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#in elementary i could just sit down with friends for review and come out of it energized *and* more familiar with the material
puppyeared · 6 months
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if escape rooms as team building exercises became popular im not sure if id be more excited or terrified
#if it isnt already anyway.. i can see it happening as a school frosh thing. idk if it would catch on as a workplace thing#i kind of find the concept of being locked in with strangers and working to find a way out weirdly exhilarating though#at least compared to icebreakers cause i dont have to spend 10 minutes racking my brain for something to blurt out abt myself#as a bonus u could like. put people into groups and give prizes to whoever escapes first second third etc. apparently they also do themed#escape rooms.. maybe let people pick a theme? or voluntary sign up? actually this would be really fun for smth like a blind friend date#although if i found out i was locked in a room with an online friend id be too excited to actually escape LOL#ive never done an escape room before so sadly i cant speak from experience. its like up there on things i want to try next to rug tufting#workshop and visiting new art exhibits or conventions. i seriously need to get out more if it wasnt for the horrors <- school and anxiety#i was planning to invite cass to a drop-in art workshop in town but neither of us could go bc typography is making us go thru hell and back#AND THEY HAD A BUTTON MACHINE TOO#im nostalgic bc i miss working in groups and not being awkward abt it or worrying abt schedule conflicts#i realized that i learn best in groups and its a little corny but i like sharing ideas and talking through a problem#in elementary i could just sit down with friends for review and come out of it energized *and* more familiar with the material#and i could technically still do it now. but as adults we're more picky abt who we work with on top of being way more busy outside school#maybe im lonely. im shy and grew up not talking to ppl unless i absolutely have to so its hard to make friends on my own i guess#only thing getting me thru it is telling myself that humans like helping and that my cringe is overblown in my head. but its hard#hence the escape rooms. i have been able to talk to 2(!!) people though!! mostly abt school stuff but im glad to be on friendly terms#i dont really know how to be happy these days cause im constantly scaring myself abt my portfolio and finding places to work#not being ambitious is part of not wanting to put energy into something that wont work out while also not having the passion to do literall#anything else.. i should probably talk to my counsellor ugh#yapping
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s-4pphics · 7 months
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make the bed. (e.w.)
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“𝒜𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒻𝑒𝒸𝓉 𝓂𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐼 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝒸𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝒶 𝓈𝒾𝑔𝓃.”
omggg my first writing challenge YIPPPEEEE shoutout to olivia rodrigo
ty to the post-pandemic prose and my babies @elliesbelle and @totheblood for pointers :D love yall down 
wc;cw: 1.1K, just angst YAAAAY, internalized homophobia, ellies so sad :(, mentions of alcohol
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“lf I liked girls,” you slurred, your lips brushing against the shell of Ellie’s ear, the pounding speakers synched with the squeezes in her chest, “I swear t’god… you’d be mine.” 
Whenever you drunkenly murmur to her like this, Ellie wishes she didn’t hear you; She was shocked she could over the ruckus happening all around, rattling the bubble she created for the two of you. You always sounded so sure with your lies. They never fail to throw her into fight or flight mode. She tensed and her stomach churned in despair. 
“Y’so perfect, Ellie. Love y’so… fuckin’ much. All mine.” 
All she could do was nod and whirl you around with a pained smile before burying it into your clothed shoulder. You didn’t bat an eye; You were always the affectionate drunk. 
But she wanted to scream. To cry and beg and ask — demand that you fall into her right where you stand. To love her the way she’s loved you since she showed you how to ride a bicycle in elementary school. She flinched at every delicate kiss you planted on her neck, her hands squeezing at your hips. She doesn’t know if she wants to push or pull you closer. 
She knows. Her arms enclosed around your waist and you giggle into her skin. 
This is exactly how you two should be. She’s envisioned it since middle school: completely infatuated and engulfed in each other, secluded off in your own little world filled with nothing but solace. Closeness. Affection and desire. 
So why was she sick to her stomach at your scent? Lavender and sage no longer brought her the comfort that they used to in adolescence. She was being torn apart from the inside out, but she couldn’t scream. 
She only listened, digested every drunk fallacy that you directed to her in secret. With no one watching. No one ever watched. No one could know. That was your only rule when she climbed through your window months prior. Please just keep it between us, you’d whispered before leaning in to kiss her. 
At least Ellie could imagine that this was real as she held you tight: recreate the same image in her mind over and over. The two of you are together and happy to be in love with no selfishness or regrets in her mind. All she had to do was close her eyes, and you were all hers, just like you said. She’s so, so in love with you. 
But you didn’t want her. You never did. 
She’s instantly reminded of that day a few months ago. The memory feels like a ghost over her shoulder; Maybe that’s why she’s constantly peeking over it, picking at it with her nails. 
The two of you often reserved study rooms during exam season for review, but you had other plans. You were exactly where you were supposed to be — room 213 — but you weren’t by yourself. 
You — beautiful, as always — brought… friends. Friends that Ellie knew, that you knew, didn’t like her. She never actually talked to them, but she always felt… off. She was instantly riddled with anxiety, the books that she checked out ten minutes ago almost hitting the floor as her arms weakened. Sweat pebbled on her forehead as she stood and watched everyone stare at her. 
Why did it look like they were all laughing? She couldn’t hear any chuckles, but there was laughter. Someone’s laughing at her. Do they know? You have to know, but do they know about the two of you? About how Ellie feels—
Ellie? you’d called. 
… Mhm? she recalls almost fainting. 
Your eyes were confused; You knew something was off, and it made her even more nervous. 
Sit down, honey. Come meet everyone. You made sure to massage her knee under the table; It always soothed her. 
The introductions were surprisingly smooth. Ellie never expected your friends to be so polite considering how rowdy they seemed outside of class. She was pleasantly surprised and put at ease. Until the end of your study session. 
Everyone was packing their bags and cracking jokes. Ellie even got a couple laughs out of some of them during the quiet few hours. 
Ellie wasn’t sure what came over her, but she eased closer to you, still gathering your books. She relaxed at your scent. When you turned to face her with that gentle smile, her mouth moved on autopilot. 
I missed you so much. You never hit me back last night.  
Maybe it was the way Ellie said it. She shouldn’t have looked into your eyes the way she did, whispered to you like that, said she missed you with so much devotion. But she did, and she wished she didn’t. 
Your smile turned to worry instantaneously, and Ellie’s heart plummeted when your head whipped around the room to check if anyone heard before turning back to her. No one cared. 
Ellie felt like she’d been stabbed. It happened so quickly; she probably would’ve missed it if she blinked. Her nails dug into the hardcover of her books, tears jerking in her eyes before she tossed a stiff see you guys later over her shoulder and rushed out the room. You tried to grab her arm, but she shoved you off. She had to fight her instincts so she wouldn’t turn around and apologize for being too rough. 
She got back to her dorm and… trashed it while she cried. Disgust and anger flooded her system while she threw her clothes, her trinkets, the photo of you, Ellie, and her mother at your shared high school graduation across the room (she only sobbed harder when she noticed it cracked when it hit the floor). The emotions that rushed through her weren’t even for you, but for herself. Ellie’s own hope destroyed her, and she only has herself to blame. 
She should’ve known at the time to never speak to you again, but she loved you. She loves you. Every fiber, every cell of her being lived to see you at your happiest; It’s tortuous how you expose the darkest parts that she wished to keep hidden until the end of time. She hasn’t felt like this since she was a teenager. 
And yet, she still swayed you. Kept you close so she could breathe you in. This is the most you allow, at least: physical touch. She knew better than to allow you to mistreat her, but she couldn’t leave you. You both danced until your legs burned, and you fell into her bed the same night. 
She forced herself to lay in the massacred mattress that she’d tried to keep made since she was a kid. The least you could do was fluff the pillow you slept on every night.
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tanniefm · 1 year
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all to you | jjk (m)
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summary - why work on a boring school project when you could fuck your cute bestfriend?!
pairing - sub!jungkook x dom!reader (f)
genre - friends to lovers, pwp
word count - 2.6k
song inspo - all to you by sabrina claudio.
warnings - dry humping, dirty talk, praise, pet names, cumming in pants (EEEE), breast play, reader is described as squishy and squeezable so if you don’t like that my bad
a/n - i just desperately needed whiny koo. badly. also hey lol it’s been a while
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You're gonna fail this class. Who the fuck even needs calculus anyway? You huff and continue to throw a silent temper tantrum while writing down equations that don't even make sense to you. You look over at your friend, Jungkook to see if he thinks anything of what the professor was saying makes sense, only to see him diligently writing in his notebook and seeming to retain every bit of information the man bellows out to the class. You chuckle to yourself, your Kookie, always hard at work.
You and Jungkook have been friends since you were kids. He's always been a little meek and quiet, a complete juxtaposition from your talkative and loud manner. You had found him cute, even back in elementary school. His bunny smile and his big doe eyes made you melt every time you looked at him. Being neighbors, naturally, you both were constantly around each other. He was content with listening to you talk your head off while he listened intently and nodded along. You two complement each other. Anytime either of you had a problem, the other was always there to give support. Your favorite thing to do though was tease him. Seeing his pretty face burn scarlet and shyly bite his lip after complimenting him gave you a strange sense of satisfaction. It seemed as though no one could get him so flustered but you. Of course, you tried not to dwell on it, but it's not like it wasn't there.
You watched the clock obsessively, desperately waiting for it to strike 4. You smiled once it did and quickly gathered your stuff to meet Jungkook by the door where he always waited for you. Calculus is your last class of the day so he waits for you to pack up to walk back to the dorms together. As you start down the road to your building, you turn and finally ask him what the fuck you're supposed to be doing for class.
“Oh, we have a test next Monday. It's on Convergence and Divergence, remember?” he asks. No, you do not, but you're sure you wrote down some notes somewhere so maybe that'll count for something.
“I do not have the attention span for this shit I swear. Every time he speaks I automatically zone out,” you groan. He giggles and shakes his head.
“I’ll help you study, don't worry,” Your dorm building comes into view as you keep your pace on the sidewalk.
“Great! My roommate won't be home for another couple of hours so we can get started at mine.” you smile.
You take out your key and unlock the door and walk into the living room to set both of your bags on the kitchen table. Jungkook gets his laptop and notebook and sits on the couch. He found doing your work out here is more productive than in your bedroom since you tend to get a little lazy when you're in the comfort of your room. You've argued with him about this plenty of times before, even though you're very aware he's right.
“You want anything to drink? Eat? I think I might have some ramen in the pantry,” you yell from the kitchen.
“Nah I'm good, thanks!” he yells back. His face illuminates from his screen as he starts looking up the test review your professor sent out for the class.
You come back with a bottle of water and your sweatshirt in your hands. Oh. You took it off. Ok, that's fine - Jungkook thinks to himself - the tight tank top you're wearing that seems to accentuate your boobs and curves perfectly is completely fine. He's fine, just focus on the google doc, JK. He tucks his bottom lip between his teeth and stares wide-eyed at his screen.
“Oh shit, I still need to get the stuff for Tae’s party, hold on,” you whip out your phone and search for the text Taehyung sent you about all the different types of snacks and alcohol he wanted.
“Oh no you don't need to do that, I'll get them it's fine!” he rushes to grab his phone and open his notes app. Tae had sent the list of errands he wanted to the group chat and hadn't given anyone a specific job on who needed to buy what. You had said you’d get some of them, but it seems Jungkook had the same intention.
“Kook, I can get them, it's whatever. Just let me look for what he said he needed,” you argue. He attempts to disagree again but you snatch his phone from his hands before he can get a word out.
“Hey, give it back!” he yelps. You cackle mischievously and turn away from him as he tries to grab his phone from your hands. 
“____! Give me my phone!” he whines. He sets his computer on the coffee table and tries to wrestle it from your grasp again. Just as he lunges for his phone, you put your hand on his firm chest and push him back onto the couch. You climb on top of him and straddle his waist. 
“What are you gonna do about it? Why don't you just take it, hm?” you look down at him and freeze. His lips are in a soft pout and he gives you the best puppy eyes he can muster. 
“Please ____? Just give it back, please?” he whines softly. Your breath hitches as you realize the position you're in. Your best friend is under you begging for his phone while you are staring down at him and straddling his tiny waist. His hands had clasped onto your hips and he absentmindedly squeezed them. Fuck he looks so good like this. Jungkook doesn't know what to focus on. The view of you on top of him like this is something he'll be fisting his dick to for weeks. He bets if he leaned up right now he'd be at the perfect level to kiss you. Maybe even kiss your pretty tits that are seemingly calling for him to suck bruises into. He can feel his jeans tighten as his eyes dart everywhere but your eyes and his face starts to turn pink. You mistake his flustered look for being uncomfortable and immediately attempt to apologize and shift off of him. As you make your move, however, you hear him gasp loudly. His grip on your hips tightens further and his face darkens to a bright red. 
“Oh my god I'm so sorry did I hurt you?” you rush out. He looks like a deer in headlights. Maybe you went too far?
“N-no. M’ ok,” he says in a small voice. You furrow your brows in concern and take his face in your hands.
“Are you sure? You're burning up, babe.” you rub your thumbs across his cheekbones as he stares starry-eyed at you. He offhandedly thinks you might've been an angel in your past life. He smiles gently and nods in your hands. He musters the courage to start rubbing his hands up and down your waist slowly. You feel so soft. He wants to hold you like this forever. However, his dick is starting to strain in response to the worried tone you're taking on. He'll never admit it out loud, but he loves how concerned you get over him. It makes him feel needed and special.
“I'm fine, ____, promise.” He hopes you can see past his white lie for once. Unfortunately for him, it's just then that you start to feel something press against your leggings. 
“Jungkook...are you...?” you say slowly. His eyes widen as his entire body stiffens. Fuck fuck you felt him. Oh god, now you're gonna think he's a fucking weirdo that can't control his hormones. He should've never come over. Now you're gonna hate him forever! You notice his eyes start to well up and immediately try to comfort him.
“No! No baby it's ok! I'm not mad or grossed out please no tears you know I don't like seeing my pretty boy sad.” Without thinking, you softly kiss his forehead. He stares at you in awe and sniffles. Your pretty boy. The words swirl through poor Jungkook’s head on repeat. Did you mean it? Is he really yours? Did you really think he was pretty? Do you think about him the way he thinks about you?
“Y-yours? I'm...yours?” he mumbled. His watery eyes are looking at you like you're the center of the universe. Although you didn't mean for the words to slip, you didn't want to watch doubt cloud his eyes if you were to take them back. So you lean down and smile softly. “Mhm, mine. Always mine,” you see him glance down at your lips the closer you get to him. He starts to close his eyes and you giggle quietly at how cute he looks awaiting your kiss. You brush your lips against his and lean back teasingly. He whines and chases after you. 
“You wanna kiss me, baby? Hm?” you smirk as you watch his eyes flutter open and give you a pleading look. “Yes, please. Wanna kiss,” he frowns. You notice his lisp is starting to show as you cause his brain to turn to mush. You like him like this. All whiny and pliant just for you. Your pretty boy. You guide his lips towards yours and caress your hands along his chest. All the sports he's been doing must be paying off since you swear you can feel every muscle in him tense. His tongue shyly comes out to twist against your own which causes you to sigh blissfully into his mouth. Your fingers brush over his nipples and you feel him gasp.
“Oh? Are your little nipples sensitive, baby? You want me to touch them?” he whimpers and nods. “Words, sweetie. You need to tell me you want me,” you say pointedly. For some reason, he feels like you're talking about more than just touching his nipples. 
“Yes ____. Please touch me…I want you,” he says bashfully. You smile and praise him for being so polite, which in turn rewards you with a toothy grin and a cute nose scrunch. You peck his nose before you resume your little make-out session. Your fingers brush over his nipples once more but this time start to circle them slowly. His hips buck as he lets out a small moan that you swallow. Your hands sneak under his shirt to touch them more directly. You slide your hands up his muscular plane and return them to his pebbled peaks. He starts to whine consistently which only makes you wetter. God, he sounds so fucking pretty. Why didn’t you think to do this sooner? You direct your kisses to his jaw and work your way down his neck. You gently suck on his pulse point and it sends him into a full-body shiver. You giggle and tug at the hem of his shirt. He quickly obliges, tugging it off and diving back into you to continue kissing. He thinks kissing you has got to be his favorite feeling in the entire world now. Your lips are so soft and plump, the vanilla-scented gloss you put on smears across his smaller lips, making him feel dizzy and uncomfortably hard. His hands start to squeeze your hips again. They feel so soft and cushy, he loves how squeezable you are. He wonders if your cunt feels just as soft. Fuck he needs you so bad. He starts to rub himself against your clothed center as you slowly take off your tank top. 
Seeing your boobs squeezed into your bra has him drooling. This has to be a dream come true. “Can I take that off too?” he says whilst completely honed in on your breasts. You laugh and nod, god could he get any cuter? He reaches around and clumsily fumbles with the hooks. He’s so horny he can’t even think straight. He already knows his boxers are drenched with how much precum his dick is producing. Once your breasts are freed, he takes a moment to fully take you in and the situation he’s found himself in. His favorite person in the world is grinding on his lap, half nude, and looking at him warmly. He’s definitely fucking dreaming.
He shyly dives his head into your neck and trails soft kisses down towards your chest. The closer he gets to your nipples, the harder he sucks. He wants to leave his mark, anything to prove that this is truly happening. Your weight on top of him and his hands feeling your soft skin is the only thing grounding him at the moment. You grab his ebony locks and guide him to where you want his mouth. As sweet as he’s being, you’re feeling just as needy for him. You grind a little faster which causes him to moan loudly against your nipple. His hand moves from your hips to play with the neglected one. His other hand encourages you to continue your pace on his swollen shaft. Back and forth, back and forth. This is pure bliss for Jungkook. 
Your living room is filled with the noises of pleasure. Anyone unlucky enough to be your neighbor will know that not a single studying tactic is being used right now. But you can’t find it in you to care. All you care about is hearing Jungkook moan as loud as he wants as he orgasms. You briefly consider giving him more than this. Maybe wrapping your lips around his pulsing tip, or even sitting on him directly with no fabric in between. The thought of getting him to ruin his pants is too good to pass up though. You can imagine how embarrassed he might become, but it’s ok, you’ll clean him up. At this you smirk and put your full weight on him, snapping your hips to gain speed.
 He gasps and his eyes widen. Why are you going so fast? At this rate, he’ll… “____ wait! I’m gonna-hngg-I’m not gonna last if you keep going!” You shush him gently and keep your pace. You need to see him crumble under you. He throws his head back as his hips can’t help but thrust into yours. His mouth opens and spills every sound he’s been trying to quiet down. He’s never felt this good in his life. His hand could never compare to this feeling. You lean down and whisper in his, “You gonna cum baby? Cmon Kookie, be a good boy and cum for me. Want you to ruin these pants.” He moans loudly and nods his head rapidly. He lifts his head to look at you as his eyes start to water. “I-I’m-fuck! I can’t! Please don’t stop,” he chokes out. Curses slip profusely from his lips as his moans rise in octave. Until finally, the dam breaks. He spills into his soiled boxers as tears stream down his face and confessions of his love for you leave his mouth. Your body shakes with your own climax and smile bigger than you ever have, you had a feeling he’d be the type to profess his love whilst cumming. He’s such a sweet boy. You tug at the back of his neck to slot your lips onto his.
“You’re so fucking perfect,” he pants into the kiss. You both can’t stop smiling, this is everything you’ve ever wanted. You pull back with a line of spit still connecting you two. “I love you too, you know. So much,” you say as you gaze into his black orbs. He’s gorgeous, he has the same thought as he holds you close. His phone suddenly pings from your side. Damn, you had forgotten all about that thing. A message that makes you both simultaneously cackle and blush appears on the screen. 
Tae:
“Hey so I got the stuff for the party, let me know when ya’ll are done fucking or wtv and come over 😒”
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cyphersyndromes · 2 years
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Wilted lover | Jeon Jungkook Vampire au
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Synopsis: Jeon jungkook is your classmate that is quite peculiar from the rest. His off setting demeanor strikes you as he too is brought back by your scent, something that he isn’t ever been phased by as a vampire used to the human scent. As the school year goes by, he is an acquaintance of yours that you enjoy the presence of, casually talking within school grounds, even being partners together.Jungkook finally gets you alone in a school trip, contemplating whether his instincts should get the best of him or not.
pairing: vampire jungkook x human reader
warning : this is a slight drabble with a lot of teasinggg, slight inspo from twilight :)
Friday afternoon could not have came any faster. The art club in which you were in decided to take a trip to a contemporary art museum, showcasing the works of several artists dating up to the 14th century. You were quite excited due to the fact that school trips happen once in a blue moon.Your love for art came to be ever since your mom placed you in extra curricular activities in your elementary school which happend to have a course that showcased the several different art eras in the world.This opened a whole new gateway of your passion for art
Arriving at the school, you see your friends crowded in a table, reviewing the itinerary for today, you scan the room and notice jungkook in the class, however he wasn’t with the crowd but rather in the corner, immediately turning his head to you as you walked in the classroom, as if he sensed you
you greet everyone and grab a paper, reviewing it before putting it into your messenger bag. whilst putting the paper in, one of your pins fell from your bag, reaching to get it, in a milisecond second you see a tatted arm get the pin.
“you dropped this” jungkook said while placing the pin back on your bag
you feel queasy, seeing the tatted boy with piercings focusing on getting the pin back to your bag.
“thank you jungkook, i didn’t even notice you coming to get it” you say looking up at him, noticing his light eyes which makes you melt inside
“no problem” he looks back down at you, as your bodies are inches away.
the truth is your scent was much different from anyone elses. since the moment you walked into the school, he could sense you from a mile away, enticing you as his own. he was blood hungry, and your scent was like no other. alongside your beautiful frame and features, he instantly fell for you. becoming your not so secret, secret admirer.
“Everyone load up on the bus!” your art teacher announced.
you looked at jungkook once more, he never takes his eyes off you
“You want to sit together on the bus?” you say, making yourself chuckle as it sounds like such a cheesy thing to ask
“I would love that” he says as you both walk out of the class, engulfing in other peoples conversations about their past night
Jungkook and you were always fond of eachother, being lab partners had its perks as he was insanely intelligent and knew how to do every lab that you both always did, so the class was a breeze for you, however having to hide your crush on him was mere hell
once while doing a potion lab, you were confused on the measurements, so he went behind you and grabbed your beaker, pouring the liquids with the precise measurements, however you couldn’t focus. he was too close, you could feel his breath on your neck, you didn’t dare to turn and look at him but it felt as if he was directly looking at your neck, his breath was warm against your neck, making you bite your lip in the slightest. soon after he returned back to his seat like nothing happened.
there was obvious tension, you just couldn’t tell what you were to him
..
Navigating the museum, you were stunned by the pieces
Upon arriving, everyone was assigned to be with a partner, you and jungkook both agreed to tour the museum together and meet back with the rest at a certain time.
You and jungkook were in a secluded area, mainly resevered for medieval and renaissance themed paintings.
you laid your eyes upon a certain painting that made you feel a variety of emotions.
The wilted love
the painting itself was a renaissance piece, you could see a woman laying on a bed with her neck stretched to a side while a man placed his lips on her neck.
the man had the most beautiful color, similar to jungkooks. a slight hazel eye color with hair close to ears, parted in the middle with a white collared shirt. the woman too was beautiful, wearing a white satin dress, eyes closed.
however the thing that set you off was the blood dripping down her neck, a slight trail, almost as if her blood was from a cut or a bite.
you look at the description of the painting and learned that she had been deceived by her lover that was actually dracula, the blood sucking immortal that was the most vile of them all.
you raise your brows and hum in disapproval. you were never a fan of the whole human falling in love with a higher entity trope. however you felt for her since he disguised himself as a human to play with her emotions, she was just dinner to him.
“interesting” jungkook says as you turn to him to see his eyes on the same painting you were examining
“pretty fucked isn’t it” you say once again looking at the blood dripping from the woman’s neck
“hmm i’m not sure” he says rubbing his hand on his chin
you raise your eyebrows, “what do you mean?”
“there is no way she could not have known he was obviously not a mortal, just look at him” he says while pointing at the man’s god like features, almost too good to be true
“this is a painting kook, it could just be a figment of someone’s imagination, besides anyone could be fooled in the name of love and lust” you say while adjusting your bag back to your arm.
jungkook turns to you, raising one eyebrow
“so you don’t believe in vampires?” he says while slowing making his way towards you
you felt a churn in your stomach but kept your composure
“i don’t, there merely just a fantasy” you say looking at him
he looks at you and scoffs
you raise your brow in confusion
“ what about vampires is a fantasy?“ he asks once again raising his eyebrow and clicking his tongue against his cheek
“i don’t know the whole thing? the whole blood sucking thing is just unbelievable, also the idea of them never going out in the day because they burn, and if they were to be out for blood, why would they be disguised as humans? i’m a human and i don’t like blood, i’m actually quite disgusted by it,” you say as you notice jungkook slowly inching towards you, until your backed into a wall
he places his arm upwards towards the wall, looking at your lips
“w-what are you doing jungkook?” you ask merely out of breathe because of the amount of butterflies you felt
“so if i were to have my head like this-“ he says while tilting his head towards your neck, once again feeling his warm breathe on your neck like before
“and kiss your neck like this” he whispers into your ear seductively while lowering his lips to your neck, placing his warm soft lips upon your skin, leaving trails of kisses
you moan in the slightest, feeling too turned on to function at the thought of your crush from the first day you moved to your school now engulfing on your neck
he stops kissing your neck to look at you in your weak state.
eyes closed, head tilted to allow acesss to your neck, and your lips were sunken by your teeth.
you looked so perfect. so vulnerable
jungkook was the most excited he has ever been, to be this close to you, to have your scent directly on his nose merely intoxicated him.
he kept his composure however, smirking and leaning into your lips.
you open your eyes to be met with jungkooks hazel eyes and red lips.
you were so weak and turned on.
“k-kookie” you managed to whisper
he raised one brow
“yes” he says
you place your hand on his abs, slowly making your way upwards to his chest.
you cant help but to blush at how muscular he is
he looks at you and immediately smashes his lips with yours aggressively
you moan in surprise as you both have the nastiest make out session, hands all over each other.
he makes his way down from your lips to your neck once again. this time licking your neck with small kitten licks.
you whimper at the contact, his tongue felt cold
jungkook places kisses all over your neck and you feel his chest pulsating, almost as if he was too over stimulated.
jungkook tries to control himself, but your scent is intoxicating and delicious
he slowly opens his mouth to reveal his fangs, you feel a sharp object on your neck, not biting you, but simply just there.
you open your eyes from your daze and push jungkook away slightly.
“w-what was that?” you ask grabbing your neck
“what was what?“ he asked with curious eyes
“no no you know what that was” you say looking at him again being oblivious to the question
“you mean me kissing your neck? that was just me wanting to make you feel g-“
“no ! no that sharp thing on my neck” you said interrupting him
“i don’t know what your talking about y/n, i just really wanted to kiss you” he said once again making those eyes
you realize you were talking crazy, you look at the vampire painting behind jungkook and realize you probably just have vampires on your mind after learning about the painting
“i-i’m sorry i think i’m just seeing things” you say rubbing your neck and looking at him
“your good y/n, i just wanted for you to know that i like you” he said
“and maybe my thoughts got the best of me by me kissing you but i really do like you” he says
you smile a bit, still uneasy after the situation
“ i like you too jungkook” you say once again walking towards him.
he smiles down at you and hugs you, almost picking you up.
you got a ring on your phone however and stepped away from jungkook to see that it’s time to meet up with everyone else from the group.
“we have to go” you say as you grab your bag again
he nods and follows behind as you walk out of the area
as jungkook was walking, he turns back seeing the painting and smirking
“ my wilted lover” he says underneath his breath
-
vampire jungkook i think yes
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doctorstethoscope · 3 years
Text
The Right Chapter 17 || Aaron Hotchner x Fem Reader
Hello my loves, just a reminder that I am still on vacation so the queue is posting this! Will respond to ur taglist requests and messages ASAP love u all :) 
Read previous chapters of this fic here!
contains: canon-typical descriptions of death, violence, drug use
wordcount: 2k
You and Aaron each read Jack a book of his choosing before tucking him into bed and heading towards Aaron’s bedroom together. Bringing your pajamas into the bathroom, you change and brush your teeth with the door closed, which feels silly, given everything, but you can’t help it.  Aaron slips into the bathroom as you step out, and you sit on top of the covers, hands folded in your lap, anxiously awaiting his return. 
“What’s going on, sweetheart?” he asks, clocking your anxiety immediately. 
“Nothing, I just feel bad that I got us caught by Jack,” you confessed, looking down at the comforter. 
“I couldn’t be less upset about that,” he assures you, climbing into bed beside you and taking your hand in his. “I mean, he practically told us that he already knew, even if he was a little confused.” 
“That was the other thing-- sorry that marriage and all of that got brought up. I’m sure that was---”
“I’m not upset about that, either.” He interrupts you. “Did I do something to make you think I was upset?”
“No, no,” you assured him. “It’s just kind of early for that kind of stuff, I’m sure it was uncomfortable--”
“It wasn’t uncomfortable. Apparently I’ve done a bad job of expressing how strongly I care for you, and I’m sorry for that.” You go to interrupt, but he cuts you off. “I couldn’t be happier that Jack knows how much I love you. Sharing that with our people-- my son, and our team-- is not something you need to apologize for, or something I’m ashamed of. I’m thrilled to be able to love you openly. No more apologies, okay?” 
Your breath caught just a little, but you hold it together. “No more apologies,” you agreed. “Aaron, it’s such a privilege to be loved by you,” you whispered, needing him to know how much his words meant to you but scared to ruin the moment. Aaron just shook his head, leaning to press a kiss to the top of your head. 
“The pleasure’s all mine,” he whispers into your hair, and you close your eyes, letting the peace of his touch overwhelm you. 
“There’s one more thing,” you said, after a moment. 
“And it’s not an apology?” Aaron checks. 
“No, it’s not an apology,” you assure him. “I wanted to thank you for sharing those pictures with Jack and me tonight. I’m sure it was emotional, but I was glad to see them. You love Haley so much. Thank you for sharing her memory with me.” 
“She was the reason I got up in the morning, from the day I met her until the day she died.” Aaron tells you, and you squeeze his hand.
“Everyone knew how much you loved her, Aaron. Even after the divorce, there wasn’t a single person at the bureau who knew a man who loved his wife that much.” You assured him.
“But it wasn’t enough. I failed her, and I could fail you too.”
“No, Aaron, no you didn’t. You promised to love her for as long as you lived, and you didn’t break that promise. You didn’t promise her you’d never change, and she never promised you that she’d never change. You both changed, but you never stopped loving each other.” You told him.
“How did you know? How did you know that I never stopped loving her? Didn’t that scare you out of loving me?’ Aaron whispered. 
“Aaron, the way you love her shows in everything you do. You never took a picture of her down, even after the divorce, when I’m sure they were painful to look at. You always let her know you were safe at night, and when she left you, you helped her move and made sure she had everything you needed.” 
“And that doesn’t scare you? That even when she left me, I still loved her?” 
“No, Aaron, it doesn’t scare me. That’s how I feel about you, so I understand.” 
“You don’t mean that,” Aaron says immediately-- how could you mean that? When Haley was so refined, so beautiful, so compassionate, and he was just a man, a man with baggage and trauma and a dark past?
“Of course I do, Aaron. I never told you this, and I might be selfish in telling you now-- but in the weeks after Haley died, I went to bed at night praying that time would move backwards and that I could take her place. I’d do anything to get her back to you, even if it meant that you and I never made it here.” 
“It’s an incredible privilege to be loved by you,” Aaron echoes your earlier statement, and you smile.
When you wake up the next morning, you realize that you’re never going to get a good night’s sleep without Aaron beside you again, and you love him and hate him for it in equal measure. Your anger is quickly forgotten when he rolls over and starts planting kisses across your face. 
“We have to get Jack to school,” you reminded him with a smile between kisses.
“We’ve got time,” he brushes you off. 
“You’ve got time, maybe. My hair is a mess from napping on your couch and I have to do my makeup,” you reminded him, planting one final kiss on his lips before rolling out of bed and heading towards the bathroom.
When you’ve gotten yourself ready for the day, you make your way out to the kitchen, were Jack is sitting in front of a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice. 
“Morning, little man,” you said, ruffling his hair and smoothing it back down as you sat in the seat next to him. Aaron crosses the kitchen with two plates, putting a piece of toast with peanut butter and banana slices in front of you, and one on his own placemat. 
“Thanks, honey,” You smile, taking a bite of your breakfast as he sits.
“Dad? Can we go to the soccer field tonight after work?” Jack asks as his father settles in.
“I can’t promise tonight, but we can definitely go this week, okay bud?” 
“Okay.” 
“Finish your breakfast, kiddo, or you’re gonna be late,” you told him, taking your plate to the sink and prepping travel mugs of coffee for you and Aaron, who shepherds Jack through the last few steps of getting out the door. You follow them down to the car and Aaron drives down the road to Jack’s school. You sit in the carpool line for a minute, listening to Jack point out his friends as they walk into the building, before Aaron pulls up to the curb and it’s Jack’s turn to get out. Aaron rolls down the window as Jack collects his things. 
“It’s good to see you, Mr. Hotchner,” a peppy brunette woman who you’re pretty sure is Jack’s teacher ducks down to make eye contact with Aaron through the window.
“Good morning, Ms. Meadows.”
‘Oh, and who’s this?” Ms. Meadows says, taking note of you for the first time. Aaron introduces the two of you, and you notice her looking you up and down, almost sizing you up. 
“Nice to meet you,” she says perfunctorily, turning her attention back to Aaron almost in an instant. “Did Jack tell you about the volunteer sign ups for the kids’ talent show?” 
“He did, I think his Aunt Jess--”
“Oh, that’s right, Jess did mention to me that she’d be here!” Ms. Meadows interrupts. “I guess I was just hoping to get some strong FBI dads in the building to help set up the stage equipment,” she pouts, and you briefly entertain the thought of leaning over the center console and wiping the pleading look across her face. 
“Well, I’ll see what I can do,” Aaron says, blissfully interrupted by Jack waiting to give him and you a kiss goodbye. The two of you kiss both of his cheeks, and he hops out of the backseat and takes off towards the main entrance. 
“She was pleasant,” you note sarcastically when Aaron pulls out of the parking lot.
“What do you mean?” Aaron asked, looking over at you briefly, his nose scrunched up in confusion. 
“She’s clearly into you, Aaron.” You said, knowing it was obvious and he was just being oblivious. 
“What? No she’s not,” Aaron shook his head. 
“Oh, Mr. Hotchner, please come save me from the Woodbridge Elementary School talent show. I need your big, strong muscles to move all this heavy equipment because I’m just a docile young lady,” you mimicked Jack’s teacher in an exaggerated tone. 
“Now, if she had said that, then maybe I would have thought she was into me,” Aaron laughs at your dramatics. 
“She gave me a nasty look. She doesn’t like that she has competition.” You argue. 
“She doesn’t have competition. I mean, there is no competition. There’s just you, and that’s how I like it,” he said, taking one hand off the steering wheel to grab yours and bring it to his lips. 
Garcia is waiting for you both in Aaron’s office when you arrive at work.
“Is everything okay?” You ask her immediately, feeling Aaron shift his body towards yours.
“I finished digging up everything I could on Josh, if you want to see it.” She tells you both, and you look at Aaron. Truth be told, you don’t really want to know, but being disgusted and informed is probably better than being uninformed and caught off guard. 
“Come on, we’ll go review it in your office.” Aaron said, stepping aside to let Garcia lead the way. Once she is a few paces ahead, he leans down to whisper in your ear. “I’ve got you. You’re safe, and you just tell me if you need to take a break, okay?”
You nodded, and Aaron place a comforting hand on your back as the two of you made your way down to the batcave. 
“Okay, so, just going through the highlights,” Garcia starts, clicking at tabs and pulling them up on her assortment of monitors throughout the room.  “Starting a few weeks before you left, I noticed that Josh was calling and texting the same number a lot-- but only when you all were off fighting crime. Of course, I assumed that this absolute peach of a man had somehow conned not one but two women who had to be decidedly out of his league, but it turns out that wasn’t the case. He’s been doing coke, and the number leads to his dealer.” 
“Fuck, again?” You interrupted her.
“He was doing coke when the two of you were together?” Aaron asked, surprised. 
“Not for a while, or so I thought. The coke was what made him violent-- I told him it was the drugs or me, and when he told me that he’d picked me, I believed him.” You explained. “He must have been high when he showed up that night-- he was always an asshole but showing up like that was out of character.” 
“So, with you out of the picture, it seems like the coke usage has increased a lot. Like, from a weekly to a daily thing, a lot. He’s going out at night, racking massive credit card debt. He hasn’t purchased a firearm or anything that indicates that he might be planning something violent, but he’s definitely acting impulsive.” 
“Was he sober or high when he sent the flowers?” Aaron asks. 
“Sir, I don’t think he’s been sober since you took all of her stuff out of the apartment,” Garcia responds. 
“He’s only going to get more aggressive and out-of-touch with reality the longer this bender lasts,” you note, clinically, as if you were talking about a case halfway across the country and as if your future wasn’t hanging in the balance. 
“We’ll keep an eye on it, and we’ll be ready. Garcia, can you print out a full copy of this and get it on my desk?” 
“Are you sure? The full copy is really long, it’s got to be--” 
“I’m sure, Garcia. Thank you.”  
tagging:  @hotforhotchner11      @romanogersendgame @wanniiieeee      @zheezs14      @greeneyedblondie44 @angelic-kisses13  @baumarvel @ssamorganhotchner  @ijustwannaread2k19    @rexit-mo @msmarvelsmain @qtip-blog @averyhotchner  @the-modernmary @itsmytimetoodream @choppa-style @infinite-tides @isthatme-thatsme @g-l-pierce @bakugouswh0r3 @ssahotchie
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dandelionflower · 4 years
Text
(Some salt fic september)
Francois DuPont was an artistic school. With talented students varying from designers, to journalists, to DJs, to comic artists and writers. The art room of the school was always the busiest, the loudest, and the favorite room of the school.
So it would make sense for the school to have a yearly showcase. It was called a talent show once upon a time, but eventually the staff and students agreed that ‘talent show’ didn’t suit the talents the students were bringing to the table. Thus, the Francois DuPont showcase was born.
Students worked for months on their piece for the showcase. More than fifty percent of the works in the art room were pieces for the showcase.
It wasn’t mandatory by any means, but most students with a talent in the arts would participate. But with almost all the students participating and some having more than one piece to showcase, the show usually lasted a few days.
Lila, of course, didn’t know any of that so when asked if she was participating in the showcase in a few months, she grinned and said “Of course!”
Alya lit up. “Great! It’s going to be my first showcase too, and I want someone who knows what I’m going through. C’mon, we have to sign up.” And she dragged her into the halls.
Sign up? But it’s in three months. Lila shrugged and allowed herself to be pulled to the sign up sheets.
Alya immediately wrote her name underneath the ‘verbal’ column, putting a ‘journalism’ next to it.
Lila surveyed the options. The easiest thing to fake would probably be photography, so she marked her name under ‘media’ and wrote a ‘photography’ next to it.
“Ooh, photography? What do you take pictures of? Because I know Mari’s been looking for a partner to take pictures of her designs with her.”
Lila bit back a grimace. ��Thanks, but I prefer to take pictures of...” Art? Buildings? “Nature. I find that taking pictures of people is narcissistic as a society.”
“Aren’t you a model?” A judgmental voice came from behind her.
“I- well-“ She stuttered.
“It’s completely different, Felix! Lila doesn’t think her photo shoots are art worthy, she’s just doing it as a job.” Alya snapped, throwing an arm out to almost shield Lila from the chill radiating from Felix’s entire person.
“Very well.” Felix stepped around the two and signed his name in perfect cursive beneath Lila’s name and walked away without another word.
“That guy gives me the creeps.” Alix remarked as she scratched her name under the ‘performance’ column, then the ‘piece of art that cannot be moved’ section.
“And he’s doing photography too! Don’t worry Lila, there’s no way he’s better than you.” Alya grabbed her arm reassuringly and began walking with her back to class.
“Yeah, right...” Lila held in a wince as she found her way back to her seat.
Surely photography can’t be that hard.
It was that hard.
Lila had waited one week before the showcase to start taking pictures on her phone. She walked to the park and snapped a few pictures, called it a day, and went home.
They were terrible. Blurry, ugly, terrible.
The next thing she tried was looking up stock images and photoshopping the watermark off.
She was awful at photoshop.
Finally, she resorted to her escape plan.
“Sorry, Alya. But I completely forgot that I’m volunteering at the elementary school all day on the day of the showcase, and I can’t just cancel on them. I’m so sorry.”
“Girl, it’s no problem! Marinette told me that the showcase is going to go on for four days. We’ll just reschedule your slot. It’s no problem at all.”
“Great.” She muttered through gritted teeth. “See you then.”
...crap.
She had only one plan now.
And it was risky.
Lila walked into class on Monday, prepared for her showcase.
She explained to Alya that when she explained what was going on to the leader of her organization, they gave her a rain check.
“I’m just so thankful.” She brushed away a tear. “I really wanted to make sure I could see everyone’s talents.”
“That’s so sweet!” Rose cooed. “I can’t wait to see your pictures either!”
“I just hope they correctly portray the beauty of my subject...” Lila pressed a hand to her chest in modesty.
“Students, I need all of the media students to come to the art classroom with your flash drives and cameras.” Miss Bustier put her phone down and smiled. “And anyone who paired with a media student for their talent please also join the students in the art room.”
Lila stood and gave everyone a hug. “Wish me luck!”
She noticed Sabrina stand as well and accept a half hearted hug from Chloe and a nod of support from Max. Juleka stood too and hugged Rose tight.
“Bye Alya! Wish me luck.” Marinette appeared from seemingly nowhere and hugged Alya tight. “And don’t be worried about your presentation. We’ll find some time to rehearse before tomorrow.”
“Thanks girl. Look after Lila for me? She’s just as new as I am.”
Marinette’s eyes darkened for just a second, but she quickly broke into a grin. “No problem. And don’t be worried, Lila. I’m sure your photos are just unimaginable.”
“Thanks Marinette. That’s just so sweet of you.” They linked arms and waltzed out of the room.
The moment they were out of eye shot of any of their classmates, they stepped aside.
“You don’t even have pictures, do you?” Marinette growled.
“What do you mean Marinette? Of course I have pictures.” She smirked. Or at least, I will in just a minute.
The art room was bustling and chaotic. Perfect for a camera or flash drive to go missing.
Marinette was bombarded by a group of kids from Felix’s class.
“Ready to see the product of our hard work?” A girl with two dark buns on the top of her head asked.
“I hope so.” She gave them a bashful smile.
Lila stopped paying attention. She had a goal in mind.
Her eyes landed on an expensive looking camera sitting on a desk at the side of the room. A sitting duck.
With a side glance for witnesses, Lila walked right by the camera and slipped the memory card right out and into her awaiting palm.
With her goal met, she sat primly in her chair, waiting for them to be called to the stage.
“Alright, photographers, models, actors, directors!” The art teacher stood. “Let’s go!”
Lila skipped up to him, a look of concern on her face. “Sir?”
“Yes Lila?”
“My camera broke on my way here and all I have left of it is my memory card; is there still a way for me to present my photos?”
“Of course there is. Don’t you worry a bit.”
“Perfect!” She grinned.
Once backstage, each student needed to give the teacher their SD cards or cameras and wait to be called onstage to describe their works to the audience.
Lila spared a quick glance towards the onlookers. Talent scouts of every kind were sitting in plush, reserved seats, notebooks and pens at the ready.
She was the first one up, the first one they would see and, unless she used all of her charisma and improvising skill, the first one they would forget.
“...and now, Lila Rossi with her photography!”
Lila strutted out to the greetings of applause.
“Hello, and let me just say I am so honored to be here today, especially considering that a year ago I wasn’t expected to be able to walk to school every day. Photography was really the only thing that got me through the day.”
A murmur of pity rippled through the crowd.
“Pictures like this one.” She pressed the clicker and a picture appeared on the screen behind her.
A picture of one Marinette Dupain-Cheng, mid-twirl in a beautiful hand-made dress.
Lila heard Alya gasp.
“I wanted to show simultaneously the mundanity of walking and the undeniable splendor of it. My dear friend Marinette had some designs she was willing to model for me to help achieve my goal. Marinette, come on out!” She held a hand out, daring Marinette to come out from where she was waiting to go next along with her other friends.
Felix stood behind her with a look of horror and disgust on his face; and a particularly fancy camera hanging around his neck. A very familiar camera.
“No? Okay then.” She turned back to the crowd. “She’ll be out with a different group; Mari doesn’t want me to have to share the spotlight, isn’t she sweet?”
The crowd applauded and Lila continued making up technical terms and thought processes for each photo, all of which were of Marinette in different designs.
“Thank you.” She bowed deep before walking off the stage.
Now to hold her breath and hope that Marinette, Felix and all their friends were too chicken to call her out onstage.
“Now, with their short film; ‘solving love,’ please welcome Bridgette Cheng, Claude Lambert, Mercury Bernard, Allegra Harthorn, Felix Culpa, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”
“Hey everybody!” A boy with brown hair and a blue striped shirt grabbed the mic and shouted. “How are we doing today?”
A scattered amount of applause.
“Nice! I’m Claude, and this is Bridgette.”
The girl with the buns waved.
“We were the main idea folks for this video; but the idea only came after the filming.”
Bridgette grabbed the mic. “We asked out friends if we could film them, and then a few weeks ago, we reviewed the film and noticed something... interesting.”
“Allegra here,” a girl with a long blonde braid waved, “did the music and Mercury,” a boy with dark glasses and a green beret, “did the narration. You’ll be seeing more of them soon. My cousin Mari,” Marinette waved, “and Felix are the main subjects of the film. You would have seen more of them, but for some reason Felix’s memory card went missing.”
Lila swallowed, this wasn’t great. The seeds of dissent were planted and now she had to risk either spinning another fake story or hoping that it all went well.
It’s not like they had any proof though; she should be fine.
“Anyway, here’s ‘Solving Love.’”
They all stepped to the side and the video began with a smooth piano.
“Love.” The screen showed couples going up to Andre’s and sharing ice cream. “The answer to everything. To ourselves, to the meaning of life, to the questions we cannot ask.”
“But how? How do we get from complete strangers, to people so close they are the same person?” The video changed to a showing of Marinette and Felix shaking hands, both with sardonic smirks. “People rarely get to see the entire process of when people fall in love; there are always pieces missing, hidden moments only for the people in question to recall. Love is left for the investigator to discover for themselves, when the time is right.”
“But maybe,” it showed Marinette talking animatedly, as Felix yawns beside her, “maybe one day, we’ll be lucky enough to see most of the picture.” Felix’s eyes droop and his head falls to rest atop Marinette’s, in the beginnings of a nap. Marinette flushes red.
The rest of the video shows the stages of Marinette and Felix’s relationship, from sarcastic rivals, to peers, to friends, to partners. The narrator described different relationships and how love is a constant through all of them.
The video showed Marinette dancing, twirling in a brilliant dress as Felix kneels and snaps pictures. “Ah, but is this all of it?” They lean down for a swift kiss. The image pauses there. “The full picture? Or is it only a snapshot,” the screen lights up white, “a minor clue, to solving love?”
The auditorium was quiet for what seemed like minutes. Then, the room burst into uproarious applause; a standing ovation.
Lila growled as she turned to sulk and maybe get her makeup so she could fake an injury and get some pity points to heal her bruised ego.
She ran face first into the grey suit of Mr. Damocles.
“Oh, hello sir.” She beamed. “Is there a problem?”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Yes Miss Rossi, there is. Did you take those pictures of Miss Dupain-Cheng? Because that video tells a different story.”
“Yes sir, I swear it.”
“You swear it, huh? Well you best come with me to the office. Miss Dupain-Cheng and her friends will join us when they’re done.”
“What?”
“Miss Rossi, you are accused of stealing Mr Culpa and Miss Dupain-Cheng’s creative work. We will be calling your mother to discuss this.”
Back on stage the crowd of students and talent agents alike had taken to shouting questions to the group of students.
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parkmuse · 4 years
Text
Not So Honest (M)
Word Count: 9322 (Reposted) (Wonhopes Masterlist)
Jungkook has got a pretty BIG problem, and he desperately asks you for your help.
Tumblr media
cr.
Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Dingdongdingdongdingdon-
You let out a heavy sigh, pausing your show as you get up from the couch to answer the door. That annoying repetitive doorbell rings could only come from one person.
“YAH! Where’s your fucking keys you brat-“ You stop mid-sentence from yelling at him because your eyes catch onto the large package he’s struggling to hold along with a mountain of grocery bags in his hands.
“Yeah, I forgot them this morning and remembered once I was at the store. By the way, this was at the doorstep-“ You immediately snatch it out of his grasp, twirling around as you let go of the door and let it slam back in his face. You run to the table, squealing as you set it down to try and go look for something to open it with. “My package arrived!”
You hear the front door rattle a few times before its shoved open again, him struggling to get all the bags in as he forces the door closed with a bang. “What the fuck Y/N? And I don’t even get a thank you for picking that up for you?”
“I didn’t ask for your help, Jungkook,” You replied, waving him off before you walked back over to your package.
You’ve been waiting a whole two weeks for another one of these Amazon packages. You did a little contract with some sellers there that you would test out their products for free and give your honest review in return that you get free samples of the items. So far you’ve gotten blenders, make up, wireless head phones, even a decent cellphone all for free. And all you had to do was type up a quick, honest review with the pros and cons of the product that took less than 5 minutes, then you could enjoy all your free shit. Did I say free already?
“What’s in the package? Another crappy phone?” Jungkook yells from the kitchen, placing all the food in their designated locations. You let out another heavy sigh before responding to him. “Why do you care? Go hangout with Jimin and suck each other’s dicks or something.”
“You’re just jealous cause I could probably get more dick or actually scratch that, any dick at all compared to you if I really wanted to.” You shot him a glare and he smirks, then sticks his tongue out before placing the milk in the fridge.
God, you hated that brat. You’ve hated him for so many years, basically all of your life since you’ve known each other since elementary. Your parents were great friends so you always had to hang out with him when you would go to each other’s houses, dealing with him pulling your hair and stealing all your food and toys from you almost three times a week. Once you hit high school you were even forced to baby sit him even though you were only two years older, but his parents baby him so much and think he’s not fit to stay alone in his own damn home that they’d throw him over at yours.
Even now, as two damn grown adults you are still stuck with him, forced to share an apartment since you two go to the same college because his parents don’t trust him alone or with strangers. It was a living nightmare since you basically had no privacy with this brat, always meddling in your stuff and your life and him walking out of his room practically naked every damn day. Sure, he’s grown up really well, and he’s always been cute I guess, but holy hell he gets on your nerves so much he’s lost the on chance that you would ever find him attractive. The only upside to this is that you get help paying rent, but honestly you think you’d rather live on the streets than be with this annoying kid.
At least your annoyance will be at its minimal today, too excited to let him cloud your day when you got more cool free shit-
“What the fuck?” You spit, eyes bugged and jaw dropped once you comprehend exactly what Amazon just sent to you.
“What? Another flip phone or some shit- woah,” Jungkook’s eyes widened as well once he peeks over your shoulder to see what the big deal was.
Sex toys.
Not one, not two.
A whole box full.
There were different kinds of toys like vibrators and silicone dicks in all the colors you could possibly imagine. You didn’t even know what half the shit in that box was either; there were weird looking eggs to obscure shaped things you assumed were supposed to replicate a dick but had an extended side that you couldn’t figure out what it was actually intended to do. You pulled out a box and on the cover read Sassy Anal Beads in fancy cursive lettering, finally making you lose your patience.
“Why the fuck would they send me this shit!?” You huffed, tossing the stuff back in the box. You had no use for any of this. Sure, they could keep you company since you were single as hell but you really wished they would have sent you something way more useful.
“Maybe they knew you needed it— OW!” Jungkook yelps as you punch him in the chest. He pouts as he clutches onto his pecs but you just roll your eyes.
“Shut up, you deserved it.” You walk back to the couch and plop on it with a sigh, resuming your TV show.
“Aren’t you supposed to review all this shit?” He says, digging through some more of the box as he pulls an unrealistic sized purple dildo.
“I’m not going to bother. I’ll just say they were all shitty or something,” You say as you bring your feet up to the coffee table.
“Well that’s not really fair. You have to give your honest opinion. What if King Cock Deluxe deserves five stars?” He snickers, waving it over in front of your face.
You scrunch your face in disgust, “Stop being gross.”
He laughs and tosses it back in the box, then pulls out another item. “What the hell is this thing?”
You see him examining it in his hands, his face scrunching up in confusion. It was small and black, a ring attached to the end and the top having two protruding bumps.
You’ve actually heard of that one before from one of your girl friends who was gushing all about it. It was a rabbit designed cock ring, the two ends from the top was actually a vibrator so when you had sex the “rabbit ears” would stimulate your clit. Your friend said although it looked really ugly it really did the trick, but her boyfriend never liked using it because it was way too tight on him.
“It’s a cock ring,” You said unamused, standing up to walk over to the kitchen.
“Cock ring?” Jungkook responded, still sounding confused as ever.
“Did I stutter?” You said, digging through the pantry.
“Does it make you feel really good or something?”
You turn back to face him so you can yell at him for asking so many questions, but stopped once you saw his face. He was still looking at the toy, examining it in his hand intensely.
A small smile crept on your lips, and you’re glad he was still too focused on the toy in his hands to see. “Yeah Jungkook, it makes you feel real good.”
He looks up at you with wide eyes, but quickly replaces his surprise with a lazy smirk. “Yeah right, this free shit would never work.” He tosses the toy back into the box.
You snicker at his response. How has he never heard of a cock ring? Was he that inexperienced? Jungkook’s a grown man, but you’ve always seen him as the little brat next door. “I mean, I heard that got a lot of positive feedback for being one of the best sex toys out there. Men go crazy about it,” You chimed in, continuing to tease him.
“That piece of rubber? Bullshit.” He walks back into the kitchen, throwing some more groceries into the fridge. After a couple of minutes of silence and fixing up the kitchen, Jungkook speaks up again.
“I mean, what does it even do? How is it that good?”
“I don’t know, but must be pretty amazing.” You were getting kind of tired of your little white lie, and his constant repetitiveness of the topic was staring to annoy you. Before he was about to speak up again you interrupted him.
“Jungkook! I told you to buy some more damn cereal!” You whack him on the back of the head and he groans.
“I got most of the stuff on the list!” He pouts.
“You had one job kid, and now we got milk and no cereal.” You huff, walking over to grab your purse. “I always have to do things on my own around here. I’ll be back in a bit.” You grab your keys and walk out the door.
-
You finally made your way back home after being stuck in traffic for a good thirty minutes just for some cereal. Damn that Jeon kid for forgetting one measly thing.
You were starving since you hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and you were too lazy to cook anything so why not just have some cereal? You walk to the kitchen to pull out a bowl, opening the box of Frosted Flakes and filling it up to the brim. You walk over to the fridge to grab the milk, opening the door. You were met with nothing but water bottles on the top shelf and some groceries at the bottom. Confused, you looked all over the sides and in the drawers. There was a whole carton before you left and now it disappeared!
Then it clicked in your head. Your eyebrows crinkled and you let out a heavy sigh, closing the fridge. “JUNGKOOK!”
That damn kid always brings the carton of milk into his room, sometimes drinking it straight out of the container. You hated sharing food with him for this very reason, and you should really get him to stop drinking that shit because he’s getting way too big for his own good.
You waited for a good minute just to give him mercy, but by now he should have answered you, walking out of his room with a yeah, yeah as he brings the carton back out.
But there was complete silence.
You groan, walking down the hall to where your bedrooms were. He better have a good ass explanation for why he hasn’t answered you by now. You twist the knob and roughly push the door open. “Where’s the fucking milk Jungkook?!”
You pause at the door, making eye contact with a seemingly alarmed Jungkook. He’s sitting on the edge of his bed faced away from you, shirtless again, head turned with his eyes wide and his mouth slightly ajar. He looks like a deer in the headlights, his hand clutching onto the sheets crumpled beside him.
“You’re just sitting there doing nothing but didn’t bother answering me?” You thought it was a little weird, but quickly brushed it off.
“Um—well, I—“ Before he can give you an explanation, your eyes catch the item you were looking for at the night stand beside where he was sitting.
“There it is, I fucking knew it!” You strode over to the carton.
“NO! DON’T COME HERE!” He hollers, causing you to stop in your tracks.
“Whoa no need to yell, what’s on your dick?”
“N-NOTHING! Just…go to the store and get more! This is my milk!”
You could have sworn you felt a vein pop out of your temple at his remark. “I just came from the damn store! That’s a brand new carton! And my milk your ass I paid for that!”
You were seriously getting tired of him. When will you finally be able to get away from him? 5 years? 10 years? Are you really going to have to spend the rest of your life with this brat?
You don’t even know why you’re listening to him at the moment. You can do whatever you want, he can’t stop you. You continue to make a beeline to your milk, running past him to grab it and run out. Your feet catches onto his blanket, causing you to trip over and onto the floor in front of him with a loud thump.
You groan on the floor, pushing the sheet off of you and sitting up as you rub your head. You turn your head to look at a mortified Jungkook, completely colorless as he stares back at you in complete fear and embarrassment. Confused, you were about to ask what his problem was but your eyes flicked south.
A mere inches from your face was his dick in his hand, semi hard and just…all out there. What definitely made your jaw drop was that right at the base was a familiar looking object, black with bunny ears sticking out at the top.
You covered your mouth, embarrassed to have caught him in the act but also trying so hard not to laugh in front of his face because you cannot believe he’s actually doing this.
“Y/N, I-I can explain-“
You get up on your feet and grab the milk from the night stand, walking straight to the door avoiding eye contact with him. “No need to Kook, pretty self-explanatory. You have fun with that!”
You just wanted to get out of there as quick as possible before it could get even more awkward, but he calls out to you, making you stop.
“No wait! Don’t go! I-Um…”
“If you think I’m going to sit here and watch you jack off you have another thing coming-“
“NO! It’s not that! Why the fuck would I ask you that? I’m not some sicko.”
“Says the one with a bunny cock ring on his dick-”
“OKAY! You got me there,” He sighs. “But I was just curious! What was so good about this piece of plastic? And then I put it on a-and…”
“And what?” It probably didn’t feel good as he expected it to. Hell, it’s supposed to be the complete opposite.
“Well, it’s kind of…kind of stuck.”
A few seconds of silence pass as you comprehend what he just said, then you burst out laughing. He jumped in his seat, surprised by your reaction but then gives you a glare and a pout. “Why are you laughing?!”
You grab onto your sides, tears coming out of your eyes. You just can’t control yourself. This dumb kid has a sex toy stuck on him and he can’t get it off.
“Y/N!”
“I’m sorry! It’s just so…so hilarious. Wow.” You wipe the tears from your cheeks as the last bits of chuckles come spewing out.
“It’s not funny! It won’t come off…a-and it really hurts.”
You can hear the pain in his voice and for a second you actually felt bad for him. Maybe you shouldn’t have teased him that much.
But then again, he deserves it.
“Well, seems like you got a real problem on your hands. I’ll leave ya to it.” You say as you start walking out the door.
“Y/N WAIT! You have to help me!”
You turn back to face him, your brows knitting in confusion. “And why do I have to do that?”
“Please Y/N, you know I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t mean it.”
You stare at him for a moment, taking in his facial features. You were a couple of feet away from him but from there you could see the tears threatening to fall from his big doe eyes. His bottom lip was caught between his teeth, probably to stop it from quivering in front of you. His broad shoulders visibly shook, and you sigh. He must really be in pain.
“Please, Noona.”
Your eyes widened in surprise, taken aback by his response. He hasn’t called you Noona for years. The last time he called you that was years ago, during a small phase where he was actually really sweet and nice to you. You actually loved that Jungkook back then, but then he went a full 180 on you and went back to being a brat.
You bite your lip, contemplating on what to do. He winces in pain and lets out a long drawn out whimper, which immediately shot to your core. What the fuck?
You don’t know what overcame you but you had the sudden urge to touch him.
What the hell were you thinking?
You just want to help him, that’s all.
You let out a heavy sigh, then placed the milk on the TV stand, proceeding to walk over to him. “Fine, let’s just get this over with. I don’t want your parents to blame me for not watching you and you coming home dickless.”
His eyes light up in admiration for you, excited to finally be free of this dumb torture-like pleasure free device. You stop in front of him, sitting on your knees as you push his legs apart to get a better look.
Surprisingly, Jungkook didn’t have a micro penis like you thought he had all these years. It was actually really, really generous, probably one of the biggest you’ve seen. No wonder this kid had a big ego.
“Alright, let’s see what we got.” As awkward as this was supposed to feel, it didn’t feel as weird as you thought it would. Why did it feel normal to be on your knees in front of Jungkook’s dick? You honestly didn’t want to think about why other than the fact that you’ve known him all your life and being naked in front of each other probably isn’t a big as a deal as you would imagine. You guys used to bathe naked all the time; that counts for something right?
“Wow Kook, you got it lodged pretty good. How the fuck did you get that all the way up there?” You stared at the small device, tightly clenching the base of his shaft.
“I-I thought it was supposed to hurt in the beginning, and then it would feel good later. That’s how sex is for girls, right?”
You snorted. “Does it look like you have a vagina, Jungkook? I mean maybe you will after your dick falls off-“
“Stop!” He whines, pouting at you. “Don’t say that! I would die without my dick.”
“That actually sounds like a good plan, maybe we should leave it then-“ He grabs your hands in his, squeezing them tightly as you were about to sit up again.
“Y/-Noona, please, please help me. I’ll be good to you from now on. I won’t be a brat anymore if you help me. Just…please.”
He softly caresses the back of your hand, looking at you again like a lost puppy.
Was Jungkook really being obedient right now? He seems like he would do anything for you, listened to anything you said. He seemed so…submissive.
You unintentionally licked your lips, but immediately came back to your senses. It was really getting hot in here and your hands were starting to sweat.
You ripped your hands away from him. “Okay, okay. Jeez.” You played it off like you weren’t phased by what he said and his sudden new name for you. You just needed to get this shit off of him and then you could finally eat. Starving yourself is definitely not good for your head.
You take in a deep breath, then reach for him. You didn’t want to bother addressing the elephant in the room, the surprisingly pretty big elephant in the room, because you didn’t want to make this even more awkward as it is. Asking if you could touch his dick would probably make this situation even worse, so you’re just gonna do what you need to do.
You grasp onto the base of his shaft where the toy is, tugging it forward in attempts to take it off.
“OW!” Jungkook yelps, grabbing your wrist. “You’re hurting me!”
“I barely even touched you brat, suck it up.” You whip your hand away from him, bringing it back to the toy.
He really got himself into a real mess here. There’s barely any space between the toy and his dick. Did he really think this wasn’t going to happen?
You attempt to pull at it again while your hand rested on his abdomen. You didn’t expect Jungkook’s abs to be so defined and rock solid under your fingertips, but you quickly brushed the thought away while you focused on the situation at hand.
When you pulled, the toy stayed put and your hand ended up grasping through the rest of his length to the tip, leaving you empty handed. You cupped the toy again, firmly pressing against his stomach while you pulled again, only to bring your hand against him again without the toy. You hear him whimper under your touch but again you don’t let it get to you, thinking he’s just being a little wuss about the pain again. After another attempt of tugging it off and your hand unintentionally grasping his length, you accidentally squeeze the end of his tip, feeling the warmth on your fingertips.
All of a sudden Jungkook lurches forward, putting a hand on your shoulder and squeezing tightly. His face is a few inches away from yours, his heavy pants tickling your face.
“Noona,” He chokes out.
You look up at him to see his adam’s apple bob, licking his partly chapped lips as he lets out open mouthed pants while his other hand clutches the bed sheet. You could see him breaking a sweat down his temple, looking so fucking hot for some strange reason but then something breaks your thoughts.
You feel a pulse under your touch, and you realize you’re still grasping his tip. You look down to see his dick erect, the tip partly red as you slowly feel the palm of your hand get wet. You slowly open your hand to see pre-cum leaking from his tip, some smeared along your hand.
You instantly get red, looking back up at Jungkook with the best glare you could muster up at the moment when in reality you’re freaking out and heating up inside. “What the fuck Jungkook!?”
You were about to stand up to leave when he grabs you again. “I-I’m sorry! I can’t help it!”
“You’re gross!” You try to rip your hand away, but he keeps a firm grip.
“Y/N I’m sorry! Your hand just feels really, really soft…please, just help me get it off!” He pleads. “I’ll do anything Y/N. I promise!”
You look back at your hand covered in Jungkook’s residue, groaning at the sticky substance. You hate to admit that you loved the fact he got like that because of your hands, because of you touching him. You grab the blanket off the floor and wipe your hand, not wanting to think about it. You gulp once you face him again, his cock looking bigger than before and a bit more constricted against the toy.
You press your fingertips against the toy, attempting to twist it off of him. He whimpers, eyes shut tight as you can’t help but notice his stomach clench against your touch again.
“Noona, please...” He says again in what was like a husky whisper, sounding like he’s begging for you. The high pitched whine that came after striked right at your core, causing you to bite your lip. Your stomach was doing somersaults as you tried so heavily to focus on getting this damn toy off of him, but he was making this so, so hard. No pun intended.
You tried whatever you could, pushing it upwards and to the side and downwards, but none of it seemed to be working.
“I think we need to get some oil or something and maybe it’ll slip off,” You thought. “I’ll go get some in the kitchen.”
“You won’t find any,” He said hesitantly.
“What do you mean? I thought you just bought some?”
“I…was that on the list too?” He looks at your warily, biting his bottom lips as he slowly cowers away.
Your eyes turned to slits as your brows crinkled in distress again, letting out a long, slow sigh. “Well, I can’t think of anything else.”
“Why don’t you spit on it?” Your eyes bugged out while you looked at him like crazy woman. What did he just say?
“What?” You say, looking at him incredulously.
“Well, water isn’t going to work. We don’t have anything else and that’s all I could think of.”
“Do it yourself!” You yell, red as a tomato at what he just actually asked for you to do.
“I can’t! My hands are too big! Your hands are perfect and it’s easier if someone else does it. I’ll just hurt myself. Please, just do it it’ll work!” He pouts at you again, biting his bottom lip as he shifts uncomfortably on the bed. “You’re so gentle Noona. Help me,” He begs.
You know his words weren’t supposed to sound dirty in any way, but god why do you keep thinking like that?
Your empty stomach was messing with your head. Not only was your head throbbing, but you can’t ignore the ache between your legs either. You thought of just telling him to fuck off and leave him there to figure it out himself, but he speaks up again.
“It really hurts…I’m begging you Y/N,” He whimpers, whispering your name with a groan at the end. You notice his uneven breaths as his stomach vibrates, his veins protruding along his arms as he still clenches the sheets, the other hand holding onto his hard cock. He grasps himself, letting out a high pitched whine as he grits his teeth, seeing his eyes water yet again from his action.
You gulp at the sight of him before you, so helpless and vulnerable that causes your core throb even more.
You press your thighs together to ease the tension. You don’t know why such a helpless Jungkook was turning you on uncontrollably, and you’d love to see how much more he could beg and sob under your touch if he’d allow you to.
You shake your head, pulling yourself out of your crazy thoughts. This is getting really bad and you knew you had to get away from him quick. You needed this to be over as soon as possible.
“Fuck, okay! But we’re never fucking talking about this again. This never happened,” You say as you kneel in front of him again. You bring a hand to your face, spitting into it and smearing it along your palm. You cup the base of his shaft and glide your palm around the skin near the toy, trying to lubricate it as much as you can.
“It’s not enough Y/N, just spit directly on it,” He groans. You were going to yell at him for telling you what to do, but spared him once you saw his flushed and pained expression. You silently obeyed, sitting up so your face hovered over his dick. You collected enough saliva in your mouth and spit on the skin below the toy, letting the liquid slip down and over his cock. You bring your fingertips to massage the area, spreading your fluid as much as you can over him. Once you think it’s enough, you try pulling the toy again but it still didn’t budge.
“I-I think you still need to add more,” He pants.
“You think I got gallons worth Jungkook? That I’m a human sprinkler?” You spew.
“Well how about you just use your mouth?” He said nonchalantly.
You gaped at him, about to tell him off but then he cuts you off. “It would be easier! You wouldn’t have to keep spitting and have it dry up. You can get it all over and then it would pop right off!”
Your patience was really wearing thin with this kid. But then he grabs you by shoulders, pressing his sweaty forehead against yours.
“You’re my only hope Noona. You can only help me with this. I’ll do whatever you want after I promise.”
  “I swear I’ll be a good boy.”
  Good boy?
  Hearing that made the last strings of your sanity cut loose.
 Fuck it.
 You push him away by his chest abruptly, making him almost fall back on the bed. He caught himself before he could fall, hands flat against the bed. Before he could ask you what your problem was, you flatten your tongue along the base of his shaft.
“Y/N!” He moans aloud, bucking his hips up and into your face. You glide your tongue along his vein, swirling your tongue against his tip. You press an open mouthed kiss, then wrap the tip around the lips as you suck lightly.
“Oh fuck! Noona,” He rasps, trying so hard not to lose control and grab your hair to push you further into him. His moans egg you on and you tease his slit, earning another strangled moan of your name from him. Then you bring your mouth down onto his cock, taking him inch by inch.
You try your best to use your tongue, trying to wet every inch of his throbbing cock until you finally reach the base where the toy was. You hear him panting like he just ran a marathon above you, groaning as he watches your pretty lips around his thick member.
“Your mouth is so warm, it feels so good,” He groans, licking his lips before he gulps as he watches you intently. You stop your movements and look up to him, making direct eye contact. He looks at you in confusion, seeing the subtle glint in your eyes. Before he could say anything you swallow hard, causing him to thrash his head back and fist your hair.
“Fucking shit!” He moans, bucking his hips upward into you, causing the tip to hit the back of his throat. It hurt of course, but seeing the way he reacts to your ministrations was definitely worth it.
You pull your mouth off of him just until the tip, then bring him all into your mouth once again, sucking harshly.
“Holy fuck Y/N,” he moans, grasping the back of your head as you bob up and down his length.
“Keep fucking doing that.” You scratch his thighs, telling him that you’re the one in control instead of him before grazing your teeth slightly against his length. He whines in response, slightly nudging your hair back to stop you.
“Y-Y/N please…I’m sorry, just please keep going.” You release him with a pop, wiping the saliva from your chin as you look at him with a glare.
“Why are you telling me what to do? I thought you said you’d be a good boy?” You say as you slightly dig your nails into his massive thighs once again. “Or should I stop?”
“No! No please! Don’t stop I’ll be good I promise!” He whimpers at you, bringing his hand to your cheek to slowly caress your face.
“I’ll be good Noona.” You pretend to contemplate on your answer when you definitely weren’t going to leave him like this now, but you seem to think he’s had enough when you see his arm shake and his lips quiver.
“You better be.” You bring your mouth back to him, sinking your mouth down his hardened length as you take all of him again. You didn’t really think of Jungkook as the vocal type, but hearing him shamelessly moan and whimper your name aloud to the point the next door neighbors could hear heightened your ego tenfold.
You release him, bringing your hand up and down his shaft. You lift his dick so it’s against his stomach, about to run your tongue against him once again when you noticed something odd. A very thin line was visible on the cock ring, located on the bottom side of his dick. You bring your face closer to the line, looking at it curiously. Very small and slightly faint read the letters OPEN right above the line, in bold lettering.
Aha! You thought. Finally. Before you could bring your hand to the little slit, Jungkook calls out to you.
“Why did you stop? I’m being good Noona. Please, keep going.” He cries, and you swear it’s a tear that slips from his eyes and down his cheek than his sweat.
You lick your lips, looking back down at the toy then back at his cock.
He deserves this for being a brat all these years.
You look back up at him, giving him a sweet smile which felt seemingly odd to him. You never smiled like that at him. “Okay, since you’re being so good for me Kook,” You say sweetly.
“Why are you- fuck!” Jungkook groans when you take him all in one go, his tip hitting the back of your throat. You slightly gag, your mouth so full from his thick length but you push through it. You wanted to see this boy suffer.
You continue to go all out, hollowing your cheeks and deep throating him in the best ways possible, drowning in all his whines and cries of your name and how you were so fucking good.
“N-Noona, fuck, I think I’m gonna-“ You smile at his words.
Any second now.
At one particularly harsh suck he grabs your head, sinking you further down his cock as your mouth hits the toy. He moans at first but quickly cries in agony, fisting your hair harshly as you try to focus relaxing your throat.
“What…What the fuck…?” He whimpers, eyes squinting closed as he groans.
You release him with a pop, looking up at him with innocent eyes. “What’s wrong Kook?”
“I-There’s something wrong,” He says, grabbing his dick and wincing.
“Does it still hurt Jungkook? You want Noona to make you feel good?” You pull his hand away from him, grasping his length once again and pumping up and down slowly. He cries again, grabbing your wrist to stop your movements. “It fucking hurts Noona. What’s happening?” He sounded so lost, so helpless.
You never thought yourself to be a sadist but fuck, you loved it.
“Shh, Kookie,” You slowly rise to your feet, standing between his legs as you grab onto his shoulder. You bring a finger to his chin, lifting his head so he can look up to you. “Let Noona help you. I’ll make you feel real good.” With that, you pushed him harshly on the chest, causing him to fall back into the sheets. You quickly shimmy out of your shorts leaving you in your black lacy underwear, then turn back to him.
You lick your lips, staring at him sprawled on his bed looking so fucked out, completely naked. You climb up over him, bringing one leg over to straddle his waist.
“Y/N, what are you-“ You muffled him with a kiss, soft and sweet at first but slowly getting rougher to the touch as seconds go by. He moans when you bite his bottom lip, allowing you to delve your tongue into his hot cavern. His hands quickly find purchase on the soft flesh of your hips, holding you tightly. You suck on the tip of his tongue, earning you a groan.
You bring your mouth to his ear, nibbling his lobe before you whisper, “Just relax, Kook. And let Noona do all the work.”
You rise above him, your hands running along his arms as you meet his hands on your hips. You bring your hands to the hem of your shirt, quickly lifting it off of you and exposing your matching black lace bra.
“God damn,” he choked, eyes as wide as saucers as his mouth gaped at your beautiful figure. You chuckle at his response, then bring your hand down to your underwear. You rubbed yourself through the fabric, lightly moaning as you feel your juices seep through. You were definitely ready for him already. You use two fingers to hook your underwear, pushing it to the side while using your other hand to grab his dick.
He groans, watching your movements as you align yourself with his dick.
“Y/N, are you sure you- ahh!” His nails dig into your hips as you slowly sink onto him, your mouth slightly ajar as he fills you up perfectly.
His length and girth is the perfect size for you, filling you up to the brim as you settle perfectly onto his cock. You moan once your ass meets his thighs, sitting still as you adjust to the new found fullness.
Then, you move. You bring yourself off of him until just the tip is left, then sit back down with a slap. You moan at the sensation, but Jungkook is crying from your action.
“Holy f-fuck! Fuckkk,” He whimpers, chest heaving as you bring yourself up only to come down with another harsh slap. You continue these movements until you set a steady pace, bouncing on his length.
“Y/N! Oh my god, fuck, fuck Noona,” He writhes below you, looking like he’s about to lose his mind as he twists his head back and forth with his eyes tightly shut.
“You feel so fucking good, god, keep going please,” He whines, continuously licking his lips as his mouth constantly lets out a string of profanities and whimpers.
“Am I making you f-feel good, Kook? Ah, fuck,” You groan, speeding up your pace as the room fills with constant slap, slap, slaps.
“Yes yes yes, fuck yes, you’re so fucking good, I’m losing my mind,” He chokes, bringing one hand to squeeze your ass while the other tightly grasps onto your upper thigh. You continue going hard against him, him hitting you so deep and in just the right spots. Every time you drop down you feel something hitting against your flesh, then you look down.
You forgot the cock ring was still stuck on him, then realize it was the bunny ears. Memories of your friend saying how good the vibrator was rushed into your head, then you bring one of your hands to the toy. You press the switch on the toy, the low buzz sounds filling the room along with Jungkook’s whines. Once you sink down onto him again the product lands right on your clit, vibrating at an inhumane speed which causes your eyes to roll back.
“Oh my fucking god!” You scream, pausing your movements as you let the vibrator run against your bundle of nerves. You’ve never felt anything like it before.
You attempt to squeeze your thighs together, slowly rotating your hips instead as you let the vibrations of the toy work its magic against you. You moan aloud again, throwing your head back as the feeling of Jungkook’s cock so deep inside you along with the toys ministrations make your mind go hazy. All of a sudden you feel Jungkook’s hips lurch forward, pounding into you from below as he holds you by the hips to keep you still.
“Jungkook!” You scream, scratching his chest with his hands as he takes over.
“Y-You’re getting tighter on me, fuck, you feel so fucking good,” He moans, filling you to the brim each time as the toy continues to rub against your clit.
You can’t contain your voice now, moaning nonstop as Jungkook keeps ramming into you, the toy helping you reach your high quicker than you ever thought possible. After a few more strokes you come undone, moaning loudly as you tightly clench Jungkook’s dick. He lets out a deep groan, continuously thrusting into you as you ride out your high.
“Y/N, Y/N, fuck fuck fuck, I’m gonna-“ Jungkook grabs onto your ass tightly, letting out a strangled moan. You watch as his head falls back into the bed, his stomach clenching tightly as he releases a choked sob. You felt his cock throb from within you, but no release. The side of your mouth twitches upward, but when you see his eyes fill with tears once again, him crying aloud, you finally actually start feeling bad.
You lift your hips, letting his hard cock slip out of you as you roll over beside him. You take a few seconds to catch your breath. You’re about to sit up to take the cock ring off of him but all of a sudden he rolls over to hover above you, spreading your legs open and pushing your panties to the side.
“Hey, what-“ He grabs his cock and roughly shoves himself into you again, causing you to throw your head back with a moan. He has his hands on either side of your head, then brings his mouth to your ears.
“You’re so fucking tight Noona, you feel so warm.” He grabs your hips as he starts pummeling into you, making your eyes roll back.
“You’re fucking hot as hell, you moaning my name and coming all over my cock,” He grunts, “You don’t know how many times I’ve came imagining what just happened. But why can’t I fucking come now?”
“J-Jungkook, stop,” You moan, trying to get him to stop so you can take the ring off of him. But he doesn’t let up, too focused on trying to reach his release as he fucks you harder, grunting and growling as he picks up his pace. The toy continues to buzz, occasionally rolling over your nub if Jungkook angles it the right way, causing you to yell out. He spreads your legs further, tossing one of your legs over his shoulder to reach into you deeper.
“That picture of you bouncing on my dick, fucking me, using me to make you feel good, I never imagined how fucking sexy you’d actually look. And the way you moan my name, fuck I’ll come just from thinking about that next time I touch myself,” He groans, reaching behind you to rip off your bra. His mouth latches onto your nipple, sucking your breast as you grab his head to bring him closer. He laps your nub, licking up the valley of your breasts and brings his lips to yours.
You moan into his mouth, allowing him to ravage you some more. He brings both of your legs around his waist and you cross them, shoving himself into you faster. At this angle the toy is hitting directly on your clit each time he pounds into you, making you scream out his name as you clutch the bedsheets beside you.
“Jungkook!” You moan his name like a mantra, your release getting closer and closer. He continues kissing you, and after a few more deep strokes you come all over him again, squeezing him so hard he yells your name aloud, his cock throbbing uncontrollably as you clench tightly around him. His hands are holding your hips so tightly you know there’s going to be bruises in the morning, but you don’t care. You move your hips against him as you embrace the waves of pleasure, panting as you finally go limp. You’re about to slowly doze off from being so tired, wiping the sweat along your temple when you hear another choked sob. Jungkook pulls out of you, his dick still hard and swelled. The tip looks painfully red, the rest of his shaft looking constricted as he whimpers again.
“I-I fucking can’t,” He cries, his cheeks red and wet with tears of frustration as he looks at you with pleading eyes.
“Oh Kook,” You bite your lip. Maybe you really went too far.
You crawl over to him on his knees, carefully touching his length. He winces at your touch, whimpering as you lift it up. You press the button to turn off the vibrations, then use your fingernail to dig into the slit of the toy, pulling it forward as it pops open. He groans in relief as you slowly drag the toy off of him, tossing it to the side.
“And that’s what you get for being a brat all these years.” You say as you plop onto his bed, grabbing the sheets to cover yourself.
“What?” He looks at you confused, then his eyes widen.
“Wait…you fucking knew?”
You chuckle, “Of course, who doesn’t fucking know what a cock ring does? It stops you from coming, Kook.” You shuffle onto your side, getting ready to fall asleep.
“So you fucked with me this whole time?” He said in a low tone, venom laced in his voice.
“Fucked and fucked,” You said. “You’ve always fucked with me all these years. I was just making it even. Also we’re not telling anyone about this, okay?” You pointed back and forth from yourself to him, then plopped back onto the pillow.
Silence filled the room and you accepted it with open arms. You were just completely exhausted at this point, not having really expected such a good fuck from Jungkook. But hey, he made you feel good and you got your revenge, so it all works out. You were slowly slipping off into dreamland but all of a sudden the sheets are ripped off of you. Your legs were pulled downward, dragging your head off the pillow.
“What the fuck-“ Jungkook grabs your waist and flips you over onto your stomach, pushing your head down into the mattress while your ass is raised in the air. You attempt to turn around to ask him what the fuck he thinks he’s doing, but you cry as a hard slap echos in the room.
He smooths his rough palm against your right cheek where he spanked you, then brings his hand once again over the spot making you choke.
“You think this is a fucking joke? Making me lose my fucking mind, not letting me come three times?”
“Let go brat-“
Slap.
“The girl of my fucking dreams comes in here and sucks me off, fucks me twice, yet I couldn’t even fucking enjoy it cause I was in so much pain? You know how fucking horrible that is?” He grabs your underwear, tearing it in half as he lets it fall on the bedspread.
“Jungkook-ahh!” You moan once he brings his hand to your core, running his fingers along your slit.
“You call me a brat all the time, yell at me, yet I do everything for you,” He says as he lets a finger slip in, pumping into you as your wet juices fall down your thighs. “But you didn’t even let me come once.”
“Jungkook I can’t, not anymore,” You whimper, fisting the sheets as he plunges a second finger into you.
“Oh you can’t? But you came so many times Noona. Fuck, I even called you Noona cause I knew you secretly loved that,” He grunts. “I hate saying that. But I did it for you, to make you feel good Y/N.”
“Please,” You beg, trying to move away from his touch. But he doesn’t let up, continuing to touch you.
“I think you can go again. You never do anything for me, so you can do this. I haven’t even come yet,” He drags his fingers out of you, then leans forward so his dick sat against your cheeks and his chest leaned against your back. He brings his fingers to your lips, prodding them at your entrance. “Suck.”
You complied, opening your mouth as you lapped up your juices on him. You hear him groan behind you, slowly rubbing his length against your ass.
“God, you’re so fucking hot.” He leans back, pumping himself a few times before he aligns his tip at your entrance. You were going to attempt to stop him again but he pounds right into you, causing your face to fall flat onto the sheets.
He immediately starts off rough and fast, holding you by the hips as he drags you to him, fucking you onto him. You mewl, so sensitive from the last two rounds that you didn’t have the strength to do anything.
“Fuck, you’re still so fucking tight,” He groans, “God, I imagined fucking you so many times before, but I never thought it’d feel this good.”
“Jungkook…” You moan, slowly feeling the coiling in your stomach return.
“All these years Y/N, having to deal with seeing you in those short shorts, those low tops, fuck, you were such a fucking tease,” His thighs slap harder against your ass.
“Did I ever tell you I walked in on you changing once? I fucking ran to my room and jacked off that entire night to that image.” You moaned in response, thinking about the thought of Jungkook touching himself, pumping his shaft hard and fast as he thought of you, moaning your name as he came. And he was only a couple of feet away from you in the other room.
“But I never did anything about it, because you always treated me as the little brat next door,” He growled, flipping you over so you were on your back, then pushing himself right back in.
“Tell me Y/N, do you still think of me as a kid?” He grabbed one of your breasts, kneading it as he sucked on the other. “Would some brat make you feel this fucking good?”
You moaned in response, grabbing his hair as you tried to pull him closer to you. He sucked harder, pinching your nub between his fingers as he continued thrusting you at a harsh pace. He let you go, rising up to adjust you again, hooking his arms around your thighs as he fucked you into his mattress.
“Fuck, Jungkook! Oh my fucking god,” You moan aloud, slightly arching your back as he drilled into you, making your body slowly inch upward and closer to the bedframe. The hinges squeaked uncontrollably, the bed frame hitting against the wall each time he thrusted into you.
The angle was causing you to see stars, his length hitting you in your deepest and most pleasurable spot.
“Fuck, I think I’m gonna-“
He immediately stops his movements, causing you to groan at the loss of your blissful release.
“Why the fuck did you stop!?” You yell, tears of frustration clouding your vision.
He smirks at you in return, leaning forward until his face is a mere inches from yours.
“I don’t think you deserve it. Why should I let you come again?” You try to move in response, but he still has his arms around your legs, keeping you in place.
“Please,” You beg, wanting nothing more than to just drown in euphoric feeling of letting go against him.
“How are you gonna make me?”
“I’ll do anything! I won’t call you brat anymore! Just please, let me come,” You whimper, bringing your hands to cup his face.
“Hmm…” He contemplates for a little while, then you whine another please before he chuckles.
“You’ll do anything?”
“Anything.”
“Will you be my girlfriend after this?”
Your eyes widen and your jaw drops, not expecting that request at all. You thought he’d want you to suck his dick again, which you wouldn’t mind. But girlfriend?
He grabs your hand into his, then slowly caresses his face into your touch. He turns his face to kiss the inside of your palm, then each of your fingertips.
“I’ve loved you since I was 7. You’re the only girl for me, and we’re practically going to be together for the rest of our lives cause of our parents. My parents don’t want me to be with anyone else either, so we already have their blessing.” He smiles at your speechless face, then brings himself forward to give you a kiss on the nose.
Butterflies fill your stomach, and you feel like you can’t breathe for a moment. This brat has been with you for so long you never realized you actually loved him too, and you wouldn’t know what you would do without him.
“So do I take that as a yes?” He says, peppering sweet kissing along your jawline.
You bite your lips, but slowly your mouth curves into a smile. “You’re such a greaseball.”
He chuckles, bringing his lips to yours. You wrap your arms around his neck, melting into his kiss.
“Okay not to ruin the moment but I’m kind of fucking dying here and I feel like my dick is going to fall off,” He groans, feeling him still hard within you.
You giggle, giving him one last kiss on the lips before moving away from him. “Where do you want to come?”
“Fuck,” He grunts, licking his lips as he contemplates.
“I want to come inside you.” You nod at his response, “That’s fine, I’m on the pill. And how do you want me?”
“On top.” You nod again, smiling at him as you lift yourself up, changing positions with him. He falls back on the sheets and groans while he watches you straddle him, lining his cock with your soaking entrance. Once again you sink onto him, allowing him to fill you up to the brim. Both of you sigh in content, him kneading your breasts and you holding onto his chest.
You quickly start bouncing on him, wanting him to have his relief as quickly as possible. He groans as your ass slaps against his thighs harshly every time you come down, eyes closed shut as his mouth hangs open. You clench against him, trying to milk him out for his release, and he moans your name louder. You feeling the throbbing occur and you know he’s close. You were so focused on trying to get him off that you didn’t realize Jungkook reached for the toy again, turning the power on as the slight buzzing filled the room. Your eyes pop open and you cry aloud once he presses the vibrator part of the cock ring against your clit, making you writhe above him.
“Oh fuck! Fuck, Jungkook, fuck,” You mewl, moving faster against him as he keeps the toy against your bundle of nerves.
“Come on Y/N, come for me babe. Come all over my cock,” He grunts, and after a few more seconds of the toy against you you let go, lurching forward as you throw your head against Jungkook’s chest, crying his name aloud. He grabs onto your hips and plants his feet flat on the bed, fucking you through your high, and after another half dozen strokes he chokes your name out, coming inside of you in long, hot spurts. Jungkook’s warmth felt nice inside you, and you continued moving as best you could until he finished, groaning as he slowly went limp inside of you.
Both of you were panting and you could feel his rapid heartbeat slow against your cheek. He brings a hand to brush through your hair, bringing a blanket to cover the both of you before wrapping an arm around your waist.
“I love you Y/N,” He said, kissing your temple.
“And I love sex toys now even though it hurt like a bitch, but at least it brought us together.” You slap his chest, causing him to let out a chuckle. “We should give it a 5 star review. The toy sucked ass for me but it also brought me this beautiful ass,” He said as he squeezed one of your cheeks. “Pretty great if you ask me.”
“You’re still dumb and a brat,” You said as you rested your chin on his firm chest, staring up at him. You leaned forward to kiss his bottom lip, right where his mole was that you always secretly adored.  
“But honestly, I love you too.”
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smallblip · 3 years
Text
Deep sea baby
Levihan | Rated for mild swearing and mild deed-doing | This is a secret santa gift for @hanji-zoe103  💕
It’s on Ao3! https://archiveofourown.org/works/28429827
Hanji is born of white foam, where the heavens collide with the sea, and Levi loves her with a fierceness that would make the tides jealous. Levi knows little of poetics, but Hanji promises to find him in the next life and the ones after.
And sure as the waves crashing into shore, she does.
 Hanji is the sea. Uncompromising, untamable, painfully beautiful. Levi thinks she’s poetry in motion, the way she dances, barefoot across sandy beaches, the way she walks down towards the place where the sea meets land, unafraid amidst white waters. 
  He sits, like the shores, and watches her. Watches her bend towards the ground, hands dipping beneath foam, searching for shells. She holds them up against the sun to inspect them when she finds them. Treasure, she calls them. 
  When she’s waist deep in salt water she turns back to look at him. 
  “Come on Levi! The water is warm!” 
  ≋
  Hanji is born of white foam, where the heavens collide with the sea.
  And Levi is the most beautiful boy to have walked the earth, so beautiful he puts the gods to shame. And Hanji fears whatever love they have will be short-lived, because he loves her with a fierceness that would make the tides jealous. 
  It’s a long way from heaven, but Hanji comes to see him every day. She sits with him in a clearing in the forest while he works and he’s sceptical at first. Nothing good comes from associating with the old gods. But the hem of her dress is caked in mud, there’s earth under her nails, and she swears exactly like a sailor would. He teaches her to climb trees and she names all the sheep in his flock. 
  “Maybe it would be nice to stay here forever...” she says to him one day, and Levi understands the gravity of what she’s suggesting. The heavens would not allow for it. They would cut her up piece by piece and she would be returned to the sea. 
  But there’s a conviction in Hanji’s eyes, a severity that justifies the cult of mortals at her feet. The same determination that Hanji has when she’s pulling splinters from her fingers, when she picks wildflowers for Levi, when she holds him against her chest and challenges the gods. She balls her fists and curses the greys of the skies, yet she dances in the rain, giggling, pulling Levi to join her. He surprises himself when he relents.
  So Levi tells her she has his heart. 
  Each night he holds her close, and each night she falls into a deep slumber and she dreams of running barefoot through a field of white roses to reach him. She pierces her foot on a thorn and the field is stained red. A field of red roses. Each one blooming and dying at Levi’s feet. 
  ≋
  In a kinder life, they are childhood friends in a sleepy seaside town. Levi has a popsicle in his mouth, the last of it melting on his tongue. Hanji has long finished hers, and her fingers are sticky from the syrup. But it doesn’t matter because Levi is burying her in the sand so she can keep her filth to herself. He contemplates covering her mouth with sand too, but they’re going to turn thirteen soon and he’s tired of pretending that her talking annoys him. 
  “When I’m older I’m going to sail all over the world!” Hanji grins. Levi thinks it’s funny that now she’s just a talking head in the sand.
  But his heart sinks a little. He doesn’t know if his future is on a vessel bound to nowhere. But they’re still young and their plans have little structure and bearing, so for now Levi pretends he’s going to be there with her, sailing across the ocean.
  “Did you know it’s a myth that lobsters mate for life?” Hanji says, absentminded, part of her trying to distract from the heat, and another part of her already thinking about that ice cream they have waiting for them in her freezer. “Sad huh... Who knew you can’t trust everything on TV...” she laughs. 
  “Seahorses mate for life...” Levi says. He tries to stay nonchalant, but he’s a little embarrassed he spends his free time googling facts he thinks Hanji would enjoy.
  And Hanji knows. Of course she does. She has known him her whole life. In this life and the next he is her Levi. Her Levi with an endless capacity for kindness. She smiles. 
  “Seahorses huh...”
  ≋
  They meet on a ship sailing through uncharted waters. Levi joins the Royal Navy when it feels like he’s exhausted all other options. There's a hunger for power that guides their ship to foreign lands.
  It’s the middle of the night when hears shouting. He jolts awake and already the rest of the crew are reaching for their weapons. There’s no time to change out of their night clothes. The ship spirals into a frenzy. He spots the warning of black sails and white crossbones from afar. The ship is gaining on them. It’s clear they have to stand their ground and fight. 
  The pirates board their ship, and there’s a wild clash of knives and swords and the smell of blood in the air mixing with the metallic taste of gold and bronze and silvers. Levi lunges but his sword is halted midair by a cutlass. 
  “Not so fast Officer...” the pirate says. Past the eyepatch and greasy hair he sees her- he feels her. There’s a white rush by his ears calling for him to come home. 
  I found you, she whispers in his ear as she brings him aboard her ship. 
  The sea promises gold and riches beyond imagination, and Levi promises to follow her to the ends of the earth. 
  ≋
  Levi works in his uncle's bakery a small town in the middle of godforsaken nowhere. It's a family business, and they've been getting good reviews from travel blogs online looking for spots off the beaten path. 
  Levi is on a date to the aquarium and Kenny yells a “don't come back tonight if you know what's good for you!” after him. There are still customers in the bakery and everyone is staring at him. The teenagers in the corner snigger. 
  His date doesn't show, but he's not surprised really. The first date had gone by in a way that could be considered painless. But beyond nice pleasantries, there’s nothing much to look forward to. So Levi completely understands. Then again she could’ve at least had the courtesy to drop him a text. In any case, Kenny will be disappointed. He enters the aquarium anyway. Might as well. He had already purchased the tickets, and he hasn’t been since he was a child in elementary school. He watches the sharks swim laps behind the thick glass. He wonders if they feel unfulfilled, living in a tank, watching as people from all around take family trips to visit the aquarium. 
  “That one’s Bean!” Levi switches his attention from a particularly small shark to the person beside him. 
  “What?” He replies.
  “That one!” She points to the shark making its way past them, “she’s Bean. We rescued her from a fishing net.” 
  Levi watches her grin with suspicion. Maybe he should introduce himself. He's not usually one to introduce himself to strangers with wild hair and gleaming eyes behind thick glasses, but there's a first for everything, and before he knows it, he's telling her his name.
  "Date stood you up?" she says, and Levi glares at her. "Oh... Wait... That really happened?" she apologises, and the stranger with the wild hair and gleaming eyes becomes Hanji. There’s something about the lights in the aquarium, the blues and violets that reflect off the auburn in her eyes in a way that’s almost ethereal. 
  The things that conspire after are tricks of the light then, surely. Hanji invites him back to her apartment, and they talk and they polish off a six pack of beers and a few bottles of cheap wine between the two of them. "This is fun! I haven't gotten shipfaced in a while!" Hanji chuckles. 
  “No.” Levi says, he has little tolerance for bad nautical puns. But it only encourages Hanji to tell him more. There's a mix of "where ya fin all my life" and "you're whaley cute", and finally, when she's absolutely smashed, a "nice boat, wanna fuck?" 
  At that, the dams break and Levi laughs. 
  Hanji wakes up the next morning, killer headache, she shoots up and the headache splits her skull open. Too quick. 
  “Ouch...” she says, eyes blinking through sleep and haze. She grabs at the bottle of water by her bedside and shuffles through her drawer for ibuprofen. 
  “You idiot...” 
  Hanji snaps her head up, looking for the owner of the voice and there Levi is, leaning against her door, hands folded across his chest. Hanji’s jaw slackens. 
  “In case you were wondering, no, nothing happened...” 
  “But... but you’re here... in... in my room...” 
  “Tch...” Levi rolls his eyes, “you passed out and I stayed just in case you choked on your own vomit and died in the middle of the night...” 
  Oh...
  “Wait did I?” 
  Levi raises a brow, she’s still not all there. “Still alive aren’t you?” 
  Hanji shrugs. This could be hell for all she knows. “Fast acting pain relief” proving to be the biggest scam of the century. 
  "What a fucking shipwreck of a person..." Levi says and it takes Hanji a minute before she's doubled over in laughter, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. 
  Levi half expects to never see her ever again, but there she is the day after, as promised, finger pressed to the glass, ordering herself a Pain au Chocolat, an Americano, and his number on a piece of napkin. He sighs, but he's writing it down for her anyway.
  "You really followed me home that night huh... Didn't it cross your mind that I could be a serial killer?" She says, examining his handiwork. 
  Levi scoffs, "you invited a complete stranger you picked up at the aquarium into your house, and then proceeded to get very wasted... Didn't it cross your mind that I could have been the serial killer?"
  Hanji laughs, and it startles her when it echoes throughout the bakery, "touché..." she says, "guess I am a shipwreck of a person..." she winks.
  The corners of Levi's lips betray a smile as he watches her take a seat by the window to read. 
  "That's not Petra..." Kenny comments. 
  "Who said I went home with Petra?" Levi answers.
  Kenny's face pulls into a smirk and he lets loose a deep rumble of laughter, “Levi you absolute dog!”
  ≋
  The sea is a passage. To a new life that Hanji can only pray will be fulfilling. She is the princess of a port kingdom- a people favoured by the sun and raised by the sea. 
  Her ships carry her to a distant land of frigid waters and snowfall, where her betrothed is king. When she sets foot on land, she's greeted by faces paler than hers and a mannerism befitting the heartiness of Northern kingdoms. There are skins being made into pelt, fish hanging out to dry, wines made from preserved fruit. Already, Hanji misses the white sandy beaches and the heat of the midday sun, but she's to be queen now, and she remembers this when she walks past the heavy doors into the throne room. She comes bearing gifts of glass beads, fine porcelain, and dried fruit and nuts- a reminder of Summer. 
  She takes her place beside her husband, and she smiles at the people who have come to see her- the princess from the other side of the sea. They are her people now. 
  And that's when she sees him.
  His expression doesn't change even when he kneels in front of her and kisses the back of her hand. He vows to protect her. 
  She calls for him later, and he tells her to call him Levi- he has never been too keen on formalities. Besides, Sir Levi doesn’t suit him quite as much. And she's Hanji, just Hanji. 
  It's Winter when they take a ride through the forest. She's not used to the heavy furs and wools and Levi has to remind her that the sun doesn't shine the same here. But Hanji knows. Her golden skin now mellowing. She hikes her dress above her knees and toes through the snow. The ground caves beneath her feet like powdered sugar, and Hanji thinks maybe there's beauty in her new home. She thinks maybe there's warmth to be found, as Levi catches her before she slips. 
  He shows her the lake, now frozen over, and they slide over thick ice like children. She pulls him down with her when she falls and they laugh. There's something in his eyes that Hanji recognises as fear. She feels it in the beat of her own heart, warning her against falling. But they’ve been treading on thin ice around one another, and falling seems inevitable.
  So Levi presses back against her and kisses her. Hanji feels a warmth coursing through her- the same fire she's promised in the lullabies her mother used to sing her. 
  "We should come in Spring. The lake is beautiful then..." Levi says as they make their way back to the castle. And Hanji promises to show him her home. The crystal waters; gentle waters. She knows it's a promise that may never be fulfilled, but nevertheless, this is a moment in time, and promises offer a glimpse into possibility. 
  Come Spring, they make love by the lake, under the cover of the sea of trees. Everything is beautiful in the Spring. 
  ≋
  In another life, the sea promises protection. 
  There’s only one rule out at sea near the white rocks-
  Beware the Siren’s song.
  Levi lives in a little house by the sea. Everyday he sails out near the white rocks to catch fish. 
  Hanji circles his boat. Her iridescent tail catching the light and reflecting deep purples and green. She sings her best song for him- the beautiful fisherman with the grey eyes. 
  "Don’t swim into the nets," he scolds and Hanji is taken aback. She thinks about her beautiful fisherman when he sails for home. And there's a familiar tugging that she feels in her gut. But the weather has taken a turn for the worse and she doesn’t see him near the white rocks. Not the next day nor the days after. She seeks the council of the waters and the waves carry her to shore. 
  There’s a storm raging. The windows are rattling against their frames. Lightning illuminates the skeletons of his house and there’s a persistent knocking that weaves in and out of the thunder. Levi takes the screaming kettle off the hobs. 
  He opens the door to her. She’s standing in the rain, hands wrapping around herself to shield from the cold. Levi’s gaze skims from the tip of her nose down to her bare chest, down to her long legs. He swallows thickly. She’s leaning against the frame of the door, shifting her weight from one unstable leg to another. Like a fawn learning to walk. He frowns but nevertheless, he leaves the door ajar for her to enter.
  “You’re gonna get the floors all wet...” he mutters. Rainwater he can manage. But seawater makes the floorboards a little sticky, and that annoys him deeply.
  “I told you I’ll come for you.” She says. 
  Levi shoves a towel in her face, “Dry yourself.” He pauses for a moment, taking in the shock on her face. “Please.” 
  Surprisingly, she does as she’s told, and when she’s done, she hands the towel back to him. 
  Levi finds her dry clothes, and she pinches and pulls at them, inspecting after she puts them on. 
  “I’m here to eat your heart lover boy.” 
  He considers her. It’s colder this time of year and the sea is relentless. But her skin is gold like honey, sun-kissed in a way that reminds Levi of summers and homemade jam and the grass beneath his feet. 
  “Levi.” He replies.
  Levi. she says, smile spreading across her face like butter on warm toast. 
  He shares his stew with her and she tells him her name is Hanji when her hands are warming by the fire. She looks at Levi, gaze washing over him like a wave. And there’s familiarity in the way his eyes soften when he looks at her. He looks at her like he's trying to call forth a string of memories tying her to him; him to her. But all he has is an affection for her that ripples through his consciousness. It's accompanied by the sounds of laughter- her laughter- and the pale shimmer of moonlight.  
  So she returns to him the next day, and the day after, and the days after that. 
  Hanji brings him little pieces of treasure. A conch shell, a dead sand dollar, bits of sea glass. Her legs grow stronger each time. She dances around his house. She pulls him flush against her chest and rests her chin atop his head and sways to a tune she’s humming. 
  Beware the Siren’s song, they say. 
  But they’re far from the white rocks and she’s laughing exactly like a lover would. The floorboards are creaking under their toes.
  He looks for her when he’s out at sea, and listens as she tells him stories of the depths, about the men who hurt her, about dying at sea, and about the promise of protection and rebirth.  
  When she wakes again, there's water in her lungs and she learns to breathe. To call the sea her home. 
  But maybe it's not by accident that she falls asleep in his arms one night, cocooned in white sheets that remind her of sea foam. 
  She kisses his nose in the morning and he blinks an eye open to look at her. “I’m gonna eat your heart lover boy...” Hanji teases, hair tickling his skin, the sight of him crossing the boundary between sleep and daybreak takes her breath away. 
  Levi smiles, pulling her closer, "stop moving so much..." he groans. It’s still early, they can still afford a little shut eye. He cradles her in his arms- a promise of protection. “You already have my heart,” comes his reply, in a moment of tenderness, and Hanji doesn't return to the waters. 
  ≋
  In others, the sea forces distance between them. 
  They don't meet in this life.
  But sure as waves reaching towards the shore, they meet in the one after.
  ≋
  They're in their second year of college but nothing really changes. 
  Except when it does, it happens so fast that Levi doesn't have time to breathe. The next time he takes a breath he's lying beside Hanji. They’re both sated and sleepy and Levi stills his breathing, coming down from his high. And Hanji thinks this life is nice. It's effortless in a way that reminds her that they are meant to be.
  The Marine Biologists have gathered for a nights out- a pub crawl to be specific. The entire course is decked in ridiculous outfits. There’s a merman somewhere, and a manatee, there’s even a sea snake (moray eel, Hanji clarifies). And Hanji is dressed as a shark. 
  Levi is there because he gets dragged along to everything that Hanji is a part of and he gets asked one too many times what his outfit is supposed to be. Because he’s in his jeans and a black top and he just looks- normal? 
  “He’s my next meal!” Hanji says and Levi pulls a face, he chokes out a, “shitty four eyes...” and he’s blushing a little more than he should because does she even hear herself?
  Halfway through the night Levi wonders why he’s so tipsy. This is really unlike him. He remembers meeting Hanji’s friend Moblit, whose Aquaman sends Hanji over the edge with laughter. He remembers hearing a round of “oh hey Levi!” (They all know who he is, after all, he’s often hanging around Hanji). Then the beer bong challenge. Oh right. The beer bong challenge... that’s why. Hanji won, at least he remembers that. 
  And he also remembers dancing with Hanji at the back of one of the pubs. “This is a good song...” he murmurs in her ear and she visibly shivers. But everything is spinning and the music is delicious, touching is also delicious, and they do just that. And at some point Levi must have just gone for it, because Hanji’s mouth is hot and inviting and Levi thinks he’s delirious so he surrenders to the feeling. 
  They’re back in Hanji’s room, only because it’s only a flight of stairs up and Levi is unzipping her ridiculous costume that surprising does little to ease his raging hard on. And Hanji, god forbid, isn’t wearing anything underneath. 
  His top comes off once they make it past the main door to her flat. Levi doesn’t even notice the mess in Hanji’s room as they navigate the narrow space and soon they're on the bed, hands moving in what is best described as a frenzy. 
  It feels so good and Levi finally admits to himself that he has been thinking about this for a while. And he’s almost relieved when Hanji kisses him and lets her want slide down his throat. 
  Levi wonders if they can still be considered friends. Last he’s checked friends don’t scream each other’s names the way Hanji is saying his name right now as she bites down on his shoulder. Plus, the whole best friends to lovers trope is just one big cliché. And yet, Levi doesn’t hate it. He has to admit it’s actually really nice. 
  The next morning Hanji finds Levi rummaging through her sink cupboard. 
  “My extra toothbrushes are the drawer.” She gestures towards the bottom drawer with her toe. They brush their teeth and they're sitting on the bed again, it's the only place for two to sit, really. 
  “So... Was it good for you?” Hanji says, a little amused with how the entire situation unfolded.  
 Levi clears his throat, face going red. “Would’ve been better if you weren’t wearing that stupid outfit...” He wants to say he's never felt this way with anyone before, but he doesn't. 
  “But hammerheads are cool!” Hanji protests and she’s pouting. Levi wonders if now’s a good time to kiss that stupid look off her face or if that’s too much.
  “Fucking one isn’t...” Levi mutters. Hanji throws her head back and laughs. 
  “So... What do we do now?” Levi asks. And Hanji shrugs saying a "admit we love each other and carry on with our lives?" like it had been obvious. 
  "Sounds good..." he says, smiling, and he thinks they deserve this effortlessness. 
 ≋
  Hanji comes back to him like ship returning to port. She thinks about meeting him when he's six and building sandcastles on the beach. He had ignored her attempt at conversation and Hanji had been a little annoyed.
  "You don't remember me do you?" She huffed, pout on her face, arms crossed. 
  Levi was confused, that definitely caught his attention, "do we know each other?" he asked. 
  "No," Hanji confessed, "no but... I know I'm supposed to meet you." She said with all the confidence a five year old can muster. Levi bickered with her. How can a five year old be so smug? He was a whole year older and he was by no means as confident. He didn't even know whether to pick sushi or pizza for lunch. 
  And she thinks about the night before she left. 
  "I like you Levi..." she had said. She willed herself not to cry, so there's a moment in which she's just chuckling humourlessly to herself. And Levi's scowls at her. "Inconvenient huh..." she added. She had to cross the ocean the next day on a voyage bound somewhere far away and this makes it that much harder.  
  Fucking inconvenient indeed...
  They don't make promises, but Hanji wishes they had. She wishes they would have at least addressed her little confession, because it's been eight years. Eight years of it gnawing at her brain and now it's just a little awkward. 
  Hanji takes a deep breath as she disembarks at port, her feet a little unsteady on dry land- like a fawn learning to walk again. But she sees him. And the knot in her chest unravels. Eight years. It's been too long. She takes tentative steps towards him, but soon she's running and enveloping him in a sweaty embrace. 
  He's whispering something, muffled because he's pressed into Hanji's clavicle-
  “Did you know seahorses mate for life?” 
  She smiles. Sure as the sun, he’s in her arms again. 
  Seahorses huh...
  ≋
  Hanji knows whatever life they've led, this is her favourite. 
  The one in which her and Levi see the sea for the first time together. 
  The one in which she’s the Commander, and him, her Captain. And between them, a river of words left unsaid threatening to break the banks. 
  One day they must cross the ocean, but today they visit the shores again, without the kids this time. And Levi learns why when he watches her peel at her clothes. Her harness comes off first, then her blouse, then everything else, like a little dance for an audience of one. Levi tries not to stare, but he’s already seen her by candlelight in the dead of the night. And yet she never fails to take his breath away. 
  She makes her way to where the white foams dredge the past up the shores of the present. 
  "Come on Levi! The water is warm!" she says, and he hears it like a call to come home- where the heavens collide with the sea. 
  He takes off his clothes and folds them in a neat pile beside Hanji's mess. He swims out to join her.
  The moonlight caresses her skin and this scene- this moment- is opulent. Levi unties the patch over her eye and lets the waters carry it away. She chuckles. "I'm never going to get that back am I?" she says, holding his hand and guiding him to shallower waters. 
  And Levi knows there's some poetry to the way she's kissing him. She tastes like saltwater and Summer all at once, and Levi thinks that he has never felt this way with anyone else. Will never feel this way about anyone else. Instead he glowers at her-
  “Hanji don’t you dare fucking die... I’ll never forgive you if you do... I swear I’ll-“ 
  Before Levi can continue, Hanji is laughing, sputtering as her head bobs below the surface of the water. 
  “Even if I do, you don’t have to say goodbye. I promise I’ll look for you in the next life... And the ones after...” She says, brushing the pad of her finger against his nose. The heavens and the sea bear witness. And Levi promises to follow her to the ends of the earth. 
  Treasure, he calls her, when the sound of white water crashing provide refuge for words that have little place in this life. Levi knows little of the words lovers say to each other, and even less of poetics, yet here he is with Hanji, sitting on the shores now, and watching salt crystal in her hair. He falls asleep that night to the sound of her breathing. And amidst dreams of roses and white foam,
  Levi is home. 
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Shdjdjjddjjs okay but, more buff cat hcs when ?? But seriously, i know it probably counts as crack hc but i enjoyed it way to much i cant get it out of my head anymore, i havent laught so much in a while now sjdjchdj. I sure hope the buff cat saga will continue !!
You know what? I’ll give you some buff cat content now. 😤 my school work can wait. And trust me, the buff cat saga WILL continue. I just tend to work on requests first rather than my own wants haha.
I’m really happy you like buff cat! Buff cat is my life now. Constantly haunted by buff cat. Maybe one day I’ll introduce a girlfriend or friends for buff cat too 🤔
Maybe I’ll do a background about buff cat and how they met MC?? And why buff cat is so attached to MC? I don’t know. 👉👈 maybe if someone requests, otherwise I’ll just do whatever I feel like in the moment.
Anyone can also feel free to request any buff cat scenarios!! If not I’ll think of some up. THIS IS SO LONG IM SORRY. I WROTE THIS LIKE 1 HOUR OR SOMETHING STRAIGHT AHA.
The boys react to buff cat teaching you
Lucifer
Lucifer had noticed your grades were improving recently, and wanted to take you out to eat for working so hard to both keep up with your class.
When he came to your room, he saw a scene that honestly shouldn’t of surprised him, but did anyways.
You were sitting at your desk, books sprawled across the entire surface area of it. On top of a book pile was buff cat, wearing a pair of glasses, and he was using a pointer to show you important parts you should remember.
He watched in awe as you two never exchanged any words, but you were scribbling down definitions and important notes, while buff cat turned the pages and reviewed your work.
He’s gotten fairly use to buff cat cooking, cleaning, intimidating others, but he has never seen buff cat act like a teacher before, it was sort of new, and he even had a teacher outfit.
He swears that he never sees you buying these outfits, or that people in the devildom actually sell muscular cat clothing.
Buff Cat is the first to break the silence, looking over at Lucifer and positioning his pointer at Lucifer’s head, and then to in front of your desk.
You were still focused on your studying, knowing that you were steadily improving. Buff Cat got out a notepad from one of your desk drawers, and wrote “Leave what you require on this note, I am instructing MC right now, and when we are done tutoring I will give this note to them.”
Lucifer ended up having to take a rain check on taking you out to eat, and learned that your cat has really advanced vocabulary.
Mammon
He was failing the majority of his classes, and ended up asking you for help. You were his best shot, and you seemed to be passing all of your classes with flying colours.
You said you were happy to help him! Except that someone else was actually helping you study. They were a very efficient teacher.
He was relieved to hear that you’d introduce your teacher to him, until he found out it was that fucking demon spawn from hell.
He screeched so hard and ran out of the room, crying like a girl. “aAAAAaaaaAAAH”
Mammon is terrified of buff cat, and now you’re telling him this cat has the intelligence of a genius? You came to the devildom like a few months ago how is this cat tutoring you and making you pass your classes with ease??
He swears your cat is trying to plot for world domination or something. Will NEVER ask you to study with him again.
Leviathan
You walked into Levi’s room trying to find buff cat. It was a Sunday, which was typically a boys night out between them, but it was getting pretty late and you need to study.
There was a test tomorrow on devildom history, and you wanted to review one more time with buff cat, as to make sure you’ll do well on it.
“Mr. Kitty, are you here?” You called out, as soon as you said that Buff Cat paused the game and ran up to you. Levi was slightly annoyed as Buff Cat was beating a hard level for him, but he is your cat above all else.
You smiled as Buff Cat greeted you, and apologised for interrupting them. You explained to Levi how you wanted to review for the test, and if it wasn’t an issue could he spare around 20 minutes?
Levi huffed and agreed and called you a normie, and was about to pick up his switch when your words finally set in.
You put down the book you were carrying and got out a pencil, and took a piece of paper out of the book. You began writing down all of the important stuff on the paper while Buff Cat watched over your shoulder.
When you were finished, he went into the book with you and showed you a couple things you’ve missed or had forgotten, and then got you to write it down three times each as to remember. He even wrote a few essay questions for you which you got.
Levi was impressed. Not only did Buff Cat seem to know the whole devildom history by heart, he knew the exact pages and lines, and even how to write.
He didn’t really care as long as Buff Cat beats the hard level for him. He just considers it to be cool.
Satan
Satan was impressed with your high grades. It must be hard for a human to suddenly learn about a whole new realm, right? So if you had Cs he would understand, but you were getting 97s and 94s.
He understood everything when he started to notice what kind of books Buff Cat had been reading in his room, recently.
You all were having a test on curses soon, and Buff Cat came by his room and began looking for books about curses, and similar ones to what you all had been learning about.
Satan ended up chuckling to himself and found it amusing. It was amazing how your cat even spent his free time coming to someone’s room, finding books for your tests, and reads them before going back to you to help you understand the content.
He likes to get coffee with Buff Cat and talk about the stuff you’re learning in classes, he never directly said it to you, but he helps Buff Cat find specific books when Buff Cat comes over.
Asmodeous
Lucifer decided to punish the house of lamentations by taking away all of their electronics after they did something stupid again. The only way to earn it back, was through getting an 80% or higher on their next test.
You and Asmo suffered because you would normally look up answer during your test, and Asmo had no social media or contact with any of his friends with benefits.
You two weren’t ashamed to beg Buff Cat for help to pass your next test. He was probably the smartest in the house. He goes to Satan’s room almost every day and purchased books when he goes out. Your cat even tutored you when you were in elementary school.
You and Asmo barely needed to convince Buff Cat, as he was ecstatic to help you again. He’d do anything to help you, and was even willing to help Asmo out as well.
Asmo thought that Buff Cat looked REALLY adorable in his teacher’s outfit. A suit, tie, glasses, and his claws were so shiny from their manicure earlier.
Buff cat even slicked his fur back to look like he gel’d his hair. He was a literal fashion icon. Asmo could do some sewing, but nothing to the degree Buff Cat did.
Buff Cat had so many outfits he made himself, and he even did them so quickly. They all turned out perfect. Oh right, this was about studying wasn’t it?
Asmo never really asked questions about why your cat could just be so smart, and more so focused on how cool your cat looked. Priorities.
Beelzebub
Beel and Buff Cat are gym buddies, so naturally they’d walk home together from the gym. Everything was fine until Buff Cat’s MC senses were tingling, and began to walk towards you, crouching down in a store trying to figure out which notebooks to buy.
Beel thought it was pretty cool Buff Cat knew where you were, like how he and Belphie were that close to each other.
Brel asked you what you were doing, and you explained that you wanted to get some new notebooks because your old one is messy and confusing. You just scribbled whatever you could down, and were having a bit of a hard time in class.
Buff Cat immediately perked up, and you two seemed to have a conversation. He meowed and you happily said “I’d love that!”
Apparently, Buff Cat had offered to tutor you. Beel wasn’t so sure how well your cat could teach, though, considering he still is a cat, and offered to help you as well, since he wouldn’t like to see you sad from overworking yourself.
He was scribbling notes alongside with you five minutes into your first session together. Buff Cat wrote such simple explanations, and even prepared notecards ahead of time, Beel forgot he was supposed to teach you.
He is pretty fine with Buff Cat teaching you both, and once again forgets that Buff Cat is a “normal”? cat and not some weird creature that knows the answer to life.
Belphegor
Is really fucking terrified of your buff cat. Like TERRIFIED. So when he sees your cat in a teacher’s outfit sitting at the dinning room table, teaching you math, he was frozen.
He came down to get a glass of milk but what is this. Do you- do you have to do it in the living room?
There is no other reaction than physical fear coursing through his body his adrenaline is at the highest and his fight or flight instincts kick in.
He’s already fought once and that caused Buff Cat to exist in constant Buff form around him, so you can bet he is running.
Probably has a group chat with Mammon and Luke. “Buff Cat Conspiracy”. They talk about how scary buff cat is.
Diavolo
Buff Cat told Diavolo he was the one who helped you study. They were having conversation (buff cat used a notebook) and the topic of your studies came up. He mentioned how he had been helping you study, and understand the terminology in the Devildom better.
He was happy to hear that you understood it, and that it wasn’t too complicated for either of you too.
He actually asks if he can watch your study sessions, to see if he needs to lighten your workload just in case you’re pushing yourself too much.
You two allow him to watch, and he’s giving soft claps and smiles as the two of you give it your best.
Is honestly very happy with how much you two get along, and how you say it’s very simple since Buff Cat explains(meows) it in a very efficient manner.
He already knew Buff Cat was smart, but haha. Maybe he should hire Buff Cat to be a teacher or support class teacher for RAD?
Barbatos
You had grown accustomed to the devildom these past few months, and with Buff Cat with you, you were allowed to freely explore it when you want.
Buff Cat also happens to have a spare key to open the castle when he wishes.
Exam/testing season was coming up, and you knew you couldn’t study at the house of lamentation.
It was very distracting, and so you decided to go to the castle. No one will be screaming there, or trying to convince you your cat is a weird entity trying to plot world domination.
Barbatos was sort of used to seeing Buff Cat come and go as he pleases, but why were you here? Before he could say anything, you told him that you were visiting to study! And that you hope he didn’t mind that Buff Cat was going to tutor you.
Alright, so you’re studying, but why at the castle? You had to explain that it was very distracting at the house of lamentations, and Mammon was trying to convince you to get rid of your cat 24/7.
Ah, he could see that. Your cat isn’t exactly normal, and Mammon does occasionally scream like a girl. I promise I love Mammon. But it’s not like he minded, so long as you two were quiet and actually studied.
He left to clean for a bit, and when he returned to the guest room he saw you wearing a headband, violently writing down and muttering definitions at an insane pace. Buff Cat was in a teacher’s outfit, and holding out flash cards.
He’s slightly taken aback, but doesn’t show it anywhere on his face. He has never seen you so serious before, and neither has he seen Buff Cat so focused on you, as well.
He’s quite proud of you two for your hard work and dedication. He doesn’t interrupt but instead pours you three cups of tea, Buff Cat thanks him, and watches over you two.
Solomon
Solomon invited you over for a study session. He may be a little shady, but he does care for you, as a fellow human.
He was ecstatic to see Buff Cat come with you, because he still wants to dissect your cat.
He was about to talk to you about letting him research you cat, but you made yourself comfortable on his bed, and Buff Cat began to put on glasses and take out a pointer.
He didn’t have anytime to talk beforehand, as you were highlighting certain areas of your book, your cat pointing to certain parts, and you patted the bed beside you for Solomon to join.
Solomon’s plans to dissect your cat are set back another day, but he takes great interest in the way he teaches. Your cat is very methodical about how to remember things, and explains(meows) it rather simply.
He swears that your cat is not a normal human cat, but why can he sense literally zero magic power from it? If only Buff Cat could teach him that.
Solomon also gets 100% on the next test by remembering everything the way Buff Cat had taught you two.
Simeon
Absolutely chaotic man, when he sees you and Buff Cat in a classroom when school was over, he approached you two, and said hello.
You greeted him, and so did Buff Cat. He asked what you were doing after school so late, and that it was dangerous for the two of you. Buff Cat not so much but could still be in danger.
You told him you were studying for the upcoming test, and that Buff Cat was helping you.
Simeon was like!!! 💖👉👈💖💖💖💖🥰🥰🥺🥺 could I join?? This sounds so fun!! Buff Cat is so smart!!
He does not question the fact he’s studying with a cat, learning from a cat, or just how nice your cat can write on paper, like perfect handwriting.
He has such chaotic energy that he’s just like you, what a cute cat!
Luke
no.
just no.
he’s fine with your cat but does your cat have to be in buff form when you’re being taught?
he is happy you are getting good grades but please get him away from buff form buff cat.
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fieryhonesty · 3 years
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“Talked with a friend about how bad bus drivers are where I live and how many times I landed on somebody or somebody has landed on me. Somehow felt like to write a short fic about it, ended up being more from real life than I dare to admit. N-no! it’s not like that!”
Words: 2714
Genre: fluff, modern AU, gn!reader
"-and that's it for today. Don't forget to review, the exam will mostly contain questions based on this topic. The results will gradually affect your grades." 
With those words the professor has left the room. It was the last class of the day and obviously he didn't want to waste any minute. Hurrying to his car not to get caught in traffic. 
You were idly sitting at your desk, not even paying attention to others packing their stuff and leaving the classroom. You are slowly the last person in the room. You didn't listen most of the time and had no idea what the professor was talking about. Your mind was drifting everywhere, it's too hard to stay focused on classes. Especially when your mind is overflowing with ideas.
Last night you had talked with one of your friends. You two knew since elementary school and despite choosing different schools and paths you remained in contact. She knew everything about you including the passion for writing. It was just a hobby of yours. You had never planned it to be your career.
 In fact not so many knew about it. People around you knew you were writing something in your notebook. But you are a student, probably writing some notes for school or something. And you always hid your writings when somebody was approaching. Even if they asked what you were doing you just said 'rewriting my school notes, hehe.'
Except that one friend nobody has any idea about your passion. Perhaps it's for the best as you are really shy about it. The thought of other people seeing what you write or how you write is kind of terrifying. Publishing your stories never crossed your mind until your friend got fed up one day. Telling you to just go and publish it. There was no room for negotiations.
Your shyness slowly disappeared, at least when it came to publishing your works online. People didn't know you, your name or who you are. They knew you under a nickname and that's it. You felt safe and happy as you got quickly recognized and fans were leaving supportive comments. 
Writing is your way to express yourself and your emotions. Talking to people face to face is quite harder. You don't have the time to think it through and usually say the first thing which comes to your mind. Sometimes ending up saying some weird stuff which embarrasses you. That's why you rather don't initiate talk or talk really rarely. 
You are most talkative around your best friend and family. Everything else is just giving you anxious feelings. You'd love to start talking with others, especially if they are talking about something you are also interested in. But you are simply not that kind of person who would randomly join in and talk. Sometimes you wish all conversations could happen in written form, that way you would be the star.
You wanted to pull out your notebook and write down some of your thoughts but you realized where you are. Looking around the classroom, it's only you. Sighing for yourself. It will have to wait until you arrive at your apartment. Quickly packing all books into your fancy bag and rushing to your locker. 
You were actually sharing the locker with another person but they are sick at the moment. Their half is clean as ever, books neatly folded, cup and coffee hidden in the back part of the locker. They actually made you into the coffee addicted person you are now. At first you didn't like it but eventually fell in love with the bitter flavor. 
Sometimes you fetch some latté on your way home, thinking of where you would be without caffeine. It's probably one of the best things which happened to you during your university days. So many sleepless nights as you were studying for exams or writing until early morning. 
Changing into your comfy shoes, wrapping a scarf around your neck and dressing into the coat you loved so much. It's so warm and cool looking, makes you feel badass whenever you wear it. One last glance over your stuff in the locker in case you had forgotten about something. All set. Time to catch a bus.
Knowing about you had missed all early buses and will probably get stuck in traffic. Which is fine by you, your earbuds and music is ready. Luckily you didn't have to wait for too long at the bus stop. But it was enough for your cheeks to start freezing. As always you stood at your usual spot. Not feeling like sitting as you do it the whole day at school and home. 
Wrapping one arm around the pole, leaning a bit at it. There's not many people with you on the bus and so you can monopolize the pole and the area around it. You put down your bag as it was quite heavy and your shoulder was starting to hurt. Pulling the phone out of your pocket and browsing news. 
Not really paying attention, just mindlessly scrolling through articles. Sometimes reading the first few sentences before you go back and keep scrolling. 
As expected the bus was moving slowly, the delay was getting worse and worse. Checking the time, you had already spent here over ten minutes. If the bus had moved by a few meters, it's a lot, let's say that. Delays are quite normal at this hour so you don't really sweat it. Looking back to your screen, resuming your news browsing.
After a couple of minutes the bus finally got out of the major traffic and quickly catching up with the delay. As expected the ride was faster than usual, hopefully still within the speed limits. However you won't know this, all you know is the roundabout you will reach soon won't be funny. It's quite a steep one and even if the driver will take it very slowly you will have a hard time balancing yourself.
You are prepared, actually holding tight the pole instead of leaning on it. You have a perfect posture to keep yourself stable. Maybe your grip on the pole is a bit too convulsive. As you feel unpleasant pressure in your wrist. The moment you ease the grip a little, feeling how your feet are sliding. Before you tighten your grip again you fly forward. Trying your best not to crash into the person who was sitting there.
Despite all of your efforts you land on them. You are in shock but more than that you are embarrassed. As you tried to pull back and regain your posture. Feeling hands on your shoulders. Apologies are about to roll out of your lips but they are faster.
"Hey, are you alright?"
Up until now you didn't realize it's a guy you fell on. His long crimson locks tied into a ponytail. At first you thought you had landed on a woman. But his hoarse voice assured you he is anything but a female. You are too close to him for your comfort, his scent already entered your nose. Feeling how heat is rising in your cheeks. This is bad. His crimson eyes were darting around your face, looking for any sign of injury.
'This is embarrassing, say something you idiot!'
"Uh, yea. I... I'm terribly sorry!"
Your voice nearly betrayed you. The last word could be barely heard which made you even more wishing to just be able to vanish. Staring at the male unable to think what to say. Feeling relieved when the bus has stopped as he lets go his hold on you. If you could, you could have dug yourself in a ten meters deep hole and never climb up. 
Quickly murmuring out another apology. Grabbing your bag and jumping out of the bus. It doesn't matter if your stop is still far away. You'd rather walk the rest or wait for another bus than stay in that one.
It was already dark outside when you arrived at your place. Freezing and tired. Trying not to think of what happened earlier but you couldn't get the male's scent out of your nose. It was like he is still next to you, the sweet smell of vanilla. 
You let it be as you tossed the bag into a corner in your room. You are too hungry to think about anything. Making some quick cup noodles and eating them while going through another writing and editing session.
Days were passing by. Always the same: school, ride home and then either study or write. You had forgotten about what happened a few days ago, not even mentioning it to your close friend who had been hanging out with you here and now in chat.
It's Friday and you are feeling like chugging one quick latté. Perhaps you will sit there for a while and write a bit. You sure do like the atmosphere in café shops especially with playing jazz. Sitting in your corner, peeking at other customers here and now. Just to be sure nobody is approaching you. 
You ordered your regular and are waiting for the waitress. In the meantime you pull out your small notebook and read through the latest ideas. You usually write short things there, like drabbles which sometimes turn into much longer stories.
When a cup with your favorite drink landed on the table you looked up and shot a quick smile at the waitress. She answered with the same gesture before checking on other customers.
You fished for a pen in your bag. As soon as the tip of the pen touched the paper, a group of guys entered the shop. You didn't look up to check on them. Why would you anyway? You came here to chill after school, enjoy your drink and possibly write a few lines. Well maybe if you did check, then you would have noticed the redhead from before. 
He was dragged here by his friends as they got this stupid idea to look at girls. Starting here at café and moving to other public places. He didn't want to. He is kind of tired after the long week but that's also the reason why he is here. Too tired to search for excuses. And he knew he would need valid ones especially for his little brother whose idea was all of this.
As he sat with them, quite unbothered by their talk about the waitress who just took their order. Pulling out his phone to finish reading something he started during lunch break. He agreed to tag along not join into their jewelry observations as they call it. They could be talking about anything and he wouldn't pay mind to it. 
Only to be brought back to reality when Childe snatched his phone away. Grinning at him.
"C'mon Diluc, your social media can wait. Cute girls won't~"
The scarlet haired male rolled eyes at the ginger.
"For your information, reading stories is not the same as browsing twitter."
"Oh? What I am hearing? I didn't know my big bro is into reading inappropriate stories."
Diluc shot a glare at the bluenette. Reconsidering if it's worth his time to argue about it. If anyone is reading smuts here, it's Kaeya. Why is he hanging out with his brother again? 
Childe waved with his phone in front of his face in a very taunting manner. But didn't evade when Diluc reached for it, sliding it back into his coat. Looking around the café and then he noticed you. He was not sure if it's really you, the person who fell on him on the bus a few days ago. But when you looked up to take a sip of your latté he saw your face.
Something inside of him felt like to get up and go talk to you. But he can't. Or? Can he talk to you? A total stranger whom he met only once and under strange circumstances? For some reason he really wanted to greet you at least. He resisted the urge for long enough, at least until Kaeya didn't notice where he was looking and said something about it. 
Grabbing his cup and slowly approaching you. He didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it. When he was close enough to your table, clearing his throat, asking if he could join you.
Your eyes shoot up to the not so familiar voice. Widening when you realized it's the same guy from back then. Feeling like your stomach was being squished. Just when you had forgotten about that embarrassing moment. 
All what you managed was a nod, observing how he sat at the chair opposite of you. Nervously smiling at him. What should you say? This is awkward. 
"Um-" 
You both started in unison, exchanging embarrassed looks. You motioned to him to start.
"Hi, uh. Hope I'm not disturbing?"
"No... not at all." 
You put your hand over the notebook instinctively. It's a habit of yours, hiding it from anyone's eyes.
"I'm Diluc and you are-"
"That person who landed on you on the bus, yes that’s me." 
You deadpanned. Can't help it but smile a little, finding it funny. The guy who you fell at, the one who should be mad at you. He is trying to talk to you and what's better he also seems to be nervous while talking. Feeling a bit relieved as it probably won't be only you embarrassing themselves.
He chuckled a little at your words. Kind of wishing to know you more than just a person who fell on him. When you tried to apologize once again he stopped you, saying it's fine. To change the topic he asked for your name and where were you going back then. 
When he found out you are also an university student he felt relieved a bit and more at ease. You had something in common, something you both could relate to. As the talk between you warmed up enough, when the first uneasiness faded. You talked about your hobbies, of course you didn't want to tell him about your big passion and said you are reading.
Which wasn't that much far from reality but unlike him you didn't read from known authors or big titles. In fact most of your reading were stories from other passionate writers, mixed with random novels here and now. 
"Oh, I also happen to read stories posted on the web. Some people are really talented."
He admits and flashes you something that one could describe as a slight smile? But really quick so your brain barely registers it. 
"Hey um, I know this will be strange. But I kind of enjoy our talk, it's much more..." He trailed off as he was thinking how to put  it without saying anything bad about his companions. Who are probably scheming or coming up with various ideas how to use this against him. 
"What I mean is, you act like a person in your age unlike my brother."
You tried not to laugh too much. Giggles escaping your lips. Truth to be told you were also enjoying this little talk between the two of you. This was probably the very first conversation you had with a stranger. And they didn't seem to mind your awkwardness. 
It feels like you two understand each other. Both are interested in literature, have to deal with school troubles and have something unique to each of you.
Looking up into his ruby eyes. "Yeah. I'm enjoying this too. Why didn't I fall on you earlier?!"
Both of you laughed at that remark. 
"If you don't mind, we could do this more often?"
"You mean me falling on you on the bus or drinking coffee?" 
"The latter. If I see you on the same bus I'll make sure you sit."
You two had talked more after this. Way longer than both of you expected. When Diluc checked the table where his companions were sitting before he noticed they are gone. He didn't think of checking his phone. But once he does he will find a message from his brother.
「'Seems like you had found somebody to spent night with, don't worry about your lil bro and enjoy~ 😘 '」
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epic-potato-crisp · 3 years
Text
Courtship - Part 3 (AjinWeek21/1)
Notes: So I decided to continue this for Ajin Week 2021! (although I was torn between making this a Sato fic cause you know. Hat.)
Day 1: Favorite character / summer break/ hat
Favourite character: Both Kei and Kou are among my favourite characters, Kei especially is one of my favourite protagonists of all time, and summer break, because this place during the sweltering time that is training camp. (fun! :D)
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“Really?” Kei asks with growing annoyance as the vampire movie plays out on the screen in front of them. “Really?!”
“I can’t believe you haven’t seen that!” Kou defends himself, depositing the bowl of chips into Kei’s lap so his hands are free to adjust the volume.
“This is not what I had in mind when I agreed to…well, dating you.” Kei says, lowering his volume at the last three words that seem a little too foreign too pronounce.
“Why not?” Kou replies, “Movie nights are a super normal thing to do, not even for a date-“ He in comparison, has zero trouble adequately naming their current situation – “or with friends!” He smirked, which could never mean anything good: “Which you’d know, if you had any-“ Kou winces as Kei’s elbow rams into his side.
“I did have friends.” Kei grumbles through his teeth, stretching out his feet over the old and battered, but still quite comfortable couch. This is, surprisingly, afar more relaxing activity than he had initially anticipated.
Even if the movie is grating on his nerves.
“Why is everyone trying to befriend her?” he asks, exasperatedly. Bella Swan had made it perfectly clear that she was not interested in socializing from the moment she had arrived in her father’s rainy suburban town. And yet, in the first half an hour, not only had her childhood best friend shown up, she’d also been introduced to numerous classmates and faculty, and on top of that, was subtly encouraged to take a glance at a family of – vampire’s, that was his most likely prediction based on what he’d heard of the plot.
“Well, she’s new and people wanna get to know her. Nothing wrong with that.” Kou said diplomatically.
“Ugh.” Kei groans, and takes a sip of his coke. Eriko had always tried to make him watch these movies, which, if he was correct, were five in number, because apparently it was no enough to have a fourth movie. No, it had two be dragged out across two volumes. So far, he had been able to avoid it. Until training camp.
“Which you’d know, if you’d had-“
“Shut the fuck up.” Kei snaps, and the mood sours for a moment.
“Right, right, I’m sorry.” Kou says, after a beat of silence, and then his hand reaches over to grasp Kei’s.
“Is that really necessary?” Kei mutters, feeling his cheeks heat up. He prays that the darkness of the room, only lit up faintly by the TV, serves as enough cover.
“Well, it’s a date, right?”
“Stop saying that all the time.”
“Date. Date. Daaate.” Kou sing-songs, grinning at Kei knowingly.
The latter glowers: “Are you in elementary school?”
Kou laughs. He still doesn’t let go of Kei’s hand.
Kei feels his heartbeat quicken, ever so slightly, nervousness manifesting in the pit of his stomach. He chalks it up to the unfamiliar situation. After all, he really doesn’t know whether the movie will provide suitable entertainment for the next one and a half hours. There is no way it has anything to do with Kou.
At least, it shouldn’t.
“If you could choose between being a vampire and an Ajin, what would you pick?” Kou asks, out of the blue.
The movie had ended just a little while ago, a pointless two hours and six minutes of a supernatural romance that Kei couldn’t care less for. It was a little past ten, and they were not finished for a long while, apparently, if the cover for the second movie, blinking traitorously in Izumi’s streaming library, was anything to go by.
“Not this again.” Kei sighs, “Do you spend all day on these unlikely scenarios?”
“It’s that not unlikely.” Kou argues, “Come on, a few years back, you didn’t even know Ajin existed! And now you’re one!”
“Of course I knew they existed. It’s part of the school curriculum.” Kei deadpans, this particular lesson still rather unsettlingly fresh in his memory.
“Which you’d know if you’d gone to school.” He adds, acidly.
“Wow, harsh.” Kou pouts, “I did go. I just…dropped out. There’s a difference. Everyone knows that.” He mumbles.
“Keep telling yourself that” is on the tip of Kei’s tongue, but he swallows it down, if only to retain the peace. And perhaps because he would feel the tiniest bit guilty further prodding at that sore spot.
But school is something he does not want to think about for a good while again. The memory brings only pain. Betrayal from his classmates, from teachers, a jealousy- one that Kou would never be able to comprehend - on missing out on education that is a given for his former classmates.. A High School degree that he will never receive, if the government has any say in it, after all the years and effort, the hours of studying and revising he has put into it. A bleak future with all paths to prestigious medical universities blocked irreversibly. His only crime had been crossing that road that day. If only I could be reborn, Kei thinks miserably, then I could get a new chance. chance. He is in dire need of a new identity. Perhaps he can later guilt Tosaki into creating one for him.
“So circling back to the topic at hand, vampires.” he says, reluctantly.
“Heck yeah.” Kou agrees, excitedly, “So?”
“There are pros and cons on both sides.” Kei shrugs, “If you were a vampire, you wouldn’t be able to age and have a career, build a reputation. You’d have to get a new identity every few years. That sounds like a hassle. And don’t get me started on the…blood lust.”
The vampires and even humans in the movie had looked hungry in a completely different way whenever that topic came up. As though sucking your body’s circulatory system dry was desirable under any circumstance. Kei shuddered at the thought.
“You mean, you wouldn’t be able to build a family, live out your life with your friends, that kinda stuff?” Kou asks.
“I was referring to the important things, but I suppose.” Kei says loftily.
“Yeah, well, you’re wrong about that. Even vampires enjoy having relationships.” Kou argued.
“Debatable.”
“Bella seems pretty happy with the Edward guy.” his teammate emphasizes, “No matter if he’s a vampire or not.”
“But it is going to be a problem in the future.” Kei argues, “Honestly, she should have just stayed with Jacob and been done with it. It’s a suitable match, why put in any extra effort? She’s just going to grow old while he stays young forever.”
“Figures you’d go with the childhood best friend.” Kou mutters, flicking crumbs of his trousers.
“What?”
But Kou – strangely, for once in his life- doesn’t seem to haven an emergent need to elaborate further on the matter.
Kei probably should have said something a long time ago.
Perhaps he should have stopped Kou from starting the blasted second movie, but “Kei, it’s not that late! And how else will you know how it ends?” (Apparently, never was not a viable option.)
So here they are, sitting through another two hours of what Kou calls an “iconic classic” and Kei under his breath refers to as trash, but not the recyclable kind.
The cinematography is stunning, he has to admit begrudgingly, and the plot, albeit ridiculous, still manages to draw him in enough for him to forego his plans of turning the movie off several times, which is quite bothersome.
Well, fine then, Kei thinks to himself, at least now if Eriko badgers him about those movies again, he can give her a detailed review of every single logical error he has discovered so far.
He is considering starting a list, just so as to have some backup proof. His little sister’s education doesn’t have to suffer any more than it already had.
“Is she really going to sit around for months and wait for him to come back?” Kei complains, grabbing a fist full of popcorn from the bowl Hirasawa had made for them, “That’s a complete waste of time.”
“I don’t know, don’t you think some people are worth waiting for?” Kou threw in, giving Kei a knowing -sort-of-look that he couldn’t place.
It was the first sentence he had spoken in a while. Apart from his rambling monologue to get Izumi to join them a while prior when she came in to check if the streaming service was working.
“Did you see these movies already, Izumi-san?” Kou had asked and Kei surely hadn’t imagined the blush pinkening her cheeks.
“Oh, those? Just…once.” she’d replied, her voice sounding a little too high-pitched for that to be true, “It all seems fine, so I should get going-“
“Ah, already? Take a seat, take a seat!” Kou says generously, gesturing to the couch, “You need a break too, right?”
And Izumi did, albeit only tentatively on the edge. “I’ll be gone in a few minutes.” she promises.
She lied. Fifteen minutes later, she is still there and Kei doesn’t have the heart to kick her out, despite this being a a date, as he not so subtly communicated to Kou via verbal cues – all of which the other successfully ignored -but then, he bitterly thought, what chance did their pseudo-trial stand against Kou’s immortal woman of his dreams?
His thoughts screech to a halt. What does he even care what Kou thinks about either of them? It was all beyond ridiculous.
“It depends on how long you’re waiting for them.” Kei says, in response to Kou’s earlier question, “What about you, Izumi-san?”
“I think some relationships are worth preserving.” Izumi replies meaningfully, but right before she can say anything else, her phone goes off, the Caller-ID flashing with a familiar name.
“It seems Tosaki-san needs my assistance.” she says, barely concealing a wistful sigh, “Have fun you two.”
“He really needs to stop working you to the bone.” Kou complains.
Kei has the decency to feel guilty about the relief that settles in him when she leaves.
The motorcycle ride looks engaging. An activity Kei himself wouldn’t mind doing, seeing as there was zero risk involved to his safety with his newfound Ajin status.
As he verbalizes all of this, Kou gives him yet another of these knowing looks.
“Well, you were always one for motorcycles, weren’t you?” he says, tone bordering on smug.
Kei frowns. “Where did you get that idea from? I’ve only ridden one so far, but that was with Kaito.”
“I know.” Kou says, and then downs the rest of his coke.
“Refill?” he asks, holding out his hand for Kei’s glass.
“Sure.” Kei says, passing it over. He eyes Nakano skeptically, for any hint as to why his demeanor kept fluctuating.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Kei cautiously takes the glass from him. Their fingers brush, lingering just a second too long to be casual. Kei notices how the tips of Kou’s ears redden and uses his momentary distraction to his advantage.
“You really hate that Jacob guy, don’t you?”
Judging by the look on his teammate’s face, he hit the nail on the head.
“I, uh, well hate is a kinda strong word.” Kou hesitates, stumbling over words, “He’s just not my favourite.”
“Really?” Kei asks, raising an eyebrow. In all honesty, he isn’t very interested in either of the characters, but psychoanalyzing Kou is what gives the evening its spice.
“Why is that so surprising?” Kou pouts.
“Because he’s just the same sort of muscle-brained idiot that you are.” Kei responds, gracing Kou with an exasperated look, before turning back to the movie.
“Oh.”
His words seemed to have had a profound effect on his teammate. Whatever sort of enlightenment had reached Kou, it had visibly brightened his mood.
“He is, isn’t he.” Kou says, with a small laugh.
“I don’t know why that is so surprising.”
“Guess I never thought of it that way.”
Which was exactly why it fit so well, Kei thinks to himself. Kou looks positively thrilled with the new discovery. As much as it pains to admit him, a lot remains about his teammate that he still doesn’t understand.
“I think he might be becoming my new favourite character.” Kou says, conspiratorially, sliding closer to Kei and slinging arm around him.
As the movie goes on, Kei starts to feel more and more tired. The comfortable atmosphere and the constant stream of voices from the TV serve to lull him a sleepy state. “Wake me up when they reach Italy.” he mumbles, the exhaustion of another day spent training finally catching up with him.
Kou mumbles an affirmative, and that’s where Kei’s memory cuts off.
The next thing he knows, someone is prodding at him from the side, instructing him to wake up.
“Fine, five more minutes.” Kei says, swatting the offending hand away.
He blinks as he comes too, shielding his eyes against the sudden brightness of the room.
The movie has ended, but even if hadn’t, Kei wouldn’t have been able to see much of the screen.
Not with Tosaki blocking their view.
“It’s almost 1 am.” he informs them through clenched teeth, “Get upstairs before I sever the internet connection.”
It’s a substantial threat. Substantial enough to briefly distract Kei from the fact that he had fallen asleep right on top of Kou.
“Fuck.” Kei swears under his breath, sitting up straight.
His teammate seems less perturbed.
“You missed the ending.” is all Kou has to say for himself, with a shit-eating grin.
(“It really is pointless.” Kei whispers, later that night, as they are both lying in Kou’s bed, a hair-brained decision that Kei blames his tiredness for.
“The whole being with a vampire. She can’t be, unless someone turns her into one, but that would be the epitome of a ridiculous clishé".
“…”
“Oh God, please tell me I’m wrong.”)
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birchworld · 3 years
Text
Manga Recommendation - The Golden Sheep
金のひつじ (Kin no Hitsuji) / The Golden Sheep
Author: Kaori Ozaki Publisher: Kodansha  English Publisher: Verticle
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Run Time: Sep. 25th, 2017 – Feb. 25th, 2019
Volume 1 Release: March 23, 2018 Volume 2 Release: September 21, 2018 Volume 3 Release: April 23, 2019
Eng. Volume 1: September 24, 2019 Eng. Volume 2: December 10, 2019 Eng. Volume 3: March 10, 2020
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Summary
“ Winter of junior year. Not quite able to become adults, we couldn’t stay as we were as children, either. Our tale explores a group of teenagers and their impatience and rebirth. “They say if you write down your wish, bury it under Sheep Tower and then dig it up after 7 years and 7 months, your wish will come true … ”Tsugu Miikura, a high schooler who loves to play guitar, had moved away due to family circumstances from the rural town where she spent her childhood. After several years, she’s back in her old hometown. She reunites with her childhood friends—Sora, Yuushin, and Asari—the friends she’d buried a time capsule with back in elementary school. Tsugu is overjoyed to be with her friends once more, but the bonds that she thought would never change have in fact started to grow major cracks … “ 
Source: https://kodansha.us/series/the-golden-sheep/
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*Spoilers Beyond This Point* For review, and links....
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Review - 4/5 
Content Warning: Discussion of s*cide and similar themes, bullying, absent parents, and animal cruelty/abuse.  If any of those topics are triggering to you, or upsetting, feel free to skip to links
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Volume 1 of The Golden Sheep was a single sit read for me! I read the majority of it in the car, and for the most part it was a great first volume! This series is Kaori Ozaki’s second manga, preceded by “The Gods Lie” in 2013.
The manga, itself, deals with heavy themes from the get go.  Main character, Tsugu Miikura, and her family struggle with an absent parent. Their father stays in Tokyo as the five girls move back to their old, rural town. Here, she meets up with three of her old friends: Asari, Sora, and Yuushin.
However, the group begins crumbling beneath Tsugu’s feet. Asari, jealous by Tsugus connection and relationship with Yuushin (her childhood crush), begins to neglect and ignore her. The group Tsugu used to eat lunch with abandons her, leaving her to eat alone.
Tsugu, awhile after, realizes Yuushin isn’t the same “good kid” with good grades he was when she moved. His father was revealed to have slept with a high school girl, and the school quickly turned on him. Saro began to leave Yuushin behind, avoiding interacting and hanging out with him. As a result, Yuushin begins to gain ties with the bad crowd. He begins to bully Saro, beating him and stealing his money.
Tsugu realizes this when she’s on a walk with her sister’s daughter and finds the group standing on the bridge, with Saro about to jump off at Yuushins request when Saro had come to get his dog back from the other.  Saro runs off, and Yuushin leaves with his friends.
Following this event, Tsugu attempts to return the dog to Saro after finding that Yuushin is about to allow his friends to stone the animal to death. However, when his grandmother reveals he hadn’t come back, she goes on a search for him. She finds him locked in an abandoned car, in an attempt to pass from the exhaust from an open flame cooking some meat, and breaks him out using her guitar.
They speak for awhile, Saro fills her in on what she’d missed while away in Tokyo. The two decide to run away to Tokyo to live out their respective dreams, Tsugu a guitarist, and Saro as a manga illustrator.  There, they find Tsugu’s father after he responds to one of her texts. The manga ends when they arrive to an apartment he’d told them to stay at.
I really enjoyed the story! There aren’t too many manga out there that depict those in Saros situation who, instead of getting help, react negatively. As someone who’s struggled how he has, I know the feeling and could really feel myself in him. The four main characters feel real and alive, they don’t just feel like plot devices to either feel sorry for or to hate. They’re complex characters motivated by the wrong reasons, or their own problems. The content was raw and unfiltered, providing a warning at the beginning, and it was almost comforting to know that my old struggles, and so many’s current struggles, were real and that it was okay to go through.
I think my only issue was Asari and Tsugu as characters. I felt they were rather plain, but Tsugu got better as the story progressed. I felt myself having to close this manga more often than others that deal with serious topics as well. I felt like I couldn’t bring myself to read it, but couldn’t bring myself to stop either.
It’s probably one of my favorite series of this genre and I can see myself picking up the second volume.
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Links - Shop, Reviews, etc.
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Amazon
At the time of writing this, the paperback version of “The Golden Sheep” is unavailable, however the kindle version is available for $7.49 
https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Sheep-1-Kaori-Ozaki/dp/1947194801
Barnes and Noble Available for both paperback and kindle with $12.95 and $7.49 (respective) pricetags
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/golden-sheep-1-kaori-ozaki/1130055509?ean=9781947194809
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Review!
Kodansha US https://kodansha.us/series/the-golden-sheep/
My Anime List https://myanimelist.net/manga/113409/Kin_no_Hitsuji
Good Reads https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45554788-the-golden-sheep-vol-1
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That’s all for now! Thank you for reading and have a good day <3
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11 notes · View notes
yodawgiherd · 3 years
Text
Insecurities
>>>Read on AO3<<<
Short main fic (anytime anyplace) reject I found while cleaning up my file. As it doesn't really fit where the story is at, and doesn’t tie into it, I could either delete it or post it here, and I decided for the latter. It's definitely "canon" in the AU tho o_o Hope you'll enjoy it :)
“So, what do you fear? “
From her perch on the dorm bed, Mikasa shot Eren a slight frown, and he shrugged innocently in response. Well, she supposed that he had the right to know, considering that she just woke him in the middle of the night by violently shoving him off the mattress they shared together, screaming. Mikasa sighed. She wasn’t used to this yet, the bed sharing, but she liked it. Most of the time, it helped to keep the nightmares at bay, but tonight was an exception, sadly, and the dream sneaked its way through Eren’s embrace and into her mind. In just those two weeks that they were together, her life felt so much brighter, and she hoped that this little accident won’t push her newfound boyfriend away. Then again, if he survived the failure of their second date, he could most likely handle a night of ruined sleep over her bad dreams.
“Why do you want to know?”, she asked, curious, “Planning on scaring me?”
A smile appeared on Eren’s face, just a small twitch of his lips.
“Of course not, I’d just like to understand you. Whatever is going on in those dreams of yours, it’s an important part of who you are.”
He fell silent, most likely waiting for her to start, but Mikasa wasn’t really feeling like talking. She just woke up from another terrible dream, in the middle of the night, and her brain was still dealing with that unpleasant reality. Instead of voicing her concerns, she bent forward, intertwining fingers with her toes, letting her hair cover her face.
“Look,”, Eren began, seeing her unresponsive, “it’s not hard to guess that your dreams have something to do with your parents, right?”
Honestly speaking, Mikasa didn’t even know why she told him about her past on their first date. Bringing up the tragedy of losing your family to someone you just met was unusual, weird, especially for someone as silent as her, but Eren just made her open up, talking to him was natural in a way she didn’t truly understand. Well, now she had to deal with the consequences. With a sigh, she nodded, just a tiny movement of her head, but he caught it.
“I don’t always have them.”, still not feeling brave enough to meet his inquisitive green gaze, she kept watching her toes, “It just happens from time to time, I can’t help it.”
“I don’t blame you, I have nightmares myself.”
She peeked up at him through the curtain of her hair, curious.
“You do?”
“It's about my dad.”, Eren leaned back in the chair where he retreated after being forcefully evicted form the bed, eyes studying her posture. He reminded her of the therapist she went to, years ago, when Levi tried helping her with those dreams this way. But therapy has no chance of working if the patient doesn’t want to, so after a few sessions of her stubbornly staring at the floor and not opening her mouth once, her brother gave up. Then again, she never had those warm feelings in her chest when she looked at the professional, but Eren made her spine tingle.
“It’s always the same. I’m standing on the ground, in the middle of nowhere, and there’s a plane flying over my head.”, he took a shuddering breath, as the topic was not exactly pleasant, “I know, I just know, that there’s my dad in there. Then suddenly, the plane starts falling, and there’s nothing I can do about it. So, I just stand there, and watch, as it goes down, spiraling until it crashes and explodes. Then I wake up.”
Mikasa didn’t even realize it, but she covered her mouth with one hand during his story, staring.
“That’s terrible, I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t have it that often anymore,”, Eren shrugged appearing indifferent, “I got used to it. Kind of.”
But it was forced, this unnatural calm and Mikasa could see the pain behind his eyes. Dulled, maybe, but still present. If anything, she surely owed him her nightmares, now that he shared his own.
“I don’t really remember much,”, she began, “but I know that’s its always cold, and dark. There’s blood on the floor, and the bodies, but I can’t see their faces. Luckily.”, extending one hand, she closed it, fingers curling inwards, “I’m holding something, and it’s warm against my skin at first, but as I sit there, listening to the quiet, it always gets colder over time, until it’s like ice in my grasp.”, her breathing became agitated, “And I’m scared to trace the thing in my palm because I know what it will be, it’s always the same. It’s my mother’s hand.”, dropping her arm, she redirected her gaze back at her feet, a singular tear falling on the tips of her toes. “I usually wake up then.”
Eren didn’t say a word. Instead, she could hear the shuffling of his clothes as he stood up, and soon after the bed dipped under his weight as he sat down next to her. The arms that wrapped around her body were warm, and she leaned into the hug, closing her eyes as she rested her head on his shoulder. The remnants of the nightmare finally gave up, and their cold fingers disappeared underneath the warmth. It surprised her, but it felt good to share her demons.
“Mikasa?”, he asked, waking her up a bit. She hummed in acknowledgement, not feeling like talking right now. “You told me your secret, I told you mine. It’s good to get that off your chest, no?”
She just hummed again, burrowing deeper into his embrace.
After a few minutes, Eren cleared his throat, making her look up at him. The boyish smile that she liked so much was there again, as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
“I was thinking since we aren’t sleeping anymore, maybe we could…. practice?”
It wasn’t hard to guess what he was implying. And while it might look stupid and insensitive, to suggest something like this, it was exactly what Mikasa wanted. There was only so much that talking could achieve, and the feeling of his body against hers, to know that this is real, not the nightmares, that was something they both craved right now.
“Again?”
“Why not?”, I mean, we are still far from perfect and…”
Both to silence him and her laughter, Mikasa climbed into his lap, straddling his waist as she kissed him, aggressively. Maybe there were better ways to spend your night than sleeping. She just had to make sure to watch her teeth, that’s all.
Those downtimes between classes were always the worst. It was bearable when Armin could hang out, but most of the time his friend was unavailable, as his breaks were on different times than Eren’s. Just perfect. Like, what exactly could you achieve in an hour? Eren usually just ended up wandering around the campus, sitting down somewhere to review his notes, or meditating on the futility of life and whatnot.
Today was the first day he found himself in front of the gym, looking at the entrance. Contrary to the masses, he didn’t even come here to work out himself, but rather to meet someone who spends almost all her waking hours here, in her own words. Pushing the door open, he had to admit that the room was in a rather good state. The walls seemed freshly painted, the air inside was kept cool through the ventilation system, and the music was silent enough to offer the beat the gym-goers were most likely looking for. Eyes darting around, he searched for the object of his interest, only to find her in front of the punching bag, going wild at it. Her hands were a blur, the leather was creaking, and Eren couldn’t help but wonder what all those guys from elementary school would say, with the whole “girls can’t fight” shit. Mikasa seemed immersed too and didn’t even notice him, taking a step back to put a few well-placed kicks to the sides of the bag. Satisfied with her performance, she took a break, putting her hands on her hips and breathing deep.
“You could kill a man with your punches.”, Eren stepped in, making her turn on her heel with a surprised expression. He grinned “You do them so fast, it must feel like getting a shot when you hit someone.”
“Eren.”, she shook her head, but she was smiling too, those dumb jokes making her feel giddy, “What are you doing here?”
“You said that you will be here, and I had some time to kill so…”, he shrugged, “can’t I come to see how you work out?”
“I mean, sure, if that’s what you want. It’s just that I was expecting someone else, that’s all.”
“Oh, a secret lover in the gym.”, with a fake expression of anger on his face, Eren scanned the room, working his muscles, “Where is this rascal?”
“Stop that.”, Mikasa poked him in the chest, unable to hold her laughter in anymore, shoulders shaking, “It’s my brother. I usually go out of the campus to his gym today, not here, but he’s got some paperwork in the city, so he said that he’s going to drop by.”
As on cue, another man appeared behind Eren, short and grumpy, looking him up and down.
“Mikasa, who is this guy?”, he arched an eyebrow, disbelief in his voice, “Your new sparring partner?”
“No, no, of course not, this is Eren, he’s my….”, she was nervous, fidgeting a bit, “friend, just friend.”
“Just” friend? Wow, that one stung.
“I see.”, Levi seemed to lost interest in Eren, turning back towards his sister, “Get to the ring, let’s see how much you slacked in your training.”
But while Mikasa was climbing up, a hand bunched up in Eren’s shirt, and the man pulled him down to his height, with unnatural strength, staring right into Eren’s eyes.
“Listen, “just friend”, I want you to know that If I ever hear that you’ve done anything bad to my little sister, I swear to god that you and I will have private sparring, between my fist and your face. And if you ever make her cry,”, he moved even closer, growling the words in Eren’s ear,” I’ll cut your balls off.”
With that, he released him, and followed Mikasa into the ring, as if nothing had happened. Right, Eren thought as he was straightening his clothes, seems like Levi didn’t buy into the friend thing much. Checking his watch, he saw that he still some time, so he leaned against the wall, watching the two siblings fight.
Hours later, when he was done with his classes and picked up Mikasa from the gym, they were walking through the darkened campus hand in hand. The air was clear, the evening quiet, and her hand in his warm, but still, the little friend thing just kept circling inside his mind.
“Mikasa?”, he began, “Can I ask you something?”
She liked the way Eren pronounced her name, how it rolled off his tongue. Her name wasn’t even that hard to say, but in her life, she met a ton of people who tried impressing her by adding that weird -h at the end of the -ka-, or by using the Japanese honorific – Chan in the end. She didn’t like either of those things. Not to mention those smart assholes who called her Gothkasa, because combining your name with your fashion style is soooo smart, right? Not even mentioning the girl who kept asking if she is sad, since all Mikasa wears is black. That one dubbed her Raven. But Eren didn’t do anything like that, he said her name exactly as it was, and she did enjoy the sound of it.
“Sure.”
“Back in the gym, why did you tell your brother that we are just friends. I kind of thought that we are … more … by now.”
“We are! Of course, we are.”, she squeezed his palm a bit tighter, pulling at it to make him stop and turn to face her. “I just never had a boyfriend before, and Levi came out of nowhere,”, she sighed, “I was surprised, and I didn’t want to break it to him like that.”, she looked up, blushing slightly, “Are you mad at me?”
As if he could ever be mad at someone as cute as her, with his red scarf wrapped around her colored cheeks.
“Nah, not mad. Your brother is a scary guy, I understand.”
“True that.”, she sniffed, “he’s the toughest midget you’ll ever meet.”
With Eren still being silent, a bit of suspicion entered her tone.
“Wait, did he tell you something? Eren?”
“Nah, nothing.”, to stop her grey gaze from staring at his face so inquisitively, he brushed the ends of formerly his scarf from her mouth, pulled her closer by the silver cross around her neck and bent down to press a kiss to Mikasa’s lips. “You still owe me one, friend.”, he murmured when they paused, and she pinched his bicep in retaliation, before surrendering to the sensation. They both still had a lot to learn in that area, anyway.
“Tell me a secret.”
“Secret?”, Mikasa half turned in his arms, watching him over a shoulder, “What secret?”
“Something about you, a thing I don’t know.”, Eren grinned, hiding it by burying his face in her hairline, “Something you wouldn’t tell just anyone.”
“Oh?”, a tiny frown appeared between her fine raven eyebrows, “And why should I tell you my secrets, mister?”
He shrugged.
“Think of it as a payment for the friend stuff.”
“I thought you understood!”
“I do, but I still demand satisfaction.”, a hand poked her, under the ribs, “C’mon Miki.”
Mikasa used to hate pet names, despise the way couples called each other as if they were children. But that was before she had Eren, and now she was strongly considering how it would feel like if he called her a kitten. Maybe not so bad after all. Before him, Mikasa never had a pet name in her life, well, if she didn’t count that Levi was usually calling her brat, but she grew to enjoy this little one Eren gave her. It was certain intimacy to it. She was also hyperaware of his touch now, of the arms around her, feeling his fingers through the fabric of the shirt. Sure, he touched her before, and she liked the way his palms roamed up and down her body when they kissed, even the few times he got lost in her and traced her shape all the way down to her ass. Mikasa usually stopped him there, for now, but overall, she was very satisfied with how his touch felt.
“You want to hear a secret.”, she cooed, putting her hands on top of his, both to press him more firmly against her skin, but also to stop him from moving. Eren sometimes tended to be more adventurous than she was comfortable with.
“Pretty please.”
“All right, well I got one.”, it was awkward, but she couldn’t think of anything else right now. So, she took a deep breath. “I used to hate my breasts.”
That silenced him for a moment.
“Your…. breasts?”, he queried, unsure if he heard her right.
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“Because they are useless! Useless weight! I mean…”, she turned around, watching his face for a change. Eren’s cheeks had a slight blush in them, but he met her eyes with a small smile, clearly interested in hearing her explanation. ”I was flat as a board when I was a kid. So, when the puberty started, and things began to…. expand, it bothered me. I know that I’m not big either way, my, uhm, chest, is small compared to other girls, but suddenly, there were two bags of fat on my chest, completely fucking up my balance. Out of nowhere, I was being forced to wear a tight bra just because otherwise my tits would bounce all over the ring when I train.”, she looked down, over the place where her shirt was raised, “I used to bind them you know.”
“For training?”
“No, for everyday life. I didn’t want them.”
“Oh.”, Eren could see that it was a sensitive topic for her, the way she saw her body, and he felt happy that she trusted him enough to share it with him. “Well for what it’s worth,”, Mikasa looked up, and he couldn’t miss that the way those few strands of hair got into her face was downright adorable, “I think that your chest is beautiful.”
She started laughing, on the cheesiness of it all, small simpers escaping her lips, so he kissed her to stop it from blowing into a full-blown explosion, and before either of them realized what was happening, she fell on her back, pulling him right along. With Eren on top of her, his hands roaming all over her sides, mouth sealed against hers, all their long weeks of training were paying off. Comparing the first time they kissed, and the second, third and a lot after that, which usually ended up with either of them laughing, losing breath, or doing something that the other didn’t like, this was much better. She knew now to open her mouth for him when he nipped at her lower lip, and to push her tongue against his, licking into his mouth, not caring how obscene sounds it was making. It felt good for them both, and that was the only thing that mattered. Considering that she was doing her best to remember the things he liked, Mikasa was rather surprised when Eren pulled back, sitting up. Did she bite his bottom lip too hard again?
“Miki…”, he began, before she could ask what was wrong, “Could I….”, suddenly she realized that his hands left her sides, and were now toying with the hem of her shirt. Eren swallowed, obviously not sure how to proceed, although it was rather easy to understand what he wanted to ask. Her face was already red, from all the kissing and stuff, but now the color must have been on par with a tomato.
But why should she deny him? They were taking it slow already, and there’s a difference between taking things slow and not moving forward at all. Just a few seconds back, she was thinking about how good Eren’s touch felt, so why would this be any different? With a mortified expression, that didn’t do justice to how she felt inside, she nodded.
Eren’s eyes went wide when he saw her agree to his proposition, but he wasn’t one to question his good fortune. Yet even with her agreement, he could feel the light uncertainty that covered Mikasa like a blanket, and he wanted that feeling gone. So instead of going right to his prize, he lifted her shirt by just a few inches, bringing her muscled stomach into view.
“I love those.”, he pointed out, tracing the shape of her abs with his fingers. They didn’t even look real, more like a sculpture, made by an ancient Greek master, the way they perfectly stood out beneath the skin. But unlike marble, Mikasa’s skin was warm to the touch.
“Why?”, she frowned down at him, “It’s just muscle.”
“Nah, it’s much more than that.”, willing to see just how much she would let him do, he dipped his head to press a kiss to her firm midriff, loving the way the skin shivered beneath his lips. “It’s proof of your dedication. Show of your strength. It’s admirable and gorgeous at the same time, just like you.”, he murmured in-between gentle nips, making Mikasa’s breath hitch in her throat. She never saw her stomach as beautiful, just useful, but the way Eren genuinely seemed to enjoy spending his time down there, it made her wonder if perhaps her torso is aesthetically pleasing after all.
But he couldn’t just spend the whole night admiring her abs, he was on a mission. With just slightly trembling fingers, he started pulling the hem of her shirt further up, eyes darting between the increasing amount of revealed pale skin and her face, to notice the moment she changes her mind and tells him to stop. But she didn’t. It was mesmerizing, watching her body come from underneath the fabric until the bottom of her chest finally came into view. They were home, relaxing after school, and Mikasa ditched her bra as always, so the shirt he was currently lifting was the only cover. With a last peek to her face, seeing her nod again, Eren held his breath and pulled upwards, with finality. The instinct to cross her hands over her chest hit Mikasa hard, now when it was bare to him, but she held herself back, fisting the bedding instead.
“Holy shit.”, Eren breathed out, running his hand over his face.
“That bad?”, Mikasa could feel the old insecurities knocking at the backdoor in her mind, the same that made her roll those bandages around her breasts, every morning before going out, that made her angry when she felt the extra weight on her chest anytime she breathed. This was a mistake, she shouldn’t have done this. Now he’s going to….
“Bad?”, the word was choked out, as Eren still had trouble controlling his breathing. “Bad?”, he repeated in disbelief, not sure why in the world would she think that, “No, it’s not bad. It’s fucking wonderful.”
“Huh?”, she asked, not sure if she heard him right.
“Whoever told you that you look bad Miki?”, he wanted to get to the bottom of this, even with his brain working on about ten percent of its capacity.
“Well…”, no one told her anything like that, now that she thought about it. Then again, the only people in her life to saw her topless were her mom, her doctor, and now Eren. The only thing the doctor said was that she’s a healthy female, as one can expect from a professional, and if mom ever said anything, Mikasa didn’t remember it. All those doubts were her own.
On top of her, Eren was having the night of his life. Sure, it was the twenty-first century, he saw boobs before, with internet, TV and everything, but it was the first time he got to see a pair live, and there was quite a significant difference. Mikasa’s chest was rather small, but with next to no excess fat on her body, what could a sane person expect? Honestly, Eren didn’t care about that one bit, she was perfect just the way she was. The perky, firm shape, the flawless skin, the darkened area around her nipples, that all combined to make her breasts one of the prettiest things he ever saw. He found himself wanting to touch it, to feel it beneath his fingers, but just as he raised his hand, Eren realized that starting to grope her might not be the nicest thing to do to Mikasa right now. That was until she spoke.
“You can t-touch me.”, she answered his unspoken question, words unsteady, eyes wide and watching his every move.
Carefully, he put one arm down, tracing the shape of her chest with his fingertips, paying special attention to the underside, where he just found out she was ticklish.
“H-Hey! Stop that!”, she squeezed out in-between the giggles, squirming beneath him, but her voice betrayed that she didn’t want him to stop. Continuing in his exploration, Eren worked his way all around the breast, cupping it with his hand and thumbing the nipple lightly. It was amazing, to find something so soft and squishy on Mikasa’s rather toned body, so he gave it a few testing squeezes. In conclusion, it felt pretty damn good. Overcome with a sudden urge, Eren leaned forward, and pressed a kiss to the top, right in the middle of the peak, which in turn made Mikasa gasp and quickly pull her shirt back down. All right, playtime was over, but Eren was immensely satisfied, nevertheless. Her breathing was shaky, a very light frown on her face, as she sat up, pushing the hair from her face.
“Couldn’t help myself.”, Eren reached out, hoping that his sudden show of affection didn’t offend her too much, and was pleasantly surprised when she took his hand, intertwining their fingers. Not too mad then, all good. “But Miki, let me tell you, your chest is god damn perfect. I love it. And my opinion should count for something, after all, I’m a certified FBI.”
That gave her a pause.
“FBI?”
“Female Body Inspector.”
With a tug, he pulled her to himself, and together they tangled back on the bed, mouths once again combining amidst the laughter. And for the first time in her life, Mikasa was glad that puberty changed her the way it did.
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redbeanboi · 4 years
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originally uploaded to ao3 on 19/01/10. 
Rating: Teen/Gen.
Pairing: Josuke Higashikata/F!Reader
Summary: Working at the library is pretty straightforward: reshelving materials and media, helping library patrons find books, reuniting lost children with their parents, and last but certainly not least—dealing with the local delinquents.
Beware: Tooth-rotting fluff galore (gross!!), also spoiler: Josuke’s a total dork
Wordcount: 5.2k
You’d been working at the Morioh Public Library for months and memorized the face of every regular patron. New library patrons would enter everyday, and, much to your frustration, you would constantly have to learn new names and new faces. One of them, however, seemed to stand out to you the most.
Josuke Higashikata.
You both went to Budogaoka High School but he probably didn’t know you even existed. He was handsome. Girls swarmed him, boys picked fights with him, and despite every teacher’s disdain towards his getup, they all generally agreed that he was a decent student. You rarely ever saw him in school, and even if you did you’d usually be greeted with the back of his marvelous head of hair. In fact, you can’t remember ever seeing his face before. Had you not been familiar with his embellished uniform or signature hairdo, you probably wouldn’t have recognized him.
He’d only started coming into the library recently; in fact, you were the one who’d given him a library card. At first you were surprised to learn that he didn’t already own one (don’t they give these out to kids when they’re in elementary school?), but considering his reputation for being a delinquent, you couldn’t say you were surprised. Maybe he lost his? Who knows.
Either way, you only remembered the experience because he’d avoided making eye contact with you the entire time, and mumbled a barely audible “thanks” once you handed it to him. When your fingers accidentally brushed the back of his hand he flinched and ducked out of the library, his friend Koichi not far behind. At first his behavior irritated you—he didn’t have to act that disgusted for having to talk to you—but you couldn’t find yourself able to blame him for very long. I mean, how would you feel if some stranger accidentally touched you?
He started coming in regularly after that—two or three times a week—for the past two and a half weeks now. Josuke never went by himself; he was usually accompanied by Koichi, or his other friend Okuyasu. What puzzled you most is the fact that he never bothered to check out materials. What’s the point of getting a library card if you’re just going to sit at a table for a few hours and read manga? Anyone can come in without a library card and sit at the tables—you only need a card if you’re planning on taking materials outside.
***
Okuyasu sat at the far corner of the table, deeply immersed in the new Shounen Jump. They’d been at the library for hours now, and his patience was running thin. When his eyes wandered towards his friend, a vein pulsed at his temple. That does it.
“Josuke, why are we here? The new Shounen Jump is at the Owson in town. I usually buy it from them anyway.”
Josuke didn’t answer. His head rested in his palm and his eyes were starry. A sigh escaped his lips. Okuyasu could barely contain his restlessness. “Are you even listening—”
“Sh.” Josuke held his finger to his lips, his gaze still directed elsewhere. Okuyasu looked on at his friend in disbelief. Did Josuke just hush him? “Just a little longer, alright Okuyasu?”
“It’s friday afternoon,” Okuyasu hissed underneath his breath. He’d lowered his voice now, maybe that would satisfy Josuke. “We’ve been here three times this week already. And we stay here for hours just sitting here doing nothing. Maybe we should actually do our homework here from now on, so at least we have nothing else to do when we get home.”
Realization washed over Josuke’s face. Of course. “Yeah, let’s do that.”
On their way out, they accidentally walked into you—well, Josuke did. Okuyasu, relieved to have finally gotten Josuke to leave, apologized rather brusquely on behalf of his friend. “Sorry about my friend! He’s a little starry eyed right now.”
You waved it off wordlessly, watching with interest as they made their exit. “So...Josuke Higashikata’s got a crush on someone who goes here.”
***
You immediately drop this theory once the next week rolls around, because he’s suddenly decided to actually study at his usual spot. Okuyasu has joined him in his study sessions too. Eventually Koichi comes, his girlfriend Yukako in tow and helps them review. You’re surprised. Mostly because you didn’t think delinquents would really care about their school work but perhaps you were just being judgemental. Maybe he just developed a newfound love for books.
This could explain why he looked longingly at the shelves every so often. One time, you caught him staring in your direction, his mind clearly wandering off. You wondered what he could possibly be thinking about. Eventually he’d take breaks from studying and would circle around the library to stretch his legs. He’d even pass by you two or three times, and would sheepishly return your polite nods. Studying can get uncomfortable, so it only makes sense to want to walk it off, though he seemed to take breaks pretty often. Sometimes every fifteen minutes. How peculiar!
They all began to sit near the children’s section, meaning they could technically talk a little louder than usual, since the children were fairly loud themselves. It also meant that you’d be seeing them pretty often.
Secretly, you dreaded shelving away items in the juvenile section—mostly because there were so many of them. Kids went through books rather quickly, and much to your annoyance, every one of your coworkers left you to shelve all these materials. After all, the kids seemed to listen to you. You were calm, and very difficult to irritate. You also were successful in getting them to calm down. Kids running around? Your calm and quiet voice often got them to settle back into their seats. A quick “be careful there, you’ll get hurt” and the little ones would quickly quiet down and go back to reading. You’d caught Josuke and his gang watching with interest as you dealt with the kids a few times, and the attention made you uncomfortable. You hoped they would quit staring soon.
After another week, Josuke found it hard to hide his crush from his friends. While they noticed Josuke’s strange behavior, it never occurred to them that it was because of his crush on one of the library pages. But it became all too obvious when they’d caught him spacing out, shamelessly peering at you over the edge of his chemistry textbook.
Their cackles were loud enough for you to notice, and you too ended up catching him in the act. Maybe they were making fun of you? You did trip on some building blocks a few seconds ago. You immediately scurried off to the nearby cart and hid behind the shelves, desperate to avoid any more attention or embarrassment.
“Oh, I see Josuke,” Okuyasu cooed, nudging the pompadoured teen.
Josuke playfully nudged Okuyasu back. “What? She’s cute. Think she goes to our school?”
“I think,” Koichi murmured, glancing back and forth from Josuke to you. “I think she might be in my class.”
After some digging and snooping around, they’d found out that you were, in fact, one of Koichi’s classmates. You were extremely polite, had some of the best grades in your class, and even had a close and affectionate relationship with your parents. Okuyasu and Koichi find it amusing that Josuke’s developed such an intense crush on a goody-two-shoes but welcome this unexpected discovery nonetheless. Perhaps you would be a good influence on him.
They all went back to their work, and eventually Koichi and Yukako left. When you finished your shift, you noticed Okuyasu and Josuke were still hunched over their notes, stuck on the same chemistry problem that they were tackling earlier. Although they were strangers, you felt some sense of familiarity with them. After all, they had been coming to the library for five weeks now, and they were often bumping into you. At some point, Josuke had even asked you where some of the Geometry books were.
Maybe you were well acquainted enough to approach them? Although you were definitely lacking in social graces when it came to people over the age of ten, you figured now would be a good time to push yourself. So what if they’re delinquents? You inhaled sharply, and before you knew it you were already making your way towards your classmates. They hadn’t even noticed you peering over their shoulders. A quick “ahem” brought their attention however.  
Josuke jumped when he realized that you snuck up on them. He stared after you in confusion. Okuyasu, on the other hand could barely hide the grin on his face.
“I noticed you’re having trouble with this one problem,” you tapped on the molarity question. “I could help you two if you like. Chemistry is one of my best subjects.”
“Oh? I guess she should help you then, huh Josuke?” Josuke shot a threatening glare towards Okuyasu, but upon remembering that you were still waiting for an answer, he veered his neck the other way to face you.
He flashed a dazzling smile and immediately accepted your help. “We’d appreciate it actually.”
You’d gone through several problems and it seemed they finally understood what you meant. You even worked through an entire chapter with them. Okuyasu immediately caught notice of the time and excused himself, leaving you with Josuke. You awkwardly shuffled your feet.
Ah. So... what exactly happens now? Should you ask about schoolwork again?
“So.” You jumped at the sudden interruption. “Do you have a name?”
You snorted at the question. What a strange way to ask for someone’s name! He’s certainly sillier than he looks. “I-I mean, of course you have a name, I just.. I’d like to actually know it. That way I can thank you properly.”
“It’s y/n.”
“Y/n huh? Thanks for helping out with Chemistry. And, for the library card.”
You nodded and murmured a quick acknowledgement of his thanks. And then silence ensued.
Josuke broke the silence with an awkward cough. “Do you go to Budogaoka High School? I think I would’ve remembered a face like yours.” The quirk in your brow sent him into a panic as he realized what he’d implied. “I-I mean you’re very cute, so—um.” You gave him a few seconds to recover, trying hard not to smile as he shrugged. “Yeah...”
The small smile you gave him in reply was enough to calm him down. “To answer your question, I go to Budogaoka... Class 1-A.”
“Oh that explains it. I’m in 1-B, so it makes sense that I haven’t really seen you around. We’ve never bumped into each other before have we?”
“Actually… we were in the same classes all throughout junior high,” you admittedsheepishly.
“Really?!” Josuke slouched forward and buried his face into his hands.
“It’s really not a big deal! I kind of stick to the walls,” you laughed, patting an awkwardly reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Josuke looked down at you and greeted you with that same infectious smile. “Sorry I kept you here after work…” His voice trailed off, but he continues when his eyes meet yours. “But you really helped us out with reviewing. Do you think you can study with us too? I mean, when you’re not working, obviously.”
His chuckle sent your heart into overdrive. A flash of heat was beginning to burn through your cheeks. Josuke took notice and his lips broke into a goofy smile. “I’ll take that as a yes?”
You nodded your head furiously and turned away, hoping you wouldn’t embarrass yourself any further.
Josuke walked you home afterwards. As it turned out, he was actually a very friendly and kind person. And while he certainly looked the part, Josuke Higashikata was no delinquent. Your conversation was cut short when a tall and handsome man pulled his car over, rolling the window down to tell Josuke that they needed to talk. Josuke asked his new companion to wait for just a few minutes, before walking you to your doorstep.
“Sorry,” he explained. “My nephew’s in town right now so he’ll want to catch up with me.”
“Nephew? He looks older than you.” you peered over his shoulder at the offstandish stranger.
“It’s a long story…” he laughed and waited until you were inside before going back to Jotaro, whose signature stoic expression faded away, revealing the all-knowing smirk on his lips.
“What’re you looking at Jotaro?”
“Gimme a break Josuke.” He tipped his hat to cover his eyes, sighing loud enough for all of Morioh to hear. “And go flirt with girls some other time, I don’t like to be kept waiting.”
A violent red blush spread over his neck and spilled onto his cheeks. “L-let’s... Let’s go home then.”
***
Josuke started coming to the library every day during the week, and you’d even held conversations with him a few times. At first conversation was hard to sustain, given how you didn’t have anything in common, but as it turns out you were wrong about that—you both liked playing video games. In fact, you both exchanged cheats every now and then.
“No way!” you exclaimed. “I had no idea that you could do that on the final boss...”
The smug expression on Josuke’s face coaxed a few giggles from you. He’s so unbelievably silly. The Josuke fanclub at school would never believe that Josuke Higashikata was not the suave delinquent they believed him to be. “Yeah, I couldn’t believe it when I found out either!”
Eventually you had grown comfortable enough to tease him and act silly. Work was dreadful, but seeing Josuke everyday made it exciting. He was a wonderful friend and even better company, especially during your shifts. You were thankful that this awful job made it possible for you to befriend Josuke. He was so kind and thoughtful. Every shift felt excruciatingly long, and you were often running around the library doing tedious work.
Sometimes, other libraries would request certain books and you’d be tasked with finding them. Before you befriended Josuke, this task would take you around an hour to complete; there were just so many books in the library and people often reshelved them incorrectly. Recently, however, all of these books would—oddly enough—suddenly appear in the cart. You could’ve sworn you’d seen them all magically hover around the library mid-air, but that would just be silly.
After a particularly exhausting day at school, you dragged your feet at work and simply felt too taxed to do anything, much less trudge through a 4 hour shift. Josuke certainly noticed the change in your demeanor, and when you were too busy to even greet them and chat for a few minutes, he’d gotten up from his seat, telling his friends he would be taking a break from studying.
It took him several minutes to find you but once he did, he understood why you hadn’t stopped by.
You were standing on the tips of your toes straining to reach the top shelf, large Geography reference book in hand. To be honest, Josuke thinks it’s adorable; you’ve puffed your cheeks in frustration, hair is haphazardly falling into your eyes, and best of all you hadn’t even thought of using the footstool that lay on the ground three feet away from you. He thinks that bringing it over to you would probably be the nicer thing to do, but nice wasn’t exactly what he was going for at the moment.
Hard at work, you’d been trying your hardest to get this heavy book onto the shelf when a calloused hand comes into your view, and when it hovered overhead, you yelped and fell backwards. 
Into Josuke, of course.
“J-Josuke?!”
“Sorry about that,” he hummed softly. “It just looked like you were having trouble… May I…?”
He gestures towards the book in your hands, and your lips part, mouth forming an “o” shape. Josuke came over to help you. You sheepishly relinquish the book, hands accidentally brushing against Josuke’s fingers. It’s just like the time you’d accidentally touched his hand when you’d given him his library card, only this time, he doesn’t flinch or back away. You look up and immediately find yourself lost in those blue eyes. You’ve always thought he was handsome, but now that you’ve gotten a closer look at him you can’t help but smile.
You snap out of these thoughts as soon as he’s finished putting the book away, and mutter a quick word of thanks before walking over to your cart. But you realize he’d placed the book in the wrong spot, and shyly ask him to move it a couple of spots down. Apparently he’d never heard of the Dewey Decimal System, so you give him a quick run through, just to give him an idea of how everything was organized. You realize he may not need your help finding textbooks anymore, but you’re happy to teach him either way.
“And you have to learn all of that?” He asked in astonishment.
“Most people do— I’ve been going here since I was five years old, so I’d like to think I know it pretty well.” You say, eyes gleaming bright.
Josuke can’t help but notice that your movements are a little sluggish today, and when he sees the cart completely covered top to bottom in books, CD’s and cassette tapes, he immediately decides to assist you.
“Josuke,” you started. “I really don’t want to keep you from studying. I know it’s a heavy cart, but I can handle it.”
Josuke shakes his head, pushing the cart at a steady pace. “I needed to take a break from studying anyway.”
He’d never quite understand why you were working here, but he can’t say he can complain; the only reason he was able to befriend you was because of your job.
Of course, you’d never hung out with Josuke and his friends outside of the library. Sometimes you worried whether they truly wanted to hang out with you. Perhaps they just needed help with homework and were nice enough to provide you some company while you worked. But these thoughts immediately flew to the back of your mind whenever you saw them at the library. They were all so kind and friendly. Work really didn’t seem as bad as it used to be.
And that was when when they got you fired.
It was an accident really. And Josuke apologized profusely afterwards.
In reality, it was just like any other day; you were helping the four of them with practice questions in the middle of your shift, and went back to reshelving books as per usual. One of your classmates recently noticed your expanding social circle, and immediately took it upon himself to keep you from associating with hooligans like Josuke Higashikata. He scoured the entire library in search of you and was relieved to find you alone, working.
“Didn’t know you started doing charity work, Y/n.”
You jump at your classmate’s intrusion. “Oh, it’s just you Tooru. Though, I ought to correct you; I’m not volunteering.. I mean I work here, but I get paid next to nothing and my boss is pretty scary, so I suppose you could call it charity work...” Your voice trails off once you realize how awful your job is.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” He huffed, pointing an accusatory finger towards your friends. “Why would you hang out with people like them ?”
“Them..?” You realize he’s pointing at your new friends, and suddenly get defensive. “You know, Josuke, Okuyasu, Koichi and Yukako are actually really really friendly and kind!” you whispered frantically, hoping your friends couldn’t hear what your classmate was saying.
With that, you turn the other way and push your book cart elsewhere, hoping he would get the message and either apologize or leave you and your friends alone. He does neither of these things, and continues to follow you as you walk away.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” he rasped, trying his best to keep up with you. “Did you forget what happened last year? A man was run over by an ambulance last year and they all just “happened to be there.” Don’t you think that’s suspicious?”
You stare at him incredulously, hissing under your breath. “That man was a murderer and their presence that day was probably just a coincidence. They couldn’t have murdered that psycho.”
Tooru brushed it off and insisted you cease any further interaction with them. “Regardless, they attract way too much trouble. You could get into a messy situation if you keep— “
A familiar presence crept behind you. “Is everything alright Y/n?”
“Josuke,” you chirped. When Josuke interrupted, you loosened up almost immediately, realizing then that he’d stopped studying to come to your aid. “Y-You… You need to study for your exam! Let’s go back to the others.”
Tooru doesn’t let Josuke go very easily, however, sidestepping his way into your intended escape route. “Actually, there is a problem. Leave Y/n alone. You’re going to get her into trouble.”
Josuke’s surprised to hear this. In all honesty, he’d been watching you ever since you left their table to go back to work. Your classmate’s sudden appearance caught his attention, and he certainly didn’t like what he was seeing. From his perspective, Tooru was tailing you around the library and getting you flustered. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have guessed that someone was asking you on a date, and harassing you for an answer at that.
Koichi begged him to ignore it, knowing it could cause trouble, but Okuyasu egged him on, warning him that he ought to take his chance right there before someone else asks you out. So here he was.
The boys were at a standoff for quite a few minutes. On the outside both seemed rather calm. Tooru was trying his best to tell Josuke to leave you alone, that he should think of your wellbeing. The lack of cooperation on Josuke’s part pisses him off more than anything though, so he starts to insult you and question your decision making. You never would’ve guessed your classmate would say such things but you’re more worried that Josuke might believe the unbelievable bullshit that’s coming right out of his—
“I think Y/n can make these decisions for herself, so you should scram.” He waves the air in between them, eyes blank and uninterested.
You wonder how he’s remained so calm towards the other boy, because if you were to assess your feelings, “pissed” would be a pretty good word to use. Tooru on the other hand seems pretty pissed at Josuke’s dismissiveness.
Of course, as a last ditch effort, Tooru implores you to simply listen to him. Delinquents are delinquents, he reasoned. Apparently you were above hanging out with “losers like that.” Regardless of whether they were dangerous, you could hang out with much better people than Josuke. You had good grades and people liked you. Why would you need to hang out with losers who sat on the ground outside Owson? It seemed as though he could go on forever, and you wanted him to stop.
Slapping him in the face wouldn’t nearly be enough to tell him off or stand up for your friends but being around Josuke encourages you to exercise self control. Josuke’s probably the most hot headed person you know, and if he can stay calm right now, then how hard could it be for you?
“Tooru sure is an idiot isn’t he, Josuke? All talk and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about—let’s go somewhere else!” you chittered nervously, taking hold of his hand and trying your best to guide him elsewhere. Josuke’s face is beet red at the sudden contact, but you’re too absorbed in your task to even notice.
“Josuke’s got the dumbest haircut the town’s ever seen, and I’m the idiot? What the hell, Y/n!”
You stiffen at the jabs. Josuke could turn into a beast when it came to his hair— you’d never seen it in person, but the stories were almost legendary. All it took to piss him off were a couple of offhand comments. But of all places for this to happen, it just had to be at your job. You quickly let go of his hand and accepted your fate. You were definitely as good as fired now.
One punch. That was all it took to shut him up. He staggered backwards into a nearby shelf and covered his broken, bloody nose with his hands before ducking out of the library. Much to your surprise, Josuke didn’t take it any further. Although the insults certainly rubbed him the wrong way, he held back. Having a big fight at your workplace could get you into trouble, so one punch would have to do. It’s not like anyone saw anyway.
Or so he thought. To your absolute horror, your boss had seen everything. He immediately called you into his office, berating you for flirting with boys on the job and starting a fight in the middle of the library.
You realize that making excuses would only make you look bad, that remaining silent and taking the abuse is better than wasting your breath on your grumpy boss. Besides— if you were going to look at it objectively, you indirectly caused the fight (if you could even call it that) to begin with. While it wasn’t your fault, you still felt guilty. Not towards the library of course; you should have stood up for your friends more. Josuke and his friends didn’t deserve to be spoken of in such a way.
Josuke, Okuyasu, Yukako and Koichi watched as you received the harsh scolding. The walls barely muffled your boss’ yelling, and it wouldn’t surprise you if everyone in the library could hear what was being said. Under any other circumstance you might have felt guilty or ashamed, but you were so fed up with work lately that you were just waiting to be permanently dismissed.
It took nearly every ounce of strength in Josuke’s body to remain where he stood, to leave you be. He nearly barged into the office when the yelling escalated, but Yukako intervened— something about girls not liking boys who stick their noses into other people’s business, and that you weren’t a baby that needed to be shielded from her boss. Josuke agreed but still felt guilty for not being able to apologize on your behalf.
The door swung open and they immediately ceased further discussion. The four of them watched as you subsequently pulled your coat on and exited the building. It takes an additional few seconds for them to realize that one of the librarians has been speaking to them, informing them that just like you, they would be banned from coming to the library again. Koichi is rather distressed about this, and Josuke makes sure to soothe him before running after you.
Unfortunately for him, by the time he’s parted with his friends and exited the library, you are long gone.
***
He searched every square inch of Morioh to look for you. You weren’t at the library (for obvious reasons), he could never quite catch you before you left your house for school, and his swarm of admirers made it nearly impossible to find you at school.
You felt guilty about it, but if he hadn’t spoken to you before you worked at the library, who’s to say that he’d want to keep talking to you after you were fired? And while you hadn’t gone out of your way to avoid him, you still weren’t actively seeking him out.
But Josuke isn’t the kind to give up, so after several long days of looking for you, he is finally met with success.
He’d gone to the rooftop to eat lunch that day. The past few days were discouraging to say the least. You had been fired, thanks in no small part to him. It’s only right that you would be angry with Josuke. The only way he could make it up to you at this point was to apologize.
Although his friends insisted that they eat lunch together, Josuke felt too downtrodden to spend time with anyone at the moment, so he snuck off to the rooftops to eat in solitude. Not the best punishment for the terrible crime he committed against you, but it would have to do for now.
You’re the last person he expects to see there. Part of him wants to sneak up on you the way he used to in the library, but it just doesn’t seem right. So he simply announces his arrival.
“Hey, Y/n... It’s me, Josuke—the idiot who got you fired?”
“Oh, Josuke.” You shuffle your feet a little. “How are you?”
You felt so incredibly guilty for not sticking up for any of your friends. And while it was true that no one hated you at school, people weren’t nearly as kind or welcoming as Koichi, Yukako, Okuyasu or Josuke were. You felt completely happy spending time with them.
But the truth of it was that you’d never hung out with them outside of the library, and they’d never mentioned wanting to hang out with you anywhere else, so now that you were fired, they’d probably lose interest in you.
You’re surprised then, when Josuke apologizes to you.
“I’m really sorry…” He’s sitting next to you now, hunched over his lunchbox. He looked much smaller in this position. “I should have let it go, really... and I shouldn’t care about what people think of my hair, but I do, and now I got you fired and I know you’re mad at me—”
“Are you kidding me?”
He flinched.
You playfully nudge him in the shoulder. “Josuke,” you start with a giggle. “I’ve been dying to leave that awful job.”
He sat there dumbly, staring at you in disbelief. “Really?”
“Yeah!” You paused for a few seconds. Now it was your turn to apologize. “I’m sorry about my classmate… These past few weeks made my job so much easier, so it felt like I just spat on your friendship. I should’ve done a better job of telling him off or something.”
Josuke took your hand and gently gave it a squeeze. “I don’t think any amount of talking will change that guy’s mind. We were more worried about you. But if we're going to be honest, he’s kind of got a point.”
“No," You argue. "He couldn’t be any more wrong about you. You’re all nice people.”
“But, Y/n—" he began in a mockingly authoritative tone. “‘Delinquents are delinquents,’ remember?”
You held your sides and shook violently. It was nice to be able to joke and laugh around Josuke again. “Does this make me a delinquent now, too?” 
“Oh yeah,” Josuke nods, matter-of-factly. “You’re one of us now.”
The smirk on his face brings a goofy grin to your face. As a delinquent, you are naturally not afraid of anything, so with this newly found confidence and self assurance, you ask him:
“So… are you doing anything after school?”
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tlbodine · 4 years
Text
An Irritated Review of an Aggressively Bad Book
As a child of the 90s, I cut my teeth on R.L. Stine’s books. Goosebumps in elementary school, graduating up to Fear Street -- with its guts and gore! -- by my tweens. But the time came when I had voraciously consumed all of the R.L. Stine at the library, and I hungered for more books in the same vein. 
Which led me to Christopher Pike. 
Christopher Pike was another of the “Point Horror” series writers popular through the 80s, and they were an obvious thing to recommend to a budding young horror fan (especially as his books tended to be popular with young girls, thanks to the romantic subplots they often featured). But I just never really enjoyed them. I read a handful, shrugged it off, and eventually moved on to reading Stephen King and other adult authors instead. 
Which brings us to this motherfucker. 
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@comicreliefmorlock​ sent me a small stack of vintage YA horror titles, because reading ridiculous cheesy teen thrillers sounded like good nostalgic fun. 
But this book isn’t the fun kind of cheesy. It’s the kind of cheesy that drives me to start blogging in irritation at 12:57 am. Because this book isn’t just bad, it is aggressively bad, and it says a lot about 1984 and the state of horror fiction and YA fiction and publishing in general that this fucking book launched Christopher Pike’s career. 
So let’s talk about this sumbitch below the cut.
The story is about a group of teens who meet up for a ski weekend. The girls were all very close when they were younger, but drifted apart after an accident that left one friend badly burned and her little sister dead. The burned-friend is the one whose family owns this very fancy house and so graciously invited everyone to come hang out. 
Our characters don’t really get much in the way of actual characterization, but here’s the cast: 
Nell, who has some facial scarring and whose family is apparently loaded
Nicole, the dead little sister
Lara, the main character (ostensibly)
Dana, who likes to eat and crack jokes (funny fat friend solidarity fist bump)
Rachael, the gorgeous blonde beauty rival of Lara
Mindy, who chews gum
Celeste, a shy girl with back problems who they’ve befriended somewhat recently 
They arrive and hand over their keys to a park ranger to valet-park their car while marveling at how they don’t really know if he was a real park ranger, because I always give my keys to strangers when visiting an isolated location. Celeste asks some innocent questions about why the group hasn’t hung out recently, and the group neglects to mention the dead sister, but the reader figures it out. 
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Don’t worry, we’ll hear all about that in a moment. But first there’s a small, stupid mystery about a disappearing snowman, that melted really fast like it was burned and Lara will continue to fixate on this for the rest of the book. 
They spend a little time getting settled in before hitting the slopes. Celeste and Nell hang behind despite being the two people at this gathering who presumably don’t know each other, but they hit it off great right away so good for them. 
At the ski lodge, they run into a pair of boys that Rachael and Mindy know -- Percy and Cal. Lara falls into an instant and irritating infatuation with Percy for some reason, deepening that rivalry with Rachael. Cal creeps on Dana, trying to grope her when they get a minute alone, but Mindy of course gets jealous of Dana for horning on on her man because of course she does. 
Note: The book was written by a man in 1985. 
Anyway, at the ski slopes, Dana disappears, and everyone kind of assumes she’s just trying to avoid Cal even when they find one of her skis sitting in the middle of a very mysterious patch of snow that seems to have some ash and ice in it (just like the snowman! gasp!) but it’s probably fine! 
Somewhere in here we get an entire chapter told in italics to provide helpful background information about how Nicole died -- which involved a bunch of 6th graders at a sleepover getting drunk from stolen brandy in the liquor cabinet, deciding to hold a seance, knocking over a candle, catching Nicole on fire, and then Lara trying to put her out with the brandy (because it’s wet!) and that of course creates a Nicole-Flambe situation. Nicole is whisked away to the hospital and dies there and Lara is wracked with guilt and so forth and so on. 
And scene. Back to the present, where Dana is still missing, they can’t find the ranger who has their car keys, there’s a storm bearing down on them, but of course the most important thing is whether Percy likes Lara better than he likes Rachael. They invite the boys to come over that night. 
Dana’s not back at the house, so Lara calls the lodge to ask for them to have her call if she shows up, but otherwise big shrugs about the friend’s disappearance and presumably being lost in the middle of a storm. Celeste is scandalized that they were going to eat cold cuts at a party and sets to dressing and roasting two whole chickens and a bunch of side dishes, which is of course an extremely normal thing for a teenager to do at a party. 
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The boys show up, and Lara feels kind of bad about not really caring where Dana is, except not guilty enough to do anything about it. Dana, you’re too good for these people, get better friends. 
Anyway, they eat and do some drinking then play charades, which Celeste and Nell are eerily good at (hmmmm) and then Cal creeps on Celeste which starts a whole argument culminating in Percy punching him in the face, Cal stumbling backward, and Mindy’s arm catching fire because Nell had bitchily thrown alcohol at her earlier. They throw out the boys and start doing some first aid on Mindy, including dosing her on some codeine that they conveniently have lying around. 
Percy’s gotta go, so Lara walks him out in the woods, refusing anybody else’s offer to come with her so she doesn’t get lost because she wants to make a move on him. There’s some painful flirting, some kissing, some talks about pyrokinesis and the mysterious Dana disappearance (and the snowman! that damned snowman!) and also Percy has a flare gun in his pocket for some reason. 
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Gag. Ugh. But ok, fine, Percy gives her the flare gun, presumably because he’s letting her walk back through the woods alone in a blizzard. She scoops up some of the ice from Dana’s disappearance-spot to bring home for evidence and then goes to bed. When she awakens, the ice has melted and she can see bones! and ash! Ahhhh! 
This causes her to panic, so she runs out of the house at 3am into the woods and then, idk, freezes or something. Cal is there for some reason? She conveniently blacks out and awakens to find herself tied up in Nell’s basement. But hey look, Dana’s here! And so is Rachael! 
We helpfully learn that Dana’s been tied up in a closet this whole time. Also, SURPRISE! Celeste isn’t actually Celeste, she’s Nicole! (in case this wasn’t already painfully obvious from all of the foreshadowing). She didn’t die after all! She just assumed an entirely new identity! She was just pretending not to know who Nell is! 
Never mind that Celeste has parents who we have literally talked to in this book (they briefly call to check on her and Lara speaks to them instead). Apparently Nicole’s family....gave her up for adoption? but she’s still really close to her sister? Or else Lara somehow doesn’t realize that Celeste’s parents are Nell’s parents? Literally no part of this is explained in a way that makes any sense at all. 
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But anyway, turns out this whole weekend was just an excuse to get everybody together so that Nell and Nicole/Celeste could get revenge by dousing them in kerosene and burning them alive. Like you do. 
There’s a lot of waffling and trying to win over Nicole with the power of friendship, and then she changes her mind about the plan but Nell doesn’t, which leads to some dramatic scuffling and ultimately Lara shoots Nell with Chekhov’s flare gun, but it’s totally OK because her expression is “the most peaceful” Lara has ever seen so that’s cool, and then they manage to rescue Mindy before the house blows up.
From there, we’ve just got some loose ends to tie up. We’re rescued by the suspicious ranger from earlier who it turns out actually is a ranger, so that’s cool. How did he find them? Why, that strapping young man Cal tipped him off that they might be in trouble! 
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You heard it here first, folks. Cal, the guy whose characterization up to this point has been “gropes girls without consent” and “tells funny war stories about napalm” is actually the real hero here! What a find stand-up young gentleman that serial offender is. 
Also, again, Dana, you are too good for these people, find new friends. 
Anyway, the girls end up in the hospital, where they promise a vow of secrecy but also Lara and Nicole are totally going to be best friends now, no harsh feelings. Also Lara is totally going to hook up with Percy, because that was definitely the most important thing to come from this weekend and she’s definitely not in any way going to be traumatized about any of this. 
The end. 
distant gagging sounds
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