#is it sunrise or sunset in this piece? good question...anyways-

[thebrainrotsreal]

If this does/does not happen in the comics, please don't tell me anything, but if they give us a Mark versus Mark fight scene I will actually implode. Violently. I will lose my mind. Let Mark physically face the fact that he is the outlier. And oh, imagine all the potential for some deeper analysis, like self versus self, killing off a part of yourself, etc,,, it’s so potentially yummy! I want it.

#invincible show #invincible fanart #invincible #mark grayson #my art! #digital art #procreate art #procreate #fanart #artist on tumblr #digital artist #invincible season 2 #invincible s2 #I am so exhausted rn but please now I spent way too long on that fucking water #inner perfectionist stfu challenge (fail) #is it sunrise or sunset in this piece? good question...anyways- #now excuse me while I replay scenes of the two s2 episodes we have over and over and over #BEHOLD! an art tag for my art :] #the brainrotsreal's art tag ✧˖°:*♡

[bones4thecats]

RoR/SnV ~ Nickname Headcanons (PT.1)

Type of Writing: Poll Result Characters: Hades, Apollo, Adamas, & Hermes Name: Nickname Headcanons (PT.1) Other Parts: (NONE YET)

A/N: This was a ton of fun to write, since I got to pick the characters and got to use the nicknames I can see them having their S/O get called by. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this continuity of pieces.

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💀 On god he loves giving you nicknames

💀 He uses the honoraries based on your occupation to what you like doing in your free time

💀 Hades also likes to use his nicknames when teasing you, rarely does he ever end up using your name unless he gets serious about stuff

💀 The main nicknames he uses for you are; My Dear, Darling, Love, My Queen/King, Sweet-Skull, and rarely does he use Sunshine

💀 He’ll only call you that when he’s either tired or sees you need a confidence booster

💀 But, when Hades gets serious, like when you're doubting yourself or you guys are attending a meeting, he calls you stuff like; Y/N, My Spouse, Queen Y/N, and like I said earlier, Sunshine (because your the light in the darkness that was his life)

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☀️ Apollo adores giving everyone he likes/knows nicknames

☀️ You are one of his favorite people in the whole world, of course he’s gonna give you a ton of nicknames

☀️ He loves nicknames that center around what you do, so like if you did art, he’d call you his little artist or something like that

☀️ Because he likes making songs for you, he calls you his Muse as you are his inspiration for every slow and romantic song he makes

☀️ Apollo also loves calling you things like; My Sunrise/Sunset, My Light, Light of my Life, Moon to my Sun, Sweetheart, Darling, and Beloved

☀️ When he gets serious, he calls you stuff like; Darling and Dear Y/N

☀️ He always makes sure the nicknames he uses are ones that your okay with, and because he gives you them, he wants you to call him some as well

☀️ Apollo doesn’t care about what nickname, but he prefers; My Sun God, Sun to my Moon, Love, and My Songbird

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🥀 Adamas isn’t one for nicknames, but hearing you call him things like; My King or Handsome, well, it makes him want to call you things back

🥀 He loves you, and he wants you to feel just as loved as you make him feel

🥀 So, while it took a while, Adamas eventually started calling you things like; My Dear, Love, Hot Stuff, Beautiful/Handsome #2, and Precious

🥀 Adamas also loves calling you anything related to how badass you are, or how you can stand his youngest brother, Zeus

🥀 So ‘My Composure’ is a common one

🥀 After he ‘died’ and eventually ‘came back to life’, he gained a new nickname from you, it being; My Cy-God, since he was part cyborg and part God still

🥀 Adamas, now Adamantine, likes calling you; My One and Only, Forever Lover, and Beauty to my Beast

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📨 Does this guy love nicknames? Is that even a question? Of course he does!

📨 Kinda like Apollo and Hades mixed, Hermes loves to give you nicknames and have nicknames given back to him, it lets him know you do love him back and it’s not just one-sided

📨 He adores calling you stuff like; Babe, Angel, Dearie, My Life, My One and Only, My Spouse, and Dove

📨 The three that he uses the most are; My Inspiration, My Ballad, and My Dearest Y/N

📨 Hermes likes it when you call him names like; My Messenger, Dear, Handsome, Lover, and Mister Adonis

📨 But, when he feels goofy, he calls you things like; Monkey and My Moonlight

📨 He also enjoys it when you tease him with the nicknames; My Heart, Good-Looking, and Chuckles

#Record of Ragnarok #RoR #Shuumatsu no Valkyrie #SnV #RoR Greek Pantheon #Record of Ragnarok Gods #RoR Gods #Record of Ragnarok x Reader #RoR x Reader #Shuumatsu no Valkyrie x Reader #SnV x Reader #RoR Greek Pantheon x Reader #Record of Ragnarok Gods x Reader #RoR Gods x Reader #S/O! Reader #GN! Reader #RoR Hades #RoR Hades x Reader #RoR Apollo #RoR Apollo x Reader #RoR Adamas #RoR Adamas x Reader #RoR Hermes #RoR Hermes x Reader

[miss-tc-nova]

Hunted - Leona Kingscholar & "Yuu"

My piece for the Twst Horror Zine. I had a lot of fun thinking of the possible terror and re-watching one of my favorite horror movies.

Premise: Backpacking around Twisted Wonderland goes bad

Words: 2,962

Trigger Warnings: implied death, stalking, isolation

Art done by the incredibly gifted HoKeki on Twitter!

~~~~~

October 23, 20XX

I’m not sure how to start this, so here goes.

Welcome to my journal! Over the next several months, my friends and I will be backpacking across Twisted Wonderland, taking in the sights and cultures across the world. This is going to be my first excursion and I thought it would be fun to document it.

As anyone who knows me might guess, I’m bringing Ace and Deuce along, though I’m not sure how they came to agree on it when they never seem to agree on anything. Even right now, Ace is badgering Deuce about all the stuff he’s bringing. I agree Deuce might’ve overpacked a bit, but I don’t know how Ace thinks he’s going to be fine with just two sets of clothes and his pajamas. At least I don’t have to wear them. So I’ll be spending a lot more time with these dummies, but I’m excited it’s my best friends I get to share this adventure with.

Our first stop is going to be Sunrise City in the Sunset Savanna. From there, we’ll probably go east to the Shaftlands and then maybe up into the Kingdom of Heroes. The great thing is that we get to decide as we go. I was pretty adamant about starting in Sunrise City though. I’ve always wanted to visit since I learned about its culture and how intermingled it is with the wildlife. Also, being directly south of the Queendom of Roses made it an easy choice to start with.

Tomorrow can’t come soon enough. It’ll be a struggle to keep my excitement in check enough to get even an hour of sleep. Though I should probably finish packing first. Thank goodness Riddle isn’t here or I’d never hear the end of my unpreparedness. But that’s part of the fun, right? The spontaneity and not knowing what adventure the next day will bring. It’s the surprises on the horizon that I want to experience. Even the mishaps—because you know that’s gonna happen with the three of us.

I better cut it here. Ace is about to get punched in the face and I still gotta pack.

Peace!

~~~~~

October 24, 20XX

We finally made it! It took so long the sun is already starting to sink in the sky, but we’re here! Our plane was surprisingly small. In fact, the port here is more rural than I was expecting. It feels a lot more wild—like a safari.

Still, it’s absolutely breathtaking. Clear skies shine bright and the plains ripple like liquid gold in the breeze. Only the captivating local culture could stop me from staring at it for hours. The people are really kind. Most were obviously trying to make money off us, but even they were nice. And it all looked so amazing we had to drag Ace away from a shop selling “Bone Cookies.” This is literally our first day and the temptation to spend money is strong.

Right now, we’re in a cozy guest cabin. Some government officials questioned us about the purpose of our visit, where we’re going, all that stuff. When we told them we planned on taking the scenic route to the capital, the radio chatter started. They insisted we find another route, but the golden plains are one of the “Must See” views of the Sunset Savanna. Plus, we don’t have the money for fancy transportation. I’m sure we’ll be fine with a three-day walk, especially when there are rest stops that have some of the best hospitality.

In the end, our names, details, and contact information were taken. They even took pictures of us from different angles. It’s as if they’re expecting something to happen.

Some of the locals acted odd too, after we told them we were heading through the plains. Some gave us extra food, one gave us a discount, and one strangely gave us a compass—all with the same weird look. Still, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Anyway, it was an exciting start but I can’t wait to get trekking. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

~~~~~

October 25, 20XX

Waking up to Ace and Deuce arguing is going to get old real fast, but I should probably get used to it. They are “best friends” after all.

After the commotion, we prepared to head out. The locals again reminded us not to get distracted. Explicit instructions told us that there were to be no detours and no delays. Honestly, it started to kill the excitement. However, it’s going to take three days to reach the capital—one day to get to the first camp, one to get to the second, and one to get to the city—so it’s probably just proper precaution.

A single step into the gold plains was all it took for the grass to dwarf us. Elephant grass is notoriously tall, but I couldn’t have prepared for just how small we were. It felt like being thrown into a maze; yellow grass, the dirt under our feet, and the blue sky above were all that could be seen. It became intimidating along with its wonder and beauty. Fortunately, there’s only one path.

Not long after we began, Ace started talking tales of some banished prince. He heard the story from a shop owner he bought cookies from after being kicked from the cabin earlier. The reason I hadn’t heard anything was because of how recent it had been. Supposedly, just days ago, he tried to overthrow the king and murder the heir. People called for his execution, but the king didn’t have the heart to kill his own brother. Instead, he was exiled. But while being transported out of the country, he was set free by his followers—his jailers’ bodies were found maimed beyond recognition. Now the rumors say he’s hiding out to the east in the Shadowlands.

I didn’t want to hear any more, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell Ace to stop. Instead, he just kept talking, probably trying to scare us. And yet I think he also scared himself. It didn’t help that we could hear things rustling in the grass. I thought I saw something once, but couldn’t say for sure. Even though the locals said most wildlife would ignore us, it’s unnerving not to see what we can hear.

Despite the spooky stories, we made good time. The rest stop was within reach well before the sun started to set. Camp guards ushered us inside the fence, demanding our names, birthdays, reasons for travel—the same information we provided at the outpost. It must’ve been to check that we were on the list of expected visitors, which is a little strange considering I noticed ours were the only names on it.

It’s a small campsite. There are a few cabins around the clearing. A massive ring circles the whole place, dotted with devices that appear newly installed. Deuce says they’re for magic defense. Nobody can use magic in the camp and magic can’t get in. For all the security, that’s probably why we were instructed to arrive before sundown.

Well, I better get some sleep. Another long day of walking awaits tomorrow.

~~~~~

October 26, 20XX

A member of the camp staff woke us early this morning—the sun hadn’t even broken the horizon. All color had forsaken his face as he rushed us to dress and pack. No answers were offered to our question, only echoes that we leave immediately.

And again, as we stepped foot into the wilderness, we were warned to stay on the path and stop for nothing.

On our way out, the ruckus could be heard. They found something unusual at one of the barrier projectors. It would make sense to get us out of the way so they could focus on repairs. Yet I can’t help wondering if the hole being dug on the outskirts of the campsite had something to do with it. What was it for? What happened last night while we were all asleep? Did something get in? Where was it now?

That must be my imagination talking. It was early so it would be easy to misunderstand the whole thing. Besides, we needed to leave earlier since today’s trek was longer than yesterday. The sun would be long gone before we reached the next camp otherwise.

If only the boys could’ve kept their mouths shut. They argued the whole way. Ace sulked about not getting to sleep in and Deuce’s phone was missing. He demanded that Ace give it back, but Ace denied having it. The accusations probably come from last night’s teasing over Deuce messaging his mom, but I think he misplaced it in a different pocket. Hopefully he finds it soon or he’ll have to spend some of that souvenir money on a replacement.

Their fighting slowed us down, delaying our arrival at the second camp until just after sundown. Our reception by the staff was rough. After being jerked inside and held under duress, the interrogation went on until they could confirm we were the names on the list of travelers. So much for the hospitality.

There were no apologies as they put us in a cabin for the night. That’s where everything in Ace’s pack got dumped out and it still wasn’t enough to convince Deuce about his phone. So the arguing continued, even as I left to get a break from it all.

This second rest stop is much like the first. Cabins and staff equipment are scattered around. Though people are quiet at night, I could hear animals beyond the barrier. I think I even saw one. It was big, maybe the size of an antelope. It’s crazy how comfortable the wildlife is so close to settlements like this.

Well, I’m tucked in now and Deuce and Ace are pouting in their own beds. We’ll set out again in the morning and, by sunset tomorrow, we’ll be in Sunrise City.

~~~~~

October 27, 20XX

We messed up.

Ace really didn’t have Deuce’s phone. But neither did Deuce.

Like the day before, we were woken up early and sent on our way. Camp staff barely gave us time to pack before shoving us out. There was no time to question the hasty behavior and it left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. Still, we went on our way as planned.

After noon, Deuce made us stop, yelling at us to be quiet. I thought he was crazy, but then I heard it too.

It was his mom’s ringtone.

Coming from the elephant grass.

We couldn’t stop him. He just took off. It was a blind run as Ace and I tried to keep up. We never would’ve caught up if he hadn’t stopped. In his hand was his phone, still ringing yet entirely useless. The screen was shattered and the frame bent. It was a miracle it could still even ring. How it got there and how it got destroyed is a mystery—one made worse by the fact that we couldn’t find the path again.

No one could say for sure which way we ran and the grass gave us nothing to find our bearings. Our phones were just handy clocks with no service in the middle of nowhere. Only the compass gave us any consolation. Surely heading south will get us out of here.

To make matters worse, night fell sooner than we anticipated. Making camp was the only sensible solution, no matter how badly we want to get out of here.

Now here I sit, in our little tent, listening to things creeping all around us. I have this nagging feeling that, whatever they are, they’ve been following us and I don’t know if it makes me feel better or worse that I can’t see them.

It’s probably just my paranoia. If we keep going south, we’ll make it out of here tomorrow. By now the savanna guides must realize we’re missing and be looking for us. We’ll be laughing about this whole thing in Sunrise City by lunch, except Deuce who will have to buy a new phone. Because of course this is the kind of trouble we would get ourselves into.

Everything will be fine.  

~~~~~

October 28, 20XX

Maybe my paranoia last night wasn’t just paranoia.

None of us got any sleep at all. Whatever was sneaking through the grass lingered all night, getting louder and louder with their cackling and snarling. When we finally ventured out of the tent this morning, we were greeted with the destruction of our supplies. Everything was scattered, either destroyed or altogether missing. Here and there were pieces of the map, unsalvageable, and the compass was gone. Our bags were placed right outside the tent because keeping food inside is frowned upon for this reason, but now we have no food, no directions, and maybe half our belongings.

There was nothing to do but pick up what we could and continue walking.

Ace’s pessimism didn’t help. He’s convinced it was the banished prince at our camp, but all we could tell from the flattened grass was that they were large creatures. Still, the constant talk of our doom began to bother me and Deuce. I just hope whatever they are, they realize we don’t have anything else and leave us alone.

I don’t know how, but we must’ve gotten turned around somewhere. We tried to follow the sun, but each step was just more and more grass, hiding the unknown, letting us hope that the end is just one more step. Now the sky is black and we’re still here. We’re exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. So we set up camp to spend another night in this place.

~~~~~

~~~~~

October 29, 20XX

I’m getting really scared now.

Our tent was shaken by a fight just outside last night, but we were all too scared to make a sound. In the morning, not a word was said as we walked. Only this time, we knew the noises in the grass were them. They are following us. No, stalking is more accurate. I can hear them snicker and growl. I’m sure if I reached into the grass, I would touch one.

But they have nothing on the banished prince.

I’m not sure how, but I always knew it wasn’t him stalking us but his hyena henchmen. They’re destructive and menacing, but he’s a monster hiding in the shadows. He’s behind this.

I don’t remember when I spotted him, but I could feel his gaze on me, different from the other beasts. His growl shot through my heart and it felt like I had his claws at my throat. Barely veiled by grass, he wanted me to see him. Fangs eager to tear gleamed in that grin. Behind his gaze was nothing but malice, highlighted by the ink dripping across his skin. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even breathe. I was so certain that those bloodthirsty green eyes would be the last thing I ever saw.

And then he was gone. He wasn’t really gone, only gone from sight. There’s no doubt that he and his pack are watching us even now. We’ve been sentenced to death and they’re just toying with us.

We’re never getting out of here. Even if it weren’t for the monsters hunting us, we have no food and no more water. I don’t know if we can survive another night out here. I regret everything. I never should’ve suggested this trip. Because of me, we’re going to die out here. I’m sorry. I’m sorry to Ace and Deuce. I’m sorry to Deuce’s mom and Ace’s family. I’m so sorry I got your boys into this mess. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

I wish this nightmare would just end.

~~~~~

October 30, 20XX

We lost Ace today.

Tension was high. We’re being hunted. We know we’re going to die. The fear of what’s in store for us is sickening. Unlike yesterday, Ace and Deuce couldn’t stop arguing. A fight was inevitable. When Ace knocked Deuce to the ground, he took off. We tried to find him—spent hours calling his name. But we never found him.

Long after the sun had gone, the grass finally parted. At first, we were excited. I think I cried. Then I realized where we were.

Rocky, barren land laid before us. Towers of stone loomed above, colder and less forgiving than the grass we escaped. An eerie fog hovered, concealing both new and old monsters. It was bad. We found the Shadowlands. Sunrise City was meant to be south of the port we started at. Those beasts managed to manipulate our path away from our destination and far to the east. He led us here to be slaughtered.

This is where we found Ace’s magic pen.

Nothing else.

We considered our options. The grass gave us no visibility and muddled our sense of direction. On the other hand, the Shadowlands were the prince’s territory. Both were bad choices, but we chose not to go back. At least in the Shadowlands, we had a chance. We knew where we were and how to get to where we needed to. Maybe Deuce and I could still find our way to Sunrise City. Maybe we could send a search party back for Ace.

Maybe this terrible journey will be over soon.

~~~~~

October 31, 20XX

We were wrong! We should’ve gone back!

If anyone finds this, stay out of the Shadowlands!

They took Deuce! They dragged him out of the tent! I can’t hear him scream anymore!

If you see this RUN!

GET OUT OF HERE!

GET OUT BEFORE LEONA KINGSCHOLAR FIN

~~~~~

#twisted wonderland zine #zine feat nova #leona kingscholar #ruggie bucchi #ace trappola #deuce spade #gender neutral reader #yes reposted because i jumped the gun

[purplesurveys]

1477

red:

how was your first kiss? Better than how most first kisses go, I guess. Of course it felt a bit awkward but it was awkward in a cute, first-love kind of way.

what do you love about yourself? I’m a good listener and I’m okay at giving advice, so people I care about usually come to me when they’re going through stuff.

when’s the last time you warmed your hands in front of a fire? I don’t think I’ve ever even felt that cold.

would you rather watch a sunrise or sunset? Sunset. For one, I hate being outside or up when it’s super super early anyway.

what’s the best thing about summer? Nothing, really. It’s hot to the point that you feel like being cooked everyday, and it’s too humid that it’s hard to breathe and you feel sticky 24/7.

orange:

what makes you feel warm inside? When a baby or toddler takes a liking to me. I find that it happens a lot and it feels like having some sort of superpower, hahaha.

what’s your favorite halloween tradition? Just seeing how everyone can get creative with their costumes, really. I don’t do much on Halloween.

what’s the last thing you learned? How to sign up for this workout challenge on this app that Bea shared with me.

when’s the last time you felt obsessed? Uh today I guess? I’m always on fangirl mode with BTS lol

what’s your favorite article of clothing? Sleeveless halter tops.

yellow:

if you could have any view from your bedroom window what would you choose? I want to say the sea, but I feel like seeing it everyday would make me tired of it. So I’ll go with the view of a busy city - with the traffic and never-ending bright lights and people walking around and such. I’ve lived in quiet villages all my life and it’d be cool to be somewhere more hectic and alive.

what’s your favorite thing to do on a sunny day? Staying indoors. Unless you’re by the beach/sea, the sun sucks where I live.

what do you consider lucky? I don’t believe in good luck charms or signs.

what made you smile today? I was going over iconic Kardashian moments with my sister and we were laughing at “Kim, would you stop taking pictures of yourself? Your sister is going to jail.”

what makes you happy? Getting to check all the stuff in my ridiculously long to-do list today.

green:

what’s your favorite thing to do outside? I always blank out when faced with this question because the Philippines isn’t public spaces-friendly at all. What do other people do when they are outside? Hahaha. I feel envious of those who live in walkable cities or live near parks and can actually have picnics and things that I only see in movies; my idea of going out is just heading to a mall because malls are all we have.

do you like camping? I haven’t tried it before. I wouldn’t know how to feel about it.

what would you spend $1,000 on? Assuming I have to spend it, airline tickets and a quick vacation. P50,000 isn’t much so I’d probably go to like Singapore for like a little weekend getaway.

what’s your job, or what do you want to do as your job? I’m a manager at a public relations agency, mainly handling lifestyle brands. I already like my job and it’s super in line with what I’m good at doing; but I would probably love it more if it didn’t get mentally taxing and time-consuming like, 80% of the week. I stay for the people, that’s what I always say.

what’s your favorite article of clothing? I already answered this.

blue:

what do you do when you’re sad? I order food, lol. If that’s not possible, I try to find a video that would distract me but would also help in making me feel better.

what are some things you do when you can’t sleep? Using my phone and mindlessly scrolling through social media works wonders.

what kind of covers do you have on your bed? It’s blue and has a moon and stars-themed print on it.

who is the last person you told a secret to? Andi.

purple:

what’s your astrological sign? Taurus.

what’s the best piece of advice you ever received? I can’t remember the exact words but Andi essentially has told me not to rush my healing because it’d be super easy to burn out and relapse that way. This was a really long time ago but it’s still my favorite advice I’ve received, mainly because they narrated through a metaphor.

when’s the last time you followed your instincts? I can’t seem to remember at the moment.

what’s your favorite food? Sushi ohmygod.

what’s your secret dream? To have a big-ass house that can take in lots of stray or abandoned dogs.

#survey #surveys

[firawren]

"Transformation" A Beauty and the Beast fanfic

Chapter 2, “Cocoon,” rated G, now posted

Chapters: 2/17 now posted Fandom: Beauty and the Beast (Disney Animated Movies) Rating: Explicit

Romantic relationships: Belle/Beast, Gaston/Lumiere Platonic relationships: Gaston & Belle, Gaston & Beast

Key additional tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Monster Fucking, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Redemption, Family, Friendship, Love, Happy Ending, see full list of tags on AO3

Summary:

Belle said she loved him. Everything transformed to how it used to be.

Except the Beast.

Forced into a new deal with the Enchantress, Beast will remain in this form forever. Belle doesn’t mind; she’s happy with him no matter what he looks like. Beast tries to just be happy, too, and for a while, everything is wonderful. Beast doesn’t know how he got so lucky, and Belle finally feels at home. But when the trauma of his past resurfaces, the future they’re trying to build together comes tumbling down.

Gaston’s ideal future isn’t going to plan either. Instead of getting married to Belle, it looks like he’s becoming friends with her, while developing feelings for someone else he’d never expected. This wouldn’t be so bad, except that the closer he gets to both of them, the more he learns to question his values and feel guilty for his past. And when that past finally comes to light, he stands to lose everything he’s gained.

This is a story about how sometimes the things we want to transform can’t be changed, and sometimes the things we think are hopeless can transform through love.

Excerpt from chapter 2:

“I’m excited for you to see my gown. I think you’ll love it.”

“Oh? What’s it like?”

“I’m not telling, but it’s gorgeous, probably the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen—except for your library, of course.”

“Your library,” he corrected with a smile.

“Oh of course, my library,” she giggled.

“Only you could think a library is the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen.”

“Are you saying I’m odd to adore a library?” she teased.

“Not odd, just…one-of-a-kind. Unique.” She crooked her eyebrow with a skeptical smile. “What? Unique is good!”

“Well if admiring a library is a ��unique’ choice, I don’t want to be normal anyway,” she declared. 

She looked back down at the pile of unplaced puzzle pieces, tucking back a strand of hair that had come loose and fell over her eye, then began pushing the pieces aside with her elegant fingers, searching for a particular one. “So what’s the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen?”

That was an easy question, but he couldn’t tell her the real answer. He pulled his eyes off her to force himself to look at the puzzle again. “I guess…a sunrise.”

“Why a sunrise and not a sunset?”

“Sunsets are beautiful too, but I don’t like watching the sky get dark. Nights are…hard for me,” he told her honestly. “The sunrise tells me that I made it through another night. It’s a new start.”

Continue reading chapter 2 “Cocoon” of “Transformation” on AO3

#transformation fic #batb fanfic #beauty and the beast 1991 #batb 91 #beauty and the beast #belle x beast #belle #the beast #gaston #lumiere #monster fucking #sexy times #fanfic #disney fanfiction

[waka-chan-out]

Just Once

Hanamaki Takahiro x fem!reader

non-canonical timeskip.

word count: 3.5k

content warnings: makki’s pov. honestly this is pretty much just friends to lovers fluff with some healthy smut thrown in at the end. technically unprotected sex but no attention is called to it.

based on this request

Makki was sure you didn’t even realize you were half asleep, so when he shoved your shoulder you nearly jumped across the room.

“What the hell?” you yelped. He laughed and stood.

“Not on my watch! Sit up. Come on. I got you.”

He dragged you into a seated position and grabbed a bright pink energy drink from the fridge. He flopped back down in front of you and held out his hand.

“Drink this.”

You saw what he was holding and snorted.

“Why?”

“So you can stay up with me, stupid. You asked to sleep over. I expect fully conscious best friend bonding time.”

You rolled your eyes but took the can anyway.

“I asked to sleep over, not stay up all night,” you said, popping open the can. You held it up to your lips and took an experimental sip.

“How is it?” he asked. You winced and shook your shoulders.

“It tastes like drugged up cotton candy.” You held it up to your lips, then hesitated. “Am I supposed to feel it as it goes through my veins?”

“You are, actually. It’s great.” He picked up his own drink and nearly spilled it on the carpet before taking a long sip. Using your logic, his was a deliciously metallic green apple flavor.

You moved to set your drink down but Makki caught your hands in his own.

“Oh, no you don’t. Come on. Open.” He sat up to between your knees and tipped the drink back toward your lips. “I can sip. You gotta chug.”

You made a muffled sound in protest but let the liquid fall past your lips anyway, grumpily holding his gaze as you drained a good portion of the can. He set it down beside you and shot you what was supposed to be an innocent smile.

“You’re an idiot,” you said.

“Indeed. Feeling more awake?” he asked. You shrugged.

“I’m sure I will once the heart palpitations set in.”

“I know CPR. You’ll be fine.”

He settled back onto the floor and resumed staring at the ceiling. You had bought him one of those little constellation lights for his last birthday, and since it was freezing outside they were the best possible substitute for stargazing. You laid down next to him, fingers laced on your chest. Quiet music came from your phone in the corner, virtually untouched since you arrived hours earlier. Matsukawa always joked that when you hung out together it was like you entered a void, completely impossible to locate until you were separated, and he was right. With you here, this was the only room that existed. You were floating around in space and would be sucked out into nothing as soon as you tried to leave.

You rolled over and leaned against your hand.

“What are you thinking about?” you asked. Makki didn’t look at you. He didn’t need to.

“Matsukawa,” he said. You scoffed.

“Why? Making a tier list of our friend’s eyebrows?”

“Hair, actually. His curls give him a pretty big advantage.”

“They are nice, I’ll give you that. But not nice enough to make up for his shitty personality.”

It wasn’t nearly as fun ripping into him when he wasn’t there to defend himself, but you both laughed anyway.

Makki considered your words for a moment. In all honesty, Matsukawa would place pretty high on all of those lists. A humor list too. And probably an overall looks list. He was certainly the more popular in high school, and had only come more into his own since graduating.

“You know, I always thought Matsukawa was the better looking of the two of us.” The words slipped out before he could even consider stopping them. He froze and turned to you. To his surprise you were studying his face with the interest he might have expected from a doctor and their patient. When you didn’t respond, he realized he was nervous. Why, he didn’t know, but he really, really needed you to respond.

“I’ve never told anyone that before,” he breathed.

“Issei is handsome,” you said. Well, fuck.

“Good, good. These years of insecurity were warranted. Good to know.”

You smacked his shoulder.

“Shut the fuck up while I speak to you.” He laughed but held his tongue. You continued. “Issei is handsome, but you are too. Just in different ways. Neither is better or worse.”

He stared at you stupidly. “Thanks?”

“Don’t say it like it’s a question! I’m being serious.”

“I can tell. It’s just a funny compliment to get.”

“Well, think about it. The sunrise is beautiful. The sunset is beautiful. Two things can be totally different and equally lovely at the same time.”

He gazed at you, face scrunched and unable to decide between confusion and understanding.

“Do you get it?” you asked

“Yeah, yeah. I think so.” He paused and considered what you said. “So, which am I?” You made a face.

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“It’s your metaphor!”

“You’re sunrise, dummy.” You ruffled his hair. “I thought you’d get that.”

He smiled. He could work with sunrise.

“So, which do you prefer?” he asked. “Sunrise or sunset?” You huffed a laugh and your eyes fell to the carpet, where you had started playing with a loose string.

“I try not to play favorites,” you said. He watched your face carefully. A small smile played on your lips, the same one that always appeared when you were alone with him. “But there’s a reason I don’t drag you outside as the sun is going down.”

He stared at you, and you stared right back. An unexpected but deeply familiar feeling settled in his chest. He didn’t know what to do with it, so he swallowed hard and returned to laying on his back. “Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me for being honest.”

“I know. But for my own sake, thanks.”

Makki could feel your eyes scanning his face, but he kept his gaze trained on the ceiling.

“You know, you’re good looking too,” he said.

“Yeah? You come up with a fancy metaphor for me?”

He snorted and turned onto his side again. Your lips were curled into the prettiest shadow of a smile and he could feel his mouth going dry.

“I’m not good at talking like that. But you’re just so familiar.” He reached out and absentmindedly traced his fingers over the back of your hand. He tried his best to not look at your face, because he could feel his heating up and the warmth was making it hard to think straight. He stilled his hand and laid it on top of yours as was finally able to piece his thoughts together. “You feel like home.”

When he finally looked at you your lips were parted in surprise. He hadn’t expected that reaction. Was what he said been that outlandish? You had been friends forever. Of course he felt like that around you.

“Thank you, Makki,” you said. His mouth twitched into a smirk.

“You don’t need to thank me for being honest.” The repeated phrase forced a laugh out of you, but he couldn’t quite place the look on your face.

“Can I ask you something?” he said.

“You just did,” you teased. He rolled his eyes and scooted closer to show he was serious.

“Okay, okay,” you said. “Shoot.”

“Why don’t you call me by my given name?”

You scoffed.

“I don’t know.”

“That’s not true! There has to be a reason.”

“It feels too special. I don’t want to use it like that.”

“You use Mattsun’s!”

“Yeah, well.”

He frowned, amused, and leaned in closer. You wrinkled your nose and tried to back away.

“Well, what?” he asked.

“I don’t know how to explain it! It’s just different. Too intimate.” You said the last part quietly, like you didn’t want him to hear it.

“So why can you use his ‘intimate’ name and not mine?”

“Because it feels different with you.”

“Why?”

You were staring at him, an apprehensive look on your face. He paused, and the new information finally clicked. Oh.

You both hesitated.

“Do you want me to say it or do you get it?” you whispered.

“I think I get it?”

You blew out a frustrated sigh and covered your face with your hands.

“Don’t say it like a question!”

“Fine, fine, fine. I genuinely think I get it but I don’t want to be presumptuous.”

“So you get it but you’re not going to do anything to show me that you get it?”

“See? You get it.”

“Makki!”

“What? You know I can’t turn it off.” He grinned. “It’s like an impulse.”

“You’re an impulsive ass?”

“I am. That’s why we fit so well together. You’re an impulsive ass tamer.”

You let out a surprised laugh.

“And what does that make Issei?”

Makki waved his hand dismissively.

“Oh, forget about him. I wanna focus on us.”

“Us?”

“Yeah, us. I’m still on this given name bullshit.”

“God,” you groaned. “Can we move on to another topic?”

“Not until I’m sure that I know what I think I know.”

“Hanamaki Takahiro, I am going to end your bloodline.”

He perked up and pointed at your face.

“Ah! You said it! Now just say it on its own.”

“Hanamaki.”

“Fuck! No. Not that one.”

You stared at him seriously.

“Just try it!” he begged. “Then I’ll stop bugging you.”

“Forever?”

“Hell no, just about this.”

You groaned and rubbed your hands over your face. You took a deep breath and set your jaw.

“Just once?” you asked.

“Just once. Unless I want to hear it again.”

“If you’re going to be weird I’m not going to say it!”

“Fine! Fine. I’m shutting up.” He motioned like he was zipping up his lips and handing you the key. You laughed and pretended to take it, closing your hand into a fist and laying it between you.

“Okay.” You took a deep breath. He pretended not to notice the way it faltered on the way out. You looked him seriously in the eye.

“Takahiro.”

Shit.

He expected it to feel silly, so much hype up for something incredibly stupid. But it wasn’t. It felt a little too good to be silly. It felt really good. It felt right.

He held out his hand. Your brows pulled together until he pointed at your hand, then his face. You let out a ridiculous laugh and held two fingers close to his mouth, pretending to unzip his lips again. He caught your hand before you could fully pull it away, cradling it against his face.

“You know, that’s the prettiest anyone has ever said it.” He didn’t register the words that were forming until they were out and he was cringing, waiting for you to tell him to fuck off. Instead, you narrowed your eyes at him.

“Don’t be embarrassing.”

“What? The more you say it the less strange it feels for both of us.” He scooted against the ground, bringing his body even closer to yours. “Do it again.”

You sighed and rolled your eyes.

“Takahiro.”

Fuck.

You sat in silence. You stared at each other, unwavering and perfectly comfortable, neither of you making any move to turn away. Makki broke the silence with a sharp breath.

“Can I try something?” he asked. You looked apprehensive but he went on. “If I totally misread the situation that’s fine, I won’t be offended. Just, can I?”

You shrugged.

“I don’t care.”

Well, shit. He was suddenly frozen.

You know what? No. You were one of his best friends. If he fucked up, you’d tell him, then you’d laugh about it, and best of all, you’d never ever tell Matsukawa. That was the kind of friend you were. You were perfect. You were his.

He pushed up on his elbow and leaned over you. He could see your eyes widen in surprise, then settle back into something nervous but not apprehensive. He was so close to you. At this distance he could feel every pull of your breath against his face. God, he could do this. If worst came to worst you could laugh about it and return to being best friends. He might die as he did this, but if he was honest, he was more likely going to die if he didn’t.

He reached up and ran a hand through your hair. Then, he cupped the side of your face, leaned in, and ever so gently pressed his lips to yours.

For a moment he panicked because you didn’t move. You were frozen against him, and he had fucked up so horribly he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to laugh it off.

Then you weren’t frozen and there was a hand buried in his hair, and he let out the most relieved sigh of his life.

He swore he could feel you smiling as he finally let himself move, lips shifting against yours like they had always been there. You fit against him so perfectly it almost surprised him, but only almost. You had always been in sync, ready to back him up with a joke or laugh or the end of a snarky comment that he couldn’t quite get out. You were his other half and it only made sense that your lips were made just for each other.

He planted a knee on the ground between your legs and propped himself up above you, shivering when your hands ran down his sides.

Makki knew he was a good kisser, but with the responsive, welcoming way your mouth moved against his, he became painfully aware that he had never experienced a truly great kiss until now. He felt your tongue nudge his lips and he parted them, letting you deepen the kiss. You tasted like the stupid cotton candy energy drink and the sweet, familiar breath of someone that he adored.

Your fingertips danced along his abdomen, then his hipbones, finally coming to rest just slightly dipped under the band of his pajama pants. There was no longer the hesitance of friendship in your hands, and when he cradled the back of your neck, he realized the feeling was affecting him too. You were trembling, and so was he, drunk on the feeling of a familiar but entirely new body. Playful touches couldn’t compare to harsh fingers grasping at whatever skin they could find, eliciting small sighs and dizzying gasps.

He dipped his head down and planted kisses along your jaw. Your hands closed into fists and you tipped your head back, letting his tongue move down to you neck. He might have been leaving hickies. He honestly didn’t know. All he cared about was absorbing as much of you as he could as quickly as possible.

You brought up your knees so he was sandwiched between your legs and he shuddered. He thought the kiss would be enough. Hell, he didn’t even think you’d receive it this enthusiastically. But he could feel that he was turned on, and you were definitely going to be able to tell if he didn’t slow down a little. He brought his lips back to yours and tried to lower the tension, ease up the pace, but then your legs were wrapped tightly around him, forcing him to grind against you.

Oh, fuck.

You grabbed his face on either side and licked into his mouth like you were trying to own him, and jesus he was starting to believe you did. His arms were braced on either side of you, desperately trying to keep him from completely melting, but it wasn’t working at all.

He was distantly aware that he was hard, but he didn’t think about it until one of your hands had left his face to paw at him through his pajamas. He gasped and felt you smile into the kiss, rubbing your palm up his length, nearly able to wrap your hand around him through the thin fabric. He pulled away from your lips and looked at you seriously, or as seriously as he could when his brain was actively trying to vacate his skull.

“Is this okay?” he asked.

You ground your hand harder against him.

“Getting shy on me, Takahiro?”

He let out a shaky breath and shook his head. You stared up at him with a smug smile and he had the urge to kiss it off your face.

“Shut up,” he grumbled. You smiled and pulled him down by the back of his neck.

“Make me.”

He cut off any further comment by connecting your lips, trying to fight off a grin. You managed to maneuver the front of his pajamas down and he gasped as the cool air hit him. He braced himself against the floor with an elbow and you used the moment of surprise to wrap your legs around him and lock his hips against you.

He ground against you once and was met with the sudden, dizzying realization that you weren’t wearing anything under your loose pajama shorts. He filed that information away for later, when he could sit down and ask himself just how many times you had laid beside him like that. One of your hands gripped his hair tighter as he pushed himself against you once more, trying to give you the opportunity to take the lead.

“Jesus,” you said suddenly, reaching down and taking hold of his length. “Just fuck me already.”

That sentence alone could have killed him, but his train of thought was derailed as you lined him up between your legs and held onto his shoulders, begging him to get closer. He readjusted his forearm on the floor above your head and pushed inside of you with one fluid motion.

“Oh, fuck,” he breathed. He tipped his forehead against your face, trying to regain some semblance of self control as he withdrew and thrust forward again. The way you groaned and dug your fingertips into his back made that nearly impossible.

He set a slow, grinding pace, letting himself swim in your quiet moans before silencing them with a kiss. Your hands moved back to his hair, holding him close as your tongue met his. The motion felt so natural that he barely registered that you had only kissed for the first time a few minutes ago. It felt like you’d been his forever.

You broke the kiss but Makki kept his face pressed against yours.

“Takahiro,” you sighed. “A little faster.”

He nearly lost control of his body as he obeyed, quick breaths leaving his lips involuntarily with every movement. Your moans were driving him crazy. He wanted to taste them, drink in every bit of you until you were shaking beneath him. He captured your lips in a kiss again and shifted a hand between your legs, circling your clit as he continued thrusting into you.

The sound that left your throat was muffled against his lips, but he swore he would never forget it. Your breath was quick against his skin and the kiss became messier with every motion. One of your hands flew around his bicep, like you were trying to anchor yourself as he continued pushing into you.

Fuck, Makki was close. The harder you panted, the tighter your grip on him was, the faster he hurtled toward the edge. You were moaning into his mouth, and his fingers were moving faster between your legs, and his arm was cramping just a little bit from holding himself above you, but then you were breaking the kiss and your back was arching and holy shit.

Makki’s hips stuttered and he let out the most embarrassing, full-bodied groan he was capable of. He had to snap his other arm up to avoid collapsing on top of you. He stopped moving and basked in the little shocked breaths that left your body, even after you had stopped shaking. He rolled off of you and closed his eyes.

“Holy shit,” he said. Laughter cut through his words, but he could tell you were having the same problem as your chest heaved. He could see you rearranging your clothes out of the corner of his eye. You paused while readjusting your shirt.

“Makki, you gave me a hickie,” you said. He shoved your arm.

“You don’t get to call me Makki after I just made you come.”

You laughed loudly and flicked his head. He continued staring at the ceiling until he felt you turn over and lay a hand on his chest. He looked down and you were studying him, an amused expression on your face.

“Think Issei will know something’s up?” you asked.

“Of course,” he said. “He notices everything. But deny till you die, right?” You smiled and he pressed a long kiss to your lips, relishing the feeling of your breath dancing over his skin.

This was the only room in existence. You were the only person in the universe, and yours were the only lips he had ever kissed. Nothing mattered besides you and him, right now, exactly where you were supposed to be.

#i have a final tomorrow but instead of preparing i finally finished this #oh to be hanamaki takahiro’s best friend that he’s secretly in love with #haikyuu smut #haikyuu x reader #makki smut #makki x reader #hanamaki smut #hanamaki x reader #hanamaki takahiro smut #hanamaki takahiro x reader

[alberivh]

The gravestone of the wilderness — (scraps)

diluc x gn!reader — fluff, angst, comfort/hurt, death, implied werner syndrome, memory loss.

the second stage of diluc’s life, death and you.

a/n : a very very messy writing which were written by me for 2 days…? please listen to je te laisserai des mots while reading this, it would improve your imagination more <3

oh to be a normal couple. Lying in your frail shoulder, diluc exhales his heavy breathing. Trading the air with a brain of oxygen and beauty of life, he let your hands wrapped to his arm. Soothed his messy-red-hair and hearing the whisper of the freedom. Near the lakes of the winery, stand your figure and diluc seeing the sunset in mesmerized glances. It was a peaceful evening, even the birds seems too peaceful that it hurts your soul. The world isn’t fine, how come everything became so peaceful today?

“diluc, quick question..” , you called out his name. Stealing the sunset gaze from diluc’s eyes. His breathing is heavy, his heartbeat is unexpectedly warm. Yet you found his presence a little bit too cold..and too fragile.

“and..what is it?”

“who’ll die first, me or you?” , the question is simple. Like a sword to a warriors body, straightforward and cut short. You pay no attention to diluc’s tighten grip, avoiding his eye contact is the way you make his answer straight and honest. After all, you only want to hear his intentions, why did he still seek you even after your condition worsened? He could had the chance to escape from your affection 3 months ago but why did he stay? Did he pitied the unknown for not being the best of his life?

“you” cold and strong. His whole sight focused on your eyes. Anxiety fills it, tears could even force itself to leave your eyes if diluc told you how your eyes show everything. He seen through you and for so many time, he predicted your words. I don’t have any days left diluc.., is your favorite line. The one he thought to be a bullshit.

“just as i expected”

“but you do know i’m not your doctor right?”

“i trust my lovers instinct better than the doctors, they’re a bunch of creeps anyways” , the sunset falls to the edge of the winery before you could finish your reply. the infuse, the breathing machines and the ventilators were all beside you, accompanying you these past weeks. it was bothersome to bring them all together, but thanks to diluc, you could felt as if you were alive. and with no essentials-help you are fine.

diluc saw your anxiety trembles to sobs. the sunset was over and thus—began the starry moonlight which bright to the breezing sky of monstadt.

“thank you..diluc…” , you carefully clinge to his arm. Hugging it tightly without letting your infuse disturbed the warm of his body. your fingers gone numb but his warmth, it radiates so much energy and comfort to be alive. tears fall to his jacket, the moonlight was yet to be found and here you are pleading your lover to stay. Even if you’re both better dying off alone.

“dying off young is pretty tragic don’t you think? Like us..”, whispering your thoughts under the darkened sky and to diluc who was staring empty at your eyes. It was quite and clear to be hear in diluc’s ear but maybe he prefers to drown himself to your frail shoulder, so he could escape from the reality you were going out from his lines.

“y’know diluc, if i were alive till the 32 years of your life, i’ll be happy to laid on our deathbed together..” , a not so sappy thought to be precise. But diluc tries to understand from what are you implying to say, he doesn’t want to make himself fooled by the guilt of his past.

“and what makes you say that?”

“diluc we all know that i’m dying, i couldn’t always stay like this can i?” “I just want to be free that’s all..but diluc…i don’t wish for someone to forget about me…i want them to know i’m used to be alive and well, i want them to know i’m in love.” — i want them to know i’m in love with you diluc, i don’t want to leave you behind. I don’t want someone to abandoned me behind. I love you diluc. How many times have i told you that? I lost count.

minutes feels like seconds, under the starry night you felt nothing but warm. The warm of his heart and his radiance, although it seems like a facade to hide from your sharp-vision. He is beautiful. but with diluc’s lips under your dry mouth, You could feel more the presence of his fading-figure. Wandering through his palm, the space of his cold fingers and his salty tears. He was crying out of madness. He was frustrated that he couldn’t been able to save you from your draining thoughts.

the sharp needles inside your infuse feels numb. The breathing tube wasn’t as heavy as before. Diluc lips is the only thing you could feel. Under the moonlight, he drops his devotion to his knees. Hands wrapped to your delicate-fragile self. Under the days he left you behind, he apologize. As Now he is humming your lips with hopeless wishes. His kisses are soft, gentle as the wind. Pyro seems so warm to your cryo vision. Unknown for love and ambition to be bear. so this is how falling in love feels like?

the sunrise have awoken, another day has finally begun. Sitting at the balcony with his brother, reading letters and wishes from his inner family circle. Eyebags have grown to diluc’s glance, even his wrinkles start to form onto his charming face. His hair start to fall out to thin airs, leaving half of the once burning red to a pale-silver colored. Enjoying his time with the breeze of the sun, diluc realizes kaeya standing figure. he must be going somewhere..

“Kaeya where are you going?” , voice gone frail. His voice aren’t as strong as before. Even his flatter organs are better than the rusty voice kaeya heard.

“to visit someone, it’s their birthday afterall..want to join in, good-master di—“

“shut up don’t you say that name again” , crossing the words. He exhales his breath. Giving himself an opportune moment to breath the fresh morning air. He flinch to the song of the birds, watching them fly ti the air while the letters flew to the side of the tables. it was a peaceful day for diluc to rest, but nonetheless..he always forgot them. Them who aren’t here anymore. father..and..who are they again?

“Alright big brother diluc ragnvindr..just sit on your wheelchair and prepare your stuff, we’re going to windrise right now.”

“It’s not vennessa’s birthday kaeya, why’d you want to take me to windrise? Are y—“ cutting diluc’s voice, kaeya managed to give him the usual smug face on his sight. Making diluc seems more uncomfortable by his plan.

“Yeah yeah..just stick your butt on the wheelchair already mister, we’re going now woohoo!” , whistling to excitement diluc found his brother action to be quite..suspicious. The road was smooth, maybe because the land of winery belongs to diluc’s and his bloodlines, no? Windrise wasn’t that far from the winery, maybe it is far for someone like diluc to explore such an area in the first place.

Windrise, the inner nation of freedom. The location of free will and vennessa legacy. But why does it feel so..cliché for diluc to remember? He doesn’t remember anything about windrise. He doesn’t remember anything about dying, he doesn’t even remembered the gravestone in front of him now. The air was fresh. The leaves and flowers which grow from the small-location of the gravestone was unexpectedly beautiful. The name which were craved in it was unreadable, maybe it was..once. But never again it would be readable to diluc’s eye.

“happy birthday (name)..me and diluc is in here to plant some cecilia’s..would you mind? Ah if you do..you could breeze the bells there, please don’t mind diluc, he’s lost right now.” , kaeya pleaded to downfall of the gravestone. Whispering questions and rants for the owner of it to know. The bell rang and under the wing it sang. they gladly appreciate your visit, diluc. Kaeya steal his glance to diluc’s unfocused eyes, it look as if it were questioning every each of it’s memories. Who are they and why does kaeya think of them as one of the part of him?

Planting the seeds of cecilia under the ground of the suspicious gravestone. The Crystalflies even surrounded it with grace, as if they all belong to their first habitat, the gravestone of the wilderness. Who are they and why are their remenance so…beautiful?

“hmhm, goodjob. Thank you for accepting our birthday offer..diluc and i will go now, farewell for now, see you soon” , cleaning the dirt from the gravestone. Diluc once again asked kaeya’s answer. But nothing could be found from his brother mouth, it seems it was hidden for diluc’s sake.

“you’ll recognize them again diluc, sooner or after.”

soon never came. Kaeya wasn’t here, he was already gone from the resident, Taking diluc’s place aren’t that easy after all. pale and unrecognized, diluc came to his once work office which he never touch any longer. Searching for documents for kaeya to read for him later at night. His fingertips are still the same, numb and empty. I lack something but what are they…? This uncureable piece of shit was such a bothersome.

oh..what is this..?

a letter? — opening it with caution, diluc found the sight of something he craves. The writing of those who couldn’t be recognized by his mind, yet the feeling..it was warm. So warm and comfortable, that it even shakes diluc’s empathy.

to, my sweetheart, diluc ragnvindr.

i never knew when would you opened this but i think you opened it few years since i have died. I know the side affects of your ilness. So i wouldn’t mind if you forget me all along. It’s not your fault for leaving your old memories and life behind, your ilness is one of the part of your issues diluc and I totally understand that, better than kaeya, better than adeline or elzer. And if you forget about me, it’s fine. You don’t need to remember me, just read this all along alright?

Diluc, my swetheart. You probably found this crumpled behind your documents. Maybe kaeya would found it first than you do and it wouldn’t be much of a problem for me to bare, after all i’m dead and even if you apologize i wouldn’t dare to say i would forgive you. Cause diluc, i’m hopelessly in love with you. I love you diluc. Even if you forget me, even if you died in your old age and disastrous days, even if you don’t love me any longer. I’ll be very happy if you could still read this letter. Your curiosity is the reason i’m alive for once diluc. Your warm is the reason of my short-recovery diluc. You are everything. And if you forgot, then it’ll be fine. Read this letter everytime you felt lost, because no home without your lover, no? Ah nevermind that’s a shitty joke isn’t it diluc? Hehe

I’m very satisfied with what I’ve achieved in my lifetime. I got to be with you and your family. I feel like i’m apart of them, apart from who i become. I escape and i’m alright. I’m alive and it’s all because of you diluc. I’m happy. Very happy. But one thing i couldn’t regret more is the fact i couldn’t marry you and tell my devotions to the crowds. I want you foreve diluc, but our time is short enough for each other sake. Fate was cruel, but it’s fair and merciful. It gave us a time to met each other and i’m thankful.

So diluc, whenever you feel lost. Feel free to found me in the crystalflies and in the starry night of the winds. Whenever you need me, i’ll be there. just so let you know i’m the donor of your heart, please don’t regret the fact i’m sharing my life with you. I’m happy to know you are alive, diluc. As long ad you enjoyed your days and live a well-long life, i’ll be happy to give you my everything. I might couldn’t give you this year, but here. Open this envelope, it’s a present. For what exactly? For your own love, diluc. Accept it, would you? I don’t mind if you wouldn’t, but if you want to wear it, feel free to use it.

I’m very happy to be alive diluc, i love you.

The letters ended and so do his tears scroll through his cheeks. The crystalflies in the gravestone. Oh it’s you all along..? Why didn’t you cry out of regret? Are you happy for what diluc became? Are you, my dear…? He was scared of letting you loved him again. He deserve nothing but your hatred. The envelope, it was fill with your charm bracelet. The matching bracelet you used to talk with diluc.

The gravestone, the cecilia’s..? Aren’t those the promises diluc made before? i’ll grow garden of hundreds cecilia’s with you. But he forgot. Your existance are nothing to him anymore, he lost his senses, he lost everything. This heart..your heart. It was pounding rapidly, it even showed diluc emotions again. He was crying in pain. He was crying in sorrow. Oh god, i wish i’m not that weak. I wish i still love you the same as how those letter told me. Darling, will you love me again? No response. He was truly out of his mind to forget the ones who bring his dimmed eyes back alive. So once again he confesses, falling to his knees as he begged for his mind to remembered you.

The days have past so did you died in his eyes. Casket opened and emptied with your body, cecilia all over the ground. You are dead and yet the pounding heart of yours are the result of love. Strokes his body with empty thoughts, he began to murmured again his love.

your heart..it’s warm, My dear.

TAGLIST : @mikachuchu , @zierx, @childeluv @urujiako , @chichikoi , @noirkkat , @aphrodicts-imagination

#diluc ragnvindr #diluc angst #diluc ragnvindr angst #diluc #diluc ragnvindr x reader #diluc x reader #genshin impact diluc angst #genshin impact angst #diluc fanfic #diluc ragnvindr fanfic #genshin impact headcannons #genshin impact #genshin impact fanfic #veille’s angst #dilux x y/n #diluc ragnvindr x y/n

[eclectickss]

PGATW Part 3

Wanda Maximoff x Natasha Romanoff x OC (fem!reader)

Summary: The avengers take a vacation to a private island rental off of the Georgia coast! You now have an opportunity to spend time with your new family, especially Wanda and Natasha.

Word Count: 2.5K

Check out my main post for links to the rest of the parts. Two parts in one day cause why not.

Fifteen minutes past the hour mark, everyone was finally in the common area. You had your large, musty green duffle bag and your dinosaur backpack ready to go at your feet, as well as your apple juice and chocolate croissant in hand. Natasha and Wanda rolled their eyes at you when they walked in and saw your breakfast choices, but you just laughed.

They both shared one big black duffle bag, as well as their own backpacks. Nat had black jean shorts and a tight red top, while Wanda had on black sweats and a white sweatshirt. You had on black cargo pants with a black spaghetti strap top so that your dino pack didn't clash with your outfit. That was very important to you.

While you were focused on your croissant, Wanda leans down over you behind the couch. "You were looking really hot until I noticed that kids pack you have there, Talia."

You turned to her, offended that she criticized your friend. "His name is Pablo, Wanda."

"No, don't worry," she smiled and returned to whisper next to your ear. "It's just cute now." You grumbled in response, even though you liked the endearment. You turn to offer a bad comeback to the Sokovian, but Tony beats you to any talking.

"Alright, Avengers. I guess you might like to know where this island is, but seeing as we're 15 minutes late, I don't care. There's a bus in the garage to take us to the upstate campus to get our flight out of here. Get there." Everyone was slightly surprised to see how organized Tony was, but nonetheless they all headed to the elevator. "Suitcases under the bus unless they're carry ons! And no teleporting, Talia!"

Without a second thought, you turned immediately to Peter.

"BUS BUDDIES!" The two of you ran to hug before a voice stopped you.

"Actually, I was hoping I could sit with Peter," Natasha said as the large group waited for the even larger elevator, most people not really paying attention to the conversation. You looked at Natasha and Wanda who both acted like everything was normal, and then at Peter who clearly had no idea what was going on.

"Uh... ok?" You were confused, but Nat looked rather confident in herself, so you didn't fight it.

"Just for the bus ride, Talia." She added, everyone now stepping into the elevator. "You can have him back after. I just wanna get to know him a bit since we didn't spend too much time together during the SRP." She smiled.

"No- yeah that's totally cool. "I guess that leaves me with Wanda, then?" You looked at the Sokovian.

"I would love to sit with you, Talia." Your cheeks tinged at the accent again as you returned a warm look to the Avenger.

—

Finally, after enough struggle, the bus was pulling out of the tower garage and onto the open streets of the city. You requested a window seat, which Wanda happily gave, but Peter and Natasha were too far in the back for you two to converse with.

"Why did Nat want to sit with Peter so bad?" You begin.

"To be honest with you Talia, I actually suggested that Natasha sit with Peter. I think it would be better for the details to be re-told through him, though. Sorry if you don't like secrets, and I can tell you now, I just think there is a better way to approach the topic, and that is through him." She sighed, and you tried your best to understand.

"Alright I guess. I mean I trust you... so I will leave it at that. The drive isn't that bad anyways."

"I admire the way you think, Talia." The accent makes your toes curl again, and the Sokovian pauses. "You like it when I say your name, don't you?" You turn to meet eyes, face red. "Talia?" Your stomach turns and all you can do is hum in response. "Admit that you like it."

"Shut up."

"Ok." Wanda closes her mouth and faces the front of the bus.

"Wait- no- i didn't mean stop talking..."

She raises an eyebrow.

"I just- i meant stop teasing me."

Wanda laughed. "There's nothing wrong with liking my accent, Talia. It's cute." You smile.

"Thanks... I think." You blush.

"Alright so..." She starts a new conversation. "Tell me about yourself." This catches you off guard.

"Huh?" You scrunch up your face and Wanda laughs.

"C'mon, Talia! Tell me about yourself! I already know that you love dinosaurs and that you think black coffee drinkers are alien... and I know that you are bold, yet shy when it comes to those you care about. I can't confidently say anything else, so tell me about yourself." She makes eye contact with you and you both blush.

The prompt makes you think.

"Well, I'll start by touching up on a few of those. I do love dinosaurs, but I don't think that black coffee drinkers are alien. I know that they are alien." Wanda rolls her eyes. "And I'm shy because feelings aren't my forte. Im scared to lose people, but once I open up to them and I know they're gonna stick around... all hell breaks loose." The Sokovian laughs, and you begin to treasure that sound.

"Alright, so what else." She gave all of her attention to you.

You short-circuited, so you started listing random things.

"Well my favorite color is black, but secretly it's pink. I love a good sunset, but I like sun rises more cause not as many people see them, and it feels more intimate. Besides sunrises, I normally don't wake up too early, but more when my body wakes up. I hate sleeping in past 10:00 though, cause by then, you've already wasted a half of a day, unless you're spending that morning with someone else. I really like-"

"Are you saying you would want to sleep in with Nat and me?" She smirked.

All you can respond with is a grin before slowly returning to the conversation.

"I love big hugs and back scratches, and I like it when people play with my hair. I do value my personal space, though, so my alone time is important." Wanda nodded, happy to be learning so much about you. You slowed down your thoughts even more. "I-" You paused. "And the most important values that I seek in people, including myself, are honesty and empathy." You locked eyes with Wanda. "Above everything." She slowly reached to tuck a lose piece of hair behind your ear.

"Is that all you want to share?" She nearly whispered, stealing a glance or two at your lips.

"For now..." you replied at the same volume before glancing around the bus to see if anyone was paying attention to you. When you decided that you were in the clear, you sat back down in your seat and pulled Wanda over to you to give her a slow, soft kiss. The two of you felt like kids again, hiding from the adults as you made out in the seats of the bus.

Meanwhile, in the back of the vehicle, Natasha finally started talking to Peter.

"So Peter," She started, a small smirk on her face. Everyone who was someone could tell how nervous he was to have Natasha Romanoff happily sitting next to him. He gulped as he awkwardly closed the laptop and turned to face the assassin.

"Yeah, Nat? What-What's up?" He tried to sneak a glance at you, but since both of you had window seats, he couldn't see.

"I wanted to talk to you about Talia."

"Uhm, ok... yeah what about?"

"Well, I'm sure she told you already about Wanda and me." He nodded, so Nat continued. "I know you two are very close, and I am genuinely happy for you... both Wanda and I. I'm happy that you have a friend on this team finally." She paused and he nodded. "But we were hoping that we could steal Talia for the vacation. Or at least spend some time with her. It's just hard since i'm on missions so often and Wanda is constantly training and busy running the SRP, so these next two weeks are a rare opportunity for the two of us, and we both really want to spend that time getting to know Talia before our lives get crazy again." She finished, honestly a little nervous to be asking Peter for permission. There wasn't much of a break in the conversation, though.

"Actually... yeah. That's..... kind of what I hoped would happen."

Natasha tilted her head in question.

"Mr. Stark already talked to me about it."

The assassin's eyes widened.

"No! Not- not about the relationship. About the two weeks. Uhh... he actually told me that he wanted to spend the time with me to teach me some stuff." He thinned his lips.

"Oh... ok. What about Pepper?"

"She's excited for some alone time, supposedly."

"Ok, then... that works out perfectly." Nat, a little surprised that the conversation went so well, sat back in her seat to face the front. Only a few minutes went by before Peter spoke again, though.

"I didn't know Wanda ran the SRP."

Natasha raised an eyebrow, happy to be getting closer to Peter. She wanted to be a part of your life and accepted into it as much as possible. "Yeah. She and Pietro started it after Ultron. They felt it was their duty to help whoever they put in harm's way. They're a non-profit that get donations from global organizations including SHIELD to aid in the re-stabilization of Sokovia and many other places that we fucked up." Her voice nearly cut off at the end as her throat thickened a little, but she held it together.

"That's awesome, Natasha."

"Yeah, it is, right? Wanda is incredibly selfless and caring, and she amazes me every day."

"She's lucky to have you and Talia."

That caught Nat completely off guard. "Thank you, Peter. I mean it." He smiled, but took a deep breath before asking another question.

"Hey, Nat,"

"Yeah Peter?"

"Do you think Wanda would mind if I interviewed her for a school project? My leadership class at the university is going to have a big non-profit study when we return to school in the fall and we're supposed to find a non-profit to create a fundraising event for, and I think it would be really cool if I could do it for the SRP. The goal is to build leadership skills through organizing and meeting people to talk to, and I think I would like to work with her."

Nat thought it over for a moment.

"Peter,"

"Yeah Nat?"

"I think she would love that."

"Really! Awesome." He smiled, wanting to hug the redhead, but not knowing if they were that close yet.

"In fact, I think you should go ask her right now."

"Oh... now?"

"No time like the present, Peter."

"Uh... ok. You're right." He hopped over Natasha and into the isle of the motor coach. "Could you hand me my computer?" Natasha smiled as she reached into his bag.

"Tell Talia to get her cute ass back here."

He blushed with slight embarrassment. "...right." Natasha watched as he walked towards the front of the bus with ease, stopping at one of the seats near the end of the isle.

"Hey, Talia," You had your head rested on Wanda's shoulder when you heard Peter behind you. Sitting up, you see he has his computer with him, leaving you confused.

"What's up, Web Kid?" You rubbed your eyes, the Sokovian looking just as confused as you were.

"I was wondering if you could switch with me for a bit. I actually wanted to talk to Wanda about something." Now you we're definitely confused.

"I don't know anything about this, I promise." Wanda turned to you.

"Uhh... sure..." You hopped over her legs. "Have at it, I guess." With many questions remaining, you grabbed your dino pack and headed to the back.

"Hey Natasha." You smiled as you swung over into Peter's old seat. "So why did Peter kick me out? Not that I'm unhappy to be here, I'm just confused. It's not about that thing that Wanda wouldn't tell me about, right?" Natasha giggled.

"No, Peter actually wanted to ask Wanda if he could work with her for his leadership class at the university."

"Oh, his big project! He was so worried about finding a non-profit, and I totally forgot that Wanda co-headed the operation! I think they're actually going to get along really well, Nat. I'm excited to hear about it later. And you should come to the fundraising event whenever it happens! I know he would love to see you there."

"Ok..." Natasha stares at you sweetly.

"What?" You jokingly punch her arm. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing... it's just... you care a lot. Seeing other people happy makes you happy, and you're passionate for the ones you love. You have a good heart, Talia."

You stare at her, not knowing how to respond to her words.

"So," Natasha fills the silence again. "What did you and Wanda talk about over there?"

Without even coming up with an answer to her question, you pulled her into a rough kiss before the conversation could change. Natasha seem surprised at first, but eased up shortly after. You softened up too, kissing her slowly once before pulling away.

"What was that for?" She blushed, looking down into her lap.

"What you said... it was kind. Thank you."

"Yeah well don't get used to it. I'm not normally that mushy."

"No, I bet you are." You giggled and poked her side. "No, I bet you like it, too. I bet you like being called cute and I bet the pet name 'baby' makes you weak." Natasha glares at you, cheeks red. She hasn't told you to stop yet though, so you decide to take it up a notch, leaning over to whisper in her ear. "I bet you like being topped and willingly giving the lead over to someone else for a change... that you like not being the one in charge for once." She shivered, and you smirked. Slowly, though, Natasha turned her own head to put her lips up to your own ear.

"Well I bet you like it when i'm in charge, Talia. I bet you like being called 'good girl' and I bet you dream about taking orders from me and Wanda. Kiss me, Talia. Touch me. Run your fingers through my cunt, Talia. Fuck me, Talia." Your entire soul shut down, not knowing how to respond to that. Your eyes somehow meet, and your face burns. She was right... I did like that.

"It seems I've forgotten already," she continues, returning to a normal volume, "but what was it you said you talked about with Wanda?"

Thank the gods the drive was almost over.

#natasha romanoff #wanda maximoff #wanda x oc #wanda x reader #natasha x oc #natasha x reader #wanda x natasha x reader #natasha x wanda x reader #gxgxg smut #marvel gxgxg #gxgxg

[luvknow]

in another lifetime | lee minho

genre: ceo/iron man!lee minho x secretary!reader | ceo au ; superhero au ; alcohol mention ; blood mention summary: you and your boss were inseparable. no one could understand how you could work ungodly hours for such an inexperienced ceo. but your job was to stick by Mr. Lee for as long as you were getting paid, and that meant being his date to charity balls and helping him turn into the country’s best superhero. wc: 18.9k a/n: rewrite of that one w**jin fic cuz fuck that guy ~! the public has spoken.... lee minho has been chosen as the winner

Secretary was your title, but you liked to think you were more than just that. Perhaps secretary was just an umbrella term for amateur sommelier slash novice multitasker slash the only employee who knew how to drive stick. Whatever your job entailed, you were sure to list all of those tasks in your updated resume when it was time to pass the torch onto some other poor sucker because you would much rather die than be a secretary for life.

It wasn’t like your boss was a total ass, or anything. That was actually the scary part - the fact that your boss was one of the kindest and most attentive people you’ve ever worked for, yet you still hated this job! What made this so horrid was the amount of walking and running your poor feet had to do. And guess what? No sneakers were allowed in the office, so you were left with walking over forty-thousand steps in a day in toe-pinching sole-aching glossy shoes that were half a size too big for your feet because shoes like these always ran out in your size in the store.

“Good morning, Mr. Lee,” you greeted, walking into his private office at 8:00 am on the dot as normal. With tired eyes, he looked up from his stack of blueprints and gave you a warm smile. You don’t know how he does it, but he always managed to welcome your morning visits with a smile that almost made you consider your resignation. “Iced americano, extra shot.”

“You are a blessing,” he praised graciously. One sip of the liquid gold was enough to wake him up right away.

“Long night?”

“Yeah. You know how it took us hours to decide the wall colors for each floor in our building? Imagine doing that all over again, but for a superhero suit prototype.”

“But it’s just a suit this time, not fifty floors.”

“This isn’t just a suit, _____. It’s the suit of a man who’s going to save the world one day! A suit that everyone will lay their eyes on and judge me for my color choices.”

“You sound like a child.”

“An ambitious child, mind you.”

“Did you ultimately decide on a color?”

“Yes, two colors actually. Red and gold.”

“Wow, such a loud and loyal color choice.”

“Is it?” Your handsome boss pouted slightly while scanning his designs. “Seungmin said the same thing. Maybe I should change it -”

“No!” you interrupted for the sake of not wanting to look up Pantone’s thousands of shades of ruby and champagne. “Red and gold are perfect for you.”

Minho’s pouty lips melted into a proud smile. “If you believe so, then I trust you. Come take a look - what do you think of it overall?”

You walked around his ginormous custom-made walnut desk to peer over his shoulder. Minho could smell the familiar gardenia scent you wore for years and it immediately brought comfort to his panicking soul. Somehow your presence always calmed him down, no matter what stressful situation he was in. Maybe that’s why he wanted to have you around 24/7. How selfish of him.

Your couple minutes of silence were so agonizing that his nervous foot-tapping habit he told you about that he thought he got rid of in college broke through, which was your cue to answer.

“I like it. I like it a lot, actually,” you admitted honestly. “I would definitely feel safe if I saw you come to my rescue, although the helmet is a little concerning.”

“Concerning how?”

“Well, it has such a… A, uh… How do I put this politely? A dead expression?”

“‘Dead’ is a polite adjective to you?”

“I mean come on, Mr. Lee, there are two eyes and a flat line for the mouth where the corners curve downwards just slightly and it looks like you gave him little fangs. There’s not much life in the eyes, either.” 

“They light up when the suit is on!”

“Maybe I’ll like it more when I see it in person?”

“The helmet is the only thing I’m confident about, so nothing and no one can change my mind,” he said stubbornly.

“I’m sure everyone will love it,” you reassured while smoothing out the stress wrinkles on his indigo shoulder pads. “When do you plan on starting the build?”

“In half an hour.”

“What!?” Minho nearly spit out his espresso at your yelping and the frantic way you sifted through your massive planner and scrolling through your emails on your phone at the same time. Oh, so that’s what he forgot to tell you! He knew something felt off. “B-B-But I didn’t get an email that the shipment arrived!”

“I called the company at five in the morning just as they opened and demanded an expedited shipping of all the materials and they’ll be arriving in half an hour.”

“But did the quality department approve of the materials? Or your design at least?”

“You do know I’m the CEO, right?” Minho smirked teasingly. “That’s business talk for ‘fuck Quality’.”

Minho stood up from his black velvet Chesterfield chair to escape your nagging and briskly walked away towards God-knows-where. Like an obedient, push-over puppy, you trailed closely behind with a light jog and all you could think about was how it was too early for your feet to be aching this badly.

“I don’t like the idea of this,” you said firmly.

“You never do. Loosen up a little, will ya?”

“I will not! I looked the other way when you decided on signing a contract to collaborate with that ugly luxury car brand, I agreed with the proposal of a new smartphone that totally flopped in the end, and I barely allowed the approval for the development of the new branch in Taiwan! All of those ideas are whatever, arbitrary even, but this? This puts you at the front line of danger, Mr. Lee! What if something goes wrong, or the material is compromised? What if these companies take you for a fool for not checking in with the quality department first? What if you’re setting yourself up to be sabotaged, huh?”

Minho pressed the down button on the elevator, ignoring your pleas. Even though all you do is nag and play by the rules, he knew you were only doing so because he didn’t bother to. In the end, you were just looking out for him, and he couldn’t appreciate you more.

His gives you what he thought was a reassuring smile. To you, it looked rather mischievous “Lucky for me that you’ll be there the whole time, right?”’

“What do you mean…?”

“I mean you’ll watch the entire suit being built while you work. Then you’ll see how safe it is. I need someone to double check me, anyways.”

“Mr. Lee, I don’t think I’m qualified for that.”

“Don’t be silly, of course you are!”

Your engineering experience went as far as Physics I and II classes with a teaspoon’s worth in basic circuitry, so if Minho thought that qualified you to double check his work, then you might have to question his PhD degree.

The elevator welcomed you both into its vacant container. The lowest level this elevator could reach with a single button was the basement, but if the right person (or the wrong person) were to dial the buttons in the order of 4-4-1-9, they would be taken nine floors below the basement to the rumored ‘Super Office’ (ten was too much because Minho didn’t like the feel of the heavy pressure and eight was such a silly number).

The steel doors opened right into his Super Office which he designed to be five times larger than his executive office so he had plenty of room for building up new car designs and bringing his super suits to life for both him and his partners. His successful designs that were once worn but are now retired were placed on mannequins and stored inside a tall glass box on display for him to admire.

You walked up to your favorite one, eyes sparkled adoringly at Seungmin’s first Spider-Man suit.

“You always loved the red and blue,” Minho noted behind you. “Still not a fan of the black one?”

“The black one is scary! No one wants a hero dressed in all black, like that color does not exude the feeling of safe.”

“Duly noted for his next suit.”

Beside Seungmin’s old spidey suit was an empty display case you assumed was meant for this final draft of Minho’s Iron Man suit. Surrounding the two glass cases were dozens and dozens of wood and plastic demos that didn’t work out in the end, but Minho didn’t have the heart to take them to the dumpster.

“Looks like the shipment arrived early!” Your mature but easy-going boss jogged up to the piles of wooden crates and packages that were laid out neatly in the center of his work space. Without much patience, he took off his indigo suit jacket, tossed it to the side like it wasn’t worth two thousand dollars (to which you caught before it hit the ground), and took the crowbar on top of the pile to open the cases with ease. Sheets of metals, different tools, and a cool welding and soldering set scattered along the concrete floor. Minho gave you an excited grin that mimicked a child upon opening gifts on Christmas. “Let the building commence!”

There wasn’t room for any argument, so you took a seat at his desk where he normally would sketch the designs and worked off of his desktop with a heavy feeling of defeat. At least watching the process would be cool, right?

Maybe cool wasn’t the right word. Or watching.

For the next three months, from sunrise to sunset, you spent your day nine floors below the surface for almost twelve hours a day being his little helper. From holding pieces of metal in place while he flame torched them together to feeding him take out because his hands were covered in oil, you did it all and God, if Minho didn’t give you a raise or at least some meal tickets to the executive cafeteria, you might just quit on the spot.

“Done.” With a heavy and exhausted sigh, Minho clapped his hands together and marveled at his nearly-finished product. “We’re done!!”

“What about the red and gold paint?”

“I can’t work on this anymore or I’ll implode. I’ll just take this to my car guy and he’ll paint it exactly how I want it.”

“Not really a self-made suit then, is it?” you dared to challenge your boss.

He pointed an accusing finger at you. “Shut your mouth and give me my food.”

You handed a slouching Minho his box of take-out and wooden chopsticks. While you had a perfectly comfortable ottoman he could have sat on right next to you, he remained on the cold concrete, probably too sore and worn out to even stand up, let alone walk to a cushioned seat. Minho was a man with personality and many faces, but his face of satisfactory upon completing projects was when he was the most handsome. For a while, you two just sat in silence, taking in every detail of the flawless iron suit while slurping noodles. 

“So,” Minho began nervously. “What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful, Mr. Lee,” you say immediately.

“You mean it?”

For someone so intelligent and talented, it was a wonder how a man like him could be insecure about any of his creations.

“Absolutely,” you reassured. “Flawless. Is it fully programmed and everything?”

“Yup. I installed the software and artificial intelligence last week.”

“Sounds like the only thing you need to do is take it out for a spin.”

Minho hummed with approval. “... Can you do it for me?”

“What!? No!”

“I really don’t want to do it…”

“With all due respect, suck it up.”

“Isn’t it reasons like this why I hired you?”

“I was hired to be your secretary, not your lab rat.”

“To be fair, the job description was pretty vague.”

“Yeah, I definitely did not expect to be helping you construct a modern Knight in Shining Armor cosplay.” After wiping your mouth clean of all MSG and soy sauce, you tossed your dirty napkin in the trash bin that was a considerable distance away.

Minho followed suit, who was also able to get his napkin in the can. Then you tossed another napkin, and then him, and this went on until you were left to toss your boxes and chopsticks. The real challenge was tossing the plastic wraps of the fortune cookies.

“Whoever loses has to do whatever the other says,” Minho proposed.

Without hesitation, you nodded in agreement. “Fine, but I will not test that thing out if I lose.”

“Deal. Secretaries first.”

You did your best to crumple up and squish out any air that was left in the wrapped before whipping it like you were throwing the first pitch. The wrapper hit the rim of the can and fell to the side. But that’s ok, because there was no way your boss could even come close to -

“WOO!” Minho cheered, getting up from the floor while you were left slumped in the chair filled with defeat. Of course, whatever he wanted, he would get his way. “Man, I am super lucky today.”

“What the hell! Did you wrap it around a stone or something!?”

“Darling, I would never cheat ~”

“There’s no use in arguing. Just lay the consequences on me, boss.”

Minho scooted the ottoman closer - almost a little too close. Then, like a handsome little goldendoodle with his swooshy chocolate hair and sparkling eyes, he gazed up at you pleadingly before offering you your punishment.

Fear and flattery tickled your spine. “Spit it out.”

A grin followed. “You will accompany me to the ball next week.”

“The Children’s Charity Ball? The biggest charity ball of the century? The one where all the white-haired big shots attend with their dates who just barely turned eighteen?”

“The very same.”

“And you want me to be your date.”

“Yes.”

“Seems a bit lazy, doesn’t it?”

“Lazy how!?”

Not wanting him to see you blush, you began cleaning up the mess from the takeout. “Lazy as in why not find a real date? You know, someone you’ll have a good time with.”

“Hey, I always have a good time with you! And I’m doing you a favor if you think about it. If I wanted to bring anyone else, that would mean you’d have to flip through all of my contacts and have you choose the perfect date for me. So unless you want the extra overtime, I’ll expect to see you dressed to the nines?”

“Don’t you want to bring someone more suited for this role? Someone with much more finesse and elegance?” you said as you twirled dirty napkins in the air.

“If I’m being honest, I do not have the time nor do I want to put in the effort into bringing someone so bland.”

“Who says they’re bland? What if I pick out one of your supermodel friends or like a professor, or something?”

“All my supermodel friends like to toke up in bathrooms and what’s a professor going to do? Lecture me to death? _____, please, I am begging you - be my date? You know you and I are going to have a blast, I promise you. We always do when we’re together.”

A moment of silence passed while you shuddered in disgust. You couldn’t believe you were going to say this, but…  “So what should I wear?”

“Yes! That’s the spirit! Wear anything besides velvet because that’s my fabric of choice.”

“Can you at least do the picking for me? We should at least match in the slightest.”

Minho let out an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, fine, I’ll do all the work.”

“You’re a pain in the ass, Mr. Lee.”

“It’s what I do best.”

After cleaning up the mess and a last quick polish on the Iron suit, the two of you took the elevator to the level below the basement where Minho parked his favorite fancy shmancy foreign sports car you couldn’t pronounce. In its shiny and spotless all-white glory sat his coup in his executive parking spot where no other car or person was in sight.

“Quite showy for you, isn’t it?” you accused your normally toned-down boss.

“I had a hunch that today was going to be the day we finished, and low and behold, we did. Soojung the Spyder always brings me good luck,” he patted and praised his prized roadster.

The distance from the office to your apartment was a solid forty-five minutes away by public transportation, right on the edge of being not too far, but not close enough, but by car it was only twenty-five minutes. During your first couple of years with the company, you enjoyed the lonely rides and getting lost with your thoughts, but there were moments you got so lost that you missed your stop a couple too many times and sometimes the winter made waiting outside so unbearable. It wasn’t until you started to clock in tons of overtime that Minho was nice enough to drive you home from then on.

--

“C’mon, _____, just get in the car,” Minho begged for the twelfth time, holding the passenger door open with one hand and an umbrella with the other. He parked his car illegally right in front of the bus stop that so many other employees used. Why did it matter that you were using it while it was thunderstorming and past 10:00 PM? “The heat is escaping the longer we argue.”

“It’s fine! I don’t live too far away,” you lied. “Please go home, Mr. Lee, your puppy must be worried sick.”

“Hazelnut can wait, but I can’t. As your boss, I order you to get in my car!” Though the statement was serious with his booming voice, his pouty lips made it much less intimidating.

“With all due respect, I have clocked out for the day and I don’t have to listen to you until 7:00 am tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe you’re making me break the law.”

“What do you mean?”

The blinding lights of the bus flashed irregularly, a polite way of telling Minho to get the fuck out of the way. But he didn’t move in the slightest. He patiently waited for you by the passenger door, not moving a muscle and looking like a car model dressed in his long, warm and tan pea coat. The patient and smug look on his face let you know he wasn’t playing around and that he’d dare tell the bus to wait until you got in.

“Mr. Lee, get out of the way!”

“Not until you’re in my car,” he shook his head stubbornly. “The bus is getting closer ~”

Your anxiousness hiked up exponentially when the driver held the horn long and loudly, not looking like they had much patience in them and indicating that they were very, very annoyed. For the sake of not inconveniencing the butt-load of passengers and the driver and securing your job, you hurried into his car, cursing up a storm that rivaled the one outside. A triumphant and smirking Minho followed suit and sped away at a dangerous speed, perhaps breaking a second law that night. For those twenty-five minutes (or maybe it was fifteen with Minho’s driving), the car was silent because your reckless boss focused on cutting every civilian off on the highway and you were too busy covering your eyes in fear.

--

“You were so dramatic back then,” Minho snickered at the seemingly-harmless memory.

“Me!? You were the one who parked in front of a bus stop and begged me to get in!”

“You were the one who wouldn’t get in the damn car!”

“How does it look to on-lookers that a secretary is getting into her boss’s car!?”

“It’s not like anyone knows our relationship.”

“Oh please, someone like you driving a beautiful shiny car picking up sad ol’ me at the bus stop - of course on-lookers may not know me and my relationship to you, but they definitely know who you are at the very least.”

“I could not give more than zero fucks of what people think.”

“Yes, that much is clear.”

“_____, you can’t always worry about what everyone thinks ~”

You sighed loudly, as if you’d explained this to him a thousand times already. “Worrying is the basis of my entire title, Mr. Lee.”

“And will you drop the ‘Mr. Lee’ once and for all? We’re the same age!”

“Same age, but different titles and a massive pay gap. You and I are not equals.”

Minho reached over to mess up your hair. “You’re so formal, it’s so cute!”

“Ah, stop it! You’re swerving!!”

Minho had dropped you off and walked you up to your apartment more times than you can count, but you don’t think you’ll ever get over the embarrassment of your humble abode. Of course you’ve visited his mansion just as many times, since you participated in the designing of it, and him having to see such a sad home in comparison is, well, terrifying each and every time.

“Ok, bye,” you dismissed quickly.

A handsome laugh escaped your handsome boss’s lips. “Still hate having me so close to your home? You know, it’s quite rude you’ve never invited me in and yet you’ve been in mine hundreds of times!”

“My home doesn’t have marble statues or glass refrigerators and I can’t hire you to redesign the interior.”

“You know I don’t care about that stuff.”

“But I do!”

His tongue tisked disappointedly. “What a shame. I thought we were friends.”

“We are, but friends don’t break sensitive boundaries.”

He passively waved you off. “Fine, fine. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Bright and early.”

“Excellent. I have one request.”

It was your turn to pout. What could he possibly want this time? “Already? At least let me sleep peacefully.”

“It’s nothing complicated, I promise! In fact, it’ll save you thirty minutes. Don’t bring me my coffee tomorrow.”

“Don’t? Are you on a caffeine cleanse again? You know how badly that went last time - you barely lasted two days and you fired someone, to which I had to convince you for forty minutes to hire them back.”

“No, not a cleanse. Just come in a bit earlier. Let’s get coffee together.”

“Do you have time for that?” Knowing how packed Minho’s schedule was in the mornings, you wondered his sanity for making time just so the two of you could grab a cup.

“I’ll make time. Actually, you’ll make time. Can you pencil us in for some coffee?”

“U-Uh, yeah!” With nervous and shaky hands, you pulled out your work phone and squeezed in half an hour of coffee time. “Done.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Don’t be reckless driving home.”

“No promises.”

Before going into your apartment complex, you watched Minho wave goodbye before blasting music with a deep bass and speeding off, leaving a smokey trail from burning rubber.

“I hate him,” you smiled to yourself.

--

“I hate him,” you said to yourself upon walking into Minho’s office.

Like an artificially intelligent robot that didn’t know of its purpose, Minho dressed in his Iron suit walked around his office doing regular office things, like dusting the blinds and tidying up loose papers on his desk. It was a little difficult to do smaller tasks with his stiff and massive iron hands, so you’re not entirely sure what your boss was doing.

“G’morning!” he greeted cheerfully. “Just taking this baby out on a test drive.”

You had just noticed the paint job was completed on the suit which meant that it was good to go. However, you didn’t think this was the ideal way to ‘test drive’ a superhero suit. 

“Good morning, Mr. Lee. Is this really the right way to test drive?”

“I got too excited when my car guy told me it was done. He did it so quickly and precisely, too. Look, he even engraved it with my signature! She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”

“Yes, very shiny. The gold and red are much prettier than I imagined.”

“Right!? Not too Gryffindor-y, is it?”

“Not at all,” you said sincerely. “Do you want to get coffee now? We should hurry, you have a conference call at 8:00.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Minho followed you to the door with a trail of heavy iron steps. You turned around quickly and gave him an incredulous look, one he’s seen much too often. “I don’t want coffee anymore.”

“Why not!?”

“I’m not going out in public with you wearing that thing! You look ridiculous!”

“That’s so rude of you to say about my pride and joy! This also took me thirty minutes to put on!”

“Mr. Lee, we’re just getting coffee!”

“You are not fun at all.”

It took only five minutes to get your boss stumbling out of the suit because the button for the release was hidden under a metal panel on his wrist, but at least it was painless.

“I thought you didn’t want to reveal Iron Man until you tested it and got your seal of approval?” you asked the child-like man.

“That’s still the plan, but I’m just so excited! I think we should test it tonight.”

“Tonight? Already?”

“Yup, and I need you here with me in case I die, or something.”

“And to think I was gonna relax and take a bubble bath tonight.”

“It won’t take long, I promise.”

“I’ll believe it when I drop my bath bomb in my tub.”

In your whole time working here, you’ve spent more time together with Minho at both the office and at his home than working alone. The ratio was about seventy-five percent at the office, fifteen percent at his home, and ten percent miscellaneous, like going to business lunches or simple walks to the coffee shop like today. The long work hours were brutal on your feet and your social life, but the money was way too good to pass. You swore you broke the world record for ‘quickest payment of student debt’ with your hard work.

To anyone else, your job sounded so unappealing that no amount of money could ever convince them to do what you’re doing. ‘So brave’, they tell you, but it’s not that you’re brave, it’s that you’re loyal and as much as you hate to say it, you had the best boss. Yes, he’s a little goofy and yes, maybe a bit naive because he’s so young, but he treated you like you’re his equal and not someone so beneath him who takes all of his notes and takes his laundry to be dry cleaned. Plus when he compensated for your time so handsomely, how could you hate your job? Every day was new and exciting when you were with Minho.

The day went along as normal, from conference calls to lunch and finishing the day with an interview with the press. The very second everyone clocked out at 5:00 pm, you followed a speedy boss to wherever he led you.

“Are we going to test it out now?”

“No, silly, it’s still too bright out! We have to test it once the sun sets.”

You knew that sounded too good to be true. You held a light jog in order to keep up with him. “Where are we going then?”

He turned and gave you a suspicious grin. “Shopping!”

“For what!?”

“You and I need matching outfits for the charity ball, remember?”

“You know, I was just kidding when I said that… We don’t have to match…” The last thing you want is for someone to mistake you as your boss’s date instead of his secretary, but to be fair you don’t know many guests going that bring anyone that isn’t a date, so you kind of shot yourself in the foot when you didn’t make that shot into the trash bin.

“We are matching and I am not arguing with you.”

A defeated sigh escaped your lips before entering the backseat of Minho’s car where his driver would take us anywhere he pleased. He told him a cross section that sounded familiar, but not enough for you to guess where you’re going, so from here on out until you were home taking a hot bath, the rest of today would be a surprise. 

The car stopped in front of a glossy black DIOR building. You expected nothing less from Minho.

“You would pick Dior,” you scoffed, completely amazed at how someone so rich could have so much brand loyalty to one company.

“Hey, they are consistent and beautifully crafted, don’t judge me.”

“Mr. Lee and Lovely _____!” An older, graceful lady came running to greet both of you with a warm smile dressed in a hot red shade of lipstick. You recognized her voice to be the owner from all the times you called to ask about any pieces Minho could reserve before they hit the runway and were snatched up by the ‘I Have Daddy’s Credit Card and Inheritance’ private-school boys. This was your first time seeing her in person and her calming voice matched her mature appearance perfectly. “This piece has been waiting for you ~”

“I can’t wait, Auntie,” he smiled back graciously like an obedient nephew rewarded with cookies.

She led the two of you to the very back where the private dressing and tailoring area was, where the mirrors went from the floor to the ceiling. The store owner walked in with Minho’s fabric of choice, a velvet jacket with crisp black pants and a white button-up that had the slightest sheen of silver from metallic strands woven into the shirt fabric. In the shadows, one would think the velvet was black, but in the light or at certain angles, there was the slightest sheen to it that showed the darkest shades of indigo and green, like an oil slick. You couldn’t believe the amount of detail in the velvet that your eyes looked like they were popping out of your sockets.

Your boss was so eager to try it on that he was taking off his pants before you were warned. Quickly you turned around and shut your eyes, pretending that you didn’t see his KakaoTalk-patterned boxer briefs.

“M-M-Mr. Lee! At least warn me if you’re going to strip!!”

“Sorry ~” he apologized unapologetically.

A couple of zips and rustling of fabrics later, Minho tapped your shoulder to turn around. Your eyes bulged out of their sockets again while looking at your boss dressed in a suit that was clearly made for him and him only. It didn’t look like any tailoring was needed at all! He looked like he walked right off the runway. There had to be some enchantment spell in the fabric because you swear you’ve never seen any man more handsome before this moment.

“I take it you like it?” Minho teased.

Your cheeks tickled with red when he caught you staring. “You look amazing as usual, Mr. Lee.”

“You think so?” You knew so. “It’s not too flashy, is it?”

“Not at all. I think you have the perfect amount of flash. How does it feel?”

“Like a glove. It’s already perfectly tailored!”

“I know your measurements by heart, my dear,” Auntie bragged. “Of course I had it ready to go already.”

“You’re the best.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek and a tight hug. “What would I be without you?”

“Not GQ’s best dressed man under thirty, that’s for sure.”

“Could you do me another favor? Do you perhaps have something for _____ to match? We have a charity ball next weekend.”

“Mr. Lee, this is really unnecessary -”

“I know exactly what to pull.”

Before you could object, Auntie ran to the back of the store where all the hidden inventory was held. You glared at your cheeky boss, still dressed in his sexy outfit and it was hard to keep your glare when he looked so damn good, that handsome bastard.

“I’m not wearing whatever she brings out.”

“You will and you’ll look great and we will buy it, so don’t embarrass me.”

“Embarrass you!? I am not your doll!”

“I’ve got it!”

Both you and Minho whipped your heads to see Auntie running in with a blacker than black satin and silky outfit that was simple but elegant. Nervous goosebumps spread through your arms and straight to your wallet. You already knew this was going to be the most expensive outfit you’ve ever worn.

“It’s beautiful,” you gasped so slightly.

“Try it on!”

Minho followed Auntie out of the dressing room but not before shooting you a triumphant wink. I mean, who were you to deny your boss and the store owner, right? So with ease, you put on the cooling fabric that clung to your body in all the right spots. The mirror did all justice and perhaps it was a magical mirror that Dior spent millions on to convince their customers to buy everything because damn, you look hot! With your face as red as Minho’s Corvette, you presented the outfit to the two judges.

“Oh, it fits perfectly!” Auntie gushed with wide eyes.

Minho stayed silent with his mouth ajar and eyes scanning you up and down like you were a precious gem discovered in a deep cave beyond a waterfall. It was hard to differentiate between feeling flattered and feeling like object, but at least you were a desired object, right?

“You look amazing,” Minho admitted sincerely, no longer looking at you with awe and rather content.

“Really? I look ok?”

His handsome smile shined brightly at you. Whether you were dressed in your formal work clothes that screamed ‘absolute virgin’ or you were head-to-toe in Dior, you were never just ‘ok’. You always had the attention of everyone in the room once you walked in, especially his. You were always stunning, no matter what. Validation from your boss always came easy and calmed you quickly because he only had eyes for you.

“You look just fine,” he lied, because ‘fine’ didn’t come close to how you looked to him.

“We’ll be the best dressed at the ball, huh?”

“Absolutely.”

The car ride home was quiet other than the trot music playing on the radio from the driver’s playlist. Minho seemed as cool as a cucumber, but you were at the edge of your seat feeling a bit awkward and ugh, unintentionally sweaty. Compliments from any man was one thing, but coming from your boss? A whole different level of weird, especially if they weren’t work related! What did ‘you look just fine’ even mean!? Was that a good thing? Were you too average-looking? Whatever it was, from now until you fall asleep at ungodly hours, those words were going to circulate your thoughts, perhaps haunt you for days.

At exactly 7:03 pm, just as the sun set below the horizon revealing the indigo night sky, the driver pulled up to the back entrance of the building that led to a secret elevator that would take you straight to the underground office after punching in the code. A giggling and grinning Minho was the first to hop out of the car and ran towards the door.

“Mr. Lee, hold on!” you whined as you struggled to get out of the tall car.

“Hurry up, _____! Now’s the perfect time to earn that OT!”

“This time-and-a-half pay better be worth it…”

Upon entering the elevator, you were ready to punch in the 4419 code, but Minho had already pressed the button to the top level, which led to the roof slash helipad.

“Why are we going up?”

“We can’t test the suit inside, silly. Seungmin came by earlier to pick up his suit after I recalibrated it last night and I asked him to take the suit to the roof.”

“How, that thing weighs like a ton!”

“Not when you’re wearing it.”

“You let him wear it before you test drove it!? Mr. Lee, that’s extremely reckless!”

“Relax, I trusted he wouldn’t mess anything up, and look! It’s right there!”

The glass elevator made a slow stop to reveal the red and gold suit standing proudly in the center of the helipad. As soon as the doors panned open, Minho handed you his suitcase before running out and tossing his blazer onto the floor before hastily stepping into the suit.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” he said, running back to your frazzled state. He took the leather suitcase from your hands and popped it open so he could give you a glass tablet. “This is for you.”

You looked at the shiny slab of glass with wonder. “What is it?”

“It’s like a control center. You’ll see what I see in terms of my stats and where I am in the city. If anything goes wrong, like say the jets give out, I need you to send a command to manually turn on the back-ups.”

“And what code is that?”

“Not important, we’ll study those later.”

“Later!? What if something happens tonight!?”

“Nothing will happen I promise, I’ll see you in a bit ~!” his cheering faded away the further he ran from you and to his beloved suit.

There was no use in fighting your boss, so you did as you were told and touched the tablet to reveal the control panel. It was black for a few moments before the screen showed your tiny self off in the distance looking down at the tablet which meant that Minho was able to put on and turn on the suit super quickly without any problems.

“What do you see?” he asked you through the speakers of the tablet from his built-in microphone in the helmet.

“I see me in the distance, the battery level of the suit, and all other weird liquids and commodities at one hundred percent.”

“Perfect!”

You turned to look at your boss who was stretching and feeling out the suit as if this wasn’t his 50th time wearing it. Still, he looked so excited and proud of his hard work, it was hard to tease him about how childish he was, even if he was trying out his yoga poses he just learned. 

“How does it feel?”

“It feels incredible! Totally indescribable now that I’m out in the open. And it’s surprisingly lightweight.”

“How were you able to make it feel light with all that metal?”

“I don’t know, if I’m being honest…”

You rolled your eyes. “The work of a genius, huh?”

“You’ve got that right. Are we ready to take off?”

“I believe so. Are you ready to take off?”

“More than I’ll ever be, baby!!”

Before you knew it, you saw the camera’s view on the screen wobble and turn towards the edge of the building. Terrified, you saw your child-like boss get a running start before he dove off the edge and into the sea of the city.

In a panic, you ran and took a peak over the edge, hoping the jets or whatever kept the suit flying would operate properly and leave you without any worries. At first, Minho was but a dark red speck falling beneath the shadows, but a second later, he came flying up at lighting speed doing tricks and flips with ease and whooping loudly, as any normal CEO of a software company slash wannabe superhero would do. You could hear him giggling through your tablet, and like a spectator watching the most spectacular aerial performance, you watched him with a smile on your lips.

After his solo, he glided back down to you and hovered beyond the edge just at your eye level. You couldn’t see any features behind the glass of his eyes so you were left awkwardly staring at his expressionless helmet with those signature weird fangs. After all you and Minho have been through together, even with an idea like this being so ridiculously obscure, he could always rely on you to support him no matter what. He saw how your eyes sparkled with wonderment and how your cheeks dusted a soft pink and it was then that he knew you would stay by his side for even more ridiculous shenanigans to come.

He would never let you leave, anyways. Even in another lifetime, he’d have you by his side forever.

“How cool do I look right now?” he asked. His voice sounded deeper and electronic through the helmet, like he was a robot or had his voice programmed through a phone like Siri. You imagined an idea like that was how Minho planned on becoming immortal one day.

You raised a brow. “You look kind of… scary?”

“Scary!? Why?”

“I don’t know, if I saw a flying robot come at me at rocket speed, I think I’d be terrified!”

“Well, if I come to your rescue, at least you’ll know it’s me.”

“I suppose. So what are you going to do now? Throw a reveal event? Press conference, perhaps?”

“That, or wait for a Demon-Level threat to pass through our city. I don’t know, whichever comes first.” Minho shrugged nonchalantly. “Wanna see something cool?”

Before you could agree, Minho held his palm to the sky before a neon blue blast shot out of it, disappearing into God-knows-where. You could feel the heat from the beam of light radiated around you and fear sparked inside your chest.

“What the hell was that!?” you exclaimed.

“Isn’t that so cool!? Gonna hit some suckers and fry them up like bacon!” Your boss blindly shot another beam of light into the sky and you prayed to someone out there that no planes would disintegrate in the process.

“Hey, careful! What if you hit a satellite or something!” In the process of grabbing Minho’s iron hand so he’d stop being so reckless, you burned yourself upon touching the hot metal opening like a total dumb ass and yanked your hand back. “Ah!!”

“Oh, shit.”

Quickly and haphazardly, Minho landed back on the helipad and climbed out of the iron suit. In the process of running back to your aid, he untied his black silk necktie to use as a temporary band aid on your scalding palm. Gingerly, his cold hands took yours and ran a thumb over the scarring semicircle.

“Ah ah ah stop!!” you cried with tears of pain and embarrassment streaming down your cheeks.

“Sorry! Here,” Minho wrapped his tie around your palm and tied it tightly. The pure silk felt cooling against the burn and soon your tears stopped and you couldn’t do anything else besides sniffle. “Let’s go back inside. My office has a first aid kit.”

Your mumbling and cursing boss led you back to his office with urgency, blaming himself for being so stupid and recklessly playing with what could be considered a weapon of mass destruction. And now his favorite person, the one person who believed in his iron suit, was hurt in the process, pouting cutely and holding your burned hand like you were an injured puppy. This was one of his greatest fears upon completing this project.

You sat on his sapphire blue velvet couch with the bronze-gilded frame that looked like it belonged in the Ravenclaw common room trying to alleviate the pain of the burn in Minho’s ice bucket (for his white wine, of course) while he shifted through his drawers to find the first aid kit you gave him a couple years ago.

“Do you remember when you got this for me?” he asked as soon as he pulled it out from the bottom drawer. You shook your head, too lightheaded and in too much pain to remember. He sat next to you and began to tell the old story while patching you up. “It was your third year working here, but my first day as CEO when I took over for my Dad. I got so many paper cuts from all the paperwork I had to read and sign and I got a massive headache afterwards and I just wanted to eat something because all I had that day was an iced americano. It was so late and by the time I was finished, it was maybe 7:00pm -”

“8:00 pm,” you corrected in between sniffles.

“Ah, so you do remember! At 8:00pm, you waltzed into my office wearing your comfiest clothes with a bag of take-out in one hand and the first aid kit with a million bandaids and Tylenol in the other. That night, you sat in my office and helped patch up my fingers, fed me lo mein, and helped me with the rest of the paperwork for two hours. I thought of you as my guardian angel since that day and vowed to myself that no matter what, you and I would stick by each other’s side and be the dynamic duo that we are forever. Oh, how the tables have turned tonight. Now I’m the one patching you up.”

Minho had finished wrapping your palm at the end of his story. Something about his proclamation didn’t sit right with you. Something about staying here forever, clocking in massive amounts of overtime and being subservient to the same men sounded like your own personal hell.

“I can’t be your secretary forever, Mr. Lee.”

“I know,” he admitted. “But I don’t have to think about that for quite some time, right?”

“Maybe.”

“I hate change, you know.”

“I, more than anyone else, know that.”

Your handsome boss chuckled lightly at the heavy subject. His curly coffe hair covered his eyes as he looked down at your hand and traced small shapes on the bandaid. You knew that he knew you didn’t want to stay here forever, and he couldn’t blame you, but it didn’t make the thought of you leaving any less heartbreaking.

“Does it feel any better?”

“Much better,” you said truthfully as the cooling gel felt like a magical potion.

“This first aid kit is the only practical gift I’ve ever received. All others are for the aesthetic.”

“Do you prefer practical gifts, Mr. Lee?”

“Of course! The fuck am I going to do with a VVS diamond-encrusted chain?”

“Flex on all the other young CEOs?”

“And partake in their pissing contest? No, thank you.”

“You’re telling me you won’t be doing that this weekend at the Charity Ball?”

“When I have you next to me, I don’t need VVS diamonds,” Minho grinned flirtatiously.

You hit his arm with your good hand and he flinched upon his correct prediction. “I am not an accessory!”

“Of course not! You are my beloved intelligent sidekick that all other big wigs tell me they wished they had! But when you look like that, it’s bonus points ~”

“Ugh, your kind are all the same!” you scoffed, trying to collect your things and storm out the door.

“It’s a compliment!” he teased. Minho managed to chase after you and grab your things to carry to his car so he could drive you home for the 1106th time.

--

After a long and tiring rest of the week helping your boss do target practicing with the iron suit on, Saturday had arrived and now you had the honor of accompanying said-boss to a Big Dick contest disguised as a Charity Ball. The main event was for the sake of the children of course, but the real show was to see who was wearing what designer with what accessories and who pulled up in the fanciest sports car with the youngest and sexiest date in their arms. You were so, so lucky to be working for someone who liked to stay low key, despite always being the center of attention.

“Why are you so nervous?” Minho teased, nudging your arm as you both walked up to the front doors of the venue. “This isn’t the first time you’ve played as my date.”

“I know, but it doesn’t get any easier,” you admitted, shyly covering yourself from the much-more revealing outfit now that it was tailored to fit.

“You and I look fine! Muted colors, minimal diamonds, low key attitudes - we’re perfect! No one will even notice we’re here.”

That was a complete lie, because the second you walked in, a swarm of gossip columnists and magazine writers circled around the two of you, bombarding you both with the same questions you were so used to.

“Mr. Lee, who are you wearing?”

“Mr. Lee, who’s your lovely date?”

“Mr. Lee, what’s the best way to lock in that your date will go home with you?”

Minho raised his hand slightly and all that could be heard were the cameras clicking. God, the power he has… 

“Dior, a close friend, and be so irresistible that they can’t say no.”

Without another word, he gently took your bandaged hand and led you out of the circle of gossipers who were silent in awe. With your free hand, you covered up your ugly laughing.

“You’re such a cornball!” you said in between a fit of giggles.

“An irresistible cornball, at least. Now, walk me through all these people again?”

Minho was young and when it came to networking, he still had the mentality of being the CEO’s son rather than the CEO. That meant that Minho didn’t care much in remembering other CEO’s names and relied on you to remind him of all the people he should have remembered three years ago. It was a consistent hour of introductions and small talk about future goals, collaborations, and golfing, all of which you were able to expertly tune out while sipping prosecco and snacking on caviar tarts. Years of experience thankfully made these events easier.

“Did you practice your speech for your donation?” you reminded Minho after taking a seat at the prestigious Table 2. Since the company was one of the Charity Ball’s biggest sponsors, the CEOs were always invited to say some manufactured speech.

“Yeah. I even practiced it in the shower. Hopefully I get the charity organization correct this time.”

“It’s amazing how you even got this far.”

The Charity Ball should have been named See Who Can Donate the Most Money Ball because every speech given by a CEO of some company tried to out-do each other. Luckily, your company’s speeches were always last and your touch of humanity written on paper always had the audience in awe with the Minho’s compassion. To pass the time, you and Minho played rock-paper-scissors and whomever lost had to drink champagne. Let’s just say Minho ended up having the infamous Asian Glow.

His face was still blushy by the time it was his turn and you almost felt bad because the pictures with the flash turned on probably wouldn’t be so flattering in the magazines, but that wouldn’t matter because he still looks like the most stunning man in the room. All eyes were on him as he made his speech, but he had his eyes on you. Probably because he would piss his pants if he saw how many people were looking at him. You gave him two thumbs up for encouragement.

“It is the greatest honor to be here and giving a speech for the third year in a row. Children are the source and future for a better world, and it is our duty to -”

You blanked out for most of it since you wrote it. It was hard to focus anyways when his eyes were so piercing, so you averted his gaze and counted the number of peppercorns on his unfinished steak. At an alarming fifty-three, you glanced around the gallery to see if anyone was actually paying attention. Many, if not all, of the guests around your age were paying attention with dreamy eyes and pouty lips, all wishing they were in your position tonight. Some even dared to make eye contact with you as if to say, ‘how DARE you NOT pay attention to the sexiest man alive!?’ The older, more powerful guests seemed genuinely interested in the amount Minho was donating and the older dates seemed to care more about their reflection on the back of a spoon.

The fattest check with a bunch of zeros was walked onto the stage. A standing ovation was in order of course, and you conformed with the crowd, even though applause always made Minho visibly uncomfortable.

“He throws a big, fat check to charity and yet he still doesn’t like the attention, huh?”

As the clapping died down and the noise faded into the smooth hum of the live piano and jazz music, you turned to face the owner of a familiar sly voice. The man that stood before you was the famous doctor slash art collector slash playboy who you’ve come to know after attending all of these flashy events.

You smiled slyly at the man. “If it isn’t GQ’s Bachelor of the Month, Dr. Park Seonghwa.”

The raven-haired man gave you his signature smirk. Then he took your hand and kissed it tenderly like the prince he is. “Lovely _____, pleasure to see you as always.”

“Have you been doing that to all the other guests you frequent at these events?”

“Of course not! Just the beautiful ones.”

You let out a loud scoff. “You and your way with words.”

“Are they enough to convince you to finally go out to dinner with me?”

“Not quite.”

Seonghwa sighed tiredly and dropped his head as if this was the first time you’ve rejected him. Guess every time felt like the first time. The handsome raven held his hand out to you. “If not dinner, how about a dance?”

Hesitantly, you searched for your boss like you were trying to sneak away from a parent. He was busy shaking hands and catching up with The Important People’s Club, so you didn’t think one dance would hurt, though once you feed a dog a treat, he’ll be begging for more forever.

You took his hand. “One dance.”

“Five.”

“One.”

“Three?”

“Dr. Park!”

“What!? Ok, fine, one dance, unless you’re really feeling it and then we’ll dance some more.”

“Maybe in another lifetime, Dr. Park.”

The young doctor led you to the dance floor before you could object further. For someone not-so-smooth with pick-up lines, he was definitely smooth with his moves. With one gentle hand on your waist and the other holding your hand, you two glide around the white tiles like the Royalty of the ball, and truly, for a few moments, it really felt like you were the star of this fairy tale.

Seonghwa let out a tired sigh. “Intelligent, beautiful, loyal, and good at dancing? How are you so good at everything?”

“Stop that.”

“I mean it! Yet no man swept you off your feet.”

“Just because I won’t say yes to you, doesn’t mean I’m not waiting for that special someone.”

Seonghwa held your hand up high and made you do a little twirl. “You might be waiting for a while, beautiful.”

“Why do you say that?”

“With Mr. Minho by your side twenty-five hours eight days a week, there is no man that has the courage to come in between such a strong relationship.”

“Even you?” you challenged.

“Even I. Unless you want me to -”

“Nope.”

“Ice cold heart as always…”

Song number one melted into song number two and it passed you both as you continued to discuss the hot topic of why you’re still single. It’s a conversation topic that you thought was reserved for nosy family members for you to brush off, but coming from another man who has begged for your number since you both met really put your love life into perspective. Perhaps you were too loyal to your boss…

While engulfed in the heated debate, Minho was desperately searching for his right hand where he thought you’d be - either at your seat or by the bar, but you were at neither. After receiving his order from the bar, he let the expensive gold liquid over ice flooded through his bloodstream, which led him to a group of gawking gossipers whining and gazing at the dance floor. What was all the hype about?

The sight of you in the arms of the world’s most arrogant doctor didn’t sit too well with him. The scene made him see green.

“You’re such a liar!” Minho heard you laugh aloud. “I did NOT give you so-called bedroom eyes at Yuta’s house warming!”

“You’re telling me you weren’t eyeing me up and down like a barbecued piece of pork belly dipped in sesame oil?”

“That’s because you had sesame oil on your white shirt!”

“Excuses, excuses.”

Minho took another sip of his golden drink before putting it down haphazardly and waltzing towards the dancing couple. To onlookers, this scene looked like it was straight out of those cheesy love triangle dramas. The gossipy gals wondered - would Minho punch Seonghwa? Would he grab your hand harshly and drag you away to scold you and tell you how much he cared about you? Would he kiss you!?

You saw your uncharacteristically stern-looking boss approaching, and even though you’re unsure of his intentions, you still smiled brightly, as you always did whenever you saw him. Minho lightened his heavy, angry steps. Even with another man by your side, you still looked at him. How could he be mad at you?

“Hello, Mr. Minho,” Seonghwa greeted, holding out a hand for him to shake. You knew your boss wasn’t the biggest fan of Seonghwa, but he politely returned the gesture anyways. Somehow you felt your heart beating in your throat - the tension on the dance floor was too high, too powerful, and you were but an awkward and nervous secretary standing on the side while two powerful men duked it out.

“Dr. Seonghwa, nice to see you again.” Minho was good at lying, but his lies never passed you. The amount of discomfort knitted in his eyebrows almost made you snicker. “Long nights at the hospital still?”

“As always, but at least it’s rewarding and enjoyable. How are your long nights at the office?”

“Can’t get enough of them, right, _____?”

“What? You’re still doing that much overtime?” Seonghwa asked worriedly. Now, was he worried because you were overworking yourself or was he worried because you were spending so much time with a man that wasn’t him?

You shrugged unapologetically. “I love that overtime pay.”

“_____, that’s not good for your health -”

“I tell them that all the time,” Minho interrupted defensively. He was always like this whenever anyone questioned the amount of work you had. To you, it was not much of a burden at all, but to anyone else, they couldn’t fathom your work hours but if they saw your paycheck, maybe they’d understand. Even your boss felt bad whenever your friends blamed him, but  no matter how much he tried to convince you of a normal 40-hour work week, the duties of being his secretary never added up to just that. Therefore, your boss always felt the need to defend you and him for the sake of making sure you weren’t portrayed as his slave. “But you’re just so stubborn, aren’t you?”

“Only because it’s you, Mr. Lee,” you said like you’re reading a script. Somehow that doesn’t translate through the ears of the two powerful men in front of you, as your boss smiled triumphantly and Seonghwa couldn’t help but shake his head.

“If you ever want to take me up on that date, Lovely _____, you know who to call.” The most handsome man who’s ever flirted with you took your hand gently and planted a sweet, soft kiss that sent little tingles all up your arm. You don’t think you’ll ever reciprocate his feelings, but the feeling of being desired and wanted by a man really kicked up your ego and really made you think - when was the last time you ever liked someone, or someone ever liked you?

Park Seonghwa disappeared into the crowd and perhaps left the Charity Ball all together. Until next time.

Your boss turned to face you, whose stern face quickly melted into innocence as he knew what was coming by the look on your annoyed expression. “What?”

“What was that all about?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

You shook your head and mumbled under your breath, “Ugh, you are unbelievable, Mr. Lee.”

As you tried to escape, the desperate man caught your hand. “Wait, where are you going?”

“Away from you for just five minutes, can you let me do that?” you snapped in a hushed volume. “Or do you need to watch over me and speak on my behalf, since you’re my Father apparently!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to act like that.”

“You say that every time, especially when I’m talking to another man and even more-so when I’m talking to Dr. Park. When will your sorries mean something?”

“You know I get protective over you.”

“Again, you are not my Father!”

“I know, but -”

All of the attention that was once focused on the handsome CEO and his secretary shifted to the glass ceiling that was now shattered to pieces upon the force of some dozens of masked strangers dressed in all black. Minho instinctively, though harshly, forced you down so he could hover over you so none of the glass hit you. What followed seemed to be too numbing, as all of the stimuli in the banquet hall was too much to handle.

“Get down,” Minho instructed while pushing you under one of the tables. “Don’t move until I come back.”

“Wait, but where are you -”

“I’ll be back in ten minutes!”

“Mr. Lee!”

Of course, he didn’t listen, as Mr. Lee always did what he wanted, right? Which would normally annoy the fuck out of you, but who has the time to panic about what your boss was up to when you’re stranded under the table and shrouded by cheap table cloth linen?

Since those people had invaded and fallen from the sky, you noticed that no gunshots or any sort of violence outside of melee were heard. No purpose of the attack is even known yet, but the signs were promising, until the famous alarm was heard throughout the whole town.

“Threat level: Dragon. Please stay inside until all threats have been cleared. Threat level: Dragon. Please stay inside until -”

“Ah, yes, the richest of the rich gather here today to donate the smallest percentage of their some billions of dollars to charity,” a booming voice tisked through a microphone. “Do you feel good about your good deed of the year? Are you proud of yourselves?”

For some unknown reason, the voice paused, as if waiting for an answer or a reaction from the people. Nothing was heard besides shrill screaming and crying, which was probably what the wannabe-vigilante wanted. For the first time, you peaked through the slits of the table cloth. At the stage where Minho gave his speech was a now-broken stage with the foot of a giant robot through it. It was a very top-heavy robot that looked like it had a large cavity in its belly, whose odd shape probably served some weird purpose unknown to everyone.

“Perhaps you’ll be proud of your donations for once when we capture you all and milk you of your every last penny!” The man laughed evilly at the head of the robot. “Down with the rich!”

“Down with the rich!” his people cheered in unison.

The oddly political turn of events made the scene less jarring - it seemed like an over-exaggeration of townspeople coming together to fight for higher taxing of the rich. Then you were reminded of the Dragon-level threat by how the minions loaded up the richies with a gun pointed to their heads and the complex mechanism that loaded them up to the belly of the robot. Somewhere among the mass of people you saw Seonghwa in between another surgeon and a senior engineer at Tesla before he disappeared behind the walls of metal.

“Hey, I found another one!” someone yelled close by. “Under Table 2!”

Shit. “Fuck.”

Perhaps all those years of advance self defense classes that Minho’s father enrolled you in would come to good use this time.

By your glamorously-strapped heel, one of the masked men dragged you out from under the table. There was no use in struggling, and the man seemed quite satisfied with how you complied.

“Let’s go, darling.”

With your free foot, you dug the pointy end of the studded heel into his groin. Luckily, you can only ever imagine how painful something like that could feel. He was in so much pain that he doubled over and let go of your foot, leaving you to flee to God-knows-where after you stole his police baton.

“Don’t fucking call me darling,” you spat as a farewell.

There were too many men in between you and the emergency exit, so you had to fight your way through like in those cheesy American action movies. A bunch of kicks in the groin here and a couple baton to the knee caps there were enough to get you by half way, but then they started double-teaming on you. Of course, this was much harder, but Senior Mr. Lee didn’t give you the best sensei in the damn nation for no reason. You felt invincible even after defeating multiple double teams, but it was the triple teaming that got you stuck. You can only kick and baton so many groins at one time until two men held each of your arms and the other stole the baton.

While struggling to break free, you managed to knee the one in front of you in the chin, causing him to cut his lip with blood dripping on his cheap leather shoes. After realizing what had happened, he punched you in the cheek as punishment. Was that a bone you heard cracking?

“Try me again, bitch,” he seethed.

Out of nowhere, your knight in Iron armor landed before the one who punched you and returned the favor, sending his body through so many walls of this building that you worried about the foundation and how long you had before it collapsed.

Minho’s red and gold helmet swung sharply and the empty eyes were staring into the souls of your captors while at the same time not.

“Who’s next?” Minho threatened with his super cool and inaccurately deep robotic voice.

Both men fled the scene as quickly as possible, losing their grip and throwing you to the floor. The penny taste finally registered in your brain that yes, you were definitely coughing and spitting out blood.

The cold metal of Iron Man’s hand helped you to your feet while the other cupped your quickly-bruising cheek gently. The underlying tenderness of your boss’s touch somehow healed all pain, or perhaps it was the cooling iron. Gestures like these were so foreign that you almost forgot it was your boss behind the mask and not some handsome stranger who was ready to sweep you off your feet. It was instances like these where you wished the latter was real.

“Are you ok?” he asked gingerly.

“I’m fine,” you promised. “Go save your investors.”

A light chuckle came from Iron Man. “My driver’s already waiting outside. Are you able to run?”

“I’m not leaving without you.”

“C’mon, _____, now’s not the time -”

“Do not argue with me until you save everyone, Mr. Lee.”

Minho shook his head tiredly. He knew there was no use arguing with his headstrong secretary. “You’re so stubborn. Just promise you won’t get into any trouble this time.”

“No.”

“I’m cuttin’ down on your work hours!” he yelled, blasting off to fight the giant robot thing so he wouldn’t have to hear you argue back again.

You were left with a couple of masked minions who still had the balls to attack and capture you as if you were worth more than your surprisingly above-average five-figure salary. Your copper saliva mixed with your boss trusting you enough to not die in the middle of a Dragon-level threat really pumped the adrenaline through your veins, so as one man sprinted to attack, you managed to dodge it and kick him in the throat before he could try something else. The other guy tried to sneak up behind you, but you were quicker, swinging the baton hard enough to the head to knock him out cold. The power you felt coursing through your body left you on a major high. Where were all the other minions? No way was that all…

In the middle of the banquet hall was the face-off of the century, rivaling any and all story lines from DC and Marvel combined. A tiny seven-foot-something intricately crafted and painted sheet of metal was about to fight a giant several-stories tall and several-dozen-tons heavy hunk of junk with dozens of guests they managed to scoop inside. Now how was Mr. Lee going to save the day this time?

“Lee Minho, the man of the night,” the man controlling the ship scoffed. “You will look like my childhood favorite action figure once I stuff you in a glass box in my office! A prized treasure is what you’ll be. How does that sound?”

“Sounds kinky.” You could just sense the smirk behind his mask. “Then what will you do to me?”

“Milk you of all your assets, of course! Liquidation of its truest definition! The redistribution of wealth will come easy to the people, especially with your earnings in the mix!”

“Fine, take my money. But let these people go.”

“Absolutely not! I need all the money I can get! How do you expect me to change the distribution of wealth of the entire world with just one CEO’s salary!? Mr. Lee, I thought you knew that, silly.”

“Ok, fine. You take all of our money and then what?”

“Well, kill you, of course.”

A chorus of gasps and crying were heard from the belly of the machine.

The philosophical man continued. “People like you are the very reason there is a large pay gap. You sit on your ass drinking cocktails and eating caviar and you donate to some profiting charity only a tiny percentage of what you make while all the good hard-working people are the ones bringing the big bucks into your bank account! And what do they get? Small paychecks and four hours of sleep!”

Yeah, this guy was bad, but he had his points, so you’ll cheers to that, am I right?

“Well, then where will you get your money after that? Hm?” The captain stayed silent. “Where will you get more money to sustain this utopia? Certainly not from the hard-working people who have no experience leading or handling such a huge sum of money. And certainly not from you, right? Ha! With your five-figure salary paychecks that barely get the bills paid on time.”

A heavy arm swung to try and snatch up your boss. Though the arm was so large and heavy, Minho barely managed to escape his grasp. By the silence of the once-chatty leader of the pack, you could tell that he was bothered by the words spat by the youngest CEO in the room. How dare Minho mock his hard-earned pay when his earnings were given to him on a VVS diamond-encrusted platter!? There were a couple of times where he landed a couple of hits on your boss and you should feel worried, but you couldn’t help but think he deserved it. You hated to be on the enemy’s side, but you, too, were one of those five-figure salary paycheck owners that are barely scraping by with their bills. And of course you were all for the redistribution of wealth, but this guy definitely went a little too far…

You would think that the sheer size of this oddly-shaped hunk of metal wouldn’t be able to move so fast, but it managed to capture Minho by digging its claw to the wall and sandwiching Minho in between. He couldn’t even wiggle his way out between gaps because the thing was pressing too hard against the wall. Minho could feel the metal bending from inside.

“People like you will never understand the worth of the dollar,” the captain seethed. “Not when stacks come to you in baskets sewn with gold and jewels commissioned by your Daddy. People like you, and everyone captured, need to be humbled a little. Maybe you all can learn a little something from the working class.”

“Then we die, is that right?”

“Of course! But at least you’ll die a hard-working man, Mr. Lee.”

“I will. But I’ll die a hard-working man with billions in my grave before I let you take a penny!”

The blue beam of light that you once cursed for burning a half circle on your palm you were now thankful for, as that beam of light shot your boss up in the air and freed him, taking a few fingers off of the hunk of metal with him. A couple more shots of incinerator beams later, and both arms of the robot had been severed and half disintegrated. Minho kicked the glass where the leader sat and pulled out the defenseless lump of flesh that spoke the harsh truth about the wealthy. The leader was a young man who was not much older than either you or your boss, who didn’t look afraid in the slightest. Perhaps he expected, or even wanted, to go out this way - fighting for what he believed in.

The police, who had been waiting outside for all the ruckus to die down, came in and cuffed the leader and a few of his minions who cowardly hid under the tables. Minho helped all of his investors safely come out and among the crowd you saw Seonghwa, safe and sound.

You thought after a traumatic attack that now was not the time and place to reveal who Iron Man was or even associate yourself with him, so you tried to mix in with the crowd and book it to the driver like he asked you to do before. But of course your flaunty boss wanted to do the exact opposite.

“_____, wait!”

No, no, no, no, no, what the hell! Really!? Right now!? was how Minho read your expression as he walked to you with the suit on. When the seven-foot something Iron Man stopped before you, the face of his helmet slid open to reveal an out-of-breath Minho. The entire banquet hall echoed with gasps.

“Are you ok? You’re not hurt, are you? Your bruise is getting worse!”

You could not feel anything on the left half of your face besides intense pain and somehow numbness at the same time and your limbs felt like jello and over-kneaded dough. But you couldn’t let your boss worry about you - he needs to take care of more important people right now. You’ll be fine come tomorrow once you sleep on a frozen bag of peas.

“I’m fine, I promise,” you said convincingly. “Looks like you have an impromptu press conference to deal with.”

To Minho’s dismay, all of the cameras and press and the phones of his business friends captured his face inside the Iron suit next to his famous secretary that all his business friends wished they had. He knew you hated press conferences because even though you never said anything, you were always by his side and that meant the cameras were pointed at you also.

“I can deal with them. Go to the car and go home.”

“I can stay with you.”

“I won’t allow it. You need to go home and ice your face.”

“I said I -”

“I said go.”

Minho never raised his voice at you ever because he never had a reason to. You were always hard-working and loyal and you always did everything correctly and did it with his best interest in mind. He’ll allow small things that might be detrimental to your health, like all the over time you loved to have and the unhealthy amounts of coffee you drown yourself in. But when the arm that’s supporting your body weight was shaking, your left cheek was the color of aubergine, and you had blood splatters on different parts of your body, that’s when he had to draw the line. Worry was knitted into his brows and his lips were a flat line and you only ever saw his face like this whenever he talked with his father. It was terrifying to see him almost mad at you and it made your heart sink a little that you did something wrong.

He softened his expression upon seeing your glossy eyes. “Take Monday off to rest. I’ll see you on Tuesday, ok?”

“But -”

“I’ll pay you for your time off, so don’t worry about the money. I just want you to rest. Can you do that for me?” You could only nod. “Thank you. Go home - I’ll text you when I’m done cleaning up tonight.”

Minho plastered on his happy television face and returned to the fawning crowd and overly-thankful investors. You were blinded by the flashing camera lights and that was your cue that you didn’t belong there anymore.

The trot music-loving driver hummed the whole way home while driving on auto-pilot, as he had memorized the path to your apartment long ago. Sitting in the back seat covered head-to-toe in the finest satin wasn’t as luxurious when you were alone as opposed to having your equally-luxurious boss next to you. You imagined what it’d be like if a giant robot didn’t crash the party this evening: you’d probably yell at him more about how you needed space and that he was overreacting with the whole Seonghwa deal; then he might try to bribe you with food or dessert so that you’d stop pouting like a child (and you’d totally cave in); and finally, he’d walk you up to your doorstep begging to come inside once more and you’d deny his entry, only for him to leave you with a comment about how you were the most stunning person at the ball tonight.

In short, as much as you hated to admit it, the ride home was lonely. Can you believe that? Your short time alone away from your boss was fucking lonely. Not peaceful, not relaxing, not mind-clearing, but totally and completely lonely. So much so that your heart ached a little, and to put these feelings in the simplest terms, it was because you were so used to being by his side that the emptiness to the seat next to you mimicked an unfamiliar cavity in your heart. It’s a painful feeling, really, because that meant leaving this job would be much harder than you hoped.

As if he planted a tracking device in your phone, Minho texted you upon locking the front door to your place.

The Money Man [01:03 am]: did you make it home ok?

An involuntary smile spread across your lips.

You [01:04 am]: just got home. are you stalking me?

The Money Man [01:04 am]: you didn’t think the phone i gave you was completely harmless and bugless, did you? ;)

You [01:05 am]: i should have known better. how’s the impromptu press conference? are people surprised that it’s you?

The Money Man [01:07am]: they are, but at the same time it’s not. ppl keep asking me questions and won’t let me take the suit off, can you believe that!? it’s hot as balls in this thing!!

The Money Man [01:07am]: shit, gotta go - gotta somehow convince these idiots this is definitely NOT something to invest in.

You [01:08am]: text when you’re home.

The Money Man [01:08am]: yes, darling.

‘Darling’ has a nice ring to it.

--

Having Sunday all to yourself was normal and you did what you always did every weekend: cleaned your place, took your time making a nice meal, organizing all of your work papers, and ended the night with a hot shower and an ice pack to your cheek. Monday, on the other hand was a disaster. You were so bored! Your fingers were itching to scribble down your boss’s agenda and you were so tempted to log into your work laptop, but you knew Minho would chew your ear off for not listening to him and resting as you should. It wasn’t your fault that you were a work-a-holic!

After looking in the mirror and hating the way your face looked for the fiftieth time, it was time to accept that the bruise wouldn’t disappear for at least a couple more weeks. Sunday was at its ugliest, where the center of your cheek was a deep purple and there was this off-colored halo around the perimeter. Now, the swelling went down and it wasn’t as purple or painful, but still equally ugly no matter how you looked at it or tried to cover it up.

After a lonely and boring Monday afternoon, your doorbell rang around 5:00pm. You weren’t expecting any visitors or deliverymen, so upon peaking through your viewfinder, you were surprised to see your boss on the other side.

“What are you doing here?” you asked surprised.

Minho was glad you didn’t seem disgusted by his presence since he was the one who told you to take the day off and you must be tired of seeing his face by now. He whipped out an oily bag from behind his back with a child-like grin on his face. It was an unusual sight to see a man dressed in a several thousand dollar business suit carrying a twenty dollar bag of dinner.

“You and I have some business to discuss.”

“Hold on, let me get this straight - you tell me to take the day off, rest up, ice my bloodshot cheek only for you to come into my home and say I need to work?”

“Yup,” he claimed unapologetically, squeezing past you to get through.

“Yes, please come in, Your Highness,” you rolled your eyes, though he was already setting up at your dinner table.

“Your home is nice. Why are you always so embarrassed whenever I try to come in?”

“I mean, look at it. It’s nowhere near as nice as your home.”

“It’s as more of a home than my place will ever be, no matter how many velvet cushions and arcade games I ask you to buy for the place.” Minho whipped out two bottles of beer, his favorite chaser to wash down the oiliness of the fried chicken, and poured them into glasses. “How’s your cheek?”

“By the look on your face, I guess not so good?”

He adjusted his twisted expression upon your teasing. Blood and bruises were never his thing, so any variation of the sort just looked bad in general. “It just looks so painful… Have you been icing it like I asked?”

“I have, and it’s not as painful as it looks!”

“Oh, yeah?”

Minho challenged your claim by standing in front of you and lowering his head to see you at eye-level. His face was way too close to be considered appropriate for CEO and Secretary relationship behavior, though you knew he never cared for those formalities. His eyes were always so sparkly per usual and that gave him that dreamy stare all the ladies in the office loved. You never saw the appeal to it until now, with only a few centimetres in between.

He poked your bruised-like-an-apple cheek.

“Ow, what the hell!” you screamed, swatting his hand away.

“Not as painful as it looks, my ass.”

“Well, people don’t go around poking my cheek all day!”

“Do you need pain killers? My doctor can write you a prescription for the best one on and off market.”

“That’s ok, I only trust Dr. Seonghwa.”

Minho gave you the same look he gave a former intern who got his breakfast and coffee order incorrect. Let’s just say the intern started crying on the spot. You, on the other hand, could barely hold in your snicker from his death glare. You were never on the receiving end of the infamous death glare and now that you were, it was hard to take it seriously.

“Ha ha,” Minho fake laughed. “Not funny.”

“What exactly do you have against him, anyways? It’s surprising that you’re threatened by the likes of a doctor and not some other hot shot software company CEO.”

“I don’t have anything against him.”

“You’re such a liar!” you scoffed, taking a swig of the ice-cold beer. “If you didn’t have a problem with him, you wouldn’t have acted so defensive at the charity ball.”

“I don’t like the way he looks at you,” he said shamelessly. A vigorous bite of a chicken leg came afterwards. “He looks at you like how I look at chicken legs.”

“Well, maybe I like the way he looks at me.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Stop doing that.”

“You deserve it for acting like my Dad that night.”

“I said I was sorry! I even bought you dinner and cold beer to make up for it!”

“Oh, so this is not because you said that me and you have some business to discuss?”

“Well, that, too.” Minho wiped his greasy fingers on his silk handkerchief that he kept on the inside of his breast pocket before whipping out his phone to show you multiple news articles on the night of the charity ball. “Watch these videos.”

Almost all of them were exposing your boss who was behind the genius that is Iron Man, but what preceded the reveals were clips of you kicking major ass. The sources came from both paparazzi and the security tapes at multiple angles and it was hard to hide the fact that it was you as all angles captured your facial features quite clearly. Headlines and whole articles talked about how the mighty CEO and his secretary were the perfect unstoppable duo and they weren’t wrong - you kicking ass in a sexy outfit with a man of iron handling the big guy? Definitely a story worth selling.

Your brows furrowed worriedly because you had no idea how Minho felt. “Are you mad…?

“Mad?” Minho paused the current video and placed his phone face-down on the table so he could focus on his good chicken and better company. “Why would I be mad?”

“I don’t know! What’s the point in showing me these videos?”

“To show you how bad ass you look! Where did you even learn these moves!?”

“For some reason, your father thought being a secretary was dangerous enough that he decided to enroll me in some classes. I actually really liked it a lot, so I kept at it and I guess I got to a pretty advanced level.”

“Pretty advanced is definitely a misnomer, love. Well, it’s good to hear that Father has made one good decision in his reign.”

“Is this the business you wanted to speak about?” you asked shyly, hoping that the beer was a good enough excuse for your blushing cheeks. You’ll never get used to Minho praising you.

“Sort of. I have a proposition for you.”

“What, that you want me to be your sidekick?” you scoffed. When Minho remained silent with only the same sly smirk on his lips, you could see your worst fears coming true. “Oh, God, you’re not serious.”

“I am one hundred percent serious.”

“Are you out of your damn mind!? I am not sidekick material!”

“You totally are! You and I are already the perfect duo! Why not take it up a notch!?”

“No, Mr. Lee, I cannot be your secretary again, but in a different form and outfit!”

“Why not!? It’s not like I’m not going to pay you for it.”

“The pay is not the problem. The pay is never the problem. It’s…”

How do you put that the pressure of keeping the entire country safe and being by his side twenty-four/seven sounded like your own personal purgatory that you could never escape for as long as you lived, or until you died by the hands of some Demon-level threat monster?

“It’s a huge commitment, I know,” Minho admitted. “Too huge to even put a price on it. But can you at least consider it? I can’t imagine anyone else by my side except you.”

Now only if a man who wasn’t your boss said that to you without any underlying superhero context, you might have considered the proposal.

“Mr. Lee, I can’t…”

You hesitated getting the right words out, but Minho knew why. You’ve been bringing up how you couldn’t stay his secretary forever, and although he knew this was true, he couldn’t help but try to keep you anyways. You’ve been loyal to him for so long that he often forgot how to treat you like a friend and not his subordinate. But the thought of you leaving? Soon, at that? It was something he didn’t want to think about just yet. He wanted to keep you by his side for as long as he could.

Minho downed the last of his beer before whipping out his phone again. This time a slow song played over the speakers. He stood up and offered you a hand.

You raised a brow. “What are you…?”

“You and I never got to dance on Saturday. So dance with me.”

“Here? Right now? In my small ass apartment?”

“The next charity ball isn’t for another month and I don’t think I can wait that long.”

His impatience was just shy of flattering - if only you weren’t so afraid of being within close proximity to him. It was one thing when he helped ease the burn on your hand, it was another when he touched your cheek while inside his iron suit, but the two of you alone dancing in the middle of your living room was a whole other level of intimacy that needed to be hidden from human resources,

You took his hand and he led you to the living room. One hand on your waist and another holding the one with the scabbing half-circle. The two of you swayed in silent contentment for several songs. It was a comfortable silence, but there’s some hidden sadness to it that you couldn’t explain - something along the lines of him missing you dearly, despite you being right in front of him, and you missed him dearly, too. So much that your nerves made you squeeze his hand harder, asking him to not let go of you for a long time.

Then your boss pulled you in close enough that it felt like he was hugging you.

“S-Sir?” you stuttered nervously.

“Thank you,” he began. “For always being there.”

“Well, that’s my job,” you snickered.

“Not just as my secretary, but as my friend.”

“You think of me as your friend?”

“I do. Don’t tell Vice President Chan this, but I consider you one of my closest friends.”

“You’re quite soft, aren’t you?” It took a moment to register that he was definitely not joking. The tension in your shoulders diminished and you were able to relax in front of the equally-vulnerable man. “I consider you one of my closest friends, too.”

“Really?”

“By association though. After all these years being by your side, it’s only natural that I came to like you.”

“I like you, too,” he chuckled, tucking some hairs behind your ear. “A little too much, at that.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“In another lifetime, I feel like you and I would be soulmates.”

“You don’t think we would be in this lifetime?”

Were you hoping to be? “Perhaps. By association though, right?”

You didn’t want to press more about any underlying meaning to his statements, so instead you looked down embarrassed. In another lifetime, in this lifetime, in multiple lifetimes, Minho thought you and him would be each other’s soulmate no matter what, because a lifetime with you sounded perfect.

A thumb gently ran over the perimeter of your cheek bruise and it tickled rather than burned, so that was a good sign that it was healing. A loud tisk came from your boss.

“God, do I really put you through this much pain!?” he cried aloud.

“Huh? You didn’t cause this - those dumbass followers did!”

“I guess, but I was the one who brought you to that event! And what about the scar on your hand, huh? I definitely caused that one.”

“Well, yeah, but -”

“That’s it, I can’t be hurting you like this anymore. I can’t be putting you through all of this danger like you’re my bodyguard. I have to let you go.”

You knew he was joking when he couldn’t hold in his cheeky smile. “That is not probable cause to fire me, Mr. Lee.”

“Really? Dammit.”

“No matter how many times I get hurt, you can’t get rid of me that easily, ok? I go out on my own terms!”

“So strong willed… I almost hate it.” Minho sighed exaggeratedly before pulling you in for a real hug this time. His arms squeezed your waist tightly, letting you know that he didn’t want to let you go even if he tried. “Just make sure to give me a two weeks notice, all right?”

“Anything for you, boss.”

“I’m going to miss hearing that from you the most when you leave.”

You hit his chest lightly, but he caught your hand and held it for a few moments before leading you back to your kitchen to finish up dinner. The rest of the night wasn’t you and your boss - it was you and your closest friend enjoying dinner and some ice cream you had in your freezer.

In another lifetime, huh? Too bad you were stuck in this one.

--

Work has mellowed out in terms of paperwork and actually work and has instead transitioned into more press conferences and meetings with government officials regarding Iron Man. In theory, the meetings sounded cool, but you wouldn’t know for sure, as your boss decided to take one of the newer girls as his assistant for these meetings.

The first time he denied your company, you were only a little confused, but it soon passed when he said there was a lot of paperwork he only trusted you to complete on his behalf. But when he would bring her to every event - whether it was out of habit or on purpose - for an entire month, and her only, it really made your blood boil.

No, you weren’t jealous…! You weren’t jealous he was hanging out with someone younger and prettier and more his type! Definitely not! You were upset that your boss, whom you called one of your closest friends in a time of vulnerability, was already replacing you before you could put your two weeks in! And you knew this to be true when he denied your invitation to get lunch and instead you found him in the cafeteria laughing and flirting with the new girl at the table you and him would always sit at.

For a whole month, without even knowing it, you were slowly getting left behind and replaced for someone better - someone who would actually heed his every word and never argue. Someone who would keep their mouth shut for once. Someone who wouldn’t mind taking order from him forever.

It had been a month since you were living in this limbo, and tonight, the night of the Animal Cruelty Charity Ball to which Iron Man would be making a guest appearance, was when you knew he no longer needed you.

“You’re taking Ryujin…?” you repeated, as you couldn’t believe your ears.

“Yes, so you can go home early if you want,” Minho said as he fixed his bow tie in the giant mirror in his office. He then turned to present to you with an ignorant grin. “How do I look?”

“Why are you taking her?”

“She’s been working hard this past month, so I thought I’d reward her with tonight and have her practice some networking skills.”

“How generous of you,” you mumbled bitterly to yourself.

“Hm?”

“Nothing.”

“Can you help me put on this chain necklace thing? The clasp is so damn tiny…”

Reluctantly, you helped clasp the silver jewelry. While you thought your boss was heavily admiring himself in the mirror, he instead was focused on you and how your face was uncharacteristically stern.

“Are you ok?” he asked sincerely. He pressed a firm hand to your forehead. “Are you sick?”

You harshly swatted his hand away. “I’m fine.”

He shrugged it off, thinking that you probably had a bad week with all of the boring work he’s been having you deal with. A lot of weird and unsettling energy was pent up inside of you for the past month, so before you exited Minho’s office for the weekend, for some reason you thought this was the appropriate time to speak on it.

“Actually, I’m not fine,” you blurted out. Minho gave you his full attention for the first time that month. “I… I’m putting in my two weeks.”

His eyes went wide. “What?”

“I’m giving you my two weeks notice.”

“Do you have a job lined up?”

“No, but I will figure that out later.”

“You don’t have another job lined up but you want to quit? Where is this coming from?”

He didn’t sound angry. He wasn’t - he was more hurt than anything else that you wanted to leave without a proper explanation. He thought you and him were doing well… What changed so suddenly?

“I can’t do this anymore,” Minho noted how your voice was shaking. “I was fine when you had me staying ungodly hours, I was fine when you had me get you coffee every morning and your dry cleaning every Monday, and I was fine when you involved with the Iron Man project, but now all you’ve given me lately is paperwork and shit that the new hires should be doing and not myself!”

“_____, language -”

“And why is that? Why do I feel like I’m starting to get left behind already, or-or why do I feel like you don’t appreciate anything I do!? It’s clear to me that you’ve already begun to replace me, so what’s the use of me staying here when you don’t want me anymore?”

Minho was silent. You couldn’t tell if he was angry or sad or surprised at your sudden outburst. The tension in the room was suffocating and his silence even more so, like this was his ideal form of psychological torture. Minho didn’t seem to care for your feelings anymore as he turned back to face the mirror.

“Your two weeks has been noted,” was all he said.

You left the room in tears, with your blood still boiling and your heart crushed. But this was a good thing. In the end, this would be a good thing, is what you were trying to tell yourself, because this lifetime wouldn’t let you be with Minho.

--

Another month passed by and you were left in a worse limbo than you began with a month and a half ago. No one was contacting you about any job offers so you were left to ‘self-reflect’ or some bullshit this self-help book told you to do for the past two weeks. Luckily, all the overtime you put into your savings account had vastly accumulated into an unthinkable sum that would support you far beyond whatever the government noted as a proper unemployment time. Like, you didn’t even know what to do with the money sometimes - thank Minho for time-and-a-half, huh?

On days where you couldn’t help yourself - when you felt like torturing yourself - you would look up Minho on all the tabloid sites. Surprisingly enough, this happened way more than you’d like. Of course, as you speculated, Ryujin had quickly taken your spot as his secretary and God, did you like to shit on how terrible she was! You didn’t have to be at the office to know that Minho must be frustrated with her by the crookedness of his ties and jackets and how she must have forgotten to schedule a salon appointment by the look of his roots and unruly brows.

Ha! That’s what he fucking gets for not being grateful! That dick!

What a shame your relationship with him had come to. To spend what felt like an entire lifetime with him to being complete strangers, it was like you were reborn into this new and fresh carefree person. So carefree that you hummed on the way home with a bag full of fresh produce from the local market.

Perhaps you should have been less carefree, as a stranger snuck up behind you and knocked you out cold.

--

“Ryujin, where’s my document-signing pen?”

“Um, in your drawer?”

“Which drawer?”

“The one with all the other pens…?”

Minho sighed loudly, running a hand through his curly locks and staring intently at the mess of papers that scattered on his desk. His desk hadn’t been this messy since the first day he started when he had to sign all of those official documents that transitioned him to CEO. The same day when he fell for you.

Ryujin, who was nothing close to a secretary compared to you, was only getting on his nerves these days. Perhaps yes, he’s been a little too harsh on someone who’s still fairly new, but in truth he just didn’t have a way to express his frustration about you leaving all of a sudden. Where had he gone wrong?

“Take the rest of the night off,” he told his subordinate.

The poor girl bowed obediently and scurried out the room.

Another sign left the young man’s lips. This time it was because he was tired. He couldn’t deal with anymore bullshit tonight.

An anonymous FaceTime call rang his phone. Who could be wanting to FaceTime him at such an odd hour of the weeknight?

When he swiped to answer, all he saw was you tied up roughly to a splintered chair with tape covering your mouth. Minho nearly dropped his phone.

“Good evening, Mr. Lee,” a familiar voice sang. From the shadows behind you emerged the fake vigilante that led the invasion of the Charity Ball. “I see that you’re doing well.”

“What do you want?” he demanded quietly.

“I think you know what I want.” A shiny knife drew a line across the other cheek, small drops of blood seeping through and mixing with the dried tears and dirt. Minho’s heart felt like it was collapsing. “A blank check addressed to little ol’ me.”

“If I see another scar on them, I’ll kill you,” he threatened.

The man held his hands up high in defensive mode and took a step away from you. “Fine, I won’t touch them! Just give me what we want near the docks.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Oh, and one more thing - come dressed in Iron Man and I’ll slice their throat. Bye!”

The line cut dead and Minho had no choice but to leave empty-handed with only a blank check in his pocket.

The air inside the enclosed cargo bed was hot and suffocating and your rising panic did not ease your pain or heavy breathing one bit. It didn’t help that the guy and his minions were playing with your hair and playing with their knives, dragging the dull edges on your arms and neck. Normally, you wouldn’t be so weak and crying to the point that the tape around your mouth was loosening up, but life these days was tough and perhaps an event like this, causing Minho major inconvenience once again, was what you deserved.

Scurrying and uneven footsteps were heard from outside and you really, really hoped it was Minho not dressed in Iron Man.

“Here already? He must like you,” the leader teased.

The back of the cargo bed opened up to reveal that the sun had fallen a long time ago and the light of the moon outlined your plain and simple hero. He didn’t give the leader a second passing glance before blindly shoving the blank check to his chest and rushing by your side to untie you. First, he ripped off the tape and you let out loud gasps of air and cries.

Minho’s shaking hands take hold of your face to try to calm you down. “Hey hey, shh, I’m here. Are you ok? Are you hurt?” You shook your head vigorously, whining and trying to break free from the ropes tying you down. “Hold on, I got you.”

Before Minho could untie your hands, one of the minions hit him on the back of his head the same way they knocked you out. But your boss was stronger than that - his head was harder than his iron helmet. At the failed attempt, Minho hurled the guy over his shoulder and out the cargo bed. Your bad ass boss got up like it was nothing, but he was breathing heavily.

Not because he was tired or weak, but because he was furious.

Three more guys tried to kick his ass and it was then you realized that your boss wasn’t just some fake hiding behind an iron suit who could program it to fight. He truly was kicking their ass! Like, raw strength and all! If you weren’t scared to death, you might have thought this was kind of hot. But then Minho punched one of the guys too hard and it sent him flying over to you, to which you fell over and broke the chair. The rope was no longer tied to anything and you were free.

Yet another one of the lame-o sidekicks tried to capture you again, but now you were equally as furious, if not more, than your partner in crime. How dare they sneak up on you and not even give you a chance to fight back!? That was the definition of a weak-ass group of villains! So of course you had to show them a lesson and kick a few balls and some asses. But the number of asses was infinite and you were getting really tired. They had enough people to fight you and Minho until you couldn’t keep up and then they’d kill you easily.

“Mr. Lee, now would be a good time for one of your brilliant plans!” you begged between kicks and breaths.

“Ten seconds tops. But when I say so, I need you to hold my hand, ok?”

“What!? What are you planning!?”

“Just trust me!” You and Minho saw the leader direct the last ten of his minions to finish the job. “Ready? Three… two… one!”

A heavy force on the outside pushed the cargo bed off the edge of the pier and into the ocean with the purpose of drowning everyone in it. The only sensation you felt was ice cold water freezing your blood flow and Minho grasping your hand for dear life while trying to swim up to the surface. Before blacking out from lack of oxygen, you felt the ripples of something entering the ocean and saw a faded red and golden glow of light. Not a second later, a hollowed Iron Man on autopilot rushed you and Minho to the surface and placed you gently on the sand just under the pier. The silent night was filled with a chorus of ugly coughing fits from you and your boss. What a wonderful CEO slash ex-secretary couples activity this turned out to be.

As soon as your breathing returned to a rhythmic beat, a wet, crying, sand-covered Minho held your face in his still-trembling hands. He didn’t say a word - he simply held you and pressed his forehead to yours, making sure that yes, this was real, and not some unconscious dream where he was still in the middle of the ocean drowning. Yes, you were there with him and you were alive.

“Why are you crying? I was the one kidnapped,” you joked, hoping it’d lighten up the mood if but a little bit.

Minho laughed between sniffles and shivers, but couldn’t stop crying. He was smiling, but still crying, and if that didn’t perfectly depict this situation, you’re not sure there’s anything out there that did. Haphazardly, he planted a cold kiss on your forehead before pulling you into a hug.

“I’m so happy you’re ok,” he whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Why? You had nothing to do with this.”

“I’m just sorry in general. I’m sorry I took you for granted. I’m sorry for making you feel like I was replacing you. I’m sorry for not buying you that cappuccino three years ago. I’m sorry for -”

What’s the only way to silence your sexy boss in a heartfelt moment like this that would complete this superhero plot line? Kissing him mid-sentence, of course. You kissed your loving boss fully, wrapping your arms around his neck and pressing your whole body into it. It took him a while to register that yes, his secretary was definitely kissing him, but once it did, he kissed you even harder, enough to make you fall back onto the grass with him on top of you.

You’re left breathless the moment your lips parted. “I-I, uh, I forgive you…”

“How could you ever think that I could replace you?” he muttered. “I could never. Not in this lifetime.”

“You also said that me and you wouldn’t happen in this lifetime,” you challenged.

“Lifetimes can merge into one, I guess.”

Iron Man returned to Minho’s basement as soon as his job was done, so your favorite driver picked you two up in ten minutes with plush hot towels and dry clothes to change into. The pajamas you wore already had your initials monogrammed over your heart.

“Yeah, uh, about that,” Minho began awkwardly on the car ride home. “I was going to gift them to you a couple Christmases ago, but you said that monogrammed clothing was cheesy and stupid, so I abstained…”

“... They’re not so bad,” you admitted truthfully. “Very soft.”

Coming home to Minho’s felt so wrong, yet so right. You’ve only ever been inside for business reasons, such as redesigning his closets and kitchen pantry, but now that you were here on leisure - well, after almost fucking dying - it was kind of weird. But Minho holding your hand reassured you that you were wanted here - that he needed you here, damp with salt water and all.

“Take a shower upstairs. I’ll go make some tea.”

You gladly obeyed, using your favorite shower that you helped design. The door and the walls of the shower were made of glass and the shower head hung from the ceiling, making your long, hot shower feel like it was raining. Your body was covered in cuts and bruises and it was really ugly, but you’ve never felt more badass and in control in your entire life.

You left the shower smelling like orchids and eucalyptus and entered the kitchen that smelled like ginger and honey. Minho, who had also showered, followed shortly after, stealing a kiss on your cheek that was cut up earlier that evening.

You followed Minho to his giant marble island while he poured tea into white mugs on the other side. This felt so… domestic. This felt so right. This felt like home.

“I have a business proposition for you,” he smirked slyly.

Well, that ruined the moment. “What, no ‘how have you been the past month since I replaced you with some other chick’?”

“I promise I’ll ask that after, but I need to ask you this.” Your hard-headed boss was all giddy just at the idea of it and it was the first time in a whole month since you’ve seen him smile like this. He was so, so cute.

“Fine, what is it?”

“I want to hire you back.”

“Mr. Lee, I already told you, I can’t -”

“As the Head Director of the Iron Man project.”

Your eyes widened at the prestigious title. “Head Director?”

“You stayed by my side through all the criticism and the praise and I can’t imagine a better person for the position.”

“So it’s not just a fancy title for like, super mega ultra secretary, right…?”

Your handsome man chuckled. “No, I promise.”

“Head Director, huh?” your lips slowly spread into a grin. “I like the sound of that.”

“Is that a yes?”

“On a few conditions.”

“Hit me.”

“Higher pay with time-and-a-half.”

“Obviously.”

“I get my own secretary.”

“Only if you don’t fall in love with them like I did.”

You rolled your eyes and continued. “An extra week of vacation.”

“You’re pushing it.”

“Last one. I’m your date to every event from now on.”

Minho raised his eyebrow teasingly. “Oh? And if I say no?”

“Then I say no.”

“Jeez, I’m kidding! So strict. Of course you can, on two conditions.”

“Fine.”

“You call me Minho from now on. Or boyfriend, or soulmate, or sexiest man alive, or whatever suits your fancy.”

“Deal.”

“Second,” Minho leaned in and puckered his pink lips. “Seal this with a kiss.”

You start your new job next week - after Minho cashed in one week of vacation to spend with his soulmate.

#minho #lee minho #lee know #skz #stray kids #lee minho imagines #minho imagines #lee know imagines #lee minho scenarios #minho scenarios #skz scenarios #stray kids scenarios #stray kids minho #i still hate the ending idc tho #if i had time i would rewrite it... too sleepy lolol

[weneepaw]

Handcuffs / Ep 01 _ Invitation

Word count: 5.8K

Characters: Wonho x Honey (just a fictional character)

Genres: Angst, Romance, Smut, Fluff in some other sides

Warning for this part: English is not my first language so if you see some errors in grammar or words please don't mind it and enjoy it 😅😅

Summery: Lee Wonho is an idol, a god like one but he has some secrets in his life, just like all other normal people. But those secrets are turning to some serious problems and hurting his feelings. Every time he thinks about them, things are just going worse. He needs help to fix himself and finds a way to go free and it's like he found a great one at his birthday night party. Or maybe he just thought in that way? Will she becomes a helpful friend or only a disaster to ruin his life?

After some long weeks, there is a time for him to getting some rest. He was so busy lately and working so hard non-stop to his ass off on his albums and choreography of stages because he needs to get his place at business and manage his life in the best situation. He always wants everything to be perfect and flawless, so he works until midnight to the sunrise for days and skips his time to rest because he just can’t sleep when his damn brain doesn’t stop thinking about songs and stages and how they could be in fans’ eyes. Fans are always so much important and valuable to him, like always he says they keep him alive, but that much caring about them sometimes makes him forget about himself and what he needs as a normal big boy. He is an adult male, after all his schedules and his career, he needs to have a normal life and a healthy sex life too, for sure. But every time he is asked about having a girlfriend or being in a relationship, he shows his teenager shy smiles and says, he is happy to be alone and he has his fans, but let’s be honest, fans can make his sex life to be real? He knows the answer as everyone else does but he just disregards and prefers to think about how he can be on his own best for others.

Of course, he is damn good at everything, he is super talented and has a perfect look. From head to toes, he is the definition of perfection at one sight. He got a perfect buff body that worked on it hard for 10 years his ass off again, just like other things, and still cares about it too much. He and his body are out of genders to be loved and his personality is much more adorable than his muscles or abs. he can talk in that way to makes your heart meltdown over his voice and smiles, His beautiful sparkling eyes and his damn soft pink lips are too cute to handle but besides of all these sweet features and his manly look, there is always some secrets in the dark. He usually tries to ignore those secrets and telling himself he still has time to fix some hidden problems but also, he knows it’s already getting too late for it.

Tonight is a special night for him and his friends made a little party for him in a VIP club named “Lady M Club”. This party is all private and there are no worries about getting caught while having some fun. All the guests must have an invitation card to get permission to come in, so everyone there are idols or important people who want to have a good time in their personal space.

His all friends are present and so excited to make him surprised. but for him, today was only like other days to get up, go to work and only focus on the songs till night and then get back home. But his friends want to give him some happy moments and a little gift for his birthday, thanking and appreciating him after all the time of his hard work. Sure he deserves it all, but he doesn’t know it, himself.

He is just relaxing in the back seat of the car, while his manager is driving him home. In the space of the care is nothing but silence. He looks tired and leans his head back, watching lights of the cars and stores in street sides coming and going away, thinking about his life. Life is like this car and lights are like people, but he is always just like now. In his personal life, he just can watch them coming and leaving, there is no one who he can be able to hold it tight, but the fans. Anyway, he always can’t deny it all the time, he feels alone. Most of the nights and sunset hours of the days, when everyone is drowning in their own life and going on their ways, it’s only him, lonely on his bed, in the gym, in the room, in the studio, or wherever else. He tries hard to only keep his mind on his job and fans, but he is a human after all and needs someone only for him. And there is a fact, fans can’t just fill this gap in his life up.

Tonight, he will be on his 28 and another year passed so fast. Time is flying so damn fast and he is thinking about his dark secrets, the reason for being alone all these years and even running away from talking with his family or friends about marriage or being in a relationship. Even when he is thinking about it, he is under stress and uncomfortable feels come around because when he is trying to find a way to fix it, things just go weird and scary more and more indiscriminately. Lately, he is even trying to escape thinking about it but he can’t stop this body to do not react. He needs and unfortunately, he knows it, but can’t do anything for it.

He is all drowning in his fears and doesn’t notice that car is moving in another way and it’s not even close to his place. When he just snaps back on the present life, the car was in front of an unknown club door. He becomes confused and looking around.

“What’s this?” he whispers under his lips. He has no idea what is coming up.

“Your friends and team Wonho decided to build an especial night for you, so better you don’t make them wait for it more.” His manager states and comes out of the car. He smiles before coming down. His friends always were kind and so cherish him. They always were in his side in the best or worst times in the professional or ordinary times of his life and warming his heart up to go on and be the best. He always had a good and happy time with them, so tonight will be one of those good memories too.

He walks into the club's hall, following his manager. Suddenly lights and sparklers all around the hall turn on with a loud voice of crowd in there, singing the happy birthday song for him. His friends holding a big cake in their hands, his backup dancers are clapping and singing so happily, even his hairstylists and makeup artists are there to celebrate this wonderful night with him.

There is a cute chubby white rabbit on that light blue creamy cake with a big “happy birthday”, plus 2 little candles. He looks like a happy baby, standing right there and watching his friends and that creamy cake with a big cute grin on his face. He likes creams on the cake more than all of it so there is no wonder why he tries to take some creams from it even before blowing on the candles. He tastes his creamy finger with giggles as sweet as the cake flavor and finally, blows the candles with the ending of the happy birthday song.

Everyone makes noise for this big little boy and he looks incredibly happy. But it didn’t take too long because he hears a question reminding him of some fears.

“What did you wish before blowing on candles?” Minhyuk asks and makes his smiles almost disappear. By the way, he tries to hold it on and pretends as nothing happened. He had no wish on his mind before, but when he asked it, one word just passes from his thoughts. He surreptitiously wishes his fears be gone and stop hurting his feelings more.

“Nothing. I already got everything I want and I need, like best friends and going on billboard charts.” He says but it mostly smells like a lie.

“Yes, you make everyone jaws drop with your songs and concerts. You are one of the best male solo artists now. We are so proud of you bro.” Shownu says, putting his hand on his shoulder so proudly. But while he was appreciating him, another bro comes up with some annoying words.

“But now, living alone must be hard and boring, right hyung?” Changkyun asks and makes keeping that fake smile even harder. Now they were sitting around the table and start eating some piece of cake. He just drops his head down, knowing they are waiting for his words to know if he is doing well alone? So he has to answer it and stop making them consider that.

“It was hard at first and I was nervous about everything because I always had you guys around and now I have to take it all alone but I tried to take control. I’m fine now, don’t worry about me.” He scrambles at his best but it doesn’t look like if it works. That just turns to a switch on for his friends that are close to him as his dear little brothers show their feelings about his empty place at home and talking about some old memories. Memories are tasting bitter-sweet now. He will always keep them deep down in his heart and never forget or leave them but he can’t deny he does miss those days too. Sometimes, the world is just too cruel but we have to go on like him.

Only some minutes later, space just gets back on a fun and happy night. Everything is ready for having a good night out of all idol hustle life and just be young, wild, and free for everyone, but him. He just sits there alone, watching his friends dancing around or flirting with some of the girls at the party. He is rolling down on his thoughts and even didn’t notice the loud song in the club until he finds his ears are reacting as a female voice volume up. He gives his glance to the source of the voice, to the canter of attention on the little stage in front of the hall.

Some girls are singing and dancing there but one of them is the main vocal. Her voice is strong and will stay in your mind forever but it’s not just about that. She has 2 big dark beautiful eyes full of little stars. It’s kinda impossible to do not stare at her, with her black short hair, bright smiles while a red danger color has painted her lips and a shiny black short decollete dress hugs her craved body so tight. She makes sure that every girl in the party feels nervous about losing their men over her.

Hoeseok finds her looking at him back but there was a male familiar voice to steal his attention and give it to the owner of it.

“She’s pretty.” It’s Hyungwon, standing beside him from how god knows long minutes before and he didn’t notice his presence.

“y-Yes. But I was just watching the show like others.” He tries to protect himself, clearing his throat to make his voice goes right into Hyungwon's ears and don’t cause any misunderstanding. But it’s like Hyungwon is already into another thought of reality as he smiles with some special meanings to his friend.

“She’s a new friend of ours so we decided to introduce you to her too. This club belongs to her.” Hyongwon explains more about that female fatal who is still watching them with no shame on her wild eyes. Hoseok only shakes his head as he got the information and decides to drop his head because he is already choking with a clumsy feel boiling inside of him and he doesn’t want it to jump out with a blush on his face.

He just wants his night to go as well with no drama or any chaotic issues but it's freaking hard to focus on himself while that female voice is feeling ticklish in his ears like a magical spell to take him back and watch how mysterious she can be. But no, he is not one of those types of boys who are looking for pretty sexy girls to add some fun to their life. He just minds his own business and stays away from all troubling shits. He goes on his way.

Fortunately, songs finished and noises calm down but it doesn't mean party night is over. He is just pleased that voice is gone, so he can keep himself down easily, but it's like everything is out of his control tonight. Because while he is getting successful on taking good enough self-control, he hears Changkyun is greeting so warm to someone new-coming in the crow and automatically feels anxious rush in his bloodlines.

Before he tries to look at the new one, that familiar damage control female voice plays in his ears again. It's her, now closer and even more dangerous than what she seemed from the top of that little stage. She's perfectly a red light alert of danger to any man who is not about to get in deadly troubles, but also her bright smile pushes any buttons to make keeping any good controls impossible. He's not that crazy or even drunk to do any weird act, but he just feels he can't keep his eyes on himself when she is around. That girl is no good for his health because his heartbeat is already rose so damn fast and its pumping voice fills up his ears. He can't hear others' voices when they talk and laugh with her and her friends, until he feels Hyungwon's hand on his shoulder, saving him from a feeling like a coma with open eyes.

“I’m Chae Honey. Nice to meet you.” He only sees that girl in front of himself, offering her hand and introducing herself with a light smile on his red lips. Maybe he is all mesmerized by this foreign girl who has a face almost close to Korean cute babies but he still knows how should be polite or just try to keep himself together and push himself to DO NOT look like a boy who didn’t see any other girls in his life before.

“I’m Lee Hoseok, as might you know my name already, and nice to meet you too.” He says with a simple smile and tries to look confident enough. He secretly hopes they don’t see his clear embarrassing symptoms, as red cheeks or stupid look smiles. He has no idea what's wrong with him now because clearly he was around many beautiful girls before and he usually didn’t give a flying fuck, so what's different now?

“Oh, of course, I know you.” She states with a bigger grin. Her friends are already giggling behind her and whispering things between themselves. She tries to join them, but she didn’t even bother to keep her voice as a whisper to say “He’s too cute, isn’t he?”

And he just finds himself turning to their funny entertainment for rest of the night. This is so fucking embarrassing. They easily sit together and raise a toast for his birthday but intenlligibly, he just smiles and apologizes because he can’t join them for the peach champagne. He doesn’t like to drink while he knows it will catch him only on 2 shots and he will make himself even more ashamed in front of others. No thanks, He prefers to stay away as much as it's possible from them and rolls down on his thoughts' gray clouds.

But it didn't take too long. His friends want to enjoy and use all of their time with girls, music, and alcohol. What he doesn’t want to do. Why the fuck even he is here now for? It was like a torture on birthday's night before they leave, but when the last one, Shownu, just left and let him be alone with that damage control girl, it just turns to a perfect slowly death to him. The best he can do now is just stare at his feet and play with his glass of orange juice.

But he doesn’t know, the more he tries to be invisible, the more he attracts her attention to his shy behaves. She watches every move of him. His fingers gently dancing around on edge of glass between his hands, his nervous eyes, the way he moves neurotically his legs on the floor. He looks so cute to be able NOT To stare. It's rude but she just can't help.

“You are acting so awkward.” She says, while she keeps her big tempting eyes on him and drinks the last sip of her champagne. Almost makes him jump of his seat, surprised by her words. It wasn't hard for her to catch him up and he knows it completely, but he doesn’t want to be that easy.

“Excuse me?” He tries in his way to show things differently, hoping it works out and confuses her. But she didn't change her mind even for one second and just smirks. Like she already has read his mind and knows everything. What a dangerous lady!

“I’ve seen lots of boys and big men in my life and you are not like any of them around me. You are feeling so uncomfortable from that first moment you saw me. What’s the problem? I’m just wondering.” She lets her empty glass rest freely alone on the table and pulls herself closer to him, to make sure he hears every word she spells with her tongue. But it makes him even more nervous. Any move of her, even a simple breath and even that sweet scent of her, makes him nervous. She is so harmful to him.

“I’m just surprised by all this show because I was on my way home and suddenly I saw myself here. I apologize if I made you feel bad because of my behavior. I’m just tired.” He explains as best as he could, hoping he just leave him to be and find another fun company of her own for rest of the night, but she doesn’t want to go anywhere. He catches her eyes already. Rabbit on a damn shit trap.

“Yes, but it’s not for working too much until the morning.” She says with a smirk that makes her look even more devilish. He watches her like she's the real Satan and just comes on the earth to deceives him and makes him do horrible things. But the fear in his eyes only causes a beautiful light tone laugher of her.

“Don’t look at me like I’m a witch or something. I just know that kind of tiredness. And for your knowledge, I’ve seen lots of celebrities here and talked to them more often too.” She apprises to him about the truth of her. Might it help him relax and tries to have some fun.

“I don’t know what are you looking for on me, lady.” His words come out so cold like ices on a glass of whiskey, audibly talking to her about letting him go, but will she give up? absolutely not!

“Honestly nothing because you look like a statue of Michelangelo but only made of glass and I can see everything without even bother to ask.” She giggles silently after saying those words, mostly looks like saying she kinda gets into him already, but just even he can take the point? Not at all!

“I'm trying to make you take it easy.” So she tries to talks at an easier level of flirting.

“Yes. But I don’t need that ma'am.” And there we go again with Hoseok and his words from another level of speaking to fuck off bitch topic but in a polite way. He even doesn’t want to take a chance for himself to know a girl who is showing green lights to him, to come into her world.

“Ain’t you prince charming baby boy? Because you look like a gentleman jumping out of one of the fairy tails.” She speaks of that fact which is saying, the more you push and the more I'll follow.

“Are you trying to flirt with me?” He asks with a suspicious look on his face. Of course he found that out from the very beginning but he doesn’t want to accept it. Even now he hopes more kicking that he found her point on her face, would makes her to get off. But mostly and far from his hopefully wishes to all dead and living Gods, she looks like saying to herself ,,GOD! He finally finds out what's going on,,.

“Maybe. Just for finding what’s the problem of those red cheeks and wet hands?” She states and wants him to know his nervous acts are so clear and there's no need to try harder to hide them because he simply can not. But the ice-cold-look boy keeps his glances away and leaves her only with no words.

“Maybe a female Hitler girlfriend?” She tries to guess. When he doesn’t want to play with her, she continues it alone.

“Ah no!” He says in an annoyed tone. He looks so done already with her but why just doesn’t leave and run away to save himself from this devil murmuring in his ears now? “No, I have no girlfriend.” He just says to make her stop.

“Interesting big boy!” She says while thinking about other possibilities. “So may I ask why no girlfriend?” she tries again with another guess.

“Because I have a very busy lifestyle.” He lazily answers, almost giving up on her little game.

“OH God, please! Be honest with a girl like me who knows 99% of idols has their lovers.” She says in disbelief. In her thoughts, a man just like him never can be alone in his life because he is already too perfect to be untouched by no girl's hands. Girls are ready to kill for him, she can swear.

“Maybe I’m just on that 1%.” He states against her judging tone and raises an eyebrow. Now he looks like that devil which he used to imagine her in disguise.

“People on that 1% are only looking for a good partner, so do you?” She continues on her explains about what she almost experienced with people around her and at the end, when she indirect points at what scares that big boy in front of her the shit out, she just killed all the warming up space between herself and him.

When he just drowns in his silence again, she tries this time to read his facial expressions. “There is something that you are hiding from everyone, Lee Hoseok.” She speaks about what she can see behind his eyes. There's a secret. A truth is untold to anyone.

As to keep saying no words is not a good way to reject lady devil away, he gets another idea. “How old are you?” And he asks to start it with a question.

“It’s a dangerous question to ask from a lady, big boy.” She says perfectly amazed by this change in his voice and sentence.

“I just wonder because your beautiful face can’t talk honestly and your tongue is about to have over 30.” So now he tries his best to use some of his flirting skills. He and everyone around know he is one of the best boys on it, so it's better he uses it now.

“Oh my my! I’m only 22.” She says almost raising her volume and puts a hand on her chest as he hurts her with his mean words. Acting just like a drama queen. That looks funny and makes him smile.

“If I had a sister, she could be your age.” He playfully talks before takes the last sip of orange juice on his glass.

“But people don’t flirt with their sisters, so I dare you to call me sisi now.” She wiggles her eyebrows while talking back in the same tone as his. Causing a warm laugher between them like they are not strangers anymore and it feels right.

He feels better now around her. He likes the power she holds and how she is full of positive energy even while he kept pushing her away and tries to break her heart politely, but he couldn't. He just can't break a girl like her or maybe better say because this is her. An especial one.

As the silence back, Honey finds some heavy glances on themselves. It was Hoseok friends, hopefully watching them and wishing under their whimpers between each other that Hoseok finally decides to move on and step up to another level of his life. A new thing and new feels.

“They’re thinking you are finally starting something.” She calmly tells him what she already found from their way to watch them and trying hard to do not act like they are watching their most exciting favorite TV shows.

“Why is that so matter?” His annoyed tone backs when he looks up at his friends and makes them immediately turn around and do anything to look normal as much as possible.

“Because they want you to be happy.” Honey tries to make him understand that his friends only want him to have a life for himself.

Before this party and even the time that they all decided to plane a big gift for him, Honey and Hyongwon and sometimes with other boys, they talked about how Hoseok lives as Wonho on stage and mostly he forgets the Hoseok part of his life. That personal part, that part which should be full of his things, not fans, not friends, not even his family but only him and what he enjoys doing. They always said how he cares about others more than himself and it's not hard to find him completely lost in thoughts to how to fix things when someone is talking about its own problems.

Secretly, boys thought that probably Honey is the one who can change Hoseok's life with her special powers of being a female alpha. They just wanted to give a chance to their best and kind friend to get some happiness for himself. But this all wasn't like Honey didn't know anything about the secret plane.

She knew Hoseok or that sexy Wonho always shinning on TV or everywhere else he appears with his god-like body shape. She silently had a little crush or some ticklish feel for him but she wasn't sure to look perfect enough to be with an amazing complete man like him.

This female fatal always tries to look so incredible and shine better than other girls around, but on another side, she always asks herself is she enough for everything? Is she good at what she's doing? And in her own eyes, no matter how much she tries, she's never all enough. Maybe it's all because she never had someone simply told her that she's fine. She doesn't need to push herself too much to get through. People always expect too much and they don't understand how it can hurt.

Suddenly, she finds herself drowning in staring at him like she is all about to appreciate one of the best and awesome works of art just here next to her. He is tired and needs to sleep, so she thinks it's better to make the night shorter and let him to finds his peace for what is left of the dark hours of the night.

“I have to wait till they back and we give you this. But I think before you get more awkward in front of everyone, better I do it now.” she states before taking off a little envelope from her handbag.

“This is your birthday gift.” Then she explains what's up about it, keeping the envelope close to him, expecting he takes it sooner and opens it.

“Two tickles of a flight, straight to Jeju Island for a break.” As he takes the envelope and slowly trying to open it, she couldn't help but leaks what's the surprise on it so then sees how his face changed to a shocked look.

“But I can’t go to a break now. I have a lot of stuff to do here.” He disaccords the idea of what they planned for him.

“They got your back and just want you to relax your mind only for a week.” She tries to comfort his worries and tells him to go and just have fun.

He looks at tickets in his hand. He knows he needs that to relax his mind for some days and only let his body and soul rest in peace to get enough energy to come back and work even harder. Indeed, he finished his promotions of his new album just some days ago and a great online concert after that, so he can accept it and just go. But when he just looks at that extra ticket, he feels bad even more that what it was. He doesn't want it. Better he chocks himself with working damn hard and pass out in late hours at night till tearing up every sunset in lonely holidays.

“You have to choose who you like to take with yourself for this trip.” She talks and makes it even more difficult to him. That much hard till he can't just deny that sad truth in his life.

“But I’m alone.” He says, mostly like a painful whimper and drops his head down. This view just aches Honey's heart. She doesn't want to see him like that.

“Any crush or someone you were into and you couldn’t tell it to her or even him to be with you?” She desperately tries to remind him what is not even exist in his life. And soon, when his expression even didn't change on a good way, she gives up. She feels guilty now because she sees herself as a bullying little girl at kindergarten who holds on a poor little boy and torturing him by the fact that he is all alone with no friends. She feels like a monster now.

“Ok! It’s up to you baby boy. You have your time till Friday night to find someone and stop being alone after all these years. Don’t you think?” She just says fast and gets up without waiting a second for his conceivable answer. But her words light his mind up this time. She's right. He's so sick to be alone, to wake up alone, to eat alone and even crying alone. Enough is enough to him.

He takes a deep breath and rise his head up to look her in the eyes, but it was like she was just that devil he thought about before and now she's all gone. Fully disappeared. But he doesn't want to give up. After all these times, he feels different around a girl and he can't deny his inner tendencies. His secret desires that used to scare him the hell out now feels not that bad and he knows it's all because of this fearless wild woman. He can't let all of this go so starts to search around between the crowd.

His friends are coming to him just by the time that they saw he gets lonely again. Almost disappointed in that thought he lost his chance to get a good girl in his birthday's night. Minhyuk climbs up to say some sarcastic words but Hoseok is faster. "Didn't you see where Honey goes?" He asks without even thinking twice and lets his friends confused. They also search around themselves to find her, but mostly they are curious why he is searching over her now after that long conversation between themselves? They want to know all about it.

"Does everything go well or ..." Hyongwon asks but he cuts his words off, his eyes moving between people faces one by one. "I'm fine. I'm about to leave and thank you for all of this but ..." He pauses at his words as his eyes catch her in front of the bar, ordering a drink for her terrible feels.

"I need to thank her too." He ends his sentence with some words which are meaning differently in this situation. Passing his friends so fast and almost running to the girl who is busy with choosing a heavy drink for herself.

She thanks the barman with a simple smile on his face which is gone almost when barman is turning around. She takes a deep breath and wants to spin around and see if he still looks upset or not, but when she just moves, almost jerk off with seeing him in only some inch distance with her face and body.

“Come with me.” He talks so speedy and she is not sure even if she hears him right with the loud music playing in the club.

“w-What?” She asks, looking like a lost little girl and completely eyes confused, do not to know where to focus. But he seems so serious and in rush.

“I know I look so rude and weird now but I think I want you to come with me.” He keeps himself down a bit and explains what he means. Now watching her with hope in his eyes to she accepts.

“So … I have to pack my things up.” She says confusedly. Not sure even what she's doing. Maybe it was what she waited for, but surely not like that. Anyway it looks cute so then why not?

“See you later.” He says with a fainted color smile on his lips. Probably thinking about he could save himself but also there's a voice in back of his head, saying terrifying words about how he can even control himself when he gets alone with this girl?

“Saturday morning on 9 AM.” She mentions date and time written on tickets. Low key saying that she spends a lot time to stare at those tickets wishing she be that lucky one who can stay with him on his unexpected vacation.

“Good night.” He says quickly as he sees his friends coming there. He was in pressure enough tonight from in and outside so better to run away now and let them to guess any dramatic things around what happened tonight.

“Yeah ... Good night.” She whispers, as watching his perfect back going out of her club, leaving her alone in shock and a bunch of questions which are coming to her and she doesn't know even how the fuck she supposes to tell them.

_____________________________________

Finally!!!!! I dare myself to upload it and there we go 😉

I hope you guys enjoy and don't care about errors lol 😆

Please let me know if you like that or not 🙏🏻🙈 sorry I'm so curious and excited for this fiction as it's my first one in English so ... Yeah just let me know 😅

Thank you guys 💕💕

#wonho wenee #wonho smut #lee wonho #shin wonho #wonho scenarios #wonho imagines #wonho fic #wonho fanfiction #wonho monsta x #monsta x #kpop fanfic #kpop soloist #kpop smut

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

Hello, hope you are doing well. Sending a bear hug🤗

So, I am on a trip right now and I was reading Sunflower Sutra by Allen Ginsberg...I anyways started with a giggle because it just reminded me of Sunflower Vol 6. I mean Larry doesn't leave you...once you put your larry lense on, everything somehow just reminds you of them....but then that was it...

I was reading it, and then at 4-5 instances i was like...🤨🤨 Harry has this in anyway influenced you? 😂.....because I didn't get into it with that mindset but I still got stuck at some points....and I was like either I am going nuts or Harry has again blown my mind with his literary and art influences and references....The poem is wonderfully layered and touches on so many themes...is RAW and dense but also 🥺🥺 so there's a lot to unpack....( I am still sitting with it but thought maybe you would want to indulge as well😂😂)

I am not saying it has for sure influenced Harry but it's funny how it does have connections in very weird ways....anyways even if it doesn't, its a wonderful piece of poetry to explore if you haven't read it and would want to.

Also I tried searching, if it has been talked about, as much as I could, on my phone because I am not carrying my laptop. While at it just wanted to let you know I loved your Sunflower Vol 6 analysis. Amazing!! Thank you for it ♥️

lovely anon, you know where to find me with that beat generation shit :')

and yeah i agree, the larry lens never leaves you once you put it on, and i def see what you mean with this one

first of all the title: 'sunflower sutra' yeah that's some good harry-ass shit isn't it

then literally the first line: "I walked on the banks of the tincan banana dock" ffs

but here is where i can imagine harry reading and going "oh! that's going into the inspiration bank"

A perfect beauty of a sunflower! a perfect excellent lovely sunflower existence! a sweet natural eye to the new hip moon, woke up alive and excited grasping in the sunset shadow sunrise golden monthly breeze!

i've always loved the beats and their dirty down-to-earth weird-ass writing that you can only properly get through if you read it like you would rant it, almost. it's about being alive, always. and if fine line isn't about being alive, i know nothing.

this poem in particular - if my interpretation can be trusted - basically contains the lesson to not let our circumstances make us believe we're something we're not. the sunflower in question grows by a train track and is all covered in soot ("all that civilization spotting your crazy golden crown") and has somehow forgotten it's a sunflower, all dusty and limp and sad. but the flies still buzz around it like it's a real flower, and the poet sure sees its original beauty!

so then he ends off like this:

Poor dead flower? when did you forget you were a flower? when did you look at your skin and decide you were an impotent dirty old locomotive? the ghost of a locomotive? the specter and shade of a once powerful mad American locomotive?

You were never no locomotive, Sunflower, you were a sunflower!

And you Locomotive, you are a locomotive, forget me not!

So I grabbed up the skeleton thick sunflower and stuck it at my side like a scepter,

and deliver my sermon to my soul, and Jack’s soul too, and anyone who’ll listen,

—We’re not our skin of grime, we’re not dread bleak dusty imageless locomotives, we’re golden sunflowers inside, blessed by our own seed & hairy naked accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black formal sunflowers in the sunset, spied on by our own eyes under the shadow of the mad locomotive riverbank sunset Frisco hilly tincan evening sitdown vision.

yeah that lesson sure hits close to home doesn't it

well. i love all of it. the beats aren't for everyone, i know, but..... my heart soars with this clashing of worlds. thank you, kind anon <3

me and who and also when

#kind anon #sunflower vol. 6 #the beats #BEAR HUG BACK BTW!

[starlightxsvt]

Sunrises || Choi Seungcheol au

Pairing: Seungcheol x Female reader

Genre: apocalypse au, slice of life (?), angst, kinda fluff, some action

Warning: zombies, death and stuffs

"Thank you for saving me that day." You murmur to the male sittig next to you.

Seungcheol, in return says nothing, focusing on peeling the apple in his hand.

It was the third day after he saved you and gave you a place to stay. The man didn't offer his name or any other information - though you figured it out from craved wood that hung on his room's door saying, 'Seungcheol's room' - neither asked yours but you enlightened him with it. He doesn't talk much and doesn't like to be talked much but you kept your mouth open anyway.

It was about two months since the strange virus spread and begun the apocalypse and you were lucky enough to have stumbled upon Seungcheol.

"I really mean it." You whisper. "I'm new in this place. Believe it or not but I moved here literally a few days before the apocalypse started."

You didn't get any response to that either.

"Do you have any family? I don't. My mother died long ago and my father's an addict so I basically ran from him."

More silence.

You take in his features which are too concentrated on peeling the apple. His brows were knit to a frown and he chewed on his lower  plump lip.

You swallow, "Who's Sunghoon?" You know you probably shouldn't have asked the question but curiosity got the best of you. You saw the name hanging on one of the rooms which was apparently locked.

He looks up at you, an angry look on his face. "I swear to any higher being up there, if you don't shut your mouth I am going to feed you to the corpses by myself." He stands up murmuring, "This is why I don't like helping people." 

You watch his retreating figure walk inside the house and you sigh, leaning against the apple tree and watching the sunset.

A week later

You thanked the heavens everyday for making you stumble upon a guy who's a farmer. Seungcheol had his own produce, a small field of rice and corns and a few apple and lemon trees. It was safe to say these were more than enough in a time like this.

The electricity is unavailable most of the time but it takes some surprise visits every few days for a few hours. That's when you and Seungcheol wash up and store water.

Your days go by rather quickly thanks to the neat system Seungcheol seems to have established. He had things run so smoothly that it was pretty unbelievable the world was going through an apocalypse right now. You help him around the house, cleaning things up, watering the crops and such. He had his own rules - don't waste water or tissues, don't eat too much, don't talk too much. You tried to follow them at your best but you couldn't stop yourself from starting a little conversation more often that which were only met with silence or threats. But so far, Seungcheol was a guy nice enough and you counted your blessings for meeting him.

A few more days later

When you ran from your place you only took your female necessities. Those were dumb things compared to others who ran away with guns and foods.

You sat in the guest room Seungcheol offered you, thinking about what you were gonna do after these necessities were finished.

Suddenly Seungcheol appears knocking on your door before entering. You turn to look at him as he takes a seat. "We'll be heading out tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"There's a super shop a mile away from here. We're going there."

"Why?"

"Why do you think, smartass? We need to stock up on tissue paper and dry foods. I visited there a couple times after the apocalypse started. Apparently the government and NGO's provide foods and stuffs there for the survivors out here."

"Really?Then where are they? We need to find them. They probably built a shelter, we can go live there."

"Do you think it's that simple?"

"Huh?"

Seungcheol sighs. "They are moving in their own pace, okay? The shelters are probably full now with survivors. When their capacity increases they'll let us know. I have a friend who works at the NGO. If he's okay he'll come for me."

"When was the last time you spoke with him?"

"On the day of the breakout."

"I see."

"Prepare yourself for tomorrow. Since you are living in my place, you are coming with me." He stands up to leave.

"I'm not a wuss, you know." You roll your eyes.

"We'll see."

"Yea. And you know, it didn't hurt to speak with me! We could talk more often Mr. Grumpy!" You call after him.

"Shut up."

The next day

"Listen carefully, don't waste anytime. Just grab the things you need and walk into the car." Seungcheol says parking the car in front of the convenience store.

You nod and watch him load his gun and tuck it behind him.

The store is a mess. Broken pieces and bits of metals everywhere. You both walk in and look for the things you came for. Luck seems to be on your side as you find a couple of dry food packets, some toilet papers and some pads -though they are not the best quality, you have to make do with these. You quickly put them on the tote bag you brought with yourself and turned around.

Seungcheol was on the opposite Isle looking through selves for God knows what. You walk out to the front of the store and see and notice taped there.

Food will be supplied here every week along with other necessities. If you are a survivor please hang in there. Once we manage more accommodation, we will come for you. Regarding the infected, our research says they are deaf, so please use that to your advantage.

You turn around to tell Seungcheol about this but instead you meet the eyes of a corpse. It stands there, a mess of blood and gunk as your soul leaves your body.

It approaches you, making garbled sounds and you take back a few steps. From behind him you see Seungcheol approaching will a huge piece of metal rod.

The corpse doesn't turn back to the noises Seungcheol's feet makes while approaching you through the mess, instead it's focus is solely on you, ready to devour. They're really deaf, huh. It opens its mouth ready to chunk a piece of your body when Seungcheol hits him in the head and bangs a couple more times to make sure it's immobile.

"Quick, get in the car. More of them might be around here."

You two dash back to the car, carrying your goods and he starts the car quickly. You look behind to see more of the corpses appearing from around the store. Dusk was approaching soon which meant the corpses will be more alive and ferocious.

The car speeds through the empty road as you clutch onto your tote bag. "Did you know they were deaf?"

"You didn't?" He throws at you. You roll your eyes at him.

"Thanks for saving me again."

"Maybe next time I won't."

Another couple weeks or so later

"I'm going to the supermarket."

"At this hour? It's almost dusk. Are you crazy?"

You watch as Seungcheol puts on the necessary protection on his arms and legs and checks his gun.

"They people from NGO deliver foods during this time since there is no survivors out at this hour. I'm gonna go there and try to meet the delivery guy. Also I need to refill my car."

"Why?"

"To pass a message."

"To your friend who works at the NGO?"

"Yes. I need to let him know that I'm alive. Then he'll come for me."

"What if he's dead?"

Seungcheol says nothing. You forbid him to leaves a few more times but he completely ignores your pleas saying he has to take a  chance. Before he is out the door, he hands you his gun. "Keep this with you. Until now, they corpses have never been around here so just stay inside the house and you'll be safe. I don't know if you have your memories after you becoming a corpse but if you see me coming here looking like one of them, shoot me."

What? You swallow as your heart tugs.

"Stop talking like that. You don't need to leave. We've plenty of food. We'll get by. Don't do this Seungcheol."

"Remember what I said." He speaks, ignoring you and turns around.

"Wait." You call, tears pooling in your eyes. "At least take the gun with you. You'll need it more than me. Besides I dont even know how to use it."

Seungcheol looks at you for a beat before taking a gun and giving you a small smile - the first one he ever gave you.

You watch him leave as the sky turn in hues of purple and black.

You spend a restless night, sitting in your room watching the sky and thinking about Seungcheol. You think of how he opened up a bit more in the last few days and the moments you shared.

Sunghoon was my brother. He was in the military. We were outside, celebrating his discharge when the infection spread. The corpses got him while he was trying to save me. I failed him.

I waited for him for a long time, thinking he'd come back. He didn't.

Y/n, if I don't return by dawn don't wait for me.

As the night passed anxiety got the best of you. This is it. I lost him. He's gone. I'll have to survive now, alone.

You were about to have a break down as you saw the first streak of light spread through the sky. You walked to the roof of his farmhouse watching the colors in the sky. You start to accept the fact that you're alone from now on. That is until you see Seungcheol's jeep approaching towards the house.

You held your breath and didn't move your position, waiting to see him come out.

You thought sunsets were pretty until you saw Seungcheol's tired figure getting out of the jeep, his eyes meeting yours and flashing a smile, the brightest one probably, at the crack of dawn.

Sunrises were pretty too. Even prettier perhaps.

A/N: Tbh I wasn't so confident in this one but oh well, here it is. Also thank you for loving my previous work, it really means a lot. As for this one, if it doesn't flop, maybe I'll write a part 2 👀.Anyway thanks again! 💖

#seventeen #seventeen fanfic #seventeen seungcheol #seventeen scenarios #seventeen fic #seventeen imagines #seventeen icons #svt imagines #svt scenarios #svt fluff #choi seungcheol #svt scoups #seungcheol imagines #seungcheol scenarios #svt fanfic #svtcreations #svt #svt seungcheol #kpop fanfic #kpop imagines #zombie apocolypse au #apocalypse #apocalyptic fiction #seventeen drabbles

[colorseeingchick]

Red Rose, White Rose

Summary: He’ll do anything he has to, in order to make her happy. 

Warnings: Hanahaki AU, main character death, angst 

Word Count: 2k

A/N: I know it never mentions Tamaki by name, mainly because this piece was written to be any ‘him’ you feel fit. So if you see this for a different character, that’s okay too, I’m curious who you see so just let me know :) I hope you all enjoy <3

He settled down into his seat, hair falling over his eyes, protecting him from the world- if I can’t see them, they can’t see me. 

He only peaked out from the side of his hair when he heard her sweet laugh resonate in the room.

She was like the sun. She was a breath of fresh air after being in a stuffy room. Bounce locks of chocolate brown hair swaying from side to side as she tossed her head, mocking the rough boys who playfully called out to her, making small talk. 

She could talk to anyone. Everyone was captivated by her charms, including him. 

He didn’t have many friends. None, to be exact. Family was, in name, there. But also questionable. All he had were the hills of greenery and wild flowers to roam and hop in- his safe space. 

Winter months like these were hard for him. But that’s why she was all the more radiant on days like these. 

He never talked to her. But sitting next to her, he heard all her conversations- and through listening, his heart fell deeper and deeper in love. 

She loved rainbows and sunsets. Her favorite food was potato pancakes. She loved listening to music and dancing. She was funny, kind, charismatic. 

His soft soul never stood a chance. Sitting by the window in his attic room, his mind drifted to thoughts of her dancing and laughing, watching a sunset with him in the embrace of summer’s warmth. 

He sought happiness. He sought bliss. To him, she was exactly that. Everything he didn’t have. Life was bearable with dreams of that future. Would life with those dreams coming true be enjoyable? 

He was willing to take the risk to find out. What did he have to lose? Life had been a neutral experience so far. There was no joy for him to lose. 

How should he confess? He wanted to do everything right.

Suddenly, a memory of a conversation she had came to mind. 

“I love white roses! They’re my favorite,” she told her friend while a boy leaned in on their conversation. 

“Oh yeah? Why white?”

“Because they’re different! And special. You don’t see them as often. Everyone likes red roses. But white, its different. And isn’t that which is unique so beautiful?” 

Having always seen himself as the odd one out, this had made his heart flutter. Being different, standing out- it was liked by somebody. That was the first time he had felt accepted in his grey, dull life. 

It was with this memory that he decided he would confess to her with a white rose, at the end of spring-the last day before break would start. It would be perfect. 

***********************

Scouring his hills high and low, he sought a white rose. Despite all the time he had spent buried in the underbrush of the natural terrain, he never noticed that roses were not among the flowers that blossomed. 

He quickly sped away to the marketplace once he realized he wouldn’t be able to find a rose before school had started. The search began at sunrise, but the sun had made its way up, comfortably resting above, warmth brushing earth. 

In town, his shoulders loosened upon seeing a bundle of white roses out at a flower shop’s stall. His breath caught, however, when he saw the price. 

He barely had enough money for lunch, which was very little as is. But he couldn’t even afford a single white rose. He turned his head, scanning for another shop that would carry flowers. No such luck. 

Why are they so expensive?

“I’m sorry, son. Roses are such a rarity around here, and white roses are even rarer. That’s why they’re priced like that,” the old man running the shop kindly explained. 

His shoulders sunk. What was he going to do now? His chest began to tighten. His breath felt like it was caught in his throat. He coughed, hoping to clear his throat and be able to breathe better. 

Was this panic? He had never felt anything as intense as this before. He didn’t like it. 

“I think you have enough money for a red rose, how about that?” The old man chimed. 

“T-thank you, but only white will d-do. Its her f-favorite.” 

“Its for a girl, huh? You really like her?”

“Yessir. I d-d-do.” 

“Tell you what then, You pay me for a red rose, but you take a white one. Sound alright?” 

His face lit up, elated. This elderly man’s kindness had saved him. This small act of kindness made him feel warmth all over. He wondered what other kindness’s the world had to offer. 

“Yes, thank you sir!”

He put all his money on the table, and gently picked out the brightest, biggest blossom of the bunch. Holding it gently, he decided to hide it in his backpack carefully once he got to school. He wouldn’t have any money for lunch, but he didn’t mind at all. 

“Good luck, son. I can tell she really means a lot to you, if you were so set on getting her favorite.” 

A blush settled over his face, and for the first time in a long time, he smiled. 

************

At long last, the day had finally ended. Jitters flooded his legs and fingertips. His time to confess had finally come. 

He saw her, brown hair gently being tossed over her shoulder as she packed her bags, her friends waiting at the doorway. 

Fingers trembling, his bangs hid his flustered expression, pulling the white rose out from the top of his bag. Heart pounding out of his chest, he approached her seat. 

At first, upon his approach, she didn’t acknowledge him. Perhaps she didn’t notice him. Should he say something?

“...H-Hi.”

She puts on a shocked expression, as if she didn’t see him there the whole time. 

“Oh, uh, hi…”

He had her attention -- now what? All words had escaped him. 

“I just wanted to say thank you. In my boring life, you have made it worth living. Your laugh is like the song of an angel, and your smile is like the sun on a rainy day. I know we’ve never talked, but admiring you from afar has kept me going for so long. I wanted to be able to show you how much you mean to me. I want to bring you all the joy and bliss you bring me. I want to be happy with you. Not just because of you.” 

But as I said, all words had escaped him. 

“Th-this is f-for you… I kn-now white roses are your f-favorite.” There it was. His stutter. It always got the better of him, but at a time like this?

Though only a few words, the action said everything it needed to. 

The flower shook in his hands, awkwardly outstretched. 

“Um… I’m sorry but ah- I don’t really like white roses. Red roses are the prettiest, I think.” She gave an uncomfortable smile. 

He didn’t notice though. Everything had gone blurry. 

“I’m so s-s-s-sorry.” It was the only thing he could say before his feet naturally started to carry him out the door, past her friends who had watched the nightmare play out. 

“Oh my God did he actually ask her out?”

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard him talk.”

“Poor thing, she could’ve at least taken the rose- I saw that they coasted an arm and a leg. I feel bad…” 

But the comments all fell on deaf ears. He felt like he was drowning. His feet that took him out the door sped up, carrying him to his hilly field- his best hope at a safe space. It was windy that spring day.

His mind wasn’t working. There was only pounding in his chest and deep gasps for air as he crashed, resting against his ‘nap tree.’ The flower was still in his hand. Some of the petals had fallen. 

He sat and thought. Should he go and try and exchange the rose for a red one? No. she wouldn’t take it anyways. It wasn’t the rose that wasn’t good enough for her. It was him. 

Its okay. He could just go on admiring her from afar, right? Nothing new. It didn’t matter. But why did his heart feel like it was on fire? Why were tears stinging his eyes and staining his cheeks? He coughed, seemingly incapable of catching his breath. 

He was heartbroken. That’s why. The one person he had invested so much of his heart and soul into wanted nothing to do with him. He could fantasize within the safety of the unknown, but now reality had knocked him down to earth. He was a lost cause. A sad, pathetic excuse of a person. Did he think he could really end up with her? Stupid. 

Sniffles, sobs, and coughs were covered with the sound of leaves and branches blowing in the wind. But the sniffles, sobs, and coughs all became more aggressive. 

In the midst of his breakdown, his eyes trained on the rose, now tear covered. Did she like white roses? Or red? Maybe she didn’t even like roses at all. Maybe everything was something he created for himself to pretend he knew her. Not that it mattered. He couldn’t afford any of it. 

But the though of a red rose haunted him. What if he had one of each? Lost in his thoughts, the physical pains of tears and coughs were overlooked. 

Suddenly, by some miracle, a red rose appeared in his hands to break his thoughts! It was a beautiful, bright red rose in full bloom. Upon first glance. 

He gently brushed the petal, only to watch the red smear. 

It was a white rose. 

The red was blood covering it. 

A wave of shock and fear flooded him. Where did it come from? His body answered as he heard a horrible wheezing sound. Coming from his mouth. 

A few petals only came up this time. But he knew. They were coming from him. As moments passed, the coughing only got worse. More and more red and white pearls fell from his mouth, blood dripping from the sides. 

The more he tried to breathe, the worse it got. White stained roses were all that surrounded him. 

To him, the worth of the flowers around him now exceeded the worth of his own life. 

“I wish I could’ve brought her as much happiness as these flowers would…”

He contemplated crawling home or to a hospital, but he decided against it. It would only give his parents a bill they couldn’t afford to pay, and its not like anyone would really miss him anyways. He accepted his fate. 

He would much rather take a nap against his nap tree in his only happy place. A nice long nap. 

His coughing became like white noise as he watched the sun set. As the air in his lungs were gradually replaced with thorny pearly white roses, he became light-headed, vision fading. Before the pink and orange sky disappeared for good, he swear he saw her, dancing in the field, smiling at him, one last time. He smiled as the world darkened. 

*******************

She watched the popular boy sit on the empty desk next to her, pulling out a large bouquet of white roses from behind him. She gasped, elated.

“My favorite!” She took them graciously. 

“But they’re so expensive. How could you afford them?” In the height of summer on their last day of school, she assumed the prices would still be high. 

The boy rubbed his neck. “Actually, I cut these roses myself. There’s this beautiful rose bush at the top of this hilly field, right under this huge oak tree. I don’t know how it got there, but it’s a really a sight to see.”

She smiled and gently smelled the roses. They smelled fresh

and metallic. 

But she dismissed it. 

“That’s wonderful. You should take me there, to that hill. I would love to see it myself.”

She giggled, gaze lost in the roses in her hands. 

“Thank you for these, really. White roses really make me so happy.”

#mha #my hero academia #bnha #boku no hero academia #mha imagines #bnha imagines #mha fics #bnha fics #mha fanfiction #bnha fanfiction #mha angst #bnha angst #mha hanahaki #bnha hanahaki #hanahaki au #amajiki tamaki #tamaki amajiki #amajiki angst #tamaki amajiki angst #bnha amajiki #mha amajiki #bnha tamaki amajiki #mha tamaki amajiki

[cheeriecherry]

Birds Of A Feather [2/7]

Hawks x Fem!Reader

Warnings: like, one swear

Part 2/7

It’s been a week since you started your new position at Hawks’ hero agency. It’s a nice workplace, very accommodating for the staff, and the sidekicks and interns you work with are friendly and sociable. But there’s still a little piece of you that’s bitter.

You appreciated the job, especially when you discovered what your monthly paycheck would be, but the whole place was just so damn...busy. If you’d known that you’d maintain your hectic lifestyle after moving to Japan, you never would’ve come in the first place.

On top of that, despite your presence being requested by the man himself, you’d yet to actually meet your new boss. Not a conversation, a text, a simple hello, or even a red feather. At this point, you were wondering if the guy even existed.

You decide to mull it over some more on your afternoon lunch hour. You find your usual seat in the staff lounge, and pull out a container of chicken curry.

“Hey Y/N! Hawks says he wants to see you in his office!”

You pause with a forkful of food halfway to your mouth, glancing over at the young sidekick who’d just bounced in. “Can it wait until after lunch?” you ask, hoping to at least finish your meal before dealing with whatever you were wanted for.

The sidekick looks sympathetic. “Sorry,” she says, “but I don’t think so. He asked me to tell you to bring your food…”

You sigh deeply, but thank her for passing the information on. Don’t shoot the messenger, and all that. You begrudgingly pack your things back up and bid farewell to the few people in the room, all of which are ominously quiet.

That didn’t bode well.

----

A few minutes later finds you outside Hawks’ office, balancing your lunch container in one hand while you knock on his doorframe with the other.

His door is wide open, and you can see him sitting at his desk, facing the window and the view of the city. He probably knew you were there before you knocked, but there was no harm in being polite… though he might appreciate the humour of you walking in like you owned the place.

“You wanted to see me, Boss?”

He spins around in his chair, a charming smile gracing his features. You wonder idly if he’d planned that little spiel, and if so, how long he’d been sitting like that for.

“That I did, chickadee! Pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable, eat with me.”

You do as you’re asked.

“Sorry for not seeing to you sooner. It’s been such a busy week, villains and disasters all over the place. I swear, I’ve been to every end of the country.”

You sit tidily on the chair, legs crossed and wings tucked up neatly behind you.

“I understand,” you tell him, “you’re number two, after all. You’re in high demand.”

Hawks smiles wider, but you get the feeling it’s lacking some genuity. You don’t call him out on it, though.

“That’s a relief,” he sighs, slouching back a little. “I looked into you a bit before I hired you, y’know? Gotta make sure you had a good track record, blah blah, PR crap, blah, anyways. The reports said you were a pretty easygoing person. I’m glad they were right!”

You pray he doesn’t notice the slight ruffle of your feathers. Easygoing? Is that what people thought of you? You supposed there were worse things to be known for, but you? Easygoing? Maybe you’d become an actress if the whole hero gig didn’t work out for you, if you’d fooled that many people.

Easygoing. Yeah right. Burnt out, exhausted, apathetic, those were all accurate descriptors. But fucking easygoing?! Hah.

“Hey, you alright, kid?”

You’re about to ask him what he means, to tell him you’re fine and completely unbothered, but your stomach has other plans. Right when you open your mouth to speak, a loud growl interrupts you, aggressively sounding in the quiet of the room.

His grin softens a bit, a touch more kindness apparent on his face. He’s concerned.

“I didn’t mean to take your lunch hour away,” he apologizes, “I had actually wanted to catch you earlier today, but you were on patrol. I figured it wouldn’t be very cool of me to approach you and get swarmed by fans. Not productive for conversation, that.”

You shrug. “I haven’t taken it personally.” In fact, you hadn’t taken it at all. He could have never spoken to you ever, and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. You were here to do your job, and anything else was an unguaranteed bonus.

“Anyways,” he pulls out a paper bucket of what looks like KFC, and pops the lid off, “eat up. Don’t need my favourite employee dropping out of the sky from exhaustion.”

He digs into his own food, and you take yours out.

“If exhaustion could do me in, I would have fallen out of the sky a long time ago,” you mumble, immediately afterwards spooning food into your face.

Hawks bites off a small piece of chicken. “Whadya mean?” And you curse yourself for forgetting he’s sensitive to sound.

You chew your food pensively, making sure to swallow before you speak (unlike him…). “It’s like. Okay. Wing quirks are pretty rare where I’m from, yeah? In my old job, I was the only airborne hero for five hundred kilometers. I got called all over the place, back and forth, never in one place for very long, almost never at home in my own bed. I was sort of...uh…”

“Spread thing?” he supplies.

You nod. “Spread thin. It wasn’t healthy for me. Anywhere that makes you grow to hate your own quirk can’t possibly be good for you.”

“Now hold up, chickadee,” he interrupts, leaning forward in his seat to rest his elbows on the desk. His eyes are wide and surprised, like he’s unable to fathom your words. “How could you possibly hate your own quirk?”

You think for a moment. “Hate is maybe a strong word,” you admit, “but there’s definitely some contempt there. Flying used to be my favourite passtime, y’know? The views, the wind, the sun, the silence. And then one day I woke up and thought ‘god, I hope they don’t make me fly today’.”

Hawks picks a little at his lunch, but is far to engrossed in your tale to pay much attention to it.

“Yikes,” he says.

“Yeah.”

You’re both quiet for a moment before you start speaking again.

“Two weeks after that happened, I moved here. Figured a change might be nice, good for my head, or whatever.”

“And how’s that working out?”

“I still hate flying.”

The conversation ebbs and flows after that, with Hawks not supplying much personal insight on the matter, despite you just spilling your guts to him. You don’t mind, though, and he doesn’t strike you as the kind of person to open up very easily. You probably would have been more disgruntled if he’d offered you some kind of similar story.

The two of you talk a little about work, what your old agency was like, where you went to school, and the questions centered around your life, and none prying into his. You make note of that, and file it away for later.

By the end of the hour, you’re sufficiently full of chicken curry, and your boss looks like he’s fairing the same (you’re not sure how he managed to pack away an entire bucket for fried chicken by himself).

“Thanks for lunch, Boss,” you tell him with a smile, an unspoken ‘it was kind of weird’ in your tone. If he picks up on it, he doesn’t say anything.

He does, however, stop you at the door, tugging you back into the room by your collar with a single red feather.

“Say, chickadee,” his voice is coy, “how’s about we make the afternoon more fun?”

You raise an eyebrow.

“Come patrolling with me,” he clarifies.

“Why?”

“Flying’s more fun when you’re not alone!” he says, as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world. You doubt him, thinking back to all the times you’d ever flown with someone else (re: none). You relent, deciding to entertain his plan.

“Fine. But don’t fall behind, okay? I take my patrols seriously.”

The strange smile returns to his face.

----

After packing up your dishes and throwing away your trash, you follow Hawks to the stairwell. He said it was best to take off from the roof, if you didn’t want to get bombarded by fans.

“Ah, but I’m sure your fans would love to see you!” you tease, marching carefully up the steps. “It wouldn’t take too long, surely?”

He glances over his shoulder at you, pausing so suddenly that you almost get a faceful of his feathers.

“Well sure, if they were just my fans. Most people have seen me before, though, flying around, fighting crime. But you? You’re new. Your fans in Japan haven’t gotten to meet you yet.”

You tilt your head. “I...don’t have fans, boss.”

“You’re kidding, right?” He swivels around on the step, wings brushing quietly against the cramped cement walls. His expression is one of exasperation, and a hint of disbelief. Once he sees your genuine confusion, however, he sighs. “You really have no idea, do you?”

You shake your head. “I’ve only been here like two weeks. How could I have any significant following?”

He looks at you with a fondness reserved for naive children, or puppies. It’s a little patronizing, in your opinion.

“International heroes are pretty big here, you know?” he explains, “and you, little chickadee, were voted number four on the overseas popularity poll this year. Your fanbase here is rivaled only by a handful of heroes, most of which are in Japan’s top ten.”

You’re shocked, to say the least, and Hawks takes your silence as cue to continue walking.

You dodge his wings again, and resume following him.

“How could I be popular and not know it?” you ask. “Surely someone would have approached me by now-”

“Chickadee, when was the last time you were on the ground-”

“This morning-”

“-in the daytime?”

“Oh.”

You think back a little. You’ve patrolled in the skies since you started working at the agency, and your shifts started before sunrise. Plus, you usually flew home, well after sunset. It was just easier than trying to fit into a car and deal with traffic.

“I guess...not since the day I arrived.”

“Exactly! No one knew you were here, then. But now?” He pushes hard against the heavy metal door to the roof, taking a deep breath when it opens and a breeze blows through. “Now, all of Japan knows we work together!”

You saunter out into the sunlight, basking for a few seconds in the warmth. But the thought of your fans quickly overtakes your mind again, and the relaxation is lost.

“Are you sure it’s not fame by affiliation,” you wonder, “because seriously, I didn’t have fans back home. I’ve never been stopped for an autograph, or asked for a photo. I’m cool with that. I just don’t want people to like me because I’m near you sometimes.”

Hawks steps up on the lip of the roof, wings spread wide and overlooking the city.

He stays like that for a few seconds, and you note the deep tiredness in his posture, behind his eyes. You’ve seen it in your mirror too many times.

He’s just as exhausted as you are.

“Thus is the way of the world,” he mumbles, and you’re not sure you’re meant to hear it.

But then he perks up, as quickly as a light switch. He turns on his heel to face you, mischief and playfulness glinting in his smile. “I’ll race you to the bank tower? If I win, you gotta go on patrol with me tomorrow, too.”

You shrug, and take off into the sky. It’s not much of a fight, though. He has agility and familiarity on his side, and he’s waiting for you by the time you finally arrive at your destination.

You don’t mind.

#hawks x reader #takami keigo x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #bnha #mha #reader insert #winged reader au

[shinidamachu]

No Place I Would Rather Be

Summary: We're a thousand miles from comfort. We have traveled land and sea. But as long as you are with me, there's no place I'd rather be. Word Count: 3.617 Genre: fluff Fandom: InuYasha Pairing: Inukag Format: oneshot AO3 Link: 🌹 Fanfic.Net Link: 🌹

Boredom was eating him alive.

Days had passed without a single lead about the jewel fragments. So much that their little group had disbanded for the time being. Sango went back to what was left of her old village. It had been a while since she last paid homage to their dead. Kirara, of course, was her loyal company — and also ride. Miroku was visiting Mushin’s Temple, as if the place hadn't been profaned enough, already. Shippo was still around, but keeping his distance due to InuYasha’s stormy mood.

The frustration of it all got him desperately wishing for some kind — any kind — of action. Something that didn’t involve sulking under a tree and watching time crawl. Every second of this idleness meant another second Naraku was out there, still breathing. Collecting the shards was a small mean to achieve a bigger, imperative ending. It gave him purpose, a sense of getting closer to his ultimate goal step by step. Waiting got them nowhere. It only granted him to be alone with his thoughts and the combination was nothing but disastrous.

Lucky for him, his private source of distraction was not too far away.

Kagome was humming a foreign tune, the same one she liked to sing whenever she was happy. Following the melody was almost mandatory. InuYasha didn’t realize what he was doing until he arrived to the other side of it, where the girl thumbed through her hair in a futile attempt to tame her hair, the lake’s surface a natural mirror at her convenience. InuYasha made his presence known before his own reflection joined hers.

“It’s no use, ya know.”

“Jerk!”

The girl glared at him and retaliated by splashing water on his direction — of which he easily dodged. InuYasha had to admit her reaction was justified, given his past tendency to be utterly unkind to her. This time, however, although his tone wasn’t devoided of casual teasing, he was being completely honest. When you spend sunrise to sunset with someone for so long, it was inevitable learning a thing or two about them. Kagome had a wild hair. Not in a bad way, but it sure had its own will. Especially in the humidity, which was definitely the case of that afternoon. To an outside viewer, the strands could pass as straight. Noticing the shy waves at the end and how they used to stand out after getting wet was a privilege for the few allowed to look closer — a privilege InuYasha cherished. She always had her hair down and he liked that she did. It was destined to be free, to go with the wind. And it had grown a hell of a lot since they first met. The half demon wondered if Kagome was aware of how much. He certainly was.

Then she got up, revealing clothes that were undoubtedly new to his eyes. It was one piece, all lime flowers and malleable fabric against her cream skin. A bit longer than what she usually cared to wear, but leaving her arms and shoulders at plain sight in compensation. The view was thrilling, until his eyes caught the yellow backpack laying by her feet, causing his grin to falter. He understood the implication behind it, even if the question had yet to pass his lips.

“What’s with the weird kimono?”

“Oh, this.” Kagome lowered her gaze, inspecting for herself. Her combative attitude swiftly turning into a cautious posture. “It’s a sundress. I’ve been meaning to ask… can you please give me a ride to the well? I’m going home.”

There it was.

Somehow, getting his suspicions confirmed did nothing to prevent the scowl from forming on his face.

“Thought the school thing were over for the summer.”

“Well, yes...”

“Then why the fuck ya going home for? We still have plenty of supplies!”

“Because I promised I’d go to the movies with Hojo and now that we’re on vacation I don’t have excuses not to go, anymore. My grandpa literally ran out of diseases I could have. And what’s the point, anyway? Jewel hunting is going through a dry spell, everyone left… and I haven’t seen my family in weeks.”

Half of what she said didn’t make any sense to him and InuYasha positively hated the half that did.

“What if something comes up? I can’t see the damn shards like you do.” He argued.

“You jump through the well and get me.” She shrugged, as if the idea was highly unlikely. InuYasha opened his mouth to list the many, many reasons her solution was flawed. She bit him to the punch. “Listen, it’s not a big deal. I’ll be back tomorrow. I bet Miroku and Sango won’t even be here yet.”

It wasn’t fair.

In general, storming off to her era was Kagome’s way of punishing him for being a massive asshole. He got that. To tell the truth, more often than not he deserved it. But InuYasha was in his best behavior — despite feeling rightfully entitled to throw a tantrum, given the circumstances — precisely because he needed her close. He needed her to stay. Picturing Kagome hanging out with someone else instead was the worst kind of self torture. Would she change her mind if he swallowed his pride long enough to say so? Would he ever get the guts to let it out? She hadn’t invited him to come along. Was this Hojo guy really that important to her? More than InuYasha was? Trying to talk her out of it was a dangerous move. He’d put his foot in his mouth, she’d put his face on the ground. That’s what they did.

Either his expression betrayed the turmoil inside or Kagome became too good at figuring him out. Whatever it was, her smile shined, reassuring and warm.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be so quick, you won’t have time to miss me.”

“Who says I’d miss ya?” He dismissed, his indifference unconvincing even to himself.

InuYasha perceived another presence approaching. Shippo. His arrival couldn’t be more providential. Kagome had a soft spot for the brat. If anyone could get her to stay, it was him.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just the runt.”

Like he had been announced, the kid emerged from the trees in a hurry, Kagome’s bow and quiver looking gigantic on his tiny hands.

“Kagome! InuYasha!”

“Shippo-chan! What’s going on?” She asked, as soon as the boy reached them.

“There are rumors of a jewel fragment, two villages to the west.” He explained, with the pomposity the information called for. “Kaede sent me.” His chin was up high, like the statement added a final hint of importance to the message. “Here,” continued the kit, offering Kagome her weapon in a formal manner.

She hesitated.

“Kagome, let’s go!” InuYasha was prepared to move at the sound of the word ‘jewel’, their earlier argument happily buried and forgotten.

“Wait! Don’t you think it’s strange? For days we had no leads, and now, just when we splitted up…”

“Yeah, well, so what if it’s a trap? It wouldn’t be the first.”

Coward that he was, Naraku resorted to the nastiests schemes in order to get what he wanted. His disgusting fingers laid on every happenstance that had ever caused them harm. What choice did InuYasha have, though? Ruse or not ruse, he had to check it. Regardless of anyone else’s help, it was his duty to get vengeance on the bastard — for Kikyo, for himself — and Kagome knew that.

She sighed and took the bow and arrows from the fox’s hold.

“Thank you so much, Shippo-chan! Now can you do me another favor?”

“Anything!”

“Go back to Kaede. Tell her InuYasha and I are on our way.”

“I’m not coming with you?” He whined, as confused as InuYasha. They never traveled without the child.

“That’s right. We don’t know how dangerous this may be. I need you to stay and if we don’t come back tomorrow by noon, get Miroku and Sango and send them to us. Can you do that for me?”

Shippo resolutely nodded .

“I won’t let you down, Kagome.”

“I know you won’t.”

And through the same path he had appeared he went. Kagome fixed a pleading glance at InuYasha.

“Can I at least change clothes before we g—”

“No time to waste.” He said, grabbing Kagome and her bag to leap towards west.

Kagome was whistling that same song again.

It took him an enormous amount of self restraint not to whistle along.

He was happy. So wonderfully happy. It was astonishing, the effect that tiny, bossy human girl had over his humor. The fact they were following the possible whereabouts of a lost jewel piece also played a role on his attitude swing, there was no denying that. But even if this turns out to be nothing at all, it would be a small price to pay in exchange of spending more time with her.

“Weren’t you mad about not coming home just now?”

His curiosity was genuine. Kagome had been angry since they left and InuYasha would be the person to know. She had two kind of anger. The one he could hear and the one he could feel. Even though she had been unusually silent, her frustration was palpable at first. Mercifully, it seemed to fade away the more ground they covered. Her one complaint was the soreness that too many hours on the same position inflicted upon the muscles, which was why they were both walking. As a rule, he was strictly opposite to anything that might slow them down, and the human pace was unbearable once you had a taste of demonic speed. Running free, with trees and people alike turning into a blur on each side of him, was an unparalleled sensation, amplified tenfold whenever Kagome was riding his back. He didn’t regret giving in, though. They weren’t far from their destination, after all. In addition, her comfort came to be a priority, despite him still being unaware as to when or how.

“Well… yeah, but… what can I do, right? Besides, I haven’t realized how much I missed this.”

Clueless, InuYasha searched their surroundings, unsuccessfully intending to spot what she could possibly be referring to.

“Whatcha talkin’ about?”

“This!” She spinned around, open arms and face to the sky, chasing daylight like a sunflower, the movement bringing her garment to life. “You. Me. An adventure. Don’t get me wrong, I love Shippo and the others, I’m glad they joined us. It just feels like we haven’t had as much quality time together as we used to, after they did.”

“Y-you miss that?”

She shook her head up and down with enthusiasm and a content smile fought its way across his lips.

“I know we could hang out in Kaede’s village, but it’s not the same as going out. O-on a trip, I mean.”

Although InuYasha couldn’t make out why her cheeks were suddenly burning red, he did see the logic her reasoning, and the feeling was mutual. There was a certain level of closeness only the road could provide. No curious eyes. No sly comments. No need to explain themselves. InuYasha had missed that as well.

He often played with the thought of stealing her away, of placate his selfish thirst for her undivided attention. Not once had he imagined Kagome would be as eager to go as he was to take her. Regardless, the timing wasn’t right. It never was. From the moment they met, they were tossed into a mission and there was hardly space for anything else. So he settled for whatever he could get until it was over.

“Why would you miss those trips? It ain’t like I was nice to ya back then.”

It didn’t make sense to him that she would. His memories were of a spoiled little girl, complaining about the bugs and her aching legs and the fact she hadn’t bathed in days. There was no escaping InuYasha’s share of responsibility on the issue. He could have made her life easier, had he bothered to. But at the beginning he saw Kagome as a potential threat he would eventually get rid off. How could he have guessed, after the many betrayals he had endured through the years, that his heart would be safe on her hands?

Kagome limited herself to a shrug.

“You are now.” She stated, as if it made up for his unexcusable former behavior. Her unconditional forgiveness amazed him, no matter how regularly she had shown it to him. “Also, it feels like old times.”

“It doesn’t unless you get kidnapped, somehow.”

“It happened once or twice!”

“Keh! Stop kidding yourself.”

“Shut up.”

“You shut up.”

“No, shut up. I’m sensing a shard and it’s moving away.”

Wordlessly, InuYasha returned the backpack to her and offered her his back.

They raced at full gallop, Kagome guiding their course. The forest transitioned into arid highland, where dirt, thorns and rocky surfaces took place.

“Hey, you!” Kagome yelled at the youkai emerging in their camp of vision. Their target. Over his shoulder, the startled creature sneaked a peek at them and increased speed. Growling, InuYasha matched his rhythm. “Wait up! We won’t hurt you.”

“I’m pretty sure Imma hurt him.”

“Give the jewel fragment to us peacefully and you’ll be free to go!” She went on, his snide remarks as ignored by her as her plead was by the demon. InuYasha’s patience was wearing thin. Now that the rumors turned out to be true, his focus was entirely aimed at the task at hand.

“Are those fancy arrows of yours just for show?”

Kagome let out a deep breath. Shooting was her last ressource. She preferred to sort things out with words first. It rarely worked. Still she always tried.

“I suppose we have no choice.”

The arrow hit the creature in the calf and his groan of pain reverberated through the field. Not lethal, but enough of a nuisance to make him drop the run. InuYasha closed the distance between them within seconds. Kagome climbed off him and together they inspected their opponent.

On the floor, a possum demon hissed and exhibited his fangs at them, his ugly face twisting in agony while he pulled the arrow out. A cascate of blood immediately flowed from the wound. InuYasha was not fooled by it. Being a full youkai, he would be healed soon.

“Where is it?” InuYasha asked Kagome, not daring to leave the bastard out of his sight.

“His belly.”

“Step away, you filthy half breed!”

“Excuse me?” Kagome defied, any trace of courtesy forgotten.

“That was quite the damage she did on ya, there.” InuYasha released Tessaiga from its sheath as he approached the fallen man. “Think I can top it, though.”

“Step away, I said!”

His fear was palpable. InuYasha could feel it. See it. Smell it.

Smell it.

Faster than realization, the odor filled his lungs. It burned his nostrils, his throat. He could taste the toxic substance on his tongue. It was unbearable. And gasping for air only resulted in the pungent scent flooding him further, overwhelming his senses. A defense mechanism, he thought, his vision blurring, his knees giving in. I’m going to faint. No. No, no, no, no, no. Kagome. He had to protect Kagome.

There was a cry of his name.

And then an awful lot of darkness.

InuYasha came to abruptly, uncertain and alarmed by the new reality.

In one minute, the sun was up and he was succumbing, his consciousness leaving him to drift. In the next, he was awake and crickets sang the night’s arrival.

It was tempting to think he had dreamt the whole thing. A stupid, ridiculous, crazy ass dream. However, the lingering smell left no room for argument. It happened. The scent was weaker. Fading. But was there, overpowered by a significantly nicer aroma. A familiar one, sweet on the nose and soothing to the soul. Kagome’s.

He was lying half naked in her sleeping bag.

Sitting up, InuYasha seeked for the priestess, desperate to make sure for himself she was safe and sound.

The fragile light of her modern lantern illuminated the cavern that sheltered them. At its entrance, a girl rested — her silhouette contoured by a starry sky. 

“Kagome.”

“You’re awake!”

She rushed to him, tripping over her own eagerness. Her beautiful clothes were dirty and a bit ripped at the hem. A small scratch cut her cheek, remnants of dry blood tainting her skin.

“Are you alright? What happened?”

“I’m fine!” Kagome kneeled in front of him, a gesture he appreciated. There was no peace for him without an up close inspection of her well being. “I purified the demon after you blacked out. Turns out it was a trap. Thousands of Naraku’s second-class demons came for the shard when I took him down. I tried to purify those too, but more of them kept coming and I ran out of arrows, so I casted a barrier and—”

“You casted a barrier?”

InuYasha was beyond impressed. Barriers required great power and discipline. Even from Kaede or the monk. Kagome had apparently done it all by herself. Effortlessly. On the spot.

“To be honest, I don’t know how I did it. I just… I saw you lying there and I… anyway, the barrier purified the ones who touched it. Eventually they all died or left. How are you feeling?”

InuYasha didn’t answer the question.

“I’m sorry, Kagome, that you couldn’t rely on me.”

Guilt pulsed within him like a heartbeat. Constant and compulsory, expanding the outcomes of its work through every inch of his body.

“It’s not your fault. Your nose is too keen, of course you’d be affected the most.”

“But you got hurt!”

“In the thorns. I was careless. Don’t worry about it, it’s not even going to leave a scar.”

“It shouldn’t have even happened. I’m supposed be the one protecting you, not the other way around.”

It could have been worse. InuYasha should be grateful for that. He wasn’t. It could have been worse. And he wouldn’t be able to help her, to save her from this insignificant peril while she had already saved him in every conceivable way there was for a person to be saved.

“I’m not as helpless as I used to be, you know? I’ve grown a lot.” She had a point. InuYasha himself had told her that much, once. Kagome had faced scarier dangers than that. And she could absolutely take them. But he didn’t want her to have to. “Not to mention, it was totally worth it.”

As a proof, she exhibited a jewel fragment, glowing in the healthiest shade of pink.

“You got it!” InuYasha captured the shard, glancing at every angle of it in awe.

“Don’t act so surprised.”

Kagome went for her backpack and came back, falling on her knees again. Her hand dove in and emerged holding the glass container in which they kept the other pieces. She opened it and tilted the receiver to InuYasha, hinting for him to do the honors.

It was as if she had been waiting for him so they could do it together.

As if it was their private, sacred ritual.

He did as she wanted, mirroring her satisfied smile.

“Where’s my haori?”

“Oh! I… I put it away.” Blushing, Kagome tore her gaze from his and InuYasha followed it to a corner of the cave, where a huddle of scarlet fabric laid forgotten. “I figured you’d heal faster with that smell gone and your haori is soaked on it. Sorry.”

“D-don’t apologize, stupid. It was the right call.” To feel useful — and to occupy his brain with something other than the image of Kagome undressing him — InuYasha searched her backpack for the first aid kit, a tool from her era he was sadly too intimate with. “Now let’s take care of this cut.”

“Okay. You have to g—”

“I know what to do. I’ve seen you do it a thousand times.” Her lips parted, and InuYasha added: “Don’t act so surprised.”

He cleaned the wound with cotton, water and soap, then used a different ball of cotton to carefully apply the content of a smelly little bottle to the extension of it. Kagome hissed, but he ignored it in favor of wrapping it all up with a band-aid. To ensure it was properly stretched, he gently ran his thumb through it, allowing the touch to linger more than necessary and his stare to go from her cheek to her eyes.

Her eyes.

The most stunning maze.

Let yourself get in, you are sure to get lost.

She blinked before he could, keeping them closed and leaning into his palm, her hand lifting to cover and caress his.

It would be so easy to grip her chin. To turn her face to him. To bring her to his lips. 

So easy to steal a kiss.

Why do the easiest actions have to carry the most difficult consequences?

Clearing his throat, InuYasha transformed present into a loving memory.

“Take some rest. We leave first thing tomorrow.”

“Sounds good to me.”

On the way to claim Kagome’s prior guarding position by the entrance of the cave, InuYasha collected Tessaiga while she busied herself with getting cozy inside the sleeping bag.

“Kagome?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“InuYasha, I think we’re way past saying thank you for saving each other’s lives.”

“No, not for that. I mean, for that too, but... for coming. For staying by my side.”

“Stupid.” She mocked him, her voice lethargic as exhaustion finally caught up to her. “Where else would I be?”

A/N: this was some serious self indulgent bullshit. I regret nothing.

@inukag-week​ here is another piece of contribution. Kind of merged the Loyalty and the Instinct prompts here. Oops.

#Inukag Week #InuYasha #Inukag #Kagome #Kagome Higurashi #My writing #Inukag Fluff #Inukag Oneshot #Inukag Fanfiction

[ma-skee]

Silently Calling You Home

Reposting from Ao3

Fandom:

One Direction (Band)

Relationship:

Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson

Characters:

Harry Styles

Louis Tomlinson

Additional Tags:

Larry Stylinson Is Real Sickfic Sick Character Sick Louis Tomlinson Established Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson Protective Harry Styles Fluff Cute Chronic Illness Chronic Pain

Silently Calling You Home

Summary:

Harry is coming home from a trip and wants to take Louis out as a way to celebrate.

Louis falls ill and feels awful for ruining Harry's plans.

-----

He woke up to the buzzing of his phone.

He didnt know where it was but he could hear it. It must be his alarm.

He had set an early one so he could fall back asleep, which he was grateful to his past self for thinking of because his head was filled with a stiff pressure that made it difficult to open his eyes.

The buzzing stopped and he took a deep breath, letting himself sit in a hazy, half asleep state, fighting the urge to completely fall back asleep.

He must not have done a good job because suddenly his phone was buzzing again. He groaned and pushed himself up. There was a present ache in his hip from laying on the hard tile floor of the bathroom, his face felt puffy and tight, and he couldn't find his phone.

He tugged his blanket into the air, hoping it was tangled up and would fall out. Sure enough, it clattered to the floor, still buzzing.

.. it wasn't an alarm, it was a phone call.

His eyes were too bleary to read to name, so he hit the green button and hoped for the best.

"...hello?"

"Good morning Louis!"

"...morning Haz." His voice caught in his throat and he fought back a cough.

"Are you ready to adventure?"

Adventure? What was he talking- oh. Oh no.

Harry had called him late yesterday afternoon, asking if he wanted to 'go on an adventure'. Louis was nervous to comply because Harry wouldn't tell what an 'adventure' entailed.

"Cmon Lou. It'll just be me and you, doing some fun little things. I swear I'm not trying to drag you to the woods to murder you. It's just been a while since we've hung out and I want to see you."

"You really can't tell me what the 'fun little things' are?"

"It won't be a surprise if I do."

"You said it was an adventure, not a surprise."

"...it's a surprise adventure."

Louis couldn't help the smile, or the warm feeling in his chest. Harry really had a way around questions.

"It's nothing like skydiving, right?"

Harry's giggle made Louis bite his lip to keep from laughing back. He was trying to be serious here.

"No, no skydiving. I truly mean 'fun little things'. Like a date."

"Did you just ask me on a date?"

"I've been asking you on dates for years. Can you come tomorrow or not?"

"... yeah, I can come."

"Great! Oh, great. I haven't seen you in forever, I can't wait to see you."

"It's been 4 days."

"Says the man who called me two days ago because you saw an infomercial that reminded you of me."

"Says the man who called me an hour after you left."

"Touche. Anyway, I'll be back at 9am. I'll drop off my bags and then we can head out."

"Sounds good."

After that phone call, Louis had gone back to cleaning the house for Harry's arrival. He made himself some dinner, watched an episode of a show, and gone to bed.

He woke up a few hours later, shaking from a frightening dream that he had already forgotten. A few deep breaths calmed him quickly and he lay back down and closed his eyes.

But this time he couldn't fall alseep because of a headache that had suddenly become eminent, accompanied with a side of nausea. He continued to try and sleep though, with the hope that he would wake up feeling better. But the nausea grew heavy and eventually Louis found himself grabbing his phone off the nightstand and dragging a blanket and pillow to the bathroom to wait.

And wait he did. He wasn't exactly sure how long he sat on the bathroom floor, shivering from the cold tile, but the nausea was playing with him, coming in rolling waves. He'd be hunched over the toilet, feeling seconds away from throwing up, swearing he could feel bile rising is his throat, and then it would subside. It wouldn't leave, but he would feel safe enough to pull away from the toilet and lean against the wall behind him.

When the nausea dipped, the aching in his head would replace it. Eventually he pulled himself up to the counter and soaked his washcloth under the water to lay on his forehead, which definetly helped. At least until he found himself leaning over the toilet again, nauseous to the tenth degree, salty tears dripping off his chin and quiet moans of agony pulling from his tight throat. He couldn't decide if he was more glad that he was alone or upset that Harry wasn't there to comfort him.

Being alone ment that he wasn't going to be bothering anyone else, wouldn't be inconveniencing Harry because Harry would insist on taking care of him. On the other hand, Harry would be taking care of him, with his comforting voice, his gentle touch, his deep care and love for Louis. He wouldn't mind, or he would say he didn't, but at the very least they could cuddle together.

Thinking of Harry ended up making him cry harder, because he felt so miserable and as embarrassing as it would be if Harry was there, it would probably make it better in one way or another. Then the nausea tipped to a new level of awful and he finally threw up, leaving him with a burning throat and heaving for breath. Slowly he layed down until the tile floor was cooling his burning face, where it felt so good to lay until he accidentally fell alseep.

"Louis?"

"Hm?"

"Are you ready to adventure?"

"...no." He rubbed an eye with his free hand "I woke up 45 seconds ago."

Louis could hear the fond smile in Harry's response. "Precisely why I called you while I was still a half hour out."

A half hour? "I had an alarm set."

He had set two of them, to wake him up nearly 40 minutes ago. Somehow he slept through both of them, probably exhausted by his sudden bought of sickness last night.

"Did you? Sorry then. Just excited to see you."

"Me too..."

A comfortable silence fell on the line, small smiles on both of thier lips.

"Okay then, I'll let you get ready. See you in 30."

"See you in 30." Louis echoed.

"I love you."

"... love you too..." Louis mumbled around a yawn.

The line fell dead, and Louis dropped his hand into his lap, taking in his surroundings. He was still camped out on the bathroom floor, blanket laying in a tangled pile and pillow with the case askew, hardly even on the pillow anymore. He felt groggy and gross, like long dried sweat and his clothes twisted all wrong on his body.

Actually, he was glad Harry's call woke him. If he had found him laying on the floor like this, he definitely would have freaked out, understandably. But Louis was sure that no amount of persisting would make Harry believe he was fine, he didn't feel sick anymore.

Well, maybe he felt a little sick still, but it wasn't that bad and Harry had planned out a day trip that he was clearly excited about. More realistically it was something they had already done several times and Harry was just excited to see Louis and get to do something they often did and was hyping it up to make it seem more fun.

Honestly, Louis would prefer to do something they often did, like walk in the park at sunset (or even sunrise on the off occasion they were up that early) or wander through the local art gallery, pointing out their favorite parts in the pieces. Even making dinner to eat with a movie.

But Harry was excited, which Louis liked and he didn't want to spoil Harry's fun. So he pulled himself up to the counter, one hand still protectively over his stomach, where he got a good look at himself in the mirror.

His face was puffy, tear stained, and the edge of the tile had left a crease on his cheek. Half his hair stuck out at strange angles and the other half was plastered to his head and his shirt was wrinkled. Man, what a mess.

He turned on the shower, leaving it to warm up as he kicked the pillow and blanket to the far corner of the room where his shirt and sweats soon followed. The refreshing water helped marginally, washing away the sweat and grit. He scrubbed his hair and then his body, letting the warm water soothe the leftover aching. The steam cleared most of the pressure in his head and his throat no longer felt like sandpaper. Whatever had happened last night must have been a fluke.

He turned off the water and pulled a towel off of the rack, glad it was freshly washed. He quickly dried himself off and brushed his teeth, getting rid of the remnants of the sour taste in his mouth. He felt fine, great even.

He gatherd up the pile in the corner of the bathroom, dropping the blanket and pillow off at the bed on his way to the closet, where he dropped the clothes into the hamper, which he gripped tightly to as a slow wave of dizziness passed over him. He gathered clothes to get dressed, including one of his nicer pairs of sweatpants because jeans sounded too uncomfy right now. Hopefully Harry wasn't taking him anywhere fancy.

He wandered back into the bathroom to wash his face, ignoring the start of a headache behind his eyes. Then he slowly made the bed, straightening the blanket and fixing his pillowcase.

He didn't mean to, but the bed was comfortable, even though he was laying on top of the covers, and an ache was settling into his body, especially his stomach. The sun was shining through the window, warming and blinding him at the same time. He didn't mean to fall alseep, it just happened.

He had only been sleeping for ten minutes when Harry pulled into the driveway, opened the garage and parked his car.

Harry decided he could grab his bags later. Right now he just wanted to see Louis.

Louis, who wasn't in the kitchen drinking coffee like he expected. He wasn't anywhere on the ground floor. Harry stood still, listening for signs of life, but it was silent. Had he gone somewhere? No, his car was in the garage.

So Harry headed upstairs. Perhaps he was in the office, answering some early morning emails, wearing his red headphones, unable to hear Harry's arrival. But the office was empty, the computer off and cold, headphones still plugged into thier charger.

The bedroom then. The door was open a crack, so Harry gently pushed on it, causing it to squeak ever so slightly as it opened. Then he smiled and pulled out his phone to take a picture.

Louis was curled up on top of the bed, using his hands as a pillow. The sun was shining around him in a square, showing the dampness on the blanket from his still wet hair, and almost putting emphasis on his chest as it rose and fell with his breath, making him look like a cat that had sought out the perfect place to lay in the afternoon sun that was shining through a break in the rain. He could see dust particles floating in the air, which aside from how gross dust is, made the setting look angelic. He was wearing his "nice sweats" - Harry didn't understand how a pair of sweatpants could be "nice", but Louis had always valued comfort over style while Harry was more on the opposite side of that spectrum -, which meant he had been awake long enough to get dressed, but he was wearing mismatched patterned socks and one of Harry's old hoodies.

It was truly an old hoodie, one he'd had since he was in school. It had a few small holes and strange stains, but Harry couldn't bring himself to get rid of it. It wasn't like he had memories attached to it or it was given to him by a deceased family member. It was just a deep red hoodie with deep blue accents, and he just kept it, even after he outgrew it. But then he met Louis, which butterflied into them moving in with each other and Louis found the hoodie at the bottom of a box he was unpacking. Although it fit him perfectly, Louis didn't wear it very often.

Harry set his phone on the dresser and toed off his shoes before crawling onto the bed and laying in front of Louis, who stirred as the bed moved. Harry studied Louis' sleeping face. It was so sweet, so carefree. He leaned forward and kissed his nose, hoping to wake him. When he didn't stir, Harry resorted to gently blowing in his face.

Louis' eyes fluttered open, the blue shining brilliantly in the sun, but causing him to squint. Harry shifted so he was blocking the light. Louis blinked again, finally registering who was in front of him and softly smiling.

"Morning sleepyhead." Harry whisperd, not wanted to disturb the quiet.

"Morning." Louis whispered, not wanting to bother his throat by talking to loud.

"Did you miss me?"

" 'course." His eyes slowly slid closed again.

"You only pull out that sweater when you really miss me."

"Hm." Louis sighed, pulling in air to talk. "I really missed you then."

They lay together for a few minutes, just basking in the sun and each others presence. Then Louis sighed deeply and rolled onto his back.

"I'm falling back asleep." He murmured.

"Hm.." Harry propped himself up on his elbow, looking at the way the sun shone onto Louis' hair. Harry moved so that he was sitting over Louis, straddling his hips and looking down at him. "You look so pretty in this sunlight." He whispered.

Louis smiled, his eyes falling closed again. Harry leaned down to kiss him, first one cheek, then the other, then his lips, Louis tiredly kissing back, long and slow and warm.

... too warm.

He pulled away, watching Louis's face fold into a frown.

"Haz?"

He didn't answer. Instead he placed a hand on Louis' forehead.

Louis sighed. Of course. Harry couldn't have been home for more than ten minutes and he had already figured out Louis was sick. Of course, of course, of course.

"Are you feeling okay, Lou? You feel warm."

He sighed again. His throat started to feel tight, his eyes stung with tears behind his still closed eyelids. Harry could tell Louis felt conflicted about something, by the way he sighed and then by the way he kept swallowing. His fingers began tracing along the seam in Harry's pants.

"I'm sorry." It sounded choked. He immediately swallowed.

"For what?" Harry slowly sat back, his arms growing tired from holding him up over Louis.

He swallowed again. "You were.... you were so excited-" he bit his lip, trying to keep his breath from hitching. "So excited about the a-adventure..."

"Oh, Lou.." Harry grabbed the hand on his knee and interlaced his fingers. "Don't worry about that. It can wait until you feel better."

Louis only nodded, still fighting tears. Harry kissed the hand he was holding before setting it down. He sat forward and stretched his legs out behind him, lacing his hands under Louis' arms, resting them on his shoulders and laying his head on his his chest. Louis responded by wrapping his own arms around Harry, one hand laying between his shoulder blades, the other slowly playing with his hair.

Harry could feel Louis' breathing hitch beneath him. "Louis, it's okay, I promise. I was only going to take you on a scenic drive to this little coffee shop." He lifted his head to see Louis now had his eyes open, staring at the ceiling, tears dripping down the sides of his face, into his ears.

"Finally got you to tell me." He whispered.

"Cheeky." Harry whispered back as he used his thumb to wipe the tears. Louis closed his eyes again, sighing. Harry could feel him relaxing, so he lay his head back down, listening to Louis' heartbeat.

Louis scratched an itch on his face before settling his hands where they had been before, sighing again. "... I love you Haz."

"I love you Lou."

" I'm glad you're home."

"Me too."

"Can't wait for the adventure."

"Once you feel better."

"Hmm."

The sun was so warm and comforting, along with holding each other in their arms. Louis fell back asleep quickly, and it wasn't long before Harry followed in suit, sorry he had missed Lou feeling I'll earlier, but glad he was home now and could take care of him.

#sick #sickness #sickfic #one direction #louis and harry #harry styles #louis tomlinson #sick louis #fluff