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0606-hyuck · 3 years

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first kiss forum

♡ everyone has their first kiss eventually. sometimes, you just have to create an online forum to find the right one. and sometimes, the right one is not at all who you expected it to be.

genre: fluff, a tiny bit of angst if you look hard enough, university!au, friends to strangers to lovers!au

paring: na jaemin x female reader

word count: 3.5K

a/n: i have never had my first kiss b4 so the description of it might be a bit off lol but i tried. this is unedited btw. my masterlist is here!

tagging: @nct-writers

Everybody has their first kiss eventually.

First kisses are described as an experience every young girl yearns for. An experience classmates sit around in a circle and proclaim their excitement for, and gossip about their own stories. Something that, for some, was everything they'd ever hoped for and more - for others, a memory they’d rather forget.

A first kiss was something you had not had yet.

At the age of twenty-one, you were getting to the stage where your lack of romantic life was veering towards concerning. Now in your third year of university, you really thought that by now you would have at least had your first kiss. Or a boyfriend. Or even held someone’s hand romantically, for god’s sake!

You weren’t one to rush into things, though. You didn’t see the point in trying your hardest to get a boy’s attention when you were perfectly fine without it. Some people you knew couldn’t stand being single - for you, it was all you’d ever known. Sure, you’d wanted to be in a relationship before, but you’d always prioritised your education and grades over hooking up with people at random frat parties in the weekend.

The only problem was, your last remaining single friend, Asi, had gone and found herself a man, and was now just as loved up as everyone else. She was the friend you’d hang out with when everyone else was on dates with their significant other, the friend you’d roll your eyes with when your other friends were going on and on about the latest cute thing their partner had done for them. Now, you were all alone, with no one to save you from the clutches of boredom or second hand embarrassment.

You were happy for your friends - of course you were, all you wanted was for them to be content in their relationships - but it was worrying you that boys had never really shown an interest in you. You didn’t think you were ugly - in fact, you had a healthy level of self esteem - but you’d never had anyone confess their feelings for you like your friends had. You were starting to wonder if there was something wrong with you. Were you really that boring that no boys wanted to talk to you? Were you just that unlikeable?

Before your train of thought plunged itself off the rails and into a deep pit of self loathing and pity, you reminded yourself that you were, in fact, likeable. Boys had liked you before, of course they had - you were great! Only, it had been a long time since someone had had a crush on you.

Na Jaemin had been the first boy to show a serious interest in you, back when you were both just sixteen years old. Jaemin was that boy in class that all the girls had a secret crush on. He wasn’t necessarily good looking in an “oh my god he’s so hot!” kind of way, but his bright smile, eyes that shone with curiosity and amusement, and cheeky personality had you hooked on him since the first time you’d met him.

You’d been classmates with Jaemin since you were fourteen, and you’d had a crush on him for just as long, but it took a few more years for him to return your feelings. It was only after you were paired up for a science project together that you actually started talking to each other and becoming friends. Jaemin was virtually a massive ball of sunshine in the classroom, and ever since you were paired up together he always made sure to include you in conversations, games, and the friend groups he was in. It was a few months after your science project that you heard little snippets of conversations from his friends - rumours started circulating that Jaemin had a crush on you!

When you brought it up with him, expecting him to brush it off as a joke his friends had started to embarrass him, you were utterly shocked when he admitted the rumours were true. He told you outright that he liked you, but didn’t expect or want to pressure you into feeling the same way back, so he simply grinned and walked away before you could respond.

A few days later, he came into class carrying a yellow flower. You’re positive every single girl in your class had their eyes fixed on Jaemin as he walked up to your desk and placed it in front of you. The flower was frayed and browning at the edges, and it appeared Jaemin had simply ripped it out of his own back garden, but it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for you.

After that, he constantly invited you to hang out with him and his friends at the local arcade or basketball court. He was never embarrassed to have you around, and would always make sure you felt comfortable and were having fun above all else. Soon, you would hang out together, just the two of you. You never established what your relationship was, but you both knew you were best friends, and that Jaemin liked you and you liked him just as much.

And then, he left.

Just like that, Jaemin was no longer a student at your school. You heard from his friends that he’d transferred to another school a couple districts over. He left without saying a word to you, and you weren’t even upset. You just wondered what would have happened between you two if he’d stayed.

Bringing yourself back to the present, you finally focused on what Asi was saying. It was when your best friend was going on a tangent about how lovely her new boyfriend was that you made a decision. If you couldn’t get your first kiss the conventional way, then you had no choice but to resort to unorthodox methods.

You were going to create a first kiss forum.

It was simple, really. Create an online forum with some crucial questions - name, age, why they wanted to be your first kiss, etc - and then send it off into the online world. It took you less than thirty minutes to decide on the questions, create the forum, and then post it on a facebook page followed by students from your university. You honestly felt a little embarrassed that you were going through this much effort all for a first kiss, and you were worried about what people would say in response to your post, but after an hour all the comments people left were either them being super supportive of your initiative or people tagging their friends to apply for the position of “first-kiss-taker”.

Now all you had to do was sit back and wait a couple of days for the responses to roll in.

“So, have you checked the responses to your forum yet?” Asi asked, reclining back into the sofa in your living room and grabbing a fistful of crisps. When you’d told her your plan to create the forum, Asi was hesitant. She didn’t believe you needed to go through all that effort just to get a first kiss - according to her, first kisses weren’t even a big deal anyway - but once she realised your mind was set she did everything in her power to be that supportive best friend you needed.

“Not yet,” you sighed, fiddling with your phone in your hand. “I’m just nervous, you know? What if no one wants to be my first kiss, and they only applied because they thought it would be funny?”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out, Y/N. Crack that bad boy open and let’s go through some of the responses!”

You’d refrained from checking the forum since you’d posted it thus far, but at this point it had been quite a few days and the hype your post initially received had died down. Pulling up the forum on your phone, Asi leaned over your shoulder while your jaw hung open in surprise.

“Asi, are you seeing this?” You managed to stammer out. “53 responses? That’s so much more than I was expecting. I thought I’d get, like, five at the most!”

“Damn, that is a lot,” Asi replied, beaming at you. “Now let’s narrow that 53 down to one.”

Huddled together over your screen, you and Asi spent the next few hours deciding between the applicants, searching for your ideal first kiss taker. “How about this guy, Taeyong?” She suggested.

“His responses to the questions were sweet,” you agreed, and then blanched. “Asi, he’s 25! I don’t want to have my first kiss with someone that much older than me!”

“Okay, so someone close in age with you....hmm, how about this dude, Donghyuck?”

Glancing at the screen for a second, you shook your head. “Did you see his response for the ‘why do you want to be Y/N’s first kiss’ question? He said ‘because I have a corruption kink’. No thank you.”

“God, you’re so fussy, Y/N!” Asi joked, shoving you lightly with her shoulder, although your focus was back on the applicants.

“How about this guy? He simply put his name as J but his responses are so heartfelt,” you pointed out. “In response to the ‘why do you want to be Y/N’s first kiss’ question, he said ‘have you seen her? Y/N is literally a goddess sent down from the heavens and a first kiss is a beautiful experience for both parties and one I would love to share with her’.”

“Oh, so this J is a sweet talker then, huh?” Asi grinned. “I think you’ve already made your mind up, then. Go ahead and message him, he sounds like a good guy!”

And message him you did.

“What the hell am I supposed to wear?”

Today was the day you’d agreed to meet this mysterious J and have your first ever kiss. After selecting J out of all the applicants, you’d messaged him with the good news that he’d been chosen. J seemed really excited, and you’d been talking with him every day leading up to when you would finally meet him. The lucky guy seemed almost perfect for you. Somehow, J knew exactly what to say in response to your messages, and every time you checked your phone you were smiling because of something funny he had said. He was genuinely sweet, and you don’t think you could have made a better choice when it came to your first kiss taker.

Only now, you had spent too long fretting about your outfit and you were running slightly late to your meeting with J. You’d both agreed to meet at this cute little park down near the subway station close to your university - somewhere public, so you felt safe, but also somewhere that was relatively quiet and offered you some privacy. J had sent you pictures of himself before, but only pieces of his appearance - a mirror shot with his face covered by his phone, a corner of his eye and forehead, his hair - nevertheless, you still felt confident you’d made the right decision and that J was the right person for the job.

You sent J a quick ‘I’m here now, sorry I’m late’ text once you reached the park, and headed towards your agreed meeting spot. There was an old bench secluded under a wide cherry blossom tree that you’d decided to meet J at, and because it was over the other side of the park you picked up your feet and increased the pace.

You only slowed down when you spotted a figure, already sitting on the bench under the tree. As you got closer, you realised it was a male, around your age, dressed in a knitted brown sweater and black jeans. His light brown hair was wavy and brushed back from his face, and he appeared to be clutching something tightly in his hands. He looked vaguely familiar from this distance, you thought, but you figured it was because you were finally seeing his face in real life, rather than piecing it together through random selfies.

That was, until you were close enough for him to notice you, and turn around to say, “hi, Y/N. It’s nice to finally meet you again.”

Standing up from the bench was Na Jaemin, your former best friend and crush, holding a bunch of yellow flowers between his hands. Of course J was Jaemin, that was just your luck.

You and Jaemin hadn’t left on good terms. Back in high school, back when you were best friends with him, Jaemin was very popular. He seemed to do everything right - from hotspotting your classmates to helping them with their homework, Jaemin was loved by everyone because of how caring he was. You were lucky enough to bear the brunt of that kindness when you were his friend, but you were also young and prone to jealousy.

Not only was he loved by everyone, but Jaemin seemed to love everyone back as equally as much. His innate ability to charm literally everyone he talked to - from classmates to teachers to parents - was something you’d loved about him at first, but soon became the bane of your existence. You found it hard to share Jaemin’s attention with everyone else in your class, and, although you knew Jaemin liked you the most, in your eyes it seemed like he was treating your classmates the same way he treated you.

You started questioning whether Jaemin actually liked you at all, or if you’d just read too much into the situation. You tried to ignore the sweet smiles and kind compliments he gave other girls in your class, and looking back now you realised he was only being friendly and that’s just who he was as a person, but you were starting to slip into the poisonous grasp of jealousy and feel like you were no more special than anyone else.

One day you decided to confront Jaemin about how nice he treated everyone, and how it made you feel like he didn’t behave towards you the way someone would to their crush, and he did not take that conversation well. You don’t blame him, not really, considering you essentially told him to stop being so nice to everyone and focus on you instead. Jaemin said he wasn’t going to stop being kind to people because you felt jealous, which upset you even more, and you didn’t talk to each other in the days following your fight.

When Jaemin left your school, you two were still very angry at each other, so he didn’t tell you he was having to leave. Quite frankly, you didn’t care. Jaemin could suck it, at that point. If he insisted on treating you the same way as your classmates, who he didn’t have a literal crush on, then he didn’t deserve you at all. You felt like a whole lot of weight and unnecessary jealousy was lifted when Jaemin left, but as you got older you started to wonder how your relationship would have turned out if you hadn’t been so damn immature.

It’s funny, really. When you were sixteen, you thought Jaemin was going to be your first. Your first boyfriend, your first kiss, your first love. And here he was, five years later, offering to give that to you.

“I got you flowers. I remember they used to be your favourite,” Jaemin spoke, flashing you a soft smile as he held out the bouquet of flowers to you. Now that he was standing next to you, you noticed all the traces of the sixteen year old version of him that you were familiar with. Although he had gained an extra half foot in height and lost the chubbiness of his cheeks, he retained the stunning smile and bright eyes that you fell in love with all those years ago. He really was handsome now.

“So, you’re J?” You managed to say, confusion and surprise evident in your voice as you took the flowers. You took a seat back down on the bench and Jaemin followed your lead, sitting closely beside you.

“That I am. Sorry I wasn’t honest with you about who I was,” he admitted. “I figured you probably wouldn’t meet up with me if you knew who J really was.” You lifted the flowers up to your nose and took a long draw of the flowery scent. Jaemin was right, that infuriatingly attentive bastard, they were your favourite.

“Right. And yet you still applied to be my...first kiss?”

Suddenly, you felt very embarrassed to confess you’d never had your first kiss before. Jaemin was gorgeous, and there was no way he was in the same boat as you, you thought as humiliation flooded through your body.

“Uh yeah, about that,” Jaemin chuckled, a blush appearing on his cheeks. Hold up, why was he blushing? “When I saw your post about the first kiss forum online, I was so surprised that you’d never had your first kiss before. I kept thinking, if we hadn’t stopped talking to each other we probably would have been each other’s first kiss back in high school.”

He paused, and glanced at the ground, unable to keep eye contact with you. “I feel really bad, you know. With how things ended between us. We never dated, Y/N, but I really liked you. When I moved to my new school, I wanted to message you and tell you all about it, but because you never messaged me I thought you didn’t want to talk to me.”

Your breath caught at Jaemin’s words, and you felt a wave of guilt wash over you. “That’s not true,” you revealed, and he finally looked up at you again. “I was so angry at you, yes, but I missed you so much, too. I wanted to talk to you, but my pride stopped me from messaging you first. If you’d sent me a text I would have replied.”

“I nearly did. When I finished high school, I was going through all my old subject books and found a note you’d written me. It was so childish, something about how you would love me forever, with a stupid little love heart beside it, but I suddenly had the urge to wrap you in a massive hug and tell you I was sorry, and that I forgave you. I was going to message you that day, but we hadn’t talked for years and I thought you would find that weird,” Jaemin said sadly.

He let out a loud sigh, and replaced the very sorry look on his face with a bright smile. “I’ve had my first kiss already, but when I saw your forum I thought it wasn’t too late to give you yours!”

“Wait, what?” You furrowed your brows, your brain still processing the fact that Na Jaemin missed you as much as you missed him, if not more. “You actually want to be my first kiss?”

“Of course! I couldn’t give it to you when we were sixteen, but it’s not too late to make up for past mistakes, Y/N.” Jaemin placed a hand over your own and pulled it closer to him, wrapping you in his warmth. “Y/N, I would be honoured to be your first kiss, if you’ll have me.”

Unsure as to how to reply, and transfixed by how seriously Jaemin was taking this whole ordeal, you simply nodded your head eagerly. His eyes lit up with pure happiness when you gave him the green light, and Jaemin turned on the bench so you were facing each other directly. He placed a hand lightly on your jaw and tilted your head upwards - not with force but with a dominance gained only from having kissed others before - and searched your eyes for any signs of resistance, finding none.

One minute you were gazing back into Jaemin’s rich brown eyes, and the next his lips were on yours, pressing softly against your mouth. It was like an alarm went off in your head, screeching to you that your childhood crush, your first love, was in fact actually kissing you and this wasn’t a figment of your imagination. Using his palm to tilt your head slightly to the side, Jaemin deepened the kiss and you grasped for his forearms as he increased the intensity by parting your unpracticed lips. Tremors passed from your head down to every single fibre in your body, and through the pleasure and dizziness you were vaguely aware that you were kissing him back. Kissing Jaemin was exactly how you imagined it would be, yet it was a whole new experience at the same time. A perfect mix of familiar and foreign.

After a few long moments, Jaemin released your lips and leaned back, a smile equal parts bashful and smug crossing his face. His face was red, and you weren’t quite sure whether it was from a lack of air or because of what you’d just done together, but what you did know was that you couldn’t think of someone more perfect to share your first kiss with.

“So,” Jaemin grinned. “I think we have about five years worth of kissing to catch up on.”

#neowritingsnet #cznnet #nct-writers #dreamwritersnet #nct #nct dream #na jaemin #jaemin nct #nct jaemin #jaemin #jaemin x reader #jaemin scenario #jaemin imagine #jaemin fic

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wroteasongabouther · 3 years

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can’t stand to see you lonely: part 2

a/n: thank you all so so sooooo much for the love on the first part of cstsyl ❤️ i hope you guys like part 2 just as much, and please reblog/leave me any feedback if you can as if really just makes me smile and helps with the engagement and blah blah blah u know the drill lol

and thank you to the lovely jill @havethetimeofyourstyles, jess @arrogantstyles and wendy @bookwormandtea for beta reading for me!

word count: 15k

warnings: mentions of death, couples fighting, awkward silence in elevators, and addicting candy cane pretzels.

fic page // let’s chat! // cstsyl playlist

They were fighting again. Y/N’s voice was booming through the walls, her boyfriend’s echoing after hers. Harry tries his best to focus on anything but their voices, but he can’t. It doesn’t make him feel all that great listening to the girl he had only seen smile and had been making laugh over the past two weeks, now yelling on the other side of the wall between them.

Harry plucks a soft melody on his guitar as he lounges on his couch. His hands absentmindedly playing the four chords that have been stuck in his head all morning while he attempts to write lyrics to the melody. Only, he was having a bit of trouble doing so as he listened to Y/N’s voice again.

“Honestly, Mark! Really?” Y/N’s shouting is muffled, but Harry hears her still. “You really think that it doesn’t bother…” The rest of her words are a bit harder to hear as she quiets her voice. Harry never imagined he’d hear her raise her voice like that. That soft, sweet and gentle tone that he has spent dreaming about for weeks now.

Harry’s still plucking the chords he’s grown obsessed with, humming along while zoning out on the blank tv in front of him. He feels selfish, and rather ridiculous too, not wanting to imagine Y/N with another man. But he also feels selfish that he’s not upset over the fact they’re fighting for the third time in two days. Harry shakes his head and scolds himself for the thought. Regardless of his feelings, he shouldn't want Y/N to feel this way. He can tell these couple days must’ve been hard on her, working all day and then coming home to only end up in a yelling match with her prick of a boyfriend.

Harry rolls his eyes and notices that the shouting has stopped. The silence of his apartment, aside from his guitar, only makes him feel a bit sadder.

“I’m selfish, I know,” Harry sings, “but I don’t ever want to see you with him.”

Suddenly, his phone chimes from where it’s sat on the table, signalling an incoming phone call from Mitch. A picture of the two of them together in the studio last spring shows on the screen, Mitch tucked under Harry’s arm as they’re both slouching into the couch they sat on. Harry reaches for his phone and swipes his finger across the screen to accept his call.

“Hey,” Harry mutters into the phone, focusing on getting together his notebook and cleaning up the few torn crumpled pieces of paper littering his coffee table.

“Hey, you leaving your place soon?” Mitch asks. Harry can hear traffic in the background, meaning that he had already left his place that's located much closer to the studio than his own apartment is. Moving his shoulder up a little, he holds his phone between his ear and shoulder in order to use both hands as he sets his guitar into the open case that’s sitting on the chaise lounge of his couch. Then scrambling around to gather the scrap paper and glass of water he had, standing up with his trash in hand to throw away and glass in the other to put in the sink.

“Just about to,” Harry answers honestly, making his way into his kitchen to clean up. He sighs after clearing his hands and returns his phone to his left hand to hold now.

“You get busy with that neighbour of yours again. Got a new crush, H?” Mitch teases him. Rolling his eyes, Harry brushes a hand on his light wash jeans before patting his pocket to make sure his thin wallet was still there.

“No,” he mutters, obviously lying to his best mate - which Mitch is very aware of as he hums in response. “I’ll be there in, like, 20 if the tube isn’t a horror show.”

“You’ve lived here for nearly 3 years now, think you can call it the subway yet?”

“Nope,” Harry sighs. There were a few things his British instincts kicked in for; many different phrases and words he knew would stick in his vocabulary despite how many years he’s been in the U.S. Harry’s grabbing his green winter coat and slipping on his boots as he holds the phone between his shoulder and ear again. “Should I grab the gang some coffee on my way? Seeing as I’ll probably be the last to arrive,” Harry says in a tight voice, his annoyance from hearing Y/N and her boyfriend still clear even in his phone call with his mate.

“Don’t count on it. Tom hasn't answered his phone all morning, so something tells me he’s preoccupied,” Mitch suggests. Harry recalls the text he had gotten from his friend Tom, saying that he and the Missus were planning to celebrate their anniversary early this year. Mitch seems to be hinting that their celebrations have fallen into the morning too. Harry bets that Tom being MIA was because of his two children. The two of them knew how to gang up on their dad already at a young age—he couldn't imagine how they’d be when they grew up.

“He’s a dad, Mitch, that's probably what he’s preoccupied with,” Harry states. After putting on his coat, he walks over to clasp the case for his guitar closed and heaves it up before heading for the door.

“Point being, don’t bother with coffee. I’m in line at Starbucks anyways. Did you want anything?” Mitch asks.

“A slice or two of the banana loaf, please,” Harry requests, his stomach growling at the thought of food. Time had slipped by him this morning, listening to Y/N and her boyfriend argue, and he hadn’t eaten more than an apple for breakfast.

Harry double checks the lights are off in his apartment before shutting the door behind him, setting his guitar down to rest on the wall to his left, and locking it quickly. Mitch is complaining in his ear about some Karen at the front of the line. Harry chuckles at his friends colourful words and picks up his guitar, not sparing a glance at Y/N’s door as he walks to the elevator and hits the down button to call it to his floor. Not even a ten seconds go by and he hears someone exiting their apartment behind him. Harry doesn’t want to look over his shoulder to check, not wanting to see Mark and Y/N walking hand in hand towards him. So, he keeps his eyes trained up on the red numbers rising above the elevator doors, signalling it’s arrival, soon hopefully.

“Hey, Harry right?” Mark questions, pointing a finger at Harry as him and Y/N stepped up to the elevator. Y/N tries her best not to frown. She hates the way Harry doesn’t smile at her first before meeting Mark’s eyes and nodding.

“Hey,” Harry says. He turns his head and catches Y/N’s gaze. “What are you guys up to?”

Y/N knows he’s simply being polite, something Mark wouldn’t care to be - seeing as he’s already got his phone out of his pocket, and is staring at the screen as he answers. “Y/N’s driving me to the airport,” he states.

Harry looks at Mark, anger bubbling inside of him as he clutches the guitar case in his hand. The elevator doors open then, a light bing! coming from inside. Mark enters first, not even bothering to look at Y/N or Harry, but then Harry waves his free hand in motion to let Y/N walk in before him. She smiles and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear as she walks into the small space and stands beside Mark.

“Thanks,” she says in a soft voice as Harry hits the button for the lobby. She takes note of the guitar case in his hand. “Are you heading to the studio?” She asks, pointing to the bulky item he’s carrying.

Harry looks down at his guitar case, “yeah, last day before everyone gets their break.”

“No more counting down the days then, huh?” She asks, mentioning their previous discussion about how people typically countdown the days till they have time off - her included this year. But Harry had mentioned that he wasn’t looking forward to his days away from the studio. He didn’t think she’d remember that.

“Counting the days till I’m back in the studio now,” Harry says. Y/N smiles and Harry’s heart bursts at the sight. Having heard her raised voice earlier today, being sure a scowl was etched on her face, he was glad to see her lips turned upward. Mark clears his throat then, causing both Y/N and Harry to quit looking into each other's eyes and step back into reality - her boyfriend was right beside them.

“Studio? What are you, a singer or something?” Mark asks Harry. His eyes catch sight of Mark’s arm snaking around Y/N’s back, resting lazily on her left hip as they stood there. Harry licked his lips and almost nodded, but was quick to catch himself and shook his head instead. “What kind of studio then? Movies?” Mark continues to question him.

“A music studio, I’m just a musician,” Harry answers.

“Oh,” Mark says, “cool,” he adds with a shrug. The elevator doors open and Mark guides him and Y/N out of the small space. “Well, see ya around, ‘Arry,” Mark says with a smug look, trying to mimic his accent. But he butchers it, of course, sounding more like Hagrid from Harry Potter. Mark then waves and turns himself and Y/N to the right of the lobby that leads to the stairwell that went down to the underground parking lot.

Y/N only gets to give Harry a quick smile before Mark turns her away. She wants to apologize for Mark’s ridiculous behaviour, feeling embarrassed by it. She also wanted to say that Harry wasn't just a musician, he was a songwriter too, which therefore meant he was a storyteller, and in her eyes songwriters were some of the most creative and talented people. Y/N wanted to shut Mark up and start bragging about Harry, like he was her boyfriend and Mark was just some dumb prick.

Y/N rolls her lips into her mouth and licks them, glancing quickly over her shoulder before getting to the door. Her eyes meet Harry’s intense stare, him looking over his shoulder at her too, and her stomach erupts with butterflies. But then it flips and flops with nerves and her hands suddenly being tugged on by her boyfriend, holding open the door with his hip as he walks them through the doorway and out of Harry’s sight.

Harry finds himself thinking about Y/N the whole way to the studio—as if he hasn’t stopped thinking about her and her boyfriend over the past couple days anyways. Did she ever mention being in a relationship, even in the most subtle way? Did he misinterpret her kindness for flirting like an absolute idiot? These questions were on a loop inside of his head until he walked into the studio, flashed the front desk his ID badge, and headed to studio B where he and his mates would be working today.

“And he’s made it,” Mitch announces as Harry pushes closed the door and walks the few steps to his left where the brown leather couch was against the wall. Adam is sitting on the couch, the phone in his hand chimes as he types on it quickly, merely giving Harry a quick smile before looking back at the screen. Mitch is standing by the switch board, leaning back against it as he stares Harry down. Next to him is Tom, sitting in his chair and facing his many computer screens as he gets everything up and going for the day.

“And I see we were both wrong and Tom beat me,” Harry states. He sets his guitar down, leaning it against the side of the couch before sitting himself down beside Adam.

“I wasn’t answering my phone because I was already on my way over here way before any of you slowpokes, and then I turned off my ringer once I got in here,” Tom explains, leaning back in his chair while his eyes stay on the screen. But then he twirls around, facing Harry and Adam, and gives Adam a bored look. “Like we all agreed to do, right Adam?”

“Relax, I’ll do it after I send this last text,” Adam says.

“Sure,” Tom mutters, swivelling his chair back around and grabbing the mouse to continue his set up.

“Jeez, Tommy,” Mitch chuckles, “did you not get any last night or something? What’s got your panties in a knot?”

Harry’s eyebrows pull down as he takes in his friends stiff posture as Mitch’s words seem to sink in. “Wasn’t it your anniversary date last night?” He questions, keeping his voice light and not as daunting as Mitch’s had been.

Tom turns back around to face the boys and makes a big show of rolling his eyes. “Yeah, it was supposed to be, but then our babysitter called and was all freaked out and of course Jenny got all freaked out too. I tried to tell her it wasn’t that big of a deal and they could handle it, but we still ended up leaving our hotel room at nine o’clock and dealt with our two crying children who just missed their mommy. I was in bed by eleven.” Tom explains his night, ending with rubbing a hand up and down his face as he was clearly annoyed by the whole situation.

“That’s just life as a parent, man,” Adam states. “Emi and I didn’t have a single date night till Spike was five,” he adds with a shrug.

“Yeah, I get it but it’s just upsetting to have this whole night planned and then it not happen,” Tom says. Harry knew that feeling; he may have not had a full anniversary night away planned like Tom did, but the other day he was racking up things to do with Y/N before he was introduced to her boyfriend.

Harry zones out, eyes glued on the coffee table in front of him as he sighs softly, leaning back into the couch as he was getting wrapped up in his thought of Y/N, again. I could still be her friend, he thinks. Even though it’d hurt to see her with her boyfriend, to hear about a date night or see them kiss. The ache already begins in Harry’s chest as the mere thought of it, and he finds himself bringing a hand up and rubbing over his heart subconsciously.

“Harry,” Mitch calls, forcing Harry to snap out of his thoughts and look up at where he stood. He raises his eyebrows, making Harry think that he had said his name more than once but was ignored.

“What’s going on?” Tom asks Harry.

“He’s probably thinking about his latest little crush,” Mitch smirks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Who is it this time?” Adam asks in a monotone voice.

“His new neighbour. Supposedly, she’s rather beautiful in Harry’s eyes,” Mitch teases.

“Not just in my eyes,” Harry mumbles, looking at his lap and picking off an invisible piece of lint.

“What do you mean?” Tom questions.

Harry hears Tom’s chair squeak suddenly, making Harry assume that he must be leaning back in it again. Harry looks up to see he’s right - Tom’s got his arms crossed at his chest like Mitch while they’re both staring him down. Harry lets out a sigh and shakes his head, leaning further into the back of the couch while he licks his lips and looks anywhere but at his friends’ faces - not wanting to see their taunting looks when he tells them.

“She’s got a boyfriend,” Harry says in a low voice.

Mitch inhales a sharp breath, hissing through his teeth as he walks over and clamps a hand down on Harry’s shoulder. “That’s tough man,” he says.

Harry shakes his head again and sits up, causing Mitch’s hand to fall off his shoulder. “It’s not just tough. I get I have these crushes on people a lot, but I don’t know, there was just something different between us. We really clicked and I just thought we’d at least get to go out a few times,” he speaks softly into the quiet room,the support of some of his closest mates surrounding him.

“Have you written about how you’re feeling?” Tom asks. Harry nods and reaches for his guitar without a second thought, taking it out of the case and positioning the instrument in his lap.

“This is gonna be good,” Mitch nods his head and rolls over the second chair that occupied the room. Harry shakes his head at his friends comment.

“I’ve just had this tune in my head for a couple days now, and I’ve only come up with a few lyrics really, so I don’t know how good it will be,” he explains.

Harry plays the song he’s been playing all morning for the other three in the room. The soft acoustic guitar fills the silence, the twang from his guitar strings echoing off the walls. Harry shuts his eyes and lets his voice build up as he sings the two lines he’s been thinking about for a few days now. He feels it deep in his chest, the truth behind his words. Suddenly, more lyrics filter out of his mouth that hadn’t come up before.

“I’m selfish I know,” he sings, “I’d tell you but I know you’d never listen.”

It’s not entirely the truth, because he’s sure that Y/N would listen to anything he had to say. He’s also sure that if he walked up to her right now, ran out of this studio and back to the apartment and waited outside her door, begging for her to break up with him, that she wouldn’t listen. Harry believes that she’s a better person than that - that regardless if she felt what he had over their past few encounters, she wouldn’t listen to what he wanted and would figure things out herself.

“I hope you can see, the shape that I’m in,” Tom suddenly sings along to the tune that Harry’s still playing. Harry opens his eyes in a flash and looks at his friend, but Tom’s back is already to him as he’s facing his computer again. “I have the perfect piano and drums mix for this. I’ve had it kind of hidden away for the right time and I think this is it.”

And that’s when the magic happens. Harry puts down his guitar and gets right into the lyrics, pouring himself into yet another song. He lets his feelings out about the situation he’s gotten himself into with Y/N, and mixes it with some poetry he’s written previously in his journal. You flower, you feast, is something he’s had for quite some time but had never felt it really fit into any of his other songs. And yet somehow in this song full of duck noises, a guitar solo, and many lalalala’s, it somehow found its place.

Not to mention that Mitch absolutely murders the guitar solo. His long hair acts as a curtain as he sways to the music and lets himself go. Nearly every time that Mitch goes in for a solo, he doesn’t remember what he plays because he’s in such a trance, so Tom has to play it back for him if he needs to fix anything up. Overall, the song inspired by Y/N and her shit boyfriend is pretty great.

“Anything else you’ve got to bring to the table, Harry?” Tom asks after nearly six hours of working on perfecting their new song ‘Woman’ - named solely because of the repeating of the word in the course, which was chosen because he felt like he was calling out to Y/N in this song. Saying woman over and over again at her in hopes to get her attention. He simply shrugs and stretches back into the couch, sprawling his legs out in front of him while staring down at his journal that’s sitting in his lap.

“I’ve been writing this one based off a man I see everyday during my breakfast at the cafe down the street from my apartment,” he says. Harry clears his throat and sort of talk-sings what his idea of the melody is with the lyrics he’s got. “Nine in the morning, man drops his kids off at school. And he’s thinking of you, like all of us do. Sends his assistant for coffee in the afternoon, around one thirty two.”

“Alright, I like it,” Adam nods his head.

“Who’s he thinking of?” Mitch teases, “like all of us do,” he adds with a smirk. His lips then wrap around the straw that was in the can of Pepsi he had gotten from the mini fridge a while ago. Harry rolls his eyes and kicks out his foot in order to nudge Mitch’s leg from where he’s sitting in the desk chair he’s gotten comfortable in.

“Shut up,” Harry grumbles. Adam, Mitch and Tom all chuckle at their friend’s pout, which just makes him smile. He knew that coming into the studio and writing and making music about his situation with Y/N would ultimately make it feel even a little bit better. During the making of their newest song, his friends did give him some advice.

“If it’s meant to be, it’ll work out, H,” Adam had said with a smile.

But there’s no way of knowing how he’ll feel when he bumps into her again, whether she’s with her boyfriend or not.

It’s been a tough few days for Y/N. Not only has work been crazy because not one, but two interns got sick with a stomach bug; meaning she was currently filling their job on top of her own and running around the city - but she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Harry.

She is in her own head again as she walks into the Gucci store on Fifth Ave. for the third time in two days. As Greg approaches her, she appreciates his light pink suit with a white ruffled shirt underneath. His bald head shines under the lights of the store, but that smile was much brighter and obviously, professionally whiten. Greg gives her a kiss on the cheek, saying they are a bit behind with her packages since it’s such a busy time for them as well. Y/N just nods and gives him a smile, accepting the flute of champagne as she takes a seat and waits. This is honestly the first time she’s gotten a chance to sit all day, but of course, she spends it zoning out on a sparkly dress hung up a few feet away from her as her mind begins to think of anything but work.

Mark and her started dating only a mere four months ago. After meeting at a bar in the Upper East Side, he practically stalked her - which isn't too hard considering her social media following - and sent her flowers to work for three days straight till she agreed to go on a date with him. Turned out that he wasn’t just some business man out on the town with some work buddies, but an heir to one of the country's biggest companies. Therefore, meaning that when the gossip started of the two of them seeing each other, Y/N’s mom was the first person to call.

“You hit the jackpot, baby!” She basically screamed into Y/N’s ear.

Y/N only rolled her eyes at her mothers words. Her mother was the typical New Jersey girl that grew up with big dreams of pinning down a wealthy New York City man - and kudos to her for doing it. Her dad, bless his heart, was an older naive man who somehow managed to fertilize her mother’s gold digging eggs and voila, Y/N was born. But with that being said, Y/N was lucky enough to have family money, so she never felt the need to be in a relationship just because a man had more in his bank account. She also had better morals than her mother, and knew that money wasn’t a factor when you really loved someone. So no, Mark was not the jackpot because of his bank account. Y/N just thought he was really nice and attractive too, so she agreed to be his girlfriend those four months ago. But it wasn’t till a month ago that that nice streak ended.

All of a sudden Y/N’s cell phone is ringing. She blinks out of her daze to realize she’s finished her glass of champagne while so deep in thought. Pulling out her phone, she looks at the screen to see it’s Mark calling. His ears must be burning, Y/N thinks.

“Hey,” Y/N answers softly, crossing a leg over the other and resting her elbow on her knee as she holds the phone to her ear.

“Hey, babe,” Mark sighs. Y/N knows right away what he’s about to tell her, all by the tone of his voice and the use of that nickname. He used it when he asked her to drive him to the airport yesterday, which he forgot to mention he needed her to do till an hour before he had to leave - resulting in Y/N being very behind on work for the day.

“How’s Arizona?” Y/N asks politely anyway, mentioning the state he was in for business this time around. He was always traveling for work; his father wants him to know all the branch executives, so therefore he’s been to pretty much every state in the country over the course of six months. The moment they started to date Y/N knew he’d be working a lot, but she didn’t expect him to be working all over the country. She’s lucky if she gets a weekend with him, and honestly, she was looking forward to the almost two weeks work free they’d be getting together. But something told her that was not going to happen.

“It’s good, hot,” he says, seeming distracted by something in the background to which he moves the phone away from his mouth to respond to someone around him. “No, no, not those, the red ones,” he orders.

“Mark?” Y/N questions, keeping her voice down as Greg and one of his associates come from the backroom then with a few boxes in hand. “I’m just a bit busy with work, was there a reason for you calling, hun?”

“Right…Well, unfortunately my time at the Arizona office will be extended. So, I’m not going to make it back to New York before Christmas,” Mark explains. Y/N frowns at his words even though it’s just as she imagined when she answered his call.

“When will you be back?” She asks, her eyebrows pulled together and lip pouting out slightly.

“That’s the thing, there’s really no point in me flying back to the East Coast so close to the holidays when I’ve got to be in Los Angeles for my family’s big festivities.”

“Oh,” Y/N says. She’s only sad for a moment, noticing that Mark is distracted by something in the background once again as his voice is muffled. “So when exactly are you planning to come back to the city, Mark?” She asks as she sits up and projects her voice louder into her phone. Greg and his associate seem to notice Y/N demeanour change, his baby blue eyes widening slightly as he sets the boxes down on the couch beside her.

“I don’t know-”

Y/N doesn’t let him speak, though, her anger getting the best of her for what feels like the millionth time since she began dating Mark. It’s so unlike her, she thinks. She shakes her head and says, “you don’t plan to come back to New York and spend any part of the holidays with your girlfriend? Your girlfriend who very much loves the holidays, by the way.”

“I’m aware of your love for the holidays, Y/N, little hard to not know when your apartment looks like a four year old decorated it with all that crap,” Mark huffs into the phone, his voice matching her tone.

“Oh my god, whatever, Mark,” Y/N snaps in a low voice, having to take a deep breath as she stares down at the floor. “Just go and have fun on the West Coast, don’t worry one bit about me ‘cause it seems you haven’t bothered to to begin with,” Y/N finds herself seething into the phone, keeping her voice low before pulling her phone away from her ear and hanging up before he can say one more thing to upset her.

She shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath. Focusing on making her heart beat slow down and her hands to stop shaking. Did she just break up with him? No, no I didn’t say the words, I didn’t say it’s over and maybe I should have, Y/N thinks while letting out another short breath through her nose. She did not deserve this and she knew she didn’t, and yet she keeps putting up with his extended work trips and him disrespecting her opinions. Mark wanted a woman like Y/N’s mother. One that didn’t have her own hobbies and her own dreams, and who just wanted to be on his arm and live with whatever he put them through. Or did she even give him a real chance? That little voice in the back of her head, the one that was planted by her own mother, asks her.

“You look like you need another glass, mi amor,” Greg says softly, bringing her to open her eyes once more and realize that she did in fact just have a fight with her boyfriend over the phone in public. In front of a supplier too. Her cheeks heat up with embarrassment. Thankfully, she thought of Greg as more of a friend than in a professional view. She smiles at him, forcing it, while he holds up the bottle of champagne and fills her glass.

“Thank you,” she says quietly.

“You’re welcome,” he nods, turning to his left to grab the second tall glass and fills it as well. Y/N chuckles as he brings it to his own mouth and has a sip. “What? The holidays are stressful, I deserve a glass too every once in a while.” Y/N only laughs again and raises her flute, Greg lifts his own to cheers her before they both take a sip. “Did you want to talk about it?” He asks after a beat of silence.

Y/N licks her lips, tasting the expensive champagne all over again. “It’s just,” Y/N sighs and runs a hand through her hair before she continues, “I thought that Mark was different when I first met him. He sent flowers to my work and took me to nice restaurants. He seemed to be really into me, and now, he’s really into his work and he thinks my love for the holidays is childish, and that my opinions and my time don’t matter. So, I’m starting to think I jumped into this relationship, maybe a bit too fast all because my mom approved of his last name and Sammy thought he was hot.” Y/N rants in a rush of words, bringing her flute to her lips afterwards for another sip.

Greg doesn’t respond right away, instead he too sips his champagne and looks around the room they sat in. He sighs and brings a hand down on Y/N’s thigh, causing her to look at him. He smiles and gives her a comforting pat.

“You are a young woman in New York City who’s really got her shit together, you know your worth, Y/N,” Greg says. Y/N mirrors his smile, feeling the back of her eyes threaten with tears at his sweet words. “You’ll know what to do about this man,” he adds with a wink. Greg removes his hand and lifts his flute to finish off his champagne. “Plus, men are trash anyways,” he mutters as his eyes wander around the room that’s quickly filling up with customers.

Y/N laughs, “yes, Greg, they can be.” She agrees. But there’s one man that comes to her mind. One with enchanting green eyes, beautiful dimples, a contagious laugh, and a certain swoon worthy accent.

And yet, Y/N is not surprised when her thoughts drift off to Harry again. In fact, she thinks about him the entire way back to her office, the few boxes from Greg in her arms as she travels on the subway and walks carefully on the slushy shovelled snow that covers the sidewalks. What is he up to today? She thinks, knowing that he must’ve gotten home from the studio late yesterday - maybe even this morning. She worked late on emails last night, only having her Christmas playlist playing softly from her TV, and she didn’t hear him get home. She wonders if he sleeps in when he does that, or if he still manages to get up early and do whatever it is he does every day. She doesn’t know his daily routine, but she admits to herself that she’s curious.

Having done the errands that were needed for the day, Y/N ends up sitting at her desk for the remaining three hours of her work day. Her and Amanda go over new interns to hire, seeing as Y/N’s boss doesn’t want her away from the office doing intern work forever. And then she and Sammy are walking out of the building together at five o’clock sharp. They endured yet another eleven hour work day today. And this was one of the easiest days this week, since it was spent shopping around and organizing the office. Tomorrow there would be two A-list clients coming in for their last styling of the year, both finalizing their outfits for the upcoming Grammy awards too.

“You seem off today,” Sammy says as they walk down the stairs to the subway.

“I, um,” Y/N licks her lips and narrows her eyes at the screen that reads when the next stop would be. She looks at her friend and sighs. “I got into a fight with Mark earlier,” she states.

“Another one?” Sammy questions, raising a brow and giving her a look that said ‘really?’.

“Yup,” Y/N says, rolling her lips into her mouth and nodding. “He’s too busy with work to come back to the city for the rest of the month, said he doesn’t see the point in coming back even for a day before he has to go back home to the West Coast. So, I ended up yelling at him in the middle of the Gucci store.”

“Are you for real?” Sammy asks in shock, his eyes widening as Y/N explains what her boyfriend had told her earlier.

“Yup,” she repeats, nodding her head again too. “Oh, and he said my apartment looked like a four year old decorated it and it looked like crap,” Y/N chuckles, realizing now how stupid Mark’s fighting words were.

“Y/N,” Sammy sighs, “dump him,” he says while placing a hand on her shoulder and giving her a sympathetic smile. “I get that you wanted to give this guy a chance, but all you guys ever do is fight and I don’t want to say it but I’m going to,” he sighs again dramatically, “I’ve seen you smile over that new neighbour of yours more than Mark in the past few weeks. That’s a sign.”

“But what if I didn’t give Mark a real chance? And what if I’m just playing Harry up in my head-”

“No, none of that,” Sammy shakes his head and stares deep into Y/N’s eyes. “You are the most polite and sweetest person I’ve ever met. There’s no way in hell you didn’t give Mark a chance, hell you gave him a million chances, let’s face it. And as for Harry, you’ll never know unless you get to know him.”

Y/N rolls her eyes as Sammy drops his hand and tilts his head to the side. She notices the platform getting busier and louder then, as the subway makes way towards them from the North. This was her ride, while Sammy had to wait another ten minutes for the one that went to Brooklyn. Y/N thinks about what Sammy had said. Maybe she did give Mark plenty of chances and maybe their time was up, but that doesn’t mean she feels comfortable jumping right back into the game of dating with Harry. Plus, how bad would that make her look. Harry would probably think she didn’t care about relationships and typically shuffled around boys, which was so far from her case. In fact it was why she was so hesitant to date Mark in the first place - she didn’t like to give her time and love to just anyone. It’s just too bad she didn’t realize that Mark wasn’t worth it sooner.

“If I’m just getting out of this relationship with Mark, I can’t just start dating Harry,” Y/N exclaims to Sammy.

“I didn’t say date him right away, I said get to know him,” Sammy states, “hang out, be his friend, and if things happen then they happen. The world works in funny ways,” Sammy says matter of factly, pointing a finger at her while she starts taking a few steps towards the subway that’s coming to a stop. “We’ll talk later! Dump the fucking guy though!” Sammy shouts as Y/N just shakes her head and rolls her eyes while getting into the mass of people cramming on the subway.

“Yeah, dump the son of a bitch,” a croaky voice startles Y/N as she gets through the door. An elderly woman is smiling back at her, her yellow teeth contrasting against her dark skin as she smiles wickedly at Y/N. She chuckles awkwardly and nods, walking across the space to an open seat.

Opening her purse, she finds her Airpods and puts them into her ears. They connect to her phone automatically and she begins to tap on her phone, deciding on which playlist she wants to listen to on her way home. Once she clicks shuffle on her ‘girl freaking power’ playlist, she turns it all the way up and lets the anger in Halsey’s voice fuel her own anger towards her shit boyfriend. She thinks of their fights that have happened recently the whole ride on the subway, then she thinks if it’d be too cruel of her to break up with him over the phone as she walks the few blocks to her apartment building. If he broke up with me over the phone I’d be a little upset, Y/N thinks with a frown as she walks across the lobby to the elevator.

Y/N, who was so in her own world with her music still turned up all the way as a new song by Olivia O’Brien, doesn’t even realize when Harry walks up beside her. He can hear her music blasting through her earphones. He leans forwards a bit, hoping to get in her line of sight. But she is still focused on the elevator doors, nodding her head to whatever song she’s got playing. Harry’s lips tug up into a smile. When he first saw her standing there when he entered the building he got a little nervous, unsure how this interaction between them would go. Should he apologize right away for not knowing she had a boyfriend and asking her for dinner?

“Hello?” Harry sings. “Y/N?” He calls in a normal voice. This time she seems to notice that someone is beside her. She jumps slightly, placing a hand over her heart and reaches up with the other to take out an Airpod which causes her music to stop completely.

“You scared me,” she breathes out.

“Sorry,” Harry says, giving her a timid smile. “I tried getting your attention a few times, it must be a good song.”

She looks down at the earphone in her hand and nods, “uh, yeah, just really into empowering female music today.” She states.

Harry hums and nods, then the elevator opens, revealing a few people inside which causes Y/N to step towards him as they move out of the way. If he hadn’t taken a step back fast enough she'd practically be right up against him. He breathes in and smells her perfume, the intoxicating scent of rose filling his nostrils with her being so close. Y/N gives a quick ‘you’re welcome’ to the people who step out as they thank them for moving before they both step into the elevator together. Harry was too busy thinking about how close Y/N had been to step up and hit the number six button before he could. He gives her a smile in thanks.

The elevator begins to ascend as the space falls into silence between them. They’re both overthinking. What should I say? Is what is on both their minds as they pass the first floor, and then the second. Harry lets out a short breath through his nose before leaning his back against the railing.

“I’m sorry for being so clueless,” he states, pausing when Y/N’s head whips up and her eyes meet his. “I didn’t think you’d have a boyfriend and I just didn’t think twice before asking you if you wanted to get dinner,” he says, finally getting the thought off his chest.

Y/N furrows her brows, “and why did you think I wouldn’t have a boyfriend?” She asks, teasing him, but Harry’s face falls and he stands straight once again, bringing both his hands up and waves them in front of himself as if in surrender.

“Not that you’re like not pretty enough for a boyfriend, or nice enough, cause to be quite honest I would be surprised if you didn’t have a boyfriend cause you are like the prettiest girl I’ve ever met and not to mention really nice and super cool too-”

“I was just teasing you, Harry,” Y/N stops him. But his words had caused quite the feeling inside her stomach, butterflies were multiplying like it was nobody's business while she swore she felt her heartbeat in the soles of her feet.

“Oh,” he breathes out, “right. Well, still, I’m sorry.” He casts his eyes down to the floor, feeling his cheeks warm up from embarrassment. The elevator sounds a quiet bing! as the doors open for them on the sixth floor. Harry lifts his eyes to meet Y/N’s once more, motioning with his hand for her to exit first. She smiles and walks out with him right behind her.

Y/N doesn’t say anything till she’s at her apartment door, her key in the lock, and she notices Harry is at his door a few feet away. She sighs and stops twisting the key, letting her shoulder sag as she looks over at Harry.

“I’m sorry too, by the way,” she says. Harry looks up at the sound of her voice, thinking she was simply going to take in her apology and go about her merry life with Mark. He watches her tongue dart out and wet her lips as she leans into her door. “I should have mentioned Mark, even just in a quick comment, but honestly our relationship is sort of new and even a little non-existent at times, it seems, so I guess I was just enjoying making a new friend. I didn’t even think about it,” Y/N explains herself.

Harry takes in her words; that her relationship is new, and non-existent? He wonders what she means by that. But he can’t help but smile at her mentioning that she enjoyed becoming his friend. Harry nods his head and let’s his smile grow wider, knowing his dimples would show.

“I’d like to keep being your friend,” Y/N adds, “if that’s okay?”

“It’s totally okay,” Harry nods. Y/N smiles and nods back.

“Okay,” she says softly.

Harry fits his key into the lock without looking, keeping his eyes on Y/N’s as he notices her cheeks glowing a shade of pink. “How about a movie night? Tomorrow? If you’re not busy, of course,” Harry suggests, twisting his key and unlocking the door.

“I think I’m free. It’ll have to be Christmas themed, of course,” Y/N says, narrowing her eyes as if to challenge Harry to fight her on it - like Mark would.

“Well, yeah,” Harry scoffs, eyebrows pulled together and head shaking in faux disbelief. “Wouldn’t have it any other way during the month of December,” he adds.

Why couldn’t I have moved in like six months ago? Y/N thinks to herself as she smiles at Harry. She finds herself liking him more with every word that comes out of that pretty mouth of his. If only she had met him before she met Mark. Things would be easier, that’s for sure.

The two of them agree on a time for tomorrow, six in the evening, before saying their goodbyes and walking into their homes that were side by side. After Y/N takes off her shoes and coat, she walks towards her bedroom to get changed into some workout clothes for a quick at home video before she ate dinner. Just as she’s changing she hears the muffled sounds of Harry’s guitar - something she’s grown fond of hearing through their shared wall. Maybe she’ll get him to play her something tomorrow, she thinks with a smile.

Y/N makes her way back into her living room and starts up her workout video. She does some jumping jacks to get her warmed up, but honestly, her heart is already pounding in her chest from her interaction with Harry and the plans they have made. Without a doubt she knows she’ll be counting down the hours during her work day tomorrow till six o’clock.

Elf or Polar Express? Both were very different Christmas movies, and they were the two she was torn between taking over to Harry’s. They hadn’t talked about who’s apartment they would hang out in, but as it was ten minutes to six, she hoped to get out the door and knock on his first, in order to get the chance to ask him to play his guitar for her maybe. But that’s not how it’s going to work out because Y/N’s too busy being stuck between two of her favourite movies when suddenly, there’s a knock at her door. She frowns knowing that it’s Harry and wouldn’t get to hear him play guitar, but gets up from where she was sitting crossed legged on the floor to answer the door.

Her fuzzy socks pad across the hardwood floor as she walks to her door, peering through the peephole quickly to double check to see it was Harry. She smiles at the sight of his floppy brown hair and unlocks her door before swinging it open. Harry looks up as she opens the door, meeting her gaze for only a moment before he watches her take in his apparel.

He had thought about it for way too long, what he was to wear to hangout and watch movies with the girl he liked, but ended up staying dressed down as he was all day. Y/N liked how the plain white shirt he wore fit him, only a small brand logo that was over his heart, but she really liked the pastel rainbow coloured sweatpants he wore too. He looks comfy and ready to lay back and relax for a few hours with her. He’s not wearing any shoes though, which makes Y/N furrows her brows for a second.

“I didn’t really see any point in putting on shoes for the few feet out of my apartment,” Harry states quickly to let her know. Y/N nods, chuckling under her breath, but understanding what he means. She steps back and lets him into her home.

Harry takes in the atmosphere of Y/N’s apartment for the second time now. The glow from her many Christmas lights makes him feel warm inside, and her Christmas tree was the focal point of it all. He likes the odd ornaments that are littered among the branches, and he can’t quite make out what they all are, but something tells him that they each hold a special meaning to Y/N. Maybe some from her childhood, others from some trips she’s had - he could see her collecting them from anywhere she’s travelled to. Harry makes a mental note to ask her at one point.

“I was thinking of making some hot chocolate, and I have a bag of, like, this candy cane and white chocolate pretzels that I’ve been obsessed with lately and was going to munch on that during the movie, but I have a bunch of other snacks too, honestly,” Y/N starts to explain to Harry. He turns on his heels to see she’s already locked her door and is now moving into the kitchen.

“I’m cool with some hot chocolate,” Harry nods, “and I’ll give the pretzels a try, they sound good.”

“They are so good, oh my god,” she moans at the mere thought of eating them. Bending down to open her bottom drawer, she reveals a well organized array of munchies that looked like a stoner's heaven.

As she’s ruffling through the drawer Harry takes in her outfit. She’s got on a pair of Christmas themed pajama bottoms with little snowflakes scattered along the dark blue material that matched with her plain dark blue shirt. Her hair was thrown up into a messy bun, wispy hairs falling around her face as it looks as though it’s been up all day and she hasn’t cared to fix it. Overall, she looks comfortable and at ease - as she should be in her own home. He had wondered if she ever dressed down, seeing as he had only ever seen her after a day of work dressed in trendy high fashion, but somehow casual clothing. Christmas pajamas suit her, he thinks with a smile.

Y/N gets a hold of the bag of pretzels she’s talking about and opens it, taking one out for herself right away to bite down on before turning to Harry who’s standing in her kitchen. She smiles at the pretzel and lifts the bag to him. Harry takes a few steps towards her before reaching into the bag and grabbing one for himself. He brings it to his mouth and Y/N watches for his reaction. His jaw flexes as he chews down on the sweet yet salty treat.

Harry hums and nods, reaching into the bag again, “not bad,” he says before chewing on another one. Y/N smiles and passes him the bag all together, turning towards the stove top to turn on the kettle already filled with water.

“Can you find two mugs in that cabinet?” Y/N asks Harry as she looks to her left and sees him standing in front of the cabinet that held her many mugs and glasses. She points to it and Harry nods. He puts the bag of pretzels down after sneaking one last one into his mouth, and opens the cabinet door to reveal Y/N’s collection of mugs. He goes for the two at the front, which were Christmas themed, of course; one shaped like the Grinch and the other like Santa. As he sets them down on the counter in front of him, beside the bag of pretzels that he sticks his hand into again, he notices a glass container full of brown powder that he assumes is her hot chocolate mix.

“Is this your hot chocolate mix?” He asks, just to be sure.

“Yes,” Y/N nods, “I honestly make myself a cup almost every night during the colder seasons.”

“Are you a coffee or tea person?” Harry asks, keeping his eyes on the container as he twists it open and sees a metal teaspoon measuring cup inside already. He starts to scoop some into each mug as he waits for Y/N’s answer. Although he is very aware of her possibly liking coffee, considering how he’s seen her with many Starbucks cups before.

“Yeah, I enjoy both too. I have way too much coffee during my work days, and tea reminds me of the days at my grandparents,” she explains, watching Harry scoop her preferred amount of mix into each mug without even asking. She smiles softly, seeing him reach for yet another pretzel too.

“Are you saying tea is for old people?” Harry questions, raising a brow as he peers at Y/N in the corner of his eye. Y/N rolls her eyes, a smile still on her lips. Her kettle begins to squeal into the air, but she’s quick to turn and take it off the heat. She turns off the stove and uses a tea towel to bring it over to the mugs - Harry steps back out of her way, but not before grabbing the bag of pretzels.

“Old people and the British too, of course,” Y/N teases.

Harry chuckles, “of course,” he says in agreement. He waits till Y/N fills the mugs and sets the kettle back down on the stovetop before he steps back to the counter and wraps a hand around the handle of the Grinch mug. Y/N is quick, stepping towards him and gently slapping his hand.

Harry flinches his hand away and raises a brow at Y/N, jokingly taken back by her action. Y/N bites down on her bottom lip to prevent herself from giggling over how cute that look on his face was.

“I have whipped cream that’s in a can, but it’s still good,” Y/N states, giving him a look that said ‘back off and let me do this’. Harry only chuckles again and nods. “Also slow down on the pretzels, if I don’t get any during the movie I’ll be very upset.”

“They’re addicting, sorry,” Harry mumbles through his mouth full of pretzels, a smile tugging at his mouth.

“Trust me, I know. That’s like my fourth bag this week, I swear,” she states with a chuckle.

As Y/N walks to her fridge Harry steps up to the mugs once more and takes a chance on the drawer directly under them for a spoon. His instincts are right as he pulls the drawer open to see her utensils; he grabs a teaspoon in order to stir the hot chocolate. Y/N turns back from the fridge with the whipped cream can in hand, turning around to see Harry focused on the mugs. She smiles, tilting her head as she watches him nudge the drawer closed with his hip, and begin to stir the contents of them till the powder was all mixed in with the water. Look at them being all domestic, she thinks. Licking her lips, she shakes her head a little and walks up to Harry, shaking the can of whipped cream and waits for him to finish stirring. He sets the spoon in the sink and watches as Y/N tops off the mugs with a heap of whipped cream.

“You better actually eat the whipped topping this time,” Harry says to her teasingly, referring to when they had hot chocolate in the park, and she let her whipped cream melt. Y/N chuckles and brings the tip of the whipped cream can to her open mouth.

She puts pressure on the top again and makes the sweet cream pile into her mouth as she tips her head back, the aerosol can is the only noise in the room as Harry watches her do it. His breath catches in his throat and he blinks several times as he imagines an entirely different scenario with this whipped cream can and her mouth. Y/N brings the whipped cream away from her mouth and swallows, watching Harry do the same thing - did she make him feel uncomfortable? She thinks to herself as she licks her lips and looks down at the ground. Don’t overthink it, don’t overthink it, she thinks while walking back to the fridge to return the whipped cream to the shelf. When she turns back, she sees that Harry has both mugs in his hands.

“Maybe I should just have both of these, since you’re probably full from that mouth full of whipped cream,” Harry teases her, bringing both mugs to his lips, acting as if he’s going to slurp up the whipped topping that’s nearly flowing over the side.

“Absolutely not,” Y/N gasps, reaching forward quickly for the Grinch mug, but Harry moves it out of her grasp faster.

“I want the Grinch one,” he says with a slight whine to his voice. Y/N can’t stop the giggle this time, blushing afterwards as she thinks of how freaking adorable he is.

“Fine,” she sighs and takes the Santa mug from him instead.

Harry grins and lets her lead the way back into her living room, the bag of pretzels in his other hand. Y/N sets her mug down on the coaster on the coffee table, just like she had with her glass of wine the last time Harry was over. He watches as she sits cross legged on the floor in front of her tv stand. Y/N grabs the two movies she was debating over earlier in each hand and lifts them up for Harry to see. He loves them both of course.

“Which one? I can’t decide,” Y/N states. Harry hums and lifts his mug to his lip to slurp up some whipped cream.

“Elf,” Harry answers, “I’m in a Will Ferrel comedy kind of mood,” he adds.

“Alright,” Y/N chuckles under her breath and turns away from Harry to open her DVD player and then open the case for Elf. He liked that she had the movies on physical DVD, not just clicking away on a streaming app. She places the DVD in the player and then closes it again before standing up quickly and skipping over to the couch, plopping down excitedly but gently that Harry isn’t even scared that he’ll spill his hot chocolate.

“We can watch the other one next time,” Harry suggests, feeling brave in the moment as the trailers start to play softly on the screen and Y/N is reaching for the remote that sat on the coffee table. She looks at him and smiles.

“‘kay, yeah, next time,” she pauses but then points the remote at Harry. “But next time you’re hosting, I feel like we should switch it up sometimes,” she adds and waits to see Harry nod with a smile before she turns to the TV and gets to the main menu of the movie.

“Fair, I just think my place lacks the holiday cheer that we would want,” Harry explains. Y/N stops her from hitting play right away and leans back into the couch, flopping her head to the side to look at Harry. He’s still holding his mug, which reminds her that her own is sitting there untouched, so she sits up again and grabs it.

“Well you know what would fix that?” She questions, bringing the mug to her lips and slurping up some of the whipped cream that was in fact already melting. Harry watches her as her eyes are glued to her mug, focused on not spilling it over the sides it seems.

“Decorations?” He asks, still watching her. He smiles as she licks her upper lip that’s covered in melting whipped cream.

“Exactly,” she nods enthusiastically. She takes another few sips of her hot chocolate before leaning back into her couch once again, getting all snuggled up before lifting the remote to the TV and hitting play.

“I’m not really good with decorating - my sister and mom did my apartment to be honest,” Harry admits. Y/N watches the opening scene of one of her favourite Christmas movies, feeling all giddy inside as it’s the first time she’s watching it this holiday season. She gets like this every year with every holiday movie.

“Well, I can help you out. Maybe we can do a little trip to Target before our next movie night. Then do a quick set up and then watch the movie after,” Y/N suggests, nervously peering over at Harry over the rim of her mug after. She doesn’t know if she’s crossing a line or anything. She just wants to spend more time with him, even if it’s just as friends.

Harry gives Y/N a half smile, one of his dimples making an appearance as he looks into her eyes. He would love that, honestly. The idea of them wandering through the Christmas isles at Target as she gives him advice on what decorations would go together and fit his apartment style; they would set up the decorations after and he’d watch her be in her element. Maybe he’d put on some Christmas music and hope she would dance around. Harry gives Y/N a short nod.

“I like that plan,” Harry tells her.

Y/N smiles and nods back at him. “Then it’s a deal, we’ll set a time after the movie. It’s about to get good,” she says, looking back at the TV screen again as Will Ferrel’s character makes his appearance.

“The whole movie is good,” Harry states.

“Shh,” Y/N hushes him, taking another sip of her drink and keeping her eyes on the movie. Harry smiles and watches her watch Elf. He notices her hand gently tapping the cushion between them after a moment. Harry chuckles under his breath and nudges the bag of pretzels open, taking a few for himself before facing the bag her way. Once she’s got one between her teeth she feels completely content.

She’s got a cup of yummy hot chocolate, her favourite snack, Christmas lights are twinkling around her, one of her favourite Christmas movies is playing, and she’s with good company too. In fact, she finds herself not once thinking of Mark the rest of the night. Even in her dreams, it’s Harry, again.

They exchanged phone numbers. It’s not a big deal, Harry thinks to himself as he gets a third text from his newest contact in his phone. But it felt like a big deal; it was an easy way to get a hold of her whenever he needed to or wanted to even. Not that he would just bother her for no good reason. As much as he’d like to text with her all day, he knows that they really just exchanged phone numbers in order to plan to hangout easily. Like for today, Y/N had a long work day, but still wanted to take Harry Christmas decor shopping, so she was asking him if he could just meet her at the closest Target.

There’s one a few blocks away from the apartment, I’ll send you the location, are you able to meet me there? She texts along with a Google Maps link to the store. Harry tapped out a response right away, letting his focus sway away from the TV show he had on when her name lit up his screen.

Sounds good to me, what time? Harry hits send and notices the bubble with three dots pop up right away. She must have a moment at work right now; he checks the time to see it’s just past noon, assuming she’s on her lunch break.

I should be leaving the office by 3pm today, then it’s like a 15 minutes subway ride and 5 minute walk to get there for me. So like 3:30ish, is that okay with you? Wait. Are you busy today? I didn’t even ask if you were working too, sorry. She sends the texts in a few separate bubbles, realizing that she didn’t even ask if Harry was working or not today. Y/N has no idea what the schedule of a songwriter was like. Harry chuckles at her little panic and types out his response.

Super busy…. Watching mindless TV shows on Netflix. He adds a laughing emoji for good measure, to which Y/N replies with some of her own laughing emojis before saying God I wish that was how my day was going.

Y/N ends up texting Harry her whole lunch break. He asks about what she’s been doing today, his responses seeming very interested in the adventures she has had in the office being a stand in model since her measurements were close to a clients. She then asks what show he’s watching, to which he tells her about this Netflix baking show called Sugar Rush and he tells her about the challenge the contestants on the most recent episode endured. Y/N finds herself smiling at her screen, nearly forgetting to even eat her lunch. Sammy clears his throat just a few minutes before their time is up and causes her to look up at him, raising her eyebrows at his own.

“What?” She asks, stabbing her fork into the salad she had Sammy pick up for her earlier.

“Nothing,” Sammy hums, Y/N rolls her eyes. “Just noticed you’ve been quite busy on that phone of yours for the past, oh, I don’t know, twenty five minutes,” Sammy teases her, eyes widening slightly and motioning his hands in the air with his words. He did that a lot, talking with his hands, that is.

“So?” Y/N tries to brush off her friend's pushy behaviour.

“So? Really? We’re just going to act as if you’re not giggling at your phone screen like a little school girl?” Sammy questions.

“I am not doing that,” Y/N huffs.

“Yeah, sure, sweetie and I’m straight,” Sammy rolls his eyes dramatically and then pouts while shaking his body in his seat. Y/N furrows her brows at his behaviour. “I live off your love life. Please give me something, anything. Please just tell me that you’re talking to that hot neighbour of yours and let me continue on my merry little day knowing that your love life is about to be thriving while mine is dead.”

Y/N sighs and tries to ignore as her phone vibrates again, signalling that Harry had texted her back. She sits back in her chair and crosses her arms over his chest, covering the deep v-cut of her black body suit that she was wearing with a pair of red slim legged slacks, and a matching red blazer that was currently laying over the back of the chair she sat in. Amanda didn’t have any sort of dress code for work, merely to come in looking professional and stylish, which for Y/N, meant a good pant suit moment every once in a while. But with still keeping it sexy and young by pairing it with a bodysuit.

“Fine, I’m texting Harry,” Y/N tells Sammy, feeding into his gossip need for the day. “We actually hung out two night ago, he came over for a movie night-”

“What?! Why am I just hearing about this now?” Sammy questions, sitting up quickly and throwing his hands in the air. “What happened? Touching? Did you kiss? Oh my lord, tell me what his peni-”

“Sammy! Oh my god, relax, please,” Y/N cuts him off, putting a hand up to stop him from talking. “Nothing happened. Sorry to disappoint, but I am still in a relationship with Mark. Harry just came over, we made some hot chocolate and polished off a bag of those delicious candy cane pretzels.”

“Those pretzels are good,” Sammy nods in agreement.

“Yeah,” Y/N nods, “but anyways, nothing happened, and nothing is going to happen. We’re just friends, and I enjoy being around him a lot. So, today after work we’re going to Target to buy his apartment some decorations, then we’ll probably order in some food and watch another movie.”

“Sounds pretty couple-y to me,” Sammy says in a high pitched tone. Y/N just shakes her head and rolls her eyes at her friend again.

Y/N couldn’t lie, though. The few hours later in Target, they looked like a couple. Harry pushes the cart down the aisle while she tilts her head and debates which tinsel really fit Harry’s aesthetic. She brings the Starbucks cup to her lips and sips the warm caramel flavoured latte. Y/N was pleasantly surprised when she saw Harry walking up to her outside the Target with two Starbucks holiday cups in his hand. He gave her a timid smile and explained what both of the drinks were, saying he hadn’t tasted either and wanted to see what she wanted first before taking the other for himself. It was unexpected and ridiculously sweet of him to do.

“I think red would look really nice around your apartment, kind of spice up the place a little,” Y/N explains, her free hand skimming over the many different tinsels that were hanging up before her. Harry agrees, red would look nice in his apartment and spice things up a lot, except his mind is thinking of this red pant suit she’s wearing right now. He thinks it would look rather nice on his bedroom floor.

When she walked up to him and he took in her outfit, he nearly tripped over his own feet and spilled the two coffees he brought with him. But he kept himself together, well, sort of. He stumbled over his words, rambled like a fool about why he got the two coffees for her, but they finally got into the store, which now, he’s just been checking her out as they walked to the Christmas section. Get it together, Harry thinks to himself.

“Red’s nice,” Harry says, his voice cracking slightly. So, he clears his throat and steps away from the cart to pick up a piece of tinsel that Y/N was looking at. “I like the bit of silver mixed in too,” he comments.

“I was thinking the same thing,” she says with a smile before grabbing four more of the same one and adding it to the cart. Harry does the same with the one in his hand and then puts his hands on the cart once more, pushing it back and forth just a few inches. Harry can’t stop himself from admiring that suit once more as she bends down to check out the many different boxes of tree ornaments.

“Which ones?” Y/N asks, quickly turning her body. Y/N catches his gaze on her body, but Harry blinks quickly and meets her stare. The corner of her lips tug up into a smug smile at the thought of Harry checking her out.

“The ones in your, uh, your right hand,” Harry answers her questions, clearing his throat again and watching as she stands straight before putting the ornaments into the cart.

They continue their way through Target, still looking very much like a couple as they grab a few bags of the candy cane pretzels that Y/N got Harry hooked on the other night before heading to the check out. Harry insists on paying for the few little items of Y/N’s in the cart, telling her over and over again that it wasn’t a huge deal. He almost doesn’t let her carry a single thing, but she quickly gets a hold of a standing Santa decoration that was too big for a bag and hugs it to her chest their whole walk home.

Harry unlocks his apartment door for them, noticing how their neighbour Mr Matthers is opening his at the same time to peer out and see who’s in the hallway. Harry holds open the door for Y/N, she thanks him in a small voice and smiles at him. Looking back out into the hallway, Harry waves at Mr Matthers, who simply returns it with a scowl on his face before Harry steps inside and shuts the door behind him. Suppose their neighbour is a bit jealous of Harry, he’s seen the way he looks at Y/N. Hell, especially today in that suit, everyone on the street was looking at Y/N with wide eyes and big smiles - Harry felt like quite the lucky guy, little did everyone know they were in fact not together. Just friends, Harry reminds himself for the millionth time.

“Oh, I love the tree,” Y/N states, her voice bringing Harry back to Earth as he locks the door and walks over to his coffee table to set down the many bags in his arms. Y/N is still holding the Santa decoration to her chest, looking at the fake Christmas tree he had purchased on Amazon yesterday on a whim. He was thinking about them decorating together again, and thought that it wouldn’t feel right if he didn't have a tree too. It’s a good thing he told Y/N over text, otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten ornaments or anything for it.

“Yeah, I just got the first one that included lights on Amazon, to be honest,” Harry tells her. Y/N chuckles and walks over, setting the Santa decoration just beside the tree gently.

She brushes a hand over the tree and smiles, “it’s wonderful, really pulls the whole festive look together in my opinion.”

“I agree,” Harry nods. He grabs for the TV remote and turns it on, quickly turning the volume down before he sets it up to the music channels - clicking on the Christmas tunes without a second thought. Y/N watches Harry, her heart hammering in her chest as the soft sounds of Michael Buble fills the room. Mark would never do any of this - he wouldn’t voluntarily put on Christmas music, ever. In fact, he shut off the station in her car on the way to the airport. And he definitely wouldn’t decorate with her either, seeing as he thinks that her apartment looks childish. She pouts at the thought of her and Mark’s phone call the other day. He hasn’t called or texted her since.

“Did you not want to listen to Christmas music?” Harry asks suddenly, snapping Y/N out of her thoughts and turns to look at him. He’s taking off his jacket, revealing a white shirt underneath with a bumble bee and some blue writing around it, paired with his purple trousers and a pair of white socks on his feet after slipping out of his shoes too. Y/N loves his simple yet not basic style.

“No, no,” Y/N assures him, finally unbuttoning her blazer now and taking off the mittens and beanie she had worn in the cold. She stuffs them into the blazer pocket and slips out of it. “I love Christmas music so much, honestly maybe a little too much, Mark hates it,” she admits.

A shiver falls over her body as she realizes then she’s simply in the rather thin bodysuit that also dipped very low in the front. Y/N doesn’t look at Harry as she feels her nipples harder from the coolness of his apartment, embarrassed as she didn’t prepare for her attire after going out. Harry suddenly lifts up a hand, his pointer finger up as if to say ‘one second’, then he’s walking down the hallways and returns not even a minute later with a black sweater in hand.

“It’s clean, just washed today, I promise,” Harry tells her, holding out one of his favourite jumpers for her. He had been given a few merchandising pieces from the label over the years and this plain black jumper that read ‘Columbia’ on the front in white has been in his possession for a couple years now. In his opinion, it was very comfortable due to how much he’s worn it.

“Thank you,” Y/N says softly while taking it from him.

She puts it on and is immediately warmer. Her hands cover completely because of how long the sleeves are and it falls down past her bum too, due to the large size. She looks good, Harry thinks as he takes in her wearing his clothing. Y/N smiles and turns to grab things from the Target bags they had just brought in.

“Okay, let’s begin with the tree then,” she says excitedly, trying to clap her hands together but just ends up smacking the sleeves of Harry’s hoodie together.

It’s just as Harry imagined it. The soft lights from the Christmas tree glow over the shadows of Y/N’s face as she wraps the red tinsel around the base of it before passing it to Harry in order for him to reach the taller portion of the tree. She dances when Jingle Bell Rock plays on the TV, his jumper swaying around her body because of how big it is on her. They’re both smiling and singing along to the music, jokingly of course. Harry wasn’t about to show her all his little secrets and start belting out White Christmas along with the singers of Wham!

“Can you pass me a couple of the silver balls?” Y/N asks Harry, her eyes on the tree as she put the last red ball ornament she had grabbed onto a branch. Harry raises his eyebrows in a joking manner.

“The what?” He questions, but still making his way to where the array of different coloured ball ornaments laid on the couch.

“Like two of the balls,” she says again. Harry laughs, his eyes crinkling up and his dimples fully showing as he does. Y/N furrows her brows, but then gets why he’s laughing. “You’re a child,” she scolds him playfully.

“I couldn’t help myself,” Harry states, grabbing two of the ornaments she’s asking for and passing them to her.

“Thank you for the balls, Harry,” she says. They both end up laughing this time, she can’t help it. His laughter is contagious with how his eyes squint up and his dimple somehow deepens, not to mention the little vocal ‘aha’ he does before laughing. It makes Y/N’s stomach ache, not from laughing too, but with the butterflies. Those stupid little butterflies that have made a home inside of her stomach since meeting this kind, handsome, British man.

Once the tree is done, Y/N beats Harry to ordering them food. They decide on getting sushi, which is something she could never order with Mark since he has this personal vendetta against seafood for some reason. But Mark isn’t on her mind for long. It’s all Harry, all the freaking time. She likes how he beams a winning smile at the delivery guy and thanks him three times in the sixty seconds he’s at his door, and how he barely pays his phone any attention the whole night besides when it chimes with a few texts that he explains is his workmates group chat. Now, she can’t stop watching him chew his food; how his jaw flexes with each bite and how his eyebrows furrow when he can’t get the chopsticks to grab the California roll he wanted. Why do I find him eating so attractive? Y/N shakes her head slightly and forces herself to look back at the TV that’s playing the Sugar Rush show on Netflix that Harry was texting her about earlier.

Harry collects their take out containers after a few moments to ensure that Y/N is done, asking her just to be sure she doesn’t want the two pieces that are left over. She thanks him, but says no, and he manages to grab all five containers in one trip to the kitchen. His mom most definitely raised him well, Y/N thinks as she lays back on his couch and watches the TV show. It suddenly hits Y/N, his brows pulling together as she pushes herself to sit up and turns her body to look behind her through the open concept to look at Harry.

“Are you going home for Christmas?” She asks him. Y/N assumed home was England, besides obvious factors, but she remembers him telling her about driving in London once. Harry brushes his hands on a tea towel that's hanging off his stove before turning to walk back into the living room.

“Um, no, not this year,” Harry says.

“Oh, do you typically go home and visit your family? You mentioned your mom and sister had decorated this place though, do they live here?” She throws the other questions his way as he walks around the couch and sits in his spot again.

“They all live in England, yeah,” he nods, “my mom, my step dad, older sister and her boyfriend all flew out here with me to help me settle in the few years back when I got my job. But I do usually go home for holidays, or just casually during the summer. Earlier this year I had to make an unexpected trip,” Harry pauses and clears his throat as he looks away from Y/N as he feels that familiar pain in his chest, “my step dad passed away. So it just took a bit of money out of my account, I decided not to fork out the money for expensive flights during the holidays.”

Hearing that Harry had lost his step dad recently torn Y/N’s heart in two. She frowns, taking a deep breath before reaching over and placing a hand over Harry’s that rested folded in his lap. Harry looks at where their skin touched, it felt like his hands were vibrating under her touch. She swipes her thumb over his knuckles, the touch so soft like a feather just barely skimming over his skin. Harry has to stop himself from flipping his hand over slowly and intertwining their fingers together. She has a boyfriend, she’s just being a good person and comforting a friend.

“I’m very sorry to hear about your step dad, Harry,” she soft and gentle voice, rubbing the pad of her thumb over his knuckle again as she watches him inhale deeply through his nose.

Harry clears his throat of the threatening tears and shakes his head slightly, a piece of his hair falling onto his forehead as he does. He takes one of his hands and lays it over Y/N’s, giving it a few pats. Tonight had been good

and fun, and he didn’t want to go ruining the mood with his tears. So, he lifts his head and looks at Y/N, finding her somber eyes staring at him already. He forces a smile, licking his lips before clearing his throat again.

“Thank you,” he says, “I don’t want to make this good night all emotional now, so yeah, the short answer is I’m not leaving the city for the holidays this year. I do have a trip planned in March to see my mum for mothers day though,” Harry explains, rubbing Y/N’s hand that’s between his.

Y/N mirrors his smile, although it’s not as full as usual, a bit sad still as she thinks about what Harry and his family must’ve gone through this year - and that his mother won’t see her son her first Christmas without her husband to top it all off. Maybe she could buy his flights? But no, no she couldn’t, she thinks sadly. They sit there like that for another moment, her hand between his much larger once, and they stare at each other. Finally, Y/N lets out a sigh and tries to get out of her head before she ends up crying. Harry lets go of her hand slowly, and she brings both hands to her face to brush back her hair. Harry does the same to get the strand of hair that had fallen on his forehead back into place.

“Well I’m glad you can go see your mom for mothers day, at least,” Y/N says, looking at the positive. Harry nods and then leans back, throwing an arm over the back of the couch to stretch out.

“Yeah, me too,” he agrees, “she’s already telling me all about the plans she’s made for my trip and talks my ear right off as if it’s happening tomorrow.” Harry tells Y/N with a chuckle.

Hearing his little laugh brings a real smile to her face this time. “I’m sure she’s counting the days till you fly in,” Y/N says. She is starting to feel a little tired as she lays back on the couch, laying her legs out on the chaise. Harry watches as she pulls the sleeves of his jumper back down, she had rolled them up while eating so they didn’t get in the way, but he likes the sweater paw look on her as she snuggles into the couch.

“Do you spend Christmas at home still?” Harry asks her, keeping his voice soft as he realizes it’s gotten late and both their eyelids are getting heavy.

“My parents have something on Christmas Eve, sometimes I spend the night, other times I make my way home,” she exclaims vaguely.

Y/N doesn’t love her times at home anymore; she finds her parents ‘I’m too rich for anything' attitude to be tiresome. As she grew up into her own person, she realized the privilege she had with the wealth she grew up with. She started to see how pointless some parties her mother threw, and how little she would have to try to just coast through life. Y/N didn’t want to grow up like every other bratty kid on the Upper East Side, so she moved out right after graduation, got into fashion school, focused on herself, and earned her own money - all while learning of how to use her privilege for good, like donating her time and money to good causes. Something her parents only did to look good within their social circle.

So, going back home for over the top holiday parties, getting gifted a new car every year, and seeing her parents throw their money at whatever, really only bothered her more than anything. Y/N would simply stop in for Christmas Eve, enjoy a few hours with family and then go home to her own world again.

A yawn slips past Y/N’s mouth as she’s deep in thought, which then makes Harry yawn as the both of them bring their hands to cover their mouth and then letting out soft laughter afterwards. Y/N sits up and stretches both arms above her head. “I guess I should head home,” she says before standing up slowly.

“Yeah, you’ve got a long way to go,” Harry jokes.

“Oh yeah, it’ll take me ages,” Y/N adds onto the joke with a smile. “Thank you for having me over, I really enjoyed it,” she says.

Harry nods, “well thank you for helping me with all this,” he says, motioning to the decorating they had done. They both glance around the room then at their work. The red and silver decor matched Harry’s aesthetic perfectly, just as Y/N thought it would.

“We didn’t watch Polar Express,” Y/N realizes suddenly, pouting.

“Next time, Y/N,” Harry chuckles. She huffs and lets out a sigh, muttering a quiet ‘fine’ before making her way towards his front door. Harry follows behind her, planning to lock the door and listen till she gets into her own apartment before getting ready for bed.

“Should I text you when I’m home safe? It’s just so far away,” Y/N continues to joke around, causing Harry to smile as he watches her grab her blazer and slip into her shoes.

“You never know, Mr Matthers across the hall could intercept you on the way home and kidnap you. I wouldn’t sleep till I got that text knowing you got home safely,” Harry says, half joking. Cause you never know with Mr Matthers, he thinks. Y/N laughs and hugs her blazer to her stomach while standing beside the door, reaching for the handle but keeping her gaze on him.

“Mr Matthers is harmless,” Y/N says.

“He’s obsessed with you,” Harry counters back. Y/N just rolls her eyes and unlocks the door before swinging it open.

“Goodnight Harry,” she says sweetly.

“Goodnight, Y/N,” Harry says back with a smile. She mirrors his smile and then walks off into the hallway. Harry watches the door shut behind her and walks over to lock it before turning off the few lights in the living room and entryway. As he is turning off his TV his phone buzzes with an incoming text.

Made it home safely and in bed! Sweet dreams read Y/N’s text sent seconds ago. Harry breathes out a chuckle as he walks down the hallway to his bathroom to begin his nightly routine. As he turns on the light for his bathroom he types back a response. Cheeky.. Sweet dreams Y/N. He turns off the screen before he stands there and waits for her to reply with anything, his heart would even flutter over an emoji.

He was so far gone for this girl, he couldn’t stop himself from falling any longer - but it had felt inevitable from the moment his eyes had met hers in the elevator.

>> part three <<

thanks for reading, please reblog/leave some feedback if you enjoyed it! until next week 😘

*like this post if you’d like to be added to the cstsyl taglist!*

#harry styles #harry styles writing #harry styles x reader #harry styles x you #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fluff #harry styles smut #harry styles angst #boyfriend!harry #harry styles fic #harry styles imagine #harry styles concept #1dff #cstsyl

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izzyfandoms · 4 years

Note

Everyone/deceit where the others are trying to get Janus to blush by flirting As a challenge? Ficlet?

(This ended up a full oneshot length lol, so this is no longer a ficlet, hope you enjoy!)

Flustered Snake

SHIPS: Dukeceit, Loceit, Moceit, Roceit, Anxceit, Thomceit (Everyone x Janus)

WARNINGS: Remus makes some sexual comments/implications

GENERAL TAGLIST: @quillfics42 @aj-draws @phantomofthesanderssides @phlying-squirrel @sly-is-my-name-loving-is-my-game @because-were-fam-ily @imtryingthisout @a-creepycookie @emo-disaster @littlestr @spooky-scary-virgil @fuyel @mimsidoodles @soupgremlin @aroaceagenderfluid @birdsbookshiddeninrealbirdsskin @quirkalurk @gingers-trashy-stuff @iinyxtello @justaqueercactus @melodiread @mrbubbajones @glassferns @pun-master-logan @gayturtlez

Masterpost

The moment that Janus stepped into the living area of the mindscape, a pair of hands behind him landed on his hips. He froze in place, immediately feeling the heat of a blush crawl up his neck, across his face and to the tips of his ears. He was sure that his skin was now an obvious, bright red.

The voice that belonged to the pair of hands cackled at that, and a chin came to rest on Janus's head, revealing it to be Remus behind him.

(Unfortunately, the twins were much taller than Janus, and they both loved to take advantage of it: especially when it flustered the deceitful side, as it often did. He both despised and adored that fact, not that he'd ever admit to the latter out loud.)

That made Janus relax slightly - he recognised the voice, so it wasn't somehow a stranger with their hands on his hips - though his creeping blush only worsened.

"You seem flustered, snake," he said, and Janus could practically hear the grin in his voice. "What's up?"

"Shut up," Janus hissed, crossing his arms.

He didn't move out of Remus's grip, though, and instead leant back against the other side's chest. Remus then gently squeezed his hips, and Janus almost regretted staying in place.

"Comfy?"

"We are standing in the living room."

Remus chuckled - the sound low and just beside Janus's ear, rumbling through his whole body.

"We could always move to somewhere comfier," Remus grinned. "Like my bed."

Janus huffed and rolled his eyes. "In your dreams."

"All my dreams. Day and night. Wanna recreate them?"

"Never."

"You know, I'm talking 'bout fu-"

"I know what you're talking about," Janus hissed, feeling his face somehow redden even further. "And no."

Janus could practically hear Remus's pout.

"Aw, but-"

"No! Shut up!"

"Make me?" Remus offered.

Janus groaned, and buried his face in his hands.

***

It had taken quite a few minutes, but Janus had finally managed to distract Remus with food - disgusting and rotten, inedible food - and gotten away.

(If he'd really wanted Remus to stop flirting with him, and had just made the simple request, Remus would have done so with little hesitation. But Janus's obvious blush and moments of almost returned flirtations had only spurred the other side on.)

(Janus could flirt. In the past he had smoothly and calmly flirted with the other sides on numerous occasions, but the moment they flirted back, he was done for. They had only now begun to take advantage of this, and Janus couldn't for the life of him figure out why.)

He was halfway across the mindscape's long hallway - halfway to his bedroom, where he could wallow in his flustered state in peace - when he was stopped in his tracks by Logan's voice behind him.

"Janus, are you busy?"

Janus suppressed a sigh.

"Obviously," he clearly lied, starting to turn around. "What do you nee-"

The last word was cut off by a strangled noise (accompanied with widening eyes and a sharp intake of breath) as his eyes landed on the very shirtless Logan standing in front of him. He was... more in shape that Janus had expected, but perhaps that shouldn't have been a surprise given his obsession with being as healthy as possible.

Janus tried very hard not to check him out, but was unable to keep his eyes from drifting down, and then back up, and then back down again. He sucked in a breath as he felt his ears warm.

Logan straightened up, his expression turning quite pleased. Before Janus could question him further, he pulled a notebook and pen out of thin air - summoning them effortlessly - and began to scribble on one of the pages, about halfway through.

Janus watched him, thoroughly confused and still - somewhat reluctantly - checking Logan out. Then, when Logan closed the notebook and it disappeared again, the logical side smiled at him: genuine and warm, such an uncommon sight.

It made Janus's face warm and his heart tremble, which was far more telling than the reaction to shirtless Logan.

"Thank you, Janus," Logan said. "That was all I needed."

Then, he sank out, and Janus was left alone, confused, and still - unfortunately - quite flustered.

***

After that, he spent a significant amount of time in his room, wallowing in his hopeless, hopeless pining.

(Remus was only joking. The interaction with Logan was only part of some experiment. Surely those were the real explanations for the two frankly baffling experiences from today, right?)

When he finally decided to leave the room, it was only because he was hungry. Remus's onslaught of sexual flirting had distracted him from breakfast, so he was rather eager to get something to eat.

Luckily, when he arrived in the kitchen, Remus wasn't there.

But Patton was, and the delighted smile on his face when Janus entered the room was just as disastrous to his heartrate as Remus had been.

"Jan!" He beamed, dropping the spoon and bowl he'd been washing up and walking over, taking both of Janus's hands in his own. "I'm so glad you're here!"

It was then that Janus realised he'd forgotten his gloves.

The warmth of Patton's hands against his skin and scales was enough to make him feel equally warm and fuzzy inside. He was suddenly hit with the desire to make that warmth spread to every part of his body, and in that moment, he really, really wanted to kiss Patton.

"What- what do you need, Patton?" He asked slowly.

Patton squeezed his hands. "I just made cookies! And I need someone to test them for me. Would you mind?"

"Oh, uh... alright."

Patton beamed.

Then, he dropped Janus's hands, and the deceitful side would never admit to the disappointment that rose in his chest at the loss of warmth. He watched as Patton plucked a cookie from the plate - carefully selecting what he deemed the best one, before turning back around and bringing it back to Janus.

Janus reached out, ready to take the cookie from his hand, but Patton shook his head, holding up the cookie to Janus's lips.

Janus blinked, dropping his hand and then slowly opening his mouth obediently, taking a small bite of the cookie. It was good, as always - warm and chewy and his absolute favourite flavour.

Patton giggled. "You like them?" At Janus's silent nod, he continued. "Oh, wonderful! I'm so glad!"

Janus swallowed, and opened his mouth to respond, but the words died in his throat when Patton leant forward and brushed his thumb over Janus's lip. His brain short-circuited for a few seconds as his face went hot, but then he realised that Patton had probably just been brushing a crumb from his mouth, and that it wasn't something he should've been worried about.

Patton's smile turned slightly mischievous, and he giggled again.

"Everything alright, Janus?"

***

Janus had returned to his room shortly after that little encounter. He'd mumbled excuses that Patton had seemed to believe - though the disappointment on his face when Janus left had been unmistakable.

He fell back onto his bed, dropping his head onto his pillow and burying his face into his hands.

What was going on today? Remus and Logan and Patton were all acting strange, and Janus couldn't get them out of his head.

Or maybe Janus was the strange one.

He was the one with the huge, perception-altering crushes on all of his friends - Thomas included.

Janus huffed, dropping his arms to his sides and staring up at the ceiling. There were little plastic stars - made by Roman many years ago - stuck all over it, that glowed in the dark when it was night.

Janus hadn't been afraid of the dark since they were all small, but he still kept the stars there out of habit.

(And out of love for Roman, though that part he would never admit aloud.)

There was a loud knock on the door, and Janus jumped, sitting up suddenly and staring at it, wide-eyed. He froze for a moment, before he grabbed his gloves off his bedside table and quickly pulled them back on. He put his hat on, too.

He got up, and walked over to the door.

When he opened it, he immediately came face-to-face with Roman, whose whole face lit up when his eyes landed on Janus.

(And, oh, that really did something to Janus, didn't it? He felt all warm and fuzzy inside - the way Roman was looking at him making him feel like he was floating.)

He felt his face warm, and the greeting he'd meant to say died in his throat as the blush formed.

Roman laughed suddenly: loud and cheerful and delighted, and it made Janus jump. His heart skipped a beat in his chest and he felt simultaneously confused and happy, as Roman's laugh was contageous.

"Well, that was easy!" Roman beamed.

"I- uh- what?"

But before Janus could question Roman properly, Roman reached forward and grabbed Janus's face in both hands. He then pressed a kiss to the centre of Janus's forward.

Janus let out a strangled noise as Roman let go of him and took a step back.

"Thank you, Jan," he said earnestly.

Then, he sunk out, leaving Janus incredibly confused, and even more flustered, ready to melt into a puddle on the floor.

***

It took a few hours for Janus to gain the courage to leave his room again after that.

But, when he did, he found the living room of the mindscape suddenly quite cold. He stood in the centre of the room, rubbing his arms and shivering, as the yellow button-up shirt he had on was far too thin, and he regretted choosing that over his usual outfit that morning.

"Okay," he huffed. "Whose idea was this?"

"I know, right?" Suddenly came a voice from behind him. "It's freezing."

Janus glanced back over his shoulder, his eyes landing on Virgil, who was stood a few feet behind him.

"You cold?" Virgil continued.

"No," Janus lied flatly.

Virgil snorted. "Right."

Then, he did something that Janus couldn't have predicted. He took off his hoodie.

This was peculiar for two reasons - one, that the mindscape was cold, and two, that Virgil almost never took off his hoodie, and never without a good reason.

Janus blinked at him, so surprised that he stopped rubbing his goosebump-covered arms. Then, his eyes widened further as Virgil held the hoodie out to him.

"What are you doing?"

Virgil rolled his eyes, though fondly and with a half-smirk.

"Giving you my jacket," he answered.

"But- what? Why?"

"I heard snakes are cold-blooded."

Janus huffed, attempting to glare at Virgil but failing miserably. Virgil seemed amused at his attempts, which made it even harder to glare at him, because Janus wanted to kiss that smirk right off his face.

"I don't need your jacket," Janus lied.

(He would very much appreciate Virgil's jacket, for many reasons, but he obviously could never admit that aloud.)

Virgil snorted. But, instead of responding to that, he walked up to Janus and draped his hoodie over the other sides' shoulders. Janus froze, especially as Virgil's touch lingered longer than it could have, and Janus could suddenly feel himself warm.

His cheeks went hot, likely turning red.

Virgil caught Janus's eye, and the slight smirk returned for just a moment.

"Hope you warm up," he said, before turning and walking out of the room, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, leaving Janus warm, alone and very confused.

***

Janus's confusion had only grown when Thomas suddenly summoned him for no good reason.

Usually, he summoned his sides for videos, and the rest of the time they showed up on their own. He liked to spend time with them, sure, but usually either with all of them, or when the sides showed up first.

Janus appeared in the sitting room.

"Thomas," he said. "What do you need?"

Thomas was sat on the couch, leaning back against the cushions, and his face lit up when he saw Janus, which made Janus feel all kinds of things, and made him almost wish he was the side in charge of Thomas's feelings, so he could know exactly what he was feeling.

(The sides may have all been able to see through Thomas's eyes and hear through ears, but none of them had access to everything that went on inside his head. They each had their own different parts. Virgil knew his anxieties, Patton knew his feelings, Janus knew his lies and the secrets and desires he hid from even himself. None knew everything, even when they might want to.)

"Oh, Janus!" Thomas smiled. "You're here!" He patted the couch beside him, indicating that Janus should sit. "Come on, hang out with me."

Janus blinked, sitting down immediately but with a confused expression.

"Do you... need something?"

"Do I need to? Can't I just summon you to hang out?"

"I mean, no, but-" Janus cut himself off with a strangled noise when Thomas reached forward and plucked his hat right off his head.

Then, Thomas placed the hat on his own head with a grin.

"How do I look?"

Janus opened and closed his mouth a few times, stumbling over his words. It took him a moment to pull together a coherent thought that wasn't just the word 'cute' repeated twelve times.

"Uh, um... you look... good?"

Thomas laughed. "Oh, Jan, you flatter me," he joked. Then, he looked Janus over slowly - making him feel all kinds of things - before his gaze settled on Janus's hair. He reached across, running his fingers through it and sticking his tongue out in concentration. "Your hat must mess your hair up a lot, you wear it so much."

"It's- uh, it's messy, usually," Janus choked out. "That's why I wear the hat."

Thomas pulled his hand back, placing it in his lap, and Janus only just managed to keep himself from making a disappointed noise.

"Aww, I don't know, I like it," Thomas said, seemingly oblivious to Janus's plight. "It's a lot curlier than mine, kinda like Patton's but much darker: almost black." Thomas smiled. "I think it's cute."

Janus blinked at him, feeling his face turn hot and red for what felt like the millionth time that day. He buried his face in his hands and groaned.

“Why are you guys like this?” He mumbled into his palms.

“Huh?” Thomas half-laughed, sounding partly amused and partly confused.

“You’re just- aah!” Janus almost screamed with frustration. “Making me feel... so much!”

“So much what?”

Janus paused at that. He... recognised that tone. It was a tone of faux-innocence, one he’d heard - and, in the past, actively prompted - from Thomas multiple times.

He knew something.

Janus pulled his hands away from his face, shooting Thomas an accusatory look that made him hold up his hands in defence.

“You know something,” Janus accused, with a still-red face, but significantly more confidence than before. “What is it?”

“Uh...” Thomas trailed off, hesitating, but at Janus’s expression, he finally gave in and smiled sheepishly at him. “I may know of a... competition, of sorts.”

“Competition?”

“Between the other sides. And, uh... me, too, I guess. We wanted to see who could make you blush the most.” For a moment, Thomas paused. “‘Cos you’re cute.”

Janus’s brain broke.

He stared blankly at Thomas for a few seconds, before understanding finally hit him like a train, and the blush that had just faded returned again, full-force. He felt hot and flustered and still a little confused, but mostly just startled.

“Oh,” he squeaked.

Thomas let out an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of his head with his hand and glancing away.

“Sorry, if that’s kinda weird,” he apologised quickly. “We didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, we just really li- you know what, it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry.”

Janus buried his face in his hands with another loud groan. He mumbled something that Thomas couldn’t quite make out. Thomas leant forward, trying to listen better.

“Sorry, what was that?” Thomas asked.

Janus repeated himself, slightly louder.

“It worked,” he grumbled.

Thomas laughed, short and slightly startled. “Yeah, we, uh... we figured. You’re kinda obvious when you’re flustered. And cute.”

Janus groaned into his palms again, even louder this time.

“I mean,” Thomas continued. “You know they can all see you right now, too, right?”

There was a beat.

“Oh, god.”

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sub-k-pop-archive · 3 years

Note

what are ur favorite blogs?

Hi! So, I currently follow A LOT of blogs, which made this quite hard to put together, but I tried, lol. If you’re on desktop, you can actually find a few of my favorite blogs listed on my Tumblr page :)

But yeah, since I’m mostly into NCT and SKZ at the moment, this will primarily consist of sub!idol blogs that write for those two groups. Also, I’ve added some non-smut / non-sub!idol blogs that I really like, in case you’d like to check those out too.

With that said, here you go!

Disclaimer: If you aren’t on this list and I follow you, please, don’t take it personally. These blogs are just a small sample of all the blogs I follow and love, so don’t worry, you definitely belong on this list as well! If I follow you or archive your fics, then I love your writing without a doubt ♥

Sub!idol blogs

@drippinlovetalk - one of my favorite blogs of all time. If you’re not following her already, I highly recommend you to do so. Nothing but creative, well-written, and just overall amazing fics. It doesn’t matter who your bias in NCT is, you'll end up reading everyone’s fics anyway because they’re all great.

@lovingonrepeat - love, love, love her blog!! Her fics are so nice to read, I love them. I tend to get distracted easily when I’m reading, but her stories are just so well put together that it’s impossible to stop, lol. But seriously!! I’ve re-read all of her fics multiple times, they’re just that good ♥

@capriccio-con-espressione - oof, this one. Her fics are very intense to me, in a way. I don’t know how to really describe it, but once you check out her work, you’ll understand what I mean. There’s always something to them that makes them really memorable and stand out. And don’t even get me started on her sub!Kun fics, it’s embarrassing how many times I’ve re-read those, lmao. And the sub!Winwin one too!! Gosh, I loved that one so much as well!! Seriously, just check out everything she has, you won’t regret it.

@kisskissbanggang - I love her fics, oh my god. Both the sfw and the nsfw ones, they’re just something else. If anyone wants to read some amazing sub!idol fics with a great plot, character portrayal, and just everything in general, this is the blog for you! I especially love her sub!SKZ fics, but she writes incredible NCT fics as well. They’re just all lovely tbh :’)

@lavenderbexlatte - !!!!!! Another blog that not only writes great sub!idol fics, but they have immaculate plots as well?? And it all just comes together so nicely?? And it’s so captivating too?? Ugh, I just love reading her work so much!! So go and support her as well!! She’s incredibly talented and definitely deserves more love and attention!!

@submissivekpop - one of the first sub!idol blogs I’ve followed, and I still love re-reading her fics to this day. Well-written, great to read, and just overall amazing. I’ve always loved coming back to her blog and checking out her fics whenever I discovered a new kpop group, she never disappoints ♥. Please, give her lots of love and support, she deserves it so much :)

@artificialvoe - another one of my absolute favorites!! I’m a sucker for sub!idol reactions, and this blog is just heaven for me. Lots of different groups, themes, kinks, etc., there’s something for just about everyone. (I’ve also discovered quite a few kinks thanks to this blog, but that is a story for another day entirely-)

@sluttyten - also one of the first sub!idol blogs I’ve followed and one that I still cherish to this day. You have it all here - reactions, imagines, oneshots, series, everything. So much content, talent, and just all things great in one place. I don’t think I’ll ever stop recommending her blog, it’s one of my favorite accounts on all of Tumblr. I’ve literally spent most of my time at my part-time job reading her work, and it made it 1000% better.

@submissive-bangtan - ugh!! The power, the skill, the execution!! If you want to read a perfectly written fic with lots of plot, great dialogue, and beautifully described scenery (in other words: a fic that’s tastefully horny with a great deal of talent), this is a blog for you. It’s also one of the first blogs that introduced me to sub!idol content (and awakened the inner dom), so it holds a special place in my heart. But wait!! There’s more!! Not only does she write great fics, but she has so many interesting astrology & kibbe posts as well!! What’s not to love? Exactly, it’s all amazing. Now go and give Caro the love she deserves, damn it >:(

Non-sub!idol blogs / non-smut blogs

@warmau - my comfort blog, omg. I love her writing style. All of her stories pull you in so easily and are so fun to read! If you ever want to destress, relax after a hard day, or just want to enjoy a heart-warming and beautifully written story, check out her fics!! All of them, in fact!! Right now!! Go!!

@jenomark - I’ve been reading her work today for like what? 5 hours straight? Well, guess what? I don’t regret it in the slightest. As I’ve said, I’m a sucker for reactions/headcanons/imagines/etc., and there are just so many!! And they’re so good too!! How have I not discovered this gem of a blog sooner?? I’m in awe :’)

@neokollection - even though she’s on a hiatus right now, I love going through her blog every now and then and re-reading her work. Another blog that’s just great for whenever you want to relax and be all soft and comfy :> Please give her lots of love, she’s an incredibly talented and hard-working writer ♥

@hoe9for9kpop - so many groups to choose from!! So many incredibly well-written fics!! I’m in love!! One of the first blogs I’ve followed and one that I definitely have a soft spot for. Her content is very diverse, so whatever it is that you’re looking for, you’ll definitely find it here. And not only that, but you’ll discover so many other amazing fics too! Please read them all, they’re great :’(

#this was so hard to choose from #i need to make a part 2 to this #there are just too many talented people here!!#and like i've already said #if you're not here #that doesn't mean that your writing is bad AT ALL #i just couldn't fit everyone here :((#sorry :(#also i hope i got everyone's pronouns and stuff correctly #if not tell me!!#Anonymous

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crownstar · 2 years

Text

a very long work rant about how to write instructions and bullet point lists is under the cut lol im so annoyed i wasted so much time today

today at work i discovered that wow some people are a lot less competent than i thought.

if you hand me a THREE page long bullet point list, using pt 10 arial font at 1.0 paragraph spacing, instructional document. and then i spend over an hour showing you basically hey, take 90% of these bullet points and make them sentences. here are some section breaks/headers to break the list up a bit. and i got rid of a few bullets to make them sentences already for the ones where i can just read it and know the instructions are for, as even more examples for them.

for example to email a report, once the report has been generated already:

click email

click To

enter or search email

select email address

click To

click OK

enter reference #

click send

click accept

can be simplified to:

Email the report by selecting "Email" in the menu. Enter the desired email in the "To:" field by either typing in the email address, or by searching the list of email addresses by clicking on the "To:" button and selecting the desired address. In the message body, type the reference number. Click send and accept the email pop-ups if needed.

What I got today was the same three page bullet point list but now its missing all the verbs. so the same steps now instead said:

email address

reference #

send

this is a LITERAL EXAMPLE. my computer when i was walking through the steps trying to figure out what the accepts were for, didn't have me accept any error messages. i asked them what the accepts were for and they were like oh i have to accept error messages before it will send the email.

and this is what i had to instead spend all day deciphering. a three page long bullet point list without verbs... after i spent an hour yesterday explaining that i wanted the bullets to turn into sentences. that was somehow interpreted as remove verbs from bullet points make every bullet point three words max.

i spent like 30 minutes trying to explain why what they handed me was not in fact what i asked for but i could tell it was just going right over their head. i was like these are not instructions that you can easily follow. there is no explanations behind the steps to help people understand what the step is that they are doing. and they were just like i like bullet point lists for instructions, where does it say that this can't be a bullet point list. and im like ME!!! I say so!! im the document person!! and the person who would have to take over for you when your gone and i say that i do not want a bullet point list. i told you yesterday to get rid of the bullet point style and make them sentences by combining the points, like i showed you. and they just went thats what i did, see and points to one sentence that was added. and i was no its not. look at this this section just says "-customer -customer id -select -type -customer -due date -box -accept" are we selecting customer? are we entering a customer id into a customer field? what is type? are we selecting type? is the type customer? what does box mean? these points dont make sense. and they were just like well thats what a picture is for, im going to put a picture there. i dont want the instructions to rely on the use a picture for understanding. i want the pictures to instead help add clarification or like as a check to make sure that you did it correctly.

this person is supposed to be in charge of our customer service and they are apparently incapable of writing a complete sentence. and now i have to waste like minimum 2 days creating these instruction from basically scratch. cuz we need to make an official controlled instructional document on how to do this procedure and its a task i have never done. so i spent all day struggling to follow this checklist so that i could rewrite it.

a bullet point list... a check list are not good instructions. especially if they are this specific where every key stroke and click is listed. There was sections where the list literally had steps like click tab, click enter twice. like WHY why am i hitting enter twice what is that for? am i hitting OK on something twice in a row? am i in the middle of typing something? am a tabbing to move to the next field? none of that was explained. some enters were to hit OK some where because you needed to start a new paragraph line in a text field. also what if the various pop-ups are slightly different across the computers? like the email error messages. or if a program has different fields or options between users due to differing clearance levels within the program. i can look at and do a lot more stuff in the programs than what the person who wrote the instructions can do. so i have more fields and options available when creating or editing in those programs. so if i have an extra field i can fill in, just tabbing to move from field to field isnt going to be the same for me as it is for someone else. or if the program updates and fields move around or pop up windows change slightly now that crazy detailed list is completely mixed up for those sections. it just doesn't work.

a check list like that works for personal instructions that would be unique to your computer, but if multiple different people need to be able to follow them. it cannot be an extremely detailed checkpoint list. also if you arent directly following along to the list its just meaningless words to read. you dont know what the things are that you are clicking on. i spent 15 minutes trying to find the due date field on this one tab and it turns out the due date field was actually in a pop-up window that would show up when you clicked on the task at the bottom of the screen, that had the same name as the tab i was on. the checklist just said "investigation" "due date" and i was like im under the investigation tab and there is no due date field here. i changed it to, "open the investigation task, and in the task pop-up window enter the due date." cuz hey wow now you know that oh you need to open pop-up window to get access to the due date field.

#work rant #im just so annoyed #how can you be a working adult and be this incapable of following instructions #or maybe they are just incapable of writing a sentence longer than three words #how does make this not a bullet point list #translate into keep this a bullet point list but remove all the verbs #what was going on in their head??#i wasted my entire day on trying to figure out what these bullet points meant #the headache i had trying to figure out some of the steps

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weepingvoidpenguin · 4 years

Text

The Gods’ Blessing (Pt. 5)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4,

Summary: In your world, everyone had a soulmate. That’s just how things went. Everyone had some sort of Indicator that their other half was out there, be it telepathy or a red string that connected these two strangers. Yours was one unspoken of, in fact, you’d never heard anyone say that they had the same Indicator as you. And because of this rarity, you longed to meet the person who could gift you with what you lacked, maybe not so much so to be with the person but more so to finally see what others took for granted. Yet, you held onto the hope that one of your best friends was your Meant-To-Be but he has his eyes on another girls and the little green monster slowly engulfs you at the deterioration of your hope.

Warning: Like 1 F-Bomb, angst, reader being reckless

Word Count: 4.3K

Author’s Note: I’m literally so sorry this took so long to come out but I lost motivation to write and randomly got it back and now I know where I want to take this story so I’m dedicating some time to this series again. ALSO I wanted to thank EVERYONE from the bottom of my heart who has asked to be tagged or complimented my writing it means SO MUCH and helps me continue to write. Everyone who has requested to be tagged will be; I’m just dumb and didn’t know I could privately respond to asks and I didn’t want to spam my page with answers so... yeah I know, I’m dumb lol ENJOY

(CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO FIND THE ORIGINAL GIF FOR MY STORY BECAUSE WTF I SPENT LITERALLY 30 MINUTES LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT ONE BUT COULDN’T FIND IT AND I USED THE SAME TAGS AS ALWAYS AND YES THE GIFS ARE STILL THERE SOMEONE HELP PLS AND THANK YOU) (AND ALSO LITERALLY CAN’T ADD A READ MORE LINE BECAUSE I COPY AND PASTE FROM WORD SO IM SORRY TUMBLR IS JUST TRYING ME TODAY)

You let the thunderous knocks at your door rack for nearly five minutes before you trudged out of bed with your blanket still encased around you. You kept your eyes glued to your carpet, watching as your feet slid along the floor on your way to the door. Your hand hovered over the knob as hesitation ceased your actions.

What if it was Peter at your door? Your heart twisted at the thought and you couldn’t stop how your hand shot out and grasped the handle. Damn how your body could betray you.

You noticed how your actions slowly became less your own over the past few days. Naturally, you could sit, lay, stand, eat, drink and etc. on command but whenever the thought of the brunette boy shattered its way through the walls you’d created, your hands flew towards your phone every single time. You had desired Peter, desired for him to reach out to you and clear the air, answer the questions consuming your mind, just talk to you in any way. Maybe his words wouldn’t make you feel better but at least his voice would soothe the storm brewing in your stomach.

You had skipped school the last two days, claiming to have a fever to your mother who, as a doctor, knew better. But she was an understanding woman and gave you the time she suspected you needed to deal with whatever was bothering you. She’d tried to get you to talk but each attempt was met with silence and isolation so she left you be, only occasionally leaving a warm drink on your nightstand.

You hadn’t just isolated yourself from your mother though; you’d completely disregarded the messages you were getting from MJ and Ned. You tried to keep away from your phone, in all honesty. You wanted to disconnect, to just feel what you felt and ride the wave until the waters soothed themselves. But with the amount of times you’d checked your inbox for a new message from Peter or merely went back to read old texts that used to bring a smile to your face, you’d say disconnecting had failed miserably. In fact, every time you checked your phone only made the sinking feeling in your stomach liven with a fresh ache and you’d lay right back down.

Your window remained locked now. For the most part. Some nights, for about an hour or so, you’d unlatch it, idiotically hoping that somehow Peter would be aware of your actions and know that you, in a moment of weakness, wanted to see him again. That your silent invitation had been noticed and he would come running to you. But, of course, it didn’t work like that.

You were released from the deep constraints of your thoughts with another set of rapping on the door. You sighed and brought yourself to look through the peephole only to be met with an eye already glaring through it. You let out a quiet shriek at the expression strewn about MJ’s face and slowly unlocked the door.

She didn’t wait for you to open it though, taking matters into her own hands and flinging the entryway open to storm through and slam shut behind her. You stood frozen, watching as she glowered with her arms crossed over her chest. You two stood in silence like that for a few moments and she continued to stare, waiting for you to give an explanation for your behavior for the past few days.

She knew better than to think you were sick. Even when you were sick you always messaged her back but this mood was something she had yet to experience in all her years of friendship with you.

“So?” She practically snarled and you gulped.

You scanned her up and down. She was entirely on the defense here. Her arms crossed, foot tapping on the ground and the disapproving look of the century plastered on her face all scrambled together to serve you one very pissed off MJ.

She waited for a response, not breaking her composure for even a fraction of a second. The anger radiating off her body was more than you could handle in the moment, especially when it was accompanied with the sorrow encasing your very being.

Her expression softened in the slightest as she studied you, noting how you couldn’t meet her gaze, not that it had been a warm one to begin with but still. Your hair was in shambles and the deep, dark circles under your eyes conveyed more than you were willing to bring yourself to admit. And when you finally looked up at her she took your desperate embrace with ease; all of her anger diminishing as she held you.

“Hey,” She soothed, running her hand up and down your back through the blanket, “what’s going on?”

You looked up at her, only slightly pulling back from the hug, “There’s something I have to tell you,” ~ That first day that you had kicked Peter out of your apartment he didn’t go on patrol that night. He was too distraught. Instead, he trudged home with his head hung low and his thoughts drowning him in regret.

He’d been weak that afternoon. He couldn’t help it. It’d been so long since you two had hung out together alone, aside from the rare occasion last week, and so much had happened within that time.

That first night, when the two of you kissed and the stars had come to life for the first time in his existence, everything in those few moments had been perfect; no, better than perfect. The world had burst to life under your touch and suddenly his years of yearning and longing for you had made sense. The world had been right and just for once. For one goddamn minute.

And then, because of that moment that he hungered to relive again, he’d lost you. Maybe permanently.

How could he have been so stupid? How could he have just given in to the desire pining for your touch? He couldn’t have helped it. The way you looked, the smile gleaming on your face, the way you were straddling and hovering above him; it all called out to him. You called out to him. His eyes traced down from your eyes to your neck and then lower to the bit of exposed cleavage in his face. He blushed in the moment, feeling guilty for letting his mind wander to those treacherous places that caused his imagination to spiral. And, oh, how his thoughts spiraled.

That need to touch you, to hold you, to kiss you, to be with you had made him weak in the moment. But had it really been so wrong to give in? After all, you are his soulmate and if it were okay to touch anyone the way his body had urged him to, why not the person that he was meant for and was meant for him?

No, it hadn’t wrong to give in because from the look that glazed your eyes and elicited your body when you connected, he knew you wanted to give in too. He knew you wanted to be with him just as much as he wanted to be with you.

And that’s why he wanted to go over that day. He had planned to tell you everything. He even had his suit in his backpack to show you but then it all went wrong. He’d prematurely exposed the truth but in a way that made it seem secretive. He hadn’t meant to be secretive; he was just scared.

Plus, he finally had the girl he’d been working to get for the past few months and he had to just throw that all away. At that point, his feeling for Liz were real just miniscule compared to the ones he attempted to drown out for you. Not to mention, Liz liked Peter as he was without the hero complex but (Y/N) liked Spider-Man, a literal superhero.

Maybe that had been the reason that (Y/N) had kicked him out so quickly. Was she disappointed that her mysterious hero had turned out to be none other than Peter Parker? Was being Peter really that bad in her eyes? No, (Y/N) loved Peter . . . platonically.

But Liz . . . Liz liked Peter, not Spider-Man. (Y/N) didn’t want her shy best friend, she wanted her mysterious hero. (Y/N) didn’t like Peter for who he was, only who he presented himself to be. Her feelings were solely based on a hidden character under the red and blue suit. She didn’t want Peter Parker. She couldn’t want Peter Parker. Peter Parker wasn’t enough for her and he never would be.

He shook his head at the thoughts, hating how his conclusion could tug at his chest so fiercely. Nonetheless, he let himself fester on that idea until it became his mentality.

(Y/N) was not interested in Peter. ~ You could hardly communicate everything that had happened over the course of the last few weeks to MJ with all the tears and sobs interrupting the story. She caught onto the gist of it, though. Peter was Spider-Man, Spider-Man was her soulmate, Peter was with Liz, etc.

She let you cry until you fell asleep that night and she stayed with you the next day so she could force you to go to school, even if it was Friday.

Her alarm woke you up the next morning and you groaned as you shoved your pillow over your ear to drown out the sound. MJ rolled around, cutting the alarm off and cuddling closer to you before shoving you out of bed.

“What the hell?” You asked, reaching out for the pillow that was pried from your hold.

MJ held the cushion just out of your reach and dangled it in the air, “Good morning!” She cheerily shouted, very unlike herself.

You groaned in response and shoved the blanket over your head just for that to be ripped away as well. “Get up, you’re coming to school,”

A huff escaped your lips as the sunlight shone even from behind closed eyelids. You wanted to argue and stay home but you would just get hell for it and end up going to school anyway so you used that time of argument to get ready instead. MJ had woken you up early enough to let you shower, as you hadn’t recently, and made breakfast while you got ready.

In the stillness of your room, you observed your reflection in the mirror. Your eyes were still puffy from the crying and there was a slight dry rash from wiping your nose so much but other than that, you looked practically normal. You ran your hands down your body, hating that you put in a little extra effort in your looks to catch Peter’s attention. In the midst of shamefully admiring yourself, you caught a glimpse of the pictures tacked onto the wall behind you. You whirled around and your gaze landed on the brightest of them all. A picture of the four of you sitting in the grass, MJ on one side of you and Peter on the other. You removed the tack from the photo and smiled down at it. The picture had been taken the first time you all hung out together, the same day you’d told MJ about your feelings for Peter only to be met with a knowing look from her. She could read you like a book that woman.

“Hey, breakfast is ready-” MJ burst through the door and cut herself off at the sight of you. “What’s that?”

“Do you remember this photo?” You asked, holding it up for her to see. Her eyes softened and she had a small smile, “I have this same picture in a drawer somewhere,”

“Do you remember what I told you that day?”

MJ looked up at you, her eyebrows furrowed as she waited for an explanation.

“That’s the day I told you that I thought I liked Peter,” She looked down at the photo and handed it back to you, “It’s like . . . since the beginning it’s been him. It’s always been him.” You placed the photo back in its original place, “And now I know why,”

Later that day in the cafeteria, the table had been full of tension. MJ throwing glares at Peter, Peter brushing them off his shoulder, your head crammed into a textbook, Ned trying to break the tension and Liz having no idea what the hell was going on.

“You guys are so cute together,” MJ cheerily spoke up after a while, looking at Peter and Liz’s interlocked fingers.

“Thanks,” Peter stated bluntly, his gaze fixated on MJ.

“I just didn’t think you would end up dating a guy like that, Liz, but now that I’m looking at it, it makes sense,”

“A guy like what?” Liz raised an eyebrow, concerned there was something about Peter that she didn’t know.

“A liar-”

“MJ, can you help me with this equation?” You interjected, hoping she hadn’t heard what MJ said.

“I don’t know why you’d need my help, you’re the best one here at math,” she slyly retorted, not once breaking her eye contact with Peter.

“I’ll help you,” Ned spoke up and the both of you exchanged worried glances. It suddenly dawned on you that Ned probably already knows Peter’s secret; which means, he already knew about you as well.

“Anyway,” Liz spoke up after a few tense moments of silence, “I’m throwing a party tonight at my place, everyone’s invited!”

“And why would we-”

“Sounds fun! We’ll be there!” You spoke up quickly, glaring at MJ to shut her up. She rolled her eyes but sat back in her chair and complied.

You’d kept your head down for most of the lunch period but had to snap your attention up to keep MJ tamed. Your gaze wandered over to the direction you felt a pull coming from and was surprised when you met Peter’s gaze. You were almost frozen, caught in a mixture of crying, panicking and keeping it together. Still, you couldn’t pry your attention from Peter so you dwelled in it instead.

He looked tired. The dark circles under his eyes were more apparent than usual and his hair appeared to lack a bit of life, the curls on his face falling flat rather than their normal bounciness. You let yourself study the man before you and that’s when it happened again.

Instead of his normal physique, an outline of his person took form and the wounds on his body glowed to catch your attention. He had a few cuts and scrapes here and there, some bruises on his shins and forearms, not to mention the busted eyebrow that you’d failed to notice under what you assumed was makeup. You squinted your eyes at this and Peter seemed to catch on to what was happening. He grew uncomfortable under your gaze and forced yourself to retract it, fighting the urge to reach out your hand and place it over the split skin on his face. Not that he’d appreciate it.

You sighed and closed the textbook before shoving it in your bag and standing up seconds before the bell rang. MJ followed suit and walked you to your next class, knowing you usually take the route with Peter and punched your shoulder lightly when it was time for her to go.

“Meet at my locker after school? I need help picking an outfit and we can stop by your place to pick some stuff up,”

MJ nodded in agreement and you turned to enter the classroom but walked into a hastily walking Peter. You reached out your hand to steady yourself and grabbed his forearm which, unfortunately, was not covered in fabric.

The warmth in your fingertips soon sprawled all over your body and you could moan at the ease it brought along with it. The ache in your heart subsided and the strength of the pull towards him tripled until you really were being shoved against him, your chest pressed against his own and his arms wrapped around you as if to keep you there.

You wanted to pull away but the fact that Peter was even holding you right now soothed the agony in your bones and you needed this for just a few seconds more. You let the sensation overtake you, submitting yourself to its enticing comfort and when Peter’s hands gripped the back of your shirt tighter to pull you deeper into him, you let him.

This was right. Being with him was right. How could it not be? How could being with your soulmate be wrong? The two of you were literally made for each other as were all soulmates but there resided something deeper between both of you that caused a very physical gravitational pull to one another. Though you’d heard of instances similar to that, you’d never heard of it being physical, only an emotional pull. And that physical pull somehow forced you two into each other’s arms where you were fighting the urge to give in.

With the little strength that you could muster, you pried yourself from him and you exchanged a worried glance with each other, “Did you-”

“Feel that? Yeah,” he said, bewildered at what just happened.

“So, you didn’t-”

“Pull you? No. And you didn’t-”

“Suddenly forgive you and throw myself into your arms?” You spoke with venom and cocked your head to the side, the little distance between you allowing some of your anger to return. “No,”

Peter wanted to roll his eyes and brush off the comment, he really did but he could see through you. The pain you tried to hide was laid barren for him, he couldn’t miss it if he tried. It shouted for his attention, demanding his explanation and wanting nothing more than to dissipate and leave you at peace. But he couldn’t grant you that. He couldn’t bring himself to beg for you when you didn’t even want him; at least, not the real him.

You finally walked away and took your usual seat in class, forcing your gaze down so you wouldn’t accidentally make eye contact with Peter as he took his place next you. You chuckled at that. ~ Liz’s house buzzed with energy, most of the people already arrived and under some kind of influence. You had to give it to her, she knew how to throw a party. Not that you’d been to very many of them considering MJ was your best friend.

MJ appeared beside you with two cups in her hand and offered you one, “Oh, I figured you were going to chug them down simultaneously,”

“Don’t tempt me.” She laughed and you took a gulp from yours, finishing it off in a few seconds, “Maybe you would like to do that, though,”

You smiled sheepishly, “I’m gonna get another one,”

“Make sure you leave some for everybody else,” she hollered over the music.

You giggled and sauntered over to the table, ignoring the beginnings of a lure coming from your left. You plucked one of the cups up and brought the brim to your lips, letting the liquid burn its way down your throat and rejoined MJ.

“Hey, so I was thinking,” you started, keeping your focus anywhere other than where it wanted to be, “where did you hear that story about the gods and the stars and all that?”

“Huh?” She shouted over the music and despite the volume of the noise, you could still filter out Peter’s voice through it all.

You grabbed MJ’s arm and pulled her towards the door, “Outside!” You shouted and she followed.

Once the fresh breeze hit your face, you took a deep breath in, attempting to clear out any negative emotions. MJ took your hand and led you away from the front of the house where quite a few people were still crowding around and settled on the rooftop. She grabbed a ladder off the floor and held the ladder while you climbed up.

“What were you trying to say?” She asked once you two had gotten comfortable.

“I was asking about where you heard the story about being chosen by the Gods,” you stated, taking a sip from the cup and already feeling a slight warmth in your cheeks. This cup was definitely stronger than the previous one.

She cocked her head a little and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“You know! About the Gods’ choosing a few special spirits to have this intense love or something,”

“What are you talking about?”

“Like, about my Indicator and the stars and my soulmate,”

Her eyebrow remained raised in your direction.

Now it was your turn to get confused, “The story you told me when we were all at your house watching movies. The day I went on the first date with Brad,”

“Dude, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she admitted, a concerned look on her face.

“Yes, you do! You’re the one that told me that story, how could you not remember it?” you practically yelled. “When I got mad because of Liz and Peter and went to your room, that’s when you told me!”

“I remember you being bothered but I figured you needed a breather so I let you have it,”

Was it MJ that had told you? You scoffed, yes, of course it was. Who else would it be? She was the one that walked into the room and comforted you. “MJ, stop playing,” you scolded.

“(Y/N) . . . are you feeling okay?” she asked and you glared at her in response. “Dude, I swear I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

You shot up from your spot and struggled to find footing so you raised your arms to balance yourself. You had drunk a little more than you thought but managed to steady yourself. MJ held out a hand to you in caution, raising them to catch you.

“Something’s not right,” you said, taking a small step back from your friend. You were certain it was MJ in the room with you, the memory was clear as day.

The reason you had even brought it up in the first place was because you wanted to know where she heard the lore from considering you’d never heard anything like it. You had been ashamed of your Indicator because you’d never come to know of any other person who had the same one as you ever. Not even in the history books. It was just completely unheard of. So, why would MJ know the legend?

“(Y/N), sit down.” MJ ordered, her words concrete.

“No, no, no, no, this doesn’t make sense,” you spoke aloud, your mind trying to understand the events of that night. You took half a step back from MJ as if the added distance would deny her truth. And it was her truth. You could always tell when MJ was lying, years of friendship could attest to that but her words were genuine and her confusion was too.

“Stop moving, (Y/N),” she growled, slowly coming closer to you.

You created the same distance from you as before and she stopped her movements altogether, her eyes glued to the back of your foot. You tried to wrack your brain around it but no matter how you tried to understand it, it just didn’t make sense. How would MJ know the lore for your Indicator when you’d studied extensively to try and find something-anything to make you feel less alone in your path. How had she just randomly come across such information and why hadn’t you asked her right then and there where she heard it from?

“(Y/N)!” You heard your name shouted from behind you and whipped around, the force of the action causing you to tip over the edge of the roof and your heart stopped as you watched MJ jump out to catch you.

The fall was quick but scarier than any rollercoaster you’d been on. It elicited the same sensations but held more finality to it.

“(Y/N)!” MJ screamed from above but you kept your eyes glued to the ground when a figure swung into your line of sight and clung onto you in midair before landing on a patch of grass on the side of the house.

The action had knocked the wind out of you and you struggled to regain your breath, your eyes glued to your feet and how they rested against the ground. MJ flew down the ladder and raced with Ned to get to your side. She hadn’t even reached it before she started yelling at you.

“Are you fucking crazy?” She yelled, kneeling by your side and encasing your face in her hands, failing to draw your attention to her.

Your body shook uncontrollably, the fear from before just now catching up to you. But it wasn’t the fear from nearly dying. It was from whoever the hell you spoke to in MJ’s house.

“Can’t you see she’s scared?” Peter yelled at MJ and you winced. You’d never heard Peter yell like that before.

Peter picked you up and placed you in his lap, his hands attempted to center you in on him but you merely looked through him. You were out of it and you couldn’t bring yourself to come back to the present.

“(Y/N),” Peter whispered, worry and fear laced in his tone, “Are you okay?” It took a minute of letting the fear make its course through you before you zeroed in on Peter’s expression. It was the warmth coming from his hands that brought you back.

“Who was she?”

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hanniiesuckle17 · 4 years

Text

Stray Kids: Celebrating Their S/o's Birthday

A/n: this was requested by @9staytiny8-allie-5moarmy7 this was such a cute idea! I hope you like it! I got a little carried away with jinnie’s and chan’s lol

Bangchan:

The ringing of your phone brought your attention away from your schoolwork. The familiar sound of your boyfriend’s verse in ‘WOW’ filled the room making you laugh. “Hey! Are you home?” Chan said as you enabled video chat.

“Yeah, I got home about an hour ago. Are you in the car?”

He nodded and adjusted his phone. “So, I know we couldn’t be together for your birthday because I’m on tour and I’m really sorry.” He sighed, a frown on his face. It was a little disappointing Chan wasn’t here, but you had finally accepted the fact that he wasn’t going to be home. “Chan, don’t apologize! It’s fine! We’ve only been going out a couple months. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I’m going to call you when I get back to the hotel in about thirty minutes. Put on something nice!”

Confused you nodded and smiled at him before he hung up. Following your boyfriend’s direction you put on some makeup and put on a nice dress. Just as he said Chan called you back, this time on your laptop. When you answered you laughed seeing Chan in a nice suit. “Happy Birthday, baby girl!”

“Chan! What are you doing?”

“You and I are going to have a special birthday dinner to celebrate.”

“But how-” Suddenly your doorbell rang. Chan smiled and pulled a plate in front of him, probably from room service. “You better get that, baby.” Standing, you answered the door to see a man holding takeout from your favorite restaurant. He told you someone had already paid for the meal. Quickly, you ran back to Chan on your laptop.

“Chan you are the best. This is the best gift ever!”

“Oh, your gift is still in the mail. Don’t worry.”

Minho:

“Y/n! Hey, honey, open the door!” Your brows furrowed hearing your boyfriend's voice from outside your apartment. Getting off the couch, you walked over and opened the door. There stood Minho carrying one very large birthday bag and a cat carrier. He also had a cat strapped to his chest in one of those baby slings and another peeking over his shoulder

“You brought the cats?” You said with a laugh.

“This is a family affair. Of course, I brought our children.”

You laughed as he walked into your apartment and started to let his cats down. You thought it was cute that you had only been dating for six months yet he considered you a second parent to Soongi, Doongi, and Doori.

Minho watched his little cats explore your apartment before turning to you. “Am I cooking or ordering, because your cute little butt is not lifting a finger tonight.” He smiled and wrapped his arms around you.

“Will you order in? I want cuddles.”

“Of course!”

“Can it be pizza and sides?”

“....Sure!”

You laughed as he pulled out his phone and ordered the pizza. He followed you as you plopped down on the couch, pulling him down with you. A cat soon followed jumping up on your stomach. Happily, the two of you sat on your couch with your kitty children and snacking on pizza.

Changbin:

You checked yourself in the mirror one last time. Changbin would be here any minute to pick you up. You had been together for almost a year now, but you still got nervous before going out with him. “I should change my lipstick. This is way too dark.”

Before you could return to your makeup to change, someone knocked on the door. With a nervous smile, you opened the door to see Changbin dressed in a nice suit. “Wow, you look...incredible. Happy Birthday, gorgeous.” He handed you the prettiest bouquet of flowers you had ever seen.

“You ready to go?” He asked with a bright smile, looking you up and down. You watched him nervously wring his hands together with a cute smile. After nodding, he offered you his arm and escorted you to his car. On the way to the restaurant, you were surprised with a playlist filled with all of your favorite songs made by him.

“My lady,” Changbin said opening your door. “Thank you, my good sir.” Looping your arm through his, he led you into the very nice restaurant. Your eyes widened, when you saw the expensive decor and the trays of fancy appetizers

“Bin, you didn’t have to do this!” You said as the waiter led the two of you to a secluded booth. He shrugged and sat down pulling out the menu.

“It’s your birthday, gorgeous. Order anything you want. Also little heads up, I told them to sing when they bring the champagne.”

“Bin!”

Hyunjin:

“Okay, get dressed. We are going out,” Hyunjin said walking into your bedroom. “Umm excuse you? When did you even get here?” Hyunjin being the dramatic ass he was slammed your bedroom door letting his jaw drop.

“No, no, no, no, no. You aren’t turning this on me. I’m the one who just found out through Snapchat that it’s your birthday today!”

You laughed as he walked over to your closet and started searching through your clothes. You had only been dating for a couple of weeks so you didn’t really think Hyunjin would care so much if you just let the day slip by. You certainly hadn’t expected him to barge into your apartment unannounced.“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But, I don’t want you to spend money on me, okay? You worked really hard. Don’t spend it on me.”

“LET ME SPOIL YOU, WOMAN. WE MUST HONOR THE DAY YOU CAME TO THIS EARTH!”

You laughed as he tossed a dress at you. “Hyunjin, I don’t really want to go out.” He sighed and reluctantly put the dress back in your closet when you threw it back to him. You watched your boyfriend fall back onto your bed, clearly exasperated.

“Y/n if you don’t let me do something for your birthday I’ll jump off your balcony.” Instead of responding you just turned back to your homework. Your eyes widened hearing your sliding door open. “I’m not kidding, I’ll do it.” Hyunjin stood facing you on the ledge of your balcony, a completely serious look on his handsome face. “Fine. Do it.” Without questioning it, Hyunjin fell backward off the balcony. “OW!” He yelped. Quickly you rushed over to the balcony to see Hyunjin lying on the grass about four feet below. “Did you forget I live on the first floor?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you come back in and I’ll let you buy me a pizza?”

Jisung:

Today had not been the best of days. Your professor gave you a four-page paper due in two days and your landlord just told you he was increasing your rent next month. On top of that, it seems your parents had forgotten your birthday. And much to your disappointment, it seems your boyfriend had too. The two of you had exchanged numerous texts today despite his busy schedule, and yet he didn’t even say ‘Happy Birthday’.

You really just wanted to heat up some leftovers and go to bed early. Finally, the key turned in your lock to reveal your dark apartment. That’s funny. You were almost certain you left a light on in the living room. Then you noticed the extra pair of shoes by the door. “Jisung? Are you here?” Then you heard footsteps shuffle in from the kitchen.

“Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Y/n! Happy Birthday to you!”

You almost cried seeing Jisung carrying in a lit birthday cake from your kitchen. You never should have doubted him. You knew he wouldn’t forget the first birthday you spent together. “Happy birthday, baby.” He said standing in front of you with the cake, his cute smile lighting the room up brighter than the candles. Wiping away a tear, you blew out the candles and set the cake down on the table wrapping him up in a hug.

“I thought you forgot.”

“Never, baby. I’m gonna be here for so many birthdays that you’ll get sick of me.”

You laughed as he kissed the top of your head. This was one of the best birthdays ever thanks to Jisung. “Thank you, Sungie. I’ve got a present for you in return.” He smiled when you leaned up and pressed your lips to his.

“Hey! It’s your birthday! Leave the present giving to me!” He said as he attacked your lips and face with kisses, making you laugh.

Felix:

“DON’T COME IN THE KITCHEN!” Your boyfriend, Felix, shouted at you in your bedroom. He had locked you in there claiming to ‘need time to prepare your birthday surprise’. While you and Felix had only been dating about three months, you had been friends much longer. And it genuinely scared you that Felix was alone in your kitchen with knives, and potential fire, and.....well that was about it. You were okay if he made your food taste bad.

Several nerve-wracking sounds came from your kitchen and all you could do was nervously sit on your bed. “Felix are you done yet?” You called checking the time. He had been at this close to two hours now.

“Almost! I’m plating!”

“You know what plating is?”

“Yeah, I saw it on CHOPPED.”

After a few more minutes, Felix called out again. “Okay, you can come out now, Y/n!” Smiling, you opened your door and walked into your relatively small kitchen. When you walked in you were greeted with your boyfriend doing a silly little dance as he sprinkled cheese on top of the plates.

“Felix, oh my god! This is incredible!” The plates were gorgeously plated with your absolute favorite meal. And when you looked around your kitchen was perfectly intact. Felix wrapped you up in a hug and kissed your forehead.

“Happy birthday, love.”

Seungmin:

Come outside.

You shrugged looking at the text from your boyfriend. It wasn’t unusual for him to text you this late, but it was weird for Seungmin to send you something like this. Throwing on a sweater and slipping on some shoes you headed outside your dorm. Seungmin’s ringtone startled you as you stood alone in the dark outside.

“Minnie, what’s going on?”

“Hey, you see the JYP van?” He asked. You could hear the smile in his voice. A smile slipped onto your face when you spotted the gray van Stray Kids ride around in parked under a streetlight.

“Yeah,”

“Well, hurry up, dummy.”

Jogging over you were greeted by one of the JYP security guys getting out of the driver’s side door. He smiled and opened up the sliding door revealing your smiling boyfriend in the back. When the door opened he started to sing happy birthday to you, his amazing voice floating out into the empty college dorm parking lot.

When he was finished he joyfully pulled you in to sit with him in the back of the van. You laughed when the security closed the door giving you two some privacy. “So, on the way home, I picked up takeout and told the driver to drop the guys off and then bring me here.” He was too cute. He smiled when you cupped his cheeks and kissed him.

“Thank you, Seungmin. This is the best birthday present ever.”

Jeongin:

Hey, baby! Can you pick up some drinks for me and the boys on your way back from class?

You smiled seeing the text from your boyfriend. Both of you had a busy schedule, him with his schedules and you with class. He had often sent you this kind of message as an excuse to see you. You thought it was really cute.

Yeah! I’ll be there in 20!

Twenty minutes later you were carrying eight drinks in two carriers up to the JYP practice room. When you entered the room was dark and you heard whispers in the back. “Um......guys? Are you in here?” Feeling around for the table near the door you set the drinks down. And there was a light switch around here somewhere.

“SURPRISE!”

You jumped hearing the eight boys scream when you turned on the lights. Turning around you saw your boyfriend’s dark hair running towards you, a big bright happy smile on his face. “Happy birthday, Y/n!” He cheered wrapping you up in a big hug.

“Jeongin, you did this all for me?” He smiled and nodded, laughing when you started peppering kisses all over his face. When you had finished he led you over to the other boys who each gave you their own version of a happy birthday wish. Jeongin got a little worried you had stopped breathing during Changbin’s bone-crushing hug.

“Jeongin this is the best surprise party ever! Thank you so much for doing this for me!”

Requests are open my lovelies! ALSO IM SIX DAYS FROM GRADUATING OMG

Masterlist

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clean-bands-dirty-stories · 4 years

Text

Forget Me Not ~ R.C.

A/n: I really love the diversity of requests on this page y’all are so good to me. I did assume a female reader, so let me know if you want a male/nonbinary request instead! I love the idea of this prompt going a totally different way lol. Also, super sorry I took so long writing it :( Hope it was worth the wait!

Request: “Could you write something where Randall gets dusted by the reader to forget about you and protect him from the order and how he reacts when he finds out?...” by 💙 anon

Word Count: 4600+

MASTERLIST

"You want me to what?"

Alyssa took a deep breath. It was apparent that it caused her just as much pain to say as it did Y/n to hear. "The Grand Magus," She said with great stress, making sure it was clear that this had been Vera's decision and not hers. "Wants us to dust the wolves to make them forget. Everything." I went to argue with her so she rushed to add, "She thinks that they can't be controlled and therefore they're dangerous." Alyssa grabbed Y/n's shoulder, her desperation clear. The only person that would understand her struggle was the girl in front of her. If Y/n wasn't on her side Alyssa was going to lose her mind. "If you don't, they are going to kill them. All of them."

Y/n covered her mouth with her hand, trying to process. After a moment she moved it so she could speak, but only to her throat, as if pantomiming choking herself. "I have to make Randall forget me?"

Alyssa swallowed hard. "You've got the easiest access to him, and if you do what they say then you'll gain Vera's trust. I..." She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose for a second. When she moved her hand away and looked back at Y/n, there were tears in her eyes. "Listen, I need a friend in this and so will you. I know you care about Randall as much as I care about Jack and we will be the only two in the whole Order that will understand how the other feels. Please, do this for me. For - for you, even."

Shaking her head, Y/n stepped away. Alyssa seemed defeated until Y/n spoke. "I do it for Randall, like I do everything. If I was doing something for myself... I'd do something stupid."

There was a solemness to Alyssa's nod. She had won and gotten Y/n on her side. But at what cost?

Not long after their conversation, Y/n was on a trail to destroy the one thing that meant most to her for the sake of the man she loved. Randall and her had been dating for a while now. They'd met before either of them were part of the Knights or the Order and had started dating pretty soon after their instant chemistry took off without a hitch. When Alyssa had dragged Y/n to some beaten down cabin or house or whatever in the middle of the woods, Y/n hadn't known what to expect until she opened the door and came face to face with Vera Stone, who was supposed to be dead, and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend who was apparently her enemy. It had all been down hill from there, though it hadn't seemed to be for a second there. Randall and her had talked and figured out a system. They'd make it work. They had a plan.

Now it didn't matter.

"Hey there," Randall greeted brightly, grinning from ear to ear.

Y/n was a terrible liar but tried to seem as happy to see him as he was her. She was always glad to reunite with him, but what it meant to meet up with him now... For the first time she wanted to run far away from him and never come back. Maybe then she wouldn't have to do this. But that was, of course, a lie. If she didn't someone else would, and she might get dusted herself when she finally did return. She needed to grow up and just do what had to be done. Until she could figure out a better option, she'd rather him forget her than be dead. "Hey." She didn't stop walking when she saw him, moving right into his arms. He was a little surprised but was always down for a hug.

As had been mentioned before, Y/n was a bad liar, and even more so to Randall who knew her very well and could always tell when something was bothering her. So even though he loved hugs, he was also concerned by the way she was clinging to him. He pulled her back, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear. "What's wrong?" His eyes searched hers, trying to find the problem so he could fix it.

God she was going to miss him. He wasn't just her boyfriend, he was her best friend. How could she just...? No, she would do it. She HAD to do it. "Nothing." She steeled herself, pulling her thoughts together forcefully. This wasn't the worst option. At least if he forgot her, he'd be alive. And he wouldn't hurt either. He wouldn't know to miss her. This was a mercy. This was better than what she would be getting. There was no time for self pity though, she had to focus on helping him. Saving him. She relaxed a little and he seemed to believe her a bit more. "I just missed you."

"We saw each other yesterday," he reminded, his smile growing a little more teasing.

She felt her heart swell. "Well, how am I supposed to ever be okay with being away from the best boyfriend ever? Every second apart is actual torture."

Randall scooped her up against her, kissing her on the cheek. "My adorable, cheesy girlfriend. What would I do without you?"

Y/n felt a pang in her chest. "You'll never know." That, at least, was the truth. She stepped away, turning to the bar. She'd come to the Den since that's where he'd been, studying. Jack had left just before she'd gotten there to meet with Alyssa. Lilith and Hamish were still here though, so Y/n had to either wait for them to get called out or somehow get Randall away. "Want to do something today?" She needed to get this over with. Like a band-aid. Fast.

"Sure, I-"

"Hey, sorry to interrupt," Lilith said as she pointed to the door out they were blocking. "I was thinking about going for a run. I can't focus on homework after having a rough time sleeping. I think it would help to get my blood going." They both nodded at her and parted, letting her pass.

"Anyway," Randall sighed, stepping closer to his girlfriend again. "Where do you want to-?"

"Pardon me," Hamish mumbled as he brushed between the couple, pushing them apart again. "I need a drink." He looked tired, but wasn't it early to be drinking? And didn't he have homework? And class?

They let him go anyway. It wasn't their job to judge his life choices.

A thought did occur to Y/n then though. "...Or we could stay here." She chuckled.

He shook his head. "I can tell you, they definitely left because this place gets really stuffy after a while. We were all about ready to clock in a break. How about a walk instead?" Y/n agreed and he reached out, intertwining their fingers before pushing the door open and heading outside, tugging her gently after him. "You had a class this morning, didn't you?" He asked as a way to start conversation.

She nodded. "Yeah." She shrugged, already knowing what he was going to ask. "It was fine. My professor seemed to be irritated today but I know it wasn't my fault so no stress." She chuckled softly and he smiled. It was known that most of her professors were often irritated with her since she struggled to pay attention in class in a way they found mattered. She knew all the material and got fantastic grades, but spent most of her time staring out the window so they'd try to write her off, just for her to pull through anyway. She'd been accused of cheating even a few times, but she never did so it had fallen short.

They began to circle the house in their little walk, not wanting to go too far and chance running into someone else, but also wanting to get some distance from the place Randall didn't want to be right now. Y/n pulled ahead, turning around so she was walking backwards. He slowed down so she didn't have to walk so fast. "You sure it wasn't you? I swear you always press the right button, even if you're trying to be good."

Y/n rolled her eyes. "I'm sure. Even Mrs. Tynn has stopped her side comments. They're over it. I'm not cheating, I'm learning in my own way, and they don't have enough energy to be wasting it on me all the time." He nodded, recognizing that as fact. Most professors didn't waste energy on students if they didn't feel they had to. Y/n tilted their path, taking them closer and closer to the woods and further away from the Den. It would be best if he was away from it when he forgot, so he wouldn't come back and go searching. "How about you?"

"Thank god I don't have class today," Randall groaned, rolling his eyes. "I was so happy when my teachers all told me I'd have no classes on Saturday." Y/n chuckled, remembering how all last year he'd been whining and moaning and complaining about having class on Saturday. He didn't mind Sunday, and if he had the day off on Friday it bothered him less, but there was something about having Saturdays free that he fed off of. Y/n only had the one morning class, so they usually spent it together.

I guess that wasn't an option anymore.

Y/n wrapped her fingers around the bag in her pocket. It was super small. Smaller than what she'd thought. "Randall," she wondered aloud. He hummed, letting her know he was listening. "Do you ever do something that you regret, but you know you have to do?"

At that he scoffed. "I guess. Not really, for the most part, but I have before." Y/n thought back to when must have been around the time Randall had first joined. He was nervous and jumpy, obviously guilt ridden. The first few times he'd killed people had been obvious in hindsight. He wouldn't let Y/n touch him, and had almost broken up with her because he said he wasn't good enough for her. Then, after a while, he'd seemed to calm and adjust. Y/n wondered if that's what he had in mind when she said things you had to do, but didn't want to. Last time she'd checked, he was plenty fine with it now. He even enjoyed it, having to be reeled in by Jack and occasionally Hamish, and being disappointed when he was.

It came out without her wanting it to. "What if you had to kill me?" He stopped dead and she slowed, leaving a lot of space between them. He suddenly felt incredibly far away and she hated it. "I don't mean to make you anxious - I haven't done anything. I just mean, your job is to kill people in the Order right? You enjoy doing it. It's what fuels you every day. Well, goddamnit, I'm in the Order."

He shifted uncomfortably. "I thought we talked about this."

"I-" She bit her lip, looking away from him. "You guys kill kids our age. Kids who are most of the time just doing what they're told so they can be apart of something they enjoy. Something they worked their asses off to keep being apart of. Something that makes them special." She looked back at him. "What if the day comes that I'm asked to do something and you're told to stop me, and we have to kill each other? Would you do it?"

"Would you?" It was accusing and it made Y/n take another step away, horrified at what must have been going through his head.

"NO!" She felt anger rise inside of her. "I'd give everything to protect you, Randall. But what I do doesn't require me to kill you, does it?"

He seemed to have too many thoughts. The easy going mood from a second ago was gone. "Well I can't just quit like you can."

Immediately Y/n's anger exploded and he looked away, ashamed. He knew how much magic meant to her. How she had spent years feeling like an outsider until she'd learned magic and it had given her a purpose. Somewhere to belong, where things made sense. "If I quit, I would lose everything. Including you. I wouldn't know you were a wolf anymore, and with all that sneaking around... I mean our secrets almost ripped us apart before. You want it to happen again?"

"No," he snapped. His voice sounded raw though, and stress lines were beginning to deepen as the thought of me forgetting him made him feel terrible. Y/n knew, because she had been thinking about it nonstop since Alyssa had told her what Vera had ordered.

Y/n turned around, puling the bag out of her pocket. She stared at it, her eyes watering. She blinked it away, looking straight ahead and setting her jaw. "I love you, Randall. Despite what you think about the Order and what you do and our parts in this world that was supposed to make us enemies. I love you."

Randall sighed behind her, his footsteps sounding as he moved closer. She reached into the bag, pulling out a handful of dust. "I love you too. I'm sorry I just... I don't want to lose you."

"Neither do I," Y/n whispered. His hand reached out to touch her shoulder. The second it landed, she spun around, throwing the dust in his face. He collapsed right there and she felt her heart shatter. She slipped the now empty bag in her pocket, staring at him. He suddenly woke up, gasping, eyes flying open as he looked around, obviously confused. She rushed to him, offering a hand to help him up. "Oh my god are you okay?"

"Y- yeah." He blinked, shaking his head, and then took her hand as she helped him up. She let herself hold as long as he would let her, reasoning that he would need to be stabilized but knowing it was really because this was probably the last time she'd ever touch him again. "Where am I?"

"You looked like you were going on a walk and you just collapsed." She slipped out her phone with some quick thinking. "I was taking pictures."

That's when his eyes landed on her. He made the same expression he had the first time he'd seen her, if with a little more confusion now. "Why?"

"I enjoy the beauty of nature," she slowly offered, a spike a fear running through her as she wondered if it hadn't worked.

He seemed to chuckle though, his hand that she'd been holding now holding her hand instead. "All you have to do to see art is look in the mirror."

Despite herself, she blushed. "Well thank you." She pulled her arm away, stepping back. It was time to stay goodbye. "Make sure you get back to school safely, why don't you? Wouldn't want a pretty face like yours to get messed up with another fall."

His eye slight up and she internally cursed herself. STOP FLIRTING WITH HIM! "You know, it's customary for the knight in shining armor to escort the princess back to safety."

"You do know that you're the princess in this situation," she reminded, a smile growing.

"I am," he confirmed rather proudly. "And since you're my knight in shining armor, how about I buy you dinner? As a thank you."

She almost said yes. Almost. She remembered what she'd just said. How keeping secrets ruined relationships. And how could she have a relationship with him when there was so much he'd forgotten? It would be unfair to her, and even more so to him. She didn't get to keep being happy when she'd taken away from him the exact thing she'd gotten mad at him for suggesting she leave. The Order was for Y/n what the Knights were for Randall. Even if it was to save his life, she had a lot to answer for. So she panicked, and said the first thing that came into her mind instead. "I... have a boyfriend." Her face scrunched. What an odd thing to say when just moments before she'd flirted with him. "Sorry. I..." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm happy with him."

He backed off immediately. "I get it, no worries. Thanks anyway."

Nodding, she walked away. Her fingers death gripped her phone as she stared at the ground as she walked. The only thought she could muster was: You shouldn't be thanking me.

Y/n had been struggling to keep herself together, but at the very least she'd had the freedom to be away from any reminders of Randall when she was doing Order stuff.

Now they were here too.

"Y/n, right?"

The girl turned to face the person talking to her and had to steel herself so she wouldn't cry. "Yeah." Her voice came out in a rasp and she cleared her throat. He kept looking at her like he was trying to understand. She couldn't understand what was so interesting to him, but his look made her want to combust into flames. Randall's gaze usually made her feel warm, but not it was like someone had turned the temperature up a hundred degrees. It was unbearably painful.

"I was just wondering if you could help me with something."

She moved away as he went to step closer, shrinking into herself. "Please ask someone else."

That seemed to confuse him. "But-"

"She gave you an order, Neophyte," Alyssa said calmly. Her hands were behind her back and she was giving Randall a warning look. It wasn't angry like she'd been with Jack when he'd first joined. It was almost... panicked. Y/n could understand. Alyssa of all people knew how weak Y/n's self control was when it came to Randall, and if she burst into tears just because he'd talked to her it would have set off a lot of questions.

Randall seemed pissed. "Fine." He turned around and left and Y/n almost became a puddle from how hard she'd melted in relief.

Y/n turned to Alyssa. "I- I can't do this anymore, Lys. Please just- maybe I should just quit. And forget. I haven't been helping you at all with the dust and it's getting so complicated and I- I- I can't lie to him anymore." Her eyes were watering and she'd begun to hyperventilate.

"You can't forget," Alyssa rushed, her eyes wide with panic.

"Why not?" Y/n demanded. "It's been six months of me sitting here and trying to deal with the fact that I made him forget everything that mattered to him, including me. And for what? It didn't work, and they're going to kill him anyway!"

Suddenly Y/n's brain shut down.

They were going to kill Randall.

Tears were streaming as she leaned against the wall behind her, soft sobs emitting from her as she tried to muffle them with her hand. Her chest constricted and she doubled over, covering her face. Alyssa tried to touch her and shrunk away, a shiver running down her spine as her body coiled so tightly it hurt. "Y/n please-"

In response, the girl on the floor shook her head frantically before her body began to vibrate. She was having a breakdown. It had been the worst six months of her life and Y/n had a soft heart. She didn't hurt people. She didn't betray people who she cared about - people who trusted her. She was a good person through and through. She handled everything to the best of her ability, guided by a strong conscious. Everything she was doing now went against that driving force that demanded she do what was right. Nothing made sense anymore, and she couldn't handle feeling lost on top of feeling both guilty and alone. They were all emotions she couldn't handle. She wasn't built to deal with it.

It was as if Alyssa could sense the exact moment she could no longer help Y/n. The blonde spun around, running. In the distance she was yelling something but Y/n didn't care. Not until two people came back, one kneeling in front of her and reaching out, concerned. Y/n made a mental note not to break down in the temple again. What were they going to do? Help her? No, the Order would be much more eager to just wiper her memory. On second thought, that might not be so bad.

"Y/n, please talk to me." Her head snapped up to lock eyes with Randall of all people. "Wh-" She shook her head. "No," she moaned, putting her head back between her legs. "Don't help me."

He sighed. "Y/n I know." Just like that Y/n was still, her eyes wide as she slowly looked not at Randall, but at Alyssa. The blonde shrunk away in surprised fear at the look of murder on Y/n's face.

"You... told him?"

"They remembered," Alyssa rushed to explain as she twisted her hand around her wrist nervously. "Their healing was just helping them get used to the dust, like someone adjusting to a drug. I had to do something, I-"

Y/n shot to her feet, rushing at Alyssa. Randall caught her by some miracle. She didn't even process him though. "He's going to die now!"

"What?" Randall snapped.

"No one is going to die." Alyssa huffed, her voice tight. "We will figure this out. But- Y/n I need your help."

Y/n grunted, twisting her body to slam her foot on top of Randall's. He yelped and flew back from her and she closed the distance between her and the Alyssa. "You got me into this whole mess. You brought Vera to the Den and that's how she found out about the wolves. You convinced me to agree, and then continued to convince me to stay. Because you needed a friend and if they found out, they'd die. Now you've gone behind my back and made some alliance with them and you want my help again?"

Alyssa let out a sharp breath, her body shuddering. "I'm just trying to figure this out, Y/n. I know how hard this all is I'm sorry I just- I'm trying to keep them alive, and if they didn't get answers it was going to make everything so much worse."

"Then why didn't you tell me they remembered?" Y/n demanded. "What did you tell Randall when he asked who I was or why I did what I did? Do you even know why? Did you take away my opportunity to explain it to him myself, without other people muddling up what really happened? Fuck you Alyssa." She spun around to run off but was stopped dead as her eyes locked with Randall's.

"You... were the one who dusted me?" Alyssa's help had aided in returning memories much more quickly, and in bigger chunks, but for each of the wolves it had worked differently. For Hamish, it had been from when they'd lost their memories and backward. For Jack, it had been returned to him all at once. For Lilith, it had come very quickly in tiny tidbits. For Randall, it was in huge chunks but very slowly. As Y/n revealed she had been the one to do it, he got his first bad memory of the girl. The day she'd taken his memory.

Y/n was stunned. "You... didn't know?"

Alyssa cleared her throat. "I.. think I should go." She dipped around them and raced out before either could stop her. Not that they cared much to.

"Randall, please-"

"She didn't tell me anything," Randall told her. His voice wasn't malicious as she expected, but it was hard. She wasn't sure what that meant. Was he mad? Sad? Scared? Secretly planning some violent revenge? "That's why I came up to you. I thought... I know we were together before, but I don't know everything. Every time I saw you I got more, but... not everything. Alyssa says that in two or three days all of our memories will be back again. I thought talking to you might unlock if we weren't together anymore, or where we'd left off... I guess it wasn't great."

Y/n couldn't find the words. "I can't even think of how to apologize to you. Just, please understand that I did it so they wouldn't kill you. I figured you living out your life without me would be safer for you, if anything. You'd be happy. And you were happy. I know how hard it was, and what it cost. It cost being a wolf, and that was something special. Like magic is to me. And I... I can't imagine what it would be like to realize your best friend doesn't even care about you. I was so mad when I found out. But if I had done anything, I would have forgotten you too. And- and sometimes I wanted to, but I thought that I should hurt. Because I made you hurt. I-" She cringed away, flinching away from her as he met her gaze again. "I'm so sorry Randall."

His jaw worked as he let this new information roll around in his head. "I'm angry," he realized. Y/n's head fell forward in shame. "But... not at you, I don't think." She stared at the ground in shocked, too scared to look at his face again and see he was being sarcastic, or cruel. "I'm mad at the Order. I'm mad they forced you to do this. Honestly, I think I would have done the same. I can't imagine having to choose your life or your magic. I don't blame you- you made the right choice. If you hadn't, you'd have forgotten and I could just as well be dead."

Now Y/n did look up. "You... forgive me?"

After a second, he shook his head. "There's nothing to forgive you for. I got the good memories first, Y/n. I got the cuddling and the crying when I stepped on bugs, and the stressing about tests together, and watching you get decked because someone was nasty to me. Back when we were still pretending to be just friends and I flirted with someone to see if you'd get jealous. To see if you liked me. And it was a guy, and this older woman was really nasty to me. You stood up for me, and when her husband reacted poorly and you were on the floor.... god I was so lucky those police officers were nearby because I almost shifted right then and there." He smiled a little. "You love me, and I love you. And you were faced with a bad choice and an even worse choice. I'm just so glad that I can come back to you, rather than having to go through even more shit to get you to remember to." He sighed, shaking his head again. "I've been through so much, Y/n. We- both have, actually. This world of our is shit, and it's really hard to deal with alone. Can we just get passed this and be happy? You make being happy so much easier."

Y/n beamed. "Of course Randall."

They shared their first kiss in six months, and it was a relief to both of them. It was also a promise. A promise that no matter what, it was always them. They were together, through thick and thin. It was Y/n and Randall and it would always be Y/n and Randall. No matter what to get between them in the future, they'd figure it out and stick together. Because fuck everything else if they lost what they had. Love was more powerful than any magic. More important too.

#randall carpio #the order #the knights of saint christopher imagine #the knights of the order of the hermedic blue rose #the knights of saint chrisptoher #the knights of saint christopher x reader #randall carpio x reader #randall carpio imagine #the order x reader #the order imagine #female reader

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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I've never played WOW, but my friends into it. I might as well try. Any advice for someone who's never touched a MMO?

Oh, fun question! It’s actually hard for me to think of things I’d have wanted to know when starting out because I started playing MMOs around age... 9? So in some respects I grew up alongside the genre, rather than trying to learn it after the fact, but some things I’d highlight about WoW now is:

Don’t worry about your race/class. There is SO MUCH about the “right” and “wrong” way to create a character, but at the end of the day you should choose whatever interests and appeals to you most. The caveat to that is that picking a tank or a healer class will put a bit more responsibility on your shoulders — whether you like it or not at times — so just be aware of that. Some people like taking on a specific role, others (me) do not. There are also classes that are better suited to soloing as much of the game as possible, if that’s something you’re interested in.

Regardless, you will have to play with others eventually. If your friends are already into WoW it sounds like you have a good community/potential guild to turn to, but I’d recommend waiting until you feel confident in playing your character before entering groups with strangers. Frankly, the WoW community can be pretty damn toxic. I’m no expert, but I’ve played it long enough to feel confident in my abilities and I’m still cursed out by pissed off dungeon groups if we wipe. Raids will expect you to have learned the fights via youtube prior to coming in and when many inevitably haven’t (because it’s a game and homework shouldn’t be required lol) they’ll start yelling too. PvP is just a mess of accusations and slurs, depending on how badly it’s going... so yeah. I don’t want to make it sound like WoW is made up of nothing but assholes, but there are enough to make an impression. It’s something to avoid if you’re not feeling up to it, but given how much of the later content requires working with others, wait until you’re geared, have a good handle on your class, and are in a good head space before diving in. Or stick to playing with friends.

Speaking of friends, if you do want to play with them I’d recommend picking their faction (Horde or Alliance). That will allow you to visit each other in major cities, help with the same quests, queue up for activities together, etc. Though the story has moved away from the Horde vs. Alliance rivalry recently, the gameplay still very much divides them.

Check out everything you can (without getting too overwhelmed!) WoW has a LOT going on and while very little is required, much of it is beneficial while also being easy to miss, just by virtue of there being so much to do. Pick up any quests you find, explore as much of the world as you can, talk to NPCs, save the loot you get, etc. You can always get rid of something — drop a quest, destroy/sell an item — but it’s a bummer if you just go and sell everything only to realize you actually needed all that stuff for something else. So go slow and check out your options before making decisions.

To help with that, I recommend WoWhead and Icy Veins for info, or just good old-fashioned plugging the thing into google with “wow” next to it. How often do I look stuff up? Constantly. MMOs don’t have cheating culture the way a single-player game might (I mean, there’s absolutely cheating, just not in the same way), so don’t be afraid to just google anything and everything you want. The comment sections of a page are your best friend. Whereas the official description may give you an overwhelming amount of information you don’t actually need, player comments tend to focus on what others really want to know: here’s where to find this NPC, yes this quest is bugged, make sure you do X before Y, etc. WoW has become a lot more accessible over the years in terms of helping players figure things out, but it’s still confusing at times, so make use of any resource you please.

Another “cheat” is to use addons. I’d recommend grabbing WoWMatrix which will allow you to (safely) download addons without any of the hassle of putting it in the correct folders. I’d recommend Bagnon (makes all your bags open as a single window so you can see all your loot at once), Bartender (allows you to customize your action bar), Coordinates (puts a tiny, movable coordinates button on your screen which is basically necessary at this point to find things. Players will almost always provide coordinates when giving locations), HandyNotes (provides lots of info on your map, like how you go about summoning a rare mob), Pawn (helps you compare gear to see what’s best for your class/specialization), and if you do any PvP, Healers Have to Die, or HHTD, which marks all healers with a cross so they’re easy to spot in battle (always kill healers first! :D). WoWMatrix is SUPER easy to use — just search for the addons you want via the application, download them, delete if you don’t like ‘em, and open it once in a while to “Update All” — and the various addons you can use are an absolute godsend. They make playing the base game that much better.

If you’re someone invested in the story side of games, lore is going to be very weird here, just because WoW is 16 years old and you’ll be entering into the 8th expansion. I’ve played WoW since it came out and I don’t know wtf is going on a lot of the time lol. So just roll with it, or if you’re interested, make use of wikis, the novels, etc. But it’s not the sort of game where you’re in trouble if you have no idea who this person is or what battle they’re talking about. Just accept whatever they want you to do and pick up the story wherever you came in.

You’re going to die a lot. A lot, a lot. That’s fine, everyone does. Again, not the sort of game where that’s a problem. Just know that you can either return to your corpse (flying there as a ghost) or rez at the graveyard you appear in if you’re willing to deal with a bad debuff for like 10 minutes. Also, all armor has durability that goes down over time, but it goes down faster the more you die, so you’ll want to repair (finding an NPC with the anvil icon) soon afterwards.

There’s lots of little things to learn like that: a brown bag icon means you can sell to this person, blue exclamation marks are quests that will reappear daily, items with a gray name (as opposed to white, green, blue, or purple) are pretty much just junk and you can always sell them... there’s a lot. Pick things up as you go, keeping in mind that you’ll be given SO MUCH INFORMATION and no, you’re not going to learn it all at once. Part of the fun is figuring stuff out and seeing yourself improve. Feel free to ask questions too (there’s a chat box and you can speak to an entire zone at once), though frankly it’s a 50/50 chance whether someone will give an actual answer, or just roast you lol

If you ever want to play “seriously,” I’d kinda recommend learning WoW with keybinding early on — AKA, creating button shortcuts for various spells/skills so your mouse is only used for camera movement and targeting, rather than wasting time looking for the action you want to click on. I say “kinda” because I don’t do that. At this point my click method is too ingrained in my muscle memory for anything else, but I recognize that I’m in the minority for saying that’s an “okay” way to play.

Anything is okay though. Do whatever. I mean, the above aside, literally my best advice is to just throw yourself headfirst into the game, accept that you’re going to mess so much up, shrug, and have fun with it. I spent an hour of my life running a Tourghast floor today... and then wasn’t able to beat the final boss. So I “wasted” that time since I didn’t get the loot, but who cares? It was fun! Literally do whatever and don’t let any of the assholes get to you. Someone sends a message you don’t like? Block them (right click their name in the chat box to get the option). Group is making you uncomfortable? Leave. Don’t know how to do something? Google it! The best thing about an MMO is also the most overwhelming: it’s a whole world with (almost) endless options, so though that freedom is exciting, it also means you have to curate your own experience. It’s a bit like being here on tumblr. Figure out all the nuances at you own pace, lurk as long as you’d like, and if someone is being annoying, google how to keep them out of your inbox.

Idk how helpful any of these tips are, but I hope you enjoy it!! 😊

#gaming #WoW #World of Warcraft #Anonymous

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makeste · 4 years

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BnHA Chapter 288: ZOOM AND ENHANCE

Previously on BnHA: Tomura, AFO, Deku, and Nana all met up inside of OFA and were all, “wow this is awkward.” AFO talked a whole bunch about vestiges before realizing that nobody cared (EXCEPT FOR ME. I CARED!!), and was then all “anyway so just to get everyone up to speed here, Tomura is Nana’s grandson.” OFA appeared and was all “what up bro I see you’re still a dick”, and then everyone stood around for a bit waging psychokinetic war on each other and blowing up on the ground and shit. This didn’t really accomplish anything, so AFO shifted gears and started trash talking Deku instead, because he’s a whiny little punkass loser who can’t admit when his brother has gotten the best of him yet again! OFA was all “anyways Deku rules and haters gonna hate, peace”, and then everyone wooshed back out of OFA and back into the real world, Deku with his quirk still intact. Meanwhile Gigantomachia and the LoV stampeded ever closer to the city, and Toga started monologuing in preparation for a seemingly inevitable battle with Ochako! And then the chapter basically just ended there lol.

Today on BnHA: Imagine you are Uraraka Ochako. And you’re out here doing what you do best, saving bitches and being a badass, when all of a sudden some old lady runs up to you and is all “PLEASE HELP ME, MY HUSBAND IS ASLEEP OR SOME SHIT, YOU KNOW US OLD PEOPLE, WE’RE SO FUCKING FEEBLE AND HAPLESS.” And so you’re all “OF COURSE” because you’re a good fucking person, and then she speeds off like she’s got fucking wheels and it’s like damn, grandma, were you in varsity track or what, and then OUT OF NOWHERE she just spontaneously turns into HIMIKO FUCKING TOGA. And she’s all naked and shit, and it’s like damn, Toga, where are your clothes, and she just giggles and ducks into a nearby building. And so you follow her for god knows what reason, and she fucking pounces on you and starts interrogating you in like the most seductive way possible, and you’re all wtf is this. Like, can you even imagine. Anyway so Ochako is having quite a day.

okay lol so I’ve gotta kind of rush through this since I’ve got other stuff I need to wrap up today as well, so! fingers crossed that we get a nice, simple chapter with no controversies or elaborate revelations or anything like that! just give me lots of stuff to mindlessly keysmash about, Horikoshi. I’m counting on you bro

lol what

an actual fucking plane?? is that allowed?? how bizarrely normal. are we sure this plane does not shoot lasers or something or is powered by someone with like a fusion reactor quirk idk

and who tf is Takeo-san. some random guy Horikoshi is suddenly introducing after 300 chapters to come save everyone at the last minute? pretty sus. Horikoshi is this your self insert

GASP

NO WAY THIS IS ALL MIGHT, RIGHT?? holy shit I swear to god if it’s All Might this lady needs to TURN THE FUCK AROUND RIGHT NOW. stop at McDonalds, order a black coffee for herself and only herself, and drive the rest of the way back home without so much as a bathroom break. there are certain prophecies which we don’t need to be tempting right now, okay people?? holy shit

(ETA: OR, here’s a thought, WHAT IF IT’S BEST JEANIST. hope springs eternal lmao. anyways though surely it’s not actually All Might. he can’t die yet, he’s got like 5 million secret things he needs to explain to Deku, and also Kacchan is unconscious and he can’t just SLEEP RIGHT THROUGH ALL MIGHT’S DEATH like come on.)

oh look more heroes all lining up to be slaughtered by Machia

real talk, at this point their priority should just be evacuating any citizens in Machia’s path, and then getting the fuck out of his way. none of them stand a chance in hell at stopping him and they know it. the body count is already high enough as it is. regroup and live to fight another day, people

anyway, so Machia is apparently plowing through cities at 100km per hour. that... actually might not be fast enough. Gunga and Jakku were 80km apart, so at that rate it would take him nearly an hour to reach Tomura. that fight’s gonna be long done by the time they get there. huh

okay these guys are saying he’s going to reach them in about 8 minutes. ?? so are you telling me Tomura and Deku and the rest have been fighting for like 40 minutes already?? lmao Gran probably bled to death half an hour ago at this rate. Horikoshi please explain yourself. some of us spent our entire childhoods doodling comics instead of paying attention in math and science AND IT SHOWS

anyway so this is all very bad and this guy is really rubbing it in just how bad it is

I mean... yeah. obviously the villains are still to blame at the core of it all, but yeah. feels like you all could have planned a hell of a lot better for this. you knew there was the risk of Tomura waking up, and you knew there was also the risk of Gigantomachia waking up as well. and you pretty much had no contingency plan at all huh. society is really gonna be in shambles after this

lmao look at this shit. Machia is so big at this point that it looks like they’re having a picnic in the middle of some desert somewhere. at what point does it cease being a guy’s back and start being its own zip code

even has its own wifi. amazing

oh shit Compress apparently spotted someone and he’s asking Skeptic to “zoom and enhance” like it’s CS fucking I. that’s not how it works Compress you fucking boomer

anyway so OF COURSE,

was there a reason you needed to zoom in on them, other than to trigger Toga?? some people just want to watch the world burn

so Toga is now GEARIN’ UP!!

that honestly is so fucking handy. over at U.A. they have to carry their gear in briefcases like scrubs. does Compress actually have the best quirk in the world?? it flies under the radar so well that I always forget about it, but like WHAT CAN’T IT DO though, y’know??

WELL WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN MY DUDE

“oh hey is that the U.A. kids? Skeptic could you please zoom in on them for absolutely no reason? OH MY GOD TOGA IS RUNNING OFF TO FIGHT THEM, OH MY GOD WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN, OH MY GOD”

now he’s all “DABI PLEASE DO SOMETHING” but Dabi is all “DABI DON’T CARE”

Dabi don’t care about NOTHING OR NO ONE!! Dabi don’t got time for this

lmao I literally forgot that Spinner was even there, shit

so are you gonna go with her then or not? because I got news for you dude, it doesn’t matter how heartwarming your speech is, nothing can stop this girl now that she’s gone full distracted boyfriend meme

AW BUT IT REALLY IS HEARTWARMING THOUGH

Spinner is the glue keeping this dysfunctional Addams family together honestly. too bad he couldn’t stop Compress from OPENING HIS BIG DUMB MOUTH ah well

lmao but he’s letting her go anyway though

Spinner for new LoV President. all in favor??

ANYWAYS LOL THIS IS BAD

“ACCELERATE EVACUATIONS” LOL WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO OCHAKO HE’S MOVING AT 100KM AN HOUR AND HE’S LIKE FUCKING GODZILLA SIZED FKJLK

“PLEASE RUN OUTSIDE OF THE VILLAIN’S PERIPHERY” well thank fucking god the people have you guys to guide them what would they even do without you lklkhlkds

NO HORIKOSHI DON’T YOU DARE

IF YOU HURT MY GIRL FROPPY I SWEAR TO GOD!! LEAVE HER ALONE YOU BRIGAND

OH THANK GOD

“sorry for SAVING YOUR LIFE” smh. anyway so how fucking badass is Ochako though?? can we just talk about this. THE GIRL POWER ARC STRIKES AGAIN hot damn

(ETA: and btw, seeing as Iida is nowhere to be found, I’d say odds are pretty good that they did in fact send him to go warn the Endeavorsquad of Gigantomachia’s imminent arrival. godspeed Iida! they need all the help they can get right now honestly.)

EXCUSE ME BUT ARE YOU TOGA

IS THIS TOGA. THIS IS DEFINITELY TOGA OMG

“I IMMEDIATELY TRUST YOU AND I WILL FOLLOW YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH” noooo Ochako nooooo

damn Toga you really drained some poor old lady’s blood just so you could pull this kind of sneaky shit. I forgot how much I loved you

ohhhh lol so it’s her “husband” that is Takeo-san lol

THE BETTER TO LURE YOU INTO A TRAP MY DEAR

lmao Ochako you rube

now you’ve done it Toga. there is nothing Ochako loves more than a good old fashioned Old People Romance. DID YOU KNOW SHE HAS SEEN THE NOTEBOOK LIKE FIFTY TIMES. AND NO MATTER WHAT, IT ALWAYS GETS HER AT THE END. meanwhile I just want to watch a movie where James Marsden actually gets the girl for once but we all know that will never happen

OH MY

ngl this page would be like a thousand times better if Ochako was still blushing omg. did I ship this before?? I honestly can’t remember but I sure as fuck ship it now goddammit

(ETA: pretty sure I shipped it back during the Forest arc too but I don’t have time to check right now lol. but Toga is just so horny on main for everyone, all the time, and so like, it’s hard not to ship it.)

so now Toga is running off all flirtatiously and Ochako is barreling after her lol

plot twist, Takeo-san is actually in there. and he has NO IDEA what’s going on. WHAT HAPPENED TO MY WIFE. WHY IS THERE A GIANT MOLE MAN BURROWING THROUGH THE CITY

Ochako why on earth would you follow Toga into this dark creepy house where she could spring at you from any angle out of nowhere. just go back outside and float up over it until you have a high enough vantage point to see all the exits and just wait for her to come out

Toga says she wanted to talk to Tsuyu-chan as well, but let’s be real, you and her don’t have the same kind of electrically charged kismesis energy that you’ve got going on with Ochako though

LMAO DEKU NOWHERE IS SAFE

getting dragged like a fucking wedding train and he’s not even there to defend himself, shit

blah blah blah just ask her your question already Toga

MY WORD

would someone please inform Toga that this manga is only rated PG-13

so now Ochako is all “seriously Toga wtf”

you see that’s what I wanted to know too, lol. I really like that the characters actually think about these things and ask these kind of questions. that’s exactly the contrast between the heroes and the villains right there. the villains care about each other, they’ll give each other heartwarming speeches to please come back alive, and yet they’re utterly indifferent to the thousands of people being killed as they demolish their way through city after city. meanwhile by contrast Ochako’s first thought upon being erotically waylaid by her sexy knife-wielding archnemesis is “but what about that poor old lady is she all right.” just completely opposite energies, almost to a hilarious degree. like maybe Ochako actually should worry about herself just a little bit more lol but heroes gonna hero

and so now what, Toga!! you’re gonna pout about it?? like she’s betrayed you somehow?

anyway so that’s the end of the chapter! and I’ll just come right out and say that I’m hoping that this fight ends up being something where Toga maybe starts to see things just a little bit more from Ochako’s point of view, and not the other way around, because otherwise I’ll be a little frustrated, ngl. the manga has done an excellent job of making the villains likeable and relatable and getting us to sympathize with them up till this point, but at some point it’s got to start refuting some of these arguments and making it clear that the villains do not actually have any kind of moral high ground here

and also! I really like Toga and would like her to have some kind of redemption arc! but as of now that’s looking to be really difficult if not impossible to pull off, because Toga hasn’t exactly shown a whole lot of remorse for anything she’s done so far, you know? because she doesn’t see it as bad in any way; to her it’s just her way of expressing love, and being true to who she is. but being true to yourself really should NOT involve, you know, MURDER, and so yeah. it’s a problem lmao

but who knows! maybe this battle with Ochako will be the start of something which eventually leads to some sort of change within her! I have absolutely no idea how that could play out tbh, but even so I can hope! either that or she will double down on the whole “villains are victims and heroes are apathetic cruel hypocrites” ideology and decide she wants to kill Ochako and Izuku for breaking her heart, in which case I will be very sad, but I guess if that’s the way Horikoshi’s gonna play it it is what it is!

and lastly, so is this going to be like the final battle between them or something?? surely not, right? like this is just round 2 of 3. well at any rate, it’s sure going to be interesting

#bnha 288 #himiko toga #uraraka ochako #asui tsuyu #mr. compress #league of villains #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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jennoasis · 4 years

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July Drabble Challenge Day 31 (In September): Again

Spoilers for Part 5 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Vento Aureo and Eyes of Heaven)

“Goodnight Fugo. Are you sure you don’t want me to tuck you in? Hey! Flipping people off is rude, you dick.”

Giorno rolled his eyes, biting back a smile at the exchange between Mista and Fugo.

“Can you believe that guy? So rude.” Mista grumbled before he grinned, stretching his arms above his head. “After the day we had, as glad as I am that everyone is safe and sound again, I’m fucking exhausted. You going to bed too?”

Giorno knew he should but he had too much on his mind and wanted some fresh air before having to deal with the insomnia that was sure to plague him that evening. “No, not yet. Have a good night though.” He murmured, turning to head towards one of the back gardens, surprised when he heard footsteps coming up beside him. “What are you doing?”

“It’s so weird. I suddenly got a burst of energy. So I thought I’d join you on the walk you’re taking.”

“As a bodyguard or a friend?” Giorno asked, wanting to be annoyed, but unable to because of Mista’s smile.

“Why not both? And I know what you’re going to say. “I can take care of myself Mista.” Or, “No one has ever breached these grounds” etc. etc.” He mumbled, doing his best impersonation of Giorno’s voice.

“If you know, then why?”

“I told you. Energy. A walk sounds good before bed.”

Giorno didn’t have an argument for that so he said nothing as the two of them moved further into the vibrant garden Giorno had spent months cultivating, often with Mista’s help, who surprisingly had a green thumb, well fourteen green thumbs if you included the times the Pistols helped.

After a few moments of silence, Mista spoke, his tone a bit more serious. “It’s weird isn’t it? To have mourned our friends, and knowing they’re back now, having only lost three years of time. Although I wanted to laugh every time Abbacchio kept looking at you confused.”

“He couldn’t get over the fact that I had grown.” Giorno murmured, as he stared up at the night sky bursting with stars.

“Yeah, well, you were fifteen the last time he saw you and now you’re about to be nineteen and added what? A few pounds and some inches?”

Giorno lifted an elegant brow, facing Mista again. “Have you been looking at me?”

Mista cleared his throat, looking away, face flushing. “’Course not. But it’s obvious to anyone how you’ve grown over the years. That’s all.”

“Ah.” The disappointment was evident even to Mista in Giorno’s voice. “You know what? I believe I am more exhausted than I thought. Good night Mista.”

“Wait, hold on a second.” Mista reached out, hand landing on Giorno’s shoulder, surprised when Giorno jerked away, the pain on his face unlike anything Mista had ever seen.

“No. I’m tired of waiting and I’m tired of games. Do you know what I saw today? I saw a love that transcended time. I witnessed two people who reached for each other even in death. And I envied them because of that love.” Giorno confessed before cursing himself, his face becoming a mask of impassiveness again. “Just forget it. Claim my words as a moment of temporary insanity and let’s leave it at that.” He finished, feeling like an idiot. “I would except I think it’s important we talk about your so-called insanity.” Mista murmured, afraid Giorno was going to bolt for it, so he kept talking. “When I met you, you were fifteen, even though you didn’t look it. And you were bold and reckless but smart too. You spun my world around and before I knew it, I was feeling things I had no business feeling. But again, you were fifteen and even though the age difference isn’t that much in hindsight, it still felt like I shouldn’t. Then you became Don and everything happened so fast. So I took a step back, became your third in command. Don’t argue with me. I already told you two squared is four and we’re not doing that. Anyway. Third in command, bodyguard, underboss, and I forgot about everything else. Okay, I let myself forget everything else. So yeah, there you go. If you want to claim temporary insanity, so do I then.” “What are you saying now?” Mista blinked, then laughed. “Seriously? I’m spilling my heart out here and you’re asking me what I’m saying?”

“No.” Giorno stepped closer, hesitating before placing a hand on Mista’s chest. “Everything you mentioned was in the past. I’m asking you how you feel right now.” “Oh. Oh duh.” Mista smiled now, lifting Giorno’s hand to kiss the back of it. “Alright, prepare yourself. Because I’m about to drop some words. You listening? Yeah, you are.” Mista cleared his throat dramatically, before speaking again, staring into Giorno’s eyes. “You are fucking fearless, powerful, caring, gorgeous; seriously, I often wonder if you’re a fallen angel but refuse to confess that to anyone.” “Mista—“ “Ah uh. Not done yet. You don’t take shit from anyone. You rule over Passione with an iron fist yet you don’t get self-centered. You’ve completely changed how the mob runs in Italy in the best way possible. Do you know how many people whisper your name in the streets? How many you’ve helped?” “No.” Giorno replied sincerely, never curious enough to find out, afraid of what he would hear. “A shit ton of people. You earned respect Giorno, and it’s well deserved. But more than anything else.” Now Mista pulled Giorno closer, their chests pressing together. “I can tell you that I lied. No one can really forget their feelings, not when they matter. And I’ve seen who you’ve become through out these years Giorno GioGio Giovanna and I can say with absolute certainty, that I love the hell out of you.”

Giorno looked into Mista’s eyes, before he smiled, unable to resist. “You watch too many rom-coms.” “Ouch!” Mista chuckled. “This is what you say to a man confessing his love to you? You wound me.” “I didn’t want to have feelings you know.” Giorno began, lifting a hand to loop around the back of Mista’s neck. “I thought I wasn’t allowed them. But they developed and a part of me wanted to give in yet another part fought due to fear. I’m not afraid anymore though. Will you tell me again?” Mista leaned in closer, their faces only a couple of inches apart now. “I love you.” Giorno’s mouth quirked up into a smile. “I love you too, Guido Mista.” He reciprocated, before giving in to what he’d wanted for years now, leaning in to kiss Mista. It’s done! *Cackles like crazy* It took me 3 months to finish but I’ve done it! I needed to write some happy after the kind of day I’ve had so here we go! The drabble challenge I began in July (Which you can find the entire list of drabbles over here!) is now concluded with today’s word (Day 31): Again. Once again, this is more of a fic than a drabble since it’s 1k plus words but I couldn’t help myself. It’s technically a sequel of the Day 30 Drabble: Love (Which is way longer than a drabble lol), but with a different ship because yes, I love this ship as well. The reason I mentioned part 5 spoilers is because, well, it technically spoils the ending lol. I’ll say this again too. If you haven’t played the Eyes of Heaven game, I highly recommend. If you’re curious to read the other drabbles I did for this this ship, they’re Day 9: Spicy and Day 22: Book. I’ve also posted this to my AO3 account, which hosts my longer than drabble fics. @caity-catt did this challenge back in June and @sterlynwrites finished the challenge in July so check out their pages if you want to read more drabbles. Thanks for coming along with me on this journey! I’ll hopefully be working on another challenge soon (And working on my current WIP BruAbba/Past BruPro fic on AO3). <3

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neshabeingchildish · 4 years

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League of Extraordinary Geniuses || Chapter 8

@verified-dumbass @just-a-j-reallly @kiddangers @poppyville

I hope that everybody has been doing well. This chapter isn’t as long as the previous, but that’s mostly because these have been running together, and I’ve been trying to find stopping points for them. I wanted to fully get through this emotional journey that Charlotte is taking the guys on while she figures some things out and after I have the chance to do that, we’ll get back to the action and premise. This was a little bit of a fun break from some of that, even though it is very much so a Max stress chapter, Max is a person that doesn’t wear his upset on his sleeve.Let me know what you’re thinking. I’ve still got notes, but I’m running out of them. Lol.

The Way I Danced with You

This was possibly the best tea that Chase had ever tasted in his life. Max didn’t order tea. He ordered a smoothie and added in a bunch of things that like… why didn’t he just get dessert? All of the sugar content couldn’t be good for him, plus… He mentioned planning on drinking later. How was he able to keep that physique and excel in hero duties with all of the sweets and alcohol he partook in? Chase didn’t do stuff like that. He made sure that his body was as immaculate as humanly possible. But tea would often be one of his guilty pleasures… Not that tea wasn’t healthy, but he ordered for taste and aroma, not so much the medical or spiritual purposes that Charlotte usually adhered to. He wondered how she was doing with “her guys.” He wondered if their presence at the cottage had made the difference that Max once hoped for with those guys. He wondered what it would be like whenever they reunited…

“Okay, so, we gotta go shopping. Gotta get some Dystopia clothes to wear and some supplies for the robot research. Then, it’s to the library, because there’s an entry way into Charlotte’s lab there and that’s the closest and easiest one to access. I’ve gotta look over the potential genius pool results for minions and get them started on one of my side projects, while I have the down time. Gonna swing through Maxtropolis and check in with Marx and Dougie - you can stay in the car if you need to…”

“I’ll be fine,” Chase said, but even thinking about it made him tense.

Max brushed it off and continued, “Probably will be around lunchtime. So, gonna do that at The Bionic Brothel…”

“Brothel???” Chase repeated, clearly horrified.

“Relax! It’s a soup saloon.” His eyes grew misty as he stared into the distance, “There’s nothing else in the world like their soup selection.” Chase glanced towards where Max was staring off into the distance and this brought him back to the conversation, “And, they’ve got cool soup selections and other stuff too, so even though it’s hot outside, you could still enjoy something. One of the biokids Char plucked from your dad’s island opened it up about a year ago. It’s a bionic owned business with a bionic staff, with the exception of a few regular servers. Hostess is an android… Or was. I don’t know the status of the ones that were living life before this hellstorm…”

Now, it was on both their minds again, but Max found his voice to say, “And after that, check in with Charlotte to see if she needs anything, and if not, head back to the Super Stay to wash up and get ready to go to Dance Off Revolution.”

“What… what is Dance Off Revolution?”

“You really have got to get to Dystopia more often!”

“Something that 16 year old me never could have imagined anyone would ever say…”

“Dance Off Revolution is an underground club where dance crews have battles and soloists try out for crews.”

“Are you suggesting that we try to join a dance crew?” Chase asked, a little bit more excited than he intended to sound, but Max froze and looked at him with equal excitement.

“I wasn’t, but the tone in your question tells me that I was wrong! Hell yeah, we’ll try out for a dance crew!”

Chase smiled, cheerfully, then collected his thoughts, “Wait a minute, we can’t try out for a dance crew. We don’t have time to join a dance crew! We’re only here for a few days or so.”

“You don’t do things JUST TO SAY that you did it?” Max asked incredulously.

“I mean…” Chase smiled brightly again and gushed, “YES!”

“Oh man, I am gonna destroy you on that dance floor!”

Chase furrowed his eyebrows. For some reason, in his mind, they were about to do a thing together, not face off. But at merely the suggestion that Max could defeat him didn’t sour his mood. It made him competitive, “In your dreams Super Kid.”

Max’s eyes grew wide, “It is SO on!” He started mumbling something about, “Thinks he can defeat me in a dance battle? This boy don’t even know Beyonce’s catalog and thinks he can beat me in a…”

“What does Beyonce have to do with dancing?” Chase asked.

Max almost crashed the car, then came to a screeching halt. People were honking their horns as he collected himself. “Tell me… that you just did NOT…”

“We are in the middle of the street…” Chase said, nervously, and mouthed apologies to angrily passing vehicles.

“That’s like asking what Usher has to do with dancing!” Chase narrowed his eyes, not wanting to ask it out loud, but Max read his face, clenched both of his fists and yelled, “YOU’RE WONDERING WHAT USHER HAS TO DO WITH DANCING, AREN’T YOU???” Max shook his head and started driving again, making a very illegal U turn. “Plans are cancelled until further notice. You have to be schooled in the Church of Usher.”

“Is that another Dystopia landmark that the tourists don’t usually hear about.”

Through his teeth, Max chimed, “It is a lifestyle choice.” He turned on an Usher playlist and headed for his friend’s house.

Simone was giggling about Max Thunderman being in her dance studio, in front of the mirrored walls, showing Chase Davenport Usher choreography. It was extremely unexpected and cute. She loved this so much. AND they gave her permission to put any of the clips she recorded on her stories for the Kickbutt Dance Studios Company page. By the time they finished, Chase knew every Usher song with the choreography and was in the best mood that Max had ever seen the guy in. He took a call from Mr. Davenport while Simone and Max talked.

“So… This your new romance prospect?” She wondered.

Max furrowed his eyebrows, “What? Are you joking?”

Simone looked confused, “You asked me to open my studio for you to share Usher with him and danced for hours. You put together a routine for Dance Off Revolution! …If that isn’t a date, then I don’t know what is. Anyways, you like teacup people with bright eyes.”

“SHUT UP! I do not!” He did, but. He already had a teacup person with bright eyes. Charlotte.

Simone laughed and shrugged her shoulders, “I guess…” She looked towards Chase, then said in a lower voice to Max, “Just, be careful around the bionics. I don’t know. He seems nice and all, but they’re… they’ve brought a lot of controversy and contempt into our world.”

Max didn’t expect to defend Chase, but it flowed out naturally. It wasn’t even because he felt connected to him or that they had bonded over dance. He just knew that the things that people thought about Chase were probably misconstrued, after having spent some time with him. “I know that, but he isn’t like that.”

“Kaz seemed to think so,” she said.

“Do you ALL know each other???” Chase asked, coming back over.

“Pretty much,” they both said.

Chase fussed, “And why is Kaz ALWAYS talking to someone about me? Jeesh.”

Simone wasn’t EVEN going to get on that subject. “Look… I know you did a lot for the supers whenever the war started, and as someone who could’ve potentially been slaughtered, that definitely means a lot. I just still take issue with the fact that bionics are comfortable with taking the credit for supers’ successes.”

“The supers have told us that they don’t want your world uncovered,” Chase said. “I guess your buddy Kaz leaves that part out when he’s keeping a personal journal about my life.”

“That was years ago, my dude. People know that we’re here now, and yet bionics are still seen as heroes while we’re seen as freaks. The difference being because you guys are just nonsupes with technology and we were born this way. You can’t remove our abilities and that makes nonsupes dehumanize and demonize us. As someone who knows and works with us and even fought alongside of us, I would think you’d be more vocal about exposing the truth. No other bionic person has the platform that you do.” She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Just something to think about. Personally, I never really wanted to be a hero. I love being stationed in Dystopia. The Defenders do most of the work and I was able to open my own dance studio! So, I’m not insulted on behalf of heroes. I just watched my mom bust her buns to be a hero and never get to let the world know, and now that the world is evolving and slowly making room for supers, I think it’s important that our importance in history and in today’s formation is esteemed, as well.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Chase nodded his head, until Max tried to answer for him. “Well, it’s not really his platform, so he can’t just start making statements about supers.”

“Who’s platform is it?”

“His dad’s.”

“I don’t know his dad.”

“His dad’s in charge. He’s just the poster boy.”

“Wait a minute!” Chase interrupted.

“Say no more. I know how that is. I was the Super President’s daughter coming up. No platform of my own to be found.”

“I have a platform!” Chase insisted.

Max smirked, “Yeah, that Daddy controls. Excuse me, Mr. Davenport…”

“I can put whatever I choose on my platform!” Chase fussed.

“Okay,” Max said, rolling his eyes, then laughed when Chase pouted about things. A few more minutes, and they were finally off to do the things that Max intended to do before. Chase remained pouting. Max drowned out his sighs and groans with more Usher. Chase tried to resist moving along to the music. He couldn’t, but he definitely was able to hold his glare.

By the time they were shopping, he lightened up, but the implication that he couldn’t speak for himself because he represented Davenport Industries would continue to bother him. He picked up the tab, because he knew he had more money than Max did and he did feel like he owed him for being pretty generous with stuff like cooking breakfast and offering beverages and stuff. They would be working together and he had to get used to treating him like a person that he was considerate of. Super Stay was a hotel that supers tended to stay in, though there was other clientele.

They were in the Maximus Suite, and the place had a bionic chamber. Chase was impressed with it. It wasn’t like the one that Charlotte kept for him, but it was pretty good for a hotel. Dystopia was extremely accommodating, now that he was visiting. He didn’t want to tell Max that he had quarters in the city, because Max was pretty comfortable with this arrangement of them being in the same suite and he didn’t want to seem ungrateful or rude.

Once they were cleaned up and changed, they met in the common area of the suite and Max announced, “Sure you’re gonna be alright seeing Marx?”

“I’m not a baby, Max.”

“Okay. Well… it’s closer than the library now, so there first, maybe get soup with Dougie and then the library. He’ll probably wanna look over Char’s robot stuff anyways,” Max said.

As they headed out, Chase wondered, “Are you two like… really close?”

Max thought for a moment, then said, “Well… I think so. Something that my family never really realized about my villainous days was that I was missing something. I thought that there was no way that I could ever be as good a hero as my sister and I had a pet villain to motivate me in other directions. My parents never supported me unless I did something they approved of and well… I felt like I found what I was looking for in Dr. Colosso… and I mean, I ultimately made the right decision but I was so close to the darkness. Douglas went into the darkness and when he came out, he'd lost his family. Sure, he was able to get back in, but he still missed out on so much and can't fix what he's done. I empathize. I didn't go as far as he did, and if I had, who knows? My family might not trust me. It could have gone so much worse. Dougie helps me to remember to be grateful and I help him to have a connection with a son like figure that he can relate to. There's mutual understanding and appreciation that we haven't exactly been able to get from our loved ones that have never did the dance in the darkness that we've done."

Chase didn't want to talk about why he didn't trust Douglas fully or the tension and resentment he still felt, after years of work and trying, but, one thing was still true, "I'm glad he's got someone like that."

“He would trade me for one of his own in a heartbeat,” Max said, with a shrug, though the thought of Douglas ever turning on him shook him deeply. He was around when Colosso died… And honestly… he was the only person who was at all helpful. He… wanted to reanimate him as an android bunny, which no… I didn’t want to do, but I sure appreciated his desire to help me cope.”

“Bunny?” Chase repeated.

“I’ll explain later. Anyway, yeah… Dougie and I are close. He’s basically me, if I was old and lonely.”

“Lonely? With you, Charlotte, and Charlotte’s weird little friend?” Chase asked.

“Wow. You’re just gonna disrespect Schwoz that way? Yes. Even with a few friends, Douglas is still lonely. He doesn’t even get to be fun uncle to Naomi.”

“More and more, it’s sounding like you just hang out with him because you feel bad for him. Scared that you’ll turn out that way?” Chase joked. Now, it was Max’s turn to frown.

“Maybe,” he muttered. Probably, he couldn’t get himself to admit out loud.

“So, you ready to help me to create a whole new Dystopia?”

“I’m ready to watch your back while YOU create a whole new Dystopia.”

“That works!”

Thunderstrike smiled at Charlotte, his mask hiding half of his face, but not the eyes - old school style, as was the case with the heroes of his bloodline. That and a cape. He was ready to be the hero that she needed to do whatever it was she had to do.

Charlotte was it for Max. He’d made that up in his mind before he ever met her. Sure, he’d done this before (with Cheyanne), but with Charlotte, it was different. First off - he apparently was drawn to her, because he admired her in each form she had, not even knowing she was the same person. And then, they became friends, and then he relocated to Dystopia during the height of its crime and then… he felt validation.

She finally was starting to see him for who he was and he’d hoped, for who he could be to her. At that time, she’d been away for over a year and doing a lot. He could tell that she wasn’t as connected to her former partners as before. He could tell that she cared for him, maybe not as much, but enough for it to matter to her… enough for him to matter, for THEM to MATTER!

The Super Stay wasn’t around yet, so he had a cabin on the campsite of the shelter he used to bring supplies for (Henry and Jasper’s shelter), and it was cozy and had every amenity needed, but sometimes, he wanted a bath. It was hard to get used to not soaking before he showered, and Charlotte was staying in the fancy place that Mr. Davenport provided, so whenever he’d mentioned this particular inconvenience, she suggested that he could do that at her place. Most of the time, she was either at work or at Henry and Jasper’s (which she was still calling “home” at the time), so she gave him the extra key and told him to make himself comfortable.

He wasn’t going to impose. He just wanted to soak and think before he showered. Nothing else. Only, whenever he came over to do so, Charlotte was always there, despite having claimed that she was never really there. “Guess I just have bad timing,” he joked.

“Or good timing,” she said, with a bright smile and went to retrieve a pair of pants. She was just wearing panties and a crop top sweatshirt, with her locs tied up in a scarf. She didn’t seem uncomfortable with him seeing her that way, or maybe she presumed that he’d turn his head when he realized that she wasn’t decent… Or maybe, and he didn’t want to presume, but couldn’t help it, maybe she’d wanted him to see her like this. She pulled on the tight fighting, snug leisure pants and headed into her bathroom… where HE was about to go. “So, this is where the towels are,” she told him and he followed her voice, gasped when he saw how wondrous the bathroom looked, before even making it to the walk in linen closet, which was full, not only with towels, but soaps, skin products, dental hygiene supplies, etc, and had a little computer on the side. “This is Madame. If you’ve ever seen the episode of Fly Homes with the Dom, that computer system that he calls Eddy, this is like that, but for here and she isn’t obnoxious. She’ll help you with anything you need to set the tone. Oatmeal, honey, milk, tea, whatever you wanna add to the bath. The pressure of the rinse… All the details. You can program your preferences under your name.” She started showing him how.

It was dope. He stayed for a while, laying in the tub, not realizing how much he’d needed this and also hating the fact that he didn’t have such a fancy set up in his house. He’d have to change that at some point… But, that night, he simply rested and soaked, then showered and whenever he came out, ready to go home, Charlotte was closing her laptop, having just finished all of her assignments, and she smiled at him. “Nightcap?” She wondered.

Of course he wasn’t going to leave. He didn’t plan on staying all night, but as it turned out, back then, it took less liquor to make her worry about him driving. So, after a few drinks and long conversations about their current projects and stuff, she let him sleep on the couch and she went to bed.

They had so many nights like that, the first time that he showed up and she in fact wasn’t there, he was sorely disappointed. He went into the bath, put on an eye mask and soaked, steam coming off of everything.

It was a while before he felt like he heard something and sensed someone there. He pulled off the mask and Charlotte was standing in the doorway, trying to quietly back out. She laughed at herself and shook her head, “Sorry. I didn’t realize that you were in here. I was gonna try to leave unnoticed.”

“No, no… This is your bathroom. Do what ya gotta do.” He put the mask back on and rested against the bath pillow. She bit her lip, but came into the room and sat on the toilet. She turned on some music because, maybe it’d be better if he couldn’t hear her peeing. She noticed his hand tapping the side of the tub to the beat of the music and was relieved when he didn’t react to her extremely loud piss. Like… she was only aware right now how loud it was. Was it ALWAYS that loud? She hugged herself, sighed and let out some gas. She groaned and quickly said, “I am so sorry.” She said it almost under her breath, because finding her voice in the midst of that shame was difficult.

“For being a human with bodily functions?” He asked, from beneath the mask, and then added, “In your own house?”

Usually she’d remind him that this isn’t her house and that whenever her stay here was over the Dom was gonna use it for something else, but that night, she just laughed at herself, cleaned off with the bidet and left the bathroom.

The next time that they were both there, she was now more comfortable with stepping in on him, since she knew that he didn’t care, and she really wanted to do what she needed to do and get out of there. They bumbled around each other for a while, trying to be polite, but also to hurry. Max had an early morning and had to get to sleep. Charlotte had a date for the first time “in ages” with Henry and Jasper. It was controlled chaos and they laughed their way through it, and moved along.

Only… Charlotte spent the majority of her date thinking about Max and what was happening with them. How comfortable she was getting with someone who wasn’t Henry or Jasper… how… attached she was feeling. Max spent the entire night awake in bed, willing her to be somewhere thinking of him too. That wasn’t to say he believed that could happen, but the possibility of him being the only one who’s night was overtaken by emotions and thoughts just didn’t sit well with him.

After that… they were solid. Neither of them mentioned it for a time, but Charlotte began to stay home more (calling her Davenport property home, by this time) and he began to stay over a lot.

Jasper was upset. He didn’t feel like it was appropriate. “This friendship of yours is going too far,” he’d complained. Only to be overruled by Charlotte’s iconic, “You think that’s the farthest that I, of all people, can go?” and Henry quickly smoothed things over with, “I think it’d be cute. One of these days one of us was bound to like somebody else and want to explore. It’s Charlotte, so the most sensible of us and the one with the most moral fiber. That’s a good start for a relationship soft open.”

Soft open. She didn’t know if she liked that description, but further conversation led them to a conversation about opening up their relationship, but only with open communication about it.

At 21, she didn’t have all of the answers. Even people who lived poly lifestyles and people in open relationships all had their own ways of doing it and she didn’t know which way was right. She was still learning herself at that time and to learn yet ANOTHER man seemed excessive, but it was Max. She knew that things were mutual. She knew that she could do this and she believed that she would enjoy it.

Whenever she next came in to find him in the bath, listening to something vibey - Jhene or Sza or something - eyes shut and head leaned back, she removed what she had on and joined. He stirred, but didn’t visibly panic whenever her toes touched the water. His eyes opened and seeing her settle in, her stared, but didn’t want to ruin whatever was happening, so he didn’t question her and he didn’t say anything. She sorta wished he did, even though she had no explanation for her bold actions. All she did was shift around through the bubbles and find her way to his chest. She laid on him and felt his arms move to wrap her up. He kissed her forehead and they didn’t say anything about it.

When they got out of the bath and he started the shower, she began her skin and hair routine. He got out, teeth were brushed, bodies moisturized, etc. Finally, the silence was broken, when he pointed his thumb and wondered, “Should I go to the couch?” She shook her head, took his hand, and guided him into the bedroom. That was the FIRST night that he slept in her bed.

“I don’t think you’ll end up that way,” Chase broke into his thoughts. “You’re someone who cares about others at this point in your life… I don’t know that I can say Douglas was that way at your age. You turned things around sooner, and made a good difference earlier in life. You’ve got similar feelings about your adolescent stages, but everything else, save maybe poor taste in fashion, is all different. You won’t end up like Douglas. You even have people who love you,” Chase said. He slapped a hand awkwardly on Max’s shoulder, and patted him stiffly.

“Are you trying to open up to me about your true feelings, Bionic Boy?”

Chase scoffed and removed his hand, “As if! I wasn’t even entirely genuine! You’re a lot like Douglas and both of you have terrible wardrobe. And feelings? For you? Gross!” Chase’s flustered stammering made Max laugh. But also, Chase was right. The first time. He wouldn’t end up with work friends and a few flings. He’d be happy someday with somebody who loved him and wanted him. Unfortunately, for Max… Charlotte was it.

#Henry Danger #Lab Rats #The Thundermans #Chasing Thunderbolts Fic #League of Extraordinary Geniuses #LOEG Update #Nesha Fics #Multiverse Fics

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pikapeppa · 4 years

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Oh Mighty Word Wrangler, bestow upon me your wisdom!! ♥ What do you think makes your amazing fics so popular? Apart from your OBVIOUS talent and writing ability, of course ;) Is it frequency of posting? The pairings? Amount of smut? I'm curious :D

HAHAHAH THANK YOU FOR THAT COMPLIMENT YOU SNUCK IN THERE but also I’M PANIC at the thought of trying to answer this question lol?? I mean, this is the question for the ages, right? What makes a fic popular, and how do we boost the engagement with our own work?

Let me preface this reply by saying it is based just on my experiences and hypothesizing, and NOT on anything systematic. Trust me, I’d study this like a science if I could, but then I wouldn’t be writing. HAHA. Also, I’ll mostly focus on popularity on AO3 and not on Tumblr, since I would argue that I’m only “known as a writer” on Tumblr because people followed me here from AO3.

First of all, I want to highlight the fact that popularity does not equal quality, and vice versa. I’ve read some fics that are AMAZING but have little engagement. Some examples are Last Call by @galadrieljones (Ameridan/Lavellan) and this very short Fenris fic that I just read recently. On the other hand, I’ve tried to read some fics that are extremely popular with tons of hits/kudos/comments, but my judgmental ass thinks they’re poorly written and/or poorly characterized. There really is not a clear linear relationship between the quality of a fic and its popularity. (Anyone who is discouraged by the lack of engagement with their work: please keep this in mind.)

Another thing to consider: what do we even mean by popularity? On AO3, is the most popular fic the one with the most hits? The most comments? The most kudos? Even then, a longfic that’s been updated weekly for a year is going to have more hits than a completed oneshot, just by virtue of its length. Frequently updated fics will show up week after week in search results, since AO3’s search results show the most recently updated fics by default. So when I think about popularity… ehhh, I guess I’m thinking about a vague combination of all three of these things – hits, kudos, and comments – while keeping the length of the fic in mind. Given all of this, in the grand scheme of things, my DA fics really aren’t that popular. I didn’t actually do a search because I didn’t want to make myself sad, but if you search my DA pairings (e.g. Fenris/female Hawke) on AO3 by number of hits/comments/kudos, I won’t come up on the first few pages of search results. We’ll come back to the topic of search results later.

ANYWAY. Let’s pretend I’m relatively popular, leaving out the Big Names™ in DA fanfic (whom I won’t tag here because I don’t want to annoy them with a random tag lol). What do I think make my fics somewhat popular? I can think of four things:

Frequency of posting

The combination of fandom and pairing: filling a gap

Varying lengths of fics for a single pairing: something for everyone

I have no idea

Frequency of posting

The most obvious factor that jumps out to me is that I post regularly and frequently. Currently, I update my two ongoing longfics weekly or every other week. When I first got really heavily into Fenris/Rynne Hawke, I was updating almost every day. As I mentioned before, AO3’s search results are shown by the most recently updated fics by default. So if I’m posting regularly, that means my fic is regularly appearing at the top of the list of search results when people search my tags or pairings, which means a higher chance of new readers seeing it and deciding to dive in week after week.

Fandom and pairing: filling a gap

For this point, I’m going to call back to the fandom where I first became “well-known”, which is Horizon Zero Dawn. I’ve written a number of ships for that game, but my OTP is Aloy/Nil. My fic Stormbirds and Stalkers is the second most kudos’ed fic if you search for that pairing on AO3, and the #1 most kudos’ed fic if you exclude fics that are multi-ship (i.e. shipping Aloy with multiple people in a single fic, which is common in the HZD fandom). Importantly, this was a popular pairing in a very small fandom. There weren’t many fics for this pairing at the time, and there weren’t any fics that did what I was doing: a monogamous love story, with explicit smut, that was actually being updated.

Funnily enough, though, my second most popular fic in the HZD fandom is my fic for Aloy/Ikrie. This is an extreme rarepair even within a small fandom, with only 19 Aloy/Ikrie fics on AO3, but my fic for this pairing is the one with the most hits/kudos/comment and is also my one fic with the most subscribers on AO3. Clearly people were excited about this fic and wanted to see more of this pairing.

So what’s the logic here? A rarepair in a small fandom, a popular pairing in a small fandom… what’s the pattern? From what I can tell, a fic will be more popular if people are starved for that content. If a fic falls into that gap where people clearly want MOAR, but MOAR doesn’t yet exist, it’s going to get more engagement. Popular pairings in a small fandom fall perfectly into that gap, as do highly-coveted rarepairs with little existing content. A Dragon Age example of this is my little Cole/Lavellan romance fic. Colemances are quite rare, sexual ones even more so, and I think the reason for my Colemance fic’s popularity is because it fills that gap.

If we return to the rest of my Dragon Age fic, however… [nervous laugh] the logic I just outlined above doesn’t really apply. That takes me to the third factor.

Varying fic lengths for a single pairing: a little something for everyone

Most of my Dragon Age work is for the most popular pairings for the games I’ve played: FenHawke for DA2, and Solavellan for DA:I. (Yes, yes, Cullen is even more popular, but I’ll leave my Cullen/Inquisitor work out of this analysis because I think it’s a special case.) I’ve heard that it’s notoriously difficult to get engagement when you’re writing a popular ship for a bigger fandom, since readers get inundated with choice and your fic can get lost in the shuffle. I would in no way say I’m “popular” for the pairings I write, considering that the most popular Solavellan fics have like… tens of thousands of hits and thousands of comments. Still, I have been surprised and thrilled by the engagement I have gotten in this fandom, especially since I’m kind of a noob to the DA world.

One of the reasons my DA work might be relatively popular is that I write fics of varying lengths and types for my pairings. For Fen and Rynne in particular, I’ve got everything from non-smut oneshots to smutty oneshots to smutty longfics to AUs. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone, and I suspect that someone who was like “I just want a oneshot” might get interested enough by the one thing they read to check out my other work, even if they didn’t start out looking for more than a oneshot. Similarly for Solavellan, and also for Abelas/Lavellan, I’ve got oneshots and a multichapter drabble collection, so there’s something both for the people who are searching for a quick oneshot and for those who are searching for multichapter fics. In short: more variety means more potential to show up in AO3 search results.

Don’t get me wrong; some of my Dragon Age stuff has fallen flat, namely my Blackwall/Lavellan work. That was actually the first DA ship I ever wrote for. The smutty oneshot collection has been relatively popular in terms of hits and kudos, but the two little multichapter mini-fics I wrote for Baewall have had very little attention, and I don’t really know why. Baewall isn’t the most popular ship in the fandom, I know, but it still doesn’t really explain the popularity of the smutty oneshots versus the mini-fics, which are also smutty.

Which brings me to my final point…

I have no idea.

LOL. Seriously though. I’m sure there are other things at play that I’m not aware of, so maybe this can open a little discussion! What do you guys think? Any other theories on why some fics get more popular than others?

Thanks for the interesting ask, Elvenybae! I definitely spent too much time thinking about this today, LOL!! 😂 😘

- Love from your friendly neighbourhood Pikapeppa xoxo

#fanfic writer's life #pikapeppa thinks #ao3 #food for thought!#dragon age #horizon zero dawn #hzd

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suckerforkpopboybands · 4 years

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Fated: part 1

The first part of my new series called fated. It’s a love story that the reader develops with Jungkook........ I hate descriptions check my page for the preview lol enjoy.

Part 1

It was finally September 23rd, 2016 and you were in Seoul South Korea for the K-Pop world festival. You were the winner of the event for the United States of America. You didn’t really care or know too much about K-pop you simply enjoyed the language and well you were a great singer and well singers like Ailee and Sistar perfectly suited your style. It was your first time going to South Korea. Your Korean teacher back in New York City was from Seoul so her teaching helped you achieve the Seoulistic style of the Korean language. You impressed the team in Korean team during your auditions as well as the team that would help you when you arrived to the festival preparations.

You had a few days before you needed to be at the festival grounds for promotion and prep, so you decided to spend a few day in Seoul with a friend who was staying in Korea for the next few months as a language student. You spent that Friday night trying to get over jetlag but so wanted to explore. Your friend insisted that you two go to Itaewon. There was this neat bar that classy but sort of ratchet at the same time. You two spent the evening flirting and getting hit on by American soldiers and cute Korean men. You two weren’t really looking for anything but to dance and drink. While dancing you spotted a Korean guy watching you dance. He was with two other male friends. It was dark but you could tell they were all handsome. He didn’t get up he just watched you as you danced, so you decided to go over to him by the bar.

“You want to dance with me” you said in perfect Korean. They guys were shocked and clapped. You laughed at their clapping and said, “I think that it’s pretty normal to speak Korean in Korea”. The one watching you was nudged by his friend to dance with you. Before you knew this average sized but clearly in shape Korean man with brown hair danced with you. He smelled so nice.

“What is your name” he asked you.

You told him your name and then asked what his name was.

He seemed a bit hesitant before saying, “You don’t know”?

You looked at him strangely and laughed. “Am I supposed to know who you are”?

“Never mind, forget it. I’m Jeongguk”, the handsome young man said.

“Nice to meet you Jeongguk. I am Y/N”.

Jeongguk invited you and your friend back to the private section and table but when you went to grab your phone you noticed you received a text that she was hooking up with some guy and that I looked like I was in good hands. She also sent a pic of the guy entitled just in case I get kidnapped. Jeongguk introduced you to his friends and two tall big guys who almost looked like bodyguards. It definitely made you uncomfortable. He whispered something to one of the big guys and then to his friend which caused them both to whisper to each other. He introduced you the guys.

“Y/N, this is Tae-hyung and Ji-min”.

They both bowed and smiled at you. Tae-hyung had a bunch of questions. How old you were, were you single, why are you single, and a really strange one what is your blood type. The main question of why you were in Korea came up. You explained to the how you were representing your country in a competition and how you love to sing and love the Korean language so the Kpop festival seemed like a great idea. They all seemed impressed. Ji-min couldn’t get over the fact that you spoke Korean almost fluently. You asked them what they did for a living and Ji-min joked and said they were struggling artist. You thought that was cool but could they weren’t really struggling.

Throughout the night you drank and sang random Korean songs in their private section that turned into noreabang. Jeongguk, slightly drunk, asked if he could take you somewhere private. You weren’t really sure. The last thing you wanted was to be kidnapped by this handsome stranger that smelled so good. Or maybe you did. You pulled out your camera to snap a pic and that’s when the large man swooped in and took your phone.

“You cant do that Y/N” said who you realized was in fact their bodyguard.

Jeongguk realized how startled you were and told the bodyguard that you didn’t realized who they were or the rules. Jeongguk finally explained that they were Korea idols in a group named, loosely translated, Bullet Proof Boys Scouts or more commonly known as BTS. You realized who they were. The boy also explained that pictures couldn’t be taken without their permission. You were shocked and realized that’s why he thought you knew who he was you tried to explain yourself.

“I am so sorry I didn’t mean anything bad by trying to take a picture. I was just jokingly but also seriously taking his picture because he asked me to go somewhere private and me my friend send pictures when we go on blind dates or meet with people we don’t know. I am so sorry”.

Your apology was accepted, and the guys thought it was funny and sweet.

Once everything was cleared up and the rules were explained you and Jeongguk left. The two of you went through a back door of the club and into an SUV. When you two got in the vehicle Jeongguk asked where you were staying you informed him you were staying with your friend in the area of the club. He also began to talk about his intentions for the rest of the night.

“Y/N, I am not going to ask you to do anything you don’t want to do. I won’t lie I was going to try and hook up with you but you’re so interesting I want to talk with you more. Not sure if I want to just hook up with you or maybe we can I don’t know. I know it’s 2am but I kinda just want to hang with you. I was allowed to get a hotel room so that’s where we are going if that’s okay with you”.

“Jeongguk, I’d like that a lot”.

“Y/N do you want food, we should get food”. Jeongguk told his driver to pick up some Korean fried chicken and Soju after you got dropped off. Jeongguk grabbed his hoodie and a pair of sunglasses. He also handed you a facemask and a pair of glasses.

“Oh wow this is serious”, you said laughing as you placed the glasses and mask on.

You two entered the front door of the fancy hotel that was about 30mins from Itaewon. There was no one in the hallways but Jeongguk insisted on being extremely cautious.

You entered the beautiful hotel room that looked more like an apartment. You could tell that he had been there for at least a day. There was clothing on the floor.

“Sorry”, Jeongguk said, “that was from earlier today. I’ve been here since Thursday evening. Sometimes I get a room for myself”.

“No problem”, you replied with a smile.

Jeongguk stopped trying to clean up once he realized you really didn’t care. You were simply happy to be hanging with him. Even though you just met him you though he was pretty interesting and that had nothing to do with him being a k-pop star. There was something sweet and innocent about him, even though you could tell he had some experience with women. He just plays coy. He moved closer to you as you stood in the middle of the room. He placed his hands around your waisted and you responded by placing you hands around his neck. You two just stared and smiled at each other before getting lost in a kiss. The kiss started with simple pecks that Jeongguk placed on your lips almost as if he were testing to see how far he could go. He started kissing you a little harder which made you open your mouth a bit giving way to his tongue. Your tongues danced in each other’s mouths; his arms were now holding you tighter as you two begin to move towards his bed. You two were interrupted by a hard knock once on the door. Jeongguk ran towards the door leaving you sitting on the bed. You two forgot about the food that Jeongguk requested for you two.

“Chicken, beer, and soju!” He was so excited about the food.

“Come eat Y/N”.

You started thinking about things he eat could and let’s just say it wasn’t the chicken but he was so happy so you didn’t try to change it. You two sat on the floor to eat. He poured you a drink and pecked you on the lips and a somber look took over his face before he began to speak.

“Y/N I knew we just met”, he said rubbing his neck, “but I feel like I’ve known you for longer than tonight, it’s also refreshing that you didn’t know who I am”.

You just smiled at him and placed a kiss on his lips before saying, “I am so glad to have met you I liked hanging with you”.

Jeongguk smiled at you and said, “If I am telling the truth I don’t know how long this is going to last we have a crazy schedule and I know you’re back to America after the festival. I didn’t tell you before but my group is preforming at the festival and well if we see each other there we won’t be able to interact with each other like we’ve met before. I may not be able to speak to you all during the festival other than as a contestant”

You never have dated or hooked up with any type of famous person, but you knew this wasn’t going to be the start of an uncomplicated relationship if any relationship even came out of it.

“I want to see you again”, Jeongguk said with his head low. You thought maybe the alcohol was getting to him. You lifted his head and kissed him and handed him water to drink. After you also to a drink of the water Jeongguk took this as opportunity to move closer to you until you were on you back with your legs spread and he was facing you on top. You kissed him and said, “If you want to see me again why we don’t wait so we don’t regret anything”. Jeongguk smiled at you and then to himself as he rolled off of you and slipped his arm under you to pull your closer before going to sleep.

#jungkook #BTS jungkook #jeon jeongkook #bts #jungkook smut #jungkook angst #love stories

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snow-slayer · 4 years

Text

A Bunch of Good Things from 2019

*I don’t do things consistently, so there’s chunks of time I just forgot to write. So the blank spaces are days where I could not recall the exact good things that happened.*

January 1: Started the year off right by hanging out with @nah-young, eating some delicious leftovers from New Year’s Eve and working on a puzzle. Also caught a shiny Delibird in Pokemon Go as the first catch of the year. 2: Had a headache at work, but went home to take care of myself. Dad and I talked for a long time about money and taxes without arguing. I have also discovered a future hobby I want to get into: 3D printing. 3: I cranked out four solid hours of studying. I’m going to ace the Auditing section of the CPA exam. I feel it in my bones (especially when I finally stood up and stretched). 4: My ‘other mom’ (one of my best friend’s mom) took me out for a belated Birthday lunch to our favorite Thai food place, and I enjoyed more mango sticky rice. It’s one of my new favorite desserts. 5: Did some epic New Year cleaning. Caught up on laundry, filed away my 2018 paperwork, and did some 2019 taxes. Finally on top of things! 6: A puzzle day! I connected a big piece of the sky to the side on the Lion King puzzle. I’ve still got a lot to go, but progress is being made. 7: As usual, I both surprised and pleased the teller at the bank when I moved some money from savings into my IRA. They wanted to know if it was for tax year 2018, but I could tell them last year was maxed out and it was for 2019. 8: Got to practice my training and supervising skills with @arrowhearts. 9: Spent the night at Lucy’s (she’s a cat). She’s the sweetest cat though, and was cuddling in my lap for so long! She even held my finger with her paw for like ten minutes. I love her. 10: It’s been forever, but I finally sat down and played some video games. I’m replaying Arkham Asylum again and really just exploring every nook and cranny I can find. 11: Might have started a new Francis story line ... Whoops :) 12: Helped Jane clear an apartment and acquired many new tools and art supplies to use. 13: Snow! It was snowing before bed, but I still woke up at 5 am to about 4 - 5 inches. Activated my dad gene and started shoveling at 5:30 am (sorry neighbors to the house I was dog sitting at). It’s so pretty out! 14: A quiet day, but I did some work for Jane and gamed some more. Can’t wait to start Arkham City when I get 100% on Arkham Asylum! 15: I took my coworker a basket of fun snacks from Lotte for her Birthday. She’s so excited to try them all! 16: Donated blood today and when I went to get dinner on the way home, I got a free salad! The entree was already free and I ordered a side salad. I pulled out my wallet to pay, but the coupon covered it, too! 17: Treated myself to breakfast on the way into preschool (my new volunteer place since the teacher I followed to several elementary schools is now at). Also ate some amazing home cooked food for lunch with @nah-young before going out for ice cream. 18: Did some very early spring cleaning to prep for my next yard sale and straighten up a bit. 19: Beat the storyline and finished gathering all of Riddler’s trophies in Arkham Asylum. I do still need to finish up the additional content for 100% completion. 20: Working with Jane to help clean out an apartment again and got stencils to use for my art (the ones with shapes of different sizes). I had wanted to get me a set, so I really lucked out. 21: Started reading a book for fun. Lol, I forgot that I can still read non-accounting things for fun. 22: Sent out 1099s at work. It’s always a dreaded part of the year, but it’s taken care of! 23: I started uploading my old Franmouche stories to AO3. I forgot that I’d written 185 pages of them. At least if someone else likes my rarepair, they have lots to read. No guarantees on the quality, but there is quantity. 24: Made fun penguin cutouts for the preschool class I volunteer at. Then studied for nine hours on campus. A busy, yet productive day. 25: Finished watching all my lectures for the next portion of the CPA exam! So much auditing knowledge!!! 26: Panic alleviated. My check engine light had been on for a few days. Usually it’s just a gas cap issue so I was worried, but after readjusting the cap again (which usually fixes it) and an oil change, the light went out! 27: Played some Pokemon Go for four hours with @arrowhearts and Lyla. No Kyogre, but at least we each got a Groudon. Plus, the weather was beautiful for this time of year. 28: I found a dollar today while sweeping the parking lots with my dad! I’m gonna be riding this wave for a week. (Fun fact: my dad and I used to go bike riding on Sunday afternoons/evenings in the local parking garages and look for pennies. We’d always get bragging rights when we found a quarter or more. We still get excited and tell each other of the day’s finds when we find a few coins while we’re sweeping). 29: Had a bit of a headache, but managed to get through it so I could finish the workday. Then I get some well deserved rest. 30: Met up with @nah-young for some fries and ice cream! 31: My annual physical went well! Took care of a couple test we’ve been putting off, too, and they weren’t quite as bad as I thought they’d be.

February

1: I had such a productive day in the office, even for a Friday. Special thanks to @arrowhearts for helping me move all (24 years worth) of our files. 2: Started off the day a little rough and feeling low, but I decided to go up to campus, and I’m so glad I did. I was able to help a bunch of people get to their destination. Also hung out with @nah-young and @arrowhearts in a sketchy room. 3: Technically today (starting at 1 am). Had a great talk with @nah-young about a lot of things including our friendship. Successfully avoided the Super Bowl (which I heard sucked, so that was a good use of my time). 4: Had a really good conversation with my dad for almost an hour. We had some fights earlier in the year, but it was nice to be able to connect some. 5: It’ll be silly to look back on, but I thought I lost a reference letter for a scholarship applicant, but realized I could find it on our shared drive. Such a relief! 6: I tried Duck Donuts for the first time today. One of our board members brought me and a coworker a half dozen each. 7: Caught a Miltank in Pokemon Go! I thought I missed my chance, but there was a special running, so I got it. 8: Just heard we got a new boss at work, so it’ll be nice to be full staffed again. 9: Started working on a painting for @arrowhearts. It might be my first completed artwork of the year. 10: A lazy day, but I flipped through a book on home decorating. You know, to plan for my future house. 11: Officially started working for Jane’s business. We’ll see how it goes, but at least it’s an extra couple of hours per week. 12: Finished a dog sitting job, and I’m super thankful to be sleeping in my own bed again. 13: I gave Lucy, the sweetest cat ever, a piggyback ride and it was the cutest thing ever. I was on my knees and forearms trying to get Lucy to boop my nose when she just climbed on my back and sat down. I rose up on my knees and hands and she did the “i’m not so sure but I’m going to stay here” stand and let me crawl across the floor a while before finally jumping off. I love this cat. 14: Took the auditing section of the CPA exam. I feel much better about this one than I have about the other two. We’ll see on the 26th. 15: Such a busy day at the office! It was productive, but just a lot of work. 16: Even though I just too the other exam, I managed to get a lot of studying done. 17: Mamaw and I got to chat and work on the puzzle for a while. It was nice to hang out with her since I haven’t done son in quite a while. 18: We had some really good food at our investment club meeting today. Sheppard’s pie (like meat and mashed potatoes), salad, this great cracker dip (I have no other details other than feels like sharp cheddar finally shredded with a hint of spice in some sort of sauce). 19: Our new executive director started today. I think I made a pretty good first impression! 20: Started playing Arkham City again. We had a snow day and even my office closed, so I made the most of my day. 21: Lol and today I finished the main storyline of Arkham City. Accidentally, because I was doing side quests, but Batman got mad when I tried to go finish some before the last mission. 24: I am obsessed with Excel, but I figured out a formula so that it would total certain categories even if they weren’t in order. Plus I learned how to make a drop down menu (on two versions of Excel). Guess who’s budget looks beautiful! 25: I caught a Latias in Pokemon Go. Not having much luck with the water legendaries. I wonder if they don’t like me because we picked the grass starter. 26: I passed the Auditing section! (and instead of keeping it quiet, I made a point to tell some people). Then @nah-young and I went to dinner to celebrate our successes of the day and just have a nice chat. 27: Good news: I starved off a migraine that was starting on Feb 26. Maybe this new method will help them from getting bad. Just took an Aleve with some hot tea. 28: Went on a Pokemon run, and I found $20 blowing across the yard when I got home! A nice find for the year.

March 1: I’ve been really getting into “Ghost Story” by Peter Straub and had so much time to just sit and read while it rained. 2: I watched “Spiderman: Enter the Spiderverse” today. An epic movie and I highly recommend it! I also have several new costume ideas... 3: Officially started working on my Library Comic Con cosplay. There’s not much to show, but it was nice to start costuming again. 4: Hiked up to the nearby bubble tea. It was good! I got a mango green tea creama. Next time I know I have to mix it up before I start drinking it. 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: Started replaying Castlevania IV. It’s been a while since I beat it, so hopefully I can still finish it! 11: I have proven myself an Excel deity. Well, at least Jane thinks though. She needed a spreadsheet for something and had some ideas so I whipped it out in five minutes flat with a bunch of formulas she didn’t even know were possible. I’m quite proud of it. 12: Lol, speaking of excel, I was geeking out over my budget with one of our board members. She was showing me how she built her itinerary in excel for her next trip and I got to show off my budget. 13: 14: 15: It was fake St. Patrick’s day at work, so I got to show off my green Riddler suit. Apart from being mistaken as dressing like a leprechaun a few times, I received a bunch of compliments on it. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of that suit jacket. 16: Tagged along with @nah-young to her grandfather’s birthday party and watched Bohemian Rhapsody. Apart from the timeline inaccuracies, I really enjoyed it! Look at that: two new movies in one month. 17: First big leaf job of the season. I guess the first major landscaping job. Dad helped out, so it made life easier. 18: Investment club meeting went well, and I ended up staying late to chat and help clean up, but it was enjoyable. Also had some great tiramisu from Trader Joe’s. 19: 20: 21: It was a downpour today, but I also made a 20 minute Costco run. Parking was great, the lines were short, and I managed to balance everything without a cart. Success! 22: Finally got around to doing invoices. It’s such a weight off my chest to take care of them. 23: I had the house to myself, so got ample studying done, played some pokemon, and treated myself to some bubble tea. Got myself a bunch of good pokes from Community day. 24: Another lovely day to sit and hang out with @nah-young. I always enjoy our hour long conversations just sitting in my car in her driveway. I also finished the lectures for the BEC portion of the CPA exam. 25: I found a gift card loaded with $30 today. It had been thrown into the dumpster, so a little gross, but it washed off nicely. 26: Ran up to the local library to turn in my books (look @arrowhearts, I did it the day before they were due and didn’t have to make a midnight run). I wasn’t going to check out more books since I already had some checked out from another library visit (I go to many branches due to my job and often check out a book or two, resulting in cycles of books due at different times), but I did anyway. I started reading Area X, too, and so far, I’m really enjoying it. 27: Our family’s accountants think I’m a bit weird because I was so excited to get my tax papers back even though I owed money. I was just like “cool!” to all the facts and things on my sheets, which is apparently not what they’re used to, but one of the new tax laws works in my favor as small business income is taxed at a lower rate or something. 28: 29: 30: I love Annihilation in the Area X series! I haven’t plowed through a book that fast in years. 31: I was catching up on my business spreadsheets and it turns out I had the most profitable March since I started my business :)

April 1: No April Fools jokes, which is always a huge plus. 2: 3: 4: Took the BEC section of the exam and then clocked in a bunch of hours for the Foundation. Jubilee is almost here!!! 5: 6: The Jubilee is over!!! What a relief! A lot of things went well, and I heard it was a lot of people’s favorite. Not sure what actually happened because I was stationed at check in/out all night, but hopefully the silent auction results are good. Huge shout out to @arrowhearts and @nah-young for getting me through the night! 7:A quiet morning of returning the Jubilee to the Foundation. Plus some other landscaping. 8: I know everyone at work is saying I should take time off, and I didn’t, but I’m actually feeling blessed that I have the physical and mental stamina to keep working on things. Plus, I need to catch up with post Jubilee stuff. 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: Got to talking with my art dealer for a long while and we exchanged headcannons and ideas. 20: Had a nice Pokemon run with @arrowhearts‘ dog. Plus, enough work to keep me out of trouble X) 21: A very busy Easter. I moved a huge mound of mulch. It was half the size of my car. Hopefully the home owner will like it. 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31: I’ve been feeling behind, but I finally knocked out a really important thing at work today. Got our annual applications in!

May 1: 2: 3: My gauntlets for my comic con costume look so cool! They’re a little stabby (there’s staples on the inside, although I should be able to tape it down for safety), but overall look cool for a first draft. 4: A long day, but I feel like I was really able to help my friend and her family, which is nice considering how much they do for me. 5: The event that happened wasn’t good, but I’ve been humbled as to how well our house was kept and motivated to try and become more organized. 6: Dad and I were chatting today, and we could even touch on topics in a civil manner. It was quite nice! 7: Just found out I passed the BEC section of the CPA exam! I’m 75% CPA!!! And no cavities were found after my dentist appointment :) 8: Frantically working on my costume, but my head piece looks really good! 9: Mom even chipped in to help. We rigged up a steampunk mask I have (which doesn’t fit on my head right) so that I can actually wear it. 10: I’ve been fasting for Ramadan and I think my body and I are finally on the same page. It was a rough start this year, but I’m looking forward to focusing on being thankful for what I have and working on self discipline. 11: Library Comic Con! My costume is a bit rough, so no final pictures, but I have plans to make it better! 12: It was a busy Sunday. Lots of lawns, but thankfully the weather was cool. 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: Had a nice meeting with my boss. I keep feeling like I’m not on top of things or she’s disappointed, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Plus, she said I did great at the finance committee meeting, so that was nice. 18: Although I scared everyone I worked with all day, I was able to donate blood even though I had been fasting. 19: I saw the tiniest inch worm while I was pulling weeds today. It was more like a quarter inch worm and it was just trying so hard to climb up my arm when I found it. I also saw the first lightening bugs of the year. As a bug type Pokemon trainer, I’m quite pleased with all of this (less so with the mosquitoes though, as I got my first bite of the season). 20: I have found a nice way to keep cool at the property Dad and I work at. I’m allowed to douse my head, neck, and hat with the hose, and man does it feel good! 21: I received many compliments at the executive committee meeting for all my hard work on the budget, the Jubilee, and finance committee. 22: Caught up on reconciliations at work (finally). It’s been just a nightmare, but I’m happy they’re done. 23: Another me day. I’ve been taking Thursdays off and got to game for a bit but also accomplish a lot of laundry and studying. 24: Had a good meeting at work to discuss the future of the nonprofit I work at. Plus I finally made a phone call I didn’t want to make. 25: Went to a foam helmet making class with a coworker. I’m super excited to start trying out this style, and I think the sample we made in class can easily be used to make a helmet for Vile. Might have purchased a few things to go with it :) 26: Found a new drink that I love from Kung Fu Tea! Also got to rewatch Coco, which is always good. 27: Part of my afternoon spent working with Jane was changing her screen saver. It was set up for one photo of pictures, but some were so fuzzy, so we set up new pictures and I got to add my fuzzball to the reel. 28: I visited one of Jane’s friends to discuss dog sitting and we had such a nice conversation afterwards. 29: I found a four leave clover today while mowing lawns. It’s been years since I’ve found one, so that was exciting. 30: I plowed through about 6 hours of studying for the FAR portion of the CPA exam. Only two more lectures and then onto multiple choice! 31: Filled out a form at work (finally). Now I just have to hope my boss will sign it and have it notarized.

June 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: Took the (hopefully) last CPA exam. It was nice as I spoke to an elevator engineer before the exam and it helped to calm my nerves a bit. 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: Wasn’t sure what day to put this on, but @nah-young and I hung out for hours just sitting and chatting on the cats’ back porch. 15: Successfully navigated into DC with the help of @arrowhearts (and had an interesting laugh about her being my son...? Oh well, at least we got to give the people sitting outside a show as we left the building with two rollie office chairs each). 16: Started working on my Halloween costume. I’ve abandoned the idea I originally had and will be switching to a different Mega Man X character (fun fact: it was a costume I originally intended to make before being introduced to Scaramouche back in 2017) 17: It was a scorcher, but had a slurpee for the first time in almost a year. I’m so thankful for the 7-11 within walking distance of where my dad and I work on Mondays. 18: I’ve officially passed the CPA exam! Now onto the next steps... 19: I have been struggling with telling people good news, but I did make an effort to inform some people about me passing the exam. 20: Told some more people about the CPA exam and just trying not to stress. I got celebratory milkshakes for my family after dinner. 21: My coworkers are so sweet. They brought me in a cake and we had a mini celebration. 22: 23: 24: 25: 26:Found a praying mantis while mowing. She kept standing where I wanted to mow, so I got to pick her up and put her somewhere safe (with lots of snacks for her!) 27: 28: 29: So glad I went to see Detective Pikachu with @nah-young and @arrowhearts! I really enjoyed it! 30: 31:

July 1: A new fiscal year! I did manage to get a good bit done on my latch hook. 2: A sudden thunderstorm took me off the weed pulling job early (i.e. a perfect opportunity to read). 3: It was quiet in the office. Too quiet ... yet super productive! I processed so many gifts and letters. 4: I don’t really celebrate, and spent a lot of it working, but played some pokemon in the rain. It was a warm day, so the cool rain felt so refreshing! 5: A jammed packed day with trashrooms, a bank run, and more pokemon quests! I completed another 15 and hatched a new pokemon. Plus I finished another book: Dr. Death. 6: A busy day, but I was able to finish everything so I can take the next day off completely (for once). Again, apologies to @arrowhearts for dragging you out and getting caught in a downpour so I could get some bubble tea! 7: 8: 9: 10: Unboxed my unicycle! Not sure when I’ll ride, but it’s ready when I am. 11: 12: 13: 14: The vanity is back in my bathroom! Dad’s renovating it, and it’s been a slow process, but I finally have a sink! 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: Spent a few hours working on cleaning the basement, and I’m finally seeing some of the fruits of my labor. 21: 22: 23: 24: Officially finished the Vile helmet! 25: Just started a new dog sitting job, and the house is right on top of a pokestop. Guess I’m going to have a full item bag again! 26: Finally got myself a memory stick for my PSP. I’m replaying the Maverick Hunter X game ... because I can! 27: Got three team rocket grunts in one day at the one stop. 28: Plowed through the Vile portion of Maverick Hunter X. Lol, I probably make it harder on myself since I only use my favorites, regardless of if they’re good against the boss. 29: Had a huge crab and shrimp dinner at Jane’s house. 30: Hung out and ate delicious homemade butter chicken with my best friend’s mom (she’s basically like my other mother). We laughed and chatted, showed off our latest projects, probably kept the neighbors up, and just had a good time until like 2 in the morning. 31: Welp, it wasn’t a raid day for armored Mewtwo, but @arrowhearts and I did defeat more Team Rocket Go grunts in the rain.

August 1: Chatted with @nah-young for a few hours and I’ve got a new place to eat on my radar! 2: I kept feeling like I was letting my boss down because I couldn’t answer her questions/didn’t understand, but she insisted I was handling myself well, and found the information she needed later. Plus, she’s very complimentary of my work and appreciates my transparency and work ethic, both of which I work hard on and value. 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31:

September 1: 2: 3: It’s official! We’re having a Halloween party at work. If my new schedule turns out, I’ll be at work on that day and will show off a costume. Not sure if it will be the one I’m working on, but I can always recycle an old one. 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: I had such a good ripstik run. @nah-young and I practiced for a good while yesterday (and she did her first trick, too!). I guess it’s nice to see the fruits of our practice since we’ve been working off and on for about a month. 16: Had the investment club meeting at my house. I didn’t get to cook everything, but I picked the recipe and it turned out well! 17: I finished “Every Tool’s a Hammer” by Adam Savage (from Mythbusters) and I really recommend it. It’s such a great book for anyone who makes or creates. It’s a fun read and chocked full of helpful hints. 18: I decided to start reading the Naruto series. I’m enjoying it so far! Now I just have to wait for the next to volumes to be available from the library. 19: I started replaying Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase. It’s amusing, although I’m a little rough. 20: 21: 22: 23: I’d been on the fence about taking a vacation early next year because I want to save up for a down payment, but after talking to my dad, I decided I’d do a little something. I still need to work out the plans (and make sure the people I want to visit are free), but I’m looking forward to it! 24: 25: 26: There’s a chance I might be going full time at my office job, so dad encouraged me to take the day off from trash rooms. I still got up early, but knocked out a bunch of chores, finished Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase, finished a drawing, and cleaned in the basement a bit. 27: Lol, I just realized I have three cycles of books checked out again. I started reading The Wicked Years series. I’m trying to set aside time each night so I can read a chapter or two before bed. 28: I made the pattern for my gauntlets! I’m actually trying to do it the right way and making measurements, creating an accurate template, and just generally taking my time. 29: Part 2 of the gauntlets: They’re made! My template worked and I spent a couple of hours slowly forming and shaping them. I still need some practice on the gluing component, but at least they feel sturdy. 30: Started replaying DK 64 again. I really love this game. Besides Gauntlet Legends, it’s probably my favorite N64 game we own. 31: Got rained out at work, but managed to take it easy in the afternoon and just generally keep ahead with laundry.

October 1: Today officially marks the first day of working full time at my office job. They added ten hours a week, so now I’m working 4 days at 10 hours each. It’ll take a little adjusting. I’m happy for the extra hours! 2: I sent out invoices on time for once! 3: It was my fuzzball’s 16th Birthday today! Someone also brought in some really yummy snacks to work that were leftover from a meeting. I also managed to create templates for the leg gauntlets and cut them out of foam. I’m just rolling with the motivation now, and would like to have Vile finished by Halloween (keep reading to find out if it was finished). 4: Really just having a good time playing DK 64. Knocked out Gloomy Galleon, so all that’s left are my favorite levels! 5: 6: 7: I have leg gauntlets formed. Lol, I guess I should look up the name... All that’s left is the chest plate and cape! 8: I lucked out! My coworker can’t go to a book signing even this weekend and asked me to get her book signed since I’m going. It was the perfect opportunity to get my hands on a copy of “Where the Crawdads Sing” which I wanted to read before this weekend. 9: Making some headway on the costume again! Arm and leg gauntlets have the plating and base coat of plastidip. 10: I finished “Where the Crawdads Sing” within 48 hours of having it my possession. That’s such a huge accomplishment to read something so quickly and eagerly! 11: I was plowing through my to do list at work. I knocked out 11 items. Woo! 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: My Halloween costume is finished *gasp* before Halloween! Barely, but it counts. 31: I won the most creative costume at work! Well, tied for first, but that’s cool.

November (whoops, I really forgot to write this month) 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31:

December 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: My coworker is back! She had been on extended leave for a while, but now she’s back. She bring such a positive and fun attitude to the workplace. 13: 14: I’m officially 25! I worked a few hours in the rain, but got a lot done (and saw Lucy, my favorite cat I cat sit). Instead of going to a steakhouse for dinner, which I’m not a fan of, we ended up going to somewhere I did enjoy. Overall, it was a nice and quiet celebration. 15: 16: 17: I finished the Naruto series today! It was a good series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Going to take a manga break to work on a few novels I have checked out and then decide which series to start. 18: 19: A busy day again. Knocked out two leaf clients for the year and went to see three bands perform at a local music club. I stayed out way too late, but had a great time hanging with a friend, one of the performers, and the performer’s friend. 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: Hung out with my brother and grandmother. I crushed them in several games! 25: Went to my coworkers in the afternoon and dueled for the first time in quiet a while. They wiped the floor with me, but I had fun with my deck destruction deck. 26: 27: Ended up hanging out with Jane for a while and just chatting about everything. We’re seeing eye to eye on a lot of things, so it was nice. 28: Finished my leaf jobs for the year! Time to relax. 29: 30: 31: Welp, ended up being sick and missing out on the intended New Year plans. I guess I did start the year with a migraine, so here I am ending it with one. After I rested up, I did start playing my favorite video game. Plus, I frantically read “Hey, Kiddo!” before the end of the year

Notable stuff

Highlights: Passed the CPA exam Officially hired full time

Books read: “Ghost Stories” “Every Tool’s a Hammer” “Where the Crawdads Sing” “Wicked” Naruto series “Hey, Kiddo!”

Movies watched: Spiderman: Enter the Spiderverse Mary Poppins 2 The Princess and the Frog Pokemon Lucario

#2019 in review #2019 #a year in review

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