#request fanfic

Bang Chan should’ve known better.

He should’ve known your performance wouldn’t be... tame. You were known for pushing limits — bold concepts, stage presence that could crush egos, and eyes that burned like fire.

But nothing prepared him for what you did tonight.

He watched from the crowd, surrounded by other idols, all supposedly focused on their own comebacks or nominations. But every single eye had locked onto you the second your music hit.

And Chan’s stomach twisted.

You came out in all black — leather, lace, skin. Your hair done just right, body moving like you owned the stage. The choreography was sensual. Intense. Every move deliberate. Every hip roll, every body wave, every touch to your own neck or thighs — it screamed look at me.

And everyone was looking. Including the guy two rows in front of Chan who audibly said “holy shit.”

That was the moment Chan saw red.

He clenched his fists in his lap, jaw tight, heart pounding with something that was not just jealousy — it was possessive, dangerous. Because that was his girl out there. His girlfriend. The same one who wore his hoodies after practice and curled into his side after long schedules. The same one who’d whispered I’m yours into his ear more times than he could count.

And now?

Now everyone was seeing her like this.

When the performance ended — final pose, lights dimming, the crowd roaring — Chan didn’t cheer.

He stood up.

You were still buzzing with adrenaline as you headed backstage. That performance had been everything you wanted — powerful, sexy, commanding. You knew it’d stir things up. That was the whole point.

But you didn’t expect to find Chan already waiting for you the second you turned the corner, blocking your path.

He wasn’t smiling.

“Chan—?”

“Don’t,” he said lowly. “Don’t act like you don’t know what you just did out there.”

You blinked, breath still uneven. “What are you talking about?”

“That performance,” he said through gritted teeth. “Was that for the crowd... or for me?”

Your stomach flipped.

“Oh, come on—”

“Do you even know what it was like watching that?” he cut in, stepping closer. “Watching you dance like that — touch yourself like that — while guys around me were drooling over you?”

Your pulse spiked. “It was just a concept—”

“Just a concept?” he scoffed. “You were on your knees at one point. And when you ran your hands down your body—” he cut himself off, jaw flexing.

You gave him a sly smile. “So you were watching closely.”

“I always watch you closely,” he said, voice rough. “But tonight? Tonight I almost lost it.”

Your back hit the wall behind you as he closed the distance, hand bracing beside your head.

“You wanna be sexy on stage?” he murmured. “Fine. You are. But don’t forget who you belong to when those lights go off.”

Your breath caught. “Chan—”

“I’m serious.” His voice dropped. “You don’t get to walk off stage like that and act like everything’s normal. Not when I’ve been sitting out there thinking about every move you made. Every time you touched your thighs. Every time you looked into the camera like you wanted someone to take you backstage and ruin you.”

You swallowed hard.

“I wanted to walk up there in the middle of your set and remind everyone watching—” he leaned in, nose brushing yours, “—that only I get to see you like that.”

A beat of silence.

And then you smirked. “Sounds like you’re jealous.”

“Damn right I am,” he muttered. “And you love it.”

You bit your lip.

He tilted his head. “Was it for them… or for me?”

Your fingers reached up, smoothing his shirt collar. “It was for you.”

He raised a brow. “Yeah?”

“Every step. Every look. Every time I touched myself?” You smiled sweetly. “I was thinking of you.”

Chan exhaled slowly, like he was holding back the kind of thoughts that would get both of you in trouble.

“Then you better come over tonight,” he said, backing up just enough to let you breathe. “Because if you’re gonna tease me like that on stage…”

His eyes flicked down your body and back up again, dark and hungry.

“…you’d better let me return the favor.”

_

The ride to his place was quiet — but not peaceful.

You could feel the tension radiating off him like static, like he was trying to be civil but barely holding himself together. His hand gripped the wheel tight, veins flexing, jaw clenched so hard it might crack. You tried to make light conversation. He didn’t answer.

He was way too calm. And that was worse.

Because Chan only got like this when he was planning to ruin you.

_

The second you stepped into his apartment, the door clicked shut behind you — and then everything happened at once.

His hands were on you. Your jacket was ripped off, your back against the wall, and Chan's mouth was crashing into yours like he needed you. Like he had been thinking about this for hours — because he had.

“You’ve been testing me all night,” he muttered against your lips. “Wanna act like that on stage? Wanna get on your knees and grind like you’re begging for it?”

His hand slid down, cupping your ass — hard.

“Then act like it now.”

You gasped when he lifted you, strong arms wrapping under your thighs as he carried you to the bedroom. You didn’t even touch the ground. You barely had time to breathe.

He dropped you onto the mattress and stood back, chest rising with every breath as he looked at you like he was about to devour you whole.

“Strip.” You blinked. “What—?” “I said strip. Like you did on stage. Slowly.”

Your throat went dry.

He stepped back, folding his arms — watching.

So you obeyed.

You stood and began peeling off the layers, slower than you needed to. Slower than you ever had. Letting each piece drop to the floor, teasing him like you were still performing. You let your hands trail over your body — like during the choreo — and met his eyes when you reached the hem of your shirt.

That was all it took.

“Fuck it.” He crossed the room in two strides.

You yelped when he grabbed your waist and flipped you onto the bed, crawling over you like a man possessed. “You want to play sexy?” he growled, lips dragging down your neck. “You want to tease everyone?”

“I wasn’t teasing—” you gasped as his hand slipped between your thighs, fingers stroking over your panties — already soaked.

“You were teasing me.” His fingers rubbed harder. “And now I’m gonna make sure the only sounds coming out of that mouth are for me.”

Your panties were gone in a second — literally. He didn’t even pull them off. He ripped them.

Then he dropped to his knees.

“Chan—!”

His tongue was already on you — hot, fast, no mercy. You barely had time to react before he flattened his tongue and licked up your entire slit, groaning like you were his last meal. He pulled your legs over his shoulders and buried his face between your thighs.

You moaned, fingers tangling in his curls.

He sucked on your clit, relentless, holding your hips down when you squirmed.

“Already shaking, baby?” he said, lips slick. “Didn’t even make you cum yet.”

You whimpered. “Channie—”

“That’s right. Say my name.” He sucked harder. “Only mine.”

Your thighs were trembling, breath hitching — and then he slid two fingers inside, curling them just right, and your back arched.

“I-I’m gonna—”

“Good.” He pumped faster. “You deserve it. You put on a show for the world, now give me the encore.”

You came hard — legs shaking, breath punched out of you, fingers grabbing at the sheets like a lifeline. But Chan didn’t stop.

He kept going.

You whined. “Too much—”

“You can take it,” he said darkly. “You’ve got one more for me.”

Your eyes were glassy. “Chan—”

He moved up, kissed your mouth — letting you taste yourself on his lips. “You wanted to look like a fantasy on stage?” he whispered. “Now I’m giving you one.”

He pulled off his shirt, then undid his jeans. His cock sprang free — thick, hard, leaking. Your breath caught.

Without another word, he turned you to face the mirror beside the bed.

“Look.”

You blinked.

He pressed up behind you, one hand gripping your jaw to hold your gaze forward.

“Look at yourself,” he growled. “This is what you really look like. Ruined. Dripping. My good girl.”

You whimpered as he pushed in — slowly, deeply — stretching you open inch by inch.

“Fuck—” he grunted. “Still so tight.”

You could barely hold yourself up, but he held your hips steady and started thrusting — hard, deep, controlled.

“See what you do to me?” he growled. “One performance and I’m fucking obsessed.”

His thrusts got rougher, faster. The sound of skin slapping skin filled the room. You were moaning uncontrollably, nails digging into the sheets, watching yourself bounce in the mirror.

“Let them stare,” he growled. “Let them drool. Just means they’ll never know what it’s really like.”

He wrapped a hand around your throat and pulled you upright, still pounding into you from behind.

“They’ll never know how you moan my name. How you beg for it. How you cry when I don’t let you cum.”

You whimpered again, hips trembling.

“You are mine. Say it.”

“M-yours,” you gasped.

“Say it louder.”

“I’m yours!”

He groaned, hips stuttering.

You felt your second orgasm rising — your whole body tightening, burning, needing—

“Cum for me,” he growled. “Come on, baby. I wanna see you fall apart.”

That was all it took.

You came with a loud cry, body shaking, Chan holding you through it — and seconds later, he followed with a deep groan, spilling inside you as he bit down softly on your shoulder.

Silence followed. Just heavy breathing. Tangled limbs. Heartbeats racing.

Then:

“...So,” you whispered, barely able to speak. “You liked the performance?”

He laughed hoarsely, chest still rising. “Don’t ever do it again.”

You smirked.

 Babies were very much a foreign, strange concept for Severus. He´d spent a significant part of his life around children aged 11 and up, but had virtually no contact with a human younger than that. Unless he counted the occasional visit to Lucius and Narcissa while Draco was still little.

He couldn´t say he really interacted with the younger Malfoy in any of those, usually rather brief, encounters. Lucius had chosen him as a godfather more as a matter of convenience than anything else, after all, so it wasn´t like any of the adults involved in the arrangement were too eager to make sure Severus was an involved 'member of the family' and spend quality bonding time with the little master of the house. It was safe to say, then, that Severus had close to no experience in dealing with small children. And he never felt like it was the type of skillset he would ever need in his arsenal of already limited social graces.

Evelyn on the other hand...She loved children in general and babies in particular. Which wasn´t particularly surprising. She had two nieces, and had been in their life from their birth, and was even godmother to the older one, Alice. She had helped her sister through countless nappy changes, bottle feedings and whatever else she could.

Evelyn also came from a large family on her mother´s side. While her father had no siblings, her mother had three brothers and a sister. That meant lots of cousins, and these cousins had children of their own. Severus could hardly keep track of all the names, and didn´t particularly care, but he knew the family was full of children, and Evelyn had at some point babysat for each and every child of each and every one of her cousins.

So, of course, when he finally had taken the steps to introduce Evelyn to Andromeda, little Teddy had quickly become the most popular topic of conversation for the two of them and the main reason for their immediate bonding.

Andromeda had been absolutely ecstatic at the discovery that she had surviving family.

Severus could hardly blame her, given her circunstances. She had then asked him to arrange a meeting, anxious to reach out and include Evelyn, her sister and the rest of the muggle Blacks in her and her grandson´s life, which Severus certainly understood. But that had posed a significant issue.

Evelyn was still in the first stages of getting acquainted with the very concept of magic and all that plethora of reprcussions that came with it. It had been a massive, and even somewhat traumatic, adjustment in their relationship.

Minerva had been the one to convince him that introducing Andromeda into the picture would improve things. And to his surprise, it did.

Severus had never been particularly close to Andromeda, even though they were in the same house. There was a bit of an age gap between them and they didn´t really frequent the same acquaintances, even if Andromeda´s two sisters were among Severus own 'circle of conections' (he wouldn´t dare call any of the relationships we cultivated at the time 'friendships'). But Andromeda was still a Slytherin and she had always been courteous to him, even more after the facts of his participation in the war had come to light, and she found out they had been on the same side all along.

So, out of the same spirit of common courtesy and house comraderie, and in hopes that she could help him ease Evelyn into the transition from not knowing magic existed to living with a wizard, he decided to introduce the two of them, They were cousins after all. Distant cousins, granted, but family, nevertheless. And Andromeda could use having something like am adult family member around again.

He wasn´t too surprised when the two women hit it off almost immediately. Andromeda was eager to know more about Evelyn and her relatives and had almost shed tears of joy in finding out there were two little girls in the family. It was a shame that it would take some time for Alice and Lizzie to be introduced to any of their magical relatives (although Severus suspected Alice may need an earlier introducitions soon, if some phenomena he had been observing were indeed what he thought they were), but Evelyn was more than happy to provide Andromeda with photos and videos.

Evelyn had been enormously conforted by the presence of somebody other than himself and Minerva who could walk her through the overwhelming amount of new information she had been constantly bombarded with since Severus had told her he was a wizard. The fact that Andromeda was grandmother to a lovely baby boy, barely two years old, was the icing on the cake. As soon as the initial shock of seeing Teddy´s hair change from light brown to neon green wore off, Evelyn was completely smitten with him.

Soon enough Evelyn and Andromeda were meeting on a weekly basis and whenver it was Andromeda who came over to their place she would bring Teddy with her. It didn´t bother Severus much. All he had to do was keep to himself and ignore the child, and since their presence made Evelyn happy he was actually willing to join their conversations sometimes.

Over time Evelyn started to get included in some of Andromeda´s little afternoon teas and sunday lunches with Molly Weasley as well. Severus didn´t mind that all too much either. Arthur was generous enough to provide him with some distraction whenever he happened to get roped into attending, and he rarely had to suffer the presence of any of their children. All the Weasley kids (which now seemed to include Potter and Hermione Granger) were off to mind their own business and lives, full grown adults the lot of them.

Mrs. Weasley was overjoyed to have people over (empty nest sydrome must hit one hard when the last of that many children moves out, Severus imagined), and Arthur jumped at the opportunity to have Evelyn ready at hand to answer his endless list of questions about muggle history, their daily life and habits. Severus wasn´t that eager to socialize with the Weasleys, but it wasn´t all that unpleasant altogher, as Evelyn, mercifully, was much more of a conversationalist than him. He had a slight suspicion that if not for Evelyn and Andromeda, dear Molly and Arthur wouldn´t have suffered his presence, so they were considerate enough to not expect him to be too engaged.

But now...now he was starting to wonder if it hadn´t been a mistake on his part to let himself get too comfortable with the whole arrangement.

It was a pleasant Sunday at the Burrow, and Mrs Weasley had decided it would be a lovely idea to have tea in the back garden so Teddy could play for a while in the mild late afternoon sun. The table was set outside for the adults and little blanket with some toys for the baby, who toddled around and played with Evelyn and Mrs Wesley as a breeze made the leaves fell all around them.

Then, Andromeda decided to bother Severus a bit.

“Evelyn is very good with kids, isn´t she?” she commented in a relaxed tone, sitting by the table where Severus and Arthur were having tea and talking about the latest news.

He looked up from the newspaper he´d been reading and watched as she sat down with her own cup of tea, casually reaching for a pastry on the neat table Mrs Weasley had set for them. He could hear Teddy cooing and giggling, and Evelyn and Mrs Weasley talking and fussing over him, just a few feet away.

Severus was not yet aware he was being set up.

“She is.” he replied, naively.

If he had bothered to look at Arthur´s bemused expression, he´d know he was walking right into a trap.

“She´ll make a fine mother one day, I´m sure.”

Andromeda had a sly little grin on her lips as she lowered her teacup and primly set it down on the saucer, her eyes sparkling with that kind of begnign yet ruthless brand of mischief so unique to mothers and grandmothers.

Then it hit him.

“She does have a way with children.” Severus trailed off, hoping that would be the end of it.

“I mean, she does want children one day, doesn´t she?...it would be a shame if...”

“We never really had this conversation” he let out, dully, before she could finish.

“Of course you haven´t” Arthur offered, mercifully, with a compassonate smile. “it´s a bit early for you two to be discussing children.”

As if summoned, and Severus did wonder wther it was a bit too perfectly choreographed, Molly approached the table, ostensibly to get Evelyn a piece of cake. If Severus didn´t know any better, he´d think some rehearsing had gone into her flawless timing.

“Too early for what?” she asked

“I was just telling Severus here how I believe Evelyn will make a wonderful mum one day, don´t you think?” Andromeda informed her, basking on Severus unease.

“Oh, she absolutely would. But dear me, it´s a bit too early for that, no?” Mrs. Weasley said, and Severus silently thanked her...until she continued. “They haven´t even started the wedding plans...yet.”

Severus´pleading eyes went to Arthur who simply shrugged.

“That´s true. You are making plans for that, aren´t you Severus?”

“Marriage is not something we have discussed, Andromeda.” his tone was more pointed now.

“You´re not stringing my cousin along are you?

“Excuse me, Andromeda, but...” he sat up, preparing a proper speech to let her know, with the proper amount of proper ettiquette, that his private life was, properly speaking, none of her bloody fucking business.

“Severus!” Arthur yelped all of the sudden “I entirely forgot. I just acquired a bottle of wormwood brandy and I´ve been meaning to get your opinion.”

“Sure, of course.” Severus breathed out, relieved, following Arthur back inside the house.

  “You will forgive me if I don´t really have any wormwood brandy” Mr. Weasley told him when they were safely out of earshot “but you look like you can use a bit of regular old dragon barrel.”

“If you please.” Severus let out, taking a seat.

Arthur poured him a generous dose, which Severus downed in one gulp.

“Don´t mind that.” He smiled, pouring himself a glass. “They don´t mean anything by it.”

“Well, I surely hope Andromeda doesn´t go about trying to put ideas in Evelyn´s head.”

“I take that you really haven´t talked about marriage and...”

“Not exactly. I mean the only time we vaguely talked about it, Lyn all but said she doesn´t want to get married right now. She´s working on a new book, and she´s been invited to give semester course at Manchester University, the last thing on her mind is marriage and children.”

“Excellent, then carrry on carrying on, my lad. Don´t pay Andromeda any mind. She´s just excited about having Evelyn around, and maybe meeting more of the family soon. You must understand, she lost her daughter and Teddy is all she has... Maybe it´s the idea of adding to the family that has her like this. And Molly...well now that the children all moved out..”

“I suppose I get it.” Severus rolled his eyes and sighed, but to some point he did get it.

Severus could only imagine how difficult it must have been for Andromeda when her daughter died, leaving her with a grandson to raise, and no other family but an estranged sister. To this day Andromeda and Narcissa didn´t talk to each other, and he could only imagine how much it would help matters if Mrs. Malfoy were to discover they had muggle relatives. And that Severus was currently in a romantic relationship with one of them.

He still remembered how well Evelyn and Narcissa´s accidental first meeting had gone, so he could hardly imagine them having a nice chat over tea and crumpets and calling each other “cousins”. And as much as he liked Andromeda and wouldn´t mind that she considered him family in some capacity, he idea of being related to the Malfoys by marriage was not all that enticing.

When they returned to the table, Evelyn had taken her place, with Teddy hapilly bouncing on her lap. Mercifully the conversation seemed to have shifted to something else, but the moment Andromeda laid eyes on him, she decided it was time for round 2.

“That´s such a lovely offer, but I hope Severus won´t mind.” she said, turning to him

“I won´t mind what?”

“Well, Evelyn just offered to babysit Teddy for a day. But I would hate to be a bother.”

“She offered what?”

“Well, it´s no bother at all! I would love to have him all to myself for a while.” Evelyn beamed, playfully tickling and squishing the little boy´s belly, prompting delighted squeals from him.

“Sure...It´s no bother at all.” Severus let out, defeated.

  “Why are you so bothered?”

“Did you really have to offer to take care of the kid? Like that?”

“Poor Andromeda deserves a day off, and is not like I haven´t done it before. Jesus, Severus, is not like WE haven´t done before, so what gives?”

They had. Once, for barely a couple hours, when a co-worker of Evelyn´s had nowhere to leave her daughter while she had an emergency doctor´s appointment. And little Sadie had blessedly slept all the time and Severus barely noticed she was even in the house. But Evelyn had just comitted to a full 24 hour period, smackdab on a Saturday. Andromeda would drop the kid off in the morning and come back for him the morning after.

“I can´t belive we´ll babysit Remus Lupin´s son. I swear if the man was alive he´d have a good laugh at my expense.”

“Severus, stop. It´s just a little baby. With technicolor changing hair...but just a baby.”

“Fine, but don´t even think of taking him for a stroll around the neighbourhood.”

“That´s a horrid thing to say.”

“Oh is it? Let´s take him to visit Fr. Thomas at the church then, maybe he´ll turn bright pink and give the good priest a heart attack. Orwe´ll get a good deal on an exorcism”

“Well, I didn´t think of...” knocks interupted her, and she almost hopped her way to the door “There they are!”

  Severus eyed the toddler sitting on the playmat.

He had never noticed how much Teddt looked like his father. Then again, he had never bothered to truly look at that child. He was just this sort of shapeless little presence that happened to accompany Andromeda when she visited. He never bothered to interact with him much at all.

In fact sometimes he almost forgot that wasn´t just Andromeda´s grandson, but also Remus Lupin´s son.

Severus had received the news of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks´deaths with a mixture of indiference and bitterness. He didn´t care much at all for Lupin, but the thought that he, Severus, had outlived him didn´t bring him any joy. He had no love lost for Andromeda´s daughter either, but it seemed rather cruel senseless for her to die so young leaving a young child behind. It wasn´t something that was supposed to happen...again.

But when it came to their child, maybe because he didn´t have any personal or emotional recollection of the two of them as parents, Severus felt oddly detached. It was just a child. A healthy, happy child, that Evelyn had grown attached to, but he didn´t mean much to Severus.

Only now did he take a good look at Lupin´s child, running around on his short wobbly toddle legs and babbling cheerfully, using his limited vocabulary to have something that vaguely resembled a conversation with Evelyn. She was entirely taken with him. It was like everything else had disappeared the moment Andromeda had put that boy in her arms and left (not without giving Severus a petulant little wink).

It was odd, almost uncomfortable in a way.

Evelyn didn´t see that child in the same way he did, of course. She had never had the chance to meet his parents or create any kind of opinion about them. To her this was just an innocent child she happened to be related to, and being that he was family in her eyes and that she loved children she felt the urge to care and protect him.

As he watched her play with him, hug him, kiss his chubby cheeks, Severus felt mildly unnerved. The more he looked at Teddy the more Lupin he saw, and the more Lupin he saw, the more he remembered Lupin was dead, the more he wondered if he should have been dead as well.

Lily, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin...for some reason it felt like a joke in bad taste that he had to be the last one standing. To outlive all of them, and live with the memories of all that had been said and done between himself and the self-styled Marauders. That not only he had Harry Potter walking the earth the living embodiment of a part of his life he´d been desperately trying to let go, but to have Lupin´s son right there in his living room, as innocent as a child of two can possibly be, to remind him that maybe, just maybe, Lupin deserved to be alive more than he did.

 Teddy Lupin had been in the house for less than an hour and Severus was already exhausted. Small mercies that he seemed moderately well behaved. But children that age, as behaved as they could possibly be, created noise and comotion merely by existing. At least Evelyn hadn´t asked for any help, nor did she seem like she would. She had it all under control, it seemed.

She had all but forgotten Severus existed. Which was a bit of a blessing. It allowed him to step back and disconnect from the entire situation and be left alone. He had almost believed he would get away with it even.

Eventually Teddy grew sleepy and there was silence, and Severus almost believed he would have peace finally. He probably should have suspected the short phone call Evelyn had gotten righ after she had put him down his nap was not a happy omen the moment she hung up the phone and, miraculously, seemed to remember he was in the room.

“So, are you planning on just sitting there with this book I know you´re not even reading all day?”

Evelyn walked to him with that cat like sway of hips she put on when she set out to break down his feigned blockage of indifference, and removed the book from his hands, sliding onto his lap.

“How do you know I´m not reading it?”

“You haven´t turned a single page in half an hour.”

“Well, it´s hard to concentrate with a child in the house.”

“Have you no shame?” she laughed “Teddy is all but a little angel.You´re being needlessly mean now.”

Severus didn´t want to admit, but she was right. Evelyn had played with him fed him, washed him after he ate and put him down for a nap, and Severus couldn´t say he had trully had his peace and quiet too terribly disturbed. Severus looked over to the neast little nest of blankets and cushions Evelyn had made on the sitting room floor, where Teddy was peacefully sleeping on his belly, one tiny little hand clutching at a plush toy lion.Yes, he was quiet all right.

“I need you to do me a favour, though” she continued. “Angela just called, her car broke down, and she needs a lift back home. Can you watch Teddy for a little while I go rescue her?”

“Wait, what?”

“It won´t take long, it´s a Saturday, there´s barely any traffic. I´ll pick her up, drop her off at home and be right back.”

“But...”

“Teddy won´t even wake up before I come back. And if he does just entertain him.”

“Entertain him!?”

“He´s been fed, he´s clean, he will be well rested afts his nap. Just entertain him. You can do that.”

“Unless he wants to talk about the subtleties of potion making or discuss effective strategies to counter curses, then I don´t see how I can possibly 'entertain' him.”

“Well, he might like those things, you don´t know. Try! maybe you´ll find something in common.” she laughed softly before giving him a kiss and getting ready to leave.

Aesling was getting tired of helping Markus get his wings unstuck from spider webs. On one hand she would get some of his dewdrop brew if she helped, but on the other it would be interesting to see him try and beat off a spider twice his size. It had become so old hat at this point.

“Come on, Ashe!” Markus called as he fidgeted in attempts to get free (in turn just digging his own grave). “Damhán alla is going to show up any second, and I don’t think I can charm my way out of this one… I’ve already skipped out on four of her ‘dinner dates’.”

Ashe just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she fluttered next to her struggling cara leathcheann. Part of her wanted to let him suffer for all the trickery he’d been causing lately. But after a deep sigh, she decided to yet again save his scrawny ass.

Taking out a small scian, she started cutting up the web surrounding Markus. “Ah! Not the hair!” he exclaimed as he squirmed even more.

“Oh shut up! And hold still!” It took longer than she knew she could have to get him free, but soon enough, Markus was flying beside Ashe right as damhán alla crawled out from another web. The large arachnid bitched and cursed as the two fairies flew off into the distance.

—

Like always, Markus and Aesling were sitting at a faerie teach tábhairne having already drank half their weight in dewdrop brew. Markus’s cheeks were already red while Aesling chugged from another acorn of drink. It was a Saturday night and the place was empty like usual. All the other faerie were out causing trouble for the sneaky drunkards in the sráidbhaile daonna before the loopy bastards sober up for mass in the morn. The only others were the bartender and the flutist playing off to the side. It was a peaceful evening filled with booze and Markus’s giggle fit.

“You remember when you saved me from the web?” he slurred as he reached for his acorn full of drink. Nonchalantly, Ashe picked it up long before he could grasp it and placed it across the table.

“Yeah, I remember-”

“No!” He slammed his fist on the table. “The first time!”

Oh, Aesling thought. He hasn’t brought this up before…

“Yeah… I remember that. It’s how we met.”

A smile twisted onto his rosy red face. He nodded and motioned to his friend to come closer. Nervously, she complied until she was less than an inch away from his face. He cupped his hand around her ear and whispered into it;

“That’s when I fell in love with you~”

Aesling felt her face heat up from his words.

…before his face planted into the table with a loud thud, as he finally passed out from all of the alcohol. Sighing deeply, Ashe paid the tab and slung Markus’s arm over her shoulder. As she dragged him out of the bar and started to fly him back to his home, she couldn’t help but smile ear to ear.