#see this is why I always oven reheat

[seospicybin]

ONE DANCE.

Hyunjin x reader. (s)

CHAPTERS: ONE MORE DANCE / VESPER.

Synopsis: If it wasn’t because of your support, Hyunjin would have been given up to be a painter. One day, he finally get to sold one of his paintings and he decides to celebrate it by getting himself a lap dance. (6,3k words)

Author's note: I had so much fun writing this and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Feel free to let me know :)

It's 3.30 am.

Hyunjin's phone rings because he set an alarm earlier to wake him up right at that time. He turns on the bed and turns it off, might as well check any messages just in case you send him some when he was sleeping.

There are two unread messages, you letting him know that you got a ride home from your friend and that you're getting off work just now.

Hyunjin composes a reply: "I'm waiting for you. Be careful on the way home, beautiful."

He gets up from the bed fast and heads out of the room, turning the lights on in the kitchen to warm the dinner for you.

He does this routine almost every day, especially on the weekends when you usually will come home really late.

The food is being reheated in the oven and while he waits for it, he goes to the bathroom to start filling half of the bathtub with cold water and he would add the hot water later when you get home.

Back in the kitchen, he prepares plates and cutlery and doesn't forget to take a can of your favorite juice from the fridge. When the oven signals that the food has done being reheated, he carefully takes the roasted chicken out and slices it with a knife with so much attention.

He arranges the food on your plate so beautifully and put everything in place so you don't have to do anything else but sit and eat in peace.

He hears a car pulling up downstairs and he goes to the window to check if it's you, smiling when he sees you getting off the car and probably thanking your friend for the ride home before entering the apartment building.

He opens the door and holds it open with his back, waiting for the elevator that takes you to arrive.

When it dings open, you walk out of it looking exhausted while carrying your duffel bag on one shoulder but when you glance up and see him, your face lights up almost instantly like a night turns to a day.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" You ask him and come into his hug.

It feels good to finally have you back home, as if everything is just right again, right where it belongs. He doesn't need to worry about anything else, having you in his arms washes all of his weariness away.

"Welcome home!" He says as he presses a kiss on your forehead, then your cheek, and eventually your lips.

He could stay there and kiss you all day but he guesses that you must be tired from work. He quickly takes your duffel bag from you and leads you inside.

"Your dinner is ready!" He informs then squats down to take your shoes off and put them on the shoe rack for you.

"I told you, I can reheat dinner myself," you scold him with a glare.

He puts his hands on your shoulder and leads you to sit on the stool facing the kitchen island with the food already served.

"Just sit and eat well!" He orders and not taking any objections from you.

You turn to flash a smile at him and grab his hand that is resting on your shoulder, "I'll eat it well, thank you!"

Hyunjin smiles back knowing that his effort is being appreciated.

Then you suddenly get off the stool.

"Do you need something?" He quickly offers help to you, "I'll get it for you!"

You chuckle and saunter to the kitchen sink, "I'm going to wash my hands."

Hyunjin let out a 'duh' gesture of slapping his forehead along with a subtle eye-roll. He then puts your duffel bag away where you always put it, next to the vanity table in the bedroom then heads to the bathroom to start filling the rest of the tub with hot water.

He kisses the top of your head once he returns to the kitchen and sits next to you on the empty stool, "How was work?"

You take a moment to swallow your food and sigh, "tiring but it was a full house tonight."

"How was your day?" You ask back and resting your hand on his thigh.

To be frank, Hyunjin didn't do much that day, he tried so hard to paint but didn't get any inspiration. He ended up wasting most of his day staring at a blank canvas and it has been like that for the past few days.

"Stuck on ideas again?" You ask with a pout while rubbing his thigh as a way to soothe him, you already know the answer even before he says it.

"That's okay, baby!" You add with a reassuring smile, "you'll work it out!"

It amazes him how you still manage to comfort him despite the exhaustion visibly drawn on your face. It should be him who comforts you, not the other way around.

"Oh... this is so nice!" You hum in delight as you slowly soak your body in the warm, nice-smelling water. You make a room for Hyunjin as he is about to get into the tub as well, carefully lowering himself into the water to not let it slosh out of the tub.

You rest your back on his chest to let him bathe you like he usually does, dipping a bath sponge into the water to softly rub it on your skin, washing the night away from your body.

Your skin is wet and warm just like the bathwater, he has to stop a few times just to plant kisses on your silky smooth skin and let his hands freely roam around your body, touching you in places only he knows.

"You're so beautiful, angel!" He whispers sweet praises into your ear.

"Can't get enough touching you," he sweetly murmurs with a tender kiss on the nape of your neck as his hand goes to the delicate flesh between your legs.

You bend your knees and spread them open for him, guiding his hand under the water to get there faster while giggling, making the water ripple.

Hyunjin let out a sultry sigh with his plush lips so close to your ear shell as his fingers easily locate your clit and gently circling on it.

He feels the most selfish when it comes to your body, he has a reason for it and he bet you know it too.

"All mine!" He sighs.

You bring his face close by pulling him by the chin to capture his lips in a kiss, a slow kiss that is both needy and hungry. He lets you take over from there, let you take him wherever you want it to go. Whichever you choose, he will follow, it stops there or… take it further?

From the way you steer him to the bed, he knows you've made up your mind. 

Further, it is!

He sits on the edge of the bed while you straddle him, naked and glistening wet with beads of water rolling down your flushed skin. He surrenders himself, letting you take him places where no one can.

Your lips lather his skin and suck on it, leaving marks on it even though the ones you made haven't fully vanished yet.

This is also why he likes to keep his hair long, no one can see the bite mark you left on the nape of his neck that he believes was still there.

He's okay with it because it's your way of claiming that he's yours. People wouldn't get it but for him, it's a romantic gesture.

You let him do the same to you but he chooses not to, he knows that it will only give you a hard time to cover them up and he prefers another way to claim you.

Another thing that he considers a romantic gesture is to eat you out. With the knowledge that you like his red, plump lips so much, there's no better way to put it to better use, if not with kisses, he would go down on you and please you to no end.

He likes giving it to you because of how much you enjoy it. Thanks to your honest and open communication let him know what pleases you or not without offending him, resulting in his skill improving a lot to the point that he no longer needs to think a lot in his head before the deed.

His head buries deep between your legs, his tongue incessantly lapping on your wetness, heating, dripping. Your arch your back to meet his slick tongue making its way to your entrance and his nose pressing on your clit whenever you do it.

Your hand in his silky dark hair, tugging, pulling depending on the intensity of the pleasure he brings on you.

"So close," you mumble, almost incoherent as you speak between your moans.

"Oh... close," You try again a little louder.

Hyunjin maintains eye contact with you as he buries his mouth deep in your wetness, running his tongue down your slit repeatedly to bring his mouth on your clit, making out to it until you come to your climax.

Hyunjin stays between your legs, kissing your inner thighs while you're relishing your orgasm with your hand no longer tangled in his hair.

He takes your hand with him while crawling over your body, hovering above you to put both of your hands around his neck to let him hoist you, fixing your sleeping position to let your head comfortably rest on the pillow.

He endearingly caresses your cheek. then kisses it, "You can rest now, sweet baby!" He murmurs.

The two of you can always pick it up in the afternoon or before you leave for work.

You sleepily smile at him and shake your head, "Just give me a moment," you say, still trying to reorganize your breathing.

His admiration for you grows bigger each day, he knows you're tired yet you still make time for him, making him feel loved and pleased.

He gets to lay back down while you ease yourself down his cock with that blissful smile on your face, "oh... yeah, baby... mmh..." you hum with your eyes closed, immersed yourself in the pleasure of his stiff member entering you.

You let out a soft mewl with your face making a painful expression for a millisecond and your satisfied grin replaces it after.

You open your eyes and find his right away, then exclaim, "My happy place!"

His cock is buried to the hilt inside you and he can feel your velvety walls wrapped so tightly around him, it's his happy place as well, being inside you.

You put your hands on his chest as support to slowly start rolling your hips, feeling his whole length inside you.

"Have you always been this big, baby?" You ask him, grinding, pulsating your hips against him.

Hyunjin whimpers underneath you, his hands gripping each side of your waist with his nails digging into the flesh, keeping you steady while you move on top of him.

You say his cock is big but you take him well every single time. It makes him a little cocky and a lot more confident in himself.

"But you're riding me so well, my love!" Hyunjin praises between his beautiful, low grunts.

A seductive smile plays on your face and you start to set a steady pace, while he's watching you have no problem riding his big cock.

"My little cowgirl, aren't you?" He teases you as the bed starts rocking to the movements you make on the bed.

You crack a laugh at his remark and take his hands, using them to fondle your breasts together. The ample flesh molds into his big hands with his rough fingertips playing with your hardening buds.

"Hyunjin..." you call his name with a lustful sigh.

His head is hazy with pleasure but he forces an answer out of him, "Yes, love?"

The pace becomes sloppy and your breathing turns heavy, your fingers clawing the muscles on his chest yet you're still chasing the high.

He senses that you are getting tired and he understands why, "Want me to finish it for you, mmh?"

You accept his offer and let him turn you over on the bed, pin you under him to let him continue with your pretty noises guiding him where he needed to go.

Your legs wrapped around his dainty waist, providing him with more depth to thrust into you. He starts slow and adds more speed as he goes.

"Oh my God!" You exclaim when his cock nudges you on the right spot.

He doesn't want to be in his head, he wants to be present at the moment. He focuses on giving you the most pleasure but at the same time enjoying the sex that is more than just a physical fulfillment, but to share a special bonding time with you, making you feel adored and loved.

"Hyunjin, you make me feel so good," you mutter to him.

He picks up the pace and the skin-slapping sounds echoing in the room that he notices start to fill with bluish lights of the dawn.

"Hyunjin oh..."

Your hand tugging on his dark locks as a broken moan escape your mouth, "cum inside, fill me up!" You say.

His eyebrows knitted and a sheen of sweat formed on his forehead, his body blushing red, blood rushing all over him at a high speed. He is determined to get you to your high.

He takes your hand and laces it with yours, his forehead presses on you with your warm breath fanning him.

"Hyunjin, please..." you say again with a quivering voice.

It's the way you call him that makes him feel like THAT man, that man who provides for you and fulfills all of your needs, while in reality, he's just a struggling artist who hasn't sold any paintings yet.

"Please, Hyunjin, give it to me!" You softly say right to his face with your eyes screwed shut as if you can't really take it anymore.

He thrusts into you harder, deeper with eyes boring into yours and hands holding yours so tight as if you will float away if he didn't.

"Please, please... Hyunjin!" You say again, making him feel like the only man who can give you that release you need.

You sink your mouth onto his shoulder to muffle your broken moans as waves of pleasure washing over your body, the pleasure intensifies as he keeps thrusting you past your climax.

Nothing gets him off knowing that he successfully makes you cum around him, your body writhing and fucked out underneath him.

He pushes one deep thrust into you to finally earn his high. This is his way of claiming you, by planting his seed deep inside you.

He won't pull out to make sure it stays inside you, kissing your face with his hands roaming on your body, touching you as much as he can.

"I love you," he whispers into your ear, saying it squeezing out all of his emotions to the point that his heart hurts.

As the three words registered in you, you hold his face in your hands and smile at him with such loving.

"I love you," you say back.

What's the best feeling in the world than having your feelings reciprocated?

-

He wakes up after a few hours of sleep, kisses you on your forehead, and cuddles you for a few minutes before he starts his day. He keeps the lights dim and the blinds shut so you can rest comfortably.

His routine is pretty much the same every day and that's doing the household chores. He cleans the house, does the laundry, prepares food, and does everything he can do to fill his part because it's obvious that you bring the most money to the table.

When all of the chores are done, he goes to his small studio by the balcony to start painting. Even all of his art supplies are bought with your hard-earned money, he knows that you voluntarily agreed to provide for him and never minded it. Deep down, Hyunjin has a guilty conscience for it.

But today, he feels exceptionally good, so he pushes all those negative thoughts away and he holds all that good feeling as he starts mixing paints on his palette, envisioning his ideas onto the blank canvas while at it.

He doesn't know how long he has been painting until you suddenly appear behind him, two mugs of steaming hot coffee in your hands.

His eyes glance at the clock through the window glass to see the time, "It's hardly 2 pm," he says to you because you usually wake up late in the afternoon.

You hand him his mug and put a hand around his neck to kiss the top of his head.

"You should sleep some more," he adds, kissing the skin on your forearm.

"Nope, I want to spend more time with you," you answer while looking into his half-finished painting.

He takes a sip of the coffee, feeling refreshed the more caffeine he takes into his body system.

"Let me prepare lunch for you!" He offers.

"I already ate lunch!" You reply and carefully sip your coffee.

There's a subtle frown on his face hearing your answer, "why didn't you tell me?"

"I can prepare my own lunch, I'm not a baby!" You tell him with a sassy eye-roll.

He puts his coffee mug away and puts a hand around your waist, "but you are my baby," he says with a pout.

You chuckle and sit on his lap, "that's true!"

"But I don't want to disturb you when you're painting," you explain, holding the hand he puts around your waist.

"You might be stuck on ideas again," you playfully remark.

He puts his other hand around you, hugging you close, "nonsense!" He disagrees with you, his mouth dives into the crook of your neck to kiss you there.

"You're my muse!"

You turn your head to let him kiss your lips, letting him take his mind off things for a little while. You're so used to him saying all those sweet words to you but that doesn't stop the butterflies in your stomach from fluttering around.

Slowly pulling away from the kiss, you say, "That's enough interruption."

With a peck on his lips, you get up from his lap and take your coffee mug with you.

"Where are you going?" He asks, his hands clasped with yours, not letting you leave him alone.

"I'm going to sit there and watch you paint, of course!" You gesture to the loveseat on one side of the room.

He nods with an endearing smile and his eyes form two crescent moons, "okay then."

He continues painting with you watching him from the corner of the room, drinking coffee while playing some music from the portable speaker.

He finishes an hour later and wipes his hands on a cloth before coming up to you for some cuddles on the small sofa with you, talking about things, or just enjoying each other's company while the sun is slowly sinking.

When it's time to cook for dinner, you leave for the bathroom for a quick shower while Hyunjin takes care of the cooking. While waiting for the soup to simmer, he comes to the bedroom to see you putting on your underwear in front of the mirror.

Gosh, you're so alluring, enchanting, one sight of your body and it's enough to make his mind go blank.

"Dinner is ready, princess!" He says with his mouth peppering your bare shoulders with kisses.

You giggle in response and turn around to face him, kissing him on the lips, "I'll be coming in a few minutes!"

You only have a limited time after dinner and he needs more if he wants to please you, he consoles himself by touching you more and kissing you deeply, making out at the end of the bed to last him for the night.

You have dinner together in the kitchen, sitting next to each other and talking in between spoonfuls of food.

"I'm taking a day off this Wednesday!" You inform him.

He brushes your hair to the side and puts it behind your ear, "do you have anything you want to do, baby?"

You pursed your lips while thinking, "Movies?"

"Okay," Hyunjin agrees without complaint.

"And pasta after?"

"Sounds good!" He comments with a sweet smile.

You're so so sweet to him. You provided for him but what you ask in return is simple: quality time with him. And he'll give you that and more, if you ask for his life, he would give it to you without a doubt. Heck, he'll do everything just to make you feel his love and prove his devotion to you.

That's how much he loves you.

Hyunjin's heart gets inexplicably heavy when he lets you go to work, he watches as you check your make-up with the help of the little mirror on the visor while the car is parked on the lot next to the place where you work at.

He takes your bag from the backseat and hands it to you, while you pull him by the neck to kiss him.

"Don't stay up late for me," you warn him.

"Not listening!" He teases you and kisses you to stop you from complaining.

"I'm serious!" You say to him with a glare.

"Okay."

You bet he's just saying it but not planning on doing it then roll your eyes at him, "I'll get going!"

"See you at home, sweet angel!" He says for the last time and insists on getting a peck on the lips from you before you close the car door.

"Relentless, aren't you?" You grumble but do it anyway, he knows you are prone to his charms.

He watches you walking across the parking lot before entering your workplace, where your love is no longer free.

-

A few days later, Hyunjin receives the good news that someone bought his painting. It's the first one he sold after a year of nothing.

He drives to meet his agent first to confirm the purchase and signs some paperwork. It's a big sum of money and it would take a day or two to transfer all the funds to his account.

But the first thing he wants to do is to share the news with you, it's a pity that he just dropped you off for work and you probably turned off your phone already.

But it's a good thing he knows just how to deliver the news to you.

He can hear the music blasting even before he enters the club, he knows he's underdressed and it gives the impression that he has not much money to spend in a place like this.

Yet the bouncer lets him in and a few girls notice his arrival, eyeing him and a few even offer their service to him. He tries not to make eye contact and goes straight to the bar, and orders a drink to loosen up a little.

It's still a little after midnight and the club is in full swing.

He orders another glass as soon as he finishes the first one, he hesitates to ask the bartender who is cleaning the countertop, and he gestures for him to come over so he can ask it privately.

"I want to ask for a specific.... for uh..." he pauses to find the right way to address the profession.

The bartender seems to get his intention without him needing to elaborate and calls someone else from across the room, a lady who dresses in provocative lingerie with long dark hair and blunt bangs, the make-up doesn't quite cover her ripe age but she seems authoritative, probably the one who manages of all the ladies working in the club.

"He's asking for someone!" The bartender informs her.

She smiles at him, a polite, professional one, "what can I help you, darling?"

He keeps his eyes at her eye level to avoid looking elsewhere and being disrespectful.

He fiddles with his glass, and hesitates to ask for it, "I'm looking for... Vesper?"

Vesper, a name you choose for yourself as a pseudonym. You chose it because Vesper means 'evening star' in Latin.

A smile appears on the lady's face, "Ah, I know a Vesper!"

Hyunjin let out an inaudible sigh and shyly smiles at her, reminding himself to not look elsewhere but at her face.

"Are you asking for a lap dance, sweetie?" She asks again, clearing his intention because no one knows that he's your boyfriend. You are restricted to share any information about your private life at work or anyone for that matter.

Hyunjin stifles a nod.

Looking at his adorable reaction, the lady can't help but smile, "You're a cute, handsome fellow, aren't you?"

Hyunjin feels like a schoolboy being praised by his favorite teacher in elementary school. Something about her makes him feel like a little boy.

"You can wait there by the booth while I'm getting your Vesper!" She says, pointing to the vacant booth at the corner of the club 

He drinks his drink and asks for another so he can have something with him while he waits. He sips his drink little by little, trying to act calm while in fact, he's very nervous.

A few girls pass by his booth and wave at him if not seductively smiling at him, he gives them a nod in response. He had never seen so much skin in one night until now.

"Is this the Vesper you're looking for?" The lady asks.

She returns with a girl with a blonde wig and slinky, sexy lingerie with black stockings on. There's so much skin exposed that he doesn't know where to look. The make-up you put on makes you look different and he almost can't recognize you until you recognize who he is, then smiles at him.

The only smile that no one knows better except him.

"Yes," he answers.

The lady taps your shoulder, then says one last thing to Hyunjin before leaving him alone with you, "Have fun, cutie!" 

He nods at her and mutters, "Thank you!"

You slowly walk toward him, not showing any signs of struggle to walk in those six inches heels, then stops right in front of him, "I heard you're looking for me?" You say, keeping a straight face even though he knows you are silently smiling under that professionalism mask.

He nods, he can't provide a verbal answer. Not when he looks at you in a different light and with a different personality.

"What's that?" You ask with your hand cupping your ear to hear him better, bending so low he can see your breasts hung inside your bra.

He quickly mutters an answer, "Yes."

One corner of your lips curled upward and he can see how much you enjoy seeing him stunned like this.

"You're asking for a lap dance?" You ask him with a sultry voice.

Hyunjin hurriedly gropes around his jacket pocket to pull out money for you, "Yes, please!"

You shake your head and take a step close, standing between his spreading legs, "Put it anywhere you like!"

He doesn't get what you said by that until he sees the other guy slipping money into the dancer's underwear.

He folds the money and slips it on the elastic band of your underwear, making sure it stays there before he lets go of it.

"Now, relax and enjoy!" You say, turning around to suddenly plop down on his lap, intentionally hard with your ass right on his crotch.

He softly grunts while you enjoy torturing him this way, rolling your body to the slow, sensual tempo of the music playing in the club.

"Is this your first time at a strip club?" You ask him, putting your hands on his knees and slowly lifting your ass, hovering above his crotch.

How can his brain works properly when your ass is making friction with his crotch, he closes his eyes to get himself together, "Yes."

"Why?" Rolling your hips in a clockwise direction.

"Uhm..." he almost loses it, "that's because I have a girlfriend."

"You can come to a strip club even though you have a girlfriend," you say, looking over your shoulder at him.

He shakes his head, "my girlfriend, she's uh... everything."

He pauses to take a sip of his drink to dull his senses a little, "she's beautiful, smart, and..." he takes a second to sigh while his eyes lust over your body, "sexy!"

"She's very lovely, very nice, anything I asked for in a girl. I'm a lucky man," he says all that while looking straight into your eyes.

You let out a low giggle, in contrast to the slow movements you make on his lap, "but then why are you here?"

"I'm celeb—" he pauses midsentence as you recline on his chest, rolling your body and hooking your hand around his neck.

"If your girlfriend is so great, why are you here?" You ask again.

Hyunjin swallows hard and his body responds to the urge of touching you, he places his hand on your stomach.

You immediately put his hand away and click your tongue at him, "Touching is not allowed!"

Hyunjin puts both of his hands away fast, resting them on his sides and letting you arouse his body even the visual alone already does the deed.

He struggles to retrace where he left the conversation and blurts out, "I'm celebrating something tonight."

"Yeah?"

He nods.

"What are you celebrating?" You ask, batting your eyelashes at him and jutting your ass up right in front of him, slowly shaking it.

Hyunjin has to work his brain twice as hard to come up with the simplest answer, "I sold one of my paintings just now."

He sees you pausing for a second before slumping down his body until you kneel on the floor.

You turn around to face him, your head between his legs and your hands resting on his thighs with your nails painted red, moving up then stopping so close to where he wants you to touch him the most.

It's like all the blood rushing there abruptly stops as well, he feels faint, drunk on your touch.

"Have you told her?" You ask with a sneaky smile.

He shakes his head.

"Will your girlfriend be jealous that I received the news first before her?"

He shakes his head again.

"She's the most understanding person I know, she provided for me the whole time I'm struggling as a painter so I'm sure she'll be okay with me celebrating it with a lap dance," He explains with a sly grin on his face, doing it so confidently.

You slap on his thighs and snap his senses awake once more.

"Well, you just sold a painting, you must have a lot more to share with me," you say.

Hyunjin feels stupid for not remembering it, he withdrew some money specifically for this but forget to tip you. He pulls out a few bills at once, folds them into a big wad, and slips it into the elastic band of your underwear on your left hip.

You get up from the floor, straddling him with your hands on his shoulders, and bring your mouth close to his ear, "For that, you deserve a special lap dance."

It's a newfound experience for him, one that unlocks a fantasy that he doesn't know he has until that very second you plop down his lap and start dancing in a piece of garment that leaves a little to the imagination.

It's a calculated look but the fact that he has seen you naked doesn't make him less attracted, if anything, it makes him so damn aroused he feels like shooting his load at any given time if he lets himself go. He so badly wants to take it off you piece by piece or fuck you in it, he can't decide yet. Fuck, he wants you so much.

And earning your love with money gives him a new kind of rush and a realization that he's indeed so lucky to have your unconditional love for free.

You move your hands down his chest as you slowly grind on him, teasing his confined cock despite knowing that it's growing hard under you.

Hyunjin's mouth has been open the whole time you stare down at him, in awe, falling under your spell.

Before he forgets about it again, he pulls a few bills out of his pocket, and this time he slips them inside your stocking.

"Are you sure your girlfriend will be okay with you spending so much money on a lap dance?" You ask him with a raised eyebrow.

He finishes his drink until the ice cube hits his lips and gasps, "Didn't you tell me to relax and enjoy?" He pokes fun at the remark you told him a second before you start the lap dance.

You tip your head to the side and smirk while he lays back on the vinyl seat, looking up at you as you give him the lap dance of his life.

Your hand creeps up his neck and holds him by the jaw, "that's right..." you say in an incredibly low voice but loud enough for him to hear.

"Just relax and enjoy!"

You start to touch yourself in front of him while your hips roll, grinding on him then lean in so close, leaving a few inches of space between your face and his, "I'll make sure you have the time of your life!"

And he's indeed having the best time of his life.

-

Hyunjin is the happiest whenever he sees you coming home.

Tonight is one that he has been waiting for, seeing you smiling so brightly at him knowing that he achieved something great with his art.

You drop your bag and dash towards him, he's more than ready to catch you, he lifts you while you wrap your legs around his dainty waist.

"I told you, I told you!" You keep saying to him with your hands around his neck.

You pull away just enough to look at his face and hold it with both hands, "I always believe in you," you say with a proud smile.

"Thank you for always believing in me," he sincerely says.

You run your thumb along his plush red lips before lowering yours on it, kissing him with so much love with your heart brimming with contentment.

He smiles as you break the kiss, your lips wet and red from the blood rushing to them.

"Let's go inside, I want to spoil you more," he says while looking up at you.

"You spoil me every day," you say, simply stating a fact.

He smiles with one corner of his mouth lifting higher than the other, "and you deserve more," he adds.

He puts you down and collects your bag from the floor, a hand on your back guides you inside.

Despite your body still dripping wet from showering, he lays you down on the bed and makes sure your head hits the pillow just right.

He tenderly kisses you all over your face, then drags his mouth close to your ear to whisper, "just lay back and enjoy."

It's only fair if you do your part too, but it's also wise to let him do whatever he wanted to do to you which is pleasing you with whatever he has in him.

His soft lips, his beautiful long fingers, his hands, and his skillful mouth always know how to make you squirm under him.

But when it comes to his cock, you suddenly get so impatient for it.

He has been teasing at your entrance with the tip, making you drenched as you already are.

"Want it that bad?" He asks but not pathetically, but in the most empathetic way because he's just as impatient as you.

"So bad!" You shamelessly answer, you know your bluntness is kind of arousing to him.

"What my angel wants, she should get it, mmh?" He says.

He then aligns his cock with your hole and slowly pushes it in, he whimpers with his eyes watching his length disappear into you.

He seems to enjoy it more than you, entering you and claiming you as his.

Maybe because he had seen what it's like to see you doing your job, he needs the assurance that you are his and he feels the need to earn you to obtain it.

"My love..." he coos with his lips only an inch away from yours.

"My love..." you coo back at him, looping your hands around his neck.

He tenderly kisses you as if you would break if he kisses you too hard and your heart quivered at how he treats you like a fragile object, "I love you," he says with his heart quivering with all the feelings he tries to keep inside.

You put your hands around his neck, then cup his jaws, "I am so glad that I am yours," you tell him because it seems like he needs to hear it with your hand putting his hair away from curtaining his face.

"And I love you," you unequivocally say to him with all of your heart that it aches.

His worry replaces with the guilt of ever doubting your feelings for him, but on top of that, he feels the happiest to know that you are his.

He's indeed so lucky to have your love for free. 

-

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#stray kids smut #skz smut #hyunjin smut #skz hyunjin smut #hyunjin x reader #skz x reader #stray kids imagines #skz imagines #stray kids scenarios #skz scenarios #skz fics #skz fanfics #kpop smut #kpop fics #kpop fanfics #seospicy smut

[mothgodofchaos]

Cinnamon Roll

We all know I already call him my silent cinnamon roll. Why not make him some? Is it cannibalism? Maybe.

Jameson Jackson x GN!Reader, TW: none Words: 630

Days were long, the holiday season meaning that Jameson was helping around with the little kids at the library more. He was an elf for Santa there that interpreted Santa to deaf and hard of hearing children. It was an exhausting job for him, but there was nothing more special than a little kid lighting up when one of the elves could start talking with him. Unfortunately he could only relay one side due to his mutism, but he still loved his job. Early mornings meant often it was a quick bite for breakfast, or grabbing a granola bar or two on the way out the door. You wanted to make him something that he could at least reheat and heat on the road if he needed to. You searched through your recipe box and found your cinnamon roll recipe, knowing it’ll make a large batch that he can start taking for breakfasts. Or enjoy with you on his days off over a cup of coffee, snuggled up on the couch together.

Process was a lot of waiting for the dough to rise, so you watched random holiday movies that came up on the television, or danced around the kitchen trying to be the next Mariah Carey. Soon they were in the oven, the house smelling wonderfully like warm cinnamon sugar and love. 

Icing was a quick whip up in the mixer, drowning out the music playing on the small gramophone nearby. JJ had gotten it for you a few holiday seasons ago, adding it to a lot of your other traditional decor in your house. He then made it a habit to check the record store near the library for new additions he thought you'd like. He didn’t have the verbal words to say how much he cared about you, but his actions were more valuable than a thousand things he could say. You hear him pull into the drive as you’re pulling them out of the oven, setting them on a cooling rack on the counter. His keys jingle as he makes it through, you think he’s doing it to some sort of Christmas song they had been playing at the library all day, most likely stuck in his head. He takes off his coat and hat, hanging them up on the rack as he enters the kitchen, a knock on the wall to announce his presence. “I heard you come in, JJ. Just was a little busy to greet you at the door.” He looks at you puzzled, trying to peer around you to see the thing you’re hiding behind your back. Unfortunately for him, his stature is more resembling a Christmas elf’s than he’s like, standing on his tiptoes to try and look around you. “What did you make? Smells good.” “I made something that you can hopefully take for breakfast instead of granola bars. They reheat nicely in the microwave.” You move out of the way to reveal the pan of cinnamon rolls on the counter, and his eyes light up in the same way they do when he talks about you, or one of the kids that made him happy at work. His facial expressions were always on the side of overexaggerated to some people, but he didn’t have much tone to go off of to express himself, and you frankly found them endearing.  He wraps you up in a warm teddy bear hug, snuggling his face into your neck, his moustache tickling against your skin. He pulls away and places a kiss on your cheek.

“You didn’t have to do that…”

“But I wanted to. And worse case scenario, we eat these with coffee and snuggles on your day off.”

He gets excited again, pulling you down for a kiss again.

“Sounds perfect~”

#jameson jackson #jj #jameson jackson x reader #jj x reader #jse jj #jse jameson jackson #septic egos #jse egos #gn!reader #silent cinnamonroll #chaoswrites

[sweetestpjm]

Shift in the Balance PT. 1

Yoonmin est + Yoonminkook ; Football start chunky jk, Soft Jm & lovesick Yoongs <3 First time posting a story here, let me know how I'm doing lool

It's 8 o'clock, and Yoongi had been watching that damn old clock on the wall all day. Eagerly waiting to go home, though, now was finally the time. Of course not on the dot-- he'd never be lucky enough to, perhaps no one would be beside the son of his boss who easily was favoured, couldn't blame him, though. 

He could suffer through cleaning the tables, hurting his sore back even more. Suffer as he threw out the uneaten food of the last guests, and gathering a bag of what he could take home-- a decently hearty amount, though less then usual as business had been better then ever that day. It isn't as bad as most, but he knows he's being dramatic about mopping the kitchen area when his younger coworkers are eying him. They're the dramatic ones..not him. It's odd to them, but he felt he had every reason. Why did he have to be working, when he could be at home with his boyfriend?

It was a shame, really, but he'd gotten used to the dynamic as much as he hated not seeing him for more then minute. He was needier then he'd ever admit aloud, it seemed. 

The sign was flipped over, from open to closed— Yoongi still wondered why they had that pesky sign. Locking the door and turning off the lights was enough. He guessed it was to maintain the rustic and old look of the place, the reason why it gained traction was partially because of that. Like a trip back on time, with good food and bathrooms that was the only relatively modern looking section of the place. 

Yoongi quite liked his job, it was decent hours and some perks. Discounts, bringing food home and such— which helped knock off money from groceries. He was a head chef, so his hours were a little longer but he made more and wasn't as worked to the core when he'd just been a regular kitchen staff. He directed them, but of course he did some other things too— especially on weekends and Fridays, their busiest time of the year. Sometimes, he'd get lucky enough that his boyfriend would pop in on one of those days and Yoongi would usually wait him— he could manage it quite wel since that had been his gateway up into his current job. Perhaps he'd been in every position, but he couldn't quite recall. 

What was important was turning on the ignition, and getting himself home before the food got cold. Food never tasted the same reheated, but he knew well enough that if he had to; doing it in the oven or a pot was better then microwaving it. 

There's already a few pings at his phone from him, and he can already picture the whiny tone that came with every message. Wanting him home. It warmed his heart, and he wished the traffic would seize to exist. 

Though, alas— no, thankfully, he arrived home around 9:30, which was a little more then usual but considering it was clean up after a large party of adults, it added up. 

With a huff of relief, he entered their apartment, placing the food on the counter, sliding his shoes onto the rack and putting on his slippers. 

Instantly— the moment he had his slippers on, he was greeted from behind with a hug. None other then his boyfriend, especially since the hug was so soft against his back. Jimin had always given the best of hugs. 

"Welcome home to me," Yoongi chuckled, placing his hands over Jimin's that went around his torso, "you smell nice. Freshened up before I came?"

Jimin hummed, the sound vibrating against Yoongi's back as he had his cheek firmly pressed up against it. "I was sweaty from work," he said, moving one hand to interlock with Yoongi's, "and I wanted to be clean for you,"

"Cute. Though, I am pretty stinky myself," he sighed, thumb rubbing along the backside of Jimin's hand, "how about you set the table, and I'll clean myself up?"

There's a whine of complaint, but Jimin complies and Yoongi gets along to his aforementioned shower. 

Once he's out, he's graced by Jimin bent over with an elbow on the table, whilst the other plucked at the different dishes with chopsticks. It was cute, how he sometimes just couldn't resist food like that. Leaving him there with it was like asking him to eat it.

Well..he sort of had been, he assumed he was probably pretty hungry as he usually didn't get much during the day at work. Since he'd only just gotten the job, his work was more intense and harder in his job. 

He worked as a aesthetician and was more organizing carts, cleaning the areas and beds for the main ones. It wasn't what he'd dreamt it out to be, that was for certain. He knew it'd take time and practice for him to actually work on a person for more then just their bill for the treatment. But still, he enjoyed taking home samples and sick of products he couldn't yet afford. Using on himself and Yoongi too, as pampering was a large part of both his and Yoongi's love language.

A huge part of it.

Yoongi slides his chair out, sitting down, watching Jimin's sweetly round cheeks flare up pink as he's caught. Which does happen quite a lot, once Yoongi thinks about it-- it's nearly like he's entranced every time he eats. Especially when it comes to the dishes Yoongi makes or brings home for him.

"Hyung, you took sooo long," it had only been five minutes, so the statement only made Yoongi laugh in entertainment, shaking his head as he put some of the food on his own plate. Jimin did the same, about the same amount as Yoongi had.

"I'm here now though, aren't I? Eat your food," he chuckles, jutting his foot at Jimin's leg, "I know you're hungry."

Jimin hums, glancing at his plate and beginning to eat. "Well-- yeah. Work is so hard," he groaned, half in frustration and half in enjoying the delicious meal, "I think my boss likes me, she made me help the nicer lady. Maybe I'll  be the one giving treatments, soon."

Yoongi grins, quite proud of him. He'd been there since he'd gotten the job not long ago, moping about feeling like he was useless at the job. Though, it had moved along to him rambling about his coworkers, all pretty kind aside from one of the higher up aestheticians; she was a blunt bitch, as Jimin had said, and was very skilled but extremely rude. Jimin had been assigned to her a few times, and it was sure to say that Yoongi was whined to to bring a pint of ice cream for him to mope about it with. "I'm sure you will be. I'll make sure to be your first booking, I'll book the longest treatment you have so you impress everyone," he said, unable to peel the grin off his face. What? He was a proud boyfriend.

It's enough that Jimin's covering his face with the hand that isn't feeding himself, giggling and shaking his head. "Aish-- you're so embarrassing," he grumbles, though he hardly means it. Yoongi knows just how much he'd want that, whether he'd actually admit it or not.

"Mm, but seriously I'm proud of you. I'm not surprised she likes you, you're sweet and good at what you do...even if for now it's washing hand towels and fixing spa beds, Minnie," he says, picking up his last tteokbokki and eating it, "proud."

"Corny, but, thank you." The words mean a lot to him, Yoongi can tell in the way he shyly distracts himself by finishing up his plate and silently picking at the rest of the food on the table as Yoongi rambles on. Something about a new younger employee who he doesn't hate (shocker, since he usually hates the young ones) along with a food reviewer coming in and rating the food well. This and that until Jimin's declared himself full and they're packing away the minimal leftovers (thanks to Jimin). 

Yoongi pauses, leaning against the counter to watch Jimin bend over to peer down at their freezer. Getting an eyeful of his full hips and sweet behind, and he's certain that he's pouting out his lower lip in thought as he glances at his options. "Do I need an ice cream sandwich or a melona is the question..." Jimin mumbles to himself, finding that Yoongi answers it by poking at the pudge poking out on his hips, "ice cream sandwich, it is."

He pulls out a large ice cream sandwich, it's an Oreo one though. Since he's civilized, he's put it in a bowl and grabbed a spoon to eat it without looking like an Oreo ice cream sandwich after.

With ease despite his fullness, he plops onto the couch with Yoongi following along, placing him on his lap. It was Jimin's spot, after all. Though, he wiggles a little to get comfortable (and tease Yoongi, but he didn't need to know that) and begins on the sweet cool treat. Yoongi leans back a little, Jimin following the movement and humming in content as Yoongi has his arms wrapped around him, holding him closer.

His hands sink in a little, acknowledging the plushness of his boyfriend. He quite likes it, it's made him a better cuddle and just feels-- soft. What's better then something warm and soft? Nothing. There quite literally is not anything better then that.

"Want a bite?" Jimin queries, turning his head back to look at him, a small sliver of the ice cream sandwich on his spoon. Yoongi declines, and quite quickly the spoonful has gone to Jimin. And another. And another. And yet another, until the bowl is empty and he's scrapping the sides for bits of the melting ice cream.

It's cute, the way they were able to just sit and bask in each others company. Even if it just ensued Jimin gorging on sweets or watching a show Yoongi liked but Jimin found to be boring. They just, simply, enjoyed one another so very much.

After a few minutes, the bowl and spoon are washed and they're in their bedroom preparing for bed-- it's early, but they know themselves. Chatting for hours in bed, and sleep ensues a few hours after deciding to get ready to rest for the night. It's silly, but it's how they are.

Yoongi's long been in his pyjamas, consisting of some sweats and a loose tee, while Jimin had chosen (strangely) some jeans and an oversized hoodie.

Jimin huffed, trying to undo the button. Failing multiple times before it gave in, and the zipper undid itself as his plush tummy took in the space, allowing Jimin more room to breath and sigh aloud in relief. "Why would you wear jeans..."

The younger shrugged, pink tinting his cheeks as he removed his pants, replacing them with new boxers and switching the hoodie out for an oversized tee. "Because."

"Because?" 

Another shrug, dimming the lights and crawling into the bed, tucking himself under the blankets with Yoongi, an arm draped over his chest as he pressed himself against his side. With ease, Yoongi was holding him right back, peppering kisses all over the side of his face, primarily on his cheeks though. Soft and full, how could he not pepper them in sweet kisses? "Weirdo."

He doesn't shrug, he only giggles and the topic is averted, moving onto what they should do tomorrow on their first off day together in two weeks.

Yoongi's sure he's up first, arm around Jimin's soft middle, lazily pressing his fingers against the plushness there. It's a little new, though as long as he's known Jimin he'd always been a little softer and cuddlier-- though, now he was certain this was he softest he'd ever been while knowing him. Or ever, really, considering he'd seen photos of him younger, in which he wasn't so lean but surely smaller then now. Far smaller then now.

But, he knows he isn't the only one awake when Jimin's giggles fill the air. "Hyung-- that tickles," he huffs, turning to face him, leaving Yoongi's arm to drape over his back, choosing to rub the small of his back instead.

"I thought you weren't awake," Yoongi grumbles, the only way he can talk in the morning. it was either that, or a whisper-- which would still have that grumble to it that sent butterflies straight to Jimin's belly. 

"So, what, you just tickle my tummy when I'm asleep?" Jimin chuckles, enjoying the way Yoongi's flustered at that, "hmm? Answer me, hyung."

The elder shakes his head, closing his eyes and mimicking a snore. "Hyung! You do, don't you?" he's whining, so Yoongi can't get out of it now, meekly nodding his head as he pressed against his chest.

"Yes, okay?"

Jimin hummed, threading his fingers through Yoongi's hair. "I'm not accusing you, I'm just curious. It's...dunno, nice to know you want to touch me even if I'm not asking for it," he says, mumbling the last few words.

Though there's something else to it-- something deeper, but Yoongi can't seem to find it on his own. "I do love your body, Minnie," he murmured, pressing his thumb against his love handles, "I think you're so pretty."

"Really?"

"Pft, really, love. Something about you lately is just so..." his brows furrow, wracking his mind for the word, "radiant? In just every way, really. Not that you weren't before, but, I don't know. Something just changed, in a good way."

Jimin keeps threading his fingers through his hair, taking a moment to think. "Well, hm..thank you. I-- well," he bites his lip, "I'm glad you still like my body."

"Mm, never think that I don't. 2 sizes up or down, I'll love you all the same."

"Even 3 sizes up?"

"You-- you know what I meant, yah," Yoongi groaned, rolling out of bed, flattening out his shirt, "we do have plans today, slipped my mind. We're going to Taehyung's school to watch the football game there."

All he hears is Jimin groaning, and the sound of the covers moving to cover Jimin entirely. A muffled, "not Football..." But Yoongi didn't listen, pulling the covers entirely off him with a chuckle, and walking on off to the washroom while leaving Jimin too stunned to utter a word.

Until he's pouting, blow drying his hair and side-eying Yoongi as though saying 'the things I do for you' like watching a university football game is the worst thing imaginable. 

"You won't die. I'll be there, Taehyung, Hoseok, Seokjin and Namjoon will be there, too," Yoongi assures, though Jimin's pout only intensifies, setting down his blow dryer and taking the plug out of the outlet.

"I will die. Hyung, sports are so boring."

It's clear to see, although he had been into track many years before-- that had slowly turned into something he hated due to others. But, despite it, he still hates it all. Even attending his cousins house league basketball games makes his stomach churn with distaste. All that makes it somewhat bearable is--

"What about this-- I get you the biggest popcorn there is and a soda, hm?" Jimin raised an eyebrow, surely the deal was sweetened with that-- but, he needed a little more convincing. "Fine, you can sit on my lap. Refills on it all as many times as you'd like, okay? But you can't complain after that."

With a sly grin on his lips, he nodded, "mm, I guess it's a deal, Yoongi-hyung."

Jimin keeps himself clung to Yoongi in the food-stand line, not understanding how a university has it's own food venders but perhaps it was just because his did not engage in many sports in those days. There was an on-campus gym, but that was about it. Though, he was also wondering why it took so long to wait, and why the line for a university football game was so long. He was hungry, having missed breakfast by sleeping and they'd nearly been late so they couldn't have gotten any food, much to Jimin's avail.

"Hungry?" Yoongi asks, seeing how Jimin's pouting just a little bit. Practically on cue, his stomach lets out a rumble, loud enough that Yoongi hears it from beside him. The arm around his waist snakes a little further, pressing against the softness of Jimin's newly formed tummy pooch of his lower belly. 

He nods, though he knows his body has already answered, rudely, for him. "I didn't even have breakfast," Jimin sulked, "and we're at a football gam-- I mean, my favourite place in the world." 

Laughing, Yoongi shakes his head-- quite fond of Jimin's good-hearted sarcasm. At least he tried to take on his end of the deal to some extent. 

"Hyung!" Taehyung shouts, though he's a few feet away, slowly making his way over through the crowd of people, sure to draw lots of attention to himself through his over-the-top attire and loud deep voice. Jimin ducks his head, and Yoongi's shaking his, wondering how he couldn't have expected that, even though it is Taehyung. Natural demander of attention.

"Hi Taehyung-ah," Yoongi says, hand mindlessly squeezing at the pudginess of Jimin's waist, causing him to squeak against him, "excuse him, he can't function without breakfast. Clearly."

"Clearly. Jiminie hyung needs food to be sane," Taehyung giggles, joining them in the line, staring ahead at the 3 people in front of them, "the food isn't bad here, actually. Popcorn's always fresh and the fries are perfect."

Jimin's head perks up, looking up at Yoongi, his puppy dog eyes out on display for him. 

"How am I supposed to deny him anything when he looks like that," Yoongi says, looking over at Taehyung who seems equally convinced merely by Jimin's eyes. 

"I will kill you if you don't get him everything he wants, Min Yoongi. I may like you, but a well fed Jiminie comes first," Taehyung says, giving Jimin's tummy a poke, almost gasping as it dips in far more then it ever had before. His eyes meet Jimin's, smiling at him and getting a smile right back (since, the eyes had already worked the magic on his meal).

Yoongi rolled his eyes, waiting and waiting whilst the younger two spoke. Taehyung complaining about classes but also thrilled about his designing project, where he gets to design two pieces that would suit both men and women, a gender neural fashion project (apparently nothing gets him going more then that). While Jimin tries to make the best of his current job, rambling on about all the products and discounts, even adding in that he uses it to give Yoongi facials (which somehow gets Yoongi blushing quite a lot).

Eventually, it's their turn, ordering the biggest basket of popcorn, large fries and a drink for each of them. Water for himself, soda for Jimin and Taehyung.

Finding their seats right as someone's talking into the microphone, greeting their friends and all eyes are on the field. 

Not Jimin's, too busy gorging but after some time he does find his eyes on the field out of pure boredom. Even with Yoongi's arms around him (which is usually enough to distract him from anything), he finds himself paying attention to the game.

Well, sort of, he's paying attention to a particular player. Player 01. He doesn't know if he's good or not, but he sure as hell knows that he's cute and definitely built.

They're all sturdy and strong looking, but 01 is just...a little different. Gorgeously thick, and toned, thighs, that are practically ready to burst out of his uniform every time he's bending down at the beginning of each quarter of the game. He's got a bit of a tummy, though he can tell he's toned, it's there enough that the small protruding pooch of it that presses against his uniform in a little bump. Again, his arms are thick and his biceps are remarkably strong. Jimin's nearly bitting his tongue every time the ball is in his hand, even cheering with Yoongi (and everyone else) when he scores. 

By the end of the game, he can surely call himself a fanboy. So distracted, that he'd just barely finished the food from the beginning, from nearly 2 hours before, in that two hours (with a little help, too).

Yoongi doesn't say anything, not wanting to think more then that he was right about football being enjoyable enough that Jimin hadn't only been focused on the food. Though, he isn't too sure about why until Jimin's desperately following Taehyung down to the locker rooms to meet Taehyung's boyfriend there (his name was Han) and Yoongi was curious and confused. He wasn't too sure what to pin Jimin's enjoyment to, just yet.

"Did you enjoy the game?" Han asked, wiping the sweat off his forehead, halfway out of the locker room door, enough that he was able to kiss the side of Taehyung's head, "it was a tough one, we got so lucky with Jungkook's scoring on the last second."

Yoongi nodded, "that guy was fast as hell, it was a close game. Good job, I enjoyed it. Jimin enjoyed it too, and he does not like foo--"

Jimin shakes his head, "it was amazing! I really enjoyed it, I'm happy to have been invited."

Silence crawled but Han filled it, "glad to hear it. Uh, did you guys wanna come in or could you wait a bit for us to finish up? We don't take long, I swear." The latter is chosen, more for the sake of Han not wanting Taehyung to see other very hot sweaty football guys, though. It's cute.

"You enjoyed a football game? Well, there's a first for everything," Taehyung laughed, swaying as he now back hugged Jimin, poking his fingers along his soft belly, "or maybe you liked one of the players?~"

Yoongi raises an eyebrow, leaning against the wall. "The team's definitely not ugly. They could be an idol group based off looks," he hummed, noting how Jimin's head tilted in interest, so he continued on, "not bad, not bad at all. Are they all over 23?"

"Oh yes-- aside from the short one, he's 21. Really good, though, good friend of Han's. Why? Are you two--" Taehyung gasps, arms tightening around Jimin which has Jimin wincing, "sorry-- I meant, are you two finally in search of a third?"

"What? N--"

"Maybe," Jimin says, pursing his lips and loosening Taehyung's arms around his taunt full gut, "I, just-- thought, maybe."

Taehyung giggles, "I think you hadn't communicated that to hyung yet, Minnie~"

Jimin huffs, "no, I guess not. Hyung, I've been thinking about it lately."

"Well, I have too but I didn't think we were just admitting it to Taehyung randomly," he says, shaking his head, "let's talk later? I think the-"

A stampede, a stampede of ab-bearing (aside from one) men are coming out in a Hurd out of the change room. Some say their goodbyes, something about classes being soon while a few others stay. And among those, it's Player 01, in all his sturdy chunky glory. Jimin can't think straight, Taehyung's arms now around Jimin while Yoongi kept his hand interlocked loosely with Jimin's chubby stubby one. 

"Okay. Names," Taehyung says, squinting as he glances at the four men that have joined them, "Sunghoon." He nods, making himself noted to everyone. "J-- no, yes, Jeongin?" Jeongin nods, laughing a little bit at the expression on Taehyung's face. "Fuck-- you're Jungkook?" Jungkook nods, and it's him-- Player 01, now he knows that it's Jungkook. The last of them is Jihoon, but Jimin's distracted by trying to subtly look at Jungkook while the others disperse into conversation. But-- not so much to his avail, he's caught. 

"Jimin, right?" Jimin doesn't know how he knows his name, but he nods dumbly in response. "Jungkook. Yoongi's friend?"

Jimin laughs, "boyfriend. He dragged me out here, but-- I'm friends with Taehyung."

"Well, figures-- he talks about you whenever he's here, actually. I feel like I'm meeting a celebrity," Jungkook jokes, having Jimin descend into giggles, so, he continues on, "but it's nice to meet you. Guessing you're not a football fan then, since they had to drag you? Hm?"

It takes a surprisingly large amount of energy out of him to not say that Jungkook could make him football fan, or even a fucking fanboy, for Christs sake. But he doesn't, sparing himself the inevitable embarrassment of that. Instead, nodding at his questions, "yeah, but it's not too bad... I'm easily bribed with food, so." He feels his life flash before his eyes-- forgetting how chubby he'd gotten, shy to advertise attention to his body. He knows he isn't very big, even with how heartily he eats he only gains enough for a small squishy tummy, a round bubble butt and thighs that were snug in all his jeans. Including the ones he had on now, painfully digging into his midsection, especially after all he'd eaten and drank.

But, to his surprise, Jungkook doesn't give him a weird stare or even assess his body. Simply, he just adds onto it, "pft, that's the same for me. I can't ever resist some good food, like, ever. Ever."

"It's so good," Jimin says, nearly whining, "what kind of stuff do you like, Jungkook-ah?"

Jungkook hums, fixing his hair out of his face with one hand while the other carried his medium sized duffel bag. "Good question. Anything, really. I have a really big sweet tooth though, so I really like ice cream, boba and that kind of stuff. But I love meat and spicy food. the fries they sell at the stand--"

"Taehyung told me, so I got them. Really yummy," Jimin says, unconsciously rubbing small circles into the bloat of his tummy.

The comment makes Jungkook smile. "Yeah, so good. But what do you like?"

"Oh.." Jimin bites the inside of his cheek, as though this is the most difficult question of his life (it could be, he loved food so much and so many different foods.). "Tteokbokki is my favourite. Uhm, well, Yoongi-hyung works at a restaurant so whatever he brings is the best. But I really like pastries. There's this little cafe near my apartment and they have the best sweets. They even have some frozen yoghurt, too, when I feel like a treat but also..somewhat healthy."

It's more then half an hour and Jungkook's phone buzzes loudly, a reminder that this next class was in half an hour. 

"I really enjoyed talking with you. Maybe sometime we can go to that cafe?" Jungkook asks, hope in his eyes, though he sees Yoongi looking at them, trying to assess the situation. Naturally, his face makes him look like he's angry though Jimin ( not Jungkook) knows damn well he's endeared more then anything. 

"Yes! I mean, yes, sure," he giggles, taking Jungkook's phone from him to add in his number to his contacts, "don't miss your class! It was nice meeting you."

Jungkook nods, smiling as he tucks his phone into his pants, pulling his pants up over his exposed tummy before giving a small bow and running off with a loud. "Cya!"

Yoongi slurping his drink at the cafe is enough for Jimin to note that something's up.

"What is it?" he asks, voice soft, interlocking his hand with Yoongi's-- not liking how it was nervously picking at his skin, "what's up, hyung?"

The elder looks at him, his other hand mindlessly stirring his black coffee. "I wanna talk about earlier. About looking for a third, Jimin," he said, caressing the backside of Jimin's pudgy hand, "I wanna know what you want, okay?"

"Ah, hyung. I just always though it'd be nice, ever since we talked about it before. Just another in the mix. To care for and all," he said, shrugging, "and for you to cuddle."

"Jungkook."

"Hm?"

"You were thinking about it because of Jungkook. He was the only reason you were watching the game so intently, huh?" Yoongi teased, tracing along Jimin's hand, "I'm just guessing. But, I think I'm right." Those red-glowing cheeks were always a dead giveaway on Jimin's end.

Jimin whined, swinging his legs around and shrugging. "Well..I, I don't know."

"He's pretty cute."

The brunette tilted his head, "...yes. You think so?"

"Yeah, I do. He's cute, super intense on the field but out of the changing room he seemed sweet. I mean, if you two ever shut up I might've been able to say more then hello, y'know," Yoongi laughed, shaking his head, "I don't wonder if he likes guys but..not everyone is fine with being with more then one person. And even so, usually more as an open relationship--"

"Which this isn't."

"Correct, this isn't. But, if you want to, we get to know him better together. I heard a mention of that cafe you love, mm?"

#bts feederism #bts chubby #chubby jimin #chubby bt5 #soft jimin #soft jungkook #chubby jungkook #chunky jungkook #squish jm #squishy jimin #yoonminkook #yoonmin #yoonkook #jikook #bt5 feederism #feedee jm #feeder yg

[avauntus]

This is probably stupid, but— I got a “meal kit” thing recently (I have a hard time remembering to…stop working, with work-from-home, or you know to EAT). I’m always curious how things like that translate to reality, so I thought I’d share in case someone else is curious in the same way!

Are the kit directions annoying? Are the guesses on how long it takes to make remotely accurate? Do you end up having to know how to debone a chicken or something?

Come with me on a journey… to make a 🥘.

The setup. I’m using my own sour cream (because I have it), pre-crushed garlic (I’m lazy), and adding four rogue Brussels sprouts I found in the crisper (because I can).

Cut sweet potatoes and place on baking sheet drizzled with oil, salt pepper. “Why don’t I cook with sweet potatoes more?” I think to myself as I place them on my cutting board. A minute later: *thwack, thwack, thwack* as I’m smashing a sweet potato half stuck on my knife against the board: “oh right.” We got the job done in the end though.

The recipe says to cut the green beans, parsley, and lemon while the potatoes do the first part of their roast. Do people really pick off each individual parsley leaf and chop them all? Apparently. I lack this skill; they are now in smaller pieces at least.

Green beans and rogue Brussels sprouts on the tray and into the oven— Godspeed little green and orange dudes. Time to cook some chicken.

First major stumbling block— the chicken is harder to get out of the packaging than I would have guessed, and I’m supposed to PAT IT DRY?! What is this chicken spa nonsense. 🤨Anyway, that happens, the pan gets reheated, chicken goes in. It doesn’t take me too long to clean up and bleach wipe the package mess I made.

Chicken looks good!

The recipe says to rest the chicken and clean out the pan, but WHY WOULD I DO THAT? There’s all those nice toasty chicken bits in there. So ignoring that step and adding chx flavor packet and water; at the last minute I remember I have some homemade stock in the fridge and throw in a splash of that too. (I figure, more would be cheating.)

The veggies ding as I’m pulling the pan off the heat to finish the sauce: almost done.

Eyeball sour cream, herbs, and lemon, then wander off to go find a bread knife (I made milk bread earlier, and will eat a slice with dinner.)

You can see from the clock it took me 47 minutes- a bit more than the 45 minutes (10 prep, 35 cooking) estimated, but not bad!

Here’s the final plate:

(Please ignore that spill, I swear it’s pan sauce.)

Verdict: pretty good!

Notes: If I made this again (without the kit, natch), I’d use chicken thighs or some kind of tastier protein. I know chicken breasts are popular, but even cooked to just done they are a bit dry. (It just occurred to me, this would probably be good with pan-fried tofu too, if I knew how to do that.) 

Should have let the sauce thicken a bit more-- I chickened (heh) out and pulled it off the heat too soon. Combining butter, sour cream, and lemon into a sauce though-- surprisingly effective!

Chopping parsley is still bullshit.

I’m liking this meal kit experiment so far, and now I have lunch for tomorrow, too!

#boring real life #i can cook! #somewhat

[strohller27]

Okay so I made up this oven casserole dish meal thing that is relatively inexpensive and nice for cold days (and I think it’s fucken delicious), so I’m writing it down on here so I don’t forget it (and maybe some other people can benefit from it too).

Chicken-Mushroom-Garlic Casserole

Approx. Prep time: Half an hour

Cook time (oven): 20 mins @ 350°F (~170°C)

Makes: 4 servings (reheats really nicely @ 2min 30sec in a 1100W microwave)

Effort factor: this is a mid-range-number-of-spoons kind of recipe…not for those low-on-spoons days because there are kind of a lot of steps

Ingredients:

~250-300g of your favourite meat (I use 1 or 2 flattened chicken breasts, depending on what I can afford, but this would probably work with pork or beef. Heck you could put cut-up sausages in it, too. It would probably taste ok)

Salt, lemon pepper, garlic powder (for meat rub)

1 large can sliced potatoes (one of the 540ml cans works)

1 can sliced mushrooms (if you don’t like mushrooms, leave this out, or substitute with beans or a veggie like corn, squash, or broccoli)

1 can cream-of-mushroom soup (if you don’t like mushrooms, you can use cream-of-chicken or cream-of-{whatever veggie})

1 box stovetop stuffing (or cheap equivalent)

However much rice your heart desires

I can’t always afford these, but this is delicious with those french fried onions sprinkled on top after heating it up

It would probably taste delicious with cheese sprinkled on the top, so if you’re not casein/lactose intolerant, go ham (I cannot have the cow protein, so I can’t tell you whether this would be good or not, sorry - and before you ask, yes, I know I’m using a cream soup in this recipe and that has milk in it. Listen, there’s only so much I am willing to suffer for LOL)

Step 1: start the rice cooking (using your preferred method) and preheat your oven to 350°F (~170°C)

Step 2: while the rice is cooking, boil some water for the stuffing (however much it says to boil in the directions; they can be different, depending on the brand) you can toss some boullion in the water if you have it; this helps the cheapy knockoff stuffing taste more rich)

Step 3: while you’re waiting for the water to boil, get out your preferred meat and rub it with the spices on both sides (if you’re going to be using pork, I’d recommend rinsing that off and then patting dry with a paper towel. Also, if you want it to be flat, you can beat it up with a wine bottle or something before applying the rub. That’s usually what I do)

Step 4: heat some oil in a pan and brown the meat on both sides (if you’re not flattening the meat, 5 minutes on each side would be best. The thinner the cut of meat, the less time it will need on either side)

Step 5: while the meat is browning, open the various cans of stuff and toss them in a 9” baking dish with high sides. I usually start with the cream-of-mushroom soup (I don’t add any water to the soup! Only do this if you want it to be more soupy). By that time, it’s usually time to pour the stuffing mix into the water you put on to boil and take that off the heat. Next, drain the potatoes (you can leave a little bit of potato water in the can) and then pour that in on top of the cream-of-mushroom soup. Then add your mushrooms or veggies and salt/pepper/garlic powder to taste. Then mix it all up (this is why it’s important that the baking dish has high sides - makes it easier to stir)

Step 6: once the meat is done browning, take it off the heat and place the meat on the surface of your soup mixture in the baking dish. Drizzle the meat drippings over the soup mixture, too, for added flavour.

Step 7: cover the baking dish with tin foil and put in the oven for 20 mins.

Step 8: after the 20 mins is up, don’t turn off the oven!! Using pot holders or oven mitts, take out the baking dish and place one of the meat pieces on a plate so you can cut into it and check to see what the middle looks like. For chicken & pork: you DO NOT want to see a pink middle. If you do, put the foil back on the baking dish and toss that sucker back in the oven for 5 more minutes. (If you’re cooking beef and you like it pink in the middle, then it’s done, I guess? Idk, you do you!)

Step(s) 9: once everything’s done, I usually cut up the meat, then prep some portions to eat for the next few days. When I make myself bowls, I usually prep 4. First, I divide up the rice and put it at the bottom, then I layer the stuffing on top of that, then I spoon as much soup mixture as will fit into the bowls on top of that (I like this mixture thick because this way it’s stickier and easier to pick up with a fork, but you can add a little extra water to either the stuffing or the soup mixture while you’re cooking it if you’d rather eat yours with a spoon - also if you’re using pork instead of chicken, just know that pork is likely to be drier and may require a little more extra water than chicken would - and honestly I don’t know how beef would fare in this recipe because me and cow protein don’t really get along, sorry), and then I top each bowl with 1/4 of the meat I cooked and cut up. Then I eat one of the bowls and put the rest away to eat later.

Step 10: Enjoy!

#recipe #helps me remember the steps if I write them down

[mokonahapuuuuuu]

Anemia is so bad, can't even function. Want to write, and half way there, but I don't know, I feel I can't complete it or it's subpar and it won't be good enough.

I would like to talk to a hotline on the phone or a friend of mine, but my phone service is out and won't be able to get it until the first of the month. That's why I'm writing this all down.

Been to the hospital for my anemia a few days ago. I don't think I need hospital now, but I don't know. My head and body just felt so out of it.

Reheating some food in the toaster oven, maybe that will make me feel better.

I feel so alone.

I'm gonna sound like a broken record and I always tell this to most people.

I HATE being the black sheep of my family. My relatives is one thing and it took a while to get used to it, but my own mother has also been a jerk.

Life has been complicated even before 2020. I hate it how I see everyone else is morally supported, but certain relatives, even my own mother don't believe in me.

[dinpascal]

No Good Deed — Din Djarin

No Good Deed — Chapter One

➥ There’s an unconscious Mandalorian outside your door, along with some tiny, green thing clutching at his cloak. There has to be some sort of manual that tells you what to do in this situation... Right? 

There were many things to hate about Nevarro. The miles and miles of just-barely crusted over magma, the Rebels that tended to brush through every now and again, acting all high and mighty and as if they were too good to set foot on such a planet. However, without a single doubt, the thing you hated the most was the damn Guild.

You had never been the type of person to judge another for their method of survival. You had done many... unsatisfactory things in your lifetime, just to see another day. A few of those still kept you awake at night, debating whether you were deserving of what you had, no matter how miniscule. The Guild, however, was an entirely different thing.

Perhaps it was the mere fact that at least seventy percent of the people you served were hunters from the Guild. And if not already in the Guild, aiming for opportunity to be. They were a cocksure group, always carrying themselves with an aura of arrogance and as if they were allowing you the privilege of surviving. As if your little, insignificant life was balanced between their fingers, because they were all so skilled in the art of bounty hunting.

A lot of mudscuffers, in your opinion.

You wiped your palms down your apron, which did little about the stickiness that was present from hours of drink-making. The hairs were no-doubt spilling from your braid, hardly remembering to breathe in-between each order and the chaos that surrounded you. Creatures of all kind called out to you in many  different languages, some you understood and others you required your “partner” to translate. The droid was good for nothing apart from that, perhaps apart from being perpetually in your way. It reached the point where you no longer felt guilty for bumping it out of your way. 

Today, evidently, was Greef Karga’s awaited return from some mission, leading to the assembly of many (impatiently) awaiting their next bounty. In other words, the bar was way past its capacity limit. Many patrons were shoulder-to-shoulder, filling the building with endless, buzzing chatter that made the ache that much more present at your brow.

“C’mon, I’ve been trying for months. Why don’t you let me take you out? Just one night?” You eyed your suitor as you collected empty glasses and bottles, eyeing him with a thoroughly practiced smile that gave him the impression you enjoyed his company. It was something you were forced to learn early in this occupation, if you were even remotely interested in tips. Customers, males especially, enjoyed feeling wanted. As if they had any semblance of a chance with the “pretty thing” that served them drinks behind the counter.

“Cardon, you know I don’t date bounty hunters.” You replied, taking a moment to take another order and busying yourself with making it. Luckily, very few (if any) frequenters drank anything complicated, often preferring spotchka and even simple shots of hooch.

The dark-skinned hunter smiled, moving to brush his hair back with a gloved hand. “And why not? Don’t think you could handle one?” If you had to decide, Cardon wasn’t the worst of the bunch you could choose from. He had ebony hair that touched the top his shoulders, the top half often twisted into a bun. He was tall enough, but quite lanky compared to many of the other hunters that frequented the cantina. 

You bit the inside of your cheek to stop from laughing. If you had to guess, the majority of the hunters you served only had one head. Instead of commenting further, you motioned towards his glass. “Want another, Cardon?” He waved a hand in silent agreement, seemingly coming to terms that he was, yet again, striking out with you. 

“I think I’m your relief for the night.” You turned, positively beaming at the sight of olive skin and black eyes. “Alejad... My savior.” He grinned wickedly and threw a rag over his shoulder, lightly tsking at the mess you’d made of the bar. 

“So very messy. Have I not taught you a thing?” 

With a roll of your eyes and slight scoff, you began fingering the knot of your apron. “We’ll see how lucky you end up tonight. Karga isn’t even supposed to be showing up until second sundown.” You brushed your hand over his shaved head as you passed behind him, an act of affection you’d picked up in the time you’d worked together. Alejad had been the one to train you, considering no one else apart from the two of you seemed to want to work in this hunk of junk somehow considered a “proper establishment”. 

Stepping out of the back entrance with your day’s tips firmly shoved in your pocket, the silence of the alley was almost dizzying compared to what you’d dealt with for the last seven hours. Despite the distant sounds of the hustle and bustle of the market, it was much more preferable. Almost anything was preferable to being cat-called and yelled at all day. 

With a sigh and a brush of the back of your hand across your forehead, you finally made your way home. It wasn’t a far walk, just a few twists and turns that made it a comfortable enough walk to and from work. Your home was nothing exciting, nothing more than what you absolutely needed — the absolute bare essentials. It had once served as some kind of building for the Imps that were once stationed on Nevarro and eventually separated into two, unconnected homes once the Imps were chased (or killed) out. A little family had moved into the home above yours, made up of a young Twi’lek couple and a little, rose-colored girl you doubted had seen more than five cycles. You often found her crouched outside your home, digging through the dirt to find new additions to her rock collection. On the rarest of days, when you’d either be leaving or just returning from the bar, she’d already be outside as the first sun was rising and would offer you a toothless smile that made your heart warm. 

However, given the first sun was only just beginning to set, there was no young girl parading about the property. Hopefully, she was busy eating a plentiful dinner with her parents and had a nice, warm bed to look forward to tonight. 

The door creaked as you stepped inside, double-checking that you’d locked it behind you before making your way (all three steps of it) to the kitchen. With a quick look in the conservator, it seemed for the fourth night in a row now, you were having broth for dinner. With a sigh, you discarded your dirty apron aside and flipped the oven on to reheat your soup. It seemed you were in dire need for a trip to the market. 

There were a dozen and a half things you needed to do around the house, including a deep clean of your floors, as well as stripping your bed and washing the linens that you’d ignored for much too long. Taking the trash out was sufficient enough for the night, right? Right.

The evening air was cool against your skin, the first emergence of the first sunfall of the night beginning to appear. In a matter of hours, the cool air would soon become too cold to bear without some kind of protection. It was an interesting contradiction. While the ground beneath your feet was warm, almost hot to the touch because of the molten lava beneath it, the air was often cool and bleak the moment the suns began to sleep for the night. 

A soft noise behind you drew you from your thoughts, nothing more than a gentle, sad coo. You immediately turned, worrying a young babe had dodged their parents and was now exploring with no supervision. While Nevarro was now exponentially safer now that the Imps were gone, it still was no place for a child to be roaming at first sunfall. 

The last thing, actually very last thing you had expected was the sight before you. A Mandalorian slumped against your home with a little, green creature clutching at the frayed ends of his cloak. It regarded you for no longer than a moment, big eyes quickly returning to the hunter and cooing softly once more, as if urging him to get up. It tugged at the cloak again, its free hand bumping against his shoulder as if the tiny jostle would wake him.

You stood there a moment, almost afraid to take another step towards the pair. Though you’d never met a Mandalorian yourself, their reputation was enough to make your legs shake a bit under your weight. None too long ago, one had caused the entire town to burst into gunfire and killed dozens of other hunters. Undoubtedly, he (was it a he?) knew more than a dozen ways to kill you. And the creature? While it looked harmless enough now, how could you know if it would begin spewing venom at you the moment you took two steps towards it? If you’d learned anything growing up, it was to not trust a species you didn’t know. And you’d learned that lesson the hard way. 

As if aware of your thoughts, its eyes turned towards you once more and made another sad sound. It pulled at something deep inside you, something dormant and untraveled. Whatever it was, it urged you to move your damn feet and make the poor thing stop giving you those big, sorrowful eyes. 

“Okay...” Hesitantly, as if standing eye-to-eye with a Nexu, you braved a step forward. When it didn’t abruptly move or hiss, you took another. “Hey... little guy,” you murmured, eyes flickering from gleaming silver to the little one’s, “What happened?” 

It whined pitifully, turning towards the Mandalorian with a three-fingered hand as if motioning towards him and saying, ‘help him, will ya?’. 

If it were any other situation, you may have found the little creature amusing. It didn’t seem to be able to speak, but its body language and big, bug eyes were expressive enough. 

Once you were close enough to touch the Mandalorian, you slowly kneeled and made sure it stayed in your peripheral. You doubted it would suddenly sprout wings at this point, but you could never be too sure. Maybe it enjoyed playing with its food. 

“I’m gonna... Take him inside, okay?” Much to your surprise, it nodded and backed away a couple paces to give you space. Okay, so the green thing was intelligent. Good to know. 

With a steadying breath, you maneuvered your way around the Mandalorian so you could (attempt to) lift him. You imagined his armor couldn’t be light by any means, meaning you were going to have to carry a man already twice your weight, along with that much more in armor. “Knew I should have bought those weights...”

Sliding your arms under his armpits and securing your hold through intertwining your hands over his chest, you figured this was the best chance you had. There was no way you were getting him up over your shoulder and you figured dragging him by his feet wasn’t the best method, in case of a possible head injury. 

The breath immediately whooshed out of your lungs as you straightened, using gravity to your advantage and using the force to drag him backwards, instead of back down like it wanted. The little rag-covered bean waddled after you, apparently not willing to allow the Mandalorian out of his sight. 

The helmet lulled forward as you mostly-dragged him into your home, most certainly and unquestionably out cold. 

In the middle of your kitchen, you paused. Where the hell were you going to put him? The kitchen certainly wasn’t spacious enough for him. It was hardly enough room for you to comfortably move about. 

That left your bedroom.

“Just a little farther, alright?” You huffed, suddenly very keenly aware of the heaviness in your shoulders and triceps. The creature stumbling after the Mandalorian’s feet cooed in response, seemingly more content now than before. 

It took you much longer than you would’ve liked, but eventually, you somehow managed to get the damn guy on your bed. His feet hung over the bed and no doubt was coating your sheets in dirt and blood and who knew what else. At least they already needed washed.

After taking a moment (minutes, really) to catch your breath and watching the bean climb its way up your bed and back to the Mandalorian’s side, you once more found yourself at a loss. What the hell do you do now? 

Checking him for injuries was probably the best next course of action. You didn’t want the guy to die right here, on your bed, right?  

With your hands on your hips and a sweat breaking out over your brow, you looked in the what you now mentally referred to as the bean’s direction. “These guys have something against taking off their helmet, right?” Your response was a sound you couldn’t quite differentiate between amusement and agreement. Nevertheless, you nodded. “That’s what I thought.” 

After another few minutes of heavy consideration, you decided starting from the bottom-up was probably your best bet. If you were lucky, he was just incredibly sleep-deprived and absolutely nothing else was wrong with him. 

The little bean at his shoulder watched as you methodically undressed the Mandalorian, beginning with the armor as his shoulders and then moving to his chest plate. You made a small stack of it just beside your bed, being careful to not add any dinks or scratches that weren’t already on them. 

With shaky fingers, you began lifting his shirt to inspect any possible torso wounds. You were met with caramel skin etched in paler, puffier skin in various places where he’d been wounded and scarred over. A trail of dark, nearly black hair drew your gaze below his belly button and disappearing into his trousers.

You swallowed. This was not the time.

“Stomach looks good.” You mumbled, mostly to yourself. You pushed the fabric up further until it was under his chin, fingers delicately brushing across an angry, red line just below his left clavicle. It didn’t look serious and most likely just a result from his armor pressing into his skin, but it gave you an excuse to feel his skin beneath your fingertips. His chest was faintly dotted with hair, nipples pebbling at the sudden exposure to the air. “Chest looks good too.”

That left on more thing to check, the one thing you were hoping you wouldn’t have to do. 

You sank back onto your haunches for a moment, teeth anxiously worrying at the inside of your cheek as you considered your options. You didn’t have to do anything — you’d already given him and his... pet? Child? Friend? Somewhere to rest and checked him for any serious, deadly injuries. On the other hand, however, what if he did have a head injury? Without aid, a head injury could easily and quickly result in death. And you certainly didn’t want a dead Mandalorian on your hands. 

“Second option it is.” You murmured, brushing your palms down your trousers and taking a soothing breath. “But,” you began, pointing a finger in the air as you looked towards the bean. “I am not being that person.” You disappeared out of the room for a moment, quickly returning with a clean rag and making a show so the bean could see it. “See?” 

The bean, seemingly content, made an inquisitive sound. With one hand, you curled your fingers under the helmet’s edge and searched for the locking mechanism. Once you felt the tiny button, you nudged it and released a breath as it unlocked. “Okay, okay... Just gotta do this quick...”

With one, shaky hand, you gently tugged the helmet free from his head, immediately snapping your eyes shut the second you no longer felt the weight of his head. Discarding the heavy thing aside, you took the rag and, as efficiently as possible with your eyes firmly shut, placed it over his face. Though it wouldn’t make breathing especially easier, it at least would preserve some of his modesty. 

Once finished, you took a deep breath and regarded your work. You turned towards the bean with a triumphant smile. “Not bad, yeah?”

The bean regarded the rag with something akin to distaste but you couldn’t be sure. It was difficult to distinguish every emotion with its tiny face. The majority of your basis was just on its eyes.

You maneuvered your way around the pile of metal on your floor, as well as your own things to the head of the bed, eyes settling on the head of brown, presumably thick hair that stuck out from under the rag.

When was the last time someone so much as had seen a strand of his hair? Had anyone ever? Yet there you were, looking at not only it, but nearly everything else aside from his face. 

You eyed the creature currently tracing a three-fingered claw up the Mandalorian’s arm. It seemed... Conflicted. As if the whole world rested on its little shoulders, now that the Mandalorian was no longer protecting it. Its tiny features were pinched in worry, shoulders slumped forward and ears drooping at the corners. 

You wanted to console the little thing, except you still weren’t completely sure it wouldn’t nip at you if you got too close. 

Turning your attention back to the man (because at the current moment, he seemed to pose less danger), you cautiously slid your fingers around the back of his head. There was nothing but thick, course hair, even as you rounded the back of his head. At the very least, there were no external injuries. 

Until you looked down. 

And found that his foot was twisted at an angle that it most definitely wasn’t supposed to. 

“Well, kriff.” You mumbled, mostly to yourself. You regarded the said appendage for awhile, unsure quite what to do now. It wasn’t that you didn’t know what to do, but moreso the fact that you weren’t sure you wanted to go snapping a bounty hunter’s leg back into place. It was usually something a person informed another of before doing. 

With a sigh, you turned your attention back to the little bean. Though you had little to no clue if it was capable of understanding you (though it had somewhat shown it could), it made you the teensiest amount less nervous to talk to it. “Maybe it’s better to do it while he’s out. What do you think?” The bean babbled something incoherently. You nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.”

✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ - ✷ 

Surprisingly, the Mandalorian hardly flinched when you snapped his ankle back into place. Most surprisingly, he hadn’t woken up either. Hours later and he was still completely dead to the world. Numerous times you had to check to make sure he was still breathing. 

After about hour five, the bean decided to venture from his side. It appeared at your feet just as you were elbow-deep in washing, first inquisitively watching you scrub at your clothes, as if you were doing something it had never quite seen.

“Hey, little... Guy,” you finished lamely, pausing to eye the green creature as its head tilted to the side and those big eyes blinked. It made a soft sound, as if expecting you to easily understand. When you didn’t immediately react, it’s features pinched and it threw its arms up as if it were exclaiming something as it spewed into further coos and babbles.

You stared blankly.

What would a small, green creature want? A new, preferably clean rag for clothes? For you to throw something so you could chase it? Something to sink its little teeth into?

You faulted for a moment in your thinking. “Are you hungry?” It nodded immediately, fingers touching its belly and watching you with a look that clearly said ‘that’s what I was saying!’. “Okay, well, what do you eat?” It blinked as you stood from your washing, little feet tapping against the tiled floor as it followed you. “All I really have is broth, so it’s either broth or nothing.” It didn’t make any sound of disagreement or disappointment, so you took it as enough agreement and poured the still-warm broth (which you’d forgotten about until the stove beeped indignantly at you, still preoccupied with snapping a literal bone back into place) into a bowl. When it took the bowl you offered it, it blinked at it for a moment. Then it blinked up at you. 

“What? It’s all I got, little guy so I—,” It cut you off as it set the bowl down, before lifting its arms up that very plainly was uppity arms that babies were known for doing. It left you to stand there for a moment, mouth falling open and eyebrows shooting upwards. “You’re a kid?”

It babbled impatiently, big eyes looking at its meal before back up at you again. “Okay, um...” Slowly, still not completely sure you trusted it, you picked it up and then its bowl of broth. “You need... Help?” It cooed in what you assumed was agreement.

That was how you found yourself sitting at your table, some kind of child creature sitting in your lap as you spoon-fed it broth and occasionally pausing to let it babble something or burp. 

It was quite the character, you were learning. 

And quite the conversationalist. If only you could understand a word it was saying. 

Then you felt the atmosphere change... Shift. Where calm once sat, something you could only describe as charged replaced it. The child seemed to notice as well. Its head turned toward your bedroom, softly squealing and clapping its hands together. The Mandalorian was awake. There was a moment of silence as the dread pooled in your belly and a chill ran down your spine. 

This was the moment you hadn’t really considered. Many people, especially a Mandalorian, wouldn’t like waking up in a strange place with their armor stripped and their damned helmet off. 

Dank farrick, you just had to go and get yourself involved.

The seconds stretched as complete silence filled your home. Not even the child made another sound, though it was evident its feelings were a stark contrast from your own. Of course, it hadn’t dragged a Mandalorian into its home and practically stripped him bare. 

There was a flash of silver at the doorway of your bedroom. 

No good deed goes unpunished indeed. 

#ok you do NOT understand how HARD it was not to refer to grogu as 'he' throughout this #i had to fix SO many mistakes #the mandalorian #din djarin #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin imagine #mandalorian #mandalorian imagine #mandalorian x you #mandalorian x reader #star wars #star wars imagine #grogu #pedro pascal #pedro pascal imagine #pedro pascal x reader #pedor pascal x you

[failedintsave]

Skwistok for the ask meme please 🦅🎸🐇

@little-murmaider a lot of these answers are going to be the same as yours, because we're both very smart and correct 🤝 I'm just going to elaborate on them differently and I'm a bit long winded so I'm also going to throw it all under a cut

[OTP ask meme]

Which one of them sexts like a straight white boy?

So I think this probably depends since I don't see either of them spending much effort on this and Toki probably devolves into knock knock jokes (knock knock, who ams dere, Toki, Toki who, *dick pic*, 6/10, 😡) but I have a smutfic rotting away in my drafts that kicks off with drunk Skwisgaar basically sending a 'u up?' text while Toki is out with Abigail:

Nothing screamed 'pay attention to me!' like a string of eggplant emoji followed by sending his location. Toki turned his phone screen side down and ignored the buzzing vibrations of incoming messages until Abigail excused herself to the restroom, finally deigning to reply once he was alone.

SS: When u coming hoommee

TW: Oh you want to hang out with me now? Sorry I having a real good time out with Abigail right now, sucks for you

SS: But I'm lonely

TW: Am you lonely or horny

SS: I can be 2 thing

Toki chuckled, that definitely meant horny.

I'll finish it one of these days. Probably.

Which one cried during a fucking Disney movie?

Ok prefacing this with the fact that we're not gonna talk about Bruno Encanto because I will cry. Toki prefers the princess movies and loves to sing along, he gets more wrapped up in the magic and the color and less into the emotional beats, not a big crier in these cases. Skwisgaar tends to get trembly lipped over the animal-centric films. Lion King hit hard, in no small part due to the score. Fox and the Hound...I feel like that's enough said. Bambi also left him in a bit of a weird headspace he couldn't quite identify but still needed to be held after.

Not Disney, but they also never made it all the way through Homeward Bound as Skwisgaar was inconsolable over Shadow in the mud pit and couldn't continue. He's an emotional guy!

Neither of them can handle Don Bluth.

Who put a goddamn fork in the microwave?

Toki thought he should stir the lunchables halfway through heating and forgot to take the fork out. Skwisgaar prefers food reheated in the oven to prevent mushiness and has ruined many a plastic storage container.

Who does the silly hands-over-the-eyes “Guess who” thing?

100% Toki. He doesn't even try to disguise his voice, it takes all his willpower not to break down into giggles. Sometimes Skwisgaar will play along and make silly guesses, other times he'll say something to tease Toki back.

Who had that embarrassing reality TV marathon?

If Wicked Tuna is on the TV they are both powerless to change the channel, and neither of them understands why, but Toki loses his mind over the core samples. Once they break free of their television hypnosis they almost always have to go for sushi. Nathan tried to convert them to Deadliest Catch but it didn't take.

Who puts their cold hands/feet on their partner?

Skwisgaar, but Toki really doesn't mind. He runs hot naturally so Skwisgaar tucking his feet under Toki's legs on the couch or slipping his icy hands under his shirt actually feels kinda nice after the initial shock. What more can you ask for in a relationship than symbiotic thermoregulation?

Who laughs more during sex?

Toki, he laughs any time there's a weird noise or a position isn't quite working because Someone has Unnaturally Gangly Limbs, plus he's fairly ticklish once he gets into a goofy mindset. It's also a 50/50 chance that if Skwisgaar starts talking dirty Toki is either Very Into It or cannot take it seriously at all.

WHO IS THE LITTLE SPOON?

Little Spoon Skwisgaar is just a fact. It makes him feel safe and cared for and wanted in a way that other types of physical contact just don't quite reach, and Toki is a hugger so he likes to wrap him up tight and feel him relax into the embrace. Bonus because from this position Toki has easy access to kiss the nape of Skwisgaar's neck, which is one of the spots that makes him completely melt.

#asks #skwisgaar skwigelf #toki wartooth #skwistok #thanks! 💜

[netheritenugget]

this is very very late but i've just been so swamped with work on top of having terrible memory that i kept forgetting to ask you about the soup recipe

if you're free and only then, i'd love to hear it

the weather's getting colder and soup sounds wonderful

soup sounds great actually

(great work on ranboo's ambience track btw knocked it out of the park with that one)

Aww, ty! I worked really hard on it and I'm glad you liked it!

My memory is also terrible so I also kept forgetting about the soup. But here it is!

It was a tossup between the jambalaya recipe, and the turkey gumbo (we don't live the south but we ended up with these recipes from... Something to do with my preschool when I was little? Idk). And I couldn't decide which one. So here's both anyway.

Jambalaya

"Preparation and cooking time about 1 1/2 hours, this will feed at least four people, and is even better reheated the next day, just add a little water when reheating.

2 Tablesp. Butter or Margarine

2 Tablesp Fresh Garlic, chopped 1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped

1/2 Yellow Onion, chopped

4 sticks of celery, chopped

1 Large can 28 oz. chopped, peeled Tomatos

112 oz can of Tomato Sauce

1 cup water to start

1 pound of either Hillshire Farms Hot Links or Hot Sausage links cut into bite size pieces

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts Cut into bite sized pieces

1 1/2 Cups cooked white rice

White Pepper, Black Pepper, Red Pepper and Salt

*1 pound Jumbo Shrimp or Prawns, cleaned and deveined (Optional see below)

Melt butter in LARGE pot or cast iron Dutch oven, add garlic, bell pepper, onion and celery. Cook for a few minutes, then add tomatos, tomato sauce, water, hot links, salt and peppers to taste. Stir, cover and let simmer. Lately I leave out the red pepper, and add only the white and black. Add chicken when mixture begins to boil, cook for 15 minutes then add rice. Stir and let cook a few minutes more, add more spices to taste if needed. It should be slightly salty, and SPICY!! Add water depending on how Soupy or Stew-like you want it. I like mine more soupy, since it thickens up a great deal as it cools

*Optional Shrimp or Prawns*

You may add Shrimp or Prawns or substitute it for one of the meats above BUT be warned. Seafood does not need to be cooked for very long before it becomes tough. The above meats are fine to let simmer for a while, but if you are adding shellfish, do so after cooking the ice in the jambalya for a while, and then only cook it a few minutes longer after adding the shrimp or pravns, I would say no more than 5 minutes."

The jambalaya recipe is a very tasty soup, and pretty easy to make. We have it all the time. The leftovers are indeed delicious. Also, try scooping it and eating it with corn chips like a chillie, it's pretty good, especially when it's too hot to eat spoonfuls of!

The only things I have to note for this recipe as far as making it is concerned, is that you should take into account the amount of spice in the sausage, it can make it hotter than expected, so taste test it frequently. You can substitute white rice for brown, and add things like diced broccoli slaw veggies (obviously without the mayo) if you want to make it healthier. And we usually do not make ours with shrimp, it is very easy to accidentally make it rubbery, and I find it isn't as good in leftovers.

Turkey Gumbo Soup

"Ingredients:

1. Broth from boiled turkey carcass with leftover meat pulled off and reserved for adding later or bouillon cubes with water/canned broth if more liquid is needed.

2. 1 lb. Italian sausage (mild) in bulk, browned well and drained of fat. Remove sausage filling from casings prior to cooking, sauté like ground beef.

3. 1 chopped onion

4. 1 chopped green bell pepper (or 2-3 celery stalks)

5. 3 cloves garlic

6. 2 bag of frozen cut up okra

7. ½ tsp pepper

8. ½ tsp. Salt (to taste)

9. bay leaf (optional)

10. 1 tbsp A-1 steak sauce

11. 2 or 3 14 oz cans of tomatoes (I used stewed tomatoes, but Italian style works as well.

12. Italian seasoning (1 tsp was recommended but a little goes a long way with me, especially if you use Italian style tomatoes)

Saute onions, garlic, celery in large pot. Add broth, cooked and drained sausage and rest of ingredients. Simmer for at least an hour. This works great in a crock pot as well."

The turkey gumbo is delicious but sadly it's best to make it if you have leftovers of a holiday turkey, and it's not even October yet. 🥲 So that's partly why I also included the jambalaya recipe. But hey, saving recipes for later is always a good idea!

If someone already threw away the turkey bones before you could stop them and tell them why you need them, that's alright, store bought turkey broth really is an ok substitute.

That's the soup! Enjoy!

#food #long post

[thewritewolf]

Mari Christmas And A Happy New Adrien

Summary:

Lost in the aftermath of Hawkmoth's defeat, Adrien loses complete track of time and before he knows it, the holiday season is upon him. Will a Christmas visit to his girlfriend's house be just what he needs to move on?

Hello and welcome to my piece for the @mlsecretsanta event! My giftee, @lesslinette, asked for among other things, Adrienette, family bonding, fluff and just a bit of hurt/comfort and I aimed to please!

I had to do a good amount of research into French and Chinese Christmas traditions (including interviewing my long-suffering French friend - thanks @emsylcatac!), so hopefully I didn't get anything *too* wrong.

Read on Ao3

Enjoy!

Marinette 💖: You still up?

Adrien: Yeah Still not sleeping great House was always too quiet Never thought it could get more quiet tho lol Whats up?

Marinette 💖: :( Just wondering what u were doing 4 xmas Since You know

Adrien: Since father went to jail and mom died again? Haven’t thought about it Guess ive still got time to figure it out

Marinette 💖: … ..Its the 23rd of Dec Like 2am Not a lot of time left

Adrien: oh Guess uh Stay at home?

Marinette 💖: Adrien Its been like two months Youve been going crazy in there Youll just be stuck in there all by yourself Why don’t you come over?

Adrien: I don’t know… I don’t want to bring anyone down Or ruin anyone’s christmas

Marinette 💖: Adrien ‘Kindest Boy in Paris’ Agreste

Adrien: Oh no she used my middle name

Marinette 💖: You are coming over tomorrow And letting me pamper you And letting my family - your REAL family - love you And that is the end of that ...Is that okay with you?

Adrien: Whatever you say ma’am

Marinette 💖: Good Be here no later than fifteen hundred Let me know if I need to pick you up

Adrien: Will do

Adrien laid back down, his face lit up only by the glow of his phone and the only noise in the room being Plagg’s snoring. Putting his phone to sleep, he turned over, closed his eyes, and honestly smiled for what felt like the first time in a long time.

---------------------

Adrien reached the door to his girlfriend’s house with a gift under one arm, an envelope in his pocket, and a weak smile on his face. The latter wasn’t because of a lack of feeling on his part - the exact opposite, actually.

It had been hard to go to sleep after their conversation that night, a swirl of mixed emotions keeping him from getting the rest that he craved. Last night wasn’t much better and he was left exhausted. He’d even been half tempted to call and say that he couldn’t make it, but somehow that only made him feel worse.

So here he was. He’d shambled his way to the car, driven himself there through blurry eyes and frequent yawns, and turned the doorknob. Maybe they’d understand if he just dropped off the present and headed home.

Well, maybe not home, but just where he lived.

The instant the door opened, a wave of hot air buffeted him. Not only did it warm his freezing face, it brought all sorts of wonderful smells on it. There were the expected scents - baked potatoes, salmon, chicken. But then was something else, something a little harder to place.

After puzzling over it for a moment, he shook his head and stepped into the house. No sooner had he closed the door behind him than he heard some voices calling out from deeper inside.

“Wait, was that the door? The family wasn’t supposed to be over until tomorrow, weren’t they?”

“Tom, that has to be Adrien!”

There was excitement in Sabine’s voice that warmed his heart, but not quite as much as when he’d taken a couple steps into the house and was blindsided by Marinette bursting out of the living room to wrap him in a hug.

“Worried I might not show?” Adrien whispered after they parted from their kiss.

“Not even for a moment, chaton.” She smiled up at him before her eyes wandered down to his arms, a suspicious look on her face when she saw the one present. “Looks like you showed some restraint this year.”

“Of course!” At her continued doubting look, he added. “Come on, I’m perfectly capable of giving reasonable gifts.”

“Last year you tried to give me my favorite restaurant.”

“But I didn’t!”

“Only because I hid your checkbook and credit cards!”

Adrien snorted. “Details.”

Rolling her eyes, Marinette tugged on his coat sleeve. “Follow me, you ridiculous man. You can put your gifts under the tree, we’ll open them tomorrow.”

She led him into the living room, where their Christmas tree had been set up in all its glory. There were red paper chains wrapped all around it and a huge variety of homemade ornaments - including a few that he’d made in years past. Ever since he and Marinette had started dating, he’d been welcomed into their household with open arms. And even before that, they’d been nothing but kind to him.

His eyes poured over the tree, looking for one specific ornament. It didn’t take him long to find it - with its poor quality, it stood out among the beautiful glass orbs and painted baubles. His fingers brushed over the patches of glitter, a nostalgic smile spreading across his face as he took in the patterns of melted wax inside it. His first ornament. They’d barely been dating a few months when he’d made that one.

Had it really been four years already?

Arms wrapped around him from the side and he looked down at Marinette’s chin resting on his shoulder, peering up at him with big blue eyes.

“What’re you thinking about, hot stuff?”

“Old memories, that’s all.”

“Hmm…” She leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. “You just about ready to make some new ones?”

“With you? Always.”

“You two want to come in and help us finish cooking dinner?” They both jumped when Sabine’s voice reached them.

Blushing, Marinette reluctantly let Adrien go and headed toward the kitchen. “Coming, maman!”

------------------

A few hours later and the four of them were seated around the dining room table. Some things had been moved around from what Adrien remembered from the usual arrangement, and a long table had been set up. Most of the spaces were empty - with the four of them, only about a third of the table was occupied. But while the chairs were mostly left bare, the table was not.

Even though he had helped make some of it, Adrien was still amazed at how good the food all looked when laid out on the table like this.

Most of it was pretty traditional, at least from what he knew. A lot of the time his experience with Christmas dinners were meals allowed to grow cold until he gave up on his father showing. But the roasted chicken was still steaming when they cut into it, the smoked salmon and toast still holding the heat of the oven on them. Add in the gratin dauphinois and this was just about the ideal Christmas dinner he could imagine.

Naturally, it got even better with Sabine’s contribution - spring rolls.

As Adrien shoveled them onto his plate, he asked Sabine, “Is this the only Chinese dish for today, maman?”

“Just you wait, dear.” She smiled over her plate. “Today was Tom’s turn to make dinner. Tomorrow will be mine and you’ll definitely have your fill then.”

“I can’t wait!” Adrien took some of the chestnut sauce to pour over his chicken. Which reminded him… He glanced nervously toward the oven. “I don’t suppose you made foie gras, did you?”

Marinette made a face and shivered.

Tom quickly shook his head. “Oh no, son. Back when Marinette was… what? Eight, nine? She found out how it was made and made us promise to never have it again.”

“Eleven years later and we haven’t broken that promise yet,” Sabine finished. “There are plenty of other foods in the world.”

“That’s good.” Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. “It always made me uncomfortable when my father ordered it.”

“Ordered, dear?” Sabine gave him a confused look.

“Oh, we never really cooked our own dinners.”

Tom’s jaw dropped. “Not even Christmas dinner?”

“Nope. Sometimes he’d have to order the dinner prepared the day before and then we’d reheat it the day of, since no one wanted to come into work on Christmas day, you know?”

“I see…” Tom shared a look with Sabine, but the meaning was lost on Adrien. “Well, you make sure you have your fill, son! We’ll be making more for tomorrow, so this is all for us.”

“Thanks,” Adrien said with a grateful smile.

The conversation meandered and for the most part Adrien was just content to listen in, drinking in the company after spending so much of his time recently just by himself. Well, mostly by himself. Marinette would visit whenever she could get the time between college classes and internships. Nino and Alya were more elusive, if only because they were outside the city so often these days.

But there was one person who was his constant companion, Adrien thought with a smile as he peeked into the breast pocket of his T-shirt…

...Only to see that it was empty. Maybe he’d gone to visit Tikki and the kwamis of the miracle box? Adrien was drawn out of his thoughts when Sabine directed a question at him.

“Are you ready for the pre-dessert snacks, dear?”

“Oh! Sure, yeah. What do you have?”

“You’ll love it!” Tom excitedly got up and hustled over to the kitchen, Sabine right behind him. He raised his voice to be heard as he went to the room next door. “We know how much you love camembert so…”

Adrien’s eyes widened. They didn’t…

Tom returned with a platter of cheeses in his hands and a frown on his lips.

“Something wrong, papa?” Marinette’s eyes glanced between Tom and the cheese platter.

“No, no… its just… I could have sworn I bought more cheese than this. And I was so sure that I had purchased camembert.” He rubbed his chin. “Ah well, there is more than enough for the three of us anyway.”

While Sabine set down a large bowl of salad in the middle of the table, Adrien glanced at Marinette. At his side, Marinette was biting her lips and pointedly staring into the middle distance, trying her hardest not to laugh. For his part, Adrien was frustrated that he couldn’t go anywhere without Plagg making a noticeable dent in the food supply.

His annoyance with Plagg was so great he almost didn’t enjoy the Yule Log that Tom had made for dessert. Almost, but not quite.

Once they were done with dinner, they cleared the table.

“So, how’d you like the meal?” Marinette asked as she dried off the dishes while Adrien washed them.

“Definitely better hot. And homemade.”

Marinette chuckled. “I’m glad the bar was so high for us. Really makes us feel like we accomplished something here.”

“How about…” Adrien bit down on his lips and narrowed his eyes in thought. “It was the most delicious meal I’ve had in months.”

“Ooo, now we’re getting somewhere.”

“Years even.”

“Good, good, go on.”

“I had never known food could taste so delicious until you graced me with your heavenly meals.”

Marinette’s eyes gleamed with restrained laughter, the hint of a barely contained smile ruining her deadpan. “Glad I could finally weasel how you really feel out of you.”

“Yeah you’re pretty good at that, aren’t you?” Hands still in the sink’s soapy water, he leaned over and planted a kiss on her forehead.

“No fooling around now, we still have to help put up the last decorations before we relax for the night.”

“What sort of decorations?”

“Paper lanterns and paper chains. That sort of thing.” At Adrien’s politely confused look, she added, “It’ll help make mom’s side of the family feel welcome. Plus they look pretty cool.”

“Well what are we waiting for then? Let’s kick this into overdrive!”

Adrien suddenly worked in a flurry, Marinette scream laughing as she got splashed with some of the water thrown up by his breakneck pace. Marinette could barely keep up between her giggling, but she somehow managed.

With the last fork, plate, and glass sparkling clean and put away, Marinette shook her head and dabbed at her slightly damp shirt with a fresh towel.

“You’re a dork, you know that?”

“So my girlfriend tells me.”

Adrien relished the sometimes quiet, sometimes loud evening he spent with the Dupain-Chengs. When he went upstairs and cuddled Marinette in the cozy darkness, Adrien felt only excitement for the next day

----------------

Morning came swiftly, but Adrien rose to meet the dawn’s first light with a smile on his lips and a spring in his step. Marinette was… a little less eager, but he managed to coax her out of the bed, eventually.

When they finally got down the stairs and made it to the kitchen, Sabine’s eyes widened and she even froze in the middle of folding one of her dumplings.

“Marinette? I’m surprised to see you up so early.”

Bleary eyed, her daughter simply jabbed a finger toward Adrien and grunted. Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled.

“I knew you’d be a good influence on her, sweetie.”  Sabine patted his cheek with a warm smile. “Now, once you’ve had some breakfast I’d really appreciate some help out here. From you especially, Marinette, since you know exactly how to do it the way I like it.”

“Can’t Tom help?” Adrien made some toast for him and Marinette, doing his best to stay out of Sabine’s way. “Not that I’m not willing to lend a hand, but he’s got to be pretty good at it after all this time, right?”

Sabine laughed and even Marinette cracked a smile. “You’d think so, but no. The man can make almost any dessert known to French mankind, but I’ve yet to see him finish one spring roll or dumpling in all our years of marriage. Just about the only thing I’m trusting him with today is the roasted pork.”

“Not even the cheese plate?” Adrien asked, tongue in cheek. To his surprise, Sabine shook her head gravely.

“We don’t make one for Christmas day. After all, everyone that is going to be here is from my side of the family and we’re all lactose intolerant.”

“Oh.” Adrien glanced at Marinette, who shrugged.

“I got lucky and got papa’s tolerance for it, I guess.”

“Huh… well, can I help?”

A few hours passed, most of which Adrien spent doing vital but unskilled cooking like stirring and kneading. Although they did let him try to fold a few dumplings. It ended up nowhere near as well done as Marinette’s, but she still gave him a kiss on the cheek for the good effort. From what he gathered, Tom had never even managed to get it to stay together.

They had just put the last batch in the oven when they heard a knock at the door, Sabine quickly taking off her apron as she rushed to answer it.

Adrien’s ears perked up when he heard a conversation in Chinese start up, but between him being a little rusty and them speaking so fast, he couldn’t pick out much.

A few moments later, Sabine walked back into the room with an older Chinese couple. Marinette pulled him towards them. Sabine put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder and introduced them.

“Adrien, these are my parents. My mother, Ling,” she said, gesturing towards the grey-haired woman currently hugging Marinette. “And my father, Zheng.”

The older man’s grey eyes sparkled with excitement as he held out a red envelope for Adrien, who just now noticed that Marinette had also been given one. He froze, eyes widening. Was he supposed to have gotten them something too? He hadn’t realized that anyone would be getting him anything, except maybe Marinette. There was a moment where he was about to decline but he took a shot in the dark and accepted.

The moment his hand touched the envelope, Zheng spoke in Mandarin, “Best wishes for the New Year!”

“Thank you very much!” Adrien replied automatically in the same language. While the finer points might escape him, Adrien was fluent in niceties.

Zheng’s eyes widened before he nodded sagely to himself. “Ahh, I see you’ve picked up some Mandarin from my daughter, yes?”

“Oh, no, sir. I’ve been studying since I was fourteen.”

Once again, Zheng’s eyes widened before he chuckled and looked knowingly at Marinette. “This one is definitely a keeper! I approve.”

Marinette’s cheeks were almost as red as the envelope, but she still smiled.

The bright, enticing red of the envelope made him want nothing more than to open it right then and there. But Adrien took a nod from Marinette, who had very pointedly left it sealed even as she refused to set it down. He chose to follow her lead as they all made their way to the living room.

While the Dupain-Cheng parents and the Cheng parents were getting settled there, Marinette volunteered them to go make some tea. Once they were in the kitchen and out of earshot of the new arrivals, Adrien held up his envelope with a raised eyebrow and curious look.

“You can go ahead and look at it now, it’s just not polite to do it right when you get it.” She carefully unsealed the envelope. “It's this Chinese tradition - good luck money for the new year, you know?”

Adrien followed her lead and found one ten, one twenty, and one fifty euro note inside. Glancing over, it seemed Marinette got the same. He was half tempted to just give her his euros since he didn’t have any need for it, but decided that might be tacky. If she would even take them at all. After stashing the envelopes away in a kitchen drawer, they came back with tea for everyone.

Over the next few hours, more and more family members funneled into the house. Adrien, used to seeing maybe four people during the holiday season, thought the room would be close to bursting after the first aunt arrived with husband and two kids in tow. But then came the uncle and his family, then the second aunt with her boyfriend and by the end of it fifteen people were packed into the living room. For some reason apples in boxes became involved? Adrien thought that was a pun but that was more his pun sense than his linguistic skill.

Before anyone could get too settled in, they finally got to opening presents. Despite his fears from the red envelope, no one else seemed to have gotten Adrien anything.

At least, none of the extended family had. The Dupain-Cheng family, however…

“Here you go, dear.” While the rest of the room was chattering among themselves, Sabine placed a package about as big as a shoebox on Adrien’s lap. Before he could react to it, Marinette had shoved a bag stuffed with packing paper.

“Let me go get your-”

Adrien felt a tug on his arm and looked down at Marinette seated beside him. “Open your gifts first and then we’ll open the ones you got us.”

“Okay, okay.” Adrien looked at the box on his lap and tore it open. He tilted his head in confusion as he lifted the fabric that he found there out of the box. His eyes widened when he realized it was an apron with ‘Kiss the Chef’ on it.

“Its for when you come over to cook with us!” Tom beamed down at him proudly. “Now you don’t need to borrow our aprons any more - you’ll have one of your very own!”

Adrien felt his eyes get misty and he bit his lips to keep himself from crying. After a few moments of pulling himself together, he managed to say, “Thank you, guys. I’m really looking forward to wearing it!”

“Speaking of…” Marinette prodded the bag she left with him.

“Right, right.”

Adrien removed the paper and pulled out what turned out to be a sweater, cream colored and decorated with mistletoes and black cats in red scarves. It felt amazingly soft as he slipped it on over his head, embraced in a warm hug that - he lifted the fabric to his nose and took a deep breath - yes, smelled exactly like Marinette. For now at least.

“Do you like it?” Instead of replying, Adrien wrapped his arms around Marinette and pulled her close to him, nuzzling his nose against her neck. Giggling, she smacked his arms lightly. “I’ll take that as a yes, now let go!”

After he pulled his arms back, he stood up and stepped between the Cheng family members and made it to the tree before heading back to the little corner of the living room that they had claimed. He passed the envelope to Tom and the box to Marinette.

“A… gift card for an appliance store?” Tom said, his brow furrowing.

“I wanted to get you an actual new stove because you’re always upset at it,” Adrien explained in a rush, feeling embarrassed that his gift felt so… impersonal compared to theirs. “But when I went to the store I had no idea what actually made a good stove and searching it up on the internet only made it more confusing and… yeah,” he finished lamely.”

He glanced up at them and felt better to see them smiling back.

“That’s very thoughtful of you, Adrien! Thank you, we’ll make good use of this.”

Beside him, Marinette began opening her gift, which Adrien was much more excited for. Not because he had spent any less for it, but because that at least he knew exactly what to get.

He knew he’d done good when she gasped as she pulled out the expensive fabric she’d once stared at longingly from the otherside of a store’s window in Paris. Which, of course, meant that he was also expecting the smack on his arm from her as well.

“Adrien! This is expensive! You definitely shouldn’t have bought this.”

“Actually, you’ll remember that I get to spoil you exactly three times a year - birthdays, Valentine’s, and Christmas.” He gave her the most innocent look he could manage. “So you like it then?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You know I absolutely love it, you cat.”

“Then that’s great!” He continued with the overly chipper and oblivious tone, knowing how much it bugged her. He rubbed his hands together. “So… when’s dinner?”

-----------

After a Christmas dinner packed with Chinese dishes, they slowly returned to the living room.

Adrien sat in a corner of the room, taking in the warm and inviting atmosphere, the excitement and energy of so many people gathered together in such a small space.

Holding Marinette close, Adrien felt like he was part of a real family for the first time in a long time.

#Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Adrienette #Love Square #Tom Dupain #Sabine Cheng #ml secret santa exchange #my writing #Mari Christmas and a Happy New Adrien

[thatesqcrush]

Voire Dire, Pt. 3

Rafael Barba x Reader. Episode references: 22x4 “Sightless in a Savage Land.” CW: NSFW - smut (oral, male & female; p in v sex). 

AN: Here it is, the final chapter. I hope to revisit them in the future. 

AN2: For Valentine’s Bingo, using “Love Me Like You Do” by Ellie Goulding & Blue Jeans by Lana del Rey (lyrics denoted in bold).

WC: 4,654

***

When you and Rafael finally made good on that raincheck, two weeks had flown by. You exchanged various text messages - some purely innocent, others downright filthy, and others, more pragmatic - such as the age discrepancy (it was reassuring to Rafael that you really did not have a problem with it), sexual history and what forms of protection you each used. While you loved your job, it did have a high percentage rate of cock-blocking you. Relationships were hard - most partners did not adjust well to your schedule - and the ones that did, did not understand the horrors that you saw and prosecuted. Of course, that was never an issue with Rafael, having been in the seat you were in years prior. 

You managed to secure a rare day off and you jumped on the chance for another date with Rafael. The weather that day called for some on and off snow showers, but nothing out of the ordinary. When your buzzer rang, you gave yourself a once over in the mirror in the bedroom. You wore a speckled oatmeal sweater dress which hit your knees and brown knee boots. You made sure your makeup was perfect and then hit the button to allow Rafael in. 

The date seemed simple enough: drinks at Huckleberry Bar, known for their craft cocktails and small plates, followed by dinner at Lighthouse, a restaurant offering New American fare as well as a raw bar. 

“Rafael, you grew back the beard!” You exclaimed as you let him in. 

Rafael let out a chuckle. “Hello Y/N. Long time no see.” He was carrying a bouquet of hot pink double tulips. “For you.”

You smiled and took the flowers, before pressing a kiss to his lips - instantly your mind went to a filthy place as you wondered how that beard would feel in other places. “Thank you.” You murmured. “I’ll go put these in water. Make yourself comfortable.”

You disappeared into the kitchen as Rafael made his way through your apartment. You lived on the second floor of a walk-up in a surprisingly quiet neighborhood lined with trees. The apartment featured wood flooring throughout and a charcoal leather couch which sat across a mounted television. A single window occupied the living room. In wall shelving hosted a variety of books and nick-nacks, which showed off your personality. A framed pennant hung by the television, which showcased your law school. If Rafael had journeyed to your bedroom, he would have found that it overlooked an open courtyard.

“Your place is lovely.” Rafael called out. He heard the sound of a faucet being turned on. He hesitated on taking off his coat - made no sense since you would both be out soon enough. 

You came back out, now carrying a vase and you set the flowers on your coffee table. “Thank you again; they’re lovely. What time is the reservation again?”

Rafael checked the time. “Twenty minutes. Why do you ask?”

You approached him and tugged on the collar of his peacoat, drawing him down. “So I can do this.” You pressed your lips against his, kissing him. Rafael wrapped one arm around you, his other hand moving behind your head. He gently tilted your head so that he could deepen the kiss. He pressed his tongue against the seam of your lips and you parted your lips, allowing his tongue to slide in.You wrapped your arms around his neck, pressing up against him. You allowed yourself to get swept away in the heat of the moment, wanting nothing to drag him back to your bedroom. Rafael broke the kiss, leaving you gasping, which then turned into a moan as he sucked a mark into a very sensitive spot along the slope of your neck. 

Reluctantly, Rafael removed his mouth from your neck and peppered kisses back up your neck, across your cheeks, and then to your lips. “We should get going.” He husked in your ear. 

You let out a pathetic whimper, but agreed. As you both exited your building, the cold open air served as a welcome relief. You both walked towards the bar, which was just around the corner. Conversation flowed easily with Rafael. Over a mix of cocktails and a shared plate of antipasto, you discussed the latest happenings - you were second chair on a case with Carisi and Rafael was assisting with post-exoneree legal support with The Innocence Project. 

Rafael insisted on paying the tab, much to your protest. “I remember what that early A.D.A salary was like.” 

After, you and him walked the five blocks over to the restaurant. During the walk over, snow began to fall. You mentioned to him how you always loved the first snow - how serene it made the city appear. You both agreed that was short-lived and then the great melt takes over - the streets turn into gross black slushie, resulting in playing a mental game if the puddle was shallow or a deep drop. 

Dinner was fantastic - you settled for Thai and Rafael had sushi. You were sitting by a window and waiting for a refill on your wine when you noticed how hard the snow was coming down. You must have had a worried look on your face because Rafael called out to you, stirring your attention back to him.

“I’m sorry - just the snow is really coming down.” You replied, looking out the window some more. 

“I agree. Let me check what the weather says.” Rafael replied as he reached for his phone. This time he frowned. “It’s going to get a lot worse. I have an idea - if you’re okay with it, of course. How about we take everything to go, and have dinner at your place. We can watch a movie?”

You nodded eagerly. “Perfect.”

**

The walk back to your place was equally unpleasant, as the wind whipped around, creating a near white-out. Suddenly the short trek seemed as if it was never ending. By the time you both made it back to your apartment, you were both frozen to the bone.

You unlocked the door to your apartment and held the door for Rafael. The lights flickered on and you made a beeline to your thermostat, to turn up the heat. It was times like this that you wished you had a fireplace. The door shut with a click as Rafael made his way in further. 

You returned to take his coat. You couldn’t help but find a frozen, red faced Rafael look adorable, especially with some snow lingering on his hair and beard, which garnered a small giggle.

“What?” Rafael asked as a shiver went through him.

You reached up and wiped some snow that hadn’t yet melted off his beard. As you did so, Rafael turned into your palm and kissed your hand. You were still cold, but that small, simple kiss sent a jolt of heat through you. 

As Rafael turned to face you, your eyes met his - they were sparkling with desire. You felt your cheeks burn  in response; never in your prior relationships (if that), did you ever feel so wanted. You swallowed hard, your mouth suddenly dry as if you had a mouthful of crackers. Of course that then lent to the thought that you wanted a mouthful of something else. Your pulse began to pound and you wondered if Rafael could hear it. “I’ll set the food to reheat.” you manage to croak out. “Kitchen is this way.” You pointed towards the kitchen.

You and Rafael puttered around the kitchen and you pulled a bottle of wine from the fridge. “You will note - it is white wine.” You laughed. “After that last disaster, I couldn’t take the risk.” 

You grabbed some wine glasses and set them on the table and finished putting the food in the oven to warm up.

“I wouldn’t call that date entirely a disaster. It was turning up until we were so rudely interrupted by SVU.” Rafael winked.

“Such a shame. Who knows what would have happened.” You replied, approaching him. Between the kiss to your palm and the cranked up heat, you almost felt suffocated in your thick sweater dress. “Maybe later, we can pick up from there?” Your voice was hopeful.

Rafael gave you a lascivious grin in response and you felt your cunt kick. Dinner didn’t seem so important at all. 

**

Dinner did occur, however. You set up your coffee table with the heated food while Rafael brought over the cutlery, glasses and bottle of wine. The movie of choice was 1917, a personal story woven through the backdrop of WW1. It was fast moving, full of action, tension, emotional and bloody. 

Your lights began to flicker and the wind howled outside your window. Suddenly the two of you were plunged into darkness. There was a pregnant pause and then Rafael finally spoke.

“Ah fuck -- it’s like the universe is out to--” 

“Don’t say it.” You interjected through clenched teeth.

Rafael sighed. “I won’t.” A light shone brightly and he realized you had turned on the flashlight on your phone. You stood and moved the light so it was on him. Rafael raised his arm to block the light on his face. 

“Let me turn mine on.” Rafael spoke. “Do you have any candles?”

“In the kitchen, under the sink. The building has a back-up generator so I am not sure what the hell is going on.” It was your turn to sigh. 

Rafael followed you into the kitchen. You squatted down to pull out the various scented candles you had hoarded over the years. You were pretty sure the combined scents - ‘rainshower’, ‘moonlight path’, ‘coconut lime verbena’ - to name a few, would be a good mixture, but this was no time for semantics. 

“Where do you keep your matches?” Rafael asked as you continued taking out candles. 

“Upper cabinet, over the forks and spoons.” You replied. 

There was a knock on the door and Rafael opened the door cautiously, with you peering over his shoulder. It was Mr.Hunt, the building supervisor. 

“Just came by to let you know I am working on getting the generator up and running. Wind knocked down the line outside the building.” He replied. “Hang tight as best you can - do you guys need anything?”

“No, we’re all set, but thank you.” You replied. “Stay safe.”

After, you and Rafael lit up a few of the candles. The apartment began to come back to life, with the glow of the candles casting a glowing ethereal effect. You gnawed on your lip, looking up at Rafael. “Well, shit at least we tried.”

Rafael laughed. “I’m sorry, but if we don’t laugh about it, we’ll cry.” He enveloped you into a hug, squeezing you tightly. You nuzzled his chest, the scent of his cologne wafted over you and you felt a sense of calm wash over you. Rafael pressed a kiss to your forehead. 

“Stay the night?” You asked against his chest. “I’ll need some extra warmth.”

A low rumble emanated from Rafael’s chest. “I thought you’d never ask.” he husked. 

“Let’s grab the candles. Follow me through the dark.” You replied as you led Rafael towards your bedroom. The candles were set on various furniture - your writing desk, on your tall drawer chest, and on the nightstand. 

Standing in front of you, Rafael slipped his hand through your hair. You closed your eyes and tilted your head into the caress. 

“Are you sure about this?” He asked. “I'll let you set the pace.” You opened your eyes and smiled. 

“Never more sure. Are you?” A rush of breath pushed past your breath.

“God you have no idea.” Rafael rubbed his hands over his face. You licked your lips in eager anticipation. 

“Then what are you waiting for?”

Rafael cupped your cheek once more and then with his other hand, pushed some of your hair behind your ear. Your heart was pounding in tandem with the pounding of arousal between your legs. Cupping both sides of your face, Rafael leaned in and slanted his lips against yours. 

Instant fire and electricity shot through your body. You placed your hands on his chest and moved them up to his neck, holding onto him. Rafael tilted his face and deepened the kiss, pressing his tongue against your lips and you opened up for him. His tongue sought yours and teased it. You gasped as he trailed his lips along your jawline to your ear. His breath was heavy in sensitive areas of your neck and chills ran through your spine. Rafael pulled you even closer, if that was even possible, moving his arms around you and dug his fingers into your skin. 

You pressed your hands to his chest and put the smallest of spaces between you and him. “Let's take this to the bed. I want to see more of you.”

Rafael pressed a kiss to your forehead and began to remove his clothes. You eyed the prominent bulge in his boxers and you smirked, enjoying the feeling you had done that to him. You followed suit, making quick removal of your own clothes until you were standing in front of him, wearing nothing but a strip of black fabric that dared call itself underwear. 

You watched as Rafael’s eyes swept over your near nude form. You were exquisite; your nipples were hardened diamonds, thanks to the chill in the air. And tonight, you were his. “You’re beautiful.” He closed the space between you and him and picked you up. You wrapped your arms and legs around him and allowed him to carry you to your bed. Rafael’s cock throbbed even harder being so closer to your pussy. 

Now on the bed, you and Rafael were a tangled mess of limbs. Rafael covered your body with his, leaning up slightly so he could lift his hands to your breasts, pressing your flesh together, his fingers teasing your nipples. You let out a soft sigh as he dipped his head down, flickering his tongue over your pebbled flesh. He shifted once more and his hand dropped down between your legs. His fingers ghosted over the fabric and you bucked your hips trying to get his touch.

“Touch me Rafael.” You whimpered as he swirled his tongue over your before sucking on it hard. The feel of his beard on your skin only served to heighten your pleasure. You ran your fingers through his salt and pepper hair. 

He pressed kisses along your abdomen as he made his way down to your legs. He hooked his fingers into the thin strips of your underwear and removed them up and over your legs. You rose your hips to help him with the removal and then lifted your ankles into the air. Rafael balled your ruined underwear in his hand and brought it to his face, inhaling deeply.  

“Spread your legs for me.” Rafael quietly ordered. You did as he requested, feeling both vulnerable and completely turned on at the same time. Though the light was dim, Rafael could see how wet you were as your pussy glinted with your essence.

Rafael pulled your legs by your calves, so that your legs draped over his shoulders. You propped yourself onto your elbows so you could watch. Rafael alternated placing kisses and love bites along your thighs before nestling in between your legs. His breath was hot on your pussy and he wanted nothing more than to bury his face against your body and taste every ounce of what you would give to him. He inhaled your scent deeply once more, almost reveling in it, before diving into your folds. His tongue was warm and wet; you threw your head back as his tongue performed in ways you didn’t think was humanly possible - he was as silver tongued in the bedroom as he was in the courtroom. You squirmed and Rafael laid a heavy forearm against your hips, stilling you. 

“Oh Jesus fuck.” you groaned as you fell back onto the bed. You pulled at his hair, tugging as your hips threatened to undulate against his mouth. Rafael snaked two fingers from under to slip into your warm sheath and you sighed in contentment. You murmured his name repeatedly as if in prayer. You tugged on his hair again, trying to keep him close as you felt your orgasm begin to build. Rafael pressed his thumb to your clit and massaged it in tandem with the finger-fucking he was giving you.

Rafael paused his actions, resting against your thigh, in an attempt to catch his own breath. You whined as his mouth left you. Rafael chuckled low and you could’ve sworn he said that he wasn’t done with you. You were an addiction he never knew he needed until now. 

He looked up at you and the sight was his near undoing: your body was quivering, your breath uneven. Rafael dove back in, lapping at your pussy, alternating long swipes with flicks, as he added another finger. The room was silent except for your moans and the wet sounds of Rafael’s oral activity. Your pussy clenched and you tilted your head to the side, closing your eyes. Rafael curled his fingers, finding the spot and used his thumb to rub your clit. You tried so very hard to keep still, but it was futile and you rocked against his hand as your walls clenched around his digits hard. You let out a whine as you were on the edge of paradise.

“That’s it - let go, let go for me.” Rafael commanded. 

“Fuck yes, Rafael. Oh fuck, oh my God!” You cried out.

“Let go hermosa. Just let go.” Rafael commanded once more.Your body obeyed his command as the tendrils of orgasm washed over you. 

Rafael continued to stroke you, wanting another. The second orgasm built up easily, rolling in from the first. There was a pressure inside of you and it snapped, and your back arched as you came once more. Wetness coated his hand and he inwardly beamed with pride. 

You fell back onto the bed, your chest heaving. You rubbed your hands over your face and giggled. “Oh fuck that was good.”

“You’re welcome.” Rafael smirked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Rafael made his way back up to your body, and he kissed you deeply. You could smell and taste yourself on his lips and beard. You pressed your hands up to his chest and pushed gently up, and Rafael took the signal and rolled you so were on top. 

“I want to return the favor.” You stated, but did not get a chance to as Rafael moved his hands to your waist, pulling you, your tits, flush against his face. One hand immediately reached for one while his mouth was on the other nipple instantly, suckling and nipping. 

You threw your head back as Rafael grazed his teeth along your sensitive flesh, sucking a mark on your skin. His tongue swirled along the bruised skin, soothing it. You push away, encouraging Rafael to lay back down.

“I told you, I want to repay the favor.” You replied as you ran your nails through his chest hair, slightly scraping. Rafael let out a grunt in response. You shimmied down his body until you reached his boxers. You palmed Rafael’s cock through the material, reveling in the feel of how hard he was - for you. 

Rafael removed his boxers and his cock sprung at attention, red and weeping. Rafael was thick and veiny. Your mouth filled with saliva at the idea of blowing him. You pumped his cock a few times before you wrapped your lips around the crown of his cock, running your tongue over it. The salty taste of his pre-cum flooded your mouth as your tongue. You flattened your tongue and then took the entire length in your mouth. Your tongue lavished every ridge and vein. Rafael let out a hiss of relief as he buried his hands into your hair. You relaxed your throat, taking his length more and more until he hit the back of your throat.

Rafael watched his cock disappear in your mouth and his eyes rolled back. You hollow your cheeks, and groaned around his cock, which sent vibrations up and through him. “Keep doing that… uhh… don’t stop.”

You look up at his face and Rafael’s eyes meet yours. You bob on his length with more gusto and use your hand in tandem, stroking. You dipped your head, sucking on his balls gently, and licking the seam, before giving him a gentle squeeze.

Rafael weaved his hand into your hair and pulled you up. Your chin was slick with saliva and he ran his thumb across your lips. 

“Keep that up and I’ll come in that pretty mouth.” Rafael husks as he pulls you back up onto him. “And I want to come in your sweet pussy.”

You both resume making out, hands touching and exploring everywhere and anywhere. He rolls you so you’re back onto your back and he sits back on his haunches, stroking his cock. 

Through the candlelight, Rafael watched as you crooked a finger to him and then pressed your own tits together. You let out a small moan and then snaked your hand to your pussy and began to finger yourself. 

“Fuck, watching you play with yourself is hot.” Rafael sighed, as he stroked his cock. He then removed your hand and brought it to his mouth, sucking them clean. Finally, Rafael lowered himself over you and rubbed his cock along your slit, gathering your wetness. You were hot, wet, and ready. 

Rafael pushed the head of his cock inside you and then pushed into you agonizingly slowly. Yo whimpered as he finally sank his length into you, bottoming out.  Your eyes fluttered close as you adjusted to his size, a mix of pleasure and slight burn as he stretched you. He fit you better than your favorite sweater. You grasped at his back, your nails pressing half-moon marks into his skin. Rafael pulled out again and then thrust back in, harder than before. You let out an obscene moan. “Oh Jesus fuck!” 

Rafael picked up the pace, pushing into you over and over. He hooked your leg and pushed it up to your chest, changing the angle of his cock stroked your walls. “You feel so tight around my cock, hermosa.” He grunted.

“Give it to me, give it to me, I need it.” You whined. Rafael reached for your arm and pulled it over your head, gripping it tightly. 

The sounds of grunts and moans along with skin on skin, fill the room and you can feel his balls slap against your pussy. The sensation was perverted and made you only want more. Rafael lowered his head down, pressing his forehead against yours. Your bodies are slick with sweat and beads of sweat roll off Rafael onto yours. 

Rafael continued fucking you deeply, sliding into you over and over in deep, long strokes. As he felt his own release approach, Rafael moved his lips to your neck and sucked a mark onto your skin. You are chanting his name over and over again, feeling your own orgasm approach. You snake your hand down and begin to rub your clit. 

“I’m going to come, oh shit, oh shit, Raf!” You come completely undone, wailing his name. 

“Come for Y/N, come for me. I’m going to come too!” Rafael groaned. Feeling your walls flutter around his cock, seeing your wrecked face - it was all too much for Rafael and with a strangled cry of your name, he stiffened and painted your walls with his release. 

The two of you come to a still, your breaths both uneven. Neither one of you spoke, and the only sound was rough-breathing and the howls of the storm outside.

Finally Rafael rolled off you and got up from the bed. You frowned. “What are you - where are you?” Dread began to fill your stomach.

“Blowing out the candles. Fire hazard.” Rafael said. “I’m not going anywhere hermosa.”

The room eventually plunged into darkness once more and as Rafael climbed back onto the bed, he brought the duvet over your bodies. You instantly rolled to him, resting your head on his chest, stroking lightly. He wrapped his arm around you tightly and pressed a kiss to your forehead.

“Best date ever.” You murmured, feeling sleep begin to settle in. 

“Can’t wait ‘til we do it again.” Rafael replied, his own eyes drooping. Soon you were both asleep, in each other's arms.

The sun shone brightly in your bedroom and you stirred awake. You were cognizant of a heavy arm over you, pinning you in place. You shifted carefully and turned to face Rafael who was still asleep. Feeling secure, you closed your eyes and drifted back to sleep.

After some time, you stirred awake again. This time Rafael’s body was pressed against your back. And you very much felt his erection pressing against your ass. You wiggled against him and Rafael let out a small moan as his arm wrapped around your waist, holding you tightly.

You felt his beard brush against your shoulder as he pressed kisses along your shoulder and then he tilted your face back so he could kiss. The kiss was tender, soft, but still full of passion. 

You hesitantly broke the kiss. “Good morning.” You replied, turning over to face him.

“Good morning.” Rafael’s voice was gravelly, still full of sleep. His eyes went past your shoulder to the blinking clock behind you. “Looks like the power is back on.” 

You turned over and checked. “Huh, how about that. I hope this doesn’t mean you’re going to ditch me now that my heat is probably working again.”

Rafael grabbed you and rolled you so that you were on top of him. You let out a squeal as he did so. You pressed your arms down on his chest.

“Ditch you? How very much dare.” Rafael laughed, his eyes crinkling as he did so. “I was hoping we could…” He wiggled his eyebrows.

You bit your bottom lip, feeling lust coursing through you. You rolled your hips languidly, causing him to buck up. You bent down to kiss him, lifting your hips slightly so he could line his cock with your entrance. You let out a sigh as he filled you deeply. His hands were steady on your hips, guiding as you rolled your hips some more.

That day, you and Rafael hardly left your bed, except to rehydrate and order food. 

**

[Two years later]

Rafael walked down the street, tightening his scarf around his neck. It was another wintry evening in Manhattan. He was meeting you for dinner and as he bounded up the steps of One Hogan Place, he still remembered that day you met in December, when he first saw you through the blinds of Carisi’s office, which was now your office - Carisi was prompted and now resided in Barba’s old office. Rafael was scanned and searched for hazards by security. He emptied his pockets, tossing his wallet and keys. The wand beeped and the security guard glared at him. Rafael shot the guard an apologetic look as he fished out the velvet box from his pocket.

The guard nodded and waved him through. He gathered his things and put them all away, including the box. He had arrived at the elevator bank when the door opened to you. 

“I thought I was meeting you upstairs?” Rafael questioned as he pressed a kiss to your lips. 

“You were, but I finished early. Ready for dinner?” You asked as you slung your work bag over your shoulder.

“As I’ll ever be.” Rafael murmured, taking your hand as you walked out into the snowy mix that began to fall.

FIN

**

Tag list: @madpanda75  @tropes-and-tales @dreamlover31 @mgarner1227@beardedmccoy @youreverycolor @neely1177 @witches-unruly-heart @mrsrafaelbarba @skittle479 @ottosuricato @sass-and-suspenders @mommakat32 @dreila03  @beccabarba @garturbo @lovebennycolonmiguelgalindo @imjustreallynosy @sweetsummertime99 @whyissvuruiningmylovelife @annabelleb49 @scarletsoldierrr @cesarofangirl78 @redlipstickandplaid @redlipstickandblacktea @zoeykaytesmom @differentshadesofgray @misssirenlove @esparza-army @bananas-pajamas @mishaissocoolike @thefanficfaerie @theenchantedgalleryofstories @catnip987 @choppedgalaxynerd @pieceofshittytitty @ktiz90 @evee87 @itsjustmyfantasyroom @detective-giggles @rampantmuses @jazzyjoi @caked-crusader @rachelxwayne @prurientpuddlejumper @lv7867 @permanentlydizzy @bisexual-dreamer02 @madamsnape921 @averyhotchner @teamsladsandgents @qvid-pro-qvo @alwaysachorusgirl @amelia-song-pond @wanniiieeee​

#thatesqcrushvdaybingo #rafael barba smut #rafael barba x reader #rafael barba and reader #rafael barba imagine

[ashintheairlikesnow]

As you can see, I’m ALREADY pepped for

✨Kauri with sick jake✨

So don’t worry about that

Honestly, this is for @eatyourdamnpears and everyone else encouraging my silly whims

CW: Description of migraine visual aura, migraine, sick whumpee, some consensual spice refs/flirting at the end

It starts as a dot in the center of his vision, a bit of gray he can’t quite see around. Jake frowns, closes one eye and then the other, but it’s there in both of them when he tries to look at the clock on the oven. He checks his text messages and there it is, little gray dot, making it... not impossible, but difficult to read the message.

“What are you doing?” Kauri asks the question from the doorway, standing with his shoulder leaning on the frame and his arms crossed in front of himself, wearing nothing but one of Jake’s shirts, hanging off his frame in a way that somehow makes him seem more graceful, not less. 

“Go get pants on before Ant comes down and blacks out from blushing so hard,” Jake says, voice still upbeat, but... is the spot getting bigger?

He picks up his phone and types in ‘signs of seizure’ into Google. 

Nope.

‘Sudden changes in vision.’

Oh, well, the potential answers to that one are definitely fucking terrifying.

How about... ‘gray dot in center of eye’.

“What the fuck is retinal detachment?” Jake mumbles, squinting. The dot is definitely getting bigger, and it’s in both eyes, not just one. So... not retinal detachment, unless his eyes both did it simultaneously, which seems impossible, but...

Google seems very convinced he might be dying. That is not comforting him at all as he tries to read around the spot.

“Jake?” Kauri pads across the kitchen tile on bare feet, and his hand presses cool to Jake’s bare back, long fingers against his spine. “What’s up?”

“I’m having a weird-... a thing in my eye... or my eyes?” Jake leans slightly back into Kauri’s touch. He hasn’t stopped being grateful for Kauri’s presence, and so deeply aware of it. It feels fragile, whatever is happening now, even though Kauri has always been made of steel underneath his insistence that he was nothing but tissue.

“What kind of weird thing?” Kauri moves around him, to lean his back against the counter next to the stove, head tilted to look up at Jake.

Jake looks down at him, tousled black curls and the way his face has changed with time, cheekbones and jawline more prominent, but his eyes have never been anything but the widest, brightest blue, and he can see Kauri through the arc that the gray dot is forming in his vision as it expands.

“I can’t-... I keep seeing gray,” He confesses, shaking his head - and he feels pressure there, a sense of something just... sitting behind his eyes, over his eyebrows. Like the weight of a small animal is there, and getting heavier. “Just, like, a dot, but it’s getting... bigger. And... like, breaking up?”

He tries to look at Kauri again, and the dot is a half-circle now. There’s a flash in the rounded curve of it, and then another. Then a third, but this one is colors, and there are small rainbows flashing lights along the arch as it grows. 

“Am I-... is this a fucking seizure? Or a, a brain tumor? Or...”

Kauri, to Jake’s shock, laughs. “Oh! No, Jake. No, that sounds like - you said it’s getting bigger?” He reaches up, going up on his toes as Jake leans down, and presses his cool hand against the side of Jake’s face. “Is it, like, turning into a circle? Do you see lights?”

“Um... yeah. Yeah, like, like a fucking rainbow strobe light on the right side.” Jake closes his eyes, and the pressure is getting worse. 

“Jake.” Kauri’s voice is soft. “You’ve got a migraine. Or you’re about to have one. When did you last sleep through the night? Or, like, at all?”

Jake snorts. “You’re one to talk.” 

“Answer the question, you.” Kauri pokes him in the side, with gentle affection, and Jake wishes he could focus on his face around the widening, flashing arch at the right side of his vision. At least it’s sort of framing Kauri, now, and Jake wonders at Kauri just... here.

No backpack by the door next to his shoes, ready to run. The backpack is in Jake’s room, and it’s empty. Kauri’s fucking... pet Roomba Keira is in her place of honor in the living room by the Christmas tree. One of the new rescues is convinced they can fix her broken wheel even though it’s been actual years since Keira could roll around on her own. 

For her part, Keira informed Kauri in that... unsettling metallic female voice that her visual sensors were enjoying the shifting colors of the Christmas lights and that she didn’t mind playing a sort of living Wikipedia for the rescues - all former Romantics - learning about a world they were forced to forget.

Keira reported to Jake that the most common question she received was some variation on how many pets run away, and how many go back?

 The numbers are getting bigger - and the amount that end up back in WRU custody or with their former owners is going down.  That alone drives Jake to keep working, harder than ever, to give as many as he can somewhere safe to land.

“I don’t know. Chris is here for Christmas break, we have new rescues, there’s-... just been a lot going on, and-” He sighs as Kauri’s hand moves up, thumb rubbing soft little circles just above his eyebrow, and the pressure building behind his eyes seems to lessen, just a little, at the touch.

“So the answer is that you’re stressed and not sleeping. So this is definitely a migraine. Is it still getting bigger?”

Jake opens his eyes and looks down at Kauri’s face, giving a slight smile. “Uh, yeah. It’s... almost all off to the right, now. You’re pretty with a rainbow around you.”

“Well I’m gay as hell, so I should hope I look good in rainbows,” Kauri says, smiling with his nose scrunched up the way he does when he’s not being self-conscious about it, and then he takes Jake by the hand, pulling him back across the kitchen. “Come on, you. Time to lay down.”

“Kaur, the rescues will wake up any second now-”

“Antoni can feed them as well as you can - way better, honestly. He can just reheat those little pocket things with the cheese in them.”

“... Hot Pockets? I don’t think-”

“No, the thingies. The, um. The pirouettes?”

“Piroshkis?”

“Sure, that sounds right, too.”

“Well, pirouette is a ballet term-”

“Jake. Not important. Let’s just be happy I remember anything at all. Come on.”

Jake doesn’t feel like he follows Kauri so much as, like always, Kauri is a planet on its own orbit that Jake is drawn to, has always been drawn to, long before he could have had a moment with him like this. “But Chris-”

“Chris is twenty-three years old,” Kauri points out. “More or less. He can take care of himself, and right now you need someone to take care of you. And trust me, I have a lot of experience with migraines - and so does he.”

The rainbow flashes are fading out, moving so far to the side of his vision that they are effectively gone, but the pressure is still building and Jake squints against the way the first hints of sunlight hurts, a little, to see coming through the windows. “You do?”

“Of course I do.” Kauri’s legs are pale where they show under the hem of the big shirt he wears, and Jake swallows against the way something in him stirs at the sight, but that bit of pain that had come with seeing the sun isn’t leaving. It’s getting worse. “When I stopped blacking out, I started getting headaches, migraines, lasted for days. Fucking hated it. I used to get them in training a lot, too.”

“You did?”

“Mmhmm.” Kauri pauses, briefly, at the top of the stairs. “When I relearned how to read, and when I looked at myself again, they came back. But I had to keep trying, anyway.” He glances over at Jake and gives him a slight smile. “All that time I spent trying to figure out what you were seeing when you looked at me. Migraines come with the territory.”

“Why don’t I know that you were getting headaches?”

“Because I didn’t tell you about them. We’re, um. We’re good at ignoring pain.” Kauri smiles, still, but there’s something a little more brittle in it now. “Chris got them, too, learning to read. And... probably before. But everything-... hurts so much, in training. You get used to doing everything with the pain instead of waiting until it’s over. You don’t have a choice. There we go, I’ve distracted you with a sob story long enough to get you back to your room.” Kauri helps Jake inside, closing the door, and Jake sighs in relief as the room is beautifully, perfectly dark. 

“Our room,” He says, and his head is starting to really hurt, now. “I don’t have time to lie down, Kaur.”

“You sure as fuck do,” Kauri says cheerfully, getting him back to the bed, hands running over Jake’s shoulders, back, and sides as he lays down on his stomach, groaning. Kauri presses a little, here and there, gnawing on his lower lip. “You’ve got some serious fucking stress in your back, Jake.”

“When do I not?” Jake asks, muffled by shoving his face into a pillow.

“... good point. I’m going to get you something for your headache and tell Antoni he’s in charge today. You... don’t move. Or I’ll be very unhappy with you.” Kauri’s voice teases, effortlessly flirty, just a little with the graze of his fingertips before he pulls away. 

He’s gone, for just a few minutes, and Jake’s headache seems to worsen by the second, moving from the first hints of pressure to a full-on pounding pain. He doesn’t dare pull his head up, afraid even the slightest sliver of light will be too much. His stomach twists and turns, too, and Jake’s glad he got up here before he ate anything. 

That Kauri got him up here.

Kauri reappears with two pills, a glass of water, and a surprisingly bright smile on his face. “Well, I’ve embarrassed Antoni by stretching and forgetting I’m not wearing any pants, so... good thing I look good naked. Here, take this.”

Jake swallows down the pills and drinks the water until it’s gone, then hides his face back in the pillow. “What’re you gonna do?”

“Stay right here, dumbass,” Kauri says, softly, and he crawls up into the bed, lying down on his side next to Jake. Jake can feel the soft brush of his hair before he leans in and kisses Jake’s neck. “Stay right here with you. That’s my plan for the day.”

“I’m gonna be real boring,” Jake mumbles into the pillow. 

Kauri’s voice is low, situated just above a whisper but below the threshold that would make Jake’s head pound any harder. “I spent years alone with a talking Roomba and some plants on a balcony. Boring doesn’t bother me. I’d rather sit in this bedroom in the dark with you being a big whiny baby than be anywhere else.”

“... ‘m not whiny.”

“He said, whinily,” Kauri teased, and snuggled up next to him. Somehow he’d taken his shirt off and Jake slid one arm over the warm skin of his back, pulling him close. “Hey now-”

“Isn’t sex a pain reliever?” Jake asks, eyes still closed, nuzzling into Kauri’s neck, the warm smell of his skin, with the faintest hint of Jake’s own cologne. Something about having known Kauri to never smell like the same cologne twice for so long, and to know now he only ever smelled like Jake... 

“Not for migraines. Wait til your head feels better, dumbass.”

“Thought you liked my ass,” Jake murmurs, kissing just under Kauri’s ear, a spot he knows Kauri likes, a spot Kauri didn’t know he liked, because nobody ever bothered to explore Kauri the way he deserves. His hand slid down and between Kauri’s legs-

And then he winces and turns his head back to the pillow. “Ow. Okay, I can’t right now.”

“Told you so,” Kauri says, moving Jake’s hand back over his waist. “No sex until you feel better, Doctor Kauri’s orders.”

Jake pauses, and says softly, “I must be the only guy on earth who fucking loves hearing you say ‘no.’”

Kauri pauses, and then kisses Jake’s hair, the top of his head, and slides back into his embrace, the warmth that came with lying together under the blankets together. 

“Yeah, maybe. But I like that you want to hear it.”

“Always. Whenever you need to say it. I love you, Kaur.”

Jake thinks he hears the faintest hint of hidden tears in Kauri’s voice when he answers, “Love you, too.” 

---

Tagging: @burtlederp , @finder-of-rings , @endless-whump , @whumpfigure , @slaintetowhump , @astrobly @newandfiguringitout , @doveotions , @pretty-face-breaker , @boxboysandotherwhump , @oops-its-whump @moose-teeth , @cubeswhump , @cupcakes-and-pain @whump-tr0pes @whumpiary

#erase to control #sickfic #sick whumpee #migraines tw #migraine #referenced consensual spice #headache whump #visual aura #migraine aura #trauma recovery #conditioning referenced #deconditioning #jake the shelter guy #sick fic #caretaker #whumpee as caretaker #caretaker whumpee

[stargazing-dreamer-girl]

My sister’s ghost band and me

In which you sometimes forget that you’re dealing with ghosts and can’t actually touch them.

Platonic!Alex Mercer x reader, platonic!Reggie Peters x reader, platonic!Luke Patterson x reader

Oh, it’s gender neutral reader btw

WC: 6k

A/N: It’s finally finished! I worked really hard on this, so I hope you like it. For some reason I can’t tag the person who commented on my post about the concept for this story, but I hope this finds their way to them :)

Ever since the three ghost boys have appeared in your life nothing has been the same. Your sister Julie who had lost such a big part of herself when your mother died finally had that back and you’ve never been prouder of her. The music she was making with the guys was so beautiful and you would never stop being grateful to them for doing what you couldn’t, bringing music back into her life.

So, it was no wonder that the one song of them that was on YouTube was playing on repeat in your household. You were humming along to ‘Edge of Great’ while preparing dinner when the front door opened and your dad walked in.

“Man, I love that song!” He exclaimed when he noticed what you were listening to. He shrugged off his coat moving his head along to the beat.

“No way! Me too!” You laughed turning the volume down a little, so you could talk to your dad without having to scream over the music. He came over to the kitchen, pressing a small kiss to your temple in greeting before glancing into the pot and letting out a cheer.

“Yes! Your pasta! I love you!” He pulled you into a hug eliciting another laugh from you. When you looked over at him, he was still staring into the pot mesmerized. You lifted up your hand to bop his nose taking him out of that trance.

“Love you, too, papi.” The alarm going off then alerted you that the breadsticks were done, so you moved around your dad to take them out of the oven. “I know you need to take Carlos to practice, so I’ll just set some aside for you guys and you can reheat it when you get back.”

“Yes, right. Thank you!” He called for your little brother right after who came running down the stairs immediately. “Let’s go!” You shouted a quick “Bye!” after them which was left unheard with the door falling shut before you finished talking. The only noise in the kitchen now was the muffled music coming from the studio, the video you had been watching having finished long ago. You shut your laptop and put it in the living room to make some room in the kitchen.

You were about to call Julie in for dinner, before you thought better of it. Instead, you filled two plates with pasta and took some breadsticks, before you left the house and walked over to where your sister’s band was rehearsing. The music got louder the closer you got to the big white doors, a song you didn’t recognize playing.

Pushing one of the doors farther open with your foot while balancing the plates you were greeted with the sight of Julie belting out what had to be the last note of their new song before they noticed you. Luke was the first to look over, exclaiming your name with a smile on his face which prompted the rest of the group to turn towards you as well.

“I brought dinner!” You announced, mostly to Julie since the three boys weren’t capable of eating anything. She moved away from the keyboard to take one of the plates from your hands setting it down on the table. You followed right after her after greeting the boys and went to sit down on the floor, your back leaning against the couch. “That sounded great! Is it a new song?” You asked before taking the first bite.

The guys moved to join Julie and you around the table. Even though they couldn’t eat they still provided great company. When Luke sat down right next to Julie you shared a look with Alex. You were always talking about how obvious the chemistry between the two was on stage and wondered if it would ever transition to off-stage as well.

“Yeah, it’s called ‘Stand Tall’ and it’s definitely an anthem!”

“Well, I’d love to hear the whole thing some time.”

Julie nodded excitedly. “Just come to the next band practice! I don’t even know what you’re always doing huddled up in the house.”

“Gee, thanks! I might be focusing on school work or something equally insignificant.”

“You can just do your work here while you’re listening to us play,” Reggie chimed in, earning approving nods from the group.

 Alex plopped out of the studio at some point during dinner saying something about meeting Willie. Julie left shortly after as soon as she was done eating. Flynn had texted her and wanted her to come over. But, being the good sister that she was, she took your plate inside with her before she left. Then it was just you, Reggie and Luke left in the studio although the latter didn’t really count since he was so focused on songwriting that he didn’t react at all to anything you said.

You remained sitting on the ground, but turned to face Reggie. He had made himself comfortable on the couch you had been leaning against. Resting your head on your arm you looked up at him, a small smile on your face.

“What’s up with you?” He asked, an uneasy chuckle escaping him as he realized that your undivided attention was on him.

You bit your lip trying to refrain from breaking out into a huge grin. “I heard the cheerleaders talking about you today,” you told him with a wiggle of your eyebrows.

His face went red in an instant, a stark contrast to his pale skin tone. He started stammering before just smiling wildly over at Luke. “You hear that, dude? The cheerleaders talk about me!” But Luke was still so focused on his notebook that he didn’t notice. He did, however, notice it when Reggie threw his flannel at him to get his attention.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, scrunching up the flannel in his hands before throwing it back at his friend, hitting him right in the head. “What did you do that for?”

“You’re not listening! They just told me some great news and you didn’t even listen!”

“Wait! What news?” Luke shut his book focusing his attention on you as he waited for you to repeat yourself, probably expecting something more exciting than what you have told Reggie. You could see it in his face. When your words sunk in, his face fell, his expression somewhere between boredom and annoyance. “And that’s why you stopped me? Dude, I was working on some killer lyrics!” With that he grabbed his notebook again and teleported out of the garage.

Reggie quickly got over his best friend abruptly leaving and turned back to you. “Well, I hope, you told them that you know me. I’m nothing without my greatest fan.”

“So, I’m your greatest fan now?”

“Well, of course, there can’t be another reason you’re always at our gigs,” he replied smugly, leaning forward in his seat. “And always notice when someone’s talking about me.”

You tried to hide behind your hands as you felt heat rising to your head. “I’m just attentive when it comes to my sister’s band. It’s got nothing to do with you personally.” You shrug, peeking a glance at him from behind your hands. The pout on his face made you reconsider though. “But you’re a pretty great guy.”

He moved off the couch to sit on the floor with you. You had already learned that Reggie could be easily excitable. He was like a puppy, so you couldn’t resist when he watched you with a big smile and sparkling eyes to bop his nose like you always did with your siblings and your dad. What you didn’t factor in was that your finger would go right through his face.

You quickly pulled your hand away and jumped up to bring some distance between yourself and the situation. The pacing you started wasn’t really a conscious choice. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think. It was an impulse and I momentarily forgot. God, that was so awkward. I can’t believe that just happened. I’m so sorry, Reggie.”

When you were met with silence you stopped your pacing to look up at him. He was still on the ground following you with his eyes. But instead of looking horrified or angry he had a smile on his face when he called your name. “It’s fine. I feel honored, really.” The confused look on your face prompted him to explain some more. “I always see how you do that to Julie, Carlos, your dad, even Flynn. You do it to the people you care about and I’m happy I’m one of them, even if it’s not the same and it might be a little weird, ‘cause, like, I can feel something but it’s not quite touch. But I can definitely feel that you have a lot of love in your heart. You mean a lot to me, too. To all of us. I wouldn’t mind if it happened again because I know it means that you love us.”

“That was really sappy.” You tried to play it off but his words meant a lot to you. They were true and having it laid out in front of you like that brought tears to your eyes.

“Oh shit, I didn’t mean to make you cry!” He jumped up and quickly moved over to you. His hands hovered just above your cheeks. He was cursing himself for not being able to wipe your tears now and just wrap you into a hug.

“They’re not sad tears, Reggie. I’m fine. I’m just… grateful to have you guys in my life.” You gave him a small smile before excusing yourself to turn in for the night. The incident replayed in your mind and even though you couldn’t help but feel embarrassed by the fact that you forgot about him being a ghost for a second you appreciated the words he told you.

 The incident was soon forgotten. Well, not that soon. You had made the grave mistake of telling Julie about it and she went on to tell it to Flynn. They both kept teasing you because of it. But at some point, even that died down and you didn’t have to constantly think about your slipup. Reggie’s behavior around you didn’t change at all either which calmed you immensely.

When you got home that afternoon the house was unusually quiet and when you shouted out for your family members nobody gave you a reaction.

“Nobody’s home,” sounded from your right, making you jump in surprise. Alex, adorned by his pink sweatshirt, had appeared right next to you. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. But I heard you come home and thought I’d come over. Julie and Luke are working on some lyrics, so they banned us from the garage.”

You calmed down from the shock fairly quickly. A side effect of having ghost friends was that it didn’t freak you out as much anymore when one just appeared out nowhere, or at least you learned to recover fast. “So, where’s Reggie? I can’t imagine he got to stay when you were thrown out.”

“Oh no, he’s down by the beach, I think. He sometimes still goes to where his house used to be and just sits there for a while.” You hadn’t known that. It always seemed like Reggie was faring well with being a ghost, but appearances can be deceiving. That’s nothing new.

“It must be hard for you guys. Knowing that the people you knew now have a completely different life while for you guys it was just such a short period of time. How long did you say it felt like you were in that dark room? An hour? That must be so surreal.”

“An hour, yeah,” he confirmed. “I mean, it’s not like we had the best relationship with our parents to begin with, but not even knowing if they are still alive or where they are, is pretty weird.”

“I could try to find them for you.” It was more of a question than a statement, but you at least wanted to give him the option. “If that’s what you want.” He said nothing for a while, just stared at the floor, at you, at the pictures hanging at the wall. “You don’t have to decide now. I just wanted to let you know that that may be an option, but I get it if that’s not what you want. Just take your time and think about it.”

You picked up your backpack you had dropped when Alex first appeared and moved towards the stairs. “I need to do my homework. Do you want to join me?”

He nodded excitedly. “I’ll see you in your room!” He announced and popped out of the living room. You could just shake your head at the use of teleportation, but hurried to get up to your room yourself.

Alex was already lying on your bed when you got there and set your backpack down by your desk. “That sure seems convenient.”

“What does? Oh! That! It kinda is. Still freaks me out sometimes, too, though.” He rolled to lie on his stomach and watched you sit down at your desk. “Do you have a lot to do?”

“Not really.” You shook your head, grabbing the stuff you needed. “I should be quick.”

So, you did your homework with Alex watching you. From time to time he asked questions about what you were learning in school and you explained it to him to the best of your knowledge. That was one of the reasons you liked doing homework with Alex. Explaining the material to him helped you understand it better as well. And you just liked being around him.

When you were done you didn’t even bother to put the stuff away before you jumped onto the bed next to Alex. “So, what have you and Willie been up to?” You asked. The boy next to you turned onto his back to look up at the ceiling and you followed suit.

“He took me to an empty museum and then we screamed there.” His voice went up at the end, making it sound like a question. He actually just didn’t know how to say it without it sounding completely bizarre. “It was actually really freeing.” He paused to think about his next words. If he spoke about it, it would become a real thing and he didn’t know if he was ready for that. But eventually, he did speak them. “I don’t know. I really like hanging out with him. It’s fun and he gets me to do things I normally wouldn’t. He teaches me about stuff I’ve missed out on. And I think I’m falling for him. Hard. And I don’t know what to do about it. I mean, a ghost romance? That sounds weird to me. Does a thing like that even work?”

You thought about it for a second. You didn’t even know if that question was just rhetorical or if he actually wanted an answer, but it was an interesting thing to think about.

“I mean, you’re both ghosts. You can see and hear and touch each other. It’s not that different from a relationship between living people, I’d say. You just won’t grow old together. Physically, I mean. But what matters most are your feelings. So, if you like him, go for it. He seems like a great guy.”

“He is,” Alex answered absentmindedly, a dreamy smile on his face as he looked off into the distance.

“You’re so cute!” You squealed and lifted your hand to his nose but stopped yourself before actually reaching his face. The moment with Reggie flashed back into your mind before you dropped your hand. The nose bops you gave your family had become second nature for you, so actively stopping yourself felt wrong. Not doing it to show your affection felt wrong. But you didn’t want a repeat of that embarrassing situation. Instead, you laughed it off when Alex tilted his head questioningly. “Anyways, I’m hungry. Would you give me the honor of joining me in the kitchen?” you asked dramatically after standing up from your bed.

He didn’t even answer, but disappeared with a plop. “You coming?” sounded from downstairs right after. You could just shake your head at him but hurried downstairs nonetheless.

“You have to stop doing that! It’s so unfair!” You complained when you reached the kitchen and opened the fridge. Pulling out some ingredients for a sandwich you looked back at your friend. “And you always complain about them too! But then you use them nonetheless. Sounds to me like you don’t appreciate what you have.”

“What is he not appreciating?” sounded a voice behind you which made you scream in surprise. Not your proudest moment.

“Luke!” You scolded the brunet who had appeared in the kitchen as well. “Don’t do that me! You guys are gonna kill me one day!” He gave you a sweet smile as he apologized. You couldn’t stay mad at him if he looked at you like that.

“So, what is Alex not appreciating?”

“His ghost abilities! You guys can teleport and summon your instruments. That’s so cool! And Alex just keeps complaining about stuff. And I get it. To get those abilities you had to die which is not great at all, but you can’t change it, so I say you should just appreciate what you have,” you ranted while preparing your sandwich. Luke watched on, nodding along to what you were saying. His face fell a little when you mentioned their deaths, but he came back around quickly.

“I totally agree. We can do some really cool stuff now. I always tell Alex the same thing, it-“

“Ok, yeah, I see you two are conspiring against me here, so I’m just gonna go and leave you guys to it.” With that he plopped out of the kitchen, disappearing off to who-knows-where.

“As I was saying, isn’t it amazing how we are connected to our instruments, even in death? And that we can summon them! And the teleporting, of course! It’s so easy to get around!” Luke jumped into a monologue telling you all about the upsides of being a ghost while you just stood there and listened.

You could see it in his eyes before he started speaking about it. The bad parts of it all. The fact that he can go see his parents but that they will never know he was there, that they have to live with the fact that their child died before them. It was like that for all the boys. Thinking about their parents, their families, it was painful. Luke didn’t know if his situation, actually being able to visit his parents, was better than what Reggie and Alex had to live with. Their parents had left. They had nothing to go back to. But their family situations also were not that great. Which was another part. None of them would ever have a chance to make things right with their parents. If that would even have been possible when they were alive. It was a big ‘if’, but one that plagued the boys’ minds often.

Hearing him talk about it, you were reminded of your family. Your dad, tia Victoria, Carlos, Julie. Your mom. Even if she wasn’t with you anymore, you were glad you still had the others. You couldn’t begin to imagine what it was like for them. All you wanted to do right now was to give Luke a hug and to let him know that you were there for him.

“Luke.” You finally spoke up after a minute of silence that had occurred after his story. You weren’t quite sure what to say. No words would be right to express your thoughts and feelings in this moment. “We love you, Luke. Reggie, Alex, Julie and I. We all love you. I know we can never be your mom or your dad, but we’re family. You mean so much to us. I know, we haven’t known each other for a long time, but you guys have become such a huge part of our lives. It’s crazy! I just want you to know that you’re not alone. You have people who love you. And your parents love you, too. Even if they can’t see you, even if they don’t know you’re there. They love you.”

Tears started to cloud your vision, mimicking the ones that were already rolling down Luke’s face. His blurry figure moved to stand close to you. You felt a coldness at your nose. Realizing what he did you let out a small chuckle. It was a ritual shared between you and your loved ones, letting you know that your words had reached him, that he understood and felt the same.

Hearing your name spoken from the direction of the front door you were pulled out of the situation. A quiet plopping sound let you know that Luke had left. “Why are you crying in the kitchen?” Carlos asked. Your little brother cautiously moved towards where you were standing as if he was dealing with a scared animal. “Is it a feelings thing? Should I call Julie?”

“I’m fine, Carlos. Don’t worry. But… would you give me a hug?” You opened your arms to lure him in.

“Eww no. Get away from me!” He started running away when you stepped closer. You followed suit with your arms wide open. And that was how your dad found you when he came home from work that day, you chasing Carlos around the living room. Your tears had dried and were replaced with laughter. Especially when your dad took your side and scooped Carlos up in his arms as he tried to run past him.

“Group hug!” you exclaimed and joined the two in a hug with Carlos still complaining even though he didn’t do anything to get out of the situation.

 “Can you tell the boys I won’t make it to practice today? Something came up.” Before you could answer her, Julie had already hung up on you. You were left wondering what was so important that she would miss band practice, but soon gave up on actually finding an answer to that.

You had almost been home when you got the call, so instead of going into the house you went straight for the garage to let the boys know Julie wouldn’t be coming. Faint music was coming from there. It seemed like they already started without her anyway.

“Guys! How many times do we have to tell you not to play when neither Julie or I are here? Our dad could hear you! And Carlos is already on that whole ghost hunting trip, so you shouldn’t feed into it anymore than you already did!” You side-eyed Reggie with that last comment, but he kept his eyes on his bass, plucking on the strings.

“Well, hello to you, too, Molina. We are doing great. Thanks for asking.” Luke had stepped up to you, guitar still hanging around his neck. “Nobody’s home and we were playing on volume 1. No one could have heard us,” he justified their behavior.

“Okay, fine.” You relented. It did make sense that they should be allowed to play under those circumstances. “Anyways, Julie won’t make it to practice today, so if you want to work on some stuff without her, I’ll stay out here with you.”

“Well, it won’t really be band practice, if not even the whole band is present,” Alex noted to which the others agreed.

“But you should still stay out here with us!” Reggie exclaimed and if he could, he would’ve pulled you from your spot by the doors to the couch, so you wouldn’t even have a chance to think about leaving. But he couldn’t, so he tried to will you to move with his thoughts. When you walked over to the couch you noticed the astonished look on Reggie’s face, but decided not to comment on it.

“Why do you barely spend time here with us? It feels like we always have to come into the house to spend time with you,” Alex questioned. His hands were fumbling with the hem of his sweatshirt as he made eye contact with you. He realized in that moment there was much more to that question than he had thought.

You hesitated with your answer, not knowing if you should put your innermost thoughts and feelings out there, but after the talk you had with Luke the other day you knew you could trust them. “I don’t know. I guess, it still feels weird being in mom’s studio. Some moments it doesn’t bother me, but other times it just overwhelms me and it reminds me so much of mom that I can’t stay in here. I’m sorry. I love spending time with you guys, but sometimes it’s just too much.” Your gaze moved around the studio, from the floating chairs over to the grand piano and back to the boys in front of you. “Some days are just harder than others.” You shrugged, hoping that the boys wouldn’t stay on that topic.

“But Ju-“ Luke started but was stopped when Alex elbowed him in the side. “Dude, what? Julie ha- ohh. Sorry!” he mumbled, averting his gaze. Comparing people’s grieving progress was not a thing one should do and he just realized after, what he had been doing and regretted it instantly.

“Anyways, you know what I realized?” Reggie decided to change the topic for which you all were grateful. “You have never heard a live performance of a Sunset Curve song! You’ve just heard us play the new songs with Julie.”

“That’s right!” Luke piped up, back in his element. “We can play you something!” He jumped up and grabbed his guitar without even waiting for your answer. The other boys followed suit. Alex got situated behind his drums while Reggie grabbed his bass. Moving up to the mic in the front Luke pointed a finger at you. “This one’s for you! This is Now or Never.”

You recognized the song as the first track on their demo. The song that got them here. It brought back memories of the night they first showed up in the studio. Your dad had asked Julie to go through the stuff in the studio for the move. She had begged you to come with her since she didn’t want to be alone to do it. When you found the demo, you didn’t think anything about it when you put it into the player, but then the boys appeared and turned your whole life upside down.  And now you were here, with a ghost band playing you a song, for everyone to hear, but only you to see.

You were the only one who got to see Reggie and Luke sharing a mic, Reggie rocking with Alex in the back, them all just feeling the music. It was indeed what they were born to do. It was obvious for anyone who saw them on stage that that was where they belonged.

When the song came to a close you jumped up and applauded them. They bowed to you, big smiles on their faces at your reaction. “You guys sound great! I loved it! Thank you!”

The song still resonated within you when you sat back down with the boys. Their excited chatter filled your ears as you watched them interact with each other. The short amount it had taken you and Julie to get used to the presence of ghosts was crazy, but you couldn’t think them away anymore. They had become such a big part of your life as if they had always been there. You liked to believe in Flynn’s theory that it had been your mom who had brought them into your life, that she looked out for you and your family even from beyond the grave.

You were pulled out of your thoughts when Alex spoke to you. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I was asking what you’re thinking about.” He repeated himself.

“Oh, um, you guys, my mom, Julie. Everything that’s happened… You guys are really important to me, you know. It’s… I don’t know. We haven’t known each other for that long, but I wouldn’t want to think you guys out of my life even if that might be selfish of me.”

“Well, good thing we’re not planning on leaving,” Luke commented, sending you a wink. You scoffed but let a smile take over your features. They were idiots, but they were your idiots.

“So, what’s been happening at school?”

You looked at Reggie with a raised eyebrow. “You want to know about school? Really?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I actually kinda miss it.” He looked between Luke and Alex to see if they felt similar but got no reaction from them. “Well, guess I’m the only one. But how is it?”

“Same as usual, I guess. Bunch of work to do, some good teachers, some bad, Carrie starting drama as usual. Did Julie tell you Nick broke up with Carrie?” The boys shook their head no, now intrigued. “Well, he told Julie he broke up with her because she’s “not the nicest person” which is true, obviously. We all know that. But I wonder why he just saw it now? Like, why did he get together with her in the first place? I never knew! Someday they were just together and I have zero clue how it happened,” you let them know, “Oh, and Julie and Nick partnered up in dance class!”

“They did?” Alex exclaims, living for the drama. “Isn’t he the guy Julie likes?”

“He is! She’s been crushing on him for, like, forever! And now that he’s not with Carrie anymore and they spend time together at dance practice…” You let the end of the sentence hang in the air. “So, yeah, that’s what’s been happening at school,” you concluded. With the boys showing up at school sometimes, you didn’t know how up-to-date they actually were with Los Feliz High drama. If you could even call it that.

“So, she’s with him now?” Luke huffed. He frowned as he leaned back against the couch. “Instead of practicing with her band.”

“She might be.” You shrugged. “I actually don’t know where she is or what she’s doing. She’s her own person, you know. She might be my sister, but that doesn’t mean I know every single piece of information about her. I can just assume. And I like to assume that she’s with Nick, practicing their dance. Because, one, they get a grade for it and she shouldn’t fail and two, because I am living for the whole Nick drama.”

“Same,” added Alex in a nonchalant voice which had you do a doubletake.

“Wait! Did you learn that from Willie? You didn’t use ‘same’ that way before, right? That’s not a 90s thing.” You stared at him with big eyes. The confirmation came as a small nod as he turned his head to avoid anyone’s gaze. “That’s cute. I like it. Sometimes I feel like you guys don’t understand me right when I say stuff like that, so that’s awesome that he teaches you stuff like that.”

“Hey! I want to learn that stuff, too!”

“Well, Reggie, Alex can just teach you what he learns from Willie.”

“But what if I want you to teach me?” He asked moving over to your seat. He sat down on the arm rest of your chair looking down at you with big puppy eyes.

“I’d be such a bad teacher. Just tell me if you don’t understand something and I’ll try. I can’t promise you I know all of the references or memes though. You do know what a meme is by now, right?” The boys nodded. “Ok, good. That’s a start. Now, Reggie, may I please have the chair back to myself? It’s not that big to begin with.”

The boy stood up quickly with raised hands, before he motioned for you and the chair. “It wouldn’t really make a difference. I’m basically air.” He flailed his arms around. Luke and Alex just made some agreeing noises. Reggie stopped his wild moments as he saw you watching with a smile and a raised eyebrow. “See.” He knelt down in front of you and lifted a finger to your nose. He gently pressed down, the cold feeling of his finger not going through you this time.

As his finger made contact with your nose it became dead silent in the studio. Luke and Alex were staring at the scenario in front of them, while you and Reggie looked at each other with wide eyes, before you jumped up causing Reggie to quickly move back. “You can touch me!” you exclaimed. “How? Why? What? How is this possible?”

Your mind was racing with just one thought being clear in all the chaos. Reggie had just touched you. You were scared, in a way, as you held out your hand towards him again. Would you be able to do it again? Was it just a one-time thing? But when you felt the ghostly touch of his hand as he interlaced his fingers with yours you knew it was real. It felt different than touching a human. There was no warmth, but you could still feel him. You could feel his hand in yours.

Your other hand was shaking as you covered your mouth in shock, tears threatening to spill from your eyes. “Alex?” You beckoned the blond forth who was just waiting for you to signal him that it would be alright to try. Timidly, he tried to touch your shoulder and when his hand didn’t go through either he wasted no time wrapping his arms around you in a bone-crushing hug. Sobs and laughter escaped your mouth. You hugged him back with one arm while Reggie was still staring at your intertwined hands in awe.

Luke didn’t dare move from his spot by the couch. This might all be a dream, even thought ghosts didn’t sleep and didn’t dream. But this felt so much like a dream come true that he didn’t dare disrupt it. Even when you made eye contact with him, silently asking him to join you, he couldn’t move a muscle.

You let go of Alex and Reggie slowly, their hands falling to their sides. Luke watched you walk around Alex until you stood in front of him raising your hand to the space between the two of you. His gaze wandered between you and your hand before he lifted his as well, but, as your hands were inches apart, he stopped, doubt clouding his mind once again. This couldn’t really be happening. So, you took the decision from him, placing your palm against his and as you had suspected, felt the resistance of his hand.

His face lit up instantly. His arms moved around your waist, picking you up and spinning you around as he let out victorious sounds. As soon as you were put back onto the ground, Alex and Reggie joined into the hug, almost crushing you, but you didn’t stop them. This was what they needed. And you did, too.

You didn’t know how it happened, what had changed, for you to be able to touch the three ghosts, but you were grateful for it. From then on, not a day would go by without a hug from a ghost. They liked touching you. An arm around your shoulder, around your waist, a hand reaching for yours, one of them lying with their head in your lap while you carded your fingers through their hair.

If you had before sometimes forgotten that they were ghosts – the realization coming back when you couldn’t touch them – it got even worse now.

#jatp #jatp x reader #julie and the phantoms #jatp reggie #jatp imagine #jatp one shot #jatp alex #jatp luke #julie and the phantoms fic #julie and the phantoms imagine #julie and the phantoms one shot #julie and the phantoms x reader #alex mercer #reggie peters #luke patterson #x reader #reader insert #reggie peters x reader #luke patterson x reader #alex mercer x reader

[anothertimdrakestan]

Hot Stuff (Tim Drake x Reader)

Words: 3k

Req: “can you do a fic where the reader has to get protected and she doesn't want to and thinks it's dumb but like otherwise someone is gonna try to kill her so a batboy (of your choice) has to protect her and they like realize they like each other? i just think it would be really cute sorry haha you can ignore me.”

I’m not gonna ignore you!!! this is adorable! also i let ppl vote not knowing the prompt and they picked tim hehehe so this will be fun! you really left me a LOT of creative freedom lmao so i tried my best but had a lot of fun lolz hope you enjoy angel!

It had been at least 5 years since you had ever shivered. And the last time it happened you were like 20 seconds away from dying so the fact that it was becoming a common feeling was definitely a problem. But your near death every couple minutes was a pretty dumb excuse to get you holed up in the batcave being watched over by none other than Mr. Batman himself. 

The whole problem arose when all the cold-powered super villains decided it was time for their equivalent of a crossover, deciding that if the world was frozen over they could... steal shit? Then unfreeze it or something? They were always a little slow (call it brain freeze if you will) but the beginnings of their plan worked and the temperature of the Earth was dropping steadily which didn’t bode well for a hero like you who’s powers revolved around heat and energy, the colder you got the weaker- making this the reason you were in a makeshift furnace set up discreetly in the Batcave. 

“Morning y/n let’s see how you’re doing” Tim greeted you with a wave, grabbing a tablet that was tracking your internal body temperature and other boring statistics on whether or not you’d live. “Oh man, okay, lemme turn it up” Tim tapped at the tablet while you folded another paper airplane and threw it at the glass. “I feel fine man, like really, I’m just chilling” you shrugged, incinerating the paper airplane with a small flame in the center of your palm while Tim chuckled. “Well ya see, you ‘chilling’ is actually quite a bad thing, but yeah a couple minutes with extra heat and you can come to breakfast!” you rolled your eyes at his smothered laughter. “How long you been sitting on that one?” you teased him. 

“Long enough Sparky, now warm up I’m hungry” Tim started you on a burst of energy while he moved on to the main BatComputer. “Whatcha solving today? Anything I can help with?” you squinted at the screen hoping for something interesting. “Bruce is going out to see if he can find the location of all the machines dropping the temp, and no, you’re definitely not going outside anytime soon” Tim chided you while you groaned and let sharp flames jutt from your clenched fists. “I’m not a child, I can regulate my temperature on my own, hell I can still make fire so clearly I’m fine” you said matter-of-factly holding up a flame and letting it dancing into a small burst. 

“And I’d like to keep you that way y/n let’s not risk it, now c’mon I think you’ve taken in enough energy” Tim opened the door to your little glass room, his eyes widening at the heat that brushed over his face. “Dude you ever got hot in there?” Tim questioned, fanning his face from the exposure. “Nope, I’m kinda like that all the time” you explained, casually taking his hand to show him how your skin practically radiated heat. “Oh- wow, you’re really warm but it’s kinda cool.” Tim mumbled, pushing your palm flush up against his, the tops of his fingertips curling around yours while he grinned, “your hands are so small” you snorted, “whatever Drake, I could cook you like a bird if I wanted to,” you laughed, racing up the steps towards the kitchen ready to warm up some breakfast.

That afternoon you were helping Damian through homework hoping for any excitement in the pure boredom. “Alright, done. I’m going to take Titus out you can come- uh actually nevermind.” Damian shot you an apologetic look before grabbing Titus’ collar. “No actually I can go! I’m super warm and got the go ahead!” You quickly stood up, telling yourself a little getaway was necessary. “Really? I believe Drake said-” you cut Damian off, “Tim is like never right about anything yaknow? Let’s go!” You zipped up a couple of your jackets with a grin while Damian led you outside. 

The air was crisp, like a fall day that was on the verge of shifting into winter. “You’re not going to die on me are you?” Damian glanced at you while you breathed in the fresh air peacefully. “No haha, this is just regulating my temperature using my powers for a little while, I get ill when I do it for too long, let’s go!” you raced down the street loving the freedom even though you could feel the cold creep in. 

“Y/n? Y/n? Guys I think her eyelids are moving! Y/N! Can you hear me?” a familiar voice buzzed over the white noise while you began to regain your senses. Slowly you blinked your eyes open to see Damian, who looked pissed, Bruce, who also looked pissed, and Tim, who looked worse than ever. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING YOU LIED TO DAMIAN TO GO OUTSIDE THEN ALMOST DIED!” Tim was waving his hands and showing you charts of your warmth-cold ratios being at all time lows and spouting off concerning facts about your health while Bruce just looked at the ceiling asking ‘why me’. 

“I thought I’d be fine” you whispered, feeling your throat scream at it’s use. “It’s like freezing outside- freakin colder than winter- and you wanted to go outside???” Tim looked exasperated, he was in a loose tank top and shorts, it looked like he’d been sweating so he had probably been next to you for a while during your recovery. “I didn’t think I’d get so cold” you mumbled, flexing your hands while you tried to regain your strength. 

Eventually Tim calmed down, he went back to working on cases but you noticed him frequently checking to confirm you hadn’t left your new room. Damian chastised you for lying and told you how you essentially fainted a couple blocks into the walk, it was just way too cold too for you to function outside. But the small taste of freedom was worth it. 

“Hey hot stuff,” Tim gave you a little devilish smile at his new nickname for you. “Cute Drake, but what’s up?” you called back as he approached your makeshift oven-room. “Nothing much just thought I’d come hangout- warm up your cold dark heart for once” you shook your head at all his heat-centered puns. “Tough talk for a glorified shish-kebab” you said with a laugh, letting a little spark dance on your finger tips. 

“What does it feel like? The powers and being cold?” Tim asked, his eyes still staring at your palm. “Mhm it’s a part of me yaknow? So when it’s cold its like a piece of my being is being stifled, like choked out of me. But normally, it just flows through me and I can channel it and what not but right now it feels... rigid, like every ounce of warmth is being used to circulate through my own body” you said with a sign, missing the freedom and immense warmth. “We’re gonna fix this y/n you know that right? This is only temporary, I promise.” Tim whispered, inching closer to the glass. 

You felt a tear slip out, quickly you pushed it away feeling it evaporate in your hands you looked up at Tim who was inches from the glass, his cheeks were red from the heat radiating on him as he stood bundled in a sweater. Slowly he gave you a hopeful smile, putting his hand up against the glass. With a small smile you uncurled your hand up to meet his, for a second you just met his eyes and knew you were safe. Even when everything seemed so cold Tim was warm, and he was always there for you. 

A couple days later you were stable, but constantly needing reheating. You’d spent a lot of time with Tim who had set up a little workspace outside your room. He’d work on cases and talk to you, sometimes he’d catch a few minutes of sleep, his cheek pressed adorably up to the warm glass while you stifle giggles as his sleepy breaths fog the glass. Your situation was bearable with Tim, and you were really starting to enjoy his company.

“Red Robin we’ve got something” you watched Tim shoot up from his work as Bruce descended into the Batcave. “Barry Allen and the rest of Star Labs have reason to believe the frost machines aren’t actually underground, but their above us. Think pumping out cold air like an AC machine for the Earth” Tim nodded, sitting down at the batcomputer as he began typing rapidly. You were straining your neck against the glass to try to see what he was doing. 

“Got it, try here, here, and here” Tim was pointing wildly at a map while Bruce sent out the coords. “Suit up, if we’re right this’ll be a real fight” Bruce said as he left to go get the others. After Tim was in his suit he came up next to your room with a grin. You looked at him with hopeful eyes, “you think this is it?” you asked Tim while he flashed you a hopeful smile. “I hope so y/n, if we’re lucky this will be it” he answered, taking a deep breath and clenching his hands into fists. “Well you need extra luck” you told him, he nodded then stopped short when you burst out of the room, throwing your arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug. “My hugs are super lucky” you whispered into his chest while his hands wrapped around your back. “I’ll take all the luck I can get” he mumbled, lowering his head into the crook of your neck. The hug was easy and perfect- until you started to shiver. Quickly Tim deposited you back into your room, turning up the heat. 

“Guess I’m not hot enough for you” Tim snorted while you rubbed your shoulders. “Shut up dork, now go fix the world so I can give you a proper hug” you placed your hand against the glass again. With a nod he placed his hand to yours, “will do” he said, dashing off towards Bruce and Damian who were also all suited up. 

“Y/n I must inform you they have in fact found the base and will be going into battle shortly” Alfred called from the computers while he monitored the team’s location. “Yes!” you shouted, pumping a fist in the air while you paced around your room. 

The plan was clear, there were 10 giant AC machines pumping out the frost across the world, some heroes had been separated into teams each tasked with taking out their respective machine then any hero strong enough to lift the machines were in charge of bringing them to an undisclosed location on one of Bruce’s private islands for inspection and dismantling. Alfred had Bruce, Dick, Tim, and Damian’s vitals displayed on the screen as their suits were consistently monitoring them and you’d been craning your neck to keep track of the little bars. “god Alfie how do you take it? You can see every hit they take, every injury, you’re basically looking at it all going wrong!” you felt like tearing your hair out, watching the screen light up with every hit each boy took. 

“You get used to it Ms. Y/n you must have faith that they’ve seen worse and can survive anything” Alfred answered cooly but it didn’t stop you from wincing everytime Tim’s bar lowered or lit up meaning he took a hit. 

Over the comms you heard Bruce and Damian confirm their machine was sufficiently broken, as well as 8 of the other machines. As it turned out, Tim, Dick, and one of those annoying speedsters had been sent to the head machine, a few members of the league were at the other. You watched Tim take hit after hit, clearly him and Dick were struggling. “Alf is it just me or are Tim and Dick’s bars not going up” you were pounding at the glass of your room. Slowly Alfred nodded, abruptly standing up. To your shock he began moving around the cave, setting up what looked like a makeshift hospital room. “There will almost assuredly be some injuries after this battle. But how are you feeling Ms. Y/n as over half of the machines have been taken down” Alfred drew you away from the flashing bars as you realized you were feeling better, still not top shape but better than you’d been in days. “Yeah you’re right I’m definitely feeling better-”

“Hey Alfie Tim just got buried in snow any recommendations?” you heard Dick’s voice come over the speakers. Your head whipped to his bar which was flashing wildly as you shrieked. Alfred replied quickly, “Master Dick you must remove him immediately and wrap him with something warm as his suit cannot regulate him in freezing temperatures.” as he made his way back to the batcomputer, talking Dick through his next actions. 

“Will do, he’ll be okay but he’s kinda a popsicle right now” Dick’s voice came over the comms again while you let out the breath you’d been holding in as you saw Tim’s bar sliding back up. Shortly after they were aided by the rest of the league, promptly taking out the final machine and finding the villains hiding inside. 

Dick, Tim, and Damian returned to the cave shorty, Bruce was busy with league business interrogating the villains. Damian came in first, declaring he now hated the cold after how freezing that mission was. Following him was Dick who was walking with a slight limp as he called to Alfred explaining that he just twisted it when he dug Tim out of the snow. And last, Tim made his way into the cave. His hair was wet, clearly melted from being buried under snow. He was wearing a Star Labs sweatshirt and sweatpants as he held his waterlogged suit in his slightly shaky hands, and a towel was draped over his shoulders. “Alf you want my suit? Pretty sure I fried half the tech” he called as he shook his head, little water droplets flying from his hair. “I’ll see to it’s repair Master Tim” Alfred nodded, gesturing for Tim to place it next to him. “Also, might I recommend you spend some time with Miss Y/n as she is quite capable of warming you up” Alfred gestured towards your room before going back to examining Dick’s ankle. 

Tim nodded in agreement, giving you a little wave as he stumbled into the room with you. Letting the relief flood your head you quickly brought him into a warm hug, focusing on pushing some of your energy forwards to warm him up. “Mhm” Tim’s eyelashes fluttered shut against your neck while he melted into your embrace. “You’re so cold” you whispered with a giggle. “Yeah and you’re really hot” Tim groaned in reply, though you could feel his lips curl into a smile against your neck. “I think you meant warm” you tried to ignore the butterflies having a rager in your stomach. “Hm no I said it right” Tim whispered in your ear making your eyes widen at his upfront response. “Oh, I- uh, thanks? I think you’re pretty cool- no not cool cuz like that’s the opposite of hot- yeah you’re-” you were silenced as Tim pressed his lips to yours. Your eyes shot open at the feeling of his ice cold lips pressed to yours but they quickly fluttered closed when his hand wrapped around the back of your head, pulling you deeper into the kiss. His lips quickly warmed up against yours making your breath hitch when he slipped a cold hand around your waist pulling you flush against him. His fingers felt like ice as they grasped your back but you couldn’t but melt into his touch. 

You pulled away first, taking in gasping breaths while you couldn’t help but grin. “You warm yet?” you teased, pulling his hand away from your back and placing your hand in his, giving it a warm squeeze. “Mhm one more kiss” he pouted, leaning down to place a smiling kiss onto your lips while you scrunched your nose. “I should seriously freeze to death more often if it means I get to kiss you” Tim said while you rolled your eyes. “Or you could just not die and I might give you a good-job kiss?” you offered with a grin. “Will do” Tim nodded, giving your hand a squeeze. 

“Goodbye oven!” you shouted, practically kicking the door open as you finally got to leave the cramped room behind. Just a day later the Earth had returned to average temperature and you were free. “I am SO ready to go home, not that I didn’t like it here” you said, giving Tim a little smile as Bruce return all your belongings after a little over a week in Bat-Solitude. “Come back soon though?” Tim piped up with a hopeful looks. “Definitely, I won’t give you the cold shoulder” you snorted at your own joke while Damian groaned, saying something about being happy he’ll be free of your puns. 

Tim walked you out, chatting your ear off about his next cases and all the time he had to come see you, over the course of the frozen-adventure you’d found a best friend and possibly something more, maybe the oven was worth it after all? 

“Okay, so I’ll see you in a couple days?” you grinned as Tim nodded. “Yup! Now before you go, I need another good luck hug- they definitely work wonders seeing as last time I got buried in snow” Tim laughed, wrapping his arms around you as he chuckled into the hug. “Not my fault you turned into a snowman Drake” You gave him a squeeze before pulling away, locking eyes with him. His hand slipped to your chin again, but this time you wrapped your hands around his neck, pulling him in for a goodbye kiss, loving the way sparks danced on your lips. Pulling out of the kiss as the car arrived Tim opened the door for you like the gentleman he is, giving your hand a squeeze.

“See you later hot stuff” Tim winked at you, shutting the door and waving as you drove away, shaking your head at his never ending puns, you smiled to yourself as soon as he was out of view, loving the idea that you’d get to tease that cute dork for the rest of your life. 

#tim drake #tim drake x reader #tim drake x y/n #tim drake x you #tim drake x fem!reader #damian wayne #batboys #dick grayson x reader #bruce wayne #tim drake fluff #tim drake fanfic #red robin #red robin x reader #batfam #batfam x reader #dc fluff #jason todd #dc fanfic #timothy jackson drake

[cryinginblaseball]

1, 3, 15, 23!

Okay okay okay!

1. favorite fic you wrote this year

My favorite fic, and I think the best fic I wrote this year, is Hobbs Cain's Wednesday Night Nightmare Club. Hobbs helps Richmond Harrison and Eugenia Garbage process nightmares, personhood, and what family is through art. I was exploring Hobbs being an older sibling to Richmond, and how he protects him, and I also wanted to explore Eugenia's artistic side, very much inspired by mossy_kit on AO3. I think it's my most solid fic, and it inadvertently created my favorite BroT3, Hobbs, Richmond, and Eugenia.

3 is going under the cut because it's longer

15. something you learned this year

I wrote 14 blaseball fics this year. 14. And I did that by just sitting down and doing it, sometimes while I was working. Just getting them done. And I learned how much perfect is the enemy of good. It's more important to finish something than have a thing that's perfect. I absolutely owe that to Blaseball.

23. fics you wanted to write but didn’t

The original answer to this was the isekai fic about my blaseball OC, Oliver Trashcat, joining the Talkers in season 1. I scrapped that, but Oliver ended up in something else I'm working on revisions for right now.

SO! I think the ones I'm most excited about are stories exploring this most recent Short Circuits, which we called Valhalifax. A frozen community on a floating island, an anomaly in our universe, and of course my catboy witch son, Jasper Coven. I want to find Jasper's story so much, because though I've only known him for three weeks, I already love him more than certain family members. And the AU we've been poking at, The Salt, is just so cool. I'd love for Jasper to hang out with Observer Dot.

Okay, 3 under the cut

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

There's a lot of things I love, like Hobbs and Richmond finally getting to see each other again in The Hall, or Eugenia telling Greer Lott that, after everything, "maybe I just like you," or Alto telling Dot "let someone sacrifice for you for once."

But my favorite thing is this speech Lachlan gives to Dot while he cooks for her in Food Is An Act We Do For One Another:

"You've brought the meals," Dot said. "You don't have to stay."

Lachlan turned to them. "This is important," he said. He did his best to meet their eyes. He was horrible at it, but he wanted Dot to know he meant what he said.

Dot blinked. "But... why?"

"Years ago, before his restaurant sank with the old Halifax waterfront, my father taught me about food. Do you know what he said?"

Dot shook their head.

"Food is important," Lachlan said, giving the pan on the stove a shake and a flip, its contents sizzling away. "Food is community. He lived by that idea; you can build community with food, put it at the center of everything. But I realized something else.

"Cooking for someone is the ultimate act of expressing love. Because when you cook for someone, when you give them a meal, you are directly contributing to the continuation of their life." Lachlan turned back to the stove, tossing seasonings over the pan. It was just beginning to smell right. He grabbed a plate from Dot's cabinets and dusted it off.

"I'm not much on the team. I don't get hits very much. Orb knows I couldn't pitch to save my own life. Can't steal a base either, not that I've ever been good at stealing." He put a warm piece of flatbread down on the plate and began to fill it. "What I can do is cook."

The oven timer went off and he pulled the fries he had been reheating out. He had made them at home, just in case Dot did not have the deep fryer he needed. They had not. He finished wrapping the donair in tinfoil, like he had at Donair King, and plated some fries next to it. He pushed the plate to Dot.

"I love my team. We don't always get along, and I don't always feel like I'm doing right by them. And I'm not entirely sure we did right by you when we put you in front of the Monitor. But I do know this: We are all so glad you are back. We love you. I love you. And I want you to be with us for a long, long time."

Thank you so much for asking!

#blaseball #polkadotpatterson #canada moist talkers

[hopelikethemoon]

Mr. Mom (Javier x Reader) {MTMF}

Title: Mr. Mom Rating: PG-13 Length: 2800 Warnings: Mild Angst, but mostly FLUFF. Notes: You can find the Maybe Today, Maybe Forever Timeline here. Javier POV set in late March 1997. My Javier muse is yelling at me for the title of this chapter. It’ll make sense. Shoutout to @absurdthirst​ for this one and tomorrow’s.  Summary: Javier goes to the grocery store.

Taglist:  @grapemama  @seawhisperer @huliabitch @pedropascalito @rogrsnbarnes@thewallpapergoesorido @twomoonstwosuns @gooddaykate @livasaurasrex @ham4arrow@hiscyarika @plexflexico @readsalot73 @hdlynn @lokiaddicted @randomness501@fioccodineveautunnale  @roxypeanut @just-add-butter @snivellusim@amarvelousmandalorian @lukesrighthand @historynerd04 @mrsparknuts@synystersilenceinblacknwhite @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead @exrebelshocktrooper@awesomefandomsunited @ah-callie @swhiskeys @lady-tano @beskar-droids @space-floozy @cable-kenobi @longitud-de-onda @cool-ultra-nerd @himbopoes @findhimfives @pedrosdoll​

“What’s his name, daddy?” Josie questioned as she held up the stuffed dog that Javier had given her to occupy her interests while he tried to shop for groceries. If she didn’t have something to do she was prone to ask a million questions about everything he bought. 

The first trip to the grocery store had not been a success. He was used to going alone or having both of them there to play interference with her. 

“Let me see.” Javier said as he took the toy from her, he flipped open the red heart ear tag, “Doby. Doby the Doberman.” He passed the toy back to her. “If you behave for me, I’ll let you take him home.” 

“Did you know mommy wants a puppy? I can give it to her!” She cheered a little, pretending to walk the dog along the handle. 

He chuckled. “Ah, she’s gotten to you as well.” 

Javier couldn’t blame her. She was stuck at home all day while he was at the university. Josie was a handful to keep entertained, but she had to be lonely. He’d never known her to just sit around and do nothing and now she had to. 

Shit. 

He still remembered how despondent she had been in the short period of time after she’d been let go by the DEA. Numb. That was the best way to describe her. She hadn’t really snapped out of it until Danny’s wedding. 

Javier pushed the cart down the aisle, eyeing the shelves as he looked for some of their favorite easy-to-make meals. He didn’t want her having to stress about what she was going to make them for lunch or dinner. He didn’t want her to stress at all. 

That guilt weighed heavily on his shoulders. 

“Do you like Spaghetti-O's, JoJo?” Javier questioned, brushing his fingers over her hair to get her attention.

She looked up, scrunching her nose as she looked at the cans to her left. “Dinosaurs!” Josie squealed as she spotted the set of cans that had a dinosaur on them. “Daddy, please!” She stuck out her bottom lip. 

“I hear you.” He assured her, reaching down to pick up a couple cans. “You’re going to eat all of these and spare your mother having to make you mac and cheese for lunch every day.” 

“Okay!” She clapped, before her attention went back to the toy. “Doby says he loves you, daddy.” 

“Does he now?”

She nodded empathically. 

“Well tell him I love him too, princesa.” He smiled adoringly at her, before he started pushing the cart further down the aisle. Javier paused, grabbing a few cans of diced tomatoes off the shelf. 

“No licey beans.” Josie warned him.

“I’m not getting lima beans, Josie.” He assured her, even as he put two cans in the cart. She hated almost all things bean-related if they were green. It was a problem. 

“Okay daddy.” She smiled at him before she started whispering to the stuffed animal. “He’s gonna get them still, Doby.” 

Javier rolled his eyes and started further down the cart. She had certainly acquired her mother’s keen sense of observation. Did that mean the next one would be more like him? Saints preserve the kid that ended up like him. 

He grabbed two boxes of donuts off the end of an aisle as he made his way towards the cold food section to grab a few pizzas. They could just throw them in the oven and make them without much fuss. And she could always reheat the leftovers for lunch the next day. 

“Oh, Javier!”

Fuck. 

He recognized that shrill tone from dance class. Could he not have one moment of peace?

“It’s Miss Missy!” Josie pointed, rather dramatically, before lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper for Doby. “Mommy doesn’t like her.” 

“Josie.” Javier gave her a warning look and she scrunched up her nose. 

“Sorry daddy!” 

“Look at you, playing Mr. Mom.” Missy remarked as she approached his cart. He noted the way she put a little extra sway in her step. Ever since it had been pointed out to him that the mother’s at ballet had it out for him, he noticed how they often acted around him. Well, most of the time, otherwise he tried to avoid them.

Javier arched a brow, “I’m fairly certain I’m just being a father.” He opened the freezer door up, grabbing a box of pizza bites out. He hated when people made comments like that. Or that he was ‘babysitting’ his own kid. “How are you, Missy?” He questioned, realizing that the woman had no intention of leaving yet. 

“Oh, you know... “ She offered with an attempt at a charming grin. “We’ve missed seeing Josie at ballet.” Missy looked at him then, looking him up and down. “And more importantly, we’ve missed seeing you.” 

“Yeah,” Javier shrugged a shoulder. “We’ve had a lot going on with the move and everything.” He tried to move the cart forward, but she had a rather tight grip on the side of the cart. 

“How is the new house? Coconut Grove, right?”

He nodded stiffly. “It’s great. We’re excited about finally having a place that’s our own.” 

Missy tossed her hair over her shoulder, before looking around cautiously. “I heard about what you are going through at the university and I just wanted to let you know that I… understand.” She tilted her head and smiled sweetly. “And it’s okay… it’s not like the two of you are married. If you ever need to blow off steam—”

How dare she. 

“This conversation is over.” He snapped, pushing the cart forward with enough force that Missy had to let go of it. 

“Javier, wait! I didn’t mean any offense by it. Really. I was just trying to commiserate with you.” 

“Commiserate.” He exhaled heavily, fingers gripping at the cart handle until they turned white. “Look.” He started with a sharp tone, turning around to face the woman. “The woman I love is laid up in bed with a high-risk pregnancy right now… and you’re going to stand here — in front of my daughter, mind you — and say this shit? You’ve got some fucking nerve lady.” 

“Swear jar!” Josie called out, before descending into giggles.

It was hard not to laugh at Josie. She was rather committed to the bit she and her mother had started. 

But Javier was pissed off and not in the mood. 

“Don’t get me wrong… It really is sad, what she’s going through.” Missy offered with little to no actual sympathy. “Which is why I would understand… if the stress got to you.” 

He pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek, rocking his jaw. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Javier shook his head. “You live in a glasshouse, don’t you? Judging my relationship because we aren’t married. When you and the other bitc— mothers are married and trying to get in my pants. Don’t speak to me again.”

Missy opened and closed her mouth twice, before she took a step backwards. “Oh. I’m…”

“I don’t want to hear it.” He snarled, before he turned back to Josie and attempted to compose himself. “Tell Miss Missy bye.” Javier told her, brushing his fingers over her curls. 

“I’m okay.” Josie shrugged, her attention solely focused on Doby. 

 ———

 “We’re home!” Javier called out as he pushed the door open, letting Josie in ahead of him as he hauled the grocery bags into the house. It was still surreal to come home — to a place that didn’t have a flight of stairs or a parking lot filled with other people. To a house with a “Welcome Home” mat out front and a mailbox.

“I’m watching Romeo + Juliet. Don’t interrupt.” She called out from the family room, but Josie was already on her way to interrupt. 

“I got a dog!”

“That is a stuffed animal.”

Josie blew a raspberry. “I got him for you.” 

Javier laughed as he listened to the conversation, heading into the kitchen. 

“You got him for me?”

“Uh-hu.” Josie answered. “He will keep you safe while you’re in bed.” 

“That’s very sweet of you, sweetheart.” 

Javier sat the groceries down before he looked around the corner into the family room. “How are you feeling?” 

Josie was showering her in kisses, via Doby. 

“I’ve been better. I had a headache for a little while.” She offered a faint smile, pulling Josie onto her lap. “I think it’s the Lamictal.” 

“I’m sorry.” Javier wished there was something he could do to help her. The most he could do was handle things with Josie when he was home. At least they had Monica to help when she wasn’t in class, but he knew she was still under a lot of stress. 

“Did you get me Poptarts?”

“Yeah, you want one?”

She smiled at him, “Two, please.” 

“Is she an angel?” Josie questioned, pointing at the tv screen. 

“No.” She answered, kissing the top of her head. “Her name’s Juliet.” 

“Who’s he?”

“That’s Romeo.”

“Romeo-Sphagettio.” Josie giggled, flopping onto the sofa beside her mother. “We saw Miss Missy at the store.”

Javier folded his arms across his chest and frowned. “I owe the swear jar a few quarters.”

“Three.” 

She laughed, looking between the two of them. “What the heck happened?”

He shrugged. “Apparently the rumor has got around at ballet. I’m honestly surprised the DEA hasn’t cooked up a story that I’m sleeping with one of them.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Missy was running her mouth and I went off on her. Enough said.” 

“Oh, Javi.” She laughed softly, settling back on the sofa with a sigh. “Put up the groceries, make me a Poptart, and come join me.” 

“So bossy.” Javier arched a brow at her. “Maybe I will take Missy up on her offer.” He would never.

“Are you trying to stress me out?” She stuck out her bottom lip, doing her best attempt at a pout. 

“I think Josie could teach you a thing or two about that look.” Javier chuckled, pushing off the wall and heading back into the kitchen. He enjoyed listening to Josie asking her mother a dozen questions about the movie, while he put up the groceries. 

Josie was out like a light by the time he finished putting everything up in the kitchen. 

“I’ll put her to bed,” He whispered, passing her the plate of Poptarts before he picked Josie up carefully. She snuffled as she woke up, but she was quick to fall back to sleep when he tucked her in.

“How’s your Poptart, baby?” Javier questioned as he headed back out into the family room. 

“Exactly what I wanted.” She grinned at him. He loved the fact that a smile like that could still make his heart skip a beat. “And you remembered that I like the ones without icing.” 

Javier leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, before he collapsed onto the sofa beside her. He dragged his hand over his face and down his neck as he sighed. “We’ve got to find her a new dance studio.” 

She gave him a look, “What did you say?”

“Not nearly enough. If I hadn’t had Josie…” He shook his head. “I’m glad you’re not like them.” 

“I could be.” She teased, giving him a look. “I’ve tried to look elsewhere, but…. for some reason I’m really attracted to you.” 

Javier glared at her. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s hilarious.” 

“Is it?” He arched a brow.

She shrugged, popping the last of her Poptart into her mouth. “I think it is. I mean… we both had a bit of a reputation back in Colombia.” 

He grumbled, “I don’t want to talk about Colombia.” 

“I’m just saying…” She narrowed her eyes at him, before gesturing at the tv. “Sometimes you meet someone you’re willing to throw it all away from.”

Javier looked at the screen. “Aren’t they like thirteen?” He looked at her from the corner of his eye. “And they fucking die.” 

“You know exactly what I’m saying.” She moved in closer to him, resting her cheek against his shoulder, wedging her arm in between his back and the sofa cushion. “I knew what I was doing, Javi…” She whispered. “I’m just as guilty in this as you are… stop letting the guilt eat at you.” 

“It’s hard.” He admitted quietly, swallowing the lump in the back of his throat. 

“I know it is. But at this rate you will be grey when our daughter is born.” She told him, reaching up to brush her fingers through his hair. “We can’t both have high blood pressure.”

“I can’t lose you, baby.” 

“And I can’t lose you.” She kissed his cheek. “So quit worrying.” She traced her finger up his nose, pressing her fingertip against the line between his brows. “This could be the Mariana Trench.”

“You’re so weird.” He gave her leg a squeeze, before he looked under the pillow for the remote. “Let’s finish watching this. It’s due back tomorrow.” 

“I wish there was a way we could just watch these on the TV.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, like… a channel just to watch whatever movie you wanted to watch.” 

Javier huffed. “There’d be too many channels.” 

“Look, I’m spending a lot of time watching movies. I have ideas.” She rolled her eyes, chewing on her bottom lip. “Can you pick up From Dusk Til Dawn and Desperado tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll look for them. Balto for Josie, right?”

“Yep.” She grabbed one of the sofa pillows and rested it on his lap, before she settled down lengthwise and rested her head on it. “I hate being stuck at home—”

“Baby.” 

“— but this is nice.” 

He smiled as he brushed his fingers through her hair. “I wish I could be here more often.” 

“Someone’s gotta pay the mortgage.” She pointed out. “Ow.” She winced a little, readjusting how she was laying on her side. “Your daughter is kicking again.” 

“Yeah?” Javier grinned as he looked down to where she was rubbing her stomach. “May I?”

“Of course you can.” She grinned up at him, though it was tinged with a slight look of discomfort. 

He reached down and rubbed his hand over her side, before he slid it around to rest against her stomach. It took a moment before he felt the fluttering movement of the baby beneath his palm. 

“She's quite the kicker.”

“It’s hard to stay seated all day when she's kicking at my bladder.”

Javier played with her hair. “You’ll have me all weekend… except when I have lesson planning for next week.”

“I’m really okay.” She promised him. “And it’s nice having Monica to help. I made her unpack my clothes.” 

“Yeah?” Javier questioned, half-heartedly watching the movie. 

“It’s going to take me forever to get back in shape.” She complained quietly, resting her hand on her stomach. “I feel bigger than I was with Josie.”

“Remember what the doctor mentioned.”

“I know.” She sighed. 

“Baby, you’re perfect just like this.” He promised her. “And you'll be perfect after.”

She huffed and laughed. “You just like having proof that you got me knocked up twice.”

Javier chuckled, brushing his fingers over her temple. “Isn’t that what the kids are for?”

“Touché.” She rubbed at her forehead. 

“Headache?”

“A little. I’m fine.” She sighed heavily, staring at the TV. “Do you think she’ll look like Josie?”

“Who?”

“The puppy. Obviously, I’m talking about Sofía.” She reached for his hand, bringing it to her lips to kiss her palm. “Speaking of which… I’d prefer a mature dog.”

“You really want one don’t you?”

“I almost adopted one in Colombia.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “It was when I was with Lance. He was super great about it, not being a dog person, but ultimately he drove home the idea that I’d probably have to leave them behind if I ever went back to the states.”

“Are you trying to guilt me into getting you a dog?”

“They’re great for stress relief.” She rolled onto her back, looking up at him. “And we’ve got a fenced in backyard.” 

“Maybe.”

“We could get Monica to watch Josie.” She suggested. “The shelter is open on the weekends.”

“Are you sure it won’t add to your stress?”

“That’s why we should get an older dog. They might be more settled with the change.” She smiled hopefully. “We can name the dog Steve and torture him.”

“I like the way you think.” Javier smirked, leaning down to kiss her lips gently. “They’re not sleeping in our bed.”

“Famous last words.”

He rolled his eyes. 

How the hell had he become this man so easily? Colombia either felt like a lifetime ago or just yesterday. But it was still hard to fathom how naturally this life had been built up around him. 

He was a man with a badass partner, a daughter and another on the way. They had the house with a yard and no white picket fences in sight. A Jeep Grand Cherokee parked in the driveway that had stickers baked onto the inside of the back windows. 

And now… he’d been convinced to get a family dog. 

Everything he’d once run from. 

Now he couldn’t stand the mere thought of losing it. Of losing her. 

#javier pena #javier pena x reader #pedro pascal x reader