#here ya gooo its been so long...

[gamerbot-22]

A Taste of Your Own Medicine

Prompt: Sleeping

TW/CW: Sequel to One Man's Trash is Another Mole's Treasure and Laid Up, some kisses on the head, barely proofread and I appreciate spellchecks!

Word Count: 1,762

A/N: I'm back again! I got sick as shit right after getting back from my vacation but NOW I AM HERE FOR REAL! AND WE ARE GONNA FINISH THIS LET'S GOOO!!! And we begin the end with Natasha getting fucking. Treasured. As she deserves. Love this lady to bits, I tell ya. Jesus, that word count btw. We are back in business baby--

Translation Note: тише (pro. tishe, lit. "quiet") is just how you tell someone to "hush" in Russian. It can also be written as "ш" which is just the "sh" sound!

Likes and Reblogs appreciated (reblogs > likes) and Requests are Open! Read this story on Ao3 here!

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The dividers in this post were made by @/gamerbot-22 (me!) ☆

© All rights reserved by miHoYo

Back pain was a normal part of aging. It's just a continuation of the body as it continued on and on on its journey through life. It was simply just something that happened, and there was no shame in it.

Unless the reason your back hurt was because you'd been hunched over a desk for three hours. Then there was a little shame. But nothing that couldn't be worked off with a bit of stretching. So with a sigh, and a hand braced against the sore spot above her hips, Natasha got up and stepped away from her desk to an empty space between the tiny waiting room and the first bed. The Clinic was empty for the first time in a long while, so she could take the time to get some lunges in before the next person--

*Ding-a-ling!*

Nevermind. Natasha got up from her half-lunge position and turned to face the door, her eyes shut in her usual, welcoming smile.

"Hello, what seems to be the problem toda--oh!"

She was just getting interrupted all over the place this evening! She didn't even get to finish her sentence before a tiny mittened hand grabbed hers and started to pull her towards the door. Natasha winced against the sudden jerking forward and the twinge of pain that accompanied it, but she kept a brave face as she addressed her would-be escort.

"Hook, what's going on? Use your words."

"Surprise!" The girl barked at her, her head whipping around to show off her determined, round little face. "Just come see!"

Natasha gathered up her skirt with her free hand and started to move, knowing she didn't have the strength to resist in any capacity tonight. "Alright, alright, I'm coming, Hook."

This was the second time this week that Hook had come to bring Natasha somewhere, and while Natasha was happy to go, she hoped it wasn't as long of a walk as last time. Natasha's back probably wouldn't be able to take those stairs in Rivet Town. Thankfully, this newest journey was mostly flat, with Hook marching confidently down the streets of Boulder Town, walking in prefect time across the lamp-lit, worn cobble paths until the two of them came to an alley just big enough for two adults to stand side by side in.

"Hook," Natasha said, straining to stand up straight while Hook hurried forward a few more steps. "Let's take a break for a moment, alright? I've had a long day at the clinic."

Hook whipped around, her eyes going wide before she scurried right back to her side, reaching for the doctor's hands again. "Hey, you can't stop here! We're almost there, come on!" She seemed especially insistent, which was already an achievement for the strong-willed leader of the Moles. She tugged at Natasha's arm once, twice, three times, and Natasha's patience was starting to come loose with it.

"Тише!" She scolded, although even that wasn't very harsh as she took her hand back. "Just be patient a moment, I'm not as young as I used to be!"

A door further down the alley creaked open, bathing the purple stone in a warm, ember light that spread like wildfire to where the frustrated travelers stood. A pair of shadows cut through the light, but the accompanying laughter more than made up for the missing warmth.

"Ha! Ain't that the truth! All in good fun, of course~!" Even backlit, Natasha could see Sampo's smile, quickly accompanied by another familiar grin.

"You're in the home stretch, Nat!" Luka said pushing out of the doorway. His step was sprightly--he always recovered fast--and he had his arms stretched out to welcome the doctor and her escort closer. "Come on, we've got some tea going on the fire and Sampo just finished making the bed."

Hook darted out of Luka's way and down the alley, slipping between Sampo's hip and the doorway before disappearing. He dove after her quickly, still smiling big, and the sound of their laughing echoed down the stone corridor.

With the new privacy, Luka let the victorious air fade away into a more personal smile. Natasha, on the other hand, pushed herself upright, standing up straight to better receive his company.

"Tea and a made bed," she said, breathless but smiling all the same. "It sounds like you and Sampo have been busy."

Luka waved her teasing aside, his prosthetic clicking gently under his chuckle. "Ah, it was nothing! Especially compared to all the work you've been doing lately." He offered her his arm, which she took, and he began to lead her down to meet the others. "Especially especially when you've been dealing with patients like me who keep trying to fly the coop."

"Oh, it's not too difficult," the doctor insisted, although she was grateful for the slow pace Luka had set for this final stretch. "It comes with the job, and I don't mind it much."

"Still, your poor back--"

Luka held the door open for Natasha and the little room was even better than the doctor could have imagined. There was a fire going and the kettle over it, shiny with wear, was already beginning to sing. There was a snug, woven mat in front of the fireplace with a plate on top, adorned with a half-finished sandwich that no doubt was Hook's doing going off of how small the bite marks were. Speaking of, she and Sampo had taken to playing a friendly looking game of chase around the tiny living room. Sampo was clearly letting the Mole get a head start on him, keeping his steps much shorter and slower so she had the chance to actually get out of reach before he moved to grab her again. He snapped to attention pretty quickly, though, once he saw Natasha looking at the two of them so fondly.

"Ah, just in time!" Sampo smiled, clasping his hands together and bowing slightly, as he always did to her. "It's like the kettle knew exactly when you were coming!"

"Would that make for another person in on this?" She teased gently. She watched Sampo take the kettle off the fire and bring it to the tiny little kitchen area to the right of the door. He poured three little cups of a rich brown tea, and motioned for Luka to come get his after scooping up the other two.

"For you, my fair lady~" He offered Natasha her cup and she took it with a chuckle, playing along with his show of chivalry with an "Oh, why thank you!" in return.

"Only the finest sleepy time tea for our Doctor, right?" Luka handed a bottle of milk to Hook, then raised his cup to her. She enthusiastically returned the gesture... only to hand the bottle back for him to open.

"Oh, you three are spoiling me now." As humble as she was, the honor and love she felt in her chest was bigger and brighter than any fire her three friends could ever hope to light. Hell, it almost made her forget the twinge in her back to see Sampo, Luka, and Hook all gathered together with her and smiling. "Thank you, everyone. Truly."

Sampo finished his tea in one swig--a feat that might have been more impressive if the cup wasn't so little--and flashed her his real smile, the one that actually pushed his eyes closed from how wide it reached across his face. "Ah, don't think of it as spoiling! Think of it as paying you back. For all the hard work you do for us."

"And for everyone else down here in the Underground," Luka chimed in, quickly passing the freshly opened bottle to Hook so he had a free arm to wrap around Natasha's shoulders. He was careful, of course, but the bend in her spine was still a little tender. "You're a godsend, Nat. Really."

"Oh..." She swore her heart would melt right out of her chest. She held her warm teacup close and turned to kiss the crown of Luka's head. "Thank you."

Then she gestured Sampo over, and he bowed to get a kiss of his own, right in the center of his forehead. "And thank you."

"Of course, 'Tasha."

Natasha sniffed, and if it weren't for the mist in her eyes when she looked at Hook, no one would have thought a thing of it.

The little Mole scurried over to Natasha, standing up on her tip toes so she wouldn't have to lean down too far. Unfortunately, she still had to bend almost in half, but the thought was there, same as the tea and the fire and the made up bed with clean white sheets in the corner, so it was alright. "And of course, thank you, Hook."

"It was my idea," she said proudly, earning a chuckle from all three adults. "Now finish your tea and lay down!"

That got a full belly laugh from Sampo, loud and strong and echoing off the walls as he braced against the door frame, nearly immediately collapsing into joyful tears and shaking shoulders. Luka was only slightly better at hiding his delight, at least turning his face away to laugh at Hook's best Natasha impression.

The good doctor took it in stride, shaking her head before taking a sip of her tea and shuffling off towards the bed. "Yes yes, Doctor Hook, right away!" She could afford a bit of playtime, as long as it didn't go to Hook's head, and as long as it meant she got to lie down for a little while.

After a little time and some help from Luka, Sampo got a hold of himself, and Natasha's three beloved friends came to wish her a good, long rest.

"If you need anything, just holler," Sampo assured her, taking her hand to pat it gently. "I'll come fluff your pillows, even!"

"I think I'll be alright, but thank you."

Hook lifted her bear up onto Natasha's lap, holding his head up to look at her. "If you have any bad dreams, just hold onto him and he'll make them go away."

"That's very brave of him. And very sweet of you, Hook."

Luka leaned down to give her a hug, and the other two followed suit until all four of them were wrapped up in one another's arms, warm and quiet and oh so comfortable in this tiny room underground.

"Love you, Nat."

"I love you, too."

"Get some good sleep."

"I will."

"No wandering off."

"Heheh. No wandering off."

[night-dark-woods]

ok Exordia review time (not spoiler free!) since i finished it a few days ago. this is long and rambling and unedited.

4/5 i love Seth's writing and im glad they got to play with scifi again BUT i think they needed a better editor OR to split it more cleanly into sections- in one of the interviews they said it was originally a series of novellas each from a single POV, and i think the constraint of that would have made it a much tighter story.

one of the best things about their Destiny lore is how much they do with so little- thinking of this section from the Beyond Light CE:

Disaster at the worksite. Clearly we will not be moving Clarity Control like we did the K1 artifact. It reacted violently to the attempt. I have entered 19 casualties into the log, since 19 engineers from the Hannu team were caught in its reaction...though there were many more than 19 bodies when it was finished. I have sequestered the recordings. Especially the sensorium telemetry. Quite upsetting. Yet I do not believe it was an act of hostility. Even this outburst carried themes of duplication...as if Clarity Control wanted to show it could help me.

which i was originally thinking of as a first run at Blackbird, but i think these may have been simultaneous? i'm not actually sure. i know Exordia was started after the first Baru book was published, but i'm not sure how much lead time there is for the CEs.

or the clarity of Unveiling compared to a lot of what felt like similar ideas that took much longer to get thru in Exordia. primes. pink noise. math. alright lets fucking gooo oh wait. five more pages of ethics first. okay sure i'll do that for ya Seth bc i love your prose. which also. a) conway game of life mentioned!!! b) this part from Exordia made me LOSE MY MIND:

But that was impossible. The whole universe came from the same source: the same designers. I was part of one of them. If I could only remember... We were arguing, I think. Or maybe we were the argument, because gods cannot do things, they can only be them. We were in contest over the morality of infinities: the cardinality of all possible souls measured against the mere infinity of souls to ever be born...

(this is the part from Unveiling, for the optimistically two people who will read this who haven't read Destiny lore):

Once upon a time,* a gardener and a winnower lived** together in a garden.*** * It was once before a time, because time had not yet begun. ** We did not live. We existed as principles of ontological dynamics that emerged from mathematical structures, as bodiless and inevitable as the primes. *** It was the field of possibility that prefigured existence. They existed, because they had to exist. They had no antecedent and no constituents, and there is no instrument of causality by which they could be portioned into components and assigned to some schematic of their origin. If you followed the umbilical of history in search of some ultimate atavistic embryo that became them, you would end your journey marooned here in this garden.

at the same time, idk what i would remove- at very few points was i reading something that dragged, with the exception of spending a LOT of time with Erik and Clayton in the middle (this is when i put the book down for a month and a half or so). and i know so many people were like sickos.jpg about them However their dynamic did sooo little for me and i don't think Rosamaria was given enough time on the page (and i think having her Be the ship was weird- i recognize that Blackbird needs to have a voice to make the plot go, but i don't think this was the best or neatest way to do it, and collapsed a lot of what i found fundamentally so interesting about Blackbird into something akin to a standard scifi Ship AI).

again i think the restriction of each section of the story being from a single POV might have been the restriction needed to end up with a tighter story- at no point were the multiple plot threads & POVs confusing, per say, but i'm not sure what the structure did for the story bc we could switch to whoever could tell us the most about what was happening whenever convenient, instead of having to piece things together from a limited POV. i'm thinking again of the BLCE, this time the part where Clovis is talking about Maya Sundaresh behaving erratically- i'm no Ishtar group expert but i believe we are supposed to put together that these are all different iterations of her from within the garden). oh- i also wonder if Aixue and Chaya are another run at Maya and Chioma to some degree...

anyway. i also think i am also less the target audience for this book because seth loooves their trolley problems and i simply do not have the patience for it! i loved the hard scifi and the first contact aspects and the character work (Seth's character work is, as always, spectacular. their characters always feel deeply real and flawed in very human ways, while still being exaggerated in the ways characters have to be to function as plot fulcrums), but this isnt something like Baru where i can be like yes you should read this to everyone i talk to.

I think the language in the book is DELIGHTFUL, as always, especially how Seth plays with the idea of an alien translator that sometimes can get an English equivalent to something and sometimes can't! i think that's very fun. because it's on my mind bc ive been listening to the Shelved by Genre episodes on it, it makes me think of Book of the New Sun, and how the "translator" figure of G.W. talks about picking words that are close but they aren't being used like we would use them now- e.g. "metal" in BotNS isnt the same thing we think of as metal! its used more broadly! but its close enough in purpose and point to work just fine. the destriers have horns. i need to know if Seth has read these books.

but back to Exordia. here are some specific prose parts i fucking loved.

this part of the full-page loving, detailed, and technical description of 40 alien nukes detonating in atmosphere:

In the band of thickening atmosphere twenty-five to thirty-five kilometers above the Earth, these gamma rays slam into atoms of oxygen and nitrogen, stripping their orbiting electrons. The orphaned electrons hurtle away at 90 percent of lightspeed. They want to go in a straight line, but hold on now, it's not so easy to leave home. Earth's magnetic field bends their course. They begin to spiral down. When an electron moving near lightspeed has to turn, it emits synchrotron radiation. Poison light. And beneath each bomb there are 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrons swerving at once. The result is a blast of electromagnetic noise. No: not noise. A coherent pulse, spiking and faling in harmony. Shiva's own beat drop on electrical civilization. An EMP.

This part. i love Anna and wish we got more of her.

He gives her back her Glock. She accepts it with resignation. "You'd better get your men ready," she says. "It's going to be bad." "Women too," he says, trying for lightness. "The pilot's a woman. We've got a female forward surgeon, a psyops lead, a linguist- she's pretty badass, ran with SEALs in Afghanistan. And Lt. Gainer, she might have some advice for-" "For what?" Anna says calmly. "Advice for what, Erik? How to get killed in a feminine way?"

Seth has such a good and specific way of writing metaphors. a little bit Douglas Adams:

The upshot is: the air around the engine exhaust beam explodes outward with a sound like a tuning fork hit by a Space Shuttle launch. Lung-jellying power. Anything in the beam path suffers the short, severe influence of a needle faster and hotter than a vajra thunderbolt. Anything around the beam eats fireball.

& this part. again. i wish more of the book was Anna and Ssrin's fucked up kismessitude. or whatever.

She slides the barrel of the weapon into the uppermost crater on Ssrin's spine. Slick pain makes Ssrin hiss in psuvoluntary fury: psuvoluntary because it is reflex subject to veto- she could quash it, but the feeling is deliciously wrong, and it is so good to bare her fangs and to unleash that ancient khai instinct of pain-as-motivation. "Questionsss," Ssrin gasps. "I want to know how this story ends." Oh serendura. You'll wish you hadn't asked. You'll wish you'd gone in with your eyes shut and your tongue in your throat so you couldn't smell the poison til it was too late.

which also!!! that's something i love about the Ssrin POV like. Seth is always good at writing aliens and slipping in details that tell us about them. "tongue in your throat" to not smell the poison bc she is a snake alien and smells with her tongue!!! that rules!!!

[zumpietoo]

Okay, for starters....Like PP's dress, but it's waaayyyy too much for the event and OFC she made MM's premiere ALL about herself, endlessly attention whored.....and her face looks REALLY weird these days....

PP literally treats SweatBoi like her servant AND looks miserable unless there's a camera....(he's legit her nu SlaveTay!)

A) even if this were true (no), how fucking high school/moar confirmation the BB is (at least intellectually) 12....

B) And yet they ONLY are ever together once every 6 months, for very public events to Powerpuff Girls together, because they still think that's what makes them relevant....interestingly, Crotchi didn't bother to actually see PP when she did her photo ops at Coachella (despite name dropping her in an interview)....and MM doesn't bother, period.

C) Just realiced: MM has now led her own, likely successful theatrical release and while it was so bad I had to turn it off, Musica did get good, albeit entirely unjustified reviews....ironic, no, BB that all the Plaiderdale peeps "unemployed" during the strike, while PP scabbed are now moar successful than she is, huh????

TBF? It's for the cameras, but SweatBoi looks kinda threatened, no? DW, CB, so long as you're a good slave, she'll keep ya around!

Like I said, "true slave".....dude, normally this task is assigned to a low level flunkie.....but does show how juvenile you are about, literally, everything....that you think it's amazing that he holds her purse...

Moooommmm!!! I don't wanna gooo!!! I hate your friends and these dumb clothes you bought me from the International Male Collection at Sears are itcheeeeee!!!

(not sure what's "hot" here, BB.....cuz I see zero chemistry and, again, two people who appear to actively dislike one another....)

Oopppsss!!! PP got wasted!

When the International Male Collection at Sears tries out its nu Cole Sprouse line....without consulting Cole.....and fails...

OML.....MM and Crotchi clearly dislike CB....they won't even acknowledge him! And, again, moar distant MotherBoi!

You're 12 again...also, too, also:

MOTHERBOIIIII!!!!

Ummm.....noooo, that's "such a Cole move", so, once again....

A) Copycat!

B) MOTHERBOIIIIII!!!!

C) Nose tries to shade Cole, weirdly, with this....while confirming the copycatting....

D) "identify"?????

And, lastly, why does PP need to buy "old $$$$" SweatBoi nu clothes from the International Male Collection at Sears, anyway???? (and, ofc, those clothes look cheap and ugleee to meeee!)

Errmmm.....again, nope....she dragged her slave along, cuz time to refresh her lipgloss....

As u admit upthread, Nose, it old, uglee and he's repeating (which, again, you TRY and pretend isn't copycatting Cole/somehow awesome when done by SweatBoi)

[mmollymercury]

Omg its been so long since I've heard from u glitter!! Love ya!!💗💗

Also haven't done one of these in a while so here we gooo😭

What's the origin of your blog title? My blog is actually pretty old lol, I had it since I was a young teenager, the name was different when I started out (I can't remember the original name😭) but I changed it to mollymerccury because 1. Molly is my name lol, and 2. I really REALLY love space!!!! Thats not really something I post a lot about but I love the planets and reading all about them. Mercury begins with 'M' just like my name, and I thought MollyMars sounded.... not as good lol, so I went with Mercury😊

OTP(s) + Shipname: Will forever be a sonadow girl, yes yes yes‼️🙏

Favorite color: Green!

Favorite game: I love a lot of games, but recently I've been playing Sonic x Shadow Generations, I've technically finished the game, but now I'm just working on getting perfect ranks in each level and collecting all the tokens and stuff, and I really really love it! The game play, the story, THE MUSIC!!!.... I love shadow the hedgehog sm😭😭

Song stuck in your head: Not sure, recently the song 'don't speak' by no doubt has been playing in my head. I've also been listening to the wicked soundtrack an insane amount.

Weirdest habit/trait? Were do we begin??🤪 I guess overthinking things that really don't matter at all.

Hobbies: Drawing! Painting, animation, reading comics/manga, playing games, listening to gooood music

If you work, what's your profession? Im a full time animation student, so don't have the time to work, and I'm very thankful that I dont have to atm😊😊

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? I also want to be an animator! Also an illustrator, and publish my own original stories in a graphic novel/comic format

Something you're good at: urm I think I'm good at reassuring people? And picking up when something is going on with somebody close to me

Something you're bad at: trying to not be extremely anxious in every possible situation

Something you love: I over analyse media I love, I like finding depth in things, I also love imagining little music videos in my head whenever I listen to music teehee

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: Space/planets, Sonic the Hedgehog, all my other hyperfixations lol

Something you hate: sighhh...., the world has some horrible ppl in it and I hate that

Something you collect: little antiques I like, I have a lot of vintage paintings hung in my room and also have an antique armillary sphere! Its basically a little globe type thing that was used back in the day to map out the stars in the sky. I bought it cos I've been obsessed with getting an antique planetarium for a long time... but those are SO expensive,(seriously look it up, they're beautiful and I NEED one but damn they cost a lot) and when I found my armillary sphere at an antique shop it was much more reasonable

Something you forget: I can forget a lot of things, I'll forget dates for things and I'll also forget to drink or eat sometimes😅😭

What's your love language? Spending time with someone, being very open and expressing appreciation!

Favorite movie/show: Not sure, I love a lot of shows and films. Its hard to really say? It changes depending on what I'm obsessed with at the time lol. I will say tho that the Bobs Burgers movie is one of the most perfect movies to ever grace this blue marble. Also, same glitter, same💗

Favorite food: classic plain pizza🤤

Favorite animal: my dog obviously💗

What were you like as a child? I was definitely more confident. In class I was very shy, but in the playground I was extremely sociable, its hard to believe lol. I remember in primary school I used to have a lot of friends and be kinda popular, again, crazy looking back

Favorite subject at school? I loved history too! I love learning about all these things that had happened in our history.

Least favorite subject: maths, P.E.... most things lol

What's your best character trait? I don't think I'm very judgemental, and I want the people close to me to feel comfortable telling me things that maybe bothering them💗

What's your worst character trait? Again, overthinking, being socially anxious and nervous, all the lovely things in life lol

If you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be? Urm there's a lot that comes to mind lol😭😭

If you could travel in time, who would you like to meet? Idk! There's noone I've ever really wanted to meet from the past,,, also they might end up being awful in person, so there's that fear😭

Tagging some ppl:::

@niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian @lilrobinbird

Feel free to answer if u wanna!😊

Get to know your mutuals!

Thanks so much for tagging me @joyful-soul-collector !

What's the origin of your blog title? The first two words originated from the first ever email account I made. The GlitterNight stuck and I really liked to be called Glitter (so, by all means, pls do!). The name got longer across platforms.

OTP(s) + Shipname: I really like Meljayvik in all iterations right now. I usually prefer solely platonic relationships but I guess I also have a thing for fictional love triangles.

Favorite color: Turquoise

Favorite game: Genshin Impact bc I like pretty characters and exploration games with deep lore.

Song stuck in your head: This original song about Viktor called "No Flesh No Fear" (check it out, it's really good!)

Weirdest habit/trait? Rewatching the same shows I like until I've absorbed every little detail, collecting old types of paper for my sketchbook

Hobbies: Drawing, writing, crafting, cooking, (gushing abt other ppl's art)

If you work, what's your profession? I work at a company and help out in management while studying for my degree in business administration.

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? I want to be an animator or character designer and one day work on a movie people can derive spiritually-enlightening meaning from. (humble, ikr)

Something you're good at: I'm a good listener and can give reasonable advice. I hope I'm also good at lifting others up.

Something you're bad at: Taking the initiative when making plans with others. I'm too passive sometimes.

Something you love: Nuance and depth in media.

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: same as above hahaha

Something you hate: Let's be dramatic and say the state of the world.

Something you collect: My sketchbooks and stickerssss

Something you forget: When I'm the creative zone, I forget that I have a body.

What's your love language? Ehm, words of affirmation and quality time!

Favorite movie/show: ...Arcane. But I'll never forget you, Encanto Fam!!

Favorite food: Gotta go with sushi

Favorite animal: Too many to choose from

What were you like as a child? More assertive? Peer pressure couldn't get to me lmao

Favorite subject at school? History! (It's like a collection of stories)

Least favorite subject: Physics? (Heavily depended on the teacher, tho)

What's your best character trait? You can count on me. I'll defend you to the last breath.

What's your worst character trait? My irl social battery. And being too critical of benign things.

If you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be? Where do I even start?? I wish I could hear more good news tbh.

If you could travel in time, who would you like to meet? Never meet your heroes, I'd say. ;)))))

Tag as as many mutuals as you want!!

@voxconcordia @carmendyy @mercutio-the-velaryon @jaijeijayjei

@gioxy3ron @acewithapaintbrush @mmollymercury

[fruit-teeth]

Chronicles of Love and War (chapter 21)

Angelica awoke as the sun was beginning to rise outside the window. She stretched a little, her thoughts still foggy from sleep, before turning to see Spy asleep next to her. She smiled, curling close to him and gently kissing the back of his neck. He moved slightly in his sleep, smiling faintly, and she wished she could take off his mask and see his real face. Yet, she wouldn’t do that - not without asking, of course. She’d seen his face many times, but she knew how much his identity meant to him. 

“I love you,” she whispered to him, though he stayed asleep, stirring quietly again. 

Right at that moment, the phone on the end table rang. Angelica glanced over, and she picked it up without thinking. “Hello?”

“Howdy, ma’am,” came Engineer’s voice. “Is Spy awake yet?”

“Hey!” Angelica greeted cheerfully. “Uh, he’s still asleep - what’s up?”

“Well, I just wanted to update him on what went down last night,” Engineer began. “We got my pa out of the hospital, spent the night at the motel, and now we’re getting breakfast at the gas station! We should be back real soon,”

Angelica sighed with relief. “Oh, good! I’m glad to hear that!” 

Just then, Spy fully woke up, and he nudged Angelica. “Who is that?” he asked in a hushed tone. 

“Oh,” Angelica glanced back at Spy, replying, “It’s Engie, you wanna talk to him?”

Spy nodded, sitting up as Angelica passed him the phone. “Good morning, laborer,” he greeted. “I hope all is well,”

While Dell was updating Spy on what had transpired the night prior, Angelica got up and gathered her things for the shower. She wasn’t trying to listen in on their conversation, but she couldn’t help it. 

"Thank you for calling, Dell, and I will also let everyone know what you’ve told me," Spy said finally as the call came to a close. “And...please tell your father that I hope we don't have any bad blood as we work through this predicament."

Angelica turned to look at Spy, watching as he hung up the phone. “Hon?” she asked, tilting her head. “What’d you mean by ‘bad blood’?”

Spy got quiet for a moment, sitting up and, in a rare moment, removing his mask to fix his hair. “It’s rather complicated, but…let us just say I may or may not have stabbed his father at some point.”

Angelica’s face fell, though she tried not to be entranced by the sight of her maskless lover. “Oh, hon…now, why would you do that!?”

“He was on the opposing team,” Spy clarified. “I had to disguise myself as him, and as to not ruin the facade, I had to stab him. Yes, Dell was upset, but he understood why I did it. That’s how these things go in this business.”

Angelica lingered, staring down at Spy’s face. Finally, she replied, “So…was that why he was in the hospital?”

“I assume,” Spy sighed. 

When Angelica said nothing and sucked her lips into her mouth, Spy took a step closer to her. “Darling, this is just what this business is. You understand - this was how we met in the first place, was it not?”

“I know,” Angelica clarified quickly. “Rene, hon, I’m not judging you for this job! You know that – but…God, its gotta be pretty awkward when someone who survived one of your attacks is just…showing up again. You don’t think he’s gonna wanna get back at you for this? I get there’s bigger fish to fry, but…”

Spy took her hands into his own, giving them a squeeze. “Speak my true name quietly,” he urged her. “But I can assure you…if he wishes to get back at me, I’ll be prepared for that. I have been around this type of block many times, so to speak.” 

Angelica nodded, but she could not dispel the uneasiness she felt. She rooted into him, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder. After a moment, Spy reached up and placed his hand on her head, running his fingers through her black hair. 

Following a brief period of silence, Angelica pulled away and cleared her throat. “Um - I’m gonna go take a shower. You coming?”

“In a moment, darling,” Spy clarified, opening up his closet to fetch his special towels. “I have some business to attend to.”

Angelica nodded understandingly, and she opened the door to the hallway to slip out. “All right - meet you in there, sweets.”

Spy waited in the room for a bit after she went to the shower, thinking about what had just happened. Even if it offended her strongly held values, she still understood his work and how essential it was to him. She was truly everything Spy had ever wanted in a lover, and he couldn’t help but smile over how grateful he was for her. He shook himself out of his daze, got his towels and specialty soaps, and walked to the shower room to meet her. It was early still, so they would not have to worry about anyone seeing them together in there. 

Not long later, Lar-Nah got up as well and headed to the basement to check on Zelda. She carried her tranquilizer with her, as she was unsure of whether or not they would need to kill Zelda just yet. Lar-Nah's current plan was to knock Zelda out again as Helen hadn't yet issued the order to kill her.

Yet she observed something peculiar when she descended the stairs to the basement: she could hear Zelda, but Zelda appeared to be...laughing. Yes, Zelda was definitely laughing…but why?

Lar-Nah opened the basement door and stepped over the barrier to the small room that was Zelda’s prison. Zelda was seated in the middle of the space, bound to the chair, and sure enough, she was chuckling to herself.

“What’s so funny?” Lar-Nah asked her, closing the door behind her and popping open her case of tranquilizers. “Not that I care, I’m just curious about what you could possibly find so funny.”

Zelda lifted her head, her hair a wreck. “Oh, it’s nothing,” she cleared her throat, the side of her mouth quirked up into a small smile. “I’m just…I keep thinking about how you still have no idea where my sister is. She’s going to find me here, you know, and she will find all of you as well.”

"Well, she's going to be outnumbered," Lar-Nah said as she took out the tranquilizer syringe. “She doesn’t have a team, remember? And without your…magic, or whatever you call it, there’s not much she can do about that.”

Zelda hummed in the back of her throat, before letting out another giggle. She was grinning again, and it looked as though she was about to say something but stopped herself. 

Lar-Nah paused, syringe still poised. “...what?”

“Nothing!” Zelda trilled, eerily chipper. “I was just thinking about the pact I made with your husband…”

After a brief hesitation, Lar-Nah snapped her wrist forward and drew Zelda in close to her. “What pact?” she demanded to know, her free hand still gripping the syringe. “I swear, if you don’t tell me right now, I can go right back upstairs and get the truth serum and–”

“And then I’ll you everything you need to know,” Zelda finished, breaking out into laughter again. “Well, I can tell you, but there won’t be much good you can do about it!” 

When Demoman heard the basement stairwell door burst open, he was about to get a container of quick oats from a high shelf in the kitchen. He glanced up just in time to see Lar-Nah storming out in a rage. 

Curious, he called out, “What happened?”

“I’m going to kill him,” she called back. 

“Kill who?” Demoman shouted back. When she didn’t answer, he went back to making the oats, though he kept nervously glancing over his shoulder. 

Sniper entered the room a little while later wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt that read, ‘I ate fried clams in New Orleans.’

“Good morning,” he greeted Demo, walking over to the coffee pot. “The coffee machine in my camper’s busted, gotta use this one.”

“Fine by me, lad,” Demo hummed in reply. “Oh, by the way – Lar-Nah is fuming, and she said she’s gonna kill someone. I think Zelda said something to her…”

Sniper paused, before setting the coffee pot down with a grunt. “Hell – I’ll go see what’s up. Hope it’s not too serious.” 

He walked to where the lab was, and upon seeing that the door was ajar, he pushed it open. Lar-Nah stood by her desk, the glass covering of her nightshade plant lifted as she cut the leaves.

“Hey,” Sniper called out to her, getting her attention. “Everything okay?”

Lar-Nah lingered for a moment, staring at the nightshade leaves. Finally, she looked back at him. “I think we all need to have a meeting.”

“Why?” Sniper questioned, entering the room. “What happened?”

“It’s…” Lar-Nah trailed off, and she sighed. “I don’t even know if its a concern, honestly. But – the last time you were around Bill-Bel, did you notice any strange symbols carved in his skin?”

“...uh…” Sniper winced, trying to remember. “No? Honestly, I was too pissed off to notice, not to mention all I did was shatter that jar over his head. The jar with the magic inside, not one of the…other ones. Why?” 

“Well,” Lar-Nah crossed her arms, turning all the way so she could face Sniper. "I had a strange encounter with Zelda just now, and she claimed she drew some kind of marking on him to keep him from disobeying her or running. She could be lying, or maybe she feels she has nothing to lose. I’m sure the truth serum would clear that up, but this feels too specific to be a lie."

Sniper stood there for a moment, taken aback. After a moment, he cleared his throat. “Uh…is it like, uh…a sex thing? Or–”

“No!” Lar-Nah snapped. “She didn't say that, I mean. She did, however, mention that she made a deal with Bill-Bel when she initially brought him here. The sigil was part of this deal, and he is effectively tied to her forever. I guess that's why he's the mayor of this ridiculous town - she gives him whatever he wants if he does what she wants. I knew he was stupid, but agreeing to something like this is a new type of stupid, especially for him.”

“Okay, okay,” Sniper put up his hand to stop her for a moment. “Slow down and tell me the important part. What exactly got you so riled up?”

"Part of the contract has a condition where, in the event that something should happen to her, he must finish what she's started," Lar-Nah stated after a brief pause.

Sniper took this in, before clarifying, “Does that mean…?”

“If we kill her, Bill-Bel will be the one to summon The Corrupt,” Lar-Nah confirmed. “I don't know whether he even knows we abducted her, but when Bea learns Zelda is missing, she'll let him know.”

“I get that, but,” Sniper scratched his head. “Does he even know how to…do that?”

“That’s what I can’t figure out,” Lar-Nah replied. "I guess Zelda must have left him with some type of instructions to follow if they have this agreement. I wouldn't be concerned if he was working alone because I know how much he dislikes following directions, but if Bea is present, this may go wrong if they can make it work.”

Sniper went quiet for a moment, taking this in. Finally, he said, “Should I call Helen?”

“Yeah,” Lar-Nah sighed. “Or, at the very least– let everyone else know. We should have a meeting about it, I think. Because…”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Sniper cut her off, trying his best to sound reassuring. “Look, I dunno what’s gonna happen, but we’ll deal with it. Got it?”

Lar-Nah nodded, looking back to her nightshade plant. Sniper started to leave, but he turned back to look at her. “Oh, and by the way: did you end up sedating Zelda?”

“Oh–” Lar-Nah shook her head quickly. “No, I forgot. I will go do that now…” 

“All right, good,” Sniper turned back to head for the phone. 

Zelda was still in the basement, sitting in the chair when Lar-Nah returned. She had the syringe with her again, still clutched in her hand, but she also had a case of the truth serum with her. 

“All right, Zelda,” Lar-Nah announced. “I’m going to knock you out, but first, I’m going to see if you’re telling the tr–”

Before she could finish, she noticed that the restraints that held Zelda's feet to the chair were gone, but she didn't have time to respond. Zelda leaped up, and even though her wrists were still cuffed, she smashed into Lar-Nah at full speed, knocking her to the ground.

“You harpy!” Zelda screeched at the other woman, bringing her right knee up to pin Lar-Nah to the floor. “Beast! I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you all! If you harm my sister again, I'll paint this place red with your blood and the blood of everyone here! I would destroy this whole country for her, do you hear me!?”

“Get off of me, you brainless cunt!” Lar-Nah managed to say, though it was difficult with Zelda’s knee on her windpipe. She tried to get away from her, but Zelda ducked her head and rammed her forehead against her nose.

Lar-Nah let out a shout of pain, but thought quickly and shifted just enough so she could bite Zelda on the thigh. Zelda shouted in surprise as she sank her teeth into her and instinctively drew back, allowing Lar-Nah just enough time to slip out from under her and pin her down.

At that very moment, the sound of footsteps rushed down the basement steps, and Demoman ran in. “What happened!?” he exclaimed, before halting to look at what was going on. “Uh– what the…”

Lar-Nah took her sedative syringe and injected it into Zelda's neck, knocking her out. “She got her feet free and went after me!” Lar-Nah explained, though she sniffed, noticing that her nose had started bleeding. “Damn it– we need some better way of tying her down!” 

Demoman stepped in, picking up the now-unconcious Zelda and dragging her back to the chair. “How long is that going to keep her down for?” he wanted to know, gesturing to the syringe. 

“Four hours,” Lar-Nah replied, pulling a tissue from her pocket and hastily mopping at her nose. “Four hours, at most…”

“Good to know,” Demoman grunted, securing Zelda’s legs back to the chair. “We’re about to have a team meeting, Spy just said so.”

Lar-Nah sniffed again, nodding. “Okay…do we have everyone here yet?”

“No,” Demo shook his head. “But I think they’ll be back soon!” he approached Lar-Nah, noticing her nosebleed. “Oh, hell, did she break your nose?”

“I don’t think so,” Lar-Nah winced, noticing she got some blood on her fingers. “There’s a first aid kit upstairs, right?”

“Aye,” Demo replied, gesturing for her to follow him up the stairs. “There’s one in the kitchen!”

Upon arriving to the kitchen, the two were greeted by the sight of Sonya, who was up and about. She was rummaging through the fridge when she noticed Demo first. “Oh, hello,” she greeted him warmly. “I want to ask one of you – is my son call yet? Did he come back?”

“Not yet,” Demo replied, opening one of the cabinets to look for the first aid kit. "But don't worry, Misha's a good old lad, and I'm sure he'll be back soon..." somewhat irritated, he screwed up his mouth and opened the second cabinet. “Bloody– I could’ve sworn Medic put a first aid kit in here!”

“What is wrong?” Sonya asked, but it was then she noticed Lar-Nah standing there, her nose still bloody. Sonya gasped, closing the fridge and hurrying over to her. “Oh!”

“I’m fine, it’s not broken,” Lar-Nah tried to assure, but Sonya quickly pulled up a chair and had her sit down. 

Just then, Spy’s voice came on over the intercom: “We’re having a team meeting! Please come down to the meeting room if you are available, we will begin within the next ten minutes.”

Demoman squinted at the speakers next to the ceiling. “Hell, I forgot we had those!” he shook himself, heading for the doorway. “I’ll get on in there– should I tell everyone you’ll be coming soon?” He glanced over at the two women, watching as Sonya took it upon herself to tend to Lar-Nah. 

���Um– yes, I’ll be there soon,” Lar-Nah replied. As soon as Demo left for the meeting hall, Lar-Nah turned her attention back to Sonya. “Look, you don’t need to do this…”

“I want to help,” Sonya insisted. She stood up, getting a wash cloth and soaking it under warm water. Once that was done, she returned to Lar-Nah’s side, pressing the warm, damp cloth against her nose. 

They sat in silence for a moment, before Lar-Nah spoke quietly. “Thank you.”

“My son tell me about you,” Sonya spoke up suddenly. “About who you are, and what you did.”

Lar-Nah could only murmur "...oh.” She drew her lips into her mouth, allowing Sonya to tilt her chin up as she swept the blood away.

Sonya hummed, carefully checking the bridge of the other woman’s nose to make sure it was indeed not broken. “Yes. But do not worry,” she pulled her hand away, setting the wash cloth down onto the table beside them. “I do not judge you. I am proud of you for choosing to live and to help him and this team. You should know this, if no one tells you it.”

There was a long pause. After a few seconds, Lar-Nah grasped Sonya’s large hand in her smaller one and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you,” was all she managed to say, trying to sound composed despite the emotions she felt welling up. 

Sonya smiled at her, squeezing her hand back. She cleaned the last bit of blood from Lar-Nah’s face, before getting up. “Go to the meeting, now, they are very busy probably…”

Lar-Nah nodded, getting up and turning to leave. "Yes - thank you once more," she paused just before heading towards the meeting room, wiping her eyes covertly.

In the meeting room, a discussion was already beginning. Medic, Heavy, and Engineer were still gone, but Yana and Bronislava continued to fill in for Zhanna.

“So,” Spy took a long breath. “Let’s go over what we know so far: Bea is still out there, and there’s a possibility she and the pathetic fake mayor of this town are going to continue on with Zelda’s plan,” 

Scout scoffed. “Yeah, well, he’s too stupid to even do anything! I guess the ol’ lady’s not, but–”

Spy cut him off. “He may be stupid, but he is also an influential member of this town. The people here don’t know who he really is – they think he’s their beloved mayor Bill Waters, not Bill-Bel. All they talk about is the new clock tower he's building, which will bring more jobs and some recognition to the community. To them, he’s their savior, and if we publicly go after him again, he could turn them against us,” 

“They already attacked us once,” Demo pointed out. “And we all got away! We can do it again, right?” 

“I don’t know…” Spy sighed. “Things seem very different here than they once were. However, it doesn't mean we won't pursue him and Bea. We only need to figure out where Bea is, though I doubt she's moved very far.”

Just then, a loud wheezing noise could be heard in the room. Confused, Spy glanced over, seeing Pyro coughing and wheezing loudly through their mask. 

"Oh – Pyro, could you kindly step out for a moment?" Spy made a shooing motion with his hand to avoid looking disgusted by the noisy coughing.

Pyro got up and shuffled out of the room. Scout watched them go, a concerned look on his face, before he stood up as well. “I’m gonna make sure they’re okay,” he informed everyone, before following after his teammate. 

The door closed, and Spy sighed. “All right…anyway, where were we?” 

Soldier put up his hand. “I have an idea!” 

Spy winced. “Urgh…all right, Soldier, what is it?”

Soldier proudly marched up to the front of the room, carrying a piece of paper in his hand. He slammed it down near the desk where Spy was standing, and then puffed out his chest proudly. “I found this outside!” 

Spy raised an eyebrow, picking up the paper and skimming the writing. After a good few moments, his eyes widened, and he smiled. “Oh…I see…how interesting…”

“What? What is it?” Sniper wanted to know, curious. 

“It would seem,” Spy began. “That there is an opening day party for the new clock tower today. First is a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and then after that is a party. According to this newsletter, Mayor Bill Waters will be attending both events.” 

“Ohh!” Demoman exclaimed, eye going wide with excitement. “Are you suggesting we crash this party?”

“Yes,” Spy confirmed. “We are going to infiltrate this event – of course, it all must be done without being seen by the public.  I will help with disguises, and we shall be off!”

As everyone began to prepare for the mission, the room quickly became vibrant with talk. Scout and Pyro soon returned to the room, though they were quickly filled in on what was going on. Just then, Miss Pauling stepped in, bag in hand as she looked around the room. 

“What’s going on? I just got here,” she set the bag down onto one of the chairs. “Helen said she’s gonna be here later, what did you all decide to do?”

Spy walked up to her, putting the pamphlet into her hand. “We’ve decided to crash a party. Do not worry, I am already devising a plan as we speak. If it goes off with out a hitch, we can handle everything privately,”

Pauling smiled a little, putting the pamphlet into her bag. “Great! Well, I’ll help you out with that, if that’s okay. We’re gonna settle this once and for all!”

Meanwhile, in Teufort, things were just as busy. To start getting ready for the event, several local residents gathered around the clock tower. The town hall was also rather busy that day, and Bea had to weed around several people to get into the building. 

“Excuse me,” she called out to the woman at the front desk, getting her attention. “I need to speak to Mayor Waters. Is he here?” 

The woman nodded. “Yes, he’s in his office getting ready for the event today. Do you have an appointment?” 

“Listen,” Bea leaned in close to the woman, trying to remain composed. “I need to talk to him, it’s very important!” 

“Sorry,” the woman sighed, going back to her paperwork. “If you don’t have an appointment, you can’t see him.” 

Bea stood there, her face twitching for a moment. Finally, she turned and walked into the adjacent bathroom and shut the door behind her. Moments later, she came running back out, exclaiming, “Hey, someone started a fire in the trash can in there!” 

The woman jolted, leaping from her seat and grabbing the fire extinguisher from next to her desk. “Oh, god, not again!” 

As the woman took time to put out the fire in the bathroom, Bea took the opportunity to sneak up the stairs. She quickly located the Mayor’s office and knocked on the door a few times. “Mr. Waters! Are you in?”

She got a garbled, barely audible reply. “Who’s there?” 

“It’s me, just let me in!” Bea insisted. There was no response, and Bea raised her voice slightly. “Bill-Bel, I swear to God, if you don’t open this door I’m coming in there!”

“It’s locked,” came the reply, a little louder this time. “I’m busy, leave me alone!” 

Suddenly, there was a loud clicking sound, and the door burst open. Bill-Bel’s snapped up from where he’d been laying it on the desk, just in time to see Bea standing there. Bea was holding a lockpick, and she looked furious. 

“I told you, I’m busy!” Bill-Bel snapped at her, attempting to sound intimidating despite his lack of sleep.

“Yeah, well, this is important!” She slammed the door behind her, walking up to the desk and putting her hands on it. “Zelda is missing!” 

Bill-Bel blinked slowly, taking this in. “…missing?” 

“Yes, missing!” Bea snapped at him. “I last saw her in the herbal supply store, and when I returned, there were cops around, and the place had been wrecked! Those mercenaries must have got her, and I’m tired of this game of cat and mouse! You need to join me in finding my sister since you've been sitting here doing god-knows-what for the stupid people in this town all this time! Zelda brought you here and gave you everything so you would work for her, and you need to do that!” 

There was a long pause. After a moment, Bill-Bel dropped his head back onto the desk and made a pathetic whining sound. “I can’t!” 

“Get up— get the hell up!” Bea picked him up by the scruff of his jacket so she could look at him. “Why can’t you!?”

"Because I have to do it," Bill-Bel whispered, peering directly into her eyes in a way that made her uncomfortable. Bea let him drop back into the chair, taking a step back. 

“Do what?” She asked, brow furrowing. 

“Suppose she’s dead,” Bill-Bel began. “I have to…summon the…thing…” 

Bea blinked a few times, letting this sink in. “You mean…The Corrupt? She’s not dead! Besides, I don’t trust you to summon something this powerful!” 

“Well, then, what do you want me to do!?” Bill-Bel suddenly shouted at her. “I can’t think, I haven’t slept in…” he squinted, trying to think, before shaking his head. "I haven't slept in a long time, I have a speech to give soon and then a party to attend, what makes you think I have time to—?"

“Listen!” Bea snapped again, startling him back into his seat. “This is more important! You agreed to help my sister in exchange for this new life of yours, now fulfill your end of the bargain and help me!” 

Bill-Bel said nothing for a long moment. Finally, he spoke: “My mother saw my future and she didn’t like what she saw.” 

Bea stared at him for a moment, her anger dissipating for just a moment. “What am I saying?” She sighed finally, exasperated. “You’re not in any condition to help me, anyway, your brain is scrambled.” She reached into her bag, pulling out a pill bottle and shaking a few pills out. “Here — I have caffeine pills. Take a few of these and get through your day, and then at the end of the day..." She took out another bottle of pills and gave him some of those as well.“Take these sleeping pills so you’re not like this. When you wake up, come straight to me and we’ll find out where those bastards are keeping my sister! Got it?”

"Which one is the caffeine pill and which one is the sleeping tablet?" Bill-Bel asked, squinting at the pills.

Bea rolled her eyes, walking to a water cooler in the corner of the room and getting a cup of water ready. She handed him the water cup and pushed the caffeine pills towards him, saying, "Here, take the caffeine pills now and put the sleeping pills in your pocket for later."

The phone beside Bill-Bel rang as he swallowed the caffeine pills and then placed the sleeping pills in his coat pocket. He cleared his throat and picked up the receiver, answering, “Hello? Yes? Yes, I have my speech prepared, I’ll be right there. All right, thank you.” 

He stood up, heading for the door. The phone suddenly rang again, forcing him to pause and sigh loudly. “I…can you get that? It might be my wife…I really need to go…”

Bea huffed, but complied. “Sure, whatever,” as soon as Bill-Bel was gone, she picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Greetings,” a strange voice replied. “Is Mr. Bill Waters available?”

“He just left, sorry,” Bea answered, preparing to hang up. “This is his…assistant. Can I take a message?” 

“Of course,” the man agreed. "Tell him I'm here to look into some unusual events that an anonymous source reported to my agency,"

Bea paused. “…agency? Who is this?” 

“You may call me Lazarus,” the man went on. “My agency was initially contacted regarding a situation in a Teufort park, and we were contacted again regarding an occurrence in a local herbal shop. We have reason to believe that the two are connected.”

Bea stopped, taking this in. After a moment, she responded, “Bill Waters is busy at a ceremony today, but I can meet you. I’ve been investigating this myself. What agency do you work for?”

“That isn’t important,” Lazarus assured her. “Just know that we deal with demons and paranormal happenings. May I ask what your name is?”

“Just call me Beatrice,” Bea said, though she hated using her actual name for anything. “And I think you and I might be looking for the same group of people…” 

[letsasoiaftogether]

Princess in Distress...

IMAGINE...being a Targaryen and running to Ser Jaime Lannister for protection against the rebel forces the night of the Sack on King’s Landing

Word Count: 1,194

Warning: None....maybe slight ooc for Jaime??? but its young Jaime so he might already be ooc in comparison to his older self lol

A/N: NOT a request, but I got the idea for it and I love Jaime (and I dont write nearly enough for him soooo here ya gooo). I don’t know if its all that good, but I like it so I hope you all do as well lol

(GIF isn’t mine)

They’re in the keep.

The rebels are in the keep.

There was no way you could describe the terror that had sunk deep into your bones the moment you discovered that King’s Landing was being sacked and that the forces of the Westerlands was heading straight for Aegon’s Hill – for the Red Keep.

They were coming for you and they were coming for your father. Your mother and little brother had already managed to escape to Dragonstone, but you hadn’t been allowed to go. A part of it was as a punishment from your father, the man best known as the Mad King. You had failed to give Rhaegar sons, and that just had to be the reason he had run off with Lyanna Stark. It didn’t matter that you were seven years his junior at only seventeen, and that you had only been given two years to give him a son before he had ran off with the Northern girl. It didn’t matter that you had married when you were practically still a child to your brother, a practice that no other family in Westeros participated in. Not even Dorne.

It was entirely your fault. At least, that’s what your father and many of his most loyal followers had hissed at you for an entire year now.

The other part of why you hadn’t been allowed to go was…deep down you knew that your father was sacrificing you so your mother and brother could live. You were only a daughter. What usage did you truly have?

*

You hid in Maegor’s Holdfast until you heard the guards shouting about the rebels breeching the Red Keep, and then you were running.

You probably should have ran for a secret passage, the one under the Tower of the Hand maybe, but instead you ran for the throne room. Not for your father who would never bother to save you, and who knew what he had in store for the rebels. No, you ran for the throne room for the Kingsguard knight barely a year older than you who had never been anything but sweet to you. And the Kingsguard knight who just happened to be the son to Tywin Lannister, the man leading the force in the sack of the capital.

If Jaime wasn’t up to protecting you, as his vows demanded, then you truly had no hope of surviving. But you had to try something.

I don’t want to die…I’ve done nothing wrong.

I’m good.

You weren’t normally one to be frightened so easily, but by the time you reached the throne room you had tears spilling down your cheeks from the horrors you had already witnessed that night.

The sight of guards in Targaryen armor being gutted and cut down by men donning armor branded with sigils of the Westerlands would haunt you for years.

If I live that long.

The horrors didn’t stop there.

The side door you came through as you stepped into the throne room isn’t where the treason ended.

Your eyes landed on the body of your father the moment you were in that great hall.

He was lying on his back. Blood covered the front of his clothes and his neck had been slashed as well. Blood pooled beneath his body and had pushed outward into the red carpet that led from the throne to the double doors at the end of the hall.

Slowly, you lifted purple eyes and met the green of the man seated upon the iron throne with his sword – blood still dripping off of it – resting across his armor-clad thighs.

“Ser…Ser Jaime,” you half whimpered as you stumbled forward, down the stairs that led to the balcony you had ran out onto moments earlier.

Deep down you knew it was stupid to go to the young man who had so clearly murdered your father, but you also could reason that your father wasn’t a good person. At all. And that maybe he had attempted to do something that Jaime deemed terrible.

Jaime isn’t the kind of person to hurt the innocent.

He was surprised to see you, but you knew him well enough to see the relief as well as he stood and met you at the bottom of the dais. He whispered your name and reached for you with his left hand, his right still wrapped firmly around the hilt of his sword.

You didn’t care that his armor had your father’s blood smeared onto it, you only wanted comfort and to know that…that maybe he would protect you!

“Are you going to kill me too, Ser Jaime?” you questioned softly in between sniffles as you looked up at him.

The blond opened his mouth to answer just as there was a crash from outside the room and the sound of thundering feet. Jaime’s gaze narrowed slightly and he lifted his blade, backing up toward the throne – pulling you with him. “Sit on the throne, Princess.”

You shook your head. You didn’t want anything to do with the cursed thing! And you didn’t want to give the rebels anymore reason to want you dead.

“Just tell them not to hurt me, Jaime! They’re your father’s bannermen! They have to listen to you.” You whimpered as you moved to hide behind him, your cheek pressed against the cool steel of his white armor.

They didn’t have to, though. The Westerlands knights who had stormed the castle with Tywin Lannister at their back. Jaime had given up his right as heir. For all either of you knew, Lord Tywin had already wiped his hands clean of Jaime.

You knew that you sounded so naïve in that moment, but you didn’t care and Jaime was too much of a knight to call you out on it.

But you had managed to get to the throne room without being killed.

And you had managed to survive a marriage to your older brother who…who loved you in the way a brother should and only tolerated you as a wife out of duty.

And you had managed to survive your father who at times looked at you like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to slit your throat and sacrifice you to whatever Valyrian gods he believed in that day, or if he was imagining you as some sort of…concubine for his future children your mother Rhaella had failed to give him.

You were allowed to be hopeful and to think that you might make it out of the war alive.

What else could you do? Give in and give yourself over to Lord Tywin or whomever came through those doors?

“I won’t let them hurt you, Y/n.” Jaime whispered, using your name and not titles for the first time in months as he shifted into a more defensive stance, his gaze directed toward the end of the hall.

“I know.”

Jaime had always been sweet to you from the moment he was accepted into the Kingsguard. He was honorable, a true knight (why else would Arthur have knighted him?), and no matter his reasons for killing your father, you truly believed he would die trying to save you.

[laurenkate79]

The Actor & I: PART TWENTY-ONE – We Need To Talk, Now, Anastasia

This is part TWENTY ONE of a very long, SLOW BURN series on Austin Butler and a Production Assistant on set of Elvis (2022).

Masterlist here!

Anything italicized is main character’s thoughts!

Warnings: Drinking, Possessiveness, Smut, Fluff, eventual Spoilers for Elvis (2022), language (If i missed anything, please comment so i can add!)

Tags: @manddor @pumkiinpasties​ @its-funny-til-its-not​ @karamelcoveredolicity @butlerstyles @feral4austinbutler @mirandastuckinthe80s @emilykolchivans @atombombbibunny @francescababy @starry-night-20 @yeetfack-blog @milaa24 @londonalozzy @xo-aurora @chaoticbilly @mamaspresley @sageskywalker @cryingabtab (Let me know if you’d like to be added!)

Please, if you like this, share it, comment, like it and enjoy! xx

After Austin leaves, I decide against laying down on the couch and crying. I jump in the shower and slowly get ready for bed. It’s almost 8:30 PM by the time I’m done with my skincare and decide I’m tired enough for bed. I wake up to no texts from Austin the next day and I’m a little disappointed. I don’t want to be the first one to say anything, so I decide to just get ready for the day.

The next few days fly by at work and by the time it’s Friday, I still haven’t heard from Austin… I know tonight is the big premiere for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

The premiere is a big deal for Austin; not only is it a huge accomplishment, I mean it’s a Quentin Tarantino movie with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, but it’s his first big even with the press since his casting as Elvis was announced. You decide to bite the bullet and send him a text. Have fun at the premiere tonight…miss you. No, don’t say that… Don’t be so desperate, Ana.

“Have fun at the premiere tonight, Mr. Presley! xx”

I type up the message and hit send. I don’t want to overthink it and put my phone away. Hours go by and Austin never texts back.

I wish he had his read receipts on… Did I do something to make him not want to talk to me? It’s been five full days… Not a peep since he left my place on Sunday…

Disappointment washes over me, but I look at the time on my computer and see it’s a little after 6 PM. I decide it’s a good time to leave work and begin to grab my things. As I’m putting away my laptop into my bag, my boss, Alison, walks by on her way out and stops by my desk, “Austin looks great at the premiere, which is great for us,” she says. “Oh, I haven’t seen any pictures yet. I wanna see!,” I giggle and pull out my phone.

What the… My heart sinks… Austin looks incredible, but he’s with Vanessa…

I thought he said they broke up… I knew they could get back together, but so quickly?

While I’m panicking in my head, I hear Alison cough. Yeah, Ana, your boss… This is WORK. “He looks great! I can’t wait to check out clips of him talking about his casting in Elvis. I should splice it together or something for Baz’s social media,” I say and smile up at her. Her eyes light up, “That would be incredible because ya know… the social team is already gone for the weekend. Speaking of, go home! It’s Friday night! Do you have plans?” I giggle and say, “No plans, but I feel like I should go out or something. I didn’t really do much last weekend since I had car trouble.”

We head out and when I get to my car, I text my friends asking to go out. I’m usually a homebody, so my friends are not used to me asking to go out. I could use a drink…or four. And a good time with my friends, just letting loose. Immediately, my best friend Kelsey answers, “YOU WANNA GO OUT??? YES LET’S GOOO ALLLLL OUT BBY!” I laugh and head home.

As I’m walking into my apartment, I see over 20 texts from my group chat with my friends. I giggle as I text back the only requirement is there’s alcohol, I don’t drive and it’s somewhere we can sit. I wanna dress up and wear heels, but I’m not about standing in them…

I head to the kitchen, grab some wine and head to my bathroom to shower and get ready for the night. Around 9:30, my friend Nicole texted me she was on her way in an Uber to pick me up. Shit, better get dressed. I head to my closet without a plan and grab a black leather mini skirt, black corset top and some black heels. When in doubt, we just wear all black.

I get dressed, put on some more lotion and perfume, and then go to head downstairs. As I’m finishing my drink, I hear my phone going off with a phone call, not a text. Okkkk Nicole, I’m coming!

I grab my phone, chug my wine and then grab my purse to head downstairs. I answer the phone as I’m headed down to my apartment’s entrance, “Nicole, I’m coming down. I’ll be there in a sec-“ I’m cut off midsentence and my heart falls into my stomach… “It’s uhh not Nicole. It’s Austin…,” says the deep voice on the other end of the phone.

Fuck Ana, why didn’t you check to see who it was? Why is he calling now? Shouldn’t he be with Vanessa? Damn, Ana, cool it. He’s a coworker, that’s it!

“Oh, sorry! Hi Austin! I’m headed out, can I text you tomorrow,” I ask dryly. Yeah, keep it professional… He sighs, “Oh, I guess it is Friday night. I just wanted to talk to you about some stuff…. I guess I can call you tomorrow.”

Don’t do it, Ana. Don’t give in. “Ok, talk to you tomorrow Aus…tin,” I say making sure I don’t call him a nickname and stick to formalities. As I’m saying bye to him and before I hang up, I hear my friend yelling from the Uber, “Dammmmn, Ana! I can’t go out with you dressed like THAT,” Nicole yells.

Before I manage to hang up, Austin groans and says, “Ana, where are you going?” I giggle and say, “I’m not sure, but I really have to go! I’ll text you later.” I hang up and am happy I had some wine before so I had the courage to stick to my guns with him.

I get in the Uber and head off to wherever my friends decided to go. We get to a nice bar and meet up with our other friends. As we’re walking to where they’re seated, my best friend Kelsey gets up and runs over to me, “Anaaaa, you’re here!” I laugh and realize my two glasses of wine have me behind everyone else. I grab my best friend and we head to the bar to get me caught up drink wise. As we’re headed back, my friend takes a video of me dancing with my martini and says, “Everyone on Instagram is about to reply to this shocked you’re out drinking, Ana!” I’m not a big social media user, but I see the video with our location tagged, decide I look good and repost it on my story. I put my phone back down on the table and just catch up with my friends as I unwind and try not to think about Austin with Vanessa. After a few more drinks, I realize my phone was going off. I have a missed call and now a text from… Mr. Presley.

I sigh and check my phone. As I’m reading the text, I gulp and I can feel my cheeks burning. Kelsey must gauge my reaction and she grabs my phone from my hands. I don’t even try to hide it from her and she reads the last message on my phone, grabs my hand and pulls me up dragging me away from our group.

“Ana, this text…. “Anastasia, I saw your post… I’m coming to see you” this is not a friendly text! He has a girlfriend! You work together,” Kelsey scolds me firmly, but quietly so strangers around us can’t overhear. I sigh and lean into whisper, “Can we get another drink? I need to catch you up….”

We head to the bar and as soon as I get a drink, I take a sip and then tell Kelsey everything. The flirting, Austin saying him and Vanessa broke up, him sleeping at my apartment, the way I straddled him, him saying nothing could happen and end with him ignoring my text about the premiere only for me to see photos of him with Vanessa on the red carpet…

Kelsey’s mouth is dropped and she orders us another round of drinks. Uhh, I feel a little drunk… I order a water and feel a bit better right away. Buzzed, but not too drunk.

As Kelsey is going on about how I need to forget about Austin and treat it like work, she stops midsentence. “Uhh, Ana, he’s really here,” she whispers. She plays it off cool, but I don’t. I turn around and see Austin right away. Tall, his dyed dark hair, in jeans and an opened buttondown and his icy blue eyes, which lock on me right away. He looks sad at first and then his eyes darken and he bites his bottom lip. He is definitely checking me out as he looks me up and down slowly. He looks like he’s drinking me in.

Fuck, what am I supposed to do now? I look at Kelsey and groan. I chug my drink and before I’m done, another espresso martini appears in front of me. I grab the drink and go to walk away from the bar back to our friends, but Austin steps right in front of me. Fuck, he’s so hot. I look up at him and he bites his lip while he caresses my cheek with his thumb, he leans down and whispers, “You look so fucking good, Anastasia.”

I have goosebumps everywhere. Why does he have this effect on me? I just wanna jump on him here, in front of everyone. I keep it together and say loudly, “Oh, nice to see you! I didn’t know I invited you. Where’s Vanessa?” He looks a bit taken aback by my words and I regret them right away. What are you doing, Ana?

I don’t know what to say next, but he grabs my chin and whispers into my ear, “We need to talk, now, Anastasia.”

[closer-stars]

Good Thing - Mingi (3)

Member: Mingi with some appearances of the other members Genre: Fluff, overall good stuff, maybe a lil drama mmm Requested: Yes Word Count: 9k Content: Y/N shy. Mingi babie. Wooyoung doesn’t know how to keep secrets. They’re finally lovers.  Note: HELLO THIS IS THE FINAL PART TO GOOD THING. First time writing this much. What was supposed to be a one shot became a 3 part series THE HECK. Also I should try making a divider soon. Pls give this as much love as you did with the previous parts. 

Part 1 ,Part 2 here

Since your competition was finished, your days have gotten a lot quieter. You had to admit, you looked a little better as compared to the weeks that lead up to your competition. Though, instead of heading home early, you spend your time by the stands in your school’s basketball court. It’s time to repay his kindness you thought so as you wait for his training to finish, you continue to review your notes for the upcoming exams and requirements. There were times where you’d stop poring over your laptop screen to watch his team practice various drills and sets. Most of those times were spent watching Mingi in particular be in his zone. You had to admit, it’s interesting to see Mingi be in this state. In the years of your rivalry with him, his eyes would always narrow at the sight of you, jaw clenched as he would try to keep himself from making a scene (spoiler: it usually fails), the cocky lopsided grin he dons when he sees his friends with you. 

You see the similarities of it on the court. Even if this is just practice, he already has his game mode on. He’s not fazed by his other teammates trying to get the ball from him or break his focus. The amount of times he fails to make it to the net could be counted on one hand. He really is the standard for the future members of the team. Despite the coach only talking of what to improve on and what to focus on, he didn’t seem fazed by it. You could see that while he was more physical on cheering for the other members, Yunho was more verbal. Their differences shine on and off court: Yunho on the defense, Mingi on the offense. Put both of them in court and it looks like a force to be reckoned with. No wonder your university has been the champions for the past four years. You weren’t that familiar with all the faces in the team, you did keep to yourself for the most part but you were familiar with how they had an impressive fan base outside the university. They were athletic with nice faces, God really played favorites. 

You look at the time and it wouldn’t be long until their training finishes. You’ve gotten used to eating dinner with him and occasionally with Yunho as well. Did you mind how late it would go? Not really. Late night trainings has eventually made you a nocturnal. The same could be said for them, except those two are a little better at dealing with the morning. You pack your things up once you see their coach call it a day for them. Some of the boys were walking slowly around the court to cool down while others immediately made their way to their training bags. 

Yunho manages to see you waiting by the stands and waves at you, how he has energy still after such a grueling time is beyond you. He nudges at Mingi and you can only assume that he’s telling him that you’re here based on how he looks around wildly until he catches sight of you. A timid wave is thrown to them as you make your way down the steps. Mingi picks up his back and he looks up at you while you look down at him from the elevated platform. “What are you doing here?” He asks you with a smile that tries its best to stay hidden. 

“Waiting for you to walk me home, d’uh. Are you ready to grab dinner?” You tease with a roll of your eyes. The sharp gaze from earlier has shifted into something softer as you tease him. Thanks to your quick reflexes you manage to avoid his fingers tapping your chin. 

“C’mon then. I’m hungry as hell.” He states while patting his stomach. Mingi calls for Yunho if he wants to join for burgers and burritos. Knowing that human sized golden retriever, he wouldn’t say no to burritos. If your package deal is you with Wooyoung and San, the same could be said for Yunho and Mingi. It was rare for you to see one without the other, save for when Mingi picks you up from training. His best friend practically sprints over at the mention of burritos. 

“Let’s go!” He hollers as he continues to sprint out the court, leaving the two of you in the dust. 

Dinner wasn’t as stressful as it was in the past, if you were eating with the two of them, you opt to just listen to the two of them banter about anything and discuss their classes and training. 

“I can’t believe you're about to leave me alone in this team.” Yunho says with a sulk, cheeks puffed from his burrito. Mingi rolls his eyes again and makes a face at the male. 

“I’m still going to visit your practices while I still don’t have a job yet, dumbass.” Mingi returns. “Besides,” he continues before taking a bite out of his burger. “Have you already considered who you want to take over your position once you become the captain?” This is a conversation you knew too well so you opt to just watch as each guy speaks. 

“What do you think of Jongho? He’s got a lot of potential. Incoming Junior too so once I leave, he’s got a year of experience leading the team with me.” 

All Mingi could do while his mouth was full was to nod and give a thumbs up. “Someone to balance your hyperactiveness too.” This makes you snicker into your food, causing two pairs of eyes to look at you. “What?”

You shake your head. “Nothing, it’s just a conversation I’ve had also with my team.” You let them continue as you finish your meal. It takes a while before they finish their meal, stalled by their constant back and forths about what’s due the following day and what isn’t. It only ended because you suggested to look at the calendar for that class. Yunho’s right: Nothing’s due the next day much to Mingi’s relief. Eventually, Mingi and you split ways from Yunho, not that he minds. He also knew how coffee runs in your veins. 

Once you and Mingi are left alone, he lets out a sigh. One that was mixed with exhaustion and relief. “Are you okay?” You ask with a light laugh as you notice his shoulders drop while rolling his neck around. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just really tired from all the training. Kind of excited to end this basketball stunt I’ve been doing since day 1.” He admits with a laugh. You don’t know how it happened, but your conversations with Mingi have been happening more often now. The two of you don’t seem to run out of things to talk about, should there be a lull in the conversation, it wasn’t a big deal. Everything just felt comfortable and peaceful. As peaceful and comfortable it can be for graduating students that is. 

He opens the door to the coffee shop for you before following you inside. Your table was also free: perks of being a regular you suppose. The staff catches sight of you and already prepares the usual for the two of you. “The usual yeah?” The woman behind the cashier asks you approach the counter. Mingi had already drifted to your table, relieved to have his legs rest once more. When you arrive at your table, you already have all your orders on your tray. 

“Hey careful.” Mingi chides gently as he helps you settle everything down onto the table. You hum a soft thanks for his help. Usually, when the two of you were in this coffee shop, Mingi had his earphones in as he worked on his laptop. This time’s a little different. He’s still on his laptop but he had no earphones in. 

“Did something happen to your earphones?” You ask, not used to the sight in front of you. Some people would have their gazes linger at the two of you, and you already know it’s because of Mingi. You keep quiet about it, already certain that Mingi knows of it. He doesn’t seem to mind it as much anymore though. It takes a while before he tears his gaze away from his screen and you couldn’t help but want to squish his cheeks at how adorable he looks when he looks at you; pursed lips that make his cheeks puff out and wide eyes. You know better than to do so in public like this though. 

The two of you were just friends after all. 

“Ah, yeah. One side doesn’t work anymore, so I just don’t bother to bring it.” He explains as his pursed lips turn into a faint pout. He really didn’t show his softer side in public but having you around him makes it come out more often. You reach through your bag’s pocket for your earphones then hand it to him. 

“Here.” You say simply. “I don’t need it right now anyways.” You reassure him when he looks at you with the same wide eye look. He gingerly takes the earphones from you and plugs it into his laptop. You were about to continue looking through social media when you noticed his expressions. He pulls out one bud and looks at you as if you grew two heads. 

“Why is your earphones’ sound quality so good? I can hear everything in my music.” He explains, as he tries to look for the brand name on the wire. 

Your mouth was open to reply but you stopped yourself quickly. Why did ‘Babe’ flash in your head instead of his name? It takes you a few moments to regain your composure. “Mingi, the brand’s kind of not that important. The specifications are what you should be looking at. I can show you after your game this weekend.” You explain. 

His jaw falls slightly ajar at the explanation. Why didn’t he think of looking at that? “It’s a deal then.” At least he has something to look forward to after his game, something to wake up to the following day. 

After an hour or two so in the coffee shop, you were ready to head home, Mingi much more. He takes a few minutes to stretch his aching muscles before practically deflating on his seat again. “Mingi, come on.” You laugh, amused by his antics. “The sooner we get home, the sooner you can sleep.” 

Witha whine, he caves and pushes himself up, hoisting his bag over his shoulder. “Let’s gooo” He mumbles through a stifled yawn. 

The walk up to your dorm was quiet, mostly from how his exhaustion was setting in his bones. “Get some sleep okay?” You say before you step into your living room. He nods almost like a child, rubbing his eyes with the back of his knuckles. You gaze at him for a moment, and before you knew it you had your hand cupping his cheek. “Just a few more days, Mingi. You’ll be free from this after.” You reassure him. 

He stops his movements when he feels your hand gently rub against his cheek. Your voice takes a softer tone. His heart does something funny at how you talk to him and he doesn’t realize how he leans into your touch. A deep breath. “I know. I’ll get going now, yeah.” He says, as he wraps up your earphones neatly before handing it back to you. “Thank you for this, by the way. Good night.” With that, he makes his way to his place. While his body aches for rest, his head and heart need to go through some reflection. 

What are these feelings? 

You close the door gently and shake your head, unsure of how to describe your feelings. You glance at your earphones for a moment, a small frown on your features as confusion sets in. “Whatever.” You mumble as you drop off all your stuff by the couch as you wash yourself up. You need sleep. 

You wake up, vague images of your dreams slowly melting away from your consciousness. Even if these images were hard to decipher as you become more awake, it’s hard not to miss the messy mop of hair that Mingi has. What was he doing in your dreams? You look at the time. 7AM. Already a message from Mingi greeting you a good morning, at… 6AM? How much sleep did he have? 

From chats post training until arriving at your dorm, to being the first one you talk to in the morning. 

[ You ] How much sleep did you get, mister? 

You push yourself up, to ready yourself for the new day. 

[ Mingi ] Five? Four hours 30 minimum. 

You can’t even get yourself to be mad at that. You’ve done the same just to prepare for your competition. So instead, you sigh. 

[ You ] Make sure you catch up on sleep soon.

[ Mingi ] :p

You wonder how you’re able to put up with his stubborn antics. 

On the times where the two of you have the same breaks, he would be with you with San and Wooyoung. Same for you with Yunho. Sometimes the three of them with the two of you, on those occasions though, your cheeks hurt from trying to keep your laughter in. When Mingi and Yunho had to leave for their class, leaving the three of you alone. Once the two were out of earshot, San and Wooyoung started to bombard you with questions. 

“Really?” San starts, arms crossed as a privy smile creeps onto his features.

“What?” You ask, unsure of where he was going with this. A small part of you knew where it was going though.

“Dude, it’s obvious.” Wooyoung adds, his grin a lot more overt than his best friend’s. “Don’t think we’ve seen how you look at Mingi.” He continues, flailing his loose fists at you, clearly enjoying your flustered state. 

A blink. Two blinks. “What do you mean?” You ask, trying to play dumb. San leans forward, as he rests his chin on the palm of his hand. He looks at you like a cat about to pounce. All that was missing was a tail that would swoosh side to side behind him. 

“My dear,” he starts as he raises a finger up to your forehead. “You.” poke. “Are.” poke. “Crushing.” poke. “On-” poke. 

You repeatedly try to swat his hand away but opt to just lean away from his reach and try to bite his finger. “Ow! Okay I get it!” You groan out in mild annoyance at his childish action. Maybe that’s what you’ve been feeling lately. In love? You weren’t sure yet. Crushing? Maybe. It seems to make sense considering how you’ve been lately. “Is it that obvious?” You ask after a moment, voice a little soft as you wanted to avoid any eavesdropper. 

Two pairs of eye rolls. You’ll take that as a yes as your cheeks heat up. 

“Only to us cause we know you better than you know yourself sometimes.” San explains. 

Wooyoung straightens up in his seat, making both San and you look at him. “You do know that this means our lovely sweetheart here actually has a heart-- ow!” He whines as you kick his shin under the table. This makes San squeak in laughter. 

“Excuse me! I’ve always had a heart!” You shoot back with an insulted whine. San pats your head lightly to calm you down. It works, sort of. 

San then continues, “Besides us knowing you’re whipped, how do you feel about him?” It makes you pause for a moment as you try to think of how to properly articulate how you feel around Mingi. “The closest way I can describe it is how when you get to dance to a piece that just feels so right for you.” Why did your words fail you now? Just last week, you were able to talk to Mingi in a way that even impressed you. You take a deep breath, finding your heart race the more you think about it. 

“Right now, my heart’s racing a little the longer I think about him.” You start, your words stumbling over each other. “I feel more relaxed around him, someone I can lean on also when things just get so tough…” you trail off, eyes jumping from various points of the table. “I don’t want to say that he made my days have a reason since it always had one way or another, but he makes my days feel a little more bearable.” Your fingers brush through your hair restlessly. Finding it a little odd that you’re here bearing a bit of your soul to your best friends in broad daylight, but too late to go back on it. Your eyes drift from the greenery that hang over the terrace to the two boys who have been your partners in crime since Day 1. They don’t say anything to you for the past few moments and it starts to get on your nerves. “Don’t act like the two of you are mute. Both of you are the sole source of noise in the team.” 

A flash of something like amusement passes by San’s features. “To be honest, we just hoped that you and Mingi would fix things up before you guys leave but seeing you so whipped for that guy is something Wooyoung and I didn’t expect.” 

“What this guy is trying to say is,” Wooyoung quickly interjects, knowing how San’s words can get easily mixed up especially in your ears. “We had an idea to make the both of you make up after the competition season because you have your moments during the season but having that other team constantly steal our usual spot, we kind of just hoped for the best at that point. We’ve noticed it too, stupid. You look happier even during training.” 

That kind of stumps you. You’ve had your fair share of relationships-- if they can be considered as such, in the past. To have your thing with Mingi affect you that much that it shows in your performance was a first. You lean back in your seat as you digest everything that has happened. You wonder if Mingi shares the same feelings as you but you’d rather not ask that for now. If anything, you’re fine being just friends with him. You’ll make the most with what you got with him. 

“So when are you going to tell him?” Wooyoung asks, before taking a sip of his milk tea. 

“What?” You stare at him blankly at his odd question.

“When are you telling him that you like him?” 

You didn’t stay in your usual seat on the stands when you watched Mingi practice. The coach didn’t seem to mind your presence since you didn’t cause much of a disturbance. You put your earphones in as you would read through your readings for your final requirements. If the words didn’t register into your head, you’d watch him. If your attention on him drifts back to theories, you would read. You had to admit, you didn’t understand the flow of basketball besides the point system, some no-brainer rules but the technicalities? The diagrams the coach shows them in order to execute a certain game plan? That’s another language. A mental note to ask him about how basketball was made in the back of your head. Eyes drift back to your colorful annotated readings as you spin your pen in your hands. How exactly were you going to connect Aristotle’s beliefs to Capitalism? 

You don’t really realize how deep you were into your readings until Mingi crashed onto the seat next to you. His sudden appearance causes you to jump in your seat. “You idiot!” You pull out your earphones as you whine at his antics. He does nothing but laugh at your reaction. It takes a while for you to tear your gaze away from him, even if he’s still sweating heavily, you still found him pleasing to your eyes. From him still wiping down his sweat, you turn your gaze to his team that were taking a breather. The coach had already left the premises by now, it seems. “Where do you want to go for dinner?” You ask, keeping your eyes trained either at the team or at your screen. Why? Because the flash of a shirt came up to the corner of your eye and you already knew from being best friends with Wooyoung and San that he’s changing his shirt right next to you. So much for a heads up. 

“Can we get some Japanese food? I’m kind of craving for ramen right now.” He notices your perseverance to avoid looking at his exposed skin, a soft chuckle leaving his lips. To save you from your misery, he quickly puts on another shirt. He lets his towel rest over his shoulder, his hair still drenched from sweat. 

You wait for another flash of color, a few moments before facing him. “Sure thing.” You close your laptop and put it back into its sleeve with your readings and pen. He catches sight of the title of your readings and raises an eyebrow at you. 

“Philosophy?” 

You sigh and shake your head. “I love you and all but I’d rather keep anything philosophical away from my everyday chats with anyone, you included.” 

He laughs, denying the skip of his heart at those three words. A hand is extended towards you to hold onto to pull you out of your seat. “Come on then, nerd.” 

You don’t know how he has the appetite to finish the bowl of ramen with ease, then again he was tired from his practice. His body was most likely still using the left over energy from his previous meals. While here you are, taking your time with your ramen. “Mingi, there’s no rush. Your stomach might hurt..” You chide him gently. He reaches for a piece of sushi from the plate both of you agreed on. 

“Sorry, I’m just really hungry.” A soft smile was shot at his direction. 6AM to 11PM. You wonder how he’s still able to stand on his own two feet after such a long day. 

“Just a few more days then you’re free.” You say in return. As you take your time with your meal, you look out the window. You watch the cars come and go, while students either head home, study somewhere or go for a drink. Mingi takes the chance to get a good look at your features, unburdened by responsibilities and competitions, you look content and maybe even hopeful. 

“How about a penny for your thoughts?” Mingi says, quoting you, as he leans back on his seat. His ramen was nearly finished, and it’s only now that he decides to take a breather. When you whip your head back to him, the privy smile that makes your lips look a little prettier in his mind results in a mild dazed look on his face. 

You chuckle then shake your head. “Nothing important in my head,” you start. “Which is a first.” You say, beating him to it. “I just like being able to quiet down with you is all.” You admit before eating again. “I mean, I know you’re just as stressed with this competition.. I just like the fact there’s no pressure for either of us at this moment.” You quickly add, realizing that he might misunderstand your words. 

It’s his turn to laugh. Somehow he feels touched that you always make sure that he doesn’t misunderstand you. By now though, he’s got the hang of it. It’s still ot perfect but it’s progress. He leans his head against the palm of his hand as he watches you flounder around your words. It was a nice switch up, he supposed. From you being so composed and strong, you were now being flustered and bashful. “I know what you mean and don’t worry too much about me. Our team’s gotten a lot stronger as compared to last year, ask Yunho if you want.” He returns, while trying to push back his hair that blocks his view of you. Maybe he should get a haircut soon. “Just come to watch us this Saturday, and you’ll see just how good we are.” 

You’d be an idiot to say no to that.

It’s already Saturday and you’re in the arena with your best friends and Yeosang, the latest addition to your circle. It made sense to have him along too to bond with Wooyoung and San for the sake of your team’s dynamic. Thanks to Wooyoung’s tip, you could easily see why you had to wear something that was near your school’s color. It was easier to see who was there to support your school and who was for the opponent. It was interesting to people who looked like they’re the alumni of their respective schools come to watch this game. Various ages and walks of life seemed to come to watch. Did you expect to see your Philosophy professor here too? Not really. 

“I think I just saw my Philosophy professor.” You mumble, as you try to hide from her gaze.

“Professor Yang? He’s an avid fan of our games. Remember when I failed that one quiz I kept whining about?” San asks you as he becomes your shield. 

“Yeah?”

“That was the one time our team lost a game. He’s a terror professor for a reason but also he’s really good at his thing so I can’t really… get mad at that.” He explains. You remember that day clearly, you’ve never seen San whine and complain to you and Wooyoung so much that day. It took a big helping of fries, milk tea and a new plush toy for him to cheer up. “You’re lucky you took him during the off season.” 

The four of you found your seats, good enough to see the entire game and see some familiar faces from your point of view. Your school’s color is the obvious opposite of your rival school. You didn’t really expect the rivalry to be intense but did you expect the roaring cheers from respective schools? You weren’t sure. Considering it’s your first time to attend one of the games in your entire university life, you were walking entertainment for the three boys. 

“How are you?” Yeosang asks, trying his best to not show his entertainment to your wide eyes as you watch the crowds bounce to the cheers. 

“This is such an interesting experience..” You yell over the cheering, sandwiched by him and Wooyoung as they guide you through the cheers that hype the crowd for the game. Eventually you found your groove into the whole thing and found yourself bouncing with your friends, cheering wholeheartedly. 

In the quieter moments, Wooyoung raises the topic of you and Mingi to Yeosang. “What do you think?” Bless Yeosang’s quick wit to understand Wooyoung’s vague retelling. You had to beg Wooyoung to keep it vague considering where the three of you are right now. 

Yeosang just looks at Wooyoung, as if you weren’t there when he replies. “No brainer after they hugged him? The flowers were a nice touch too.” 

Your ears heat up and before you could hide it, Wooyoung’s laugh has you caught red-handed. “Oh my god shut up!” You whine as you try to cover his mouth. A disgusted yelp bursts through your mouth when you feel him lick your palm. “Ew!” Before he could move away from you, you quickly wipe your hand on his arm. Yeosang exchanges a glance with San and almost immediately, they move a few inches away from the two of you. 

[ You ] I’m here with San, Wooyoung and Yeosang! 

[ You ] selfie.jpg

“You ready?” Yunho asks Mingi as he lets his best friend look through his messages one last time before gathering with his team. He says nothing but tosses his phone into his training bag again. The fire in his eyes burns a little brighter this time. He’s doing this for his team, his school and you. One more school cheer among the team before they head out to the court to the roaring cheers from each school. He knows where you’re seated but for now, his focus was limited to what’s inside the four corners of the court. 

The game then begins and the stands roar with life again and you stand up from your seat again to watch the basketball teams fight it out for the gold. You immediately spot Mingi running through the other team, managing to score several points for your school before a timeout was requested by the opponent’s coach. Even with the arms of your friends on you, you found yourself mumbling through the cheers as you keep your focus on him and his team. Whenever one team manages to shoot the ball through the net, you look at the scores, hoping that your school eventually takes the gold. Until now, you don’t understand the technicalities but you trust his team. It’s not like you spent several hours last night searching up videos of his past games. 

After the time out, the game continues, a tight match as the scores decrease and increase in difference. You don’t realize how long you’ve been holding your breathe as the game continues. You might be at a far distance from the court but you could feel Mingi’s fire to win this game. This is the Song Mingi who is the basketball’s captain for a reason, and for once you can understand why he’s the face of your university. 

Half time comes and the cheer teams of each school takes over the court for the time being. Mingi heads to the seats as he listens to the coach discuss the next plan for the second half of the game. He drapes his towel over his shoulders as he downs his water. He was already drenched in sweat, constantly wiping away the sweat that gets close to his eyes. Once half time finishes, his coach gestures to the players to get back out on court. As he tosses his towel to his bag, he catches sight of what looks like you with your friends. After seeing you perform, he could already tell how you looked like from a distance. His lips grow into a confident grin (a money shot for the press), before he jogs back to the court. Soon enough, the cheers fall on deaf ears as he focuses on the game. A fake out here, passing the ball there, avoiding blocks here and there, and the usual two point or three point shot. He doesn’t focus on the points he’s earning for the team. He’s focused on making sure the team moves within one wavelength for the gold. 

Another time out and he takes a deep breath to calm himself down. He looks up at the scoreboard with the time left. ‘Just a few more minutes.’ He thinks. Yunho pats his back as reassurance before he heads to the free throw area. It takes a while, buying enough time for his team to catch their breath before doing their best to win this by a landslide. Yunho gets the point and the game soon resumes. 

By the last quarter, the cheers have gotten louder but it does nothing to Mingi. His lithe limbs manage to avoid falling into the tricks of the opponent. He spares a glance at the timer.

Five seconds left. 

He’s already in the middle of the court. 

Four seconds.

He’s still running. ‘Fuck it’. He throws the ball from where he stands. 

Three. 

Two. 

One.

The ball goes through the net in the nick of time, the buzzer goes off and your university snags the gold. Confetti bursts through and fills the air with the color of your university. Press photographers and school photographers flock to the court, hoping to get a money shot of the team celebrating the fourth Gold. The members on the court surround themselves with their teammates and coach, cheering at the top of their lungs with their schoolmates. After the quick celebration, everyone cheers for the rival university as respect and thanks for an intense game. Hands were shaken, hugs exchanged and congratulatory messages were sent to each side. Media have swarmed some of the members, his coach and him. Questions thrown at his direction too fast but he manages to catch the gist in the midst of his euphoria. 

“How do I feel? I feel grateful, if it weren’t for my teammates and my coach here, I wouldn’t be here.” Mingi answers through heavy breathing after the intense adrenaline rush. After a few minutes of celebratory cheers, the coach asks the press for their chance to leave the court. 

Once out of the court and back where their other valuables were kept, Yunho takes the chance to jump onto Mingi’s back, laughing gleefully at their win. “Who told you to throw the ball from there?! Jesus that was an amazing buzzer beater shot.” He praises, ruffling Mingi’s sweat drenched hair. Mingi stumbles slightly at the sudden weight on his back, thankfully Jongho manages to steady the two boys' rough housing in the room. 

“Practice, I guess.” Mingi admits, rubbing the back of his neck. Why else had he been waking up so early the past few days? Even if he didn’t see himself doing this in the long run, basketball is still one of his favored activities. “Hey, Jongho. If you need help with those types of shots, just hit me up.” He jokes. 

Jongho takes the chance to snort at his cheeky offer. “You got it, Hyung. Might beat you at it soon.” He teases. 

Mingi has a feeling he’ll take over the team with ease and he’s happy with that. Even if he’s on lazer focus on court, he notices how his teammates perform on court and Jongho’s growth has been one of the best. He pats Jongho’s chest firmly. “I look forward to that, Jong. Keep Yunho in line for me too.” He shoots, causing his dear friend to sulk as he becomes the butt of the teasing. 

Their coach asks for a final huddle, here he thanks the team for an amazing season and an even greater ending. With that, they do one last cheer before they stream out to where their friends and families wait for them to celebrate the night. 

A small part of Mingi starts to hope that you were there waiting for him too. 

The moment your school won, you were jumping on your spot excitedly with your friends. You crouch down eventually, sighing in relief once it sets in that Mingi was bringing home the gold. Just like he promised. It took you a few moments to gather your strength and stand up again, greeted by the sight of colorful confetti that bore the colors of your school, the basketball team jumping and celebrating over the court while photographers scramble to get a good shot of them celebrating for their respective media articles. Your best friends were jumping around, and with the rest of the people who cheered for your school, all of you cheered one last time. 

You can’t see how Mingi looks but from his repeated bouncing and arms around his teammates, you can already see how ecstatic he was. Heck, you can picture his grin spreading across his features until his eyes turn into small crescents, until his laughter booms from his chest. Perhaps you were whipped for the basketball team’s captain. 

People start to stream out of the stadium, so you wait for your friends to follow suit. You find your throat feeling a little scratchy from the yelling and cheering you’ve done. It was worth it, you thought. Seeing someone succeed and be with their loved ones until the end, while it’s a good thing to experience, seeing it from an outsider’s point of view was just as good. Especially if it was someone you loved. 

“So how did you find your first and last game, hm?” San practically purrs as he uses your back as his next armrest. 

You stumble a bit at the sudden weight on your back, so you pinch his side lightly. His yelp being music to your ears. “One for the books, San. Especially with the three of you.” You state as you find yourself laughing with delight. The endorphins and adrenaline are still running wildly in you. 

“Can’t believe you even got something for Mingi.” 

At Wooyoung’s teasing, you try to hide the gift from his view, quickly followed by you attempting to bite his prodding finger. Yeosang couldn’t help but find delight in Wooyoung’s expression as he manages to avoid your teeth by a mere centimeter. 

“Let’s go before our little captain here starts to shake in nervousness just to meet Mingi.” Yeosang added. 

If you had to be in the same car with them on the way home, you weren’t really sure if you could deal with their teasings. 

The four of you find yourselves, waiting for the rest of the basketball team to come out to bond with their friends and families. While you were already in good terms with Mingi, you let him bask in his parents’s love and pride for having done so well out there. You guess that the other guy, who shared some resemblance to him, is his older brother. He ruffles Mingi’s hair much to the younger’s demise, not that he minded though. They got the gold. It takes him a few minutes to spot you over the bustling crowd. You were with your friends and he couldn’t help but smile even brighter at the sight of you. 

He introduces the four of you to his family. A situation that you found all too familiar from a week ago. His family takes this cue to let him be with his friends and team, saying that they’ll meet him with the rest of the team in the restaurant that has been reserved already-- win or lose, all of them were to eat heartily for such an impressive journey. You catch the knowing glint in his mother’s eyes and you already could tell what that look means. Whether it was for the better or for the worse, you don’t dare look at how Mingi reacts to such a look. 

“What do you have there?” Mingi asks, gesturing at the paper bag you had in your hand. 

Not now. 

“Oh, I went on an errand earlier.” You lie, as you raise your shoulders. Somehow he buys this and informs where everyone’s eating tonight. 

“Barbeque?!” 

“Yeah, but if you guys order alcohol that’s not on us.” Mingi says quickly before San could say anything. 

“None of you are getting drunk and riding my car.” Wooyoung interjects quickly. As much as he would like to see San and Yeosang make a fool out of themselves, he’d rather not have to clean after them in his car. 

“We’ll be there. See you there.” The way you phrase it must’ve been funny to him as he chuckles softly. 

“Why are you asking? I’ll definitely be there.” Mingi returns. He’s now the one squishing your cheeks together, much to your insistent complaints. 

Neither of you realize that Yeosang has managed to take a photo of the both of you. 

Fast forward to all of you meeting in a rather impressive barbeque restaurant. Wooyoung was running his mouth, amazed and curious to how they managed to snag an entire restaurant for the team, friends and family. The most your team could do was reserve a few tables, a huge difference from theirs. 

“We need to know how they got the entire restaurant for themselves. Next year’s competition: we’re taking this place.” Wooyoung says before snatching a small piece of dried fish with the seasoned spinach. 

You watch as Yeosang and San try to calm him down, too excited over the idea of food. Your gift for him was trapped in between your legs. Though you doubt he’d eat on the same table as you, you couldn’t help but hope still. The three of you agreed to let Wooyoung choose which meat cuts to order as he had the best knowledge when it came to food. None of you expected Yunho, Jongho and Mingi to crash themselves onto your table. It had even made Wooyoung jump in surprise, coughing on a small bean sprout. 

“I thought you guys were going to eat as a team!?” San exclaims over the sudden boom of the music over the speakers, staff yelling at each other for the orders, and the chattering of friends and families. 

“Nah, everyone just agreed to let everyone eat in one place then have everyone eat with whoever.” Jongho explains.

“So we decided to eat with the captains who are leaving their respective teams.” Yunho adds, with a small whine. No wonder he got the nickname Golden Yun-triever. 

As the two continue to be mischievous, Mingi manages to take the chance to sit next to you. “So nice of you to join us, golden boy.” You say, soft enough to make sure no one hears your conversation, but loud enough that only he can hear. 

“Don’t tell me you thought I was going to skip this opportunity to eat with you and our friends.” Mingi shoots back with a lopsided grin before taking a long sip of his water. 

You wonder if there was an underlying meaning in his words. Your questions are covered up by a snicker. These wonderings were pushed to the back of your mind when Wooyoung tells everyone to make space for the trays of meat that your table has received. It eventually becomes him and Jongho taking turns cooking for everyone on the table for the first round. 

As the night goes, laughter and stories were shared. An occassional yelp of pain when the grease from the grill and meat jump onto someone’s skin. You notice that it’s only now that your two cooks had started eating. You snatch the tongs from Wooyoung’s grasp. As he’s about to ask for them back, you shake your head. “Nuh-uh, mister. You are going to continue eating as I cook for you and everyone here.” Mingi quickly follows you, getting the tongs away from Jongho’s plate. 

“Since we’re leaving soon, we should probably make this our parting gift to the next captains of our teams.” adds Mingi to your reasoning. 

“This is your gift to us? Yet you got something fo--” Before San could say anymore, you shoot a piece of cooked pork belly into his mouth. 

“San, you better not talk with your mouth full.” He pouts but does as he’s told. Who would say no to being fed? 

Not now. 

Once everyone was sated, Wooyoung asks where should they get dessert. All of you leaning back a little for some air, and for the food to digest. The water was some sort of relief but with the grease from the meat and side dishes, it could only do so much. Yunho suggests to have slushies, a good break from the heaviness of the meat and the humidity from the cooking meat. 

“We’re not paying for the desserts, by the way.” Yunho adds before Wooyoung tries to take the more expensive option, much to the younger’s dismay. 

Your group decides to leave the premises to get something sweet, some of you bidding goodbye and a good evening to some familiar faces. Mingi takes the longest in the restaurant, you and your friends are already by the door. Yunho fakes a sigh, dropping his shoulders as he does so. “Price of fame, I guess…” He mumbles much to the laughter of everyone. By the time Mingi catches up to everyone, he notices everyone trying to stifle their laughter. 

“What’s so funny?” He asks, almost pouting for missing out on something humorous. Jongho shakes his head, as he eyes the others who had a harder time keeping their laughter. 

“Just Yunho hyung being Yunho hyung.” The youngest says simply, hoping it would keep Mingi from being too curious. Mingi somehow finds himself looking at you instead of Yunho for reassurance as to what had just transpired. One way or another, you manage to keep your composure, the only thing giving away your entertainment is the glint in your eyes. He keeps a mental note to ask you later and decides to drop the topic. 

“So where do we get dessert?” Mingi asks which Yunho takes as his cue to lead the group to the slushie spot. As everyone starts to walk ahead of you, you slow down to walk next to Mingi. 

“How does freedom feel now, Champion?” You tease, and you swear seeing him so flustered by such attention was adorable. His red ears, his feeble attempt to keep himself from smiling widely, his free hand rubbing the back of his neck shyly, it sometimes makes you wonder why it so long for both of you to try again. It didn’t matter, you and Mingi had a good thing going on now and that’s more important than the past. 

He whines softly at your adoration for him. “It feels good, I just have to deal with the contracts within the month so that Yunho and Jongho would be the prospects for these brands instead of me.” He admits with a shrug. “But that’s nothing too important as compared to now.” Laughter shakes from his chest, he didn’t mind any eyes that would land on him anymore. He doesn’t notice how you gaze at him softly and maybe that’s for the better, for now. 

“Should we pay for these kids later?”

“Like a parting gift? Are you sure about it? I clearly remember you having money issues a few weeks back.”

“That’s one way to put it. I got an offer by a company to make a choreography for their idol group, considering how established they are, they already gave me a down payment after they saw my first draft.” You state and it nearly makes Mingi stop on his tracks. 

“You already got work!?” Mingi exclaims and you scramble to make sure he doesn’t break your no disclosure agreement. 

“Sh!! It’s a start. But what do you think? Should we pay for these children?” You ask, shifting the conversation to your group being the loud bunch that they are. 

“Sounds like a plan. You owe me the complete story later though.”

Your friends peek into the place Yunho suggested. It was a hole in the wall, cozy, comfortable design. It’s perfect for everyone. Before everyone orders, you let them know that you and Mingi would be paying instead. 

“Just don’t expect any physical gift from us after this.” 

Yeosang bounces in happiness at the offer of free food. Wooyoung and San dancing in the corner. Yunho and Jongho, who could already pass off as brothers by how similar the looks of surprise are on their faces, stare at both of you. “Not like we’d turn that down. Free food is always yummier.” Yeosang hums. 

So they order before the two of you. You and Mingi choose a few tables that’s good for sevent people. Time to move fast before any of them steal the chance. You hand the bag to Mingi, unable to look at him in the eye. “It’s actually for you.” Is your only explanation. Thanks to his curiosity and confusion by the sudden gift giving, he opens the package in front of you. Brand new earphones.

“H-how..?” He asks, dumbfounded as he opens the box to look at the inclusions. He knows a few things or two when it comes to earphones and this definitely isn’t cheap, this isn’t that expensive either. It didn’t take much to know that this model takes a dent to the wallet though. 

“I’ll explain who I work for one of these days, but yeah because of the money my past clients have finally paid me for as well plus my current contract, and some of my savings, I got you a little something to congratulate you.” You explain, your fingers find themselves dancing with each other, too shy to look at him. “I figured si--” San calls the both of you to the cashier so that you could take your orders while paying for everyone else. You glance at Mingi for a quick second and stand up immediately. The male follows you closely as the earphones are still wound up around his fingers. Countless questions and thoughts run in his mind at your actions. Did you like him too? 

Once everyone’s accounted for, the two of you slide back into your seat. Everyone had their slushies accounted for, and while you hoped they wouldn’t ask about the package on Mingi’s lap, it wouldn’t go the way you wish it would. “So you already know Mingi’s feelings for you?” Wooyoung asks before taking a long sip. 

The two of you freeze in your seats as you look at the raven haired male. “What?” Both of you wait for him to recover from his brain freeze to explain what he had just said. While one’s cheeks burn from being exposed, the other’s felt hot from the surprise. 

“I thought Mingi already told you he likes you?” Wooyoung manages to groan out as the brain freeze gradually dissipates. The two of you exchange a quick glance, Mingi clearly at a loss for words. 

“And what about it?” You ask. Everyone’s eyes are on the two of you. Yeosang and Jongho just had to look away from the secondhand embarrassment they were receiving from Wooyoung. 

“Did you already tell him your answer?” Your best friend looks a lot better compared to his earlier demise with the slushie. 

“Is it your business?” A smirk flashes on your features and everyone whines. The man who sits across you carefully takes a sip of his slushie. Fearful that you would later reject his feelings, though a bit thankful that you didn’t outright reject him in front of everyone. The earphones in his pocket suddenly feels heavy. 

You worry if what you did was a good idea.

The rest of the night goes by miraculously without a hitch. Mingi manages to keep up a facade, joining in the jokes and antics. You, relaxed and laughing at the things your friends do and talk about. Yunho talking about pranks the team has pulled on Mingi throughout the years, along with a warning to Jongho since this was a tradition. 

Wooyoung looks at his phone for the time as he notices some shops have started closing up. “Oh crap, it’s already late. We should probably go.” Some of you look around and note the shops that have closed, staff saying good bye to each other as they head home. Your group stands up with Wooyoung, he was your group’s designated driver after all. “Do you guys have a ride home?” he asks as he throws his cup away, his question directed at the remaining three. 

“Nah, we were planning to just take a taxi.” Jongho explains with a shrug. 

You could see the gears in Wooyoung’s mind spin. “Just ride with us. I can give you guys a ride home. I have enough space.” At this hour, no one could say no to that. 

Wooyoung on the wheel, Yeosang taking shotgun, San, Jongho and Yunho behind them while you and Mingi were at the back with their training bags. “You really putting your captains at the back?!” You complain. 

“Technically, San, Yunho and I are the captains now so…” Wooyoung cackles behind the wheel as he drives out of the parking lot. You stick your tongue out at your best friend and sink back into your seat. You take out your phone, fixing up a quick message to Mingi. 

[ You ] Was what they said earlier true? 

You hope his phone was on silent or at least vibrate. You wait for him to receive the message and he does, reading your message immediately. It’s tricky to make things look discreet with how both of you wanted to deal with this. 

[ Mingki ] Yeah. I do like you. It’s okay though if you don’t reciprocate though, I already appreciate what we have. 

He notices his nickname on your phone just before you turn it off and it just makes his heart sink a little knowing that his feelings weren’t reciprocated. The ride home was quiet, everyone clearly tired from today’s events but Wooyoung, you and Mingi were still clearly awake. 

You rest your hand over his, and you could feel him stiffen under your touch. Your fingers gently trace a few words over the back of his hand, over and over until he understands what you’re telling him. “I like you too.” 

It takes so much strength for Mingi to not smile like the utter lovestruck fool that he was in the car right now. Instead of smiling or yelling, he takes your hand in his, lacing his fingers with yours. His thumb runs across the side of your hand, as much as he wants to press kisses to the back of your hand, this will have to do for now. 

Wooyoung slows his car down outside your dorm, putting it on park as he wakes everyone up to give you, Mingi and Yunho way to get out of the car. “Have a good night!” He says as the three of you wave at those left in the car. The three of you tell them to stay safe. None of them catch how the two of you are now holding hands, except for Yunho. As the three of you watch the car drive off, Yunho quickly takes a photo of the two of you from the back. 

“Mingi, I’ll go ahead. You take forever in the shower.” Yunho says, immediately leaving the two of you alone. Somehow, Yunho was a better wingman as compared to Wooyoung and San. 

Now that the two of you were alone, you take the chance to verbalize what had transpired in the car. “I’m really sorry I didn’t say it outright, I didn’t want to go through our friends teasing us in public and I know how you like to stay low profile too so like--” You didn’t expect to have his lips on yours but you welcome them. Were they always that soft and sweet?

“You talk a lot you know?” Mingi mumbles when he pulls away from you. “It’s okay. I understand what you had to do but I do have to admit, you scared me back in the mall.” He admits as he straightens up. 

“Get some sleep, I’ll wait for your stories about your work tomorrow.” He says before taking a few steps back, on the way to his place. 

“Wait tomorrow?” That breaks you out of your thoughts. 

“Yeah, tomorrow, 11AM. I’m taking you on our first date.” He leaves you with no room for complaints as he quickly jogs home. You touch your lips as you make your way to your dorm. It was your turn to feel flustered now, you could still feel his lips against yours and taste his slushie on your lips: blueberries and strawberries. 

Looks like you had a new favorite flavor. 

END

A/N: Do any of you guys want an epilogue? Just how y/n and mingi are years down the line, work and stuff like that lol. it won’t be long like this though lol.

[songfell-ut]

Chapter 14 is gooo

Taking a short break after this. My hands hurt. Yep

The moment Sans appeared outside of Alphys’ laboratory, he knew he was going to hate this. He took in the good ol’ Hotland ambiance – mostly rocks, lava, and being too damn hot – then kicked the snow from his slippers, brushed off his overcoat, and banged on the heavy door.

It peeked open, and a yellow snout showed in the crack. “C-come in,” a voice said apologetically.

Sans rolled his eyes as best he could. “It’s me, Al. Move it, will ya?”

“Sans!” The door flew open, and the reptilian scientist backed up to look at him fully. “It’s r-really you! I thought the h-humans g-got you!”

“They did. I got better.” The giant skeleton bobbed his head at her as he stepped inside. “How’ve ya been?”

She smiled weakly. “Um...”

He nodded and went ahead into the main area, Alphys shuffling after him. The building was three stories, constructed of brick and steel in order to keep any mishaps contained. Now that he was using his sense of smell, it stank in here; Frisk’s workroom smelled like books and priestess and green things growing, but this was something acrid that made the magic of his nose and throat sting. “I’ve been w-working,” said Alphys, somehow phrasing it as a personal fault. “W-would you like something t-to drink? His M-Majesty brought t-tea.”

Sans came to a halt as he spotted a large shape moving from the back storeroom into the nook by Alphys’ first-floor library. The King of the monsters flipped a witchlight on, and it burned so bright that Sans had to shut his eyes. The humans’ lights really were a lot dimmer. “Welcome back, Sans,” Asgore said jovially, seating himself on a couch and gesturing for the skeleton to take the biggest armchair. “It seems you’ve had quite the adventure. How are you feeling? Would you like some tea?”

“No, thanks, Yer Majesty.” The larger boss monster wedged himself into the chair. “I’ve had a hell of a time. What all did the others tell ya, if I may ask?”

Asgore smiled thinly. His beard was longer than Sans remembered, and his hair looked like something had been nesting in it—as if they needed more evidence of how useless he was on his own, Sans thought. “It was quite a story,” said the King. “Would you mind telling me what happened again, please, from your perspective? But first…” He gestured over Sans’ shoulder.

Sure enough, Alphys was hovering behind him, holding something in one shaky claw. “Um,” she explained.

Sans scowled at her. “Don’t gimme that look, Al. I’m not gonna bite ya.” He extended his hand. “That’s a truth stone, right? I don’t care. I’ve got nothin’ ta hide.” Much.

“It’s m-mostly to check for any residual human m-magic that may be affecting you,” the scientist said, presumably truthfully. She allowed him to pluck the cobalt sphere from her grasp and skittered away with a speed that hurt his feelings a little. He and Alphys had never been the closest of friends, but…well, Frisk and her flagrant lack of fear had obviously spoiled him.

Crap. Whatever was in the stone was pretty damn potent, because thinking of Frisk made him want to say things that he had no intention of letting out until he absolutely had to. Asgore was suspicious enough of him having been around the High Priestess and other humans for so long; what would happen if he found out Sans had fallen for her like a ton of bricks?

“Now…” Asgore poured himself another cup. “How did you come to be in the humans’ grasp?”

Sans hadn’t minded telling Undyne all this stuff, but sitting here fiddling with the stupid rock while the King sipped his tea and watched him as if Sans was going to explode—that, he did mind. But he did it, starting with how he’d been out hunting poachers for a couple days straight without eating anything, getting weak enough to eventually be captured, and failing to kill the High Priestess when she came to make him that fateful offer.

Asgore was frowning, one hand to his chin. “She was sincere about taking you as her apprentice, with no attempt to harm you or steal your magic? Didn’t that strike you as odd?”

No shit, King Fluffybuns. “Yeah, it did, but she never even tried anything like that.” It was true; Gaster was the one who’d purloined a bunch of his magic. Sans wasn’t going to muddy the waters by bringing him up just yet. “I could tell she knew what she was talking about with the potions and stuff. She’s pretty sharp.”

“Yes, of course. Forgive me, but I want to be very clear: she subdued you without harming you, single-handedly?”

Sans’ socket twitched. “Your Majesty is correct,” he said stiffly. “She’s the High Priestess fer a reason. Her barriers are stupid powerful. I don’t think you, me, ‘n Tori put together could crack one.”

As he’d intended, the casual mention of Toriel made Asgore twitch right back. From her position behind Sans’ chair, Alphys cleared her throat nervously. “Are you s-sure? A human sh-shouldn’t—”

The skeleton held up the blue sphere, tapping it with one phalange. “Yeah, I’m positive. If humans had anythin’ like boss monsters, she’d be one fer sure.”

Asgore put down his cup. “And this extraordinary young woman also happens to be the child we knew as Kris? Is that correct?”

“Yep. She’s proven it beyond any doubt ta both me and Undyne.” Somehow, Sans doubted Asgore had made her hold the goddamned rock while she talked. “The others forced 'er to lie about bein’ a boy, but everythin’ else about her was real. She didn’t wanna leave here at all, and as soon as she got her memories back, she started figurin’ out how to come back with me. It happened sooner than we planned ‘cause the King tried ta sell some monsters out from under her. She got so pissed off that she broke the law and brought ‘em here on her own.”

“Got her memories b—ah, yes. Undyne said they were taken from her at the convent.” Asgore’s foot patted the floor a few times. “How old was she when she first visited?” he asked, with a new edge to his voice.

Sans frowned. “She said she was ten. She just looked a lot younger ‘cause they weren’t feedin’ ‘er. Why?”

Another slow pat, pat of fur on carpet. “Undyne overheard someone say the High Priestess was King Stephin’s illegitimate daughter. Do you believe this to be true?”

The giant skeleton looked at the blue stone, studying the patterns swirling in its depths. “I’ve seen how the King acts with her, and the guy I was talkin’ to had no reason ta lie. Puttin’ everything together, yeah, it makes total sense.”

There was no response. Sans glanced up. To his surprise, Asgore was staring into his teacup, his brow furrowed; the King set the cup and saucer down so hard that it sloshed all over the table. Sans had never seen him spill his tea before. “What about her other personal connections?” he asked brusquely. “Other friends and family?”

“Uh…” Sans craned his neck around to see if Alphys understood what was going on, but she was pushing her glasses up and looking at him in equal bewilderment. “Well, she’s got a bunch of half-siblings from the King, but she’s not real close with any of ‘em. One actually tried to kill ‘er while I was there.” Asgore blinked in astonishment, and Sans nodded grimly. “She doesn’t have any other family. She said ‘er mom was dead, and I haven’t had a chance t’ask her any more about it. Not many friends, just some lady she knew from school an’ a lot of guys wantin’ ta marry her.” He wrinkled his nasal ridge. “A lot of guys.”

Asgore nodded again. “I see. Thank you.” He finally noticed the puddle of tea, and used the hem of his already-stained cloak to mop it up. “You’ve spent a great deal of time with her. What do you believe are her true intentions? What does she gain from freeing monsters and antagonizing the other humans?”

“Frisk doesn’t think in terms’a what she can get, Yer Majesty,” Sans said irritably. “I know she sounds too good ta be true. I thought so, too, at first. But she really wants to help us, an’ she can do it better than anyone else. She’s already taught me how ta make fertilizer and a bunch of other stuff to improve our crop yields, and she’s got a whole plan t’get us outta slavery fer good—I’ll let ‘er lay it out for you whenever ya talk with ‘er.” He tossed the sphere from hand to hand a few times, then curled his fingers around it. “Did Undyne tell you about the farm on the river?”

The King stroked his beard. “She did, but I have difficulty believing it. I’ve seen that property myself, and I can’t fathom anyone buying it out of pure altruism.”

“’s not just altruism. She wanted t’do it before she even knew she’d been here as a kid, but now she remembers us an’ how much we all cared about her.” Asgore half-smiled in acknowledgment. With considerable effort, Sans forced himself off that tangent, concluding, “Frisk’s the real deal, Majesty. Turnin’ her down ‘cause she’s human would be the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.”

The King sat back, eyes narrowed, and Alphys made a more-than-usually nervous sound. Sans fidgeted with the sphere. “Anythin’ else, Yer Majesty? I wanna get back home.”

Asgore’s gaze shifted from him to the diminutive scientist. “Do you have any questions, Dr. Alphys?”

For the first time, Alphys came around to stand in front of Sans. “Um…d-do you think she’d let me s-study her magic? I just c-can’t believe a human could be that p-powerful.”

Sans shrugged. “On the way here, she hid us with a barrier that kept people from seein’ or hearing me ‘n the wagons for over ten minutes straight. They couldn’t even tell the barrier was there.”

The King looked him, and at the sphere. Sans was rolling it around on his metacarpals at Alphys’ eye level, daring either of them to say he was lying. When Asgore remained silent, the scientist asked, “What else have you s-seen her do that m-most humans can’t?”

“Be a good person,” Sans mumbled, but the stone’s magic prodded him, and he had to add, “Here’s somethin’ weird. I was checkin’ on ‘er after she used up all ‘er magic on that barrier, and I ended up givin’ her a bunch of my magic by accident.”

Alphys’ jaw dropped. “You did what?” the King demanded.

Fuck. “Not like havin’ a kid or anything,” the skeleton said hurriedly. “I just…she’d been sick right before we left, so she was already a little run down, an’ I didn’t want us ta be stuck out there without ‘er magic.” That was true enough, but he had to physically stop himself from saying exactly how worried he had been. “I picked ‘er up, and next thing I knew, she was fresh as a daisy ‘n I was passing out. The exact same thing happened a few hours ago, right before I zapped us inta the Ruins.”

“I see.” Somewhat mollified, the King stroked his beard again. “Was she able to use any of your abilities, or did she convert your power into magic of her own?”

“She put a barrier up with it, so it was all her.” As he’d told Frisk way back in his prison cell, monsters were useless when it came to barriers; even if a human stole their magic and tried to use it to fuel a barrier, it wouldn’t stick. “Givin’ it away didn’t hurt me at all. It was jus’ like I’d been workin’ really hard, and I was fine the next day. I’m still a little tired from last time, but I feel like I just need ta get home ‘n go to sleep.”

“Hm.” At least Asgore looked thoughtful now, not angry or alarmed. “Has she ever passed any magic to you in a similar fashion?”

Something came into his mind and straight out his mouth: “No, but we did share a dream where she was able t’touch me, even though we were way far apart. Think that has somethin’ ta do with it?” Argh, that stupid fucking stone—

Luckily, this information didn’t seem to make as big an impression. Asgore just shook his head, looking helplessly at the scientist. “What do you think of all this, Doctor?”

“Hmmm…” The reptilian monster folded her arms. “The humans’ royal family has always had the g-gift of magic. She didn’t get any training as a ch-child, did she?” Sans shook his head. “That means it kept growing until she c-came to the Underground, and this environment p-probably stimulated it further. Humans who don’t use their magic as children will usually h-have more power as adults, and her magic didn’t manifest as anything d-destructive, so she was able to w-wait until the optimal time to learn how to use it.”

The King picked up the teapot. “How is she able to turn a monster’s power directly to her own use? And what about the shared dream?”

“I d-don’t think she’d be able to do that with a regular m-monster, Your Majesty. I think it’s because a boss monster’s S-SOUL is powerful enough that he had magic to spare, and his intention for her t-to have enough magic to p-protect them was the impetus.” She turned to Sans. “Have you been in proximity to her at another t-time when she needed m-magic and you wanted her to have m-more, or was this the first time those c-conditions existed?”

The skeleton thought it over, and had to shake his head. “Nah, this was the first time we were in that bad a situation. So, it’s not gonna keep happenin’ at random? It’s just ‘cause she needed it an’ I wanted her ta have some?” And we were cozying up? he managed not to add.

“I th-think so. It doesn’t hurt that you’ve spent so much time around each other, or that she’s been to the Underground and already l-likes monsters. Given that and your naturally strong c-capabilities, that could explain how her body was able to internalize your magic and express it for her own p-purposes. The same factors would facilitate physical c-c-contact in your dream.”

Sans nodded as calmly as he could, clamping his jaws shut as the truth spell urged him to say something about wanting to give her a lot more magic on purpose.

“Fascinating,” Asgore murmured. He absently picked something out of his beard. “All things considered, it doesn’t sound like she poses an immediate threat to any of us, and we may well benefit from her presence. Therefore, I will trust your judgment and Undyne’s, and allow her to stay for now. However, I will hold both of you responsible for her actions. Is that clear?”

“Sure, Yer Majesty.” Sans held the stone out to Alphys, who slipped into her coat pocket. “I’m gonna get goin’ now, if that’s all right.”

“Absolutely,” the King said, getting to his feet. “Welcome back.” He started to extend his hand, but withdrew it as Sans hopped up and started toward the door, hands in his pockets.

“I-I’ll see you out,” Alphys said quickly, covering the awkward moment. “If you’ll e-excuse me, Your Majesty—”

Asgore nodded, sinking back to the couch. A glance over his shoulder puzzled Sans: instead of being mad at the deliberate slight, the King was scowling and staring at nothing again, obviously back to his unhappy thoughts.

For once, Alphys went straight ahead of him, holding the door wide and closing it right behind them. “I didn’t w-want to ask this in f-front of King Asgore,” she stage-whispered up at him, and Sans obligingly knelt to hear her better. “Everything you were saying about exchanging your m-magic—are you…um…”

Sans gestured impatiently. “Spit it out, Al. Like I said, I’m not gonna—”

“A-are you in love with Frisk?!”

…Well, shit. Sans had forgotten how invested Alphys could get in any kind of narrative, and how quickly she’d pounce on any hint of romantic feelings between anyone, fictional or not. When he failed to immediately deny it, the scientist’s face nearly split in triumphant glee. “I knew it! The way y-you were going on, trying not t-to say too much—it was b-better than a whole p-play!”

“Shhh!” he hissed, though no one was even in sight, much less earshot. “Come on, Al! What would that even matter?!”

“Are you k-k-kidding me? Direct magical c-conversion doesn’t happen every day! It’s only possible between m-monsters in a reproductive context, and I’ve never heard of it at all between a monster and a h-human! Y-you gave it to her and sh-she used it twice!” The scientist slapped her own face and rocked side to side so gleefully that Sans thought she was going to keel over. “Everything I said to His M-Majesty was true, b-but there’s n-no way your magic could be interchangeable unless your SOULs had developed an incredibly strong b-b-bond!” Something like a tiny squeal. “I c-can’t b-believe this! You’ve g-g-got to promise me to b-bring her here tomorrow so I can s-see it for myself!”

“She was gonna come visit you anyway!” Sans protested. “I’m not puttin’ a show on for ya, okay? You can just study her magic!”

Alphys dropped her arms and gave him a look that made him more nervous than the entire interview with the King combined. “What?” he asked warily.

She held up one claw, then pulled a small device out of her coat. It was a square of glass set on a rod only a few inches long, framed with stones in eight colors. The scientist rubbed the white one and held it up as the glass came alive, flowing and surging within its frame like a drop of oil on water. “Hold s-still, please.”

Sans allowed Alphys to peer through the glass to check his SOUL, wishing more than ever that he could see it for himself. “How’s it lookin’?” he inquired carelessly, fooling neither of them. “What’s my LV?” A remarkably stupid question: it had been 20 for four or five years now, and LV didn't go any higher than that.

The scientist stared for so long that Sans had to reach down and tap her on the head. “Hellooo? Alphys? Ya there?”

Alphys didn’t move, except to say, faintly, “It’s 17.”

A very long pause. “I must be misunderstandin’ something,” Sans finally rumbled, “‘cause yer makin’ it sound like I lost a few LV. That doesn’t happen.”

“Be honest,” said Alphys, still staring. “How many p-people did you k-k-kill when you were with the h-humans?”

“Uh…one. Just…one. Someone who was tryin’ really hard ta murder her right in front’a me.” It was true, no matter how hard he thought about it. He hadn’t killed that group of poachers on his way back from bringing Snowdrake to the Underground, or even the fucking bastard who’d said something about her and called him names right to his face. “What does it matter? How would I even lose EXP? It’s not like I un-killed anyone!”

Alphys was starting to grin again. “I, er, w-won’t ask too many p-p-personal questions, but…do you feel…nicer when y-you’re around her?”

Sans scowled, but it was hard to keep up. “Are you sayin’ I’m gettin’ so mushy that it’s knockin’ my LV down? Remember the part where that’s literally impossible?!”

“These don’t l-lie, Sans.” The scientist waved the device at him. Sobering, she said, “I don’t th-think we should mention this to Asgore. He’s still a little, um, t-touchy about humans and m-m-monsters.”

“Agreed,” Sans mumbled.

She grimaced, and fiddled with the device, staring at the ground. “Um...d-does she still like p-plays? At all?”

Sans didn't know what to say. “If it'd make you happy, then yeah, I guess she does.”

“Hmm. I think y-you're probably right.” Alphys smiled in a quiet way he didn't usually see, then gave him that knowing look again, tucking the glass back into her coat. “I have a p-proposition for you. Just let me track your LV when you come here with Frisk tomorrow, and I won’t s-say anything strange to her about your SOULs. D-deal?”

He didn’t bother accusing her of blackmail: it was blackmail. Sans tried to look very scary, but she just folded her stubby arms at him until he stood up, said, “It’s too fuckin’ hot out here. See ya,” and was gone.

 ~

 “Wow,” said Undyne. “That’s…wow.”

“Indeed,” murmured Toriel. She took another bite of apple, dabbing her mouth with the household’s single clean napkin. “You opened the box, and reclaimed your memories?”

Frisk nodded, cheeks glowing. “It’s been very hard,” she said, unable to keep a little quaver out of her voice.

This was honestly not what she'd had in mind. She'd planned to tell Toriel everything that had happened with Sans, explaining her mission and her plans for humans and monsters, and what a peaceful future could look like; instead, the former Queen had asked a few questions about her personal life, and now Frisk couldn't stop talking about it.

Toriel took her hand, breaking her out of her guilty thoughts, and Frisk smiled at her gratefully. “I think I’ve cried more in the past week or so than I have in the past year,” the priestess confessed. Not to mention more hugs in the last three weeks than the past three years. “So far, the second fortune seems to be coming true. Making it to the Underground was one of the hardest parts, so we’ll see how my plan might work from here on. And…” She coughed. “I’m not ashamed of what else might happen, I just…”

The air in the room got a little more heavy, the silence more complicated. They were sitting around the table in the chairs Undyne had charged out to grab from someone else’s house; Frisk had been feeling so emotional in general, and so grateful to have two other women to confide in, that she’d told them nearly everything, including the fortunes and the bit about having a child very soon. Undyne was visibly working up to the giant, inevitable question of “Who?” when the boss monster shook her head. “I hope, Frisk, that you’ll think very carefully before you make any decisions of that magnitude,” Toriel said disapprovingly.

Frisk was about to answer when all three women stopped, looked at the kitchen, glanced at each other, and did a sort of collective shrug. Toriel cleared her throat. “Besides abstinence, of course, do you know the steps you should take in order to avoid that outcome?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Frisk replied. Undyne looked lost, but Frisk wasn’t in the mood to explain human biology and birth control—it was awkward enough having to say why she needed to bring her bag with her to the bathroom. She also planned to never ask Toriel whether she thought a run-of-the-mill contraceptive would be sufficient against a boss monster’s magic.

“Well,” Undyne said firmly, moving on, “if it’s a big damn family you want, we’re not going anywhere.”

“Stop it, or I’m going to cry again,” Frisk scolded her, and they chuckled.

There was a more comfortable silence as they finished the last of the apples. “I hope this goes without saying, but if there is anything I can do for you while you are here, my child, you need only ask,” Toriel said, dabbing at her fur again.

“Actually,” said Frisk, “I would like a favor. We brought two wagons with us. One of them has gifts for everyone, and the other has a few provisions and my herbal supplies. Could you please check whether they’ve been inspected, and when we can go unload them?”

Toriel hesitated. Frisk understood why: it was a more official duty than Toriel had performed in a while. “I know it’s a lot to ask,” the human said, “but…”

“For you, dear, I will.” The boss monster sighed deeply. “I’d better do so now.” She folded the napkin and pushed her chair back. “Will you take her home with you, Captain?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I—” Undyne’s face fell. “Oh. Uh. Actually, my house is…”

Toriel sighed again. Frisk couldn’t help grinning. “Did you burn it down, or wreck it?”

“It was a training exercise that got too awesome,” the Captain said proudly. “I regret nothing! But, uh, I don’t have a house. I’ve been crashing with Papyrus.” She thumped the table. “Don’t worry, Frisk, I’ll stick with you. I’d do it even if His Majesty hadn’t ordered me to!”

Frisk winced, recalling what Sans had told her about the royal pair’s falling-out. A moment later, the fish monster caught herself and winced.

Sure enough, the former Queen’s hands were now gripping her robe, her eyes distant. “Did he?” she inquired. “How typical. Heaven forfend he speak to you or protect you himself, my child.” The boss monster shook her head. “You may either stay here or at the inn tonight, but starting tomorrow, my child, I’d like you to stay with me in the Ruins. You’re very welcome, too, Undyne.”

“But—” Frisk wished she could stuff the word back into her mouth as the monsters looked at her curiously. Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to say that that was too far from Sans. “We’ll see,” she said lamely.

Undyne nodded. Toriel studied Frisk for a moment before saying, “All right, then. I’ll check on the wagons before I head home. Good night, dear.” She got to her feet, giving Frisk another hug. “Sleep well, Undyne—” She raised her voice. “I don’t know why you’ve been lurking back there, Sans, but I hope you also sleep well.”

“Yeah, I know it’s your house, boss, but eavesdropping is creepy,” Undyne said in the kitchen’s general direction. “Good night, Your Majesty. It’s, uh…it’s good to see you again.”

Toriel smiled a little, and let herself out.

The giant skeleton emerged from the back room, grumbling something about privacy. “Oh, bullcrap,” the fish monster retorted. “It’s not our fault your magic’s so damn strong. A kid could’ve felt it when you came in.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Sans went into the living room and stretched out on the floor, looking at them upside down. “I see Tori got my note. Must’a woke ‘er when I knocked.”

Frisk and Undyne exchanged nods of agreement to not tell him what’d happened. “How’d it go with Asgore?” asked the latter.

“Pretty much what I expected. He made me use a damn truth stone, but at least now he knows I wasn’t lyin’ about Frisk wantin’ ta help everyone.”

Undyne scowled. “That sucks.” She sniffed. “You know what? It reeks in here. I don't mind it, but Frisk deserves better. C'mon, pu—Frisk, we're going to the inn.”

The priestess glanced at Sans, who looked as irate as she felt. “Maybe—”

“That's great. Night, boss!”

It was no use. Twelve minutes later, Frisk was staring at her reflection in the hotel's bathroom mirror, listening to Undyne's energetic nighttime routine in the next room.

The human sighed as dramatically as she could, turning out the light. Oh, well. At least she'd be able to get some sleep.

 ~

 Frisk was too tired to sleep.

For one thing, her brain just wouldn't stop berating her for not sleeping, and for being at all unhappy. She'd made it Underground! She was home! She'd hugged Toriel just a few minutes ago; Undyne was in the next room; the abused monsters were all safe with their families; Sans and Papyrus' house was in easy walking distance...

It was wonderful. It was everything she'd wanted so much as a child that she'd had to forget it to even function again.

...But she couldn't sleep, because she couldn't scoot over and curl up against her giant, grouchy apprentice, which he...probably still was? They hadn't talked about that. They hadn't talked about several things that they really should have already. She'd been exactly brave and tipsy enough the other night to convey her intentions, but that had been pretty one-sided. Just for fun, Frisk tried saying it to herself: I gave him homework to do before he can have sex with me. It...didn't sound better in her head.

She heaved a sigh and burrowed under the thick hotel pillows to escape her own thoughts. Could this situation be any more ridiculous? How many steps had they skipped in a normal courtship? Was it even a courtship if he was both desperate and terrified to touch her?

She didn't care. She just wished he was here.

Frisk must have dozed off like that, because when she sat up, the pillows tumbled off the bed. “Sans?” she whispered.

Something rustled by the door. The priestess fumbled for the lamp, but her hand encountered bone as he reached it first.

It should have been a lovely moment, but the light clicking on forced her to throw the covers over her head. Sans chuckled, giving her a little shiver. "Nice ta see you, too," he murmured.

Now Frisk was squinty and self-conscious. There had been just enough room in her satchel for her oldest, frumpiest, most easily wadded-up nightgown; she'd also forgotten to pack a hairbrush, and the hotel only had huge, saw-toothed ones for monster fur. “What are you doing here?” she asked, sounding more petulant than she meant to.

Pause. "Leavin', I guess," he said in evident displeasure.

"No!" Frisk flew out of the covers and grabbed for his wrist. "I'm sorry! Don't—"

"Hey, hey, easy," Sans said gently, sitting on the floor and smoothing her hair out of her eyes. Frisk moved over on her knees to bury her face in the white fur of his collar, and he rested his hand on her back. She missed the soft, disbelieving smile that crossed his face. "Just wanted t'check on ya. 's kinda weird bein' back in my stinky ol' bachelor pad with just me 'n Pap."

"I bet," Frisk said, petting the fur on his collar. "I wish we could find another bed big enough for you. Mine's been in that room for a couple of centuries at the very least, so it's not going anywhere."

He snorted. "I don't think my room's even big enough ta hold it. The whole room'd just be bed." They both considered this, and he said, "Honestly, I'd be okay with that," to which she had to nod agreement.

It was quiet, except for the snoring next door. "Is Papyrus still asleep?" asked Frisk.

"Yeah. I hope Tori got the wagons taken care of so we can feed 'im tomorrow." Sans lifted both pillows back onto the bed. "I'd be okay, 'cept ya went an' got me used to eatin' every day, so..."

"I'm not sorry." Frisk yawned. She was getting hungry for something more substantial than apples, but knew better than to ask. It was impossible to forget the fear of not knowing when she'd eat again; she had to remind herself that she wouldn't die from missing a couple of meals, and that the monsters had been living this way for years. If she had her way, it wouldn't be for much longer!

Sans was playing with the ends of her hair. "So..."

"Mm-hmm." Despite herself, Frisk was relaxing, her legs complaining about having to keep her upright. It'd been a very long day, and the little tugs on her scalp felt wonderful.

The giant skeleton nodded vaguely. "Alphys wants t'see ya," he mumbled. "She missed you, a'course, but she mostly doesn't believe me 'bout your magic bein' super-duper amazing." Frisk made a pleasantly indifferent sound. "And..." She felt him tense up. "You were right."

"About what?" she asked, opening her eyes, not quite looking up at him.

"Alphys checked my LV—ever heard of it?" She shook her head. "It stands for 'level of violence,' which is exactly what it sounds like. Monsters figured out how ta quantify it a long time ago, 'n mine's been 20 for years an' years. If it could go higher than that, I'd probably be in the forties or fifties by now. Well..." Deep breath. "It's gone down to 17."

"Hm." Frisk scratched her nose where a few white strands were tickling it. "Is it usually difficult to lower it?"

That must not have been the reaction Sans was looking for: he growled at her under his breath, withdrawing his hand. "It's not 'difficult,' kitten-pants, it's impossible. LV is what it is. There's no take-backs on killin' people. I shouldn't be so spoiled by livin' in a nice place with a nice lady an' nice food that I somehow got less evil. It doesn't work like that."

"You're not evil, Sans. You're not perfect, and you have done a lot of terrible things—" He grunted, and she persisted, "—but that doesn't mean you're irredeemable. If you were, you wouldn't care if you were evil or not."

He grunted again, which was not the answer she was looking for. Frisk poked his sternum. "I think you're looking at it the wrong way. You've been absorbing years of accumulated negativity down here, haven't you? What if you've been...I don't know, negating it with better emotions, or maybe sloughing it off like Gaster said? Would that account for your LV going down?"

He just shrugged, and she retaliated with more poking. "Then tell me this: did you kill anyone yesterday, before Undyne attacked you?"

His massive ribcage swelled, carrying her outward and back in as he sighed. "No. One guy said somethin' gross, so I stabbed 'im in the foot. That was it."

She believed him. "And if you'd encountered him a month ago, would you only have stabbed him in the foot?"

The orange of his eyes dimmed. "...No. I'd'a killed him an' all of his buddies, no questions asked."

"All right, then." Frisk absently ran a finger down his ribs, pausing halfway down as he twitched. Was he ticklish? "That's another thing: if your magic's poisonous, why didn't I get sick and die when you gave me some of it?"

The skeleton laughed, short and harsh, nudging her hand away. "I barely even know how ya got it in the first place, sweetheart. Don't ask me why it worked or didn't work a certain way. 'm still not okay with just goin' for it the ol'-fashioned way an' hopin' you'll be fine."

That was the second time he'd called her that. Frisk's heart was in her throat. There was no wine or home-ground advantage here; she had to jump right in. "So..." She tried to sound playful, and was pretty sure she just sounded nervous. "Is that a 'no' after all? You don't ever want to try it? I know you haven't had much chance to practice what I asked, but..."

He had stopped moving—no breathing, nothing. The priestess pulled back a little. "Sans?"

"Then what?" he rumbled.

Frisk's hackles rose. "What do you mean, 'then what'?"

"I mean, what happens if we do it 'n I don't kill ya? Then what?"

It was a reasonable question, and she'd just been telling herself they needed to talk about it. Now that she had to answer, though, her mind was a roaring blank. "...Then...that would be...good?"

His hand flattened across her back and shoulders. "Yeah. At the very least, you could cross it off the list of stuff that's gotta happen for monsters t'go free. Sucks that gettin' knocked up is part of the deal.” Snort. “Maybe it's not too late ta find someone you'd actually want the kid to look like. You've still got a zillion guys ta pick from. There's, what, a month left before the timing starts t'get—"

The priestess pushed away hard, ignoring the pain in her chest. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, sitting back to stare up at him. "Is it supposed to be some kind of joke? Or are you saying I'd sleep with anyone in order to make everything else happen?"

He blinked, realizing exactly what he'd said. "Uh. When ya put it like that..." The skeleton tried to shrug. "Heh. Nah, I was...I was just kiddin'."

"No, you weren't!" She jerked a hand upward and snapped her fingers twice, creating a bubble in which she could convey her thoughts at the proper volume. "I know what a joke sounds like, and that wasn't it!"

Sans scratched the back of his skull, bone grating on bone. "Fuck. I didn't mean—"

"You didn't mean what?" Frisk was too tired and hormonal for this! "What kind of shallow, selfish, irresponsible moron do you think I am, Sans?!"

"I don't!" The giant skeleton held up his hands, scooting back against the wall. "Wouldja calm down? Yer not dumb, or shallow, or whatever, and ya gotta be the least selfish person ever! Jus' forget about it, okay?"

"No!" She glared at him till he couldn't meet her eyes. "What were you trying to say? Was it, 'Frisk, I am concerned that you're rushing a major life decision for both of us based on something someone told you at a street fair, and I would like to discuss the long-term consequences, such as the ramifications of a child being half human and half boss monster'?"

"Yes! Exactly! ...Pretty much!"

"Then why didn't you say that? Why frame it as me being a shallow, selfish, irresponsible moron?!" The pain in her chest was getting worse. "No, don't answer that! Here's a better question: are you really that insecure? Do you honestly believe that the only reason anyone could ever love you was because they had to?!"

Sans looked as if the universe had crashed to a standstill. His eyes had gone blank, and his mouth moved a little, but nothing came out.

Frisk cleared her throat and swept her hair behind her ears, face burning. "I know you can't change how you think of yourself overnight, but until you do, I'm not going to sit here and let you insult me or you like that," she said, soft but firm. "Is that understood?"

No answer. His gobsmacked expression didn't change; in fact, he wasn't moving at all.

Despite herself, Frisk wanted to laugh. Poor Sans. He hadn't expected that word, had he? Purely to snap him out of it, the priestess said, "If you really can't make up your mind, then tell me so I can find someone e—"

"No!"

It was Frisk's turn to sit very still as the echoes died away. The boss monster glanced up at the barrier. He shook his head violently, scrubbed his face in both hands, and let his head drop back against the wall. "Look, I'm...I didn't think I was still so damn scared, okay? I thought I was gettin' over it, but when we're actually talkin' about this stuff, I—"

"You don't think I'm scared? I'm the one who's having a child!" If she had to spell it out for him further, then so be it: "Listen to me, Sans. I'm not doing any of this because a fortune told me to. It just helped me figure out how to get what I already wanted. Do you understand?"

His sockets slowly widened, his entire skull reddening, and now her face was hot again. "It's your turn to say something," Frisk mumbled.

Her apprentice rolled his head sideways, eyes flicking toward her, as if he'd scare her off by looking for too long. "So...ya really..." His voice faded and didn't come back.

Frisk desperately wanted to hug him again. Instead, she sighed, rubbed her breastbone – was it heartburn? – and summoned all her priestessliness to say, "Here's what I'd like to happen, Sans. We'll still be friends, I'll be your teacher, and you'll remain my bodyguard until we both decide otherwise. If you make up your mind and decide you want more than that,you need to tell me when you're ready. I won't bother you about it again."

Sans shifted his weight, but didn't answer. The priestess turned onto her side away from him, cuddling a pillow to her midsection—stress always made her cramps worse. "It's very late. In fact, at this point, it's very early. Please go and see if the wagons have been brought in, and have the gifts and the herbal supplies moved to Snowdin. The food can be distributed wherever it's most needed." She didn't hold in a yawn. "I'm going to sleep in for as long as Undyne lets me. We'll come to your house as soon as we're both up. All right?"

No response. "All right," she said. A click of her tongue, and the barrier was gone. Frisk got under the covers, rearranging the other pillow under her head. "Turn out the light, please."

Silence. The light clicked off. She heard him move toward the bed; something smooth touched her cheek, and without thinking, Frisk reached up and clasped his forefinger. "Good night, Sans."

His hand slipped away. Her chest hurt so much that she wanted to cry again.

...He hadn't gotten up yet. Could he tell that she didn't mean the calm, logical things she'd said, and how much she wanted him to stay?

No, it wasn't his job to read her mind, and at least one of them had to be sensible about all of this. Frisk stayed quiet, burying her face in the pillow as she heard him climb to his feet.

But instead of the whisper of magic taking him away, there came a shuffling sound and a soft thump, and another shuffle and thump; a whooshing sound, the smell of leather—the boss monster was removing his slippers and his overcoat, tossing them on the floor. Frisk sat up, trying to see him in the total darkness. "Sans, what are you—"

There was a strange feeling in the air, and a sort of grunting sound, analogous to a human trying to break wind. "There. Think I got it," he said after a moment.

That was strange; he hadn't moved, but his voice sounded much closer. Thoroughly confused, Frisk edged away as he sat down on the bed. The pain in her chest had almost disappeared, but she forgot to breathe as Sans shifted even closer. The mattress creaked, and his shoulder bumped hers as he reached across her lap, resting his weight on her other side and bringing his face just a few inches away.

Frisk's heart was thumping so hard that she couldn't think straight; she didn't understand what was so different about him until she reached up to touch his cheekbone, just below the light from his sockets. Suddenly, it hit her: she could spread her fingers and cover almost the entire side of his face. "You shrunk?" she squeaked.

Sans chuckled again, and Frisk felt-lightheaded. "Ya wanted me t'work on that, right?" He placed his human-sized hand on hers. "Ta-da." Pause. "Man. It's like wearin' clothes that're way too tight. Dunno how long I can keep this up."

Still in disbelief, the priestess rubbed her thumb across his nasal ridge, feeling his breath on her forearm. That explained why his eyes were only about a foot above hers now—it was convenient, but extremely disconcerting, to say the least.

"Till then..." He took her wrist. "Here's somethin' else I wanna try."

Frisk shook her head. "What do you mean? Something like—yeep!"

"Shit!" Sans dropped her hand like a piece of red-hot metal. "Did I bite ya? 'm sorry, I—"

"No! No, I just thought..." She tried to look at her palm, which of course she couldn't in the dark, wondering if she was losing her mind.

Sans let his head drop to her shoulder; she had the impression that he was getting ahold of himself before he sat back up and reclaimed her hand. Frisk tried not to jump as it happened again: he pressed her palm to his mouth, and instead of bone, she felt something warm and soft, exactly as if he'd kissed it.

She now had no idea what to say or what to expect. It was a huge relief to be drawn safely against him, his arms winding around her, stroking her hair and down her back. "So, yeah," he murmured into her hair.

At this size, his touch was a little less gentle than usual, not as light or careful, and he was holding her tighter. Her heart was doing the glued-together thing again; like every other part of her body, it reveled in being held like this, but it wanted her to move even closer and let him squeeze her harder. "Yes?" she managed.

"So...what all did you want me t'do again? Fix the size thing, make up my mind, quit hatin' myself?" The bones of his arms and ribs were starting to dig into her as his grip tightened. "Is..." He exhaled. "I still don't like me that much, so...is two outta three okay?"

Frisk's heart soared. She put her arms around him – all the way, for once – and let him bury his face in her neck, nearly crushing her against his ribcage. He was definitely hurting her now, but she didn't care—if anything, it wasn't enough. "Maybe," she said into his shoulder, playing with the folds of his shirt, which he obviously hadn't figured out how to downscale with the rest of him. "You don't have to be as confident as Papyrus, but are you willing to at least tolerate yourself?"

The skeleton shook his head a little, as if trying to rattle the words loose, then raised it enough to say, "I 'unno. 'm pretty lazy, an' it sounds like a lotta work."

"There you go again!" Frisk tugged on the shirt for emphasis. "You're not lazy. You've done so much for me and for the other monsters—would it kill you to do something for your sake?"

A long pause, ending on a shaky sigh. "Can I start with yer sake, maybe work up to mine?"

She closed her eyes, melting a little. "Deal." It was incredibly tempting to tell him how cute he was, but she didn't want to risk embarrassing him enough to start a full-blown pout. And as long as they were doing this... "Would you turn the light back on, please?"

A short pause. "Don't wanna."

"Why?" Inspiration struck: "I know I look awful, but you can just close your eyes."

"Wha—what kind of stupid crap is that? You—"

"Ha! You see?" She poked him in a random rib. "See what it's like?"

"Ha, ha, lady," Sans growled in her ear, making her pulse flutter again. He shifted his weight without letting her go. "'s not you, dummy. 'Sides, I can see pretty well in the dark already, 'member? I just figure I look goofy as hell, all bones and then this fleshy stuff hangin' off my mouth. At least ya can't see my tongue when I've got it out."

"Your...oh." Frisk's face was even warmer. "So that's what that was." Well, that was good to know. If he was worrying about how he looked with lips on, then that meant he planned to keep them on, which meant...

"Yep. I figured it out from bein' human. Wasn't that hard." Sans ran his phalanges over her scalp, and stopped dead at the sound she made. "Wouldja knock it off? I can't think straight when ya do that."

"Do what?" A sudden, kittenish impulse made Frisk run her nail down the back of his skull.

He growled again, much deeper. "That does it." Before she could react. Sans' fingers wound themselves into her hair, metacarpals spread in a loose grasp on the back of her head. She swallowed very hard, but let him tip her face up to his and lean in. His mouth brushed her lips, the lightest touch—

Frisk made another small sound, and to her frustration, his head snapped up. "What's wrong?" he demanded. "'s not my fault I don't know what I'm doin', I'm just tryin' not ta—"

He stopped as Frisk took his head in both hands. "Nothing's wrong. Now do it again," she whispered.

With a blink, and a deep breath, Sans let her pull him down to touch mouths again, but only for a moment before he ducked his head and dropped both hands for the first time. "You know...maybe this ain't such a good idea." She'd never heard him sound like this—not angry, but so self-conscious that he couldn't bring himself to look at her, even in the dark. "There's gotta be other stuff I can do fer—"

"Sans," she said, and when his eyes cut back to her, Frisk rose on her knees, groped around for the back of his skull, and leaned down to kiss him so hard that he had to catch himself before she knocked him over. Whatever magic he was using felt real enough to her: warm and yielding, it offered just enough resistance for him to kiss her back as his arms came up again, almost shyly.

She enjoyed the slow, deliberate movements for several seconds, then paused, silently daring him to stop; she was almost immediately rewarded with a hand threading its way back into her hair, pulling hard enough for a very nice twinge of pain. His other arm circled her waist, and Frisk scowled as his head moved down again. But a moment later, something sharp grazed her neck, and she cried out, grabbing blindly to keep him there.

Luckily, Sans seemed to have gotten the point. He chuckled, an almost predatory sound; something hot and damp trailed up the curve of her throat and along her jawline, his grip on her hair holding her in place so he could lick her neck again, and again, pressing his tongue hard enough to send chills and heat racing through her.

The boss monster let his teeth drift over her skin once more, a little edge of fear sharpening the pleasure. He nipped here and there, careful to lick anywhere he'd bitten too hard, until he misjudged and made her gasp aloud. When he paused to check on her, Frisk shook her head and leaned into him, humming the tiniest bit of encouragement.

That was all the invitation he needed: the world spun as Sans lowered her to the mattress, shoving the pillows aside and discreetly hitching up his baggy trousers. Frisk allowed him to settle himself most of the way on top of her, breathing deeply into the crook of her neck and giving it a few gentle laps. "You didn't mean it, didja?" he said, barely audible.

The priestess swallowed, trying to remember what the hell he was talking about. "I don't—"

He nuzzled her cheek, his phalanges tracing her collarbone. "I know ya didn't really mean it, findin' someone else if I couldn't make up my mind, 's just kinda..."

Frisk sighed impatiently. "I meant literally everything I said except for that."

Tap, tap went his fingers on her shoulder. "Everythin', huh?"

"All of it." Frisk rested her cheek on him. Compared to the incident in the bathroom, when all that had set him off was a glimpse of bare skin, he seemed in complete control of himself; maybe that was another reason he'd wanted the lights off. Either way, she wondered what would happen now. Was he going to go back to his house right away? Cuddle with her till Undyne got up? At this time of the month, it wasn't as if they could—

"'Kay," said Sans, with a different note in his voice. He shifted upward and kissed her again, more confident. Frisk started to speak, but forgot it when his tongue flicked against her lower lip, his hand working its way under her head. Her arms draped around his shoulders as her lips parted, and the feeling of his tongue sliding into her mouth made her whole body turn to plaster itself against him.

Letting him taste her was so absorbing that it took Frisk a minute to realize what his other hand was doing. The backs of his fingers stroked down her neck and along her collarbone, but they didn't stop there; his phalanges deliberately traced the side of her breast, and she was tingling in anticipation when his hand kept right on going to her waist, reaching under her thigh to pull it up so he could—

Frisk went rigid and shoved at his clavicle. The moment her mouth was free, she emitted a steady stream of "Waitwaitwaitwait!"s that brought him up short.

Very reluctantly, he sat up, and she grabbed a pillow to hold between them as an extremely ineffectual barrier. "What the fuck?" the boss monster snarled.

She could have slapped him. "Don't give me that!" she snarled right back. "No one said we were going any further than that, and we can't right now!"

Sans was panting so hard that she could feel it heating the entire pillow. "Okay," he said, trying very poorly to sound reasonable. "Right. Asgore, destiny, can't get knocked up yet blah blah—"

Well, at least she was too angry to be embarrassed. "It's not just that! I've got my period, Sans. You know, menstruation? Did you come across it in any of my books?"

He blinked again, this time in thought. "Yeah. Is that how you say that word? I think I was drunk when I read about it." He shook his head. "So you're...what now?"

God damn it. "I'm bleeding from the exact place where you were going. It's technically possible to go ahead and have sex anyway, but I'm tired, and it already hurts a little, and it would make a horrible mess, and I would completely hate it. That's why the answer is 'no' for at least four or five more days, and then there's Asgore and destiny blah blah. Understood?"

Sans' ardor seemed to have cooled. "Yeah, I get it," he said grudgingly. "Here, close yer eyes."

Frisk thought he was trying to go in for another kiss, but a moment later, the light clicked on. From behind the pillow, she felt another strange pulse of magic. "There. Man, that's better." His clothes shuffled; when her eyes had adjusted enough to look at him, he was back to his usual stature.

She waited, very patiently, and he eventually glanced at her. "So...d'ya want me ta leave?" A beat of silence. "Forever?"

"Of course not, unless you want me to think that you're not interested anymore," Frisk said before she could stop herself.

Squint. Glare. "Is this another thing where you're makin' up stupid crap ta prove a point?" She looked away, and Sans smacked his forehead. "Shit on a brick! No, I'm not ditchin' you 'cause I can't get laid right this second! I just figured..." Squirm. "That was really...y'know..." He sat down again, face glowing. "'m sorry. Did I hurt ya?"

Frisk winced. Now that the mood was officially gone, her neck was starting to feel distinctly chewed-upon, but she didn't want to talk about that. "No, I just meant my period. It's normal to have some pain or discomfort as your body's getting rid of certain things. Basically, it's Nature's punishment for not having a baby yet."

"Wow. That sucks big time." Scratch, scratch. "So...what can I do right now to not get in any more trouble?" he asked slowly.

The priestess gave him a wan smile. "That's an excellent question, but the answer is that you're not really in trouble. If you hadn't stopped when I said to..." She drew a finger across her throat. "But you did, and the rest of it was...fine." She smiled wider, though she couldn't quite look at him. "I think we should go to sleep now."

“Agreed.” Her heart sank as Sans stuck his feet into his slippers and retrieved his overcoat. The lamp clicked off. "Don' mind me," he said abruptly, and turned onto his side, the orange light of his eyes fading.

Frisk sat there for a moment, then climbed over the second pillow, to where his head was resting on the floor. "Good night," she said, and pulled the covers loose from the foot of the bed to get under them from the wrong end.

There was no response, but she felt him reach over to touch her cheek again. She squeezed his forefinger again as his hand rested on the bed; neither of them quite let go as they lay back down, and both swiftly fell asleep.

 ~

 Bam. Babam. BambamBANG went the door.

Frisk jerked awake as light streamed in from the hallway. "What's wrong?" demanded Undyne. "Are you sick, or—"

There was a perfectly frozen moment as the Royal Guard Captain, in her fish-print pajamas and comfiest eyepatch, stared at the High Priestess, resplendent in her rumpled nightgown and a severe case of bed-head, and then at the bleary skeleton on the floor. Then there was no skeleton on the floor, only Frisk reaching for the lamp. Undyne blinked. "Uh..."

"Good morning," Frisk said, not being casual or sheepish, because why would she? "What time is it?"

Undyne scratched her neck, sweeping her loose hair aside. "It's almost eight o'clock. Don't expect me to let you sleep this late again." She glanced at the floor, as if doubting herself. "Rough night?"

Frisk looked at her, and she said, "Yes."

"That sucks." The fish monster came into the room and opened Frisk's satchel. "Not a lot to pick from, is there? You could borrow some of my stuff, but I don't think anything would fit. You're still pretty shrimpy."

"I'd argue if I could." Frisk yawned. "I'll see if I can go shopping later. In the meantime, I should have at least one clean outfit left."

Undyne did a quick, professional sniff test, locating the gown in question and turning to hand it to her. "Here. We've got a busy day. The wagons are ready to be unloaded, and I already had 'em take out...the food...for. Uh." Her eye widened. "That's...wow."

The priestess had been feeling fairly confident that she'd avoided any awkward questions for the moment, though she was dreading the hints Undyne would drop when they got to Sans' house; that wisp of security evaporated under the Captain's stare. "Wow," she said again. "I...damn! Seriously?!"

Frisk had no idea what she—oh. Oh, God. Oh, no. No no no no no—

Undyne had the decency to let Frisk run to the bathroom and stare at herself in the mirror for the count of twenty; then she sauntered in, allowing the human time to snatch her collar up to her chin. "Yep," said Undyne. "Here's your dress." She set it on the counter.

Frisk had another pathetic little hope that that was it, until she glanced in the mirror and saw that her friend's face was completely contorted with the effort of not grinning her giant, toothy, giant grin all over the place. "Really?" Undyne asked rhetorically.

"Shut up." Frisk stared dully at the bruises and occasional tooth mark ringing her neck. "Please, please shut up."

"Pffft! Like I have to say anything!"

"Shut up, please!"

Undyne was shaking her head, not as a threat so much as sheer disbelief. "I—seriously? No offense, but, Sans? I don't believe this!" Her grin faded a little. "Well...” She shrugged. “Not that it's anyone else's business, but just so you know, this is gonna mess some people up pretty bad." The grin faded to a smirk. "There's no way we can tell Her Majesty about this, or she'll turn him into a million toothpicks." It faded a little more. "I dunno how serious you guys are, but..." The smile was gone. "I don't think His Majesty would take it that well."

"Undyne, please don't tell anyone yet," Frisk said urgently. "Sans and I agreed not to let things get too far before I've spoken to Asgore about a peace treaty, and don't give me that look! This is as far as we got!"

The Captain held up her hands. "All right! All right! I know how serious you are about makin' peace, and about all of us. I won't mess that up." She straightened and gave a sort of salute, looking very stern in her pajamas and comfiest eyepatch. "My lips are sealed."

The High Priestess nodded. "Thank you." She examined her neck again in the mirror. Undyne closed the door, still shaking her head; when she was gone, Frisk finally permitted herself to smile.

[puffmamaa]

Rated E for Extra Petty.

Hey y’all! Here’s a random, little one-shot loosely based on this meme I saw a while back. Everytime I listen to Fantasia, it’s all I can think about lol.

Pairing: Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens x Black, Dark-Skin, Plus Size Reader. (Always💛)

Summary: No amount of 2K or Anime is a match for you when you’re on your bullshit.

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: Cussing. Use of N-word. Corny jokes. Reader being a major brat. Mention of smut. Erik being...a nigga lmao.

A/N: Song is “Free Yourself” by Fantasia, just in case someone doesn’t know it.

Also, I love me some Tasia so any shade towards her singing is all in jest. 😉

——

“IF YOU DON’T WANT ME, THEN DON’T TALK TO MEEE...”

Erik paused the TV and placed his elbows on his knees. His right leg bounced up and down aggressively. Sighing loudly, he threw down his PS4 controller and laid all the way back on the bed. You’d been blasting that same song for the last 20 minutes. Erik tried to tune it out but between Fantasia’s loud ass crooning and your off-key screeching, he couldn’t take it. He let out another breath as you continued to scream out ad-libs about how ain’t shit he was.

Let you tell it, this moment of supreme pettiness is what Erik deserved. You had come home late from work, tired and worn out from being around d’wights all day. All you wanted to do was curl up with your boyfriend and watch Love & Basketball. But Erik was in the middle of a game of NBA 2K19 and didn’t want to stop for your impromptu movie night.

EARLIER...

“What you mean not right now?” You asked with an attitude. You had changed out of your work clothes and into a black crop top t-shirt and black fitted shorts. Your big, kinky hair was pulled into a high puff.

“Baby, I’m trying to finish this game. We can watch the movie afterwards. Aight?”

“But I want to watch it now.”

“Well, I’m busy right now. Just watch it without me, if you can’t wait.”

“But we always watch Love & Basketball together, you whined as you poked your bottom lip out. “You don’t wanna hang out with me?”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

You sauntered over to him and sat on his lap, straddling his legs. You wrapped your arms around his neck and gently played with the tail of his black du-rag.

“Then why not now?” You cooed into his ear.

Erik groaned lightly as you ran your nails against the back of his neck. “Look, I’ll only be like an hour. I’m sure you can find a way to entertain yourself until I’m done.”

You squinted your eyes at him. Usually, you had Erik wrapped around your finger. Your whine alone would have him rubbing on your booty all night. And a whole lot more. But this time, he wasn’t letting up. Your pout quickly turned into a frown. You hopped out of his lap and stood in front of the TV.

“So this dumb ass game is more important than me?”

“Y/N.“

“Nah, that’s basically what your saying. You rather play this shit than be with me. I can read between the lines, Erik.”

“Girl, you trippin’ right now. Chill out.”

“Fuck chill! All the times I’ve sat up and watched those stupid ass anime shows with you?

“Stupid?” He stood up, cocking his neck back in offense. His gray sweats hung low on his hips. “I thought you said you were starting to like anime.”

“I don’t even understand that shit! I watch it because its something you like to do. But, do you return the favor? Nooo. You rather sit in front of this fucking TV and play some wack ass game made for 14 year olds! Witcho cornball ass!”

Erik’s eyes bulged. He clenched his jaw and moved towards you.

“Watch ya mouth, princess. I don’t know who you think you talking to but I’m not sum nigga in the street. You need—“

“I need to what, Erik?” You cut him off, placing your hands on you hips and moving closer to him. His large frame towered over yours but you still managed to look him right in the eye.

“You know, maybe I should get me one of those other niggas. I’m sure they would love to do much more than watch a movie with me.”

Erik’s eye twitched. You knew the thought of you entertaining some one else would get under his skin.

“You better calm all that down before we have a fucking problem,” he lowered his face to yours. “I mean that shit.”

“Then turn the game off,” you whined again, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Hell no.” Erik mirrored your actions. Normally, he’d let you have your way by now, but you were being more of a brat than usually. Plus, you had disrespected his favorite genre and game. No fucks were given on his end at this point.

The two of you glared at each other for a minute.

Erik huffed and rolled his eyes, “I’m not finna do this with your bratty ass. Take that bullshit somewhere else, bruh.”

He sat down on the bed and grabbed his controller, starting his game back up.

You stood there, burning a hole in the side of his head as he continued to play like you weren’t in the room.

“Ok,” you hissed, “OH-Kay.”

You stomped out, slamming the bedroom door on purpose.

—

Erik heard the song start over again.

“If your unhappy then your free to go onnn. Cause I don’t want you stayin’ arounndd, if I make you so miseraablee,” you and Fantasia sang brashly.

“IF YOU DON’T WANT ME THEN DON’T TALK TO MEE,”

“That’s FUCKING it.” He said as he shot up from the bed.

He swung open the bedroom door and stomped down the hall.

“I swear to GOD...” he murmured to himself as he made his way to the living room.

You were sprawled out on the couch, one leg thrown over the back while you leaned your head on the arm and sang. An open bottle of wine and half filled wine glass sat on the coffee table. You eyes drifted to Erik as he barged into the room. He was silently fuming; his naked, scarred chest heaving in and out. You gave him a dry look and grabbed your glass, taking a long sip.

“This love thing is fuull of scandaaaals, so you’re WELCOME TO WAALK.”

“Yo. Kill all this fucking noise, ma.” Erik said, pulling on his sweats.

You gave a him a stank once over, rolled your eyes, and kept singing.

“If you don’t WANT me, then dont TALK to me.”

“I’m serious, Y/N. You being mad childish right now.”

You turned the volume up on your speaker.

“Then GO ahead AND free yourSEELF.”

Erik clenched his jaw, “All this over a damn movie?”

You glared at him and walked towards the kitchen. He was right behind you, huffing and puffing the whole way. You opened the pantry and grabbed a big bag of kettle popcorn. You strolled over to the kitchen island and sat down on one of the stools.

“Look, stop all this and I’ll watch the stupid movie with you.”

“Time and time again, I tried it over and over,” you sang between bites. “But the love I had inside, has died.”

“Come on now, this shit is ridiculous,” he moved to your side of the island and sat down, trying to grab at you. You pulled back and perched yourself up on your knees to sit over him.

“Go. Ahead. To. Someone. Else.” You chanted, tapping your index finger into his forehead with every word.

Erik grabbed your wrist, getting more agitated with you, “I’m warning you, Y/N. You better stop.”

You kissed your teeth and snatched your hand back. With all the dramatic energy you could muster, you threw your head back and your arms out, bellowing out with the screaming songstress.

“IF YOOUU DON’T WAANNT MEEE THEN DON’T TAALK TO MEEE. GOOO AHEAAD AND FREEEE YOURSEEELFFF!”

Erik winced at your screaching. You threw your hand up at him and shook your head side to side.

“I had to take it there, I had take it there. Cause I’m TIRED.“

He flared his nostrils at you. That right leg started bouncing again.

“IF YOU DON’T WANT ME, THEN DON’T TAALK TO M—.”

“Goddamnit, Y/N!” Erik yelled. He quickly scooped you up and walked you over to the couch. You yelped as he plopped both your bodies down and leaned over you, a scowl on his face.

You blinked up at him innocently. His eyes scanned over your chubby, brown face. He sighed, still sneering a little.

“Why do I even put up with your ass?”

Fantasia continued to croon in the background as you stared back at him, batting your eyelashes.

“Cause you love me...” You said with a shy smile.

Erik let out a soft chuckle and dropped his head. He was lowkey happy to hear you say something besides those damn song lyrics. Reaching around you, he turned the speaker off.

He shifted both of your bodies sideways and laid behind you. He snuggled his head in your neck, causing you to whimper a little.

“Cue the damn movie,” Erik said, wrapping an arm around your waist.

You giggled, grabbing the remote off the table and turning on the TV. The opening scene of Love & Basketball faded onto the screen. You moved your head to face his and smiled, running your nails through his beard.

“You are something the fuck else, I swear.” He mumbled as he peppered kisses up your neck and along your face. He captured your lips into a full kiss as he pressed himself against your backside. “Spoiled ass.”

“E...” you moaned, pushing back against him.

Erik pulled back and sent a hard smack to your ass, causing you to squeal.

“I’ma watch this shit with you now but I got something for that ass later on,” he said with a smirk while he rubbed the sting away. “You ain’t really start singing yet.”

“The neighbors gon learn my name today or whatever Trey Songz said.”

——

Alright, I hope y’all got a good little chuckle out of this.

Let me know what ya think! 😁

[knightofameris]

goodmorning ameris :)

i will always protect ameris!! lets gooo >:O and im in school right now and just. suffering from the sheer amount of work fhsjdkdwkdnd

and oh yeah. i definitely know im,, going to fall for him just because of how he acts around me. he makes me nervous, but in a good way, and it sucks,, fhskdnskdm rip my heart bc it is not ready for this heartbreak </3

>:O if you could make any 2D boy real which one would you make real? i’m personally switching it out and getting hina from weathering with you bc she’s my favorite all time :)

—🧸<3

GOOD MORNINGGGGG I remmeber waking up at 6am and seeing this and I was like half asleep and then fell back to sleep and here I am awake because my period was like we’re gonna keep you awake because you’re gonna be in pain (:

ABDIAJDJSJDJJS pls ;—; I’ve never had something like this AHDIAJDIWJDJ and oof I’m so sorry ))): I hope you’re almost close to finishing the semester??? Quarter??? Whagever method you finish things lol. SOON ITLL BE OVER TEUST

ITS OKAY MAN. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN YK? At the very least ya get a friendship out of it and I think that’s pretty cool owo

HNM tbh I know that if they were real I wouldn’t date them 😬 like I’m 99% sure. Like idk if I do like guys irl but also I haven’t been with a girl but I have had crushes on girls but I have also always felt more comfortable kissing girls than guys but I’ve never kissed girls romantically or more than like a second or two LOL. Or also idk if I could be ace/aro. I’ve gone through all the labels. This is a long explanation for a simple question and it’s just because I’m constantly confused on sexuality but I just know I’m queer ABDJAJDJ.

tldr; I’d probably still have suga be real I think we’d be good friends at the very least lol

ALSO HINA IS SO CUTE. I REWLLY LIKED WESTHERING WITH YOU IT was very cute and the animation is always judt so good 🥺

[sauerland-2001]

Omg I did not mean to delete my recap 🤦🏽‍♀️ why is this new editing thingy so useless.

[mylilbirbs]

Here’s chapter six!

Chapter Six: ‘Fun’

Connie had been to the beach a few more times since she had met the three other mers. Connie didn’t get to see the other mers since then. According to Steven, Pearl was the only one who still dislikes her, he told her that Amethyst thought humans were ‘weird’ and ‘funny’ and Garnet remained a mystery.

She had arrived at the beach as usual but Steven had not shown up yet. She sat down on the sand and waited.

Fortunately she didn’t have to wait too long before she heard the sound of splashing, she looked prepared to wave to Steven but she stopped when she noticed there were two mers instead of one.

“Heeeyyy!!!” Amethyst waved, laughing. Steven followed closely behind.

“Umm, Hi Steven an-and Amethyst?” Connie stumbled.

Steven swam up to shore and signed to her, ‘She just really wanted to come. Sorry I couldn’t warn you.’

“It’s okay! I just wasn’t expecting someone else today.” Connie responded, truthfully she had wanted to ask Steven some more questions about mers but she supposed she’d have to wait till the next time she’d see him for that.

“I’m great to hang out with.” Amethyst defended

“I never said that you-”

“So, what do ya nerds do all day anyway?” She interrupted, her tone changing from cold and defensive back to her usual relaxed one.

“We um talk, Steven teaches me some signs and mer stuff and I tell him about human things.”Connie explained, Steven nodding as she finished.

Amethyst rolled her eyes, “Really? That’s it? Here, how about I show you two some real fun.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

Amethyst led Steven and Connie past the a temple to an underwater tunnel, Connie had to come up for air before they could go through there, Amethyst popped up next to her,

“Come on! If you wanna get back to shore before night we have to go!” She crossed her arms.

“I need to breathe Amethyst.”

“It’s not that long of a swim. LIsten, I won’t let you drown. I don’t want Steven to get all mad at me.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“What? It’s the truth, okay. Come on, let’s go.”

Amethyst grabbed her arm and pulled her underwater, Steven swam up to Amethyst and signed something, Connie couldn’t tell what he was saying since she wasn’t wearing her glasses. Apparently it wasn’t that important because Amethyst shrugged and then swam through the tunnel.

Steven offered her his hand, Connie took it and they followed Amethyst through the tunnel.

Amethyst was right, the swim wasn’t very long at all. The tunnel led to wide open space, most of the room was underwater but luckily there was a small space where Connie could come up for air. When she did the two mers followed her.

Steven handed Connie her glasses.

“Aren’t we about to go back underwater?”

Steven nodded, ‘ Yes but Amethyst says she wants you to see this’

“Yeah, trust me it'll be super boring if you can’t see.”

“Okay, I guess I’ll just be careful with them.”

Amethyst smiled “Nice. Now can we gooo?”

Immediately after her nod, Amethyst sped underwater, she and Steven rush had to  to keep up with her.

Amethyst led them deep under the water, at first it was dark but then the further they went Connie noticed the room began to glow in a soft purple light, when they reached the bottom Connie could see everything clearly.

Glowing purple crystals covered the walls and illuminated the room. The room itself didn’t have much ground space because it was covered in...

‘Trash?’Connie signed to Amethyst.

‘Yeah! Isn’t it cool?’ Amethyst smiled, ‘Steven this is great right?’ She nudged Steven with her elbow.

‘Yeah, but where’d you get all this stuff?’

‘Does it matter? Just, look around. Find something cool and I’ll let you keep it.’

Connie felt reluctant to put her hand in garbage but Steven looked excited? He was smiling and his tail was twitching with anticipation. It confused her for a moment but then she remembered Steven also collected trash that people had dropped or thrown into the ocean. She guessed mers were just weird.

After going up for air Connie went back into the water to see that Steven was already looking through one of the piles. He waved at her and pointed behind himself,

‘That pile looks like it has some cool stuff.If you want to look.’

‘Thanks’ She signed back and recluntacly swam over to the pile he mentioned.

Taking a closer look she realized it did have some interesting things. Sports equipment, weapons, and other various objects. All of them appeared broken though.

Sifting through the objects Connie swore she saw something moving. She stopped and watched, nothing happened. It must have been her imagination. She continued searching and Amethyst swam to her side.

‘Having fun?’

She nodded, ‘Thanks for doing this. But are there fish in here? I think I saw something moving in the pile.’

‘There’s nothing here but us, see.’ Amethyst punched the pile sending some the junk flying through the water, Steven poked turned around to look at them.

Amethyst smiled and stretched her arm out gesturing towards the destroyed pile

‘See? Nothing. Don’t be so worried all the-’  

Before Amethyst could finish, They all noticed a shadow forming above them. Rising from the destroyed pile, was a giant squid. It was a bright blue, with multiple eyes staring right at Amethyst.

‘What the..’

They froze in shock, Amethyst’s scales began to glow.

‘Don’t worry I’ll take care of this.’ and a purple whip appeared in her hand.

The squid opened its beak, and then wrapped all of its tentacles around Amethyst, before any of them had time to react, it quickly dragged  her into the depths.

[lildirtbike-blog]

At least you're not my problem any more I don't care bout you so why you worried about me Starbound You niggas ain't got shit on me You can leave but you can't forget You can't forget us It's 3 AM and im thinking about you My niggas been with me since day one My nigga I been a1 since day 1 So pretty but but so hard to catch Shooters on deck all of em boba fett yah I wanna bih I just want a bitch Got ny shades on in the club All of my shootas wearing camo so you won't see shit coming I honestly just wish I could be, like you I make money not friends Bih we do not play pretend I wouldn't have you any other way I swear I love every single inch of you Like why you worried bout me hoe mind ya own damn business Id love you any fucking way You was rubbing your fat little ass on my dick I let you be you and you let me be me She cuddle me harder, I gave in With her i never win She the only one that knows my sins Fuck what they say i'm the best Truth is I always liked you more I know I fall in love too quick, but this time I think it's real I see a little bit of me in you and a little bit of you in me I wanna play with you I done waited way too long for this You niggas played enough it's my time Feeling fine I'm feeling Feeling fine I'm feeling myself I'm feeling myself Homeboi a shooter Tagteam on my tutor Shawty go down for the team Touch her you gon bleed I want us to be something more Get off work so I can love you We could've got caught but that only makes shit more fun You might be the one Tear down her walls I kinda feel bad for the next nigga I gave you my heart now it doesn't even beat I'mma have to pick up every broken piece I'm with my bae she so poppin Hop out da coupe everybody stopping I wanna spoil you Ou damn she like sneakers more than me Got yo bitch on lock With my glock You're my heaven You make everything seem alright For s moment until I open my eyes I just wonder how high we can gouuo I don't just wanna fuck I also just wanna make you mine I know this shit take time But just rolllll with it But gooo with it I still see you when I open my eyes And I swear, these niggas talk to you just to talk about you All they want to know is how much you are of value I'm in the mood for taking a nigga bitch He don't care about you He don't treat you right You don't know what you do to me So nice to look at even better to touch/fuck I'd give you the world if I could too I'd give you everything if I could too I'm sorry if I upset you We ain't getting any further Fuck you/blow out your back and kiss on her freckles After cuddle the fuck out you and eat fruity pebbles I wanna cuddle the out of you I just wanna know you Fuck them other niggas they don't deserve you Stomp a nigga out in my Jordans shit I let my girl get too thick I mean there's just something about her What's happening to me unknown powers We talked for hours Hide n seek They/you don't even know my like that I won't cry over you I want you now I miss you so fucking much I'm so damn impatient But you're so damn important Leave that nigga he a loser and you know that It's wrong but it feels so right I'm sorry I'm too indecisive I can't choose Is it you or is it you I do it all for you So what you wanna do Do you even love me anymore? A lot can change in a year I wonder were we're going from here He don't even deserve you I got a lot on my mind She said she was thinking about a kid I'm like shiit Then she said she wanted to know what it would be like I'm like psych You get me/ the most You're the only one that gets me Sorry in advance if I get clingy Don't give a fuck about what they say they say I chase bags not bitches Rags to riches I chase money not bitches cuz all that shit will come later I wish I never opened up to you because you're just going to use it against me anyways I don't wanna wake up from this dream Now I gotta clean up the mess you made Fuck trying to fit in/ fitting in Why does my heart still beat for you when you destroyed it? Why you so worried bout me mind yo business You live in my head You live in my head Even though you probably want me dead I need you to pray for me cause nobody else is Whats it like on the other side Fuck them other guys Being with you is bliss even in the silence Tell me is there a bright side to all of this? I don't think I'll ever get over you Why do I feel this way You make my bad days better Strangers - Accin like you don't know me that was my fear Now we're just strangers Back to square one I was just a fool in love It wasn't even love You were my angel Now you can burn in hell You really weren't shit Going my own way Doing shit my way fuck what they say She said be gentle I said I'll try Oooh she make me nervous I'm tryna make you mine I'm running outta time You know better than to come around here Bitch niggas on my back Get the strap She knows what she's doing Killing it with my bestie/best friend I'm tryna be my best me Iloveeverythingaboutyou You know how to get under my skin I miss you already I'm trying I really am I'm holding on Hold on Bear with me I'm picking up the pieces Just let me know how you feel Be real I see/saw you in my dreams You were the only one for me It just keeps on going and it never stops Life's what you make it Don't take shit for granted I'm just tryna make it out alive I just want a bitch that get my vibe She's trouble/ but I don't mind Hate only makes me go harder All we know is bands can you really blame us? Keep a thang up in my camo pants bitch you can't tame us She sat on my lap She jumped on my dick almost bent that shit She gave me head relieve me from my stress For a little while, straight outta work and she undress (Daddy's bday flow hook) I go hard for you you go hard for me I can be anything you want me to be I want to kiss ur freckles She sent me nudes ion even know her tho Bitches talk and talk I'll be here when you come home Don't know why she got so wet Ion even think I did shit All she did was see me Split her like a kiwi She called me her husband Shawty I ain't buying no ring Kill4me Would you kill for me? Keep it real I miss/the smell of your skin I need someone who's on my level You moved on but im still here Still ain't gonna waste my tears You was just using me to pass the time You was just using me to fill a void You're my favorite part/the best parts Cuz mama told me no no no no I fucked her first you was kissing Dip on a bitch and go missing I got some Molly she itching Young Ramsay with the wrist in the kitchen Girl don't play with me Bitch don't play with me yah I'm trying not to get to used to you Cuz they always leave Just/not for you And I forget how to breathe when I see/with you Ooh you make my mouth water I can't explain it I just can't explain it Just love me honestly Love me responsibly Keep it real Im hungry for you I'm hungry need some food What do I gotta prove You cannot come to the crib I want more I want more I want more You know I gotta have it Bad habits I love her flaws and all She love me flaws and all You never tell me you love me anymore They think I'm crazy for loving you But I don't care / Jason Joseph Password : lilnibba666 Apple ID : lildirtbikeboi@gmail.com Password : lilnibba6 / Eyes - Brad Pitt, X Nose - Billie Eilish, Cindy Kimberly Forehead - Mehki Alante, X Jawline - / Eyes - Brad Pitt, X Nose - Billie Eilish, Cindy Kimberly Forehead - Mehki Alante, X Jawline - / Shorty gave me top in the movies Put frosting all on her boobies Reach under the seat grab the toolie For any nigga tryna act a foolie Fuck what they say I'm doing shit my own way I could do this shit all day Tear that ass up when we stressed Straight outta work made the biggest mess Fuck what they say I'm the best Well these niggas plottin i know that I ask () where the fuck that pole at You don't got cheese but you still a rat I'm doing shit my own way Nigga get fold like clothes / You can't catch me Nigga you can't catch me ( 21 Savage - X melody) Oh that's your girl she fuck with me Oh that's your girl think imma keep Pull up mobbin 30 deep Talk your shit send you to sleep Hop straight out the fucking jeep Hit up yo bitch then i dunk Bitch im dualied up, pop the trunk Nigga you lame you a chump We got lotsa bricks, we got lotsa skunk Its not for the using tho Shawty be a lil hoe, but she always stay ten toes We smoked dope then hit the store Dicked her down she want some mo Bitch ill flex on the pope Chop a kilo McDonalds I feel like Pablo / You know my boys gon go all out You niggas gonna know Pull up you home alone Air force 1s on my toes Whipping foreign like im grown Whipping foreign like im grown Main bitch whip the stove Side bitch whip the pole Whipping foreign like im grown Whipping foreign like im grown / White converse white socks Plaid long sleeve shirt down to shoulders Black spaghetti strap crop top Black shorts or skirt Dark skin Asian or Hispanic White Nike tennis shoes Long white Nike socks Black shorts Black hoodie Black Nike hat Pink hat Blonde long kinda wavy hair Black shorts White label shirt White Nike tennis shoes / Them drugs hit the spot Kiss me in that spot Them drugs hit the spot Kiss me in that spot Pull up finnesse on the whole lot Some feelings were caught Won't hold back on you tonight Get at my baby you might meet yo plight Won't hold back on you tonight Get at my baby you might meet yo plight / You changed you don't love me in the same way You changed We don't fuck just like we used to You changed you don't love me in the same way You changed We don't fuck just like we used to You changed Nothing will ever be the same If you don't love me no more you could've just said it I made you happy at least give me some credit We ain't getting further Cuz I ain't tryna hurt her Your love was just a lie Do you got better niggas on the side? I can see it in your eyes You switched up you changed sides You changed you don't love me in the same way You changed We don't fuck just like we used to You changed you don't love me in the same way You changed We don't fuck just like we used to You changed Nothing happens when I touch you there Shit got cold I can feel it in the air / Remember when we stayed up all night That was the best night Promise ill always be by your side But baby will you be by mine Ijusthopeshitwillturnoutright

[lupineguardian]

Rime within the Embers

4. Of Oaks and Ravens

Just a little ways north from Berylia's mountain, the road forked; one branch led northeast and the other split off to the west. In between the forked roads was a small expanse of forest known as The Sylvan Thicket. Not the largest wooded area any of us had seen, but still large enough to easily get lost in without outside help.

Multiple stories had been told of the old alchemist that resided within. The aging Forest Titan always claimed to just be a humble alchemist, but we all knew he was more of a guardian than simply a mere hermit of the Sylvan Thicket. Only those he chose as worthy and without ill intent towards his forest would he let pass through safely. Those who didn't receive his blessing? Or ventured in by force? Stories said they were never seen again.

"You guys are so slooooow, come on lets gooo!" Kit said, jumping up and down like a child, as we neared the thicket’s entrance.

"Why do you always insist on having boundless energy?" Arileth asked with a sigh.

I smirked. "I don't think that's intentional, Arileth."

"Mm."

"Did you want to stay put? I know you are not overly fond of either the old alchemist or the thicket itself." I asked.

"...Perhaps. Yes, I think I will study my spells a little out here. Thank you for your consideration."

I nodded. "Don't mention it, besides what are friends for? I'll try to rein Kit in as best I can and be quick." I said with a slight chuckle.

"See ya later Aril!" Kit yelled out as she continued to march towards the thicket.

A small warm smile crept up Arileth's face as he pulled out his grimoire. Before long he started reviewing his spells, seemingly muttering to himself.

"This way, Rime!" Kit announced loud and proud, still marching ahead.

Before entering, I draped my blue wings around my chest like a cloak; just in case it got a little crowded.

It wasn't long before I could smell the conflicting scents of various alchemical brews at work nearby. Surely enough, Kit had stopped her advance in front of an open-ended 'shack' if you will. It looked like the inside of your usual alchemy or magical shop, yet there was only a roof of branches and leaves over top, seemingly being held up by four small tree trunks at its corners, with no walls or even a door to speak of.

The aging man that stood behind the display of vials and various herbs, towered over my vulpine friend. He looked like a tree given humanoid form, skin a greyish brown like that of an Oak tree's bark, with a similar rugged texture, his hair a pale forest green that faded to alternating colours of browning orange, yellow, and some red; reminiscent of fallen leaves in autumn.

Next to him Kit looked like a child. Even in her werebeast form, she would still pale in comparison. He's even on the shorter side of the spectrum, I've heard stories of some Forest Titans being as tall as 10 feet. If I had to guess, the old alchemist was somewhere around 8'5". Perhaps it was due to his apparent age? Or perhaps it fluctuated between clans? He was clearly of the Temperate Oak clan, but who knows. Forest Titans are known to be the rarest race in Falyndra, clinging to their sacred forests. I personally have only met one other one, up north...back when Frostburn Village was still in one piece.

"Hey old man! How've ya been?!" Kit asked in her usual loud manner.

"Ah. Miss Inazuki, a pleasure to see you again. Who may I ask is your companion?" The old alchemist asked.

"Oh! This is Rime! He's the friend I told you about!" Kit exclaimed, pulling me into a sibling-like headlock embrace, ruffling up my hair as she roughly rubbed her knuckles into my skull.

"Ah! Quit it alright, will ya? Aha! Or I'll give you one back! ...W- what are they called again?" I asked, trying to squirm out of her grip.

"It's a 'noogie' Rime! Come on, get with the times! Aha!" Kit laughed aloud, before releasing her hold on me.

"Right- come 'ere!" I said, trying to return the 'gesture'.

"Perhaps you two can continue your roughhousing outside of my company?" The old alchemist suggested, or perhaps it was more like a soft demand.

"Apologies, er- I don't think I ever got your name sir?" I stumbled away from Kit, attempting to ask my question somewhat respectively.

"Ah yes, this is our first official meeting, yes? I apologize then as well." The towering Forest Titan said before bowing in a surprisingly formal introduction. "My name is Xylen Oakenroot, a pleasure to be of service if I can. I assume you are here for supplies?"

"Rime Winterborn. A pleasure, sir." I said as I returned the bow. "But yes, we are looking for some suppl-" I froze mid-sentence as a lone black feather floated between us.

"Salutations then, Mr. Winterborn.” He said as he nodded respectfully.

Xylen looked towards an opening in the thicket's canopy, from whence the feather came. “Ah it would seem my assistant has come with the supplies I asked for."

A tan skinned individual with hair an indigo-purple so dark it could be mistaken as black in certain lights and feathered wings as black as ink flew through the 'shack'. With a flap of her wings, she landed gracefully beside the old Titan. Within moments she had pulled out a decently sized package from her satchel; more than likely these 'supplies' Xylen was expecting.

A Featherkin...great. This could go one of two ways and I really hope for Kit's sake that they are the non-village burning and peaceful variety.

"Ah, Laila. Your timing is as impeccable as always. We have guests, who also may be customers as well. Do say hello." Xylen said as he gestured to Kit and I.

She nodded and turned to us "Greetings. My name is Laila Branwenn, and you are?"

"The name's Kitsui Inazuki! But everyone just calls me Kit! This here is my buddy Rime!" Kit announced, slapping me on the back cheerfully.

"Right. The overly cheerful and vulgar one, I believe we met once, but in passing. Why is a Dragonling here?" She asked, unamused by Kit's behaviour.

Here we go…"What do you mean by that? Featherkin?" I said back, my tone a little sharper than intended. That put me on edge, especially after last night's nightmare.

“Whoah, hold the hostility there Scaleskin. I meant no ill will. I merely asked because I haven't seen many of your kind in this neck of the woods.” Laila said, holding her hands up in defence.

“Then watch your words....All the Featherkin I’ve met have given me unneeded hostility, all because of my draconic ancestry. I- I assumed you were all the same…” I said averting my gaze.

“Yeah? Well, we aren’t. So don’t go assuming what you don't know. I’m of the Nephelim Raven clan, we aren’t the same of those pinheads in the other clans. We know you scaleskins aren’t demonic or whatever they want to believe, and aren’t apart of their stupid hierachy. We don’t judge a whole race based on misconceptions. So if you had half a brain you won’t judge us or me by ours.” Laila huffed as she finished her rant.

Kit practically jumped between us, despite the wooden tree-like counter that divided us. “Oooookay, I see things are getting tenssse, maybe you both should take a chill pill or somethin’? Heh...no pun intended this time Rime. This time. Man that’s actually a good one...I should write that down somewhere.” Kit smirked with a devious grin at her unintended pun, after attempting to defuse the current situation.

Xylen cut in with a soft tone, like leaves rustling in the breeze. “I apologize for my assistant, she can be quite blunt at times.”

“...No, no...the apologies are all mine...I- I should not have assumed...I- I just keep having a recurring dream involving a lone feather floating past my vision. So uh- it just- it put me on edge when I saw yours...sorry….” I said, looking to Laila before I averted my gaze to the ground again, feeling the guilt of my assumptions.

“Mine? Did some of my feathers fall from my earlier flight? I do apologize then, trauma is never easy….So a dream, you say?” Laila asked, her voice much softer than her previous defensive tone.

"I- How did you know?"

"We all have our dark days, Rime. Now, tell me about this dream of yours." She said softly, yet keeping blunt.

“...As you wish...it- it was a dream of my past...my home village burnt down in some sort of...raid...when I was young. I- I don’t really remember much after seeing that feather….Sorry, this-... this probably isn’t something you wanna hear from a stranger-”

Having moved back beside me, Kit put her hand on my shoulder reassuringly. Her silent support was appreciated.

“What colour?” Laila asked bluntly.

“Colour?” I asked, confused.

“Did ya lose some brain cells there, birdbrain?” Kit jokingly jabbed.

She ignored Kit’s comment, “The colour of the feather. The one in this dream, what colour was it? What time of day was it?”

“I- the colour? I- I don’t know...white? Grey? I never really paid attention to the colour...probably white. It was daytime though, that I know for sure”

She sighed, massaging her temples. “Well, that’s better than nothing I suppose. That leaves out my clan, the Dodos, and the Phoenixes….White wing feathers that could fall off like that are rare in the Eagle, Falcon, and Hawk clans, so I am doubtful it was one of them. Snowy Owl Featherkin are uncommon within the Cherubim Owls, who even as a clan tend to like to strike under the dark of night anyways. So that leaves either the Songbird, Dove, or Crane clan as the culprit for this mysterious feather that haunts your dreams."

“Oh..I-...I thank you…. You- you didn’t have to…” I said, looking between the ground and Laila’s medium purple eyes.

“Don’t mention it. Besides, you seem like an okay kid. I apologize for lashing out.”

“It's alright, I more than deserved it” I said, giving her a small genuine smile.

Xylen broke through the small silence after a few tender moments. “Now that that is taken care of, and an understanding has been reached between you two younglings, what brings you to my humble shop, little dragon?”

As I was about to speak, Kit cut me off. “We came for supplies, old man! Like potions and maybe some antidotes if ya have any!” She said loudly and proud, earning a glare from Laila.

“Ever heard of respecting your elders Foxfur? You are being awfully rude.”

“Mehhh pipe down. I am bein’ respectful, this is just how I speak! Tell her Rime!” Kit blurted out.

Xylen spoke before I could retain the situation. “It is quite alright, Laila. We speak on multiple occasions, and never am I offended by her speech or nicknames.” Laila simply huffed and stormed a few steps away.

“Healing potions, I presume? Are you two going on a venture? I need details for said antidote you require as well.” Xylen asked, his voice as serene as the forest that laid beyond his tiny little shop.

“Yes sir, please. And to answer your other question, yes we are, us and another. The antidote however, we do not have much information on. We can give you what we do have, if that’ll suffice?” I asked.

“Here you are.” Xylen said as he pulled out several vials of a reddish liquid, placing them in front of us. “Ah yes, the Elven boy fixated on his book of spells, yes?”

“I- how did you know?” I asked, shocked by his insight.

“The plants and trees have eyes and ears far more reaching than most city dwellers would care to believe.” Xylen said with an eerie smile. “Go ahead with your information, I shall do what I can.”

I took a deep breath. “Well, we are on a job to find and retrieve a lost caravan to the northeast. I believe however, that there is a mysterious mist involved with its disappearance. Our sources told us that this ‘mist’ seemed to numb the senses and hide from the awareness of those to come into contact with it. We do not know if poison or magic is involved, or both. Do you have anything that could assist us?” I asked, after sharing our circumstances.

After a few moments to process the information, the aging alchemist spoke. “Hm...sounds like this mist uses a form of sensory paralysis, but for it to affect several senses at once so quickly, and to even hide away from one's awareness, it sounds to have complex magical properties as well. Unfortunately, I do not have any antidotes or potions for a deadly combination like that, especially without any specific knowledge of the magic involved itself.”

“Ah. It was a long shot, but I thought we would try anyways…” I said, almost sounding disappointed.

“Do not fret young one. I may not have or know of an antidote, but I do however know an alchemical recipe that could diminish the effects if taken in advance, or atleast slow the process of the sensory paralysis. What says you?” The looming Forest Titan asked.

“Sounds pretty good to me! Come on, Rime! Let’s take it! It’s better than nothin’, isn’t it?!” Kit announced as she jumped in, laughing before turning to me.

Kit’s enthusiasm made me chuckle. “Heh. Yeah, those’ll definitely better our odds. Thank you Xylen, I’ll take you up on your offer, how much do we owe you?” I asked as I smiled.

“...20 gold pieces for the potions...for the sensory preventative, 10 gold pieces...Yes, that will do nicely.” He said after taking a few moments to contemplate.

“Master! You need to charge more than that! You’re going out of your way to make something up front for them! Those potions and this preventative aren’t easy to make!” Laila shouted, slamming her hands down on the counter.

“Do not worry Laila, I do not have much need for money. You know this. Only to purchase what the forest cannot provide safely. Besides, I enjoy exploring new avenues and brews for this craft of mine. Kitsui also comes to keep me company often, which this old Titan appreciates deeply.” He reassured his assistant, his warm smile seemingly infectious.

She sighed, smiling to herself. “What am I to do with you, master?” Laila said as she chuckled a little, shaking her head.

“Wow! Thank you Mr. Oakenroot, sir!” Kit announced with a wide smile, clearly honoured by Xylen’s gift and words.

“I- Are you sure?” I asked the old Titan.

“I am positive, little one. Now go, reunite with your Elven companion. I shall send Laila once I’ve finished your special order.” He said with another warm smile that could melt the coldest of hearts.

After several thank you’s and a goodbye, we left the 30 gold pieces with Laila and made our way back towards the thicket’s entrance to meet up with Arileth.

[madwickedawesome]

ive been cheated by u since i dont know when dananananananana so ive made up my mind it must come to an end dananananananana look at me noooowww will i ever learn i dont know hoooowwwww but i suddenly lose control theres a fire within my soul BA BA JUST ONE LOOK and i can hear a bell ring ONE MORE LOOK and i forget everything O WOAH WOAH mama mia here i go again my my how can i resist ya mama mia does it show again my my just how much i missed ya YEEESSS IVE BEEN BROKENHEARTED blue since the day we parted why why did i ever let u go mama mia now i really know why why i could never let you go babababababababa ive been angry and sad at the things that u do du du duudu du dudu dudududu i cant count all the times that ive told u we're through dudududu du du du du du du du and when u gooo when u slam the door i think u knooooow that u wont be away too long u know im not that strong BA BA JUST ONE LOOK and i can hear a bell ring ONE MORE LOOK and i forget everything oohwoahhh mama mia here i go again my my how can i resist ya mama mia does it show again my my just how much ive missed ya YEEEESSSSSSSSSS IVE BEEN BROKENHEARTEDDDD BLUUUE SINCE THE DAYY WE PARTED why why did i ever let u go mama mia even if i say bye bye leave me now or never mama mia its a game we play byebye doesnt mean for ever mama mia here i go again my my how can i resist ya mama mia does it show again my my just how much ive missed ya YEEESSS IVE BEEN BROKENHEAARTEDD BLUUUE SINCE THE DAY WE PARTED why why did i ever let u go mama mia now i really know why why i could never let u go.................

ive had mama mia from mama mia stuck in my head for like multiple months now i am not fucking joking