multifandom oneshots/preferences

xxi. foreign exchange student--corey taylor (slipknot)

 N O T AN AGE GAP THING, COREY AND ALICIA ARE PARENT FIGURES 

Your trembling hand shakes Corey's and Alicia's in the airport. They ask you how you're doing, but honestly everything is a blur. You just traveled alone from your hometown in Germany to Des Moines, Iowa, which took two train rides and two plane trips. 

Safe to say you're exhausted. 

The cold that immediately hits you as you walk outside of the airport helps wake you up a bit, at least enough to stay attentive to your hosts' questions. 

"The flights were fine," you shrug. "Do you live very far away?"

"It's about a half hour drive," Corey smiles at you. 

"Mh-hm," you nod to acknowledge you understand the answer. 

...

Indeed, half an hour later, Corey pulls the car into his driveway and Alicia helps you lug your stuff inside. 

"Okay, the tour--" Corey claps his hands together as you raise a very tired hand. 

"Sir, I am sorry, but I need to sleep right now," you interrupt. 

"Right, yes, sorry," Corey nods. 

You crash for the entire rest of the day and wake up at around 3 the next morning, an early start to your first day in America. 

...

It's been a good month since you began your stay in Iowa, and Corey is a bit hurt. He's tried a bit of German out on you, introduced you to the members of Slipknot, and made sure you're okay in his house, and yet you have connected more with Alicia. Don't get him wrong, Alicia's made an equal effort to impress you, but it still hurts Corey to know you're only being cordial with him when he's walked in on you and Alicia busting it down to pop punk. 

"Am I scaring them? What do you think's going on?" the singer asks his wife one morning after you've left for school. 

"Do you honestly think you're scaring them?" Alicia gives her husband a soft smile. "They're just shy."

"Not with you."

"Trauma with men, maybe?" Alicia suggests. 

"Oh, damn, I hope not," Corey rubs his face nervously. 

"If I knew the secret, I'd tell you," Alicia places her hands over Corey's free hand in a comforting gesture. 

Soon enough, Corey is left alone in the house. He decided he'd take a day off from the studio to do some writing and general vibing. He turns a campy horror movie on for some background noise as he plays around with some melodies on his guitar. Is the morning productive? I mean, if you consider speaking the entire script of Scream as it plays with a guitar in his hand productive, then yes. Corey got a hell of a lot done. He jokes to himself that you would make a comment about him being a "lazy American" if you were there, but he takes pride in thinking he could dish a great comeback. 

You're on Corey's mind all day until you come home. Your host is delighted to see you, but a teacher yelled at you today and you're stressed and you're this close to a breakdown. 

"Oh, shit, what's wrong?" Corey approaches you as he notices your eyes welling with tears. 

You know if you speak, you'll sob in between random German words that Corey couldn't understand...fuck that. 

Corey watches in confusion as you wordlessly put your bag down, take a step toward him, and collapse into his chest. The host tenses until he feels your shaky breaths against him and his paternal sense kicks in. He wraps his arms around you, gently rubbing your back as you try to regulate your breathing. 

"Hey, it's okay, I've got you," Corey whispers to you. "Let it out. It's okay."

As your body racks with sobs and shaky breaths, Corey never lets go of you. He traces small circles on your back with his thumb as his other hand holds the back of your head until your crying dies down. Your host then sits you down at the island in his kitchen. 

"Are you okay to tell me what's going on?" Corey asks, turning away to look through the cabinet for a tea that you brought from Germany. 

"A teacher punished me because she could not understand me. She never let me talk, though. I stood there and thought she would give me a moment but people kept watching while she, uh, yelled at me," you summarize. "She told me something I wrote was badly made and she was, in her words, 'astounded that a German made it'. Germans are meant to be good at everything, especially ones that do well in school. I tried to explain to her that I was using a...a translator to help me with the thing, and then she told me she couldn't understand me even when I spoke."

"What the hell?" Corey's eyebrows lower in frustration as he pours you both a cup of tea. "I think your English is fine."

"I thought so as well," you shrug. "We are all wrong a few times in our life."

"So what happened after that?"

"After she made fun of my accent, she told me that she won't grade what I wrote because she has too much to do as it is. I told her I could try to help her read it because my, uh," you make a writing motion with your hands. 

"Handwriting?" Corey suggests, handing you a Slipknot mug willed with tea.

"Yes, handwriting is bad. Then she said something really fast and I asked her to slow down because now I could not understand her."

"Did she tell you you were being disrespectful?"

"She said that very thing," you nod. "Also, a Slipknot cup?"

"Yeah," Corey smiles, sipping from his own matching Slipknot mug.

"Bei Ihnen fehlt es an Talent in Subtilität," you mutter. 

"I know you just called me an asshole," Corey huffs dramatically.

"Tja," you scoff as you take a drink of tea. "I don't know what it would be in English." You take your phone out and type what you said into an English translator.

"Ouch, goddamn. 'You lack talent in subtlety'?"

"Well, it is accurate," you smirk. 

Corey laughs to himself. "God, Y/n."

...

About two hours later, Alicia comes home with a dramatic announcement of her presence that Corey promptly shushes.

"What the hell? You've never shushed anyone in your life," Alicia scoffs. 

"Yes, but they are asleep," Corey whispers, gesturing beside him on the couch. Alicia raises an eyebrow and takes a step closer to the couch to look over the back and see you napping, leaning against Corey's shoulder. 

Alicia looks at her husband to meet a giant smile on his face as she kisses him. 

"They like me now...get fucked," Corey whispers as Alicia pulls away. 

...

okay this was so fun to write lmk if you want more foreign exchange student oneshots