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jihoon ; hold me

✿ jihoon works so hard T n T everyone in seventeen and other kpop groups, too. it’s crazy how much pressure and work they have to do. here’s sick jihoonie being a little cuddly. man, I’m sick, too. can I get a cuddle partner? ✉ 460 words || drabble || requested || anonymous 

You’ve known Jihoon for a long time and he’s not the type to let a cold hold him back from working on compositions, especially when he’s feeling inspired or on the verge of finishing a song. That’s why you’re so worried when Seungcheol calls and asks you to take care of their little producer who’s too tired to get out of bed.

Armed with tissues, medicine, and bags full of his favorite food, you’re brought over to Seventeen’s dorm and ushered into your boyfriend’s room where you find him curled up under layers of blankets. He doesn’t shift when you and Seungcheol come into the room.

“Jihoon,” the leader calls and Jihoon snuggles deeper into his pillow, letting out a small groan. “Jihoon, _____ is here.”

At the mention of your name, he freezes before attempting to lift his head. Your name tumbles from his lips, more of a jumble of sounds than a word, and you’re by his side in an instant. “You can go,” you tell Seungcheol, who backs out and shuts the door quietly. You’re brushing Jihoon’s damp hair out of his face, fingers burning with how high his fever is. “Hey…hey, how you feeling?”

He gives you a faint smile, “Good now that you’re here. Do you have any ramyun?”

You shush him and rummage around in your bag for a soft gel cooling pack–you know you brought one–to put on his forehead. “That’s not what you should be worried about,” you find one and rip it open. He flinches at first, but his eyes slide closed and his breathing slows as you adjust it.

“This actually feels really nice–wait, don’t leave me,” his voice is slightly panicked and his hand is clasped around your wrist, keeping you from walking away.

“No, don’t worry, I’m not leaving. I’m just going to throw this out,” his grip loosens, but he still doesn’t let you go. “Ji…”

“Don’t leave,” he whines and pulls you slightly towards him. “Stay and cuddle with me.”

He must be really sick. He never says the word ‘cuddle’. Ever.

“Please?” his eyes are pleading with yours. “It’ll help me sleep.”

There’s something about him that screams frail and fragile, words that would rarely describe him when he’s healthy and working, but you nod and he scoots over to make room for you slip under the blankets. It only takes a few seconds for his arms to wrap around your waist and his to snuggle into the crook of your shoulder. You move your hand up and down his back, smooth and comforting patterns that has him smiling faintly against your skin.

“You’re the best,” he cooes, grip loosening as fatigue claims his consciousness. “The bestest.”

“I know, Jihoon. Now go to sleep.”

omg haha can you do one where you’re waking up next to mingyu and seeing just how cute he is in the morning :((( you know he’ll just be snoring happily and curled up like a little puppy and you just melt inside MORNING MINGYU NEEDS MORE LOVE

[8:37am]

you woke up calmly, your eyelids slowly opening and presenting the whiteness of your ceiling to you. your room was cold, though the space next to you was warm. mingyu was normally out of bed before you were even close to waking up, so you rarely got to see him still amidst a deep sleep.

you rolled over on your side to face him, your heart immediately warming up the rest of your body in ways a measly blanket couldn’t. you felt your features soften when you saw him. his hair was sticking up in every direction, his lips slightly parted as he breathed lightly, and there was even a bit of drool falling from his mouth onto your pillow. 

you smiled at his messy state, loving how pure he looked. you were hungry, to the point that you could hear your stomach growling, but you couldn’t bring yourself to leave his side. 

as if he, too, had heard your stomach growling, mingyu woke up suddenly, the opening of his eyes followed by a low groan. you watched as he stretched, his perfectly toned arms reaching up over his head as his toes came to a perfect point.

“good morning.” you said blissfully, reminded of how lucky you were every time you looked at him. he let out a sigh when he finished stretching, glancing over at you after he plopped back down on the bed.

“hi.” mingyu said groggily, his gaze hazy. your cheeks warmed as you looked into his eyes. no matter how many times he looked at you, you never got used to how it made you feel. 

“sleep okay?” you asked sweetly, scooting closer to him and taking his hand in yours, playing with his fingers gently. he let out a breathy laugh at your action, swiftly taking your hand so he was holding it. 

“yeah, you?” 

“eh, could’ve been better... someone was snoring a little loud.” you teased, and mingyu’s eyes were suddenly wide open. his jaw dropped in surprise, a small smile tugging at his lips.

“well you don’t have to sleep with to me, you know.”

“i know...” you sighed, “but you’re so cute.” you shrugged, and soon, a smirk was taking over mingyu’s features. he let go of your hand and was wrapping his arm around your back, pulling you close and nuzzling his face into your neck. you laughed as he blew hot air onto the skin, a loud farting noise filling the room. “stop!” you laughed as you hit his shoulder, and a few seconds later he pulled away, a content smile on his face.

“you’re cute too.” mingyu said, pulling you so you were laying on top of him. “i like your laugh.”

“really?” you inquired. “i like your face.” you booped his nose and he chuckled.

“i like yours too.” he said sweetly, one of his hands moving to rest on the small of your back, the other finding a place on the middle of your butt. “stay in bed with me?” 

“always.” you smiled down at him, placing a kiss on his lips, before the two of you wasted away the day together amidst your perfectly white sheets.

a/n: this is.... so cheesy pls excuse this. but i can just SEE mingyu being all smiley and smirky when u tease him he’d b like... what did u just say to me :D? idk slfdkjaklf but tysm for requesting i hope u like this !!!

im getting changkyun brain rot at midnight

my love’s behind you

pairing → jeon wonwoo x reader

word count → 467

genre → fluff <3  ↳ tags: wonu best bf, sleepy cuddling!!, both wonwoo and mc are just tired ok, wonwoo says baby like twice or something, domesticity, canon compliant 

song inspo → vapor by jome (title is from camera by young the giant!!)

warnings → one swear i believe

a/n → in my wonu feels… hes rly boyfriend shaped huh 😕anyways i think this is sweet nd i hope everyone enjoys!!! my first independent wonwoo fic hehe

In his defense, Wonwoo makes it pretty far without waking you up.

Practice ran late (really late; for some reason the new choreography wasn’t sticking with hardly any of them) and he had texted you such, followed with a sympathetic apology about missing a night in with you at your apartment. He had fully expected you to say okay, wish him goodnight, tell him to come by when he could. Instead, you told him he had a key to your apartment, he could still stay the night if he wanted.

And maybe Mingyu gives him some shit for it, but it’s worth it. So he stops by the dorms to pick up a few things before having a staff member drive him over to your place. (He makes sure to thank them tenfold, since it’s so late.)

Keep reading

Looking After You

pairing: namjoon x reader

genre: fluff

word count: 1,2

a/n: i’m blaming the writing on me being tired

You open the front door and stumble inside. The lights are still on inside the house which means that your boyfriend is still awake crazy enough, it’s 4am.

“I was just about to look for you, why couldn’t you just answer your god damn phone?” the familiar voice can be heard from the living room and you step inside, still with your shoes and jacket on. “Your friend told me that you weren’t at the party anymore and I called you at least fifty times.”

“It’s dead,” you mumble and sit down on the couch next to your boyfriend. You close your eyes and lean against his shoulder.

“Don’t fall asleep. Get up from here, you need to eat something,” Namjoon pulls you up and pulls you towards the hallway at first. He helps you sit down on the stairs and gently takes your shoes off even though he doesn’t look too happy.

“Why are you awake?” your voice is unstable, it’s hard to understand what you’re saying and even you have a hard time understanding your words.

“Because I waited for you to come home, I knew you would be like this. You can barely take care of yourself when you’re drunk, maybe you’d lay down dead in the kitchen when I woke up the next day,” Namjoon says and you begin to giggle until he looks up at you with serious eyes.

“It sounded funny. You like my dress? I accidentally spilled on it but I think it looks good,” you tell your boyfriend who’s hanging your jacket by a shelf. He pulls your dress down a bit since it’s been riding up your thighs and then ruffles your hair.

“It looks good on you, wanna eat some food?” his expression is soft this time, it’s like his whole mood has changed but it isn’t hard to understand that he must be a little shaken up. He has been worried about you and then you just show up like no one would care about you just wandering away from the party without saying anything.

“I’m not hungry,” you cross your arms and look up at him who’s tilting his head to the side. He begins to search for something in the fridge, it doesn’t matter if you don’t think you’re hungry, you probably are and need to eat before you go to sleep.

Namjoon then fills a glass with water for you and places it between your two hands for you to drink. You look up at him and smile lazily before putting the glass to your mouth.

Meanwhile, Namjoon takes a bowl that he fills with yoghurt and cereal. He then puts it on the table and motions for you to sit down on a chair which you do. When you’re all settled down and begin to eat, he sits down on a chair next to you, waiting for you to finish the meal.

“Not hungry, or what were you saying?” you turn your head to look at him, your mouth is filled with yoghurt but he only smiles when he sees your face. You whine and push his chair away from you before going back to eating.

When you’re full, you stand up and take the bowl in your hand but Namjoon is fast to take it away from you and put it in the dishwasher himself. “Let’s get you ready for bed, shall we?” he puts a hand on your back and guides you to the bathroom.

You take a toothbrush each to brush your teeth. It’s a mess all over your mouth when you’re done but Namjoon is there to help you wipe it away with a tissue. Then it’s time to take your makeup off and he lifts you up on the counter, he takes a makeup wipe and rubs all over your face.

While he’s doing so, you hold his other hand and play with his fingers. Every now and then he looks down at your intertwined hands and smiles at you and how giggly you’ve become from only doing that.

He then wipes away the little makeup you have left on your face and throws the wipes away. He lifts you and when he’s about to set you down you wrap your legs around his waist, meaning that you don’t want to walk.

“You’re such a baby,” he says but he still carries you all the way to your bedroom. You mumble unbearable things as he gently places you on your bed and goes to look for something your can wear.

You try to take your dress of but you’re unsuccessful. The zipper has slipped down a little but you can’t reach it with your own hands so you walk up to Namjoon and tap him on the shoulder. As soon as he sees you and how you turn around he chuckles and begins to pull your zipper down.

While you get out of your dress, he puts on a pair of sweatpants. He then helps you put on a way too big sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants. When you’re both ready for bed he leads you towards the bed and turns off the lights.

“Tell me if you need me to help you with anything tomorrow,” Namjoon whispers as he moves closer to you and begins to brush his fingers through your hair.

You put your arms around his bigger body and snuggle up to him with your head against his chest, making it able for you to hear his steady heartbeat. “I won’t need help with anything,” you mumble.

“Oh, you will. I’ve been your boyfriend for a long time and know damn well that you’ll feel like shit tomorrow,” Namjoon says and you whine.

“You’re annoying,” you groan as you let go off him and push him away. You turn around so he’s facing your back and he sighs dramatically when you’re not turning back around.

“Hey, don’t do that,” he puts his arms around you and pull you closer so your back is pressed against him. He gives you kisses on your cheek until your giggling loudly. “Go to sleep now, I’m sure you’re tired.”

“I’m sorry for worrying you Joon, it’s okay to be mad at me sometimes too. You can’t be sweet to me all the time,” you say as you turn around and look him in the eyes.

“Are you already sober?”

You stare him right in the eyes before he chuckles at your expression and pulls you towards his strong chest. He holds on to you right and you allow your head to rest against his chest.

“But thank you for apologizing. I can’t stay mad at your cute face for long though, you’re way too easy to forgive,” Namjoon strokes your back with the palm of his hand and places a few kisses on the top of your head.

“I love you, goodnight,” you whisper and place a quick kiss on his bare chest before closing your eyes. He doesn’t even get to answer you before you’re asleep but he still says one last thing before closing his eyes as well. “I love you so much more.”

Taste Of Love - kth

pairing : taehyung x fem! reader

genre/au : fluff, stranger to lovers au, cafe au, christmas themed.

wc : 2.4 k

warnings : none

rating : G

summary : Getting to taste food from almost every restaurant or cafe in the city during the holiday season sounds like a great idea when you’re not a food critic. But you are, and you can do nothing but come to terms with the fact that every place you would have to visit will offer you the same old boring holiday experience. Turns out though, Goût d'amour is different.

a/n : part of the BCC X FI 12 Days of BTS event ❄ prompt: cosy cafe with christmas songs ❄ aaaahhhh! this is finally out of my drafts! took a while, but here it is! thank you soo much @ddeseokielune​ for beta reading this! really helped me out when i was going through a whole crisis with this fic lol.

Hope you enjoy <3

Keep reading

truth or consequences

liu yangyang x fem reader

word count: 11.5k

genres: modern with magic, urban fantasy, xianxia au, case fic 

warnings: genre-typical violence, swearing

…in which Liu Yangyang is the type of cultivator who slaps Supreme stickers on the scabbard of his sword, wears his sect robes with Air Jordans, and rides his skateboard through the training grounds. 

You’re perfectly content hating him from a distance, never confessing your true feelings, until one fateful night hunt when you’re cursed to only speak the truth. 

a glossary of xianxia terms in this fic can be found here

Keep reading

Delphinium. part 2.

(del·phin·i·um /delˈfinēəm/) is a type of flower representative of spiritual growth and change in flower language.

⇢ i do not give permission for anyone to re-post or translate my writings to any platform.

ao3

part 1

wordcount  → 23.045k

pairing→ Mark Lee x female reader

description → You should have known that when he said he loved you after such a small act of intimacy, he wasn’t thinking with his dick. Quite frankly, he didn’t know how to. You also should have known that by being his first, he probably wanted you to be his last.

content → religious mark, possessive behavior and jealousy, loss of virginity, pagan reader, a lot of fluff, coming to terms, happy ending, smut obviously, mark falls in love violently and deliberately, all characters in this fic are in their 20s

note → This part is not stand alone; you need to read the first part to understand.

 not proof read bc im not about that life. 

It’s also a lot less religion heavy since they’d established some sort of thing between each other. In other words, that hurdle has already been jumped over.

tag list → @kpop-crap​, @coffee-prince-kyungsoo​, @fullsun-dreams​, @resceluwu​, @fanficbitchwhowriteskpop, @cumtrov3rsy​, @97jaehyunn​, @ahgastayzen​,

Keep reading

BOYFRIEND!MINGYU

is without a doubt, so whipped for you. thinks you’re the cutest person on earth and no one can convince him otherwise. 

loves to tease you just cause he loves getting reactions out of you; the small glares you send, the slight pout of your lips, the way your face scrunches up. 

is your own personal photographer. you’re his favorite person to take pictures of. despite how much you try to convince him otherwise, he thinks you have no bad angles. 

whenever you’re being teased, he has a very specific way of hugging you. he’ll wrap his arms around your neck, pulling you as close to him as possible, as he nuzzles his face into your hair.

there’s always those people in a friend group that are the target of teasing; mingyu is one of them. whenever that happens he’ll come whining to you and asking you to tell them to stop. 

follows you everywhere you go. he loves to be around you and spend time with you no matter what it is. he loves taking you out on dates, but he’s also fine with staying at home.

has reminders of you with him everywhere; a picture of you as his lockscreen, your sweater hanging in his closet, an extra toothbrush for you next to his.

Keep reading

- ̗̀ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 ˎˊ-

✏︎ pairing: teacher!vernon x teacher!yn (gn)

✏︎ synopsis: falling for the young and flirty high school history teacher is inevitable especially when he pays for your groceries and calls himself your work husband

✏︎ genre: fluff, romance, comedy

✏︎ warnings: food/drinks, innuendos, insecurities, language, mutual pining (you know that feeling you get when you really like somebody but you can't bring yourself to tell them so all you can do is enjoy the moment that you're spending with them? it's that), skinship, spirit week/rallies should be a warning itself imo, everything that happens in the last chapter

✏︎ wc: 8.8k

✏︎ a/n: the full vernon work husband fic is finally here ahh!! this one is dedicated to those with secret crushes and those who are too shy to confess. I hope this au can give you a bit of comfort, joy, and happiness. please let me know if I missed any warnings! + comments and reviews are always appreciated. I finished editing this A LOT faster than I imagined so pls enjoy my bbs <3

chapter one: café; lunch

“I need you to go on a double date with me.”

Your friend’s question appears out of nowhere and catches you off-guard. Some of the latte you drink dribbles out of your mouth, runs down your chin, and splatters on your slacks. Your friend quickly leans over the table and takes your cup out of your hand, handing you some napkins. You wipe your chin and dab away at your slacks, groaning at the thought of returning to class and standing in front of your science class with prominently stained pants – cinnamon oat milk flavored if it honestly matters.

“Absolutely not,” you put the soaked napkins on the table and grab a wet wipe from Jeonghan’s stretched hand. He learned to always be prepared when it comes to you – it’s not very often he doesn’t see you with some weird stain on your clothes; after all, you are an Environmental Science teacher. 

“Come on, Yn,” he whines while you rub furiously at the stain with the wipe. “I didn’t even tell you when or where the date is going to take place. How could you reject me so quickly?”

“Jeonghan, I really don’t have time right now,” you sigh and drop the wipe next to the wet napkins. He stares at you with pleading eyes, his hands in prayer. “You know how busy I get whenever Spring Break is almost here. We have midterms this week, there’s the spirit rally, and not to mention my errands…” you trail.

“But what if the person I’m meeting is sketchy?” he sulks.

“Then they should be the one afraid because you’re the sketchiest person I know,” you exclaim. “Where did you even meet them in the first place?”

“Tinder,” he takes a sip of his Iced Americano and places the glass cup back down on the beige café table.

“You know what…” you let the thought marinate in your head for a brief moment. “You’re right. They actually might be sketchier than you are.”

He quickly nods his head in agreement. To him, this is a more than good enough reason for you to go on the double date with him.

“But I’m not going on a double date with you. People already get the wrong idea about us.”

.

In the middle of the same café, Seungkwan thanks the barista at the cash register and walks over to the side of the counter to wait for his coffee. While stuffing his wallet into his back pocket, Seungkwan’s eyes gloss over the several artisanal coffee bean bags and teas on display along the white café walls before his eyes wander to the several people sitting in the café. His head gently bops to the music playing in the background while he people watches. There are a few college students hunched over their laptops and a couple of people near the windows having lunch. Sitting in the corner of the room is a familiar face he’s seen on social media and sometimes in passing when he drops by Vernon’s classroom for lunch.

You seem to be bantering with the guy sitting across from you, but Seungkwan can’t hear anything from where he’s standing. From the looks of it, his friend’s earlier apprehensions about your lunch plans seem to be confirmed. His cellphone vibrates in his hand, and he flips it open to look at the text from the same friend who stayed up worrying last night:

[text from: nonie]

nonie: wyd? i'm bored rn bc yn isn't here

kwan: apparently looking at yn on a date

nonie: should I be concerned?

kwan: yeah you should be bc he's pretty handsome

kwan: should be you tho

nonie: see? I told you it was a date bc they styled their hair differently

kwan: but don’t people normally dress differently for dates?

nonie: but yn always dresses nicely bc they spend too much time deciding what they're going to wear for the day. like they even take into consideration the weather changes throughout the day.

nonie: so nice hair = extra effort

kwan: I’m begging you to go get a life

nonie: bro call me

kwan: i'm picking up my coffee now. byeee

.

“You see my wallet?” Jeonghan opens his black wallet in front of him like a picture book for you to see. He tips it forward and opens it slightly so you can see the bills stacked neatly against each other. “I will literally pay you to go on this double date with me. If anything, maybe the friend will be hot and Vernon will get jealous and actually ask you out.”

You roll your eyes at him and motion for him to put his wallet away. You can’t believe he came prepared with his monetary bribe. “But Vernon doesn’t seem like the type to get jealous.”

Your phone pings and three consecutive messages wake your screen:

[text from: work husband]

work husband: I miss you. my lunch sucks today :P

work husband: I’m eating in my classroom today bc I’m avoiding Carl

work husband: fucking Carl

Jeonghan’s eyebrow arches while you try your best to avoid replying to Vernon. Not the type to get jealous my ass, Jeonghan thinks while reluctantly putting his wallet away. Telling you to do your hair differently was his idea. So, if his plan worked, Vernon probably sent you messages because he thinks you’re on a date with somebody. 

“How about you ask out Vernon yourself?” Jeonghan takes his provided fork to prod at his forgotten slice of cake in the middle of the table. He knocks off the strawberry at the top of the cake and plunges his metal fork into the tip of the cake. The fluffy spongey matcha cake that sandwiches diced strawberries and fresh crème fraiche? A perfect mouthful. 

His question doesn't mean anything in particular. Jeonghan usually asks you whatever he thinks, but you’re glad you aren't drinking anything this time. If you did, your latte was absolutely going to end up anywhere but in your mouth. So while Jeonghan enjoys his dessert, you’re faced with another problem:

“How? I don’t even know if he flirts with me because it’s a part of his work husband act or if it’s because he actually likes me.”

“You bring him lunches every day and he pays for your groceries. I’ve tasted your cooking before,” he says in between bites. “There’s no way that man isn’t in love with you.” He places his fork down and reaches over, taking a sip of his Iced Americano to cancel a bit of the cake’s sweetness. He nods in delight. Going to this café for afternoon tea was honestly such a good idea. 

“You know I only bring lunches for him because I always end up cooking extra,” you grumble while thinking about whether or not you should answer his texts.

Your phone pings again. Jeonghan props his elbow on the table and lazily rests his cheek against his knuckle. He notices you itching to pick up your phone and sighs to himself. He’s now halfway through his cake while your apple pie sits in front of you, idle and long forgotten. He thinks that maybe if he feeds you some of his cake you would forgive him for eating your slice.

“I’m literally your best friend. Shouldn’t I be the one you’re cooking for?” he huffs.

Your phone is in your hand. You’ve managed to go a few minutes without replying back to Vernon. Jeonghan is secretly proud of you.

He waves his fork in front of your lip to offer you a bite of the cake. When you notice, you open your mouth to accept his offer.

Fuck yes, he thinks after he sees you close your mouth and chew. He immediately reaches over to swap his half-eaten plate for yours.

[text from: work husband]

work husband: oh I signed us up for crowd control for this Friday’s spirit rally because I know you don’t want to participate in the spirit rally games.

work bb: oh thank god. I completely forgot signups were today.

work bb: if I knew I was going to have to attend spirit rallies again I would’ve never become a high school teacher

work husband: but you wouldn’t have met me :c

Jeonghan leaves his seat to walk to your side while you quickly reply back to Vernon. He tries to look over your shoulder while you shrug him off, turning your body toward the window. Jeonghan is positive that there is no way Vernon isn’t in love with you.

“Anyway,” Jeonghan gives up and returns back to his seat. “I already told my date you agreed to the double date. See you this Saturday.”

“What?” you look up at your best friend and he shrugs while picking up the half-eaten slices of cake and pie.

“Our lunch break is almost over. I’m going to go get these wrapped so you can take them with you to work. Can you throw away our trash? I’ll come back for the drinks.”

[text from: work husband]

work husband: I think some students are filming tiktoks outside my room. I’m going to go scare them.

You tell Jeonghan to order you another cake while he’s getting yours boxed at the counter.

chapter two: gymnasium; spirit rally

It honestly did not make sense at all that Friday’s Spirit Week theme would be called “Tie-Dye Friday,” when Tuesday or Thursday are arguably days that better suit the theme. Nevertheless, you’re standing with Vernon at the side of the school gymnasium wearing the sweatshirt he lent you during the few minutes before your second period class started. Your little interaction certainly caught the attention of some students, and it has been the subject of a majority of their conversations. Because when you have two young and hot teachers at your school who seem to be really close friends, word spreads, and ships sail.

The two of you were hired at the same time two years ago, both fresh out of college with a teaching certificate in hand. It is a pretty distinguished school district, a district that receives awards every year for its rigorous pedagogy. In all honesty, you and Vernon landed your jobs by an extreme stroke of luck. This school district? Hiring not one but two new teachers with little to no teaching experience? There were a few positions open because some teachers were retiring. The teacher who was hired before you had to leave the job for personal reasons, and the teacher hired after that one never showed up for training. It kept going on. You were their last option. Putting pride aside, you were just happy someone decided to hire you. But maybe it was the same stroke of luck that brought the two of you together.

You met Vernon during the summer orientation and quickly became friends, realizing that the two of you had to stick together to try to make it through your first year of teaching. Your classrooms are close together, and he would stop by for a quick chat during breaks, coming over to tease you or disrupt your class. You don’t know what he is doing half the time, but he’s a good teacher. His class is relatively easy as long as you do the studying, and the tests are hard enough that you can’t bullshit your way through and expect an A – they’re in essay question formats after all. Despite his easygoing personality and calm demeanor, rumor says that he’s the strictest person when it comes to testing season. (Mafia boss the students call it.) 

But here you are, standing next to your crush wearing one of his most cherished sweatshirts while a bunch of high schoolers sit on the bleachers and on the wooden floors. A student walks up to the two of you and asks if they could use the restroom. Vernon nods, and the student leaves. Vernon tells you that when a student directly asks you if they could leave the assembly, he would answer for you. He knows you’re the shyer one between the two of you.   

When you have a crush, a big and stinky larger than the sunflowers growing in the garden in front of your classroom type of crush, you cherish any moment spent with them because you never know when the next moment will come. 

“Don’t you have to go get your driver’s license changed?” Jeonghan asked you one night while the two of you were eating dinner at your apartment.

You scrunched your eyebrows together deep in thought, “I don’t think it’s expiring soon.”

“Your address doesn’t match the one on your license though,” Jeonghan pointed at your wallet on counter above the sink.

You got up from the couch and walked over to grab your wallet. You were pretty sure you had at least two years until your license expired, but it didn’t hurt to check. You opened your wallet and looked through the transparent slot in which you put your wallet.

“But my address is correct,” you walked back to the living room and pulled out your license for your best friend to see.

The crowd cheers as students are called from each year to participate in the next activity. It’s cacophonous, but you don’t mind. You join their rambunctiousness – laughing and cheering with those around you.

Vernon leans in and gently nudges your left arm, “You look nice.” He compliments loudly enough so only you can hear.

You grin and raise your left arm in front of you to admire the mix of blue, white, and grey. The fabric smells fresh and feels soft against your skin. It was probably treated with the fabric softener he bought the last time the two of you ran errands together. “I’ll return this to you after I wash it,” you promise him.

“Keep it,” his hands automatically reach to adjust the hood on your sweater so it lays nice and even against your back. “It looks good on you,” he murmurs when he stands in front of you while adjusting and pulling the strings in front of your neck so they’re even.

More cheers erupt from the crowd in front of you, but you are too busy trying to keep yourself from blushing to even care about what is happening in front of you. A few students could’ve exited the building without asking, and you still wouldn’t care.

“No, it’s definitely wrong,” he took the license from your hand and tapped his finger on the printed country.

You leaned in to look at the error on your card.

“It should say Simp Nation right here,” he snickers.

You snatched your license from his hand, “I’m kicking you out of my apartment.”

Over the course of the next few minutes, they make the teachers participate in an obstacle course, show a video about Spring Break safety, and have the school band perform. Vernon somehow procured two seats so the two of you could sit instead of stand the whole time. In the middle of talking to your co-worker about grading midterms, you hear the entire student body shouting for the both of you.

You look up to see some participants making their way to the center of the gymnasium for some game they were nominated to participate in. The two of you shake your heads and politely deny their request. They groan in response, but it can’t be helped. Everybody knew that the two of you rarely participated in assemblies, especially when it came to doing anything remotely physical. Although the two of you are the high school’s youngest staff members, the two of you are also some of the most unmotivated and uncompetitive people to ever exist. Everybody already knew that the two of you were going to reject their request, but it never hurt to try. The most the two of you have done during a spirit rally was walk across the gymnasium while holding a banner the students made. There was also that other time the two of you volunteered to participate in the spicy noodle challenge because the two of you were starving, but that was honestly about it.

When the assembly ends the two of you direct the students out of the gymnasium and stay behind to pick up forgotten belongings to bring to the lost and found.

“Let me take those for you,” he takes the sweaters out of your arms for you. “Do you have any lunch plans today?”

“Yeah I do,” you reply. You look at his face to see if he is at all disappointed. His expression remains blank and he purses his lips.

“It’s your loss,” he makes his way to the gym doors while you walk over to stack the chairs the two of you sat in. “My Rubiks Cube club is having a crazy pizza party,” he calls on his way out.

.

If you count a bunch of students lounging around a history classroom with a bunch of Star Wars and other pop culture memorabilia trying to solve their different types of collectible cubes a party, then this one is a banger. A rager even.

Mr. Chwe sits at his desk, right leg anxiously bouncing up and down while he holds his second slice of pizza in his hand. He thought that he managed to play it cool when you told him you had plans, but in reality, the thought of you having lunch plans for the second time this week is making him mentally scream on top of his imaginary mountain into the empty abyss below.

In the background, Dokyeom screams when he solves another side of his Megaminx and proudly holds it up for his club members to see.

[text from: nonie]

nonie: seungkwannn

nonie: help me

kwan: see, you wouldn’t be freaking out if you just asked yn on a date

kwan: you’re constantly flirting with them. I don’t see how you never accidentally asked them out

nonie: I have a bunch of times but they never take me seriously

nonie: yn told me they have plans for lunch

nonie: do you think they’re on a date again?

kwan: oh speaking of dates I have a double date this Saturday

nonie: wait keep talking about that so I stop thinking about yn

kwan: when do you not think about yn?

nonie: never

nonie: they’re actually wearing my sweatshirt today. can you believe it?

kwan: my best friend is a SIMP!

kwan: a shy one who won’t properly confess his feelings! but still!! a simp!!!

kwan: one of my friends from work needed someone to tag along because they’re meeting someone they met on Tinder. I only agreed because they said they would cover one of my overtime shifts for me

nonie: oh that’s scary. the tinder part. not the overtime part.

kwan: right?

nonie: but the idea of yn going on a date that’s not with me is scarier.  

kwan: no wonder you’re a history teacher

nonie: because the humanities is for hot people?

kwan: because you’re a loser

kwan: like I bet you’re actually enjoying the pizza party with your lame rubiks club rn

nonie: oh my god I’m a loser

kwan: a hot one tho!

kwan: wait yn’s classroom is literally under yours. can’t you just go downstairs and check if they’re there?

kwan: did you not do that before you started overthinking?

kwan: Vernon?

.

You adjust your sunhat to shield your face from the brazen afternoon sun. You’re in your gardening overalls, Vernon’s sweatshirt folded neatly and tucked away in your classroom for the time being. It’s finally Spring and you’re tending to the nursery pots in the small garden located outside of your classroom. Around you, your agriculture club works and chats amongst themselves.

Intrusive thoughts are distracting you from what would usually be a lovely day in your garden. Maybe you should’ve told Vernon that you were going to be in the garden with your club today. Vernon probably isn’t overthinking it like how you are, right? But still, was saying you had plans a little too much? Does it sound like you had something important to tend to?

You sigh and stand to stretch your knees. Behind you, your little garden is beautiful, lush, and thriving. The flowers are in bloom and provide shade for the vegetables in the dirt. Everything seems to be thriving and buzzing with life. It makes you happy to see how far the little seedlings have grown.

A student arrives with refreshments that they picked up for everybody. You tell your club to take a break under the shade. It would be a shame if one of them has heatstroke. You take off your gloves and shove them in your side pockets. Your phone pings in the front pocket of your overalls while you make your way into your cool classroom.

[text from: work husband]

work husband: hi love. you took the bus to work today, right?

work husband: let’s pick up some groceries after work and I’ll drop you off at your place

work bb: even when I smell like dirt?

work husband: you’re an envisci teacher. I’d be concerned if you didn’t smell like dirt

work bb: you don’t have anything to do tonight right?

work husband: did you just assume I have no plans on a Friday night

work bb: omg sorry it’s because we always hang after work on Fridays

work husband: no you’re actually right. I have no plans.

work bb: then I’ll cook dinner for us

work husband: I know I’m already work-married to you, but I’m going to marry you one day

work husband: lol

work bb: haha silly

“Teacher Yn,” a couple students approach you while you set your phone face down on your desk.

“Hmm?” you up at them while taking off your sunhat.

“Can we send you a list of ideas we came up for our club education trip? We know we have to fulfill the requirement before the end of the semester, but we wanted to get it out of the way.”

You nod at them, “Sounds fine by me.” You pull up a website on your desktop and show it to your students, “Did you guys include the city garden? It’s pretty close by and it’s pretty this time of year.”

“Did you choose that place so Mr. Chwe can tag along? I heard he likes running there.”

You look at your students in disbelief. How did they even find out things like that?

Just then, someone knocks loudly on your open door. All eyes turn to see Vernon standing at the opening with his gaggle of students behind him, Rubiks Cubes, pizza boxes, and packs of sodas in their hands.

“I brought nerds and pizza.”

One of your students leans in and whispers to you, “Looks like your boyfriend is here.”

You don’t know if you should be happy or if you should consider this to be one of the most horribly timed entrances of all time. You decide you’re going to be happy – it’s Vernon after all.

chapter three: grocery store; dinner

People are definitely staring at the two of you while you grocery shop together. It’s not because the two of you are wearing your tie-dye outfits from earlier today, but because of the fact that Vernon is handsome. At least that’s what you believe. It’s enough to make the other shoppers stare for at least a brief second before they return to their usual routes.

You think your shoes covered in dirt are a direct juxtaposition to his pristine white sneakers. There’s a part of you that will always be insecure whenever you’re in public with your crush, but your hand in his reassures you otherwise.

“Do you think people don’t approach you at grocery stores because I’m next to you?” you ask him while the two of you are hunched over the leafy green section. A handwritten sign states the organic kale is finally on sale.

“Why would you think that?” Vernon curiously asks you. His tone is a bit upset, but he still peruses through a few bundles of kale before choosing the one he like most. He drops it in the plastic bag you opened for him.

“I don’t know,” you shrug while placing the bagged kale into the shopping cart. “You’re handsome and people stare, but nobody is making a move.”

“I don’t care about other people,” he muses. He reaches for the baby carrots on the top shelf and passes the bag to you. “You know I only have eyes for you.”

You push the shopping cart to the fruit section and he follows closely behind you, happy his comment made your ears turn red. He knows you’re embarrassed and is purposely moving onto the fruit section when the two of you still have a few more greens to buy.

But it’s true, he only has eyes on you. Only you don’t seem to realize that he does. He constantly tells you his feelings, but you never seem to take him seriously. He clings onto you and holds your hand in public because he also sees people looking at you. Was it wrong of him to be jealous? Was it wrong to want to hold your hand at all times? Maybe it’s his fault you never do, yet he can only wish for you to take him seriously.

“Hey babe,” Vernon calls to you from the mountain of potatoes in front of him. He sees your figure shoot up like a meerkat standing among pyramids of fruit, looking side-to-side to try to locate the familiar voice. “Right here,” he calls to you again, this time holding a bag of potatoes above his head. He laughs when he sees you cover your face in mortification while you cart your way over to him. You’re cute, he thinks. His little meerkat.

.

The two of you pose while he takes a picture of the two of you in the black and white monitoring screen above the self-checkout machine. He scans his loyalty card and begins to scan the items in the cart.

“Hey Vern,” you pass him a box of pasta for him to scan.

“Yes, baby?” he winks while taking the box from you.

“Why do you call yourself my work husband even when we’re off work?” you ask him while passing him a bag of bagels.

“You’re right. If we’re off work then that just means I’m your husband,” he takes the bag from your hand and scans it. “Because the adjective describes the fact that we’re at work, but we’re not at work. So just call me husband.”

“Smartass,” you grumble to yourself. He’s constantly embarrassing you, but you somehow like it.

“What is that?” he pokes at the touchscreen. He clearly heard you grumble to yourself.

Checkout. Beep. No Bags. Beep. Credit/Debit. Beep.

“Are you filing for a divorce just because we’re not at work?” he purposely makes his voice louder than usual and brings his phone to the screen to pay for the groceries. “Do I mean nothing to you?” his tone clearly implies he’s poking fun at you, but it’s enough to let the workers around you two eavesdrop.

“Vernon, oh my god,” you quickly shuffle to his left to put the items in the reusable tote bags in the cart behind the two of you. “People are staring.” You pull your hood over your head and he gently pulls it back down, quickly running his fingers through your hair to minimize the mess.

The workers point and giggle at you two before going back to work, telling those in line to move to an open self-checkout machine.

“Just like how I stare at you at work?” he takes the receipt and consecutive coupons from the mouth of the machine and folds it before putting it in his back pocket. He moves the shopping cart behind the two of you and separates the cold items from the fresh and boxed items.

“Babe, I’m going to file for divorce,” you grab the bag of baby carrots and wave it in front of his face. “And I’m taking the children with me.”

“Aww you called me babe.”

.

You wish you could be as open as Vernon when it comes to flirting, but at the same time, the jokes and the act that the two of you put on around each other often times sound and feel a little too real. Your feelings for him are real, but you struggle to understand whether or not he’s joking with you. You know you could just ask him, but there’s a ninety percent chance he would joke with you and a ten percent chance he would tell you the truth. However, because of how the two of you normalized flirting with each other, you know you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between his truth and his jokes. You’re afraid of telling him the truth, but you’re also afraid of letting go of this false reality the two of you created.

Where is the thin line between flirting romantically and flirting jokingly? How do you find it? How do you cross to the romantic side?

The two of you are currently in you apartment. His shoes are placed in the usually open spot next to yours on the shoe rack, and his car keys are in the ceramic tray next to yours. You are prepping the ingredients for dinner while he sorts the groceries he bought into their rightful places in your tiny kitchen.

“You know my student, Chan, right? The one who I swear is out to get me?” your co-worker asks you nonchalantly while reaching above your head to open your white kitchen cabinet. “Right when I was about to play a video for the class, Chan raises his hand and has the audacity to ask me if I’m ever going to teach them.”

“How did you respond?” you lean over the kitchen counter to shut the microwave door and start the timer. You’re used to his daily post-class lunchtime rants, but he somehow forgot to tell you until he saw the picture of the two at orientation stuck on your refrigerator with a magnetic turtle.

Vernon sighs while looking through the cabinet contents, “I called him lame and told him to watch the damn Crash Course video.”

He gently places his palm on top of your head to shield your head from getting hit when he swings the cabinet door close, a colander in his other hand. He places the colander in the sink behind the two of you and turns back to you. He is interested in what is in the microwave and mimics your position, bending over to stare through the translucent screen. It’s hard to make out what is spinning slowly through the glass so he leans in, accidentally brushing his shoulder against yours for a brief moment. It is brief, but it is enough to make you question what you have done in your past life to deserve this moment.

“Wait,” you turn your head to look at your co-worker beside you, curiously asking, “students actually get annoyed when we show videos in class?”

“I don’t know,” he stands upright and scratches his head, his expression clearly showing that he was dumbfounded that a student would be against watching videos. He leans against the back counter and crosses his arms. He frowns. “I mean, am I ever going to tell them that watching videos stimulates different modes of cognitive learning? Of course not,” he answers his own question. “I’m the cool teacher.”

Spoken like a mantra.

“I’m just defrosting the garlic bread so I can pop it into the oven so you can snack while I cook.” You notice he is looking around your kitchen. You think it’s because he doesn’t have space to exit with the tote bags on the floor and the lack of mobile space in your kitchen. “Did you want to exit? Let me move out of the way so you can go chill or grade in the living room.”

It’s exactly the opposite of what you think.

Vernon loves your place despite how much you hate its small size. To him, your tiny apartment feels like home. You’ve told him several times how much you want to move out. You hate how you don’t have a desk to do your work on. You hate how your bed is literally pushed in the corner of your bedroom against the wall and window. You even hate how there’s no closet in your bedroom so you have to use the hallway closet as your closet.

He wishes you know just how much he loves it when he can hear the soft hum of the in-unit washer and dryer in the background while he lounges on your plush sofa. Because of the size of your apartment, the smell of your baking sometimes lingers for hours. Because of the lack of space, you’re forced to display many of your things for your guests to see instead of tucking them away in some storage bin or cabinet. There are postcards your friends sent from around the world, pictures on the fridge, awards hung on walls, and small trinkets placed all around your apartment. The sticky notes the two of you exchanged during orientation are pinned to your corkboard. Not to mention, the sectional sofa with the chaise you bought with your first paycheck proudly lines your living room. It’s one of the most comfortable things he’s fallen asleep on. Although the apartment may seem suffocating at times, this apartment is you personified.

Of course, it wasn’t like he never offered you to move into his place multiple times in the past. You slapped his arm in response every time he suggested.

.

Earlier, the two of you decided to power through grading midterm papers for your respective classes so the two of you could freely enjoy Spring Break without any worries. It is now nearing midnight when you blindly reach into the popcorn bowl on the side table beside you only to feel nothing. You are out of movie snacks. Your legs are stretched out on your chaise and Vernon’s head is still in your lap, pointed toward the second movie the two of you are watching that night. You decide to not get up to make more popcorn just in case he is sleeping.

Next to the empty popcorn bowl, your cellphone pings and Vernon stirs.

Damn you, cellphone.

There is another notification sound, and Vernon pushes himself off your lap to sit up. You look over at your phone. It’s fucking Yoon Jeonghan.

[text from: devil’s incarnate]

devil’s incarnate: don’t fowget about ouw double date t-tomowwow (//▽//)

devil’s incarnate: the reservation is at noon at the bistro opposite of the café we went for lunch

headache personified: WHY MUST YOU RUIN EVERYTHING FOR ME

Vernon somehow manages to quietly squeeze himself behind you while you lift yourself to text  Jeonghan. When you put your phone down he tugs your body closer to his, his legs stretched out and sandwiching yours. He points to the blanket at the foot of the chaise and he lets go of his arms around you so you can lean forward to grab the blanket.

You open the blanket so it covers both of you and his arms sneak around your stomach, pulling you into his chest. He puts his chin on your shoulder to see the screen in front of you. He emanates warmth like a human-sized hand warmer, like the warm summer sun on your skin the first day you met him.

About halfway into the movie your body naturally turned to lay against his. You’re not watching the movie anymore because he knows you’re tired. It’s not the first time the two of you have cuddled this closely before, but he only hopes you mistake his uncontrollable fast heartbeat as his reaction to the movie.

You’re fiddling with the strings on his clean hoodie and he takes your hand in his and puts it on his chest.

“The plot is really good,” he hopes you can feel his chest vibrate.

You do. You’re on cloud nine.

“You can stay over if you’re not comfortable driving back at this hour,” you suggest to him. Your hand goes back to playing with the aglet on his hoodie string.

“Mmm,” the thought of leaving makes him groan. “I’ll stay until the movie ends.”

In the closet toward the entrance, your dryer hums. The air smells like rose petals and warm vanilla. In his heart he knows the two of you are way past the simple “work spouse” phase. He hugs you tighter and wishes the movie never ends.

[text from: devil’s incarnate]

devil’s incarnate: btw I’m picking you up so you have no way of escaping (o¬‿¬o )

devil’s incarnate: see you soon baby <33 -xoxo

chapter four: bistro; double date

The loud knocking on your front door causes you to jolt awake and fling the blanket covering you onto the living room floor. You can recognize that impatient knock anywhere. However, what you’re afraid of is not the knocking sound, but the person currently knocking.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” you repeat while you sit up and look around the living room. You realize it’s Saturday morning. The television is turned off, and you can still see the stacked pile of midterms pushed to the side of your coffee table. Is Vernon still in your apartment?

Your phone is ringing on the side table next to you. You look over your pillow from your bedroom. I don’t remember bringing one from my bedroom. You see the Caller ID. It’s Jeonghan trying to reach you from outside your door.

Then you see it, a light blue sticky note stuck in the empty popcorn bowl next to your phone. It’s his handwriting, tiny and scrawled. He says he took your laundry out of the dryer and took out the trash on his way out. He’s sorry he couldn’t lock the door. There’s a tiny heart next to his initials. He doesn’t tell you when he left.

The note is in your hand when Jeonghan barges into your apartment and shuts the door behind him. He stands in the doorway and stares at you, his hands on his waist. He’s annoyed.

Your apartment is silent. Even leaky faucet decides to rest for a while. You swear you can hear your best friend’s heavy breathing.

“I’m sorry,” you squeak while you stand up to face him, hiding the note behind your back.

“I. Sent. You. So. Many. Texts,” he roughly kicks off his shoes and storms into your living room.

You scream when you realize he is making his way over to you. When he reaches your sofa, the two of you circle around your coffee table.

“I’ve been outside your door knocking like a man trying to win back his ex. Do you know how embarrassing that was for me?” He wants to strangle you at this point, but he can’t because he needs you to go on the double date with him. “And I couldn’t even park in your second parking spot because guess who I saw get into his car in your second parking spot in the morning?”

Does that mean Vernon slept over last night? And Jeonghan now knows about it?

He lunges. You scream again.

.

Seungkwan sits on Vernon’s barstool and faces the door, ready to read his friend to filth the moment he walks into the door. His legs are crossed and he’s counting the number of cardboard boxes stacked near Vernon’s front door. It’s Saturday morning and Vernon isn’t in his own apartment. He’s a loser who can’t even properly confess his feelings to his crush – where the hell was he last night?

Seungkwan has a double-date to attend in about an hour. For him, lecturing Vernon would take at least 15 minutes and asking for opinions for his outfits would take around 5 minutes. Driving would take at least 10 minutes if it was all green lights. However, if there is a stop light or two-

Vernon calmly unlocks his door and opens the door to see his friend sitting at his counter. It’s totally normal to have Seungkwan invite himself into his apartment – he gave him a spare key for a reason. However, when Vernon is halfway through the doorframe, he realizes he’s wearing his extra set of clothes he sometimes leaves at your place. He is also holding his work bag from yesterday. Seungkwan seems to have already noticed as his legs uncross and his eyes widen at the sight of his friend. Vernon slowly backs out and closes his front door ready to leave and never come back. Start a new life maybe.

“Get your ass back here,” he hears Seungkwan’s menacingly sweet voice from the other side of the door.

He audibly sighs. He has no choice but to open the door.

.

You’re folding your laundry in the backseat of Jeonghan’s car while he drives the two of you to the double date. You can tell he’s still angry – his sleeves are rolled up. He already undid his collar to let off some steam and pent up anger when you told him you didn’t want to go on the date. You can see the gorilla grip he has on his steering wheel. His arm veins protrude prominently, and you swear you can see them throb. Jeonghan glares at you through his rearview mirror every chance he can get, so you sulk in his backseat and quietly fold your clothes. You probably also lost your aux privileges. For the next week or month maybe.

He purposely makes a hard break at a stop sign when nobody is around, and some of your folded clothes launch themselves to his car floor. You look at your t-shirt crumple to the floor and bite your lower lip. You nod to yourself. You deserve this. You were on a winning streak last night so karma (Jeonghan) has to show up to make sure everything is set at equilibrium. There must be balance to this world.

“Did you shower last night?” Jeonghan softly asks you when he notices you’re a lot quieter than usual. He turns on his right blinker, ready to make a right.

“Of course I did,” you pouted when you realized your favorite pair of socks rolled under the front seat. “I smelled like dirt.”

“So you showered while a man was over?” he snickers. There’s a glimmer in his eye. “Naughty.”

“He was grading in my living room,” you protest while looking out the window. Your clothes are folded and placed back in the laundry basket.

You can tell Jeonghan’s anger is subsiding. He rolls his shoulder backwards and stretches his neck left and right. The gorilla grip is gone. You know he cares for you. That you are certain of.

The two of you are still relatively early when Jeonghan parks. He rolls down his windows and turns of the engine and then his car. He drops his car keys in his cupholder and turns back to look at you. He smiles.

“Spill.”

.

Seungkwan is holding onto the car handle above his seat for dear life.

“So I woke up with Yn in my arms, but their phone was going off like crazy because someone was spam texting them. I reach over to switch their phone to silent because I’m a good husband who cares about Yn getting a good sleep, but I see the same person texting them and calling them. Bro this person was using all the pet names that I use. So, already, in my mind I was like ‘oh my god am I a home wrecker?’ And then I looked at their phone again even though I shouldn’t have been looking through their notifications, but it was just right there and I saw that he said he was going to come over soon because they have a date. So I tidied up a bit and packed my bags and zoomed out of there. Because what if they’re really dating? What if he’s the same guy you saw at the café? Dude my mind was racing so much. But Yn looked so peaceful and serene. I was going to melt then and there and then reality hit me: I may have just been a homewrecker. But it all doesn’t make sense because their lock screen photo is the photo I took of us at the grocery story yesterday. Wouldn’t it make more sense if your lock screen photo was your boyfriend instead? So I was freaking out and I’m still freaking out. My non-existent love life is in shambles bro.”

“Is this car ride over?” Seungkwan’s eyes are closed and his knuckles are turning white. “Am I alive? Is the car in one piece?”

Vernon unbuckles his seatbelt and then Seungkwan’s, “Yeah dude. I parked a few minutes ago. Were you listening to me rant at all?”

“I’m going to step out and take a breather,” Seungkwan nods to himself. It was his fault for making Vernon drive. He knows how fast Vernon can drive, but he didn’t take into consideration that he would be sitting in the passenger seat. Was it worth it in the end to arrive early to a date he wasn’t even going to enjoy?

He opens the car door and stretches his legs. “Do you see that café across the street?” he points at the café he visited earlier this week. “Please stay in there and clear your head. Drink some tea. Coffee will make you even more jittery.”

Seungkwan exits the car and shuts the door. Before he starts walking towards the front entrance, he turns around and points at Vernon who looks like he is on the brink of a mental breakdown, “But stay in there in case I need an escape plan.”

.

Vernon recognizes this café as the same café printed on the tiny cake roll box you left on his desk earlier this week. The sticky note you attached to the underside of the box is tucked away in his wallet as are some of the other ones you wrote for him in the past. He keeps them all and occasionally switches them depending on his mood.  

Did you miss me? the note reads. I’m sorry you had to eat lunch alone. This roll reminded me of you because it’s round like your hair when it’s flat. HA! Did you think I was going to write “sweet?” -yn ;-)

He’s been staring at the chalkboard menu for the past few minutes, his eyes squinted and his head deep in thought. The baristas think he’s having a hard time looking at the menu up above and offer him a physical menu in larger print. It takes a few tries to get his attention, but he bashfully takes the menu from them and moves to the side so the incoming customers can order their drinks and other menu items.

He regrets not asking you out sooner. He’s sulking and mentally beating himself up in a café in which his crush had a date a few days ago. How lame is that? While you’re out enjoying your date and probably having the time of your life, he’s regretting all of the chances he didn’t take in the past. But the angel on his shoulder reassures him – he was still by your side despite not taking the chances in the past. It comforts him a bit. Maybe is all just a big misunderstanding. Maybe you don’t have a boyfriend. Vernon promises himself while walking up to the counter to order his drink: if the universe sends him a sign anytime soon, he is going to take it. No questions asked.

[text from: kwan]

kwan: sos

nonie: do you think I should go for a fruit tea today?

kwan: I s2g if you don’t get your ass over here

nonie: how bad can your date be?

nonie: did the food come out already?

kwan: my coworker is meeting yn’s bf

kwan: MY COWORKER IS MEETING YN’S BF FOR OUR DOUBLE DATE

kwan: YN’S BOYFRIEND IS A CHEATER

nonie: YOU FR?

nonie: WHO TF WOULD HAVE THE AUDACITY TO DO THAT TO YN?

kwan: YOU’RE A TEACHER. COME TEACH HIM A LESSON.  

nonie: I’M COMING

kwan: not the face tho. it’s a money maker

nonie: WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Vernon practically sprints out of the café. Thank you universe!

.

[text from: devil’s incarnate]

devil’s incarnate: did u grab my wallet?

devil’s incarnate: save me. my date came and I was totally catfished (╬`益´)

devil’s incarnate: and your date is sending me death glares for some reason O.o

headache personified: when we go home we’re signing you up for bumble

headache personified: I’m almost at the front entrance. you want me to act like you’re my bf?

devil’s incarnate: oh we haven’t used that tactic in a long time

headache personified: wait is that you three under the umbrella at the porch?

headache personified: is my date vernon’s seungkwan?  

devil’s incarnate: bro how should I know how vernon’s seungkwan looks like

devil’s incarnate: ahh fuck it I’ll just be mean and call my date out for catfishing me.

devil’s incarnate: can you record for me <3 -xoxo

You’re already outside the front entrance when you think about ways to try to avoid Seungkwan while you're inside the bistro. You think if you walk along the bistro’s perimeter instead of heading inside the bistro, you can get a better video angle of Jeonghan without having to show your face to Seungkwan. However, someone gently grabs onto your arm and tugs on it.

You turn around and you're surprised to see Vernon looking back at you. He looks frazzled and out of breath. You wonder if he really goes jogging in the city garden like what your students said.

“Hear me out. I have to tell you something,” he pleads.

Your heart is screaming Omg it’s Vernon! Vernon! but you’re worried Jeonghan might get mad at you if you don’t record him while he’s lecturing the catfish. You can probably email the bistro for a video recording tomorrow. If Jeonghan draws enough attention, you can probably have one of the bistro patrons text you a recording of the interaction.

“I had so many chances to tell you how I really feel, but I keep beating myself up for not telling you my feelings. I really like you. I really do,” he takes both of your hands in his hand. “And I don’t want you to go in and end up with someone who is on a date with another person.”

Fuck Jeonghan’s video. Vernon is actually confessing to you. Yet at the same time, something about his confession doesn’t really make sense. How did he find out about your double date?

“What do you mean you catfished me because you thought I was a catfish? Have you seen me?” you can hear Jeonghan’s shrill voice screeching from where you’re standing. You imagine he’s standing up and gesturing at his own face. “Why would I need to catfish as someone else?” You swear you can also hear Seungkwan laughing.

Vernon also seems to recognize Seungkwan’s laughter. His mouth hangs slightly agape and he looks at you and back at the patio in horror.

In that moment, everything made sense. Seungkwan probably texted Vernon that Jeonghan showed up to the date while believing you were dating Jeonghan. It’s honestly not the first time the confusion happened. You smile and pull him in a hug.

“The person I like thinks my best friend is cheating on me when in reality I was forced to go on a double date. So if anything, you just stopped me from going on a date with Seungkwan before I even went on a date with you,” you laugh into his chest. “Did you really run to try stop me from seeing my best friend cheat on me?”

He hugs you back and you can hear his heart beat slow down. He’s relieved.

“Baby,” he hums into your hair.

“Hmm?” you look up at him.

“Do you still want to call me your work husband at work even if I become your boyfriend?”

You groan in embarrassment while he laughs at you. He separates from you and starts walking backwards with his hand stretched out.

“Let’s go on a date. I heard the café across the street has really good cake rolls.”

He’s waiting for you to come hold his hand.  

You can still hear Jeonghan yelling in the background. You think Seungkwan is also yelling with him. Considering the fact that they haven’t been kicked out already, the two of you know they’ll be fine without the two of you.

“The ones that look like your hair when it’s flat?” you catch up to him and interlock your hand with his.

“Exactly.”

taglist: @jiminismybabymochi, @anissanightyoung, @bat-shark-repellant, @woozarts, @jaycheoluwu, @deadlyarepa, @hoothootreiber, @sleeplessdawn, @ryujined, @staysstrays, @carat-cakes, @whyisquill, @kitacore, @grannysdirtbag, @heeseung-lover686

freefall | kth

summary: hearing banging noises outside your front door at 11 at night could mean one out of two things. one, you are seconds away from getting chopped up by an axe murderer. two, someone is purposefully being an inconsiderate asshole.

or three, a fratboy from delta phi who goes by the name of kim taehyung faceplants in front of your door amidst a high-stakes game of… hide and seek?

pairing: taehyung x reader

genre: fluff, smut (pretty tame tbh! cuz it’s my first time eek), comedy, college!au, fratboy!au

word count: 10k

warnings: RATED 18+, grinding, dryhumping, palming, mentions of drugs and alcohol (yk regular frat shit), swearing, taehyung is a gentleman fr tho my gawd with a big co-

A/N: i’d just like to thank everyone for the immense amount of support or else i would have never had the confidence in myself and my writing to try to create and post something of this nature. i hope u reading as much as i enjoyed writing this fr! i’d like to give huge shoutouts to some special peeps that were with me throughout the process of me writing this: LINH !! @latetaektalk , i’ve absolutely adored u and ur work for the longest time and u beta reading my work meant the world, truly. SOULMATE! @pjmsdior , who always looks over my work for me and is just the kindest and cutest soul. meekers @tomotae , slay i make u read all my work but im finally writing smut now duh, she is very happy for this monumental event the most i think. and last but not least the bestie 4L @koushiningg , whom i made read this last night at their house which was the funniest shit ever. once again, hope u enjoy reading!!! sending luv always, jumi <3

taglist: @nap-of-a-starr @ppeachyttae @tetesland @taestrwbrry @je0nmin @rooo-tah @delusionalsnack (not working) @jeontier @taeshobipop​

❧ PLAYLIST.

This was the most serenity you’ve felt in weeks. 

Keep reading

Mermaids Part Two

Frankie Morales x Fem! Reader

Part One

Summary: After your first meeting, Frankie brings Lili to the fall festival to see you. What he doesn't expect is some of his secrets to be exposed.

Rating: Explicit 18+ (Fluff for this chapter and pining but we aren't getting spicy until the next one)

Content: Pining, mermaids, over protective Frankie, girl dad! Frankie, drinking, mentions of drug use, Benny!!!, Pope!!!, swimming, these two idiots in like with each other stripping

A/N: We're baaaack! Thank you for the love I received on part one and thanks again to @heythere-mel for being my beta reader and hyping me up!!

“No food in the tank.” 

“What’s the matter with my son trying to feed the fish? Cotton candy dissolves anyway.” A dad let out a gravely chuckle at his own little fish food joke, even though you’re not a fish. You are a mermaid, a fake mermaid. 

You were leaning on top of the tank, rolling your eyes at the sad attempt at a joke as your tank handler tried to ward off pieces of spun sugar being thrown up to the performers. 

You expected nothing less from the fall festival; you had already been there for a few hours and had an alright shift; some families were friendly, some families were rude and then here was the family of the evening, a young boy and his son throwing candy into the tank trying to get you to eat soggy food. 

What a night. You were almost ready to get off and go home already. Almost, because you were waiting for two very special guests to show up and make your night much better. Frankie and his adorable daughter Liliana were supposed to come and see you and based on the texts Frankie had sent, it seemed like they were still coming at some point but where were they?

“Sweetheart, you like cotton candy don’t you?” You’re pulled from your thoughts when you hear the gravel voiced man make more jokes at your expense. Unfortunately, you’re still at work and not only can you not talk but you can’t give him a piece of your mind. So you give him your stiffest smile and shake your head in disagreement. 

“Please, you lay in a tank all day and do dolphin tricks the least you can do is let my kid have some fun.” 

“Sir, you cannot throw food into the tank and if we have to ask you and your child again, you’ll have to leave.” Your handler says. 

“Is there a problem here?” You hear a familiar voice and before you can even see him, you feel your insides light up. 

There was Frankie, hair mussed in his cap striding over in his worn out jeans with Lili on his hip. He looked over at you and gave you a wink as your stiff smile came unglued for him and Lili.

Lili called out your name and wriggled out of Frankie’s arms to run towards the tank. She tugged onto the sleeve of another man that was with them, a broad, tall blonde with movie star good looks and a black MMA shirt on that stressed his muscles in all the right places. 

“Uncle Benny, I told you my friend was a mermaid!!!” Lili beamed at you as you waved back to her. They were truly a sight for sore eyes. Benny eyed you from your fin to your face and it made you feel slightly exposed, but not in the same way that Frankie had made you feel. He gave you a cheeky wink and wave. 

“Benjamin Miller.” He grinned at you, you could’ve sworn you saw in your peripheral Frankie’s eyes roll back. “What seems to be the problem here?” 

“I think the both of you should mind your business here and let my kid feed your friend.” The dad interjected. 

“I wanna feed the mermaid cotton candy!” The kid whined. 

“Mermaids can’t eat cotton candy, silly. Besides it’s not nice to waste food!” Lili interjected. You tried to hide your grin. 

“Liliana, be nice.” Frankie said in a low, stern voice. He walked up towards the dad, “Come on, man. Show’s over. He asked you to stop.” 

“I’ll do what I damn well please and so can my kid. If he wants to put candy in the tank, he can put candy in the tank. Hell, if I wanna pay her to take her top off she better— “

“Seriously?!” You yelled out, unable to keep character any longer. 

Now Benny, Frankie and your handler all cornered this man. “I think you need to leave before you have problems with all three of us.” Frankie lowered his voice. The man stared at Frankie for a moment, eyeing him with an uncomfortable familiarity. 

“Aren’t you in my NA meetings?” He sneered. Benny went to grab Lili, picking her up and covering her ears at the perfect moment. “What’s the matter? Too much coke in your system?” 

“You need to leave before we call the police.” You interjected. The man took his son, chuckling to himself as he walked away. All of you stood there frozen for a moment. An uncomfortable, faraway look on Frankie’s face. Benny looked down at the ground while he still had Lili in his arms. You felt your pulse quicken — that man you had just dealt with was disgusting, but he also knew Frankie from Narcotics Anonymous? What was the story there? Was it even your right to know? 

If there was ever a moment that Frankie wished that the ground would swallow him whole, it was then. He was coming to see you, hoping to be in good spirits for you and Lili and out of nowhere you get ahold of his dirty laundry. Would you even want to associate with him still hearing cocaine thrown around? 

“Listen… I think you’ve clearly had enough for one night. If you wanna take the rest of the night off, you’ve earned it.” Your handler said. You thanked him, looking towards your three guests. 

“I’m so sorry about all of that.” 

“I’m just sorry we were late and we couldn’t help with him sooner.” Frankie said to you, his eyes not meeting yours. There’s another uncomfortable silence. 

“Listen… since I’m done for the night, how about we all do some games together? Lili, do you like funnel cake?” You asked. She animatedly wriggled in Benny’s arms, bounding at the idea of free sugar. You told them you’d meet them once you were done getting dressed as your mind kept replaying what had just happened. 

——————————————

When you had come out to meet Frankie, Benny and Lili, the atmosphere was less awkward has you had gone through the night. You got to learn more about Benny; he was an old army friend of Frankie’s and called him by a strange nickname - Fish or Catfish. Benny was especially friendly, walking next to you and taking it upon himself to hold your bags. He cracked a lot of jokes and loved talking about his career as an MMA fighter, occasionally breaking up the walking the group had done to show off some punches, he even won you a stuffed animal.

You weren't exactly gullible; you knew Benny's angle and how he was desperately trying to flirt. And he seemed like a great guy, but considering he had a wandering eye for anyone in a 5-mile radius you knew that he just wasn't your type. He was clearly too much of a playboy and you wanted someone more grounded, more serious, more reserved, more—

"Fish!!" You heard Benny call out. "I think this little one deserves a funnel cake already!" He nudged towards an ecstatic Lili.

When you ate your funnel cakes, the four of you took a moment to relax after walking through the festival. The boys set the stuffed animals down on a bench while you and Lili ate your funnel cakes and watch the Music Express go by. Frankie watched you gently handling Lili, making her giggle and matching her animated conversation. He looked over towards Benny and saw him looking at you like a predator stalking his prey. He felt his insides melt into a molten hot goo.

“Lili loves her, man. That’s impressive.” Benny said, organizing Lili’s new stuffed animals he won for her.

“She hasn’t stopped talking about her since we met her.” Frankie chuckled, he playfully rolled his eyes but in the back of his mind he thought about how he loved the way Lili talked about you, you were a much welcomed addition into their lives.

"Sounds like little Lili's got a great eye for her new Aunt, doesn't she?" Benny winked, the girls turned back to look at them as he gave you a wave and a wink. You saw Frankie's face still as a statue and you gave a small wave back.

“No way, man.” Frankie said. “She’s a grad student. She’s got this whole mermaid thing going on, she’s way too busy to fuck with a pendejo like you.” 

Benny looked at Frankie with an appraising look on his face. A sly smirk that rivaled the Cheshire Cat crept on his face as Frankie saw his shit-eating grin from the corner of his eye. 

“What?” He asked tersely. 

“Fish, if I knew you were into her I would’ve just backed off!” Benny chuckled. Frankie fully turned over to Benny. 

“Just because I’m looking out for her doesn’t mean I like her, I just don’t want her getting her heart broken since I have never seen you date the same girl past two weeks.”

Benny held up his hands in mock defense. “Alright, alright. But for the record, I think your girl can hold her own. Totally didn't sink to my bait."

"She's a woman, not a fish." Frankie rolled his eyes, Benny could be such a kid. You needed an actual man in your life.

“That’s right, you’re the fish.” He chuckled to himself. “I’m just saying, whenever I tried to lay it on her she clearly had her eyes on someone else." Benny gave Frankie a knowing look, Frankie's curiosity getting the better of him. He looked over at you and Lili, you being ever so patient at her steamroll of questions. You were so patient, so composed to any chaos going on around you. He didn't want to add any more chaos into your life.

"I mean, hell, I could be wrong." Benny started. "But that doesn't mean I still won't try to help my boy out. Hey!" He called out. "Who wants to play Lili the Leapfrog?"

Lili hopped up and down, nearly dropping her funnel cake. "Me!! Me!! Me!!"

Benny ran over to Lili, turning back to give him a wink as you headed over to sit next to him on the bench.

"Sorry if I overdid it on the sugar rush." You chuckled. "I got her the cake but I'm sure you're gonna be paying for it."

"Sugar rush now equals sleepy Lili later." He smiled back, you admired his side dimple.

"Thank you for earlier. Seriously, some of these people can be such assholes and it's just so much to deal with sometimes."

“I’m just glad he can’t bother you anymore.” Frankie said. There was a moment of silence as he hesitated. “Listen, about what that guy said— “

“You don’t have to explain yourself, Frankie. That guy was a dick.” You assured him. 

“Yeah, but I still think you have a right to know. I don’t want you to think you’re hanging out with a total slime ball.” Frankie inhaled deeply before letting it all out. 

“When I got out, I just had a hard time adjusting. Shit just felt so different and out my control and I didn’t know how to handle it. So I went to…” Frankie doesn’t say it, he can’t say it. It’s like he’s compartmentalized that part of his life to his meetings so he can move forward and not look back. 

“And then me and Benny and a few of our army buddies went on a mission that went south. Really fucking bad.” He had a faraway look in his eyes, mournful and dejected. 

“It was just hard to adjust to the changes that happened once I came back. Liliana had just been born, me and her mom weren’t on the best ground, anyway. So I turned to something I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t there for Lili like I could’ve been. I lost my license. What got me out of rock bottom is when Lili’s mom and I split and she said if I didn’t clean up my act, I couldn’t be a part of her life.“

Frankie turns to watch Lili and Benny still passionately in their game of leapfrog. He had such a stillness and such gravitas in that look. "That was it for me. There was no way I would not be a part of that little girl's life."

"Of course. She's a special girl." You agreed.

"Anyway, it didn't take me long to reach out to people around me for help. I started going to meetings, Benny and the rest of our buddies really held me accountable. Now I'm 3 years sober, flying again and I have that wild child over there.”

You put your hand on Frankie's shoulder, trying to ignore the electricity that surged through your fingers. "I'm so proud of you. You shouldn't be ashamed at all about what some random asshole said. Hell, he’s in recovery too so why should he try to knock you down?" 

“Honestly? Sometimes I just feel like a hypocrite or something. I try to teach Lili to be good and stop people like that but I’m still getting my shit together.” 

"Everyone is getting shit together. You’re talking to a girl who plays in swim tanks for a living. What you did to save your relationship with Lili is so admirable. I could tell from the moment we met that little girl adored you. You’re not a hypocrite for wanting to be better.” 

Frankie realized several things in that moment; that you were absolutely right, and he had nothing to be ashamed of, that he wanted to take your small hand and fit it in his, rubbing the softness of his palm until his pulse steadied, and that Benny Miller was too god damn right sometimes. Sure, he could be a little shit, but the man can read people like a book and Frankie’s pages were wide open on his feelings towards you. 

Frankie offered to drive you home after another hour at the fair, dropping Benny off first who stopped trying to give you his Casanova act. You wondered if Frankie had said something, not that you would be upset. But if he did say something, was he trying to protect you as a friend? You looked over at him from the passenger seat from his truck, who was this man? This stoic family man whose entire world revolved around his daughter and his friends. That’s the person you need in your life and you’re so glad he stumbled into yours. 

He pulled up to your house as you gathered your things. 

“Thanks for the ride, Fish.” You grinned at him. 

“Oh god.” He groaned. “You do not have to call me that.”  

“How’d you get that nickname, anyway?” You bit your lip, Frankie admiring how lush the bottom one was. 

“That’s another story for another day.” Frankie sighed, giving you a lopsided grin that made your stomach somersault. 

“Another day soon?” You asked. 

Frankie couldn’t hide his excitement even if he tried. “Of course. If you’re free this week a few of my buddies and I are going to Magic Dog Brewery. I promise, these won’t hit on you, too.”

“Ah, so I have a chance with Benny. I couldn’t tell, he was so shy and subtle.” You winked at him, feeling your excitement when he rolled his eyes. “I’ll see you then?"

Damn Benny for hitting on her, damn Benny for being so right about how he felt. “See you then.”

Frankie was a man of his word which was another thing that attracted him to you. For the next two weeks if you weren’t studying or working you were talking to Frankie or getting ready to see Frankie.

Your friendship developed fast and Lili loved having you around. They’d come visit you at the park and afterwards you’d spend time together on the rides as Lili asked about your day. Frankie would send you videos from his flight lessons, leaving you awestruck with the views he got to see almost every day. He let you pick his brain over flying questions and he asked about your studies. At night you’d meet at the bar and you got to know the boys that rounded out Benny and Frankie’s group. 

There was Will, Benny’s older brother who was called Ironhead. He was stoic and serious to Benny’s relaxed attitude. And then there was Santiago, nicknamed Pope. Frankie’s best friend and not bad on the eyes either. When you met Santi, you got to see Frankie at his absolute most authentic self, laughing and carrying on in Spanglish and telling old stories. They all welcomed you with open arms and Frankie loved how you got on with the guys, whenever you’d have a sharp retort to their jokes he’d grin at you in awe, meeting your eyes at the moment. 

That was happening a lot. The two of you stealing private glances, your eyes meeting and sharing a private smile or a laugh. Frankie made you feel so comfortable in such a short time, your conversations flowing easily and when there was silence in the truck on the drives home it felt comfortable and open. You didn't need to fill the silence, you just needed his company.

One night you had found yourself back at the bar with Frankie and Pope. Liliana was with her mom so it was a rare night that Frankie could go out and he was practically vibrating with excitement. Besides Lili, these were his two favorite people and he could have an adult night out. 

You’d had a not so great shift, a rude mom yelling at you and your co-workers for not being allowed to use flash photography and making everyone pay for it. So you were ready to let loose and have some fun. You’d taken shot after shot and you were feeling loose, good. You were in good company with two great guys. 

Suddenly, Pope had suggested that the three of you grab something to eat and you offered to cook something at your place. Frankie eyed you, seeing the blurred vision in your eyes and hearing your slur. 

“You sure? We can just stop at McDonalds and call it a night.” Frankie said, he felt an air of protection over you, wanting to make sure you were getting home safe and not surrounded by any of these guys who kept eyeing you. Not just because he didn't like that they were looking at you, he wanted to make sure you were okay and didn't end up with a slime ball.

“Okay, fiiiiiine.” You pouted. Frankie audibly sighed, frustrated at himself that he could find you so damn cute doing anything.

Pope had decided he would get the food while Frankie drove you home. You were feeling so comfortable and relaxed. This is exactly the night you needed, with the man you needed. No, no. You tried to fight your drunk thoughts, not giving in to the temptation of the man sitting next to you in his truck. But damn, was he good looking. 

He had his baseball cap on of course to cover up his messy curls, his strong nose illuminating through the streetlights. His large hand on the armrest, tapping along to the music. You wanted so desperately to know how his hand felt around your waist, how his calloused skin would feel against your back, against your curves. 

“You good?” Frankie eyed you, not that he complained that you were staring at him. 

“Yeah, just trying to figure out what to do once we get to the house. I figure Pope might take a while. Wanna go swimming?” You blurted out. Frankie froze, saying he would love to he just didn’t have a swimsuit. 

“That’s what underwear is for, silly. You still have to see my pool, anyway.” Who was this girl and how were you so bold? Frankie was so nice for going along with it. He could tell you were drunk, you were sure of it. And he was just being your sweet friend that he usually was.

When you got to the house, you jumped out of Frankie’s truck before it was fully parked for even a minute. You opened the door to see the lights were off so your roommate was asleep. You waited until Frankie parked and grabbed his hand when he had arrived at the door. The both of you looked at each other briefly, feeling that same electricity at each other’s touch. His hand was big and calloused just like you had imagined. You pulled him towards the back of the house to the swimming pool. 

Frankie stood admiring your backyard for a moment, loving the tranquil feeling that your home made him feel. It was almost like a reflection of how you made him feel. He saw a hammock in the backyard's corner, fantasizing about laying on it with you leaning into him, reading him your studies as the two of you learned together.

You stripped your clothes off, peeling off your layers until you were left in your pink laced bra and thong that exposed your ass. You had completely forgotten what underwear you had on, but you also hadn't expected to go swimming spontaneously. Frankie turned and saw you change. He was trying to be respectful and not look at the way your hips hugged your underwear and the curve of your ass but this definitely wasn't helping his fantasy of imagining how you felt under him.

He took his shirt off, revealing his broad, tanned shoulders and soft stomach to you. This didn’t help any of your liquor induced urges. He removed his hat, carding through his dark curls that you wanted to run your own fingers through, envious of his own hands for being able to touch them. Frankie may have been out of the army for a while but you could definitely see he'd taken care of himself.

He took his jeans off, and the liquid courage was wearing off. You realized you were very half naked in front of your very attractive friend and you were truly alone for the first time since you’d met. 

“You chickening out on me?” Frankie joked as he read the reluctance on your face. You looked at him, eyebrow raised as you opened your palm for his. He cupped his fingers into yours as you moved towards the edge of the pool.  

“On three, Morales.” One… two… three…

Chlorine surrounded your senses as you felt the calm of the water. This was exactly what you had needed. You steadily moved through the pool at a leisurely pace as Frankie swam towards you in awe, his smile illuminating through the pool lights. 

“Drunk and still able to swim so well, impressive.”

“Reminder that I was a champion swimmer so I could out swim you in my sleep.” You grin at him. 

“Oh, is that so?” He gave you a devilish grin. Swimming towards you and playful dunking you underwater, you came back to surface and splashed at him, jumping on his back and laughing. He grabbed you off of him and you suddenly found yourselves extremely close, both of you still and silent with his hands at your waist. You wondered if he felt the same electric current that you did, you were burning so badly you almost wondered if he could feel your excitement.

You felt his hands slide further around your waist as you moved your legs to wrap around his large back.. You fingered through his curly hair so casually as if this wasn't the first time. It all felt so natural. Frankie gazed into your eyes. He’d never looked at you with such heat before. 

You could feel the energy between you shifting. He moved closer towards you, your eyes drifting to close as you felt his warm breath meet yours. 

And then… a bright fluorescent light shone throughout the backyard. You both quickly turn to see two figures standing near the sliding doors. 

“Hey!!” You hear Santi’s familiar voice and the moment is gone, snatched away so quickly. “No lo puedo creer! I get ditched so you can play Aquaman?”

Frankie was already so far away from you, you weren’t sure how he could move so quickly. Not close enough to reach your arms out to him so his large arms could hold you and you felt incredibly bare. Taylor, your roommate, came around the corner in her robe. One of your closest friends, Taylor knew about Frankie but I don't think she expected this to be the way she had met him. As curious as she had been about him, her eyes were currently attentive to Santiago.

“Luckily, cariño, your very lovely friend over here helped me out. She let me in and gave me the sweetest cup of coffee I think I’ve ever had.” Santi grinned at Taylor as she giggled, twirling a lock of hair around her fingers like a schoolgirl. Taylor was the one to break hearts so this was a shock.

“Come in, dry off and have some coffee! Santiago brought McDonalds!” Taylor called out. You and Frankie looked at each other from across the pool. Frankie swam over to the edge, muttering under his breath about tiempo de mierda. You had no choice now but to get out and enjoy your friends as if nothing had just happened. 

That night you, Frankie, Santi and Taylor stayed up chatting about anything and everything. It was the same feeling of comfort you had always felt around Frankie, loving the dynamic of this group. You looked at Taylor and Santi flirting shamelessly, happy that your best friend and Frankie's best friend got along. You met eyes with Frankie and he gave you an identical smile. Damn, you. wish you hadn't been interrupted in the pool.

At some point you peered out the window and realized that the sun was coming up. The boys had decided it was time to make their way to their respective homes as you said your goodbyes. Santi greeted you first to make sure he could give Taylor an all-encompassing hug, placing his hand on her cheek, stroking it as if he was going off to war and not just to his own bed.

“I’ll call you? I’ll take you out somewhere nice this week, cariño.” He looked at her with his molten dark eyes, turning on a certain charm that clearly worked on Taylor as all she could do was give a small nod and giggle as he kissed her hand.

You and Frankie looked at the two of them in awe and then at each other, you let out a nervous laugh and you weren’t sure why. Nothing about spending time with Frankie was awkward, but it felt like the night’s events were catching up to you. You felt incredibly brazen for touching him and stripping down to your underwear in front of him. You could feel the heat creep up on the back of your neck. 

“Did you have fun?” You asked in a small voice. 

“I always have fun with you.” Frankie grinned, looking down at you and taking your small hand into his. It was so rough and calloused, you couldn’t help but remember how they felt along your sides, your legs around his huge back. Snap out of it you could hear your inner voice. 

“Lili is going to be back tomorrow night. I know you’re usually off on Friday nights. How about you come over for dinner and a movie?” You bit your lip and nodded at Frankie’s question, of course he already knew your schedule. What couldn’t this man take from you? 

He engulfed you in a hug and you could smell the chlorine mixed with his natural scent. You inhaled a little longer to take it in. 

Frankie left your house with you and Taylor watching and leaning on your front door. He waved towards you both as Taylor smiled to him, talking to you through gritted teeth. 

“One down, one to go.” She grinned. 

“Excuse me?!” You balked. 

“He needs to hurry up and ask you out already. Who knows? Maybe we could double date.” 

You scoffed at Taylor’s suggestion but felt the heat rise on the back of your neck. It was impossible to spend this time with Frankie and not continue to fall head over heels for him. You respected that he clearly hadn’t asked you out yet for a reason, probably to focus on Lili and his sobriety, but is a crush on your friend that bad? Your tall, sexy, stoic, brilliant friend? 

"Tay?"

"Yeah?"

"I am so fucked."

local lover boy

✧ kim mingyu x f! reader

✧ summary: after you've had a long week of work, mingyu decides to help you wind down for the night.

✧ wc is approx 5.1k

✧ genre: fluff, romance; comfort. i like to think i'm funny so humor as well. nudity; mdni

✧ warnings/notes: soft! gyu, pet names (you: good girl, my girl, my beautiful girl, baby, princess)(for him: lover boy, gyu, puppy). mentions of sex but no actual act. exhaustion, anxiety, stress mentions. mingyu is absolutely in love with you <3 banter between a couple, teasing. mingyu (nonsexually) kneels and kisses your feet. nonsexual nudity. hints of mingyu being a househusband. mentions of marriage.

✧ based off of the video of him wiping off his makeup on live.

✧ maybe a series??? just with little stories abt him loving and comforting reader

Mingyu watched as you trekked through the apartment door, exhaustion pouring off of you. Your hair was no longer neatly done, instead hanging around your face. You had attempted to cover your exhaustion with makeup, Mingyu having watched you put it on that morning, but now it did practically nothing. 

You leaned against the entrance wall, using your hands to shove off of your shoe. Mingyu quickly crossed the room to reach you, going to his knees before you had a chance to take off the remaining shoe. 

Your face immediately softened when you looked at him. He felt his heart swell at that look, the way your eyes seemed to pour out love. You smiled at him, weakly, reaching out and placing your hand in his hair. “Hello, Gyu.”

Mingyu reached up, grabbing your hand. He pressed his lips to your fingers, wondering if you could sense the devotion in the act. “Hello, baby. Long day?”

A large sigh left you. It seemed odd, how such a heavy, great weight could exist in you, whom he always associated with the good things in life; flowers and clear skies, rainy days and long car drives with your hand in his. 

He guided your hand to his shoulder, his other hand running along your calf. You didn’t protest anymore when he did this, not after months of living together and Mingyu greeting you by moving to his knees. Sometimes it turned into something more; sometimes you put your hand in his hair and combed it through, pulling on the strands and barring his golden neck for your teeth. 

Tonight was different. 

You put your weight against him, letting Mingyu cup your calf and raise it. Gently, as if he was holding the world and not your foot, he guided your shoe off. Mingyu then hooked his finger into the hidden sock, sliding it around your heel and off. “Other foot.”

When he had both socks bundled in his fist, he finally stood. Mingyu hated how crazy your life had gotten in the past few weeks, a combination of familial issues and workplace problems. You soldiered through it as you did all things, keeping your gentle smile and kind gaze. But still, he wasn’t oblivious. 

Mingyu settled his free hand against your jaw, cradling it. Your makeup was heavy, foundation attempting to cover nights of little sleep and stress. He still could see through it, could see the bags and darkness that hung beneath your eyes, and his heart wept. 

You didn’t deserve it. If it was up to Mingyu, you would have an easy life free of stress and anxiety. The bags beneath your eyes would be nonexistent, and you’d spend your days reading those romance smut novels you tried to hide from him by using your tablet to read them. There’d be a pool, of course, and Mingyu would be able to feast his eyes on the sight of your body basking in the sun. 

But that wasn’t the reality the two of you lived in. 

Instead the winter sky casted short shadows, the grass long-dead. You had no time for reading due to the hectic schedule life was putting you through, and there was no pool. 

Mingyu sighed, tilting your head up towards him. You moved to the tips of your toes, angling your face in an attempt to make the reach easier for him. 

He pressed one quick, sweet kiss on your lips. Your eyes fluttered shut. Mingyu smiled. He could see the dark circles beneath your eyes, the acne that had begun to appear due to your stress. You were slouching, shoulders bent from exhaustion. 

You were beautiful. 

Mingyu pressed a long kiss to your lips. The smacking sounds of his lips against yours was immensely satisfying, and he couldn’t help but continue to seek them out. His other hand, still balled up with your socks, wrapped around you and pressed your body close to his. His mouth began working against yours, slowly, devotely devouring your mouth. Mingyu pressed his tongue against your lips, running it along the seam. 

With a little gasp you pulled away. Your chest heaved against his, eyes wide and looking up at Mingyu with such wonder and innocence that he couldn’t help but lean down and capture your lips again. 

“Gyu --” You tried, his mouth silencing you. You didn’t fight too hard to talk, but every single time he pulled away to reangle himself, his name was on the tip of your tongue. Eventually you managed to pull away, your hands on his biceps, forcing him back. You were grinning, a little laugh escaping your lips as your eyes sparkled at him. “Let a gal get through the door before you attack her, won’t you?”

He tried not to dwell on the feeling of your hands settled against his biceps, the feeling of your palms on his bare skin. He absolutely refused to look at your hands, to see how small they looked settled on his arms. 

Your lips were dark from his, and you looked thoroughly loved. 

Mingyu pressed forward, trying to press another kiss to your mouth. You laughed, shaking your head, and Mingyu couldn’t help but use his strength to break from your hold and smack another kiss on your lips. 

“Kim Mingyu!” You laughed, slapping your hand over your mouth. Your eyes sparkled as you looked at him, and even with the dark circles beneath your eyes, the pimple on your forehead, you were beautiful. 

“Forgive me, please,” Mingyu said, voice low. He pouted in an attempt to garner sympathy from you, his hands reaching out to settle on your hips. “Just got carried away at seeing my beautiful girl is all.”

You rolled your eyes, the smile on your lips never wavering. 

He sighed, loudly and dramatically. Mingyu placed a chaste kiss on your temple, squeezing your arm. “Fine. I guess I’ll let you actually inside of the apartment.”

“Thank you.” You stepped in, leaving your shoes on the ground behind you. Mingyu took your work bag, ignoring your protests. 

He liked this. He liked being able to take care of you physically. You were a strong, independent person; you knew how to stand on your own two feet; how to draw admiration of those around you. 

So there was something special about this for Mingyu. There was something special in him kneeling before you, taking your shoes and socks off, putting your bag in your office for you. It was special for him to make you supper, to press kisses to your cheek whenever you went to bed. 

You were wiggling out of your blazer when he returned from putting your bag in your office. You hadn’t noticed him yet. Mingyu watched, silent, as you rolled your shoulders. You stretched out your arms, soft sighs escaping you. 

Mingyu kicked the wall as he pushed off of it, alerting you to his presence. He grimaced, a soft little curse escaping his lips, hunching over and grabbing at his foot. 

You were at his side in an instant, cooing. “Aw, Gyu! Did you hurt yourself again?”

“The wall moved,” he explained, pouting up at you from where he was hunched over. 

You nodded, pouting with him. You ran your hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face. “I’m sure it did, baby. Do you want me to kiss it better?”

Mingyu nodded. You got on your knees in front of him, joints popping. Your hands looked small even compared to his foot as you cradled his foot. “Stop getting my boyfriend hurt,” you admonished his foot, before you swooped down and pressed a kiss to the top of it. 

Mingyu felt as if his heart was lodged in his throat. “Uh. My leg hurts. I banged it against the wall too.”

Compliant, you pressed a kiss to his bare leg. 

“Here, too,” he said, tapping his right hand with his leg. “It got hurt when I tried to catch myself.”

You went to your feet, knees popping. Your hands reached out, palms up. Feeling somewhat like a princess, Mingyu set his hand in yours. Slowly, as if he was royalty, as if he was precious, you turned his hand. You bent over, and he could feel your warm breath against his palm before your lips pressed against it. 

“There,” you murmured, satisfied. 

Mingyu’s hand shot up to his cheek. “This hurts too.”

Finally you shot him a look, eyebrows furrowing in disbelief and mouth thinning. “I didn’t see you hit your head.”

“I didn’t hit my head,” Mingyu explained, “I hit my face.”

You looked at him for a second more before sighing. He tilted his face down, bending at his knees while you went to your tiptoes. You brushed your lips against the corner of his mouth before pulling away. “There. Are you satisfied, you gremlin?”

“Absolutely.” Mingyu stood back up to his full height. You rubbed at your cheek, eyes glazing over for a moment as your mind seemingly vacated for a moment. He reached out, grabbing your hand in his. “Hey. Why don’t we get your makeup off of you and get you settled for the night? You take a nap while I make supper, then we can sleep.”

You sighed, shaking your head. “I have transcripts to look over for tomorrow.”

“So we go to sleep early and get up early!” Mingyu tugged you towards the bathroom, walking backwards. The hall was bare, so he just had to worry about bumping into walls. But then you settled your hands on his hips, feet brushing against his, guiding him down the hall and into the bathroom entrance. “I’ll make you an extra delicious breakfast in the morning to get you going.”

You blinked up at him, eyes serious. Then you let out a long sigh, shaking your head. You pitched forward, pressing yourself into his body. “What did I do to deserve you?”

Mingyu wrapped his arms around you, holding you close. He hated this question, but it was something he asked himself often. When you turned to him, already smiling; when you laughed at his stupid jokes; when you reached out wordlessly, not even looking at him, lacing your fingers together. 

“You didn’t do anything,” Mingyu said, voice soft. He rested his cheek on the top of your head, letting his eyes fall shut. “You don’t have to do anything to deserve me, lovely. You don’t have to do anything, be anyone other than yourself.”

For a moment the two of you stood in that crowded hallway, arms around one another, soaking in the other’s presence. He counted each of your breaths until his matched, unable to keep himself from feeling satisfied at how in sync the two of you were. 

You turned your head, making him lift his up and off of you. You pressed a kiss to his shirt, right over his heart. “Okay then, lover boy. Take my makeup off for me.”

Mingyu pressed a kiss to your hairline. Holding you in one arm, he reached out and flicked on the bathroom light. “Hey. If we’re taking your makeup off, shouldn’t it be makedown.”

You were quiet behind him. He turned, catching sight of you out of the corner of his eye. Once you saw him looking at you a small, pitying, fake smile cracked over your face. “Oh! Ha! That’s funny, Gyu.”

Pleased at your lie, Mingyu grinned back at you. He guided you to lean against the counter. Mingyu placed his hands on your hips, and after a quiet countdown, he was lifting you onto the counter. 

You swung your feet, heels gently hitting the cabinets, as you watched him move around the bathroom. Mingyu grabbed your makeup remover wipes, the moisturizer, and serum. 

Then he was moving between your thighs, tilting your head up with one of his hands. He couldn’t help but brush his thumb over your cheek, your lashes fluttering like butterfly wings. 

“How beautiful,” he murmured, feeling something that could only be love flood through him. Mingyu bent forward, pressing a kiss to your nose. “My beautiful girl.”

“Gyu,” you began, softly protesting. 

“All right.” He removed one of the wipes from the package. With his other hand he held your chin, keeping your face still. “First we’ll wipe your eyes, get all that eyeshadow and eyeliner off.”

Tenderly, far more so than he ever was with his own eyes, Mingyu began wiping. He watched as your face relaxed in his grasp, trusting him completely. 

Was it ridiculous that even after nearly two years of being together, it still thrilled him that you trusted him so wholly? You trusted him with your entire heart, your body, your soul; just as he did you. 

He did a final swipe over both of your eyes, humming in approval once they came up clean. “Done with your eyes, pretty girl. Now let’s get a new cloth and start on your precious cheeks.”

Mingyu discarded the dirtied cloth into the trash can. The new one dirtied just as quick, your foundation rubbing off easily. “Ooh, look at that. Who’s that beneath all this foundation?”

You opened one of your eyes, watching him. Once one of your cheeks was completely bare from makeup, slightly irritated from his rubbing, Mingyu swooped down and pressed a kiss there. “It’s my lovely girl!”

Sighing and shaking your head, you smiled. “Whatever you say, lover boy.”

It was supposed to be a jest, Mingyu knew. Lover boy. You had said it a few months into dating, rolling your eyes as Mingyu pressed the “hundredth” kiss to your face before he left you on the front doorstep of you and your friends’ shared townhouse. “Settle down, lover boy. They can see you from the living room window.” 

Then he had gone home and looked it up. Romantic, loyal, flirty, devoted. 

And that was when Kim Mingyu decided that, before he was a son or brother or friend, he was your lover boy. 

It was a jest, calling him lover boy, but his heart still expanded in his chest and threatened to erupt in an explosion of light at the nickname. 

After another kiss to your cheek, because Mingyu never knew how to turn down kissing your cheeks, he began wiping at your other cheek. He repeated the same steps as before, including the narration. 

And still you rolled your eyes, though they were unable to hide how you looked at him with such fondness. 

He discarded that cloth. Mingyu grabbed another. “We’ll make sure to rub this really good over your chin and nose. Don’t want any blackheads or anything.”

“Of course,” you agreed. You angled your face up towards him, eyes sliding shut. 

Mingyu couldn’t help but grin as you waited. He ran his eyes over the shape of yours, over your lashes from where they rested against your cheek. The soft cushion of your mouth that he often spent far too much time staring at. The way your hair framed your face. 

Beautiful. 

He began working once more, rubbing the cloth over your chin. Mingyu took care to get the crevices of your nose, concentrating on that particular spot. 

Eventually you pulled away, frowning at him and wrinkling your nose. “Don’t you think it’s time to move on from my nose, Mingyu?”

“Just a moment,” Mingyu said, his other hand going to cradle the back of your head. He held you in place as he returned to wiping at the spot. “Not until there’s no dirt or makeup left.”

“You’re gonna be wiping until there’s no nose left at this rate,” you mumbled, brows furrowed. 

Mingyu pressed a kiss to the wrinkle between your brows, relenting his attack on your nose. “Fine. You win, princess.”

He didn’t miss the smile you tried to suppress, but he ignored it for your sake. If Mingyu acknowledged every cute thing you did, the two of you would never be able to move on. 

“Okay,” he breathed, looking over your bare face. He leaned over your thigh, reaching for the serum you used. Still leaning on your thighs, he opened up the drawer that held your cosmetics. He withdrew a cotton cloth, pouring some of the serum on it. “Time for serum!”

When Mingyu pulled back, reaching up to wipe at your face, you were already staring at him. Your eyes were bright and soft, curved sweetly in imitation of the smile that grew across your face. You were looking at him like you did a kitten or puppy, like he was something precious and sweet. 

Mingyu felt heat rush up to his cheeks, settling there. He whined, bowing his head and pressing his large body into yours. You laughed in his ear as he burrowed his face into your neck, arms wrapping around you and squeezing out of embarrassment. “What’s wrong, puppy?”

“Don’t look at me like that,” Mingyu pouted, despite the fact his heart skipped happily whenever you looked at him with those exact eyes, that exact smile. He peered up at you, still pouting. “Makes me all embarrassed.”

You laughed, your hands coming up and cradling his cheek. “You? Kim Mingyu? Embarrassed? I’d never believe it.”

“Of course I get embarrassed,” Mingyu murmured. You began carding your hands through his hair, tugging at the ends of the strands. He let his eyes fall shut, arms loosening their hold. He let his hands lay on your hips, squeezing. “You’re so mean to me that whenever I catch you being nice it throws me off.”

Laughing, you grabbed his earlobe and pinched. Mingyu let out a yelp, pulling his face away from your neck. He didn’t go far, however; he never would if he could help it. Your gravitational pull was too strong, after all, constantly keeping him in orbit. 

“I’m not mean to you,” you argued, ignoring the fact that you just pinched him. Your hands settled on his shoulders, fingers drumming along the line of them. “Never been mean to you a day in our lives.”

Mingyu barked out a laugh. He released your hips, one of his hands resuming its prior place at the back of your head, holding it still. Mingyu then began swiping at your face with the serum, watching as it dampened your skin. “Sure. Like you never put your cold feet on me when we’re cuddling.”

“You’re my boyfriend,” you returned, eyes still shut. Mingyu pressed the cloth against the corner of your mouth, keeping you from speaking for a moment as he took care to reach the area around your mouth. When he left the spot, cloth traveling to your cheek, you continued. “It’s the boyfriend tax. Haven’t you heard of it?”

“‘The boyfriend tax,’” he quoted, feeling love pour from his every pore. You were so ridiculous. “What else is included in this boyfriend tax? Just so I can be prepared in the future.”

Humming, you opened your eyes just enough to peer up at him through your lashes. “Well. Taking off my makeup, of course.”

“Naturally.” “Keeping my feet warm; listening to my bad singing in the car. Doing the dishes.”

Mingyu couldn’t help but grin a little. He stopped wiping your face, finished with the serum. “Oh, so I make the food and I have to clean up after myself, too?”

You nodded. You released your grip on his shoulders when he went to throw away the cloth. Mingyu made his way back between your thighs, your knees squeezing at his hips. He settled one hand on your shoulder, reaching for the moisturizer lotion with the other. 

Both of your hands went to his waist. Mingyu could feel the heat of them through his thin muscle tank top. 

“I do the laundry so you have to do the dishes,” you explained, watching as he squeezed out a glob onto his hand. “God, could you use any more?”

“It’s the right size,” he argued, holding his palm out for inspection. “See?”

“Maybe to you.” You moved one of your hands from his waist. You compared your hand size to his. “See? The lotion looks huge compared to my hand.”

Mingyu furrowed his brow. He released you entirely, grabbing the bottle. “It says use a dime-sized portion.”

“That’s not dime sized,” you argued. 

Faintly, Mingyu wondered if you were arguing just for the sake of arguing. Sometimes he wondered if you were related to Choi Seungcheol. 

“Should I get a dime?” He asked, raising his eyebrows at you. “Should we see?”

You shook your head, hands settling back around his waist and guiding him between your thighs again. “Just make sure you use all of it if you’re going to use that much. Put the rest of it around my neck.”

“I always do, princess,” he promised. 

Mingyu rubbed his fingers together, spreading the lotion around them. He then, just as gently as he had with the remover and serum, just as the snow hits the ground, began pressing his fingers to your cheeks and rubbing the moisturizer.

“It’ll make you so shiny,” he murmured. Your eyes fluttered due to how close he was and how his breath hit your face. It was a good thing you were occupied, otherwise you’d probably make a comment about how his breath smelled. “You’ll look so fresh and youthful they’ll be thinking you’re a teenager. You’ll go into a store to get some wine and they’ll say sorry, miss, but we can’t sell that to you.”

You huffed out a laugh, lips curling. Mingyu stopped rubbing the lotion into your face, leaning down and pressing his lips to the corner of your mouth. He immediately pulled away, face contorting. “Ew! You taste like product.”

You laughed out loud, eyes opening and crinkling. “Have you somehow been absent from the past ten minutes we’ve spent in the bathroom, Mingyu? You’ve been putting products on my face this entire time. Don’t know what you were thinking.”

Mingyu pouted, furrowing his brows. You sighed, rolling your eyes. Your hands went to his shirt, pulling the hem up. You then brought his shirt to your mouth, wiping at it with the fabric. One satisfied, you dropped it. “There. Try kissing me now.”

Delighted, Mingyu pressed his lips to yours. It still tasted like product, but he didn’t mind. Not when your mouth was so warm against his, your tongue swiping across his lips before retreating coyishly back into your mouth. 

“Satisfied?”

Mingyu hummed, pulling away. He pressed one more chaste kiss to the line of your mouth. “Very. How very clever of my girlfriend.”

You shook your head, still obviously endeared by him. Mingyu continued using up the moisturizer, feeling the lines and bumps of your face beneath his fingers. He made sure to get the space between your brows, the crease of your nose. He trailed his fingers along your jaw, dipping underneath and spreading the moisturizer to your neck. 

“My pretty girl,” he hummed. He pulled away from you, squatting at the cabinet directly beneath. You shifted, moving your legs out of the way so he could open it. 

Mingyu rummaged for a moment before finding what he was looking for. He sat back on his heels as he opened the package of under-eye patches, shifting through them. Mingyu glanced up at one point, immediately greeted by the sight of your spread legs. 

He took a deep, shuddering breath. Not today Kim Mingyu, not when you so desperately needed to sleep and relax. 

Mingyu placed the box back underneath the cabinet, slamming the door shut. He slowly peeled the plastic away from the gel, taking care so it wouldn’t curl up or ruin. Mingyu crowded close to you once more, pressing himself into your warm. 

Your hands automatically went to his waist, holding him. You angled your face up towards Mingyu, eyes shutting and allowing him to do as he pleased. 

He pressed each of the under-eye masks into place, taking care not to catch on any of your lashes. You let out a deep breath as each of them were put into place, the cool temperature from the gel sinking beneath your skin and settling. 

“Look at how beautiful my girl is,” Mingyu murmured, one of his hands cradling your cheek. You leaned into it, eyes opening and peering up at him. “Absolutely stunning.”

You rolled your eyes. “If you’re going to kiss me you don’t need all that preamble.”

Laughing, Mingyu took his cue. He brought his other hand up to cradle the other side of your face, his hand so large that the tips of his fingers sunk into your hair. You straightened yourself, reaching up into him, and Mingyu knew he was powerless against your gravity. 

The kiss was slow, your lips moving together softly. It was unhurried, a sweet kiss of love and adoration. 

“I love you,” you mumbled, your lips still close enough to his where he could feel the shape of the words. 

Mingyu pulled away, pressing one last kiss to your hairline. “I love you too, princess. Shall we get you changed now?”

At your nod, Mingyu was wedging his hands underneath your thighs and lifting you into his hold. You immediately relaxed into it, arms looping around his shoulders, legs locking behind him. As he walked out the bathroom you began pressing kisses to his throat and neck, one of your hands pulling at his tank top to reveal more of his golden skin. 

“You better be careful,” he warned, kicking the bedroom door the rest of the way open. “Never know what might happen if you keep tempting me like that.”

You laughed, pressing one last kiss to his shoulder. “Can’t a gal thank her boyfriend for taking such good care of her?”

“Nope,” he returned easily. Mingyu lowered you to the bed. “Not when a gal is the most tempting vixen in the world.”

The sound of your laughter, loud and bright, was enough to make a smile grow in Mingyu’s face. He turned from you, going to his closet. You often said that he had too many clothes, but Mingyu always returned that that was because his closet wasn’t just his, not when you were constantly reaching into it for clothes to wear as pajamas.

Mingyu returned to you with one of his t-shirts and shorts. Your hands went to your undershirt, beginning to take it off, but Mingyu reached out and slapped them away. “Hey! That’s my job!”

You were laughing again. Mingyu felt his heart grow in his chest, not just from the love and adoration and endearment he felt when with you, but from pride. You had walked into the apartment in such an obvious state of exhaustion and stress, looking as if someone had taken the Earth off of Atlas’s shoulders and placed it on your own. 

But now here you were, giggling and grinning. 

Because of him. 

Kim Mingyu loved you so much. 

He made quick work of disrobing your torso, setting aside your underthings to put away. Mingyu couldn’t help but smooth his eyes over your skin, taking in the line of your shoulders, the way your breasts hung. 

“Kim Mingyu!” You scolded, leaning back on your hands. “You dirty dog.”

He shrugged. “Can’t help it, baby. You know what you look like.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

What Mingyu wanted to say: the love of my life, my reason for waking; the moon to my ocean; my soulmate; my future wife.

Instead he chuckled, opening the shirt. You ducked your head inside of the hole, helping Mingyu clothe you. “What did I say earlier? That you’re a vixen?”

When he picked up the shorts, you threw a pout at him. You kicked your legs against the bed. “Don’t want to wear pants.”

Mingyu threw a look at you. He sank to his knees in front of you, gently tugging at your pants. “You have to. You know what will happen if you don’t.”

He, valiantly, ignored the wolfish grin you threw at him. Instead Mingyu tugged at your pants again. You relented, lifting your hips off of the bed and laying back so he could tug them all the way off. 

“What about underwear?” You asked, your fingers hooking on the band. “Do I have to wear any?”

Mingyu took a deep breath, trying to ignore the blood that was quickly leaving his brain. “You know exactly what the answer is.”

You sighed, tugging your underwear off nonetheless. “Go and grab me some new ones then, lover boy, if you’re still devoted to dressing me.”

Mingyu stood, leaving his shorts on your thighs. He crossed the room for your closet, knowing exactly where your underwear was. Mingyu was the one, after all, who ended up putting away the laundry on most days. Just because you started the washer and switched the wet clothes into the dryer didn’t mean you actually put the clothes away. 

When he turned around, a pair of your underwear hanging from his fingertips, you had lifted his shirt up to your face. You were still laying back on the bed, the action revealing all of your stomach and the bottoms of your breasts. Mingyu watched, thoroughly awe-struck, as you took a deep breath, still holding his shirt to your face. 

“Are you smelling my shirt?” He asked, feeling his voice rise and all blood immediately flow to his dick. 

You startled, yanking his shirt back down. You threw him a grin, obviously embarrassed at getting caught. “Maybe?”

Fuck. 

Mingyu took another deep, shuddering breath, shutting his eyes. Nearly two years together, even living together, and you were still smelling his clothes like a lovesick teenager. 

Just like he did. 

He was going to marry you, Mingyu decided. It had always been at the back of his mind, of course; how could it not be? You were beautiful and funny and kind, and you were a perfect example of how good and kind the world could be. 

But now it was a vow, an oath. Mingyu would marry you, no matter what. 

He returned to his crouching position in front of you, one of his hands going to cradle your feet. Mingyu leaned forward, ignoring the way your toes curled against his palm in anticipation, pressing a kiss to your calf. 

“Gyu,” you whispered, watching. 

Mingyu trailed his lips up your leg, pressing kiss after kiss to your skin. You were silent, letting him worship you. 

“I love you,” Mingyu murmured, not wanting to break the spell that had settled over the two of you. 

Once you were dressed in his clothes, the fabric absolutely swamping you, you pressed yourself into his arms. You brought your hands up to his neck, rising to the tips of your toes. Mingyu obliged willingly, meeting you halfway. 

You paused just before your lips met his. “I love you, Kim Mingyu. Thank you.”

And then you kissed him. 

book-club for three two

pairing: jealous!mingyu x gn!reader genre: fluff, drabble word count: 0.6k warning(s): none

summary: mingyu comes back home and just wants your attention, but you seem to be too focused on reading to pay him any mind…

“Baby, I’m home!” Mingyu practically hollers as soon as the front door opens. He hears you let out a soft hum from the living room and turns to the direction of the sound to see you sitting cross-legged on the couch, a book in your hands as you read intently. Mingyu’s heart does a somersault at the ever-endearing scene before him, and he practically rushes to your side, taking a seat beside you on the couch as he stares at you wordlessly.

You glance up from your book for a split second to raise your eyebrow at him, but return back to reading almost immediately, to Mingyu’s dismay. Huffing a little, he wraps his arms around your left arm and rests his chin on your shoulder, willing you to look at him. Your attention remains focused on the book you’re reading, however, and Mingyu suddenly feels the urge to take the book from your hands and throw it across the room.

“Baby…” Mingyu whines, shaking your arm as he does. You let out a hum in response, eyes still trained on your book.

“I’m right here!” Mingyu whines again, leaning his face closer to yours as he pouts at you. Your resolve crumbles as you find yourself giggling at his antics, and you finally give in to his neediness as you close your book (not before bookmarking it with a pressed daisy from a bouquet Mingyu gave you for your anniversary) and place it beside you on the couch, your attention (finally) on Mingyu.

“Sorry, Gyu, it’s just that I agreed to finish reading the book today so I could discuss it with Wonwoo tomorrow,” you apologise for not giving him your attention, and Mingyu scrunches his face comically.

“Baby! You were ignoring me this whole time for Wonwoo?” he grumbles, unwrapping his arms from yours to cross them over his chest, letting out a “hmph!” in the process that just makes him look like the cutest puppy you’ve ever laid eyes on.

“I was not ignoring you for Wonwoo, I was trying to finish the book!” you find yourself gradually breaking out into a whipped smile, absolutely endeared at Mingyu’s antics. “Besides, you were the one who started this two-people book club so I could have someone to talk to about the books I read!”

“And now I’m starting to regret it!” Mingyu huffs, taking both your hands in his, “Talk to me about your books instead, not him, okay?”

“You’re so silly, Mingyu,” you coo, removing your hands from his grasp to pinch his puffed cheeks, “will you understand what I’m talking about? You know you don’t like reading.”

“I’ll read! I’ll read for you,” Mingyu replies without a hint of hesitation, and your heart blooms with love as you wonder just how lucky you were to have landed yourself someone as sweet and whipped as Mingyu is.

“Hm…” you pretend to ponder on his suggestion, and Mingyu’s pout only grows, much to your amusement. “What about Wonwoo? He won’t have anyone to talk about books with.”

“I’ll find someone else for him!” Mingyu rebuts, completely resolved to end this book-club that he ironically started.

“Or,” you let out a sly grin, “we could join him. Form a book-club trio.”

“No!” Mingyu uncharacteristically raises his voice suddenly and winces upon realising it, before adjusting to a softer volume, “We’ll form a book-club, but just you and me. Wonwoo can go find someone else.”

You burst out laughing, completely in love with the man before you, pouting and making himself small in all his six-foot glory. “Well, I guess I wouldn’t be opposed to this arrangement.”

Mingyu breaks into a dopey grin, leaning forward to rest his head on your shoulder.

“So, what’s the book you were reading about?”

a/n: back from the dead with a little smth that’s completely self-indulgent. i love mingu ☹️

taglist (send an ask to be added!): @slytherinshua @xomingyu @pepperonidk @belladaises @tastymintchocolate @dahliatopia

masterlist

boyfriend!eren headcanons pt. 3 *･｡ﾟ

going insane, so i wrote more bf!eren while in a waiting room. because of this, they are a little more......... unhinged

part 1 part 2 part 4 / masterlist

bf!eren's post-game meal is 3 big macs and 2 mcchickens AND a kids nugget meal (he wants to give you the toy that comes with it because he’s cute) but don’t forget dessert!! he sips his *diet* coke as a palate cleanser and then inhales an apple pie

bf!eren will help old people cross the road/down stairs. he is just that type of guy

bf!eren gets a job coaching a kids' basketball team, and that is a canon event

bf!eren carries your belongings in his sweatpants pockets when you’re out together (e.g. your keys, lipbalm/lipgloss, water bottle etc etc you name it, it’s probably in his pockets)

bf!eren’s phone is very simple—a black iphone 14 with a plain black case, but despite it not even being visible, he keeps a photo of you in the back of his phone (so you’re always with him even when he can’t see you)

bf!eren accompanies you to all your appointments (even if he doesn’t have to) but waits in the waiting room (spoiler: he falls asleep most of the time, kinda embarrassing eren pls wake up)

bf!eren gets you a keychain for your birthday to match his own (i fully 103% believe it would be the lego ones (he would get himself batman, and get you spiderman))

bf!eren leaves his dirty ass bigfoot black vans at your front door (a tripping hazard!!), but it feels so domestic and homey that you can’t bring yourself to scold him for leaving them there

bf!eren watches family guy religiously

when bf!eren gets baby fever, he gets it BAD

but bf!eren cannot be trusted with indoor plants 😐 so (please see part 2 for more evidence (cheez-it incident))

bf!eren buys annie's mac and cheese in bulk (read: he is a manchild who loves cheesy pasta 😋)

bf!eren has an emotional support water bottle (a 1-gallon dark green yeti his mum bought him as a college essential). he does not leave that thing anywhere (carla would castrate him :))

bf!eren owns one (1) pen, so he's constantly stealing yours when he has class and tucks it behind his ear so he doesn't forget to give it back to you (warning he does gnaw on the end like a starved dog)

bf!eren showers twice a day even though i make him sound like he does only once a week :) (and the showers are LONG rip water bill)

bf!eren has a spare charger that is for you only at his apartment <3

bf!eren facetimes you from everywhere (like gross bathroom eren wtf i don't want to hear bathroom sounds, and he just :) but i missed u........)

bf!eren kisses you on the cheeks every chance he gets (big sloppy wet kisses that are so (screaming) so cute and loving and i need him)

bf!eren's hands are rough and warm and dry (not like dry, but like man hand working hands dry you know or am i just talking shit)

bf!eren has his own pillow on your bed that he brought from home

bf!eren has half of his belongings in your room, and yours in his (literally just move in together at this point :/ come on guys)

ok ok bf!eren in those prada sunglasses you know the ones. i know i said in part 2 that he has dad speed sunnies, but those prada ones are so ASDFKJHG

bf!eren makes sure you take your meds (if you have them) every morning/night and calls you if he's not with you to ensure you've taken them (he cares!!!! he's not trying to be overbearing or condescending, i promise)

bf!eren has a nintendo switch so he can play his silly little games when he's waiting for you at your apartment to come home from class (his phone and youtube videos get boring after a while (part 1), and studying is not an option so)

i was in that waiting room for a WHILE ok

“what’s on these?” megumi asks, holding up a box of memory cards.

cleaning day always unearthed all types of lost and forgotten items. sometimes it was clothes long forgotten in you and gojo’s closet, other times it was the kid’s old books or toys. you knew every inch of your little apartment, so most times you could identify any mystery items that came up.

“i don’t know,” you hum, plucking a card from the box to inspect it a little more closely. the only hint as to what’s actually on it seems to just be a date.

2006

…and it’s in gojo’s handwriting.

curious, you pop one into the video player and turn on the tv. the kids join you on the couch, clearly eager to entertain any distraction from your cleaning crusade.

when the screen flickers to life, a familiar courtyard comes into view.

you can’t help the gasp when haibara comes into focus…but then you see satoru standing standing across from him, arms spread out.

“who is that?” megumi asks, pointing at haibara.

you think of the bright smile of the boy still lingering in the edges of your memory and tell him, softly, “an old friend.”

“suguru!” gojo shouts, looking towards the person holding the camera. he’s all messy hair and wide smiles, exactly how you remember him in his youth. “make sure you get this one!”

geto grumbles about how he’s paying attention, and suddenly you remember exactly what this is.

“ah, these are from when yaga would make us record ourselves practicing cursed technique application,” you explain as a haibara lines up a shot with a pencil.

the pencil hits gojo in the face, gifting him a small cut on his cheek. “ah, shit!”

behind the camera you can hear nanami and geto laughing as haibara apologizes profusely, and shoko comes over to practice her healing. you come over too, holding a cloth.

“don’t pout,” your younger self says, reaching up to wipe a thin trail of blood from his cheek. “you’ll get it next time.”

as soon you turn away, you hear geto snicker and the camera suddenly zooms in on gojo’s face.

he’s blushing.

“ugh,” you hear him groan behind the three of you, finally finished cleaning the bathroom. “are we done cleaning yet?”

“we’re taking a break!” tsumiki tells him, as megumi pops another card in.

gojo ignores megumi’s protests, stealing the spot on the couch next to you and wrapping an arm around your shoulders with a smirk. “move your feet, lose your seat.”

tsumiki, angel that she is, moves over so her brother can sit on your other side as the video starts.

this time, gojo is the one recording, holding the camera out so it’s pointed at his own smiling face. “haibara versus nanami, round one!”

you feel your boyfriend stiffen beside you, looking over to see an odd look on his face. “oh, fuck—”

“jar,” megumi says flatly.

he glares at the kid, and is about to get up when you stop him. “wait! i want to watch this!”

he slumps back, throwing an arm over his eyes as he groans dramatically. ignoring him, you watch the fight play out, which ends with haibara whining whilst in a headlock.

you hear geto’s murmured commentary off camera as nanami releases his classmate, expecting the video to zoom in on the victor.

but it drifts a little to the left, where you’re laughing with shoko on the sidelines.

“so obvious,” geto scoffs. the video wobbles for a moment before being pointed directly at the tips of satoru’s shoes, then ends abruptly.

when you glance over at satoru, he’s pulled his sunglasses over his eyes as if they can hide his pink cheeks.

the next videos are similar. memories of your past viewed through a different lens, showing you things you’d never picked up on when you were living them.

some moments you watch with an aching heart. like when suguru leans close to you and makes a joke at satoru’s expense, or when you reach up to ruffle haibara’s hair.

(moments with cherished friends proving that the grief of losing them never got any lighter as you moved forward with your life, but at some point you’d just gotten used to carrying the weight.)

but what might be most interesting is seeing yourself in satoru’s eyes.

his focus, whether he was the one holding the camera or not, always seemed to drift to you. for all the times he’d denied crushing on you in your early years, the camera proves otherwise.

the way he peeks at you shyly as you fix your hair before a fight.

the way he reaches out instinctively whenever you’re knocked backwards.

the way he smiles brightly whenever you laugh at one of his jokes.

the way your gaze would occasionally meet his, and his smile seemed to come naturally.

“okay, that’s enough for tonight,” satoru announces, shutting the tv off and shooing the children away. “go clean your rooms, you freeloaders.”

you stand, looping your arms around his neck before he can run away. smiling, you gently pull his glasses off, tossing them onto the couch.

“hey! those are gucci—”

you shut him up with a kiss, feeling the way his lips curve upwards against yours. “i love you, you know that?”

blue eyes meet yours, the pensive look he’d been wearing melting into something a little softer. something reserved for you. “you’re obsessed with me, i know.”

you simply laugh, letting him dip down to give you another kiss.

(because you’d had his heart in your pocket long before either of you had realized.)

₊˚⊹｡ see me through the morning glow | gojo satoru

wc: 1.0k summary: you and gojo have a slow morning.  contains: f!reader in mind, suggestive if you squint, food descriptions. a/n: unedited, i honestly dk what this is i just really needed to get this out of my system! this is how i cope with 236.

re-uploaded because i accidentally deleted!

You slip out of bed faced with the promise of sunlight. 

The curtains in your bedroom radiate a glow that bounces off the man lying next to you; it’s soft, near-white, almost ethereal, the color of his skin, hair, and bones. His back is exposed, arm reaching out over the (now) empty space beside him—the crinkles and folds where you once were. 

You’ve always thought your bedroom had good lighting, and now you can confirm why: in the shadows, deepening the line that runs down his spine; in the highlights, guiding your eyes to the pockets of muscle behind his shoulders. 

You look away, trying your best not to stare; the only reason he’s undressed is because of a cold sweat, from the nightmares—and the very need for skin-to-skin, to ground him in your touch. 

On mornings like this, you let Gojo sleep in. 

(Because you’re lucky if he can fall back asleep again). 

It’s slow today—no work, no missions that need you or him. It’s your favorite kind of day, and Gojo’s too (once he wakes up and smells the waffles you’ve prepared, double topped with whipped cream and maple syrup—his special, of course). 

A steady stream of warmth flows through the window to your kitchen countertop, the marble glimmering as light hits. The material was his choice; you don’t care much for glamor but Gojo likes pretty things—you especially, he likes to say. 

The batter is quick to prepare, a recipe you’ve done many times before, so you ladle it into the waffle maker before letting it set on its own. Then, you grab a pan to heat up, spooning in last night’s leftover rice, some soy sauce, and mirin, adding salt to taste, as needed. A standard fried rice breakfast, with a yolk to mix in later. 

The sound of his footsteps are concealed by the sizzles of the pan in front of you, but you’re caught off guard by arms wrapped around your waist, and his chin nestling itself into your shoulder as he nuzzles you. 

He’s still shirtless, you notice, so you inch backwards in case of any oil spatter. 

“Good sleep?” you mumble, certain that he heard you. 

He hums, before whispering, lips tickling the edges of your ear on purpose, pouting, “Not anymore when you left.” 

This man—a giant baby, puffed cheeks with long limbs hunched over you. 

Your big baby. 

Despite his whines, he’s telling the truth, you know, and you feel warm because of it, affection seeping in the cracks between his arms and the kitchen stove. 

You blow on a spoonful of rice before lifting it up to his lips. Gojo’s breakfasts are always sweet, but every time you cook, he looks forward to this: waiting right behind you to be fed over your shoulder.

His review will always be the same, of course, everything you touch turns out good. 

He reaches for the waffle maker with one hand while the other keeps you close, and you plate his little breakfast for him, whipped cream with little hearts drawn in maple syrup. 

You grab a bowl for your rice and sit by the counter, Gojo sitting thigh-to-thigh beside you despite the abundance of space around you. 

You realize then, that Gojo tends to hover. 

Not necessarily in a bad way, just that, he does it all the time—always wanting to be near.  

And for someone so perceiving, practically all-seeing, he doesn’t really have to for him to know what you’re up to, but with every opportunity he has, he never misses a moment to be close to you.

When you wash the dishes by the sink, he stays beside you, shoulder-to-shoulder, even when the sink is wide enough to accommodate him a few inches farther. 

Even the walk to the bathroom has him tailing you, following your footsteps as he traces the footprints of slow mornings with you. 

Your bathroom counter has two sinks, but of course, today, he chooses to stay by yours. 

“Skincare?” you raise a tub of face mask. 

He doesn’t need it, but you love pampering him, so he nods, whatever you want. 

You struggle for a bit (he’s just too tall), so he picks you up by the waist and rests you on the bathroom counter, against the mirror.

He stays in the space between your legs, hands flat against your thighs. His thumb kneads your skin gently, and any other time, this position would end very differently, but there’s a look he’s giving you—all words without speaking. 

And—

“Quit staring,” you mumble, turning shy. You’re about to rub the product onto his cheeks, under his eyes. 

“What, I can’t look at you?” he moves closer, keeping his eyes locked on you as he rubs circles on your thighs. 

“No, you can, but,” you swallow, “you’re looking at me like that.”

“Like what?” his brows furrow. 

“Like that.” you sigh, gesturing to his face. 

“Like I love you?” 

And it is like that. Like he loves you. That’s why he says it so casually. 

Because he does. 

You stay quiet, stunned, before you clear your throat and finish up the final area on his face. 

“Yeah.” you mumble, reaching over to wash your hands on the sink. 

Gojo waits for you to finish before he takes a small towel to dry your hands with it. 

“As if you don’t know.” he scoffs, pulling you closer to the edge of the counter. 

He’s right—it’s been said before, but there’s something else in his eyes right now, shiny and devoted, as if this is all he could ever want. As if you, on this slow morning, in this too-big bathroom is all he could ever need. 

But he doesn’t say anything. At least, not what he really means. 

“Not my fault you’re so pretty today,” he adds on, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear.

It should be funny, that he’s telling you all this with a mask slathered all over his face, but his compliments always speak to the depths of you, even when you don’t expect them to. 

His fingers mold against your cheek, to your ears, down to the back of your head, bringing you closer until he kisses you softly, a gentle peck. 

Bits of the face mask transfer to your nose and you giggle, wiping it off. 

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say.” you joke.

Gojo smiles, that look on his face, “Good for you then, you’re the only one I see.”

re-uploaded because i accidentally deleted!

comments, tags, and reblogs are greatly appreciated ♡

I did iiiiiiiiit

This was supposed to be two chapters but idgaf, now it's just one chapter.

But there will be more chapters, of course.

From an Anon ask request, basically Reader has been isekai'd into OPLA, and it'll be Zoro X Reader X Sanji.

Only Zoro right now though, since it starts just before Baratie

Dude has no business having such a pretty smile wtf

Anyway heeeeeere we feckin goooo

Strawhat Stowaway

Ch 1

SFW right now but maybe not later haven't decided yet

Little bit of hurt/comfort, slow burn, silly, fluffy, will be trigger warnings in later chapters but not this one

I'm already having so much fun with this I can't handle it

Wordcount: 5.3k

After an alcohol drenched Halloween party at your friends' dorm, you wake up to find yourself in a strange place. This might not be quite as alarming...if not for the fact that it's an entirely different world, enshrouded with pirates and strange magic.

♬♫ Getting Surreal - The Fratellis ♫♬

Nothin' untrue can ever be revealed

Cover my eyes, this is getting surreal

There really hadn't been a dull moment since Zoro agreed to sail with Luffy, and this was definitely no exception.

He blinked rapidly down at the unfamiliar girl stretched across the hammock in the cabin below the quarterdeck of their new ship, fast asleep and dressed in an oddly sterotypical pirate costume with what looked like a fake flintlock pistol tucked into one of her cloth belts. The small "crew" hadn't long set out from Syrup Village on the Going Merry, and already things were getting weird again.

He backed out of the cabin slowly, leaning back through the doorway to look at the others behind him—Nami going over the Grand Line chart, Usopp sitting on the railing behind her listening to her explain the Red Line; and Luffy, carefree as ever, reclined back on the ship's figurehead, still clearly thrilled that his plan to get a free ship had worked out in his favor.

Nevermind the hiccup of all of them nearly dying—again.

"Uh—hey, guys?" The other three looked up at him, Nami lifting an eyebrow at his offhand tone. "I...think we have a stowaway."

"Excuse me?" said Nami sharply, immediately rolling up the map.

"Whoa, seriously? We've got a—" Luffy slid down from the figurehead and hopped down onto the deck, excitable as ever and hurrying over with Usopp and Nami to look over Zoro's shoulder. He laughed a little. "Cool."

"Wh—this isn't cool," said Nami, shaking her head at Luffy in disbelief. "It's technically kidnapping?"

Luffy's face fell at that. "Oh—yeah, probably not cool. Uh...." He rubbed at the back of his neck, glancing between his crewmates. "So...do we turn around and take her back?"

"She's not from Syrup Village." Zoro glanced over his shoulder at Usopp, who looked easily as flummoxed as the rest of them. "I mean, it's not a big town, I know everyone there, and...." He shook his head slowly. "Never seen her before."

Of course it couldn't be that simple. Nothing was ever that simple.

"Then how did she end up on a ship that's been sitting in the shipyard there for years?" said Nami, crossing her arms as she leaned in the doorframe behind Zoro, frowning thoughtfully.

"Five hundred Berry says there was booze involved," offered Zoro, and she scoffed.

"Not taking that bet."

And that was the moment you chose to awaken.

Rubbing your eyes, slowly opening them as you stretched your arms out over your head.

Blinking just as slowly as you seemed to take in the strangers huddled in the doorway.

And then, with a yelp of alarm, you sat straight up, attempting to back yourself against the wall, and fell off of the hammock entirely instead, scooting yourself back into a corner, your eyes wide as saucers.

"Wh—who—where the hell—?"

The crew glanced between each other in growing concern and alarm, and finally, while you continued to stammer in fright in the corner looking very much like a trapped animal, Nami heaved out a sigh. "Not it."

"Not it," Usopp echoed quickly.

Luffy was utterly unfazed, shoving himself into the small confines of the doorframe as well, his shoulder pressed up against Zoro's arm. "Hi there! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, this is my first mate Zoro—" Zoro rolled his eyes toward the ceiling as Luffy clapped him on the shoulder. "So..." He pushed through and sat down in the center of the hammock and you pressed yourself further back against the wall, looking no less terrified. "How come you were asleep on our ship?"

"Sh—ship—?" you repeated breathlessly, glancing warily between him and Zoro. Your eyes landed on the three katanas at his hip and widened even further.

"Yeah! We're going to the Grand Line," Luffy said, grinning happily. "You can come with us, I'm still gathering a crew. I'm gonna be King of the Pi—ow, hey!" he added as Zoro grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"Not helping, captain," he said, dragging him out of the cabin. "Just go do—go do something else."

"I am kinda hungry," he said, frowning. Then he waved at Nami and Usopp. "Hey guys, crew meeting in the kitchen!"

Nami grumbled something about not being a crew, but despite that and rolling her eyes, both she amd Usopp followed Luffy across the deck and out of sight, roping Zoro right into dealing with...whatever the hell this was. The swordsman leaned in the doorframe for a long, silent moment, hand curled over his mouth, brow furrowed, trying to decide how to address the issue. The fact that you had no idea where you were was definitely not a huge help in the matter.

He pulled his hand down with a sigh, crossing his arms.

"Alright, so...you got a name?" he asked finally. You swallowed, eyeing his swords again as you forced out your name—and then pointed at the swords.

"A-are those—real?" Your voice practically squeaked.

"Uh...yeah," he said slowly, glancing down at the handles briefly before looking back at you again, raising his eyebrows. He glanced at the obviously fake gun in your belt, and nodded at it. "What about that?"

"N—no, why the hell would I be carrying around a *real*—" You shook your head quickly, your eyes Stull wide with disbelief. "I was at a Halloween party at my friend's dorm and—"

"Hollow-what?"

You blinked, and gave a small, nervous laugh. "What?" you forced out weakly. "Halloween? Trick-or-treating? College kids use it as an excuse to dress up in stupid costumes and get drunk?"

"Trick or—College?"

This definitely wasn't helping—you were staring at him like he had lived under a rock his whole life, he was staring at you like you were speaking another language, and you might as well have been. It was pretty clear that wherever you had come from, it hadn't been Syrup Vilage, probably hadn't been anywhere even in the East Blue.

But that didn't make any sense at all.

"Alright...." he said, shaking his head, shaking away the growing fog of confusion. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I—ah..." You grimaced a little, wrapping your arms around your knees. "I vaguely remember getting talked into doing a keg stand, one of my friends dropping me, hitting my head pretty hard." You rubbed at your left temple a moment, and frowned when you pulled your hand back. "I...I swear I was bleeding...." you mumbled to yourself, rubbing at your eyes now.

"So...you got drunk at this... 'Halloween' thing," said Zoro slowly, "hit your head, and...stumbled onto a shipyard to sleep it off?"

That didn't sound right to him—nor did it seem to sound right to you, as you lowered your hand only from your eyes to stare at him, your expression deadpan.

"Last I checked," you said, "there weren't any ships near my campus."

"...Right," he said, nodding slowly. He rubbed at the back of his neck, resting his other elbow at the hilt of one of his katanas, trying to form some grasp of the situation.

And failing spectacularly.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about," you said, your shoulders slumping.

"Nope," affirmed Zoro, shrugging a shoulder. This was by far the weirdest thing that had happened since he had started following Luffy—and considering he had just assisted in saving a minnionaire heiress from being murdered by grown adults dressed like cats, that was saying quite a lot.

"Why does everyone keep saying ship?" He raised his eyebrows at you, glancing slowly over his shoulder at the deck of the Going Merry. "That doesn't make any sense, I was over an hour from the coast, that's—that's ridiculous."

"I mean..." Scratching behind his ear, he turned to the side and nodded out toward the deck. You didn't seem particularly dangerous, so there couldn't be any harm in it. "Guess you can see for yourself, if you want."

Your eyes drifted to the doorway—and then snapped immediately back onto him, your face growing pale in an instant. You pulled yourself to your feet, swaying slightly with the motion of the ship against the waves, and started cautiously toward the door...and then stopped, eyeing his swords again.

Zoro took a few steps back, out of the door and onto the deck, giving you enough space for you to be comfortable—at least, as comfortable as you could be in your present predicament—and gestured for you to come out when your feet remained glued to the floor.

Slowly, cautiously, you took a few more steps forward, stopping in the doorway, your eyes scanning slowly around the the caravel—the barrels sitting around the deck, the ram-shaped figurehead, the sails flapping high over your head in the wind, out toward the water surrounding the vessel on all sides.

And your face went from pale to a bit greenish, before you suddenly rushed across the deck in a stumble, bent over the railing, and vomited.

It was honestly a little hard not to laugh. It shouldn't have been funny; you were obviously out of your depth, bordering on outright panic, with no idea where you were or how you had gotten there—and possibly seasick on top of that. But Zoro had learned, pretty quickly, that if he wanted to hang onto whatever sanity he had left, then it was important to find humor in the absolute chaos that seemed to follow him and the rest of the crew since he had joined Luffy.

And this was definitely no exception.

He managed to cover a chuckle by clearing his throat, not that you were really paying any attention as you slumped forward, covering your head with your hands. Zoro approached you slowly, a little cautiously, largely so as not to startle you and send you tumbling over the side of the ship in surprise, and he leaned back against the railing a few feet away from you. "Ah...you good?"

You lifted your head slowly, looking at him in disbelief.

"No, I wouldn't say that I am," you said. "I'm on a—a ship in the middle of—of—I don't even know where—"

"East Blue." You blinked several times, clearly bit processing what he was saying. "Uh...the ocean?"

"East Blue," you repeated. "So...like...the Atlantic?"

"The what?"

You gave a growl of frustration at that, turning your head and covering your face with both your hands, and Zoro found himself at a lack for words for a long moment. He was definitely no navigator, but he hadn't ever heard of any ocean or sea referred to as "The Atlantic—" nor evidently had you heard of the East Blue.

"Oh, god, what a fucking mess."

"Yeah, usually is here," Zoro said under his breath, more to himself than to you, running a hand back through his hair.

"How—how are you remotely okay with this?" you asked, looking over at him again.

That was actually a good question, one that made Zoro freeze for a long moment. In the past handful of days, he had been imprisoned, almost skewered in a circus sideshow act he wanted no part of, helped beat up a clown with removable body parts, and then there was the whole cat thing. Now he was talking to a girl who had appeared out of nowhere on their new ship, who had no further idea of where she was than he did of where she could have come from.

"Been a weird week," he answered finally, frowning. You weren't the only one a little out of your depth—the entire crew probably was.

Except for maybe Luffy. That idiot didn't seem like anything fazed him, and Zoro almost envied him for it right now.

"Well...we've got a pretty decent navigator," Zoro said, looking down at you. "We could try to figure out where you came from and get you back there."

"Princeton, New Jersey?" He lifted an eyebrow, and you sighed in defeat. "Yeah, thought so." You turned around, and sat down heavily on the deck, staring across the expanse and off toward the horizon, shaking your head. "Maybe I'm dreaming. I've had weirder dreams after blacking out. Or someone could have slipped something in one of my drinks and I'm having a really bad trip." You tilted your head back against the railing, rolling your eyes over to him. "So where exactly are we?"

"We...left Syrup Village about fifteen minutes ago," he offered. "Guess we're probably headed to Loguetown, it's supposed to be close to the Grand Line. And Luffy says he's going to be King of the Pirates, so..."

"P...pirates," you repeated weakly. You looked down at yourself, at the rather gaudy and exaggerated pirate costume you were wearing, and gave an equally weak laugh. "How...fitting." He didn't quite manage to mask his snort of laughter this time, but you laughed as well, so it was probably fine. Laughed, closing your eyes and shaking your head. "And here I was stressing out over studying for finals."

"Finals...?"

"Exams," you reiterated. "Tests. I was in college...in *school*. For psychology, at that. Now I'm the one going insane, apparently." Your laugh trailed off into a sigh as you rubbed a hand across your face, shaking your head. "What a life."

College. Halloween. Midterms. Trick-or-treating. You really might as well have been speaking a different language. It was honestly all too weird for Zoro, and while you seemed to be slowly coming to terms with things—even if you were chalking it all up as a hallucination—you were both still pretty lost. He heaved a sigh, looking down at you, trying to figure out who had given him the authority to deal with this—and then he shrugged a shoulder.

"Drink?" he suggested.

"That's the most sane suggest I've heard since I woke up," you agreed. "If you're all pirates, I'm guessing it's rum on the menu?"

"No idea," he admitted. "We just got the ship. But we were told it's fully stocked."

"In that case, whatever you have," you sighed, laying your forehead against your knees. "The stronger the better."

"Yeah," he agreed slowly, glancing around the deck. There were innumerable ways you could get yourself hurt or in trouble if you didn't have any experience on a ship—and you had made perfectly clear that you didn't. He sighed to himself, and extended a hand down to you. "Let's just...get you situated somewhere first."

You lifted your head, meeting his eyes, glancing at his hand...and then, with a sigh of your own, you took it, allowing him to help pull you to your feet. "Lead the way, I guess," you said resignedly.

Honestly, he wasn't sure where to lead you. He settled on the cabin Nami had claimed as hers, with a full bed for you to collapse back onto, where he watched you pull a pillow down over your eyes, as if trying to blot out the new reality you had found yourself embedded into.

He was still trying to wrap his head around the reality you had spoken of as he left you there to enter the kitchen, where Usopp and Luffy were in the middle of arguing over the new flag that the former had just presented.

"That's unique," he commented, glancing at the design.

"Yeah, but he's not the captain—"

"Yes I am—!"

"I'm the capt—"

"No, I'm the—they call me Captain Usopp—"

"How's our stowaway?" Nami asked over both of them, as Zoro pulled open a cabinet.

"Weird," he answered, raising his voice over the bickering between Luffy and Usopp. Both of the offending parties looked over as he pulled down a bottle of what looked like liquor of some kind. "You ever heard of New Jersey?"

"N...no," said Nami, glancing at Luffy and Usopp—both of whom shook their heads as well. "What is it?"

"I don't know," he said, pulling the cork out if the bottle and giving it a sniff. Whatever it was, it smelled string enough. "Something about college and Halloween. I have no idea."

"So what, we're getting drunk about it?" she laughed.

"You want a different approach, you deal with it." Nami leaned back in her seat, raising her hands in mock-surrender.

"It's nothing to worry about," said Luffy happily, his arm still draped across Usopp's shoulders. "From now on, it's going to be nothing but smooth sailing—"

BOOM—

Luffy and Usopp clung to each other in the shock of whatever had just hit the ship, as Nami rolled her eyes. "Had to open your mouth..." she mumbled, pulling herself upright and hurrying toward the deck.

Zoro glanced down at the bottle of liquor in his hand, his eyes widening as he realized you were by yourself on a ship under cannon fire. He swore under his breath and hurried off himself.

You were sitting up on the bed when he made it to the cabin, had your fingers stuffed into your ears and your eyes clenched shut, and you jolted in alarm when Zoro put a hand on your shoulder, staring at him in borderline terror.

"Uh—here—" he offered, pushing the bottle of liquor into your hands. "Just—stay here."

"Is this normal?" you half-shouted over the roar of the cannon fire, glancing between the bottle and him.

"Nothing on this crew is normal," he assured you.

And because that really wasn't any decent sort of reassurance, he just sort of awkwardly half-patted you on the head before hurrying back out to the deck.

He really wasn't much of a help, any more than anyone else was, when they realized they were being attacked by a Marine ship. There was an abrupt and baffling realization that Luffy recognized the vice admiral aboard the opposing ship as his grandfather. There was an utter scramble as Luffy and Usopp tried to figure out how to fire a canon.

And then, there was a pure spectacle, as Luffy used his Devil Fruit powers to inflate himself into a balloon and deflect a cannonball that Garp The Fist had thrown at the Merry—

"What the f—!?"

And you hadn't stayed put.

God dammit.

Zoro had to sprint to the quarterdeck to reach you. You, gripping the railing, white-knuckled and in clear shock at what you had just witnessed, Zoro reached you just in time to catch you before you could faint in outright shock at what you had just witnessed and hit the deck. You definitely weren't just acting, you really were completely out of your depth.

Though he supposed fainting wasn't the most abnormal reaction to the sight of Luffy turning himself into a human hot air balloon.

Nami leaned against the railing with a heavy sigh once she managed to veer the ship toward a fog bank where the Marines wouldn't have a good enough visual to continue their attack, and shook her head at Luffy and Usopp celebrating. "Looks like they only damaged the railing a little," she said. "Could have been a lot worse."

"Yeah," Zoro agreed, shifting your unconscious form to lift you onto his shoulder. "A lot worse."

"Someone should probably talk to him," she said, looking back down as Luffy took a seat on the deck and set to picking loose straws from his hat. "The whole my grandpa's a Marine Vice Admiral thing."

"Not it," Zoro said, and Nami rolled her eyes over to him.

"You're his first mate. I think this falls under your job description," she said flatly.

"I think stowaway detail does, too," he countered. Nami glanced at you, still passed out cold, and gave a small snort of laughter. "I'm busy. You can go talk to him if you think it's that important."

"Yeah. Busy." She rolled her eyes away from him at that, pushing herself away from the railing. "More like an excuse to get drunk with the hot girl that magically appeared in your hammock."

He tossed a wry glare in Nami's direction as she headed for the stairs. Maybe she wasn't completely wrong—trying to unravel the mystery behind your sudden appearance definitely sounded more appealing than confronting Luffy about his family history.

And, yeah, you were pretty hot.

"I'm just trying to help," he said, shaking his head—he knew better than to tell Nami she was even half-right. She'd just use it to find some way to blackmail him.

"Yeah, yeah." She stopped at the stairs leading down to the deck. "Did she say anything about where she came from?"

He shrugged his free shoulder, glancing at you. "Some place called Princeton-New-Jersey."

Nami raised an eyebrow. "Never heard of it." If the navigator hadn't heard of it...that definitely didn't bode well for you. Nami sighed, glancing at you once more. "Just...I don't know—try to find out more, I guess. See if there's any hints about exactly where she came from. She's got to be scared out of her mind."

"That's the plan," said Zoro, shifting your weight on his shoulder. Nami gave a short nod before heading down the stairs.

Zoro carried you back to the room he had left you in before the firefight and set you carefully on Nami's bed. You were probably going to be on the verge of a mental break when you woke back up, if you were as out of place as you seemed to be. There were plenty of people who weren't familiar with devil fruits, and you had just witnessed the power of one firsthand, in a pretty dramatic way.

Zoro rubbed the back of his neck, staring down at you for a long moment, still racking his brain for some idea of what the hell they were supposed to do with you.

He finally settled for sitting on the floor next to the bed, leaning back against the nightstand, and grabbing the bottle of whiskey. He uncorked it and took a pull from the bottle.

"Never a dull moment," he mumbled to himself, laying his head back against the nightstand with a small thunk.

Which was just enough to stir you—he nearly dropped the bottle in alarm when you sat straight up on the bed, looking around. Then you groaned, falling back again and pulling a pillow over your face. "Why am I still here?" you groaned, your voice muffled. "God, this is a nightmare..."

"Yeah," said Zoro, frowning a little—the whole situation really was a nightmare, and he felt for you on that. "But it's real."

You lifted the pillow, turning your head to look at him, looking utterly defeated. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure, yeah." That was a difficult question to be absolutely positive about, but Zoro wasn't really one for waxing existential. You rolled your eyes to the ceiling, your head dropping back onto the bed again, silent for a long moment.

"How," you finally said, slowly, "did your captain inflate himself?" You shook your head. "Not a sentence I thought I'd ever say," you added under your breath, shaking your head, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling.

Zoro gave a snort of laughter and held out the bottle, which you grabbed away immediately, propping yourself up on one elbow to take a long drink. "Devil fruit. He ate it when he was a kid." You looked at him, blinking a few times. "Basically turned his body into rubber."

"U—uh‐huh."

And you took another quick gulp of whiskey before handing the bottle back and shifting onto your side.

"And that's...normal, then? Just...eat a fruit and turn into rubber?"

"It's not really common," he said, laughing a little. "Devil fruits. They're pretty rare. And they all do different things." He took a drink and set the bottle back behind him on the nightstand, stretching an arm out across his knee. "Few days ago we had to fight this asshole clown guy with removable body parts."

"Removable...body..." You gave a small, rather nervous chuckle, tucking a hand under your cheek as you stared at the wall, across the room, your eyes far away. "This is like some stupid anime plot. Hit my head on a fucking keg at a Halloween party and wake up in magic-pirate-land."

"Anime—?"

"Don't ask," you said, closing your eyes and grimacing. "Really not important." You opened your eyes, meeting his gaze with a hopeless sort of frown. "I'm really stuck here, aren't I?"

"I mean...if we could figure out how you got here, or...." He trailed off as you lifted your eyebrows, your expression turning skeptical. He sighed to himself—lying to you wasn't really going to help anything. "Yeah," he said finally, frowning himself. "I guess you are for now."

Your gazes remained locked for a long moment—maybe a moment too long, maybe a little too...intensely. Your eyes drifted for a moment, quickly, passing up and down him, before you pulled in a deep breath and sat straight up ar the edge of the bed, your hand shooting out to grab the bottle of whiskey from the nightstand and take a long pull from it.

Grimacing slightly at the bitterness of the liquor, you lowered the bottle, huffing out a sigh, your face tinged with a hint of a blush.

And Zoro cut his eyes away upon noticing it, clearing his throat a little and standing up from the floor to lean back against the nightstand, putting a little more distance between the two of you.

"Guess it could be worse." He did glanced over when you held the bottle out, and he took it as you pulled the costume tricorne hat from your head and ran a hand back through your hair. "You guys seem okay for 'pirates.'"

He gave a little laugh at that, at how you lifted a hand to mime quotes at the word. "Yeah. Pirates," he said. He took a drink and shook his head. "We're all pretty new to this, so." He shrugged a shoulder. "You're not the only one that's a little disoriented."

"Really?" you said, smirking. Your eyes darted down to his katanas for a second. "How new?"

"About a week," he said. You lifted your eyebrows at that. "I was hunting pirates before that."

You snorted, taking the bottle back, your hand brushing against his as you did—it was subtle, could have been an accident, but between the growing amusement in your tone and your eyes, he doubted it was. "So what, can't beat 'em, join 'em?"

"Not exactly," he said, grinning a little himself as you took a sip and rested the bottle on your knee. "Last time I went to turn in a bounty I got into it with this Marine captain's dumbass kid at a tavern and they took me prisoner. Luffy saw the fight and decided he wanted me on his crew, so he freed me on his way to break into the base and steal a map."

"Wait—" You shook your head, your eyes positively alight with amusement now. "Wait, wait wait—did he know you were a pirate hunter?"

"Yeah."

"So he's either brave or stupid, then?" you said, lifting the bottle again.

"Pretty unhealthy combination of both, actually," he laughed. He took the bottle back when you held it out. "But he's a good guy. Has a lot of heart. Just wants everyone he meets to be able to follow their dreams." You folded your hands over your knee, still smiling as he took a sip and set the bottle down behind him. "So what's the deal with the whole 'psychology' thing?"

"Oh that—that's what I was studying in college. School," you added quickly when he lifted an eyebrow. "Uh, sort of like...a school you go to so you can learn more about the job you want. I'm planning on...." Your smile waned a little as you leaned back on the bed, your eyes falling to your knees. "Was planning on being a therapist. Help people with their problems when they don't have anyone else to turn to." You laughed quietly, biting your lip. "Probably sounds lame compared to what you guys are doing. Fighting with Marines and—clowns with removable body parts."

"No, that sounds..." You had planned on dedicating your life to helping others. "Pretty cool, actually." He crossed his arms, watching you for a long moment as your lips curved toward a small smile. "How's that work, though? People just pay you and you give them adivce?"

"In a nutshell, yeah. It's a little more in depth than that, but..." You lifted your gaze to his, smiling and shrugging one shoulder. "I've still got a lot left to learn, but...I could probably give you a session, if you're curious. For a price."

Zoro lifted his eyebrows as you leaned forward, resting your elbows on your knees, your chin against one of your palms, your smile widening a little as your eyes scanned him up and down again, a little slower this time, more deliberately.

"I might be willing to settle for a date as compensation."

His eyes widened.

What.

That was...forward.

Maybe there had been a little flirting between the two of you, but that had thrown him right off his guard.

"I—uh—"

And you looked pretty amused that it had.

Zoro was saved from his alarmed stammering by the sound of quick footsteps approaching the room. You both turned your attention toward the open doorframe as Luffy skidded to a halt there, his eyes positively glowing with excitement.

"Guys, you gotta see what we found, come on—"

And with that, and without giving either of you a single second to respond, he grabbed you amd Zoro both by the wrist and set to dragging you both out toward the deck. You tossed a sideways glance at Zoro on the way, looking almost frightened.

"Is he always so—?"

"You get used it," said Zoro shortly.

And once on the deck, he pushed you both toward the railing, just as the Going Merry was beginning to emerge from the thick fog bank that had enshrouded the caravel, revealing another, much larger ship anchored on the calm ocean ahead, with several other ships docked around it. A glowing red neon sign hung on the side, high over a door that led into the lower part of the vessel.

"Wh...what's a 'Baratie'?" said Usopp, looking over the railing next to Zoro, squinting at the sign.

"That smell..." Nami laughed as she leaned against the railing next to you. "I think this place is a restaurant."

"Then I know what we're gonna do next," said Luffy, pushing between you and Nami to lean over the railing, grinning.

"Disguise the ship so the Marines can't find us?" suggested Nami, cutting her eyes at him.

"Sail back to Syrup Village where it's safe?" offered Usopp.

"Nah." Luffy's grin only widened as he stared at the atrange ship, and he said excitably, "let's eat!"

You stared at him in alarm as he smacked his hand against the railing and hurried off across the deck, before your eyes turned back to the Baratie, wide as saucers, your mouth fallen open a bit.

"I...it's a fish," you said, a little weakly.

Zoro glanced over at you, and sighed to himself. If this day got any weirder he was probably going to have to take you up on the offer of the whole "therapy" thing. He shook his head a little, shoving away from the railing himself.

"That fish better have a bar."

Hold me close and hold me fast

Hi, my darling @always-andromeda!! I'm your secret santa from the space sisters server 🥰 I hope you're having a fantastic day and will enjoy what I wrote for you 💕 I tried to mix fluff and angst into your Joel prompt and it was tricker than I thought it'd be but hopefully I did it justice 😌 I wish you all that's best and happy holidays!!

Summary: It's been a long time since Joel was in any relationship and because of that he has absolutely no clue how to react to your affections. It culminates into an angsty conversation which he wanted to avoid at all costs.

Tags: tooth-rotting fluff, fluff and angst, soft and shy Joel, hurt/comfort, established relationship 💕

Word count: 3.3K

A/N: dividers by @saradika, beta read by @reddedmiller ❤️

Twenty years ago, when the apocalypse started and Joel Miller lost his only daughter, he was certain that he’d never feel happy again. Time didn’t heal his wounds – he still thought like that when he was fighting for survival with Tommy, then when he was doing side jobs with Tess in the QZ… It was never going to get better.

But somehow, as he looked up at the massive tree he just helped the others set up in the middle of the square in Jackson, he realized that it could. It did. Now Joel had a home here. He had his brother back, he had Ellie whom he cared for like his own kid and he had a community that welcomed him into Jackson, people who didn’t know about the horrible things he’d done and therefore didn’t hate him.

“Hi, handsome,” he heard from behind his back and turned around to the most beautiful face in the world – the main source of his newfound happiness. You. His girl. “Are you done with work?”

He nodded with a small smile gracing his lips. You were the newest addition to Joel’s life, but the most precious one in his eyes. Unlike everyone else in Jackson (excluding his brother), you knew all about the sins he’s committed. And yet, you still chose him. Every day you continued to choose him, to envelop him with the warmth of your love which Joel wasn’t sure he deserved.

He’d never tell you, though. Not as long as you kept him in your heart.

“Yeah, no, we’re done. M’pretty sure my back will blow if I have to pick up or carry one more damn thing.”

Right at that moment Tommy walked by with another box full of tree ornaments in his arms, and huffed a laugh when he heard his brother complaining.

“Jesus, Joel, you really are gettin’ old.” He put down the heavy box on the snow and sighed, propping his hands on his hips and nodding at you. “You sure you’ll be able to put up with this grump?”

“Positive.” You climbed onto your tip-toes to press a kiss to Joel’s cheek, and he felt his skin growing hot under your lips. He turned his head to hide the embarrassment evident on his face, missing the slight furrow of your brows, but not missing a hearty laugh his brother let out.

“Aww, is the big, scary man gettin’ all shy from a little kiss on the cheek?”

“Get lost, Tommy.”

Tommy chuckled and bent down to pick up the box again. “By the way, you two have any plans for today? We’re makin’ a screening of some Christmas movies for the kids, and after that the adults will head to the bar. You should come.”

“Well, if you want to?” you directed the careful question to Joel, but he shook his head just slightly, causing you to smile. “But we actually have other plans for tonight.”

That was true, and there was no way Joel would trade those precious hours spent in your company for having to sit – or worse, dance – in a loud room full of half-drunk people.

“Sounds like somethin’ I don’t wanna know about.”

“We’re just gonna bake some cookies for Ellie,” Joel murmured when you bumped his arm lightly with a giggle. The irritation at his brother lessened slightly when he heard the sound of your laughter. “But don’t tell ‘er.”

“My lips are sealed.” Tommy winked at Joel, then shifted his eyes to you. “Enjoy your evening, lovebirds.”

“That’s the plan.” You took Joel’s hand in both of yours, beaming up at him with excitement. “You’re ready?”

“Yeah.” He inconspicuously let go of your hands to brush the arm of your jacket lightly, and then nodded in the direction of his house. “C’mon, darlin’.”

He hoped he wasn’t coming off as too harsh as he hid his gloved hands in the pockets, intending to blame it on the cold in case you asked. But instead of saying anything, you just matched his step and slipped your hands around his arm. Joel went rigid when you leaned your head on his shoulder, the side of your body almost hugging his.

Joel loved you like no one before and until he met you, he hadn’t been this happy in years. But there was a problem, a major one, in your relationship that he didn’t at all know how to address.

Because Joel didn’t have any clue how to react to all your touches.

No matter if they were tender or needy, brief or lasting, he always felt out of his depth. It’s been so long since he actually wanted to be intimate with someone that when the chance arose… he was at loss. You were such an affectionate person and he loved that part of you, he cherished all touches and gestures you graced him with – craved them even – but…

He stole a glance at you, wondering if you could feel the stiffness of his body when you were so close, but it seemed that you were none the wiser. He tried to will his muscles to relax, but it didn’t work and he still felt an uncomfortable feeling crawling up his arm.

The problem wasn’t that he didn’t know what he was supposed to do as your partner, but ever since Sarah died, he hadn’t had an opportunity to show affection to someone. Everything he thought about seemed awkward and incongruous, but he really didn’t want you to think that he was an inexperienced old man who didn’t know how to please – and in your case, love – a woman.

He did. In theory.

So he tried his hardest to show you in other ways how much he cares about you. He brought you gifts, whether they were knickknacks scavenged during his patrols or wooden figurines he made for you. He did what he could to relieve you of your duties, helped around the house and out in the town. He found time during the day to spend with you or at least just talk in passing if you both were busy.

But that still wasn’t enough. He knew that wasn’t enough.

Every damn time you cuddled, every time you kissed him or did something as simple as lay your head on his shoulder, Joel never felt better. He never wanted those moments to end, but at the same time he just couldn’t reciprocate, and it was tearing him apart, because he could see how hurtful it was to you.

“You’re quiet.”

Joel snapped out of his thoughts and looked down at you, noting that you’re almost at his place. He breathed a little lighter when he realized that he managed to go all this way without the need of pulling his arm out of your grasp.

“Is everything alright?” you asked with concern in your beautiful eyes and squeezed his bicep slightly, causing Joel to clench his teeth. “Listen, if you’d prefer to go with Tommy, just tell me…”

“Hey, I’m okay, sweetheart,” he assured you quickly and even managed to smile as if the guilt of not being able to even kiss your forehead wasn’t eating him alive. “There’s no one else I’d rather be with right now.”

“Just right now?” you asked teasingly, and Joel couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him.

“Listen here, you little tease…”

A bright smile returned to your face and you tugged his arm down so your lips could reach his stubbly cheek – and (only a little) reluctantly, he let you kiss him with a huff.

But the guilt of not telling you the true reason of his worries was still swirling in his stomach, making him feel sick for the rest of the way.

An hour and a half later the cookies were already done, and somehow the attempt to clean each other off the flour and the colorful frosting you used to decorate them ended up with you sitting in Joel’s lap, kissing him softly.

Not that he minded.

There was nothing as wonderful as the feeling of your lips on his skin, Joel was sure of it. It’s been an embarrassingly long time since he was with someone that made him feel like a young boy in love again, but your every gesture, every sound coming out of your mouth and every day he got to spend with you was just a confirmation of how lucky he was to have you.

Even now, as you were kissing him slowly and without any rush, he felt butterflies fluttering in his stomach. But while they initially appeared from the happiness and giddiness you were causing in him, the longer your hands wandered – and the longer his stayed uselessly at his sides – the worse and more stressed he felt.

“You know you can touch me, right?” you asked playfully at last, and the pit in Joel’s stomach grew almost tenfold in size. “It’s highly encouraged, actually.”

There was an actual question in your voice, which made him feel even worse. He should’ve known you’d address it eventually – after all, nothing went past you – but it still felt so awfully embarrassing to admit it to you. He was an old man, but felt like an inexperienced teenager who didn’t know how to make a woman feel good.

You moved to kiss him again when he didn’t answer, too lost in his own thoughts, but on instinct Joel pulled back – actually ducked – out of your reach. Immediately regret painted his face at the rejected look in your eyes, and he started to rake his mind in search for something he could do to fix it, but nothing came to him. He knew what you’d want from him – you’d forgive him if he took your face in his hands, kissed you with all his strength, let you know that you did nothing wrong… but it made him nervous just thinking about it, let alone do it.

“Sorry,” he quickly muttered. “I didn’t– didn’t mean to… I’m sorry.”

“Hey, look at me… What’s wrong?” You brushed some hair out of his forehead and Joel exhaled shakily, feeling weak in the knees at your touch. “Talk to me, baby. Did I do something?” Joel shook his head and you pressed your lips together. “Did something happen, then?”

“No.” He shook his head quickly, but he avoided your eyes. “No. Nothin’.”

“Joel…”

The room got too stuffy all of the sudden, the shirt on his back too tight and your body too heavy on his lap. Joel knew he was panicking over nothing, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want you to see him like this, so unsure and embarrassed over his own insecurity and behavior… So he gently removed you from his lap and stood up from the couch.

“Sorry, I gotta… I need some air. I’ll be right back, alrigh’?”

“Joel.”

No ‘baby’. No ‘handsome’. The tone of your voice made him stop dead in his tracks, and he turned around to meet your sad, solemn eyes.

“Just tell me if you don’t want me anymore.”

Your voice, so small and weak, took him off-guard and for a couple of seconds Joel wasn’t sure if you really said that, or if it was just his imagination playing cruel tricks on him. He blinked several times, but you were still in front of him, sad and… oh, god, you were on the verge of tears.

“What?” He couldn’t help a curt, disbelieving chuckle that escaped him – which was a terrible reaction, he realized when you turned your head away from him. “I– I don’t understand.”

“You don’t ever want to touch me first.” You let out a shuddering breath and lifted your arm to wipe your eyes, and Joel realized with mortification that he fucking made you cry. “And when you do it’s only when I initiate it, but sometimes you just pull back and it… it makes me feel so unwanted. And I know I might come off as too clingy…”

“Hey, none of that.” Joel quickly made his way to you and sat back down, gazing at you with his brows furrowed in worry. Your face was tearstained already and you avoided looking at him, but didn’t pull back when he took your hand gently in his. “Darlin’...”

“Just tell me if it doesn’t work for you,” you breathed, your voice thick with tears which also welled up in your pretty eyes again. “I hate not knowing if I… if our relationship makes you happy.”

“Of course I’m happy, babygirl.” Joel lifted your hand as if to kiss it, but hesitated. He had half a mind to draw back, but you needed him now, and he needed to prove that he really loved you. So, tentatively, he pressed his inexperienced lips to your fingers, making you look up with suspicion dancing in your irises. “You make me the happiest I’ve ever felt.”

“You’re pretending.” The quiet accusation combined with you withdrawing your hand caused Joel’s heart to break and he opened his mouth to explain, but you didn’t give him a chance to. “I don’t want you to pretend now that I’m upset, I want– Joel, I need you to be honest and tell me if it isn’t working for you. You always move away when I try to hug you and during all this time we’ve been together I can count on one hand the number of times you kissed me first. I don’t…” you choked down a sob and a new wave of tears flew down your cheeks. “I don’t want to waste either of our time if that isn’t what you want. If I’m not what you want–”

“Sweetheart, you’re the only one I want,” Joel whispered with pain in his voice, moving so he could sit closer to you. “M’so very sorry that I wasn’t…” He searched for the right words, but everything felt flat on his tongue. “I’m sorry. For everythin’ I did that made you feel this way.”

“But why?” you asked pathetically, staring at him with defeat and sadness. “You never said anything and I wouldn’t try to touch you so much if you just told me you didn’t like it!”

“I do like it,” he cut you off with a firm tone, which caused you to stop abruptly. “I fuckin’– I love it when you touch me, darlin’. I’m dyin’ for you to keep doin’ it, but I…”

“You what?” you asked, softer this time, and Joel swallowed hard, nervous how you’ll react. But you had the right to know, so ultimately he pushed through his discomfort.

“I just don’t know what to do,” he finally settled on that. “I really, really love when you touch me, babygirl, no matter in what way.” He took another deep breath, bowing his head to look at his hands so that he didn’t have to face you. “But it’s been so long, damn decades, since I… since anyone touched me in the way you do. I never loved someone the way I love you. I’m very sorry, I just don’t know what I’m s’pposed to do… when someone…”

He trailed off, worried that he might break down and cry in front of you if he says another word, and he’d prefer to avoid it at all cost. The world outside was so harsh and cruel already, and you needed someone strong – a safe haven, a pillar you could lean on. He was that someone for everyone around him for the last twenty years, and even longer before the outbreak.

But it was so much different now. You made him feel safe and loved no matter what he could provide to you and it was almost scary how vulnerable he was becoming in your presence.

“...when someone cares for you?” you asked quietly. Joel nodded, and tears gathered in your eyes again, though now for a very different reason. “Oh, Joel…”

“M’sorry,” he whispered, his own vision also going misty. “I want to give you everythin’ you desire, darlin’. If you give me another chance, I promise I’ll try to…” He shook his head, defeated. “I don’t know. I’ll try to get past it.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for.” You scooted just a little closer and put your hand on his knee lightly. He looked up with anguish swimming in his brown eyes, not believing that you were still here and not already out of the door. You worried your lip between your teeth for a couple of seconds before inhaling deeply. “How about… I show you what to do? We can go as slow as you want.”

Joel slowly shook his head, not understanding. “...show me what?”

“You said you don’t really know what to do, right? So how about I show you exactly how… you know.” You smiled almost shyly, but it only caused Joel’s heart to beat even faster. “Where to put your hands.”

Joel was nodding before you even finished speaking.

It was embarrassing, really, how excited he got at this idea, but just the thought of your hands guiding his, demonstrating where and how to touch you, had him feeling weak in the knees and hot under his clothes. You smiled, almost with relief, and moved even closer until your thighs were touching.

“Here, just relax. We can stop at any time, just say a word,” you said soothingly, placing his palms on your hips and sending him a small smile. Joel wondered if you could see how red his face surely was, feel how sweaty his palms got. “Is this okay?”

“S’better than okay,” he breathed in something akin to wonder. “It’s easier… Everythin’ seems easier with you.” His chest was tight when he looked up at you. “Thank you.”

It wasn’t a lie. You did make it seem effortless, and though Joel could still feel the rigidness of his muscles and tendons, the tension was slowly melting away, replaced by a tingling warmth on his skin.

You gave him a reassuring smile and his eyes flickered to your lips almost involuntary. You noticed it, of course – Joel didn’t think he was exactly subtle with his staring – and cupped his jaw in your hands. His arm, practically instinctively, encircled your waist and pulled you closer before he could stop himself, but you didn’t berate him – in fact, you seemed delighted by his action.

“Now, are you going to kiss me or not?” you whispered coyly, brushing his cheekbones with the pads of your thumbs. Joel chuckled at your attempt to put him more at ease, but it worked and he leaned in to press – very, very carefully – his lips to yours. He felt you smiling against them and his eyes filled with tears from the overwhelming relief.

“I love you so much,” he murmured with his mouth only millimeters from yours. “So much, babygirl.”

You hummed a quiet love you, too, and moved your lips up to softly kiss his eyelids, then temple, then cheeks and nose. Joel almost wanted to cry when you started running your fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp gently. It felt so good, your touch so nice and tender… He couldn’t remember when was the last time someone treated him with such care. Maybe never. “Next time it becomes too much, you tell me, got it? And I promise I’ll make you feel better.”

Your touch didn’t bother him now that he admitted what was weighing heavily on his chest for so long. Now, it felt soothing. Grounding.

So, so loving.

Joel held you closer, melting into your embrace, and claimed your lips in a soft – if not a bit shy – kiss.

There was nothing else he’d rather be doing tonight.

dire, m | jjk

pairing(s): jungkook x reader

summary: One fateful night. That was all it took for Jeon Jungkook’s world to turn upside down. One mistake, one lick to the face, and something between biology? a spell? and now he’s horny as fuck for a Dire Wolf. Who needs catgirls when you have doggirls, right? 

warnings: rated M (18+) for language, world building, mentions of death, blood; eating of raw meat; mentions of (species) discrimination and prejudice; violence; smut (fem reader, too much m-masturbation, m-receiving oral (ish?); saliva everywhere lol); non-idol!AU - werewolfAU; werewolf!reader x blond, human!Jungkook; switches between Jungkook’s POV and your POV; is JK a furry? you decide

tried to keep it fast paced during the world building, hopefully it doesn’t feel as long as it is haha and yes there’s a rap line cameo slipped in there hehe inspired by YOASOBI - 怪物 (Kaibutsu)

–

He shouldn’t be out so late at night. He had lost track of time, stayed out too late, and now he was paying for it, running, trying to stay swift and quiet, keeping out of the streetlights. The sky was pitch black, oppressively towering over the city. The moon was high above him, thick and full. 

A howl tore through the darkness.

The hair on the back of his neck raised. His breathing shallowed and he tried to move quicker, hiking to the tips of his sneakers, trying to avoid the fallen leaves. There was no one walking around. No one else would be crazy enough to be out this night. The wind swirled around him, as if it too was afraid, hurrying him along. Another howl followed. 

And then another. 

And another. 

Panic rose within him, breaking out into a full out run, not caring anymore about being silent because there was scraping now, claws on asphalt, insatiable huffs mixing with growls. 

This was why they had curfew on the nights of the full moon. 

He was going to die. 

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