#listen :( it’s hard to find time to draw when you’re a senior in college and have 2 jobs!

[valuvi]

I’m back with art!! 💓💀

#listen :( it’s hard to find time to draw when you’re a senior in college and have 2 jobs! #but I’m trying my best ❤️ #ilysm and hope I can post more art soon! #// #monster high #halloween #my art #fanart #monster high frankie #frankie stein #halloween art

[stickynotestoletters]

may i ask for some poly relationship w larry & sal x male reader hcs?

Ah! Of course! :) Sorry I've been taking so long school is getting to me cause of finals;-;

Warnings: Noncannon compliant (their parents aren't together, no one dies, etc), NSFW (implied teen NSFW otherwise they're out of highschool), no weird cult stuff but they still ghost hunt, more modernish (?) phones and stuff

Sal x Male Reader x Larry hcs

highschool

I think that Sal and Larry would have gotten together before you got there

Like, I say gotten together but the way they started it was literally best friends that were super hornknee and decided to have sex together

They started then developing romantic feelings for each other though

And although the sex dynamic wasn't perfect (refer to my Sal x reader NSFW fic) it was good and they loved each other

It became an on and off thing until they actually worked it out

they talked about it and decided that it was better that they stay friends until they can sort out their own sexual desires and endeavors

Sal didn't even know he could do both as a switch and verse so he wanted to just re-examine his sexual self

And Larry was okay with that

So they decided to date but just without sex for a while

Then you moved to Nockfell their sophomore year

and god were you cool

Sal was the first one to see you in the hallway

It wasn't love at first sight really

He thought you were cool and he wanted to talk to you

Then that same day he told Larry about you during lunch

"I want to talk to him I just don't know how to approach him"

"Oh, well who is it?"

Ngl Larry was kinda jealous about how flustered Sal was getting at the prospect of a new friend but then Sal pointed at you and Larry was like "Oh, okay, I get it."

So Larry just approaches you

It was kinda to tease Sal about how shy he was being

Also kinda because you looked rad as fuck

So Larry approaches you sitting at a table alone

You were actually quite chill

You were happy since no one was approaching you

You guys hit it off and ended up becoming really good friends!

So for the duration of your sophomore year and the summer of your junior year, you guys were really good pals and hung out a lot

Then Larry started developing feelings first

And he was super confused since he knew he still liked Sal, no doubt about it

So he was just super confused and conflicted because he didn’t want to break up with Sal

So during, about the first half, of all of your junior year he kept this to himself and tried to keep himself from feeling for you

Sal on the other hand already accepted his feelings, he realized it later than Larry

And he read yp on what being polygamous meant

So although there was a lot of confusion at first he figured it's no different from people in love triangles

He realizes it a couple weeks after Larry and decides to bring this up to Larry during winter break

The conversation pretty much just went like Sal explaining polyamory to Larry for an hour

They end up deciding to just wait a bit and try to flirt with you individually

you know,

because they don't remember that you don't know they're attracted to you at this point

:)

So basically you think that they're both trying to cheat on each other for the week they're flirting with you

At the end of that week, you tell them to meet you together

And they don't know any better than to meet you

And then you come to them, don't let them explain, and cry because you don't want two of your best friends to cheat on each other like this even though you like them

And then they realize why you're saying this

So although this was not the time they expected to confess to you they told you what they were trying to do

So you just sat there

With these two idiots

and told them "No guys, cause I was literally having a breakdown about losing my two best friends."

And they confess to you

and everything is emotional and raw and you accept

Your guys' dynamic doesn't change because you’re dating now

The only difference is you guys make out together and show lots more pda

although you always bring up what they did when they were trying to give you hints

"We just really wanted to flirt with you okay??? Is it such a crime to want your crush to fall for you???"

"When you guys don't explain you're looking to expand your relationship, yes. Yes, it is Larry."

"He's kind of right babe-"

"SAL-"

Y'all spend a lot of time communicating with each other on stuff like that now

Your senior year goes without any bumps between all of you and you then graduate

College Dynamic

so you and the gang (except Ash, she moves to the city of course) goes and makes a college house

once you all move in together there it's a new routine

You all agreed and talked about the move together and what it would entail

And then you all finally realized how different it was from a monogamous relationship it was

But you all had your learning curves within the relationship

You find out more about their dynamic as a couple

For example, Larry and Sal never liked to fall asleep without you anymore

They had trouble sleeping without you beforehand and the first time you all slept in the same bed together it was just... so... peaceful

They'll spoon and cuddle without you individually (Sal is always the big spoon with Larry)

but they just love falling asleep next to you

They also refuse to do homework without you there

Even if it's just the simplest this they're just gonna need to have you in the room to finish it

Sal likes to make songs about you guys

He records them and edits some but he never lets you two listen to them

"It's just embarrassing if you two were to listen to it. It's like confessing my love for you guys all over again except I can't hide behind the mask."

So until he decides to release his songs online or plays those at gigs he's never going to let you listen to them

Larry likes to paint you guys

His paintings of you before the "disaster confession" were okay, it just looked like he was making a painting of a friend, except for the occasional rose

But now he paints you and draws you two whenever he can

He finds it funny how flustered you and Sal get whenever he makes suggestive paintings or sketches of you two

One time he painted a whole sex portrait of you and Sal together (A 12 by 28 specifically) hung it upright in front of the door to your rooms and didn't tell anyone

So after you and Sal got home that day you were welcomed with Larry lounging on your bed with the giant picture of you fucking Sal next to him

It was definitely beautiful though, even if it's hard to call your nudes beautiful

"Larry Johnson, this painting, as always, masterful. Beautiful craftsmanship but please-" "-we mean this in the most loving way possible Larry-" "-STOP PAINTING OUR NUDES BABE"

He put it away to be hung up in your apartment for when you all move out

Non-College Life

Once you all finish college you guys move into an apartment outside of Nockfell

The minute after you and Sal leave to get food Larry puts up all his private paintings of you guys

It's funny to him

I imagine you guys moving to a really populated city

Somewhere where it's a good place for people wanting to have creative jobs but still close to Nockfell

Maybe not back to New Jersey but probably not as far as New York or LA

you guys do all the cute stuff you never got to in Nockfell together

It's not like the majority of Nockfell was homophobic, mostly just the people who went to the church

But a lot more of them didn't think that polyamory was possible

So now it's easier

It's not like you never experience any polyphobia anymore but it's easier because you're in a more open-minded place

Sal's favorite thing is to go to concerts now

And pride

He also likes coffee house dates too

Larry gets hit on a lot though whenever you guys go out anywhere though

He finds it funny how jealous you both get

Sometimes if he wants Sal to get really mad he'll play along

But most of the time he shuts it down before it begins

Sal gets hit on a lot at concerts the most though

He gets kind of awkward about it, he's not going to edge them on but he gets uncomfortable enough to just not know how to shut them down

Usually, you and Larry will just appear behind him and whisk him away

Larry likes to use it as teasing leverage for a good rough one that night but you usually make sure he's okay with it before Larry does anything

You get hit on the most casually

Here and there but there aren't really specific places

It just sort of happens

You mostly shut them down alone

But occasionally you'll have to go to Sal and Larry if they're persistent

And they'll be mean too

One of the first times you saw Sal and Larry ever legitimately get that mean was when you got hit on in a club and they both just pulled you behind them and absolutely ripped the person a new one

You guys really like to stay at home if you guys have dates though that way everyone feels included

But when you all do go around together it's always specifically for three people you never tell anyone it's a date for dinner reservations, you always make sure you go on rides everyone wants to go on at amusement parks, and hey if worse comes to worst smoking is a group activity (if you have asthma or any other breathing condition Larry makes you edibles if you really wanna do edibles with them)

Starting jobs there are tough and all but you make it off your feet

Sal ends up booking a lot of gigs and Larry's commission request skyrocket when he moves to the city and makes a blog about his art

You all get an apartment with affordable rent and one that allows Gizmo

I hc that Gizmo is an esp but I don't know if that's real

So regardless you'll still be able to have room for him

Sal proposes to both of you

You guys talked about marriage and decided that it would be easier legally to just not get married through a court

So you guys have a friends wedding and Gizmo is the ring bearer

You guys don't get a fancy venue or anything

You guys all just have a city wedding

NSFW

So, the first time you all decide to hook up it's mostly just very communicative rules beforehand

Sal is more comfortable with being fucked than fucking someone else at most times but "It's not like I never want to stick my dick in you two" as he puts it

He also likes background music on most of the time

It's kinda weird if there isn't just a little bit of music

It isn't really bothersome, you guys keep it below 20 at most times

Sal's also super submissive

He liked it rough, make him cry out for you two

A bit of a pillow prince

Especially enjoys being tied up by you two

gags and blindfolds are on the table

Although whenever he does feel up to fucking you and Larry he'll usually end up having you two ride him because he gets to be such a mess with you two unless he's jealous or upset

Usually, when he's upset he's gonna lift you two up and fuck you against the headboard or wherever you two are if he's impatient enough

One time you were chilling with Larry in your bedroom and he was painting over his easel

Sal burst through the door where it slammed back on itself and closed itself

He then tracks his eyes on you

immediately asks you "Can I please fuck you right now"

and as soon as your safe word and consent comes out of your mouth he's holding you down on the bed and fucking into you so hard you can barely breath

Larry doesn't mind it and just continues painting with you moaning and being so pathetic in the background of his music

He kinda finds it funny because before you all got together and he and Larry would angry fuck it never worked out

Sal was just being a brat most of the time because Larry still wouldn't let him fuck him submissively

Speaking of which, Larry's more comfortable with being dominant, he'll bottom but only if he can still be dominant otherwise forget it

Larry's just a rough fucker anyway

He really likes pushing and holding you two up against walls when he fucks you guys

He likes showing off the muscles he got helping his mom with handy work and stuff like that

The first time he did this was to Sal when you were studying in your guy's room

You said you didn't really wanna participate today so they fucked like they would without you

And so they're talking back and forth, teasing each other

and Larry corners him

And just

lifts him up

It looked like he was just lifting a bag of sugar up

Sal seemed weightless as Larry just rocks into him

It was one of the hottest things you'd seen at the time so you joined them

You do that a couple more times but then it just becomes normal and you decide you need to start finishing all those assignments

Larry does that to you one on one as well without Sal but it happens to Sal a lot more spontaneously

Larry though is kinkier than Sal in some respects

He'll try anything at least once "Lisa didn't raise no bitch-"

He's really into breeding and long fucking sessions though

Like, lowkey he has omegaverse fantasies

Not because of the weird stuff just because a lot of the time..... they have breeding written in

He'll never admit to reading any of it but you know he has at least once

Super into dirty talk

And he's really good at it

He also had a praise kink and a degradation kin

He likes degrading you and you telling him thank you and how good he's treating a filthy little brat like you

"What're my filthy little brats good for other than sucking my dick so well. Taking me so well like the dirty little whores you are?"

"Yes sir-" "-we're made for your big cock-" "-thank you for fucking us like this-"

He especially likes breeding you and having Sal suck you off while he does it, he finds your crying cute

And an added bonus is rewarding Sal after for it

You guys talk about long-term consent and all that and decide that it's a good idea, you all trust and love each other so there isn't a problem

lol this kinda went to shit at the end but I still like it enough! Thanks for the Sally Face request I really like this game and the dynamic between a poly reader hc :)

-Laika

#poly reader #poly Sallarry #sallarry #sallarry x reader #sallarry x male reader #sally face #sally face x Larry #sal x larry #larry x reader #sal x reader #sal x larry x reader #noncannon compliant #sally face smut #sallarry smut #sal x larry x male reader smut

[alreadyblondenow]

This is how you broke Jeno’s heart

Lee Jeno x reader //ANGST, smut, fluff?

Themes: college! au, strangers to friends???, popular Jeno, normal student reader, sad ending

Word count: 5k

Summary: He was your lover, and now he’s your professor. Lee Jeno is Valentines day, 2017. Lee Jeno is afternoon golden hour drive, windows open as you let the wind gush into your face. Lee Jeno is burgers during movies on theaters. Lee Jeno is the holy grail and you broke his heart. 

Warnings: mentions of other idols, pairing of other idols, swearing, car sex, protected sex,  rough sex, slight cheating, sad ending

A/N: I did this in one sitting so I understand if this is not loved. but anyway, this is inspired from true events. And fuck, I was actually getting teary eyed while writing this because I recently found out he’s going to be married so yeah. Enjoy reading another sad story about my love life! Oh I picked Jeno because he looked like Jeno :( 

SENIOR YEAR

Three terms before graduating college, finally. Today is the first day of senior year and you’re late for your 7:30am class because of your best friend who doesn’t care about punctuality plus the elevator is taking too long and you’re worried because it’s a class you don’t want to miss because it’s hard to pass. Or so you’ve heard.

“Gosh, first day and were late?” you whine as your best friend hands you a medium sized coffee as a sorry for being late and as thank you for waiting for her.

“Since when did we ever went to class on time? And look at us now, graduating in a few months with good ass portfolio’s” she took a sip from her coffee as you both walk towards the classroom, “I wonder who the professor is” she added but the moment you guys arrived the classroom there were no professor, just waiting students freezing under the high temperature air conditioning of the school.

You removed your jacket and prepared your things on the desk, checking through twitter while you wait for the professor to come and boom.  

“Good morning class, sorry I was late but no worries. If you come in late next time, I won’t care just to be fair. Please sign this attendance sheet, pass it around as I prepare for class”

You don’t know if he saw you but you’re sure he’s someone you know and you’re hands are shaking not because of the coffee, but because of the man right in front of the whole class.  Your best friend nudge you shoulder, clearly you’re thinking about the same thing. “Are you seeing this?” she whispered beside you, pretending to fix her jacket behind her chair.

“Fuck. I thought It’s just someone who has the same features as him”

Lee Jeno.

Lee Jeno is Valentines day, 2017. Lee Jeno is afternoon golden hour drive, windows open as you let the wind gush into your face. Lee Jeno is burgers during movies on theaters. Lee Jeno is the holy grail and you broke his heart.

Flashbacks kept on coming the whole class hour and it was so hard to concentrate and listen to him while he teaches. His eyes looked at you but you don’t know if he recognise the girl who broke his heart. Maybe the school offered him a job? Or this is a part time job? Dropping the subject was your last chance and only idea to avoid him but doing that can make you not graduate on time. Fuck, you whispered to yourself.

After the class, you hurry on putting your things to your bag but not quick enough to avoid Jeno’s presence. Your best friend left you on purpose because she knew Jeno will not let this opportunity pass and as someone who knew about your history, you two need to talk. Standing beside you with his hands inside his pocket, looking at you as you hurry out the room. “No ‘hi’ or ‘hello’” his face is as handsome as ever. There’s not a day goes by that you don’t regret hurting this amazing guy.

“See you on Thursday, Sir Lee” you smiled like an innocent student and left him on the empty classroom.

FRESHMAN YEAR

Your first year in college is about adapting, adjusting with the surroundings, finding yourself or finding a certain classroom for hours and hours because the school campus is still not familiar to you. College is so different to high school especially when it comes to lunch breaks. Your lunch break is two hour long before a 5 hour brain challenging class. Good thing you have your best friend who knows how to kill time in a fun way.

“I bet your life will change in two minutes, when Lee Jeno finally enter through that door”

“Lee who?” obviously you’ve never heard about that handsome senior your best friend is talking about.

“Jeno” unlike you, your best friend knew every popular student from the higher batch. “There he is. He’s fucking handsome, I can’t believe him”

At first you didn’t want to look back, you just want your best friend to enjoy her eye candy of a crush. The way her eyes turned to heart eyes is amusing alone and you’re satisfied with that. But you are curious. So you figured, why the hell not?

Jeno was sitting with his friends the moment you turned your head towards him. He was smiling and laughing at his friends while he sits so handsome holding his phone. You didn’t notice that you were looking hard and that your best friend is the one making fun of you this time. It’s true what she just said, Lee Jeno will change your life.

“So how popular are we talking about?” you turned your head towards your best friend with a big smile.

“Popular. Girls write love letters to him and put it inside his locker and guess what, those girls knew the combination of his lock. That means girls are crazy for him, literally. Not to mention he’s smart and friends with the other cuties in the campus. Oh! He has a car, and the greatest mystery of all time…” she leaned closer to you, “Jeno and his ex, are not in good terms. And after they broke up before their freshman year ended, he never went out with someone again, he stayed single until now”

“Wasting his good looks and handsome body, and for what? For the right one? Tsk. He’s handsome but stupid” but that doesn’t changed the fact that you actually like him.

Your first year in college turned around, up side down because of Lee Jeno. You fell for him. Hard. But even though you have great feelings for the man, you kept it to yourself. Theres no way you will leave love letters in his locker before he graduates, you’re satisfied that you get to see him during your long hour lunch break and watch him smile everyday.

And as life goes on and Freshman year is almost over, that means Jeno will soon graduate and it’s time to let go of your silly crush and find another one in school. You’re not stupid to cry over a guy you’ve never even had a conversation with, but you’re sad enough that you got teary eyed when you found Jeno’s usual seat in the cafeteria being taken by some random student.

It was the start of Sophomore year and you have different schedules with your best friend. That leaves you alone during your two hour long lunch break. No Jeno. No best friend. Just you and the school’s yummy pasta, alone in table in the middle of the cafeteria full of young bloods.

“Is this seat taken? Sorry everywhere else is full”

Your mouth was full of pasta and you can’t talk or lift your head to see who it is so to avoid humiliating yourself, you signalled, ‘it’s okay. Sure take the seat.’ When you finally chewed and swallowed your food, you almost choke yourself with your own spit because it’s Lee Jeno. Eating the same pasta as yours, in front of you.

“I usually sit with my friends during lunch breaks, but they’re all gone now. Graduated already. Hi, I’m Jeno by the way” he offered his hand for you to shake and smiled handsomely.

“Uh, y/n” you gladly accepted the handshake, but you manage to keep your calm and don’t freak him out. The last thing you want to happen is Lee Jeno thinking that you’re weird. “Aren’t you a Senior? I mean, you’re kind of popular, so I know”

“Yeah. But not everyone knows I have failed a few subjects so, that’s our secret” he held a ‘shh’ gesture and continue eating.

Who would’ve thought that him failing his subjects will draw him straight to your life. It’s not right to be happy that he didn’t get to graduate on time, but you’re glad it happened.

During your time eating with each other face to face, you talked about how silly the school is for giving their students hours and hours of lunch breaks only to torture them with a five hour class afterwards. He asked about your stay here in this college and why did you pick fine arts, you did the same. It was a talk that you never imagined having with Jeno and you’re having a great time. Until those two hours are finally done and you both have to go to your respective classes.

If Cinderella had her time with her prince at the ball, you had your time with your prince in the middle of the cafeteria during lunch. Just like Cinderella, you don’t know if this kind of moment will happen again in your life. It’s not as if you can just leave your shoe and let him find you again, you just left with a smile, thanked him for his time and he thanked you for the seat.

You didn’t know, but Jeno was actually sad and having a hard time. He was having a bad day and he misses his friends, cursing this popularity that he never asked. Now everyone in school will judge him for being a late graduate. On top of that, he’s not used to eating alone and he was pretty worried until he saw you with a vacant seat. He didn’t expect to enjoy your company but boy is he glad he met you today. It’s like meeting you brightened up his mood, now he has something to look forward to during lunch breaks.

On the next day, you don’t want to keep waiting and expect the same thing that happened yesterday happen again today. So you distracted yourself with a movie. And while you’re in deep concentration with the movie while you’re eating your cookies, you saw a hand get a piece and you put on an angry face because who dared doing such a rude-

“Oh Jeno…” you were like a statue when he placed his bag on the chair and brought out some books to work on something, his homework maybe?

“Sorry for the cookie, I’ll buy you another pack after we finish this and after I do this stupid homework” he turned to his books while eating the cookie on his hand.

We. The word made you smile and nod at him, not wanting to disturb him while he studies. You figured maybe comparing yourself with Cinderella was wrong because your prince didn’t need a shoe for him to come find you.

After that second interaction with Jeno… A third happened, fourth, fifth, and so on and so forth. He depended on your great company to save him from his own sadness and heavy thoughts because being an irregular student makes him lonely and whenever he remembers not graduating with his friends makes him sad plenty.

You two spend lunch breaks together everyday and talk about everything and anything under the sun, talking about each other’s interests, laughing loudly at each other’s jokes like you’ve been friends for years and years already. In other words, you and your college crush became good friends. Maybe if you’re not destined to be lovers, you two are bound to be good college friends.

“Hey do you want to go for a drive?” the question made your heart beat fast because it’s a drive with Jeno were talking about here. You do have one last class for the day but, no one will die if you miss it just this once.

“Sure” you smiled wildly to his offer and you two made your way to the school’s parking lot.

The drive was something you will never forget because you’re with Jeno. Simple as that. The sun hits his face perfectly while his eyes are fixed on the road and you feel the wind slapping your face because he’s driving a little too fast to make it exciting and fun. He went to a drive thru and bought burgers for the two of you and eat it inside the car in the middle of an empty parking lot somewhere.

To Jeno, that drive was the proof that he’s falling for you hard. But it’s also a proof that he’s scared of loosing you once you knew about his hidden feelings. He shrugged it off and focused to the way you ate your hamburger that makes him smile but when you ask for his hamburger because you’re still hungry, it makes him happy.  

That drive sparked something between you two. It’s obvious that he likes you and you’re not stupid to not see it, he’s just not saying it yet because maybe he’s waiting for the perfect time or assurance. No one knows.

As for you feelings, let’s just say you don’t know what you want. You’re still convinced that Jeno is destined to be a great friend and not as someone who’m you can love. But since he’s been your crush, your heart still beats for him.

“Did you know that a lot of girls are crazy about you? And that they can open your locker?”

Jeno let out a loud laugh that echoes inside his car, “I know about the locker, but that locker is not just mine. It’s Haechan’s, Mark’s and Renjun’s and mine. So every time theres a letter we don’t know how to feel about it”

“Oh my, good thing I never sent you one” you laughed to yourself too.

“So you’re one of those girls? You crazy about me too?” heat creeps around your body and suddenly you avoid his eyes, “You are…” he pretends to be shocked.

“Calm down, I used to be like those girls. Okay, you can stop teasing me” you shook your head on disbelief because this is not how you imagined telling Jeno that you used to have a crush on him.

“I think you’re cute and I’m not embarrassed to tell you that so you shouldn’t be embarrassed on admitting that you used to have a crush on me” to Jeno, that’s only half true. Because he doesn’t only think that you’re cute, he thinks you’re also beautiful and he likes you. Very much.

Since the day you two became incredibly close, you realised that you’re not romantically meant to be together. But you can see him fall for you each day that passes and you hate the timing of your lives even more each day for doing this to you and Jeno. It’s like fate was playing with your feelings.

As days go by, you notice Jeno is acting a little weird towards you. Little did you know, after that drive he confirmed to himself that he likes you and not just as friend. And because of that, he’s taking baby steps on turning your friendship into something more romantic.

Come Valentines day, you didn’t expect something special to happen this day because you’re single and no one in school is interested in you. But you’re wrong. Lee Jeno has something up his sleeve and he caught off guard. For the first time in your life someone gave you a Valentine card, a box of expensive chocolates, and a red rose. All that Valentines shit couples give out during this day.

And it made you crazy happy that Jeno actually thought he has a chance with you.  

“Wow. From Lee Jeno”  you read his Valentine card and blush like crazy in front of him at the school cafeteria. It did made you happy, for some time. For a moment you forgot that Jeno is a god, who gave you Valentine goodies in front of a lot of students who knew him. And that’s how people in school knew about you and Jeno. Rumours spread like wild fire, you started getting hate message all over social media from those crazy girls. Everyone thought you’re just that Sophomore friend of Jeno and they didn’t expect that Jeno will like you.

‘Find someone prettier’

‘Her vs. your ex… definitely your ex’

‘You deserve someone better’

All those hurtful words got the best of you and it made you small. But even though you got hurt, you figured they’re just jealous of you and you won’t let them ruin your friendship with Jeno.  

Given the fact that he’s being confident with showing his feelings for you, and to be fair and to be completely nice, you just let him do his thing without hurting his feelings. If he wants to text you good morning messages and send you subtle but sweet phrases, you let him. If he wants to sit beside you during lunch breaks and not on his usual seat across you, so be it. If he insist on waiting for you after class and drive you home, you accept it. These are the things that you imagine him doing to you during freshman year but now that it’s actually happening, you feel weird about it.

Finally he asked you out on a date. Which you turned down because you have school stuff to finish and he completely understands it. And then he asked you out again, and you had to turn him down again. Because you really don’t want to go on a date with him.

“I think I’m doing something wrong?” he drinks his fourth bottle of beer while his friends listens to everything he says. Seeing the Lee Jeno so broken and frustrated like this is new to them. Turns out, you’re the only girl he’s interested with after being single for almost four years.

“Give her time that’s my say, maybe you’re intimidating her at some point and she’s not into popular guys” Mark pats Jeno’s shoulder and clinks his bottle of beer with Jeno’s.

“Any word from her best friend?” Jeno asks, and Mark shook his head none. Your best friend and Mark Lee have been dating for some time now and that officially put both of your names into the hall of fame. And a possible target of the crazy girls who are head over heels for Jeno and Mark.

Jeno didn’t understand why. It’s not that he’s so full of himself that he’s so confident that he can win you with his charms, but theres something different about you that even though it’s obvious that you only love him as a friend, he kept on pushing and pushing. And he wanted to do it until he can finally call you his.

Now that Jeno is busy being an intern outside school, you no longer see each other everyday and talk to each other like how you usually do. That’s how you met Hendery. Unlike you and Jeno who started off being friends, you and Hendery started off being sweethearts. And maybe that’s what went wrong between you and Jeno because you completely remember that you still have feelings for him the moment he ate one of your cookie, then your feelings slowly fade away each day you two meet.

You told Jeno all about Hendery through one of your calls before going to sleep simply because you don’t want him to find out from other people. “He’s a great guy, we went on a date yesterday after school”

“Two weeks with this guy and he can get you on a date? Wow” Jeno is broken, “I’m with you for over six months already and I asked you to go on a date with me twice…. you never said yes” the hurt from his voice is obvious and your heart is breaking because you didn’t mean to hurt him, you just wanted to be honest.

After that call, you and Jeno did not talked to each other. You wanted so bad to talk to him but you’re scared that he’ll get the wrong memo and that he will think that he still stand a chance. So yet let him be and you let him come to you and you focus on Hendery.

A few weeks after, you saw a picture of Yeeun and Jeno on one of his social media accounts having a romantic date somewhere. Complete with wine and candles. You’re jealous and theres no way you can cover it up.

“Is this some kind of joke?” you exclaimed over the phone to your best friend, mad and angry about what you just saw.

“He’s moving on give him a break. Besides I thought you don’t have feelings for him?”

“I don’t I’m just… offended because he’s completely doing this on purpose because of Hendery which is so childish! Oh my g- I can’t… ugh!” you continue to shout and scream over the phone but your best friend is in the middle of having sex with Mark so you can’t talk to her well.

Being jealous is a proof that you have feelings for him still. And you can’t give in to that because going back to Jeno will hurt Hendery, so you have to be smart and weigh things over. If Jeno ask you out on a date for the last time before being official with Hendery, you will give him a chance. But if not, that will be the end of it.

As days go by, Hendery has been going full out on showing how much he likes you and you come to the realization that you actually love Hendery already. Jeno on the other hand, haven’t talked to you since then, no hi or hello. And the thought of Jeno is the only thing that’s stopping you from making it official with Hendery. Of course you feel bad, it feels like you’re cheating on him. And to be completely honest, you’re growing tired of this push and pull with Jeno.

You were eating your favorite pasta alone while you catch up with some readings for your last class for the day when a fine young man sat in front of you. “Did you just saved me a seat?” one glance of his perfect smile made your anger vanished out of thin air.

“Yeah I kept it empty until you come back” you were happy to see him, it feels like those days when everything was still okay between you and him. No drama just you and Jeno and your own little world.

“Want to go for a drive?” he raised his eyebrows twice, luring you to miss another class for a drive with him. And because you miss him so bad, the next thing you know you’re watching a scary movie with burgers on your hands sitting closely with each other. His warmth is enough to make you feel safe and not scared with the movie and when the burgers are all finished, your hands are intertwined unconsciously.

You were both quiet when you got back to his car because of the movie you just watched. Both too scared and weirded out with how the story ended. “At least they died together”

“Yeah” you agreed immediately but you two stayed quiet.

“Did you know that you were holding my hand?”

You snap your head and looked at him, shy to answer what he asked you but theres no escape and you can’t make an excuse. “Yeah, sorry about tha-“

He’s quick to to grab your hand and hold it firmly you feel like your bones are starting to crush. It hurts but there’s no words coming out from your mouth. He made you face him with his free hand and leaned towards your face to kiss you. Just a peck as if he’s testing waters.

Then you kissed him back. And the kiss became heated that he pulled you close to him and invited you to sit on his lap, legs on the driver’s seat, his arms around your waist and yours is looking for something you can grasp because his kisses are intense.

“Why can’t you love me? Huh?” you see the hurt in his eyes when you peek in between kisses and you felt guilty. Tears run down to his face but you don’t know if it’s tears of joy or out of sadness.

“Jeno, please stop crying” you beg, breathing hard and gasping. But he never stopped.

“Say you love me” his hug against your waist tightens more as if he never wanted you leave his car, “say you love me, please” he sobs.

His begging made you do it, “I love you. Please stop crying, you don’t deserve this”

Hearing those words made him relax and loosen up his crushing embrace. His hand creeps to the hem of your shirt, playing with your tummy tickling it because he knows you’re ticklish. That changed the mood, he undid your pants and made some space so you can remove it easily. He did the same thing with his pants and boxer briefs and reached for the console to get a condom which he quickly rolled to his cock before you get back on top of him.

He motions you back close to him and put a little spit on his fingers before playing with your slit, checking if you’re ready to be fucked. “You’re not a virgin right? I don’t have to be careful anymore” he asked with ragged breath, obviously excited for what’s going to happen.

“Be gentle, still. It’s been so long since my last” you positioned your legs in between him, letting his cock tease your cunt and spread your juices more.

“Wheres the fun on being gentle? But don’t worry, I love you too much I wont let you get hurt”

You slowly sink down on him feeling his thick and veiny cock and rolled your hips slightly to help you adjust more and so you can have rough sex,  just how wants. “Ah- Jen if I roll my hips longer I will cum” he chuckled and took over, thrusting hard upwards your cunt. One hard thrust at a time, you feel your head bump on top of the car roof your hands push on the windows for support. Then his thrusts became faster putting you two on edge in no time.  You were moaning and letting out sharp breaths in between curses so he pulled your face closer to him and kissed you while he fucks you to your orgasm and while he catches his own.

The car smelled like sex and you were both too weak to move after cumming. It started raining hard and you feel awfully comfortable sitting on Jeno’s lap. “Just so you know, I didn’t planned for this to happen”

“I know” with all your strength you made yourself presentable again and went back to your seat and waited for Jeno to drive you home.

The rain was making you feel more sad and guilty, swimming with your thoughts while thinking about Hendery. That’s why you didn’t hear Jeno ask you is you if you were cold he needed to reach for your hand while he was driving under the strong rain and flinch because of his cold hands.

“Sorry, what” you crossed your arms so he can’t reach for your hand again. Your mind is full of Hendery and you and can’t tell him that.

Jeno on the other hand knew something is wrong that you feel guilty or mad because of the sex. But he wants to be selfish just this once to prove to you that he loves you and this is the only way. “Nothing, I asked if you were cold”

Sex never felt so wrong.

When you came home you took a shower and cried for hours, avoiding Jeno’s calls and messages because you feel bad about what happened. You don’t know what to do but you can’t tell Hendery what happened, so you did something to ease the guilt that you’re feeling. You finally made it official with Hendery, your heart broke even more when you heard him so happy through the phone because that only means he loves you too much.

Then there’s you. Having sex with a friend who’m you used to have a big crush with.

You avoided Jeno with all your power until he gets the message that you feel bad about what happened between the two of you. Until the day the that you’re ready to face him again, you will not talk to him.  

And that’s how you broke Lee Jeno’s heart.

SENIOR YEAR

What happened between you and Jeno flashbacks like a movie in your head during lunch break and you can’t believe that you can feel his presence around the campus even though you can’t see him.  

It’s been seven ugly months when you and Hendery broke up and you have to admit that it still hurt like hell. Cheating motherfucker didn’t deserve you. The regret of choosing Hendery over Jeno haunted you everyday but you didn’t expect that Jeno will literally comeback barging into your life again.

Maybe this time life will give you a shot at the love you deserve. And Jeno is the answer to that. But it’s been years since the last time you talked and that was the night you two had sex in his car. What you did to him was unforgivable and you feel bad, you feel like you used him but you didn’t mean it if that makes sense.

“Mark is here, you sure you don’t need a ride?” your best friend brought you back to reality while you were swimming in thoughts. You didn’t even notice it was raining hard already.

“I’ll be fine. I can just call an Uber, tell Mark to drive safe okay?” she hugged you and went towards Mark’s waiting car outside the school lobby. You were just about to book an Uber when someone tapped you on your shoulder.

“Come on I’ll drive you home. Just like old times”

“You do know that a student-teacher relationship is jail time right? This is not old times Jeno. You’re a teacher, a professor rather. And I’m still obviously a student” you turned your back on him and continued fidgeting on your phone.

“And I’m being a responsible adult, who’s offering help to a student that’s obviously in need because your phone just died on you” he smirked.  

“Fine wheres your car” you said, accepting defeat.

“Right this way please” he ushered you to the elevator to go to the basement parking.

While walking to his car, you didn’t expect him to still have the car. The car where you two had sex. And that is the main reason why you didn’t want him to drive you home.

The rain caused a heavy traffic and it made you feel more suffocated inside Jeno’s car. You cross your arms because you were freezing, clinging to your thin sweater for more heat.

“Don’t worry, I won’t touch you. Please relax, you’re breaking my heart”

Your head swing towards him and you gave him a look. A look that’s telling him you’re angry and how dare him to mention your past. It was so hard not to talk back because it can end up as a fight so you kept what you’re feeling to yourself.

“You make me feel like I’m a bad person when all I ever cared about is you and loving you” he added.

“Please Jeno, don’t do this now” you beg, closing your eyes and turning your back against him looking at the cars outside.

“After that night you made me feel like I’m a rapist or something. I’m sorry that it’s not what you want to do that time, I’m sorry that I begged, Im so-“

“I forgive you. And you don’t have to say sorry because I was the one who hurt you Jeno. Not the other way around, so please understand how hard it it for me to sit with you in this car. To make you feel better I regret not choosing you. There! I said it. Now please shut up”

The ride became quiet, awkward and cold so you decided to sleep if off. When you woke up from your nap, you and Jeno are in front of your house already and he’s waiting for you to wake up. His jacket is on your lap cover your freezing legs and he even turned off the air conditioning so you won’t shiver. It was a kind gesture you admit, and he’s still Lee Jeno who cared for you. Your friend. Even though you hurt him so many times and that makes you a heartless person still, you care for him. “Thank you. And I’m sorry about earlier”

“I’m getting married” he finally blurted out.

You didn’t know. You didn’t even know that he was seeing someone “And… I’m happy for you…” what he said got you speechless and you felt your heart broke even more.

“But I recently found out through Mark that you and Hendery are over… And I started to have seconds thoughts Y/n”

MAIN MASTERLIST

Story time

Is it wrong to admit that everything inside this fic happened to me in real life? hahahaha Except to the part where he’s having second thoughts. 

So yeah the story goes like that I picked someone new over my crush who’m I became good friends with and that is that. hahahaha I recently found out that he’s getting married to girl, after me. And I couldn’t help but think that WHAT IF I chose him, it could have been my wedding. :((((((((((((( oh and yeah. he looked like Jeno. 

#nct-writers #nct smut #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct dream smut #jeno x reader #lee jeno x reader #nct jeno x reader #jeno smut #nct jeno smut #nct lee jeno smut #nct angst #nct jeno angst #jeno angst

[bandaigaeru]

comfort place - yang jeongin

→genre: friends to lovers →synopsis: comfort can manifest itself in many forms. some find it in the fantastical world of the arts. others find it in sports. but, for you, comfort is a person.  →word count: 6.5k →pairing: jeongin x gender neutral reader →warnings: drunk jeongin, mentions of puking

i. 

“Why are you doing that?” 

“Doing what?” 

“That,” your eyes go wide as you nod at his stature. He’s hunched over your trash can. Blue gloves shield his hands as he digs. 

“Oh. I think I lost my earring or something.” 

“And your first instinct was to search my trash can?” you quirk an eyebrow. Perhaps you should mention that this isn’t just any trash can, it’s your kitchen one. Full of discarded, burnt ramen and your roommate’s weird protein shakes that will clog your drain otherwise. 

He nods, as though this is the most normal first step to a lost earring. Yang Jeongin is many things, but being questionable is one of his strongest traits. 

You slip behind him to get to the fridge. Water bottles line the right half, more commonly known as your roommate’s side. You reach for one. 

“What are you doing on March twenty-fifth?” he asks, arms deep in your trashcan. He’s really going to endure this conversation without a single shred of his pride disappearing. 

You try not to look at him as you glance at the calendar. Two weeks away, the small square for that Saturday reads “NATIONALS” in large red letters. 

You hum to yourself. “Dog sitting.” 

“What?” he looks at you, eyes squinted in confusion, “Why?” 

“Danceracha’s going out of town for the dance contest. I told you this.” 

He exhales a deep, surrendering sigh as he straightens his back and plucks the gloves off. He shakes his hands in the cool air before starting for your sink. The calm stream of water trickles out. “Man. That sucks.” 

“Why?” you question. Your fingertips draw marks of condensation along the plastic. 

“I was gonna invite you to a party,” he mutters. A pout comes to his lips. For a moment, your heart drops. He looks the same as when you met him. All those years, long with memories but short in quantity, whizz past you. 

“Party?” you repeat. 

“Yeah,” he nudges the water stream off. 

Parties and Jeongin don’t mix well. History has proven this. 

“Whose party is it?” you start for the living room, knowing he’ll follow. 

“You don’t know him,” he says, his voice never once fading because, indeed, he’s on your tail. 

“Okay, but what’s his name?” 

“Chan. Actually,” he hesitates, “you might know him.” 

As you sink into the couch, chipped leather scratching your legs, you glance at him. His eyebrows are scrunched into his thinking stance. Then, his features light up once he finds the answer. “Do you remember sophomore year’s biology class?” 

You nod. 

“Remember when that senior came in to make fun of Mr. Lee?” 

Again, you nod. 

“His best friend is Chan. You probably saw them in our freshman yearbook for spirit week. They dressed up as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum for Twins Day.” 

Your mouth forms into an acknowledging part. “Got it.” In fact, the recurring image instantly pops into your head. You can thank all the hours spent staring at it with stifled laughter for that. 

“So what’s the party for?” 

He shrugs, “Some college achievement shit.” 

“And you got invited?” you laugh. Jeongin barely made it out of high school. He took one harrowed glance at the local campus and nearly cried. You don’t blame him, though. That place is stressful. Even as a freshman you can say this. 

He rolls his eyes. “I’m cool, you know? I don’t need to be in academics for them to know that.” 

“Sure,” you nod. 

“I’m serious!” His lips quirk up in a defensive manner that sends a spark through your chest. 

Among other things, Jeongin is confusing. Questionable and confusing. These are the words you say when someone asks you what he’s like. Because seriously, why does he always do things so infuriating yet endearing? 

He runs a hand through his hair as he unlocks his phone. His thumb works quickly to swipe through a message log before he tilts the phone so you can see. “See?” 

The conversation in question is short, a maximum of four texts. The details blur as he snatches his phone back as quickly as he showed it. Again, infuriating. 

“Are you planning on going alone, then?” 

This question makes him freeze. He stares at the wall wielding a mounted TV, whose black screen reflects the image of him by your side, shoulder to shoulder. A small smile tilts his lips. “I guess. People want me there. So I’ll find my niche.” 

See? Endearing. 

You have no doubts that he can find a place to fit in. He did it in high school and he’ll proceed to do it in the future. That’s just how he is. Plus, maybe he can allow someone else to feel safe too. Like he did for you. 

ii.

High school is a demon with a comforting smile. When you’re forced to transition, they tell you it’s all fun. Sunshine and rainbows, if you will. What they don’t tell you is that luck will always make it so you don’t get any of your friends in your classes. And this, with your contradicting lunch shifts, will slowly force you out of the friend group you had stuck with since elementary school. 

Perpetual tears are stocked behind your eyes. Waiting for the perfect moment to fall because let’s be honest, any minor inconvenience could push you over the edge. Stress does that to you. 

In third period of your second week, your math teacher announces that she’s decided on her seating chart. She makes you line up against the walls as she grabs her reference sheet, lined with the images of desks, names scribbled atop them. “Jeongin,” she says, pointing to a desk in the front row. 

A boy a few feet away from you steps out from the crowd to claim his desk. He’s wearing an oversized maroon hoodie whose back is marked “Yang” in white letters. 

Your teacher stops at the seat next to him. She glances at you and your heart drops. “Y/N,” she points to a desk. 

Sitting up front is worse than the incessant plagues of high school drama. All eyes permanently burn into the back of your head, even when not a single soul acknowledges you. 

As you try to settle into your seat, back a little stiff from trying to shrink yourself into a tiny marble, the boy beside you leans over. “Hey, you okay?” 

For the first time, your eyes lock. His remind you of the innocence of childhood, that blank yet full gaze. You nearly melt, but instead, your back loosens. 

“Yeah. I just don’t like sitting in the front,” you chuckle awkwardly. 

He smiles. Not one of the pity ones, but a real toothy smile. “Aww. Me neither, I always feel like everyone’s watching me.” 

Finally, a person who gets it. 

“But I just have to trick myself into not caring,” he says, glancing at the whiteboard. Shadows of poorly erased marker line the corners. 

Abruptly, after his serene gaze, he jumps back to you. “Do you like coffee by any chance?” 

Despite the initial shock of the question, you say, “Yeah, I do.” 

As it turns out, his family owns this huge coffee shop right next to the bookstore you used to frequent. His mom was rather happy to see a new face. On that day, she accepted you as family. 

And math didn’t turn out to be so hard that year. 

iii.

The apartment grows quiet after Jeongin inevitably has to leave. Your roommate’s dog comes trotting out from his room. His nose is upturned, scouting for a soul to give him attention. 

“Come here, Kkami,” you pat the empty spot on the couch beside you. He runs the rest of the way. Instead of resting on the couch cushion, he prefers your lap. This pickiness he obtained from his owner. 

Hyunjin’s anything but a bad roommate. He does the dishes, sweeps when he finds a large puff of Kkami’s fur traveling your hardwood like a tumbleweed, even brings home coffee when you have a huge study night ahead of you. However, when it comes to you and Jeongin, your mutual hangouts on weekends, he has a very specific need. And that’s to be around you two as little as possible. 

He claims it’s because he can’t stand third-wheeling. Jeongin refuses to understand this concept. “If we’re not dating, it’s not third-wheeling?” he’d said, numerous times. 

Hyunjin won’t budge on the subject. 

The tune set as Jeongin’s ringtone, chosen by him, plagues the air. You reach for your phone, placing a protective hand on Kkami’s side to prevent him from falling. 

“Hello?”

“Problem: What would you do if your brother told you he got a girlfriend?” 

You squint at your reflection in the TV between scene transitions. It looks odd without him beside you. “Which brother?” 

“Guess which one would make me more dumbfounded. Hint, it’s not the older one.” 

“Your younger brother got someone before you?” you snicker. Jeongin holds his pride in his individuality. Losing to a younger brother with something like this is hilarious. 

“This isn’t funny! Should I be a serious big brother and talk to him or should I just seethe in silence?” 

“Neither. Leave him alone.” 

He does something akin to a whine. “But-”

You stick up a finger, though he can’t see you as you interrupt, “C’mon, Jeongin. He’s a teenager. Let him be.” 

Sometimes, it feels like he’s the outsider and you’re the true, reasonable sibling. 

He sighs. You imagine him pushing his hair out of his eyes and staring up at his ceiling. All lost in the possibilities that lay before him, since you and him both know he won’t listen to you. 

“Can I hang up now?” you ask, glancing at the front door. 

“Are you gonna abandon me for your significant other too?” 

You scoff as the front door opens. “You’re ridiculous.” 

Hyunjin steps into the apartment. His hair is damp with sweat and lays jagged in front of his eyes. You raise a hand to wave. 

“It’s a real question, though. You know whoever it is will be jealous of me.” Now, you know, he’s just prodding for a reaction. You can practically hear the smirk in his voice. 

“Yes, Jeongin. I would one hundred percent drop you for some person who offers emotional stimulation,” you monotonously chide. 

Hyunjin gives you a curious look as he passes. You would think he’d be used to this by now. 

“Okay but,” Jeongin’s voice grows low as he settles onto his bed, “would you really? Tell me you won’t.” 

“I won’t,” you press your back deeper into the couch. It’s not like you’ve had many romantic opportunities since meeting him. Jeongin, though also needy, is more interesting than anyone else you’ve met. He’s a shiny emerald among a sea of charcoal. 

“Good,” he says, and you can tell he’s smiling. The image of his little dimple indenting makes you mirror the sentiment. 

“Now can I hang up?” 

“Fine,” he sighs.

Through a laugh, you manage, “Goodnight. Love you.” 

“Love you too.” And then the line goes dead. 

iv.

“Are you sure you don’t like him?” must be a trendy replacement for ‘good morning.’ 

“Who?” you ask, rubbing your eye as you start for the cereal cabinet. 

“Jeongin. Who else?” Hyunjin says. He sits at the kitchen table. A plate of freshly heated blueberry waffles sits before him. 

Without turning to him, you say, “I’m sure.” 

It’s a reflex, really. 

He exhales in the most exaggerated way possible to grab your attention. His eyes are cold with the hunger for an answer. A real one. 

“I don’t like him,” you say slowly, allowing each word time to sink into the air. 

The thought has surely crossed your mind. It’d be unrealistic to say you’ve never pondered the great possibility of being in love with your best friend. But ultimately, you don’t think you are. Sure, you’d take a bullet for Jeongin. Just not in the ‘wow I’m madly in love with you’ kind of way. You tell yourself it’s in the ‘you’re going to do so much good for the world’ kind of way. 

“Fine,” Hyunjin admits, picking up one of his waffles and taking a caveman bite. 

Most of breakfast is quiet as you sit opposite him, staring into your bowl. Your milky reflection takes you off guard a few times. 

“You know,” Hyunjin says after a while, his voice raw and a little croaky. He has to bring a hand to cover his mouth as he clears his throat. “You should get him to stay with you while I’m away.” 

As you look back up at him, he adds defensively, “I’m not trying to play Cupid.”

You shrug, “He probably has other plans.” 

Yet when you text him a few hours later, he jumps on it. “It’ll be like a sleepover! Don’t you miss when we did those?” 

You did, but you don’t admit it. 

v.

The week of nationals arrives too quickly for your mind to process. One minute, you’re studying for an upcoming exam and the next there’s a knock on your bedroom door. It doesn’t wait for a sound before opening. 

“Hey, I’m leaving.” 

Hyunjin’s dressed in black sweatpants and a black hoodie, which covers his messy hair. Perfect for his night of sleeping on the bus. A duffel bag packed and puffy hangs off his shoulder. 

“Good luck,” you smile up at him. 

“Thanks. Don’t try sneaking into the venue with your rat like you did last year,” he returns the smile. 

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea,” you rush to defend yourself. 

He scoffs. “Yeah, right. You still played into it.” 

“And we got to support you as your lovely friends.” 

“You were the only people cheering during the contemporary dance,” he mumbles, stepping back into the hall. 

“To be fair, we couldn’t realize because we were so involved!” you shout to match the increasing distance. 

“Right!” he calls, a laugh shaking his words. 

Studying is now a failed mission. Every time you glance at the words printed on the textbook’s glossed pages, they just blur together until your mind drifts to Jeongin. When is he coming over? He said he’d be here by seven. It’s roughly a quarter past. He has a key, so it’s not like you have to be free when he gets here.

When you succumb and close the textbook, you hear shuffling in the living room. Shortly followed by Kkami’s familiar barking, which he only pursues when someone’s here. 

The feeling of a generously excited puppy fills you as you follow the source. 

“Hi,” you smile. 

Jeongin has treated himself to a coffee. He must have just worked a shift. 

“Hi,” he hands you the paper cup. 

“Oh, is this for me?” you take it. It’s hot against your palms. 

“Yeah. It’s hot chocolate. Thought you might want it.” 

He drops his backpack, likely stuffed with potential party outfits, by the couch. He stands and scans your face as you take the first sip of the drink. The sweetness takes over and makes you shiver, but the warmth minimizes the shiver to nothing. Surely enough, this is his mother’s hot chocolate. 

“Thank you,” you say, looking into his eyes. The living room light has speckled his eyes with stars.

“Of course.” 

A moment passes of just looking at each other. Not a single word. You’re not even sure if you’re remembering to breathe. 

It breaks when he glances at the TV. “Movie time?” 

Settling on the couch doesn’t take long. He sits close enough to you, resting his head on your shoulder. He’s done this for as long as you remember, but why does it feel so close all of a sudden? 

He chooses the movie. A tradition you’ve established ever since you accidentally chose a movie so repulsively awful you had to take a break from watching movies at all. The teasing was barely bearable. 

Even now, when someone says something similar to that movie, you shiver. 

“Are we feeling sci-fi?” he asks. 

You almost shrug until you remember where his head is. “I don’t care,” you say instead. 

He chooses a romance movie, his safe pick. 

And he falls asleep not even ten minutes in. 

Hyunjin’s question returns to you in neon lights. Certainly, this tight feeling in your chest couldn’t be akin to liking someone. When you like someone, there’s always a telltale sign. There’s a bright moment of realization. That’s never come for you. Even now, all you can do is question. Question. Question. Question. 

vi.

Jeongin’s party outfit is the most conspicuous thing ever. A light blue tee from middle school that has all his classmate’s signatures on the back. Black jeans with holes at the knees. You can’t tell if he’s going to a child’s party or not. 

He catches your tilted gaze, matched with the furrowed eyebrows, and huffs. “Would you rather I get puke on a good shirt?” 

You blink. “I’d rather you not puke on yourself.” 

A noise close to laughter bursts past his lips. “Ha. Funny. I won’t reach that point. I’m thinking people puking on me.” 

You nod. Jeongin’s a lightweight, from what you know. But hey, if it helps him sleep at night. 

He departs after a long phone call with Chan. He offers a little wave as he opens the door. “I’ll give you live updates.” 

“You don’t have to.” 

“But I will.” 

And indeed, he follows through. Selfies bombard your phone every three minutes. One is taken with Chan, but it’s so shaky and dark that they look like blobs with highlighted cheeks. 

These only make you more confused. Maybe Hyunjin was right. But you don’t want him to be. Nothing makes you feel more foolish than catching feelings for a friend who is just that. Friend. That painful, heartbreaking word. 

You open Hyunjin’s message log, prepared to reach out and ask if he can help you break down what you’re feeling, but his contact transitions to consuming your entire screen—perfect timing, he’s calling. 

“Hello?” 

“Guess what?” His voice is drowned out by external shouts. 

“What?” 

“We took second place!”

“Congrats,” you smile to yourself, leaning against the couch arm. 

“It’s all thanks to Felix’s freestyle. That surprise category threw us off, but he really came through,” he rambles. He tells you about all his points and each error, which ultimately seem mundane but apparently make a difference in his detail loving mind. 

“Anyway, I just wanted to call. See how you’re doing, you know.”

“I’m doing good,” you nod as though to convince yourself. 

“How’s Jeongin?” 

“At a party,” you say as your phone buzzes again. Another selfie. This time, he’s in a lonesome bathroom and posing in the mirror. A peace sign that surrounds his eye. That stupid dimple makes your heart jump. 

Hyunjin giggles at something on his end and says something not aimed at you. He quickly returns to his serious tone with, “How are you really feeling? Don’t bullshit me.” 

You stifle a laugh. Resting your head on the back of the couch, you glare at the ceiling, “Confused.” 

“About Jeongin?” 

He slips into a quieter place. You sigh. Why are your hands shaking all of a sudden? “Yeah.” 

“Well,” he starts, “I pushed you into thinking about it for a reason.” 

“He doesn’t like me like that.” 

“How do you know?” 

“Because friends don’t like friends like that.” 

“But you like him like that, so doesn’t that ruin your statement?” 

You sit in the silence for a minute. “I guess so.” 

His breath is amplified and you can hear each inhale and exhale. “You’ll probably just brush this off, but I think you have a shot.” 

You nod. “Sure. A shot at going to the moon maybe. A shot at Jeongin liking me? No way.” 

“Look, pessimism isn’t gonna get you anywhere. If you’re too much of a pussy to talk to him, I will. But not because I want to, because it’s terrible seeing you sulk,” he mutters. 

A round of applause for your roommate. 

“Just give me some time. I still don’t know if I like him,” you glance at the dog, who’s cuddled up on a pile of blankets. Why can’t your life be that simple? 

“Not trying to force you or anything, but I think you know the answer to that.” 

He’s probably right. It’s not like you can retaliate anyway. There’s a distant knock before he says, “Sorry. I gotta go. I’ll be home tomorrow.” 

The following silence is truly suffocating. 

vii.

That party changes everything. 

Jeongin stumbles home, each step a potential path to faceplanting. It’s this exact stumble that forces him to trip over a box. 

The noise draws you from sleep. Through squinted eyes, you stare at him as he tries to regain his balance. His arms are splayed out, searching for a stable support beam. 

“Jeongin?” you whisper, though you know it’s him. Who else would be drunkenly returning home at, you glance at your phone, three in the morning?

“Y/N,” he gasps. Your voice prompts him to follow it. 

As you stand, he finds his way through the narrow path between couch and coffee table. He throws his arms around you. 

“I missed you,” he mumbles, words meshing together. 

“I missed you too?” It’s only been six hours. 

He holds you at arms length, palms resting on your shoulders. “I love you,” he slurs, eyes drunkenly taking a long blink. 

“I love you too?” 

“No, like, I really love you. ‘The moon is beautiful’ type of stuff,” he nods. 

You’re not sure what he means by this. But it doesn’t matter if you try to question him, because he continues. 

“I think about the future a lot,” he says, hands falling to his sides before he falls onto the couch. “Nothing’s ever consistent. But you’re always there.” 

“That’s-” you begin. 

He wasn’t finished. “I think our wedding would be nice.” 

Now, he goes silent as you stand there in shock. He thinks about that? How often? 

The moment your lips part to ask these things, a light snore escapes his lips. You grab a blanket from your room, the Totoro one he loves, and you gently cover him. You lean over his face. His cheeks are a little swollen, as are his lips. You push his hair away from his eyes before going to your room. You’re careful not to make a noise as you shut the door. 

He’s gone by the time you wake up. For the first twenty-four hours, you shrug it off as a painful hangover he’s just sleeping through. 

Most hangovers don’t last a week, though. 

One time, sitting beneath a sky littered with stars, Jeongin released a deep breath. “Do you think we’ll ever stop being friends?” 

Jeongin’s not insecure about many things, as his philosophy is that if one person finds something unattractive, there’s a hoard who will think otherwise. But this topic is an exception. 

“Unless you do something unthinkably terrible, no,” you mumble. And you truly meant it. 

So, Jeongin: You haven’t done anything unthinkable.Why have you disappeared? 

Life without Jeongin has been incredibly boring. It’s prompted an imminent heartache. Attending class is a lame option considering your bed is so much more comfortable. You never knew missing someone could form a black hole in your body, consuming each grain of energy. 

Hyunjin’s the only reason you’re eating. Since he knows you’re not up for any meal, he brings you snacks and another bottle of water—to add to the mountain of empty bottles on your desk. 

“Do I need to go break his ankles?” Hyunjin asks one day, nearly a month after his tournament. 

You shrug. You know he’s joking, but laughter doesn’t seem to bubble up. It’s lost in the dark cave that is this confusing state. 

“I texted him today. No response yet,” Hyunjin adds. 

You nod. You got the same treatment, but you stopped trying a while ago. 

“Have you gone to the coffee shop? To see his mom or something?” 

You shake your head. “No point in it. He doesn’t tell her much. Plus I don’t want to pin her against him or anything.” 

Hyunjin sighs. He doesn’t know what else to say, or offer, or do to help you. Not that you’re a lost cause, but he’s starting to lose the ounce of hope he had. To him, you’re too good for this. Telling and convincing you of that is a difficult task. 

When he leaves you alone, you cry again. At this point, your eyes hurt when you aren’t crying. But hey, at least you’re sleeping nice. The desperate need to escape can do that to you. 

viii.

You tell Hyunjin your conclusion at dinner—something he’s finally tricked you into eating. “I think I love him.” 

He nods. “Yeah. Didn’t we already establish that?” 

You push the noodles around. “I didn’t want to admit it.” 

“Why?” 

Averted gaze set to the ramen, though his remains scalding. “I don’t know.”

He reaches across the table to regain your focus. He knows the noodles aren’t that interesting. “That’s okay. Look, we can go beat his ass if you want. Or we can hunt him down and hold him hostage-”

He stops when he sees the small hint of a smile turning your lips up. One of his own appears, and in his mind, he’s breaking into a congratulatory dance. The crack in the sadness is exposed, and it’s slowly breaking further. All that’s next is revealing the ravine of happiness. 

After dinner, you sit on the couch and decide to watch a movie. Unlike Jeongin, he gives you movie pick. It reminds you of the bitter taste that’s overcome your mouth since he up and left. 

Halfway through the movie, some shitty one Jeongin and you watched a few months ago, Kkami barks at the couch. He looks between you and the crack behind it as if to say, “Hello? Get my bone!” 

You glance at Hyunjin, who also waits for you to get up and retrieve the dog’s lost bone. Normally you take turns with this task, but he seems to have forgotten it’s been his turn for the last five times. 

With a muted sigh, you pull yourself off the couch. Hyunjin doesn’t even bother to pause the movie. Jeongin wouldn’t do that.  

You lower yourself to look into the dark tunnel. With a blind hand you swipe against the floor. A small object connects with the palm of your hand. You drag it out. A small metal earring glares back at you. You drop it in the pocket of your hoodie—which was a gift from Jeongin as you drifted into adulthood. You return to the bone search with a sting in your eyes. 

ix.

Happiness is a fragile object. 

At the same hour that Jeongin had said the unthinkable, your phone buzzes loudly against your side. Ultimately, this brings you back to the post-sleep daze as you trudge to answer it. Looking at the contact is the last of your concerns. 

“Hello?” Your voice is raw. A long gulp of water would be kindly appreciated. 

“Hey, Y/N, right?” This is a voice you’ve never heard before. You pull back to look at the contact and, unsurprisingly, there isn’t one. All that stares back is a string of numbers, unique to this person. 

“Yeah?” 

“Hi, sorry for the late call. I’m Chan-” you nearly hang up out of defensive instinct, but you let him finish. “I kind of need a favor right now.” 

“What kind of favor?” 

In the background, there’s a loud retching noise. “Um, so Jeongin, right?” Chan nervously laughs. 

“We’re not really-” you start. 

He interrupts, “I know. But he’s been talking about you nonstop. He’s really a wimp, you know. Actually, I guess I’m not really asking for a favor. I’m doing you a favor.” 

You know where he’s going with this. “I’m sorry, Chan, but I don’t think that’s a-”

“Hush,” he says before his voice distances. 

“Y/N? It’s Y/N?” the familiar, slurred voice asks. 

He wasn’t going to give you an option. Deep down, you’re kind of grateful for that. 

When Chan returns to the phone, he says, “I can send you the address. We’re on the first floor, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I would offer to come pick you up, but I’m babysitting.” At these final words, he laughs. 

You consider waking up Hyunjin to take you—he’s the one with the car—but you think against it when you realize it’s only a five minute walk. 

Despite the daytime weather that is clear sky and sun that hugs your skin, the nighttime 

version is a little less welcoming. Indeed the air is breezeless, but it’s a bitter cold. Grabbing a hoodie would have been smart, but alas. 

Chan opens the door with a smile. “Hi, come on in.” 

He points to a closed door, “Jeongin’s in there. He should be decent. Just a little pukey.” 

You follow his directions, while he starts for the couch. At least he’s allowing privacy, you think. You knock lightly on the door. After a long trial of waiting with no response, you slowly push the door open. 

His cheek is resting on the cold porcelain of the bathtub. Through dazed and squinted eyes, he looks at you. “Hi?” 

“Hey,” you say, stepping into his space for the first time in over a month. Despite the stain of puke on his shirt, you realize that he hasn’t changed much. What physical changes can someone go through in a month? Well. Everything. 

You appreciate your mind for allowing his appearance to never leave. Otherwise, you might have looked at him just now and been disgusted. Because it’s Jeongin, and because of this weird tugging feeling in your chest, you don’t. In its place, you look at him as though he holds the world’s most valuable object. 

He tries to sit up, nearly falls on his face, but manages. “Do you hate me?” 

“No. I don’t think so,” you squat next to him. The familiar weight of his head meets with your shoulder. 

“I shouldn’t say this,” he laughs. His mind is going a mile a minute, but his lips refuse to go at an accompanying speed. “I love you.” 

You stare at the top of his head. “I love you too.” 

“Really?” he lifts his head. He seems to search your eyes for the similar sparkle his hold. 

“Yeah,” you nod. You decide to save your cheesy comments until the morning. No point in wasting them if he won’t remember this when he wakes up. 

“Did you know that I,” he says, trying to lift himself to his feet. He leans a little too far on a foot, prompting you to rush and steady him. “thought you and Hyunjin were dating for the longest time.” He laughs again. 

You squint at him, “Is that why you disappeared?” 

A drunk smile finds his lips and his cheeks glow beneath the bathroom light. “Guilty.” 

“You’re stupid for thinking it’d ever be anyone but you,” you whisper, glancing anywhere but him. You could say this to the mirror too. Stupid for thinking it could be anyone but him. 

He’s ridiculous. Ridiculous enough to allow his smile to drop a little as he leans closer to your face. “I’m going to kiss you,” he whispers. 

You watch as he leans a little bit closer. Bit by bit. You even close your eyes at one point. At the last minute, when his breath begins to mingle with yours, he pulls away. “No. Let me brush my teeth first.” 

You watch in a stunned silence as he stumbles to the living room. “Do you have a spare toothbrush I could use?” he asks Chan. 

Chan responds quietly with, “Yeah, under the sink.” 

You beat Jeongin to it, offering him the packaged toothbrush. 

“Thanks, love,” he says. 

Questionable Jeongin who calls you pet names. You like it, though you’ll try your hardest not to admit it. That’d only feed into his questionable choices. 

Minty Jeongin has sobered up a little bit. Instead of kissing you immediately after rinsing his mouth, he stares. 

“What?” you prompt. 

“Nothing.” 

And then he leans in and kisses you. In all honesty, it’s exactly how you imagined kissing him. There’s no stereotypical sparks. It’s just Jeongin, whose lips happen to be on yours. That’s enough. Afterward, though, you acknowledge that Cloud 9 is beneath your feet. 

x.

Chan drives you and Jeongin back to your apartment after a difficult talk and one final puke. (The puker looks at you when he feels it coming and asks, “Can you hold my hair back?”)

As you’re helping Jeongin out of the car, Chan leans back in the driver seat and glares a strong eye at Jeonign, “Run away again and I will beat your ass.” 

Jeongin chuckles. “Right. Catch me first.” As he says this, he throws his arm over your shoulder for stability. Though, he’s sober enough to walk on his own now. The occasional stumble, sure, but he’s not in dire need of someone to guide him. 

You take it as his way of saying he plans on staying. 

However, when you make it into the apartment, you don’t bear right to the couch. 

Keeping him close will prevent him sneaking out and running away again. That’s a thing of the past, and you’ll make sure of it. 

He doesn’t even complain. 

“Don’t puke on me, please,” you whisper as you climb into bed. He follows shortly after. Arms naturally find your waist as he pulls you closer to him. 

He hums. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” 

Dreamless sleep takes over you, but the entire time you’re aware of his arms and his proximity. In a way, it’s better than dreaming. 

It’s even better when you wake up before him. His lips are a pretty shade of pink and for a moment you forget about his eventful night. You press a light kiss to his cheek. 

His eyes don’t open, nor does he stir. He’s in that beautiful, drunken sleep. You try not to laugh at the thought of his hangover to come. God, he’s going to be so whiny. 

You try to slip out of his arms, but the death grip only becomes tighter. He whines a little, mutters something like, “Don’t go.” 

After a few more minutes of just staring at the sleeping boy, boredom takes over. Yeah, staring is nice and all, whatever, but it reaches a certain intolerable point. Ten minutes is that point. 

You nudge him, “Jeongin, let go. I need to go to the bathroom.” 

“No,” he mutters, burying his face deeper into the pillow. 

“Jeongin.” 

“What?” 

“Let go.” 

His eyes finally open. They hold a small sense of surprise, which prompts you to tease, “What? Do you need a breakdown of what happened? Were you seriously that out of it?” 

“No. Well, a little,” he stumbles over the words. 

“What do you remember?” 

“Puking,” he winces as he laughs. There’s that signature headache. 

“You don’t remember kissing me?” 

Wide eyes stare back at you. His lip shakes as he tries to force words out. “What?” 

You laugh quietly. “Yeah. You did that.” 

“I’m sorry,” he sits up. His vacant arms feel cold. 

“No it’s okay. You only kissed me because I told you I loved you,” you sit up to match him. 

His head turns to look at you. Tufts of hair stick up in an oddly symmetrical way. “Really? Since when?” 

You nod. “Yeah. Time frame is unknown, but I think the feeling might have always been there. So you wasted a month of your life hiding.” 

He tips his head, “Hey now, I had a valid reason.” 

Your eyes squint at him. “It could have been avoided if you answered my texts. Or Hyunjin’s. Or if you checked your voicemail. Or-”

“Okay, I get it,” he nods, leaning in to shut you up. He presses a quick kiss to your lips. “I’m sorry.” He doesn’t say how weird it feels to kiss his best friend—but he’s incredibly excited to get used to it. 

“It’s fine. I think. My grades kind of tanked,” you comment, glancing at your desk. The tower of water bottles still stands. Somewhere buried beneath them are your abandoned papers. 

“Because of me?” his voice is soft, as are his eyes as he fights back the sting of tears. Of all his intentions, this wasn’t one of them. 

This look pains you. “Kinda. I thought I had lost my comfort place.” 

In order to disguise his tears, he pulls you into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry. I’ll be good to you. We can make latte art together at the shop and stargaze at stupid hours. Whatever you want.” 

You laugh into his shoulder. “Is that a promise?” 

He sniffles. “Yes. I love you. That’s the second promise.” 

xi.

Hyunjin’s reaction is lackluster. A forced gasp as he waves his hands in surprise. “Wow. I totally didn’t give Chan your number or anything,” he says. 

“Are you serious?” 

“Yeah. He called me trying to drop him,” he points at Jeongin, “on me.”

“And you didn’t want to get out of bed?” Jeongin asks, bringing his mug of freshly brewed coffee to his lips. 

“No,” Hyunjin sticks a finger up in defense. “Kkami wouldn’t let me move.” 

What he means is: Yes, I didn’t want to get up but allow me to use my dog as a ploy. 

You and Jeongin share a glance to confirm this thought. You burst out laughing. 

“Do not tell me you’ve developed a couple's telepathy already,” Hyunjin whines, throwing his head back as he begins to pace the kitchen. 

Jeongin begs your stare again. He wiggles his eyebrows to pseudo-communicate. 

“I’m going to retail therapy,” Hyunjin sighs, dragging his keys off the counter before starting for the door. 

A loud fit of laughter fills the air as the door shakes in its frame. 

“He’s so overdramatic,” Jeongin manages, wiping a stray tear away from his eye. 

You allow this time to watch him intently. All of his details flood over you with definitive clarity. His skin has gotten its first film of tan now that spring is in full swing. A change of season which you had missed out on together. It’s okay, he’ll take you to see the cherry blossoms next year. 

“Oh, I found your earring, by the way,” you say when he catches you staring. 

“Really? Where was it?” On instinct, he brings his hand up to his right ear. The lobes are not blinged, but it’s still worth checking. 

“Behind the couch.” 

He gapes at you. “How’d it get back there?” 

“How would I know?” 

You allow a silence to lay upon you as his face twists to think. All at once, it lights up again, “Ah. It was probably when we had that wrestling match. I didn’t have the back on because my ear was itchy or something.” 

Interesting Jeongin. Questionable Jeongin. 

Yang Jeongin is many things. Home. Comfort. Love. Above all else, he’s a friend. Who you happen to kiss from time to time. 

#posted on april fools because surprise haha #also because i don’t think this is my best but eh #yang jeongin #jeongin x reader #jeongin imagine #jeongin oneshot #stray kids oneshot #skz oneshot #stray kids jeongin #stray kids imagine #skz imagine #bandaigaeru

[twistedlymad]

It’s Time We Go Home (Ft. Grim, Ace and Deuce)

I saw this picture, (not my artwork, I literally cannot draw a circle :) ) and I had a scenario going on in my head. So, I took a break from writing requests to write this instead.

Slight warning, this won’t be your normal chaotic scenario. It’s just something that I had in my mind and I wrote everything down.

 I hope you would enjoy reading this and have a lovely day!

“I’ve finally found a way for you to get back home!!”

Those words rang in your head for 2 days now. Your friends would often find you staring into nothingness while you remembered what the principal had said to you 2 days earlier. When they asked you about it you would simply reply nothing and walked away.

But you thought to yourself, you’ve finally found a way home!

But…

What was home?

You honestly can’t remember.

You parents? Nope, you can’t remember what they looked and acted like.

Your siblings? Did you have any to begin with? You couldn’t remember either.

Do you want to go back? Truth be told, you didn’t know.

Because to you, Night Raven College was already home. You felt like you were supposed to be here. And after months of spending time with your friends and seniors, they treated you like their own.

And you did too.

So, why is it so hard for you to choose between going back to your original reality instead staying in this one?

Maybe it’s because of all the times you stopped Grim and Ace’s fights in the cafeteria.

Maybe it’s because of all the times you tried to get your friends to work together instead of butting heads.

Maybe it’s because of all the times you helped a dorm leader overcome his overblotting alongside your friends.

Maybe,

It’s because of all the times,

You had genuinely smiled with and to your friends.

However, your mind was telling you to go home. It was telling you that you didn’t belong here. This was a mistake. You shouldn’t be here in the first place. You can’t use magic, you’re not normal.

Go. Home.

You had to make a decision. So there you were, staring at the moon, deep in thought.

To stay? Or to leave? That was the question and the decision.

You looked back at Grim, sleeping peacefully in your lap. Your mind, tainted with words that told you to go back.

And after a few minutes, you listened to your mind. Why?

Because to you, it felt as if it was the right thing to do.

With that, you’ve made your choice.

You set Grim back down onto the bed, gave him a kiss on his forehead and muttered a goodbye.

You didn’t even bother to pack your clothes because those weren’t yours. Nothing was. Nothing except the ghost camera and that was the only thing you took with you.

“As a momento.” You said to yourself and left your beloved Ramshackle Dorm.

You headed straight to the principal’s office. Not saying a word to anybody, not your friends, not your seniors and not to the dorm leaders. You knew that they wouldn’t let you go through with this and you didn’t want them to know because it would break the bond you had with them.

You… You couldn’t bear to see the looks on their faces if you told them. You knew it would be too hurtful to you.

So there you were, standing in front of the headmaster’s office. With a gentle knock, you went in.

“Pardon me for intruding.” You said to the man at the desk. He looked up from his papers to see you standing in front of him.

“Ah, (Y/N), good to see you. So, have you made your decision?” The masked man asked you and you nodded.

“Very well, have you told anyone about your departure?” He asked again and you shook your head no.

“Alright, if that is your wish to do so, I will not force you to do anything you do not want to do.” The principal said and readied his pen. “Are you ready to go?”

You sighed and closed your eyes for a moment, mentally saying goodbye to Grim and everyone. After doing so, you nodded to the principal. He let out a small smile and his magical pen glowed bright and you were blinded by the light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has been a week since you arrived home.

7 days of tiredness.

7 days of favoritism.

7 days of entitledness.

You couldn’t take it anymore.

Your parents only saw you as a maid. Sure, they were happy when you first came home. But after 5 minutes of hugging and crying, they had asked you to cook for them. All because you mentioned you learned how to cook. Courtesy to Trey and Jamil for giving you advice on making wonderful and tasty dishes.

You obliged to your parents, because, what child would disobey their parents, right? So you cooked for them.

For 7 whole days straight.

You also cleaned and did their laundry. You would be asked to do every single chore in the house while your parents just sat there, drinking wine and ordering you around with disgusting smirks plastered on their faces.

Yet, you still obliged.

Your siblings were no better. They would often mess up the house, forcing you to do more work. They would also get in your way while doing the chores so that you wouldn’t get to finish in time and resulting you in getting scolded by your parents.

However, on the third day, you accidentally hurt your sibling while you were mopping the floor.

Technically, it wasn’t your fault, but the parents thought you had hurt your sibling intentionally. They gave you an earfull on how you were selfish and jealous of your sibling and you were at fault for hurting them. They also said that you made the floor wet intentionally just so you could watch your sibling slip and fall and hurt himself.

When in reality, what really happened was you were recently done mopping the floor, the floor wasn’t entirely dried when your sibling decided it was a great idea to run across your small apartment home. Everything had happened so fast, one second your sibling was running and the next was your sibling crying out loud for your parents and putting the blame on you.

Yet, you still obliged to them and you apologized.

After you had cooked dinner for them, you excused yourself back to your room. You locked the door and sat down on the bed.

A few beads of tears had escaped your eyes.

Wiping them away, you looked at the ghost camera you had brought back with you.

You remembered all your memories at Night Raven College.

You remembered your friends, Grim, Ace, Deuce, Epel, Jack and Sebek.

You remembered your seniors, Trey, Cater, Ruggie, Jade, Floyd, Jamil, Rook, Silver, Lilia.

You remembered the dorm leaders, Riddle, Leona, Azul, Kalim, Vil, Idia, Malleus.

You even remembered little Ortho, little Cheka and Che’nya.

Tears filled your eyes again as you hugged the camera, wishing to go back to them, wishing that you had not left in the first place, wishing that you could get a second chance to go back and stay there instead. You cried silently, not wanting your family to hear you.

But then, you heard something. It almost sounded like someone was knocking on the glass door in your room that led to a small balcony.

You opened your eyes and looked at the glass door. You froze.

There, were 2 hooded figures outside on your balcony. Two broomsticks can be found leaning on the balcony wall. One of them was knocking gently on the door.

“Hey, you, could you come out a sec?” The knocking figure asked. You stood up and slowly went to the door. You opened it, stepped outside and closed it behind you.

You took a closer look as the two hooded figures took off their hoods to reveal themselves. As they did, you couldn’t believe your eyes!

It was Ace and Deuce!

What’re they doing here?

“Yo, (Y/N), it’s been awhile huh?” Ace asked you, wearing his smirk. Grim emerged from Ace’s behind and ran to you, hugging you. You welcomed him with open arms and enclosed him in them. You could already see tears forming in his eyes.

“Stupid, stupid human! Why didn’t you say anything?! You got me worried sick yanno?!” Grim said as he cried into your arms.

“Why didn’t you tell us that headmaster had found a way home for you?” Deuce asked you. You sighed and told him that you didn’t want them to know and to worry about you. You apologized for it too.

“Well, looks like you’ve been crying, are you okay?” Ace asked as he and Deuce had seen you cry a moment ago. Grim also looked up to see your wet eyes. You looked at the three of them and began to let your tears fall out again.

You told them how your ‘family’ treated you, how entitled they were and how you knew you were wrong to leave Night Raven College. You also told them how you wished you could go back.

When Ace and Deuce heard this, they comforted you. Although to be honest, internally, they felt like they needed to teach your ‘family’ a lesson.

But then, Ace spoke up.

“Wow, I never knew our mission would be completed so easily.”

You were confused. Mission? What mission? You asked your friends and Deuce explained to you.

“A few days ago, Headmaster told everyone that you had gone home. Everyone back at school misses you, especially us. So, we volunteered to try to talk you to coming back.” Your eyes widen at his words.

Everyone, missed you?

The one that was ridiculed at the entrance ceremony when the mirror of darkness couldn’t seat you in a dorm?

The one human that couldn’t use magic in a prestigious magic school?

The one human who was living in the Ramshackle Dorm with a creature?

You couldn’t help but smile while more tears flowed out of your eyes. Ace and Deuce then got on their brooms, Grim getting on Deuce’s broom and Ace was extending out a hand to you.

“Well? What’re you waiting for? Everyone’s waiting for you back at Ramshackle Dorm.” Ace said to you.

“It’s time we go home.”

That’s right, home.

Your ‘home’ was never really home. In fact, Night Raven College was. Your mind may have told you that the apartment you’re in was home, but your heart has and always will tell you that Night Raven College was where you belonged.

It was where you would consider home. And it was time to return to it. You couldn’t wait to see your true family.

You took a small glance back at the family who were enjoying themselves without you. You shook your head and looked ahead at the family who actually did and will always enjoy themselves with you. You smiled and took Ace’s hand, the ghost camera in your other hand. You got on his broom and the four of you flew off from your balcony and into the night sky.

Yeah, you were finally going home, and you will never leave it ever again.

#disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland fic #twisted wonderland imagines #grim #ace trappola #deuce spade #mc/yuu

[self-proclaimed-chaotic-good]

The Road Ahead | Adam Milligan x Reader

Words: 2279

Warning: None, except some typos and Adam not being in this one as much.

A/N: How does writing work again? What do you mean I have to type it out? I’m thinking of a series name for this to organize these continuous oneshots. No promises of regular updates. It’s only when I can.

Continuation of [True Winchester Fashion] and [Night at the Museum].

-

The museum director hummed softly to herself as her heels echoed through the empty halls of the building. The exhibit was coming along nicely and her contact had come through and found an actual grimoire. Finally, her years of searching were finally over. If only she had brushed up on her Latin, then she would have had no problem translating it herself. Her senior curator had fallen sick after a week of trying to translate the ancient book, which left the college student rookie to translate. She had kept an eye on you for some time now. She had seen the potential in you, the potential of witchcraft. It takes practice and intelligence to master it and she had only wished the matrilineal side of her family had kept on the tradition of passing down the defunct coven’s knowledge. No matter. Blood of the coven is thicker than water of the womb, as they say. You make your own family.

With each passing week of you translating the grimoire, more incidents had been occurring around town. She wanted to approach you about it, to help you control the power of the book, but it would mean revealing her intentions too soon. She had watched you run in fear when the growing number of creatures had reached the museum. Then, those damn FBI agents had to get involved. They stopped by the museum after you had reported the bodies of the security guards that night and she had to pretend to be a clueless director that had limited knowledge about the objects in the museum and the history they hold.

It would be a matter of time before the grimoire gets out of control.

Exiting the museum, she felt a cold presence behind her. She spun around and saw a woman with the reddest hair, palest skin, and radiating the most powerful energy she had ever felt. The woman’s red lips split into a smile, a chill running down the director’s back telling her that it wasn’t a friendly one.

“Who are you?” she asked, taking a step back.

“Oh, dear. Oh, sweet dearie. You dare mess with magic and not know who I am?” The woman chuckled, taking a step forward. “I’m Rowena, the most powerful witch that ever graced this horrible planet and… the current Queen of Hell.”

“Queen of Hell. You must be joking.”

Rowena stared her down and the director suddenly felt her knees giving out. “I have been told that I have a grim sense of humor, but I do not joke about this. And you, missy, must think that witchcraft is a joke. What was it? Some kind of soul searching, finding out who you are from your family tree? Think you could feel close to them if you get a fancy old book and a cauldron?” she said mockingly. “What’s your name, sweetheart.”

“Joana Faith,” she gasped as the weight on her shoulders lifted.

Rowena hummed. “You. You need to fix this mess. As much as I love chaos, I love organized chaos and I’m not going to let some amature run around with a powerful grimoire like she’s in Harry Potter. You watch yourself, because I will also be watching you, Joana Faith.”

“Alright, alright.” Joana slowly picked herself off the ground. “And what about those FBI agents that have been snooping around? How is all of this going to be explained?”

Rowena rolled her eyes, a mix of irritable fondness in one gesture. “Those boys. They probably already know by now. As long as you set things right, you don’t have to worry about them. You do know how to stabilize that grimoire, right?”

“Well…”

Rowena rolled her eyes again.

-

Adam felt Michael’s presence in the back of his mind, asking to take over. “I can help,” the archangel said. Adam nodded, taking a step back and allowing Michael to take control.

“I don’t know what to do,” you moaned, clutching your head between your hands as eerie figures began to crowd around the windows of your apartment.

Your eyes landed on the grimoire, the leathery surface and crispy pages drawing you in like a magnet. Heat radiated off of the old padlock as your hand drifted closer. There were ancient powers in that book, power to change things, to manipulate them, and to end things. And the grimoire chose you.

You could hear Adam’s voice, but it sounded like you were under water. You couldn’t catch what it was, but you felt your heart pick up in panic. This wasn’t right. This was something that you don’t know about… but maybe you can learn to.

Firm hands gripped your shoulders as you were yanked away from the grimoire. Adam’s hazel eyes were looking down at you, but it didn’t feel like Adam. You still couldn’t understand what he was saying. He frowned, pressing two fingers onto your forehead. Heat spread through your head, brightness filling your vision as if you were pulled out of the ocean.

“Sam and Dean will be coming to deal with the monsters outside, but I need you to focus.” He paused, watching as your eyes still drifted down to the grimoire. “That thing doesn’t call to just anyone, you know.”

As you calmed yourself, so did the noises outside, the dark shadows disappearing from view. Your eyes snapped back to him. “What does that mean?”

“It means, my dear, that you have a gift and a curse,” came a Scottish woman’s voice.

You spun a head around and saw a red haired woman and Joana who looked haggard. The red haired woman rolled her eyes at her.

“Oh, please, you want to be a witch and you can’t even handle teleportation,” she chided. She looked over at you and Adam and smiled. “Hello, Michael. Fancy seeing you here. Playing college student, I see.”

“Rowena,” ‘Adam’ said with a curt nod, “You’re here for the book.”

“Of course I am. Even if the Winchesters deal with those monsters outside, there’ll be more coming if we don’t get that book under control. You,” Rowena sauntered over to you, “How much of the book you’ve read already?”

“Almost all of it,” you said sheepishly.

She hummed, looking almost impressed. A grimoire would be difficult for a beginner, but for someone who had no experience to make it that far into the book is a feat in itself. Maybe you’d be useful to her in the future, or maybe become a potential apprentice.

“Well, you two are glad that I’m here. Listen up, I’m about to give you a Witchcraft crash course and I expect you to pay attention. You wouldn’t want me to visit you when I’m upset. Michael, help those boys outside while I sort this out, would you?”

Adam stood up and gave her a look of warning. “Make sure (Y/n) is safe-”

“Or else what, dearie?” she smirked. There wasn’t much use arguing with the Queen of Hell, especially if it was Rowena Macleod.

He glowered before turning to you. “It’s going to be okay,” he assured you.

You watched him disappear with a small gust, strands of your hair flying out of your face and loose paper flying off the table. “What do you mean by Michael?” you asked Rowena.

“Oh, he didn’t tell you? Your boyfriend Adam is the vessel of the archangel Michael,” she said nonchalantly, “but we’ll unpack that later. We’ve got work to do.”

-

There was an energy that coursed through your veins that you never knew was possible. It was invigorating, like you could fly or punch through a wall. Rowena warned you about becoming too power hungry.

“Ambition is good, but too much can kill you,” she said, then added with a smirk, “Unless you find a way to cheat death, I suggest you know your limits first.”

After the incident with the grimoire, everything seemed to go back to normal. Your friend, who the Winchesters had saved from the vampire den also had no recollection, convinced that she was drugged and kidnapped while your other friend was not so lucky in getting out. The two of you mourned all the same, but only you knew how she really died. No one in town even remembered what happened with the disappearances and the killings, except for you and Joana. You now see her in a different light, knowing what her main goal was in creating the Salem witch exhibit. Her talk with Rowena seemed to humble her and she regarded you with a little more respect than she used to. The exhibit was still ongoing, but this time, no dangerous objects for display. No, that grimoire stayed with you after Rowena helped the two of you contain it. It was now imprinted with you and under your care. You didn’t know where to start.

Adam had disappeared that night and no one remembered him, either. It was as if he had vanished along with everything that was unnatural, like some weird fever dream. Rowena had said that he was a vessel to an angel, the archangel Michael of all things. In any other circumstances, you would have had a hard time believing it, but with the grimoire and the monsters and witches that came with it, it was just another piece to the universal puzzle found. Now you know the truth. The things in stories like the werewolves, the vampires, the witches, and even angels and demons, were all real, and there were people that dealt with them within the shadows. They come and go and only a few even notice them. They save lives without any recognition or reward. Hunters, they were called. The Winchesters.

After graduating college, you weren’t sure what you wanted to do. There was the museum library, but it was no longer what you wanted to do. Now that you have discovered witchcraft, you wanted to know what you could do. Maybe you could help people, too, like Adam and his brothers.

You cleared up your desk at the museum as you snacked on the brownies that a senior curator had brought in for your last day. They were sad to see you go, but you told them that you had applied to a museum in the city and wanted to see where you went from there.

“You are always welcomed back here,” one of them said as they hugged you.

Your last stop was the cemetery where your friend had already left flowers. She didn’t talk to you all that much, saying she needed more time with her family and had sought professional help to cope with your mutual loss. Maybe it was for the best. You still blamed yourself for your mutual friend’s death after all.

You turned to leave and was immediately faced with Joana. She had dropped her perky and enthusiastic mask that she had kept up around others and offered a sympathetic smile instead.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” she said, “I didn’t realize that an old leathery book would cause this much trouble. I’m sorry.” She looked around, eyes squinting as the summer sun beamed down on the two of you. “I heard you were leaving town. Good for you. I… there’s another thing I should apologize for.”

It was then you realized that she had a small book tucked under her arm. She pulled it out and handed it over to you. It was worn from constant use, scribbles and rough sketches on every page. Flipping through them, words like wendigo, werewolves, and revenant, stood out.

“It had been left on your desk that night when… the whole thing with the grimoire had been put to rest. I got curious and… I might have borrowed it. I realized it must have been left by those hunters that had helped us,” Joana explained.

“Possibly by Adam,” you muttered, closing the journal.

“Adam. Rowena said that he was a vessel of an angel. Is that true? Did you know?”

You shook your head. “Not sure how much from the Queen of Hell is true but I wouldn’t be too surprised anymore if it was. There is a lot out there that people don’t know about. What about you? What are you going to do now?”

She shrugged. “I could dabble here and there. I think I want to use it to protect this town, though. After everything that happened, I realized the impact of one thing could have on a whole community, especially when it involves things that people don’t believe existed. If those hunters hadn’t come here, hell, even if Adam hadn’t decided to go to school here, who knows what would have happened.”

“Yeah. Makes you think about those that weren’t so lucky. I’m going to try to learn more about this… this whole business with supernatural things. If I have a gift, I should use it, right?”

Joana nodded before stepping back. “Well, good luck. Come back whenever and tell me about what you’ve found. I’m curious, but I don’t think I’m cut out for venturing.”

“I’ll be sure to do that.”

As you walked towards your car, there was the bittersweet ache in your chest. You had never lived away from home before, the town was practically all you knew. Yet, there was something inside of you that felt that you had the potential to do more and be more than what you were now, and it wasn’t going to change unless you stepped away into something new.

The road ahead was dangerous, but it was better than staying in one spot forever. Maybe one day, you would even run into Adam again.

#adam milligan x reader #adam milligan #adam winchester #supernatural imagine #oneshot #spn imagines #SPN #SPN FANDOM #supernatural #wanted to write more about the people that the Winchesters influenced #Wayward Sisters would have been a good show if done right #It shows their influence and also something diff besides the Winchesters within the same universe #It could have been the Rogue One to SPN's SW trilogies #normal people who chose that life and chose to help people #not just the ones that were born in it or destined for greatness

[earnestly-endlessly]

Can i request Cherik fic rec of collage au? Pretty please? Extra cookie points if it’s long fic

Thank you for the request anon! I am so sorry how late this is, but I hope that this list will give you plenty of new fics to read and enjoy!! 

College/University Cherik AU 

** Where they’re both college/university students**

A Road Trip to Pennsylvania – Aainiouu

Summary: For a year Charles has nurtured the biggest and most embarrassing crush known to man towards Erik. They are friends and roommates and when Erik asks Charles to accompany him to home on Thanksgiving of course Charles goes.

Of kittens and teacups and love – Ren

Summary: Modern AU in which Charles and Erik are flatmates. Charles studies psychology and likes tea and chess and keeps bringing home stray kittens, and Erik lets him because he's maybe perhaps a little bit sort of in love with him.

Love Medley – ikeracity

Summary: Charles and Erik have been friends and roommates for two years. They've also, coincidentally, been in love with each other for two years. Neither of them has ever had the courage to admit it to the other, but Erik's new friendship with Magda and an untimely accident forces them to confront their feelings once and for all.

it was a red scarf semester – ikeracity

Summary: When Erik makes a bet that he can get into Charles Xavier's pants before the semester ends, he doesn't expect Charles to resist quite so much. And he doesn't expect Charles to change everything he thought he knew about mutants, friendship, and love.

Can You Feel My Heart – FuryRed

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr hates Charles Xavier.It’s as true as the words written on the wall in the bathroom at the university that Erik attends. Erik sees them one day- accompanied by a crude drawing of Erik and Charles glaring at each other- and recognises the truth of the sentence, and smiles.

He hates Charles. Probably…

Enemies With Benefits – bettysofia

Summary: Casual sex with your sworn enemy gets tricky once feelings get involved.

CMUniverse - Pookaseraph

Summary: A series of fics that star Tony, Charles, and Erik (and probably some others as the idea expands) at Carnegie Mellon University. Some are AU of each other, don't use logic.

Math Reasons - pearl_o, pocky_slash

Summary: "Mom says Erik always knows what he wants, it just sometimes takes him a little while to actually realize it," Ruth said.

Charles fell in love with Erik the first night they met, the first week of freshman year. Two years of friendship, adventures, arguments, hijinks, secrets, and summer visits later, Erik is starting to catch up.

Still Life with Cookies – stlkrchck

Summary: It wasn't fair that he only wanted Erik to draw him when Erik wanted to listen to him talk about how unfair the lack of emphasis that tenure committees placed on teaching ability was and tuck him into the hat and scarf and mittens that he wore even though it wasn’t properly cold yet and kiss his gorgeous, ridiculously red mouth and make out with Charles on the bed that he'd apparently wedged between the window and "pipes of some sort, don't ask me why there are pipes in my room, Erik," in his tiny dorm room.

Or: Charles is a nude model, and Erik is an art student.

The Pretender – Clocks

Summary: Charles is sick of having his best friend Erik drop to one knee and fake-propose to him in restaurants, just to score a free dessert. He doesn’t know which is worse: the complete embarrassment, or the likelihood that Erik doesn’t mean a word of it.

That time the System didn’t work – bluexlily

Summary: "pick each other up from bad dates" au

They had stablished The System a long, long time ago.

Since they became each other’s roommate, actually, and realized that they had more in common than their home state and decided they should be friends.

Whenever he or Charles is on a date, they send a first message after meeting the prospected boyfriend.

Accidentally Welcome to the Rest of Your Lives - Kianspo

Summary: Non-powered college AU. Erik and Charles have nothing in common until they end up having sex at someone's party. They don't have much in common after that, either, but find each other a hard habit to quit.

A Study in Advanced Lecherism - orphan_account

Summary: Charles has this thing he does when he's drunk. He gets completely lecherous. For some reason, that really pisses Erik off. Who knew?

Learning Curve – pocky_slash

Summary: (Non-powered college AU) Erik takes a trip back to campus to visit a despondent Charles and does his best to offer comfort.

Charles Does Not Buy a Shamwow - Madneto

Summary: Charles and Erik are spending the first few days of their university's winter break alone at Erik's mother's house. Then, Erik's mother decides to come home early unannounced... while Erik and Charles are naked on the living room couch.

5 Times Charles Had Nothing to Say and 1 Time He Did – BadLuckBlueEyes

Summary: Charles Xavier usually has a lot to say. But sometimes he doesn't and that's nice too. (Written for the prompt: Erik befriending and falling in love with mute!Charles)

Five Useful Signs When Dating Charles Xavier (a down under remix) – letosatie

Summary: Erik meets a fascinating mute boy and rapidly discovers sign language is useful.

Home Together (The Finding Our Way Remix) – significantowl

Summary: Erik is not the sort of person other students strike up conversations with. His expression, his posture, every part of his manner say: Don’t talk to me. I don’t want to talk to you. But none of that stops the boy ahead of him in line with the collapsible white cane, and nothing can stop Erik from falling for him, like it or not.

The Wall (a.k.a.  Erik Lensherr) – fkbunnyclub

Summary: Charles doesn't really want to have a crush on the cute stoic senior who keeps dropping by the library where he works who also has a pregnant girlfriend. Or so he thinks.

Building a fire – dedkake

Summary: Erik wishes he were in law school instead of med school, because then he would be researching the legal remedies for the doubtless thousands of violations his apartment building's slumlord owner, Sebastian Shaw, has perpetrated on his tenants.

On the bright side, maybe he can finally coax his bizarrely oblivious roommate, Charles into sharing his bed, or curling up together on the couch under many blankets. Purely for surviving the night, of course.

April Showers – ikeracity

Summary: Walking home in the dark in a rainstorm is not Charles' idea of a pleasant night. Of course, the stranger with the umbrella who offers to walk him home makes the experience infinitely more agreeable.

Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei – Darksknight

Summary: “My mother has expressed that if I come dateless, I will be assigned one, to put it lightly. So, you see... well, I have a favor to ask. Erik, darling. Will you be my pretend boyfriend?"

Erik thinks it over for a second. "... No."

Mutant House at Dead Kings College – mabyn

Summary: When it comes to romance, Charles has terrible timing.

Best of Enemies – Black_Betty

Summary: Student and mutant rights activist Erik Lehnsherr is furious when the college newspaper chooses to interview his opponent Charles Xavier instead of him.

He's mad because of the politics of the thing. It nothing to do with how hot Charles looks in the picture accompanying the article.

Seriously.

The Luck You’re Born With – Lynds

Summary: College AU. Erik thinks Charles Xavier is an arrogant, rich brat, whose only redeeming quality is his intellect. Charles never disputes this image. Then through an accident Erik finds out that Charles has been long cut off from his family and is essentially a single parent to a ten-year-old Raven.

Like Roses and Wine – Schwoozie

Summary: Charles is not what you would call a “sports person” - but the promise of free kisses after the game, especially with one Erik Lensherr playing midfield, is a temptation Charles can't resist.

Every Song I Know – Fengirl88

Summary: “Erik,” Janos says wearily, “you had amazing sex with this guy. He obviously really likes you. You have, what, a month, six weeks left? You can spend it moping and hiding and worrying you're going to run into him. Or you can call him, have a good time, and figure out where you go from there.”

Erik groans. It's what he wants to do, so much it scares him.

[or, the one where Erik and Charles meet and fall in love as exchange students, break up, and meet again by chance seven years later]

Argue me tender, argue me true – Wild_Imagination

Summary: “You’re having your bad-boy crisis with seven years of delay, Charles.”

“Why must he spit out those hateful, misanthropic, science-free, separatist ideas of his with a face like that!”

Charles and Erik attend the same college, and they never, ever agree on anything. But that's fine, because Charles can't stand him. No, really.

Simultaneity – TurtleTotem

Summary: Trying to deliver roses to his girlfriend, Erik knocks on the wrong door -- but Charles is so happy to get them, how can Erik possibly tell him the truth? Love, lies and exhaustion follow as Erik tries to keep boyfriend and girlfriend happy and, most importantly, unaware of each other!

**Where one of them is a college/university student**

in the moonlight, on a joy ride – scarlettblush

Summary: Librarian AU. Charles is the young librarian and Erik is the college student who is completely besotted with him.

Mutually Beneficial Transaction – Pookaseraph

Summary: In his sophomore year at Columbia University, Erik, feeling slowly strangled by his mounting college debt, places an add on a sugar daddies website. He doesn't know exactly what to expect from it, but when he's contacted by a man named Charles who seems less creepy than the other people who have responded to his profile, he decides to give it a shot. Charles is nothing like what he expected, and Erik finds himself slowly falling in love with his sugar daddy while trying to find out exactly what caused this amazing guy to buy his emotional and sexual intimacy when he clearly deserves so much more than that.

Authority kink – aesc, Subtilior

Summary: “You’re going to be in your room, on Skype with full video, when I call you tonight, at … nine o’clock sharp, your time.”

Tonight.

Erik, a proud and surly graduate student, keeps his deepest, darkest desires under tight control. Charles, his genetics professor, keeps handcuffs on his copy of the university handbook. You can see where this is going.

An Ideal Grace – afrocurl, nekosmuse

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a visiting professor at Columbia University, as well as an acclaimed and award winning poet. Charles Xavier is a lead researcher with the Genetics Department who is well on his way to tenure. But what happens when Charles has to cancel a class because half his students abandon him in favour of a mysterious new English Lit professor? Naturally he ends up sitting in in the class, where Professor Lehnsherr mistakes him for a student. It's really too bad Erik has such a strict policy against dating students. It's also too bad Erik doesn't seem to know how to use Google.

Note: This is not technically a university/college AU, but I’ll let it slide because it’s one of the best cherik fics out there and for the majority of the fic Charles is in Erik’s class (even though, unbeknownst to Erik, he’s a professor as well).

#cherik #cherik fic recs #fic recs #asks #earnestly answers

[sassy-starker]

Jupiter

Word Count: 28,576

TW: Serious physical bullying (to the point where some might consider it unrealistic, but you wouldn’t believe the shit I’ve seen in public schools)

“Well, tell me how am I supposed to see the magic? ‘Cause I don’t believe in it no more”

-EDEN, XO

Soulmates were a strange thing, connecting two people together for eternity, yet not being able to tell if a person’s soulmate would die before they had the chance to meet or giving someone no soulmate at all.  There were theories about how it worked, from quantum entanglement to straight-up magic, but nobody was really sure in the end.  Most didn’t care about the science anyway. 

They cared about falling in love. 

Anthony Edward Stark had been born without words on his wrist and those words had not appeared in the years after he was born, leaving him destined to never find true love.  Destined to be isolated from the rest of the world.  It was partly why his father hated him, but his mother didn’t mind all that much. 

(Of course, she didn’t.  His mother had always cared about him.) 

No matter where he went, Tony wore bracelets over his wrist.  When people asked, he claimed that he wanted his words to be private so nobody could see them and pretend to be his soulmate.  He never let it slip that he didn’t have a soulmate, making sure that the only people who knew were his parents and Jarvis. 

Not having a soulmate, along with his abusive asshole of a father, was a factor in how he acted once he had grown up.  He drowned himself in alcohol until he was sure it would fill up his lungs and had sex with as many people as possible, hoping to fill the loneliness inside of him. 

It didn’t work. 

Luckily, Pepper and Rhodey were there to remind him that not having a soulmate didn’t make him any less deserving of familial and platonic love.

Pepper had already found her soulmate, a woman named Natasha Romanov.  She had been searching for a long time, but eventually found Natasha when the woman came in for an interview for a job in PR.  Pepper had the words, ‘I did not expect you to be this pretty’ on her wrist while Natasha had the words, ‘And I didn’t expect to find my soulmate in a job interview’ on hers.

Rhodey had found his soulmate when he was grabbing takeout for him and Tony.  He accidentally bumped into his soulmate, Sam Wilson, in a Chinese restaurant.  Rhodey had the words ‘Fuck, I am so sorry,’ while Sam had the words ‘Don’t be’ on his wrist.

Both Pepper and Rhodey were there when he got a soul sentence.

It was a rainy afternoon in August, droplets of water falling down gently like shimmering diamonds outside the windows of the penthouse kitchen.  Tony hummed a tune as he grabbed a granola bar from the pantry, coffee brewing behind him.  As he turned back toward the coffee maker to grab his mug, he felt a strange sensation across his left wrist.  It was somehow comforting and stinging at the same time.  It burned and yet it was cooling and soft.  It was like no sensation he had felt before.  He dropped the granola bar, pulled down the sleeve of his shirt, and there it was, the words that would haunt him for years to come.

What’s your favorite planet?

Tony Stark screamed.

Pepper and Rhodey came rushing in to see what was wrong, only to find Tony staring at his wrist and a granola bar on the ground.

“Tony, what’s wrong?!” Pepper exclaimed, her face portraying her confusion.  In response, the man just turned his wrist around, showing off the words that had chosen to place themselves on his skin.

“Tones, this is amazing,” Rhodey told him. “Why aren’t you excited?”

“I am thirty-one years old,” Tony replied, pulling his wrist away and staring down at the words as if they had hurt him. “By the time my soulmate is eighteen, I’ll be forty-nine. Whoever they are, they don’t deserve that.”

“Tony-” Pepper started but was cut off.

“And I’m a superhero that could get killed at any time. It just wouldn’t work.”

“Tony, you have to-” Rhodey began but Tony interrupted again.

“No! I’m not going to look for my soulmate, I’m not going to meet my soulmate, and I’m sure as hell not going to fall in love with my soulmate! We’re not even going to talk about them, okay!?” Tony was shouting at the end of his little speech, tears glimmering in his eyes like the rain outside.  He stomped off, leaving his coffee and his granola bar behind him.

+++

“I just needed company now. Yeah, I just needed someone around.”

-Conan Gray, Comfort Crowd

When Peter Benjamin Parker was born, it was a rainy day in August, rain dripping down the window panes in the hospital.  He was born with a single word on his wrist.

Jupiter.

His parents loved his soul sentence.

When he was young, he heard stories of soulmates meeting and staying in love through their entire lives, never giving up on the other.  He completely believed in soulmates and true love, never having doubts about it.

Peter’s parents died when he was four years old.

The idea of soulmates lessened in his brain, falling into the back of his mind to deal with at a later time.  As he began to open up to the idea of soulmates once more, tragedy struck.

He lost his uncle.

Grief overtook him and he didn’t have the room to worry about soulmates, instead filing them as fantasies and pretended they never existed in the first place, despite the happy couples around him and the words on his wrist.

Peter spent his years wearing a bracelet and never looking at the single word that had planted itself on his left wrist.  He gave up on romantic love, instead choosing to find a couple of friends who wouldn’t mind his inherent lack of interest in soulmates. 

Luckily, he met Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones in middle school.

Ned was a hopeless romantic, constantly looking for his soulmate everywhere he went.  He was determined to find them and never lose them.  It hurt Peter’s heart a bit to know that his friend still believed in love but didn’t let that get in the way of helping the boy find the one the universe chose to be his.

MJ was a different story.

The girl acted as if she had no interest in love or even friends, but Peter was good at acting like he was dumb.  He didn’t let it on, but he knew that she was looking for her soulmate.  He saw the subtle glances to her words when she thought nobody was looking and the ways she strained to observe every last person she saw.

Peter loved being with his friends, but it changed when both of them found their soulmates in the same week of junior year.

In the middle of October, a new kid arrived at Midtown and everybody was eager to talk to him, wanting to know if he was their soulmate. Due to that, their little trio didn’t get to meet him until the beginning of November.

Turns out, his name was Jacob and he had the words ‘You’re the new kid, right?’ on his wrist while Ned had the words ‘Is three weeks too long to be considered new?’ on his.  They were soulmates.

Peter had tried to be happy for Ned, he really did, but it was hard when his friend practically abandoned him to start hanging out with his soulmate all the time.  He was down a friend and left with MJ.  He didn’t really mind, but it was difficult when he realized he had nobody to talk to.  May was always gone and MJ was always buried in a book or drawing people in crisis, leaving Peter to drown in loneliness.

Still, he was glad he had anybody at all.

That Friday, at Academic Decathlon practice, a new kid joined the team.  Her name was Sydney and she had the words ‘Welcome to Academic Decathlon practice, loser’ written on her wrist. MJ had the words ‘If I’m your soulmate, am I still a loser?’ on hers.

And then MJ abandoned him too.

Peter found himself alone at lunch and without somebody to talk to, without anybody to listen to his frustrations and his interests that he so badly wanted to talk about.  He began to keep to himself, never opening his mouth to say a word except when asked to speak in class, but even then he gave short, often one-word answers. He even quit Academic Decathlon. This, of course, led to him being the freak of the school.

Rumors constantly floated around about him and stares, whether curious or disgusted, followed him wherever he walked in the halls.  He kept his head down and tried his best to ignore everyone despite the verbal harassment and physical bullying.

Silence ruled his entire life as he moved from junior year to senior year, voice becoming hoarse from lack of speech.  His teachers rarely called on him, knowing he would only give short answers and that he already knew the material.  He was left alone in that sense, but the bullying only got worse. Teachers would turn their heads and pretend they saw nothing, never getting Flash and his posse in trouble because of how much money was between the group.

So Peter let it happen, let it become as normal to him as the seasons and days pass.  He was waiting for the last day of school so the torture would finally end.

As much as he wished to go to college, he couldn’t afford it.  He had gotten into MIT and hadn’t responded yet, but knew he would soon have to decline so he could take a gap year, or possibly two, to work and get enough money to go through at least two years of higher education.

The universe really had it out for him.

+++

“Called to the devil and the devil said quit. Can’t be bothered, better handle your shit.”

-Rainbow Kitten Surprise, It’s Called: Freefall

The universe really had it out for Tony Stark.  He was practically knee-deep in paperwork and had so much more work to do, meaning he couldn’t go back to the workshop.  He groaned as he flipped through another legal document, trying to figure out why he even owned the company at this point.  Still, he worked on.

Tony was almost grateful when he heard a knock at his office door, hoping it would be someone who could distract him from his work for a bit.  Unfortunately for him, the door opened to reveal Pepper, who was holding a small folder of documents in her hand.

“I’ve scheduled for you to go to Midtown School of Science and Technology next week to give a talk about aeronautics to the senior class,” she told him without a greeting, walking forward and setting a folder on his desk. “These papers contain all the things you need to talk about, what to remember about the school, and the top students just in case you run into them or have to talk to them in the lecture.”

“Are you seriously trusting me to talk to impressionable young minds about science?” Tony asked her, picking up the folder and beginning to flip through the files.

“It’s just a simple lecture,” the CEO reassured him. “You’ll be fine.”

With that, Pepper exited the room and left Tony to flip through everything.  He sighed and opened the folder completely, deciding to look at the top students first.  It was the ten best students, the first paper on the stack being the tenth best kid.

Tony flipped through the files without interest, half-heartedly glancing over the information about the students’ extracurricular activities and GPAs. He paused when he got to the last paper, though, as he saw a handsome young man who happened to be the brightest of everyone in the impressive school.

He was a senior named Peter Parker.  He had a perfect GPA, took seven AP classes, had near-perfect scores on the SAT and ACT, and had been accepted to several nice colleges.

Tony couldn’t stop staring at the paper, taking in all the boy’s accomplishments and his soft eyes and fluffy brown hair and bright appearance.  He suddenly wasn’t dreading the lecture as much.

+++

“Make my messes matter.  Make this chaos count.”

-Sleeping At Last, Jupiter

When it was announced that Tony Stark was going to be giving a lecture to the, frankly rather small, senior class, Peter couldn’t find it in himself to care.  There wasn’t any big excitement for him.  Yeah, sure, Tony Stark was a genius superhero with a shit ton of money, but Peter himself was a genius superhero with no money, so it didn’t really matter.

Peter was just glad the attention was focused on the lecture and not him. That meant he got through the next few days with minimal bruises and no bloody noses. It was the best week he’d had in a good while.

His luck ended on Thursday, the day before the lecture, when Flash decided that Peter had gotten through the week so far too easily.  So he beat up Peter a little worse than usual, leaving him more bruised than other weeks. The blunt force had also caused some bleeding, but it didn’t really matter to Peter. He would usually heal fast but he knew that May’s paycheck wasn’t the highest, so he skipped a lot of meals just to make sure he wasn’t taking more money away from his aunt than he needed to. It upset his advanced metabolism but didn’t hurt more than everything usually did.

When Peter patched himself up, he noticed the black eye he was donning. He didn’t really care about that either.  Apathy was a common thing for Peter and it didn’t matter to him just like everything else.  Knowing nobody would care, Peter came to school with the black eye.  The teachers wouldn’t do anything about it anyway.

It was only when Peter arrived at school that he remembered the lecture that was happening. The seniors were taken straight from homeroom to the cafetorium for the presentation and would be allowed to leave early afterward.  Chairs were set up in front of the small stage and the tables were pushed back.

Peter sat down in the back row, alone and away from the other students, who were trying to sit as close to the front as possible to be closer to Tony Stark.  Once everyone was seated, the genius came on stage and was met by cheers.

“Thank you,” Tony said in his press conference voice. “Thank you all so much. Big shout out to your school for having me. I’m excited to talk to you all about aeronautics.”

As he spoke, Tony searched the crowd for someone, and nobody noticed except Peter.  When the man caught Peter’s gaze, recognition flashed in his eyes and his smile turned genuine for a second before returning to his paparazzi smile.

Peter didn’t care.

Instead of paying attention, the boy pulled a sketchbook out of his backpack and flipped to an empty page, putting his pencil to the page and waiting for something to come to mind to draw.  Eventually, without thinking, he began to draw the solar system. He liked space after all.

“And since you’re such a small group, you each get to ask one question!” Peter heard Tony say once he had turned back to the lecture. The questions began as he continued to sketch.

When Peter’s mind came back into focus once more, he realized he had sketched Jupiter in the middle of the page.  With a glare at the sketchbook, he dropped his pencil and let it clatter to the ground. He gave a small growl and ripped the page out.

“How about the young man in the back?” Tony asked and everybody turned to Peter, who was holding the torn out paper, which he was getting ready to crumble up. He closed his fist around the paper and tried to ignore the stares.

“What’s your favorite planet?” Peter questioned with a shrug, looking halfheartedly at the famous man just a couple dozen feet in front of him.

Tony’s eyes widened and he gave a quick glance down to his left wrist before regaining his cool and answering, “Jupiter.”

Peter’s own eyes widened at that.  He pulled up his sleeve and looked at his bracelet-covered wrist, going to move the jewelry, before stopping himself and lowering his hand.  Tony had moved onto the next person, so the vigilante grabbed the discarded paper in his lap and finished crumbling it, letting it drop onto the floor without a second thought.

“Thank you so much for having me, Midtown!” Tony said with his press smile plastered on before giving a wink and walking off stage to the applause of the teenagers.  In the very back, he could see Peter packing up his sketchbook.

“Thank you so much for coming, Dr. Stark,” Principal Morita expressed with a grateful smile.

“It was no problem,” Tony chuckled before sobering up. “I’d love to talk to your top student though. Peter Parker, was it?”

The principal turned nervous. “Uh, may I ask why?”

Tony gave a suspicious look. “I’d like to talk to him about a job opportunity at Stark Industries.”

“I don’t think you want Mr. Parker for the job. Perhaps you might like Flash Thompson. He’s extremely smart,” Morita advertised with an anxious smile.

“I didn’t see Mr. Thompson on the top ten students list,” Tony commented with a dangerous edge to his voice. “I did see Mr. Parker though. I don’t get why you’re so against me meeting him.”

“Well,” Morita stuttered out, “it’s just that Mr. Parker is a bit . . . quiet and, uh, strange. He doesn’t quite fit in with the other students.”

“I don’t see why that matters. I’d like to see him.”

With a sputter and stammered, “Of course,” the principal rushed out, leaving Tony alone in the wings.

“Mr. Parker!” Principal Morita called to the person at the back of the exiting crowd. Peter whipped around and looked at him with no emotion. “Could you come over here?”

Everybody watched as Peter made his way over, not quite walking fast, but not quite trudging to the stage. Whispers broke out about it as the seniors exited, the doors closing behind the last of them.

“Dr. Stark wants to discuss job opportunities at Stark Industries with you,” Morita told him quietly once he reached the stage. “Please don’t mess this up for the school.”

Despite the hushed tone, Tony heard him, eyes widening at the very prospect of a staff member saying that to a student. He studied Peter for any sign of shock or fear, but all he saw was an emotionless face and a small nod in acceptance.

Principal Morita walked out and gave Peter one more warning look before exiting the cafetorium.

The boy turned around and looked over to Tony, who was frozen in shock in the wings.

“If you don’t want me as your soulmate and never want to see me again, just tell me,” Peter reassured him. “I wouldn’t hold it against you.”

Tony sputtered for a second before walking out of the wings and standing right in front of Peter, who seemed to shrink back a bit without even moving a step. “What in the world gave you that idea?”

“I don’t know . . .” Peter muttered, averting his gaze to the floor. “The way you seemed shocked to see me right now. The look you looked at me during the lecture. The way you moved on so quickly after my question. It just kinda gave me that impression.”

“I moved on because I didn’t want to announce you as my soulmate in front of your classmates in case you didn’t want to be my soulmate,” Tony answered, “and I was looking at you in shock because of what your principal said to you.”

Peter looked up to meet the man’s eyes before looking down at the floor again.  He gently pulled up his sleeve, took off his bracelet, and offered up his wrist, showing off the word ‘Jupiter,’ which stood out against the yellow and blue bruise.

“Peter . . .” the genius started quietly and trailed off. “Peter, are you being abused?”

The way Tony said his name felt so intimate, but the boy didn’t have time to dwell on it.

“What?!” Peter exclaimed, looking up at the man and startling him with the outburst. “No! My aunt wouldn’t do that!”

“Then what’s this bruise?” Tony questioned a bit louder now, but it was more around his normal volume.

“Just . . . bullies. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Tony sighed and looked down, putting his face in his hands for a moment before looking up again. He gently grabbed Peter’s hand and the boy began to pull away before stopping himself.  Tony added that to the list of things he needed to ask him about.

Tony tenderly led him to the edge of the stage before releasing his hand and sitting down with his legs hanging off.  Peter followed his lead but kept his legs up and crossed them, twiddling his thumbs in his lap.

“What's your favorite planet?” Tony asked him after a moment of silence.

“Pluto,” Peter answered after thinking about it for a second.

“You know that isn’t actually a planet, right?”

“Shhh, you’ll hurt Pluto’s feelings!” the boy quietly exclaimed with a grin. Tony could see a bit of the younger man’s true personality cracking through the mask, so he turned to him and returned the smile, giving a soft laugh.

A faint blush rose to Peter’s cheeks as he realized that he was the one who made the man of iron laugh.

“Seniors, you are now free to go. I repeat, seniors, you are now free to go,” a voice said over the intercom.

“Since you’re being released early, do you wanna come to the tower?” Tony offered, giving Peter a kind look.

“I’d love to.”

+++

“Milemarker twenty-seven says we’re on the way to heaven and I smile at the passenger seat.”

-Lincoln, Banks

The ride to the tower was mostly silent, interrupted every once in a while by Tony asking Peter a question about himself and then giving his own answer after the younger man.

When they arrived, Tony led Peter up to the penthouse and let him sit in the living room while he quickly went to the kitchen to make them coffee. When it was finished, he brought in milk and sugar and set them on the coffee table, sitting in the armchair next to the couch Peter was seated on.

“I really wanted to avoid this topic,” Tony hesitated, “but I have to ask about the black eye.”

Peter retreated into himself, the slight light in his eyes disappearing and the mask of apathy falling back on. “It’s really nothing,” he defended in a monotone voice.

“If it really is nothing, then why did you go back to pretending you don’t care?”

Silence fell over them as Tony continued to look at Peter with a sadness that made the younger feel a wave of guilt wash over him.

“It’s just bullies, so it’s really not a big deal.”

“Is this a regular thing? Do the teachers not care?”

Peter’s silence said more than anything he could’ve answered the question with.

“When did it start?”

That’s when Peter broke down. He began to quietly sob, trying to muffle it as tears rolled down his cheeks. He hadn’t cried since before he met Ned and MJ and it felt good to just let it happen.

It was the first time in about a year and a half that somebody had cared enough to ask if he was okay.

“Peter, love, you don’t have to try and stay quiet,” his soulmate assured him softly. “Just let it all out.”

Tony stood and moved to sit down next to Peter. He tenderly reached over to the younger man but hesitated when he flinched and went quiet for a moment. Then the sobs returned at full force, even harder and somehow conveying the younger man’s anger at himself. Tony felt his own tears well up in his eyes but didn’t let them out. Instead, he continued to move and gently coaxed Peter into his arms, letting the younger cry into his chest. He rested his chin on the curly mop of brown hair and finally let his own tears gently fall from his eyes.

Tony rubbed Peter’s back gently, nearly getting up to go find the bullies who hurt Peter every time he felt Peter flinch against his chest from his hand running over a bruise.

“Baby, I’m so sorry I didn’t find you earlier,” he apologized sincerely before wondering when the last time Peter heard an apology was.

“‘s not your fault,” the younger reminded him as he pulled away from his chest.

“Could you tell me the full story?” Tony inquired as he tenderly took Peter’s hands in his.

And so Peter did.  He told him about meeting Ned and MJ and then them both leaving him in junior year. He told him about not talking because he had nobody to talk to. He told him about the touch starvation he felt. He told him about being bullied because of not having friends. He told him about his teachers letting the bullies get away with it. He told him about covering up his emotions with complete apathy. He told him about being beaten up the day before. He told him about his doubts and fears about love. He told him everything.

“I just gave up on emotions. I just gave up on me,” Peter sobbed quietly, looking up at Tony with glistening eyes.

“Well, I’m not giving up on you,” Tony declared, making the younger give a small, wavering grin, but a grin nonetheless.

Peter leaned into Tony’s chest and listened to the man’s heartbeat. Both weary from the day, they fell asleep in each other’s arms on the couch, ninety-three stories up from all of their problems.

+++

“I’ve been naive and I’ve been feeling hazy maybe.”

-Bowling Shoes, Portland

Peter left early the next morning but not before Tony made breakfast for them. They had pancakes, which was the only food the genius knew how to make without completely ruining the kitchen.

Now, Tony was left sitting at the breakfast bar, drinking his coffee and looking down at the drawing Peter had torn out of his sketchbook for him.

It was a pencil sketch of an ocean under the starry sky and had Peter’s signature in the bottom right corner. He was contemplating where to hang it up in the tower when Pepper walked into the kitchen, moving to the coffee maker to grab a cup before the workday started.

“How are you, Tony?” she asked, not looking up from where she was choosing the cup size for her coffee.

“His name is Peter,” Tony told her, staring at the paper. Pepper looked over to him with confusion etched onto her face.

“I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?”

“My soulmate,” he elaborated. “His name is Peter. Peter Parker.”

“What?!” Pepper exclaimed and ran over to the breakfast bar, coffee long forgotten. “You met your soulmate?! Where? How? When?!”

Tony set down the paper and looked up at his long-time friend with a sad smile. “He goes to Midtown. He’s the top student and he’s a senior, so he was at the lecture.”

Pepper noticed his somber face and immediately sobered up. “Does he . . . does he not like you?”

“He does,” Tony sighed as tears slightly welled up, “but some things have happened to him recently and he’s scared of me leaving. Fri, could you bring up some pictures of Pete from yesterday?”

“Sure thing, boss.”

The hologram on Tony’s watch activated and showed a picture of Peter sitting in the back of the audience and not looking up. He swipes and there’s one of him looking up, but you can see the black eye. Pepper’s brow furrowed in concern. The next image was of Peter showing Tony his soul sentence, but there’s the hand print bruise.

There were more images of bruises of his arms and where his jeans rose a bit and showed off his ankles.

“Is he being . . . ?” Pepper started but trailed off.

“He’s being bullied because he’s quiet. He doesn’t have anyone to talk to since his friends left him and his aunt is always working,” Tony explained, eyes focused on the image of Peter crying into his chest. “The teachers don’t care in the slightest. Hell, when I asked to speak to Peter, giving the excuse that he was the top student, the principal tried to convince me to talk to a student who wasn’t even in the top ten. He’s hurting, Pep, and I don’t know how to help him”

Silence fell over them and the hologram shut off, leaving Tony’s deactivated watch behind.

“You just gotta be there for him, Tony,” Pepper encouraged. “I know you, and I can tell you care for him. If you show that to him, I have a feeling that you’ll be a lot closer to making everything work out.”

+++

“Could’ve been one lonely night just like the others, but you lit up my life. This is what it’s like to be lovers.”

-Ollie MN, Please Never Fall In Love Again

Tony had never had a proper first kiss. Hell, he’d never even had a proper relationship. His younger years had been filled with emotionless sex. There was no meaning in real romantic love for Tony, so he learned how to focus on family and friends in his thirties.

Well, that was all before Peter Parker.

Tony had always been one for looks, but that tended, of course, to be for sex. Men and women, anybody really, just had to be hot for Tony to have sex with them.  There was no appreciation for kind eyes or fluffy hair or soft skin.

That was all before Peter Parker.

Tony had thought he would never feel romantic love. He had heard stories of falling in love with your soulmate faster than one would think to be possible but was never too intrigued by the topic. After all, why should he care about how fast someone falls in love when he doesn’t even have a soulmate?

That was all before Peter Parker.

Tony wanted to kiss Peter and run his fingers through the boy’s hair and drag his calloused hands across his skin and look into his coffee-brown eyes all day and fall in love as fast as possible.

And, dear lord above, he had fallen in love.

The second time Peter came over to the tower was the following week.  The two sat on the couch, close together but still with a bit of room.  Tony didn’t push his soulmate to move any closer, completely content with going at the younger man’s pace.

That was new, too. Tony had always wanted to set his own pace, but, for once, he wanted someone else to decide how fast everything moves.

They sat and talked, blabbing away about science and basking in each other’s company as they sipped mugs of hot chocolate.  Tony’s chest felt lighter every time Peter inched even a little bit closer to him, wordlessly informing the genius that he was slowly growing more comfortable around him.

“So you made the webs yourself?” Tony asked Peter, astonishment laced into his tone.  Peter couldn’t stop the blush that spread across his cheeks.

“Yeah,” he replied sheepishly but with a small grin. “Used some scraps for the actual shooters and some chemicals from the school chemistry lab to make the web solution.”

“That’s amazing!” the genius exclaimed, knowing that he meant it. “Just imagine what you could do when I get you in a proper lab!”

“You’re . . . you’re gonna let me in your labs?” Peter questioned in amazement, yet somehow remaining slightly neutral.

“Of course! You’re a fucking genius!”

The praise made Peter turn a deeper shade of pink.  Tony couldn’t help but just stare at him in awe.  His soulmate was gorgeous in his opinion, especially when he allowed his emotions to peek through and paint across his face.  Without thinking, the man reached forward and began to run his fingers through Peter’s hair.

Peter froze for a moment, shock getting to him as he looked up at his soulmate. For a second, Tony thought he would flinch back, but Peter leaned into the touch. As Tony began to continue the movement, his soulmate’s eyes fluttered closed and his shoulders sagged as if the simple touch helped release everything he had been holding onto.  He let himself be pulled into Tony’s side as the soft feeling of his hair being played with calmed him.

When Peter leaned against him, Tony wanted to shout for joy.  He slowly shifted the younger man from where he was leaning on his shoulder to his chest and then to a lying position with his head in the genius’s lap, all while continuing to run his fingers through his hair.

Tony couldn’t help but notice how at peace Peter looked.

It was the most relaxed he had ever seen his soulmate.  

+++

“If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad?”

-Sheryl Crow, If It Makes You Happy

“Hey, FRIDAY said you had something to tell me,” Rhodey said as he entered the lab, finding Tony working on an Iron Man gauntlet. He looked up and motioned for the colonel to come and sit next to him. Albeit hesitantly, Rhodey walked over and sat down.

“I found my soulmate,” Tony blurted out, looking at his friend dead in the eyes.

“You what!?” Rhodey cried out.

“He’s a senior at Midtown and I met him in the presentation,” Tony told him. “His name is Peter Parker and I care about him so fucking much, Rhodey. I wish I would’ve listened to you and started searching sooner because he’s . . . because he’s really needed someone this past couple of years.”

“What . . . what are you on about, Tones?” Rhodey questioned him with a puzzled look.

“He hasn’t had anybody to talk to since junior year. No friends. His aunt was always gone. He was just . . . alone. And he’s been bullied really terribly and no one cared and I wished I found him sooner so I could’ve helped.”

“Tony, it’s not your-”

“Except it is my fault, Rhodey!” Tony shouted, pulling at his hair in frustration. “I completely ignored the fact I had a soulmate and, by the time I found him, he’d already put on a complete mask of apathy and hadn’t cried for a year and a half! He had bruises all over him and a black eye and just said it didn’t matter! He sat on my couch and sobbed and . . .  and flinched when I reached over to hug him and tried to muffle his sobs and I wish I had found him earlier.”

They both stayed quiet, letting the echoing effect of the words fill up the air.

“Tony,” Rhodey finally chimed in, “I’m gonna help in any way I can.”

+++

“Told you not to worry, but maybe that’s a lie.”

-Billie Eilish, ilomilo

When Peter came over a couple Saturdays later, for the fourth time since they met, his bruises were mostly healed and his black eye from the first time they met was gone, but there were new bruises and his cheeks were red, and it obviously wasn’t from the sun. The marks almost looked angry, but maybe that was just because of Tony’s rage toward whoever hurt him.

Tony didn’t let his anger show on his face, instead electing to delicately bring the younger man into his arms. When he felt Peter hug him back and bury his head in his shoulder, the billionaire could only smile.

“How are you doing?” Tony asked as they pulled away.

“A bit better than last week,” Peter told him with a soft smile that made the genius feel warm inside. Tony returned the smile in order to tell Peter that he was glad about that, and he thought he got the message through.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Tony announced and held out his hand for Peter to take.  The younger did so while giving him a skeptical look.

“Those words can never end well,” he replied.  Tony said nothing more, though, and led him to the elevator, asking FRIDAY to take them to the roof.  Peter kept glancing anxiously at the man, who just gave him comforting smiles in return.

Finally, the elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing the rooftop terrace, but it wasn’t the terrace that caught Peter’s attention.

In the middle of the roof, there was a table set up with a white tablecloth that had rose petals scattered on top of it, a candle in the middle, and two champagne flutes with a green bottle next to the candle.

“Tony,” Peter breathed out in amazement, “what is this?”

“Peter Parker, would you do me the honor of going on a proper date with me?” Tony asked him, offering his hand once more. The younger man looked up at him with a mix of surprise and love in his eyes, simply nodding and putting his hand in Tony’s.

The genius led Peter to the table and pulled out a chair for him, pushing it in once he was seated.  He moved around to the other side and sat down, smiling at his soulmate.

“You didn’t have to do all this for me,” Peter told him softly.

“I didn’t have to,” Tony admitted, “but I really, really wanted to.”

A bright blush rose to Peter’s cheeks, nearly hiding the angry red. Tony reached for the bottle and began to fill Peter’s glass.

“Tony, I’m not old enough to drink,” Peter reminded him.

“This makes it way less romantic,” Tony chuckled, “but it’s sparkling grape juice.”

Peter put his hand up to his mouth and laughed.

“You really didn’t have to do all this for me,” the younger told Tony, a small smile still gracing his face.

“I would do anything for my soulmate” Tony replied with a soft grin.  Peter’s smile, however, began to fade a bit, making the billionaire’s eyes turn concerned. “Is everything okay?”

Peter sighed. “It’s just that word.  Soulmate.  I just . . . it’s just strange to me.”  Before Tony could even open his mouth to reply, Peter added on, “Not in a bad way or anything!  I’m really excited to have a soulmate and you’re amazing. It’s just that having a soulmate or even just anyone to care for me is . . . weird, I guess.”

Tony wondered if Peter could hear his heart splintering and shattering in his chest.  His soulmate’s words echoed in his head, the broken tone they were uttered in going straight to his gut and making it churn uneasily.

“Pete . . .” Tony started but trailed off.

“I know, I know. I sound really dumb,” Peter noted, a sad smile on his face as he looked down at his hands folded in his lap.

“I don’t think it sounds dumb.”

The vigilante risked a glance up, only to find Tony looking at him with a loving yet melancholy expression.

“Nobody’s cared and you deserve so much more,” Tony told him. “I never looked for my soulmate.  I just . . . believed that whoever they were wouldn’t want me.  Then, Peter, I found you and I just wanted to get to know you and love you and be your soulmate.”

“Tony, I-” Peter started but was cut off.

“I saw you and I knew that I never wanted to let you go. I didn’t even know if you wanted me as your soulmate and I was taken aback that you actually did.  And then . . . then I talked to you for a few minutes and it broke my heart.” Tony let out a chuckle that sounded slightly like a sob. “You are one of the most amazing people I have ever met and you have gone through so much shit that you don’t deserve and you’re still so wonderful.  Under every mask of apathy, I found the real Peter Parker, the one who makes me laugh and is a genius and the one that I planned this date for and the one that I want to plan a million more dates for.”

Tony’s emotions were on full display, concern and sorrow and love painting his features.  Peter couldn’t stop the look of shock and love that his face morphed into, crystal clear tears pooling around his coffee brown eyes.  He wiped away his tears with the sleeves of his sweatshirt, Tony catching a glimpse of his soul sentence as he did so.

The two soulmates fell into easy conversation as a chef came by and put down plates of spaghetti with arancini on the side, the scent of the food wafting through the cold, early spring air on the roof.

“Traditional Italian food?” Peter asked and looked up at Tony as he picked up his fork.

“I’m Italian and I thought it would be fun for us to have some traditional food,” Tony responded with an easy smile that Peter returned.

“I didn’t know you were Italian.”

“I mean, we haven’t had that many chances to talk.”

“Besides the fact that we text all the time every day.”

The two laughed and returned to their food, letting a comfortable silence fill the air on the rooftop terrace. It was quiet and cozy without them having to try.  It was a feeling that Peter hadn’t felt in a long time.  He couldn’t help but relish in the feeling of content that was filling up his chest. It was like happiness was returning, the whole world turning back to being right once more. 

It couldn’t last though.

“I really hate to bring this up,” Tony quietly started, “but I have to ask about the red cheeks and new bruises. Same bullies?”

The content poured out from his chest, leaving the empty, hollow feeling that Peter almost always felt.

“Same bullies,” Peter muttered in confirmation before taking another bite of his pasta to avoid having to say anymore.  Tony sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, leaving the worry to fill Peter’s head.

“I, uh, I know. I’m just- they’re . . . it’s really okay.  It’s kinda stupid. I mean, I’m a superhero and I deal with worse. It’s not that bad.  It just kinda looks . . . bad?” Peter stuttered over his words as he choked them out, hoping Tony wasn’t exasperated with him.

“What? No, it’s not stupid!” the billionaire insisted. “You’re being hurt! That’s not dumb. You shouldn’t be getting hurt.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about it,” Peter told him quietly, barely meeting the man’s eyes.

“But I do,” he declared, his voice rising in volume. “You’re my soulmate, Pete, and I can’t stand you coming over here and always having to see you hurt!”

“I’m sorry,” Peter blurted out, guilt eating away at the inside of his stomach.

“Don’t apologize, love.” Peter blushed at the nickname. “I’m supposed to worry. That’s my job as your soulmate.”

“I’m just not used to having somebody who cares so much about this.”

“I’m going to change that.”

+++

“It cannot wait, I’m yours.”

-Jason Mraz, I’m Yours

After dinner, they slow danced to music played by a live pianist.  Towards the end of one of the songs, Tony leaned in and pressed a light kiss against Peter’s lips, and everything felt right.

+++

“Hold, hold on, hold on to me, ‘cause I’m a little unsteady, a little unsteady.”

-X Ambassadors, Unsteady

Later that night, Peter and Tony found themselves cuddled up in Tony’s bed as a movie played in the background.  The warmth between them began to fill Peter up with content again, the gentle feeling of skin against skin calming him down. It truly felt like he was ninety-three floors up from all of his problems.

Then his phone began to ring.

The sound startled the couple, disrupting the soft peace of the room. Peter pulled away from the embrace and grabbed his ringing phone off the bedside table while Tony paused the movie.  He wiped at his bleary and unfocused eyes until he could make out that the contact was Aunt May.

Shit.

Slightly panicked, Peter accepted the call and put the phone to his ear, shooting up from the bed and starting to pace the room.

“Peter Benjamin Parker, where are you?!” May shouted loud enough that Tony, who was worriedly watching Peter pace, could slightly make out what she had said.

“Uh, I’m, uh, at Ned’s,” Peter attempted to lie, but May knew better.

“I already called Ned and he said you weren’t even friends, so I have no clue who you think you’re fooling,” she replied sternly.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll be there soon and I’ll explain. I promise,” Peter swore and hung up the phone before his aunt could answer him.  He sighed and threw his phone on the bed before flopping down beside it.

“Fuck,” the younger muttered, bringing a hand up to cover his worried face.

“Was that your aunt?” Tony asked him, sitting down on the edge of the bed and intertwining their hands.

“Yeah,” Peter replied, sitting up and putting his head on his soulmate’s shoulder. “She wants me to go home, but I thought she was working the night shift.”

Peter began to stand up, pulling his hand away from Tony’s to grab his phone and shove it in his pocket before grabbing his sneakers off of the floor.  He sat down on the bed once more and laced his shoes up.

“I’m so fucked,” he groaned as he ran his hands over his face once more. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say to her! ‘Oh, hey, May! Where was I? Oh, yeah, just at Stark Tower because my soulmate is Tony Stark! Anyway, it’s nice to see you because we rarely see each other anymore. Goodnight!’  I can’t just say that!”

“Maybe . . . maybe you could,” Tony told him after a beat of silence. Instead of replying, Peter just gave him a look as if he was out of his mind. “Hear me out! I could come with you and we could explain everything! It’ll be fine!”

“I . . . you would come with me?” Peter questioned quietly and looked up at Tony.  The genius gave him a gentle smile.

“If you’re okay with it.”

“Then we should get going because she is going to kill me if I’m not there in the next twenty minutes.”

Tony stood up, grabbing Peter’s hand and dragging him up too. He grabbed a pair of sneakers and slipped them on before snatching a jacket up from where it was carelessly thrown on the back of a chair.

“I’ll drive,” Tony announced before intertwining their hands once more and pulling Peter with him.  They speed-walked through the halls of the penthouse and took the elevator down to the garage. Tony picked a car that wasn’t too flashy, though Peter would disagree on that, and got in the driver’s seat, leaving the younger to get in on the other side.

The ride over was filled with conversation and Tony assuring his young lover that he would be okay.  What Tony didn’t say was that Peter could stay over at the tower for however long he needs if his aunt needs time to process everything.  He internally made the promise though.

When they pulled up to the apartment complex and parked along the street, Peter had to take some deep breaths.  Tony turned the car off and reached over the console to take Peter’s hand in a gesture of comfort and reassurance.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Tony guaranteed. “We’re gonna be okay.”

Peter nodded and took one final breath before opening the car door, Tony doing the same on the other side.  Luckily, the street was practically empty and too dark to see much, so nobody saw as Tony Stark walked to the other side of a flashy car and took his soulmate’s hand.  The two quietly walked up to the building and Peter unlocked the door with one hand, having had many years of practice doing so.  They climbed the stairs, not even bothering to approach the elevator because they wanted to stall having to tell May.

Finally, they reached Peter’s floor and found themselves in front of the door.  They disconnected their hands and the younger fumbled around in the side pocket of his bag to get his key.  Once he got it, he took a breath and softly swung the door open, immediately seeing Aunt May glaring at him from the kitchen, her anger evident on her face.

“Peter Benjamin Parker, where were you?!” she shouted, making Peter flinch back a bit. “I got my shifts moved around and thought ‘won’t it be great if I come home early and get to spend some time with my nephew?’ But apparently not because you aren’t at home and you aren’t at your friend’s house and you won’t answer my texts and I was just stuck-”

May cut herself off, finally seeing Tony standing behind her nephew with a mix of worry and guilt painted on his face.  She couldn’t help but gawk at him for a minute in complete and utter confusion.

“Peter,” she whispered dangerously, “you have ten seconds to tell me why the fuck Tony Stark is in my doorway.”

“Well, that’s, uh, that’s a funny story,” Peter stuttered, scratching the back of his neck anxiously and not meeting his aunt’s eyes.  He took a step in as she glared at him and Tony followed, gently closing the door behind him.

“Peter,” she warned, “tell me what’s going on.”

“I found my soulmate!” he blurted, finally making eye contact with the woman.

“You . . . you what?”

“I found my soulmate,” Peter repeated quietly, shoulders sagging.  May gave him a bewildered look before sighing and walking over to the living room.  She sat herself down in an armchair and put her head in her hands as she rested her elbows on her knees.

Peter and Tony shared a distressed look before hesitantly following her. They sat on the couch, a little closer than an acquaintance or co-worker would, and May noticed this when she finally looked up.  Her eyes traveled down to where Peter’s soul sentence would be and realized that it was uncovered for the first time in years as if it had never been hidden away at all.

“Who?” May questioned quietly, meeting Peter’s gaze.  Her nephew fell quiet, unsure of what to say.

“Me,” Tony told her gently, making the woman’s eyes fall on him.  Her face morphed into confusion and then shock, brows furrowing.

“You?” she asked in bewilderment. “You, Tony Stark, are my nephew’s soulmate?”

Tony simply nodded, not knowing what else to tell her. He felt so uncertain, terrified of what could come out of his mouth if he opened it.

“I . . . I just can’t . . . I can’t even process this,” May stammered out, looking between the two men, completely and utterly astonished.

“I should probably go for now,” Tony murmured and the ‘for now’ wasn’t lost on her.  She could only wonder how long they had known they were soulmates.

“We still on for next Friday?” Peter asked him, tearing his gaze away from his startled aunt.

“Of course,” Tony replied with a tender smile.  He gave his soulmate a kiss on the forehead, not wanting to straight out kiss him goodbye in front of the rattled woman, and began to leave, but not before turning around and shooting one more concerned look at the woman.

Once the door had shut, Peter and May looked to each other again, the young adult nervously twiddling his thumbs.

“Peter-” May started but the teen interrupted her.

“Let’s just drop it, May,” he said decidedly and stood up, beginning to make his way to his bedroom.

“Why did Ned say you guys weren’t friends anymore?” she asked him and her nephew stopped dead in his tracks.  He slowly turned around but kept his gaze on the carpeted floor.

“Because we aren’t friends anymore.”

“Why? When did that happen? Why didn’t I know?”

“Because you never cared to ask!” Peter shouted, looking up at her.

May finally noticed the bruises, the purple and yellow around his arms and his ankles.  His cheeks were red as if he had been slapped.  The bags under his eyes gave away the little amounts of sleep he’d had.

“He stopped talking to me! Found his soulmate and left, okay?! It doesn’t matter!” Peter continued, venom laced into his tone. “Let’s just leave it!”

May Parker didn’t know what to say in the slightest.  She was baffled beyond belief.  Her nephew, the only living relative she had, and only through marriage, was standing before her, shouting and bruised and without a friend.  It opened up a pit in her stomach as wide as a canyon and she felt like she was falling into it.  She hadn’t been there.  She hadn’t been there for anything that had happened and it felt awful.  She felt awful.  What type of guardian was she?  She wanted to scream and cry and get mad but it was only at herself.

“When did you find out who your soulmate was?” May questioned quietly, not finding it in herself to even raise her voice a bit.

“A month ago,” Peter told her softly, his face showing off his defeat. “And it was the best day I’ve had in a year and a half, no thanks to anyone I knew before it.”

Peter turned around and left, slamming his bedroom door behind him and leaving May to go over everything she had done wrong.

+++

“Do we have to talk about it? You know how I make you feel, right?”

-gnash, feelings fade

Much to Peter’s surprise, the next week was not too terrible.  As it was nearing the end of the year, most of his grade was too worried about college acceptance letters and scholarships to notice him, so he spent most of the week slipping under the radar.  There were only a few shoves here and there, giving his previous bruises and cuts time to heal.

Peter was sitting in his last period of the day, eagerly awaiting the final bell.  His physics teacher had seen how antsy the students were, as it was their last period before the weekend, and gave them the last ten minutes of the period to do whatever they wanted.

As soon as the teacher had announced that they could do whatever they wanted until the bell rang, Peter pulled out his sketch book and a pencil.  Ignoring the world around him, the young man began to draw, letting the sound of his peers talking fade into the background.

Ned was sitting right next to Peter, as they had been given assigned seats at the beginning of the year.  He was looking at his phone, scrolling through Twitter, but couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to the friend he’d drifted apart from.  He watched as Peter sketched out a picture of space, with Jupiter in the middle of the page.  He followed the boy’s eyes as he looked down at his wrist with a small smile.

Ned nearly had a stroke as he realized that Peter’s soul sentence was uncovered.  He had never seen it before, as Peter had always been really secretive about it when they were still friends.  His gaze was focused on the word ‘Jupiter’ as Peter went back to his drawing.  In a rash decision, Ned decided to speak up.

“Did you find your soulmate?”

Peter startled a bit before looking at Ned.  He shyly pointed a finger towards himself, silently asking if the boy was talking to him.  He received a small nod in response.

“Uh, well, yeah,” Peter replied, looking down at his wrist before looking back up at Ned.  “It’s a really weird story.”

“Are they, uh, nice?” Ned asked, unsure of what else to say.

“Yeah . . . he’s great.  Sweet, supportive, kind, loving. He’s everything you could ever want in a soulmate.”  Peter looked a bit wistful, eyes soft as he traced a finger over the soul mark.

Ned opened his mouth to speak again, but the dismissal bell rang.  He watched as Peter quickly shoved his sketchbook into his bag before flinging it over his shoulder and racing out of the classroom.

All Ned could think was, ‘Who even is he anymore?’

+++

“Keep me in your glow, ‘cause I’m having such a good time with you.”

-Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour

“Thanks, Happy!” Peter exclaimed as he made his way out of the car.  He received a light grumble in response, but he knew that Happy still appreciated the thanks.

The young genius made his way to the private elevator, ignoring all the confused looks he usually gets from staff in the lobby.  As he stepped in, FRIDAY spoke up.

“Good afternoon, Peter!” she greeted kindly.  “Boss is in the penthouse kitchen.  Would you like me to take you there?”

“Yes.  Thank you, Fri!”

Peter checked his phone as the elevator ascended.  He scrolled through Twitter, just taking a look at what was going on and retweeting a few dumb posts that he found funny.  He slipped his phone back into his pocket as the doors opened.

The young man was met by the sight of his soulmate leaning against the counter with a mug of coffee in one hand and his phone in the other.  He looked up from where he was checking his email once Peter walked in.

“Pete!” He set down his coffee and phone on the counter.  The younger man dropped his bag by the elevator doors and ran over, the two embracing each other.  Peter buried his head into Tony’s shoulder and the man put his chin on the crown of his soulmate’s head.  The two fit together like two puzzle pieces that were always meant to go together.  They stayed that way for a few moments before pulling apart, though they continued to stand close to each other.

“How was your week?” Tony asked gently.

“It actually wasn’t too bad,” Peter admitted with a shy smile.  “Everybody’s really preoccupied with figuring out what college they want to go to and trying to get scholarships for it that I was able to just fly under the radar.”

“That’s really good,” Tony replied with a smile.  “I’ve never actually asked you what college you’re going to.  Have you already accepted an offer somewhere?”

Peter gave a small sigh at that, looking away from Tony and down at the floor. “I’ve been accepted to a few good schools and I was hoping to accept an offer from MIT, but my aunt and I just don’t have the money for me to pay tuition, even with what we’ve been saving for years, and I don’t qualify for enough financial aid scholarships to cover it.  So I’m probably gonna take a gap year or two to get a job and save up.”

Disappointment radiated off the younger man and it was obvious to Tony that his soulmate wished he could just go off to college right after senior year like pretty much everybody else.  An idea sparked in Tony’s mind.

“I can pay your tuition!” he exclaimed with a smile.  Peter quickly looked up from the floor to give Tony a bewildered gaze.

“I couldn’t ask you to-”

“But you aren’t asking me to!  I’m offering and, by ‘offering,’ I mean that I’m paying your tuition to whatever school you want to go to and I’m not taking no as an answer.”

“Tony, tuition is so expensive!” Peter argued.

“And I’m a billionaire!  It wouldn’t make a dent in my wallet!” Tony countered.

“But-”

“Peter, it’s okay!  I have the money and you deserve to go to college!  I’m not gonna let you give up the opportunity to go to a school you want to go to just because-”

“Tony, I’m not a charity case!” Peter shouted, cutting the man off.  The room fell into silence, Tony staring at him in shock.  Peter just averted his gaze, staring back at the floor.

“What?” Tony breathed out in confusion.

“I’m not a charity case,” Peter repeated in a quieter voice. “You don’t have to pay my tuition just because I’m some poor kid from Queens.”

“Peter . . . that’s not why I want to pay your tuition,” Tony told him gently, reaching forward to grab the younger man’s hands.  “I want to pay your tuition because you’re my soulmate, and I want everything for you.  You deserve the fucking world.”

Peter looked up from the ground, his hopeful eyes gazing into Tony’s. “You promise you’re not just doing this because you pity me?”

“I promise.”

Peter raised himself up a bit, balancing on the balls of his feet, and gave Tony a short peck on the lips before coming back down and leaning his head against the man’s chest.  Tony released his hands in order to wrap his arms around the boy, Peter mirroring the action and wrapping his arms around Tony’s waist.

“I’ll let you pay for my tuition under one condition,” Peter said quietly. “You can only pay for whatever my college savings doesn’t cover.”

“Deal,” Tony replied with a smile, glad he had convinced his soulmate . “And it’s not like you’ll have to pay for a dorm on campus.”

Peter pulled back a bit, looking up at the man in confusion.

“I have a penthouse that’s basically right next to campus,” he elaborated, “so you can stay there and I can go visit all the time.”

“Don’t freshman usually have to live in the dorms?”

“I can pull a few strings.”  Tony shot him a wink.  When Peter opened his mouth to protest, Tony simply said, “Trust me, those dorms are disgusting.”

Just accepting it, Peter laid his head back on Tony’s chest.

+++

“I started working as a dime store clerk. I thought it would make me the kind to put you first.”

-Blind Pilot, Packed Powder

That evening, Tony and Peter sat on the couch together, Peter’s laptop open.  Peter found the email that announced that he had been accepted and went to the link that prompted him to accept or decline the college offer.  Taking a deep breath, the younger man moved his mouse and clicked to accept.  A screen popped up, congratulating him for being MIT-bound and giving him information about the next steps.

Peter just stared at the screen in shock while Tony jumped up from the couch and started clapping.  The younger man set his laptop to the side and his soulmate pulled him up from where he was sitting, giving him a quick hug.

“You’re going to MIT!” Tony exclaimed as he grabbed Peter’s hands.

“Holy shit, I’m going to college! I’m going to college! I can’t even believe it!” Peter exclaimed.

“MIT is pretty impressive,” a voice spoke from behind the couch.  The two soulmates whipped around only to be met with Pepper fucking Potts right outside the doors to the elevator.  Peter froze up while Tony gave the woman a huge smile.

“You must be Peter,” she says, walking forwards and offering a hand to him over the couch, which the young man tentatively shook.  “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Um, all good things I hope,” Peter replied sheepishly as he pulled his hand back.

“All great things,” Pepper assured him before taking on a teasing smile. “Ever since you two met, Tony has spent half his time talking about you.”

“Really?” Peter questioned while Tony looked a bit abashed.  Pepper gave him a nod along with a huge grin.

“Anyway, I just came up to hand some paperwork off to Tony,” she told them, motioning to the files she had placed on the counter, “but I’m really glad I finally got to meet you, Peter.”

“I- uh- um- it was really nice to meet you too,” the young man stammered out with a small smile.

And with that, Pepper went back to the elevator to return to whatever she had been working on before.

“Do you think she liked me?” Peter asked as he tore his gaze away from the elevator doors and looked at Tony.

“Oh please, she already loves you.”

+++

“One, two, three, and four. How long til I feel like myself again? And I’d walk out the door, but where would I go?”

-Tessa Violet, Honest

The next night found Peter eating an awkward dinner with May.  Tension continued to linger between them from the conversation the week before.  Neither could come up with a topic of conversation, so they just sat there in silence, focusing on their meals.  Finally, Peter spoke up.

“I committed to MIT.”

May looked up at him, eyes wide and mouth agape.

“Peter, what the fuck?!” she shouted, standing up from her place at the table. “You know we can’t afford tuition to MIT!  You and I decided you were going to take a gap year or two where you could work and save up money!  Why would you-”

May cut herself off as he finally took another look at her nephew, who was just looking up at her calmly.  Slowly, she lowered herself back into her chair, giving him a suspicious look all the while.

“Can I explain?” he asked, seemingly unflappable.

May, unsure of what else to do, simply gave him a nod.

“My soulmate𑁋” May was never going to get used to him saying those words. “𑁋asked me about college and I told him my plan to reject all the acceptances so I could save up money during a couple of gap years.  He simply interjected and said he would pay for my tuition, and I-”

May cut him off again. “What?! You’re just-”

Peter cut her off right back, being just a little bit louder than her. “I told him no.  He kept trying to convince me and I told him I wasn’t a charity case.  He was . . . shocked.  He didn’t realize I felt like he was only offering cause I’m some poor kid from Queens.”

May was quiet and the look on her face was indiscernible.

“He assured me it wasn't because of that, but that he wanted to because I’m his soulmate and he thought it was wrong that I had to turn down an offer from an amazing school just because I couldn’t afford it.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but Peter kept going.

“I made a deal with him.  He could pay my tuition, but only the part of my tuition that my college savings don’t cover.  He told me he had a penthouse near campus and that I could stay there so I wouldn’t have to pay extra for a dorm room.  So, I committed to MIT and, whether you like it or not, I’m going there in the fall.”

May stayed silent as her nephew stood up from the table and walked to his room without another word.  She couldn’t fall asleep all night and, when she heard Peter’s window open at one am as he came back from patrol, she left a plate of food outside of his door, knowing he would still be hungry after not finishing his dinner.

+++

“I won’t hate you, but oh it stings.  How does it feel to be adored by him?”

-dodie, Adored By Him

Only a little over a month ago, Peter would’ve jumped at the chance to be friends with Ned and MJ again, despite how quick they were to leave him behind as soon as they found their soulmates.  Once MJ had left him too, Peter began to feel as if he was only a stand-in until his (ex) friends’ soulmates came along, ready to replace him as if he’d never been there at all.  He remembers trying to convince himself that he was being irrational, that all of these thoughts were just him being over dramatic.  He tried to defend their actions, no matter how much they had hurt him.

Once Peter met Tony, that changed.  He’d told his soulmate how he felt, trying to downplay it and make it seem as if he was the one who had been acting like a shitty friend.  It took a lot of time and many conversations for Peter to begin to realize that he was allowed to feel upset that his friends had abandoned him.  It wasn’t his fault.

A little over a month ago, Peter would’ve jumped at the chance to be friends with Ned and MJ again.  Now, Peter had no interest in being friends with either of them.

It was midday on Tuesday and Peter was sitting at lunch, just texting his soulmate.

Soulmate<3: Do you have any plans for spring break?

Peter: nope lol

Soulmate<3: Have you ever been to Italy?

Peter: no???

Soulmate<3: We should go during your spring break!

Just as Peter went to respond, somebody sat down across from him.  He sighed and looked up, expecting one of his bullies, but, instead, he saw MJ, looking like she was trying to play it cool.  He saw right through her, though, as she was avoiding eye contact and had a slight flush on her face.

“What do you want, Michelle?” Peter asked coldly, setting his phone down on the table.  He watched her wince a bit as he called her by her real name instead of her nickname.  “You don’t sit over here anymore.”

“Sydney isn’t here and I wanted to sit with somebody I know,” MJ told him, crossing her arms.

“Why don’t you just sit with Ned?” he shot back at her with a raised eyebrow.

“His table is full.” She motioned and Peter followed her movements, looking at the table where Ned was sat with his soulmate, all the other seats being filled up with his new friends.

“Well, I’m sure you know plenty of other people, so why don’t you go sit with them and leave me the fuck alone.”

MJ was quiet for a few moments, just looking at Peter.  He glared right back, not breaking eye contact, as if he were daring her to say something else.

“Your soul sentence is uncovered,” she said quietly, focusing her gaze on his wrist.

“And?” he retorted, but didn’t bother hiding his wrist.

“And why is it uncovered? You’ve always kept it covered. You never even told Ned and I that it said𑁋” she stopped to look at it for a moment more. “𑁋Jupiter.”

“Well, it’s not like it even fucking matters, considering we’re not friends anymore.”

“But-” MJ started to counter, but Peter’s phone buzzed, interrupting her.  He went to reach for the phone, but she grabbed it first, looking at the notification.

Soulmate<3: Did I scare you off?

It buzzed again.

Soulmate<3: I know how you feel about me spending money on you, but I feel like you’d like Italy a lot!

And again.

Soulmate<3: Just give it some thought. It would be a really fun vacation! I promise Italy is really cool and I have some villas and such in a few cities, so we could travel around the country!

And once more.

Soulmate<3: Anyway I’ll see you this afternoon! I love you!

MJ slowly handed the phone back to Peter, who looked down at the notifications, quickly reading them, before looking up at the girl’s shocked face.  Peter, without a second thought, slung his bag over his shoulder, standing up and walking out of the cafeteria.  After a beat, he heard MJ running after him.  He made no attempt to speed up or hide, simply resigning to his fate of being bombarded by her questions.

“Peter!” MJ called, catching up to the boy.  She eventually did and started walking by his side, having to speed up as he began to power walk.  Eventually the two entered the library and MJ followed Peter all the way to the back, where he set his bag on a table and collapsed onto a chair next to it, glad to be hidden by the bookshelves.

MJ just slowly sat down in the other chair, turning to look at Peter.  He, decidedly, did not meet her eyes.

“So . . . you found your soulmate,” she said more than asked.

“Why does it matter to you?” he snapped, trying to keep his voice down. “Why do you give two shits who my soulmate is?”

“Because we used to be friends.”

“The key phrase there is ‘used to,’ as in, we aren’t friends anymore, so let it go.”

MJ fell silent, her gaze once again falling to Peter’s wrist.  Something felt familiar about it, as if she had some idea of who his soulmate is.

‘What’s your favorite planet?’

‘Jupiter’

MJ’s eyes widened in realization as she looked back up at Peter’s face.

“Holy. Shit,” she said, staring at him.  He turned to her with a suspicious look.

“What?”

“Holy shit!” She still tried to keep her voice down.

“What?!”

“It all makes sense! The lecture, Jupiter, your soul sentence suddenly being uncovered, your soulmate wanting to take you to Italy! Your soulmate is Tony-”

Peter slammed a hand over her mouth, effectively shutting her up.  His eyes were wide as he tried to figure out if anyone had heard her words.  Slowly, giving MJ a look of warning, he took his hand off of her mouth.

“Is he . . . no fucking way,” she said, voice quieter.

Peter’s shoulders sagged and he began to fiddle with his fingers, looking defeated. “Yeah, he’s my soulmate . . .”

MJ paused, just needing to let it sink in.

Peter fucking Parker was Tony fucking Stark’s soulmate.

And, even more than that, Tony fucking Stark was Peter fucking Parker’s soulmate.

“You can’t tell anybody,” Peter told her quietly, anxiety dripping into his voice. “It’ll get leaked to the press and . . . everything will suck for me and him.”

“I . . . I won’t tell anybody,” she promised, “but you’ve gotta answer my questions about it.”

Peter sighed, but nodded.

“Is he, like, actually interested in being in a romantic relationship with you?” MJ asked tentatively.

“I mean, he sets up romantic dinner dates and invites me over all the time and wants to take me to Italy, so you can probably fill in the blanks,” Peter answered, a bit of sarcasm laced into his voice.

“What’s he like?”

“Kind, sweet, supportive, caring.  He’s pretty much everything you could ask for in a soulmate.”

Despite having her own wonderful soulmate, MJ couldn’t help but be a bit jealous by the way Peter described his soulmate with a loving look in his eyes.  A sweet, caring soulmate who wants to whisk you away to Italy over your spring break and set up romantic dates for you all the time?  That’s basically everybody’s dream.  She couldn’t even begin to imagine being adored by a world famous billionaire superhero.  From the loving look in his eyes, MJ could practically see how in love the two were.  Tony Stark probably worshipped the ground Peter walked on and would give him the universe if he asked for it.

Everybody wanted that— MJ wanted that.

“Does he know about, ya know, your alter-ego?”

“He built me a new suit actually.”

“Have you two done it?”

Peter’s eyes went wide and he looked at her in shock. “Jesus Christ, absolutely not. He knows I’m not ready and he’s . . . actually really okay with that.”

The questioning went on and on until the bell rang.  The two stood up and prepared to go their separate ways, but before MJ could leave, Peter grabbed her wrist.  She looked back at him in confusion.

“I was serious when I said that you can’t tell anybody. If anything is leaked to the press, I’ll know exactly who did it and me and my soulmate won’t hesitiate to destroy your entire fucking life.” The girl had never seen Peter act so cold, so she nodded along, a bit scared, until Peter let go of her wrist and she could leave.

That afternoon, Peter could feel MJ’s eyes burning holes into his back as he got in Happy’s car.

+++

“Nothing’s gonna hurt you, baby.  As long as you’re with me, you’ll be just fine.”

-Cigarettes After Sex, Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby

When Peter reached the penthouse floor of Stark Tower and the elevator doors opened, the first thing Tony said to him was “Did I scare you away by asking if you wanted to go to Italy?”

The young man sighed, dropping his bag by the elevator before walking to the living room and collapsing onto the plush couch that probably cost more than his apartment’s rent.  Tony walked after him and lifted Peter’s head up a bit so he could sit down, placing his soulmate’s head down on his lap and beginning to run his fingers through his hair.

Peter hummed a bit at the comforting gesture. “I was going to respond to your text, but then MJ sat down at my lunch table.”

“What did she say?”

“She told me that her soulmate wasn’t there and she wanted to sit with somebody she knew.  Then she commented about how my soul sentence was uncovered.  As soon as I told her that it was none of her business, my phone buzzed.  She read the texts, I ran away to the library, she followed. Long story short, she put all the pieces together and found out that you’re my soulmate.”

Tony sucked in a breath, completely freezing up.

Sensing the man’s anxiety, Peter continued. “I threatened that if she told anybody, then we’d destroy her life. She seemed pretty scared, so I think we’ll be safe.”

The man let out a breath of relief, going back to back to running his fingers through his younger soulmate’s hair.  The two let the room be silent for a little bit, simply basking in each other’s presence.  Finally, Tony spoke up.

“So . . . about Italy.”

Peter sighed.

+++

“What would it feel like to put this baggage down? If I’m being honest, I’m not sure I’d know how.”

-Sleeping At Last, Six

Peter climbed through his window a little past midnight, having gone on patrol right after having dinner with Tony.  He took the suit off and changed into some more comfortable clothes before walking to the kitchen, hoping to grab a snack before he went to sleep.

When he got to the kitchen, Peter found May sitting at the table with a mug of tea.  She appeared to be deep in thought, but looked up when her nephew came in.

“Peter,” she murmured, stopping the boy in his tracks, “can we talk?”

It may have been a question, but Peter knew he couldn’t say no.  So, he padded forward gently and sat down on the chair across from the woman, not meeting her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, making him look up at her. “I haven’t been there for you. I haven’t been a good guardian. I have no excuse. Yes, I was working a lot to pay rent, but . . . I should’ve been checking up on you instead of just assuming that you were okay.”

“Aunt May-”

“No, Peter. I’m sorry. I barely talked to you. For fuck’s sake, I didn’t even know you’d met your soulmate! That’s inexcusable.”

May tore her gaze away from Peter’s eyes, looking down at the table as tears fell.  Guilt came off of her in waves.

“Aunt May, I’m not gonna act like it’s all okay, but I accept your apology. It’s obviously not all gonna go back to normal right now, but I’m willing to put in the effort if you are.”

“Of course I’m willing to put in the effort, Pete.” She met his eyes once more. “You’re my nephew, and I love you.”  She stood up and walked around the table, leaning down to give him a hug.

“I love you too, Aunt May.”

They stayed like that for a few moments before pulling away.  May sat back down, but now on the chair next to Peter.

“Now, tell me about this soulmate of yours.”

Peter laughed a little, giving her a smile as he began to tell her about Tony.  She nodded along and asked questions, chuckling at the stories he told about all the dumb things they’d done together.  Finally, the conversation was starting to wind down.

“He wants to take me to Italy for my spring break,” Peter admitted quietly, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“You should go,” May told him.  The young man looked up at her in shock so quickly that he might’ve given himself whiplash.  “I’m serious! It’d be fun for you and it’ll be nice for you to get away with your soulmate for a little bit.”

“You’re sure you’re okay with it?”

“Peter, I only want the best for you.”

+++

“I don’t care if you’re not sorry, I forgive you. And with or without your support I will continue.”

-The Front Bottoms, Cough It Out

Just like the day before, on Wednesday, Peter was sitting at lunch and texting Tony, who was figuring out all the details for their trip to Italy.  Then, because Peter couldn’t go a single day without something happening to him, two people sat down at his table.  He looked up and saw MJ, once again, but she was with her soulmate this time.

“What do you want?” Peter snapped as he turned off his phone.  He kept a hold on it though, not wanting to make the same mistake as last time.

“Um . . . I’m Sydney,” the girl introduced herself, extending a hand across the table.  Peter looked down at it and then back up at her, raising an eyebrow.

“I know. We met before I quit AcaDec,” Peter replied dryly, causing Sydney to retract her hand a bit.  “If you two don’t want anything, then could you very kindly fuck off?”

“I just wanted my soulmate to meet one of my friends,” MJ told him.

“We aren’t friends, Michelle.”

“Look, I’m extending an olive branch here. You obviously have no friends-”

Peter cut her off. “And whose fault is that?  Oh, right, you and Ned’s. Completely forgot that you two cut me off and avoided me for a year and a half!  Funny how stuff like that slips my mind!”

The two girls winced a little bit, not saying anything as Peter went back to looking at his phone and resolutely ignoring them.

“Are you texting your soulmate?” MJ asked him, leaning over the table to see his phone.  Peter quickly pulled it back, shutting it off once more.

“What’s it to you, Jones?” he replied in lieu of an answer.

“I was just curious if you’re going on that Italy trip.”

“Did you tell her?” Peter demanded, leaning into MJ’s space aggressively as his eyes flickered to Sydney for a second. “‘Cause if you did, you’re completely aware that your life would be ruined, right? You know that he would absolutely destroy you everything you’ve ever loved, and for all the shit you’ve put me through, I wouldn’t even try to stop him.”

“Is that a threat?” she challenged.

“It’s a promise.”

Sydney looked back and forth between the two as they stared each other down, her face giving away how confused she was.

“I didn’t,” MJ conceded, leaning away.  With one last glance to the girl’s soulmate, he leaned away too, but there was still that dangerous air to him.

“Smart choice.”

“I’m sorry, but what the fuck is going on?!” Sydney asked, looking absolutely bewildered at the interaction.

“It’s a long story,” MJ replied without tearing her gaze from the boy in front of her, “but that’s not the point. Like, I said, I came to extend an olive branch. You let us sit here at lunch, and we’ll ward off Flash and his clique from coming near you.”

Peter mulled it over in his head, eyeing her suspiciously.  After a few moments, he seemed to make up his mind.

“Fine, but you can’t force me to talk to you.”

“Deal,” MJ agreed, putting a hand forward. Peter shook it before going back to looking at his phone.  Sydney didn’t say anything, but continued to shoot the boy confused looks every once in a while.

“And, Michelle?” Peter piped up just before the bell rang.

“Yeah?”

“We’re still going on that Italy trip.”

The girl gave him a small smile, which he didn’t return, before getting up and leaving, Sydney by her side.

+++

“Aren’t you the guy who tried to hurt me with the word goodbye? Though it took some time to survive you, I’m better on the other side.”

-Dua Lipa, Don’t Start Now

The next week and a half passed in a blur of less bruises than usual, hanging out with Tony, trying to make things go back to normal with May, and sitting with MJ and Sydney during lunch.  Peter didn’t really talk to the two, leaving them to their own devices.  It took him a couple days to even greet them when they sat down, and a few more to make any conversation with them.  He decided that lunch definitely wasn’t his least favorite part of school.

Finally, finally, it was Peter’s last period of the day before he was released from school for his two weeks of spring break.  As soon as that bell rang, he was going to race out of there and go meet Happy, who would drive him to the airport, where he’d board Tony’s private jet and be whisked away to Italy for an incredible vacation with his soulmate.

Everybody was just sitting around and talking, eager for the bell to ring so classes would end and break would begin.  Peter was enthusiastically texting his soulmate, who, despite having traveled to Italy several times, seemed just as excited for the trip as Peter was.

Ned, much like two weeks before, couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to Peter, who was smiling down at his phone.  His eyes drifted to his soul sentence again, where the word “Jupiter” was still beautifully scrawled.  Peter, able to sense the gaze, turned to look at Ned.

“Who are you texting?” Ned asked, trying to play it off.

“It’s nobody,” Peter replied before going back to texting, assuming that the boy would be satisfied with that answer.

Ned, not wanting the conversation to die, continued. “I, uh, I noticed that you’ve been sitting with MJ and Sydney. That’s new, I guess.”

“Less like I’m sitting with them and more like they’re sitting with me.”

Ned, again, was not satisfied, so he tried once more. 

“Are you doing anything over spring break?”

“Some stuff, yeah,” Peter told him, not looking up from his phone. “Doing a bit of traveling.”

“Oh, you and May are going somewhere?”

“Nope.”

Ned sighed, but, for reasons unknown to him, he didn’t want to give up until he got a real answer.

“Are you-”

“Why do you even give a shit?” Peter interrogated, looking up from his phone to face Ned. “We haven’t talked in a year and a half, so I’ve got no fucking clue why you care now.”

“I’m just curious!” Ned defended.

“Why? Because I’ve got a soulmate now? Is that why you’re so fucking curious? Well, I don’t give a shit, Leeds. So why don’t you go run off to your perfect little life with your soulmate and your new friends and leave me the fuck alone.”

“What happened to you, Peter? Why are you like this?”

“Wouldn’t you be oh so eager to know?!”

The bell rang and everybody raced to get out of the classroom, excited for break.  Peter was happy to run out alongside those people, effectively ending the conversation.

Ned moved slower, watching the boy go.  As he slung his bag over his shoulder and followed the crowd, he could only think of what an enigma Peter Parker had become.

+++

“Baby, there’s no question, no competition. I love you more.”

-Son of Cloud, I Love You More

“First time out of country?” Tony asked as he watched Peter stare out the window of his private jet.  The younger man turned to him, looking sheepish.

“Second time out of state.”

“I guess I’ll have to force you to travel with me more.” Tony took Peter’s hand gently in his, rubbing circles into the back of it, and the younger man gently rested his head on his soulmate’s shoulder, feeling happier than he’d felt in a while.

“You already know what I’m going to say to that.”

“I do, but I’m still gonna try.”

Peter only snorted.

+++

“‘Cause I am captivated by you, and I am so in love with the things you do.”

-mxmtoon, late nights

“Holy. Shit.” Peter was standing outside Tony’s villa in Florence as the chauffeur who drove them there brought their bags inside.  The villa was large, with beautiful landscape in the front and an elegant porch that had large curtains drawn open.  Ivy was growing up the walls and there was a balcony on the second floor that spanned the entire length of the house.  It looked grand in the early afternoon light.  He stood, completely entranced, as his soulmate came up beside him and put an arm around his shoulders.

“What do you think?”

“What do I think?” Peter repeated incredulously. “What I think is that this place is absolutely insane!”

Tony only laughed and grabbed the younger man’s hand, pulling him inside the villa.  As expected, it was as luxurious inside as it was outside.  It wasn’t the type of luxurious that the tower was, though.  It was less high tech and more open air, with plush couches and potted plants and large windows and hardwood floors.  It could be described as looking like the embodiment of the typical luxurious Mediterranean house.

Peter looked around in awe as Tony led him up the stairs and through the second floor hallways to their room.  It had a gaudy california king canopy bed and french doors that led out to a balcony overlooking the pool that was in the backyard.  Through an open door, Peter could see a spacious bathroom.  He broke away from Tony’s hold to step forward and examine in, slowly spinning in a circle to take it all in.

“You like it?” Tony asked, bringing snapping Peter out of his trance of astonishment.

“Like? Tony, this place is unbelievable!” the younger man exclaimed as his soulmate walked over to him. “Like, this is practically the most beautiful home in the world.  I’ve never been somewhere that looks like this before!  It’s absolutely extraordinary and I-”

Tony grabbed Peter’s hands in his own, which made the younger man stop rambling and look up at him.

“I just want you to have the most incredible spring break in the world.”

Peter couldn’t help but smile at that.

The late afternoon found the two soulmates lounging in beach chairs by the pool, soaking up the golden rays of the afternoon sun and drinking local wine.

+++

“But it’s too late. You believe in fate.”

-dodie, Absolutely Smitten

“Why do you love me?” Peter asked Tony on their last night in Florence.  They were sitting on the balcony after having gone sight-seeing all day, overlooking the landscaping in front of the villa, with a delicately made cheese and meat platter on the small table between them.

“What?” Tony inquired, turning to look at the young man who was curled up in his chair and looking out over the gardens.

“Why do you love me?” Peter repeated before shifting his gaze to look at his soulmate. “Of all the people in the world?  I know we’re soulmates, but beyond that . . .”

He paused, looking away from Tony again.

“What did you even see in me that made you want to be my soulmate when you easily could’ve walked away and never seen me again?”

It was silent for a few moments, Peter simply staring out over the balcony railing and Tony studying him.

“I spent thirty-one years thinking I didn’t have a soulmate.”

Peter turned to look at him, but he had started staring out at the landscape.

“Honestly, when I got my soulmark, I felt so guilty. I couldn’t help but wonder what poor soul would be stuck with me as a soulmate. I intended on never going out looking for my soulmate.  I didn’t want to burden whoever it was in that way, they didn’t deserve that. I spent all this time trying to avoid my soulmate, and then I ran straight into you. Funny how fate works, right?”

Peter tore his gaze away from Tony and looked down at his lap, messing with the hem of his shirt.

“And then I met you, and I felt guilty all over again, but it wasn’t the same. I felt guilty because you were suffering, looking for anybody to hold onto, and I was out there, in the same exact city, doing everything I could to avoid you.”

Peter looked up at his soulmate, who was already looking at him, and their eyes met.

“I couldn’t𑁋 can’t let you go. You’re sweet and kind and compassionate and a genius. You were this ethereal being that crashed right into my life and, if you met me and still wanted to stay, then there was no way I could let you go.”

Peter closed his eyes, tears gently rolling down his cheeks.  Tony shifted forward and wiped them away with the pad of his thumb and the young man leaned into the touch.

“I love you,” Tony whispered.

Peter opened his eyes and looked up at him. “I love you too.”

+++

“Love has flooded my heart and there’s rain in Venice for the first time.”

-Steve Harley, Rain in Venice

Tony’s villa in Venice was along the canals.  It, of course, was smaller than the one in Florence, but it was just as elegant.  The moment they entered the city, Peter fell in love with the canals and the buildings lining the water.  Tony made a mental note to bring him to Amsterdam one day.

The days spent in Venice were much more laid back than those spent in Florence.  Tony took Peter to the Teatro La Fenice to see a ballet performance and they spent the days visiting old churches and being rowed through the canals.  Peter had insisted they visit the Ghetto Ebraico di Venezia, the small part of the island that the Jews in Venice had been forced to move to in 1516, as he had promised May he’d go to get a bit closer to his Sephardic roots.

Peter had seen movies that took place in Venice, rom-coms and such, but he took them all with a grain of salt.  Over the course of his stay in Venice, he began to wonder if perhaps those movies weren’t as fictional as he thought after all.

+++

“Hold my hand, darling. Pull me in your waters. When you call my name, I’ll be on my way.”

-Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Pacific Love

As Peter had predicted, Tony’s villa right outside of Rome was just as fanciful as the one in Florence, with a fountain out front, several balconies, an outdoor shower that overlooked vineyards, and an even more elegant pool in the back.  They had arrived there towards the evening, just as the sun was beginning to set, so they decided to eat dinner on the balcony connected to their bedroom, watching the sun go down as they talked about their plans for the next day.  There were so many museums to visit and sights to see𑁋 and there were a few places that couldn’t not go.

The Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Sistine Chapel, the Arch of Constantine, and the Vaticans were must-sees, of course, but more was added to the plans for the rest of the trip, such as going to a wine tasting and seeing Palatine Hill.

As Peter slipped his hand into Tony’s, he reminisced about how everything felt right.

+++

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are sitting on lounge chairs by the pool in the late afternoon with two half-full wine glasses sitting on the small table between them.  They are both in shorts and a t-shirt.  Both are smiling, laughing over something.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking along the Ponte Vecchio.  They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are in the Uffizi Palace and Gallery.  Stark is reading the plaque next to a statue while Parker looks up at said statue.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking through the Boboli Gardens, holding hands.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are eating dinner on the front balcony of Stark’s villa.  They appear to be laughing about something.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are being rowed along in a traghetti along the canals of the city.  Parker is looking at the buildings in awe while Stark is looking at him lovingly.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are eating dinner at a restaurant along the canal.  Parker is taking a sip from his wine glass while Stark appears to be telling him a dramatic story.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are sitting across from each other in a cafe.  Both have a cup of coffee in front of them.  Stark appears to be speaking while Parker is giving him a look of fond exasperation.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking into the Teatro La Fenice to see a ballet.  They are both dressed nicely.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of a synagogue at the Ghetto Ebraico di Venezia.  Parker looks extremely emotional and Stark has an arm around his shoulder.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in one of the rows of the Colosseum, overlooking it.  Parker looks amazed and Stark is looking at him with a smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of the Pantheon, looking up at it.  They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are at the Trevi fountain.  Parker has his back to the fountain and his eyes closed as he throws a coin over his shoulder into the water.  Stark watches him with a smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are sitting on the ledge of the pool, both in swim trunks, with their feet dipping in.  Each has a glass of wine beside them.  Parker is leaning his head on Stark’s shoulder.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of the Arch of Constantine.  They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking through a vineyard.  They appear to be going to a wine tasting.  They are holding hands and Parker appears to be talking.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are sitting on a picnic blanket in a park with grapes, cheese, meat, and wine in front of them.  Parker has a homemade flower crown on his head that he appears to have made from the wild flowers around them. Parker is putting a homemade flower crown on Stark’s head and the latter is looking at him with a fond smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is leaning over the edge of the balcony connected to the villa’s master bedroom.  Parker is wearing only a too-big button down shirt and a pair of shorts.  He is holding a wine glass in his hand.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is leaning over the edge of the balcony connected to the villa’s master bedroom.  Parker is wearing only a too-big button down shirt and a pair of shorts.  He is holding a wine glass in his hand. Tony Stark is hugging him from behind.  Stark’s head is resting on Parker’s shoulder.  They are looking out over the vineyards.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is sitting in a chair by the pool with a journal and pen in hand.  Stark sits beside him, reading a book.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is standing alone on the balcony in the front of the villa.  He has a slightly sad smile on his face and he leans over the railing.  He appears to be looking up at the stars.  His mouth is open, like he’s saying something.]

+++

“But I’m gonna have to learn that this love will never be convenient.”

-The Front Bottom, Tattooed Tears

On the day that the two soulmates were meant to fly back home, Peter woke up to his phone buzzing incessantly on the nightstand.  Sluggishly, he pulled himself up a bit and grabbed it, looking through the notifications.  His Instagram suddenly was getting a ton of new comments and followers and people were tweeting at him, asking about being with Tony.  Panicked, he opened up Safari and typed in his name.  It came up with pictures of him and Tony throughout their trip in Italy and news articles about who he was.

Peter turned his phone off and set it back down on the bedside table.  He pulled himself out of Tony’s arms and got out of the bed.  He stood up, but just froze, staring out the window.  He didn’t even notice when tears began dripping down his face.

“Peter?” Tony asked groggily, blinking against the light shining in through the window.  The younger man turned around and faced him.  Once Tony saw the tears, he shot up and scrambled out of bed.  He gently took Peter’s hands and led him to sit down on the edge of the bed.

“They found out,” Peter told him, voice choking up.

“Found out about what?” Tony rubbed circles on the back of his soulmate’s hand.  Peter grabbed his phone off the table and pulled up Safari again, showing Tony the search results from earlier.  The man only stared at the news articles and pictures of them, disbelief and a bit of fear shining in his eyes.

“Someone must’ve leaked something to a tabloid cause they’ve been following us and I . . . I don’t know what to do.” Tears came down faster as Peter rambled on.

Tony let go of the younger man’s hand and wrapped him in an embrace, pulling him close to his chest.  “I promise, we’ll figure this out.  We’ll put together a press conference and, afterwards, we’ll destroy the life of whoever leaked it.  Everything will be fine.  I’ll be right there beside you the entire time.”

As Peter’s sobbing slowed, the two pulled away.  Tony kept his hands on Peter’s shoulders though, whether to ground himself or his soulmate, he wasn’t sure.

“I’m gonna call Michelle,” Peter declared, determination seeping into his tone, “and I’m gonna figure out if she pulled this shit or knows who did.”

Tony only gave a nod as Peter pulled up the old contact from when the two teens were still friends, intertwining his hand with Peter’s free one.

The phone barely finished ringing once when the girl picked up, Peter putting her on speaker.

“Peter, I know it looks bad, but I wasn’t the one who pulled this shit,” MJ told him before he could even get a word out.

“Why should I trust you?” Peter bit back, but his voice wavered a bit.

“You know me. You know I wouldn’t have done this. We may not be friends, but I wouldn’t hurt you like this, I wouldn’t ruin things like this. You know that.”

Peter let out a shaky sigh. “You wouldn’t have. I know that, but did you tell anybody?”

“I only told Sydney because she was demanding answers out of me, but I already talked to her this morning and she was freaking out about the whole thing, genuinely worried about you. I told her before decathlon practice so nobody was there that could’ve heard-”

MJ paused, her end of the line going silent.

“Holy shit, I think I know who leaked it!”

“Who?! Please, MJ, you gotta tell me.”

“Flash must’ve gotten there early or something! We both know everybody on the team and none of them would do this except for him!”

Peter paused, the realization that Flash had fucked up his life more than he already had with his bullying sinking in.

“Peter, I’m so sorry . . .”

“I know you didn’t mean for him to overhear it, MJ.  I don’t blame you.”

“Hey, Peter?” she asked.

“Yeah?” he responded cautiously.

“Fuck up his entire life for me, would ya?”

“What else would I do? Let him get away with this shit? He’s gonna regret this shit for the rest of his life.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Peter hung up the phone and turned to Tony. His eyes shone with determination as he thought of how much he was going to fuck up Flash’s life. “I have a good feeling about this.”

“Really?” Tony laughed. “Because I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Then I’ll just have to prove you wrong.”

+++

“Does that seem right? Wade through pain to know the chosen life?”

-Jack Stauber, Pizza Boy

The moment Peter and Tony got off their eight and a half hour flight from Rome to New York, they were being whisked off to a press conference.  When they reached backstage, Pepper threw them each a pair of clothes and ordered that they go freshen up in the bathroom so they don’t look like absolute shit at the conference.

When they got back to her, she was pacing back and forth rambling off orders to an assistant, who looked freaked out.  She stopped when the two soulmates showed back up, now looking like they were actually ready to face the press.

“Pepper, I’m so-” 

“Peter, don’t say sorry. This wasn’t your fault,” the CEO told him before turning to both of the soulmates. “I may be stressed about this whole thing, but I’m not mad at either of you.”

Peter gave her a small, sad smile that she returned.

Footsteps were heard behind the two soulmates, so they whipped around, coming face-to-face with Rhodey.  The man quickly extended a hand towards Peter.  The young man took it, the two shaking before separating.

“I’m Rhodey, though I’m hoping Tony already told you about me,” he introduced with a humorous tone, but everybody could tell he was trying to hide his nervousness. Peter gave a smile a nod at that. “I’m glad to finally meet you, Peter, but I wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”

“I wish it wasn’t either, but I think it’s gonna be okay.”

As the clock hit three pm, Pepper walked out on stage and to the podium.  Reporters began yelling questions, but she held up a hand to silence them.

“As you are all aware, some photos came out recently after an unknown person leaked Dr. Stark’s new relationship to the press. Before anything else is said, I would like to let you all know that this was highly inappropriate, not only leaking this relationship, but also taking pictures of someone’s private life. The reporter who did this had absolutely no right to do so and there will be repercussions.”

The room stayed silent as she paused.

“Unfortunately, what has happened cannot be undone, and so we must have this press conference much earlier than we were hoping to. Now, Dr. Stark and Mr. Parker will come out to answer questions.”

Pepper stepped away from the podium as Peter and Tony walked onstage, one of Peter’s hands intertwined with Tony's.  The younger of the two winced a little bit as the cameras began flashing and questions were yelled at them.  As they stepped up to the podium, Tony raised a hand, signaling everybody to be silent.  Luckily, it worked; the man had always been the kind of person who could control the room.

“You all know me, but, due to unfortunate circumstances beyond our control, today, I am introducing you all to Peter Parker, my soulmate.”

The room went up in a frenzy as he said the word “soulmate,” reporters taking pictures and more questions being yelled.  Tony held up a hand once more before motioning to Peter to speak.

“Hi. My name is Peter Parker, and I apologize because I’m new to this whole ‘press conference’ thing, and by new, I mean this is the first time I’ve even stepped foot into one,” the young man introduced sheepishly.  The crowd gave light laughs at what he’d said.

“We will now be taking questions,” Tony announced.  Hands went up and questions were yelled. The man searched through the crowd, eventually picking someone. “Yes, the reporter from CNN.”

“Mr. Parker, according to what’s been revealed through the press leak, you are eighteen, correct?” When Peter gave a nod, the woman continued. “So when and how did you and Dr. Stark meet?”

“It’s kind of a funny story actually,” Peter replied a bit sheepishly. “About three months ago, Tony was actually giving a lecture at my school about aerodynamics and, since it was only the senior class, we were all allowed to ask one question, so that’s how we found out.”

“Um . . . the reporter from the Washington Post,” Peter called out before the room could get too crazy.

“What do your soul sentences say?” the reporter asked.

“Mine says, ‘What’s your favorite planet?’” Tony answered, holding up his wrist.

“And mine says, ‘Jupiter.’” Peter held up his wrist too.  Cameras flashed as the reporters rushed to take pictures of them showing off their soul sentences. The soulmates met eyes and gave each other a smile before looking back out at the sea of people.

“Reporter from the Wall Street Journal.”

“Dr. Stark and Mr. Parker, why did you two decide to keep your relationship hidden once you two met?”

“We kinda wanted to keep it on the down low until I graduated high school,” Peter admitted shyly.

“We knew it would affect both of our lives once the public knew,” Tony continued, “and we wanted to wait until we were ready. As you can see, though, the choice to wait was taken from us.”

“Uh . . . the reporter from the LA Times,” Peter called.

“Mr. Parker, seeing as you are being introduced into the limelight, would you be willing to tell us some more about you?”

“Uh, sure, I suppose,” the young man answered, a bit surprised by the question. He’d never really been asked about himself, as most people weren’t very interested in what he did. “I’m sure you all already know, but I’m a senior at Midtown School of Science and Technology, so you can assume I’m a bit of a nerd.”

“‘A bit’,” Tony said with a snort.

“You don’t get to talk. You’re practically the king of nerds!” Peter shot back, causing his soulmate to fondly roll his eyes.

“Besides that,” he continued, getting back to the question, “I like to read poetry and draw. Also, I believe one of the photos was Tony and I in the Jewish ghetto of Venice. We were walking through because I insisted, seeing as I’m Jewish. Side note, I can’t believe that with all the Jewish guilt I grew up with, my soulmate still ended up being a goy. My ancestors must be so disappointed that I didn’t score a nice Jewish boy.”

The crowd laughed at that and Tony gave him a playful shove that the young man returned.

“The reporter from the Huffington Post!”

“Mr. Parker, it’s going around that you are going to MIT in the fall, and that is Dr. Stark’s alma mater, correct? Could you tell us about that?”

“I am going to MIT in the fall, that is correct,” Peter replied before Tony cut in.

“And before anybody says anything, Peter got accepted to MIT before we even met each other, so I had nothing to do with it.”

Peter nodded along before calling on another reporter.

“Mr. Parker, obviously you are being thrust into the spotlight very quickly. Do you feel able to stand it and everything that comes with it?” asked the reporter from the New York Post.

“It’s definitely going to take some getting used to, and I wish I had been able to do it on my own terms, but I think I’ll be able to get through it. Plus, I have Pepper to make sure I don’t say anything too embarrassing.”  Peter smiled at Pepper offstage.

“Reporter from the Daily Bugle,” Tony called out and Peter felt a sense of dread.

“Now, seeing as you, Mr. Parker, are 18 and you, Dr. Stark, are 49, there is a 31 year age gap between the two of you. Is nobody else worried about this? Mr. Parker, do you parents feel okay about this? Are they worried that you’re being taken advantage of?” The reporter looked smug.

Tony opened his mouth to respond, but Peter cut in before he could.

“First of all, obviously soulmate relationships don’t always seem conventional, they go beyond traditional. It’s not like we can argue against fate. Second, nobody else is worried about this because I am an adult who can think for myself and recognize when relationships are toxic. Third of all, if you took five minutes to look up the information about me that people found once my identity was leaked, you would know that my parents are dead and I was raised by my aunt and, by the way, she’s just fine with me being in a happy relationship.”

The room went silent, everybody taking a moment to absorb the answer that the young man had just given.  Before long, the conference got going again.

“The reporter in the very back. I apologize cause I can’t see what company you’re with, the man in the blue shirt.”

“I’m with Breitbart News,” he told them. “I was wondering, despite being soulmates, is this a more traditional relationship or more of a monetary exchange?”

“Are . . . are you asking if I’m a sugar baby?” Peter questioned incredulously.

“I was trying to say it in more formal terms, but, yes, that is basically what I was saying.”

“No hate to people who make money that way, but I’m not a sugar baby. This is a genuine relationship.”

“You should see how much I try to get him to let me spend money on him,” Tony cut in with a smile. “When I suggested we go to Italy for his spring break, it took hours of arguing to finally get him to agree to go. Even then, I think it was just because I wore him out.”

Peter rolled his eyes but gave a smile.

“One last question. We’ll take it from the NPR reporter towards the back.”

“Mr. Parker, do you have any plans for working at Stark Industries?”

Peter lightly smiled at that. “I was already working with Tony in the lab and I’ll continue to do that, but I think Pepper wants me to look around a little bit in the business side of the company, so I’ll probably end up shadowing her for a bit.”

“Thank you all for coming,” Tony called out before he and Peter walked off stage, both waving as they did so.

When they got off, they were greeted by Pepper, who had a big grin on her face, along with May, who had finally gotten to the tower in the middle of the conference.  She came up and gave her nephew a big hug, making sure he was okay.  After several reassurances that he was fine, May pulled back, satisfied.

“Do you think it went well?” Peter asked Pepper anxiously.

“I think it went better than expected.”

+++

“He’s never gonna make it. All the poor people he’s forsaken. Karma is always gonna chase him for his lies.”

-Alec Benjamin, Outrunning Karma

The moment that Peter arrived at school, he already knew it was going to be a bad day.  As he stared through the windshield at all the paparazzi surrounding the school, he let out a tired sigh.  Tony had tried to convince Peter to let him drive him to Midtown, but he had refused, thinking he was prepared to face his newfound stardom on his own.  As he sat in the driver's seat, gazing out at the sea of reporters and students while anxiety bubbled in his gut, Peter began to regret not taking Tony up on his offer.

Deciding he couldn’t delay it any longer, Peter turned off the car, grabbed his backpack from the passenger's seat, and opened the door.  He stepped out of the car, swinging the bag over his shoulder as he closed the door and locked the car Tony had lended him.  The slam of the door alerted people to his presence, and he was quickly crowded with paparazzi.  Gritting his teeth, Peter attempted to move through the horde, slowly getting through.  By the time he made it through the entrance of Midtown, he felt like he’d spent hours just trying to push through the reporters.

To nobody’s surprise, all the students in the lobby stared at Peter as he came into the building.  He tried his best to ignore their gawking as he walked through the halls to his locker.  As he turned down the first hallway from the lobby, two people came up on either side of him.  He looked to them, feeling anxious, but realized that it was only MJ and Sydney, standing by him as if they were guards.

“Are you doing okay?” Sydney asked him, genuine worry laced into her voice.

“As okay as I can be at the moment,” Peter replied, but gave her a smile that she returned.

“So . . . not very okay?” MJ questioned with a hint of sarcasm.  Peter let out a small laugh.

“Yeah, not very okay, but at least I’ve got my two friends to help me.”

Both MJ and Sydney stopped in their tracks, Peter stopping only a foot ahead of them as he quickly realized they fell behind.  He turned around, giving the two a questioning look.  They slowly came back to his sides and began to walk with the young man, both looking a bit tentative.

“Are we . . .” Sydney started but trailed off.

“Are we friends?” MJ asked him quietly.

“Yeah . . .” Peter replied quietly, “I think we’re friends.”  He turned and smiled at them and they returned it as they got back to their normal pace. 

As the three rounded the final corner, they all stopped, finding Flash and his little posse of rich assholes all standing in front of Peter’s locker, the leader of the group leaning right back against it with a smug smile on his face.

“Well, if it isn’t the sugar baby slut himself, Peter Parker!” Flash announced to the hallway, causing Peter to roll his eyes. “Oh, are you getting an attitude now?”

“Can I just get to my locker, Flash?” the boy asked, him, MJ, and Sydney walking forward until they were right in front of the clique.

“Damn, you're moody today, Parker. Has being spoiled by your sugar daddy made you whiny when you don’t get what you want?”  Flash’s gang laughed while MJ and Sydney looked like they were getting ready for a fight.  The student lining the halls whispered to each other as they watched.

“Listen, I’ve dealt with enough bullshit these past few days already, so can you just lay off for the first time in seven years? Get your head out of your ass and take a moment to look past your own ego. Isn’t bad enough that my relationship and my identity got leaked for the entire world to see and now I’m gonna be followed by paparazzi until I die?!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Parker! That must be so hard! I wonder who in the world could’ve leaked your identity?” Flash’s fake sympathetic face turned into a smug grin once more as he reached the end of his sentence.

Flash was expecting Peter to cry or scream or punch him.  He was waiting for the boy to storm off or get into a full blown fight with him.  Internally, he was hoping he would be lucky enough to see him have a full breakdown in the middle of the hallway.

What Flash wasn’t expecting was for Peter to start laughing.  A huge grin spread across the brunet’s face and he looked away for a second, running his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip and turning back to Flash, all while chuckling like a mad man.

“You're an absolute idiot. You do realize that, right?” Peter asked once he stopped laughing.  The smile was still on his face.

“What?” Flash shot back, brow creasing.

“I said that you, Eugene Thompson, are an absolute idiot.”

“What are you on about, Parker?”  Flash took a threatening step towards the boy.  To his surprise, though, the brunet didn’t look scared in the slightest.

“No, wait, I think he’s onto something,” MJ cut in with a somewhat sadistic grin.

“Yeah, I can see where you’re going with this, Peter,” Sydney added, appearing to be in on whatever the boy was talking about.

“Spit it out, Parker,” Flash threatened, towering over the other boy.

“You do realize my soulmate is Tony Stark, right?”

“Obviously,” Flash retorted, rolling his eyes. “The entire world knows now because somebody was so cruel as to give away your identity to a reporter!” He looked proud of himself.

“A reporter who trespassed onto private properties owned by Tony several times in order to get those pictures.”

“So what?”

Peter snorted, looking up at the boy in disbelief. “I can’t believe you aren’t catching on to what I’m implying.”

Flash’s brow creased even more.  A feeling of dread built in his stomach as Peter looked at him, eyes filled with pure, unadulterated glee, as if everything he ever wanted was about to come true.

“Can you even begin to imagine how mad my soulmate is about me not being able to come forward about my relationship with him on my own terms?” Peter questioned, voice laced with slightly sadistic happiness. “And can your tiny brain even process how much power he holds in the world? And do you have any idea of how much my soulmate genuinely cares about me? Maybe, since you are on the decathlon team, you’ll find a way to connect the dots.”

Flash paled, him and all of his posse taking a step back from the boy.

“Now, how do you think Tony felt when, on the day he met me, his soulmate, I was covered in bruises and scrapes and had a black eye because of you? And then how do you think he felt when I told him about how you’d been bullying me for seven years? And how about when I kept flinching cause I was terrified I was gonna get hit like I did every day in these very hallways? How livid do you think my soulmate is right now? I can promise that he’s ten times more angry than that.”

Flash was trembling, staring at the boy who could ruin his life with a single word.

“Peter, do you remember what you told me when I first found out about who your soulmate was?” MJ asked the brunet with an evil grin directed at Flash.

“Of course!” Peter turned to look at MJ. “I believe I said, ‘If anything is leaked to the press, I’ll know exactly who did it and me and my soulmate won’t hesitiate to destroy your entire fucking life,’ and later I told you that it wasn’t a threat, but a promise.” He turned back to flash. “And, lemme tell you something, Flash, I never go back on promises.”

The bully was shrinking in on himself, gazing wide eyed at Peter.

“I’m not gonna encourage Tony to do anything,” Peter told him with a kinder smile, and the boy began to gain back his confidence. “But I’m not gonna stop him either. Now, can I get to my locker?”

Flash quickly scurried out of Peter’s way and his gaggle of rich kids dispersed immediately, leaving him standing there beside the locker.  As Peter grabbed his things, he made conversation with MJ and Sydney, the three swapping stories from spring break. Halfway through MJ’s story about how she and Sydney got gal-pal’d at a cafe where they were having a date, Peter closed his locker door to see Flash still next to his locker.

“Why are you still here?”

“Your soulmate . . . he isn’t actually gonna hurt me, right?” the bully asked, voice wavering like Peter had never seen before.

“He isn’t going to hurt you, Flash,” Peter replied with a smile. “He’s gonna hurt your future and I’m not gonna stop him.”

Without another word, the three teens left, heading to their first class, as Flash just watched them go, wondering what would happen to him.

+++

“And for a moment I thought you were there, but, then again, it wasn’t true.”

-AURORA, Runaway

The day passed in a blur of stares and teachers being unusually nice to Peter.  Despite how nice it was to not have to deal with bullies, Peter felt worn out by the time he collapsed into his seat in physics, his last class of the day.  About a minute after he sat down, other people started flooding in.  Ned sat down at the desk next to him but awkwardly kept his gaze towards the front of the room.  When the bell rang, Mr. Harrington stood up from his desk and closed the door before standing in front of the chalkboard.

“Today we’re going to continue the renewable energy unit that we started before spring break. Keeping true to our syllabus, we’ve covered hydroelectric, biomass burning, solar energy, wind power, and geothermal. As I told you at the beginning of the fall semester, in an attempt to keep up with modern science, they added on an extra energy source to look at.  After that, we’ll be finished with this unit.”

Most of the class let out a sigh of relief.  Physics units tended to drag on and everybody was glad to be moving onto something new.

“So for the next couple of days,” the man said, taking a glance down at the clipboard he was holding, “we’ll be talking about Stark Industries’ arc reactor technology as a renewable energy source.” He stopped and looked up at the class, and at one student in particular.

Peter was looking forwards at the board, decidedly ignoring all the eyes on him.  The room was silent for a few moments as everybody just stared at the boy sitting in the back corner of the room.

“If you wanna say something, then go ahead and say it,” Peter dared, finally looking away from the board.  The class looked slightly apprehensive and he figured that news about his little confrontation with Flash must’ve gotten around.

“Well . . .” Mr. Harrington started uneasily, “I suppose we just, uh, you know . . . had something to say about it since . . . since you’re . . .”

“Since I’m what?” the brunet replied with a challenging glint in his eye.

“Since you’re . . . well . . . uh . . . well, I don’t wanna make you uncom-”

“No, I wouldn’t be, so why don’t you go ahead and tell me what I am,” Peter tested with a dangerous smile, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

The tension in the classroom was thick enough to cut with a knife.

“I thought you'd like to say something about the arc reactor technology since you are, um, Tony Stark’s, you know, uh, soulmate and all,” Mr. Harrington quickly rambled, his voice lowered a bit as if hoping Peter wouldn’t hear it.

Everybody stayed quiet as Peter uncrossed his arms and leaned forward a bit, putting an elbow on his desk and resting his chin in his hand as if bored.  “Well, it’s a fusion reactor that can produce an electromagnetic field, provide renewable energy, the whole nine yards. It has a palladium core and a new element was synthesized to stop the reaction within Tony’s body due the palladium that was poisoning him, et cetera. Can we get back to normal class please?”

Slowly, everybody turned back to the front of the room, where Mr. Harrington was frozen.  Seeing the eyes on him, he jumped back to reality and started the lesson.

Towards the end of the class, Ned worked up the courage to rip a bit of paper off of the page he’d been writing in and pass a note to Peter.  He watched out of the corner of his eye as the boy opened it, looked at it with raised eyebrows for a moment, scribbled something down, and then carelessly threw it back to him.  Ned picked it up and saw what was inside.

Under his original note, which read ‘so what happened at the beginning of class was crazy, right?’ was Peter’s simple response of, ‘I guess.’

Ned just let out a sigh and crumbled up the note, shoving it into his backpack and giving up for the time being.

When the bell rang, Peter rushed out of class and Ned ran after him.  By the time he got outside of the classroom and caught sight of his old friend, though, the boy was walking with MJ and Sydney, the three of them laughing over something.

‘When did they become friends?’

+++

“As I watched you walk away, I felt something in me change.”

-Sorority Noise, Blonde Hair, Black Lungs

Ned spent the rest of the week trying to talk to Peter in physics, the only class he had with the boy, and watching him, MJ, and Sydney hanging out during lunch or in the halls together.  All of the students stayed out of the way of the three friends, more terrified of Peter than MJ, despite how much scarier her demeanor was.

Despite all of his friends and his soulmate, Ned was realizing that he missed Peter a lot.  He yearned for their days of going to the library during lunch to hide from Flash and having Star Wars marathons with the boy.  He couldn’t believe that he’d let go of his best friend so easily after their years together.

“No, no, really!” Peter’s voice cut through Ned’s thoughts. The table Peter sat at with MJ and Sydney was actually pretty close to his own and he couldn’t help but let his eyes drift over.

The two girls were laughing, but he was laughing with them.

“I swear!” the brunet got out through his laughs. “He walked in and went, ‘Do you know who Jimmy Fallon is?’ and I was so confused because who the fuck doesn’t know who Jimmy Fallon is?!”

Peter and Ned used to video call and watch Jimmy Fallon together on school nights, talking about how they hoped to get invited onto the show one day and why they would be invited.

“And then what did he say?” Sydney prompted.

“He just goes, ‘I was hoping you did because Pep scheduled you to go on his show on Friday’ and I just immediately walked out on him!”

Ned watched MJ open her mouth to say something, but a hand waved in front of his face, breaking him out of his trance.  He turned and saw Jacob, his soulmate, looking at him in concern.

“You okay?” he asked, brows furrowed.

“Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind.”

In the background, he heard MJ say, “That’s honestly insane! I would love to be on Jimmy Fallon!” and Peter responded, “Tony said I’m allowed to bring people backstage, so you two should come with me tonight!”

In the foreground, he heard his mind wishing it was him that Peter was inviting.

+++

“Shooting stars never fly for me. My heart’s on Mars, kinda hard to see.”

-Shakka, When Will I See You Again

That night found Ned on the couch with his mom, Emilia, The Tonight Show playing on the TV.  He had been home alone for a little over a week since his dad was (and still was at that moment) on a business trip and his mom was out volunteering with the Red Cross to bring water to a small village in Lebanon, meaning that she’d been completely disconnected from the news cycle.  Before long, the interview portion of the show came up, and Ned felt dread building up in his stomach.

“With us tonight, we’ve got a young man from Queens who was recently thrown into the spotlight, and I have the honor of being the first talk show host to interview him. You probably already figured it out, but Peter Parker is here with us tonight!”

“No fucking way,” Emilia breathed as she watched her son’s friend walk out on stage, shake hands with Jimmy Fallon, and sit down on the chair closest to the desk. She turned to her son with confusion written across her face. “Ned, why the fuck would Peter be on The Tonight Show?”

Ned opened his mouth to answer but Peter talking on screen stopped him. “Thank you so much for having me!”

“Of course!” Jimmy responded with a smile. “I’m glad I get to be the first person to interview you after the press conference! Speaking of which, you did great in that!”

Ned and his mom just watched the show, frozen.

“Thank you!” Peter replied with a laugh. “I was a bit worried that Pepper would be mad at me after I low key popped off at that Breitbart reporter . . . and when I just suddenly started talking about being Jewish and proceeded to call Tony a goy on stage.”

The audience laughed while Peter gave a sheepish smile.

“But, in terms of scoring a non-Jewish soulmate, Tony Stark is pretty high up there!”

“Holy fuck,” Emilia whispered, eyes glued to the screen.

“I guess, but have you seen Thor’s abs?” Peter joked. “I mean, I would gladly become a pagan if it ensured that he was my soulmate.”

The audience laughed once more, Jimmy joining in.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Tony and I love each other a lot.”

Awww’s sounded in the crowd while Peter gave a shy grin.

“Ned, what the actual fuck?” Emilia exclaimed, turning to her son, who gave a shrug before they both turned back to the TV, unable to stop watching.

“What’s it like being soulmates with Tony Stark? Is he as suave and smooth as people remember from his playboy years?” Jimmy questioned, leaning forward with his arms on his desk as if the young man was about to tell him some hot gossip.

“Absolutely not,” Peter replied plainly, making everybody chuckle. “He’s sweet, he’s supportive, he’s an absolutely incredible soulmate, but he’s also a huge dumbass.”

“Wait, you can’t just leave us hanging! You gotta tell us what he does!”

“Tony just forgets that he’s a human sometimes. Like, he somehow just doesn’t remember that he needs to eat and sleep. One of his little robots, Dum-E, likes to make him smoothies, but he puts motor oil in them, and usually Tony knows better than to drink them, but when he’s tired, he doesn’t even think twice.”

“Holy shit!” Jimmy choked out through his laughter. 

“Not to mention that he is nothing like the playboy persona he’s portrayed as. Affection and gift-giving are one-hundred percent his love languages. Everybody’s like ‘Tony Stark is a cool playboy who only cares about sex and being rich,’ but half the time we’re together is just us holding hands and hugging and cuddling.”

“This is absolutely incredible,” Jimmy says. “You got your identity leaked, got right off a flight from Italy, went to a press conference, told off a reporter, and then five days later literally destroyed the entire persona Tony Stark had built up. You’re amazing.”

“Somebody’s gotta tell the world that Tony loves setting up romantic dates and watching shitty rom-coms and if nobody else is going to, then it is my moral responsibility.”

“Absolutely incredible,” the host repeated, looking out at the audience and motioning to the young man before going back to his original position of looking at him. “So, what’s up for you next? What’re your plans?”

“Well, I’m graduating high school in a little less than a month and I’m going to MIT in the fall, which I’m super excited about! As for the summer, Tony is almost certainly gonna try and take me traveling, and as much as I tell him that it’s okay and he doesn’t need to do that for me, he won’t stop trying. He’s stubborn as all hell.”

“That's so nice though!”

“It’s really sweet, but it takes time to get used to having a soulmate who’s rich. Like, I live in a two-bedroom apartment in Queens with my aunt and now, suddenly, I have a soulmate who can just hang out in Paris for a weekend like it’s nothing. It’s like whiplash!”

“That’s absolutely insane.”

“I know, right? But it’s also really nice to have access to good scientific equipment so I can work on projects that I’m really hoping can help people!”

Jimmy nodded along, motioning for Peter to continue.

“Well, I’m working on making these bandages that are modeled after Spider-Man’s webs that would be biodegradable and also more effective than regular bandages because they could go on any size cut and wouldn’t fall off as easily. Plus they could be used in an emergency to stop someone from bleeding out from a stab or gunshot wound! Besides that, we're working with the Trevor Project to set up a shelter in Queens for homeless LGBTQ youth.”

“You seem really committed to these projects,” Jimmy told him sincerely, causing the young man to smile.

“I mean,” Peter replied quietly, “if you have the power to do something and you don’t, then how are you better than the bad guys? Now that I have the ability to help people across the world, I’m not going to stand on the sidelines and watch them suffer anyways. So I’m really glad that Tony and I are working on some great projects and that we’re going to help a lot of people.”

“Peter Parker, everybody!” Jimmy exclaimed, motioning to the young man, who blushed as the audience cheered for him.  Standing up and shaking the host’s hand once more, Peter waved as he walked back off stage, the applause following him as he went.

“Coming up, we have our guest performance from-”

Emilia turned off the TV and let the room fall into silence.  Ned looked over at her as she just stared at the black screen.  Slowly, she turned and met his eyes.

“So . . . Peter is Tony Stark’s soulmate?” Emilia asked her son distantly.

“Nobody knew until a bunch of photos of them on vacation in Italy were leaked,” Ned explained.

“He didn’t tell you? I thought you two told each other everything?!” Emilia’s tone echoed with confusion and concern.

“We haven’t really talked in a year in a half,” the boy admitted. “We kinda stopped being friends after I met Jacob, and then he didn’t really hang with anybody after MJ met Sydney.”

“You just left him all alone?”

Despite Ned knowing what he’d done in the back of his mind, the weight of it didn’t occur to him until that moment.  He was the reason Peter never had any protection from bullies. He was the reason Peter was always covered in bruises. He was the reason Peter stopped caring about everything and everyone around him.

If you have the power to do something and you don’t, then how are you better than the bad guys?

“Yeah . . . I guess I did.”

“You should talk to him,” Emilia told him quietly.  Then, she stood up and walked off to her bedroom without another word, leaving Ned in the dimly lit room with only his thoughts to keep him company.

+++

“But I’m a constant headache, a tooth out of line.”

-Joyce Manor, Constant Headache

Flash Thompson was flipping through channels as he sat on his family’s living room couch, trying to drown out the silence of the empty house.  Both of his parents were on business trips, so he was all alone.  With his homework done and him being unable to fall asleep, the boy found himself down stairs with a tub of ice cream he pulled out of the freezer.

Flash hit the button to switch channels again and found that he’d made it to HBO.  Seeing as it was a little past eleven thirty, Last Week Tonight was on the air and the host was finishing up his main story.  With nothing better to do, the high schooler put down the remote and watched.

“Now, I know we often finish with our main story, but we wanted to talk about an event we haven’t had a chance to cover yet, since we weren’t on the air last Sunday. I’m sure you’ve all heard about it, since you haven’t been living under rocks, but we wanted to talk about Peter Parker.” “You have to be fucking kidding me,” Flash groaned, rolling his eyes as a picture of his peer showed up next to the host.

“I know he’s been the talk of the week, but if you haven’t heard of Peter Parker, he is Tony Stark’s soulmate and the two of them were keeping their relationship private. However, somebody found out about their relationship and told a reporter about it. That reporter then followed them around their vacation in Italy, took pictures of them, and then posted them online, therefore leaking Peter’s identity and pushing him into the limelight.”

A couple of people in the audience booed.

“He’s actually handled it surprisingly well, though. He and Tony Stark did a press conference where they gave reporters a chance to ask questions and then, just on Friday, Peter went on The Tonight Show and talked about what his life is like and what he’s been up to.”

Flash looked at the TV deadpan as he remembered the interview.

“Very excitingly, I am being given the chance to talk to Peter Parker tonight, so everybody give him a warm welcome!”

The audience went crazy as John Oliver stood up and walked over to the area beside the space where his desk is.  There was a table with two chairs set up on opposite sides.  Peter Parker walked onstage and waved shyly as he made his way to his seat.  The two men shook hands before sitting down.  Flash booed at his TV from where he sat on his couch.

“Thank you so much for being on the show!”

“Thank you for having me!” Peter had a bright smile on his face. “I’ve been a fan of your show for a long time!”

“I’m glad to hear that, but that begs the question𑁋” John leaned in a bit, as if he were about to tell a secret. “𑁋has Tony Stark watched my show?”

The crowd laughed.

“He actually has! I made him watch it one night and he’s been watching it every week since!”

“Yes! We made it!” the host shouted, raising a fist up in victory as the crowd cheered and Peter laughed.

Flash rolled his eyes again and began to half tune-out the interview as he just stared blankly at the wall about his TV.  His mind was in a different place, thoughts running through his head at lightning speed.

‘Why does Parker get a rich and famous soulmate?’

‘He doesn’t deserve all of this!’

‘Why does everybody like him now?’

Flash tuned back into the interview at some point, catching the words that his classmate said.

“Yeah, I was bullied a lot, but it kinda stopped once I was outed as Tony’s soulmate. I think people are a little afraid of me now, but before that, it was really awful. It was extremely physical to the point where-”

Flash turned off the TV.

+++

“I wanna be someone to someone, someone to you.”

-BANNERS, Someone To You

Ned spent that school week attempting to build up the courage to talk to Peter.  He finally did that Friday, seeing Peter head to the library for lunch and promising to meet up with MJ and Sydney later.

“Hey, Jacob, I think I’m gonna go to the library for lunch,” Ned told his soulmate and bolted to after Peter, not giving the boy a chance to respond.

Ned slipped into the doors right after his ex-friend, watching as he disappeared behind some bookshelves and subtly following.  He kept a good distance as he pursued Peter and peeked through some books to make sure the boy was sitting down at the little study area in the back before making his way in.

The moment Ned stepped into the study area, Peter looked up at him, his face turning into a slight scowl.

“What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you,” Ned told him, practically begging.

“We’re talking right now,” Peter shot back sarcastically.

“Seriously.”

The brunet sighed and shut his laptop, which he had opened to work on his assignment.  Ned couldn’t help but to stop and notice that the laptop looked custom, looking nothing like the Stark Computers that were on the market.  It wasn’t lost on him that it was probably a piece of tech that Tony Stark had made for the boy.  He pushed away the thought that it was likely something the two soulmates had made together.

Ned took the sigh to mean that Peter was giving in and letting him talk, so he sat down in the chair across from him, twiddling his thumbs nervously in his lap.  It was silent for a few moments as they both waited for the other to say something.

“If you wanna say something, then go ahead and say it,” Peter told him, repeating what he’d said the week before in physics.

“I miss being friends with you,” Ned murmured, looking up and making shy eye contact with the boy, who did not seem fazed.  In fact, he only raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Are you fucking with me?” Peter asked him.  When Ned remained silent, Peter gave a small chuckle.  “You aren’t fucking with me. You really came to talk to me and say you miss being friends with me only after a year and a half and finding out who my soulmate is. You’re absolutely unbelievable.”

“Why can’t we be friends again? You’re friends with MJ!”

“Because MJ didn’t just try to be friends again. We slowly started hanging out and she didn’t give a shit who my soulmate was. She just hung around because she had nobody to sit with. We were like acquaintances who became friends.”

“I don’t care who your soulmate is! I just miss you!” Ned defended.

“Too little, too late.” Peter shoved his laptop into his bag, stood up, and left, not giving his ex-friend another chance to speak.

Ned just let him go.

+++

“I think my head is fit to burst. Which breakdown shall I deal with first?”

-dodie, I Won’t Be Done

Flash, much like Ned, had been watching Peter for the entire week, however, it was for a different reason.  That reason being that he was absolutely and utterly pissed at the boy.  Sure, he was already mad that Peter had leverage on him now, but having seen the boy on several talk shows and being happy with his friends throughout the week made him livid.  In the back of his mind, he knew that what he was about to do could cost him his future, but all he saw was red.

That’s why, on the way to last period, Flash and his little gang of rich kids cornered Peter.  The boy was walking to physics alone, as neither Sydney nor MJ were in the class with him, and they approached him from all sides, forming a semi-circle around him and forcing him back against the lockers.

“What the fuck do you guys want?” Peter spat, voice conveying his lack of patience.

“What we want is for you to tell your soulmate to back off and not ruin my future,” Flash told him with venom, the rest of his posse voicing their agreement.

“Why should I?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Peter crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.  The certainty that the group couldn’t do anything to him was written across his face.  Despite his better judgment and the threat of his life being ruined, Flash took a step forward, raised a fist, and punched the boy.

Hard.

Peter stumbled back and hit his head against the lockers, incapacitating him for a moment.  A couple of the bully’s “friends” took advantage of that and grabbed the boy’s arms, pinning him up against the cold metal.  Flash took a threatening step towards him and gave a smug grin, watching as Peter’s nose started bleeding.

“Not so confident now, huh, Parker?” Flash wound up his fist again and punched the pinned boy in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.  One of his goons took the chance to kick Peter in the leg, hard enough that there was sure to be a bruise by the end of the day.  A flurry of hits and kicks rained down upon the brunet, him wincing with every single one.  Peter was counting down the minutes until the tardy bell rang.

Mere seconds from the sound of the bell, a stern voice called out, “Thompson, Parker, principal’s office!  The rest of you, vice principal’s office!”

As the gang let go, Peter stumbled a bit, struggling to get back on his feet.  The pain throbbed across his body as the beaten up boy trailed behind the clique.  Someone came up beside him and he turned his gaze to them, only to see Ned staring straight ahead.

“Did you . . . Were you the one who alerted Mr. Warren?”

Ned moved his gaze to the boy slowly before giving a small nod.

“Thank you,” Peter told him softly, sincerity shining through his voice.

The group split up as they reached the faculty offices, Flash’s gang turning the corner to go sit in front of the vice principal’s office while Ned, Peter, and Flash sat in the chairs outside the principal’s office.  They all stayed silent, not daring to utter a word.  After a few minutes, Mr. Morita stepped out of his office and the three boys looked up at him.

“Mr. Parker and Mr. Thompson, I’ve alerted your emergency contacts.  Mr. Leeds, there was no need to contact anyone as you were not involved in the incident, but please stay here so I can hear your story of the incident.”  The man walked back into his office and the hallway went silent again.

After only a few more minutes, a man rushed into the faculty offices and immediately made a beeline to the three boys.  As he stopped in front of them, it dawned upon Peter and Ned that it was Flash’s father.

“What the hell happened?” the man said gruffly, looking over the teens.  When he caught sight of Peter, his eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure out where he knew the boy from.  Before anybody could answer his question, Morita walked out of his office again.

“Mr. Thompson, thank you for showing up on such short notice. We’ll get started in a few minutes once Mr. Parker’s emergency contact show-”

“Am I late?” a voice asked, cutting off the principal.

All of the people already there turned to look at the entrance of the faculty offices, coming face-to-face with Tony Stark.  The new arrival made his way over coolly while the five already there stayed quiet.  Peter stood up as his soulmate joined the group.  Tony gave the boy a once over and his relaxed smile turned into a frown.  He took his soulmate’s face in his hands and took in all the bruises and the dried blood from his nose before letting go and turning to the starstruck principal.

“After a fight, aren’t students supposed to be sent to the nurse first before the principal’s office or have things changed since I was in school?” Tony questioned impassively, but it was obvious that the question was rhetorical.

“Uh, right! I’ll, uh, grab some ice for Mr. Parker’s nose! I’ll be right back!” Morita rushed out of the faculty offices and towards the nurse’s office.

While Ned, Flash, and Mr. Thompson stayed frozen, staring at the billionaire, Tony and Peter turned to each other.

“I didn’t know you were listed as an emergency contact for me,” Peter told him with a raised eyebrow, a question hidden behind the statement.

“Soulmates are allowed to be listed as emergency contacts as long as they’re over eighteen,” Tony answered the unspoken question and slipped one of his hands into Peter’s.

“I didn’t really pay attention when I had that class on soulmates in sophomore year,” the younger man admitted.

“Neither did I.”

Peter gave a small laugh, a little bit of light flooding into his eyes.

“You’re . . . you’re Tony Stark,” Mr. Thompson uttered, eyes wide as he stared at the billionaire superhero.

The two soulmates turned to acknowledge the other people in the room.  Ned looked a bit starstruck, but seemed the least shocked of the three, Mr. Thompson appeared to be shaken up, and Flash was pale, with his eyes wide and features conveying his horror.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Tony said with a sickly sweet voice, putting his hand forward.

The man took it, his hand shaking. “I, uh, I don’t believe we have. I’m Eric Thompson.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Everybody could tell that Tony was, in fact, not pleased to meet the man.

“I’m a big fan of your work,” the nervous man told him as he drew his hand back.

Tony only gave a short nod of acknowledgement, not caring to make small talk with the bumbling fool.  Luckily, he was saved from the conversation by Morita reappearing, out of breath and clutching a bag of ice in one hand.  He walked over and handed it to Peter, who gently put it up against his injured nose.

“Let’s all go into my office,” the principal said, opening the door and holding it for all of them.  As soon as they all sat down in chairs in front of the desk, Morita went around to his side and practically collapsed into his chair.  Peter and Flash sat on opposite ends of the five seats set up, each having their respective contact sitting beside them.  Ned was stuck in between the two groups, feeling anxious despite having done nothing.  They all sat in silence for a few moments while the principal fumbled around for something to say.

“Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you in today.”

“I’m assuming it has something to do with Peter being covered in bruises,” the billionaire cut in.

“Tony,” Peter warned, looking to his soulmate.  The man put his hands up in defeat.

“There was a fight in the hallway and I wanted to head everybody’s side of the story,” Morita continued as if the interaction hadn’t happened.  “Ned, as you were the one who told a teacher, can I hear your side of the story first?”

Ned gave a nod before starting. “I was walking to physics and I was rushing because I was going to be late, but when I turned onto the 300 hallway, I saw Flash and some of his friends beating up Peter while a couple of them held his arms to pin him against the lockers. I turned into the first classroom, which was Mr. Warren’s, and I alerted him of what was happening.”

“Thank you, Ned. Mr. Thompson, may I hear your side of the story?”

Flash, unsurprisingly, jumped into a false narrative. “I was walking to pre-calculus with my friends when Peter came up and tried to punch me. I tried to get him off, but he just kept trying to attack me, so I had to hit him back to make him stumble away and then my friends helped restrain him!”

“Are you sure about your story? It does not align with Mr. Leeds’ report and what Mr. Warren told me when he emailed me about the incident only a few minutes ago.”

“Are you calling my son a liar?!” Eric Thompson butted in, not giving his son a chance to respond. “I’ll have you know Flash here is a good kid who wouldn’t do anything like this! I cannot believe that he is being accused like this!”

“Mr. Thompson!” Morita spoke over the man. “No accusations have been made yet! I am simply telling your son that his story does not line up with the other ones. I am not calling him a liar.”

That seemed to calm the father down because he stayed quiet after that.

“Mr. Parker, could you please tell your side of the story?” the principal asked.  Peter took a deep breath and Tony grabbed his hand, squeezing it encouragingly.

“Well . . . I was walking to physics when Flash and his friends cornered me against the lockers in the 300 hall. I asked them what they wanted and Flash said that he was mad over the face that Tony was angry at him because he’s been bullying me for seven years. When I told them that it wasn’t my problem, Flash punched me in the nose and I stumbled back, hitting my head against the lockers. Two of his friends pinned me against the lockers and I started getting beat up. That’s when Mr. Warren broke it up.”

“He’s lying!” Flash shouted as soon as Peter finished telling his side of the story.  Tony glared at the bully, but Peter squeezed his hand and gave him a warning look.

“Seeing that Mr. Parker’s testimony lines up with Mr. Leeds and Mr. Warren’s testimonies, along with the security footage that the counselor sent me, I believe that you are lying about what happened, Mr. Thompson.”

Flash went pale again, looking over at where Tony and Peter were sitting.  The former had a smug grin on his face while the latter had a neutral expression, but happiness shone in his eyes.

“Mr. Parker, Mr. Leeds, and Mr. Stark, you are all free to go.”

The three men stood up and exited the office.  As soon as they were out, Tony turned to Peter, questioning if he was okay.  Ned watched his old friend spout off reassurances that he was fine and that his soulmate didn’t need to be worried.  Eventually, the man seemed satisfied and turned away from Peter.

The two soulmates looked at Ned for a moment while he stared right back.

“Thank you, Ned,” Peter murmured kindly, “for telling Mr. Warren, I mean.” Tony nodded along to the sentiment.

The two walked out and Ned waited a few moments before heading out the same way, not wanting to seem like he was following them.  As he walked to physics to catch the last few minutes of class, he wondered if he had made progress with Peter.

+++

“And I’ve been in this place before. Fine as we are, but we want more.”

-Lauren Aquilina, Fools

It seemed that Ned had made progress with Peter, because, the next Monday, MJ invited him and Jacob to sit with her at lunch.

“You’re biting your lip,” Jacob informed Ned as they stood near the doors of the cafeteria together.

“Oh.” He forced himself to stop.

“It’ll be okay,” the short boy’s soulmate reassured him, taking his hand. “I’m sure of it.”

Ned gave a curt nod and the two approached the table, sitting down across from where Peter, MJ, and Sydney were sitting.  The latter two gave the boys a smile while the brunet gave them a two-fingered salute, his face remaining neutral.

“Nice to see you two losers,” MJ greeted in her usual fashion.

“We were just talking about our weekends,” Sydney chimed in, trying to include them in the conversation.

“Cool. What did you guys do?” Jacob replied, saving Ned from where he was floundering for words.

“I mostly worked on a painting,” MJ told him simply.

“I visited my grandparents.”

“Nice! Ned and I spent the weekend hanging out.”

“What about you, Peter?” Ned asked, finally speaking.

Peter looked up from where he was picking at his nails, taking a moment to realize that everybody at the table was looking at him, waiting for an answer.

“Oh, uh, I spent most of the weekend with my soulmate.”

The table fell back into easy conversation, everybody satisfied with Peter’s answer.  It took a little bit, but Peter joined in by the end of lunch.

As the bell rang and all the teens got up from their table and began to head back to classes, Peter shot Ned a small smile before exiting the cafeteria.

In some strange sort of way, things were heading back to normal.

+++

“It’s a simple suggestion of a moment worthy to keep.”

-Wilderado, Millie

The Friday afternoon the day before graduation found Peter leading his little friend group through the lobby of Stark Tower, weaving his way around the crowds.  Nobody gave them a second glance, everybody knowing exactly who Peter was.  He even shot the desk lady a quick hello as they passed.  When they finally made it into the private elevator, all of his friends looked a little shaken up from the business of the ground floor, but Peter was unbothered.

“That was insane,” Ned announced, leaning back against the side of the elevator.

“Is it always that busy?” Sydney asked, looking a little out of breath.

“Only on weekdays,” Peter answered nonchalantly. “Not too many people are here on weekends.”

Soon enough, the elevator doors opened to reveal the penthouse living room and kitchen, which were connected to each other.  Peter, of course, walked out and dropped his bag by the couch before making his way over to the kitchen.  His friends walked out more slowly, taking in their surroundings before putting their stuff next to Peter’s.  Even MJ, who rarely showed emotions, looked a bit in awe.

The place had a modern design, very Tony Stark chic, but, despite that, it looked lived in.  There was a fuzzy blanket draped over the couch and what the group recognized to be one of Peter’s sweatshirts was hung over the back of a kitchen chair.  There were framed pictures on the wall and a bit of clutter on the kitchen island.  In a way, it was cozy.

The two pairs of soulmates watched as Peter opened up the fridge and pulled out a can of root beer before turning to them.

“You guys want anything? You can take whatever you want.”

“Are . . . are we allowed to?” Ned questioned, looking a bit anxious.

“I mean, I just gave you permission.” Peter had already moved to the pantry and grabbed a party size bag of chips before getting a big bowl out of the cabinet and pouring them in.

Sydney watched him with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, but, like, this kitchen belongs to-”

“Me?” a voice cut in. The four teens in the living room whipped around and found Tony Stark standing at the entrance to one of the hallways that led off from the living room.  They stared in awe at him as he walked past them and into the kitchen.

“Hey, Tones,” Peter greeted as Tony approached him.  Once in range, the two shared a short kiss before separating.

“What are you all up to? You never mentioned you were bringing people over.”

Before Peter could even answer, Jacob cut in, worry laced into his voice. “You didn’t ask if we could come over?”

“Nope,” Peter responded plainly, popping the ‘p’ and laying his head on Tony’s shoulder as the man put an arm around his waist.  Jacob furrowed his eyebrows while the other three teens gave each other slightly bewildered looks.  However, they didn’t get any more answers.

“We’re decorating our graduation caps,” Peter told Tony, pulling away from his hold and grabbing his soda along with the bowl of chips.  The older man followed him as he walked back over to his friends and set the items down on the coffee table. “Also, don’t you have a meeting in, like, five minutes?”

“Shit,” Tony muttered, checking his watch. “I should probably get going, but we’re still on for getting takeout and watching movies tonight, right?”

“Of course!” The two soulmates shared another quick kiss before Tony made his way over to the elevator, the doors already opening for him.

“Say hi to Pepper for me!” Peter called.

“You got it!” Tony called back right before the doors closed.

Peter turned to his friends, who looked back at him in shock.

“Let’s start decorating!”

+++

“But God I want to feel again. Oh God I want to feel again.”

-Sleeping At Last, Touch

“Going through high school was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever faced. I felt alone for a lot of it. I faced a lot, from bullies to rumors to nearly failing classes. And, yet, here I am, standing in front of all of you today, giving this speech. Despite everything, all of us made it through. We made it to graduation and we’ll make it so much farther. And I am so glad to have made it here, to be graduating with the class of 20XX. We did it.” Peter finished his valedictorian speech with his voice strong, looking out over the crowd of teary eyed parents and proud relatives and caring friends from other high schools.  Everybody cheered, some seniors throwing their caps into the air.

He couldn’t believe that he had made it.

Peter made his way out into the lobby, weaving through the people, trying to find the people there for him.  Eventually, he spotted his aunt talking with Ned’s parents and made his way over.  Once he did, he also found MJ, Jacob, and Sydney’s parents, all talking with them.  His friends were standing beside them, all chatting excitedly.  Finally, there was Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and, of course, Tony.

He made it.  He actually made it.

+++

“I did it all. I owned every second that this world could give. I saw so many places. The things that I did. Yeah, with every broken bone, I swear I lived.”

-OneRepublic, I Lived

Five Months Later - November

Peter awoke to a banging on his door.  He groaned, burying his head into his pillow.

“Come on, Peter! We’ve got class in forty-five minutes!” Ned’s voice floated through the wood.

After a moment more, the brunet got out of his warm bed and stumbled to the door, opening it up and seeing his friend, who was already dressed.  Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the room across from his had its door open, which meant that MJ and Sydney were both already up.

“Go get dressed,” Ned ordered. “Jacob made breakfast.”

Peter gave a nod and closed the door, drawing himself out of his sluggish state to get dressed and ready to go for the day.  When he got out of his room a few minutes later and walked into the kitchen, he saw his friends all sitting down for breakfast.  He joined them at his seat, happy to eat the pancakes that his friend’s soulmate had made.  There was light conversation as they all discussed classes and their plans for the day.  Peter and Sydney were talking about their engineering class when MJ asked the group if anything was going on for the day besides classes.

“Tony’s coming in today,” Peter told them and everybody looked at him, the table going silent. “You guys are really never gonna get used to this, huh?”

“Bro, your soulmate is Tony fucking Stark. How could we get used to that?” Jacob questioned him.

“Maybe because you guys live in his penthouse with me?” Peter suggested with a raised eyebrow. “Anyways, if you guys are free tonight, we could all go out to dinner together!”

Everybody voiced their agreement.  After a few more minutes, Peter and Ned got up from the table to head out to their first class of the day, which was earlier than everybody else’s.  They threw on their winter coats and gave everybody a goodbye before leaving, talking the whole way to the classroom and ignoring the looks that Peter got everywhere he went.  He had gotten used to people recognizing him.

That afternoon, when Peter and MJ walked back to the penthouse, having their last class on Fridays together, they didn’t talk much.  They simply stayed side by side and took comfort in each other’s company.

When they got to their place on the top floor of the building, Tony was sitting at the kitchen table, doing some work on his StarkPad.

“Tones!” Peter exclaimed, a large smile on his face.  Tony got up from his seat and the two soulmates gave each other a warm embrace, sharing a kiss.

MJ gave a small grin at the loving looks on the two men’s faces before walking to her and Sydney’s shared room to put her stuff down.  When she got there, she found her soulmate sitting on the bed with Ned and Jacob sitting on the little couch in the corner, all three of them talking.  The four only hung out for a few minutes before Peter popped in to tell them that they should get ready because Tony made reservations for all of them at a nice restaurant.

That night, the three pairs of soulmates sat around a table at a nice restaurant, telling stories and laughing, as if they’d known each other for forever.

It was as Peter laid in bed, held by his soulmate and looking at his alarm clock, that he realized how much everything had changed.  He was happy, warm, content.  It was everything he had ever wanted, and it was right there.

Soulmates were a strange thing, connecting two people together for eternity, yet not being able to tell if a person’s soulmate would die before they had the chance to meet or giving someone no soulmate at all.  There were theories about how it worked, from quantum entanglement to straight-up magic, but nobody was really sure in the end.  Most didn’t care about the science anyway. 

They cared about falling in love.

And Peter Parker and Tony Stark had fallen in love.

Tag List For All Fics (lmk if you want to be added):

@darkerstarker @dim-ships-johnlock @ashleybeattie

Tag List For Jupiter:

@haylove5  @honeybunstarker @bizzlepotter @freezing-blue @deni-gonzalez @chaniegaroo @darkerstarker @prism-opals @twokinkybeans @ilikestarker @smallnjh @starkerthanreality @bookworm1015 @starkershomelife @antis-fuck-off @itsdisapointmentasmrworld

#tony stark/peter parker #starker fluff #starker #starker fanfiction #ironspider #jupiter #soulmate AU #starker soulmate au #this took me way too long #im sorry it sucks #but i hope you like this! #pls like this #axiwrites

[yehet-me-up]

Surrender

PAIRING: Kihyun x reader

RATING: M for language/sexy times

GENRE: Enemies to lovers, smut

WORD COUNT: 4,695

SUMMARY: How do you choose dignity over desire when ever inch of your body is screaming for release?

Monsta X Kinks series part seven: Blindfold 🙈

He is not your boyfriend. Not anymore.

He should be no one to you. He should absolutely not matter.

But despite all of these obvious and logical facts, you can't stop paying attention to him.

From the bar he watches you dance like you're his personal entertainment for the evening. He takes a swallow of what looks to be a gin and tonic and grimaces at the taste. With heavy-lidded eyes he licks the alcohol off his bottom lip and stares at your ass in a way that really should piss you off.

Unfortunately for your sanity, and for your long-standing hatred of him, it's only succeeding in turning you on. Bastard.

Not that you have one these days; a boyfriend, that is. Even if you did, it wouldn't be Yoo fucking Kihyun. The only problem is, he doesn’t seem to have gotten the message.

Your partner in crime for the evening, Kellee, notices immediately, snapping dramatically in your face. 'No.’

You raise your brows innocently. ‘What?’

‘I see who you’re looking at. Just ignore him,' Kellee says over the music. 'He's an ass.'

She tugs on your arm and you reluctantly take your eyes away from his annoyingly angular jaw and perfectly styled hair. She purses her lips at you and folds her arms with a mixture of amusement and annoyance as she dances in her mid-thigh, long-sleeve, black sequinned dress.

‘We’re here to celebrate, remember? Not take a walk down awful memory avenue.’

Right. New Year's Eve. Party at Cherry Blossom. How does he still make me lose track of space and time after all these years?

'I know,' you say, sighing loudly.

Kellee points a finger at you and laughs at the hesitation in your voice. 'Excuse me. We hate him, right?'

'He looks good though.' The cut of his crisp black dress shirt, the expensive Rolex on his wrist, the way his lips twist into a possessive smirk as he meets your eyes. You turn back to Kellee and feel your cheeks heat in embarrassment.

'Shit, he saw me.' You raise your eyes to the ceiling for divine intervention. Of all the nightclubs in all the boroughs in all of New York...

Kellee holds both of your wrists in her hands and forces you to focus on her through the haze of Vodka crans in your blood and the bass so heavy it vibrates along your skin. 'He ditched you the night of senior prom to hook up with Brandi Walters!'

Memories of him in high school flood your mind. The way the air felt like it was sucked out of your lungs when he smiled at you, blushing and asking you out. The tentative press of his mouth against yours for the first time. The enormous and cheesy and perfect poster he made to ask you to be his girlfriend, that’s probably still gathering dust in your closet.

But then...the look on Kellee’s face when she tried to hide the video from you. Brandi’s hands all over Kihyun, when he was supposed to be on his way over to pick you up for prom. Her mouth on his neck. Even college and two more years in between you can still feel how heartbroken you were that night.

You shake your head, disgusted at yourself. 'Jesus Christ, you're right. Who cares about him, anyways? There's plenty of other guys here.'

'Exactly,' Kellee exclaims, smacking you on the butt. 'We've been working so hard on this case I haven't been laid in months, I'm dying.'

While she shakes her ass to a remix of your favorite Majid Jordan song, you scan the room. The guy with the spray tan and the tacky barbed wire bicep tat sitting on the couches? Nah. The hipster with the wire frame glasses and the trying-too-hard plaid shirt? Ugh. Just when you’re about to give up, you see him.

A man with ridiculously hot facial hair and a mischievous look in his eyes leans against the bar on the opposite side from Kihyun. His shirt is a rather disastrous shade of red, but who cares? Something about seeing Kihyun tonight makes your hands sweat. Every brush of your thighs against each other sends a shock of need to your core. You’re not looking for a husband tonight. Anyone but Kihyun will do just fine.

‘Fuck it,’ you say, the sound drowned out by the bass.

On a more civilized night such as oh, literally any other day of the year, you'd be more inclined to flirt and give someone your number. Go on some dates. Let things unfold naturally, easily.

But whatever chaotic and thirsty energy settles upon the city on New Year's Eve each year pushes you to find something more... immediate to relieve your tension. Kellee is right, it's been ages. And you need something more than your trusty vibrator tonight.

You get Kellee’s attention and motion subtly to the guy in the red shirt. She squeals excitedly and waves you on. With a laugh you make your way through the crowd up to the bar. You eye Kihyun surreptitiously as you walk, wishing you didn't know how well he could undo you with just his hands and his mouth.

Prom was supposed to be it, the night you finally slept together after a few months of dating. The night you finally went to home base, or whatever that fucking analogy worked out to be. But then he screwed it up and you never found out if he knew how to use the rest of the, ahem, tools at his arsenal. Pity.

Tonight, you want a face buried in your neck. You want teeth against your skin and hands on your hips, insistent and rough enough to leave a faint purple outline of fingerprints in the morning. Tonight you want to be fucked so hard that the stress of the last few months of law school fall away like a snakeskin. Tonight you want to come so many times your legs shake and you leave scratch marks down someone's back.

Tonight you want to be 'raw and exposed,' a favorite expression of you and Kellee’s. Normally it’s a joke, but tonight you mean it literally. And you want it with anyone but Yoo Kihyun.

Red shirt's eyes follow your legs as you climb the short stairs up to the bar. The satin of your red dress teases the skin of your thighs, clinging to you in the warmth of the bar. The short sleeves and the skirt are loose and flowing but neither red shirt nor Kihyun can ignore the way the neckline cuts low and hugs tight to your ample chest.

He smiles as you pass, expecting you to come to him. But tonight you're a lion dressed as a lamb, a huntress pretending to be prey. Come and get it, you think. You return his friendly grin as you move behind him.

Red shirt catches on quickly. ‘Hey, can I buy you a drink?’

Unfortunately, you agree to the drink before you learn three things that would make you not sleep with him under any circumstance.

First, his cologne is downright awful. Thirteen year old boys swiping samples of Axe body spray from magazines smell better. Second, he proudly and happily tells you he’s drinking O’Douls… because he likes the taste. Third, the only thing he’s interested in talking about tonight is the Lakers/Clippers game on tonight.

After ten minutes you desperately look for Kellee on the floor, hoping she’ll come save you. But she’s happily grinding with a Chad Michael Murray circa 2007 lookalike and you wish her well. You roll your eyes as politely and as covertly as you can when red shirt mentions Lebron’s ‘sick lay-up’ for about the twentieth time and unfortunately you meet Kihyun’s focus.

He grins at you while he talks with the woman behind the bar, raising a brow in question. You can almost hear him asking if you need to be rescued. Infuriated, you turn back to red shirt, ignoring him… almost. Out of the corner of your eye you watch as he runs a finger along the rim of his glass before drawing it into his mouth. Another swipe of his tongue along the plump bottom lip and you can see it gleam from clear across the bar.

You want to whine in frustration and need. Sure, you could excuse yourself. Tell red shirt you need to meet your friend. But, when it comes to Yoo Kihyun, you did always like playing with fire.

With an exaggerated sigh you subtly nod to him. Triumph and heat flare in his eyes as he makes his way over to you. Rolling up his sleeves, he exposes taut forearms and you distantly remember the way they felt pressed against the tender skin of your waist.

Kihyun slides next to you, his arm effortlessly coming around your waist. His hand finds your hip comfortably and rests high enough to be respectful. He bends and presses a kiss to the exposed skin of your shoulder, lips lingering, sending a jolt of awareness down your spine. The scent of his rich cologne wraps around you and you almost sigh with relief.

Red shirt, who you now know is named John, blinks in surprise. 'Who's this?'

Kihyun suppresses a laugh and says against your ear, 'sorry I'm late darling, I can't believe I kept the most beautiful woman in the world waiting.' He holds out his hand to John. 'Thanks for keeping her company for me. I'm Kihyun.'

Guy looks perplexed, but to his credit he shrugs it off fast. 'John. Have a great night, Y/N.'

The moment John turns back to his group of friends Kihyun leans against the bar, smug smile on his infuriatingly handsome face.

You snort and try to walk past him, rolling your eyes. ‘Thanks.’

His arm comes out to block your path. ‘Going so soon, darling?’

‘Ugh, you’re disgusting,’ you say, folding your arms. ‘Did you know that?’

He motions to the bartender and instantly two Vodka crans appear. Kihyun hands you one with a playful smile. ‘I did know that, in fact.’ He takes a large sip of his. ‘But despite that, you did still let me help you.’

You hold the drink as though it’s a grenade, liable to go off at any second. ‘I was desperate. If I had to listen to another three seconds of audio commentary of a goddamn basketball game I was going to run out of here screaming. Don’t flatter yourself.’

He eyes you from the tips of your heels to the top of your hair. ‘I’d so much rather you flatter me.’

A feeling almost like anger, but with far too much arousal fills your veins and you almost snarl at him. ‘What makes you think I’d want anything to do with you?’

Kihyun raises his hands in surrender and stands, facing you. He clinks his glass to yours and downs the rest of the liquid in one swallow. ‘I know you don’t want anything to do with me anymore. You made that very clear at Senior prom.’

Your mouth drops open. ‘Wow. Bold of you to bring that up, after what you did.’

‘What I did?’ His brows furrow. ‘After you ditched me, you mean? I have to say the hostile and condescending tone is what I expected given how you ignored me after that night. But I hoped you’d grown out of it.’

‘After I ditched you?’ You step closer, narrowing your eyes at him. ‘I saw the video of you and Brandi. Why would I wait around like a fool after that?’

He grits his teeth. ‘Is that what you think happened? Brandi was my friend Jay’s date and she was so drunk from the pre-gaming that she couldn’t even walk on her own. I was helping to get her into my car so we could take her to the clinic. Is that what you saw?’

‘I-’ you start. ‘Even if I believe you, which I don’t, how do I know you’re telling the truth?’

Kihyun runs a frustrated hand through his hair. ‘You could ask the nurse at the clinic. Or the dozens of people at prom who saw me show up just after ten, wondering why my girlfriend hasn’t answered any of my dozen texts or calls.’

You worry your lip between your teeth. ‘Kellee took my phone. She didn’t want me to get hurt any worse.’

He sighs and laughs to himself. ‘Well, that would explain quite a lot.’

Suddenly, you want to reach for him. To force him to look into your eyes and tell you the past six years were just a dream. ‘So you really didn’t cheat on me?’

The warmth and surprise in his brown eyes almost undoes you. ‘No, I didn’t. And I guess you didn’t ditch me either.’ You shake your head. ‘Huh.’

You pick up the drink and take a big sip. ‘Huh, indeed.’

Kihyun does the same, a smile playing on his lips. The alcohol and the music and the sweat running down your spine from the heat of the room and the goddamn way Kihyun is watching you over the rim of his glass - it’s all going to your head and you reach a hand for his arm to ground yourself.

‘Come home with me.’ He steps closer, hands finding your waist. ‘I believe we have some unfinished business.’

You make a noise of disbelief. ‘You don’t know anything about me, Kihyun. Not anymore.’

His lips find the spot where your neck meets your shoulder. ‘I want to know everything.’

His hands draw slowly down your side, moving around your lower back. ‘I want to hear all about your job or school, however you fill your days. I want to know where you’re living now, and about your friends, and if you have any adorable pets.’

He eases your back against the bar, pressing himself into all of your curves. ‘I want to know how you like your coffee in the morning.’

Kihyun pulls back, breathless, his eyes turning black in the low lighting. ‘But right now, more than anything, I want to know how it feels to be inside you.’ You gasp and he traces his lips along the shell of your ear. ‘And what it feels like when you come around me.’

You nod, groaning as he pulls your ear lobe between his teeth. All you can manage is a needy, ‘please.’

He grins, pulling you through the dance floor. ‘You tell your friend you’re leaving, I’ll get the car.’

Before you can say anything he pauses on the stairs and kisses you fully on the mouth. In your surprise you can only hold onto his shoulders to try and steady yourself. It’s only a preview of what’s to come but already the hot slide of his lips against yours, the insistent tugging his teeth do as they nip your full lower lip, makes you feel desperate to have him inside you.

He pulls back and laughs. At least he has the decency to look just as flustered as you feel. ‘Sorry, I - it’s been so long. I missed that.’

You shake your head at him as he heads off to a side door. ‘Wait! Don’t we need to pay?’

Kihyun winks. ‘I own the bar!’ he calls above the music before disappearing out into the night.

Amused, you tilt your head back and laugh. Of course he does. 

Excitement thrums in your veins as you find Kellee and give her the shortest possible version of the story. She watches you carefully and makes you promise to text at least twice tonight so she knows your safe. After many reassurances and a dash to coat check, you emerge out the front. Fear tells you he’s left you again and this is all just a stupid prank.

But no. He rolls down the window of his Porche and tilts his head. ‘Get in.’

The seats are plush and match your dress coincidentally. He turns on the radio, more from a desire to distract from the obvious erection he's sporting than for any particular urge to listen to jazz. 

For the first minute of the drive you focus on slowing your breathing, savoring the unexpected catharsis that being with him tonight is bringing you. An old wound in your chest undone, emotion bleeds out onto your skin in a healing wave. It surrounds you like steam in a sauna, the way you want him feels palpable on your lips and hands and at the meeting of your thighs.

Once you accept this new reality you look at him, wondering how far to push him. If this Kihyun is as romantic and sweet as the one you knew in high school, or if this new version has a bit of bite. He holds his jaw tight, the muscles in his neck working to concentrate on the road. Unable to resist you slowly reach your hand across the gearshift and rest it on his thigh.

He meets your gaze for a beat and something shimmers within - a heat and need that match your own. As the sultry music plays you lean across the seat and rest your chin on his shoulder. Slowly, so slowly he groans, you drag your hand up towards his obvious need. With featherlight touches you kiss his neck above his collar.

When you reach his hard cock, settling over the length covered by the fabric of his pants, you bite down on his earlobe. The car jerks to a stop and you look out the windshield, terrified you've somehow made him crash with your tentative efforts at seduction. Thankfully, it appears you've arrived at his house. The townhome is modern, two-stories, and instantly you wonder what the bedroom is like.

'We should get inside,' he says darkly. 'If I touch you here, we won't leave until I'm inside you.'

With a laugh, you nod. 'That's probably a good idea.'

For a long moment you stare at each other. Taking in the flush in his cheeks, the way the heat of his skin kept some of the red of your lipstick as a souvenir. No doubt he can read the arousal in your blood. The way the strap of your dress is sliding off your shoulder, begging to be removed.

He looks like he's about to risk it and kiss you, but at the last moment he grunts and opens his car door. A beat later and he opens yours, holding his hand out to you. Once, this was so natural. Being with him, trusting him, your palms and lips and hearts never far from each other. As he guides you inside you wonder about the distance from that time to now. If this is just one good fuck between exes or if he expects there to be more; if you do.

In his exuberance he accidentally slams the door open, the sound too hard against the wall behind it. He seems frustrated by the sheer distance and pulls you into his arms before shutting the door with one hand and leaning you against it. Breathless, you cling to his shoulders, wondering if he means to swallow you whole, unmaking you as the tide does to the sand.

He notices your hesitation and brings a hand to cup your face. 'Hey, what is it?' His breath ghosts across your cheek at his whispered soft words.

'It's stupid, but -'

'Tell me,' he asks and smiles softly.

'It's been so long, Kihyun. I'm just nervous it won't be like we're hoping. I don't even know what you want. Do you just want tonight or-'

He closes this distance and presses a chaste kiss to your lips. 'I want you tonight. I want you for a long time. It's always been you, you know. I've tried to date other people but... I just want you.'

'Really?'

His hands pull at your waist, moulding your body closer against his. 'Yes, really. I can't guarantee the first time will be perfect,' he says, his lips ghosting along yours. 'I want it to be. I want you to laugh and smile and sigh and moan just as I dreamed you would. I want to hold you after and fall asleep with your heart beating against mine and your leg wrapped around my waist.'

You giggle and kiss him back. He's been many things in the time you've known him, but he's never been a liar. 'Okay.'

Kihyun grins against your lips and bends, lifting you into his arms. Your dress slides up, exposing you to his eager hands. 'Just okay?'

You squeal and hold onto his shoulders to stay upright. 'Better than okay.'

'Good,' he answers. ‘If at any point you want me to stop, just say the word.’

He does his best to walk upstairs with you in his arms and his mouth on your neck. His erection strains against your thigh, making him groan. You absolutely make it worse by tugging on his hair and moaning at his tongue on the sensitive nerves where your shoulder meets your neck. 

With his hands full he manages to find the bed, tripping and dropping you onto the plush comforter. He falls after you, laughing, landing in a tangle of arms and limbs.

Righting himself he grins, running a hand through his hair. 'Stay right there, I have something I think might help.'

You kick off your heels and use your elbows to move you further onto the bed, watching with curiosity as he impatiently strips off his jacket and shirt. 'Hey, no fair. I wanted to do that,' you pout.

He gives you a dangerous smirk before he starts digging in his closet. Triumphant, he pulls out a black tie. ‘Would this help?’

Your jaw drops open. 'You want to tie me up? Blindfold me? So you want me to trust you by not letting me move or see anything?' You raise a brow at him.

Kihyun laughs and removes his shoes and socks. He climbs onto the bed, scooting so his back rests against the headboard, his legs spread out in front of him. His chest moves as he breathes, as though he's been running. 'No. I want you to use it on me.'

Something warm and bright flashes in your chest. 'Oh!'

His eyes go wide. 'You don't have to! I mean... I just thought-'

Desire makes you clench your thighs together. Excitement and curiosity make you crawl across the bed to him. 'No, I want to. It's perfect,' you smile, straddling him.

He smiles and sets it beside him on the bed. 'I have one thing I want to see first.' His hands toy with the edges of your dress. 

When you nod he lifts the fabric over your head. Before it hits the ground the heat of his palms warms your hips. He strokes over the sensitive skin of your side and you moan, dropping your forehead to his shoulder.

Kihyun eases your bra off you so gently you sigh. 'God, you're so beautiful. I missed this.' He kisses along your shoulder and down your arm, holding up your hand so he can kiss your palm. 'I missed you.'

'I missed you too.' You stay like that for a minute before the hard feel of him pressing against your core demands attention. 'Now please make love to me before I lose my mind.'

He thows his head back and laughs. In quick succession he undoes the zipper of his pants and slides them off, holding you up with his hips and a hand around your waist. 'Your wish is my command.' He gives you a wink before grabbing the tie and securing it around his head.

His chest rises and falls as he breathes, waiting to see what you’ll do, hands obediently resting on your thighs. You wave a hand in front of his face. He doesn’t move. With a grin you run a finger down his chest and he shivers. You back up and take off your underwear, throwing it to the floor. He whines and his hands reach for you, already demanding to touch you again.

When you straddle him again, he sucks in a sharp inhale of breath. He peeks out from under the tie with one finger. ‘I’m in your control tonight,' he says warmly. 'You set the pace.' 

Quickly, he fumbles in his nightstand and retrieves a condom, handing it to you as though it were a precious package. 'I trust you.’

You purse your lips at him, trying not to laugh, and he settles the blindfold back over his eyes. Despite how wet you are, and how desperate you are to sit yourself on his cock, you resolve not to take him inside you until he begs for it. You ease the fabric over his erection and take him in your hand. 

After tearing the wrapper you roll the condom down his length. Slowly, you begin to stroke him. He grunts and his fingers dig into the flesh of your now naked hips.

With your free hand you slide two fingers across your slit, gathering the moisture there. You add your second hand to the motion of the first, coating him in your wetness and easing your stroke. Kihyun bites his lip, pressing his head back against the headboard. The veins stand out against his throat and you dip your head and run your tongue along one.

‘Fuck, I’m going to come before I even get inside you,’ he groans, high, whining. Good enough.

Thighs pressing against his, holding his wooden headboard with one hand, you guide him to your entrance. Your arousal eases the way as you slide down and in seconds he's filled you to the hilt. 

Years ago, when you took him with your mouth and your hands, when his tongue and his agile fingers brought you to your first orgasm, you thought about what it would be like to feel him inside you. None of those fantasies prepared you for the taste of his mouth on yours or the way your bodies line up perfectly as he stretches you just enough to burn around his girth.

You can't swallow the moan that leaves you as he rocks his hips into yours and everything gets so much better. 'Hey, you're not supposed to be helping.'

He pulls you onto him more fully and it feels so good you squeeze your eyes together. 'Was that a rule?'

Kihyun repeats the motion, angling you so every thrust brings delicious friction to your clit. With a shuddering breath you clutch at his headboard for balance. 'I'll allow it,' you moan, holding the back of his neck as you match his motion with your own.

His thumbs dig into your sensitive skin hard enough to leave marks in the morning, his fingers grasping the flesh of your ass. You’re beyond caring about anything but this moment. His face is buried in your hair, his raspy, animalistic groans coming from him make you squeeze around him.

'Fuck,' he groans, doubling his pace and making you feel like you're about to explode from the heat and slide of him inside you.

'Come with me,' is all you can get out amongst the stream of gasps and sighs you can't contain.

He nods, his teeth playing with the tendons in your neck just sharp enough to send shockwaves of sharp pleasure to your already sensitive core. One of his hands leaves your waist and you feel his thumb swirl circles around your clit. Your orgasm bursts forth like a river freed from a dam and you cling to him and he rides out your release as well as his own.

When your breathing returns to normal you lift your arms, thick with pleasure and the best kind of exhaustion, and remove the blindfold. He looks as relaxed as you feel and he brushes your hair behind your ears. 

'And the verdict is?'

‘I can’t believe we could have been doing that for the past few years, fuck,' you laugh.

He strokes his thumb across your lip. ‘I hope we can do that uhhh, quite often in the future. After you tell me all about your life right now.’

‘Deal,’ you say, pulling his face back to yours to kiss him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tagging @yixingminseokjongdae​ I hope you’re well love!! <3

#kihyun x reader #kihyun fanfic #kihyun smut #kihyun AU #monsta x smut #monsta x x reader #monsta x fanfic #monsta x AU #yoo kihyun

[bellakitse]

Have you considered any Tarlos Au's yet? What if Owen took the job in Texas when TK was 18 so he went to college there and met Carlos and Iris. He and Carlos are BFFs who pine over each other for years, and when TK returns from visiting his mom in NY with a tongue ring, Carlos' life gets a lot harder (pun intended). Best friends to lovers ftw

Flashes of Silver

Carlos is fine with silently pining away for his best friend TK until the boy comes back to campus with a new accessory that makes Carlos’ brain melt with desire. 

nonnie, you should know that this request made me scream with delight, thank you for the idea!!

@shippingsailors

“Are you even listening to me right now, Reyes?”

Carlos Reyes looks up from his phone across the small table wherehe sits with Iris Blake, to find her giving him an unamused look as she muncheson her chips.

“You ask me to have lunch with you here in the courtyard, just soyou can ignore me and stare at you’re phone?” she questions, making him winceat her tone. “I could be in the library; I have papers due.”

“We all have papers due, chica,” he shoots back, even though he’sseconds away from being in the doghouse with his friend, he’s never been ableto keep from poking the bear. His family has always said that for such amellow, quiet kid, he’s always had a reckless streak. “Besides you needed toeat, and not in the library, you know Mrs. Powellhates that.”

Iris rolls her eyes at him, but there is a hint of a smile on herface. “Goodie-goodie, no wonder that old bat loves you so much.”

Carlos gives her an unconcerned shrug. It’s true, the university’slibrarian, a grumpy sixty-eight-year-old woman with grey-blue hair, loves him.“She just wants you to respect her books and the sacred space they are held in,is that so hard?”

Iris gives him another roll of her eyes, scoffing at his words asshe bites into her turkey club. “What’s TK saying?” she asks through a mouthfull, pointing at his phone.

“He’s got a surprise, said he’s joining us in a few – “ Carlostrails off, he looks up to see a smug smirk on her face, and Carlos goes redrealizing that he never actually said that he was texting with their friend TKStrand, Iris just figured it out. “How did you –“

Iris snorts loudly, drawing the attention of a few people aroundthem. “Your face, of course,” she starts, pointing a delicate finger in hisface as she waves it around in a circle. “You had ‘TK’ face; it’s verydistinctive. All soft and lovesick, kind of like when someone shows you a puppy,and all you want to do is snuggle it close and love it forever. TK is the puppyin this analogy.”

Carlos’ face is so hot; he’s sure he’s going to catch flame. “Shutup.”

Iris lets out a laugh at his words; her delight is unmistakable.“Great comeback, Reyes,” she says, still chuckling, though her expressionsoftens when he says nothing. She sighs as her laughter trails off. “Carlos,when exactly are you going to do something about the massive crush you have onour friend?”

Carlos feels his pulse spike at her question, his mouth going dry.“I don’t have a crush on TK.”

Iris raises an eyebrow at him; she looks both unimpressed andsympathetic all at once. “No, you’re right, it’s not a crush. It was a crush senioryear when he moved to Texas and flashed those pretty green eyes at you. Afterthree years of secretly pining, never dating for long, moping when he startsseeing someone and being overjoyed when it only lasts a month, I think we cancall it what it is, so…. When are you going to do something about being in lovewith your best friend?”

Carlos opens and closes his mouth, not sure what he wants to say,when they hear their names being called out. Looking across the yard, they seeTK waving at them with a wide smile on his face as he quickly walks towardsthem.

Carlos looks back at Iris panicked. “Please, don’t say anything,”he begs, feeling his hands sweat.

“I would never,” Iris says quickly, just as TK gets to theirtable. She flashes a smile up at the new arrival. “Hey, TK! How was New Yorkand your mom?”

“Crowded, dirty, and fun,” TK laughs as he leans down to hug her.“Mom was in top mom form,” he continues turning his smile towards Carlos.

Carlos gets up to hug him too, letting out an oomph when TKall but slams into him as he hugs him.

“I missed you too, needy,” he chuckles softly when TK doesn’t letgo of him right away. He catches the raised eyebrow Iris gives him and feelshimself blushing again, but he doesn’t loosen his hold on TK until the boy letshim go first.

“I just really missed that handsome Texan face of yours,” TKteases as he steps out of his hug, taking the empty chair at the table.

Carlos tells himself not to react to the comment. TK doesn’t meananything by it; he’s never meant anything by it. TK likes to flirt andtease; he’s a happy-go-lucky guy who knows he’s beautiful and likes to jokearound with everyone, especially his best friend. It means nothing.

“So,” Carlos clears his throat, hoping the smile on his face isrelaxed, and not an awkward mess the way he always feels when TK is around.“You said in your text you had a surprise?”

TK grins at him, his green eyes sparkling with mischief, and withoutsaying a word, he sticks his tongue out.

“Holy shit!” Iris exclaims in amazement, leaning forward to get abetter look. “That’s hot, TK!”

“Thanks,” TK smirks pleased, before looking over at Carlos. “Whatdo you think? Do you like it?”

Carlos hears the question, but he can’t answer. How can he whenhis brain is currently melting, and will at any second, ooze out of his ears.TK Strand has a tongue ring, a silver little round stud that was made with thesole purpose of ruining Carlos’ life.

“I – I, yeah, looks good,” Carlos croaks out.

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Iris biting down on herlip, probably to keep from laughing at how pathetic he is.  Looking over at TK, he feels a pang of guiltas he sees the previously bright smile on his face has dimmed, and he looks atCarlos with an unsure expression. He wants to say something, anything to bringthat smile he loves so much back, but he feels tongue-tied and silly. Hisstupid feelings feel right on the surface, ready for everyone to see, and hejust wants to hide.

“I should go,” he says, standing up, ignoring the sound of protestTK and Iris let out. “Gotta study,” he gets out, gathering his things haphazardly.

“Carlos,” TK says his name quietly, looking up at him with a smallconfused frown, his eyes a little cloudy.

Carlos flashes him what he hopes is a smile and not a grimace. Heplaces his hand on TK’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I’ll see youlater, okay?”

TK looks at him a moment longer before giving him a nod, though hedoesn’t lose his frown. “Okay.”

With one last awkward wave, he turns on his heel and hightails itout of there, away from the boy he’s stupidly in love with, and his damn tonguering.

֎֍֎

He hides out in the library like a coward. He gives Mrs. Powell awave, getting one back, and even gets half of a smile, which is the most anyonecan usually get from the older woman, before heading for the back to his usualtable.

The thing is he knows that hiding won’t help for long, not when itcomes to TK Strand. Where Carlos likes to be cautious, TK is bold. He stillremembers the boy when he first arrived in Austin, their senior year of highschool. It didn’t take long for it to get out around school that TK was gay,and it took even less time for people to try to mess with him for it. The boyhad a slimmer frame back then, dressed in tight skinny jeans, and had softpretty features. The guys they went to school with thought he was an easytarget, and TK quickly proved that line of thinking was incorrect. He wouldfight back like a hellcat, giving zero fucks about bloody knuckles as long ashis bullies were bleeding worse.

People learned not to mess with the boy quickly after that, andCarlos has been smitten ever since. Becoming his friend had given him thecourage to come out himself. After that, though at the time TK was almost ahead shorter than him, the boy had turned into Carlos’ own personal guard dog,glaring at anyone who even dared look at him wrong for being gay.

Between his sisters, the Blake girls and TK, Carlos never had toworry about anyone saying a single bad thing about his sexuality. No, TK neverbacks down from a fight, so really it’s no surprise when half an hour afterhe’s arrived at the library, nose deep into his forensic science textbook. Thechair across from him scrapes loudly against the wooden floor as it’s pulledout, and TK sits.

Carlos looks up at him, rolling his eyes as TK makes as much noiseas he can, taking out one of his books. “This is why Mrs. Powell hates you somuch; you’re so damn loud.”

“She hates me because she loves you, and she thinks I’m going tocorrupt you with my deviant ways,” TK flashes him a broad smile, and with it, Carlosgets a peek at a hint of silver.

Jesus fuck, that tongue ring is going to be the end ofhim.

“What she doesn’t get is that I have been trying to corrupt yousince the second I saw you, to no avail,” TK shakes his head sadly. “No matterhow much I try, no dice.”

Carlos rolls his eyes again at TK’s dramatics. “You act like I’msome saint, and you’re the devil here to lead me astray, calm down thetheatrics, Tyler,” he says, smirking when TK pouts at him at the use of hisname. It amuses Carlos to no end the way TK always reacts to it but yet nevertells Carlos to stop the way he does with others. Carlos tries not to give itmore importance than he does, it’s not a big deal that he’s one of the very fewpeople who knows and is allowed to call TK by his full name. It’s nothing.

They study quietly for a while, or well, TK studies,absently playing with the ring in his mouth while Carlos stares, his hand itchingto reach out for TK every time he sees the flashes of silver.

“Are you going to ask or just keep staring,” TK murmurs, his focusstill on his textbook even as Carlos spots the hint of a grin on his face.

Carlos clears his throat, feeling himself go pink at being caught,he’s had years of practice staring at TK, you would think he’d be better at it.

“Why?”

TK looks up from his book, he closes it and puts it to the sidebefore leaning in, elbows on the table as he smiles at Carlos, obviouslypleased that he caved. “Because I felt like it, and thought it would look good.”

Carlos nods; he can’t argue with the fact that it looks reallygood on TK, but then again, everything does. “Did it hurt?”

TK tilts his head to the side, thinking about it before wrinklinghis face. “Not as much as I thought it would. Afterward, it just felt weirdhaving something in my mouth.”

“Thought you’d be used to that,” Carlos mutters, smirking when TKlets out a dramatic gasp before he laughs, his green eyes dancing with amusement.

“I am curious about that,” TK comments, a mischievous glintentering his eyes. “I haven’t even kissed anyone since I got it, they say you’resupposed to wait three weeks at least.”

Carlos swallows hard as he does the math, TK’s been away for amonth. “When did you get it?”

TK looks at him as he leans back on his chair, a slow lazy smileon his face as he looks at Carlos knowingly. “The first week I got to NYC,” hesays softly, his eyes hooded as he stares at Carlos before he lets the littlesilver stud peek out again.

Carlos takes a sharp breath, his pulse spiking as he stares backat TK and reads the clear invitation on his best friend’s face. He’s not surewhat his face is saying to TK, probably all his love and the naked lust he’sfelt for him since he was seventeen, but whatever it is, it makes TK smile backat him bright and happy, his eyes dancing.

“Finally,” he breathes, never losing his smile. “I wasbeginning to think I was going to have to hire a skywriter.”

“You –,” Carlos licks his suddenly dry lips, feeling his stomachclench when TK’s eyes drop to his mouth, and he licks his own as he watchesCarlos.

“Since I met you,” TK admits softly, his face going gentle as helooks into Carlos’ eyes. “For such a smart guy, you’re so slow, baby.”

Carlos looks at him with wide eyes; he obviously has to bedreaming. His best friend in the whole world, the guy he’s been crazy about foryears now, can’t be telling him that he feels the same. There is no way he’s thatlucky.

TK’s expression softens even further, reminding him that TK canread him pretty easily. “I have to find a book,” TK starts, pointing towardsthe back of the library where no one ever really goes. Carlos watches him as hecomes around the table, holding his breath when TK runs his hand over the backof his neck, his fingers sending shivers down Carlos’ spine. “Maybe you canhelp me,” he says softly as he walks away, never once looking back to see ifCarlos is coming.

Taking a calming breath, it takes Carlos less than thirty secondsto make up his mind and stand from the table, following TK to the back. He’sfinally been given a chance to have the one thing he’s wanted forever. There’sno way he’s letting it slip through his fingers now.

He finds TK at the very end of the library, sitting on anotherreading table; this one a little dusty from lack of use. TK is biting on hisbottom lip in that nervous way of his, and when he looks at Carlos, gone is thecocky guy from a few minutes ago, and in his place is the not so confident boythat lies beneath his usual bravado. It’s the TK that always sparks Carlos’more protective instincts. He walks up slowly to him, stepping in between hisparted knees.  

With TK sitting, it puts them at a height difference that leavesTK looking up at him. Carlos brings his hands up to cradle TK’s face, tiltingit up even further, making sure TK is looking straight into his eyes.

“Are you sure you want this?” he can’t help but ask. The last thinghe wants is to lose his friend for a momentary case of hormones.

“Do you want this?” TK asks back; instead of answering, itcomes out more teasing, but Carlos can still see the hint of nerves.

“I have always wanted you,” Carlos confesses, finally letting itout. His heart beats hard against his chest as he gives life to his secret, butthe way TK’s eyes widen makes it worth it. “Every second of every day, I wantto be with you. I want to kiss you, hold you, have sex with you.”

“Carlos,” TK lets out breathlessly, his hands coming up to gripCarlos’ arms.

“But I want more than that too,” he continues, now that it’s outhe can’t hold back. “I have feelings for you. I’m in love with you, TK.”

TK tightens his hold on him, pulling him closer. “You never saidanything.”

“I was afraid to lose you,” Carlos whispers, now feeling unsure. “Irather have your friendship than not have you at all.”

TK closes his eyes, smiling as he shakes his head. “Idiot.”

“Hey,” Carlos starts to grin, moving forward when TK bringshis hands to the back of his neck and pulls him closer. Letting go of TK’s face,he places his hands on his waist, pressing his forehead against TK’s as the boylets out a soft laugh, and Carlos feels the same kind of giddy joy.

“I’ve had feelings for you since I met you,” TK says quietly, hisbreath touching Carlos’ face. He aches to close the distance between theirlips. “Back when I was so pissed that my dad dragged us here from New York, andI hated everything about Austin. You were the only thing I liked about it, andthen as we became friends, you became the person that made it feel like home.”

“Can I kiss you?” Carlos pleads, not being able to take it asecond longer, not when the boy he loves is telling him he feels the same way.

Carlos feels TK’s smile against his mouth instead of seeing it; hesighs into the kiss three years in the making. He pulls TK by the waist andgroans into the kiss when TK answers by wrapping his legs around Carlos’ waist,bringing their bodies flush against the other, and Carlos can feel how much TKwants him, his own body reacting to it the same way.

“Ty,” Carlos gasps out before TK slips his tongue inside his mouth.He moans helplessly not just at the taste of TK’s mouth, but also at the feelof that smooth silver stud pressing against his tongue as TK takes his time, makingsure he pulls Carlos apart with each flick of his skilled tongue.

“Carlos,” TK whispers back when he pulls away to take abreath. Carlos can’t stop touching or kissing him, and he trails a path withhis mouth from TK’s lips down his jaw, to his neck, kissing and sucking on anystrip of skin he can, instantly addicted to the taste of TK Strand.

“I knew it would be like this between us,” TK moans, his headthrown back as Carlos sucks at the pulse point under his jaw. His hand’s gripat his shirt and Carlos pulls back long enough to pull it over his head.

TK looks at him, his usually bright green eyes darkening as hetakes in Carlos’ bare chest, the piercing on his tongue peeking out as he curlshis tongue and makes an appreciative sound. “Fuck, baby, you’re a workof art.”

Carlos feels himself go hot at the compliment, and the heated wayTK looks at him, he feels it from the top of his head and down his chest.

TK makes another noise, smiling up at him wickedly as he sees hisskin turn pink. “Oh, that’s pretty,” he says softly, his hand reaching out totouch Carlos, his thumb rubbing gently over one of Carlos’ nipples. He shiversat the touch, not being able to stop the whine that escapes his lips. TK’s eyesflicker back up to his, and his smile softens. He uses his legs, still aroundCarlos’ waist to pull him back in.

Hands cup his face, and Carlos closes his eyes as TK brushes hislips across his. “We’re going to be amazing, aren’t we?” he asks against hismouth, and Carlos nods, swallowing hard as he pictures what being with TK isgoing to be like.

Yes, they’re going to be incredible, starting right now.

Carlos goes to kiss him again, more than ready to get theincredible parts started when someone clears their throat behind them, causinghim to freeze.

TK looks over his shoulder at their unexpected guest before helooks back at Carlos; his eyes are wide, but there is a twinkle of amusement inthem when he mouths ‘oops’ at him, like the little shit he is.

“Hi, Mrs. Powell,” he says brightly. Carlos closes his eyes withdread, something tells him after today he isn’t going to be the librarian’sfavorite anymore. “Carlos was helping me find a book.”

Carlos looks at TK incredulously, finding a bright smile on hislips as he looks back at him with zero shame, and shakes his head, but in theend, he can’t feel anything but happiness. This is the crazy boy he chose tolove.

֎֍֍

“I hear congratulations are in order,” Iris calls out as she walksup to them on the quad. Carlos looks up from where he’s been spending timekissing TK’s neck.

“Hey,” TK greets her back as he presses himself to his side, flashingCarlos a bright smile when he throws an arm over his shoulder and pulls himcloser. “Thanks, I honestly can’t believe we’re finally together and that ittook me sticking a metal rod through my tongue to get this going.”

“Hey, that’s not true,” Carlos protests as TK rolls his eyes.

“Don’t even try to deny it,” TK points at him. “I have beenthrowing hints forever and nothing. It took me getting a piercing, and honestly,me being tired of waiting for this to happen.”

“I didn’t know you were throwing hints!”

TK rolls his eyes again before leaning in to kiss him on the cheek.“I know,” he says gently. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty because you’re clueless.”

Carlos goes to protest again, but TK stops him by giving himanother kiss, this time on the lips. Carlos sighs into it, ready to get lost init when Iris clears her throat loudly.

“Yeah, still here,” she says sarcastically, giving him an eye rollof her own. “I knew you’d be annoyingly cute once you finally got your shittogether.”

Carlos blushes at the comment, while TK laughs delightfully.

Iris smirks back at them. “By the way, that’s not what I wascongratulating you two on.”

“Oh?” TK raises an eyebrow at her, and Carlos feels dread again asher smirk seems to grow.

She pulls a flyer out of her bag, passing it over to them, andCarlos feels his face turn bright red as he takes in both his and TK’s faces onthe sheet of paper, with the words ‘banned from the library until further notice’under their faces.

“Apparently even though she hates everyone, it takes a lot to getMrs. Powell to ban someone; you two are now legends,” Iris tells them with agrin, wagging her eyebrows at him.

“Oh my god,” Carlos groans, dropping his head into his hands. Heturns his head to the side when he hears a snicker and finds TK smiling wildly.

“You find this funny, Tyler?” he questions dryly, and though TKmakes his usual face at his name, it doesn’t diminish the smile on his face, orthe affection shining in his eyes.

“Hilarious,” TK grins.

Carlos shakes his head, unable to stop his own smile. “Why do I likeyou?”

“Love,” TK corrects, biting down on his own smile. “Yousaid you love me, you can’t take it back now.”

Carlos smiles gently at him, bringing his hand back up to cup hischeek. “I’m never going to take it back.”

TK starts leaning in to kiss him, when Iris groans, forcing themto stop.

“Once again,” she shakes her head at them. “I’m still here.”

Carlos flashes her an apologetic look, knowing it doesn’t come offas sincere when he can’t stop smiling; he’s just so happy.

“Whatever,” she rolls her eyes as she stands back up. “I’mleaving to let you two be gooey and in love, try not to get banned from all ofcampus for indecent exposure.”

They watch her leave before TK draws his attention by tugging onhis hand.

“She’s got a point you know,” TK starts, giving him a dirty smirk.“If I don’t get you alone soon, I’m going to jump you right here.”

Carlos smiles back, his stomach clenching with anticipation. “Luckyfor us, I have an apartment, and I live alone.”

TK curls his tongue, and that little silver stud meant to driveCarlos crazy peeks out. “Then what are we waiting for?”

#911 lone star #tarlos #tarlos fic #911 lone star fic #tk x carlos #my writing #anon #Anonymous #college au

[m-lesmxrales]

Less Than I Do

Modern AU

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Warnings: not really, some curses word? lol

Summary: After some time passes, you can’t shake your feelings for her. Even after going some time without speaking, you only want her to be happy in the end.

Words: 3.5k+

“What?!” You yell, your phone pressed to onto your ear, shoulder shrugged to support it, listening to your friend jabber on “I can’t really hear you!” The jingling of your keys and the booming music in the apartment next to yours drowning out their voice.

“I-“ you sigh, struggling to hold your grocery bags–only frustrating you further– while you twist your wrist, finally unlocking the door to your apartment, shoving it open with your foot.

Groaning, you drop the bags at your feet, closing the door behind you while your other hand takes hold of phone, finally letting your shoulder rest.

“Look, can you just– just text me, ok?” You sigh, slipping your shoes off as you mumble a bye.

The vibration from your phone catches your attention. Unlocking your phone, you click on the Instagram notification. A picture fills the screen, showing a group of college friends, your friends.

And there you stood, arms wrapped around her, the biggest smile on your faces. Her doll like eyes shining brighter than usual from the flash of the camera. It seemed like yesterday the two of you were in her apartment, seated on the couch under a blanket. Her body pressed into your side with popcorn in between the two of you, Mission Impossible playing.

Letting out a breath, your thumb hovers over the picture.

You could say you were questioning on whether or not it was worth liking.

Fuck it.

You double tap, a red heart briefly appearing.

The others tagged in the photo popping up along with it, including her.

Clicking on her username, your screen becomes filled with pictures of her. Plentiful of new ones, though that was to be expected considering the last time you looked through it was almost two years ago.

Two years.

It had been almost two years since she ended things with you.

—

“Can you-” You groan, shrugging Wanda’s hand from your shoulder.

A look of confusion fill her features “Can I what?”

“I don’t know- just, go do something with Nat.” You gesture towards the redhead sitting with Steve.

Her brows crease in, eyes roaming over you “What’s wrong, love?” Concern written in her eyes. She’d noticed in the last few weeks how pent up you’d been. All the emotions you were bottling up. All the offers to vent to her you had turned down recently. Everyone had noticed.

“Hey..” She soothes “Is there something you wanna talk about?” She asks, hands coming to cup your jaw.

You retract harshly “Holy shit, Wanda, No. No! I don’t, alright? Can you for once, for once” You yell “stop being so overbearing!?

Caring

“Do you to want talk about this, do you wanna do that?” You mock her “God, you can be so needy!”

Loving

“A-And you never once, think that maybe- just maybe I don’t wanna’ sit down and talk about my day? Or shitty my life can be compared to yours?” Your shouts now drawing in some attention, including your closet friends.

“So fucking selfish.” you hiss through your teeth.

Selfless

You don’t even noticing the hurt in her eyes. The way their glistening up the bar lights. How her jaw is so tense, enough to crack her teeth. You’ re too indulged in your anger to.

“You can be damn overly sensitive, you know that?” you finish, slamming your glass down against the bar counter with a huff.

It’s partially silent for a bit, some chitter chatter here and there.

Wanda swallows, eyes shifting to anyone but you.

Only able to nod, turning swiftly on her heel as tears begin to flow. Natasha hot on her tail, shooting you a glare just as she passes you.

And takes a moment for the situation to hit you. For what you’ve said, to hit you.

_“Shit.” _

The side of your hand collides with the door, fingers bunched into your palm, the bangs filling the building hallways. You were sure by now the neighbors were more than upset with the amount of noise you were making. Knocking for five minutes straight at two in the morning—despite it being a friday night and most of them being out, that didn’t mean the ones still home and in bed weren’t being disturbed.

“Wanda..” another knock on her door “Can we talk? Please?” You call out, desperation evident in your tone.

You’d messed up, that you knew.

The current event all caused by words; hurtful words, that should have never slipped through. And you regretted them the moment they spewed from your mouth.

Selfish, overbearing, overly sensitive, needy.

Those were some of the words you used to hurt her tonight. But you didn’t mean them. Yes, she may have said a few hurtful things back, it was all in retaliation to yours.

If anything all of this was a build up. A build up of frustrations, work, family, and plenty of other separate events out of your relationship. And holding all of it in just led to an outburst. One taken out on her.

Surely if the two of you hadn’t gone out tonight with your group of friends, just maybe, your words could have been said in a way that was, well, less insulting. It would have been nice to properly vent to her. You know she loves to listen to you babble. No matter the topic.

Yet, here you were. Still banging on her door. Wanting more than anything just to talk. Though, you couldn’t say the same for her.

Just as you hand comes to connect with door again, it shoots open. A glaring Wanda now replacing it, Nat lingering a few feet behind her. Your breathe hitches, mouth drying as you struggle to find your words.

“Wan-”

“If you really thought about me that way, you could have told me a long time ago.”

“Wanda, I’m so, so sorr-”

“Go home, Y/N” She sighs, closing the door.

Forehead coming to rest against the door, you mumble

“You’re the only way I’ll have it..”

—

“You know, Pietro’s extremely upset with you still.”

Silence, only the chatter and sound of utensils answer the blonde back.

“She misses you, you know?” Steve hums, stirring his coffee, blowing at the steam emitting from it.

Snorting, eyes on the table, you sip from the plastic cup in front of you, fiddling with the napkin underneath it.

She misses you.

Wanda misses you.

So believable, yet, so hard to believe.

“I doubt it, I’m sure she’s doing fine.” You mumble.

_Idiot. _

You know damn well how sensitive Wanda can be.

“If crying yourself to sleep almost every night is ‘fine’ then she must be doing great.” Steve frowns, throwing his crumbled up sugar packet at you. Cocking a brow, you flick the piece of paper, watching it fall to the ground. “It’s been- what four months?” He asks.

Five and a half, but he was close enough.

A broad hand grips your cup, pulling it away from you, the end of the straw retracting from the cup, bits of the liquid dripping onto the table. Taking the straw out from your mouth, your eyes finally meet his blue ones. A look of disappointment plastered on his features.

“I don’t know what you want me to do, she broke up with me..” you shrug, punching the straw back through the lid.

“I thought you two were taking a break?”

Shaking your head, you ease your drink back towards yourself “She called it quits last month..”

A groan leaves his lips, palms running down his face “So, that’s it?” He starts “Ten years of friendship and four years of dating- just gone, down the drain..” his index finger landing on the table.

“I mean, you guys were in love with each other.” he huffs, slumping back in his seat “You still are in love with each other.

Steve had a point.

You and Wanda had crossed paths the first day of senior year in highschool, hitting it off right then and there. And that same day she had introduced you her brother and best friends. From then on, everyone had been inseparable. The two of you were inseparable.

It was something you wouldn’t trade for the world.

Even when most of you had attended different colleges and universities. Even when you and Wanda had started dating your senior year of college. When careers began to advance, when lives became busier.

Somehow, someway, nothing changed.

Your love for one another was unwavering.

However, after that night, five months ago you broke the balance.

“I think you should talk to her, Y/N. It possible things could be different this time.”

“Yeah..” you murmur, lips wrapping around the top of the straw.

Things could change.

But, you couldn’t shake the feeling that you’d need to change this time.

—

A year had passed.

A painfully slow year at that. And your feelings for Wanda hadn’t died out.

But you’d heard she had slowly been grown out of her funk, taking the time to go out more. Some of these outings you weren’t invited to and the ones you were, you declined.

Not that you were avoiding her. It was more like avoiding further heartache.

If anything you missed her and the pictures in your apartment weren’t helping. So, you took upon yourself to do some spring cleaning, in hopes that if the pictures were out of sight then the process of healing would officially start.

Rummaging through your closest, looking for a shoe box, the sight of a light denim jacket in the corner on the floor catching your attention.

It couldn’t have been yours, yours was already hung up, not to mention slightly darker in color.

Reaching for it, you pick it up, holding it out in front of you, examining the front. Walking over to your bed, you flip it over laying it on its front.

Your gaze softens, the corner of your lip perking. You hadn’t seen this jacket in a while. That design in a while. A chuckle emits from your throat, hand swiping at pieces of lint—you should probably wash it.

It’s Wanda’s favorite jacket. At least, you think it still is.

You can only imagine the pout on her lips, remembering that she must have forgotten it at your place and how she was properly too stubborn to reach out to you to get it back.

Or, maybe she didn’t care about it after a while.

Smile fading, you swipe through your phone, opening your Instagram dm’s, opening hers—glad your old conversation was long gone.

Thumbs moving across the screen, pass hitting letters.

Send.

—

“I still have your denim jacket, the one with the Madonna graphic on the back.”

That was the last message you sent. The last message she actually read in almost a year and a half. All the others from previous dm’s had been ignored.

Unfortunately, she never came to pick it up. But, Natasha did.

“You know she was sitting on my couch, pouting, when she realized she forgot her jacket here when she came to get some of her things?” The redhead snickers.

Figures.

“Yeah, that sounds like her.” You smirk.

Inhaling, you slowly hand the jacket over to Natasha, thumbs grazing over the Madonna graphic “She didn’t wanna come and pick it up herself?” You ask, brows creasing in.

“She has work, so..” Natasha shrugs, placing the jacket over her forearm.

Humming, eyes still on the jacket, you nod “Right, yeah- no..work.”

The redhead rolls her eyes, arms slumping to her side “Y/N, come on. You two already agreed to be friends, you both talk every now and then in the group chat. What’s the problem?” She sighs “It’s different, going out without you..”

“You haven’t shown up to any of Tony’s parties. You don’t even want to go bowling with all of us anymore.” She continues.

“Why are you avoiding us?”

Silence, that’s all fills the apartment.

Not knowing what to say, how to explain yourself; you shrug. You had no reason to avoid them.

Of course, you wanted to hang out with all of them. You wanted nothing more.

You two had mutually agreed to be close friends again. Yet, you still were struggling.

“You guys were her friends first..her family first, so.” Clearing your throat, you look up, catching Natasha’s eyes.

Their soft, as if she’s in deep thought.

“We miss you, Y/N.”

“Wanda misses you.”

Translation ;

She’s still in love with you

—

Still looking through the mounds of new photos, you catch site of her next to a taller, slightly older, blond man.

And you can’t help the feeling that overlaps your heart, as if someone tied a rope around it with an anchor attached, letting it sink.

Exhaling, you move to her dm’s.

Previous messages you sent filling the screen.

‘I said some things I wish I hadn’t, I’m so sorry.” seen

‘Can we please talk about it?’ seen

‘I’ll change this time.’ seen

‘I hope you feel blue, less than I do.’

Seen.

That was a couple months ago, after a night out with Tony and Pepper, including just enough drinks to get you tipsy and in your feelings. Feelings you’d restricted for too long.

It was stupid. An in the moment decision.

Cringing, you go to swipe out of the chat.

“…”

She’s typing.

_Why the hell is she tying? Why now? _

Is she going to tell you to ‘fuck off’?

Or did she mistakenly open your dm’s, thinking it was someone else’s?

A message pops up.

“Are you coming to movie night at Tony’s?”

The creases in your forehead deepened, your head tilting to the side “Movie night?”

And it hits you.

You completely forgot you promised to show up for once.

And Tony hadn’t stopped inviting you to movie night, none of them had. But you couldn’t bring yourself to go, even if she hadn’t always shown up.

Only after Tony’s constant texts, emails and calls, but who really got you to agree was Pepper.

You could never say no to Pepper

“Oh shit-” You grumble, running into your room “Movie night!”

—

Stepping into his home after all these months, it was nauseating to be frank. It was you like a truck. The exterior hasn’t changed but the interior had somewhat.

You let her guide you into the living room.

“Come on, everyone’s waiting for you.” Pepper smiles, looping her arm around your shoulder as she pulls you into her side, her other hand rubbing soothing circles against the shoulder closest to her body.

There’s a pregnancy in the room. Heads turn. All eyes now on you, and you can’t help but notice how their faces light up—damn, did you miss the way they’d smile when they looked at you.

A body rushes into, arms wrapping around your mid as they pick you up, arms tightening. The scent of their cologne hitting you.

Woody with kicks of spice.

Pietro.

You hear chuckles, mainly Pietro’s. His laughter reminding you of a toddlers first time going down a slide.

Enveloping your arms around him, you pat his back, a chuckle growing in your chest.

You feel a vibration against your shoulder as he sets you down, arms still tightly wrapped around you “What?” You ask, retracting your head “I said-“ he lifts his head from your shoulder, arms loosening as he takes a step back, “I’m still mad at you.” Arms coming to fold over his chest, a stern look on his face.

You can’t help but smile. You were never able to take him seriously half of the time.

Your palm connecting with his forehead, shoving it back “Missed you too.” You hum.

He holding back a smile, the ends of his lips tucked in “Me too.” He grumbles, arm wrapping around your shoulders, moving you towards the rest.

“I’m still very, very upset with you too.” Sam snickers, a smile plastered on his face as he stands up, pulling you into a warm hug, the others coming to join in.

Tony clasps his hands together “Alright, enough all of the sappy-sappy stuff.” He says “Y/N, since you’re late, you can help make the snacks with Wanda.”

“Fair enough.” You sigh, looking over towards the kitchen, catching site of her figure leaning against the counter, a tall, older blonde man close by.

Her mint green eyes softening at the sight of you, a small smile forming.

“You know how to use a popcorn maker, right?” He asks, brow cocked.

“I- Sure?”

—

You watch idly watch as the popcorn gradually flies out of the metal tin. One pop at a time.

The sound of hard candy being poured into a bowl pulling you from your thoughts. Turning around, you see Wanda retracting the bag, placing it back on the counter.

“So..” you begin, walking towards the kitchen isle “How’s everything?” Taking a seat on the stool.

Wanda hums, a grin growing “You mean how I’m doing?” Popping a skittle in her, she leans forward, finally looking at you “Really good. I started yoga classes a few days ago and works great, for once.” She giggles.

You chuckle softly, a warmth growing in your chest at the sound of her laughter. Content that even though things hadn’t ended well between you two, your dynamic hadn’t faltered. That she still feels comfortable around you. But, you two were close friends before anything else, it was only to be expected.

“What about you?”

“I got a new job, finally. Don’t have to work in drama filled work place anymore.” You voice, cracking a smile “Also, the pay is ten times better.” nodding your vision falls to the colorful candy. That place was always a hell hole.

“What? Are you serious?!” A voice squeals

You feel arms wrap around your shoulders, pulling you close “That’s amazing, Y/N.” Wanda hums. Your arms instinctively wrapping around her mid.

She pulls away slowly “I’m so happy for you.” She coos “Thank you, I’m just glad to be out of there. No more stress- well, excuse, extra stress, no more being pulled into drama. It’s fantastic.” A look of bliss setting in.

“I know, I can only imagine.” She snickers, pulling out the stool next to you before sliding the bowl of candy.

The two of you idly watch your friends, taking in their presence as a whole.

“I’m sorry, about what happened, Wanda. I didn’t mean anything I said that night. I was a complete and utter asshole-” You pause “I’m really, really sorry..”

“I know, considering the long apology you sent me and the mountains of texts.” She says, cocking a brow at you ‘I know, Y/N, If you couldn’t tell, I forgive you.” she assures you, her palm coming to rest on your forearm. You nod, a small smile forming.

“So” you drag “are you and-“

“No.” She cuts you off “We’re friends..” she notes “Are you and-“

A wave a relief seemingly washes over you. Not that you wouldn’t be happy if she had already moved, but, content that she hadn’t as so much jumped to the next person. Knowing that all those years spent together weren’t tossed in the trash.

“Carol?” You interrupt, snorting “No, she’s taken.”

Wanda hums, continuing to munch on the candy. Exhaling, you stand up “Alright, let’s get these snacks rolling.”

—

The sound of car tires screeching, bangs and explosions blast through the surround sound speaker. Everyone’s gathered on the couches, couples squeezed together, sharing snacks with another.

Leaning against the armrest of the couch, hand reaching into a shared bowl of popcorn resting on your lap.

You feel Wanda shift next to you. The temptation to curl into something getting the best of her, especially sitting next to you. Someone. She’d always been a cuddler when it came to movies. Usually it was and you could tell she was opting into using Pietro as a pillow.

“Fuck it.” you grumble.

Moving the popcorn to the side, you hook your hands under her knees, laying them over your lap. Pulling her body into yours, arm coming to hook around her shoulders out of habit.

You can feel her tense up, shifting slightly as she adjusts her upper body. Placing the bowl of popcorn onto her lap.

Wanda leans her head on your shoulder, creating a new nesting spot in your side “Thanks..” she whispers, going back to enjoy the action movie,

The brunette clears her throat after a beat “Can I ask you something?”

“Always”

“Did you mean what you said? You know, about me feeling blue..” she asks, snorting a bit as weird the question sounded.

“Of course.”

The last you wanted when it came to Wanda was to see her suffer. Physically or mentally. You had always hoped she was able to see that, dating or not.

Another beat.

“Been a while since we watched Mission Impossible together.” she adds.

“You mean, like this?”

“Yeah..like this..”

“Yeah” You breathe “too long..” ends of your lips curling.

If there was one thing you knew, it was You/d trade feeling blue over never seeing her crack a smile ever again, in a split second. Even if that meant in the end, you’d receive all the hardships, heartaches, bear her burdens.

In the end, you only hope she feels blue, less than you do.

#wanda maximoff x y/n #wanda maximoff x you #wanda maximoff #wanda mcu #mcu #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #marvel fanfiction #modern au #wanda maximov #wanda maximoff imagine #scarlet witch x y/n #scarlet witch x reader #wanda maximoff x reader #scarlet witch imagine #scarlet witch #elizabeth olsen x reader #elizabeth olsen #avengers x y/n #avengers x reader #avengers imagine #soft angst #wanda maximoff fluff #wanda marvel #wanda maximoff angst #steve rogers x p!reader #myfics

[butgilinsky]

web boy // pp

warning; slight language, fluff, angst ig?? 

summary; y/n finally chooses a college to attend and finds peter spying on her through her window. 

word count; 3k

pretend infinity war and endgame didn’t happen, thx. 

peter parker x reader

she had known for a while. she was surprised that she was the only one that noticed. sure, ned knew, but he didn’t suspect anything before it was literally right in front of his face. MJ made jokes now and again about peter’s absence in specific situations, but she always shrugged it off, her annoyance covering up the suspicion quickly. 

but, y/n? she had known peter for far too long. she found it humorous sometimes, how he thought he was being slick around her. the “stark internship” had given it away almost instantly. 

y/n didn’t have any experience with super humans, except for the usual queens crimes that were all conveniently solved by the one and only, Spider-Man. 

there was one night, during the first semester of their senior year, when y/n and peter had plans to go to their favorite cafe. it was a bit a ways away from the corner of queens they were always tucked away into, well the one she was. about an hour before they were meant to leave, peter called in a rush and said that something had come up. when the news story broke out on her tv, every ounce of doubt was washed away. 

although the revelation made up for most of the times that peter had bailed on her, she was still mad at him. she was mad that he thought he couldn’t trust her with the secret, especially since they were only a few months away from graduation and he still hadn’t said anything. 

she had been bouncing between colleges for so long, all of them fairly far away, and no word from peter. he hadn’t even talked about colleges with her lately, too busy with spider duties. she wasn’t sure if he even had college plans at this point, let alone where they may have been. 

she had grown bitter over the past few months. the friend she’d known since they were 10 years old was going to be swept away from her, and he didn’t even realize it. 

when she chose Brown, she was very hesitant. her parents were a mix between supportive and pushy, her mother being from Brown having a heavy impact on their decision for her. although she loved the idea of the school, she also hated the fact that it was in a completely different state. the rather large scholarship was the tipping point for her, none of her other offers being able to compare to it. 

she sat across from MJ and ned in the cafeteria, twirling a pencil between her fingers while the two of them talked about something she had stopped listening to far too long ago. it was when a heavy breathed boy plopped down next to her, making it nearly impossible for her to not snap out of her trance. 

“ah, you got her to snap out of it!” MJ beamed brightly, paying more attention to the quiet girl than the eager boy sitting next to her. 

“yeah, cool. guess what happened?” peter rushed out, stumbling over his words in excitement. ned’s eyes were large and bright, silently urging peter to gush about what had him boasting in the middle of the day. 

y/n rolled her eyes before slipping back into her trance. MJ let out a slight huff before turning her attention to peter, stealing side glances at her friend that had been quiet all week long. 

when the bell rang, she picked up her tray and her bag, walking away from the table without saying anything to the group behind her. 

“what’s up with her?” peter paused his rambling, cheek full of sandwich as he stared at ned and MJ with confused eyes. 

“don’t know.” ned piped up, his shoulders shrugging. “she’s been like that all week.” MJ rolled her eyes before walking away from the boys, jogging to catch up with her friend.

“y/n!” she stopped and turned over her shoulder, only because it was MJ. she waited in the middle of the hall, bag thrown over her shoulder and a slightly impatient expression on her face. “what’s wrong?” she finally caught up to her, her arm snaking around the slightly shorter girl’s shoulders, continuing to walk down the hall towards their next class. 

“nothing.” she shrugged softly, shedding some of the misery for a moment. she didn’t want to talk about it right now, or ever, really. 

“c’mon, what is it? parents on your ass again? peter being an ass again?” y/n’s lips twitched up into a soft smile as MJ elbowed her side, and the two laughed softly. 

“just a lot going on i guess.” MJ squinted her eyes suspiciously, but dropped it as the second bell rang. she gave her friend a reassuring smile and told her to not think too hard about it all before disappearing into separate classrooms. 

when last period came around, y/n contemplated skipping it. she had waited too long to decide, trudging into the classroom reluctantly as she plopped down in her desk and opened her notebook, doodling in the margins. 

peter slid into the seat in front of her like always, turning around to face her quickly before class started. 

“what’s up?” she looked up at him for a second, shaking her head softly before returning to her small drawings. “y/n you’re avoiding me-”

“i doubt you have the right to talk, since you’ve been avoiding me for months, peter.” her voice wasn’t harsh, but her words made the message crystal clear. 

peter sighed to himself, turning back to face the front of the class. he didn’t know she’d been so beat up about him being so busy, but then again, he was occupied with other things. he didn’t pay attention to anything anymore. 

when class ended, peter rushed out of the class before y/n even stood up, which made her scoff. nonetheless, she picked up her things and walked out of the classroom, happy to not return for two more days. 

she walked home, skipping the bus as she preferred to spend this time by herself. she almost got all the way home before she saw the web slinger, wishing the ground would swallow her whole in that moment. 

she tried to walk around him, not wanting him to spot her since peter knew her after school routine just as much as anyone. she had made it all the way to the corner store before peter spotted her. he stayed perched on top of a three story building, eyes following her as she took the long way home. 

she cut through an alley and was soon jogging into the entrance of her building. peter left, doing the rest of his patrol before returning after the sun fell. he sat on the building next to hers, leaning against part of the building’s structure as he watched her pace around her room. 

she had her phone pressed to her ear, letting out soft laughs but looking stressed overall. MJ was on the other end of the call, pestering her about the day. 

“i’m fine, MJ, seriously.” MJ clicked her tongue, clearly not believing the soft spoken girl. 

“you’re stressing about something, and i- oh my god! you picked didn’t you!” y/n ran a hand through her hair, tugging softly at the strands before sitting in her desk chair. 

“yeah, i did.” Mj started screaming through the phone, making y/n pull her phone away from her ear as she laughed. a real laugh. an eyes shut, head thrown back, laugh. 

peter couldn’t hear the conversation, being too far and the window being shut, but he loved the sight in front of him. the sight of the girl happy and laughing for the first time all week. 

“well! what is it?” MJ yelled loudly and y/n went back to her anxious actions, biting the inside of her cheek and eyes looking around her room. 

“brown.” MJ squealed again, knowing that it was one of y/n’s first choices. “you’re not mad?” 

“oh my god, why would i be? i’m so happy for you!” 

“it’s not like, too far?” MJ scoffed through the phone, reassuring her friend that she was truly being supportive. it made y/n smile, which peter didn’t miss. 

“if it’s where you want to go, it’s not too far. besides, it’s not Stanford, right?” y/n let out a soft laugh, eyes snaking up to catch the boy in the red suit not too far away from her window. 

peter ducked behind the column he had been leaning on, making y/n roll her eyes. 

“MJ, i gotta go. i’ll call you back later?” 

“okay okay, i’m so happy for you! bye!” y/n laughed before ending the call, placing it on her desk and walking to her window. 

she opened the window, leaning out of it slightly and waiting to see if he would pop back up. he didn’t. 

“you know, you’d think that someone who had an entire secret identity would be better at not getting caught.” she folded her arms over her chest as he stood straight on his feet. “why are you hovering?” 

“hovering?” she rolled her eyes, stepping out onto fire escape outside of her window. 

“you think this is the first time i’ve seen you out here?” peter started to shift his weight between both of his feet. he hadn’t been so nervous in a long time. 

he’d gotten the hang of this superhero thing, and grew confident over the years. it was a change from the awkward, stuttering peter parker that y/n knew for far too long, but she didn’t mind it. it was nice, to see him comfortable in his own skin. 

“i didn’t mean to- i’m sorry.” 

“i just wish you’d come knock or something.” she shrugged softly, making his eyebrows furrow behind the mask, which went unnoticed to her. 

“i can’t exactly do that.” she rolled her eyes again, hands gripping the railing in front of her. 

“yes, you can peter. you’ve done it for years.” his eyes widened at that, the eyes on the mask following suit. “thought i didn’t know?” 

“i mean- i didn’t exactly- did ned tell you?” he was walking towards her, only the ten feet between the building separating them. 

“no, ned didn’t tell me.” she was shaking her head, a soft smile on her lips before she climbed into her window, a simple look inviting peter in behind her.

he was in it soon after she was, the window staying open as a slight breeze was brought in. his hand reached up to his head, pulled his mask off quickly to reveal a slightly flushed peter parker. 

“how’d you know?” his eyes were soft, a slight sheen over them. his cheeks were red and his bottom lip was swollen, assumingely from him chewing on it. 

“i’ve been in love with you since i was 13, peter. how could i not know?” she rolled her eyes, sitting down on the edge of her bed as she watched his eyes widen again. 

“you what?” his voice was breathy, a pounding in his chest overtaking his senses. 

“i’ve known you since i was 10 and i’ve loved you since i was 13. well, probably forever, honestly. but i’m not sure my emotional intelligence was up to par when i was 10 so i just kind of round up-” peter’s hand was over her mouth, cutting over her as he stared at her wide eyed. he was kneeling in front of her, their height evening out. 

“why didn’t you say anything?” she shrugged softly, a small smile playing on her lips. he was confused as to how she could confess such a thing and be so calm, since he was farm from that right now. 

“when you’re 13 you’re assumed to not really know how those things work, and maybe i didn’t. so i didn’t say anything, since i figured it’d just be a phase. but then we were 15, and you were obsessing over liz. and then liz was gone, but then you were also gone. then we were 16, and i only really saw MJ with ned on occasion. and then we were 17, and there was that girl in your biology class that caught your attention. but you were still absent, still gone and cancelling on me every time we made plans. and now we’re 18, and we’re about to graduate and i-” she bit her cheek again, eyes never leaving his but her words halting. “and now i’m going to college.” her voice was softer, almost at a whisper level as she stared at the boy whose eyes had gone glossy and lips parted as he stared right back at her. 

“but i thought- you haven’t picked yet.” his eyes narrowed slightly, and she let out a soft smile as his face twisted into realization soon after. “that’s why you’ve been quiet this week.” she nodded at his statement, watching him try to search her for any hints. 

“i chose a few days ago. mom and dad breathing down my neck, and the scholarship had been a ticking time bomb since it was offered. had to jump now or i’d lose it.” the mention of the scholarship made peter stand back up, taking a step away from the girl. 

“brown?” she nodded again, watching his lips twitch up in small smile, but it had been injected with evident disappointment. “that’s great, y/n.” 

“it doesn’t seem like you think so, pete.” he shook his head quickly, realizing that she wasn’t smiling anymore. this is why she didn’t say anything. her friends were destined to be upset with her for going so far away. 

“that’s not it. i’m happy for you, i really am, i just- fuck.” he swore softly, rubbing a hand over his face in frustration. 

“it’s just that it’s too far and you’re upset about it.” his eyes snapped over to hers, seeing the slouch in her shoulders that hadn’t been there a minute ago. her eyes had glossed over just like his, and her head had fallen slightly to the side. “this is why i didn’t say anything-”

“so what? you were just going to keep a secret until when? until we were walking across the stage and beaming brightly at each other?” she rolled her eyes. the fact that he thought she was hiding it when he hadn’t asked about colleges in a few months had been almost ridiculous to her. 

“i wasn’t hiding it. i would’ve said it if i had been asked. but i just chose a few days ago and nobody’s asked about it, and i just-” she looked away from him, letting out a breath of air through pursed lips. “there’s nothing here for me anymore, pete.” she looked back at him, eyes full with tears that clouded her vision. 

“there’s- i’m here.” he shook his head as he said it, knowing that he could never ask her to stay. 

“you’re not, though. you haven’t been here in years, peter. i tried for so long to rationalize it all. i tried to weigh my options and god did i almost go to columbia.” peter was shaking his head again, eyes screwed shut as she told him everything he didn’t want to hear. he knew he’d been absent, flaky even. but he didn’t know how to balance it all. “i didn’t mean to upset you, but i can’t stay here. i need to get out of this place, peter. i’m suffocating.” 

he tugged at his hair, mask thrown on her desk as he stood in the red and blue suit. he let out a soft laugh to himself, confusing her ever so slightly. 

“the one girl, the one person that’s been there my whole life. the one constant in this shit show i call life.” he looked at her, hand over his mouth as he watched her chewing on her cheek again. “the one girl i let myself fall in love with, and i pushed her away.” she shook her head, standing up with a soft smile. 

“you didn’t push me away.” she whispered, arms snaking around his neck as she tried to make light of this whole conversation. “you haven’t been around much, sure, but i knew why. it didn’t take me too long, y’know? i had a suspicion since you left liz at homecoming, but i figured it out at the beginning of this year. you didn’t push me away, but i can’t be in new york for the rest of my life.” 

his forehead fell onto hers, a small smile tugging at his lips as his hands found her hips, squeezing ever so slightly. 

“what if-” he bit his lip slightly, pulling back enough so he could look at her clearly. “your parents still live here, so you’ll come back every once in a while, right?” she nodded slowly, waiting to see where he was going with this. “well you’ll be here every so often, and i can try to drive out to rhode island. it’s only like 3 hours away-”

“how do you know how far away it is?” he bit his lip softly, smiling down at her. 

“i kind of checked how far away all of your options were. you know, just trying to prepare myself for how far away my heart will be.” she rolled her eyes at the cheesy line, but smiled anyways. “so?” his eyebrow quirked up, asking her the question without explicitly spitting it out. 

“i’d love that.” he smiled widely before she stood on her toes, pushing her lips up into his. 

they pulled away when there was a knock on her door, startling them momentarily before her mom’s voice called through the door. 

“y/n, invite peter to stay for dinner!” the two of them laughed lightly, y/n moving to her drawer that had a pair of peter’s sweatpants and a few of his shirts. hard to have a friend for so long and not leave clothes at each other’s places. 

she threw him the clothes and smiled widely, motioning her head towards the door.

“let’s go, web boy.”

#peter parker #peter parker fic #peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #Avengers #far from home #homecoming #spiderman #spiderman homecoming #spiderman far from home #tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom x you #tom holland x reader #tom #holland #peter #parker

[welcome-to-green-hills]

I feel very comfortable asking you some questions about American stuff because if I ask anyone of my American friends they’d laugh at me. Here are my questions: what is a pretzel? What’s the difference between a college and a university? What is a sophomore?! Why do you have a different measuring system than other regions of the world? How come Americans appear snooty on social media? And what is an ounce? Thank you, I love ya, and thank you for not being like any other American.

Hello, friend! 😇🖐

I’m honored that you feel comfortable asking me these questions. I will not judge you. Not at all! These are very good questions! If your American friends laugh at you for asking things like this, then maybe they’re not worth your time. There is nothing wrong with asking questions like this, these are cultural differences.

I’m more than happy answering these questions for you!😇

First question: “What is a pretzel?”

I know in the Sonic Movie it was mentioned that he refers to Maddie as a pretzel due to the way that she bends. In yoga, there is a pose that one dues that references the twists and curves of a pretzel:

Then there’s food! Yay!

🥨

There are a couple of versions of pretzels in America, some are tiny and hard like a tree nut. Others are larger, soft and a bit crispy like a churro or some lightly salted crisps/potato chips. Normally they’re about the size of one’s hand and come with a small cup of melted cheese or some mustard to dip them in. I know that some who read this wince a tad at the word “mustard,” but it’s not mild tasting as it would be in some regions in Europe. American mustard is like sucking on lemon with sugar. That’s the best that I can describe it, it’s been ages since I’ve had taste buds.

Pretzels do originate from Germany and brought over to the Americas... specifically in the Philadelphia, USA region. The twists have a Christian resemblance to them to honor prayer. You can read more about it HERE if you’d like!🥰

——————————(🥨🥨🥨)——————————

Next question: “What is the difference between a University/Uni and a college?”

I’m trying to think of the best examples I can to explain the difference here... There is a difference between the two. You’re not going crazy, I promise.❤️ School is also very expensive here, at least 48% of the whole American population has some sort of education degree.

We have a Community College, it’s like attending an FE (Further education) and it’s reserved for people between the ages of 16-18 years of age. This is where some go if they want to start attending school, but don’t know what college is like. Think of it as a “university-in-training.”

A college is a step up from a Community College. It is a place where you can get a degree, but it’s much more... relaxed(?) than a university. It does offer sports, like Futbol and American Football, lacrosse, and track—just to name a few. The classes are smaller in size. Think of the biggest room in your house, apartment/flat, or rowhouse; that’s about the size of the room and it normally fits between 25-30 students in it. They only offer some degrees.

A university is much larger. My university has as many as 10,000 students. They’re also much more welcoming to accepting students from around the world. I’m in a class where I’m the only American in it, I have lots from Brazil, Argentina, Ontario, and some in London. There’s one class that I’m in that has about 450 students in it! In a university—sometimes called a Uni—you can receive an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree.

——————————(🏫⚽️📚)——————————

Next Question: “What is a sophomore?!”

Sophomore... a funny word, isn’t it?

It does have a peculiar meaning. Much like how some regions around the world do years 1-11 in their schooling, Americans use terms “freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior” for school and at a university.

Freshman year would be the equivalent to year 9

Sophomore would be the equivalent to year 10

Junior would be the equivalent to year 11

And senior would be like attending a year 12 for ages between 17-18.

Americans only extend school for 7.5 hours and do not go to school on Saturday. It’s a short amount of time due to a few concepts:

The American’s industrial revolution had children working in the fields and factories and had to help families at work or attend to crops.

The American schooling system has it scheduled in a way where a public school’s buses can pick up children at certain times to bring them to school.

Some kids between the ages of 16-18 who still attend public schools go to school in the morning and take retail jobs in the afternoons.

There is an option to take Saturdays as a school day, but that’s if you’re failing a course.

I have my schooling set up for every day of the week so I don’t lose pace in my school work and I’m always in the “know” of the evolving world.

——————————(🏫🖌📚)——————————

Next question: “Why do you have a different measuring system than other regions of the world?”

“What is an ounce” will also follow this statement. This one is a complicated answer, I’m not going to lie. We are taught how to convert our measurements into the universal language so everyone can understand it, but we barely touch up on the subject.

One is based off of money... the other reason has to do with ego.

The Americans have a different system that’s been apart of the culture since the industrial revolution. It was to help keep track of everything that was manufactured in factories and shared across the country. Bigger companies have thought about changing it in the past, but they really don’t want to spend the money.

Boo.

The other reason has to do with ego. The belief here is that if the Americans keep this system of measurement up, then the rest of the world will eventually follow them. It’s got to do with this belief that they’re being leaders of the whole world...

I have always made sure that when I give measurements here I give the American measurements and the correct measurements that everyone understands.

——————————(📏📐📏)——————————

Next question: “How come Americans seem snooty in social media?”

Oh boy... this goes into ettiquites and to ego here.

In the past I’ve always said that once when people reach a certain number of followers and popularity, their personality does change. Sure, having a certain amount of followers is great, but that doesn’t mean that you should show off and become something that you’re not.

That’s not the You that you used to be.

We are a country that has access to everything quickly, made cheaply or sturdy, and we are a rich country. We are in this belief that we are living the “American Dream” of being comfortable and living happy, but a great majority of us here are not. We’re a country that has access to everything in one way or another. Many are spoiled and sheltered in a bubble. Many Americans are not “disciplined,” nor educated, in knowing that one cannot get everything that they desire. If you want something, work for it. Desires shouldn’t be handed over to someone, the true value and worth of it would never be understood...

I think that the reason that many appear and act snooty online is because of attention and the fame behind it. In some way, one form or another, there is a sense of fame to a fandom, a social media, or anything else that quickly draws the attention of others. I think, this is my opinion, that those who act like they’re all that online are looking for evaluation of their self-worth. People venture off in search of popularity and an amologous substance to hold and morph it into their own worth. It’s an approval seeker for them because they’re used to getting everything.

Please set a good example for others...

——————————(🎉🎉🎉)——————————

Listen, I am sorry if there have been encounters before with some Americans that have been unpleasant. I really, truly am.

I will agree that many are difficult to engage with, yes, but it doesn’t give us the right to act like we’re the centers of the universe. I am sorry. I am happy that you do find me approachable with these questions, thank you for asking me! Anytime you have a cultural question as such, you’re more than welcome to ask me. I won’t judge. And I love ya, too!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

#mystery anon #off topic #culture #the americas #i’m an anthropologist

[jimlingss]

The President’s Son [19]

Chapter 18 - Chapter 19 - Chapter 20 [Finale]

➜ Words: 4.1k

➜ Genres: 100% Fluff, Slice of Life, Bodyguard!AU

➜ Summary: Kim Taehyung is the President’s son, mischievous and playful, and infamous for being a troublemaker. When everyone’s given up, they call for you to be his personal guard. There’s no other choice when your dad’s assigned you to it and surprisingly Taehyung doesn’t mind either. Maybe because you happened to grow up with that brat.

Your dad always taught you that if things fail, you do them over and over until you succeed.   Such a lesson was taught after Taehyung’s eighth birthday party where it was discovered you were scared of sparklers. The sparks always got too close to your hand and you feared it would harm you, that your clothes would catch fire. But your dad found out and every single day for three months, he’d come home and light handfuls of sparklers for you to hold until you got over your fear.   You’re not so sure shock therapy works — on the one occasion it did, but you took away the message of perseverance.    And now you want to try again, especially considering that last time didn’t go as planned.   “You want to go out for drinks?”   You smile, nodding once. “I really want to thank you for helping out with fixing my dad’s roof. I kind of feel guilty that I called you right after a shift—”   “What did I say?” Seokjin laughs, petting your hair before letting his arm drape to his side. “You can call me anytime you need, chickpea.”   Infectious giggles bubble out of your throat, reduced to a school girl that would be a humiliating sight in front of anyone else. “Then let me take you out for drinks properly this time.”   “I’d love to.”   Finally. Without interruption. Just you and a senior you massively respect.   But of course, the plan only lasts for ten minutes.   Taehyung discovers you chatting away and loops his arm around your shoulder, pulling you too close to his chest and too intimately, leaving Jin to quirk a brow. The attention is only diverted when Jimin hears the invitation and self-invites himself. You can’t deny it when he had helped as well.   Naturally, Taehyung joins too without even asking. And somehow, Jungkook ends up part of the group after catching wind of it.   What was supposed to be between two people is now five. But you can’t find it in yourself to be upset or defeated. It’s not a failure when you’re happy they’re all joining.   “Are you sure your house is safe, Jeon?”   “Rest assured, boss,” he uses the name mockingly. “If I was planning to kill you, I would’ve done it a long time ago.”   “And you would’ve died trying.”   “He can’t take on two.” Taehyung nudges the bodyguard who grins boyishly, already liking the sound of the plan. You exchange expressions with Jimin, not impressed whatsoever while he sheepishly smiles.   The front door unlocks and everyone shuffles inside, taking off their shoes.   Jungkook flickers on the foyer light of his town house and instantly, everyone’s cowering with their backs towards the walls and their eyes pinned forward into the darkness, except for Taehyung.   Seokjin’s footsteps are deathly silent and he walks into each room, intruding in Jungkook’s space like it’s his own. He is a shadow in the void, stalking unknown dangers. And in the meanwhile, Jungkook pulls down the curtains and Jimin locks the door behind him. Each person scopes the area for safety.   “No one was following us,” you note while assessing the space, more for practicality than admiring the decor.   “No one’s inside.” Jin comes out of the bathroom with a nod.   Jungkook stops peeking out of the blinds. “Looks like it’s safe.”   Taehyung sighs. “Is this really necessary? You’re acting like I’m the president.”   “Priorities first,” Jungkook says with a shrug. “And the priority is your safety.”   “Can’t skip out on responsibilities with our team leader right here.” Jimin smiles, his footsteps padding over to the fridge.    Jin slumps onto the couch, peeling off his jacket to throw haphazardly and putting his feet up on the table. “You shouldn’t be skipping out on any responsibility regardless if I’m here or not.”   “Why don’t you just make yourself at home.” Jungkook frowns, unamused and he kicks his senior’s feet off of his coffee table. In this space and at this time, no one has authority over anyone else and that includes Taehyung — everyone’s equals with one another.   “What the hell is this.” You walk over to the counter, swiveling on your heel to glare. “You got hard liquor, Jeon?”   “Only the best.” He grins and comes trotting over proudly. “Captain’s Morgan, Jack Daniel’s, the likes. What more could you want?”   “I was thinking something lighter.”   “Nah. That’s lame. Go hard or go home.”   “Well, we better get started then.” Taehyung flops down on the soft sofa too, sinking into the cushions. “You got any snacks?”   “Do I have any snacks.” Jungkook scoffs, personally offended. “You’re in snack haven, thank you very much.”    He grabs the bottles and Jimin brings glasses over. Everyone crowds around the coffee table in the small living room, sitting on the floor together as drinks are poured. You passingly wonder if this is what it feels like to have a group of friends — in the movies where the main character’s in college, it seems like people drink together often. It’s a nice and warm experience.    While the alcohol is disgusting on your tongue and has a way of burning as it travels down your throat, it makes you feel fuzzy after a while, relaxed. Your head becomes lighter and it seems words stream out with more ease.   But it’s still less effective to you than it is to Taehyung. Your stomach is steel while he seems to already be loopy by smelling it, tolerance endearingly low and cause for concern.   “So, how long have you been together?” Jungkook breaks your trance, running his thumb over the rim of his glass as if he tries to emit a ringing sound from it — it doesn’t work.   You don’t know who he’s talking to until he glances at you. “What?”   “You and Taehyung.”   He says it simply and with a lopsided smirk.   Immediately, your neck cranes towards Taehyung, fast enough to get whiplash and you exchange a hardened look with him. “I didn’t tell him!”   “I didn’t tell him either. I swear.” Jimin glances back and forth, alarmed as he reads your expressions and the blonde beside you.   “Wow, you told Jimin, but not me? I’m offended.” Jungkook laughs and leans back against the couch. “I’m assuming it happened somewhere after the whole hostage situation or was it earlier than that?”   “Is it true, chickpea?” Jin eyes you and finishes his drink, pupils still flickered above the rim.    You drown them out, narrowing your stare into Jungkook’s. He smiles with those doe eyes of his that are far from innocent. If no one told him….. “How’d you know?”   “I picked up on it.” He shrugs with a pout. “ It’s pretty obvious, y’know. Doesn’t my job require good observation skills? Plus, you two aren’t very good at hiding things. Pretty bad actually.”   “I….we’re….” You’re fiddling with the hem of your sweater, bringing your knees to your chest. Everyone’s waiting for an explanation — Jimin who watches carefully, Jungkook who’s much too curious and Jin who’s shocked. Taehyung waits as well, patiently, to find how you want to label your relationship. His eyes are piercing, intense, and it makes you swallow hard. Suddenly, the empty glass in front of you is the most interesting thing in the room. “...pre-dating.”   “The hell’s that?”   “We’re giving it a trial run before doing anything serious. We figured it would be….safer and better if we wait until Taehyung’s dad isn’t the President anymore. Less conflict of interest. Less chance of news outlets drawing attention to it. Fewer issues all around.”   “That’s really responsible,” Seokjin says, genuinely touched that you both gave so much thought into it.    Jimin sits straighter, bright smile directed to his superior. “That’s what I said too!”   “That’s dumb,” Jungkook corrects and deadpans. Then he releases a sigh held in his chest, lolling his head to the side. “You know there’s no such thing as pre-dating, right? You’re either dating or you’re not. You’re together or you’re not. But whatever. Do what you want. Label it whatever you want.”   “Don’t listen to him,” Jin chides with a scoff before turning to you with a softened smile. His hand lifts to plop on top of your head much to Taehyung’s dismay who swats it away in a petty manner and pulls you close to him. It makes Jin laugh. “Never thought this day would come. But I’m happy for you, chickpea, as long as you’re happy.”   “I’ll admit, I for one, always thought you liked Jin,” Jungkook exposes without regard.   “W-what?” You’re left sputtering, face heating. “He-he’s just someone I really respect.”   Taehyung scoffs, arm extending to drop on the couch right behind you. “You wish, Jeon. She much prefers me. I’m not just eye-candy or for one night. I’m the guy you introduce to your mom. I’m the real deal.”   “Psh.” The boyish bodyguard snorts. “Sure. Whatever makes you feel better about yourself, Kim.”   At this point, Taehyung’s ready to fight Jungkook to the death. But Seokjin steps in, clarifying, “Y/N and I are just close since we’ve known each other for so long.”   “She knew me for longer,” the man beside you counters, cocking his eyebrow upwards.   Everyone ignores him. “When I met her, she was the size of a pea. Or like a baby chick.”   “Is that why you call her chickpea?” Jimin asks and he nods, shifting to you with a smile.   “I met you when you were what...six?”   “I think so?” You’re unsure yourself. “I was in kindergarten.”   “Wait,” your partner interjects, hands in the air. “ You knew him before you knew me?!”   He’s beyond offended. Taehyung did, in fact, not know you for longer.    “Yeah, I was brought to my dad’s dojo. He was a student there.”   “My parents put me in taekwondo,” Jin says with a smile while Jungkook hums and pours more drinks for everyone, sobering up too quickly for his own liking. “They put me in a whole bunch of activities, like soccer and piano. But I liked taekwondo the best.”   Your jaw goes slack. “You know how to play soccer and play piano?”   “Not that well.” The older man is sheepish, scratching the back of his neck.   Jungkook quickly adds, “I know how to play drums.” Except no one pays him any attention except for Jimin who tells him that’s super cool.   In the meanwhile and as you’re swooning, melting into your spot at the idea of Kim Seokjin being talented beyond your own imagination, Taehyung’s not impressed whatsoever. What he thought was his leverage against the man has been ruined.   Taehyung thought he got to you first. He was your childhood friend. But goddammit! It was Seokjin who was always there without him even knowing.   “Why didn’t you tell me that you knew him before?”   “It’s not that big of a deal. We only saw each other at most...three times a year?”   “Oh.”   “Drink up, folks.” Jungkook shoves a shot into your hand. You look over to the man beside you, jean-covered thigh brushing yours, but he practically inhales the alcohol before you can tell him otherwise. You drink as well, coughing afterwards from the bitter taste. Even Jungkook sharply inhales, brows twitching for a moment before he sets it down, unaffected. “When’d you meet Taehyung?”   “I was in grade...three?”   “I was in grade two,” Taehyung comments with a smile, relaxed again. He’s no longer threatened by Jin’s presence, not like he was legitimately worried earlier. It’s all in good fun...mostly because he knows you too well. You like him the best regardless of what you might say or do — he’s confident on it.   Taehyung’s not wrong either.   “I played with him, well, more like babysitting.”   “You did not babysit me,” he defends with a playful scoff.   You alter your words, choosing them carefully. “I had to keep him...preoccupied while my dad and his were working. Like three to five times a week.”   “Did you get paid?” Jimin asks and you reply with a ‘not really’ while Taehyung shouts a ‘why would she?!’   “Well you do now,” Jungkook chirps, cheeky in the way he says it.   You raise both your brows and glass, taking a drink to it. He laughs happily, pouring you one while Taehyung glares, not particularly entertained with the way the conversation was heading.   But thankfully, Jimin clarifies, “You two are childhood friends then.”   “That we are,” Taehyung chimes proudly and with a giddy giggle. “We were best buds.”   “Well…..”   “Weren’t we?”   “Sure.” You grin and reach over to lightly pinch his cheek. His skin is already pink before you’ve touched it, but when you do, it’s warm beneath your fingers.    “Ugh, don’t be gross.” Jungkook groans without really meaning it. He pours himself another glass, liquid sloshing the sides of his cup. “I don’t need this public display of affection in my house.”   Jin’s smiling at you while Jimin’s shy. But Taehyung revels in it and to piss Jungkook off, he loops his arm around your shoulder, pulling you in to lean on his chest. You comply, not bothered whatsoever. Maybe it’s the liquid courage that seems to dull your sense of shame.    “You went to school with Y/N, right?” Jimin inquires with a hum, words beginning to slur together. “I think you mentioned it once or twice.”   “Yep,” Jungkook answers. “We went to the same high school together. We never talked much though. We were just classmates.”   “He was a shrimp,” you laugh out, the picture in your mind too funny to you. “I should find the yearbook and bring it for everyone to see!”   “Don’t.”   Jungkook’s warning doesn’t faze you. “He had a bowl haircut and wore clothes way too big for his size.”   “Hey, better than you. Everyone was scared of you. For a while there’s a rumour going around that you couldn’t talk at all. No one had ever heard your voice.”   Taehyung nudges you gently. “Something things never change, huh. Miss. Scary-Pants frightening children from day one.”   “I just didn’t talk much back then,” you mutter in defense.   “Everyone goes way back with Y/N then, except for Jimin,” Jin notices.   “Don’t worry, Chim. I like you the best.”   The boy in question grins, beaming brightly. “Thanks, Y/N.”   The night continues, stories being told and exchanged. There are tales of Jungkook moving to the big city, Jimin’s first day of work and how he nearly soiled his pants getting lost in the Blue House, as well as Taehyung talking about his attempt of running away at age seventeen.   There are more drinks passed around for one another, games played until everyone’s brought to the same level of drunkenness that Jungkook’s satisfied with.    You feel warm from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, finding laughing and giggling too easy. You don’t remember the last time you smiled or spoke so much.   But when it’s all done and over, you’re laying beside Taehyung on the floor. The lights are off, Jimin passed out about an hour ago and Jin taking the couch, falling back after trying to go home and finding it too difficult to do so. Jungkook’s a log on the floor as well, dead asleep by the television.   The sounds of snoring fill the small space while you’re still wide awake, as well as a certain someone.   “Did you have fun?” You try to whisper and stay quiet, but it fails as giggles bubble up your throat, ticklish from how close he is to you.   “Yeah.” Taehyung grins. “I had fun. Did you?”   “Yeah. I’m glad.” You reach out, happily taking his hand to hold it. He laces his fingers through yours and you smile infectiously.    There was no better place than here, surrounded by your closest friends and laying right beside him. You could see part of his face with the moonlight shedding through the gaps of the curtains and your eyes run along the slope of his nose, his cupid’s bow before lifting to his lashes.    Kim Taehyung doesn’t seem so lonely anymore.    And you’re relieved, heavy weights lifted off your shoulders, your chest lighter than it was before without the worry. And for you, while you’re still troubled every so often, it isn’t hard to speak what’s on your mind anymore — and it’s not just from liquid courage that prompts honesty.   It’s difficult to pinpoint your emotions, but you know it’s here. even if it’s overwhelming.    “Hey.”   “Hmm?”   “Where do you think we’ll be in a year,” you murmur, eyes flickering downwards where he squeezes your palm. “What do you think we’ll be doing?”   “I would’ve graduated by then. We’d be together.”   “You think so?”   “Yeah. I think so.” Taehyung smiles softly, the corners of his mouth pulled. “Hopefully my dad won’t run for a re-election.”   “And if he does?”   Taehyung hums a low note, soothing and enough to lull you asleep. But you keep your eyes peeled back, hanging onto every syllable that leaves his rumbling voice. “Then we could leave. If you want to. We could go to someplace else where...they wouldn’t know me…..they wouldn’t know you. It wouldn’t be dangerous. Or bad. You know? There are good art schools in other countries….I think you’d qualify for their police force if you tried or maybe join the WWE or whatever.” Taehyung laughs quietly. “Maybe you can even be an ambassador for our country or work at the embassy….”   You grin. “I thought you said you never wanted to leave.”   “Yeah, I said that.” The man sighs, eyes fluttering. “Cause I was scared that there’d be nothing if I came back. No one would remember me. But...I’m not scared no more. You’d be with me no matter what. Dad would be here. And Kook and Jin would be too. There’d be something for me here.”   “Okay.” You nod, squeezing his hand again before curling against his chest.   “Hmm? Okay, what?”   “Okay, let’s go. If we have to.”   Taehyung smiles against your hair, nuzzling into you. “Really? You’d come with me?”   “Yeah, why not?”   “We’d have to rent a place together and stay together all the time.”   “Good. I can protect you that way.”   He giggles, giddy at the prospects of the future. “We’d basically be married.”   “Sure.” You shrug, reveling in his pleasant scent of lavender and baby lotion. “Whatever you want.”   “You always give in to me,” Taehyung murmurs. “I feel like I push you around too much.”   “Only cause I let you.” There’s a big distinction of being forced and giving in, one that took you a while to learn. “I don’t mind it.”   “Are you sure?”   “You already asked me and I already said yes, dumbo.” You pull away slightly, reaching up to press a kiss against his mouth, one with too much tongue and saliva. You can taste the alcohol on his breath before pulling away.    Taehyung pouts. “I’m not the dumbo, you are.”   “No, you are.”   “No, you are.”   “Hey.” A few meters away, Jungkook rolls over. “Can you guys shut the fuck up?”   The two of you apologize before laughing and lest Jungkook moves to kick you both in the shins, Taehyung pulls you to his chest to muffle the sound. Eventually, your eyes bat thrice, lids becoming too heavy to resist….and you’re gone.

The world is bleary, blurred at the edges.   But as he blinks twice, his vision clears and he sees you at the table, sitting with your legs crossed. Your head is dipped low, neck probably hurting with how it’s bent. Yet, you continue relentlessly, small hand gripping the pencil that’s working hard against the paper, scratching lead into the surface. It moves in a flurry, fast. You’re a hard-worker even at eight years old.   Taehyung glances in the full-length mirror by the display case of plates and antiques left for decoration. He tips his head to the side as he studies his own reflection — big eyes looking back at him with overflowing cheeks. He’s less than four feet tall, dressed in long pants and a yellow shirt with a cute dog face on it.   He turns back around.   “Dumbo, what are you doing?”   “Working,” you mumble and he approaches, finding multiplication worksheets in front of you and you’re doing them rather quickly without needing to count on your fingers or mull over it for too long.   Suddenly, Taehyung’s eye catches the dinner table. Twisting around, there are two dark-haired males sitting without their feet touching the ground. Their legs are swung straight out, bouncing.    And Taehyung realizes this isn’t a memory at all — it’s a dream.   Jungkook’s doe eyes are even bigger and rounder than before, his lips in a permanent pout. The kid glances over beside him and his sticky fingers grab for the bag of candies, ripping it away from Jimin’s grasp. The latter child is stunned for a good ten seconds before bursting out into hysterical sobs, fat tears rolling down his cherub cheeks.   “He stole it from me!”   Jungkook digs his hands in, bringing it to his mouth and chewing the candies in his cheek. He blinks, completely aloof to the frenzied kid beside him who’s having a complete mental breakdown.   “Jungkook, don’t steal.” Footsteps pad out from the room down the hall, a taller and older person from the rest walking out. But despite seeming to have a good head on his shoulders and carrying himself more maturely, Seokjin’s still a child, not much older than the rest. “It’s okay, Jimin, we’ll get you another one,” he tries to placate and comfort in a smooth timbre.   Jimin’s curled fist raises to rub away at his eyes. “Really?”   “Really.”   “Really, really?”   “Triple really.”   A gooey smile spreads into his face and he quirks his head to the side. “Okay! I’ll share right now then!”    Despite Jimin’s compromise, Jungkook has no plans of letting go of his snacks any time soon.   Seokjin turns, looking over. He smiles and walks up slowly with arms behind his back before coming to lean over you. “Doing math homework, chickpea? Need help?”   You shake your head furiously. He stares. “Are you sure?”   Jin’s getting too cozy for your liking, too close. Taehyung watches curiously as you climb up onto your feet, steps scattering noisily. He expects you to dash down the hall, but instead you go right behind him for protection. Taehyung feels the way you grasp onto his shirt in fistfuls, and he grins, standing straight and boldly as your shield while something blooms inside his chest, making his tummy feel fluttery.   You peek out timidly from Taehyung’s shoulder.   “Okay then,” Jin smiles gently, not taking how you shied away from him to heart. “Tell me if you need it.”   “’Kay.”   Taehyung didn’t need to steal you away. You naturally came to him. And his heart is soaring.   After Seokjin leaves, Taehyung turns around to gaze at you. You were too cute — he wishes he didn’t bully and tease you as much as he did back then. “I thought you wanted Jin to help.”   “No.” You shake your head, smiling coyly before your finger pokes at his arm. “I want you to help with my maths.”   “I’m bad at math.”   “That’s ‘kay. I like you better.”   “Really?” His lashes bat, quirking your head to one side.   Your cheeks are puffy, big and swollen. “Yeah. You’re my favourite.”   He grins, so big that it hurts. Taehyung leans down and holds your hand, lacing his fingers between the gaps of your own. You watch the entire time, fascinated. Then, you look at him again with another sweet smile, a chortle that tinkles. “That’s good. You’re my favourite too. I like you.”   “How much?” you ask.   “A lot. Enough for me to love you.”   You’re made shy, bashful and giddy all over. “I love you too.”   Taehyung’s shaken awake by his own consciousness. Luckily, he’s not looking at Jungkook’s toes when his eyes open — he sees your sleeping face first. Through sleepy vision etched in blurriness, he watches the way your soft breathing leave through your parted lips, the way your lashes are sprawled against your skin, how your chest heaves up and down ever so gently.   Taehyung pulls you closer, nuzzling into you.   He goes back to sleep with a smile. If he knew at seven years old he would’ve been with you like this, past Taehyung would’ve been ecstatic for the future….

#bts fanfic #bts scenario #taehyung fanfic #taehyung scenario #taehyung fluff #ONE MORE CHAPTER!

[shy-marker-pliers]

High school AU thingamabob

Dark

17 year old senior

class president and is kinda high and mighty about it tbh

“yes i know student council can’t really make any changes without the input of the superintendent but IM THE PRESIDENT AND YOU’RE NOT SO SUCK MY DI-“

does sound/lights for all the shows the school puts on

dating wilford and no one knows how or why they’re together

had a deep as hell voice and a beard the second he hit puberty

takes every ethics/psychology class he can

wants to be a lawyer

that one kid that everyone fears but is actually kinda chill if not a little surly

wears a collared shirt and tie to school every day and would totally get made fun of for it if he wasn’t terrifying

listens to classical music unironically

“oh my god i’m so going to fail this test” *proceeds to get the highest grade in the class*

protector of the gays™️

person: *says something mean to a student because they’re lgbtq+*

Dark: *teleports in front of said student* omae wa mou shindeiru

Wilford

19 year old senior

Yes he still has the mustache

doesn’t give a fuck about what anyone thinks of him

deadass wore a dress to school after one of his friends got made fun of because she wore a suit to a school dance

b u f f a s h e l l

could bench press a teacher if he really tried

on the cheer team

“no i’m not wearing pants, this miniskirt makes my ass look great!”

everyone’s bodyguard

usually attracts a crowd of nervous underclassmen

has mild dyslexia

tol

gives his friends piggyback rides

president of the drama club

works hard enough in school to pass his classes but that’s pretty much it

sleeps in class

Bim

15 year old freshman

vice president of the drama club

wilfords shadow

first freshman to help run the drama club and shoves it in everyone’s face

shouts his gayness from the rooftops

secretly super insecure

loves plants and helps out in the schools greenhouse

named all of the plants but if you tell anyone he’ll stab you

gets mostly B’s and C’s

has mild ocd but not enough to affect him severely

talks like a game show host cause he thinks it makes him sound attractive

it doesn’t

Google(s)

16 year old juniors

identical quadruplets

they have to wear different colors every day or else no one knows which one is which

they’re called the googles because their backpacks match the colors of the chrome logo and they’re super smart

straight A 4.0 GPA students but Oliver has to try a little harder than his brothers

all of them are in the robotics team except for ollie

Blue works on programming and red and green are on the build team

Ollie is the sweetest day of sunshine to ever exist and everyone loves him

he’s basically adopted Eric as his lil bro

tutors people in the library every tuesday and thursday

the other googles disapprove of his relationship with bing but he makes ollie happy so they don’t do anything about it

they all work in a supermarket and they’re saving up for college

ollie wants to be a vet, red and green want to be engineers, and blue wants to be a web developer

Bing

17 year old junior

mostly A’s, a few B’s.

his full name is zachary bing but people call him bing because he’s always trying to one up the googles

dudebro

was pining after ollie for months before chase finally felt sorry for him and told ollie how he felt

they’re dating now and it’s adorable

so soft for his boyf

a really good skater and wins a lot of local competitions

doesn’t study but still gets p good grades

wears sunglasses all the time because he has light sensitivity

Has ADHD

s t r o n k

always challenges people to arm wrestle him

can sing really well and plays gitaur

shares a youtube channel with chase where they skate and to challenges and stuff

Dr. ipiler

18 year old senior

Everyone calls him doc because he helps the school nurse and takes every single biology and health class there is

all A’s

really wants to be a surgeon

best friends with Schneep

huge star trek/harry potter nerd (ravenclaw if you’re wondering)

almost always at schneep’s house studying or just chillin’

kind of a control freak

thinks he’s charismatic but he’s actually kinda annoying

but annoying in a funny way

has a pet ferret that he sneaks into school

feral

espresso and sugar flows through his veins

“i actually got a good sleep last night.” “oh really?” “yeah bro i got a whole half hour!”

super dark bags under his eyes

Host

17 year old junior

all A’s except for in gym class

he has eyes in this

his real name is Simon Charles Teller (there are specific meanings to those names btw look them up) but he’s called The Host because he does morning announcements every day.

has gold eyes and a lot of people find it unnerving

“hey i have a podcast you should totally listen to it”

nocturnal

spends all of his free time in the library

always reading in class but the teachers don’t really care bc his grades are good and he does his homework

wants to be an english/poetry teacher

crushing on the cute shy kid from his english class

doesn’t talk much but he’ll still be nice to you

that one kid who’s always correcting the teachers

Runs the D&D club (he’s the dungeon master)

Eric Derekson

16 year old junior

Mostly high B’s, a couple of A’s.

lives with his uncle mark after he ran away from his abusive dad and is living a happy life

the guy that always volunteers to take care of the class pets over the weekend

animals love him

has anxiety, mild paranoia and autism.

animals, harry potter, and pokémon are his hyperfixations.

he also really likes gardening

crushing big time on hostioli

spends his entire english class staring at him and blushing

is seriously considering joining D&D club just to be able to talk to him

he’s in the art club

wants to be a vet and maybe do some freelance art stuff on the side

Ollie keeps yelling at him to just ask host out already but he’s too nervous

my poor bb boi

Wears sweaters all the time

wears headphones to block out noise if it ever gets too loud at he goes into sensory overload

disaster bi

Yan

18 year old senior

gets C’s

non-binary

has a makeup tutorial channel on youtube and has a pretty decent following

That one weeb

dyes their hair a new color every week

also has a new crush every week

everyone knows who their newest victim is because they never stop watching them

draws anime or cute animals for every art class

wants to be a a fashion designer

does MMA

everyone kinda stears clear of them

writes their first initial along with their crush’s on every notebook they own

has gotten suspended for beating kids up on multiple occasions

doesn’t really have that many friends but they don’t mind

spends their lunches watching their crush

in the drama club and the art club

Randall Voorhees

18 year old senior

C’s and D’s

Eric’s cousin/bodyguard

they have a lot of the same classes and walk everywhere together

loves animals and has like 10 pet rats

he doesn’t really care about his grades because he knows that he wants to be a woodworker/construction guy

makes little houses out of scrap wood for his rats and Eric thinks it’s adorable

always sneaks his rats to school and lets them have play dates with dr. iplier’s ferret

“nO IM NOT RELATED TO JASON VOORHEES HES NOT EVEN REAL SO SHUT THE HELL UP-“

used to live in nyc in queens and still has a pretty strong accent

completely incomprehensible when he’s excited or angry bc of the accent

everyone is jealous of his hair

spends like 100 dollars on shampoo and conditioner and stuff but it’s worth it

acts like the straightest guy in existence but could not be more gay

his boots are always muddy

Yancy

16 year old sophomore

his name is Yancy Bird

g...get it? like jailbird? ahaha...ok i’ll stop

permanent resident of the detention room

but he gets to just chill out and read for an hour so he doesn’t really mind

mostly gets detention for beating up kids that bully others

fuck the system

always wears a leather jacket and blue jeans

“hey, the 50’s called and they want their-“ SMACK. “shut up.”

takes a lot of criminal justice and psychology classes ironically

in the botany club but if you tell anyone they’ll never find your body

everyone is surprised when they find out he’s friends with Eric and ollie

pan but in denial

“i’m not gay guys, that ain’t me, i’m just comfortable with my sexuality. so i can admit when i see a guy with a handsome face and pretty eyes-“

that song is great btw you should listen to it

anyway

always makes really dark jokes and everyone is like “are you ok?”

except for his friends they just laugh

“lmao wouldn’t it be funny if everyone like...died”

#markiplier #markiplier egos #darkiplier #eric derekson #the host #wilford warfstache #yancy iplier #randall voorhees #bim trimmer #high school

[you-a-southpaw-doll]

Leader or Not... ~ A Negan One-Shot

Summary: 

You’d think that after 22 years of being around each other, Negan would know when not to mess with Leigh. You’d think that after 22 years of being best friends and married for the last 20, Negan would know when not to touch Leigh’s food. You’d think that after 22 years of watching Leigh threaten and even punch people for touching her food, that Negan would know better. 

You’d think this...and you’d be just as wrong as Negan. Despite the fact that the only person allowed to “steal” Leigh’s food is Negan himself, even there comes a time, and a dish, that Leigh just won’t share. Not even with her own husband. You’d think Negan would know this...both before, but especially after, the end of the world and the dead started walking the Earth.

You’d think that Negan would know not to touch Leigh’s bacon.

Warning(s): Language. Angst, maybe? Threats - spoken, unspoken, well known, good,  and bad. Rules - both Negan and Leigh’s. Violence - Seriously, Don’t fuck with Leigh. Negan being an ass ‘cause, well, he’s Negan. Leigh takes Lucille’s place in the comics but doesn’t die. Secret relationship - well, secret to every-fuckin’-one that’s not Negan or Leigh. Leigh’s a badass. Not beta’d, so...there’s that. I only have Grammarly used on this. 

Author’s Note(s): Here’s that new Negan fic I mentioned! :)

Word Count: 2,631 words

Relationship(s): Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC) [romantic]. 

Characters: Negan. Leigh Sullivan (OFC). Sanctuary Workers. Simon. Carson, mentioned.

Taglist: @negans-network @prettyboynegan @mychemicalimagines @spnnnxangelsx @rockinkel21 @misskittycat02 @band--psycho@ofxallxwexlost @iron-halt @thamberlinawrites @ravenwings73 @lettherebepink @stoneyggirl @sebs-padawan 

_______________________________________________________________________

Story Time:

Third Person’s P.O.V. ~ 

You’d think that after 22 years of being around each other, Negan would know when not to mess with Leigh. You’d think that after 22 years of being best friends and married for the last 20, Negan would know when not to touch Leigh’s food. You’d think that after 22 years of watching Leigh threaten and even punch people for touching her food, that Negan would know better. 

You’d think this...and you’d be just as wrong as Negan. Despite the fact that the only person allowed to “steal” Leigh’s food is Negan himself, even there comes a time, and a dish, that Leigh just won’t share. Not even with her own husband. You’d think Negan would know this...both before, but especially after, the end of the world and the dead started walking the Earth.

You’d think that Negan would know not to touch Leigh’s bacon.

***

Leigh’s P.O.V. ~

Sitting across the table from Negan as we eat breakfast in the cafeteria, I listen to my husband talk ‘bout the plans for the day’s scavenging runs with Simon as I glance down at my tray. Since we had a pretty good haul yesterday, the kitchen was able to whip up some scrambled eggs, french toast, and bacon. The bacon’s a treat for those of us that can afford it by havin’ ‘nough points.

Thankfully for me, though, between being Negan’s right hand, top savior, and secret wife, I can have whatever the fuck I want. My husband doesn’t care as long as I’m happy. Besides, I risk my ass to bring in the goods that we find out there. I say I’m his secret wife ‘cause...well...no one else knows he and I together. 

At least not officially. Everyone knows to keep their hands to themselves. My husband doesn’t tolerate rape, and I don’t either. Plus, I may have once cut a man’s dick off and shoved it down his throat when he tried to get fresh with me. That was at the beginning when I was helping Negan get this place set up and there hasn’t been another incident like it since.

He and I decided that it would be in my best interest, and his too since he’s the Bossman, if there wasn’t a giant target on my back, painting me as his weakness. Not that I’m weak. I’m not. I’ve made that abundantly clear in the last few years since the dead started walking, and even before, way back when civilized society was still a thing. 

Yet, neither of us could handle the thought of someone trying to use me to get my husband. He can’t stand the thought of someone trying to hurt me. I’m his wife, after all, the love of his life, the one woman who’s always been there, or at least been there for the last 22 years, ever since senior year of college. 

And, I can’t stand the thought of anyone hurting Negan in any way whatsoever. He’s my husband, the love of my life, my best friend, and my whole world. And hurting me, well, it hurts him, and I ain’t ‘bout to let that happen. So, we decided that we’d keep our relationship a secret. It hasn’t been easy, that’s for fuckin’ sure.

Not when I see women, and hell even some men, flirt with him, thinking they have a chance. Before the world ended, I used to slide up next to him, my hands all over him, and make it clear that he wasn’t single. Now...I just grit my teeth and give the other person the deadliest glare I can, while watching Negan brush it off, only sometimes flirting back, not that part bothers me.

My husband has always been a flirt. Hell, that’s how he and I ended up becoming best friends, then dating, and even getting married two decades ago. It’s just who he is. Even so, he wouldn’t cheat on me, that I know for a fact. And, I know it abso-fuckin’-lutely kills him to see men and women flirt with me, thinking that I’d be up for a one-night stand.

I never am. Not when I have the man of my dreams still by my side. Even if he is a jealous ass at times who doesn’t like to share what’s his. That always turns into some of the best sex of our lives after he catches some fuck flirting with me. Not that I ever flirt back. That’s just not who I am; I’ve never been much of a flirter…’cept with Negan.

Other than watching people flirt with the other, Negan and I have managed to keep our relationship secret. I mean, yes. We still sneak touches, glances, and whispered words when we think no-one’s ‘round, and we always come home to each other every night, and we still wear our wedding rings, but we don’t flaunt our marital status.

And nobody questions the close-knit bond he and I have. They figure it’s just one of those “gotta survive, so I teamed up with this person” type of bonds that are common since the dead started walking. And...no one would dare question the barbed-wire covered bat-wielding, leather jacket wearing, swear with every other word, leader of the Sanctuary.

Hearing my husband’s deep chuckle, I glance up and hide a smile as I see him pat Simon’s shoulder. I raise a brow, drawing the conclusion that they’re finally finished discussing plans for the day. Maybe Simon’ll fuck off now and I can get back to enjoying breakfast with my husband. Negan glances at me and shoots me a wink as he takes a sip of the orange juice we picked up from the Hilltop a few days ago.

I blush a little, glancing back at my plate and pick up a strip of bacon, bringing it to my mouth, taking a bite, and glancing back at him. A smirk plays on my lips as I watch his eyes dart from mine to the piece of cooked meat between my lips.

“Leigh.” He growls softly.

I smirk. “Yes, Sir?”

His eyes darken and I try not to giggle at the lust and love that swims in his muddy water brown eyes. He discreetly shifts in his seat, stretching out his fuckin’ long-ass legs until his boots brush my shins. To anyone else, it’d look like he’s getting comfortable. But, I know better. He’s itching to touch me, and I know he’s hard from me calling him “Sir”.

“You’re going out on the run today, right?” He asks, playing it off like he’s not rubbing his boot up and down my lower leg.

“As far as I know, Sir. Unless you need me here for something?” I question, taking another bite of bacon.

“Nope. I need you out there with me. You’re the only fuckin’ person I trust to have my fuckin’ back and protect my sexy ass.”

I snort with a laugh. “Of course, Boss. Whatever you need.”

Simon shakes his head. “She can’t fuckin’ protect you, boss. She’s too tiny.”

Both Negan and I jerk our heads to glare at Simon. Negan’s foot pauses, pressing against my knee, I reach a hand down to slide my fingers under his jeans, and softly stroke the little bit of skin above the top of his boot in an attempt to calm him. My actions remain hidden by the table, thankfully, and I watch him relax just a little at my touch.

“Simon…” He and I both growl out at the exact same time.

“I have protected his ass since long before yours ever showed up. I’m the one who’s been there for him, stitched him up, and killed any fucker, dead or alive, who tried to take him out.” I hiss at the slightly balding man. “Yes, I am short, but you know what they say ‘bout short folks. We’re closer to Hell, so we’re meaner. And, I will fuck you up, along with any other fuckin’ dumbass that tries to mess with him.”

Negan nods. “She’s right. She will. And she’ll do it over something as simple as someone trying to steal a bite of her food. ‘Cept for me of course. ‘Cause I’m the Leader, and I can do what I fuckin’ want. Ain’t that right, doll?”

He glances at me as he reaches for a bite of my eggs. I rub my thumb across his leg as I nod. He’s right. I have fucked people up for trying to steal my food. Even if it’s just meant playfully. I don’t fuckin’ share it. Never have. Unless it was with my brothers, my best friend, and eventually Negan. It even became our thing while we were dating.

That was actually how he figured out that I liked him back.

“That’s fuckin’ right. So, Simon, if I can fuck someone up over trying to steal my food, just imagine what I can do to someone who tries to hurt Negan.” I say, finishing my strip of bacon.

Simon’s eyes widen, and I know he’s heard the stories ‘bout what I’ve done when some of the other Saviors once tried to, jokingly, take a bite of my food off my plate. Let’s just say that they ended up with jobs that didn’t require the use of both hands after that. He shakes his head, sighing.

“Whatever. I can still protect him better than you can, Leigh. I’ve easily got a foot and 150 pounds on you.” He gripes.

I raise a brow. “And we both know I’ve kicked your ass before. Or do you need a reminder?”

He shakes his head. “No.”

Negan laughs and shakes his head as he reaches for another piece of food off my tray. I don’t pay it any attention until I see what he’s reaching for. In one quick movement, my hand is off his leg, above the table, and holding a fork between his fingers, leaving it embedded in the tabletop. 

“Don’t. Fuckin’. Touch. My. Motherfuckin’. Bacon.” I hiss, glaring at my husband.

Every fuckin’ thing and every single person in the Sanctuary goes silent at my actions. I’m not surprised. They don’t know he and I are married. To them, I’m just a Savior who just threatened the Boss. Granted, I intentionally missed and Negan knows that. He knows I’d never hurt him. A moment later, Simon has his hands on me, jerking my arms behind my back.

I growl and slam my head back, busting his nose and knocking him to the ground, effectively loosening his grip on me. I glare at my husband for a brief moment, taking in his wide eyes and slightly opened mouth, before I quickly stand and pin Simon to the ground.

“Do. Not. Under. ANY. FUCKIN’. Circumstance. Lay. A. Fuckin’. Hand. On. Me.” I growl at him. “I’m not some bitch you can just touch, Simon. And you’d best fuckin’ remember that. What happens between Negan and I is our business. And he fuckin’ knows better than to steal my goddamn bacon. The punishment for stealing my food is NOTHING compared to someone thinkin’ they can touch me. And, if you ever fuckin’ touch me again, I will string you up by your goddamn tiny ass dick and stick you on that fence my-fuckin’-self. Am I fuckin’ understood?”

He swallows deeply, or well, as best as he can since his face is bruising, and blood pouring outta his nose. But, he nods in understanding, fear flashing through his eyes as he glares at me. I stand, kicking him in the side once, just below the ribs.

“Get the fuck outta here and go fuckin’ see Carson, you pornstache creep.” I hiss before turning back to the table, taking my seat once more, and drinking my orange juice. 

I hear him shuffle to his feet before he walks away. I smirk to myself and turn my attention back to my husband. He’s clearly still in shock. Not once have I ever physically threatened him for taking my food, and it’s because I generally don’t mind. Except when it comes to my bacon. No one fuckin’ touches my bacon and he’s known that.

He was just trying to prove a point to Simon earlier, but it backfired on him. There’s only been two people in my life who I have shared my bacon with: my baby brother, Eli, and mine and Negan’s daughter, Lucille. Up until we lost her to childhood leukemia at the age of 5. I take another sip of my orange juice as I stare at my husband.

Negan holds his hands up in surrender as he lets out a shaky laugh. His foot isn’t close to my leg anymore, and if I wasn’t slightly pissed off at him for trying to steal my bacon, I’d whine softly at the loss. He leans in closer to me and just barely manages to whisper, but it’s still loud ‘nough for those ‘round to hear. 

“You’re fuckin’ lucky I fuckin’ love you, sweetheart.”

My eyes widen at his words. It’s not the first time I’ve heard him tell me he loves me, but it is the first time since the dead started walking that I’ve heard him say those words where other people can clearly hear. I know my left eyebrow is now raised high, surely resting halfway between my hairline and my eye. 

He just smirks that dimpled little smirk at me, thinking he’s got the upper hand again.

Oh, but he doesn’t know just how wrong he is. 

I smirk over the top of my glass of orange juice, before lowering it to the table and leaning in close to him. Our lips are just a breath’s touch away from touching each other’s. Instead of kissing him right away like I really want to, I whisper something back to him.

“I love you too, and I don’t give a flying Fuck if you’re the leader or not. You. Do. Not. Fuckin’. Touch. My. Motherfuckin’. Bacon. I won’t miss next time.” 

Only once the words have left my lips do I allow myself to kiss him. I don’t really give a flying fuck ‘bout everyone watching at this point. The cat’s basically outta the bag. I smile and relax, calming down a little bit, giving in to the feeling of the kiss. Just before he can turn the kiss into a more passionate one, I pull back, smirking at him.

“No runs, mister. Not today. You’ve got a punishment waiting for you in the room.” I say, my voice low and full of unspoken promises.

As I stand once more, grabbing my tray, I watch as he flashes me that devilish, dimpled grin I fell in love with over 20 years ago. That “I’m a bad boy and you shouldn’t introduce me to Grandma” dimpled grin. I wink at him before walking away, putting my tray in the bin to be cleaned later by one of the kitchen workers.

Without looking back at him, I know he’s still got that grin on his face and that he ain’t moving till his hard-on has gone down just a little so he can comfortably walk. Just before I walk out the cafeteria’s door, I raise my hand above my shoulder and flip him off. His laugh follows me out into the hallway as I make my way back to our room.

Leader or not, I don’t give a fuck. He’s still my husband and our relationship’s no longer a secret. Leader or not, I don’t give a fuck. No one fuckin’ touches my bacon. Leader or not, I don’t give a fuck. He’s getting punished. Leader or not, I don’t give a fuck. 

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