Of Hard Times and Affections (Me + Yuukic)

"God dammit, Rhodes, this is the fifth fucking time you've shown up late this month alone! No, stop, save your breath, I don't wanna hear how your grandma was sick, or how your dog died, or how your grandma's sick dog died, or whatever the fuck new excuse you're trying to come up with! The point is, you ain't what we're looking for right now! Get out! You're FIRED!"

The word fired seemed to echo through his mind like a taunting cave. "Fired! Fired! Fired! Fired!"

Jason Rhodes stood there, flabbergasted at his boss who, red in the face, was pointing at the door. "B-But Mr. Emile-"

"Get! OUT!"

The next moment, he found himself standing outside of the Video Game shop he had been working at for the good part of a few years. The cold wind outside hit him hard like a hammer to the gut, and it dawned on him: He was out of a job.

He made his way down the road, his eyes staring blankly forward. He was out of a job. He was no longer employed. He no longer had a stable career. Money was now scarce. How would he pay the rent? How would he buy the food?

Oh god, how would he tell his girlfriend.

He stood outside the apartment he shared with his girlfriend, his chest shaking and his heart going a mile a minute. He pushed his glasses further up his nose, right in front of his bright blue eyes and brushed his hair back from his face, rustling his own hair as he was ought to when he was stressed. He took a deep breath. He needed to do this calmly. He grabbed the handle of the apartment and opened it, his other hand hanging uselessly in his hoodie pocket.

"I'm home!" he called out to the small apartment. Please don't be home, please don't be home, please don't be home...

Maisie grabbed a newspaper off of the shelf at her regular cafe and skimmed the headlines. Nothing really caught her attention except a missing girl being found. "Good for her." She thought with a smile crossing her face.

It was Monday, the most dreaded day of the week, but she felt great. For once all of her homework was done for her psychology class early so her night was free after her math class ended at three. As she thought about it she realized the time was ticking and her class started in ten minutes. For once she was greatful that her favorite cafe was on campus. She set the paper back on the shelf and ran to her class.

After sitting and listening to the day's lecture for two hours she was free.
"Wait, Ms. Howard!" Her professor called after her. She turned with a small frown showing on her face.
"Yes?" She replied. She walked towards the front of the room where he was sitting looking at a paper.
"I just wanted to let you know that you are doing a fantastic job and that with Friday's test you are at the top of this class." He flashed her a small smile before shooing her off to celebrate.

It was a big deal for her to be top of that class for two reasons, one, She hated math. two, Shelby was in that class and had been one up-ing her since her freshman year of college. Before she knew it she was out of the large building and a heavy breeze blew her sandy brown hair into her fine green eyes.

She arrived at her apartment and was surprised to see the lights on. "Jason?" She called out. "I'm home, and guess who's top of her math class?" She had a stupid grin plastered on her face, but the silence felt wrong.

A deeeeep breath. He needed to do this properly. Let her have her moment before he did anything bad. He flashed her an overly cheesy grin on his face, flashing her a thumbs up. "Great job baby." he said with a chuckle. "I know you don't like them but....good job!" Plaster it on, that was it! Make it seem like osmthing was wrong.

Sadly, Jason was bad at hiding bad news. It seemed everytime he had such bad news, the air seemed a little muggy and tasted of copper. It was so strange, but it was one of those little connections they shared. "How was...how was your day otherwise?" he asked, trying to keep the excitement going.

Maisie frowned slightly. She had been with Jason long enough to know that something was wrong. The taste in the air changed and the way he acted was off from his mostly happy self and it worried her. "Nothing else happened today, but what happened to you?" She asked dropping her purse on the table before moving over to sit by him. She rested her elbow on the top of the couch and her head on the palm of her hand so she could see him as they talked. She kept a smile on her face as encouragement, but it didn't seem to do anything. A million things ran through her mind. Did he drop out? What if he was kicked out. She felt bad smiling if that was his problem, so her face returned to a relaxed expression.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and lowering his head into his hands, holding his head up for a moment, wondering how could he tell her? This was one of the worst things that could have happened to the two of them. So, he decided to simply stop beating around the bush and fell back on the couch, looking up at the ceiling, defeated.

"I got fired today." he let the words slip from his mouth.

Her mood quickly dropped. "What.." She said in disbelief. His job was the thing that was keeping everything together and that foundation was just broken. She shook her head for a second as it sunk in. "W-we can just look for jobs." She said looking at a less gloomy side. "It won't be that hard since we know most of the people around here." She sounded calm, but inside she was flipping out. No house no food no books. She looked over to the small bookshelf they had. In case of an emergency she could always just sell her old text books. Before she could find more things to sell a question grew in her mind. "Why did you get fired?" She asked with a hint of accusation in her tone.

He winced a little bit. THERE was the little somewhat blaming tone he was expecting. Rubbing the back of his head, he looked off to the side like a guilty puppy. "Apparently...according to Mr. Emile...I had been showing up to work late, lately...' he said. It MAY have been his fault...he had been extremely tired lately...but it wasn't his fault! School...and...what not...now he was just grasping at straws.

He was late. That was the one little thing that was going to affect them for at least a month. She hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. "I know I said that once we moved we wouldn't have to ask parents for money, but this is bad." She thought the process through. A week to get return and hear back from an application, another week before an interview and at least another week before you are hired and that was only if they got hired. She added a bit more math into that and figured that the chances of them both getting a job within three weeks was about four percent, and for just one of them to get one was about eight. "Is he going to give you your final paycheck?' She asked with a hint of hope in her words.

"He fucking better." he said, rubbign his hand through his hair again and again, looking down on the floor. God, that was the one thing he didn't want to have to do: Ask his mom and dad for financial help again. Why not just serve them his dignity on a silver platter? "He should, anywya, so there's that to help us for the time being." he looked over at her. He saw how worried she looked, curled up in her little safety ball. One hand reached out and gently grabbed her kneecap.

"We'll be fine, baby."

She rubbed her cheek against his hand. No matter when or where it was he always made her feel safer with just a touch. That was the funny thing about her; she felt like no matter what happens if he was there holding her hand anything was possible. "I know it will be alright," She said with a sigh before moving her head back to the wall. "It's just going to be stressful and thinking about it just stresses me out." She turned to him and smiled. "I do remember something good about today. I don't have any homework." She was glad that she remembered that because it toned her down.

"Well good." he said with another nod, leaning back on the couch and looking over at her, smiling a little himself. "And I'll go out job hunting again tomorrow. Until then..." a ltitle chuckle, he leaned over and pressed his lips gently against hers, his arm idly wrappign around her waist. "Let's not waste time panicking, and just relax huh?"

Maisie nodded at his decision and was happy to return his kiss. She moved her hands to his shoulders and re positioned herself to be straddling him. "Oh we'll relax alright." She smiled at him before returning her lips to his and hugging him close. her fingers trailed down his neck as she kissed.

His arms idly wrapped around her waist and smiled a little bit. his eyes closed and he pressed back into the kiss, his own hands sliding down her sides and her hips, as his goosebumps rising from his skin at the gentle kisses. "Mm..." he moaned into her kiss, happy to just be sitting there and kissing his girlfriend. Almost like all the problems in the world had gone away forever. Just the two of them. It was all just so good.

A little chuckle, he yanked on her hips suddenly, pulling her even closer to him with a grin. Breaking the kiss, he began to kiss and suck at her neck. "Mm."

She gasped as he pulled her closer and could feel the sensation of his hands moving along her hips and she let out a soft moan. "Ahh" She let out a moan as he hit a certain spot on her neck. She was forgetting about what had happened to them only moments before and was soon caught up in only him. Her hands slid up his shirt to feel his torso. She soon had her hands to his shoulders and was gently massaging them. A little moan came out of her every so often and she soon took off her shirt.

Her hands rubbing his were almost too good sometimes. His eyes opened a little bit as he cotninued to attack her neck, pulling away for a moment only to let her remove her shirt. His eyes went down to her breasts. Hey, he could be lovey dovey, but he was still a man, dammit. Perverted and all.

"God you're beautiful." he whispered to her, before he continued his assault on her neck, hands gently caressing, grabbing and squeezing her hips and her rear end.

Her hips grinded against his as her desire for him increased. She wanted to be closer if it was possible to him right now and she was going to make it clear. She moved her neck to the side a little and moved her hands to his head and hair. When he hit another spot on her neck that made her moan she gently grabbed his hair and pulled him off her neck so she could have her lips on his once again.

He didn't mind being pulled from her neck, feeling her hips grinding down on him with a hard groan into the kiss. His hands slid up and down her hips affeciontately, lovingly, pushing his head against hers in an attempt to deepen the kiss. His tongue snaked between her lips and into her mouth.

Her heart started to beat a little faster as things were heating up between them. As soon as her lips parted for him her tongue was exploring his familiar mouth. Her hands were back to his shoulders again while his hands explored her hips. "Mm.." She moaned into the kiss before breaking it to take his shirt off, and as soon as it was her lips were back on his softly biting his bottom lip to part them.

"Mmm." he groaned a little bit as she bit on his bottom lip and parted them herself. His arms slowly wrapped their way around her waist and pulled her even closer, feeling her breasts pressed up against his chest. Deepening the kiss and sinking his tongue into her mouth again. Hands spreading out and cupping her rear with a ltitle chuckle from him. "Mine." He mumbled into the kiss.

She smirked at the mumbled word. She was his, and he was hers. He had been her dream come true since junior year of high school. She let them kiss for a while, and soon she moved her hands down his chest to his pants and fondled with the button before finally getting it undone. Her tongue swiveled around his as her hands wrapped back around his neck.

"mmm." he moaned into the kiss further as she undid his jeans for him. A little chuckle, he stopped palming her ass for a moment and reached down to his pants, lifting their hips up a little so that he could pull them off and give him a little room to breath...down there, anyway. Although still being held down by his boxers, she could feel his hardness pressing up between her legs, pulling away from the kiss for a moment.

"Want you." he mumbled up to her, his throbbing hardness pressing against her, almost desperately.

"I'm all yours." She smirked before taking a second to take off her pants and reveal her lace underwear before pulling those off right after leaving her bare. She kissed his lips briefly before making a trail of kisses down his neck to the line where his boxers were denying the action. She removed the boxers and looked at his throbbing cock before taking the tip in her mouth. She teased the tip with her tongue before slowly moving down the shaft.

"Mmm." he moand, tilting his head back as a hand slipped to the back of her head, stroking through her hair as she descended upon his cock, his eyes crossing a little bit. She had that ability it seemed. "Maisie...' he moaned softly, spreading his legs a little bit as he moaned her name. "That's...that's mean and...you know it...>" he shuddered/.

Maisie bobbed her head sucking his manhood and playing with his shaft with her tongue. His hands in her hair felt good, but after a few more bobs she made her way back up to be at his level and smiled. She straddled him again and rubbed her wet pussy back and forth across the tip of his cock. She bit the tip of her finger cutely and said, "Are you sure you want me babe." She winked at him before slowly moving her body down and letting her pussy take in his cock.

"Of course I want you, god there's no one else I could ever-" His sentence died in his mouth as her wetness swallowed his hardness, arching his back a little bit as she sank down on top of him, groaning as his eyes closed. "Mmmm....god, babe, that feels good...' he mumbled softly, his hands once more taking their rightful place at her hips, pushing her down until he was entirely inside of her. "Mm.."