#i made this stupid au where the 3 games are somehow connected

[4525yaoi]

au

#tumblr hates me click for better quality #i made this stupid au where the 3 games are somehow connected #and now leon has to take care of two little shits #i am cringe but i am free #perspective is hard #i think heather and simon would be very good friends:3 #silent hill #heather mason #cry of fear #simon henriksson #resident evil #leon scott kennedy #re4 #treqaww

[highdramas]

bandit like me | criminal!bucky

warnings: language, violence, references to criminal behavior, allusions to sexy shit, bucky being a cocky asshole

word count: 2197

summary: if you and bucky are doomed, you want to see the glorious fallout.

note: this is the start of a bucky au series which will eventually be based on the heist from oceans 8! this is just an intro to bucky’s history with the reader, and their dynamic, but i’m so excited to continue!

enjoy! <3

god, you love vegas.

there’s a certain sort of dirty glamour that you can’t find anywhere else, you think-- and while you spend the majority of your time in new york these days, you find that your heart always has a certain tug to las vegas. after all, it is where you got your start as one of the finest pickpockets and swindlers on either side of the mississippi.

among other things.

it’s where you met james buchanan barnes for the first time.

you’d heard his name like a whisper in the wind for years before you met him in person. james “bucky” barnes, criminal extraordinaire. of course, you were young, and you had stars in your eyes and you had not yet been hardened by the world. you had not yet had to kill your way out of a shady job, had not yet conned a man of everything he was worth.

that was your favorite part, you think.

taking from men what they had earned unfairly.

if justice wasn’t coming for them, you would bring it upon them yourself. you would take it all and you would feel no remorse. their wealth, their assets, their connections.

sometimes, even their wives.

but those were petty games that you had played when you were young. you like to believe that you are more mature now; both in your swindling and in your personality.

sometimes, you miss those days. you miss running with natasha and chewing up men and spitting them back out. you miss the high of pulling off a real good job. you miss watching a man crumble beneath you, begging for mercy. of course, you would never give it. but you would make a show of thinking about it, and natasha would laugh, and she would say, “stop playing with your food, honey.”

that’s another thing.

you rarely reveal your real name.

not even to your closest confidants. not even to natasha.

no, you find that there are two ways that you introduce yourself. you either stare straight with a narrow gaze, murmuring something along the lines of, “your worst nightmare.” or, you smile sweetly with an outstretched hand and your head gracefully tilted. “call me honey.”

there’s only one person that you’ve worked with who knows your real name.

and he’s sitting at the hotel bar.

already, you can feel your annoyance begin to bubble. you can do one of two things-- you can saunter over there and properly ignore him, knowing that he will notice you instantly. or, you can go up to your room.

you decide you need a drink more than you need your sanity.

somehow, you’re sure that he already knows you’re here. you approach the bar and tap on it, smiling at the bartender. “cosmopolitan.” you turn your head to the right and he’s already looking at you.

“i thought you’d never show, doll.”

a smirk begins to play on your lips, and you thank the bartender as you slide your drink to yourself. “i should get a restraining order,” you muse as you lift your glass to your lips, taking a lengthy sip. “you creep.”

bucky laughs and he takes a sip of his own drink, and you don’t even have to look to know what it is-- whiskey coke. god, you always gave him shit for it. told him he should at least drink his whiskey neat. he would always give you that same stupid smirk and he would say, “what, i can’t have a little sweet, honey?”

“that’d be no fun,” he says and god you know that he’s right, but you hate to admit it. “who you here for?”

all the attempts of not looking at him are futile, and you throw a glance in his direction. he looks as glorious and handsome as ever. the man drips with luxury. from his suit to his hair to his beard which has grown out slightly since the last time that you saw him-- everything about him tells you that he is expensive. “you think i’d tell you?”

“i’m here for pleasure, darling. i’m not going to infiltrate on your job.”

you scoff. “i have a hard time believing that. when are you ever not thinking about work?”

bucky’s desire to work is the cause of all of his success, as well as all of his problems, you think.

part of you feels sorry for him, knowing how much stress he places upon himself. another part of you can’t help but resent it, knowing it is the reason that you two would never, ever, ever possibly work as something more than easy flirtation and a good night between the sheets.

“i’m a changed man, honey.” bucky gestures to the barstool beside him. “you gonna stand and drink that all night?”

a pointed look is thrown in his direction and you finally take a seat. “you knew i would be here, didn’t you?”

“heard from nat,” bucky takes a sip from his drink. “i’ve got some intel on your hit.”

your hit isn’t your normal vegas regular. no, your hit is alexander pierce, one of the highest ranking government officials you could sink your claws into. you’d met him networking at an event in dc and he had been quite interested in you, which you always liked to use to your advantage. luring him out to las vegas took little effort and much amusement, buying you time to do your research.

you’d clear his room of all his belongings and sell off the paperwork to your government contacts who would purchase them for a steep price, and you would be on your way.

without a trace.

you were good at that part. going off the grid. no social media footprint, nothing to track you by-- you were living in the world partially invisible. you like to keep it that way.

though, sometimes it gets lonely.

no one knows that better than the man who sits beside you now.

“spit it out, then.”

bucky smiles and for a moment, you think he might say something else, but he begins to divulge quickly. information about his security detail, shift rotations. information you could’ve found out easily, but don’t mind having handed to you. but you’re less interested in that. your brows furrow as you look at him. “how far out of your way did you go to get this intel?”

he gives a nonchalant shrug. “far enough.” he smiles. “gotta help out my girl.”

“i’m not your girl,” you say with a smirk. “if anything, you’re my bitch. getting me intel, following me around to tell me.”

this gets a laugh out of him and you look forward again, finishing off your drink. “now that’s my girl.” he throws a hundred dollar bill onto the bartop and follows suit, tipping his head back to empty his cup of its contents. “walk with me?”

you stare and watch as he outstretches his hand to you. despite your better judgement, you take it. the pair of you walk side by side until you’re stepping out into the still warm air, but the breeze offers enough of a chill that the hairs on your arms stand up. bucky looks over at you and begins to shuck off his jacket, making you immediately protest. “bucky, no--”

but he’s already draping it over your shoulders, and you are tugging it just a bit closer to you, and you note that it smells like him. like that stupid ysl cologne you bought him all those years ago.

well, you didn’t buy it. you’d stolen it.

no words are exchanged as you move along on the sidewalk, watching on at people busking and performing on the street, ignoring the elsa’s and spiderman’s who try to pull you in for photo ops. one of them gets particularly aggressive and bucky pulls you into him, as if you’re not a woman who has driven a dagger into the gut of a man for far less, saying, “move along, pal.”

“so touchy tonight,” you purr, leaning into him slightly when he doesn’t remove his arm from your waist. “like the good ‘ole days.”

“oh, you remember?” bucky jokes, and it already has you laughing. “you were acting so coy back there in the bar, i thought that you might’ve forgotten me altogether.”

you shake your head and you stop in the street. you wear his jacket and he straightens his tie and he smiles down at you. “of course i didn’t.” you jut your chin up. “doesn’t change anything, though.”

what doesn’t it change, exactly?

it doesn’t change that the last time you saw james buchanan barnes, you had told him that you loved him. and he had told you that he loved you in return. and you had both agreed that it needed to end now before either of you caused irreversible damage to the other.

criminals being with criminals never ends well.

“not a thing,” he agrees with you. he pushes a piece of hair back and it’s getting harder to remember why you were so stubborn when it came to him. why, exactly, you felt the need to push your feelings away so desperately. “wish it would, though.”

“yeah.” a small, almost shy, smile works its way onto your lips. “me too.”

bucky’s jaw slacks and his fingers trail your cheek, and you can feel the cool metal of his rings against your flesh. “it’s not like this with other people, is it, honey?”

“of course not,” you nearly hiss. “is it like this with other people for you?”

bucky has a knowing sort of smirk. “no.” he wets his lips, his eyes settling on your lips for just a beat too long. “it never will be.”

the tension surrounds the both of you, and you’re the one to break it. you press your hand to bucky’s chest and push on it slightly, pushing him away, pushing away all of the feelings and confusion that comes with him. “we’re not doing this tonight. i’ve got a job to do in the morning.”

you begin to walk, and bucky is on your heels. “so our pillowtalk can be about work,” he says, and you can practically hear the cocky and sly charm in his words. “i made sure to get a king bed. and a bottle of moet.”

again, you stop, and you turn to him. you’ve nearly walked a circle around the block, and you can see the hotel not far off. “you really got info from nat about my job, got me intel to butter me up, and then want to take me to bed?” you huff and even you can’t help but laugh. “nothing’s changed, barnes.”

you set off again and he groans, following after you. “you know it’s not like that.” he catches your wrist and he spins you, getting you to face him. “it’s never that that… simple with you.”

you rip your wrist from his hand and make your way into the hotel lobby, making sure your hips swing just a bit more than usual. you remember bucky laughing and gripping those hips on a late winter night in new york city, nearly three years ago now-- “such a tease,” he had said into your ear.

“bucky,” you say as you both approach the elevators. “it’s not happening.”

he sighs and he hangs his head. “yeah.” he looks up at you. “i do miss you, doll.”

“yeah, i know.” the elevator doors open and you step into them. bucky tries to follow after you, but you hold your hand up. “i’ll be seeing you, james.”

“see you, honey.”

the doors click shut and you practically collapse. the effort of pretending to not love bucky is exhausting.

in a blur, you go to your room and unpack your things. you take off your makeup and your expensive jewelry that you plucked off the wrists and necks and fingers of random passing civilians during all of your worldly travels. when you pick your phone up, you notice that you have a text from an unknown number.

floor 45, room 7.

you roll your eyes and toss your phone back onto the bed. you’re a strong woman-- certainly strong enough to resist the temptation of knowing exactly where to find the one person that you want.

one hour passes. you scroll through instagram.

another. you finally crawl into bed.

three hours. it’s nearly three in the morning and you cannot sleep.

by four, your feet are in slippers and you wrap a silky robe around your body.

you don’t move. 4:30am blinks at you on the clock.

at five, bucky is opening the door, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and staring at you.

“don’t say a word,” you hiss before you’re grabbing for him, pulling him to you, and pressing your lips to his.

but bucky is a smug asshole. as you move through his suite, his hands are everywhere, and he pushes you back onto the bed. once he’s hovering over you, his lips just a ghost above the shell of your ear, he can’t help but whisper…

“looks like nothing’s changed.”

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky x you #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes au #bandit like me

[friendofhayley]

I’m back after my hiatus from fanfiction, to give y’all the best multifandom recs of the fics I read this month. Shoutout to all content creators who helped us live to see the close of this year. This fic includes 15 fics for Sterek, Larry, Winteriron, and Geraskier. The starred ones put me through heaven and hell *chef’s kiss*.

Sterek (Teen Wolf)

1. Six Letter Word for Romance by @troubleiwant | domestic kink - omg there’s only one bed - soft Derek - oblivious idiots in love - 6k

Stiles definitely starts off thinking it’s fucking hilarious that Derek-sourwolf-Hale does crosswords and cares about scuffs on his furniture.

But at a certain point, and he can’t pinpoint exactly when, “fully functional adult couple” somehow becomes a massive fetish of his. Derek in sweats and bare feet, nudging his glasses up his nose while he does the Sunday crossword? Unff. Derek filling out forms to get some renovations on his property approved? Oh God, yes. Derek putting away groceries and bitching that the corner store was out of the right type of Greek yogurt? Take me now, Stiles thinks, worrying at his lower lip with his teeth.

This can’t be normal.

2. *Dirty Little Secret* by @isthatbloodonhisshirt | Cora & Stiles bffs - no one can resist the Stilinski charm - celebrity Derek - human au - 91k

“Holy shit, this is a date!” he blurted out, turning back to Derek wide-eyed. “This is a date! You intended for this to be a date, this was supposed to be a date!” He figured if he said it enough times, maybe he would believe it, but so far, no dice.

Derek was scowling again—seriously, did he want wrinkles?—but he just reached into one of the bags and pulled out a burger, checking what was written on the foil in sharpie before handing it over to Stiles.

“Of course it’s a date, what did you think this was?”

3. Can You Feel A Whole New Part of Your World? by @isthatbloodonhisshirt | i genuinely don’t look at authors names i just click i am sorry for spamming you but you write too good - neighbors Sterek - emotionally mature Stiles - the ideal fluffy world you’d want to live in - 53k

Can you hear me singing in the shower?” Stiles blurted out, because he had to know, now. If one of his neighbours had slid that note under his door, then it meant Parrish as another neighbour could hear him, too! He had to know if this was all a huge joke and one person had walked by and overheard him and decided to fuck with him.

Parrish gave him a weird look at the question, but answered anyway, making Stiles’ plans to leave the country speed up in his mind.

“Of course I can. You’re actually not bad. Though you have been singing a lot of Frozen lately, getting kind of tired of the soundtrack.”

4. Theory of Overprotective Canines by @petals42 | derek can turn into wolf - oblivious Stiles - future fic - mutual pining - 11k

Stiles is totally looking forward to living alone in his super cool apartment off-campus. He is. He is also very excited to bike to school every day, ready to set up an awesome game room, and definitely over his crush on Derek Hale. Completely over it.

Or at least he is until Derek decides he's moving in with him. And then turns out to be the perfect roommate. And then starts attending all his classes. As a wolf.

This is not going according to plan.

Larry (One Direction)

5. **The Changer and the Changed** by @homosociallyyours | literally the best fic of all time i want to live in there - girl direction - NYC ‘70s au - trans Zayn - the girls are so lovely - 59k

It’s the spring of 1977 and Harry Styles has just moved to New York City after graduating college. She knows she’s a lesbian. She just needs to figure out how to meet other lesbians.

Louis Tomlinson works at a popular women’s bookstore in the Lower East Side, Womon’s Direction, where she spends her days reading feminist literature, writing poetry, exchanging friendly barbs with her boss Niall, and dreaming of finding someone to love.

When Harry and Louis meet, their connection is instantaneous. Slowly but surely, Louis welcomes Harry into her community of women. Stonewall veteran and old school butch Niall; Liam, a land dyke who’s moved to the city for love; and Zayn, a lesbian musician who’s been ostracized by a vocal part of women’s community for being trans, welcome Harry with open arms, ready to help her find her place in New York City’s bustling lesbian scene.

6. others i’ve seen might never be mean (but they would never do) by @cherrylouvol6 | aaaaaaaa it’s lesbian When Harry Met Sally !!! - rom com - girl direction - coming out and first times - really great sex - 20k

Louis sighs.

“Do you remember what I said to you the first time we met?”

“That I’m naive and neurotic and would be hard pressed to ever find someone who could put up with me?” Harry snaps.

7. some things fade (some never do) by @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed | aaaaaa this story took me apart and back together again just like Louis and Harry - urban fantasy au - second chances - exes to friends to lovers - hurt/comfort - 25k

Matching tattoos. He’d never thought he’d be the type for tattoos to begin with, let alone matching or magical ones, but once Harry had put the idea in his mind it had never quite managed to disappear. And it had made sense. With their relationship a long distance one, this was simply another way of feeling close to one another. Of knowing where the other was, how they felt. It had made so much sense.

Back then.

8. we can take the long way home by @eleadore | i usually don’t rec my porn but there’s so much feels in this one - canon-divergent - kink discovery - friends to lovers - this was written in 2015 as a future fic but it felt like it was taking place now so good job - 27k

“Fertile,” Louis says, and then laughs because it sounds stupid to say out loud. He hasn’t ever really thought of himself in those terms. Baby-making terms. It’s just one of those things his body can do, like exercise, or go without tea. Doesn’t mean he will.

Winteriron (MCU)

9. **Dig No Graves** by @missaphelion | Tony finds out about his parents right after winter soldier au - Tony Stark has a heart - Bucky heals with bots and lots of sugar - slow burn - 142k

"I'm here to kill you, Terminator," Tony said slowly, "does that compute?"

The soldier looked up at him with wide blue eyes and no expression. "Okay."

Tony froze. "Okay," he echoed. "I tell you I came here to kill you and your response is 'okay'?"

10. A Rifling Matter by Penndragon27 | Winter Soldier has such a big crush on Tony’s weapons, he escapes Hydra au - identity porn - pining Bucky - fluff and angst - Winter Soldier is a fanboy and it’s cute - 37k

All the Asset knows is fighting, killing.

He also knows a good weapon when he sees one and Stark Industries... they make some great weapons.

11. *Winter is Coming (aka Fifty First Avengers Dates)* by @tisfan & @everyworldneedslove | enemies to friends to lovers to 50 first dates - pining Bucky - Tony gets amnesia - no Steve bashing but he’s a little bit of an ass - mental health issues - 109k

Bucky Barnes is still mostly The Asset, and he's pretty sure Hydra is going to come back for him soon, so in the meantime he's just going to keep an eye on the Avengers for them. But then Clint spotted him hiding in the shadows, so Tony came out and dragged Bucky back to the Tower, threw him in the shower, and fed him cheeseburgers.

Now The Asset is having anomalous feelings. In his pants.

Geraskier (The Witcher)

12. *no reason to run* by @yoursummerfrost | different meeting au - only one bed but camping - cursed Jaskier - soft Geralt!!!! - poly negotiations - 61k

"You'll change your mind one day," says the innkeep. "The road can't love you back."

What a strange way to flatten something so beautiful, Jaskier thinks. What a small way to love.

13. *He Fell into a Faerie Ring* by @geraltnoises | Jaskier gets bardnapped after the fight au - non-human Jaskier - soft Geralt - Jaskier encourages people to be kind and becomes a god - emotionally mature Geralt - 57k

Traders are a gossiping sort. If there was a scandal within the noble houses of Posada, you’d hear about it in Cretegor by the end of the week. So, the quick spread of a rumor about a little village in the Kestrel Mountain range was not at all surprising. What was surprising was the story that the traders wove. They said that Luibhtorrach, a sad, ghost of a farming town, had miraculously become a hub for trade, as if overnight. Their lands unbelievably fertile and brimming with crop. Even stranger, each and every one of Luibhtorrach’s people professed that their good fortune was the work of a mysterious beast they’d claimed as their personal deity. Most recent news foretold of their plans to throw a midsummer festival celebrating this newfound god. In preparation, silken blue banners were erected in every corner of the town, each bearing the symbol of their new patron: A delicate dandelion wrapping around a golden sun.

14. Barking Up the Wrong Tree by KHansen | 5+1 things - I’m worried about Geralt’s skills - non-human Jaskier - monsterfucker Geralt - crack treated seriously - 11k

Geralt is 100% certain that Jaskier is a vampire.

He's 100% proven wrong.

15. Bardic Idyll by Lisztful | fake relationship - Geralt is soft and oblivious - pining - fluff and angst - Jaskier you can’t show your emotions mainly through song! - 13k

Jaskier is certain he can win the Continent's annual bardic competition, but he needs to be accompanied by a dashing romantic companion in order to enter. Enter Geralt, who is definitely, for sure, only interested in the free food, and not at all in staring lovingly into Jaskier's eyes.

#monthly fic rec #fic rec #sterek fic rec #larry fic rec #winteriron #geraskier #larrie hijinks #witcher #mcu

[c-c-cherry]

Jojos Doing Jojo Things (with each other)✨😌

*sweating as the part 5 hc asks start piling up in my inbox*

 *looks at the one that mentions Jonathan*

Hello~~ I’m sorry for being criminally inactive here, I forgot during that long 6 month lockdown that I actually had a real life outside of the internet and now I have to go do real life things?? Instead of doing nothing but writing?? Crimes, I tell you.

I love the idea of Jonathan interacting with all the other jojos so I thought I’d take a little break from part 5 whump headcanons to fulfill this one :D SO HERE’S SOME SELF-INDULGENT HEADCANONS ABOUT JONATHAN DOING FUN LITTLE ACTIVITIES WITH THE OTHER JOJOS BECAUSE I KNOW WE ALL NEED IT RIGHT NOW😭😭😭

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

Joseph (lets say Youngseph in this case because shhh)

-Hear me out but KNITTING

-Let this man do some nice calm things please

-Joseph has absolutely no way to connect with Jonathan. Like. Nothing.

-He doesn’t see the two of them as anything alike even though they both have the star, and when it comes to connecting with such a righteous, nice dude he’s a bit :/ about it

-He also doesn’t want to do anything stupid (In his words.) He hates baking, he’s never been into reading and school, and the two can never really click with sports

-Our man Jonathan has searched his heart and soul for something to bring the two of them together but Joseph is always just not into it >:(

-He’s almost given up on connecting at all BUT—

-One thing they do have in common? Erina.

-BOOM. Johnny-boy suddenly has ideas >:)

-Joseph is really put off when Jonathan shows up with a ball of yarn and needles and in the most innocent way possible he’s like “I have something to show you ^-^”

-the first thing Joseph thinks is NO FUCKING WAY. If Caesar or his mother or anyone caught him fucking knitting he’d never be able to live it down

-So instead he just watches as Jonathan sits by the fire, and it looks really boring at first but he just starts going at it

-And of course the gears start turning and all his brain sees is “fast task?? task I can be good at? something quick my hands can do??”

-And Jonathan looks up to take a break to see Joseph perched on the edge of the chair in complete awe, but the moment he asks if he wants to know how to do it, Joseph gets really withdrawn :/

The rest of their conversation goes a little like this:

“Isn’t that meant for girls?”

“Why would hats and scarves be only for girls?”

“But its—”

“You know...I’m making Erina a matching hat and scarf for her birthday. I could use a little help with the scarf…”

“...”

“We can make it a race.”

And with a fire lighting in his eyes, Joseph accepts the contest even though he has no idea what he’s doing. But isn’t that what he does best?

-Needless to say, he becomes obsessed.

-When his greatest fear comes true and Caesar finds out, he’s too obsessed to care about the teasing

-Joseph is good at something that Caesar isn’t. Caesar is jealous. Caesar picks up knitting.

-Are knitting contests even a thing?? I don’t care because Joseph and Caesar could probably open a fucking etsy shop with all the stuff they make (and absolutely shamelessly at that)

-Anytime they meet someone new it's immediately “which hat is better?” “Joseph’s is worse, right?” “Can you start the stopwatch for us?”

-Even in his older years, he never actually stopped making things for Holy, Suzi, and even sometimes Jotaro (thought Joot wouldn’t be caught dead wearing any of it in public)

-He actually progresses past knitting and making clothes in general becomes a secret passion of his

-The hat he’s wearing in part 4? He definitely made that. And don’t even think he doesn’t send Josuke the tackiest shit in the mail

Jonathan is very proud :)

Jotaro

-Animals. Is that even a question?

-Jonathan was always more of a dog or cat person, but the moment he finds out that Jotaro’s interested in marine life? MAN GOES ALL OUT

-He not only researches the shit out of marine biology just so he can hold up a conversation with him, but he also buys A SHIT TON OF BOOKS for his favourite angst man

-We all know that Jotaro isn’t exactly a man of words, but his heart is touched when they exchange a few sentences and Jonathan shows up the next day with a book all about what they were talking about🥺

-Like—Jonathan was always scolded for never listening to his father, but when it comes to stuff like this, Jotaro swears he’s able to read his mind

-Most people can barely get him to utter a sentence, but when these two are alone they’ll talk for hours about the ocean

-Holy was actually pretty worried for a while that Jotaro rarely ever opened up to anyone, but after seeing the two of them talk it was like a weight lifted off her shoulders :)

-They go on trips all the time to study water life. First, it's just to the river a few minutes away. Then they start going out to the lake nearby, and then they’re suddenly borrowing Joseph’s private boat and going on all these “research trips” together

-Which just consist of Jotaro taking hundreds of pictures and surprisingly never shutting up about what he sees (which is definitely a first)

-They pass by snooty, rich fishermen all the time who make fun of them for only looking at the animals, and Jonathan secretly uses Hamon to attract the fish to anywhere but where the fishers are lol

-I can blame snipster on instagram for introducing me to Smiletaro but the pure happiness and smiles of happy Joot on this boat with Jonathan is like a DRUG

-Star Platinum is absolutely thrilled, and when Jonathan realizes that Star is an amazing artist, he actually buys the stand a cute little purple notebook to draw all the ocean life they come across :3

-The moment they get back to shore Jotaro’s all -_- again around people, but you can still see the excitement in his eyes if you look hard enough

-When he gets into school for marine biology, Jonathan is so fucking proud

-This is an au which means anything can happen so I formally declare that Jonathan definitely got Jotaro those golden dolphin-shaped coat pins when the man first goes off to Uni

-He wears them as a good luck charm :3

Josuke

-Josuke is soooo easy to get along with, especially since both of them are such warm people :)

-Jonathan figures that it wouldn’t be hard to find something fun to do together, but when he actually thinks about it...he really knows nothing about what Josuke likes to do

-He ends up just asking the kid next time they see each other, and they end up just agreeing to teach each other one thing the other doesn’t know

-Because the power of KNOWLEDGE BABYYY

-Josuke shows up the next day with an entire fucking Nintendo 64 and is absolutely set on teaching him how to play something

-Erina just kinda watches like 👁👄👁 as Josuke plugs it in and Jonathan is confused but also SUPER EXCITED because he barely even knows what a video is but there are also video games??

-After much internal debate, Josuke decides on Ocarina of Time because he’s worried Jonathan will have a fucking heart attack if they play something like Mario Kart

-Also he thinks Jojo would enjoy the whole “righteous hero coming of age” archetype thing because,,,you know,,,

-They start it up and immediately Jonathan is like WHAT and has no idea how to play and dies in ways that Josuke didn’t even know were possible, but they somehow make it to the first temple with a lot of help from Josuke

-Right before the boss fight, his mom pulls up like “bitch we gotta go come on” so Josuke sees no harm in leaving the system at Jonathan’s and coming back next week

-Oho,,,ohohooo,,,

-He comes back a week later to a dark house,,,Erina’s off on some trip, and he can hear the faintest “HYAH!” coming from the living room

-He walks in to find Jonathan in the exact same spot he left him, ALL OTHER SAVE FILES ARE COMPLETE, and he’s in some obscure location doing a side quest Josuke didn’t even know existed

-Turns out he’s really good at quest games

-After Josuke realizes that Jonathan’s managed to beat the game more than once, he asks if he wants to try out another game

-To which Jonathan replies: “There’s MORE?”

.

-Aside from giving Jonathan a crippling video game addiction, Josuke also learns a vital thing about Jonathan Joestar

-Hamon ^-^

-Josuke’s a little surprised that Jonathan can even see his stand, and Jonathan has no other way to explain it than that it must be connected to his Hamon somehow

-To which Josuke is like “what” and Jonathan realizes that his stupid fucking grandson decided not to tell ANY OTHER Joestar about Hamon

-He’s no Zeppeli, but he could try and teach him...even if it didn’t work, it would still be a nice bonding activity

-When Jonathan finds out that Josuke’s stand ability is revolved around healing, he’s overjoyed because he might have a better chance

-They start small with breathing exercises and meditation, which eventually lead to Jonathan trying to teach Josuke how to make things like flowers

-Since it doesn’t exactly come naturally to Josuke, things don’t exactly work out,,,but both are unsurprisingly happy when Josuke manages to make a single flower bloom :3

-It’s not much, but it’s there and it honestly makes Josuke feel much better knowing that he could eventually learn how to heal himself, too :)

Giorno

-Jonathan considered teaching Giorno Hamon a while ago, but he realized that his stand already has the properties of Hamon, if not just in a more humanoid form

-And when Jojo puts two and two together that he and his son can both grow a lot of plant life, he has the perfect idea

-Garden buddies!!!! :D

-They grow everything you could possibly think of, and to top it all off, Giorno fills the garden with all this animal life :)

-When it comes to biology, Giorno never shuts up about it. He’s the quietest kid when it comes to virtually anything else but prepare for MAJOR info dumps about frogs and his vast knowledge of flowers

-Speaking of flowers, them just sitting and growing them together and talking about all of their favourites? Yes please

-Although they love to accelerate plant growth, there’s one patch in the middle of the garden that they’re determined to grow naturally

-Also them growing and eating carambola (star fruit) together because it’s my pocket dimension that makes no sense and I get to decide what fun fruits the Joestars get to eat together

-the garden becomes a great place for picnics and outings and the best place to go when things get too chaotic

-Giorno starts a plant journal where he records everything that ends up growing there, and Jonathan starts impulse buying all these flower guide books so they can look at pictures of them and put their favourites in the garden :3

-They end up creating a little pond in the middle of everything, and Giorno puts a whole bunch of frogs and fish in it and it's all very tranquil and calm and nice :))

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

I was gonna do part 6 (maybe part 7 too?) but mental energy? I don’t know her, sorry y’all :(

Feel free to add on though!! I wanna see what y’all would think Jonathan would wanna do with Jolyne or anyone else I missed :D My first thought for Jolyne was Rugby because Jonathan was a rugby KING and I feel like she’d be really good at it lmao

#jjba #jjba headcanons #jonathan joestar #joseph joestar #jotaro kujo #josuke higashikata #giorno giovanna #jojos's bizarre adventure #ask-c-c-cherry #headcanons #anime #erina joestar #family feels #long post

[bean-pole-art]

Ed’s Borderlands Fics Masterpost

well finally

here is the masterpost of all of my Borderlands fics posted. most of them are Rhysothy focused to various AUs. I’m gonna update it as I post more but here it is, along with some of my commentary

right from the start big big BIG shoutout to @spoks-illogical-art​, my partner in crime, my biggest inspo, without them honestly most of these fics wouldn’t exist, please check out their amazing art <3

(latest edit - 21/02/2021)

Atlas AU - our main timeline, follows events of Moxxi’s Heist. lots of different concepts and ideas but the core really is Tim moving to Promethea to get help from Rhys. gonna sort em here with posting date, check the ao3 series for the “timeline”

Hypothetically - 2240 words summary: Rhys talks a lot, but usually thinks about it too little.

coffee, cats & monographs - 2880 words summary: “Hey hey, easy. You don’t want to repeat the accident from last week, do you?” Rhys cooed towards the cat and picked her up, just as Timothy instructed him to. Hearing these words, Felicity meowed. “Oh, don’t say that. This is my office and I have the power here,” he answered, carrying her back to his personal space.

Or Timothy's cat pays a visit to Rhys' office in the morning. note: I am a stupid mofo and at this point Tim would also have Loader Bot fkjbfd just imagine hes not mentioned cause hes wandering off, typical LB

Have Faith - 1470 words summary: During the 7 year lockdown at the Handsome Jackpot, Timothy couldn't really have any hope for himself. But maybe on Promethea it could be different. note: sudden feelings while watching JoltzDude139′s stream

Warm Cheeks, Cold Hands - 1170 words summary: Rhys comes home early and wants to say hi to his husband. With no ulterior motive. None at all. note: first fic Ive ever posted where characters are married, actually. fuck it, Rhysothy Real, his name is Rhys Lawrence

the battle (and the aftermath) of the ages - 2970 words summary: In a situation like this everything was possible, they could pull any punches they could think of. Four beasts playing against each other, every single one of them thinking of striking the winning blow.

Or Promethea Squad plays UNO. And then watches a movie. note: I love Promethea Squad with my whole heart

okurimono (贈り物) - 4/4, 17170 words summary: “Not a bomb. Just a device with a message for Rhys. Trust me on that,” this time an emoji of both winking and showing off a tongue [;P] appeared on the surface of Zer0’s helmet. Ah. So they were definitely trying to mess him up. In a way. Unfortunately, he really didn’t have any other options. Almost with a defeat, Timothy took the ECHOrecorder right from their hands and looked around it again. Or Zer0 gives Timothy a peculiar mission. note: my first ever multichapter fic. took me legit abt 8 months to finish but I am absolutely satisfied with this. also the bonus ending. yes

(there is) something I see in you - 8690 words summary: How one Rhys Strongfork met one Timothy Lawrence and how they fell for each other. More or less. note: best to go into this one blind, I swear. dumbest fic Ive ever written and please take this as a recommendation

this world is gonna pull through - 14380 words summary: Timothy really hoped it wasn’t anything important. He had that tendency to forget things easily, even if he tried to fight it. But Rhys kept on smiling and went by his side. So it couldn’t have been that bad. Still dumbfounded, he felt Rhys leaving a kiss right on his cheek.“November 11th? 

That- That seriously doesn’t ring any bells?” Rhys continued, brushing his hands against his shoulders. Or how Timothy spent one of his birthdays. note: also a love letter for Tim but a nicer one I guess kdjfnb dont ask how old is he i have no gdamn idea man

Strawberry Sweet - 3560 words summary: Rhys surprises Timothy with a gift for their date night in.

Happy Mercenary Day, Mr. Lawrence - 4670 words summary: How Timothy spent his first Mercenary Day on Promethea. note: I swear this is the best writer night Ive ever had. Ive written this whole thing in one night on Christmas day, solely on the inspo of that song I linked

Don’t Go Wasting Your Emotion - 4/4, 17080 words summary:  Afterwards, he went around with his usual duties. Getting a quick roundabout from his PA, checking several sectors himself and looking through the thousands of messages already sent to him via ECHOs. Rhys was ready to finally take on the day, yet when he made his way to the office, he saw the unusual envelope right by the edge of his desk. “For Rhys” was written on it. Straightforward enough. Or Rhys gets a letter from a secret admirer. note: another multichapter fic!! this one also took some time and well. its inspired by ABBA songs. cause only I would write a Rhysothy fic inspired by ABBA

Ratchet Effect - 7130 words summary: Knowing just how much overworked Rhys has been, Timothy wants to let them have a nice getaway in Lazy River Land. There's only one problem to overcome - ratch infestation. note: first fic of 2021!! Ive been playing a lot of bl3 suring the writing of it so it has a lot of stuff I had observed both on Promethea and on Jackpot

Reflections - 2250 words summary: Sometimes, Timothy needs a reminder.

Tales AU - second most important timeline. it’s Tales but Tim is a part of the group. sorted chronologically

A Story For Another Day - ongoing, for now -  2/25, 15280 words Tales AU main fic. it’s gonna be a big one

Connection Interrupted - 3240 words summary: With his driving shift finished, Timothy checks up on Rhys and Vaughn's plans.

Completely Hopeless - 1040 words summary: In which Fiona notices that Rhys behaves differently in front of a certain doppelganger.

infinity times infinity times infinity - 3460 words summary: Rhys and Timothy share some dreams and secrets underneath the stars. note: the beautiful combination of Sleeping At Last and Minecraft parodies. I promise it makes sense

reality can be whatever I want - 11420 words summary: “Hey, Tim?” Timothy didn’t even spare him a look, “Are we alone, or is he there with you?” Oh, this definitely won’t be pretty.

After the confession of Handsome Jack's AI in his head and his plan to infiltrate Helios, Rhys needs to set things right with Timothy. Somehow. note: thanosdancing.gif to Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” 80′s remix and a guest appearance from Ferocity but I cant legally say her name here

still here - 2820 words summary: It all had to go down, after Helios crashed. note: I have...a love/hate relationship with this one kjdfbfg I like it but it’s honestly an alternate ending and doesnt fit within our usual bad ending, so take it with a grain of salt. i ten jebany błąd językowy w summary, kiedy ja go poprawię

together at last - 5590 words summary: It all struck him down in an instant, in this one minute. They were all safe. And they were all alive. Nothing was threatening neither him, nor Timothy, nor Fiona. He could finally breathe out.

They all found each other again. note: I am multitasking most time of my life but I dont relate any other fic to multitasking more than this one. I was honestly doing 10 things at once while writing this dfkjbndf

David AU - this one is a sub AU to Tales AU and the plot is kind of complicated dfjkbfb please check the fic for further explanation

building in curved lines - 22490 words summary: “To be fair, you look terrible. You’re barely standing in one piece and none of your coffees will hold you together for that long,” Lilith paused, seemingly weighing the correct words in her head. “You haven’t really been holding on since… We rescued The Double.” Rhys sighed heavily. Why did she have to be so right about everything. Or how Rhys and Timothy adjust to the reality after the Handsome Jack AI. note: bday gift for Spok, EASILY one of my absolute faves and the longest fic Ive written thus far

outside of AUs - some concepts I play with that are honestly outside any of our concrete timelines/concepts + fics not focused on Rhysothy

Real - 770 words summary: Reconciling with your past is a little easier, when you have someone you love right in your arms. note: first blands fic I’ve ever written. the characterization isn’t really there yet but as a first shot at the game and my kind of “introduction”, I am still satisfied of it

(Un)Familiar Faces - 9620 words summary: Timothy pursed his lips and leaned over the wall a little. He’s had enough of this solitude of closed doppelganger cabinet. Today wasn’t the day for another self-loathing session. Today, he should go off on Helios and do something for himself.

Or Timothy spends the night at a Helios bar. But not as Handsome Jack. And not as Timothy Lawrence either. note: personal favorite of mine, tough love letter to Timothy Lawrence. I have so many fond memories of writing this, including getting drunk out of my mind just like Tim and Rhys here

basics of survival - 2010 words summary: Athena taught Timothy everything he needed to know about survival. Now, it was time to put these skills into use. note: wrote this right before rona outbreak on last day in my dorms. thats all

#borderlands #fic masterpost #fanfiction #fanfic #rhysothy #rhys strongfork #timothy lawrence #just tagging characters that I write the most #fiona the con artist #zer0 the assassin #lorelei the coffee commander #athena the gladiator #Ędi's writing

[amlovelies]

what desire will make foolish people do

@wayhavenmonthly​ Fall for Unit Bravo

Day 5: game

pairing: Mason/f!oc Serena Willis (not a detective)

warnings: not technically smut, but super suggestive also smoking and foul language

words: 2779

read on ao3

A/N: this is part of my Au and takes place before the scene I posted for day 2: Liability. I’ve posted parts of this before as “excerpts from a fic I’ll never write” guess I’m a liar. This is all pulled from different parts of the story because I liked the way I could use them to fit the theme, so there are some slightly awkward bits where I edited it to make more sense. 

Round 1

               The cool spring air outside the warehouse helps to clear my head. The last few weeks have been hard, and as much as I think I am adjusting to my new life and role here, there are still days when it’s harder. Days when I miss home and feel so out of my depth it’s almost a joke. I lean back against the door and close my eyes taking deep breaths.

               “Are you planning on blocking the door all night?”

               My eyes snap open at the growled question. Great, Mason. Of all the members of Unit Bravo I’ve been unable to really connect or understand him. He’s made it clear he thinks I’m useless and I’m surprised he bothered to waste a whole sentence on me rather than just grunting. I watch him pull out his damn near ubiquitous pack of cigarettes.

               “Can I have one?” I ask almost surprising myself. I haven’t smoked in years, but maybe it’ll take the edge off.

               “Sorry,” Mason says as he pulls a cigarette from the half full pack in his hands, “I’m all out”

               “So you’re the only one who gets to use self-destructive behaviors to make them feel better?” I ask in what I hope isn’t a petulant tone.

               “Isn’t self-destructive if I’m immortal. Besides, I’ve got something I can give you that’ll make you feel much better than a smoke would.”

               I’m glad it’s getting too dark so I don’t have to see the smirk on his face. It’s too bad it doesn’t affect his vision because I’m sure he can see the blush that paints my cheeks even as I’m rolling my eyes at his much too obvious come on. I’d heard rumors about Mason’s “charms,” but this is the first time he’s ever tried to use them on me. No matter what I think of his personality, he is a dangerously handsome man and I hate how flustered the comment makes me feel even if his flirting has more in common with a battering ram.

               “Or I could just go to the store and pick up my own pack. Sounds a lot more satisfying.” I say as I push off the door and make to walk past Mason. I don’t actually want a smoke that bad, but I also don’t want to back down in front of him.

               “Fine, don’t say I never did anything for ya.” Mason scoffs and I yelp as I’m hit in the chest with the pack. I eagerly pull one out and pass the pack back to him. I’m a little skeptical about his sudden altruism, maybe he really is trying to get me into bed.

               “Where’s your lighter?” I ask.

               “Never asked for a lighter, Sweetheart, and it seems I’ve lost mine.” He says, voice smug and mocking. So much for my victory. “Maybe you should pat me down, see if you can find it.” He adds opening his arms wide to give me access.

               “I think I’ll pass.”

               “Your loss.” He replies as he leans against the wall.

               I sit for a moment tapping the cigarette against my leg trying to figure out how to regain the upper hand. Or maybe not even the upper hand so much as just to stay in the game. Because this is some sort of game to him, and the last thing I was going to do was let Mason win this round of whatever the hell this is.

               A hazy memory resurfaces of younger wilder nights, and I start speaking before I lose my nerve.

               “Don’t worry, Sunshine.” That gets his attention and a scowl replaces the smirk he’d had only a moment before. “I know how to take care of myself. It’s not the first time I’ve had to get creative to get what I want.” I say in what I hope is a low and teasing tone, but I worry sounds like I have a head cold. I close the space between us.

               I raise my cigarette to my lips and wait until he begins to pull another drag from his. “All I need is for you to stay still.”

               I move forward on my tiptoes until the unlit end is pressed firmly against the glowing ember of Mason’s cigarette. We are so close and alarm bells start ringing in my head. His presence envelopes me. My senses are overwhelmed by him. The scent of smoke and sandalwood is heady and enticing, especially combined with the heat I can feel pouring off his body. God he’s good looking. I have to remind myself to breath, to inhale or otherwise this won’t work and I’ll just be trapped under the intense gaze of his grey eyes.

               To my relief, it ignites and I’m able to move away from him. I put some space between us, and take a thankful drag from the cig hoping it will ease my now rattled nerves. It doesn’t, and to be honest I’m not sure why I used to enjoy this so much. I steal a glance over to where Mason stands with a wry smile, his eyes studying me. I’m not sure what he’s looking for.

               “Well thanks for the smoke.” I say with an attempt at a flippant tone. I don’t wait for a response; I turn on my heel and walk off toward the fence. I can hear the door open and I breath a sigh of relief to find myself alone once more.

 Round two

               I guess I earned some sort of respect in Mason’s eyes after the cigarette incident. Oh, sure it was mostly him making innuendos and propositioning me, but it was a hell of a lot more than the monosyllabic grunts that I was used to.

               I tried not to read to much into the flirting. That he wanted to sleep with me I didn’t doubt. I also had heard enough rumors, and been subtly warned by Nate, that I knew it wasn’t really personal. Mason wanted to sleep with everyone. Besides I found myself enjoying our little verbal sparring matches. Considering the fact that he kept doing it he didn’t seem to mind or maybe he just viewed me as a challenge.

               Mason manages to corner me in one of the warehouse’s many labyrinthine hallways. I had been avoiding him all day. The night before I had woken up from vivid dreams that definitely didn’t involve the incredible annoying vampire in front of me. As much as I try to play unaffected by his seduction attempts, I know it’s a lie, and my subconscious did not come to play last night.

               “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Sweetheart, but our bedrooms share a wall.” Mason leans forward closing the already small gap between us a wolfish smile on his face, “and my hearing is very good.”

               He pauses and I try not to be entranced by the sight of his tongue running over his top lip. I’m pretty sure I know where he is going with this and I wonder it is possible to die of embarrassment.

                “Not that there was much to hear last night. I’d be glad to show you how best to use your fingers,” he raises one hand to push his hair back drawing my attention to his well-shaped and surely dexterous hands.

               It takes all my self-control to hold his gaze and I’m secretly grateful for the solid wall pressed against my back. You could probably boil a pot of water with the heat pouring off my face. The thought that he had heard my clumsy fumbling last night is perhaps the most mortifying thing I could imagine. He probably couldn’t wait to use this against me. At least he doesn’t know I was thinking about him. After all everyone masturbates. The only part of this that is really getting to me it knowing that there is some part of me that wants to see exactly what those hands can do. Not the rational part obviously, but still I’d be foolish to continue to pretend it’s not there.

               At least he had waited for a moment when we were alone. I could only imagine the field day Farah would have with this, or maybe he was afraid of Nate’s disappointment. He looks so pleased with himself and I would give almost anything to wipe that smirk off his stupid handsome face. I have to think of something quick.

               “Listening at walls? Are you really getting that little action?” His smile drops and I know I’ve picked the right counterattack.

               “You know I don’t really think I should be the one you’re concerned with,” I smile and place a friendly hand on his shoulder. “Maybe Dinah can set you up on a bind date. I’m sure she knows some nice girl who is just frothing at the mouth to reform a bad boy and teach him the meaning of love” I gaze up with what I hope is an innocent expression.

               The angry growl that he response with is music to my ears. I try and keep the glee from my face, but as he stomps away, I can’t help but congratulate myself on another victory in what-ever-the-hell game it was that I somehow found myself playing with him.

 Round 3:

               “You suck at this.” Mason says as he once again knocks me on my ass. He isn’t even breaking a sweat while my gasping attempts to catch my breath seem to be echoing in the empty training room.

               I push away the hairs that are sticking to my sweat drenched face and give him a withering glare. He just laughs. How kind of him to make sure I want to hit him, not that I’ve managed to land one yet.

               “Always such a gentleman, Sunshine,” I say as I haul myself back to my feet. “Considering how charming you are it must be a miracle that I haven’t just fallen into bed with you yet.”

               He quirks a brow and gives me a look that I know well enough by now to know is trouble, “yet?”

               I inwardly curse my poor word choice or Freudian slip or whatever. Not that I’d found myself thinking about him late at night more and more, or appreciating the long lean lines of his body, or wondering if he actually had to skills to back up all his bravado.

               “Fuck off, Mason” I say as I roll my eyes and sink into a crouch ready to continue our sparring. It’s a petulant response, not at all keeping with the game we’ve been playing. A game which mostly consists of me trying to not let him unnerve me and find new and exciting ways to drag the very dangerous vampire who is has spent the last few hours kicking my ass.

               He circles me, his movements lazy and languid. When he moves it’s sudden and with a speed I can’t follow. Before I know what’s happening, he’s behind me, his breath ghosting over my neck, “I’d much rather fuck you.” He says with a laugh.

               Summoning ever bit of agility I possess, I turn and swing, but there’s nothing but empty air and his laughter. I overextend myself and have to stumble forward a few steps to avoid falling over. Once I’ve regained my balance, I flip him the bird.

               He just grins and lands a stinging hit to my right side. “Do you know what the problem is Sweetheart?”

               “Oh? Enlighten me.”

               He moves in a blur, and I find myself pressed up against him chest to chest. My arms are held secure behind my back. His face is only inches above mine, his well-shaped mouth curled in a taunting smirk. This close I can clearly see the freckles that dust his checks. He’s breathtaking, and I hope he attributed the rapid increase of my pulse to a fight or flight instinct of being trapped rather than his proximity.

               “Your body gives you away.” His voice is almost a whisper. A fierce blush erupts over my cheeks. Damn his stupid vampire super senses.  He’s so smug and enjoying this. I rack my brain for a way to turn this around, but it’s hard to think clearly when I can feel the lean lines of his body pressed against me, and I can’t help but wonder how far those freckles extend over his body. I have to act quick, maybe I can distract him.

               I tilt my head up to meet his gaze and moisten my lips. His eyes dart towards the action and I press forward against him. I’m playing with fire. This is a stupid idea, but that has never stopped me before.

               “What exactly is my body telling you now?” I ask my voice breathy, low, and inviting. Before he can answer I close the space between us and press my lips against his. I try not to think about the feel of his lips against mine.

               His hands on my arms loosen in surprise. I know that it’s now or never, but I hesitate. No small part of me what’s to stay in this moment surrounded and overwhelmed by him. But that would mean he wins. So, I pull my arm back and strike a weak jab to his right side. He moves back from me with a grunt

               . “Not afraid to fight dirty. Maybe there’s hope for you yet. “He says with a nod before turning and leaving me standing along in the center of the training room.

               I know I should be savoring my victory, but all I can taste is Mason on my lips.

  Match

               It’s a little after midnight and I’m standing in front of Mason’s door. I’ve spent the last few hours tossing and turning in a vain attempt to sleep. I keep replaying what happened in the training room: the feel of his body against mine, the brief taste of his lips, the feel of his breath ghosting over my neck. All these months of trading innuendos and hot tense moments seem to have come to a head and I feel consumed by wanting. It was a line I shouldn’t have crossed, even if it did let me land a punch, but now that I have, I feel like I’m falling towards the inevitable conclusion. And would it really be the worst thing? It’s been so long since I’ve been intimate with someone. Maybe it’s better to do it this way knowing that it’s just fun?                

               So now I’m standing in front of his door daring myself to knock. I mean he’ll probably be insufferable after this, but at least I’ll get laid? We both want this. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.

               In the end, he saves me from having to knock. I jump a little, startled out of my deliberations, when the door swings open. His shirt is off and my eyes trace over his form. Freckles dot his skin and a patch of hair curls over his well-defined chest. Fuck he’s hot.

               “Is it yet already?” He asks with a smirk his eyes tracking over my body. I’d only thrown on my bathrobe before following my libido to his door.

               I take a deep breath and swallow the snarky comment I want to make. “Guess it is,” I say as I push past him into the darkened room.

               He closes the door and turns to face me.

               “You sure about this?” he asks taking a step closer to me.

               I step closer as well only a foot or two separate us. If I wanted to, I could reach out and run my fingers over his chest tracing the line of dark hair to where it disappears under his skinny jeans. And god knows I want to.

                “I am. Are you? You’ve talked a big game. Afraid you won’t perform to expectations?” I ask with a smirk.

               His laugh is dark and low and confident and turns something within me molten. He closes the space between us, pulling my body flush against his. I’m intensely aware of the thin fabric of my robe as the only barrier between us.

               “Not even remotely.” His voice is velvet and sends a shiver through me.

               Then his lips are on mine and all I can sense is Mason: the smooth skin of his back under my hands, the wicked glint in his grey eyes, the heady scent of him-sandalwood and smoke, the taste of him on my lips, and the way he growls as nips his way down my exposed neck. He walks us backwards toward his bed and I know I am lost.

tagging: @morgans-ass-freckles @specialistagent-morgan @bionicgrapejuice and @agentnatesewell

#the wayhaven chronicles #TWC #twc mason #fallforunitbravo #liability au #mason/serena #scribblings #fanfiction #not totally in love with the last two sections #but trying to not get too in my head about this #so just post it #embrace the cringe 2020 #lovelieswrites

[sadviper]

2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Succumbing to peer pressure, haha, thank you @rain-hat, @smylealong, @ibelongtomousse, @macgyver-sheriff, @avauntus for tagging me~

It seems the common refrain is that this was the year everyone exploded into massive creative productivity after years of nothing, which is the exact same story for myself. I had read all the strategies of course: write 5 min a day, 1 sketch a day, don’t think about quality, do *something* just to keep the spark alive, etc etc, but it just got worse and worse. Honestly, I had been feeling so dire about it that I had made up my mind to stop trying anymore, because it was so depressing to try and fail so many times that it was much better to not hope at all.

Buuuuut.....then quarantine and telework happened, and woooah, guess what, all I needed was LOTS of time and space to myself where I’m not wasting it in an office checking emails and doing random training to fill all the downtime!!!

Much thanks to the serendipity that had me stumbling into @rain-hat , reading her early JY/KSR fics, and her encouraging me to go ahead and write that office yearly budget oneshot for TKEM (who writes BUDGET fics?? Who reads them???? lol). That’s not in my list here because it was very new and awkward, it was definitely the ball that got everything rolling.

Cut for super long-winded rambling:

1) Before There Was Zero (TKEM)

This was my first big fanfic in my life, and my most popular, and it absolutely gushed out of me in this massive torrent of *I MUST WRITE* where I would walk around at lunchtime giggling to myself, and type on my phone as I went, or wake up at 1am to scrawl something in a notebook in the dark because I couldn’t stop the words from coming. (How I miss that feeling now! ;__;) Actually, it also is the 2nd fully complete long-form story I had ever completed as well, so...lots of milestones here.

Looking back, it clearly was the product of my years of bottled up silence, where I stewed and dragged myself to the office every day wondering if I was going to calcify in a bureaucracy for the rest of my life (yes). But even as an office drone, I learned a lot of valuable lessons in how to manage, what leadership actually is at the worker bee level, the types of games white-collar workers play, and how to be a decent co-worker (and by extension, a decent human being--I don’t believe it’s possible to separate work life and private life. All your personas are you). It wasn’t all a waste after all!

Somehow I connected my day-to-day to the faceless, long-suffering Royal guardsmen in TKEM, headed by the utterly gorgeous, devastating, thoroughly underutilized, comedic prop military action star Jo Yeong, and thought--yeah! :D

2) Nil Desperandum (TKEM)

My biggest fic by far, full novel length at this point, massive in scope, I don’t even know how I came up with it based on the 10 collective seconds of screen time that Jeong Tae-ra and tyrant Jin got as a joke, but I was clearly still on that dam-gushing-pent-up-creative-high because this idea was fighting me when I was in the middle of writing “Before There Was Zero”.

I actually figured out the title while watching “Call the Midwives” where one of the peppy, indefatigable British nurses said to never despair, and I thought, yes, that’s it. All the horrible things I put my tyrantverse characters through, it was only so that when I save them at the end, it will be completely worth it. It’s a bit more violent (nothing beyond My Country levels tho) and quite emotionally dark, but I also tried to inject a lot of friendship, humor, and love into it as well, because there must always be hope.

For My Country fandom friends who didn’t realize, the tyrant!Yeong in this fic is essentially modernAU!Seon-ho, and I lifted Sung-rok entirely from My Country to be tyrant!Yeong’s second-in-command and loyal-superstar-extraordinaire. Writing them in this modern AU, and seeing the positive reception to Sung-rok’s grouchy, dogged devotion was the start of my love spiral for Sung-rok. <3 <3

3) The Veritable Records of King Taejo (My Country)

Going to cheat and lump 3 fics (soon to be 4) into one link. I rested a little bit after “Nil Desperandum” because I had completely emptied myself out at that point, just a husk of an author shell. Then I started poking out oneshots! Each one got progressively harder to write, lol, the creative gas tank was running out of juice, so I had to really start figuring out new strategies as a writer to keep going. One magic tool was coercing recruiting @rain-hat to beta for me, and WOW, THE BEST???? Who would’ve thought it’d be FUN to be edited!!! <3 Due to her efforts, I could avoid the “no beta we die like Liaodong” tag, hahaha.

I grew up watching cop shows, lawyer shows, monster-of-the-day shows, endless procedurals-- so I was super miffed that the drama would imply that Seon-ho spent YEARS just single-mindedly chasing private armies??! No! I want more family and friends development for this sad, dramatic whump child! I want him to be smarter than the show, inherently brilliant despite the stupid he descends into, and be recognized as such by the people who do recognize his value! And I want them all to be happy with no pointless death!

Also, the 4th WIP is now a Sung-rok lovefest written as an ode to his awesomeness, has stretched to 47K+ words, and is being an absolute royal pain to finish. ;__; All the ease and creative fervor from earlier? GONE. I’m a lone salmon flopping upstream on a ladder. I might get eaten before I finish laying my eggs. Any one have tips to get over this?

4) First Translation of Woo Do Hwan Japanese Interviews

More firsts! So much thanks to @ibelongtomousse to inspiring and encouraging me to do some real translating after talking to her about her sublime TKEM fics and translations thereof, and @staidwaters from emerging from the Internet depths to boost/correct my neophyte efforts! I’m now chomping at the bit to do more, even though I may ultimately discover that these interviews have absolutely nothing interesting to say, lol. But my first priority is simply to get better at the language, and 2nd priority is to soak in the words (and photos) of Woo Do Hwan, hahahah. Also, as far as I can tell, no one is filling this niche, so I guess I’ll keep going??

5) Fanart!

I started drawing again! As a procrastination tactic from writing oneshots, but it still was really nice to see that I hadn’t lost the touch entirely. I feel like I’ve mentioned this here and there, but writing wasn’t my first interest--drawing was. Animals first, then people once I discovered anime/manga. I went all into drawing comics, only to face the hard reality that I didn’t know how to tell a story end-to-end. Hence how I started trying to write. Along the way, things happened--I got RSI and had to stop drawing/writing for awhile. I discovered that pictures are NOT worth a thousand words, esp when it comes to long-form comics; my preferred tools of trade (dip pens) ended up exacerbating my RSI problems; then once I got a handle on my RSI, I found I could type faster than I can ever draw, and so here I am. I saw what @convenientalias was doing with their My Country werewolf fic though, so I am excited to try that for my Sung-rok WIP? :D

I think I’m the last hold out among artist/writer friends in answering this wrap-up, hope you enjoyed reading!

#meme #fic meta #2020 accomplishments

[dyke-remy]

Live And Let Die, part 5

Part 1     Part 2    Part 3    Part 4   Part 6

Description: Agent 008 and Agent 009, professional spies for the MI6 with liscense to kill. Partners in both work and love. After an agent goes missing the partners have to once more go out into the field. (It’s a James Bond AU)

You don’t need to know anything about James Bond to be able to read this fic, trust me

Words: 3505

The train cart was filled with silence. Remy looked at the dog tag, the dog tag which had belonged to Roman. They looked up at their husband. He was staring right through them.

"I- I'll call Q. He'll get us home" Remy hastily let out.

They didn't get a reply. Remus sat perfectly still as they talked to Q. He seemed to be looking at a ghost. Maybe he was dissociating, maybe he was reliving the death. His hands wouldn't stop shaking.

Eventually Remy got up and took his hand. They held onto him until the train got to it's next stop. Held onto him the long car ride to an airport. Held onto him the entire flight back to England. Held onto him until they back to their apartement at MI6. They knew he would break apart if they let go right now.

Remy was sure M would give them a break from missions. Remus was barely eating, much less sleeping. No one could except him to work.

And yet here they were, 2 days later in M's office. Remus actually sat in a normal position in one of the chairs which was so unusual it even made M uncomfortable. Remy sat in his lap with their arms around his shoulders to comfort him.

"-I assure you 009 that I would let you two have a break if this mission wasn't urgent. Trust me I would be very happy if you two disappeared from my sight for a while" M aka Deceit said. One of his pet snakes had made itself comfortable around his neck.

"Sure girl. What's so fucking important then?"

Deceit pushed a paper over the desk towards them "This. Your luck was in your favor 009. You brought back a document from Ron Stewart's, the man you killed, room on the train correct?"

"Girl I dunno. 75% of the time I'm just like running on instinct and iced coffee but yeah sure"

"Yes well this document talks about Stewart's company partially being bought by this company by the name of Vigur. I didn't recognize it so I asked Q to do some research and-"

"It's a vampire sex ring!" Remy guessed.

Deceit blinked at them "Close. No it's a new company, actually it hasn't even started yet. It will have an opening this week in Manchester. It's an energy company and apparently it's lead by a young new business entrepreneur. It's strange.....When Q looked him up there was nothing. No history, no photos, no educational records. Only a few articles about him and his dad and that he was the leader of Vigur"

"I didn't catch the name"

"Virgil. Virgil Viverno"

Remus suddenly moved his arms around Remy's waist so tightly their ribs hurt. He buried his head against their shoulder. His spouse' placed their hands on top of his.

Deceit looked at him varily. He really did want to let the agents go on a break, he wasn't heartless, but, well, they had a mission to finish, even if it had become an intricate one.

"I suggest you two infiltrate the opening of the company. Find any information you can because somehow this has to be connected to the killings of agents caused by....Jaws...To aid I asked Moneypenny to follow Virgil around a bit and take a few pictures so you two know who to interrogate"

Deceit called for Moneypenny aka Patton. He entered the office with a stack of photos in his hands before sitting down on the edge of the table and laying out the photos. It was all of the so called Virgil. He was sitting in a car far away in all of them so it was a bit hard to see but they got the basic gists of him having short unkept black hair and sickly pale skin.

"Aww Patty I didn't know you got to work out in the field" Remy commented.

Deceit arched his brow "Don't underestimate him"

"I might not be as good in combat as y'all are but I can be sneaky and take a few photos every now and then"

Deceit sent him an unusually warm smile "You did a good job"

Moneypenny blushed slightly "Oh shush you snakecharmer. I'm married"

Remy grabbed one of the photos and looked closer "Betting on him being gay so time for some guy drag. Just 'cause I'm like tots too lazy to get into womany attire. We'll infiltrate the party, I'll take him to his hotel room and look for anything about why this new stupid company exists"

They were quiet for a few seconds before adding with venom in their tone "Or why they murdered Picani"

Patton leaned over and patted them on their shoulder to comfort them. "Yeah it's a bit weird. I followed him around for quite a few days but he rarely ever left the house he was staying at. He never even walked around. Either he was at that house or he was driven directly to the company building. He never stayed there for long so he couldn't have been working"

"Mhm" Deceit began "It could mea-"

Remus slammed his hand down into the table.

"You're all ignoring Roman"

Patton paled a little. Deceit leaned back in his seat. They were all silent.

"I- I mean the dog tag it- it has to mean this- the company- Picani it must have something to do with Roman doesn't it- I mean- I mean- Maybe- Roman could be alive"

Remus looked around at them while holding the tag close to his chest. He didn't look mad. He just looked like a cornered animal, a hurt prey.

"Kiddo" Patton held out his hand, unsure if to comfort or reason with him.

"Killing a 00 agent is quite a big thing. I can imagine that someone would gladly take the dog tag and keep it with them as a souvenir if they'd been in the same building as where it happened. From your reports of what happened there is no chance your brother is alive" Deceit stated bluntly "It is of far greater importance to try and find this 'Jaws' guy before he kills any more 00 agents"

All of the air seemed to go out of Remus. His arms loosened around Remy. They tried to comfort him and whisper sweet nothings to him.

"M don't be so cold about it!" Patton exclaimed. "It's okay kiddo. I'm sure- Maybe- We-" He pressed his lips into a tight line and tried to think about anything positive to say. He gave up and moved to try and hug Remus at least.

Remus stood up from the chair so quickly Remy nearly fell down on the floor. He banged his hands down into the table and leaned close to Deceit. His furious brown, nearly red, eyes stared into Deceit's cold black ones.

"I'll capture Jaws and I'll drag him back here. I'll drop him right here on your bloody desk if that's what it takes to make you take me seriously. And then I Will find my brother! Even if it's just his rotten corpse!"

He stormed out of the room without another word and slammed the doors shut behind him.

--

Remus was driving a black ashton martin towards the company's building where the opening party was being held. He had on a black suit. Remy sat in the passenger seat. They had on a looser fitting black blazer with a white button up under and pants. They'd styled it with a necklace and a few rings on their fingers.

"Babe you don't have to like do this you know that right?" Remy asked while looking over to their husband "Like it's really understandable if you want a break from work or something right now with the whole Roman thing. I can handle it on my own"

"I have to.........If there's a small chance Roman is...is.....out there I have to follow up on.....And even if he's....even if he's...gone....I want to at least stop the people who...killed....him" He held onto the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white "I want to tear them apart for hours upon hours until they're begging me to kill them"

Remy took his hand and intertwined their fingers "I'll be right here beside you" They pressed a kiss to his knuckles "I'mma be cutting people apart as well!"

Remus sent them a tired smile "Mhm. Love you my rotten lil sunflower"

They scrunched their nose "Gross"

"Nu-hu! You're my dear maggot infested heart"

"And you're the human equivalent of a mad scientist's experiment going wrong"

Remus pretended to blush "Awww you're always at your A game with compliments"

"Somebody has to be"

They leaned in for a kiss before getting out of the car. The tall building had an elegant opening door made out of glass.

Remy held onto their husband's upper arm and leaned on his shoulder as they walked in. The entrance was a grand room looking outmost modern. The reception had been turned into a bar and there were cocktail tables here and there.

The opening party was mostly to establish connectioncs between CEOs and such. It was all fake smiles and empty talking between glasses of champange.

"Let's say we're here for my mom's company" Remus whispered.

"Oh yeah the super legal one with a brilliant name" Remy chuckled back.

"Don't you dishonor the name of Octopussy!" He did a dramatic pout "But we'll say we're from the hotel business side of the company and not the y'know jewel smuggling-"

"Or circus business"

"Or circus business yes"

They mingled among the crowd while looking for Virgil. It was ironic how Remy was better at talking about the Octopussy company than Remus was. He'd always been better at the smuggling part than the business part while it was the reverse for his twin. Roman had been chosen to become the full time leader of the company once their mom retired...well that had changed obviously.

Remy was in the middle of making up an elaobarate lie about Octopussy totally being besties with the owner of this company to some business men when Remus pulled them aside. He pointed over to a dark corner of the room.

"Holy shit!" Remy gasped while their eyes widened "That's a total heart-throb!"

"What- No-" Remus looked at them with a confused look before looking back at the corner.

Remy was looking at a tall, broad shouldered, muscular guy in a slick black suit. He stood near the corner with his arms crossed. They were practically looking at him with heart eyes.

"Awww babe are you trying to find me a date? He's just my type!" They said while holding onto their tall, broad shouldered, muscular husband wearing a slick black suit.

"Sorry darling dearest but I was pointing at Virgil"

Next to the muscular guy a skinny man was sitting by a lone table. He had on a black button up shirt with a purple hoodie over. There was a glass of soda in front of him.

Remy pouted "That's not as fun"

"You can try to flirt with him while you get info from Virgil" Remus moved his hand to their jaw and leaned their head up "You horndog"

"Shut up your bundle of bacteria" They teased back before leaning in to kiss him.

"A demon would be jealous of your horniness......because....y'know....demon horns"

"Girl I could walk into a public toilet and press my finger against the wall and I would get the same amount of filth on my finger from that wall as I would get from your skin"

Remus kissed them again "Love you"

"Love you too" They smiled into the kiss.

"Be careful. If I see you leave with Virgil I'll follow you and cut in if I hear anything fucked aight?"

"Got it gal!"

Their hands lingered together for an extra moment before they both willed themself to let go. Remy walked towards Virgil. They unbuttoned the top 2 buttons on their shirt, dragged up their shirt sleeves slightly and fixed their hair.

They didn't get to Virgil. The tall muscular man stopped them beforehand by grabbing onto their shoulder. They couldn't honestly say that they were complaining.

"Mr. Viverno doesn't wish to talk to any more strangers for the rest of the night. He's already had enough people try to manipulate him with sweet talking and business deals" The man, who Remy assumed was a bodyguard, said in a stern tone.

Remy sent him a cheeky smile "Aww girl I'm not here for some money talk or whateva. I just hate parties. I was forced here just as much as the next boytoy"

The bodyguard sneered at them but from over his shoulder they could see Virgil glancing at them. In the low light it was hard to see the details of his face.

"Theo it's okay. You can let him in"

Remy had a shit eating grin on their face as they gracefully sauntered past the bodyguard apparently named Theo. They slumped down on the seat on the opposite side of the table to Virgil. He seemed okay with just sitting in silence, Remy wasn't.

"I'm Diamandis. Remington Diamandis" They reached out their hand after saying the totally real and not at all made up name.

Virgil just stared at their hand "You already know my name. You wouldn't be at the opening if you didn't"

They leaned their elbows on the table "Yeah well introductions are always nice either way. Know whats not like nice? Parties. Fucking hate them" They lied.

He quickly nodded along "Everything is so....loud....there's so many peoples. I've never been to any sort of party or anything before but I already hate them"

"Impressive. If I could choose I would have tots been...." Remy tried to figure out what Virgil would react to best "Been staying in my room all alone like just calm no sounds. Sadly my daddy is like involved with this like octopussy company so I gotta be here" They saw how Virgil immediately tried to hold back a smile at the mention of the name "It's okay, you can laugh"

He covered his mouth with his hand while giggling "Sorry- Sorry it's just- that's a bad word"

"I'm aware. I've been looking to get a new daddy anyhow. Someone less boring who doesn't drag me to all these stuck up parties"

"....Through....adoption...?...Or...?"

Remy realized they were talking to an innocent lamb and quickly changed the subject "So you wanna buy us drinks? A fancy cocktail would sound nice right about now" They leaned their chin on their hands and moved closer.

"I uh I can't. Maybe some soda I dunno"

"What? You're waiting 'till marriage to drink or something"

Virgil glanced up at him "No I- I'm not allowed. I'm 15. Theo said-"

Remy reared back into their seat. The smug look on their face was instantly gone as they buttoned up their shirt all the way up. Now when they knew he was a teenager it was blatantly obvious. Suddenly they noticed the subtle acne on his face, how his arms clearly had had a growth spurt before the rest of his body, how he still kind of had baby cheeks.

"I'm sorry. You should have said- I didn't think- I'm sorry that's like tots gross of me- The lightning is really bad I couldn't see- Sorry girl" They babbled out.

"What are you apologizing for?" Virgil asked while tilting his head.

"I the adult here flirted with you- which is so disgusting and girl I'm like-"

Virgil looked like he was one step away from slamming his hands into the table and standing up "Flirting??" His eyes widened "That was flirting??"

"Indeed it was. I was close to punching you the entire time" Theo muttered while eyeing Remy.

"This is almost as cool and as when I got to try out a phone for the first time a few days ago" Virgil pointed over to Theo "He has a bunch of games on his phone. They're really fun"

Theo let out a ridiculously tired sigh "The games are just there for my kids I swear"

Remy zoned out of the conversation. The sheer weirdness of someone who apparently is a CEO 1. being a teenager and 2. not owning a phone had taken them right out. Every step of this mission seemed to make it weirder and weirder. It made their head hurt with unanswered questions.

"-my room?" Remy got forced out of their thoughts as Virgil asked them something.

"What?"

"Do you want to go to my room? I have a room on the second floor in case I ever need to stay over for the night. The place I actually live is quite far away from here" He fiddled with his sleeves "You said you would rather be in your room like ehhh being calm so I thought we could go away from all the loud people at least"

"Sure kid" Remy almost felt bad for how easily Virgil had done exactly what they wanted him to.

He got up and mumbled something to Theo before setting off towards the elevator. Remy blew Theo a kiss before waving goodbye as they walked past him. In response he gave them the middle finger, clearly showing of the wedding ring on his finger.

One short elevator ride later they were following Virgil through a long hallway. It was all cold grey walls and light that gave them a headache. It was quiet apart from the muffled sounds from the people on the first floor.

Virgil suddenly reached out and held onto the sleeve of their blazer. He looked up at them with big eyes "Have you ever touched snow?"

"....Yes-"

He held onto them harder and a smile played at the edge of his lips "Can you describe it?"

Remy was a bit taken aback by the weird question but shrugged and began to describe it. Nothing had been worse than the freezing winters with nothing but their mothers and a cheap sleeping bag to keep them warm. From the corner of their eye they caught a glimpse of Remus following them.

Virgil's smile grew wider the more they described it. His blue eyes looked at them as if they were the most knowledgable person ever. Before they knew they'd reached his room. It was mostly bare. Just a bed, a nightstand and a few boxes. The bed wasn't even comfortable as they sat down alongside the teenager.

They glanced around for anything important. Drugging a teenager so he fell asleep so they could search through his room made them feel really disgusting but at least it was better than knocking him out. Hopefully it would just feel like a quick nap. Hopefully they could hide the sleeping pill in some soda.

"Are you looking for something?" Virgil asked.

"Nah girl. Nothing. I was just-"

Remy turned back to look at him. His smile was gone and his blue eyes suddenly seemed cold. It felt like his gaze was piercing through them.

"Oh 009. You should have paid more attention" Virgil murmured.

Their blood ran cold at the mention of their 00 title. They tried to speak but realized their mouth felt numb. Their whole body felt numb and as heavy as lead.

"Do you seriously think Theo would have let you be alone with me unless he knew you were so stupid you wouldn't even care to look at the most important part of this room" He scoffed at them.

Remy fell back on the bed. Their eyelids could barely stay open as they looked up. Their eyes widened as they saw dozens upon dozens of spiders sitting on the roof.

"Ruthie is such a good girl" Virgil picked up a big black spider that had been crawling around on the covers. He patted her while talking "All it takes is a small bite from her and a human can be passed out for up to 6 hours"

Remy wanted to muster up the strenght to snarl an insult at least. Instead all they could do was fall asleep as their eyes rolled to the back of their skull.

Virgil's smile widened "Goodnight"

He let out a few more of his dear spiders crawl up on his arms. He threw the bed lamp down on the ground and let out a few fake muffled cries. It was too trick 009's equally as stupid partner to rush in.

And he did. Of course he did.

Remus stumbled into the room with a neutral expression plastered on his face. His eyes darted around the room but quickly landed on his sleeping spouse.

"Sorry! I was uh looking for the bathroom!" He threw out "Oh wow one of you is unconcious that's not good especially not while in bedrooms! Maybe I should stay"

Virgil looked at him as he was the biggest idiot on earth. A few spiders started to crawl up Remus' legs. He looked down at them and quickly shook them off before stomping on them.

"YOU FUCKER!" Virgil yelled. He shot up from the bed and closed his hands into fists. He nearly teared up at the sight of the dead spiders.

Remus took a step back and raised his hands "Hey kid I'm sorry but-"

He didn't say anything more. A harsh hit landed on the back of his neck. He immediately fell down on the ground.

The whole room was spinning. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Virgil moving to hug a person. He seemed to be lifted from the ground and spun around in the hug.

The last thing Remus heard before he passed out was Virgil happily letting out a "Jawsie!!"

#live and let die #sanders sides #not countdown #remus sanders #janus sanders #remy sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #intrusleep #resleep #remsleep #rem^2 #thomas sanders

[teffyjeffy]

(Most of) JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure: Stardust Crusaders but almost everybody are kids having fun at recess.

Want a random JoJo post out of nowhere? No? Okay well here you go anyway!

A lot of the time when I was watching JJBA I felt like I was watching a very dramatic retelling of what was actually two kids playfighting.

“My guy punches super fast!” “Oh yeah? Well my guy can stop Time!” “Oh yeah?! Well, mine can too! I just discovered it!” “WELL MINE CAN DROP A ROADROLLER ON YOU” “THATS CHEATING”

Anyway, the idea started to snowball, so please enjoy my masterpost of (most of) JJBA Part 3 where the Stardust Crusaders are a group of 9 year old rascals who met up one day during recess. This is just for fun ^_^ also these are all copied and pasted from discord so the structure is a little jumbled. Enjoy!

Oh, and Spoilers are ahead.

“I can punch super fast!”

“Well I can use cameras and TVs as crystal balls, but I need to break them!”

“Mine can shoot flames, ooo ooo and-and I can control them at will!”

“Mine has a sword that can stab anything”

“MINE HAS AN ATTACK THAT IS UNBLOCKABLE AND ITS AREA EFFECT IS THE WHOLE PLAYGROUND-“

“No Kakyoin that’s not how we play. Youre not allowed to have an invincible attack”

Kakyoin’s introduction:

“I have an invincible attack”

“That’s not how it works Kakyoin but you’re cool, so you can keep playing with us”

The insect stand “Tower of Gray” was when the group was bothered by a fly on the school bus and they got a little too rowdy in their attempts to kill it, which pissed off the elderly bus driver. Thus the kids agreed that he was responsible for bringing the fly onto the bus in the first place. They got detention.

Jean Polnareff’s introduction:

“I have a sword that can pierce through anything!”

“Okay Jean, you can play with us, but you have to promise to stop pushing Avdol into the wood chips, he doesn’t like it.”

The stowaway girl is actually a 5 year old girl who wants to play with them and they hate it at first but they eventually warm up to her. The monkey with a ship stand was actually a retelling of the groups trip to the town’s public swimming pool. The boat was just an inflatable tube and the monkey was a chipmunk. And the original boat that blew up? That was the group’s original inflatable tube that got popped because the 5 year old wouldn’t stop gnawing at it

Later, the kids SOMEHOW convinced their parents to let them stay in the same hotel while the parents all hate business trips to go to. They “promised” not to pillow fight, then everyone except for Jean went to go get snacks while Jean went to explore the new room.  Unbeknownst to them, the previous guests of the room accidentally left their daughter’s doll behind. Jean HATES dolls. He accidentally stumbled upon Child’s Play when he was surfing channels way too late at night without his parents knowing. Fear turns into aggression and someone from the hotel staff goes to check on him. He finds Jean and realizes it’s the same kid who shot him with a water gun earlier. Jean is kicked out and the parents have to pick their kids up. Jotaro and everyone else weren’t happy. 

Rubber Soul is actually just that one bratty kid who thinks it’s sooooooooo funny to mimic other people while also making fun of the person they’re mimicking. It makes them feel “powerful.” Jotaro encounters Rubber Soul when the latter is mocking Kakyoin one day, while Jotaro is playing with the 5 year old; he then chases Rubber Soul all around the playground, and when he finally gets him, he busts his teeth in. They were only baby teeth though, they grew right back, which saved Jotaro from a brutal punishment. He was still forced to go without dessert for a month. He didn’t complain though because his mother was dealing with the flu at the time. He would give all his desserts to Kakyoin, which his how Jotaro discovered Kakyoin’s creepy habit of juggling maraschino cherries in his mouth.

J. Geil was somebody who used to play games with Jean’s sister. When she found out he sucked at party cake and teased him for having “Two left hands”, J pushes her into the mud and never plays with her again. Jean has held a grudge ever since.

Hol Horse is Geil’s “New friend” which pisses off Jean. Hol Horse, being a member of the wrong crowd, beats up Avdol and J. Geil just goes along with it. Jean is all “Avdol why are you even here, you had nothing to do with this!” And Kakyoin’s like “Should we call 911?” And Jean responds “Not yet, I need to beat up these guys first!” And Kakyoin calls 911 anyway.

The Mirror stand is just J. Geil going “Made you look” and punching your shoulder.

And Hol Horse’s stand is just a nerf gun. The reason it hurts is because he likes to get right up in your face before firing it. It’s ineffective if you’re too far away from him, because the dart bullet loses momentum and hits the ground harmlessly.

Jean eventually gets back at J. Geil by chasing him into the middle of a group of kids, then pointing up at nothing, shouting “Made you look,” and poking J. Geil in the eyes, which causes him to cry like a baby. And later, Jean is like “Oh yeah, I totally stabbed him with my sword!” when Jotaro asks him what happened.

Then Hol horse runs away because he realized J. Geil was a total loser.

The Empress stand was just Joseph’s retelling of his parents taking him to the doctor’s office so they could deal with a wart on his arm. He hated how boring the actual process was, so he pretended that he bested the wart in a game of wits and tore it asunder. Jotaro was grossed out. 

(Btw in this AU Joseph is only a grade older than Jotaro, instead of being his grandpappy)

Wheel of Fortune is just the result of a very nasty game of tag with a brat who wouldn’t leave the group alone.

Enya is the crazy cat lady at the end of the street whose house the kids were forced to pass one day when they missed the school bus.

Steely Dan is the snobby “Cool Kid” of the playground, and a sore loser when the kids don’t play the way he wants them to. So Jotaro gives him a black eye.

The Sun is a kid who likes to fry ants with a magnifying glass. But Joseph likes bugs, and seeing this made him cry. So Jotaro, Kakyoin and Avdol plot to destroy the magnifying glass, which they thought was really funny. But at that point, the magnifying glass had to be returned to the science lab, so the kid was spared. 

Or, in another interpretation:

“Hey guys, I wanna play! My guy’s power is that he’s literally the sun!!! ” 

Joseph: “Wow, that’s pretty powerful-“ 

J,K,&A: “YOUR POWER IS STUPID, GET LOST”

Death Thirteen was the result of the kids being forced to deal with a baby who was throwing a tantrum while they all waited to get on the giant slide at the County Fair. Kakyoin was especially pissed. 

I have nothing for the Judgement stand.

I don’t have anything for High Priestess either.

And Iggy is still a dog, but I’m getting rid of his tendency to fart because I just HATE IT

N’Doul isn’t blind, he wears glasses and can’t see shit without them. And he has a water pistol. And he hoards the playground’s sandbox.

Oingo and Boingo are a 6 year old and his 1 year old brother and they’re just the cutest little demon spawns.

Anubis is a dog that snatched Jean’s toy sword in its mouth, and the sword’s power to transfer souls was just Jean fearing that the dog had rabies. Jotaro rolled his eyes but convinced Joseph to help him buy a new toy sword to shut Jean up.

Mariah... I dunno man, I didn’t really care for her arc and it definitely doesn’t fit the “kids playground” scenario I’m going for.

ALESSI IS WRITTEN OUT COMPLETELY. HE IS NOT ALLOWED ON THE PLAYGROUND.

The D’Arby brothers are known for being the cheaters of the playground. So Jotaro scares the eldest brother in a game of Go Fish, and it messes D’Arby up so much that it triggers his Asthma and he he has an Asthma attack. 

Pet Shop went down as the day when Iggy had a fight with a seagull and got pecked the ever loving SHIT out of. Jotaro tells the story at every Christmas party.

The younger D’Arby battle happened on a day when he and Jotaro were playing video games together. They accused each other of cheating, which resulted in Jotaro insulting him for liking dolls before pummeling him and consequently getting kicked out of the house. Joseph gave him a high five though, so it was worth it.

Vanilla Ice was the toddler who didn’t bother to move out of the way if you got in his path while he was driving his toy mini jeep. But if you asked Jean or Avdol, they’ll tell you that the toddler deliberately puts people in his path to run them over. And the occasional dog.

And finally, DIO.

DIO was a kid who got transferred to Jotaro’s school after being expelled because the principal of DIO’s previous school couldn’t get him to leave two of the students alone, by the names of Johnathan and Erina. He was pen pals with Johnathan, but that was the only connection DIO bothered to maintain.

Jotaro thought DIO didn’t even deserve the title of “School Bully.” He thought DIO was just a weird freaking kid. Despite that, most of the kids were scared of him, Jotaro’s friends included.

DIO loved to utilize the classic “Time Out!” whenever he played with the kids, and if they didn’t abide to the time out, they got a knuckle sandwich.

Jotaro was the first kid in a long time to just say “Nope.”

That’s when he learned that DIO was a kid who liked to screech like a banshee when things didn’t go his way. As well as throw a whole bunch of pencils (seemingly from out of nowhere) at any person that he upset with.

The road roller in this AU is the closest thing to a lethal heavy weapon that you can get on the playground: a frickin BIKE. 

And DIO is like “TIME OUT SO I CAN SLAM THIS BIKE ON YOU” And Jotaro goes “Nope, your time out is cancelled because you’re a freak and also you tried to bite Joseph which was just gross, anyway-“ and he punched DIO in the leg, pushed him to the ground, and kicked woodchips in his face.

They both got expelled.

A few years later, on his way to middle school, Jotaro bumps into a kid named Josuke...

<============ TO BE CONTINUED

BONUS JJBA BATTLE TENDENCY

The Pillar Men are a reflection of the infamous day when three highschool bullies showed up to the playground. One of them beat a kid named Ceasar in a Rock Paper Scissors match; in responce, Joseph (who at the time was only 4) went apeshit. He kicked the first highschooler off of the carousel at the County Fair. Then he located the second highschooler, tied up his shoelaces, then lit them with a match. Finally, during the school’s annual science fair, he tracked down the third highschooler, who had just finished rigging a student’s baking soda volcano to blow up in his face. Joseph threw a bunch of rocks that he found outside at the highschooler, and then proceeded to lock him up in the school’s astral observatory. The first two highschoolers fled town after that, but rumor has it that the third one is still stuck in the abandoned observatory.

#jjba #jojo part 3 #stardust crusaders #au #jotaro #dio #kakyoin #avdol #joseph joestar #iggy

[dat-fandom-losertown]

The Drift Between Us

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Chapter 7: Celebration

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Hank Anderson x Connor and Gavin Reed x RK900 (Ritch)

Pacific Rim AU

Warnings: Alcohol, Drunkenness (they’re just chillin’ with some drinks)

Word Count: 8,129

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Previous <> Masterlist <> Next

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

    Connor is just leaving the office area with Ritch right at his heels when someone suddenly pops up from around the corner. Connor jerks into something resembling a fight stance, then just as quickly relaxes with a huge sigh and small smile. It’s just Simon. The blond smiles apologetically, while the rest of the crew starts standing up after leaning up against the wall behind him.

    “Well? What’s the news? Are you staying or going?” North asks impatiently.

    “We’re staying.” Ritch informs in a tone he hasn’t heard in a while. When Connor turns to look at him, his twin has a small smile and a light in his eyes that he thought Amanda successfully destroyed long ago; one of content and relief.

    The four trainees all cheer at once, and Simon hops over to hug Ritch in one arm and Connor in the other. Connor short-circuits for a moment, but Ritch immediately gives a gentle hug back. Before he can copy his twin, though, Simon is letting go and Markus is taking his place, leading them away with one arm over each of their shoulders.

    “This is a cause for celebration!” He calls, making both twins cringe at the volume right by their ears.

    “Yeah! We already have people bringing drinks and snacks to Simon’s and Markus’ bunker!” North cheers.

    That catches Connor’s attention. “Drinks? As in, alcoholic drinks? Aren’t those prohibited?”

    “Maybe for pilots they are, but not for us normal people and trainees, it’s only looked down upon!”

    Josh elaborates a bit further. “Technically we’re not supposed to get drunk, but I’ve been getting close with some of the people who work in the lab downstairs, and they’re all allowed to have drinks every now and then, or they can do this weird petition thing to get a larger supply if there’s some kind of thing they’re celebrating. I just asked a couple of them if they could get one going so we could have a few drinks tonight.”

    “You were that confident we were going to stay?” Ritch asks.

    “Eh,” Markus says unsurely, “We figured you probably wouldn’t be sent off, not with how perfect you guys are for this job, but could’ve been a sending off party if things went downhill. Now stop asking questions and let's get back to our bunker!”

    Markus then unloops his arms from their shoulders and sets off at a faster pace. Connor and Ritch quickly catch up to him. It doesn’t take too long to make it to Simon’s and Markus’ bunker, and when they do, there’s two other people waiting in front of it. One look at Ritch proves that he doesn’t know who these people are either, but they’re holding drinks, so they must be Josh’s scientist contacts.

    “Did you guys bring any snacks?” The tanned woman waiting calls amicably. 

    Simon shakes his head, “No, the cafeteria was completely closed, and no one was willing to donate to our cause.”

    The woman shakes her head with a sarcastic frown, “The greedy fucks.” She smiles, “Lets get all of this inside, then, shall we? I don’t want Hank or someone coming around the corner and seeing this.” She lifts up four bottles of amber-colored alcohol.

    “Why not?” Connor didn’t mean to ask out loud because he has a feeling why she would say that, but there’s no taking it back now.

    “Because this is his favorite stuff.” She walks through the door that’s been opened by Simon, “He used to always try to leech this off of me until what’s-his-face came along and was happy to give up his small ration. And now he’s on complete prohibition by the orders of the Marshal.” She sets them on the desk connected to the wall. “Honestly, it took him long enough.”

    Connor simply nods and makes a note of the brand while looking around the room. It’s an exact copy of his and Ritch’s shared room, except Simon and Markus have photos and drawings hung up with sticky-tack and little trinkets and other small souvenirs on the higher shelves, along with plenty of fictional books among their brand new study material.

    Where Ritch and Connor decided against paying extra to get the study material, they signed up to bring their own (which was almost free because Amanda had most of the books needed). Most people wouldn’t have that kind of luxury, and it makes Connor almost feel guilty for just a moment, then it goes away just as quickly when he spots a family picture on the shelf. Younger versions of North, Josh, Markus, and Simon are all posing around an older caucasion man in a wheelchair outside under a tree. It’s very nice, and it makes Connor wish he somehow had taken pictures of him and Ritch as they were growing up.

    This room makes the twins’ bunker seem empty and lifeless, but Connor doesn’t even know where to start in getting their room to look this lively, besides being cheesy and hanging up Jaeger posters when there’s a loading dock of them in the same building. Maybe he’ll try drawing one of the newer models to hang up if it’s allowed– not that he can draw well, but it’d be a nice challenge on one of his slower, emptier days.

    “Let’s get this started!” North suddenly shouts, making everyone cheer and Connor glad that these rooms are pretty much sound proof with all of the metal and concrete everywhere. 

    Instantly, there’s a bottle and a small cup pushed into his hand. The cup is partially filled with the amber alcohol that that woman, Vanessa apparently, told him was Hank’s supposed favorite. Connor tries a sip of that first and finds it disgusting, plus the burning sensation down his throat is too off-putting for Connor, so he sets it aside. The second bottle is something pink that Simon put in his hand with a wink. A sip of this is like drinking some kind of fruity soda with a certain zip to it. Connor decides he likes it, and grabs the same brand in the four other flavors after reading it barely has 3% alcohol in it versus whatever the hell is in that amber stuff.

    A few hours and many, many drinks later, almost everyone is some degree of drunk and has split off into two groups. Markus turns out to be very tactile when he’s drunk, and is currently cuddling Simon while the blond and North are giggling about anything and everything over where they’re sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. Josh is sitting on the lower bunk, gushing about something he can’t understand to Vanessa and Riley, and Ritch seems to be following along well enough from where he’s sitting calmly on the ground. It makes sense. Ritch was always more into the tech and psychology side of science, and Connor was more interested in biology and first aid. Neither of them really loved science, but those were their preferred types when they had to choose one for schooling.

    Connor gets up from where he’s leaning against the desk with all of the drinks. Over the past few hours, he started a game with himself; how many bottles can he hide somewhere on himself before someone notices. It slowly grew more challenging the more bottles he was stashing away, and he almost got caught twice, but now he has a total 13 bottles of different-colored wine coolers stashed in the fluffy jacket he’s wearing (everyone got hot and lowered the thermostat, so Connor was given Markus’ jacket to keep warm after refusing to drink the beer and whiskey to keep warm) and in various pockets of his cargo pants, and everyone is too drunk and/or preoccupied to notice him taking a 14th one.

    Well, Ritch might be noticing him, but if he has, he’s made no move to stop him. He’d like to think that his brother has secretly joined in on this little game, or made his own in some way. It’s more likely that he just doesn’t care what Connor’s doing, though, and he tries to tell himself that it’s perfectly alright. It actually kind of works, this time.

    The point is, this was all fun earlier when people could still talk, but were stupid and loose enough to do and say ridiculous things. Now, though, he’s the only one sober enough to walk in a straight line (except for Ritch, who only choked down a beer or two after deciding wine coolers are too sweet for him), and everyone else is too shit-faced (North’s words from earlier) to properly hold a conversation. 

    There were four bottles of whisky and two large packs of beer and a thing of wine coolers when this all started, so Connor’s a bit worried that, between six people, there is only half a bottle of whiskey and a six spare beers left (not including the 13 wine coolers poorly hidden on himself). That whiskey is supposedly strong, and he has absolutely no clue how much alcohol an adult body can take before bad things start to happen– he mainly learned about injuries, not drunkenness or illnesses. He doesn’t really trust North around this stuff, since she looks the closest to going into a coma and had been going back for more drinks more frequently than anyone else.

    With that, a sudden idea pops into his head.

    He still needs to thank Mr. Anderson for talking to Marshal Fowler and for everything else he’s done for him, and if what Vanessa said earlier is true, then he won’t be able to get access to any alcohol for a long while, if ever. Connor may not know much about anything outside of injuries, but he does know that completely cutting someone off suddenly when they have a drinking addiction as strong as Mr. Anderson’s is not good. It can lead to worse things, and he doubts he’ll stop drinking just because of the threat of not getting anymore. Maybe he’ll slow, but not stop. He’s pretty sure that’s not how it works.

    Connor glances at the clock, which glows the numbers “1:07” in bright blue. Although, if this whiskey is really Mr. Anderson’s favorite drink, then he shouldn't mind if Connor brings it over this late– or this early– as a quick thank you, especially so if he isn’t supposed to have this kind of thing anymore. Connor knows this isn’t a good idea, but quite frankly, he trusts Mr. Anderson with it more than North at this point. He at least should know how to handle his drinking so he doesn’t immediately die from alcohol poisoning, and Connor wouldn’t be surprised if she already has poisoning to a certain degree.

    Now that he’s finally convinced himself that this is, indeed, what he wants to do, he carefully unloads some of his bottles of wine coolers (he wants to bring some back to his bunker to put in his and Ritch’s mini-fridge because they’re delicious in smaller, occasional doses). That makes just enough room for the several beers he stashes in their place. It takes just over fifteen minutes of shuffling so he isn’t being completely obvious, but no one seems to have noticed yet, not even Ritch, who’d surely be giving him a very strange look by now if he did.

    Now the trick he wants to use for the whisky bottle (shove it in a pillowcase with a pillow and carry it just right, so it looks like it’s just the pillow he’s holding) won’t work because everyone is hoarding the pillows, and the bottle is a bit too square-shaped for that. He can’t even use the balled-up-blanket trick because the only two in the room are occupied as well. Hiding it under his jacket would make the whisky bottle clink against the beer and wine cooler ones, and there’s no way to keep it up in his jacket and look natural at the same time, anyway.

    Unless it didn’t need to look completely natural.

    All it would take to get it out of the room is tucking it under his jacket, and who is going to be walking down the bunker halls this late at night (early in the morning?)? Connor highly doubts that there are guards stationed in a hallway filled with people whose entire job is batting and killing giant aliens that destroy cities for fun. The only other people he could think of that could be out at this time are people working the night shifts, and he doubts anyone focused on their own job will notice or care that he has a bottle in his hand, even less so if the label is covered by something to make it less obvious that it’s alcohol and not some kind of juice or tea.

    Therefore, Connor looks around to make sure that no one is watching– Josh and Ritch are still talking quietly, but Riley is asleep and Vanessa looks about there too, with Markus, Simon, and North following her close behind– then takes three napkins and the bottle and shoves it all under his jacket carefully. He takes two experimental steps towards Ritch both to test how loud the bottles are and to tell his brother that he plans to leave. There’s minimal noise as long as he shuffles “tiredly” rather than taking actual steps. He stops right by Ritch, who looks up questioningly at him.

    “I’m gonna head to bed. It’s getting late for me.”

    Ritch nods, “Alright. I planned on leaving soon as well. I want to get everyone situated and comfortable before I do.”

    Connor nods a single time, then turns and leaves silently. He keeps his arms curled around himself as if he was still cold despite the jacket as he opens the door. Again, if Ritch has noticed anything, which he must have by now, then he doesn’t say anything. Connor keeps his arms like that until he decides the coast is clear, then pulls out the bottle and napkins, loosely wrapping the napkins around it and holding the covered bottle like he would any old water bottle.

    He passes his own bunker on the way to Mr. Anderson’s, but decides against going inside to drop off his wine coolers. Even though less bottles would allow him to move more naturally, the time it would take to dig them out and put them away isn’t worth it, since he’s to get back before Ritch does. He moves on a bit quicker at the reminder of his self-set time restraint. 

    While Connor hopes that Mr. Anderson is still up, he knows the chances of that are rather low. As he approaches his lunch companion’s door, he realizes he needs to come up with some kind of plan of where to keep this stash if the retired pilot won’t wake up or won’t let him inside to unload everything. He doesn’t want Ritch to know about this any more than he probably already does, after all.

    He quickly decides that he’ll put the alcohol under his own blanket. His reasoning is that the mini-fridge is out of the question for anything except for his own colorful alcohol because there’s just no room in the ridiculously tiny thing. Plus, because Connor is on the top bunk, it would be difficult to see unless someone climbs up there, and no one would do that, especially not between now and lunch. No one has even been in their room before, not unless Ritch brought someone in there without his knowledge, but he’s more protective of their space than Connor is, so that’s very unlikely.

    As Connor raises his hand to knock, Connor realizes what it may look like for someone to knock on the known-alcoholic’s door in the middle of the night with a covered bottle in hand. He quickly tucks the whisky bottle under his jacket carefully and hugs his left arm to his chest to pin it in place as he finally knocks.

    He waits a few moments for any sign that Mr. Anderson is up, then knocks again, this time more firmly. When there’s still no response, Connor turns to go back to his room. He doesn’t want to wake him up if he’s still asleep, after al. He pulls out and readjusts the bottle and napkins in his hand so it doesn’t slip from his grip and keeps his stride at a tired shuffle. He makes it five steps before the sound of a door opening stops him in his tracks.

    “Connor? What the fuck are you doing? It is 1:30 in the morning.”

    He spins around as quickly as he’s silently able to with all the bottles tucked into his waistband. It ends up not being very fast.

    “May I talk to you? Inside?” he asks boldly. He notes the other’s disheveled appearance, with the stained shirt and holey sweatpants. 

    “Fuckin’– What?” he shakes his head incredulously. “Could this not wait until a decent time to be awake? Why now in the middle of the night?”

    “I just wanted to give you something as my thanks, and I’d rather do it without people around to poke their noses into it.” he replies genuinely, “But I guess it can wait until after lunch–”

    “Wait a minute.” he interrupts, “What do you mean, ‘give me something as a thanks’? A thanks for what? And why would people not mind their own businesses?”

    “I mean, I’m sure they would, but I’d still rather not talk about this in the middle of the hall.” He swings the whiskey bottle in his hand, hoping the other man will figure it out on his own. If the way Mr. Anderson tracks the movement with his eyes says anything, he definitely did.

    “Fuck’s sake, get in here.” He turns and disappears behind the door, leaving it open behind him. Connor hears him mutter “not like I was actually sleeping anyway…” before he makes a move to enter.

    Connor can’t help but notice that the room is cleaner than it was last time he was in here. The top of his desk is empty. There’s only one bottle Connor can spot out in the open, versus the several before. All of the clothes that were once in one large pile are now in two piles and a folded stack, which Connor elects to assume means “unwearable”, “not clean”, and “clean” based off of Mr. Anderson’s habits and normal wardrobe. He carefully shuts the door behind himself and eyes the older man, who’s leaning against the desk tiredly, now. It looks like he quickly ran his fingers through his hair, but he looks more tired despite that.

    “You cleaned again.”

    He really didn’t mean to say that out loud– hell, he didn’t even mean to say it the last time he was in here–, but Mr. Anderson doesn’t seem as bothered by it as he was before.

    “Yea? You gonna say that every time you come in here and I’ve made progress? What about when it gets messy again, hm? ‘Cause I guarantee it will.” he challenges.

    Connor just shakes his head calmly with a nervous smile. “If you’ll believe me, I didn’t actually mean to say that out loud. And this isn’t my room, it’s yours, so I don’t see why it’d be any of my business what you do with it beyond keeping potentially harmful bottles off the ground.” He pauses to eye the desk Mr. Anderson is leaning on. “Do you mind if I use your desk for a second?”

    It’s a rough topic change, but it’s one that Mr. Anderson takes silently. He simply moves out of the way, overplaying exasperation of having to as he waves to it. Connor nods a silent thanks and walks over, mentally cringing at the feeling of the bottles in his waistband rubbing and clanging together with each step. Apparently his lunch companion couldn’t tell that he was hoarding bottles until now because he’s suddenly extremely interested in what Connor has.

    He puts down the whisky first and uncovers it, discarding the napkins on the ground for now. Mr. Anderson is immediately at his side to investigate, obviously surprised to see the brand.

    “What the fuck? This is full?” he whispers, then continues the same way as if someone will overhear him if he speaks too loud. “Where the hell d’ya get this? And how?”

    “I heard that Marshal Fowler suddenly went from somewhat tolerating your drinking to cutting you off completely,” he answers partially, ever-so-carefully unzipping his jacket so the bottles barely tucked inside the inner pockets don’t slip out and crack or shatter. “And strictly from a medical point of view, it’s not healthy to cut off an addiction like yours like that so suddenly, so I decided to help out as thanks for talking to the marshal about giving me and Ritch a second chance. But don’t expect me to do this again, I was only able to this time because I was at a celebration and everyone was extremely inebriated.”

    Once Connor has his jacket unzipped, he slowly pulls out the two beer bottles in the most danger of falling. The one on the left side makes his wine cooler bottle almost fall, so he has to pin it under his left arm so he has time to put the beer in his right hand down and catch it. He then digs out two more beers and sets them down, realizing there’s no good way about unloading Mr. Anderson’s alcohol without making his own fall out. 

    “Jesus. How many bottles did you take?” He picks up one of the beer bottles, studying the label.

    “I had 16 bottles on me, plus the whisky–”

    Mr. Anderson’s head snaps to him, “Wait, what?–”

    “–and I think the only bottle people will notice missing is the whisky, since there were only four of them and there wasn’t enough room to stash them in the recycling with the beers and wine coolers. Though I doubt they’ll really care or question why there’s only three bottles left in the room.” Connor pulls out the last beer in his jacket pocket, then starts the process of freeing the one in his waistband, which is going to require taking them all out then resizing the belt. “Oh! And the wine coolers are mine, so you can’t have any.”

   “I don’t like fruity drinks anyway.” he answers, staring at Connor as if he has a second head or a third leg. Connor ignores this easily, it’s a look he’s very used to, sadly. 

    He moves to pull out one of the two beer bottles from under his belt and immediately realizes his mistake. The wine-cooler bottles carelessly tucked in the biggest pockets are heavily weighing his pants down, and he doesn’t feel like flashing anyone. With a defeated sigh, he pulls the two bottles from the pockets over his calves (People rarely look down when they have somewhere they need to be, so the chances of someone other than Ritch noticing those two and the two lumps in his nearly-untied boots then commenting on it are lower than people seem to think). He then tries to get the bottle out again, but the three in the back start slipping, but if he tries to keep them from falling, then the bottles in the front will fall.

    Realizing how stupid this delema is since it’s his bottles that are about to go down his pants and not anyone else’s, he simply pulls out Anderson’s bottle and lets the rest drop down his pant legs. He tightens up his belt, then removes the two from in his boots and lets the fallen wine coolers in his pant legs slip to the ground unharmed.

    “Jesus fucking christ, you actually had 16 bottles tucked away.” Connor looks up and sees Hank shaking his head in disbelief. “How in the fuck did you manage that? Actually, why would you try to do this in the first place?”

    “I got bored, and despite what everyone thinks of me, I’m not a rule-following teacher’s pet.” He sits on the ground and starts working on lacing his boots properly. “I just make sure that my ‘crimes’ aren’t serious and are done without anyone noticing.” He finishes tying boots onto his feet, then looks up to smirk up at the ex-pilot. “Like hiding 16 bottles of alcohol in various places and delivering seven of them to someone who’s supposed to not have them.” He starts stuffing the coolers on the ground away in his pockets, not wanting to impose on the other man too much longer.

    “And where did you say you got all of this from? A celebration?”

    Connor nods and stands up. “Some of my and Ritch’s mutual friends had a small gathering with copious amounts of alcohol because tonight we found out we’re staying!” Connor beams. It feels very strange on his face after so long of being in a tense or panic-like state. “And with the way Marshal Fowler was speaking, it sounds like we’ll be able to graduate as soon as we find partners to pilot with. So that’s what all this is,” he gestures to the bottles, “It’s a thanks for that, because he mentioned in passing that you spoke to him, and he trusts your judgement of people.”

    Connor sees Mr. Anderson’s expression of surprise, and doesn’t try to work out if it’s a good or negative type. He just waits patiently, knowing that he’s probably trying to figure out a way to say something. That’s what these lengthy silences meant most of the other times, anyway.

    “You do realize that you’ll get in big trouble for this if you’re caught. After all the paperwork stuff and everything.” It’s not the kind of thing Mr. Anderson has to work himself up to say before, but Connor is the last person to push someone for withholding potentially sensitive information or opinions.

    “Then it’s a good thing I won’t be,” Connor states confidently, “I may get anxious or uncomfortable with a lot of things, but these past couple of weeks of adjusting to how things work around here are not how I usually am. I’m not normally that fragile or easy to upset. Besides,” he leans on the desk casually, “if there’s anything I’m good at, it’s yoga and stealing food and drinks. I’ve had more than enough practice growing up to feel confident in my abilities to get away with tonight’s heist, Mr. Anderson.”

    He stands up straight again before blinking in shock at himself. He just mentioned a detail of his childhood and isn’t affected by it. Hell, now he’s actively thinking about how he and Ritch had to sneak out of the house with stolen money if they ever wanted any kind of junk food and he’s still completely unbothered by the memory. There must be more alcohol in his system than he thought. Just how many wine coolers did he have to drink in order to get loose like this?

    “It’s Hank.”

    Connor snaps his head up, not knowing when it lowered in the first place. He’s extremely glad all of his bottles are tucked safely away because if he was still holding one, he might have just dropped it on the hard floor.

    “I’m sorry?” he asks politely. There’s no way the Mr. Anderson is asking Connor, the annoying kid with the fucked up head, to call him by his first name.

    It’s extremely disrespectful to call someone older than you anything other than Miss, Misses, or Mister, even if they’re only older by five years, Amanda’s voice informs in his head.

    Never judge a person purely based on their age. Some people, like you, are completely mature despite their age still being a comparatively small number. Some people, like Howard over there, still act like children even though they’re older than me. Treat a person with a careful balance of how they act and what social standards require, the same voice scolds louder.

    “Look, if you’re still going to bug me during lunch and dinner, then I’d rather you just call me Hank.” He sighs and looks away. “Having someone like you call me ‘Mr. Anderson’ makes me feel old, and honestly? A little fuckin’ creeped out too. Mister and miss or whatever is reserved for children, and you don’t look like a fuckin’ child to me.”

    For the first time in a long while, Connor chooses to ignore Amanda’s irritated voice in his head. He’ll only call him Hank because the other wants him to, and he has a feeling that they’re something he calls “quiet friends”. Friends without stating it and never mentioning as much for one or both people's sake, but still friends nonetheless. But in the end, it doesn’t matter because either way, Connor feels accomplished. He just made his first friend that didn’t tie in to Ritch at all.

    Connor realizes too late that he hesitated for a tad too long, so he tries to break the growing tension with a very bad joke.

    “Well then, Hank, you can just call me Connor, now. No ‘Mr. Stern’ necessary anymore.”

    It takes Mr. And– Hank a second to understand the joke that he never once called Connor by his last name before, then he’s shaking his head at the ceiling with a huff of amusement.

    “I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”

    “Most likely. Hopefully it won’t be too painful, though.” Connor smirks.

    Hank looks back down with a scowl, but Connor swears he can see mirth in his eyes.

    “Just get out of here and go to fucking bed before anyone gets any wrong– or right– ideas.” he nods to the door.

    Connor nods and quickly gets to the door. However, he pauses just as he’s about to open it, then turns back to Hank.

    “As I said before, I won’t be doing this again and feeding your issue, Hank. I’m just acknowledging that quitting cold turkey like Marshal Fowler wants you to can be dangerous. You still need to work on slowing down with the goal of stopping.” He pauses to see if the ex-pilot has anything to say, which he doesn’t besides a sigh. “Good night, Hank. If, uh, you ever really need sleep one night, I’d be willing to give you some of the oil that allowed me to sleep for two days during my mood dip.”

    Was that only last week? Or was it the week before?

    “Thank you, Connor. I may take you up on that.” He sounds surprisingly genuine, and the trainee can’t stop the small smile from appearing. “Now get out of here before I decide to hate you again.”

    He nods quickly, not bothering to hide his elation that Hank basically admitted that he likes him, and opens the door. “I hope your night gets better.” he says as he shuts the door.

    Ritch is already in bed by the time he makes it back, but he doesn’t question Connor about his whereabouts. That means he probably knows exactly what he was doing and confirms Connor’s assumptions that he knew about the hidden alcohol bottles. Oh well; Ritch probably isn’t too put off by it since he never said anything despite obviously holding off sleep until he got back. They both sleep soundly that night.

    The next morning, Connor is in the training area doing his morning stretches with Ritch at his side when he sees the Jericho Squad walk in, very obviously hungover. Simon and Josh don’t look as bad, but North is in the worst shape, unsurprisingly. She squints against the lights of the room and stumbles directly behind Markus, who doesn’t appear to be miserable, but also isn’t smiling and chatting along with Josh and Simon like he usually does. North suddenly turns her head and immediately spots Connor.

    “How the fuck are you two not miserable?” she shouts across the room.

    She opens her mouth to probably yell again, but Connor quickly stands up from his spot in the corner and moves over to their group so they won’t call anymore unnecessary attention to themselves. He doesn’t hear echoing footsteps behind him, so Ritch must have stayed behind to properly finish his stretches.

    “I’m not miserable because I kept my drinking under control.” He answers quietly as soon as he’s close enough to. “Besides, once you’re jaeger pilots, excessive drinking isn’t allowed anymore, so you guys should start practicing prohibition.” Connor scolds in a teasing tone.

    “Well,” Simon begins, “lucky for us, we aren’t actually pilots. Only trainees, so we can do what we want for now.”

    “But Ritch and I probably will be as soon as we find suitable partners, so I don’t expect us to–” Connor’s teasing is interrupted by North.

    “Woah, woah woah woah. You mean to tell me that not only are you guys sticking around, but you’re graduating early too? And you didn’t even tell us? How skilled are you exactly? What the hell...” 

    Connor thought someone who is this hungover would be quieter.

    “Did Ritch not tell any of you last night?” Everyone shakes their head. “Oh... Huh. Well, as soon as we retake evaluations and find partners, we’ll probably be graduating and moving on as pilots.” Connor pauses, “I think that’s kind of a problem, though, because as far as I know, there’s only one more jaeger, and by regulation, each pair needs their own in case of an emergency where every available pilot is needed–”

    “Wow, yup. Already boring me.” North bluntly states.

    Connor makes a mental note to not talk about jaegers and regulations while she’s around. It’s odd that she wants to be a jaeger pilot but doesn’t want to hear anything about the jaegers. Maybe that’s part of the reason the passing rate of this training is so low? Some have the skills and drive to fight kaijus, but not enough desire to keep up with the less exciting things (if putting one’s life in danger by fighting ginormous aliens can even be considered “exciting”).

    “North!” Markus chides, ”Just because you hate memorizing all of this stuff doesn’t mean everyone does. Leave him be! Besides, you’re gonna have to know all of it if you actually wanna fight kaijus.”

    “Connor’s right, you know.” Ritch’s voice points out from behind him suddenly. “About everything. I don’t know what Fowler plans to do with two possible new pairs and only one known jaeger, unless he has some prototypes hidden up his sleeve, but those would have to be in testing stages now, not available for pilots to use quite yet.” He crosses his arms and looks to the side, a tell that Ritch is thinking through something carefully. “The only thing I can think of is that he has one that’s almost out of testing that we just haven’t heard of yet for whatever reason. Or he just didn’t want to miss a chance having at least two more pilots around here and compromised with whoever about this, despite only having one available jaeger.”

    Josh nods, shifting his weight onto his other leg, “I think it’s more the second reason than the first. There haven’t been nearly as many people looking to be jaeger pilots since the propaganda stopped standing a chance against the horror stories on the internet and news.”

    Everyone silently nods their agreement.

    “Either way,” Connor begins, “I don’t actually know how often we’ll see each other outside of meals now. With us having to redo our evaluations and partner hunting and stuff.”

    “I doubt they’ll keep us out of the class, Connor.” Ritch doesn’t bother to turn to look at him like he would with someone else, knowing he wouldn’t be put off by it. “I don’t know if we’ll still be top of the class, since we’ll likely be overqualified for what stage everyone here is at, but I don’t see why Luther and Chloe wouldn’t let us stay and help, even if it isn’t your favorite thing to do.”

    Connor shakes his head with a shrug, “It really isn’t. I don’t like leadership roles like you do.”

    Ritch nods. Connor has a feeling they’re both thinking about how Amanda didn’t mind this particular dynamic between them, even though it took a bit of time for her to warm up to it. Before Connor can get too wrapped up in his head, North snaps him out of it.

    “So you gonna show us what you can really do today, since you were supposedly holding last time? Which I still don’t believe, by the way.” she challenges with a certain glint in her eye that he has grown to dislike.

    “No.” he retorts at the same time as Ritch. Everyone goes quiet.

    Connor continues quietly, “We weren’t holding back as much as we have with everything else last time. I don’t want to have to do it again and get hurt worse…”

    “I agree. I don’t like fighting against Connor.”

    “The only things I want to fight are kaijus and assholes.”

    “Snobbish, biggoted assholes.” Ritch specifies.

    Out of the corner of his eye, Connor spots a few other students entering the training area, so instead of correcting Ritch that he would fight any asshole if they did something to warrant it and have his brother inevitably push back against that, Connor just huffs. Ritch will understand that he means it as a show of disagreement; and he does, if his version of an eye roll is anything to go by.

    “Well, I suppose I better go off and try to find some kind of jaeger partner. I’m going to need a lot more time than Ritch because… Well, you all know exactly how I was when we were trying to get to know each other.” Connor smiles genuinely. If there’s one thing he can do right, it’s turn his short-comings into jokes or some form of amusement for himself.

    Although, everyone except Ritch smiles awkwardly, so Connor immediately knows that these people don’t really do self-deprecating jokes. Ritch simply frowns sympathetically probably because he already figured out that they don’t use that type of humor, and he takes that as his cue to actually leave. Before he can turn to leave, however, Chloe shouts Connor’s and Ritch’s names. When they look to her, she waves them over with a smile. They say a quick goodbye to the group as they calmly walk over. Connor is painfully aware of all the silent attention they’re getting.

    “Just as Marshal Fowler said yesterday, you need to start reevaluations today. Would you prefer to do them over in the gym, or in here? I can’t promise we’ll have the gym to ourselves, but it may be less crowded than in here.”

    He looks to Ritch, who gives him a sort of curious look. It’s up to Connor, then. He turns back to Chloe and shrugs with a polite smile.

    “I guess in here is fine. It seems more convenient than going all the way there then back again in a few hours.”

    “Are we going to have to do the combat evaluations again?” Ritch cuts in, “Because I will not fight against Connor again if that’s the case.”

    Chloe blinks, her features turning into a careful balance of blank and attentive. She blinks again when neither Ritch or Connor expand on the request.

    “Did you hold back that much the first time?” she half-jokes lightly, but he sees the slight concern in her eyes.

    The only responses she gets for several moments are Ritch’s shoulders tensing and Connor looking away nervously. Although, it’s obvious she’s waiting for some kind of verbal confirmation.

    Ritch sighs and finally answers quietly, “It’s dangerous for us to not hold back when we’re not fighting to kill.”

    Connor only nods solemnly in agreement.

    Chloe takes a deep breath before speaking, “Okay then, you won’t have to do that over again.” She flips through her clipboard of papers and marks something down quickly, “So let’s skip to flexibility, okay? Go ahead and line up against the wall.” She nods her head to the area next to the doorway where some basic equipment is.

    They go through the basic stretches. For the sit and reach, they use the block, adjusting the measurements to their size, and start with both legs on it, then just one at a time with the other bent. Ritch does above average, and Connor does extremely well if Chloe’s expression means anything.

    Next is the v-sit, so Chloe has Ritch put his feet against the wall and lean forward down the middle, then lean to each side. It turns out that he’s a bit more flexible on his right side than left for whatever reason. He’s then told to bend to the middle and touch his toes, which he does relatively easily. When Connor starts, he foregoes the wall, despite the confused look Chloe gives him, and lets Ritch hold his feet in place while he leans forward. He can almost put his forehead on the floor, and when leaning to either side, he lightly rests it on his knees. Chloe starts marking on her clipboard again, and Connor has to ignore the numerous stares he feels from the other side of the room.

    The rest of the stretches go similarly. Next they stand and touch their toes (Ritch manages to do so, but Connor is able to put his palms flat on the floor and bends his arms), then they move on to the butterfly stretch, calf flexibility test (they both pass this one with flying colors), side bending, and trunk rolls (this is the easiest one for both of them). Before they know it, almost an hour and a half has gone by and they’re done with their official stretches.

    “Hey guys,” Chloe calls the twin’s attention quietly. She continues when both of them look at her. “Do you mind if I do just a couple more stretches? We did the same thing for North and Traci. It’s to see if we should start designing a jaeger that has more rotation and flexibility for our more bendy pilots.”

    Connor looks to Ritch, who answers. “Sure, whatever you need.”

    She smiles. “Can you do some lunges?”

    They both nod and get into position and hold it easily. Chloe marks something in her book before she tells them to sit on the ground and spread their legs as far as they can go. Ritch raises an eyebrow at Connor for whatever reason before attempting to do the splits. Connor easily does it, then holds the position as he puts his chest to the ground, then sits back up. When Ritch gets up to shift the direction of his legs, leaning into something close to a lunge, Connor doesn’t get completely up, instead just sitting then shifting his legs over. He leans forward towards his knee then, too, just as he taught himself, then sits up, torso perpendicular to the ground and his legs.

    “Surprising,” Chloe states in a praising tone, jotting something else down on her clipboard.

    Ritch gets up and smirks down at Connor. He can’t stop himself from smiling back a bit as he gets up too. It’s nice to actually be praised for something that he had only gotten huffed at for in the past. Now he’s kind of glad that he missed this evaluation altogether while he was going through his mood dip because he wouldn’t have wanted to hold back. Plus, having to rush off to let the next person go and/or having everyone’s undivided attention on him would make this nerve-racking, even if he would’ve held back.

    A sudden wolf whistle from across the room shoves him out of his thoughts.

    “Yass Connor!” North yells obnoxiously, gathering most people’s attention to them, “Show ‘em who’s queen!”

    “North, why are you like this?” Connor shakes his head, feeling his face heat in embarrassment. That question is better than what he actually wants to ask; are you still somehow drunk?

    “Wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t.” She then winks and blows Connor a kiss and a winks, the entire act overplayed and an obvious show of teasing him. Maybe she’s overplaying being okay so people don’t suspect her actual hungover state too much.

    Connor just sighs and shakes his head again, watching Ritch as he does his equivalent of an eye roll.

    “Alright boys,” Chloe says behind them, “do you want to do stamina and cardio next or strength and weights?”

    Ritch and Connor glance at each other, then nod simultaneously.

    “We’ll do cardio today since we’re already stretched for it, if we can push strength to tomorrow?” Ritch answers, the end sounding like a question rather than a reply.

    Their instructor smiles, “Sure, that works for me! Let’s head over to the gym for the equipment, then.”

    The rest of their time before lunch is spent doing various cardio and stamina tests. Most of their time is spent on the treadmills and exercise bikes for sprinting and and different kinds of endurance. Chloe gives nothing away about how well they did this time, and they return to the training area just as the rest of the class is finishing up punching techniques with Luther. They’re all released at the same time to go shower before lunch. Connor and Ritch are told to head to the testing room instead of here when they finish lunch so they can retake their written evaluations.

    Connor lets Ritch have a shower first and picks up their room a bit. It’s not really messy, just a few stray clothes in a pile on the ground around the hamper instead of in it, but it gives him a reason to do some very-needed organization in their desk drawers. He spots his journal in the third drawer and suddenly remembers several things from last night and this morning he wanted to write down.

    He writes down North’s hatred for regulation and technical talk. He then adds that he thinks Josh will probably transfer over to the science section of this entire operation, and that North may pair up with Traci if that’s the case and she’s not let go for her lack of interest. He notes that Traci used to be a dancer and is ranked at least third in their class, if not first or second, so she may be a good partner candidate. With that, he starts writing down everyone’s personality and the likelihood that they’ll leave or their partner will leave, and the probability of them leaving if their partner does. He immediately crosses out a bit more than half of the names in the class just from this, knowing he would never work well with them, so he moves on to the active pilots.

    He writes that Gavin is much more likely to partner up with Ritch than himself, since they apparently know each other already, and crosses that name off without writing anything about his character down. Pretty much everyone else he knows of has a partner they work well with, and even with insufficient data, he knows that the chances are low to none of them wanting to suddenly switch partners or share.

    He makes a quick note of Hank’s favorite whiskey and how Hank used to have a dog and probably still loves it according to Marshal Fowler. He’s finishing jotting down the fact he’s probably Connor’s “quiet friend” while idly wondering if Hank would ever consider getting another dog when Ritch steps out of the bathroom. 

    “You’re writing in that journal again?” Ritch says almost immediately, crossing his arms.

    “Yes, because I’m going to screw up if I don’t, especially now that I need a partner.” He closes his book with a thump.

    “Connor, despite what you think, you really don’t need that.” Ritch nods to his journal, sounding softer than usual, and it’s somewhat disconcerting.

    “Yeah, I really do. You’re welcome to read through it if you like.” He makes a point of putting it on the desk. “So far it’s just basic temperaments of different people and the probabilities of the other trainees graduating.”

    Connor walks past his brother into the bathroom to wash up, reflecting on everything he wrote down, trying to figure out if he missed anything. He doesn’t think he has.

    This is going to be a lot harder than I thought, Connor thinks to himself, At least I kind of know what I’m looking for now, though. The only problem now is finding this perfect type of person within the next few weeks…

•◊•◊•◊•◊• 

Previous <~> Masterlist <~> Next

•◊•◊•◊•◊• 

A/N: Hey guys! I am so so sorry for the huge delay for this chapter. Life decided to creep up on me and bash me over the head with a bat there for a second, plus I wanted to make some kind of art for my new TDBU masterlist, but now you should be getting updates faster from now on! I’m hoping to get back on a weekly or biweekly update schedule because I have a ton of other things I want to write, but I refuse to until I finish one of my WIPs 😂😅 Also, sorry for the ton of Connor POV recently, I promise that next chapter will be more Reed900 action!! And with that, I hope you all have a good day/night! Until the next update!

P.S. I have actually played the bottle game that Connor did. It started at one of my dad’s promotion parties when I was 15, and I wanted to see how many beers I could stash away (I wasn’t going to drink them, yuck) before an adult noticed. My high score is 12, and the only reason it isn’t 14 is because my aunt noticed me retying my boots to secure the bottles in them.

#hankcon #hannor #reed900 #900reed #hank x connor #gavin reed x rk900 #hank anderson x connor #hankcon fanfiction #hankcon au #hannor fanfiction #hannor fanfic #hankcon fanfic #reed900 fanfiction #reed900 fanfic #900gavin #gavin x rk900 #dbh fanfic #dbh fanfiction #pacific rim!au #The Drift Between Us #Chapter 7

[chasingthecosmos]

Call Me But Love

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: T Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Twelfth Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 3/40 Read on AO3 here.

“‘Oh, dear. Looks like we might have picked up an extra passenger,’ the Doctor grumbled to himself. His gaze raised to Rose’s once more and she was struck by the sheer intensity of it and the way that he managed to look at once so familiar, and yet so different from what she was used to. ‘Best find something to hold on to,’ he warned her ominously.”

A Season 8 & 9 AU centering around Rose Tyler and her newly-regenerated Doctor as they both struggle to maintain their relationship in the face of some unknown force that seems to be drawing them together. Will they be able to solve the mystery of who is pulling the strings before it’s too late?

This is a direct sequel to “By Any Other Name” and might be a bit confusing if you haven’t read that first. Tags will be updated as I go.

Rose shouted and reached out helplessly over the railing as the Doctor suddenly disappeared from sight and out of her reach, swallowed up by the black water below. "That daft, impossible, stupid ..."

"So, the Doctor's taken up the case," Madame Vastra interrupted, stepping forward and cutting off Rose's angry, biting words. "That means that if we are to see him again, we must do the same."

Unfortunately, "taking up the case" without the help of a time machine meant assimilating into the daily living of a nineteenth-century household and becoming a part of Madame Vastra's extensive estate. Taking the slow path was something that Rose hadn't had to do ever since she had returned to this universe, and without the Doctor's presence by her side or in her head to accompany her through the experience, she found herself chafing against the confines of a normal human life.

She wondered idly - not for the first time - what it must be like for companions like Jenny, Vastra, and Strax who had to live and carry on with the day-to-day tasks outside of the TARDIS, experiencing the Doctor in their lives like a whirlwind that would blow through and then disappear just as quickly as it came. Their excitement at having something new to investigate made Rose wonder if ti was ever possible to lead a truly normal life after one met and traveled with the Doctor.

However, all thoughts of "normal" were quickly abandoned as Rose uncovered the strange newspaper advert that drew her towards a small Italian restaurant right in the heart of London. It seemed that the Doctor really had gotten his mind back after all, and he was determined to be just as cagey and elusive as ever.

Rose couldn't deny that she was also warily suspicious of the fact that no matter how hard she searched her telepathic bond, she couldn't seem to breach the mental barriers that the Doctor had created against her. Why was he bothering to call for a meeting like this, when he could just as easily have asked her out to lunch without the need for words or games?

The whole situation was suspect, and Rose found herself eyeing the establishment critically as she waited for the Doctor to show up and explain himself. He was nearby, she was certain of that - but with the way that he was purposefully keeping her out of his thoughts, it was impossible for her to tell where he was or what he was planning.

He ended up appearing just as quickly and mysteriously as he had disappeared, and Rose suppressed her gasp of surprise by curling up her nose at him in annoyed disapproval as she met his hard, intense gaze and took in his haggard appearance.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked in confusion as she glared across the table at him.

"Well, the smell, for starters," Rose replied coolly, "but really, there's a list. Would you like to hear them all?"

"No, I really wouldn't ..." he grumbled, crossing his arms petulantly across his chest and projecting his own glare out at the restaurant around them.

"Doctor, where have you been?" Rose demanded earnestly. "And what are you wearing?"

"Just, er, you know ..." he muttered awkwardly, refusing to meet her gaze, "been wandering around a bit. Met a very nice tramp, who gave me his coat."

"Oh, he just gave you his coat, did he?" Rose asked, narrowing her gaze on him suspiciously.

The Doctor's eyes darted up to meet hers and then quickly trailed away again with a look of chastisement. "Er, no ..." he admitted sheepishly. "I paid him."

"But you don't have any money," Rose reminded him pointedly.

"I ... had a watch."

Rose's eyes widened in surprise as she suddenly glanced down at the Doctor's bare left wrist and realized that he had given away the familiar gold watch that he had always worn in his previous incarnation. The fact that he had so thoughtlessly thrown it away hurt her more than she thought it would - it felt as though he were somehow betraying her memory of the man who she had loved and lost not so very long ago. When she blinked hard and looked up at him again, she saw that he was watching her with a new, complicated expression on his features.

"You swapped your favorite watch for that coat, that's maybe not a good deal," she finally muttered quietly, for once glad that the Doctor had shielded his thoughts away form her so that he wouldn't be able to pick up on her bitter anger.

"Are you cross with me?" he asked blatantly anyway as he continued to watch her, his head tilting slightly to the side as though that would help him to better puzzle out her current mood.

"I am not cross," Rose snapped irritably. "But if I was cross, it would be all your fault, and ... yes, I am cross."

"I guessed that," the Doctor reminded her with a proud, pointed look. Rose rolled her eyes at him and sighed in frustration, prompting him to continue, "And if I hadn't changed my face, would you be cross?"

"I would be cross if I wasn't cross!" Rose snapped in irritation, meeting his eyes and glaring up into his dark, searching expression.

"Why?" the Doctor demanded defensively.

"Why?" Rose repeated loudly. "Doctor, you just ... disappeared into the night - no message, no goodbye, not even a small kiss on the cheek, and then you just ... shut yourself off so that I couldn't find you. Do you understand how worried I've been? How worried we've all been? Why would you do something like that?"

"Why were you worried?" he asked, his brow furrowing in indignant confusion as he continued to stare at her from across the table. "Did you really think I wouldn't be able to handle myself? It's nineteenth-century England out there, not the height of the London Blitz!"

Rose narrowed her eyes on him with a dangerous look as he casually attempted to steer the conversation towards her own past mistakes so that he could conveniently avoid their current predicament.

"Well, running off with a newly regenerated body while people are spontaneously combusting sounds a little bit worse than hanging from a barrage balloon to me," she hissed in retaliation.

"You were wearing a Union Jack t-shirt!" the Doctor protested loudly.

"You don't even know who you are right now!" Rose reminded him just as loudly. "What if something had happened to you? What if you'd gotten lost? What if ...?" The horrible, terrifying possibilities were simply endless, and Rose's words trailed off into silence as she furrowed her brow at the table between them and tried not to let her fears run away with her.

Suddenly, she felt a small shift in the back of her thoughts, almost like a resigned sigh as the Doctor slowly lowered his mental shields just far enough to convey a sense of regretful remorse directly into her mind. I'm sorry, he whispered, not meeting her eye as he offered her a quick, apologetic mental embrace before immediately shutting himself off from her once more.

Rose felt her own mind chase after his presence on instinct, desperate to feel their connection once more and silently willing him to open up to her. "Just tell me one thing, Doctor," she murmured quietly as she lowered her gaze to her hands and silently schooled her expression into a blank, emotionless mask, "if you've been out all night on the town making friends with tramps, then when did you have time to do this?" She reached forward and held up the newspaper that she had brought with her, displaying for him the advert that called for the "Impossible Girl".

"Do what?" the Doctor asked, taking the newspaper from her hands and scowling down at it. "You placed the ad in the newspaper, I saw it and figured out your little riddle, and then I came here to meet you, just like you wanted. There were better ways you could have done that, by the way," he added, rolling his eyes in a way that instantly had Rose feeling irritated again. "Really, Clara, I thought we were past all of these silly games ..."

The fake name bit at her in a way that it hadn't done in a long time, and Rose felt her jaw tighten in frustration as she glared at him. "I didn't place the ad," she insisted stubbornly, "you placed the ad."

"No, I didn't," the Doctor replied with a suspicious look.

"Yes - you placed the ad, I figured it out. 'Impossible Girl', see?" Rose declared, ripping the newspaper from his hands and shoving it back into his face a bit more roughly than was strictly necessary.

"No, look," the Doctor sighed wearily, "that's a message from the Impossible Girl>'

"No, it's for the ..."

Their eyes suddenly met in matching expressions of horror as realization seemed to dawn on them at the exact same moment. "Oh ..." the Doctor breathed in understanding.

"Oh," Rose agreed quietly.

"Well, if neither of us placed that ad, then that means that this is a trap," the Doctor stated definitively.

Rose gasped in surprise and pain as he suddenly reached forward and plucked a single, long brown curl from off of the side of her head. "Ow!" she hissed, glaring at him as he held up the strand of hair and then let it fall uselessly to the ground.

"There is something extremely wrong with everybody else in this room," the Doctor muttered distractedly as he began to eye the rest of the crowded restaurant around them.

"Basically, don't you always think that?" Rose replied sarcastically as she leaned closer and crossed her arms against the table in a direct, challenging sort of way.

To her surprise, the Doctor didn't pull away as she was expecting him to, but actually leaned in closer as he whispered to her out of the side of his mouth. "Look at them," he murmured conspiratorially, but when Rose moved to do just that, he leaned in even closer as though to block her gaze with his own head. "No!" he hissed under his breath. "Not like that! Look without looking."

Rose flashed him a distinctly unamused scowl as she leaned forward on her crossed arms once more, her head bent very close to the Doctor as she tilted her gaze out towards the surrounding crowd. She held her breath as she realized that while she was scanning the area, the Doctor seemed to be staring very intently at her lips, his brow furrowed in an expression that she couldn't seem to decipher as his own hesitant breath ghosted over the skin of her face.

"They look fine to me, they're just eating," Rose whispered, suddenly finding it difficult to turn back and meet his gaze once again.

The Doctor's blue eyes flicked up to hers as he raised those menacing brows at her in a pointed expression and replied, "Are they?"

He was right, of course - no one else in the surrounding restaurant was eating. They were just lifting glasses and utensils to their mouths in timed, robotic intervals as they stared blankly at nothing. None of them were talking, either, and the Doctor soon pointed out one more important detail - they weren't even breathing.

"What do we do?" Rose whispered nervously as she busily fidgeted with her menu in an attempt to appear normal.

"Well ... you don't want to eat, do you?" the Doctor asked, awkwardly eyeing her fidgeting hands.

"Oh, you always were a cheap date ..." she hissed under her breath in reply, her irritated tone doing nothing to conceal the slight, upward turn of her lips as she continued to stare down hard at the menu before her.

"What are you talking about? I've taken you on loads of expensive dates!" the Doctor insisted petulantly. "Or does all of the majesty of time and space not count?"

"Tell you what," Rose replied as she warily cast her gaze around the still, silent room once more, "let's just say you owe me one and leave it at that. For now, how about we find somewhere else to eat?"

"Good idea," he agreed readily. However, the second that they stood up from their seats, the entire rest of the restaurant stood up as well, and every step that they attempted to take towards the door was matched by the odd, robotic people taking a step closer to them in return.

The Doctor and Rose returned to their seats in silent defeat, but they didn't have to wait long before they were suddenly being catapulted down into the depths of the restaurant with restraints tied tightly around their arms and legs.

"Okay, now you really owe me one," Rose huffed in annoyance as she struggled against the metal bands binding her to the seat.

"Oh, just add it to the list," the Doctor grumbled in reply.

#doctor who #dw #fanfiction #fanfic #dw fanfic #dw fanfiction #doctor who fanfic #doctor who fanfiction #the doctor #rose tyler #twelfth doctor #twelve/rose #twelvexrose #the doctor/rose #the doctorxrose

[shinneth]

The Gem Ascension Reference Tour 1: Fatal Frame series

The above is referenced in what I consider to be GA3′s signature scene (or one of them, definitely a top 3), which happens very early on in the chapter (as early as page 33 can be considered for a 299 page part). I had a surprising number of Fatal Frame references in the series overall, so let’s go into detail further down.

Since Tumblr apparently ignores time stamping, the relevant bits for this top video start around 4:07.

Fuyuhi Himino’s unfortunate unintentional suicide in Fatal Frame V is very similarly in an early pivotal moment of GA3, as it directly causes Peridot to let down her guard just enough to allow for White Diamond to put a cap on her willpower, which allows her to succeed in making Peridot ascend to Chartreuse Diamond soon after. Very very similar scenario, though in Peridot’s case she’s directly resisting a giant blade of energy coming for her neck, but like Fuyuhi, she only has her bare hands to intercept the threat. 

Being a gem, of course, this doesn’t spell the same consequence for Peridot as it does for poor Fuyuhi, but it does kind of fuck her over for life. Since Peridot’s got a hard light body, this isn’t actually physically hurting her unless it hits her gemstone - and doing any lasting damage to Peridot is counter-productive for WD since she’s wanting to make a diamond out of her. Even the “superfluid light” I describe in place of blood from the reference, and the pain that comes from Peridot nearly getting her fingers chopped off by continually resisting this blade, is visual trickery on WD’s part to make Peridot believe it’s real. So, a Your Mind Makes It Real trope, as Peridot does feel a great deal of pain from this. Then again, gems can’t bleed and that was purely for visual effect to instill panic in a gem trying not to get her neck lacerated with something that’s big enough that looks more like it’d behead her. 

Peridot’s been resisting WD for almost a week at this point, mind you, so she’s been worn WAY down to the point where she’d actually fall for this. And how Peridot ultimately succumbs to getting her neck “sliced” is just like how it happens to Fuyuhi: the latter has a very close friend named Haruka who’s gone missing. She’s SUPER adamant about finding her, even if it means traipsing about in a mountain infamously known for being a popular suicide spot with regular hauntings. So this mirage Fuyuhi sees of Haruka in the distance makes her so relieved and happy, she completely forgets a ghost is this close to possessing this girl’s knife-holding hand into killing herself. So the moment she lets her guard down, Fuyuhi ends up slitting her own throat on accident. And it turns out it wasn’t even really Haruka at all; kind of a plus that Haruka (who at this point in the game WAS still alive) didn’t have to see her friend die like this directly, but it’s a pretty shit deal that Fuyuhi ends up losing her life over nothing.

In GA3, of course, it’s Steven (or more specifically, the imaginary Steven built from Peridot’s subconscious who gets to feature in all her daydreams about him) who takes up Haruka’s role. Peridot specifically told ALL the Crystal Gems not to go back for her if she’s the only one left behind in the mission. She’s had no way to gauge how much time has passed since they were forced to abandon her, and after 6 days she’d be considering the possibility that they listened to her if she knew that for a fact, but her gut tells her they’re not going to ditch her. And they don’t, of course. Unfortunately, it’s implied this happens literally hours before the Crystal Gems land on Homeworld for their Peri rescue mission, if not sooner. So yeah, this all could have been avoided if the CGs just took off a little bit sooner, but of course they had no way of figuring out what was going on in Homeworld while they prepared for their trip back. It’s all just one big unfortunate mishap, and it’s sort of to drive home the point that Steven, despite being the source of Peridot’s strength and resolve in the story so far, can just as easily become her biggest weakness under certain circumstances. 

This scene is later showed to Steven when he does reunite with Peridot later when he’s aiming to fix her since WD sealed away the sharpest bits of her wit and willpower (which consequently made Peridot and the initial Chartreuse Diamond pretty gullible fools, prone to panic and indecision, as well as self-doubt and greatly lowered self-esteem). He needs to see exactly how WD pulled this off to get an idea of how to get the 100% Peridot back, which meant he pretty much HAD to see this scene. While later the CGs are also “treated” to this when Peridot catches them up on the plot later, it traumatizes Steven. The moment Peridot slips up is replayed constantly in his head and not even closing his eyes can make him un-see it. It’s a pretty reasonable thing to get someone riled up about, especially if it’s a loved one (and even though they’re not officially a couple yet by this point, they become one very soon after this, if that’s any indication of how hard Steven really takes this) and it just keeps playing in your head and you can’t make it stop. It actually triggers a mental civil war in his head where part of Steven just wants to forego his morality and kill the shit out of WD for this, but there’s still the part of Steven who won’t let go of his pacifism no matter what. But no side is really gaining on the other, so it’s an endless fight while this clip keeps playing in Steven’s head. 

It has adverse effects on his human/gem hybrid body, inducing a growth spurt on said body so that Steven actually looks his age and various traits of his Pink Diamond part trying to dominate his body and power him up, because HE IS PISSED. This kickstarts the alternate form Steven can later take in Pink Diamond 2.0, where visually it looks like a fusion between Steven and the Pink Diamond iteration of his mom, but it’s not a fusion at all and is more of Steven’s “fully awakened” Diamond form where he can utilize 100% of his potential. It basically replaces Pink Steven from the canon finale, since GA is supposed to be a “Bad Ending AU” version of Change Your Mind where Yellow/Blue/White don’t survive and not every single loose end is neatly tied up.

So yeah, it’s a very pivotal scene for the protagonist and her late-game deuteragonist (since Steven had no role in GA1 and a pretty limited role in GA2, and there isn’t really a main character at all for the side-story). Still surprised one of the overall story’s pivotal moments comes from a relatively minor early plot development for Fatal Frame V. 

Speaking of the side-story...

Fatal Frame I & II

The tragic story of Fluorite when the Crystal Gems discuss gems prior to Peridot emerging with heterochromia naturally is a mish-mash of Kirie from I and Sae Kurosawa from II. More leaning towards Sae since it involved a friendship that many identified as twin-like and Fluorite’s described maniacal cackling comes from this little lady. This is the shit most gems on Homeworld heard right before they got shattered during the Lone Twin Massacre. Sae’s tragedy that led to the obliteration of her hometown and everyone in it (save for her twin, ironically, who escaped and never came back and had her own life and family... then ended up dying a few decades later via hanging, which is how Sae died) doesn’t exclusively have Sae’s missing twin Yae as the cause, though it is a prominent one. Long story short, hometown needs ritualistic sacrifices every decade or so that specifically require one twin to kill another - somehow this has worked in the past, don’t ask how. Still fucked up enough for one set of twins to try running away from this fate, but only one makes it out successfully. So the hometown is on the verge of collapse and they still have the twin who was set to be sacrificed anyway, so hoped they could salvage the situation by hanging Sae, but the Pits of Hell are PICKY and this results in Sae’s vengeful spirit killing indiscriminately. But she is REALLY fucking hung up on her twin sister never coming back for her. 

Of course, in GA the twin of Fluorite wasn’t that much of a savage - the diamonds just dragged the twins apart since one was special and the other wasn’t, and later the diamonds had the not-special twin killed off behind the other’s back to put an end to the distractions. 

That all lines up more with Kirie’s backstory, where in a mansion built over ANOTHER Pit of Hell, there was a scheduled sacrifice that started with rounding up girls to play demon tag, and the winner gets ripped from her family to become the head family’s rope maiden where she’s completely cut off from the outside world and not allowed to partake in anything that might give her a connection to worldly things, since a maiden sacrifice requires said maiden to be completely detached from earthly desires. Somehow Kirie got out for a short period of time not long before she was scheduled to be sacrificed and met a young man who she quickly fell in love with . The family caught on to this; after Kirie was solidly back in custody (I don’t think she ever actually tried escaping; she just somehow found a way to get out of the house for the first time in 10ish years), the man was killed in secret and tossed in the river. Kirie was never told about this, but she suspected it and had sixth sense-like feelings that he was murdered. She wasn’t able to maintain her maiden duties since she now had an earthly attachment to the man, so when she was finally sacrificed at the altar, her blood-soaked ropes weren’t enough to quell the gates of hell, and Kirie came back as a vengeful spirit who drove the head of the family insane and let him kill every single member of the household for her. And she would go on to kill anyone stupid enough to step inside the house after the fact. This one can be solely faulted on one singular incident, so GA Fluorite was basically the Kirie backstory, but Sae’s mannerisms, savagery, and the twin factor was also in there.

Fatal Frame III

Time Stamp: 038

There’s actually not much from Fatal Frame III to take away from this, save for the final line in the scene where Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-9FC is shattered while in the middle of brutalizing our Peridot. Once Peridot’s not only seeing her assaulter get brutally murdered right after being beaten within an inch of her life, but the remains of 9FC land right on top of her as well as the limb enhancers.

It’s an echo to the aforementioned times Peridot mentioned casually no-selling brutal shatterings that happened right next to her in her early Homeworld days where she’d just shrug off any gem chunks or dust that got on her.

It turns out present-day Peridot is extremely bothered by this and went into catatonic shock after the narrative expresses this desire that paraphrases one of Reika’s noteworthy lines:

“I don’t want to see anymore.”

Which Reika rightfully expresses when her lover who finds her doing her maiden duty (her backstory is heavily similar to Kirie’s) gets killed right in front of her and she’s forced to look at his dead face for all eternity...

Yeah, you wouldn’t want to see anymore either, would you? Let’s leave off on a fun clip that demonstrates how fucking batshit Sae was and I’ll readily admit she scared the shit out of me as a teen.

#steven universe #gem ascension #peridot: the final logs #ga references #fatal frame #project zero #fatal frame ii #fatal frame iii #fatal frame v #fuyuhi himino #sae kurosawa #kirie #reika #peridot #comparison #steven universe oc #white diamond #yeah I didn't really expect this #that I'd draw so many fatal frame references #to a steven universe fic of all things

[itsadrizzit]

The role of Ben Davies in your fics. Talk about it, please. Another: what keeps you motivated to podfic?

Thank you for this. I spent nearly an hour on it and now I’m like, hey, you know what, you should write your fic! Which is way better than I was feeling about writing my fic an hour ago.

Talking about my ABSURD AND VERY DETAILED headcanon character backstories has a way of doing that for me. Hence me posting this ask.

I will answer these in reverse order because the bits about Ben are basically novel-length in themselves.

Podfic. What keeps me motivated? A few things:

1. Reading fic. I don’t get nearly as much time as I would like to read fic, so quite often I will start something, fall in love with it after a chapter or a few thousand words, know I *NEED* to read it, then go home and record it. Yes. It’s highly unorthodox and not advised, but I would say 80 - 90% of my longer podfics I haven’t read the whole fic before I record them. My reading aloud is the first time I am reading the fic. There are many reasons I do things this way, one of them is time. It’s also why 95% of my fic reading is from blanket permission authors so that I *can* do this.

2. Challenges. There are A LOT of great podfic and other fanworks challenges throughout the year and, honestly, as someone podficcing in mostly rare fandoms, those challenges are the way I get people to actually notice and listen to my podfics. The things I do for challenges get WAY MORE visibility than one-off things I do on my own.

3. A need to make fanworks and participate in fandom. It is ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE faster and easier for me to make a podfic than write a fic, so often times when I feel like I’m out of touch with fandom or I just need to create a fanwork, I will find something and make a podfic of it because then I can feel like I made a contribution more quickly than I would be able to if I sat down and tried to write something.

There are other things, but those are the big ones. Mostly, it’s that I read a fic and I *NEEEEED* to record it RIGHT THIS EXACT MINUTE, though.

Alright... on to Ben Davies.

Ahhhh Ben Davies. The much abused, long-suffering Ben Davies.

Okay. First, Ben gets to have a WAY bigger role in the next 3 fics I have planned out. Toby’s gone and he’s trying to be there as Christian’s fill in rational adult, BUT! there are complications with that.

So. Here’s a little thing I made up out of about a half a second of a YouTube video and thin air, because that’s where my best ships sail from. Ben and Christian are good friends and have been since nearly their first day together at Spurs. For one thing, Ben used to live in Denmark and actually played football in the Danish youth system for a while, so they have that commonality. For another, they just like each other. Alright, here’s where my weirdo headcanons start happening.

Ben has had some kind of crush on Christian for nearly as long as he has known him. It was one of those weird things where you’re like this person is such a good friend and I friend-love them and then all of a sudden one day you realise it’s gone WAY BEYOND THAT, but now you’re good friends and you don’t know what to do about it. Also...Christian is Christian, which basically means you could walk up to him and tell him “hello, it turns out I’m very in love with you” and he would just look at you questioningly, shrug, and walk away not understanding that you basically just bared your soul to him. He’s like that. So this is just sort of a “thing Ben has been dealing with” for years now. He realises Christian has no idea about feelings or interest in him as more than a friend and that it’s basically never going to occur to him that this is a possibility. Also, he has no actual idea if the feelings would be reciprocated because Christian is so far removed from the sphere of having any feelings for anyone at all that Ben can’t even get a handle on his particular preferences in that area. Christian’s 95% football and the rest is having fun with friends.

Now is where we diverge. in all instances and canons Ben has these feelings. Much unrequited love in all areas. In the non-AU canon (i.e. the stuff I’m working on now and everything before now) there is also minimal unrequited pining because Ben has given up on things ever going anywhere. He’s just resigned to his fate. However... when Vincent comes along, he sort of shakes things up for Ben, because Ben 100% thought Christian just had zero interest in anyone and now all of a sudden Vincent stumbles in and (even though Christian doesn’t realise it and then once he does realise it tries to pretend it isn’t happening) Christian is all of a sudden drawn in. This is basically the first time since Ben has known Christian that he’s seen him catch feelings for ANYONE AT ALL. The first time he’s shown any interest in ANYONE AT ALL. So all of a sudden Christian is inviting Vincent along to do things with them and declining invitations to dinner with Ben because he’s doing something with Vincent, etc. etc. At first Ben is kind of shaken because he just sort of... doesn’t know what to do with this new information. Like... is it just that Christian had no interest in *him* or is it just that Vincent is new and Ben was already an established friend or...????

So (whenever I get around to writing their getting-together story) there is this weirdness between Vincent and Ben at first because Vincent doesn’t know whether or not Ben and Christian have a “thing” that he is intruding on and Ben doesn’t know whether or not he should be angry about Vincent stepping in and stealing away someone Ben had no claim on in the first place and it’s all just... awkward.

But! Eventually it all settles down and Ben genuinely finds that he likes Vincent as a person and he sees how truly happy Christian is in a way that Ben has never seen before ever, so he just sort of... lets it all go again. Like, he’s Christian’s close friend and in five years of knowing one another he never managed to make Christian that stupidly happy just being in his presence, so he figures this is how things are supposed to shake out and he goes back to getting on with his life. 

(Important note... Ben knows almost instantly--like, before Christian does--that Christian has feelings for Vincent. He knows him well enough. AND he’s one of the first people to figure out when the two of them do get together (again, he knows him well enough to see the small changes) even though Christian never tells him at all. Ben also never says anything about it to either Christian OR Vincent (until the fic I am currently working on...) because he figures if he was supposed to know then Christian would mention it. By not that long into the relationship, basically everyone knows anyway and it’s a giant open secret in the dressing room that no one ever says anything to Christian or Vincent about, but they all sort of just KNOW. But Ben never mentions it and he just goes on with life as usual.)

In the fic I’m working on now, he finally tells Vincent that he knows. Rather... he makes a joke and then Vincent figures out he knows and then Ben admits that he knows. So then Ben sort of picks up a more elevated role of ally, confidant, and advocate. Christian still doesn’t know Ben knows though, until the end when there is a lot of fallout and Ben basically calls Christian and tells him to stop being stupid and everyone knows and no one thinks negatively of it and honestly at this point they don’t really care as long as everyone’s job is getting done. So after that Ben gets to sort of be another voice of reason in things (similar to Toby and Jan and Mousa). Except Ben still has these weird feelings for Christian AND he’s terrible at being a rational adult, so mostly he just makes jokes and laughs at everyone’s awkwardness.

IN THE AU THINGS ARE THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT!

I decided that in the AU Ben is going to be a bit more obvious about things. In the AU Christian is still himself and exactly the same and playing for Spurs with everyone else, but Vincent is a fashion model who lives this weird glamourous party life and does a lot of drugs to deal with himself who just sort of rocks up out of nowhere and sweeps Christian along with him. So we are at this place where Ben still has these feelings for Christian but this time he is still periodically trying to get Christian to realise this. Then Vincent turns up and Christian is SMITTEN. At first whenever Ben (or anyone) brings up Vincent, Christian will just roll his eyes and talk about how annoying and frustrating he is and how much he DOES NOT LIKE Vincent. But somehow Vincent always just keeps... turning up. Christian ends up having to work with him pretty closely for a few weeks and Vincent turns up places and there are just all these circumstances where Ben will be hoping to do something with Christian and he’ll turn him down or cancel plans because of something involving Vincent. Ben (and others) think Christian having any sort of connection to Vincent is going to be TERRIBLE for him, but the more Christian works with him the more he finds him oddly charming and basically Christian is bored because he’s 26 and never got to make stupid life choices and he ends up getting sucked into Vincent’s world. Ben has to make a choice to step back and let it happen or try to fight it, so he tries to fight it by ALWAYS GOING ALONG WITH CHRISTIAN whenever he’s doing something that involves Vincent, basically to keep an eye on things. So Vincent sort of thinks Christian and Ben are together because Ben will just sort of glare at him and be generally short with him and disapproving. Eventually Vincent asks Christian about it and Christian just starts laughing at the audacity of the idea that he might be dating Ben and then it’s pretty much game over.

Except that Vincent is still a horrific fuck-up 95% of the time so Ben does everything he can to just be THERE whenever possible and latches on to Christian and amps up his efforts to get Christian to realise that Ben might not be the 100% best choice for someone to date, but he is DEFINITELY a better option than Vincent in terms of keeping Christian out of trouble. It doesn’t work, of course, but Ben is there to swoop in and clean up all the messes and just generally be the bro who is there when things go to shit in the hopes that someday that will translate into Christian realising Ben was the one for him all along.

So it’s sort of the same, but in the AU, even though he knows he’s setting himself up for a world of hurt and unrequited pining and feelings, Ben keeps his foot in out of sheer stubbornness and the need to save Christian from his bad choices.

[the-everlasting-dream]

The Revelation AU - Drake x MC, Part 4

Summary: As she falls, Elizabeth faces the regret and consequences of her actions and contemplates what could have been. 

A/N: Here’s the long awaited Part 4 finally! I apologise because I’d told a few of you that the cliffhanger for this part would be a real game changer but alas my original plan for this fic grew too long to be stuffed into one chapter seriously the original draft was at 3000 words by the halfway point so I split it into two thats why this one is shorter than you’re used to. I’ve popped a question in at the end so read this fic and let me know what your answer is x 

Word count: 1800+

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3  

The moment her foot connected with the balcony floor, Elizabeth instantly regretted everything. 

 She regretted not paying closer attention to Rupert’s cautionary words, regretted that she’d let her anger get the better of her, regretted that she’d ventured out onto the balcony in the first place. She’d been so angry, furious almost that she’d failed to see what was right in front of her and now she was dearly paying the price. 

 It was like even nerve ending in her body was on fire, supercharged with alarm and fear, each fibre in her body screaming at her to move, get out of there. A tiny portion of her logical mind held court over the chaos, the one thing keeping her from plunging into total panic but she could feel it slowly losing the advantage the longer she looked down at the cracks. 

 You need to look away. It pleaded with her. 

 I need to look away... 

Her eyes, however, refused to budge, the attraction to the spiralling fractures was too strong. It would be so easy to give in, to give up, and let it take her. She would have collapsed under the wave of panic if it wasn’t for Drake... 

 As their eyes met in one moment of pure terror, Elizabeth could see that he was just as scared as she was but was doing his best to hide it and she took refuge in that. 

‘Don’t make any sudden moves Richmond.’ His usually calm voice trembled with fear but it did the trick, breaking through the spell that had kept her paralysed. 

 Elizabeth felt her wits return, the stubbornness and snarkiness coming to the forefront of the tangle of sensations in her, giving her strength to form a shaky reply. 

‘Gee you think?’ 

 A sickening crack was painfully audible as the floor fractured further underneath her almost as if in punishment for her sarcastic reply. Another surge of panic welled up but she fought against it, drawing resolve from the man in front of her. 

 'Any day now Walker..’ She tried for a playful tone but the end of her sentence was raised in panic as the cracks only grew wider; the terror winning for a moment as he inched closer to her.   

Nice and low… That’s what he told her. 

 Nice and low…  

She could do that. It's not that hard.. Come on Elizabeth.. she told herself, forcefully willing her body to cooperate. 

  Now bend your knees.. He knows what he’s doing.. You just have to listen to him.   

She didn't want to move her gaze from Drake’s brown eyes. They seemed to tell her: its okay, I’ve got you, it’s going to be alright. 

 In that moment she fully believed him. It was going to be okay. She’d get off this balcony somehow… And he’d be there to hold her. He’d wrap her up in his strong arms and never let go. She could practically feel his hands stroking her hair as his stubble tickled her face as he whispered that she was okay. This seemed to refocus her mind and the force of panic seemed just a little less smothering. This thought just beginning to inspire some strength in Elizabeth when it was dashed by another movement in the foundations, threatening to shatter at any second. Tears welled up in her eyes as the hope she had felt only seconds earlier evaporated and the weight of her circumstance hit her again harder. 

 ‘Its going to be alright,’ his deep voice cut through the frenzy that was smothering her. ‘Just keep your eyes on me baby.’ 

Pulling her gaze to his once more, she found nothing but reassurance and love there. In that moment Elizabeth realised how much Drake really meant to her. It surprised her just how much she cared for him despite everything they had gone through and despite all the things she’d said and done in the last few days he was still choosing her, extending an olive branch almost literally now. And in that moment, she chose him him too. She reached for him, the words were already forming on her tongue: Thank you, I’m sorry, I love you. 

 Her fingers were mere inches away from the safety of his embrace when the bricks shifted again and in the pit of her stomach, Elizabeth knew. 

This was it.   

And Drake knew it too. She could tell from the way his jaw clenched, he didn’t want to believe it.  

She didn’t either but she had to tell him she loved him, at least one last time. He needed to hear it from her that despite everything he’d done, everything she’d said, that in spite of everything that had happened she loved him. 

God I love him so much.

She couldn’t leave him like this. He needed to hear it from her one last time.

But fate had decided to be cruel that day. 

As the balcony collapsed under her, Elizabeth felt no fear. Fear, alarm, surprise any of the emotions, she’d imagined she’d feel, just weren’t there. 

 Or maybe they were... She couldn’t tell. 

 She only felt regret cold and crushing. Anger too, the red hot kind of anger pulsed through her, the two emotions fused together tightly in a vortex that swirled within her with one primary message. 

 Too little too late… 

 Those words had never rung truer.

As she fell, time seemed to slow down almost to the point where Elizabeth felt like she was suspended in the open air. It was a wonderful place to sort out your thoughts really... she mused as she looked up at the brilliant blue sky above her. The wind caressed her hair, slipping it out of elegantly styled updo, until it whipped across her face, obscuring the view of the cloudless sky as her mind drifted inwards to the storm there. 

 Perhaps this to be was her punishment, her comeuppance for treating the man she claimed to loved so terribly. The last few days had been a hurricane of emotions for her and instead of attempting to calmly organise and rationalise her thoughts, Elizabeth had chosen to ride the wave of impulse, thinking that she would be able to weather out the storm if she remained impassive. Instead she found herself devastatingly mistaken and the main person who had copped the repercussions was Drake. All the anger she’d felt at him had seemed justified in the moment when she’d first learned of what he did, leading to a lot of irrational decisions made on her part. And she’d allowed herself to be blind, willingly choosing to ignore all the amazing things about their relationship for the fact that he’d cheated on her..   

But had he though? Some small voice asked. Did Drake really cheat on her? Because now that Elizabeth had a chance to think about it, did what he had done really matter? They weren’t really even officially together when he’d slept with Kiara so why why did she have to drive him away? What did he even do that warranted such fury from her anyway? 

 It was only small mistake that happened what felt like a lifetime ago but in her pride and anger she’d felt justified acting the way she did, choosing to give in to the anger and bitterness rather than work it out together like they should have done. 

Elizabeth's mind drifted back to the good memories they’d made together. The first time they'd held hands in Lythikos in the snow storm: she'd made up some stupid excuse about needing to be safe but really just wanted to touch him. And later that same night when she joined him for a drink in Olivia's wine cellar and she got to know a bit more about the man behind the grumpiness. Their first kiss in the Beaumont study flashed back into her mind. 

 Oh god, she'd never been kissed like that before. 

 After so long, he’d finally kissed her with so much passion and longing, she wished he’d never stop. When he finally did, all she had wanted was to bring him back to her lips and keep him there forever. After the night of the Coronation and the scandal with Tariq, she thought she was never going to see him again but fate had brought them together again soon enough. She thought of all the moments they’d stolen together on the engagement tour, in the bathhouse after the barn building, dinner in Italy, the drinking game in the dive bar where Drake had really opened up to her.   

All these moments and others had eventually lead the night of the attack when he'd jumped in front of a bullet for her she thought it was all over, remembering how his face had paled as he bled out in her lap before Bastien found them. She thought she'd lose him in that moment, feeling bitterly robbed that they'd barely even gotten started. But she hadn't, they hadn't. Fate had given them another chance and when Drake proposed, the vulnerability in his eyes telling her he'd be committed to her forever, even if he didn't exactly say it out loud, she knew he was all in. He told her he'd loved her that night and she'd never been more honest in her reply that yes she loved him too. If they could make it through a terrorist attack and still come out stronger, they could make it through this. 

 They had to.   

For a moment it felt as though she had the weight of the entire balcony pressing on her chest. Elizabeth truly felt terrified now, terrified as the regret of just how much she had destroyed in her selfishness hit her. Was she really going to throw their entire relationship away for such a trivial matter? 

 A tear slipped from her eye, the wind carrying off before it could reach her cheek. Through all that had happened, she did love him, she never really stopped and it had taken one collapsing balcony to make her recognise that again. Too little too late indeed, now that she was possibly falling to her death without resolving things between them, without him knowing that no it wasn’t his fault but hers entirely. 

 A fragment of the flooring brushed against Elizabeth's left hand, pulling her back to reality as it clinked against the engagement ring on her fourth finger. She couldn’t die! 

In fact, she refused to. Not when her and Drake were just about to begin their life together. 

 Her descent began to speed up as all memories that they’d yet to make flashed before her eyes. Introducing him to her family, watching him squirm under her father’s baleful gaze and mother’s gushing over his good looks. Laughing as she’d watch him square up to a drinking game with her brother and sit through endless interrogations from her sister. 

She imagined how he would look at her as she walked up the aisle, the love and adoration that would spill from his face and hers as she joined him at the altar to be bound forever in holy matrimony. Elizabeth thought of the day she’d tell him she was pregnant, how he’d think she was joking at first until she produced the pregnancy test with two lines. Of how she’d grasp his hand as she screamed through labour only to forget all the pain when she was handed their first child. She envisioned Drake as a father, teaching his little ones to play soccer and ride horses while she watched from the kitchen window with a big smile on her face before calling them in for dinner. 

As cliche as it might be, Elizabeth saw the two of them old and grey holding hands while they looked out on the porch from their rickety rocking chairs as their grandchildren played in the back yard. 

All the memories they’d never make together... 

The sky way further away now and she could hear as chunks of debris hit the ground below and suddenly the possibility of dying became so much more real. If she died today, Elizabeth hoped Drake would move on. Hoped he’d be able to find someone who loved him as completely and passionately as he deserved.

As she never would be able to again. 

She just wished she could have done it right when she had the chance. 

I love you Drake. I always will.        

And then…

IMPACT

-

A/N: Ok I’m at a crossroads with this fic and where to take it so help me out? I have 2 options:

1. End it in the next chapter. Don’t worry I’m not about to pull a PB and have MC magically come out unharmed but there will be a full fix-it and fluff to end the series on chapter 5.  

2. Run with my original idea which is much more angsty and interesting IMO because my creative juices have been flowing heaps lately! Because it is more creative, this idea will be a lot longer however (I’ve only planned up to Part 11 and things are only just starting to wrap up) 

Both options will have a happy ending, it just depends how much angst you want to be put through first lol. Do you really want to read 11 or more chapters thats what im asking here lol 

Pop by my ask box or comment how you’d like this series to end x

Tags: @chantelle-x0x @choicessa @mariawalkerwrites @topsyturvy-dream @pbchoicesobsessed @lovemyrestingplacethings @xxrainbowprincessxx @american-duchess @limenagirl @withice @sir-wigglesworth @boneandfur @ayo-minty-jess @ninamckenzie22 @drakelover78 @h3llostrang3r @cocomaxley @zarina-x-zig @nicestrokepam @bizzyschoices @lizeboredom @kellyale1804 @mrswalkerreynolds @kamybelen-blog @hhiggs @jenjosh5 @bruhvs @boxhound34 @natalievgoodehenry @choiceswreckedme @laniquelove @jamielea81 @theroyalweisme @penguininapinktuxedo @crookedslimecreatorpasta @asprankle @drakewanker @mrs-walker-nazario-levine @decisso

Want to be tagged?  For the next part, I’ll be deleting all tags that are not working i.e. not in green/underlined so message me if you are one of them. 

#drake walker #drake x mc #trr drake #trr au #the revelation au #the royal romance #the royal romance book 3 #choices #playchoices #choices fandom #choices fanfiction #pixelberry #not really a cliff hanger #well compared to the last chapter it isnt #just more angst #im really putting them through their paces #theres a happy ending i promise #its coming #but first more angst #how much angst do you want me to put you through #i can make it quick and relatively pain free #or drawn out and angsty but worth it in the end #how long do you want to suffer before i make it all ok again?

[jjkfire]

Sweet Saccharine; pt. 2

Reader x Jungkook // sugardaddy!AU // 11k words

Summary: Trying your best to stay afloat in a ruthless city, you decide to join the sugar bowl. Who knew the sugar baby business would be this exciting?

Genre: Fluff?

Part 1 // Part 3

A/N: bro it’s been months since the first chapter and I am so sorry like lmao does anyone even remember that this fic exists??? anyway told myself to keep the fic simple but my brain was like uhhh heck no 

Previously...

Oh, if only Jungkook knew what he was getting himself into, if only he knew who you really were. He would’ve avoided you like the plague, he would’ve been running for the hills, anything to get as far away as possible from you. It was in this person’s favour however that Jungkook didn’t. An evil smile graces the lips of the dark figure, dressed in all black.

So begins the takedown of Jeon Jungkook.

So begins the end of Jeon Logistics.

Now

So, what are both you and Jungkook doing in the middle of a long, empty, straight road, one would ask? The answer would be Jungkook has no fucking clue.

“Do you trust me?”

“No… not really,” Jungkook gulps as he looks over at you in the driver’s seat.

“Aw, come on,” You laugh. “Live a little why don’t you?” You turn to him to raise an eyebrow, an evil smirk on your lips.

He hears you rev up the car engine, its signature roar resounding in his ears and usually he loves the sound but right here, right now, he’s not so sure. What he knows though is that letting you take the wheel was a horrible, horrible idea.

Earlier

[02:28] You: Hey friend saw you in a magazine today [02:28] You: Image sent

Jungkook’s fingers scramble to swipe at his phone to open up the message. He breathes out a sigh of relief to see that the magazine had chosen a rather flattering photo of him standing next to Yoongi and Taehyung, his two closest friends.

The three of them grew up basically attached to each other considering that their grandfathers were best friends who had all established their own logistics company around the same time, building it from the ground up with their very own hands. Everyone thought that their friendship wouldn’t last, that eventually, friendly rivalry would turn ugly but the three old men still got together at the Jeons more than once a week for a casual game of poker.

The Min, Kim and Jeon family are often referred to as the 3 greats of the logistics industry, but they were more than just that. The comradery between the 3 families has lasted for generations now. Jungkook doesn’t even remember a day where he didn’t have Yoongi and Taehyung by his side when he was growing up and even now, they’d at least see each other once a week, be it for a casual coffee or the occasional supper. The three of them seem like an odd combination, so different from the other yet somehow, it worked. Perhaps it was the fact that they carry the same burden, the pressure of having to take over such a huge company one day or perhaps it was the other 101 things that they had experienced together that helped shape what is seen as an unusual friendship.

Jungkook stares at his screen, unsure of what his reply should be but sure of the fact that he wanted the conversation to move forward. He wasn’t quite sure where he stood with you yet but the two of you had been texting day and night since he had dropped you home that evening and maybe it was because you were a lot more comfortable over text that he found himself being drawn towards you, wanting to know more about you. Perhaps it was your crass humour or the way you sent him the weirdest memes, a sign of real friendship you had told him one day but he finds himself waiting for a text from you for a greater part of the day but your busy work schedule meant that they were few and far in between until the end of the day comes and suddenly he’s sat there texting you for hours on end, way past his usual bedtime.

Talking to you seemed real because for the most part he knew you didn’t have a hidden agenda, he didn’t have to worry about your intentions or any of the sort because the deal the two of you have has taken care of that and if this felt like a job to you, it never showed and for that, Jungkook is grateful. You speak to him as if you’ve known him for years, not boring him with stupid small talk that he hates but you dive head in, skipping the part where you awkwardly try to get to know each other, instead choosing to talk about that midnight movie you snuck into that day or even your thoughts about the government, fully uncensored of course and boy were you brutal. It’s a breath of fresh air because Jungkook doesn’t remember a conversation he’s had as of late that didn’t have to do with who was boning who or who just got a new car or mansion because frankly, Jungkook could give less of a damn about all those superficial things. He just wanted for once to have a conversation that mattered, one where he left feeling like he learnt something, a good sort of conversation that left you feeling in some way or rather, fulfilled and that he got whenever he spoke to you.

Perhaps the reason that conversations with you seemed so interesting was that you had an entirely different perspective on life, one he assumes is because all his life, all he’s known is the North, the isolated dream island of a city that is separated from the bottom half of the city and the rest of the mainland, the only connecting factor between the two pieces of land is a less than impressive bridge. Jungkook doesn’t know much about his country other than what was taught in school and he has a feeling that much of what he’s been taught has been watered down or altered because after hearing you speak about the provincial parts you had grown up in, everything he has learned doesn’t seem to make sense anymore.

All Jungkook really knew about his city, was that there was a long river that runs through it, dividing it in half, and for years now, the people from the North and the South had lived entirely different lives. The North, where Jungkook was from had the bright lights, the fancy restaurants, the good schools and hospitals. It had everything it needed to be classified as a dream city while the South on the other hand had quite the opposite. It had the crime, the poverty, the dilapidated apartments and ironically, it also had the backbone of the city’s wealth, the port.

Over the course of a week and a half, he has learned a fair bit from you about his country and to his surprise, his very own city because although he doesn’t like to think about it, the segregation is real and he has never had the chance to know about the intricacies of the part of the city his very own company depends on, until he met you of course.

[02:30] You: you know

[02:30] You: i’m a little sad because in the interview portion, you mentioned that you were happy to be there

[02:30] You: because all your friends were there

[02:30] You: but you know who wasn’t there?

[02:30] You: your most important friend

[02:30] You: aka the one you’re paying for

[02:30] You: aka

[02:30] You: me

Jungkook giggles at that, shaking his head at you. For someone who was so shy in person, you were surely pretty brazen over text.

[02:31] Jungkook: are you using your phone at work again?

[02:31] Jungkook: you’re a horrible employee

[02:31] Jungkook: how have they not fired you yet?

Rude, you mumble out loud. It was 2 am and the last customer had walked out about an hour ago. You’d be bored out of your mind if you didn’t use your phone from time to time.

[02:31] You: nobody wants to work the graveyard shift so I mean…

[02:31] You: also, hello, please don’t change the subject Mr. Popular

[02:32] You: frankly, I’m offended that I did not get a special mention

Jungkook scoffs at your text because you sure were a fickle minded person.

[02:32] Jungkook: wow

[02:32] Jungkook: okay

[02:32] Jungkook: I visited you at your workplace last week and you tried to shoo me away

[02:32] Jungkook: said you were afraid people would associate me with you

[02:32] Jungkook: and here you are wanting to be associated with me

[02:32] Jungkook: make up your mind pls

You plonk your head on the table, a slight brush creeping up your face as you remember Jungkook strolling into the convenience store you worked at after you specifically told him not to come. The look of shock on his face after you pushed him out the doors made the situation all the more worse but really, things could’ve gone wrong if he stayed.

[02:33] You: omg that was bc a bunch of paps always hang around outside the store

[02:33] You: waiting for the celebs to leave the clubs on the opposite side

[02:33] You: i clearly said paps when I shoved you out the store

  [02:33] Jungkook: who cares if the paps saw us hanging out?

Who cares? Who cares?! Everyone cares. You’ve seen it all play out, seen how someone’s life goes up in flames simply by having had their picture taken with the wrong person at the wrong time.

  [02:33] You: i’ve seen the magazines okay

[02:33] You: i know what it’s like when they see someone of your stature

[02:33] You: hanging out with someone like me from the south side

[02:33] You: bad press

[02:33] You: I’ll be labelled your south side hoe

[02:33] You:  and then there’ll be a scandal

[02:34] You: then your company’s stocks will plunge

[02:34] You: so really, I was trying to protect you ok

Jungkook laughs at your text because god, you were so gullible. Half the content of the magazines you read were in some way scripted. Usually, the paparazzi are called beforehand by their PR Team so that pictures could be taken of them leaving the trendiest place or hanging out with the in crowd. Of course, he wanted to tell you that the paparazzi had no interest in him of all people considering that his mother had always made sure that any unapproved pictures of him would never make the stands because she’d make sure the magazine would never be able to publish again but you seemed to rather enjoy those magazines so, he didn’t want to ruin that for you.

[02:34] Jungkook: aw, you care

[02:34] Jungkook: that’s cute

  [02:34] You: of course I care

[02:34] You: you’re my source of income

  [02:34] Jungkook: wooooow

  [02:35] You: wait, I mean

[02:35] You: of course I care

[02:35] You: you’re my friend

  [02:35] Jungkook: unbelievable

[02:35] Jungkook: all you think about is money

Of course that was all you thought about. Maybe if you were as rich as Jungkook, money wouldn’t even be something that would be on your mind on the daily but you were you, struggling to even find enough cash in your pocket to pay for a sandwich.

[02:35] You: well I’ve got bills to pay my friend

  [02:36] Jungkook: fair enough

[02:36] Jungkook: speaking of money

[02:36] Jungkook: when are you free?

[02:36] Jungkook: at this point I’m starting to think you’re trying to avoid me

Jungkook had asked to hang out twice so far and you had turned him down, citing work as an excuse and he’s not so sure he believes you. That’s why he decided to pay you a visit while you were working and okay maybe he felt a little bad for doubting you because he saw you at the cash register, scribbling away at the inventory log. He could see the dark circles under your eyes, the way your shoulders were slouched forward, the frown you wore and he didn’t know you too well yet but in that moment his heart ached for you.

[02:36] You: i’m not, i swear!

[02:36] You: i was called in to pick up an extra shift that day

[02:36] You: and that other day as well…

[02:36] You: But i’m free tomorrow night!

  [02:37] Jungkook: nice

[02:37] Jungkook: i’ll pick you up for dinner at 7?

 A free meal, you smile. Heck yeah you were in for that. If it weren’t for the fact that you had to pick up two extra shifts, you would’ve already had 2 free meals, good ones at that.

  [02:37] You: in your Lamborghini?

[02:37] You: you know i only agreed to this deal bc i dream of sitting in your lambo one day

  [02:37] Jungkook: nah

[02:37] Jungkook: you were so flustered the day i met you

[02:37] Jungkook: i know you said yes bc you’re secretly in love with me

 Jungkook laughs as he remembers the way you had rose to your feet the instant his chair turned around, how you had dropped all your belongings onto the floor and you were scrambling to stuff everything into your purse so you could run. Adorable, he laughs. He loved seeing you flustered and he knows if he had said what he had texted to you in person, you’d be a sputtering mess.

 [02:38] You: nice try

[02:38] You: but

[02:38] You: FALSE

  [02:38] Jungkook: hmm

[02:38] Jungkook: i clearly recall you saying something along the lines of i love Jeon...

 You didn’t say that out loud did you… You’d rather die than live knowing that Jungkook knows you’ve had a crush on him ever since you saw his picture in the newspaper when you were 17. He mustn’t know.

  [02:38] You: what?

[02:38] You: i never said that?

[02:38] You: but I mean

[02:38] You: i probably said I love your grandpa maybe

  [02:38] Jungkook: so you’re into old people?

[02:38] Jungkook: like a reverse pedophile???

[02:39] Jungkook: a gerontophile…

 How does he even know that term? God, you meant you admired him. For a second, you’re not sure what to type back and you wonder if this is why Jungkook has to pay you to be his friend because if he’s like this with everyone, you can imagine why he didn’t have anyone to hang out with.

  [02:39] You: wth

[02:39] You: i didn’t mean it like that…

[02:39] You: you’re so…

[02:39] You: wtv

[02:39] You: anyway okay see you at 7 tomorrow

[02:39] You: in your lambo

[02:39] You: bye

  [02:39] Jungkook: wow I have to pay you to hang out with me

[02:39] Jungkook: and you still make demands???

  [02:39] You: what can I say

[02:39] You: i’m a difficult woman

[02:39] You: also a customer just walked in so gtg bye!

Jungkook sets his phone aside, shaking his head as he laughs, a common sight whenever he texted you. Truth be told, talking to you has become something he’s become quite fond of, perhaps even one of the best parts of his day.

Jungkook picks you up from work like he promised, parking his car two blocks away like you asked because apparently you didn’t exactly need to be seen getting into a car you’d never be able to afford. Actually, he didn’t even pick you up because you had told him to wait in his car and that you would find him but he bargains with you and you relent, letting him wait for you a block away from the convenience store you worked at.

From the moment you see him, you’re already giddy, for him, he wishes but he knows you’re only this happy because in a few minutes, you’ll see your dream car right in front of you. He watches as you sprint towards it when it comes into your view, the car in all its matte black beauty, elegant and poised. Before he can tell you that the car doors open upwards, you’re already diligently sitting in the passenger seat, waiting for him which surprises him because the best part about watching people get into his car was to see them struggle with the door. He’s impressed obviously that you seem to know more about luxury cars than you had initially let on but when he gets in the car, he sees you admire the interior, fingers softly ghosting the plush leather interior, a sign that this was a rare occurrence for you.

He expects the car ride to be awkward seeing as to how you’ve always had trouble with small talk but you bombard him with question after question about the car he’s driving and he doesn’t think he’s ever met anyone so interested in this car and everyone before you who had sat in this car couldn’t even pronounce the car model’s name right but here you are asking about the CC of the engine, if he liked the automatic double clutch system and the car’s top speed. In fact, if anything, Jungkook feels embarrassed because he couldn’t answer most of your questions because all he knows was that it looked good in the show room and that alone was a good enough reason for him to buy it.

“How much do you have to pay monthly?”

“Monthly?” Jungkook quirks his eyebrows. What do you mean by monthly?

“Yeah, you know… for the loan?”

Cute. You thought he had a car loan.

“Shit, you paid for it in cash?” You gasp, finally realizing why he didn’t understand your question.

He only nods his head, laughing at the expression on your face.

“Damn, what a concept,” You exhale, wishing that you could do that too, walk into a showroom and pay for a car in full right there and then. Well actually, you wish you even had a car to begin with. Amazing, you sigh to yourself. You knew the rich kids had it good but you didn’t know they had it this good.

“So, what’s for dinner?” You question as your stomach growls, the sandwich you had for lunch already long digested. “How many Michelin stars does the restaurant have?” You grin, already conjuring up an image of what dinner was going to be like.

“You’ll see,” He smirks and the smile on your face is unmatchable, pure joy radiating from you as you picture your soon to be meal.

The two of you stand in a modest store and you frown when you don’t see any chairs, no fancy tablecloth or anything of the like for La Table, is the name of the place and zero is the amount of stars the place has because it wasn’t even a damn restaurant.

“Alright everybody, put on your aprons!” Calls the woman from the front of the room.

“Are you serious Jungkook?” You groan, the emptiness in your belly becoming unbearable. “We’re here for a cooking class? This is our dinner?”

“I thought it’d be fun,” He shrugs and the glare you give him makes him laugh.

“So welcome everybody to tonight’s advanced class! Tonight’s segment is called Date Night: Passport to Paris!” The chef smiles and you look over at Jungkook in shock only to find he has the same look on his face.

“Advanced? Wait, isn’t today just the umm… Essential Skills for Beginner Cooks?” Jungkook asks one of the assistant chefs making her rounds, his voice full of panic.

“That’s next week honey,” She smiles before sauntering away, going to check up on the equipment on the other benches and Jungkook’s heart drops.

“I mean Jungkook, if you wanted to change this arrangement from platonic to romantic, you could’ve just told me,” You tease. “I don’t need some big gesture date night cooking class.”

“No that’s not— I didn’t—”

“Calm down,” You laugh. “I’m just teasing.”

“No, Y/N, you don’t understand,” He frowns. “I can’t cook. Like I’ve never tried… before and now we’re going to— What if I mess up?”

He genuinely looks so worried, so afraid that you can’t help but laugh.

“Chill, Jungkook. If we mess up, then we mess up,” You shrug. “I’m not great at cooking either but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. If you burn the dish though, we’re going for supper.”

“I mean whenever you’re involved, isn’t supper a given?” He laughs because whenever he texted you late at night, even on days you weren’t working, you always seemed to be having supper. A new habit of yours thanks to the deal you had struck up with Jungkook because now, you could afford two meals a day, that being lunch and supper.

“That’s true…” You murmur. “Are you trying to say that I eat too much, punk?” You frown, throwing playful punches at him to which he dodges with a laugh.

The class begins as everyone shuffles in, taking their respective places at their benches. Everyone else in this class were obviously couples because duh, it’s date night and truth be told, Jungkook envies them, envies the way they stared at each other like their significant other were their entire world and he often wonders when he’ll find that, if he’ll ever find that. It’s an odd thought to have but his mother has always had a tight grip on all aspects of his life and sure he has had a few flings here and there but word travels fast in the upper echelons and the moment one of the women says I heard your son’s been seeing (insert name here), it would be game over for him. You have to focus on the company, she would say. Women are only distractions, she would remind him and Jungkook would sigh, knowing what he would have to do the very next day.

All his life he’s felt restricted, the only friends he had were ones she approves of and he really couldn’t care for the most of them, the only actual company he enjoyed was that of Min Yoongi and Kim Taehyung. Though the 3 of them were best friends, they were entirely different people, none of them ever interested enough to do the things Jungkook wanted to. Technically, he never asked them because in truth, he was shy to and he didn’t really have to ask them anyway because he knew Yoongi would much rather be at home during his free time and Taehyung would much rather be out and about, attending parties, drinking expensive wine.

Jungkook doesn’t like to admit it but with his new found freedom, he’s come to realize just how lonely he was, not that he had a problem with being alone but… he’d much rather have company with him whenever he wanted to go on one of his odd little adventures. He really had tried everything, searched high and low in his inner circle of friends, he had even put up a Craigslist ad to find friends but the only responses he got creeped him out so, when he saw that sugarbaby conference ad in the newspaper, gears started turning in his head and when he saw pouty you hanging out at the back of the room, ploughing through glasses of champagne, his interest was piqued. Just by how you spoke, Jungkook could pick up on the fact that you weren’t from the North side and perhaps he was drawn in by that, by how he was told his entire life that those from the South weren’t worth his time and yet he felt like you were the only person in the room he had clicked with that night.

Jungkook’s mind drifts in and out of the class, not really daring to do much despite you giving him plenty of chances to try doing something other than washing the vegetables but he insists he was fine with doing just that.

“Come on,” You laugh. “All you have to do is push the bacon strips around the pan!”

Jungkook only shakes his head vehemently and you let out a snort.

“Typical, rich men,” You shake your head. “Always wanting all us Southies to do all your work for you,” You snort, teasing him.

“That’s not what I—” He sighs, choosing not to complete his sentence. “I just don’t want to mess anything up,” He frowns and you can tell that for some reason or the other he feels genuinely afraid to even actually attempt to cook.

“Jungkook you’re going to have to at least try,” You offer an encouraging smile, handing the spatula to him.

“Next dish,” He murmurs, shaking his head and you nod at that, smiling at him.

Jungkook doesn’t know how to explain to you that he had an inexplicable fear of failure and of trying new things. The very fact he’s here with you, trying something new is in itself, a miracle. Ever since Jungkook could remember, his mother had quite a temper on her and if there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was when Jungkook had failed at something. If Jungkook really thinks about it, he’d grown up fearing his mother more than loving her and it’s sad of course but even at the ripe old age of 23, Jungkook still feared her. She never hit him, no, but she never had to because her words hurt him more than anything, her words had the power to break him. That being said, he still loves her, he does. After all, she had single handedly raised him and he’s more than grateful to her. He assumes the way she tries to control everything, to keep everything in order is her way of coping with the loss of her husband or at least that’s what Jungkook thinks. He wonders from time to time what his life would be like if his father was still around, if Jungkook and his mother would be a lot happier instead of how they both feel a giant gaping hole in the middle of their chests that never seemed to heal, not even with time.

Everyone looking from the outside in sees Jungkook as the young boy groomed to perfection and genuinely, that’s what it is. Every single decision in his life up until recently has been made by his mother and unluckily for him, fun and rest, were not part of her vocabulary. From the get go, it was extra tutoring to piano classes to ballet classes to swimming classes and then topped off with even more tutoring. To say he had a fun childhood would be a great big fat lie because he remembers being wildly unhappy but not having any power to do anything about it. He always told himself to hold on, to tough it out because maybe when he’s older, he’d be able to have the life that he’s always wanted

Yet, in everyone else’s eyes, his life just as it is now is what everyone wanted. The nice cars, the fancy clothes and the big family mansion is everyone’s dream life but Jungkook honestly feels like all of it is a sham because that isn’t who he is, in fact far from it. Because Jungkook hates the piano, hates ballet, hates swimming, hates all things his mother had coerced him into doing but among the elites that’s what he is known for, his exceptional piano skills, his gracefulness as a dancer and his medals that he collected over the years at all those swim meets. Perfect, perfect, perfect, that’s what he is. The picture of success, happiness and elegance, that’s what he had to be but sometimes it all got a little too much for him to keep up with.

For most of his life, he felt like he was playing a role, that he was his mother’s puppet but not too long ago, he took a stand, moving out of the family mansion in favour of a comfortable apartment. His mother had picked it out obviously, it was the only way she had let him leave. He told her it was to show the world that he was independent, that he’d be seen as a more reliable soon to be CEO of Jeon Logistics and to his surprise, she agrees. It was a sudden realization that dawned on him, like a mid-life crisis or probably quarter-life crisis in his case that he had actually never done anything for himself his entire life but rather lived most of it trying to please his mum. So, his rebellion started out small initially with him moving out of the Jeon estate and gradually, it moved on to things like eating at Mcdonald’s regularly, something his mother had never let him do because she was convinced it was bad for him. But he didn’t stop there, the small form of disobediences giving him enough confidence to continue so, it casually turned into hitting all the clubs with Taehyung, which his mother was furious about but at this point , Jungkook could care less. Then finally, came you, the biggest defiance of all. If his mother found out he was hanging out with someone like you… Jungkook shudders at what his mother would do, wishing not to think about it.

You are quite probably her worst nightmare because you’re from the south side which by default meant that you were of a lower socio-economic status and essentially to put it in simple terms, you would never belong or come close to where the Jeons stood and if there was one thing she hated more than Jungkook's failures, it was when he mixed with people outside of his class. He had learned that at a very young age when he tried to befriend the help around the house, a lesson he has yet to forget. Yet, here he was with you, and quite honestly, he’s regretting it now because you’re forcing him to chop up green beans and frankly he’s never held a kitchen knife before.

“Oh god, Jungkook, no!” You yelp as you watch him haphazardly chop the vegetables. “You’re gonna cut one of your fingers if you do that.”

“I, uhh…” He mumbles, his voice small and shrunken because just like always, he couldn’t even do the small things right, he sighs. There’s a large frown on his face and it makes you feel horrible for reprimanding him like that. You step closer to him, a light laugh escaping you as he steps away, letting you take over but you pull him back to his spot. “No, no, you’re not going to make me cook and do prep too,” You laugh.

“Relax your hand. Tuck your fingers slightly inwards and place it here,” You instruct, taking a hold of his wrist, placing it a quarter length away from the tips of the beans. “And the knife,” You try to reach around him for his other hand until you realize that your arms were simply too short so, he laughs taking a small step back from the counter to make space for you. You stand snugly between him and the counter and he’s not sure this is the best way to teach him how to prep the vegetables but he keeps his lips tightly sealed. This was oddly getting a tad bit too domestic for Jungkook but what’s worse is that he feels he rather enjoys having you this close to him when he really shouldn’t because after all, you’re supposed to be just his friend as in platonic, with a capital P so he tries his best to shove aside whatever feelings that seem to be stirring deep down in the pits of his heart. “And don’t hack at them, just slowly slice through them like this,” You continue, hand on top of his, gently guiding it, the gesture making it difficult to concentrate on what you were saying.

“R-right, thanks,” He murmurs, as you turn around to smile at him before ducking under his arms to step away and Jungkook can feel a tingling sensation in his chest when your soft hands leave his. Did his heart just skip a beat? Probably… but it shouldn’t have though. This was all only happening because he’s still feeling rather flustered from his vegetable chopping mishap, he reasons. He’s usually much, much better with girls but he doesn’t know what it is with you that has him feeling so out of his element.

Jungkook feels slightly accomplished when he had chopped all the vegetables on his own and also with your help, cooked the chicken breast in the tarragon sauce. Like with the vegetables, you guide him through the whole cooking process slowly, your hands over his trembling ones as you make sure he stirs the sauce thoroughly and maybe this time he purposely asks for your help just so you would stand close to him again. But, every time he makes a small mistake, he feels like shrinking away, like when you had asked him to put in some pepper and he had obviously put in too much but instead of screaming at him, you only laugh saying that if anything, you could dilute the sauce if need be. There’s a sigh of relief that escapes him because unlike all his other teachers, you’re patient and Jungkook finds a sense of comfort in your presence. For the first time, he feels like he’s with someone that didn’t expect him to be perfect.

When it comes to the final dish of the night, the dessert, Jungkook has grown confident, perhaps a little too confident because he says he thinks he can make it better than you.

“Challenge accepted, Jeon,” You grin.

Though Jungkook doesn’t get very far before he’s asking for your help and you abandon yours in favour of helping him. You can’t help but think that he looks like a lost little puppy the whole time and maybe it makes your heart twitch a little when you see him pout. It surprises you obviously, the fact that he seemed quite timid because he was always painted as a confident, charming man in the magazines, but you’ve only seen him as a quiet, shy boy all night tonight. When you finally take the dessert out of the oven, Jungkook smiles so widely that you almost feel like reaching over to pat him on the head endearingly.

“So with all of that done,” The chef announces. “It’s time for you to plate your dishes.”

Both you and Jungkook can’t seem to come to a consensus when it comes to plating because the two of you have totally different ideas on what looks good and somewhere along the line it turns into a competition. If anyone looked around the room, they’d see cute couples working together, quietly drizzling sauce on their plates and then one look at the last bench and they’d see you and Jungkook throwing insults at each other over your respective artistic choices, screaming and laughing at each other as a raw vegetable goes whizzing over either of your heads. Young love, the other couples sigh. It was always so refreshing to see couples that were just starting out. Ah, but little did they know…

“Your hands are shaking.”

“Shut up, Jungkook,” You snip at him, trying to stop your hand from trembling as you attempt to smear the sauce artistically like you had seen on the cooking channel that one time.

“Am I making you nervous?” He smirks, standing so close to you that you could practically feel the heat radiating off him.

“No…” You mumble. “Just stop staring at me!” You grumble and Jungkook laughs, closing the distance between the both of you until you could feel his breath fan across the back of your neck, an involuntary shiver running up your spine.

“I know it’s hard to concentrate when the man you’re secretly in love with is standing this close to you but relax, Y/N, it is date night after all,” He grins smugly and you can feel a blush creep up onto your cheeks but no, your dignity as a chef is on the line so, your response is an elbow to his abdomen. Jungkook backs away laughing as you mumble under your breath, sauce all over your plate now thanks to him.

As per Jungkook’s request the chef comes around to look at the dishes to pick a winner among the both of you and in your mind, you know you’re going to win hands down because your plate looked 10 times better, in your opinion.

“Im going to have to go with, Jungkook,” The chef smiles, a dreamy sigh escaping her lips. “It’s simple, clean and looks great!”

“What the f—” You bite your tongue, cutting your sentence short. “Of course it looks clean, there’s barely anything on his plate!”

“It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality and I’m a fan of minimalism.”

“Quality, my a—” Once again, you purse your lips, swallowing the rest of your sentence. “The chicken on his plate is smaller than the size of a baby’s fist! How are you even supp—”

“Alright, thank you so much for helping us decide,” Jungkook cuts in when the chef looks remarkably horrified at your small outburst and you grumble as he pulls you away from her.

“She’s biased,” You pout. “I demand a rematch.”

“No, no,” Jungkook argues. “I won that fair and square.”

“Oh come on, she was shooting heart eyes at you from the front of the room the whole time,” You groan. “Of course, she was going to pick you.”

Had she? Jungkook hadn’t noticed. In fact, he hadn’t noticed anyone aside from you the whole session.

“You’re just a sore loser.”

“Am not. I want a rematch, punk,” You jab his chest with your finger.

“No can do, babe,” He smiles, before turning to dig into the salad that you had singlehandedly made and you pout, sinking your fork into the vegetables as you mutter to yourself.

You eat your meal with a perpetual frown on your face and Jungkook finds it absolutely adorable how you’re so upset over something so menial. He tries to make conversation, but you purposely ignore him, feasting on the extra bacon strips that you had fried over the course of the session. God, you’re so cute whenever you pout and he wonders if that fluttering feeling in his chest had to do with you or perhaps he had an underlying heart condition that he needed to get checked because it’s been happening a lot as of late. Much to Jungkook’s dismay, nothing he says seems to catch your attention and he’s stuck in a one-sided conversation with himself until he mentions supper and suddenly, your frown fades, replaced with a bright smile instead.

You insist on saving all the leftovers even when Jungkook tells you that you shouldn’t because it tastes mediocre at best and you only sigh, shaking your head at him because he didn’t understand that you’ve been having sandwiches for lunch for a straight month now and you’ll take anything you can get at this point. So, he relents, watching you stroll down the street with a massive paper bag in hand and the widest smile on your face.

“What’s that?” You question, stopping in your tracks to point at a store, baffled by the queue that went around the block considering that it was nearing 10 pm.

“That’s Glazed, you know… the donut shop?”

“Ah,” You smile. “I’ve seen it online. Best donuts in the city or something,” You scoff, as if it was untrue and Jungkook feels mildly offended because he loves their donuts.

“They are the best,” He defends and you can see the way his eyebrows are furrowed, as if you had personally attacked him.

“Nah, the south side does it better.”

“Have you tried them?”

“No…”

“Then how do you know it isn’t the best?”

“I just know,” You shrug and Jungkook looks at you in disbelief, his features coloured with a tinge of annoyance before he’s storming off into the store, completely ignoring the long line.

In a matter of minutes, he returns with warm donuts in hand and you have to admit that they smelled heavenly, yet you feign disinterest, only taking a bite when he prompts you to. He watches your face closely to judge your reaction but you keep a blank face, not wanting him to know that okay, they tasted good, better than you had imagined.

“Mehh, the south side does it better,” You shrug, taking another bite of the donut.

“Of course they do,” He rolls his eyes.

“Seriously, they do and it’s a whole lot cheaper too,” Your words muffled as you attempt to speak without choking on the donut piece you just swallowed.

“Says the person who’s almost finished the donut now,” He laughs and you look away sheepishly, licking at the sugar on your lips.

“Look, donuts are donuts and I don’t discriminate,” You smile, reaching into the bag for another one.

By the time the both of you reach the car, the bag of donuts have disappeared and if Jungkook remembers correctly… there were 4 of them in there and he hadn’t had any of them. He doesn’t say anything though, only watching as you admire his car again, running your finger around the exterior of the car.

“You want to drive it, don’t you?” He questions.

“N-no, Maybe… Yes...”

“Here,” He tosses you the keys and you lunge forward to catch them.

“A-are you sure?”

“Why? Will I regret it?”

“I don’t know… will you?” You smirk, a single eyebrow lifted as you slide into the driver’s seat.

The answer is yes, yes he will regret it because you’re driving at a speed he didn’t even know his car could go at and he feels like tonight might just be his last night on this Earth and he squeezes his eyes shut, clinging onto whatever his hands could find purchase on. The car ride in all honesty had started out fine, the car cruising at a leisurely speed until you crossed the bridge over to the south and you found a stretch of road, dimly lit by the streetlights and you stopped the car to ask him an innocent question. Do you trust me?, he remembers you asking and the rest was a haze to him because it all went wrong from there on.

“Lighten up,” You laugh. “What’s the point of having a beast like this if you don’t drive it at top speed?”

The point was, Jungkook explains, that the car looked flashy and that when he drove, he would at least leave the car knowing he would have all his limbs still intact. You laugh at that, shaking your head. The people from the north side of the city were always so timid, so afraid. Without warning, you slam down on the accelerator pedal harder and Jungkook doesn’t want to scream but he can’t help it not when you’re driving at this speed. You take a hard right into an empty parking lot and he can actually hear the tires of his car skid across the asphalt, his heart stuttering along with it.

“Are you ready?” You ask but he has a feeling you’re not looking for an answer because before he knows it, he’s sitting there watching as the car speeds off before everything goes blurry and he clutches onto anything he can grab on as the car spins around in tight controlled circles.

“Let loose! Just enjoy it,” You shout and Jungkook opens his eyes to look at you, the biggest grin he had ever seen on your face and he relaxes the grip he has on the seat. Maybe it was the fact that he was doing something so rebellious that has his heart pumping but soon his fear dissipates, replaced with pure unadulterated joy instead. He realizes now why he enjoys his time with you so much, be it in person or over text. It was the fact that you didn’t try as hard as everyone to try and impress him or put on a show but that you were just unapologetically you, doing what you wanted, saying whatever you wanted without regarding the fact that he was Jeon Jungkook because when he was with you, he felt like he was just him, just Jungkook, without the family name tied to him, without the expectations of what he’s supposed to be hanging above his head.

The two of you sit there, laughing as the car finally comes to a halt and Jungkook doesn’t want to admit it but he had enjoyed that more than he should, considering that what the both of you just did was technically illegal.

“Where’d you learn how to drive like that with a car like this?” It’s a genuine question because as far as he knows the intricate gear-changing systems are only found in cars that quite frankly, you couldn’t afford but you had worked his Lambo like a pro.

“When I first moved into this neighbourhood, I may have hung out with the wrong people,” You laugh. “Long story short, I’ve driven a few expensive cars. Stolen, of course.”

“Like you hot-wired them?”

“Does it look like I could walk into a neighbourhood here and hot-wire a Ferrari?”

“Well…”

“We either bribed the custom guards or straight up stole them from the port,” You mumble, referring to the port on the south side of the city. “Well, I didn’t. I never got that far into it. I just got to take the occasional drive.”

“You were one of them,” He gasps. “I think it was a year or two ago but Grandpa never got the Ferrari he imported in.”

“The Ferrari 458 Speciale, was it? I remember that one,” You laugh, the cherry red car still fresh in your memory despite the time that has passed. “Don’t tell him it was me…” You smirk and Jungkook can only laugh at that.

“Where is it now?”

“Somewhere in some gang leader’s estate in the provinces maybe,” You shrug, the details are a little fuzzy to you because you had tried your best to be aloof whenever the plans of where the cars were going was discussed.

“Do you still do it?” Jungkook asks and you can hear the apprehension in his voice, not wanting to sound like he was judging you but he totally was.

“No, not anymore.”

“What made you quit?”

“I just realized that I had come to this city so I could find a better life, not get sucked into all of that,” You exhale, as if you had almost wanted to say that you didn’t want to get sucked into all of that again but you had opted to leave that last word out but he doesn’t know why. Jungkook can tell that there’s something more that you weren’t telling him and he wishes to ask you a myriad of questions like what your past was like? What exactly it was that you were running from, but he knows it’s not his place to ask and he guesses you can sense that he had these questions burning in the back of his mind because you’re speaking before he can ask you anything.

“You ready for some donuts?” You question and he nods. “Well, you’re driving… and you gotta drive fast,” You smirk, getting out to exchange seats with him and Jungkook gulps in fear as he makes himself comfortable in the driver’s seat.

“Okay, Jungkook,” You begin, as the car sat in the middle of the empty road, like it has for the past 5 minutes. “You just have to slam the accelerator pedal. Don’t think, just do.”

“But…”

“If you’re worried about the cops… don’t be,” You laugh. “They have far more to worry about than two delinquents speeding down an empty road.”

Jungkook lets out a heavy sigh, unsure as to why he was letting you talk him into this. You were supposed to be someone who was to follow him along on the stupid, mundane things he wanted to do, not get him into trouble. Jungkook looks over at you and you only quirk an eyebrow at him, challenging him. God, his mother would kill him if he picked up a citation for reckless driving and yet, here he was, his foot flooring the pedal, his car going twice, maybe thrice the normal speed he drove at.

The car jerks forward, his body pressed to the seat and Jungkook feels the excitement, the adrenaline rushing through his veins and you were right, it was a lot more fun being in the driver’s seat. By the time he reaches the end of the road, Jungkook makes a U-turn, begging you to let him do it all over again and you laugh at how he asks for your permission because after all he was the boss and this was his car. So he takes off more confidently this time, driving at twice the speed limit, whizzing down the street and in and out of tight roads until he reaches the donut store you had guided him to, the dilapidated store with its broken neon sign buzzed above it. Shame, he was genuinely pretty excited but looking at it now, it seemed like it held little promise.

Jungkook waits with his car parked further down the street like you had asked and just as he steps out of the car, you’re bounding over with a large brown paper bag. You continue walking, beckoning him with a finger and he hesitates, not wishing to leave his car in the open like that… especially not if the same car-stealing gang you were once a part of are roaming the streets.

“Don’t worry,” You laugh. “Your car’s not going anywhere.”

“How do you know that?”

“Just trust me,” You smile and he lets out a sigh, reluctantly joining your side as you pass him a donut.

The two of you take a seat at the bench that looks out upon the water, the calming sound of the soft waves lapping up against the bank echoing in your ears. The bright city lights twinkle before you as you take in the view of the North, a spectacle you never got tired of seeing and you let out a light laugh as you watch Jungkook marvel at the scenery, his eyes wide open and filled with wonder. He stands up to wander around, whipping out his phone to take a few too many pictures, as if he feels like he would never see any of this again.

“What’s all the flowers over there for?” Jungkook questions as he takes a seat on the bench again, pointing at the corner a good distance away from the pair of you.

“It’s in remembrance of those who were lost in the fires a few years back.”

“Fire…?” Jungkook furrows his eyebrows in confusion, unable to recall anything about a fire in this city but he remembers seeing smoke fill the air a while back, but not bothering to figure out what was happening as long as it was south of the bridge.

“Yeah, it was maybe 2 years back,” You recall. “A huge fire started by a leaky gas line running through one of the apartments a few blocks back.”

“I-I’ve never heard of this.”

“Yeah, the mayor swept it all under the rug because the residents had been complaining about the leak for days before the fire happened,” You sigh. “That’s the worst part you know? That it was entirely preventable.”

“How many people…” His voice trailing off in the end, unsure if he wanted to know how many had perished.

“Hundreds,” You mumble. “No one knows for sure,” You shrug and Jungkook can only let out a deep exhale, one filled with sadness.

“It’s funny how we do so much for this city but we’re treated like second class citizens,” You laugh. “They said that all that separates us is a bridge, that we wouldn’t need emergency services on this side if we were only a bridge away,” You smile sarcastically. “But they watched our buildings burn from across the river, sitting on stacks of money that we helped them make.”

Jungkook sits in his seat, guilt bubbling within him because he didn’t know and possibly everyone across that very bridge didn’t know that this was the reality of those who lived just a drive away from them. Perhaps it was the propaganda that was thrown at him at school but from what little he has seen of this side of town, it wasn’t half as bad as what he has been told. Before meeting you, he had only gone to the port and back and he won’t lie, he had many a times seen the occasional broken window, the walls filled with graffiti and the shady men hanging out on the street corners. Everything seemed to be in line with the image that was painted of this side of the city but seeing what you’ve shown him, the vibrant community of late-night food stalls, the cute little mom and pop bakeries, to this lookout point, perhaps it was true that the government was trying to hide something by convincing everyone else that the South held no promise.

“They criticize the gangs that roam the streets here but you know who the first to respond on the scene were? The gangs,” You exhale, tucking the brown paper bag that held the donuts, by your side. “It didn’t matter whose territory it was or who had beef with who. Those men risked their lives, running into burning buildings to save those who were trapped inside, which is more than I can say about the cowards in those glass buildings that constantly tell us we’re not worth a damn thought.”

He’s never seen you so emotional before, your face stern, your voice filled with so much resent that he could almost feel it cutting him, though he hopes he isn’t a target of your resentment towards the rich.

“I’m sorry, I got a little carried away,” You frown. “It’s just… I know what people like you think of us, how you’re so afraid of us but there’s so much you don’t know about that goes on here. I would go so far to say you’re probably one of the very first North person to even venture this far into the South,” You laugh, digging into the bag for a donut.

“Probably,” Jungkook laughs in return. “And, you’re right, but in my defense, it’s only because of what I’ve heard about the South... about the gangs and the violence,” He mumbles. “And the fact that they always attack our shipments,” He whispers the last part, not wanting to downplay the atrocities that the government and by extension the North has committed against your side of the city but maybe that was why Jungkook has come to fear and to some degree hate the South so much.

“The gangs,” You scoff. “My question to you though is who essentially created the gangs? Who created the circumstances that forces us to feel like the only protection that we can get is if we have armed men running around protecting certain parts of our city, our country? That the main requirement of a regular 9 to 5 job, of getting into a university is not merit, no, it’s your postcode.”

Jungkook wishes to argue and to say no, that it was because the Southerners enjoyed the rough-housing, the illegal activities, that they enjoyed living off of his taxes, for that’s what he’s been told over and over but maybe hearing your reality, hearing you speak makes him think twice about the bubble he’s been living in.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” He frowns. “The South has always been like a mystery to me and I guess, it’s not really my place to say anything or judge the way you live.”

“Jungkook,” You smile, shaking your head. “Do you think any of us here want to live like this?”

It’s a rhetorical question of course but he finds himself answering anyway, shaking his head solemnly.

“I know you think this is bad, but you haven’t seen what it’s like outside of the city, in the smaller provinces on the mainland where I grew up,” You sigh thinking back to your childhood. “Ask your grandfather, he would know. He briefly lived in one of the worst provinces in this country.”

It’s a subject his grandfather never enjoys talking about. His childhood almost a complete mystery to Jungkook as he’s learned not to bring it up, watching his grandfather’s face turn sour every time he had questioned him about it. The south, the provinces, the gangs were all hush hush topics, never to be mentioned around the house and Jungkook has a vague idea that they’re all tied together, that his grandfather had some experiences he wishes he could forget. We should do something about the gangs, a member of the board had brought up during a meeting, referring to how their shipments were being ambushed every time it left the port or was bound for the port because what was a logistics company if they could never deliver the goods? Jungkook remembers the way his grandfather had glared at the man, his cold piercing stare making even Jungkook shiver even though it wasn’t directed at him.

If you know what’s good for you, you’d leave them alone.

His voice a clear, loud warning to any who had conjured up ideas of how to curb gang activity. The meeting continued on, the final decision being that decoys would be sent out and the actual packages were going to be transported to and from the port through smaller unassuming vehicles. All of this made no sense to Jungkook because it incurred extra expenses towards the company and made them less efficient at delivering on time when it could have been easier to strike a deal with the gangs or simply just clean them out, both solutions that were much cheaper and convenient but who was he to say anything… He was still learning the ropes.

“Maybe someday,” He murmurs. A certain doubt stirs within Jungkook because to his knowledge, his grandfather has never made public where exactly it is that he had grown up.

You take the short silence as a chance to start a new topic, steering the conversation towards something lighter, like that new Marvel movie that’s slated for release later in the week, letting Jungkook do all the talking for a change for you were still trying to get yourself to calm down. It was hard for you to keep your emotions in check whenever you spoke about the South, about the gangs and about the government, especially when you were speaking to someone who comes from a privileged background. You know like most of the North, Jungkook saw nothing wrong with the state of affairs of the country, completely blind to the injustice but you guess that’s only because he saw no reason to be aware or he’s been brainwashed to think that there really was no injustice in the first place. After all, Jeon Logistics is one of the biggest supporters of the current government’s campaign, the only thing about the company that you absolutely hated and it baffles you as to why his grandfather would do that, would align himself to such evil men when he’s seen how bad it is in the provinces, having grown up in the mainland like yourself. Perhaps it’s for survival, you reason, that maybe if you were in his position, you would do the same. It’s a dog eat dog world after all and it was the cronies at the top in the North that have the upper hand so why would anyone align themselves to the losing side?

As the minutes pass and the conversation flows effortlessly from one topic to another, your anger dissipates as you laugh the night away with Jungkook. He tells you stories about his childhood, ones that leave you wishing that you had something close to what he had. He tells you stories of his first day on the job at Jeon Logistics, how he had been so nervous at the board meeting that he left 3 times to go to the toilet to pee. He tells you about the one time he had a disaster of a date, throwing up all over his date after having had one too many drinks and you laugh, telling him to remind you to at least keep him at an arm’s length distance if the two of you ever went to a bar. His stories make him feel real, approachable and it’s a dream to you that you’re getting paid to be his friend. Little did he know, that you would gladly do this for free, after all who wouldn;t want to be his friend? He doesn’t know but like him, you don’t have too many friends, because well you only have one... two, counting Jungkook... maybe three if you could count the chef at the noodle store you frequented. Though his tales are warm and friendly you can’t help but notice that there’s a huge chunk that’s missing in his stories and that’s obviously his family but you don’t ask because honestly, you don’t want him to ask about yours. It would make all of this far too complicated, you sigh, your thumb rubbing at your inner forearm, a tick Jungkook has seemed to taken notice of and you quickly busy yourself with the donut bag, nervous that he’ll ask.

You don’t remember the last time you’ve lost track of time while talking to someone, the only other person capable of keeping you occupied for that long is Wendy, your best friend whom you’ve been meaning to call up for days now because she keeps giving potential sugar daddies your number, which isn’t entirely her fault since you had given her the green light to do that when you last saw her at supper after the sugarbaby conference. You thought about how you were going to have to tell her you’ve managed to land one on your own, a platonic one at that and that your sugar daddy was none other than Jeon Jungkook but alas, the last part has to remain confidential as the contract between you and him had requested for you to keep it so. It ate you up inside, having to keep a secret this large from her and maybe that’s why you’ve been dilly-dallying, telling yourself to call her tomorrow except tomorrow never seems to come. You know with a few prods, you’d probably break, the secret spilling out of you because who else would understand better than her that one of the most eligible bachelor’s in the country was paying you to be his goddamn friend and the best part was that you’ve been dreaming of meeting him since forever.

Meeting Jungkook is a lot less magical than you had imagined it to be and there are no sparks or hearts flying around but you can’t deny that his presence stirs something within you, a feeling you want to deny because technically, he’s your boss and also, why put yourself in a position where you’ll end up crushed because in a year and a half when the contract ends, you don’t want to be hopelessly in love with him while he walks away, in search of a girl that could match his stature, one that he would probably end up settling down with. You’re thinking far too ahead into the future but maybe that’s the only image that can stop you from letting his passing flirty remarks affect you, from blushing when his gaze lingers a little too long because sure he can toy with you and you can do the same with him but you always have to remember that there’s an invisible wall between to two of you, one you would never be able to break and maybe in the end, you’re only attracted to the idea of him and not Jungkook himself but after getting to know him a little bit better now, that reasoning seems to be falling through the cracks. He would always gaze at you warmly when you spoke and for some reason it felt like he was tuning the world out just to hear you speak, something you’ve barely been able to experience, ever, considering that half the Northern guys you’ve met look at you like you’re stupid or not worth their time and if they were interested, it was only because they wanted to get into your pants. But, you remind yourself that you aren’t here for love or anything of the sort because after all, the end game of all of this was the money wasn’t it and not anything else?

Those are thoughts you push aside in favour of enjoying the rest of the night, telling Jungkook a little too many hours after that you actually have to be up early tomorrow for work but that’s a lie because at this point there was no point in sleeping for you’d be starting your new job at the port in approximately 3 hours now. The pair of you eventually leave the bench to move towards his car and Jungkook is a little worried that his car wouldn’t be there at all but as you had promised, he finds it where he had left it, not even a scratch on it.

“See, I told you it’ll still be here,” You smile.

“But you told me over text the other day that a car like mine would go missing the instant I let it out of my sight.”

“Not here it won’t.”

“What’s so special about this place?”

“It’s a crime-free zone,” You answer, snickering at the literal question marks that were floating above Jungkook’s head. “I think you’ve heard enough about politics tonight,” You laugh, walking around to the passenger seat of the car. “Maybe I’ll tell you some other night,” You huff before getting into the car.

“It’s like every corner of the South has its own story,” Jungkook laughs, shutting the door. “Maybe, you’ll tell me over donuts sometime this week?”

“Let me take a look at my schedule first,” You mumble and it makes Jungkook laugh because usually he’s the one saying that line.

“What?” You grumble and he shakes his head, letting you carry on as you figure out in your head if you have any free time this week. You eventually tell him that you’re too tired to think, that you’d text him later.

The car ride to your apartment is a little too short for Jungkook’s liking and although he’s spent his whole night with you already, it still made him slightly upset when he pulls up to your apartment. Again, like the first night, he wants to tell you that hanging out with you made him feel alive if that made sense but he decides against it, not wanting to sound dumb.

“So, now you have to tell me,” You unclick your seatbelt turning towards him. “Who does donuts better? The North or the South.”

Jungkook purses his lips before he grits his teeth, not wanting to let you know that okay, maybe he was wrong about the donuts in the North.

“The South,” He sighs, letting his head hang low as you let out a light laugh. “But you totally cheated,” He grumbles because by donuts he thought you meant just normal glazed ones but when he dug around the bag for another one earlier when the pair of you were on the bench, he found a powdered donut. The moment he bit into it to find a custard filled centre, he was sold. “How did you know that custard filled donuts are the way to my heart?”

“The custard ones were for me,” You frown. “You weren’t supposed to have them. They’re my favourite.”

The custard donuts were for you, yes and you lied because yeah you love them but you also bought it with the intention of offering him one. You remember reading in a magazine somewhere that it was his favourite, that if there was something the city was lacking, it was a donut store that knew how to do custard-filled donuts well. You’re just not looking hard enough, you sigh as you read the interview. You swore that if you ever met him, you’d take him to the donut store and that you did.

“Well it appears that we are soulmates then,” Jungkook grins as he winks at you and you roll your eyes at him but he can see your cheeks begin to flush a light pink.

“Alright, soulmate,” You laugh. “I’ll see you soon?” You ask, reaching for the door handle.

“I don’t know, you tell me, Mrs. Let me check my schedule,” He teases and you scowl at him.

“I’m a busy woman, okay?” You glower before laughing. “Thanks for tonight though. It was fun,” You smile.

“The pleasure’s all mine,” He smiles in return. “Oh and how much were the donuts?” He questions, reaching into his inner pocket for his wallet.

“Ah, Jungkook, don’t worry about it really,” You push away the cash he had in his hand now.

“Y/N,” He sighs. “Do you still not understand that I’m supposed to pay for everything?” This oddly seemed reminiscent of the last time he dropped you off. Why do you always pay for supper even when you’re strapped for cash? The part where he pays for everything was what he thought would be any sugar baby’s favourite part of the deal but you seem to think differently.

“I know, I know,” You mumble. “But, I just… Take it as a form of an apology for having to hear me ramble tonight.”

“No, Y/N, I—”

“Goodnight!” You shout, as you scramble to exit his car, not letting him argue with you. “I’ll see you around, friend!”

“Soulmate!” He corrects and though you’re a good distance away from him now, he can still see you scowl at him to which he only responds with a laugh.

Jungkook knows that tomorrow, he’ll probably receive an angry text from you, one that demanded he takes back the money he had slipped into the takeaway bag while you were buying the donuts because he had a feeling you were going to refuse his money by the end of the night. The amount he had left paid for the donuts and a lot more because he felt like you needed it and maybe he rather enjoyed the thought of you using it to spoil yourself, though he knows if anything, it would go to paying off your debts. He knows through all your texts that you have far more on your plate than you can handle and he wants to help you, even if you didn’t want his help. 

I don’t want to be your personal charity case, Jungkook, is what you had told him when he said he could help with your debt but that’s not what he meant for it to be like. 

I can get you an entry level job at my company, he had offered but you turned it down vehemently. Jungkook, that’ll only put you in a tough spot. I don’t want to get you in trouble... People will start asking questions, you had warned him and that was true, he admits. He later realizes that he wants you as far away from his mother as possible too.

He hasn’t told you yet but he admires you greatly. He wonders how you’ve been able to survive so long out here in the city without your parents, how you’re still standing after all the odds that have been stacked against you, how you still remain so kind, so caring even when life has been nothing but cruel to you. Looking at you, he truly realizes how unfair life can be because from his brief conversations with you, he can tell that you’re a genius, and he’s not going to lie, he may have asked for your help in trying to solve a few company dilemmas that he was tasked with, a few too many times. You’re an asset he wants at the company, and he can see the similarities between you and his grandfather, it’s almost uncanny, he laughs. But, just like his grandfather, you have an air of mystery that surrounds you, things he can’t seem to figure out, the top one being where is your family and why did you clam up whenever he asked about them? But, Jungkook guesses, he has a few skeletons to hide in his closet too, his family, his father, a main topic he has yet to discuss with you. Perhaps he was making mountains of of molehills, that you didn’t have anything to hide and that you simply just haven’t told him yet but with time, he hopes, you’ll clear the doubt in his mind. You couldn’t quite possibly have a hidden agenda could you? If you turned out to be yet another one of those girls who were hoping to be able to destroy his family’s company with dirty schemes, he wouldn’t hesitate to crush you, even if he’s grown fond of you.

He shakes his head, trying to get rid of the sour thoughts that try to take root in his mind because tonight was far too good a night to be ruined by his habit of overthinking things. Perfect. Tonight was perfect in Jungkook’s books. He drives home feeling rather joyous, using the remaining distance before the bridge as an excuse to drive his car at way past the speed limit. Who knew he’d learn how to cook, break the law, have the best donuts he’s ever tasted and have a conversation ranging from politics to that new video game release, all in one night? This was something that was probably only capable of happening when he was with you. He feels like he’s going to plough through his bucket list that he’s had ever since he was 12 as he spends more time with you, your brilliant self adding onto his list things he never knew he wanted to do.

Alive. That’s how he felt whenever he was with you or talking to you. It’s stupid, because he’s often acknowledged by the inner social circle he has, everyone admiring the fine young man he’s grown up to be but he always felt like they didn’t really care about him, they just care about who he is, about who he’s going to be. You on the other hand, made him feel like he matters, like you enjoy having him around because he’s just simply... him and not because of what he has or what he’s achieved.

The night ends with all parties feeling overjoyed; Jungkook delighted with the unpredictable adventure that was tonight, you elated with the fact that not only had you laughed your ass off tonight but that also for the first time in weeks, you’ll be eating something that was not a sandwich for lunch, but perhaps the hooded man sat inside his car, opposite of where Jungkook’s was just seconds ago was the most content of the three. Happy didn’t even begin to describe what he’s feeling as his plan is coming along just nicely, almost too perfectly and he smiles, admiring the pictures he’d taken of tonight. Mrs. Jeon surely would enjoy seeing these pictures, you and him together, he sighs to himself. But no, it’s too soon for that. There’s still much that he’s waiting for you to do. A perfect night indeed, he smirks. 

A perfect night indeed.

#btswriters #kkreationsnet #kpopwritingnet #armiesnet #bts fanfic #bts scenarios #jungkook fluff #yo i promise there will be more fluff in the next chap lol

[just-another-human-mind]

~Unexpected~

1.8k words, fluff mix?

Protector!Dan & Clumsy!Phil

Warning: there is a bit of cussing and lowkey bullying but it’s nothing really 

Summary: an AU in which Dan and Phil are polar opposites. Phil is Dan’s lowkey stalker and would do anything to learn more about the lonely boy who lives next door. During summer he decided to finally try getting closer, but when his plans actually worked he didn’t expect to fall for him more than he already had. With Dan being the cold person he was on the outside, seeing his gentle side only makes Phil’s life harder than it was because he can’t seem to get Dan to notice him!

{chap. 2}

Chap.1

“Dan…Daaan…Dan…Daniel wake up”, Phil whined continuously shaking the boy in his sleep. “Fuck off”, Dan groaned pulling his blanket over his head hoping the other would leave him be. However, Phil wasn’t giving up, “You promised”, his voice pitched higher. “Ugh”, Dan fussed, but Phil continued to pull at his sheets. Eventually he succumbed to the weak protest and lifted his head from the stuffy sheets keeping his eyes closed. “...what is it?”, he yawned. Impatiently waiting for the other to speak, but can only hear rigid breathing coming from below. This raised a bit of concern, Dan shifted himself up to sit. Adjusting his eye’s to a flash of light coming from the wooden floor to the left of him. ‘A phone?’, he questioned. Then looked over to his side and saw the pale boy with tears flooding his blue eyes kneeling beside his bed. He looked as though he was trying to form words, but failed. Dan froze, he felt so confused. Why was he crying was he too mean? What just happened? His mind became filled with bizarre reasons until Phil finally broke the silence. “I saw...I t-thought I saw him or something s-standing by the d-door! G-glowing eyes and e-every-thing”, Phil’s voice kept getting interrupted by the soreness in his throat which forcefully held back tears. He continued on mumbling faint inaudible words, but all Dan can process at that moment was having a possible stalker or demon watching him sleep late at night in which Phil happened to have caught it. He was stunned to say the least, but as his mind started to fully awake, it hit him. He recalled Phil saying he wasn’t scared of horror films after being questioned by Dan’s suspicion at 11pm and even picked out his “favorite” so they both can watch, but here he was 3 hours after he had went to sleep, sitting here looking at Phil being a paranoid mess because of the the movie. He had no word’s. Did Phil lie? Why? Dan decided to let it go so he rested his hand in Phils messy head of hair and started to play with his fringe. The apathetic boy didn’t know why he was doing this, he wanted to stay away, but it was better than just watching the pale boy suffer for no reason, he wanted to protect him, ‘Why is he different?’, the boy sighed at his thought and continued to pet the dork back to his calm self. It worked, he somehow slowed down Phil’s breathing, both taking in the musky aroma that surrounded them. ‘Rare’, Phil thought, but enjoyed the delicate affection he was receiving. 

*2 weeks earlier*

It was summer and Phil had set a goal for himself to spend a night over at Dan’s despite the many rude remarks made by him whenever they crossed paths. Phil always tried to get close to the mysterious hazel eyed boy who happened to live next door. From his window, he would frequently spy on Dan, both of their rooms were right across from each other and if he was lucky, Dan would sometimes open his curtains and crack the window open for fresh air giving Phil acsess to quickly analyze his room (in a non-stalkerish way). They both had similar interests in music and video games, but Phil was never able to actually connect with Dan, since he would never even be allowed in the first place. To Phil, Dan was like a cat, he would never communicate with others and you would never be able to see him, he is quick and being the number one cross country runner in the town made him drift further away from society. It was like he ran his feelings out of him. If so, how much does Dan have bottled up inside himself to the point where he can surpass the rest without difficulty? Phil wondered all kinds of things about Dan, but to his disappointment it would only make him feel further apart. Little did he know that was going to change exponentially.

A few weeks after summer break had started, Phil's family had left town to visit family in the north leaving him behind to attend his summer math class. The next morning as Phil was walking to school he spotted Adam and his friends huddled and hovering over each other to watch something on a phone. ‘Shit’, Phil thought and swiftly sped up hoping he doesn’t get spotted. But of course, he managed to trip on a hole in a crack on the sidewalk as he was about to turn the corner and fell face forward. ‘I hate myself’ Phil thought and suddenly felt two big hands pull on the back of his jacket, bringing him to his knees. “Well what do we have over here!”, Adam exclaimed. His friend, Greg followed along by laughing at Phil's unfortunate fall and started to play around with his backpack, “Well shit, looks like the little faggs joining us for summer school this year!”, Greg continued to investigate the bag but found nothing interesting so he ended up throwing it back to him. Phil tried to shove Adams strong grip off him so he can get up and get out of here, but that only caused Adam to tighten his grip. The group of guys all laughed at the weak attempt and started to call Phil a bunch of meaningless names. Adam hushed them all and leaned in closer to Phil, “You can’t leave just yet”, Adam hummed, sounding almost menacing causing shivers to go down Phil’s spine. “I want something from you and we cannot disagree Lester, because if we do i’ll make you wish you hadn’t, his voice sung those lines mischievously and Phil wanted no part of it, but felt beyond intimidated. Adam is not the most popular guy in school, but he is the strongest and him being 6”5 doesn’t help. Phil is pretty tall himself, but he doesn’t have muscular abs nor does he have enough confidence to stick up for himself against a bad boy like Adam so, he shamelessly agreed. “What is it you want from me?”, Phil could almost swear he saw stars in Adam's eyes as he grinned. “The wolf has caught his prey”, one of the other guys in the group mumbled to himself, but loud enough for all to here. “Well… I want you to strip for me at my party next week in front of everybody”, Adam said without a hint of hesitance. ‘What? Is he actually being serious right now’, Phil looked stunned. What was he supposed to say exactly? It’s not something people would actually agree to. So he just sat there with pure confusion until Greg pushed his forehead as if to bring him back to reality. “Hey-hey-hey no fantasizing just yet, Adam you can’t be serious right now that’s insane nobody want to see him let alone strip!”, Greg kept complaining, but Adam held his stare, “Well. Do you know what you’ll be wearing? I can see that you’re thinking about it already”, Adam was full on smirking. “Why! Why would you want me to do something like that and why would you even think i’d actually agree to something this stupid! Phil wanted to leave, he was going to be late and wanted to forget every word that came out of that assholes mouth so he tried to get up. “Ah-ah-ah no Lester you can’t say no you already agreed, remember?”. “You really can’t make me”, Phil spat. Just as Adam yanked his arm and pushed his back against the fence Phil immediately kneed him in the nuts. “Fuck!”, Adam groaned deeply and hunched over, the men around him started yelling at Phil and tried to catch him, but ultimately failed because of how inhumanly fast he was running. The running didn’t last very long and Phil immediately fell to his knees in exhaustion. Luckily, the school was only two streets down and Phil had that tiny bit of strength left in him to walk it off. 

He made it in and wasn’t late to his first day of class, ‘it’s a miracle’, Phil thought to himself as he dragged his sore legs into the classroom. There were a few empty seats and the one’s in the front were filled with classmates he hated, because, one, they were never friendly with him and two, they were just annoying in general. All the girls would act fake towards each other and would practically throw themselves at the guys. He felt so out of place, so different that he’d rather risk his chances of not being able to understand the teacher during the lectures that he just went all the way to the back corner and chose a seat by the window. The universe must’ve had a grudge on Phil, because Adam and Greg walked in six minutes after Phil and immediately spotted him. He was scared and left frozen like a deer in headlights as Greg pointed at him and said something to Adam. He should have left, he should have just quit summerschool right there, but he couldn’t because if he didn’t pass this class he would be forced to stay another term next year instead of graduating. They walked towards him and with every step they took Phil sunk deeper and deeper into his seat. Greg pulled him back up with hands gripping the back of his shirt collar making Phil squeak. “I'm sorry Adam! I-I didn’t mean t-to h-hurt you like that I was sc-scared”, Phil sheepishly admitted with his hands in the air. His heart was beating ultra fast, he felt as though it was going to get ripped out any moment by Adam, but thankfully he was saved. The teacher walked in and told everybody to settle down and go to their seats. The two guys ended up taking the empty seats surrounding Phil, Adam to Phil's left, Greg to Adams, and sat silent for the rest of the period. Phil was worried if Adam was plotting his death and kept looking to his side only to keep seeing emerald eyes staring back at him. He couldn’t read the expression on his face, it was almost blank and made him feel uncomfortable. The bell rang and Phil tried to leave as fast as he could with the rest, but for some reason Adam didn’t go after him and beat him to death. Instead he just watched Phil squeeze his way out of there like a freaked out baby mouse and giggled, nobody noticed. Hungry and feeling emotionally drained as well as physically, Phil decided to skip eating out today and instead go home, have his crunchy nut cereal and take a long nap, because summer school was going to be a long ride and he knew it.

{ next chapter }

**notes**

Okay wow is this all over the place? Please let me know as i'm still new to this and hopefully it was readable! lol thank you for taking the time to read ❤ i have so many idea’s for this and i hope you’re excited to see how the story progresses and if you have any suggestions i'm open to reading them! thank you again ❤

#phan #daniel howell #phil lester #phanfiction #phan fluff #phan au #dan #phil #my work #jahm #my phanfic