𝒹ear 𝓂ichael...
𓊆❤︎︎𓊇 : (1/2) — as a fan, you send michael some very seductive pictures and letters, without knowing just how much they really affect him. so what happens when you guys finally meet for the first time... ⋮ 𝓌𝒸﹕ 𝟏𝟓.𝟏𝓀◞ 𓊈❤︎︎𓊉 : chubby/curvy reader. fan/celebrity dynamic. [ ❤︎︎ ]— your name. perv reader & perv michael. dirty love letters/pictures. lowkey delusional reader. but it works. michael jerks off to you. michael is so into you. dirty talking through letters. nudes. he literally sends you a whimpering audio. shy michael. then freaky michael. reader has a bush bc it's the late 70s/early 80s. masturbation. dirty talk. desperate michael. desperate reader. michael just wants you. 𓊆ྀི❤︎︎︎𓊇ྀི : based on 🗯️this! lovely request (๑ᵔ⤙ᵔ๑) i'm splitting this into two parts bc i think it would be to long for one
𝓂asterlist || 𝒾ntro || 𝓃avigation || 𝑡aglist
Michael had already answered enough questions about Off the Wall that he was beginning to lose track of how many times he'd been asked what it felt like to have an album that was finally, completely his own.
It wasn't that he minded talking about it. He was proud of the record, perhaps more proud than he knew how to express without sounding too serious, and there was still something exciting about hearing people talk about the songs as though they belonged to a world outside of the studio now.
They had been little pieces of music he'd worked on for months, sometimes obsessing over one part until he was satisfied, and now they were being played on radios and in record stores and people's homes. Sitting beneath the studio lights while another interviewer asked him about it was simply another part of that strange process.
Michael sat comfortably in his chair, one leg crossed loosely over the other, hands resting together in his lap as he waited for the interview to begin. He was dressed simply for the occasion, though there was still something carefully put together about him. Every so often he shifted slightly in his seat whenever the lights seemed a little too warm. He'd grown accustomed to cameras by now, but that didn't mean he ever completely forgot they were there.
There was still something about being watched that made him conscious of every little thing he did—where he put his hands, whether he was speaking too quietly, whether he was looking at the interviewer enough. He'd been doing interviews for years, but there was always that small moment before the cameras started rolling where he wondered what questions they'd ask him this time.
The studio around him was fairly quiet, aside from the occasional movement of someone working just outside the frame. A few people were standing behind the cameras, talking amongst themselves while the crew made the last little adjustments. Michael watched one of the technicians lean forward to fix something near the camera before sitting back again. He glanced down at his hands, rubbing his thumb lightly over one of his knuckles, and then looked up when the interviewer finally took his seat across from him.
"Alright, Michael," the man said, shuffling a few papers together. "We're ready whenever you are."
Michael gave him a small smile.
"Okay."
The interviewer turned towards the camera.
"Today we're very pleased to welcome Michael Jackson, whose latest album, Off the Wall, has been receiving an incredible response since its release. Michael, thank you for joining us."
"Thank you for havin' me."
The camera remained on him for another moment before the interviewer turned his attention back towards Michael.
"So, how are you feeling about everything at the moment?"
Michael gave a small laugh, looking down briefly.
"Good. A little tired."
The interviewer smiled.
"Busy?"
"Very busy."
"I imagine so. You've been doing quite a lot of promotion for the album."
"Yeah. It's been... a lot of interviews." Michael laughed softly. "But it's nice. I like talkin' about the album."
"Do you ever get tired of talking about it?"
Michael thought about it.
"Not really. I mean, sometimes I don't know what else to say about it." He smiled, a little embarrassed. "I've already said everything."
The interviewer laughed.
"I suppose that's the difficult part. You've spent so long making the record, and now everybody wants to know what you think about it."
"Yeah."
"And you've worked with Quincy Jones on this one."
"Mhm."
"How has that experience been for you?"
Michael's expression changed almost immediately at the mention of Quincy. He seemed more comfortable talking about the actual work than talking about himself.
"He's wonderful. Really wonderful. He knows so much about music, and he lets you experiment. He doesn't make you feel like you can't try somethin' just because it might be different."
"Was there anything you learned from him during the recording?"
"Oh, a lot." Michael smiled. "Probably more than I could tell you in one interview."
The interviewer laughed again, and Michael did too, his shoulders relaxing slightly.
They continued like that for a while. They talked about the recording sessions, the different musicians he'd worked with, the process of choosing songs for the album, and how much he enjoyed dancing while performing. Michael became noticeably more animated whenever the conversation turned toward music. His hands moved as he explained things, his voice becoming a little more energetic, and every now and then he'd laugh at himself when he realized he'd been talking for longer than he intended.
"And you've said before that you want people to be able to dance to this album."
"Yeah. I want people to have fun with it."
"That's a big part of your own personality, isn't it?"
Michael smiled.
"Yeah. I like havin' fun."
"Do you dance at home?"
Michael laughed, almost immediately looking embarrassed.
"Sometimes."
"Sometimes?"
"Well, yeah."
"How often is sometimes?"
Michael thought about it, then shrugged.
"I don't know. A lot, probably."
The interviewer smiled knowingly.
"I had a feeling you'd say that."
Michael laughed again and shook his head.
"See, now you're makin' me sound strange."
"I don't think anyone would find that strange."
"I don't know."
He smiled, looking down for a moment before settling back into his chair.
The conversation moved on, and Michael seemed perfectly comfortable again. It was easy enough. Questions about music were familiar. They were safe. He knew what he wanted to say about his work, and he knew how much of himself he wanted to give away.
Then, after another question about the response to Off the Wall, the interviewer paused and glanced down at the papers in front of him.
"There is one thing we haven't talked about yet."
Michael looked up.
"What's that?"
The interviewer smiled.
"Your fans."
Michael's expression softened immediately.
"Oh."
"You've been getting quite a lot of attention from them lately."
"Yeah," Michael said quietly. "They're really sweet."
"I understand you've received a rather impressive amount of fanmail."
Michael gave a small, almost bashful laugh.
"Yeah. There's been a lot."
"Do you read it?"
"I try to."
"Really?"
"Mhm."
"All of it?"
That made Michael laugh.
"Well... I try."
The interviewer reached down beside his chair.
"Then I think you're going to like this."
He lifted a large stack of envelopes into view. Michael stared at it for a second. Then he laughed.
"Oh, my goodness."
The interviewer grinned as he lowered the stack onto the small table between them. It was considerably larger than Michael had expected, envelopes of all different shapes and sizes piled on top of one another. Some plain white, some brightly colored, a few decorated with little drawings and stickers that made it obvious whoever had sent them had put far more effort into the envelope than the post office probably deserved. Michael leaned forward slightly, looking over the collection with an expression somewhere between amusement and disbelief.
"That's a lot of letters."
"It is," the interviewer agreed. "A few weeks ago, we told some of your fans that you were going to be doing an interview with us."
Michael's eyebrows lifted.
"You did?"
"Mhm. We asked them to send in their letters, and we told them there was a chance you'd be reading some of them here today."
Michael looked down at the pile again, his expression softening.
"They sent all these?"
"Apparently, they had quite a lot to say. And these are only a selection."
Michael's eyes widened.
"Only a selection?"
"Mhm."
He laughed again, shaking his head as he settled back into his chair.
"I don't know if I can read all of those."
"You don't have to. We thought we'd pick a few."
Michael glanced at the stack again, and there was something almost childlike about the way his expression softened. For all the attention he'd been receiving since the release of Off the Wall, he still seemed genuinely surprised that so many people had taken the time to sit down and write to him.
It wasn't the kind of attention he could simply hear about in a newspaper or see printed on a chart. These were actual people who had gone home, found a piece of paper, written something to him, put it in an envelope, addressed it, and sent it all the way to wherever he happened to be or so that he would get them.
"That's really sweet," he murmured.
"You want to pick one?"
Michael hesitated.
"Me?"
"Sure."
He looked at the interviewer, then at the stack, before reaching out and carefully taking one from near the top. It was a pale blue envelope with handwriting across the front. Michael turned it over in his hands, examining it for a moment before opening it.
"Dear Michael," he read aloud, his voice becoming softer as he followed the words. "Congratulations on Off the Wall. I've been listening to it every day since I bought it..."
He smiled.
"That's nice."
He continued reading silently for another few seconds before his smile grew. "She says her favorite is 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough.'"
"Good choice."
"Yeah." Michael nodded seriously. "Very good choice."
The interviewer laughed. Michael folded the letter neatly along its original crease and placed it beside him.
"Thank you," he said, almost instinctively, as though the person who'd written it were actually sitting somewhere in the room. The interviewer noticed.
"You really do read these, don't you?"
Michael gave him a small smile.
"I try to."
"Even when they're this many?"
Michael looked at the enormous pile.
"Well..."
He laughed.
"Maybe not all at once."
They went through another few. One fan had drawn a picture of Michael dancing, complete with a tiny microphone in his hand. Another had written several pages about how much the album had meant to her. One letter was from a young girl who wanted to know what animals Michael had, which led to the interviewer asking him about his pets and Michael immediately becoming far more enthusiastic than he had been about any of the previous questions.
"I love animals," he said, smiling. "They're so sweet. And they're honest."
"More honest than people?"
Michael's eyebrows lifted.
"Sometimes."
The interviewer laughed, and Michael ducked his head, smiling.
Eventually, the interviewer reached for another envelope.
"Alright. Here's one."
He handed it over.
Michael accepted it without looking closely, turning it between his fingers as he had with the others. The envelope was different from the rest, though he didn't seem to notice at first. There was no elaborate drawing on the front, no stickers, nothing particularly eye-catching. Just his name, written in careful handwriting.
"Michael Jackson."
He smiled faintly.
"That's me."
The interviewer chuckled.
Michael opened it.
At first, nothing about his expression changed.
His eyes moved over the first few lines, and he nodded once, as though he'd already settled into the familiar rhythm of reading another compliment about the album. Then he stopped. His eyes flicked back to the beginning. He read the line again. And this time, the faint smile disappeared.
Not because he was upset or something. If anything, he looked startled.
Michael's fingers tightened slightly around the paper. The interviewer noticed immediately.
"Everything alright?"
Michael looked up.
"Yeah."
There was a tiny pause.
"Yeah."
He looked back down at the letter. His cheeks had begun to color. The interviewer leaned forward a little, curious.
"Interesting letter?"
Michael gave a nervous little laugh.
"Uh..."
He folded the paper once. Then again.
"It's... nice."
"Nice?"
"Mhm."
The interviewer smiled.
"That's all you're giving me?"
Michael looked at him, then quickly looked away again.
"Yeah."
There was another little laugh from behind the camera. Michael's cheeks grew warmer. He tried to tuck the letter beneath the others, but the interviewer caught the movement.
"Wait, wait. You can't just hide it."
Michael immediately shook his head.
"No, no."
"Why not?"
"It's just..."
He glanced down at the letter. His mouth twitched with an embarrassed smile.
"It's personal."
That earned a louder laugh from the crew. Michael ducked his head, laughing too, clearly wishing they would all stop looking at him. The interviewer held up his hands.
"Alright. Alright. We won't make you read it."
"Thank you."
"But now I'm curious."
Michael shook his head.
"No."
"Not even a little?"
"No."
The smile was still there, though.
He carefully folded the letter again, much more neatly this time, and placed it beneath the others rather than on top of them.
The interviewer watched him.
So did everyone else in the room.
And, on the other side of the television screen, so did you.
You hadn't moved.
For the last few minutes, you had been sitting exactly where you had been when the interview began, your attention fixed entirely on the television. You had watched the interviewer place that enormous stack of letters in front of him. You had watched Michael smile at the first few. You had listened to him read them, watched the way his expression softened whenever somebody mentioned how much they loved the album, how much his music meant to them.
You'd smiled along with him.
It was sweet.
That was what fanmail was supposed to be, wasn't it? People telling him how much they loved his music, how much they admired him, how excited they were about Off the Wall. Little pieces of affection from people he'd never met.
You had written one of those letters yourself.
Except yours had been sitting on that table.
Your eyes dropped briefly toward the floor before returning to the screen.
You hadn't actually expected him to pick it.
Not really.
You had known there was a possibility, of course. That was why you'd sent it in the first place. But there were so many letters. The stack had looked almost ridiculous when they'd first shown it on camera, and you'd assumed yours would simply disappear somewhere among all the others.
Maybe someone would open it.
Maybe they wouldn't.
You had never seriously imagined that Michael himself would be the one holding it.
And yet there it was.
You recognized the envelope immediately.
The handwriting across the front.
The way you'd written his name so carefully because you'd rewritten it twice before finally deciding it looked right.
"Michael Jackson."
You had heard him say it.
You'd heard that quiet little laugh afterward.
"That's me."
A nervous smile pulled at your lips, you couldn't help it. Then he'd opened the letter, and you'd stopped smiling.
It was one thing to write something down in the privacy of your bedroom. There had been no cameras then. No audience. No interviewer sitting across from him. No Michael Jackson actually holding the paper between his fingers and reading the words you'd spent so much time deciding whether or not you should write.
Now there was.
You leaned a little closer to the television without even realizing you'd done it. His eyes moved across the page. You followed his face. You watched him read.
At first, there was nothing unusual about his expression. He looked the same as he had with the other letters, quietly attentive, occasionally smiling to himself. Then his eyes stopped.
You held your breath. He read that part again. Your fingers curled slightly into the fabric beneath you.
Oh.
He'd reached that part. You hadn't meant for it to sound quite so bold when you'd written it. Well—
❝—Dear Michael,
I've started this letter four times and torn up every one of them, so this is the version I'm letting myself send. If you're reading this, I've either been very brave or very stupid, and I won't know which until the last line.
Everyone writes to you about the music. The records, the dancing, the way you move on stage. I could write that letter too, but you get a thousand of those a week and I don't want to be polite about you. I want to be honest.
I think about your mouth.
Not the smile— everyone gets the smile. I think about the way your lips part right before you sing, that half-second before the note comes out, and I wonder what it would be like to be the reason you made that sound instead.
I think about your hands. The way you curl them when you dance, like you're holding something you won't let go. I've wondered more times than I should admit what they'd feel like. On my hip. On my throat. In my hair, pulling just hard enough that I'd forget my own name.
I think about the rest of it too. The part they never print in the magazines. What you look like when no one's watching, when the shirt's off and the lights are low and there's nobody to perform for. I think about climbing into your lap in the dark and finding out what makes the Michael Jackson go quiet.
And I think about your voice. God, Michael, your voice. The low part. The breathy part you do when you talk instead of sing. I've listened to interviews with my thighs pressed together, and I'm not even sorry. I'd let you talk to me like that for hours. I'd let you talk to me like that with your hand between my legs and your mouth at my ear, telling me exactly what you're going to do to me next.
There. That's the brave part. Or the stupid part. I'll let you decide.
If this reaches you and it doesn't make you smile, you can burn it and I'll never know. But if it does make you smile —
Write me back. I want to hear the breathy part.
Yours, if you'll have me, The girl who thinks about your mouth — [❤︎︎ ]❞
That was a lie.
You had. You had known exactly what you were doing.
It had seemed easier on paper. Almost harmless, really, sitting alone with a pen in your hand and allowing yourself to write down the things you would never have had the courage to say aloud. You could tease him without having to see his face afterward. You could be a little daring because you would never have to know what he thought of it.
Until now.
Michael's expression had changed.
Only slightly.
But you noticed. You noticed everything. The faint pause. The way his fingers tightened around the paper. The small shift in his posture. And then, slowly, the color beginning to rise into his cheeks.
Your heart gave one hard beat. You stared at him. He looked down at the letter again. Then back at the interviewer.
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah."
You almost smiled.
He sounded nervous.
Your eyes stayed on the screen. You didn't dare look away. Not now. Not when Michael was still sitting there with your letter in his hands. Not when he was trying so hard to pretend there was nothing unusual about it.
The corner of your mouth had started to lift before you even realized it. You tried to stop it, pressing your lips together, but that only seemed to make it worse. There was something about watching him sit there looking so quietly flustered that made it impossible not to smile.
Beside you, your friend shifted against the couch. You ignored her. She watched the television for another few seconds. Then she looked at you, then back at the television, then at you again.
"Girl what are you cheesing about?"
Your eyes immediately flicked toward her.
"'m not."
She gave you a look.
"You are."
You turned your attention back to the television, trying to make your expression neutral.
"I dunno what you're talking about."
"You're smiling."
"I'm not!"
"You are!"
You bit the inside of your cheek. Your friend leaned a little closer, trying to see what had apparently become so fascinating on the screen.
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Mhm."
She narrowed her eyes at you. You kept looking straight ahead. The television continued to play quietly in front of you, Michael still visible in the frame, the interviewer sitting across from him with the rest of the letters waiting on the table.
Your friend looked at the screen once again. Then at you. Then back at the screen.
"Did he say something?"
"No."
"Then why are you smiling like that?" You shrugged, attempting to look completely uninterested.
"I just like the interview." She stared at you for another second.
"You've been watching this interview for twenty minutes."
"So?"
"So you've barely said anything."
You smiled again. You couldn't help it. Your friend noticed.
"There."
"What?"
"That."
You frowned.
"What "that"?"
"That stupid little smile."
You reached over and nudged her with your elbow.
"Shut up."
She laughed quietly.
"Okay, okay."
You settled back into the couch, pulling one leg beneath you. For a moment, neither of you said anything. You were grateful for that. Your attention returned entirely to the television.
The studio lights were bright enough that they gave everything on the screen a slightly warm appearance. Michael was still sitting with his hands close to his lap, the letter now folded beneath the others. From this distance, it looked like nothing more than another envelope in a pile.
But you knew. You knew exactly which one it was. And knowing that made your stomach flutter all over again. You wondered if he would keep it.
The thought came so suddenly that you almost dismissed it. Of course he wouldn't. It was just a fan letter.
He probably received hundreds. Thousands. Maybe he'd forgotten about it already.
Except he hadn't looked like someone who'd forgotten. You watched him carefully. The interviewer's attention returned to the stack.
"So," he said, "should we try another one?"
Michael looked at the letters. There was the slightest pause. Then he nodded.
"Yeah."
He reached toward the pile. Your heart jumped again. His fingers moved over the envelopes, brushing past one, then another. He picked one up, turned it over, examined the handwriting.
The interviewer smiled.
"Any reason you chose that one?"
Michael shook his head.
"No."
He smiled faintly.
"I just picked it."
The interviewer laughed.
"Fair enough."
Michael began opening the next letter. You exhaled slowly. Only then did you realize you'd been holding your breath.
Your friend glanced at you from the corner of her eye. You pretended not to notice. On the television, Michael unfolded the new letter.
And just like that, the interview continued. The subject moved on to something else, and after a while the earlier excitement in the room seemed to settle back into something more ordinary. Michael answered a few more questions about the album, talking about the recording sessions and the people he'd worked with, and then the interviewer asked him about performing and what it was like having people respond so strongly to the new record. Every now and then, they returned to the fanmail, opening another envelope and letting him read a few lines before moving on to the next. Michael seemed much more comfortable now, laughing easily and occasionally ducking his head whenever the interviewer complimented him, and before long, the little moment with your letter seemed to have disappeared beneath everything else.
Except it hadn't for you.
You were still thinking about it.
You tried to pay attention to what he was saying, and for the most part you did, but every so often your eyes wandered toward the stack of envelopes sitting on the table in front of him. Your letter was still somewhere in there. You knew it was. You could picture exactly where it had gone, folded neatly beneath the others after he'd finished reading it, and the thought kept making something warm and restless twist in your stomach. You wondered if he would remember it once the cameras stopped rolling. You wondered if he would keep it with the others or if somebody from the studio would gather everything up afterward and take it away. You wondered, briefly, whether he might read it again when nobody was watching. That last thought made you smile to yourself, and you quickly looked back at the television before your friend could notice.
She noticed anyway.
She had been sitting beside you for most of the interview, occasionally making little comments whenever something caught her attention, but now she stretched her arms above her head and gave a long, exaggerated yawn. You glanced over at her just as she settled back against the couch, looking toward the clock.
"Alright."
You frowned. "Alright what?"
"I'm out."
You blinked at her. "Now?"
She laughed and reached down for her things. "Yes, now."
"But it's not even that late."
"I know." She slipped her shoes on, then stood and brushed her hands down the front of her clothes. "That's why I'm leaving now instead of when it's actually late."
You gave her a look.
"You could stay."
"I could," she agreed, completely unbothered. "But then I'd still have to go home eventually."
You laughed under your breath and shook your head, following her toward the door while the television continued playing behind you. Michael's voice followed faintly through the room, softened by the distance, and you caught a few words without really listening to them. Your friend gathered the last of her things, checking that she hadn't left anything behind, before turning toward you with that same little expression she'd been wearing ever since she'd caught you smiling at the television.
"You're gonna watch the rest?"
"Probably."
She raised an eyebrow. "Probably?"
You shrugged. "Maybe."
"You've already been sitting there forever."
"I know."
"And you're still interested?"
You gave her a small smile. "It's Michael Jackson."
She stared at you for a second before laughing.
"Right. Of course."
You rolled your eyes, but you were smiling. She opened the door, then paused with one hand on the frame and looked back at you. "Don't stay up all night."
"I won't."
"You always say that."
"This time I mean it."
"Sure you do."
You laughed, and she stepped out into the hallway.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
The door closed behind her, and for a moment you remained standing there with your hand still resting on the knob. The house felt noticeably quieter without her. The television was still going in the other room, but now the sound seemed distant, almost like it belonged somewhere else. You stood there listening to it for a few seconds before finally turning around and making your way back to the couch.
The interview was almost finished by then. You sat down in the same place you'd been sitting before, pulling one leg beneath yourself again and reaching for the remote to lower the volume. You didn't turn it off. You just let it play quietly while you stared at the screen, watching the last few minutes without really taking in what was being said. Your mind had already drifted away from the interview and back to that one particular moment, replaying it without any help from you. Michael opening the envelope. His eyes moving across the page. The pause. That tiny change in his expression when he'd reached something he clearly hadn't expected. The way he'd looked at the interviewer afterward, suddenly shy and almost embarrassed, before folding the letter and hiding it underneath the others.
You smiled.
Then you caught yourself smiling and looked down at your lap.
It was silly. You knew it was silly. You were sitting alone in your living room, grinning to yourself over a man who didn't even know what you looked like, simply because he'd blushed at something you'd written to him. But that was the part that kept getting to you. He hadn't looked annoyed. He hadn't laughed at you. He hadn't tossed the letter aside like it was something ridiculous. If anything, he had seemed almost... pleased by it. Embarrassed, certainly, but not uncomfortable. And now that you thought about it, you weren't entirely sure whether the little smile he'd tried to hide had been because the letter had embarrassed him or because he'd actually liked what he'd read.
The possibility made your stomach flutter.
You leaned back against the couch and stared at the ceiling for a while, letting the thought settle somewhere in the back of your mind. Then, slowly, your eyes moved across the room.
Toward your desk.
You could see it from where you were sitting. The little pile of stationery you'd bought a few weeks ago was still sitting there, along with the pen you'd been using lately. Nothing about it looked particularly interesting. It was just a desk. Paper. A pen. An ordinary little corner of the room that you'd barely noticed before.
You looked at it for another few seconds. He didn't know what you looked like...
Then you smiled. You could change that.
The television suddenly went quiet as the interview came to an end, and the room fell completely silent. You reached for the remote and switched the screen off, leaving the room dim for a moment before getting to your feet.
You didn't hurry. There was no reason to. You simply walked across the room, pulled out the chair at your desk, and sat down.
Your fingers rested lightly against the edge of the paper. You looked at the blank page. Then at the pen. And, after a moment, you picked it up.
—Even after you switched off the television, Michael still remained in the studio.
The interview was over, but nobody had quite left yet. The cameras were still pointed toward the chairs, though the bright lights had already been switched off, leaving the room noticeably softer than it had been while they were filming. The sudden change was something Michael always noticed. A moment ago, every movement had felt deliberate, every word had been heard by several people at once, and now the room had begun returning to its ordinary state. Crew members moved around him, speaking quietly to one another as they gathered cables and equipment, while the interviewer stood nearby talking with one of the producers about the next part of the day's schedule.
Michael remained in his chair for another few moments.
He hadn't realized how warm the studio lights had made him until they were gone.
He lowered his eyes to the little table beside him. The fanmail was still there. The pile looked different now that the cameras weren't focused on it. During the interview, it had seemed almost enormous, each envelope representing somebody somewhere who had taken the time to write to him. Now it was simply a stack of paper sitting on a table, surrounded by the remnants of the interview—papers, notes, a glass of water he'd barely touched.
Michael reached for the glass and took a small sip.
He glanced at the envelopes again.
His eyes lingered. He wasn't sure why.
He had received fanmail for years. There had always been letters, sometimes more than he could possibly read, and he had always tried to make time for them when he could. Most were sweet. Some were funny. Some were incredibly personal in ways that surprised him. People told him about their lives, their families, their dreams. Sometimes they simply wrote his name over and over because they didn't know what else to say.
He liked that.
He liked knowing that there were people listening.
The interviewer passed behind him, giving his shoulder a light pat.
"Good interview."
Michael looked up and smiled.
"Thank you."
"You alright?"
"Yeah."
"You seemed a little surprised by some of those letters."
Michael's smile became smaller.
"Some of them."
The interviewer laughed.
"I won't ask."
Michael ducked his head, smiling to himself.
"Thank you."
The man moved away again, and Michael looked back toward the table. Your letter was somewhere in that pile. He knew it was. He could still remember the handwriting. More importantly, he could remember the feeling of reading it.
There had been plenty of compliments. He was used to people telling him they liked his voice, his dancing, his songs. He'd heard people say all sorts of wonderful things about him, and although he was grateful for them, there were still moments when he didn't quite know what to do with so much attention.
But that letter had been.... quite different. Michael wasn't entirely sure what he thought about that yet. He knew he'd been embarrassed. He knew he'd wanted the interviewer to stop asking questions. And he knew that, despite all of that, he hadn't wanted to give the letter back.
One of the crew members approached the table and began gathering the papers.
Michael watched absentmindedly at first.
The interviewer was already halfway across the room when another member of the team reached for the stack of envelopes, picking them up together with the loose papers beneath them.
Michael's head lifted.
"Wait."
The man stopped.
Michael stood almost immediately.
"Sorry. Could you—"
He hesitated, glancing at the pile in the man's hands.
"Could you not throw those away yet?"
The crew member looked at him.
"The letters?"
"Yeah."
"Alright."
He set them back down.
Michael nodded.
"Thank you."
The man moved on to something else without questioning it.
Michael stood there for a moment. Then he walked back toward the table. He didn't quite know what he was looking for at first. He simply started going through them, slowly.
One envelope at a time.
He picked up the first, looked at the name on the front, and set it aside. The next one had a little drawing in the corner. Another had handwriting that covered almost the entire front. He remembered some of them from the interview. A few made him smile when he recognized the names.
Then he found it. His fingers stopped.
There was the handwriting. He recognized it immediately. Michael turned the envelope over in his hands, his thumb brushing lightly over the edge. He glanced around the room. Nobody seemed to be watching him. The interviewer was speaking with one of the producers. Someone else was rolling up a cable near the cameras. Another crew member had already begun carrying equipment toward the door.
Michael looked back down at the envelope. He could have put it back.
Instead, he slipped it beneath the other letters he'd decided to keep. Then he hesitated. His eyes moved over the rest of the pile. After a moment, he selected a few more—the ones he'd genuinely enjoyed reading during the interview—and placed them together with his letter. It made the whole thing look less obvious. At least, that was what he told himself.
When he finally gathered the small collection into his hands, he held them against his chest for a moment.
"Michael?"
He looked up. One of the producers was standing nearby.
"You ready?"
Michael nodded.
"Yeah."
He gave the letters one last glance before slipping them carefully into the folder he'd been given for the day.
"Just about."
He followed the others out of the studio a few minutes later, carrying the folder beneath his arm. He didn't mention the letter again. Not to the interviewer. Not to the producer. Not to Bill. Not to anyone.
By the time Michael got home, the sun had already begun to sink lower over the neighborhood, leaving the sky outside the windows washed in the soft colors of early evening. He stepped through the front door with the folder still tucked beneath his arm, closing it quietly behind himself before pausing in the entryway for a moment.
Home always felt different after a day of interviews. There was no studio lighting, no camera pointed at him, no one waiting for him to answer a question. Just the familiar sounds of the house around him—the television somewhere deeper inside, voices drifting in and out of conversation, the faint clatter of something being moved around in the kitchen. His mother was the first person he saw.
"Michael?"
He looked up.
"Hi, Mama."
Katherine smiled as she came toward him, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
"How was your interview?"
"Good."
"Just good?"
Michael smiled.
"It was alright."
She reached up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before looking at the folder underneath his arm.
"You've been gone all day."
"Yeah. We talked about the album."
"I know." Her smile grew. "I watched some of it."
Michael's expression changed slightly.
"You did?"
"Mhm."
He looked down.
"Was it alright?"
"It was very nice."
"Thank you."
He started toward the hallway, already thinking about getting out of his clothes and disappearing somewhere quiet for a little while, but before he could get very far, a voice came from the living room.
"There he is."
Michael stopped. He slowly turned his head.
Several of his brothers were sprawled across the couches, the television still on in front of them. Randy was sitting near one end, half-slouched into the cushions, while Jackie had one arm stretched along the back of the couch. Jermaine glanced over at Michael with an expression that immediately made him suspicious. Michael narrowed his eyes slightly.
"What?"
Randy grinned.
"Nothin'."
Michael looked between them.
"Why are you lookin' at me like that?"
Jackie laughed.
"We saw your interview."
Michael's shoulders dropped a little.
"Oh."
"Yeah," Randy said. "We saw it."
Michael shifted the folder beneath his arm.
"Okay."
There was a pause. Then Jermaine smiled.
"That one letter."
Michael's eyes immediately dropped.
"What letter?"
Randy laughed.
"Oh, come on."
"I don't know what you're talkin' about."
"The one that made you turn red."
Michael's cheeks immediately warmed.
"I did not turn red."
"You did."
"I didn't."
"You absolutely did," Jackie said, laughing.
Michael shook his head and started toward the hallway again.
"You're all crazy."
Randy leaned forward.
"What'd she write?"
Michael stopped. He turned around slowly.
"Who?"
The room erupted in laughter. Michael's face fell into his hands for half a second before he dragged them down again.
"Nobody."
"Nobody?" Randy repeated.
"Mhm."
"Then why were you blushin'?"
"I wasn't."
"You were."
"I was just hot."
Jackie looked toward the television.
"From the air conditionin'?"
Michael stared at him.
"Yes."
That only made them laugh harder. Michael shook his head, trying not to smile himself.
"Y' guys are ridiculous."
Randy pointed toward the folder.
"Y' kept it, didn't you?"
Michael's eyes flickered toward it. Just for a second. It was enough. Randy's grin widened.
"Ohhh."
"No."
"You did!"
"I ain't say that."
"Y' didn't have to."
Michael tightened his grip around the folder.
"'m tired."
Jackie laughed.
"That's your excuse?"
"Yeah."
He turned toward the hallway again.
"Michael."
He looked back. Jermaine was smiling.
"At least tell us if it was a good letter."
Michael stared at him for a moment. Then a tiny smile appeared despite his best effort.
"It was fine."
"Fine?"
"Mhm."
"That's all?"
Michael nodded.
"That's all."
Randy laughed.
"You're no fun."
Michael smiled faintly and shook his head.
"I'm goin' upstairs."
He didn't wait for another response. He walked down the hallway with the folder still tucked securely beneath his arm, hearing his brothers laughing behind him as he disappeared from view.
Only once he reached his room he closed the door.
Michael stood there for a moment with his back against it, listening to the muffled voices downstairs. Then his eyes dropped to the folder in his hands.
He left the overhead light off. Just the lamp by the bed, the one with the soft shade, throwing warm shadow up the walls. Enough to read by. Not enough to feel watched.
The folder went on the nightstand. He toed off his shoes, shrugged out of the jacket, then the shirt. The air touched his skin and he shivered once, though the room was warm. Downstairs, the house had gone quiet— the television a low murmur through the floor, his brothers' laughter faded into whatever they'd settled on.
He sat on the edge of the bed.
The letter was where he'd left it, folded beneath the others he'd kept. He lifted it out and let the rest slide aside. Just this one. Just the envelope with his name in that careful hand.
He'd read it once already. On camera. With half a room watching. He'd held it together then— barely. Now there was nobody to hold it together for.
He opened it.
Dear Michael,
He read it slow this time. On camera he'd skimmed, caught the shape of it, the heat rising up the back of his neck, and he'd buried it. Now he let each line land.
I've started this letter four times and torn up every one of them.
That got him first—the picture of it, really. Some woman sitting alone at a desk somewhere, probably with a half-finished letter beside her and a little pile of crumpled pages she'd decided weren't good enough. He could almost imagine her writing something, stopping halfway through, staring at the words for a while before tearing the page out and starting again.
Maybe she'd written his name too many times, or crossed something out because it suddenly felt too embarrassing to put into an envelope. Maybe she'd sat there with the finished letter in front of her for several minutes, debating whether she should actually send it at all, before finally deciding that this was the one she'd let go.
The thought made something warm and strangely tender settle in his chest. Out of all the things she could have done with those thoughts, she'd chosen to put them on paper, fold the pages carefully, seal them inside an envelope, and send them all the way to him.
I think about your mouth.
He swallowed hard.
Not the smile — everyone gets the smile. I think about the way your lips part right before you sing, that half-second before the note comes out, and I wonder what it would be like to be the reason you made that sound instead.
His stomach pulled tight. He read on and the warmth climbed into his face, same as in the studio, only now there was no camera to hide behind. She wrote about his hands. On my hip. On my throat. In my hair, pulling just hard enough that I'd forget my own name.
His breath went shallow. He shifted on the mattress, denim dragging, and he was hard.
Already.
Just from words on a page, from a woman whose face he couldn't picture.
That was the strangest part. He had no body to attach to the voice in his head. Not yet. Just the handwriting, careful and deliberate, and the things she'd admitted to. He read the part about his voice twice. Three times.
I've listened to interviews with my thighs pressed together, and I'm not even sorry.
He set the letter down beside him. His hands weren't quite steady. The shame sat hot in his chest and the want sat lower, and he couldn't pull them apart. His pulse beat in his throat and at the base of his cock, which strained against the zipper, and for a long moment he just sat with it.
Then he unbuttoned his jeans.
His fingers fumbled once. The button gave. The zipper came down. He shoved the denim off his hips and his cock sprang free, thick, leaking at the tip. He wrapped a hand around it and hissed through his teeth.
He thought of a woman.
No face. He kept it that way— truer, filthier, to want only the words. He pictured her in a dark room somewhere, thighs pressed together, listening to his voice, slick through her panties because of the way he'd said something on some forgotten interview. The thought made his hips jerk up into his fist.
He stroked slow. He didn't want to rush it. He wanted to stay inside the letter as long as he could, let each line replay behind his eyes.
The part about climbing into his lap. Weight on his thighs, heat through thin fabric, her mouth at his ear asking what made him go quiet.
His grip tightened. His other hand found the letter, held it open against his knee. He read and stroked at the same time, eyes jumping, breath ragged.
"You don't even know," he whispered. "You don't even know what you did."
He thought about her sealing the envelope. Her tongue on the glue. Dropping it into a mailbox and walking away like it was nothing, going back to her life, while he sat here with his cock in his hand reading it over and over.
His hand sped up. The sound of it filled the room— skin, breath, the rustle of paper in his grip.
She'd never know. That was the cruelest part. She'd sent it off and moved on, and he'd be hard for hours thinking about her thighs and her mouth and the breathy voice she'd asked him for.
He imagined giving it to her. Alone in the dark, he let his voice drop low and ruined, the way she'd wanted.
"Tell me what you want, baby."
And he imagined her answering. Her body under his hand, slick and shaking. He imagined being the reason she made a sound like the one she'd written about— lips parted, a half-second before the note.
He came with a muffled groan, teeth in his bottom lip, spilling over his fingers and onto his stomach. The letter was still in his hand, creased at the corner where he'd gripped too hard.
He sat there, breathing. The ceiling above him. His heart loud in his ears. The shame slid back in slow, behind the pleasure, and he let it.
He should burn it. She'd said he could.
He didn't.
He cleaned himself off with the edge of the sheet, taking his time before finally sitting there for a moment, breathing quietly as the last of the heat slowly left him. His eyes drifted toward the letter lying nearby, the pages slightly rumpled now from the way he'd been holding them, and something about seeing it there made him feel almost shy all over again. Carefully, he picked it up and folded it along the creases he'd made earlier, smoothing each fold with his thumb until the pages were neat again, almost absurdly careful with something that had already been read and reread enough times to lose its crispness.
He crossed the room to his dresser and opened the top drawer.
For a second, he simply stood there with the letter in his hand.
Then he placed it inside.
Not thrown in with the rest of his things. Not tucked away carelessly beneath a pile of clothes. He set it down carefully, making sure the pages were flat before closing the drawer.
Michael stood there for another moment, his hand still resting against the wooden handle.
Then he turned away, climbed into bed, and pulled the covers up over himself. The room was quiet now, the only light coming faintly through the curtains, and he lay on his back staring at the ceiling while his mind stubbornly refused to settle. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see the handwriting again. He could hear the words in his own head, remember exactly where he'd stopped reading, exactly when he'd realized what she meant.
He turned onto his side.
Then onto his back again.
A small, embarrassed smile touched his mouth.
He'd read it again.
He knew he would.
Maybe tomorrow, when he had some time alone. Maybe the night after that, too. He'd tell himself it was only because he was curious, because he'd never received a letter quite like it before, because he wanted to understand what had made him react that way.
But even as he thought it, Michael knew better.
There was something about those pages that had gotten under his skin.
And he wasn't quite ready to admit how much he liked that.
Michael didn't sleep much.
He tried.
He turned the pillow over when it became too warm, pulled the covers higher when he felt cold, then kicked them down again a few minutes later. At some point during the night he'd gotten up for a glass of water, standing barefoot in the dark kitchen while the house remained completely still around him. When he finally went back upstairs, he told himself he was going to stop thinking about it.
Of course he didn't.
Every time he closed his eyes, the letter seemed to come back to him. Not even the entire thing at first. Just little pieces. A sentence here. A phrase there. The way she'd written his name. The particular choice of words that had caught him so completely off guard.
And then, inevitably, the thought of her. He didn't know what she looked like.
Eventually, sometime in the early hours of the morning, exhaustion won. When Michael finally woke again, the sunlight had already begun slipping through the curtains. After getting dressed, he made his way downstairs, one hand sliding lightly along the banister as he descended. The house was already awake. He could hear voices coming from the kitchen and the faint clatter of dishes being moved around. Someone had the radio on somewhere, low enough that he could barely make out the song.
He was still rubbing one eye when Janet appeared around the corner.
"Michael!"
He looked up.
"Hi, Janet."
She smiled brightly.
"You got mail."
Michael paused halfway down the stairs.
"Mail?"
"Yeah."
She came a little closer, holding a small handful of envelopes.
"I got it from the box this morning."
Michael glanced at the envelopes.
"Okay."
He continued down the stairs. Janet followed him.
"There was one for you that looked different."
Michael stopped.
"Different how?"
She shrugged.
"I don't know. It just did."
He looked at her. Janet held the envelopes out toward him.
"And it says your name."
Michael took them. His eyes moved over the little collection. Bills. A couple of envelopes from work. Something from the record company.
Then— He stopped. His fingers tightened slightly.
No.
There was no way.
He looked at the envelope again. The handwriting. His heart gave a strange little jump.
"Janet..."
She looked up at him.
"What?"
Michael turned the envelope over in his hands.
"Where'd you get this?"
"In the mailbox."
He stared at it. Janet watched his face.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You look funny."
Michael shook his head quickly.
"I don't."
"You do."
He gave her a small smile.
"It's just..."
He looked back down. Could it be?
He almost laughed at himself.
No way.
There were thousands of people who wrote to him. It could be anyone. There was no reason for him to assume it was her. In fact, it was ridiculous to assume it was you. And yet he was still standing there staring at the handwriting. Janet leaned closer.
"Is it important?"
"I don't know."
"You know who it's from?"
Michael hesitated.
"No."
It wasn't exactly a lie. Not yet. Janet studied him for another second before smiling mischievously.
"Maybe it's a secret admirer."
Michael's head snapped up.
"Janet."
She laughed.
"What?"
"Don't."
"I'm just saying."
Michael shook his head, trying not to smile.
"You're silly."
"So are you."
She reached for one of the other envelopes.
"Well, I'm hungry. You coming?"
Michael looked down at the letter again.
"In a minute."
Janet gave him a suspicious look.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"You don't wanna eat?"
"I'll come down."
She shrugged.
"Okay." She started toward the kitchen, then glanced back, "don't read all your mail without me."
Michael laughed softly.
"I won't."
Janet disappeared around the corner. Michael waited until he could no longer hear her footsteps. Then he looked at the envelope again. His thumb moved slowly over the edge. His heart was beating a little faster now. Because suddenly, he wasn't nearly as tired anymore.
He carries the envelope back to his room before opening it, almost without thinking about it. It's an old habit, one he has never really had to question. Some things are better opened somewhere private, away from curious eyes and the possibility of Janet wandering past or Mama calling his name from down the hallway. He doesn't want anybody asking what he's reading, or seeing his face before he's even had a chance to decide what he thinks about it himself. So he keeps the envelope tucked carefully in his hand as he makes his way upstairs, closing his bedroom door behind him with a quiet click.
For a moment, he simply stands there, looking down at it.
Then he crosses the room and sits on the edge of his bed, almost in exactly the same place he'd been sitting the night before. The familiarity of it makes something in his chest flutter, and he tries not to think too much about why. He turns the envelope over once in his hands, looking at the handwriting again, before finally slipping his thumb beneath the flap and carefully easing it open.
There is a letter inside, folded neatly once.
And behind it, something stiffer catches against the paper.
Michael pauses.
His fingers move a little more carefully as he reaches inside, feeling the edge of something thicker beneath the letter. Cardboard, perhaps. Or—
Photographs.
He reads the letter first.
It's shorter than the other one. No page of wanting, no question about the breathy part of his voice. Just a few lines in that same careful hand, and they hit him in the chest before they land lower.
You don't know what I look like.
Now you do.
So you'll know who's thinking about you when you read the next one.
He stops breathing for a second.
The words sit there in front of him, simple and almost innocent compared to the first letter, but somehow they leave him just as unsettled. Michael reads them once more, slower this time, his eyes lingering over the handwriting as though there might be something hidden between the lines that he missed the first time. A quiet, disbelieving laugh slips out of him, and he shakes his head, glancing down at the page with a smile he can't quite seem to get rid of.
Then his attention shifts to the photographs.
He hesitates before reaching for them.
His fingers catch the edge of the first one and carefully slide it free from behind the letter. He turns it over in his hand for a moment, seeing only the blank white back, and suddenly he feels strangely nervous. It is almost easier when she is only words on paper. Words can be folded away. Words can be reread without having to imagine the person who wrote them.
A photograph is different.
Michael turns it over. And the first thing he sees takes his voice clean out of his throat. For a long moment, he doesn't move at all. He simply stares at it, his fingers tightening slightly around the edge as his eyes slowly take in the image.
It's her. You.
A lace set— dark, cheap-looking, the kind of thing that photographs slightly wrong, and that wrongness is the best part of it. The picture is grainy, soft at the edges, overexposed where the flash caught. Somebody took this alone, fumbling with a camera in a bedroom, and that's what makes it obscene in a way no magazine spread could touch.
His eyes move over you slowly.
Your tits sit full and heavy in the lace, spilling a little at the cups, and the lace doesn't hide the shape of your pretty nipples through it. You're curvy. Big in the hips, thick in the thighs— the kind of woman he's pictured in half his fantasies and never admitted out loud. Soft all over. Made to be held.
And your tongue. You've got the tip of it stuck out, playful, like you know exactly what you're doing. Like you knew he'd be sitting alone in a dark room with this in his hands.
He swallows. His mouth has gone dry.
The next one is worse. Or better? He doesn't know which.
You're on your stomach on the bed. The same lace, but from behind— and the angle is lower, the camera propped somewhere, so it's all ass and the long curve of your back. Your hips are wide. Your ass is round and full, the lace cutting across it, and the pose is casual in a way that isn't casual at all. Like you just happened to be lying there. Like you didn't arch your back just a little for the lens. And you're looking back at the lens.
He stares. His cock is already half-hard, again. pressing against his jeans, and he hasn't touched himself. Hasn't done anything but look.
"Jesus," he whispers.
His thumb drifts over the edge of the photograph, near the curve of your hip. The paper is glossy. Slick under his finger.
He looks from the photos to the letter. Back again. The same handwriting. The same girl. The one who wrote about her thighs pressed together, about climbing into his lap, about his hands in her hair.
Now he has a face. A body. Soft hips and full tits and a little pink tongue caught between your teeth.
He sets the photographs down on the bed beside him, careful, like they might tear. Then he drags a hand over his mouth.
This is real. You're real. And you want him to know it.
His hand drops to his lap. He cups himself through the denim, just pressure, just to feel how hard he's gotten, and a breath shudders out of him.
The lamp burns warm against the photographs. He picks up the one of you on your stomach and looks at it again, longer this time.
He can almost feel the weight of you. The give of your hips under his hands. The heat where your thighs meet.
"Now I know what you look like," he murmurs, low, to no one but himself.
He lies back against the mattress, the photos fanned beside him, and lets his hand find its way back to the button of his jeans.
He doesn't take his jeans off. Not yet. He lies there with the photo of you on your stomach in one hand and lets the other press flat over his fly.
Just pressure. His palm rides the hard line of his cock through the denim, and he grinds up into it once, slow, the friction dulled by two layers. Not enough. That's the point.
The lamp throws light across the glossy paper. He holds the picture above him, arm bent, and looks at your ass, the lace, the arch of your back. Your thighs, thick and soft where they press together.
"God," he breathes.
He rubs himself through the jeans. Slow circles with the heel of his hand. His hips roll up on their own. The denim drags, and the dull ache of being restrained makes it better somehow— him, Michael Jackson, lying fully dressed in a dark room, getting himself off to a grainy photograph like some teenager. The picture shakes a little in his grip. He doesn't stop.
He shifts, shoves the jeans down just past his hips with his free hand. The button's already open. The zipper gives. He pushes the denim off and now he's in his boxers, the thin cotton doing nothing to hide the shape of him, a damp spot already darkening the front.
He presses his palm down and hisses through his teeth.
The fabric between them is maddening. He strokes himself through it, up and down, eyes still on the photograph. Your hips. The weight of you. How you'd feel under him.
He can't take it anymore. He lifts the waistband, ready to get his hand inside—
The door bangs open.
Michael's whole body locks. Marlon is already halfway through the doorway before he sees him.
"Mike, Mama said—"
He stops. For one long, horrible second, neither of them says anything. Marlon's eyes drop. First to the photograph in Michael's hand. Then, almost involuntarily, lower.
Then back to the photograph. Michael follows his gaze and seems to realize all at once what Marlon has just seen. His face goes hot.
He moves so quickly that the photograph nearly slips from his fingers, crushing it instinctively against his stomach as his other hand grabs for the nearest pillow and yanks it across his lap. The movement is rushed and awkward, far too late to disguise anything, and somehow that only makes the entire situation worse.
"Get out," he chokes.
Marlon doesn't move. His mouth opens. Closes. His eyebrows lift slowly as the realization settles in. Michael's grip tightens around the pillow.
"Get out, Marlon!"
"Whoa. Okay." Marlon finally takes a step backward, both hands coming up in surrender. "I didn't—"
He stops. His mouth twitches. Michael sees it.
"No."
Marlon's grin breaks through.
"I didn't see nothin'."
"You saw everything."
"I saw some things."
Michael stares at him in horror.
"Marlon!"
Michael throws the nearest object at him— a sock. It misses. Marlon's already in the hall, cackling.
"Whose picture was that, Mike?"
"Nobody!"
"That wasn't no nobody."
Michael lunges and slams the door in his face, breathing hard, the pillow still clutched over his lap. Through the wood he can hear Marlon's laughter fading down the stairs. He stays against the door. Heart hammering. His forehead drops against the door.
The pillow is still crushed over his lap. Under it, he's still hard — stubbornly, idiotically hard, like his body hasn't gotten the message that the moment's over.
The photograph is crumpled against his stomach, warm from his skin. He peels it off carefully, like it might burn him, and looks at it. A crease cuts across the corner of the bed now. Right across your hip.
"Shit," he whispers.
He smooths it flat against his thigh, thumb pressing the crease out, over and over. It won't go away. Neither will the look on Marlon's face.
He pushes off the door and sits heavy on the edge of the bed. His hands are shaking a little. Not fear. Something tighter, more exposed — being seen like that, caught with his jeans around his hips and a stranger's body in his hand. He doesn't finish. Can't. The heat's gone sour, and what's left is just him in a dim room with a ruined picture and his brother's voice in his head.
He pulls his boxers up, kicks the jeans the rest of the way off, and sits there. After a long while he stands, crosses to the dresser, opens a little box. He lays the photo inside, on top of the letter. Closes it. Locks it with the small brass key he keeps on a chain, and slips the chain around his neck. He'll deal with Marlon later.
The next evening, he tries to write you back.
He sits at the desk by the window with the good pen between his fingers and a clean sheet of paper placed carefully in front of him. The first letter is open beside his elbow, its creases softened now from being folded and unfolded more times than he would ever admit. He has already read it again. twice today. Once when he first sat down, and then again after he'd spent several minutes staring at the blank page without writing a single word.
Write me back. I want to hear the breathy part.
His eyes catch on the sentence again.
Michael looks away.
He rubs his thumb slowly over the side of the pen, staring through the window at the fading light outside. He'd thought this would be easy.
He writes,
'Dear friend—'
He stares at the word.
Friend.
It sits there on the page, perfectly harmless, perfectly appropriate, and somehow completely wrong. Michael's mouth pulls into a small, embarrassed frown. He taps the pen once against the desk before dragging it through the word, one thick black line becoming two, then three, until friend is almost completely buried beneath the ink.
He looks at it.
"No."
The next attempt is worse.
'Dear [❤︎︎ ]—'
He gets as far as the little heart before his ears begin to burn.
Michael stares at what he's written, then immediately folds forward, covering his face with one hand.
"Oh, no."
The paper is crumpled before he can change his mind. He tosses it toward the wastebasket. It lands beside it. He doesn't bother picking it up. The next draft begins with simply—
Dear—
He stops there That somehow feels even more intimate. He scratches it out. Another sheet.
Hello,
Too formal! Another.
Hi,
Too casual!
He sighs and leans back in his chair, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand. There are already three crumpled sheets on the floor around his shoes, and he's beginning to feel ridiculous. He has performed in front of thousands of people. He's stood on stages with cameras pointed directly at him, walked into rooms full of strangers, answered questions about his music for hours without running out of things to say.
And somehow one woman with a sheet of paper has managed to make him forget how to write his own name. Then he begins once again.
'I got your letter. And the pictures. You shouldn't have—'
No. You should have. That's the whole problem. He tries again. 'I can't stop looking.'
He writes it and his face goes hot. It's true. It's also not enough. you'd sent him a full page of wanting, fearless and specific, and he can't string together a single sentence that matches it.
The pile of crumpled pages grows beside the desk. Every attempt too careful, too stiff, too him. He can hear the cameras in his own handwriting. Thank you for your letter. I appreciate your kindness. He wants to tell you what he did the first night, what he has been doing since that night, but it won't come out of the pen.
He pushes back from the desk. The chair scrapes loud in the quiet room. He looks at the mess and thinks, not for the first time, that paper might not be the way.
—
Two days.
You hadn't meant to count them. The first morning, you'd told yourself there was no reason to expect anything so soon. Mail took time. Letters had to be sorted, opened, read, passed through however many hands they passed through before they ever reached the person they were meant for. And Michael was busy. He had an album to promote, interviews to give, rehearsals and meetings and probably a hundred other things you couldn't even imagine. A man who received thousands of letters couldn't possibly sit down and answer every single one, especially not some girl he'd never met who had been bold enough to send him something that had probably made him blush on national television.
You'd believed all of that.
At least, you had when you first woke up. By the time you found yourself standing in front of the mailbox that morning, you weren't quite as convincing anymore.
You'd tried not to make it obvious, even to yourself. You'd gone outside for something else, you told yourself. You happened to be walking past it. There was no reason not to check while you were there. It wasn't as though you'd been thinking about it since you'd opened your eyes.
You lifted the little metal door.
Nothing.
Well—almost nothing.
A bill.
A flyer folded in half.
And a postcard from your aunt that you nearly tossed aside before you recognized her handwriting.
You stood there for another moment anyway, staring down into the empty mailbox as though something might magically appear if you waited long enough.
Nothing.
You closed it.
You checked again that evening.
There was no particular reason to. Mail had already come that morning, and you knew perfectly well there wasn't supposed to be another delivery. Still, sometime after dinner, you found yourself wandering down the driveway anyway, slippers scuffing lightly against the pavement as you told yourself you were only going outside for some air.
The mailbox was empty. You stared inside it for a second longer than necessary before closing the little metal door with a quiet click. Then you stood there. Just stood there, looking back toward the house.
You felt ridiculous. So you laughed softly to yourself, shook your head, and walked back inside.
The next morning, you checked again. This time you didn't even bother making up an excuse.
You went straight to the mailbox after breakfast, still in whatever you'd thrown on without thinking, a mug of coffee warming your hand. You opened it with far more hope than you wanted to admit.
Nothing from him. Another bill. Another piece of junk mail.
You sighed, gathered everything into your arms, and shut the mailbox. You'd stopped pretending it was about anything else.
You knew exactly what you were doing now. You were waiting for him. And somehow, admitting that to yourself made the empty mailbox feel a little more disappointing.
It was foolish. You knew it was foolish. Some part of you had known from the start that this was a letter sent into the dark— that he might never open it, might never see the photographs, might have dropped them in the studio trash before he ever made it home. The first letter had been written expecting nothing. That was the whole point. The thrill was in the sending.
Except now you wanted a reply.
You wanted it in a way that embarrassed you. You caught yourself imagining his handwriting— whether it would be careful or hurried, whether he pressed hard enough to leave grooves in the paper. You imagined the envelope with your name on it, the sound it would make landing in the box. Every time the mail came up empty, something in your chest dropped a little.
It wasn't disappointment exactly. It was the slow, sinking confirmation that you were sitting around, waiting for a stranger to want you back.
By the second afternoon, the waiting had curdled into something restless. You did the dishes, folded laundry, ran an errand you didn't need just to have somewhere to be. Your mind kept circling the same place anyway. The photographs. The silence. What he might have thought of you.
Worst case, he'd laughed. Passed the pictures around to his brothers, let them have their fun, tossed the whole thing in the garbage. You could almost hear it— the easy, dismissive laughter of men who'd seen prettier girls send bolder things.
The thought sat cold in your stomach.
But there was another possibility, and it was worse in its own way: that he'd looked and said nothing at all. That he'd folded your letter away and forgotten it, and you'd never know one way or the other.
If he wasn't going to answer, you'd give him more to answer to.
The idea arrived quietly, almost as a joke, and then it settled in and refused to leave. You could let it fizzle. Chalk the whole thing up to a silly impulse and never think about Michael Jackson's mouth again.
Or you could be bolder.
You sat down at the desk. The same desk, the same lamp, the stationery still stacked where you'd left it, the good pen resting on top. You looked at the blank page for a long moment. Then you pushed it aside and reached for the camera again instead.
It was old— your father's, bought years ago and barely used, with a timer dial that clicked and a flash that washed everything too bright. You knew its quirks by now. Your hands moved through the ritual without thinking: load it, wind it, prop it on the stack of books at the foot of the bed, angled up.
The first photograph was the easiest, because you were still half-dressed for it.
You kept the panties on. Lace, black, the same cheap pair from before, the ones that bit into your hips just slightly when you moved. You lay back, knees bent, and hooked two fingers into the fabric at the side. The flash caught the shine of your inner thigh, the dark of the lace against your skin, and there—slick and already dripping—here your fingers pulled the fabric aside just enough to show him what was waiting.
That was the first one.
The second took longer.
Nude meant everything. No lace to hide behind, no angle that let you keep some part of yourself out of frame. You stood in front of the mirror first, not out of vanity but because you needed to see what the camera would see. The softness of your stomach. The weight of your breasts. And the little trail of dark hair between your legs, softly curling against the inside of your thighs.
You'd never thought much about it before. Now you wanted him to see it. You wanted him to know you hadn't waxed yourself smooth like the women in the magazines, that you'd kept this part of yourself, and you wanted him to like it.
The wanting left you wet. You could feel it, a warm slick press against the lace as you moved. Somewhere behind your ribs your heart beat too hard. You lay back on the bed and let the timer run. The flash went white for a second, and you just lay there, breathing, the camera ticking beside you.
The photographs developed in the dark of the bathroom, and you spread them out on the bed to look. One of you pulling the lace aside, one of you bare and soft, legs parted, the dark hair at the center of it. The flash had been kind to you. Or maybe you'd stopped caring about it.
You sat down with the pen, and the first line came before you'd even decided to write it.
❝—You're quiet.
That's okay. I can be loud enough for both of us.
I've been thinking about you every night since I sent that first letter. Not politely. I've thought about your mouth, your hands, that half-second before you sing. And I've thought about what I'd let you do to me if I ever had you alone in the dark.
I want to be under you. I want your weight on me, your hands pinning mine down. I want you to take what you want from me— and I want you to know I'm giving it to you gladly. Nothing about me is a surrender you'd have to win. It's a gift, offered on purpose.
I'd kneel for you. I'd do it without being asked, and I'd stay there, looking up, until you decided what to do with me. Put your hands in my hair. Pull. I'll take it. I want to take it. I want to be good for you.
I think about your mouth between my legs. I've decided you take your time there. I've decided you'd hold my hips down and make me wait, make me beg— and I would, Michael. I'd beg so pretty for you. Not because you'd force it out of me. Because I'd want to give you that.
And when you finally push inside me, I want it slow. Your weight on me. Your mouth at my ear, that low voice gone rough, telling me I'm yours. Telling me how good I take you. I want to come with my legs around you and your name in my mouth, and I want you to feel exactly how much I wanted it.
I've done it alone, thinking about you. My fingers, your voice in the room, the picture of you above me. It's good. It's never going to be enough— and I'm not sorry about that. I like wanting you this way.
So write me back, Michael. Or don't. I'm not asking your permission to want you— I'm telling you I do. And I'm telling you what I want is to be yours.
Yours, whether you answer or not, The girl who thinks about your mouth — [❤︎︎ ]❞
You read it over twice. Once for mistakes. Once because you couldn't quite believe you'd written it.
It was bolder than the first. Wilder. The kind of letter you'd never say out loud, the kind you'd fold in half and press into a stranger's hands and then run. And maybe that was the point. You'd already sent him your body. Now you were sending him the truth of what he did to it.
The photographs went in behind the letter. You slid them carefully into the envelope, spine against spine, and sealed it.
Your name went on the back. His on the front, in that same careful hand you'd practiced twice before.
You didn't let yourself think. You pulled on your shoes, walked to the corner in the fading light, and dropped it into the box before the part of you that was still sane could catch up.
The metal mouth swallowed it. Gone.
For a long moment you stood there with your hand still resting on the cold side of the box, listening to the street settle into evening around you. The wind picked up. Somewhere a car turned over. Then you walked home, and you didn't look back once.
You didn't know— couldn't know— that Michael Jackson was lying in his dark room with your last photograph in his hand and his own name halfway down his throat.
You'd find out soon enough.
—
Three days later, your second mail arrives.
He sees it on the entry table with the rest of the mail.
At first, it's only the handwriting that catches his eye. The familiar slant of the letters, the way his name has been written across the front with that same careful attention he'd noticed before. Michael slows as he walks past, then stops altogether. He looks at the envelope for a moment without touching it, his eyes moving over the handwriting as though he needs to make absolutely certain before he lets himself believe it.
It is.
His pulse kicks up into his throat.
For a second, he simply stands there, staring.
Then he reaches down and picks it up, careful not to bend the envelope as he tucks it against his side. He doesn't open it there. He doesn't even turn it over. The possibility of somebody seeing it, of somebody asking who it's from or why he's suddenly so interested in one particular piece of mail, is enough to make him start toward the stairs almost immediately.
He carries it to his room.
The door clicks shut behind him.
Michael turns the lock.
Then, after a moment's hesitation, he checks it again.
Once.
Twice.
He glances toward the hallway before dragging the chair over and wedging it carefully beneath the door handle. He learned his lesson the other day. He is not going to be caught off guard again, not when he has no idea what might be waiting inside this envelope.
Only then does he finally turn back toward the room. The envelope is still in his hand. Michael looks down at it. A small smile pulls at his mouth. He sits on the edge of his bed, turning it over once between his fingers, feeling that familiar mixture of anticipation and nerves settle over him. Then his thumb slips beneath the flap.
Inside there's a letter. One sheet, folded around two photographs, and a note. He catches a glimpse of the first two lines.
'You're quiet.
That's okay. I can be loud enough for both of us.'
Then he unfolds the photos before reading the rest of the latter
The first one takes the air out of the room.
Your fingers. Black lace pulled aside, and there— slick, already shining for him. The flash caught the shine of your inner thigh. It's the most obscene thing he's ever held, and the obscenity of it is that it's real. A woman alone in her bedroom, fumbling with a camera, showing him exactly where she wants him.
His mouth drops open. He makes a sound he doesn't recognize.
The second one. He forgets to breathe. You're holding the with one hand camera. And bare. Not posed like a magazine— just bare, soft, legs parted, and the camera caught all of you. The weight of your breasts. The round of your hips. Thighs, thick and open. And between them, a thatch of hair, curling against your skin. He stares at it like he's never seen anything in his life.
Completely stripped of any clothing. One hand covering a breast, the other bare, your nipple dark against the white flash. Your lips parted. Something glossy smeared high on your thigh.
His thumb drifts over the glossy paper, over the dark of it.
He really likes it. God, he love it. This is just filthily raw.
"Jesus," he breathes.
Then the letter. He reads it slow, the way he's learned to read you— because your words are like your photographs. Everything on purpose.
'I've been thinking about you every night since I sent that first letter. Not politely...'
His palm presses flat over his fly instantly. Just pressure. Denim and cotton between his hand and the heat of himself. He doesn't undo the button. Not yet.
'I want to be under you. I want your weight on me, your hands pinning mine down. I want you to take what you want from me— and I want you to know I'm giving it to you gladly. Nothing about me is a surrender you'd have to win. It's a gift, offered on purpose.'
His hand stops. He reads that part again.
Nobody's ever handed him the wanting like that. Wrapped. Offered. Take it, it's yours, I chose this.
I'd kneel for you. I'd do it without being asked, and I'd stay there, looking up, until you decided what to do with me.
He pictures it. You on the floor in front of him, face tilted up, patient. Waiting. His hands gently in your hair. Pulling. And you taking it — wanting to take it.
His hips roll up into his palm once, slow, through the denim. He bites his lip.
I want to be good for you.
That's the line that breaks something in him. Not the dirty part. The soft part. The part where you hand him more than her body. Good for you. Like it's something you want to be. Like he's worth being good for.
I think about your mouth between my legs. I've decided you take your time there.
He breathes out through his teeth, forehead dropping.
I've decided you'd hold my hips down and make me wait, make me be— and I would, Michael. I'd beg so pretty for you. Not because you'd force it out of me. Because I'd want to give you that.
His palm rides the hard line of him through the jeans, slow circles, the friction dulled by two layers. Not enough. He keeps it that way. He's not done reading.
And when you finally push inside me, I want it slow. Your weight on me. Your mouth at my ear, that low voice gone rough, telling me I'm yours.
"Tellin' me I'm yours," he whispered to himself.
He reads the rest with his teeth in his lip and his hand pressed flat against himself, hard and aching and held back. He finishes the letter. Then he starts it again, from the top, slower.
The lamp burns warm on the photographs. He looks at you and keeps his hand where it is— pressing, grinding, biting his lip hard enough to hurt.
I can be loud enough for both of us.
For a moment, he thinks about the crumpled drafts still sitting in the wastebasket beside his desk. All those attempts at finding the right words, each one abandoned because it sounded too formal, too distant, too much like the kind of answer he would give to any other fan. He remembers the first one most clearly—the word friend sitting there at the top of the page, perfectly polite and completely wrong. He'd stared at it until he couldn't stand the sight of it anymore, then crossed it out so hard the pen nearly tore through the paper.
Paper wasn't going to do it. Not this time.
He looks down at your letter again, at the careful handwriting running across the page, and the thought comes to him so naturally that he doesn't even argue with it.
He needs his voice.
Michael sits there for another moment, letting that idea settle.
Then he gets up.
He finds the recorder in the music room, a small portable thing with a blank cassette already sitting inside it. He picks it up and checks the buttons before carrying it back toward his room, turning it over once in his hands as though he might somehow change his mind along the way.
He doesn't ask.
Nobody stops him.
It's also his house, his equipment, and he's been quiet and strange for several days now. His family has gotten used to him disappearing into his room with a notebook or a tape recorder, especially when he's working on music. As far as anyone downstairs knows, that's probably all this is.
He waited past midnight. Television off. His brothers' doors shut. Mama asleep. The hallway still. He locks his door and wedges the chair under the handle again, because he is not getting walked in on. Not for this.
He sets the recorder on the nightstand. Lays the photos out on the bed in front of him, arranged like a hand of cards. The letter. The lace. The one of you spread open.
The lamp burns low. He takes a breath. His hands are already unsteady.
Then he presses record.
The little red light blinks.
For a long second he says nothing. The tape hisses. He's too aware of his own breathing, too close to the mic. Then he leans in, and his voice drops into that soft, low place you had asked for.
"I got your letter."
A pause. The hiss.
"And the pictures."
He swallows. The mic picks it up— the click of his throat.
"I been tryin' to write you back. I wrote y' hundred letters 'nd I threw every one of 'em away." A shaky little laugh. "Y' said you wanted the breathy part. So I thought maybe I'd just... let y' hear it."
He shifts on the bed. The denim drags. He's been hard since he laid the photos out.
"'m lookin' at you right now. The one where you're on your back."
He picks up the photograph, holds it to the light. His voice roughens.
"Y' spread yourself open for me. I can see everythin'." He exhales, slow. "Y' got... a real pretty pussy."
The word drops out of him like a stone into still water. It lands somewhere in his own chest first.
"I didn't know you'd be so wet." His thumb traces the edge of the photo. "Is that for me? Did y' think about me when you took it?"
He sets the photo down and works at his belt. Leather through the loops. The button. The zipper. It's all on the tape, unmistakable.
"You don't know what y' did t' me." His voice dips. "I read your letter 'nd I couldn't sleep. I couldn't think. I got so hard in the middle of an interview I thought I was gonna die."
He shoves the jeans down. Boxers too. His cock springs free, thick and leaking, and he wraps a hand around it with a low, broken sound that goes straight onto the tape.
"There it is." His breath stutters. "That's what you do to me."
He strokes slow. The slick sound fills the quiet room, wet and obscene, and the mic catches all of it.
"I keep your pictures and letters in a box. In my dresser." A breathless laugh. "I can't stop lookin'. Every night. Your pretty hips. Your pretty thighs." He pauses, voice gone soft and ragged. "'nd that pretty lil pussy. I keep thinkin' about puttin' my mouth there."
He strokes faster. His head falls back against the headboard.
"I wanna taste you," he whispers. "Wanna spread you open 'nd lick you 'til you're beggin' me to stop. 'Til you're cryin' on my tongue."
His hand moves in a steady rhythm now. The wet sound is loud, unashamed.
"I think about your clit." The word comes out strangled. "How it'd feel under my tongue. Swollen. Slick. I'd suck on it 'til y' can't talk."
A whimper escapes him. High and unguarded. He doesn't cut it off. It goes on the tape, and he doesn't care anymore.
"I think about bein' inside you." His voice is wrecked. "Your pussy around my cock. So tight and warm. I'd fill you up so slow you'd feel every inch of me."
He pictures it — you under him, thick thighs spread wide, the dark hair pressing against his skin. His hips jerk up into his fist.
"You'd take all of me, wouldn't you?" He's panting now. "You'd be so good for me. So fuckin' wet. I'd slide right into that little hole and you'd squeeze me so tight."
He squeezes the base of his cock, staving it off, a strained sound caught in his chest.
"I wanna hear you." His voice drops again, intimate, ruined. "Wanna hear the sounds you'd make. Wanna make you come on my fingers first. Get you all messy and soaked before I put my dick in you."
He's close. It's in his voice— the strain, the way the words come apart at the edges.
"Then I'd make love to you." He breathes it out, low and shaking. "Slow at first. Then hard. 'Til the bed's hittin' the wall 'nd you're screamin' my name."
His hand speeds. The wet sound fills the room, loud and relentless.
"'m gonna come thinkin' about you," he gasps. "Thinkin' about your pussy. Your pretty face. The way you stuck your tongue out at me."
A broken whimper. Then another.
"God— I'm gonna—"
He comes with a strangled moan, the mic catching the whole ragged shape of it. Hot over his fist, spilling onto his stomach. He strokes himself through it, shivering, making small helpless sounds until it's too much and he has to let go.
For a long moment there's only his breathing on the tape. Harsh. Then slowing.
He lifts his head. The red light still blinks.
"Now you know." His voice is soft, barely there. "You know what I sound like."
A pause.
"Please keep writing."
He reaches over and presses stop.
The room goes silent. The hiss cuts to nothing. He sits there, spent and sticky, the photos fanned around him like evidence.
He'll mail it tomorrow.
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