#just...normal...friends...encircling each other....

He noticed your eyebrows furrowed and you showed him your phone screen. “Who’re you flirting with? Why didn’t you tell me there was someone you liked!” You spoke just a tad bit louder than the bass coming from the speakers.

He looks at the screen to find a tweet he wrote just that morning. No one flirts harder than two people who aren’t dating

Suguru couldn’t help but chuckle. He looks you in the eyes again and says calmly, “Come on over to this side of the couch and I’ll tell ya.” 

Your bottom lip juts out a little, feeling a little frustrated he wouldn’t just tell you then and there. As you make your way over to sit next to your best friend. People noticed that you were a little out of place. The way you dressed didn’t exactly scream “frat party” it was a little more “cutesy” than what people usually saw here.

Honestly, you did feel out of place at these parties, but Suguru insisted you came with him.

Although, every time you accompanied him you were a little confused. It didn’t seem like he needed a companion to these parties at all. He was social, always talking with someone, checking up on his friends, and playing drinking games. People immediately noticed that he would have you by his side at every instance, hand on your hip or shoulder, touching you in some way.

Everyone noticed how clingy he was, how he was essentially “claiming” you as his. Everyone except you. The way he puts his arms around you wasn’t new, you had been best friends since forever. And that’s what best friends do right? Be close to each other? Hands always on one another and faces being as close as possible sometimes? Yeah, totally normal! 

You made your way to the couch cushion and plopped down next to him, your dress riding up just a little bit. Suguru took notice and placed his hand on your thigh, pulling down the fabric just slightly to cover you more.

“Well?” You look up at him, arms encircling your best friend's bicep. 

“Hm…well what?” He cocked an eyebrow.

“Sugu!!” 

God he loved that nickname, especially when it came out of your pretty little mouth. There was a reason that was his profile name on twitter.

He laughs loudly not expecting you to be so interested in his dating life. Your eyebrows knit together while your cheeks puffed out. Suguru leans a little too closely again, hand still on your thigh.

“Don’t worry I’m not flirting with anyone pretty girl.”

Across from him on the other couch, Satoru and Sukuna roll their eyes. If they could, they would’ve rolled them to the back of their heads.

“Jesus, get a room you two.” Shoko said from behind you both. 

“Yeah! Stop makin’ googly eyes at each other and just go fu-”

Suguru looks straight at Satoru and smiles. He didn't say anything, but the white haired man knew he needed to shut up at that moment.

“Go where Toru?” You looked at him eagerly waiting for what he was about to say. Suguru’s mouth twitched.

“Toru, huh? Didn’t know you guys were close like that now.” Suguru’s eyes quickly look at Satoru, still with a faux smile on his face.

The white-haired man gulped, “Well- No we just-”

“Oh! Yeah Toru asked me for some notes so we ended up studying together a couple times at that one cafe close to me.”

“Ah, I see well that’s good you have a study buddy now.” You grinned at your Suguru, proud that you’ve made a friend.

“Yeah, it’s really nice, we ended up back at my apartment since I had way too much mochi than I could finish and-”

“And I grabbed it and left immediately!!” Satoru yelled quickly.

The dark haired man couldn’t get himself to keep up the facade anymore, his face dropped and he glared at Satoru with an intensity that could only be described as murderous.

The blue-eyed frat boy gulped, looked around and yelled, “Let’s do some shots everyone!!” He got up with impressive speed to go run to the kitchen. Sukuna gave a little snort, knowing Satoru was in big fucking trouble.

“Sugu? What’s wrong?” You questioned, oblivious to what your words had done to him.

“Why don’t we go to the porch?” He gives you a gentle smile and pulls you up by your hand.

—

As you two made it to the railing of the front porch, he lifted you up by your thighs and placed you on the stone bannister. You gasp in surprise, feeling a little self conscious as he places himself in between your legs.

“So you can flirt with my best friend, but I can’t make a tweet without being interrogated sweets?”

“F-flirt?” You stutter, “No no, me and Toru were j-” Suguru nuzzles himself into your neck and nips at it.

“Ah! S-sugu!” You place your hand on the spot he bit, face instantly red. This isn’t normal for best friends. You’ve finally realized it.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” You look him in the eyes.

He laughs, “That tweet was about us…” Suguru says your name in such a sweet sultry voice you couldn’t help your heart beating so quickly.

“I mean- I don’t think- do we flirt with each other?” You stutter, no longer being able to look him in the eyes.

The long haired man grabs your ass and pulls you even closer to him than you already were. He holds your chin and angles it down until your lips are almost touching. “You’re so naive sometimes you know that pretty girl?” He whispers. 

Your heart beats at two times speed, eyes wide, and you had a feeling there was a wet spot in your underwear now.

“Let’s go upstairs and I’ll show you how much I flirt with you.” 

⊹₊˚‧︵‿₊୨ᰔ୧₊‿︵‧˚₊⊹

Part 2 (coming soon)

He was found after being missing for more than a week that summer all bruised up with a broken limb. You remember bawling your eyes out at the sight of him sitting in the hospital bed in a stupid gown, looking at you as if you are the most precious thing he had ever seen. You didn't mind it much when the hug you had crushed him into tightened up a bit. It was negligible, forgettable, but looking back on it, that was your sign that the boy who went up the mountain never came back down. 

And he never told you why he went there in the first place. Something about an old tradition his dad, and his dad, and his dad before him used to do. It was sacred, necessary and he had to do it, even when the weather report said that it would be the stormiest day in all of that year. 

Phainon came back though. He weathered a rough week up the mountain, got scolded by his mom and his friends alike for scaring the shit out of them, started school again and everything went back to normal. 

It should have gone back to normal. 

It started out small, this feeling that something didn't fit as it was meant to, like some pieces of furniture that aren't meant to be in the same room. Phainon was handsy with you, touching you in a gesture meant to be between friends, a safe protective hand that you were familiar with. 

But this Phainon couldn't be without you for one second. His hands needed to touch anything remotely belonging to you or you. His hands would encircle your shoulders, hanging off them like wet laundry. Sometimes he would grab you by the waist, his head fitting into the crook of your neck. 

You scolded him for being like this, swatting away his hands at times when you couldn't take it, but then he would start crying, saying that you didn't like him anymore, didn't want him anymore. Strange, you thought as you tried to make him stop crying in the corridor for everyone to see, he never used to say things like that. 

Your classmates since elementary cooed at how close you both had gotten, clinging to each other like paper to glue. Like a baby chick following after its mother. They laughed and made fun of Phainon, how he must have his wits rattled that he was clinging to you this much. You laughed good-naturedly, trying to mask your unease by ruffling the boy’s ivory hair, thinking that you needed to give him time to readjust. 

But he hasn't left your side since then. 

He would sometimes follow you all the way home, making sure you got home safe even though his house was on the other end of the road.

“There are talks of strange and weird stuff happening around the village,” he said as paddled alongside you on his worn bike. “It's best to be vigilant about things like this!”  You couldn't argue about it. Things had gotten strange. Corpse turning up in strange places. People dying in bizarre manners. All after Phainon came back.

Worst of all nobody had any idea why this was happening. So you chalked up his sudden protectiveness for prevention. You should have gone with your gut and questioned the situation more.

He hung out at your house a lot too. Rather than staying at your house every other day of the week he started visiting regularly, sometimes bearing gifts or wanting to do homework together. Other times he barged in like he owned the place. 

“Do you not want me around anymore?” He would ask all puppy-like, his big blue eyes innocently staring at you, but the Phainon you knew wasn't a big cry baby like this one was. You with your big heart would eventually surrender and show him up to your room as he happily trailed after you, the doubts only creeping up more. 

From staying at your house to eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, sometimes even staying the night when it got too late, you saw Phainon 24/7 around the clock. 

You couldn't sleep properly whenever he stayed at your house. Something always watched you whenever he slept in your room on the floor, and the thought of him doing that was just absurd. There was no way he was constantly watching you all night long without sleeping a wink. 

Besides he doesn't have those molten, cold, golden eyes. His are the softest cornflower blue. So it couldn't be him,

Right?

You thought that after reaching the final year of your high school life Phainon would tame a little. Be more restrained in his so-called ‘friendly’ affection. But he only increased the bar that could be tolerated. 

Seeing Phainon sticking to your butt every single second  was no longer weird or strange for your school, neighborhood or families. They all only saw a boy too attached to his childhood friend who will soon leave for college and nothing more. 

They didn't dig deeper like you and some others did, didn't see the wrongness of it all. How could they? He had three years of practice, three years to rifle through memories to perfect his act, and three years to make everyone believe that ‘Phainon’ had come back from that mountain alive and well. 

You tried to talk to Cyrene, another one of your and Phainon’s childhood friends, but no matter how many times you brought it up she only gave you an uncomfortable smile and fake assurance that you were just overthinking things. But you knew her. She wouldn't outright lie to you or try to deflect the problem if she didn't think it was the right thing to do.

Cyrene was warning you in her own way that you shouldn't dig further, be blissfully ignorant of the warnings, because if you didn't…

Phainon's moodiness had increased when he saw that you had started to drift away. He clung harder, fiercely following you everywhere where he could. 

“Let's eat at this restaurant this time after school! Huh? What do you mean you have to study? You are already so smart! Any of those big city colleges will be happy to take you. And…if you don't get into any, then there's always this village! You could stay here back home, with me.” He said stuff like this on the regular, poking and proding at you when you were trying to study in your room. 

The knot in your throat was only getting tighter with each doubt. Those eyes you couldn't see when you turned the road, that constant feeling of being watched even when you took a shower, that coldness on your bare thighs when you shucked off the blanket one particularly hot night. 

You couldn't take it anymore. This torture that the boy you had been treating as your Phainon night not be him after all. 

And the lack of answers wasn't helping. If he wasn't Phainon, then who was he?

You needed to know, otherwise you were sure you would go insane. 

So you did what any sensible person would do– you asked him directly.

“Hey, Phai?” You asked when he was blissfully eating that cheap ice cream from the roadside stall that you both had been eating from since you were kids. For him to eat it like it was his first time was nothing short of terrifying. 

“Yeah?” The cream clung to the corners of his mouth. He looked at you with that love struck expression he had since he came back and it does nothing to soothe your nerves. You took a deep breath and asked him the question that had been weighing on you for three years– “Who are you?” 

A silence as long as eternity stretched between you two. You think you saw a hint of gold in those otherwise blue eyes, but it was gone as soon as his smile returned. “What do you mean? I am Phainon. Who else would I be? Maybe you had too much ice cream and are having a brain freeze.” 

He bit into your melting ice cream in your hand while you stared at him with utter confusion, licking at your hand a little. The recoiling sensation you felt, the same one you had when you felt something going up your shirt at night and groping you in places it shouldn't, rushed into your senses. 

You backed away from him and the immediate broken expression he had on his face, on Phainon's face, was gut-wrenching. 

You apologised profusely, saying that your mind was elsewhere, but you thought he knew why you ran away from him. 

You knew he wasn't Phainon. The boy had been dead for three fucking years and this…thing wore his skin and masqueraded around as him and no one knew. All except for the people who were murdered. 

Those strange bodies had definitely been his handiwork, you were sure of it. But with nothing except the fear of being next on the chopping block you didn't come out of your house for the entire week. 

You didn't go to school, didn't eat anything, didn't shower, and didn't answer the door when he came to check on you. 

“Please, open the door,” he had the audacity to plead in your Phainon's voice. "At least eat something. Look! I brought–” 

“I don't want it!!!” You screamed through the door. You couldn't be within breathing distance from your friend's corpse. That monster, whatever it was, would kill you like the others. It was just the matter of when. 

Then that night came. The air was chilled for a month like July, and you felt even colder underneath the heaps of blankets you hid under. 

A knock came by your window. Once politely, gently rapped against the glass. But after five knocks it grew desperate, enraged. 

“(Name) open up the door.” The voice wasn't like anything you had ever heard. It didn't belong to any man, or woman. It was a garbled mess, like someone chewed on it, and reverberated it your head. 

It asked three more times, each met with silence on your end. After the third it grew quiet. 'Maybe he left,' you thought and peeked out from the small opening in your blanket. 

The room was deathly silent and cold, and then something whispered right by your ear– “I am in your room.” 

It clamped your tearful shrieks with a strong hand and tore you out from your fortress of blankets. The window hadn't been smashed or the door opened. You didn't know how it got in but it did and you looked at it in horror. 

Its eyes were no longer blue. It had shed that mask, and instead you were met with eyes so golden, so wrathful that you thought it might burn you to death. His palm seared into your jaw preventing your movement. His chest had a crack that glowed with the same gold as his eyes and was the only source of light in the entire room. 

“(Name)!! I can finally see you,” it used your friends voice, the fucking bastard, greetings you like you were old pals who hadn't seen each other in weeks. Your tears never clung to your lashes. They evaporated under the heat of this being. 

“It wasn't fair you know,” he pulled you closer, making you sit on his thighs that were bigger than the last time you had remembered. “I was trying to be nice, not trying to scare you. But then you had to hole yourself in your room and not make me see you anymore!! You were really mean.” 

It was ridiculous how he was pouting about unfairness without caring that he was potentially melting half of your face. He smiled and like concrete cracks emerged on his face, “Don't you know that I can't spend a single day without seeing you smile? Oh, well. I’ll have to punish you for making me go through that.” 

Your eyes widened and your efforts to wrench yourself out of his grasp doubled. Please don't kill me, the words echoed in your mind and maybe he heard them because what he said next made you want to stop breathing – “Oh nonononono, I won't kill you!!! How can I? You are the most precious person to me, my guiding light, my everything. Since having this body you are the only thing that has breathed life into it, how could I snatch away my only source of oxygen?” 

Its hands lowered and burned at your quaking skin, repulsed by the softening heat. He toyed with the waistband of your night shorts and looked at you with lidded eyes. “Y’know, he only had the thoughts of you in his final moments. The only cherished memories he had was of you. Maybe that's what made me fall for you. Who knows? I feel sorry for the guy,” his fingers touched the skin underneath and you cried harder. “He’ll never get to fulfill his dreams of having you. But don't worry, I'll fulfill them in his stead. Since I am ‘Phainon'.”

It pushed you against your own bed, your voice now unmuffled now pleading with him to stop; it never listened. But as it lowered down further you realised that it couldn't kill you. 

It had already committed worse by falling in love with you. 

rafecameronno1fan he’s so hot 😍😍

↳ user3 i wanna lick the sweat off his abs.

↳ user nah ur all nasty as fck.

hubihurkacz good game man. happy to have got the chance to play against you.

↳ user4 i just know he’s crying rn 😞

↳ user5 stop i feel so bad he’s so nice and rafe is such a dick

liked by cocogauff, usopen and 98,432 others

youruser day one done! honoured to have played one of my greatest friends today, @cocogauff. my love and respect for you is endless 🤍🤍

view all 54,219 comments…

cocogauff baby! 😫 love you so much. there’s no one else i’d rather lose to 💞💞

↳ youruser my angel girl 4eva

usopen star girl! ⭐️

↳ user ew not u commenting the same thing on y/n’s post as you did rafe’s…

↳ user2 I JUST WANNA SEE U SHINEEEEE

jjmaybankbasketball there’s my girl! ur a superstar

↳ youruser 🥹🥹

sarahroutledge proud doesn’t even cover it!

↳ user5 it’s so clear she prefers y/n over her own brother lolll

↳ user6 or maybe she’s just supporting her friend? why’d you guys always have to make everything about rafe ffs

↳ user7 cause he hot 🥵

ynsballs OMG guys go check twitter 😭😭 y/n and rafe are trending

↳ user8 i just checked and there’s literally photos of them fighting from today… insane how both of them are always making things so personal

↳ user9 rafe is the one who made things personal first tho?? he shouldn’t have been chatting shit in that article.

[ VIDEO TRANSCRIPT ]

( indistinct conversation, sound muffled as the person recording fumbles with their phone, fingers covering the speaker slightly. )

you: — i just don’t understand why you keep insisting on fucking with my head like this, even now. it’s not normal, rafe. i swear, you’re sick —

rafe: oh, i’m the sick one, huh? ( he steps closer to you, forcing your back to meet the stone wall of the cafe’s exterior ) y’know, i tried to look out for you, y/n. even when you kept on fucking everything up all the goddamn time, i stood by you.

you: ( you shake your head, hands coming up to push at his chest ) no, you didn’t. everything was always about you — always about your career, never mine. that’s the opposite of looking out for me.

rafe: because i was the one who was actually getting somewhere! i wasn’t leeching off of people who actually had potential —

you: you don’t think i had potential?

rafe: ( he’s quiet for a moment, sucking his teeth. he lowers his head to say something in your ear, so quiet, that the phone recording doesn’t quite pick it all up. ) not — sometimes — when we fucked —

you: ( your expression sours, frown worsening. there’s a crease between your brows as you push past him, trying to walk away. ) fuck you, asshole.

rafe: ( he rolls his eyes, big hand reaching out to try and encircle your arm. ) jesus, c’mon, y/n. no need to be such a bitch about it — ‘m just being honest with you, since no one else will.

you: don’t touch me. ( you turn to look at him once more, and the flash of the camera catches on the tears that well in your waterline. ) and stop talking about me in these stupid fucking interviews. ‘m serious, rafe. cause the stuff i could say about you is ten times worse.

rafe: ( his gaze darkens as you walk away, and he opens his mouth to shout something back, when he notices the person recording from across the street. ) hey! ( he starts to approach, and the cameraman fumbles with the device ) hey, no — come back here, dickhead, let me see that — ( RECORDING ENDS. )

🏷️𝜗𝜚 — taglist ( comment or inbox me to be added ) @rafecameronswifeyy @marleymarleymarleymarley @vanessa-rafesgirl @eddsthemunson @rafesweetie @emelia07 @redstappen @rafeysbangs @kinderwh0r3 @the-oracle-at-delphinitely-not @bee-43 @mymadokamagica @drewsswifeyy @6r4cie @emeloyy @st4rkeyl0ver @outerbanksloverp4l @chirpchirp69 @daysis-stuff

here are some general plot ideas that have centered my mind…

slice of life/modern (with a dash of angst) - pretty explanatory, adding angst is always entertaining. the ideas are endless. we can find some inspiration on pieces such as normal people and one day. anything with a pair just trying to find their place in life while at the same time finding their person is totally up my alley! the vibes i’m feeling for this are: inspiration from off campus, text threads, fake socials/posts, college sports, long periods without seeing the other, college, drama, etc!

a plot inspired by heated rivalry and challengers - a pair simply meant to be rivals, but somehow just cannot get past each other. we can change up the sport, they could be on separate sports/teams, etc!

the hunger games - i’m a huge hunger games fan, like huge. i’d love something along the lines of creating our own original characters and incorporating them into that universe. one of my favorite ideas is the star-crossed lovers dynamic, but with tributes from complete opposite districts. we can explore their time within the games, the aftermath, and even the rebellion.

harry potter - harry potter, but with our own twists and turns! let’s drop original characters into the already complex world, in any era. a dynamic of enemies or friends to lovers, opposite houses, so many options!

anything 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s : just finished JFK Love Story, i think their dynamic has so much potential!

historical pieces - let’s find inspiration from films/shows such as little women, pride and prejudice, bridgerton, and everything in between! some aspects that i’d love incorporate are friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, scandals, class tensions, and more.

here are some faces I’ll spew out to write as/against…

faces I’d love to write against but not exclusive to: Hannah Todd, Hudson Williams, Florence Pugh, Kit Connor, Madeline Clyne, Johnathan Bailey, Emma Watson, Havana Rose Liu, Sophie Thatcher, Camila Morrone, Hailee Steinfeld, Cailee Spaeny, Zendaya, Sophia Nelisse.

You were invited to one of Dionysius' frat parties, though it was a weeknight, Circe had convinced you it would be fun, though it would be best to refrain from heavy drinking, but, of course, no one had heeded that warning.

You sat down next to Circe along with a few others, creating a circle on the floor, a bottle lying inside the circle. Someone had suggested playing 7 minutes in heaven, and every drunkard in the building said yes, you included.

Giggles and slurred words engulfed the room; it seemed like no one was sober, but what more would you expect from a Dionysian party? Hermes sat directly in front of you, sending a wink your way as he placed his fingers on the bottle, a huge smile consuming his extremely flushed face, showing off his cute little tooth gap.

You and Hermes weren't dating, yet it would feel wrong to say he was just a friend also. You both normally find yourselves hooking out and going on "dates," though the relationship never amounted to anything official.

He twists his hand to spin the bottle, and everyone watches it with slight intensity, focusing as the bottle slows in pace and stops to point at you and Hermes. A collection of "O's" followed as Hermes got up off the floor and moved towards you. He extends a hand towards you and helps you up before you both head to the closet, everyone following behind the two of you.

"Okay, when the door closes, we're gonna start the timer, okay?" Aphrodite said, giggling slightly. You could hear the sea of giggles behind her as well.

"Yeah, yeah." You respond as the door of the closet starts to move.

It was dark now, only you and Hermes in the space. He looks down at you, his face somewhat unreadable. "We don't have to do anything if you don't want to." He whispered, though the desire in his voice betrayed him.

You move closer to him, closing the small distance that stood between the two of you, feeling the heat radiating from his body. With a gentle yet confident motion, you wrap your arms around his neck, your fingers brushing against the soft curls at the nape of his head. He responds instinctively, his strong hands encircling your waist, pulling you in closer as if the world around you has vanished.

Both of your gazes drop low, locked in an intimate stare, "Stop acting so righteous; I already know what you're like," you whisper, your voice barely above a breath, your lips tantalizingly close to his, sharing the warmth of your words.

You could smell the wine and alcohol on him, though it doesn't throw you off; in fact, it draws you in more. His breath hitches slightly, an almost small gasp escaping him before he leans in for a kiss. It's hungry and sloopy, but filled with urgency and need, and you match his intensity as you kiss him back with equal fervour. The world outside fades further as you tangle your fingers in his thick curly hair, tugging gently to draw him deeper into the moment.

Deliberately, he lets his hand slide up your body, fingertips brushing against your skin, sending shivers down your spine. He finds your chin, tilting your head back to grant him better access, and you bite your lip, anticipation surging through you. As your kisses trail from his mouth to the sensitive skin of his neck, leaving soft bites with each kiss, your lips grazing against him, eliciting a low, contented sigh that escapes his lips. His head rolls back as he exhales softly, his breathing becoming more unsteady, filled with desire.

His hands venture under your shirt, exploring your skin with lingering touches, groping you softly yet possessively. You moan softly on his skin, causing him to groan softly.

"You sound so sweet, baby," a breathless chuckle leaving his lips.

You both start to slide down the wall, hitting the cold floor under you. You climb onto his lap, looking at him as if you can see through his soul. He tugs at your waist, pulling you closer to his body as he takes a turn on your skin, giving it the same treatment you gave his, though his lips reach further, lifting your shirt and kissing your chest, his hot breath giving you goose bumps. Your heart is racing, and your breath is haggard. Your body moves impulsively, grinding yourself against him and letting out small moans. Suddenly, a voice rings from beyond the closet door.

"Times up~"

You immediately pull down your shirt as the door swings open, catching you on top of Hermes with his hand holding on your hips, faces flushed, and beads of sweat on your skin. You both snap your heads to look at the crowd staring at you.

Each pair of eyes widens, drinking up the scene in front of them.

"Looks like you two had fun," Apollo smirked, absolutely amused by the sight, wrapping his arm around his lover, Hyacinth.

"Damn, right, we did." Smiled big, looking like an absolute idiot.

You moved off of Hermes and cleared your throat, trying to play off the situation you were in. Hermes got up soon after, bending down to your ear to whisper something.

"We should finish this later."