#what if once upon a studio had a show/short series | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xaviernottheprofessor · 2 years

Text

Title: Protests and Problems Tagging: @juniwilson Time Frame: Thursday, August 18th A/N: Xavier and Juni end up in some trouble!

Xavier: After coming to terms with the fact that the studio's offer was just not good enough, Xavier had decided to take matters into his own hands with some peaceful protest in support of protection of employees for the studio who were paid and continue to be paid unfairly. He had separated from Raj once he had noticed some police officers harassing one of the protestors claiming they were on private property. They definitely weren't. He walked over to the commotion and set his sign to the side. "Good morning, officers. We are on public property and are exercising our right to protest." There was a grumble under the officer's breath but Xavier chose to ignore it for now, leading the woman back to the crowd and once he did, he spotted a familiar face wondering if they were there to support the cause. In truth, he hoped Juni would stay far away from the crowd considering one never knows what the outcome is of these protests. "Juni! Hey! What are you doing here?"

Juniper: San Francisco summers were the coolest Juniper could ever imagine. Even being from Seattle where they got warm and even hot, sometimes balmy summer days, San Francisco had been cool and sometimes downright chilly all summer long. Juni enjoyed it though, especially these days when taking brisk walks--in lieu of a light jog, which had now grown too uncomfortable with their large bump. While on said walk, however, they came across a crowd of people and wondered what they had been gathered for. Noting that it was too far out of the way of their intended route, Juni decided to satisfy their curiosity and approach, to at least learn what was going on. As they got closer, however, they saw the all too familiar face of Xavier. Their eyes went wide while a smile spread across their features. "Xavier, hii!" they waved while their eyes roamed curiously about. "Going for a walk! But I saw the crowd and then I saw you..." Now they noticed some of the signs in some of the other's hands and returned their gaze to Xavier. "Wait, what's going on here?"

Xavier: Xavier was glad to see Juniper and he gave them a quick embrace before pulling away to show them his sign that said. "Equal Pay, Every Day." he then smiled at his friend, keeping a hand on their back in case someone accidentally bumped into them. The protest was very peaceful so far and he was sure to look into the city to make sure no one stepped onto private property. It was even nice to have police escorts for the event even if he feared that the protestors would cross boundaries. That's why he wanted to make sure to keep an eye out for that. "Well, long story short, looking into my contract for the series I got made me look in deeper, and upon doing that, I've realized that there are big pay gaps between different pay grades here. I later found out the union didn't even know about them so I had to get them on board and decided to make sure the studio knows we are aware and we won't stop until this is corrected." He took a deep breath and looked around once more. "I didn't expect such a turnout but it's nice to see people stand up for themselves. Hopefully, the studio will wake up and help. That's so funny that you found us on your walk. IT's so nice to see you and the munchkin." He held out his arms as if to air hug the baby and chuckled. "You're more than welcome to stay by the way. Just stay close to me. Once the union rep goes up there to talk, people will start gathering even more and I want to make sure you're safe with me."

Juniper: Upon hearing and seeing what Xavier and the crowd had been there for, Juniper gave a slow, comprehensive nod, "Ohhh, okay. You guys are protesting then!" They softly smiled a bit but there had been a sadness to it as well. They were very proud of Xavier for standing up for an important issue while also being sad that something as straightforward as being paid equally even needed to be protested. "That's so terrible. And I know that technically Disney owns Lucasfilm but it's sad to think that such a giant in the industry is tied to a problem like this. I'm really proud of you though, and the others here for taking the time to really raise awareness." His greeting to their very large bump made Juni laugh a bit while looking down at their rounded belly. "It's a funny coincidence, but I'm also happy I--well, we got to see you." They were considering whether or not to stay for a moment and then told Xavier, "I hope you know that I support you, and I really do want to show that support, but I haven't been able to stay on my feet for very long these days." With a small frown, they said, "I'm sorry. Until I have the baby, this walk is the most I end up on my feet within a day." Not having noticed a pair of officers approaching them, Juni asked, "Have you guys had to worry about your safety out here?"

Xavier: Xavier nodded at Juni's words. "Yeah, it's terrible but hopefully they'll get a little bit of a push from us and the union and everything will be fine. I mean, I'm still going to take the contract as long as they're fair to everyone involved with the project. But! yes, I'm so happy to see you both!" He chuckled and it melted into a smile at Juni's words of encouragement. When they stated they needed to go, Xavier completely understood and he massaged their back. "No explanation needed. I would love for you to stay but I would prefer it if you went home to rest." Xavier nodded his response to Juni's question about safety. "Oh yeah, the officers have been great..."

And that's when one of the officers approaching, placed a hand on his shoulder to tell him, "Mr. Mitchell, I'm so sorry but we've been instructed to clear out the gathering. Please tell everyone to leave. If they do not cooperate, they will be arrested as per orders of the property management."

Xavier arched a brow, confused by what was happening. "We were told this is public property." "Sorry, Mr. Mitchell. It's a fine line. We have to follow orders." Xavier didn't want anyone arrested and he placed his hand on Juniper while looking for Raj and Amaya and any friends that may have joined them. "That's fine. I'll get everyone to leave but please give us a few minutes to gather everyone." He asked one of the protestors to please pass down the word so that everyone could disperse but already he was watching people get arrested. He'd bail everyone out but this seemed so unnecessary. "Yeah, Juni, definitely go home." He turned to fully face his friend who was already being cuffed. "Hey! Hey! no no no. They're not a part of this protest. Please let them go. They're pregnant and they were just leaving."

Juniper: While listening to Xavier talk some more about the purpose behind the protest, Juniper nodded, feeling a sadness along with a strong sense of hope that the message would be heard and that changes would be made for those who deserved it. "I'd really love to stay too. This is really important and I know that there can be strength in numbers. But thank you. If there's anything else that I can do to support you, tell me, okay?" It was a comfort to know that their friend and those protesting with him had been respectfully watched out. They were about to pass on a supportive sentiment to a few of the other protestors when one of the officers approached Xavier about having the group disperse. Juni frowned and was about to reach out to return Xavier's assuring gesture when another officer had come up from behind them and forcibly guided both of their hands behind their back. Jumping inside their skin, Juni's wide eyes attempted to look back, "Wh-what's going on?" they asked, genuinely confounded as the cold metal of handcuffs closed around their wrists. Panic quickly washed over Juni as they tried to ask, "What did I do? I was just saying goodbye!" But the words shrank inside their throat. Their wide blue eyes looked pleadingly at Xavier and the other officer. "Please let me go," she begged with just as much feebleness in her voice as before, as images of her going into labor in a jail cell were quick to form in her mind

Xavier: It was a knee-jerk reaction to reach out to Juniper and try to release them. Rationally, Xavier knew that wasn't the best move but he couldn't really help himself. He couldn't stand watching her get cuffed by the police and when he tried to gently persuade them she wasn't guilty of anything, they advised him it would be sorted out at the precint and for everyone's safety, they needed to clear out the space. "But I can do that. Let me, clear everyone, out but please let my friend go. They're obviously very pregnant and have nothing to do with this. I beg of you." Before Xavier knew it, his tears were also falling and without thinking, again, he pushed the officer's hand away from Juniper's back. He couldn't explain it. It was something that he couldn't control at the moment even if he knew he'd have to suffer repercussions. "Sorry, Mr. Mitchell, you're going to have to come with us." He regretted it right away but even as he was being arrested, Xavier couldn't take his eyes off his friend. "Juni, don't worry, yeah? We're going to probably be in some holding cell together. We'll call Chris and get you out of here, yeah?" He didn't even think of himself at the moment. He'd find a way to get out. He just hoped Raj and Amaya and the others made it out safely.

Juniper: The panic stayed with Juniper and briefly shot up upon seeing Xavier reach to try and prevent the officer from arresting them. "Please, just listen to him!" they pled, not resisting the arresting officer but hoping with everything they had that the officers would listen to either them or Xavier. When Xavier pushed the officer's hand away, the officer jerked while still gripping Juni, who stumbled lightly but thankfully stayed on their feet. More panic shot through them from the officer's kneejerk reaction, and before they knew it, their vision had completely blurred behind tears. Hearing that the other officer was now arresting Xavier made Juni sob, "How did this even happen?" They tried to stay calm but there were too many irrational emotions blended in with their already alarmed state. It was hard to really take in let alone be comforted by Xavier's promising words at first. But the mention of calling Chris did seem to strike a chord in them. A phone call. The officers had to allow them that, didn't they? That was how it always went in the movies and TV shows, at least. There had to be some truth to it, didn't there? Juniper nodded and hiccupped, "O-okay," to Xavier, drawing in a shaky breath while hoping they might at least ride in the same squad car as Xavier if the officers really were going to take them away.

Xavier: He had plenty of questions. Xavier didn't even know who to blame first. Was this the studio's doing? Didn't they realize that by doing this, by silencing these people, they had just gotten themselves in even deeper trouble? He wanted to be rational but he couldn't seem to find that side of him. Not when his good and very pregnant friend was getting arrested for no damn reason. "Are they trying to make an example of us?" He probably should just shut up but he was getting angrier by the minute. The officer that had arrested him and read him his rights did not answer and it was probably for the best to not entertain Xavier. They had been on excellent terms prior to this and this wasn't even the root of the problem. His heart broke for Juniper but he was happy the officers let them ride in the same squad car together. They uncuffed Juni so that they could be comfortable and he was grateful for that. Unable to move his cuffed wrists, Xavier simply placed his head on Juniper's shoulder in hopes it would bring them some sort of comfort. Once they had arrived, he waited patiently for his one phone call and advised Juniper not to offer up any information until they got the chance to speak with Chris. He'd call his mom. Susana had enough contacts all over the world that would get him hopefully out of here. "Hey Juni..." He whispered and offered them a smile. "They're calling you up for your phone call, love.

Juniper: Juniper was escorted to a patrol car and patted down with their rights being read, prior to being placed in the vehicle. The officer had only taken their cellphone but allowed them in the car without the cuffs on the condition that they kept their hands in their lap at all times. Juni silently agreed with a nod. Some relief washed over when Xavier was seated into the back of the car beside them. It took everything in them to fight the automatic reaction of hugging him, but they quickly remembered the condition from the officer. Biting on their lip they stared at their shaky hands through blurred vision. When Xavier rested his head on their shoulder, Juni remembered to take deep breaths. New tears spilled down their cheeks but they were too afraid--too afraid to lift a hand and wipe them away. The entire ride, she had been afraid. She hadn't uttered a word, hadn't cleared any of the fluids running from her eyes and nose and hadn't leaned back into Xavier. She was simply scared. Once they were brought to one of the police stations, the arresting officer had taken her and Xavier through the front doors and back to a holding cell. Someone--Juni wasn't sure who--had handed her some scratchy tissues. She wiped her face without thinking and balled it up tightly in one hand, still keeping both hands over her knees, still saying nothing at all for however much time had passed before she heard Xavier whisper her name. She snapped out of whatever panic-induced stupor she'd been in and looked to him--blue eyes meeting brown--and then nodded, whispering, "Okay," before getting to her feet. The officer standing at the cell's entrance unlocked and slid it open long enough for her to come out, and after closing it, they walked Juni over to one of the precinct phones, reminding her that she had the one call. With that, Juni nodded dutifully and picked up the receiver to dial.

Xavier: Glad to see that Juni was able to call their person, Xavier began to worry about Raj and Amaya again. He figured he'd see them at the station if they were arrested too. It seemed like most everyone was going to be allowed to go home, Juniper included. When Chris arrived, it was a blur to Xavier. He was just glad that his friend was going to get to go home with no charges against them. That's all that mattered at that moment. He stood up, wrapping his hands around the bars to watch Juni leave, and immediately, the world felt cold. Was he being dramatic? Maybe. But Xavier missed his mother. He wanted to make sure that someone broke the news to her that would treat them with kindness. Sure, his mom was a tough cookie but that didn't mean she wasn't a crier like him. Xavier was convinced his mother was going to have a hard time accepting any of this. He stood there for a long time, already having heard that he wouldn't be leaving. The property owners would be slapping him with a charge after all; inciting a riot. He didn't know what any of it meant except that he wasn't going to go home. He'd be going straight to central booking and there, they'd tell him how much bail would be and advise him of his rights and his first hearing date. It was a nightmare. He didn't deserve any of this, he knew that to be true. It wasn't long before he was back in handcuffs and on his way to be arraigned. His mother had already arrived and was waiting in the crowd for his docket to be called. $25,000 bail wouldn't be hard to come up with and hopefully, it would be fast so he didn't get detained for much longer. He was just embarrassed and tired and hungry. Once his lawyer posted bail, Xavier was able to leave and he made sure to avoid any cameras and reporters that wanted some sort of explanation. For tonight, he just wanted to make sure Juniper was safe at home and then close his eyes. He'd figure out his fate tomorrow.

#(paras.)#para: Protests and Problems

3 notes · View notes

seansilv25 · 4 months

Text

Another 6 months and the end of a year, it's time fore the 2023 Audio-Visual Media Tier List finale!

Smartphone Abridged: My god that was perfect. Too bas SWE went through hell to make it

Don't Worry, Be Fluffy: Fluffy's back, and fluffier than ever!

Subspace Fandub: Somehow, I feel like I'm not supposed to be here

Once Upon a Studio: Look, I don't care what your views on the company are, that shit was cute ok?

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2: You guys know that meme of the horse drawing segmented off by drawing quality? Yeah, imagine the roster as the poorly-drawn part and you have my thoughts on the game

Steamboat Silly: The short was great, but it's kind of crazy to think Mickey is technically public domain now. Can't wait for the inevitable "Steamboat Killie" horror flick

Haunted Mansion (2023): Normally I'm not that big a fan of the Haunted Mansion because I'm a pussy but that was really good

Scooby-Doo in Springtrapped: Cute short, and it's crazy how that was all 3D animation and not puppetry

8-Bit Christmas: A surprise watch to be sure, but a welcome one

Casino Royale: My first real 007 experience. If I were to describe it, I'd say it was... shaken and not stirred

Halloween: Man this was so much better than Friday the 13th

TMNT Mutant Mayhem: Pretty neat. I never thought I'd hear Fabulous Secret Powers in a major motion picture

Abridgimon the Movie: That was pretty funny. PUT IT ON A SHIRT!

Straight Out of Nowhere: It's cute seeing Scooby and Courage interact (Thank fuck neither of them had to kill each other in DB)

FNAF Movie: I still can't believe it's finally here. Talk about development hell

Gen V: Pretty good like the main show, but a lot of the more "degenerate" aspects felt more there just for shock value

FGO First Order: My first dip into the Fate series and now I'm hanging onto a thread for dear life help

FGO Absolute Demonic Front: Like First Order but just so... SO much longer

Transformers the Movie: Neat and has a cool soundtrack. I mean, Dare to be Stupid over a junkyard chase? Bruh (Galactus still chumps Unicron BTW)

Castlevania Nocturne: Cool and all, but next time could we not skip Simon please?

Fate Apocrypha: Like the other two, but a little shorter and more "eh" (Also with 10% more femboy)

Friday the 13th: Wait, so these movies didn't start with the hockey mask Jason we all know and love? ...What?

Secret Invasion: It was fine. 'Nuff said

As is usual, you can find the other half of my thoughts on the rest of my page (Might have to dig a bit tho) but other than that, I hope whoever shall read this has a good new year! Let's see if we can at all dig our way back up out of whatever we've gotten ourselves into.

#tier list #2023

0 notes

hischiersdraisaitl · 9 months

Text

Just Desserts (A League of Olympians Short Story)

SUMMARY

Sometimes, karma doesn't just come fast enough. So what do you do? If you're Grace Vandre, you get the rest of your team to help you nudge karma in the right direction and nudge it a little bit faster, that's what you do. Or: someone learns the hard way that trying to ruin Isaac van Doren's life with false allegations brings nothing but the wrath of the League (especially Grace's wrath) upon them.

WORD COUNT: 12.7k

NOTE:

This is the first ever original work I've ever posted anywhere. I used to post some fanfictions back in the day, so posting an original work is very new for me. Technically this story takes place after the first book in the series, but I haven't gotten around to actually writing the first book just yet (just a super vague outline). This short story more or less is just an exploration of the characters and their dynamics with each other, and the way I wrote it, it can be read independent of any of the other (future) works in the series. As of 07/24/2023 this work has only been crossposted on AO3 (under my username @/atvrvxia). I do not give permission for this story to be reposted anywhere else. For context: The League of Dark Olympians is a group of criminals who are hired by the Agency to track down and stop criminals who are worse than them. It's very much inspired by Suicide Squad (2016), Leverage, and even a little bit of Six of Crows. And they're called "The League of Dark Olympians" because of their codenames. And that's really all you need to know going into this story.

WARNINGS: none. just a lot of swearing and some mild threats but nothing too graphic

MOVIE NIGHTS used to only mean Twin Movie Nights: a once a month thing that Grace and Isaac would do together. They hardly get to spend time together now that they were older and had their own busy lives: Isaac was the CEO of van Doren Tech, and Grace travelled the world with her team of criminals, chasing after even worse criminals and occasionally conning a rich person.

You know, typical adult things.

But now Movie Nights aren’t just Twin Movie Nights; sometimes it’s Team Bonding Movie Nights, or Team Bonding Featuring the Twin Brother Movie Night. Tonight it was just a regular Team Bonding Movie Night, and it was hosted by Laurel (codename: Hephaestus or Heph).

Like always, Grace showed up at least half an hour early at Laurel’s apartment. Out of everyone in their team, the two were the closest. Not only were they able to talk about technology and machines with ease, but Laurel was the closest in background to Grace; who understood better than the others what it was like to be underestimated and what it was like to feel like you have to constantly prove yourself.

Safe to say, Laurel was like the sister Grace never had and the one she wished she actually had, as opposed to the younger brothers she did have.

“You know you’re not due to be here for another half hour, right?” Laurel asked as she opened the door to let her inside. Grace simply smiled and held up the brown paper bag.

“I come bearing gifts… mainly that gross beer you like to drink,” she said in lieu of a greeting. She also made a face at the mention of the beer. How Laurel can drink it was beyond her, but taste was subjective after all. Grace was more of a rum and coke kind of woman. “’Sides, I figured it would be easier to set up with two pairs of hands instead of one.”

She stepped inside the apartment, allowing Laurel to take the paper bag and she looked around the place. Laurel’s apartment was just so… Laurel. A lot of people who were well-off or came from wealthy families usually preferred a modern, minimalistic, looks-like-a-mausoleum approach when it came to their apartments. But not Laurel: her studio apartment was warm and inviting, and even though she had tidied around the place, there was still some of her projects that were laying about. One of which was on the coffee table.

“You working on something new, Elle?” Grace asked as she walked towards the coffee table and leaned down to inspect it. “Wait, is that a password decryption device?” Her eyes lit up, and if she didn’t know any better, she would have reached over to touch the item. But she had been around Laurel enough to know that she did not appreciate it if you touched her projects without her permission.

Dylan learned that lesson the hard way when they first started working together. It ended with him on his back on the floor, wheezing and promising he won’t swipe any of Laurel’s projects unless he was given permission.

“Yep,” Laurel answered, beer bottle cracked open and in her hand. She took a sip and gestured towards the device. “Go ahead and check it out. I’ve made some modifications so that it takes a lot less time to decrypt passwords. Figured you’d be the only one to appreciate it,” she smirked.

Grace chuckled. Wasn’t that the truth? She was the hacker (her codename was Athena), and Laurel was both the mastermind and maker. Who else would better appreciate such a device, other than the person who would use it the most? She carefully picked up the device, examining it closely.

Meanwhile, Laurel had turned on the television and changed the channel to the news. “Seriously? The news?” Grace asked, without tearing her eyes away from the device. She gingerly turned it around to continue her examination. She could do without the news, if she’s being honest. The whole world was shit; nothing new there. It’s been going to shit since she was a kid, and it would probably continue to go to shit until long after she was dead.

Laurel ignored the comment; not a single peep out of her. Despite her intense examination of the password decryption device, Grace can hear the news report from the television.

“… been arrested at her vacation home in the Hamptons for embezzlement and money laundering… Sources say that this had been going on for years,” the news anchor person said.

“Idiots,” she heard Laurel sigh. It was only then that Grace lifted her head to look at her. She can tell that Laurel was more or less judging the woman for getting caught, rather than embezzling from the company she worked at.

“Not everyone’s a criminal mastermind like me, or the others,” she reminded her.

Laurel cocked her head, raising a brow. “If you all were masterminds, you wouldn’t have gotten caught.”

Grace set the device back down on the table before she waved her hand dismissively, despite the now-familiar way her stomach twisted at the reminder of how and why she worked with Laurel now. She’d long since accepted it, of course. But that didn’t mean she liked being reminded of her failures. It was definitely a pride thing. Even if getting caught might have been the best thing to happen to her, she’s not going to just forget it easily.

“We still lasted how many years before the Agency caught us?” Grace asked innocently, batting her lashes at Laurel, who simply rolled her eyes and took a swig from her beer.

“Touché,” she conceded. “Anyway, you said you wanted to help out?”

The news was still going on in the background and Grace glanced at it, and saw that the topic had now moved on to… the increase in carjackings around the city. Considering that she doesn’t own a car anymore since this was New York City that she lived in, it wasn’t going to affect her.

“Yep,” Grace nodded. “What do you need me to do?”

“Bring out the pizzas from the kitchen, as well as the sides. I’ve got the plates, cutlery, soda and cups all ready for us,” Laurel instructed her.

Seems simple enough. Grace nodded again and went to bring out the five boxes of pizza that Laurel ordered. The first time they had done Team Bonding Movie Night, Grace thought two pizzas between five people was more than enough. Then she saw how Will and Dylan demolished the pizzas. Ever since then, she learned to order at four to five large pizzas whenever she would be the one to host. “Oh, did you get one with extra onions?” she asked as she carried the boxes to Laurel’s dining table.

“Yes. I know how much you like your onions. I made them add a stuffed cheesy crust too,” Laurel told her with a grin.

Grace returned it with a beam. “You’re the fucking best, Elle,” she said seriously. She went back into the kitchen to grab the other boxes of sides: fries, potato wedges, fried pickles (which only Laurel would eat), as well as chicken wings and dips. She set them down on the table, arranging them so that they’re surrounding the pizza boxes, which were laid out across the table. It was a lot of food, but better a lot than not enough.

As she finished up setting the table, there was a knock on the door. Laurel went to answer it, and Grace followed her once she was done.

The door opened to reveal the remaining three members of the team: Morgan (codename: Nemesis), Will (codename: Deimos) and Dylan (codename: Hermes). Each of them were carrying two brown paper bags each. “More booze, guys?” Laurel asked with a grin.

“Don’t you know it, Elle,” Dylan winked, before he stepped inside. He bumped his shoulder against Laurel’s in greeting, then grinned at Grace. “Ace!”

Grace chuckled at the nickname, a warm feeling spreading throughout her body, before taking the paper bags from Dylan. “Dyls,” she nodded, smiling back at him.

She could feel Laurel, Will and Morgan’s gazes burning the back of her head, but she didn’t turn around to look at them. She was not in the mood to hear it. She carried the paper bags to the dining room, peering inside. “Oh sweet! You got rum!” And it was her favourite brand too.

Reaching inside, she took out the bottle and opened it. She grabbed a plastic cup, filled it a quarter of the way before she topped it off with some cola. “Well, I figured that you would be nicer with a little bit of alcohol in you,” Dylan spoke up, waggling his brows at her.

She rolled her eyes, but there was a fond smile that curled on her lips. She’s grown used to his teasing over the past year. And it wasn’t like Grace couldn’t handle a little teasing; her tongue was as sharp as her mind, after all. “And is this your way of saying you’d rather I be nice and an alcoholic?” she asked as she brought the cup to her lips.

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” he declared, before he took a fry and popped it in his mouth.

“Hmm, we both know you like it when people are mean to you, Dyls. You have a kink,” she shrugged casually, which made him cough.

“I do not!”

She simply hummed under her breath, believing she had won that round against him, and took another sip of her drink before she joined the conversation that Will, Laurel and Morgan were having.

• »»————-　➴　————-««

If Grace was being honest, half the time that they did Team Bonding Movie Night, she could scarcely pay attention to the movie(s) that they watched. Even when she had done these movie nights with Isaac, it was more about spending time together rather than watching the actual film. She was lounged across Laurel’s armchair, legs dangling from the arm of the furniture and working on her third slice of pizza. Her phone was on her lap and she was watching the others.

Dylan was across the room from her on the other armchair, while Laurel was in between Morgan and Will on the couch. Will was watching the movie intently; so intently that you’d think that he was studying a building’s blueprint. Grace had no clue why her cousin was so invested in the movie; it was a horror comedy after all. Maybe Will was trying to get ideas. Although she was pretty sure that he’s already thought of creative ways of murdering people, considering he’s a hitman.

She shrugged those thoughts out of her mind and went back to her pizza, but not before glancing at Dylan. His legs were pulled to his chest and he had a thoughtful expression on his face as he watched the movie playing out on the screen. The chair he was sitting on was the closest to the television, which caused the colours from the screen to reflect onto his face. Objectively speaking, she’s known that he’s an attractive guy with his dark hair, blue eyes and roguish smile. If he wasn’t attractive or charming, he wouldn’t be the best thief in the world nor would he be one of the best grifters she’s ever encountered. Grace used to wonder if Dylan was constantly faking his charm, especially when he was around the team; trying to get them to lower their guards down. But then she had come to see that he’s just like that. Of course he laid the charm on thick when it comes to a mark, but his friendliness and charm were genuine. She subconsciously bit down on her lip, before she caught herself staring; cheeks flushing.

Fuck.

She glanced again at the trio on the couch and saw that they were all still watching the movie. She let out a quiet sigh of relief. Grace knew she would not be able to live down the teasing from them if they caught her staring. She shook her head again, finished the last bite of her pizza and turned on her phone. Pulling up Instagram, she scrolled through her feed and swallowed.

Thank the gods above that she did, or else she would have spat out the bite she had been working on.

“What the actual fuck?!” Grace yelled in outrage and disbelief.

Her outburst caught the attention of her friends. “Grace?” Laurel’s voice— it was Laurel who spoke up, but Grace was glaring at the screen as she read through the post.

“Oh that mother—“ a ton of expletives in different languages slipped past her lips. Her grip on the phone tightened. Each word of that post made her sick to her stomach and simultaneously make her blood boil with unimaginable rage.

She liked to think that despite being quick to anger, she was almost always able to rein it in and be able to act accordingly. Plans were not made in haste, after all. It took careful planning and strategizing— she was a strategist. And yet, every cell in her body was screaming at her to hunt down Elizabeth Campbell and strangle the woman.

She forced herself to tear her gaze away from her phone. The more she saw those words, those false accusations— yes, she knew they must be false because she knew her twin brother like the back of her hand— the stronger the urge was to throw something at Elizabeth Campbell’s stupid face. And she can’t act based on emotion— it had never served her well in the past.

Her gaze landed on her friends, all who had their phones out. From the way that Dylan’s brows were furrowed, Morgan’s look of contempt, Laurel’s wide-eyed shock and the nearly imperceptible way that Will’s jaw clenched— Grace knew that they were reading the exact same thing she had read.

“Oh this is so messed up…” Laurel breathed out.

Grace’s hands clenched into fists and she had to force herself to take a deep breath. How dare Elizabeth Campbell blatantly lie? How dare she hurl a false accusation against Isaac? Take ten deep breaths, she told herself, before she can do something she was going to regret. She tried to focus on her breathing, but all she could think of was her brother— her kind, sweet, caring brother and what he must be feeling right now.

Despite being twins, Grace and Isaac couldn’t have been more different. He was technically older (by only three minutes and yet sometimes he acted as if he was three years older) than Grace. He was the picture perfect heir to the van Doren’s computers and electronics company: polite, charming, kind, intelligent… he was the perfect son. The perfect child. Growing up, it was clear Mark and Elizabeth van Doren favoured their eldest son over the others; over their only daughter and their three younger sons. She should resent Isaac. She’s supposed to resent Isaac for the love and attention he received, while she had been deprived of both.

But she didn’t. Because he was the only one of their siblings who ever stood up for her; the only one who ever gave a damn about her. Even when she had been disowned at fifteen, he was the one who tried to help her in any way that he could— whether that was leaving her a box of groceries so that she didn’t have to steal food or leaving her some cash so she can fill up on gas— he was the only one who ever cared.

The entire world could be against her and it had been against her for over half of her life. But none of that mattered because she had Isaac in her corner.

And now, it was time for him to know that she’s in his corner.

“As if it wasn’t bad enough she left him at the literal altar and ran off with another man, she’s now claiming that Isaac abused her?” Grace fumed. “Who does that? Who the fuck does that?” she exclaimed, waving her hands around. Cursing and venting helped cool her down a little— just a little. She was still very much seeing red at this point.

It was Dylan who spoke up. “Someone who wants to control the narrative.”

That was actually a pretty smart answer and the one that made the most sense. Sometimes it was hard to remember that for all his dumbass remarks, Dylan can be quite smart and observant when needed— you don’t become the best thief in the world if you were oblivious. But there were times when you could almost doubt him… and then he goes around and point out stuff like this. Of all of them, he and Will were the best at reading people; their motivations, desires and even their tells. She shouldn’t be surprised, but Dylan had a habit of constantly surprising her.

There was a loud crunching noise, and Grace turned her head towards the source. Morgan was standing there with a crushed plastic cup in hand; the remaining liquid inside the cup had spilled over her fist and dripped onto the wooden floor. She looked downright murderous. “False accusations to control the narrative?” Morgan asked through gritted teeth.

Grace had no doubt that had it not been for Laurel’s comforting hand on Morgan’s shoulder, or even Will’s gazed locked with Morgan’s, that Morgan would have flung all self-control out of the window, hunted down Elizabeth Campbell and murdered her within the hour. As furious as Grace was, as livid as she was, this was a very touchy subject for Morgan.

False accusations had a way of ruining people’s lives and no one knew it better than Morgan Wilson. Grace at least was able to rein in her anger, thanks to years of practice. But Morgan? She wielded her anger like a weapon. Too many times they had almost risked a heist or a mission because of her temper. It used to annoy Grace how hot-headed Morgan got. But she understood her better now. So if Morgan was going to seriously hurt Elizabeth to teach her a lesson or even murder her, Grace quite frankly, wouldn’t stop her. Or, ideally, she wouldn’t stop her. Realistically, she would have to stop her because then that would mean a one-way trip back to prison for Morgan, and also because getting physically hurt was not enough of a punishment for Elizabeth.

“What do you mean about the controlling the narrative?” Grace found herself asking out loud. If her head was any clearer, she would have been able to figure out the motivation behind the accusation. But the blood was still roaring in her ears and the heat coursing through her body had not receded. She can’t think clearly.

"It was all over the media when she left Isaac at the altar," Dylan explained. "People were not kind to her at all, calling her names and sending her hate. They called her heartless."

"And a few other choice words and names that are more accurate," Grace mumbled under her breath.

"So," he continued as if Grace hadn’t spoken, "her reputation was ruined. From what Grace had told us about her, she's the type of person to care about her reputation, her looks and her wealth more than anything else. She's trying to justify her leaving and cheating by claiming abuse. People would see her as a more sympathetic figure now and then Isaac would be the one vilified by the press."

They all fell silent at that. "And we know how the justice system works… It's not even 'innocent until proven guilty' anymore. The press already got wind of this and we all know that that basically means he has to prove his innocence if he wanted to save his reputation but even then… it would never be the same," Morgan snarled.

"And if his reputation is ruined, then it would also affect VDT's stocks, which would affect the employees," Grace finished. The anger had left her body, leaving her feeling hollow and empty. Was this what her brother was feeling right now? She should call him. But she also knew that since the news just broke, he would be talking to his lawyers and his PR team.

She didn’t care about the family company. She didn’t care about the van Doren legacy. She stopped caring the moment she was told she was no longer their daughter. But Isaac cared about the company. He cared about the people who worked for him because he’s a stupidly kind person with the biggest heart she knew. She didn’t care about those people, but she cared about him.

"So what do we do about this? We can't let her get away with this," Morgan declared, looking at each and every single one of them, almost as if daring them to argue with her. None of them did.

“Well, we have to be covert about it,” Laurel decided.

“Yeah. Which means Chloe can’t know,” Will said with a pointed look. Chloe Lacroix was technically their boss. She had been the one who had come up with the idea for the League and had thus formed the team. She had final say in everything, and Laurel was her subordinate; there to make sure that these criminals they hired would stay in line.

“It goes without saying,” Laurel sighed a little exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. Grace was quite proud. There had been a time not long ago when Laurel would have hesitated and outright denied them the opportunity. After all, their work ‘contract’ had a very specific clause about not abusing the immunity the Agency gave them for personal use.

“Guys,” Grace spoke up, sitting on the arm of the chair she had occupied earlier. “I appreciate this, I do.” Because being appreciative and grateful is how you feel when people want to fight for you and your brother. “But we can’t just act without Isaac’s approval. I mean…” She hesitated. “It’s his fight.” She doesn’t like it, of course. But they were adults and they were more than capable of fighting their own battles.

Will folded his arms across his chest, taking a few steps until he was directly in front of her. He towered over her easily, especially since she was sitting down. “So text him,” he said. “And ask.”

It actually was that simple. Isaac knew what she really did for a living and he had met Laurel, Morgan and Dylan; even hung out with them a few times. Of course her twin brother would endear himself to her team. He took the whole ‘team of criminals’ thing in stride— barely blinking an eye when Dylan swiped his watch the first time they met, and barely flinching when Morgan glared daggers at him for the first hour that same night.

She knew better than to text anything incriminating. So she took out her phone and took a few minutes to type up the text.

To: Womb Mate Say the word and it would be taken care of.

It took a few minutes because she kept going back and deleting what she was writing, before she eventually settled on that one line, and sent it. By the time she looked up, Will had gone and in his place stood Dylan who was peering down at her phone. She glared at him. "Must you be nosy?"

"I wouldn't be me if I wasn't," he countered. "And seriously? Not even a 'hey, how're you holding up'?"

"That's a stupid question to ask him, because I'm assuming he's not okay. Would you be if your ex fiancée leaves you at the altar for another guy and then claim that you've been abusing her to the press?"

Before Dylan can utter a reply, Grace’s phone buzzed. She checked the notification screen to see a new message from Isaac. She opened it and was greeted by two words:

From: Womb Mate Do it.

A smirk crept on her lips and there was a gleam in her eyes as she looked up from her phone to look at the rest of her team: Dylan was practically vibrating with excitement; Laurel’s lips were pursed, a calculating look on her face that Grace had dubbed her ‘scheming face’; Will’s arms were folded across his chest and she can see the way his hands clenched into fists; and finally Morgan with her narrow eyes and a tension in her jaw, her fingers still wrapped around the crushed plastic cup.

They were all furious on Isaac's behalf but they were all also itching for a chance to utilize their skills for non-mission purposes. Sure, it was nice to send horrible criminals to jail, but there was something so thrilling and exciting about using those skills to ensure that a regular person got what they deserved. It was feeling just like old times— when they were on their own and wrecking havoc where they went. The only difference was that they had each other now and they’re able to utilize their skills together to make the job easier and more efficient.

"He gave us the green light,” Grace declared, a warm feeling spreading throughout her body.

Elizabeth Campbell won’t know what hit her.

»»————-　➴　————-««

The goal was simple: expose that Elizabeth Campbell was lying about the allegations. But discrediting her was not enough: this was not just punishment for lying, but a punishment for ruining an innocent's life for selfish reasons. Elizabeth Campbell was a rich girl. Grace (as well as Laurel and Will) knew better than anyone that people with that upbringing often had skeletons in their closet; skeletons that they wished would remain hidden because if it was exposed, they would be ruined forever.

When she’s not working with the League, Laurel had to go in at the Agency and help out other agents, but she also did promise them that she would do everything in her power to keep anyone else from finding out what they were up to. So that left Grace, Dylan, Morgan and Will to do the digging.

Grace was pretty sure that Morgan, Laurel and Will had discussed a plan of sorts that ensured that she and Dylan would be paired together because Morgan was very quick to volunteer with Will on tailing Elizabeth, leaving Grace and Dylan to case Elizabeth’s apartment and bug her place.

It took over a week to properly case her apartment, and way, way less time than that for Grace to hack into the surveillance system of the building. It was necessary in order to put the footage on a loop; ensuring that neither she nor Dylan would be caught on camera when they made their way into the building and all the way up to Elizabeth’s penthouse suite, disguised as cable providers.

Dylan carried a bump key with him, which he used to let them inside of the suite. Grace immediately wrinkled her nose in distaste the moment they stepped foot inside.

Everything about the suite screamed 'wealth': the spacious entryway with the high ceilings and marble floors, floor to ceiling windows that showed the skyline of New York, the artwork displayed on walls, the state of the art sound system and TV along with a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The furniture was sleek and modern in the living room and the kitchen had granite countertops and top-of-the-line appliances. Grace hated it. It reminded her too much of her family home and the mere association made her stomach churn.

The two of them made their way through Elizabeth’s place, and Dylan let out a low whistle. Grace turned, watching him as he stared up at one of the paintings that hung on the wall. If they were in a cartoon, Grace was quite certain there’d be hearts in his eyes. There’s nothing Dylan Reeves loved more than art, that was certain. “Wow… do you know how much that Monet would sell for on the black market?”

She did, but now wasn’t the time nor the place. With a roll of her eyes, she reached out in front of him and snapped her fingers a couple of times. “Focus, Dylan,” she sighed, a little exasperatedly. “We’re not here to steal anything from her.” They’re just there to bug her place and hack into her devices.

A quick glance at the watch on her wrist showed the time: 2:09pm. Morgan and Will had both assured her that Elizabeth would be out during that time, as she had a yoga class till 3pm. The studio she went to was about ten minutes away, but regardless of how much time they had, she didn't want to risk it. "You have the bugs on you?" she asked Dylan, who nodded. "Good. Place them in her bedroom, behind a vase… Make sure every room has at least one. Even the bathroom."

It may sound gross, and it was definitely gross at times, but it’s been proven from experience that people talked when they were in the bathroom. And Grace needed all the dirt she could get on this horrible woman.

Dylan started placing the bugs in various places, while Grace went to find Elizabeth's bedroom. It was large, with an ensuite bathroom and the same view of the skyline from the living room. There was a glass desk at the corner with her laptop and tablet. Grace hurried over to the desk, taking out a flash drive from her pocket along with Laurel’s upgraded password decryption device.

She easily bypassed the login screen on the laptop with the decryption device, before inserting the flash drive. She clicked on it, downloading the software that would allow her to have remote access to Elizabeth's laptop as well as her webcam, which would take a while to fully download and install.

Grace then took the tablet, used the decryption device once more and downloaded the mirroring app, which she then hid under one of the apps that was already installed. It would be hard for Elizabeth to stumble upon the app, as Grace chose to hide it under one of Elizabeth's never-been-used apps before (according to her tablet's storage details). While waiting for the software to finish downloading, Grace found herself staring at the different photos framed on the wall, frowning.

"Okay, all the bugs have been placed in every single room," she heard Dylan announce as he came into the room, but she paid him no mind, her attention focused on the photographs.

"Come here and tell me what you see," Grace instructed him. Dylan looked at her and she stared right back, before he sighed and looked at the framed photographs.

"No pictures with Isaac," he commented slowly, chewing on his lip.

"Yes, but what else?" Grace prompted.

"I see… photographs of her and Frederic Astor, which isn't unusual since she left your brother for him and they’re in a relationship," Dylan continued before stopping short at a photograph of Elizabeth with a brown-haired man, a sharp jawline and an arrogant look. "Isn't that…?"

"A photograph of her with Adam Lancaster, the heir to the Lancaster estate and fortune in England," she finished. The Lancasters were an aristocratic family; very wealthy and had quite the collection of family art and jewels. Grace had stolen a few pieces from them some years back. They were wealthier than the Astors (who owned a chain of luxurious five-star hotels worldwide) and the Campbells (who were quite famous in the film industry) combined.

It seemed like a normal picture; the two of them at a gala with Elizabeth dressed in a low-cut gown and diamonds dripping from ears and wrist and Adam Lancaster in a tuxedo. But Grace saw more than just that. There was something about the way the two were posed together that seemed innocent enough, but her gut was telling her that something else was going on. There’s no time stamp on a the photograph so she can’t be certain when this was taken. But she did make sure to snap a quick picture of it with her phone.

"You’ve got that look on your face again,” Dylan remarked. Grace looked away from her phone, blinking at him.

“What look?”

“That look when you’re deep in thought about something. You scrunch your nose, you frown at whatever you’re staring at, and I can practically see the gears turning in that pretty head of yours.”

She definitely was not flushed when he said that. Normally she would deflect. No one wanted to know what she’s actually thinking about. Years of being brushed aside for your brother would do that to you. But she was also learning that Dylan and the others did care what she thought. They wanted to know what she was thinking about and her thought process. “I’ve seen pictures of them together before. But there’s something different about this one,” she admitted. “I just need to figure out when it was taken and then I’ll know for sure if my suspicions are correct.”

She looked back to the devices. Once the software had been installed, she pocketed the flash drive and the decryption device. "C'mon. Let's get out of here." Another glance at her watch showed the time as 2:56pm. "Let's hurry. Her class is almost done," she added as they both left the room, but not before ensuring that nothing seemed out of place.

Dylan locked the door once more with the bump key and then they exited the apartment building. Once they were outside of the building and back into Dylan’s car (parked a couple of blocks away), Grace took out her laptop and stopped the loop footage, taking it out and allowing the surveillance footage to operate in actual time.

“You think maybe she was also messing around with Lancaster?” Dylan asked as he began to drive them back to Grace's apartment.

“Maybe,” she admitted. “She’s a social climber. And Lancaster… he’s the golden ticket.” Never mind the CEO of a computer and electronics company or even the spare heir to a chain of luxurious hotels; the aristocracy was right at the top, just below actual royalty. Once you were in, you were in.

And she knew better than most just how desperate some people were to be a part of the elite.

»»————-　➴　————-««

Later that night, Grace’s laptop was turned on and connected to several of the monitors that hung on her wall: a real-time footage of Elizabeth's bedroom from the webcam, still showing a dark and empty room; Elizabeth's social media accounts and finally, her banking and credit card statements. Grace was looking through her own tablet, which she was using to look through Elizabeth's tablet, trying to look through her messages and emails.

"So she just… had her phone synced with her tablet?" Morgan asked. She had pulled up a spare office chair to look at the numerous monitors. Will and Dylan were both huddled together on the small sofa that was pushed against the wall— the sofa that Grace often slept on when she was too tired to go to her bed after surveillance. Laurel was perched on the arm of the sofa, also staring at the screens.

"Yep, and it makes it easier for us. We don't have to get near her phone, but all her messages, emails, notes… We can see everything as soon as it's synced," Grace smirked. God bless whoever decided to invent online storage and syncing all your data across all your devices. It made it a lot easier for her to get the information she needed.

She kept looking through Elizabeth's emails— dear lord did that woman not know how to read her emails? Nothing made Grace shudder more than seeing all those unopened emails; that number was way too high in her opinion. Elizabeth was an actress, so most of her emails were about auditions, although Grace can see she's been getting emails about being the spokesperson for a charity for abused women and other similar charities. She wrinkled her nose and her lip curled in disgust at that, before she moved on to other emails.

That being said, the photograph of Elizabeth and Adam Lancaster was still lingering in her mind. “Hey, Will?” she called out, looking away from the emails to look at her cousin. “Any chance you and Morgan saw Elizabeth meeting up with Adam Lancaster?”

"Lancaster?" Will echoed, narrowing his eyes as he raised his head to meet her gaze. Of course he knew who Lancaster was; she’s pretty sure that he had gotten into a physical altercation with him when they were younger. Not that Grace blamed him: Adam Lancaster was completely unbearable to be around. How he was related to someone like Adelaide Lancaster, who so disgustingly kind-hearted and sweet was beyond her.

“Adam Lancaster? Of the Lancaster estate?” Laurel questioned, raising a brow at Grace.

“The very same one,” Grace confirmed. Of course Laurel would know of him: her family ran in the same circles as the van Dorens. Except, while the van Dorens were old money in America, the Beauforts were old money from France that had only moved to America in the late nineties.

"Give me a second…" he began to flip through his notes, stopping after a few moments. "Where’s he currently residing at?"

Grace put her tablet down on the table before taking her laptop. She first went on social media, easily finding Adam Lancaster's Instagram page. "So he's definitely in New York City," she announced, seeing the geotag on his latest post, which was dated a couple of days ago. She went through a few more posts, looking at the dates and the geotags. "Looks like he's been here for a couple of months, which means…" She pulled up the DMV database and began doing a search. Almost instantaneously, his American driver's license popped up. "He's staying at the Rivereast, probably renting or owns an apartment there. It's on 92nd in the Upper East Side."

"Well fuck me," Morgan breathed out as she looked at Will. Grace caught the way Laurel was staring a little too long at Morgan when she said those words, but she also saw the way Will was eyeing Morgan. Huh. Interesting. There was a tease to be said there, but now wasn’t the time nor the place. "We saw her go there a couple of days ago but we had no clue who she might have been visiting. She went in there for about a couple of hours then left."

"So she's cheating on Astor with Lancaster," Dylan deduced.

"It makes sense. Frederic Astor may have come from old money but Adam Lancaster comes from an aristocratic family," Will pointed out. "And Lancaster is the heir to his family estate; Astor's not even close to inheriting it, since the chain of Waldorf-Astoria hotels is owned by his cousin, Wyatt."

Grace then exited the DMV database and went back to the tablet, trying to see if she could find any messages between Elizabeth and Lancaster, but found nothing. "Alright, no messages between them to confirm anything; not even on her socials. They follow each other, but that's about it…" she trailed off before shrugging. "If she makes any calls to him while she's at her apartment, I can definitely listen in and record them. But just to be safe, Will and Morgan, can you continue to tail her and try to get evidence of the cheating?"

"Yeah, for sure," Will nodded in agreement, as did Morgan.

"It's getting late," Laurel interrupted. "We should probably get some rest.” A quick glance at the clock on the wall showed that it was a little after midnight. They’ve spent hours pouring over the information they’ve gotten and it wasn’t a bad start, since they’ve deduced Elizabeth having an affair.

Everyone left after that, but not without saying their goodbyes. Laurel was the last one to leave, and she gave Grace a comforting hug, which she awkwardly returned. She’s still getting used to physical affection, but she was getting better at it, she liked to think.

Grace glanced at the footage on her laptop from the webcam in Elizabeth's room, still empty and dark. There was no noise, no audio being transmitted by the bugs into her laptop either. Grace pulled up an audio recorder on her laptop and pressed 'record'. That way, if Elizabeth did make any sound or call anyone, she could still listen the next day. Grace was nothing if not prepared and she was determined to get the proof that Elizabeth was lying about the abuse allegations, no matter how long it would take.

But she can’t sleep. Not yet. There’s still too much adrenaline coursing through her veins and she’s determined to find more of the dirt that Elizabeth Campbell was surely hiding. She wasn’t just going to humiliate her by exposing her affair. That was too nice, too tame for what she did to the most important person in Grace’s life.

No; Grace was going to destroy her.

»»————-　➴　————-««

A couple of nights later, Will and Morgan returned to Grace's apartment with the photographs taken from the digital camera they brought with them. Grace was elated and began looking through them. All of the photos were taken in broad daylight so there was no denying their identities: there were a few of them holding hands and looking too close to be just friendly, and several of them kissing, along with a couple of them going into a motel room and a few of them on their way out. Each photo taken had a date and time-stamp solidifying proof that the photos were recent. "Good job guys," Grace grinned as she looked up from the camera.

"So when are we sending the photographs?" Will asked, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

"We need proof of her lying about the allegations first. I can't believe that's the one taking forever for us to find proof of. I figured she'd be going on and on about it to a friend or something," Grace complained. "Seriously; I listened to her rip her assistant a new one because the girl brought her a cup of coffee with regular milk instead of almond milk." If she hadn't despised Elizabeth Campbell before, she certainly did now. "And don't even get me started about the couture talk!"

"Sucks for you," Dylan smirked from his place on the living room couch, ignoring Grace flipping him off. He was on his phone, playing Candy Crush while Grace had been looking over at the photos. She can confirm it was Candy Crush because of all the sound effects she’s been hearing. It used to irritate her, hearing these sounds and all the noises that came with working in a team. She had been far too used to quiet her entire life. Now though, it was welcoming, because it meant that she wasn’t alone.

Laurel, unfortunately, was not there that night. Something about working overtime and having to deal with the paperwork from that other mission she was supervising on. Although Grace did make sure to keep her updated on everything using a burner phone.

There was something else too that she required Laurel’s help with, and thankfully, she had given Grace the names of some contacts who can help her out. She had sworn on her skateboard collection that Grace won’t be in trouble with this person and she won’t tell the others about it until the time was right. Considering that Grace knew how much Laurel treasured her skateboard collection, she believed her.

"What I don't get is why someone who's all about the high-end life check into a motel like that," Morgan commented as she went to Grace's fridge and took out a bottle of beer. She took out her pocket knife and used the bottle opener part to take off the cap, before taking a long swig from it.

"Counter-measure," Will replied as he moved to sit beside Dylan. "Famous people who have affairs definitely use motels to make sure paps don't catch them. 'Cause who would think that someone rich would willingly check into a dumpy motel when they can be at a five-star hotel?"

"Rich people, I swear to God," Morgan huffed, shaking her head. She moved to sit down beside Will, who was now wedged between Dylan and Morgan on the couch. “The things they do to hide their affairs.”

"Tell me about it," Grace replied wryly, before going back to listening to the audio tapes and hoping that Elizabeth could just talk to someone about the allegations and explicitly state that they were false. This part was the one she hated the most— the waiting. But she had to push through because she was doing this for her brother. He had been patient with her for over thirty years (and it was not an easy anything when Grace was involved); she can afford to attempt being patient for another few weeks or however long it took to get the proof that he didn't hurt his ex.

»»————-　➴　————-««

Four more days.

That was how long it took.

Four more days of eavesdropping and having to endure listening to rants about the incompetence of her assistant, the snarky comments about her so-called friends and the incredibly disgusting phone sex with Frederic Astor (Grace felt the urge to wash her ears with holy water after that). That was how long it took before Grace got the proof she so desperately desired. Once she realized that Elizabeth had called her best friend Maya Johnson (some trust fund baby she barely knew anything about), she immediately began to record the audio. Lucky for her, Elizabeth had put Maya on speaker phone, so Grace can hear both ends of the conversation.

MAYA: Elizabeth, babe! So, what's the deal with you and van Doren? Did he like, seriously hurt you? I mean, you should have seen it coming, Elle. Like he's got a freaking psychopath for a cousin and wasn't his twin sister like, psycho too? Didn't she like, throw a drink at someone and ruined their attire? That entire family is just psycho as hell!

Grace rolled her eyes and scoffed. Like she hadn't heard that one before. Still, she felt mildly offended that Maya Johnson was calling her 'psycho' over something so trivial.

If anything, she should be considered psycho for other things she had done. But throwing a drink on someone was so… not grounds for being psycho. Although Maya calling Will a ‘psychopath’ made her frown. You could say whatever you wanted about her, but she drew the line at insulting or talking shit about the people she cared for. Did Will have anger issues and post-traumatic stress from his time as a Navy SEAL? Yes. But that definitely didn’t make him a psychopath. If only she could jump in and correct these two idiots who clearly lacked the presence of a braincell. But, she needed to keep quiet since the conversation was being recorded.

ELIZABETH: C'mon Maya. As if he could ever hurt me. MAYA: But didn't you say that he did? ELIZABETH: Of course I said that. Isaac isn't capable of hurting anyone even if he tried. He's too soft for my taste. I mean seriously; I tried to get him to choke me or tie me up in bed and he wouldn't even agree to do it.

Grace made a face and nearly gagged. She did not need to hear about her brother’s preferences in bed or his non-preferences. Nope. She was sorely tempted to tap out of this conversation, but she steeled herself and powered through. You’re doing this for your brother, she told herself. Do it for Isaac.

MAYA: So he never even hurt you? ELIZABETH: Not even once. I just said that so people would like, stop coming to his support. Do you know how many producers took back offers for roles when I left him at the altar and my reputation pretty much tanked? One of them even said that they can't even hire me for the role because people would see me as the lead and immediately give shit reviews. Now, I'm getting so many offers and I think someone even offered to do a biopic for me. MAYA: Well, sucks to suck for him. That's pretty smart of you to do though. It's your word against his and you know how easy it is to believe that a woman is being hurt by a guy. ELIZABETH: I know, right?

Grace tuned out the rest of the conversation. Her hands had clenched into fists and were shaking. It wasn't even just about Isaac anymore; Grace was completely disgusted at the utter lack of care and remorse that Elizabeth had about lying about being abused. She might not have been the model citizen or even the nicest person in the world, but she would never claim to be abused or even raped by someone when nothing ever happened. Those were serious allegations and Elizabeth just didn't care. There were women who were actually being abused being too scared to speak up because they feared they wouldn't be believed by authorities and someone like Elizabeth had the audacity to lie about it?

She took a few deep breaths in an attempt to quell her anger. It would do no good for her to lose her cool. Besides, she got the proof and that was what was important. She waited until the call was over before pressing the ‘stop recording’ button.

Grace saved that audio file into her folders, before deactivating the bugs in Elizabeth's apartment. She then grabbed the digital camera that contained photos of Elizabeth and Adam Lancaster's affair, plugged it into her laptop and downloaded the photos. Once they had been downloaded, she began to compose an email to her contacts who were journalists and bloggers, attaching the photographs of the affair.

The moment she hit ‘send’ and she heard the little ‘whoosh’ sound that came with sending an email successfully, she leaned back against her chair and smirked.

Phase One was complete.

»»————-　➴　————-««

LATEST NEWS: HEIR ADAM LANCASTER AND ACTRESS ELIZABETH CAMPBELL SPOTTED TOGETHER IN NEW JERSEY! WHERE IS FREDERIC ASTOR?

LADIES: IT SEEMS THAT HEIR ADAM LANCASTER IS OFF THE MARKET!

WHERE IS FREDERIC ASTOR AND WHAT DOES HE THINK OF THE LANCASTER-CAMPBELL AFFAIR?

DISCULTURE 🗸 @disculturenews ● 17 hours ago ( 09/06/2023 ) [photo] [photo] Adam Lancaster and actress Elizabeth Campbell are caught locking lips! Does this mean that she and Frederic Astor have called it quits? 12k replies 24k retweets 64k likes

↳ emma (taylor’s version) @emmaswiftie293 ● 16 hours ago

if they’ve called it quits, wouldn’t they have announced it or something?? plus, she was just seen with frederic a couple of weeks ago out on a date

↳ jenny loves 21 days of anarchy @21doafanforever ● 16 hours ago

girly either moves fast or she’s been cheating because the math ain’t mathing

↳ joaquim nowak stan account @criticizerule ● 13 hours ago

calling it now: she’s totally cheating on him! she has a history of cheating, didn’t she???

↳ ethan sanders is my husband @peachpride ● 12 hours ago

well for that one, she had an excuse: @isaacvd was ab*sing her and hurting her!!

↳ joaquim nowak stan account @criticizerule ● 12 hours ago

so what’s her excuse now??

monica higgins @flyroughly ● 5 hours ago ( 09/08/2023 ) [video] [video] no way guys, this is insane bc?? @fredericastorofficial1 straight up threw a f*cking tantrum so this means that @ellecampbellxox was totally cheating on him!! 8k replies 15k retweets 25k likes ↳ ethan sanders is my husband @peachpride ● 4 hours ago

@ellecampbellxox : so was @fredericastorofficial hurting you too??

TROUBLE IN PARADISE? ADAM LANCASTER SPOTTED IN HEATHROW AIRPORT WITHOUT HIS BOMBSHELL ACTRESS PARAMOUR

ELIZABETH CAMPBELL IN NEW YORK LOOKING WORSE FOR WEAR: DID SHE CHEAT ON FREDERIC ASTOR OR WAS SHE CHEATING ON ADAM LANCASTER ALL ALONG?

marry me elian barnes @bulletbeachstan ● 1 hour ago ( 09/09/23 ) so anyone else find it kinda weird that @isaacvd hasn’t done any sort of meeting or conference yet?? i mean his ex went and told the entire world that he was hurting her and he didn’t say anything?? and now that his ex is revealed to have been cheating on two guys, still nothing?? 80 replies 2k retweets 3k likes ↳ joaquim nowak stan account @criticizerule ● 58 minutes ago

i don’t think it’s weird but it is a little concerning and confusing. he should be setting the record straight but he hasn’t done or said anything yet. altho personally i’m beginning to think that maybe the allegations were false because if she can cheat twice… who’s to say she won’t lie?

↳ marry me elian barnes @bulletbeachstan ● 46 minutes ago

no i get it! i know he doesn’t owe anyone anything, but from a business standpoint, he should say something. and i’m with you. getting the vibes that she might be lying and she hadn’t said anything about frederic hurting her… it’s all just weird and sus to me.

»»————-　➴　————-««

If there was something Grace loved, it was watching how the media ran with stories, especially gossip stories. The Lancaster-Campbell affair dominated social media; trending for a good week before everyone eventually forgot about it and jumped onto the next scandal. Nevertheless, the damage was done.

But Grace wasn’t finished just yet. Now that Phase One was done, she was moving onto Phase Two.

About three weeks after the first round of stories about the affairs circulated the internet, the same journalists and bloggers who posted about the affair opened their inboxes to see an email sent to them with no message and only an audio file attached to it. The subject line simply said "Listen Now". Each of the people who received the messages downloaded the file and listened. Once they were done, they all began to write and within hours, the first round of articles were posted and began to circulate the internet.

»»————-　➴　————-««

ELIZABETH CAMPBELL: EXPOSED AS CHEATER AND LIAR

CAMPBELL REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS REGARDING LEAKED AUDIO

DIOR ANNOUNCES SEVERANCE OF TIES WITH ELIZABETH CAMPBELL; CONDEMNS ACTIONS AND LIES

DISCULTURE 🗸 @disculturenews ● 10 hours ago ( 09/26/2023 ) [audio] [audio] Shocking! Leaked audio clips reveal that actress Elizabeth Campbell had lied about the abuse allegations against CEO Isaac van Doren. 24k replies 50k retweets 75k likes

↳ carbonora is the best pasta change my mind @pastaismylife ● 9 hours ago

holy shit… listening to this audio and i’m completely and utterly disgusted?? how remorseless and coldhearted can you be?

↳ linda harrison @lindaharrison1 ● 7 hours ago

i liked to think that no one was ever really evil, but holy fuck @ellecampbellxox just proved me wrong

↳ connor loves kat evans @katevansstanforever ● 6 hours ago

right?? like how heartless can a person be??

HAUNTED MOVIE OFFICIAL 🗸 @hauntedmovieofficial ● 5 hours ago ( 09/27/2023 ) Due to recent revelations, we will be recasting the role of Anya. The role will now be played by the talented @aileenrhodes who had blown us away with her talent. Welcome to the #HauntedFamily Aileen! 2k replies 40k retweets 25k likes ↳ anya ivanova is the love of my life @bookscooksandsocks ● 4 hours ago

oh thank god!! i’ve seen @aileenrhodes ‘ previous projects and can honestly say she’s a much better anya than @ellecampbellxox could ever be

↳ cordelia barnes @ deliabarnes872 ●1hour ago

right?? pretty sure a lot of roles that @ellecampbellxox got were not deserved at all! @aileenrhodes you’re going to kill it as anya <3

↳ aileen rhodes @aileenrhodes ● 10 minutes ago

ty delia<3

Elizabeth Campbell 🗸 @ellecampbellxox ● 4 hours ago ( 09/27/2023 ) no room in life for fake friends who take what was said in confidence, twist your words and spill them out into the world. 24k replies 50k retweets 10klikes ↳ joaquim nowak stan account @criticizerule ● 4 hours ago

wow, you are so delusional?? i really hope that you learn your lesson someday.

↳ ethan sanders is my husband @peachpride ● 3 hours ago

@ellecampbellxox hang in there girl!! the ‘leaked’ audio was probably doctored or faked. anything is possible with the technology today!!

↳ dominik nowak thirst bot @fasterthanabullet ● 3 hours ago

why do you keep kissing her ass?? she’s never going to notice you.

TRANSCRIPT FROM ISAAC VAN DOREN’S MEDIA CONFERENCE ON 09/28/30 IN FRONT OF VAN DOREN TECH HQ

[ISAAC VAN DOREN stands behind a podium that was set up in front of the entrance of VDT HQ. Cameras are flashing in his face; questions are being thrown at him by everyone. he looks somber, but not unhealthy] ISAAC: [raises his hand and everyone instantly quiets down] I didn't want to hold a press conference when these allegations against me were presented to the media nearly a month and a half ago. I know people would think that I was only going to do that to try and save face; to deny the allegations. [pause; everyone is quiet. he looks at the crowd that had gathered before him] Because if I deny, then it would just prove my guilt; that's how we do things now don't we? We presume someone is guilty until they are proven innocent. And the truth is, I never laid a hand on Elizabeth. I had loved her enough to ask her to marry me. [he pauses and takes a shaky breath] When I first heard about her claims, I was confused, more than anything. What had I done to her to make her hate me so much, when all I ever did was love her and try to make her happy? [he blinks several times; eyes shining with tears; clears his throat and stares into one of the cameras] For the longest while, I asked myself that question. And having heard that audio… Well, I don't know if it would ever bring me any sort of closure. I was told that… forgiveness was the way to go, so Elizabeth if you are listening or watching this.. [he breaths a little shakily; tear rolling down his cheek and small sad smile] I forgive you. [silence for a few moments, before noise breaks out] RANDOM REPORTER: So you had nothing to do with the conversation being leaked? ISAAC: [wipes away tear and looks at the reporter in genuine confusion] I genuinely had nothing to do with it. How could I? I haven't spoken to her nor been around her since she left me at the altar. [clears his throat] I’m afraid that’s all I have time for today. No more questions. [turns around and heads back into the building, ignoring more questions being shouted at him]

sage becker @sagelybecks ● 2 hours ago ( 09/28/2023 ) [video of van Doren conference] kind of wild but also he’s not wrong? we spend so much time assuming people are guilty and make them prove their innocence. it’s a shame that his rep was almost ruined because of someone who was a selfish liar. wishing @isaacvd nothing but the best <;3 1k replies 5k retweets 25k likes

»»————-　➴　————-««

A few blocks away from VDT HQ in Manhattan, at a small café, Grace sat alone at a table beside the storefront window. A cappuccino and sandwich, both untouched, were on the table before her. The press conference was displayed on the TV at the café, with nearly every customer and staff watching eagerly. She brought the drink to her lips, a small and private smile hidden behind the rim of the cup. Once the conference was over, she took out her phone to look through her Twitter and Instagram feeds. She doesn’t even hide the delighted and satisfied smile at all the tweets and messages, as well as the trending hashtags regarding Elizabeth Campbell.

Her phone buzzed with a notification banner. Grace set down her drink on the table and clicked on it.

From Womb Mate Thank you.

Her smile turned fond and a little soft, before she texted back a reply of her own.

To Womb Mate Any time.

»»————-　➴　————-««

A couple of months passed. The air turned colder and the leaves have fallen when the League came back from yet another successful mission in France. They decided that the best way to unwind would be to have another Team Bonding Movie Night, and this time, Grace volunteered to host it. She ordered Chinese for takeout, rather than the usual pizzas. They were munching on dumplings and noodles, with Scream playing on the TV, when the intercom buzzed; signaling that Grace had a visitor waiting to be let in.

When she heard the voice speak, she grinned and buzzed them right in. Not even a few minutes later, there was a knock on her door and she rushed to open it, revealing her twin brother. He was several inches taller than her, but they had the same dark hair and brown eyes, which was where the physical similarities ended. He was also still dressed in a navy blue suit and tie, which meant he had literally just finished working before he arrived at her apartment. “Nice of you to make time in your busy schedule for your favourite sister,” she teased, stepping aside to let him in.

“You’re my only sister.”

“And therefore, your favourite by default.”

He simply rolled his eyes, though there’s a smile tugging at his lips. He’s exasperated by her, but there’s no denying he loved her. Grace knew Isaac like the back of her hand after all.

“Hey guys,” Isaac nodded and grinned at the others, who all greeted him back with enthusiasm. “I also didn’t come empty-handed.” He had a couple of white boxes in his arms and Grace helped him carry them to the coffee table in her living room. They opened the boxes to reveal a variety of pastries: chocolate croissants, slices of different-flavoured cheesecakes, cookies, brownies, and even a few donuts.

Dylan let out a whistle. “Damn. See, this is why I love it whenever you join us for Team Bonding Movie Night, man. You bring the good stuff!”

“Glad to know that you love me for what I bring to the table, Reeves, and not for who I am as a person,” Isaac chuckled, sitting down on the carpet right next to Laurel. Grace took a croissant and sat at the edge of the couch, right next to Dylan.

“Hey, I like you just fine. But the stuff you bring us every time you come over? Unmatched,” Dylan explained as he grabbed a donut.

“I’m surprised you were able to join us tonight,” Will remarked, “I figured you might be a little busy.” He was sat on the armchair by himself, still working on his fried rice.

To anyone else, that might have sounded a little snarky or judgmental. But Will spoke like that to everyone— even his own cousins. It was why Isaac was unfazed and not at all offended like others would be. “It has been a busy couple of months following the… Elizabeth incident.”

“You can say it, dude. It’s not just an ‘incident’; it was a fucked up scandal that almost ruined your life and nearly undid all the progress you made with your company,” Morgan said bluntly.

Isaac made a face: nose scrunched in distaste, and brows knit together into a frown, before conceding with a nod. “Yeah… Well, I never did get the chance to thank you guys for that. I mean, I thanked Grace but I never did thank you. All of you,” he said, looking at the others.

“What makes you think we had anything to do with it?” Morgan questioned.

Isaac smiled. “Because I know you wouldn’t have let her done anything alone.”

“Well, of course we won’t let her do it alone. Well… they wouldn’t let her do it alone. For legal purposes, I unfortunately could not have helped out the way they did,” Laurel said with a small smile, although there was a twinge of guilt in there. Grace knew that she hated not being more involved, but she really couldn’t do anything without risking her job. Covering for them was the best that she could do, and Grace had tried to assure her it was more than enough. “And besides; she’s one of us.”

Isaac’s smile turned fond at that. “I know. Still, thank you.”

The conversation turned much lighter after that. They told him about the mission in France: how successful it had been, and also how fun it had been to enjoy Paris for a bit before they had to head back home. Morgan recounted the story of Dylan trying to flirt with a French girl as part of a bet with Grace, and how he mixed up the words for ‘fuck’ and ‘kiss’ and ended with coffee getting poured all over him— which had Isaac laughing loudly. “I will say this, Dylan: never bet against my sister, because you will almost always lose,” he declared.

“I know that now,” Dylan grumbled, ears turning red from embarrassment. It was quite cute seeing him like that. Had Grace been a little jealous when she saw him flirting with the French girl? A little bit (but she would forever deny it). But, seeing him strike out and her winning the bet did make her feel better about it. Just a smidge.

She looked at her brother again; seeing him laugh and smile so freely and without care. It was a good look on him. The last few months (or the past year if you were to include his disaster of a wedding day) hadn’t been kind to him. She hadn’t seen him look so relaxed in ages. At one point, Isaac had taken off his suit jacket and tie, and the sleeves of his button-up were rolled up. He didn’t look like the CEO of a multibillion dollar tech company. He looked like just like every other thirty-something year-old man, who was hanging out with his friends and having a good time.

It was nice seeing him without the stress and heartbreak that had been weighing on him.

“Um, guys? Why don’t we turn on the news?” Laurel suggested with a frown, interrupting the conversation. She had been looking at her phone while Morgan was telling Isaac the story and something appeared to have caught her attention.

Grace exited Netflix and switched to the cable news channel, where they were met with breaking news. The camera showed Elizabeth Campbell being escorted from her apartment building and into a police car and the banner under the shot read: "Disgraced Actress and Socialite Elizabeth Campbell: Arrested on Charges of Embezzlement".

"What the hell?" Isaac breathed out, sitting up and his eyes were wide.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Morgan gasped out. Even Will and Dylan looked shocked and surprised. The only ones who didn’t look surprised were Grace and Laurel.

"Embezzlement?" Isaac repeated, staring in disbelief. Everyone fell silent when the news anchor began to speak.

"NYPD is collaborating with the FBI in this investigation, but a source within the NYPD has told us that Elizabeth Campbell has been funneling funds from her family's charity foundation and depositing them into her banking accounts. An employee at the foundation who wishes to remain anonymous has confirmed to the authorities that the missing funds were taken out by Campbell on a nearly weekly basis…"

Isaac turned to look at them. "I never saw that coming… and I’m guessing none of you guys knew?”

Everyone but Grace and Laurel shook their heads, which made them all stare at the two. Laurel and Grace exchanged looks. “Wait, did you frame her for embezzling?” Dylan asked, turning to look at Grace.

“Surprisingly enough, I didn’t have to,” Grace said honestly. “I was just looking through all of her banking and credit card statements, and noticed the insanely large amounts of money she’s been transferring into her accounts. I did hack into the bank accounts for the Campbells’ foundation to confirm my hunch and I was proven correct. She moved the funds to an offshore account first, before sending it to her own account.” It was honestly one of the laziest embezzling she’s ever seen: most people moved their money to several offshore accounts and they never send it to their own personal chequing accounts.

Let it be said that Elizabeth Campbell, for all the lies she’s said and the people she’s hurt, was not a criminal mastermind.

Morgan and Will looked at Laurel. “And you knew?” Will asked.

“Grace did tell me about the embezzling, and all she asked for was that I give her a list of people she can send the evidence to without getting in trouble,” Laurel admitted. “I figured she was going to tell you guys.”

“I didn’t want to say anything about it until I was sure that she was going to be charged,” Grace explained, looking at the team. She had finished her croissant by this point, and her hands were a little clammy and her lips were a little dry. She was thrilled and satisfied that Elizabeth had been charged, but she also did just keep a secret from her team.

They didn’t look mad. A little confused, and a little annoyed maybe. But nothing that indicated anger or betrayal. “You’re a fucking genius, Grace,” Morgan grinned, holding up her drink as if to toast to her. “I’m not happy you kept it from us, but I have to say: that reveal was stunning.”

Grace grinned back, a warmth spreading throughout her body and her shoulders relaxed when she realized that they were not at all pissed off at her. “Thanks for not being too mad that I kept it from you guys.”

“Why would we be mad? You found something that destroyed her for good,” Dylan told her with a proud smile. Her heart most certainly did not flutter in her chest at the sight. “And I agree with Morgan. The reveal was absolutely amazing. Ten out of ten.”

“Proud of you, Gracie,” Will nodded, giving her a small smile.

She met Isaac’s eyes and he nodded subtly towards the direction of the balcony. She stood up, wiped her hands on her jeans and pushed open the sliding door. Winter was coming; she could feel it in the way the air bit at her cheeks and the trees that were now nearly barren. At least she was wearing a sweater so she wasn’t completely freezing. Isaac followed her on the balcony before sliding the door shut.

The twins stood there, silently staring at each other for a few long moments. The only sound that could be heard were the cars driving below them and the occasional horn being honked. “You know that I can’t really read your mind, right? Twin telepathy is not an actual thing,” Grace said, breaking the silence.

Isaac chuckled slightly. “No, I know. I just…” he sighed and shoved his hands in the pockets of his trousers. “I don’t know how to thank you. I thought that… the Lancaster affair and the leaked audios… I thought that those were it, you know? I didn’t expect there to be anything else.”

Exposing an affair and a liar should be enough to ruin someone’s life. But Grace didn’t just ruin Elizabeth Campbell’s life— she destroyed her. “Well, there was. Ruining her reputation wasn’t enough, Zac.”

He leaned his elbows against the balcony railing, staring out at the city skyline. Grace angled her body so she was also staring out at the night sky, but she was staring up at the crescent moon above them. “I wanted to destroy her for what she did to you,” she admitted.

Isaac was silent, but she could see the way he perked up slightly, showing that he was listening. “I don’t…” Articulating her feelings was rather difficult, especially when she spent so much of her life repressing them. “You had no idea how angry I was when I first heard about how she left you at the altar,” she breathed out. She glanced back up at the moon, because it was easier to talk about her feelings when she’s not making eye contact. “I wanted to go after her then. But you didn’t want me to. And I respected that.”

“But then these allegations… I knew they were fake because I know you. And I just thought it was so fucking unfair, Zac.” She closed her eyes, the cold air helping her not feel as heated as she had been months ago when she first found out. “She doesn’t get to succeed in life when she tried to destroy yours. She doesn’t get to have a happy ending, when she robbed you of yours. When you gave me the okay to handle it, I vowed that I wasn’t just going to ruin her. I was going to destroy her. Because you did not deserve any of the shit she put you through. The heartbreak, the stress, everyone wanting to fucking cancel you over some fake allegations…” Grace opened her eyes and exhaled loudly. Her eyes stung and she clenched her hands into fists; nails digging into the skin of her palms as she tried to keep herself from crying.

“You’re my brother. My twin brother. You’re the only one who has ever looked out for me, who ever stood up for me, even when we were kids.” She was getting a little choked up now. “You’ve always been in my corner; supporting me and helping me and being so patient with me.” Despite her best efforts, a few tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them away with her sleeve hastily, glancing at her brother, who was now facing her. “For once, I wanted to be the one to do something for you.”

She turned to look at him, and was surprised to see the tears in his eyes. Grace’s bottom lip wobbled. Within seconds, Isaac had wrapped her in his arms, pulling her in for a tight hug. She let out the softest exhale, and she slowly returned the hug. “Thank you,” he whispered. “And honestly, Grace… I know you didn’t have to do this for me. But I really, really appreciated it.”

Grace let out a watery laugh and they pulled away from the hug, both of them wiping away their tears. “You’d have done the same for me if the roles were reversed. Although I’m sure your methods would have been way more subtle,” she joked.

“Oh definitely more subtle. I don’t have your expertise when it comes to hacking,” he smirked, elbowing her playfully.

“We should head back inside,” she suggested.

“So you can sit next to your lover boy?”

Grace nearly choked and she elbowed him back, hard. “Shut up!” she hissed, cheeks turning red. “Unless you want to talk about the little thing you’ve got for that redhead interior designer who was working on your apartment?”

Isaac stared at her with his mouth open. “How do you know about…?”

She wasn’t blind or an idiot: she had stopped by his apartment, met Evangeline Connors-Reed and saw how Isaac looked at her. “I read it on your face when you introduced me to her,” she said with a grin. “I’d say to go for it, if you’re ready. She seems nice and genuinely sweet. You know, perfect for you and your Prince Charming…” she gestured at his frame. “Whatever.”

“So articulate,” he teased.

Grace did the mature thing and stuck her tongue at him. “Fuck off,” she grumbled, without any heat. “Let’s get back inside because it’s freezing.”

She pushed the sliding door open and stepped back inside to the warmth of her apartment. Once Isaac was inside as well, she slid the door shut. She walked over to the dining table and poured herself her usual rum and Coke. With her drink in hand, she turned around and watched Isaac interacting with her new family; laughing and joking, falling into easy conversation with them as the movie played on in the background.

Elizabeth Campbell had hurt her brother; humiliated him and tried to ruin his life. In the end, she was exposed for the true liar and serial cheater that she was. Plus, she was facing criminal charges and she no longer had a career to go back to. Her life was destroyed. In Grace's opinion, Elizabeth got her just desserts and more. She would do it all over again without a single ounce of regret or hesitation.

After all; no one messed with Grace’s family and got away with it.

#criminal found family #original character #short story #original writing #original story #writeblr #the league of dark olympians #found family #my writing.#lod short story.#original work #short story.

1 note · View note

blindingdutchy · 3 years

Text

share | t.holland

{pornstar!tom x pornstar!reader}

summary: you don't like to share, but Tom's going to show you what happens to stingy girls on the playground.

word count: 10,663

warnings: i consider this a part two to switch. smut, little bit of angst, fluffy ending. language. explicit warnings under divide.

18+!!! minors stay away!

warnings: mean dom!tom, slight dom!fem oc, voyeurism, mff threesome, degradation, oral (m+f receiving), unprotected sex (wrap it up folks), orgasm denial, touch denial, slight bondage (hands tied only), jealous reader + arrogant tom, some daddy + sir kink

divider

There was a familiar ache in your core as you made your way into work that day. It was a sensation that shouldn't have embarrassed you anymore considering it was in your line of work to take a beating of the sexual sort, but your blood bubbled with fluttery shame anyways because you knew it was definitely not from any job you'd done. The handprints that lingered on your skin were Tom's, as was the throbbing between your legs.

Your coworkers had grown accustomed to the funny way you'd been walking; after all, it had been months of you turning up to the studio just like this. Aching all over, exhausted, and all flustered smiles as every little jolt of pain in your body reminded you of him. Tom really knew how to keep a woman coming back for more, to say the least.

Despite the tender way you were forced to move around, you were excited to get into work that day. You'd been working on a new project behind the scenes for almost a month already, and today you were finally meeting with your favorite director and photographer to start the ball rolling. This was what you'd been fantasizing about doing ever since you'd been brought into the agency--straying away from your dominatrix persona and onto a more personal, enjoyable path.

Priscilla was already waiting for you in the conference room, bursting with energy as she always was and chatting the ears off of Archie. The two of them were sliding a few of your scribbled mock-ups around, along with more than a few stills of your naked body, and nestled so deeply into a conversation that they didn't notice the click of the door as it shut behind you. Even clearing your throat couldn't break their concentration.

"Starting without me?" you questioned, loudly, and finally caught the glimmering eyes of Priscilla.

Priscilla was practically buzzing with excitement as she grinned at you, clapping her hands once before waving you over, "(Y/N), perfect timing! So, Archie and I were thinking about your ideas for doing a cam-girl style video--"

She chattered on and on, only pausing every so often to take a heaving breathe before continuing. The more she said, the more you realized just how much work the two of them had done without you--Priscilla was already pitching set designs and potential scenarios for each video, and Archie was doing his best to help you visualize the filmography he had in mind. It was pretty hard to keep up, but you had to admit seeing their passion for the project only spurred your own to burn a little brighter.

The project was something you'd been dreaming of for awhile. A solo series of videos in the iconic style of a cam-girl; just you, your camera, and whatever you felt like putting out there for the world to see. For so long you'd been afraid to even pitch the idea out of fear of being denied funding, and rightfully so.

You'd had to fight tooth and nail to gain the backing of the agency. It had been a month of pitching idea after idea, crunching numbers and screening all the statistics of solo work so that you could propose a target profit for the company. In the end, you'd gotten the green light--but there was a lot riding on this first video.

If you failed to meet the target you'd set for yourself, the agency would pull the plug on the project and you'd be right back to the leather outfits and whining men. The thought of it urged you to outperform all the standards you'd set for yourself. You were peddle to the metal, full throttle ahead, and Priscilla and Archie's sounding board of ideas were exactly the encouragement you needed.

Archie fiddled with some settings on his camera, instructing you on a few head shots until he was satisfied. "That's it!" he cheered, "You like it? Obviously we'll work on better lighting for the videos, and there'll be editing--but I think this suits you."

Peering over his shoulder, your heart soared at the work of your favorite camera man. "Oh, Archie! That's perfect... If you'd just shown me that I'd definitely think it was the real deal." you gasped, and he grinned at you cheerfully. "How about a lunch break before we get back to work?"

The two of them muttered some hushed agreements, nodding absentmindedly as Priscilla looked over the photos and they returned to the scatter of papers and film on the table. "Yeah, yeah, you go ahead, honey." Priscilla cooed, waving a hand over her shoulder carelessly before tilting her head and squinting her eyes at one of your drawings. "Oh, what do you think about--no, that won't do... but maybe?"

With a hushed chuckle, you shook your head at the two of them and backed out of the room quietly. It almost seemed as if they were more excited than you were, but your stomach was rumbling and you needed something to eat before you started chewing on paper like a goat. Only, along the way toward the exit you paused outside one of the studios at the sound of Tom's voice.

Peeking inside, you smiled at the sight of his mop of curls bobbing--the smile faded to a grimace as you realized he was in no position to talk at the moment. You trailed a little further into the room and shot a tentative smile to one of the crew members who nodded to you, no longer surprised by your presence. Many times before you'd sat in on Tom's filming days, as he had done yours, but never before had you seen him at work with his most frequent costar.

Her name was Melaina, a startlingly attractive woman with what you were fairly certain was the world's most perfect face, and she was the star of most of Tom's work. You had nothing against her, having run into her quite a few times at work and never being anything short of pleased with her sweet and charismatic aura, but man was it hard not to feel inferior as you watched the two of them in action. It was as if they knew what the other would do before they even moved, connected on some spiritual level that boosted their chemistry to an astronomical level.

Tom's body was glistening with sweat and oil, his eyes dark and hooded with lust as he towered over her. The muscles in his back, chest, and arms all rippled with every move he made and caught the light just right, and you found yourself shifting on your feet subconsciously as you watched. Your hands twitched with the desire to push that one stubborn curl out of his face as it slid across his forehead, heavy and sodden with sweat.

Melaina gave a breathy moan that had you swallowing down a lump in your throat, her hands raking down Tom's chest only for him to swat them away and pin them to the bed above her head, "No touching!" he snapped, voice booming through the cavernous room, and you nearly groaned in sync with his counterpart. Too many times he'd growled those words to you, just like that, and the heat between your legs throbbed at the memory.

"Please, daddy," Melaina wailed, "I wanna cum!"

For a moment you rolled the name around your tongue, pursing your lips as you pondered what it would feel like to call Tom such a thing. It didn't feel right though; a sour taste compared to the deliciously sweet way sir rolled from your lips. His low, devilish chuckle brought you back to the present as you focused on the scene before you.

With a long, drawn out roll of his hips, Tom leaned down to Melaina's ear and spoke, "Bad girls don't get to come, darling."

Oh, fuck.

Hearing that name, that one little word, spill forth from his lips in reference to someone other than yourself ignited a certain flame within you that you hadn't felt in quite some time. It was green; everything tinged green in your vision like the sickening tone of the clouds before a treacherous storm. Jealousy wasn't something you wore often, but hearing that was enough to sit the crown of envy heavily upon your head.

Almost as if he could sense it, sense your turmoil, Tom's head tilted back until he looked you heavily in the eye. Your jaw tensed as he continued to push his hips harder through Melaina's cries and pleas, fingers clenching into fists as you tried to get yourself under control. It didn't mean anything.

You and Tom were nothing but friends with benefits, heavy on the benefits and light on the friendship, and this was his job. Hell, it was your job too! It didn't mean a damn thing.

His eyes never strayed from yours as that familiar pinch formed between his brows, his entire body growing rigid. He was brutal with the force of his hips, his hands groping roughly at Melaina's perfect ass and his lips parting in a silent 'o' that grew wider and wider until--there it was. His eyes locked on yours, Tom thrust twice more as a gritted laugh burst from his chest and he stilled completely. She mewled beneath him like a vixen, arching off the bed and crying, "Yes, daddy! Cum for me!"

He knew. His haughty smirk, ticked jaw, and glinting eyes told you well enough that he knew exactly what you were feeling, all the bitter and envious thoughts swirling through your mind. He knew, and he was thoroughly enjoying the way you were rooted in place under the weight of all your jealousy, your eyes locked with his and unable to break free.

"Cut!"

The sound of the clapper snapping and the director's loud shout startled you out of the strange limbo of envy and hunger you'd been trapped in. Tom muttered something to Melaina with a flirtatious grin that made your gut twist, and she laughed loudly whilst slapping a hand across his chest playfully. Suddenly, you weren't so hungry anymore, nor were you entirely interested in speaking to Tom.

You were out of focus for the rest of your day at work, earning disgruntled and concerned stares from your two colleagues who were working tirelessly to perfect all of your plans before the test shoot the following day. All of your thoughts were consumed with Tom, though, and it left you feeling nauseous. Never before had you cared much at all that he was with other women, knowing it was just a day's work for him, but seeing him with Melaina had truly rubbed you raw in the worst way.

The ache between your legs didn't make your heart flutter for the moment. Instead, each time you moved wrong and felt that persistent twinge, it made bile creep up your throat and your face burn with a mixture of bitter emotions. It wasn't that you were suddenly craving more from Tom--because you weren't, and as much as you enjoyed his company you weren't interested in a relationship.

Inferiority was a hell of a bitter pill. That was the root of the green eyed monster that was steadily taking control of you; Melaina made you feel inferior, and you hated it more than anything. Clearly he found her to be a better costar than you, considering he'd not once requested you even after starring in your own special. That was the first strike.

But, was she a better lay than you? Did she feel better, make him feel better than you? Did she talk dirtier, obey faster, and mold herself into whatever he wanted better than you? What if you weren't the only one he invited into his own bed at night?

By the time you left work the sun was setting, hours had passed, and you were exhausted from your racing mind. Usually Tom would have come to find you after he finished filming, but he hadn't and that bothered you. You knew it was probably all a game to him, a way for him to get you all riled up and tease you for it, but you weren't playing. You didn't want to play his games today, and when he finally texted you that night you left all of his messages on read with an acrid taste in your mouth.

"Ready for the big day?"

A peculiar sense of deja vu washed over you as you opened your dressing room door to reveal Tom perched on the other vanity seat, a tiny smile twitching at his lips and a twinkle in his eye. You really should have expected him to be there considering he'd been eagerly talking about watching you film for days, but after ignoring him you were more than surprised to see him waiting patiently for you to arrive. The door shut with a dull click, and Tom watched you closely.

Whatever he was playing at, you weren't going to bite--today was a big day for you, and nothing was going to distract you from your work. "What are you doing here?" you asked, huffing as your voice cracked and robbed you of your attempt to play it cool.

He just chuckled, a hoarse and airy sound, and licked his lips, "You think I'd miss the chance to see my girl touch herself for hours?"

His girl?

The words swirled around your brain the entire time you got ready, Marlena eyeing you curiously as you twiddled your thumbs quietly and payed no mind to either of the two people in your presence. What the hell did he mean by that? Why did your heart go on the fritz at those two silly words?

"Are you mad at me, lovie?" Eyes flickering over to Tom, you grew hot under his speculative gaze. Head tilted to one side, brown eyes narrowed slightly, and lips puckered in a tiny pout that made you swoon, he asked, "Have I done something to upset you?"

In the mirror you could see Marlena fighting back a smile, looking between the two of you with quivering lips as she held herself back from interrupting the moment. "No," you muttered, dropping your eyes back to your fiddling fingers, "I'm just nervous."

You didn't have to look to know that Tom was smirking, the sound of his soft laughter cluing you into the fact well enough. There was that deja vu again, your mind traveling back to that first time he'd sat in your dressing room and asked if he made you nervous. Teasingly, he asked, "Am I making you nervous, darling?"

Rolling your eyes, you huffed, "No."

Tom's eyes were all over you the moment you stepped onto the set and dropped your robe into an assistant's waiting arms. Clad in a skimpy lace negligee with nothing underneath, it was understandable that he'd be quite enraptured--never before had you worn something so dainty for your work, nor had you ever worn anything quite like the transparent scrap during any of your visits to his apartment. Even you yourself were quite enthralled by the look of it, having admired your reflection in the mirror for ages before finally joining the crew to start working.

As you soaked up the warm, tingling sensation of his ravenous eyes trailing over every inch of your body, you slowly relaxed into his presence. All the thoughts of Melaina drifted away, and you were biting back pleased smiles each and every time you acknowledged his gaze. It felt nice; it felt like it had every time he'd watched you film before, only better because now you were finally fully enjoying your project.

He hung back beside Priscilla in front of the big screen which displayed all the different camera angles whilst you ambled your way around the set. It wasn't complete, but it was enough for you all to get an idea of what the final design should be. A queen sized bed with dark, silk sheets in the center of a warmly lit stage, piled high with pillows of all sizes--already you were imagining towering bed posts with chiffon curtains framing the beautiful space.

There was one camera posted at the foot of the bed which was to be the main view point for the video. Climbing aboard you shifted until your bottom was posted over the scribbled X and leaned back onto your elbows, your knees propped up and spread wide. "How's this look?" you called out, craning your neck to see Priscilla, Archie, and Tom.

"Slide up a bit," Archie bellowed back, "a bit more--that's it! Oh, fuck, that looks amazing."

Having slid up the mattress half a foot, your head fell onto the bed of pillows that were finally within reach. From your new vantage point you could admire Tom, and the sight of him was enough to already have your thighs dampening. It seemed as if he were unsure as to where to look, his eyes flickering back and forth from the blown up, pixelated version of you to the real deal hastily.

The angle was awkward, and no matter how hard you stared he never made eye contact. It was then that you realized he couldn't see your face, at least not the real one, and a certain thrill sparked within you. Trailing your fingers over your stomach slowly, you reached for the frilled edge of the fabric and bit back a giggle as he tensed all over.

Licking your lips in time with Tom, you shouted, "Should we get started, then?"

Within seconds the clapper was dropped, and Priscilla boomed, "Test one, rolling!"

It was strange having to force yourself to look into the camera, rather than avoiding it so as not to ruin the flow of a scene. But, after a few moments of running your hands over your body and trying to get into the right mindset, your mind drifted away from the crowded room and into your own personal bubble. In there, that secret place you escaped to, it was just yourself and Tom.

Your body heated as you pictured him in place of the camera. In your vision he was bare and glistening, just for you; sitting on his heels with his knees spread apart and his hands ghosting over his length languidly. So many nights you'd laid before him like this, aching and begging for his hands to take the place of your own.

"Show me what those fingers can do, darling." he cooed, voice silky and sweeter than honey. It was a stark contrast to the dark, all-consuming pull of his brown eyes that lusted for you greedily.

Breathing a little harder, you tugged the stretchy lace further down your chest until your breasts were exposed to the chilled air. Tom's eyes glimmered, his tongue swiping over his lower lip, and you desperately wished it were his lips wrapping around one of your pebbled buds instead of your clammy fingers. Your eyes fluttered shut for a second as you imagined it; reminiscing on the sensation of his hot, silky tongue swirling around your nipples and tugging them delightfully into his mouth.

It was incredibly hard not to cry out for him as you descended further into the scenario you'd created for yourself. Nevertheless, you swallowed down all the whimpers of his name that bubbled to your lips eagerly, instead whining soft noises that even turned yourself on. "Love those pretty sounds, (Y/N)." he always hummed down your ear, scorching breathe fanning all across your neck.

The facade didn't fade as you opened your eyes again with heavy lids that begged to fall shut again. You tugged hard at one of your rosebuds in sync with Tom's harsh pull over his cock, and your back arched as you gave a loud cry. He moved his hand faster and clenched his eyes shut for a second as he groaned, "Enough teasing, lovie, show me that perfect pussy. Wanna see you cum all over your fingers f'me."

You couldn't have agreed more. Your heat was hot and dripping, your thighs slipping across the sheets a little more easily as you pooled your juices onto the mattress longingly. Tracing your fingers over the swell of your chest and down your stomach, you peeled your flimsy gown back until it was all bunched up beneath your breasts.

Tom watched with baited breathe, held perfectly in sync with your own burning chest, as you teased your fingers all around where you ached to be touched the most. Just as you finally dipped the tip of your middle finger into the slick, a shuffle and quiet laugh shattered the vision of Tom. You huffed in frustration the buzzing in your veins dulled and your hand fell limp over your bare middle.

"Cut!" Priscilla shouted, and even she sounded frustrated as you sat up and ripped your negligee back down, "That was really good, (Y/N)! Wanna have a look?"

You did, but you could barely hear the words coming from Priscilla's mouth as you took in the scene before you. There was Tom, hands cupped over his crotch like they always were when he watched you film, but this time he wasn't watching you. Instead, he was entirely focused on Melaina who stood beside him with one dainty hand stroking his arm, the other twirling the skirt of her sundress lazily.

Your blood boiled to life once more, but no longer was it out of desire for Tom. Pursing your lips, you called back to Priscilla, "No, let's just keep going." He was still engrossed in his hushed conversation with her, and you added pettily, "Might I remind some of you to be quiet on set!"

Melaina's stifled giggle turned the green hue in your eyes red, but you took a deep breathe and resisted the urge to roll your eyes. It didn't mean anything, it didn't mean anything, it didn't mean anything. The mantra echoed through your head as you did your best to keep your ridiculous envy at bay; Tom wasn't yours, nor were you his, and you had nothing to be jealous of.

You did, however, roll your eyes at the sight of Tom's devious smirk. It only widened at the action, and in spite of your wish to pretend he didn't affect you, your thigh clenched subconsciously. "Sorry, darling, we'll be quiet." he hummed, greedily soaking up the distasteful purse of your lips with his eyes.

It was harder to get back into the groove once the cameras started rolling again. Tom's image wavered in place of the camera, your mind clouded with all the conflicting emotions you were feeling, and no matter how hard you tried you just couldn't get back into that bubble. You pushed through, though, and picked up where you'd left off.

"Look at you," Tom simpered as your fingers dipped into your slick once again, your jaw slackening as you toyed one finger through your entrance, "absolutely dripping for me. Does it get you off to see me with another woman?"

What the hell was that? His words were like a record scratch in your mind, your fingers recoiling from your throbbing core in shock. Trying again, you changed your direction and drifted your fingers to your clit with a soft sigh. Closing your eyes to shut out his smirking face again, you rolled the soft pads over your bud and felt your lips part in a hushed moan.

How easy it would have been to keep them closed and push yourself over that edge with nothing but the sensation to edge you forward, but you knew that wouldn't make for a satisfying watch. So, begrudgingly, you opened your eyes again to the scene you'd created for yourself. Tom was sitting on the bed now, his legs spread wide before him to leave space for you between, and his length was laid against his thigh lazily. The tip was weeping and blazing red, a thick drop of pearly precum making your lips tingle with desire.

His hands wrapped around the footboard of the bed, gripping the solid wood so tightly his knuckles turned white and his arms rippled with unbridled strength. All that muscle, the sinewy, languid curl of hard muscle beneath soft flesh pulled taught in restraint; it was enough to have you drooling. Your fingers slipped easily from your swollen clit to your slit, and you dipped the tip of your middle finger inside with a choked cry.

Tom moaned back at you, his cock twitching as he flexed his stomach, eyes glued to the tight clench of your cunt around your fingers. "Fuck, lovie, do your fingers feel as good as mine?" he asked, "Does that pussy feel as good as hers?"

What the fuck?

Melaina's giggle echoed through the set, piercing the thickened air and startling you nearly as much as the wild turn your imagination had taken. Growling angrily, you slapped your hands onto the mattress beside you and pouted, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Sorry, I'm so sorry!" Melaina squeaked, sounding so genuinely apologetic it only irritated you further, "Stop it, Tom, you made me laugh."

Sitting up once more, propped up on your hands, you scowled fiercely at the sight of Tom's arm draped over her shoulders and his head dipped low to whisper in her ear. His eyes were trained on you, though, and you knew damn well that coy smirk that teased at his lips was meant for you alone. Melaina gripped the hand over her shoulder tightly as she stifled another laugh, eyes twinkling to match the beaming smile on her face.

Backing his lips away from Melaina's hair, Tom faced you dead on as his head cocked to the side playfully. Narrowing your eyes, you scoffed as he winked at you. That bastard! You flopped back onto the bed with a growl, wanting nothing more than to kick him off the set, but you refrained. You knew it would only cement what he'd already figured out within his head; it would prove that you were without a doubt, one hundred and ten percent jealous.

"How about we take five, everyone!"

You practically threw yourself off of the bed, snatching your robe from the timid assistant with a huff before stomping off the set entirely. What was he playing at? It was one thing for Tom to toy with you, but to purposefully throw you off when you were working? That was low.

Alone in the small room, you dropped your head onto your vanity with a loud groan of annoyance. So many new emotions were swirling around you, plaguing your mind and twisting your gut up into knots so tight you actually felt ill. You couldn't even begin to unravel the twisted mess to pick apart all the different things you were feeling.

There was a quiet knock on the door, and you didn't have to look to know who it was. "G'way!" you grumbled, hissing angrily when the door opened anyways, "I said--"

Tom crashed his lips to yours, choking your words and the muffled squeal of surprise that escaped you. Pushing his weight onto you and pinning you to the chair, he bit down on your lower lip until you whined pitifully, pulling away to look you heavily in the eye, "You ignored me last night."

"So? I wasn't feeling it." you retorted, the almost lie making your stomach flutter. "Is that why you're trying to ruin my test shoot? Another bullshit punishment?"

He gaped at you for a moment, his lips parting in surprise as he blinked down at you wordlessly. But, just as you were settling into the triumph of finally rendering him speechless, he sputtered a sinister chuckle and smirked. Clicking his tongue reproachfully, he tutted, "Are you jealous, darling? Is that what this little tantrum is about? Are you jealous of Melaina?"

The words of your imaginary Tom echoed in your ears, the thin flesh and cartilage heating up in embarrassment as you scoffed, "No, why the hell would you think that?"

Smirk widening, he leaned close to nuzzle his face into your ear as he hummed, "Mm, I think you're lying, lovie. I think you were jealous watching me fuck her yesterday, and today you're so bothered you can't even perform. Envy is a hell of a thing, wouldn't you say?"

His lips sucked on the tender skin of your earlobe, drawing the faintest of whimpers from your lips, and he released it with a dramatic suckle of a wet, sloppy kiss. He whispered tauntingly, "Did it make you jealous to see me cum for somebody else? To see me fuck Melaina instead of you?"

"N-no-- oh, fuck."

Tom's fingers dragged heavily through your folds, a gush of your juices immediately flooding into his open palm in response. His thumb rolled over your clit faintly, teasing the rapidly swelling bundle as he chuckled right into your ear, "Don't lie to me, darling."

That stupid name that he'd called her made you steel your resolve, stubbornly repeating, "'M not jealous, Tom. You can fuck whoever you want."

His fingers plunged into you to the knuckle, earning a loud gasp as your hands flew to his arms and clutched him tightly. "Yeah? 'S that so?" he asked, nipping the hot skin of your neck until you whined desperately, "Think I'd like a taste then, love."

This was certainly turning out far better than you'd expected. With a racing heart and a quivering breathe, you gasped, "Please, Tom." Tom's eyes narrowed at you, his expression hardening as he pinched your hip in warning. "Please, I want you to have a taste, sir."

He grinned, patting your cheek in a playful slap as he cooed, "There's my good girl. Spread your legs, darling."

Obediently, you eagerly spread your legs until your thighs were digging into the sides of your chair and shaking as you fought to keep them splayed so wide. The lace of your negligee was pulled taught and curled up over your hips at the movement, exposing all of you to Tom's greedy eyes. He licked his lips as he gazed down at his fingers still buried inside you as deep as they would go, flexing the two digits and closing his eyes as you cursed and clenched around them.

You crooned as he pulled them out and thrust them back in slowly, curling until the tips dragged over your spot lazily. "Please, sir, want your tongue, too." you pleaded, digging your thighs further into the seat as you rutted down onto his once again motionless fingers.

His eyes snapped open and he quirked his one ruffled brow playfully, "Yeah? You want my fingers and my tongue?" Tom dug the pad of his thumb into your clit deeply, pressing your button down and making your entire body spasm from the harsh stimulation, "I don't know if you deserve both, lovie. You're lucky you're even getting my fingers."

Whining, you threw your head back childishly and ground your hips into his fingers indignantly. He kept them steady, only slightly brushing your g-spot through your forced motion, and his free hand clamped down on your thigh in a bruising grip. "Please!" you begged, "Please, sir, I'll be so good!"

Your pleas molded into a shout as his lips closed suddenly around your clit, his thumb sliding aside to spread your folds open for him as he sucked at your sensitive nub harshly. Tom's fingers pulled out slowly before slamming back into you, his fist effectively punching your core and making you ache, but you moaned and begged for more. Each forceful blow pushed his fingers right into your spot, the tips curling to drag against your upper wall with every motion.

In mere moments you were seeing stars. Your stomach was tightening beyond measure, that coil winding so tight you feared you might break when it finally snapped, but you met each thrust of his hand with a jerk of your hips eagerly. His tongue flicked against your clit in rapid kitten licks, sparking your body to spasm violently each time. "I'm so close, sir!" you gasped, digging your nails into the armrest of your seat as your back arched in pleasure, "I'm gonna--"

With one last long, hard suck on your bundle, Tom pulled away from you completely. His fingers ripped away from your dripping slit and slid in between his glistening lips, that tongue swirling dramatically around the digits as he sat back on his heels much like he had in your imagination. Gaping, you huffed, "What the hell, Tom?"

He grinned devilishly, "Admit you were jealous, and I'll let you cum."

Sputtering, you spat out, "I told you I wasn't jealous."

"Mm, but I know you're lying, darling," he teased, eyes glinting playfully, "and I want to hear you admit it. You wanna cum all over my fingers and my tongue?"

You nodded hesitantly, swallowing the lump in your throat as you whispered, "Yes, sir."

He leaned in close, his nose brushing against yours and his lips ghosting over your own as he whispered, "Admit you were jealous."

Closing your eyes, you took a deep breathe. You felt hot all over with embarrassment, your skin burning and your blood boiling beneath, but fuck, you really wanted that sweet release that only he could give you. So, with trembling lips, you whispered, "I was jealous."

Eyes still closed, you jumped as his fingers brushed over your clit in a feather light touch. He pressed a slow, soft kiss to your lips that had you chasing him for more when he backed away and asked, "Are you still jealous?" One finger toyed with your slit, drawing a harsh line up and down your entrance as you resisted the urge to push further into his hand.

"Y-yes."

He chuckled, and your eyes snapped open as he backed away from you, his hand disappearing from your core. His eyes were dark in a ruthless stare as he stated, "You need to learn to share, love. Stingy girls don't get to cum." And, just like that, he retreated from the room leaving you staring after him in utter shock.

You weren't sure what you were expecting when you rocked up to Tom's apartment that night following his typical, "You up?" text. What you most certainly had not expected, though, was to find Melaina sprawled out on his sofa in nothing but a sheer negligee--nothing at all underneath. In a strange sense, you figured you should have seen it coming; what better way for Tom to torment you than to make you face the root of your jealousy?

"Mm, on second thought," you hummed, pursing your lips as you took in the woman's sensual form upon his couch, "I think I'll be going."

Turning to leave, you crashed nose first into Tom's hard chest with a muffled grunt of surprise. His hands crept around your waist in a lazy fashion, dragging the fabric of your shirt up until his warm palms found the icy chill of your bare skin. It sent a shiver down your spine, much to your own chagrin.

He pouted, jutting his lower lip out at you tauntingly as he leaned close to brush his nose along the high point of your cheek. "You've only just got here, darling," he mused, "I missed you last night. You left me all alone."

It was really pathetic how easily he broke through your walls. Despite your tireless efforts to re-stack each brick he knocked down, the feeling of his soft lips ghosting along the supple skin of your cheeks had those same cinderblocks crumbling to dust. A gentle kiss on the apple of your cheek, a fleeting peck at the slope of your forehead, one slow trail along the angle of your jaw--you were putty in his hands when his lips finally found your own.

Even as his tongue traced the outline of your lips, you desperately tried to fight his hold on you. Grumbling into his mouth, "I'm sure you could have found company elsewhere--"

Tom bit down on your lower lip, hard, and pulled until it snapped back with a loud pop that made you whimper. Yet, his eyes were tender in a way you'd never seen before as he gazed down at you longingly, whispering, "I wanted you, though."

Yeah, you were fucked.

Breathing a little heavier, you gave into your more animalistic desires in spite of the jealousy and irritation that still boiled deep within your veins. A childish, prideful part of you boasted over his words; he'd wanted you! Not Melaina, not anyone else, just you. It was utterly ridiculous.

Tom's brown eyes were warm, inviting, and curious as he waited for you to make the next move. You could see the questions bouncing around behind them; would you leave? Would you stay? But, there was a familiar glimmer of mischief buried behind the thick honey gaze that had you waiting for the other foot to fall.

Taking your lack of movement as an answer, a desire to stay, Tom pressed another kiss to your lips. Long, slow, and mind-boggling--it felt like your soul left your body with the way he curled his plush lips into yours. Already you were heating up, your body buzzing and growing hotter with desire in each second that passed.

You clawed your fingers into the hem of his shirt, scratching your nails along the flesh of his lower abdomen in a futile attempt to ground yourself. It was a frantic plea to him to hold you there, to keep you from floating away as his kiss took you to higher places. He gave a gentle hiss into your mouth at the sting, but pushed harder into your face as his hands inched higher up your back to toy with the band of your bra.

Fingers gently swept the collar of your shirt down, exposing your neck as fuller, softer lips ghosted along the line of the fabric. Wait--lips? Jumping, you reeled back from Tom's face with widened eyes to find Melaina blinking back at you, eyes blown wide with lust.

"What are you--"

Tom popped the clasp of your bra with ease, looking down at you with darkened irises. "Is this okay?" he asked, glancing at Melaina who was waiting beside your twisted, intertwined bodies for approval.

Her fingers swirled slow, tingling circles on your hip, lip caught between pearly, white teeth as she watched you with enraptured intensity. Two minutes ago, the word no would have spilled from your lips without a moment of hesitation--but now? Now, as your eyes lingered on the swollen, bitten lower lip that called for you to taste it; as you trailed them lower to admire the perfectly soft curve on every inch of her body, it wasn't so clear.

There was a supple rise of her chest with every breathe, hardened nipples poking through the transparent fabric of her dress. Rounded breasts upon a gentle, sloping waist, wide hips that certainly gave way to a perfect handful of ass and thigh, all leading the eye down the length of her sculpted legs. Melaina was like a work of art, and every inch of her that you admired sent tingles through your body.

Glancing back at Tom, you nearly moaned out loud. Her eyes burned the side of your face, but it was nothing compared to the heat of Tom's stare into your very soul. It sucked the breathe out of you and left you feeling dizzy, your vision darkening until all you could see were the artful angles of his face.

You spoke hoarsely, swallowing down the lump that formed in your throat, "Yes."

Tom's mouth parted against yours in an instant, his hot tongue slipping inside and making your eyes roll back as Melaina pressed her body against your side and latched onto your neck. Sucking, biting, rolling the soft muscle of her tongue all along each sharp nibble to soothe the tender flesh--it was an overload of sensation all at once. You didn't know where to put your hands as they both crept theirs all over your body.

It was impossible to decipher where one ended and the other began. Whose hand was that gripping your ass? Whose were peeling your bra straps down our arms under your sleeves? Who was slipping their thumbs along the waistband of your pants, tickling your hot, sensitive skin?

Moaning, you gasped, "Please!"

You weren't even sure what you were asking for, but Melaina quickly stepped aside to let Tom pull your shirt over your head as your bra fell to the floor at your feet. He admired your chest for a long moment, palms cupping the swell of your breasts as his thumbs rolled over the stiffened peaks of your nipples, earning a muffled groan from you. Licking his lips, he stepped back and waved the eagerly waiting woman forward.

As Melaina devoured your chest, you followed him with your gaze through heavy lidded eyes. He watched on with an indecipherable glint in his eyes, lips glistening with a mixture of your saliva and his own. Those long lashes fluttered as he dragged his tongue slowly over the plump of his lower lip, nostrils flaring in a sharp inhale as if he were tasting you all over again.

Her lips were wrapped tightly around your left nipple when he finally disappeared behind you, a shiver wracking your body when his fingers caressed the arch of your spine in a fluttering touch. Chest pressed warmly to your bare back, he dipped low to mix his own marks with the ones she had left behind. You dropped your head back onto his shoulder, lulling to the side to expose the entirety of your throat to him in submission.

When had he removed his shirt? The bare skin of his torso was scorching on your back, matching the heat of his tongue dipping in your collarbone in time with a twirl of hers around your other nipple. Fingers, hands, lips, tongues everywhere; your body was reaching its boiling point.

"Come to bed with us?" Tom's husky whisper directly into the shell of your ear had you whining, arching your back until your behind rolled harshly into his crotch. His length ground into you roughly, a quiet groan escaping his lips at the stimulation, "Fuck, darling, you like this?"

Weakly, barely able to focus through all the pleasurable touches to your body, you whispered, "Yes, yes, sir. Please."

You should have known it wouldn't last. You should have anticipated the shift in Tom's attitude, revealing his true intentions to you as he lead you by the wrist into his bedroom to find a dining chair at the side of his bed. But, you blinked up at him dumbfounded as he held up a silk tie before your face with a devilish grin.

Melaina stretched out on the bed with a hand between her legs, knees propped open wide as she touched herself lazily and watched you closely. Glancing at the tie, then the chair, and then Tom's arrogant smirk, you mumbled, "What is that?"

He just chuckled throatily, grinning as he hummed, "Sit in the chair, darling." You blinked again, frozen in place, "Sit, now, or I promise you'll not like the outcome."

Instinctively, your knees crumbled until you fell into the chair with a frown. He snatched your wrists roughly, twisting them behind the back of the chair until the backs of your hands touched and you whined in protest, "That hurts, Tom."

He pulled further, a sharp ache burning through the muscles of your arms as they dug harshly into the back of the chair. "Watch it, (Y/N)." he growled.

"Sorry, sir." you muttered pitifully, eyes downcast to avoid the amused smile on Melaina's face, "What's going on?"

Tom didn't answer you for a long while, taking his time to tie your wrists with the tie until he was certain you couldn't break free. Testing the restraints, you pouted as the fabric didn't yield in any way to your tugs. He hummed under his breathe in appreciation, though, stroking a finger up the length of your arm as he rounded to face you again.

Melaina sat up and leaned into the arm he reached out toward her, your gut twisting bitterly at the sight of her purring under his touch like a cat. "I told you, darling, that stingy girls don't get to cum." he restated his words from earlier, and your body burned with embarrassment, "So, I'm going to teach you to share. You're gonna sit there and watch me, and you're going to deal with it like a big girl. Understood?"

"But I--"

"Do you understand?" Tom hissed, eyes narrowing in a fierce glare that dared you to challenge him further. You couldn't miss the way his fingers twitched, the familiar sting of his palm on your behind ghosting over the skin in anticipation of impact. He remained rooted in place, though, leaning into Melaina's body that was steadily wrapping further around him.

Her lips were on his chest, leaving a flurry of angry purple marks that made you want to scream like a child. "I understand, sir." you grumbled, slumping into the seat.

He smiled, "Good."

It was as if you disappeared from the room entirely in that instant. He turned to Melaina, completely absorbed in her presence as his hands slid around her waist to grab fistfuls of her ass. Groaning, he squeezed the flesh tighter until she whimpered. Your own body ignited in shame and jealousy, fingers clenching into fists that tugged uselessly against their bonds.

The sound of their lips smacking as they kissed, wet and sloppy sounds that echoed in your ears, made you want to whine. How had it come to this, when only moments ago they were kissing you like that? Was this the only reason you were here?

You watched on with an aching core, racing heart, and sweaty palms as the heat intensified between them. There was that chemistry you'd witnessed on set--their movements so in sync it seemed as if they were connected spiritually, a perfect flow of seamless give and take. It was almost painful to watch.

The jealousy that tore you to shreds was not from a desire to be the only woman in Tom's life, though a selfish part of you did secretly relish in the thought. It was an aching, grotesque and petty desire to know that you were the best. You were jealous of the way he found pleasure in someone else, when all you wanted was to know that you were unmatched. You were jealous to feel his touch on your body, and some part of you was growing desirous of hers as well.

It was a purely physical sort of envy; no feelings attached. Or, at least that's what you told yourself. In some sense there had to be a sort of emotional drive behind it, but it was easier to tell yourself it was stupid pride instead of murky, confusing feelings.

Your eyes clenched shut as you bit back a huff of frustration. Melaina's moans grew louder, until she shrieked, "Please, daddy, wanna feel you!"

There was a smack and a rustle, and when you opened your eyes Tom had shoved Melaina flat onto her stomach. The skin of her still rippling ass was reddened in a blazing hand print, his hand rubbing over the mark soothingly. "You wanna feel daddy's cock, princess?" he growled, "Think (Y/N) deserves to watch?"

"Yes, daddy," Melaina murmured, "want her to watch. Want her to see how good I make you feel."

The green eyed monster in your head was stomping circles through your brain, screeching over the cruelty of the situation. Yet, you kept your lips pursed shut as you glared back at Tom with just as much ferocity. He wasn't going to see you break; you'd come out of this on top, you were sure of it. You weren't going to let him see that she'd hit the root of your jealousy right on it's ugly, rearing head with her words.

You scoffed, and he glared at you with a sort of intensity that made your legs quiver, but you faced his scowl head on with a ferocity of your own to match. You wouldn't let him see that she'd hit the root of your jealousy right on its ugly, rearing head with those words; if he wanted to play, then you were going to play just as hard.

Or, maybe you were just emboldened by the fact that he hadn't called her darling again. Either way, you stared him in the eye until he looked away from you with a clenched jaw and twitching hand. Your first, and only, victory of the night.

It was torture. He moaned as he pushed into her, eyes clenching shut and hands squeezing at her flesh desperately when he bottomed out with his hips buried into her bottom. Yet, you couldn't decide which method of suffering was worse; to keep your eyes opened or closed.

Open, you had to watch his face contort with pleasure and the way he interacted with her eager, willing body. Closed, you had to listen to the sounds they made and feel the way your body reacted in accordance. You were dripping onto the seat, angry tears pooling in your eyes, and your arms were going numb from their restrained position.

"Eyes open, darling." Tom ordered, and you bit back the curse that bubbled to your lips. He watched you with hooded eyes until you met his gaze, immediately blocking you out again to focus on the messy, fucked out woman on his bed. She was wailing, and you were trying your best not to join in the chorus.

He was going an an unrelenting pace, each brutish thrust of his hips eliciting a strangled cry from Melaina. She was clawing at the sheets, incrementally crawling away from him until he pulled her back with a forceful tug of her hips. "Daddy, 'm gonna cum!" she moaned, breathless.

You squirmed in your seat, bottom sliding slickly over the wooden surface from how much you'd pooled into it. "Come on, princess. Cum f'me." he urged, voice strained as he rocked his hips faster into her. The sound of skin against skin mixed with the damp sounds from his force into her slick echoed loudly through the room, but it was unparalleled to the unrestrained scream the tore from her throat.

Watching with wide eyes and strained, clenched thighs, you gasped as Melaina arched into the bed wildly. Her actions were so over the top you'd have assumed they were theatrics, if it weren't for the way you could see her physically quivering with full body shivers. Fuck, why couldn't that have been you?

Tom pulled out of her roughly, turning on you and clambering off of his bed to lean over you. His hands wrapped around the arms of the chair tightly, the muscle of his arms rippling as he gripped it so tight the wood creaked. "Learned your lesson yet, darling?" he demanded, nose to nose with you.

Nodding desperately, you gasped, "Yes, sir."

He disappeared from view, Melaina still crumpled into the bed and spent as she breathed heavily. When his fingers brushed your wrists, untying them slowly, you nearly wept with relief. Finally, he was going to touch you.

Pulling you up from the chair, Tom gripped your chin firmly as his thumb tugged at your bottom lip. "Want me to touch you, darling?" You nodded, begging him with your eyes and whining when he chuckled, "You have to earn it."

He sat back on the bed, scooting until his back was propped against the headboard with his legs spread wide. Patting the space between them, he beckoned you forward until you were perched between his knees on your own. You yelped as Melaina crept up behind you, hands sneaking up the skin of your back until they rested lightly on your shoulders, but you relaxed into her touch as she pressed a feather light kiss to your neck.

As she nipped at the skin, blossoming a new mark amidst all the ones she'd left before, Tom grinned deviously. "Let's make a deal, darling," he breathed, "if you can stop yourself from cumming all over her tongue, I'll let you come on my cock."

You squeaked as her fingers dipped down the front of your body, leaving a trail of fire in their wake as she drew nearer to where you were aching for any sort of touch. Deep down you knew how hard it would be not to finish at any sort of stimulation due to how worked up and ravenously needy you were, but if there was a chance to get Tom where you wanted him then you were going to take it. So, you nodded, "Please."

Melaina pushed you forward until you were bent over, propped up on your knees and elbows. Tom's length was straining against his thigh, and he flexed as your slightly frantic breathing blew across the sensitive skin. He reached out a hand to caress your cheek before winding it to the back of your head, pulling you closer until you wrapped your lips around the tip.

You groaned in sync with him as you felt her blow a cool breeze on your clit, your legs nearly buckling as she forced them apart with her hands. Stars were bursting behind your eyes the very moment she drew a line through your folds with her tongue, but Tom's shove against your head kept you grounded. Focusing, you pushed forward until your nose was buried in his pelvis and he moaned loudly.

Her taste was still all over him. Pulling back until you only held his tip in your mouth again, you swirled your tongue around the head and parted your lips to let your spit soak down his length entirely. You looked up and blinked at him coyly, flattening your tongue under his tip and sucking hard until he clenched his eyes shut and raked his nails into your scalp roughly.

Going down again, you gagged around him and tears sprung to your eyes when he held you there. He was choking you, but you weren't thinking about air--all you could think about was how hard it was not to reflexively clamp down each time Melaina tweaked your clit just right, sending spasms through your entire body.

You were fighting hard to keep from going overboard, your stomach twisted up in knots so tight you felt compressed. Explosive, even. He was moaning above you, dragging your head up and down his length slowly, and there were shockwaves of vibrations in your core as Melaina hummed along with him.

Finally, as you took all of him again and squeezed his thigh with your nails digging in, Tom hissed and pulled you off of him. "On your back, now." he commanded, and Melaina jumped back just in time for you to hastily slide into position. "Fuck, need you so bad, darling."

His hands were hot as they slid up your thighs, spreading your legs apart until he could slip between them and crawl over your body. "Needed you last night, lovie, but you decided to ignore me like a brat." he growled, and you flinched as he dropped to his elbows over you suddenly, "Don't even deserve to feel me, you know that?"

"Please," you whined, "I'm sorry I ignored you, I'll never do it again."

Tom dragged his tip roughly through your folds, scowling at you when you bucked your hips into him, "Do that again and you'll go back in the chair."

You froze, and he hummed in approval before continuing his teasing. Up and down, up and down, up and down, he dragged himself over your entrance and clit until you were shaking with need. Each slow rock of his length through your folds was adding fuel to the fire raging within you, your eyes threatening to roll back from the surface level stimulation alone.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally eased into you slowly. You moaned breathlessly, clenching around him and fisting the sheets in a plea for him to just fuck you already. "Fucking love your cunt, darling," he groaned, eyes falling shut in bliss, "perfect little pussy, all for me. This all mine, lovie?"

"Yes, sir." you groaned, arching off the bed as he pushed deeper against you, "All yours."

He pulled back, dragging slowly against your walls until he slipped out of you entirely and left you feeling empty. But then he forced his way back in roughly, jolting you backward on the bed under the force of his thrust. Your lips opened in a silent yell, hands flying up to claw at his back desperately.

Tom's face dropped into your shoulder, mouthing open kisses into the skin that burned like fire. He picked up his pace with a steady, deep roll of his hips against yours that made you shiver all over. Your legs wrapped tightly around his waist, trapping him against you as you gripped his shoulders heavily.

Your eyes were clenched shut in pleasure as you felt him continue to push roughly against that spot deep inside, sending sparks through out your entire body. The coil in your belly had already been strung so tightly you'd feared you'd burst at the first moment of contact, but you were doing your best to fight it off. You wanted this moment, this feeling of him filling you to the brim, to last forever.

But, Tom shuddered above you and moaned into your ear, "Shit, 'm not gonna last, darling."

He pushed deeper into you with his next thrust, grinding your hips into the mattress as he put his weight behind it. You yelped and your hands left his back to find his face, pulling his lips down to yours in a feverish kiss. It was sloppy, all tongue and clashing teeth, but it matched the desperate, animalistic rhythm of his hips perfectly.

That coil inside you was sparking now, fizzling with pent up energy just begging to burst. "Please, please, please, let me cum, Tom." you begged, and he groaned as you said his name, "Please, Tommy!"

With a sharp snap of his hips, Tom pushed off the bed on one elbow and reached his hand down to the apex of your thighs. His fingers met your clit harshly, swirling rapid circles around your swollen bundle as he stared down at you like a starved man. "Say my name again, darling."

"Tom!"

His fingers moved faster, harder, deeper in time with his thrusts that pushed you to heights you'd never felt from him. His eyes were clenched shut and his lips pulled back in a grimace, jaw clenching as his curls slid all over his forehead in a sweaty mess. He looked beautiful like that--all messy and fucked out, desperate to reach that high that you were pushing him toward.

Your legs were shaking wildly, and your stomach was burning as your muscles began to contract. It was the buildup to the explosive release, and you cried out, "Gonna cum, Tommy, yes! You feel so--oh, fuck!"

Wailing, you clamped your legs around his waist and squeezed your eyes shut so tightly it hurt. The coil snapped and you shrieked, his tip ramming into your g-spot over and over as he fucked you through your high. It felt like you couldn't even breathe, couldn't think, couldn't anything anymore. All you could do was feel him inside you, pushing through your pulsing walls as his fingers continued to rub your clit like a madman.

"Fucking--fuck!" he gritted, hips faltering, "Love it when you say my name, (Y/N). Sounds so perfect coming from your pretty lips."

You were desperate to get him there, feeling the way he was shuddering with each thrust as his body protested the exertion. "Tom, please," you begged, feeling the coil in your belly tightening up again, "cum for me. Wanna feel you fill me up, Tommy."

He slammed into you harder than he had all night, making your pelvis ache but you saw white. The world faded away as you burst into the crescendo again, your throat burning as you cried out loudly. Just when you were about to tap out and push him away because it was all too much, he rolled into you deeply and collapsed onto your chest.

So high in your own climax, you barely felt his cock pulsing against your walls as you milked him of every last drop. It was the warmth, though, that brought you back down to earth. The deep, warmth that filled you up had you sighing and sucking in air desperately, blinking up at the ceiling as Tom breathed heavily into your neck.

The two of you laid there like that for awhile, fighting to catch your breathe as your hearts raced against each other's chests. It wasn't until your vision finally cleared and you could breathe a little more freely, though, that a thought popped into your head, "Where did Melaina go?"

Tom laughed, his chest rumbling against yours as he nuzzled his face into your shoulder with a tender kiss to the sweaty skin. "Mm, don't know. She probably left."

"Oh," you muttered, "I didn't notice."

You hoped he didn't notice how you smiled as he hummed back, "Neither did I, darling."

Curled up in Tom's bed, you shivered as his fingers traced lazy shapes into the bare skin of your thigh that was draped over his own. On his night stand sat two abandoned cups of tea, growing colder by the minute, but neither one of you was in any hurry to reach for them. You were content to just lay there in his embrace, soaking up his warmth.

This was what you'd grown to love the most over the past few months of hooking up with Tom. The sex was great, the orgasms mind blowing, but the time spent just enjoying each other's company afterwards was your favorite part. It felt nice to just be close to him, to feel connected to him in a more domestic sense.

"You know there's nothing to be jealous of, yeah?" he asked, suddenly, and you craned your neck back to look at him curiously. His cheeks were reddened slightly as he peered down at you with tender, timid eyes.

Sheepishly, you shrugged, "It's ridiculous, I know."

He frowned slightly, but the crease between his brows melted as you blinked up at him with wide eyes. "Nothing you feel is ridiculous, (Y/N)," he stated, "and it's okay to be jealous. You think I never felt shitty seeing you with any of the other guys you filmed with?"

The flush on his face deepened at his confession, but you grinned. He felt it too? "Really?" you asked, trying your best to keep from giving him total puppy dog eyes.

"Really." he repeated you, snorting when you grinned wider, "And, you don't need to be jealous of anyone. You're the only one who ends up right here in my bed, like this. Only one I want to be here, darling."

You buried your face into his chest with a flustered giggle, and he chuckled as his arms wrapped around you a little tighter. In a desperate need to keep things from getting too serious, still raw over everything you'd felt the past couple of days, you teased, "Mm, I'm only here for the tea--Tom!"

He dug his fingers into your ribs, fighting through your squeals and slaps as you tried to escape him. Easily, though, he got the upper hand and rolled until you were pinned beneath him. With twinkling eyes, a mixture of emotions you couldn't read, he taunted, "Admit it, (Y/N), you're in love with me."

In love with Tom? Your mind went blank as you stared up at him, but he just grinned down at you. There was a little flutter in your belly, and his eyes sparkled a brighter at your shiver. He knew. He knew the truth.

"Nah, it's definitely the tea--"

"Why, I oughta!"

#tom holland imagine #tom holland smut #tom holland series #tom holland oneshot #tom holland one shot #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfic #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland angst #tom holland fluff #tom holland blurb #tom holland au #pornstar!tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n #tom holland

553 notes · View notes

swinterr · 3 years

Text

fic rec vii ♡

hi!

this is a another new set of fic rec and i’ll probably do a compilation of genre (?) just like the first ones.

read and support the fic and authors here: the fic rec ♡

made some changes like tidying up a bit and adding summary, for those that doesn’t have any summary i’ll try my best to add my own summary (it will probably be shit tho, i ain’t making a smut summary guys, i’m not confident in my describing a fic ability but i’ll try my best. if its in italic it means i made the summary hehez ) if the summary is shit, i made it okay.

a for angst

f for fluff

s for smut

// for series or list

kpop oc/s

1. jane by @baejiyeonz

2. bee by @purpleyellow

3. lian by @nct-lian

4. taehui by @jeontaehui

nct

sungchan

1. [10:47 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

haechan

1. [5:21] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

2. you’re warm by @dreamystuffers | f

- a drunk hyuck can only mean a clingy hyuck.

3. you’re short too by @pastelsicheng | f

- 5 times hyuck teases u for ur height.

4. no title by @heychan | s

- dirty thought cockwarming haechan and johnny comes in to the room while you are trying to hide it but haechan doesn’t care.

5. wishes by @lucaswithnoshirt | a f

- standing on stage is everything you’ve dreamed of. except in the time it’s taken you to get there, you’ve been dreaming about other things, too.

jaehyun

1. moving in: the series by @jaehyun-ified | f

- after agreeing to move-in with jaehyun, you decided to curate a little series on your channel to both give in to your viewer’s request to have jaehyun frequently on your contents and to document your moving in process with the love of you life.

2. [8:14 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

3. boyfriend by @simpsiren | a

- a relationship with jaehyun wasn’t always perfect. there wasn’t a definite label on it, which only sent the relationship down a complicated pathway as we tried to find the meaning of our love once again.

4. best part by @okayoongii | f

- don’t know how to describe this tho, just read it. also 10/10

5. can i help you? by @sugarjaee | f s

- when working an extra long shift at work, your boyfriend surprises you with a visit.

6. stages of love by @biletdoux | a f s

- a playlist for the trials and tribulations of a beating heart.

7. [9:04 am] by @jeongvision | // f

- domestic fluffy blurb. 10/10!!

8. suds by @kim-taehung | s

- first person to move does the dishes for a week. nothing is off-limits.

9. promise by @bvbyxuxi | f a

- jaehyun has loved you since you were both kids, things were going well until he messed everything up; meeting again as young adults, he refuses to let you go again but would you give him another chance?

mark

1. one minus on plus one by @wonjaekook | f a

- in all of the years you’ve known jungwoo, you should have figured out to not take his words at face value because, though you haven’t even met, mark lee seems to hate your guts.

2. [12:03] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

3. pretty boy by @epinebleue | f a

- fluff, the tiniest bit of angst, the reader is two years older than mark, jaehyun makes an appearance as the reader’s fuck buddy, use of alcohol and drugs (marijuana), mentions of violence (mark punches someone), smut (protected sex, inexperienced!mark, dry humping).

4. camera flash by @morkleemelon | f

- mark taking a picture but forgot to remove flash waking up oc, pretty fluffy and cute! 10/10!!!

5. retrouvailles by @kireimarkeu | f

- counting down the days until you finally see your long-distance boyfriend.

jungwoo

1. [1:14 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

johnny

1. man-icure by @haejunehui | f

- based on jcc ep. 26

taeyong

1. reverb by @lovingonrepeat | s

- taeyong + studio sex.

2. unspoken by @bvbyxuxi | f s

- you had never thought to see taeyong again after your one night stand with him until this year where he takes you by surprise; turns out he wasn’t the guy you sought him out to be after all.

ten

1. [2:32 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

lucas

1. [4:31 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

2. king of hearts by @raibebe | f s a

- a little bit of everything, a chef’s kiss.

yuta

1. [5:51 pm ] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

doyoung

1. redamancy by @heavenlyhaechan | f

- this is just so fluffy! i wished to be doyong gf please.

2. fools together by @yongiefilms | f

- two fools in love with each other?

3. acedia by @jaeminscoffee | f

- a day in the life of yours and doyoung's love life.

4. our little secret by @haejunehui | f

- read to know their little secret. hehe.

5. caught red handed by @hannie-dul-set | f

- all you wanted to do was take a picture of the handsome law student during your train ride home. you did not expect things to end up like this.

jeno

1. i see red by @0097linersb | s

- pure filth 🥵10/10 tho.

2. addiction by @love-mi | s f

- you and jeno keep your relationship a secret to avoid backlash from your companies and fans; but keeping himself away only makes him want you more.

3. surprise visit by @nakamotonudes | f s

- you hadn’t seen your boyfriend for over a month because of his hectic schedule so when he suddenly shows up at your place one night for a surprise visit, you both have to make every second worth it.

bts

jungkook

1. the pitter-patter of the heart by @koorara | f s a //

- pieces of newlywed domestic moments with jungkook, your husband. the young film and literature lecturer and his wife, you, who works as a journalist of a web magazine. both of you managing the career, the time for each other and the new house. not to forget, chip, the cat that has been with you for years.

2. please love me by @ahundredtimesover | // f s a

- as the only unmarried jeon and kim children, your families propose a union to symbolize your unbreakable bond that spans generations. but despite developing an affection for jungkook growing up, he never returned it; he never seemed to like you, actually. you’re okay with the proposal, but surprise surprise, he isn’t.

3. first love, last love by @floralseokjin | f s //

- a collection of drabbles following the longterm relationship between jungkook and you...

4. second chances by @parkhabits | a s

- work. one of the most important things to him. It kept him company at night, it was all he thought about, all he put his attention to. his work had become the mistress within your marriage. years after you left him you’re back with only one goal in mind. get him to sign the damn divorce papers. yet you should’ve known that your husband wouldn’t let you go that easily.

5. crush by @jungxk | f s

- jungkook woke up with amnesia (?) he totally forgets that he has a wife and child. and he totally has a huge crush on his wife.

6. bare necessities by @gguksgalaxy | f s a

- when you ask your boyfriend for a relaxing vacation you don’t exactly expect him to take you to disneyland out of all places. luckily, jungkook knows just how to get you to relax — being needy is definitely not the way. or is it…

7. krampus for christmas by @ddaenysus | f

- when your daughter overhears your nightly activities close to christmas, jungkook takes it upon himself to convince her it was the sounds of the legendary demon goat.

8. a date with destiny by @imjustfanfictrash | f s

- you are a boss lady in the tech industry traveling to world for work. he is a chart-topping artist touring the globe to perform in front of millions of fans. In the cosmos of life, you are not likely to cross paths. luckily, fate has a different plan for you two.

9. stranded by @gguksgalaxy | f s a

- jungkook’s offer to help you study for your exam is unwelcome. his entire presence is unwelcome. you don’t want help from the guy who passes all his classes without even trying. it’s annoying — he is annoying. from the way he grins whenever he catches you staring at him, to the way his eyes shine whenever he smiles at you. oh, and let’s not forget the way his tattoos shift when he stretches or the way his jawline sharpens when he’s focused. nope, you definitely can’t stand him.

10. sprout by @v-hope | f

- after a nice evening out with your friends, you find yourself coming home to your sleeping toddler and the new hairstyle she had tried on your husband.

11. friday nights and take-out by @ahundredtimesover | // f s a

- you meet pop star/idol jeon jungkook at the café, you get close, and as hyejin says, you’re like friends with benefits without the sex. but you’re bad at feelings and so is he.

12. jealousy by @ephemeralkookie | f s a

- jungkook’s closest friend, namjoon is getting married and he invited you three to his wedding. the only unexpected thing was jisoo, his ex, and we’ll just say that you were not too happy to see her flirting with your boyfriend right under your nose

13. a quarter past us by @jjiimin | f a

- when you break up with him out of fear of losing your freedom in university, he finds himself showing you why leaving him isn’t the answer.

14. pretty boy by @angelguk | // f s a

- alternatively known as the jock!jk universe drabbles in vague chronological order.

15. summer solstice by @boulevardk | s

- down on your luck and desperate for a successful harvest, you pray to the gods. you figure no one in heaven was listening to your prayers when nothing happens immediately. but one fateful night, your prayers are answered. are you willing to pay the price? the sacrifice might not be what you were expecting….

16. lilac wisteria by @blushoseoks | f a

- over the years, things change - but the one constant is your love for lilac wisterias.…okay, maybe jungkook’s been there too.or, alternatively:the first time jeon jungkook says that he is going to marry you, you are five years old sitting underneath a large wisteria tree.

17. obsessed with your ass by @kooklovesu | f s

- jungkook has an obsession with your body he cant get enough of praising you. he wasn’t comfy showing the world his affection towards you in public because he’s a private guy, but when he finally did, good luck.

18. from home by @gyukult | // f s a

- jungkook is the youngest of five boys, the last in line to truly inherit any his parents’ money. but what if his mom suddenly cuts him off due to his current poor behavior and he’s forced to learn how it feels like to be part of the working class?

19. black card by @minsprings | // f s

- black card fic and drabbles, also a chef’s kiss.

20. oh my god, they were (quarantined) roommates by @ot7always | f s

- what do you do when you’re quarantined for months on end with jeon jungkook - s tier cuddler, workout robot, and thirst trap extraordinaire? fuck him, you guess.

21. let the games begin by @venusiangguk | s

- just another fic where oc rides jk in his gaming chair pls still read it tho lmao its hot i promise

22. the probability of us by @jiminrings | f s

- jungkook’s the son of the university’s president, y/n’s cardigan is everyone’s favorite, and adjacent walls mean shared victories.

23. open when by @iluv-hobi | f

- jungkook likes to write letters to you, especially ones with purposes, like “open when ___”. one day, on a particularly bad day, you open, “open when you’ve had a shitty day”.

24. good day by @ilikemesometaetaes | f s

- his motive was made quite clear once he called you out of work. he just wanted to spend a nice day with his girlfriend. is that too much to ask for?

25. calculated by @whatifyoulivelikethat | // s

- some people would call you far too serious. some would call you stuck-up. and some would call you a bitch. but to freshman jeon jungkook, you’re the head calculus I TA noona – and he’s determined to fuck you.

26. brat taming by @sugasbabiie | s a f

- jungkook has been your roommate for almost a year. since the day he moved in he has acted like nothing but a spoiled little brat who is used to getting anything and anyone he wants. he eats your food, he doesn’t clean, he’s loud, oh and now he has colored his hair the exact shade of blonde as you. He’ll do anything to get under your skin. you’ve had enough of his filthy mouth and his fuckboy ways. it’s time to tame that bratty little roommate of yours. think you can handle it?

27. sugarplum energy by @bymoonchild | f s a

- you know no bounds nor depth with jungkook. while your fuck buddy loves sleeping in your bed and doing laundry for you with his favourite fabric softener, you are in love with a mysterious honeyed, velvety voice on soundcloud. all’s fine, until you find out that the voice that metaphors your heart to a sweet sugarplum melody actually belongs to the boy who has been taking up a special spot in your bed and in your heart, strumming at your heartstrings all this while. or, jungkook has one braincell, but it’s heart-shaped.

28. ancient history by @moononthejoon | a s f

- there is no way to deny that you and jungkook have chemistry. the two of you used to be a couple, after all. what happens when after a not-so-amicable breakup the two of you are cast as opposite leads of a movie?

29. that’s not daddy by @nochuobsessed | f

- jungkook comes home with a new hair color and his sons can’t tell if he’s appa or not. pretty cute! 10/10

30. no title by @himbojk | s

- jk got a blowie from his oc while on a zoom class meeting, like cam on with a whole set up but his oc under the table sucking the life out of him while he sits and tries to take notes .

31. dilf jk by @himbojk | // s f

- dilf jk drabbles.

32. no title by @himbojk | s

- blond jk with full tattoo sleeve who looks like the baddest boy but is actually baby and just wants a handie in the library while studying with his oc because she aspires to have those high grades.

33. no title by @noteguk | s

- bf!jungkook going down on the reader while they watch anime.

34. silent treatment by @blu-joons | f

- baby kook asking daddy kook to say sorry to mommy. 10/10 too!

35. getting railed by @dearlytea | s

- getting dicked by your boyfriend during a train ride.

36. the view by @koyamuses | s

- jungkook knows exactly what turns you on; every kink, every dirty fantasy that’s buried deep within your mind. he knows exactly how to make you beg for it.

37. let’s play: dirty by @jungkxook | f s

- on today’s stream, watch as the king of gaming jeon jungkook gets totally pwned by some newbie player on overwatch (he swears he was stream sniped)! to make matters worse, he can’t seem to focus anymore when you’re in the room but he promises that’s not because he’s in love with you or anything. use code ‘jungkook’ on any game purchase through steam at checkout for 25% off so that jungkook has something to feel better about! iloveyou btw!

38. more dilf!jk by @cutechim | s

- oc thirsting over jk, talk about finances, jungwoo is an innocent cock-block as infants are, disrespect towards a major film franchise.

39. you are inherently beautiful by @ggukachuwu | f a

- when y/n and jungkook accidentally reveal their relationship to the public because she walked in on him doing a vlive and now netizens and kmedia are tearing apart her appearance because y/n is chubby from struggling with pcos. jungkook takes it upon himself to cheer her up because he absolutely adores her.

40. morning with jk by @min-arya | f

- jungkook drabble of him catching his s/o admiring him in the morning with soft sleepy cuddles.

41. even a forest fire dies out by @9uk | a s

- it became from “grab a coffee with me?” to “why should I grab a coffee with you?” too fast for your liking. you had thought the both of you were so in love with each other—only to realise it was only you who had fallen into this trap of feelings. and as for jungkook, he might have just been as confused as you are.

42. all that we had by @starlightauroras-writes | a s

- four years, two months and five days ago, you lost the love of your life with no explanation. living with a failed marriage at such a young age without knowing why was impossibly hard, and when you’re invited to your high school reunion, knowing he would be there, you really don’t want to go. what happens when you do leaves you questioning fate.

43. aquarium by @whatifyoulivelikethat | // a

- life after jeon jungkook was grey. you had to find your own color, grow your own rainbow. but what would surprise you the most is the appearance of white cosmos, seven of them clutched tightly in kim taehyung’s hand.

44. contentment by @btsqualityy | f s

- oc’s using jk’s card to buy rug and the rest is history. 10/10!!

45. heartbreaker with a heart of gold by @filmflowersbangtan | a s

- love this!!! you know i love me some angst! 10/10!!!!!

46. the ikea test by @mercurygguk | f

- you and jeongguk face the IKEA test. successfully? sure!

47. before you universe by @ephemeralkookie | // a f s

- jungkook has taken a huge place in your life after he tattooed you, and you can’t even picture how life was before him. he has always been there for you since day one. but how will things change after you find out you’re pregnant?

48. christmas cream(pie) by @smoochkooks | s f

- a day before christmas dinner with your boyfriend’s parents, you discover another alternative way to use the chocolate cream you’re making. jungkook is more than willing to indulge in your little fantasy.

49. last minute by @moononthejoon | f s

- christmas day had gone by, and now you were back home after holidays with your family. your friends had agreed to have a late christmas party, but as always, you and jungkook procrastinated gift buying.

50. you go in knowing bros together by @blu-joons | f

- a cute fluffy knowing at knowing bros moment.

51. no title by @v-hope | f

- the way y/n would react when someone else flirts with jk and how he’d handle the situation.

52. hair dye by @mercurygguk | f s

- jungkook got his hair dyed while at work. you lose your mind the moment he steps through the door.

53. stay gold by @yeojaa | s

- blond!jk being a good boy?

54. crystal snow by @honeyj00ns | f

- when you join Jungkook and the rest of the guys for some fun in the snow, he can’t help but feel jealous.

55. 6:21 am by @sincerelyourfangirl | f

- in which he makes your morning extra special.

56. plan b by @btsracket | s

- dressing room quickie, unprotected sex request, use of Plan b pill

57. possession by @bngtanah | s

- jungkook is your boyfriend, sometimes you have to remind him what that means.

58. puffs and touches by @mintseesaw | f s

- “Stop doing that with your face, someone else is going to snatch you up”

59. the quiet things by @btsracket | s

- sleeping bag sex.

60. good boy by @ephemeralkookie | s

- secret, read to find out AHAHAHHA.

61. make it right by @jungkxook | a s

- you’re wholeheartedly, madly in love with jungkook and yet you shouldn’t be because it’s been almost a year since you broke up with him. worst part of it all is that you know he’s still in love with you too

62. it takes two by @junghelioseok | s

- struggling with the idea of your ex-boyfriend moving on, you enlist the help of your quiet roommate in a scheme that quickly spirals out of control.

jimin

1. picking petals by @cutechim | s

- you asked for a baby, so a baby is what you’re going to get.

taehyung

1. daddy by @btsracket | f s

- there’s only one choice when this happens on a date out.

2. love me or we both go down by @gukyi | f s a

- after going through with an arranged marriage to please his parents and secure his inheritance of the family business, kim taehyung thinks he’s got it all figured out. he doesn’t. apparently just being married to you isn’t enough, not when everybody and their mother can pick up on the fact that the two of you absolutely loathe each other. but taehyung wants his inheritance one way or another, so he decides that desperate times call for desperate measures: the two of you need to fall in love, and you need to fall in love fast.

3. saudade by @jiminssthetic | a s f

- a demanding idol lifestyle was something taehyung and yourself were all too familiar with. it wasn’t so hard when considering your unconditional love for one another, but lately, taehyung wasn’t the same anymore; and you decide it’s time to find out why.

4. ineffable by @99liners | f

- boyfriend taehyung takes care of his sick s/o.

5. tease by @caiuscassiuss | s

- you knew you were hot. you saw how the guys looked at you, how their eyes were drawn to a tight t-shirt or short skirt. and maybe this would fail epically—crash and burn like a failed experiment—but you wanted to get under kim taehyung’s skin the only way you knew how.

6. aquarium by @whatifyoulivelikethat | // a

got7

yugyeom

1. yugyeom as you boyfriend by @sunshinekookie | f

- i need more yugyeom fics in my life.

astro

eunwoo

1. rainy say saviour by @imsarahbum | f a

- upon seeing you getting bullied after school for being short, dongmin can’t help but step in and defend you - despite both of you not really knowing anything about each other.

anyway, thank you again for the writers please take care and be safe!

please free to recommend your favorite fic that i haven’t feature yet.

if the links won’t work and i labelled some fics wrong please let me know and i’ll try to fix it as soon as possible!

support the fic and the writers!

1K notes · View notes

absolutebl · 3 years

Text

This Week in BL

May 2021 Wk 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

It’s a cray cray Friday when Vietnam gets its eng subs up before GMMTV Thailand. What alter-reality are we in? Well, the Vietnamese offerings are better right now anyway. (Oooo, feel that burn.)

Ongoing Series - Thai

Top Secret Together Ep 2 - pulping it up in the best possible way. Sure sound and production values are pants, and in classic Thai fashion the editing in post is exacerbating (rather than fixing) pacing issues, but it’s still CUTE AF. I don’t even mind the added university storyline, because they’ve got good chemistry (and a confident gay fresher after a panicked gay hazer is an old favorite... what can I say, SOTUS was my first love). We aren’t spending too much time with any one couple, so it’s weighted a lot better than Brothers was, but also character development is slow.

Siew Sum Noi Ep 2 - Unfortunately, it’s just too hard to find, plus no subs. I’m dropping it in the hopes it comes back on my radar some day.

Y-Destiny Ep 8 - (Thurs) It’s rough having a ghost boyfriend, half your friends are scared, the other half think you’re crazy, and kissing shortens your lifespan. This was a cute couple even if I wasn’t wild about the surrounding story.

Close Friend Ep 5: (Dear My Star/JimmyTommy) - about high school penpals. It had to rely entirely on voice over work as the actors only meet face to face at the end. It’s a good thing they are appealing screen presences on their own, with good vocal control. It’s hard to imagine any other BL pair carrying this kinda plot. It’s by far my favorite of the series so far, and I’m not even a big JimmyTommy fan.

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 7 - no subs. Do we care? Not really. Because we have...

Nitiman Ep 3 - currently my favorite out of Thailand. It’s the university Thai BL i’ve been waiting for since... when was the last good one? My Engineer? Yowza. Anyway we got: head on my shoulder, baby is a floppy drunk (but still wants to be in control), proximity alert, boyfriend’s closet, seme gets seriously jelly, and a cute twist on feeding him. There’s something fun and complex about Jin’s character. He’s not a panicked bi. He knows exactly what’s going on, he just hasn’t decided if he wants Bb or not. He clearly enjoys being looked after, the compliments, and the attention, but he’s not sure if he’s going to like what happens if he gives in. I like that twist on the usual tsundere uke archetype a lot, cautious rather than willfully obtuse or freaked out. We can see Jin realizing in stages: I like this person, I like that they like me, I like the romantic attentiveness. But in the background is... do I actually want to f*k him? It’s a dynamic we don’t often see on BL.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 10 fin - the most ridiculous show using BLs worst tropes in a sort of weird smoothie of bitter greens and too ripe banana. The ending was the sappiest cheesiest thing ever, like cheese syrup tapped from the cheese tree. So of course I loved it, but I’m pretty sure I giggled through all the bits meant to be profound. Because, in the end, to tolerate this show at all, you just can’t take ANY of it seriously. RECOMMENDED (with some SERIOUS reservations and trigger warnings.) Full review here.

Be Loved in House: I Do (Taiwan) Ep 1-2 - I don’t mind a damaged seme character but this one is a bit weird for me. Like creepy Cheese in the Trap level weird. On the bright side, the story has given our tsundere uke good motivation for his angst and great existing friendships, loyalty, and likability. Plus I’m invested in the cafe owner/innocent puppy side dishes. So if it’s only the seme character I’m not jiving with, and he’s the most established actor, it should all turn out fine. I believe in you, Taiwanese BL.

Papa & Daddy (Taiwan) Ep 6 fin - speaking of belief. This such a good show but they gave us a cliffhanger ending. Now we must hope against hope for season two. That’s never guaranteed with Taiwan tho. So, I’m docking a few points and saying, RECOMMENDED so long as you realize it’s a cliffhanger.

Love is Science? (Taiwan) Ep 1-9 (BL subplot) - this is a good het romance, but the fact that the BL subplot is a beautifully acted disaster bi + confident gay means you’re hearing about it whether you want to or not. Plus they just added in some GL! Come on! I gotta support Taiwan normalizing queer to this extent. They are fighting the good fight and if I also have to watch a career lady and her much younger softest straight boi get it on, too? Twist my arm with that service sub subtext. Go on Taiwan, TWIST IT. It’s on Viki. Join the revolution. * Incidentally if you actually like the D/s het dynamic of this show, I highly recommend Japanese Kimi wa Petto - career woman keeps a hot young dancer boy as a pet. Oh yes, an actual pet, that IS the pitch. Never doubt Japan when kink is on the line. It’s also on Viki. Go get your kink on, thank me later. (If it helps: That was not a request.)

Most Peaceful Place 2 (Vietnam) Ep 2 (AKA 5) - love triangles aren’t my thing, but if you’re gonna do it short form, by all means bring in the lead’s other BL pairing so the chemistry is on point. Now I've no idea who I want him to end up with. Can’t they just be in a poly triad?

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 7 - I’m still enjoying it a lot. It’s still unabashedly queer and the tension is ramping up. We now have secret identity, blackmail, femme fatale, faen fatale, and incoming seme confrontation. Best of all, the series is still airing, which makes it longer than any other Vietnamese BL I’ve seen (aside from Tein Bromance - which is just too weird to count).

Gossip - Thai BL

SEVEN PROJECT TEASERS

No one is entirely sure what Studio Wabi Sabi’s Seven Project/7Project will entail.

It might be like Close Friend (1 episode per couple, no linking),

or Y-Destiny (2 episodes per couple, loosely linked),

or The En of Love (4 episodes per couple, linked but independent consecutive stories).

They’re giving the couple’s arcs separate titles. So each one would be what? Seven Project: Once Upon a Time or the like? We’re in Taiwanese title territory people and NO ONE WANTS TO GO THERE. Anygay...

Once Upon a Time is the BounPrem (og UWMA) anchor story, and seems to be the most dramatic and likely saddest. These two can handle most of what’s thrown at them at this juncture, so it should be good.

Vs Love is a BoomPeak (og Make it Right) university vehicle. Since I thought Boom was done with our nonsense, I couldn’t be more thrilled and surprised this pair is doing another show together. I don’t think either of them are the greatest actors but I find Peak very endearing and Boom charismatic on screen, so I’ll watch.

Would You be My Love is the hotly anticipated SantaEarth launch. They’re a (cultivated) IRL ship and Earth is an established BL actor. They have great chemistry and high energy so this could be lots of fun.

We are also getting a GL from this series from established BL actresses Samantha and Pineare. Nothing teased yet on that, but I’m looking forward to this installment the most. Also curious to see how the ladies handle the branding and promo side, not to mention the culture. (Thailand variety shows gonna force *girls* to play the Pepero game?)

Secret Crush on You upcoming Thai BL with no release date, co-produced by and featuring (but NOT staring) Saint and directed by Cheewin (sigh) with all fresh faces. (Previously known as Stalker the series.) It looks like pure pulp and I’m not wild about the plot but could be better than expected as it’s adapted from a novel. Cheewin is an okay director when he has an actual story to follow.

Don’t Say No the series. Coming from the producers of TharnType this is the JaFirst vehicle many have been waiting for. Friends to lovers + a good boy/bad boy pairing on a sports romance foundation. It’s basketball so they tapped Meen as well (he’s semi-pro). The bad news? You get one guess as to who is writing the darn thing? Yep it’s MAME. So, ya know, expect some slam dunk kidnapping, a light dribbling of rape, and me turning into a basketcase. AKA...

Will I have to live blog this series in order to survive it? That seems to be the only way I can. So probably. Which means the bad sports puns will continue. Look, if I’m suffering, SO ARE YOU!

Rumors of a new YinWar vehicle The Best Story (mini series) coming in July. Also rumors that their previously announced Love Mechanics (full length series) has either been delayed, is facing money issues, or is moving studios, or all three.

Breaking News

DELAYED (I’m talking these three off the watch list until we get new airing dates)

Love Area’s release was pushed out but it got a trailer.

Golden Blood was supposed to drop Weds but comments in MDL report that it is delayed due to C19.

Love’s Outlet (Taiwan) is supposed to have started a 50 episode run (only 3-5 min each, what utter nonsense). Sadly, this delay is due to a surge in cases in Taiwan which was doing so well, but also doesn’t have many inoculations.

Bad Buddy has started workshopping at GMMTV actual.

Kang Insoo’s BTS for Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding is SO FLIPPING CUTE. You have to watch it. Trust me, I don’t rec behind the scenes stuff often.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

148 notes · View notes

suchalonelysunflower · 3 years

Text

Over And Out (l.h)

End Up Here - Part 4

Pairing: Luke Hemmings x 5sos! Fem! Reader

Summary: A tour. A secret relationship. And rumors only grow...

Warnings: Angst, mild smut. Mentions of harassment, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, creepy men, jealousy, alcohol, cheating, fighting, sexism, and many frustrations. Language and some grammatical errors (English is not my first language, I’m sorry)

Word Count: 10k

Author’s Note: this is the most frustrating thing I’ve ever written, I believe. Next part will be up on March 14th. Remember that Reblogs, Fedback, Comments and Likes are very important! You have no idea how much they help me ❤️ Hope you like it and Happy Reading 🦋🌻✨

My Materialist // wanna be part of my tag list?

Series Materialist || part 1 || part 2 || part 3

Liked by michaelclifford, 5sosfan4eva and 1,573 others

lukehemmings and away and away we go ✈️

View all 347 comments

5sosfan4eva THEY ARE TOTALLY DATING

↪️ calumlovesash I hope they’re not 🤢 she was much better with Madden or Josh. At least they’re famous

yn5sos I’m changing seats with Michael

↪️ lukehemmings @yn5sos 🥺

@5sos EUROPE ARE YOU READY?!

“I can’t believe we’re already here!” Y/N cheered as they got to the hotel.

It’s been a month on the road already and they finally had a few days to rest before traveling to yet another destination. They had the idea of doing a tour to promote not only their new singles and tease the album release that’s bound to happen next year, and it ended up being one of the most incredible ideas they had after spending almost a year without doing shows.

They started with a small tour in Europe, then they will move on back home in Australia for a couple of shows, and then the big finale in the United States where most of their shows were already sold out. By that time, the fans would’ve already listened to the new songs and be even more hyped for the new album.

Luke was the newbie on tour, this not being the first time he traveled away from home, but the first time he did it with people he cared about. He was having the time of his life with Y/N, the boys, and their s.o. It all felt like a dream. He was actually living the life of a rockstar on his summer break, even if most of the things they did they had to keep it a secret.

When Y/N invited Luke on tour there was no way he would’ve said no to her - not just because he pretty much can’t say no to her, but that’s another story.

She said she wanted to take it slow and that was exactly what they were doing. They didn’t put a label on whatever they had going on, but rather they enjoyed the moment stealing kisses and nights whenever they could.

They would sneak out into each other's rooms late at night, longing to be closer. They would spend hours upon hours tangled in the sheets, loving each other and sharing whatever was on their minds at the time. Making those moments their own amid their borrowed time between destinations. A moment for the two of them.

Luke found it weird at the beginning; hiding their relationship from the world until it became official. But these last few months he could see a change in Y/N, she seemed happier, more open to talking about her feelings and her past. He understood that this was important to her, to live a normal life until she feels ready to share it.

If time is what she needed, time is what she’ll get.

The boys and their girlfriends were all supportive. They too understood the importance of keeping some things private as well as the changes in Y/N’s behavior. They were all happy to see their friend back, just in time for tour.

But it was almost impossible to control what was put in the media. The fans already know who Luke is and that he spends a lot of time with the members of their favorite band. They speculate about his relationship with Y/N, creating rumors that even though he wants to, he can’t confirm nor deny. And when it came to the media outlets, those were much, much worse.

They didn’t say much about him “The privilege of being normal” Said Calum once. But they did have a lot to say about Y/N…

“Y/N L/N is back at it again with a new man?!”

“No tears this time? Y/N L/N Caught smiling and getting cuddly with a member of her team! Can she mix work and pleasure?”

“Serial heartthrob Y/N L/N seen with other men while still refusing to talk about her most recent break-up? Sounds fishy to me!”

“What was she thinking?! Y/N L/N was spotted in an outing with his “new friend” wearing very thin shorts and a crop top. Not so family-friendly apparently”

Horrible things were written about her every day but she ignored them as if they didn’t exist. Luke wished he could do the same.

Every little article, tweet, or comment about Y/N made his blood boil. It was clear that they were completely made up to be some “big news” when the reality was far from that and they kept disrespecting them and their relationship even if it was still on the down-low.

But Luke could not stop reading them. It was addictive how he couldn’t resist clicking on her name every time it popped out, not because of some morbid reasoning behind it, but because those articles seemed to know more about Y/N than Luke himself. People kept talking about a past he didn’t know she had. Were those made up as well? Or are they based on reality? Would he be able to know the difference?

Truth was, he couldn’t. He loves Y/N blindly, he got to know her in one of the most genuine ways but it feels like that is not enough. It’s almost like she is living a secret life he doesn’t get to know.

He wonders when it will end. This seemingly permanent stage of seating on the sidewalk, waiting for the light to turn green so they could walk freely into their relationship. Where people will support them, respect her and let them be happy. But that could never happen when she’s the one who doesn’t want to move.

Luke respects that she is not ready to talk, as she said time and time again. But he just couldn’t comprehend how she, right now, could be so at peace while her name is thrown through the mud and back. Smiling with the boys as they take pictures for promo while management arranges the check-in. Does she not know what they are saying about her or she just accepts it without any retribution?

He was asking himself all these questions as he watched her so happy, his mind tormenting him with a dark cloud over their sunny day. He wants to protect her, but he doesn’t know how or if she would even let him.

And yes, maybe that was selfish of him. Banging on a closed-door with his heart in his hands. But what about the person with the key and the lock? Aren't they a little bit selfish too?

“Hey!” He heard Kat said as she sat beside him, nudging her shoulder against his.

Luke turned to her, his eyebrow still locked in a frown as he muttered a little “hey”

The blonde girl scrunched her nose at him “Yikes, what's happening that it has you all worked up, buddy?”

Luke pressed his lips on a thin line as his eyes traveled back at Y/N. She was laughing at something Ashton had said when she turned to look at him.

Y/N smiled, winking at him as she waved. Luke stared at her for a while, a small smile playing on his lips as he raised his hand in acknowledgment. He could feel his heart skipping a beat every time their eyes met, but the dark feelings in his mind made his expression turn sour the moment Y/N turned around again, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the girl sitting next to him.

“You read them again, didn’t you?” Kat asked, already knowing the answer just by looking at how his shoulders tensed the moment she asked it.

They were all aware of the tabloids and the stories, being a regular occurrence to them, but not for Luke. They all knew this was new to him as well and how overwhelming it might be. So they all tried to ground him as much as possible, not letting him get affected by it as he had before.

“Now why are they saying that?!” He spat as he threw his cellphone on the leather couch, calling the boy's attention.

It was a normal day at the studio. They were all getting lunch as they laid back in the break room while Y/N and their girls went out to get them coffee.

Calum was the first one to speak, confused by his friend's sudden outburst “Uh, what exactly? And who?”

“This!” He said, grabbing his phone and tossing it at Calum. The rest of the boys gathered around as Luke plopped himself down on the couch.

Ashton began to read out loud “Seeing the growing rumors of Y/N’s mystery man, here’s a list of every guy we wished would date her”

“Okay that’s fucked up,” Michael said, swallowing his food.

“It’s better than the last one…”

“What?!” Luke asked, outraged that there are worse things out there.

“Dude, chill,” Calum said, “We understand this is beyond fucked, especially now that you’re dating or whatever. But you getting this angry at it won’t solve anything”

“Won’t solve anything?!” He said in a loud tone “That’s my girl they’re talking about. My girl dating other guys while she’s with me!”

“But they don’t know that,” Michael argued.

Luke shook his head, taking his phone back from Calum’s hands as he started typing furiously.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?! Letting them know that they can go fuck themselves” Luke answered, eyes still on the phone, a second away from pressing send before Calum snatched his phone.

“No!” He said “You are not going to out your relationship without her consent!”

“But-“

“Plus, I already took care of it,” Ashton said, holding his phone up “I tweeted at them telling them how incredibly disrespectful they’re being, now the fans are onto them and I already messaged management to deal with it”

“And that’s it?” Luke’s eyes winded “That’s all you’re gonna do?”

“That’s all we can do right now,” Ashton said with a sigh, sitting next to it “We know these situations suck, they’re horrible and dehumanizing and we are glad more people are realizing just how shitty the media is. But if we respond to every rumor there is it’s going to be a never endless battle, it’s going to backfire. We know, we tried”

“But all the stories are aimed against her” Luke said, running a hand through his face with frustration clear in his eyes “She didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Why do you think that is?” Michael chimed in “Think about Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears… They aim for women because they think are easy to kill”

“Which they’re not. It makes them stronger somehow. I wouldn’t have been able to handle it if I was them” Calum said “Women are stronger than you think when it comes to this, Y/N included”

“We’ve been living with this kind of shit show for years. We defended her with knives and teeth, dragging every single outlet that posted something against her. But that shit only made it worse for her”

“They loved the attention they were receiving” Ashton’s voices laid with sarcasm “Every interaction we had they profited from it, creating even more rumors, one worse than the other, just so they could have the clicks. Eventually, Y/N asked us to stop defending her publicly and she decided to ignore it altogether”

“But we still fight for her, though. We flag the post, demand they take it down, talk to PR and management for damage control, and even sue for defamation a couple of times. She’s never got to go through any of that on her own, we wouldn’t have allowed it”

“And what am I supposed to do, then?” Luke asked, a mix of frustration and desperation filled his voice “Just do nothing?”

“Be there for her” Calum answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world “Support her. Love her. Comfort her. Whatever she needs. She’s a strong woman, one of the strongest we know. But there will come a time when she will have to lean on someone, and you have to be there and ready for her. She trusts you. Don’t let her down”

Kath placed a hand on Luke’s shoulder, understanding the man’s pain.

“I just-“ He said with a sigh “She never reads them, you know? The articles. But I do, I can’t help it. They seem to know more about her than me and that’s just-“

“Fucked?”

“Yeah,” He said as he took a long breath “I don’t know… I’m trying. This is all very new to me and she’s a professional at dealing with this kind of shit. But at the same time, she never tells me anything, how she feels about them or if they’re real or not. It’s fucking me up”

Kat hummed “And I assume you don’t ask her about it either”

The girl crooked an eyebrow at Luke, seemingly seeing through him “I- I don’t want to push”

She sighed and patted his shoulder “Let me tell you something, Luke. From girlfriend of a celebrity to the boyfriend of a celebrity” She started, earning Luke’s complete attention “When I started dating Calum we decided to keep it private, out of the eyes of the media and even from some of his friends. It was good at the beginning, great even! But the heart is ambitious and it always ends up wanting more. We fought a lot during those times, part of us wanting to hold on to what we had but at the same time longing for some kind of freedom. In the end, we did end up going public, as you know. We endure a lot of hate, we still do. But we knew what we were up against, you’re still trying to figure that out. But I’m telling you to know there is something you’re lacking”

“And what is that?” Luke asked with curiosity.

“Communication” Kat smiled sweetly at him “How do you expect to reach a meeting point while you’re sitting here in your own dark cloud and she’s over there with no clue of what’s happening with you and vice versa?”

The blonde girl got up from her seat next to him, giving him one last piece of advice before walking towards Calum “Don’t give up before you try. No one said it was going to be easy but, it’s your choice to see if it’s worth it”

Luke watched her walk away, rousing her arms around Calum’s waist as she smiled sweetly at him, giving him a small peck. Luke smiled at their love.

He thought about their friends, how in love they are with their partners and how free they are to love publicly, facing the retaliations of being in the public eye. But they seemed happy, they were happy. And he realized he wanted that for him and Y/N.

His mind drifted off to the possibility of going public, cleaning the air once and for all. No more “mysterious guy” or “Y/N’s possible secret lover” he’d be Luke Hemmings, the proud boyfriend of singer Y/N L/N. They could be happier, free. They could fight those rumors together and face the stormy weather that would come. He’d defend her until the end of times, protecting her with his life and supporting her in everything she does. He wanted that for them. But it wasn’t his sole choice to make.

“Babe!” He heard Y/N call.

She was walking up to him, a playful smile on her face as the nickname rolled off her tongue. She was wearing one of his hoodies, making her look small as she approached him.

He noticed that her eyes were shining, lately, they always did and he couldn’t get enough of them. He could get lost in her eyes willingly, throwing away the map and making himself home.

He loved her. Oh, he was so in love with her he didn’t even know what to do. The more he thought about it, the more sure he was about wanting to love her freely. He just wished she thought about it too.

“I got our keys” She smiled, pulling two cards out of her back pocket.

“Oh?” Luke asked playfully with a grin drawn into his face “And where am I supposed to sleep this week?”

In order not to create any suspicion about their relationship, they decided that Luke will have his own hotel room on tour - even though everyone knows that’s not where he sleeps or where he wakes up in the mornings. Usually “Luke’s room” is used to store the extra luggage they carry.

Y/N fake pouted “Sadly, Mr. Hemmings. Your room is at the other end of the hall”

Luke gasped “That far away?! Is there any way I can be… closer?”

The girl bit her lip as she rounded her arm around his waist, standing on her tippy toes as she softly whispered in his ear “Let’s see what I can do about that, Sir”

Y/N giggled as she heard Luke let out a soft groan, pecking his cheek with a small kiss as she stood in front of him again “Baby, you’re going to be the death of me” He said, trying to get a hold of her by her waist. But she was quicker, swiftly moving a step back as she started walking towards the elevators. One last look over her shoulder got him grabbing their things as he followed her without any questions.

The elevator ride is quiet, the beating of their hearts being the soundtrack to their wait as they reached their floor. Y/N didn't look at him as she walked towards the door, unlocking it with one swift movement of the wrist and leaving it open for Luke to come in after her.

When he opened the door, she was nowhere in sight. He wondered if she hid somewhere, this not being the first time she would jump and scare the shit out of him. But then, his ears picked up a soft humming coming through the bathroom door, and with a devilish smile he let their luggage at the side of the closet, he locked the door and made his way to her.

Y/N was humming one of her favorite songs when Luke caught her reflection in the mirror but she was not looking at him. She was putting some lotion in her hands, fingers tracing up until her upper arm with barely-there touches.

“Remember we have a party in a couple of hours, Hemmings,” She said when she felt him getting closer “We should get ready soon” He just hummed in agreement, not really paying attention to her words.

Softly, he placed his hands on either side of her hips, pulling her closer to him. Y/N kept ignoring him as she dried the excess of product out of her hands and it wasn’t until Luke pushed away some of her hair and started kissing along her neck that she finally gave him a proper response to his action.

Luke smirked as he felt her let out a shaky breath as his lips traced the shell of her ear, kissing it softly before moving lower and lower, kissing and sucking on her skin as slow as he could, making her tremble under his touch.

“Luke,” She said, holding her breath as she felt his calloused hands travel under the hoodie she was wearing. His hoodie. The one that always smelt like him.

“Hmm?” He asked, not stopping his movements for a second.

“We- uhm” The girl stuttered in a whisper when his hands started touching her over her bra, softly rolling over the nipples and making them hard “We should - oh - we should start getting ready soon”

“We should, huh?” He asked, voice raspy and low “It will be rude to go a little bit late. Wouldn’t it?”

Y/N let out a sigh when his hands left her breasts, trying to regain her breath before she lost it all over again when his fingers started playing with the hem of her jeans.

His fingers wandered carefully, fiddling with the button and zipper until they weren’t an issue. His lips grazed her neck up and down, kissing it softly as his fingertips finally reached her center.

She let out a soft moan when she felt him over her panties, tracing her lips over them and feeling her arousal “I’m sure they could wait a little bit longer” He said as he pressed a finger to her clit over the fabric “We need to take care of a few problems before that, don’t you think?”

He pressed his hips onto her, a soft whimper escaping her mouth when she felt his growing erection against her.

“So wet for me, my love” He groaned as her hand flew to the top of his hair, trying to find balance as she tugged on his curls “Always so beautiful for me”

“Luke-“

He opened his eyes just in time to catch her staring at him through the mirror with a desperate look in her eyes. It took him less than a second to spin her around and press her against the countertop, ceasing his lips into her like she was his last meal on earth.

She tangled her hands behind his head, fingers deep into his hair as he grabbed her by the back of her thighs, easily lifting her off and taking her to the king-size bed where they made sure to lose track of time between kisses and moans as they satisfied their needs with each other, over and over again until they fell through the abyss of pleasure together, whispering sweet confessions as their breath went back to normal.

It was easy to say that they were the last ones to reach the lobby. What was hard for them to ignore was the knowing looks and teasing smiles from their friends that were waiting for them for a good amount of time.

“Don’t say anything” Y/N threatened Ashton as he opened his mouth. But he just laughed

“If you want Luke to walk around with his fly open then sure, I’ll keep my mouth shut”

The ride to the party was filled with laughter and chit-chats. They were all in a great mood to finally have a mini-break in between shows and what better way to celebrate it than at a big party?

Luke stole glances from Y/N as she talked to Bethany. She looked beautiful with her black dress, making Luke proud and a little bit snug about him being the one who would take her home afterward.

But he knew that after tonight they needed to talk. And not “talk” like they usually do. No, this time he was going to express his concerns to her, his hopes for them, and confess his love for her over and over again. He wanted her to know how he feels, he needed to know where they stand and what she needs to feel more comfortable and what he can do to help her feel at ease.

He just needs reassurance, something to hold on to while he provides the same for her. In the end, he knew they would be okay.

After a few minutes, they reached the house of the host. Luke marveled at the mansion that stood proudly in front of him. When Y/N mentioned a party with some label associates, she never mentioned that the party was going to be hosted by the president and owner of the label.

He felt Y/N tug on his hand a couple of times before separating herself from him and going to stand next to the girls.

For a moment Luke forgot that they needed to keep appearances and couldn’t be together romantically in public. He could feel his heart aching as he watched her walk away with her friends, laughing together as they stepped into the party.

“Hey,” Michael said behind him, following the eyes of the sad man next to him “It’s just one night”

He tried to be comforting, but all Luke could wonder was: Would it be just for a night?

The party was wild. That’s the first thought everyone has in their minds as they step through those doors into a world of darkness mixed with neon lights, smoke machines, and three open bars scattered around the hall. People were separated into groups: The ones who were too drunk to stop dancing, the ones not drunk enough to start dancing, and the ones who were networking their way into the industry.

Everyone that was someone was at that party. Producers, artists, songwriters, performers, agents… You name it. It was a party for the big leagues and Luke could not help but feel out of place the moment he stepped foot into the scene.

“Hey! 5 Seconds of Summer. C’mere!” A voice called over the music.

Standing not too far from them there was a man, his bald head shined under the lights as he held a drink to his lips, beckoning the band to come over.

Y/N and the guys started walking towards the man without a second to wait, leaving Luke and their girlfriends to witness the interaction from afar.

“Who’s that?” Asked Luke, getting closer to Danielle as they watched their partners laugh with a bunch of men who were now surrounding the band.

“That’s Anthony Kellinghs” She answered, swiftly grabbing a drink from one of the trays carried by the passing waitresses “He’s one of the big bosses in the industry. Ashton said his team approached them not too long ago to see if they would be interested in changing labels and work with them”

Luke glanced back to the group. Y/N was standing next to Calum, talking about something that made Anthony smile even though her face was serious. He did not like the way that man was looking at her.

Anthony laughed loudly, making other guests turn his face towards them. Y/N and the boys shared a confused gaze as they laughed awkwardly along with him. The bald man kept laughing, clearly intoxicated as he lowered his hand and rounded his arm around Y/N’s waist.

Luke’s breath got caught in his lungs as he watched how Y/N’s body movements came to a halt and her eyes widened in discomfort, her smile seemed stiff but she didn't stop laughing or talking to the guy. Luke could feel his blood boil as he watched his girl in the arms of someone else, acting like nothing was happening and that everything was fine, in front of him.

“What the fuck?” He muttered under his breath. Debating on whether he should go and punch that dude in the face. No matter how important he was in the industry, he wanted him away from Y/N immediately.

But he didn’t move and neither did Y/N. Luke didn’t know if it was because she physically couldn’t or because…

No, he rejected that thought immediately. It was clear to him by her eyes that she was desperate to get away from his touch. And apparently not only to him because the moment that man put his hands around her Ashton and Michael called his attention away from her, moving a few steps back so Y/N could have more space to free herself the moment she could. Calum had his eyes on her, too, with his arm placed to his side as if he were to take her away from there at any second.

Yet the man did not move an inch away from her. Instead, his hand trailed lower with every word he spoke, until Luke couldn’t see it anymore. All he could see what’s Y/N’s uncomfortable face as she suddenly jumped forward, fear written all over her eyes.

Luke let out a curse as he took a step forward, ready to beat that man’s face to dust. But he stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Wait!” Danielle said, eyes locked on the scene played in front of them.

Luke stared ahead and let out a breath of relief when he saw Calum taking Y/N away from the group and towards the bar, seemingly excusing themselves to get a drink. He saw how his friend’s arm rounded around her shoulders, making it impossible for her to look back and for anyone else to notice her face as they walked away with no intentions of coming back.

Luke lost sight of them as he watched them disappear into the party. “Good,” he thought “At least she’ll be safe and away from him” But that thought did not calm the rage he felt towards the creep that dared touch her in front of her friends.

“I’m going to kill him” He hissed, once again trying to step forwards but once again being pushed back by Ashton’s girl.

“The guys got it covered,” She said, her sweet voice laced with a warning as she whispered loud enough for only them to hear “They will handle it and make sure they never work with that man, ever. It’s not the first time this has happened”

“This happened before?!” Luke said, attracting some curious eyes to him. But he couldn’t care less about it at the moment.

The girls looked at each other and then at Luke. How could they explain to the man that this happens more times than Y/N would be able to admit? They knew first hand how the industry was full of creeps and disgusting men, having dealt with them in the past as well, but Y/N…

She was the front girl, the main focus of attention. She was beautiful, talented, hot… that’s all they saw, never caring about her caring personality, or how intelligent she was, how she was the driven force of 5SOS. She was more than her looks, she was a girl trying to live her dreams. But men only seem to see one thing.

“I’m going to check on them,” Kat said as she walked towards where Calum disappeared with Y/N. Bethany mentioned going to Michael to try and make them get away from the conversation they were still having with that fucker.

And Luke stood there, not able to do anything “Y/N wouldn’t want you to cause a scene, that’s why the boys never do it anymore. She knows how important image is for all of them and a scandal is the last thing they need right now. Especially if some “random dude” goes and punch one of the biggest names in the industry”

Danielle was right and he hated that. He hated that he couldn’t do anything to defend his girl because she didn’t want to be defended. But the fact that she knew how to handle these kinds of things didn’t make it any less wrong or difficult for him to ignore. More so because their relationship was still kept a secret.

Luke couldn’t help but think that maybe if people knew they were together, things like these wouldn’t happen. After all, the only thing men like Anthony respected was the presence of another man.

Ashton and Michael returned after a minute, both of them with their jaws clenched and eyes filled with the same feeling of powerless Luke felt.

“Where is she?” Ashton asked, standing beside Dani and holding her close by the waist, almost as if he were scared something might happen to her.

“Kat went to check on them, they still haven’t returned,” She said, comforting her boyfriend by running her hand up and down his arm.

“This is bullshit” Luke murmured, frustration lacing his voice as he grabbed one drink from one of the waitresses and drowned it in one go without flinching. He turned around and started walking away from the group.

“Where are you going?” Michael asked, half concerned and half furious from him walking away at this moment.

“I need air” He answered as he took another drink and walked through the garden doors. Not even sparing a glance back when Y/N called his name as she watched him go.

Luke spent most of the night going back and forwards between the main hall and the garden. He drank whatever was being offered to him and sat down on a bench as he watched the casual smokers come outside, accompanying him from a distance.

He knew he was being childish. He didn’t understand much about the industry, nor how people that worked in it were. All Luke knew was that Y/N was nothing like them; she was not greedy, nor was she a creep, she wasn’t evil or ill-hearted and she didn’t deserve what happened.

He wanted to be with her, apologize for his shitty behavior, and tell her that he loved her. Because he did. He loved her with all his heart and it hurts him to see her like that. But every time he stepped through those doors back to the main hall - every time more intoxicated than the others - she was nowhere to be found. Or she didn’t want to be found, but that didn’t stop Luke from looking for her.

And every time, wherever he found her, she would have company. Sometimes she would be with the boys and their girlfriends laughing along with some other group of people - usually men - that stood a little too close and personal with her. Other times she would be on her own, talking to some guy or girl he didn’t know, too preoccupied with her conversation to even notice Luke standing at a distance, looking at her with longing eyes as he tried to find the courage to talk to her.

Then, he would go back to the bar, order his drink and go back outside or with the group, tightening the grip on his glass as he watched the girl he loves being swept away in conversations he couldn’t be a part of, after all, he was just one of the composers and her friend. Nothing else.

The guys and their girlfriends tried to cheer him up, including him in conversations and inviting him to dance. They knew how new this was to him, having to remind themselves every once in a while when they caught his sad eyes dancing across the room on the looks of his fleeting love.

“She came looking for you a few minutes ago while you were outside,” Dani told him the third time he came by the group.

“Why didn’t she go out with me?” He asked, eyes on Y/N as she talked to Michael and one of the producers they met in London a few years back.

“She was going to,” Ashton chimed in “She walked over there but I think Niall caught wind of her and they started to catch up”

Luke clenched his jaw at the thought of Y/N with other men. His mind couldn’t help but to go back to all those articles about her exes, her possible new partners, her possible future partners. Cheating scandals, break-up songs, parties where she didn’t leave alone… All the things she refused to acknowledge came to the surface, hitting Luke in the face as he realized that they might not all be lies.

He hated to think about her that way, to think that he didn’t trust her enough or that she didn’t trust him enough or whatever the fuck was wrong with them. But as he saw how Y/N hugged a stranger, all his thoughts went out the window.

“Who is that?” He asked no one in particular.

“Who?” Bethany asked in response, following Luke’s stare towards her friend “Oh, that’s Josh”

“Josh? As in Josh Benthlow? Her ex?”

Beth furrowed her eyebrows as she saw the look of pure rage on the blonde’s eyes “Uh, yeah? But you got something wrong there” She said, “They never dated”

Y/N laughed at something Josh said, pushing him playfully on the shoulder as he kept telling his story. Luke recognized the look in his eyes; it was the same way he used to look at Y/N when they first met: Pure adoration. And, he didn’t know if it was the alcohol in his system that was making him see things that weren’t there, but he could swear he saw Y/N flirt back at him.

“Friends don’t act like that” He spat, taking another sip from his drink, already losing count of how many he had that night.

“Hey!” Beth called his attention, taking the drink from him “That’s enough now. Alcohol is making you act like a complete asshole”

“I-”

“I don’t care.” She said, interrupting whatever he had to say before he even said it “Look, I get that you’re getting used to all of this. But you need to stop with the jealous act right this instant. She’s famous, yes, they all are and that means that you will have to share her with the world whether you like it or not. It’s her dream after all, and besides Y/N would never do something like that to hurt you and you know it”

Did he?

Not long after the group decided to go back to the hotel, having already stayed at that party longer than necessary given that they have a show the next day. The ride back was quiet, everyone either being too tired to even speak or too smart to try and cut the tension that was being created by the new couple’s behavior. Even when Y/N sat next to Luke he didn’t acknowledge her, keeping his eyes looking outside the window the whole car ride.

Y/N was one of the first ones to get out of the car, walking up to the elevators and not waiting for anyone as the doors closed.

Luke clenched his jaw as he contemplated not going to their room tonight, fighting with the feeling of not wanting to see her and the feeling of never wanting to let her go.

“You need to go there right now,” Calum said, taking a step next to Luke but not looking in his eyes “Having been her friend for so long I can see that she’s upset… Nah, fuck that. Even idiots can see that she’s upset”

Luke scoffed “She’s the one that’s upset?” Voice laced with sarcasm.

Calum hummed “Guess not every idiot can see that” He pressed the button of the elevator and hoped in with Kat, not waiting for Luke as the door closed in his face, but not before saying “You’re not the only one hurting, you know?”

It took another 20 minutes for Luke to open the door of their room. Again, Y/N was nowhere to be seen, but the light coming from under the closed bathroom door let him know that she was there.

He sat at the edge of the bed, hands covering his face as he now wished he hadn't drunk as much as he did. His head was spinning, he couldn’t decipher if it were because of the alcohol or because of his intrusive thoughts that wouldn’t leave his head.

Y/N got out of the bathroom for what it felt like an eternity later. She was wearing her Spongebob pajama and her hair was tied in a messy bun. Her makeup-less face looked tired as she didn’t glance at Luke before sitting by her side of the bed.

They stayed in silence for another five minutes before she decided to speak.

“Are we going to talk about tonight?” She said, voice neutral of any emotion.

Luke scoffed “Now you want to talk?”

She ignored him “I didn’t see you all night, Luke. I was worried”

“Oh, you were?” He mocked with cruel sarcasm as he got up from the bed and started pacing around the room “Funny way to show it you weren’t around!”

“I wasn’t around?! Luke, you spent half the night outside! Every time I came over you were nowhere to be found!”

“And every time I was there you were too busy talking to other people”

“I was working, Luke!” She said with a groan, massaging her temple as she turned to look at him “It’s part of my job to make connections at these kinds of events. And if you didn’t notice, Calum, Ashton, and Michael did the same”

“Well, you must be pretty damn good at your job then!”

Y/N looked at him, shocked by the way he was speaking to her “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Luke was angry at her question. How could she not know? “Why don’t you ask Josh what I mean?”

“Oh my fucking GOD,” She said with the loudest tone he’s ever heard her talk “That’s what this is all about?! He’s a friend!”

“I was a friend, too and we still fucked!” Luke matched her tone of voice, probably waking the people in the room next to theirs.

Y/N laughed humorlessly “You have no right to-”

“And whose fault is that? Huh? Whose fault is that I cannot call you my girlfriend in front of other people? Whose fault is that I have to stand to the side and watch you flirt with every guy on earth just because “it’s your job”?” He asked “Y/N, I’m trying so hard for you to let me in and the only thing you do is push me away! Are you embarrassed by me in any way?”

“No,” She said, finally meeting his eyes and seeing no more anger in them, just an incredible sadness for both of them “No, of course not”

“Then why?” Luke asked, taking a step towards her and cupping her cheek with one hand “Why can’t you let me protect you? Why can’t I be with you freely? I know some things are hard for you to talk about, love. I get that. But I’m drowning here, not knowing what to think or what to say to make you trust me”

Y/N stayed quiet as she looked into his eyes before looking away. Luke sighed.

“We don’t have to talk about this right now. But we’ll have to do it eventually”

“I know,” She said with a string of voice.

“Sorry for the things I said”

“I’m sorry, too”

Luke wanted to kiss her, to comfort her. Even though he is still mad at her, he still has this need to protect her from the wrongs of the world. But she’s got to let him in first.

Instead, Luke placed a kiss on her head and walked towards the bathroom to get changed for the night. When he came back Y/N was already asleep on her side of the bed, her back turned to Luke’s side.

He let out a sigh as he turned off the lights, laying down facing the other side as he murmured a “Good night” Barely missing the soft sniff she gave in response.

The next morning Luke woke up without her by his side. He felt a tug in his heart as he remembered all the things he said to her, the cruel way in which he implied that it was all her fault when both of them had a bit of blame to put in their names. He wouldn’t be surprised if in the middle of the night she decided to leave and sleep somewhere else.

He grabbed his phone from the nightstand, ready to give her a call and apologize properly, hoping she’d pick up. But just as he was about to press the call button, the door opened.

Y/N walked in, sandwich and orange juice in hand. A small smile came to her lips when she saw him already awake.

“Hey,” She said softly, almost like if there were someone else in the room that was sleeping “You missed breakfast, so I bought you this. It’s now much but-“

“Thank you,” Luke said with complete honesty.

Y/N nodded, walking up to his nightstand to place the drink and the sandwich. But before she could walk away again, Luke grabbed her softly by the arm.

“Luke-“

“I’m sorry,” He said, his baby blue eyes looking into hers. He was sad to see no emotion in them compared with how shiny they were yesterday before the fight “I didn’t mean it”

Y/N let out a sigh as she sat on the bed next to him “No, you’re not” She said almost resignedly “And yes, you did. And it’s okay, I deserve it”

Luke shook his head, feeling even worse than before “No, Y/N I was out of place and-“

“You were, but that didn’t make your words any less than truthful. I hurt you, Luke. Even without wanting to” She said with a broken voice, but the tears didn’t come “But I want to change that. Tonight, we can talk after the concert. Okay?”

“I don’t want to pressure you” His hand flew to her face, placing a strand of hair behind her back. She smiled softly and kissed the palm of his hand.

“I know, but I want to” Finally, she got up from the bed and started walking into the bathroom, gathering some of her things. “We’ll start early today with some interviews and sound check, and the girls wanted to go shopping so they’ll meet us there. I will send a car for you before the concert and then we’ll talk. Alright?”

She grabbed her back and headed towards the door, giving Luke one last look and a soft smile before she left.

Luke didn't forget how she didn’t kiss him before she closed the door.

The day passed by and Luke was still in their room. He sat in front of the table with his notebook and pen, writing up words that, at that moment, reminded him of her.

He didn’t like how they were acting with each other. How quick everything went to shit after last night’s mistakes when words were louder than actions until those words became apologies.

Y/N said he didn’t mean his apology, and deep down he knew it to be true. He regrets the way he told her, admiring that he would have handled things a little better than he did. But he meant what he said about her pushing him away by not communicating. They were both trying but apparently, they sucked at it.

Truth was, there was no one to blame. Truth was, they were both at fault. And, truth was that he would still fall to his knees for her the moment she asked. Because he had never loved someone as much as he loved her.

When the time of the concert was almost upon him, he quickly jumped into the shower, ignoring all the beeps and rings of his phone as his thoughts and hopes filled his mind. He thought about what he was going to say to her, and he hoped that they could finally get past this and leave this whole situation behind; to start over and just be free.

He was putting on his shirt when his phone started beeping again, finally checking it to see what the fuss was all about.

Thousands upon thousands of notification flooded his screen, and they all said the same thing:

“Y/N AND MADDEN BACK TOGETHER?!”

“THE ENCOUNTER OF THE YEAR! MADDEN BANKS AND Y/N L/N SEEN TOGETHER AGAIN TALKING ON THE OUTSIDES OF THE VENUE”

“OMG Y/N X MADDEN SHIPPER REJOICE AS THE COUPLE SEEMS TO HAVE REKINDLED THEIR RELATIONSHIP AFTER CHEATING SCANDAL”

Luke felt as if an elephant was standing on top of his chest, losing his balance and falling to the bed with his phone in hand, unable to look away from his screen.

His breathing became elaborated as his eyes filled with tears as he read the tweets and article titles. He knew he shouldn’t click on them. He knew. And yet…

“Lead singer of the band 5 Seconds of Summer, Y/N L/N was last seen talking to her ex-boyfriend, Madden Banks, in a secluded alley outside the venue where the band is going to perform their concert tonight.

We last saw the couple last year around August when Madden announced their breakup after cheating scandals came out to the surface. None of the parties made any comments about it, but it was set to believe that Y/N was the one who committed the mistakes after a set of tweets on Bank’s personal account where it said that he was feeling “broken-hearted” by the situation and he hoped no one had to get through that ever again.

Now it seems that the past is the past! As Y/N and Madden were caught by paparazzi talking again, and by the looks on both their faces it seemed like their relationship was not over after all!

We are still waiting for confirmations from either of them but congratulations to the couple ❤️”

A set of pictures were attached to the article. All of them of bad quality and from questionable sources.

On the first one, you could see Madden smiling with Y/N’s back facing the camera. On the second one, Madden was closer to her, almost cradling her face as if to kiss her. The third picture had Madden pointing out the paparazzi, a surprised expression plastered on his face as Y/N appeared out of focus. The last picture had Y/N walking away with Madden following behind, both of them with angry faces seemingly for being interrupted.

Luke was gripping on his phone tightly, a sense of rage coming over him as he wiped his tears furiously and walked up the door. Turning off his phone before he could read Y/N’s message:

Y/N: it’s not true! Let me explain…

He did not go to the concert that night, nor did he stay in their bedroom, opting for sleeping in the room that was originally assigned to him.

His emotions walked him into a bar last night, letting him drown his sorrows in alcohol as he slowly drifted away from his senses. He doesn’t remember getting to the hotel, but he does remember not wanting to be with her that night. Feeling betrayed and used, what was the point?

It was pretty late when he woke up the next morning, too late for Y/N to even be in the hotel knowing that they still needed to do a lot of press before traveling to their next destination. It was sufficient to say that he was not going to go with them.

He was about to book a flight when he noticed his phone died while being turned off last night. He was in such a rush that he forgot to bring his charger with him, but he felt confident that it was safe for him to go back to her room now that she was gone. He would pack all his things and leave, he was not about to endure any of this shit anymore, no matter how much it hurts him.

When he opened the door to her room, however, Luke noticed that he was not alone.

“You didn’t come last night”

Y/N was standing by the window, looking at the street through the thin curtain, hoping she might catch a glimpse of Luke walking back to her. She was wearing the hotel’s robe and had her hair tied in a ponytail. Her voice was fragile, tired, and broken as if she spent all night crying.

“Good,” thought Luke “at least we’ll both be miserable”

Luke didn’t answer that, instead, he just asked “I thought you’d be doing the press tour”

She shook her head, her back still facing him as she sniffed “I couldn’t go. I didn’t know where you were”

He would’ve thought it was touching and he might’ve felt bad for her if she hadn’t shattered his heart the night before. So he said nothing.

“I needed you last night, Luke,” She said, voice a little firmer as she finally turned around. Luke’s heart ached when he saw her delicate figure, she looked sick, pale, and tired. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was red from all the crying. Part of him wanted to go to her and hold her, but her betrayal was still too fresh on his skin.

Luke scoffed “Sure you did” He didn’t intend for his voice to sound with such malice, but it was almost as if his tongue had a brain on itself “Was Madden not enough?”

“Stop,”

“Is he here?” He asked, voice mocking interest as he walked around the room “C’mon Asshole!” He called, opening the closet doors and walking into the bathroom “You won, motherfucker, you can have her! It’s not like it’s hard anyway”

Her eyes widened at his words, cheeks turning pink at the realization of the insult “Luke!”

“Was this part of your plan?” He asked, turning towards her with nothing but the rage inside his eyes “To bring me here to make him jealous? To make me fall for you so easily? Is that why we never went public? Ha! Should’ve known you just wanted a free pass to whore around while still making sure you have a secure fuck waiting back at the hotel”

Y/N froze. Not even Luke could believe the words that were coming out of his mouth, but he was too far gone in his own anger to process them or to take them back.

“This is the part where you apologize,” She said, eyes filling with tears she refused to spill.

“No, this is the part where I tell you to fuck off” Luke spat, taking a step towards her, not realizing how she flinched as she took a step back “You know, I tried so fucking hard for months to make you happy. And every day I read those fucking articles that were talking shit about you and every fucking day I told myself that those weren’t real. That you weren’t like that… surprise, surprise! Looks like the cat is out of the bag. Makes sense! That’s why you never wanted to talk, you never wanted to admit to what you did because you never take any fucking responsibilities for the damages you cause! I thought I knew you, at least some parts of you. Turns out everyone is right about you. Every fucking word of it”

He turned around, ready to grab his things and go, but the adrenaline was kicking in and he just couldn’t stop.

“Tell Madden that he’s an idiot for taking you back,” He said with his back turned to her “That he should’ve left your cheating ass alone. Let you get what you deserve”

“I never cheated” She mumbled, voice barely above a whisper.

He scoffed “Yeah, right”

“I never fucking cheated!” Y/N raised his voice, making Luke turn around to face her. Her face was red with tears and she had her fist clenched to her sides, knuckles white from all the pressure she was putting in.

“I never cheated on Madden! I never fucking cheated on you! On anyone! He cheated on me, repeatedly and with several people for all the course of our relationship! I never touched a person outside ANY of my relationships. I have been nothing but faithful to you and now you’re throwing that shit at me without knowing an ounce of my side of the story?!

You want to know, Luke, why I never tell the story as it was? Why it’s so fucking hard for me to tell the story even to the people I love?”

It was a challenge, he knew from the look in her eyes that she was not going to stay quiet any longer. She didn’t even wait for his answer.

“I was fucking abused, Luke! Physically, mentally, sexually… you fucking name it! During that whole relationship. Want me to tell you the details or you could figure it out yourself?! I was getting beaten almost daily! I had to hide the bruises and cuts in front of the guys as they slowly watched me fall apart. I had to lie to them for YEARS because I genuinely thought he loved me. He said he did so I believed him. It wasn’t until one night where he got too far that I had to tell myself that it was enough. But what could I say? I was so fucking embarrassed I couldn’t go to the media that calls me a liar every chance they have! I couldn’t go to the police because he has money and could easily get away with it! I was so fucking alone until I met you and… You took his side”

Luke felt like his heart was taking a punch with every word that she said. Every tear that fell off her eyes was like a knife in the back. The guilt was eating him inside out, crashing into him like a tsunami. He should’ve kept his mouth shut, he shouldn’t have let his emotions take the reins, he should’ve... He felt all of his emotions turn to mush, all but shame as he stared into her eyes knowing he was the one who fucked up.

“Y/N-“

“I needed you last night when he cornered me. I needed you by my side as I broke down backstage because you weren’t answering your phone. How do you think I felt when I came into our room and found it empty? I was ready to tell you everything and then you just decided that wasn’t worth it anymore. That I wasn’t worthy anymore. All without giving me a chance” She cried, shattering sobs running through her body as she remembered the feeling of hopelessness she had “Not only that, but I come to find this on your side of the bed”

She threw his notebook at him, he didn’t need to open it to know what she read. Already regretting leaving it there.

“Sometimes, you're a stranger in my bed

Don't know if you love me or you want me dead.

Some days, you're the best thing in my life

Sometimes when I look at you, I see my wife

Then you turn into somebody I don't know

And you push me away

Fight so dirty, but your love's so sweet

Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth

Late-night devil, put your hands on me

And never let go”

She recited the words by memory, having read them over and over again as she waited for him to come back.

“Is that really how you see me, Luke?” She asked, voice broken as she looked into his eyes.

Luke felt his body tremble with shame as he looked at her. He has never seen her look so sad and fragile before, the smile he loved so much was gone and he knew he might never see it again. He wanted to scream that that’s now how he saw her at all. Those words were written out of frustration, out of anger. He wanted to tell her that she’s the most amazing, loving, strong, intelligent person he know but... how could he even look her in the eyes?

He knew that he went too far. That he should’ve given her a chance to explain what happened instead of just letting the media fill his brain with lies; lies he believed without question because of his insecurities. He broke the strongest girl he’s ever known, but she was still standing.

Despite the hurt, he caused her, she was still standing in front of him. Demanding answers he doesn’t know how to give. Still being so much braver than him.

“Y/N, I-“ He began, voice breaking as he was left speechless. How could he ask for her forgiveness now that he broke every ounce of trust she held for him?

“Luke, I think you should leave,” She said, rounding her arms around her torso as she looked back at the window. Unable to hold her gaze to him any longer.

“No,” Luke begged of her. Pleaded, even “Y/N, baby don’t-“

“Leave” She repeated more firmly “If I’m such a monster, the best thing we can do is for you to go home”

She turned her back to him once again, and he knew that he had just lost the battle he was too scared to even fight.

Y/N cried silent tears as she heard him gather his belongings and pack his bags, feeling as if she might collapse into the floor if she weren’t holding herself too tightly. If she concentrated, she could hear him cry, too, until he closed the last of his bags and walked through the door.

Because, after all, he would still go to the ends of the world if she asked.

Tags: @iknowyouthinkimbulletproof @mystic-232 @talksoprettyjjx @theshyspy @hoodhoran @flaneurcth @notinthesameguey @bubblegum18 @irwin-fletcher-ash @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @1980holland @myloverboyash @nicebasscalum @calumspupils @secretsicanthideanymore @the-ghost-of-ash @alltimesos @kingxnichole @givebuckyhisplumsnow @hufflehemm @girl-toxxic

173 notes · View notes

jmnjmnjmn · 3 years

Text

Celebrity Crush| part 1 | BTS x Reader mini series

Pairing: BTS x Celebrity!Reader

Key words: celebrity crush, singer, idol.

Word count: around 8,000

Masterlist

Okay, this one is just regular fluff, but it definitely has potential to become more juicy, maybe even angsty... I had many ideas when I was writing it, but decided upon cutting it where I did. Maybe there will be part two to this story, maybe not. If there will be it will also probably be able to functionas a totaly separate one shot. Also I couldn’t decide on a ship here! Initially it was supposed to be RM, but I kept coming back to JK (my bias xd). That’s where possibility of an angst story lays... Anyway tell me what you think of this piece!

“AH!” Namjoon exclaimed, dropping his spoon down into his soup.

“Hey, watch it! You’re spilling everything!” Seokjin yelled back at him as some of his friend's soup splashed out from his bowl.

“What happened?” Hoseok asked, sipping his soup slowly and looking at Namjoon with curiosity.

“It’s-It’s (Y/N).” He stuttered out, his eyes still glued to the screen of his phone. He was scrolling through Twitter when he noticed a tweet from his favourite female artist, (Y/N), announcing her world wide tour.

“What? Did she message you?” Seokjin asked him with a chuckle, knowing well that wouldn’t happen.

“I wish.” Namjoon scoffed and clicked on a link to an article some music site posted immediately after reading (Y/N)’s tweet. “(Y/N) has announced details of her long-awaited world tour.” He read out loud to his friends already feeling his heartbeat pick up. “The singer has continuously updated her fans on the details, promising them that she was working on the announcement. Now, via a short video on Instagram simply captioned ‘Hello world’, she has finally revealed when and where the No Limitations tour will be starting off. You can see the full dates, which she simultaneously posted on her Twitter account, below.” He quickly scrolled down to take a look at the dates and locations. His jaw dropped as he scanned down the list and noticed the Asia leg of the tour. “Soul is on the list.” He muttered. “In January. Seoul is on the list.” He repeated looking at his friends with wide eyes.

“Finally!” Hoseok exclaimed reaching across the table to pat him on the shoulder. “You can go see her then.”

“It hasn’t been announced when tickets will go on sale.” Namjoon said in panic as he frantically searched the internet for information about the tour.

“I’m sure our staff can get you in there without a ticket.” Seokjin said casually, but Namjoon took the matter very seriously. (Y/N) wasn’t just someone who’s music he liked. He also had a huge crush on her as a girl in general and he wasn’t about to pass on an opportunity to see her perform live.

“I have to talk to our PD about that.” He said in an excited tone and clicked his Messages app to draft up a passionate yet professional text saying how much he wants, no, needs to go to (Y/N)’s Seoul concert.

“Now?” Seokjin asked, taken aback a little by his fast pace.

“No time to waste. It’s (Y/N) we’re talking about.” Namjoon chuckled. “If all goes well maybe we could work on some music together.”

“Yeah and maybe something more.” Hoseok teased him, earning a loud laugh from Seokjin. Namjoon only smiled up at them from his phone, because among those who followed the news about BTS it was a well known fact that he had a thing for (Y/N).

Whenever they would get asked about their celebrity crushes in interviews he would say (Y/N)’s name. Ideal girl - someone like (Y/N). A song they could listen to on loop - (Y/N)’s latest single. Fashion inspiration at the moment - (Y/N). Favourite movie - that one (Y/N) had a cameo in for like three minutes. It would happen so much that ARMY’s started making compilations of him talking about her on YouTube called “Namjoon drooling over (Y/N) for 7 minutes straight” and so on. At first he was embarrassed about it, but after some time that awkward feeling turned into hope that maybe she’ll see it and fall for him as well. He knew it was wishful thinking, but he still liked to imagine the moment you would message him saying you would love to collab on a song.

“I’m going to go talk to our PD.” Namjoon said, as he took off the bright pink sunglasses with Happy New Year written on top of them in a silly font. He wore them for the small photoshoot they just had for BTS’s New Year’s Eve post on Twitter.

“Now?” Jimin asked him, raising his brows. He was still wearing his party hat he put on for the session. “It’s New Year’s Eve.”

“I know. I just-” He was interrupted by Taehyung’s loud cheer. “I’ll be right back.” Jimin just shook his head at his eagerness to find out whether (Y/N)’s staff has already answered BigHit’s request for letting Namjoon go to your show with a backstage pass as a celebrity guest of sorts.

Since they were already at the BigHit headquarters for the photoshoot and a little celebration for the beginning of the new year Namjoon had to walk just a couple of doors down to get to PD’s office. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door. After hearing a faint invitation he pressed on the handle and opened it.

“Oh, it’s you. Why aren’t you with the others celebrating?” The PD asked, obviously surprised to see Namjoon.

“Ah, yes. I’ll be joining them in a minute.” He said, remembering Jimin’s words. “I just came here to ask about the No Limitations show. It’s in January and since it’s already first of the month I wondered-”

“Ah, of course.” PD cut him off with a smile. “You're going.”

“Really?” Namjoon asked in shock.

“Yes, all of you are.” Namjoon must have looked very confused for a moment there, because PD rushed with an explanation. “We got an answer saying they were going to issue a formal invitation to the concert and an after party to the whole band anyway. Go and pass on the news to the rest of the boys. We’ll have a proper meeting about this next week.” Namjoon thanked him accesively and assured he’ll let the rest of the members know about the situation. As he walked down the hall he heard their voices from the dance studio they had the photo shoot in. He was speechless.

“It’s happening.” He thought, leaning on the wall to catch a breath before coming inside. After a moment he pushed the door open and joined his group members with a bright smile.

“Guys, guys. Listen” He called. “We’re going to (Y/N)’s concert!” He exclaimed and they cheered, gathering around him, smothering him with hugs and tugging on his cheeks teasingly.

“Look at him.” Jimin chuckled pointing at Namjoon who was pacing around the room. “So excited for the concert.”

“Of course he is. He’s going to meet his crush.” Seokjin added, also laughing.

The whole group was teasing him about (Y/N) all throughout January. It was seventeenth today, the day of her Seoul show and he couldn’t wait. They already got their hair and makeup done. They were dressed to the nines. All that was left was to get to the show.

“The car is here.” Someone from the staff announced and all the boys got up from their spots. As they walked down the hall together they all took turns patting Namjoon on the shoulder for encouragement.

“Do you think we’ll have a chance to talk to her?” Jungkook asked with excitement when they were all in the car together.

“Of course!” Hoseok exclaimed.

“No, but like, for real talk. Not just: nice to meet you, let’s take a picture, goodbye.” The youngest explained quickly.

“Hopefully.” Seokjin said, patting Namjoon on the thigh as that was something he was worried about. He would definitely be happy if he got even only a second with (Y/N), but he wished for more.

After a short drive the car stopped in an underground parking lot under the venue of the concert. As they got outside they could hear the cheers of the crowds gathered outside. Their staff took them on an elevator explaining once again how the night will go. First a before party with other guests, then the concert itself and after that the after party at a hotel. Namjoon repeated the sequence of these events in his head a million times already. Technically he was prepared, but practically he was a mess. His hands were sweating and his heart was racing like crazy. He looked around the small elevator at his closest friends and the familiar faces of BigHit staff who were accompanying them. Realising he has so many people around him for support eased his nerves a little.

“I can’t believe we’re in the same building.” Namjoon muttered under his breath.

“Yeah, she was also in the same building as us at the VMA’s and AMA’s and so on.” Yoongi teased him and everyone chuckled.

“That’s true, Namjoon.” Taehyung agreed with a grin. “You shouldn’t be so worried.”

“Easy for you to say.” Namjoon added right as the elevator door opened.

“Yeah, she already saw us perform at one of the award shows. She knows who we are. It’s going to be fine.” Jimin said in a nervous tone. Namjoon just nodded to himself trying to make the anxious thoughts go away as they approached the area where the before party was held.

They were all excited to see (Y/N)’s show and attend her after party, but with the tremendous enthusiasm also came the stress of meeting an A list celebrity from overseas.

“I can’t believe she’s still not here.” Namjoon whined to Taehyung and Jimin as the rest of the group scattered to chat with other invited idols and celebrities. “All the dancers and her band are here already.”

“It’s still early.” Taehyung tried to cheer him up. “She’ll show up any moment. I’m sure.”

“Definitely.” Jimin agreed with him energetically.

Before Namjoon could voice another concerned thought lingering in his brain everyone in the room started cheering and clapping. He looked around wondering what caused this reaction as he noticed the obvious reason.

“Thank you all so much for coming.” (Y/N) said stopping somewhere in the middle of the gathered crowd of celebrities and staff. “It means a lot. Really.” She put her hand to her chest as she spoke. “If all goes well the show will be starting in a couple of minutes. Wish me luck and have fun.”

“That’s it?” Taehyung asked as (Y/N) was rushed away by her staff to the stage entry. “I thought she was going to chat with everyone or something.”

“Do you chat with guests before the show?” Jimin asked. “That’s what the after party is for.” He explained and Namjoon hummed in agreement. Just the quick glimpse he caught of her was enough to leave him speechless.

“Let’s go watch the show.” Hoseok said approaching the three from behind with the rest of the group following close behind.

There was a big screen in the backstage lounge and a couple of smaller TV’s located at the stage entries for those that wanted to glance at the stage during the show to see the real deal. They watched the first half of the show in the lounge and later relocated to the left entry area. Namjoon’s eyes were glued to the screen as everyone around him chatted away. He tried to pay attention to the conversation and partake from time to time, but his focus quickly went back to (Y/N). She looked stunning singing and dancing on stage.

Suddenly a group of staff dressed in all black rushed into the area they were hanging out in with some other guests.

“Wardrobe change, left.” One of the staff said as she clicked on her earpiece.

Namjoon almost jumped out of his seat when he saw (Y/N) jogging down from the stage and into the swarm of her people from her team.

“Woah, that gave me chills.” Yoongi commented as (Y/N) passed by them surrounded by her wardrobe, hair and makeup team.

“Say something.” Hoseok whispered, elbowing Namjoon’s side.

“Like what?” He asked following (Y/N) with his gaze as she disappeared behind her dressing room's door.

“Great show, looking good. Anything really.” He encouraged him with a cheeky smile.

“No.” Namjoon shook his head, already feeling the blood rushing to his head.

“Do it. Do it.” The rest of the members repeated after Hoseok, but he only shook his head once again.

“She’ll come out any second.” Seokjin added in a warning tone.

He was right. The dance number performed by her backup dancers was getting to an end and (Y/N) should be running out onto the stage soon to sing the next song.

“Great show!” Jungkook yelled out in English.

All the boys’s heads snapped in his direction and then onto (Y/N). She was walking out of her dressing room in long strides. As Jungkook yelled out his praise she turned to look his way without stopping,

“Thank you!” She answered quickly before being escorted by her staff into the understage corridors.

All the boys started shoving and pushing the youngest member teasingly.

“Namjoon was supposed to say that. You took over his part. Jungkook, you’re so eager.” They yelled with laughter.

“What time is it?” Taehyung asked the group as most of the guests gathered in the backstage lounge to watch the encore of the show.

“It’s close to eleven.” Seokjin answered, looking at his phone.

“Before we finish off the show with this last song I just wanted to take a minute to say: Thank you so much.” (Y/N)’s voice echoed from the stage and through the speakers in the lounge. She was standing in the bright lights holding the mic to her lips. “Thank you for choosing to come see the show and spending the night here with us. I really can’t even begin to express how grateful I am for all of you, here in the audience and back at home watching and streaming my music and the shows. Thank you so much.”

“Ah, she’s so nice. Never forgetting about her fans.” People around muttered.

“I really, truly appreciate you guys. I cannot imagine how this year would’ve gone if I hadn't spent it with all of you, all of the people on the stage and behind it. We’ve been away from our homes for so long.” (Y/N) voice got higher with nerves and sadness that came over her as she spoke about her home. “We’re coming close to ten months on the road now. That’s a long time.” She said, bringing her hand to her chest to show her gratitude. “Thank you so much for putting up with me.” She chuckled and the staff cheered. “I feel so lucky and so fortunate to be working with all of you and to be able to perform in front of all of you.” She sighed deeply, undoubtedly masking a cry. “So thank you. I love you so much. Thank you.”

The audience was shouting and applauding loudly as (Y/N) walked off the stage waving to them. As soon as she was out of the view she handed her microphone to one of the sound people and took a big gulp of water from the bottle one of the staff handed her.

“Thank you.” She breathed out. “I need to get out of this hair as soon as possible.” She chuckled tiredly as she walked into her dressing room.

“We’ve got about twenty minutes to get you ready for the after party.” Her assistant, who was waiting inside, spoke calmly as the beauty and wardrobe team gathered around (Y/N) quickly taking out the bobby pins from her hair and undoing the back of her dress. “There’s quite a lot of guests your manager would like you to talk to, at least for a minute.” She said and quickly moved on to listing all the most important people attending the party.

“Have any of those people been informed that I might want to reach out to work with them later?” (Y/N) asked, getting into her oversized sweatshirt dress with the help of some staff so that she doesn’t ruin her makeup.

“No, that’ll be done after tonight. Sometime this week though.” She explained scrolling through something on her tablet.

“What time is the flight to Osaka tomorrow?” (Y/N)’s voice sounded tired as she thought of getting on another plane.

“Actually, there’s been a change of plans.” Her assistant said casually. “You got surprise booked for a daytime show tomorrow, so we’re staying in Seoul for that for the whole day and flying to Japan the next morning. The crew will be already there setting everything up for Saturday.”

“Two days in Seoul?” (Y/N) was surprised.

“Mhm.”

“What’s the show?”

“King of Masked Singer. You’re going to be the surprise opening act. I’ll fill you in on everything tomorrow morning.”

“Perfect.” She said smiling at herself in the mirror as the hairstylist was fixing up her hair.

“Heels or sneakers?” One of the wardrobe girls asked.

“Heels.” (Y/N) answered without hesitation. She wanted to look her best when surrounded with so many new faces at the after party and pairing sneakers with an oversized sweatshirt didn’t seem like the greatest combination for that.

“Ready.” The head stylist stated as one of the staff helped (Y/N) get into her thigh high booties.

From there, accompanied by security, (Y/N) and her assistant walked to the elevator that took them to the parking lot located under the venue.

As (Y/N)’s car pulled up in front of the hotel a swarm of fans and paparazzi started yelling out her name and waving to get her attention. She stopped to get her pictures taken, walked up to a couple of fans to sign their albums or pictures and walked inside to get to the after party. With her assistant following her every step and the three body guards right behind them she took yet another elevator to the hotel bar rented for the occasion.

“Let’s do this.” (Y/N) whispered to herself as she pushed the bar door open.

When she walked deeper into the crowded room random hands touched her shoulders and unknown voices spoke words of praise directed her way. She smiled and thanked the faceless mass making her way towards the DJ’s stand.

“That’s her.” Hoseok whispered as (Y/N) passed by the group of boys.

“Woah. She’s dressed cool.” Taehyung gasped, eying down her figure.

When she stepped onto the slightly elevated stage the DJ stopped the music and handed her a microphone. A wave of cheers erupted from the gathered guests as everyone noticed the star of the night had arrived.

“Hi.” (Y/N) spoke sweetly into the microphone and let the crowd yell or whistle back at her for a moment. “It’s so nice to see all of you here.” She chuckled. “Eat, drink, have fun. It’s all on me tonight. Just tonight.” She joked and the crowd clapped and yelled in excitement. “I know you all came here after the concert, but it’s not all about my music tonight.” Her tone turned mysterious all of a sudden. “It’s actually a very special day for someone else as well. A very funny guy, an inspiration in the studio, a dance mastermind and a dear friend and coworker of mine.” With every endearment term she listed the cheers got wilder. “Johnny Campbell. Where you at?” She asked looking around the room.

“Here!” Someone called out in the front of the room.

“Johnny, this is for you.” (Y/N) said in a low voice and started singing a very sexy adaptation of the birthday song.

As she finished someone in the crowd whistled and Johnny joined her on stage.

“Happy birthday Johnny.” (Y/N) finished off her wishes and hugged him tightly. “Let’s party, everyone!” She exclaimed into the microphone earning a loud cheer from everyone gathered at the bar.

(Y/N) made her way to the bar, stopping to chat and take a picture with someone every couple of steps. More than twenty minutes had passed from the moment she got off stage to when she finally got to the counter and grabbed herself a glass of expensive champagne. She sipped on the bubbly liquid and chatted to members of her dance crew. Looking around the room she locked eyes with a guy she recognised from somewhere. It took her a minute to realise it was BTS’s Jimin she was looking at. She smiled to herself, remembering that his group was on her manager’s to-talk-to list. Being halfway done with her drink she decided to down it and get another one before walking up to the group of boys.

“Oh my god.” Jimin exclaimed. “(Y/N) just looked here.”

“Where is she?” Namjoon asked, feeling his panic and excitement blur into one.

“At the bar.” He answered through gritted teeth.

“She’s coming here. She’s coming here.” Jungkook said quickly as (Y/N) made her way towards them.

“Hi, guys. I’m so glad you could make it.” She said in a sweet tone. “I’m (Y/N).”

“We know.” Jungkook blurted out which would normally earn him a shove to the shoulder from the older members, but the sound of (Y/N)’s chuckle at his comment made them relax and join her with nervous laughter. “I’m Jungkook.” He added extending his hand.

“I know.” (Y/N) answered with a smile and went for a hug and kiss on the cheek instead of a simple handshake.

“You know?” He asked in shock.

“Yes, I saw you guys perform at award shows, your music is everywhere. I know BTS.” The members smiled widely as she explained and started greeting the rest of them in the same way one by one. The hugs were quick, but still sincere. “I’m so happy you found time in your busy schedule to come see my show.”

“We wouldn’t miss it.” Namjoon said, trying to sound cool and collected. He wasn’t going to mention that he practically begged their PD to get them backstage.

“Oh, thank you.” She smiled and Namjoon’s knees almost went weak at the sight.

“Yes, great show.” Jungkook added and the group laughed.

“Oh, it was you.” (Y/N) also laughed realising it was Jungkook who yelled the words of praise her way halfway through the concert.

“Yes, I… Liked your dance with… By Your Side.” Jungkook said slowly making sure he picked the right words. “Great choreography.”

“Thank you.” She answered, bringing her hand to her chest as she accepted his compliment. “It’s nothing compared to your routines though. Those look hard.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you. We work hard. A lot of practice.” They muttered with modesty.

“Honestly!” (Y/N) exclaimed. “I was trying to learn the routine for your song with Halsey with my girls… So hard.”

“Boy With Luv?” Jimin raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, but the foot choreo was killing me.” She complained jokingly.

“Hyung, ask her which member’s part she learned.” Jungkook asked Namjoon in Korean.

“He wants to know which member’s choreography you learned.” Namjoon explained.

“Yours,” (Y/N) pointed to Jungkook.

“Me?” He asked and she nodded energetically. “Hyung, say I can teach her the choreography.” He added in Korean with a wide smile, still shocked he’s talking to such a huge star. Namjoon and the rest of the boys laughed at the youngest member’s bluntness.

“He’s saying he’ll teach you.” Namjoon hurried with an explanation as (Y/N) looked confused by what they were laughing about.

“Watch out, ‘cause I’ll take you up on that offer.” She raised her brow at Jungkook cheekily who looked at Namjoon for a translation.

“She says she might take you up on that.” He translated to his friend and he laughed, feeling a blush creep up onto his face.

“I sang your song during soundcheck today.” (Y/N) stated and all the members raised their brows at her.

“Which one?” Jungkook asked.

“Sweet Night. V’s solo.” She said pointing to Taehyung. “It’s such a sweet song and you sound amazing in it.” She said, touching his shoulder.

“Thank you so much.” Taehyung smiled, bowing to her slightly.

Not in many moments Namjoon was glad that his members couldn’t speak English as well as he did, but right now he couldn’t be happier about it. They were all so excited to be talking to (Y/N) they forgot their tongues. The alcoholic beverages that they already consumed didn’t help either. They asked him for translations every other sentence, meaning (Y/N) needed him to translate for her as well, meaning he was talking to her more than any other member, meaning she looked at him more than at any other member. Despite the language barrier the conversation flowed so easily between them. He felt ecstatic.

“(Y/N).” Her assistant called her name and brought her to the side for a moment.” It’s showtime.”

By saying “showtime” she meant that it’s time for (Y/N) to perform a song or two to entertain the guests and keep the party going.

“I’ll be right there.” She answered her and walked back to the group of boys.

“V, could I borrow you for a moment?” She asked with a sweet voice.

Unsure of what she might want from him, but still excited Taehyung followed (Y/N) into the bar.

“You said you love Underneath and know the lyrics by heart.” She said, glancing at him as they walked side by side through the crowded room filled with chatter and music. Taehyung hummed in agreement, feeling his heartbeat grow faster and faster. “You know them well enough to sing it live with me now?”

“What?” He asked, almost tripping over his own feet.

“I’m supposed to perform a couple of songs now. Would you like to perform one with me?” She asked stopping and looked him in the eyes with hope.

“Of course.” Taehyung answered, giving her his signature box smile.

“Great!” She exclaimed and grabbed his hand to lead him backstage. “This way.”

“Where do you think she took him?” Seokjin asked as (Y/N) disappeared with Taehyung in the crowd.

“I have no idea.” Namjoon answered, also curious about the whole ordeal.

“She’s very nice.” Jungkook commented.

“Yeah, nicer than I imagined.” Yoongi added.

“We have to get a picture together.” Hoseok said and the rest of the boys agreed.

“Look, there’s (Y/N).” Jimin pointed towards the stage where the DJ’s booth was located.

“Welcome to the stage, the one and only, (Y/N) and Korea’s very own, V of BTS!” Announced the DJ and all the boys’s jaws dropped to the floor.

“What?!” They screamed in unison.

“Hi.” (Y/N) said in a low voice. “V and I have a very special cover for you tonight. Please enjoy, Underneath.”

The rest of the members sang along to the fast paced pop song as V and (Y/N) performed. The lyrics talked about hidden feelings and the tension that can build up if you don’t give them a way out. Even though (Y/N) and Taehyung never sang together before their voices blended perfectly in the duet. When they finished their performance the crowd applauded loudly. (Y/N) put her arm behind Taehyung and he did the same. Joined in this side hug they bowed to the audience.

After a minute or two Taehyung got back to his friends with the widest smile on his face.

“Can you believe this?” He was still in shock.

“Congratulations. You were so good. Woah.” All the boys chattered at the same time.

“I recorded you.” Seokjin added as he pulled out his phone from his pocket. They gathered around the small screen watching Taehyung and (Y/N)’s performance once again.

“Where is she?” Namjoon asked Taehyung as the video came to an end.

“Last I saw her she was talking to MAMAMOO.”

“Ah, so cool. She’s probably busy. We didn’t even take a picture together.” The group chimed. After a moment of sulking they went back to obsessing over the fact that they met (Y/N) and that one of their own members sang with her.

Surrounded by music, food and alcohol the time seemed to fly by very fast. Accompanied by their staff they left the party around two in the morning without having a chance to talk to (Y/N) one more time.

Mornings after concerts are usually pretty bad for both the audience members and the performing artists, but mornings after concerts combined with after parties, meeting new people and mingling with every music producer possible are even harder.

(Y/N) woke up with a headache and a bitter taste in her mouth. From her bed she walked straight to the bathroom to take a shower. When brushing her teeth she scrolled through her Twitter feed reviewing every other caption or photo on the endless string of posts from last night she was tagged in. She liked a couple of tweets posted by her friends and was about to lock her phone when she noticed a simple caption.

“Great show #정국” (Y/N) pressed on the picture to see it whole. She immediately recognised Jungkook, one of the members of BTS, a band she met last night. He was standing in front of the big monitor backstage with her tour logo on it, making hearts with his fingers and smiling at the camera. She smiled to herself remembering how easily yesterday’s conversation flowed with the group of boys.

“Ah, I wish I had his number.” (Y/N) muttered. “I could take him up on that dance lesson offer.”

(Y/N) rushed to open her hotel room’s door to the room service. The hoteboy brought in the big breakfast she just ordered minutes ago and set it on the table. As she got ready to dig into the scrambled eggs her phone started vibrating. She looked at the called ID and quickly picked up as she saw it was her assistant calling. She gave her a quick rundown of the day’s events and informed her she’s free to rest and relax until three in the afternoon.

“That’s when they’ll pick us up for King of Masked Singer.” She finished explaining.

“I have one more question.” An interesting idea popped into (Y/N)’s head. “Is there a way you could get me the number of BTS’s Jungkook?”

(Y/N)’s phone chimed as she was finishing up her breakfast. She picked it up reading the message she just recieved.

“I got it.” As she read the message from her assistant another one appeared on the screen. This time it was a string of numbers.

“Ah, what should I say?” (Y/N) pasted the number into her contacts and waited a minute before pressing the dial button. The phone beeped a couple of times before going silent. Jungkook didn’t pick up. “Hm. Let’s try again.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Jungkook was hanging out with his friends in their shared apartment. He was typing something up on his phone when the screen lip up with an unfamiliar number.

“Hyung, do you know this number?” He showed the ringing screen to Taehyung sitting beside him on the couch.

“No. Pick up.” Jungkook just shook his head at his answer.

“I don’t pick up unknown callers.” He rejected the call and went back to what he was doing. “This person is calling again.”

“Pick up.” More preoccupied with switching through TV channels, Taehyung encouraged him tiredly. Jungkook swiped right to take the call and put it on speaker.

“Hello?” He asked in Korean.

“Ah- Hello.” Jungkook and Taehyung locked eyes in surprise and curiosity as the person on the other side spoke in English. “It’s (Y/N). From yesterday.” Taehyung almost screamed in shock. Jungkook felt all his blood rush to his head.

“Ah, sorry. Hello. Sorry.” He stumbled over his words, trying to explain why he didn’t answer her call at first ring. “I don’t pick up if I don’t know the number.” (Y/N) chuckled on the other end of the line.

“It’s fine.” Her voice was sweet and calm. “Actually, I’m calling, ‘cause I’m still in Seoul-” Taehyung stood up from the couch covering his mouth with his hands, still in deep shock. “-and I was wondering- I was thinking about what you said last night, so…” Jungkook scrunched his eyebrows, trying his hardest to remember what he said that made (Y/N) call him the next morning. “If you have time we could meet and dance together.” Taehyung gasped. “You could teach me the Boy With Luv choreo and-” Jungkook couldn’t control himself and answered her before she could even finish asking the question.

“Yes.” He blurted out. Taehyung jumped back on the couch and pushed his shoulder with a huge smile.

“Really?”

“Yes, yes.” He assured her.

“Should I come to your-” Eager to see her he cut her off again.

“You can come to our studio. I will text you the address.”

“Great. I’m free until three in the afternoon so text me the time as well.” She added.

“Okay.”

“Okay. I’ll see you there.” (Y/N) added after a moment of silence.

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye.”

“AH!” Jungkook threw his phone, which felt red hot in his hands right now, on the other side of the couch.

“What was that?!” Taehyung yelled, shaking on his shoulders. “How did she get your number?!”

“I have no idea!” Jungkook felt his body relax as he was no longer on the phone. “Oh my god. I have to text her now!” He reached to dig his phone out from under a stack of pillows and blankets on the couch. “And I have to go see her!”

“You’re doing great.” Jungkook praised (Y/N) with laughter as she jokingly overdid the moves and gestures in the choreography. “Like that.”

“Okay, but in all seriousness how did I do?” She asked, cutting the jokes short. Jungkook raised his thumbs up with a smile and she chuckled again.

“Let’s do it again and record it so we can review. You vs me.” He set his phone up on the floor by the mirrors in the studio space at BigHit.

“Teacher vs student.” Jungkook just hummed in agreement before playing the music.

Tired after practicing Boy With Luv for an hour and freestyling for almost two more (Y/N) and Jungkook sat down on the floor of the dance studio panting. She stood up to get herself some water and immediately regretted it.

“Ah, my legs.” Jungkook smiled at her words. Although (Y/N) danced in her music videos and during live performances her routines were far more relaxed that BTS’s regular dances. Their moves were sharp and strong and her’s more sexy and slow. Chucked her emptied water bottle back into her bag and turned to face Jungkook again. “Are you hungry?” He raised his brows, knowing what will come next if he says he is in fact hungry.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go eat something.” Her proposition was so blunt and free. He could not refuse her, but the excitement that filled his chest at that moment didn’t overshadow the fact that the rest of his group would be so bummed they didn’t get to eat with (Y/N) as well.

“Ah, can I do this to them?” He whined in Korean. (Y/N) gave him a confused look since she didn’t understand a word he just said. “My members will be jealous.” He explained with a slight smile.

“Oh, I didn’t think about that. Should we invite them?” That Jungkook wasn’t expecting.

“You want that?” He asked to make sure he didn’t just hear something wrong. (Y/N) smiled sincerely at his unsure expression.

“Yeah, why not?” Jungkook quickly got up from the ground and dug his phone up from his pocket.

“I’ll call them. Wait a second.”

“Okay.” (Y/N) answered as he walked out of the studio to call his friends.

Jungkook dialed Namjoon’s number, knowing he was at the apartment right now enjoying his day of rest. The line beeped a couple of times before he finally picked up.

“Hello?” His voice was low and sleepy in contrast with Jungkook’s, which was excited and fast paced.

“Hyung, listen. Get the rest of the guys and put me on speaker. I have something to tell all of you.”

“What is it?”

“Are they all there?”

“Wait a second.” Some shuffling and name calling was heard on the other side of the line before Namjoon spoke up again. “Okay, go.”

“So I’m with (Y/N) right now. We just got done dancing and all that and… She’s invited us all to lunch.”

“What? Oh, wow. Really? How cool.” The group erupted in chatter as they heard Jungkook’s news.

“Yeah. Can you come?”

“Of course. Yes. I can’t.” Another bundle of statements was heard.

“Who can’t?” Jungkook asked, saddened.

“Yoongi.” Seokjin said.

“I already have plans with our producers, but you all should go.” Yoongi explained, still encouraging the rest of the boys to go out.

“You sure?” Namjoon asked.

“Yes, go.”

“We’ll take a picture for you.” Hoseok joked.

“What are we going to eat?” Taehyung asked out of the blue.

“I don’t know.” Jungkook answered, not really having thought about that yet.

“Since we know Seoul maybe we should pick the place?” Seokjin proposed thoughtfully.

“Good idea. I’ll tell her that. When will you come here?”

“Thirty minutes? We need to get dressed.” Namjoon said and murmur of agreement was heard.

“Okay, okay. Don’t overdress though, we’re both in sweatpants.” Jungkook added with a chuckle. After exchanging goodbyes he hung up and sighed deeply, letting his shoulders relax a little before going back into the studio.

When he opened the door he saw (Y/N) stretching her legs in a sitting down position. He joined her on the floor before speaking.

As Taehyung pulled into BigHit’s parking lot Jungkook and (Y/N) were already waiting outside. Both dressed in large black puffer jackets going over their knees, they stood beside one another. Jungkook was looking over (Y/N)’s shoulder pointing to something on her phone.

“Now you can add a picture.” He said, swiping his finger on her screen. (Y/N) nodded and pressed on the camera option.

“Take a selfie with me.” She asked, raising her phone up to take a picture of the two of them.

Jungkook smiled shyly and pulled his mask down half way. (Y/N) did the same before snapping a cute picture to set as her contact photo. Jungkook quickly pulled his mask back up to cover his cheeks that started to turn bright red. He glanced over her shoulder as she manipulated the photo to fit both of their faces into the small square.

“And synchronise your contacts, so I will be there.” He added as she finally accepted the placement of the picture.

“Oh, great.”

“Yeah.” (Y/N) pressed on the ‘synch contacts’ button before looking up at Jungkook.

“Thank you.” She said sweetly and pulled her mask back over her nose.

“You’re welcome.”

Taehyung noticed the two of them standing in front of the building exit and slowly pulled up. As he got closer he rolled down his window.

“Hello!” The sudden greeting made them jump up slightly.

“Hi!” (Y/N) called back sweetly.

“Come in!” Shoulder to shoulder they walked towards the car after Taehyung's invitation.

Namjoon was already sitting in the passenger's seat making it so that Jungkook and (Y/N) had to sit together in the backseat.

“How was dance practice?” Namjoon asked them.

“What was it?” (Y/N) tapped Jungkook’s arm. He whispered something to her and she clapped her hands in realisation. “Daebak.” Namjoon and Taehyung laughed at her harsh pronunciation.

“It was good. Great.” Jungkook added after the chuckles died down. “Where are the other guys?” He asked Namjoon in Korean.

“The rest of the guys will meet us at the restaurant.” He explained in English, so (Y/N) could understand. She was still doing something on her phone when he glanced at her from the front seat.

“Jungkook.” Her shy tone echoed in the car. “I synced the contacts, but you’re not here.” She showed him her phone with a concerned expression. “Look.”

“Maybe I will just add my number like normal and then it will be saved in the contacts.” (Y/N) hummed in agreement, giving him her phone.

“What are you doing?” Taehyung asked in Korean, eying the two in the rearview mirror. Jungkook glanced at him, thanking god that (Y/N) doesn’t speak their language.

“I made (Y/N) a Kakao account.”

“And you’re putting your number in?” Taehyung continued in a teasing tone. Jungkook smiled at (Y/N)’s screen and typed in his ID.

“It’s not like that.”

The boys picked out a traditional korean diner with private rooms and floor level tables. They ordered mountains of meat to fry and tons of side dishes, soups and rice. At first (Y/N) widened her eyes at the amount of food concerned there will be leftovers, but within thirty or forty minutes she realised that those six boys’s stomachs can intake much more food that she can.

The conversation within the group flowed swiftly and comfortably as it did the night before. There even was some talk about possible musical collaborations. No one was looking at the clock, but at two o’clock sharp (Y/N)’s phone buzzed.

“Ah, it’s my assistant.” She announced with deep sorrow in her voice. “Unfortunately I will have to get going soon, guys. I have a TV appearance this evening.”

“TV today?” Seokjin asked in English. He seemed really shocked. When he spoke again he directed his words to Namjoon and spoke in Korean. “She shouldn't have eaten so much noodles and rice. She’ll be bloated and puffy. That’s very bad.”

“He says noodles and rice is bad for TV, ‘cause you might get puffy.” Namjoon explained to (Y/N) who just waved him off and chuckled.

“Ah, I’ll be wearing a big dress and a mask anyway.”

“What show are you on?” Namjoon asked, curiously.

“Something called King of Masked Singer.” The boys started talking over each other in Korean and patting Jungkook on the shoulders. After a moment of that Namjoon translated the jist of it to (Y/N).

“Yeah, so JK also was on that show.” (Y/N), who was sitting opposite to the youngest member of the group, looked up at him with a smile.

“Really?” She asked after swallowing another sip of hot soup. “What did they put you in? What costume?”

“I was…” He wanted to tell her everything in English, but was missing the most crucial word. “Hyung, how do you say fencer?” He asked Namjoon who looked confused for a second before answering him with a shrug. Jungkook reached to his pocket and pulled out his phone. “I’ll show you.” He typed the right words into YouTube and passed (Y/N) his phone. As soon as she looked at the moving screen she nodded in realisation.

“Ah, fencer.”

“Fencer, yes.” Namjoon agreed. (Y/N) skimmed through the video listening to Jungkook’s clear and beautiful vocals in the cover of BIGBANG’s If You.

“Woah, this is good.” She said, looking up at him.

“Thank you.” He accepted the compliment as she passed the phone back to him.

“You know what you will have?” Hoseok asked.

“What I’ll be dressed in? Yeah, I’m singing Beauty and the Beast, so I’ll be a princess.”

“Ah, cute.” Seokjin called out with a chuckle as (Y/N)’s phone buzzed once more.

“Ah, I really have to go.” She sighed deeply as the boys whined at her early leave. “I have to get myself intact before going to the studio.” She said gesturing to her laid back outfit. Since she was meeting Jungkook earlier for dance practice she was wearing a pair of branded sneakers, high waisted sweatpants and a hoodie - an outfit most of the boys in the room thought of as very pretty, but to her it was just workout gear.

“Do you need a ride?” Jungkook asked, all of a sudden realising she drove here with them and might not have a ride back to her hotel, but (Y/N) shook her head.

“No, my security is already parked outside.” The boys nodded at the professional sound of that statement. She was an A list celebrity after all and couldn’t just run around town by herself.

Everyone stood up from the table as (Y/N) slipped on her shoes and jacket.

“It was so nice to see you again.” Namjoon started as (Y/N) turned towards them before going out the door of the private dining room. She smiled sincerely and swung her backpack onto her shoulder.

“I’m so glad we got to hang out.” She looked at them with a shine in her eyes before going in for a hug with each of them. “And that we got to dance.” She added stopping in front of Jungkook. He smiled and chuckled as she hugged him goodbye.

“Yes. Me too.”

The group exchanged a couple more words of goodbye before (Y/N) walked towards the sliding door. As she was about to close it behind herself she slipped her face mask down and smiled at the group once more.

“Hopefully that’s not the last I see of you.” She added and the boys erupted with negating statements and chuckles.

404 notes · View notes

ilooklikeaburntchickenugget · 3 years

Text

Illicit Affairs

A/N: Okay so the ages and timing on this story don’t make much sense but just overlook that, maybe? I don’t know you’ll see but just try to ignore it if you can for the sake of the story. Also I know it’s been forever since I posted but it’s because I’ve been working on this series, so yeah. Pairing: Gerard Way x F!Reader Word count: 2,488 Warnings: I don’t think any.

Your Uncle Frank was one of your number one supporters through it all, and by far one of your closest family members.

You had known him since you were 13, as he and your Aunt Jamia (who was your mother’s sister) had met early in high school and had been dating since. Now that you were 20 and in college, triple majoring at NYU, he was once again your biggest supporter, helping you financially at every opportunity he could. You always felt so guilty for the thousands of dollars he insisted on paying monthly to help you get through college with little to no student debt, but he was insistent.

And of course you knew that money came from his now wildly successful band My Chemical Romance. You had been to a few My Chem shows, but had surprisingly never actually met any of the guys, besides Ray who you accidentally met while dropping off some coffee for Frank at the recording studio. You were actually a pretty big fan of their music, but you never broadcasted that your uncle was Frank Iero. That remained pretty private.

But here you were, driving to one of their shows for the soundcheck from Frank’s New York apartment, which you were staying at for the summer because A. You were taking summer classes and B. He offered to pay you to dog/house sit while he was touring, since Jamia consistently had work that sometimes meant she had to travel.

You pulled up to the large venue, showing security the backstage pass that Frank had given you, before being escorted into the main arena, where empty spaces for chairs lurked open, a few maintenance and sound people running around and fiddling with various things. You looked up to see some of the guys sitting down in a circle having a conversation. Frank noticed you almost immediately, getting up with a big smile and running up to you, engulfing you in a hug, and you hugged him back. “How’s my favorite neice?” He asked and you lightly laugh.

“Great, you?” You asked and he smiled back.

“Great.” It was funny to be shorter than Frank, only be a few inches, but still, making you the shortest in both the family and in most social situations. He walked you over to where everyone else was, introducing you in general as everyone got up to shake your hand. You already knew Ray, who gave you a hug, but you had never met the other three.

First was Mikey, who seemed shy and a little awkward, but was pretty adorable. Then came Bob, who seemed chill, and finally Gerard. You had to admit he was pretty handsome both on and off stage, but you pushed some confidence forward so you wouldn’t chicken out. “I’m Gerard.” He shook your hand with a kind smile.

“Y/N.” You responded, shaking it back. You could see your uncle eyeing the both of you from the corner of your eye, but you weren’t totally sure why. Was your crush on Gerard that obvious. You pulled away a moment, somewhat nervously with the conscious that at least your uncle knew, meaning other people probably did too.

You all sat down in a group as the guys began asking questions about you and what you were doing in school. All of them (besides Frank who already knew) were extremely surprised as you triple majoring, but you couldn’t help and notice how Gerard was fixated on you the entire time. After a bit of explaining stuff about you, everyone split up to go do their own thing. Ray, Mikey, and Frank all went off to begin tuning and testing their stuff while Bob did the same, but Gerard stayed back with you for a few minutes.

“Hey, this could be totally weird and awkward and not cool and you can totally say no,” Gerard began, quietly to you when no one was around, “But would you mind if I got your number? I mean I could ask Frank but your his niece so that might be awkward and-” “No, no, it’s fine.” You lightly smiled, as if to reassure him. You pulled a sticky note and pen out of your backpack, writing it down, “Here.” You smiled at him, handing it over. “But I would advise you don’t tell Frank, because he might, ya know-” “Yeah, yeah, trust me, I know.” He said and the two of you lightly laughed. “Are you gonna be at the show tonight?” He asked and you nodded, “Cool, cool. Have you been to one before.” You nodded again.

“A few times, actually, I’ve just never gotten to meet you guys.” You lightly smiled.

“Cool, cool.” He responded. You could tell how awkward both of you felt, each of you having the urge to keep the conversation going but it just wasn’t there. “So I should probably go and start sound check, ya know. But it was awesome meeting you, Y/N.” Gerard smiled.

“You too.” You smiled back.

“I’ll see you around?” “See you around.” You lightly waved as he jogged the other way.

You ended up excusing yourself and saying bye, with the excuse that you had more school work to do, when in reality you just needed some air as your mind continued to process the idea that the Gerard Way just asked for your number. He was so nervous and cute about it that in a way it made you all the more happy getting to know him briefly, but he was nothing like how he was on stage. The confidence that seemed to erupt in him was all wiped away as he just seemed like a nervous outcasted teenage boy in a band, which maybe to an extent he was.

Gerard, on the other hand, was set on the idea that he had just fucked over any shot he had with you. And from what you had explained, you seemed like the perfect girl. Not only were you absolutely gorgeous to him, but you were kind, funny, and smart. And you seemed to have some tom boy in you, which only made you that much more attractive to him to send him mind into overdrive. He wasn’t sure that the perfect girl ever existed, until you walked in.

And he was shocked that you were single. Sure, you had a lot on your plate and probably not enough time for a relationship, but any boy or man would be insanely lucky to have you. But there he stood, mentally punching himself at how stupid he acted. And ideally he would have gone and ranted to the guys, but the moment Frank heard he was interested in you, he knew he was dead meat. Frank may have only been 5′6 but he could pack a punch if he wanted to.

And besides, you were eight years younger than him. And while that didn’t matter to him, and clearly to you it didn’t either, that would most likely be looked down upon by most other people. “It’s pretty obvious.” Mikey came up to him behind the stage, “You’re just going to have to deal with the wrath of Frank eventually.” The two looked over at the short man who was clearly pissed in some way.

It wasn’t until that night at the concert that your worries fluttered away. You had invited a few friends, who were all jumping, screaming, and dancing as you did the same in the pit. Gerard had taken the crowd by his hand with ease starting with their opener, and flawlessly sang and entertained everyone. You were genuinely having the time of your life, and even when the show ended you were still riding high from the buzz of adrenaline that the show gave.

You ran back stage, giving Frank a hug and he hugged you back. “You guys did awesome!” You sighed out, still in awe with a huge smile on your face. “It was absolutely incredible.”

“Thanks, Y/N/N.” Frank smiled back down at you.

“Y/N/N?” Ray asked, with a confused look.

“Yeah, it’s been her name in the family since she was like two.”

“Okay, Y/N/N.” Ray smiled at you and you smiled back. You couldn’t help but look over Ray’s shoulder, seeing Gerard standing back with Mikey drinking lots of water, for obvious reasons. You briefly excused yourself to go talk to them.

“Hey,” You walked up to Gerard and smiled, he immediately looked back, putting his water down and smiling back at you tiredly. “You did awesome.” You preached, “Like, actually, you did insane.” “Thanks.” He lightly laughed, “Glad you enjoyed.” You nodded. “Hey Mikey.” You looked at the skinny boy who waved back.

“You did pretty great too.” “Thanks.” He smiled, saying goodbye and departing from the two of you shortly after. Gerard pulled out a box of cigarettes, taking one in his mouth, and motioning them towards you, a way of asking. You shook your head.

“I’m alright, thanks.” He nodded, pulling a lighter out of his pocket and lighting the stick. He took a deep breath in, letting the smoke come out through his mouth only a few moments later.

“So you don’t smoke?” He asked next, casually. You shook your head, “Smart.” He lightly smiled. “It’s pretty fucking annoying.” You lightly laughed.

“Thanks for the advice.” You smiled.

Only a few seconds later you were called out by the rest of the guys, sitting outside their tour bus and drinking some beer. You noticed Gerard had none, and opted for just some water, you doing the same instead. For you it was pretty obvious, you were 20 and weren’t of the legal age to drink. But for Gerard it would seem off to most people, but of course Frank had told you all about how only a few months prior he was an alcoholic and had gotten sober, so naturally you didn’t blame him one bit for skipping out on the alcohol.

“Hey Y/N, want some?” One of the guys on tour asked. You shook your head. “Oh c’mon, it’ll be fun!” The guy continued to insist.

“Nah, I’m alright.” You said. It was pretty annoying when guys asked you to drink, because you knew that it was to get you to a point of being drunk only to get laid. Or even worse, the fear that the drink could be laced. Either way, you weren’t taking a chance.

“Are you sure-” “Hey man, back off.” Gerard, who was sitting next to you, spoke, “She said no.” “I’m pretty sure she can speak for herself.” The dude smirked and fired back, thinking he did something.

“And she already did speak. She said no.” He said firmly, more aggressive this time, “You’re on this fucking tour because you’ve been hired by my band. So I would suggest you leave her the fuck alone before you lose your job, buddy.” Gerard snapped. The other guys eyes just went wide, walking away in surrender.

“You didn’t have to do that, ya know?” You looked over at him, and he gave you a confused look, “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it, but it happens all the time.”

“Well it shouldn’t.” He sighed, “But you’re smart enough to know that. No offense, and this is not meant to be sexist, but a lot of girls your age don’t know that.” “Yeah, I know,” You admitted, “I’ve seen it happen one too many times.” Both of you obviously became slightly uncomfortable with the situation at hand, prompting Gerard to begin another conversation.

“So what do you like to do?” He asked, “Outside of school, of course.” “I don’t know,” You sighed, “I love to write, I have since I was younger. Reading goes a long with that, I’ve read comics since I was a kid too. I know that probably sounds stupid but-” “You read comics?” He asked, slightly shocked. You nodded, “What kinds?” “I started out with Marvel, since my dad collected Marvel as a kid. Then I got into DC, Watchmen in specific, I never got into the Justice League because I didn’t really see the relevance of it, but I liked the Avengers a lot.” He nodded and smiled.

“That’s pretty cool, ya know. Not really stupid in my book.” He lightly laughed, “I actually went to school to be a comic book writer.” “Really?” You asked, adjusting yourself in your seat and he nodded. “No way.” “Yeah, I did. But it was a rough time in the comics industry and nothing really worked out.” You nodded, understanding.

“Do you still do anything with comics?” You asked next.

“Yeah, I do.” He said, “In my free time I love to draw, I have this current project I’m working on, I’m not sure what it’s going to be called, but it’s like this weird super hero family type thing, but they’re all adopted, and this guys makes his kids a super hero team? That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense.” You lightly laughed.

“Not totally, but what I get from it, it sounds pretty awesome.” You admitted, “I think that would be pretty cool, and original. Which is something everyone wants when it comes to comics.” He nodded.

“It probably wouldn’t be hard to get it published now with this whole band thing.” You nodded.

“Well, if you ever need a second opinion on it, don’t hesitate to ask. Although I know it can sometimes be hard to show off your work.”

“I’ll definitely take you up on that.” He smiled. You got a vibration from your phone, which you checked. It was one of your friends, but glancing at the time your anxiety rose.

“Shit,” You muttered, “Hey, so I know we were just starting to actually talk and all, and I really don’t want to end that, but I kinda have to get back and-” “Hey, hey, don’t worry.” Gerard lightly smiled, “You’re really busy. It’s totally fine.” “You sure?” You asked again and he nodded.

“Yeah, of course.” He nodded, “Here, let me at least walk you out to your car.” “No, you don’t have to do that-” “Trust me, it’s alright.” He insisted, getting up and walking besides you under the night sky.

“It was really great meeting you.” You smiled up at Gerard as you two stood outside your car.

“You too, Y/N.” He smiled down. “This may be too soon, and it probably is, but I asked for your number after like five minutes of knowing you so I guess we are moving fast. Anyways, I’m rambling.” He stuttered a little, “But would you want to go out with me sometime.” You smiled.

“Yeah, of course.” You responded, “Just text or call me and we’ll work something out.” “Oh, okay, awesome.” He smiled. “Bye Y/N. Get home safe, okay?” “Bye, Gerard, and I will.” You said and got into your car.

#gerard way #gerard way fanfiction #mcr gerard #my chemical gerard #gerard way x reader #gerard way x you #gerard way x y/n #my chemical romance #My Chem #my chemical gee #my chemical romance x reader

34 notes · View notes

eunjidrabbles · 3 years

Note

Hello! I've just started getting into Dreamcatcher recently and have fallen for the charismatic rabbit Jiu! I was wondering if I could request a scenario with her? DC is in like a show and 8th member reader is a big fan of the other guests/MCs. She has a nervous habit of picking the skin on her lips so Jiu stops her anr holds her hand to keep her from doing it more. Thanks for your time :))

Soothe

(No problem! I only got into Dreamcatcher like, a month or two back too so we got that in common! ^^ Can our Jiu biased folks raise their hands 👀

Edit: Look forward to a little something I have coming up that will be posted tomorrow. Hope ya’ll will enjoy this thing that I planned out.)

Word count: About 2.6k

Being an idol, you were taught to keep your reactions in check from your time as a trainee. You remember sitting through hours of classes on etiquettes and how you should reply to questions that might put your reputation at risk. Your managers also knowing how you were easily excited and hyped along with the energy would always constantly remind you to keep your calm before sending you on stages and shows with a gentle pat on your back and cross their fingers. It was an amusing scene to watch sometimes when Bora starts revving up the engine and you would follow right along, which causes a chain reaction back to the hyper dancer. Usually, it’d end up with chaotic screaming and laughter exploding throughout the studios. You were as much of a ball of energy as Bora was, according to everyone who has interacted with you. Sitting comfortably just a month younger than Yoohyeon, you were happily babied by your unnies and were always seen playing around with Yubin and Gahyeon. You were not one to shy from challenges thrown your way, which balanced out the team dynamics when it came to being invited to variety shows. You were unsure of your place when you were added into the group a couple months after Dreamcatcher’s debut, but every time you look around you now, you knew that there was no where else that you’d fit better than with your second family.

Since young, you’d watch the idols perform on stage and you’d be mesmerized by the way they took to the stage. The way they called for attention to themselves without outshining their other members amazed you. You clearly remember watching a stage that blew your mind and stole your breath away, and the idol’s name that would be your bring-up name whenever you were asked in interviews who your idol was. It was during the promotions of Dreamcatcher’s latest album did you receive the news from your managers. Your jaw dropped along with your small pint of ice cream in shock, and you could barely recognize the laughter coming from your members knowing that it was your dream come true. You were going to be promoting the album along with the idol that inspired you to step into the life of an idol. You took a slow but deep breath and let out a screech in excitement before looking at your other members, some covering their ears and some unluckily slow to recognize your change of behavior before you destroyed their hearing. Ending your screech in an awkward chuckle as you realized that the teasing was about to start once they get over the damage, you nudged your head back towards your room, signaling that you were heading back and bolted away before anyone could respond.

Everyone in the same car as you were could literally feel you vibrating from excitement in your seat as you were being driven to the location of the studio. Trapped in a moving vehicle, there was no way to escape the teasing of the older members so you just submitted to your fate, occasionally throwing glances over to Yubin to beg her to help you out. She’d then look up from her phone and a look around the people teasing you before raising her hands up, giving the clear sign that you were on your own. Seeing how you were abandoned by the rapper, you gasped loudly with a “You brat. I’ll get you back later.” which earned you an amused hum in reply before you unwillingly locked eyes with Bora on your way turning back to face the front.

“So, how does our little sunflower feel about finally meeting her idol?”

You could see her grin turn into a smirk as she watch you start squirming, unsure of how to answer her question. Your lips grew dry, trying to find the right words to use to cut the teasing as soon as you could. In the end, no words came out of your mouth as you shrugged and casually turn back forward, ignoring the little “Ya! Look at me when you answer a question!” From Bora. Pretending to fiddle with your phone and silently observing her from the reflection of the screen until she got bored and turned behind her to harass Yoohyeon, you let your thoughts drift. There was no way you could remain calm this time no matter how much pep talk you were given. The thought of merely given the chance to interact with her made your heart beat anxiously, not less to say that you were there to promote your album, in which she has heard and complimented according to the letter sent. Shifting in your seat, you reached your free hand up to brush your slightly dry lips, making a mental note to reapply some more lip balm before entering the studio in a short bit. Right. The studio where you were going to meet your idol. That’s no big deal, the entertainment industry is just this big, you’ll eventually get to meet them one way or the other. Subconsciously, when your fingers brushed over a slightly chapped part of your lips, you begin picking at it. It was only until the van came to a stop did you realize what you were doing and pulled your hand away, licking your lips to moisturize it.

By the time the entire group was gathered in the lobby, you were yet again buzzing with excitement, and possibly fear. Feeling arms wrap around your waist and a head landing on your shoulder, you glance to the side slightly to see Siyeon staring at you with a small comforting smile on her face. Taking a few deep breaths with you in her embrace, you managed to push down some of the nervous feeling knowing that your members although teasing, won’t push the line.

On cue following Minji’s lead, everyone slowly piled into the small studio room, with you waddling slightly as Siyeon has yet to let go of you. Energetic music was playing to bring the atmosphere up, and along with that Bora started bouncing to the music, prompting for everyone else to join in. You were laughing as you struggled to get out of Siyeon’s arms to start the chaos when you looked past your members to meet with the amused face of her. Your mouth suddenly felt dry, and you could feel your throat tighten when the reality hit. It was like a switch in you was hit, and you were conscious of your every action. As the music faded out, everyone took their seat on the couches chuckling at each other’s antics and waited for the next cue.

“As you all know, a few of these members has been guests of our show already but I have finally managed to invite the whole group back into our studio tonight. Let’s welcome... Dreamcatcher back to Studio Moon Night!”

Following the countdown of Minji, everyone did the group introduction. “Dream of me, hello we are Dreamcatcher!” According to the script, everyone was to do a short introduction of themselves starting from Minji who was seated next to you. You glanced at each member as they did their introduction and your eyes occasionally drifted to your idol who was sitting across the group. Being in the same room as the Moon Byuli was honestly more mind blowing than anything, you decided. Her presence was jaw dropping-

A sharp nudge to your sides snapped you out of your daze as you inhaled sharply and look around at your members and their amused faces, trying to hold back their laughter. “H-hello everyone, I’m Dreamcatcher’s sunflower, (y-y/n)!” Chuckles were then heard coming from Moon Byul when you felt hands land onto your shoulders from behind. The introductions continued to the younger members when you look back, you could see a smirk growing on Bora’s face, as your smile dropped, knowing what she was planning. “Actually, our dear sunflower here admires you a lot, Byuli-unnie!” Your eyes widened, not daring to look in the direction of your idol as your face flushed red.

“Is that so, (y/n)-sii?”

Darting your eyes to your idol, you blink blankly and tried to clear your throat and find the right words. Only managing to nod to not embarrass yourself, you hid your face in your hands to drown out the laughter shared.

“Our little sunflower is usually very loud, but look at her now!”

Whining, you peeked out between your fingers and pouted to your leader sitting next to you. Chuckling and giving you a little pat on the head, she threw a look over at the younger member to cut the teasing and let the radio show continue. Finally relenting with a huff, Bora eyed the rest of the members as if to contemplate who to target next once Moon Byul continued the script and prepared to start the actual interview. There was a series of questions that were quickly fired to different members, and in order not to make a fool of yourself again, you kept yourself on edge and alert to whenever you were called upon. Such focus given had you become uncharacteristically quiet that you were barely aware of what you were doing without thinking. Your posture was rigid, and whenever you felt that a question was about to be fired your way, you would reach up to brush and start picking at your lips in attempt to busy your mind to keep it ready.

“(Y/n)-sii! What is your TMI for today?”

Jolting up slightly with your finger still on your lips, you blink blankly at the unexpected question. “My TMI for today...” Glancing over to your leader once again pleading for help, you saw her gaze lowered down to your finger on your lip. “Ah! Jiu-unnie made coffee for everyone this morning!” Pulling your fingers away from your lips, you made a peace sign and beamed. “I drank 2 cups of coffee that Jiu-unnie made!”

“Is that why you snuck into the room and jumped onto me while I was still sleeping, unnie?” Yubin whined from the side after hearing your comment, realizing your reason for your high energy early in the morning. Everyone laughed at her contribution, and you waved it off chuckling along with everyone else. Once the attention was off of you, your fingers automatically made their way up again to your lips but this time it was caught midway with a larger hand interlacing fingers with yours. Blinking blankly at the act, you traced the hand to it's owner to see Minji smiling at you. Bringing your held hands to her lips, she turned it and pressed a soft kiss onto the back of your hand before lowering it onto her lap, clasping it with her other hand. Watching her gently brushing her fingers across your knuckles and smoothing her thumb across the back of your hand, you looked back up to see your leader nod at you before turning to answer a question given to her. The gesture, although a little awkward for someone like you who needed to move around to express yourself grounded you down. Feeling the constant movement on your skin helped you relax and you were slowly going back to chipping into the interview with little comments here and there.

During a song break, everyone was reading through the live comments and causally grooving to the music of your group’s latest song, and exchanging glances with Sua, both of you started doing the upper body half of the song’s choreography. Since Minji has yet to let go of your hand, you both chuckled when you pulled your hand to cover your eyes only to have hers come along to cover half of your face. As the song came to an end, you winked to the camera and leaned towards your leader, giving her a little peck on her cheeks while energetically waving both your intertwined hands between the both of you.

“Wow, that was-” Chuckling as she tried to reorient herself, Moon Byul threw a look over at the comment feed on her screen and back to you. “I noticed a little something, and even everyone watching is saying, (y/n)-sii.” Clasping both her hands together, Moon Byul brought it into the air for the camera to see. “Both of you have been holding each other’s hand for quite a while now. I thought I was your favorite idol.” Pretending to look upset, you started stammering in fear of actually offending your idol.

“I was the one who wanted to hold our dear (y/n)ie’s hands, since she is always so energetic, she is always very warm and I forgot to take my hand warmers onto set.” Pouting back herself, Minji pulled you into a quick hug and nuzzled into you. Seeing this, the rest of the members started chiming in on how they never received such affections from their leader and that you were her favorite. Happily laughing it off, Minji smoothly redirected the conversation back to Moon Byul once again to keep the show going.

When the PD signaled that the cameras were cut, your members started nudging you towards Moon Byul who was packing up her interview cards and scrolling through her phone. Looking back at your leader for reassurance, she gave your hand a tight squeeze and slowly released while nudging you forward. Taking a deep breath, you approached your idol, heart slowly starting to pick up its pace. Seeing you approach, Moon Byul put down her phone and focused her attention on you. “You did good, kid.” Seeing your eyes light up at her compliment, she chuckled again and continued. “I’ll look forward to your next comeback. In the meanwhile...” Picking up her phone again, she held it out for you. “Let’s keep in contact?” You nod vigorously and quickly keyed in your details, only to look up at Moon Byul again. “Can I take a picture with you please?” Ruffling up your hair slightly, as she took back her phone, she gave a nod with a playful grin and quickly snapped a photo of the both of you. Feeling your phone vibrate in your jacket pocket, you pulled it out to see a new message from an unknown contact with the photo of both of you. Bowing low, you started bouncing on the spot. “Thank you so much!”

With a pat on your back, Moon Byul nudged you back to your teammates as you let out a squeal and dived back into Minji’s open arms. Groans and were shared between those that failed to cover their ears in time again as the rest laughed at the antics.

Still clinging onto your leader as you both were the last to leave the elevator, she ran her hand through your hair as the other rubbed your shoulder. “Unnie.” Calling for her attention, Minji looked down at you in her arms and pointed to her own lips. “Ya, your lips won’t look as pretty anymore if you keep picking at it.”

“I know, unnie. Thank you for today.”

Pulling you closer to her, she shook her head. “Not just today. Whenever you feel like wanting to pick at your lip again,” Gentle pats land on your head as you leaned your weight against your leader’s. “My hands are for you to hold, alright?”

“You’re the best, unnie.” Nodding, you felt yourself relax at the soothing actions. “I know.” Frowning, you looked up with a pout to meet the grinning face of your leader. Deciding that you don’t want for her to take back her offer, you huffed in half agreement.

#dreamcatcher imagines #jiu imagines #jiu x reader #jiu fluff #im late in posting because i was too busy playing overwatch sue me #hope ya'll enjoy #im soft to soothing touches #so ya this is what ya'll get

106 notes · View notes