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nachohypno · 3 years

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Pine’s Football Jocks (Rewritten) - Ch. 2

Little heads up: This one is a weird thing. It’s a rewritten version of the original Pine’s Football Jocks, but it contains spoilers for the college series, so it should still be read after reading the other ones (Original included) first, like a sequel.

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Present Pine's POV

I had an awful day. Nothing bad really happened, just a lot of stuff to do and me not being capable of doing it all. Skipping today's football practice, I had to take a bus to the sports club and check out that everything was working out (Hah, see what I did there?) with the coaches that were working today. I needed more employees? Yes. But keeping up with the maintenance while still having to do my college essays during my free times was actual hell.

I think I'm smart enough to keep being one of the best of my class (Spot that I'm afraid I'll lose soon), but I don't have enough energy to do all of this at once.

I'm not going to lie, these many responsibilities are *burning me out*. I'm heavily considering giving up the football team back to Peter (Of course, keeping him under control and checked), or set a new manager for the sports club. It's a hard choice, but I'm not going to stop studying to keep track of those two little jobs I got for myself. I also love those jocks way too much to let them go.

Have you spent an evening with them? The revamped football team is lovely! They're always joking around and being nice whenever they're not on the field or studying. Gotta spread the jock love around the campus, right?

Taking care of Mike wasn't an easy task either. The big guy was heavily expecting news to know if he would be able to play again without any risks, or if he'd have to focus completely on getting his college degree.

Mikey wasn't used to being restricted before, he's the physical kind of guy and likes to spend a good amount of time working out or playing sports, or chilling in a physical kind of way. Videogames could keep him entertained, but only so much.

So, he went back to his other favorite hobby...

I sat on the couch, leaving my laptop on my lap readying myself to check out some documents, and suddenly heard an awfully loud fart. Jumping up again, I realized I had sat on Mike's whoopee cushion. A loud laugh could be heard from the couch.

"Never gets old! I was wondering how much you would take to sit on that one spot, because filling the couch with whoopee cushions would be quite expensive!" He said while walking into the room, as I took the cushion and threw it at him, but the shot failed awfully.

The guy was wearing a football jersey that looked like a pajama shirt without the armor underneath it. It still managed to make his pecs stand out a bit, which made me take the work off my mind for a bit and I was thankful for that.

I tried to be comprehensive, it was either that or watch his football team play without him while he's on the bench. Or study, but that was always slow and boring for him when he’s not ordered to do so. 'Nothing better than being stuck in here, with an amazing boyfriend, and just being able to read books about biology' He'd say, jokefully, trying to take a bright look at his situation.

I thought about hiring him as one of the club's trainers, since he has a good amount of knowledge on the matter, already helps anyone who'd ask him nicely, and he wouldn't need to make a lot of effort with his bad arm!

...Better than having him prank me all day, I guess. Or laying around while groaning ‘I’m boreeeeeeeed…’

Loud steps and he jumped over the couch to sit down beside me. “Hey there, bro. How was your day? Went to my classes and did all my homework already. Need help with anything?”

“Not really, just gotta finish examining these documents Peter forwarded me and I’ll be done for the day” Just a bit longer and I would be free from work!

“Did coach Peter mention something about me? Maybe he can pull some strings and allow me to… I dunno, take a magic drug that’ll heal my arm and make me into a super soldier?” I can see he has been watching movies lately.

“You know what the doctor said. Just a few more weeks and-”

He rolled his eyes. "C'moooon, just a few more weeks could be enough for that temporary quarterback to steal my spot!" He's so paranoid about that.

"Who's the coach?" I asked him, pushing my glasses back into place.

"You are, bro, but-"

"Thus, who has the final choice about who plays and who doesn't?" I didn't try to sound dominant, but it kind of came out like that on its own.

"You do, sir." Mike answered, sounding a bit defeated. I motioned him to come closer, and he did, then I grabbed his hand and pulled him in to lay on my lap (Being careful and leaving the laptop beside me to make room for him).

"Just relax, let your arm get better, then you'll be back on the field in no time, alright?" I whispered to him, trying to sound confident. A little kiss on his lips, and he nodded.

"Sure, whatever you say." He sighed.

I ruffled his hair. "Good boy, now... Want to hear the rest of the story? You fell asleep yesterday" Maybe that would get his mind off things again. It seemed to make wonders yesterday.

"Really? Oh, fuck. Where were we?" Mike asked, scratching the back of his head nervously. "I remember the outing, I went to change, then we resumed with some time later on?"

"Before I got my powers, yeah." I finished, turning around from him and looking for the doc file on my laptop. "Well, take a seat. I have some time so we can continue the story where we left it..."

As I grabbed my laptop, Mike got up and positioned himself belly down on the couch, occupying the rest of available space while getting comfortable (He kind of didn’t fit while doing that, so he had to keep his legs up to actually fit his whole torso on the couch).

I chuckled, before leaving the laptop on my lap again and looking over for the spot I left it at yesterday...

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Past Pine's POV

Nighttime already. My arm was still hurting, but quite less than earlier today.

My family was nice. Mom and dad are nice, and my big brother Dwight sometimes comes to visit after a big exam. He's not a jock, but he's not a nerd either. You learn to differentiate them after a while. Just those two sides of the spectrum exist for me: Nice guys, and not so nice guys. He's nice, but loves to bug me from time to time. ‘Middle point’ is how I describe him.

It's understandable though, I'm easy to bug.

I honestly just wanted to go to sleep, and silently count the days until my graduation. Then, I'd be able to enter some random college, hopefully a great one, and be done with this.

After dinner, I went up to the bathroom and checked out my arm. It didn’t look bad, nor it had any sign of me having been shoved. Just a little pain, but nothing else. I could cope with that.

Going back to my room afterwards, I dropped to bed and just reminded myself it would all be over soon. A nice career waiting for me after college if I worked hard enough, then the good life!

A little smile formed on my face as I fell asleep.

Okay, I'm not a big dreamer. Like, I never have dreams, and if I do they're weird things where I get run over by cars out of nowhere or medieval-like settings. Like my mind is setting up these weird scenarios to keep myself entertained even when I sleep, but I often forget about them quickly so no point on that either.

This time, it was like I was awake, but at the same time I kind of knew I was asleep.

A lullaby was being hummed, I was on my bed covered by my sheets, the ones that protect me from monsters!

The lullaby was nice and relaxing, but it felt like... it came from inside my head? Imagine being in your bed all comfy and suddenly Zelda's Lullaby starts playing on your head and makes you feel like everything is alright but nothing is alright because there are still months of bullying waiting for you at school but those thoughts are also getting muffled by the nice lullaby, which made not want to move at all.

The thing kept going for a few minutes, which developed into a nice sleep for the night as I forgot about my worries. Like I was a bit more 'in control' of my anxieties.

One thing was for certain, that was the best sleep I had in a goooood while.

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The relaxation didn't last long.

I felt sick. I really didn't want to go to school today. One thing was for certain, that was one hell of a weird dream, but also quite amazing.

I had a really bad headache, but it didn't feel fever-ish. I could move myself without any pain, so I thought it was just a lack of sleep. 'Maybe a coffee will help me out...' I thought, as I got up from bed and lazily walked out. According to my phone, I woke up way sooner than I should have to. But maybe that'd give me time to enjoy a nice breakfast. Believe me, I'm not in a hurry to go to school anymore.

'Ugh... Can't see...' I thought. I liked to wash my face before putting my glasses on. Helps me wake up faster, maybe it'd help with the headache too.

Walking out of my room in my pajamas, with my glasses in hand.

I yawned, rubbing my eyes.

"Watch it!" I heard my brother saying. He had come out of his own room and we almost crashed into each other. He didn't sound mad, just a bit annoyed. "Rough night?"

"Uh... kinda," I mumbled, trying to process all the stuff he just said.

My older brother patted my back "Don't stay up studying for too long, you'll forget half of it once you graduate anyways." He said in a funny voice. As I mentioned, he's nice. Loves to bug me and my love for disconnecting from the world by just... reading books, but he's still a good brother.

"Never, heheh." I tried to seem cool, finger gunning at him, but Dwight just laughed at me. "Hey, you're heading downstairs, right?" He nodded. He was wearing some joggins and a sweatshirt, so I guessed he was going to jog for a while. "Turn the coffee machine on, please. I wouldn’t mind a good breakfast today…” I said, holding my stomach with my empty hand. I was hungry, not going to lie.

I didn't get an answer from him, but instead noticed him walking away without a single word. Quite rude I thought, but decided to shrug the thought off and go to the bathroom.

After washing my face, I placed my hand on my forehead. It was normal, no fever, but the pain was still there. I could ask mom if I should take some medicine, but she may still be asleep.

A little part of me wanted to use this as an excuse to miss school today. Imagine getting through the whoooole day, with Garrett and his army of neanderthals following your ass all day, and not in the good way.

Walking downstairs, still in my pajamas, I noticed Dwight walking out of the kitchen and heading outside already. I opened my mouth to ask if he did my coffee, but he faced me as soon as he noticed my presence.

“Hey, made you some quick breakfast. Enjoy, Piney! Gonna jog for a while, alright?” I nodded, kind of wondering what got to him. It’s like, he’s not really a bad brother, but he wouldn’t make me breakfast even if I asked reeaaaally nicely.

I stood there as I watched him leave the house. I went to the kitchen afterwards, and noticed Dwight prepared me a mug of coffee and left a cereal bar next to it. Hey, he tried! That’s what counts.

I enjoyed my quick breakfast as I watched a bit of TV, trying to make time before going to school, but I figured I wouldn’t be able to do that. Even if I tried to take it slow, I felt compelled to finish quickly and go back to my room to change.

Sucks being such a responsible asshole! But whatever, my mug was empty and I finished my cereal bar.

Just had to get ready, head to school and… try to be a ninja around there, because this headache wasn’t going off.

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Hours later, it had been a good day so far!

I mean, as good as a school day can be, of course, but I still really enjoyed my classes! No jocks nearby either, so that’s another plus!

My headache wasn’t there anymore, luckily. It’s like the world was turning brighter for me each moment I thought about it. I had fun in math and literature, Garrett and a few of his teammates were there, but either they didn’t notice me or my ninja skills (Aka lowering my head to the point of seeming stuck to the table) helped a lot!

And now, I just had to head to my locker, leave last class’s book in there and grab the next one, and keep doing as well as-

“Oh hey, it’s faggot!”

Spoke too soon.

I didn’t look back, I tried to pick up my pace as soon as I heard the familiar voice, but it seemed to be quite pointless.

Garrett grabbed me by the shoulders, and dragged me into an empty classroom. My attempt to make a stealthy escape failed miserably and I was now getting one of my weekly’s beat ups. The sad part was that nobody in the corridor seemed to notice or care.

Closing the door after throwing me in, I started walking away from him. Maybe I could loop him around some tables, I saw that working in a video game!

“What’s up, faggot? Scared of a real man like me?” He slapped his chest, asserting his dominance or something? Fuck, and I thought this was going to be a good day.

The guy chuckled at his comment, before charging against me. I avoided him, and started walking around a desk, trying to avoid him by keeping a good chunk of distance and going towards the opposite direction he tried to go. I knew he was getting mad quite fast, but I didn’t care. If I could slow him down enough for the bell to ring, I’d be happy and safe!

Good thing that this was a biology/chemistry classroom. The desks were long enough for me to keep distance from the big mean guy, and if he tried to attack me I could maybe grab something from the desk and get him off me…

Fuck, my thoughts about self-defense using chemistry instruments distracted, and Garrett was now a few feet away from me now. He enjoyed this little cat and mouse game, it got him in the mood for ‘a good beating’. I wonder if he’s mentally sick or something like that, because he enjoys this a lot.

“Fuck, you’re really putting on a show today, ain’t ya?” He mumbled, grabbing me by the wrist and twisting it to make me move closer to him.

“Let… go!” I told him, covering my face with my free hand just in case he tried to hit me.

And surprisingly, he did.

Of course, I didn’t stop covering my face. But I did notice the jock was standing there, his face still showing off that proud asshole-ish grin. “Wait… you’re letting me go?” I asked, with some hope in my voice. Maybe Garrett wasn’t so bad after all!

“Uh… yeah… no need to hold you to beat you up!” He resumed. After that little ‘realization’, the linebacker tried to charge at me without a single doubt on his face. He was really enjoying this

After that, the guy walked closer and held his fist up preparing his first strike. Before that would happen, I yelled “Stop!”. What, you thought I’d stand there waiting for the blow? I’m not an idiot! Hopefully, someone would hear me and rush inside the classroom!

Once again, I was surprised to realize Garrett did as I said. Or sort of. He froze in place, still smiling with his fist high. I kept walking away but my bully didn’t move at all. By this point, I knew something wrong was going on. I mean, I’m not saying I would have preferred for him to beat me up, but I was pretty curious about what was happening.

“Man, can’t wait to freaking beat you up today. Had an awful morning and I need my favorite punching bag to get off” But he still wouldn’t move.

“Then… what are you waiting for?” I was tempting him now. What if this was just a very elaborated joke and he would just break my glasses with a single punch?

“I dunno. Just wanna prolong it to scare you a bit more, I guess” He shrugged. He freaking shrugged, like we were chatting about a normal subject, not beating me up.

I loved that last ‘I guess’ though. It kind of gave me a little push to try out if this was really happening or I was just going crazy while Garrett played around with me like a spider.

“Can you put your arms down?” I asked him, and he did so. He still retained his cocky smile, but he just seemed alright with doing what I just asked him to do for me. “Uhm… Flex now?” And he did as I asked.

Okay, I’m not going to say I lust after this piece of poop, but these biceps oh lord. I wondered if he was on steroids or something. Can a senior student really be that muscled?

He’s 18, like most of my class and his whole team, but I think he’s one of the biggest ones I’ve seen in there. “Can tell you’re really thirsty, nerd. No wonder why, always knew you had a crush on me. Sick pervert…” He mumbled.

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t mind being as far from you as possible.” I was cocky and I shouldn’t act like that. “But now that you mention it, I’d like to examine you closer and I’m sure you won’t try to harm me in any way.”

Uh… his eyes seemed weird, but before I could check them out, they returned to normal as he started speaking again. “Of course I won’t. Why would I waste my energy in a lil’ faggot like you?” Was his answer, before I walked closer to him. He was still flexing his arms, pecs noticeable under his shirt. Baby stepping towards him, I reached out and started touching his arms first.

“Not going to lie… you do have some nice muscles…” I mumbled, bringing my other arm to feel him up too. I was shaking, my heart was beating like crazy, but I couldn’t help myself. Garrett was exposing himself to me like it was a normal thing to do.

“I know I do. Chicks love ‘em, but you don’t know about that, huh faggot? You look skinny as a twig.” Ouch. I mean, it wasn’t really something hurtful, especially since he told me worse things before.

It was a good chance to try out if this was an elaborate joke or not. “Hey, that wasn’t nice at all. You should apologize, Garrett. Pretty sure you just want to be a nice guy to me, don’t you?” I took a step back again, because there was a 50% chance it would actually be a big joke and he was just playing along until this point.

“Y’know what? You’re right, nerd. I’m sorry. Would hate if someone body-shamed me too… Uh…” I was really surprised. Jaw-dropping surprise. Here was Garrett, the king of the football team, the big meanie, the superior asshole, apologizing to me after I suggested him to do so. I think I noticed his eyes getting glazed as he spoke? I couldn’t tell, there was a few inches of distance and my glasses weren’t helping now.

“Thank… you?” I didn’t know how to take what was going on. Maybe I was still dreaming! Hmm… No, dreams aren’t this long. Something definitely happened, and Garrett is doing what I tell him to do.

I looked up at him, as he stared around, probably trying to avoid looking at me or I just wasn’t worth his attention anymore.

My bully didn’t seem so menacing anymore, he just looked like a normal guy. It doesn’t erase the fact that he brought me so much pain before but… he was just exploring the area with his gaze now, like he just got bored of me and wanted something else to focus on.

I still don’t know if I’m doing something or if he just decided to be less of an asshole suddenly, but it seems that he’s reacting quite obediently to what I’m saying. Remembering that we are in an empty classroom that may not stay empty for too long, I decided we may just leave the scene and try out more stuff later, for testing purposes.

“So… I’m going to my next class now…” I started to say, and Garrett looked at me again.

The jock nodded. “Yeah… I should do the same, nerd. Uh…” Again, he seemed confused. Scratching the back of his head, he turned around and started walking towards the classroom’s door.

“But… Uhm… I think you should invite me over to your place after school…” I had to find the words for this to not sound weird, but it was almost impossible. How do you suggest someone to invite them to your place? I’m not a very social guy either, so that added a bit of doubt if what I was saying was normal or not. “You know, for a good study session with your favorite nerd?”

I tried to appeal to the nickname he gave me. It was better than ‘faggot’ at least. Garrett stared at me, like waiting for me to finish talking, before flashing a smile. “Yeah, of course we’re going to my place. I’ll take ya after school, I guess?” His confusion was still notorious, but he seemed to try and take the best out of this. It was quite nice from him.

After he walked out of the classroom, I did a little celebration dance. I got Garrett to not only not beat me up, but also treat me nice! I still wasn’t sure what was going on, but I’m going to enjoy this evening after school!

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As you may have guessed, I was kind of dying inside. Not literally, but I like to be dramatic sometimes.

Garrett waited for me after school in his car. I sat on the co-driver’s seat and just… stood there silent. He didn’t seem like a chatter box either, so it was just a nice silent moment between bully and random gay guy.

After a few moments of staring straight ahead, the jock turned the car on and drove off. His face didn’t seem confused anymore, but it was clear he wasn’t happy either. I wasn’t a blissful flower either, I knew what I was doing.

I wanted to try out this apparent new “ability” of mine, and it got me to Garrett’s house. Now I was walking into the wolf’s mouth, but he wouldn’t be as dumb as to beat me up in his own house, right?

“So… Garrett… Uh… Tell me what do you think about like… us, hanging out today?” I asked him, still nervous but trying to get the hang of whatever that was going on with me. “Oh, and uh… be honest about it, speak your mind and all that”

He eyed me, probably a bit weirded out by my choice of words, but still answered “It’s weird. I never thought I’d be driving you home, much less having a study session with you. You being, y’know, a nerdy fag and all that. It’s weird that we’re hanging out at all, we never hung out before”

Then he focuses back on the road. I did the same, not knowing what to answer. But he gave me a little push, returning the question. “What about you? Uh… Have you ever tutored someone before? I know my mates need some help”

“I used to help Mikey- Ehem, Mike, with his homework. And I find learning exciting, so helping others with it just comes naturally, you know?”

“Y’sound like a nerd. Sorry, had to point that out” He turned the wheel, and I noticed the houses looked a bit more luxurious on this side of town. Not that my house is awful or anything, but these look like really cozy places to be. I knew Garrett was wealthy, but didn’t know he lived in a mansion!

“What’s the deal with Mike anyway? I used to think you two were lovers or some shit like that, never got what he found in you.” The jock continued, without taking his eyes off the road.

I got a glimpse of his big arms as they held the steering wheel. They seemed to be holding the thing really aggressively, before letting go slowly. Like he was struggling, but it made his muscles and veins stand out a bit more.

“That’s kind of personal, so… I wouldn’t like to go there, if you don’t mind.” I tried to avoid the topic, especially because he was one of the reasons I stopped hanging out with Mike, but I don’t think he cared about it. Garrett wasn’t a nice guy.

He shrugged, “Whatever, keep the love story for yourself then. We… just arrived.” He took a moment for those last few words because he tried to park on the big driveway. The house was reaaaally nice looking. Like, not huge, but at the same time not your normal suburban house. I loved it, not going to lie.

I was in awe, as I grabbed my stuff and walked out of the car. The place was beautiful! And Garrett stopped at the front door waiting for me. He was waiting for me!

I picked up the pace and followed him in. The ‘lobby’ was good looking too. Kind of empty, but still gave that welcoming feeling you expect when you enter a house.

“So, do you prefer studying in the dining room, or my room? You’re the… teacher…? here, I guess” It didn’t feel natural for him to say that, I could tell. He was still kind of struggling, as his hands were closed and seemed to be clenching into fists, but at the same time he offered me a gentle smile.

“Your room would be perfect. We could use some extra privacy for… studying. Yeah, just studying.” I replied, as I kept looking around. I’m not going to get tired to say that this place is huge-

My little expedition was interrupted by Garrett’s pair of big hands. Taking me on a tour apparently wasn’t his goal, he just made sure I walked faster towards our destination: His bedroom, while not getting distracted by the place.

My bully only let go of me once we arrived at his room. He let me go in first, before dropping himself on his desk chair. The door was wide open, and I was tempted to close it but maybe I should make a bit of chit chat first.

Garrett’s room… It was alright. In comparison to the rest I’ve seen so far in this house, this one room looked kind of small, but still wide enough to contain Garrett’s interests. A computer, a console with a pair of joysticks, and a big bed against the wall.

“What are we going to study, by the way?” He looked at me. I took a good moment to examine his face now. No more confusion, one of his eyebrows raised, as he stared at me with friendly eyes.

His arms were still kind of twitching, but he was apparently trying to contain them by playing with one of his cord bracelets.

Now, time to keep testing my ‘power’.

“Well…” It was difficult to put it into words. He seemed to believe and/or do whatever I suggested him to do, and find out a way to make it his own idea. That’s what I theorized so far. So… “Garrett… You trust me completely.” I tried to avoid making it sound like a question, and more like an order. It was weird, but I just wanted to put more ‘power’ into my words, if that makes sense?

Now that I could see him clearly, I noticed his eyes definitely glazed over before he spoke again “I trust you completely.” After the words were said, emotion had returned to his face already. He sat down on his bed, still staring at me.

That’s great! I actually do seem to have powers! And Garrett was doing everything I said! Fuuuuuuck. This opened so many possibilities. I wanted to jump with excitement but I didn’t want Garrett to think I was weird.

“And also, we weren’t going to study,” Okay, this seems like I’m pulling his dick now. Studying was the whole reason he ‘invited’ me over, so if I pulled that out of the question, his reaction could change completely, right? Don’t mind me, just investigating here. “You asked me to come because you wanted to talk with me”

As I thought, he seemed confused again. Poor guy may be having the weirdest day of his life. But he didn’t fight me on that, he just nodded before agreeing. “Uh… Yeah…” Then he shook his head for a bit “Sorry, nerd. I’m a bit lost today. I can’t even remember what I wanted to talk about, fuck.”

The bigger guy tapped his head a few times, apparently trying to remember. Better help him ‘remember’ what he had to say, hehehe.

“It’s okay, you actually told me what you wanted to say and everything. You want to apologize for being such a dick to me” I don’t usually speak like this, but if I got him to apologize, then getting him to do anything else may be a piece of cake. And if I’m going way too far, then at least hearing that apologize would be really great on its own.

His eyes went glassy again. Great! A few seconds afterwards, he replied with a “Yeah. I’m really sorry for being such a dick to you.” And after shaking his head again, his blank face changing to a sad expression “Can’t believe I did all those awful things to you, I’m so fucking sorry, man.”

No more glazed eyes, but he didn’t seem to be tearing up exactly. I’m not a sadistic guy though, I just wanted a bit of payback after these few months. I could use the dick card and be like ‘I don’t accept that, you’ll have to do so much better for me to forgive you’.

But… I’m smarter than that.

“Okay, apology accepted, I guess.” I tried to sound uninterested, but the apology thing was enough for me to internally freak out again. Couldn’t show mercy, though! “I’ll have to think it through, but in the meantime we could… make a deal?”

Garrett raised his eyebrow, but before he could reply something or tell me to fuck off, I decided to interrupt his train of thoughts with another command. “You’re curious about what I’m talking about and you’ll accept the deal no matter what it is”

That should be explicit enough. Eyes glazed over again, as he nodded slowly.

“Yeah… I’m really curious. What do you have in mind, nerd-o?” That ‘nerd’ thing would be nice to change, but it’s not as bad as it felt before, at least!

I tried to think about exactly what I wanted to say to him, because I didn’t know if I could control this ‘persuasion’ or ‘make him obey whatever I say’ thing. So better be careful, even if he deserved an accident.

“This is the deal: You will obey everything I say and will love to do so, no questions asked. You’ll start to recognize me as your absolute superior, like… your master? Yeah, that sounds good, you will call me ‘Master’ when we’re alone.”

Garrett remained silent as I talked, which was good. No unwanted interruptions as I explained the terms of our ‘deal’! “You will treat me like your best- No, that spot is sort of still taken… You will treat me like a good friend. Understood?”

No reaction at all, until a few seconds passed. Then a smile appeared on his face. “That’s it? Of course, bro! Sounds like a great deal!”

“Wait, I’m not done.” I wanted this to be the *perfect* moment for us. Like, here was my bully, and I was about to take complete control over him. I didn’t want this to go wrong by any means. “Uh… One last thing, for now. You will start feeling attracted towards me, if that makes sense…” Would I be able to also manipulate his feelings? Only time will tell, I guess.

He didn’t freeze this time; the reaction came way faster than before. Garrett turned around to see if his door was closed, which wasn’t, so he got up to close it before answering a very proud “Yes, master! We got a deal!”

Great! It worked! Now, some testing was needed to ensure the orders I just gave him worked perfectly. First things first… “Do you mind if I call you Gary? Bit less of a mouthful than ‘Garrett’”

“No problem, Master. My bros call me Gary all the time” He stated, smiling like an idiot.

“Right, great. Uhm, stand up now Gary. And, uh… Lift your shirt up so I can check you out” I ordered. The jock in front of me didn’t hesitate, getting up from his bed and moving his hand to the bottom of his shirt, slowly lifting it up.

His abs seemed rock hard, his pecs were great looking. Was this a high school linebacker or a bodybuilder on steroids? Maybe he takes steroids for football? I don’t know, but I loved it. I moved closer and caressed his abs up and down. He just smiled at me as I admired his torso. It was weird, but also quite fun.

“What do you think about this whole… situation, Gary?” I asked, as I moved my hand up to his pecs and played with them for a bit.

“Honestly, I never thought I’d be doing this. But it’s what you want, Master, so I’m happy to do it” ‘Smart answer’ I thought.

“Uh Huh... Say, have you ever… done something with another guy?” I asked him, without taking my eyes off the pecs. “As in sexual stuff, I mean…”

“Nah, Master. I’m straight as an arrow, never done something with another guy. Prefer them chicks with big… personalities, know what I mean?” He sounded gross again for a bit, but as soon as he shut up and went back to smiling like an idiot, I was happy.

“Funny, neither did I,” I said, looking up at his face again. “And you will help me with that, don’t you?”

His smile faded. “Yes, Master.” Gary said, as I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in for a kiss. And he was kissing back.

My first kiss was happening with my bully jock ‘slave’. Huh, that’s weird to say. Guess I’ll have to get used to it.

I didn’t know the difference between ‘good kiss’ and ‘bad kiss’. But it felt amazing, and magical, and just… it was turning me on so much. Maybe I can say that he’s an amazing kisser?

We stood like that, taking little breaks from time to time to breath, where he would smile at me and I would just blush. I don’t romantically like Garrett, he caused me so much pain, but I wanted to enjoy this. I’m not going to cause pain to him, because I’m not evil. I’m nicer than him. Better, I would say.

I found it funny that he would still hold his shirt up. I could have told him to take it off, but there was something about it that made me choose not to. I wanted to see his body, but let’s leave the full naked stuff for later.

We stopped kissing.

“So, uh… I’ve heard rumors about your… ‘thing’, down there.” I mumbled, as I groped his crotch. I wanted to sound confident, but it felt really weird after so much time of keeping myself ‘hidden’. Gary didn’t answer, he was still smiling at me. “Can I see, Gary?”

“Of course, Master. Anything you want!” He accepted, and I looked down to undo his belt and lower his jeans. Huh… It was semi-hard.

A bit veiny, 4/5’ inches semi-hard? I’m not a cock measurer, but I think that’s quite good.

I slowly went down until I faced Gary’s cock. I wasn’t sure if I should do this. This wasn’t going to bring me any pleasure. But maybe…

“Gary, I’m going to give you the best blowjob you’ve ever had. And as I do, I want you to feel the orders and the deal we made today cemented on your mind, understood?” It could be of use for our control thing.

“Understood, Master” I dove in the cock after that. Slowly taking the tip in first and giving some gentle licks before starting to get more of Garrett’s cock inside my mouth. It wasn’t hard to do, getting it inside. And then I just had to take it in and out, being careful with the teeth and trying my best with my tongue.

“You like that?” I asked him as I rested for a few seconds, before getting it back in my mouth. It felt naughty, and awesome! Like, the adrenaline of doing the dirty stuff with another guy… Huh, and I haven’t lost my cherry yet!

“Yeah, feels great… Keep going, Master… Please…” He moaned, arms behind his head as he sported a relaxed face. I loved hearing him calling me master, not going to lie!

Although, after thinking about it for a bit, it would be better if I didn’t let him cum. Maybe I could get him to record a video of himself jerking off or something for later. Anyway…

I took the cock out of my mouth and got up. “I want you to listen carefully, okay?” Gary nodded, not seeming to care about me not finishing the job. “When in public, you will still act somewhat attached to me, like we are good friends. And if someone suspects about it you will explain that I’ve been tutoring you and that I’m an amazing teacher, understood?”

“We’re good friends, you’re helping me with tutoring, and you’re an amazing teacher. Gotcha, Master” He repeated, eyes a bit unfocused again, but still a degree of emotion on his voice.

I ruffled his hair. He would have beaten me up in the past for that, now he just smiled even more than before.

“Good… boy.” Felt amazing to say that! “Could you give me a ride home now?”

-----

Present Pine’s POV

“What’s up now?” I stopped reading after noticing Mike was frowning. Like when you see that one character you don’t like in a TV show on-screen, that type of frown. “I thought you and Gary made up with each other already?” I assumed that was the problem, the big guy may have felt a bit jealous of his former football mate.

It killed me not reading his thoughts whenever I wonder if something is wrong, but I respected my best friend and boyfriend’s mental privacy. And if Leo or any other mind controller (Assuming there are more) discovered about this, they would laugh at my face.

“I know, he’s my bro and all but you gotta admit that he was such a dick before. I’m pretty chilled but I don’t think I could have just… given a turn to his personality and called it a day” He chuckled, as I closed the laptop. “Probably would have been way unforgiving, but you’re the lead here, bro”

“Well anyway, enough story for today. Any thoughts you’d like to share? This one was one of my favorite moments of the first plan I had” I mentioned, leaving the laptop on the coffee table before setting my attention to the jockboy beside me.

“It was great, got me hooked already. It’s also a nice throwback, ‘cuz I barely remember senior year other than ‘playing lots of football’ and doing awesome pranks” Mikey said, leaning in quickly to kiss my cheek. “By the way, which guy comes next? Is it me?”

He seemed excited to know the answer. It was Brent, Garrett’s friend, but I wasn’t going to give it away. Gotta keep my public engaged!

“Sorry big guy, got to keep the mystery, hehe.” Mike looked disappointed at my answer, but I just ruffled his hair. “But hey, all this reading about mind control got me in the mood. Wanna do something?”

“Huh… my thoughts exactly” I don’t know if he intended to make a pun on me being able to read his thoughts, but I wasn’t going to put much thought into it. I had to put thoughts into his head already.

It was like flipping a switch via the mind link, and then Mike’s eyes were glassy, and he had a dumb smile that curiously reminded to that of Gary back when I first enslaved him.

“Who’s a good jock boy?” I asked, pulling Mikey closer to me.

“I am, bruh… I’m a good jock boy, huhuhuh” was his answer, before going back to smiling like a big dummy.

Doing hot stuff with Mikey while his arm was casted wasn’t all that different from before. Now he just had to use his bad arm less than before, but you can still do plenty with one arm. Like have the jock take off his shirt, revealing his nice, muscular torso.

If I weren’t careful, I would be the one drooling here. I leaned in for a kiss, and Mike kissed back.

It was just a nice little moment between the two of us. Making out without a care in the world. Certainly a good way to forget about my responsibilities, no complaints there!

----

Author’s note:

Thanks for reading! I hoped to publish this here a few weeks ago, but writing the next chapter took me more than intended, so the public release also got pushed back a bit. Sorry for that 💦.

But, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! And thanks again for reading! <3

#PinesJocks #mind control #hypnotized #straight to gay #gay hypnosis #jock #brainwashing #brainwashed

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itsamejin · 4 years

Text

it’s you || part 1 || taehyung angst/fluff || hanahaki au

Part 2

Summary: You’d rather live with thorns endlessly scratching the back of your throat than be devoid of the light that Taehyung brought into your life. Even if your love for him was slowly killing you, you didn’t mind as long as you could keep the warmth of his presence until the very end.

Warning: Mentions of throwing up, coughing up blood, death, some slight violence

Genre: Fluff, Angst, hanahaki!au, college!au, fuckboy!tae

Premise: Hanahaki Disease comes in different forms in this universe. The disease would eventually disappear if your love wasn’t that strong to begin with, but if you truly, deeply love someone, your flowers will rip at your throat. Throwing up flowers wasn’t a rare occurrence and for most people it disappeared after a few days. If Hanahaki persists, surgery is recommended, but it would severely dull the positive emotions of the person under surgery. Due to this, some choose to die with their unrequited love.

Commission Request: @guksflavor

Word Count: 8,313 words

—

Taehyung was obnoxiously handsome, too handsome to be a normal guy majoring in Psychology at one’s local university. Often mistaken for a celebrity, frequently breaking girl’s hearts, Taehyung was known as the campus “flower boy”.

It was never meant as a term of endearment. In fact, it offended Taehyung deeply when people would whisper about his private life as if he was incapable of hearing the slight jabs to his character. The nickname came from the notorious fact that Taehyung would cause several people to spit out flower petals from his mere presence alone.

It was the common case of “love at first sight”, a kind that never lasted very long after getting to know him.

Of course, throwing up petals was the first sign of the feared Hanahaki Disease, but it was never that serious when it came to Taehyung. The flowers would stop after a day or two and the girls who convinced themselves that Taehyung would be their future husband soon realized that their feelings never reached below the surface.

Their love was shallow, for no one really loved Taehyung outside of his good looks and he didn’t really mind.

Why should he when he hasn’t fallen in love either?

That’s why he was thankful for you and the rest of his close friends who scoffed at his blatant attempts at flirting. He was grateful for you helping him study or telling creepy girls off when they got a little too close to him at parties. He liked that you rejected his advances and that you cared deeply for him despite his tendency to annoy you. He appreciated having a friend that just... wanted to be a friend.

So why were you in the campus restroom stall, for the fifth time that week, spilling your guts out into the toilet? Why were you grasping at the wall, holding onto it for dear life, as you stared at a striking bundle of yellow flowers coated in toilet water? Why did you cry at the sight of beautiful and fully bloomed daffodils?

You swallowed back the incoming wave of discomfort but it kept coming. All because you couldn’t help but have your heart flutter when he put a hand on your shoulder. Your mind swam in thoughts of him and you weren’t quite sure if you could go on like this. If you could continue to want someone when it only brought you pain.

Why were you in love with Kim Taehyung when that was the last thing he wanted from you?

—

“Want to see something cool?” Taehyung asked, sprawled on your living room floor next to you. It was one of those lazy days you had with him, the kind that was only meant to be enjoyed by friends.

“No.”

Taehyung gave you a dirty look but sat up anyways.

“I’ve been working on my flexibility lately,” he chided. “I can touch my toes for 30 seconds now.”

You closed your eyes and gave him a fake smile.

“Good for you,” you sighed. Sometimes Taehyung had too much energy that you couldn’t match up with. You liked to humor him on days like this when he got extra pouty.

“So you’re not even gonna look?” he said, feigning sadness.

You rolled your eyes behind closed eyes and sat up to face him. You regret opening your eyes because his face was far too close to yours. You would have given him a flower shower right when your eyes locked.

“What was that?” he chuckled. “You looked like you saw a ghost or something. Am I that scary to look at?”

He squeezed your cheeks with both hands and you attempted to pull away from him, only to have him squeeze harder.

“Yes, you’re hideous,” you said through broke sentences. “A beast. You look like a half-eaten mango.”

Taehyung burst out in laughter and let go as he let himself collapse back on the floor. He was that confident in his looks to not mind your snide comments.

“That’s rich coming from you,” he cackled.

You glared at him and hit his stomach with your fist, earning a big ‘oof’ from the oversized child in front of you.

“Say one more word and I will never set you up on that date with my friend,” you threatened, hurt that you had to mention another girl for Taehyung to quit his laughing.

“I’m sorry my queen,” he said dramatically, pretending to kneel at your feet. “I have wronged you.”

You scoffed at his antics and pinched his ear as he wailed for you to stop.

“This is what you get for being stupid,” you said through his cries for help. You lifted his head up to your face and was met with a dazzling grin. Why did he have to smile like that towards you? Why did he lead you on in the most innocent way possible?

“You love when I’m stupid though,” he teased, attempting to tickle your sides.

‘I love you even when you’re not stupid,’ you yearned to say out loud, but the words never escaped your lips.

—

As the days passed it was getting harder and harder to speak. The thorns of some of the flowers made permanent etch marks in the back of your throat. You could muster yourself to sound normal on most days, but just earlier you had thrown up a dozen roses at a small social gathering and the embarrassment and pain had become unbearable.

You wished there was an easy explanation for your pain, but any time you tried to voice your thoughts out loud, you felt suffocated.

Your friends had noticed pretty early on that you had Hanahaki, but like everyone else, they thought it would disappear just as quickly as it came. Taehyung probably would have noticed if it weren’t for him being so desensitized to the disease that he never even bat an eye when you’d excuse yourself from the bathroom every time you two hung out.

He was the naive type, the one that needed to have it spelled out to him when an explanation was due. Maybe that’s why your heart would hurt so much at the thought of telling him about your condition. It would probably break him if he knew.

“[Y/N], at this point in time it’s imperative that you get surgery,” your doctor said sternly, twisting around in his chair. “It’s not safe to continue on without treatment.”

When the three month grace period passed, it was strongly recommended for you to get the surgery before your vocal cords were damaged beyond repair.

If you continued to suffer from Hanahaki, death would be awaiting any moment.

“I know,” you said softly. “I’m willing to take that risk.”

You had your reasons for not wanting surgery. It’s not like you wanted to die, but getting the procedure came with its consequences. Emotions would not come easily and there would be an absence of love in your life... not just for the person you have feelings for, but for everyone around you. So here you were, six months in and losing your voice more and more as the days went by. You were aware of what awaited you next.

You would know. Your mom went through the same procedure.

“You’re very young,” your doctor started, sighing at your stubbornness. “I know that this is a difficult situation, but getting this surgery will save your life. I can’t force you to change your mind, but I want you to weigh your options.”

You nodded at him but tuned out his words as to not be convinced. You couldn’t bear to see Taehyung as just another face, no longer finding the meaning behind his smile, no longer seeing the beauty in his movements. You would rather die a painful death than let go of the love you had developed for a man who didn’t feel the same for you.

“I’ll let you know if I decide differently,” you replied with a whisper. He looked at you with a tinge of disappointment.

“I can’t prescribe a higher dosage of painkillers,” your doctor said solemnly. “Any more and that would be killing you just as much.”

You looked down onto your knees and felt tears stream down your face. Whatever you choose to do, it would end with you in heartbreak anyways. You figured this was the least painful option.

—

Taehyung was always the type to mess around and flirt without thinking. You could count time and time again of him getting kicked out of bars or clubs from talking to other guy’s girlfriends and leaving Jungkook and you to clean up the mess.

The intense gaze his eyes would hold when he’d see someone he found attractive, the way he’d confidently saunter towards them without feeling nervous. You admired Taehyung because he was someone you could never be. So himself, so unafraid of what the world would think of him.

You took a shot of whiskey and swallowed harshly. Your throat was burning from the petals that had invaded it earlier in the day, but you needed to drown out your feelings of sorrow somehow. Taehyung had managed to sneak back into the club, now making his way onto the crowded dance floor looking for his next target.

“You feeling okay?” Jungkook asked, patting your back as you coughed a bit at the taste. Jungkook was your mutual best friend with Taehyung, the defining person that made you the Three Musketeers. He was your rock when times were tough.

“I feel like shit,” you sighed deeply, watching as Taehyung grabbed an unassuming girl by the hand and blew her a kiss. “It’s like the flowers get bigger each day.”

Jungkook knew about your disease. In fact, he was the number one supporter of you getting that life-changing surgery that would impair your emotions for Taehyung permanently. He wanted you to live more than anything, even if it meant costing you a semblance of your happiness.

“Why don’t you just confess to him?” Jungkook asked bitterly. “I mean it couldn’t hurt, right? You’re basically preparing to die at this point.”

You scoffed at his straightforwardness. He was obviously upset with your decision to refuse the surgery and he was showing it to you in a very Jungkook way by making petty comments in a shady club.

He’d never gotten Hanahaki so he would never understand, you thought.

“If I told Tae, wouldn’t you think he’d hate me?” you asked genuinely, tilting your head up at Jungkook. He stared down at you and you could tell he was holding back... because you knew the right answer to the question was yes. He’d have the same reaction as any other womanizer who couldn’t keep a relationship to save his life.

Taehyung would hate you if you loved him.

“He’ll probably ignore you for a bit, but that’s him being stupid,” Jungkook sighed, patting you on the head to comfort you a bit. “I mean, he’d probably try and force himself into falling in love with you if you told him about your... situation.”

You pursed your lips. You could see Taehyung do exactly just that. That was his classic way of ghosting the girls he messed around with, but Taehyung would never commit to those same tactics with you. He considered you like family and he’d probably blame himself until the end of time if he were to find out.

“See what I mean?” you avoided eye contact with Jungkook as you felt your eyes tear up a bit. “It would be all fake. He’d hate me and then pretend to love me and then I’d die either way. It would hurt a hell of a lot more if I let that happen.”

Jungkook furrowed his brows and glared at you.

“There’s always the possibility that he does fall in love with you, y’know?”

You shook your head and fiddled with your fingers.

“Taehyung doesn’t fall in love,” you muttered softly.

The two of you stayed silent, aware that the words you uttered were true. Even as he danced with beautiful women around him, you couldn’t help but keep your eyes solely on Taehyung. He would never let himself be so vulnerable as to fall in love with somebody, let alone a close friend like you.

So why did you let him worm into your heart so easily?

—

Six months ago...

“[Y/N], I’m asking you just this once,” Taehyung begged, puppy eyes activated. “I am begging you to give me her number.”

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. He always wanted to bother you when you worked your shift at the bookstore. Somehow, Taehyung still didn’t want to make himself useful by helping you put away books.

“Tae, we’re in the same class,” you sighed as you stacked up some magazines on top of each other and pushing a bunch of them into one of the higher shelves. “You could just ask her yourself.”

He whined and gave you that infamous pout known to make every girl on campus swoon. If it weren’t for your self-control you would have punched him right then and there for trying to act cute with you while at work.

“I can’t be too direct,” he replied with those pouty lips. “The other girl I'm trying to get with in that class will notice.”

You scrunched your nose. For someone who hated giving people Hanahaki, he couldn’t help but play around with girls as if it were a sport. He was practically an expert in making himself hated amongst his exs.

“You’re gonna regret being such a fuckboy one of these days,” you warned, but taking out your phone to pull up her number anyways. “Mark my words.”

He let out a cheer and hugged you from behind, squeezing you until the oxygen left your body. You tried to push him off of you, but he didn’t budge. It was better to just let him get his clinginess out of the way and then kick him in the shins later.

“I’ll treat you to dinner for this,” he said, grinning as you sent him her number through text message.

“Yeah, yeah,” you sighed. “Please let go of me I feel like I’m about to throw up.”

He laughed and kissed your cheek, a sound that resounded from the store so loudly that it made you wince.

“Love ya,” he smiled, rushing out of the store like a giddy teenage girl. You clenched your fists and touched the area he pecked. Somehow it made you angry at how excited he looked at the thought of another girl.

What did they have that you didn’t? Did you not exist to him at all?

You clutched onto your stomach as you felt something rumble. You felt an uncomfortable itch in the back of your throat and asked your boss if you could be excused. You tried making it to the bathroom in the back of the bookstore but you stumbled on a pile of books before you could reach your destination. You were on your knees, clutching your stomach as you hurled the contents inside of your stomach onto the wooden floors.

‘I’m so getting fired for this,’ you thought, as you kept your eyes clenched. When you decided to open them, you weren’t met with the soupy substance of the pizza you ate earlier that day, but with an array of pink peonies scattered across the floor. You shook your head out of disbelief.

No one throws up that many flowers on the first day of contracting Hanahaki. It was always one or two petals and it never came in full blooms of flowers. You had experienced this before with a boy back in middle school and it never turned out so... dangerously beautiful like this.

The sight in front of you was astonishing, the books stacked behind the scattered petals made for a picturesque view. Something about it didn’t sit quite right with you though, as if this signaled your demise.

You whisked through the flowers to see if anything abnormal was found in the flowers and there you saw it. Small specks of blood on the petals.

You realized then that you were screwed.

—

Present

The club continued to stay lively as Taehyung danced his heart out, simultaneously avoiding the bouncers that made their rounds around the club. He couldn’t risk getting kicked out again.

While you enjoyed seeing how much fun he was having, it made you sick to your stomach at how up close and personal he was with other girls. It made your blood boil at how easily it was for Taehyung to be so enamored with someone he could meet just five seconds ago, but feel nothing for you when you’d been friends for much longer. You held onto Jungkook’s arm to keep you steady as you felt another vomit session come up. You were starting to get dizzy and it wasn’t from the alcohol.

“You look like you’re about to faint any second now,” Jungkook said, worry etched all over his face. “Do you need me to take you home?”

You just laughed softly and grabbed onto the table in front of you instead of Jungkook. You weren’t leaving tonight knowing that Taehyung was still having the time of his life in front of you, even if it hurt to even stand. You just needed to take your mind off of him, that’s all.

“Jungkook, if you just randomly got amnesia one day and forgot everyone around you, how would you feel?” you asked him, pouring another round of whiskey into your glass to ease the headache.

“What does this have to do with you fainting?” he grumbled, stealing your shot and gulping it down for yourself. You scoffed at his blatant attempt to keep you from drinking.

“Just answer the question,” you said, now eyeing a girl Taehyung had his body pressed against. She looked about ready to pounce on him any second.

“I don’t know, I’d probably feel like shit,” he shrugged, motioning for you to pour him another drink. You obliged.

“Well that’s how getting that fucking surgery would feel like,” you said rather aggressively as now the girl was taking Taehyung to the back of the club, where the restroom stalls were. You felt the familiar feeling of choking occur but you muscled through it.

“You’re overreacting,” Jungkook said, rolling his eyes. He didn’t drink the shot yet and instead handed it to you. He noticed Taehyung getting dragged to the restroom too and felt like you needed it, even if your hands were shaking as you grabbed it from his hands. You clenched your fist as you swallowed the cold liquid. It had flushed down the flowers temporarily.

“Not overreacting. I’ve seen it first-hand myself,” you said.

He looked at you, surprise written all over his face, but didn’t press any further. That’s why you appreciated Jungkook so much. He never overstepped his boundaries, unlike Taehyung who practically invaded your personal space each time you saw him. The two were so different from each other and you were so different from them. You wondered how the three of you even became friends.

“I don’t want to turn out like an empty shell for the rest of my life,” you continued, still holding the empty shot glass to your lips. “I’d rather die doing everything I wanted to rather than live a meaningless life.”

He glanced at you, slightly impressed by how stubborn you truly were. Nothing would get to you and no amount of pleading would make you change your mind. You weren’t going to get that surgery.

“So are you gonna make like a bucket list or what?” he asked, taking the whiskey and chugging it straight from the bottle. You looked at him in disgust as he detached himself from the liquor. It seems like both of you were drinking to forget.

“I should, shouldn’t I?” you smiled, finally setting the glass down as you saw Taehyung exit the bathroom looking disgusted. “Might as well since I’m gonna die anyway.”

You two laughed at the morbidity of it all. It wasn’t a funny situation to be in, but you had to make the most of it. Would this be the last time you go clubbing with Jungkook and Taehyung? Would your life end before it even really started?

“That girl puked hydrangeas on my fucking shoes,” Taehyung yelled, rushing to the two of you. “We gotta leave, I am not having her follow me around after this.”

Jungkook and you scoffed at his silliness. This was better, you thought. The atmosphere between Jungkook and you earlier was so grim. Typical Taehyung brightening up the mood wherever he went.

Even as the feeling of thorns pricked against your throat, you couldn’t shake off the smile that was on your face. For Taehyung had made you happy and you couldn’t imagine not feeling any emotion other than love as he looked at you with such sincerity.

You couldn’t bear the idea of Taehyung not having an effect on you.

—

“Please, Jungkook,” Taehyung cried, shaking him back and forth as all three of you stood in the university hallways waiting for the lecture hall to open. “Just give me the notes, I’ll give them back I promise.”

Jungkook clicked his tongue and tried to pull his backpack away from Taehyung who was furiously trying to make a grab at it.

“Fuck off dude, you should’ve studied when you had the chance,” Jungkook sighed, searching for some assistance from you. “It’s not my fault you got wasted at the club last night.”

Taehyung whined at Jungkook’s reluctance to help him out. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t cram any information that morning with that stupid hangover of his. Pretty soon, Taehyung was looking at you too, expectations written all over his face. You huffed out an annoyed breath and opened up your own bag.

“Tae, just use my notes,” you shook your head lightly, taking out the composition book tucked near the back of your bag. “Stop bothering Jungkook, he looks ready to start a fight with you any moment now.”

Taehyung’s eyes lit up in a way that made your heart stop, naturally gravitating towards your direction. He looked so pure and innocent in moments like these when he gets something he wants. You couldn’t help but feed off from his positive energy.

You handed him your notebook as he stared at it in awe.

“You are the only person who wants to see me succeed,” Taehyung said dramatically, kissing your notes as if it were the seventh wonder of the world. Jungkook scoffed and smacked Taehyung’s head.

“What are you gonna do without [Y/N] always covering you?” he rolled his eyes. Somehow his words stung a bit.

You didn’t think Jungkook really knew the weight of his own words, but you were thinking deeply about it. What would Taehyung do without you being there for him all the time?

Taehyung shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter, [Y/N]’s gonna be my guardian angel forever,” he teased and put an arm around you. You clenched your jaw and looked down a the floor. You could not let yourself yack some damn petals in that hallway during exam season.

"Do you not feel sorry for her one bit?” Jungkook scoffed, clearly done with Taehyung’s childish antics.

“Why should I?” Taehyung asked innocently, nuzzling into your hair as he held you tight. Somehow his touch felt suffocating, even though his arm was lightly placed on your shoulders.

“It’s not like she can live without me either,” he teased, booping your nose.

Jungkook and you exchanged glances and both simultaneously pulled on his ears.

‘If only he knew,’ you thought to yourselves.

—

After the quiz that Taehyung most likely failed, he invited Jungkook and you over to his place to eat some ramen.

“Sorry man, we actually have a life outside of you,” Jungkook said, declining his offer. “I’ve got extra shifts at work to cover anyways.”

You nodded at Jungkook’s excuse and proceeded with your own.

“I have some stuff to catch up on, so I can’t go,” you replied, trying to act nonchalantly. “Maybe next time, Tae?”

He shook his head at you two, feigning sadness.

“Both of you always act cold towards me, I’m starting to feel like this is a one-sided friendship,” he sighed, clenching his heart as if he was shot. It took everything in you to not step on his foot right then. He might not know about your condition, but the comments were unnecessary regardless if you had Hanahaki or not.

Jungkook and you simply stared at him and he awkwardly put his hand down when none of you showed a reaction.

“Fine, go do whatever,” he said, pompously. “I was gonna invite a girl over for dinner anyways.”

Jungkook rolled his eyes.

“Alright, bro. Have fun or whatever,” he said, trying to shoo Taehyung away. “I’ll walk [Y/N] to her dorm, you just leave.”

Taehyung clicked his tongue at him, but eventually left, leaving you to be with Jungkook alone.

“He’s the worst,” you sighed, and to that Jungkook nodded in agreement.

“You’re still choosing to die for him, though,” Jungkook muttered under his breath. You flinched at his words, saddened by Jungkook’s word choice. If he put it like that then you sounded like a weirdo.

An awkward silence fell between the two of you. You half-expected Taehyung to come back to you guys and interrupt your conversation to help lighten the mood, but he never came. Jungkook expected you to talk first since you were the one that asked to talk to him anyway, but it was clear his underhanded comment had made you uncomfortable.

“Why did you want to meet up with me anyway?” Jungkook asked, easing the tension just a bit.

You coughed awkwardly and looked up at him with a new sense of determination in your eyes that he hadn’t seen in a while. You seldom looked motivated these days.

“It’s about that bucket list thing you mentioned yesterday,” you started. “I want to do one of the things as soon as possible.”

He furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Why?”

You bit your bottom lip, not quite knowing how to phrase what you were about to say without making Jungkook upset. He’d probably nag at you like he usually does.

“I don’t have a lot of time left, Jungkook,” you said softly. “I just want to do as much as I can before I get stuck in a hospital bed.”

He stared down at you with sorrowful eyes. He wished there was some other way to help you, one that didn’t ultimately end in you dying.

“What do you need?” he asked kindly, surprisingly taking your words pretty well.

You smiled up at him and pulled out a piece of paper from your bag. Jungkook took it from your hands and was met with small sketches of flowers that you had presumably drawn. He studied the designs carefully, confused.

“Okay, how the hell am I supposed to know what this means?” he asked you, angling the paper in different ways to see if he was supposed to crack a code or something.

You shook your head in disappointment. You thought he’d get it by now, considering it was in his line of work.

“Tattoos,” you said simply. “I want a whole sleeve of flowers on my right arm and a bunch of small ones on like my thigh-”

“Stop stop stop,” Jungkook said, waving a hand in front of your face to shut you up. “You want a what now?”

You smiled brightly and spoke with more confidence.

“I want tattoos!”

He scoffed and handed back the paper to you.

“Are you only saying this because you’re gonna get discounted at the shop I work at?”

You shook your head rapidly, not amused by his assumptions.

“No, I’ve just always wanted them,” you said seriously. “I was always too scared with the needle but since I’ve got nothing to lose, I thought why not?”

Jungkook poked you with his index finger in the area between your eyebrows.

“You need to stop talking like that [Y/N],” he said seriously. “I hate when you get all negative.”

You smiled sadly at him.

“Give me the tattoos and I’ll stop talking,” you teased, but your words lacked genuine feeling.

Jungkook heaved out a sigh.

“Fine, but don’t come crying to me if you regret it,” he said, turning his back to you so he could make a call to his boss. Turns out he actually would be working that day.

—

The feeling of Jungkook’s needle on your skin didn’t hurt as much as you nearly thought it would, the pain only coming in dull waves.

After throwing up flowers consistently for the past few months, nothing could quite match up to the pain of thorns poking at your throat at random times of the day. To you, this was child’s play.

“You’re taking this pretty well for a beginner,” Jungkook complimented, still focusing on the light curves of the forget-me-nots he was etching onto your skin. A whole array of flowers would be drawn on your arm eventually.

“I’m good with my emotions unlike some people,” you said, clearly referencing how agitated Jungkook had been recently. He seemed to lash out every little thing and even made snide comments when he thought no one was listening. Jungkook was definitely taking your situation harder than you were at this point.

He only smiled at your words, not making any big movements as to not disrupt his work.

“I’m just shocked you’d want the stuff that’s gonna kill you to be on your body forever,” he replied back. Although he spoke too morbidly, he made a fair point.

“Well, the flowers mean more to me than just that,” you started, slightly wincing as Jungkook’s needled started drawing on a new patch of skin.

Jungkook noticed your discomfort and tried to ease your mind.

“Tell me about that,” he asked, hoping you didn’t feel even more uncomfortable with the question. He anticipated your reply as you coughed awkwardly.

“I’m actually doing this for my mom,” you said softly, avoiding eye contact with him. “She had Hanahaki too and it didn’t turn out well.”

He took a step back to get a good look at your sleeve. He had been working at this tattoo for two hours now and he only seemed to finish just one small section. ‘This would take several sessions of hard work,’ he thought to himself.

“You never talk about your mom,” he pointed out, lightly dabbing the bleeding parts of your skin to avoid infection on your skin.

“My mom got the surgery,” you said slowly, suddenly feeling a sting as the needle hit your skin again. “She found out my dad cheated on her after throwing up flowers for a couple of nights.”

He stopped his movements for a bit, shocked with your revelation. He knew you were hiding something, but he never expected it to be this big. He looked up at you and regretted seeing your sad expression so up close. It seemed you were about ready to cry.

“It literally broke her,” you continued. “She didn’t find joy in anything anymore. Like, she was a completely different person.”

Jungkook stopped his wrists from moving and pulled back a bit. He didn’t know how to comfort you. It was always Taehyug’s forte when it came to emotional stuff. What was he even supposed to say?

“Did you tell her?” Jungkook gulped, his words were shaky. “About not wanting the surgery.”

It was then that you started to break down and it wasn’t from the pain of getting a tattoo. It was the look of complete and utter worry from Jungkook that set you off into a fit of tears.

“Who is there to tell, Jungkook?” you whispered through the tears. “She’s dead.”

He looked at you in shock, not really registering your words. Obviously, your mother hadn’t died from Hanahaki, she already got the surgery. The reason, he knew, must’ve been much more sinister. He didn’t quite know how to approach you as you hiccuped through your tears. He patted your back in reassurance and repeated time and time again that it was okay, that Taehyung and him would be there for you.

“I’m sorry you had to see me like this,” you mumbled. “I’m a shitty friend.”

He shook his head and was about to reply when an unwelcomed guest came bursting through the tattoo parlor doors.

“Jungkooooook,” you heard a yodel, belonging only to a voice you two could recognize perfectly.

Taehyung.

You made swift movements to wipe away the tears from your face and Jungkook pretended as if he was in deep focus on drawing something on your skin. Taehyung entered Jungkook’s station, unassuming and bright as ever. He held a plastic bag with takeout boxes in his hand, presumably food.

“[Y/N]? You’re here too?” he asked in confusion, eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Getting a tattoo?”

You nodded hesitantly and he gave an even more worrisome look.

“Can someone explain what’s going on?” he asked slowly, trying to decipher what was really happening.

Jungkook coughed awkwardly.

“I think I’m gonna check out the other clients for a second,” he said, standing up and setting down his tools. “I’ll be right back, [Y/N].”

You looked at Jungkook pleadingly to stay, but he shook his head. He did not want to get involved in whatever discussion was about to go. You sighed and brushed the strands of your hair that was getting on your face. You just hoped your red eyes from crying went unnoticed.

“How come you didn’t tell me you were getting a tattoo?” he asked sadly, sitting on the stool Jungkook once occupied. “Is this what you meant when you said you were ‘catching up on things’?”

You pursed your lips, not quite knowing how to respond.

“It was a personal thing,” you whispered, massaging the back of your neck. You felt the flowers in your stomach once again.

“What, so you told Jungkook and not me?” Taehyung pouted, setting the food he brought on a nearby table. “I texted him if he was at work and he said yeah. I usually surprise him with Thai food. I didn’t think you were gonna be here too so I only bought enough for two.”

You smiled at him. Taehyung was still as considerate as ever.

He took a look at your tattoo, slightly confused with the realistic flower patterns. His fingers ghosted over them as if to make sure they were real.

“Why flowers?” he asked. He never thought of you as a flora type person. He’s probably never seen you hold a flower in his life.

“None of your business,” you scoffed trying to face away from him. You didn’t want him to see your flustered expression and the puffiness of your under-eyes. He pouted at your words and lack of eye contact.

“You’ve been so distant from me lately, [Y/N],” he said in a cutesy voice. “I feel like Jungkook and you have been hanging out with each other more than with me. I’m starting to feel really left out.”

You chuckled. You weren’t mad at him for barging in during your tattoo session, but you were frustrated with his naivety. There you were getting the most feared items on the world tattooed on your skin and he questioned very little of it? How dense was he really?

“We can hang out some other time, alright Tae?” you said, ruffling his hair lightly. “I just want this first session done and over with.”

He grinned up at you and squeezed your hand that was on his head.

“Then let me stay here to be your emotional support,” he teased, taking your hand into his. You nodded with a smile, but an uncomfortable feeling had erupted in your stomach.

“Will you excuse me for a second?” you asked urgently, pain laced in your voice. He nodded worriedly as he watched you rush off into the restroom. ‘You were having a lot of stomachaches lately,’ he thought to himself.

You covered your mouth with your palm as soon as you were out of Taehyung’s sight, making sure not to throw up anything on the tattoo parlor floor. Jungkook saw you escaping from his station and followed you into the unisex bathroom. He rushed over to you as you threw up into the toilet bowl, some excess flower petals hitting the floor instead. Tears welled up in your eyes as the flowers kept coming in several colors, all different sizes. They were all tulips, stained in blood and mucus, a truly disgusting sight to behold.

Jungkook patted your back gently and tried to ease you through the pain. Your mouth ached as the last petal left your lips and you desperately grabbed onto Jungkook’s thigh as you coughed out blood. Your lips were horribly stained with a deep rouge.

“Water, please,” you pleaded with your strained voice in between coughing fits.

Jungkook got you the water and while you tried to act like nothing happened when you came back to Taehyung who was playing Candy Crush on his phone, he couldn’t help but notice how raspy your voice had gotten since just a few moments earlier and how tired your eyes looked when you stared at him.

“Are you sure you wanna keep on going?” Jungkook whispered to you. “We can have another session tomorrow. I think it’s probably best you go home.”

You shook your head.

“I just want to be with him a bit more,” you said softly, glad that the boy of your affection was so deeply engrossed in his mobile game. “I didn’t lose that much blood.

Taehyung, at the corner of his eye, couldn’t help but see a small pink petal on your shoe with tinges of red splattered on it. He saw the way Jungkook would ask you every 30 seconds if you were feeling okay when he was never the type to talk while he tattoed.

He wondered if it was any of his business to ask.

—

Throughout the next two weeks, Jungkook had finished the various tattoos you wanted through grueling sessions with Taehyung bothering the two of you in the sidelines. Within those weeks, your health had massively deteriorated as well. The number of flowers you threw up increased by the day and the amount of blood that showed up was worrisome, to say the least. You knew your time was coming up, so it was only fair that you were to complete something you desired most before your eventual demise.

Go on a proper date with Taehyung.

Not like the one-on-one hangouts you had with him where you’d throw on whatever. No, you wanted to get dolled up and pretty this time, so you asked him if he wanted to go watch a movie with you and eat dinner after. You knew it wouldn’t change how Taehyung felt about you since he wouldn’t even consider your invitation as a date, but you still wanted to look your best regardless.

You got ready hours before he intended to come over to pick you up. You lathered on several layers of lipstick, not really knowing what you were expecting to happen anyways. When you finally made your way outside, you were satisfied the starstruck look in Taehyung’s eyes

“Wow you dressed up today,” he chided as he saw you exit your dormitory. “You have someone to impress or what?”

He winked at you and you only scoffed in response. It was obvious that he was staring intently at the new tattoos you had embedded into your skin. It was nice seeing him look at you in a way that you weren’t used to... like he actually found you attractive.

“Please, I look good for myself,” you said confidently. “Can’t say the same for you considering you wore that shirt yesterday.”

He clicked his tongue in your direction.

“Whatever, whatever,” he said, waving his hand in front of him. “I get to have you all to myself today. No Jungkook in sight. I could rub this in his face later.”

You laughed at his silliness. If you wanted to delude yourself, you’d have thought Taehyung was jealous. He was so cute, with his hands stuffed in his pockets as he looked at you with a flushed face. You only had to tolerate the fluttering feeling in your stomach for a few hours or so, how bad could it be? You just needed to endure it until Tehyung left and you were free to throw up all the petals you needed to.

“Let’s go to the movies?” you offered and he smiled, agreeing with your suggestion.

It was nice like this, walking by his side without a care in the world. It made you sad to think that this too would be taken away from you. That you’ll never get to hear him babble about dates gone awry or see how his smile would get wider when he saw his favorite food again. It would all be taken away from you eventually, one way or another. You clenched your fist, attempting to focus on his voice rather than the nausea that had overtaken your body.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that you had to love him all alone.

“I don’t think I get to tell you enough how much I appreciate you,” Taehyung said, breaking the comfortable silence between you two. “You always look out for me even when you look like you aren’t.”

You smiled at his compliment.

“There’s no need for that,” you replied. “What kind of friend would I be if I just watched you suffer alone?”

You tried to swallow down the hypocrisy that came with your own words. He had no idea that you were lying through your teeth right then and there. You tensed at the sound of Taehyung chuckling at your comment.

“That’s what friends are for after all,” he said in agreement.

It happened almost suddenly. The first cough and then a second and then you couldn’t stop your knees from hitting the concrete of the city sidewalk.

“[Y/N],” Taehyung shouted, kneeling next to you on the crowded street. His voice was distorted among all the other sounds you were hearing. There were bells, whistles, the sound of an incoming storm. You started hyperventilating.

‘Not here, not here. Anywhere else but here,’ you screamed to yourself in your head.

You clenched your stomach and tried to hold back the impending contents that were soon to escape your lips. You shook your head as tears threatened to spill out of your eyes. You didn’t want Taehyung to see you like this.

“[Y/N], tell me what's wrong,” Taehyung pleaded. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong!”

You couldn’t help as the tears rolled down your face as the first petal left. And then another. By then, a crowd had formed around you two and someone was in the process of calling an ambulance. You couldn’t stop the bloody white roses that escaped your lips, slashing the inside of your throat as more of them came. All parts of your body ached, but your heart hurt the most. Taehyung’s face was in such distress and you were the reason for it.

You were the reason for his pain just as he was the reason for yours.

The last thing you heard before collapsing in his arms was Taehyung screaming your name, the blood mixed with lipstick on your mouth staining his shirt. He called for help and eventually, they did come. They came but it felt like he had already failed you somehow. Like he could’ve done more to protect you.

As the EMTs hauled you off into the ambulance truck, he took one last glance at the pile of flowers that stained the concrete.

It looked too similar to the flowers drawn near your shoulder.

—

Taehyung sat near your hospital bed, clenching his hands together and shutting his eyes to even out his breathing. ‘I’m a dumbass for not realizing earlier,’ he thought to himself.

The nurses had filled him in about your condition just a few moments earlier. He found out that you were six months into being diagnosed with Hanahaki and that you had no intention of getting surgery. It hurt his heart to think that you were suffering all alone, carrying the burden of a terminal illness all by yourself. He hated to think that the person you loved had no idea you were in such pain. Taehyung found himself hating the person you longed for, even if he didn’t know who that was.

He took a glance at your resting features.

You looked so pale in the dim hospital lights and the sound of your heart monitor made him apprehensive. You had Hanahaki and you never bothered to tell him? Was this another one of your secrets you were hiding from him lately? He sighed, burying his face into his palms.

"You don’t deserve this [Y/N],” he said solemnly, brushing away some strands of hair from your face. “Anyone would be lucky to have you be in love with them. That person doesn’t know what they’re missing out on.”

Taehyung went through a list of people in his head who could’ve been your possible unrequited love. It couldn’t be Namjoon, the guy that was helping you out all the time at the bookstore. You two barely talked. It wasn't Seokjin from lecture hall either, you said he wasn't your type. Was it Hoseok from the same department? Perhaps was it-?

He webbed his fingers through his hair out of frustration. Who could it possibly be?

Taehyung was disturbed from his thoughts from a slight knocking sound that continued on for a few seconds.

"Come in," he replied back cautiously.

To Taehyung’s surprise, Jungkook opened the door, a bouquet flowers in his hand as he walked through. Taehyung's body tensed at the sight of him. He had put two in two together and now he clenched his fists together, tightening his jaw.

It was him. It had to be him.

"I would've come earlier, but I wanted to get these for her when she wakes up," Jungkook said solemnly and set the flowers down near the hospital nightstand. "How's [Y/N] holding up?"

Taehyung stood up from the seat next to your bed, cracking his neck to the side to release some tension. He came close to Jungkook, glaring at him in a threatening stance. Taehyung grabbed at his collar.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing bring flowers to a patient with Hanahaki?"

Taehyung's voice didn't sound quite like he usually did. There was a growl akin to anger in the way he spoke. Jungkook pushed him off of him, confused as to why Taehyung was picking a fight with you when you were sleeping just a few meters away.

"It's just a nice gesture," Jungkook seethed. "Why are you being so fucking hostile when you didn't even know she had Hanahaki in the first place?"

Taehyung scoffed, shoving Jungkook by the chest.

"You knew?" he squinted his eyes at Jungkook. "You fucking knew and you didn't do anything about it?"

Jungkook took a look at your sleeping form. He was glad you weren't awake to be hearing this because he was ready to do something he'd regret. He didn’t mind getting kicked out of the hospital if it meant putting Taehyung in his place.

"Why should I do anything, huh?" Jungkook sighed. "I’ve been begging her to get the damn surgery. She won't fucking listen to me!"

Taehyung punched him right then. His wrists were bound to bruise by the impact of it all and Jungkook just stared at him in shock, clutching his cheek.

"It's your fault that she's dying," Taehyung started, tears welling up in his eyes. "You should have fucking tried harder to convince her. You could’ve stopped this."

Jungkook charged at him and pushed Taehyung against the wall. It was a miracle you hadn’t woken up from all the noise they were making. There was bound to be complaints from neighboring rooms for the ruckus the two boys were causing.

"Me?" Jungkook gritted his teeth, taking a good hard look at Taehyung. "You’re saying I'm the reason?"

Taehyung scoffed at his face and pushed him off.

"Who else then? Who else is fucking killing [Y/N]?!" Taehyung cried, his voice echoing in the hospital room.

Jungkook took a step back from him until he soon brought his fist back to hit Taehyung square in the jaw. He fell onto the floor and cringed at the pain.

“I know it’s not my business to say anything,” he mumbled, but loud enough for Taehyung to hear him. “And that it’s between [Y/N] and you but I’m really fucking sick and tired of seeing her break down over someone as incompetent and stupid as-”

“Can you just spit it out already, you piece of shit-”

Jungkook threw another punch at Taehyung when he made his way to stand. He had collapsed on the floor again, trying to readjust his jaw. Jungkook’s hand was bleeding at that point, but he didn’t care one bit. Taehyung deserved everything that was coming to him.

“It’s you,” Jungkook seethed. “You’re the reason why she’s fucking dying!”

Taehyung stared up at him in a state of shock as your body had started to wake up into consciousness. The two boys stared at each other, dripping in anger.

“What did you say?”

—

A/N: Another Taehyung fic up my sleeve! Sorry to leave it on a cliffhanger like that :P The second part will be a lot more intense. Special thanks to @guksflavor for commissioning this and also buying 2 coffees for me, I really appreciate it. It was a whole lot of fun writing this first part and I hope you guys enjoyed it. It’s my first time writing about Hanahaki Disease, so I wanted my interpretation to be slightly unique. I’m so glad I got a request like this from the get-go, since I love these kind of angsty stories. If y’all want to commission for stories or simply donate, my Kofi is linked on my blog. If not, that’s totally fine, I’m thankful for your support either way.

PS. Trash part two comes out at the end of this week, please anticipate it a lot!

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phoenixkaizen · 4 years

Note

#3 Erasermic? If you have the time and energy of course!

Time? Energy? What are these mysterious things xD Absolutely I will do this for you! (did you send me two Omegaverse requests btw, if you did, they are currently in the works!)

Welp! Annnnywayyyy, here you go!

Shouta Aizawa constantly found himself in sticky situations. Being an underground hero had its major downsides, and on the other hand had major upsides. Being able to operate alone fell in upsides and unfortunately downsides.

His current predicament? Possibly broken ribs and a severely twisted ankle. Well, he wanted to say it was a twisted ankle. By the looks of it alone. Probably not. The skin around his ankle being a sickly looking dark black and blue with purple mixed it around the edges. Every single time, legitimately, every single time he tried to put any type of pressure onto his foot, the pain would spark through his entire leg and he would collapse in pain. His head felt as if it was splitting into two at that point.

How this happened? He would never admit. Stupid miscalculations and going to quickly for his own good. Nope. If anyone asked. It was a villain. He would rather admit to a defeat that never happened than admit to this.

His phone was completely shattered and unusable. He tried, multiple times. The retched device might also be even more broken at this point from his frustration and a nearby wall.

Now he was just sitting in dirty, damp, and smelly alleyway with absolutely no way to contact anyone. Unless he screamed. But he wasn’t Hizashi. No one would hear him. It was the middle of the night on a Friday. The only people who would be out where heroes like himself, criminals, and drunk people. He would not entrust a drunk person to his welfare. Absolutely not. He’s been down that road once and never again would he ever let that happen.

The ground in the alleyway was soaking through his pants and shirt from the rain from earlier that day. He was wet, cold, and, in a seriously terrible mood. This night couldn’t possibly get worse but at the same time and knowing his luck, it would. For his sanity, he hoped it didn’t.

After this year and all the shit that has happened. He would gladly just see to his death in this alleyway. Because of his own stupidity. Yup, this was the end for him.

“Shouta?” Shouta raised his head to see Hizashi standing at the end of the alleyway with his phone up to his ear. The blonde’s face was completely pale and his emerald green eyes wide that Shouta could see the white’s of his eyes around his sunglasses.

“Um, hi, Zashi.” Shouta muttered, putting his head back down onto the concrete.

Footsteps echoed through the alleyway, notifying him that Hizashi indeed came down the alleyway. Of course he would though. They were married afterall.

“What happened, Shou?!” Hizash exclaimed the second he managed to survey the injury on Shouta’s foot. The blonde kneeled next to him completely silent.

“I plead the fifth.” Shouta stated, trying everything to make it seem like he wasn’t in pain. He had an extremely high pain tolerance and Hizashi knew it. He just didn’t want Hizashi to know exactly how much pain he was in.

Hizashi snorted. “We live in Japan. Not America.” He replied.

“Than I choose not to incriminate myself!” Shouta retorted.

Hizashi rolled his eyes, unlocking his phone. “I’ll call an ambulance.” He stated, not pushing the issue any further.

Shouta shot up, wincing loudly as he grabbed at his torso. “No!” The black haired male practically screamed, causing Hizashi to look at him with wide eyes. “I mean, just call Recovery Girl. I don’t want to go to the hospital. Recovery Girl does a better job anyway.”

“Are you sure? She would scold you worse than any doctor would.” Hizashi questioned.

“I would rather face the wrath of the old lady compared to telling an ER doctor what happened.” Shouta whined.

Hizashi rolled his eyes, sighing in defeat. “Well, up you go. Lets get you home.” The man stated, grabbing both of Shouta’s wrists and pulling the man up. Shouta bit his lip to keep the pained groan from leaving him as he was now to his feet, attempting to keep the weight off of his injured ankle. He gasped as Hizashi turned and he was pulled onto the man’s back with Hizashi’s hands holding his thighs. Shouta’s arms were now over Hizashi’s shoulders and his head resting on the blonde’s shoulder.

Hizashi huffed slightly, starting the track out of the alleyway and down the street in the direction of their home. They were a good thirty minute walk from U.A. plus the ten minute walk to the teacher’s dorms on campus.

The first ten minutes of the walk had been in silence. Hizashi made a noise in his throat, adjusting Shouta on his back. The Erasure hero cast him a concerned look. “Zashi, am I hurting you? Put me down. I’m heavy.”

Hizashi turned his head, looking at Shouta with a toothy smile. “You’re not hurting me, you’re not heavy. I’ve got you, love.” The blonde replied. “I’m more concerned about hurting you.”

Shouta sighed, putting his chin on Hizashi’s shoulder. Hizashi was not a person that could be easily swayed.

Shouta was sure he had fallen asleep at one point cause when he reopened his eyes, the door to his apartment was being opened and Hizashi was placing him gently on the bed. The blonde smiled softly down at him, moving some of his black hair out of his face. “You need out of those clothes before you get sick.” He whispered, reaching forward to start stripping the man out of his clothes. With his ruined costume disposed of, Hizashi grabbed a pair of sweats and a loose t-shirt. Helping Shouta get into those clothes as well. “I called Recovery Girl already, she’s on her way.”

It was almost as if on cue when a knock at Shouta’s door alerted them that Recovery Girl had arrived. Hizashi walked over, opening the door and letting the woman in. Recovery Girl had a scowl on her face, still in her pajamas as she looked at the Erasure Hero. “Fell off the roof again?”

“Again?” Hizashi questioned, his eyes wide as he looked at Shouta.

Shouta shrugged. “The side was wet.”

Recovery Girl sighed. “What have I told you about jumping from roof top to roof top on days that it had rained?”

“Watch my step?”

Recovery Girl rolled her eyes. “No. Do not jump on roofs, so I don’t have to do this.” She took in a deep breath, walking over to where he was laying on the bed. Quickly examining his ankle. “What else hurts?”

“My ribs and my head.” Shouta replied.

She nodded, leaning forward and placing a quirk activated kiss to Shouta’s ankle. Shouta wanted to cry in relief as the pain from his ankle quickly evaporated. She moved up, placing another to his side and finally one to his forehead. Recovery Girl turned to Hizashi once she had been completed. “Keep an eye on the ankle and his head. He should be perfectly fine. Make sure he stays in bed and off of that ankle for the rest of the night. That means bed rest. If he gets out, put him back by force.”

“Chiyo!” Shouta whined.

Recovery Girl turned, leveling a glare on him. “You heard me.” She said, the sass clear in her voice as she smiled. “Take it easy, Aizawa. I wish you would be more careful.”

“Might want to ice the ankle to just in case of swelling.” Recovery Girl added as she turned and looked at Hizashi once more.

The blonde nodded. “Thank you, Chiyo. Sorry for having to get you up for this.”

“Its the usual. Aizawa was a problem child as a teen to. He’s my problem child apparently.” Recovery Girl stated with a shrug. “Rest up, Aizawa. I will check on you in the morning.”

Shouta smiled. “Thanks, Chiyo.” He said as Recovery Girl exited the apartment, the door clicking shut behind her.

Shouta turned his head, looking over to Hizashi who was already grabbing an ice pack from the freezer and a tea towel. The blonde walked back over to the bed, slipping on next to Shouta. He gently placed the ice on Shouta’s ankle, the other man wincing from the sudden coldness. Hizashi gave him a soft smile. “Problem child, huh?”

Shouta snorted. “Shut up and cuddle me.”

#erasermic #prompt line #prompt fic #anonymous asks #shouta fell off a roof and didnt want to admit it #hurt and comfort #fluff #shouta aizawa #hizashi yamada #recovery girl

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markrees · 5 years

Text

Sunflower - Mark Lee

Mark is sweet. And gentle. And comfortable to be around with when he isn’t causing you to almost hyperventilate.

category: au!college Mark / i live for college student mark ;; f l u f f / shy mark, flustered mark, sweet mark, mark in general

word count: 11.5K sorry

warnings: none, just a lot of fluff really.

a/n: this took me weeks to finish :( i hope you like it!

Everything seemed to happen in a whizzing blur because right now you were still unable to fully comprehend what had just happened. One second you were walking to your next class, traipsing along the grey concrete of your university campus and the next second you found yourself on the ground, a painful sensation shooting up your right arm as you scrunch up your face in agony. You absentmindedly stare at the cast being applied carefully to the affected arm from the impact of your fall, eyeing the doctor’s fluid movements as he expertly does his task with major ease. To your left, you feel eyes burning holes on the side of your face, shifting his stare between your side view and your broken arm.

Mark Lee, also known as the cute boy in your advanced anatomy and physiology classes always hidden behind the rims of his round glasses, black hair and in the comfort of his hoodies, was standing just at the edge of your hospital bed watching you and the doctor quietly. Mark Lee, also known as the very person responsible for your dazed-like state resulting from the effects of the pain medications you had received earlier to manage your misery.

“The cast will have to stay on for six weeks,” the doctor says, snapping you out of your hazy thoughts as he finishes up. “You have to keep it dry at all costs but if you feel something isn’t right or if it’s too tight, come back to us straight away so we can fix it.”

You absentmindedly nod and examine your new arm and its new weight. The only thing you can move now were your fingers, left free at the end of the constriction. “Thank you doctor.”

With a smile and a nod, the doctor steps out of your cubicle, leaving you and Mark in silence. Oblivious to you, Mark had been paying much more attention to everything the doctor had said given the fact that he was more in tune with his surroundings while you were in a dizzy state. You’d momentarily forgotten Mark was there with you and you nearly flinch when you hear him speak.

“I’m really sorry, this is all my fault,” he says, guilt dripping from his voice and steps closer so that he can lean on the edge of your bed beside you.

You shake your head weakly, offering a small smile in hopes of reassuring him. “No, it’s alright. It’s no one’s fault. It was an accident.”

Mark rubs the nape of his neck as he stares into the wall opposite the two of you, replaying the earlier events and how he had knocked you off of your feet when he lost his balance on his bicycle.

“I shouldn’t have been cycling there in the first place, so really, it was my fault. You’d still have a perfectly working arm by now if I didn’t wake up late and wasn’t late for class.”

You laugh at his words and fiddle with the material of your cast. It was the first time you felt so light for the day and Mark eases at the sound of your laugh, loosening up his tense shoulders because of the guilt that had been eating him alive.

“It’s okay, really. It doesn’t hurt anymore so I should be okay,” you say and turn your head slightly to your left only to be met by a still guilty looking Mark. You raise your left hand and pat him gently on the back. “Mark, it’s fine. My arm is okay. I’m alive.”

He tears his eyes off the wall and cranes his neck slightly to look at you, a small smile forming on his lips as an appreciation of your consolation. “Is there at least anything I can do to make it a bit better?”

“Mark you really don’t have to—“

“I insist Y/N.”

You grow silent for a while, blinking at him.

“Anything at all. Don’t be shy. It’s the least I could possibly do,” Mark adds, determined to make it up to you.

You come to a conclusion that no matter how much you assure him you were alright, he would never not be guilty because honestly if you were in his shoes, you’d probably be basking yourself in utter guilt right now. So you decide to make it easier for him knowing what he’s feeling right now won’t vanish in a glimpse just from your words alone.

“Okay,” you finally say. You shift your gaze to your broken arm, an idea finally popping in your mind.

“Y-you can—” you start and you feel your chest tighten slightly when you catch Mark staring intently at you, silently prodding you to continue with warmth radiating from his big brown orbs.

“Bring me home?”

—

Week one.

Having a broken arm was more inconvenient than you had initially thought and to make matters worse, it was your dominant hand that just had to snap in two. Blowing a raspberry, you walk into your first lecture of the week ever since the incident, your face scrunching involuntarily as you recall how much of a struggle it was to get ready for university this morning. You walk along the large lecture hall and find your usual seat in the middle of the room that you had always opted to sit on; not to close to be noticed by the professor and not too far to be unable to see anything clearly. It isn’t long before the hall gets filled with bustling students, a lot of them clinging onto paper cups of hot beverages to keep them fuelled for the long day ahead.

You catch sight of the professor emerging from the door and takes his place on the podium to the right corner. With much struggle, you manage to take out your usual materials for class, mainly your anatomy and physiology notebook and your favourite black pen that somehow managed to make early lectures more bearable. The professor begins to speak coherently with the slides displayed on the huge screen and when you’re about to reach for your pen, realisation hits like a truck. You couldn’t write. And you groan in frustration upon the reminder, earning a few looks from the students not too far away from you. Luckily, it wasn’t loud enough for the professor to hear who continued to switch from one slide to another. You let out a sigh as quietly as you could, trying your best to hide your disappointment. So you sit back instead and attempt to listen to everything the professor taught, absorbing as much as your brain allowed so that maybe, you could type up your own notes later. It felt weird not to be writing because it was always something you did in every class. There’s anxiety bubbling up in your chest when your thoughts inadvertently fly to the remaining classes of the day— how were you going to survive?

You end up missing half the things said in your anatomy class because you were too focused on worrying about how the next six weeks would pan out. So when the professor dismisses your class, you rise from your seat with another groan, stuffing your untouched belongings into your bag with a huff. This day was not looking bright and it was only the first class. You can only imagine how difficult it would be to mentally prepare yourself for the rest of the day.

When you exit the hall to make your way to the next one, you stop in the middle of your tracks when your names echoes in between the walls of the building.

“Y/N!”

You turn around and find Mark lightly jogging up to you. He’s wearing yet another hoodie with black jeans and glasses sitting snugly on the bridge of his nose. You smile at him when he reaches you soon after, unknowingly forgetting about how horrible your day was unraveling.

“How’s the arm?” He asks, securing one of the straps of his backpack on his shoulder.

You raise your right arm and wave it slightly in front of him. “Still broken, I think.”

Mark chuckles at your reply and you find yourself smiling along. “Yeah about that I’m really sorry.”

“Mark I was joking. And it’s fine, I promise,” you say.

He purses his lips and nod in defeat. “But still,” he starts and stops himself from apologising again. “Anyways, here.”

You look down and see pages in his hands being extended out to you. You glance back up at him. “What are those?”

He prods you to take them from his hands and you do so, scanning through the handwriting sprawled everywhere on the first page. From the corner of your eye, you see Mark rub the nape of his neck again, a bashful smile playing on his lips.

“Well since uh.. I figured you can’t write because of your arm,” Mark says and you pick up on how shy he’s suddenly become. “So I took notes for you from today’s class.”

You scan the remaining pages and true enough, Mark had taken down everything that was discussed in the class earlier, even drawing mini diagrams with labels here and there and you smile when you see him add his own little notes and reminders on the sides of the pages in a different coloured pen. Mark’s writing wasn’t the neatest and you know it’s because of how fast paced the anatomy lectures usually were and how much of a struggle it was to actually keep up with the professor’s words. But what impresses you is that he’s managed to write everything down in such a short span of time, something you couldn’t do, always missing a few important bits.

You couldn’t help but feel a weight lifted off of your shoulder.

“I know it might not be as good as the notes you usually take but—“

You didn’t realise how happy a bunch of pages put together made you until you find yourself jumping up to envelop your arms around Mark’s neck. Maybe it was the fact that you were so convinced you’d have a horrible day ahead and the fact that Mark had come to rescue you from a fraction of your misery without him knowing but right now, you were just happy and you wanted to hang on to the positive things to help you through the long classes waiting for you. It was a small gesture from Mark. But to you, it was more than enough.

“Oh my goodness this is perfect. Thank you so much. You didn’t have to—“ You stop midway when you realise the position you had gotten yourself into and immediately peel yourself off of Mark who didn’t get the chance to fully comprehend the actions you had just exhibited.

You find him blinking rapidly behind his glasses when you step away from him. You feel heat creep up on your cheeks along with the embarrassment taking over every cell of your body and before he could open his mouth to say something, you cut him off.

“I will study these notes well! Thank you!” You say with a smile, “I’ll see you around then Mark!” You continue quickly and turn on your heels to walk away before he could notice your face that by now is probably as red as a tomato.

Week two.

After a week of adjusting, you were slowly getting used to using one good arm and compromising with the other. Basic tasks such as washing the dishes, taking a shower and brushing your teeth was still a challenge but everyday seemed to get easier. Instead of writing notes physically during lectures, you found it easier to type as you listened, given that your fingers were functioning just fine. Though it felt weird not to be using your favourite pens and turning the pages of your notebook and staring at the bright screen for hours, you felt calmer knowing you kept track of everything you had to study.

The only physical notes you had from the previous week was Mark’s. And there were times you’d discover yourself staring at the pages a little longer, studying not the material, but every stroke that he produced on the page. You had found fascination in the way he wrote his words and even though you’ve studied his material countless of times, you couldn’t help but revise all the information squashed into the reams over and over again. You’re convinced you’ve memorised the nitty gritty of how the human kidneys worked at this stage.

You don’t see Mark after that encounter. After all, you only have once class together and it only occurred once a week. But you’re surprised with how much you’ve been thinking about him. It isn’t until today that you see him again, walking up the stairs of the lecture hall, scanning the room for a seat until he stops just by the row you always sat yourself in. You were early today and so you took comfort in the emptiness and silence of the hall that was yet to be filled with students you really didn’t know. You catch his eyes just as he stands by the edge of the row of empty seats and smiles at you then before scooting himself inside until he’s standing over the seat next to yours.

“Hey,” he greets. “Is this seat taken?”

You glance down at the chair and then back up at Mark, shaking your head lightly. “No, it’s not.”

He smiles at your response and proceeds to sit on the empty chair, placing his backpack just underneath the table.

You blink a couple of times, quite taken aback that the person you’ve just been thinking about (and all week) is sitting right next to you. He’s wearing another hoodie today, a red one, and his dark brown hair is falling just on top of his glasses. You don’t remember ever sitting next to Mark, your memories of him only ever consisting of the boy who sat near the back, in the corner beside another student whom you didn’t know the name of.

There’s silence echoing in the huge hall and you try to rack your brain for things to talk about. Mark seems to be thinking the exact same thing because you both speak at the same time when a topic comes to mind.

“How are—“

“The notes—“

You both chuckle shortly after and Mark gestures for you to speak first. He’s smiling and you notice little sparkles in his eyes. You give yourself a moment to come back to your world after being momentarily lost in the way that his nose crinkled whenever he laughed.

“The notes from last week,” you start. “They were really good. I studied well, thank you.”

The smile on Mark’s lips widen. “Yeah? I was actually worried they didn’t make any sense. I’ve already broken your arm, I don’t want you failing this module too.”

You let out a hearty laugh and you don’t see the way Mark watches you with contentment. “No no. They were actually better than the notes I usually write. So I’m pretty sure no one’s failing anytime soon.”

Mark nods in satisfaction and he pushes his glasses further up the bridge of his nose as he leans forward to rest his clasped hands on the table.

“Well then, leave today’s class up to me,” he announces, watching students come in the lecture hall at the bottom of the room.

You stare at his side profile and tilt your head a little to the side. “It’s okay Mark, I can type my notes today,” you reply and tap your laptop sitting on the table.

Mark glances at the device for a second before shrugging. “No. You relax. I got this.”

“Mark, really it’s okay. You don’t have to—“

He turns to you then and he catches you off guard slightly when he leans forward towards your direction. He’s smiling at you, never breaking eye contact.

“I don’t have to. I’m doing it because I want to.”

Week three.

You can’t focus. And you’re not paying attention to the things you should be. You didn’t even know what the topic of today’s lecture was. The professor’s words seem to drown out of your head completely because you’re staring at the figure beside you writing notes down profusely. You watch Mark repeat his cycle; craning his head towards the front where the lecturer stood before dipping his head down again. There’s a set of pages for you and a set for him and it was only then that you realised how hard he had to work because now he was writing not just for himself but for you too. And no matter how many times you’ve fought to take your eyes off of him, you can’t. And you didn’t know why.

It’s only when Mark looks up some time after and turn his head to you that you’re forced to look away. But when you do, you’re sure he still caught you staring. You feel Mark’s eyes linger on you for a while and you wonder if there was anything on your face for him to do so. When he does resume to focusing his attention to the lecture, you exhale a breath you weren’t aware you were holding.

Lectures were always long but today felt painfully longer than usual. And you think it’s because of the fact that everything being taught didn’t seem to implant themselves in your brain. You couldn’t be more relieved when you see the word conclusion appear on the wide screen indicating the end of anatomy and physiology that felt like centuries later.

“Are you not tired?” You ask Mark curiously as you get up from your seat and prepare to leave.

“Mhm?” Mark hums in response, stuffing his belongings into his backpack. “I got eight hours of sleep last night so I’m good.”

You smile to yourself at his words and follow him when he begins to make his way out of the hall. “Well that’s good. But I meant like, taking down two sets of notes? You were literally on fire in there.”

Mark chuckles as he holds the door open for you, allowing you to exit first with him following closely behind. “No, not really. I’m okay.”

You raise a questioning brow. “Sure?”

Mark nods, “Very sure.”

You feel yourself flinch when Mark’s fingertips graze your shoulder lightly, tugging at the only strap of your backpack that clung onto you before finally letting it fall into his fingers and into his grip, swinging it over his free shoulder.

You blink at him before frowning, noticing the burning sensation of where his fingers were. “What are you doing?”

Mark only smiles sheepishly at you. “Walking you to your next class. Lead the way?”

You try to hide the smile that’s desperate to form on your lips as well as the heat climbing up on your cheeks as you stand your ground.

“Mark my legs are fine to walk. It’s my arm that’s broken, remember?” You say, waving your cast-wrapped arm.

“I know that,” Mark simply replies, amused.

You didn’t want Mark to walk you to wherever your next class was because you feel you’ve had enough of him for the day. Enough of distractions.

You’re reaching out for your bag as you insist, “So you don’t have to walk me anywhere—“

You don’t finish your sentence when he swerves his shoulder away, leaving your arms hanging midair. He smiles at you again and he shrugs when he does. “Just let me.”

“But why? There’s really no need—”

“Because I want to.”

So here you were, weaving in and out of the sea of students in the corridors as you reach for your destination, Mark walking right beside you. You hadn’t spoken to him since, not really knowing what to say when he was so insistent and didn’t want to take a no for an answer. And because you were at a loss for words. He doesn’t speak either. But continues to smile instead.

When you do reach a door similar to the one you had walked into for your first class but on the other end of the building, Mark doesn’t hand you your backpack. He takes it upon himself to move closer to you to put it on your shoulder, taking the time to ensure it sat there snugly. And all you could do was watch.

He steps back a second after and rummages in his own bag to retrieve something. His hands emerges then with the notes he had taken earlier and extends them out to you. “Notes for this week. I hope they don’t disappoint.”

You smile at him gratefully before reaching your good arm out to take them from him. “I’m sure they won’t. Thanks.”

Mark zips his bag closed and swings it over his shoulder. “I better get to class. I’ll see you around?”

You nod. “Of course.”

He’s about to turn on his heels to walk away when he abruptly stops and turns back to you again. “Oh— I almost forgot. Do you like coffee?”

It takes you a moment to answer, taken aback by the random question. “Uh, I think I like hot chocolate better.”

Mark nods firmly then and waves a hand before walking away for real this time. You blink at his retreating figure and when he turns a corner and disappears completely, your eyes fall to the pages in your hand. You raise it closer to your vision when you find a small green sticky note stuck to the corner of the first page. And for the first time ever, you feel your pulse skip a beat.

“Study hard! But not too hard!”

Week four.

You never thought you’d see the day come where you would be excited for a Monday. You hated Mondays, truly. Mondays were long and tiring and you were always exhausted by the time the day finished and there would still be four days left of the week to hustle and bustle. But today was different because you were stepping on campus grounds with a smile on your face, not a frown, but a smile. The sun is shining so bright overhead and you can’t help but feel yet another bubble of happiness explode in your chest. You find it weird to be feeling this way at half eight in the morning because you would usually be walking into the building with a huff, contemplating and questioning your life decisions.

And you’re startled when you find Mark standing just by the door of the lecture hall you both shared every start of the week, because the way that your heart picks up its pace doesn’t go unnoticed by you. Mark is kicking at the floor lightly, glueing his eyes to the motions of his limbs and you stop dead in your tracks to just observe him for a while without his knowledge.

When Mark looks up to see you, he smiles like he usually does and you struggle to keep your insides calm because if you were being honest, he looked absolutely breathtaking. There’s something different about him today and when you let your eyes follow his movements as he walks towards you, that’s when you realise that for the first time he wasn’t hidden in his usual comfortable hoodies. Today, he’s wearing a white shirt half tucked into the material of his light blue jeans and finishing the look with a pair of clean white converse. His hair bounces with every step he takes and when your eyes fall onto his face, you can see his brown orbs radiate clearly under the stream of the sunlight in the absence of his glasses.

“Good morning,” he greets. “For you.”

It takes you a few seconds to fully register his words and when you finally do, you see a cup enveloped in his hand being offered to you.

“What’s this?” You ask confusedly, shifting your gaze from the cup to his face.

Mark smiles and forces the cup onto your left hand before leaning in slightly to tug at the strap of your bag just like how he did last week. Growing uncomfortable by the way your heart was hammering against your rib cage, you swiftly lower your shoulder so that Mark can take the object from you easier because you knew that the longer his fingers grazed your shoulder, the longer you were going to feel the knots in your stomach. You train your eyes to the floor just as Mark places your bag onto the opposite shoulder his own bag sat on.

“Hot chocolate,” Mark says, bringing your attention to the warm beverage now wrapped beneath your fingers. “Let’s get to class?”

So that’s why you were elated to face your Monday; you get to sit beside Mark and watch him diligently scribble perfect notes as he spares glances at you here and there accompanied with a small smile, as if to silently let you know that he was paying attention to you too. And contrary to last week, you didn’t even look away whenever he caught you already looking at him. You wanted to, but you simply couldn’t. And the way he takes the time to smile at you every now and then makes you feel it’s okay to do so, that it was okay to fixate your gaze on him while continued on with his task.

Your thumb fiddles with the cup of the hot chocolate that rests on your lap, thinking to yourself the possibility of falling for this boy. Because you could feel it. In between the hushed whispers in class, the unnecessary crinkle of his nose whenever you said a lousy joke and in the way your breath hitches whenever he got too close. You catch yourself falling in awe because four weeks wasn’t even that long to be harbouring feelings for someone you recalled to be a stranger who blended in well in the background just like you. But that’s when you realise that Mark never blended amongst the crowd like you. To you he was always a conscious presence, a presence you felt compelled towards but never really got the opportunity to uncover. And you think it’s because of his quiet demeanour that shielded many things underneath the comfort of his oversized hoodies that leaves you wondering and pondering what he could possibly be like.

You smile because you discover it for yourself. You get to experience what he’s really like. Mark is sweet. And gentle. And comfortable to be around with when he isn’t causing you to almost hyperventilate.

“Why are you smiling?” Mark asks in a whisper, leaning slightly towards you as the professor’s voice continues to boom throughout the hall.

You shake your head silently with a shrug of your shoulders. “Just because.”

Mark continues to stare at you (your lips), his pen in his hand and ponders for a few seconds.

“I like it.”

Your eyes widen slightly and you don’t get the chance to throw him a questioning look because he’s already turned away to resume on catching the professor’s words on paper.

Once the hour is up, Mark is walking you to your next class again, allowing his memory lead the way through the corridors. You traipse along with him, the now half empty beverage being the only thing you were carrying as he refused not to carry your belongings for you earlier. You drown into small conversation with him, relishing in the feeling of being calm for the first time since meeting Mark today. You laugh at something he says, your hearty laugh echoing in his ears that encourage him to laugh with you. He places your bag on your shoulder again, just like how he did last week when you both reach the familiar entrance of another hall.

“I put the notes in your bag,” Mark says as he runs a hand through his hair when it gets caught in his eyes. “Enjoy class.”

You smile gratefully at him though feeling sad on the inside with the thought of not seeing him anymore until next week. “Thanks. I really appreciate it. I’ll see you next Monday then?”

Mark is rocking on his toes and he averts his eyes from yours, training his gaze to the ground for a second or two before looking up at you again. He rests his hand on the strap of his bag while the other flies a hand to the nape of his neck, a gesture that reminds you of the very first day he wrote your material for you.

“Actually, I wanted to ask if you’re free this Friday?” Mark asks, a shy smile eminent on his lips.

You can’t help but smile at the sight, an inkling of hope sparking in you that he might be feeling the same way you did. Not wanting to assume so soon, you muster up the courage to clarify his intentions.

“Friday?”

Mark drops his hand from his neck and opts to stuff into the pocket of his jeans instead, his little bashful gestures tugging at your heartstrings.

“Yeah. There’s a café that recently opened nearby and I wanted to ask if you’d like to come and check it out with me? I heard they make really nice hot chocolates,” he explains and you take note of the tint of rose spreading across his cheeks.

You pretend to think about his proposal, not wanting to sound so eager when in reality, you’ve already made up your mind even before he even got to ask.

“I finish at six that day, is that okay?” You say after a while, feeling giddy and excited at the thought of spending your Friday evening with the cute boy in the white shirt.

Mark’s face lightens up and the grip on your cup involuntarily tightens because of how happy he looked with your reply.

“Of course. That’s great,” he says, grinning.

You fumble at each other’s phone then to exchange numbers with the promise of Mark texting you before he walks away to get to his own class. You enter your lecture hall not too long after and settle in your seat. When you come across the sight of Mark’s familiar handwriting on the pages that are neatly tucked away in your book, you curiously take it out of your bag and examine the newly jotted notes, growing more and more accustomed to your routine with him.

You don’t fail to notice yet another green sticky note plastered on the corner of the first page and you feel yourself completely crumble altogether.

“You have a really pretty smile.”

—

You’re huffing and puffing when you feel your legs grow weaker by the second. There’s a burning sensation coating your lungs but you don’t stop running. It was approaching thirty minutes past six and you were late. The thought of Mark waiting for you sent guilt running up your spine. You finally round a corner and find him waiting patiently outside the said café. He’s wearing a dark grey sweater today, hair slightly tousled because of the wind that had just blown, staring out into the street in front of him.

“Oh my God I’m so sorry I’m late,” you say in between your heavy breaths once you reach him, your approaching figure catching his attention. You’re leaning slightly forward and clutching your chest with your broken arm to catch your breath.

As if on instinct, Mark takes the book you’re holding on to so tightly in your hand that you had failed to stuff in your bag after rushing to get here when your last class ended later than usual. He proceeds to take your bag from you too, something that felt too natural now.

Mark only smiles at you when he takes your belongings and holds them as if they were his. “It’s alright. No worries. I didn’t wait much.”

You let out a huge breath. “How long have you been waiting?”

Thirty minutes. Mark shrugs his shoulders, “I just got here.”

Not buying his lie, you walk past him and enter the café first, the bell signalling customers had arrived. “Okay, I’m paying.”

Mark frowns just behind you. “No. I asked you to come. I’m paying.”

“Yes but I was late so I’m making up for it,” you retorted and find a table by the corner. You slip into the seat as Mark settles on the seat opposite you.

“Y/N—“

“Mark, I’m paying.”

Sighing dejectedly, Mark slumps his shoulders in defeat. You smile victoriously and take the time to appreciate the coziness of the place you had just entered. Dark wooden walls enclosed the area, round tables spread generously throughout the space with little light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, emitting a mellow glow of yellow all around. There’s soft jazz music playing in the background and you’re immediately enthralled with how warm it makes you feel on the inside. You weren’t one to opt for cafés usually but this one was definitely on the top of your non-existent list.

“I like it here already,” you perk up, attracting Mark’s attention who had been focused on the small menu set on the table.

Mark smiles in content. “Yeah? I’m glad.”

A few minutes of deciding after, Mark rises and walks to the counter to order and you take this opportunity to fix yourself up, patting your hair down from the frantic running earlier. It isn’t too long before you see Mark emerging to reach for his seat again. When he sits in front you, you recognise the way he isn’t wearing his glasses again and you’re reminded by the shining of his eyes. You feel conscious under his stare because he’s leaning on the table, resting on his crossed arms and you try to shy away from it by looking elsewhere.

“Rough day today?” He asks, concerned.

You momentarily close your eyes and release a sigh before opening them again. “Very. Today felt so long.”

“Yeah?” Mark asks as if to confirm, a habit of his you found somehow captivating. “Tell me about it.”

So you do. You ramble on about how each class seemed to dragged on forever and how your merciless professors are piling up work on top of work with no hesitation. You vent out all your frustrations because the stress was getting to you. But you don’t tell him about the excitement of meeting him that kept you moving forward to survive the horrible day. He didn’t need to know that one.

“Oh— I’m sorry, that must have been so boring to listen to,” you cut yourself off in the middle of another sentence when you start talking about the frustration of working in a group with students who weren’t as dedicated on putting in work as much as you were.

You expect to find Mark dozing off at your ramblings, but instead, you find him in the same position he was earlier, leant forward, smiling at you and nodding to every word that left your mouth.

“No it’s not. Keep talking,” he assures. You’re oblivious as to how he finds fascination in your voice.

You’re about to protest when the waitress comes to deliver what Mark had ordered earlier. She carefully sets two hot chocolates in front you followed by slices of blueberry and chocolate cheesecakes. You thank the waitress along with Mark and that’s when you notice she’s unmoving in her spot, taking a good look at Mark. She looks about your age, long black hair tied loosely past her shoulders. Mark is slower to notice her attention and you feel queasy when there’s an unfamiliar feeling forming in your gut.

You see Mark shift in his seat uncomfortably when he thanks the waitress again. She mumbles a quick welcome before walking away, cheeks tinted. You smile in amusement when Mark regains his composure, tugging at his sweater.

“I think she likes you,” you point out, stirring your hot chocolate with the small spoon.

Mark chuckles lightly and shakes his head as he follows what you’re doing. “Nah, probably not.”

“Her stare says otherwise,” you prod, surprised by the way your tone sounded rigid.

“Doesn’t matter,” Mark dismisses and looks at you as he wraps his slender fingers around his mug, nodding his head at your mug . “Try it and see if it lives up to your expectations.”

You divert you eyes to your hot chocolate before lifting the mug and letting your tastebuds become coated with the warm liquid. It brings you waves of calm and you savour the sweet taste, forgetting about the eventful day that sent you to unimaginable stress. When you let the mug down in its original place on the table, you hum in contentment.

“Okay that’s really good,” you say, using your tongue to remove the excess that had managed to stay on your top lip.

Mark follows suit and takes his first sip, agreeing with you when he gets a taste. You lose yourselves into your conversations then, swapping your cakes with each other in between so that you can both challenge who had the better cake. You learn about Mark’s family and his love for instruments and anything that had to do with music; something he said no one really knew about. He learns about you in return and your family that lives miles away in England. You tell him how much you miss them, especially your little brother who’s just three years of age and Mark empathises with you when he tells you his family lives in Canada. Both of you jump from one topic to another, discovering more similarities than you would’ve thought and challenging each other’s views on certain subjects that required a lot more thought. Regardless, every single conversation is smooth flowing and there’s an abundance of laughs in between transitions. You grow to like the crinkling of Mark’s nose when he laughs while Mark on the other hand, revels in how light your laugh makes him feel. And even though the place is filled with the distant chatters of other people sipping on their coffee, both of you take no notice of them, heavily engaged into whatever you were talking about.

You feel a newly uncovered connection with Mark and you wonder if he felt the same way.

It’s a little past nine when you both call it a night and rise from the table you both had grown comfortable in. You walk towards the counter with the intent to pay only to be notified that everything has been paid for already. You turn to raise a questioning brow at Mark who only smiles sheepishly at you.

“I told you I’d pay,” you say once you exit the cozy café.

“No. I asked you to come so it’s only right that I pay,” Mark defends. “Besides, it’s an excuse for me to see you again. You can treat me next time.”

You grow silent at his reply and internally surrender when his words sends your heart in a frenzy. Mark walks you to your apartment situated ten minutes away from where your university was. It’s as if you two never the left the café because you’re still laughing during your conversations even at the cringeworthy puns Mark makes every chance he got. You can’t remember the last time you’ve laughed this much, only ever basking in the feeling of longing you had for your family back home. You weren’t the type to make friends either, hence spending the majority of your time by yourself. However being with Mark felt like a breath of fresh air. He made interacting feel easier which was a surprise to you because it’s always been something you’ve struggled with.

You reach your apartment building just as you finish chuckling at something he said. He hands you your book and the bag he had claimed before leaving the café earlier.

“Thanks for today, I had a lot of fun,” you say genuinely, adjusting your bag with your good hand.

Stuffing his hands into the pocket of his jeans, Mark smiles with a nod. “Me too. I’ll see you Monday?”

You nod carefully and you take this as your queue to head inside but the way Mark is smiling at you endearingly, eyes forming crescent moons screams at your insides to do something else. All the rationality in your system seem to fly out the window when you’re taking a step towards him, leaning on your toes to reach up and plant a quick kiss on his cheek. You’re embarrassed by your actions but not as embarrassed as Mark who’s blushing like mad and training his eyes to the ground in vain attempts of hiding the heat that’s spreading across his face.

“See you on Monday,” you say with a satisfied smile.

—

Week five.

Five weeks with a cast around your arm and you were living completely fine with it. Tasks didn’t bother you anymore, applying your own know-how’s on how to handle such chores. The only thing bothered you was when the skin under the hard material itched so bad you could literally only writhe your fingers in hopes of consoling yourself until you realise it doesn’t work and silently hope for the discomfort to end instead. Mark texts you right after you part from him that Friday night. Even thought it was a mere good night, sleep well it was more than enough for you to grin like an idiot as you reread the message over and over again. You furtively dread seeing him today as the sun rises, indicating another start to your work after burying yourself in work during the weekend, never leaving your room, because you remember that risky kiss you had impulsively planted on his cheek. You prepare yourself for the worst; Mark avoiding you and hiding himself because of what you did. But mentally argue with yourself; he texted you that night so that might mean you didn’t scare him away completely. Regardless, you silently wish you hadn’t been so irrational and let your emotions take over.

You walk in the building, half hoping to see Mark wait for you by the door you entered together for the past few weeks now. And you know you’re in deep trouble because you’re already expecting to see him first thing on a Monday morning; an unconscious confirmation of your desire to spend at least an hour with him.

You pick up the way your muscles relax unintentionally when you catch sight of him already looking towards your direction with his usual smile. He’s wearing his glasses today and the sight of his round specs make you realise you kind of missed them. When you reach him, he extends out the familiar cup of hot chocolate in his hand and extends his other free hand in place for your bag. You roll your eyes playfully, butterflies reeling in your stomach as you trade.

“I really don’t understand why you have to carry my bag. I’m perfectly able for that task,” you say when you’re hopping along the stairs of the hall, careful enough not to spill your beverage.

Mark chuckles behind you and follows you carefully as you shuffle into your usual row. “And I don’t understand why you protest so much. I told you before, I’m doing it because I want to.”

You sit yourself on the chair after you unfold it from its original state and give Mark an inquiring look. Mark follows suit and settles both of your bags below where he usually places them. “Why? Do you not like me doing it?”

You purse your lips as you try not to melt. He’s genuine with his question, feeling worried you might have developed a distaste for his actions. You shake your head, wondering if you wanted to be one hundred percent transparent so early in the day. But Mark is asking you with his eyes and you feel the urge to show an eighth of how you’ve been feeling.

“It’s not that,” you start. “It’s just I don’t want to get used to it and this,” you say as you raise the hot chocolate within his view. He glances at it and shifts his gaze onto you almost immediately, encouraging you to continue with a nod. “My cast comes off in a week Mark, and I don’t want myself to expect you doing these still when it does because I’m slowly growing used to all of this.”

Mark blinks a couple of times and you’re instantly regretting being so honest. You take a sip from your cup to comfort yourself in the sweet taste and to distract yourself from the words you had just let go of. You avoid Mark’s eyes which you can’t read at the moment.

“You really think I’m doing all of this because of your cast?”

You snap your head towards his direction. “Aren’t you? And because of guilt maybe?”

He stays silent after and you take the opportunity to emphasise your opinion.

“I’ve already told you it’s okay. My broken arm wasn’t anybody’s fault and that there’s nothing to be sorry for—“

“I know that. And I took your word for it,” Mark interrupts, his eyebrows furrowing in the middle, an expression you’ve never seen on him before. “Which is why I kept telling you that I’m not doing it out of anything— not out of guilt, not out of obligation. But because I simply want to.” Mark inhales a breath and runs a hand through his hair.

“And I’m going to keep doing it for you, your arm broken or not.”

And that’s it. You finally melt. And the the crescent of his smiling eyes with the emergence of his chiseled cheekbones when he smiles doesn’t help the butterflies in your stomach calm their whimsical wings, tickling you ever so lightly.

Mark doesn’t speak anymore as the class begins and you’re left alone with your haywire thoughts. And you grow even more embarrassed for the rest of the day when you read your note for the day, presenting itself in the usual green sticky note attached to your notes.

“You look really cute when you’re flustered.”

In the middle of the week, you find yourself seated on a bench overlooking the wide green football pitch as you skim over Mark’s notes, revising the topic you hadn’t paid much attention to during the actual lecture. It’s one in the afternoon which meant that you had an hour for lunch so here you were, finding solace in the silence under the shade of a tree to protect yourself from the sun. You trace your fingers under the ink as you read every bullet point, occasionally looking up to stare into the distance to mentally repeat what you’ve just read to check how immersed you were in your study.

You feel your phone vibrate just beside you and you reach for it, eyes unwavering from the page. You read one more sentence before switching your attention to your phone. Mark’s name displays on the screen, indicating a new message from him.

Did you have lunch yet?

Your thumbs tap on your device in a fluid manner hitting the send button not too long after to tell him no and that you weren’t feeling hungry. You don’t get a reply within the time frame that Mark usually replies in and so you set your phone back on the bench, eyes travelling to your notes once again. A few minutes later, a pair of shoes appears just in front of you and slowly, you peel your eyes away from Mark’s handwriting to see who your company was.

Mark is smiling down at you just as he leans down slightly to settle a brown paper bag just on the unoccupied space of the bench beside you. You smile in return, happy at the sight of him.

“What are you doing here?” You ask curiously when he stands back up.

Mark is rocking back and forwards on his toes again. “I was walking by and I saw you. Figured I’d say hi.”

“Well, hello,” you answer playfully.

Mark grins bashfully, running a hand through his hair. “I actually have class now so I have to go.”

“So you came to actually say bye,” you tease, a playful eyebrow raised as you cross your arms across your chest.

“Trust me I don’t want to say bye but I have to get this degree,” he says, playing along with you.

You chuckle and he mirrors your actions. “Alright,” you say and wave a hand. He turns on his heels then and leave you alone again in your silence. When he’s no longer in view, your eyes fall to the brown bag he had placed before you earlier. You pick it up and rip the familiar green sticky note off of the thin material of the bag, finding Mark’s writing etched on it.

“Please don’t skip your meals ㅠ ㅠ Studying is good but not when you’re missing food.”

You smile to yourself and find a sandwich hidden inside the bag with a bottle of orange juice. A chuckle escapes your mouth when you pick up yet another sticky note that’s plastered on the sandwich.

“This isn’t much but it’ll do for now. We’ll get proper food this Friday. If you’re up for it.”

Mark was sweet. As always.

—

It’s Friday. And you’re walking alongside Mark along the streets of the city, allowing your eyes wander all around the buildings you happen to pass by as you savour the taste of the vanilla ice cream sitting perfectly on your cone. Mark upheld his suggestion in taking you out for dinner once again and after losing yet another debate on who pays for the meal, you suggested to buy him ice cream instead, insisting until he finally caved in and gave you what you wanted. There’s a smile playing on your lips when you see Mark indulge in his watermelon flavoured ice cream. He wasn’t carrying your usual backpack today. Instead, he slung your small handbag across his shoulders and let it rest slightly above his hip.

“So where would you like to go next week?” Mark suddenly asks after licking his dessert.

“Next week?” You ask inquisitively.

Mark nods, eyes ahead. “Is there anything you’re craving?”

You narrow your eyes at his side view, not really sure if you wanted to ask the question burning in your mind for the longest time. But you decide against it and decide to go along with his suggestions instead.

“Not that I can think of, no,” you simply reply.

Mark purses his lips in thought. “Hm. How about burgers? Pizza? Pasta?”

You take another lick off your ice cream as you consider the variety of food mentioned. “Burgers sound good.”

Mark nods proudly, biting into his cone. “Burgers it is then. I’ll look for good places around.”

You chuckle when he gets some ice cream on his nose and you don’t for one second hesitate to reach out and wipe it away with the tissue in your free hand. He merely watches your moves and blink right after you succeed in wiping his face clean. “Is this food hunt a weekly thing now?”

You don’t notice Mark stiffen and regain his composure as he trails his eyes ahead, obviously taken aback by your touch because as far as he could remember, he’d always been the one on the giving end, except for that one kiss you had given him. He clears his throat then and proceeds on focusing on his dessert to distract himself from the warmth spreading across his cheeks.

“It could be. If you want,” he says.

You nudge his side playfully, “It could be if you’d let me pay.”

Mark quirks a smile. “I let you pay earlier didn’t I?”

You roll your eyes playfully at him, causing him to emit another chuckle. “That was dessert. I mean like a proper meal.”

Mark takes a step closer to you unknowingly. “I’m the one asking you out on dates. So it’s on me.”

Your head whizzes towards his direction and an eyebrow shoots up immediately. There were times you’d wonder if the last Friday and today were considered as dates. But you never dwelled on it and opted to treat them as two friends hanging out and checking out cozy places but now that Mark has said it himself, a new set of questions seeped into your mind.

“Dates?”

Munching on the last bit of his cone, Mark nods with a smile, slightly amused at your incredulous face. He stuffs his hand in his pocket and meet your eyes. “Dates. What have you been thinking all this time?”

You continue to blink at him, unmoving, not realising you’ve stopped walking, people weaving around you. Mark stops with you and waits for your reply.

“I- I don’t know,” you say truthfully. “I thought we were just grabbing food together.”

Mark chuckles lowly and lifts a hand to rub the nape of his neck, a shy smile forming on his lips. “I’m sorry. I was wrong on my part. I didn’t make myself clear enough, did I?”

Your mouth is now hanging slightly open.

“Okay,” Mark says when he sees you still confused. “I want to take you out on a date next week. Let’s get some burgers?”

You finally snap out of your trance when a stranger’s shoulder bumps into yours, making you lose your balance slightly. Mark is quick to reach out to you and grab a hold of your arms to stabilise you, his touch sending surges of electricity through the fabric of your sweater.

You try to laugh off your embarrassing faces just now as you begin to walk ahead, wiping your hand that had been dripped on by your melting ice cream. “We’re not even dating,” you say in a light tone in attempts to hide the erratic beating of your heart.

Mark walks until he’s beside you, close enough that his shoulder touches with yours.

“Yeah? Maybe we should start dating then.”

—

Week six.

Mark’s words eat at you the whole weekend that passes and it isn’t helping that he’s smiling at you more often now, his nose crinkling and his eyes disappearing. Nevertheless, you can’t shrug off the light weight settling in your chest whenever he momentarily shifts his eyes from the notes he’s writing to you only for his lips to curl upwards into a small smile. There’s another hot chocolate sitting at your desk and you feel it tastes even sweeter today. When Mark brings you to your next class, his gaze lingers on you a little longer and you’re tempted to cower away so that he doesn’t see you becoming flustered because his eyes spoke too much and it was enough to terrify you; you feel yourself losing to him. His notes are in your hands and the small green in the corner catches your eye immediately. He doesn’t leave though, staring at you, silently encouraging you to read what he had written for you today.

Go on a date with me?

And when you look back up at him, he’s just smiling, hands buried deep within his pockets and balancing his weight back and forth his toes.

Lunch times were no longer spent on your own because Mark made an effort to cross from his building which was all the way on the other end of the campus to yours just so he could eat with and talk to you. It’s Thursday and you’re watching him curiously as he twiddles with the marker in between his fingers, twirling it skilfully, another habit of his you had picked up whenever he paused from writing. Your casted arm is laid on the table just below him. He had asked you earlier if he could write on it since it would be coming off this weekend and you agreed without hesitation, giddy at the thought of having a part of Mark with you.

When you happen to glance at the time on your phone, you reluctantly take your arm off of the table, Mark following your every move.

“I’ve class. I have to go,” you say simply as you gather your things. “Still can’t decide what to write?”

Mark shakes his head and gets up from his chair when you do, stuffing the last of your things into your bag and grabbing it to swing on his shoulder but just as he’s about to do so, you grab his arm and stop and him.

“You stay here. I can walk to class on my own,” you assure him.

“Are we going to do this again? I want—“

You halt his words with a firm nod of your head, your lips quirking up into a smile. “I know that.” A soft chuckle leaves your lips as you reach out and plant a pink sticky note on his forehead.

Mark stares at you on confusion, his face adorable.

“I’ll see you this Friday then?” You say with a wink before walking away to leave.

Mark watches you before raising his hand to pluck the sticky note off his forehead.

I would love to go on date with you.

—

Mark surprises you once again when he holds out a bouquet of fresh sunflowers to you hiding behind a bashful smile shielded with the crescent moon of his eyes and cheekbones as prominent as ever. There’s heat creeping up on your cheeks as you take the flowers from him.

“Sunflowers?” You ask curiously, taking in the beauty of each one. The sight of the bright yellow alone is enough to make you happy from the inside.

Mark smiles shyly and runs a hand through his hair. “Umm,” he starts, obviously hesitating. You take your eyes away from the flowers and encourage him to continue with a nod of your head and a smile on your lips. “It’s going to sound so cheesy but... you remind me of sunflowers, that’s why.”

You can’t help the smile on your face from reaching one ear to the other, melting slowly by his sheepish confession. “It’s not cheesy, Mark. It’s sweet.”

Mark grins, his eyes smiling along.

“And thank you, I love them.”

And just like the previous Fridays, you block the whole world out as you and Mark talk about life, memories, people and the world. You get a better understanding of Mark and you let yourself open up to him knowing it was exactly that he wanted you to do. And it feels light. It feels weightless. Exposing your worries, concerns and dreams with Mark doesn’t feel hard to do because you feel your secrets are safe with him. You feel safe with him. Every word that leaves your mouth registers in Mark’s mind without missing a syllable and he makes a vow never to forget a single one because if anything, you sharing everything that was kept under your façade was all he’s ever wanted you to do. So that you don’t have to carry the burden alone. So that you didn’t feel alone. And Mark does his best to make you feel like you aren’t, in the way he responds to you, in the way he never takes his eyes off of you and in the way he reaches out to wrap your hand under his when the words get caught in your throat.

Mark doesn’t let go of your hand the whole walk home. You expected to feel your heart jump right out of your chest the moment he took your hand in his and effortlessly intertwine his fingers in between yours, but instead, the moment felt all too natural, and you felt calm, comfortable even. Mark feels warm and you instinctively lean closer to him when a gush of wind blows and you’re oblivious to the way he smiles above you when you do.

“Today was something else,” you mumble when you reach a familiar building.

Mark smiles at you, not ready to let go of your hand just yet, your bouquet of flowers nestling in his other arm, “Yeah. It was.”

Mark is rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of your hand and you momentarily wish that you could stay like this for a little longer. “Thank you for today. It was the best first date I could ever ask for.”

“Yeah? I’m glad. I had an amazing time too,” Mark replies, cheekbones evident on his chiselled face. “I always do, with you.”

You frown at him as an attempt to mask your frustration away. This boy was definitely something. “Right. Well, I should get going. Thank you for bringing me home.”

Mark nods but his hand remains unmoving in yours and you’re chuckling when you feel him give your hand a squeeze. Instead of prying his hold off you, you close the gap between the both of you and lean on your toes to plant a soft peck on his cheek. When you pull away with a smile, his grip on your hand loosen then and you take this opportunity to take your hand away along with the sunflowers. He’s blinking at you, taken aback by your actions just like the very first time you boldly kissed him.

“Good night, Mark,” you mumble bashfully and turn on your heels to walk away. It isn’t long before he’s calling your name again.

“Hey Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Would it be okay.. If I go to the hospital with you tomorrow?”

You smile gives your answer away even before you could utter a reply.

“I’d love that.”

—

“You never got to write on my cast,” you point out as you exit the hospital. You’re flailing your right arm around slightly, trying to get used to the sensation you didn’t feel for six weeks.

You feel Mark shrug beside you, “That’s okay. I still have plenty of sticky notes left.”

This makes you laugh and you shake your head at him. “Whatever you say.”

It isn’t long before Mark finds your right hand and laces it with his left. “It feels nice to be holding this hand.”

You raise a playful brow. “So my left one isn’t as nice?”

Mark chuckles and gives your hand a squeeze. “I’m just saying I’m going to be doing this much more often.”

You challenge him, scooting closer, “Because?”

Mark doesn’t respond, caught in between your playful question. The sun is shining up so high in the sky and there are no clouds present to intervene with the bright light. There’s a bubble of happiness bursting in his chest and he smiles ahead, growing all too familiar with the sensation.

“I guess this is the part where I confess, right?”

You whip your head towards him in a heartbeat. “What?”

Mark is trying not to notice your furrowed eyebrows as he continues to stare ahead. “You know, I think it was a good thing I broke your arm.”

You blink at him, confused. “What?”

Mark cranes his neck towards you to look at you. “Because it finally gave me a reason to talk to you.”

“Okay I’m confused,” you say defeated, halting in your steps and unlatching your hand from his. You cross your arms across your chest and wait for him to explain.

Mark chuckles at your actions and you could almost guess what he’s about to do next when you see a bashful smile playing on his lips; stuffing one hand into the pocket of his jeans and the other flies up to rub the nape of his neck.

“Okay, here goes nothing,” Mark starts. “I’ve had the biggest crush on you Y/N ever since... Probably ever since the first time I saw you walk through our anatomy and physiology lectures which was what? Like the start of this year right? And I know I should have just manned up and talked to you right there and then but I couldn’t bring myself to. I think I got scared and.. nervous.”

He pauses as he laughs awkwardly, recalling all the times he’d watch you carefully sit down in your favourite seat of the lecture hall.

“I was really really curious about you, not in a creepy way, trust me. I just really wanted to know you but I didn’t know how. It just so happened that I was late for class one day and ended up knocking you down with my bike.”

“So breaking my arm was a ploy to talk to me?”

“Y/N that’s not what I meant, I—“

You laugh at his reaction, heart fluttering at his cute confession. Mark still looks flustered and he’s averting his eyes everywhere but you and you find him even more endearing then. That’s when you take a step closer and wrap your arms around his neck.

“Well then, I thank you for being late to class that day,” you whisper. “The past six weeks have been the easiest for me despite the broken arm.” You smile to yourself when you feel Mark’s arms wrap around your waist. “And I guess this is the part I confess too? I like you too, Mark.”

Mark doesn’t say anything. Instead, he tightens his arms around you and buries his head into the crook of your neck.

—

Week seven.

Over the week, your texts and calls with Mark become more frequent and he no longer waits until Friday to take you out on dates, managing to squeeze in picnic dates in between free periods and staying back after lectures to study together in the library. If Mark was sweet before the confession, he was even sweeter after telling you how he felt about you.

I really really like you.

You look really pretty today.

Well— you always do.

But yeah, I can’t believe you like me too?

Like wow.

You give Mark an incredulous look when your eyes fall onto the set of green sticky notes he had plastered on your book in a span of two minutes. How could you even manage to study when he was being like this? Mark only smiles at you innocently before training his eyes onto his book again. Shaking your head in disapproval (even though you adored each one of his quick notes), you resume on typing your half finished essay. Not even ten minutes into your work, you feel Mark scurry to write another note on his small pad. Ten seconds later, he sticks it right on the screen of your laptop, right where you can see it straight away.

Scratch that. You’re beautiful. I hope you know that.

—

“I remember that one time, I dropped my pencil case in the middle of the corridor and you picked it up for me as you were passing by,” Mark says, adjusting your bag on his shoulder. “And even then, I couldn’t say anything to you.”

You laugh and play with the stem of the sunflower in your hand, one that Mark had given you after meeting you when your lectures ended. “But why? Am I that intimidating?”

“No,” Mark says. “I told you, I was just always so nervous around you.”

You laugh playfully and nudge his shoulder. “Are you still nervous now?”

Mark smiles and stops for a moment, “You have no idea.”

You sigh exasperatedly turning your whole body to face him. “Mark you’re making me flustered. Stop that,” finally expressing a fraction of how he really made you feel.

“Stop what?” Mark teases.

“That thing you do. I don’t know what it’s called,” you say with hand motions. “Did you know you have a way with words?”

Mark shakes his head, feigning innocence, enjoying the sight of the pink shade on your cheeks. “That’s a first. But maybe because I’m with you?”

You close your eyes briefly to collect yourself because right now you were absolutely melting and it didn’t look like Mark was going to stop anytime soon. “You’re enjoying this too much aren’t you?”

Mark shrugs his shoulders, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

You roll your eyes playfully at him as you hold the sunflower in front of him. This was the fourth sunflower of the week and although you loved every single one, you couldn’t help but be curious.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why sunflowers? I know you said they remind you of me, but I want to know how.”

Mark shifts his gaze on the yellow flower before fixating his gaze on you, eyes smiling.

“Sunflowers make me happy whenever I see them. And that’s exactly how I feel when I see you,” Mark replies straightforwardly, as if it was the one thing he was most sure about in the whole world.

You silently regret asking because you weren’t prepared for what he was actually about to say. You should know by now; Mark always always had a way with his words.

“Cheesy right?” Mark chuckles, mentally reprimanding himself for being so smitten by you to the point where this side of him shows involuntarily.

You shake your head, giving him a smile.

“It’s not cheesy, Mark. It’s sweet.”

4K notes · View notes

namirotraeu · 4 years

Text

Online Relationships

I know it took me a long time to finish this fic, but I hope you’ll still give it a try. I originally planned it to be longer. I had to delete several scenes since it does not match, maybe I’ll use it in my future fics.

Please enjoy the final chapter and let me know your thoughts.

“Personalities and relationships tend to differ offline. “

(Part 1) I (Part 2) I (Part 3)

Title: Online Relationships- Part 4

Pairing:Trafalgar Law X Nami

Genre: Romance / AU

Rating: T

Word Count: 1734

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, they rightfully belong to Oda Eiichiro.

Helen of Troy launched a thousand ships because of her beauty. It was not her fault that she became the cause of a ten-year war. It was the Fates who were weaving her destiny. Nami liked the epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, which tells the story of Helen. She read the books all over again every time she finds time to do so. She loved how the story tells that we are rational beings and it is our actions that makes our fate. Helen chose to love and that love became the downfall of a lot of people. Nami, on the other hand chose, to leave a comment on Law's post. She never thought it would end up like this.

16 love reactions. 5 likes. 25 comment replies.

Luffy D. Monkey: Zoro, Sanji, Robin, Franky, Ussop, Chopper, Brook, Vivi and Shiraoishi. Look! Nami, we demand an explanation! Since when did you and Torao became too close?

'Ugh, why did Luffy have to be the first one to see this? He even tagged all our closest friends.' Nami thought in despair.

Sanji Vinsmoke: Is the shitty doctor your boyfriend, Nami-swan? T^T

Zoro Roronoa: Witch, I told you to behave. Law, better take care of her.

Nico Robin: My, my, I never knew that he stole your heart, Nami.

Chopper: So it was Law that Nami likes?

It was not only her friends that reacted and commented. Even Law's friends did.

Shachi: Captain! She commented. Hurray!

Penguin: Yay! Our captain is on his spring time.

Bepo: Sorry for not noticing it earlier. I'm rooting for the two of you. May your relationship be strong. Aye!

X-Drake: Hmm..

There are a lot of people who reacted which she did not know personally, but were mutual friends with Law in Facegram. At this point in time, she regretted what she did. It would be a big deal for his and her friends. She even read a comment conversation between Penguin and Luffy saying they should team up to match the two of them. What is done is done, so she decided just to meet up with her friends in Baratie's Food Joint. Luffy said that Robin and Franky will be joining them since they have no work for today.

Her friends have already placed their own orders when she came to their table. She ordered her favorite tangerine smoothie and the lunch special from the counter. Luckily for Nami, Law and his friends were seated far from their table. She is too ashamed to look at them, but her curiosity urged her to take a glimpse on his table. Even with the crowd their eyes always find each other. His lip draw into a smirk, then he waved at her. She smiled and waved back while her cheeks is slightly blushing. It felt like it was just the two of them in the food joint full of people. But they are not. Both their group of friends is observing the two of them.

Luffy, Chopper and Ussop was laughing out loud when they saw Nami coming back to their table.

"Why are you laughing?" Nami questioned. The trio continued to laugh till Ussop decided to answer her.

"Law sudden used his bag to hide his face after you smiled at him. He was so red."

"Eh? I don't believe you. We both know you're a liar." Nami taunts her friend.

“Shishi.Torao! Look over here. Nami wants to see your face" Luffy shouted. Nami hurriedly punched Luffy to silence him.

She subtly glanced and saw Law's friends looking at her while pointing at Law, who is burying his face on the bag. His friends was laughing and teasing him. He is obviously pretending to be sleeping, she knew he wasn't someone who can sleep in any place. She found this scene cute and she happily ate her lunch with her friends.

───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰*.:｡✧*.｡:｡*.｡✱ ───

Marine duties in the town vary depending on which branch you are assigned. Being a Rear Admiral, Drake doesn’t have much to do than waiting for a new mission for him. He often uses his time off visiting museums to see dinosaur artifacts or collaborate with universities for dinosaur researches as a hobby. Today was he was supposed to meet Corazon, Law’s foster father, to fetch a package for his father. However, the old man called that he will be sending over his son because he has urgent matters to deal with his brother.

He knew the whole time him and Law would be together would be spent with them pissing off one another. That nerd really makes him tick. Just thinking that they would be meeting up in a few minutes made him exhausted.

While strolling in the park, he saw a familiar red head who was leisurely walking.

“This would be interesting.” He thought. He heard that Law tend to be quiet when she’s around.

“Nami!” He called out.

“Oh! Hey Drake. It’s been a long time since I last saw you. What’s up?”

“Nothing new really. I’m supposed to meet up with Law in Buggy’s Steak House for lunch. Join us.” He invited.

“It is your treat? You know I like free things.” The younger girl beamed.

“Of course, and you’ll get a bonus of seeing Law.” He teased.

“I see him almost every day in the campus or at Baratie. He should be the one getting a bonus of seeing a cute girl like me on weekends.”

“You should say that to him.” He chuckled.

They arrived shortly at the Steak House. Law was already grumpily waiting for Drake.

“You said you’d be here thirty minutes ago.” Law scoffed.

“My bad. I brought company.” Drake pointed at Nami.

“Nami-ya?” Law was shocked at the unexpected appearance of the girl.

Drake wanted to laugh out loud at the shocked state of Law. The rumors were indeed true. Maybe this lunch would be interesting.

“Hey Law!” Nami greeted.

Nami sat next to Drake while they are sitting in front of Law. Law ordered for Nami because Drake won't stop teasing him to pay for her.

"I never knew you were this close." Law stated as he looked at the two red heads conversing like its just the two of them.

"We knew each other for quite a long time and you know the thing about Robin." Nami explained. Drake and Robin used to date, however, things didn't proceed romantically as both have their priorities.

"Hn." Law quietly finished his meal.

The two red heads continued on talking. While he stayed quiet observing the two.

It didn't take too long for Drake to excuse himself. “I better go. We have emergency at the base. Walk her home or I’ll tell Cora-san that he did not raised you to be a gentleman. Surely, he will be disappointed.”

As a matter of fact, there was no emergency. He was just annoyed by Law’s state. He thought he would enjoy him squirm at the girl’s beauty, but it became boring since its not like his usual shitty attitude. Might as well give the two a little push. Maybe Nami could forgive some of his debts.

───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰*.:｡✧*.｡:｡*.｡✱ ───

"You don't really have to walk me home, Law. I'm going to the university to check on the progress of our team's prototype." Nami said.

"Nah. I'll walk you there. Could it be you're afraid of me?"

Nami was shocked by the question. She was quite shy that he is walking her to the university but not afraid.

"Nope. Why would I be afraid of you? I doubt a nerd could outrun me." She taunt.

"I don't think so. I may be a studious type of person but I have been athletic since I was middle school. I beat up Shachi and Penguin when I first met them."

"Being violent is not the same as athletic. Why would you even beat up your friends."

"It was their fault since they were bullying Bepo. We were all young back then." He argued.

She noticed he is awkwardly keeping distance between the two of them as they walk.

"You know, sometimes I don't get what you are thinking. Online we are so close, but offline we're so awkward." She said bluntly. If she wanted to move forward they would have to break their barriers.

"Its just that I don't know. When I'm with you I feel like a different person, Nami-ya. Every plan I make to get close to you, seems won't work. I guess plans do not apply to you and your friends."

"Do you really like me? Or are you just pressured from the people around us?" She was embarrassed to ask, but decided to ask anyway.

"Why would I be pressured? When I met you before it was just you, not my friends nor your friends. At first I thought I was just an infatuation, but it grew on me. Nami-ya, I like you."

She leaned to gift a light kiss on his cheeks. "Let's take it slow until you are used to being around me. We should hang-out like today more."

He stared a her rosy cheeks and glorious smile. What happened today will surely change them.

"Oh! I think we should give them our response, Mr. Heart stealer."

───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰*.:｡✧*.｡:｡*.｡✱ ───

Their friend's phone rang with a notification; it was a tagged comment from Law. He posted a photo of Nami drinking coffee from a cafe. From the photo, they could see Law's favorite hat on the table.

'I don't know about being a Heart stealer, but this girl clearly stole my heart.' This was the caption of the photo.

Before their friends could comment on the post, another notification rang. Again, they were tagged in the comment section, but this time it was by Nami. The photo she posted was from the same cafe. A booked covered the lower area of this face, while his golden eyes looked straight to the camera. Nami leaned her cheek on the top of his head, while giving a bright smile and peace sign.

'Oops! Exams are still ahead. Gotta keep this nerd Heart stealer focused on studying.'

Nami captioned it this way to show that even if they will be moving forward, their dreams would be their top priority.

It wasn't long until her and his phone began ringing. They friends wouldn’t stop until they heard the whole story.

#one piece #nami #trafalgar law #Lawna #OPAU #fanfic #fic:Online Relationships #nerdLaw #college #LawXNami

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daddychims · 5 years

Text

Offside Pt2

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Series Masterlist!

Genre: Smut, Soccer AU, College AU

Pairings: Soccer Player! Jungkook X Sports Trainer! Reader

Word Count: 2k

Other BTS members all make a cameo as well because I’m an OT7 Trash!

You work as a sports trainer, providing basic first aid and injury management for the Hanguk University’s soccer team. Going with your mundane life of caring for the dozen of guys hurting themselves in the soccer game takes a turn when one of the guys catches your eyes. It’s not his breathtakingly good looks or his muscular athletic body usually seducing girls at the campus that catches your eyes. But the action plan in your kit, indicating he is diagnosed with Asthma is what draws your eyes time and time again to the Golden Boy of Hanguk University.

Warning: Slow burn, eventual smut, Taehyung being a freaking tease the whole time, Fuckboy!Jungkook, Asthmatic! Jungkook , mentions of episodes of Asthma, Take your Ventolin kids, Take your medications kids!

A.N. This is unedited so bear with me for now, I’ll probably edit it tomorrow!

“How’s everything going?”

You look up to the source of the voice, a faint smile dancing on your lips as the sight of the young doctor greets your eyes. The doctor’s beauty never fails to brighten up your shifts and tonight is no exception. Kim Seokjin, the sports medicine specialist taking care of Hanguk University’s sports clinic who also happens to be your boss.

“Not too bad!” You reply back in a jolly tone as you quickly jam pack the strips of tape in the bag carefully, hiding your blushing cheeks from the guy.

“Were the guys behaving while I was away?” The young doctor asks in his soft, polite voice as he helps you pack your tools

“Yeah, they’re alright,” you nod reassuringly, “We just had an ankle sprain over the weekend, that’s the most exciting it got.”

“Jung Hoseok?” He asks and you chuckle in response

“The captain is always a bit too passionate,” You elaborate with a smile “I just taped his ankle off and sat him down on the bench for the weekend. He was doing fine tonight so we compromised under one condition. And that is he will take it easy for a while.”

“I think its time for me to retire then,” he laughs as he pushes the last piece of tape in your bag “you’re ready to take over huh?”

“Of course not Dr Kim,” you shake your head with a frown “I won't last a day out here on my own, its the finals in a bit and we’ll see how they all start to fall apart.”

He helps you place the bag full of tapes and gels on the side of the room, before looking around and reaching for the plastic bag containing the Inhaler.

"Not that," you quickly call catching his attention "I have to put that away, It's expiring in a week."

"Oh right," He nods as he quickly looks over at the side of the puffer and checks the date "Are we getting one anytime soon?"

"I placed the order through the office, Mrs Han said it'll be here sometime next week." You explain as you organize the grab a paper towel to clean the table

"How's Jeon doing?" Dr Kim's voice echoes in the room and you pause while doing your cleaning duty, briefly thinking over your earlier observation

"He's alright!" You reply after a moment of hesitation against your real intentions

"That's good, I was wondering if I need to take him in for a review."

Your ears perk at the statement and you quickly stop, glancing up at the young doctor.

"Why?" you asked with a keen tone

"Why what?" Seokjin replies with a dumbfounded expression

"N-Nothing..." you quickly shrug it off, proceeding to dry off the traces of wet water off the chair before pausing again and looking up at the confused doctor "Actually, I dont know!"

"You dont know?" he repeats, his face showing more confusion

"About Jeon, I dont know if he's fine," you state nervously watching Seokjin's questioning eyes for the cue to continue talking "I mean I'm only in my third year and we barely learnt anything about Asthma but-" you quickly shrug off with a chuckle "Its probably foolish assumption of me anyways!"

"No go on," he says furrowing his eyebrows "I'm sure it's worth discussing at least!"

"Well, he was coughing quite roughly in the middle of the game tonight," you explain and Seokjin nods in response

"Was that all you observed?" he asks, his voice suddenly resembling some of your tutors in the classes you attend every day

"He seemed a bit short of breath, I mean he was in the middle of the game so It might be normal but he was hunching over and gasping during his cough," you elaborate your earlier memory of the guy "Which means he was usually extra help from his accessory muscles."

"What's your hypothesis?" He asks softly as he takes the information in

"I'm not sure, I mean I dont know much about his Asthma but I know he shouldn't be feeling so breathless if he's taking his meds." you reply honestly and the doctor nods with a smile

"Well I think someone has been listening to her lectures pretty well," he chuckles placing the plastic bag on the table, " I agree with you. I should probably review his medications. Good call."

"Oh," you respond quite surprised at his reaction "Thanks." you flash a smile before walking across the room to get your bag and leave

"Y/N..." you turn around upon hearing your voice "If you observe anything next time, dont hesitate to tell me," he instructs giving you a reassuring nod "Considering you see those guys more often than me on the field, It doesn't hurt to call things out."

"Sure Dr Kim!" you bow quickly before shifting your bag on your should and leaving the clinic

"These pain science lectures will be the death of me. they are so freaking boring.”

Your friend sighs dropping his forehead on the table, pressing it firmly against the book.

"Calm down Joon, we're in the library, not your living room," you hiss under your breath, grabbing the corner of his MacBook and having a quick look at his screen "hey you're almost done with it."

"Yeah after literally 5 hours," he rolls his eyes at you as he brings his head up "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I was having a look at the Asthma topic-"

"Asthma?" he interrupts, quickly leaning to have a look at your screen “Dont you guys learn that in the second year!?”

"Yeah," you shrug nodding your head "Doesn't hurt to revise you know!"

"Ugh you're so freaking annoying," he whines pursing his lips forward, "I barely get to catch up and you're already revising!"

"The finals are near, you should start too-" you start your mini-lecture for your friend when he quickly stands up

"I think we've done enough," he quickly jams his notebook, pens and papers in the bag "Pack up, we're partying tonight!"

"I can't," you sigh, pressing your bottom to the chair as you rest your back on the backrest "With the final games coming up I'll have to work double shifts soon, It's not time to party!"

"I came all the way from SNU to study in Hanguk’s library with you,” he raises an eyebrow unimpressed “Now you’re sending me off to the party on my own?”

“Well thank you but no one asked you to come here!” you shrug in response

”Woah,” he scoffs in disbelief leaning closer over the table “I get called a traitor by my team for coming here and hang out with you just to be disrespected like this!?”

“Seriously, you and your team are SO overdramatic!” You sigh

“Well, with the final games coming we have to keep our guard up,” he replies determinedly “Which is why we decided to go to Jeon’s party this week!”

”What!?” You shriek with wide eyes, receiving a few hushes and glares from those in the library “You’re attending your opponent’s party to hold your guard up!? Are you guys dumb!?”

“Hey hey,” he hisses furrowing his eyebrows “This is highly professional leadership, I figured it’ll be a good idea for the boys to get to know their opponent. As they say, keep your friends close and your enemy closer.”

”Christ, That sounds even more ridiculous when you put it that way.” You chuckle mocking his way of describing things

“Anyways, I’m going to Jeon’s party and you’re coming with me,” He says as he snaps the top of your laptop to close it down and grabs your bag “And you’re gonna be my wingwoman and introduce me to Jiwoo.”

You start laughing right away, covering your mouth so the sound of your hysterical laugh doesn’t receive any more harsh glares from the library attendants.

”Highly planned leadership my ass,” You mock looking at your friend with an amused look “You wanna get in your opponent’s pants huh!?”

“Well, technically it’d be my opponent’s sister’s pants so ..." he explains defensively

“Hoseok will kill you if he knows!” You warn, tone slightly threatening

”I know,” he rolls his eyes as he unzips your backpack and pushes your books in, “I can handle him on the field, how bad can he be!"

”Pretty bad!" you nod sternly "I’m just saying Jiwoo is my friend and I know how protective Hoseok can get,” you throw your shoulder up defensively "Dont tell me I didn't warn ya!"

You quickly type a text informing Jiwoo that you're in the place. The house is packed with Hanguk University's party animals, youth in their 20s dancing and getting smashed on the hard liquor.

You're not quite used to these places, considering yourself more of a nerd as your friend Namjoon would love to call you. You hate crowded places like this and prefer enjoying your weekend drinks at a more classy bar rather than a house party like this.

But you can't object your friend's request considering how far he's been travelling from his own campus to yours every single week to give you a hand in your studies.

Namjoon is in his final year, studying the same major as you. But instead, he's pursuing it at the Seoul's National University. You still remember how jealous you were when you studied your ass off and still got rejected by SNU while he managed to get in with full scholarship via what you'd consider as "minimum effort".

His high IQ, however, is not the only matter of envy in everyone's eyes. But the fact that he manages to be the captain of the SNU's soccer team labels him as the official cream of the crop.

But nevertheless, he's still you dumbass Joonie who used to play with you in the backyard of your house, putting rocks in the middle of your bicycle path so he can laugh at you stumbling and hurt your butt.

So you have no other choice but to put yourself in a place you'd never voluntarily be just so you can help him out with his love life.

"Jiwoo!" You call getting a sight of your friend who's swaying to the beat with a red cup of booze in his hand.

She turns around and smiles waving at you with her signature bright smile and you walk through the crowd to get to her.

"Look Who's here," she declares with an amused grin on her lips "Did the sun rise from the west today?!" he chuckles teasingly

"I figured I'd be able to finally get a sight of my old friend here!" you hiss looking for a plastic red cup to get some booze yourself

"Hey hey," she crosses her arms across her chest "You're not blaming it on me, I told you I can always be found here."

"Yeah sure," you roll your eyes at her statement "I'll keep in mind your primary method of the meetup is House parties."

"It's fun." she pouts, hooking her hand around yours and placing her chin on your shoulder "Did you hear the SNU boys are coming tonight?" she hesitates before muttering "I wonder how that'll go!"

"I was with Namjoon earlier, he told me he's coming over with the boys," you nod and glance back at her worried expression "why?"

"This a secret, dont tell anyone," she warns as she leans closer to your ear "Jungkook has some kind of history with one of them. He didn't really want them here."

"Jeon?" you repeat and your friend nods to confirm "How come?"

"Not sure!" she purses her lips in uncertainty "I overheard Hoseok talking to him earlier, he didn't look too pleased and kept talking about this guy called Jimin. but Hoseok convinced him its good for the upcoming friendly game they have next week."

"Friendly game?" You ask with furrowed eyebrows, "How come I never heard of that? They should have added it to my schedule!"

"They still haven't confirmed it, they're planning to discuss it tonight."

You nod digesting the new information your friend just gave you. You recent memories with Jungkook flashes through your mind and considering he's such as jerk all the time it's not so unexpected for him to have beef with other people in your mind.

"I'm going to the bathroom." you make an excuse, drifting away from the girl in an attempt to find Namjoon and hopefully do your mission of the night.

Walking through the crowded hallway you find your way to the bathroom with the help of Jiwoo's rough guide. You stop by a wooden door that appears to be very similar to Jiwoo's description of the bathroom when you hear an unusual sound of breathing. It sounds like rough gasps for breath along with occasional coughs in between which all sound to familiar to your ear.

You furrow your eyebrows slowly walking towards the open door at the end of the hallway, peeking through the crack of the half open door. You watch the hunched view of the guy who has his head between his hands, gasping for air while sitting on the edge of his king sized bed.

"Jeon, You alright?" Before you even realize your instincts push you inside his room, ignoring other things such as personal space and privacy that might have been a good idea for you to consider before heading inside the guy's room.

His doe eyes travels up to you, pupils slightly dilated which in your mind reminds you of every lecture you sat through about Fight or Flight response kicking in.

"Hey you alright?" you quickly step closer to him and he winces, body retracting

"G-Get out!" he yells through his gasps, stumbling on his breath to make it to the end of his short words

"Are you sure you're fine?" you ask squinting your eyes at him as you take another step closer

"I said get the fuck out! NOW!" he shouts back in response, firmer this time and thats enough for you to turn around and run.

Before you know, you're running down the hallway in rushed footsteps. You dont even know why you're running away but before you even try and rationalise you're actions, you bump to someone who's walking in the opposite direction towards you and you both stumble on the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" you quickly mutter against the guy's chest who you basically used as a shield against the floor you just fell on

"No, you're alright," he mutters in his quite high pitched sound

You raise your head up to get the sight of your savior just before you attempt to roll off his body. He has a faint smile on his plump lips and his eyes almost disappear as his grins widens upon seeing your face.

"Hey," he greets raising up on his elbows, while still having your body draped over his comfortably. You shiver as he leans closer and his warm, alcohol scented breath hits the side of you neck "You dont look as heavy as you feel," he whispers and your whole body heats up in embarrassment "But you know I always had a thing for girls who have a bit of meat on them."

A.N. Please reblog, comment or send in anons and let me know what you think! Love ya’ll!

449 notes · View notes

eltanin-malfoy · 5 years

Text

Hard To Swallow (Kill Or Be Killed III)

pairing : draco/fem-collegestudent!y/n

word count : 2.7k

warnings : swearing, mentions of murder/poison/drugging, angst

Chapter 1 2

a/n : super sorry this took sooooo goddamn long. This is my first work that wasn’t betaed, so any errors or as such are all thanks to me :P any and all feedback is highly appreciated. requests are still open! also if you’re a med student or a doctor or work as an emt or just have a lot of knowledge on drugging, pls pop into my dms! am going to need a lil help for the next chapter.

Chapter 3 : Hard To Swallow

It had been a.. surprise, to say the least. Really. To say the absolute least. What the fuck is happening? I haven’t told.. a single.. person around here my last name. I could never have. He threw the letter down to the floor, still holding his bleeding finger tightly. The only ones who know are my boss and the landlord. But I think he remembers it wrong.. after all, it isn’t.. He almost retched. Mafcoy.

But there was absolutely no reason for the elderly missus to try to freak him out, was there? No reason at all. Right? She definitely wasn’t one of the people who his father had stolen from, right? She wasn’t some criminal mastermind who was secretly looking for revenge? No! Of course not! That’s.. ridiculous. Totally! That’s comical! It’s..

Insanely perfect!

What better way to poke at someone than to appear absolutely vulnerable? He would try and do that with.. Y/N but he didn’t have the figure for it. Tall. Lanky. Sharp-featured. Not to mention, ridiculously handsome.. Okay, he was getting ahead of himself here. Someone was watching him. Who? Who?

Had one of his dad’s old colleagues figured out where he’d moved? Were they just trying to shock him into being nicer? Or to leave the country altogether? Or was someone planning to kill him?

Why would anyone want to kill him? He was clearly just in over his head! Goddammit, Draco. Shut up! It’s.. just some stupid prank! Of course! Some stupid git has found out your name and just wants to freak you out! He sighed and walked to his bathroom, pulling off the cap and sunglasses. He opened up his cabinet and took out a bandaid. He opened the packaging and began wrapping his finger in it, then began to stare at himself in the mirror.

He’d been focusing on the wrong detail this entire time.. Someone had said that they were watching you! Jesus Christ, Draco! He could feel goosebumps forming at the back of his neck and he shuddered. Had they planted hidden cameras in his home? Was there someone stalking him? Had someone actually managed to hack into his devices and watch him from the cameras? He felt jittery and decided to calm his nerves with another fag, reaching into his pocket for the pack.

***

Unfortunately, even after Draco decided to take every precaution possible (put duct tape over the webcam of his computer, do in all the blinds of all his windows, check cabinets he normally didn’t open for bugs), he wasn’t any closer to figuring out who it was that was watching him.. He could only hope it was the same for Y/N, but of course, she wouldn’t even know he was following her in the first place, he didn’t send her an ominous note saying that he was.

Some people are just too.. over the top. He decided. Better to work hard in private than try to scare your target.

And so, he decided to put in the hours. He had several until his shift, anyways. Further research (or.. checking Y/N’s Instagram account for updates, rather) managed to work out for him a bit. He managed to lay out the locations where she’d most recently posted from in hopes of figuring out her usual hangout spots. It had been fairly easy and ridiculously predictable. Every location she visited was in close proximity to her university campus. Of course. It definitely wasn’t creepy for a random guy to walk around a campus, even if it was in the middle of a bustling city, not attending classes and just searching for a certain someone. Goddammit. Why did there have to be so many people everywhere all the time? Makes everything that much harder.

He groaned, instead getting up to grab some lunch.

***

He managed to make no real progress until suddenly, as he was sitting in the Employees Only room, it was as if an angel heard his prayers.. Okay, no angel, it was just Y/N.

It was too cold to head out for just a smoke that evening. The regular breeze had worked itself up to a strong, blasting wind which threw icy air at anyone in its path, and no matter how badly he wanted a puff, he wasn’t ready to risk getting winded for it. So, for his good old break, he just had to gussy up and hang around in the room where his, now suspicious, boss hung around. He kept himself as far as he could from her, sitting down in a corner and pretending to look busy on his phone.

Soon enough, he decided to check his soon-to-be victim’s account and saw an update on her story. There was some kind of a poster for a club he recognised seeing on maps.

Carts & Horses.

Singles Night!

Free pints up for grabs for the winners of our Karaoke Competition!

Happy Hours are from 7 to 9!

She’d added a short caption underneath it, “Does anyone wanna join me?” Jesus Christ. She moves on quick, doesn’t she? He stared at it for a few seconds before shutting his phone and thinking about it. It was for this coming Friday.. A good four days for him to ready everything. He just had to find a way to prick her with the needle without anyone noticing him do it. That was all it had to be. And what was good was, her little question made it clear she wasn’t going to go with anyone she was close to.

Now, he could actually get to setting out a concrete plan for that fateful Friday night.

***

Everything was ready. Mostly.

He’d sorted out everything to do with the injections, i.e. managed to sneak into the pharmacist’s section of the store and take out what he needed while modifying the online inventory. He’d then combined them in his own kitchen! Of course, it was a bit difficult getting everything into those syringes and then capping them without creating too much of a mess.. but it seemed to have worked. Obviously, he didn’t have a test subject. Although.. he supposed Y/N was technically one.

He’d need enough time and a secretive place in which to conduct his plan out without being noticed.. and this was hard. The whole procedure, if it was to be conducted, would take at least take ten minutes. What to do.. What to do..

He couldn’t attempt to seduce her and bring her to his house (which, admittedly, might not have worked because of their spat from earlier) because.. people might notice and remember. He’d have to try his best to stay undercover and go unnoticed.. but how could he do it while still trapping her while she was fishing for someone to hook up with? This was going to be hard..

***

The day finally approached. Draco managed to get out of going into work for the day by feigning a strong head-cold. Easily done, what with Draco’s brilliant acting skills and.. his boss being the slightest bit hard of hearing. He spent the day planning what to do.

He realised that lurking around or in the corners of the pub likely would not sit well with any of the actual patrons, so he’d have to enter it and hang around a bit. Obviously, he’d keep his distance and try not to attract attention to himself. (Although, he couldn’t help it if people did swoon over him..)

Draco tried his best to pick out something that would make him.. fit in with his surroundings. What did blokes wear to pubs again? It had been a while since he’d socialised, especially in a setting like this. He decided on a black button-up shirt and a pair of tight fitting dark trousers. I mean, I can’t exactly go in looking badly dressed, can I? He remarked as he looked himself over in the mirror, a slight grin on his face. Okay! You aren’t trying to get laid, you idiot. He took a deep breath.

He shook his head as he packed everything carefully into his thick coat. Okay. Run it over again. He shut his eyes tightly. When she’s by herself, make sure she doesn’t see you and grab her from the back. Give her the midazolam and then gag her and blindfold her. Tie her hands up as soon as she loses control. Then, after five minutes, give her the vecuronium bromide. Then, as she stops breathing, give her the good old potassium chloride, then get out of there as soon as you can. Jesus Christ, it did sound ambitious. But, with a bit of luck, it would work out just fine.

***

Draco managed to make it to the pub a few minutes past 7, which was when he thought the bitch would decide to show up. Even spoilt kids search for discounts sometimes, don’t they? He didn’t enter the pub at first and just gazed in, looking around for her.

And there she was. Sitting by herself at the bar. He felt that same slight annoyance at her presence, but she looked.. good tonight. She wasn’t that bad to look at if she didn’t open her mouth, really. She was wearing a red shirt and some jeans, which all looked.. fairly tight, even in the distance. She was looking towards the entrance now and then, seemingly waiting for someone while she sipped slowly at a drink. So.. maybe she is here with someone? Or maybe waiting for someone? It was unclear. Either way, I should be able to grab her when she’s getting in or out of the ladies’ room.

He stepped into the pub, staring down at the floor as he found a seat by the bar. It wasn’t too far from where she was sat, but enough that she wouldn’t see him unless she tried, and if he tried hard enough, he could ignore whoever it was singing like an absolute tosser. “Grey Goose on the rocks, please.” He muttered, looking to the bartender so he didn’t look like a total creep. And of course, a little liquid courage certainly wouldn’t hurt.

“Ten pounds. Lemon?”

“No need, thanks.”

Draco slid over a note as the bartender passed him his drink, then looked over at Y/N.. who was now.. looking at him. Shit! His eyes widened but he quickly glanced to the side, hoping to play it off as just a.. casual.. scan of the room. But no! She’d seen him staring right at her.. Fucking hell.

He grit his teeth and turned to the side, covering the side of his face with his hand. Hopefully she didn’t realise it was him...

Who was he kidding! Of course she did! He should have gone ahead and dyed his hair darker to blend in, as much as he would have hated it. He should’ve actually bought some makeup and done something to his face to look different. God-fucking-dammit! He almost slammed his fist onto the table as he felt himself grow all the more frustrated.

He felt his ears turn red and shook his head. It’s not that big of a deal. Of course not. He just had to avoid getting into any conflict with her. If he just sat here and avoided her, she definitely wouldn’t approach him, right? She was looking for someone nice, right? Although.. her last affair did seem questionable. He quickly glanced over at her again and thankfully, she’d looked away. He wondered what had prompted her to take such quick action.. or not really, seeing that she was just sitting by herself, drinking whatever it was she was drinking. She seemed to shrug off people coming over to talk to her as well, instead just staring down at the counter in front of her. Suddenly, she turned to look at him again with an eyebrow raised.

He felt color flush his own face and he looked to his glass, internally whacking himself in the face with it. Why would he make the same mistake twice? What was he doing? He soon heard the light tapping of heels near him and shut his eyes tightly. Draco, it’s over now. You’re going to have to plan for some other day. Or.. pick another victim. If enough people see this, they’ll know she hated you.

“What were you just.. doing?” She was almost uncharacteristically soft, like she was trying to hide something.

“Nothing.” Draco murmured instinctively.

“Come on.” Y/N sighed. “I caught you staring at me. Twice.” Could it be.. ickle Y/N was ashamed to be spotted here? On ‘Singles’ Night’? He clenched his jaw to force the corners of his mouth not to curl up into a smirk.

“Just.. curious.” He uttered, still staring at his glass. Y/N put a hand on the counter next to his glass and he almost shuddered.

“Are you here.. for.. Singles’ Night?” He turned to look up at her and froze, staring into her eyes. “What? What is it?” She drawled out, squinting slightly at him.

He stared at her for a few seconds and it suddenly hit him. This.. this girl. How was he supposed to kill her? She was a person, just like him. A person with memories, with loved ones, with goals. No, stop it. He shuddered and looked to the side, face growing hotter. She’s abused her lifestyle enough, she has to pay, doesn’t she? He almost jolted upwards as he heard a slight clunk on the counter beside him.

“Um.. are you alright?” She was still looking at him, her hand falling back on the counter.

“I’m fine.. and.. yes. I am.” He managed out, gulping nervously.

“Oh. Um.” Whatever retort she had planned seemed to suddenly fizzle out of her mind. “Okay.”

“Are you.. as well?”

“Yes.” She seemed to turn pink herself. She suddenly turned towards the counter herself. “Excuse me.. Could I have an iced water please?” The bartender nodded and walked to the side, grabbing a glass.

She swallowed softly herself, pressing her red-painted lips together in a way which made Draco want to touch them for himself. He felt that same pang of guilt all throughout him. He could feel those syringes in his coat weighing him down, pulling him towards the floor, almost.

The bartender slid a glass over on the counter, right next to Draco’s. He turned to look.. and surprisingly, they were hard to tell apart. Both were clear.. and iced. He guessed which one was hers and handed it to her, after which she took a few sips from it, absolutely silent. It certainly was growing a bit awkward between them.. Draco didn’t really have anything unpleasant to say to her and frankly, he wasn’t exactly sure what to do in front of her like this.

Her.. almost murderer, am I? He looked over at the counter again. His drink.. was a little fuller. Had the bartender refilled it for him? Gee, he hoped he wouldn’t be charged for that.

Suddenly, Y/N pressed both her hands against the counter and let out a deep, deep breath. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked up at her face, which was steadily turning a deep shade of red. She brought a palm to her face and felt her cheek. “What..? Oh-” She mumbled out, then started walking away from Draco. She continued to speak but began to slur her words, and her steps grew more and more sluggish. Funny. Very funny. Is this her idea of a joke? This seemed.. unlikely, considering her usual.. turbulent nature. Or, is she just bad at handling her liquor?

SLAM!

He heard the loud thud across the floor from him almost before he realised Y/N had fallen to the floor. Her arms were on either side of her torso as her face lay on its side, her lips slightly parted. Her legs shook slightly but then lay flat on the floor, spread out on the floor. What? What was going on? He quickly got off his bar stool and rushed over to her, while the crowd nearby her hushed up. Whoever it was singing karaoke shut up as well. Someone yelled something over at him but it just.. faded away.

Was this because of something he’d done? Or.. was someone else trying to attack her.. as well?

Chapter 4

#draco x reader #draco malfoy #draco malfoy x reader #draco #hp #draco imagine #draco malfoy imagine #hp imagine #angst #murder

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reddogf13 · 5 years

Text

Horrors below ch 2

Pennywise x Beverly

summery: after Beverly's return, pennywise works to gain her trust as "Robert Grey" while also avoiding the cold rains of April. when unintentionally Beverly convinces him to question his very existence. what has lead him to become the monster so many children fear was below their beds? what will he do when he no longer wants to be that monster? can a monster truly become a human?

status: complete

rated: M - fowl language and gore

previous chap: Horrors below ch:1

next chap: Horrors below ch:3

_____________________________________

~ch:2 Having purpose~

The pour down of dreary rain coming hard before the two could meet at the coffee shop doors. Beverly already soaked in the short time she ran from her classes up to “grey”. Holding the door open for her to happily enter the small coffee shop first. The place being more of a small breakfast deli market then one of those fancy coffee places. A perfect place to sit for a small lunch break between work. The coffee aspect highly popular for sleep stressed students from the nearby campus.

“ sure you don't want anything hot to eat?” offering again as she only asked for coffee. Anything to get her warmer benefited him in the long run costing him a mere split second energy to make those fake bills.

“no, I am fine. What about you though? Can't eat anything here?”

“uh, no. far tooooooo unprepared for my digestion.” looking over all the overcooked, in his opinion, meats stuffed into sandwiches. alongside disgusting green leaves and red sliced tomatoes that dripped into ruining them further.

“not even coffee?” receiving a head shake from him. “what is your diet?” being careful of how she asked him for some reason he wasn't quite sure why.

“vvvvery high protein. Very, very, processed by doctors.” making things up off what little he's gathered involving humans and special allergies.

“ah, do you have to follow a schedule for your diet?”

thinking in a way he had a feeding schedule between his rests. “sort of, but very loosely.” having no need of relying on an exact waking day. “as long as its before I sleep.” handing Beverly her hot coffee when it came to the counter. Hiding a flinch caused by the strong smell of the drink. Moving away to lead her to where they could sit down away from the strong brewed coffee smell. settling by the storefront window the rain tapped against to flow down in streams.

“hand?” holding out his own on the table. Her expression twitching a moment of curiosity toward his hand. Taking hold of it without a word to him about it, but it certainly seemed like she wanted to ask.

He was about to ask her what it was she was curious about when a voice called her name. Disrupting their calm date in the cozy place.

“Beverly!” Pennywise saw the male Beverly once dated.

“David?” shocked to see her ex charging up to their table. Pennywise unconcerned by the events unfolding up until Beverly took her hand away from him. Turning aggravated that maybe she was going to reconcile with her ex. He stood up to block the males path baring cold dagger eyes down to him. Startling the small male back from his intimidating presence hovering by.

David doing his best to hide his fear he puffed up his chest. Throwing dagger eyes of his own to the massive male. “whose this?” he questioned Beverly. Pennywise about laughed at the silly display of the male hiding his fear.

Beverly replied in holding back her agitation. “his name is grey. Why are you so angry?”

“I came to talk over what happened, but looks like you've already moved on!” moving his anger fully onto her.

Her voice rising in anger. “you dumped me out into the rain in the middle of the night! If it weren't for grey walking me home something could have happened to me!”

“that's because you were always a bitch to me! When ever we went on dates it was hardly a date at all. You never talked to me or said anything about yourself! Now you're suddenly dating this jackass! You didn't want to date me, admit it!”

“I did, but it wasn't the right time! I was dealing with a lot and couldn't-”

“save the excuses! Everyone's told me what you do!”

the anger building off her dying after that single sentence. Tense shoulders going slack as worry took the angers place at the mention of the dreaded rumors. Especially in front of “grey” who she hoped didn't know about the issues she supposedly had.

“your a fucking whore and like everyone said you've already got the next guy to suck off!” the male ripped into her mentally. Catching the whole attention of the small eatery that Pennywise felt this had gone on long enough. Blocking the males small view of Beverly to step into Davids personal space. Pressing the male to step backwards to get away from the aggressive approach.

“... you better watch her!” warning grey. “she'll dump you for somebody else!” leaving out the way he came in.

Pennywise looked back to Beverly who kept her gaze locked on the floor. Reading her various emotions of embarrassment, worry, and hurt that this situation happened out in a public store. Struck silent waiting for something else to happen next between her and him.

Thinking what it was. “waiting for me to question her?” standing by quietly a little longer to then answer her silent worrying for his reaction. “I do not care.” referring to the rumors. Her gaze looking up to him. “I know they are rumors and nothing else.” speaking the truth. He knew the secrets over all of Derry, but didn't care for most of the gossip unless it worked to his advantage. Here in this situation it was no use to him. “hand?” his offering hand raising a relieved chuckle from her. His reaction being unexpected to her that relief flooded over her.

Beverly fighting back tears as she went to hug him. Confusing him as to why she was showing so much physical contact now, however he liked it. Hugging her back to gather as much warmth as he could. Enjoying the contact further when she rubbed his back. Growing annoyed by the crowd rudely staring still during all of this. Glaring at anyone still staring to force them into looking away.

“would you like to go someplace else?” preferring to be alone with her or at least somewhere without people gawking over their interactions.

She pulled away with a small sniffle to nod her head. “yeah.” taking a hold of his hand and grabbing her barely touched coffee with the other. Leading him outside to where her steps slowed down on where they were going. Heading off randomly to just get away from the place of negativity. Letting her lead the way to wherever without a care to where they could end up. Slowing their pace further once out of sight from the store. Walking along a dirt path between the road and flowing river heading toward the town center. The wide tree branches over head giving them protection from the light rain.

“I am sorry about what happened.” she apologized. “that night you bumped into me I had broken up with David a few minutes earlier. We really hadn't dated that long and it wasn't working out between school-”

“you don't need to explain.” he interrupted. Mainly because he didn't care to hear about it. Having her be all the more happy to stay close to him in his coat. Relaxing far more then she did ever before around him. Sprouting a curiosity in him as to why the change in her behavior. Was it because he didn't act as human as the other males? Didn't care for the rumors that labeled her as promiscuous? Didn't care to deeply know things about her? Nor pressed to know the things she hid away when asked about them?

“the rains finally clearing up. Weatherman said it would be going all day.” she looked up to the sky clearing enough for the sunset to peek through.

“will give us time to dry before heading home. Like for me to escort you back?” still trying to be invited to her home.

Her body tensing up still at the question even after doing it two nights in a row. “uh -” was what she got out when something smacked into the back of her head. A rock clacking to the floor at their feet. Passing soon after was a truck full of other males laughing at them shouting to slurs of Beverly's bad reputation. The rumors have seemed to have spread further to the newer residents of Derry.

It took Pennywise a simple split second to register everything. locked onto their faces to take in who they were. Two young men he recognized as living in one of the more broken down RV parks. The details of the rusted red truck they drove away in. down to the broken license plate light missing a piece of glass the size of a dime. a growl cut short in his throat to stay disguised beside Beverly. Looking to her next as she took in all of what happened slower than he did. Seeing the physical and mental pain she reacted to in the moment.

“you alright?” watching her rub the hurt spot.

“yeah.” looking down at her hand for possible blood.

Her answer blurry in his mind that fixated more on finding the harassers. “I am walking you home.” stating without any room for her to argue, yet he could see despite her worry she wasn't wanting to deny the offer. Pennywise took her hand again to start walking her home on the darkening streets. Aware that she lived in a tent that would offer no protection from vandals he made a second offer. “would you like me to stay and guard?”

Beverly fidgeted with the bottom edge of her shirt. “no, it's fine. I'll be awake doing school work for a while anyway.” answering him too quickly in a false cheerful tone to hide her nervousness. He could see she wanted to say yes, but denied.

Thinking the question. “why for? it didn't help her to be alone in the woods as an easy prey.” he didn't argue despite thinking that he knew better for her. Letting her walk alone the rest of the way from a corner they separated at each time. Out of her sight he was off in a flash toward the house of those males in the truck.

Growling through a mouthful of drool at the sight of their place. Unwilling to wait for them to come back out he grabbed a nearby cinder block. Tossing it ,as light as a pebble, right through the windshield. Hitting the inside of the truck so hard it bent the leather chairs to end up embedded into the metal behind them. They weren't about to get away with what they did.

“lets see them laugh now.” he snarled in waiting for them. It didn't take long after such a racket was made.

“what the hell?!” one shouted as the other cursed. Looking around for who did it they spotted a strange clown standing nearby. Getting aggressive before they even asked if he did it or not. “did you do this fucker?!” The same man roared. His aggressive charging getting a laugh from the clown seeing a man act intimidating. He would soon learn who he messed with was no human.

Pennywise bared his teeth in full show of the many sharp rows. Scaring the man into stopping in his tracks. A deep guttural growl escaped his throat in a lunge toward the terrified man. Teeth shredding into his throat to rip out the tender part. Swallowing down the meat bearing some small flavor after so many cardboard tasting prey. Surely the next victim would taste even better as seeing such a horrifying sight. The other man yelled for help as he ran toward the neighboring RVs. Getting one step off his lawn when a massive force tackled him to the dirt. Gasping out a breath of air by a fist smashing threw his rib cage. Shortly dying by his heart ripped out in a dripping mess.

The clown chugged down the mouthfuls of dripping blood by holding the organ above. Remaining out on the darkened lawn to enjoy his seasoned meal without a care. Taking bites of the heart like a juicy apple to then throw the last bite into his mouth. For the rest of the night he ate his meal while the other a temporary table to dine over. Thinking over how this hunt was a lot more forward then his usual tactics. He didn't like doing hunts that caused a lot of attention because then he spent more energy covering them up then they're worth.

Pausing his eating temporarily at why he did this. The harassment of the men wasn't even toward him. So why did he get so angry when he didn't care for Beverly?

“she's mine up to the end of April. I take care of my things and won't let anyone else damage them.” reasoning with himself. Of course it made sense to him by that angle. “if she dies early I won't get the hunt I've waited patiently for.” ripping a chunk of flesh from a half eaten arm.

Cleaning off his plate, sort of speak, he headed back to the cold den. Listening in on the only entertainment down there of the town gossip. Many voices sounding through the air like a large group phone call. People chatting around their dinner tables so close to their kitchen sinks. drunk partiers in the clubs talking in the bathroom while friends puked their guts out. Any pipe work within speaking distance made a perfect speaker phone down to his lair. It was official to everyone who the talk of the town was tonight.

Beverly the whore had returned to Derry. Word had spread fast these past few days of who she was. That women had better lock up their men to keep her from stealing them away. As if she were a mythical siren aiming to ruin the lives of homes everywhere. That any girls who were friends of hers were also vicious harpy's ready to pluck off men. He could tell by word of the pipe that Beverly was going to start having a much harder time from now on. Shutting out the looping chat of rumors he grew tired of listening in on. Waiting then on for the break of day to follow Beverly around. Prepare for the war ahead that she had no idea was coming.

The next day he saw her prepare for school to arrive on campus surrounded by people staring. Whispering among the groups making her uncomfortable from all the sudden attention. Spotting her friends she ran right over them for some familiar comfort. Being rejected from her clique that was so close just yesterday. Pennywise watching from afar being unable to hear, but could still clearly see their body language. Beverly left standing there under their glaring eyes pointing for her to leave like a punished dog. Forced to go off alone into the middle of the vast crowds snickering about her. The rest of her day fairing no better as she worked alone in the corners of the class. Away from her usual group hang out to chat during work.

One particular group of males making rude gestures that Beverly had gotten used to it. These sort of reactions toward her unfortunately being the norm since her childhood. Pennywise certainly wasn't going to tolerate this behavior toward something of his. Those men having unfortunate luck for the rest of the day. One crushed under part of a sign falling onto them. Another hit by a car while crossing the parking lot. Another accidentally swallowing a glass shard hidden in his chili. Accidents beginning to befall anyone else who dared insult her.

Buckets of paint falling onto a girl, afterwards needing an ambulance. Another group having a whole tree fall upon them. A runner's leg snapping after a nasty fall down the stairs. It was the most fun Pennywise had in a while causing so much pain. Satisfied with himself by the time for his and Beverlys next date to start. Rain pouring down while making his way over to her ending class.

“hello, Beverly.” he greeted. Smile dropping by her negative reaction toward him. Acting not at all happy to see him. No cheerful greeting as she almost avoided all eye contact with him. “what's wrong?”

Acting skittish around him she tried to hide behind an excuse. “nothing, just tired.”

passing on asking her further questions. “... ready for our date?”

“I am sorry grey, but I can't. I have a lot of school work to do … I think it's best we stop seeing each other.” her rejection catching him off guard. He didn't have the chance to say a thing when she rushed off. “bye grey.” speaking as she ran.

A growl escaping his throat that all his work to build a sense of security for her was crushed. His source of warm affection stolen from him that he needed to get back. Spying on her further to figure out why this change in her occurred. Was she dating that idiot he scared off in that food store? Or worse she discovered who grey truly was? Looking back he did overdue the “accidents” around the campus. Following her he could hear more closely the people harassing her. They made up a new label for her to be insulted under.

“The witch.” they shouted in warning at the sight of Beverly. Jokingly running away when she walked passed. The jokes pecking away at the end of his patience. Thinking about upping the accidents to disappearances during the more flooded days. Storms caused the worst road conditions that nobody would bat an eye over a drowned body. His anger rivaling the storm raging on the further into the day. Having his daily warmth completely gone forcing him to suffer the cold. He followed her all the way back to her little campsite. Debating on if he should sneak in to leech off any warmth that he could.

Beverly holding up inside her tent that ruffled by the blasting wind. Catching glimpses of her sowing inside while soaking wet past the entrance swirling around. Her shivering tipping him off that without their date and the rain pouring down so heavily she had no way of gaining warmth. A fire being impossible to strike up in such weather. A way to cook a warm meal being impossible without a fire. To even gain some warmth himself he would need to bring her something warm to eat. Heading off to the diner to snatch up a meal that seemed the hottest. A bowl of fresh chicken soup he heard children speak of often curing colds. Swirling with chicken pieces, long noodles, carrots and peas in a hot sunny yellow broth. The order getting a free side of bread slices he didn't know what was really for.

Returning to set down the soup in front of her tent in secrecy. Throwing small pebbles at the front of her tent to get her attention. Planning on her to eat the food to capture warmth in the tent and then he would sneak in as possibly a small mouse to hide among the covers. Smiling to himself that he should have thought of this sooner, but had instead been too patient on these dates leading to a sleepover invite. Watching from a group of bushes when she looked out to her eyes landing on the bag of hot food.

Her reaction wasn't what he expected at all. She grabbed the bag and flung it far into the wet woods appearing furious by the gift. Confused he stared in questioning why she rejected it. “does she not like the soup? Is my gift not good enough for her?” turning offended that his gift was rejected. Heading off back to the same dinner for a different soup. Another chicken and something he hadn't heard of. A thicker creamy soup swirling with floating biscuits of sorts between peas, carrots and weird green bits. This time getting a choice of two sides having him pick the hottest ones. A side container of mac and cheese and another of chili next to more random bread pieces.

Coming back he spotted Beverly walking out in the rain the same way. Coming up to her to question what she was doing. “why are you out in the rain?” startling her as she did not see him at first.

“um-” was what she got out before seeing the bags he was carrying. Recognizing them as the same ones she tossed away. “where'd you get those?” pointing to the steaming hot bags.

“the diner, they're for you. Why'd you throw the other food?” offended still at his gift being rejected.

“for me? You dropped off that food?! How'd you find me?! Did you follow me back to my tent?!” snapping at him over the fact.

“yes, why-”

“how long have you known?!” her anger confusing him further. Why did it matter that he knew about her little campsite?

admitting without concern to fueling her anger. “a while. Why did you throw out the food?”

“you stalked me back to my tent?! don't you know how creepy that is?! Ugh!” glaring off to the side in thought of what to do.

“why shouldn't I know about you're tent?” asking openly about it. “did you not like the soup?” he turned the subject.

“you followed me is the weird thing! I-ugh!” sighing in defeat. “I guess it doesn't matter if you've known for a while now. And its not that I didn't like it. I thought it was some assholes leaving food that could have piss mixed in or something.” her anger dying down in the cold rain. “come on, we can get out of the rain.” waving for him to follow her back. Slipping into her tent to turn on a hanging flashlight for some light.

“it's more soup.” he informed while handing it over.

“thanks grey. You want anything? If you can have it at all.”

thinking how he needed to appear more human.“I can have a bit of the mac and cheese and chili.” as she took everything out of the bag. The foods without any disgusting greenery while being a recognized food from the fairs. The chili usually being far spicier as more of a challenge food. The mac and cheese he awkwardly stared at in its more free form not involved in a fried square on a stick.

Apologizing as she grabbed a small cooking pot. “sorry about this, I don't really have plates.” pouring some of the two sides into it. Grabbing a wrapped spork from the bag to hand alongside it. He didn't mind it as he slowly started eating with barely a chew. The food evaporating away by the time it reached his throat.

She picked at her food first before sighing. Admitting to him that. “I am not happy you followed me here.” causing him to stop his eating to listen. “but it's nice not needing to keep this a secret anymore.”

“I still don't see why a tent needs to be kept a secret.” brushing the whole thing off. Bringing a small smile to her face as she ate.

“sorry about what I said earlier. I wasn't all that up for going out after a long day at school. It's really nice we still got to hang out today.”

“can we still date?”

“heh, sure.” nodding through a bite of mac and cheese. “whens your birthday?” attempting to know more about him.

“birthday?”

“yes, you're day of birth.” joking at first then turning serious at his confused reaction. “ do you know your birthday?”

“I do!” huffing at the stupid question. He knew the time in general, maybe not the day. Earth's time was far too short to count back to the time. Between Maturin and his creation it felt like some days passed in between for the two immortal beings. For humans it was more like eons between then and eons more before the earth became what it is. The exact day it would be, of his creation, within earth's calendar year lost to him.

“what day is it?” she asked in a gentler voice. He didn't answer at first to think one up.

“Halloween.” It was his most favorite time and if he had to pick one it would be that day. Despite all those children running around, the scent of candy everywhere covered them. Keeping back his hunger far more than all the other days. The fall fairs offering all those sweet treats of caramel apples to mini apple pies baked to look like pumpkins. His clown presence being the most tolerated to walk around in the open.

“really?” she sounded so skeptical of the date he choose.

He grumbled while not wanting to really argue over this stupid little topic. “yes.” The fact some life was created was not something really worth celebrating. It happened everyday being a natural part of the universe. Same as him and Maturin the turtle created by the higher other to help balance life and decay. But why then would the other send children to face him? In the beginning he thought it was all the turtle working to stop him. In his sleep he saw the connection better between all those children, the turtle, and the other guiding them.

Why kill something he created that was doing what came naturally to it? Was his purpose void? No longer needed in the vast universe? True he spent most of his time on earth, but he didn't slack like the turtle did. He still burned away the building decay across the universe during his “hibernation”. Returning to earth to fill a different hunger using his favorite hunting grounds.

“are you okay?” Beverly's voice catching his attention. people were usually happy to mention their birthday, but not him. He sat there, staring off into space appearing empty inside through his eyes. “do you hate your birthday?” carefully treading on what to ask.

“no, the day does not spark an interest in me, is all. It's just a time, nothing more.”

“ever had a birthday party?”

“no.”

“want to have one? It's not your birthday yet, but we can throw you a party early. Get a cake, decorate, blow up some balloons.”

“heh, I am not much of a party goer. The cake alone will do.” liking the thought of a sweet cake to devour.

“how old will you be this year?” another question needing him to think something up. What would a proper age for him be?

“heh, uh, you don't want to know how old I am.” playing it off as a joke.

“sure I do.” laughing along with a smile. “What, are you like actually 40 or something?” he could at least tell in her voice that, that wasn't a proper age to pick.

“no!” sounding as honest as he could.

“ like 30-ish?” her voice again making it sound like a bad pick.

“noooo.” playing along till hopefully she would unintentionally suggest a “proper” age for him.

“25?”

going off her reaction to that number he nodded. “yes.” confirming it to her.

“two years older then me. I turned 23 in march … are you superstitious?”

“no, why?”

“my birthdays also on Friday the 13th. When some people find out they can react really badly.”

“how stupid of them.” knowing exactly how those fears were. He could break a mirror in their presence and they would crumble. Such a pathetic sight to see of any creature collapse into a sobbing mess over a reflective object breaking.

“I wished more people were like you.”

“like me? Why?” what insane creature would want more of him around?

“you don't judge as much as everyone else in this town.”

“ha, is that the only reason why?” an absurd reason off how much he judged humans as simple prey. Hobbling around to worry over stupid matters while their miserable lives meant nothing of worth.

“your not very grabby either.” her voice quieter on that point. Going back up for the next one. “ you're patient, confident, always willing to speak your mind.”

pleased by all the ego stroking she was giving. “well of course I am. Guess its old fashioned quality's I've gained over the years.”

“you're not that old fashioned.” shifting to sit next to him. “at least you haven't demanded me to be a quiet girlfriend. Walk behind you everywhere until introduced.”

“sounds like you've had that experience before.”

“yeah, had a few bad dates. Don't want to burden you about them. Old news that should be moved away from.” drinking down the last of her soup. Leaning comfortably against him as she swapped between eating her remaining sides.

“why are you even out here? It's not safe being alone in the woods.” asking curiously. Personally knowing why it wasn't safe. Feeling her fidget against him before answering.

“me and my dad have problems and it's better to be here. I want to leave it at that.” voice wavering through anxiety.

“would you like me to stay?” he offered again in the hopes of her saying yes to him staying in the warm tent.

“no, I'll be fine. Camping out here isn't really that bad.” hiding her true reaction of wanting him to stay the same as the last time.

Pennywise held in a growl. “if you're sure.” Thinking back to his original plan of sneaking in anyway.

“I won't even be here tonight anyway.”

“what, why?!” shocked to hear.

“I signed up for a private study hall time. My classes mid final is coming up and I need a place for my sewing machine. Our dresses will be due tomorrow night so I have to crunch all night and day. Once we turn our dresses in they go on an actual model to pose for a mini run way. You can win scholarships from businesses attending if they like your work enough.” not noticing how shocked he really was. “you must be super busy on your mid finals too.”

“yyyes, very. Lots of paperwork to sign and books to read.” his disappointment in her missing for the night passing for school work exhaustion.

“only a few more months at least. Then we got summer break until next semester.”

“mm, yes.” simply agreeing to what she was saying. Thinking differently of how she won't last that long by his plans.

“I actually should be going now. I was heading to the hall when I ran into you. For our date tomorrow we can go out for lunch. Between studying it would be good to have a break for the both of us. You may have to come pull me from my desk I'll be so deep in my work.” joking in stretching away from him.

“lunch it is then.” agreeing on the time. At least he was getting to spend time with her earlier than usual. Getting up to follow her out into the lighter rain. Surprised by her giving a hug goodbye.

“see you tomorrow.” separating on a small wave goodbye. Watching her head down the road before going his own way back down to his lair.

Questioning what he could have done to gain so much affection from her. “such an oddity she is. Maybe part of her fearlessness toward me has passed onto this form despite her unaware of my false face. Oh well, as long as she never discovers me I shouldn't really care. The closer I get to her the better my final hunt will be. She won't be prepared for it when I finally stab her in the back.” sitting down on a chair jutting from the side of his pile. Lounging in it like a throne made specifically for him.

Listening through the rumor pipework to pass the time. News around the town being nothing new. A new shop opening, movies playing, aside from the bland discussions of who's dating who through out the pipework of girls bathrooms. Catching discussions of Beverly that he wasn't interested until the mention of him came up.

Hearing a couple girls speak to one another. “you know that tall guy she's with?”

“yeah, I've heard a bunch of stuff after that argument in the deli place.”

“did you know the dudes fucking rich? He left a mega tip at the diner.”

“oh yeah, that thing spread faster then the argument stuff. no surprise that slut snatched him up and dropped David like a hot potato.”

“you think she'll keep him for the money?”

“at least till they marry. Then it'll be divorce for all his money plus extra.”

“feel sorry for the bastard.”

“pfft, that dope is saving us from losing the rest of our men to that witch.”

Pennywise snarled over the insults. “feeling sorry for me?!” someone certainly was going to befall the nasty bad luck that had hit others. The rumor pipes closed for now to set the negative luck in motion. Happily spreading the curse over the course of the night needing many to crowd the hospital waiting room.

The next day he arrived up to the large hall building filled with small cubical rooms. Separated by thin wood walls to provide some privacy. Walking directly to the small box room Beverly had spent the first half of the day in. like she said yesterday, he had to come pull her out from crunching her dress work. Stepping right inside without a knock to announce his presence.

Beverly jumping to him entering to guiltily look up at the wall clock. “shit, time really got away with me. Sorry grey.” apologizing.

“nothing to worry over. You said you'd be busy. Ready to go?” cutting to the part he wanted.

“yep, and here. I got you this early morning.” handing him a small brown box with a clear window at the top.

“whats this?” taking up the box.

“I said id get you a cake. Itsss actually not a full cake, but a cup cake. I asked for one that's anti allergy on everything. No nuts, gluten, cinnamon, and other things. I hope you can eat it.” mildly worried over his expression while staring down at the mini cake.

He can eat it despite all the list of missing things she talked about. There had never been a cake he couldn't eat. Why did she give him this? No ones given him a gift before. Examining the cake as if some part of it held the answer. A golden fluffy cake topped with a light yellow perfect swirl of icing decked in red small round sprinkles. Topped off by a large red cherry sprouting a long red stem curving over. Mouth watering at the sweet dessert given to him so freely without use of fake money.

“grey?” softly speaking his name.

Catching that he was zoning out again. “its fine, I can eat it.” calming her worries. “shall we go?”

“mhmm.” humming as they headed out of the study hall. “we eating at the diner?” asking as they passed the hall doors.

“no, I thought we should eat some place warmer during this weather.” waving in gesture to the rain falling over them.

“that will be nice. Where to then?”

“that white place up in the heights.”

“we're going there?!” amazed by the destination he choose. “That place is really expensive grey. Are you sure about going there? I don't mind the diner.”

radiating confidence in the matter. “I am sure, why wouldn't I be?” popping open his gifted cake box.

“its that … the heights don't like me. Aside from being a poor peasant in their eyes the rumors about me hasn't helped their view. What if they don't even let me in?”

“they'll let you in.” taking up the cake in hand. Waiting for the moment Beverly looked away to devour the small cake. It only took a second in the time she did, that his jaws stretched unnaturally wide. Throwing the whole cake into his mouth of rowed teeth. Mashing it down to completely swallow in seconds. Including the paper cup it was sitting in that was meant to be removed. Finding the flavor of the allergy free cake to be vastly different from the fair ones. A lot less sweet with a more grainy texture for the cake. The icing being incredibly light in consistency like whipped cream.

Beverly seeing the cake missing from his hand. “did you eat the cupcake already?”

“yes, I am really hungry.” lying to her.

“no kidding.” happy to see that he ate it.

Reaching the fancy diner it only took one cold glare to shut down anyone negatively eyeing them. Both their stomachs filled despite Pennywise's meal aversions. Able to select a meal of steak tartare that his dead lights wouldn't spew back out in rejection. Beverly slowly working through her meal of lamb drizzled in chocolate mint sauce.

Beverly stopping to ask him something. “grey.” taking his attention away from mixing his raw egg in the ground up hamburger. “tonight for my mid final I am suppose to attend the runway judging at the Paul Bunyan statue. I am allowed to bring a guest and thought of asking you. If you're not busy studying.”

“I can come.”giving no real thought to what she was asking.

Smiling to him as he ate a bite of raw meat. “thanks grey.”

swallowing his barely chewed bite to speak. “what for?” her behavior throwing him off further. Why so happy that he agreed to follow her someplace? Still confused by the gifted cake earlier. He wasn't doing anything special to cause such cheer in her. He fed her and leached warmth off her, yet she was willingly giving him affection. Surely it wasn't that easy, maybe she did know it was him and simply messing with him.

Tossing the idea aside when thinking it over. “I give her too much credit. She's simply being nice as a part of polite human trading. I give her something and she gives me something back. If I trade something big she'll have to offer something equal. Maybe then I can spend the night if I pick a shiny thing humans obsess over.”

keeping her voice quiet so that other tables couldn't hear. “for a lot of things. The really nice dinner dates, bringing me food, not dumping me the moment you heard rumors. Not judging where I live.” barely above a whisper on the last point.

waving it off. “oh that. No thanks are necessary.” still not seeing the big deal of his actions.

“i say they are. You know a lot about me and that's kinda rare for someone to stick around long enough for that. I don't know much about you. How's your family life? Your parents must be super proud of you attending college for an engineering degree.”

the question took him off guard that had him roughly swallowing his food to think. He didn't exactly have parents unless the other his creator counted despite the lack of necessary parenting. Maturin always called him his brother against his wishes not too. He didn't want any connections with some lazy slob who was practically in a coma most the time. Bothering him during the most inconvenient of times such as with the loser children.

the other having his own duties to attend to he rarely bothered with anything. Even his own creations were sent off on their own soon after their forms were solid enough. Pointed to their duties and other then that had free will toward anything else. Leaving him to question why the other stretched out his influence to disturb his free will on earth. Was the other proud of his creations? Pennywise wasn't sure of the answer to that. Lots of time was spent creating things to serve a purpose not necessarily to grow into some golden example to smaller creatures. He must be displeased for some reason if he spared random children after so many years of him devouring humans.

Perhaps it was merely because the turtle finally stayed awake long enough to go crying about his creations being destroyed. Why bother over something that was even an accident? If earth was created with a purpose, like him, then he could see why it was worth getting involved over. the other stopped him from doing his purpose of destruction.

Catching himself zoning off. “I have … a parent.” he slowly answered. Nervousness over mentioning the other in any way could mean him coming to interfere a second time. “I don't know what they want.”

“oh.” she looked at him with pity. Grating on his nerves that he didn't need it from her. A weak little life he could snuff out without a care from anyone.

“I've been on my own. I don't need coddling like a child.” keeping back a growl.

“Something we both unfortunately have in common.” Beverly sighed as she swirl some meat in mint sauce longer than most pieces.

He laughed at the thought of something “in common” between them. His existence was nothing like hers. Able to serve a purpose in the multiple universes. Or was he? Was he even sure anymore? “mm.” he hummed in answer. The two finishing their lunch to head back to studying for mid finals.

Pennywise roaming the dark grey covered town for a real meal. Suffering a lack of luck that had him delving into his thoughts as he stalked the empty streets. “I have a purpose. Why wouldn't I? He created others of my kind to serve the same purpose.” the flaw of his kind looming at the back of his head. They couldn't create things unlike the turtle. They were not granted that gift that left his kind to die. There were fewer and fewer of them each time he looked. Was their purpose temporary? He being meant as the last to fall and thus why he lead those children to break him down?

“but they failed.” without any possible reason to if the other really meant to make sure of his demise. “was it because I stepped past my limited purpose?” when his kind were made they couldn't reproduce, but he found a way. Creating eggs holding the spark of life while others he knew couldn't do. A weak work around that never lasted long for one reason or another. The time those children came for him he had made them last longer than usual. Getting better each time he tried creating young through the centuries. If it is to never happen how will his species survive? the other was not creating more as their numbers dwindled to almost extinct. If their purpose was no longer needed, what was he to do?

The questions crowing his mind to the point where he couldn't focus on the hunt anymore. Heading back to his pile to slump inside the wagon crowded by shelf's of trinkets. Alone in the darkened space to sort his thoughts before the night with Beverly. Glancing at a small old rusted pocket watch on a shelf nearby for the time. Grumbling that his mind was still racing through questions when it was time to go.

Slipping himself out from a water drain out into the light rain of the night sky. All the stars usually seen hidden completely by the black clouds. Grumbling at the cold the entire way to the statue. He wasn't a fan of the large lumberjack standing in place of where he first arrived. It should be a statue in his honor to show worship to him as a greater being. Then again he didn't have great memories of the spot. Trapped in the earth waiting for humans to evolve enough for a greater grasp on survive-ability. First tempted here by the sweet smell of fear by the creatures stomping across the earth at the time. It took all his energy to get here only to immediately require a long hibernation to regain it all back. Leaching fear off all the creatures dieing to the cloud of darkness he forced up upon landing. None of it was enough to satisfy his hunger. By the time humans were settling his hunger was maddening. He should have waited longer, but couldn't take it anymore.

He shoved down the agitation of the spot as he arrived to find Beverly. Passing by the various gates meant to block out others. Heading into the large tent meant to protect the large party from the weather. Having trouble finding Beverly past the various scents of strong calone every apparently bathed in before coming. His nose was practically burning off all the irritants. Happy to have found Beverly hanging out by the entrance where the smells wouldn't stick around.

“hey.” he caught her attention. Surprised to see her surprised by his appearance after she asked him to come.

“how'd you get in here? I was watching the bouncer for you. Did you sneak in?”

“no. I walked in, nobody stopped me.” answering truthfully minus certain details on why.

“oh, I guess the college didn't want to spend much on security. The punch must be spiked by the frat boys by now I am sure. Anyway, thanks for coming. Right now it's just before showing as we wait for late attendees. There are some snacks around.” she gestured to one area with white clothed tables. “I do believe the spiked punch thing. So be careful of that if you can't hold alcohol well.” the whole tent going silent off an announcement over a megaphone made for the class to take seats for the fashion show. “time for the show. Follow me, they assigned us seats. This part might be boring for you, but were in the back so after my dress showing we can just sneak out to the party room. I heard a lot of people do it after seeing their judge card.”

“its fine, will it be warm inside?” the only thing he really cared about.

“yep, between the thousands of lights and tightly packed people.” leading him out to another tent that was filled by a long stage surrounded by seats. Sitting next to Beverly as the rest of the seats were filled. Sitting through boring announcements as models walked around in various dresses. Entertaining himself by judging the poor threading. Some dresses almost on the brink of falling apart they were so rushed.

Only realizing which one was Beverlys by her bringing his attention to it. A long flowing dress with ranging colors of summer. Some green, a little orange and the main overall color a bright white.

“the yellow fabric was a pain to work with. Its as if every dust particle is attracted to it.” Beverly whispered next to him. Of course a summer dress wouldn't be white, it's only what his eyes saw. Yellow was a color he couldn't see at all. The rest of the rainbow being dull excluding red. The aggressive color almost acting as a vibrant beacon to anything with it. It's why Beverly was so easy a target between all the losers. Her hair gave her away like a neon bullseye. Yellow could almost act the same as a bright white or silver depending on the shade. The color used to cause him quite the issue after taking over the life of bob grey. His fellow workers and fans asking why his recognizable yellow suit was now suddenly silver. He thought of correcting it once, but the circus wasn't meant to stick around long.

“yes, very lovely.” falsifying his interest long enough to please her. Happy to hear they could leave the boring stage tent.

“whew! Thank god that's over! with that high score I should have caught the eye of those scholarship givers. I hate that they take a week to say if you got one or not.” heading into a third much larger tent filled with some dining tables and a dance area. Grabbing two glasses of light bubbly liquid looking closely like white wine, but not smelling the same.

Handing one of the thin glasses to him. “what? Can't drink it?” asking from his confused look down to it.

“what is it?”

“its sparkling apple cider. Never had it before?”

“no.” he answered before chugging the whole thing down in a single throw back.

Beverly turning concerned by the time he finished. “uh, i-it won't make you sick right?”

keeping an answer simple. “drinks are fine.” setting the glass down.

“okay, just making sure.” leading him past the long table of drinks to a dining table. Covered in white cloth brightened by a candle in a tall glass container. Small cards with a few meal selections to choose from. Pennywise skipping most the list straight to the desert section for strawberry shortcake and various large cookies. Receiving an amused look from Beverly by the hoard of deserts he got. The meals small enough to not take too long to eat.

Beverly getting up to speak with her teachers as grey stood by. He could off her expression that the excitement of the night was turning to anxiety. Her fellow classmates whispering about her to tear apart her work ruthlessly. Chipping away at any peace Beverly had after all her hard work. The party turning sour toward her the longer she stood around. Only her professors seeming kind enough to talk with her. Everyone else turning bolder to speak their minds about her.

“would you like to dance?” he offered knowing humans liked to do that at parties. Something to get her away from the crowds snickering.

“oh no, no way. I can't dance.” waving off the offer with a laugh.

“you don't know how to dance?”

“nope, do you?” her question growing a wide smile across his face.

“of course.” Pennywise the dancing clown wasn't only a title. He had centuries to dance the nights away to show off. All those age old balls held in large courts of wealth to display someone's grandness. He attended every single one to steal the show from everybody else. He wasn't about to pass up the opportunity here. “come dance.” offering his hand to her.

“ha, no.” jokingly refusing.

“oh come now. Its a single dance I promise you wont regret.” keeping his hand out.

“ … you better not drop me or anything.” hesitantly taking his hand. Lead along happily by him to the dance floor. Judging the other dancers as they waited for a new song to join in on. Thinking them all clumsy amateurs ready to slip on the wood flooring set up.

“ready?” snickering at her look of dread when stepping onto the dance floor. Shrinking down under the gaze of everyone locking onto them. “don't look at them. Watch me as I lead, easy.” pulling her close against him. Smiling over the blush he got from her by the action. With the song starting the glided into a rhythm of careful smooth steps. Helped greatly by the fact he could swing Beverly around as light as a feather. Any misstep she could make he could direct into a more proper flow.

Dipping her at one point shooting a spike of fear into her that he enjoyed. Tempted to do it again, but kept to the graceful dance. Stepping elegantly to the calm music playing in the tent. The two highlighted by the warm glow of hanging lights above. Gliding into a smooth stop as the music lowered to its end. Receiving lots of clapping from all the professors while the crowd scoffed the dance in jealousy.

“I don't hear the rain anymore. Want to head out for some fresh air?” asking her as they walked off hand in hand.

happily smiling into hugging his side. “sure.” Walking off to a secluded spot by the park pond under a white gazebo. Peering down across the water reflecting the bright glow of the party. Mixing close colors together in rippling waves. “I am really happy you came.”

“course I came.” brushing old leaves off the railing separating them from the pond water below. “You're here and I want to be by you.” leaning on the cleared railing.

“yeah, but you could have waited for tomorrow and skipped the boring dress show.” hugging his arm to lean her head against his shoulder.

“then i'd be bored and without you.”

“you're so sweet.” leaning into him to kiss his face.

Leaning away from her confused. “what are you doing?”

“oh, sorry, I thought you'd like a kiss. Sorry.” apologizing for her actions.

“kiss?” raising his eyebrow out of curiosity. She wanted to kiss him? But he hadn't traded anything for that.

“yeah, sorry. I didn't mean to make it happen too fast for you.”

“you want to kiss me, really?” something must be wrong with her head. Nobody wanted to kiss him. Nothing liked him, nothing wanted to be around him, they all ran from his presence in fear. Somehow she wanted to get even closer to the monster that could devour her face. Sweeping it all away in his mind. “no, she's getting closer to “grey”.”

“sure. Have you been kissed before?”

“no.” he had, but not out of affection. They were sloppy drunken kisses out of lust in the moment. He did other things with humans in the privacy of many places. He thought them disgusting, yet enjoyed the play time. Plus it meant a free meal after the thrill time ended. None of them suspected, of all the dangers, that being literally devoured after sex would be one. “people don't like getting close.”

“I don't mind getting close. Do you mind if I do?” smiling at him pulling her close before she could fully get out the question.

“no.” leaning down to kiss her on the lips. Enjoying the sweet taste of her that wasn't influenced by any fear. Returning the gentle kisses urging him to make them deeper. Kissing her into leaning back against one of the large posts. Loving the soft petting of her hands going through his hair. Needing to stop the kiss short before he got too carried away. Stopping a certain slithering organ from wildly twisting out of his pants to join in on the fun. Packing down a pleasant purr riding up to escape his throat.

“party's ending, ready for me to walk you home?” gathering himself together.

“sure thing.” kissing him on the cheek to leave the closing party.

#It (2017)#pennywise x beverly marsh #pennywise #beverly marsh

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dcarevu · 5 years

Text

Batman TAS: Dreams in Darkness

“Isn’t that why I’m here? Because I’m…disturbed?”

Episode: 28 Robin: Yes (Hallucination) Writers: Judith Reeves-Stevens and Garfield Reeves-Stevens Director: Frank Paur Animator: Studio Junio Airdate: November 3, 1992 Grade: A

Arkham Asylum sucks, doesn’t it. BTAS makes it pretty unclear whether criminals escape or get released most of the time (legally or illegally). But sometimes we are given an x-ray of the inner-workings, and it pushes away any hope that Gotham City has a way of cleaning up its reputation. The last time we had an episode featuring the Scarecrow, we found out that the Scarecrow was supposed to be contained, but a sketchy guard was hiding the fact that he actually was not in his cell. I’m not sure how long that charade could have been kept up, but for the Scarecrow, I doubt that mattered too much, right? Ironically, though, you would think the last thing an escaped patient would want to do would be to wear their infamous costume, stay in the same city, and cause a lot of recognizable trouble in an area as public as a college campus, but we are not exactly dealing with the sane here… This time, only a few episodes later, Scarecrow has somehow gotten out of captivity again. But instead of going all trick-or-treat at sports games, he opts to keep his activities hidden in the shadows below Arkham. There is an old George Carlin routine where he explains how theoretically, living next to a prison ought to be fairly safe. After all, an escaped prisoners are certainly not about to hang around, they’re going to get as far away as possible! Scarecrow may be crazy, but he also seems to be quite intelligent. He was a college professor as some evidence. He probably knows that one of the last places the police would look for him would be under the floor boards. And even here, he hides in the dark, giving orders from the void we so often see cloaking our characters on this show. On top of this, he speaks with a much more menacing voice than before, and at first I thought it was a different voice actor. But no, it is still Henry Polic II. Andrea Romano must have figured out how to actually make the master of fear the least bit intimidating, and it’s about time. Scarecrow for some reason took a while for them to figure out, with him being incredibly goofy in his first appearance, merely spooky in his second, and now incredibly sinister-seeming. Even his mask-design is ever-so-slightly different, although the difference in effect is negligible. What I appreciate more is the difference in his body and posture. Nothing to Fear portrayed him as moving in a very floppy, bouncy fashion, like a Scarecrow might in a little kid’s “Happy Halloween” cartoon special. His body now is angled quite nicely, and he almost stands the way a living corpse would. I’m glad Scarecrow went out on a high note, for the most part (as this is his last major appearance in Batman TAS). Don’t worry, that does not mean that this was his last major appearance in the DCAU!

When the episode starts, we do not know that the Scarecrow will be involved. We get a shot of some Arkham employees talking about a “new patient” who was experiencing some hallucinations. When the cell door is opened and the lights are turned on, we see that it is Batman of all people! When you are not even a minute in, and this is what the episode brings us, it’s like, “Wait. What the hell happened off screen before the show started exactly??” The show immediately plays with our expectations, setting up a mystery and leaving us unsure of whom to trust. We’ve been with Batman for 28 episodes now (plus a pilot), but we also know that he is perhaps not all mentally there, much like so many of his foes. Witnessing him bound in a straight jacket and being treated by doctors is hardly outside the realm of realistic possibilities! But we also know that something screwy is certainly going on, and the way the doctors talk, it’s harder to trust them then it is Batman.

Batman desperately attempts to explain what is going on to the doctors, and asks them if they contacted the people they were supposed to contact, but all he gets as a response is, “He needs more time. See that he’s not disturbed.” GAAAHHHHHH. Pet peeve! I hated as a kid when I would try to explain something, yet no one would take me seriously. It’s infuriating! The doctors act like they care and they are there to help, but ultimately, them listening to what Batman is saying is all an act! They are not hearing the supposedly sane words that they want to hear, so Batman’s garble is meaningless. That has got to be so frustrating, especially given the fact that Batman is trying to save the city from an underground threat!

After this scene, we get some narration done by Batman himself, and this subtly lets us know that, no, we didn’t miss anything, and that it will all be explained by the end of the episode. Batman narrating is also super badass. It would have been real easy to make it cheesy, but Kevin Conroy knows how to deliver. The narration also assures us that Batman is not the crazy one, because his words sound confident (despite showing deep distress) and they make sense. He isn’t talking like a crazy person would talk. We are about to do something that those doctors were not willing to do, and that is hear him out. The narration leads us to a flashback scene (with an awesome music score) where Batman attempts to stop some thugs from messing with the Health Spring Spa’s drinking-water supply, but he ends up being exposed to this red gas that the thugs were going to pump into the pipes. A voice on the thugs’ communication unit also mentions that Batman is “right on schedule”, so we know that this gas was all-too deliberate. This hear helps us piece together the puzzle of why Batman could be locked away. It obviously has to do with the chemicals that he inhaled, but what are the details? And who is behind it? It becomes more obvious as Batman looks up at his screen during a flashback and sees the reflection of the Joker walking toward him. Turning around, he realizes that it is actually Alfred who was approaching. Obviously concerned, he sneaks into a doctor’s office and allows Dr Wu to examine his blood. Apparently the hallucinations are set to get much, much worse, putting him in a state of psychosis. This is where he understand Batman’s intensity earlier in the episode when talking to the Arkham employees. Not only does he need to stop Gotham’s entire water supply from being poisoned by this gas, but he has limited time before he himself goes completely off the deep end. And that brings us to perhaps the greatest thing about this episode.

In Nothing to Fear, we got some fear-hallucinations, triggered by Scarecrow’s toxin. And they were, well, nothing to fear, honestly. We got the image of Bruce’s father’s floating head, telling him that he disgraced the family name for a couple of seconds. It served the plot of the episode, but the weight of it wasn’t exactly felt. We got another one where Bruce’s father turned into a skeleton-like figure, but again, it didn’t do a lot for me. The hallucinations seen in Fear of Victory were a lot better, but they still weren’t the best of the best. Dreams in Darkness, though, this is the Pink Elephants episode. It’s the peyote-in-the-desert episode. It’s the Squidward in Clarinetland episode. The hallucinations that Batman experiences are incredibly intense for a show appropriate for children, the most intense one being the giant pistol that goes off, representing the murder of Bruce’s parents. This is accompanied by bloodcurdling scream from Batman that gives goosebumps. The sequence is incredible well-done, but there are several more that we get to experience. If you are into bizarro sequences in animation, this is the episode where BTAS did a bunch of them, and I would say it is worth checking out just for that. But add in some other great things like a good mystery, the Scarecrow at his best, some awesome atmosphere, etc, and it is extremely worth checking out.

The episode even managed to fool me at one point, despite having seen it before. There is a point where the doctors inject something into Batman to sedate him. I was thinking we were gonna figure out that the stuff being injected was actually more fear-toxin, and that they were working for the Scarecrow. But no, as far as I can tell, they were legitimate doctors, even if their competence wasn’t that high. Hell, they question why Batman would think that Scarecrow might have escaped, when just four episodes ago that very thing happened. Jeez, guys. Even if they were new doctors to the place, you’d think they’d be informed that Scarecrow is a slippery one. How can anyone have confidence that Arkham Asylum is a safe place for criminals to go?

The episode of course ends with Batman facing his fears and defeating Scarecrow. Scarecrow is no match for Batman in a physical fight, and it probably brings him back to the glory days of high school where jocks beat the shit out of the nerds (that’s a joke, I was a huge nerd/geek in high school who stood no fighting chance against anyone). I loved how every time Batman would suffer a hallucination or face a new, scary challenge, he would simply keep on trucking. He would get done going through something absolutely terrifying, then stand up and calmly move forward. It was a situation where Batman knew that he had no choice, and that if he didn’t do this, then it wouldn’t matter anyway. Gotham would be up the creek without a paddle. At least until the military got involved. He even put off his own treatment (which would put him out of commission for a couple days) until after the Scarecrow problem was solved.

Check it out if you haven’t! Of course, my words can only do the show so much justice, so take a look at this episode’s screenshots! Is this an excuse to stop writing? Maybe… I’m just tired of being behind on these blogs… I’m gonna try to bust out a few of them tomorrow. It’ll put a lot less stress on me…

Had to use the Blu Ray footage this episode. But it all looks pretty nice, so enjoy some high def!

A twist beginning can be just as powerful as a twist ending. We also don’t often see Batman in such a powerless situation. Like Bugs Bunny (but with a completely different approach), he always exudes a sense of control.

How do animators get this blur effect? When the camera shifts focus?

The lighting from the window is angled gorgeously. It’s also a shot that makes you wonder how the hell Batman is ever going to escape (Char gave me this insight).

It’s not every family cartoon where you see someone about to be drilled through the chest.

As the Joker suddenly appears as a reflection on the screen, we don’t get an dramatic music or anything. So when we see that it’s actually Alfred, it makes us feel almost as silly as Batman for worrying.

A pretty good shot of Batman’s face, but the rest of his body seems off to me. Also, this is our first time seeing Batman in-costume getting help from a professional like a doctor.

Well animated crash sequence, ending in a shot of the asylum as two doctors sprint out, heading for the crash sight. Great transition.

So as Batman talks to the doctors, I noticed that one of them refers to the Joker as Jack Napier. Is that his actual name in this show? Or is it merely an alias (and one of many?). No spoilers, I wanna find out through the episodes and comics!

Here is what the Scarecrow is looking like this time. Compare this to his last appearance:

His design is certainly shifting toward the more angular, streamlined look of future DCAU shows.

Is that sweat or a tear, Batman????

One of the hallucination-sequences that was so powerfully sad and ctreative (Char). Instead of simply leaving the gunshot to our ears, we see the tunnel they enter morph into a giant gun, and blood runs out of it. I don’t want to quite call this personification, but it is a very warped interpretation of what happened last night and it gives us somethin far more interesting than anything offered in Nothing to Fear where it was much more straight forward.

Scarecrow’s clock is very cute.

I like how they both look at each other after missing Batman with a traguilizer dart. Like, “Good going, Frank.”

Batman was trapped in a mental hospital where most of his arch nemeses are also being held. That has to keep a guy on edge. No wonder he’s having these particular visions. Robin and Alfred’s voice actors do a great job here sounding like evil versions of their normal selves. It’s all quite unsettling.

Look how great he looks!!!

This batarang moment was dope. Look at those two stills. This is Studio Junio, the same ones who animated The Underdwellers.

That’s all for this episode!

This show has the ability to make so many viewers feel young again. It’s no demetrite, but it gets the job done... Join us next time!

Char’s grade: A Next time: Eternal Youth

Full episode list here!

#dreams in darkness #dc animated universe #dcau #batman tas #batman the animated series #btas #scarecrow #arkham #arkham asylum

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sarahlynn225-blog · 7 years

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Taming the Lion Chapter 4

Rated: T

Summary: He doubted he’d see her again, but found a part of him hoped he would...McCoy finds himself faced with something quite unexpected, meanwhile Jim is hiding something, academy years into movie(s), featuring hurt/comfort, drama, friendship, action all the good stuff.

When Leonard had written the report he'd made a point to state that Young was more a victim of Summers stupidity then anything. Which was true. It didn't take long before he got a response stating that the Cadet had been found, raging with fever in his room, his roommate having assumed he'd come down with a cold. Sadly Summers had been practically all over campus having not come in like Young had when he'd started to feel ill. Idiot.

The labs were instantly bursting with activity, racing to compile massive amounts of the vaccine. The academy had immediately sent out an alert that everyone was to receive it regardless if they were feeling ill or not. Every small clinic and the med bay was bursting at the seams as they tried to inoculate the thousands of students on the campus.

Lansing was on report, thank god, and after Leonard had given the younger doctor a piece of his mind-in front of almost the entire staff-Harold had looked thoroughly pale and chastised. He hoped the younger man would learn from this.

Luckily further research had shown that though Gatalis Fever was a down right awful illness to have, if a patient was given the treatment in time the likelihood of death fell by leaps.

McCoy sighed running his hands tiredly down his face. The whole thing would take weeks maybe months to resolve but they had caught it in time.

For the past two he, and a handful of other doctors, had been orchestrating everything and finally they had reached a form of controlled chaos. It was times like these that Leonard actually appreciated Starfleet's regulations, it helped create order in all this mess.

It was mostly nurses who administered the vaccine trained to call for a doctor if the patient had an adverse reaction. So far there had been a blessed few, Jim included. To his irritation he hadn't been there when he'd gotten his shot, idiot was still avoiding him. It wasn't as if he really had time to talk to Kirk anyway, he'd barely been back to their room spending most of his time in the medbay. His back was already protesting his sleeping on the couch in the lounge.

He sat back in the plastic chair equally uncomfortable but even so, glad to be off his feet. Things were surprisingly quiet at the moment, a lull in the storm and he'd found himself in Young's room silently observing her bio readings and sleeping form. He told himself it was because her room was the quietest, being private and all.

Her fever had stopped it's annoying fluctuation and broke the evening prior, most of her other symptoms dissipating. The ordeal had left her exhausted and she spent most of the time sleeping, her body recovering from the trauma. He hadn't seen much of her actually since they'd finished synthesizing the cure.

It was getting late, he noted the time on the wall; nearing ten in the evening and he felt he could finally sleep in his own bed without worrying. Still, he found himself oddly reluctant to leave. He hadn't seen much of her since they'd synthesized the cure and given it to her, the nurses doing most of the monitoring. Leonard realised he felt bad, she had told him she hated hospitals and visitors weren't allowed until she was deemed no longer contagious. Which meant she'd been surrounded by strangers.

Ture he'd only met her a handful of times but his had to be a friendly face by now.

"Rough day." The soft words nearly made him jump and he drew his eyes away from her readings to find Young watching him. A little smile graced her lips and he found himself returning it.

"You could say that." He leaned forward a little.

She appeared to swallow thickly her eyes suddenly darkening.

"Was it bad?"

Leonard blinked. "No, no you're recovering just fine." He was quick to reassure. "You're vitals are stabilizing and-"

"No," He was surprised at the slight desperation in her tone."Sorry," Sheepish now. "I mean, for everyone else, I know how contagious this thing is."

McCoy found his smile broadening warmly at her concern. "Well, it hasn't been easy but things are looking up, with your help we caught it in time."

She closed her eyes briefly in obvious relief. "Good."

"How are you feeling?" He asked after a pause.

"Exhausted, this thing kicked my ass." She mumbled and he chuckled, which was met with a mock glare that turned into another soft smile. "But I'm weirdly tired of sleeping." This was added with an endearing little frown and Leonard allowed the odd tingling in his chest to grow; how tired was he?

"Why are you still here? If you don't mind my asking." Her gaze was oddly intense, as if she could suddenly see right through him.

He shrugged."Guess I'm just restless."

"Well, then, let's be restless together." She suggested. "Can you tell me what's been happening the past few days, hell, I don't even know what day it is."

Leonard huffed a laugh some of the tension leaving his shoulders. They slipped into easy conversation after that, their soft voices filling the once silent room.

He told her about Lansing.

"Thank God." She'd sighed looking relieved and satisfied. "Is it wrong to say I really don't like that man?"

It was his turn for his eyes to darken. "No." He'd muttered and she'd eyed him for a moment before changing the subject.

He learned a surprising amount about her as they chatted. It had been a long time dream of her's to board a starship and study wildlife on different planets.

"You can learn a lot about a planet from its animals." She'd said.

Xenozology was her passion. She was upset that the minnix-an apparently rare creature-had been basically torn from it's home to be sold as an illegal pet.

It was the most relaxed he'd felt in days.

"So did Kirk retake the test?"

He cleared his throat. "I'm not sure, haven't actually seen him for a few days." Leonard hoped that the odd irritation he felt at the question didn't show in his voice.

"He's still upset about me helping him?" She shifted as if uncomfortable."If I'd known he'd object to it that much I'd have let it alone." There was no anger or irritation in her words, more resigned than anything.

"Well, like I said, Jim's complicated."

She nodded looking down at her hands-he'd raised the bed some time ago-seeming contemplative. A corner of her mouth lifted in what appeared to be amusement.

"He wouldn't stop flirting with me you know."

Oh yeah Leonard knew. He sat back in his chair resisting the urge to fold his arms.

"Thought for sure he was going to ask me out." Amusement still laced her tone; McCoy nearly rolled his eyes.

"Well, I did tell him you were the one that hit Taggert and broke his nose." He grumbled and she looked over at him sharply.

"Hit him? What? I never hit Taggert." She all but stammered, looking both horrified and surprised by his words.

Leonard frowned, thinking back to their first meeting. "But you said-"

"When I pushed Walsh she ran into him and he hit a containment unit." Her face reddened as she spoke. "I feel a little bad but it was oddly satisfying and he did deserve it." She muttered.

It was McCoy's turn to be surprised, and amused. And here he'd thought she'd offed and decked him, somehow this was better though. He chuckled shaking his head and if it were possible her face got even redder.

"Does everyone think I hit him?" Horror still laced her words and Leonard had to rane in his growing amusement.

"Probably," His words had her covering her face. "Think you've earned yourself a bit of a reputation."

She groaned. "I don't see how, multiple people saw me not hit him."

McCoy shrugged."Makes for a more compelling story." He couldn't keep the smile off his face.

Young chuffed finally lowering her hands. "Yeah, I guess it does." She looked a little more tired now settling back against her pillow.

The amusement settled comfortable in his chest casting away earlier irritation and the remaining stiffness in his shoulders. Talking with her had been, cathartic.

He glanced at the chronamintor.

"You should sleep." He stood grimacing at the soreness in his muscles.

"Need anything?" He glanced one last time at her readings. Everything looked good.

"Hmmm," She sighed, eyes already closed. "I'd kill for a hot chocolate, with a little, a lot of whipped cream on top."

Leonard chuckled again shaking his head as he headed towards the door. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Thank you." Young's gaze was on him agian, he couldn't read the expression in her eyes but there was a smile on her face.

McCoy returned it before leaving, a warmth he hadn't felt in a long time blanketing his heart.

***

He'd slept for ten hours straight, and upon waking took a hot shower that worked a hell of a lot better than any muscle relaxer.

After that he'd spent the better part of an hour trying to find exactly what he was currently getting strange looks for.

A quick glare sent most people scuttling quickly on their way.

SFM had insisted he take a few days off, but they said nothing about paying any patients a quick non medical visit.

He easily navigated it's halls ignoring the strange looks he kept getting from the staff over what he had in hand. Could a man not carry anything through the halls anymore? Granted a steaming hot cup of hot chocolate with a mountain of whipped cream was a bit odd-especially for him-but honestly it could be worse.

He expected Young to maybe be with one of the nurses, alone, or even with a fellow Cadet friend. What he hadn't expected was Jim Kirk chatting up a storm next to her bed in the same chair he'd vacated last night.

She saw him first, eyes brightening at the sight of him, a smile gracing her features.

"Dr. McCoy." Her words caught Jim's attention and he looked over.

The blond sat back in his chair grinning. "Bones." He cocked an eyebrow at the drink in his hand. "Did you suddenly grow a sweet tooth?"

Leonard covered his sudden embarrassment at being caught red handed with good old fashioned McCoy grumpiness. "No." Followed by a glare that had Jim's grin widening.

"Is that what I think it is?" Young interrupted gaze landing on the mug.

Choosing to ignore Jim for the moment-because really there was no turning back now-he approached her bed holding it out to her. "Non replicated."

She accepted it without hesitation eyes widening comically. "Holy mother of-" A sip, a look of pure bliss. "You're a saint."

"Hot chocolate? Really? That's your drink of choice." Jim teased and Leonard held back another glare.

"I've got my reasons." She unabashidly licked cream off her upper lip. Her color was much better today, dark circles under her eyes fading, they'd be releasing her soon.

"Jim was just telling me that he retook the test." Young said after a moment as if sensing the odd tension in the room.

Jim? They were on a first name bases now? Leonard cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, I figured she'd went through all that trouble, might as well." Jim said rubbing the back of his neck in what McCoy knew was an uncomfortable gesture.

So that's why he was here, Kirk was apologising! He wasn't surprised, not really, Jim never could hold a grudge against someone who hadn't really wronged him for long.

"Really?" Leonard folded his arms some of his irritation giving way. He gave the younger man a look that made him squirm a little uncomfortable.

"Passed with flying colors." Jim grinned again trying to dispel it, but McCoy gave it a few more seconds.

"Where did you even get this?" Young asked suddenly, drawing attention back to her.

Leonard shrugged feeling Jim's eyes on him. He refused to be the one to suddenly feel uncomfortable. As a doctor it was only natural that he tried to make his patients feel better, even it was with simple hot chocolate.

"A place not far from here." He walked further into the room.

“Well, you'll have to show me sometime.” She said it casually enough, but he really wished she hadn’t, at least not in the presence of Jim.

The grin that appeared on the younger man’s face was nothing but pure mischief, unadulterated interest sparking in his eyes. Leonard really hoped the glare he sent him would set him on fire.

“Yeah Bones, if the look on her face is anything to go by, that stuff is to good to not know where it came from.”

Deep breaths Leonard.

Allison laughed and he felt a little better at the sound of it, though if he were honest he would have rather been the one to make her do it.

“It wasn’t all that hard to find.” He said with a shrug trying to seem nonchalant.

Jim gave him a look and Leonard chose to ignore it. He didn’t particularly care what the blond thought.

“Well I’ve got class in like ten minutes,” Jim stood flashing Allison that smile, the one he often used on women at the bar. “Nice talking to you Allison, hope they don’t let them keep you for much longer.”

“Thanks for visiting.” She said with a smile that weirdly had Leonard’s stomach turning.

Jim winked at her, then started for the door pausing to clasp him on the shoulder. “Bones,” That spark of mischief was still in his eyes and McCoy found himself wishing he had a hypo with a very strong sedative in hand. “See ya later.”

With that said Kirk left and Leonard found he couldn’t be more glad, accept now he was alone with her, which wasn’t a bad thing, right?

Allison watched Jim leave eyeing the door almost critically, before she spoke again.

“I think something's wrong with him.”

Gone was her amusement replaced now with concern, Leonard blinked at the change.

“What do you mean?” He asked glancing back at the door, as if it could provide an answer.

She shifted as if uncomfortable, still cradling the mug in her hands. “Well he was limping when he came in here...I don’t know, just didn’t seem right.”

Limping? Again he glanced at the door. Jim had always been good at hiding injuries-disturbingly good in his opinion-but he’d become pretty good at noticing. He looked back at her; then again he had been, distracted.

Now that she mentioned it though, he had seemed a little stiff in his movements, slow to get up from the chair as if reluctant to.

Leonard clenched his jaw trying to quell his annoyance in her presence, it was directed both at himself-for not noticing-and Jim, the idiot.

“Go, I’m good, thanks for this.” She said holding up the mug and gesturing at the door.

Who was this woman?

He nearly shook his head, from his earlier talks with her-notably the one from last night-Young seemed like a compassionate person, who would go out of her way to help someone. A good quality actually, and a little, endearing.

Leonard hesitated glancing at her bio readings. “They should be releasing you in the next twenty four hours.”

“Yes I know Nurse Pletchet told me, now go before he disappears.” She insisted looking partly amused and concerned. But was her concern for that of a friend or, something else?

He took a deep breath, deciding for the moment to let that thought go, he did however find it hard to ignore ‘that smile’ Jim had given her.

“Right, thanks for the heads up.” A few quick steps towards the door had him out in the hall before he said something stupid.

“Good luck!” She called after.

He supposed he needed that.

***

To his surprise Jim hadn’t gotten far, and he was limping if just a little.

“Jim!” He called out to him.

The blond stopped and turned, smiling at him. “Bones, thought you’d stick around a little longer then that.”

Leonard frowned at him, not falling for the bate. “Why are you limping?” He cut straight to the chase, with Jim sometimes that’s all you could do.

“I tripped running some laps.” He replied easily, too easily and McCoy could see the shutter that had risen in his eyes.

“So all of a sudden you’ve become a klutz?” He challenged folding his arms.

“I may have gotten, distracted.” He grinned and now there was a bit of challenge in his eyes.

“Let me take a look.” Leonard grabbed his arm intending to lead him to an exam room.

Jim pulled it free, looking annoyed now. “Bones it’s fine, I just twisted it a little.”

“You’re a doctor now to?” Frustration made his words harsher then may have been warranted, but damn it there was something going on here.

Jim’s features darkened, and Leonard realized he lost any chance of reasoning with him.

“I’m already late for class.” He said lowly, turning.

“Jim.” He tried anyway, annoyed that he’d ruined yet another chance of finding out what was going on.

Kirk ignored him disappearing into a lift.

Leonard wondered how much he was going to regret this.

#star trek #star trek aos #fanfic #fanfiction #leonard mccoy x ofc #jim kirk #spock #hurt/comfort #romance #drama #bones

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