#my weekend is going to be busy again lol i wanted to do something else with what little free time i have but it’s time to LOCK IN

[akkivee]

THEY GAVE JYUSHI A GUN?????????????????????????????????

#this is vee speaking #the arb chronicles #AND I WAS NOT TOLD HOLD AAAAAAAAAAAAAWN?????????????? #KUUKOU PULLING UP WITH A SWORD AND HITOYAS ALSO GOT A GLOCK PEAK EVENT LIKE ACTUALLY???????? #I SHOULDNT BE SPENDING MY MONEY BUT ACTUALLY I THINK ILL SPEND SOME MONEY LMAO #WHO WE FIGHTIN BAT WHO WE CHOOSING STRIFE ON????????????????? #my weekend is going to be busy again lol i wanted to do something else with what little free time i have but it’s time to LOCK IN

[theflyingfeeling]

Imagine if either Olli or Aleksi (or maybe both??) is used to sleeping with someone and just can’t fall asleep without another person and of course a bro helps another bro out and volunteers to cuddle but oops feelings

(also may I introduce this collection of them cuddling 🥰)

noooooooo that's one of my favourite tropes!! 😭💞

and why not combine this with the 'coming up with excuses to sleep together' trope because 🥺💞💕💓💗💕💞💕 the excitement of getting under the covers, the wondering if the goosebumps on the other's skin is just because they're feeling cold or something else... the perfect excuse to cuddle closer anyway 🥰

#(i saw your other ask too but to me it seems these are the exact same pics? 😅) #also since you're here - a little update on the olli/allu fic i'm writing: #i got stuck with a scene and will probably have to start all over since that's how i work lol #but i've been unwell lately because of my period + i had another busy weekend so i haven't been able to 😭 #i get these awful migraine-like headaches before/during/after my period #just terrible headache that doesn't necessarily go away even with painkillers. the kind of headache that makes you wanna throw up #and this time i've gotten that both before AND during (usually it's just one of those options) 🥲 #and i'm so frustrated because i really want to write olli/allu making out (and maybe doing something else) on the beach 😭 #i just love them so much 🥺💕 #but i can always try again tomorrow eh? #thanks for putting all this cuteness in my askbox again! much needed 😭💖 #ollixallu #answered asks #sparfloxacin

[miguelhugger2099]

Omg first off LOVE!!! your wiring literally *chef’s kiss* imagine Miguel x reader suggestive smut where they’ve been both super busy and haven’t had time for each other and tension has been building up to this point.

Worth the Wait

nonie im gonna sob. not only was i so excited to see you be my first ask, this is also my first ever written smut!! aaaa im so nervous so please have mercy !! i jumped on my laptop as soon as i saw this and its so late right now haha im a little tired but i didnt want you to wait at all !! im not sure if i wrote too much or too little lol regardless i really hope you enjoy and if not i'm more than happy to make something else and thank you sososo much for the compliment <3333 the ask wasnt specified if it was fem!reader or not so i made it gn!reader just in case <3 Miguel x GN!Reader, Smut, too embarrassed to proofread it, Word Count: 3,681

“Hey, Miguel, do you think you could stay late tonight? Boss wants you in the lab for testing.” A short woman popped her head in his room, her hair neatly tucked in a high bun. Miguel stopped his pacing in his office, his glasses lifted on his head using it as a headband to pull back his fringe. He placed the beakers in his hands down and took off his gloves while ruby eyes glanced at the clock on the wall. He was supposed to leave in a couple minutes.

Miguel’s eyebrows scrunched up, tsking under his breath and turning to look at the woman. “Can’t someone else be there? Peter can oversee it instead.” He pleaded, exasperated. She gave him a sympathetic look and sighed.

“Sorry, Miguel. He specifically asked for you.” Not wanting to be the bearer of bad news anymore, she slipped out the door and shut it behind her, leaving Miguel to groan and slump his shoulders. He stared up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, breathing in and out to calm his anger. It seemed like these days all he ever did was overtime at work. He fiddled with the golden band around his left ring finger, his other hand twirling it mindlessly for some comfort and also a silent apology to you.

His heart ached as he made his way to his desk, picking up his phone and dialing your number. He licked his lips while he brought the phone up to his ear. Miguel wasn’t prepared to hear your voice, happy and hopeful and only be met with disappointment.

“Miggy?” You answer happily. A small smile forms on Miguel’s face.

“H-hey, baby. You doing alright?” He asked, taking a seat on his swivel chair and leaning back to stare at the photo of you two on his desktop.

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m finishing up dinner. Are you on your way home?”

Miguel’s smile dropped a bit, realizing once more why he had called in the first place. “Um, about that, mi corazón. I have to–”

“You have to stay the night, don’t you?” You cut him off, disappointment evident in your voice. Miguel’s heart clenched at the sound.

“I…I do. Believe me, I don’t have a choice or I’d be there in a heartbeat.”

“It’s okay, really. I’m not mad or anything. This month has been hectic for both of us. I just… I just miss you is all.” You speak softly over the phone. He missed you more. He wanted to be there.

“Lo siento, bebé. You know how much I hate being away from you.” He apologized. “How about tomorrow, huh? I have off. We can go out and get a drink. Or maybe stay home? I know how much you love my cooking.” He offered, his heart beating faster at the thought of spending time with you again. That feeling sank when he heard you let out a quick puff of air in annoyance.

“I can’t. I’m working this weekend. Six days in a row,” You rolled your eyes just thinking about it. Your job always had a way of pushing your buttons. Miguel’s jaw clenched as he heard you. Miguel never really liked this recent event of work taking up his time from seeing you. He hated it even more when your job took you away from him. “God, I really thought we’d have tonight together at least.”

Miguel was quick to reassure you. “Hey, hey. Listen. We’ll have a day together. Eventually there’ll be a day for just us–all about us, I promise.”

When Miguel had arrived home, it could barely be even classified as night time with the way the sun had been peeking through the horizon. He dragged his body through the door, a cold home awaiting him. After kicking off his shoes, he dumped his coat and bag on the floor and made his way to the kitchen, eating the leftovers of the dinner you two were supposed to eat together before trudging back to bed. He saw you lying there on your side and he felt exhaustion drag him down.

Miguel slipped in under the covers beside you after striping himself of his clothes, leaving him in his underwear and slipped his arm around you. He pressed your body flushed against his, Miguel’s larger body enveloping yours protectively. His nose buried itself in your neck, his lips grazing your shoulder. His hand rubbed your stomach and then slid up to rub up and down your waist. Sneakily, he ran his hand under your shirt while his lips left small kisses on your neck and shoulder. You stirred awake as you felt the sudden touch of someone else.

Miguel felt you move so he pulled you tighter to him, keeping you caged in that position. “Mig…?” You called out sleepily. You felt something poke you from behind and groaned. Miguel continued to kiss your neck, his teeth coming out to gently nip at the skin making you shiver. He simply hummed his response.

“‘M home.” He murmured. He slowly turned you on your back, towering over you slightly with your leg between his. Miguel’s arm rested by your head while his attacks became more intimate. You leaned your head back, allowing him more access and his other hand on your hip squeezed you in appreciation. You bent your leg up on the bed slightly, your knee caressing his growing bulge in his boxers. Miguel let out a low groan, his hips grinding on you for some friction.

Your hands finally reached up to his hair, curling your fingers around his soft wavy brown locks. Miguel took this as an opportunity to capture your lips with his, muting the soft moans you were letting out. His own knee spread your legs apart, rubbing in between them to add to your pleasure. You felt a jolt of pleasure run down your spine, bucking your hips up instinctively. Miguel sighed against you, his hand on that had been gripping your hip, moved down to the hem of your pajama pants. He teasingly pulled it down, letting it snap back to your body and making you whine. You felt him grin through your kiss. Cheeky bastard.

Before he could ease his hand down your pants, your alarm had blared through the room, shocking the both of you and separating yourselves off each other. Miguel scowled while you clambered up to grab your phone. “The hell was that?” He grunted, displeased with being interrupted. You fumbled with turning it off, placing a hand on your chest to calm your fast beating heart.

“My alarm. I have a morning shift.” You moaned, tossing your phone back on the counter and standing up from the bed. Miguel blinked twice before getting up with you. He reached out his hand to grab yours in an attempt to stop you.

“Woah, woah, hey–what’s the rush?” He asked, turning you around and cupping your cheek. “We can at least have these couple minutes, can’t we?” His voice dropped an octave, leaning down to press a kiss on your cheek. Miguel tried to kiss downwards but you stopped him, albeit unwillingly.

“Amor, you know damn well how Nueva York’s traffic is in the morning. I’m not gonna be late and get my ass in trouble ‘cause you can’t keep it in your pants.” You slipped from his arms with a playful roll of your eyes and walked to the kitchen. Miguel scoffed, slightly offended, his eyes watching you walk away and looking down at your ass.

“Don’t act like you weren’t enjoying it.” He grumbled, looking down at the tent in his boxers wondering what to do with it now.

For the next week, it had been nothing but just pure torture. With the month making you and Miguel work away from each other, this week was stretching that limit. When Miguel worked in the morning, you’d work at night and vice versa. Each time without fail, you managed to slip in a few teasing touches. Waking up Miguel by sitting on his lap and peppering kisses on his cheeks with his hands grinding your hips down on his hardening cock. Miguel cupping your ass and giving it a squeeze when you came home from work while he was on his way out. Both of you were on the brink of breaking by this point. These small acts were supposed to tame the fire within you, not burn it brighter.

Eventually, it was finally your day off after a long weekend. A break from customer service and passing out as soon as you got home. Miguel had work today but he texted earlier that he’d get off on the hour he was supposed to this time around. You felt bad. He’d been working so hard and today had been no different. He took a shift earlier than usual so he could come home earlier without anyone being there to suddenly ask for him to stay. Lord knows he’s pushing those forty hours into overtime.

From the bedroom, you heard the door open, keys jingling as it was turned to unlock it. You got up from the bed and peered out the door, seeing Miguel kicking off his shoes and coat while tossing his bag carelessly on the living room chair. “Welcome home.” You greeted him. He dragged his feet closer to you with his head down, the top buttons on his white button up were popped open, exposing a glimpse of his collarbone. Miguel immediately wraps his arms around you, pulling you in for a comforting hug. You followed suit, hugging him back since you sensed he probably had a rough day. He hummed in response, settling for resting his chin on your head. You stayed like that for a while just holding one another until you felt his hand run under your shirt to feel your soft skin against his calloused hands. They continued up and up your spine until your shirt was lifting up with him. “Miguel.”

“What?” He grumbled. One hand slid down under your pants, getting a quick feel of your ass and pulling your pelvis to him. You gasped and tightened your hold around him, feeling the warmth of arousal ignite in your stomach. “I need to have you. I can’t wait any longer.” His soft touching became more possessive, roughly grabbing your ass and tugging on your shirt and pants.

“Miguel.” You repeated his name, this time in a whimper. Your own hands slipped down his collared shirt and lightly scratched your nails on his large back which made him shiver. He pulled back and you saw his eyes hazed with desire, pupils blown wide.

“Please…” He whispered, his lips brushing up against yours. Your hands fell to his buttoned shirt as you looked up at him. Your heart raced in your chest–the sheer want of having you all to himself finally after weeks was too good to pass up. You nodded and the pleading look on Miguel’s face dropped as he immediately bent down to kiss you. You let out a squeak of surprise between his lips right before giving into his needs and kissing him back.

He tugged your pants down to your ankles before lifting you out of the puddle of clothes and bringing you to the bed. Once you were laid on top, you watched Miguel fumble with his belt. His large hands quickly unhooked the metal making it chime and the soft zipping sound of the leather sliding out his belt loops. He practically ripped himself free from his clothes, not even unbuttoning his shirt and just lifted it up and off his torso. You saw his girthy length, standing tall and proud with a slight red color tinged at his tip while the rest of him was a slighter darker color than his skin. His tip was already oozing with precum. A sight you had always welcomed. It became clear to you that Miguel had been thinking about this for a while–maybe all day. Miguel crawled on top of you, helping you out of your shirt and underwear and kissing you again while his hands roamed your body.

“I’ve waited so long. Did you miss me like how I missed you, cariño?” He sighed between your lips. Your hands clutched his shoulders, one leg hooking around his waist.

“Always.” You whimpered back.

“On your knees. Now.” He growled. You felt your heart skip a beat, another heartbeat going straight to your core. Stumbling, you got off your back and got on your hands and knees like Miguel wanted. This position has always made you flustered. It was both embarrassing and exhilarating not seeing what Miguel could do to you, or even get to put your hands on him–solely relying on feeling.

Perfect timing, his hands met your ass, grabbing them and massaging them. “So perfect,” He murmured. His finger grazed your aching hole where you were the most sensitive, purposefully teasing the nerves on your body. He took pleasure in the way you writhed beneath him, succumbing to his hand. His thick cock rubbed up against you, smearing his leaking fluid on you for even better access. Then ever so slowly, gliding in his fat weeping tip inside and penetrating your walls.

You both moaned in unison. The feeling of being stuffed was like finally feeling that last puzzle piece snap in place. “Uff, fuck–I’ve missed you,” He groaned, his breath shaking as he leaned over your body. His one hand held the headboard in front of him while his other hand held the plushness of your hip tightly. Miguel’s body was shaking as he entered you slowly, stretching you out after a long time of not seeing each other like this. You whimpered, falling from your hands onto your elbows as you shook with him. “Ease up, cariño, así es.” He praised, leaning back to watch his cock disappear inside you. His pride swelled at how easily he seemed to slide in you even after so long, his mouth curling into a sly smirk.

“Mi–guel…” You choked out a moan. You whined and gripped the pillow underneath your head tightly in your fists. You had forgotten just how huge Miguel was, his covered bulge was nothing compared to the real thing. Panting, you heard your heartbeat in your ears, turning your head to rest your cheek on the pillow.

Miguel’s hand left the headboard by this point, choosing instead to rest on your back, running down the curve of your spine to press your head down. You whimpered and clenched around him which made him let out a string of curses under his breath. You felt him push himself to the hilt, his balls gently smacking against the curve of your ass. He groaned, his hand on your head gripped your hair to still himself from pounding you immediately. The two of you stood there, breathing heavily while you felt each other. You could feel him throbbing inside you, twitching ever so softly. Miguel bit his lip to hinder himself from cumming on the spot with your walls convulsing around him, weakly attempting to suck him in deeper.

You wiggled your hips, bucking them back against Miguel with a pathetic whine. “M-move…plea–” You got cut off when Miguel slipped out of you, and then he slammed back inside making you scream and shake. He then began a steady pace, enough for movement but not as quick as you wanted. Still, you mewled and clutched at the sheets while his cock was ravaging your guts. The hand on your hip wrapped around your lower stomach, his bicep flexing as he held your weight up to fuck your from behind.

“Too long. It’s been too fucking long since I’ve fucked this needy hole properly.” Miguel sighed, huffing with each thrust of his hips. Your eyes rolled back and your jaw slacked open. Skin slapping echoed in the room along with the wet smack of sweat between your bodies. It was a symphony of lust and desire. An aching instinct to be reunited like this. You pleaded for more–a little quicker, a little harder– and Miguel who loved you so much didn’t want to deny either of you this ecstasy. He then used both hands to grab onto your hips and started to drag your body back and forth on his dick, drilling himself in you like a toy. Miguel used up all his frustrations of not being able to see you all this time, his eyes drinking in your writhing form while he bucked into you abandonly.

“Yes! Yes! Fuck–Miguel…!” You squealed, involuntarily squeezing him which made me grunt and buck his hips faster. You babbled nonsense while your core bubbled up the feeling of an orgasm. You screwed your eyes shut as you allowed Miguel to hump against you. He leaned over you again, pressing kisses on your back, murmuring things you could barely hear over the sound of your own moans.

Suddenly, Miguel had pulled out again leaving you feeling empty and light headed while the feeling of an impending orgasm disappeared. He let go of you, your hips bouncing on the bed without the support of his strength holding you up. You opened up your eyes, glazed with pleasure and shakily tried to look behind you. Before you could, Miguel took your body and flipped you on your back. It all happened quickly before you could even register what was happening. He took your legs and tugged your body closer to him like a ragdoll. He spread them wide then pressed them up against your chest. You lolled your head up and you saw his fringe had fallen to his forehead, sticking to it with his sweat. His chest was heaving up and down, the glow of the moonlight highlighting the carvings of his muscles perfectly–it made your breath hitch.

Miguel then loomed over you, nuzzling his head into your neck again. You leaned your head to the side making him gain more access to you. His teeth bit your soft flesh, his lips suckling your skin to leave tiny bruises along the side. “Ah–” You squirmed and gasped when you felt Miguel slide back into you again. You quickly wrapped your arms around him, your hand running through his already messy hair. You pressed his head closer, your eyes opening up hazily to stare at the ceiling while Miguel starts his pace again.

“So tight, just f’me, hm? You have no idea how much–” He moaned in between speaking, the lust clouding his mind. “H-how much I needed you. I should’ve just brought you to work, bend you over my desk and fuck you however long I want,” He shuddered at the thought, his hips stuttering while you whimpered and arched your back off the bed. “Oh, you like that?” He grinned, his voice oozing with arrogance. You nodded, your eyes shutting closed again and desperately lifting your hips to match his thrusting.

“Next time, bebé, next time. I promise. You’re doing so, so, good. You feel so good.” He slurred softly, his hips snapped harder, his cock twitching and swelling inside you.

“Mig–Mig–I can’t,” You moaned, your screams getting louder the harder Miguel went. “Oh, god, Miguel!” Miguel kissed you, swallowing all your moans while he slipped his tongue in your mouth. Your eyes rolled back and your legs wrapped around his waist the moment he let go of your thighs. His hands traveled around your body, feeling the shape of your silhouette back into his memory. He grabbed at anything he could hold onto before curling around your ass for a small squeeze.

He pulled away from the kiss, breaths mingling for a moment until Miguel rested his forehead on your shoulder. Your hands raked down his back and you dug your nails into his giant back, leaving streaks of red in their wake from scratching him. He moaned from it–the pain only adding to his pleasure-fueled mind. Miguel peppered kisses on your shoulder, making his way down to your chest.

“Miguel, I’m so close–so, so close…” You whimpered.

“I know, ángel, me… me too. Solo enfocate en mí, hm? Just let me have you.” He pleaded, his rough moans turning into whimpering as he neared his end. You responded with a weak ‘uh-huh’ then clinging onto Miguel for support.

He murmured in a jumble of Spanish and English, his breath hot on your neck while you screamed and pleaded for more, how good it felt, anything to get both of you going. Miguel lifted your lower half up, relentlessly pounding into you while he cursed lowly, burying his head in your shoulder again. You felt the bubble in your abdomen about to snap.

“Miguel, I–!” You tried warning him but instead the waves of your orgasm flooded your body, cumming on Miguel and making a mess between your legs. You twitched around him, milking his cock for all it’s worth. Your legs shook until you went limp, fucked out of your mind. Miguel whined, speeding up to catch his own release.

“Fuck–!” He moaned, feeling his cock pump out his creamy fat load inside you, painting your walls white. Miguel’s entire body tensed up, stilling up against you while he slowly came down from the high. His strokes gradually slowed down, pumping the final ropes of cum, while he softened inside you, huffing and puffing with you. He shakily but carefully pulled out of you after a few moments. You whimpered when he completely left you with a soft wet shlick.

Miguel fell beside you, exhausted and spent. Still, he reached for you, bringing your shivering body in his arms. You curled yourself in his chest weakly, feeling his hand play with your hair. He kissed your forehead, basking in each other's afterglow. He brought the covers up over you two for some extra warmth.

“I’ll…get us cleaned up in the morning…” He huffed with a tired smile. You grunted in response, too numb to speak but satisfied nonetheless.

can you tell this is my first smut? hahaaaa dontanswerthatillcry

#nonie requests ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara x y/n #miguel o'hara x you #atsv miguel #miguel o'hara #miguel spiderman #miguel spiderverse #miguel x reader #miguel ohara #spiderman 2099 #miguel o'hara smut

[yanderederee]

DoubleDate,

May14th, 2004

a/n: lol, I wrote this Before MeetMyGang, so details regarding readers first time on a bike aren’t accurate anymore, buuut I don’t think anyone cares~:)

Before! › here! › after!

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You’d admired Baji for a long time now.

He was scary, and strong enough to do anything he put his mind to. He prioritized the people important to him, and took everything involving his loved ones very seriously. He was gentle to creatures weaker than him, and took them under his protection. Baji was sincere and dedicated in everything he did.

Baji Keisuke wasn’t a bad guy. And you loved him so much.

Baji, on the other hand, was having a hard time coming to terms with how he felt about you.

But he couldn’t push down the wonderment you always left him feeling after an encounter. You were his friend, no question. But you were so fragile. Meeker than the punks he usually rode with.

Keisuke still couldn’t admit it, but you’d successfully stolen his heart.

“Dude, invite her out or something. It’s summer break, you won’t see her for another month.”

“I didn’t even say anything?” Baji glared questionably at his blond friend.

“Didn’t have do. You’ve been mopping around all week. Probably because—“

“Chose your next words carefully Matsuno,” Baji cut in monotone. Chifuyu puffed his cheeks. “Fine fine,” he backed off, stretching from his previous spot as Peke J’s bed. “See ya then.” He waved off, throwing his bag over his shoulder and headed to the door.

“Oi! What for?” Baji complained.

Sure he had a lot of better shit he could be doing with his time. He could go to Akihabara for the weekend while his mom was gone. He could ride out anywhere he really wanted to and enjoy the summer time he earned. That you helped him earn.

“Why, i thought you were too busy moping around to notice.” Chifuyu joked without malice. After, he quipped his brand new phone out with a wide grin. “And if you’re ever so curious, Y/nnchan just invited me out to meet at the cat cafe.~”

The first division captain stared at his vice underling with a deep mix of emotion. He could identify one of those complicated feelings as jealousy.

You asked to hang out with Chifuyu? Baji looked over at the vibrant screen of Chifuyu’s phone, barely making out your name. Pink and blue bubbles littered the screen. “When did you get her number in the first place?”

“Not too many of the guys have phones, so Mom, Ryoko and Y/n are my only contacts right now.”

Baji suddenly really wanted a cellphone.

“So, you coming or what?” Chifuyu asked, throwing Baji a balled up pair of black socks. “Why would I come?” He grumbled out.

“Cause she asked me to invite you~” Chifuyu grinned wickedly. His heart stopped for a moment.

“Hurry up or I’m gonna tell her you bailed!” Chifuyu yelled before darting out of the apartment. “Damnit! Hold on you son of a bitch!”

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯✦

When the two managed to get to the cat cafe, they were already ten minutes early for the agreed meeting time. “Oh, party of three? Booth 9, enjoy!” The waitress purred once they entered. Confused, they looked over and saw you looking over the menu.

“You’re early!” Chifuyu laughed when he was first to enter the booth. “Chi! Yeah, haha, I was here when I texted you actually.” Your eyes darted over to Baji, happiness spread across your features. “Kei! So happy you came!”

Baji avoided making eye contact, sure to out himself shy if he did. “The hell? Cute~,” Chifuyu laughed again, his comment clearly coming off as more than friendly. Baji felt heat prickle his ears at this point. Was he trying to provoke him?

You laughed at Chifuyu’s comment, and held the menu out to the both of them. “I ordered a few appetizers already, the frushi is actually the specialty of the day!” You chirped along the menu with excitement.

Well, if nothing else, Chifuyu wasn’t a liar. You really were so cute. A little weird and outgoing, but so, undeniably cute.

“I’ll probably get an order of gyoza.” Baji thought out loud, lazily holding the menu in front of him.

Chifuyu ordered a blue ramune poured over a lemonlime soda.

Baji ordered a black cherry soda with a subtle vanilla cream mix rested at the bottom.

And after much deliberation, you decided on a rich brown-sugar milk tea.

“It’s a little surprising how much cats love you, Kei.” You admitted. “No kidding, strays far and wide can’t get enough of him. Baji actually always leaves his bedroom window open for—” Chifuyu went along praising his captain, ultimately leading to his embarrassed captain to cut him off abruptly.

“Oh yeah!! Didn’t you say you had a cat, Chi?” You asked.

“Oh yeah, Peke J! He’s adventurous, and visits with Baji more than he’s actually home. I bet he’d really like you.”

Baji just couldn’t put his finger on it. Chifuyu was just being friendly, yet somehow he was getting under his skin like never before. “Yaknow, Baji and I actually talked about opening a pet shop in the future!”

You beamed in response to the topic, gaze fluttering between the two delinquents. “A pet store?” You asked, nibbling on a gyoza.

Chifuyu glanced over at Baji, hoping he’d jump into the conversation.

This was his role after all, the perfect natural wingman.

Unfortunately, Baji only saw the situation for its surface level; Chifuyu was blatantly flirting with you for the both of them, Right in front of him.

Baji glared a little bit, and shrugged. “Nah, Mikey‘s talkin about seriously applying himself to motor racing. Sounds sweet,” he grinned his canines.

Chifuyu gaped at his answer. Was he trying to look cool? Was he seriously that oblivious to romantic ques?

Yet, ever the same look of amazement, you smiled back. “Motor racing?! I totally forgot that’s like, your guys’ thing, motor bikes!” You visibly prickle with excitement. “I’ve never been close to one actually. They’re really loud and kinda scary from what I see, but you guys use them all the time right?”

The both of them gaped at your reaction. “They seem pretty cool.” You laughed almost awkwardly, Almost as if to let out a hint, but ready to retract at any sign of uncomfortability.

Chifuyu looked at his captain, the stars glaring over his vision obvious. “Baji’s bike is sick! A Suzuki GSX250E! With an attached second seater. He won’t admit it but he saved up a bunch so I could ride alongside him to Toman meetings.” He praised his captains generosity openly again.

“Yer full of shit,” Baji laughed, “I had that thing way before you.”

“How thoughtful! Chifuyu’s pretty new to the gang, so you haven’t saved up enough for a bike yet, right?” You asked Chifuyu, the eye contact you shared making Baji feel a little … possessive? “I’m doing very good saving up for one!” Chifuyu perked up, eager. The only other person he could brag these hobbies with was Kazutora, after all.

“You have a bike model in mind?” You asked, tilting your head, as you allowed an all-white rag doll cat affectionately demand your attention. Baji rose a brow, your choice of words making him curious. “How much you know about bikes?”

You giggled sheepishly, hiding your face in the cats fur. “J-just a little. I just, got a little curious, s-so I learned a few neat facts,” you waved this off quickly, and drew the attention back to one of them. “I really don’t know much besides what a book would tell you. Are you trying to shop for speed or style?”

To you, it seemed like a genuinely honest and curious question. To them, they had finally found something to hold over your smart little head. Something they knew all about, and for you to be clueless!

“Baji goes for speed. I’m thinking as long as I can keep up, I might as well aim for something flashy!” Chifuyu admitted with pride.

“Oi, don’t talk down about my Goki like that! It looks cool as hell,” Baji kicked the blonde affectionately.

“Actually, that makes me wonder, how do you guys even get your bikes? They’re like, triple digit thousand yen. Do you all just have jobs or something?” You asked while more felines covered what was visible of you.

Chifuyu plucks one of the cats what began to claw biscuits into your exposed skin, and cradled it in his arms lovingly.

Baji struggled, stuffing his face with a third gyoza. “My bike didn’t really ride when I first found it. A real piece of junk. But I brought the pieces to Shin and asked if he could make it drivable.”

“Guess it wasn’t in that bad o’f shape. Polished up the framework and helped put the parts together, baby was driving the next two months.”

“So Mikey’s brother spotted you the cost to restore your shitty bike?” Chifuyu teased. “Asshole! I paid with physical labor for that bike!” Baji pushed.

Putting the context clues together, you asked without filter, “Shin sounds like a nice guy, helping you restore a bike so willingly. Maybe he could give you tips, Chifuyu.”

The atmosphere got deathly quiet.

No one wanted to say anything, evident on Baji’s hardened expression and Chifuyu being visibly nervous. “He’s dead,” Baji said finally, no indication to continue.

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that,” you say quietly, briefly lowering your head to show your condolences. “Based on how you speak of him, Mikey seems to take after him. What does he drive?” You asked, making an attempt to sweep the rough atmosphere away.

To you, it seemed as though the subject of Shinichiro’s passing was an unpleasant one. You felt it impolite to pry.

Baji looks you over, noticing your calm demeanor as you handled the tense answer he just gave. He was used to people acting nervous around him if he wasn’t careful. But he liked feeling as though he didn’t need to filter his words to appear kinder, when he simply didn’t want to talk about it. Baji really liked the way you always treated him so kindly, accepting his sharp attitude without taking it personally.

“A Honda. CB250t.” Baji answered without reluctance. He didn’t mean to come off prickly, but the pause insinuated otherwise.

You began thinking something over in your head, before a cat pounced to get your attention, making you shriek with laughter.

“Sorry sorry,” you apologize to the jealous cat, divvying out a generous handful of treats. This distraction seemed to serve as a middle point of the lunch. Drinks were about finished, food demolished, and the sun was still high in the sky.

Chifuyu yawned, and stretched his limbs. “Way too nice to just go back home though,” he admitted, tossing his head in Baji’s direction. “What’s everybody else doing?”

Baji reciprocated the yawn, and rested his head on the back of the chair. His eyes were focused on you as you played so joyously with the cats. He couldn’t get over just how cute he thought you were. He’d be damned if he said that out loud though.

Not realizing he had went silent, Baji lost himself in through, gaze softened your way. He was so used to his obnoxious glasses blocking this lovestruck look, he found himself doing it again without them.

Chifuyu took note of this, getting mild second hand embarrassment from how oblivious Baji was.

Chifuyu wanted to feel grateful that, at least, you were too distracted by the cats to notice his captain’s affectionate stare. Except, when he glanced over at you, Chifuyu saw a twinkle of something in your eye.

You knew Baji was staring at you. And by acting as though you didn’t notice, you soak in the unintentional affection, with a blush and a smile.

Chifuyu felt his heart rate Racing at this point. This was The Most silent, yet intense, atmosphere of backhanded flirting, without so much as eye contact to fuel the flames.

The waitress had made her rounds by this point, clearing the table of everything, and asking you three if you would like anything to go. “I’d like to order two shortcakes, and three lemon iced teas please! One yuzu, rose, and lavender.” You agreed, while Chifuyu added a specialty lemonade on the to go order.

“I don’t have anything else to do,” you admitted while the three of you gathered your bearings. “Any plans?” You asked, giving no credit to Chifuyu’s exact same question that’d went ignored earlier.

Baji shruggled. “Nah. All that talk about bikes for me itching to ride, though.” He smirked.

Baji liked you, he really did. This whole time, he had made an effort to push you to not get too close. But this moment, covered in cat hair, disheveled and smiling so affectionately. Baji couldn’t help but ask,

“How bout it? You think modified bikes are cool, how bout taking a ride on one?”

The way your face lit up at his question blinded the two delinquents. “Really?!” You asked, clearly excited. “Well don’t get all misty eyed!” Baji blared back, embarrassed.

Once the three of you had gotten your to go orders, you all made way back to their apartment complex to pick up Baji’s bike and keys.

Being the sweet little thing you were, you bashful admitted the to-go order you placed was actually meant for their mothers. “Moms like it when you get them a little treat, to show your gratitude!” You reasoned with their confused response.

The first stop came to Chifuyu’s apartment, since it was two floors below Baji’s.

Chifuyu sighed, a little embarrassed at the way you chatted so openly and casually with his mom.

“She probably thinks y/n’s my girlfriend, she always jumps to conclusions like that.”

It was quiet when Baji didn’t give a reaction. He’d planned on simply waiting patiently for you to finish. He could help but notice the way you chatted this same way with his own mom.

“Guess that wouldn’t be so bad.” Chifuyu whispered by accident. Your conversation with Chifuyu’s mom died out from Keisuke’s ears, the only thing he could register was Chifuyu’s whispered words.

He knew he was overthinking it, so like everything else, he pushed the thought down, even if it did bother him.

“Well, I wanted to drop off the lavender tea and cake! I’m glad to know you’re well!” You went to wave your goodbye. “Finally we can go!” Baji grinned, hyping up his spirit to ride. “Not so fast,” you shook your head at him. “Still gatta drop off the cake and tea I got for your mom!”

Baji was stunned once again. He really did try having patience with you, but damn were you making it difficult. Without argument though, the two boys followed you to the sixth floor.

“Y/n!! I’m so happy to see you,” Ryoko sighed with contentment when she’d successfully tucked under her arm in a big hug. “Jeez, glad she doesn’t greet me that way,” Baji mumbled to Chifuyu, who laughed in response. “Cake and tea? I knew you were my favorite kid,” she took a sip of the yuzu lemon iced tea.

“Hate to remind you that I’m an only child, hag,” Baji bit back. “Gonna change; the cat hair’s starting to itch.” He rolled his eyes, leaving Chifuyu alone with the girls. “So, how’s my second favorite kid?” Ryoko asks with comical volume, aimed in Chifuyu’s direction. Chifuyu chuckled at the muffled “shut up!” that came out of Baji’s room, holding up the keys to Baji’s Suzuki.

“She’s never been on a bike before, so Baji’s gonna take Y/n riding before the meet up tonight.”

“Oi, Kei! You be careful!” She yelled seriously, sashaying over to the spare coat closet. “Do you have an extra helmet?” She asked, earning an annoyed grunt from her teenage son.

“Yes, I have an extra helmet-“ he tried agreeing with her, “is it clean?” She asked, making Baji pause his response. “…Who was the last to wear it again?”

Ryoko sighed, and pulled down a dark purple cycle helmet. “Please wear this,” she asked you, holding the sturdy plastic into your hand. “I used to wear it when I’d go out riding. ‘Long as you and Kei stay friends, use it for me, alright?”

Needlessly sentimental, you hugged her as you’d accepted the helmet before your exit.

“Where do you usually keep your bike?” you asked, aware that parking one’s bike at home can be dangerous. “Theres a cheap parking garage down the street.” Baji nodded in the direction of the garage when the turn came up.

Once making it in, the three of you circled the bike in admiration. “It’s nice,” you hummed, modestly squatting to checkout the details of the bike. “It’s okay if I touch right?” You asked.

Nervously, Baji squats beside you and made a gesture to show it was fine to do so. Ever so gently, you traced your fingers along the exhaust pipe, as though you would peel away the metal to look further inside. Quietly, you hummed, and examined the parts most visible. “It’s big though, I don’t think my feet can reach the peddle..”

Both Baji and Chifuyu laughed. “You thought i was gonna just let you ride my bike like that?” He asked as though it wasn’t even a consideration. “Huh? Is that not what you meant earlier?” You asked, embarrassed. Baji laughed again, barely making it to his feet.

“You dork! I was just gonna drive you around some backroads.” He ruffled your hair roughly. You gave a sheepish “oh” before looking away in embarrassment. “W-well, that’s fine.” You said, a little shyer this time.

Chifuyu’s eye glinted from your wit.

Chifuyu could read you like the back of his hand, a feat Baji was clearly oblivious to. By acting shy, you automatic lit a flame of nervousness under Keisuke’s idea of a platonic activity. You were hinting at the exposure—tiptoeing that line of flirtation neither of you quite crossed.

And Baji fell for your tricks like a lovesick fool, suddenly bashful and confused for as to why.

“What ‘bout you Chi?” You asked, lining the scene with a comfortable middle ground between both boys. Body language gave away you still tried including Chifuyu, as to not kick him out as an unnecessary third wheel.

“Kinda itchy with cat hair, honestly. Think I’m gonna take a shower and check out what Ryusei’s doing. Catch ya later?” He asked.

It was Chifuyu’s turn to finally let go of the reins; he’d secretly initiated the date, lead the conversation, and got you two to this point. His job was complete. Satisfied, he turned to walk away. “Wait,” you pulled on Chifuyu’s sleeve, subconsciously making the boy lean into your cupped hand. “Thanks for today, it meant a lot to me.” And with an innocent kiss to the corner of his lip and cheek, you doddled back to Baji, who’d bucking his heel against the kick Stand.

Chifuyu wouldn’t stop thinking about that chast kiss you gave him. How soft it was. How precise your movemeets were— you had Meant to kiss him where you had. Not enough to consider romantic, but definitely a forewarning that it could have been. He was swimming in those thoughts, even when he watched you and Baji plow down the street happily.

Was he seriously falling in love with his Boss’s crush?

#FragileDearest #tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo revengers headcanons #tokyo revengers fluff #tokyo revengers chifuyu #tokyo revengers baji #Baji Keisuke #Keisuke baji #Chifuyu #Chifuyu Matsuno #Matsuno Chifuyu #baji #soft yandere #baji x reader #tokyo rev x y/n #tokyo rev #manga

[genericpuff]

Winter is Coming - Rekindled schedule adjustment and plans for next year!

So it's that time of year now when conventions, markets, and expos for next year are rolling out their submission periods. So far I've gotten accepted to attend the Atlantic Entertainment Expo again (both venues so two shows), MiraCon, and I'm gonna be attending not one, not two, but THREE tattoo expos ! Which is definitely a lot, but I'm excited, it's gonna be good publicity and good money :' ) I'm also gonna be applying to HalCon, Geekquinox, and Animaritimes again, I didn't get in on HalCon this year and didn't find out about Geekquinox until submissions were done (and I only got in on Animaritimes at the last minute when they were looking for people to fill in) but if I do get into any (or all) of those, I'll have to play the fun game of "make sure none of these events land on the same weekend" LMAO

All that's to say, it's gonna be busy next year! (and all of those are the ones I actually decided to apply to, there are ones I did this past year that I'm not planning on doing again because they just didn't turn out to be as good as I had hoped). Thankfully, none of this is starting up until spring, so I'm gonna enjoy the winter off and get to work on new stuff to sell. I'm really eager to get through the rest of [AFTERBIRTH], it's still got quite some time until it's done but my plan is to pitch Thread of Fate to publishers once [AFTERBIRTH] is finished - and if it's not able to get in with those publishers, then I'm gonna pursue other means in getting it published, either digitally or traditionally. Time Gate is a series I've been working on for well over a decade of my life, and it's not something I want to keep throwing to the wolves of free-to-read platforms like WT. As much as I love being able to offer it for free, I want it to be taken more seriously than being just another free to read comic and that starts with me and how I choose to distribute it.

Right now working on all these things is sort of limiting due to the fact that I'm stuck on my iPad, but I'm making it work as best I can and I'm hoping to have the new PC setup going by the end of the year running with a new tablet (currently shopping around between an XP-pen and Huion, I don't want to get a Kamvas 22 Plus again if it's gonna shit the bed in 2 years like this one did, apparently this is a common problem from what I've seen :/)

So yeah, with all that in mind, I'm planning on adjusting Rekindled's update schedule. While I did initially want to offer a poll for y'all to choose between "shorter updates once a week" and "full updates once every 2 weeks", frankly I'm erring more towards the "every two weeks" one because it'll give me more actual time and room to work on everything else. Not to mention (and I'm sure you've all noticed by now) that I have a very specific way that I structure many of these episodes so making them shorter would sort of ruin that rhythm. I don't want to be sacrificing the comic's quality, pacing, or narrative progression for a schedule adjustment.

This isn't going to be an immediate change, I'm thinking of doing this sometime in December so that y'all can have a decent amount of heads up before the switch. I know it's gonna be a little painful to go to a slower release schedule but ultimately I think it's the best way to go so that I can balance all of the projects I have going on without sacrificing quality. Rekindled may be a free to read non-profit project, but I still hold myself to high standards and I want to do my best to deliver on those standards !

Thank you all so much for your patience and support. It seriously blows me away to see all of the wonderful comments, asks, and support for what I do here every day. I'm gonna do my best as well to respond to asks in my inbox as they come in, but please just know I get a LOT of them on a regular basis, it's sort of a Hydra situation where I respond to 1 or 2 and then get 4 more LOL That said, rest assured that I do read and appreciate each and every one of them <3 That also includes essay posts about LO, with LO returning in November I'll surely have more stuff to say about it so I'm gonna try and keep up as best I can :' )

On a final note, we're coming up to the one year anniversary of when I started posting actual episodes of Rekindled!! I'm so excited for this, I can't believe it's been a year!! And I have so much awesome stuff planned for the story that we're gonna see throughout the next year, I can't wait! Thanks so much for being a part of this project with me, I couldn't have asked for a better audience <3

(P.S. everything I have lined up for next year is lining up with the dry period for FF XIV between Endwalker and Dawntrail so I won't have distractions until the summer LMAOO)

#lore rekindled #lore rekindled comic #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything #update post #announcement #genericpuff

[momobani]

Fire Brigade

THE WAY I hate YOU - chapter 4 - 11.4k

&team Nicholas x fem!reader - arranged marriage AU

SERIES MASTERLIST

Sum: as you settle into married life, you learn a lot about what it’s like to share your life with someone else. 

Warnings: swearing, sarcasm, mention of food and alcohol, they’re both cranky goofs in the morning idk, allusion to questionable parenting?, depiction of drunkenness  

Soundtrack rec: You’re So True - Joseph Arthur (Shrek OST) [there’s just something about this song, i can’t pin point it, just listen. i can just see a montage of their moments together as this plays haha] 

Taglist: @nichoswag @seokka0o @sseastar-main @hyuckslvr @ssshasssh

A/N: i know it’s been 84 years, i’m sorry but life was hectic - for some reason my note keeps getting eaten by tumblr (fu!) but basically - life = hard, nicho -> nico (as per his own request on weverse lol), enjoy <3

Being back in your new apartment was strange.

It felt like you’d never moved in in the first place before your honeymoon. You cleaned up a little after you returned, going grocery shopping together for the first time instead of singularly getting your own food and sticking it in the fridge. 

At the cashier, you almost asked to pay separately but then you realised how weird that would sound because you were so obviously involved and like who does that really? Nicholas whipped out his card before you could unzip your purse so you let him pay this time.

At least you drove there and back, happily abandoning the firetruck (Ferrari) in the underground parking, much to Nicholas’ pouty dismay.   

You still had several days off, mostly because there was a weekend when you returned and you’d strategically planned your time off to encompass that without burning your vacation days unnecessarily.

You had to admit, sleeping in in the morning was nice. 

In the morning you took time to watch some TV, sipping your coffee in front of the screen. You decided that you really needed to catch up on some work related stuff because you were going back to the office on Tuesday and you’d better be prepared. 

So you spread your papers out on the kitchen table, opened your laptop and got stuck in. It was fairly quiet in the apartment and you thought Nicholas was probably still sleeping. 

It’s a surprise when he walks through the front door some time later, a little sweaty and wearing basketball shorts and a sleeveless tank top. There’s a water bottle in one hand and you immediately know exactly where he’s been and what he’s been up to. 

“Hey,” he greets you, depositing the bottle on the counter. “what are you doing?” 

“Working,” you say, only glancing up at him. “what’s it look like I’m doing? Writing a novel?”

“Well, it could be but I doubt a novel-” he wanders past you and peeks over your shoulder. He gets kind of close and you can feel the heat radiating off his body. “-requires a contract for the sale of pharmaceutical supplies.”

“Y’know, you’d be surprised.” you reply. 

“You still have days off, why do work?” he asks, genuinely confused. You again imagined what kind of utopia Nicholas’ office must be if he really doesn’t get it. 

“It’s not a big deal, it needs doing ASAP anyway. Mind your business, dude.”

“Fine,” he raises his hands in surrender. “but I invited company, I didn’t know you were working.”

“It’s fine, I’ll move.” you say, marking where you’d left off and starting to sort things.

“Okay, but we might be quite loud. The guys are coming over.” he explains. “Are you sure that’s not going to disturb you? We can hang out in my room instead.”

“It’s alright, I’ve lived with pack animals back when I decided to have an authentic college experience.” you shudder, remembering the shit you’d been through. You wanted an experience, and oh boy, did you get one. Between the constant revolving door of strangers invading your apartment to the loud roommates you had, you’d really gotten used to noise.  

“Sometimes I really wonder what kind of life you’ve lived.” Nicholas muses, looking at you curiously, as if you were an animal at a zoo exhibit.

You shrug just as your buzzer goes off. Nicholas presses the button that unlocks the downstairs door. You take the first pile of papers and crap to your room, realising you’re going to need two trips to get everything. 

You put the first pile in your room but accidentally knock the first stack of maybe twenty pages down.

“Shit,” you mutter, crouching to pick it all up. You shouldn’t have taken the big clip off it. 

By the time you come back for the second pile of stuff and your laptop, your doorbell goes off and Nicholas opens the door. 

You watch as a group of dudes roll into your apartment, all in their uniform of shorts and t-shirts or tank tops. You recognise their faces from meeting them at your wedding, but you couldn’t match all the names you knew to the faces, except maybe for Jo, who had got the first-come-first-remembered privilege. 

“Oh, hey!” one of them notices you and greets you too as they come in. He has a big smile and several ear piercings. You try to place him to a name, he was either Yuma or Fuma but you can’t be sure. The rest of them notice you too and all offer you various greetings. 

“Maybe this a good time for proper introductions.” Nicholas suggests. “Guys, this is my wife, YN. YN, these are the guys.” he says unhelpfully. You raise your hand in a wave. 

“Hi,” you say. “you must be fire brigade.” you smile. The room full of confused faces almost makes you laugh. Nicholas does ask them to introduce themselves individually though, probably his attempt to dispel your sarcastic take. 

So the guy who greeted you was Yuma, not Fuma, who’s ironically standing next to him in a cute Pokemon t-shirt. There’s also Euijoo, who you recognise as Nicholas’ best man, Jo, who shyly gives you a tiny wave, and Kei beside Jo, which makes the two look like twin towers. Make that triplet towers, since Euijoo was next to them too. You wondered if their clique had a height requirement or something because most of them were giants.  

“It’s nice to meet you all,” you say, finally gathering your things and taking your exit. 

“We’ll save you some meat!” Nicholas calls after you.

“Thanks.” you say over your shoulder. 

You’re halfway through the corridor when you hear the exclamations fill the room. It reminded you slightly of teenage girl behaviour and you thought it was funny. 

“Wow, you guys are getting on better than we thought!” you hear possibly Euijoo say.

“Dude, you didn’t say your wife was so hot!” you think that’s Kei’s voice. 

“Kei, you were at the wedding?” Yuma chimes in.

“Yeah, but he was too busy flirting with everyone else to notice.” a deeper voice comes in, probably Fuma. 

“Well, I had to entertain myself somehow, the whole thing went on for hours.” Kei replies. 

“Yeah! It’s not Kei’s fault he was born a pathological flirt.” Euijoo says in solidarity. 

“Bro, never talk about another man’s wife if you want to live.” Nicholas warns, only half joking. You can’t help but crack a smile as you close your door to their ridiculousness.   

You kept working, the noise level mostly okay since you were a fair distance and closed door away, but occasionally you could hear their excitement, loud laughter and yells travelling through the apartment. 

You wondered when it got incredibly loud, what they were doing, howling at the moon or something? Who knows, it was a group of grown men; who really understands the mysteries of dude-bros hanging out together?  

*

Some weeks passed without incident, your lives finding routine sleeping, eating and working, as you manoeuvred around each other every day. Despite you being worried about living with a roommate again, for the most part you led your lives separately but not completely severed from each other.

You went to work at your respective companies then came home and occasionally had dinner together, sometimes you even watched TV together or did your recycling. There were days when one of you went grocery shopping and asked the other if you needed anything, days where you cleaned the whole apartment, splitting off chores so you could be done quicker. 

You were lured into a false sense of security, you had to admit. 

And being relaxed didn’t hurt, but accidents did happen. 

Like the day of the most important meeting of the calendar quarter. 

You were meticulous, setting your alarm, preparing your materials and picking out your attire. Going to bed the previous night was smooth sailing and you conked out with no anxiety in your chest for once. 

The morning you had your monster shot coffee and a crispy yet perfectly soft inside bagel while you reviewed the notes you left in the margin of the document drafts. You cleaned up, purposefully leaving the small of stack of papers on the counter where you would see it before leaving the house and take it with you, while you got dressed. 

While you did your hair, you did happen to think of something more to add, so you wandered to the kitchen, your hair half-pinned up with clips while you styled it. 

Except the pile was gone.

Your jaw dropped open. How could it be gone? It was right there not even fifteen minutes ago. It can’t have just disappeared, could it? 

Panic started to rise in your chest as you looked around the kitchen; maybe Nicholas moved it so it wouldn’t get dirty on the counter. You deduce he’s been in the kitchen since you’d left because there’s a washed bowl on the rack beside the sink that you didn’t put there. 

You don’t find the pile after a minute of looking, opening drawers, cabinets, scanning the tables and whatever else there was in your kitchen. 

There was simply one conclusion - your papers were gone. 

You could hear Nicholas was in the bathroom and you decide to just ask him instead. 

“Wang Yixiang!” you yell, trying to get his attention. Not a moment later, the door of the bathroom is thrown open and hasty footsteps echo down the hallway, the perpetrator probably horrified of your tone. 

Nicholas bursts into the kitchen, still in his pyjama bottoms and a hoodie with nothing underneath; he did that a lot as a random habit of his that you’d noticed. There’s a spattering of shaving cream on one side of his face and the razor is still in his hand. You had no idea what he was shaving off though; he never seemed to have anything on that stupidly handsome face of his.

“I’m sorry! Whatever I did, I’m sorry!” he says hurriedly before he’s even entered the room. He was clearly on the verge of freaking out at you calling his government name.  

“Did you happen to see a pile of papers that was on the counter?” you ask, cutting straight to it. 

“Papers?” he seems confused at the idea. 

“Yeah, I left a contract here, it was a small stack and had notes in the margin and tabs, but now it’s gone.” you say, starting to feel yourself grow desperate. 

Nicholas thinks for a moment, clearly unsure of what exact you’re talking about. How could that be though? He’s the only other person who could know what happened to it. 

“Hmm, let me see, I came to get cereal, got the milk out the fridge, then I hit my elbow, ate the cereal and after that I took out the trash since it’s trash day- oh no.” you look at each other in horror, then to the empty trash can beside the counter, brains putting in the missing pieces.

“Oh my god.” you breathe out. Then it hits you for real. “It’s trash day!” you exclaim, feet already moving of their own accord. You had to find that contract before it got taken away. 

“Don’t you have a copy?” Nicholas calls out, razor discarded while he stayed on your heels. 

“No! I told you, there was notes in the margin, and they’re super important and I have to have it with me today.” you were practically running down the corridor after you’d exited your apartment.

The two of you reached the elevator and you pressed the button, anxiety starting to make you sweat. 

“No time, stairs!” You announce, head spinning already, and turn when the elevator doesn’t come. You take two steps but Nicholas grabs your wrist to stop you.

“Are you crazy? We live on the tenth floor!” he snaps, holding you hostage. Before you can rebut, the elevator dings and the door opens. “See? C’mon!” you let him drag you in there, almost jumping out of your skin when you see your reflections in the mirror pane opposite the door.

Your hair was flying in all different directions, half of it styled, the other forgotten, while Nicholas paled as he swiped at the remaining cream on his face with a hoodie sleeve. 

“Just so we know what we’re dealing with here, hypothetically, if you didn’t have this contract…?” he says, trailing off. 

“The world won’t end but I may as well walk in there wearing a rainbow wig and a big, red clown nose and kiss this deal goodbye.” you describe. “Then I’ll have to answer to my parents, board of directors, and the entire department will be on my ass by the end of lunch because ‘nepo baby’ managed to fuck up the one job she had.” 

“They call you that?” Nicholas asks. You look away, counting down with the numbers of the floors that go by.

“Yeah, they do. Even though I have to work hard like them, it is my parents’ company. They’re right though, I’m not even sure what I’m capable of if it wasn’t for my parents making me work there.” you hated that you’d gotten to this subject, especially right now. 

“You still worked hard though, getting to where you are tod-”

“C’mon!” you ignore what he’s saying when the elevator finally dings as it got to the first floor and you drag Nicholas out as soon as the door opens.

You race toward the garbage storage space, heart thumping loudly; if Nicholas could just remember where he left the bag, in which container -

You open the door and find the garbage collectors already on the scene, rolling the large metal containers toward the street, where their truck was waiting. 

“Where did you throw it?” you ask desperately, looking around and seeing that some of the containers hadn’t left the premises yet. Nicholas looks like he’s about to faint. 

He doesn’t say anything but points in the general direction of the containers that are already sitting near the truck. You gulp thickly, realising what that meant. Somehow, it doesn’t disgust you and you act without thinking. 

“Excuse me!” you call out, trying to get one of the men’s attention. “Hi, sorry to bother you, but is it okay if we have a look at the trash? We threw away something important and it might still be around.”

The man hears you, turning around, giving you a once over, most definitely confused at your request. He considers it for a moment, then shrugs. 

“Knock yourself out.” he says. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Nicholas asks you as you drag him toward the containers. “Tell me we are not dumpster diving.” 

“Oh, but we are, roomie, we are.” you hum. He stands still in shock. You throw open the first container and flinch at the explosion of smell coming from the numerous black trash bags. 

“Are you deranged or something?” Nicholas shrieks when the smell hits his nose. 

“Listen, here:” you whip around to glare at him. “I am getting to that meeting with my contract, if it’s the last thing I’ll ever do. Now, dig, gremlin, dig!” you say through gritted teeth, turning back to the container. 

“You know what, don’t answer that. You must be.” he corrects when he sees you grab hold of the side, step up with your leg, and pull yourself up so you can reach inside the container. 

Now, normally you’d be so grossed out that you might have thrown up by now, but seeing as you could envision the embarrassment, tirade of disappointed faces of your parents, and sneering jeers of your colleagues, you started feeling up the trash bags without a second thought. You were going to worry about everything else later. 

Desperation makes even the most cowardly of dogs brave.

“What are you waiting for?” you bark back at Nicholas, who was just standing behind you, blinking dumbly. “Get in there and start looking!” you instruct. That seems to do it and Nicholas rushes over to the side of the adjacent container and flings it open, gagging at the smell but obediently rummaging around the bags.

There’s a tense minute while you try and feel your way through the container, looking for anything that might indicate paper on the inside, but you’re struggling to find anything. 

“Y’know,” you vaguely hear Nicholas grunt as he feels up a garbage bag. “I was just starting to like you but nevermind, I think I hate you.” he says as he squeamishly pushes away yet another bag. 

His comment doesn’t make you stop but it strikes a nerve. You knew he was probably talking shit because the two of you were practically knee and elbow deep in trash - in a reversed situation, you would too - but you were a little mad at him for not being more careful in the kitchen, and worse at yourself for ever leaving anything in there in the first place.  

“Trust me, the feeling is mutual.” you reply, just as huffy as him. 

You keep digging but find nothing, your world suddenly becoming bleaker and bleaker. You had already decided to call in late for work and try to remedy the situation before the big meeting later in the day. You could think of some of the stuff that was written, but you’d lost some of the most important details. Not to mention your concentration and preparation had all been flushed down the drain.  

“Hey, we’re going to have to get going now.” you hear the garbage man say behind you. You glance over your shoulder and he seems like he couldn’t care less about your situation.

“Yes, right, sorry. Just a second.” you plead, desperately reaching into the container in vain.

“We’re already behind schedule, ma’am, I’m going to need you to step away from the trash.” he replies. You realise you’re being a nuisance but you can’t help it.

“YN, c’mon, just give up, we can’t find it.” Nicholas materialises next to your container. He sounds tired and hopeless, just as you feel. 

“But…I,” you attempt, heart sinking. You know they’re right, you need to go. 

“C’mon,” Nicholas steps up to the container and holds out a hand to help you get down. Your shoulders slump but you let him pull you to the edge and practically lift you out of the dumpster, his strong arms wrapped around your waist as he guides your feet to the ground again. “Sorry for the trouble.” he mumbles to the garbage man. 

You’re too numb to say anything so you just sort of nod politely at him as Nicholas steers you away and back into the building.  

“Ugh, I stink so bad.” he groans, voice cracking. You wait for the elevator and when it comes, your neighbours file out, doing a disturbed double take at the sight and smell of the two of you. You don’t care about keeping up appearances right now, your dejection running too deep. 

What were you supposed to do now?

After a moment of silence when you get into the elevator, you feel Nicholas look at you, hesitating at probably how hostile you must look right now. You were fuming, mostly at yourself. 

“I’m sorry.” he says gently. “I really am.” 

You soften ever so slightly but can’t help the tenseness in your voice. 

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t bring back the notes, but thanks for trying to find them.” you say curtly, coldly even. You know it was an accident but it still made a mess. “I’ll make do with what I have.” 

You get back to your apartment, Nicholas heading straight to the bathroom but you stop him. 

“The smell won’t come out with water.” you warn.

“Then what do you propose?” he asks, genuinely curious. 

“Vinegar.” you state. “We’ll dilute some with water since it might be too strong and clean the smell off before showering.” It was an old home trick for getting rid of smells; vinegar was practically a miracle worker. 

And you do.

Armed with a cloth each, you stand in your bathroom trying to scrub yourselves clean from the essence of trash that crawled on your skin. It had permeated your clothes so those had gone straight into the washer, leaving you in your underwear. 

“Can you get my back?” you ask Nicholas, when your arms fall short of reaching behind you with the cloth. 

“Sure.” then his hands are in your hair, moving it to sit over your shoulder, while one rests there to stop it from moving back into the line of vinegar. He swipes the cloth over your skin, quickly reaching from the waistband of your underwear to your shoulder where he lingers. “You’re so tense, jeez.”

“Whatever, just keep go-” he doesn’t give you warning before starting to massage your shoulders.

You groan out loud as he teases out a knot in the muscle immediately. There’s a flush of embarrassment in your cheeks at the noise that just escaped your lips but Nicholas doesn’t seem to care as he keeps kneading your shoulders with his large hands. You contain most of your noises but a few quiet sighs leave your mouth as he works your shoulders.

“Can I move these?” he asks, tapping on your bra straps. Your brain has already shut down so you just nod.  

It was unexpected and even though your first instinct was to stop him and tell him to quit it, your body had its own opinion on the matter, shutting your mouth and relaxing under his touch as he slipped the straps off your shoulders. 

Your eyes flutter closed at one point, your body swaying in the direction that your husband applied some pressure to your back. You could feel the heat of his body next to yours, the warmth of his hands on your skin as he massaged your shoulders. 

“Feel better?” he muttered, mouth but a few inches from your ear, as he finished up.

“Much, thanks.” you sigh, coming back to reality. You do feel a little more warm in your cheeks than you should but you show no reaction. You reach for your straps but Nicholas beats you to it, sliding them back up your arms softly, his fingers grazing your skin and leaving a trail of goosebumps. 

“Okay, now shower before you kill someone with that hair.” he chuckles, lightening up the mood. 

“What about you?” you turn to look at him. He shrugs, the bulk of his bare shoulders rising and falling.

“I have nowhere to be, don’t worry about me. Just get that smell out of your hair.” he instructs before vacating the bathroom. You’re left staring after him. 

You’d been mad at him just a smidge about the contract but he’d managed to ease his way back into your good graces with an apology and a massage. You guess it made sense; Nicholas was your friend now, and if any of your other friends did the same thing, sure you’d be a little mad but you’d forgive just as easily.

But there was something about the way none of your other friends would have done what he did, touch you like he did, stand close like he did. 

You banish the thought and scramble into the shower, aware of the ticking of the clock before your meeting. 

*  

You wondered why you’d agreed to come to family dinner at your house alone on Friday night. You should have really dragged Nicholas there so he could suffer with you, although of course, the hope was that with his presence, your parents would lay off you and focus on him, their precious, angelic son-in-law. 

He had let you know he’d made plans with the guys and offered you an alternate to family dinning, which you’d regretfully declined because you knew that your mother would never just let it go and would instead invite you to several consecutive family dinners and/or events to make up for the loss. 

You really were better sacrificing yourself for one evening than signing yourself up for a plethora of others.  

Regardless, you should have known better than to hope this would be a marginally pleasant evening. Without Nicholas there, your parents, mainly your mother, had taken to grilling you over entrées. And the main course. And you predicted dessert.  

“Are you being good to Nicholas?” your mother asks. “Have you been cooking and cleaning enough around the apartment?” she continues without pause. 

“Yes, mother.” you say. You weren’t lying, it’s just that you had an agreement to share everything fair and square with Nicholas, including all the chores, bills (mortgage too, naturally) and other expenses. 

“Are you sure?” she continues. “He’s got no reason to be mad at you, has he?” she inquires, her eyes unnaturally wide.

“No, mom, he doesn’t.” you say, regretting your decision to drive because now you couldn’t at least drown out some of the nagging with alcohol. 

“Then why didn’t he come along for dinner? You invited him, didn’t you?” 

You almost roll your eyes but hold back because she’s watching you. If she looked away more often, you’d probably get a headache from rolling your eyes. (Growing up under her roof, it had been the most common cause of your headaches. That and tension headaches.) 

“Yes, of course I did, but he made plans way before so he couldn’t cancel.” you explain for the tenth time. 

“Well alright then, I suppose.” your mother concludes. 

Finally, you think. 

The whole scene was eerily starting to resemble an episode of Gilmore Girls and you were in the role of Lorelai, fending off your mother.

She was practically treating you like devil spawn and Nicholas as if he was their own son and you had stolen him away and trapped him into a heinous marriage. You half wondered if you had dinner alone with the Wangs, was that how they’d treat you too? You could only guess they weren’t incredibly fond of you either from the way you’d initially refused to marry their perfect son. Clearly, parents, your own or other people’s, didn’t seem to like you very much.  

Your father and Maki were also at the dinner table, minding their food, and possibly fearing for their lives. You knew what they were like; if they were chewing, their ears seemed to close off. 

By the time you got to the main dishes, you’d fielded questions about Nicholas from your mother, and the apartment, but also work questions from your father, which you skilfully managed to not go into any detail on, lest he pick up on something being wrong at work. 

Maki helpfully tried to steer the conversation away too, asking random questions about the company, which your father was more than happy to answer because his youngest was taking an interest in the family business. You were grateful to Maki but you worried this might give your parents the green light into throwing him in there with you. 

Your father was plenty capable.  

He’d probably also hear about how your meeting had gone in the office - there’d been a lot of back and forth (which you’d instigated) to avoid getting to anything too serious while you still hadn’t recovered details of the contract you’d lost.

It had resulted in scheduling another meeting some time later, giving both parties time to reconvene and finalise their sides of the deal. 

By the time you finished the main course, your mouth was dry from all the bullshitting you had to do. As soon as you finish your portion of dessert, you figure it’s time to jet. 

“So, I should get going and go home, y’know, to the husband you picked out for me.” you start only half-sarcastically. “Thanks for the dinner,” and the shakedown, you think. “could I take some dessert for your beloved son-in-law? He likes this kind of thing.”

“Well, YN, I’m glad you’ve learned what he likes.” your mother says. You wait for her to finish her sentence before having any hope of even a tiny compliment. “You may take some home, but next time just bring him here for dinner, instead of taking home scraps and left overs, it’s embarrassing. As if you can’t afford a full meal.”

“Mom, I told you, he really had plans and I did beg him to come.” you fib, hoping it sells. 

“Alright, alright, I believe you.” she concedes. “But you shouldn’t beg your husband for things either, it sets for an awkward relationship and it’s embarrassing.” she continues. 

You should have known something mildly positive would be followed up in this manner. You sigh and wait for the house keeper to bring you a box for the dessert. 

You get up and get your things by the door, then hug Maki goodbye and ruffle his hair, whispering a quick “Hang in there, kiddo.” to which he just looks at you blankly, dimples popping. You felt bad leaving him there with the hyenas (your mother). “You poor thing.” you lament, patting his arm, as you put on your shoes.      

“Drive carefully,” your mother says after you say your goodbyes. “and don’t forget you have that charity event in a couple of weeks. You have to go with Nicholas.”

“Yes, I know. You told me several times already. It’s in my calendar.” you take the box of dessert and open the door. “Goodnight.” you call and leave before anyone can say anything more. 

As soon as you get inside your car, you let out a frustrated grunt, hitting your steering wheel with the palms of your hands, releasing a sound that would compete with wild animals. You just needed to get that out of your system because there was only so much pent up frustration you could take.

Once you calm down, you start the engine and go on your way. The dessert sits in the passenger seat as you precious cargo as you drive through the night, windows down, playing some songs you’d curated specifically for after family dinners. 

You sing along because the roads are empty and no one’s around to hear you sing like a strangled cat. It’s the exact catharsis you needed, expelling all that energy while the moon hangs full in the sky, so you’re in an improved mood by the time you walk through your front door. 

After you kick off your shoes, you go to the kitchen, slippers smacking loudly against the floor as you walk. The sound of your arrival must have alerted Nicholas because he appears while you’re getting a glass of water after depositing the dessert in the fridge. 

“You’re back earlier than I thought.” you observe, putting the glass down with a ‘click’ on the counter.   

“Yeah, the thing with he guys didn’t last as long as we thought so I came back early.” he explains, plopping down to sit at the counter. “How was dinner? You seem disgruntled.”

“Excellent observation.” you frown, thinking of the best word to describe the ordeal. “It was rather disagreeable.” you attempt. 

“Oh? That is most unfortunate, Mrs Wang. Something happen in particular?” he listens attentively. 

“Your mother-in-law says hello and sends her regards. Need I say more?” you raise your eyebrows at him. He’s wearing a loose grey t-shirt and looks sleepy already, which you note is odd because if you had learned anything about your husband, is that he was, by personal preference, nocturnal. 

“Ah, lovely.” he nods in understanding. “Sorry, I let you fly solo.”

“I wasn’t totally alone, Maki was there, but he can only say so much.” you say. “Anyways, I got you something.” you remember to bring out the dessert from the fridge again.

“Ooh, what’s that?” Nicholas perks up at the sight of the box. You almost laugh at his sudden rejuvenation.

“Dessert. The one with the strawberry sorbet.” you hum smugly when his eyes light up. 

“Wah, that’s great. Is it my birthday?” he smiles as you open the box and offer him a spoon. He seems to change his mind in a split second and his face falls, suddenly becoming serious. “Are you trying to poison me?” he interrogates, face full of suspicion.

You tilt your head sarcastically. “Totally. Tis part of my elaborate scheme to become a young widow.” you deadpan and start to take away the spoon but Nicholas stops you and accepts it. “Trust me - if I was going to poison you, you wouldn’t know about it.” you add, gulping down the rest of your water. 

“Well, that’s reassuring.” he hums while looking at the contents of the box.

“Bon appetit!” you give him a toothy smile and breeze past him. 

*

To say that mornings with Nicholas were a pain, would be a gross understatement. 

From what you’re seen on your honeymoon, your husband was most certainly not a morning person, but you had yet to see in detail just how grizzly the situation could get.

It was kind of ironic because Nicholas was a well put together guy; he knew what he was doing, worked hard at it and did it without a fuss. He seemed like the ultimate catch - young, rich, tall, handsome (others would say sexy too and you would agree, objectively only of course), funny, smart, polite, respectful, well mannered - but of course, nobody’s perfect and it didn’t take a genius to work out that mornings were Nicholas’ weakness.  

For the most part so far, the two of you had differing schedules and you barely ran into each other in the mornings, mostly taking turns in the bathroom if anything and giving each other a heads up if you were particularly in a hurry that day or the next day or whenever. 

Today however, you had a meeting of the boards of directors for your two companies. It was mostly oversight for the progression of the merger and a chance to hear from the heads of the companies to brief you on the vision for how the merger should go. Your and Nicholas’ presence was without a doubt mandatory and possibly even the highlight since everyone would be talking about you two. 

You woke up like clock work, a couple minutes before your alarm and stretched out like a cat before getting up to hunt for coffee (your cavemen ancestors would be shocked). You walked past Nicholas’ room and heard his alarm going off, relieved that supposedly he’s awake. 

Supposedly. 

The coffee machine whirs quietly as you prepare two cups since you figured Nicholas would want coffee too, but you don’t hear his door opening or in fact, any noise from his room. You pad over to the corridor to listen out and pick up the sound of a second alarm. It sounds promising so you don’t think too much of it and go back to drink your coffee.

It’s been ten minutes when you decide that something is wrong with Nicholas. 

You leave your half drunk coffee and his untouched one on the counter and go knock on his door.

“Yo, Nico, you awake?” you call out. You strain your ears to hear a response, leaning onto the door itself. You hear an unmistakeable groan. “I know you’re alive and in there, now get up!” you shout, hoping the louder the message, the more likely it is to get through to him. 

You leave to finish your coffee but when he still doesn’t get up, you roll your eyes and stack your cup on the pile of dirty dishes waiting to be put into the dish washer. 

“That’s it.” you mutter, determined to make him shift. You fill a glass with cold water, stopping by the freezer for ice and then make your way back to Nicholas’ room. 

You were starting to worry that you were going to be late for that stupid meeting since it was already a quarter to eight.   

You bang on his door almost violently. “Wang Yixiang, get your dumb ass up or else!” you call to another groan of what sounds like ‘go away’. Your blood pressure spikes and you snap. “I warned you, I’m coming in.” 

And you yank the door handle and enter the room. 

You find Nicholas in just pyjama pants, sprawled face first in his bed, blankets and sheets tangled up like a war zone while he hugs an extra pillow and a wolf plushie sits on the opposite side of the bed against the headboard. His hair is a mess and splays all over his face and pillow as he still dozes despite your loud attempts at intervening. 

You hesitate for a second because he looks so peaceful, then you remember that you have somewhere to be.  

“This is a warning shot.” you say and dip your fingers into the water to grab hold of an ice cube.

You launch the ice cube unceremoniously and it plops onto Nicholas’ bare back. He jolts at the contact and a low moan sounds from the back of his throat. Your eyes widen as you feel a wave of queasiness wash over your lower abdomen. 

What the fuck did you just do? Did you press the wrong button? Is he malfunctioning? Does he need to go for an MOT check like a car? 

The noise sent you reeling and you wanted to run away but the ice cube did nothing. It just sort of slid off of his back and he shuffled a little, getting comfortable again. You sigh and nod to yourself. You hoped it wouldn’t need to come to this.

“Right.” you say. Without another moment to lose, you hold out the glass over Nicholas’ bare torso and tip your wrist so the water comes spilling out.

The water splashes all over his back and it sends Nicholas flying up with a piercing screech. 

“What was that for!” he yelps, shaking off the water off his back and reaching for a blanket to wipe it off. You would stay to have a full conversation about this, but you’re already on your way out. 

“You’re late.” you chastise. “And if you’re late, then I’m late. Now get up or I’ll come back with a bucket.” you warn as you sweep out of the premises.

“You know you’re meaner in the mornings!” he calls out after you. 

“Thanks!” you reply over your shoulder. 

Needless to say, you usher Nicholas into your car ten minutes later, him almost dressed as he finishes buttoning up his shirt and does his tie in the car, then styles his hair in the passenger seat using your overhead mirror. You try your best to avoid a pothole but manage to run straight over it by accident. Your car jolts and Nicholas groans in frustration when his hair swishes in a different direction. 

“You couldn’t let us be fashionably late.” he mutters. 

“I’m never late. Fashionably or otherwise.” you inform him. “Get used to it, hubby; you roll with me now.” you say as you manoeuvre the steering wheel. 

“Alright, got it, Sergeant.” Nicholas holds up a hand as if swearing an oath.

“Next meeting, we might even make it on time.” you sass back as you pull up to work and exhale. 

This was going to be a long day. 

*

Before you could blink, it was the last day of the calendar quarter and you were dreading it because it’s the day that you and your uncle gather to have coffee and talk about work, less in a boss and employee way and more of an uncle-niece thing. It was the first time you’d ever felt apprehensive to talk to your uncle since he’d had a part to play in your arranged marriage and you were still disappointed in him.  

You’d always been closer to your uncle than your parents as far as you could remember. Probably because he didn’t keep you on a leash and command you around but respected your independence. He’d even tried to stop you from going to law school unless it was definitely what you wanted. You had no idea why he’d done that at the time (you were still in high school), but after a few years, you now appreciated the gesture.

Now, you weren’t so sure what he was going to be like after letting your parents push you to Nicholas. You still remembered his face that day; impassive as if he didn’t care about you at all. There was a still a lingering feeling of betrayal when you thought about what your uncle had done.

You took your normal route to company rooftop, your coffee mug hot in your hand as you made your way outside. 

Your uncle was waiting at your usual table, the tiny one at the end of the row closest to the edge of the rooftop balcony. From there, you could see out to the city and watch the sun set. It was just after work hours officially ended so the cafe at your company had closed already but you each bought a mug from your offices and sat down.

You walk up to the table as briskly as your coffee would allow you and sit down in the empty chair. 

“Hi, uncle.” you attempt. He half-smiles, his fond demeanour unchanged as always. 

“Hello, YN.” he replies. “Are you ready for a chat?” 

The question hangs in the air, for some reason, you feel it entails more than your usual this and that about work. 

“Sure.” you say, cautious. 

You end up telling him about some of the finalised negotiations you made this quarter and catching him up on some of the cases you’d been assigned. After a while, it feels natural and you confess that you’d messed up a little with that contract but you don’t tell him it involved Nicholas.

In fact, you don’t mention Nicholas at all and try to move on as if there was no massive elephant in the room. It’s definitely starting to annoy you, skirting around the subject but you try to stay steadfast despite how it irks you.  

Your uncle figures it out anyway. 

“Something bothering you, dear?” he asks, voice totally unintrusive.

“Not really,” you lie, but your eyes shift to your half-drunk coffee. Your uncle sighs and puts his mug down.

“Listen, YN, I’m not a fool, we should talk about it.” he says. “I know you’re probably displeased with me for pairing you up with Nicholas, but you’ll just have to find it in your heart to accept it.” he continues. “I am not expecting your forgiveness, although I would be relieved to hear it. What was done was for your own good. I hope one day you’ll be able to see that.”

It hurts to hear the same rhetoric from your uncle as it came from your parents; the whole ‘for-your-own-good’ thing made you want to pull your hair out, yet you realise that coming from him, it feels all the more painful. 

“I understand that you’ll keep giving me a cold shoulder and I’m okay with it, I suppose, but I need you to remember that everything is temporary.” he meets your eyes. You sense something odd for a moment when he says that, but you don’t react. “Besides, you might even end up liking Nicholas, he’s a good boy.” 

That seems to spur you into action.

“Uncle, it’s not about that.” you reply adamantly. “Nicholas is great, he’s really not the problem. The problem is that you still let my parents dictate such a huge decision in my life - I trusted you to not do such a thing. You’re better than that.” 

Your uncle pauses for a moment. “You agreed eventually, didn’t you?” he asks simply. 

“Well yes, but it was because I was scared they’d do something to Maki. You know they would pick on him if it wasn’t for me.” you argue. 

“YN, your parents are complicated people, but they’re not quite as evil as you believe them to be.” your uncle says gently, the way you try to talk to little kids and rationalise a situation which they find stupid (and usually have a right to find as such).  

“Well, you’re related to one of them, you kind of have to say that.” you remind him, rejecting his philosophy.  

“I’m saying it because it’s true. Try to understand them a little more. Alright?” he pleads. 

You look at your uncle and see that he’s trying - he’s trying to be the bridge in this family and you have to give him something to work with. 

You nod reluctantly, not because you agree with him or want to understand your parents, but because you wanted to go easy on him for the sake of not creating issues in your family as a whole. Sometimes you couldn’t have compromises and you needed to be more patient and the bigger person. 

You knew where he was coming from; of course people are complicated and do things for complicated reasons, including hurting their loved ones. You believed that it was possible that it could be true they weren’t so bad but also true that some people just weren’t nice, weren’t kind, weren’t understanding by nature. 

In that line of thought, it wasn’t even about the specificity of your situation. It was that you knew there’s truly nothing completely black and white in the world - your relationship with your parents had always been full of greys, differing shades of blurriness contorting your feelings towards them for your whole life. 

You put the topic down quietly and resumed chatting about this and that, the whole thing weighing you down just a bit before you concluded and bid your uncle goodbye, going home immediately after that, although you’d planned to stay longer. 

“Fuck overtime.” you hum as you get into your car. 

The rest of your evening is fairly quiet, you cook dinner for yourself after Nicholas sends you a text about a haphazard night out with his friends and to not wait up for him. It’s completely fine by you since you really needed some time alone to stew about everything; your conversation with your uncle had sent you spiralling.

Were you being unreasonable? Should you be less angry at your parents for setting you up with Nicholas? You’d meant it when you said he was great, not that you’d say that to his face ever and watch it become smug and delighted. 

The thought passes as quickly and fleetingly as it had come. You were dead set in your bones to resent your parents because what they did was wrong - it was about your autonomy as a person and they’d violated that on some level. You acknowledged your agreement only to the point of technicality - yes, you’d gone through with it willingly despite hating the situation. 

That was then. Now it was a couple of months later and the extremity of the feelings had died down and you were occasionally forgetting their misdeeds, so your meeting with your uncle had served as a reminder that you shouldn’t forget or really forgive it just because nothing awful had happened. Or at least yet (you knew nobody was insured about anything).  

It gets late around midnight before you hear your front door unlocking.

You were just sitting on the couch, watching TV, a rarity in your busy life, when you hear several sets of footsteps stumbling into the house. There’s hushed voices shushing after a particularly loud noise. 

“Nicholas?” you call out, switching off the screen and getting up to check out the situation. 

“Honey, I’m home!” Nicholas yells loudly before even seeing you. The tone is shrill and very alarming and makes you freak out immediately.

In the hallway you find a quartet of men, your husband amongst his friends, the fire brigade. Nicholas is standing- no- leaning on Kei, clearly out of his mind, as well as a complementary identical Euijoo and Fuma, the latter supporting the former in his arms. Their clothes all seem to have the marks of some drizzle and you deduce that it must be raining outside.

You make a face, taking in the scene. “What the fuck is wrong with him?” you ask generally to the presumably slightly sober parties, already knowing the answer. There are a couple of guilty looks exchanged between Kei and Fuma.

“He’s drunk.” Kei admits sheepishly. 

“I figured, how bad is it?” you ask. 

“Baby, what are you talking about?” Nicholas interjects, eyes glazed over as he leans his head on Kei’s shoulder. “I feel great!” he grins. There’s a wildness in his eyes that makes you worry. You don’t even spare a thought on the name calling.  

“He had a bit.” Fuma offers but he seems uneasy to elaborate. 

“How much is ‘a bit’?” you push for details, sceptical.

“A glass.” Kei says. 

“Of what?” 

“Tea.”

“What kind of tea?” you interrogate, already knowing the answer.

“Long island ice tea.” Kei mumbles, lowering his eyes to the floor. 

“You let him drink what!” you exclaim, outraged. “Of all the things you could have had, how on Earth did Nicholas end up having a cocktail with four types of alcohol in it?” you shriek.  

You look at Nicholas, who has been clinging to Kei, hanging off him like a little koala. Euijoo cringes at the volume of your voice as he seems to doze off on Fuma’s shoulder.

“We’re sorry. It was kind of an accident.” Fuma says, clearly ashamed. 

You had never drunk with Nicholas before, save for the tiny bit of wine at his parents’ and the sip of champagne at your wedding, so this was a serious shock. Was your husband a serious lightweight? Did you even know him? Clearly you had only scratched the surface of Nicholas trivia if this had never come up till now. 

“Yeah, he’s not really built for alcohol.” Kei says apologetically. 

“But it’s okay, we’ll take care of him, and Euijoo.” Fuma adds quickly.

You look at the way Euijoo is basically sleeping in Fuma’s arms, surprised that Fuma can hold him up so well when Euijoo is a few inches taller. Kei on the other hand seems to be struggling with Nicholas’ affection - while you were talking, there was an attempted piggy back that Kei had to gently fend off. On closer surveillance, Nicholas seemed to be a clingy drunk with a bad case of grabby hands.  

“No, it’s fine.” you find yourself saying. “I’ll take care of him, I did marry this mess. He’s my responsibility now.” you tell the elder two. You couldn’t imagine the ruckus they would collectively make so you decided it was better that you just take over. 

Kei’s eyes light up in gratitude while Fuma seems even more guilty while cradling Euijoo’s head to his shoulder. 

“Are you sure?” Fuma asks, his voice full of concern. You nod reassuringly.

“You guys can go, I’ll make sure he’s okay.” you insist. Despite meeting them for the third time today, you most certainly were strangers and you didn’t really want them hanging around your house, even if they were Nicholas’ friends. 

“You’re a badass, YN, thanks.” Kei gushes while guiding, more like carrying, Nicholas to the couch. You give him a nod of acknowledgement while standing between the hallway and living room. 

Euijoo seems to stir, clearly having some kind of sonar or telepathy or something because as soon as Nicholas is a few feet away, his eyes open and he looks around as if he lost something.

“Noooo,” Euijoo whines, trying to follow. “don’t take my bestie away…” his attempt is curtailed by Fuma, who pats his back gently. 

“Nico’s home, Joojoo, don’t worry about it. You’ll see him tomorrow.” Fuma explains. “Sorry about this, YN.” he says to you when Kei comes back. Euijoo seems dissatisfied with the current chain of events but pouts about it quietly. 

“Right, he’s all yours.” Kei says before going to stand on Euijoo’s other side and take some of his weight off Fuma. “Let’s get you home, buddy.” he puts one of his arms around his shoulder and the three of them start to make for the door. 

You open it helpfully and stand aside, letting the two older men half-carry, half-drag Euijoo away. 

“Thanks for bringing Nico home in one piece.” you say as you bid them goodbye. 

“Good luck.” Fuma gives you a ‘fighting’ gesture with his closed fist in solidarity.

“Thanks, I think I’m going to need it.” you bid them goodbye and close the door, bracing yourself for what lay ahead. 

In the living room, Nicholas has managed to stay where Kei left him, splayed all over the couch like a pancake, staring upwards. You round the couch and assess the situation; he’s very much out of it, eyes unfocused and mouth ever so slightly opened as if he was fascinated with the colour of your ceiling.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” you begin. You decide to get some water and painkillers for the inevitable hangover he’s going to get in a few hours. 

There’s a moment of silence while Nicholas shuffles, sitting up but still leaning into the shape of the back of the couch. He seems to register you talking to him, which by the time you stand in front of him with the glass of water, makes him animate suddenly, his body switching gear. 

“YN!” he says, as if shocked. 

“Yes?” you offer him the glass but he doesn’t seem to notice. 

“Let’s go dance outside!” he exclaims, his face bright with excitement. He starts to get up but seemingly feels dizzy since he flops back down on the couch, clutching his head. You blink at him, unable to understand the thought process. The request was neither here nor there, really. 

“We can’t.” you say simply. “It’s raining. See?” you point toward the window where the drizzle seems to have escalated and the drops are sliding down the glass. 

“Yeah, well it rains inside too.” he mumbles when you put his suggestion down.

“Y’know, I’m not sure it does.” you hum, amused at the comment while you place the glass on the coffee table. 

“But the shower,” he insists. “it’s inside rain.” he says. You purse your lips, biting back a laugh at how convinced Nicholas seems that the shower is really rain. 

“Okay, alright.” you say, nodding to yourself. “Let’s get you to bed, you need to sleep this off.” you start to lean down to take hold of his arm.

“I don’t want to sleep.” he whines immediately. Instead, he takes hold of your arm and looks up at you with big eyes. “I’m hungry.” he pouts. 

“Okay, what do you want to eat? I’ll make it for you.”

“You will?” his eyes light up with delight. “I’ll eat anything you make.” 

The way that alcohol seems to keep its chokehold on Nicholas suggests to you that you should probably opt for something that will ease the problems that would follow.

“Hangover soup it is.” you state, trying to shake Nicholas off so you can get to the kitchen. 

When he doesn’t let go, you sigh and tug him up by the hands so he stands up. You help him stumble across the room to the kitchen part and sit him down at the counter where he slumps immediately and rests on his crossed arms, looking up at you, the dopey look resting on his face. 

You start to gather the ingredients, which thankfully your fridge contained because you’d been shopping yesterday, but that’s when the babbling starts. 

Nicholas seems to have found some new energy because once his mouth opens, it doesn’t seem to close. 

“Is that beef? Oh my god, it is, I love beef. Are you going to cook the beef? ‘Cause I know this killer recipe for a beef stew and you just have to try it. I used to have it as a kid but my parents never made it for me, it was always this nanny I had and she was awesome. I really miss auntie, YN, I really miss her. She was the best. Are you going to make the beef like she did? Maybe you can get the recipe from her, oh! You should meet her, she’d love you!” and as much as you wanted to listen to everything, your brain sort of switched off when he got on another tirade as you started slicing the cabbage and other veggies for the soup. 

He starts to run out of steam by the time you get to putting the sauce you prepared on the beef and the cabbage and he just sort of leans on the counter, face in the palm of his hands and watches you. 

Then comes more absurdity. 

Nicholas giggles distinctly and smiles to himself. 

You only react out of concern, putting the lid on the pot. “What is it?” you ask. 

He shakes his head bashfully and doesn’t say anything but continues smiling. 

“Fine, don’t tell me.” you mutter, putting the broth to the beef and adding the cabbage. You’re starting to feel a little paranoid; was he laughing about your cooking? You knew you weren’t a Michelin chef, or even as good as he was in the kitchen, but you weren’t that bad, right? 

“Hmm, I’m happy.” he says, fingers squishing his own cheeks. 

The statement takes you by surprise. 

“You’re drunk.” you correct, unsure what to make of it. 

“Don’t you wanna know why I’m happy?” he leans forward, as if trying to get your attention. 

You shrug on reflex. “Happiness is fleeting and overrated.” (as is alcohol within your system). 

“Boooo! Why are you like this, huh? You’re so cute, you should be happy too!” he insists. You side eye him but let him continue. “My cute wifey should be happy, like me. Let’s be happy together!” he laughs, as if he just solved the world’s problems. 

You stare at him, slightly horrified because a) who the hell was he calling his ‘cute wifey’ ‘cause that sure as hell wasn’t you, and b) how would you be happy together when you were living in a loveless marriage?  

“Nicholas, I don’t-”

“No! Stop it! I won’t hear it, I want everyone to be happy. End of discussion.” he babbles, clapping his hands together once, as if he’s hitting a slate. 

You’re baffled - you’d forgotten what it was like to talk to drunk people.  

You hate the way his words pierce through your thick skin and land somewhere soft where it hurts. You knew he was drunk, but he must be drunker than you thought.

If anything, his declarations made you sad because who knew what the future holds? You didn’t dare fantasise these days, for fear that if you did daydream, everything in your life would fall apart and you really would spend a life time with Nicholas instead of finding the love of your life. Would that bring you the happiness you’ve been brainwashed to expect in life? 

Despite yourself, you held on to the belief that whoever it was, this figurative love of your life person, they were out there and you might still have a chance to find them even if you were or had been married to Nicholas. The thought was a sick and twisted hope as you prepared the soup, quietly hating yourself for thinking it while you were just hanging out with the man that was for the present circumstances, your husband. 

You couldn’t reason with the guilt; its grip was too strong but you were a romantic at heart and nothing that had happened between the two of you had been romantic, at least in your view. Being forced to marry each other wasn’t exactly romantic, was it? 

Your soup is finally ready and you turn off the heat, bringing out a bowl. Nicholas has been lying on the counter, his cheek against the cold surface while he sits in one of the tall chairs surrounding your island. The clang of the lid seems to shake him and he straightens up then stares at you suddenly with a newfound focus. You start to think there’s some dirt on your face. 

“You’re so pretty with your hair like that.” he notes, as if it just occurred to him. You almost spill the soup in your hands as you process the random compliment. You don’t think much of it though, because this is how you wore your hair almost every day so it was definitely some unconscious thought fuelled by that wretched cocktail. 

“Eat up.” you instruct, putting the steaming bowl in front of him. He grins at it, as if it was his first born child. You make a mental note to never bring alcohol in the house. 

“Thanks!” he says happily but instead of digging in, he starts to pat his pockets. 

“What are you looking for?” you ask, sure you were going to have to solve this one. 

“My phone,” he says, searching his pockets to no avail. “but I can’t find it.” 

You sigh heavily and reach to your right, picking up the device and holding it out to Nicholas. It had been sitting on the counter the whole time, but how could you expect his drunk ass to see it?

“Ah! Great.” he says and takes it, holding it up to the bowl. “I have to take a picture, my cute wifey made me a meal.” he giggles. You want to scowl at the new nickname but the goofy way he says it makes it hard for you to fight a smile trying to break through. 

“Watch it or it might be the last meal I make for you.” you warn, no force behind your words. 

You let him eat, just relieved that he’s not saying any more weird things. His battery had run out a while ago so he hadn’t been so bad when he was just resting on the counter. You were already thinking ahead about how you were going to get him to sleep. Drunk people tended to get sleepy after a while so why hadn’t he yet? 

The conundrum bothers you while Nicholas finishes eating. 

“Are you ready to go to bed?” you test the waters tentatively. 

“Nah, I’m not sleepy,” he says while a yawn follows.  

“Oh thank god.” you sigh in relief at the yawn. His brain might be saying he’s not sleepy but his body sure was; you just had to wait for his brain to catch up. 

“What?” he asks. 

“Nothing.” you say quickly. “Well, let’s get you to your room, I won’t make you sleep.” you lie. 

It’s barely a trek to his room but you definitely struggle through the hallway because Nicholas for some reason thinks that he’s the size of a tiny lap dog and you practically carry him to bed. You almost manhandle him to lie down, his body falling limp onto the mattress and you pull the blanket over him before he gets any ideas of getting up. 

“Hang on a sec,” you tell him, going to get the water, painkillers and a bowl in case any of the iced tea or stew makes a reappearance. “Alright, do you need anything before I go?” you ask. 

“There is one thing,” he says after a moment. “come closer.” he says quietly. You worry he might try to snuggle you to death but you indulge him, perching on the edge of his bed. You lean closer, listening. Nicholas looks up at you. “I have to play Mario Kart right now, YN. It’s life or death.” he pleads. 

You straighten up immediately, your blood pressure wavering. 

“Oh, it’s life or death, alright.” you mutter. “Might kill your dumb ass if I ever catch you drinking again.”

That seems to change his mind pretty quickly and you can almost see his non-existent tail curl between his legs.

“Alright, if you need anything, just shout, I’ll leave the doors open.” you tell him. “Goodnight.” you start to get up but he catches your hand before you can step away. 

You’re surprised and think he must have thought of something so you turn, watching him expectantly. 

“Don’t go.” he says in a small voice. It was possibly one of the lowest decibels you had ever heard him talk at. 

“Why? Don’t you want to sleep?” 

“I don’t want to be alone.” he admits quietly. His voice makes something lurch in your chest. You gulp, considering his request.

“Okay, I’ll stay until you fall asleep.” you promise, sitting back down. 

Nicholas nods and cozies up in his blanket, still not letting go of your hand. 

You watch him for a moment; his eyes are closed and his chest is falling and rising steadily as if he’s already asleep but you know better from the python grip of his hand around yours. There’s something peaceful though in his expression despite that, the same tranquillity that had made you hesitate before waking him up some time ago. 

His words echo in your mind and for a second you let your heart break a little because you knew that you were luckier - you had Maki, but Nicholas was the only heir in his family. You were older but you didn’t exactly remember a time that you didn’t have Maki in your life. You wondered what it was like to grow up alone, missing the presence of a sibling.

After a few minutes, Nicholas seems to drift off, his hand loosening but still wrapped around yours. You want to untangle yourself and go but you worry about waking him, so you slide to the floor and sit against the side of the bed instead, predicting that he’d move around in his sleep and you best avoid that or he could wake up from that too. 

What you don’t expect is that you drift off too. 

You wake up in the middle of the night for a second but it’s only to shift around, your brain not registering that you’re sleeping on the floor in someone else’s room. 

The next time you wake up is in the morning, you can tell by the light in the room, but you’re no longer on the floor. You’re lying in a bed, a blanket thrown over you that you’d been snuggling into. You inhale the smell of the pillow and blanket you’re cocooned in and your eyes snap open. 

You forgot this wasn’t your bed.

You flail about with desperation as you sit up and notice that beside you and the cute wolf plushie positioned next to your pillow like a guard dog, Nicholas’ bed is missing its Nicholas. You glance at the clock on the bedside table and do a double take; it’s around eight, on a weekend, and Nicholas was already out of bed? 

“Did the sun rise in the west?” you wonder out loud, flicking off the blanket and getting up. 

When you open the door of his room and pad into the hallway, you can already hear the distant clattering around in the kitchen. You smooth a hand through your hair and make your way there. 

If it wasn’t for the time of day, the image you were seeing wouldn’t be out of the ordinary; Nicholas did spend time in the kitchen cooking too, knowing his way around confidently. Yet, what you were seeing makes you suspicious. 

Nicholas notices you coming and gives you a sheepish greeting. 

“Morning, you hungry?” he asks. 

“Uh,” you let your brain buffer. It felt like a trick question. “I guess.”

“Good, I made breakfast.” he turns back to put the finishing touches on the meal while you sit down at the counter, hesitatingly. 

On closer inspection, he does seem hungover - his movements are a little slow and his slouch is visible unlike his usually good posture, but otherwise, there’s no sign of last night’s drunken Nico. 

You’re presented with a cup of coffee from your machine, just the way you like it, then a plate of fruit cut up and arranged neatly and finally a pretty large stack of pancakes with a little chocolate sauce that spells out ‘sorry :(’. 

“I really am sorry.” Nicholas adds for good measure, twiddling his thumbs opposite you at the counter. 

You can’t help but smile at the pancakes a little because they really were cute.   

“You’re forgiven.” you say. “Just please never consume alcohol ever again, thanks.”

“You got it.” he promises.  

~

more memes!!! chapter 4 edition <3

A/N: thanks for reading, feedback is always appreciated <3 yn finally met the fire brigade! yes i know i didn’t write in taki and harua, that was deliberate, it’s not that i don’t love the babies, it just doesn’t make sense for them to be in this chapter haha, they will appear, i promise. also the vinegar thing is true - it’s good for getting rid of smells, just fyi.

*copyright 2021- © momobani 

#&team #andteam #&team nicholas #wang yixiang #nicholas x reader #&team x reader #&team fics #&team imagines #&team scenarios #momobani.writes

[bp-zb1fics]

hi i really loved your yujin fic and wondered if i can request a part two to it?

imagine this: it’s their first time hanging out as friends after male reader finally succeeded in befriending yujin, their first hangout is just the two of them and m!reader had the whole day planned out. PLOT TWIST yujin ends up being the excited friendly one and m!reader becomes shy because this is their first big hang out

no rush take your time, you always make great fics (also can the hang out not be at one of their houses? maybe at a park or an aquarium or something)

Shy, shy, shy pt. 2

part 1 here

Friends han yujin & class president male reader

genre: highschool au on crack, friendship

tw/tags: top tier convenience store food, the great outdoors aka the park, just teenage boy things, yujin turns out to be mr popular, ft dog mafia for comedic purposes, more adoption papers, age is messed with a little to fit the narrative

wc: 1107

summary: yujin wants to ask you, his new friend, to hang out but what happens when you end up asking him first?

a/n thanks for requesting a part two anon! I'm not sure if I was able to do exactly what you were going for but I tried my best hehe~ pls do let me know what you think! enjoy!

Check my pinned for more fics~

It’s not that Yujin is shy. (He is lol)

It’s just that he has a hard time approaching new people. 

And it’s a lot easier when someone else approaches him. (Which you did)

More than once. (Several times over the past three weeks)

With sincere and honest effort. (You literally came to house with his homework)

Okay. Maybe he’s a little shy. (Yep, that’s better, acceptance is the last stage of- wait a minute)

But you’re friends now. (That you are)

And according to his all-knowing and wise (that description is subject to opinion) hyung, Kim Gyuvin:

“Well friends can hang out too?”

So you and Yujin should definitely hang out. Because you’re friends now. (That’s right)

Except there’s one problem. (Oh no)

Yujin doesn’t really know what to do. (Of course he doesn’t)

Luckily that’s where you and your excellent planning skills come in. I mean, come on, you weren’t elected class president for nothing.

__________________________________________

“By the way, are you free this Saturday?” You ask after a brief lull in your conversation.

“Yeah?” His response comes out more like a question than a statement. 

It’s just that Yujin’s not sure whether you mean it like you two study together at one of your houses or like desperately trying to keep Gyuvin or Junhyeon from harassing your mothers with adoption papers (it’s a long story) because Gunwook is no help at all.

“Great, you wanna hang out or something?” Oh, that’s what you mean.

“Uh sure,” he agrees easily. “What do you wanna do?”

“Well I was thinking…”

__________________________________________

You meet at the bus stop near your school. There’s a little convenience store and cafe nearby so you pass by to grab some snacks and drinks with the pocket money you have.

Your first surprise is when the ahjumma at the counter greets Yujin as if he were her long lost son.

“Ah, back again so soon, Yujinie-yah? And on a weekend? Have you missed this old woman that much?”

Yujin just smiles, greeting her politely and asks how she is while passing her the snacks you plan to take with you: a few triangular gimbaps, two boiled eggs, a bag of onion ring chips and banana milk.

The ahjumma tuts, and throws in a few pastries from the display, insisting that two growing teenage boys like yourselves should eat more. You both thank her.

“Really, it’s no problem Yujin-ah, come visit me more often. And your friend! Why haven’t you introduced me to him?”

Before you can say anything, Yujin is already introducing you.

“Ah, you’re the class president? Keep taking care of Yujin well and please come visit me when you’re not busy.” She chuckles at both of you maternally.

You thank her again before shuffling out the door.

“Go there often?” You ask, still floored by the interaction you just witnessed.

“I usually pass by here for a snack before taking the bus home.” Yujin says. “Aunty’s just very friendly. She doesn’t get to talk to so many people.”

“She seems to like talking to you.” You remark.

You take the bus to a nearby park, still in the district but in a more urban area. After finding a bench, you settle down with your snacks.

“You doing well with classes?” You say, peeling off the wrapper of your gimbap.

Yujin hums. He’s already accustomed to your habit of asking about school as a way of starting a conversation that would lead to other topics.

“Baek-seongsaengnim’s been nicer to me.”

Baek Kooyoung-saem was a notoriously tough but patient teacher. He had singled out Yujin the first few weeks but generally mellowed out after your friend had proven himself able to keep up with his class.

“Well I’m pretty sure you’ve shown him that you’re better at his class than his 7 year old son is.”

You say, laughing as Yujin groans at the recollection of that particular comment the teacher had thrown at him. 

“I think he knows that I haven’t just been studying that one lesson for years.”

He adds at his own expense, both of you laughing. Your conversation moves on, Yujin trying to convince you to join the soccer club he attends and you telling him about the new PC bang that opened near your place.

By the time you’ve polished off the pastries and drank the last of your milk, it’s nearly time for the sun to set.

As you walk back to the bus stop, you come across a group of street dancers who seem to be free styling.

And for your second surprise that day, Yujin jumps in all of a sudden. He’s really good, moving with a fluidity and matching the rhythm in a way that seemed almost like he’s been trained to dance.

“You should join your friend!” One of the dancers calls out to you as the rest of them hype Yujin up.

“It’s okay,” you shake your head. Unfortunately, you’ve got two left feet and not too much body control.

Your friend is nearly breathless when they let him go.

“That was really fun, totally.”

“Yeah, you’re really good at dancing, Yujin-ah”

“You think so? You know they asked me if I was part of a crew but I told them that I’m just a first year in highschool and they were really shocked-“

For once, Yujin is the one who’s talking a mile per minute and you’re just here to listen.

“We should hang out again.” Yujin says to you as you wait for the bus.

“We should”

“By the way…”

“Hmm?” You turn to look at the other boy when he hesitates.

“I don’t know if it’s just me but do you maybe feel like we’re being watched?”

__________________________________________

“They’re all grown up now.” Junhyeon sobs but at a semi muted volume so you don’t overhear him.

“Can someone please explain to me why we're here again?” Gunwook asks. 

They’re all crouched behind some bushes. Considering their combined average height surpasses 180cm, they’re really not doing a good job of hiding.

“We’re here to chaperone the children.” Gyuvin hisses before whipping out a pair of binoculars. Gunwook doesn't even want to know where he got them from.

“No one asked us to chaperone them?”

“No one needs to, it’s on the papers.”

“What papers??”

“The adoption papers, you fool.”

“And in our joint custody agreement.” Junhyeon adds helpfully before going back to fake crying.

“We haven’t actually adopted them??? And I don’t ever remember making an agreement.”

“We’re working on the adoption part. And as for the agreement, you have, I have it on video.”

“What video???”

“Shhh, Gunwook, they’re gonna hear us.”

“Uh guys?” 

“What Junhyeon-ah?”

“I think they heard us.”

#boys planet #boys planet fics #boys planet 999 #boys planet mnet #boys planet drabbles #zb1 #zb1 fics #zb1 scenarios #zb1 imagines #kpop fics #kpop scenarios #kpop fanfic #kpop imagines #zerobaseone #boys planet x reader #zb1 x reader #han yujin #zb1 yujin #han yujin x reader #han yujin fic #han yujin drabble #platonic relationships #kum junhyeon #park gunwook #kim gyuvin #fic request #bp-zb1fics

[jerzwriter]

High Score

Book: Open Heart (Prequel - Casey's Medical School Years)

Pairing: F!MC (Casey MacTavish) x F!OC (Jessica Phillips)

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Mentions of homophobia including a slur

Words: 1,545

Summary: Casey and her girlfriend Jessica are both busy med school students with conflicting schedules, and they're both eagerly looking forward to sharing lunch at "their" diner. One idiot nearly derails their plans, but the women won't let him win.

A/N: This is based on a real event from my past, and the game really was called "King Kong." The picture in the header, however, is Donkey Kong because there are no pictures of the cheap knockoff out there! lol Participating in @choicesjunechallenge - romance, love, Pride Month, @choicespride and @choicesficwriterscreations pride bingo

“Fuck!” Jessica groaned.

She swore she’d pay attention. There was no way she was missing her stop this time. With competing hectic schedules, Jessica hadn’t seen Casey in nearly a week, and, except for this lunch date, they wouldn’t see each other again until the weekend. So she was not wasting five precious minutes of their time because she missed her bus stop. But in the end, she did.

Pressing the buzzer frantically, she grabbed the books that caused this whole mess and darted to the front of the bus, barely waiting for it to come to a full stop before jumping off. She walked frantically down the street and shook her head when she saw her reflection in the diner’s window. Quickly slicking back the errant red locks that had slipped out of her ponytail in the mele and applying lip gloss before entering. But it was for naught. Casey was already smirking in her direction as she walked in. She nudged a vanilla shake toward Jessica’s seat just before she leaned over the table for a quick kiss. 

“Glad to see you’re right on time,” Casey teased.

“Hey, it’s just five minutes!” Jessica protested; looking at her watch, she corrected herself. “No, it’s four minutes. If I hadn’t put on lip gloss for you, I could have shaved off 30 seconds! But I wanted to be pretty for you.”

Casey’s eyes crinkled as she giggled. “Oh please, you’re beautiful without a stitch of makeup. And I’m not naïve – you just tidied up out there in an attempt to conceal that you missed the bus stop… again.”

Jessica’s shoulders dropped in defeat, and she reached across the table, lacing her fingers with Casey’s.

“I was studying for my biostats exam. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Casey grinned a smile so warm Jessica was instantly at ease. “I get that more than anyone. But far be it for me not to tease you.”

The waitress arrived and placed two cheeseburgers with sweet potato fries before the two women.

“You ordered for me?” Jess asked.

“I didn’t mean to be presumptuous, but you order the same thing every time we come here. And, if you wanted something else, I figured I’d just wrap your food and take it home for dinner.”

“Oh,” Jess winked as she stuck a fry in her mouth. “What are you, rich now?”

“Yes, I’m loaded in cheeseburger and fry money,” Casey laughed. “I just figured I’d get the ball rolling. I know you – you’ll need to play that damn Donkey Kong knockoff in the back before we leave, and forgive me for wanting maybe 10 minutes of makeout time with my girlfriend before we have to go our separate ways.”

“It’s called King Kong, and yes. I do have to play. Need to ensure I still occupy all top ten spots!”

“Afraid you don’t,” the waitress said while refilling their water glasses. “I noticed someone bumped you out of first this morning.”

“OUT OF FIRST!” Jess gasped. “Not even fifth or eighth, but first!”

“Wow, with how you’re grasping numbers, that biostat exam should be a cakewalk for you,” Casey snickered.

Jessica shot Casey a look and squeezed her hand tighter. “Well, you better finish that burger quickly if you want a makeout session! I have to knock that fucker down to at least third place.”

Casey couldn’t help but laugh; she already knew the makeout session wasn’t happening. Her girlfriend was obsessed with old arcade games from the 80s. That’s one of the reasons this was their favorite diner. But King Kong was where she excelled, and she proudly boasted that she always claimed at least eight of the top ten scores, and always the top three. She knew Jess well enough to know someone else being in first was unacceptable, and vengeance must be had.

“Who was it?” Jess demanded of the waitress. “Do you know who beat me?”

The waitress looked uneasily between Casey and Jessica before she let the name out. “Dirk. You know, that tall guy who….”

Jessica threw her napkin to the table. “Oh, I know Dirk.” She spat, jumping to her feet. “I’ll be right back.”

Casey asked the waitress to wrap their food, then quickly followed after her girlfriend. One thing Jessica loved about King Kong was having twelve characters next to each of her high scores. Each spot proudly proclaimed JESSLUVSCASE. But at the mention of Dirk’s name, both women knew this was about more than a high score.

The small dark room that housed the three games was empty this time of day, which was for the best; Casey’s heart sank at the sight of Jess hunched over the game when she entered. Jess’s face was red as she valiantly tried to hold back angry tears, though one or two had won their battle as they trailed down her cheeks. Casey peered over her girlfriend’s shoulder and let out a sigh, her suspicions confirmed. She looped her arms around Jessica’s waist.

“Don’t let it upset you. He wants it to upset you… to upset us… don’t let him win.”

“If he said me,” Jess’s voice trembled. “If he used my name and not yours, then I…”

Casey looked at the screen again… nine rows of JESSLUVSCASE topped by one CASEYISADYKE.

“Jess,” Casey whispered. “He’s a fucking moron. I mean, come on… he didn’t even get it right. I’m as femme as they come.”

That got a little laugh, but Jess was still crestfallen. “Do you think that asshole even knows the difference?”

“Nope. I don’t. But he’s an ignorant piece of shit, Jess, and I’m not letting him ruin the little time I have with you this week.”

Jess let out a breath and wiped away a tear. “I was planning on playing. So… you don’t mind if I play now… do you?”

Casey raised a brow at her girlfriend. “You’re going to play until you knock that off. Aren’t you?”

“You better fucking believe I am. I’m sorry, Casey, but if you want to make out, it will have to be right here, between games, because I’m not leaving until that shit’s gone.”

“As much as I appreciate you defending my honor, Jess, you don’t have to….”

“Can you run and get me quarters?” Jess interrupted.

“Jess, I said….”

“Casey! Quarters!”

“All right, then,” Casey saluted.

For the next hour, Casey made jokes about the dexterity of Jess’s wrists, quizzed her on carpel tunnel syndrome, teased it was a good thing she didn’t want to be a surgeon and more as Jessica focused on bumping Dirk and his bigotry off the board. A bright grin crossed her face as she entered JESSLUVSCASE one last time, then she fell back into a nearby stool. Casey moved toward her and took her hand.

“My hero,” she smiled. “You know, I appreciate it, but he could just come back and do it again tomorrow.”

“It took the fucker a year to get on the board. I doubt he’ll do it again easily… besides….” She stopped.

“Besides, what?”

“He’s in a lab across the hall from me today. And when I’m through threatening his ass, he won’t be so quick to do it again.”

Casey lifted her hand and caressed Jess’s tear-stained cheek. Offering a tender kiss before nuzzling her head on her shoulder.

“I’m a little amazed at you,” Jess said. “You’re taking this too well.”

Casey shrugged. “It’s not that I’m not upset… but I know Neanderthals like Dirk that will never change. Besides…” Casey grinned.

“Besides what?”

“I’m already fantasizing about the things I’m going to do to that sweet little car he’s always bragging about.”

“Casey MacTavish!” Jessica laughed. “As enticing as that is… I don’t want you to be charged with vandalism. That would be terrible for you when looking for a residency placement.”

“You’re assuming I’d be caught,” Casey winked. “You forget, I grew up in Philly. I know a thing or two.”

“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid….”

“Like ever? That’s a tall order, Jess.”

Jess pulled Casey close in her arms. “I’m sorry we don’t have time for that makeout session. I know how much that means to you.”

“Means to me?” Casey gasped. “Geeze, I like to think it means something to you, too!”

“It does,” Jess laughed. “Come stay over with me tonight. Let me make it up to you.”

“But your roommate hates me,” Casey sighed. 

“She doesn’t hate you… she dislikes… everyone. Besides, fuck her.”

“Well, I’d rather fuck you, but….”

The two women laughed, and it warmed Casey’s heart to see Jess genuinely smile.

“Fine, I’ll endure Bertha the horrible, just for you….”

“You won’t even see her! But you’ll see me,” Jess smiled. “Casey, I’m so glad you’re part of my life.”

“And I’m glad you’re part of mine. Not everyone is willing to risk carpel tunnel syndrome a week before exams to defend my honor.”

“Well, if they’re unwilling to do that, they don’t deserve you!”

“Here,” Casey said, holding up the take-out bag. “It’s your lunch. Now, get your bus before you’re late for class.”

“Thank you. But I promise you, I won’t be late tonight. My place at 8:00?”  

“Nothing could keep me away.”

Tagging in reblog.

#open heart #open heart fanfic #open heart choices #choices open heart #prequel #casey mactavish #my mc #choices pride #cfwc fics of the week #choices monthly challenge #choices fanfic

[oliviasecrets]

This is life

V part one

“ the thing is that I don’t understand why I can’t go out with a friend for coffee without being seen as a date”

“y/n we’ve been through this you are not a normal person and you know it”

“Liv I honestly don’t know what to do, first this guy comes into my life and not just any guy he’s someone I’ve dreamed for a while I used to be fan I went to his concert I went through the fan girl stage, he makes me thing something could happen between us and you know his been ghosting me for 8 days. Eight fucking days I’m actually surprise we did click when he came to my apartment and yeah maybe I went out for coffee with Tim to get into Jack nerves I want him to actually want me, and yea before you tell me I know that was a very high school move from my part but I don’t care anymore.” You eventually took a breath everything was building up in you and you really had to take a break

“Baby I understand what you’re going through and yes I know that was a very immature move from your part but I beg you please make my job a little bit less stressful”

You giggles at what your friend just said “Liv I think I could really use a small vacation, at least just the weekend with my family” there was a long silence on the other side of the phone “I’ll see what I can do y/n I don’t promise anything but here’s what I’ll do for you, let’s take a bit of an advantage of the media already calling you a “slut” go out drink a lil party lol have fun okay I don’t care who you go out with but at least get laid that will help with the stress”

“Liv are you kidding me?! First of all I can’t go out I have work tomorrow and second of all ew I would just get laid with a random guy”

“Wanna bet on that y/n”

“Okay that was just one time and it was Vegas I had to do it”

“If you say so but please don’t do anything to brittney let’s just keep it low key okay?”

“I promise and thank you again for dealing with my shit I love Liv”

“I love you too bitch”

Hmm go out huh I mean the nightlife in nyc is the shit but who should I call to go out. I can check on Alex she’s down for anything but I think she has a new boyfriend so that’s probably a no. I can also call Em she’s known for being hot and messing around with hoy guys including harry styles.

——————————————-

Incoming FaceTime call from emrata

“Hey love”

“Y/n are you kidding or do you really wanna go out and have fun”

“I knew I called the right person for this but yeah I’ve had a rough week I just wanna dance drink and hopefully end up in someone’s bed”

“Oh y/n I think I just fell in love with you, but okay let’s do it meet me at my place by 8 we could do a bit of a bar hopping first then we get into the real shit”

“I’ll be there by 8 love you em”

——————————————————

Surprise, surprise, Jack and Urban had just arrived at New York City’s airport ready to have a bit of fun. Some thing I did not know was that Jack had an appearance this night at Jimmy Fallon’s making him be in New York will things go the way you wanted to or will it be an interesting night you would regret tomorrow, but at least you had fun and you did end up in someone’s bed.

“Urb harry up we have 3 hours left before the show and I really wanna surprise y/n”

“Jack please just stop and think things through she doesn’t want to see your ass you gaslighted her then ended up ghosted her she’s with that actor now you lost your chance”

And in fact Jack couldn’t stop thing about that were you really with Timothee was he just your friend, what was going on that’s why he was determined to stop by and see you but he never actually thought what if he showed up to your door and you were fucking someone else that was something he wouldn’t recover from

“Don’t say that I’ve just been busy and haven’t had the time to reached out”

“If you say so lover boy but what I’m doing to tell you is that expect jimmy to ask you about y/n just so you are prepared”

“Yeah I know nilam talked me through that already

———————————————————

So excited for this probably gonna upload the next part tomorrow !!!!

#fics #jack harlow #jack harlow x reader #emrata #urban wyatt #harry styles #jimmy fallon #latina reader

[kookieswan]

Sweet Blood - Bloody Mess

Poly!Demon!TaeKook x OccultStudent!Reader

Word Count: 900+

Genre: Poly AU, Demon AU, Horror, Nsfw/18+, Fluffy 🌸

Warnings: Blood, Nsfw/18+ Content (Biting that draws blood, marking/hickeys, talk/insinuation of sex and sexual acts, finger sucking, dirty talk, etc etc 😅)

Notes: Posting before I leave for the airport lol. A little spooky, a little saucy. What else could you possibly expect from the demon boys? BIG NOTE that this takes place far into the future when they’re all romantically/sexually involved already.

This is a snippet from the Sweet Blood series. Find it here!

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

“What in the nine layers of hell are you baking now pretty thing?” Allowing a small smile to grace your lips, you finish placing some of the cream cheese frosting on the freshly cooled brownies. You knew the smell alone would cause your boys to come running before long, both demons practically teleporting to you from the front door as soon as they step through. You insisted they start using if after they’ve popped out of no where one too many times which has caused you countless heart attacks.

“I’m trying a new recipe for brownies! I know you guys like the my classic recipe but I wanted to do something spooky for Halloween.” They crowed in one either side of you without hesitance, squishing you between their large bodies in a yummy demon sandwich. Jungkook leans down to sniff at them before turning toward you abruptly, cute nose brushing your cheek as Tae pats your butt.

“We could just eat you instead, my precious little sweet blood.” Jungkook nips at your neck jokingly, tongue poking at your skin as you swat him away. Tae doesn’t allow for the teasing to stop though, clawed fingers running up your back and wrapping gently around the your neck as you glare jokingly at your other lover. You swear they’re always thirsty as hell when you’re busy… Which is always.

“I agree dove, I wouldn’t mind devouring you whole. Just a little bite at least.” It’s a hot whisper in your ear as his fingers tighten marginally, but you ignore the other demon as you pick up a spoon and spread the cherry pie filling sparingly onto the top of the brownies. There’s no way you’re going to let them distract you. Not again. Nope. Not after the curtains caught fire last weekend because you were… Busy. Assholes.

“Bad horny demon men! Calm yourselves and you can have some of these bloody brownies when I’m done. If you don’t, I’ll eat these all. By. My. Self.” Smacking Jungkook’s hand as it slithers toward your ass, you grab for the knife so you can cut up some of the actual cherries up to resemble entrails. You make quick work of it as the demons practically glue themselves to you, Jungkook whining into your ear as Tae’s hand slithers inside of your shirt.

“Mmh, we want you though. If you jump up on the counter and spread those pretty thighs, I’ll have your eyes rolling back in no time. Doesn’t that sound nice?” He grabs your hips and turns you abruptly, snatching the knife and discarding it before lifting you up and plopping your ass down on the counter without a second thought. You gasp sharply, Jungkook spreading your legs to step between them which causes you to fall back, his crotch brushing up against yours teasingly.

They both laugh as you fluster, deep voices echoing off of the darkening walls. You go to sit up as Jungkook tuts, his hand pushing back against your chest before sliding down your body. Tae hums as he watches, clearly satisfied with how things are going. Meanie.

“I have a treat for you too dove. Want to taste it, hm?” The pale demon steps around the counter slowly, his clothed dick obscenely close to your face when he settles opposite to Jungkook. Your senses cloud over slightly, the image of Jungkook’s face buried between your thighs and your mouth wrapping around Tae taking over. Reaching out blindly, you grab for your loves, only to whine as Jungkook bites at your thigh harshly.

“Ah! Fuck…” He licks at the skin immediately, mending the superficial damage he had caused. They’re always quick to heal any sort of harm they do, but you’re secretly glad they can’t get rid of bruising. You’ve always loved the pretty bruises they leave… Reaching down, you wipe away some of the blood that falls from his lips with your pointer finger, affection blooming through your chest at Jungkook’s bunny grin.

“So beautiful sweetheart, you take whatever we give you so well…” Huffing with a pout, you tilt your head back and glare again, but Taehyung just smiles and reaches for your trembling hand. Like clockwork, he sucks the bloody digit into his mouth, tongue laving over the skin as a low moan vibrates through his throat. Kookie watches from below with heavy eyes, but stays put otherwise, some of your blood still on his pretty lips.

The younger goes back to sucking at your stained skin without a word then, clearly in a state of euphoria as Tae releases your finger. He smacks his lips a few times, enjoying the taste of your apparently very sweet blood. It’s still a wonder to you how they manage to enjoy it so much, but to each their own. You could even say that you enjoy watching them consume it, the way they practically melt as they drink it up like men starved so delightful to see.

“Now, that’s a delicious sight… You want to indulge a bit baby? We can finish these brownies later, hm? Jungkookie and I will help you finish them.” Tilting your head back to look toward Tae, you grin almost shyly as caresses your face affectionately. Leaning in, he leaves a few upside down kisses against your lips, eyebrows raised as he waits patiently for your reply. At the feeling of your shorts being tugged down clumsily among sloppy kisses, you giggle.

“Yes please.”

#sweet blood #poly taekook #poly taekook x reader #jungkook x you #jungkook x reader #jungkook x y/n #jungkook smut #jungkook fluff #taehyung x y/n #taehyung x you #taehyung x reader #taehyung fluff #taehyung smut #bts x y/n #bts x reader #bts x you #bts fluff #bts horror au #bts demon au #bts smut

[iamknicole]

Aisle 32

A/N: Its short buuut felt like a good stopping point lol and Yes, he got friends!😂😂😂😂

Grocery shopping was usually Haleigh's favorite thing to do when she had help and today she was going at it alone. Her family all had other obligations, though they encouraged her to wait till the next day she didn't want to and decided she could handle it alone. As she stood on the detergent aisle she started to realize that she probably should've waited.

"Why do they always put the one I like on the top shelf?" She mumbled, rubbing over her round six month belly. She giggled feeling the kicks. "You don't know either huh? Guess we'll have to get something else for now."

Looking at her options, she realized that she didn't like any of them. There were no employees around to ask for help and she was not about to ask a stranger. Biting her lip, she thought about all the chastising her mom, aunts and Nana had done when she even looked like she wanted to reach over her head or pick something heavy up.

"If you don't tell, I won't." She said to her belly before reaching for the jug of detergent.

As she was trying to pull the jug down, another patron came down the aisle. His cart came to a stop in front of the dishwasher detergent, his phone sandwiched between his ear and his shoulder. While he was listening to the person on the phone tell him what kind to get, he saw Haleigh out of the corner of his eye struggling to get the jug down then noticed her belly. Telling the person on the phone to hold on, he put it in his pocket then quickly went over to her.

"Let me get that for you." He said softly.

Haleigh glanced over at him and gave him a small smile as she stepped back. "Thank you."

He pulled it down, placing it in her cart and smiled at her. "You're welcome. That's way too heavy for you to be pulling down."

"Gotta do what you gotta do sometimes," she shrugged, "Thanks again. I really appreciate it."

Giving him another smile, Haleigh pushed past him continuing her shopping. He was cute but she knew on the slim chance that he was single she had way more going on than he wanted to deal with so she kept walking. She loves her baby so much already but thinking somebody was cute was how she got this way. Just another guy to leave her when things got too serious.

Thirty minutes later, she finished getting everything on her list and decided to go look at the baby section. Every time she went to a store with a baby section, Haleigh couldn't leave without something for her unborn baby. She had looked on the first two aisles not finding anything she liked, getting to the third she was too busy looking at the items that she didn't see the other cart before she bumped into it.

"Oh God, I'm sorry. I wasn’t paying attention." She apologized quickly.

Looking over at the person's cart she hit, there was that smile again. Only this time it was a bit wider. He looked up from the two sippy cups he held in his hands.

"I'm fine I promise," he assured her. "Are you and your lil one okay?"

Her hand went to her belly feeling the few kicks and laughed softly. "Got a few kicks so we're okay. I really am sorry though."

"You're good, I promise."

The two of them went back to looking at the items on the aisle. Him still trying to pick a sippy cup, her looking at bibs. She could feel him glancing at her but she tried not to look back.

"What're you having? If I can ask."

"Huh? Oh um I don't know yet. My best friends insisted on throwing me a gender reveal this weekend." She explained still looking at the bibs.

He nodded putting one sippy cup back and picking up another. "You got a preference?"

She shrugged a little. "Healthy. You have a kid, huh?"

Looking up from the cups, he gave her a confused head shake. "No. Just a dog. Why'd you ask?"

Haleigh laughed a little pointing to the cups. "You look like you're thinking really hard on which one to get. Figured it must be for your kid."

He laughed. "Oh, oh no. My friends invited me to a baby shower so I'm tryna find things to put in a basket for the mom."

"Ooooh," she laughed, "Well if you know what she's having then get gender specific. If not, gender neutral."

"Smart, that's smart." He winked at her. "Which bibs are you gonna get?"

Haleigh rubbed her face trying to hide her blush. "I think I'm gonna get Mickey Mouse. Boys and girls like Mickey. Right?"

"Yeah they do. I'm Ardian by the way." He said sticking his hand out which she shook.

"Haleigh."

"Nice name. How far along are you?"

"24 weeks as of yesterday."

He nodded, looking over at her. "Congratulations, I don't know why I hadn't said it before. I'll let you go, don't wanna take up all your time."

"Thank you," she said softly, "You're not but I do need to get out of here before I spend more money. Have a good day, Ardian."

He chuckled, sliding out of her way. "You too, Haleigh. I hope you have a good gender reveal."

As they passed each other, they shared another smile and watched her leave the aisle shaking his head at himself. Both were chastising themselves for flirting with someone that was more than likely taken.

#family ties au #Ardian & Haleigh #pregnant single mom au #pregnant single mama au

[silentalltheseyearsnomore]

Hmmm. Tiny bit better.

Big screaming nightmares. Wanted reach out tell S again but didn't... she knows she knows she knows. She's doing her best. She must love us. She will see us as soon as she can. There must be another reason she's not saying the usual things or responding to our stuff about feeling worthless etc. She responds saying she's still there.... if she didn't want to be she wouldn't. Must be something else. Tried believe. But just so so so dark.

Then she contacted us and told us family stuff happened and she can't hold anything, she was going to try see us weekend but thinks wouldn't be healthy... can tell she will be triggered by us doubting her care when she's so emotionally full already. Needs to take care and rest. And told us she see us after weekend.

And it sucks but also feels better. Context helps. Her lack of saying certain things (or repeating.. she said them a couple weeks ago) is because she is overwhelmed with so much need from so many places in her life and not a confirmation things have changed between us. Ofc we'd rather hear the things... but it helped. Helped us hold on to the logic we know exists.

And now we know a day we will see her. Its only a handful of days. She's there. And she's taking time to sleep and work over the weekend. She said maybe it helps to know she will be building strength this weekend alongside us, both trying to recover and see each other after. And I appreciate that a lot from an adult place. I know logically if she saw us this weekend and child parts felt disconnected AGAIN we may lose our mind even more, we may rupture big in person, and there's not much time and space for repairs in her life currently. K and others in past would have seen us and not thought it through or been aware enough. This is what a relationship that LASTS looks like. It's not a lack of love. It's sustainability. And it just takes time for child parts to understand.

We asked if her voice notes from a couple weeks ago, before we saw her last, were still true, so we could use it as a resource. Because she's so *her* in them and her care is so clear. "I'm here darling, I hear you, I care." "I'm just working and sleeping and so busy, but you are top of my priorities, you are there", and deep breathing with us. We can feel the care. Even the word darling does it, as we've talked about how she only uses it for a few people who are special to her. We have this thing where we can't allow ourselves things that help incase they've changed, especially people, as we've had such sudden traumatic endings. And when S is stressed, of course she is different, and she doesn't say things the same way and doubts things. Which adds to our fears. And we know us doubting her care and commitment is a trigger for her. So it's a tricky combo and can be wildly painful but... I'm hoping healing too. Because we have to meet in the middle. I have to help our system look at facts and not rely on reassurance. And we are growing in that area. But in crisis its obviously hard. And she's the first attachment figure not to fucking vanish or become abusive so of course its hard. But anyway. We put in our email thank you for sharing context, and also that we realise perhaps her "I'm still here" is her way of saying all the things are still true. And she replied saying yes, all still true. And. That's enough. It's enough. For now anyway. And that was never true before.... any change, any mismatch, any refusal to answer or reassure just broke us. And we'd be arguing how it can't all be true because if we were really a priority she'd see us on this nightmare week, or this, or that, or... etc. And yes those things are still thoughts and fears and feelings but we can hold them. We can argue them ourselves (eg, seeing us when shes triggered makes us *more* unsafe, if she did that its kind of caring *less*) We can do that now. At least til we see her maybe lol. And that's huge growth. And maybe this helps eventually? If someone endlessly reassures maybe we'd never learn it ourselves. We used to believe hearing it enough helps us hold it. And that's true too.. thats how we build any capacity. But this is the situation we have now so I'll choose to see it positively and see it as a chance to grow our ability to hold the connection in other ways. And trust. And we are slowly learning that change can be tolerated because I mean fuck me.. so much huge change. And yet she is there. And maybe that's representative of the fact that things can change and we dont need to hold so tight because the right things and people will stay. Or something. Lol. But if you're listening universe... no more lessons needed to learn through pain okay? Some nice easy comfort and love and gentle learnings from now on thank you 👌

#i will 100% be sobbing and doubting and writing notes of everything that hurts still lol #but still huge progress #proud of us #grateful for s #imperfect and human and stays #and has boundaries #those damn boundaries huh #guess they are needed after all #s

[fighterbound]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER.

REPOST DO NOT REBLOG !!

NAME: jana

PRONOUNS : she/her but they/them is okay with me.

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION : discord is your best friend bc i don't access tumblr unless im at my pc ( some days i don't got energy for that). discord i got on my phone. i will say i am nervous when it comes to talking to others, so sometimes i either talk too much, talk too little, or take a while to reply back bc im thinking about what to say. know it's not you, it's me. i am an awkward turtle and totally not charming like naruto.

NAME OF MUSE(s) : this is a multimuse blog so there's several on here. mainly deal with nar.uto and b.nha beyond those two uhhh i have fe3h / diamond no ace / ff7r ( im getting to into it!)

BEST EXPERIENCE : seeing the results of continued interaction and plotting toward dynamics. feeling the general shift of my muses toward other muses and being like hey let's go bug them because they enjoy the company of that specific muse/blog. hitting that stride with someone else, where you both are on the same wavelength regarding your muses. sometimes it happens quickly, other times over the span of months and years of following one another. it's such a sweet moment seeing all the hard work of writing / plotting / interaction with someone and watching your muses growing together or reaching that sweet plot point you've been building up to. c:

RP PET PEEVES / DEALBREAKERS : lack of matching energy. if i plot with you and don't get anything back, that's one of the biggest dealbreakers. i will pull the weight for my muse(s) but i am not doing it for you. i like to think im pretty flexible in terms of letting it a slide in the beginning bc we're still figuring each other out and acting like awkward turtles but if i continue to feel that lack of energy then we're going our separate ways. i only have so many spoons to spend on here and i wanna make sure i enjoy them. also it frustrates me a lot when im asking questions, trying to get things going and just getting one word answers. i start thinking it's me and im doing something wrong. that never leads anywhere nice for mental health so, yep.

also lack of interaction. i have it in my rules if we don't interact generally within the first month then i will unfollow. again i let this slide sometimes bc life gets busy and we got all life to deal with. with that said, i generally try to reach out either by sending a DM or ask.

MUSE PREFERENCES: honestly i enjoy the softie characters and watching them grow into themselves and finding themselves. but uh i really only have one softie. the rest of them are assholes and sunshine assholes. so maybe my preference is assholes. idk. they just gotta call to me and i gotta feel for their story. yanno? or like their ship LOL

PLOTS OR MEMES : i generally prefer plotting, but not lot of it. i like to a get a general gist of direction then leaving everything else open-ended. bc really the muses sometimes don't follow the plan and i fully support following them into whatever problem their track wreck self is heading toward. i like memes, but sometimes i don't. and that's all me bc i want all the interactions to have some kind purpose, to keep building and developing our muses. but i know that's unreasonable expectation to have. plus memes are totally are great for exploring potential ideas, working out of the norm, and feeling each other out! so yess they're good but also sometimes i feel they don't go anywhere and im like did i waste time writing that? the answer is no, bc it's practice, it's a chance to explore. but can't help the way you feel at times.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES : generally short replies, i like the quickness to them. however i do enjoy long ones when they start to dig into the muse and pick apart their thoughts.

BEST TIME TO WRITE : who knows. generally it's the weekend bc that's when i don't work. also when im reading. if i go time without reading a book of fanfic then my writing insp is going to suffer. sometimes i can pull out replies during the week but that is raaaare.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S) : little bit. the introverts you find on here are. the ambitious ones. the people pleasing ones. the ones struggling to find their place in the world and voice. little bits and pieces.

tagged: @fightaers & @dynmghts ( thank you for tagging me!) tagging: @vsagis / @sunsweets / @kiigan / @hatredcurse / @raisedcold / @soulsballad / @yookimi

#.j ooc #if you guys already did this sorry for tagging u again #if you don't wanna do this no pressure!! c:

[sheliesshattered]

Like I mentioned at the end of my last post, besides making a few alterations to my shirt and vest for my Batuu Bound outfit, I also got started on a new sewing project over the last two weeks, something which might also make an appearance if/when we're able to go to Batuu again, but until then will also be a nicely functional piece just around the house.

To back up a bit, I ordered a lightsaber for my birthday -- as you do when you're an adult going through a resurgence of your childhood love for Star Wars, lol -- but the one I bought on Amazon ended up being not quite what I was hoping for. I returned it and spent some more time researching exactly what I wanted for my purposes (spinning and flow arts) and what would fit my small hands and short stature the best.

I ended up ordering from an excellent small business called Vire Sabers that lets you assemble your own lightsaber from the 'variable hilt component' system of pieces that all fit together. I spent a lot of time looking through all the various pieces and combinations, including putting them all together in a photo editor until I had something that I was happy with, that is just mine, and no one else's.

The saber really deserves a post all of its own, but first I want to do some weathering on the hilt and get some video of the flow skills I've been building up over the last week and a half since it arrived. I'll post something about it eventually.

And anyway, this post is really more about sewing a padded sheath for the saber.

It's another stash-busting project, like everything else in my Batuu Bound set, for which I only bought ~$4 of cotton batting -- which is handy because when I started on it, I wasn't sure when Jack and I would be working next. The contract work situation has resolved now, but even without that, it's always nice to move fabric and crafting supplies out of my stash and into a finished, useful item.

With consideration to possibly wearing this on my back with my Batuu Bounding outfit in the (near?) future, I decided to go with a brown color palette. From my stash I pulled out:

some yardage of non-stretchy faux suede that I probably bought more than 10 years ago for a project I can no longer remember, that has kind of a grippy texture to the suede surface

wool scraps left over from the screen-accurate Jedi robe I sewed for Jack in 2012

the tan cotton canvas I bought in January when I was thinking about covering the zippers of my Moment vest rather than sewing a completely new one

brown RIT dye that again I have no idea when or why I bought it, along with a little pink and violet RIT dyes probably left over from Hit Girl in 2010

brown velcro left over from an ill-fated attempt at building disability-friendly pillows for my couch nest

~34" of 1" wide twill tape left over from my steampunk corset I sewed in 2011

rock climbing-rated seamless aluminum O rings left over from the tensegrity stand and tent I built for Wasteland Weekend 2018

dark maroon thread that came in a set of thread that I bought online when I sewed my Oswin Oswald cosplay in 2020 and couldn't go to a store to buy just one color of thread, lol

The cotton canvas was perfect for the exterior of the case/sheath/bag thing, but the color wasn't a great match for the rest of my Batuu Bounding outfit. I had used a bit of the canvas to make a collar stand for Jack's jacket late last month, so I zigzag stitched the cut edges and threw it in the washing machine with a bunch of nearly boiling water, salt, and the brown, pink, and violet RIT dyes. I had more of the brown than the pink and the violet together, but my hope was to bring the "dark brown" RIT color plus the slightly greenish tan of the cotton towards a warmer brown. I let it agitate for about half an hour, and ended up really loving the final color.

With the exterior in progress, it was time to figure out the interior. I knew I wanted to make this case/sheath padded to give the saber a bit of cushioning while being carried around, but I also didn't want to buy more than I would use (or spend a ton of money, given that I was buying this while we were in between work contracts), so most quilt batting was out, as was most foam. I ended up buying half a yard (18") of 90" long cotton batting, then cutting it into four 9" x 45" pieces and layering those on top of each other. It's not a huge amount of loft, but it is a good amount of squish, and hopefully reasonable padding for the circumstances I expect to use the case in.

I sandwiched the cotton batting between one layer of the brown (Jedi robe!) wool and one layer of the non-stretch faux suede. In the picture below, the darkest brown is the wool, and just to the left of that is the dyed canvas.

The wool won't be visible at all once this is all sewn together, and the faux suede only slightly visible at the top opening, but I like how the colors all coordinate without matching exactly.

Since the cotton batting is pretty solid, quilting wasn't entirely necessary, but I did want to make sure the layers stayed together without shifting around too much, and also give the thick layers specific places to bend to form a nice round tube shape. I ended up quilting it into six narrow panels that run the whole length of the sheath, with the outer two panels each 1 cm wider for seam allowance when I sew this into a tube.

I also narrowed the entire interior from 9" (measured flat) to 8", so that it hugs the saber better, and so that I can fit the narrow portion of the canvas around the bulk of the interior + saber.

The notch cut out of the upper left corner of the interior is there to create a flap that will fold over the open end of the bag/case and secure in place with velcro. I may try to find ways to sneak a few velcro attachment points into the exterior, so that it can be closed at various lengths (ie with or without the hilt).

The dyed cotton canvas will eventually get a matching notch cut out of it, and the right sides of the interior and exterior sewn together before the interior is stuffed into the exterior, at which point it will look somewhat like this:

Before I sew the exterior into a tube, I'm going to sew a pocket or two for carrying small essentials like blade tension screws. I'll also sew the twill tape into place, set slightly in from the top and bottom, and put those aluminum rings onto the twill tape when I do. That way the carrying strap will be gripping the whole case, all the way around, rather than have all the stress in one place. The lightsaber is only about two and a half pounds, and I can't imagine the case will weigh any more than that, but still, I want to be sure that there's nice firm support that won't give out and end up dropping the saber on the ground.

Also, can I just point out the color match between the dyed canvas and the old left over piece of twill ribbon? I wasn't aiming for that! I wanted a warm brown, which is why I added the pink and violet dyes (and would have added red if I had any on hand), but I didn't even pull the twill tape from my stash until after I was done dyeing the canvas. It matches so well it looks like I bought them as a pair, but they were bought more than a decade apart and didn't match before I just chucked whatever dyes I had on hand into the washer, lol. I would have been fine with a bit of a color mismatch, but this works too!

At this point, I think I'm ready to sew the interior into a tube, with the grippy faux-suede on the inside, and the wool on the outside where it will eventually be sandwiched next to the canvas. I have squares of the cotton batting from where I cut out the notch for the flap, so I think I'm going to try to sew those to the outside of the seam along the narrow bottom edge, to give that even more padding. That's a lot of layers to put through my sewing machine, so we'll see if it'll cooperate or if I'll end up doing that bit by hand.

After that, I'm going to turn my attention to the exterior. I have some smaller pieces of dyed canvas that aren't in the above pictures, that I'm going to use to make a crossbody strap that connects to the those rings, along with a pocket or two. The pockets, some of the velcro closures, and the twill tape and rings need to be sewn down before I can turn the canvas into a tube, so all of that will be the next major step in this project.

I think I also want to paint (or sharpie) some Aurebesh on the exterior canvas, something along the lines of 'fragile antique - handle with care'. The character I put together for my Batuu adventures isn't a Jedi (or a Sith), but rather makes a living finding antiques and oddities on outer rim worlds and transporting them to the inner rim and core worlds to sell at a profit. Not many people can read Aurebesh, but it'll add a bit of visual texture and storytelling all the same. And then if I have another run in with Kylo Ren, I can state for certain that I'm not a Jedi sympathizer, just an antiques dealer looking to turn a profit, lol.

If we do end up going to a Star Wars Nite at Disneyland, I think it could be fun to take my saber along, participate in the lightsaber meetup in front of the Falcon, and maybe even get some photos or videos of my spinning skills while I'm there. But even if this case is only ever used to store my saber here at home, it'll give it a place to live that's not my sewing table, where it's been living since it arrived, and the rings will let me hang it from a hook on the wall rather that take up any horizontal surface space. It'll be nice to look at while also keeping my saber easily accessible and ready to spin.

We don't have tickets for a Star Wars Nite event yet, but the first one is on April 16th, so I'm giving myself just under a month to finish this. I don't think I'll need that long -- but with the new work situation starting up tomorrow, it's really hard to say. I could have it finished by this time next week, or be hurrying to finish it the last weekend before we go back to Batuu, we'll just have to see how this next month works out.

Either way, I'll post more pictures here as it comes together.

#my sewing #Batuu Bounding #lightsaber bag #2024 mood #long post

[theloveinc]

Catie, this has been giving me brain rot but I need to pawn it off on someone to make it leave.

Okay, so. I want to say "No" to Bakugou.

No, but listen. So he's been pining, right? Working up the nerve to ask you out because the first time you sassed him he fell head over heels in love. And you've been flirting back, so he's feeling pretty confident about this since there's been a back and forth for a good while (weeks? months? years?) between you two.

So he's like "Oi, you wanna get dinner or somethin'?" But you're dealing with your own stuff - maybe a bad date, or you didn't get a promotion at work, or you have a big project you have to focus on, or you're moving apartments, or maybe he just caught you on a bad day (spilled your coffee on your shirt, lost your keys, sank ankle deep into a mud puddle, etc). Regardless, you don't even spare him a glance, when you say "No."

And just ugh 😩 He's left dumbfounded and he leaves to go sulk, trying to figure out where he went wrong, when really you just don't have the time or the energy right now.

At some point down the road (days? weeks? months?) after still being kind to you and flirting with you (because he's not going to give up on you that easily, or even just get over you that easily), he tries again and this time you say "Yes." 😊

Okay byyyyyyeeeee

Anon......... the fact that you still want to brainrot with me🙇🏼‍♀️🙇🏼‍♀️🙇🏼‍♀️ THANK YOU!!!

Can I just tell you how much I literally ADORE this, too? I feel like you read my mind, too, as just the other day I was thinking about how I'm wayyy too busy for a bf/gf right now... so this is truly the perfect fantasy🥺

BUT ARGHH LKSAJDFAKSD... it's funny but it's also not, you know?He's too wrapped up in worrying how you'll take a confession to realize how hectic your life is....... and you turn him down because you just... can't deal with anything else on your plate (maybe because you don't realize his intentions + know you're not free, don't think it's serious, or are tired, spacey, grumpy... anything, really.)

But I'm also thinking about... Bakugo sulking over this BIG TIME (full on, spending entire weekends drowning in work or being sad on his couch, only moving when Kiri drags him around)... before slowly realizing just how busy + tired you actually are the few times he does stop to see + chat with you.

He starts getting worried; watching you run around trying to tackle work, all your shit at home, your emotions, chores, AND very normal slip-ups, like you said, anon....... and something just hits him, you know? And he feels like such an ass for trying to ask you out when you have so many other things worry about that aren't... him and how much he likes you LOL.

Anyway, he immediately goes from still being kinda miffed to like, wanting to help you out. Doesn't even care that you turned him down anymore, he just needs to make things easier for you again so you can (at least) start being his cheerful friend again🥺

(It's also making chuckle to think about, maybe a couple weeks later... telling Kiri + Denki, or maybe even Deku + Todoroki, that he was rejected by you... except they just stare at him kinda confused and go, "but... isn't y/n super busy right now? Like........ too busy for dates and stuff?"

And he's just: *tik tok sound* OBVIOUSLY I DIDN'T KNOW!!!)

...or you tell the girls about how you feel bad you had to turn him down for dinner, and they're like "y/n... he was asking you on a date..."

AND IT'S THE SAME RESPONSE LMAOOO...)

But anyway, don't wanna take your idea from you but... Bakugo goes from pining to doing errands with you + cleaning your house (and we could spend a long time talking about all the sweet moments the flirting comes naturally when he's helping you with something)....... TO finally asking you out again, when he KNOWS for sure the time is right...

And it's just the sweetest thing to know that he's been waiting for Y-O-U for so long and he's gonna support you through thick and thin, whether you have time for him (or coffee on your shirt) or not.

-

I love you, anon! Thank you so much for this!!!

#bakugo #ugh sorry if i changed it too much #I WAS PROJECTING LMAOOOO #i really didn't focus on the saying no thing asdfjkaksd #but i didn't want to like... repeat what u said or overshadow that part of it #BC SO TRUE #as we all know... im very rusty at this #but it was a lot of fun #i am hugging u berry tightly #also the thought of u and bakugo in casual clothes and flirting while he helps u out with something at ur house #and ur kinda embarrassed cuz u turned him down but he doesnt seem to mind ? and still smiles all big when u laugh #and calls ur ugly slippers names #UGH IDKKKKK #but WAHHHHH i wanna put this in my mouth #caitie things #caitie answers #anon #queue

[zombiepuke]

it’s emetophilia ask anon again (the one who pointed out Ellie behaving like a dog/cat does when they’re about to vomit hehe - if you’ve never seen a dog vomit before, try looking it up on YouTube/Google or somethin so you can see what I mean. they do these whole body movements where they like arch their backs up n down for like 10 seconds or so before they actually puke - i guess that’s how they physically bring the vomit up? but yeh that’s exactly how ellie moves in that brief moment when she’s still on all fours before puking the first time)

anywayyyyys… i’m sending another ask ‘cause it’s rare to find anyone into/interested in emeto stuff! but it definitely makes sense in the horror community hehe

so this is more about you and your personal interests in this topic than anything.. i was wondering what sorta stuff you’re into emetophilia-wise. like what do you enjoy? obviously with emeto stuff there’s a few different aspects to it, and some people only enjoy certain parts, or enjoy certain parts more than others, y’know.. like the general feeling of nausea, and that awful feeling of knowing you need to puke, and the actual moment before puking, and the actual act of puking, and the puke itself.

like.. some people enjoy being the puker, some people like being puked on, some people like both? some people don’t care about the actual act of puking and are just all about the puke itself.. some people have very specific likes/dislikes for their personal enjoyment with emetophilia. so I wanna know what you’re into haha!

also you said you’ve written some real fucked up shit before so im obviously now super interested to hear all about it!😁

but also what would you love to write about regarding ellie + emeto? like forget about what anyone else wants.. what would you love to write for your enjoyment?

OOF so sorry nonnie it took a bit to answer this, i have been super busy this weekend with birthday stuff but everything should be calming down!

Talk of emetophilia stuff below y'all be warned!!!!!

but yes - i have 3 kitties myself and have definitely witnessed some unfortunate puke accidents lmao. i love love love how animalistic they made the deadites in EDR - especially Ellie. and i appreciate you asking - i love talking about my obscure interests and finding others who share them!

when it comes to actual emeto, the actual puke itself isn't really what does it for me. it's everything else, especially the time leading up to the act of puking. it's such a gross feeling (and i actually have meds prescribed for nausea because i get really bad migraines rip) but i secretly love it. i also secretly love the feeling of being ill/sick with the flu or a cold in general but something about feeling the need to throw up was always like, intriguing to me. it's one of those feelings as a human that we get that is so animalistic and instinctive, like the way our bodies prepare us to help us pass anything it didn't like via vomiting, it's kinda sweet in a way. and as for actually vomiting, it's this strange feeling of not being able to breath, and i always get overheated and overwhelmed and it's uncomfortable but exciting - same way i feel about going to the dentist but that is a whole other converation LMAO i adore teeth and anything dealing with teeth. odontophilia is another vice of mine.

i would say i'm more akin to the acts of puking rather than the physical puke itself. in terms of Ellie i would prefer being the one being puked on, but both is good for me. i like anything oral-related and i think that adds a lot to the emeto stuff - as does tooth stuff too. usually any fic i write involving teeth also involve vomit - and a looooot of my writing focuses on teeth and puke and general seepage from bodies (if you haven't noticed lol)

it's allllllllll about the divide from human to inhuman - zombies, deadites, etc all have that in common, and vomit is a really big part of zombie/infection type horror. the idea of a human body being overtaken by a sickness or virus, possession, anything - the physical acts of your body degrading and decomposing, giving into the sickness, the fevers and symptoms of being infected, it's all super interesting (and arousing shhhhh) to me. Ellie is no different, an innocent human body suddenly taken control of and forcibly violent, a normal looking person suddenly getting extremely sick, throwing up, bleeding, eyes transforming, covered in blood, attacking and biting and eating, UGH. that's why i'm treading the waters here and testing how far i can go in a body-horror aspect with Ellie - i want to get super deranged and fucked up but still in a consensual way ofc - reader is based on my own mindset so ofc they're 10000000% willing for the deadite based body horror puke extravaganza lol

so basically i adore zombie-ism and transformation and the grossness that pursues that. Ellie is a perfect mix of it all. i really am so excited to explore her in my writing; inhumanity and her nastiness and gore and how awful she would realistically be - as much as i would love a sweet cuddle moment with her, i want there to be blood and guts and vomit and her manipulation, her evilness, her true nature, and just revel in it. she would fucking torture you, and you would love it.

love ya nonnie always always ask me stuff about gross shit and Ellie doing gross shit and zombies and all of that :)

#evil dead #evil dead rise #ellie evil dead #so more gross ellie in my fics #ellie vomiting on you or making you vomit #force feeding you weird shit to make you want to puke but never letting you til you're desperate #shit like that