#instead of making one version and it being right the first time

[sillywillylils]

back at it again with the lighthouse… seeing the jump of words by 10k makes me shiver with excitement and dread. i first read it was published and then i reread for the giggles and for heartbreak and the now rework is finally in my arms and prepared to shatter me…. I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS, now prepare to be sick of me again.

“You knew that traveling to the surface was forbidden, but you couldn’t help the way that it called to you deep in the depths of the sea. Like a moth to a flame” so this is actually me, i’m already immersed

“Still, you watched and watched for what seemed like hours” i understand this heavily, the way you long for something and see other people easily have it, you observe and sometimes don’t even really think

“Landwalker’s buildings were already tall as it is, but this one was completely different. It pierced through the sky with a beacon of light shining from the top—almost like a second sun being held up. Your eyes widened as you drew closer, ducking behind some rocks as you surveyed the area” fun fact this is actually rare footage of me seeing sunghoon for the first time ever and being pulled in like a siren

“muscles straining against his rolled up sleeves and brows furrowed, the more you noticed him” just did my iconic face just an fyi and a big iykyk

“Dusk fell and a cold breeze swept up the shore from the waters. You had spent the whole day again watching the man work at what you now knew was called a lighthouse” okay so take my heart already, this fic has destroyed it multiple times

“Sunghoon, that was his name. You tried his name on your tongue. ‘Sung… hoon…’ you spoke softly before smiling. ‘Pretty’” the truest and rawest reaction to the existence of this man, oh i yearn for sunghoon

“‘Why do you ask?’ your Elder asked, her red hair rippling in the water” ariel what are you doing here

“She smiled at you, ‘Thank you for looking out for the little ones. You’d make a good addition to the council one day’” i mean…. it happened but just not in the way you’d think, at least parting from the sea is no longer a far fetched thought

“They were wearing a large sewn cloak of seaweed that covered their face, but you could still see their bright, shifting orange scales. Something about their tail looked off. There were patches that were smoother than others and completely rid of scales. It almost looked… sickly” fight or flight right about now and book it out of there

“Your opened your mouth to speak, but they cut you off. ‘My wise advice for you—don’t. End this search for the sea witch, now’” sorry guys that was me trying to gatekeep the lighthouse sunghoon

“Pushing away from the shelf, the witch stepped towards you. Her tattered dress was ripped at the hems at multiple points so pieces of fabric hung from it and dragged along the stone floor. When she moved, the shells, sticks, and pearls she wore clacked together in an alluring harmony. It reminded you a little of the sea. She bent down at the edge of the pool so she was eye level with you, her messy hair fanning around her face” KIPO your way of describing is absolutely amazing, it’s the way i can visually see it like wow

“‘In one month’s time, you must cut out the beating heart of the human you love the most and bring it to me’ The sea witch slowly leaned away from you, her eyes remaining on yours. ‘If you don’t fulfill your end of the deal, you will never walk on land again and you will never swim in the recesses of the ocean again either. You will instead turn to seafoam and be nevermore. That is your price, guppy’” how do i break the news to both of them….

the descriptions you gave during her transitioning from mermaid to human was beautiful. the way you showed the rawness and not sugarcoated version is amazing. i can feel her emotions and the way everything was suddenly happening during the storm as she was emerging.

“What if it was his heart you cut out?” how do i cut out my own heart to make sure sunghoon in unharmed

“You didn’t feel graceful, you felt forsaken. This was a journey of death, not rebirth” THIS IS AMAZING THIS SENTENCE ALONE IS GORGEOUS

“You looked up at the full moon, glowing and huge. It looked like a pearl hung in the sky.” PERAL? PERAL YOU SAY OH NOOOOOOOOOO

“With skin the slightest bit tinted blue and with slightly webbed hands, you almost looked… human—but, more ethereal and beautiful than anything Sunghoon has ever seen in his entire life. You were prettier than any Gibson Girl appearance the women of the village sported by far” IM GOING TO CRY DONT DO THIS TO ME PLEASE

“He got as comfortable as he could on the armchair and yawned once again. Sunghoon closed his eyes and let himself drift off to sleep” HIM IN THE ARM CHAIR MAKES MY HEART BREAK LIKE HE’S RIGHT NEXT TO MC JUST TO WATCH OVER HER INSTEAD OF GOING TO BED

“He really was beautiful. Your brows knitted together as the tips of your fingers dragged down his cheek. Did all humans look like him?” no but i wish… hey where’s the sea witch again..? i have a question to ask for a friend…

“You took a wobbly step back and nearly fell onto the table if it hadn’t been for Sunghoon jumping up from his chair and quickly reaching out and grabbing your waist to steady you” i would ask what are we right then and there

“You could see the way his body heated up and the redness that creeped up his neck and tinted his cheeks pink. It made him look even prettier. He took the pillow from behind him and pressed it down in his lap” what are you hiding under there hoonie?

this is so off topic but mia and sebastian’s theme JUST started playing through my headphones when he realizes she’s a mermaid and they are interacting for the first time… i need to take a minute

“Naked? How were you naked? Most of your pearls were still in your hair and your hair was relatively decent still. You were completely dressed” she’s so cute i’m going to cry

“Sunghoon quirked a brow, chuckling, ‘What? Are you gonna eat me or something?’ You stayed silent” and if tell you in an alternate universe you are singing about this very thing

“Sunghoon smiled brightly at you. ‘Now, what’s your name, darling?’” NOW I HAVE TO BREAK DOWN SOBBING DONT DO THIS TO ME :((( sunghoon + darling= soul shattering

“‘I can’t argue with that, sweetheart’ Sunghoon spoke, the smile still lingering on his face. He had teeth that looked like little fangs and it reminded you a lot of the merfolk back home” petition to have sunghoon become a merman BUT THE NAME?:!$,!,8

“Sunghoon grabbed your elbow and gently pulled you away from the siding so that you could face him. He wanted to see the excitement seep through every crevice of your face and the way your eyes lit up. He wanted to experience it with you” and if i break down crying then i will be the problem

“You pressed more into Sunghoon’s side and he wrapped his arm around your waist” YUPPPP I KNOW THATS RIGHT

“You looked back at him with wide, fearful eyes. ‘It’ll be okay’ he assured you, grabbing your hand. ‘I’ll be right here waiting for you’” take a piece of my heart and rip it out why don’t you

“‘It gets easier, dear. When it’s all over, you come and find me, you hear?’” DEARRRR MYYYYY IM BROKEN DONT LIE TO ME

“‘Well, you can wear it all however you like when we’re back on the island, sweetheart’ said Sunghoon, stepping towards you. He took your hands in his and smiled at you” i’m breaking down he’s so so so so sweet

“His lips felt perfect on yours and yours on his. It was as if they were made for each other and you never wanted to spend another moment not kissing Sunghoon” this is actually so real because i would never want to not be kissing that man

“‘And what if I like the pain—the danger?’ Sunghoon asked you quietly. ‘What if I want to get hurt by you?’” GAGGED STRAIGHT UP GAGGED

“You didn’t want the sea witch to have his pure heart. She didn’t deserve it. And you felt like you didn’t deserve it either” the absolute BAR that you just dropped right now kipo is INSANE

“‘You feeling better today, my pearl?’ Sunghoon asked you gently” my pearl. my pearl? MY PEARL

“Sunghoon leaned across the small table towards you, tilting his head. His lips were inches from yours. In a loving voice, he added, ‘Like sweetheart, or darling, or baby…’” i will send this man personally into orbit. DO NOT TEST ME

“‘I'm glad that you came in. I actually can’t sleep that well during storms’ Sunghoon said. You looked up at him and you could almost make out his face. ‘And your presence is always a welcome one. Makes me feel calmer’” WAIT does this mean the night mc rolled up on the shore he wasn’t already having a good sleep? does he sleep well on the chair because she’s there as he watched over her during the first night? i’m unwell

“‘Let me warm you up then, my love’ Sunghoon chuckled, pressing warm kisses to your cold cheeks” IM SO SICK DONT DO THIS TO ME THIS IS HURTING MY HEART SO BADLY

“Sunghoon froze when he saw you on his bed, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape. You looked like an angel descended from the heavens just for him and he wondered to himself how he got to be so lucky to witness your beauty like this. He watched as the flickering light bathed you in warm hues and made your hair glitter with all of the pearls strung in it. You smiled at him shyly, your gaze casting down for a moment before looking back up at him. You looked so beautiful that it truly took Sunghoon’s breath away; and it took him a couple shaky inhales to realize he was just standing in the middle of the room and gaping at you” THIS WHOLE PARAGRAPH HAD MY HEART TWEAKING BECAUSE WHAT, it made me feel fuzzy and warm

“both of your hearts had fallen in sync with each other—at least, just for the moment where the two of you shared everything. From your body to his, the two of you were finally one” no one talk to me. i’m too sensitive for this

“It felt like your bodies were made for each other—like the two of you were made for each other” OH YEAH. THIS. IM I CANT. it feels so pure

“He leaned down to kiss you. ‘My pearl’ Sunghoon whispered affectionately before kissing you again” i am SICK. SICK I FREAKING TELL YOU.

“you noticed how Sunghoon looked at you—how he always looked at you. It was full of love and hope and yearning” say it with me a man who yearns is a man who earns (well in this case, a man who yearns is a man who becomes seafoam)

“You made his heart race and race until he was sure it would go jumping out of his chest and into your gentle awaiting hands” DONT DO THIS TO ME BRO.

“and he would gladly get burned by your heat if that meant he could be with you” THE MENTION OF MOTH TO A FLAME SOBS, like a mothhhhh to a flameeeeee

“‘I love you’ Sunghoon finally breathed. ‘I love you so much that it’s too much to contain. It spills out of me like uncontrollable rivers. I could tell you over and over and it still wouldn’t be enough—I love you, I love you, I love you!’” going to search up on google how to be this loved by this man, no borax no glue and no sea witch

“‘I love you’ you told him, like you had discovered the secrets to the world and it all lied within him. ‘You paint all of my skies the most saturated colors of blue like I've never seen before. You’re the air in my lungs and the beating of my heart—oh, I love you so much!’” THEYRE SO CUTE I CANT the way they describe their love for each other so beautifully and such correlation to the sea and sky makes me cry

“‘You're crying, my pearl? Why are you sad?’ he asked you gently, pulling you away from him so he could see your face” AND WHAT IF I JUST BANISH EVERYONE AND IMPLODE THEN NO MORE SADNESS

“‘Why did you think I'd let you sacrifice yourself for me?’ Sunghoon asked. As if he’d let you do such a ridiculous thing. He would rather carve out his heart himself and throw it to the sea if it meant you could keep the life you dreamed of” I JUST STARTED UGLY CRYING. MITSKI AND THIS MOMENT WAS TOO MUCH FOR MY HEART TO HANDLE IM NOT MEANT FOR THIS

“You had taken some of the pearls from your hair and sewn them onto the hat that Sunghoon always wore; he even let you weave some of them into the strands of his hair” a just felt a stab to my heart and the knife TWISTING the more i read

“‘I love you, my pearl’ Sunghoon kissed the corner of your mouth” how badly my heart just churned in itself like what the heck

“‘I’ll be back!’ you exclaimed through a laugh” why do i have a bad feeling about this

“He told you of how one day, you and another would exchange them on the day you were to be wed and the pearl would be the foremost adornment with all of the other pearls in your hair” MY JAW DROPPED

“you opened your mouth to explain more to Sunghoon but he was already taking your hair between his fingers” orbiting into the sun or the deep sea at full speed no hesitation

“Breaking from his lips, you smirked at him before taking his hand and leading him to the bedroom” time for the best freak show yet

“Above you, you saw the water ripple like something was dropped in. You wouldn’t have thought anything of it if not for the feeling against your tail. You stopped swimming and twisted to look behind you. Shock filled you and your eyes widened. Sunghoon swam towards you, clothes flowing in the water as he got closer” NO NO NO

NO NOT AGAIN WHY DO I PUT MYSELF THROUGH THIS PAIN EVERYTIME (it’s because this fic is just too good)

“Looking down, you gasped and bubbles of air floated towards the surface. Lodged in Sunghoon's chest was a knife with blood rapidly coming from it. You shook your head at him, brows knitting together in anguish, and Sunghoon just nodded” OH MY LAWD I CANT DO THIS ANYMORE IM TAKIMG A LAP AROUND BEFORE PLUNGING HEAD FIRST INTO THE WATER

“‘It's not a life I want if it isn’t with you’ you cried, removing your hands from the hilt and pressing them to his wound. Your hands were stained but the blood wouldn’t stop”

“Sunghoon took your hands in his, ‘It’s not a world I want to live in if you’re not by my side, my pearl’”

THE ENTIRE SCENE SEQUENCE. i am not okay and i am not the same because what the heck. the way that the deem life or even the world not enough if they’re not by each other’s side JUST TAKE ME INSTEAD AND LET THEM BE HAPPY

“Let her take your heart, so long as she doesn’t touch his” real

“While the law searches the tiny island to figure out what came of the lighthouse keeper, they find a picture of a woman with pearls in her hair—similar to the pearls found in the lighthouse keeper’s hair—and shifting blue scales. The picture and the scales were hidden in a pocket close to his chest and free from any blood. The woman was never found and the villagers have no recollection of her—despite the various photographs around the lighthouse keeper’s small home” WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD AND WHY AM I UGLY CRYING LIKE WHAT THE HECK I KNEW THE OUTCOME WHY AM I STILL AFFECTED BY THIS

“Through the breaking light of the dawn, it is said you can see two souls turn to one” THEY’RE ALIVE AND HAPPY, THE LIVE NEAR THE BEACH AND VISIT THE LIGHTHOUSE TO TAKE CARE OF IT I SCREAM AS I AM DRAGGED BACK TO THE PADDED ROOM

can i just mention that when mc makes the comment that she is fully clothed and not naked due to the pearls still weaved into her hair in the beginning and towards the end where she gives all by one of her pearls to sunghoon from weaving it into his hat and hair meaning that she had her walls up to protect herself when she first washed up but after falling in love with sunghoon, she stripped herself bare to show the pure beauty of love and how she accepts him into her world? yeah okay.

KIPO you did it again. no matter how many times i read this fic, it still hits like the first time i read it. IM DISTRAUGHT TO THE POINT OF NO RETURN. it shatters my soul every time like the way they become together even though mc withers away and sunghoon remains. their soul weaves together.

the way you wrote everything down to the storyline, to the details, to the love. it made me feel like i was watching a movie where i knew the fated ending and still couldn’t bring myself to rip myself away from it. you did absolutely amazing as always and everytime my heart hurts when i remember this fic.

as always thank you so much for writing this wondering heartbreaking fic. it’s absolutely heart shattering and i cannot bring myself to not read it again and again and ugly cry everytime. the lighthouse holds a special place in my heart always. i cannot wait for what else you have in store and i know no on else is ready for what is being cooked up for wips

much love to you- l.p

ˋ 𑁍 ⨾ THE LIGHTHOUSE

the land has always been something you desperately wished you could walk on. be like the humans and walk among them. one dark and stormy night, you are granted your wish—but, it comes with a deadly price. and you only have one month to decide if you’re willing to pay it.

❛ 박성훈 𝑥 𝑓!reader ❜ 𓈒𓈒 ❨ 歌 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 ❩ 𝗌𝗍𝗋𝖺𝗇𝗀𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝗍𝗈 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗌, 𝖺𝗇𝗀𝗌𝗍, 𝗄𝗂𝗇𝖽𝖺 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾 𝖺𝗍 𝖿𝗂𝗋𝗌𝗍 𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍, 𝗌𝗆𝗎𝗍, 𝖿𝗅𝗎𝖿𝖿, 𝗆𝖾𝗋𝗆𝖺𝗂𝖽!𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋, 𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝗄𝖾𝖾𝗉𝖾𝗋!𝗌𝗎𝗇𝗀𝗁𝗈𝗈𝗇, 𝗆𝖺𝗀𝗂𝖼, 𝗆𝖾𝗋𝗆𝖺𝗂𝖽 𝖺𝗎, 𝖿𝖺𝗇𝗍𝖺𝗌𝗒, 𝖾𝖺𝗋𝗅𝗒 𝟣𝟫𝟢𝟢𝗌 𝖺𝗎 𝗂𝗇𝖺𝖼𝖼𝗎𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗂𝖾𝗌, 𝗌𝗅𝗈𝗐 𝖻𝗎𝗋𝗇, 𝗌𝗅𝗂𝖼𝖾 𝗈𝖿 𝗅𝗂𝖿𝖾, 𝖿𝗈𝗋𝖼𝖾𝖽 𝗉𝗋𝗈𝗑𝗂𝗆𝗂𝗍𝗒, 𝖼𝗅𝖺𝗌𝗌𝗂𝖼 𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗒 𝗈𝖿 𝖺 𝗆𝖾𝗋𝗆𝖺𝗂𝖽 𝗐𝖺𝗌𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗎𝗉 𝗈𝗇 𝗌𝗁𝗈𝗋𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝖺 𝗍𝗐𝗂𝗌𝗍, 𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗌𝖾／𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝗄𝖾𝖾𝗉𝖾𝗋 𝗂𝗇𝖺𝖼𝖼𝗎𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗂𝖾𝗌, 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗅𝗂𝗍𝗍𝗅𝖾 𝗆𝖾𝗋𝗆𝖺𝗂𝖽 𝗋𝖾𝖿𝖾𝗋𝖾𝗇𝖼𝖾𝗌, 𝗌𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍 𝗌𝗆𝗂𝖽𝗀𝖾 𝗈𝖿 𝗁𝗈𝗋𝗋𝗈𝗋 𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗌 ✴︎ 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩／𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩, 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘩 𝘴𝘦𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴, 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘶𝘯𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘹, 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘮!𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘴𝘶𝘣／𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘥𝘺𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘹, 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 (𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥), 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 (𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘳), 𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 (𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺, 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭), 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘯𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺, 𝘱𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘺 𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 (𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘰��𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨), 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘢?, 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘦, 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 (𝘰𝘯 ＆ 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦) 𓏸 25,6OO ╱ 𝓶. list

( 𝓷 )。 the rework for the lighthouse is finally here aaaa!!! i hope that you love this story as much as i do ♡♡♡ hehe~~ i still very vividly remember going into a deep dive about lighthouses and lighthouse keepers and watching a four hour documentary about them lmao… i hope you all enjoy all of the new scenes and such!! ♡

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You knew that traveling to the surface was forbidden, but you couldn’t help the way that it called to you deep in the depths of the sea. Like a moth to a flame, you swam and swam until you could feel the bright sun on your wet skin. Until you could hear the sound of the waves crashing onto the nearby rocks and the distant chatter of the village nearby.

It filled you with such profound longing and want that the only thing that helped ease the feeling was to watch the way the landwalkers went about their days. You watched as giggling landwalking guppies darted from place to place and under their parent’s legs. As people shouted to passersby about the wares they were selling and people walking arm in arm.

You made sure you were always carefully hidden behind some rocks so that you weren’t seen and that your dark blue shifting tail blended nicely with the water. Still, you watched and watched for what seemed like hours.

You wondered what it felt like to be able to walk on land, to feel the rocky surface beneath your feet. Does it hurt? How does one stay upright? Is land walking to the landwalkers the same as swimming to the merfolk? These were all questions you desperately wanted to know the answers to.

Swimming away from the village’s edge, you waded through the fog along the ocean’s surface. You were just about to dive when a flickering light in the distance caught your eye. Cautiously, you decided to see what it was.

Landwalker’s buildings were already tall as it is, but this one was completely different. It pierced through the sky with a beacon of light shining from the top—almost like a second sun being held up. Your eyes widened as you drew closer, ducking behind some rocks as you surveyed the area.

It was on a small island of its own, not too far away from the island the village sat on, but far enough that you’d have to swim for a short while to get from island to island. The building was white and a deep red color like coral on the seafloor. You stared in amazement at it, climbing up onto the rock to get a better look. A tiny building was attached to the bottom of it that looked like it had seen much better days. It was beautiful, you’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Movement in your peripheral had your head snapping in its direction. The door of the small attached building swung open and a man carrying a box stepped out of it, the hat he was wearing nearly slipping off of his head and exposing his dark locks of hair blowing in the crisp wind. You ducked down on the rock a little, making sure that you were covered by the fog. He sat the box down near the entrance of the building just as a loud sound had you jumping out of your scales.

It was a deep, almost guttural sound. You tried to look for the source of it and saw that it came from the large horn near the small building. Birds flew from their perches to a quieter place and you slid off the rock, drawing nearer to the shore.

Your father’s warnings rang deep inside you, yet you tried to push his words down. Don’t go near the surface, my child. The dangerous landwalkers will lure you in and capture you so that you are never seen ever again. They cannot be trusted. They will bottle your song and use it for their wrongdoings.

You hid behind some more rocks and watched him work. He kept disappearing into the small building and if you looked up, you could almost see him between the flickering light. If he wasn’t inside, he was out tidying the area around where he worked—stacking and fixing various things. Occasionally, he would also look out to the sea, seemingly monitoring the waves and the fog before scribbling something down in what you think was called a book. When he did, you sunk down into the water until only your eyes and the top of your head was above the surface.

What interested you the most was how the man seemed to be alone. Why was he so far away from the rest of the landwalkers? What made him different? What was this building that he was working on? You had so many questions and so little answers—and nobody to ask.

You couldn’t tell any of your people that you watched the landwalkers daily. You would get into an enormous amount of trouble and would never be able to see the surface again. You didn’t want that to happen, and you couldn’t bear the thought of it. Especially with your newfound fixation on the lonely landwalker.

Instead, day after day, you watched the man work—no longer so curious about the ventures of the village landwalkers. The more you watched him work, muscles straining against his rolled up sleeves and brows furrowed, the more you noticed him. He was very handsome in a landwalker sort of way, the most beautiful out of them you’ve seen thus far. You wondered if he had a life outside of this building on the shore. Perhaps it was back in the small house a short walk away from the shore? Was his whole life on this tiny island?

You suppose you wouldn’t mind a life of solitude if you were him. Busy life in the village seemed to be overwhelming after a while. Maybe he thought the same way you did.

Dusk fell and a cold breeze swept up the shore from the waters. You had spent the whole day again watching the man work at what you now knew was called a lighthouse. He was wiping the attached building of the lighthouse down after the recent rainstorm, frustratingly muttering under his breath.

You noticed that he didn’t talk much, only a simple, quiet word here or there. At first, you thought he couldn’t speak at all, until now.

“Shit!” he hissed as he threw the rag down onto the ground. The paint was starting to peel off of the siding on the building from the harsh winds and water. “Now I’m gonna have to paint this whole building again.”

You giggled at his reaction. Your giggle must’ve been too loud because his head snapped in your direction and you quickly sunk down behind the rocks. This was dangerous, you knew that, and it already seemed that you were getting too comfortable being out in the open. Yet, you giggled to yourself more, more quietly this time as bubbles rippled up from the water. The man’s brows furrowed but he just shook his head a little. You slowly rose to the surface just as he spoke again. “Come on, Sunghoon. Don’t start losing it now,” he murmured.

Sunghoon, that was his name. You tried his name on your tongue. “Sung… hoon…” you spoke softly before smiling. “Pretty.”

The light at the top of the lighthouse burned brightly against the darkening sky, signaling that it was past the time for you to start swimming home. You turned and began swimming away from the shore, starting your journey.

Something sat heavily in the pit of your stomach and it was beginning to weigh you down. It was that same longing and want, this time more pronounced and refusing to be swallowed and digested. You stopped swimming and stared up at the bright, almost full moon in the sky.

You would give anything to walk on land, to experience life as a landwalker does and be on land. You didn’t want to be confined to the sea anymore. You didn’t want to have a tail anymore—you wanted legs. You wanted to be a landwalker, not a mermaid.

Your heart racing, an old story your father once told you interrupted your thoughts. The story of a young mermaid trading her tail for landwalker’s legs.

It was supposed to be a cautionary tale, one to ward off small merfolk from intermingling with the landwalkers, but to you, it was an answer. One you were desperate for. The tale talked about how the mermaid visited a sea witch deep down in a cave at the bottom of the ocean and begged her to change her tail for legs.

The witch and her struck a deal: the mermaid was to sacrifice four of her pearlescent scales in exchange for a week on land. During said week, the mermaid had to find the witch various hard-to-find ingredients and bring it back to her by the end of it. If she didn’t fulfill her end of the deal after the week was up, her tail would come back and she would never be able to have legs again. Only, swimming would not be as easy or as painless as it once was.

You made your decision. You were going to find the sea witch and strike a deal with her the same way the mermaid from the story did. What were a few scales and ingredients when you could finally walk on land? Finally have your dreams become reality?

Your next course of action was to find out information on where the sea witch’s cave could be.

Instead of spending your time up at the surface, you instead kept beneath the water. You asked your family and Elders about the sea witch in subtle ways, blaming your questions on your curiosity and love of storytelling. As days passed, the information you were provided pushed you more and more into the direction you were hoping for.

You had first gone to one of your Elders, a sweet and wondering smile spread across your face. You had asked her about the sea witch and her cave and about the mermaid who made a deal with her, trying to see if there was anything else to the story.

“Why do you ask?” your Elder asked, her red hair rippling in the water. Her voice was gentle, but cautious. Her gaze flicked over to you when you asked and you saw her eyes widen the slightest bit. You honeyed your smile.

“Well, its just so many little guppies take their curiosity too far, you know? Remember that little girl in the square?” You trailed off a little for good measure, sighing softly and looking off to one of the arches. You saw merfolk swim by as they looked for the book they came to the library for. “I don’t want them to accidentally stumble upon it if the cave is close. Accidentally make a deal that they shouldn’t.”

You heard her sigh and looked back to her. She set the book she was putting away back on the stack of other unorganized books. “I suppose I’ve never thought of that before… But, there’s no need to worry. The cave is quite far away—all the way near the old shipwreck. It’s deep enough that it should be hidden and someone shouldn’t find it accidentally.”

Breathing out a faux sigh of relief, you let your body dramatically relax. She smiled at you, “Thank you for looking out for the little ones. You’d make a good addition to the council one day.”

Smiling back at her, you said nothing, but nodded. That didn’t matter. Your time in the water was limited. You gave her a flutter before showing yourself out.

The next person you had gone to was your father. It was perhaps a mistake to ask him questions about the sea witch, but if you asked another Elder, they would start to get suspicious. You had no choice but to ask your father.

He furrowed his brows at you, twisting the black pearl weaved in his hair between two fingers, as he assessed your question. He was quiet for a long while, and the more time that spanned on, the more nervous you felt. Finally, he responded, “Why do you want to know, my child?”

“Well… The sea witch cannot trick any more people into deals if the witch’s torch is not lit, right? Have you and the council ever thought of just… taking it? At least so then no more merfolk could make deals?” You nervously gulped.

Your father hummed and looked away from you, deep in thought. “That would be most helpful but unfortunately the witch’s torch cannot be unlit. It’s part of the sea witch’s magic.”

Now you are getting somewhere. Foolishly, you let your curiosity get ahead of you and the next word spilled out of your mouth before you could stop it. “Why?”

Like a hammer, your father’s gaze settled on you. He swam from his seat and came to float in front of you.

“Why don’t you go get some fresh lotus for your Mother?”

It wasn’t a question, but a demand. You cast your eyes to the floor and nodded after a moment before leaving the room.

You were doing just that, collecting lotus roots, when you felt someone swim up next to you. When you looked at them, you noticed that it was someone you didn’t recognize. They didn’t say anything, and you stopped what you were doing to see what they wanted.

They were wearing a large sewn cloak of seaweed that covered their face, but you could still see their bright, shifting orange scales. Something about their tail looked off. There were patches that were smoother than others and completely rid of scales. It almost looked… sickly.

“I hear you’re asking around about the sea witch,” they said in a hushed voice.

You held the lotus roots close to your chest. Some of the buds were already starting to open. Clearing your throat, you said, “For the safety of the little ones, yes. Is that a problem?”

The cloaked figure wryly chuckled. “It is. Because you do not seek the sea witch for the ‘safety of the little ones,’ you seek the sea witch for yourself.” Your opened your mouth to speak, but they cut you off. “My wise advice for you—don’t. End this search for the sea witch, now.”

They swam away and you remained in the lotus grove utterly confused. For the rest of the day, their words stuck with you and replayed in your mind over and over. Yet, it still wasn’t enough to stop your search. The surface still called to you, and you were determined to answer it.

It felt weird to be amongst your people again. You were so busy vicariously living with the landwalkers that you forgot how different interactions between merfolk and landwalkers were. Instead of walking or running, it was swimming and tail flapping. Instead of giggles, it was a flurry of bubbles and occasional muted speech. Unless the conversation was important enough, you merfolk spoke with your hands. Merfolk swam with their tails on top of one another and their arms intertwined ahead of them.

Strangely, you felt out of place. Everything felt so different than it had once felt before. It felt like you didn’t belong under the water anymore.

You were going over the information you had gathered when suddenly the pieces all fit together. The old shipwreck… At first you didn’t know where it was but you vaguely remember your father ushering you away from it as a guppy. It was when you were out with your mother. The Elder you visited was right—it was quite far if you remembered correctly, but you had to try. And if the witch’s torch couldn’t be unlit against her will, then she might be there for you to ask a wish from her.

You twirled in excitement. The sea witch… you finally found her! You were going to have your legs that you’ve spent so many nights dreaming of, and you didn’t want to waste anymore time.

As the light rays dwindled, you quickly snuck out under the cover of darkness and began to swim towards the location, sneaking past any merfolk who were still out of their seaweed beds. Deep, deep down you swam and swam until you could barely see ahead of you. That was, until a sparkling light appeared and guided you—the witch’s torch.

You darted towards it, a nervous excitement bubbling inside of you as you drew closer and closer. You pushed all of the warnings your people gave you and all of the cautionary tales into the furthest, darkest corner of your mind. Today was the day that your life was going to change. When you reached it, a large opening with more sparkling lights beckoned you inside and you hesitantly followed them one by one.

The swim felt like it lasted an eternity as you twisted and turned, the large muscle in your tail burning and throbbing with exertion, until you saw a bright light that almost blinded you at first look. You swam towards it and surfaced from the water inside a decent sized pool in what looked like the interior of a rocky, rundown and dingy hut.

“Ah, a visitor!” a voice said and you swung around. A woman—a landwalking woman—was in front of a shelf of various trinkets and knick knacks next to a table full of jars of spices and herbs. Her voice came out more as a rasp, a scratchy sound that sounded like she didn’t use her voice much. She turned towards where you surfaced with a bright smile that was all teeth. Her dark, shadowed eyes widened and a chill ran down your spine all the way to the fin at the end of your tail.

She wore clothes that hung limply from her body and was tattered and dirty. Her hair a wild mess. When you thought of the sea witch, this is not what you were expecting. Still, you could feel the waves of power radiating off of her, and it made your heart beat faster in a twisted excitement.

She was real. The sea witch was real.

She walked towards the pool you were in. “Don’t get too many of those anymore, especially from the depths. Must be all the stories o—your people tell of me.” She chortled and you tilted your head in confusion before realizing that she had made a joke a second too late. The witch waved her hand in the air at your silence, “I kid, I kid.”

“The depths?” you asked her.

She chortled more before giving you a bewildered look. “Hm, what are they saying to you? Yes, child. I am both the sea and the land.” She turned back to the shelf, and as she did, she muttered, “At least, before that blasted curse long ago. You would think they would have some empathy… But, I digress.”

Pushing away from the shelf, the witch stepped towards you. Her tattered dress was ripped at the hems at multiple points so pieces of fabric hung from it and dragged along the stone floor. When she moved, the shells, sticks, and pearls she wore clacked together in an alluring harmony. It reminded you a little of the sea. She bent down at the edge of the pool so she was eye level with you, her messy hair fanning around her face.

“What deal did you come to make, little mermaid?” she asked, her eyes still wide and her smile still all teeth.

You waded backwards in the water slightly, but stood your ground. You swallowed, willing your voice to speak. “Legs…” you trailed softly before licking your lips. “Legs,” you said, louder and with more confidence. “I want to trade my tail for legs. I wish to walk on land like the landwalkers do—be a landwalker like them.”

“Legs,” the witch drawled out before tsking as she turned away from you in a large, dramatic motion. She grabbed a stone bowl from the top of one of her shelves, picking here and there at spices and herbs and trinkets as she moved about the room. “Always legs,” she continued. “You all could wish for anything—wings at your back, a stony gaze, the will for revenge—but you never do. Just legs. Always a deep desire to be human, what is it about them?” She spat out the last word, human, like it was stuck on the roof of her mouth.

Your brows furrowed in worry. What if she didn’t accept your deal? What if she was too tired of giving foolish mermaids like you legs to walk on land with and denied you wish?

The witch suddenly turned towards you and you jumped. “As I’m sure you know, everything always comes with a price—and this is mine. I will accept your request, but in return you must do something for me as well.”

You nodded furiously. “Y-Yes! Anything… I’ll do anything!”

The sea witch smiled, but it lacked all of the playfulness she previously possessed. Instead, it was almost cold, like she had flipped a fin. The change shocked and scared you deep to your core. You wanted to swim further back and away from her, but her gaze locked you in place and you felt paralyzed.

“In one month’s time, you must cut out the beating heart of the human you love the most and bring it to me.” The sea witch slowly leaned away from you, her eyes remaining on yours. “If you don’t fulfill your end of the deal, you will never walk on land again and you will never swim in the recesses of the ocean again either. You will instead turn to seafoam and be nevermore. That is your price, guppy.”

The way ‘guppy’ passed through her dry lips was like a bolt of lightning through water. Her scratchy voice was plain, like she said the words so many times that she simply plucked them from her memory and presented them to you. It made you sink deeper into the water and realize how foolish this dream of yours must look to others—to the one who granted the same wish to other merfolk time and time again before you. It made you feel… small.

Your eyes widened in shock and in fear. “B-But, in the story—”

The witch swiftly interrupted you, her voice harsh and grating. She leaned down to you again so fast you had no time to process it. Her teeth were sharp and her eyes were almost fully black. “In the ‘story,’ I gave that halfwitted thing a single day and every step she took felt like standing upon urchins. Be grateful, girl, that I am showing you kindness. Now what will it be? Do you accept, or do you waste my time?”

The clacking of her jewelry sounded like a ticking clock, urging you to answer quickly. “I accept!” you blurted. Your eyes widened further and you gasped softly at your own words. The sea witch’s sharp smile grew.

She got in the water and hooked her arms under you and dragged you towards the stone floor. “Yes, child!” she shouted, her voice suddenly a wondrous melody, and smoke rose all around you out of the bubbling cauldron you suddenly noticed. “A deal has been made—one you will die for to break! There’s no turning back!” She cackled loudly as she dragged you fully onto the ground, dropping you unceremoniously. You sat up, fear flooding your entire body as you froze and shook from the sudden change in temperature.

“There’s no turning back! There’s no turning back! A debt to be made, a word on contract. The beating heart shall be mine, for all you have sacrificed will be paid!” the witch shouted, cackling to herself.

The room grew dark and the light from the cauldron shimmered off of your deep blue scales. Before you could do much else, the sea witch plucked four scales from your tail and you hissed out in pain. She dropped them into the cauldron along with the trinkets and such from the stone bowl, mixing them all together with a hearty laugh.

You began to rise in the air and your tail started to tingle before becoming so unbearably hot that you started to writhe. You screamed out in pain as the smoke clouded around you and left you blind to the rest of the room. Smoke entered your lungs and you began to cough violently as fog rose above the surface of the pool and left it completely covered. You were suddenly reminded of your father’s previous words, “They will bottle your song and use it for their wrongdoings.” He should’ve told you how it wasn’t a landwalker that would steal your song, but something else entirely.

The sea witch’s voice rang in your head as she cackled more in the background. There’s no turning back.

From beyond the smoke and fog, you heard the witch shout, “Tonight, a vicious storm will brew and take you on your journey. A month from now the same storm will return, with or without you.”

You could barely hear her between your screams. You could barely hear your screams at all from the way your blood rushed to your ears. One by one, your scales ripped from your tail and withered away into nothingness. The more you writhed in pain, the more it felt like your tail was being split in two. You rose further into the air and noticed the suspended pool of water hanging above you. Suddenly, you couldn’t breathe. Like your gills had completely closed and you were suffocating. The top of your head rose into the water and despite not being able to breathe, you screamed—a shrill sound full of unabashed fear.

From the distance, you heard the sea witch’s voice again. This time she wasn’t shouting, but instead chuckling in satisfaction. She continued, “Either way, I’ll have a heart.”

As you entered the water, you were whooshed into a current that helped you breathe again. You gasped in large breaths as you spun around disoriented. The pain you felt was unimaginable. Your tail felt as if someone was ripping a leg off of a starfish. Except, instead of growing back the same, it was growing something else entirely. Something foreign that never should be growing there in the first place. More scales ripped and withered off of you as your tail split.

You tried to think about the future. Of how worth it this will all be in the end when you have your legs and you finally walk on land, living amongst the landwalkers���or humans, as the sea witch interestingly called them.

But, a thought prodded at your mind. The bargain you made and the heart you will have to bring back.

You didn’t think you could do it. You didn’t have the stomach to cut out someone’s heart, but you had no choice. Not anymore. Who’s heart will you cut out? Will you find some unsuspecting victim and force yourself to love them until you actually do, so in the end you can rip out the heart they entrusted you with? It was all so wrong. What have you done?

The current led you to the sea’s surface and in the heart of the most vicious storm you’ve ever seen. Waves crashed against you and pummeled you back down under the surface, yet each time you emerged again and again. Harsh, stinging winds slashed across your skin, yet you remained unharmed. You hoarsely yelled out in pain and looked down at the beautiful blue tail you once had, the scales a myriad of shades. You didn’t even recognize it anymore.

Instead, what you saw was a half tail, half pair of legs monstrosity. It perfectly described where you were at this current moment—between the waves of the watery life you had been stripped from and being pushed forward to the dry land of the life you will come to know. In the distance, you heard that loud, guttural sound that you recognized so well. You turned and saw the beacon of fluttering light emitting from the lighthouse standing tall against the storm.

A dark thought polluted your mind. You weren’t expecting to be spat out so close to the village. Your mind traveled to the man working the lighthouse as you fought against the waves to breathe the cold air.

What if it was his heart you cut out?

No… you didn’t want to think that. Didn’t want that thought to be true. You pushed out the thought as soon as it came to mind. Anybody, but him. Anybody, but Sunghoon. You’ve grown too fond of him during the times you watched over him. You can’t let his already seemingly lonely life be cut short by getting his heart ripped out. You wouldn’t allow yourself to do that to him.

The tormenting waves seemed to have other plans for you. It felt as if they read your mind and sensed your discomfort. They took you directly towards the shore where the lighthouse sat with purposeful glides and you started to cry.

Shock jolted you as you felt wetness roll down your cheeks just as the rain started to pour down harder from a light sprinkling. You touched your cheeks with trembling hands. The change was all too much too fast. It was so overwhelming. You weren’t expecting it to be this way.

When you heard the story of the mermaid trading her tail for legs it was nothing like this. She emerged from the water like a graceful swan, a beautiful sunset behind her that reflected off the calm sea. You couldn’t help but feel betrayed by the lies you were told.

You didn’t feel graceful, you felt forsaken. This was a journey of death, not rebirth.

The closer you got to the shore, the more regret started to pierce deep inside you. It didn’t help that the storm clouds seemed to break so the moon’s light could illuminate just you. It all felt so unfair. All you wanted to do was walk on land, why must you endure all this? Why must you love someone deeply only to rip their heart out? And why were the sea witch’s waves so hellbent on that person being Sunghoon?

Why did the excitement still flood in the pit of your belly at the thought of the life you may live after?

A second, smaller light flickered on at the tiny island you were barreling towards and you knew it was him. You watched as the small light raced towards the shore almost as fast as you were being pushed to it. The two of you were heading towards a deadly collision and you weren’t ready for it.

The waves spat you out and you washed up on the sand of the shore. You felt weak and dizzy and something else entirely that you couldn't name or figure out. Your stomach rumbled like the thunder and your head ached. You raised your head as much as you could and looked down at your new body. You were in so much pain that you almost couldn’t feel anything at all.

Sniffling a little, a laugh spilled from your lips and the corners of your mouth pulled upwards. You have legs. They may be painful at the moment and slightly numb, but you finally had them. You felt every grain against them and dug your legs further into the sand. The last remaining scales of your former life surrounded you like glittering rocks. You were surprised that they hadn’t withered away like the rest of them.

You looked up at the full moon, glowing and huge. It looked like a pearl hung in the sky. You smiled wider before inhaling deeply. You felt brand new. Maybe the whole journey was worth it in the end. A wave of sleep hit you and you struggled to keep your eyes open.

Just as your eyes began to close fully, a warm light draped over your body. Sunghoon’s worried face appeared in your view just as another wave of sleep overcame you, the ghost of a smile on your face.

As you drifted off into the unknown, the claws of regret sank into you again and it’s almost as if you could hear the sea witch’s cruel cackling. You can’t rip out his heart, you just couldn’t. You wouldn’t. Because, unbeknownst to you, that fondness you held so deeply for him was already blossoming into something more. Something dangerous. And you would protect it with your last dying breath.

It was a strange day, indeed, for Sunghoon.

More of a strange week, actually. Firstly, his assistant keeper was nowhere to be found, so he was on the small island all alone; manning all of the work and upkeep of the lighthouse on his own. As he went on about his days, Sunghoon constantly felt watched—he even swore he heard a woman’s laugh before, even saw the apparition of her along the shore, but it was just him. Maybe it was finally his time to go mad like so many of the other lighthouse keepers that came before him.

Now a vicious storm appearing out of nowhere? After his logs over the week have only shown mostly clear skies? It was all very strange to him.

Even stranger was how loud the storm was—louder than any storm he has ever heard before. It was as if it wanted to make its chaotic presence known. It had awoken him from his dreamless sleep like an alluring song. As Sunghoon scanned the waters for any possible boats or ships, a woman, illuminated by a beam of moonlight, fought against the waves and crashed upon his shore like some holy being. The storm had come so fast he barely had time to get from his bed and light his oil lantern to go out and try to assist her.

That is where Sunghoon was now, holding his lantern over your bare body as he worriedly looked over you for any injuries. You seemed completely unharmed, surrounded by shifting blue scales with pearls in your hair and shiny skin that still clung to the water from the ocean. With skin the slightest bit tinted blue and with slightly webbed hands, you almost looked… human—but, more ethereal and beautiful than anything Sunghoon has ever seen in his entire life. You were prettier than any Gibson Girl appearance the women of the village sported by far.

Realizing that he was gazing upon a woman’s naked body who he didn’t know, Sunghoon quickly sat his lantern down in the sand as he shrugged off his wet coat. He laid it over you before hooking his arms under your legs and back to carry you back to safety in his quarters, making sure to grab his lantern to light his way back through the dark. Every few seconds Sunghoon peered down to gape at you, too entranced with your beauty. It was as if he couldn’t bring himself to look away, no matter how hard he tried.

The closer to his small house and the further away from the shore he got, the storm simmered until he was at the front of his door and the skies and sea were almost calm again. Very strange, Sunghoon thought.

Sunghoon laid you down gently onto his couch and replaced his coat for one of the thick blankets strewn across the back of the couch. You were completely out cold, and probably would be for a while. Sunghoon shook his head in wonder as he stared down at you. “What happened to you? How did you manage to get caught vulnerable and alone in the middle of a storm?”

His questions would have to wait for later. Sunghoon rushed back outside and to the lighthouse. He climbed up the narrow winding staircase to the top and ensured that the lamp was still burning. After adjusting the flame, everything was back in order and the mechanism was spinning efficiently.

Sunghoon sighed as he exited the lighthouse and leaned against the wind-worn door of it for a moment. The weather was calm again and he still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it. It felt like a storm only one would see in text of myths and legends. Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to do much cleaning up after the sudden storm. After logging everything that happened, Sunghoon ventured back down to the shore—back down to where he found you.

In the sand, he picked up some of the blue scales that had surrounded you and inspected them. They were somewhat transparent and flexible. When Sunghoon held them out to the light, they shifted from a dark blue to a deep teal color. It only left him with more questions, but he pocketed them to ask you about later.

He remembered how in the books he read, they told of mermaids and the magic that surrounded them. It said how if a mermaid were to give you one of their scales, the scale would bring you good fortune for as long as you kept it close to you. It also said how pirates would use this to their advantage to pillage other ships and take treasure for their own.

A yawn was ripped from Sunghoon’s mouth and he looked out at the moon. If his calculations were correct, he still had a couple of hours until he had to be up again for the day. Heading back to the small house near the lighthouse, Sunghoon decided to go back to sleep until either it was time for him to wake up, or you awoke. There was no point in staying awake if everything outside was calm with no signs of changing and you were asleep.

Sunghoon quickly ran upstairs and changed his wet clothes for dryer ones, making sure to bring some down for you to wear when you woke up. He sunk down into the armchair next to the couch, running his hands through his damp hair. Sunghoon glanced over to you, sleeping peacefully, with a sigh. He just hoped that nothing else strange occurred.

He got as comfortable as he could on the armchair and yawned once again. Sunghoon closed his eyes and let himself drift off to sleep.

You awoke inside a simply adorned house that you didn’t recognize. Memories rushed towards the forefront of your mind and you recalled the events you just went through. The sea witch, your new—and no longer painful—legs, the storm, and Sunghoon’s worried face. You slowly sat up and the fabric across your body fell off your shoulders and pooled in your lap.

You turned towards the window and looked out at the sky. It was still rather dark outside, but you could tell that the dawn was not too far away. The light atop of the lighthouse still flickered like a beacon in the sky and there were no remnants of whatever storm brought you here.

The surface… you were finally on it. A smile grew on your face and you turned your attention back to your new legs, flipping the fabric off of them completely to gaze upon them.

They were absolutely glorious. You giggled a little as you wiggled the tiny fingers at the end of them. They felt unusual, but you suppose you would eventually get used to the feeling. Another thought popped into your head, loud and demanding—Sunghoon.

He was asleep in the chair next to you, his body uncomfortably twisted in it. You tilted your head as you looked at him. You actually couldn’t believe it, you were finally getting a close look at a landwalker—a human. You stood on your new legs, shaking and using the couch to stabilize you. You took a shaky step towards him, and another until you were basically hovering over him and trying your hardest not to tip over and fall into his lap.

How fascinating, humans. They didn’t have any gills like merfolk did, nor the tinged blue-ish skin or shiny tail. And from what you could tell, their ears didn’t have any attached fins on them either. You touched your own ears, astonished at how different they felt. They were rounded now, and smooth to the touch. You then held out your hand and held it up near Sunghoon’s to see if there was still a difference. They were still slightly webbed, but not nearly like how they used to be. It was all so… new.

Your skin was soft and warm rather than cold, wet, and almost slick. Sunghoon’s hair also didn’t sprawl out around him like yours did when you were underwater. Instead, it covered his eyes in a dark curtain and rested softly across his cheeks.

You reached out your hand further and brushed the hair away to see Sunghoon’s closed eyes, your fingers brushing lightly across his skin. He really was beautiful. Your brows knitted together as the tips of your fingers dragged down his cheek. Did all humans look like him?

Sunghoon’s eyes cracked open and you gasped softly, pulling your hand away. You took a wobbly step back and nearly fell onto the table if it hadn’t been for Sunghoon jumping up from his chair and quickly reaching out and grabbing your waist to steady you. You both looked at each other with wide eyes and in complete silence. You were sure that even the waves halted its chorus. Sunghoon’s eyes trailed your body and his eyes widened even more before he swiftly removed his hands from your bare waist and turned his head to the side, blinking rapidly.

“T-There’s clothes on the table for you…” Sunghoon stuttered, the sleep still in his voice, as he shifted back against the edge of the armchair nervously. His eyes darted to yours before looking away again.

You gave him a confused look before turning to the table. You held up the “clothes” he was talking about in front of you and turned back to him with a puzzled look. “What… is it?” you asked. You stuck your arm through one of its various holes, confused on what you were to do with it.

Sunghoon shifted more until he suddenly fell down in the seat and he dragged his gaze up to you. You could see the way his body heated up and the redness that creeped up his neck and tinted his cheeks pink. It made him look even prettier. He took the pillow from behind him and pressed it down in his lap. “Uh… I-It’s a shirt,” he stuttered more, just as confused as you were. “You wear it?”

You lowered the shirt so you could look at him and Sunghoon looked at the ceiling. “Wear it?” you repeated. What is a “shirt” and how does one “wear it?” There was so much about a human’s life that you didn’t know. It made you excited to learn about it all.

Sunghoon cleared his throat and his brows drew together more, like he didn’t understand how you didn’t understand what he was talking about. Suddenly, realization dawned on his features and he slowly looked down from the ceiling so his eyes connected with yours. “Yeah,” he said slowly. You could see the geysers blowing in his head the more he stared at you, his eyes shifting along your face and your hair. He glanced towards the door before settling on you. “Have you seen them before?” he suddenly asked.

“From afar on humans, but never this close! We don’t wear things such as this. It’s soft,” you smiled. You then gasped, covering your mouth with your hand. You didn’t think it was wise to let him know that you were—or, use to be—a mermaid. Your father’s words came to mind again, but, as you stared at Sunghoon with wide eyes, it didn’t look like he was dangerous.

After all, he did rescue you from the storm and gave you shelter. He is even giving you some of his clothes, even if you didn’t know what to do with them or how to wear them. Maybe you could trust him with your secret before going off to the village in hopes of finding someone to fall in love with. Treat it as a farewell before you leave him to ensure your fondness doesn't grow any further.

A knowing smile grew on Sunghoon’s face and as you stared at each other for another moment, you could see him put all the pieces together himself. “Well, us humans usually wear a shirt like this,” he started, motioning down to the shirt that covered his chest. “And trousers to cover our lower half. You’re, uh, naked… right now.”

Your brows raised in shock and your fingers rose to your hair. Naked? How were you naked? Most of your pearls were still in your hair and your hair was relatively decent still. You were completely dressed.

Sunghoon slowly stood. He grabbed the shirt from you and held it in between your bodies. “I’m not sure how things work where you’re from… but here, let me help you…” He lifted the shirt and pulled it over your head through one of the holes. “Your arms go through the other two,” Sunghoon murmured awkwardly.

He then very awkwardly guided you through putting on the trousers and you quickly learned about balance and its importance.

“Thank you,” you said sincerely as you smiled at him. Sunghoon sheepishly smiled back, rubbing the back of his neck. “But, I must ask one last thing of you. The village… it’s dire that I get there as fast as possible.”

Sunghoon’s smile dropped. You leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to his warm cheek. You still weren’t used to the warmth that came with humans. You then started to make your way to the door, a lot less wobbly. The kiss was risky, but you couldn’t help yourself. Sunghoon raced towards you, his arms out. “Wait!” he called out.

He held you in place by your shoulders to stop you from leaving. “You can’t leave—not without someone guiding you, and I can’t leave the lighthouse. The villagers… they’ll eat someone like you alive up there. It’s not safe.” You could tell Sunghoon wasn’t joking by the serious expression on his face.

What were you supposed to do now? “Someone like me?” you asked.

Sunghoon gave you an almost incredulous look. “You arrived in a storm completely unharmed and alive. When I found you, you were surrounded by these scales and you wear pearls in your hair…” he trailed off, like the answer was blatantly obvious. “The villagers don’t believe, but spending time here, alone, at this lighthouse will at the very least have you questioning. Nevermind the generations of journals that my family has kept stored away with tales of fair maidens from the waters and their shimmering tails.”

Your shoulders sagged. At least you didn’t have to hide what you were from him anymore—not that you were doing a good job of it anyway. “B-But… I have to go to the village!” you exclaimed.

“Listen, why don’t you stay here for a while? I’ll teach you everything you need to know—human to mermaid—and after, you can go on your merry way and live amongst us on your own!” said Sunghoon.

“You don’t understand.” You slumped down on the couch, crossing your arms. “It’s not safe for you, and I don’t have that much time.”

Sunghoon quirked a brow, chuckling, “What? Are you gonna eat me or something?” You stayed silent. He sat down on the couch next to you. “If you were, you would’ve done so on the shore or while I was sleeping. I promise that no angry mob is gonna come rowing here after you, you don’t have to worry. And, I’ll teach you everything as fast as I can.”

You sighed defeatedly, you just hoped it was fast enough for you to still find someone else. It couldn’t be Sunghoon who’s heart you ripped out. “Okay,” you murmured.

Sunghoon smiled brightly at you. “Now, what’s your name, darling?”

You finally turned to look at him again. Sunghoon had the warmest brown eyes that you couldn’t even begin to decipher, but you wouldn’t mind getting lost in them. Everything about him was warm like the feeling of the sun on your skin. Hesitantly, you told him your name.

“I’m Sunghoon, here at your service!” You laughed and he joined in with you. You almost wanted to tell him that you already knew, that you’ve been watching him, but you decided against it. It was best that he didn’t know. You wouldn’t be staying here for long anyway.

“Sunghoon,” you repeated instead, like you haven’t already said it before, “that’s very pretty.”

“A compliment, coming from a pretty woman like yourself? Well, it must be! Thank you kindly, Miss!” He smiled playfully and you rolled your eyes. There was a pang in your chest and you inhaled. Thankfully it was covered by a loud growl, causing you to furrow your brows.

Sunghoon’s face lit up in realization again. “Ah, right. You must be hungry. Let me fetch you something to eat.”

It has been about a week since you landed in Sunghoon’s care and time was ticking down. You tried to not think about how much time you had left, instead distracting yourself by helping Sunghoon around the lighthouse, but it was near impossible. It didn’t help that since the two of you were alone on the island together, you both had no choice but to be in each other’s presence and get to know each other.

Sunghoon has taught you a lot about humans throughout the week you’ve been here and in turn you’ve told him about how things worked under the water. The two of you were fascinated by each other’s stories and that, in turn, only brought you both even closer. It was a dangerous game that you couldn’t bring yourself to stop playing.

The day was clear, and as Sunghoon said, “It holds no signs of changing.”

He had taught you how to track the weather and which signs to look for that signaled an oncoming storm. You listened diligently as he explained to you clouds and how they varied from the big, white fluffy ones to the dark grey ones that led to rain. Sunghoon stopped his painting of the side of the connected building of the lighthouse, leaning his back against the dried part to watch you and listen to you speak, when you began to tell him how you tracked the weather underwater. You weren’t used to the attention, and still not used to Sunghoon’s intense gaze either, so you had kept your eyes firmly on the task at hand as you spoke of bubbles and currents.

Sunghoon didn’t take his eyes off of you, not once. You finally raised your head to meet his stare. “There’s not really ‘weather’ underwater, for the most part,” you started. “Think of blowing into a cup of water from the surface of it, and now think of that as rain up here.” You waved the hand that held the large paintbrush up towards the clouds. “That’s how we’d be able to know if it was raining up at the surface—though, going to the surface is forbidden anyway.”

You thought back to all of the times where your Elders and you father especially forbade you from even getting close to the surface—and how you would ignore their demands anyway. Although it was such a grievance then, you thought back to your father’s voice and the warning it always carried. “Don’t go near the surface, my child. They will bottle your song and use it for their wrongdoings. Landwalkers are dangerous,” you recalled aloud.

Sunghoon took a step towards you, a teasing smile pulling at the corner of his lips. “Do you think that I’m dangerous?” he asked.

You looked over at him again, a grin across your face and one of your eyebrows raised. “If anyone here is dangerous, it’s me. No offense. But, you are the one who decided to house a mermaid with no survival instincts whatsoever.”

Sunghoon laughed and it was the most glorious sound that you have ever heard. Your eyes widened a little at the sound and watched as he threw his head back, his hat almost slipping off and catching the wind. It made your own smile brighten and you laughed a little along with him. “I can’t argue with that, sweetheart,” Sunghoon spoke, the smile still lingering on his face. He had teeth that looked like little fangs and it reminded you a lot of the merfolk back home.

“So, what did make you want to come to the surface in the first place? Especially after all of the warnings you heard?” asked Sunghoon.

You continued to paint the siding as you spoke, your voice soft as you recalled the memories from long ago. “At first, I was completely against going to the surface. I thought, ‘why go through all of that trouble to put myself into a dangerous situation’? But the more that I thought that thought, the more curious I became.”

You could see the memory in your mind so vividly, it was almost like you were reliving it. “One day, one of the guppies—children,” you corrected yourself with a sheepish grin and a brief look over to Sunghoon. His complete attention was still on you. “Got curious enough to try and swim up to the surface herself.”

The image of the child was burned into your memory. Everyone was too busy to pay attention to her and she took the opportunity to reach what she always dreamed of touching. You remembered how the ray of sunlight cast down from the surface onto her, how close she was. It had ignited a fiery inspiration inside of you and unlocked a deep, hidden desire that you didn’t know you beheld.

“Nobody, but me, was watching her. So, I watched as her little tail took her to the surface, and the way her arm outstretched to touch it…” you trailed. Hands wrapping around the child and dragging her back down flashed in your mind, and you winced a little. Her screams were so loud, her felled dream even louder. It completely broke your heart. You cleared your throat and looked at Sunghoon. His thick brows were furrowed as he put together the rest of the story without you even having to say anything. You smiled at him, but it was strained. “The more you try to keep someone from something, the more they want it, you know?” you said finally.

You quickly shifted the subject away from the little girl. “I couldn’t get it out of my mind. So, a couple days later, I decided to try and touch the surface myself, see how dangerous it really was.” You started to paint again, turning away from Sunghoon and watching the streaks of paint that appeared with each graze of your paintbrush. “My father had always said that when he was a kid, merfolk used to go to the surface all of the time. He talked a lot about these people called pirates and how we would help them. That was, before something happened and merfolk decided to stick to the sea.”

Sunghoon’s low voice startled you out of your memories. “Pirates?” he asked, and the tone of his voice made it seem like he knew what you were talking about. “I guess that’s not all that surprising. A lot of pirates weren’t good people. Did your father ever tell you what happened with the pirates?”

You shook your head. “Not at all… It wasn’t a time he recalled fondly. And the Elders refused to even answer questions about it.” Realizing that you were drifting from the question Sunghoon initially asked you, you shifted the conversation again. “Anyway, it was nighttime and I had waited for everyone to be asleep to make my grand journey. I remember when my hand first broke through the water. It was such a surreal feeling. Even though I knew there was a whole other world beyond the surface, it was a completely different experience actually seeing it and realizing that all of the stories about the surface were real.”

Sunghoon grabbed your elbow and gently pulled you away from the siding so that you could face him. He wanted to see the excitement seep through every crevice of your face and the way your eyes lit up. He wanted to experience it with you. You looked at him through your eyelashes as heat crept up your spine and along your neck until it made your cheeks burn.

“And when I dared to surface fully…” A large smile spread across your features that you couldn't stop. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe. It was unlike anything that I had ever imagined—it was like a whole other world.” Sunghoon held your hands in his as his own smile spread and brightened. It was a bit awkward with the paintbrushes, but the two of you didn’t mind. “I had to see it for myself. I knew that if I didn’t, I would never forgive myself. So, I kept coming to the surface, just staring at all of the buildings at first. Then that turned to getting close and hearing the sounds of people, then watching their daily lives from behind rocks.”

“Have you ever watched me?” Sunghoon jokingly asked. You quickly looked away from him in embarrassment, but Sunghoon just laughed that beautiful sound again and it made you feel like the embarrassment was worth it if you were able to hear him laugh again.

You said your response through a murmur, your eyes cast down to the grass below, “I think you’re the one I watched the most.” You dared a glance at him, only to meet his eyes and be locked down by his smile.

Clearing your throat, you pulled your hands from his grasp. You instead bent down to the paint can between the two of you and dipped your paintbrush into it to resume painting the side of your building. For a moment, you could feel Sunghoon’s stare on you, his sunlit smile, until he too went back to painting and it was quiet between the two of you. It was a long moment before one of you spoke again.

“What do you say we row over to the village? Get you some proper clothes?” asked Sunghoon. “I don’t think you want to keep wearing mine.” He paused from the siding he was painting again to look over at you.

You halted the paintbrush you were holding, looking at his clothes that you wore. “What? Do they not look good on me?” you giggled.

Sunghoon’s eyes widened, almost like something clicked in his head, but a smile grew on his face. He said nothing for a moment, just stared at you with a fond smile. “Of course they look good on you,” he said.

You looked away, hiding your face, as you continued painting. “That would be nice,” you murmured, before speaking a little louder. “It would be nice to see the village.”

Not soon after that, the two of you were climbing up the dock at the village together. You stuck near Sunghoon’s side, suddenly overwhelmed by the bust life of the villagers. As you walked through the streets, you couldn’t help but notice all their stares—their dirty looks. You pressed more into Sunghoon’s side and he wrapped his arm around your waist.

“A man’s clothes!” you heard the village women mutter amongst each other. “And her hair…”

You now knew what Sunghoon meant when he said that the village would eat you alive. You didn’t look how the village women looked and the difference was drastic and obvious. None of them had pearls intricately wrapped in strands of their hair or even had their hair down. Their hair was all put up, with flowing skirts and modest blouses or fitted dresses that showed the curve of their hips that didn’t match the buttoned up untucked men’s shirt and trousers you wore. It was all so overwhelming.

By the time you reached the tailors, you were practically clutching onto Sunghoon’s side, clinging onto him like you were helpless. How did you ever expect to do this alone? When you entered, every eye was on you. A human woman—who you assumed was the owner of the shop—rushed towards you. “Oh, you poor thing! Let me fix you up!” she cooed as she pulled you away from Sunghoon’s grasp.

You looked back at him with wide, fearful eyes. “It’ll be okay,” he assured you, grabbing your hand. “I’ll be right here waiting for you.”

“This will take a while,” the woman said to him, before glancing at you. At least she didn’t look at you like the other women did. It was more with pity than disgust. Sunghoon nodded, sitting in one of the chairs with his hat clutched in his hands. You didn’t turn away from him until your view of him was physically cut off by the curtain the woman pulled in front of your face and he didn’t look away either.

Suddenly, the woman had you out of Sunghoon’s clothes and in long skirts and blouses. She had you try on various ones to gauge your size, along with pulling out what she called a “measuring tape.”

Once you had on an outfit she was satisfied with, her fingers hovered over the pearls in your hair, a look you couldn’t name in her eyes. “Pearls are very beautiful, don’t you agree?” she asked as she turned to look at your face. You nodded, still a bit uncomfortable, as you cast your gaze downwards to the floor.

“All that hardship for beauty… for a simple creation,” the woman said. “I was just like you once, little guppy.” You gaze snapped to hers in shock as her eyes stared at the pearls in your hair.

The woman continued, and you saw the sadness in her eyes. She nodded her head towards the curtain, “That man out there, he found you, didn’t he?” You opened your mouth to speak but no words came out, so you just nodded. “He’s already swimming down deep for you,” she said. “It gets easier, dear. When it’s all over, you come and find me, you hear?”

She worked on your outfit, pinning fabric in places here and smoothing fabric down there. It was a tentative process and your legs started to ache from standing for so long. You took the chance to inspect the tailor for her mermaid attributes. It was very, very faint, but you could still see the coolness in her skin. When she smoothed down the fabric of the skirt you wore, you saw her slightly webbed hands and looked down at your own. She was much older than you, and you could tell that she had settled nicely into the life she had created for herself here.

There was a long silence that stretched between the two of you, one that wasn’t uncomfortable, when the woman finally spoke again. There was an air of distaste in her words. “When I was a much younger woman, I made the same deal that you did—one that certainly came with its hardships. My pearly scales were taken from me and I was sent here in a storm like you and so many others who wash up along the shores of this village. The sea witch had only given me a day and a knife. I had no one but myself to rely on as I was outcasted from the sea, and I don’t want that for other young mermaids.”

The tailor didn’t look at you as she worked. Her eyes remained downcast. Something in her voice began to break, but she quickly covered it by clearing her throat. “It’s a horrible thing, but it is necessary if you want a life out of the sea. If you wish for advice, I will not hesitate to give it and help aid you along your own journey.”

She said nothing else—nothing else about the fact that you both crawled from the deep in hopes of a new life. Nothing about how she must’ve had to sacrifice the one she loved most in order to be standing in front of you right now. Nothing about if it was worth it or not—and you so desperately needed to know.

Instead, she carefully untangled the pearls from your windswept hair and worked them into the up-do she styled your hair in. As she worked around you, you noticed the single pearl in her own hair, and your heart broke in two. It was carefully weaved into a braid along with what you were assuming was one of her scales from so long ago. Too late did you remember the infamous story you’ve heard countless times now of the naive mermaid with the pearlescent tail.

Once she was done and the curtain was opened, you all but ran back to where Sunghoon still sat, just like he said he would. As you approached, he stood to his feet as he looked over you. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open. The woman giggled, winking at you and handing you your bags, before leaving the two of you alone.

“Better?” you asked him, glancing down at the new clothes you wore.

“You were already beautiful,” Sunghoon replied, a bit breathlessly and flustered. You smiled and felt your face start to heat up rapidly. His ears were a flaming red that made you giggle a little. Sunghoon cleared his throat, blinking., “B-But, it’s a good hu—good look on you. Do you like it?”

You thought it over for a moment, ‘There’s aspects of it that I like, some that I don’t.” You like how intricate it all looked. A lot of it reminded you of the seabed. With all of the colors, it looked like you wore a coral reef with the most beautiful and shimmering fish in it. You weren’t sure about how fitted it all felt, but you were sure you would get used to it. It bummed you that your hair was put up, but at least you kept your pearls.

“Well, you can wear it all however you like when we’re back on the island, sweetheart,” said Sunghoon, stepping towards you. He took your hands in his and smiled at you.

When the two of you walked back through the village, you still felt eyes on you—more snickers and muttering. On the row home you were quiet, which Sunghoon noticed. Your eyes had stayed on the water, your fingers reaching down to touch the surface but stopping before you could make contact. At the house, he saw how the sadness twisted your features.

He guided you towards the couch, his brows drawn together in worry. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, his voice low. Sunghoon watched helplessly as the tears welled up in your eyes as you looked at him before sliding down your cheeks. You touched your fingers to the wetness, confused.

“What is this?” you asked him.

“Tears,” Sunghoon replied. “They happen when you feel an emotion deeply—like sadness.” More tears fell down your cheeks and you buried your face in his chest. Sunghoon wrapped his arms around you and held you tightly.

After a few moments, you peeked your head out and looked at him with big, teary eyes. Your eyes darted down to Sunghoon’s lips before looking back up at him, your brows furrowing as you battled your inner turmoil. Slowly, you leaned up and softly pressed your lips to his.

Sunghoon’s own eyebrows raised in slight shock. You pulled away the slightest bit, your lips still hovering near his like you were frozen. For a second, Sunghoon was too. He then chased your lips with his, kissing you again.

Your lips worked in perfect harmony together as you kissed each other. Like the past week has been building to this moment and it’s finally here and it’s perfect. His lips felt perfect on yours and yours on his. It was as if they were made for each other and you never wanted to spend another moment not kissing Sunghoon.

His hand cupped your face and you sat up more, nearly in his lap, as the kiss deepened. You kissed each other like you were desperate. Like the waves were crashing around you—and they were. The time you had left flashed in your mind and you ran your hands through his hair to distract yourself from the thoughts and instead focus on him—only Sunghoon.

Sunghoon’s hat fell to the side somewhere on the couch and his other hand slid down to rest on your waist. You kissed each other like you didn’t need air, or water, or anything. Just each other. But you did, and you pulled away as heavy breathing overtook the both of you. Not far, but enough so that your lips had the slightest distance from his. Your thoughts came back full force, the sand in your hourglass falling and falling and in the distance you could hear the sea witch’s cackling.

You shook your head a little, eyes still closed. “W-We can’t… This is too dangerous,” you trailed off in a soft and low voice, your eyes fluttering open and meeting his.

“I don’t understand…” Sunghoon whispered. “What is so dangerous about it?” The pads of his thumbs wiped away freshly fallen tears. You shook your head again, pulling away from him fully and sitting properly back on the couch. Sunghoon sat up straighter and placed his dropped hat in his lap.

You wrapped your arms around yourself. You looked out the window towards the calm sea and felt yourself break. It was already too late. You’ve reached the point of no return, and if you continued down the path you were going with Sunghoon, there would be no going back.

“This won’t end well,” you told him, “and we’ll both end up getting hurt—or worse.”

You felt his fingers gently turn your face towards his. His face was inches from yours and he pulled you closed to him as you sniffled, wrapping his arms around you in comfort once again.

“And what if I like the pain—the danger?” Sunghoon asked you quietly. “What if I want to get hurt by you?”

You shook your head once again and turned your head away from him. “You don’t,” you replied. He didn’t know what he was asking, and you knew that someday soon you would have to tell him. Oh, how you wished that time would just freeze here in this moment and let you stay in it a bit longer with him. But, that wasn’t possible.

Sunghoon turned you towards him again, nodding. “I do,” he said.

His lips met yours again and you could feel the harsh winds whip around the two of you. The tides bent and broke and turned. You were both caught in a riptide and there was no escaping. Your fates were already put in motion and sealed with the kiss you shared.

You were a fool to think you could stop it. You kissed Sunghoon back with so much passion and wanting that you were sure it would knock the two of you right over. Instead, he kept you stable, kept both of your heads above the water as you got pushed by the tall waves hand in hand. Sunghoon kissed you back just as feverishly.

From the second you saw him through the fog you knew that your souls would be intertwined. You knew that you would fall in love with him. There was no stopping it, and you couldn’t no matter how hard you tried.

But then you thought of his bloody, beating heart in your cold hands. His lifeless eyes staring up at you. You had to fight against your ripping love for him, there was no other option. You didn’t want the sea witch to have his pure heart. She didn’t deserve it. And you felt like you didn’t deserve it either.

But the anchor has already been dropped into the water, and by the time you hurriedly pull it back up it would already be too late.

So you kept kissing him. You let everything you felt for him speak for itself through your moving lips on his and hoped that it was enough. You hoped that Sunghoon understood it all—hoped that once he found out the truth that he would forgive you for keeping it from him. You hoped that his feelings for you would change.

The woman’s words from earlier seeped between your thoughts. “He’s already swimming down deep for you.” You didn’t think it could get easier like she has said. At the end of the time you had, when it was either you or Sunghoon, you were choosing him. You just hoped that, in time, it would get easier for him.

Since you and Sunghoon shared a kiss that shifted everything between the two of you, a little over a week had passed. You tried hard to fight against your rapidly growing love for him, but it seemed like Sunghoon fought against you every step of the way. Whether it was fleeting but charged touches, longing looks, or the words he spoke, Sunghoon was determined to let the feelings between the two of you grow. He's even gotten more bolder with his displays of affection.

Slowly, throughout the time since your kiss, you let yourself feel all of the deep and confusing and complex emotions for him. Let yourself pretend that you weren't a doomed mermaid, but a regular human girl who was falling in love. There were moments where you completely forgot that you were on a timer—and those moments were filled with complete bliss before your mind snapped back into place and you were ripped from your illusion. Still, you didn’t let that change anything, even if you knew that it should.

So, you shivered at his fleeting touch, wishing for more. You hid your heated face as the two of you exchanged longing glances. You melted at his sweet and honest words, as if it was a secret only the two of you shared. And for the first time in your life, you had everything you’ve ever wanted.

“You feeling better today, my pearl?” Sunghoon asked you gently.

A couple days ago you lightly burned your hand while lighting the oil lamp. It was a mere sting, really, but Sunghoon has been fawning over you ever since. When he first called you “my pearl,” a few days after your kiss, it came as a shock.

“My pearl?” you asked him, slight shock fueling your voice. It was later in the day after the two of you finished the majority of what you had to do around the lighthouse. You and Sunghoon sat across from each other at the table with a discarded shared meal pushed to the side in the center of you both. His hand was intertwined with yours, his thumb caressing the back of it.

“Like the ones in your hair,” he said, using his free hand to motion to them. His smile—one that seemed permanent these days—grew even more and it lit up his whole face. “Unless you want to be called something different…” Sunghoon leaned across the small table towards you, tilting his head. His lips were inches from yours. In a loving voice, he added, “Like sweetheart, or darling, or baby…”

A permanent smile seemed planted on your lips too. Your face felt like it was on fire. “I’ll like whatever you want to call me. The only thing that matters is that it comes from your lips.”

Sunghoon chuckled and his head fell in the other direction before placing a sweet kiss on your lips. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I told you, I’m okay,” you started as Sunghoon looked over your wrapped hand. He glanced up at you with his brows raised before softly kissing the spot on your hand that you hurt. “There's no need to worry.” Sunghoon then brought your hand to his chest. You felt the dull thump of his heartbeat and your assuring smile faltered slightly. You pulled your hand away. “We should finish cleaning the lighthouse,” you said, looking down to your feet. You glanced back up and Sunghoon nodded. You saw the worry start to settle on his face but you moved before he could say anything else.

Later that night, a storm had rolled in. It wasn’t as bad as the one that brought you here, but it still scared you nonetheless. It had woken you up and the thunder shook you to your core. It made you remember that just because you were pretending everything was okay and normal didn’t mean that they were. Your time was ticking down and you had to tell Sunghoon the truth at some point, and it had to be soon.

You shakily slid out your bed, clutching tightly to your frilly, high-collared white nightgown, and made cautious steps towards your door. With each strike of lightning, your bedroom illuminated and you saw your shadow dance across the floor. Sometimes, it didn’t look like you had legs at all, but a tail still. The more steps you took, the more some of them felt wrong. Like you were stepping on hot coals or urchins.

Shaking your head as you slowly opened your door, you tried to calm yourself down. It was all in your head, that’s all. Everything was okay.

You made your way down the short hall towards Sunghoon's room. Carefully, you opened his door, the creaking getting drowned out by the rolling thunder. Sunghoon was already awake, staring out his window from his bed at the storm, his features drawn in complete focus. His eyes snapped to you and his slowly opening door before softening.

You felt silly, like a child coming to a parent after a bad dream. He must’ve seen how scared you were, because he motioned you over to him. You closed his door before walking over to his bed. You climbed up onto it and sat next to him, the two of you peering out his window.

The storm was even less bad than you initially thought it was. It was mainly just a little rain and a lot of thunder. The sea waves weren’t even as large and imposing as they seemed from your own window. Instead, they were relatively calm. Sunghoon had his journal out, writing down and calculating the storm into it, before he set it aside on his nightstand with his fountain pen.

“The storm should be over soon,” Sunghoon said, looking over to you, “The waves of thunder are getting further and further apart.” His spectacles caught the moonlight briefly before he took them off and sat them on his nightstand next to his journal. “Here, you should get some sleep.”

Sunghoon shifted in the bed and pulled his covers over you, urging you to lay down. Once you did, the two of you laid in silence and in the darkness side by side—besides the flash of lightning here and there that briefly illuminated your bodies. You looked over at him in the dark, watching his silhouette. “Sunghoon, I—”

Your mouth clamped shut. How do you even bring something like ‘cutting someone’s heart out’ up? How do you do it without confirming to yourself and revealing to him that you love him deeply? How would he react to it all? You didn’t want your relationship to change, but this road had to be crossed. You had let him know that your time was limited together—that you only had roughly another two weeks before you’d be seafoam.

How there is no salvation waiting for you at the end of all of this.

You decided that it had to wait another day. One where it wasn’t storming and you could see each other’s faces. Sunghoon deserved that.

“Thank you…” you trailed instead, swallowing the lump in your throat. “For all that you’ve done for me thus far. I can't tell you how much it all means to me.” You felt him shift and though you didn’t physically see his face, you felt the weight of his eyes on you.

In a quiet voice, you added, “How much you mean to me.”

The warmth of his body next to yours was suddenly too much for you. How different everything felt was, once again, overwhelming. It took everything in you not to cry.

“You mean a lot to me, too,” Sunghoon said in the same quiet voice as you. “More than you know.”

His arms reached out towards you and his touch felt like sparks along your body. They wrapped around your body and pulled you closer to him, until your head was resting on his chest and you could hear his quickening heartbeat as his chest rose and fell. It made you want to cry even more. The sea witch was so cruel. How dare she ask this horrid thing of you? You’d rather die than hurt Sunghoon—and at the end of this, you would.

“I'm glad that you came in. I actually can’t sleep that well during storms,” Sunghoon said. You looked up at him and you could almost make out his face. “And your presence is always a welcome one. Makes me feel calmer.”

You smiled to yourself, your face heating. “I think I can help with that…” you trailed. Sunghoon looked down and hummed in question. You continued, “There’s a lullaby my mother used to sing to me as a child when I couldn’t sleep. Maybe it’ll help you too.” You began to hum the start of it softly.

Like magic, Sunghoon felt his body begin to get heavy and his eyes struggled to stay open. He yawned and you stopped humming briefly to giggle before continuing. He pulled you even closer, to the point where you were practically almost on top of him. Sunghoon just couldn’t get over the way you smelled like the sea waves. It reminded him so much of everything he loves.

In no time at all he was drifting into a peaceful sleep. Sunghoon felt like the calm ripples of waves were all around him and next to him was you—the beautiful maiden who had come from the waves, capturing his heart and singing your beautiful lullabies.

Sunghoon was past smitten, was past falling, he was in deep. Deeper than he’s ever been before and the more time he spent with you, the farther down he went willingly. Sunghoon was in love with you, he just needed some way to put his emotions into words and tell you. He needed to find the perfect moment. There was doubt in his mind about you not feeling the same.

The weather had grown colder than usual, especially during the night. When you and Sunghoon weren’t working around the lighthouse, you were both in the house by the fire, talking about nothing and everything. You had just come back inside from relighting the oil lamp at the top of the lighthouse to find Sunghoon waiting for you in the living room. “It’s really cold out there!” you exclaimed with a laugh as you walked towards where he sat at the armchair.

Sunghoon has just come from lighting the fireplace in his bedroom, where you’ve been sleeping ever since that night a week ago when you came in during a storm. Sunghoon extended his hand towards you and you intertwined your fingers with his. He quickly pulled you to him and you fell into his lap with a squeal while he laughed. “Let me warm you up then, my love,” Sunghoon chuckled, pressing warm kisses to your cold cheeks.

The fire in the downstairs hearth was already merely warm embers and it was nearly time for bed. Sunghoon pressed a lasting kiss to your lips, both of your mouths moving in sync before you had to break away for air. You stared into his warm brown eyes with wide eyes, lips just a breath away from each other. Sunghoon’s hand was cupping your cheek and for a moment, it was just the two of you in the whole world. You’d do anything to stay in this moment forever.

You inhaled sharply before kissing him again, and you knew that this time you were about to cross a threshold that you’d never be able to walk across again. It was full of that same passion and want from the first kiss the two of you shared. In the midst of it, you twisted in his lap, hiking up your nightgown and straddling him as your lips worked against each other’s.

Sunghoon’s hands immediately trailed up your thighs and sat along your hips. His breath caught in his throat for a moment and he rested his forehead against yours as he tried to garner it, all the while his eyes hungrily took in every inch of you that he could. Sunghoon shifted a little, his chest rising and falling with vigor. His shaking fingers closed around the fabric at your hips and his eyes fluttered shut before he closed the distance between the two of you again.

It felt like the jar you kept all your love for him began to crack until it finally exploded, letting all the love you held flow freely. It was too much to contain—too powerful to control. There was no stopping it and it only grew more and more. You didn’t think that you wanted to stop it—in fact, you wanted it to flow more. It felt as if there was fire in the pit of your belly, making your skin hot and your head clouded. It was so dizzying, but so exciting at the same time. The river of your love flooded everything until it was only you and Sunghoon that was afloat.

You pulled away from Sunghoon’s lips just enough to speak. “Take me,” you whispered lowly. You saw the way his eyes widened and his grasp on your nightgown moved to his fingers softly digging into the skin at your hips. You didn’t care if he took you right there in the chair you both were sitting in, you needed him with a desire that couldn’t be quelled—a need that you don’t think will ever be fulfilled no matter how much of himself he gave you. It tangled together with all of your other inner desires until he was the core of them all, and you didn’t mind it one bit.

“Please,” you begged Sunghoon before placing your lips back on his with a hot kiss.

Sunghoon moved with urgency, but you could tell that he was conflicted on whether to give you your ask or not. At first, it was with his lips—they moved against yours almost sloppily, like he couldn’t bring himself to even kiss you properly if that meant his lips leaving yours for even a second. It wasn’t until you began to push him further against the soft velvet of the chair and leant his head back that he sat the two of you up so you were no longer leaning back against it at all. It seemed like it took everything in him to rip his lips away from yours, and you felt the coldness on your own when they were gone like a plunge into freezing-cold water. He stood the two of you up and you intertwined your hand with his and led him up the stairs.

When the two of you made it to his room, you let go of his hand as he stoked the fire. You pulled off your white nightgown and let it fall to the floor below. You then crawled onto his bed as you waited, completely naked. The warmth of the flames made your already hot skin feel like it was scorching. The longer you waited for Sunghoon to get the fire going, the more your heart raced and raced and you had to try and calm yourself down.

Sunghoon froze when he saw you on his bed, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape. You looked like an angel descended from the heavens just for him and he wondered to himself how he got to be so lucky to witness your beauty like this. He watched as the flickering light bathed you in warm hues and made your hair glitter with all of the pearls strung in it. You smiled at him shyly, your gaze casting down for a moment before looking back up at him. You looked so beautiful that it truly took Sunghoon’s breath away; and it took him a couple shaky inhales to realize he was just standing in the middle of the room and gaping at you.

He wasted no time, stripping off his own clothes before climbing onto his bed and on top of you, his lips latching with yours in a heated kiss. You had barely gotten to look over him yourself before he raised against you a need of a thousand suns, rivaling your own. It made you melt that Sunghoon needed you as much as you needed him.

You moaned against his lips as the tips of his fingers slowly slid down in between the two of you and down to where you needed to feel him the most. It shot tingles along your skin and made the fire in the pit of your belly burn brighter. With his thumb, he rubbed slow circles at the sensitive bud and made your back arch off of the bedsheets. Your breath hitched and you whimpered into his mouth, wrapping your arms around his neck to pull him closer to you.

The feeling he provided you was unlike any that you have ever felt before. With just his thumb, Sunghoon gave you a glimpse of Heaven and it made you nervous for when he eventually gave you more. The thought made you slick with arousal and needy for even more. Your hips rose towards his hand on their own and you broke your mouth away from his just so you could try and get any oxygen to your lungs that you could. It was no use—every slow and deliberate motion pushed waves throughout your body and flooded it with a deep craving. You could feel Sunghoon’s smile against the skin at the crook of your neck as his hand continued to work, your body shivering as he pressed gentle kisses against it.

You kissed him again to keep yourself from drowning. Did it always feel like this? You were sure that it didn’t, that only Sunghoon could make you feel like this—bring you to your knees with just a simple motion like it was absolutely nothing. It astonished you and upset you in the same breath how easily Sunghoon pulled emotions from you. You didn’t stand a chance against him, and he was only getting started.

Sunghoon’s thumb then traveled down farther, spreading your arousal between your folds and having you whining. The sound of wetness broke through the crackling of the flame. His warm hands sent electricity through your body and you didn’t know how much more you’d be able to take if he didn’t do something about it. By now, you knew he was teasing you and seeing how far he could bring you with just his hand alone while his other hand grazed along every inch of your skin it could reach. It sneakily rose up your stomach and to your breast while you were distracted by his thumb ghosting across your entrance. Sunghoon’s other thumb then ran along your perked nipple and you nearly jumped. He smiled against your lips cheekily and you knew that it would be up to you to put an end to this torment. You were having no more of it.

You pulled away from his lips, your chest rising and falling heavily as your brows knitted together. “I need you,” you begged in a low voice, it sounded raspy with want and that alone sent Sunghoon ablaze.

Sunghoon then slipped a finger inside of you and you gasped and held onto him tighter. He watched as your face twisted into one of pleasure as he slowly began to pump it in and out of you, savoring the way your body reacted to him and his touch. It smothered every word from your mouth until you were a heap of whimpers and soft moans. When Sunghoon slipped in another finger, curling them at just the right angle to have you melt underneath him, you swear you felt the wave take you under. He held down your hips with his hand that was once at your breast so you couldn’t grind against his hand.

“Does that feel good, darling?” Sunghoon asked you. He knew that it did, the way your moans increased in volume and you sucked his fingers in deeper was confirmation enough. But, he needed to hear you say it. He needed to hear the way your voice sounded at the height of your most vulnerable and pleasurable moment and know that it sounded that way all because of him.

You clawed at his exposed back, supple for the taking, and Sunghoon chuckled. Your voice came out hushed in arousal and breathy. “It feels unlike anything I’ve ever felt before… I need more of it. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

You’ve never felt pleasure like this before and it made you angry that you waited so long with Sunghoon. The way he repeatedly pushed his slender fingers inside you, coating them with your wetness and pressing them against just the right places, made every withering scale and the debilitating pain worth it. As long as you got to be with him, everything was worth it.

Sunghoon pressed open mouthed kisses down your neck and to your breasts, the tips of his dark hair tickling you and sending you into more of a frenzy. His tongue circled your nipple before he pulled away. You were writhing beneath him and soft moans fell more from your lips at the way his fingers moved. They only got louder when Sunghoon would curl them at just the right moment and press them up against your sweet spot.

He watched with a satisfied smile as you tried to press your legs together, a whimpering mess and your body trembling. Sunghoon pushed one of your legs away with his free hand, his fingers splaying across the back of your thigh and keeping it up towards your chest. Soon, he felt your walls clench around his fingers tighter than they did previously before you were covering them in a pretty pearly white. But, Sunghoon wasn’t finished with you just yet. He was determined to make this the best night of your life.

Helping you ride out your high, he brought his lips back down to yours as he slowly pumped his fingers inside you. Your chest rose and fell as you tried to fill your lungs up with oxygen, but you still turned the slow kiss into a deeper one.

Sunghoon trailed his kiss from your lips to along your jaw and down the curve of your neck. His kisses didn’t stop there like you expected them to, though. They circled your breasts and he moved leisurely down the soft skin of your stomach and further still. You held your breath, and Sunghoon’s fervent gaze flicked up to yours. His eyes were blown out and shadowed with desire, and the warm light blanketing him from the fire in the hearth made it even more apparent. Sunghoon pulled his fingers from out of you, much to your dismay, and pushed your other leg up to chest as well. Your release still coating his fingers shined in the firelight and spilling out of you.

You jolted when Sunghoon kissed down to your sensitive clit, despite his touch being as soft and gentle as a feather. He didn’t look away from you, and you rose onto your elbows so you could watch him better. Your brows knitted together and your face twisted with pleasure as he pressed feather-light kisses against your core. Sunghoon's lips were glossy from your release, but that didn’t stop him. He licked them clean, his eyes fluttering shut for a brief moment as he inhaled deeply, before his tongue darted out taste more. You gasped and grasped at his bedsheets.

He licked a thick, wet stripe up your core and licked his lips again before diving into you like a man who was starved most of his life. Sunghoon's eyes left yours and closed completely. He didn’t spare a single inch of your glistening folds, and if it hadn’t been for his firm hands keeping your thighs at your chest you would’ve crushed his head with them because of it. Sunghoon hummed in satisfaction and your elbows gave out weakly. He chuckled, his gaze flicking up to you for a moment, and your back arched completely off of the bed. “Oh my,” you moaned, words dying immediately when Sunghoon started to suck on your sensitive bud. You felt like you had to scream and your fingernails digging into the sheets wasn’t enough.

“I can’t…” you trailed through a broken whine, your back arching more in a futile attempt to bring Sunghoon's mouth even closer. Shallow moans pushed through your lips as he continued to devour you. There was one thing that you knew for sure as your body reached a high sensitivity that you thought was impossible—Sunghoon was absolute heaven, but his mouth and his fingers were complete hell.

Right before you were about to unravel again completely, Sunghoon suddenly stopped. You didn’t realize your eyes were squeezed shut until they flew open and looked down at him confused. “Wha-What?” you breathed.

Sunghoon kissed up your body—this time with longer distances between them—and left wet kiss marks behind him against your skin. He captured your lips with his and you tasted your sweetness on his tongue. You pulled him so close to you that your lips could barely move against his—and it still wasn’t close enough. His cock dragged across right where you needed him and you moaned into his mouth. Your arms unwrapped themselves from around his neck and dragged down his chest to the soft ridges at his abdomen that tightened with your touch. Sunghoon's breath caught in his throat and you watched the way his brows furrowed in barely concealed need before he tried to collect himself.

“Are you ready, baby?” Sunghoon asked you in a soft voice, breaking away from your lips. You nodded eagerly. You were more than ready.

You leaned forward more and reached your hand out to touch him, more curious really than anything. Your fingers trailed along his fat cockhead and down his length before you wrapped them around it completely. Sunghoon swayed, and you could tell that your simple touch alone was enough to send him reeling. This time, it was you who took satisfaction in the other’s pleasure and the corners of your mouth rose. Slowly, you pulled your hand up while gripping firmly. Sunghoon's fingers dug into the plush skin of your thighs and he breathed rigorously when you pushed your hand back down. When you did, you noticed that you dragged wetness back down his cock with you. It made your smile grow more.

Sunghoon crept a hand up your stomach and gently pushed you back down to the bed. you held onto him for as long as you could and when your hand closed around his tip, Sunghoon let out a low moan. Ever so slightly, you felt the way his hand trembled. Without him saying a single word, you could hear his voice at your ear. “Tonight is about you, not me.”

Sunghoon lined himself up with your entrance and dragged the tip of his cock through your folds and coated his tip with your arousal. Slowly, agonizingly, he slid into you inch by inch. You gasped loudly at the feeling of his cock stretching you out so deliciously and the feeling of being so full, so completely enraptured by him. Once he was fully inside of you, he leaned down to press a soft kiss to your lips. As your lips moved in sync with his, you wrapped your legs around his hips to bring him closer to you.

Sunghoon started to rut his hips forward, repeatedly pushing himself inside of you. He couldn’t stop himself from moaning at how good you felt around him, at how beautiful you looked underneath him with your pretty moans and your face full of blissful pleasure. It started to upset him a little that the fire would eventually go out and the two of you would have to stop and return to your daily life.

The two of you tried to pull each other impossibly closer. It was an eager war between you both that would have no winner no matter how hard the two of you tried—you wanted each other too much. You were sure that the only way you’d both find any semblance of satisfaction is if you both were to claw at each other’s skin and climb inside of it. You were both desperate for each other’s touch and no matter how close you were, it was never close enough.

You pulled away from Sunghoon’s lips after fighting the urge to breathe for too long, still not used to the feeling of having to battle for air, and buried your face in his neck. He pressed chaste kisses to your shoulder as your bodies moved in motion. It was like two waves colliding over and over again.

Your body felt hot and its temperature only grew and grew. Each time you touched Sunghoon, it felt like you were touching the surface of the sun. A loud drumming rang in your ears, just below the sound of you and Sunghoon’s moans, and it took you a moment to realize that it was a heartbeat. Only, you weren’t sure if it was yours or not. When you touched Sunghoon, you swear you could feel the thumping of his heart beneath his skin and how it rang in time with yours. Perhaps, both of your hearts had fallen in sync with each other—at least, just for the moment where the two of you shared everything. From your body to his, the two of you were finally one.

Sunghoon's thrusts picked up pace and it made your head spin. the pressure from the previous build-up crashed into you and full force and you felt your body lock up. Your chest pressed into Sunghoon’s as your back arched more off of the bed and your head dug into the pillow underneath your head. Sunghoon didn’t stop, his hips continued to hit off of yours and it added the sound of skin slapping against each other to the stunning symphony the two of you were creating. Jaw falling slack, waves of pretty moans swam up from your throat and filled Sunghoon’s ears.

He fell completely entranced, somehow even more than he already was by you. It was like you lit the lamp inside of his head and the sudden flood of light that illuminated everything was you. You were everything.

Sunghoon felt his abdomen tense and he knew he had to reel himself back, but he couldn’t. It felt like an unearthly task with you under him like this. How could he deny himself of this—deny you of this? It would be almost inhumane, he thinks. Your body pulled him in like he was caught in a deadly current and your legs tightened around his hips like the trap he willingly walked in to set it off and it was perfect. You are perfect. Sunghoon could barely move now, but that didn’t matter to either of you with the way you wrapped around each other.

Inside of you, you felt the rope of pleasure start to fray and begin to snap. You whimpered, breathing heavily as you looked up at Sunghoon and the thin sheen of sweat that made him glow even more. “Please,” you begged him, whining as your back arched off the bed again and your hips pathetically tried to lift towards his. “Please.”

Your head felt too clouded and it took all your effort to even say that simple word. You were so close, so-so close to seeing heaven again—this time the full thing in its divine glory. Your body never felt like this before, tingly all over and on fire. It was such a stark contrast to how it felt when you were a mermaid. Did humans always feel like this, or was this purely from Sunghoon’s actions? Your eyes opened and when you only saw Sunghoon, his face of pure bliss and his body shining and bathed in warm hues, you knew that this was the divinity you were seeking.

You weakly sat up, wrapping your arms around Sunghoon’s neck for leverage. The two of you breathed heavily in tandem, and you didn’t need to speak for Sunghoon to know what you intended to do. He leaned back on his knees and splayed his hands across your hips. A desperate need overtook your senses as you rocked your hips against his in time with the way he pushed into you and the both of you moaned at the new sudden feeling. Sunghoon leaned his forehead against yours and delighted you in the feeling of him unraveling and trying desperately to stay sane. He was losing.

“You feel so good,” Sunghoon murmured, his lips ghosting over yours. “So perfect.”

He sloppily smashed his lips against yours, too eager to kiss you properly with how good you were making each other feel. It felt like your bodies were made for each other—like the two of you were made for each other.

Soon, the rope completely snapped and you moaned loudly against his lips, body shaking as your movement halted. More whines and moans fell from your parted lips as Sunghoon kept moving your hips. You held him tightly, scared that if you were to let go you would fall apart completely or that he would get caught up in the wind from the ocean and wear away.

It wasn’t long after that you felt warmness spill inside you. Sunghoon stilled, his head falling into the crook of your neck and his breathing coming out haggard. Soft moans emitted from him and for a moment the two of you caught your breaths in blissful silence.

Once you felt like you weren’t in the clouds, a shy giggle escaped you. Sunghoon looked up from your neck, an amused smile on his face. “What?” he asked, bringing his hand up to cradle your cheek. You shook your head as you giggled more, kissing him briefly. You intertwined your hand with his other.

“That was heavenly,” you smiled, your face completely hot. Sunghoon’s thumb caressed the warm skin of your cheek before his hand trailed down to catch hold of your chin. He kissed you again with a grin. “Is it always like that?” you wondered.

Sunghoon laughed, shaking his head a little. “Not in my experience—no. Nothing close to that,” he replied. “You’re just special.”

A sheepish smile tugged at your face and you looked away from his gaze. Sunghoon pressed a kiss to your jaw and you giggled more as he pressed another to you until you turned to look at him again. “Come on,” he murmured against your skin, “Lets get you cleaned up, darling.”

After the two of you were cleaned up, you laid together on his bed beneath the covers still bare, the dwindling firelight illuminating the two of you. Your back was to Sunghoon's chest and he trailed the tips of his fingers along your shoulder and arm, sometimes softly kissing them.

You turned to face him and he fondly smiled down at you, causing his expression to mirror on your own face. He leaned down to kiss you. “My pearl,” Sunghoon whispered affectionately before kissing you again.

The next day, the air around you and Sunghoon was charged. No longer were the touches fleeting nor the two of you shared longing glances. Everything was practically out in the open now, one of you just had to bridge the gap completely.

A deep rooted sensation bubbled inside you and you could only describe it as fear. You had to tell Sunghoon about the sea witch’s deal, and you had to do it today. You were running out of time—with only a week left—and it couldn’t be put off any longer. You couldn’t live in this fantasy you’ve put yourself in any longer.

It made the fear in the pit of your stomach worse when you noticed how Sunghoon looked at you—how he always looked at you. It was full of love and hope and yearning. You could almost see the words forming at the tip of his tongue without him needing to say anything. You noticed how he would take any chance he could to touch you or be in your general vicinity, even if he was supposed to be working on something else around the lighthouse. It was something that he has always done, but now it’s different.

It made you feel guilty that you waited until the last moment to say anything.

Sunghoon couldn’t keep his eyes off of you for the whole day. He kept falling behind in his duties because he was too busy focusing on you. Too focused on the way your dress swayed as you moved, or the way the pearls in your hair glittered in the sunlight, completely free from the up-do that the women of the village wore. Or the way you smiled at him every time you caught him staring—that smile that he would do anything and everything for. Each time your skin brushed against his he was brought back to last night and the heat between the two of you. It made his head spin each time, but he couldn’t stop getting close to you.

The fire lighting the lighthouse was nothing compared to the fire that burned in his heart for you, so blinding that it was the only thing he could make out. You set him alight, made his skin hot and his cheeks rosy. Sunghoon felt like he didn’t even need his thicker, wool clothes with you around him. You made his heart race and race until he was sure it would go jumping out of his chest and into your gentle awaiting hands.

How could he not love you? From the moment he saw you it felt like something clicked into place within himself. Like you were the final piece he’s been waiting for and he was now complete. You completed him.

If you were the lighthouse, Sunghoon was the boats and ships drawn to your light with the excitement of land. For the rest of his days, his soul would desperately call out to yours until you came home to him. He was the moth and you were the flame—and he would gladly get burned by your heat if that meant he could be with you, however brief.

You were the springtime with the promise of pretty, blooming flowers. The sunlight bouncing off the ripples of the sea and the cool air that flowed up from it. You were the shadows that the leaves cast on the ground, the sun that peaked through them, and the calming sound of the remnants of waves hitting the rocks. Sunghoon could shout from the top of the lighthouse everything he adored about you, but by the time he would be anywhere even remotely close to finishing you both would be old and grey, skin wrinkled from all the times you made him laugh and smile.

Today was the day, he had to tell you how he felt. He couldn't keep it locked inside him any longer.

After the two of you finished everything for the day, Sunghoon pulled you inside and away from the chilling winds. He had to calm his heart from its rapid drumming when you giggled and smiled at him, asking what the two of you were doing. When you intertwined your hand with his, he almost spilled his words then and there. Sunghoon sat you on the couch and nervously twiddled his thumbs as he forced the words from his mouth, and once he started he found it even harder to stop.

“I love you,” Sunghoon finally breathed. “I love you so much that it’s too much to contain. It spills out of me like uncontrollable rivers. I could tell you over and over and it still wouldn’t be enough—I love you, I love you, I love you!”

He grasped your hands in his, desperately holding onto them as he stared into your eyes with furrowed brows. Nothing would be able to capture Sunghoon's love for you and it frustrated him to no end, yet, it didn’t stop him from trying. “I love you like the water loves the land. Like the sun loves the moon and all of the stars in the sky,” he finally concluded.

You stared at him with a melancholic look and for a moment Sunghoon thought that he might’ve been mistaken. That he read into you a little too much. But, all his worries were eased when you flung yourself into his arms and into his lap, making him fall back against the couch from the edge. You kissed him so passionately that it took his breath away again, but he was content with the burning in his lungs.

“I love you,” you told him, like you had discovered the secrets to the world and it all lied within him. “You paint all of my skies the most saturated colors of blue like I've never seen before. You’re the air in my lungs and the beating of my heart—oh, I love you so much!”

All Sunghoon could do was laugh joyously as he held you close to him, planting a million and one kisses onto your face as you, too, laughed. He didn't think he’d ever be this happy in his life, and it was all because of you. No longer were his days lonely and grey; they were filled with the most magnificent colors and your presence. He heard your voice in the wind and it swam all the way down to his heart. You were why he woke up in the morning, and the reason why he was so eager to go to sleep. You are everything.

You didn’t realize the tears that began to fall down your face, or how the overwhelming fear in your stomach came to the surface until you got a good look at Sunghoon’s happy face. You inhaled sharply before it was all too much and you broke down completely. At first, Sunghoon thought they were happy tears until he saw the way you violently shook and his smile faltered.

He pulled you to his chest as his hand rubbed comforting circles against your back. “You're crying, my pearl? Why are you sad?” he asked you gently, pulling you away from him so he could see your face.

You shook your head, sniffling and wiping the tears from your cheeks. “I'm happy! I'm so happy for the first time in my life and it’s because of you,” you started. “Only, I'm still that naive girl I was when I first washed up on your shore, because this can’t last…”

Sunghoon's brows drew together further. “What do you mean, my love?”

And so you told him everything. Right from the beginning. About how when you were a mermaid you dreamed of having legs like the landwalkers did, dreamed of walking on land and leading a human life. You told him how you would watch the villagers and then how the lighthouse caught your attention and you saw him from the water for the very first time and knew that he would always have your heart. You told him of the childhood story your father used to tell you of the mermaid who wished for legs and the sea witch who granted it. It was easier to tell him things that he already knew, and you knew you were just procrastinating the truth. But, you really didn’t want to watch the happiness strip off of him when you did.

Finally, you told him about how you sought out said sea witch and found her, making a wish for legs of your very own. About the precedent of the deal and how it required you to cut out the beating heart of the human who you loved the most—him. Then, you told him how you could never go through with it, how you’d rather throw yourself to the sea and become seafoam before ever thinking of hurting him. You should’ve left that very first day for the village when you had the chance. You both never should’ve fallen in love with each other, now you both are in danger.

Sunghoon sat quietly with a slight look of horror as you spoke, intently listening to every word that fell from your mouth. “Don't you see why I told you it was dangerous for us to get closer? Why it’s not safe?” you cried. “And it’s all my fault… I should've insisted that you take me to the village instead of staying. Now we only have a week left before I leave you forever.”

Another moment passed as you cried and cried and Sunghoon held you as tightly as he could, fearful that you’d crumble completely in his arms. He struggled to wrap his mind around the whole thing—around the fact that your time together was limited. He didn’t want to believe it. A part of him hoped that this was all just a test of true love from the sea witch. That she’d come up from the waves and grant you the life that you deserved fully and then you and him would run off into your new lives together, hand in hand. But, Sunghoon knew deep down that that wasn’t the case. This was it. This was the only time you both had left together. It wasn't fair—yet, if given the chance, he’d do it all again with you.

Sunghoon couldn’t bear living without you, that was the only stable thought in his mind.

It was so cruel. Sunghoon desperately needed more time with you. The two of you were supposed to have the rest of your lives together and now everything was cut so short. How was he supposed to go on after this without you? Sunghoon took your face in his hands and gently wiped away your tears with the pads of his thumbs. It broke his heart to see you so sad, so… defeated. All Sunghoon wanted to see was your beautiful smile again. To make you laugh and tell you to let all of your worries wash away—but he couldn’t.

“Why did you think I'd let you sacrifice yourself for me?” Sunghoon asked. As if he’d let you do such a ridiculous thing. He would rather carve out his heart himself and throw it to the sea if it meant you could keep the life you dreamed of.

You threw his words back at him. “Why did you think I'd let you sacrifice yourself for me? It’s not a life if you aren’t in it.”

“Because my heart already beats for you.” Sunghoon said it like it was the simplest thing ever. You shook your head at his words but Sunghoon just nodded. “It does. And I want you to have everything you’ve ever wanted, even if it’s at the cost of my own life.”

“No…” you shook your head as more tears fell from your watery eyes. “No,” you stated more firmly. “This life means nothing to me without you. I'm not giving her your heart and neither are you. It'll be hard when I'm gone, but it will get easier with time. We just have to make the most of the week we have left.”

Sunghoon just tilted his head at you and shook his head as tears of his own fell from his eyes. It wouldn't get easier, and no matter how close he held you, it wouldn’t be close enough. He pressed his lips to yours, a slow and wanting kiss, as he tried to beg Time to show the two of you mercy.

In the days leading towards the end of the month you were given, you and Sunghoon spent every waking moment together. Duties were cast aside to only its bare bones and deemed unimportant. You spent time leaving little pieces of yourself on the tiny island. You had taken some of the pearls from your hair and sewn them onto the hat that Sunghoon always wore; he even let you weave some of them into the strands of his hair.

He had asked what you were doing, and when you told him you saw his heart break.

The two of you had walked down to the dock and you stripped down to the last layer of the clothes you wore as he watched you. You haven’t really touched the ocean since you washed up on the shore from it. A part of you was terrified that if you did your tail would grow back or the sea witch would scoop you up again. So each time you and Sunghoon walked along the beach at sunset, you had always skirted around the water and stayed in the sand instead. But, this was more important than that. You just hoped that swimming as a human wasn’t that difficult and it came easily to you.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, my pearl?” Sunghoon asked you as he held your clothes in his arms. The coming summer sun beat down on him, and you finally understood why his eyes sparkled each time he looked at you. The pearls sewn on his hat and twisted between his dark strands of hair made him look ethereal. Even more beautiful than he already was. It made you wonder if there was a version of the two of you somewhere where he sacrificed his legs for a tail instead.

Your own pearls in your hair had dwindled significantly since you gave the majority of yours to him. There was one pearl, though, that you didn’t own. One that you needed to give to him before you left.

“Not exactly,” you said, “But it’s important.”

You sat down on the edge of the dock and dipped your feet into the water to test them. Even though your back was turned to him, you could feel how Sunghoon held his breath along with you. There was silence between the two of you, and after a moment of absolutely nothing, you looked back at him with a grin. As soon as you smiled at him, Sunghoon's whole face lit up. You turned back to the water and slid in.

Your head went beneath the surface and you were expecting to be able to breathe until you remembered that you weren’t a mermaid anymore. This was going to be a lot more difficult than you were initially expecting it to be, but you were determined. When you surfaced again, you gasped out for air and squeezed your eyes shut from the sunlight shining directly in them. When you opened them again, Sunghoon was at the very edge of the dock—your clothes strewn to the side—looking worriedly at you. His mouth opened to speak, but you beat him to it.

“I’m okay, I'm okay. Don't worry, my love.” you beamed up at him as you swam to the dock and held on to the edge. Oh, how you missed the salty water against your skin. “I’m gonna dive down now, but don’t worry about me, okay?”

Sunghoon smiled at you. “I'll never not worry about you.”

You laughed a little before pushing up on the dock a little so you could bring your lips to his for a chaste kiss. When you moved to turn, Sunghoon called out your name and you turned back to him in question. He gently took your face in his hands and kissed you hard. If you weren’t already above the surface, you would’ve thought that you were drowning—and you would’ve sunk down to the depths happily. You smiled against his lips and the two of you kissed until heat spread throughout your faces and you were forced to pull away.

“I love you, my pearl.” Sunghoon kissed the corner of your mouth.

“I’ll be back!” you exclaimed through a laugh. That didn’t matter to Sunghoon, though. He just needed to remind you of it—needed to hear you say it again.

“I know,” Sunghoon says. “I still love you.”

You smiled at him, bigger and brighter than before. “I love you.”

Sinking back down into the water, you began swimming down to the bottom of the ocean floor. It was a bit awkward at first, but the water was like second nature to you and you quickly got the hang of it. You weren’t sure if you would have enough breath to find the pearl that you were looking for, but you’d try and try again until you did.

And you did try. A few times you had to resurface for air and when you did, you found that you were in a different place completely and Sunghoon was just a speck along the horizon still waiting on the dock for you. You worked as quickly as you could with the timer hanging above you. You didn’t want to spend too much time in the water and away from him.

You nearly cried tears of joy when you tickled the oyster and coaxed it open. There it was, the beautiful black set of pearls that you were looking for. They reminded you of the time you snuck to the surface and saw an array of colors against the nighttime sky. It was an alluring light show that you still can’t believe you managed to witness.

It also made you remember the time your father had shown you pearls like these. They were his and your mother’s—a symbol of the purest and eternal love between two people, your father had said. He told you of how one day, you and another would exchange them on the day you were to be wed and the pearl would be the foremost adornment with all of the other pearls in your hair. You held the memory fondly, even if that life was miles away now. You began to wonder what your people thought of your disappearance, but you thought better of it. There was no use making yourself sad when this was supposed to be a happy occasion.

You swam back as fast as you could to Sunghoon, with the sun still hanging high in the sky.

When you surfaced at the dock again, you nearly scared Sunghoon out of his skin. His eyes were scanning the water and when they landed on you suddenly in front of him, he nearly fell into it. You giggled at him and he helped you up onto the dock, immediately shedding off his thin jacket to place over your shoulders. “Did you find what you were looking for?” Sunghoon asked, and you nodded ecstatically.

You took his hand and pulled him away from the sea while Sunghoon tried not to focus on the way the white cotton fabric stuck to your skin and became almost translucent. When you were in the sand again, you turned to him and held open the hand that clutched the black pearls for him to see. Sunghoon's eyes widened, and he looked down at them before quickly looking back up at you. You nodded at him, and he took one of the pearls between two of his fingers to examine it.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sunghoon breathed as he held it up to the sunlight. He then smiles ear to ear and turns towards you. “It's almost as beautiful as you are, my darling.”

You shyly look away from him, heat creeping across your wet cheeks and your heart fluttering. “Under the sea,” you started, catching his loving stare, “a pearl like this is very special. Typically, you only receive one like it on your wedding day. It's a symbol of how your love for your partner is pure and eternal. You tie it in each other’s hair and it’s the one pearl that you never unweave.” Your eyes widened a little as the sudden implication hit you, and you opened your mouth to explain more to Sunghoon but he was already taking your hair between his fingers.

You looked at him from between your lashes as you watched him weave the black pearl into your hair. His brows were knitted together with his focus and you could feel his breath fan across your cheeks from how close he was to you. When he was finished, he held the hair with the black pearl weaved into it in his hand and smiled.

“There we go,” Sunghoon spoke softly, his voice just above a whisper. “Your turn.”

An enamored smile slowly spread across your face and you took a bit of his dark hair and began to weave the black pearl into it. Sunghoon watched you the entire time, his eyes full of so much love that it looked like it was going to spill from his stare at any moment. It felt like a warm and comforting blanket around you, and you didn’t know what you were going to do without it. After you were done, you took a moment to admire him and you could tell he was doing the same to you. You tried your hardest to commit every aspect of him to memory.

You reached your hand up and gingerly touched the black pearl in his hair with a smile. You then delicately touched his pale skin and trailed the tips of your fingers along the moles that prettied it. There was a pang in your chest and your heart began to ache. You were going to miss him.

“It reminds me of your scales—the pearl,” said Sunghoon after a while. You caught his gaze, shock written all throughout your expression. “They're more blue, but they have the same reflection the pearl has.”

In that moment, a desire hidden deep within you—so deep that you didn’t know it even existed—bubbled up to the surface and jumped out of your body. Tears sprang to your eyes and Sunghoon cradled your cheek with his hand, his brows furrowed. Never in your life have you felt seen like Sunghoon makes you feel seen. He took both sides of you—the mermaid and the newfound human—and held them both close to his soul like they were one. He loved you no matter the change.

You couldn’t even begin to express to him how you were feeling, you could barely even get your words out. All you could manage to choke out was: “You’ve seen them?”

The two of you turned to where you had washed up almost a month ago now. The scales that were once a part of your tail are long gone, swept back into the sea with the storm where they belonged to never be seen by you again. You had checked for them, but you were already too late. Sunghoon nodded, looking to you. “I had meant to ask you about them when you first woke up that day, but it completely slipped my mind. I kept some of them.”

Tears slid down your cheeks and he wiped them for you before leading you back to the house. When the two of you got there, Sunghoon dug around in his heavy coats for the one he wore that night before pulling it out. He then dug in the pockets before pulling his hand out. Sunghoon outstretched his hand to you, a couple of your shifting blue scales in his palm. You gasped and covered your mouth with your hands before reaching out for them. Your hand hovered above his before you drew it back. Instead, you closed Sunghoon's hand around them again.

“Keep them close to your heart,” you said, wiping your tears as you smiled happily at him. “A mermaid’s scale will bring you good luck.”

“Are you sure you don’t want them, my pearl?” he asked, and you shook your head. You had no use for them, and he needed them more than you did. If they would keep him safe and bring him good fortune, then that’s all you could ask for.

Sunghoon carefully placed them in the pocket of his cotton shirt under his waistcoat and it reminded you that you were practically naked in human terms. Your chemise was still damp and clung to your skin. You looked down at your clothes. “Oh,” you sheepishly chuckled. Sunghoon's eyes locked onto you and you could tell it’s been plaguing his mind this entire time. Your gaze flicked back up to him and you noticed how blown out his eyes were. You sheepishly chuckled more.

Grinning, Sunghoon took a step forward and wrapped his arms around you. “Is that all you have to say?” he teased. “‘Oh?’ Nothing else?” You shook your head, giggling, before kissing him. Sunghoon pulled back from you a little and in faux bewilderment, he said, “No? Nothing at all?” He brought his lips back to yours, muffling more of your giggles. He then backed you up towards where the hallway was as his fingers gripped at your wet chemise. Sunghoon went to pull it up, but you pushed it back down and hummed against his lips.

Breaking from his lips, you smirked at him before taking his hand and leading him to the bedroom.

A storm had begun to brew along the horizon of the sea that left everything dark and cloudy. You knew that the storm was for you—for him, and it saddened you deeply. It also filled you with a grim determination. The sea witch wouldn’t have Sunghoon’s heart. You would die making sure that was true.

It felt as if all hope was lost. Like a blanket of complete darkness covered the two of you and you walked lost through it. The rest of the week was spent as if you both were mourning each other, and you were. Sunghoon just couldn’t believe that this would be the last time he would ever see you again—he refused to believe it. It hurt too much.

He ensured that he had as much physical attachments of you two together as possible, even going so far to hire a photographer and have your pictures taken. At night, he could hear you weeping and he couldn’t do anything to comfort you except hold you. It wasn't enough for either of you. How could the two of you possibly pretend to be happy when you both knew that the end was near? That the two of you were doomed from the very start?

It was like ice replaced all the warmth inside him and froze him down to the marrow in his bones. The only spark inside him was his undying love for you and you for him. Besides his limited time with you, it was the only thing that was keeping him going. Just getting a glimpse of your face, whether if it was next to him or from one of the pictures he had framed of the two of you, meant the world to him.

It felt strange to feel such deep and heartbreaking, mournful sorrow over someone who was still living. Like his one true love was already taken from him.

How would Sunghoon live on once you were gone? Everywhere he goes he would search for you, whether that be beneath the empty covers of his bed or between the flickering light of the lighthouse. Would he see someone at the village and think that it was you, only for them to turn and he’d see that it wasn’t? Would he see the glittering sunlight along the water and think that it was the pearls in your hair—that you’ve returned home to him? He couldn’t bear it all.

But, he couldn’t do anything to stop it. The final day was here and the storm that was previously brewing in the horizon raged on, demanding to be felt—demanding the heart it came for. Unease sunk deep into Sunghoon, and as you both watched the storm and harsh winds from the window he held you close.

“Please,” Sunghoon begged, voice hoarse, barely above a whisper and half-muffled from his face buried in your hair, “Please, don’t do this. We can figure out another way, just… just don’t go.”

Sunghoon had been crying all night and the storm didn’t help one bit. Even your lullaby only barely managed to make him fall asleep. He didn't want to miss a single precious second with you by sleeping. He had the rest of his life without you to sleep. He’d sleep when he throws himself to the sea years from now and beg the water to bury him next to you. Now wasn’t the time for it.

“It’s too late, my love,” you said somberly. You shifted to face him, tears welling in your eyes. “There's no other option. I have to do this. It's the only way… You’re the land and I'm the sea—we only touch for a brief moment.”

You pressed your lips to Sunghoon’s firmly, letting all your passion and love for him seep through it. No matter how much your lungs ached and your head pounded, you both didn’t break away. If it was going to be your last kiss, it would be one you’ll both remember forever.

Only when you felt like you were about to pass out did you gently pull away from him. A strike of lightning followed by a vicious roar of thunder sounded. “It is time,” you whispered, tears slipping down your cheeks.

You stood from the couch, forcing yourself to break away from Sunghoon and the life you cherished so deeply. You bent down to give him one last hug. “I love you, forever,” you said, “And I'll miss you for even longer.”

“I love you,” Sunghoon said, his voice breaking into a cry as tears slid down his face. “I miss you.” With bated breath, Sunghoon looked up at you through his tears, "I'm sorry.”

You shook your head at Sunghoon as you stood to your full height, your hand fell from his face as you wiped away his tears. You inhaled sharply and you got one last look at Sunghoon, one last look at him to burn into your mind before you turned to seafoam.

You took in every inch of him, down to the hat with your pearls sewn onto it discarded at his feet and the pearls woven into his dark hair as he ran his hands through it. You focused for a moment on the black pearl in his hair that you both shared and you hoped that when he looked at it too he would remember how much you love him. Sunghoon was so drastically different from when you first met him, yet, completely the same all at once. It broke your heart into a million pieces to see him this way and have it be all because of you.

Inhaling deeply, you turned your back to him before he could convince you to stay. Your hand lingered near the door and you turned back to him one last time. “Goodbye, my love, my Sunghoon.”

With your last goodbye, you opened the door and faced the storm.

There was no use in delaying the inevitable. You stomped towards the water, stripping off your clothes and your last shred of humanity. Anger permeated you, hot like the flame of the flickering lighthouse.

It was so unfair. It was so unfair that you couldn’t have the one thing you’ve ever wished for. But you guess that it was no easy wish going against nature. A thing belonging to the sea cannot step onto the land without consequences—and here you were, facing them. Walking headfirst back to the sea—to your own death—like one would if they had pockets full of stones.

You barely got to your knees in the water before red-hot pain spread throughout your legs, the same pain that you felt when they formed from your tail. Soon after you were falling to the water, your deep blue, color shifting tail emerging from behind you. You dived underwater, thankful for once that mermaids couldn’t cry.

You began to swim further out into the sea, watching as more and more of your body transformed back to its original state. The entire time you thought of the sea witch, of how you hated her and her cruelness. She did this to you—she let you dream of hope only to turn the lights back out. You never should’ve made that bargain. Maybe then you and Sunghoon could still be together. He'd wait at the dock for you and you’d wait at the shore for him, and it would be enough.

Above you, you saw the water ripple like something was dropped in. You wouldn’t have thought anything of it if not for the feeling against your tail. You stopped swimming and twisted to look behind you. Shock filled you and your eyes widened. Sunghoon swam towards you, clothes flowing in the water as he got closer.

No. What was he doing here? Doesn't he know how dangerous it is for him to be in the sea at this moment? You wanted to lecture him, scream at him—but, all that filled you was the immense love you have for him.

Sunghoon reached out his hands toward your face and gently grabbed your cheeks. He swam forward and placed his lips onto yours. You should’ve known that he wouldn’t let you go alone, that he would be there with you until the very end—even if you told him over and over that it would only make the pain worse.

You pulled away and let yourself smile at him one last time—for the first time as what you truly were. That smile quickly faltered when you saw all the red start to seep out from around the two of you, the feeling of something hard puncturing your chest.

Looking down, you gasped and bubbles of air floated towards the surface. Lodged in Sunghoon's chest was a knife with blood rapidly coming from it. You shook your head at him, brows knitting together in anguish, and Sunghoon just nodded.

You refused to let him do this—to let him die. To let him die for you. It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be you, not him. You were supposed to be the sacrifice.

You linked your arms under his and swam as fast as you could to the shore, bringing Sunghoon towards the surface and fighting against the harsh waves. Every second felt like a grain of sand in an hourglass, and you didn’t have much sand left. You now know what he meant when Sunghoon said “I'm sorry.”

Sunghoon didn’t have much time, you knew that from the way he began to cough violently. You dragged him as far up on the shore and as far away from the water as you possibly could with the hindrance of your tail. You made sure not even the waves lapped up to the two of you. The sea witch wouldn’t have him, you will die making sure of it.

You started screaming for help until your voice was hoarse, but it was no use against the whipping winds of the storm. Nobody would hear you on this tiny island away from the village anyway. “Why?” you asked him, your voice breaking as tears fell from your face, “Why would you do this? The sea doesn’t deserve a heart like yours.”

Sunghoon grabbed your hands and brought them to the hilt of the blade in his chest. “Take it… It’s yours. It will always be yours,” he said hoarsely. Blood spilled past his lips and you cried harder. “Go, be free. Walk on land and live the life you’ve always wanted. Be human.”

He violently coughed more and more blood coated his lips.

“It's not a life I want if it isn’t with you,” you cried, removing your hands from the hilt and pressing them to his wound. Your hands were stained but the blood wouldn’t stop.

Sunghoon took your hands in his, “It’s not a world I want to live in if you’re not by my side, my pearl.”

With the last of his strength, Sunghoon wrapped his hands around the hilt and harshly pulled the blade from his chest. You cried out as more blood gushed from the wound and stained his shirt red. “No, no, no!” You sobbed louder with each word.

“Kiss.. me… One last time?” Sunghoon heaved in question. His eyes started to close but he fought to keep them open—he wouldn’t waste any more precious seconds. You couldn’t believe that it was all ending like this—that it all could come to this. You stupid, halfwitted, naive little guppy. How dare you dream of a life you could never have?

You sniffled and nodded. You didn’t care that his blood would be on your lips, you bent down to press yours to his anyway. As they moved in sync you could feel the life draining from him and you pulled away, letting him get as much oxygen as he possibly can. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Sunghoon smiled up at you and it was the last glimmer of light in the darkness as the rain poured down around the two of you. He cupped your face gently, his hand trembling. “My pearl…” he whispered, "I love you so much. I love you, forever.”

With those last words, Sunghoon's eyes closed and his hand fell from your face and into the wet sand below.

You looked down at him with wide, watery eyes. A loud sob ripped through you and you cried until your chest felt like exploding and you could barely see from the burning tears. You raised a shaky hand and placed it softly on Sunghoon’s chest where his heart resided. It no longer beat. He was gone, truly… gone.

You took the knife laying limply in his other hand and threw it as far away from the two of you as you could. You then laid your head on his chest like you did all those nights ago in the bed you shared, only, it wasn’t the same.

Sunghoon was gone. His warm body was now growing cold and his beating heart had stilled. All that was left was you—and soon, even you would cease to exist.

You felt tingling in your tail, little stabbing pains that would hurt if you didn’t feel so numb right now. You knew that you were withering away—turning into seafoam like the sea witch promised with only your bones and your heart to leave behind so she could collect it. You welcomed it, for you had nothing left.

Let her take your heart, so long as she doesn’t touch his.

Softly, you began to hum the lullaby your mother used to sing to you as a child. You hoped that it would aid Sunghoon on his journey beyond, that the storm would no longer make him anxious and instead he felt calm. That it would gently lull him to where he needed to be.

More tears slid down your wet cheeks from the lack of sound in his chest. How it didn’t rise and fall with his breathing. But, you continued humming.

The fin of your tail started to turn first. Seafoam overtook it and fell away into the sand in a pool of foamy white and bone. You closed your eyes as it spread further and further up your body. You hummed until you physically couldn’t anymore—until your entire body was seafoam and so were your lips. Until you were nothing but a beating heart against sunghoon’s still chest.

The storm began to melt away, the dark clouds very slowly rolling back towards the magic that casted them and the rain traveling upwards towards them. It is unknown how long the remnants of your bodies laid in the wet sand, curled into each other.

There was no telling where Sunghoon ended and you began.

Deep down below at the sea floor there is a rumbling. A loud, angry scream follows and it is said it can be heard for miles. The sea witch tries with all her might, but her waters are just too far away from where the two lovers lie. She is unable to take their hearts, for they are their own—they belong to each other and no one else. And soon after, your heart turns to seafoam too. The two of you, at once, were at home with each other.

While the law searches the tiny island to figure out what came of the lighthouse keeper, they find a picture of a woman with pearls in her hair—similar to the pearls found in the lighthouse keeper’s hair—and shifting blue scales. The picture and the scales were hidden in a pocket close to his chest and free from any blood. The woman was never found and the villagers have no recollection of her—despite the various photographs around the lighthouse keeper’s small home.

Through the breaking light of the dawn, it is said you can see two souls turn to one.

͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏͏   ͏  ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏  ͏ ͏͏ REBLOGS ◜◡◝ ASKS APPRECIATED!

✉️   ⦂   hey…. hey… i just want to say first and foremost and i am so unbelievably sorry for the pain i just put you all through LMAO <//3 can everyone make some noise for #realyearners tho?!?!?!!? btw, if any of you wanted to see all the changes / additions i made to the rework, then here is the original version! ♡ AND THANK YOU SO SO SOOO MUCH TO @yingelics FOR THE ABSOLUTELYYYYYY BEAUTIFUL DIVIDER ABOVE AAAA!!! (づ ￣ ³￣)づ♡♡♡♡♡

𖥦 ﴾ 𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗎𝖾 𝗈𝗇 𝗍𝗈 . . . 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 , 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 , 𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 ﴿ @innocygnet @ikeukiss @tinycatharsis @prkhaven @fangel @jaylaxies @bambiihee @xylatox @whosserina @jellymochii @minaateez @lvrs-street2mmorrow @chccnne @sunoosgfv @everythingvirgoes @beomieeeeeeeeeeees @sumsumtingz @riribelle @yingelics @yourislandgirl @milza12 @dollyyhoon @fancypeacepersona @maidens-world @hoonstrology @invsomnixa1 @hoonkishoe

© faeyun - all rights reserved. do not repost on any social media or sites, translate, or modify any of my works.

[carlyraejepsans]

Whats your take regarding the kris slash theory? You've 100% heard of it but just in case you haven't, it's the theory where kris is the one that slashed/swooned susie and ralsei after the succesful knight fight in ch3.

Personally, i think it makes sense in a storytelling perspective since i dont think its just "oh, the knight is so powerful she/they can just fucking do that", combined with ralsei's dialogue, the direction of the slash, kris getting knighted and toriel having a nightmare instead of sleeping peacefully, it all points towards kris being the one slashing their friends

But at the same time, ralsei's lack of mentioning it ever again irks me, especially during some ch4 scenes. It would not make sense for him to be normal™ about it, personally if i were him id lose my freaking mind. So im very on the edge about it

kris holds back their blows (because they're conspiring with the knight) right until they see susie and ralsei go down, at which point they panic and start to hit like a freight train anyway. one of the game's intended ways to make the knight fight easier is going through the shadow mantle route first, where kris can't even bear to watch their little avatar kill a game version of their friends.

do people think Kris would ever lay a finger on susie and ralsei? are people really so attached to the "roaring fraud" jokes that they think kris would hit susie so hard it would swoon her, rather than the idea that dess has been fucking with us the entire fight, and she could one shot us if she really wanted? that changing the prophecy IS an impossible feat, and this loss for our party was scripted all along?

not to be cheeky but kris would sooner cut off their own hand

[lazysundaytales]

Hello I have a request for y/n and Severus. Post war. They have serious conversation about kids. Y/n finds out she is pregnant and wants to know how Severus feels about having children. He tells her that he's been thinking about it and would love to have some someday.

btw.: Violet is beautiful name.

I actually had this one mostly written. Not quite what you wanted, but I’ll post this and I’ll also post your version in a couple of days! Other prompts are also in the process of being written.

Follower

The first few months after the war were a blur to Severus. He was never quite sure if he had died, if he lived, if he was real, if he was a memory- the only thing he was sure of was a woman’s voice, soothing and safe. He fell in love with that voice long before he saw the woman who owned it.

That she loved him back was still a mystery to him, as was how to live when something life threatening did not loom over him, its arrival imminent. Once he became more aware of his surroundings and could move about more, he wandered aimlessly from room to room. She hadn’t admonished him for this, as the other healers had, she just set up a comfortable spot near her desk for him to sit in.

He watched her work for hours upon hours with precision, dedication and care, falling in love a little more every moment.

Of course, he hadn’t told her how he felt for a long, long time. He had limped out of her life and went back to the only home he’d really known; hogwarts. He helped it start over, but he found no happiness in it. He imagined his time for happiness had long since passed, if it had ever been in the tea leaves for him at all.

Until one night, when he drank too much firewhiskey and thought he must be seeing an angel as he lurked in the hallways of Hogwarts, aching to hate someone or something enough to release the feelings he held inside.

It was no angel. It was the voice, the woman, standing before him saying she had missed him. Minerva, standing by her side to give her a tour, looked so startled at these words that Severus might have laughed if he hadn’t been quite so drunk and maudlin.

He had been gruff with Violet at first, upon learning the next day of her job at Hogwarts teaching Herbology, but she would just smile at his irritation, and her eyes would flick to his lips.

She would blush, he would be even gruffer.

His resolve broke one winter day when he found her crying on one of the window seats in the wide, windy hallway. She had offered him so much comfort, and he didn’t know how to offer it in return.

Instead, he apologised for his attitude, promising to be better, promising anything that would stop her being upset.

She’d just smiled and lifted a hand to his face. “They are not tears because of you. You are so dear to me you could never make me cry. I see right through you, Severus Snape.”

He was better from then on. Kinder. Softer.

He loved her more than he had the right to. More than he could ever show or say. She never asked any of those things from him, though. She seemed so sure of herself and his feelings for her that sometimes he felt he just drifted along behind her.

He supposed he’d always been a follower. Of Voldemort. Of Dumbledore. And now of Love.

…

Violet had been restless all evening, and just because he loved her dearly did not mean she escaped his wrath, only that it was usually followed, eventually, by an apology.

“Why don’t you go and read?” He suggested through clenched teeth when she passed his desk at such a pace a piece of parchment floated to the ground.

“I tried. I cannot concentrate.”

“Neither can I.” He muttered under his breath.

“Severus.” She stopped, half way across the room from him. “Severus, we need to talk.”

An image of her chatting to the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor that afternoon came into his mind. She laughed. She touched the man’s arm. She was going to leave him and he would be forced to work with the pair of them as they developed a relationship. He had lost her, just as he lost-

“Have you ever considered us having a child together?”

Severus’ thoughts went completely silent as he lifted his eyes to hers. “What?”

Hands wringing, she looked back at him nervously. “I love you, Severus. I am happy with you, and I will still be happy with you if you say no, but a child, who is a little you, a little me, a lot of a whole new person. Born into a world where there is no threat any longer.” She spoke earnestly.

“…a baby will grow up to be a 3rd year who plays practical jokes and thinks they will get away with it because their parents work here.”

“Our child will know that they cannot do that because we will raise them to know that we love them and we will protect them, but we will not allow them to take advantage of who we are.”

Severus sat back, studying her face. “….you have thought this through.”

“Yes.”

“…I will think about it, too.”

Violet moved forward in a rush to kiss him, then apologised for messing up his papers, then gave him another kiss, apologised again, for what he wasn’t sure, and then rushed from the room.

She’d been so nervous, how could she be sure she would be happy just with him if he said no? He had never been enough for anyone before, perhaps he was no longer enough for Violet.

…

He thought about it. He agonised over it. He barely slept.

Violet never brought it up again, but he knew she waited for an answer.

It was in Hogsmeade he got his answer. There was some kind of trouble in the book shop of all places and a woman, rushing to help someone who was presumably her husband, pushed her child into Severus’ hands as soon as he entered.

He frowned down at the child. Not a baby, but if he put it down it was probably still young enough to rush into danger after its mother.

The child looked up at him with wide blue eyes. And then she smiled widely and lifted a hand to give him a small wave.

“Hello.” He nodded his head.

She stayed so calm in his arms that by the time her mother returned the girl was fast asleep.

…

That evening when Violet began the protection spell, he placed a finger to her lips and then kissed her deeply, his voice almost a whisper as he said “Let us make a child who will understand safety and love in a way we did not until we met each other.”

…

He was in the middle of teaching the 7th years when they all looked up upon hearing a sudden increase in noise from a nearby classroom.

“Focus.” He urged, pacing slowly towards the door to listen closer.

As far as he was aware, only one other class was being held in the dungeon at that time, and while the professor taking it had much different methods to him, he was usually quietly impressed with her work.

When the noise seemed to increase rather than reduce, and he thought he heard what could be a scream, his eyes scanned his own classroom. None were trouble makers, not that this would mean much if the miscreants were left alone with potions.

Finally, he’d had enough. With a gruff word to his class, he strode from the room, his usual measured pace quickened by irritation, and the closer he got the closer that grew to outright anger.

“What is the meaning of this?!” He yelled as he threw the door of the other classroom open.

The students were quiet in an instance, and as Professor Snape’s eyes roamed the room to locate the teacher, he noticed that their faces were not full of mischief or wickedness, but fear. Several were in tears. Not necessarily unusual in first years in his class, but not usually in-

He caught sight of the teacher then. Beside her desk. On the floor. Face drained of colour except for the bright circles of pink high on her cheeks.

It was as though time stopped for a moment and he couldn’t make himself walk. Blood rushed in his ears and hot white panic fell on top of him like a wave.

It was a sob from one of the children that made him move finally, great strides with his robes billowing out behind him. “What on earth has happened?”

None of the children replied as he crouched beside the teacher. She was warm to the touch and though she lay still there was a faint vibration to her that instantly concerned him.

His eyes scanned the floor and the desk for something, anything, that might explain what had happened. If he could see what it was, he could fix it.

Except nothing showed, and nothing could be heard except snivelling children who watched him in silence like they expected him to right the situation.

He couldn’t even swallow the fear in his throat let alone fix what he could not understand.

Finally, he bellowed “Grainger!”

…

Hermione was left in charge of the young students as Snape rushed through the halls with his colleague in his arms. He didn’t run, he never ran, but his usually measured steps were fast and uncoordinated.

It was the look on his face that urged Madam Pomfrey to abandon the patient she currently treated in favour of the one in his arms. “What’s happened?”

She gestured to an empty bed as she spoke, and Professor Snape lay Violet gently on it and didn’t move back, getting in Poppy’s way as she immediately began to check the woman.

“They would say nothing. Surely they must have seen what occurred!” His voice grew louder, angrier.

Poppy shushed him and gestured for her helper to pull curtains around them.

“Professor, I need you to step away so I can-“

“Step away?! Look at what happens when I step away! If I had been there-“ his voice cracked and he cut himself off.

Poppy’s face softened and as she checked the patient she worked around him as he stood there with his head bowed, fingers dancing on top of his wife’s as though he was worried actually taking her hand might hurt her.

Slowly, the colour began to even out on the patient's face and then her eyebrows began to furrow as she woke, her mouth opening to try and speak. “Hush now. You have a fever and you’re in the hospital wing.” Though she couldn’t imagine how it might offer comfort, she added “Professor Snape is here.”

The frown on her forehead quickly eased and she settled into a more peaceful sleep.

It was an hour before Professor Snape sat, though his hand hadn’t moved the whole time. Poppy could hear him talking under his breath and briefly feared it was some kind of hex until she saw the look on his face for the briefest of seconds when he lifted it to glare at someone making too much noise. Terror.

He sat still and in silence for hours as the hospital bustled through its day to day life. The headmaster visited, as did several other Professors and students, unsurprising given how popular Violet was. Through it all, he sat there by her side in silence.

…

It was evening by the time Violet’s fever broke and her body relaxed properly into the sheets.

At this small movement, Severus sat upright again, staring at her face in the hope her eyes might open.

It was Poppy’s voice that broken the silence instead. “Give me your hand.”

“Pardon?”

She held out her hand above Violet, palm up and waiting. He frowned but he took it, watching warily as Poppy moved their joint hands to the patient's middle, resting his first before putting hers on top.

At first, warmth took over his hand, and then a moment later he felt it. A steady heartbeat.

His eyes lifted to Poppy’s, wide.

“Congratulations.” She whispered. “Both mother and child will be fine.”

…

When Violet's eyes finally flickered back open, it was dark outside and the only light in the room was a few flickering candles.

Feeling her move woke Severus from his half sleep and he sat up instantly, finally moving his hand so he could touch her face tenderly. “You’re okay.”

“What happened?” She asked, her voice a little hoarse.

He stood and put a glass of water to her lips.

Once she was laying back down, Severus woke every single person in the hospital wing with an explosion of anger. “Do not EVER do that again!”

The tirade continued long enough that Poppy intervened, only to find her patient just smiling sleepily up at the potions master as though he were hanging the moon just for her.

“Professor Snape!.”

He went quiet at this and sat heavily down onto his chair.

As Poppy left, she heard a soft laugh from Violet and what she thought may actually have been one from Severus.

He leaned forward and rested his head against her side as her fingers began to comb through his hair.

“Have you been here all day?”

“Where else would I have been-” He asked, suddenly feeling overwhelmingly tired. “Than with my wife and child.”

“…Severus?” She whispered his name.

[lyxchen]

Okay I gotta say. I love how Hwang Dong-hyuk collaborates and talks about his ideas and script and directing with the actors. I'm pretty sure I already heard about this when season 1 came out but I can't find any articles talking about that right now. But from so many interviews I've read now it seems like he really likes it when the actors put in some of their own thoughts and ideas. It's probably really hard to write and film and direct two seasons in such a short amount of time while also focusing on so many complex and deep characters. He has to think of every character all the time, while the actors can really focus on just their own character. So him talking to them a lot and discussing his writing and directing and what he wants and what the actors maybe see in their character instead is so cool. Making a show can only really work well if everyone works together and helps each other improve. Gi-hun is probably such a great character Because Hwang Dong-hyuk let Lee Jung-jae give his own thoughts and ideas and that is also probably why Lee Jung-jae loves Gi-hun so much!!! There is part of him in that character!! The love and care of the actors and the director and the director's willingness to hear out criticism or improvement ideas is exactly what makes the characters in this show so amazing and human and personal <33

I love reading about when the actors talk about the script and maybe wondering about stuff in it and then, instead of being like "I had a little bit of a different view on it but oh well I can't change anything", they instead talk about how they brought it up to the director and talked it through and then came up with something that feels good and right for both of them <3

Like.. I just can't bring myself to get mad at for example Lee Byung-hun suggesting to do stuff differently from the script and them actually talking about it and finding a compromise. That's collaboration, that's how you work well together in film and theatre. That's how you create realistic characters with nuance and depth. A director forcing the actors to do everything exactly the way he wrote it isn't fun and likely won't result in a good experience for the actors. But the fact that the actors felt comfortable enough to question and sometimes disagree, or more like explain their own interpretation of the script, instead of just going with Hwang Dong-hyuk's directing no questions asked is a sign of the Squid Game team working well together!!! I love that, that makes me so happy!!

I once did an internship at a theatre and the director of the play where I got to be present for the rehearsals regularly asked the actors for input on the characters and how they think something should be acted. And sometimes the actors there would also bring up their own ideas without being asked for them first. It seems like the same thing happened on the set for Squid Game. Why is that a bad thing? How is that "the director not knowing their own characters"? That's collaboration, that's teamwork, that's compromising and working towards ending up with the best and most fleshed out version of a character. Like that's so cool, that's the best. Obviously I don't know how it actually was for Squid Game, but I've heard quite a bit about how a lot of directors can be very self centered and unwillig to listen to any criticism and Hwang Dong-hyuk just really doesn't seem like he's that kind of director. As far as I know the actors really liked working with him. I just don't understand how he is being so villainized for being a good director

Also side note: idk if people just expected something else but imo In-ho in season 3 was a very well made and written character. Like I don't understand how some say that he's "wasted potential" or that Hwang Dong-hyuk hates him or that he wanted In-ho to be a one dimensional villain. Like huh? Where? In-ho has a lot of depth and yes some of that likely comes from Lee Byung-hun suggesting stuff to Add More depth. But I don't think he was written to be a one dimensional villain and I also really don't think that Lee Byung-hun's suggestions contributing to that depth are a sign of bad directing or bad writing. In my opinion it's actually the total opposite. It's actor and director/writer working together to in the end get the best and most human version of a character

[tj-crochets]

Links to my crochet patterns! I'll update this list when I make new ones, so if you're seeing this as a reblog it might be worth clicking through to the original post to see if any have been added - round bee pattern - spider buddy - little axolotl (for sale on Ravelry or free on tumblr) - fluffy mini bunnies - little t-rex - little llama - lemon earrings (free on Ravelry and tumblr) - moth (but no wing pattern, so it's more of a creature base??) - Marie Kondo (aka a doll pattern base) - a tooth - squirrel - tiny scythe - tiny punk - spinnable dreidel - mini blorbo - peas in a pod - happy pill - void cat - mothman and the skeleton - Pride Moth (different full moth pattern, including wings) - mini cauldron (with or without potion inside) The rest of these patterns are for sale for $2 in my Ravelry store: - mini manatee - fluffy baby seal - little crow, phoenix, and peacock - mini cthulhu - Velociraptors (based on Jurassic Park not on real science) - basket the fish (idk why I put this one behind a paywall, someone remind me and I'll make it free when I have more time) I wrote these over many years and at many different points in my pattern making journey, so if you are trying to make one and it doesn't make sense, please let me know. I've learned a lot about making patterns since I wrote some of these and I don't always remember to go back and update them (the ones that are for sale should be fine it's some of the earlier free ones I'm not sure about lol)

[spacedace]

another bit from the "Constantine adopts Elle au" idea I posted a snippet of yesterday:

The days immediately after the…loss of Elle’s brothers weren’t the hardest. It would, they’d all learn soon enough, only get worse as their friend’s mental state continued to deteroriate. At the time though, it had certainly felt like it couldn’t have gotten any worse.

Elle had always been, for as long as Lian had known the other girl, been a bright, energetic person. Even when being drug from bed in those ungodly hours that so easily could be labeled as late night and early morning equally to go fight some asshole who couldn’t wait for decent crime-spree hours. Elle had never been so cruel to the rest of them as to be chipper during those awful exhausted - and exhausting - incidents, but she’d always been upbeat. Rousing them into feeling more alive with a carefully currated playlist blasting over the comms and promises of delicious, greasy breakfasts at their favorite twenty-four hour diner that she always delivered on.

She was always vibrant, always excited for whatever came at her next, always dancing ahead of them all in search of a new hobby, a new special interest, a new once-in-a-lifetime experience. Her eternally burning hope that the horizon would have something better, something brighter not a foolish security blanket to hide behind but a weapon she weilded against the world. A spine of steal, a heart of a stellar nursery, a hand equally capable of being stretched out in friendship or clenched into a fist ready to deliver the nastiest left hook that side of Metropolis.

Elle Constantine was a lot of things - a good number of them questionable - but in every single one of them, she was full of life.

So seeing her so completely empty…

The Justice League had gotten roped in on their mission before they even realized the scope of it all. Grand-Bat looming and scowling and digging his grubby fingers into things, the rest of the League not much better as they wormed their way in on the case. For all the good it had done, when they’d been too late actually on the scene to be of any actual use. Only able to show up hours after their initial call for backup when the shit show was finally over and the world saved.

She and the team were all still reeling by the time the got there. Elle still crumpled on the ground, coverd in soot and blood in a writhing heap of pain no one else could even begin to understand. The still air rent by her ragged, broken voice wailing and keening like a banshee from the stories of old.

Screaming until she coughed up blood. Hands dripping red and green ripping at the dirt, at her clothes, at her hair, her skin. Shreiking in mindless, all consuming greif as they tried to calm her down, the only words anyone could make out the broken shapes of her brothers’ name.

Jon had to pin her arms to her side in the end, face pained as he tried hard not to hurt her while keeping her thrashing frame in place. Connor crouched before her cradling her tattered hands in his as he tried desperately to get her to follow his breathing, his own voice thick with barely contained tears. Damian, soft hearted beneath all his bluster and bristling, dropped to his knees beside her in the blood soaked ground and simply wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

There had been nothing Lian wanted more than to be with them in that moment. To join her team in trying to help their friend through the initial horror and agony of having a part of herself so cruelly ripped out and crushed before her very eyes. She wanted to wipe at the endless tears falling down Elle’s face and hold her hands and wrap her in a hug and weep with her over what had happend.

Wanted to get them all out of there, get them back to the Tower, get them all washed up and bundled in a protected, quiet corner where they could all cling to each other in the dark in a mess of blankets and pillows like the children they were. Wanted to shield Elle from the watching eyes of the Justice League members, the clean up crew, the gawking civilians and hungry press. To protect her while she was so horribly vulnerable, her friend ripped open and bleeding out in front of the world like a sideshow and not a girl who had just lost the only people in the world that had known and loved her since the very beggining of her fucked up life.

But Lian was the leader of the Titans. She was the one they trusted to make the hard calls. To look after them. To be their champion against not just their enemies but their allies too when it was called for.

So that’s what she did.

She stood with her feet planted firm on the slick, broken ground. Spine straight, shoulders back, head high and gaze full of hellfire. A sentry between her confused, greiving friends and the good intentioned but ultimately distructive attempts of the Justice League members before her to help.

Lian’s arm was broken in at least two places, hanging limply at her side from a dislocated shoulder. Her weapons buried in the flesh of one monster or other that they had faced that night. Her poison tipped nails split and torn, fingernails missing entirely on three fingers of her left hand. Her mask was cracked and broken somewhere in the debris, leaving her only with a domino that had nearly been clawed off with the rest of her face. Blood going cool and tacky where it had poured down her ragged cheeks, settling in the hollows and lines around her mouth. Pinking her teeth whenever she spoke and the gruesome evidence of the brutal fight found its way to curl insideious in her mouth, down her throat, into the cold pit in her chest.

When she met her grandfather’s grim, obscured face it was with her mother’s strength and her father’s stubbornness and her Pops’ willingness to shoot any motherfucker who dared to try.

Clark’s gaze was on the hunched crowd behind her, tight lines on his face as he stared at his son making it all to clear that he wanted to move past her and insert himself into the situation. To use his everything will be okay voice to command them like confused civilians or lost ducklings in need of a minder. He wanted to play the part he always played in times of disaster: shining beacon, untarnished champion. The last thing her team wanted, the last thing that Elle needed on top of everything else.

Lian’s good hand flexed by the pistol strapped to her thigh in a small warning. The Man of Steel knew well enough that there was glowing green waiting for him in the clip. Her gramps’ obsessive paranoia, her Pops’ good advice about big blue boyscouts who couldn’t keep their noses out of of other people’s business.

They stood in tense silence for long moments, the stillness only broken by Elle’s broken voice rising up in a keening wail for those she lost.

A stand-off that Lian knew that she’d win, one way or another.

Her gramps’ shoulders lowered, so minutely as to be inperceptible to anyone not in their family.

“Wonder Woman will be here shortly.” He said in his low rumbling voice. Beside him Clark finally drifted to the ground, a concession from both of them. “Justice League Dark went radio silent seven hours ago. Last transmission from Zantanna indicated they were dealing with an interdimensional issue and would be unreachable for at least three days.”

Elle’s dad - her family - were unreachable. John Constantine didn’t know that he’d lost his three sons in the span of a handful of minutes, that his daughter was being crushed beneath the weight of greif and trauma to the point of madness. Wouldn’t know for days what tragedy had struck his family, had destroyed the strange but happy life he and his adopted children had carved out for themselves.

John Constantine. Zantanna Zatara. Detective Bobo. Boston Brand. Asa the Nightmare Nurse. Elle’s family, out of reach while she writhed and wailed in agony. The only people who might come close to understand just how deep, how awful, the pain of her brothers’ loss truly was.

Diana was something, was someone, but the Amazon’s time being split between JL Light and Dark meant that she wasn’t a touchstone to Elle in the way the rest of the core members of the magical team were. Elle commented once that Diana was more like a fun aunt she barely saw growing up. Someone she was always excited to see and hang out with, someone she wanted to make proud, but not someone she felt especially close to in comparison to the rest of her family.

Lian did not give in to the pained urge to close her eyes and swear.

She was keenly aware that all it would take was a single crack, as narrow and insignificant as a strand of hair. The smallest hint that the crushing weight of everything that had happened - that was still happening - was effecting her and they’d be back at the attempts to push past her and take over. A desire to help, the restless urge to jump in and save the day, to ease the pain of those so clearly suffering, blinding them to how much worse they would make things in the process.

The intentions were good, but the ultimate results blistering and painful and too often overlooked as the next disaster pulled thier attentions away. Stubborn insistence that their experience overruled her and her team’s instincts. The hands of the older heroes always reaching, unaware that they were too sharp as they dug into the soft flesh of the Titans’ fresh wounds. Picking apart their flaws and failures in the name of bettering them, never stopping to consider the wounds they pressed hard against as part of their lecturing might still be open and raw. That while the men before her had hands in raising most of them, that did not mean they had perfect comprehension to who the Titans were or always knew what the members of her team really needed.

“Have Wonder Woman go to the Tower.” Lian said, knowing that her grandfather heard Selina’s cadence in her voice. A habit, a gamble. Catwoman had been her mentor for a time, had helped her sharpen her claws and her instincts and that budding part of her that would make her a leader one day. Sometimes it pushed Bruce into listening to her, sometimes it just led to him pushing back.

He’d find that latter option unwise at the moment, though.

Her beloved Grand-Bat or no, she knew where his armor was weakest. Knew how to make the single shot she’d manage to get off on him count. Knew just how far she’d go to make sure that Elle and the rest of her friends were sheilded from any and all harm when they were so vulnerable.

She was their champion, their sentry, their knight.

Batman, of all people, knew the lengths a knight was willing to go in the name of the oaths they took.

She watched him shift back. A silent, unseen signal between him and Clark having Superman step back too. Lian wasn’t sure if her grandfather had found the wall she presented him too strong to conted with, or if Elle’s heart wrenching screams of greif and agony made him decide against testing the wall at all. Whatever it was, Lian would take the small victory where she could. It was the only real one she might be able to claim that day.

[milfbrainrot]

something sick and twisted about how michaela was "training" simone to take over part of the charity, hence her being a mini-michaela, only for that to actually... pan out as accidentally training her to become her husband's new wife

[b0kevi]

Okay so I loveddddd your writing of the let’s make out headcanons!!! Can you do a version where the character says it to the reader? Your writing is so good and you write the characters reallly well!!

the house wardens + jamil saying “let’s make out” every time YOU do something hot

summary: every time you do something attractive the housewardens can’t help but say ‘let’s make out’

trope: established relationship, suggestive themes, hurt/comfort, reassurance

info: name calling, cursing, self doubt, they/them pronouns, gender neutral reader, not proofread

characters: riddle, leona, azul, kalim, jamil, vil, idia, malleus

w/c: riddle: 373, leona: 398, azul: 346, kalim: 338 jamil: 366, vil: 424 idia: 424, malleus: 388

a/n: tysm! I always get worried i’ll mischaracterize someone but I really appreciate that <3 also sorry this took so long! I started a new job

Riddle

doesn’t know how to ask, will make up an excuse

gets shy and full on blushes

“we should make out.”

“w-what?” you accidentally painted the leaves instead of the rose.

“rule 879 states to make out with your partner when the sun is facing east after the first set of painted roses.”

you blinked. you were still working on the first bush of roses, you only painted three while there was still a lot more to go.

“we haven’t finished yet.”

riddles ears slowly turn pink. “it’s practically done.”

you could tell it was a lie but he looked so cute trying to justify his reasons.

“y’know you don’t have to make up stuff for us to make out, you could just ask.”

his whole face starts to turn a different color, “I did not make that up! it is the queens rules and I must follow them!”

riddle would never admit he was in fact making it up because you looked absolutely stunning, he loved spending alone time with you. the two of you were painting the roses, riddle was going to reward you with dessert but he couldn’t wait. you just being there, painting was making him flush and wanted to kiss you badly.

you laughed then grabbed him by his bow tie, pulling him closer to your face.

“well then, who am I to question the house warden? go on, you’re not going to break a rule aren’t you riddle?” you smirked as you fiddle with the ends of his bow tie.

riddle moved forward before he could process anything. his body moved faster than his brain so he lunged back, flustered.

“w-wait! ahem. it’s also the queens rule to do it in private… someone could see…”

“hmm what if it was the rule to do it in public? would you do it?”

“absolutely not! I don’t want to hear it from ace or trey… please let’s just go inside before I change my mind…” riddle was already rushing inside hand in hand with you, using his other hand to hide his red face.

“you’re the one that said it was a rule, you’re going to break that rule now mr. roseheart?”

he sighs, you’ll be the death of him.

Leona

nonchalant king

it’s not a suggestion, you ARE making out right then and there

there’s nothing more attractive to leona than you claiming him as your own.

he’s always been second to everyone and everything. but seeing you like this?

“we’re going to make out.” it’s not a question, he’s demanding it.

leona was waiting in the botanical garden for you, enjoying the quiet when he started hearing students near by. he tried to ignore it but he suddenly heard your voice, he wasn’t super interested in the conversation until he heard his name.

“you’re really dating leona? I bet he buys you whatever you want right?”

“what a gold digger. you’re only dating him for his money. plus he’s a prince, you hit the jackpot.”

“too bad he’s the second prince, not much going on. you should have tried for malleus.”

leona was getting pissed, he was going to march his way over there until he heard your booming voice.

“you’re lucky I don’t slap the shit out of you two. it’s none of your business, but for the record I am not dating him for his money. I couldn’t care less and he’s still a prince who has more class than you.”

your face darkened as you stalked close to them

“I’m dating leona for him, he’s the most sweetest and thoughtful person I know, and he knows how to treat people right instead of taking out his jealousy on other people.”

you were defending him, leona knew you could defend yourself but you were also defending him.

leona could have easily stepped in before the whole situation started but seeing how things played out, he’s glad he didn’t.

“is there a problem here?” leona was towering over the two as they were about to continue. shutting them up they shook their heads and left with a scoff.

“babe I’m sor-“

“we’re making out. now.” leona tugged you behind a tree, leaning down to attach his lips to yours, leaving you no room to deny, caging you in his arms.

leona is acting like a starved man by the way hes devouring your lips, leaving you no time to think.

“that was kind of hot herbivore.” it was extremely hot to him but he’s just going to show you how attractive he found you defending him was. just wait until you get back to his room.

Azul

full of bull

also will make an excuse, says it’s his payment for doing smth for you

“y/n dear, could you meet me in my office to discuss something.”

what did you do now… you don’t remember doing anything wrong.

you were helping out in the lounge since it was busier than usual.

once azul closed the door shut,

“I propose a deal. we make out right now and later.. and I’ll give you the day off tomorrow with some of our newest drinks that i know you love.”

honestly, azul has been stressed all day and is just throwing out random ideas to have an excuse to make out with you.

he’s not going to just straight up ask, this is a give and take world.

“uhm, but it’s still pretty busy out there—“

“I assure you they’re capable of running things for a few minutes. or hour..”

you were his escape and he needed it badly, it was a madhouse out there. he usually could handle it but it also didn’t help how attractive you looked while taking peoples orders, persuading them into buying more than what they came for.

“please my pearl, remember that time I babysat grim? you still owe me for that.”

that one time that happened two months ago that you’ll never let happen again.

you remember azul used that the last time he wanted to make out with you, but you weren’t going to rain down on his parade just yet.

you knew azul was just going to keep persuading you until you agreed. he would never outright say he wants to kiss you no, he has a reputation to uphold.

you sighed, wrapping your arms around his neck and smashing your lips against his.

he let out a squeal from shock, he didn’t expect that.

his face flush from that embarrassing noise he made but held you close, deepening the kiss as he felt his stress melt away. he’s not planning on letting you go anytime soon, the outside world can wait and deal with themselves.

Kalim

he just loves kissing you, you don’t have to be doing anything and he’ll still say it

will get pouty and pepper you with kisses until you agree

“let’s make out!”

"kalim... we're supposed to be studying right now."

"we have! don't I get a reward for studying? sometimes once I finish jamil gives me a treat!" kalim has been staring at you for the past 20 minutes.

you promised jamil to study with kalim and make sure he gets his work done but its not going so well.

"okay but you only answered two questions then started staring at me."

"you look so pretty! your serious face is so cute, how am I supposed to focus when you look like that! I want to make out with you!” he doesn’t give you time to say anything, kalim is already pouting and putting his best puppy dog eyes while peppering small kisses across your face.

“pleaassseee, just a small break then i’ll do my work! i promise!! pleaseee let me kiss youuu” he whines as he wraps his arms around your neck, practically on top of you while leaving sad kisses on your cheek.

“I need my daily y/n kisses or I can’t make it throughout the day! i’ve been deprived for so long…”

“I gave you a morning kiss, a kiss when I saw you, a kiss when you asked for one, a kiss when I left…”

kalim furrowed his eyebrows, “that doesn’t count! I need my daily make out kisses, completely different!”

you laughed at his kicked puppy look.

how could you say no to that face?

sighing you state, “alright. just for a minute then if you get an answer right i’ll give you a reward.”

“kisses reward?”

you nodded, “kisses reward.”

he giggling as he won, he slams his lips towards yours. playing with your hair as he deepens the kiss, he smiles every time you make little noises. kalim absolutely loves to kiss you silly and will do it every chance he gets.

Jamil

he just needs a break

usually says it at his breaking point so it’s really rough and quick sometimes

“let’s make out.”

it caught you so off guard. Jamil had pulled you into a storage room, you were carrying some paperwork you had to turn in but they soon were scattered from how quickly jamil pulled you in.

“w-what? babe I-“

“please, it will be quick I just…” his hand cupping your face as his lips brushed against yours, muttering against them

“I need this.” he murmured breathily before pressing his lips firmly while running his fingers through your hair.

“you looked so hot earlier,” he pushed you against the wall, gently squeezing your hip while traveling down kisses to your jawline

you didn't know how to react. it was rare when jamil showed pda especially this passionate in public. well you two were stuck in a closet but still anyone could walk in at any moment.

“you putting kalim and the others in their place.. you were so assertive.” his lips never leaving an inch away from you, “very hot of you.” he smirked as he looked up at you through his eyelashes.

he loves seeing how flustered you get because of him. he may not show much interest in public but that’s just because he’s a private person and loves teasing you when you two are alone.

he loves your little reactions.

“I-I just wanted them to give you a break”

“I appreciate you so much.” jamil sighs between your lips, rubbing circles on your hip while deepening the kiss.

jamil knew he should get back to his things but you were so addicting. how could he leave you right now?

he groans as he pulled away to look at you, smirking at your blown out expression

“let me show you how much I appreciate you, later tonight.” he winked before getting one last kiss then picking up your papers, leaving the room to turn in your work as if nothing happened.

jamil was completely unfazed unless you looked real close but you were red the rest of the day, clearly not thinking straight.

you will never get used to this side of jamil.

Vil

hear me out, he's secretly a freak

stress reliever

“are you sure it looks good?”

“my dear.. we’re not going out. we’re making out. right now.”

“w-huh?? but my outfit… is it not, or my makeup?”

the two of you were getting ready for date night, you had bought a new outfit for this occasion that you really liked but now you weren’t so sure if it looked good now.

vil on the other hand couldn’t look away. you looked absolutely radiant and you’re over here having second thoughts? please, he obviously needs to show you how good you look.

“my love you look stunning, there’s no need to worry.” vil was kissing you all over, you had some lipstick stains but he wasn’t going to tell you about that yet.

“baby.. we’re going to be late to our reservation..”

“we can reschedule or go somewhere else.”

vil couldn’t care less, he needed to make out with you now and show you how much he loves you.

“v-vil you’re going to mess up our makeup…”

he leans down, leaving more stains scattered across your neck and collarbone as he smirks against your warm skin.

“good. you look even more divine like this.”

he guides you to his bed not once breaking the kiss as he sets you down

“you’re perfect love, this outfit compliments you so well and your makeup looks even better now~” he smirks, caressing your face looking at you longingly

you turn to look at yourself through the mirror to see all the lipstick stains he left. you blush over how much of a mess you look.

“v-vil! I can’t go out like this! it’s going to take another 40 minutes to take this off and redo it.”

“why not? I think you look breathtaking, why not show everyone your beauty?” he mused, still trailing kisses over you.

“vil your makeup is messed up too” you state as you try to fix the smudges around his lips but he keeps diving back down into you.

“does it look like I care right now darling? right now I need to show you how much you mean to me. we can go out another day, I have all I need right here.”

vil cages you down before roughly yet gracefully devouring your lips.

he’ll do whatever it takes to make you feel comfortable in your own body just as you make him comfortable enough to look like an absolute mess in front of you, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Idia

he would mumble it, thinking you didn't hear it

he didn’t mean it! (he totally meant it he just doesn’t know how to ask)

"we should totally make out..."

"okay."

"wh-HUHH?? y-you heard that?? I-I didn't mean it!”

you were helping out idia with some equipment he needed to fix. you picked up a couple things from watching him tinker plus this was a great opportunity to spend time with him.

idia wasn’t in the best mindset today so he kept messing up and getting frustrated when it still wasn’t working right so you wanted to give it a try to help him out. you fixed it just like that in seconds.

he watched you in shock. not only did you fix in on the first try but the face you make when you’re focused was just too much for him.

a strand of hair fell in front of your face, he wanted so badly to tuck it behind your ear but that would be totally cringe otome vibes.

“idy you can ask if you want to, I won’t judge.”

the tips of his hair are pastel pink as he fidgets with his sleeves.

“w-what the… can I exist and restart.. there’s gotta be an autosave before this…” he murmurs mostly to himself under his breath

even when he really wants to kiss you, he still gets in his head so even when he wants to, you have to initiate it.

you hold onto his hands and kiss his cheek. “no need to restart. this route is perfect.”

he gasps while looking at you with full blown out eyes, staring at you like you just deleted his saved file.

“you’re an ultra rare SSR…”

you laugh as you place your lips to his. you couldn’t get enough of this dork.

idia fiddles with the ends of your shirt as he ease into the kiss. you’re too good to him, he doesn’t know how or why you picked him but he’s beyond grateful.

and just like that something flipped inside him, he curled his hand around your neck before taking the lead. he still has self doubt so he’ll slip up but when you encourage him he grows confident.

leaving you two breathless with his hair full pink with blue accents. he smiles at you before kissing your temple then diving back into your lips, holding your hand with his free one to ground himself, letting him know this is okay and he’s doing good.

“I must have crazy gacha luck to have pulled you..”

Malleus

you breathe and he’ll say he wants to make out

100% whip, simp, yearning man

“child of man. I believe we should make out.”

“hmm?”

the two of you were taking a nightly stroll that you usually do mostly every night when you can.

it was a peaceful night, you would share things that happened during the day or whatever popped in your mind as you held hands.

the conversation soon died down into a comfortable silence as you took in sight of the night sky.

malleus was too busy staring at you to appreciate the night. the way the moonlight hit your face just right making you eternal which made his face feel warm.

he wanted nothing more than to take your breath away if you’ll let him.

“I would very much like to kiss you. I want us to have a make out session and leave you breathless to show you how you make me feel every time I lay eyes on you.”

your face heated up with every word malleus spoke.

you stopped walking to process his request. malleus is a gentleman so will only make a move if you’ll let him, if you don’t want to he’ll understand. he will get pouty but wants nothing more than for you to be comfortable.

he waits patiently but has that longing look in his eyes with a hint of desire.

“o-okay.” you nod, still flush as malleus steps closer, one hand caressing your face as if you’re a piece of glasswork then dipping down to capture your lips.

he pulls back to see your face then dives back in. each time becomes longer than the previous kiss. he sure was making you breathless.

you finally had to pull back to get some air but malleus goes down to nuzzle your neck, occasionally leaving kisses.

“you are absolutely ravishing child of man. what you’re feeling is how I feel every time you’re near, and I adore it. I would want nothing more than to leave you sweet kisses and show the world my treasure.”

you don’t know what makes you more breathless, malleus’s words or his kisses.

“you sweet talker, get over here.” you needed to shut him up before you exploded. you pulled him down and smashed your lips to his.

malleus was in paradise.

﹒⭒﹒⭒﹒⭒﹒

a/n: that scenario has been on my mind for leona but the others idk what to do T-T sorry if this is short! have a great day/night !

edit: realized I put ‘queen’ in malleus part so sorry I try to keep things gn

[merkerlerspeaks]

Zodi/Celeste/Raine is somehow both my baby and also the girl my inner little weird girl looks up to so much she adopts parts of her as her personality

[navydoves]

Mermaid!Rafayel and his strange affectionate habits

being in a relationship with a mermaid is pretty weird, rafayel has some weird habits!

✎ᝰ a/n: alright, back by popular demand (somewhat), we have the rafayel version of this. i could make this into a series… i could just not gaf… i could also make a “habits while in heat”, but idk!

dragon sylus version

⭐︎

❥ he chirps! mermaid rafayel trills and chirps in various patterns as a subtle way of communication. you’ll hear soft, cute squeaks come from him when he’s happy or deep in thought. or when you pet his tail, he trills from the feeling of your warm hand on his cool scales.

you didn’t understand where the noises came at first until you realized rafayel was the one making them. the sounds are so different in pitch than his normal voice that it was surprising he could make them. but they were so cute that you never really questioned them, instead you took the time to learn what each chirp meant.

❥ he brings you many gifts. a common trait amongst mermaids is that they’ll go out of their way to collect trinkets to either court someone or make their current mate happy. rafayel isn’t really sure what you like as a human, but he definitely tries to figure it out!

he’ll bring you lost shoes or baby crabs or pretty candy wrappers in hopes that you’ll take some liking to them. but when you stare a bit confused at the piles of scrap that he gifts you, he decides he has to try harder. he learns that human women are not that different from mermaids—in that they both like shiny, pretty things. so rafayel’s makes it a habit to find coins and jewels buried in the sea and bring it up to you frequently as he can. you have no real use for these miscellaneous items, but you can tell rafayel is trying really hard to please you so you accept graciously. he chirps in excitement!

❥ he quite literally, suffocates you. never intentionally, no, but rafayel doesn’t know his own strength. human bodies are comprised weaker than lemurian bodies, making you the victim in rafayel’s affectionate embraces. it’s during these times that you’re reminded of just how big rafayel is. 8 feel tall in length, you’re constantly reminded that you’re a peewee who could be crushed by this mythical being at any moment.

rafayel does try to be gentle with you, though. he intentionally tries to tone down how passionate he is so as to not knock the air out of your lungs. he really can’t help it though, you’re so small and adorable he just wants to cuddle you and eat you up.

❥ he stares at you. rafayel isn’t too adverse in the human body, so at the start of your relationship he was very very curious as to what a human female looked like. it’s for this reason he the hates the fact that you wear clothes. all he wants to do is stare at you and ask what certain things are. to rafayel, this is a normal thing to do when you’re curious. to you, this is a little embarrassing.

the especially embarrassing part is when he stares at your intimate parts. he pokes around at your vagina with a curious look and the intent to investigate what the hell was going on in there. sure, mermaid anatomy was similar to human anatomy, but he’d never really seen a human female up close until you. the weird part is, he think it’s all completely innocent.

“so… this is clit right? lot smaller than i what expected…”

lick.

“rafayel!”

❥ he sings to guide you. it’s no secret mermaids have beautiful voices. you’ve heard some distant melodic voices from the sea in your time dating rafayel—but nothing compares to rafayel’s voice itself. the first time you heard it you felt like you were floating on air and transcending your body. it was that powerful. now that you’ve grown accustomed to the hypnotizing sound, though, rafayel uses his voice as a way to guide you.

when you’re on the beach looking for him or under the sea by the grace of his power, he sings melodiously to guide you in his direction. every time it happens you feel as if you don’t even need to think about the direction you’re going, that your feet just automatically know where to go even if you’re unfamiliar with the place.

❥ he has a cycle problem. rafayel goes through many physical changes throughout his lemurian life and that makes him constantly be in kahoots. one day he’s whiny and splashing everything with water, another day he can’t get his hands off of you and is extremely clingy, maybe one day he’s just really depressed and needs to be alone. it’s hard to tell what’s coming next with him.

but it’s also not just an emotional problem, it’s a physical problem too. sometimes, you’ll meet him and see that he’s two times bigger than usual (god almighty). other times, you’ll go in for a cuddle and feel his skin is all slimy and sticks to you. every time you ask about his issues, he always has a different explanation. it leads you to think, just how many cycles do lemurians go through?

❥ he has many nicknames for you. whenever you’re upset, he’ll laugh at you and call you a “baby pufferfish.” if you’re look extra pretty that day, he’ll call you “my pearl.” if you’re struggling within his grasp he’ll call you a “cute little minnow.” rafayel is incredibly affectionate and loyal, so all the pet names he uses on you he doesn’t use with any one else—even the human ones he’s adopted like “cutie” or “darling.”

one of his favorites, though, is the one he calls you when he’s in heat. “my nest,” he says whenever he has full intention of filling you with his eggs. it’s his way of telling you that the most precious and vulnerable part of him belongs to you, because you are a nest for his babies <3.

⭐︎

[nochd]

This was on @whatareyoureallyafraidof's post where they put up this:

And I responded with this image:

and promised in the tags to elaborate if asked. And, @frodo-the-weeb, I will. But it's going to get long and I'm going to have to split it up into several reblogs.

First of all, since not everybody in the world is a Silmarillion enthusiast, let me explain what we're referring to.

One of the stories in the Silmarillion, and possibly the one Tolkien cared about the most, is the tale of Lúthien and Beren; a highly condensed version of a narrative poem called the Lay of Leithian, which Tolkien began writing in the 1930s and tried to get his publisher interested in after the success of The Hobbit.

(Their readers said no, and they tactfully asked him to focus on his Hobbit sequel instead. "The result," in Tolkien's own words, "was The Lord of the Rings.")

The skeleton of The Lay of Leithian is as follows; I'm intentionally leaving out a bunch of information that weaves it into the overarching story of the Silmarillion but isn't relevant to the thesis I'm advancing here.

Lúthien, an Elven princess and enchantress, falls in love with a mortal man, a ranger called Beren. Her father, the Elven King Thingol, disapproves and sends him Beren off to fetch one of the jewels from the crown of the Dark Lord Morgoth. Lúthien tries to join Beren but her father imprisons her in a tower to stop her, only it's actually a treehouse because they're forest elves. Lúthien magically grows her hair long and uses it to escape. By the time she catches up with Beren he is chained in the dungeons of Morgoth's second-in-command, Thû (whom Tolkien later renamed Sauron). She rescues him with the help only of a dog, who defeats Thû himself in single combat. They then live in the forest together for quite some time, but Beren feels bad about being the reason she can't go home to her family, and still intends to finish his mission and get the jewel. He leaves one morning while she's still asleep, so as not to put her in danger, and then when he's on the threshold of Morgoth's underground fortress in the far North of Middle-Earth she catches up with him again and he accepts that she's not going to be put off. Together they enter Morgoth's fortress and make their way to his throne room. They are in disguise but Morgoth is not fooled and uncovers Lúthien in front of everyone, declaring his intention to make her one of his many slaves. Lúthien offers to sing and dance for him, which is the way she works her magic. She puts everyone in the throne room to sleep, including both Beren and eventually Morgoth. She wakes Beren and he takes the jewel and they flee, but as they get to the outer door they are stopped by Morgoth's guard-wolf, who bites off Beren's hand holding the jewel.

That's as far as Tolkien ever got with the poem, but we have the synopsis in the prose Silmarillion to tell us the rest of the story; again cutting it down to the quick, Thingol accepts Beren as his son-in-law, Morgoth's guard-wolf attacks Doriath, Beren goes and hunts it but is mortally wounded, his spirit goes to the Halls of Waiting in the Undying Lands where the dead in Middle-Earth go, Lúthien also goes there and, again through her magical song, persuades Mandos the god of the dead to let him come back. Mandos offers her a choice: live on immortally as an Elf without Beren, or return to Middle-Earth with Beren but both of them will grow old and die. She chooses the latter.

Tolkien created Lúthien as a portrait of his wife Edith, which makes Beren a picture of himself. We know this for a fact because he had LUTHIEN written on her grave when she died, and when he joined her in it two years later the name BEREN was written for him:

Now on the lower right side of my response image you'll see Pauline Baynes' illustration of the Lady in the Green Kirtle from The Silver Chair, one of C. S. Lewis's Narnia stories. A quick synopsis of the Lady of the Green Kirtle's part in the story:

The Lady is a witch who rules a gloomy kingdom underneath Narnia, accessible through a fissure in the earth in an old ruined city far to the North. Before the story opens she has enspelled and kidnapped King Caspian's son Prince Rilian, whom she intends to send leading an army to conquer Narnia in her name. For twenty-three hours a day he is her willing slave and lap-dog; to maintain the spell, he must be bound to the titular silver chair for the remaining hour, during which he is sane and aware of his imprisonment. The protagonists, Eustace and Jill and their guide Puddleglum, meet her and Rilian unawares on their journey to the North; she sends them astray and almost succeeds in getting them eaten by giants. Eventually they rescue Rilian from the chair, but she sings a magical song which very nearly puts them all to sleep but for Puddleglum's intervention. Foiled, she transforms into a serpent, attacks them, and they kill her.

It is my contention that the Lady in the Green Kirtle is Lewis's caricature of Lúthien, with the enslaved and befuddled Prince Rilian representing Beren; and further, that Lewis knew or recognised that Lúthien and Beren were a literary portrait of the Tolkiens, so that The Silver Chair is ultimately a nasty commentary on their marriage.

In forthcoming reblogs I will lay out my evidence for this thesis.

[hershelwidget]

working on so many projects

tag yourself i'm "swap auuu"

[reasonsforhope]

No paywall version here.

"Two and a half years ago, when I was asked to help write the most authoritative report on climate change in the United States, I hesitated...

In the end, I said yes, but reluctantly. Frankly, I was sick of admonishing people about how bad things could get. Scientists have raised the alarm over and over again, and still the temperature rises. Extreme events like heat waves, floods and droughts are becoming more severe and frequent, exactly as we predicted they would. We were proved right. It didn’t seem to matter.

Our report, which was released on Tuesday, contains more dire warnings. There are plenty of new reasons for despair. Thanks to recent scientific advances, we can now link climate change to specific extreme weather disasters, and we have a better understanding of how the feedback loops in the climate system can make warming even worse. We can also now more confidently forecast catastrophic outcomes if global emissions continue on their current trajectory.

But to me, the most surprising new finding in the Fifth National Climate Assessment is this: There has been genuine progress, too.

I’m used to mind-boggling numbers, and there are many of them in this report. Human beings have put about 1.6 trillion tons of carbon in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution — more than the weight of every living thing on Earth combined. But as we wrote the report, I learned other, even more mind-boggling numbers. In the last decade, the cost of wind energy has declined by 70 percent and solar has declined 90 percent. Renewables now make up 80 percent of new electricity generation capacity. Our country’s greenhouse gas emissions are falling, even as our G.D.P. and population grow.

In the report, we were tasked with projecting future climate change. We showed what the United States would look like if the world warms by 2 degrees Celsius. It wasn’t a pretty picture: more heat waves, more uncomfortably hot nights, more downpours, more droughts. If greenhouse emissions continue to rise, we could reach that point in the next couple of decades. If they fall a little, maybe we can stave it off until the middle of the century. But our findings also offered a glimmer of hope: If emissions fall dramatically, as the report suggested they could, we may never reach 2 degrees Celsius at all.

For the first time in my career, I felt something strange: optimism.

And that simple realization was enough to convince me that releasing yet another climate report was worthwhile.

Something has changed in the United States, and not just the climate. State, local and tribal governments all around the country have begun to take action. Some politicians now actually campaign on climate change, instead of ignoring or lying about it. Congress passed federal climate legislation — something I’d long regarded as impossible — in 2022 as we turned in the first draft.

[Note: She's talking about the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Act, which despite the names were the two biggest climate packages passed in US history. And their passage in mid 2022 was a big turning point: that's when, for the first time in decades, a lot of scientists started looking at the numbers - esp the ones that would come from the IRA's funding - and said "Wait, holy shit, we have an actual chance."]

And while the report stresses the urgency of limiting warming to prevent terrible risks, it has a new message, too: We can do this. We now know how to make the dramatic emissions cuts we’d need to limit warming, and it’s very possible to do this in a way that’s sustainable, healthy and fair.

The conversation has moved on, and the role of scientists has changed. We’re not just warning of danger anymore. We’re showing the way to safety.

I was wrong about those previous reports: They did matter, after all. While climate scientists were warning the world of disaster, a small army of scientists, engineers, policymakers and others were getting to work. These first responders have helped move us toward our climate goals. Our warnings did their job.

To limit global warming, we need many more people to get on board... We need to reach those who haven’t yet been moved by our warnings. I’m not talking about the fossil fuel industry here; nor do I particularly care about winning over the small but noisy group of committed climate deniers. But I believe we can reach the many people whose eyes glaze over when they hear yet another dire warning or see another report like the one we just published.

The reason is that now, we have a better story to tell. The evidence is clear: Responding to climate change will not only create a better world for our children and grandchildren, but it will also make the world better for us right now.

Eliminating the sources of greenhouse gas emissions will make our air and water cleaner, our economy stronger and our quality of life better. It could save hundreds of thousands or even millions of lives across the country through air quality benefits alone. Using land more wisely can both limit climate change and protect biodiversity. Climate change most strongly affects communities that get a raw deal in our society: people with low incomes, people of color, children and the elderly. And climate action can be an opportunity to redress legacies of racism, neglect and injustice.

I could still tell you scary stories about a future ravaged by climate change, and they’d be true, at least on the trajectory we’re currently on. But it’s also true that we have a once-in-human-history chance not only to prevent the worst effects but also to make the world better right now. It would be a shame to squander this opportunity. So I don’t just want to talk about the problems anymore. I want to talk about the solutions. Consider this your last warning from me."

-via New York Times. Opinion essay by leading climate scientist Kate Marvel. November 18, 2023.

[revolutionsingingintherainnn]

Through Their Eyes ༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚

Summary: lando and yn’s relationship through other people’s eyes

𝄞 ln x reader 𓇢𓆸

𝄞 fluff 𓇢𓆸

masterlist ☾☼

charles’ version

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

carlos

carlos had known lando since he was nineteen. being teammates with him made carlos realise that they had a lot of common interests, and their sense of humour matched, and in the blink of an eye, lando had become one of carlos' best friends. there wasn't a day that went by without carlos or lando talking to each other, and there wasn't a day that went by without the two learning something new about each other.

carlos prided himself on the fact that he could read lando pretty well. y/n was lando's age and had joined mclaren as part of their hospitality intern. she was not supposed to have much interaction with the drivers, especially considering that she was an intern. her main jobs on some days was to make coffee runs.

fortunately, the coffee runs were what brought lando and y/n closer.

"coffee for you, mr sainz, and coffee for you, mr norris," she had said when she put two cups down in front of them.

carlos had watched as lando was about to make a joke but seemed lost as he stared at the woman and then back at the cup, and back at the woman.

he decided to be a good friend in that moment and save the awestruck boy, "unfortunately, lando doesn't have coffee. he only likes milk. he's still a little boy,"

y/n had laughed, and carlos had watched again with a smirk as lando stared at her with the biggest smile on his face. "i'll be back with a glass of milk then,"

it had become a running joke between the three of them, and soon she had started accompanying them to races as well. in the two years that she had interned with mclaren, she had spoken to almost driver on the grid, and carlos had watched how y/n and lando had slowly become friends. though, friends would be a more appropriate word instead of saying 'lando followed her around and just stood behind her, lost in his daydreams while she spoke to the drivers'.

carlos had watched how lando was always including her in conversations where she stood near the wall, how he pushed her to give her opinion. he had watched how lando slowly helped her build her confidence as she began to become more sure of herself and her abilities.

carlos had also watched how she was always the first one to tell lando that he had done a good job. she sat with him whenever he reviewed all the places he went wrong and had to be better at. she helped him understand the right places for making jokes, and the kind of jokes. he had watched how y/n had slowly helped build lando's confidence.

carlos and lando had a similar humour, but he found very quickly that lando and y/n's humour were exactly the same. they had inside jokes and eyes that laughed every time they looked at each other. they had soft touches and fingers that always grasped the air in the end.

the night of one of the races, when people had left, and only a few were remaining, carlos had been looking for lando to tell him about the golfing range that they could try out during the two weekends they had free. he had walked around looking his friend, even calling out his name. eventually, he found him sitting on the curb of the track with y/n.

they had their masks off, and were sitting close to each other. considering that they were the only two people around, carlos had not reminded the two to wear their masks.

the two had been laughing and giggling and leaning, and carlos walked a little closer to listen to what they were talking about.

"what'cha gonna do for the next two weeks?" lando had asked. it was quiet, and they were quieter, but carlos could still hear them.

"actually, i've been so excited to tell you about it! so, you know how i joined mclaren as an intern, and well, i'm still at a beginner level because i told you that i didn't want to do this forever?" she had seemed excited.

lando had only nodded, still staring at her. it made carlos wonder if lando was actually listening to what was being said.

"so, i've been doing some research, because i finally figured out what i'm going to do with my life. my parents only let me do this because i was interested in formula one, and i wanted a break after high school. though, admittedly, the break was supposed to be just a gap year, ended up being two-three years, but that's fine-"

y/n was cut off, because lando had finally gotten the courage and kissed her. carlos' mouth fell open. lando had confided in him about his crush on y/n, but carlos knew long before that. hell, carlos had known from the very first moment possible.

she had kissed him back, and carlos turned around with a smile on his face as he gave them some privacy.

just as he was leaving, he heard y/n's voice sounding heartbroken, and stopped short.

"lan, i'm going back to university. that's what i wanted to tell you."

"what?"

"i was talking to the drivers the other day about their childhood and what they faced, what you went through. max with his dad, lewis with the bullying, all of that. i realised then that i wanted to study child psychology. i want to be a child psychologist."

"oh. so, when are you leaving?"

"i gave my resignation letter this morning. i found a good university in london too. i applied a while back, and i got in."

"you got in."

"i got in, lan!" she was trying to be excited, carlos knew.

"that's amazing, y/n, congratulations,"

carlos turned around to peek, just a little bit, and saw the two embracing. he watched as lando tried to hide his tears, and y/n, who couldn't stop smiling. he watched as lando found his eyes, and carlos didn't know what to do in that moment.

"it doesn't have to change anything. i mean, i know i won't be there for race weekends and at the mtc and stuff, but i'm here for you." y/n said.

the two pulled back. y/n frowned at the tears on lando's face, and gently wiped them off. carlos feared what was going to happen to their friendship now.

"and, i mean, if the kiss wasn't a fluke, i'd like it again. and maybe every time i see you next?" y/n said, smiling, hoping, and carlos sighed in relief. yeah, the kids were going to be okay.

he could hear lando laughing as he walked back inside. lando was going to marry y/n, carlos could bet his life on it.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

daniel

when daniel had joined mclaren, there was one thing that he saw and was sure of right from the first day: no one could handle lando norris like y/n y/l/n.

he had spoken to her, and was good acquaintances with her. he knew that she had been working with mclaren for a year. lando and y/n seemed to be better friends than lando and carlos were, and that was a tough duo to break.

daniel felt awkward with lando at first. the two had barely anything in common, and combine it with their ten year age gap, it felt almost impossible to bond with the boy over something. both of them felt awkward at first, and both of them knew it.

y/n was perceptive, though, daniel had to agree. she had forced lando and daniel into a room and gave them an hour. that did wonders for the new teammates, because by the end of it, they had become so much more comfortable with each other and just couldn't stop laughing.

that was when daniel started noticing more about lando and y/n's friendship. the way that she was always the first one there to congratulate him, and the last person he saw before he left the garage for a race. the way that he always looked for her, even when he was working.

at first, daniel couldn't understand the impact that a young 20 year old woman could have on a young 20 year old man. their lives were just starting, yet somehow, with them, it felt like their lives had reached the stage of contentment with each other.

when lando first launched quadrant, daniel had watched how y/n had surprised him with wearing the merch and proudly showing it off. he had watched and smiled at how lando had gotten so excited, he had picked her up as he cheered, "you're wearing quadrant! you're wearing my merch!"

she was there for all of the races at first, in the mclaren uniform. daniel had watched how she would talk to him before every race. daniel didn't know what they were talking about, but it always had a laugh and it always ended up with a hug. he honestly thought that y/n was a witch, with the way she could calm down the hyperactive boy. no one that daniel had seen had that effect on lando the way y/n did.

and then, after a point, y/n stopped coming to races. and, daniel wondered if lando and her had had a falling out. he didn't know if he should approach his teammate about it, because it could be a sensitive topic.

two races gone by, and y/n hadn't come. lando had looked upset during those weekends, and he always disappeared right before the race and right after. after one particular race, daniel decided to suck it up and ask.

"why doesn't y/n come anymore?" he blurted out. it wasn't the way he wanted to go about it.

lando smiled softly, and daniel wasn't sure what that smile meant, "she quit. she went back to studying. goes to a university in london."

daniel didn't know that.

"are you guys still in touch?" daniel tried to be as casual as possible, but he wasn't sure if he was doing a good job.

lando's smile got bigger, and daniel took it as a good sign, "yeah, we're in touch. we talk before and after races, and pretty much any time that we're free,"

"that's good to hear," the conversation had ended there.

daniel now knew what his teammate did before and after races when he disappeared.

the silverstone race was when he had finally seen y/n again. lando hadn't seen her yet, and y/n had looked jittery. spotting her, daniel approached her.

"hey, i haven't seen you in so long!" daniel exclaimed.

the two hugged briefly, "oh my god, it's so good to see you! i've just been so busy with uni. finally a race that i could attend,"

"missed us, did you?" daniel teased.

"so so so much," y/n said, and the two laughed.

daniel watched from over y/n's head as lando, who had initially been talking to one of his mechanics pause and turn around, as if he had heard her laugh. daniel continued his conversation with y/n, while also watching lando's reaction. he was looking around, a frown on his face. if daniel had to compare lando's reaction to something, it would be to a dog who could suddenly sniff his favourite treat from somewhere.

just as y/n was about to say something, daniel watched lando finally spotting her in her ln4 merch, before practically screaming, "y/n!"

y/n turned, her eyes lighting up, and lando ran from the other side, dodging people. daniel took a few steps back, wanting to give the two friends some space.

lando's arms had immediately wrapped around her waist, and he picked her up. his face was buried in her neck, and all he said was her name. okay, friends definitely did not hug like that.

pulling back from the hug, lando kissed her. daniel's mouth fell open in shock. y/n had kissed him back, before she pulled away, laughing. lando put her down on the floor again, and pressed kisses all over her face, whispering in between, "you're here, you're here, you're actually here, i'm so happy right now,"

noticing a cameraman approaching, daniel softly said, "cameras, guys,"

taking a deep breath, lando took a step back, folding his arms, "thanks, dan,"

"no problem. now, wanna tell me what's going on here?" his teasing tone only made the two grin bigger.

"we started dating my last night in mclaren," y/n said softly.

"i bet lando cried. finally kissed a girl, didn't you?"

"i did actually cry," lando said, and the three laughed.

kyle, lando's mechanic called out, and daniel bid goodbyes to lando and y/n. he turned heading back, looking back just once to see lando's arm across y/n's shoulders, and y/n's arm circling his waist as they walked to where kyle was.

daniel hadn't seen lando look that happy since y/n had stopped coming for races. something about him had changed. he looked more confident and pleased. he looked as if he could hold the world on his shoulders if he wanted to.

his confidence was seen on the track as well. despite losing two places, lando was happier than most, and daniel knew that just the presence of y/n could have that effect on him.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

max f

max remembered the day lando had called him, excited to tell him about a girl he had met and how carlos, she, and lando had joked around, and how beautiful her laugh was.

he remembered the blush on lando's cheeks and how excited he was. he denied liking her at that time, but no one ever called their best friend to talk about a woman for forty five minutes just to later claim that he didn't have a crush on her.

max had been apprehensive of the woman at first. lando was new to formula one, and he was bound to get famous. from what lando had told max, she was an intern, the same age as them. lando was a trusting fellow, and max felt the need to look out for his friend.

the first time lando had introduced y/n and max to each other, the two were just friends. though, the first meeting proved that max had no reason to be worried. y/n was quick with her witty responses like lando always was. she put up a good fight every time. their banter was entertaining, and y/n knew just how to keep lando on his toes.

they understood each other quite well too. max remembered when after a particularly bad race, the two were on a facetime call, where lando was explaining all that he could have done better, and max giving his inputs. their conversation had been interrupted when a knock on lando's hotel room was heard.

"might be carlos," lando had mumbled, before leaving max on his bed, staring at the ceiling. max could still hear everything, though.

"carlos, i don't feel like-" he heard lando's voice cut off.

"surprise!" a woman's voice, y/n's, was heard.

"what are you doing here?" lando had asked.

"well, i read somewhere that cookies and brownies fixed everything. but, i couldn't find enough ingredients for one particular thing, so i made brookies!" her voice was louder, and max assumed that she had entered the room.

suddenly he saw her face pop up on the phone, "hi max!"

"hey, y/n!" max waved at her.

"you baked me something?"

"uh huh. your flight isn't till nine, and i thought that i could help you pack since you're terrible at it, and max, you and me could listen to music and dance around and eat brookies!"

they had done exactly that, y/n and lando trying their best to include max in all their conversations as well. they jumped around, laughed, and ate brookies throughout. max yelled at lando to save some for him, but lando had pretended to not hear, and then y/n had promised to make more for him. lando was smiling again, and even though max knew that he still felt bitter about the race, it had distracted him.

it was silent for a few seconds, only the music playing, when max checked what was going on. he stopped himself from saying anything when he saw lando and y/n locked in a hug. his face was buried in her neck, and her fingers were in his hair. max didn't know what either of them were saying, but lando had a tight grip on her, his knuckles turning white, and y/n just held him.

max knew their relationship would change soon.

and it had.

after the two had gotten together, lando began coming to london more often, even if it was to spend time with y/n. he invited y/n everywhere, whether they went for quadrant shoots, or meeting new people for new business partnerships.

she would come with her textbooks and her laptop, insisting on studying while they did their thing. for the most part, she did study. during the plane ride to wherever they were going, lando and y/n would sit side by side, sharing wired earphones, listening to music while y/n studied. lando would usually stare at her, or play with her hair. during shoots, y/n would be just as enthusiastic as lando, always pushing him for new ideas.

she trusted him insanely too. any time he would drive at a speed that even scared him, max had seen the way y/n would be carefree, throwing her arms in the air and enjoying the wind.

y/n would even help out with designing lando's helmets. the two had a connection that max didn't understand that well. they brought out the best in each other and knew just how to handle the worst too.

max had seen lando more worried about whether y/n had eaten during exam season than he generally was about himself. max had seen lando care for something other than racing and quadrant. it was new and refreshing, and max knew it was a forever kind of deal.

it always was a forever kind of deal with lando and y/n.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

alex and george

alex and george had sort-of grown up with lando. they had raced each other in f2, and had become quick friends. lando used to look upto alex and george, and the boys knew about it.

they had known lando well when he was a young boy, had seen the way he drove, the way he acted, the way he was in general. they had seen his cocky attitude, and as much of a show he put up in front of the media, they knew that he looked upto almost driver that were on the grid as he tried to make a place for himself in between them.

they had seen how low his confidence was, despite being outgoing and getting along with almost everyone he met. he had been their topic of conversation many times, with the two trying to figure out how they could be there for their friend.

it had helped that lando had found a true friend in carlos, and then daniel. it had changed lando, a positive change that both, alex and george were incredibly happy to see. he still blamed himself after races, but carlos, a veteran, reassuring lando had had a greater effect than george and alex. the two men understood why. they had the same amount of experience in formula one as lando, so trying to convince him that he had done a good job wasn't as effective.

lando had really changed, though, after he met y/n. y/n was outgoing, like lando, and she could talk a mile a minute. she seemed to really give max competition when it came to yapping. but, the best thing that she ever did was make lando smile more often. george and alex were grateful for that.

y/n had a way of correcting lando or telling him new information without making him feel dumb. george and alex knew how insecure lando was for never finishing his schooling, unlike oscar. it was a shock to alex and george when lando told them random facts throughout the day. it was a good kind of shock, but a shock nonetheless. they knew almost immediately that it was the work of y/n.

lando had always been humble. online, he was arrogant. but, he knew what he needed to work on, he knew everything he could about his, and he always wanted to know more. george and alex had often teased him about leaving the last on saturdays after the qualifying session.

but, y/n had stayed with him, had encouraged him, and had showed him that even if he failed, he was still good enough. y/n showed him that even if he lost ten positions, he was still good enough as a driver, and as a racer. he deserved to be in f1, something that a lot of people, including george and alex agreed on.

over the years, lando had gotten good at saying what was expected of him. it was often things that he would go and directly tell people to their faces, but always play it off with the media. lando never forgot to remind alex and george how much he respected them, even if they told them in private. they knew that that was lando's way of making sure that they knew he was being sincere.

the world didn't understand it as much, and the media loved to twist all of their words. so, y/n helped him understand. and, y/n helped him grow. and, even though lando was always a good person, y/n made him better everyday.

alex and george often spoke about the difference five years, six years had made in lando. and they could agree that lando was still the same person, but just a little more grown up and a little more focused. it was his own doing, with some help from y/n.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

max v

padel with lando was one of his favourite things to do. lando was competitive, and he made jokes, and he was arrogant and deprecating, and somehow all of it just fit well.

they had a weekend free before the next race, and what better way could there have been than to participate in another sport with the same person who was the contender for the world driver's championship?

they had played for hours, and after the two had completely exhausted themselves, lando invited max over to his apartment for lunch. agreeing, max texted kelly about his lunch plans with lando, and the two drove to lando's apartment their individual cars.

parking, the two went up the elevator, laughing and giggling and gossiping on their way over. just as lando was about to unlock his front door, he paused and turned to max.

"my girlfriend is a little mad at me right now. i kinda paid off part of her university tuition and i didn't tell her, and now she found out, and i'm basically-"

"-fucked. you're basically fucked."

lando opened his mouth to retaliate, but agreed with max. he was fucked.

unlocking the door, lando called out, "babe, we're home!"

y/n appeared from the hallway, "hi, max! how was padel?"

max watched as lando moved towards her with his arms open, almost like a routine of when he comes back home, but y/n dodged his hands and stepped away. lando looked like a puppy who had gotten kicked, and as much as max wanted to laugh at the expression, he did feel a little bad for his friend.

"hey! um, padel was good. i beat lando, 5 games out of 8," he said.

y/n laughed, "that's wonderful. i'll get your lunch set up, so why don't you relax?"

she still hadn't said a word to lando, and as she turned to head towards the kitchen, he watched as lando followed her like a dog on a leash.

max settled on the couch, and tilted his head back, closing his eyes. he tried not to listen, to not eavesdrop on his friend's very private conversation. but they were loud, so technically, it wasn't his fault.

"baby, i'm sorry, i was trying to help!" lando's urgent voice could be heard. he was speaking softly, but in the quiet house, it was still loud enough for max to hear.

"helping means washing the dishes or getting me supplies for my exams! helping does not mean paying off my tuition!" y/n's hushed whisper came next. she was angry.

"but, why can't i just pay for the tuition? i've got the money, you and i are going to end up married anyways! what's mine is yours!" max had to admit, this was probably the first time he had heard lando so sure on marrying someone.

"exactly! you've got the money. not me. lando, i need to be able to survive on my own, and my tuition is my problem. not yours."

"you are surviving on your own! just 'cause i'm here doesn't mean that you can't lean on me for stuff!"

max heard y/n let out a groan of frustration, "i'm not as rich as you are, lando. i'm not a celebrity or a model, i don't have the money. i'm studying to be a child psychologist. this is my future, and my college, including my tuition fees, is my responsibility."

"yeah, well, you are my future. so, you're my responsibility, and that includes your college and your tuition fees and literally everything else in the world." max smiled. maybe lando would not have to sleep on the couch tonight.

it was quiet for a few seconds, the only sound came from the sizzling of the pan.

"darling, i'm sorry i paid your tuition fees without asking or telling you first. you were stressed out about it the other day, and you were telling me how you would have to take extra shifts at the diner, and i just thought that if i have the money for it, why can't i just get rid of that stress of yours? i really just wanted to help, nothing else." lando's voice was soft, and max strained his ears to listen.

"i feel like i'm taking advantage of you," y/n whispered softly. why were they talking so quietly? max couldn't hear a thing properly.

"advantage of me? love, no. you deserve so much more than what i can offer you. i hate that i have to be away for so long because of my job, but you've never complained and you've always supported me. sometimes i'm scared that i'm not showing you just how much i love you,"

"that's why you paid off my tuition. 'cause you wanted to prove that you love me, but you couldn't figure out how to open your mouth and say it to me,"

lando laughed. that was a good sign. it was silent again. maybe they were hugging? max wished he had a visual as well. and some popcorn.

"forgive me?" lando asked softly.

"only if you have ramen with me tonight, and watch tangled with me again,"

he expected lando to groan. he had listened to lando rant about how the movie was ingrained in his brain and how the songs were stuck in his head constantly because of his girlfriend's obsession with the movie.

"deal. i love you," lando said.

"i love you more,"

"not possible,"

"watch me,"

max smiled. lando was not sleeping on the couch tonight, that's for sure.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

oscar

there was time before the first practice race was supposed to start. oscar sat on his side of the garage, but was quickly getting bored. the mechanics and the race engineers were talking and discussing, and oscar really tried to listen to them and participate in the conversation, but all he wanted to do was go out and drive.

sighing, oscar decided to find lando. if there was anyone who could distract him, it was lando. moving over to his garage, oscar looked for lando, and found him standing with his race engineer, will. the two were in deep conversation about something. lando's shoulders were tense, and his fingers were digging into his arms as he had them crossed across his chest.

oscar sighed. he probably shouldn't disturb him, then. it looked like they were talking about something important, and it's not like oscar had anything specific in mind when he came to find lando. he just wanted a distraction and laugh about something, anything.

just as he turned to go back to his side of the garage again, oscar saw y/n. he smiled, and was about to walk over to her so that he could at least strike a conversation with her.

oscar and y/n were good friends. they had a lot of similar interests and often spoke or hung out outside of lando. lily and y/n also got along really well, and that was just another pro in his list.

just as he was about to go talk to y/n, he stopped short, as he watched her open her bag and rummage through it. the paddock pass was hanging from her neck, and the orange cap she wore almost made her invisible to the media.

finally pulling out, what he assumed was a fan, he watched as y/n weaved her way through the crowd and stood behind lando, who was still in a deep conversation with will.

oscar worried for a second. he knew lando well, and he knew y/n well. he knew that lando hated to be disturbed when he was working or when he was focused on something, especially if it was related to improving his performance. he also knew that while y/n always meant well, sometimes, she couldn't figure out the right timings for things. while oscar knew that lando would not yell at her or anything, he still worried that lando would accidentally say something in the heat of the moment that he would regret later, but it would inevitably hurt y/n. she was sensitive and she felt too much for everyone. he didn't want y/n to be hurt.

he stayed still, though. he wasn't sure if it was his place to interfere. it wasn't his relationship, and he was friends with both of them. so, he stayed where he was, and he watched.

he watched as y/n stood behind lando. he watched as will noticed her, smiling just slightly, before turning his attention back to lando. he watched as lando didn't seem to notice that.

he moved a little closer, just so he could make out a little bit of what they were saying.

he watched as y/n started fanning lando, a mischievous grin on her face. he watched as lando's shoulders sagged in relief from the cool air, and then watched him tense up. he watched as lando turned around, wanting to find out where the cool air was coming from, and was met with y/n and her fan.

the couple were laughing now, and lando hooked an arm around her waist and trapped her against him. oscar could see both of y/n's arms against lando's chest as she leaned back to look at him, her hand still clutching the fan.

he watched as the two spoke, far too softly for oscar to hear them. but he saw the smiles on their faces, and the love in their eyes. the fans called him oscar "heart eyes" piastri whenever he looked at lando. if the fans saw lando and y/n right now, "heart eyes" would be an understatement.

he watched as lando pressed a kiss to her lips, and he watched as y/n tucked herself against his chest. he watched as lando and will got back to their conversation. lando's hands were running up and down her back, and oscar watched as lando's shoulders relaxed, and how he wasn't grinding his teeth anymore, and how all the tension that he seemed to keep in his body almost all the time melted away.

in that moment, oscar realised that the things he knew about his teammate/friend and his friend, they knew it better. they knew each other better, and they were stronger like that.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

i may have messed up the timeline a bit somewhere in the start. but, this is one of my favourites that i've ever written! this is my prompt list, so y'all can select a number, give me a driver and i will write it as soon as possible! i also have a google form for a taglist if anyone's interested! you can sent in your requests here :) i'd love your support! https://ko-fi.com/kavi2305

[that-one-girl2020]

Saja Boys x Rumi’s Sister! Reader SMUT

A/N: Thanks for 2,000 followers! Okay, you deviants asked for this and here it is. This is my first time writing smut and I struggled hard with writing it for one female with five men. Especially five men who don’t view each other romantically or sexually.

You don’t need to have read my short series for this to make sense but still recommend going and checking it out!

Also, Hyeon (Mystery) finally gets to do what he’s been aching to do since the beginning.

Contains p in v, multiple orgasms, polyamory/gangbang…? Oral (f receiving), praise, overstim, multiple creampies, fingering, biting, maybe degradation.

Word Count: 4,828

Master List

MDNI 18+ 🔞🔞🔞

(Reminder: Baby = Jum, Romance = Chungae, Mystery = Hyeon, Abby = Kwan)

It was an ordinary night.

Many weeks had passed since the defeat of Gwi Ma and the confrontation with Celine. You had your debut as a solo artist a few weeks ago, Saja Boys style. You had a street performance where you performed your new song, ‘River,’ and then the recording of ‘River’ and the finished version of the song you sang with the boys during ‘Your Idol’ was released as well.

Your popularity built quickly despite you being a solo artist, which was due to your relation to both Huntr/x and the Saja Boys, both being powerhouse idol groups. So you were very busy directly after your debut, going on variety shows and working on a music video for ‘River.’ Thankfully, the production team knew how to work with you from your time doing Huntr/x’s visuals for so long.

But tonight, you finally had a break. A free day. You had spent most of the day with the girls, who were also busy with their comeback quickly approaching. Now, you were spending the night with your boys, who felt starved for your affections.

It wasn’t like you hadn’t spent any time with them at all since your debut. In fact, you spent most nights at their apartment. However, it had been a while since you had a weekend to yourself.

The boys had already pampered you with dinner from your favorite restaurant, and then they had let you pick the movie for the night—providing you with all your favorite snacks, candies, and drinks as well, of course.

So you all curled in a pile in front of the couch, the coffee table pushed to the side and a nice comfy nest made of blankets, cushions, and pillows underneath you all.

You were sitting in Hyeon’s lap, leaning against his chest comfortably as Hyeon reclined against the couch, his arms wrapped around your stomach. It was Hyeon’s turn to have you in his lap for movie night. Jum and Chungae were slouched on either side of you, their heads resting on the edges of your hips. Kwan had taken the space between your legs, reclined with his head on your stomach. And Jinu was stuck pouting on the couch, the closest he could get to you as he laid across it.

You were content to watch the movie with the warm fuzzy feeling you got from being with your boys like this.

Meanwhile, Hyeon was having a situation.

All day, Hyeon could only think about your debut performance. They had all been there of course, to support you. The song was like a punch to his heart—in a good way. But that wasn’t it. Mira and Kwan had both helped you come up with the choreography so it was… hot to say the least. And now here you were, in his arms while his mind was stuck on the way your hips moved during that dance. The way your hair flipped. The sultry look you had flashed them when you sang.

So his eyes weren’t on the movie at all, he had no idea what was happening. Instead, his eyes were on the expanse of skin on the crook of your shoulder, his mouth itching.

You were in his arms. Your skin was right there, his favorite place in the world. Your scent filled his senses.

His teeth gently sank into your skin.

You felt Hyeon’s teeth pressing into the skin of the crook of your neck. You could feel his lips too. And the warmth of his mouth.

Your face flushed abruptly and a sound escaped your lips—somewhere between a mewl and soft gasp. You slapped a hand over your mouth, surprised by the sound that had left your own mouth.

The room froze. Then tension abruptly began to rise.

Kwan turned in between your legs to look up at you, his chin propped on your stomach as he wrapped his arms around your waist. His eyes flashed a hint of amber as he gave you a roguish smirk. “What was that, babe?”

Chungae shifted, sitting up more so he could lean towards your neck, the side Hyeon hadn’t bitten. He brushed your hair back, his pupils slightly slit as he leaned close to your ear, “Will you make that pretty sound again, darling?” He pressed his lips to your neck in a kiss and you squeaked beneath your hand.

Jum took your hand, the one that had been in his hair just a moment ago, sitting up as well. “Not that one, beautiful,” He chided softly before nibbling on the knuckle of your pointer finger before sucking on it gently. His eyes glowing amber up at you.

Jinu leaned over you from the couch, his eyes amber as well, tangling his hand in your hair so he could pull your head back to look at him. “Come on, pretty girl. Sing for us.”

Your face was hot and your heart was pounding in your ears, racing in your chest. You’re sure your eyes reflected the boys’ and were beginning to glow amber as the warmth in your body increased.

Jum leaned closer to you, unable to resist the pull he felt as he pulled your hand from your mouth and pressed his lips to yours. You could only close your eyes and give in to his demanding lull. Ever since he first kissed you, Jum became obsessed with kissing you, tangling his tongue with yours and mapping every crevice. He could spend an eternity happily devouring your mouth with his.

The boys were shifting around you, drawing closer to you than they ever had been before.

Hyeon’s arms tightened around your stomach, placing more soft kisses and bite marks along your shoulder and neck. It made you sigh softly into Jum’s mouth, which he swallowed greedily.

Chungae followed his lead on the other side of your neck, but he preferred wet kisses and suckling marks into your sensitive skin. It made you gasp and hum, squirming in their arms.

Jinu took one of your hands from Jum’s grasp, pulling it back towards him so he could kiss the skin, making his way down your arm. “Is this okay, pretty girl?”

Jum reluctantly pulled away from your lips so you could answer, instead lowering down to your throat to plant his own marks across your skin. You couldn’t answer though, breathless as you were, “Mhm…”

“Use your words, babe,” Kwan hummed teasingly, nuzzling into your stomach to push your shirt up so he could map your curves with his lips.

You sighed, “Yes, yes it’s okay…”

The boys’ eyes glowed brighter, their pupils narrowing. The tension in the room got heavier.

They started maneuvering around you, Kwan sliding your shirt up and over your head. Jum quickly returned to devouring your lips and any little noises you let out. Chungae and Hyeon went back to sucking marks into your skin with more enthusiasm, their hands running up and down your legs on either side of Kwan. Jinu reached behind you, between you and Hyeon to unclip your bra.

Once you were free of the fabric, the boys lavished attention on your breasts. Chungae moved from your neck down to take one of your nipples in his mouth, making you gasp as his tongue rolled over the sensitive flesh. Jinu took advantage of the freed up spot, tilting your head with his hand in your hair so he could suck his own marks on your neck.

Kwan kissed up your stomach, his fingers kneading your soft curves as he moved up to take your other nipple in his mouth. You couldn’t help but buck your hips—well, try to since Kwan was between your legs.

The boys were bumping into each other but they didn’t care, their abdomens flexing as blood rushed south. They took up the space around you, the air you breathed was the air they breathed and it was intoxicating.

Jum pulled away, but your lips weren’t long before Jinu turned your head so he could claim your swollen lips next. Hyeon’s hand had wandered south on your body, dipping under the waistband of your pants curiously. Your breath hitched against Jinu’s lips.

The boys helped you shimmy out of your pants and then your underwear, slick with your want.

Jum and Kwan switched places so the maknae could be between your legs while Kwan began to suck his marks into the purpling mosaic forming across your chest, neck, and shoulders.

“Thanks for the meal, beautiful,” You vaguely heard Jum’s low voice before you felt the heat of his tongue lick a long stripe up your slit and circle around your clit.

You let out a long moan at the same time Jum let out a pleased groan, your head falling back against Hyeon’s shoulder as you panted, your chest heaving beneath Chungae and Kwan’s lips. “Baby…”

You could feel his lips smirk, “Might have to change my stage name if you keep moaning for me like that…” Jum mused before diving back into your heat. Your taste was addictive on his tongue, he barely came up for air except when he had to before going back to devouring you. He flicked your clit back and forth with his tongue before focusing on reaching as far into your depths as he could, using a little demon magic to lengthen his tongue which made you squeal into Jinu’s mouth.

Chungae reached down, stimulating even more as his fingers slowly circled your clit.

It was too much for you. Jum’s tongue inside you, Chungae’s fingers on your clit, his and Kwan’s lips around your breasts, Hyeon’s teeth nibbling on your shoulder, Jinu’s lips against yours and so many hands everywhere.

You came with a strangled moan against Jinu’s mouth which he swallowed greedily. Your hips grinding against Jum’s face as Chungae’s fingers on your clit made you twitch with pleasure.

You sagged against them as you came down from your high, Hyeon murmuring in your ear, “Good girl…” Which made you shiver pleasantly.

Seeing you in the height of pleasure only riled the boys up more, like sharks sensing a drop of blood in the water and sending them into a frenzy. They were having more trouble controlling their demon features, their black patterns flickering to the surface, their teeth sharpening and their eyes glowing a bright amber with thin, cat-like pupils. At some point, they had shed their shirts so they could press their feverish skin against your own.

Chungae and Kwan reached down, gently taking your thighs in hand so they could spread them wider for you. “Open up, darling…” Chungae purred against your chest.

“Gotta stretch you out for us,” Kwan mused.

Hyeon’s arm snaked around, gently easing a finger into you, hushing you when you mewled, “Shh, easy princess…”

Jum’s mouth was around your clit now, sucking on the bud and twirling different shapes around it.

Hyeon’s finger thrusted in and out of you, stretching your walls slowly. Your thighs tried to close around them but Chungae and Kwan held you open. Jinu shifted from behind you, moving to be by your hip so he could add a finger in with Hyeon’s. He drank in the sight of you moaning at the increased stretch. Together, the two men worked you open while you climbed higher and higher in pleasure.

With Jum’s mouth around your clit and Jinu and Hyeon’s fingers stretching you, it wasn’t long before you felt like you were teetering on the edge of another climax. “G-gonna…” You warned them this time now that no one’s lips were occupying your own, the noises of pleasure you were making slipping out freely.

Kwan chuckled, the sound rumbling against you, “Greedy girl, coming again so soon.”

“Come for us, pretty girl,” Jinu mused, a dark look in his lidded eyes as he and Hyeon worked their fingers faster.

So you did.

You came again, their fingers sending wave after wave of pleasure crashing over you. Until you slumped bonelessly against Hyeon, the bulge in his pants grinding against your back and making him growl lowly. “Fuck princess…”

As you recovered, the boys shuffled around a bit again until the boys had shed their pants and Chungae was between your legs. Your already hot face felt even warmer, you could feel Hyeon pressing against your back and Chungae was rubbing his tip in your slick, coating his cock in your juices. Your mouth was open as you tried to catch your breath, practically drooling.

“Gonna be a good girl for me, darling?” Chungae questioned sweetly, a smirk on his lips.

You nodded, already partially fucked dumb as you babbled, “Mhm, please Chungae, wanna be filled…”

The boys bit their lips, groaning. Chungae cursed, “Fuck, darling…”

Chungae hooked the tip of his cock at your entrance, staring into your eyes as he slowly pushed in. He groaned as your tight, wet heat enveloped the head of his dick. “Oh, fuck, darling, you feel like heaven…” Chungae had to take a moment to breathe or he would start thrusting into you like a feral beast, his cock twitching at the thought.

You mewled, arching your hips towards him. The stretch of just the tip was still enough for you to feel it, despite the boys stretching you on their fingers. The boys were enraptured, watching your face as Chungae slowly stretched you open on his cock.

“That feel good, babe?” Kwan purred, swallowing thickly as he held one of your thighs open. Jum was on your other side, holding your other thigh open gently.

“Yes, feels so full,” You mewled as Chungae bottomed out in you with a hiss, breathing heavily as he held back from pounding into you.

“Good girl…” Jinu murmured, stroking your hair out of your face. Your skin had a light sheen of sweat that made you glow.

Chungae began to move, slowly pulling out and pushing back in, making you clench around him with a gasp. He cursed, “Fuck, don’t do that darling or I won’t be able to hold back…”

You moaned, reaching up to pull his hips flush with yours and the two of you groaned, “I don’t want you to hold back… I’m not fragile…”

Your words sent a surge of arousal straight to his cock and he couldn’t help how his hips pulled back and slammed back into you, making you gasp and clench around him again. So he did it again and again until he was pounding into you.

“Fuck darling, if you don’t want gentle, then we won’t give you gentle,” He snarled as his hips snapped into yours. The sound of slapping skin filled your ears along with your moans and Chungae’s groaning. He rutted into you with sharp thrusts, the only thing keeping you in place being the other boys holds on your body.

“Ohhh, darling, I love you, love you so fucking much,” Chungae rambled, leaning forward to connect your lips as his fingers found their way to your clit, rubbing firm little circles on the swollen bud.

“L-love you too, Chungae…” You managed to get out between kisses.

Chungae groaned, your words going straight to his cock. He wasn’t going to last much longer, you were too sweet for him. His darling, his little love.

“Fuuuuck, darling, can I cum in you, please? Please, darling?” Chungae pleaded, his thrusts losing their rhythm as he felt like he was about to burst, his head dizzy with pleasure.

“Yes yes, please, cum in my little pussy, Chungae,” You babbled right before the both of you came. Hard.

“Fuuuuck!” Chungae cursed, grinding his hips harder against yours as he filled your pulsing depths with his seed. The two of you panted together, intertwined as you shook with the aftershocks of pleasure as you came down from your high. Chungae dotted your face with kisses as he slowly pulled out. You felt a trickle of his cum leak down your slit to your ass.

Jum and him traded places, Chungae’s chest heaving as he settled at your side, stroking your hair and kissing your shoulder as Jum lifted one of your legs over his shoulder, placing a tender kiss on your thigh. He couldn’t help but take a moment just to look at your fucked out expression. Your eyes were dazed but glowing a bright amber, your mouth open and lips kiss swollen and bruised, your skin was covered in their marks.

“Not even halfway done, beautiful, and you already look like a fucked out mess,” He purred before notching his cock at your entrance and pushing in. Jum groaned at how hot and wet you felt, your cunt tight around him.

“Mmm, Jum baby,” You moaned as he hilted inside you. From this angle, it felt like he was so deep that his cock would come up your throat, his girth stretching you in a way so different from Chungae. Jum had no mercy for your poor pussy, rocking into you with a frenzy from the start.

“Jum!” You mewled.

“Fuck, take it, beautiful. Our beautiful girl, so good for us,” He praised you and you couldn’t help how you tightened around him.

His hips bucked harder into you, his cock reaching places in you that you didn’t think existed as your vision blurred with the pleasure he gave you.

He leaned forward, nudging your head up so he could latch onto your throat, biting into the sensitive skin and lavishing the mark with his tongue, tasting the bit of blood that had come to the surface of the little marks.

Jum couldn’t get enough of your taste, no matter where it was coming from. You were his favorite flavor.

Your pussy was getting more and more sensitive with every climax so it wasn’t a surprise when you already felt it building, threatening to crash over you. “Jum,” You moaned his name, “Too good, gonna c’m.”

His hips jackrabbited into your harder, “Mmm, yeah beautiful? Fuck, cum on my cock so I can fill you.”

Your fourth orgasm crashed over you and your vision went fuzzy as you clamped down on Jum’s cock as he fucked you through your orgasm.

“Oh shit!” He cried as he thrusted his cock as deep as he could go, his brain short circuiting as he came in you, filling you with his warm, thick seed.

He slumped atop you, pressing a breathless kiss to your lips, tangling his tongue with yours before reluctantly pulling away so one of his hyungs could have their turn. “So beautiful…”

Your head rolled, drunk on all the pleasure filling your veins. Your poor pussy was twitching and leaking cum but you couldn’t help but want more of them.

Next thing you knew, you were being maneuvered so that you were in Kwan’s lap, facing him as he dragged his cock through all the fluids leaking from your swollen cunt, “Messy, messy girl, babe,” he chided you with a dark smirk. He slapped his cock against your slick cunt, making you twitch and jerk with a gasp.

“Kwan,” You mewled weakly, your hands on his shoulders for balance as you straddled him.

He hushed you, “I know, I know, babe. Can’t get enough of our cocks, y’greedy girl.” He guided your hips, lifting you so his cock nudged your entrance and let your weight sink down on him as the both of you moaned. “Fuck, babe, you’ve got the perfect little cunt,” He growled, lifting you just to drop your weight back down on him over and over again.

“Come on, babe, move your hips for me like a good girl,” He cooed softly, though his arms flexed as he easily moved you himself. He growled low in his throat at how easily he could move you up and down on his cock. Like you were his little cocksleeve.

You mewled but braced yourself on his shoulders, your thighs trembling as you tried to follow his rhythm. When you couldn’t you ground your hips against his in little shapes, making you both moan as you felt his cock stir within you.

When your pace wasn’t fast enough for him, Chungae and Jum came over to lift you just a little, holding you up by placing their hands under your ass and thighs, hovering you over Kwan’s cock as he braced his feet to jackhammer up into you. “Ohh, good fucking girl,” He growled, his hands on your hips as you moaned.

Jinu and Hyeon joined the mix, brushing your hair aside to kiss up your back and shoulder blades. Your nails dug into Kwan’s shoulders, making him hiss as he thrusted up into you harder, punching the air out of your lungs as his balls slapped against your ass. “Yeah, dig your nails in, babe,” Kwan grumbled.

“Mmm, Kw’n, g’nna c’m,” You babbled, your speech was getting more and more slurred but you couldn’t help but enjoy how absolutely fucked you felt, the pleasure overwhelming all your senses until your whole world narrowed down to these five men and their cocks.

“Yeah? You’re gonna cum, babe? This’ll be, what? Your fifth time? When I haven’t even cum once?” Kwan asked sardonically, a mean glint in his eyes as he reached between you both to tug on your clit.

“Yes, pleaseee,” You babbled.

“Okay, greedy girl, cum on my cock,” He demanded with a low growl that reverberated through you. So of course you did as he said and came with a cry of his name, garbled and barely coherent.

“Oh fucking hell,” Kwan growled as he came, throwing his head back as he thrust as deep as his cock could reach, adding his cum to the loads already soaking your depths. Jum and Chungae released you, letting you collapse against Kwan’s chest as your legs trembled and shook.

“So f’ll,” You couldn’t help but slur with a furrow in your brow. It wasn’t a painful fullness though—though you knew you would be aching something fierce later—but it was a pleasant fullness.

After a few deep breaths, Kwan pressed a lingering kiss to your lips before Hyeon was pressing up behind you, Kwan’s thighs spread to make room for him as you were lifted just enough so his cock could slip out of your slick heat. Hyeon took your ass in his hands, groping the soft plumpness in his hands. He pressed a hand against the dip of your back until you were bent over more, presented so deliciously to him.

“My princess,” Hyeon rumbled in his chest and pressed his aching cock into you. His mouth dropped open in a long moan as your wet heat encompassed him fully. He leaned forward to bury his face in the crook of your neck, surrounding himself in your intoxicating scent, his tongue flicking out to taste the salty sweat of your skin.

“Mmm, princess…” Hyeon moaned in your ear, his hips snapping in a slow pace but with enough force to rock you into Kwan’s chest. He was watching your expression with a greedy smirk, licking his lips as he watched Hyeon fuck you.

“Hyeon,” You moaned, overwhelmed with pleasure as Hyeon wrapped his arms around your hips so he could hold you close to him as his cock snapped into you again and again and again. Slick fluids were dripping down your thighs and covering the two of you with every thrust of his hips but Hyeon was unbothered.

Hyeon wasn’t very vocal which meant you could hear every wet slap of his hips meeting your ass, his balls meeting your clit every time. Hyeon’s breath was heavy in your ear, his mouth nibbling at your neck with sweet gasps of, “Princess,” interspersed. Your own gasping moans and hitched breath sounded so loud compared to Hyeon’s quiet pleasure.

And that was intentional. Hyeon was devoting every little gasp, every mewl, every moan, every hitched breath that escaped your lips to memory so he could remember every little pleasure noise of yours so he could draw them out again later.

“Hyeon—“ You cut yourself off with a strangled moan, your walls twitching around his cock. “‘M gonna c’m!” You warned him. Suddenly, he moved faster, his hand going to your clit so he could rub the little button as his thrusts picked up the pace, making you squeal and shriek.

“Mmm, cum princess,” Hyeon gritted out, feeling you clench around him deliciously. You came with a cry of his name, throwing your head back as your vision went fuzzy for a long moment, pleasure crashing through your body and making you head swim all over again.

Hyeon rumbled, pressing closer to you as his hips snapped into yours one last time, his teeth sinking into his favorite spot on the crook of your shoulder as he came inside you. He growled against your neck as the two of you came down from your highs. He lapped at your neck as he let go, licking up the little drops of blood that had welled up from the shallow wound.

Hyeon was reluctant to move away but there was still one last man that hadn’t had his turn yet. So Hyeon slowly withdrew from your clinging cunt, purring contently as he gave a kiss to your shoulder blade and moved away.

Then you were being shifted again until you were laying on your back again with your hips propped up on a pillow and Jinu pressing your legs up to your chest. “One more, pretty girl, such a good girl,” He cooed as he pressed a kiss to the edge of your lips so sweetly.

“J’nu,” You mewled, cockdrunk as he rubbed his cock head through the mess of your puffy, sensitive folds. He chuckled when you hissed at the sensitivity.

Asshole.

He gave you a mocking pout, as if he could read what little thoughts were in your empty head. “Such a rude, greedy girl. Do you even deserve to take my cock?” He mused smugly, grinding his cock against you.

You whined at his teasing, “Mm, no, ‘m sorry, J’nu. Pl’se gimme your cock,” You pleaded dazedly, rocking your hips against his.

Jinu hummed, notching the tip of his leaking cock at your puffy entrance that was still leaking cum, “Mm, good girl.” Then he was filling you, achingly slow as you drew out a long moan as each inch filled your fluttering cunt. “Oh, good good girl… fuck…” Jinu moaned as he filled you until he was balls deep within your clenching pussy.

Jinu couldn’t keep his hips still for long, he had to start thrusting into you and he moaned when he did. His pace racketed up quickly, pounding your poor pussy with feral intensity. “Oh, pretty girl,” He moaned. “Oh, I’m not gonna last long if you keep fluttering around me like that.”

“J’nu,” You could only mewl, your tongue heavy as your sensitive cunt twitched furiously around him. You weren’t going to last either, you were way too sensitive after six consecutive orgasms. You had no idea how you were still conscious at this point—probably demon stamina.

Jinu kept thrusting as little whines started leaving your lips, your head thrown back as your hands pressed against his abdomen, “Too m’ch, J’nu, c’n’t…” You mewled between gasping breaths. You felt like the orgasm that was rising inside you was going to break you.

Jinu just pressed your legs firmer against your chest, his cock bullying your poor pussy as he pounded into your squirming hips. “You got another in you, pretty girl, I know it. Just a little more…” Jinu murmured, brushing your sweaty hair out of your face greedily. He slipped his hand between you, his fingers just barely brushing your abused clit and you shrieked, your vision whiting out as you came on his cock.

Jinu cursed, thrusting once and then twice more before hilting himself as deep inside you as he could reach before cumming, spilling every drop of his essence inside of you.

Your body barely had the energy to tremble as your senses slowly came back to you. Jinu slowly let your legs down and you could feel them ache from being stuck in the position but he kissed each thigh gently before letting them fall.

And then they were all around you again, brushing through your hair, pressing kisses to your skin, running their fingers over sweat slick skin.

“Such a good girl for us…”

“Did so good…”

“Took all of our cocks like a good girl…”

“Let us fill her full…”

“Came so hard for us…”

Your eyes were heavy, your body exhausted and covered in forming bruises that matched the shape of the boys’ hips, fingers, and mouths. But a hand lightly shook your face, “Don’t fall asleep on us now, darling…”

Your eyes blearily opened. Five pairs of eyes were still glowing at you, smirks full of fangs and cocks still achingly hard.

“We’re not done with you yet.”

A/N: Writing smut for a six person relationship is hard. Wasn’t too sure about posting it but here you go you horny people. Thirst away to your heart’s content. No taglist for this one because I don’t know if any of y’all are minors and don’t wanna risk it. Gonna slow down on my posting schedule after this!

Outtakes:

*The next morning*

You: *aching and bruised in places you didn’t know could ache or bruise* “What freight train ran me over without mercy?”

Saja Boys: *sexy posing around you* “Ready for another round?”

You: “Oh yeah…that freight train…”

…

Huntr/x: “What are you doing here this time…?”

You: *several ice packs on your everything* “Horny demons.”

Huntr/x: “Ah.”

Saja Boys: *Peeking around a corner with pouts and puppy dog eyes* 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

You: *throws the nearest item at them* “NO!”

…

You: “I need a shower.”

Saja Boys: *scrambling after you while frantically stripping as they fight to join you in the small shower*

You: *still sore* “Alone you horny idiots!”

…

The Saja Boys: *Replaying your music video for the nth time in a row* “She’s so hottttt…”

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[vintagebuckybarnes]

In Vino Veritas

Pairing → Avenger! Bucky Barnes x Lab Assistant! Female! Reader

Total Wordcount → 3.5K

Summary → It all started when you and the Avengers enjoyed drinks during the afterparty back at the Avengers Tower. There, Tony revealed one of your deepest secrets, and even though you wish it had never come to light at first, you’re glad it did when the man you love stands on your doorstep, ready to start the rest of your life together.

Tags & Warnings → Semi-canon compliant, Avenger! Bucky Barnes, Female! Reader, Tony’s Lab Assistant! Reader, Bucky’s past as TWS is mentioned, emotional hurt/comfort, mutual pining, some cursing, and explicit sexual content.

Tags: Smut → Grinding, begging, some dirty talk, praise, teasing Bucky, protected sex, cowgirl position.

Story Rating → Explicit

Author’s Note → This story is beta'd by the wonderful @late-to-the-party-81, and I cannot thank you enough for that. I hope you'll all enjoy my story, which is filled with some angst, lots of fluff, and some smut to top it all off! 💜

Writing Prompts @fandom-free-bingo Bug Edition → “There is no us.” | Riding | In vino veritas | “Touch me.” @fandom-free-bingo Medical Edition → Crush at first sight @julybreakbingo Post-JBB → Being confronted about their feelings for another

Tags List → If you’d like to be tagged in my stories, you can add yourself to my tag list here.

The evening starts fine, good, even. But it all takes an unexpected turn when the man you work for - Tony Stark - reveals your secret. A secret that you’d only recently revealed to him.

Earlier that day, you’d spotted Bucky as he was working out and from that moment on your mind has been with him instead of your usual work and tasks.

“Hello, Y/N? Anyone home in there?” Tony asks as he lays a hand on your shoulder, making you jump. You look up at him with a worried look while he smiles back at you with a kind expression. A soft sigh escapes your lips as the thoughts in your head wander off again, specifically how his back looked underneath the tank top he wore in the gym while doing squats. Not only that, but you also can’t stop thinking about the way his ass looked in the sweatpants he wore. In a word, magnificent.

“Is everything okay with you? You’ve been a bit off your game today.” As Tony sits next to you, you put down the screwdriver you were holding - the one he asked you three times to pass to him - before turning to face him, your gaze focusing somewhere on the wall behind him. For a moment, there’s a silence between you as you gather the courage to tell him what’s been on your mind.

“Well, uhm- There’s something, or someone, that I can’t stop thinking about, and it’s taking over my mind every second of every day. It- It’s Bucky,” you say almost in a whisper. For a few seconds, Tony is completely silent as he lets the thought of you having a crush on one of his fellow Avengers sit in his mind. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, he reaches out for your hand and takes it between his warm ones.

“You know that I’ll always support you in everything, right? I supported you when you expressed your desire to halt your life as an Avenger and retrain as my lab technician, and I supported you when you moved out of Avengers Tower to have your own home with more peace. This is not going to be any different. All I’m hoping for is that he will make you the happiest and best version of you, as you deserve nothing less.”

Tears brim at your waterline as Tony tells you this, and even though you deeply appreciate him, his words, and everything he has done for you, you can’t help but still feel a bit… odd about the fact you told him you’re having a crush on Bucky. That you have a crush on the man who was once the most feared assassin in the world under the hands of HYDRA.

“Now, can you hand me that screwdriver before your thoughts wander off to him again?” your boss asks in a teasing tone, making you smile as you grab it and hand it to him. Somehow, he always seems to know the right thing to say, and it's exactly why you enjoy spending time by his side while learning everything there is to know about his lab and what's going on in there.

Just as you’re about to get comfortable with another drink in your hand, you meet the gaze of the man you’re crushing on, and you feel heat coursing through your veins. The lines around his deep blue eyes intensify as he smiles at you, his attention making every last thought in your brain disappear. You’re so captivated by how Bucky looks at you that you miss your seat as you sit down. However, before you fall, you’re caught by a pair of solid arms that prevent you from hitting the floor.

“Careful there, Little One,” Thor says in his deep voice, his accent always making the butterflies in your stomach go wild. Even though you’d known Thor since you were young, you couldn’t help but get a little flustered by the nickname, and he smiled at you as you were finally sitting on the chair you intended to use.

“Thank you, Thor,” you whisper before sipping your cocktail. Around you, the conversations are starting to become a little blurry as you focus on Bucky and everything he has to say, his lips forming around the words effortlessly. When you suddenly feel a little shove against your arm, you yelp, making everyone go silent as they look at you.

“What did you do that for?!” you ask Thor in a low voice, but all he does is point to Tony, who obviously has something to say as he’s waving for everyone’s attention. There are moments when you enjoy the fact that alcohol can bring out people’s true feelings or thoughts, also known as in vino veritas, but not now. Oh no, now you wish you could disappear as you listen to the words coming out of Tony’s mouth.

“Guys, you really shouldn’t say this to Bucky or Y/N, but they’re having a massive crush on one another!” Tony says in a loud whispering tone, but what he fails to notice in his inebriated state is that you two are sitting right across from one another, enjoying the afterparty just like everyone else. Or at least, you were enjoying the afterparty until your secret got out.

The glass you were holding falls out of your hand before shattering into pieces on the floor, and your feet carry you as fast as they can away from the party and away from your worst nightmare come true. The music behind you fades away as you turn one corner after another, tears burning in your eyes as the event repeatedly replays in your mind. Your lungs start to burn as you keep running, the stinging feeling in your side increasing as you run out of the Avengers Tower into the night.

Meanwhile, Bucky’s world feels like it has taken a 180-degree turn. Mere minutes ago, he could only fantasize that you could have feelings for him, but now? A wave of disbelief washes over the super soldier, his expression showing pure surprise as he takes the moment in. For him, it was a crush at first sight from the momentyou walked into the training room on your first day. Over the years, his feelings have intensified, although he has only told Steve about his crush - or rather his now deep-rooted love - for you.

And yet, now that the pair of you have been confronted about your feelings for one another, he doesn’t know what to do. He has replayed the moment he’d confess his feelings to you more times than he can count in his mind, and in none of those versions, this is one of the scenarios that had appeared. It’s only when Steve grabs his arm and pulls him away that he seemingly comes back to reality again.

“Bucky, how does Tony know about your crush on Y/N? I mean, I’m, of course, fine with you sharing it, but-”

“I don’t know, Steve, I don’t know, and it kills me,” Bucky says as he runs his fingers through his cropped hair.“Fuck- I was planning on telling her this week but… but now it’s ruined, and I didn’t even get the chance to talk to her, and-” It’s all Bucky can say as he fights the urge to punch the wall with his metal fist, both hands clenched by his side as he tries to regulate his breathing. Without warning, Steve pulls him into a hug, and Bucky’s arms snake around his best friend's waist as his fingers clutch at the fabric of his shirt.

“It’s going to be okay, I promise,” Steve whispers, though he’s not entirely sure that’s true because he knows as well as anyone that things don’t always go back to how they were before. Still, Bucky decides to believe him as they stand there for a little while longer, and he soaks in every bit of comfort he can get for now. Lord knows he’s going to need it.

The past few days have been strange, to say the least. You haven’t been to the Avengers Tower since Tony revealed your now not-so-secret crush on the super soldier. You’re afraid of what will happen if you do. This also means you haven’t seen Bucky in a few days, and you miss him. You miss hearing his laugh, and you miss seeing how his mouth turns slightly upward as you hand him one of your baked goods, but most of all, you miss how his arms feel when he pulls you in for a hug.

Just as you’re about to make yourself a cup of tea, you get pulled from your thoughts by a soft but familiar knock on the door; only one thing can make that sound: Bucky’s metal hand knocking against the wood. For a moment, you contemplate your actions, but decide to give him at least a chance to talk, especially as it wasn’t him who laid out your feelings in front of everyone.

“Bucky, hi,” you say softly as you take in his appearance, your heart sinking as you do. It’s evident he hasn’t slept at all the past few days. There are dark circles under his eyes, and he doesn’t look as healthy as usual—more disheveled. The struggles he’s facing are apparent in his entire demeanor, and all you want to do is wrap him up in a warm blanket and cuddle him until the end of time.

“Hi,” he says hoarsely, and you step aside, allowing him to enter your apartment. He’s been here a few times already, and usually there’s a warmth radiating from you and every inch of the little place you call home, but ever since the party, it hasn’t been the same. It isn’t just the apartment, either. You feel different.

“Would you like some tea before we talk?” you ask to break the tension. “I was about to make some.”

He nods at you before wandering further into your apartment, and you head to the kitchen, picking out another mug for Bucky to use. Once he’s caught sight of your couch, he immediately takes a seat, a soft groan audible as he does. There aren’t many places more comfortable than the large couch that’s standing right here in your living room.

When you emerge a few minutes later with two steaming mugs of tea and a plate filled with chocolate chip cookies you baked fresh this morning, Bucky can’t help but smile at you. He gladly takes the tea with one of the cookies, as they’re his favorite, and when you sit down next to him, it feels just like it always has, as if nothing has changed. But you both know it has, and that’s why the super soldier’s now in your living room.

“So…” you start, unsure what to say now that he’s sitting on your couch. Bucky’s eyes are trained on the steaming tea in his hands, his thoughts going a mile a minute as he’s thinking about what he wants to say - other than confessing his love for you.

“So… uhm, we missed seeing you around the Tower,” Bucky starts, though you both know it’s mostly him who has missed seeing you there. You have always been a staple there during his mornings as you make him a cup of coffee, and during movie nights, you were always the one he could sit next to and enjoy the movie, but now that you’re not there, it’s like a piece of soul has left the Tower with you.

“I mean, yeah. It’s been a bit awkward for me to go back after what happened a few days ago,” you tell him, and a shudder of horror runs down your spine at the thought of having to face Tony again. A smile tugs at the corners of Bucky’s lips as he thinks back to what happened that night, a happy memory of your first meeting resurfacing in the back of his mind as he does.

“Good morning, Sergeant Barnes. I’ve made some chocolate chip cookies, if you want some. However, I should warn you, Tony’s been on the prowl since I took them out of the oven, so I’ll advise you to be quick,” you say with a glare towards Tony, who has been eyeing them up since he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. For the first time in a long time, Bucky showed something akin to a smile, and everyone looked at each other to ensure they saw it, too.

“Thank you,” he says lowly, grabbing one of the smaller ones on the plate, followed by a cup of coffee, before swiftly leaving the kitchen to spend more time in his room. Before Bucky even left the kitchen, Tony was on the cookies as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks, and this time you let him.

“Can I- Is it okay if I tell you something? Because if I don’t say it now, I don’t know if I ever will,” Bucky says softly, and you nod before repositioning yourself so that you’re facing him. His gaze is still trained on his mug as he thinks carefully about his next words, afraid he might accidentally say the wrong thing.

“Tony was right. He is right, actually. When he said, we’re crushing on each other. I’ve been crushing on you since you offered me those chocolate chip cookies when Tony threatened to eat them all before anyone else had a chance to get them. It was like a switch flipped inside me back then, and I haven’t been the same since,” Bucky says, his mouth now in a line as he tells you about his feelings.

“Each time I look at you, it’s like I’m seeing an angel, and every time I hear your voice, it’s like a little piece of my soul is healing, too. I find myself drawn to you in every room and wonder what life has in store for us. But deep down inside, I know there is no ‘us’ yet. But I want there to be us. I want you, Y/N. I want you to be mine, in whatever capacity you’ll have me. If you want to stay friends, that’s okay with me, but if you want more, I’ll happily accept every bit of love you’re willing to offer me.”

Once Bucky’s done, you’re unsure what to say. What to think. What to do. You want to say that the feelings between you are mutual, that you’re in love with him and that you want nothing more than to be his, but something inside you is stopping you. So, instead of saying anything, you place your hand over his flesh limb, and his eyes slip shut at the feeling of your soft fingers against his rough hand.

“Bucky.” His name is a whisper on your lips, but it’s enough to make him look at you, to meet your gaze.

“I’m in love with you, too.”

As soon as the words leave your lips, Bucky carefully put his tea on the coffee table before hauling you onto his lap, his hands digging into the soft flesh of your waist as your lips interlock in a passionate dance. He can’t get enough of your soft mouth slotting together with his and the way his tongue fights for dominance with yours as your fingers dig into his neck. It’s been a long time since you’ve felt a strong connection with someone, and you’re happy to explore it with Bucky.

Your hips grind over his growing length of their own volition,your body looking for any bit of friction it can get. Without warning, one of Bucky’s hands slides lower until he’s cupping your ass, making you gasp into his mouth as a result. Bucky can’t help but smile into the kiss as he pulls you impossibly closer, your legs spreading just a bit further as you sink against his muscular body.

“Hmm, I’ve been wanting this - you - for so long,” he says between the kisses trailing your jaw towards your ear, his teeth nipping on your earlobe as your head lolls to the side. With every passing second, your thoughts are melting away more and more, and all that’s left inside your mind is Bucky. Soon, his other hand joins the first as he helps you grind onto him, a groan falling from his lips as he sets a perfect pace for you both.

“B-Bucky—" his name sounds more like a whine than anything else. “I—I want you.”

“But you already have me, pretty girl, ‘m right here,” he says with a teasing lilt to his voice, his hands continuing to help you grind until you’re a complete mess for him. Your shorts are ruined, your arousal soaking through them and onto the bulge in his black jeans, much to Bucky’s joy. He was wondering what it would take to get you to this point, and it turns out it won’t take much.

He smiles against the skin of your neck, where he’s taking his time to mark you with hickeys and small bitemarks, all of which leave you a bit more of a moaning, begging mess on his lap, much to his pride. When one of your hands moves away from his neck and down his torso, he quickly catches on to what you’re doing. “Someone’s a little impatient today, huh?”

“Yes, oh god, yes! I need you to touch me, Bucky. I want to feel you inside me as you make me fall apart on your cock, and I need you to fuck me like there’s no tomorrow!” Your voice sounds more breathy than usual, but every care you thought you had has gone out the window. All you want is Bucky and his cock to ride, until you’re orgasming so hard and long you can’t remember your name.

“Okay, I will. Don’t you worry about anything, okay? Let me take care of you, and I’ll give you everything you need and more,” he reassures you in a shushing voice. You nod before kissing him again, which immediately deepens before he gently helps you get up, allowing you to take off your panties and shorts, and he can take off his pants and boxershorts, too. As soon as you’re both freed from your last pieces of clothing, you hand him a condom you retrieved from the side table drawer while he took the time to undress himself.

“Hmmm, looks so thick,” you tell him as you look at it with wide eyes, wondering how he’s going to fit inside you as you’re positioning yourself on his lap once more, your legs bracketing his thicks thighs as you get comfortable.

“I know, but I’m gonna go slow. Wouldn’t want to hurt you and your perfect, sweet little pussy.” He smiles as he holds his cock in place, your pliant body sinking onto him slowly as your fingers dig into his shoulders to steady yourself. Your hiss of pleasure is audible and your face contorts at the slight sting of him stretching you, but just like he promised, Bucky is taking it slow to ensure you’ll both have the most amazing first time.

As soon as you’re fully seated on his lap, your body goes limp against him, your face tucked in the crook of his neck as you adjust to his girth, and Bucky places soft kisses on your head while praising you through it all. “You’re doing so well for me, baby. Such a good girl for me, letting me take the lead and giving you exactly what you need.”

A small smile appears on your face as you look up at him with big, doe-like eyes, and he can’t help but smile back as the back of his fingers gently caress your cheek. He may have thought you were beautiful before, but nothing compares to this moment. 

“I love you, Y/N, and I promise to take care of you with every fiber of my being,” he whispers, his lips sealing his promise against your cheek. Your eyes fall shut at his words, and his hand moves down your side until it’s on your hip again, ready for you to let him know when you’re good to go. Your bodies work in complete sync with one another with every rise and fall of your chest, and his hands guide you beautifully as you slowly sink and rise on his length.

“Fuck, you feel so good,” he groans, and it doesn’t take long for both of you to find your highs for the first time, and they’re serving as a promise of everything else that’s still to come in this lifetime. A few days ago, you and Bucky didn’t even know you felt the same about one another, but now you’re sharing the start of the rest of your lives, and it’s all thanks to Tony. Because without him, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the man of your dreams how much you love him.

Masterlist → Bucky Barnes

GIF: Source → All the other graphics you see are made by @vintagebuckybarnes