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cozage · 1 year

Note

Zoro, Sanji, Luffy, Law, and Ace with fem S/O with healing water powers. The catch is that whenever she uses those powers, she feels pain from the wounds she’s healing. And this isn’t a Devil Fruit ability. It’s sorta like water bending from Avatar.

A/N: I really debated on how to lay this one out, but I chose to have them find out about her power. If anyone wants a head canon follow up on how they act now that they know, send me an ask :) I maybe made this a bit too long, but those soft moments with each of these boys are my WEAKNESS. (Law may seem a little OOC but I truly believe that man gets tunnel vision when he sees you in pain)

Characters: F! reader x Zoro, Luffy, Sanji, Law, Ace

Cw: blood, pain, injuries, angst, all those fun things. Sanji’s contains slight spoilers for WCI

Total word count: 6.3k

The Pain of Healing

Zoro

Word count: 1.2k

“It’s only five more minutes until my Haki returns.” Luffy says between pants, trying to catch his breath.

“Then I have five minutes to help you. Sit down.”

Luffy collapsed onto the ground at your command, and you examined his body as he slept. It didn’t look good. His body was riddled with scrapes, scratches, bruises, and he was bleeding out from his side. Several minor injuries could be more painful than large ones, but Luffy had a mix of both. The best thing to do would be to focus on the large ones first, and if you have energy left, fix the small stuff as well.

You guided water out of your flask and started with the hole in his side. You were used to the pain that came with healing by now, but it still made you flinch every time you started. You had to grind your teeth together to keep from crying out, not wanting to wake Luffy. He needed rest, and you didn’t want him to see the repercussions of your decision to help heal him anyway.

After five minutes, you’ve taken all of the major injuries away from his body, and you managed to take a few small ones away from him as well. You wipe the tears from your eyes before you shake him awake.

“It’s time, Luffy. Wake up.” You put on the biggest fake smile you can muster before his eyes flick open.

“Aw man, that was the best nap in my entire life! I feel amazing!” You stay seated as he stands up, your body too riddled with pain to move.

“Go get them, Captain!” It hurts to even speak, but Luffy’s already up stretching, too hyped up to notice your exhaustion.

“Thanks for whatever you did to make me feel so great! Leave the rest to me!” Luffy calls back, bounding off to finish the fight.

Once he’s out of sight, you fold your head into your hands and weep. The pain was immeasurable, and every time you helped Luffy recover, you don’t understand how he’s still alive. You sit there for a long time, crying until there are no tears left. And then you hear cheers from the village nearby, signifying Luffy has won and your work paid off. Knowing that you helped him win makes you feel a little better, and you need to see everyone again.

You stand up, ready to go meet the rest of the crew, but your body seems to disagree with your movement. Your legs shake, and when you go to take a step, you can feel your body collapsing, falling to the ground. You brace for the impact of your worn body against the solid ground, too tired to do anything else.

It doesn’t come, though. Someone catches you as you stumble forward. Strong arms wrap around your back and your legs, scooping you up and pressing you into his bare chest. Zoro.

“Easy.” His expression is stone as he stares at you, but you can see worry underneath. “You gonna tell me what the hell you just did to Luffy?”

You avert your eyes from his gaze, running the tip of your finger along the scar on his chest. “I healed him.”

You can feel his body tense with your words. “That didn’t look like healing to me. And since when do you have a Devil fruit power anyway?”

You bite your lip nervously. Nobody had caught you healing someone before. It wasn’t something you flaunted, or even something you told people about. “It’s not a devil fruit power.”

“Woman, if you don’t tell me-” he breaks off mid sentence, and you look around for any sign of danger. But there’s nobody around besides the two of you. You risk a glance up at him, and you see his face is pained as he stares down at you with a form of understanding. “You took his pain from him, didn’t you?”

Your mouth falls open from shock. You’re not sure how Zoro was able to guess something so accurate after seeing your power one time. You nod, confirming his suspicions. “He’s got an incredibly high threshold for pain tolerance.”

“How are you still alive?” Zoro shakes you a little when he asks the question, which causes you to groan in pain. “Sorry, sorry. I’ll be more gentle. Do you want to sit? Stand?”

The thought of being upright makes you dizzy. “Can you just keep holding me for now?”

He nods, and returns to questioning you about your mysterious power instead. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Yeah.” It hurt to talk honestly, but you didn’t want to tell Zoro that.

“How often have you been doing this?”

“Only like three or four times for Luffy, I think.” You're certain it’s been more than that, but you can’t tell Zoro that right now.

“Three or four times?? For Luffy?” You can feel him trying to figure out the meaning behind your cryptic words.

“There’s been a few other people I’ve done it for too.”

“Have you done it for me?” He's scowling at you, like he already knows the answer you’re going to give and he's waiting to scold you for it.

“Maybe once or twice,” you lie, and you feel your cheeks burning. He squints at you, and you know you’ve been caught in the lie. But he says nothing, he just readjusts you in his arms to hold you closer.

He had been walking for a few minutes, and you had almost fallen asleep. He had managed to keep you mostly still while he walked through the destroyed city, and you were too tired to care if he was lost or not. “It’s a neat power,” he finally comments. “You gonna tell me more about it? Or do I need to keep asking questions?”

“Can I tell you later?” You mumble into his chest. Between the safety of Zoro’s arms, the warmth of the sun on your face, and the exhaustion that’s set in from all that pain, it's hard for you to stay conscious.

Zoro doesn’t say anything for a few moments, and you struggle to stay awake while you wait for an answer. He was never one for mindless chit chat, but you could tell that something was on his mind, so you decide to indulge him.

“It’s not a devil fruit. I was born with it,” You start, and you feel a heavy weight lift off your shoulders with those few words. You’re so relieved that you can finally tell someone about your secret now. “I was never supposed to let anyone see it being used. If the World Government knew…” You trail off, thinking of how the Navy would turn you into a weapon. You shutter at the thought, and continue on in your explanation.

“The power isn’t perfect, though. I feel the pain of whoever or whatever I heal. It’s not permanent, but if it’s too much for my body to handle at the moment, I might die. I’m really not sure, I’ve never tried to heal a fatal wound before.”

Zoro is looking off into the distance with a faraway look in his eye. “Just like Kuma.”

“Who?”

“Back on Thriller Bark we met a Marine named Kuma,” Zoro begins to explain, and you focus all your energy into listening to him. “He took all of Luffy’s pain and told me if we wanted to save Luffy, I had to take his pain upon myself. It was just after his big battle with the warlord Moria, and the pain…” he trailed off, and you knew he was reliving the moment in his mind.

“Does he know about your sacrifice?”

Your question brings him back to reality, and he looks down at you. He chuckles at your question, and bends over to kiss your forehead. “Does he know about yours?”

Sanji

Some light spoilers for WCI arc

Word Count: 1.2k

You didn’t realize that your ability was keeping Sanji up at night.

Anytime he had a cut, or a burn, or any other kind of injury, you waited for him to doze off before you pulled out some water and healed his hands. The injuries were never serious, and after a few times, you barely noticed the pain.

You didn’t mind, and you knew how much your boyfriend valued his hands. It was your silent act of love to him, something you wanted to give him but could never tell him about. One morning after you healed a bad burn, you found him sitting up in bed, staring at his hands.

“Is something wrong, Sanji dear?”

The cook was examining his hands thoroughly, flipping them over again and again. “I could’ve sworn I had a burn here yesterday.”

Your cheeks tinted at the thought of being found out. “Oh, well maybe you just have superhuman healing powers!” You laugh it off, trying your best to act natural.

“Yeah, maybe…” You could tell something was bothering him, but he didn't say anything further.

You caught him staring at his hands throughout the day, as if he was waiting for a bomb to explode. At dinner you noticed a particularly bad cut on the topside of his hand - a cut he must’ve gotten while chopping vegetables - and you made a note to heal it that night.

He stayed awake later than usual that night, and he seemed more wound up with anxiety than normal. You peppered his face with a few kisses, trying to get him to relax some.

“Sanji, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” He sighed, pulling you into his chest and laying down to finally get some sleep. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

He fell asleep quickly with you pressed into him. His slow, even breaths signified he was finally unconscious, and you pulled out some water to cover his wound. It stung you a bit as his flesh stitched back together, and you let out a low hiss in pain, and you froze as Sanji stirred slightly in his sleep. This wound was deeper than his normal cuts and burns; he must’ve been really distracted when he hurt himself. He wasn’t usually so careless around knives, but you knew whatever was bothering him would be revealed when he was ready to talk to you about it.

With his wound healed and Sanji’s breath returning to normal, you curled back into place against him, and fell deep into sleep.

You woke to a string of curses falling out of Sanji’s mouth, his body tight and tense against yours.

“Hm? Sanji?” You rub the sleep from your eyes and open them to find him staring at his hands again. “Sanji, what’s wrong?”

“That’s impossible,” he mumbled, speaking mostly to himself. He looks panicked, staring down at the place where his cut was yesterday. “That’s not humanly possible.”

You feign innocence as you have in the past, but you can’t ignore the nervous look in his eyes. “What is it, Ji?”

“I had a cut here yesterday. It was deep.” His breathing quickened, and you could see that he was scared for some reason. “It couldn’t have healed overnight. It’s not…It can’t be…”

“I’m sure it’s just-”

“You don’t understand.” He cuts you off mid-sentence, something he’s never done before, and it takes you aback. He gets out of bed abruptly, his eyes never leaving his hand.

“Sanji?”

“I need to go. I need to get out of here.” He’s pacing the room now, his stress overflowing into the space between you.

“Go where? Sanji, calm down. Talk to me-”

“I can’t be here! I can’t endanger you! Or anyone else, for that matter!” His face is contorted with such pain you’ve never seen before. You don’t know what’s going on with your boyfriend, but his reaction to such a small cut is starting to scare you.

You jump out of bed and stride over to him. When you reach him, you clasp his face between your hands, forcing his eyes away from his hands and up to your eyes. His eyes are wide with pure fear, and his breathing is rapid and shallow. You can feel his body shaking as you hold him.

“Sanji.” You push down your own fear and speak to him in a soothing tone, trying to bring him back to you. “Talk to me.”

“I’m a monster, Y/N.” Tears fill his eyes, threatening to spill out as he speaks. “If my body is regenerating like this…I’m a threat to you all.”

“You’re not,” You whisper. “You’re not a monster, Sanji.” You stand on your tiptoes to try and kiss the space between his eyes, but he pulls away from you.

“You don’t know.” He backs away from you, fear returning to his eyes again. “I am a monster. And now that I’m-”

It’s your turn to cut him off now. “I healed you, Sanji.”

His brows furled in confusion, but his eyes looked less panicked now. “Wha..?”

“I have this power,” you explain. You walk back to the bedside table, gathering some water from a cup and suspending it in the air. “I can heal people with water. I’ve been healing your small injuries for a while now. I wanted to make your life easier, I swear. I’m sorry I kept it from you. I just…I wanted to help.”

You see him relax the more you explain your powers, which was not the reaction you were expecting. He watches you move the water through the air, and tears finally flow from his eyes.

“Y/N-chan,” he sobs, running over to you, embracing you in a hug. He’s holding you tight, smothering you into his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why did you hide it?”

Your face burns against him, embarrassed that you had kept it from him for so long. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone, and I knew you wouldn’t want me hurting myself for you, but-”

“Hang on.” He pulls back from you, peering down at your face with a frown of concern. “You’re being hurt?”

“Just when I heal people,” you rush to explain, seeing his frown deepen. “I just feel the pain of the injuries I’m healing, it’s no big deal.”

“It is a big deal,” he corrects, staring at you disapprovingly. “Promise me you won’t do it anymore.”

“Sanji-”

“Promise, Y/N.”

“No! Let me do this for you!” You’re pouting now, but you know Sanji won’t cave on this matter. You know he can’t let you hurt yourself at his expense.

“I appreciate that you want to help,” he says sternly. You can hear the love in his voice as he speaks, and you know you’ll have to agree to his request. “But there are other ways for you to help me without hurting yourself. Please-”

“Fine. Promise.” You give him a fake pout, but when he pulls you back into his chest and holds you tightly, you melt into him. “Are you sure you’re okay, Ji? You seemed scared earlier.”

“I’m fine, really.” He rests his chin on the top of your head, drawing in a long breath before he says more. “I just thought my past was coming back to haunt me again, that’s all.”

You all stand there for a long while, just enjoying eachothers closeness. You only break apart when you hear Luffy screaming for breakfast, and you give him one last kiss on each of his hands before you let him go.

Luffy

Word Count: 1.1k

“Stay still, idiot.” You held Luffy down, looking at his wound in his foot.

“I can’t! It hurrrtttssss!”

“That’s what you get for wearing sandals in the jungle!” You could tell from the way the stick speared through his foot, Luffy wouldn’t be able to walk easily, and you still had another half mile before you made it back to the ship.

You knew you weren’t supposed to heal people while they were conscious, but this was Luffy. He was the love of your life, and the Strawhats were your only family. If you couldn’t trust them, you deserved to be locked up anyway.

You sighed, pulling water out of your flask in soft, flowing movements. Luffy was still writhing in pain on the ground, overdramatic in his reaction to his current impalement. It was possible that you might be able to heal him without him even realizing it.

You surrounded his foot with an orb of water, and imagined the wound being stitched together, just like your mother had taught you. You saw his rubbery skin begin to mend together, and braced yourself for what came next.

Your grip on Luffy’s ankle tightened when the pain came. It was sharp and fast, and it took the breath out of your lungs. You squeezed your eyes shut, but kept your focus on the wound and the pain that came with it.

“Wooooahhhh!” You could hear Luffy’s sigh of amazement, and you knew he had caught you healing his wound. “That’s so cool! The hole is just closing up!!”

You didn’t speak, afraid that your voice would betray you. The last thing you wanted Luffy to know was that you were in pain because of the healing process. You could hear him freaking out about how cool it was that his injury was healing before his own eyes, but you did your best to ignore him and focus on the healing process. You kept your eyes closed the entire time, using the level of pain to guide how much longer you had to fix his injury. Finally, the pain dulled, and then disappeared. You dropped his foot and opened your eyes again, trying to ignore the lingering effects that your body was dealing with.

Luffy was examining his foot closely, looking at it from all angles to see if there was any damage. He stood up, putting all of his weight back on his foot, and jumped up and down a few times.

“It’s like brand new!” He shouted with glee. He came over to you and wrapped you in a hug. “You’re the best, Y/N!”

Over the next few weeks, Luffy offered up your services to others throughout the ship. You knew that Luffy was incapable of keeping secrets, and you had never explicitly asked him to keep that information to himself. You never minded healing your family though, and the injuries were always minor. Luffy sent Ussop to you when he got a burn on his hand, and Franky when he got a bad cut on his face. Chopper sent Zoro when he had a sprained wrist. It wasn’t until Nami came to you with a nasty cut on her shoulder that the secret of your healing was revealed.

You smiled when she asked, and pulled water out to start the healing process. You coated the wound in a bubble of water, and clenched your jaw to prepare for the worst.

You were aware of Nami’s eyes watching you. Everyone else watched their own wound magically heal, but her eyes remained on your face, watching for any signs of discomfort on your end. You had a feeling that she was suspicious of your powers already. She had been the most interested member of the crew from the start, asking about the stipulations and origins of your power from the moment she had found out about it.

You kept your eyes on the gash, trying your best to mentally steel yourself for the pain that would come. You knew it wouldn’t be easy to hide the pain, but you were determined to make it look natural. When the feeling of pain ripped through your shoulder to match her wound, you gritted your teeth and kept your smile, but you could feel your muscles involuntarily twitch.

If Nami noticed, she said nothing. When you finished, you looked back up at her and let out a shaky breath, smiling. She eyed you suspiciously, but thanked you politely and left you alone. Once the door swung shut, you collapsed back onto the couch you were on, desperately needing a nap after that performance.

Luffy was awoken by a smack on the head.

“What?” He asked groggily. “Are we at the next island?”

“Are you some kind of sadist,” the tangerine-haired girl scolded, shaking her finger at him. “Or are you just a moron?”

“What are you talking about, Nami?”

Nami rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, staring daggers down at Luffy. “Y/N’s power.”

Luffy rubbed his head, wondering if you could fix headaches. “What about it?”

“She feels pain when she heals people, you idiot. She probably feels whatever pain she’s healing.”

Luffy’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that she just healed my shoulder. And she was in some serious pain while she was doing it. She hides it well, but I could tell she was hurting.”

Luffy bit his lip, trying to think back to when you had healed him in the forest. But he had been so amazed at watching his own wound heal, he hadn’t noticed your reaction while you were doing it.

“She seemed kind of tired after mine, but that’s it. I felt great though, so I carried her back to the ship!”

“So you are just a moron!” Nami punched him again. “No more free healing! Stop taking advantage of her!”

You woke up from your nap to rubber arms wrapped around you and Luffy’s round eyes staring at you intensely.

“Good morning,” you groan, trying to pull away from him to stretch.

He let you go enough to stretch out, but kept a tight grip on you. “Does it hurt?”

You freeze mid-stretch, silently cursing Nami for her hyper awareness. “It just makes me tired.”

“You’re lying.” He knows you so well. You move your fingers up to his hair, twirling his locks around your index finger.

“Yeah,” you sigh the word out. You’re painfully aware of his gaze, transfixed on your face.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because Luffy, it’s not that bad.” Your eyes move back to his finally, and you can see the hurt and confusion that is held within them. “And I like doing what I can to help my family.”

He nods, accepting that answer, and snuggles up into your chest, holding you tightly against him. You let him lay there for a while, twirling his soft strands of hair around in your fingers. There are few quiet moments between you and Luffy, and you cherish every moment you can get like this.

“Nami said no more free healings, by the way.”

You laugh and give his forehead a quick kiss. “Guess I’ll have to charge you double.”

Law

Word Count: 1.2k

“Fuck.”

Law’s breath was ragged as you pressed into his stomach wound. Blood coated your hands as you tried to stop the bleeding, but it didn’t seem to be working very well.

“I just need to...” Law coughed, and you could see red staining his lips. A small blue orb began to form in his palm, but it flickered out quickly. He was too weak to use his devil fruit powers.

“Fuck.” You repeated. There was only one thing you could do now. It meant exposing your secret and showing your captain your biggest weakness, but you’d do anything to save him.

You pulled away from his wound, and let your hands guide water from your flask, maneuvering it through the air. “Don’t freak out,” you say, and you cover the wound in water. You let it sit for a moment, and then begin imagining the wound healing.

It started as a dull, throbbing pain in your stomach. You began to think you were getting used to the pain, but then it began to grow, turning sharp and stabbing. You flinched at the sudden change in pain, but held your focus.

Law watched you work for a few moments with wide eyes, unsure what was happening or what he could do. You wanted to scream from the pain that was growing rapidly, but you held your tongue, hoping he didn’t notice your facial expressions contorting into pain. Tears filled your eyes, and you finally felt Law move into action, his hand gripping around your wrists.

“Stop,” he demanded, trying to push your arms away from his wound. You ignore his demand, keeping your arms locked against him, continuing the healing process at your expense.

“Stop! Y/N-ya, Stop it!” His voice rose in pitch, and you could tell he sensed your pain. His efforts to push you away are getting stronger, proof that his energy is returning to him. You feel relieved in the fact that he is healing, even if it is exhausting you in the process.

He finally succeeds in pushing you off him, and you fall backwards to the ground and lay there, dazed and stunned from your work. He quickly straddles you and pins your arms to the ground to ensure you’ve fully stopped whatever you had started doing to him.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Law stares down at you, angry and scared of what you’ve done.

You know his rage is out of fear, and you give him a small smile, looking up at him through half-lidded eyes. “You okay now?”

He stares at you, baffled at your question. He has energy now, and his wound in his stomach is almost completely healed. He knows it’s due to you, but he doesn’t know how you’ve managed to heal him so quickly. Fear. Betrayal. Anger. So many emotions run through him all at once. He has so many questions that he doesn’t know where to start.

He tightens his grip around your wrists, keeping you pinned down. “Explain.”

“It’s a power I was born with,” you say, closing your heavy eyes. “I can heal other people’s injuries through water.”

Law watches you carefully, certain that you’re hiding something. He squeezes your wrists tighter until you finally open your eyes again, looking anywhere but at him.

You can’t make eye contact with him or you know you’ll tell him everything. You can’t afford for him to know your secret, it was bad enough that he knew this much.

“You were in pain.” He says it as a statement, not a question.

You squirm from underneath him, trying to get free, but his grip doesn’t let up. He’s determined to get to the bottom of what you just did. He needs to protect you. He needs to keep you safe from all harm, even if that means protecting you from yourself.

“Let go.” You say, still trying to get free. His grip is starting to become painful, and you try to pull your arms away from him again. “You’re hurting me, Law. Let go.”

His eyes stare down at you, unmoving from his current position. The more you squirm, the tighter his grip gets, and you know he won’t let go until he has an answer. “Y/n-ya, why were you in pain?”

“It’s a side effect!” You cry out in frustration, finally giving in. You suspect he knew the moment he saw it. “I feel the person’s pain as I heal them.”

In his shock, Law’s hands loosen their grip, and you finally pull free from him. You try to turn away from him, but he’s still sitting on your stomach, and you don’t have enough energy to push him off. You rub at your wrists, trying to get the sting from his grip out of your body.

Law is frozen, staring down at you with wide eyes. He grits his teeth, watching you massage your wrists. “I’m sorry,” he says, reaching for your hands again, more gentle this time. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

You let him grab one of your hands, and he begins massaging your wrists gently, whispering apologies to you. You close your eyes and try to forget that you’ve broken your number one rule about your power: telling other people. You focus on his wrist massage for a while, his own way to apologize for his outburst.

“Y/n-ya?”

“Hm?”

“Why did you save me?”

You sigh, opening your eyes again. This time, you meet his gold eyes, radiant against the sunlight. “You never want anyone to save you, Captain.”

“It’s my job as a ca-”

“I saved you because I love you, you idiot.”

You can see Law’s eyes twitch in surprise; his hands freeze against your wrist.

“You don’t get to decide what sacrifices I make for you,” you continue. “You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do to save you. That’s my decision. You’ve made many sacrifices for me, some extremely painful ones. Remember the incident at Low Sand Creek?”

Law doesn’t respond, but he slowly starts to massage your wrists again, which you take as a sign to keep talking.

“I don’t get to criticize your decisions on sacrifice. And you don’t get to criticize mine either. I love you, and I know you love me. Do I want you to risk your life for me? No. But that’s just something I have to live with. And so do you. Okay?”

Your captain says nothing, and you can tell he’s sulking over your lecture. It wasn’t uncommon for you to have to do this with him. Law was one of the smartest people you knew, but relationships weren’t really his strong suit. It resulted in you having to do a lot of explaining and voicing your needs.

“Law, do you understand?” You insist, needing to stand your ground. He had a tendency of not responding when he didn’t agree with something.

He huffs out an irritated breath. “Okay.”

You scrunch your face at him, shooting him a semi-fake glare.

“I understand, okay?!”

You twisted your hand to intertwine with his, and grabbed his other hand with your free one so that both of his hands were now holding each of yours. You locked eyes with him, and you could see there was something else there, something that was bothering him.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

He was quiet for a moment, as if he were working up the courage to admit whatever he was feeling. His eyes moved away from your gaze and focused on one of his hands instead, still intertwined with yours.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice comes out slightly choked, and you realize that you had forgotten to explain the most important part to him.

Your cheeks redden, embarrassed at your oversight. His eyes snapped back to yours, and now it was your turn to avoid eye contact.

“It’s… I was told to never tell anyone about it. Or let someone else see it.”

You can feel him staring at you, his eyes willing you to look at him, but you refuse. He waits patiently, and you know he’s asking you a silent question: Don’t you trust me?

“I trust you, I just…” Neither you or Law had really talked about your past much. You preferred to live for the now, for the future. The past was just too painful to think about. “People died protecting that secret. I didn’t want to add more names to that list.”

Law gave a dark chuckle at your response. “And after all that preaching about not deciding who gets to make sacrifices.”

Now it’s your turn to sulk. “That is not-“

He cuts you off, pulling you up to meet him, and his lips collide with yours.

He pulls back briefly, basking in your beauty. “No more secrets. Promise?”

“Promise.”

Ace

Word Count: 1.5k

Ace wasn’t used to being hit, and when someone made contact with him, it hurt. He grimaced as he limped from battle, blood dripping down his leg from the giant puncture wound in his thigh. You had your arm around him, helping him run, but his injury was slowing you both down, and the enemy was closing in quickly.

“Sit,” you commanded. “Let me help.”

“I just need to get back to Marco, he can help.” His breathing was labored, and you knew he was expending too much energy just speaking to you.

“I can heal too.” You helped him sit down, and you could feel his eyes staring at you, trying to understand your cryptic words. You chose to ignore him for now, and examined the wound. It was deep, but manageable. You braced yourself, and summoned some water out of your flask, covered his wound, and focused on stitching it back together.

Pain ripped through you, and you had to bite your lip to keep yourself focused. It wasn’t the worst pain you had felt, but the wound was deeper than you had initially thought, and you could feel your muscles tearing apart, just like Ace’s had when he was cut. You knew that it was just a phantom pain, no actual bodily harm was being done to you, but it was still pain nonetheless.

You could feel tears pooling at the corner of your eyes, but you refused to stop until the job was done. You watched his muscle stitch back together, and when it was finally completely healed, you sat back and closed your eyes, exhausted and riddled with aches.

When you opened your eyes again, you could see Ace in front of you, you could feel him shaking you violently. He was screaming something, but you couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying over the loud ringing in your ears. Slowly, your hearing returned, and you realized he was screaming your name.

“Ace.” Your words were slow. You were still trying to come out of the fog of pain that always came with healing. “Stop shaking me.”

He finally stopped, but his hands were still tightly gripping your shoulders. He was staring at you in terror, fear spread across his face.

“What were you doing?” His voice was loud and piercing, causing you to flinch. “How did you…What do…Where did…” He struggled to find the right words, and you stared at him with still-glazed eyes while he tried to form a sentence. You were struggling to refocus after the pain, and were thankful that Ace was tongue-tied for the moment.

Ace took a breath, finally able to form a sentence. “I didn’t know you had a devil fruit power.”

“I don’t.” Normally you let people believe whatever they wanted in order to guard your secret, but this was Ace. If you couldn’t trust him, you couldn’t trust anyone. “It’s just an ability I was born with. I can heal people with water.”

Ace’s facial expressions had always been easy to read. Even in your dazed state, you watched as his concern turned to shock and then to confusion. You waited for the inevitable question to come, and it did. “If you’ve had this power, why haven’t you used it more often?”

“I…” you hesitate. You didn’t want to tell him the weakness of your ability. Not because you didn’t trust him, but because you did. You knew that if Ace discovered the trade off of your powers, he would never want you to suffer for him or anyone else.

You had told Marco about your power when you joined the crew, and the doctor had forbid you using your ability except in dire circumstances. Marco trusted you to make judgment calls on what you could handle, but you didn’t think Ace would feel the same way.

You could hear the enemy's battle cries getting closer, and you take the opportunity to avoid the question. “Let’s go. We need to get back to the ship.”

Ace stands, and you follow to do the same. You take a bit longer to get to your feet, still light-headed from the trade off of healing Ace. His attention has shifted to the enemy pursuing you now, and thankfully he doesn’t seem to notice your sluggish movements.

Ace’s fist becomes engulfed with flames, and he stands between the enemy and you. “Go back to the ship, I’ll hold them off.”

“Idiot! That’s what got us here in the first place!”

“Yeah,” He smirked back at you like the devilish fiend you knew he was. “But this time I won’t lose.”

You can feel your knees start to go weak, but you’re not sure if it’s from exhaustion or from the man in front of you. You hate to leave him, but you know you’ll only be a liability in this fight. With Ace’s energy replenished and the ability to fight in an open space, he’d finish off the enemy easily now.

“You better not die.” Your words hang in the air, and you take off towards the Moby Dick.

As soon as you got aboard the ship, you went straight to your room. You didn’t bother giving a report. Ace would do that when he returned. Sleep was what you needed now.

—

You woke with arms wrapped around you tightly, and the warm body of Portgas D. Ace pressed against your back. You weren’t sure how long you had slept, but there was no longer any light coming in through the porthole in your room. You shifted, trying to get out of Ace’s grasp without waking up, but his strong arms tightened against you when you moved, keeping you close to him.

For a long while you laid in the silence, unsure if Ace was asleep or awake. He wasn’t snoring like he normally did when he was asleep and he refused to let you move away from his grasp, but his breaths were even and he didn’t speak to you. You didn’t mind the quiet, your body was still exhausted from the fighting and the pain of healing today, and Ace’s warmth was almost therapeutic against your tired body.

“Your healing…” Ace's voice finally breaks the silence, making you tense from surprise. His voice was low and quiet in your ear. “It hurts you, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

You can hear the sadness in his voice, and you know that he’s figured it out. Whether he solved it on his own or if Marco told him, it didn’t matter now. You’ve always been a bad liar, and you could never bring yourself to lie to Ace anyway.

He squeezed you tighter, pulling you closer to him. There was another long pause, and you let him hold you while he processed everything.

“How bad is it?” His voice is level, but you can hear it beginning to grow thick with tears.

“It depends on what I heal. I just feel the pain of the injury.”

His forehead presses into the crook of your neck, and his breath becomes shallow and ragged. You can feel his emotions coursing through him, and all you want to do is comfort him. You squirm, trying to flip over so you see his face while you talk, but his iron tight grip refuses to let you move.

“Ace,” you speak gently, your hands pulling at his arms, and his grip loosens just enough for you to turn over onto your other side. You’re laying face to face with him now, but his eyes are squeezed shut. His freckled cheeks are wet with tears, and your heart constricts seeing his sadness.

You press your forehead against his, and use your free hand to brush some of his hair away from his face. You continue softly sweeping your fingers through his hair, soothing him as you speak. “It’s not so bad, Ace. But that's why I don’t use it very often.”

His eyes are still closed, but you feel his hands ball into fists against your back, gathering the fabric of your shirt in them.

“Why did you use it to save me then?” His voice comes out more of a demand than a question. It’s harsh, and you know he’s angry. Maybe at you, maybe at himself, probably both. His question makes you freeze, your fingers still entangled in his strands of hair.

You feel a slight prick of irritation at his question. You pull your head back and tilt his face up to look you in the eyes, but they’re still tightly shut. “Look at me,” you demand, your tone matching his from a moment ago. You feel him stiffen slightly at the intensity of your words, but his dark eyes open to meet your own.

Your hands find his cheeks, cupping his face, and you press your forehead back into his. Your eyes never leave his, and you can feel his grip against your back finally start to soften as he focuses on you instead of what you’ve done.

“I did it.” You pause for a moment, still staring at him. God, he was so stupid. You swipe your thumb across his freckles, wiping the tears from his sad, sweet eyes. “Because you deserve to be saved.”

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sturniololoco · 3 months

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Sinceeee you said you needed more requests; I was wondering if you could write a Matt x fem reader. The idea being, y/n isn’t having a good Valentine’s Day just because of life, (her potential period), stress from YouTube and more. And she comes home to find her shared bed covered with Valentine’s Day related gifts. Snacks, plushies, flowers, the whole 9 yards. And it is nothing but cute and fluffy all around (I am severally single and I love the fluffy fics more than anything)

Be My Valentine?

Matt S. x fem reader

Warnings: Kissing, lovey-dovey stuff, fluuuuuuff, etc.

Note: I kinda altered this a bit since I got so many different requests for this one, but I hope you enjoy it!

y/n's POV

Valentine's Day is always supposed to be about showing how much you love and appreciate the friends, family, and potential lovers in your life.

Not working a 15-hour shift at IHOP since one of our waitresses called out. Not to mention I'm on my period, and finding time to change out a tampon while on the clock is harder than you think.

The amount of heart-shaped pancakes with whipped cream and sliced strawberries is insane.

Not to mention the horrible tip job. I've barely made 10 bucks in tips, and I've been here since four o'clock this morning!

The rush had finally slowed and I was cleaning the tables, scrubbing fast so I could go put all the dirty silverware in the sink before our next rush.

y/n! Get outta here, your shifts done!" My jackass of a boss yelled at me from his office.

"Finally..." I sighed under my breath, grabbing my purse and keys from the back, then slowly dragging myself to my car.

I practically threw my purse into the passenger's side seat, then climbed in myself. I rested my head against my steering wheel for a solid 5 minutes before starting the car up and backing out of the parking lot.

I walked into the house I shared with my boyfriend Matt and his brothers, but for the first time in forever, the house was silent.

I put my keys, purse, and apron on the kitchen island before walking to Matt and I's room, in desperate need of climbing into bed beside my boyfriend.

I rounded the corner and slowly opened the bedroom door so as not to wake Matt.

But what I saw made my jaw drop and my heart flutter.

matt was awake, sitting next to a beautiful display of Valentine's gifts. There was a beautiful bouquet of red and pink roses, a box of chocolates, a card, and a little basket full of different makeup products you've been wishing for.

You felt little tears of joy well up in your eyes as Matt's adorable little voice said,

"Happy Valentine's Day baby!" He held his arms out, displaying his beautiful work to me.

I quickly recovered from my state of shock, running over to him and wrapping my arms around his neck in a bone crushing hug, knocking him back down on the bad.

He chucked as I excidedly sqeeled,

"Thankyouthankyouthank!" I kissed him all over his face, showing how my gratitude was filling my body.

He quicly grabbed my hands and held them, giving them a squeeze.

"So, I have a question." He said, his voice getting serious.

My smile dropped at his tone, but lit back up again as he smiled and said,

"Will you be my Valentine?"

Just some cute little fluff for this special day! Happy V-day y'all, I love you!

@idkwhosnyla @babypat08 @eyelessdemon00 @christopherowensturniolo @sturnsxx @freshloveforthefit @matty443355 @sleepysturnss @emeraldgreenbeautiesstu @sunsetsturniolos @hoesturniolo @x4nd3rsukz @chr1sgirl4life @sstvrnioloo @sturns-posts @chrisstopherfilmed @kylasrealityx @zoeysturnioloooooo @comet235 @islaasblog @sturnioloblogs @defnotayonna @mattsleftnipple03 @thematthewlover @mattsaq @idkhowtosleep

#sturniolo triplets #chris sturniolo #sturniolo x reader #matt sturniolo #sturniolo imagine #nick sturniolo #sturniolo smut #christopher sturniolo #nicolas sturniolo #sturniolo fanfic #matthew sturniolo #matt sturniolo x reader #mathew sturniolo #matt sturniolo x you #chris sturniolo smut #chris sturniolo x reader #chris sturniolo imagine #chris sturniolo x you #nick sturniolo x reader

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wilcze-kudly · 7 months

Text

The Gaang being 'bad parents' didn't ruin their characters.

I've seen this argument tossed around a couple times and it's honestly one of my least favourite criticisms of lok.

Katara (and Sokka but we have no confirmed kids for him, which seems unrealistic with how much game he had) lost their mother as children and their father was forced to abandon them when they were barely starting their teens. They were raised by their grandmother with little to no peers of their own age.

Aang did not know his parents and a huge chunk of his childhood was him being groomed into taking up the mantle of the avatar and mastering airbending. He also was isolated from other kids his age. His closest parental figure was Gyatso who was more of a teacher than a father. Also the Air Nomads were literally wiped out so that adds to the trauma pile.

I really don't think i have to talk about Zuko's family life here, but at least he had relatively positive parental figures in the form of Ursa (though i do have a burning personal dislike of ursa) and Iroh. Despite this his struggle around the subject of his family and his trauma relating to his upbringing was a focal point of his character arc.

Toph was raised in isolation by her asshole abelist parents who did not listen to her, sent people to capture and bring her back and then disowned her. (If my cursory understanding of 'the rift' is correct, I need to actually read it because i am unreasonably obsessed with the Beifong family.)

Where, pray tell, were they supposed to learn proper parenting skills? On their brief stint as child soldiers? While fighting a war as literal children?

There is the argument that they must've matured later in their lives, of course. But you can only recover so much from copious amounts of childhood trauma.

Being a bad parent doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. Sure it makes you a failure in an incredibly delicate and important aspect of human life but it doesn't make you a bad person. And saying that it does takes a lot of nuance out of the conversation.

Like, do you know how easy it is to fuck up a child?

Especially that the ways the members of the Gaang 'fucked up' as parents feel mostly in character.

Bumi was going to face some struggles with self worth due to being the firstborn child of the Avatar and arguably one of the most powerful waterbenders in history, while being a nonbender himself. That much was unavoidable, no matter how his parents approached the issue.

And Aang was obviously going to be over the moon when Tenzin was born. Think about it. He's literally the last of his people. He has no one else 'like him'. No one else to pass down the traditions, the teachings that Gyatso and everyone else he cared about and who were horrifically murdered to. Aang is getting older and he feels like his culture and history and his entire life before he got trapped in that damned iceberg will die along with him. And then Tenzin is born and Tenzin can take up the mantle that had been thrust upon Aang.

I'm going to withhold my judgement on Izumi and Zuko, since we barely know anything about them. She seems well adjusted but that's all i can say right now. But Zuko has also been shown to be extremely, painfully aware of how fucked up his family is and has clearly been putting in a lot of work to unscrew what his ancestors have screwed up.

Toph situation feels very tragic to me,because it's obvious that she thought she thought she was doing better than her parents. She gave her daughters the freedom to do what they want, to not feel opressed and trapped like she had. How was she supposed to know that she was making her girls feel like she didn't love them? (Here's another post of mine about the Beifong family and how they just feel like they're cursed or something at this point.)

TLDR; I get annoyed by people saying that the Gaang being 'bad parents' ruined their characters, because to me it felt like it actually enhanced them.

Neither Aang nor Toph acted out of malice or a lack of love. On the contrary, Toph was trying not to repeat her parents mistakes, accidentally committing a bunch of her own. While Aang probably didn't even realise that he was neglecting Kya and Bumi.

But just loving your children doesn't always make you a good parent.

I think these flaws only add to them as characters. It makes them feel more real.

It's unrealistic and, frankly, just plain boring to go 'oh the Gaang were all good people so they would be good parents too.'

The Gaang were a gaggle of traumatised children forced into saving the world, because the adults around them failed them, that then grew into traumatised adults who have no idea how to be good parents.

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theladyofmanyfandomsfanfiction · 2 months

Text

Back Home

Pairing: Poe Dameron x Reader

Warnings: None. Angst, romance, humour.

Summary: You’re informed of what happened to Poe...and it couldn’t be straightforward.

You sat by the monitor and continuously flipped through the life scans of Jakku. It had been 8 hours since news reached the base of a First Order attack on the planet and all contact had been lost with Poe Dameron and his droid BB-8.

You had barely gotten a wink of sleep. The destruction of the village haunted your thoughts and the fear of losing Poe in the field was the reason you worked relentlessly to find the Resistance pilot and his droid.

Most of the officers had retired to their bed chambers for rest but there were still several others that remained working. Leaning forward, you set your head to rest on the palm of your hand while pouring over footage for the hundredth time.

“Lieutenant?” A voice called out.

Turning to the right, you saw General Organa looking back, grim-faced. An expression that you knew to be accompanied with bad news.

Standing up respectively, you saluted the Princess of Alderaan. “General. Is there a problem?”

Leia let out a soft sigh. “Follow me.”

The two words were frightening. They could lead into anything. You followed the General to the X-Wing bay and caught up to walk beside her. Leia had kept quiet most of the way which only heightened your concern. So you spoke up.

“General Organa, what are we doing here?” The bay was operating as usual and there didn’t seem to be any apparent disruption.

Leia stopped walking and you turned to face her.

“We recovered the body of Poe Dameron.” Leia revealed.

You wanted the ground to swallow you. Your mind went blank and suddenly you couldn’t remember what Poe looked like. Mouth falling dry, your chest began to ache… then a voice made itself known as it approached.

“I think we can skip Jakku from our list of honeymoon destinations.” Poe joked - very much alive.

You turned and saw the familiar messy black hair. Running forward, you threw your arms around Poe’s neck – engulfing the man in the warmest hug. Your nails dug into his shirt holding him tight as if he would disappear again.

Then the choked sobs of relief escaped.

Poe’s eyes widened, his arms squeezing just a bit tighter. “Hey, I’m here. It’s okay.” He looked to Leia and she shook her head at him.

“I warned you not to play this trick.” She reprimanded.

A commander approached the princess and requested for her to join them in the war room. Leia nodded and left to complete her duties.

After a few minutes, you finally calmed enough to release Poe. You studied his face and noted the bruises printing his skin and blood-stains over his top. The side of his head was wounded and his trademark jacket was missing.

In spite of the obvious damage, he glowed.

“I thought I lost you.” You told him.

Poe nodded sadly. “You almost did aboard the Empire’s fleet.”

“You were taken captive? How did you-?”

“I promise I’ll tell you everything but, uh…” Poe rubbed his neck sheepishly. “I think my X-Wing is busted.”

Any other day, you might have warned him about damaging the jet but, as of this moment, you could care less about it. Smiling with relief, you grabbed Poe by his shirt, pulled him close and kissed him without a second thought. Poe placed a gentle hand on your cheek and returned the affectionate token until you pulled back slightly.

“As long as it’s not you.” You whispered. Poe wrapped his arms around your body, staying close – thankful that he had made it home. He knew that they had a new mission to find and retrieve BB-8 but it could wait for a few moments with you.

Masterlist here

#theladyofmanyfandoms #theladyofmanyfandomsfanfiction #gif is not mine #poe imagine #poe dameron x reader #poe x reader #poe dameron imagine #star wars imagine #star wars x reader

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 2 months

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AITA for being upset that my boyfriend of 3 years doesn't remember our anniversary even though i know he has adhd? ☕️☕️

I (26 W) have been dating my partner (32 M) for over 3 years now. He is officially diagnosed with ADHD and I am currently waiting for my own diagnosis for ADHD. He got diagnosed shortly before we got together and he has opened to me about how insecure he is over his disabilities causing a rift between us since all his previous relationships end with his partners leaving after they "get tired of dealing with his issues" because he also has autism and has been rude before in regards to my weight despite knowing that i am recovered from an eating disorder and this is the context in which his insecurities were disclosed to me. I also don't mean rude like accidentally, he literally put his hands on my stomach and said "what is this" after we had already had several Big Fights in regards to his previously rude behavior. For further context, I told him on our second date that I have a strict boundary around food and my weight and would appreciate it if he kept comments about my body weight or how much i eat to himself because it's triggering for me.

I try to be mindful of his limitations but recently, he asked me if he had forgotten our anniversary. This wouldn't bother me as much if it wasn't our third anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks and if I hadn't repeatedly told me over our time together the exact date of our anniversary. Now, I don't expect him to remember dates off the top of his head. I struggle with that information myself but what I DO hold against him is the fact that he KNOWS he forgets things and doesnt make ANY effort to have a failsafe against that. I put everything in my phone and he WORKS in tech so he knows how easy it is to set a repeat event with reminders nowadays so I don't understand why he can't just fucking figure out how to remember our anniversary without constantly making me be the one to remind him. I have told him exactly this and asked him why he didn't write it down over the last 3 years if he knows he's bad with dates. he said "that's a good point" and that was that. Now, he keeps trying to manipulate the information out of me by asking me when I'm like half asleep because he "thought i might slip up and just tell him."

Am I in the wrong for being mad over this? it feels like he doesn't care enough to do the bare minimum of being in a relationship with another person. I've dated others before with ADHD and it's never been a fucking issue before for them to remember our anniversary. I myself put in the effort when I care about someone to do the bare minimum and write down information I want to remember about someone. I just don't understand why I feel so guilty over getting mad about this when I feel like I have every right to be upset because it's not like I haven't been forthcoming before, it's not like i haven't repeatedly told him over the years and he puts in birthdays to his calendar so like why doesn't he care enough to put our anniversary into it? He wants to marry me but I dont want to spend the rest of my life reminding him to care enough about me to remember things like my birthday, our anniversary or my eating disorder.

But I also know that expecting people with ADHD to remember things is kind of an ableist move and I don't want to start an argument where I'm being a dick to his disabilities. So WIBTA if I decided to make this into a big deal because it is for me knowing my partner has ADHD and cannot help being so forgetful all the time?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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rookie98writes · 23 days

Text

How Could You? —Chapter 1—

Part of the For Your Own Good Series Prev Work → Next Chapter

Relationship: Hatake Kakashi x fem!Reader

Rating: General

Warnings: mostly just fluff so far, a little canon angst, POV Kakashi. canon rewrite. self-ship coded; please see author's note on series page if you are unfamiliar with plot-significant characteristics of reader.

Word Count: 2.6k

Work Summary: After waking from Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan attack, Kakashi finds there is still a lot of work to do; in rebuilding the village, restoring trust within his team, and in being honest with you. But will his efforts strengthen those bonds, or will everything only get worse?

AO3 Link

“Let's see…what else did you miss?”

You sat beside Kakashi on his bed, your head resting on his shoulder and your hand tracing gentle patterns along his palm. It had only been a few hours since Lady Tsunade had returned to the village and fixed him up, and she had barely left before word somehow got to you that he was awake and healthy.

When Tsunade had explained to Kakashi how long he’d been unconscious since Itachi’s attack, he felt ashamed. All that time, wasted. He should have avoided getting caught in that jutsu. But he was thankful his comrades and students were safe, despite feeling like he’d done nothing to help.

And when he saw you, every feeling was replaced with guilt for how worried you’d been.

But everything had been forgiven in a flutter of kisses, his hands and mouth both more eager than his recovering muscles could keep up with. Eventually, kisses morphed into conversation; you excitedly filling him in on everything that had happened throughout the village while he’d been asleep. Truthfully, it was probably more information than he was concerned with. But Kakashi was more than happy to spend time with you in any way. Even if it involved listening to stories of people he wasn’t even sure he’d ever met, he’d still take it.

His muscles ached from the lack of use. He was just about to ask if you wanted to continue this conversation on a walk when you were suddenly distracted. A tiny sparrow tapped on the window, drawing your attention. “Awww,” you cooed, “look at that little bird.”

“Hmmm,” Kakashi sighed, recognizing the signal. “Another mission already.”

“Wait, so soon? But you’ve barely recovered!”

“Well, we lost so many shinobi to Orochimaru’s attack. Those of us left just have to work harder to make up for it.”

“That explains why Iruka has been so hard to get a hold of lately. I guess he’ll be busy with missions for a while, at least until we get the Academy rebuilt.”

“We?” he asked, working on securing the wraps around his ankles. “I thought you said you were working on getting Ichiraku up and running.”

“I am. But the volunteers fixing up the Academy needed help, so if I split my time and work one shift in the morning and one—”

He leaned in to kiss your temple. “Don’t overwork yourself.”

“I could say the same to you, you know.”

“I’ll be fine,” he promised with a soft kiss on the corner of your mouth. “I hate to cut this short, but I’d better head out.”

“Right.” You kissed his mouth, delaying him for as long as you dared before pulling away. “I love you. Please be careful.”

“I will.”

And I love you too.

The words were on the tip of his tongue. He wanted to say them. He was ready to say them. He realized he had loved you this entire time, and he wanted to tell you. He just needed to move his jaw, vibrate his vocal cords, and say the words.

But then you stood up, and made your way to the bedroom door. And his chance was gone.

“Walk me out?”

“Of course.”

He stayed by your side as you walked to the front door of his apartment, wishing he had more time to spend with you before being sent out again. But this was the life he’d chosen, and people were counting on him.

“See you when you’re back.”

And with that, you gave him one last sweet smile before walking out. His heart tugged in his chest as he watched you leave. But he just needed to focus on this mission, and then he could come home and spend some time with you.

First, though, he needed to check on his students. Tsunade had told him all about what happened between Naruto and Kabuto in Tanzaku Town, and Sakura was sure to be worried about Sasuke’s health. Kakashi knew that Tsunade had healed Sasuke before making the house call to his apartment for both treatment and a lecture. But Sasuke would probably still be recovering in the hospital. At least Naruto wasn’t hurt.

When Kakashi arrived at the hospital, the medic-nins directed him to Sasuke’s room. He could tell that something was wrong before he even made it to the doorway. The room was empty, and when he went in to investigate, all he found was an abandoned bed and a few apple slices browning on the floor. Judging by the color, they couldn’t have been there long.

Kakashi closed his eye and focused on the smells and sounds surrounding him. He picked up Naruto’s scent, along with Sakura and Sasuke’s. He knew the room was in disarray, and he couldn’t imagine Sakura doing that, so it must have been Naruto and Sasuke fighting, yet again.

But where did they go? Had they been kicked out? Sasuke hadn’t been discharged yet, and the staff seemed to think he was still here. The roof.

He was up there in the blink of an eye, finding Naruto and Sasuke charging at each other with dangerous amounts of chakra, Sakura shouting for them to stop and running right for them. Sasuke was aiming a huge amount of Chidori, and Naruto—

Is that…

He grabbed each boy by the wrist and spun around, flinging them into the water reservoirs on the roof. It may not have been the most gentle choice he could have made, but if the two of them had made contact, who knows what could have happened. And Sakura would have been right in the middle of it. Gentle wouldn't have cut it, today.

“What are you two doing up here?!”

Sakura ran up to her sensei while her two male teammates groaned and pulled themselves away from the large tanks. Seeing the fear in her eyes nearly made Kakashi’s patience snap. This was the furthest thing from teamwork he’d ever seen.

But that jutsu…no doubt about it. The Rasengan. How is Naruto using that jutsu?

Sasuke stood, offering only a glance and a smirk in Naruto’s direction. While his student was distracted, Kakashi used the body flicker jutsu to jump on top the reservoir looming over Sasuke’s head.

“What do you think you’re doing, Sasuke?”

The boy startled and looked up at him, his expression quickly darkening from surprise to annoyance and anger.

“That Chidori wasn’t the size you’d aim at a comrade from the Leaf Village,” Kakashi continued. “Were you actually trying to kill Naruto?”

Sakura and Naruto both waited tensely for Sasuke’s explanation, but the boy’s answering silence was all the jōnin needed in order to understand. He must have taken that reunion with Itachi harder than anyone realized.

Instead of offering his teammates a word, Sasuke gruffly leapt off the roof, avoiding the situation all together, leaving Naruto looking betrayed and Sakura sobbing into her fists. Kakashi hung his head and tried to make sense of how Team 7 reached this low point, and how he could turn them back to the right path.

Suddenly, Kakashi felt a different yet familiar chakra signature. Jiraiya. I should have known.

“So, it was you who taught Naruto that jutsu?” he asked. “Don’t you think he’s a little young?”

“Look who’s talking,” Jiraiya responded. “That Chidori was pretty powerful too.”

Yeah. Got me there.

“Although,” Jiraiya continued, sounding a bit more serious, “I didn’t think he would throw it at a friend. Did I miss something between those two?”

“It’s complicated…” Kakashi began. “You of all people know how rivalries can be.”

Jiraiya hummed in understanding. “Jealousy is not a good sign. Maybe I should talk to him.”

“Then I’ll trust Naruto to you. I have to get on with a mission, but I’d better deal with Sasuke too.”

“Right.”

“Ka—” Sakura sniffled. “Kakashi-sensei…”

Kakashi jumped down from the tank and approached his female student with a smile on his face and confidence in this voice, hoping she couldn’t see how fragile both really were.

“Don’t worry. We’ll have the old Sasuke back in no time.”

Kakashi found Sasuke sitting on a high branch in one of the oldest trees in the village. At least he found some interesting places to brood every once in a while. But despite the time he’d had to cool off, the genin looked ready to lash out at the first person he saw.

It was obvious enough; Sasuke had recognized how much Naruto had grown, and it had been a tough pill for the Uchiha to swallow. Their rivalry had reached a dangerous tipping point.

Seems I’ll have to fit in some mentoring today, after all.

He silently unspooled a generous length of wire and attached a shuriken to the end. Then, when he threw the shuriken to loop around the tree, the wire held Sasuke to the trunk. Kakashi quickly jumped onto the branch, showing his student that he wasn’t truly in any danger. Despite that, Sasuke had an enraged look in his eyes as he looked up.

“What’s this all about?” Sasuke snarled.

“If I didn’t do it, you’d run.” The jōnin sensei kept his tone level. “You must admit, you're not the type to take a lecture willingly.” Not unlike I used to be.

Kakashi sighed. After what he’d just watched Sasuke do, he needed to get through to him. He didn’t want to reopen his own old wounds, but if he didn’t connect with his student, Sasuke would only see what Orochimaru told him to see.

Better get right to the point. “Sasuke, forget about getting revenge.”

The boy was only angrier upon hearing this advice, and Kakashi wished he’d been more surprised at the reaction. “Although,” he continued, “in my line of work, I've seen a lot of kids like you.” He had been tempted himself; looking for someone or something to blame throughout the toughest times of his life. More often than not, he found the blame belonged to himself.

But how do you seek out vengeance from yourself?

“The fate of those who seek revenge is never good. It’s quite tragic, actually. You’ll only end up hurting and suffering more than you are now. Even if your revenge is a success, all that will come of it is emptiness.”

His lonely years in the ANBU. The desperate fights he wished to lose. Having no one, for fear of losing them too.

“What do you know?!” Sasuke spat. “You think you’re a genius?”

Kakashi pulled on the wire. “Calm down.”

Sasuke chuckled, looking up at his Sensei with a worrisome look in his eye. “I could kill all the people most precious to you,” he growled. “Then you’d know just how wrong you are about me.”

Obito. Rin. Sensei.

As vivid as in his nightmares, images of his old team’s deaths flashed before his eyes. He couldn’t protect any of them. Those failures were his greatest shame as a shinobi. Kakashi had avoided talking about his past with his students so they wouldn’t know just how worthless their sensei really was. But it was something Sasuke needed to know, so he swallowed his pride and steeled himself.

“Well, I suppose you could…” His aching heart provided the answer that had been his undeniable truth for so long. “But unfortunately, I don’t have anyone special left. The ones most precious to me have already been killed.”

Sasuke’s face morphed into a mix of confusion and anger.

“I’ve lived longer than you. Times were tough back in my day. I know the pain of losing somebody more than I’d like to.”

“But—”

“Neither you nor I can be called lucky, that’s for sure. But we’re not the most unfortunate, either. You and I have both found precious friends, haven’t we?”

Sasuke was quiet for a minute, and Kakashi hoped he was thinking of his classmates. His teammates. Sakura and Naruto. Kakashi knew firsthand how much someone who was originally considered an annoyance could become a dear friend; one of the most important people in a person’s life. “You realize it after you lose them.”

Kakashi flicked his wrist to loosen the wire, seeing that a lot of the fight had drained from Sasuke’s eyes. “Chidori was a power I gave you because you found something important. That power is not to be aimed at a friend or used for revenge. You ought to know what that power should be used for.”

Protecting a person who is precious to you. Someone you love.

Instantly, he wasn’t thinking of Gai anymore. Or Sensei, or Obito or Rin. He could only think of you. The person most precious to him. The person he loved, yet for some reason—some irrelevant, nonsensical reason—he hadn’t told you.

And now he couldn’t wait another second.

“Think about whether what I said hit the mark or not.”

He rushed to your apartment, hoping you hadn’t needed to go anywhere else after you’d left his place.

People could be taken away at any time—Kakashi knew that better than anyone. Yet he’d been stubborn and closed off, refusing to let himself admit to you everything you meant to him, based on fears that he didn’t even remember.

He peeked in the window and saw you lounging on the sofa, reading a book. The girl I love.

“Y/N.”

You jumped, whipping toward the window with your hand over your chest. As soon as you registered him, your eyes softened and you let out a breath. “Kakashi?” You pushed the window open and allowed him in. “What are you doing back so soon? Is something wrong?”

He lowered his mask and crashed his lips into yours the second the obstacle was removed. You stayed still; shocked and surprised. But then you wrapped your arms around him and answered his kiss. When he broke away, he kept his lips over yours, so they would brush against you as he finally said what he should have said weeks ago.

“I love you.”

You gasped, inhaling the words into your lungs. Kakashi thought he could hear the rhythm of your heart go a little haywire as you leaned back with a giddy smile. Then you let out a chuckle, something between elation and apprehension. He understood how this probably seemed to be coming out of nowhere.

“I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to tell you,” he said. “I just had to…get out of my head.”

“Kashi, I…are you sure?” you whispered. “You don’t have t—"

“I’m sure, Y/N,” he promised. “I've been sure for a while, but I was just afraid of…well, a lot, honestly. But, I love you.”

That gorgeous smile stretched across your face. “I love you too.”

His smile matched yours before he kissed you again. “Okay. I’d better get out of here before my tardiness gets me in trouble.”

You giggled. “Mmmm, bye Kashi.”

He stole one last peck before covering his face again and climbing onto your windowsill. “I should only be a couple of days,” he said, crouching to be ready to spring up on the roof for quicker travel. But then he looked at you, and he couldn’t resist telling you one more time. “I love you, Y/N.”

A fresh coat of pink ripened your cheeks. “I love you, Kakashi.”

He could stay here all day repeating it back to you, but he forced himself to go. The last thing he wanted right now was to start a cycle of back-to-back missions, but it was for the good of the village. To protect you. To protect the woman he loved, and who loved him.

It was the happiest he’d been in a long time, and he couldn’t wait to come back.

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#kakashi x reader #kakashi hatake x reader #hatake kakashi x reader #kakashi fluff #kakashi angst #kakashi fanfiction #reader insert #rookie wrote

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stxrvel · 4 months

Text

i don't wanna live forever (1)

summary: reader couldn't stop having deaths in her life ever since the Supersoldier serum came into her life. no matter how hard she tried to stay sane, it seemed that life didn't want to give her a break. until, one afternoon, she learned that one of her old friends was alive… (you guys know im bad at summaries, but please give this one a chance)

pairing: bucky barnes x f!reader

words: +4.5k

warnings: angst, major character deaths, canon deaths¿?, bad words, english is not my first language! thoughts of revenge and death, this is like an introductory chapter, so the buckyxreader interaction is low, but it'll get better, i promise!

note: holy fuck guys. i just spent like five hours writing and editing this and i fucking love it. its been a while since ive been this proud of a work, im actually scare the emotion will disappear, but i really want to rejoice in this one. i wanted to write something a little different from my usuals, maybe a little common in the fanfiction world, but i started and i simply could not stop (or maybe just approach this bucky fic from another perspective). so this is the first part and i'll try with all my heart to keep this going because it was fucking insane, at least for me. i really hope you all like this as much as i do! feel free to leave any comment! thanks always for all the support!! see you next time <3

part 2 ; part 3 ; part 4

When you went into the Supersoldier serum project with Steve, you thought you were going to change the world. Of course, at that time when technology was relatively new any invention felt like the beginning of a new era. That's how it was all sold to you and it was how you expected everything to turn out… Until you realized that it was all really a waste of effort and time.

They were just propaganda for war. Not to stop it, to promote it. To motivate it.

You tried, on several occasions, not to think too much about it. You tried to stay out of it as Steve sometimes asked you to, even though even he didn't want to, as Bucky asked you to when you lay on his shoulder to cry in the little time you had free between trips. It was a great burden of guilt and helplessness.

Until you and Steve, with the almost imposed help of Peggy and Howard, rescued Bucky from the evil hands of Johann Schmidt and his nefarious organization, HYDRA, that, unbeknownst to you, would haunt you for a long time to come. It was only after that, after spending several sleepless days on edge thinking about what might be happening to Bucky, that you and Steve were finally able to go out and contribute something. Destroy HYDRA and the Red Skull's plans.

Of course, you realized that not everything could go right when, the one mission you couldn't attend, Bucky didn't return. And then Steve didn't come back either.

“Do you think this will ever end?” you had asked Bucky the day before his last mission.

“Of course it will,” he had answered without hesitation, moonlight illuminating his clear eyes, squeezing your hand as if it was all he wanted to do for the rest of his life. “And after that we can begin to live as it should be.”

But there was no after that, because you never recovered from losing him. From losing them both.

“Are you okay?” Peggy approached, in the middle of the afternoon when the sun was streaming through the stained glass windows of the church, illuminating the spot where Steve's empty coffin had been, because they didn't even find his body. They didn't even think there was any of it left.

You barely moved your head to acknowledge her presence, moving the prayer slip they had recited throughout the mass between your hands. Your eyes were crystallized, in tears that no longer even made the effort to flow, because you had already spent too many days and nights crying. Peggy had been on the other side of the church, sitting next to Howard while the priest spoke, because you had refused to be near them in those moments. You didn't want to be near them.

“As well as one can be,” you slurred, finding that it had been a long time since you'd last used your voice for anything other than cursing and crying disconsolately.

The people had already left, probably an hour or more ago. The empty coffin had already been brought out, all the flower arrangements had been picked up, and the priest was preparing for the evening mass. You knew you had to leave, you knew Peggy and Howard were there waiting for you, but you felt stuck at that moment. You didn't want to leave, you didn't want to get ahead, you didn't want that life if it had to be this cruel.

You heard Peggy's sigh, before she took a seat next to you, a short distance away, averting her gaze to look at Christ on the cross.

You didn't know if you were selfish to be so closed off to your friends at this moments, because they must be grieving as much as you were, but you didn't know how to deal with the future possibilities. Bucky and Steve, great men and soldiers, one even with enhanced abilities, had not been able to make it through the punishment of war. What if Peggy and Howard were the same? What if they too had the cruel fate of dying at the hands of injustice? Could you deal with that? With everyone gone?

Maybe you could open up to them a little more because if not, who else? Turning away from them was not going to ensure their survival in this hate-filled society. Maybe you could protect them, like you couldn't protect Steve and Bucky. Maybe you could make a difference, because you had the chance to.

“You know,” Peggy spoke again, rearranging herself on the bench and crossing her legs, “Steve always knew this was how it would end.”

Her wistful, mournful, fragile voice sent a shiver through your body. Peggy didn't consider herself someone to show herself vulnerable in front of others no matter how close they were, even in those things that hurt her the most, in those things that affected her personally and made her eyes water instantly, she always tended to shut down. And at that moment you didn't dare interrupt her because you knew it would probably be the only time she would talk about Steve in a long time.

“Sometimes we'd talk, between tour trips, and he would tell me that wasn't what he wanted to do, even when he had to convince you otherwise,” her clasped hands would occasionally squeeze between words, blinking rapidly to fight back the tears. “He didn't know if he'd made the right decision.”

You could almost picture him, backstage at the foot of the stairs with that notebook he carried everywhere and wouldn't let go, Peggy at his side nostalgic, as helpless as the others. It reminded you of the times you'd had similar conversations with Bucky, desperate to find a purpose, a way through so much fog.

“The first time I saw him so sure of himself was when he asked us to help them look for Bucky,” she mumbled his name, as if trying not to scare you away by saying it too loudly. “Ever since then it seemed like he'd found that spark…”

“Until Bucky died,” you whispered, the words cutting through the cold and silence, Peggy shifting on the bench contritely.

“He lost something of himself from that day on, it wasn't hard to tell. The next time I heard him so sure after spending days lost, it was on that call from the plane.”

Peggy paused, raising her hand to cover her mouth as her voice faltered. You turned to look at her, wishing you could rip the pain from her soul and leave it in yours. She was trying to contain her emotions, breathing deeply, and in that moment you wondered what life might be like from now on, with the specter of grief following you around, waiting for the next time the dead knocked on your doors, unexpectedly, without allowing you to say goodbye.

“He had told me he wouldn't die in peace until he could get it all over with. And he took it all with him. And I hated him so much for it…” Peggy sobbed, her labored breathing standing out between words. She kept looking straight ahead at the stained glass windows, the expression on her face hard and scowling despite having tears rolling down her cheeks, as if she were trying to blame something for what had happened. Her reproachful eyes fixed on the Christ.

Her wails echoed through the walls of the church, the father on the dais sending them a look of sorrow. He had offered you water, thirty minutes after everyone at Steve's wake had left, when they kept walking, and you stood there.

Another empty casket.

“Ladies,” Howard's voice reached your ears amidst all the physical and emotional numbness. You could barely notice Peggy wiping under her eyes with the pocket square that was surely part of Howard's suit, as she took breaths to get up. “We should go now.”

You heard him walk, his slow, careful steps stopping just behind you. There, on his feet with his chest tight, he rested a hand on your shoulder and gave it a squeeze in support. He knew it was the most you would allow him at a time like this, deciding not to pass up the opportunity to let you know he was there. You sighed, feeling a heaviness take over your body as you stood up.

“Yeah, let's go.”

The next few months passed in a blur. Maybe too fast, maybe too slow, you weren't sure anymore.

Peggy continued to work at the Strategic Science Reserve for a couple of years, calling you from time to time to help her with some jobs. You kept a low profile, practically a fugitive from the state, while trying to live a halfway normal life in Europe. A lot of it thanks to Howard really.

Life had become a rather monotonous routine when you stopped getting so many calls from Peggy and Howard several years later. You knew they were fine, but not being able to return to the country filled you with anguish every day. And trying to lead a normal life became too complicated when you looked in the mirror and it seemed like not a single day had passed since you were in that capsule of Dr. Erskine's with Steve.

Until Peggy called one day asking you to come back. She told you that it was safe, that there would be no state officials waiting for you at the airport, but even if that had been the situation, you wouldn't have hesitated for a second to buy the first plane ticket and fly to see them again. To Howard and Peggy, to melt into an embrace, longing for the lost years.

You had thought that contributing to the fight in World War II had earned you a ticket to at least be recognized in the military, but all you gained was the government with their mad scientists looking for you to try to recreate the Supersoldier serum. Peggy didn't want to risk you and Howard gave you no choice by giving you a plane ticket to Finland with your bags packed.

You wasted many years not being by their side, unable to keep the promise you had made them in your head to be close by to protect them, to watch over their safety.

But when you left the airport there was only Peggy, and maybe that should've told you everything.

Her hair already looked gray, the effects of gravity and time present on her face. You hated to think that you shouldn't have looked any different from the way she saw you last time when she waved you off at that same airport. Her warm gaze was the same, raising her arms with held back tears to encircle you in a big hug. She tried hard not to sob against your shoulder, you felt the choppy movement of her breath against your chest.

She looked so different and the same at the same time.

You walked to her car a moment later, her trying to carry your suitcase and you telling her you were perfectly fine carrying it on your own. Amidst a smile, she walked into the driver's door and you frowned as you saw the empty passenger seat.

“Where's Howard?” you spoke as you sat down, after stowing the huge suitcase in the trunk of the car. The way you moved to buckle up, you didn't notice the way Peggy froze in place, her hands clenching the steering wheel so tightly that her breath hitched from the effort.

“We're going to see him,” was all she said, but she was very good at hiding that something was wrong. Only for a little while.

During the trip, even though you tried to ask things about them, about what they had been doing during this time, you didn't miss the way her shoulders were tense or her eyes very alert. Something bad had happened and Peggy was trying to hide it from you.

When she pulled up in front of a church, you already knew what had happened without her answering a single one of your questions.

Howard had died.

You two had sat next to Howard's son Tony, his spitting image, in complete silence as the prayers went on. At that moment you didn't know what had happened, hoping it had been a quiet and peaceful death, because you didn't know if you would be able to endure another violent death.

Peggy gave you all the details when the mass was over, after the coffin was taken away, and you hadn't felt such fury in so many years. Not since the deaths of Bucky and Steve had that adrenaline rush of anger returned to run through your body as violently as it did at that moment, when Peggy told you that he had been murdered along with his wife. All to steal some prototypes of Dr. Erskine's serum. The damned serums with which everything had started.

This time there was a body in the coffin, but there was also a culprit. Someone to point the finger at and take it out on for years of anguish and pain.

You were at Peggy's house, staying for a few days, when she told you that wasn't all.

Peggy had a suspicion that HYDRA hadn't disappeared when Steve crashed that plane into the ice. Her suspicions generated panic in you, because Bucky and Steve had died for that, now apparently Howard, only for it all to have been for nothing. The feeling of carnage that ran through your whole head made you nauseous, years of helplessness and pain pent up in such a small body had to find its way out somehow.

“It was a man, according to the information I've been able to gather,” Peggy spoke, taking a seat across from you in the dining room of her living room, after pouring you a glass of lemonade. “He didn't die from the crash. He had a concussion. He was hit in the head. His wife died from asphyxiation.”

“Does Tony know?”

“No,” Peggy shook her head quickly, one hand over her heart as if the mere thought caused her physical pain. “It didn't even occur to me to tell him something like that.”

“And he was looking for the serum,” you recalled, a bitter feeling planted in the back of your throat, the memories of the disastrous times during the war coming back into your head like a blinding flash.

“He took them. We don't know who he is or who he works for, but whoever they are, they must have been following us for a long time to know about them.”

“You mean years,” you arched an eyebrow, your fingers touching the cool exterior of the glass seeking some reassurance.

“Possibly. That project isn't recent,” Peggy nodded, drinking her lemonade with a grimace. You stared at the liquid almost finished from her glass, a wrinkle forming between your brows with each passing second and you kept wondering why.

“But what the fuck was going through that asshole's head?” you spat angrily. Rage at already the amount of lives that serum had taken with it and at Howard's recklessness. Rage at the reaper who seemed to be following in their footsteps for some reason, rage at that damn man and whoever his damn boss was.

“It was the only option, Y/N,” Peggy turned her gaze, meeting your eyes with a strange glint.

“What do you mean?” you were almost afraid to ask, your friend's gaze suddenly turning evasive. You watched her run her fingernails over the glass of the tumbler, lost for a moment in thought. The way her shoulders slumped forward in defeat caused a pressure in your chest that made it hard to breathe. Peggy shouldn't be going through these things at this point in life.

“Howard was working with the Pentagon, as a contractor or something. They had found you. Howard felt cornered and they made him sign an agreement.”

With your incredulous look on her face, Peggy didn't dare look back at you for a few seconds. So much had happened since you had left and it seemed that you had only been told about the things you weren't going to care about so much. But if you had known that you wouldn't have cared much about giving some of the state officials their comeuppance. You would've liked Howard to trust you enough to tell you, not live in as much fear behind his back as the last few years must've been. You didn't like the way Peggy's lips curved downward, as if she, too, would've preferred to make another decision had she known this was how it was going to end.

“Howard assured them that he could recreate the serum, and told them he would as long as they left you alone.”

“Fucking asshole…” you closed your eyes, scrubbing your face with your hands. The rough skin of your hands rubbed against the delicate skin of your face, years of combat and mistreatment foreseeing a harshness that reminded you every day of what you'd had to go through to get to that moment.

“I only found out about it after it happened. I didn't see it for like a whole week,” Peggy shook her head slightly, her eyes glistening in the pain of the memories. You shook your head hard, a more violent reaction than you could have anticipated.

“That stupid… stupid asshole! What the fuck made him think I couldn't defend myself?”

“He was trying to do the right thing,” Peggy finally searched your eyes, meeting the red rims that told her you were holding back too hard breaking in front of her, only using that pain mixed with rage to keep you sane.

“And look how that turned out!”

Peggy stretched her hand across the table, with a pleading look asking you to lower your voice, averting her gaze to the hallway. You followed her gaze, for a second forgetting where you were, forgetting that her family was with you behind the doors where you were plunged into darkness. It was past midnight.

You took a second to calm yourself, trying to drown out the uncontrolled emotions and taking deep breaths to calm your fluttering heart.

“And if what you theorize is true…” you regretted the moment those words left your mouth; you didn't even want to finish the sentence.

“Do you think it is?”

“I don't want to,” you shook your head instantly, closing your eyes, the thought sounding illogical inside your head. Your hands on your chest trying to contain the storm of feelings that was making chaos inside your head. “That would mean that everything we did, everything Bucky, Steve and Howard did and sacrificed, was in vain. It will all have been in vain.”

You spent several weeks with that thought in your head, working hand in hand with Peggy, and the organization you barely knew as SHIELD, to track down the whereabouts of the killer of Tony's parents and the one responsible because the Supersoldier's serums were, surely, in the wrong hands.

And yes, it was many years of fruitless missions and dead ends, with you running every field mission and Peggy calling the shots from the New York facility. Every time you felt close to discovering something, it seemed that the enemy rejoiced in your failures and still couldn't understand how they were always three steps ahead.

However, you had to leave the missions when Peggy became ill.

The silent, lethal Alzheimer's.

During the first months in the hospital, she still recognized you. She also recognized her husband and children. But after the first year, she frowned every time her children walked through the door. After a year and a half, her husband had to remind her that they had been married for about forty years.

After two years, she was still only remembering you, Howard, Steve and Bucky. Her whole life during her time in the army was all you talked about, sometimes you would tell her how much more time had passed than she remembered and always, without fail, she would ask you how much you had done in Europe for so long by yourself.

She cried every time she remembered Howard's death. She cried every time she remembered her children. Out of her mouth came a thousand apologies that no one would accept, because there was nothing anyone could do to prevent what had to happen. You wished she had been a serum test subject instead of you.

For several years, missions to find Tony's parents killer were sporadic because you spent more time around Peggy than at the SHIELD facility. She was the only thing you had left of everything you'd ever had, of when you held the world in your hands. She was the last thing keeping you tethered to that reality, keeping madness from flooding your reason. How could you have so many years ahead of you when that was all you had to live for? A life full of the dead, full of pain and suffering. What kind of karma were you paying for?

You were leaving the SHIELD facility, after another failed mission, when Nick Fury stopped you in front of the exit. You almost rolled your eyes right under his watchful gaze, tired of having to meet him anywhere, and exhausted from his comments about this vengeance project or whatever he wanted you to be a part of.

You still didn't know how, being such an exemplary agent, Coulson had fallen into his nets.

“Miss L/N,” the man stopped you with his words, his hands behind his back and a tense stance that caught your attention.

“Fury,” you nodded in his direction, hoping he'd be quick because you were running late for your weekly visit with Peggy. “Do you need anything?”

“I'd like you to come with me somewhere,” Fury approached tentatively, his one eye fixed on your wary expression, which shifted to boredom the moment you thought you knew what he wanted.

“If this is about that project, I've told you a thousand times-”

“No,” he interrupted you, moving forward and removing his hands from behind his back. “It's not related to that. I really want you to come with me.”

“You look agitated, but I need-”

“I'll take you to see Peggy myself after this.”

You didn't like that he knew your routine, even though you weren't doing enough to hide it from the other agents. But Fury looked nervous, even though he was hiding it very well, trying to keep his cool as he looked for ways to convince you.

You figured it wouldn't be a big deal for you to go off the deep end for once. After all, Peggy never remembered you were going to see her.

You set off in Fury's armored vans, not quite sure where you were going, but sure that it was urgent, because he had taken it upon himself to let his driver know that you had to get there as soon as possible.

You took that time on the trip to come up with a new strategy for the next mission because what you were doing up to that point wasn't working and you felt too close to throwing in the towel, figuratively speaking. You could spend years following a ghost, but you wouldn't give up on finding Howard and Maria's killer.

Before the car pulled up to one of SHIELD's secret sections, they passed the giant, imposing Stark Tower. You never saw Tony again after that time at his parents' funeral, not even during his visits to Peggy because you always made it a point not to cross him. You didn't think you'd be able to look him in the eye while you knew his parents had been killed without being able to tell him. You had promised Peggy in her lucid moments that you wouldn't tell him anything until you could find the culprit. You didn't want to initiate that pain if it had to be kept repressed, as yours once was, and probably still is. You had learned, some time after the funeral, that he was living with Edwin Jarvis, and you were glad to know that he would have good companionship to keep him company in such hard times.

Fury, a handful of agents and you entered the vans through the entrance to what appeared to be the parking lot of an old warehouse. Upon entering, the first thing you noticed was the number of armed agents that seemed to be guarding the place, not at all discreet to how SHIELD used to do things. You weren't sure if Peggy would authorize something like that, but you couldn't question the Director's decisions. It wasn't your place.

“What's going on here?” you frowned, watching as every meter there was another agent and another agent. You got out of the car without waiting for an answer from Fury, moving directly toward the entrance where most of the agents were concentrated. You barely noticed their looks in contradiction, running their eyes over you and then over the man trying to catch up to you, dubious as to whether or not they should move. “Move.”

“Wait,” Fury's voice stopped the command in the agents, who turned back to look at you as you sent Fury a confused look.

“What's all this mystery, Nicholas?” the man startled almost discreetly at your tone of voice, the agents stirring uncomfortably, but kept the serene expression that was getting on your nerves. “What the fuck did you do?”

“We got a call from the Arctic.”

“From the Arctic?”

You tried to ignore the way the hairs on your neck instantly stood up, your body alerting you to something your mind still couldn't comprehend. You felt like a deer face to face with a predator, expecting the worst.

“The Colonel informed us of something that might interest us,” Fury's cryptic voice echoed in your ears, drowning out the flicker of uncertainty vibrating from your head to your toes. “They found a plane.”

You didn't even answer him. Your heart began to pound wildly, cornered, ready to have your head bitten off. The tension in your shoulders intensified, with the involuntary movement of your hands as you broke into a cold sweat. The mere implication of his words caused an emptiness in your stomach, a sense of longing and fear you hadn't felt before.

You looked at Fury, trying to find in his gaze the gleam of a lie, but there was nothing there but assurance. There was nothing but recognition and understanding in his gaze, but that didn't make the emptiness in your stomach and the tight chest go away. It didn't make the feeling of being outside your body go away.

You barely remembered to move in the direction of the door, the agents instantly moving out of your way, pushing it so hard that one of them flew out. You moved your eyes around every corner of the room, the cream-colored walls generating a great repulsion in you. And there, in the midst of all the confusion and the storm, a confused and disgruntled face looked back at you. A face you never thought you would see again.

Steve Rogers was standing a few feet away from you, barely comprehending what was happening around him and instantly recognizing you. Your chest compressed once again, the tears you held back for so many years even in your loneliness making their own way into your eyes, endangering to end that mask you wore everywhere you went.

Steve was actually there, looking back at you with his eyes shining in recognition. You didn't know if he was as surprised as you were to react or you looked so bad that he didn't know if he should approach you or not. You just knew it was him, it really was him right there in front of you. He wasn't dead. Steve wasn't dead. He was alive. Ah, he was so alive.

The broken sob that suddenly left you was loud enough to make your friend shed his stupefaction and stride over to where you were. You barely managed to cover your face, between sobs, wails and disbelief, feeling your knees give out, surrendering to the weight of the pain, when his strong arms grabbed your shoulders before you hit the floor. Preventing your fall, as you had wished so many times before.

You cried against his shoulder, when feeling him against your body you knew there was no doubt it was true. You moved your hands away from your face, wrapping them around his waist as tightly and lovingly as you hadn't hugged anyone in so long. Surely the last time you hugged someone like that was when you saw Peggy on your way back from Europe.

Steve wasn't far behind, his arms around your shoulders just as tightly, his chin against the crown of your head, moving from side to side trying to hold back the loud sobs that shook your body.

You couldn't believe it, but it was true, he was right in front of you.

Steve was alive. He had come back to your side. You didn't even want to ask why.

And there was nothing else you could think about for the rest of your life.

#stxrvel talks #bucky barnes x reader #bucky fanfic #bucky fic #bucky x you #bucky fluff #bucky barnes angst #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky #james bucky buchanan barnes #winter soldier #the winter soldier #steve rogers

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awearywritersworld · 1 year

Text

A misunderstanding makes you feel insecure.

Haikyu x Reader w/c: 1.4k // 1.1k warnings: just a lil angst, but fluffy endings. a/n: back on my haikyu bullshit bc life is tough rn and i needed something pure and wholesome. post!timeskip, hurt/comfort, gender neutral reader characters: Tsukishima Kei // Kuroo Tetsuro

masterlist

Tsukishima Kei

When Tsukishima first met you in university, he had taken notice of you, though you didn’t really start talking until you were paired for a research assignment. While he was just a tad nervous when you invited him to your apartment to work on it, he didn’t mind as you lived nearby.

An observant person, Tsukishima soon took note of your little quirks, many of which he silently regards as endearing. Your eyes would widen, sparkling with interest as you stumbled upon new articles and discoveries during your research. You always brewed a fresh pot of tea and grabbed something extra at the bakery when you knew he was coming over.

When he told you he plays volleyball for the Sendai Frogs, he was taken aback by how interested you seemed. He informed you about his position and that he started playing because of his older brother. Pink dusted his cheeks when you asked if you could attend his next match, which he agreed to. During the match, a few of his teammates gave him nudges and sly smirks. "You just seem really into the game today, Tsukishima-kun."

Your friendship persisted even after your project had been turned in, and while Tsukki was surprised, he also found that he was relieved. He enjoyed your company, after all. The thought of parting ways with you made his heart skip a beat like some lovesick teenager.

Toward the end of the semester, you're approaching the lecture hall you share with Tsukishima when you spot him talking to one of your classmates, a girl. The sight makes your stomach flip and you freeze, watching their interaction from afar.

"I just wanted to give you this, Tsukishima-kun," she begins nervously, handing him a box of sweets wrapped in pink paper.

"Oh, thanks." His tone is unexpressive as ever.

"You play volleyball, right? Maybe I could come to watch you sometime!"

She's barely finished speaking before he responds, "sorry, but I don't really like having people come to my games. You know, focus and all..."

He trails off and she tries her best to recover. "O-Okay! No problem! I'll see you around."

She scurries away and you can just barely hear him grumble something about annoying admirers and wanting to be left alone. You realize you stopped breathing at some point and all you can think while you harshly exhale is 'oh, god.'

Over the past few months, you had certainly developed a crush on Tsukishima. You feel awful about having gone to quite a few of his games when, evidently, he must have found it irritating. You're staring into nothing with wide eyes when you hear your name being called.

Your head snaps in the direction it came from and your gaze meets Tsukishima's as he approaches you. He greets you as he usually does and you stutter out a reply. Walking into the classroom together, he's squinting at you out of the corner of his eye. It's clear to him that something is up.

"You okay?" he asks as you both slide into your usual seat beside one another.

"Of course!"

That's how the next few days pass--- he knows something is wrong and you pretend that everything is fine. You're quieter than usual and you haven't invited him to hang out at all. Since you're typically the one to take initiative, Tsukishima is left feeling a little lost.

When you don't come to his next game, he finally decides he's going to have to figure out how to resolve whatever is going on. It's already dark outside by the time the team finishes, but he still heads in the direction of your apartment.

With each step, he wracks his mind trying to figure out what the hell he's even going to even say. Did he do something wrong? Have you grown tired of him and his cynicism?

Standing in front of your apartment door, it occurs to him that you might not even be home. He knocks apprehensively and the door swings open a few moments later.

"Tsukki!" you squeak out.

You're in your pajamas, a sight he's never seen before, and it makes his mind go blank. He tries desperately to keep his eyes from trailing down to your thin top and flannel shorts.

"Can I come in?" he finally asks.

"S-sure!" you step aside. "I'll go get some tea started."

He can't help but smile as you hurry off, thinking you might be the cutest person he's ever met. Instead of making his way to the couch, he leans against the doorframe to the kitchen. "Do you need a hand?"

"That's alright, it'll just be a few minutes," you say, reaching up to a high shelf for a tin of tea leaves.

He's behind you in an instant, his body pressed to your back as he grabs the one he knows is your favorite. "This one, right?"

"Yeah, thanks!"

Shocked your voice doesn't betray you, your heart is now hammering in your chest with impossible force. He's still close behind you as he sets it down on the counter. Scratching the back of his neck nervously, he takes a step back.

Once you finish filling the kettle, he speaks up. "Is it okay if I ask you something?"

Setting it down on the stove and turning on the burner, you turn to give him your full attention. "Always."

The way you look up at him expectantly makes him swallow and clear his throat. "I was wondering if everything is okay?"

"What do you mean, Tsukki?"

"Um, you just haven't seemed like yourself the past few days."

He hopes his vague answer is enough, but you tilt your head to the side. "How so?"

If he didn't know any better, he'd think you were trying to torture him.

"Well, you've been less talkative," he nearly winces at how pitiful he sounds. "And then when you didn't come to my game tonight..."

He can't think of what else to say, cursing the way his cheeks heat up. You hardly notice though, too caught up in your own embarrassment and avoiding his eye.

"Oh, that!" you laugh nervously. "You see, I may have... overheard you talking to our one classmates the other day..."

The look on his face tells you he has no idea what you're referring to.

"She gave you a gift a-and asked to come to see you play, but you told her you didn't like when people came to your games." You're talking very quickly by this point. "I-I didn't want to annoy you-"

Tsukishima's eyes nearly pop out of his head in disbelief and he starts to laugh at the situation, but you think he's laughing at you. At first, he fails to notice that tears have begun to slip down your cheeks.

"I'm sorry Tsukki," you apologize, lip quivering.

That gets his attention right away, a look of horror taking over his features.

"No, no, no! I wasn't- I didn't mean to laugh!" His words are jumbled and he tries his best to slow them. "It's just that you're not people, you're... you."

"Oh," you say while wiping at your eyes, not quite yet processing the meaning behind his words.

You still seem so sad and it tugs at Tsukishima's chest, making him panic.

"I like you!" he blurts out and your watery eyes dart up toward his face. "I'm sorry, I thought I was more obvious about it than I was. I-I missed seeing you in the stands tonight and talking to you in class and coming over afterward and-"

He keeps rambling on and you think it might be the longest you'd ever heard the usually very matter-of-fact man speak for. He only stops when you start to giggle, your hand covering your mouth in an attempt to hide it.

The kettle suddenly whistles, breaking any sort of tension that might have lingered between the two of you. You swiftly remove it from the heat before turning back to him.

"I like you, too, Tsukki."

He breathes a sigh of relief, eyes flicking between each of your own. His honesty just moments ago has him surprised and while he'd usually be uncomfortable in a situation like this, oddly enough, he's not.

There's a ghost of a smile adorning his face and he spends a second just looking at you. 'You're... you,' he considers his words from earlier and knows that this is what he meant. You're different from most people. You make him feel at ease.

"You should call me Kei," he states simply, before moving to prepare the tea just the way he knows you like it.

Kuroo Tetsuro

One afternoon, Kuroo stopped by the coffee shop across from his office building downtown. Pulling the door open, he caught the reflection of a person around his age in the glass. As he moved so that he could hold it open for you, you thanked him with a small smile.

You caught his attention, dressed for some seemingly important job, your hair just a touch messy, but in a way that looked good. While you waited in line, he asked you about your day and his charming small talk left you a blushing mess.

You were in front of him in line, but once you finished telling the barista what you wanted, he stepped up to add his own drink to the order. "On me, of course."

Two years later, you're living together in a cozy apartment and you couldn't be happier. Kuroo is everything you could ever ask for--- charismatic, reliable, thoughtful. It was even his idea that the two of you go out for dinner after work every Thursday.

So when that day of the week finally rolls around, you finish your tasks for the day and head over to his nearby office to meet up. You get off the elevator on his floor and make your way down the hallway, noticing his door is open a few inches. You stop once you hear voices inside.

“Isn’t it hard having a partner, though? I mean, always having someone around, not being able to relax and do your own thing.”

The voice is unfamiliar and your head tilts to the side as you listen.

Your boyfriend chuckles, hand reaching to scratch the back of his neck. “I suppose they can be a lot sometimes.”

Inwardly, Kuroo reflects on your late-night bouts of energy when he’s half asleep, your ramblings about the newest show you’ve been watching (he truly does try his hardest to keep up), your habit of constantly asking him for reassurance even though you’re so far out of his league it’s unreal.

You can’t see the fond smile that bashfully plays on his lips or hear the thoughts running through his mind. Left with just his words alone, you deflate as you’re overcome by embarrassment. 'Well, he's not wrong,' you think.

“Then what’s the point?” the other person wonders.

You can’t bear to hear Kuroo's answer, so you move away from the door and attempt to swallow the lump in your throat. The fact that you’re about to burst into tears at his work, of all places, is probably why he thinks the way he does. A humorless laugh passes your lips as you berate yourself. You dip into the bathroom and force yourself to take a few deep breaths before anyone can see you.

If only you had waited a few moments longer, you would have heard Kuroo's response. "I figured out pretty quickly they could be a handful sometimes, but it's part of what made me love them, you know?"

"No, gross. Don't go all sappy on me, senpai," the young intern rolls his eyes.

It just makes Kuroo laugh, "you asked! Now get out of my office and go tell them you'd love to get dinner with them tonight."

The intern grumbles as he leaves, but Kuroo doesn't miss the grin tugging at his lips. "After you finish your work for the day, of course," the older man hollers from his seat.

Finally having composed yourself, you exit the bathroom, passing the intern and greeting him politely.

You knock once you reach the door to Kuroo's office and his eyes light up, "hey, sweetheart!"

His tie has already been loosened for the evening and his hair is a bit disheveled.

"Hey, Tetsu," you say sheepishly. Even now, he still makes your stomach flutter.

"I just need a few minutes to finish this up," he informs.

"Sure, take your time!"

You try your best to make your voice sound bright and move to take a seat on the couch that's tucked against the wall. Kuroo returns his attention to the computer, but he quickly realizes you're quiet. Weirdly quiet. He peeks over at you and you're just sitting there on your phone with a blank expression.

The soft clicking of his keyboard stops. He says your name and you hum in acknowledgment. "What's on your mind?"

You glance over to find that he's looking at you, his body leaning over his desk in your direction. The expression he wears is a gentle one. His obvious concern and the fact he's already picked up on your vexation are enough to arouse the emotions you'd hopelessly tried to bury earlier. In an attempt to hide your tears, you avert your eyes. The action immediately has Kuroo rising from his seat.

"Hey, hey, hey," he frets, sitting beside you and putting a hand on your knee. "Look at me, what happened?"

The sight of you like this makes his heart squeeze tightly in his chest and when you finally turn to him, his eyes are burning with worry.

"It's nothing, it's dumb," you dismiss, waving your hand.

"Sweetheart, don't say that. Something's got you all worked up." He brushes your hair behind your ear. "Talk to me."

"I-I'm sorry" you choke out.

"There's no reason to be-"

"I know I can be a lot sometimes," you add, wiping at your nose with your sleeve.

Realization and guilt descend upon him in tandem. "You heard-"

"Only some of it!" you clarify before he finishes, "I-I didn't mean to listen in on you, I just-"

He boops your nose, making your words stop in your throat. "You just didn't stay and listen to the part where I told him you it's what makes me love you so much."

He's got a little grin on his face, refraining (with some difficulty) from calling you a dork.

"You said that?"

He hums, "of course I did."

A moment passes and he can sense you're still feeling unsure of yourself, so he continues. "I can be passive and a bit... emotionally closed off at times. It makes me admire how expressive you are and how strongly you react to things, both good and bad."

Touched by his words, you feel all your anxiety ebb away, replaced by a warm feeling in the center of your chest. "Then you'll be happy to know that is perhaps the sweetest thing anyone has ever said and it makes my heart want to explode."

"Ah, see! There it is!" he beams and stands up, offering you his hand.

Once you rise to your feet, he places a kiss firmly on your temple.

"Alright, the rest of this can wait," he decides as he grabs his bag, turns off his computer, and slips his fingers through your own. "I'm all yours."

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thequietkid-moonie · 1 year

Note

Your favorite Toilet Bound characters as Yanderes with their Darling being a fairly powerful exorcist who can manipulate gravity

(If that is possible I can’t remember it’s been awhile sense I’ve read and watched the series)

Darling is a powerful exorsist

[ YANDERE HEADCANONS ] [ Hanako, Tsukasa, Teru, Sumire ]

[ Toilet Bound Hanako-kun / Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun ]

⚠️ Yandere, I dunno support this kind of behavior in real life, I just write it for fun!

× Sumire is a character that had only been show in the manga so it could be taken as spoiler

My dear!! I love youuuuuu!! Thank u so much for requesting for JSHK!!! requesting yandere and a really interesting prompt! Love it! ❤️

Sorry, I didn't manage to put the part of controlling gravity 😔 still I hope you like it as much as I did

Hanako-kun

Since the moment you got into the school Hanako noticed your presence, specially since you are just not anyone, you are an exorsist, and a really powerful one

Knowing that Hanako spend some time following you close (with you knowing it or not), watching over you from afar trying to know more about you to make sure you won't represent a problem for his plans (specially because he already has to deal with the Minamoto brothers), however, ass the time pass he can't help but get more and more interested on you, maybe it was that he finds you a funny person to be around, maybe you are, in reality, really caring, maybe even you had showed kindness to the weakest supernaturals (like the Mokkes), or maybe it was just everything about you that mesmerize him

Hanako can't help himself but want to be more and more close to you, reaching the point where he can't even hide well because he just wants to approach to you, that is why the moment you confront him (either by attacking him by surprise or just kindly asking him what the hell he wants) is like a reality check for him, he is startled by it for a moment but quickly tries to recover his charming and misterios facade, introducing himself as the honorable no. 7, leader of the seven mysteries (even if you already know who he is)

He doesn't want to let his guard down around you yet and still he can't help but wanting to spend all the time he can with you, it doesn't matter if you find him annoying or even if you want to exorcised him, Hanako just brush it off and even playfuly challenge you to do it (however provoke you isn't his smartest move since that one time you attacked him he barely made it alive)

Hanako wants to be careful, wants to focus on his work and help Yashiro with her wish, but he can't stop thinking about you, wanting to be around you, even if you don't really like him he wants to mess with you, and he can't stop himself from following his heart and just follow you around the school, clinging onto you and teasing you here and there. Somehow you two quickly become friends but Hanako wants more, he craves for more, for him it doesn't matter if you see him as annoying he can't just go away, it hurts his heart when he isn't with you even if you just send him angry glares (however if you are kind and even playful with him that just feed his obsession for you)

Hanako doesn't show it off much his obsession and dependence for you and just cover it up with his charming and clingy personality, when he is with you he can't just think straight, he just want to have fun with you! he want to see you smile! he wants for you to be happy with him! But when you aren't around he tend to overthink a lot, he is nothing but a mere ghost, and even worst, an assassin, how he dares to think that he deserve to be happy by your side? And you are an exorsist! You should hate him! you probably hate him (if you actually express that you want to exorcise him he laugh at it in front of you, but is something that hurt him a lot, in the moments when he feels specially down or anxious/insecure he actually thinks on letting you just exorcise him)

Hanako is really demanding, he is taking your attention from anyone and anything else all the time, specially when he is jealous (what happen constantly), clinging to you protectively and possessively even if you are the only one who can see him (he actually takes advantage of this), sometimes he lets you alone but not complety, if he actually manage to make you mad at him for how clingy he is he will let you and just watch you from afar (after scolding himself pretty harsh, the more angry you are the more harsh he is with himself)

Hanako finds both scary and incredibly attractive how stronge you are, he is completely mesmerize whenever he sees you use your powers, even if is against him (he barely make it of because he is too distracted being in lovestruck) and even when you are clearly more powerful than him that doesn't stop him for trying to help you and protect you from any danger (for what he sees as a danger), he wants to show you that he is more than a simple assassin, that what he had done in the past doesn't define him (he is actually scare that you don't see him as more, the thought of you seeing him just as a mere assassin or supernatural make him incredibly anxious, he fears it even if you don't see him that way)

Tsukasa Yugi

Tsukasa doesn't have a great title like his brother, he is just in the school because he has a goal to achieve and because he wants to have fun, so for him you could easily go unnoticed for a while, it could be that Sakura notice that you are a powerful exorsist or that he sees you using your powers to exorcise a supernatural one day

Tsukasa doesn't really fear you so the moment you catch his attention he waste no time and just approach to you, he wants to tell you that what you did was amazing!! He wants to aks you how did you do that and where you learned to do that!!

Is probably that he scare or trigger you and you attack him out of instinct for how he appeared out of nowhere, he will try to avoid the hit at the best of his habilities and still is probably that you manage to hurt him, however he won't really take it bad, maybe just tells you that attacking him by surprise it wasn't fair or even asking you if that means that you want to play with him and attack you too, turning it into a fight. However, if you don't react bad or against him Tsukasa will be just making you a lot of questions (even some that doesn't have nothing to do with your powers and he almost doesn't gives you time to answer) and with every question he does he get closer to you, until the point where he is just inches away from your face

Once Tsukasa is interested in you his interest grows more and more with time, quickly becoming an obsesion! He can compare the feelings he has for you with the feelings he hold for Amane! The inmense loves he feels for you is your sentence, no matter how stronge you are Tsukasa isn't going to give up with you, the only way to get away from him is exorcising him, vanishing him from this world, and even if that happen he won't be sad for it, in his mind is an act out of love

Tsukasa isn't exactly delusional, but he firmly believes that you love him as much as he loves you even if you try to deny it he won't accept it

No matter how it happens your first met once you catch Tsukasa's attention there is no way that you will be able to get away from him, since that day Tsukasa follows you around whenever he has the time or just want to do it, either by following you from afar or directly by your side, if you ask him to go away he will ask you why innocently, if you ask kindly he may leave you alone for now but if not he probably just cling onto you to mess with you (he finds funny your annoyed expression)

Tsukasa knows you are stronge but he doesn't fear you, he has no problem with going full strength against you if you two end up fighting (as much as he doesn't has problems with killing other supernaturals he doesn't want to kill you, not when you are so funny to be around). Tsukasa finds really interesting and funny to see you doing your work as an exorsist so he sometimes ask Sakura to change the rumors to something really big and dangerous just for you to having to fight against them, and when it isn't that he himself mess with the most weak supernatural to try to create one big supernatural just for you to having to fight it (he is even proud about his creating and ask you how it was, if it was good and if you liked it)

Tsukasa quickly becomes demanding and pretty possessive, he doesn't understand and doesn't care that you go to that school to take classes and more than once he will make you skip classes just so you two could hang out or because he wants to show you something, even if you don't want he will drag you with him because Tsukasa isn't going to accept a no as response

Little by little Tsukasa start to completely monopolize you, for him it doesn't matter if he brings you problems in your personal life, he just want you to himself, also he has no problem with resorting to dirty tricks, like forcing you or scaring you to be with him, even if he has to attack you by surprise just to have all your attention for himself

Tsukasa doesn't see anything bad in his actions, not even when he is practically kidnapping you by locking you with him in the radio club or at the boundary of a mistery just so you two can spend time together, even when you can easily find you way out of there that doesn't stop him from doing it again and again

Tsukasa always act childish and playful with you, but he is totally willing to throw off whatever threat stand between the two of you, it doesn't matter if is a human or a supernatural, it doesn't even matter if that threat is you, if he has to make you change you mind and make you give up to him he is totally willing to do it, it doesn't matter if in the process hurts your body or your mind in his eyes is just part of the fun! he is just getting you ready for all the fun you two are going to have together!

Teru Minamoto

The Minamoto Family has been engaged in exorcism for a long time and Teru, for being the firstborn of the next generation, he has been trained to be an exorsist since he was really young. Since you are an exorsist too that is the main reason why the two of you met in the first place, and probably you two know since a young age too

For being so stronge the two of you are the main people in charge of exorcising the supernaturals around the city and you two have been working together for a long time, and for that Teru is grateful, being an exorsist is a really rough job but having someone by his side it makes it more bearable

Since the start Teru felt atracted to you, maybe is that you are really stronge or maybe that you can understand how he feels for having to spend all his time in this job, even if you are more introvert or even shy he has no problem with being the one who start being the talktive one at first

The relasionship you two have together quickly grows for how much time you two spend together, even you two had spend some time training together too at some point. As well, his feelings slowly grows stronger and stronger with the time and still because of your job it could go unnoticed for a long time how clingy and possessive he grows with you, hidding it by his excitment to see you again and to work together (what he always express, specially if you get flustered, making you flustered just increase his ego)

Teru doesn't like much his job, having to spend all his live fighting with supernaturals isn't his ideal and you sharing the same fate with him is something that troubled him but at the same time make things a little better, he loves that thanks to being exorsist he can spend almost all your time together and monopolize you but in the other hand he hates that you give your life to fight supernaturals without other option

Sometimes, while things are a little more peaceful or you two are taking a break Teru likes to talk about what you two could do if you weren't busy all the time, jokinly telling you about dates he will like to take you in or even a future together without having to be exorcist with his usual charming smile, even if you take it as a joke or ask him to stop for being flustered he just softly laugh at your reaction but he actually mean what he said, and he isn't planing to let you go anytime soon (it irritated him a little if you take it as a joke but he is confident that with time you will see how serious he is being with this)

Your relasionship could be seem very calm since Teru is really good at hidding his possessiveness, however there is something that dangerously triggers him, he had been feeling like you two have an unbreakable bond, that you two are mean to be together and that nothing can separate you two, he feels like everything goes perfect between you two until he sees you outside your job, seeing you one day hanging out with others (or if you two go to the same school it trigger him seeing others being too close and touchy with you, however for being the school prince he has an advantage), even if they are just your friends is pretty shocking for him

Teru is really possessive, he does not own his own life and it isn't like has other option so you and your relationship is something that he feels that he can fully possessive and have control over it so seeing you be happy with others make him anxious, he may be too shocked and angry the moment he sees you so he will just confront you about it later (but still trying to seem calm). Also, thanks to this Teru grows a little more controlling, trying to lead you to go to the same school with him (even using the mysteries as an excuse) just for you two to spend more and more time together, and he being able do watch your interaction with other and rip off any possible threat

Most of the time Teru tries to keep his charming facade while talking to you but it could be that, since you know him for a long time you can tell that he isn't bring sincere, something is bothering him, still he will just cover it with saying that he is worried about you, but after this he is more and more possessive and a little more manipulative, trying to lull you to do what he wants, he doesn't trust in the people around you and he will try to make you distrust them too

Teru can go as far as training until he feels his body shatter and feeling short of breath every day to be able to become more and more strong until he finally surpass yourself in power so you could depend on him, as well to have an advantage over you

Akane Sumire

Since a young age Sumire knew that her fate was to be sacrificed to the god to bring peace to the village, she hates it but she just accept it because in reallity she doesn't really have another option, however she never lost her smile

After the village lost the last exorsist of the Minamoto Clan Sumire started to train to be able to protect the village as the Kannagi, although it could be that you are part of Minamoto Clan as the next exorcist in training or that you came to the village one day and were welcome to take the place as the exorcist, in any case Sumire is really willing to meet you and excited to learn from you

Sumire isn't the type to fall in love immediatly, specialy with her position, so you two start as friends, quickly becoming close and despite all the hate and warnings of the villagers it become pretty common to see you, Sumire and Hakubo together around

Sumire always plays innocent with that smiles of her, but the moment she warms up with you she start to be more clingy and truly smiles at you. It doesn't take her long to notice that she feels a true happines with you, one that she only feels when she is with Hakubo or when she is healing wounded animals she have found, you don't treat her as the Kannagi but as a friend and that makes her extremely happy, being with you makes Sumire feel like everything is fine, heck it even make her forget what her fate is at times, she loves the feeling she has when she is with you and she isn't going to lose you

Sumire isn't always honest with her feelings with you, she tend to complain a lot about how bad temporary husband Hakubo and still, deep down in her heart, the only person she wants to be with is you, Sumire lies during training with you saying that she can't do it just for you to focus your completely attention in her a little longer to explain her how to do it again, even more just so you will touch her to explain her how to hold the weapons, Sumire lies and smiles like if she doesn't hate that place, like if she doesn't think that you and Hakubo are the only worthy people of protect in there, and Sumire isn't complety sincere when he tells you that she likes your company because in reality she wants you all for herself, she wants to trap you in her arms, she want for you to depend on her and NEED her as much as she does with you

Also, Sumire loves to play innocent with you, just like when she gets into more troubles just for you to came and stand up for her, defending her from the other villagers, just as she gets really aggresive towards who dare to say something bad about you or start questioning your relasionship

Little by little Sumire start to monopolize all your time with every excuse she can, acting like a perfect wife to you too, healing your injuries carefuly and with love, making you flowers crowns, physicaly clinging to you, acting all cute and innocent, anything she can do to make you fall in her trap to make you hers forever, Hakubo knows exactly what she is doing but he isn't going to say anything about it, he haven't been asked to do it after all

Sumire admire your strength, she truly find it amazing but it isn't really a threaten for her or her plans to be with you forever, it would be even an advantage since she is really smart and can easily lull you to do what she wants, and even if the manipulation doesn't work it doesn't matter, she has learned a lot from you and she can always ask Hakubo to force you or restrain you until you finally accept to be with her

Sumire can't forget about her position as the Kannagi, even if she tries Sumire is still fully aware of her fate, she had given up some time ago choosing to just enjoy the time she had and hoping for all the village to fall into hell after her dead, however now that you are in her live she wants to stay alive a little longer just to be with you, to have you, so some days before the ritual cames she talks to Hakubo about it, saying that it would be amazing for the three of you to just go away and start a new life, go somewhere where all of you can be together, finishing her speach by asking Hakubo to end with the village, make them live a hell in the earth just like she always wanted so the three of you could just leave and Hakubo can't say no when he is asked to do something, however this time he isn't doing it just because he had been ordered to do so

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lazypapers · 3 months

Note

do you have any HCs about how Arthur reacted to John being distant to Abigail when Jack was born? /how Arthur reacted when John showed up after a year

Oh definitely, my HC is similar to Roger Clark (the actor for Arthur). I think Arthur resented John for being distant and leaving her and his baby for a year. I imagine a couple years before Jack was born that's when he lost Isaac and that tragedy never left him and deeply effected him. He hated John for running away and taking things for granted from the very thing Arthur always sought and wanted. So when John returns, Arthur is just livid and their relationship is broken.

Arthur seemed like a character who wanted to be loved and belong in a family. He tried that with Mary, but I felt like Mary toyed with his feelings in the most wishy washy way (I get it. Like what future would you have with an outlaw). Obviously Eliza was a rebound from him breaking up with Mary. And that one night stand led to the conception of Isaac. He still chose to stay with Dutch's gang cause that was his family and he wasn't gonna stay with a girl he barely knew and didn't love. He probably tried to bring her along but she most likely didn't want to. I have this headcanon that their relationship was getting better and had potential to work. Arthur would have wanted to stay with them more often as his son got older with each visit. I would say maybe his son was like 4-5 years old the last time he saw him (since it's hinted in the game he taught a little boy fishing during the Jack fishing mission). However, this is when Dutch would manipulate Arthur severely.

He likely pressured Arthur to choose his loyalty to him and the gang over Arthur's son and Eliza. Think about it. When Hosea left to make a life with Bessie, Dutch got really messed up about it. Which explains his disgruntlement with John's loyalty and Abigail. For a bit he lost his family unit and control. He wasn't going to lose Arthur through the same thing. So he starts tightening that leash around Arthur through his low self-esteem and self-worth. He didn't want to lose his best dog. Definitely a red flag, that a lot of the gang members felt obligated that they owed Dutch just because he saved their asses (weird savior complex going on there 😬🙄).

As for why, he didn't seem all that bothered that John left. Maybe he kind of learned from his mistake with Arthur. Under his manipulation, Arthur completely broke when Isaac died (I feel like Arthur never fully recovered from that and Dutch noticed that he wasn't the "same" anymore). So not wanting to break his 2nd Golden Boy he loosened the leash. I'm pretty sure Dutch cared deeply about Arthur and John, and he isn't this evil selfish guy the way I'm describing him. That would be later in RDR1 😆, Dutch is complete bonkers in 1911. He is just incredibly flawed and super weird and a messed up way of showing he cares in 1899 prior.

Anyways I want to draw a storyline focused on the year John left and returned in the Golden Hour. Since the Golden Hour comics are basically about the close bond and eventual collapse of the gang. It would be fun to explore that part of the era of the gang. But once my wrist stops hurting and I have more time. All I can do is talk about it instead of drawing it.

#long rant #red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 #arthur morgan #john marston #the golden hour #discussion #lazypapers answers #character analysis

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pianocat939 · 2 months

Text

Yandere Chrollo Hcs/Mini-Story

I couldn't conceal the thoughts anymore- they were eating me up so bad. I RAMBLED. LIke this feels more like an informative thing than an actual narrative style so I'm sorry lmao. It's so unorganized too.

(The entire story is based on the fic I'm working on, but with more detail on characteristics and what not.)

Tw: brief mentions of kidnapping, implied controlling behaviour, Chrollo's character is altered but is in correlation to the past I've thought of.

MC is from Meteor City, and was Chrollo's best friend. But- They end up being kidnapped, and having retreograde amnesia. (I'm not going to go into further detail just because I don't want to spoil to anyone who is currently reading my fic) Meanwhile, Chrollo is absolutely obsessed with MC. He trusted them more than anyone, and all of the sudden they disappeared.

Chrollo, who slowly grows cold-hearted without MC, starts to resent whatever happened to them. He's desperate to know what happened to them. As he first builds the troupe (As an actual gang of thieves), his personal mission is to find MC.

Some of the troupe members know this goal he has. Especially if they were friends with MC before they were kidnapped. So they try to help him in anyway possible.

A few years of searching, the troupe manages to locate MC. But when Chrollo goes to meet them, everything just falls apart. They don't remember him at all. To him, this is devastating since he had practically devoted over half of his life to them. He becomes more unstable with his internal conflicts.

Since there's no photos or records of their memories, Chrollo repeats his fondest moments with them. He is desperate to get them to remember their friendship.

The most prominent memory he will say is the time he found a near-brand new toy and gave it to them. To which MC was grateful of his search back then. This memory is also the start of his obsession (which explains why this event in particular is the most important).

Slowly, MC manages to remember their memories with him. It takes a while, honestly. Maybe a few months. But MC is incredibly happy to see him alive and well. Only for one thing to be a downfall...

MC doesn't view him romantically at all.

Well, since MC is just barely recovering their moments they really only focus on what happened. Since they were children at that point, MC holds nothing but platonic affection for him.

Chrollo, however, is down bad for MC. He would and honestly will devote himself to their life. He doesn't care for much in his life. But he does care for the one thing that made him feel any joy. Over the years they were apart, Chrollo develops an almost glorified view of MC. He thinks they can do no wrong, and anything against them is his enemy too.

Now, Chrollo will kidnap them. No questions. Of course MC is freaking out, but once they see more old friends they know they're screwed.

Moving on to more about what Chrollo will be like with MC during captivity:

In front of the troupe members, he acts very nonchalant. He won't do any more than keep their side pressed to his or have them sit on his lap.

Alone? He's fucking insane. He'll do a lot for MC. He'll do most requests for them in a way to prove his "worthiness" to stay by their side. He wants them to rely on him so he can keep them obedient to his affections. The reason I even mention this as a worshipping characteristic of him is because back when they were children, Chrollo had friends. MC, however, was like his true best friend. The one he could trust wholeheartedly no matter what. Which I think is still left behind in his mind.

Also, while he's alone: definitely more affectionate. He tends to give lots of pecks on their face or hold them close. In his most vulnerable moments, he likes to do a few nuzzles. It's like he reverts back to being the clingy friend he was all those years ago.

In a way he's possessive. My idea of him is weird. So one side, he wants to prove his worth to MC so they'll acknowledge him as they did before. But on the other side, he wants a feeling of superiority and reliability.

He talks about fate often, mostly about the connection between the two. He'll repeat at least multiple times a week that fate has led them together just as they were before. He also loves to mention that they're his and he's theirs.

...

(OK. I'm done. I rambled so much help- it's really unorganized. Nonetheless, this is the most I've written in one go in a while. So that was fun.)

(I know I altered his character quite a bit, but that's because I altered his past as well. So it kinda goes hand in hand.)

- Celina

#I'm so fucking scared to put tags #yandere #yandere x reader #hxh #hxh x reader #hunter x hunter #chrollo #chrollo x reader #yandere imagines

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byeoltoyuki · 9 months

Text

✧ Give it to me ✧ - part 1

↳ Pairing: Bangchan x Reader / Felix x Reader (kind of)

❧ Genre : gang au / romance / smut / strangers to lovers / fluff / some fake texts

❧ Words: 31k

Part 1 : +17k ⎢Part 2 : +13k

❧ Warnings : Violence / mention of death / guns / mention of drugs / mention of human trafficking / smut (in part 2)

❧ Summary: Everything in life has a cost. Even freedom. To be finally out of your father’s clutches you were ready for everything. Including making a deal with the Devil.

❧ A/N: After rewritting this story twice, I'm finally done with it. Can't say it was easy and I can't thank enough my friends who had to deal with my mental breakdowns, all my complaining and frustration. Thank you to my baby koala for this lovely moodboard ❤️

It was supposed to be a prompt but somehow I got carried away.

Since tumblr didn't let me post the story in one part, I cut it. The 2nd part will come out shortly ❤️.

Hope you enjoy your reading!

▾▾▾

“Boss wants to see you.” Ren interrupted your peaceful, and only way of escape, reading time as he stepped inside your room without knocking.

You barely glanced at him. One, your book was way more interesting than whatever he had to say. Two, it was Ren, your bodyguard, and your probably only friend in this place, which meant he was completely used to your behavior and could definitely deal with it. Three, the mention of the ‘Boss’ who happened to be your father, was a good enough excuse for ignoring him.

And Ren expected nothing less from you. From the moment he was asked to bring you to your father’s office, he knew, he was sent to a bloody loud battle. “Can you please for once make it easy?”

You slammed the book shut, giving him your undivided attention, trying to look as sweet and innocent as possible. Which would have worked on anyone other than Ren. He had seen it all and saw through you. Not surprising (yet still incredibly annoying in your opinion) considering you had spent the last two years in his company. Two years in hell could be a very long time.

“You’d get bored if it was easy.” You commented and crawled to the edge of your bed; eyes locked on him.

Ren considered for a moment to just throw you over his shoulder and carry you to the office. It was so damn tempting. Instead, he sighed and pleaded. “Please.”

“Boring.” You huffed, disappointed. However, you quickly recovered from your disappointment as you spotted a bright red cut showing from under his shirt. You frowned and immediately got on your feet. “What’s this?” You pulled at his shirt too harshly, fingers brushing the cut – Ren winced and slapped your hand away.

“Nothing.” But it wasn’t nothing. If Ren could read you like a book, so could you. You had been around him long enough to pick up his habits, especially when he was lying. He was trying to look everywhere except at your face and he was clenching his fists.

Ren wanted you to drop the subject, he didn’t need you to be noisy about it and do something probably incredibly stupid that would attract attention on the two of you. But he knew a lost battle when he saw one.

And he was right. You reached for the edge of his shirt and lifted it without asking for his permission, knowing damn well he wouldn’t agree to it, knowing he would do anything to avoid troubling you. Your grip on his shirt tightened, knuckles turning white, as you saw the damage. His chest wasn’t covered in just cuts but also with bright purple bruises.

“Who?” You whispered, voice shaking in both anger and pain.

“I got into a fight with John.” Ren ended up admitting. He could have tried to lie his way out, but one glance at your face was enough to convince him that telling the truth was the better option.

You let go of his shirt and took a step back. Of course, it was John. Nobody in their right mind would mess with Ren, he was known for being a strong fighter and a cold killer. But John? John was your father’s right-hand and a real piece of shit. You had known him half of your life and hated it him from day one.

You counted to ten, breath in, breath out. Nope, still angry.

“This fucker! God, can he just die already? Nobody is going to mourn him.” You yelled in frustration. “Except maybe for my father.” You pointed an accusing finger at him. “Why the hell did you let him beat the crap out of you? I refuse to believe that you’re weaker than him.”

Ren was touched that you had such a high opinion of his skills. “I’m not. But John is Boss’s right-hand. I can’t mess with him without risking my position. Unless you want someone else as your bodyguard.”

You cringed at his suggestion. You didn’t want him to be your bodyguard to begin with, but with time you got used to him. But getting another one? Hell no.

“What does he want?” You changed the subject.

“No idea.” Ren shrugged.

▾▾▾

You never liked visiting your father’s office. You couldn’t explain why it bothered you so much, but it did. Maybe it had something to do with him doing his evil business from inside, or maybe whether he summoned you inside, he had bad news for you. Today was not an exception.

John was standing by your father’s desk, hands behind his back, his face wore a smug expression which caused your unease to grow only more. There was definitely some bad news for you.

Without fully realizing it, you glanced over your shoulder just to confirm that Ren was following you, his presence bringing a very needed comfort while facing your father. You fully ignored John and instead approached your father’s desk, trying not to show your annoyance (which would bring you even more problems). “You asked for me?”

“I did.” Your father confirmed without raising his head from the documents he was reading. “We’re attending a charity party tonight. I had your dress delivered to your room.”

The urge to complain was burning through you. Those parties had always been the bane of your existence; boring, filled with arrogant people; some were politician, some were just filthy rich, but some, like your father, were criminals who had no problem to blend in.

“I expect you to be on your best behavior.” Your father finally raised his head to look at you, his brows furrowed. He thought that he had you finally under control, especially after the little incident from last year, but something told him he should be careful. Especially tonight, when so much was on stake.

“Why?” You dared to ask. There had to be a reason he insisted on you being a good girl, one that would probably displease you, but you still wanted to hear it.

Your father approached you without a word but his eyes spoke louder than any word could. He didn’t hesitate, not even for a second – he slapped you. “Listen well, Y/N. Tonight, I’m going to introduce you to a very powerful man who’s also my new business partner. You will present yourself as the perfect daughter that you are. A pretty, polite, lady. If you don’t-“ He paused, choosing carefully his next words, “Let’s say that what happened last year would seem like a nice dream.”

▾▾▾

“What an asshole!” You screamed the moment you got back inside your room, Ren following you like your shadow. He didn’t need to be so close to you when you were stuck in your room, in fact, he had no business at all following you inside your room, but he was worried.

“I can’t believe he wants to parade me like a damn trophy.” You continued mumbling to yourself, fuming with rage.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time he would bring you to one of those parties just to show his beautiful little girl, but you could tell tonight would be different. You didn’t know in what way, but it couldn’t be anything good. Not when he threatened you so nicely. Not when out of all the threats he could have chosen, he chose to remind you of the consequences of your last attempt at escaping.

You grabbed a vase from the cupboard and threw it across the room.

“Y/N.” Ren grabbed your hands, stopping you in your fit of rage. “Look at me.”

You refused, shaking your head. The need to lash out, to scream was just so strong, you could barely hold back. Even Ren’s presence was making you angry, his attempt at calming you made things so much worse. You tried to get rid of his grip, to put space between the two of you but it was of no use. Ren was much stronger; he didn’t even budge which only fueled your rage.

“Let me go. Right now.” You ordered; your voice filled with poison. A wrong word from him and he would feel the power of your rage.

But Ren being Ren kept his calm. He had been around you long enough to know, to understand how you worked. He saw what you could become when trapped. “Y/N.” He let go of your hands, only to cup your face and force you to look at him.

It was really unfair how big, how bright, how gentle, his eyes were. There was no resent, no anger in his eyes, no will to tell you what to do, only genuine worry and wish to help you. “Breath.”

Easy thing to say when your whole body was boiling with rage.

“Come on, pretty. Do it for me, please.”

You closed your eyes and concentrated on his voice, on this touch, his scent to ground you. His deep yet incredibly sweet voice.

“Yes, just like that.” He praised you while he stroked your cheek with his thumb, trying to help you to calm down. “You’re doing so well, pretty.”

Slowly, his gentle strokes along with his praises helped you to breath properly, your heartbeat slowed down, your blood no longer boiling. Resentment was the only thing left inside you and sadly, there was nothing to get rid of it.

“It’s red.” Ren commented, his thumb brushing lightly against the red mark on your face.

It didn’t hurt that much anymore. In fact, you forgot all about it because of your anger. “Nothing makeup can’t hide.”

“I still hate it.”

Of course, he did.

You were truly amazed how things had changed between you two in just two years. The first time your father had introduced you to the freckled man, you hated his guts instantly, no matter how pretty he looked with his long blond hair, pretty nose and pretty freckles.

It wasn’t like he had done anything for you to hate him, but he was your father’s man and someone he trusted enough to deal with you. And you had been right to be wary of him. After all, he was the one who found you and brought you back after your last attempt at escaping. He was the one who, because you refused to come back, killed your friend without blinking an eye. You loathed him for that.

Now, you could wonder why you managed to get past that. You didn’t really know yourself. Maybe because he was forced to be your shadow. Maybe because whenever you got beaten up, he was the one taking care of your wounds and comforting you. Maybe because despite his loyalty to your father, he still showed you compassion and would even help you to go out more often than you were allowed. to

“Penny for your thoughts?” Ren asked

You watched him closely; his pretty lips that were too inviting for your liking. His pretty, shining eyes. His curls. Everything about Ren was pretty and tempting. For a moment, you forgot all about your rage and instead felt rather playful. Why the hell not. “Want to help me to get dressed?”

Ren rolled his eyes in response and gently pushed you from him. “Don’t start.” It wasn’t a first time he was warning you. But did you listen? Not really.

You laughed instead. “Too bad for you!”

You pulled your shirt over your head, unbothered with his presence. In fact, you made sure to stand close enough to him, just to see if he still had it in him to resist. You had to give it to him; Ren had a strong self-control, but for how long? It wasn’t the first time you undressed with him in the room; you loved seeing him clench his fists, frowning as you were testing his patience.

“Y/N.” Ren called for you, his voice getting incredibly deep and dangerous, sending shivers down your spine. “You can’t keep doing that.” But did it stop him from admiring you? Did it stop him from looking at your fully exposed, pretty breasts? Absolutely not. Unknowingly to him, he licked his lips.

“Says who?” You challenged him, your hands slowly reaching for the buttons of your shorts.

It was apparently the wrong thing to say and to do. In a matter of seconds, he had you pinned against the wall, one hand wrapped around your throat while the other was holding your wrists above your head. His body was pressed against yours, warm and firm. A knee right between your thighs – you had to bite back a moan.

If he was trying to look intimidating, he was doing a poor job. Did he expect you to cower before him just because you were pinned against a wall? What a joke. His proximity set your whole body on fire. You didn’t care at all about getting dressed, you wanted him to touch you, to feel those lovely lips on your skin.

“Stop doing that.” He growled. A growl that vibrated through you.

“Do what?” You tried to look innocent, pretending not to know what you were doing.

Ren clicked his tongue in annoyance and moved his face closer, patience running thin. “I’m still a man remember?” His lips mere inches from yours, so easily to reach for, so tempting.

“Are you?” You dared him, wishing nothing more than for him to lose his self-control and have some fun.

It was a bad idea. A very bad idea. You knew, he knew. And nobody gave a damn.

“Fuck.” Ren cursed, his lips crashing against yours. He completely let go of your hands, letting you wrap your arms around his neck, letting you press yourself harder against him as you kissed him back with just as much intensity, with just as much need and despair.

Ren didn’t hesitate. He lifted you from the floor. You wrapped your legs around his middle, your mouth devouring his. Gone was the sweet-looking man, replaced with a hungry beast who wanted nothing more than devour you whole. And he did.

▾▾▾

Just like you had expected it, the party was not your cup of tea. Fortunately for you, whatever your father had planned for you, he didn’t expect it to happen right from the beginning which left you some very deserved freedom. Ren had followed you to the party, like expected from him, but instead of staying by your side like he would usually do, he chose to watch you from afar, looking dashing in his suit with his hair pushed back. He stared back at you, his face blank, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking about.

You licked your lips as memories of him between your legs, feasting on you, mere hours ago, played in your mind.

“I must say,” Soojin started saying, her eyes also on Ren, “This man is hot.”

You looked at your friend with a smile. You had met Soojin at one of those parties. She was bored, you were bored and just like that you had bonded. It wasn’t that hard considering how bold Soojin was. She was a free spirit, a beautiful young woman, an excellent actress who had your father fooled. Or maybe she was just that charming. Your father accepted your friendship and even let you meet her outside of those boring parties. You admired her for this miracle.

“I know.” You hid your smile in your drink.

“You’re hot too by the way.”

You knew you were. Despite your hatred for your father, you couldn’t deny that he had great taste when it came to clothes. Especially those you had to wear. He had chosen a long, sleeveless, bright red dress that hugged all your curves perfectly. “When am I not?”

“True!” She laughed heartily. “But there must be a special occasion or?”

See, in addition to being extremely beautiful and charming, she was also incredibly perceptive and clever. “Apparently, I’m about to meet his new business partner. I’m not looking forward.”

Soojin nodded her head in understanding. “Probably another rich, arrogant, old man.”

‘Just like my father.’ You wanted to add but refrained. Your face however said it all.

Soojin patted your arm. There wasn’t much she could do to help you except being herself and try to distract you from bad thoughts. But even that wouldn’t last.

Soojin noticed your father walking towards you with a frown. “Get ready, the monster is approaching.”

To avoid an open argument, you chose to join your father before he could reach the two of you. You gave Soojin a reassuring smile before looking back at your father. It was time to play pretend. With him and the others.

“Remember what I told you.” He said the moment you joined his side, linking your arm with his.

How could you forget. You put on your prettiest smile and walked with him. Two men were waiting for you in the middle of the room. One around your father’s age, looking dangerous and just evil with the way he was looking at people. The younger man, however, looked simply out of place.

“Rick!” The older man called for your father; a big smile plastered on his face.

Your father walked faster to reach the man, clearly excited. You, on the other hand, was dreading this encounter.

“Hope you’re enjoying the party.” Your father shook his hand with the man, before turning to you. “Kang, this is my daughter, Y/N.”

Kang eyed you from head to toe, eyes lingering longer than acceptable on your chest. You fought the urge to roll your eyes, instead, you outstretched your hand for him to shake. “Pleasure to meet you.” Except it wasn’t a pleasure at all.

“I must say, you are a very lucky man. Your daughter is really beautiful.” Kang commented, satisfied with your presence. Then, he pointed at the younger man beside him. “This is Matt, my son.”

Matt nodded his head to acknowledge your presence but surprisingly that was it. You quirked your brow, curious about the turn of event. You thought he would be like his father, watching you like a prize to win, but instead he barely looked at you, his interest completely somewhere else. Curious, you followed his eyes, only to find him looking at Ren. And you recognized that look. Matt was interested in your bodyguard.

‘Oh boy.’

You took advantage of the fact that your father was too busy discussing about business with Kang, to get closer to Matt. You put your hand on his arm and enjoyed how tensed this simple touch got him. He was not enjoying it while you definitely were.

“He’s pretty, isn’t he?” You whispered to Matt, startling him in the process.

“Wha-what?” He quickly cleared his throat, just in case his father would look his way. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Can’t blame you. Ren is pretty.” You completely ignored his attempt at hiding his preferences. You leaned even closer. From outside it looked like the two of you were really getting along, when in reality, you were simply making things clear with him. “But he’s mine.”

He was not. But Matt didn’t need to know that.

“I think, Y/N will make a fine wife.” Kang’s comment brought your attention back on them.

You cringed at his words from inside. Of course, he would make a comment like that, it was expected but still, it disgusted you to no end. It was one thing dealing with your father and his view of the world, or his opinion about women but it was a whole different story dealing with his acolytes.

Your father laughed at his comment. “I’m looking for a good husband. It’s time for her to settle down.”

His words left you speechless. Since when had he been thinking about marriage? Worse yet, why was Kang looking at you like a potential bride? Then it dawned on you that the reason your father wanted so badly to introduce you to Kang wasn’t only to show his pretty daughter. No. He wanted to sell you off.

No. You couldn’t let that happen. Never.

With shaky hands, you looked at Kang and then at your father who with just one glance understood that you were about to go against his orders.

“If you’ll excuse me.” You turned your back on them and walked away as fast as you could, back to the safety of Soojin’s company.

There would be consequences for your disobedience, but right now you couldn’t care less.

“Bad luck?” Soojin handed you a shot of vodka, surprised they would even have it at the party – you emptied it in one go. “That bad huh.”

“Bunch of assholes.” You wanted to punch someone, to relieve your anger, sadly, Ren couldn’t save you from yourself this time, instead, you grabbed another shot and another.

“Are you going to be ok?” Soojin worried, realizing that your behavior would mean trouble for you.

You looked at her, pondering whether you should tell her the truth or not. Scratch that, it was Soojin, of course you could tell her. “I guess I deserve a slap at best.” Soojin winced. “Don’t worry.”

“Hard not to.”

You sighed in defeat and grabbed another shot. “Soojin.” You stared at your shot, your anger completely vanished, only to be replaced with sadness. “I need to find a way to escape and make sure he never finds me.”

“What are you planning to do?”

You wished you knew. You brought your shot to your lips – a shot you never get to finish as you found yourself staring at an unfamiliar face across the room. An extremely handsome face. Black hair, sharp jaw, strong nose, plump lips, pretty, dark eyes. He wore black trousers, black shirt with three undone buttons, rolled sleeves that revealed strong, veiny forearms (which happened to be one of your many weaknesses).

‘Well shit.’ Maybe your night wasn’t a waste of time after all. You stared at him, shamelessly, not minding for a second that he could catch you, in fact, you wanted him to look at you. Why not make this night a little bit more exciting?

It didn’t take him long to notice you and you had to admit that his piercing eyes sent shivers down your spine in both excitement and fear of what could come out of it. He stared at you with just as much intensity, interest and a hint of amusement. He brought his glass to his lips to hide the beginning of a really pretty smile.

“Who’s that?” You asked Soojin because despite hating those parties, she understood this world the best and she knew all the people in this room.

Soojin followed your gaze and paled at the sight of the man. “Oh hell no. Forget about it right now, Y/N.” She spoke quickly, clearly panicking at your sudden interest in the man. She knew, you were reckless, daring, always scheming which always got you in trouble and this time wouldn’t be different if she didn’t try to stop you. “He’s someone you don’t want to mess with. I heard that-“

Too late, you were already walking over.

▾▾▾

He watched your every move, your every step - it made you smile; you had his full attention. You could have walked straight to him and start a conversation but where would the fun be? You stopped by the table near him and his friend, pretending to look for the food and not for them, not for him. You could feel his eyes on you but it didn’t stop him from talking to his friend either.

“Damn, this looks yummy.” His friend commented while eying the food on the table, drooling on the spot.

“I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.” You commented with a chuckle. You pointed at the food that indeed looked good. “Saw few people leaving and throwing their guts up after eating from this table.”

The man jumped, startled, from the table as if it had burned him. His shocked face was quite endearing, you had to admit. But of course, your attention was all on the mysterious man - he smirked, noticing how you couldn’t stop yourself from watching him.

“You should thank your savior, Jisung.”

And he did, without hesitation. Jisung took a step towards you and gently grabbed your hand. “Thank you, my lady.” And with that he planted a soft kiss on your knuckles.

“Y/N is fine.” You laughed at his behavior. You didn’t expect to be called a lady and even less have your hands kissed (on second thought, you were glad it was from someone as lovely as Jisung and not as disgusting as Kang); he didn’t look like an old fashion man. Never judge a book by its cover, you should know that better than anyone.

“Y/N. Lovely. I’m Jisung and the broody friend is Chris.” Feeling bold, he leaned closer to you. “He looks scary but he’s actually a teddy bear.”

Chris sighed at the description. He could always count on his friends to make fun of him in any possible situation and destroy his reputation and probably ruin his chances with any hot woman. He did his best looking menacing, making sure that boring, greedy people just wouldn’t strike up a conversation with him.

“Ok, that’s enough.” He grabbed his friend’s arm and pulled him away from you in case he would try to get even more touchy and daring. “Please ignore him.”

You waved your hand. “I think he’s cute.”

Chris snorted at that. “As cute as he can get.” He outstretched his hand for you to shake. “Pleasure to meet you, Y/N.”

Oh boy, you liked the sound of your name coming out of his mouth. Without hesitation, you shook his hand, smiling widely.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.” Chris commented, still holding your hand. You could have pulled away any time, but it felt too nice for you to let go. “I would have remembered.”

You would have remembered him too. How could you not when he was looking so damn good? And more importantly, he felt different from the other people present in the room. You didn’t doubt he was part of this world, but he didn’t have this arrogant, rich aura around him.

“I hate attending these stupid parties.” You admitted and he finally let go of your hand. You almost whined at the loss. Almost.

“Ha!” Jisung scoffed loudly and nudged his friend. “He too hates these parties. I come for the food.”

Soojin would have loved this guy. Your smile softened at his remark. “I-“

“There you are, Y/N.” You got interrupted by Ren. He had his hand on your back, ready to pull you away from the two men. Whenever you were happy about it or not.

Was it just an impression or the temperature in the room dropped by few degrees? Ren looked incredibly pissed; a vein popped out in his neck as he looked straight at Chris. If looks could kill both Chris and Jisung would be dead.

“You always have a bad timing.” Jisung commented, still smiling, but he didn’t sound that excited anymore.

You didn’t know what to think. They obviously knew each other which meant either Ren had worked for them at one point in his life or they had been enemies for a while. Did it mean they were your father’s enemy? You wondered.

You grabbed Ren’s arm, making sure that he wouldn’t do something stupid. He was always calm, composed, but right now he seemed ready to throw punches and you really didn’t want that.

“You chose the wrong side, Ren.” Chris finally said but his eyes moved to you, understanding dawned on him.

Ren rolled his eyes at his words. “Did I give you the impression that I care about your opinion?”

Before the situation could get out of hands you moved and stood right between Ren and Chris. You glanced at Chris, feeling sorry that you didn’t get a chance to spend more time with him and see where it could lead, before averting your eyes to Ren. “That’s enough. Let’s go?”

▾▾▾

The moment you got back home, you completely ignored Ren, not even sparing him a glance, still upset with how the night had unfolded. He let you leave without a word, knowing there was no point in talking, no point in fighting. He had done his job.

You sat on the floor by the window, watching the stars in silence. Except in your head, it was far from silent, thoughts running wild. You couldn’t stop thinking about Chris, about his interaction with Ren, his realization about who was your father.

“Where’s this wench?!” You heard your father yelling through the house – you winced and wrapped your arms around yourself, to give you strength or maybe in hope to protect yourself.

Just from his yelling alone, you knew he was furious. Best behavior? You forgot all about it and he was ready to make you pay for it. You wished there was something you could do to prevent him from coming to your room, but even if you tried, it would only make things worse for you.

“Dammit.” You cursed

“She’s sleeping.” You heard Ren’s voice right behind your door.

“Move.” Your father ordered but Ren did none of that. “Are you defying me right now?”

“Of course not, Boss.” But he was, you thought to yourself. He was trying to stop your father from getting his hands on you which made your heart ache. You made his life difficult and he still tried to defend you in his own twisted, sometimes, way. “But I think she had her share of emotions for the night.”

You didn’t think Ren could convince your father to spare you, but his words clearly caught his attention as you heard him ask, “What do you mean?”

“Christopher was at the party. She met him.” There was a dead silence, following Ren’s words. You couldn’t, obviously, see your father’s reaction, but whatever it was, Chris’s name made him pause.

“What did he say to her?” Your father finally asked, much calmer now, and yet, you swore there was something in his voice. Could it be panic? It couldn’t be.

“I’m not sure.” Ren admitted, “I don’t think she spent much time in his presence.”

“Good. I don’t need this bastard getting any closer to her.”

You heard him loud and clear. If your father hated Chris so much, then it was your chance to start planning. Maybe Chris was just as bad as your father, maybe he wasn’t, but you knew you needed a way out.

You grabbed your phone and texted Soojin, the only person you could really count on and someone who was really good at looking into someone’s life.

You stared at your phone and thought for a moment. Soojin had a point, even if it pained you to admit it. Even if you managed to get out and reach Chris, you had nothing to give him in exchange for his help. There was nothing you could give him to help him to get rid of your father.

But you soon realized that it wasn’t entirely true. It was still night and you were at your father’s place which meant you could sneak around and try to find valuable information. Was it risky? Hell yes. Did you have a choice? Not really.

With this goal on mind, you left the safety of your room and prayed to whoever wished to listen that you would not get caught.

▾▾▾

Your father’s office was too big for your liking. There were so many places to look through and not enough time. It was the middle of the night, but you couldn’t be hundred percent sure your father wouldn’t come to his office. He was after all a workaholic which meant you had to be quick.

You looked through his papers, trying to find information about his business and especially his illegal activities but there were none which didn’t make sense. Was your father that careful? That paranoid? Or was he just so good at hiding his dirty secrets?

There must be something. You refused to give up so easily. You looked through his drawers but still nothing. It was slowly driving you crazy. But then, when you thought all hope was lost, a frame caught your eyes. It was a picture of your mom and a very young you. You didn’t take your father for a sentimental, not after what he had done to your mom. The official story was she had filed for divorce and left. But you knew better.

You grabbed the frame and stilled for a moment. Your heart ached at the sight of your mom. Ever since her disappearance, you avoided looking at the pictures. Too scared of your feelings, of the pain that would follow. You missed her, so much. Living with both your father and your mom was hard, but mom’s presence had always made things bearable. Whenever your father got violent, she was always there to mend your wounds. She did her best with what she had and you always loved her for that.

“I miss you, mom.” You whispered, fingers trailing over the picture.

Just when you were about to put it back to its place, you felt something brushing your fingers on the back of the frame. “What-“ You turned it around only to find an usb-stick taped on the frame.

“I thought I heard you sneak out.” Ren’s voice startled you, giving you a heart attack.

“Bloody hell, Ren!!” You muffled your yell. “What are you doing here?”

Ren quirked a brow at you. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking this question? Are you out of your mind?”

You quickly hid the frame behind your back, hoping he wouldn’t notice. He did but chose not to comment. Instead, he stayed by the door, fists clenched.

The tension was thick between the two of you. You, still upset about his behavior earlier at the party. Him, upset with you sneaking around and looking for more trouble. He managed, by some miracle, to stop your father from punishing you, but should you be caught tonight, there was nothing he would be able to do to protect you. And it pained him, more than you could know.

“Whatever you’re planning. Don’t.”

Of course, he would say something like that. You kept your lips sealed in fear of revealing too much and risking your plan.

“You know there’s nothing you can do.”

But you could, he just hadn’t realized it yet.

“Y/N,” Ren took a step toward you but stilled. He shook his head and held back. “He will ask me to bring you back.” And here you had thought, he didn’t know about your plan. “And you know I will come for you. I always will.”

If only he could disregard his loyalty to your father, his words would have been so much more meaningful. Still, your treacherous heart fluttered at his voice.

“I really don’t want to hurt you.” He admitted, “Not again.”

With that, Ren left.

▾▾▾

Escaping your house was never the hardest part in your different plans. Sometimes, because it amused your father, sometimes because he didn’t care until he needed you. Today was no exception. You walked out of the house without trouble. No Ren on sight which did worry you for a moment but in the end, it was for the better. You couldn’t imagine yourself dealing with him right now, because he would know what you were up to.

Soojin didn’t disappoint you. Two days, it was the time it took her to gather all the information she could on Chris. About his business, about his life - it was impressive. He was a very powerful man without big scandals which, in your opinion, was remarkable. Soojin tried to dig as much as she could, wanting to find dirt on him and prove to you that getting involved with him was a very bad idea. She found nothing. Either the stories about him were just some baseless rumors or he was really good at concealing the truth. Honestly? You didn’t care. He was your only hope and you were willing to make a deal with the devil if it meant freedom.

That was how you found yourself walking straight to his company’s headquarters. You weren’t invited, had no meetings planned but you were a confident, strong woman who knew how to behave to get what you wanted.

For the past twenty-four hours, you went through different scenarios, wanting to be as ready as you could be once facing the different obstacles. However, once you got to the reception, you were met with a sight you had not counted on at all. Jisung was leaning against the counter, chatting happily with a pretty brunette, clearly flirting. The sight of the man brought a small smile on your face. Maybe you had all the chances to get what you wanted.

“Hey Jisung!” You called after him, walking slowly towards him.

“Y/N!” He almost squealed at the sight of you.

After spending so much time with fake people, you could tell when someone was pretending, Jisung, however, seemed genuinely happy seeing you.

He surprised you once more by hugging you tightly as if you had been friends for years. You wouldn’t have minded. “What are you doing here?”

“To see Chris.”

If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. Jisung looked over his shoulder, at the brunette and smiled. “I’ll take her to see the boss.”

“But-“ She was ready to protest. You couldn’t tell whether Jisung worked here or if they were just used to see him because he was Chris’s friend but clearly, he was going against the rules.

“It’s okay, don’t worry!” He reassured her by being a sunshine. He was really charming.

He showed you the way to the lift. Only when the doors were fully closed, he looked back at you. “He’s not expecting you, is he?”

“Of course not.” You smirked proudly

Jisung laughed loudly, clapping his hands in delight. “Oh you’re such a naughty little thing. I like you.”

▾▾▾

“Okay, so we might need to wait a little. I think he’s not done with the meeting.” Jisung said as he pointed at a huge wooden door that apparently led to Chris’s office.

The reasonable thing to do would be to listen to Jisung and wait patiently for your turn. But were you a patient woman? Sometimes, yes. Most of the time, no. And right now, you just couldn’t wait. You wanted to see the man and hopefully make a deal with him.

You glanced at Jisung, feeling almost sorry for him - he would get in trouble for bringing you here, you guessed. “Sorry, Jisung.”

“Sorry? For wha-“ He couldn’t finish his sentence as he saw you walking to the door. He realized too late what were your intentions. He palmed his face in despair, he was about to get his ass whooped, for sure.

You barged inside the office while your confidence hadn’t worn off. You eyed the room, noticing that there were at least ten people in the room, looking all positively shocked with your rude (according to them, you bet) interruption. You quickly disregarded their confused-angry-appalled look and averted your eyes to the man you were dying to see. He looked just as handsome as in your memory, if not better, wearing a suit. His aura was still as impressive, screaming power and strength.

A tiny part of you squirmed under his glare, but just a tiny part.

If Chris was surprised seeing you, he didn’t show it. He glanced over your shoulder, giving a stern glance at the poor Jisung (you really felt bad for involving him) before his eyes were back on you.

You stared at each other for a moment, ignoring the world surrounding you. You weren’t particularly fond of the attention but right now it seemed like a little to price to pay to have Chris’s eyes on you.

“Leave us.” Chris ordered, dismissing his people without even sparing a glance.

They all hurried to get out of the room as if sensing things could get out of control real quick. Was it because of your presence? Or was it also because of Jisung? You wondered.

“I tried to stop her!” You heard Jisung saying behind you, whining.

“I’ll deal with you later.” Chris replied with a roll of his eyes. “Leave us and don’t eavesdrop.”

Jisung muttered under his nose but did as he was told.

“He really tried.” You tried to defend him.

Chris, to your surprise, chuckled. “No, he didn’t.”

‘Thank god, he’s not angry.’ You told yourself, a tad relieved.

“Don’t get me wrong, Y/N, it’s a pleasure seeing you again so soon. But, what are you doing here?”

“Interrupting your meeting?” You played coy.

Chris ignored your attempt, seeing right through you. “Does your father know you’re here?”

You checked the time on your watch. “Well, by now, he might know I escaped. Again.”

Chris looked both impressed and pleased with your answer. Obviously, he knew nothing about you except for the fact that you were his enemy’s daughter.

“Why would you escape? He’s your family.” He asked, genuinely curious.

You scoffed. How could he say that? Didn’t he know what kind of man your father was? No, he was testing you.

“Please. You don’t strike me as a fool. I’m sure you know what kind of man, my father is. You know his worth.”

Chris stayed quiet for a moment, observing you. It was nerve wrecking. “Why are you here, Y/N?”

He tapped his fingers on the table, waiting for you to explain yourself.

It was now or never, you knew it, he knew it and yet no words left your mouth. It wasn’t like you to lose your composure but maybe your nerves were finally at their limits or maybe you were losing your shit because of importance of what you had to ask of him.

You dismissed your thoughts and your fear, you could do it. You walked towards him, hoping you looked confident and convincing enough. You sat on the edge of his desk and crossed your legs, getting comfortable.

Slowly, Chris’s gaze lowered to your exposed legs. Really, how could he resist when it was so nicely presented to him. After all, he was just a man. A powerful man, but still a man. You weren’t trying to seduce him, not yet, but if it helped your case then, why the hell not.

“I need your help.” You admitted. “I don’t know what’s kind of relationship you have with my father, but I believe you’re the only one who can help me to get free.”

Chris, from the moment you walked inside his office, guessed your visit had something to do with your father. In fact, he was convinced he was the one sending you as an offering, it would definitely be his style. A nice offering, he would admit; you were a pretty woman, with bright eyes, pretty plump lips and amazing curves that did not go unnoticed by Chris.

But this? This, he did not see it coming.

Chris stood up, towering over you easily. He put his hands on each side of your body, trapping you as he leaned closer. His proximity was overwhelming but you refused to budge. You let him study your face, looking for any signs of lies. He found none.

“You’re really serious about this.” It wasn’t a question but you nodded either way.

He let go of you and took a step back. “Let’s say I agree to help you. What makes you think you’ll be free? Do you expect me to help you out of good will?” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I’m not a good man, Y/N.”

“Maybe you aren’t, but are you worse than my father?” You asked, genuinely curious. He could of course lie to you, but you had the impression that he was rather trying to paint a bad image of himself in order to make you fear him.

“Depends on whom you ask.”

You jumped from the desk and got closer to him. As you watched him, you came to realization that there was no way he could be worse than your father, just because he was trying to look like a villain.

“Let me ask you this, then.” You grabbed his hand and you had to resist the urge to look at it because hell it felt nice. Chris’s frown, on the other hand, deepened as he looked at your hand. “Let’s pretend for a second that I’m your girl and because I’m a brat, I decide to disobey you. Would you lock me up?”

“What?” His eyes snapped back to your face, clearly taken aback.

“You heard me.”

Chris should have been surprised with your words but sadly, he wasn’t. Your questions showed only what you went through and he expected nothing less from a man like your father. An insect who believed he could rule the world and treat people like shit.

“No, I wouldn’t.”

You let go of his hand took few steps back. “See, you’re already better than him.

Chris closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “Give me time to think this over.”

You wished you could. You let go of his arm and smiled sadly. “Sadly, time is the only thing I don’t have.”

▾▾▾

Instead of sending you home, Chris asked Jisung to take you for a coffee. It gave you hope, maybe he wasn’t about to refuse to help you after all. You accepted without much protest and Jisung was too happy to oblige.

“Sorry for putting you into a bad position.” You apologized as Jisung put the cup of coffee before you.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure Chris was happy with the interruption. He’s not fond of those meetings.” Jisung was way too nice which made you think that angering this man wouldn’t be easy. Not like you were planning to. “By the way, why are you here?”

You could have come up with a lie, easily, but something about Jisung made you trust him instantly. Maybe because he was so likable or maybe because Chris trusted him. Probably both. “I need his help to escape from my father.”

Jisung chocked on his coffee, coughing strongly, hitting his chest to recover. Someone was not expecting this kind of answer from you.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you right away.” Jisung laughed, clapping his hands.

“I know, I’m charming like that.” You flipped your hair playfully. “I just hope he’ll accept.”

Jisung hummed, pondering on the question. He knew his friend well enough to guess that Chris would avoid useless conflicts if he could, however this time he wasn’t so sure. Chris wasn’t fond of your father, far from it even, there was a high possibility that he wouldn’t mind messing with him. Jisung would gladly help too.

“I don’t think he’ll say no. You’re offering him an opportunity to mess with your father. I bet he’s tempted.”

Whether Jisung was sincere or not, his words gave you hope. But not for long. Your attention went from Jisung to the man walking through the doors. You tensed, gasping in surprise. You thought you had more time before your father or his men would realize that you hadn’t left for shopping or for a walk. Worse yet, you expected to see Ren. But no, John was the one who walked through the door, his eyes finding you right away.

Your change of mood didn’t go unnoticed. “What’s wrong?”

He had his answer before you could even think about it. Without invitation, without even caring about checking his surroundings because he was just that arrogant and confident, John sat at your table, looking relaxed and unbothered, clearly Jisung’s presence meant nothing to him. Or maybe he didn’t look enough to recognize a threat when faced with one. His mistake.

“You’re getting sloppy, Y/N.” John commented, taping his fingers on the table. “You know why I’m here.”

To say that you were a tad worried would be an understatement. You had to think quickly, to find a way out without getting hurt and without bringing even more trouble to Jisung.

“Yeah.” You sighed, annoyed with the turn of the event. “And you know I won’t come with you.”

“And you know I’ll make you. You can either make it easy for both of us or-“

Jisung, bless the man, chuckled at the interaction. Apparently, John wasn’t the only unbothered one in the room. “And I think, you completely forgot where you are.”

Jisung’s whole demeanor changed from cheerful to dead cold - you shivered in response. What a whiplash. Here you thought he was a sweet and odd person by Chris’s side. You should have known better. He wasn’t just a friend. No, he was much more and you should have noticed it sooner.

John seemed to finally notice the man sitting beside him and for the first time you saw a glimpse of fear and recognition in his eyes.

‘Who’s getting sloppy huh.’ You thought, repressing a chuckle.

“You-“ John stuttered, recognizing the man by his side. He slid his hand in his jacket, trying to reach for his gun.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Because Jisung was much faster. He was half turned and was pointing his gun under the table.

John hesitated, eyes darting back and forth between you and Jisung. You had to admit that you were feeling particularly confident just because of the way Jisung behaved - seeing John squirming under his gaze was worth the risk.

“I would advise, you go back to your boss without causing any more trouble.”

“She has to come back with me.” John groaned. Obviously, he didn’t want to cause ruckus in the middle of a cafe and deal with Jisung, but coming back without you would make his life much more difficult.

“Nope.” Jisung pointed at you, “The pretty girl stays with me.”

What a flirt.

You blew him a kiss.

▾▾▾

It was extremely satisfying to watch John leave empty handed. You felt more relaxed and confident - you had made the right choice to come to Chris. Now, all you needed was for him to accept the deal.

Jisung brought you back to Chris’s office once sure John wouldn’t follow you and attempt anything reckless.

He didn’t.

“You’re out of your mind! Please stop thinking with your dick and think with your brain!” A loud and angry voice echoed from the half-opened door of Chris’s office.

Jisung stopped you right away by gently grabbing your arm and pulling you against his chest. He sighed, clearly recognizing the voice.

“You always have stupid ideas. She’s a brat. Worse yet, she’s his daughter! Why the hell would you bother with her?”

Jisung shook his head in disapproval before looking apologetically at you. “Sorry.”

You raised your hand to stop him from apologizing. He hadn’t done anything wrong and whoever was behind those words obviously knew nothing about you.

You winked playfully before storming inside like you owned the place, wanting to face the two men. Chris only quirked a brow at your presence while the other man’s frown only deepened at the sight of you. If looks could kill you would be dead. But instead of being intimidated (you definitely were), you chose to play it cool - you smiled sweetly at them.

“Y/N, this is Minho, a friend.” Chris introduced the angry man.

Just to spite him some more, you waved your hand cheerfully. “Hi, Minho.” Of course, he didn’t return the greeting but you didn’t mind. His opinion meant nothing to you.

Chris shook his head at your behavior, half amused half desperate. “Leave us, guys.”

“It’s a bad idea.” Minho muttered, not bothering hiding his displeasure.

“Come on.” Jisung almost pounced at Minho, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “They have to talk; we have no business in there.”

Minho had little choice but to follow Jisung judging by how strong his grip around him was. On his way out, Jisung winked at you, encouraging you. Yet, before leaving, he looked over his shoulder, at Chris. “Just so you know, they tried to get her back.” And with that he left the two of you alone, making sure to close the door behind them.

You realized that Jisung’s presence was comforting. Now, that you were standing alone with Chris, you were scared. Not of him, obviously, but about his decision. “So. What’s your answer?”

Chris watched you like a hawk for a moment which, despite your effort, unnerved you. He took slow steps towards you, hands in his pockets, looking as nonchalant as possible, stopping mere inches from you. You couldn’t ignore the warmth radiating from his body, his scent invading your senses – it would be so easy to get lost in him.

“I’ll take you to my place for the timing being.” He finally said

His answer should have made you happy, but it didn’t. “Another cage?”

Chris shook his head. “What you’re asking of me isn’t that easy. I need you to stay discrete for a while. Once Rick understands that I’m not giving you back, he’ll do something stupid.”

Sadly, you couldn’t refute it. You didn’t know to what extent your father would go in order to get you back and you didn’t really want to imagine it either.

“Maybe he’ll ask his dog to bring you back.”

“John? Already tried and failed thanks to Jisung.”

Chris shook his head and laughed. “Oh no, I wasn’t talking about John. Ren.”

You felt a flash of irritation at his words. Ren was someone you deeply cared for, even if he was your father’s man. Even if he had made the wrong choices. “Don’t talk about him like that.” For a short second you forgot you were supposed to be nice, to stay on his good side, but the moment he insulted your friend, you lost it.

Chris was half surprised with your sudden hostility. From what he saw at the party, the two of you were close but he didn’t imagine to this extent. “Is he your lover? Really?”

“He’s my friend.”

“Oh Y/N. I doubt it. But fine. I apologize for my poor choice of words.”

Scared your voice would betray your annoyance, you simply nodded your head. You couldn’t really pick a fight with Chris, not when you needed his help. Which reminded you; he still didn’t mention the price for his help.

“Chris, what do you want in exchange for your help?”

“I’ll come up with something.” Was all he said.

It should have terrified you. What if in the end he would ask something impossible to give? What if it was something that could make your life worse? Did you have any choice? Not really.

▾▾▾

Chris’s place was huge, not like you expected anything less from this man. Everything inside was either black or white which gave a rather classy atmosphere to the place. And the view – you would die to have such a view. Huge bay windows that led to a giant balcony, giving a perfect view on the town.

“Wah!” You squealed at the view, unable to refrain yourself from running to the window to admire the sight. It was dark outside but the city’s lights gave an almost eerie atmosphere that captivated you.

“Here,” Chris approached you, “You can have my t-shirt to sleep in. I’ll get you clothes and everything you need tomorrow.”

You glanced over your shoulder and smiled. “Thank you.” You weren’t only thanking him for the clothes. No, you were thanking him for everything he was doing for you. Technically, you were a stranger to him, he had no obligations towards you and yet, there you were.

Slowly, you returned your attention to the town. You wrapped your arms around yourself, comforting yourself. You were free. You did it.

“You’re ok?” Chris worried. You might be his enemy’s daughter, but you were also a human with deep wounds – he saw them, even if you tried to hide behind your smiles and confidence.

“Yeah. Feels weird to be free.” You admitted and chuckled at your silliness. “Well, almost free.” You turned, this time, to fully face him. In this dim light he looked even more handsome which shouldn’t be allowed. “Why did you really agree on helping me?”

Chris took another step towards you, hesitated before touching your cheek. His soft touch took you off guard but it was also comforting - you leaned into his touch, welcoming it.

“Let’s say, I have a soft spot for damsels in distress.”

Living with Chris promised to be an interesting experience.

▾▾▾

The very next day, just like Chris had promised, he had, everything you needed, delivered to you. You supposed he would be the one bringing it to you but no, half awake, you were met with a very loud, cheerful and now familiar voice.

“Special delivery!” Jisung yelled through the whole place just to make sure you would hear him and be aware of his presence.

Impossible to miss.

When you joined Jisung in the main room, he surprised you with tons of bags on the floor waiting for you. You halted, eyeing all the bags suspiciously. “Are these all for me?”

“Yep.” Jisung confirmed, “I picked everything myself!”

“Should I worry?” He looked way too excited and smug about it. Something was fishy. Had to.

“Probably.” He didn’t even try to deny, smirking. He plopped on the couch, acting as if this place was actually his (and maybe in a way it was seeing how close he and Chris were). “Check it.”

As you approached the bag, you kept your eyes on Jisung. “You look too excited for my liking. What did you do?”

Jisung gasped, feigning being hurt as he put his hand over his chest. “How can you doubt me like that?”

“Call it a hunch.”

Despite his smug expression, the first two bags were rather innocent; dresses, jeans, all kind of clothes. Too many clothes in your opinion. Another bag was filled with skincare and different brands of makeup – you glanced at Jisung wondering how he guessed what you needed and what you liked but he only shrugged in response. Either he had done some serious research on you or he was just good like that.

The fourth bag was the one that made you pause, pull the item from it and then groan. Red, lacy lingerie. Definitely your style, definitely sexy, but absolutely unnecessary. “What the hell, Jisung?”

“What? It’s hot!” He pointed at the lingerie, excited. “This will look good on you!”

“Yeah, but why the hell would I need it?”

“To seduce.”

“Who? You?”

Jisung actually laughed at that. “Me? Consider me already seduced.”

You shook your head, chuckling at his joke but really, you wouldn’t mind wearing this piece of clothes for Chris. You slapped yourself mentally for the thought. There was definitely something wrong with you.

“Hey Ji, thank you.”

▾▾▾

Despite spending most of your life in a rich household, it didn’t prevent you from developing some useful skills such as cooking. For some it was a sign you were a good wife-to-be, for others it was a waste of time. For you? It was a hobby you truly enjoyed.

There wasn’t much you could do to thank Chris for everything he was doing for you, but cooking a nice meal for the two of you seemed like a good plan. A part of you did it to thank him, but it was also a way for you to distract yourself from annoying thoughts. And boredom.

Music in your ears, a glass of wine in your hand, you danced and sang while cooking, wearing one of Chris’s shirts. You could have changed into your new clothes, but really, his clothes were just much more comfortable.

You were moving to the rhythm of the music, swinging your hips, bobbing your head– you hadn’t felt this good in years. Completely in your own little world, you weren’t paying attention to your surroundings, you hadn’t noticed the moment Chris got back. Until it was too late.

The moment you turned around and saw him leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, looking amazing, smiling at you – you froze. You took your headphones off your head and smiled sheepishly at him. “Hi?”

“You know, I can get used to that.” Chris admitted, clear fondness in his voice.

Even if Chris had accepted to help you and brought you to live with him, he had absolutely no clue how the cohabitation would work. He didn’t know you. But the sight of you, so comfortable, so relaxed and so lively – he found it endearing. You were nothing like your father and far from a brat.

Instead of feeling embarrassed, you felt even more at ease. There was something with Chris that made you feel safe, comforted, in fact, it felt like you were long lost friends, despite being strangers.

Chris eyed your outfit for a moment, eyes lingering longer than necessary on your exposed legs. “I thought Jisung brought you clothes.” He pushed himself from the wall and walked slowly towards you. Despite the pretty smile still on his face, there was a predatory glimpse in his eyes that caused your heart to flutter. The traitor.

“He did.” You answered as you watched him getting closer to you.

He stopped right before you. There was nowhere for you to run, to hide; you were half trapped between the counter and a smiling Chris. “And?”

“Your shirt is more comfortable.” You joked, “Moreover, trust me, you don’t want me wearing the clothes he brought.” That was a half lie. Yes, Jisung had brought you tons of sexy outfits that were useless since you would be staying at Chris’s place most of the time, but there were also normal, casual clothes.

Chris arched a brow, clearly amused with your explanation and not that surprised either knowing his friend. “Why?”

Feeling particularly bold tonight, you smirked and pushed him gently off your way. “Wouldn’t want you to fall in love with me.”

Chris burst into laughter; his laugh was like music to your ears. Maybe you were the one in danger after all.

“Want a glass of wine?”

“With pleasure.”

▾▾▾

Chris surprised you once more by leaving one morning a phone for you with a note.

“I figured you might need it. Add whoever you need, but be careful.”

There wasn’t much in it except for his, Jisung and Minho’s number. Just in case. You perfectly understood why he saved Jisung’s number – in a matter of days, this man had become your favorite person. Minho’s number, on the other hand, was not needed. You could have deleted his number right away, but reasoned yourself; Chris had added his number for a reason, you couldn’t get rid of it like that.

You plopped on the couch, legs under your butt, you stared at your phone. You wanted so badly to add Soojin’s number, number that you had memorized long ago, and talk to her. You wanted her to know that you had escaped and that you were safe, but you couldn’t do it. Not that you didn’t trust your friend, no; your father knew about your relationship with her which put her in danger and risked your freedom.

Ren’s face crossed your mind. His number too, you knew by heart. A tiny part of you worried for him. Did his father get rid of him because he had failed? Did John blamed him for not being able to get you back? There was no way for you to know without exposing yourself.

With a long and tired sigh, you threw your head back. You closed your eyes for a moment and thought about what you should do. There wasn’t much you could do despite having Chris’s whole place for you, you were getting bored.

Since there was nothing to do and your thoughts were getting too much for you, you grabbed your phone and decided to text Chris.

You sighed again, disappointed with his response. You understood perfectly that he was a busy man and he didn’t have time to always entertain you, but you couldn’t stop yourself from hoping he would spend some time with you.

‘Oh well.’

▾▾▾

The next morning, you were woken up by noises coming from the kitchen. it took you a moment to realize, in surprise, that you were back in your bed while you remembered clearly falling asleep on the couch while watching a movie. You stared at your blanket; did Chris carry you to your bed? This simple thought brought a tiny smile to your face.

Eagerly, you jumped out of your bed and walked out of your room. You followed the delicious smell of pancakes – your stomach grumbled in response.

You had to admit that it was a rather odd sight: Chris in the kitchen. Seeing this big, powerful and dangerous (according to rumors) man preparing breakfast, was both amusing and charming. Chris had prepared everything; pancakes, coffee, juice, fruits – it was everything you liked and everything you needed.

“Morning.” As you watched him setting the table, you thought about his remark when he saw you cooking. You had to agree, you could get used to it too.

“Good morning. Hope you like pancakes.”

“Love it.” And even if you didn’t, you would have said the same thing because he did it for you. How could you complain?

“Did you steal another of my shirt?” Chris watched you, sipping his coffee in peace.

“Me? No!” That was obviously a lie, as if Chris wouldn’t recognize his own clothes, but you felt in rather playful mood. He arched a brow at your blatant lie. “Fine! I did. So what? Sue me!”

Chris put his cup back on the table and got closer to you. Your eyes locked, he played with the edge of the shirt that was barely hiding your body since you were sitting.

“Or I can just take it off.” He suggested

You opened your mouth ready for another snarky remark but nothing came out of your mouth. He let go of the shirt, only to put his hands on your thighs. His hands felt warm against your skin, nevertheless you shivered.

“You’re a tempting little thing.” Chris admitted

“Look who’s talking.” Your voice came out shaky, betraying your state of mind. You wanted to blame your needs but really it was all because of Chris.

You sincerely thought Chris would kiss you, in fact, you prayed he would. Sadly for you, he pulled back, shook his head as if to convince himself that it was a bad idea. It was probably a bad idea but you found yourself not caring much about it.

“I’ll see you tonight.”

▾▾▾

Despite your impressive (according to Chris) cooking skills, you were human which meant that from time to time you craved some junk food. Luckily for you, you had a new phone (bless Chris for that) which helped you to order some crispy chicken and fries.

You put everything on a plate and brought it to the couch where you had prepared your little nestle (which meant tons of pillows and a huge fluffy blanket that surprisingly you found in Chris’s room). You looked at your work proudly, satisfied with the outcome, before finally plopping on the couch.

For a moment, you scrolled through a very long selection of movies, trying to figure out what was your mood for the night. You glanced to the side, through the windows; it was already late and dark outside, rain pouring. You switched the light off, welcoming the darkness.

A good horror movie sounded perfect. You went for Conjuring 2; no matter how many times you had watched this movie, it still gave you the creeps and you loved it.

Completely immersed in the movie you didn’t notice Chris’s presence, not like it was the first time either. Except this time, the moment he switched the light on, you screamed, almost throwing the plate from your laps.

“Bloody hell!” You put your hand over your chest, your heart ready to jump out of it.

“Hi?” He said half sorry half trying to hold back his laugh.

“I think, I won’t survive living with you.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.”

You stuck your tongue in response. Yes, very adult of you.

Chris shook his head, smiling fondly at your antics. “Mind if I join you after a shower?”

“Sure. There’s some chicken left. Fries, not so much, sorry.”

“Chicken it is then.”

But by the time Chris came back you managed to prepare some additional dishes to satisfy his hunger. He came back wearing black sweat pants and a white t-shirt. His hair still completely wet, in fact some water was still dripping from his head to his neck, attracted your attention to the point you forgot all about the movie. Nobody should be allowed to look that good in sweatpants, but we were talking about Chris, he made everything look good on him.

You sighed to yourself and pulled the blanket closer to your face, wishing it could swallow you whole, wishing to hide the unbearable attraction. You didn’t know how long you could keep this up. The two of you kept flirting, there was no other way to describe your banter, your closeness.

Chris took his place beside you and the moment his eyes landed on the TV; he regretted his decision. He slowly turned his head to you, ready to give any valid or not excuse if it could save him from a horror movie.

“Why are you hiding?” He asked surprised that you would be hiding when you were the one to choose the movie. “Is it that scary?”

You lowered the blanket for a short moment, revealing only half of your face – you regretted it instantly. Nope, he still looked too good and you still wanted to grab his face and kiss him.

“I-No. I mean-“ You cursed yourself for sounding so unsure. You cleared your throat and removed the blanket from you. “It’s scary but no, I’m not hiding because of the movie.”

Chris tilted his head, curious. “No? Then why?”

There was no escape from the truth. You jumped from the couch and pointed an angry finger at him. “Because of you!” Still very adult of you. You cursed yourself for losing your composure whenever this man was around and so close to you.

“Me?”

“Yes you. You’re making things extremely difficult for me!” And hot, but you refrained from saying it.

Chris had to muffle his laugh but did a poor job at it which obviously made you only angrier.

“Are you laughing at me, right now?”

“Sorry.” He really couldn’t hold it as he burst into laughter.

You grabbed the closest pillow and hit him with it, once, twice, until Chris grabbed your arm and pulled you too hard – you fell right onto his laps. With a pretty smile on his face, he wrapped his arms tightly around you, not letting you any chance to escape from his grip. Not like you wanted anyway.

“I’m sorry, you’re just too cute.” He apologized, “As for me being a problem-“

You cut him right before he could finish his thought. “Are you trying to seduce me?”

“Wha-“ He stopped, cleared his throat and then looked more seriously (or not) at you. “Is it working?”

Just like that you completely relaxed in his arms and laughed. “Does it work? I’m that close to a mental breakdown because of you!”

▾▾▾

The day you asked Chris for help, you knew it wouldn’t be easy, not for him and not for you. Bringing down your father wouldn’t be that simple, no matter how powerful and resourceful Chris was. And yet, you hoped. But days turned into weeks and slowly you were losing your mind. Even when you lived with your father, you still could go out, meet with Soojin and have some fun, but living with Chris wasn’t all that thrilling.

Yes, you enjoyed the few moments you had together (you did more than enjoyed) but half of the time you were left alone in this huge flat and you were getting bored. Really bored. You needed fresh air, you needed to meet people. Even if it meant putting yourself in danger.

Against your better judgment, you decided enough was enough – you left the safety of Chris’s place.

There wasn’t a place you particularly wanted to visit, or something you wanted to do. No, just being outside, hearing the usually annoying noises of the city was enough to make you feel alive and free.

As you walked down the street, you let a sigh of pure satisfaction out. The weather was lovely; a vivid blue sky, a soft breeze, it was perfect. You could say it was one of those perfect days.

Your spirits brightened, nothing and nobody could stop you from enjoying your little trip in town, by yourself, with your father’s money. Obviously, you knew that spending his money would warn him about your whereabouts but it didn’t really matter considering he already knew you were involved with Chris. So, why not have some fun?

▾▾▾

You went from one store to another, buying yourself clothes you absolutely didn’t need, clothes that costed more than it should be allowed to. But did you care? Absolutely not. Was it worth it? Definitely.

Your moment of fun, however, was interrupted by a phone call you were waiting for. There was no way Chris would have left you alone at his place without thinking that one day or another you would be tired of waiting – he expected you to leave and he needed to make sure he could track you.

“Please tell me you’re not that dumb.” Came his voice, harsh and dark and filled with anger.

You bet anybody would cower in fear before him just at the sound of his voice. You? You were feeling a bit rebellious and daring. “Hello to you too, darling. I’m fine and you?”

“The fuck do you think you’re doing, Y/N?” Chris growled, unable to hold back.

“I’m doing some very deserved shopping, why?”

Chris chose not to answer to that, he was simmering with anger and a bit of worry (but he wouldn’t admit it out loud). “You’re not making it easy for me.”

“Do you want me to apologize for that?” You realized that to him, you probably sounded ungrateful and maybe like a brat.

“I want you to go back to my place.”

“I can’t. Not yet.”

“Y/N, please.”

“Listen, give me at least one more hour. I need it.” Compromising seemed like the best option. You weren’t ready to go back to his place yet and he clearly wouldn’t leave you alone.

“No. Get back.”

“No? Come on, Chris. Just one hour!”

Chris completely ignored your plea. “Where are you?”

Your irritation flared. How dare he be so unreasonable? Why couldn’t he understand your feelings? “None of your business.”

“Oh Y/N, you are my damn business. I agreed to help you and right now you’re making things extremely difficult.”

It appeared that both you and Chris had one (annoying) thing in common: you were both extremely stubborn. You didn’t know to what length he would go to get you back, but it also meant he didn’t know how unreasonable you could actually get.

“Tell me where you are, I’m sending Jisung.”

“Nope.” With that you hung up on him.

▾▾▾

If Chris would have accepted your terms, you would have complied. You would have gone back after one more hour outside. Instead, you found yourself walking some more, grabbing some snacks on your way before deciding that having an ice-coffee would be actually nice.

You waited for your order, watching as the pretty brunette prepared it for you.

“Here you go.” She handed you your drink with a smile.

You grabbed your drink, turned around, ready to leave – your face turned pale. When Chris told you he would send Jisung, you knew he would do it with or without your consent, whether you told him where you were or not. But apparently, since you weren’t playing by his rules, he decided that sending Minho, the man who seemed to hate your guts, was the most appropriated choice. The best punishment.

Your body went cold with dread as you stared at a very unpleased man. He had his hands in his pockets, looking almost relaxed but you swore his eyes were burning with anger and probably some hatred too.

Running away was tempting but would do you no good. There was a reason Chris had sent Minho – you bet he was good at what he did which meant you had no chance at escaping him. Trying to win him over with your natural charms would have been nice, but sadly Minho wanted nothing to do with you.

You decided that being yourself was the only thing you could do which probably would annoy him too. “Hello Minho. Why so grumpy?”

Minho considered for a moment that knocking you down would resolve all his problems, but sadly it would make Chris incredibly pissed too and dealing with a pissed Chris was not on his to-do list. “Why? Maybe, because I had to go looking for a spoiled little girl who decided to throw a tantrum?”

A vein popped out in your neck at the mention of ‘spoiled little girl’, he sure knew how to push your buttons, but you refused to show him how much his comment actually affected you. You refused to let him win. Rather than showing your true emotions, you simply took a sip of your drink, looking as unbothered as you could muster. “How rude. What a bitch.”

“You do realize that I’m getting you back?”

“No, you’re not.” He obviously was, you weren’t naïve to believe you could avoid him.

Minho tried to still his rage but you were making it hard. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Chris could take so much risks just for the sake of one woman. A woman who was their enemy. Minho just couldn’t accept that easily that you were so willing to give up on your life.

Sadly for him, it didn’t matter what he wanted or what he thought. He had a job. A damn hard job. There was no way he could bring you back home without a fight, without attracting any more unwanted attention on you two.

“I’m bringing you back whether you like it or not. We can do this the hard way or the easy way. Choose.”

Daring, you took a step closer, looking straight into his eyes.

“Do your worst, pretty boy.” You smirked as you almost purred your words.

What a mistake. Big, big mistake.

You realized a little too late how serious Minho was about doing it the hard way. With a swift move, he had you thrown over his shoulder, making you shriek and drop your drink.

“Minho! Put me down!” You hit his back in hope he would drop you down but he didn’t budge. “Minho!”

“Shut up.” With that he slapped your ass for good measure which clearly did it work: you stopped talking and fighting.

Boy, you were in trouble.

▾▾▾

Minho was the worst company you could ever dream of. The moment he got you back to Chris’s place, he dropped you right on your bed, gave you a death glare, promising you a slow death if you dared to move, and left you alone. You regretted for a short moment not agreeing to Chris’s demand in the first place because clearly dealing with Jisung would have been more pleasant than dealing with a very grumpy and upset Minho.

But was Minho really the one you should be scared of? Probably not. You dreaded the moment you would have to face Chris. You weren’t completely scared but you didn’t want him to be upset with you, you wanted him to understand your point of view and how you felt.

After one hour of sulking in your room, your stomach grumbled, reminding you that despite all the excitement of this afternoon, you didn’t get yourself a proper meal. You left your room, convinced that Minho had left. Another mistake on your part.

The moment you got in the kitchen, you realized how little you knew about Minho. Yes, he was frowning and throwing daggers at you every single time. Yes, he looked like he would murder you in your sleep. And yet, despite being deeply annoyed with your attitude, you found him in the kitchen, cooking and looking like he fully belonged to the place. What an odd thing to witness, you told yourself.

Apparently, one of Minho’s talents was to have eyes behind his head. You did your best not to make any sound and yet he somehow knew you were lurking. “Done with sulking?”

“I- I wasn’t sulking!” You definitely were.

Minho ignored your blatant lie and glanced over his shoulder. “Take a seat. I bet you’re hungry.”

You were, a lot and you should be grateful that he cooked for you, but the need to fight him was just too strong. “Are you going to poison me?”

Minho actually paused. You were clearly joking but you weren’t far from the truth. “Don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t waste my precious poison on you. Not yet at least.”

“Noted. Understood. Please, don’t kill me.”

He chuckled. “I’ll think about it.”

The end was nearing, it had to be. Here you were joking with Minho, the person who hated your guts and the person you wanted to avoid at all cost for the sake of your sanity. You expected him to be mean to you, to snap at you, but no, he took you completely off guard by being nice. There was definitely something wrong.

“Should I worry that you’re being nice to me?” You asked, unable to refrain yourself.

Minho didn’t answer right away. He put a plate with food before you and then sat across from you, eying you. “Let’s say that cooking is a way for me to calm down.” Minho contemplated the idea of being honest with you. His opinion of you didn’t change, but while cooking he pondered about your little escapade. He put himself in your shoes and realized that he would have lost his mind too if he had to stay alone for so long. “I understand why you left. I would have done the same.”

That was pleasantly unexpected. “Thank you, I guess.”

“However, you should worry about Chris. He doesn’t get angry easily but when he does,” Minho looked at you, feeling sorry which worried you a little. “Let’s say I don’t want to witness it.”

You rubbed your temples trying to sooth the beginning of a headache. Minho’s warning about Chris didn’t come out as a surprise, from the time you had spent together, you had an insight into his personality. Did it scare you? Not really, but it did worry you. You wanted to avoid a fight with him, if you could.

“I’ll be fine.”

▾▾▾

Minho left once he received a message from Chris. Instead of feeling relieved that Minho was finally leaving and Chris would soon be home, you found yourself wishing for Minho to stay, for moral support.

Just in case Chris was still in bad mood, you chose to wait in the safety of your room. Maybe if he didn’t see you waiting for him, you could avoid a fight. Maybe he would think you were sleeping.

You were wrong. The moment Chris got home; you heard his footsteps getting dangerously closer to your room. Clearly, you couldn’t avoid him in his own home. But you didn’t let yourself worry about it; you were strong enough to face him. You told yourself at least.

With a book in your hands, you laid in your bed, unbothered, from outside. Inside? You were screaming and shaking.

Chris didn’t knock, he didn’t bother which gave away his mood. He stood by the door, watching you too calm for his liking.

“Hello Y/N.” He finally said, voice awfully calm.

You glanced from your book, pretending that there was absolutely nothing wrong, and smiled. “Hi you. How was your day?”

Chris had to give it to you, you were really something. He knew you were fearless and strong and would not cower so easily before anyone, him included, but it didn’t mean your behavior didn’t piss him off. He swallowed down his frustration, he had to if he wanted to have a proper conversation with you.

“You know,” Chris started walking towards your bed, undoing his tie in the process. “I’m trying really hard right now not to snap at you.”

“Effort appreciated.” You closed your book, not that you were really reading it anyway, and stared back with just as much intensity. “You’re angry.”

Against better judgement, you crawled to the edge of the bed where he stood. You sat with your hands on your knees, waiting for him to vent, to say everything he thought about you, about how spoiled you are. But he said none of that.

“Are you ready to talk or are we going to fight?” You asked

You hoped you could avoid a fight, especially with him. Considering how stubborn the two of you were, you weren’t sure a fight would lead to anything good. Chris, apparently, thought the same thing as he let a tired and long sigh out. He pulled at his tie and took it completely off before sitting beside you on the bed.

“I don’t want to fight.” He admitted, “But I’m still pretty pissed at what you did.”

You could understand why he was pissed, in his shoes you would have been pissed too, but you still hoped he could understand your point of view too. You reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry for worrying you. I really am. But I also need you to understand why I had to get out of this place.”

Chris squeezed your hand back and closed his eyes, trying to get his emotions under control. “I guess; I should apologize too. I didn’t realize how hard it was for you.”

“Let Jisung come with me next time.” You suggested. There was no way Chris would accept leaving you alone, exposed to danger, but if someone strong enough was with you, it was a different story. “Or Minho.”

Chris quirked a brow at the mention of Minho. He knew how you felt about the man and he definitely knew Minho’s opinion of you too. “Minho? Really?”

You chuckled at his surprise. Of course, he would. But after the little chat with Minho, you realized he wasn’t that bad – you could actually picture yourself getting along with him, given times. “I know. Shocking, right?”

“Yeah. I thought you hated him.”

“We had a chat and kind of bonded?”

Chris shook his head, amused with the outcome. “You being comfortable with Jisung is already alarming. But now Minho?”

“Oh come on, we’re not that bad!” Well, you could definitely see why you and Jisung being a team bothered Chris; the two of you were troublemakers and Jisung would choose your side without batting an eye.

“You and Minho? Terrifying.”

▾▾▾

For some reasons (you imagined it had everything to do with your little incident), Chris chose to work from home for the time being. A part of you was delighted, you didn’t feel so lonely anymore. On the other hand, Chris had been a tease. Not touching you was one thing, walking around shirtless was a whole other level of torture for you.

Just like today. He worked from the living room, once more shirtless, messy hair, looking like a damn meal that you wished you could devour. There was nothing you could do except stare at him from your seat, admiring his perfect, strong body. You watched as he would frown at the screen (and managing to look adorable while doing so), as he would rake his fingers through his hair in frustration.

With those thoughts came a realization.

‘Damn. I think it’s safe to say I like him.’ You thought

It wasn’t supposed to happen. Of course, it wasn’t a first for you, but considering the situation, you didn’t think it was appropriate. With a long sigh, you left your spot and went to the kitchen to get yourself a very much needed drink. Didn’t matter that it was only eleven in the morning.

Right before you could grab the bottle, you felt a warm presence behind your back. Chris reached for a bottle of water, half trapping you between his warm chest and the fridge. You gulped nervously, feeling his warm breath caress your nape. He nudged your neck with his nose, inhaling sharply.

“Did you use my shower gel?”

“No.” Yes. But really, you hadn’t done it on purpose; you were sleepy and grabbed without thinking and now you smelled like him which clearly was driving you crazy and had an effect on him too.

He clicked his tongue at your lie.

“Since you already smell like me, should I mark you?” He whispered as his lips brushed your ear.

This man was testing your patience and your self-control which surprisingly you still had. But not for long. All he had to do was put his lips on you and you would melt in his arms.

Chris pulled away the moment he got the bottle and went back to his business as if nothing had happened.

The little shit.

You took a deep breath, slapped your cheeks for good measure and then followed his steps. “Ok, that’s enough! Put a shirt on!”

Chris glanced at you and chuckled at your behavior. You tried to look as stern as possible with your hands crossed over your chest, frowning at him.

“Now, why would I do that?”

“For my sanity.”

Chris laughed at that. And did not put a shirt on.

▾▾▾

You got woken up in the middle of the night because it was getting particularly noisy which was odd. Last time you checked, there was only Chris and you, but you swore you heard other voices and rather familiar ones. You contemplated the idea of staying in bed, after all whatever was going on outside your room was none of your business. But could you really resist to your curiosity? Not really.

On tip toes you walked through the hall, following the yelling. It wasn’t hard to find the source; it came from Chris’s office. The door was half-opened but you hesitated. You weren’t sure how any of them would react to your presence, to you getting involved in their business. Even if you were Chris’s guest and someone who he swore to protect, you were still his enemy’s daughter.

“I’m going to fucking kill him!” Chris growled and banged his fist on the table.

Minho snorted, “Get in the line, dude.” Apparently, he too had grudges.

“Well look at that.” A sinister chuckle echoed right behind you. “What do we have here?”

Your blood froze in your vein as you felt a gun pointed right at your head. Whoever was standing behind you was clearly not taking it lightly to your eavesdropping. You gulped nervously and tried not to move, not to breath.

The man pushed the door with his feet and then forced you to get inside - all eyes on you. Nobody seemed surprised to see you walking inside. You smiled sheepishly at the men. “Hi Ji. Hi Minho.” Then you looked at Chris, silently apologizing. He only shook his head.

“I guess this is the infamous Y/N.” The man behind you finally dropped the gun and faced you. “You don’t look like Rick.”

You scoffed at his words. “Thank God! Have you seen his face?” You were indeed very lucky. You had inherited everything from your mom, your face, your body, your character. “I took after my mom.”

There was a moment of silence and you wondered what bothered them in your response. The man, however, cut short to your thoughts. He outstretched his hand for you to shake and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Y/N. I’m Changbin.”

Without his gun pointed at you, he looked way more charming. You shook his hand, delighted to meet another of Chris’s family member. Changbin looked quite different from Jisung or Minho, big strong muscles, eyes dark until he smiled, then it was all about mischief.

You chose to sit beside Jisung who without hesitation pulled your chair closer to him, choosing to ignore Chris’s displeased gaze.

“Why aren’t you wearing the pretty nightdress?” Jisung whispered to your ear, smiling wickedly at you.

It amazed you how easily Jisung could change the subject and forget about the current situation. You shook your head, amused. “You would have loved that, wouldn’t you?”

He playfully wiggled his brows in response.

“Can you guys stop and reconcentrate on our current problem?” Minho scolded the two of you, giving you the stinky eye.

“What happened?” You asked

It was unlikely they would actually share this information with you, but a girl could hope. There wasn’t much you could do anyway, but maybe you could give advices.

Chris took you by surprise by actually answering your question. “There was a fire, a criminal one, at one of the buildings I own. Five people died.”

You put a hand over your mouth to muffle a gasp.

“We checked the cameras and saw some suspicious men.” Jisung added. He took his phone out of his pocket and showed you one short video.

Your initial shock was replaced with confusion and a frown. The video was dark and you could barely see but Jisung zoomed on the image, showing one man in particular. One man you had seen a few times at your house. Incredulous, you looked at Chris. “My father is behind the fire?”

“Yes.” He didn’t try to deny it.

“Please, tell me you’re planning to fight back.”

Chris didn’t answer but his eyes promised you your father would pay for it. Dearly.

▾▾▾

Going to a club like any normal person was a foreign concept to you. Living the life you had, meant you didn’t get many chances to go clubbing, in fact it happened only once and you could barely remember the night. Tonight, however, was different.

The club was loud, crowded and yet with very chic vibe which made sense considering it was Chris’s.

Jisung brought you to Chris’s table who welcomed you with a set of shots, reminding you of your first meeting.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” You teased but accepted the challenge. You grabbed the first shot and emptied it in one go.

“I’m joining in.” Jisung was way too eager to get wasted.

Chris shook his head but didn’t try to stop his friend. He knew better than to try. “I’m not trying to get you drunk.” He then told you and took your hand, interlocking his fingers with yours. “I want you to enjoy the night. Drink to your heart, dance, do whatever you want. This place is safe.”

To say that your heart melted a little at his words would be an understatement. Your heart throbbed with joy, making you a little daring. You leaned closer to Chris and placed a kiss right in the corner of his lips. “Thank you.”

“I need something stronger if I have to deal with that.” Jisung groaned to himself.

▾▾▾

You did exactly what Chris had suggested. You drank more than you should have, you danced among the people on the dance floor, body buzzing with energy, feeling so alive, so free. It felt incredible as if your life had just begun.

With all the dancing, you completely lost track of time. You didn’t know for how long you had been dancing and you didn’t really care. You changed your dance partners a few times. Chris humored you by dancing for a moment with you but quickly gave up. Jisung had joined you too, just as relaxed and probably drunk as you.

Another handsome man joined Jisung, whispering to his ear as his eyes were locked on you. You quirked a brow and wondered if he was another of Chris’s close circle. If he was, it made you question whether Chris was hiring people based on their looks. How else could you explain that all of his friends were all that good looking?

Jisung outstretched his hand and you took it. He pulled you towards them with too much strength, making you stumble and fall right into his friend’s arms.

“Hi there.” He laughed and helped you to recover your composure. “I’m Hyunjin.”

Since you were that close to him, you took a moment to admire his face. Long brown hair, model-like face and that mole under his eye made him somehow even more captivating. “How come you’re that pretty.” Then you looked at Jisung, feeling incredibly offended. “How come all of you are that pretty?”

The two men laughed at your question but couldn’t deny they were pleased too.

“You fit just fine then.” Hyunjin smiled.

▾▾▾

You stumbled out of the bathroom, feeling that maybe it was finally time to find Chris and ask him to bring you home. You had drunk more than enough and your feet were killing you with all the dancing. Before you could do that, a man grabbed your hand and pulled you back to the dark hall.

“Hi Y/N.”

You blinked once, twice, your drunken brain slowly proceeding the sight before you.

Ren.

Ren was in the club. Ren had found you and cornered you. Once you fully realized he wasn’t just a hallucination, you sobered up right away.

“What are you doing here?” A tiny part of you was glad seeing him. You wondered what your father had done to him for letting you escape so easily; seeing him safe and sound brought relief. But being alone with him worried you.

“You know damn well why I’m here.” He snapped, raising his voice. Ren never lost his patience with you. He never rose his voice at you. And yet.

“I’m not going back.”

You pushed him with all your remaining strength to get him out of your way. He didn’t budge. At all. Instead, he pushed you against the wall and trapped you with his hands at each side of your head.

“Let’s be realistic Y/N.” He sounded cold, bringing the memory of one particular night, back to your mind. A memory you wished you could forget forever. “There’s nothing you can do to stop me from bringing you back.”

“And I believe you have overstayed your welcome.” Chris’s voice forced Ren to put space between the two of you. His hand flied to his gun just in case he needed it.

Chris’s eyes went back and forth between you and Ren, analyzing the situation, calculating.

“Leave.” Chris ordered, leaving no room for discussion.

Knowing Ren, you didn’t expect him to obey but he did. Maybe he realized there was nothing he could do with Chris around. Worse yet, he was joined by Hyunjin who looked just as pissed with Ren’s presence.

Ren spared you one last look before leaving, bumping into Hyunjin’s shoulder on purpose.

“Make sure he doesn’t try anything stupid.” Chris told Hyunjin.

“You have Jisung for that.”

“Hyunjin.”

“Fine! Fine!”

With Hyunjin gone, it left the two of you alone. All this time you had kept your mouth shut, simply because you were too stunned to speak. Chris pulled you into his arms and only when you felt him against you, you realized you were shaking.

“I shouldn’t have brought you here. I’m sorry.”

Despite your state, you managed to find your voice. “Don’t. I’m glad you did.”

▾▾▾

You thought you had seen Chris angry before. You were wrong.

That night, he came back from work pissed as hell, talking (not to say yelling) on the phone and completely ignoring your existence. You watched him from the coach, trying to figure out what was wrong and what you could do to make it better. But he didn’t give you any chance; he walked right to his office and slammed the door behind him.

It was a sight you weren’t used to and yet, instead of feeling intimidated, you were curious. You had no intention on eavesdropping but considering how loud he was talking on the phone, you heard him even with the door closed.

“I don’t give a fuck! Find him.” You heard Chris through the door, sounding even angrier than before, if possible.

It wasn’t your business, you told yourself but you worried. You grabbed your phone and hesitated. Asking Jisung would be the easiest, but would he have the answer? From what you gathered, despite being extremely close to Chris, the one who knew everything wasn’t him. Minho on the other hand was the real deal.

You lied.

Obviously.

Maybe you would come to regret it and remember way too late Minho’s attempt at warning you – but you couldn’t stop yourself from walking towards his door. It wasn’t hard to imagine how much Chris blamed himself for the loss but it wasn’t completely fair either. He was a good man, in your opinion, and he tried to do his best every time, whatever happened couldn’t be his fault, no matter what he thought.

By the time you got to the door, the yelling had stopped. You knocked, knowing all too well that there was no chance he would let you in. You bit on your lips and hesitated. Could you actually handle him right now? Maybe not but you couldn’t stop yourself. You took a deep breath and let yourself in.

Chris sat by his desk in the dark, the only source of light coming from outside illuminated his body. He looked both tensed and tired, his head resting between his hands.

“Chris?” You tried; your voice weaker than you intended.

You thought he didn’t hear you but the moment you took another step towards him, he snapped.

“Leave.” He ordered without even looking at you, in fear that if he saw you, he would say something he could potentially regret later.

Did you obey? Of course not.

“I’m not leaving.” You replied stubbornly.

Chris groaned in response. He didn’t want to see you or talk to you when he was so damn angry; he would look for any chance to start a fight if it meant he could get rid of all those feelings. But he didn’t want to fight with you, you didn’t deserve all the mean things he could say without meaning any of it. Despite better judgment, and because you were too stubborn, he finally looked your way. Even in the darkness, you could feel the intensity of his gaze. Your body knew that right now, the man before you was dangerous, but your heart knew better.

“Why can’t you listen for once?” He was quickly losing his patience. Any other day, he would have played along and let you have your way, tonight, however, he wished to be left alone, to deal with his guilt and rage.

Chris jumped out of his chair, so fast it fell on the floor with a loud noise, startling you. “Get the fuck out.”

You shook your head, refusing again.

“Y/N, I swear to god-“ He clenched his fist and inhaled sharply. He had little to no control left and you were making things impossibly hard.

You walked faster to get to him before he could say anything else. You stood inches from him. It pained you to see him this way, because despite his anger, you could feel his pain and regret.

“Don’t push me away.” You pleaded as you reached for him. You expected him to reject you but he didn’t. He let you put your hand on his shoulder and you gave it a gentle, comforting squeeze. “I know there’s nothing I can do to help you, but I don’t think you should be alone right now.”

You took the final steps between you two before finally wrapping your arms tightly around him and pulling him to you. To your surprise, Chris didn’t resist, instead, he fully buried his head in the crook of your neck, shaking in your arms.

Your heart melted at the sight. He was no longer the scary boss, but just a wounded man. You ran your fingers through his locks to sooth him. “I’m here for you, if you need me.”

Without fully realizing it, your words unsettled Chris. He wasn’t used to people confronting him whenever he was angry, whenever he just wanted to punch someone to relieve his pain and anger. But you? You showed him compassion and offered a shoulder to cry on if he needed – for that, he was grateful.

He pulled away from your arms only to get a good look at your face. Such a pretty face. He gently cupped your face, his thumb stroking your cheek lovingly, hoping to convey his feelings without needing to speak. He didn’t trust himself. Not yet. And you understood it. You simply closed your eyes and leaned into his touch, savoring the moment.

“You’re too good, Y/N.” He whispered, “I don’t deserve it.”

Your only response was to plant a kiss on the hand that was touching your face.

Chris observed your every move, your every breath, memorizing every inch of your face, every mole and the tiny scars that he had never noticed before. As you opened your eyes to look back at him, he inhaled sharply, completely bewitched by your beautiful eyes, drowning in them. You didn’t speak but the silence and your gaze spoke louder.

“Y/N.” He called for you without even fully realizing it. He wanted to kiss you. He wanted to keep you with him forever, even once you reached your common goal.

He pressed his forehead against yours and closed his eyes, savoring the moment, to think about what he should or shouldn’t do. But really, how could he resist you any more?

“Can I kiss you?” He whispered

Your reply came in the form of a gentle press of your lips against his. You didn’t hesitate, but seeing how this moment was intimate and fragile, you didn’t want to rush, you didn’t want to unleash all your feelings at once. And he understood.

Chris’s lips felt divine. Just like the kiss. It was slow and sweet and gentle and filled with unspoken promises.

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