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#second that was never supposed to be a moodboard (or whatever it is people are calling it these days)
munsonsduchess · 1 year
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Radar Love
summary: when you have some car trouble you run into the hottest mechanic in hawkins w/c: 1,653 warnings: pet name (princess) a/n: i'm sure i'm not alone in my thirst for car mechanic eddie, i also know nothing about cars so i mostly just pulled all of this out of thin air, well i did see a video about the main issue but the rest is just me making whatever i want up bc i can
if you like this please reblog, leave a comment. even just a keysmash it really helps me out.
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(moodboard by me)
It had been your idea to move back home. You’d left after high school and gone to college just how you were supposed to, but it just hadn’t been working out. 
When the earthquakes happened it seemed like the right time to leave. To go home. Figure out what you actually wanted to do. 
So you told your faculty advisor, your tutors, everyone that you needed some time to go back home and help your parents pick up the pieces. As it turned out you weren't the only one who'd thought the same, you'd run into more old friends and classmates around Hawkins now than you'd ever done before. People who had stayed, people who had left and come back for one reason or another. 
It almost felt like Hawkins had some sort of gravitational pull that no matter where you went or what you did Hawkins would always pull you back into its orbit. Like there was something, not natural, going on. It wouldn't be the first time people brought up the strange happenings in town and attributed it to something unnatural. Though people like that were usually seen as nothing more than crackpots and conspiracy theorists, like that guy Murray your dad had told you about who lived outside of town. 
➽───────────────❥
It was strange being back in Hawkins but also as if you'd never left, you'd expected things to have changed somewhat in the year since you'd been gone but apart from some more stores that had closed downtown apparently threatened by the new mall being built outside of town, new since the company that had owned Starcourt went out of business after the fire (something about asbestos was the rumour) but all the money had since been diverted to “help Hawkins heal”, which seemed to be the bullshir campaign the mayor was running on to try and get re elected. According to your dad however, it wasn’t gonna work.
You'd been lost in thought and almost didn't see the boy who ran out into the street in front of your car, you just about had time to slam on the brakes before you added to the Hawkins Death Toll. What was strange however was that instead of coming to a dead stop your car seemed to want to go left towards the curb.
You could see the boy's mother coming out into the street and chastising her son, obviously she'd turned her back for two seconds and the boy had just forgotten all about basic road safety,
"I am so sorry about him, is your car ok? Did you hit the curb?" the woman asked, "Johnny! Apologise to the lady, you probably scared her half to death!" 
Johnny didn't seem to understand what he'd done wrong and was instead gawking at his mother with large wet tears forming in his eyes, 
"I'm ok, the car probably just needs to go to the shop. It's due for a check up" you told the woman, you had no desire to stick around and wait for Johnny to start crying and screaming. So you bid the woman goodbye and headed off home again. Your car was already full of groceries and you didn't want anything to spoil.
After unloading the car and the groceries you told your Dad about what had happened, 
"That's definitely not good, you really should get that checked out. I'll take a look"
"No you will not" your mum warned, brandishing a spatula as a weapon, "you aren't a mechanic and you don't know half as much about cars as you think you do" 
"I was just gonna take a look" 
"Take it to Randy's on Elm, they'll take a look at it for you" your mum brandished her spatula at your dad again, "if you want something to do then I've got a hundred jobs you could be doing" 
You took your mother's advice and left the house again. Watching as your dad slumped back towards the house, he was a man with a lot of opinions. It was true but those opinions didn't always equate to professional knowledge. 
➽───────────────❥
You made it to Randy's without incident and pulled your car up into the forecourt, you couldn't see anyone around and thinking maybe they were in the back or on lunch you headed into the office. The door made a ringing noise as you opened it and you could hear someone calling out from behind the counter, 
"Be with ya in just a sec" the male voice called, the voice sounded vaguely familiar and so you wondered if perhaps another old friend was working behind the counter these days. 
When a curly headed man popped up from behind the counter you had to dig your keys into the palm of your hand, Eddie Munson looked different than you remembered but he still had the same effect. He had scars on his face and what looked like a ligature mark around his neck, you remembered hearing about the escaped Serial Killer Henry Creel and what he'd done to the kids who'd been his victims and to Eddie but you hadn't expected Eddie to still be in Hawkins, 
"How can I help you Princess?" he asked with a slow grin, "having car trouble?" 
You swallowed hard and relayed your troubles to Eddie and that you'd been told to come here specifically to get the car checked out,
"Um I don't know what's wrong but I guess it's my brakes?" you said shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other, "i don't know anything about cars" 
"Well don't you worry Princess that's what we're here for. Why don't you leave the car with me for a couple hours and I'll see what I can do" 
You nodded and moved towards the counter to fill in the paperwork Eddie placed on top and handed him your keys. He laughed at the little keychains you'd attached to the main keyring and you felt all the blood rush to your face, 
"Um, should I wait here or?" 
"It'll take me a little while and I wouldn't want you waiting around for me" Eddie told you, "why don't you go home and i'll call you when we're all set" 
You nodded and left the office. How you were going to get home was another question entirely but right now you needed someone to vent your feelings to.
➽───────────────❥
Twenty minutes later you were sitting in Benny's with your best friend Maria and relaying the whole interaction to her,
"He looks even better than he did in school Maria, how is that fair?" 
Maria who'd known all about your crush on Eddie in High School and had listened to you talk about him for hours just laughed,
"Girl you were in college, didn't you find any nice college boys to get over this crush?" 
"I thought I did but … ugh" you hit your head lightly off the table, "he was wearing coveralls and he had his hair up, I'm only human!" 
Maria just shook her head at you and stole another one of your fries. She knew there was nothing she could say or do in this situation, you just needed to get it out,
"Would it be entirely unethical to just ruin my car if it means he'll be the one fixing it?" you asked from your spot on the table, "like I'm sure I could find something in the library that would tell me which parts i could pull out to make it still run but need looking over" 
Maria opened her mouth but then cut herself off with a grin, she had spotted a familiar mass of curly hair not too far away from where you were currently lamenting,
"I think maybe that's a little extreme babe" she said, "eat your burger, we'll go get your car when we're done. I'll be your emotional support" 
➽───────────────❥
Maria was true to her word and she drove both of you back to Randy's to pick up your car, or at least to see if it was ready, 
"Well well what have we got here. Miss me that much Princess?" Eddie's voice rang out across the forecourt as he came into view again. His coveralls were tied at his waist and there was what you assumed to be engine oil on his white t-shirt, arms and a smear across his face. You could tell he'd built some more muscle since high school, probably from working in the Garage and his arms were much more toned than you remembered, 
"Is the car ready?" Maria asked, since apparently you had lost the ability to speak,
"Yeah she's ready to go. Why don't you come in the office with me Princess and we'll get this all squared away?" 
You nodded dumbly and followed Eddie into the office, he jumped the counter and fumbled around looking for the right paperwork. You could see Maria outside giving you an encouraging smile and thumbs up, 
"Um, what do I owe you?" you finally found your voice as Eddie turned back around, you'd brought your Dad's credit card with you knowing you wouldn't have enough to pay for this outright,
"How about we call it $150 and a date?" Eddie grinned at you again, "and you promise you won't ruin the poor car just to see little old me?" 
"Oh my god you heard that?" you wanted nothing more but the ground to open up and swallow you whole, "i'm so sorry" 
"What's to be sorry about?" Eddie laughed, "it just gave me the little push the guys said I needed to ask you out. So what do you say?" 
"Absolutely. Yes" 
Eddie made a little fist pumping motion and you couldn't help but laugh. Turns out you wouldn't need to ruin your car for a date with the hot mechanic after all. 
Maybe coming back to Hawkins was the best thing you'd ever done. 
Taglist: @pillow-titties @munsonology @thegirlblogstuff @boomhauer @prettyboyeddiemunson @hellfireeddie6 @that-lame-ghoul9000 @flashyourgreeneyesatme @anxiousstark @ruinedbythehobbit @winnifredburkleismyhero @manda-panda-monium @insertcoolnameherethanks @aftermidnightwriting
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aphroditestummyrolls · 2 months
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1, 15, 38, and 49 for the fic writer questions!
1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)
I already answered this one! This is what I said
Ummmm. Depends on the fandom, for sure! Getting into my writing in general, I’d say the To Be Human series for The Old Guard and Gaining Heart for Spartacus.
More recently, though? The Only Way Out (is through) for wesper and Colm. I am so in love with this story, and it really encapsulates a lot of the energy that I try to bring to all my writing— the introspection, the comfort after the hurt, the messy emotions that come with healing, support from both romantic and platonic relationships… and of course ✨Colm Fahey✨.
15. What’s your favorite AU that you’ve written?
Ooooo. It’s an oldie 😅 it’s the Kes-Verse. My rewrite of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Id still love to go back in and edit and rewrite some things, and finish up the last two stories in the series that I never posted! These stories were fuelled by rage at JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson, love for these characters that got so utterly fucked, and no small amount of desperation for a distraction from the pandemic. And my terrible relationship. And the nightmare of finishing my degree online. And needing to postpone my life. The stories in this series were a gateway into such wonderful friendships and helped me figure out so much about my writing style. (Kes Dameron walked so Colm Fahey could be the father he is today!)
The runner up is a toss up across a couple different fandom’s stories— The Old Guard’s Color and Light, the Mickey/Pierre fic I Travel Alone, and Keep You Safe for Six of Crows.
38. Did any of your fics get surprisingly popular (whatever that means to you)? Which ones? Why do you think they were so successful?
I had to check my AO3 stats for the past couple years to see if anything jumped out at me as odd. I mean, I was surprised by Time for a Spare Prayer. It was supposed to just be a fun little project to explore all of my Colm and The Crows headcanons, and to post in the in-between for Between Hope and Desperation, but it’s really taken on a life of its own. I’m so happy that people are enjoying it so much.
The other one that’s really shocked me is one that I haven’t even posted yet! The Jesper Honeypot Whump-shot has become something that I get requests and asks about, the snippets and moodboard have gotten quite a few notes, and people seem to be really excited for it. It makes me so happy— it was really just a little thing for myself, but it’s quickly morphing into a multi-chapter situation.
49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!
I have answered this one as well! Here’s what I said:
I’m one (ONE!!) scene away from finishing the next chapters of both Spare Prayer AND Between Hope and Desperation. So close. I’m also like, half a scene away from finishing the first section of the Jesper Honeypot Whump-shot, too, and I’m contemplating turning it into a multi-chapter fic (not sure though. But I’m really happy with how it’s turning out, and I’m getting really excited to post it!!).
And here’s a different little snippet, from the next chapter of Spare Prayer:
Jes didn’t even meet his eyes for a second before he was fully absorbed by that boy.
“You’re late.”
“And what’re you doing out of bed?” He asked, as if he wasn’t grinning from ear to ear at the fact that the lad was up and about.
“No one was there to keep me there.” Wylan replied from where he sat at an empty table. He reeled Jesper in by the buckle of his gun belt, craning up into a kiss. Colm took a swig of his beer.
“Mm.” Jes hummed, his lips smiling against the other lad’s— it almost pulled at his heartstrings. “Easy— I’ll just have to tie you up next time.”
Nevermind.
“Jesper Llewelyn Fahey.”
Honestly.
Thanks for playing! ❤️
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kirliao · 2 years
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evermore: short series 
fandom: top gun maverick
character(s): various members of the dagger squad
a/n: okay okay listen. one: i was gonna do the whole album but my brain shorted out so really it’s about .. six tracks? idk im gonna be listening to this album all season so who knows. um.. two: i got carried away writing them so they’re longer than my usual brief notes and hcs. uh third: i started with my man. i larb him. and without further ado, my second attempt at writing tgm fics. 
track one: willow ( aka “wreck my plans, avalone” )
to others, you're a one-track mind from a small town who worked her way into the best law firm in the state. stern, collected, and with nerves of steel that have faced many challenging cases -- and won more than half.
your girlfriends think you're one icicle short of being an actual ice queen, but even they don't know your one weakness. one of the few sources of warmth in your life.
lieutenant billy avalone. well, he was just billy to you.
you've known him for years. your families always crossing paths with each other. you were in the same school district, attended the same church, and even hung out in the same few family friendly spots in town.
there was a part of you that thought that he was the coolest guy you've ever met. not just his looks or what you thought of the people he hung around, but just the way he was.
everything he did always just seemed so..interesting.
you'd told your sister this one time and she just laughed. "i think you like this guy."
you shook your head. you don't do crushes. it was never really your scene.
for most of your life, you've dedicated yourself to working hard and staying on track to success. planners, to-do lists, moodboards, and even watched a ted talk or two.
it was no surprise that you were voted 'most likely to succeed' during your senior year, though you'd pretend to not have peeked into others' yearbooks and saw that some had scribbled 'most snobby' on it too.
but -- and you'd never really admit it to anyone -- for billy, you'd drop it all.
he brought out your silly and your most normal. spending late nights out just to drive around and look at the world differently. photobooth pictures and screaming while on the rides at the town fair. 
red exes and erased penciled plans in your planners was what came out of your time with billy. you could always reschedule a meeting or two. could afford to finish homework a few hours later than initially intended.
none of that changed when you would see each other years later.
even with your busy job, you'd call out from work if it meant getting coffee or spending a night in with him to watch movies. block out weekends to go on spontaneous road trips or catch the earliest flight to whatever vacation spot he swore was paradise.
he’d even gotten you into a musical festival or two, even if wasn’t typically your scene.
and you'd really think other people were none the wiser until your sister, of all people, pointed it out when she was staying over at your place one time.
she was over for the weekend and you had agreed upon learning that billy's shore leave was pushed off to a later date.
it was the way you'd look at your phone just a tad bit too much while the two of you were supposed to be gossiping that your sister pushed and pushed for you to talk about one thing and another about him. just enough pieces for the little puzzle she'd eventually piece together to conclude that you were hoping that billy's shore leave would be right as planned.
"i'd be offended if i didn't think it was cute. and also, i called it. years ago!"
again, you refused. though the blush on your face was harder to hide and you grabbed your phone to sit on the couch instead and opted to hide your face behind a pillow.
"i mean, really, what's the worst that could happen if you just..asked?"
and you looked at her, blinking. you've pondered about a confession quite a few times. often concluding that it was best to retain a friendship instead of risking it all. you voiced this to her, though you weren't quite sure you trusted your own voice right now. you sounded vulnerable and my god, did that feel foreign.
"i don't wanna gamble on what we have."
she scoffed, "honey, with all the years i've known you, this is the only person i've seen you take a gamble on. i mean, you don't take days off for me. you don't push plans around when i'm here and again, not offended, just .. kinda means he's special, you know?"
you nod, before feeling the couch shift as your sister joins you on the couch and grabs the remote to look for something to watch. she'd settled on a rerun of this one show.
"when is he free again?"
"he said he'll be coming next weekend." you look down at your phone again.
she hums. "it's time." though she puts a hand up defensively when she sees you staring. "just saying."
'i learned that when something dope comes along, you gotta lock it down!'
"jason's right, you know. you gotta lock that dope man down."
you just shook your head and buried it on your pillow. "what does jason know?"
"well, for starters. he kinda looks like your man. so that oughta count for something."
and while it was ridiculous, it helped you lighten up a little. and while you didn't quite know what would happen next weekend, it didn't matter.
maybe it was really time for him to melt the ice queen down completely, no matter what happens.
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You want to know why you're a bitch? It's because you think you aren't one. You think you're perfectly nice and lovely and that everyone should love you. Well guess what? They don't and they probably never will. You have a huge superiority complex and talk as if you're somehow better than everyone else because you read or reblog "aesthetic" moodboards. You think you're funny, but I can guarantee no one else thinks that. You call yourself an advocate, but whenever something important comes up, you don't post about it, you just continue to make your haha funny posts about whatever fandom you're in now (because god knows you switch around too fast for any of us to keep up).
People don't believe this sweetheart thing you have going, Jamie, and for good reason. Quit trying to be friends with everyone, drop the pretentiousness, and maybe actually post some good content, and people might like you more. You're no better than any of us are.
Anon. Bestie. Sweetheart. Take a breath, hun.
First of all, I never said I wasn't a bitch. I'm well aware of the fact that I can be one, and I take mild pride in it. Thanks for the insult, but I'm taking it as a compliment.
Second, I never said I want everyone to love me? Sure, I like getting along with people, and I like making friends, but at the end of the day, not everyone's gonna like me. That's cool! I can accept that!
As for all that middle stuff 1. Yes, I like making my blog look pretty and reading my fun little books. No, I don't think I'm better than everyone because of it 2. I do think I'm funny! But there's this thing called everyone having different senses of humor? I know my jokes aren't everyone's thing 3. ...I never called myself an advocate? Yes, I post about things that are important to me, but this is my blog that I can do what I want with, if you expect every single blog to post about every single issue, I have some bad news for you, anon 4. Oh no! I switch fandoms too fast! ...you can always unfollow, dear. No one's making you stay here.
Since you've told me to drop the sweetheart act, I suppose I have no choice. Sorry y'all, I've gotta become the absolute bitch I was meant to be 😔
But seriously, at the end of the day, if you're taking this much issue with one person's blog, I think that's more your issue than mine. It's not that serious, anon. Like, at all. Have a great day, and maybe go touch some grass 💙
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treatbuckywkisses · 2 years
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so much is happening i want to scream:(
the way my job gives me so much anxiety it's not even funny. that place is a fucking disaster. i get told im going to be part time and im out here working 40hrs a week, and i dont even get my second break usually like im supposed to. there aren't enough people in the department i work in and they pull people from it for other departments anyway. one of our team leads basically told us all our sections looked like shit tonight and he was going to walk us though it and make us tell him everything we did wrong. i was stuck somewhere else for most of my shift and couldn't work on my section, so when i tell you i was so scared dude you don't even fucking know lmao i literally cried because I'm still new and i didn't want them to think i did a bad job or im not cut out for it or whatever. and he never even showed up. he said it to "scare us into doing our work" and im so mad about it. i almost threw up for that ??
im so fucking tired and dehydrated and it's so hot in there i barely even eat on my lunch break and when i get home after my 8hr shift. i can't tell if im losing weight (unhealthy obvi) or if i have looked like this and didn't know lol so i just try not to look at myself if i can help it bc what.
i never really know what i look like, but when i do, it's ugly and i hate it.
also im working on moving into an apartment (i say 'me' but im not alone sgsksh) idk living is hard yk it's a lot and it's stupid and where my stuff is im not even staying bc sarah is a fucking bitch for no reason and i will hurt her feelings if she looks at me so yeah there's like so much shit happening and I'm so overwhelmed like hello i can actually only do so much pls why
anyways i am really tired and i want to cry and sleep forever and ever:( is this what happens when you keep things 'bottled up' lol
omg also? i haven't gotten my period yet like since April and im 🥴🤨 bc where is she yk and then im like babe you're literally a ball of fucking stress and anxiety please take a Xanax but back to stress im so worried i will get my period on my 8hr shift with nothing and i don't drive myself so that is like extra fun yk wow
the way i have never talked so much and i do it like this where nobody will read it sgskdgd this is who i am as a person irl though so congrats if u read this ig hello
also since I'm fucking word vomiting i guess and ive already come to terms with how nobody will read this, i hate this place. like tumblr i mean. idk it just like sucks to feel like you deserve more than you get yk and i actually am allowed to say that. my moodboards do not do nearly as good as i would like to think they would when i make them and it sucks. because believe it or not i start out thinking they're so pretty and the lack of interaction makes me doubt my own abilities and i hate that. and how I have so many "followers" with the amount of notes i get LOL what a joke actually. especially when they're also content creators. why are you even following me then yk like i only provide one thing and you don't even seem to like it so what are you doing here. it's annoying honestly. how can a content creator be the one not giving support. smh.
i think i need to go to sleep bc idk what i just said and if anyone reads this i feel like ppl will be mad at me so that's where I'm at lolllllll i h8 myself <3
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deludedandlostcause · 3 years
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hey, i don’t understand tumblr, but do you have a link for your reality show au ?? or have you started writing it ?
Hey darling! I understand the confusion but unfortunately that's not a fic, I'm sorry. At least not yet. I believe there might be some people working on their own versions of that story after seeing my post though. My gifset is only an AU meme (that soon will have a part 2, so I hope you stick around for that 😊).
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lunar-jimin · 4 years
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life goes on, it gets so heavy; the wheel breaks the butterfly
Pairing: Jungkook x fem!reading
Rating: 18+
Genre: smut, angst, fluffy ending, ceo!jungkook, secretary!reader
Word Count: 10k
Warnings: cheating, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, using pulling out as a protective method (don’t do this kids), dom!jungkook, sub!reader, cumming in pants, oral (female receiving), dirty talk, daddy kink, degradation, lovey-dovey sex, impreg kink
Summary: Despite being the golden heir of a wealthy empire, Jungkook is incredibly unhappy with life he’s been handed. When you show up in his office one morning, you change his life in the way he least expected, but in the way he needed the most. 
a/n: This is an anonymous commission for my BLM fundraiser!! If you would like to request something yourself, you can find the link to my official post here! I would also like to thank the lovely @nightowls388​ for beta reading!!
| masterlist | moodboard | playlist |
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The air was too hot. Uncomfortable. Sticky. Jungkook loosened the tie around his neck in a desperate attempt to free himself from the confines of his suit. He hated August. It was always too warm, too sunny. He preferred the dark winter days where the snow silenced the universal white noise. Black suits weren’t as suffocating on forty degree days.
He glanced out the window of the Rolls Royce, taking in the pedestrians struggling not to melt in the intense gaze of the sun. He sympathized with their struggle. Even the blast of freezing draft from the air conditioner did little to spare him from the heat. He enjoyed watching people. He was fascinated by the little idiosyncrasies that formed them into unique individuals, each essential to making the world work. Besides, everyone’s life seemed more interesting to him than his own.
There was a point in his life when he was content with the plan his parents had laid out for him before he was in diapers. He looked forward to one day taking over his father’s company, marrying a nice girl, and starting a family. It was a simple plan and one that gained the approval of the adults in his life: something he was constantly vying for as an adolescent. It was what he was raised with. When he went to college, everything changed. For the first time in his existence, he wasn’t being inundated with his parent’s doctrine and found that there was more to life than running Fortune 500 companies. His parents were less than pleased to discover that he had accompanied his business major with a minor in photography. 
But despite the longing that had bloomed in him for something more intriguing than sterile offices and mundane board meetings, he still found himself back home where his parents once again instilled in him the desire to be the golden heir. A year after his return as the prodigal son, his parents set him with the woman who was now his wife. Three years after that, his father decided that he would rather spend his days on the golfing green rather than in sky-high conference rooms, so he handed off the company to Jungkook. Ever since Jungkook had been locked inside stuffy black suits and boring ties. And he absolutely hated it. 
He squirmed in his seat, his desire to escape increasing with each second he was locked in the back of the car. God, why was it so hot? He felt like crying- a feeling that had become increasingly common during the past six months. His brain felt like a bubbling volcano waiting patiently to explode. Sometimes, Jungkook imagined what would happen when it did. He would divorce his wife, leave his job, and move to some island in the Caribbean where he would spend the rest of his days taking pictures. It was a nice dream, but it was only that, a dream. 
He shook his head, trying to contain his runaway emotions. As the car came to a halt in front of the office building, Jungkook tightened his tie and grabbed his briefcase before exiting out into the scalding heat. If inside the car was bad, outside was absolute hell. It was so hot, Jungkook swore he was on fire. He frowned, rushing into the safety of the air-conditioned skyscraper in front of him before he broke out in a sweat. 
He sighed in relief the second he made it through the rotating doors. He had never been so grateful for the large air conditioning bill in all his life. His relief was so immense that it took a full minute to realize something was wrong. Normally, the second he walked through the door, his secretary greeted him with an iced coffee and a pastry, but as he looked around, his secretary was nowhere to be found. Yet another sigh escaped his mouth as he stepped into the elevator. Why of all days did today have to be the day his secretary magically disappeared? He shook his head. 
He noticed her the minute he arrived at his office floor. She was bent over a box, all her attention focused on searching for whatever object was eluding her. It took her a moment to notice his presence, but when she did, she bolted upright before scurrying in front of the desk, hands behind her back. Jungkook looked her up and down, transfixed by the beautiful stranger.
“Can I help you?”
His voice came out harsher than he meant it to and he cringed when you tried to disguise a wince. 
“Um, yes, I’m your new secretary, Mr. Jeon.”
His brows furrowed. 
“New secretary? What happened to the old one? He was perfectly fine.”
He didn’t remember any emails about his secretary leaving, although to be fair, he hadn’t been paying attention to much these days. He might physically be at work, but more often than not, his mind had drifted to far off places. Mostly island paradises. 
“He moved away.”
“Ah,” he gave you a once over, “and what is your name, new secretary?”
You answered him. He nodded as if you had given him the right answer on a quiz.
“And I don’t suppose anyone has told you how things work around here.”
“No sir.”
His hands clenched at the name, a picture of you on your knees before him (with much less clothing) popped into his head. He shook it off, trying to stay the least bit professional. He had a wife for god’s sake. 
“I see. Well, for future reference, I expect you to meet me each day in the lobby with an iced americano and a pastry,” he paused when he realized how demanding he sounded before softly adding, “No cherries though, I hate cherries.”
You nodded, grabbing a sticky note and jotting down his instructions.
“For now, just get settled in. Do you happen to know if I have any meetings today?”
You nodded again, “You have a lunch meeting with the Samsung marketing director at one, sir.”
There it was again. That damn formality. It was really going to get the better of him. 
“You will accompany me. I expect you to take notes, but don’t contribute to the conversation. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
Jungkook nodded before making a beeline to his office before he got a boner. He let out a sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him. His heart pounded in his chest and despite his desperate attempts, he’s chubbed up a bit in his pants. 
He didn’t want to admit that it’s because you might be the most attractive woman he has ever seen. He didn’t want to admit that he hasn’t been this turned on in months. Instead, he passed it off on the fact that he hadn’t had sex with his wife in three months which left behind quite a bit of built-up tension. 
The hours ticked by and Jungkook attempted to bury himself with the neverending stack of paperwork. He remembered there was a time when he loved to show off his signature (there was a reason fifteen-year-old him never had a girlfriend), but now he wanted to chop off his hands so that he could never sign a contract again. He was thankful when the clock struck eleven, releasing him from his office, even if it meant being stuck talking shop for an hour while eating expensive but flavorless food. 
He stepped out to find you arranging photos on the wall beside your desk. You glanced up when you heard the door open and flashed him a blinding smile. 
“Ready, sir?”
He nodded. The title was really going to be a problem. 
The meeting was the beginning of Jungkook’s personal purgatory. Every day you would greet him with a smile and the best pastries he had ever tasted. (He was surprised when you admitted to him that you had baked them yourself. If you weren't proving to be an amazing secretary, he would suggest that you open a bakery, but he’s selfish.) You were a good listener and caught onto his routines without a struggle. But every day you would show up dressed as pure temptation. It wasn’t even that your outfits were scandalous, just simple pencil skirts and pastel blouses, but you made them look like sin incarnate. It didn’t help that every night he went home to his wife who he barely noticed existed anymore.
There had been a point when he and his wife were, er, passionate. For the first couple of years, Jungkook even managed to convince himself that he was in love with her. But a couple of months ago, weekly dinners turned into once a month before they disappeared altogether. To make the situation worse, his mother was starting to complain about her lack of children, but he didn’t know how to break it to her that he couldn’t remember the last time he had kissed his wife, much less had sex with her. There were no bitter feelings or resentment, just indifference. He had briefly considered couples therapy before deciding against it. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to attempt to salvage the crumbs of his marriage. 
You had only added fuel to the fire. Jungkook found himself just as infatuated with your mind as he was with your body. Not only did you laugh at his dumb jokes and listen to his whining, but you had witty contributions and easily found out-of-the-box solutions. He swore this quarter’s numbers would be higher just from you alone. And you flirted. He wasn’t sure at first, incredibly hesitant to respond in fear of a scandalous HR report. But when he caught your gaze on him when you thought he wasn’t looking one too many times, he realized there was a good chance that you liked him just as much as he liked you. 
Between you, his wife, and his desperate need to escape this world of offices, limos, and quid pro quo, his life was unraveling right in front of him. Still, he tried to hold onto all the pieces before they landed in a disappointed heap in his lap. He wasn’t quite ready to let it all go to shit. He definitely was not ready to meet his parents’ disapproving faces when he lost everything they had worked so hard to ensure he had. 
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Two months after you began working, he found himself at an overcrowded party praying he was anywhere but there. Sadly, being a CEO meant that he wasn’t allowed to drink away his woes, lest he make a fool of himself in front of all the investors. Instead, he was forced to stay exhaustingly sober as he watched everyone around him devolve into debauchery. He found his wife pleasantly drunk near the bar talking to one of her friends whose face he recognized but couldn’t remember her name for the life of him.
“Having fun darling?”
He grinned, trying to play the role of loving husband. A role that had become increasingly difficult to mimic. 
“It’s your birthday party, I should be asking you. Have you even had a drink? Probably not,” she turned back to her friend, “He never drinks at these things, something about keeping up appearances. I think it’s dumb. It’s his own birthday for fuck’s sake.”
He rolled his eyes. There she went again, putting him down. It wasn’t the first time she had commented on his festive sobriety. She wasn’t a fan. Maybe it was because he only fucked her after he drank. Still, he conceded to her teasing, figuring one drink wouldn’t hurt. He waved down a bartender.
“A whiskey on the rocks, please,” he turned back to his wife, “satisfied?”
She grinned at him before resuming ignoring him in favor of whatever fascinating conversation her friend was providing. He sighed before grabbing his drink and making his way out to the balcony. The air inside the penthouse was stuffy and he was beginning to feel claustrophobic. He was surprised to find you already out there, nursing your own drink in your hand. It wasn't unusual for people from the office to be at his personal parties. His father had taught him a long time ago that inviting your employees into your personal life was key to inspiring loyalty. It made them feel like they knew you and that they were important to you. But seeing as you were a relatively new addition, he had never seen you outside of the office and if you were sexy in skirts and blouses, the dress you had on should be illegal. He gulped before leaning next to you on the rail.
"Parties not your thing?"
You jumped, spilling a bit of your drink onto the dark street below. 
"Um, no, parties are fine. Rich people parties are just a whole new animal."
He chuckled.
"That's fair I suppose. Even I get sick of those fuckers. They do realize that they aren’t at the office anymore right? No need to brag about how well your stock is doing"
You smiled at him before looking back out at the city skyline. Despite having grown up with views like this, Jungkook still found it breathtaking. Almost as breathtaking as he found you. He took a sip of his drink, trying to drown his thoughts in alcohol. When he looked at you again, he felt his stomach churn. You were so beautiful that he wasn't sure what to do with himself. A sigh escaped him. You broke out of your trance and turned to look at him.
"Something wrong?"
"No. Not really."
You raised your eyebrow.
"I just- I know this sounds stupid and pretentious- but I really just don't want to do this anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"This job. This lifestyle. This life. I was raised to be the perfect CEO with the perfect family, a copy of my father really, but that's not what I want. All my family has ever seen me as is the golden heir and honestly, I don’t know if I can be that anymore."
"Who do you want to be?"
"I don't know. A photographer I guess. And marry somebody I actually choose to fall in love with. And live away from the stress of trying to please every person in my life at the cost of my own happiness."
"You don't love your wife?"
"No, I do. Kinda. I just... My parents picked her out and at some point, I was smitten with her, but we're so different and she wants success and money and, well, I don't care about that as much. She’s not a bad person, she’s just obsessed with her books and her writing, and well, that doesn’t leave much room for family. I’m not much better though."
"Oh."
"And we haven't been too hot lately."
"How so?"
"Um, well, we're really distant, and, um, we haven't had sex in two months."
You snorted and he blanched. He usually never shared that kind of thing with anyone and here he was confessing his personal problems to you, his secretary. The alcohol must be affecting him more than he thought. This is why he didn't drink at parties.
"How? Has she seen you? I would be all over you if I was your wife.”
You realized what you had said a moment too late and you looked at him with wide eyes, a faint blush covering your face. He let out a nervous chuckle. 
“Would you now?”
You nodded before downing the rest of your drink. Jungkook felt something akin to butterflies begin to flutter in his stomach. He had known that he was fairly attractive, but something about hearing someone as ethereal as you admit it made his heart do flips. 
“Yeah, well, it’s really on me I guess. I haven’t really wanted to.”
“You don’t want to have sex?”
Relief washed over your face when you realized that he wasn’t going to linger on your slip up. 
“Yeah. Well no. I do want to have sex. Just not with her.”
“I see. Well, who do you want to have sex with?”
It was a small glimpse, almost imperceptible, but he saw the recognition in your face as you watched his eyes glance over you.
“Me?”
Jungkook gulped. What was he doing? What was he getting himself into? He had a life to protect. Expectations to uphold. And yet, here he was, considering risking it all for a secretary who was making him feel something for the first time in months. 
When he gathered enough courage to look at you, he found you staring at his lips. One second he’s waging a war with himself and the next your mouth is on his. Your lips are just as warm and soft as he thought they would be and for a moment he lets himself be absorbed by them. But reality rapidly floods back, and he pushes you away. You looked at him, obviously hurt by the rejection. 
“I’m sorry.”
He’s being honest. He doesn’t want to hurt you. But he was a coward who was afraid of what people thought of him. And the things people would think about him if they knew he kissed his secretary were not pretty.
“It’s fine.”
You failed to cover up the disappointment in your voice. 
“It’s not you. It’s just I have a wife, and a family with expectations and-”
He sighs.
“Look, it’s fine. Really. I’m just gonna get going, okay? I’ll see you on Monday.”
With that, you leave him to his own devices. He watches your figure go, before turning back to face the city. 
“Fuck.”
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If work was hell before, it was nothing compared to what it was now. Every day, he found himself torn between wanting to take you on his desk and wanting to never see you again. Ever since the party, the memory of your lips pressed on his had haunted him like an orphaned Victorian ghost with a thirst for revenge.  It was on replay in his mind to the point he couldn’t properly sleep anymore. He felt like shit, and he was pretty sure he looked it too, but if anyone noticed they neglected to say anything. 
You, on the other hand, seemed to be doing just fine. You hadn’t so much as mentioned the party. You performed your duties with your usual pep and continued to bring him your heavenly pastries. He resented you a little bit for being able to move on so easily. Here he was hung up on a moment he had fucked up, and there you were acting like nothing had happened. He wanted to scream. 
So he pulled back. He only talked to you if it was absolutely necessary. He never looked your way. He threw himself into his job. But you were still there, just as tempting as the first day he had seen you. His mind was being forced to choose between you alongside the island paradise he dreamed of, and keeping up appearances while pleasing his elders. A week passed and he was miserable. He was exhausted and all his will power had been depleted. 
That’s why he ended up doing what he did. Or at least that’s what he told himself. Friday rolled around and Jungkook was at his wit’s end. And then there you were, fifteen feet away from him flirting with some random guy from IT. (Namjoon, maybe?) It was harmless, but it didn’t stop Jungkook’s gut from twisting about inside of him. Why didn’t you flirt with him? Why didn’t you show him any signs of affection? He reminds himself that he rejected you, but it’s no help. Jealousy overwhelms him as he squirms in his leather chair. He barely noticed his hands clamped into fists or the way his jaw had clenched to the point of pain. When Namjoon leans over to whisper into your ear, Jungkook loses the small tidbits of control he had left. 
He pushes himself out of his chair and storms out, not bothering to say anything as he grabs your arm and pulls you away from a stunned Namjoon and back to his office, slamming the door behind him. 
“Can I help you?”
Your tone is curt and your face was twitching with displeasure. Jungkook realized that once he had you, he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do with you. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He would certainly like to bend you over his desk and fuck you until you couldn’t walk, but he was fairly certain that wouldn’t go over well with you right now. 
“Umm…” 
He felt a blush cross his face as he realized he was still holding onto your wrist. He released it before turning to pace back and forth across the marble floor. 
“Well?”
You folded your arms across your chest, your eyes were alight with something dangerous. Something that Jungkook found incredibly sexy. Before his brain could register with what he was doing, he found himself marching over to you, grabbing you by your waist and pulling you in for a kiss. 
You stiffened against him, but before you had a chance to respond, he had pulled away from you. The guilt was almost immediate, drowning him in regret and confusion. You too looked confused, as you stood stock still, surprise plastered all over your face. Jungkook turned and walked back to his chair. 
“You can go.”
You seemed to barely register the words as you nodded before absent-mindedly wandering out of his office. Jungkook relaxed in his seat as he tried to make sense of what had happened. He knew he had feelings for you, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Nothing he couldn’t control. But he had lost control and now he wasn’t able to trust himself. And he didn’t know if he wanted to.
After that, things went back to normal. Well, as normal as they could be. He gathered the courage to interact with you again. But now instead of friendly glances and gestures, there were secret looks and subtle touches. Jungkook knew he was a wind-up toy one twist away from snapping, but he couldn’t help but indulge in your flirty gestures. 
He found himself growing bolder as the consequences he had once worried about seemed to be a world away. What started with the brush of a hand across the hip, grew to a hand on your thigh in the back of the car. Dark stares and lip bites plagued his day. At night, he would go home and lock himself in his private office where he would wrap his hand around his cock while conjuring up images of you in a variety of wanton states, all for him. 
He should’ve known that staying at work late with you would be a bad idea. Usually, you had the rest of the employees to keep you in check. With them gone, he found himself finding little reason to hold himself back.
“And so that’s why I think it’s a good idea to start engaging with younger consumers.”
You had been discussing ways to boost sales for the quarter, but he had stopped listening long ago, instead focusing on how your shirt was opened a button lower than usual.
“Mr. Jeon?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you listening?”
“What? Oh, yeah. Of course. Younger consumers. Got it.”
You raised an eyebrow. 
“What?”
“Maybe if you spent less time staring at my chest and more time focusing on these market studies, we would already have higher sales.”
“Sorry.”
“Sure you are.”
“You’re right. I’m not.”
The drop of his voice surprised even him. You looked at him with an unreadable look from your perch on the edge of his desk.
“And what is so enticing about my chest?”
Jungkook gulped. Your eyes had darkened and he felt himself start to stir in his pants. 
“It’s a part of you. And you are so sexy I can barely control myself.”
You smirked, before sauntering over to him and lowering yourself into his lap. The scent of your perfume overwhelmed him as you leaned in to whisper in his ear. 
“Then don’t.”
Somewhere inside him, a cord snapped. The control he had been trying to reign in had broken free and he was left to his own primal devices. He pulled your lips to his, finally relishing in getting to properly kiss you. You responded instantly, lips moving against his as your hands buried themselves in his hair. You tugged on the strands and Jungkook moaned into your mouth, hips bucking up into you as his hand grabbed your ass. You returned his moans and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. 
His brain was a mess of emotions and hormones. He was overwhelmingly hard in his pants and your lips felt too good against his. You rolled your hips on top of him and he let a growl, the need to take you battling with his need to preserve the few remaining shreds of his dignity. 
He didn’t have the chance to make a decision though when the office door swung open and the head of a very confused janitor popped in. 
“Uh…I thought you were gone,” he stuttered, “...I’ll just leave.”
The janitor blushed before shutting the door. Jungkook turned back to look at you to find a similar rosy hue had graced your cheeks. 
“Um...I should probably get going too.”
Your voice was meek and the embarrassment of getting caught was plastered all over your face. He can’t blame you though, he isn’t doing too well himself. The fear of getting caught had left him deflated in more ways than one. 
“Yeah, sure, that’s probably good.”
You moved off his lap, readjusting your skirt as you do so. You grab your purse and jacket before walking to the door. Just as you were about to open it, you turn back to look at him. 
“Good night, Jungkook.”
He looked up surprised. It was the first time you had called him by his first name. It sounded heavenly coming from your lips. 
“Goodnight.”
Before he left for the night, he made sure to track down the janitor and offer him a healthy sum of money to stay quiet. He took it happily and continued on his way.
The weekend passed slowly for Jungkook. You plagued his thoughts with images of your rumpled skirt and the feeling of your hands in his hair. His wife was out of town for yet another business trip. He didn’t care. It just gave him more time with the thought of you while his hand was around his cock.
When Monday finally rolled around, Jungkook found himself the happiest he’d ever been to go to work. As he walked into the lobby, the sight of you washed over him like the cold water of a lake on the hottest day of summer. Something about your smile seemed to relieve him of all the heavy stress he was carrying on his shoulders. 
He almost made it through the day without losing control of himself. Despite all the glances he gave you, or the way you brushed your hand against his while you leaned over next to him to explain a chart, he managed to keep it together. But when you bent over in front of his desk to pick up a pen he dropped, he lost all control. The next thing he knew, he was slamming you against his office door, lips attacking yours, while his hips rutted into you. 
Your initial shock wore off almost instantly and you groaned as you melted into him. You wrapped a leg around his waist, dragging him closer to your core. The kiss was messy and he was sure your lipstick was ruined. A fervent need overwhelmed him as he humped you like a desperate teenager. You pulled away to catch your breath, dark eyes looking staring back at his own. 
“Fuck, you turn me on so much, baby,” he growled into your ear, hips moving faster. 
Words seemed to fail you as you whined back at him, pleasure contorting in your face. You suddenly let go of him, before dropping down to your knees. Instead of going to undo his pants like he expected, you simply gave a long lick over his bulge. Jungkook’s legs immediately turned to jello and he had to brace himself on the door to keep himself upright. 
“Oh fuck, what are you doing baby?”
“I’m getting you off. Do you want me to make you feel good sir?”
For once he was happy to hear the name. He didn’t get a chance to respond before you grabbed him through his pants. He threw his head back with a moan. It briefly occurred to him that people might hear through the thin walls, but your hand on his hard cock soon relieved him of all thought. It didn’t take much to get him to the point of no return. Even with all the nights spent with his fist and a bottle of lube he still felt like a rubber band getting stretched to its limit. You were barely touching him, but there he was, on the precipice of cumming in his own damn pants. He barely had time to warn you before spurts of hot cum filled his boxer briefs with white. “Oh, fuck.”
You giggled as he let out soft groans, cock twitching in its confines. The high of pleasure was quickly wiped away as the sensation of sticky underwear rose to his attention. 
“You’re a bad, bad girl, baby. You made me cum in my pants. Do you know what happens to bad girls?”
“No, sir.” 
“They get punished.”
“And how are you going to punish me, sir?”
Jungkook had to stifle a groan. You were still on your knees in front of him, calling him ‘sir’. Despite having just had one of the better orgasms in his life, his dick twitched with interest. 
“Stand up.”
You quickly obey, rising to your full height, but keeping eye contact the entire time. 
“Take off your panties.”
Your eyes grew wide at his demand, but you obeyed him nonetheless. The second you grasped the pink lace in your hand, he snatched them from you, immediately bringing them up his nose. He inhaled, letting himself get lost in the musky aroma.
“Shit, baby, you smell so good. I can’t wait to eat your wet pussy. But not today. You were bad today and only good girls get their pussy eaten.”
You let out a whimper but kept your mouth shut, body frozen in place. He stuffed your panties into his pant pocket before walking over to his desk and taking a seat. 
“You may go.”
You looked like you wanted to say something, probably about your lack of undergarments, but you held your tongue and turned to leave. 
“Oh, and one last thing.”
You turned back to him.
“I’m going to need a new suit. It seems I’ve spilled some coffee on this one.”
He smirked and you nodded, before stepping out the door. 
He didn’t try to hold himself back after that. He would take you whenever the opportunity arose. It didn’t take long for him to fulfill his promise to eat you out. He would forever remember the way you whined his name while his mouth pulled not one, but two orgasms from your dripping pussy. And when he finally got to feel your mouth around his cock, he was fairly sure he had found nirvana. 
He wouldn’t fuck you though. He knew it was silly as if he would be betraying his wife any more than he already was by having sex with you, but for some reason, he felt the need to draw a line. To separate the boundary between the fantasy land he had created with you and the cold reality that he returned home to. His wife had become all but a ghost in his life, and as a result, Jungkook found you providing his only emotional support in addition to sexual release. He didn’t want to admit that somehow, in a few short months, you had grown from being just his secretary to his closest companion. 
He didn’t want to admit it because he was too afraid of where it would lead. He was already teetering on the edge to give it all up, even before you had shown up in his office looking like a gift from heaven, but now, now he was fairly certain that even the tiniest breeze would push him over. And he didn’t know if you would be there to catch him if he fell. 
But that didn’t stop him from starting to dream of a future with you. The island paradise in his mind expanded to include you. Flashes of laughing children, nights under the stars, and soft kisses danced through his mind. You would have your own bakery, he would take pictures, and together you would create your own little family. One that was far removed from the hassle and the stress of his painful existence.  
Jungkook was over the moon to discover that you would be accompanying him on a work trip to Japan. For one whole week, you would be one door away. Even if it was a ruse, Jungkook would be allowed to pretend, for one whole week, that you were his and he was yours alone. On the plane ride alone, he made you cum three times in the cramped bathroom. During the day, you would both try to hold it together. Merger meetings were laced with subtle glances and hidden touches. At night, you would become a whole other animal. 
You tested his limits. Dared him to give in and finally give you what you both wanted: him inside you. Every night you would knock on his door in translucent nighties that highlighted the fact you had discarded your bra. After the second night of showing up in see-through clothes, Jungkook decided to return the favor, opening the door with his shirt unbuttoned, leaving his abs out for anyone to see. While you were both visibly affected by each other’s teasing, neither of you gave in until the last moment, each of you leaping into each other's arms and making a mess of the hotel furniture. But he still didn’t fuck you. It was his line. His final frontier. 
On the last night of the trip, Jungkook suggested that they finally test out the jacuzzi on his balcony. Bad idea. When you showed up in a tiny red bikini that did little to protect your dignity, Jungkook felt himself spiraling out of control. Instead of greeting you like he usually did, he thrust a cocktail in your hand while trying to will his dick into submission. He made it through about ten minutes in the hot tub, trying to participate in regular conversation with you. But he couldn’t, not when your tits were sitting right there. He was no longer sure if the sweat dripping down his forehead was from the warm water or the pent up tension. 
“Fuck.”
“What?”
“I can’t take this anymore,” he groaned.
“Can’t take what?”
Your eyes gleamed, daring him to admit to what they both knew he so desperately needed. 
“There is nothing more I want then to sink into your pretty pink pussy right now.” 
“So why don’t you?”
It was the first time you had questioned why he refused to have sex with you, and now that you were finally confronting him about it, he found himself at a loss for a reasonable explanation. The line that he thought he was creating by refusing to have sex with you had long ago been blurred to the point of no longer existing. And here you were, with your warm body inches from him, wanting him just as much as he wanted to you and he knew that he was done for. 
“Fuck it.”
With that, he pulled you onto his lap, attaching his lips to yours for the three millionth time. He would never tire of your kisses, the way they comforted his soul, and quenched his constant need for your touch. You eagerly responded to him, tongue licking the seam of his lips. As the two of you began to explore each other’s mouths, his hands came up to the string keeping your bikini top together and gave it a quick jerk, letting the scarlet cloth fall from your body. He pulled back and groaned at the sight of your perfect tits, the water around you swishing as he rolled his hips up into yours.
You whined out, “Fuck, baby. Just like that. God, I can’t wait for you to be inside me.”
“Yeah?” Jungkook’s voice was low with lust, “Me neither, baby. You’re gonna be such a good slut for me aren’t you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Even after months of you calling him ‘sir’ in less than professional situations, Jungkook still hadn’t gotten used to it. He felt every inch of his skin tingle with sheer pleasure every time the word fell from your shameless mouth. You whined, teeth pulling at his bottom lip as you pressed down on top of him, just as desperate as he was. He moved from your mouth to your neck, kissing down to your collarbone, where he stopped to take the time to leave a rosy mark that signified you were his and his alone. Once he was satisfied with it, he continued down your chest, taking one of your pretty pink nipples in his mouth, sucking on the hardened bud. You moaned out his name, hips stuttering against his. God, he loved your breasts. 
Your hands tangled themselves in his hair, pulling on them to the point of pain. Jungkook didn’t care though. He loved when you showed him just how good he could make you feel. It made him feral. Sure, receiving pleasure was gratifying, but there was nothing quite like watching you squirm from his ministrations.
He reluctantly pulled away from your tits to pull the ties keeping your bikini bottoms intact before discarding the garment in the same manner as your top, leaving you naked on top of him. He took a moment to pull back and admire how beautiful you looked. You sat there as he looked you over, a blush rising to your cheeks. You crossed your arms over your chest in an attempt to make yourself less vulnerable to him.
“Oh no baby, don’t hide yourself from me,” he gently pulls your arms away, “you’re too beautiful to stay covered up.”
Your blush intensified. He smiled at you, wrapping his large arms around your body and carrying you out of the hot tub. Your lips reconnected with his as he stumbled his way into the hotel room, tossing you on the king-sized bed. 
“Are you gonna be a good girl for me?”
His voice was as dark as his eyes. You nodded in response, voice escaping you. 
“That’s my baby.”
He pulled off his wet swim trunks before joining you on the bed, where your wet body had begun to soak the sheets. If he had his way, they would be much wetter by the time the night was over. He wasted no time diving into your pussy, lips attaching to your clit, drawing out your sweet moans. His fingers found your entrance, circling it a few times to collecting your slick, before slipping one in. Your back arched at the sensation and Jungkook let out a chuckled against your clit. 
Your whines grew higher and he could tell that you were getting close to finishing. After months of exploring your body, he was well acquainted with how to play your pussy like an instrument, conducting your symphony of pleasure. He slipped in a second finger, crooking them upwards in search of the spot he knew would make you scream. When you cried out he knew that he had found it and not five seconds later, you were coming all over his digits. 
“Fuck, Kook.”
“I hope you don’t think that we’re done yet,” he growled as his fingers slowed before leaving your sopping cunt, “when I’m through with you, you won’t be able to walk for days. I'll have to carry you to every meeting and explain to them that I fucked you too hard for you to function.”
You clenched around nothing at his words and he mindlessly took his cock in his hands, giving it a few quick strokes. 
“You like that don’t you? You would love for the entire world to know how much of a whore you are for my cock.”
“I would. I’m a whore for your cock, please give it to me. I’ve been a good girl.”
Without bothering to warn you, he lined himself up before sinking into you. You both groaned at  the feeling of your tight cunt stretching around his cock. After months of dreaming of what your pink walls would feel like around him, he could confirm that the sensation was much better than anything his imagination had conjured. 
He started with slow thrusts, trying to give himself time to come off the edge he had already been worked up to. Your legs came to wrap around his waist, pulling him closer to you. As soon as you had adjusted to his girth, you began to roll your hips up to meet his.
“Go faster.”
“Uh uh, if you want Daddy to go faster, you have to beg like a proper slut.”
It just slipped out. Jungkook knew he had a daddy kink, but it generally stayed repressed deep within after his wife had shamed him for it. But you didn’t seem to mind. If anything, you squeezed him even tighter.
“Please Daddy, please go faster. Fuck my tight pussy.”
He conceded to your wishes, pulling all the way out, before thrusting back in. He set a tireless pace, pounding into you so hard the bed began to shake. He leaned down, meeting your lips in a sloppy kiss. Your teeth clacked together, but Jungkook didn’t care. He just wanted to be as close to you as possible. 
He pulled away from your lips and his cock twitched at the visual of the string of saliva connecting your mouths. Without him to silence you, your moans mingling with the sound of skin slapping creating a beautiful symphony for Jungkook’s ears. 
He felt himself approach the edge, honing in on his release. Luckily for him, your pussy was tightening around him, signaling that you were close too. 
“Fuck, are you gonna cum for me, baby? Are you gonna come around Daddy’s cock like a good girl?”
“Yes Daddy, I’m gonna cum. I’m gonna cum. I’m gonna-”
Your voice broke off into a high pitched moan as you clenched around him. You threw your head back, hands clawing into his skin. The mix of pain and pleasure sent him over the edge with you. He quickly pulled out before covering your pussy and stomach in white strands. As soon as the waves of ecstasy rescinded, he collapsed on top of you, exhaust claiming his muscles. 
He laid there for a minute before hopping up and heading to the bathroom. When he came back out, warm towel in hand, he found you passed out on the soaked sheets. His heart skipped a beat at your blissed-out face and for a moment he wished he could feel as peaceful as you looked. After making sure you were thoroughly clean, he collapsed on the bed next to you. Sleep was quick to come to him, but not before he took you into his arms, burying his face into the crook of your neck. 
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A dam had burst. The two of you went at it like rabbits, he would take you any and every way could, whenever he could. He couldn’t get enough of you. He would take you in the back of the limo, in the elevator, empty conference rooms. It was to the point he was sure the entire company knew of your amorous relations, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. All he thought about was you. Even the fear of disappointing his parents was beginning to diminish. As his feelings for you grew and blossomed, his desire to please anyone else faded into a faint buzz in the background of his mind. You had him whipped. 
He knew things were bad when his five year anniversary with his wife rolled around and he didn’t feel a thing when she told him that she wouldn’t be able to be there due to some book tour. Sure, a little part of him was upset that she didn’t care enough to even try to change the tour dates, but he knew that he didn't have a leg to stand on. In fact, he was rather grateful he wouldn’t have to plan some dinner to celebrate a love that had died long ago.  
When you heard that he was spending his anniversary alone, you had offered him some company. He felt a twinge of guilt about the idea of having sex with a woman that wasn’t his wife on their anniversary, but not enough to stop him from inviting you over. So there you were, in his foyer, with an overnight bag, a bottle of wine, and a smile that could light up the heavens. He grinned back at you, taking the bottle and leading you into the living room. 
“I’ll get us some glasses, yeah?”
“Sure. Do you mind if I change? Work clothes aren’t the most comfortable.”
“Oh, yeah, go ahead. There’s a bathroom down the hall to your left.”
When he returned to the living room with two glasses and a bottle opener, you were curled up on the couch in a tank and shorts. You were flipping through the photography book that he kept on the coffee table. You were so immersed in the pictures that you didn’t notice his presence.
“So whatcha want to do?”
You jumped, startled by the sound of his voice. 
“It’s your anniversary, you should decide.”
He placed the opener and the glasses on the table next to the bottle before taking a seat next to you. 
“I don’t know. How about we just drink and talk for a bit?” he paused, “Maybe that’s stupid.”
“Nope. Nothing about you is stupid.”
There was your damn smile again. Jungkook hated the way his heart pounded faster because of it. He smiled back at you. It only took a few sips of the merlot before Jungkook had begun to relax. He had been drunk around you plenty of times, but there was something about wine that made him want to pour his entire heart out to you. 
He watched as you laughed at your own joke, strands of hair that had fallen loose from your tight ponytail danced on your cheek. The world seemed to slow down a little, time coming to a halt, making the room for him to exist with just you and no one else. It was somewhere in that warm, fuzzy space that the words came tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. 
“I think I love you.”
Even the air in the room stilled. You stared at him, eyes wide with shock.
“What?”
You looked like a deer in headlights. Jungkook felt like one.
“Nothing. I was just running my mouth. Don’t mind me. Go back to telling me about this dream bakery of yours.”
Much to his chagrin, you didn’t budge, eyes still fixed on his rigid body. Your surprise had evaporated and you were now looking him up and down as if you were trying to analyze his inner thoughts. You both sat frozen for what felt like ages before you moved to kneel in front of him, taking his shaky hands in yours. When you opened your mouth, your voice was soft, caressing his soul.
“I love you too.”
The world stopped in its tracks. Jungkook swore his heart stopped beating in his chest. And then your lips were on his and even though he had kissed you more times than he could count, this felt different. This felt like the collision of two planets, the implosion of a star. Fireworks weren’t enough to describe the cascade of emotions pouring through him. His hands grasped your cheeks, gently caressing the soft skin. You hummed against his mouth as he pushed you back to lie on the couch, while your legs spread to make room for him between your thighs. 
Jungkook swore he felt a tear trickle down his cheek, but he couldn’t tell if it was from you or him. He honestly didn’t care. The woman he had grown to love loved him back. He now knew that you would catch him if he fell. And so he let himself tumble over the precipice he had once been so terrified of.  He could finally admit that your embrace was home and that your arms eyes were the safety he never felt. He loved you. You loved him. The stars had aligned. 
He trailed his kisses away from your lips and to the crook of your neck where he inhaled. You smelled of the remnants of your perfume mixed with your own personal scent. He swore if he breathed it in enough, he would get high off it. Instead, he placed soft kisses on the delicate skin, before taking it in between his teeth, shamelessly marking you. The whole world would know that you belonged to him, almost as much as he belonged to you. 
You moaned as he sucked the bruised skin into his mouth before shifting lower so that his face was right between your breasts. Your flimsy tank top did nothing to stop him from tearing it in two. 
“Jesus, Kook,” you groaned as he took in the sight of your braless chest, bare before him. 
“What? I can buy you all the tank tops you want. I would buy you the whole world.”
And it was true. If that’s what it would take to make you happy, that’s what he would do. Tears glinted in your eyes at his words before Jungkook ripped a moan out of your mouth when he took a nipple in his. He sucked on it before releasing it with a pop. 
“These are the best tits in the world. I love them almost as much as I love you.”
He dove back in taking the neglected breast in his hand, rubbing the nipple. Your hips bucked up into him, desperate for more concrete pleasure than the little he was teasing you with. 
“Slow, baby, I’ll get there. Slow.”
You whined in response, head thrown back against the arm of the couch while Jungkook swirled his tongue over you. Even though he was unbelievably hard in his sweats, he found no motivation to do anything about it, his sole focus on you and your pleasure. 
He moved to kiss down your stomach. When he reached the hem of your shorts, he pulled them off, before moving to kiss over your lace panties. An obvious wet patch marked the center and Jungkook once again took the time to stop and smell you. The aroma overwhelmed him, driving him mad with carnal lust. 
“Fuck baby, your dripping, and I’ve barely touched you yet.” 
“That’s ‘cause you’re taking forever. Please baby, I need you.”
And how could he deny you when you were so sweet and all fucked out, just for him. He pulled your soaked panties to the side, groaning at your soaked, pink lips. He dove in, licking one long striped from the bottom of your cunt up to your clit. You bucked against him desperate for more. 
In response, he wrapped his arms around your thighs, holding you in place. His tongue found your clit, eliciting angelic moans from you while he drew abstract shapes on your bundle of nerves. Your thighs began to quiver in his grip and he smiled against you. The thought of you coming from just his mouth had his dick twitching in excitement. 
“Fuck, Kookie, I’m gonna cum.”
“That’s right baby, cum all over tongue.”
Seconds later, you're soaking his mouth while you writhed in pleasure. But Jungkook didn’t stop. He was too blissed out with his face in your cunt. He would stay like this forever if he could. He pulled one hand away from your thigh, to sneak around to your entrance, a finger slipping inside.
“Oh god, Kook, it’s too much.”
“You can do it, baby. I know you can.”
You looked like you were about to protest before he curled his finger up, hitting your g-spot. You cried out, more slick pouring out of you, if that was possible. He knew that there was a large wet spot staining his ten-thousand-dollar couch, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Slipping another finger in you, he began to flick with his tongue, daring you to come again. It didn’t take long.
“Oh shit, Kook, shit, shit, gonna cum, shit, shit-”
He’s never heard you scream so loud in all the months he’s had the privilege of giving you orgasms. Before he could properly register what was happening, you were squirting all over him. Your hips bucked out of your control as you painted his face with your orgasm. Jungkook swore that if he had any less self-control, he would’ve come all over in his pants. 
As you came down from your high, Jungkook scooped you up, carrying you to the bedroom. He laid you gently on the bed, giving you a few moments to recover as he stripped himself of his own clothes. You sat up, watching him closely as he slowly revealed himself to you. He was well built, he knew that, but you often told him how much you appreciated his muscles, as if the way you kissed and bit his abs weren’t enough of a clue. He would be lying if he said he hadn’t started working out more just to please you. 
But he also knew that he could never step foot in a gym again and you would still love him just as much. That was the difference between you and his wife. You loved him without condition, without the need for him to be someone he wasn’t. His wife had fallen in love with only one version of him, a version that no longer existed. 
He joined you on the bed, crawling up between your legs, giving you a soft kiss when he reached your lips. You fell back on the pillows letting him take in your face, your body, you. He bucked up against you, tip rubbing your clit and you let out simultaneous moans. 
Just when he was about to slip into you, his phone rang on the bedside table. He groaned, lifting himself up to see who dared to call him when he was about to have sex with the love of his life. A flash of guilt rushed through him when he saw his wife’s name light up the screen. Of course it was her. Despite everything, this was a woman who would keep up appearances until her dying breath. And here he was, about to have sex with another woman in their shared bed. He sighed, swiping to ignore the call, before tossing it back on the table. 
This time, he didn’t wait to enter you, thrusting in immediately. He groaned at the feeling of your soft walls encapsulating him. Ever since the first time you had had sex, he had always made sure to use a condom, but he couldn’t bring himself to care that he wasn’t using one now. Being inside you without the extra barrier felt so intrinsically right. In fact, part of him was excited about the idea of going raw and risking getting you pregnant. 
“You wanna get me pregnant?”
Your voice was soft and curious. He stilled inside of you, 
“Umm…?”
His voice trailed off as he tried to come up with a reasonable response. His brain failed him. 
“It’s okay if you do. It’s kinda hot actually.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind having your kid.”
Jungkook couldn’t help the moan that fell out of his mouth. He thrust softly in you. So many hormones were flooding his brain that he could barely focus on what was happening. 
“Well, then I guess it’s my duty to make sure you’re nice and pregnant for me by the end of the night.”
“Yeah, Kookie,” you whined, “give it to me. Want you to cum in me. Want your baby.”
The two of you met in a messy kiss as Jungkook pounded into you, balls slapping your ass. Desperation flooded him, determination to knock you up with his child overriding every other need. He’d never had the desire to get someone pregnant like this before. There was something about you that pulled at all his primal instincts. 
You were tightening again, your moans drowning out the sound of skin slapping accentuated by Jungkook’s own grunts. Jungkook himself wasn’t too far from finishing himself, having been on edge since you squirted all over him. 
“Fuck baby,” you moaned, “you fuck me so well.”
“Yeah. Are you gonna cum for me? Are you gonna cum so that I can get you pregnant?”
“Yes, fuck, I love yo-” 
Your voice faded into a scream as tears rolled down your cheeks as you came for the third time that night. The look on your face triggered Jungkook’s own orgasm. He roared as jets of white cum covered your inner walls. His hips stuttered as he chanted your name. Your legs were wrapped tightly around his waist, holding him deep within you. 
He rolled over without pulling out, keeping you tight in his arms.
“Mmm,” you hummed, “hope that did the trick.”
“Yeah? Me too,” he smiled. 
You grinned back.
“Are you not gonna pull out?”
“We gotta keep my cum in you so we make sure it does the trick.”
“Okay,” you chuckled.
“What?”
He pouted.
“You’re just cute.”
“I’m not cute.”
“Sure...”
He giggled when you rolled your eyes, pressing a peck on your lips. The two of you stayed like that for the rest of the night, wrapped in each other's arms, talking until sleep carried you off into dreamland. 
Jungkook woke the next morning before you. He took a moment to admire your face, not believing that you were really all his. He softly kissed your forehead before wiggling his way out of your embrace. 
He quietly slipped on a tee and some sweats before making his way to the kitchen where he put on a pot of coffee. While he waited, he checked his phone, expecting to find a voicemail from his wife. He was surprised to find none. He opened the phone app and his stomach dropped. There at the top of his recent calls was a twenty-minute call with her. He must have accidentally answered it. She must have heard everything. Anxiety crept up on him as he began to pace the white kitchen floor. Before he knew what he was doing, the phone was dialing. 
“Hello?”
Her voice was groggy.
“Hi.”
His voice quivered. 
“What do you want Jungkook?”
“Oh, umm, I’m sorry I guess,” his voice is quiet, “For what you heard.”
“You mean listening to you moan about how you wanted to get your secretary pregnant?”
He cringed at her dripping sarcasm. 
“Yeah. That.”
“Don’t be.”
“What?”
“Don’t be sorry. I don’t care.”
“You don’t?”
“Jungkook,” she sighed, “I think we both knew something like this was going to happen.”
“Yeah, I guess. But that doesn’t mean that it was okay for me to cheat on you.”
“That’s true.”
They both stay silent for a minute, letting it all sink in. 
“I suppose that means this is the end of the road for us then, huh?”
“Yeah, it is. But it’s okay. We weren’t meant to be. All things being said, you sound like you really love her.”
“I do, I really do.”
“And if I’m being honest, I’ve kinda had a thing for my editor for a while.”
“Seokjin?”
He was honestly surprised that he remembered his name.
“Yeah.”
They both laughed. 
“We’ll talk when you get back, yeah?”
“Yeah. Goodbye, Jungkook.”
“Goodbye.”
He hung up before leaning against the counter, throwing his head back to look at the ceiling. A breath of relief escaped as all the weight he had been carrying for so long fell from his shoulders. It was over. His dead marriage was finished and now he had the rest of his life to love you. He laughed giddily before running to wake you up and tell you the news. 
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Six months later, he’s on a beach in Jamaica, trying to take a picture of you without you noticing. He’s almost successful, your nose is buried too deep in a paperback you had propped up on your pregnant stomach, but you looked up when you heard the shutter click.
“Jungkook,” you groaned, “I told you not to take pictures of me.”
“I’m sorry, baby, I can’t help it. You're too sexy carrying my baby.”
You rolled your eyes behind your shades.
“Whatever. As long as no one else sees them.”
“Of course, baby. I’m keeping you all to myself.”
You grinned before turning back to your book.
A month after his conversation with his now ex-wife, their divorce had been finalized. He’d simultaneously quit his job as CEO, unafraid of disappointing anyone else at the expense of his happiness. He had made more than enough money to support the two, soon to be three, of you for the rest of your life. Together, you had moved to Jamaica, where you were working on opening a bakery and he had begun a fairly successful photography business. And in three months, the two of you would welcome a beautiful baby girl into the world.
He sighed, overly content with his life. He glanced down to your hand to spot the sparkling diamond on your ring finger. A month ago, he had taken you out on a boat ride where he had asked you to be his wife. You had eagerly accepted. 
Now he was blissed out in that island paradise he had dreamed about all those months ago. His stress levels were an all-time low. And, sure, maybe his parents weren’t that happy with him, (all though his mother was over the moon when he announced the impending arrival of a grandchild, finally), but whenever he woke in the morning with you by his side, he couldn’t find it in himself to care. You were his whole world, and he wouldn’t give that up for anything. 
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lost-in-the-80s · 3 years
Text
Bloodletting part II - Prologue
Words: 1,820k
Summary: Guns n Roses are already known for being dangerous, but how dangerous would they be if they were vampires? Would it be a wiseful decision to fall for one of them?
A/N: Next week the x reader part will start! I’m making a playlist inspired by this (sorry, I just couldn’t hold myself sjdhs). I’ll be posting one part every Tuesday. Also, from now and on, tag list will be at the end of the fic :)
Some initial information: this series will take place in 2020, but without the pandemic. If you already read part 1 (which was posted last year) please ignore any pairs that the boys have had (Slash’s case), here they are all single.
Moodboards | Part I | Part III
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Los Angeles, 2016.
“What the fuck died in here?” Izzy asked as he entered Axl’s victorian house in Los Angeles.
It was night outside and all the curtains were closed, putting the entire house in complete darkness. If Izzy wasn’t a vampire, he surely wouldn’t be able to see anything.
The smell of blood and something decomposing had caught his nostrils as soon as he opened the door, making him cover his nose with his hand.
“I did.” Axl’s hoarse voice came from upstairs, he wasn’t yelling, he knew his friend could hear even his breath from the floor below.
Izzy rolled his eyes, starting to climb the stairs. “Yeah, but it was almost a thousand years ago.”
Reaching the second floor, Axl was sitting on the floor, a bottle of Scotch Whisky in his hands as his shirtless figure looked at his friend.
“Shit, when was the last time you took shower?” Izzy wrinkled his nose in disgust.
The redhead shrugged. “Am fuckin tired, Iz.”
“Don’t tell me you’re in that I Hate Myself phase again.” The brunette started walking through the corridors, going in the direction of the decomposing smell that had gotten stronger.
“I fucking do! I hate what I am.”
“It’s useless to hate yourself, we already talked about it.” He stopped in front of a door, the smell was definitely coming from behind it.
“And what am I supposed to do, Isbell?”
Izzy opened the door, covering his nose one more time when he saw the dead body of a girl inside, she didn’t look older than 25 and was dead for at least a couple of hours now. A human would never be able to smell her though.
“Axl, if I know you well, and I like to think I do, this happens every time you’re alone.”
“I’m always alone, Isbell.”
“I told you to go to New York with me last year.” He closed the door, moving closer to the redhead.
“I’m not going to fucking New York.”
“And what are you going to do then? Kill yourself? You know that it’s impossible.”
“Believe me, I know.”
Izzy frowned, squatting down in front of him, a circular bruise on his chest indicated that he had shot himself there, not so long ago.
He shook his head. “When did you do it?”
“Last night.”
“How did it feel?”
“I passed out. Woke up a few minutes later and it fucking hurt, I had to take the fucking bullet out of it. Wasn’t nice.”
“At least it’s almost healed.”
“I’m fucking tired of not feeling anything. Not even this fucking whisky can make me drunk anymore.” He threw the bottle on the other side of the corridor, its glass hitting the wall and breaking in many pieces.
Izzy rubbed his forehead. “That’s it! Pack your stuff, you’re going to New York with me.”
“I’m not fucking daeing that.” He got up, entering his office and getting a cigarette in his wooden box.
“You’re becoming reckless. There’s a body in your house and at some point, someone will miss the girl. It’s not 1720 anymore, they have cameras everywhere now, it’s a matter of days until they find you.”
Axl looked at him, but didn’t say anything.
Izzy removed his blazer, placing it on a chair in front of the desk and removing his tie. “I’m gonna take care of the body, be ready when I’m back.”
---
The flight to New York was quiet, Axl was too proud to thank his friend for helping him and Izzy was in his own world, enjoying the silence in the first class while drinking some gin.
Arriving in the city around midday, they were quite a sight. Izzy in a suit with a long and expensive grey coat over it, matched with his black sunglasses and grey-black hat, while Axl wore a pair of black ripped jeans and a leather jacket, also wearing black sunglasses.
It was winter in New York, as they walked towards the uber who would drive them to Izzy’s new house in the city. A three-floor gothic construction from the XIX century, which he had sent some pictures to Axl via letters, since Axl refused to have a cell phone.
“What the fuck are you doing in New York after all?”
“Business, Axl.”
He knew that Izzy had business in many places, he always knew what to do with his money, no wonders why he was the richest vampire he knew. But the fact that Izzy changed Amsterdam for New York was still something he couldn’t justify.
“And why moving here?”
“There are some cool people around.”
“Since when dae ya care about who’s around?”
“I do feel lonely sometimes too, Axl.”
And then silence was spread in the car again.
After almost an hour, they stopped in front of a huge house, its walls were in exposed brick and the garden in front had some trees that had lost their leaves with the cold weather.
Exiting the car, Izzy stopped on the sidewalk, getting a cigarette from his pack and offering one to Axl, which he silently thanked. He lighted both cigarettes before speaking up:
“There will be some people inside, I want you to be cordial to them.”
Axl scoffed. “And since when ah umnae cordial?” He passed through Izzy, stopping in front of the front door while waiting for the brunette.
Izzy rolled his eyes, but opened the door. The house was in the same way as when he left, the smell of old books and wooden, mixed with a little alcoholic scent, along with a small hint of blood coming from the freezers in the basement.
“Hello, Izzy.” A blonde guy, smaller than them, approached the two of them, he was coming from the kitchen and there was a huge smile on his face. “You must be Axl.”
Axl looked him up and down, scanning his figure. He wore blue jeans and a red bomber jacket.
He can’t be older than 20, Axl thought to himself.
“Ya, I am.” He passed through the blonde, looking at every piece of the house. “Where’s my room, Izzy?”
“Hello, Steven.” Izzy chose to ignore the redhead, moving towards the fireplace room.
“How was your trip?”
“It was good, Steven. Thanks for asking.”
“Is he English like you and Slash? He sounds different.”
Axl averted his eyes to the blonde, with a mortal glare. “Ah umnae fucking English. I’m Scottish!”
“Oh, sorry! Well, but you are all British, so it’s almost the same thing right?” He smiled, trying to start a conversation.
“Izzy, what is this bampot talking about?” Axl started to move towards Steven, but Izzy stopped him.
“Control yourself.” He gave Axl a stern look before taking a long breath.
“You must be Axl. Nice jacket.” Another blonde showed up, he had a pack of chips in his hands and he entered the room. He was taller than the rest of them and looked like he was 21 or 22. He wore black jeans and a denim jacket on top of a grey sweater.
“Yeah.”
“I’m Duff.” He pointed to himself before throwing himself on the couch.
“The guy in the library is Slash, he’s English too.” Izzy pointed towards the library, to which Axl only nodded in understanding. “Come, I’ll show you your room.”
Picking up his suitcase, Axl followed him up the stairs, lots of old pictures of Izzy and his friends were on display on the wall, and Axl almost smiled when he saw a picture of the two of them together.
Izzy stopped at the end of the corridor, opening a door on his right side. Inside the room, the walls were in a cream color and the furniture, the floor was in the darkest shade of wood Izzy could’ve found. There was a huge bed with white sheets and a white big bathroom, with a big mirror inside. The room’s windows gave Axl a view of the front yard and the street.
“Good enough for you?” Izzy asked.
“Ya.” He placed his suitcase on the floor and sat at the edge of the bed, watching as Izzy sat on the white armchair in front of the windows.
“Why did you go after me, Iz?”
Izzy took a deep breath, inhaling the last of his smoke. “I had a dream.” He exhaled the smoke. “You were in a lake and you were drowning, and you didn’t seem to make a move to get out of there.” He paused for a second. “I thought something was wrong with you.”
Axl nodded, staying in silence for a while before speaking up again. “And who are these people?”
“I met Slash on the plane to here, we were sitting next to each other, and we obviously knew what we were. He turned out to be a nice guy, but he had nowhere to stay here, I told him he could stay with me for a while.”
“And what about the other two?”
“Duff’s the owner of a bar, not too far from here, he’s cool, introduced me to some nice music. He used to live in the apartment on top of it, but it needed some reforms, and he’s staying here ever since the reform started.”
“And when will the reform be over?”
“They finished it about 3 months ago.”
“Why is he still here then?”
“Because we’re friends, just like Steven, who’s a friend of Duff’s, he was here all the time, and then I simply decided to tell him to stay permanently.”
“Since when do you care about friends?”
“I know that you’re in a terrible mood, and that the idea of living with other people is strange for you after so many years living alone. But the thing is: we all want the same thing Axl.”
“And what’s that?”
“A family.”
Axl stared into his eyes.
“It’s the only thing we can’t have, and even though we are very different, we are a family, or a clan, or whatever. We miss having people who care for us around, and we miss the feeling of belonging to something. You’ll understand it, not today, but you will some time, and then you’ll be thankful for having these people around you.”
Izzy got up, leaving the room and closing the door behind him, leaving Axl to think about his words.
---
Turns out that Izzy was right. In the first weeks, Axl would stay on his own, only joining during their daily meal and not saying a word. But after a while, he started to loosen up. He and Duff got really along, and he made Axl see the good part of Steven's and Slash’s personality.
And now, after four years living together and being this so-called clan, they learned how to coexist with each other and ended up becoming close friends, or even brothers, Steven dared to say. And in their own weird way, they became a family.
Tag list: @roger-taylors-car @ladieswttda @teasid @metalheartofgold @slashscowboyboots @ginny-rose-sixx @rumoured-whispers @bigdaddylars @dynamitebabe @tuffduff @mitchgrassified @gamsbeans @hooloovooblue @normatural @axlsbabygirl @mudkicker @dazeduchess @izzysjujuhounds @pinkpatiencecreepers @smokeandmirrorz
Add yourself to my tag list :)
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jobean12-blog · 4 years
Text
Top Shelf: Chapter 12-Bookaholics
Pairing: Bucky x reader (Bookshop/Bartender AU)
Word Count: 1,515
Summary: You and Bucky try to get the ball rolling and explain your idea to Sam and Nat all while having a little fun :)
Author’s Note: Hey everyone! Happy Monday! Thank you for all your continued amazingness! Love you all! If anyone hasn’t been to the High Line you can check out the website here It’s one of my favorite places in the city and really is that beautiful! I like taking you on a little tour of NYC through this story, it helps with how badly I miss my city (we are doing well though so one thing at a time right!) All the pictures I use in my moodboards are real photos of these places. Here is the link for attaboy  again in case you want to see that too. Thank you all for reading! Much love to you always ❤❤❤
Warnings: Fluff, some super light smut (mostly implied), flirting, romantic fluff :)
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Previous Chapters
Chapter 1: Enchantment
Chapter 2: Cookie Crumble
Chapter 3: Sweet Anticipation
Chapter 4: Read Between the Limes
Chapter 5: Secrets on the Shelf
Chapter 6: Love Between the Covers *
Chapter 7: Love Lines & Soul Finds
Chapter 8: Drunk in Love *
Chapter 9: Pour it onto the Page
Chapter 10: Recipe for Love *
Chapter 11: The Pages in Between 
When you awake the next morning it’s to the sound of more rain hitting the sky light, Bucky’s even breathing warm against your neck. You slowly shift and stretch to grab your phone. Seeing that it’s not even 6am you unlock the device and lazily search through your Pinterest, saving recipes that look worth trying.
“Looking up some new stuff to bake, sweetheart?” His voice is low and raspy from sleep and you love the sound, turning and smiling as he rubs his eyes. “I hope I didn’t wake you?” He curls his arms around your middle and pulls you against his chest, “nope.” You rest your head under his chin, closing your eyes and listening to the rain.
“How about we just stay up here forever. Forget work, read books, eat pizza…” You continue, your breath hitching as Bucky’s hand creeps under your shirt. “Listen to the rain…Bucky.” He rolls on top of you, gently pulling your shirt above your head. “What else?” he asks between kisses. “This. Lots and lots of this,” you whisper, shimming out of your shorts.
“How long do we have before you have to leave for work?” His fingers inch below the waistband of your underwear, easily slipping inside you. “Enough time,” is the last thing you say before his lips capture yours, swallowing your moans.
You find if hard to concentrate at work, every free minute your mind wanders to thoughts of the bookshop and your idea and to Bucky. It’s hard to shake the feeling of wanting to dive in headfirst and just do it, go all in. But you know you can’t. You must do this right. You shoot Bucky a quick text, ‘hey babe, want to talk to Sam this weekend? Maybe we can hang at the bar after closing and go over our idea?❤❤’
His reply seems enthusiastic and you smile. ‘Definitely!❤ I can’t stop thinking about it, especially being in the bookshop now. I keep imagining where we could put things and how to move things around and all that.😁😍’ Letting out a breath you let him know you’re excited and try to get back to work. The rest of the day is boring, and the work week drags, however, your nights with Bucky are anything but.
Saturday night rolls around and you and Nat stroll into the bar late. You wade through the crowd of already drunk people, searching for Bucky behind the bar. You spot him leaning against the back counter, his button down open at the front and his sleeves rolled up, the buttons looking like they may pop off any moment. His jeans do little to hide his thick thighs and perfect ass. Sam slides up next to him and you follow their line of sight over the bar to find two girls giggling at something they said.
“Hey Nat, I think our boys caught some attention,” you snicker, pointing their way. Nat raises her brow, whispering in your ear before heading to the other end of the bar. She makes her way to the bar, getting the attention of Peter. “Hey Pete, could you get y/n and I some shots please,” she asks, batting her eyelashes.
He nearly falls over, grinning wide at you both before looking nervously over at Bucky and Sam. “Uh, yea, sure of course ladies. What’ll it be?” You pretend to think it over for a second, “you know what, why don’t you pick for us? Whatever you think we’ll like. And make one for yourself so you can join us!” He simply nods, rushing off to make your shots. “Could he be any more adorable,” Nat whispers, giggling. “No. But could he be any more afraid of the boys?”
You both let out a laugh, having way too much fun and looking over at them. They’re staring, Sam with his arms crossed over his chest and Bucky with his hand on his hip, all four eyebrows raised in your direction. You smirk at Bucky just as Peter appears with the shots. “Thanks Pete, can’t wait to try these.” He lifts his shot up, clinking the small glasses with yours and Nat’s. You keep your eyes on Bucky while you down the cold liquid, slamming the glass down on the bar and licking your lips. “That was great, good choice, thanks.” Nat heartily agrees, sliding the glasses back and smiling at Sam.
“You’re welcome, can I get you anything else?” A large hand lands on Peter’s shoulder, Sam’s deep voice answering his question. “No, thanks Pete, we’ll take care of the girls from here on out.” You watch him visibly stiffen, shaking his head vigorously before practically running off in the other direction.
“No need to scare the pants off the kid, baby,” Nat coos, her smirk reappearing. “And it looks like you were handling those girls on the other side of the bar just fine from here.” Bucky and Sam look at each other and scoff before they start laughing. “So, that’s what this is about!? They’re Steve’s cousins that are visiting from out of town,” Sam says, eyeing Bucky before laughing again. “You were jealous!” Bucky adds, his eyes bright. “I love it.”
His smile is so wide you want to punch him and for a moment you and Nat are silent. “Well, how were we supposed to know! And we were only having a bit of fun! AND might I add, I was not jealous!” Nat chimes in, “but clearly you two were! Coming over here and scaring Peter half to death!” They start laughing again and Bucky leans over the bar to whisper in your ear, “I love you.” Sam throws Nat a wink and waves over the two girls who quickly head toward you. After introductions are made and everyone laughs over your misunderstanding you spend the rest of the night enjoying your new friends and having some drinks.
By the time 2am arrives and the bar closes you’re all tired but still willing to talk things over.  Sam cleans off a back table and grabs some waters. “Ok. Let’s hear this plan of yours,” he says, smiling brightly despite the time and fact that he’s been at work for almost 12 hours. Your heart swells. You love them all so much.
Before you start you reach into your bag, pulling out a small Tupperware. “Ok, but first, some cookies!” Sam whoops along with Bucky, two large hands grabbing for the container. Bucky looks to you, his mouth full of cookie, “go for it baby.” You hold his hand the whole time, laying out what you’ve come up with so far.
Nat’s smile never falters, and Sam’s excitement is clear as they listen to all you have to say. When you’re finally done, they naturally have questions which you and Bucky do your best to answer. “Listen, I think it could really work if you do it right. People love books. They love food. They love coffee. You just need to bring it all together,” Sam says, suggesting you set up a meeting with his friend Tony who owns several businesses and has a really good head for this stuff.
“He sounds like he could be a huge help,” you say excitedly. Sam nods, chewing his last cookie. “Oh definitely. He’s brilliant and honest and if anyone can help you navigate through this it’s him. And of course, us!” he adds, putting his arm around Nat. “Of course, guys! Did you tell Steve yet?” she asks. Bucky shakes his head no. “He and Peggy couldn’t make it tonight so they are going to stop by tomorrow, actually later today, so we can fill them in.”
When you finally leave the bar, it looks as if the sun is about to come up. “Summer is really here! I love how early the sun comes up these days. And how long it stays out,” you say, leaning into Bucky. He has his arm around your waist as the two of you walk slowly down the quiet street. Suddenly, he stops. “Hey, I have an idea. You wanna go on a little adventure before we head home?”
With a little squeeze to his middle you happily exclaim, “yes,” not needing to ask any questions as you follow him into the subway. About twenty minutes later you emerge back to the surface and see you’re at the High Line. “Oh, Bucky! I love it here!” He smiles down at you, walking up the steps. “I hope we can see what I want to see,” he whispers, holding your hand as you head down the path.
You reach a spot where you have a clear view of the water and Bucky sits on a bench, pulling you into his lap. It’s close to 6am and the sun is starting to peek over the horizon, the bright orange and pink hues dancing across the calm water. “Good morning,” he says against your ear, his eyes fixed on you instead of the rising sun. Turning your head, you kiss him softly. “It’s the most perfect morning.”
@aesthetical-bucky @auro-ora @azurika-writes @book-dragon-13 @buckys-broody-muffin @bucky-on-my-mind @bugsbucky @eurynome827 @hiddles-rose​ @hailmary-yramliah @hawksmagnolia @ikaris-whore @imgaril-lindru @itsunclebucky @jhangelface0523 @jewels2876 @loricameback @littledarlinhavefaithinme @littleredstarfish @mushyjellybeans @marvelandotherfandomimagines @marvelgirl7 @nano--raptor @randomfandompenguin @sallycanwait68 @scarletsoldierrr @softpeachbarnes​ @the-wayward-robot​ @throwmyheartawayagain​ @flyawaybay​ @amandatar-06​ @nd1998sc​ @yansi1923​ @captainchrisstan​ @vherriepie​ @godofplumsandthunder​ @when-the-hell-is-bucky​ @fire-flv​ @jamesbarnesappreciationclub​ @irishflutiegirl​ @rinthehufflepuff​ @moonybarnes​ @nordlysinthewoods​ @inflxmes @lauratang​ @my-favorite-fics-and-imagines​ @buchanansebba​ @emilylyoness​ @curlyred2020 @kaosera​ @breezy1415​ @metal-armed-cuddly-dork​ @devynsdiary​
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fablesrose · 3 years
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Tell Me a Story 2
Description: With the first interaction with Chuck almost over and done with, Dean and Y/n have to figure out how the heck this is going to work. Some mafia business goes awry, but when has anything gone to plan?
Word count: 4,581 (guys this is over twice as long as the first part, this is ridiculous)
Pairing: cop!Dean x mafia!reader
Square filled: Moodboard
Warnings: knives, pain, a little blood
Masterlist ~ Bingo Masterlist
A/n: Part two also goes with @girl-next-door-writes​ Bingo challenge! Btw this whole fic is based on me wanting to write the first part of this chapter so there's that too.
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“I don’t know sir, I’m not much of a story teller.”
“Come on Dean.”
“Tell me a story.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Well I’ll do my best.” Dean glanced at me, trying to decide how this would go. “If I remember right sweetheart, you called me?”
“Yeah!” I wracked my brain as quick as I could, “It was a wrong number call. I think I was trying to order take out.” Oh my gosh that was so stupid.
“But with me in a new city, a new job, I wanted to talk for a bit,” Dean squeezed my hand, “we decided to keep in touch and the rest is history!”
Chuck just looked at us for a bit, an unamused look on his face, “You’re right, you aren’t much of a story teller.”
Dean’s finger twitched against my hand, and I had to admit, that in this moment it was comforting. At least I was going to die next to a pretty nice dude.
“But whatever. You guys go claim some territory or something.”
Chuck seemed so complacent that it made a spark of anger ignite inside of me.
“Chuck, we’re not some teenage boy gang that spray paints wall-”
He had advanced towards me and had his hand roughly grabbing the base of my jaw, a few of his fingers pressing into my neck. He was just enough taller than me to wretch my face up painfully. I let out a grunt, but otherwise shut up.
“You are whatever I damn well tell you you are, Starling. Now go claim some territory.” He roughly shoved my face to let go. He quickly fixed his sleeves and patted Dean on the arm, “Sorry for touching the merchandise. You kids have fun now.” He turned on his heel and walked out of the building without a second thought.
There was a moment were nobody moved from the room. In the last few minutes it made it easy to forget that there were more than just Dean and I there. I wasn’t the highest ranking person in the room, but the list got messy sometimes.
“Alright, you heard the man,” I sighed. But still nobody moved, “I said let’s go!”
The members surrounding me rushed from their stationary positions to exit the building. I moved to follow but the tug on my arm reminded me that I was still holding Dean’s hand. I couldn’t decipher the look he had on his face, but it wasn’t a good one.
I gave him a soft nod with a squeeze of the hand before letting go and following the group. I heard his heavy footsteps behind me, but he made no effort in catching up to walk by my side.
“What a guy you got.”
I huffed, “Hello to you too Meg.”
“He’s hot. Ask if he’s got any hot friends he can hook me up with alright? Or you can just let me have him.” She nudged me a little in jest.
“Any other requests, Cockroach?”
She shoved me a bit harder, “Just don’t get in the way of my spray paint.”
I laughed as she ran up to the front of the pack, wanting to pick the spot to throw some paint.
I stuffed my hands in my pockets, slouching a bit as I followed the pack, wanting to be in my own thoughts.
A hand wrapping around my shoulders caused me to stiffen and straightened my back. I glanced to my side to find that Dean was the one walking next to me now. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, maybe trying to keep up the front that Chuck gave us. I relaxed a little bit, loosened my jaw, but my posture remained straight.
“You expect someone else?” Dean kept his eyes facing forward, not even glancing in my direction.
I mimicked his expression, “The boys tend to try and get handsy.”
He hummed and patted my shoulder, “So that didn’t go to plan.”
I turned to look at him and waited until he looked at me. I shook my head softly as if to say, “Not now, not here.”
He nodded, just as softly, as if to tell me that he understood.
We walked silently down the streets, just far enough behind the group to be separate, but close enough to see where they were going. I know I said we weren’t a teenage boy gang, but sometimes I did wonder. By their behavior alone, you would think they were some stupid seventeen year olds, roughing each other up, looking for trouble. Fortunately to some, they were intimidating enough from experience for people to not try and mess with them.
By the time Dean and I caught up, Meg had already gotten the spray paint out. She would never admit it to anyone out loud, but she enjoyed this. And she was good at it too. She ordered some of the boys around, some to help her with the graffiti, others to keep watch and to keep people away.
I took a second to think, I was lousy at painting (not that I didn’t try), and I figured this was as good a time as any to talk to Dean. Now the question was how to get alone.
The answer was I had to swallow my pride.
I turned my body towards Dean, one hand at the small of his back, the other gripping the front of his shirt, “Hey guys...” That got their attention. “You’ve got this covered, right?” I bit my lip a little, trying to sell it.
“If you don’t get out of here with him right now, I will shoot you myself,” Benny was leaning against a wall with a bemused smile on his face.
I shot him a wink and grabbed Dean’s hand to pull him away, “Duly noted Gaterson.”
“You sure do know how to pick ‘em lover boy!”
Dean let out a single laugh in response as I dragged him a block away into a secluded ally way.
We walked into a shadowy area to get as much seclusion as possible. I let go of his hand and leaned against the wall. I rubbed the heels of my hands into my eyes which pushed my head against the bricks behind me.
“Starling?”
I sighed, “Please don’t call me that.”
“Sorry, I just meant what does it mean, why do you have it?”
I lowered my hands to see him leaning on the wall across from me, “Maybe some other time. All you need to know is everyone has nicknames around here.”
He crossed his arms, “So is lover boy my nickname now?”
I huffed out a laugh, “Nah, they’ll call you all sorts of things until something sticks.”
There was a pause. We both knew we were dancing around the real subject I pulled us away for, but I wasn’t sure I knew what to do with it.
“So that didn’t go to plan.” Dean was braver than I was.
“Yeah no shit.” I banged my head against the bricks hard enough to make a sound and tried to dig into the cement with my shoe out of frustration. “To look on the bright side—which I loathe doing by the way—we’re not dead...So there’s that.”
“There is that… Got any suggestions?”
“Why is it that you’re supposed to be the professional and I’m making all the decisions?”
“I don’t know, with your performance and cool composure, I’d say that you’re the professional in this situation.”
I sighed and closed my eyes, “The only thing I can think to do is play along. If it gets too much we can fake a breakup...” This was getting so complicated.
“Fake a breakup? As far as I’m concerned, we’re not actually dating.” I could nearly hear the smirk on his face.
“Really Dean? Really?” He chuckled in response. “Since Chuck already knows that you’re a cop I think the best thing to do is for you to go to work. Be a police officer that’s on the payroll, but be a little more involved.”
“Whatever you say sweetheart.”
I heard voices approaching the ally way that sounded familiar. Then there was a harsh shh to quiet them down.
“Shit,” I looked at Dean, grabbed his jacket and pulled him closer, “You’re gonna have to kiss me.”
I stared at me dumbfoundedly, “What?”
“Look, they think we came over here to make out, if we don’t at least look like we’re making out they’re gonna be suspicious.”
He still looked shocked.
“Shit.” I didn’t want to kiss him on the spot either, so I did the next best thing to make it look like we were making out. I grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled his face down next to my neck slightly angling his body to cover me. The sudden motion caused him to catch himself with his hands against the wall on either side of me.
He wasn’t touching me, but I could feel his startled breathing against my neck. I ran my hand along the back of his neck and through his hair. It was extremely soft. I started making little noises and muttering Dean’s name. To sell the act, naturally.
Dean, once he recovered from his freezing shock started to brush the tip of his nose against my skin which startled me.
I heard a whistle from the end of the ally, “Yeah Ms. Starling! Get some!” The group rounded the corner to see us there. I flipped them off, making them laugh.
I gently tugged at the back of his collar to say it was okay to part now. As he straightened himself I caught his face and left a soft kiss on his cheek.
The group had started to disperse and go their separate ways since we were done putting on a show because they “caught” us.
Dean and I walked side by side out of the ally, by the time we got to the entrance our previous companions had all gone their separate ways.
“Sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” I started to walk the way we came, back towards the wall Meg was working on.
“No, uh, that was smart of you,” he jogged to catch up with me and shoved his hands into his pockets.
The walk was silent around the block.
Eventually we arrived to see what Meg had done. She had out done herself once again. The wall was covered with a silhouette of an angel. It’s wings were burning as the figure fell. It was intricate as only Meg could be. There were a few lone charred feathers across the wall as well. In the bottom corner an F was painted as if it had fallen over.
“It’s beautiful. How’d she get if done so fast?” Dean stared at the wall in awe.
I nodded, agreeing with him, “I’m pretty sure she made a demon deal, but I don’t know.” I pointed at the painting, “This is just street art, but this,” I pointed at the F, “makes it Fallen territory. Watch for it.” I patted the wall where there wasn’t any paint, “Alright, I’ll call you if something comes up you need to be at. Any questions?”
“Nope, I guess I’ll see you around Miss Y/n.”
I side-eyed him with a smirk before I started to walk towards my apartment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Something like a week passed. It was relatively quiet, me minding my own business. I thought it was almost too quiet when I got a call from Meg.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Letterboys are causing some trouble on 5th Avenue. You wanna bring your boy toy to help sort this out?”
I hummed, “I was just thinking that it was getting boring around here. I’ll give him a call and head over.”
“See you, Starling.”
“Uh huh.” I hung up on her and dialed up Dean. I was redirected to his voicemail.
“This is Dean, you know what to do.”
“Hey, we’ve got a territory dispute over on 5th Ave, if you’ve got time you can stop by.”
I left it at that and headed out to show some mafia wannabes that territories aren’t to be messed with. It didn’t take long to see Meg standing off against a guy, maybe twenty-three years old.
“Everyone paired off already?”
“Yeah, I think there’s a straggler that headed west though, you wanna pick him up?”
I slapped her shoulder, “Yeah, I got it.”
I heard her start to make small talk with her challenger, he didn’t stand a chance, “So, how’s the other side of town?”
I chuckled as I started heading West, checking all the nooks and crannies. I eventually came up on a kid walking down an ally, his hood was up, head down.
“Hey kid, you lookin’ for something?”
He looked up at me, “Just heading home ma’am.”
I nodded, “Alright, just, have you happened to see anyone running around with a pointy triangle-ish mark on their wrist?”
He didn’t respond, he just pulled out a switchblade. How cute.
“Look kid, you look too young for this, and I’m too old for this, so why don’t you head back where you came from.” As I spoke I pulled out my own, slightly larger, switchblade.
It seemed like he didn’t want to talk anymore because he started to charge at me.
I smiled, “Alright, have it your way.”
I dodged him at first, but then I started to cut him just enough to sting. That seemed to make him angry to the point where he caught me a couple times too. I started cutting a little bit deeper, hoping he would give up.
“Okay, you’re obviously out of your league, why don’t you go home?”
He made a jab at me, to which I grabbed his wrist to stop him. What I didn’t expect was for him to toss the blade into his other hand and slice a fairly deep cut into my side.
“Dammit!” I shoved him away onto the ground and pulled out my gun from the back of my waistband. I pointed it at him and stepped on the hand with the switchblade, “That’s enough of that.”
He spit some blood onto the cement from the split lip I gave him at some point, “Cheater!”
“Hey, you’re the idiot that brought a knife to a gun fight.”
A single bleep from a siren sounded off behind me. I turned my head to see an unmarked police vehicle  on the street.
“Ah, Detective Castiel, nice to see you!” I kept the gun pointed at the kid on the ground. He may not have been the smartest, but he was smart enough to not move.
“Y/n, if you shoot that kid I’m going to have to arrest you.” He didn’t sound amused as he walked around the car.
“I’m only going to shoot him if he tries to stab me again,” I stared at the kid pointedly, “got it?”
He nodded sadly.
I looked back at Cas, “You know, this kid was looking to cause some trouble, so really I’m doing your job for you.”
“Sure.”
“Is that a new trench coat? It looks nice.”
“It is, thank you. Are you going to let him go now?”
“I don’t know,” I looked back at the kid, “are you going to go home and not cause any trouble if I let you go?”
He nodded again.
I stopped pointing my gun at him and stepped off of his hand. He scrambled up and ran back the way he came.
I put my gun back into the back of my waistband, “Kids these days.” I popped my hip as I turned to fully face Cas for the first time tonight, “Chuck still wants you on the payroll, by the way.”
“And you already know what my answer is, Y/n,” he leaned back against the car behind him.
I sighed, “Yeah I do. You’re a good man and a good cop, Cas.”
He smiled, a rare occurrence, but I didn’t mention it. “You’re a good person too, Y/n.”
I laugh halfheartedly, “If you say so… If you say so.” I crossed my arms and felt the wet stickiness from my side, reminding me of my injury. “Anyway, Meg should be about a block east of here if you want to go say hi.”
He rolled his eyes, “Yeah I should see if you guys are causing any other trouble.”
I turned on my heel to head home and clean myself up, “Love you too Cas!”
I heard the car start and drive off behind me. I finally looked down at the cut to see how bad it was. I was wearing a black shirt, so the blood didn’t show, making it difficult to see just how bad it was. From what I could tell, it was a few inches across. I couldn’t tell just how deep it was, but the cut was positioned over my ribs, so it didn’t damage anything important. Luckily the kid’s knife was sharp, so it would heal faster as it didn’t tear the skin, unfortunately the kid’s knife was sharp, so it went deeper.
I pressed one hand against the wound while I walked back to my apartment. On the way my phone buzzed from a text.
Dean: Hey, sorry, I was called out. Did you still need some help over on 5th?
Me: No, it’s taken care of. I’m heading home now.
Dean: Okay.
I put my phone away and continued home. Eventually I was able to unlock my apartment, careful not to get blood anywhere. I headed straight to the bathroom, stripping off my shirt and tossing my phone on my table on the way. I held it to the cut while I dug around for the first aid kit and once I found it I tossed the soaked shirt into the sink.
I turned the water on, getting a washcloth wet. I started cleaning around the cut to get a better look at it, having to rinse out the washcloth a couple of times to prevent just smearing blood around.
It was still bleeding, but the pressure I put on it caused it to slow down. Once I got a good look at it I could tell it wasn’t going to cause too many problems other than taking a while to heal and being sore.
A knock came to the door. I was obviously not prepared for visitors, so I left it be. It was probably one of the neighbors, they liked to check in every once in a while. I hoped they would just move on. They knocked one more time before my phone rang in the other room. I really should have just turned it off.
Finally the phone stopped ringing, but not a moment later I heard the creek of my front door opening. I reached for my gun the was still in my pants.
“Y/n? It’s Dean, I’m coming in okay? Your door is open.”
I sighed in relief and placed my gun on the counter, “Okay.”
I heard some rustling of what I assumed was him taking his coat off and the click of the lock sliding into place.
I pulled out some cotton pads and soaked one in rubbing alcohol. I just looked at it for a second, not wanting to clean the wound, but knowing I had to. I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, preparing myself for the sting.
“I thought you said everything was taken care of.” I looked up to see Dean in the doorway. He had a hard look on his face.
“No, I said the problem was taken care of.” I relaxed against the back of the toilet, knowing that I had a second before I was going to clean my side.
He walked in and took the saturated cotton pad from my hand, “That looks like a problem to me.”
I tensed up in preparation for him to clean it once he started to approach me, “Something like that.”
He hesitated, “You want something to numb it?”
I let go of the breath I was holding, “Yeah, uh, whiskey’s in the kitchen.”
He stood up to go get it, leaving the cotton pad on the counter. He came back with the glass bottle and handed it to me. I took a couple of swigs before placing it on the counter next to the rest of the first aid supplies. I felt myself relax a little bit. I heard a clatter as I knocked something to the floor in the process though. I bent to pick it up, my body protesting a little bit, but I picked it up all the same.
“What’s that? On your back?”
I instantly knew he was talking about the black tattoo that was at the base of my neck, in a spot that my shirt would cover.
I turned so he could see them better, “They’re wings.”
He traced them for a moment before I turned back around, “You wanna get started on this please?”
He grabbed the cotton, “Yeah, of course. They’re beautiful.”
I hissed in response as he started to brush the alcohol along the wound. I clenched my jaw so hard it started to ache, I whimpered before biting down on my fist.
Dean paused and pulled on my hand, taking it from my mouth, “Hey, hey, focus on me. Why don’t you tell me a story, huh? Focus on something else.”
I was breathing heavily, “Like what.”
“What does Starling mean? Why’d you get that tattoo?”
“And why would you want to know that?”
He squeezed my hand, “Because you’re supposed to be my girlfriend, and I think I would know these things.” He smirked because he knew he backed me into a corner.
I groaned as he touched my side again, “Fine.” I took a deep breath, “As you already know everyone needs a nickname. I was called a lot of different things, some more… savory, appropriate than others. I don’t know why, but I always seemed to be favored by Nick, by Crowley. I got my name under Nick, but that doesn’t matter.”
I gasped as Dean pressed particularly deep to which he apologized.
“I was being bossy one day. Nobody was listening, I had just got back from an infiltration job. Someone, they’re not around anymore, they called me a stupid Starling, and it stuck.  Starlings in North America are considered an invasive species, terribly annoying, and unwanted.” Dean gave me a break to get a new cotton pad to finish up, “Tattoo means the same once something is solidified, you get a tattoo representing your name and a Fallen symbol.” I pulled my ear forward and showed Dean the fallen F tattooed behind it, just like the one next to the angel Meg painted.
“Well, I think they look like angel wings.” Dean came back and started cleaning the last little corner and around the edge.
“Really? Black angel wings?” I tried not to flinch as he caught the edge a little roughly.
“Yeah, I do, Angel.” He threw away the cotton with a small smile on his face.
I laughed, “Okay, yeah, sure.”
Dean looked at the wound closely, “I think I’m gonna have to stitch it up, just so it’ll heal faster.”
“You know how to do that?” I gestured to the first aid kit, knowing that stitching supplies were there, I had to do some myself every once in a while.
“I’m decent.” He started sterilizing the needle with a lighter he had in his pocket before cooling it off with the rubbing alcohol. “So how’d you get this in the first place?”
The stitching process was still painful, but not as bad as the cleaning. “Letterboys were roaming our side of town, looking for trouble.”
“Letterboys?”
I snorted, “They call themselves Lettermen, don’t ask me why, I have no idea. Really, they’re gang wannabes, so we call them Letterboys.”
Dean tugged at the needle to tighten a stitch, “Uh, huh. And if they’re so pathetic why’d you get this thing?”
I huffed out a laugh, “This idiot brought a knife to a gun fight and I played along for a little too long.”
“Ah, makes total sense.”
“So, how was work in a new city?” I wiped around my eyes to make sure I didn’t have any tears showing.
“Uh, it was alright,” he tied off the last stitch, “transfer information is still being worked out, but they’re thinking about pairing me up with this Detective Castiel or whatever.”
I smiled, “That’ll be good. Cas is a good guy. I actually saw him tonight.”
“Was that before or after you got injured?”
“After.”
Dean looked at me skeptically, “If he’s such a good guy, why didn’t he take you to the doctor or something? Is he in with Chuck?”
“Nah, it was dark, I was wearing that black shirt, I didn’t let him notice. And no, he’s the farthest person from Chuck you could get. He’s tried to take Chuck down a couple of times actually, gotten close too. That’s why Chuck desperately wants him to join, but Cas has the same answer every time, not in his right mind would he ever join.”
“So he’s trustworthy,” Dean nodded, satisfied.
“To an extent, yes.” I examined his handiwork, I was impressed. “You can’t tell him you’re into this though, not that you’re undercover, not that you know me. He’s already too deep into this and if he changes his behavior, thinking there’s a chance he can help you take Chuck down? Chuck will get suspicious and everything will fall apart, okay?”
“Understood.”
I stood up, testing the stitches, “Good.” I started cleaning up the counter and putting stuff away when Dean stopped me and started cleaning up himself. “Thanks,” I headed towards my bedroom and grabbed a new shirt to throw on. I groaned involuntarily when my stitches stretched as I pulled it over my head.
“You okay in there?” Dean asked from the bathroom.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I changed into some sweatpants while I was there.
“Do you wanna keep this or...” He trailed off as I walked out in a shirt that looked very similar to the one in the sink.
“Nah, I’ll just toss it,” I pulled at the hem of my shirt, “these are pretty cheap.” I wrung out the shirt as best I could and walked into the kitchen to throw it away, “The bathroom was just in the opposite direction of my gross trash.” I washed my hands, “Thank you, can I get you anything?”
“Another fake make-out session?”
I snorted, “And why would you ever want that?”
“Because it was hot.” Dean had a teasing smirk on his face as he followed my example. “But for real, do you have a beer Angel?”
I reached into the fridge to grab us some, “You’re serious about calling me that?”
He popped it open easily, “Yeah, I think it’s cute.”
I shook my head and walked to my couch with a beer in hand and curled up into the side, “So.” I gestured for Dean to join me, “What was so important that you knocked on my door twice, called me, and then walked into my apartment anyway?”
He groaned in embarrassment, “Well, it’s not important anymore…”
I laughed, “Oh come on Dean, tell me a story.”
Best Buds: @kitkatd7​ @snarky--starky​ @confetti-its-an-imagine-blog @kaogasm ​
Dean: @akshi8278​ @msmarvelouswinchester
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hopeshoodie · 3 years
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I feel so bad letting this sit for so long, but better late than never I suppose! Thank you to literally everyone who tagged me in this. Literally every time I see these posts it makes me grin like an absolute dope at my phone. This is one of the best fandoms I’ve ever been in. I know I joke that I’m just sitting in my corner making garbage, so thank yall for making the room my corner is in so lovely.
So here’s a shoutout to the people who made my 2020 better. If I’m following you (from my main @hyperspacial because despite being on tumblr for nearly a decade I still hardly know how to run a sideblog) I 100% like you. I’m sorry if I forget to tag people :( Also this is about to be a long ass post- don’t feel obligated to reply or like or whatever just because you’re tagged :P
@garyandhisnan. I just…. I adore you. Highkey would walk to the ends of the earth if you asked. Your writing, your posts, everything is top notch (and you’re an awesome person to boot which like… shouldn’t be allowed). Thank you for letting me rant about American late-stage capitalism and all the other nonsense I flood your inbox with. If yall aren’t following them, go do it now.
@deuchess  
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@ariendiel Why you would want to collaborate with me, ME, of all people? Still astounds me. I pinkie promise we’re gonna do it though, and it’s gonna be so good. I’m so excited. But seriously, your fics are some of the only ones that I can keep coming back to. Your writing is *chefs kiss* and your edits/moodboards are literally so pretty. I love your blog and I cherish you, you slut cheat.
@kiki-the-creator same brain saME BRAIN SAME BRAIN how do we have the exact same brain!? Your fics literally are the best thing this fandom has produced- I come up with these half baked concepts, you make them actually good, then I play dollhouse with them over and over again in my head forever :3 That Erikah fic? Literally every Marisol fic you write?? I love them. Also you’re highkey so funny and ugh. Te adoro.
@bubblelaureno you’re literally too good for me. For real. I’m sorry I’m so shitty about keeping up to date with fics and edits, you deserve way more than my shitty memory and my 2 second long attention span. Your blog is literally a beacon of positivity and it’s absurd how much I admire your drive and your analytical way of thinking. This fandom is so lucky to have you.
@codename-mango controversial yet brave opinion- your blog is the best LITG blog on tumblr. Your headcanons, your jokes, your route overviews? All immaculate. Even your reblogs are the best of what everyone else is posting. You’re the only reason I have notes, and I appreciate you sm.
@oneflewoverthecuckoos my comment to mango is controversial only because if not her, then your LITG sideblog for sure. For a ‘Lucas’ blog, the diversity of content and LIs you talk about is refreshing. I fucking love seeing people talk about non-LI characters.
@inthenewblood thank you for letting me bitch about the reddit oml it’s needed. Also having someone to be salty with? A new but not unwelcome experience lmfao
@noahssidechick you are literally so sweet oml I treasure our chats and the pictures of your dogs. You bring such a chill and earnest vibe to the fandom and ugh, I’m so glad to have you.
@fuseboxmusebox I feel like you’re so consistent in the fandom, like you were here when I first joined and you’ll be here after I inevitably lose interest and leave. Your reblogs are top notch, the takes are even topper notch, and it wouldn’t be a ‘litg blogs that made me happy’ list without you.
@crvsh-culture I will never not sing your praises. I love your blog, I love you perspective, I love your vibe. I consider you a friend even though we’ve talked like… once.
@radiantdae your artbreeder edits were the first thing in the fandom that left me genuinely astounded. Like holy shit they were so good. Kassam??? That was a REAL MAN. Obviously the stuff you post now is really good too and your blog is excellent. But tbh when I think of the LITG fandom, the first think I think of is your artbreeder pictures. Also your ‘filipino words that make me think of the islanders’. I still think of that often. 
@therealityofthematteris seeing you in my notes makes me smile every time. That’s basically all, just needed to say it lmao. Also if anyone has almost convinced me to start playing TWC, it’s you and Seliné.
@bellarxse my dash would be dry af without you. Same with TWC- I’m so tempted to play because of your posts (I have it downloaded on my phone but like…. I haven’t finished a single route in Arcana and starting a new thing is overwhelming). But also your prompts are one of the few things that makes me want to write lmfao.
@lahelakoh I feel like I’ve said it before but your posts SEND me oml. The tiktok references, the chaotic energy. Both the taste and the flavour is immaculate.
@kiwi-tai we haven’t talked that much but oml I love your content so much 15/10
@confused-inalltheways-human you’re literally so cool and I think about that Harry fic all the time. Am I ever gonna get around to writing it? Probably not. But it was such a good idea. Also thank you for lighting up my notification.
@oceanatydes you come here, you post literally spectacular content, and then you peace out like bruh I wish I had your mind. I adore your edits, but my favorites are your posts/headcanons.
@voile-de-lune your aesthetic is everything I aspire to be and your headcanons/edits are such a refreshing take on characters that we’ve all gotten so stale with. I still live for that Rahim moodboard you made. Also your headcanons are so fantastic.
@lasswithumor this fandom desperately needs more Carl stans, thank you for doing the lords work. Also I highkey stalk your blog on a regular basis jsjsjsjsjsjs every chat we’ve had has been lovely and ugh, you’re just lovely
@bobbysapron your vibes are literally so immaculate. I know it’s been awhile since we chatted but I highkey adore your content and ugh. You’re such a cool person.
@beebips I feel like you’ve vanished off my dash, but you made up for it with that 3rd chapter of The Other Side of Seventh Ave made up for it.
@nerdferatum I don’t think I’ve ever breathed a word in your direction but oml you’re so sweet and supportive and every time your posts cross my dash I *pleading emoji*
@mrsgaryrennell I’m still agog that we’re mutuals because like… You are so talented. It took me waaaayyy too long to get into Blue and Hazel but now that I have… It’s highkey better than the actual season skskskskss
@kingkassam Like the above, you are waaaayyy too cool to be following me sksksksk. I’ve still got a few edits you had ideas for in the pipeline, and highkey the Kassam icons you requested are my favorite edits I’ve ever made. I live for someone else playing Matchmaker.
@hermitclaw  hello?????? You’re so funny what the FUCK are you doing following me. Ik you don’t post that much anymore, but every LITG you grace us with is a knockout. It feels unreal when you reblog my stuff. Basically the same to @mchamster. Like you’re both so funny and have been in the fandom for so long that it fully feels like royalty whenever yall interact with me.
@ravenadottir I am fully unworthy to even mention your name but oml. Your guides are the only thing that help me retain information about the season, and your recent outfit edits? Oh my god they’re so good. Hope’s especially, with the brightly colored swimsuit, left me absolutely speechless. You’re just above everything in the fandom and I admire that so much. Plus you really don’t have to flex that hard in your fics, and yet-
@smaiihands saving the best for last because you are one of the single most talented people in this fandom. Your art is the strongest life support for the fandom and like I know we haven’t talked in awhile but you’re also such a dope person. So.
And a big shoutout to all the people I follow who I don’t talk to but have nothing but good vibes. I appreciate yall way more than I can articulate: @richhdesire @needsomesorrel @ficticiouspastry @cranesandshipyards @litg-ish @princesslove19060 @fictitiouspastery​  @icedcoffee-please @demons-dogs-and-puns @sparklydinosaurr @mountainmanxoxo  @diamondsdiary @bucket-bill@another-lottie-simp @bobbys-darling @cyn-onlyyou @mikcove @officialpapa-johns @Amaxn @dxncingthroughlife @myfictionalobsessions  @screw-u-vaanu @kittidot @chichiguitarist123 @myfictionalobsessions @Azibear @amelia-w @lilithlibrxa @litghoe @priyas-tiddies @daisybarks @ajs-wife
At this point this post is just a directory of the LITG fandom lmfao but genuinely. Thank every single one of you. 2020 was hard as shit, but I’ve been hyperfixated on LITG for like a year and I treasure your content sm.
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amysteryspot · 4 years
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The Solomons Siblings - Headcanons
Requested: No
Fandom: Peaky Blinders
Pairing: None
Warnings: Swearing (I think)
A/N: Some time ago, I was scrooling down on Tumblr and saw this masterpiece, made by @tortugahoe and I just had to write something about the Solomons siblings because the idea is so damn good. The casting  was so on point and I feel in love with the possibilities. Credit for the boys moodboards and casting goes to @tortugahoe, as well as some information about Daniel. Esther was created by me, and I tried to do her moodboard as similar as I could to the rest of them. This one is dedicated to @internalmess3, for putting up with my bullshit and always backing me up on my crazy projects. I know you love the Solomons siblings quite a lot, so this one is for you. Thanks for always been there for me. Hope you all enjoy it.
P.S.: It took me a hell of a long time to decide to write and post this because I was afraid to say something that might be seem as offensive to the Jew community. I did a little research and truly hope that this is okay, but if anything sounds off, please let me know. I don’t mean any offense.
English is not my first language and this wasn’t proofread by a beta.
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Logan Marshall-Green as Henry Solomons
-       Henry is the oldest of the Solomons siblings, he never wanted to get involved with the family business, what caused a large number of fights between them, especially between him and Alfie, until he decided to leave home and go to college;
-       He always wanted to help people, that’s why he became a doctor;
-       Despite his complicated relationship with his siblings, Henry does love them very much;
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Tom Hardy as Alfie Solomons
-       Alfie is the second eldest, the one who took the reins of the family and the business after their father, and Henry, left them;
-       He is unpredictable and ambitious, always has a backup plan (and a backup plan of the backup plan);
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Travis Fimmel as Charlie Solomons
-       Charlie is the middle child, he has anger management issues and is always fighting, whatever is the reason, because he just doesn’t know how to stop;
-       His policy is beat first, ask questions later;
-       Works at the bakery with Alfie, supervising the men and the protection business;
-       He wanted to stay in the army after the war ended, but ended up coming back home;
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Charlie Hunnam as Daniel Solomons
-       Daniel is the second youngest, rarely loses control but when he does it’s very bloody and he enjoys it;
-       He actually started college but ended up getting expelled for fighting another student (he was supposed to study law, mind you);
-       Very well mannered and charming, and likes to read;
-       He is responsible for the jewelry dealings and helps Alfie in the bakery, when needed;
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Anna Von Klinski as Esther Solomons
-       Esther is the youngest and only female of the family, which is both a curse and a blessing, considering who their brothers are and all the overprotectiveness;
-       She is pretty similar to Daniel, except that she doesn’t really uses her fists to fight, but her words cut like a dagger;
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-       Being the two youngest, Daniel and Esther are as thick as thieves. Daniel will literally do anything for his little sister and he trusts her with his life;
-       The Solomons, when all gathered together, are a messy bunch. They speak loudly and even though they don’t fight a lot—not anymore, anyway—when they do is loud and there’s always some blood involved. Daniel is usually the one who ends it, after glancing at Esther and seeing the she is about to give them all a taste of her wrath;
-       And when she does, her siblings go quiet and actually listen to her;
-       Alfie was the one who came up with the idea of the protection business, before the war, after the last time their father came home and left them for good. He wanted to make a better life for their mom and their siblings, especially for Esther, who was a newborn at the time;
-       They all know how to speak Russian because of their mother and they all try to follow the Jewish traditions as well as they can;
-       When the boys left for France, Esther started to question her faith and, since then, her relationship with religion is a little estranged;
-       Alfie was adamant that Esther got the best education she could get, making sure that she got the best materials and would go to the best schools. That resulted in a strong willed and very intelligent young woman that negotiated her way into the family business when the boys came back from the war. She takes care of the finances of all of their enterprises;
-       Their mother still lives in Camden and has a very important work on the community: she is a matchmaker;
-       Esther lives with Alfie and pretty much runs the house for him;
-       Charlie and Daniel live on their own;
.
Taglist: @internalmess3​ @stressedandbandobessed7771​ @theshelbyclan​
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ourstarscollided · 3 years
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jatp fanworks appreciation - day 3 (wips)
wip wednesday - I didn’t think I wanted to join in on this day for my own stuff considering I’ve never posted anything original for this fandom, but I think this might just be the little boost I need from myself to actually finish the wips that I have sitting around. I am peer pressuring myself and holding myself accountable by posting this - or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. Most of the past 6 mths has just been me screaming to no one in a Google Doc, so here are some things I’ve been ruminating about over the last 6 months (and if my secret agenda is to get other people to write about it so I don’t have to? Then that’s between you and me).
Everything’s under a read more because I like giving context and that usually spirals out of control!?!?
If you would like to see more from any of the below, feel free to shoot me an ask/message and I can definitely share some more! (Or you can just come yell at me about JATP in general.)
Strangers Fake Dating AU // Julie x Luke
I’m a simple person. I see a prompt, I latch onto it, and then I completely miss the entire point of the prompt as my imagination goes wild for no real reason. This really was supposed to be a super short drabble, but it manifested into a 3k+ thing that isn’t even finished.
Julie’s not really sure what she’s supposed to do now. Nothing has ever prepared her for a situation in which she’s supposed to pretend to be a stranger’s girlfriend, especially if that situation involves parents. Does she continue this ruse? Can she come up with a quick enough excuse to tell this Luke character that she actually can’t stay? What if this is just all an elaborate plan to kidnap her? Has she been listening to too many true crime podcasts? Why does Luke smell so good? Does he know how to cook? Why does his shirt not have sleeves? What-
“I can hear you thinking from here.” Her head whips up at the sound of Luke’s voice, which is now at a whisper and kind of frantic. “I just- I just really needed to get my mom off my back, so I kinda need you to pretend to be my girlfriend. Just for the night. I swear I’ll make it up to you somehow.”
Julie studies Luke’s face and it’s nearly impossible to not cave under his gaze, which can only be simply described as ‘puppy dog eyes’. She finds herself smiling back, letting out a huff, “I hope you like lasagna.” And the grin that spreads across the boy’s face is enough for her to know that he’s incredibly relieved that she agreed.
“I’m Luke by the way. Luke Patterson.”
(Okay, he’s kinda cute. And no one this cute is a serial killer. Right?)
She gives a small smile back, “I’m Julie.”
//
5+1 alive!Juke AU // Julie x Luke
Inspired by paper - LANY
This is one of the first things I ever felt the urge to write down back in September because I love exploring the idea of how two people can appear to be the perfect relationship on the outside, but are actually fighting their own demons. Especially when it comes to celebrities and people who are in the spotlight. It’s basically a 5+1 fic about the moments from other people’s perspectives who happen to orbit around Julie/Luke that all revolve around paper. My outline for this is so long because I can’t manage to narrow it down, and there’s zero cohesiveness but I do have little things jotted down.
“Hey little man,” Luke’s knelt down to match his 5 year-old height, and a hand extends out to him for a high five, “What are you doing here?”
His eyes flicker to the left, towards his own apartment door, where his mom is giving him an encouraging nod. “ I- I just wanted to-” he stutters and finds himself looking at his feet as he shuffles back and forth on the spot. “I- I drew you guys something!”
He shoves the paper out towards the older boy in front of him, but doesn’t look up.
//
Reincarnation AU // Julie x Luke
I had a random thought in December about how magical it is that Julie and Luke are so tied to one another that their love transcends time and space, which will always lead them back to one another. I remember reading a book a long time ago about how the main character is fated to die at a certain age, and that kind of sparked this little idea. I can’t bring myself to actually plot out every single timeline right now, but I did manage to write a little bit.
It will never be as complex as Rosie’s idea and all the wonderful additions in the link here, and I don’t really plan on it being anything more than a small idea. But I really do still think someone should write some sort of reincarnation AU cause I’d hop on that so fast!!
“Okay- that’s not- Luke. You seriously just ran away?”
“What was I supposed to do Alex? We all know how this ends.”
His friend looks at him, face painted in understanding and he sighs, “Yeah. Yeah, we do.”
Because it’s true, Alex does know, so does Reggie and Bobby. Most importantly, so does Luke. It’s the exact same tragic love story every time.
Call it a curse or fate or destiny. Maybe it’s because Mercury is in retrograde. Whatever. It always ends the same way - with a heartbreaking goodbye, a whisper of the promise that they’ll find each other again, and the possibility of a happy ending. He’s said the same goodbye at least 734 times, but it’s not like he’s counting or anything. Fuck the universe and its mystical ways.
//
Competitive Alex // Alex x Willie
No real thoughts or reasons for this other than I just think I self-projected my need to play board games with people in real life into a fic. And maybe a little bit of my competitiveness onto Alex and then threw in Willie because I think he would be able to handle it while also finding it endearing. I also have written nothing about the actual competitiveness, it’s just 2k words of Alex crushing on Willie.
“Wait,” his eyes dart between the three boys, “You both know Willie? How come I’ve never met him?”
His roommates look at each other, and there’s a smirk on Luke’s face when he says, “Actually Alex, I think you have. Remember that time you got really drunk after one of our shows?”
Oh no. He really hopes that it’s not the time he’s thinking of, so he tries to sound nonchalant. “You’re going to have to be more specific, Luke.”
“The night we played at that tiny bar at the edge of the campus! We got paid in those tiny colourful shots?” He doesn’t really know where Luke is going with this, so he’s slowly nodding along. “And you were super upset that the hot dog vendor at the end of the street was closed?”
//
Dear Julie, Love Mom series
I made myself sad with this thought when I first watched the show and was talking to my friend about how I think that Rose would’ve left messages for the Molina family, especially when we found out that Wake Up was actually from her mom. I wrote a bigger explanation for it here.
Anyways, I started with the one for Julie’s wedding and it kind of became an 8k monster with three different POVs?!? As much as I love how I wrote this, I feel too unsure about my writing to share it in full, so you will get carefully selected looks alkfe. (I’m also kind of stuck on some of the more emotional scenes and I may or may not have procrastinated by photoshopping a moodboard for it.)
Excerpt 1 (Julie POV): A look into where I’m going with this whole letters from Rose thing.
The key clicks into place, and with a turn, the latch falls open. She’s not sure what she wants to find in the box, and she’s too scared to think about it really. All she knows is that this was the sign from her mom that she was waiting for all week, and in true Rose fashion, her mom had managed to give it to her, even if at the last second. Her dad turns the box to face Julie, and gestures to her to open up the lid.
Tucked inside is a VHS tape, the words ‘For Julie, on your wedding day’ written in her mom’s cursive on the cover. Some loose glitter and confetti fall back into the box as she reaches in to pick up the tape and turn it over in her hands. There’s a little purple butterfly etched on the back, the same one that’s been drawn on all the other messages that her mom had left her. Her finger automatically finds its way, tracing the shape of the small doodle.
“Do you want me to leave you alone, mija?”
Excerpt 2 (Julie POV): This part has absolutely nothing to do with the main plot of the story, but it self-inserted itself into this fic after @tangledstarlight and I talked about You’re Still the One by Shania Twain being their first dance. This whole scene came to me at 4am one night and might be the most self-indulgent thing I’ve ever written.
They knew that when they had asked Reggie to be in charge of the first dance performance, that they (and Alex) weren’t allowed to veto any of his ideas. Luke had warned Julie that that would be a mistake, but the giddiness that radiated off of Reggie when she had told him he could have free reign was worth it. She just hadn’t thought that he would actually take it to heart and run with it.
Sure, they had chosen You’re Still the One by Shania Twain as their first dance song, and sure it was more or less a country song, but she didn’t really imagine that she’d be staring at her adoptive brother, Carlos and her Dad wearing cowboy hats and boots at her wedding. They had somehow managed to ditch their Flynn-approved suit jackets and were sporting a taupe-coloured suede-textured vest over their dress shirts. If she looked closely, she could see that they had somehow also found some gaudy looking bolo ties with a matching set of ornamental clasps to wear. When she envisioned her wedding, she really didn’t expect that her first (public) dance as a married couple would be a full-on Western themed occasion. The only exception was Alex, who had settled on his cajon in the back, still in his pink suit, eyes rolling when she met his gaze. But even she knew how there was no real annoyance in the blonde’s reaction or else he wouldn’t also be wearing one of the tacky ties around his neck as well.
“I’m gonna seriously kill him.” She hears Luke grumble under his breath, only low enough for her to hear. But she’s still too busy giggling to actually be mad, and she knows that Luke isn’t really going to kill Reggie. At least she doesn’t think so.
Excerpt 3 (Luke POV): Idk man. My mind went “What about Luke?” and I said “You’re right!! What about him?!?”
He doesn’t realize that he’s just been silently staring at the woman in front of him, until a gentle voice breaks him out of his thoughts. “Why are you looking at me like that?” Julie’s peering at him from under her eyelashes, a curious look on her face.
“You just-” he gives a little shake of his head, trying to come up with the right words. He wants to tell her she’s beautiful. Stunning. A wicked beauty. But she’s more than that - she’s almost angelic. “I can’t believe you’re my wife.”
“Luke, we’ve been legally married for like, a whole year.” Her lips are quirked up in a grin, amusement in her voice. “You’ve only just realized that now?”
“That’s different.”
“Yeah? Different how?”
This feels a little strange to post and a little like my inner self seeking validation but let’s not talk about that.
Kskssj anyways present me @ future me: finish one of these because writing has been really cathartic for you and you didn’t think it would bring you so much joy!!!
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goose-books · 3 years
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whoa, it sure is about time around here for a post, huh!
today i offer you 1.7k words about cressida and rory simply being soft. that’s all. this is the happiest thing i’ve ever written in the darkling canon and making this moodboard reminded me that it’s because these two are the only kind and friendly people in the entire book.
more details about cressida and rory’s home WIP, darkling, can be found here! (short version: it’s a speculative fiction king lear; there’s magic but it’s weird about being magic; half the characters are gay trans and neurodivergent because i said so.) this takes place about a year before the story starts; the two of them have just turned sixteen and seventeen, respectively!
also, i wrote all of this while listening to “kentucky” by hippo campus on repeat. the lyrics aren’t quite as relevant as the vibe. if you catch me yearning on main mind your own business /j
Lorelai Rory Flowers is afraid of thunder.
This is a bit of an embarrassing thing to admit, as they’re seventeen (“at least seventeen,” they like to tell people, “maybe two hundred, who’s to say?”) and generally wise beyond their years, or whatever it is that adults say about kids with too much psychological baggage. Being afraid of thunder is not a very wise-beyond-one’s-years trait. And yet the state of affairs remains: loud noises make Rory want to melt into the earth. Back when they still went to school, even the fire alarm sent them scuttling under their desk to hide.
Right now, in the elevator, all they can do is shrink into their sweater.
They haven’t let go of Cressida’s hand yet.
Beside them, Cressida is soaked, long golden hair and long white dress dripping. Rory rocks up onto their toes and back down, anxiety worming along the back of their neck like an itchy coat. This was not the plan. The plan was not “get caught in the rain and run through a storm for two blocks.” The plan was for the two of them to go walk by the river and - who knows, talk about Joan of Arc or the Kennedy assassination or something. Swap special interests. Maybe swap spit. Probably not, though. It’s not a date. It’s not not a date - but, like, Rory still does work for Cressida’s dad, so who knows how awkward things could get. Plus Cressida’s hard to read. She doesn’t really make facial expressions, and that’s usually fine, because Rory can’t really read facial expressions so it’s about the same to them, but in this particular situation -
“I trust you,” Cressida says, squeezing their hand, “but where are we going?”
The rain’s left Rory’s glasses fogged up enough to render them effectively blind. They take their glasses off and squint at the elevator buttons. They are still effectively blind.
“Is that a five or a six?” they say, pointing.
Cressida peers over their shoulder. “Which one do you want?”
“Five.”
Cressida presses the five button with her free hand. The elevator, which is about the size of a broom closet, jerks into unsteady, fitful motion.
The thing is that the apartment building is kind of - well, not a dump. It’s not horrible. There aren’t cockroaches. But Cressida lives in a manor, literally. Stayer Manor. Capital S, capital M. And there was never any sort of plan for today, even in the wildest of circumstances, that involved Rory bringing the city’s golden girl to a building the size of a shoebox. But then it was raining, and Cressida kept saying she didn’t mind the rain despite clearly minding because if she ruins her dress her dad will go rabid-dog on her, and Rory’s cognitive wheels were spinning like they were powered by a well-greased hamster, and none of the restaurants close enough to duck into were appropriate places for them to safely freak out about the thunder, and their apartment was only two blocks away.
So.
Here they are.
“Sorry,” Cressida says. “Where are we going?”
Rory attempts to dry their glasses on their soaked-through sweater, to little avail. “We are going,” they announce, “to a world of pure imagination.”
Outside, thunder cracks the sky. They know Cressida sees them flinch, because she squeezes their hand again.
The apartment is 505. Cressida waits as Rory digs around in their jacket pocket, shuffling past loose coins and two pairs of headphones and four melted Starbursts and way too many scraps of paper until they finally unearth their key. Their lock sticks - their lock always sticks - so once they’ve turned it, they have to drop Cressida’s hand and plant one wet Doc Marten on the wall and yank. The door swings open.
“Voila,” Rory says, performing jazz hands. “Willy Wonka wants what I have.”
Their apartment is purple. Not startlingly purple. Gently purple. Purple like it creeps up on you. Purple like you don’t realize exactly how purple it is until you realize everything - walls, gauzy flower-patterned curtains, plushy armchair, compass-rose-shaped clock, old-fashioned record player on the table - is the same shade of soft lavender.
There is at least one nail sticking up out of the hard-wood floor. Rory snags a sock on it every time they dance around with their headphones in.
Two people have been inside since Rory started renting the place a year ago. And that’s them and the landlord. This is their place, their safe haven, their nook, and it’s the size of Cressida’s bathroom, and rich pretty Cressida Stayer is standing, dripping, in the threshold.
“Don’t touch anything,” Rory says. Cressida draws her hands in like the walls might electrocute her. “That was a joke. You can touch things.”
“This is your apartment,” Cressida says.
“Indeed.”
“You live here.”
“That succeeds the first!” They give her an encouraging smile. “Subsequent statements! How cogently lucid of you!”
Cressida looks down. The hem of her dress is dripping onto the floor. “I don’t suppose you have a vent I could sit on…?”
“In fact I do!” Rory directs her, aircraft-marshall-style, to the heating vent on the floor. They’re jittering. They’re using way too much arm movement. They can’t get their heart to stop skidding around, because normally! They do not! Let people in here!
They stand and drip. Cressida sits and drips. She gazes around, and Rory gazes with her, trying to see it through her eyes.
“Where’s your bed?” she says.
Rory skips over to the closet and pulls the door open, with the grand gestures of a magician presenting a trick. The inside of the tiny closet is lined with a thick downy comforter; there are sheets and pillows scattered around atop it, and there are glow-in-the-dark stars stuck up all over the walls and ceiling.
Cressida gazes at it. “On purpose, right? Not because -”
“On purpose. Yes. I could have bought a bed. I just think it’s cozy.” Oh, Rory is going to lose it right here. Their foot is tapping the floor at about a million miles an hour. Granted, being in their apartment helps the overstimulation a little - just being where it’s safe and everything’s always the same and they control their space. That always helps. But it’s not like they can just curl up in their closet with their headphones in and the door shut, because Cressida is here -
Cressida, for her part, looks a little impressed.
“It’s nice,” she says, wrapping her arms around her knees. “You just live here? By yourself?”
Rory shrugs. “I’m emancipated,” they say, which isn’t strictly true, but they work for the most powerful man in the city, who has their back if anyone actually looks into their files, so it’s as true as it really needs to be - and then thunder roars outside again and Rory skitters sideways and falls over their armchair.
“Oh! Oh my God -” Cressida jumps to her feet.
Rory scrambles up from where they’ve tumbled to the floor. “Sorry sorry sorry!” they say, except really they yell it because they have their shaking hands over their ears. “Sorrysorrysorry, I - I really don’t like loud - I d-don’t -”
“Can I -” All of a sudden Cressida’s in front of them. Rory doesn’t move away, just stands there, chest heaving, and Cressida slides her still-damp hands very gently up both of their arms, and she very gently pulls their hands off their ears.
The thunder, again. Like a cannon blast. This time Rory yelps a little. Cressida pulls them in close to her and sits both of them down on the vent, which, at the very least, is warm and also on the floor, so Rory can’t really trip over anything when they flinch.
“You don’t like loud,” Cressida repeats. She’s a good deal taller than they are - Rory’s exactly five-foot in their Docs - and so it makes logical sense for her to settle down with her chin on their head, probably.
“I don’t. I don’t. I really don’t.” They’ve started fluttering their hands a little; their voice is getting that shaky tilt it gets when they’re in sensory overload. “Fun story, back in high school we went on a field trip to this play where they used gunfire blanks for sound effects and I had a full-on crying-and-screaming public meltdown. I like to tell fun stories from high school like it wasn’t actual purgatory, because I cope through humor!”
“I know,” Cressida says simply, and she wraps her arms around them so they can lean back into her chest. The next thunder crash comes, and she tightens her grip. “Is this helping?”
“Yeah. Uh-huh. A lot. Like a weighted blanket.” Rory tilts their head back to give her a shaky upside-down grin.
They don’t like making eye contact, so they don’t, but they are aware that Cressida’s gaze is resting pretty solidly on their face, which is - fine, and normal behavior for friends, and the fact that they’re cuddling on a vent and they can feel her heart beating against their spine is, like, normal also, probably -
“Rory,” Cressida says tentatively, “can I…”
Rory tilts their head. “Can you what?”
Cressida hesitates; then she leans in. It is a very very gentle kiss, almost hesitant; she pulls away after a second or so, to find Rory staring at her dumbfounded.
“Whoa,” they say, face assembling itself into what they’re fully aware is a stupid doofy grin. “Whoa. Hi. Hey. I - yeah! You can do that!”
They both cling to each other’s hands for a second; they both let out a breath that is, Rory thinks, equal parts relief and euphoria.
Then Rory leans in and kisses Cressida again, and this time neither of them pull away, and when the thunder crashes overhead Rory thinks they’ve never felt safer than they do right now.
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huntresswarlock · 3 years
Note
Belated on the ask meme but do them all or all the ones you haven’t done give me content BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
i haven't done any of them so... a-all of them it is ;;v;; puttin under a readmore because long
1: Summarize your WIP in 10 words or less.
The price, responsibilities, and benefits of second chances.
2: Post a line from your WIP with no context.
Make it stop, he strung the words together in his head as they burned away on his dried-out tongue, please, I will do anything, I don’t want to die, not here, not like this, this wasn’t supposed to happen, please, please, please...
3: Does your WIP have a title? If so, explain its significance. If not, what are you calling it for now?
and if you fall, the sun will catch you
It was a suggestion by @z-nogyrop when I was kicking around the initial idea for the main character. Given that said main character's name is Icarus, and another major character is the god of fire... I think the significance is pretty obvious lmao.
4: Describe the setting of your WIP.
Small faux-friendly village with a dark cult underbelly.
5: Search for the word “knife” in your WIP. If you find it, paste the line and explain the context.
"Somehow the sight of those pathetic little things twisted a sharp knife in his gut harder than if his wings had been completely bare."
Icarus tried to use fire to burn away his past, and it got out of hand and ended up nearly killing him. His life was saved, but his wings were not salvageable, and are now only bare flesh, like a plucked chicken.
6: Search for the word “dream” in your WIP. If you find it, paste the line and explain the context.
"His nights offered nothing but dreams of a vast field covered in flames beneath an orange sky."
In exchange for saving his life, the god of fire charges Icarus with preventing other people from using fire irresponsibly like he had, as well as helping those who have been hurt by fire. To give more specific orders, the god manifests in Icarus' dreams as described above.
7: What are you most proud of?
I'm really proud of my beginning, which opens with Icarus nearly burning to death and explores the immediate aftermath before closing on a slightly more hopeful note. I think it sets a tense tone and communicates a lot about Icarus, as the first thing readers see of him is his close brush with death.
8: What is your biggest challenge?
Pacing! Also weaving character thoughts into the narrative. But mostly pacing. I am on a wickedly self-indulgent chapter right now, and it's hard not to just linger here.
9: How would you describe your writing style?
According to you, it's Ray Bradbury-esque. ;;w;; I use a lot of imagery and metaphor, and short-to-medium length sentences.
10: How would you describe your WIP’s narrative style? (1st person, 3rd person, multiple POVs, single POV, alternating chapters, etc.)
3rd person limited
11: Which character do you have the most in common with?
That's a hard one, because there just aren't that many characters in this story. I suppose Apollo, the tiefling love interest to Icarus?
12: Which character do you have the least in common with?
Icarus himself, I think.
13: Your characters are stranded on a deserted island. What happens?
Icarus would be very miserable and go back and forth on whether he can overcome his fear of fire to light a rescue beacon. He'd also probably hate the idea of having to forage for his own food and water.
14: Have you chosen birthdays for any of your characters? If so, when are they?
Icarus was born on a winter solstice, but I haven't nailed down anything further than that.
15: Do you know your characters’ MBTI personalities?
Nope!
16: What would your characters be for Halloween?
Icarus - something subtle, since he's never participated before and doesn't want to get it wrong; some kind of animal, probably, since he can just put on/take off ears and a tail
Apollo - a chef!
17: Does your WIP have any themes or motifs?
Birds/flight and fire.
18: What’s easier, dialogue or description?
They're both hard DX writing is really hard... if I had to pick, I'd say dialogue is easier.
19: Post a picture or gif that describes your WIP.
I... I have this moodboard I made for Icarus... does that count...
Tumblr media
20: Post a brief excerpt.
To him, it resembled nothing less than an animate pile of dry kindling. Hardly a threat, even if it had startled him when it began moving. The voice had told him only to collect information about it, that he wasn’t ready to face it... but the voice had also said it couldn’t tell exactly what it was, either. It was entirely possible that Icarus could kill or destroy it, especially since it didn’t seem to have noticed him. If he did so, then surely he could prove that he wasn’t taking his second chance for granted, and the voice would be happier with him.
He had to try. The voice had mentioned that he was equipped with further magic, now, and he could feel it thrumming in time with the heat in his chest. How much, he couldn’t precisely tell, but it was more than likely enough to handle a pile of moving sticks. Icarus held his breath, one hand curled around his locket, the other clenched into a fist. If he shifted his focus just right, dim light began to seep from his closed fingers, but he held back from fully channeling his magic until the entity was just about to round the edge of the doorway.
When he whirled out from behind the barn wall and flung his hand away from him in a way that felt right, a bolt of sunlight arced from his outstretched palm and straight into the creature’s spindly shoulder. Not exactly where he’d wanted to hit it, but the explosion of dry wood as the limb fell away and it stumbled put an updraft beneath his spirit. Icarus shouted and pulled on his magic again, drawing more sunlight to his palm. One more good hit like that, properly aimed, and–
The dismembered arm thrashed against the ground and swung into his calves and that soaring energy vanished, replaced with a free falling sensation, almost literally as he staggered and tried to regain his bearings before it swung again. A desperate kick only gave it an opening to twist, ropelike, over his ankle, digging searing hot splinters into his skin as it clawed into the ground to keep him from moving.
The searing wood hurt, but he couldn’t afford to keep his attention on it, not while the rest of the entity hissed and twined its remaining arm into a whip that lashed a burning wound straight through his shirt. He fought down the rising panic in his throat and hurled another spear of sunlight at it as it advanced on him. It barely noticed or paused as it continued to drive him back, further into the barn, forcing him to drag the detached limb with him. He pulled on his magic again, willed a third well of light to his palm.
But no sunlight rose to his fingertips. Whatever had been fueling his magic, it was now entirely spent, and its absence felt unnaturally cold in his chest. He had never been much of a fighter, had never been one to do more than avoid attention by sticking to the sidelines. His one great act of recklessness, trying to burn away the parts of himself he hated, had gone horribly for him. And now he had done it again, and there was no stern but careful voice to save him. How could he have been so stupid, to not listen to it?
He had to run, had to make a break for the barn door and the field beyond. Maybe he could run back to town, get help, get the guards, something, anything to avoid dying here. Another kick at the wood wrapped around his leg managed to crack it enough that it lost its grip on him for long enough that he could get away, skirting around the creature and towards his escape. It stopped moving and tracked him with sunken, eyeless sockets, turning its head on a swivel almost all the way around with a sickening crackling.
Dense, dry underbrush sprouted beneath his feet, catching him by surprise and sending him tumbling to the ground. It grasped at him and slowed him down as he tried to keep crawling forwards. He kept pulling himself hand over hand, inching ever closer to the door – until burning hot tendrils of wood wrapped around his neck and ripped him from the entangling plants, holding him high above the ground. It did not move for a long moment, letting Icarus struggle to draw breath and watch, helpless, as its detached arm reconnected to its ruined shoulder, the fractured wood smoothing over until it looked as if it had never been broken. A jagged seam split its head with something that was almost a smile as it brought him closer, reaching with its free hand towards his chest.
Towards his heart? No–
His locket.
Icarus clawed and kicked at the wood around his neck hard enough to give himself splinters, to no avail. It hissed at him, like dry grass rubbing against itself, begging for a spark. A spark like the one contained in the golden pendant, because surely that would be more than enough to set it ablaze, if it wanted to burn. But he couldn’t let that happen, he couldn’t let himself and this barn and field and town go up in flames–
The only warning he had before the entity dropped him was a brief flaring of the heat in his chest. No, no it hadn’t dropped him – its grasp had passed right through his neck as his body... dissolved, burst not into flames but smoke, his limbs going from solid to vague impressions. The creature’s hissing cut off with a choking noise, and though he could no longer see anything, he could sense the dull heat of it scrambling away from him.
He gasped – or tried to, at least, even as his thoughts and body swirled in chaotic air currents left in the creature’s wake. It was leaving, getting further away with every moment he spent huddled on the barn floor, and he knew he ought to follow it to figure out where it went to recover, but he could not will himself to move. Even the slightest twitch seemed liable to separate his limbs from his body, and he wasn’t sure he could ever get them back if he lost them while he was like this.
Calm, calm, he had to stay calm, there had to be a way to reverse this, if he just thought hard enough and didn’t let himself panic. Icarus forced himself to pretend he still had lungs and go through the motions of breathing, the insubstantial matter of his chest rising and falling. He didn’t have eyes to squeeze shut but he tried anyway, pressing his face to the ground and blocking out the flickering warmth of distant animal bodies. With every fake breath, the smoke that his body had burst into coalesced more, until he had lungs and eyes again, until he could curl his fingers into the dirt and feel it wedge beneath his nails. Until he was, for better or for worse, back in his usual, solid form.
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Text
ancient names, pt. xvii
A John Seed/Original Female Character Fanfic
Ancient Names, pt xvii: what the wolves taught me
Masterlink Post
Word Count: ~6.9k  
Rating: Explicit.
Warnings: mentions of gore and blood, like a LOT of mentions of blood, mentions of self-harm, shower sex without Reasonable Protection, also like kind of dubious if you squint because John is tripping, bad decisions are made as well as some questionable dirty talk (John really likes that she beat a man to death). Elliot kind of has like one (1) tiny power trip. Idk man just like proceed with caution??
Notes: A little bit of an interlude chapter, this one! Last chap was a bit intense, so this one's more of a transition--not a lot happens in terms of plot movement, so everyone can go ahead and catch your breath. ♡ As always, a big and huge thank you to everyone who reads and comments, has come and said hi to me on my tumblr. This fandom has been so incredibly lovely and welcoming and just understanding of my general chaos and my inability to bend to canon at all. I'm just so grateful to each and every one of you! Thank you thank you thank you!
Big thank you to @shallow-gravy for lending me their eyeballs and for making me this GORGEOUS moodboard for Elliot. When I say that I like died inside when I saw it, it's because my life became complete and I was ready to ascend. Thank you so much!!
And of course my angel @starcrier, my lover my life my shawty my wife, who proofreads all my garbage even though she doesn’t even go here but she goes here for me! ILY ♡
As always, I hope you enjoy and thank you again!  ♡
John felt pretty good, all things considered.
Yeah, he was probably going to feel like shit when came off of his high; yeah, kissing Elliot did smear blood all over his mouth, but when he spotted the two of them in the reflection of the truck’s dark windows, Elliot’s face and hair splattered in crimson and the very obvious incrimination on his mouth, he thought, well, don’t we make quite a pair?
Everything blurred and pulsed pleasantly around him now as he sat in the passenger seat of the truck. The crash of the drug wasn’t really much of a crash at all—idly, John wondered how it was they got the downturn to be so easy, so slow, so mild. Each time he took in a breath it felt like the car expanded with him. There wasn’t anything the world, in that moment, that wasn’t for him, not a single thing that didn’t sway and pulse and beat in time with the rhythm of his own heart.
Except for Elliot. When he looked at her, red sparked off of her in violent waves to their own metronome, mimicking the dashes of crimson on her face and in her hair; the bruises welled red and blue along the pillar of her throat, her jaw, one on the corner of her mouth. She looked wild; her eyes moved with a sharp clarity that had him wondering how long that Wrath had really been sitting inside of her.
Not a good girl, he thought, watching Elliot drag her thumb from one end of her mouth to the other, wiping the blood their liplock had smeared around. He could still taste it in his mouth. Not anymore.
You couldn’t be good and bash a man’s skull in, could you? And it was bashed in—John had gotten one single good, long look at Kian’s face, and there was nothing of it left except bloody mush and two battered eyeballs barely stuffed into his skull. Gruesome. Well past the point of killing him.
“They attacked the compound,” Jacob was saying from the driver’s seat, pulling out onto the highway with a not-so-kind lurch as they hit pavement. “About an hour after you took off. I bet they were waiting. Fucking cockroaches.”
John glanced into the rearview mirror. He meant to look and see if he could catch any movement in the trees—anything that wasn’t Eden’s Gate—but he just looked at Elliot. Sharp-eyed, bloodied, fingers knotted into Boomer’s fur as the dog lay with his head in her lap. It wouldn’t have done any good, looking back there; everything was moving. Everything was breathing.
“Drugged me,” he offered helpfully, his tongue feeling a little too big for his mouth. Jacob looked at him through the sides of his eyes and hit the cruise button. “Got a radio back, too. I tried calling you guys, but—”
“But not Elliot,” Jacob said, less a question and more a confirmation of what he believed to be true. John shrugged idly.
His eldest brother glanced back at Elliot then, but she was silent for two heartbeats longer than what it should have taken for her to answer before she replied, “Wouldn’t have been fun for him if I was.”
“Yeah, well,” the redhead muttered. “You sure made...” His voice trailed off, and his eyes fixed on the road again. “... Work of him, didn’t you, deputy?”
Elliot sighed. That Jacob said you made work instead of you made quick work made John painfully, delightfully aware of how many times and how much effort it must have taken for Elliot to cave Kian’s face in, and that knowledge writhed pleasant and desirous in his stomach.
But Jacob didn’t sound pleased. John supposed that he wouldn’t be, all things considered. Kian was dead, sure, but the rest of the Family had almost certainly scattered like rats to whatever corner of Hope County they could reach. They would be a problem. By now, they were all supposed to be hunkering down in the bunker to outlast the End Days, and instead, they were contesting with an entirely different pest.
Maybe Elliot was right; maybe without Ase and Kian, they would just leave. Go and kill some other tiny town of people. Get their skin melted off by the nuclear war.
In fact, if John really thought about it—and it did take work—he didn’t think that the Family was much of a problem at all anymore. The only thing that remained questionable, and up in the air, was Elliot herself.
My wife, he thought, his brain ticking and idling like an engine cooling down, wading through the neck-high water of his thoughts. Each leap from one thread to the next felt sugary-slow. Little killer, aren’t you?
He didn’t think that she would be content with hunkering down in a bunker. That would take some time to warm up to, probably—and, John reasoned, he would have to first broach the subject of their legal binding. But that was another problem, for another time, and right now all John wanted to think about was getting home and enjoying his high while he had it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
When Elliot was very young, she remembered coming across a snake coiled on the hot pavement of the path up to their front door. It had been after school; her mother had had the windows of the kitchen open, playing an old song, something about a dream, and she could hear it from all the way down at the road. The snake was basking—drinking in the sunlight, mottled in shades of brown and copper, flecks of white highlighting the prettiest parts of it. The snake had been a dream to a girl who ran wild and barefoot through every inch of the Hope County wilderness she could reach; the speckled pattern begging for a touch, it’s elegant coil beckoning for attention.
The window to the kitchen had been open, and the second her mother had seen her staring at the snake, she’d come sprinting out the front door. Her mother had never liked any kind of animal that didn’t have four legs and wouldn’t fall under the “fluffy retriever” category, so at first, she had thought it was just her mother’s aversion to the scaly members of the animal kingdom; but after her mother’s insistent shrieking that she give the rattler a wide berth on the way up to the front steps, she’d thought maybe it was actual danger worrying her mother.
Of course, Scarlet had called the sheriff’s office and immediately demanded someone come and get rid of the snake (even though you weren’t supposed to call the sheriff’s office for that kind of thing, there was animal control) while she made herself a vodka soda.
“He’s pretty, mama,” Elliot had said, staring out the window at the snake. “Did you see his spots?”
“Pretty.” Scarlet had never sounded more displeased. She squeezed her lime into her drink, muttering furiously. “All those spots mean that ugly thing would kill you with one bite, bunny. Do you hear me? Venomous. Stay away from it.”
Now, sitting in the back seat of an Eden’s Gate truck, her face mottled with a dead man’s arterial spray, she felt like that prairie rattler, her spots belying a poison and vicious bite.
Pretty, she thought tiredly, combing her fingers through Boomer’s fur. Pretty venomous.
Her gaze drifted absently, away from the landscape blurring past them as Jacob cruised back to the compound and instead onto the occupants of the car. John was leaned back in his seat, eyes fluttering shut occasionally like he couldn’t keep them open very well, and Jacob had a tight grip on the steering wheel. A pack of cigarettes sat in one of the cupholders in the center console, and she reached for them on autopilot.
Jacob’s gaze flickered down to her hand snaking between them. For a second, he looked like he’d been about to grab her hand, like maybe he thought she was trying something—but his fingers stayed on the steering wheel, and he said, “Probably a lighter in the console.”
Elliot snagged the cigarettes and then fished around in the console until she found the lighter. The cotton fabric of Ase’s high-necked dress felt sticky on her skin, like she was in the middle of a summer storm; chill seeped down into her bones, and her skin bloomed feverish, and she thought this is when the crash happens, but it didn’t hit. She lit a cigarette and rolled the window down before she took a drag and felt the tiredness pull at the corners of her vision.
The song from her memory played on a gentle loop in her head. Leisurely, lulling. So dream, when the day is new; dream, and they might come true. Her mother had listened to that song so many times, growing up. She wondered, briefly, if her mother was alright. If she’d gotten out. If she’d gone with the resistance and fled, or if she was still here somewhere, or if she was dead.
“Anyone get hurt?” she asked after a minute. “At the compound?”
“A few,” Jacob replied. His eyes narrowed. “None dead, though.”
Elliot exhaled smoke out the window. She thought she would have felt dirty, now, sticky with Kian’s breath and his fingers and his mouth against her skin—but she didn’t, not right away. She just felt—
“Sure that’s disappointing for you,” Jacob continued.
—tired.
“Eat shit, Jacob,” she muttered. “I just solved your biggest problem.”
“No, you didn’t,” he snapped back. “Not by a long fucking mile, deputy.”
The redhead eyed her through the mirror, but she didn’t say anything to that—and for the rest of the ride back to the compound, it was blissful, empty silence.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
John thought he must have certainly fallen asleep in the car, because one second he was blinking through Jacob talking about how the compound had been attacked, and the next they were parking.
The compound looked a little worse for wear, but it was quiet; if not for the bullet holes in the walls of buildings, and the occasional blood spray dried nearly black with time, he wouldn’t have known anything was amiss at all. He would have thought it was a regular evening—but was far from it.
At the very least, John felt a little clearer now. His high was slowly cruising down, and he’d probably feel all of his bruises once he sobered up, but for now he buzzed.
Jacob climbed out of the driver’s seat beside him, and his body operated on autopilot to do the same. He saw Boomer drop from the truck and stick his nose to the ground instantly, eyes wary and waiting to see if any danger still lurked. When Elliot’s feet touched the ground, the Heeler did a single loop around her legs and then nosed her hand.
“John,” his brother said, his voice clipped. “Chapel.”
“Right,” John replied. He glanced over his shoulder and then looked at Elliot; she took in a little breath and waved her hand.
“Gonna shower,” she told him. “I’m good.”
John reached for her, fingers itching; Elliot caught his wrist before his hand could land on her shoulder, or her face, but she used it to pull him closer, and then she kissed him—leaned up and pressed her mouth, tasting like wild copper and a little like ash, against his. John’s brain fizzed white static and he sighed against her kiss, and he was reminded of how electric she had felt back there in the forest with the buzz of her kill still sitting under her skin.
“John,” Jacob insisted, louder this time, “now.”
“Okay,” John said, but he said it into the kiss, sliding his hand from Elliot’s grasp. “Okay, I’m—”
And like that she had pulled away from him; she whistled for Boomer and set off across the yard for the bunkhouse, and he turned and forced his legs to move towards the chapel. I’m good, she’d said. What did she mean? What did “good” constitute?
His brain felt too muggy for him to contemplate whether or not he was spiraling on a thought because it had some other meaning or because he was high, so he just pushed aside as he walked into the chapel, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Joseph was there, sitting beside Faith; their heads bowed in silence, only disturbed when the sound of his and Jacob’s footsteps echoed in the quiet.
“You’re safe,” Joseph said, sounding relieved. As John came closer, his older brother lifted an arm; beckoning him, and he went instantly. Joseph’s hand cradled the back of his head and pressed their foreheads together in an embrace that was far softer than anything that had occurred between them as of late. It felt like John’s entire body sighed in relief. “We were so worried, John.”
“And high as shit,” Jacob replied as they neared. “Tripping fuckin' balls, aren’t you, Johnny?”
“It’s fine,” John insisted, though he could hear the words slur a little even as he tried very hard to punctuate them on their way out of his mouth. “Not so bad.”
“You look awful,” Faith murmured. “What happened?”
“Um,” he said.
“Kian’s dead,” Jacob explained helpfully.
Joseph blinked. His expression was guarded, but hopeful. “Good news, then.”
“Deputy Honeysett bashed his skull in with a shotgun.”
Faith said, “Oh.”
A moment of silence stretched between them. Jacob paced to the front of the chapel; Joseph absently scratched at his cheek, his hand having withdrawn from John as he took in this news from his brothers. John tried not to shift too much, but the silence was killing him—he didn’t know how Joseph was going to feel about that. If he would still want Elliot with them.
“Was she?” Joseph asked after a minute. “Drugged?”
“No,” John said. “Not—I mean, she said she wasn't.”
“So she did it on her own,” he continued, “without being influenced by anything that could arguably… Cause a hallucination which would make her do that.”
“I—” John’s brain struggled to keep up with Joseph’s train of thought. “I—guess—”
“This is good news, then.” Joseph’s voice bloomed with warmth. “Don’t you see? There is no person more in need of us,” he continued, “than someone who has nowhere left to go.”
“And where would she go,” Jacob muttered, “that wouldn’t commit her to a psychiatric ward.”
Joseph nodded. His hand returned to the back of John’s neck and gripped there, firm and steadfast.
“You’ve done so well, John,” he said, “but our time is running out. You know that, don’t you? We are borrowing it now, from God himself, and I don’t intend to go into the next phase of our lives with a debt to pay.”
John blinked through the fog in his brain and swallowed thickly. He thought he knew what it was that Joseph was telling him—but before he could think too hard on it, Jacob interjected, “John hasn’t told the deputy about their blissful union.”
“What?” Faith asked, head snapping to look at him.
“Well,” John began.
“Actually,” Jacob continued, “he lied about it.”
“Well,” John tried again, irritably, “it had already been done, and she didn’t remember it thanks to Faith’s handiwork, and at the moment in time I thought—maybe—it would be worse off to tell her rather than…”
He fumbled for the words he wanted to say; the truth was that there were no good excuses. He just didn’t trust Elliot not to go absolutely feral when she found out, because she certainly didn’t remember it which meant she certainly was going to have feelings about it. And that was a problem.
But a problem for another time. Right?
“You’re gonna stick us in a bunker with her,” Jacob snapped, “and let her lose her shit on us while we’re trapped.”
“I won’t,” John insisted.
Joseph exhaled softly. “John—”
“I’ll—I’ve got it under control!” he exclaimed, looking at Joseph. “I know Elliot better than any of you, and I’ll find the right way to tell her, and it’ll be fine. I know.”
His older brother watched him with a pensive gaze. For a moment, John thought he saw regret flash across Joseph’s face—maybe for praising him too fast, maybe for entrusting this to him at all in the first place. But if he let someone down, that wasn’t his fault, right? This shit was so far beyond the plan of attack—so far beyond what they had anticipated, that there was a margin for error.
No, John thought, no, there isn’t. I know better. I’m better. I know.
“Borrowed time, John,” Joseph cautioned at last. “We’ve got to get rid of these locusts, and then we will be retreating for the End. You understand?”
John steadied the breath that tried to slip out of him. I don’t want to go into the next phase of our lives with a debt to pay.
“Yes, Joseph,” he replied. “I understand.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The stinging shower water ran pink to the drain. Elliot dunked her head under the water and passed her hands over her face; she stood there for a moment letting the water pool in the cups of her hands until her lungs ached and she had to let it go, spilling over her neck and shoulders. The dark dress, wretched thing, had been discarded and tossed into the trash; she thought if she had to look at herself in it for one more second she was going to come fucking undone, and that just wouldn't do.
The door clicked open; a brief moment of hesitation sounded before she heard footsteps coming inside. “El?”
She turned in the shower, wiping water from her eyes before tugging the curtain back. John regarded her with eyes only half-intoxicated, more clarity about them now than there had been in the truck.
Elliot watched him for a moment as she considered. The chill hadn't left her bones, even in the scalding hot water.
“Are you getting in?” she asked, watching his gaze flicker absently before landing back on her.
“Are you inviting me?”
Elliot pulled back from the curtain and ducked back under the water. “I’ve never known you to need an invite.”
“Fair enough, I won't disappoint.”
There was the gentle rustle of fabric, the push of the curtain, and then she wasn’t alone in the shower anymore; but it was fine, because she didn’t want to be alone anymore, because it felt like her entire body was vibrating and she couldn’t get it to stop. Unlike John, who she guessed was cruising down the same gentle crash that she had felt when the Family had drugged her with their weird shit, there was nothing inhibiting her body now. Only the quick, sharp, violent buzzing of blood on her mind, under her fingernails, between her teeth.
It felt good, too. An adrenaline high; the fall, right before impact.
John’s hands slid along her hips. The calloused pads of his fingers—fingers meant to hurt, to twist and coerce—skimmed the scars along her abdomen, sloping across her hip bones; she didn’t have to glance down to see that’s what he was doing. You’ll tell me, he’d said that morning. Eventually.
“I did them,” she said around the dull roaring in her ears. The words tasted strange on her tongue. A verbal admittance was very different from scribbling it into a journal. But the catharsis had begun; with Kian’s collapsed skull imprinted into her mind forever, it felt as though a tension had released in her, pulled taut and sharp and finally ripped free.
“Did what?” he asked, nosing past wet hair to glide his mouth along the pillar of her throat.
“The scars,” Elliot murmured. “I did them.” To feel real, she wanted to say, I did them so I could know that I was still real, but the words wouldn’t come. Maybe they didn’t need to.
John’s thumb swept along the one that stretched over her hip bone. He hummed, low and hungry, into her skin. He might have been coming down from his high, but it didn’t seem to be pushing him into sleep; he was enjoying it, the gentle careening to sobriety.
And maybe tomorrow she would regret telling him. Maybe tomorrow she would feel dirty for the way that she killed Kian, instead of intoxicated with her own magic. Maybe, maybe, maybe—but that was a thing to think about when the time came, and just like she had done everything else about herself that she hadn't liked, she would strangle it and move on.
John turned her around so that he could pull her against him. He said, “I thought so,” like he had recognized it in her, and she thought about that dream. Just like me, holding her blood-covered hands in his. You’re just like me.
Lifting her arms, Elliot carded her fingers through his hair and then gripped, pulling him in to press her mouth against his. She kissed him the way that she wanted to; no time for shyness now, she thought, no room for hesitation. John had watched her cave a man’s face in, and he was still here and hungry, so she kissed him hard—dug her teeth into his lip and revelled in the way that he moaned and leaned into her.
He’d kissed her frantically, too, back in the clearing and with Kian’s body just a foot away from them. Kissed her with blood in her mouth, greedy and insatiable, and frenzied, like he’d wanted her right then and there and wasn’t willing to let her go until he absolutely had to.
The raised skin of his Sloth scar dragged under her fingers. She dug her nails into the soft expanse of his shoulder, and he made a low, delicious noise against her mouth. I could give him more, she thought, dizzied at the idea of it, at this sudden humming, heady power she felt had become hers. This something that had become unlocked inside of her. I could give him more, and he’d thank me for it.
“Elliot,” John began, hands gripping her hips as he nudged her back against the shower wall. But he didn’t follow it up with anything; he just kept her there, skin on skin, heat bleeding out from every inch of him. His hand drifted up above her head, fumbling at the window, trying to push it open. “Fuck, it’s so fucking—hot in here—”
I want to be yours. I want a home with you.
Briefly, she wondered if that dream had been as wishful as she’d thought. John had been exactly what she wanted him to be—just the color, just the shape, everything in him built to lure her and keep her there like the most perfect predator. It was easy to forget that she had never known that she wanted a man whose hair was dark and his eyes a little cruel until she had looked at John Seed. But now it was impossible to ignore; she pressed to him, craved him, this delicious anchor of hers.
He could be cruel, if he wanted—he’d considered drowning her to death. He’d been greedy to mark her skin forever with her sin. He’d littered his body with markings and scars, testaments to his devotion, just like he had done every other conversion.
Yes, she thought absently, against the stifling heat of the stinging shower and John’s own radiating warmth, feverish from the hallucinogen seeping out of him. He is cruel. But maybe I—
And then he murmured, against her ear, “Want you,” hazy and buzzing and warm. His fingers slid down between them, gliding along the curve of where she most wanted his attention, and she felt her breath hitch in her throat. He buried his face into her neck and sighed, pressing into her and eliciting in her a spark that traveled straight down her spine; and then, almost as though he wasn’t thinking too hard about it: “Would’ve—back in the forest—”
He cut himself off and his movements stilled, just for a second. Elliot tilted her head to look at him through her eyelashes and canted her hips to gain some friction against the heel of his palm; she wasn't bothering anymore to stifle the stuttered, half-breath-half-whimper that came out of her as slick pleasure pooled in her stomach, the feeling of his fingers dragging a delicious, heady burn through her. 
Elliot heard him swallow back a sound over the white noise of the shower. It was a wicked kind of thing, this watching John as she leaned down into him; watching the muscle in his jaw tense and flex just before he beckoned his fingers against her and bit out a swear between his teeth when her body tensed and arched prettily into his touch. Needy and wanting; just the way that he liked, she was sure.
“Would’ve what?” she prompted breathlessly. John’s lashes, long and darker still from the shower spray, flickered. He seemed to be weighing it in his head, the pros and cons of what he had been going to say, but Elliot was no longer in a place of wanting to wobble. No floating, no drifting between ethereal and corporeal—she didn’t want to have to wonder, to have to piece together what it was he was thinking with the crumbling threads she could scoop up.
He didn't answer her; instead, he dragged his mouth along the slope of her neck, teeth digging against her pulse point. Elliot moaned, choking the noise halfway out of her spitefully, because she wanted him to earn it, and he did it again—harder this time, less like he was testing and more like he knew that she wanted it. The sting rippled heady anticipation straight to her brain, sparking through that hazy fog in her mind.
She sighed, "John," just as he dragged his fingers out slowly, torturously slowly, not enough to give her even half the friction she wanted and not so little that it didn’t make her suffer in the best sort of way. As soon as they didn’t return, but rather traveled the expanse of her abdomen, a quiet complaint slipped out of her; John kissed her, his tongue gliding against hers, his teeth nipping and biting as he dragged her leg up around his hip.
Everything felt like it was happening between breaths, between heartbeats, her pulse moving so sluggishly it was lava spreading through her body. Stifling, so hot, too hot, too much, but John’s mouth over hers pushed and pulled the breath out of her, guided the currents of her like the moon. Elliot tried again, giving the words more punch on their way out, “You would’ve what?”
She thought that she knew what he was going to say, and she wanted to hear him say it, that he would’ve—
“Fucked you,” John managed out hoarsely, just as he rocked into her. “God, I—”
Yes, she thought; the word left her mouth in something close to an exhale, and she didn’t know if she was responding to what he’d said or to the way it felt like he’d set a wildfire going racing along her skeleton the second they connected. He managed out a half-moaned swear and shifted into a slower, more leisurely paced as he sighed, “I would’ve, El— fuck , you’re so tight— ”
Pleasure wrenched in her stomach and writhed, hot and wicked. John’s pace was halting; he was trying not to go too fast or too hard even though he wanted to, but then he said things like how he wanted to fuck her while she was covered in blood and—
And she felt seen, and wanted, and she thought this must have been how they did it: took all of the grit and gore of someone and worshipped it, like something holy.
Biggest fucking Peggy-killer this side of Hope County, he’d spat at her that day they’d found Waylon’s body. But now? Now, it was all, so tight, El, want you, would’ve fucked you right there.
His hands grazed the bruises on her body before stopping at her hips again. He pulled back to get a good look at her, and then reached up, cradling her jaw with his left hand and dragging the pad of his thumb across her lip. A thrill crawled up her spine, hot and searing and latching onto her; she thought, this magic is mine now, too, and she parted her lips obediently to drag him into her mouth just so she could watch John just about come unglued.
And never before had she felt like this, wicked with John’s eyes blown wide and dark with want as his gaze fixed on her mouth and moaned, “God, Elliot—”
She wanted to forget about Kian’s hands on her body, his mouth on her skin, his words ringing in her head. So she did; she indulged in the feeling of John’s breath trembling as her tongue flickered against the pad of his thumb and the way he hissed as his pace changed. 
“Should have,” Elliot managed out when his thumb slipped from her mouth so that he could press his hand against the wall by her head. She said it between dizzying, radiating pleasure dragging through her body, devouring her, dragging her further and further toward the edge. “Should have—fucked me then, John, I—”
“F-Fuck.” The swear left his mouth wrecked, his movements stuttering. “Fuck, that’s so— filthy.”
He stopped tempering himself. If he was doing it because he was worried about whatever injuries she’d sustained, she was glad that he’d stopped—each haphazard, frenzied connection of their bodies sent her rapidly hurtling towards her finish, his fingers digging and dragging against the parts of her that craved him the most. It wasn’t fair, really, that John could rumble a few dirty things about wanting to fuck her in the woods and get her so close: but he did, and she was, and that was the end of it.
She breathed out, “Close, John—I’m—”
“Liked that, did you?” He sounded awfully pleased with himself, even as each of his breaths were punctuated with a desirous sound. “Liked me telling you how badly I wanted to push that dress up and fuck you right there? You get s-so —fucking tight when I say that—c’mon, El, let me hear those pretty noises—”
“Yes,” Elliot moaned, hazy with want, desperate and still trying to swallow some of it back, so close so close so close. “Yes, yes, I— John—”
John said something into her mouth; she couldn’t have said what it was, because all of the blood went rushing through her head the second her climax hit. There was a strange, suspended moment of nothing before it ripped straight through her, every neuron firing off rapidly as she buried her face into John’s neck and dug her nails in hard while the wave washed over her, wicked-hot and nearly too much.
Nearly, but not quite. John’s teeth on her lip dragged her back, and he moaned, “Holy shit, fuck yes —fuck, El, I’m gonna—let me—”
He couldn’t quite get out what he was trying to say, but Elliot thought she knew; it wasn’t hard to guess, anyway, considering the way he was gripping her like he’d fucking disappear if he didn’t. And she felt a little wild, a little wicked, only a vicious desire left before she hit empty, so she managed out, “Beg.”
John pulled back a little and let his gaze rake over her. His movements slowed, just enough that she could tell that he was pacing himself, holding back the same way he had that first time when she’d dragged him through his own climax. Though his eyes were blown nearly black, the clarity about them made her want to squirm—that she knew he wasn’t quite so high as he was before, that he was going to remember this.
“Wh—” The brunette swallowed thickly; his hands skimmed absently across her skin, like he didn’t need to really think about it to do it anymore, but that they did it of their own volition. “What?”
With that same kind of recklessness, Elliot knotted her fingers in his hair and said, “ Beg to finish inside me.”
A short, breathless laugh barked out of him. He said, “Fuck you. I’m not—I don’t—”
Elliot squirmed, pulling on his hair until his lashes fluttered and he was leaning back into her on instinct. “You do now,” she replied silkily against his mouth. And then, in an attempt at graciousness: “Didn’t you want me to be loud, John? To hear me?”
He groaned. “Y—Yes—”
“So beg me,” she bit out, canting her hips against him and feeling his breath stutter and hitch, “and I’ll be as loud—”
“Fuck—”
“—as you want—”
“— yes —”
“—tell you how much I want it—”
“ Please,” John moaned as he slotted his hips against hers, unable to hold still any longer. He made a low, wrecked sound, and by the time the adrenaline rush from hearing John Seed say please to her had hit her brain he was foregoing all pretense. “Please, El, let me finish inside you, I’ll—fuck—make you feel so good, baby, make you mine—”
Elliot kissed him, hard and punishing, and moaned “Yes—yes, John, so good ,” against his mouth until he was driving into her like a man incensed, frenzied, each desperate dig of his fingers against the bruises in her skin delivering a different kind of delicious pain; and when he came, panting, yes, fuck yes, don’t stop, El, please, fuck, she held onto him tighter.
Anything to feel whole. Anything to feel safe. Anything to forget, even for a moment.
“Don’t move,” John managed out unsteadily. “Don’t—Jesus, fuck, it’s so fucking hot in here.”
“Don’t know where I’d go,” she replied in a murmur. Her brain felt foggy now, delicious sliding down from her high, remembering the surge of delight she’d felt when John had said please, El. The water had since gone lukewarm, and she wasn’t sure she even got all of the blood out of her hair, but it didn’t matter; pleasant after-currents rippled through her, and all she could think about was how little of her brain was being spent on churning around the Family.
John’s mouth traced a bruise on her neck—either from him, or Kian; she didn’t know—and his breath slid across her skin.
“Viper,” he murmured huskily, admiringly. “Aren’t you?”
“You said it yourself,” she replied tiredly, eyes fluttering as the desperate need for sleep finally registered in her brain; no more adrenaline to keep pushing it away. “More devil than woman.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
It was the second time waking up next to John, and the second time of having to try and brace herself for some kind of impact after.
That is to say, Elliot thought that maybe fucking John Seed felt a little bit like throwing herself off of a cliff, and so every time it happened—she thought, as though it had been more than twice—it was the same sensation of falling. The feeling prevailed over any other logic in her brain: upon waking, she thought very little of the sensation of his arm draped over her waist or his face buried into her hair and only of the sheer blast of panic that raced through her.
I smell, I feel, I hear, she thought, closing her eyes tight, but when she did, she saw Kian—blood streaming down his face, gripping her jaw, will you feel guilty about this too? And the panic shifted into dread, knotting tight and hard in her stomach.
She forced her eyes open. Sheer exhaustion had pushed her through a dreamless night, but that didn’t mean that her nightmares were confined to sleeping hours only.
When Elliot shifted, John stirred; his fingers skimmed up the back of her shirt, palm flattening at the spot between her shoulder blades, and she winced. Everything hurt. Everything ached. She wondered what was worse; nightmares, or this?
Definitely the nightmares, she thought, each breath a labor of her bruised and battered body. Right? Has to be the nightmares.
“Stop moving,” John muttered against her head.
“I don’t know why you don’t get the concept of a twin bed,” she snapped. “Fuck, my body hurts—”
“Well.” He was clearly trying not to sound smug, and failing; she could feel his grin into her hair. “I do recall you spurring me on—”
Oh, she thought, reminded of their shared shower. That.
A problem.
“Not from that, fuckhead.” She squirmed back from him, back pressing against the wall. “Feels like someone tried to curb stomp my ribs eighty times.”
“Probably did,” he replied. John tilted his head, wincing a little, and then nudged the blankets back from her body. His gaze was admiring. “Christ, you bruise easy, huh?”
“A fucking van t-boned us in a truck that spit out pitiful, half-functioning airbags, ” she bit out, “and then I got tossed around like a ragdoll, so—yeah, I guess if you consider battery and assault “easy”, then—”
John’s hands came up to her face and he kissed her. It lacked the same kind of urgency that it’d had last night; this was John taking his time, savoring her, parting his lips against hers and sighing into the kiss as he carded his fingers through her hair. The gesture itself was so unexpected that Elliot could do nothing but reciprocate, and the breath hitched in her throat as he tugged her back against him—part in pain and part because of the way he did it, like he just couldn’t get enough of her.
“So ungrateful,” he said against her mouth, “after I gave you what you wanted so badly last night.”
“I’m not the one who begged,”   Elliot replied sharply, “am I?”
John’s hand skimmed the slope of her hip, and he made a low noise, thumb digging past the top of her underwear to press lightly into a bruise that she thought his fingers had left. She sucked in a sharp breath as a familiar heat sprinted down her spine and squirmed.
“Worth it,” he replied after a moment, teeth catching her lip, “to have you say how much you wanted me in you.”
He flashed that half-cocked, shit-eating grin that she could feel against her mouth, and she swatted his hand away from her hip. There was, perhaps, a part of her that regretted goading him like that—that regretted spurring him on—but there was no point in lingering on it now. As much as John might want to. As much as, when he looked at her with those too-blue eyes, she might want to.
Elliot opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, there was a soft, quick knock at the door. Boomer, curled up on one of her sweaters by the door, immediately pricked his ears and barked at the intrusion.
“Elliot?” It was Faith’s voice. She felt her stomach somersault, plunged into—well, it wasn’t quite shame, but maybe a little bit of embarrassment, in the way that it was to have the little sister of the man you were currently entangled with knock on your door while you were still in bed.
“I’m—” Elliot sat up, slapping a hand over John’s mouth when she saw him start to say something. “I’m getting dressed, what is it?”
“Joseph wants to talk to you,” Faith called back, pausing. And then, perhaps with a bit more slyness than Elliot liked: “And John.”
Fuck fuck fuck. The last thing she wanted was for Joseph to know . There was probably a ninety-eight percent chance that Joseph was going to be flashing that psychotic smile the second she walked in, knowing that she and John were—
“W—I’m coming,” she said, as John gripped her forearm and pressed his mouth to the pulse point on her wrist, letting his teeth drag there. She yanked her arm out of his grip and hissed, “Stop , you fucker, or I’ll pick my teeth with your fucking bones.”
“Okay,” came Faith’s light-hearted reply. “See you soon!”
As soon as she heard the footsteps receding, she turned to John. “What the fuck does your brother want with me, John?”
John shrugged. “Contrary to what you may believe about me, I am not entirely all-knowing.”
“As usual, you are stunningly unhelpful,” she muttered crossly, sliding out of the bed and over to her bag of clothes. Now, she really felt it—each impact had been dulled by the adrenaline at the time, but as she shimmied into her jeans, every inch of her body screamed in pain and her vision fuzzed around the edges.
John had gotten out of bed as well, but he departed to the bathroom and returned with a bottle of aspirin, which he shook two pills out of and held in his palm for her.
“You might consider something with a higher neck,” he suggested lightly.
Elliot snatched the aspirin out of his hand and swallowed them dry. “My teeth,” she said, jabbing a finger into his chest, “your bones.”
“Just trying to be helpful.”
“Suggestion box is closed,” Elliot snapped. “Now—”
Her eyes flickered over him. It was very easy to disassociate John’s personality from his physical body, but harder when he was half-stripped-down in front of her, scars and tattoos on display and reminding her how intimately familiar she was becoming with them.
“Now put your clothes on,” she finally said, somehow managing to keep her voice mostly steady. “I want to get this done as fast as possible.”
The brunette flashed her a cheeky smile and gave her a two-finger salute that rang sardonic at best.
“Anything you want, baby.”
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