

"I can get you some food! Some drinks, too…!"

"Hell, yeah!" Toph roared.

"Toph!" the others rebuffed her, and she shrugged carelessly in their direction.

It was yet another victory for Azula, then, as the dice had favored her this time… but a week later, Sokka ensured to turn the tables. He knew Azula had boundaries of her own, there was no way that wouldn't be the case… and after leading the party into a large swamp, filled with festering corpses he introduced that day's main non-playable character…

"You come across a dark-haired, blue-eyed humanoid," Sokka said: Azula's knowing smile tickled him, as he knew what was going through her mind already… and he smirked before delivering the final blow that would freeze Azula on the spot. "He is eight-years-old."

A collective gasp by the entire party. Azula's smile dwindled at once. Sokka smirked at her, proudly.

"He is… a stable boy of some sort, going by the appearance of his filthy attire, but he may have gotten lost during his journey," he said "And just as it has happened with many people you've met, the child has been haunted by Shadows, pushed away from home. He's nervous, downcast… but he smiles at once when your group approaches."

Sokka cleared his throat, and he hitched his voice purposefully, for the sake of impressing further childishness into his upcoming act.

"G-good day…" he said, shyly. "Are you travelers? I… I'm lost. I don't know where I am, I don't know what happened, I…"

"Child," Katara said, offering Sokka a sympathetic smile. "Don't fret. We'll help you, for sure. Are you alone out here?"

"Uh-huh…" Sokka nodded, making his best impression of an innocent child. Azula grimaced, a hand on her face.

"Really? No friends, no family out here with you?" Ty Lee asked.

"How did you wind up here, then?" Suki said. Sokka shrugged.

"I… I don't know. T-these spooky things, t-they scared me and I just ran. And then I woke up… here," he said, glancing around himself warily. "P-please… I just want to go back to the farm…"

"The farm… owned by your parents?" Azula asked. Sokka's eyes narrowed.

"My parents died," he said, curtly, his voice no longer as emotional, though still as shrill. Azula's eyebrow twitched.

"How about… an older sibling?" Azula asked.

"I have no one," Sokka said, bluntly. "I'm alone. It's just little old me."

"Little… as in, how old are you?" Azula asked, swallowing hard. "J-just… to be sure. A human child, right? That's what you are…?"

"I'm a human child and I'm eight-years-old," Sokka repeated.

For the first time, Azula groaned and dropped heavily on the table in a sign of defeat: the entire group gasped in shock, as Sokka raised his head proudly.

"Fine! Fine! I get the picture! It's over!" Azula exclaimed, as everyone laughed at her surrender. "You win, I lose! I cannot seduce a character, or attempt to, on every single session! I accept your judgment!"

"I mean… you can certainly try next week, but not this time," Sokka chuckled, but Azula scoffed in his direction.

"Don't play innocent now. You knew exactly what you were setting me up for here… and I respect it. I accept it. I… will rethink my life choices. Fyrelith shall do the same. From here on out, I shall become the most reasonable, goal-oriented sorcerer you've met. Though… I have no idea what my goal is yet, but I suppose the immediate goal should be coming up with a greater goal, yes…"

"So, you're going to stop seducing everything we come across?" Suki smiled sadly. "I mean, everything eligible, I suppose…"

"I fear your days of entertainment over my conquests are now over," Azula said: the whole table groaned in disappointment, and as much as she seemed resolute about her decision, Azula couldn't help but laugh at their reaction.

"Well, come on, I just wanted to tease you into not doing it all the time…" Sokka said, but Azula huffed in his direction.

"I can acknowledge it when I've been beaten. So… I accept this fate you've bestowed upon me. Rethinking my life, right now," she said, shaking her head. "Do not try to break my resolve, for it will be futile…"

"Oh, really?" Sokka smirked.

The fact that her resolve was, indeed, unbreakable, took Sokka by surprise on the next session: a couple of characters were introduced, and Azula made no move to hit on them or flirt with them at all.

"Oh, wow. Looks like she meant it," Aang blinked blankly as Azula behaved aloofly, shaking her head dismissively at everyone's confused stares.

"I feel like I'm being judged more harshly over not being promiscuous anymore than I ever was over my promiscuity," she pointed out, prompting some of the others to laugh. "Truly…"

"Well, we're worried about you, Fyrelith!" Katara laughed, in character once more. "Are you sure you're okay? That guy was okay-looking…"

"Oh, he was… but I have to be more responsible," Azula said, shaking her head. "In all this time I've sought a purpose… and meaningless, careless romps with random people felt like one, for a time. I fear I may need something greater, though."

"A real relationship!" Ty Lee suggested. Azula's eyebrow twitched.

"Not with any of you lot, I don't," she said, and as ever, everyone laughed at her rejection.

"Well, then, how about friendship?" Aang suggested, with a careless smile. "That can be its own kind of fulfillment… you'll see!"

Azula sighed, but she shrugged and complied: Sokka eyed her with a raised eyebrow, and she stared back challengingly. Did she mean he had to try harder to appeal to her? Was that what she was getting at?

But where nothing could scare her away before, now it seemed nothing interested her, instead. She started taking her character building far more seriously, interacting more with the other player characters, and while Sokka thought the direction she was taking her character in would be nice, she still constantly dropped hints that she hadn't found the fulfillment she sought yet. Multiple sessions went by, and nothing Sokka did got a rise out of her… but the way she eyed him sometimes thoroughly convinced him that she wanted him to try harder. Maybe he was wrong… but what if he wasn't?

The campaign carried on, and the other characters got away with having fun antics of their own, amusing storylines that had everyone at the table laughing often. Their characters continued to seek the true source of the Shadows plaguing the realm, ever hoping to put an end to the threat that constantly appeared to rise with further strength. Their team, too, grew stronger and wiser, enough to finally investigate deeply enough to track down their final foe… as well as to defy him in the opulent castle ruins in which he dwelled.

"I raise my staff and say: who are you? And why are you here?" Zuko growled.

Sokka closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again: he seemed to be fully in-character as the villainous entity they had been chasing for around half a year by now.

"Ixuus, the warlock," Sokka said, eyes drifting across the party members, one by one, in clockwise order starting with Zuko. "Selwyn, the ranger. Andril, the rogue. Ilyrana, the wizard. Stout, the barbarian. Dain, the artificer. Jet, the fighter. Aerya, the monk. Anrin, the druid. Fyrelith, the sorcerer. I see you have come to pay me a visit."

"We had something a little less friendly in mind," Jet said, with a smirk. "We don't know what you're trying to pull here, whoever you are… but the gig is up. We're here to take you down."

"Is that so?" Sokka said, his voice deep and menacing. "Just as you take down everything on your path, of course?"

"Hell, yeah!" Toph exclaimed, tossing a fist into the air.

Sokka sighed, shaking his head condescendingly. A few of the players eyed him skeptically as he relaxed on his chair, a strange air of authority and arrogance to him.

"You solely prove me correct in my choices. Every move you've made, every step forward into this violent world… made violent by your choices, not my own," Sokka said, a hint of mournfulness in his voice.

"Say what? You keep sending those Shadows to kill everything!" Suki scoffed.

"We've saved lots of people from them, you send them to kill us…" Katara said, shaking her head. "If anything, you're the one who's being violent! We were happy to be…!"

"Mercenaries. Murderers for hire," Sokka said, and the others froze. "You pretend to have morals, to fight for what's right and true… but what is right and true? It matters little to the likes of you, of course… to the likes of nature altogether. Of mortals, not solely your group of miscreants."

"Uh… I'm a little confused now," Aang said, smiling awkwardly at Sokka. "Are you trying to say that you hate us for being murderers? You hate… nature altogether?"

"When all began… the first speck of life was but a gift bestowed upon a world deemed beautiful, meant to be shared with others," Sokka sighed. "But as life thrived and grew, cruelty became the default choice by those whose hearts were conquered by greed, by hatred… by the need to covet more than they have earned. Satisfaction? It is beyond the likes of you… of all living, breathing beings across our world. It is not solely the sentient, for it's in the very instincts of all creatures in existence. The world is rotten. Life is rotten. It needs… to be purged."

"Well, I heard enough: let's wreck him!" Toph roared. Aang grimaced.

"But if we just fight him we'll prove him right, won't we? We should… go about it differently!" he said, nodding promptly. "Let's talk things over and convince him that life is worth fighting for."

"Uh, I don't think this was designed to be a situation where we can win through persuasion…" Zuko pointed out, and Aang pouted.

"It could be interesting if it were possible, though…" Azula said: the others eyed her skeptically. "What? I'm only saying, it's entirely possible to attempt it, though it probably will fail, but still…"

"Well, you're the one with the insanely high charisma stat… and a longer history of seduction than anyone else in this world, I presume," Mai smirked skeptically. "Hit on him. Maybe flash him, get that 2d8 damage…"

"You know, that's not a totally awful idea," Katara said, with a smile. "Technically, you were the one least inclined to pick fights because you preferred to sleep with everyone, so… how about it? You should totally talk this guy down!"

"I… am slightly out of practice," Azula said, raising her eyebrows and glancing at Sokka, who stared at her intently. "But I suppose it won't hurt to try?"

"I don't think I trust that guy… though I don't trust the tiefling much more than I trust him, honestly," The Duke said, with a grimace.

"She's pulled off some really incredible feats with her, uh, assets. I'm sure she can do something now," Jet grinned. "Go on, Fyrelith! Convince that guy that we don't just kill everything, we bed everything we can, too!"

"A respectable motto, yes," Azula agreed, nodding as the others laughed at Jet's words.

She breathed deeply then, turning towards Sokka. He stared her down defiantly, much as he had in the past.

"Well, I haven't done this in a while…" Azula said, biting her lip. "Yes, well, a few months, technically, but that's still a long time for me. At any rate… you have yet to answer our main question. Who are you?"

Sokka closed his eyes again, and he kept silent long enough to make them think he might not answer…

"I am Hessik. And I… am the mind from which this world first spawned."

Their jaws dropped. Everyone glanced among each other in confusion: a few non-playable clerics they'd met had mentioned Hessik's name here and there as some old entity, long-forgotten but recently rediscovered... even so, he had been revered as a deity, a god. An intangible, distant entity…

"This world… was my creation," he said. "And I have seen it grow corrupted with the cruelty in the hearts of all who cannot seem to stop reaching for more than they deserve. It is vile, it is vicious… and it is my wish to see it undone."

"Undone? You… intend to destroy this world, do you?" Azula asked. "And, perhaps, create a new one where such cruelty is needless? Yet… life is brittle, fragile. We cannot survive by doing nothing. By watching sunsets and sunrises, by breathing in flowers… for flowers, too, must drain water and nourishment from the earth. In doing so, they may overstep themselves, take more than they should, kill other flowers by stealing what the others need…"

"It is a flawed world, is it not?" Sokka said, bitterly. "I was young… I was foolish and I failed to predict an outcome that, after so many years, seems so obvious. But nothing will change for the better. There is nothing but cruelty and darkness awaiting… nothing but oblivion for the likes of your friends. But you…"

"Oh? What about me?" Azula blinked blankly: his eyes changed, softening slightly.

"You sought to resolve conflicts in unforeseen ways," he said. "I cannot say… that you sought to create life by doing so, no, certainly not… but you sought a higher purpose. Simple-minded mercenaries like your friends could never understand such a calling. You wanted more, did you not? So much more than traveling endlessly with buffoons who cannot appreciate your true qualities, your talents… your boundless wisdom."

"Boundless what? She flashed an orc!" Zuko squealed, as the rest of the table laughed at his intervention. Azula couldn't hold back a smile, though Sokka remained as serious as before. "That's wisdom?"

"Technically, it killed the orc, so…" Suki said, grabbing Zuko's hand reassuringly as he shook his head in disbelief.

"I… suppose my methods did not displease the creator of this world," Azula said, with a slow smirk. "However unethical as they may have been, at times."

"Unethical?" Sokka said, breathing deeply. "A young man in a tavern found his days monotonous and bleak… until you lured him into his cellar and provided him with a most delightful memory that sustains him to this day. An orc died… after you generously provided him, a creature with nothing but suffering and pain to sustain his existence, with the most beautiful vision he had ever seen: that of your bare breasts."

The fact that he managed to speak those words without breaking out into laughter certainly spoke well of his self-control: the rest of the table, of course, erupted in laughter at the surprising spin on Azula's choices.

"Two lonely elves had not known how to admit their affection for each other until you taught them how," Sokka continued. "As for the blacksmith… she enjoys a much more fulfilling life after you showed her the pleasures she had never experienced before. Her husband has learned from what she learned, too, and their marriage has improved vastly for it."

"Wow. See? Being promiscuous pays off!" Azula said at the rest of the table, who continued to laugh at the shocking outcome of the situation. She turned to Sokka again, a bright grin on her face. "Well, I had no idea I'd had such a positive impact on so many things, but I'm thrilled to learn as much…"

"What if he's lying?" The Duke asked.

"He's the creator of this world, so… one would think he has some level of omniscience?" asked Aang. "He knew all our names already, so…"

"I know more than enough. I know everything about everything… and in all the miserable years of being trapped within this world of my creation, a world I have sought to destroy so that I may finally set myself free by doing so, no one has ever impressed me in the way you have, Fyrelith Krylla."

"Wait… wait. Doesn't this mean that the persuasion idea actually might work?!" Suki gasped: the whole table stared at Sokka intently now, and he offered them a simple shrug in response.

"Holy shit," Zuko's eyes widened.

"Azula's going to bang a god!" Ty Lee laughed, clapping happily. "That's so wild!"

"I… might. But it depends on his willingness, of course," Azula said, smirking as she turned towards Sokka.

"Go on and convince me, why don't you?" Sokka smirked. Azula laughed and nodded.

"Well, then, Hessik, creator of this world… I have my own understanding of life and death, of cruelty and kindness, and I believe we may be better served by enlightening each other further in a more… private capacity. I cannot say for certain that I will be up to your standards… you are a deity, of course. But if this is our final attempt to resolve this matter without violence… then I give myself to you, creator. My body shall be yours to do with as you see fit."

"Fyrelith Krylla…" Sokka said, his voice deep and earnest. "Your body… is a generous offer. Perhaps I shall make, then, an offer of my own: the purpose you have sought, the unsatisfaction you have been ailed by all your life, will be quenched. I shall see to it."

Azula blinked blankly. She eyed Sokka skeptically for a moment, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Um… is this supposed to be some sort of mutual persuasion?" she asked. "Do I need to roll, or…?"

Sokka smiled before shaking his head. Everyone gasped as he spread his arms.

"Hessik… has always wanted to bang Fyrelith Krylla, so no persuasion roll was necessary," he announced: the entire table roared with cheers and laughter now as Azula threw her head back, covering her face with her hands. "And that's where tonight's session ends!"

"What?! Wait, no! You can't just leave it off there!" The Duke groaned, looking at Sokka hopelessly.

"He's right! How do we prepare for next week if we have no idea what's going to happen with them?" Toph asked, huffing.

"Well, you won't prepare much, I suppose," Sokka chuckled. "Let's just say, for the purposes of the game… the whole party gets a long rest now. Fyrelith and Hessik shall be alone for… I suppose, a day and a night in order to ensure she, too, gets a full rest, but…"

"Will she? I wonder if this horny god won't demand too much from her…" Azula sighed, shaking her head dramatically.

"He's a very generous god, he'll let her sleep sometimes. Sometimes," Sokka smirked. Azula chuckled, shaking her head – if she was flustered, she certainly was masking it perfectly through amusement.

Even if the rest of the party protested at first, it was getting late by then, and everyone had to go home. Laughter continued to spread in the group as everyone encouraged Azula to do her best and go all out with her performance once she slept with the dangerous deity they'd come across, and she thanked them for it every time. Little by little, the members of their group took off to their respective homes… yet Azula didn't get going as fast as everyone else. She lagged behind, staring at the minis on the table as Sokka began setting aside all his Dungeon Master tools.

"You have a mini of this god yet?" Azula asked. Sokka smiled and shrugged. "I'm just curious…"

"Want to know if he's Fyrelith's type?" Sokka asked. Azula chuckled. "Not sure what her type is, to be honest. I feel like she went for so many different kinds of characters so far that…"

"Ah, so you don't know for sure? And here I thought the creator god knew everything," Azula smirked. Sokka laughed, shaking his head. "I admit… I didn't see that twist coming. A rather interesting one, too. He's trapped, you said?"

"Oh, yes," Sokka nodded, sagely. "He was a being of seemingly boundless power… but loneliness took hold of him eventually. The idea of creating other living entities came to mind, so he decided to create a world with countless others, people, plants, animals, beasts… all so he could have all the companionship he craved. But the cruelty of mortal life got to him quickly… but he had spent too much of his power in creating this world and lacked the strength to change things. Thus, Hessik has spent hundreds, thousands of years amassing as much power as he can, all be it to become strong enough to break this world apart once more, and to create a new, better one in its stead."

"But then… the crux of the matter is loneliness?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. Sokka smiled and nodded.

"He is a loner, yes. The other deities exist in their own planes, he has no access to them, and they never truly knew of him… they were drawn to mortals, and they're enablers of the sins of mortals, you could say. They encourage them, even… so Hessik is not interested in befriending them," Sokka said, shaking his head. "Anyway… yep, he's lonely and fears no one will ever understand him, but…"

"But now he thinks Fyrelith might?" Azula asked, amused, stepping closer to him. Sokka chuckled, shrugging slightly.

"I admit, I had too much fun with your inappropriate antics at the beginning of the campaign. I don't know if I shut you down too hard when I did…" Sokka said. Azula laughed, shaking her head.

"Oh, please, it was hilarious, don't feel bad about it now," she smiled.

"Either way, it's not like I really wanted you to stop altogether. The whole struggle to see if any characters could resist you was pretty funny," Sokka admitted, smiling fondly at her.

"It was our own personal little war in the middle of the campaign, felt like," Azula said. "Though… I suppose this truly would be the final battle, if so. Is Fyrelith powerful enough to seduce a mighty god?"

"I suppose we'll find out… though we could find out right now," Sokka said. Azula raised her eyebrows. "I… I mean by rolling a performance check! We could very well just leave it for the next session, but I figured it'd be a good idea for me to start building the direction of things for the next session… it's probably going to be the end of the campaign, whether Hessik wins or loses, so…"

"So… you want us to roll a performance check," Azula smiled. "That was it."

"That… was it," Sokka swallowed hard, eyeing her with uncertainty. Azula bit her lip and nodded.

"Very well, then. Very well."

She stepped up to the table, where her dice tray remained untouched. She picked out her favorite twenty-sided dice, and then looked through Sokka's own dice to pick one of his, too: she handed him her own dice, and she took his for herself. Sokka smiled approvingly, stepping up to Azula's cleared dice tray, standing right beside her.

"I suppose you have endless charisma…" Azula said. Sokka chuckled.

"You almost have endless charisma yourself, with a plus six modifier by now…"

"Well, I suppose so," Azula smiled. "Either way… whatever the outcome of our battle may be, you were a worthy opponent and challenger. And if you would have me in your next campaign as well, I shall be delighted to sleep with you constantly through that one, too."

"I shall be even more delighted than you about it, I suspect," Sokka chuckled. Azula smirked proudly at him. "Alright then… moment of truth."

Azula nodded, preparing herself to roll: they stood right before each other, neither one looking at the tray, or the dice… only into each other's eyes.

"Three… two… one…" Sokka counted: Azula smiled as they released their dice at the same time.

Neither one broke the eye contact. Neither one looked at the dice to find out whether this dalliance between their characters had paid off or failed. Sokka swallowed hard, smiling slightly.

"We… should look," he said. Azula smiled and nodded.

"Then why don't you?" she asked.

"Because I'll be really disappointed if I rolled badly," he admitted: Azula laughed, shaking her head.

"Poor godly entity… he wishes to impress a perfectly ordinary woman that badly, does he?" she asked. Sokka huffed.

"Azula… you're beyond extraordinary."

That he hadn't even tried to mask things behind their characters didn't register with him, but by the expression on her face, it did with her: a spark of mischief, and yet of hope as well, lit up in her eyes…

Her hand reached up to fist his shirt: Sokka's hands fell upon her waist by sheer instinct before their lips crashed together in an impulsive, teased, long-awaited kiss.

Her arms locked around his neck, her body leaning fully into his: he didn't lose his grip on her, or his footing, recklessly allowing his hands to caress her flanks. His desperate need for her had only risen constantly, even if he had been perfectly willing not to obey it… but ever since this campaign's preparation had begun, he started to wonder if she was interested too. He had tried to convince himself that it was all in his head… but as he picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his hips while continuing to kiss him deeply, moaning into each exchange, he was happy to let all his uncertainties fade into nothingness.

Azula didn't go home that night, much as Fyrelith would have spent the night with Hessik, in the campaign: it was easy to imagine that their characters could have had just as much fun as they did, that the feelings of loneliness and lack of purpose could have been swept away so quickly in the wake of so much shared pleasure, laughter and bliss. By morning, they climbed out of bed together and cleaned up, with Sokka handing Azula his bathrobe afterwards while he simply fastened a towel around his waist. She had to attend class later that day, so she would have the chance to enjoy his company at least for a couple more hours – and she intended to do just that.

But before they could eat, before they could reprise their nightly fun too, before they could have any genuine conversations regarding the direction of their relationship, the pair stepped up to the table, where Sokka's half-collected dungeon master's tools still sat… where Azula's dice tray still bore the results of the roll that had finally sent them into bed together.

"We… we really need to take a picture of that," Sokka laughed, running a hand over his loose hair. Azula covered her mouth with a hand, unable to muffle her own chuckles.

"Good thing we have a week left before the next session… because I have a few ideas," Azula said. Sokka raised his eyebrows. "I… think you might appreciate them. That is, as long as it's within the realm of reason in Dungeons and Dragons?"

"Well, if it's anything regarding what our characters did in bed… I'm sure it'll be fine," Sokka snickered. Azula smirked deviously. "But if you mean the direction things will take, going forward…?"

Azula nodded slowly, and Sokka bit his lip.

"I suppose you're not used to having any manner of… co-DM?" Azula asked, smiling slightly.

"I don't think that's exactly common," Sokka admitted, wrapping an arm around her waist. "But I admit, my curiosity has been stoked. What's your plan, huh?"

Azula smirked, hands caressing Sokka's chest again before she kissed him willfully anew. Once they parted, she conveyed her most devious ideas to her new lover.

"Okay… okay. We've been waiting all week… it's time to find out what happened," Aang said, biting his lip once everyone had taken their seats by the table.

"Let's hope the psychic damage was something else this time," Mai sighed, and Azula laughed as she shook her head.

Sokka cleared his throat, and everyone's attention fell to him. He felt rather nervous, of course, even slightly anxious… not so much about the game, but about the fact that nobody at this table had the slightest clue that he and Azula had been a little too enthusiastic about playing out the outcome of the night their characters had shared. Along with that, Azula had spent almost every night with Sokka since the last session, only failing to do so when she had a project to finish for a class, and on one day when Suki and Zuko dropped by for dinner with Sokka – he had asked her if she was ready to reveal their relationship then, but his devious girlfriend had decided that holding back until the next game would be far more impactful.

And so, he wondered what her plan would be. Perhaps she simply wanted to wait until the session was over… or she'd outright try to kiss him in the middle of the fight, taking everyone by surprise once she did.

But that wasn't what he should be focusing on right now. No… his true focus had to be the campaign, and the final battle was about to commence.

"As you recall, you have met Hessik, the god who created your world and now spreads chaos and catastrophes across it," Sokka said. "After claiming to be dismissive of violence and the way mortals seek to destroy each other for advancement and greed, Fyrelith, your party's sorcerer, tried to persuade and reach an understanding with Hessik. He took an interest in her… he had an interest in her all along, in fact. Thus, Fyrelith propositioned Hessik, and Hessik propositioned Fyrelith right back. This is where we left off…"

"And?!" The Duke huffed, eagerly. "Did you kill him in bed, Azula?!"

"Pfft. How uncivilized of you to say something like that," Azula said, shaking her head haughtily. Sokka laughed.

"The rest of you wait for one full day, getting proper rest after your latest, complicated adventures to reach Hessik's dwelling. If you wish to do anything before…"

"No, no, no, move forward now!" Zuko said, grimacing.

"Are you so eager because you're worried that he might have killed me? Ah, brother! So concerned for my fate… I'm truly touched," Azula sighed dramatically. Zuko scoffed.

"I'm not your brother in the game, and I just really want to get to finding out whatever the hell happened! You've kept us on edge for a week, Sokka!"

"And I will keep you there longer unless all of you agree that you don't want to prepare traps or plan ambushes or… anything, really. No preparations? None?" Sokka asked.

The others exchanged glances before smiling somewhat innocently at him.

"We would like to think that Fyrelith will succeed," Aang said, firmly.

"And that we can persuade Hessik not to destroy the world. I mean… technically, there's no amount of preparation that can help us kill a god, is there?" Katara asked.

Sokka blinked blankly before shrugging.

"Okay, then. Suit yourselves…"

"Wait, what does that mean?!"

"Sokka…!"

He laughed, and in the end, he gave the others time to plan strategic moves in case something failed: about thirty minutes later, all their impulsive plans were finished, and it was time to reveal the outcome of Hessik and Fyrelith's tryst.

"You see Fyrelith walking back to where you are… Hessik stands behind her," Sokka said. Azula cleared her throat.

"Worth mentioning… that Fyrelith's walking kind of funny," she said: the table split between groaning and laughing at her clarification. Sokka chuckled, shaking his head. "Come on, he's a god! Be realistic here, that she's still standing is quite an impressive feat already…"

"Let's just say Hessik is a very generous lover and ensured to boost your health with his powers if you needed it," Sokka chuckled. Azula smiled warmly at him.

"How very nice of him," she said. Sokka let out a deep breath before raising a hand in her direction.

"So… Fyrelith. What would you like to do?"

Azula breathed deeply, turning towards the rest of the party. They eyed her expectantly as she smiled slowly.

"Guys… I think I'm in love."

"WHAT?!"

Zuko's voice rose above the gasps and the snorts by the others as Azula giggled in a most foolish way while in character as Fyrelith. The others eyed Sokka warily as he shrugged in their direction.

"I mean, he's just so good in bed. Like, you have no idea how good!" Azula sighed happily, running a hand over her hair. "The places he took me… I'd never thought that was possible! So, well…"

"Fyrelith… Fyrelith," Zuko growled, eyeing her warily. "That's all fine and good… but you're saying he was as happy with you as you were with him? T-that… he's satisfied and thinks mortal lives aren't that despicable because you, well…"

"Because she's great in bed!" Jet announced. Azula laughed and shrugged, glancing at Sokka.

"Well, I don't know. What do you have to say about my prowess, Hessik?"

Sokka hummed, eyeing her with narrow eyes.

"She… is the most unique, special being this world has ever created. Perhaps the cruelty and horrors of this world were not without value, if they were necessary for her existence."

A happy gasp spread in the group as Azula smiled warmly at him: she reached out to clasp Sokka's hand, and he didn't reject her touch at all. They exchanged a tender gaze, their smiles as dreamy as could be…

"And that's why I shall keep her with me, once I destroy everything else."

Sokka's conclusion startled everyone. Their jaws dropped. All their excitement faded when the unexpected revelation hit them at once.

"Woah… woah. What's that supposed to mean?!" Zuko huffed.

"I mean, we are getting a fight, aren't we?" Toph smirked. "That's enough for me!"

"But… wait a minute. Wait a second," Katara said, staring at Azula pointedly: she was still holding hands with Sokka. "If you're going to destroy the world anyhow, just, not her… does that mean…?"

"Well, you see…" Sokka sighed, gazing at Azula with heartfelt affection. Azula let out a soft laugh. "We've had a whole day to discuss matters, and to reach a conclusion. Multiple conclusions, in a sense, but still…"

"Ew," Zuko grimaced. Azula laughed and shrugged.

"He is just… quite persuasive," Azula admitted. "And I mean, he has a point, so…"

"What?! He doesn't have a point!" Aang gasped, horrified. "Azula…!"

"But he does, though! He wanted to make a much kinder world than what turned out to be the case, he's terribly lonely and he needs a companion, I'm perfectly willing, and…"

"And this means we're all going to die?!" exclaimed Ty Lee. Azula raised a hand.

"All of you, yes. Not me, though," she said. Their jaws dropped until the Duke slammed a fist on the table.

"I said not to trust the tiefling since the first session…!"

"Fyrelith, please be reasonable!" Katara said.

"You're just going to stand aside while he destroys us?!" Suki asked. Azula blinked blankly.

"Well… no," Azula said, with a shrug. "I'm going to help him."

Another group gasp shook the room: the betrayal took them by surprise to such an extent that Sokka couldn't even hold back a cackle of evil laughter, one that didn't suit his character all that well, but that he indulged in all the same.

"You two… how the hell is this happening?!" Zuko huffed, glaring at them. "And I mean, out of character: what the hell was your preparation session for this evening supposed to be? I thought you'd sort out…!"

"Well, we did sort out what happened during our happy day together, evidently," Azula chuckled. "But you see…"

Sokka swallowed hard as he pulled up his smartphone: he sent a message to their group chat, and everyone opened the picture attached to it…

Two natural twenties, one in Sokka's dice, one in Azula's.

"What's… what's this roll?" asked Suki, with an awkward smile.

"Performance check, of course. If his roll had been any lower, Fyrelith would have definitely required another persuasion roll on his part in order to join him in his quest…" Azula said, with a dramatic sigh. "And if hers had been any lower, he would have decided against recruiting her permanently. As it happens…"

"This outcome is simply the mandate of the dice," Sokka smiled, with a shrug as everyone gaped at them in horror. "I know, it's shocking even for me, but…"

"Oh, you pair of assholes," Zuko said, shaking his head and cracking his knuckles. "Well, fine, then! We'll kill the both of you, and we'll save the world!"

"Yeah!"

A chorus of cheers and agreement rang in the room as the party took to planning their strategy to defeat Azula and Sokka. Those two only laughed, chatting amicably and quietly while holding hands only for another moment before focusing fully on the battle…

A battle of which the outcome was nothing like what Zuko had hoped it would be.

"For the next campaign…" Sokka announced, five hours later, as everyone sat in utter shock, frozen at the table. "I advise that someone plays a cleric."

Azula snorted and laughed, covering her face with her hands at the horrified faces of their friends. They weren't quite tearful, but they certainly were affronted by the multitude of minis on the board… minis that had been tilted down every time one of them was out of combat. The first to fall was Mai. The second, Jet. The Duke had followed, and then Zuko. Katara, Suki and Aang had fallen to an area-of-effect spell, and Toph had been the very last one left, but even with her barbarian strength and endurance, she failed to counter the godly resistances and legendary actions of Hessik, paired with the remarkable power of Fyrelith, the sorceress who took flight with her brand-new draconic wings, too.

"You frigging… you TPK'd us. You did," Zuko said, with a dangerous smile.

"What does that mean?" Katara said, her voice small.

"Total Party Kill," The Duke and Aang recited together. Suki dropped her head in her hands, Ty Lee's jaw dropped, Mai grimaced, Jet scratched the back of his neck awkwardly and Sokka sighed happily.

"Well, then! That was great. The world shall be torn apart, rebuilt into something different…"

Cries of protest immediately took off after his announcement as everyone took to lashing out at him for the outcome of the game – frankly, had the dice been any less favorable, it could have been a victory for the party, but luck was not on their side, much as Azula wasn't.

"Calm down, calm down," Sokka chuckled, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "We can do another campaign, you can even reuse the characters and we'll have other adventures this time. Oh, I'm sorry it ended up as badly as it did, but it was kind of hilarious…"

"You're a shithead, that's what you are," Toph growled. "I was having a blast! And I'm not going to play a cleric! Katara, you do it!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Oh, unreal. They never learn, do they?" Azula said, smiling at Sokka. "Perhaps I should be the DM next time, and you should be the team cleric so they stop being so ridiculous…"

"Wait, what? No! You'd be a sadistic DM, way worse than Sokka!" Zuko huffed, shaking his head. "Not a chance, Azula!"

"Well, he doesn't have a point and yet he kind of does," Sokka said, smiling at Azula. "You've always been telling me I ought to try being a player, and while I wouldn't mind playing with you as the DM…"

"Would be more fun for us to romance each other as players next time? Hmm… yes, that is a good point," she said, nodding as Sokka smiled, face flushing slightly at her not-so-subtle declaration.

"Romance each other? What, you'll do this madness again?" Zuko growled, grimacing. "You won't get away with playing some god-like character in a proper campaign, Sokka, you hear me?"

"He doesn't have to do that to capture my future character's interest," Azula stated, proudly. "In fact? We should play an already-married couple. That would be unusual."

"Oh? Bold, but… heh. That's an interesting thought," Sokka chuckled: everyone else at the table eyed them with confusion by then.

"Wait, but… why?" Aang asked, with an awkward smile as he drank some water. "Isn't the fun of in-game romance to… play out the romance?"

"Oh, no. Performance rolls to find out if the sex was good or terrible is where the real fun is at," Azula declared, and Aang nearly snorted his drink through his nose. "Good thing it's not up to dice in real life, isn't it?"

"Heh, yeah, it sure… isn't," Katara said, as Azula's words sank in. As the strangeness in her behavior with Sokka also sank in.

Azula smiled proudly at Sokka, who eyed her with a blush and a much shyer grin. The rest of the group at the table gauged the situation slowly, gradually, until…

"You fucks were actually boning in real life too, weren't you?"

Toph's blunt declaration actually got a reaction from them in the form of a spree of guilty laughter: shy in Sokka's case, much bolder and open in Azula's. The Duke blushed, covering his mouth with a hand while Jet groaned, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Guess I had no chance after all, did I?" he said, with a sad smile.

"You actually got away with it?" Mai blurted out, staring at Azula judgmentally. "Well, good for you. Spent ages pining over him and…"

"Mai!" Azula huffed.

"Wait, ages?! You too?!" Sokka gasped, happily. "You didn't tell me that!"

"Oh, she sure did!" Ty Lee confirmed, with giggles. "I mean, I'm still mad that my character died, but oh my gosh, I'm so glad! You two are finally a thing! Yes!"

"Well, Sokka's not going to DM next time for sure! He's just going to keep favoring her because she got into his pants!" Toph huffed, shaking her head dismissively.

"I'm not that biased…! Well, okay, maybe I am," Sokka admitted, with a guilty smile.

"Katara?" Aang asked, smiling awkward at the frozen young woman. "Are you okay?"

"I'm… speechless. I might… stop being speechless eventually. But for now, I'm just… speechless," was her eloquent response, to which everyone laughed too.

"Well, way to go, Azula. I suppose, if all of us had to die, at least it was for a good cause," Suki smiled at her sister-in-law, who smiled and nodded in gratitude for her words.

Naturally, though, Zuko was the last one to react. He had further warning than most everyone at the table, he had already been confronted by the possibility before, and yet he stared at Sokka and Azula, eyes wide before saying:

"My best friend and my sister?"

The whole table erupted in laughter yet again, and if any hard feelings remained after the full party kill from earlier, they seemed to have been swept away in the wake of the revelation of the relationship between Azula and Sokka. The whole group still had much to talk about, much to laugh about, and those two, in particular, had lots of things to discuss regarding their relationship still… and also regarding their next campaign: as he was experienced enough with the game, Aang offered to be the next Dungeon Master. Sokka continued to question his own ability to be a good player, but just one glance at Azula and her devious but heartwarming smiles encouraged him to go forward and live out his own story in the flesh, rather than solely building one for the others: whether in a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons, or in real life, Sokka was ready to indulge in wild, fun adventures beyond his reckoning, adventures he'd be delighted to share with the woman he had fallen in love with.

A/N:

Shoutout to PurplePlatypusBear21 for brainstorming this one with me like... a year ago or however long it was, haha! Thank you so much for encouraging me to write this wild comedy D&D ride!

#sokkla #sokka #azula #sokkla saturdays 2022 #sokklasaturdays #d&d AU #modern AU #this might just be the funniest nonsense I ever wrote #Sokka the DM #Azula the trouble player #she has no chill and is going so hard for what she actually wants #she doesn't know the meaning of subtlety #and they have a whole crowd witnessing her blatant flirting #too much fun #(minor Zuki in this one too)

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