#ugh this was so annoying at first I really disliked him until I realised what he was tryna do

[thelediz]

Sonic Underground 10: Who do you think you are?

AKA: The required amnesia episode

I’m watching Sonic Underground in search of inspiration to finish a fic I’ve been writing forever. It’s a sad state of affairs. See the recap of the first three episodes here, if you're interested!

The plot (for want of a better word): While exploring an unfamiliar city, Sonia knocks her head and loses her memory! Can her brothers find her and remind her of her true self, or will she make a life with her new friend, the street urchin Raphie?

Raphie’s episode! I like Raphie, he’s very sweet.

Okay, so Aleena opens this episode implying that the triplets are going to realise they need to learn from each other. This is not going to happen. Sonia is going to learn about life on the streets from a bit character and make absolutely no connection between his life and Manic’s.

In today’s episode, Sonic is the responsible one. Sonia is flighty and more concerned with clothes and fashion.

This episode also mentions a palace. This is not Robotnik’s palace, nor is it in M/Robotropolis: it’s in Tashistahn, further confusing the question of whether Mobius (which Aleena rules) is a country, an empire, a – STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.

Tashistahn is definitely not Agrabah, by the way. Or the real world Constantinople. By the way.

Mobius is definitely not the Roman Empire, by the way.

Aleena IS DEFINITELY NOT JUSTINIA—

So furthering Sonia’s being the irresponsible one in this episode, she refuses to discuss plans with her brothers and just decides she’s going to sneak in with a disguise despite the other two being firmly against taking the risk. Because she doesn’t want to get dirty. This is funny, and because the boys don’t understand her, not poor teamwork. Have I mentioned how much I dislike Sonia’s character type?

Sonia super strength +1

Okay, so this was a common theme in the 90s, and for all I know it’s still a common theme and I just don’t know because I don’t watch kids shows that much anymore. But the amnesia thing had this trope where the amnesiac becomes really credulous and innocent. It kind of frustrates me, because it implies that they are only cautious because they’ve been hurt before, but they usually remember things they only learned in battle. It’s like… pick a lane, writers!

(Also, off topic, I watched the Fallout show the other week and can I just say Maximus acting like a credulous child in the vault—particularly when the subject of sex came up—legitimately pissed me off?) (Basically I get annoyed about infantilisation) (There is a long rant about the difference between lack of knowledge and childishness in here somewhere)

Manic is being so ridiculously competent this episode. As he often is when he gets sidelined. Yes I make too much of this.

Sonia is a snob even without her memory.

Sonia is such a snob without her memory that she trades her necklace for bread and ten gold pieces. Because it’s odd looking. I just… this… ugh.

Manic comes up with the idea to play music to summon their sister. You know, like Sonic did in the first episode. Sonic does not make this connection until Manic reminds him that’s how it works. -facepalm-

The Song: We need to be Free. It’s good, but slightly distracting is that Sonia specifically notes that she thinks she’s what’s missing and does NOTHING ABOUT THAT but dance for the crowd, also there’s very definitely a… ney, google tells me it’s called, playing and no way for Sonic’s guitar to be making that sound. I am making faces at my screen.

And of course knocking her head restores her memory while removing everything since she got amnesia. There are tropes that must occur.

…Sonic says Sonia was right about using disguises over the sewers… because of the smell. This never usually bothers him. He then comments on hating water though, so maybe it’s just a bit too close to the Moby Deep episode and he’s bitter. It better not be because we need Sonia to look good this episode.

But Dingo’s in there so yes, they use disguises.

Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality +1 (this time in drag!)(You cannot deny even in contemporary media that he prefers skirts over pants)

Manic, however, does not seem nearly as comfortable and is way more patronising. He does not have good fem!vibes.

Aleena distracts Sonia from her friend, getting him caught…

…Sleet is 100% loving Sonic as a courtesan. “Wow, what a woman” indeed.

And Sonia is way more surprised to see Manic in a dress. Yes I make too much of this.

And Raphie gets partially robotocised! Nooo! But he’s mostly okay. Unlike with Cyrus, there is no angst to be had here. Only good vibes.

Sonia says Manic makes a much prettier girl than Sonic. I disagree. But luckily, Sonic is too cool to actually care. Slay.

Overall, a decent start to the week, with multiple OCs that I love dearly. We’ll never see Raphie again, sadly, which is probably just as well because Tashistahn leans into some slightly skeevy tropes, but the ANGST THAT COULD HAVE BEEN GUYS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. He lost his entire lower half! Bunnie Rabbot without the arm! There are REASONS she was subtextually horrifying!

Anyway.

The counters:

Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality: 3

Sonia in love with Bartleby: 1/37

Sonia’s got super strength: 3

Manic's Thievery Is A Problem: 1

Next up, I think we meet Stripes, who I don’t actually remember why I made him into a Nice Guy TM, so we’ll see what happens.

[ohmyronpa-imagines]

Hey can I request imagines of Nagito, Kokichi, Shuichi, Gundham and Korekiyo watching their crush get hurt (trips, breaks a bone, cuts themselves while cooking) and they help them/heal them while confessing they like them and want to date? (Fem reader s/o preferred but if you want they/them that’s your choice!)

Nagito, Kokichi, Shuichi, Gundham, Korekiyo and Kokichi seeing Fem! Reader get hurt & Confessing to her

One day too late, but it's here! I feel like I kinda failed on Kork's but I hope you all like it! - Mod Hajime

Nagito Komaeda

He’d been crushing on you for quite a while, but he didn’t want to say anything because he’d convinced himself you didn’t have feelings for him.

He liked being around you, and you were always nice to him, that was one of the reasons he fell for you so hard.

He had always had a problem with his luck bringing other people horrible luck, so he tried to distance himself from you, so he’d never get you hurt.

Unfortunately, his luck didn’t like to listen to him.

While you’d been walking down the hall, Nagito had been walking right behind you, a door had swung open and slammed you in the nose.

Since when did this school have swing doors!?

Nagito had ran towards you immediately and picked you up, your nose was bleeding like hell.

“Are you alright?” He kept asking you as he carried you to the nurse’s office.

You think your nose is broken.

After the nurse had deemed your nose broken, Nagito tasked himself with taking care of you.

“You really don’t have to do this, Komaeda. I’m fine.”

Nagito kept protesting and saying he had to take care of you, so you eventually gave up and let him take care of you.

You weren’t about to complain about having a handsome boy take care of you.

He was changing your bandages when he accidentally bumped your nose. Normally it wouldn’t hurt, but your nose was still weak, so you screamed a little when the pressure was added.

Nagito felt his heart drop when he heard you scream and started apologising immediately.

“Ah! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you again, I know I’m a piece of trash and don’t deserve your forgiveness, but please know I didn’t mean to hurt you! You’re just a really pretty girl and I was staring at you and got caught up in how pretty you are, sorry!”

He was so caught up in his rambling, he didn’t realize he kept calling you pretty and telling you he loved you.

You just kept staring at him from shock, did he just tell you he loved you?

“Komaeda.”

He kept rambing.

“Komaeda.”

He still wasn’t listening.

“Komaeda!”

He snapped out of it and realised what he’d been telling you. He flushed red, “Um, you can ignore what I said, please. I know you couldn’t like a piece of trash like me, but I want to at least take care of you.”

You rolled your eyes and grabbed him by the collar, “Love you too. Now stop panicking and fix my nose.”

He grabbed you, careful of your nose, and hugged you silently, he didn’t need words to show you how much he loved you.

Kokichi Ouma

It was just meant to be a prank, but now that he thought about it, it wasn’t funny at all.

He’d put a bucket of water on the door, expecting Shuichi or maybe Kirumi, but he wasn’t expecting you to walk through the door first.

His jaw dropped as soon as the bucket fell on your head.

You’d jumped on instinct, you couldn’t see and you slipped on the wet floor.

Things were moving in slow motion as he watched your body hit the floor, the bucket making a loud “CRASH!” as your head slammed into the ground.

It bounced two times before you laid quietly on the floor.

He ran over, he couldn’t even bring himself to make a fake laugh.

He didn’t know if you were alive at all, what if he just killed you?!

His mind was moving at 100 mph before he was able to take the bucket off of your head.

He was whispering for you to wake up, there was blood smeared on your lips, it was coming from a small stream in your mouth.

“Come on… This isn’t funny! Wake up!” Kokichi shook your body, he could feel tears falling down his cheeks, he couldn’t lose you! Not like this!

Kokichi’s lip quivered, “Don’t leave me, idiot. You’re the first person I’ve ever loved…”

You peeked open one eye, “Wait, really? Why?”

Kokichi’s eyes opened again, his face flushed red, “You’re alive?! Why would you do that to me?! WAAAAHHHHH!!! THAT’S SO MEAN!!!”

Kokichi couldn’t tell if his tears were fake or real at this point.

You couldn’t help but laugh. You pretended to be knocked out to get back at the gremlin who made you bite your tongue and ruined your outfit, but instead got a confession from the boy, who thought you died.

“I like you too Ouma.” You smiled before you coughed up the clotted blood in your mouth.

Kokichi’s eyes widened, he was glad you loved him back, but you just coughed up blood. “Are you alright, my Dearest?”

You rolled your eyes at his nickname, guess you’d have to get used to that.

You tried to stand up, but fell again, “Ugh… Can you get me to the nurses office?”

Kokichi giggled, “Of course! I’d do anything for my Hunny Bunny!”

‘Hunny Bunny’? You had a feeling these nicknames would get worse each time.

Gundham Tanaka

Gundham had been preparing to confess to you for a while now, but he honestly had no experience when it came to romance, or women in general.

Sonia had helped him with getting the confidence, but she eventually told him he had to do it himself.

He was pacing around in his dorm, practicing his confession in his head when he heard a knock on the door.

He opened the door, annoyed that someone had interrupted him, until he saw it was you.

You were holding your arm out to him, “Hey, Tanaka. Do you know how to treat rat bites?”

His eyes went wide as he saw your arm had two reddish holes in it.

He quickly brought you in, dropping his persona in the process.

He was disinfecting your bite and bandaging it.

Gundham rambled to himself, talking about how glad he was you had come to him first, partially unaware you were still in his room until you tapped his back.

Gundham jumped in alarm, he’d forgotten you were there.

He always failed at staying calm when you were around. He was nervous he’d say the wrong thing each time.

The last thing he’d want was for you to dislike him.

He was stuttering as you stared at him, he tried to get words out, but you were so close it felt like he was going to die from your beauty.

“Did you want to tell me something, Tanaka? You look like you need to get something off your chest.”

Your smile just made it even worse.

He covered his face with his scarf in an attempt to hide his blush.

“Yes, I do.” He did his best to force a calm voice. Remembering what Sonia had told him to say and what to do to be able to confess.

“I think you’re truly the most beautiful lady in all of the realms. Would you- would you care to be… M-mine?” Gundham felt like crawling into an early grave, he squeezed his eyes shut, preparing himself for rejection.

What he wasn’t expecting was to feel your hand touch his own and softly grasp it.

Gundham peeked open one eye to see you smiling at him.

“Of course I will.”

His heart was about to break out of his chest. Did you really just say yes?

He was in disbelief, but this was completely real.

He’d finally gotten the love of his life.

Korekiyo Shinguji

He didn’t know when he started to develop feelings for you, but all he knew was that he was in deep.

You were fascinating to him, he never really cared much about romance when it came to him, but when it came to you, he just couldn't stop staring at how beautiful you were.

He'd been walking down the hallway, class had just gotten out and Korekiyo was speed walking to his lab, he'd gotten a new artifact and couldn't wait to examine it up close.

He heard a yelp and a loud bang and quickly looked around on instinct.

His eyes laid on your body which was on the ground, books, paper, and a few pencils were scattered around you.

No one else was in the hall, Hope's Peak was huge, but didn't have many students, so the hallways were never full.

He held his hand out for you, checking carefully for any injuries, he didn't want you to be hurt.

He blushed as you thanked him, you picked up your scattered materials, Kiyo choosing to help you.

He thought to himself, he was usually blunt when speaking, of course more mysterious than most, but still blunt.

"Ahem, this may not be the time, but I'd like to say it now," Kiyo started.

He had your attention, much to his relief before continuing, "I think you're the most fascinating woman I've ever met. You're incredibly beautiful, and I love that very much. You can say no, but I have to ask you, would you like to be in a relationship with me?"

His face was burning, he looked at you, carefully examining your expression for any sign of rejection.

You nodded immediately, "I'm glad you asked me out, Shingujii, I was afraid to do it myself."

Kiyo felt like he was dancing on stars, this was such an incredible feeling, like nothing he's ever felt before.

He reached for your hand and softly rubbed his thumb on your hand.

He pressed his forehead to your hand, whispering how glad he was to have you.

He'd never felt like this before, and didn't want it to end.

Shuichi Saihara

All this man wanted was to hold your hand!

He thought you were amazing, you were just so talented and cool!

You never failed to make him smile, he’d always blush around you, so he’d hide under his hat, he just hoped you didn’t hate him for it.

He’d gotten hyped up by Kaito to ask you out and was looking for you.

He’d found you in the kitchen, you were chopping quite a few berries on the cutting board, humming to yourself.

He smiled, you were so pretty.

He bit his lip before nervously going up to you.

“U-uhm… Hey- Uh. How have you been?” He couldn’t help but stutter, you wouldn’t make fun of him, but what if you didn’t like shy boys? What if you preferred more masculine boys like Kaito, or even Rantaro?

Just thinking about that possibility made his heart beat quicken in fear.

You looked over to him and smiled, “Oh, hey Saihara. Here for a snack too?”

He shifted his weight from one foot to another, hiding under his hat.

He couldn’t do this after all!

Shuichi was caught up in his own head until he heard the water from the tap start up.

“Geez, I got juice all over my hand.” He heard you mumble to yourself.

He looked over curiously, there was a bowl full of sweet-looking berries in it.

Your hand still had a lot of juice on it, he had to at least be helpful, “Y-you’ve still got some juice on your hand.”

You looked down and licked it off, recoiling at the strong metallic taste on your tongue, “Ew. Must have cut myself. That’s blood.”

His head shot up in alarm, you were hurt?

He quickly brought you to the nurses office, it might not be a big cut, but if there was blood, it was a problem.

“Seriously, Saihara, I’m fine.” You’d tried to have him calm down, but he was adamant to bandage your hand himself.

Shuichi felt an unfamiliar rush of courage, he might not get another chance to ask you out after all.

“Would you like to be my girlfriend?” He blushed down to his collar, embarrassment couldn’t even begin to describe how he felt right now.

What was more shocking was that you said yes. He had to admit he wasn’t expecting that response.

He finished bandaging your hand and kissed it, he couldn’t get anymore embarrassed, so why not?

He got his first girlfriend and got to share a bowl of fruit with you, so double points for him!

[timextoxhajima]

NCT One Shot Collection

Member: Yuta

Genre: Fluff, a teaspoon of sed 

Word Count: 4k

Ding

A message popped up on your laptop screen. It was one of those messages from an online dating app you had been using the past week, and you couldn't wait to delete the stupid thing off your laptop. Why, you ask? You were on a deal with a friend who was trying to get you hooked up with someone, so she helped you install the app into your laptop and she guaranteed you that you would get picked up in no time. The only problem was that you didn't want to be picked up. You were perfectly fine living alone, the peace and tranquility of being alone had become your favourite thing to look forward to at home after work. But being friends with her for 10 years, you decided that it wouldn't hurt, and she wouldn't know anything if you didn't tell her. You roll over back to your desk on your roller chair and click a cross on the popup, before rolling back to your cabinet and sorting out some files for work. 

Ding

"Ugh," You groaned and shoved the files back into the cabinet, annoyed. You rolled to the desk, opening the app and looking at the notifications. Someone had left you 2 messages, the first one you had crossed away.

OS0162: Hello! I saw that you were reading a Japanese book in your profile photo. Are you Japanese, or learning?

You frown and process the information. Nobody had ever commented on your profile photo and the Japanese book.

You: I spent some years in Japan when I was younger so I can read Japanese, but I'm Korean by blood.

You hit send, muting your computer and closing the window. After clearing the cabinet, you roll back to your laptop and notice more notifications. 

OS0162: Oh, sweet! I'm Japanese, but I'm in Korea now. The book you're reading is really good, and I love the plot.

You frown again, pleasantly surprised. Nobody you knew was aware that the book even existed. But you weren't so quick to buy into his words.

You: Really? What's the plot about? Have you read it?

You hit send again, trying to test his sincerity.

OS0162: I have! More than once! Yakuno travels back to his father's castle through water portals and he freaks when he finds out that Miwanaki had been taken hostage by the government. I won't spoil the ending for you, if you haven't finished the book.

You have, and that was exactly how the book went. He wasn't lying. 

You: Cool, so what brings you to Korea?

Send.

OS0162: Parents' family business.

You blinked.

You: Training to become heir?

Send.

OS0162: You could say so, but I'm not the most keen on running around and making sure my henchmen do what they are supposed to do. I kind of have other plans I want to do instead of living my life because I was born into my family.

You paused to wonder and noticed his profile photo was of his back, and yours was of the crown of your head as you were reading the book. Neither of you knew how each other looked. 

This is ridiculous.

You shake your head and huffed, shutting off your personal laptop and using your work allocated one instead. 

The sun had set and your colleagues began trailing out of the office building one by one, sometimes in two. You were one of the youngest employees, but seated in a supervisor's office. You had a heavier load than your colleagues, and though sometimes it held you back in that boring four-walled room way longer than you colleagues, you didn't mind at all. You loved your work, and nothing could ever tear you away from it, not even that dating website. 

"Bye, y/n, don't go home too late," The last standing colleague of yours knocked on your opened office door, her bag in hand. 

"I'll see you tomorrow," You smiled at her and waved.

You pushed your hair backwards, leaning forward and saving your work on your work laptop. Closing it, you looked over to your own personal laptop and saw the sticker of Yakuno, the character from the Japanese book, pasted on the back of it. You had spent the first decade of your life in Japan, and your best friend had gifted you that book, the same physical book you were holding in your profile photo you used on the dating website. Your best friend had specially printed a whole sheet of stickers of characters and objects from the book to gift to you before you had left Japan. It was the most heartbreaking thing you could remember from your childhood, because you never saw that person again. The one and only person whom you had diligently remembered every likes and dislikes, even till this day, and yet contact was never kept. It had been more than 10 years, and it hurt you to realise that your best friend probably couldn't even remember how you looked like.

You pushed open the door to your penthouse, the built-in home system turned on jazz, lo-fi music.You pulled off your blazer and your hair tie, making your way into your bathroom and turning on the tap, filling up your bathtub. It had been a long week, and you needed this. You grabbed your phone and sealed it in a small waterproof bag, just in case you drop it in your own bathtub.

Ding. 7 unread messages from Kandlelite

You roll your eyes, annoyed that your laptop and phone were so perfectly in sync that whatever happened on your personal laptop happened on your phone too. 

OS0162: Hey, uh... I'm in Korea for two weeks

OS0162: Do you wna hang?

OS0162: I kinda need help with orienting myself around in Korea

OS0162: Especially in Seoul

OS0162: And Busan

OS0162: It's alright if you don't and you're busy though

OS0162: I understand

You couldn't believe it. That flitting thought sped past your mind, thinking of agreeing and actually meeting up with someone you've spent a day talking to. 

"Don't be an idiot, how good of a relationship can it be if it was started online?" You locked your phone and lifted your elbow onto the edge of the bathtub, rubbing your temples with your fingers. You were slowly slipping into some kind of peace and sleepiness, before the sound of your doorbell woke you up. 

"Jesus Christ, it's Friday night..." You groaned, leaning your head backwards and refusing to get out of the bathtub. The doorbell rang again. You growled and got out of the bathtub, wrapping a baby blue silk robe around yourself, pulling all of your hair to one side and making sure you look the most presentable you could be with wet hair and a robe. You looked at the intercom camera fitted onto the wall near the door, noticing that it was a male right outside, his body language looking confused and anxious. His face was covered and shadowed by his hoodie, so you couldn’t tell who it was. You frown to yourself, pressing the voice button and leaning towards the device. 

"Can I help you?" 

"Erm yeah... does anybody by the name of y/n live here?"

You frown more. "That's me, who am I speaking to?"

"Open the door and you'll find out," The man replied, almost like a child playing hide and seek. You pull away from the device and fold your arms. If today was the day you were supposed to die, you wouldn't be able to change it anyway. Who was to say that you were not going to be brutally murdered in your own home on a Friday night, right? You took in a deep breath and wrapped your slightly wrinkled fingers around the door handle, pulling it open with some force given the weight of the door. 

You would have never forgotten those eyes even if you had dementia, or a billion things on your mind. It was Nakamoto Yuta, your best friend from your childhood. 

"Hi y/n," He grinned. His teeth might've gotten larger and looked different, but the shape of his lips when he smiled hadn't changed. The way his eyes remained twinkling, some of his long fringe covering part of his eyes. 

"Yuta?" You whisper, like you were scared someone was going to catch you for saying something illegal. He smiled again and nodded, looking at you brightly, not bothering about how you were only in a robe and uncombed hair. He had seen you in a kiddy swimsuit more than 10 years ago anyway. You slowly and messily found a way to get your hands to unlock the gate, your eyes never leaving him for a second. He was dressed in a black hoodie, jeans and sneakers.

"I... how did you find me? Why are you here? How are you here? What--" You stopped yourself, watching him let himself in and close the door behind him. 

"It's been a long 13 years, y/n. I hope you're as happy to see me as I am," He said softly, watching your eyes shift in its eye sockets and observing his facial features. You warily stretched out your arms, like there were weights holding them down. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you tiptoed and hugged him.

"I'm sorry I never kept in touch. My parents always told me I'll see you again soon, until your parents decided not to come back to Osaka," Yuta had his arms around your lower back, careful not to touch anywhere inappropriate.

"No, oh my God," You pulled away, tears now in your eyes threatening to fall. "I never blamed you. There wasn't anybody I could blame even if I was really angry. I tried looking for you, but I just... I googled your name everyday in high school!" You laughed softly, sniffling and rubbing your eyes. 

"Well then," He was now holding your hands between the two of you. "About how I found you... you can thank yourself for that. I found you through your company's website. Your name was so high up on the rankings, that I was so happy for you. I wanted to look for you earlier, but my parents kept me under some security system to protect me from anything the outside world could offer,"

"What? What do you mean 'protect'? Are you in any kind of danger? Your family?" 

"No... I... did you ever find out why exactly you grew up in Japan then had to move back to Korea?"

"No, my parents told me it was a business trip," You turned and gently pulled him to the sofa.

"Yeah, but do you know what business trip it made them stay in Osaka for 15 years, had you born there, then came back to Korea and not return to Osaka?" Yuta was now sitting down next to you, his eyes still fixated on you. 

You shook your head. It never occurred to you that the business trip and why they chose not to return to Osaka was related.

"Your parents were working with mine, and it was apparently a very dangerous business. Your parents never went back because it was under the safety protocol. They needed us separated because we were children, too big and too easy of some few targets to threaten the business with.”

You listened intently, confused. You never knew your parents were handling such a dangerous business. After you came to Korea with them, they just let you grow up like any other kid. Study hard, go to university, get a job, work to the top. Whatever your parents' lives had been in the first 12 years of your life was unknown to you. They covered it up so well and so carefully, it never occurred to you that you could've been in any trouble.

"I only found about this a few years ago, when my father told me the business was now stable and fixed. He wanted me to start preparing to take over the business, but before I could do that at home, I needed to find the Korean half of it for a merger sequence. Your parents now live in--"

"Busan," You looked at him, ready to break out in laughter. "You're on Kandlelite. OS0162. OS for Osaka and the numbers... it’s your birthdate reversed," You laughed. Yuta was confused for a moment, before he realised what you were talking about. 

"No way, you're the one I've been talking to the entire day? Man, the odds..." 

"I know, right? Lord, I just... the last thing I expected on a Friday night in the middle of July is for you to show up on my doorstep after virtually talking to you the entire damn day," You sigh and lean back in the sofa, running your fingers through your damp and uncombed hair. He smiles.

"It's a really nice place you've got here,' He says after a minute of silence. 

"You say it like you don't have a nicer place to stay, given what your parents are doing," You joked, nudging him on the side. 

"You mean our parents. Your parents are as equally as well to do as mine, and no, I told my dad I didn't want a nice five star hotel."

"What? Then where are you staying? For two weeks, right?" You sat up straight again, giving him the same look you always gave him when he took something of yours and hid it somewhere when you were younger.

"I'm staying at a loft that's more traditional Korean," Yuta nodded. "Just about 20 minutes away from your place,"

"20 minutes? That's great. You can check out now and stay here! I'll bring you around Seoul and Busan for the next two weeks," You got off the sofa and stood up, excited. 

"You really didn't change much, y/n. Still the same girl I knew back in Osaka," Yuta blinked at her, then looked away and around. "Are you sure though? Don't you have work? I can't just suddenly crash your place like this,"

"Oh, come on! I can apply for leave until you're done with Korea. And yes, I have more than one bedroom, tons of space and even if I didn't, I would definitely make time for you. Besides, you hate staying at hotels and lofts," You raised a brow. Yuta rolled his eyes before breaking out into a large smile, nodding then agreeing to the arrangement. 

It became the best two weeks of your life. It was like those 13 years was never lost and you just picked your friendship up with Yuta where you left it off. You showed him around Seoul in the first week, letting him eat all kinds of street food, visiting random tourist stores for him to pick up gifts for his family. In the second week, the two of you packed for Busan to stay with your parents for a few days. The days were filled with home cooked food by your mother and old ginseng alcohol (Insam-Ju) from your father who were both as excited to see Yuta as you were at the start of the two weeks. Yuta's schedule included visiting schools, hospitals and the poorer areas of Busan, for him to research on how he could help improve the environments through the business and what he could do to help. The business that both you and his parents had started was only dangerous because there were rival companies who wanted the ideas for themselves, with many ideas much more practical and realistic than the rival company's. Your father gave Yuta a bottle of wine that he was supposed to have with Yuta's father, but never did because of the circumstances, the same circumstances where your family was forced back to Korea due to the threats in Osaka. The last three days were spent back in Seoul, where you took him to all your favourite spots in the city. Ramen in a convenience store, a picnic by Han River, late night barbeque sessions and early morning cycling, all in 3 days. While the two weeks spanned longer than a day, it felt like it was a day, but never enough to compensate for the 13 years you had lost with him. All the times that the both of you had tough times, first relationships, first heartbreak, academic stress followed by the obligation to handle the company on Yuta's part, all done without one another and you could only imagine how easier life would've been growing up, had Yuta been with you all this time. 

Your last favourite stop which was the stop you procrastinated till the end, due to how cliche it was, was the N Seoul tower. You always loved the romantic part about getting locks as a symbol of promise and eternity. While Yuta took his time admiring the view of the city at the tip of the tower, you got two locks, one for him and one for yourself, whatever promise the both of you wanted, you would write on a sticker and paste it on or write it on the lock itself with a marker. 

Yuta wrote his in Japanese, while yours in Korean. You eyed his features from his side profile, marveling for the last 2 weeks how well he grew up to be. He was such a handsome man, with such a bright future and with one of the kindest hearts you knew, not just because he was your best friend. You turned back to your lock, and thought carefully before printing it down in ink. 

To Yuta whom I came with, I wish you happiness and love in the years to come. In success and in health, our friendship will never be replaceable. Not even if I get married. I love you with all my heart, I always have.

"I'm done," Yuta smiled at you, capping on his marker and looking at his blue lock like it was a pet. You smile back, looking around the fence for a space to lock them.

That night, the two of you decided to stay in and watch the movie that bonded the both of you: Yakuno's Fairytale. At the end of it, the both of you took deep breaths in synchronization, exhaling at the same rate and feeling some kind of peace, but at the same time, loss, knowing that he was leaving the next morning. 

"You know, y/n, this was the best 2 weeks I've had in a long long time. Seeing your parents again after so long made me realise how close I was to your family before, I really wish you could see mine," Yuta looked at you, then looked at his fingers, peeling small bits of skin off the edges. 

"You know I'd love to, but I have to stay and work unless it's during some official office break. I was lucky enough they let me off these two weeks," You sighed, leaning back on the pillows and watching him. 

"I know, y/n, I know... I just wish the last 13 years I spent alone could have been with you. When my dad told me about the company when I was 21, I freaked, you know. I was... angry and upset because their choice, and your parents' choice, had caused us to be separated. If our parents hadn't chosen to stay in that business, we would have never been separated so... abruptly. It sucked to have realised that they told us we'll be seeing each other again soon just to get us to leave one another... only to wait 13 years,"

"Yeah, but if they didn't take it up, both of us wouldn't have been so well off," You rested your head in your palm, your elbow perched on the top of the sofa.

"I just... 13 years lost, when it could have been with you," He looked at you, his eyes glistening and his eyebrows slightly furrowed near the center of his forehead. 

You watched him watch you, almost able to see your reflection in his. You chuckled to break the silence, shifting a little and pulling your legs in to yourself.

"What are you going on about now, Nakamoto?" You mumbled under your breath, your heart racing and suddenly unable to look at him in the eye. 

You thought you were the only one. 

"Remember when we were 10, we got lost at the Tenjin festival in Osaka together? When we were both scared, but for some God forsaken reason, I was more of a wuss than you were... and you took care of me, though I'm older than you?"

"Yeah, but you were like 2 inches shorter than me, it was easy to feel like you were the one needing protection," You snickered, eyeing him from the corner of your eyes.

"But now you're like 6 inches shorter than me," Yuta laughed widely. "Anyway, point is, y/n, 13 years was hard to get through, because as hard as I tried to forget about you, to move onto someone else, romantically, you were always at the back of my head, telling me that I was going to meet you soon, and that we were never meant to be separated." 

You went quiet again, ecstatic, yet afraid of what he was going to say next.

"y/n? Hey," Yuta shifted closer and looked at you intently. You didn't even realise that tears had formed in your eyes and your nose turned sour, your line of vision blur and Yuta's face was soft around the edges, instead of his defined features. "Hey, don't cry, please don't cry," Yuta wrapped his arms around you, quietly hushing you and you buried your face in his neck.

"I missed you, so much. When I was in college, I thought I'd never see you again. I couldn't blame anybody, not my parents or yours because they did what they had to do for our sake, and it hurt, not being able to blame anybody," You croaked, the back of your throat tasting bitter. Yuta hummed in response, gently stroking the crown of your head.

"But it's alright now, isn't it? We've found each other again and..." He pulled away and cupped your face. "I believe we both never lost our feelings for one another."

He said it. The truth that you had buried deep down in your heart for a long time, for more than 13 years, had finally been put out there. 

"I thought... I thought I was on my own... I thought you didn't know," You whispered. Yuta pressed his forehead against yours, reaching down to hold your hands.

"No, it wasn't just you. But I thought I was on my own too." 

You laugh. Fate was such a dumb idea. Separating you two when you were the best of friends, and more than a decade later, reunite the both of you, only to reveal the truth that both of you had kept to yourselves over the years. 

-

"I wish you could stay," You hugged Yuta's waist, feeling a kiss on the top of your head.

"I wish you could come," You heard him say into your ear. 

"I promise I'll visit Osaka soon," You reply. He hummed, stepping back and grabbing his luggage.

"I will see you soon, I promise," Yuta says, moving away with his luggage. You nodded, waving to him. 

Yuta walked into the departure hall, remembering every single moment he had with you in the last 14 days. He had wished you were there the last 13 years, and he could never tell you all the hard times he had been through. Just as he caught the last glimpse of you, he remembered what he wrote on the lock, and promised himself never to break it.

To y/n who taught me what love and friendship was, you are irreplaceable and nothing in the world could keep me away from you. When I'm done with the important things I have to do in Osaka, I will return for you, and for you only. I loved you for as long as I can remember, and it will stay like this. I promise.

[moaserendipity]

Where your eyes linger messy review.

I can’t tell you enough how excited I was for this drama and I have to say I still feel a bit sad it was so short🙈 but at least it got a happy ending, and I’m a sucker for happy endings!! So let’s begin with another messy review!!💜🔥

I loved how this started, I mean I don’t like violence but I love how you immediately saw how Taejoo felt about Kang Gook. He DID not like how Pilhyun called him his servant, lol I at first did not expect him to hit Pilhyun but BAM there he went🤣😋 must’ve been painful!! (Also just a side note who would’ve thought they would become friends🙈)

Taejoo's dad is annoying me tbh, I mean yes it’s affective to hit Kang Gook because it upsets Taejoo but still it’s never okay to punish someone like that, also what is it with parents and treaths to send you away when you do something wrong... I mean it doesn’t solve a fudging thing and might even make things worse...🤷‍♀️ anyway...

I love Kang Gook, I mean I know it’s his job but the way he takes care of Taejoo🥰 I love the banter between the two but the second they stare into each other’s eyes, they make things obvious👀 at least TaeJoo does👀 he shows it with minor things, like hugging and touching Kang Gook as much as possible😎 also that wrestle match, I was like HELL YES! Then he did that weak point thing to Kang Gooks ear🔥 that’s the first time I really noticed it with Kang Gook👀

but then Hyemi shows interest in him and he doesn’t reject it which annoys Taejoo lol. (Same though) tbh Kang Gook already gives me whiplash I mean Taejoo is playing around with Pilhyun and touches his ear, which Kang Gook DOES NOT like at all! ( he is like; WTF MAN THATS OUR THING!🤣🔥)

(GUYS THIS WILL BE LONG ASS MESSY REVIEW, SORRY ABOUT THIS👀🙏)

So this is where I feel slightly confused and maybe even annoyed with Taejoo, I mean it’s obvious he like Kang Gook more then just his friend/bodyguard but still pushes him to go out with Hyemi and then when Kang Gook does this and he gets upset about it, like wtf do you want dude🤣🤦‍♀️

Anyhooo soooo they are sparring with Judo right?!!! (Forgive me if i say the wrong sports, like i don’t know a single thing about martial arts)🙏 now I know I shouldn’t read to much into this but I can’t help it especially when they get distracted by the phone and Taejoo is literally flirting with Kang Gook👀 in which Kang Gook sprained Taejoo’s wrist🤣 like can it get more obvious👀

NEVERMIND IT CAN👀 showering together because of a sore wrist👀 I see you Taejoo. Lol I love how he makes sure Kang Gook has to help him, seriously TaeJoo is a handful🤣 That shower scene though it’s intimate and I just couldn’t look away😍 the gentle way he washes Taejoo’s hair, makes me fall as well😍

Oefff... big mistake Taejoo.. 🙈 telling Kang Gook it reminds him of his mom.. ROMANTIC MOMENT IS OVER!

UGH I HATE IT WHEN THEY PUT A RANDOM GIRL BETWEEN THE MAIN COUPLE!! 😩🤬 I mean they were being alll domestic and stuff and this girl comes and BAM 💥 it’s done, although Kang Gook is not good at hiding his feelings because he is definitely upset(I would be too, god the man deserves better🥺)

Taejoo is giving me a whiplash I mean how can he first kiss a it and the flirt the next morning. 🤦‍♀️ I wouldn’t be able to resist it either Kang Gook, no one can be that strong! I loved his little smile 😍

The flirt lesson though👀 THAT WAS HOT🥵🔥🔥🔥 the fact that they both have feelings damn!!! It’s visible but it’s also clear as day that Kang Gook doesn’t want to admit to them🥺 the way he told Taejoo to stop provoking him, ughhhhhhh🥺 I do like that Taejoo realises he likes Kang Gook more then just a friend and that he is admitting that he does not like that Kang Gook is dating Hyemi and even meddles in his date by bluntly telling them they don’t suit each other.

It was a dick move though to tell Kang Gook to walk home just because he feels jealous! I would’ve just gotten in or at least flip him off and curse at him! 🤬 I mean sure he came back but I would just ignore him until he got out and drags me into the car, I would not surrender easily!

Again with like my mom🥺 Taejoo must get that he is asking too much, although Kang Gook can’t resist him which we call L.O.V.E!!! 🥺

that fight between them OH LORD!! 🥵 the sexual tension or JUST TENSION WOOOOOW! 🥵 ( I was like ARE THEY GOING TO KISS TO NAH THEY WONT, OR WILL THEY👀💥🔥)It’s a turning point though because both can’t really deny it any longer.

YAH THIS IS I AM ANGRY BUT I LOVE YOU FIGHT💥🙈

TAEJOO CONFESSED AND KANG GOOK KNOWS HOW TO BREAKS HEARTS😭 ITS HEARTBREAKING😭 I mean come on Kang Gook loves him but thinks he can’t be with him and that’s why he acts this cruel just to push Taejoo away, both are crying, UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH😩😭

I like Hyemi the way she has been observing and knowing about his feelings for Taejoo, only by the way his eyes lingered to Taejoo and not to her. 🥰

the way Kang Gook comes in like a fudging superhero to save the man he loves🔥🔥🔥💥 ugh did I mention I highly dislike Taejoo’s father.. anyway I do! Sending his son to England just because of the man he loves🥺 but I love how they got to spend the last night together in each other’s arms🥺😭

I’m so happy they have a happy ending like YES!!! ✊🎉 and THAT KISSSSSSSS😍😍😍😍😍💋 I LOVED IT! I want it to last longer😍😭😍

I love the actors who played Taejoo and Kang Gook😍 they were perfect for each other! The tension between the two was amazing and the chemistry, just WOW! 😍 I loved the build up and the way they both figured out their feelings and ended up happily together after facing some struggles🥰

Definitely a top 10 spot at the end of the year when I will make that top 10👀

[noa-halevy]

AIN’T NO PARTY LIKE AN S-CLUB PARTY:

Cool, so. Finally we can get some Hallowe’en shenanigans underway. I’m sorry it took so long. Lmao I’m also sorry for this whole ass mess and what will come of it.

Date: October 31st, 2020. Warnings: Hanging. Just in case. Also length, because this is extra.

“Look, we’ve just got one question. Answer it truthfully, and we’ll let him go...”

Yeah, like she fucking believed that.

When she glanced over the ‘him’ in question—forced to kneel on the concrete floor, a gun that she still couldn’t figure out how they’d snuck into the party pressed into the back of his head—Noa could see him shake his head fractionally. Not for me.

Always the fucking hero. It was why she loved him.

Fifteen minutes ago, they’d been hovering somewhere in the middle of the dance floor, having the time of their lives.

Now, the two French mobsters had been forced into a dimly lit room off of one of the tunnels, the music outside so loud that nobody could hear them scream.

Not exactly how she’d imagined her evening going, to be fair.

“Well, I’ve got a party to get back to, so if you wouldn’t mind hurrying the fuck up...”

They were Rutherford’s people, of that she was sure; the Asian woman looking for answers the same one who could so often be found at Lara’s side. Had it been anyone else, perhaps she could have put it down to her crass attitude rubbing someone up the wrong way—maybe Adrian was a little more delicate then he seemed—but when she realised that these were all people who shadowed one member of the opposing family in particular, she knew her luck had run out.

The question was an obvious one, and she was the answer.

“Who attacked Lara? Was it you or your sister?”

Until the words left her dumb fucking mouth, Noa hadn’t even considered the idea that if Lara did remember who’d been the one to tear her face to shreds, she mightn’t have been able to discern which of the twins was responsible for it. From the moment Varden and Évelyne had reprimanded her for attacking the woman without permission, she’d thought she’d considered everything; that they could come after her, that they could come after her daughter, that they could come after her husband. A case of mistaken identity, though? Perhaps it should’ve been a more obvious hazard.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

It sounded convincing, but the woman in front of her rebuffed it with a roll of her eyes.

“My patience is thin,” she said, tone so calm Noa hadn’t expected her to turn around and throw out the order that the gun be used in her next breath. “Shoot him.”

What?

“Wait—wait!”

The protests, no matter how desperate, were in vain.

Despite the steady thrum of the bass line outside of the crumbling walls, the sound of the gun going off ripped through her drunken haze like the bullet ripped through its target. The woman’s bloodshot eyes were wide with horror as she watched the man keel over to the side and hit the ground like a tonne of fucking bricks. The only consolation—and she hated herself for being glad to hear it—was the sound of him crying out in agony. It echoed painfully until her blood ran cold. As he rolled onto his back, cursing out his attacker with every French insult under the sun, silence finally came in the form of a boot to his face.

They couldn’t bullshit their way out of this one.

Their attackers had them over a fucking barrel, and she was seething.

“It was the Russians!”

“Stop lying to me.”

“I’m not lying,” Noa snapped back, her chest heaving with every breath. “You just don’t want to hear the truth that your new friends aren’t as neatly under your thumb as you think they are.”

Before she could continue a pointless tirade she was sure they both knew was a lie, a hand grabbed her by the throat with so much force, it caught her off guard. By fuck she hoped the bitch knew how lucky she was that she couldn’t fight back.

“Lara pointed you out in the crowd,” the bitch continued, face coming to within an inch of her own as she muttered the words dangerously. “Would you like to try again?”

“Yeah? Well maybe your boss is just a dumb fucking cunt. Blind now, too, isn’t she?”

The second gunshot rang out without warning.

Not only did it startle Noa to the point that she flinched in Medea’s grip, but it seemed to surprise the woman crushing her throat, too—enough so that she turned to look at her companion with a hint of annoyance.

“Eitan. Enough.”

Despite the fact the one wielding the gun grumbled in response to the woman who apparently held his leash, there wasn’t a sound to be heard from the man who had taken his second bullet of the evening. In fact, if Noa hadn’t spared a sideways glance to make sure that he was still moving—dizzying relief following as she caught him attempting to reach for his other shattered knee—she might’ve assumed he was dead.

As dead as she was going to be if she couldn’t figure her way out of this…

“The party isn’t that big,” Medea once again spoke back to the fighter. “He shouldn’t be taking this long to find the other one.”

The other one presumably being her sister.

If the older Halévy was still in the company of Laurent, then good fucking luck to the sorry bastard who’d been given that task. It was some consolation she could cling on to, at least.

“If you think she’ll come quietly, you’ve got even less brain cells than your boss.”

The woman seemed to take a deep breath in through her nose at that—an adult trying their best to rise above the annoying pesters of an insolent child—before she all but snatched the gun out of her accomplice’s hand. Noa thought it would be pretty lucky on her part if the bitch didn’t immediately turn and use it to beat her mouth shut.

“Fewer,” Medea corrected.

“What?”

“It would be ‘even fewer brain cells than your boss’.”

Noa looked at her in silence.

“I don’t care whether she comes quietly,” she added, angrily. “I just want her to see this.”

Noa didn’t know what ‘this’ was, but judging by the crack in the tone of her voice, she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.

---

“I came to this party last year. There’s definitely a room around here somewhere...”

“We’re going to get in trouble, aren’t we?”

The way she giggled suggested she didn’t mind the idea one bit.

The two youngsters—only a few years clear of being flat-out rejected on the door—had broken away from the main party in search of a little…privacy. Having wandered through the inebriated crowds for a while, he finally caught sight of the familiar passageway he’d been remembering in case he got lucky. Noting that a man was just leaving, he paused a moment to make sure his own guest wasn’t following behind. Then, sure as he could be that the coast was finally clear (and without much thought for the consequences) he quickly ducked inside, holding onto the hand of the girl who had been trying her level-best to catch his attention all night.

“This is kind of creepy.”

He’d laughed at that, using it as an excuse to pull her closer.

“Well, it is Hallowe’en, no?”

Their hushed French echoed in the tunnels, only underscored by the thumping of the DJ’s next song choice a room over. It was amazing that it was almost loud enough to feel, even here. Her hand seemed to tighten around his; her apprehensive path edging her closer. For a moment, his patience stretched so thin he contemplated pushing her up against the wall there and then, but she seemed intent on the idea of having a door to hide behind.

Ugh.

When they finally reached the threshold of the room, the sounds of talking caught them off guard.

Had somebody already taken their spot?

Perhaps, had they been smarter—or at the very least, more aware of the types of guests they were sharing their night with—they would have turned around and walked back to the bar. Had a few more drinks, thrown up in the taxi home, and bragged to their friends about something that never really happened because they were too drunk. As it was, the beautiful brunette, smile as cheeky as her wandering hands had been earlier, decided that she wanted to get a better look.

Even though he’d been about to protest, she’d dragged him along for the ride.

Who was he to say no?

The sight that greeted them was one neither could’ve imagined in their wildest dreams.

Considering the fact he’d been wearing the same grin from the moment he’d first laid eyes on his companion, the speed in which it faded to sheer horror was astounding.

For a moment, he’d thought the woman in front of them was dead.

The silhouette standing beneath her, apparently watching to be sure the makeshift noose around the French loyalist’s neck held as she swung from the ceiling, didn’t seem to register them at first. But whilst the horrified woman at his side was smart enough to keep her mouth shut, his lips had parted before he could even think about the repercussions of involving himself in this.

“No—”

Her name got stuck in his throat.

All the saliva seemed to leave his mouth; all ability to string together a real sentence right after.

The familiar brunette was still alive, he thought, but the way her eyes rolled back into her head—the way her hands could no longer find a grip on the rope around her neck—made it seem like she was teetering.

Were they…witnessing a fucking murder?

“What’s going on here?”

Maybe a part of him liked to think he was brave.

That he could be the kind of person who did the right thing in a situation like this instead of turning around and running away and making it somebody else’s responsibility.

Gabriel might’ve disliked his father, but he’d surely inherited some of his better qualities.

The way he could hear his heartbeat pounding in the words that left him, however, left him unsure of whether he was worthy of the comparison. All thoughts of his new girlfriend flew out of the window, despite the fact she had his hand in a death grip. There was a woman literally hanging from the ceiling. All he could think to do was lunge forward and try to help. This was Noa, for crying out loud. The woman was practically his family.

Even if he’d had a rational enough thought in his mind to consider going to get help, it would’ve surely been too late.

At first he’d been glad to see that the sound of his voice seemed to bring her back to some level of consciousness. That she seemed to be grabbing at the rope with some purpose again.

Then he realised it was panic he could see in her eyes instead of relief.

When the sound of a shriek came from behind him, it became abundantly clear why.

The woman who stood intent to hang his Godmother had a gun.

---

The last thing she’d wanted was for him to be the distraction they needed.

The last thing she’d wanted was to be the last face he saw.

It was only four gunshots that followed; precise, professional, cold.

Two for each kid she’d gunned down. An even split.

The pulse crashing in Noa’s temples grew more painful as each second passed; doubly so as she let out a strangled sob at the sight of the bodies crashing to the floor. No. Absolutely not. This couldn’t be happening. The room was closing in on her, she was sure of it. It felt like she was going blind—from the lack of oxygen, and the fucking pressure.

But maybe that would’ve been too kind a mercy.

Instead, she couldn’t tear her vision from the lifeless body.

Noa hadn’t thought much about how her final moments would play out, but she’d never expected to be thinking about this. To be considering what Varden was losing, instead of her husband and daughter having to go on without her.

“Halévy.”

Her name rose above her thoughts as a grunt. Just jarring enough to bring her back from the brink of wanting it.

As her eyes drifted toward the source of the voice, she remembered that Ludo was still with her. That despite the best efforts of the Rutherfords, he was still fucking breathing.

Barely.

Medea seemed preoccupied with investigating the youngsters she had just murdered.

For the brief moment in which her back was turned, Noa looked toward her friend. Though her hands still gripped at the rope above her head, she didn’t have the strength to keep her weight off for much longer. The Rutherford assassin had wanted her to struggle—had offered her up the means to do so—because this was just as much about her suffering as it was her murder. It seemed like the woman’s plan to have her sister witness the slow death had gone to shit, though, because there was no fucking way she was going to last another minute…

Or at least, that was what she’d thought.

Maybe it was shock, maybe it was adrenaline, maybe it was pure spite—knowing Ludo, more than likely a combination of the three—but the Frenchman somehow managed to drag himself to his feet. The movement was fast. If it hadn’t been, she wasn’t sure he would’ve managed it at all. Before her brain could catch up, he’d stumbled toward her, arms outstretched, body heaving. He couldn’t pull her down. He couldn’t cut the rope. But he could put himself beneath her—positioning her to sit on his shoulders—offering the brief window of leverage she needed to loosen the rope around her neck.

Noa was barely conscious. Thinking was an entire fucking process.

“Noa, you have to hurry up. Get the rope. I can’t—”

If the words hadn’t been enough to snap her back to their bleak reality, the fact that Medea had turned around when she’d heard them had.

Fuck.

Like one final spark of life shot back through her—desperate and stubborn—shaky hands reached up to the amateur knot at the side of her neck. The weight of her body had already tightened it so much she wasn’t sure she could loosen it. Her fingers kept slipping, unable to keep a hold. It felt like she was trying to grasp at air. Nothing.

Why couldn’t she fucking grab it?

“What the fuck are you doing? Stop!”

Even though she lifted the gun in her hands for a final time, Ludovic didn’t flinch.

Fumbling, straining, trying her hardest to keep her balance on her friend’s shoulders; eventually Noa managed to drag the rope from around her neck, ducking her head out a moment later. But she didn’t even get the chance to take her first real breath before Medea unleashed her fury on the man who’d helped.

Ludo fell to the ground, and this time, the bullet wasn’t meant as a punishment.

She hadn’t left any room for him to play the hero twice.

With nothing holding her up now, when the body of the French loyalist slumped to the ground, she’d tumbled along with him; unforgiving concrete meeting her head with such force she was surprised it hadn’t been enough for her to black out.

It was the chance she needed, though.

God, she couldn’t go out like this.

Medea tossed the empty gun to the side, staring her down with the coldest glare Noa had ever seen.

“What are you going to do?” It was a taunt she likely hadn’t expected to work in her prey’s favour. The anger in Noa spiked as she continued, “run?”

The Rutherford reached down to her leg to pull out a knife.

It was just enough of a distraction for the Frenchwoman, now on her feet, to make her move.

There was nothing left for her to lose and she was all out of options. Either it was time to die like a coward—for Ludo’s sacrifice to be in pitiful vain—or she mustered up the fight get the fuck out.

So she lunged.

If Noa hadn’t been so dazed and pained and disoriented, the Rutherford wouldn’t have stood a fucking chance. With every ounce of her anger and frustration weighing behind her, she threw her entire body at the assassin, dragging her down to the floor in a bluntly painful tangle of limbs. Noa pinned her to the concrete, merciless. Her shaky hands found the curve of her throat with ease; grabbing immediately with such force she was surprised she didn’t crush her windpipe.

Fuck, she wanted to.

Medea was startled enough that it took her a moment to regain her bearings.

To remember that she had a fucking knife.

The thought had skipped Noa’s mind entirely, too, until the searing pain fanned out from her side and weakened her like the cunt was deflating a fucking balloon.

Despite the knife wedged just below her ribs—and boy did she scream bloody murder at that—Noa brought her fist down to meet Medea’s face with shattering force. Cartilage and bone. All she wanted was to see her bleed. Once, twice, until the agony in her side denied her a third. The adrenaline that’d kept her alive until now could only hold up for so long, apparently.

The woman was conscious, but dazed. Barely moving.

This was her shot.

Noa clambered to her feet sluggishly.

She’d barely made it half way before her legs gave out.

The pain was so intense and all consuming that she wasn’t even sure if it the knife was solely to blame anymore. So she crawled. Dragged herself—each movement more agonizing than the last—closer to the doorway that would take her back out to the party. To help.

She could hear Medea moving behind her now.

Perhaps she had the same fucking idea.

Noa didn’t dare look back. Not even as a means to spur herself on.

The sounds of the party were growing louder. She could smell the cologne, taste the blood in her mouth, feel the embrace of those who were likely looking for her. The cold beneath her finger tips faded. It felt like her vision was following suit.

But the door was right there.

“Get the fuck back here,” the woman, hot on her tail, spluttered.

As if the light from the next room was all she needed, Noa eventually managed to get to her feet once more, falling against the wall for support. It would hold her.

Just a few more steps.

When she finally made it through the doorway to the party, nobody even noticed her.

How many people were walking around with fake knives hanging out of them?

How many people already looked half dead?

But this time, the bitch that followed was her saving grace instead of the one to take it all away. When she grabbed at Noa’s legs and dragged her down to the floor once more, people fucking noticed the impact. They noticed the clambering. They noticed that this wasn’t some drunk disagreement between two women but a real problem.

They were a fucking mess.

When Medea got to her feet, only to deliver a forceful kick to her ribs to put her on her back, it was as though nobody else in the room fucking existed.

Just them.

Neither cared.

They just wanted the other to hurt.

As the assassin helped herself to the knife she’d so carelessly left behind in her target’s side, the last thing Noa saw was her wielding it above her, ready to finish the job.

Someone was heckling.

It was loud. Felt louder than the music.

Before she could realise it was people coming to her aid, both the faces above her and last remnants of the party’s lights faded from vision.

Then there was nothing.

[dodgergilmore]

1: Idk about Rory having a regressive effect on Logan, since he shifts from bad to good (and then bad again) in the series as their relationship goes on, but he definitely seems to have a regressive effect on her, at least when it comes to her romantic relationship with him. Those 'hot takes' from their fans always annoy the fuck out of me though, because it's not actually them being like 'well they're both kinda terrible so

I guess they deserve each other', it's them basically showing that they'd sooner have their ship as an affair than anything else, while desperately clinging to this idea that it's somehow a good thing, when it's obviously not. Rory knows that the 'agreement' they have is bad in AYITL, and even though the Paul thing is suuch a badly written joke (and something that I can never really see Rory doing), for the latter half of the series, you can see her begin to realize that it can't go on with Logan, and she actually chooses to break it off herself both times. The whole thing with her being pregnant doesn't mean that she'll automatically get back together with him, esp when she already broke up with him AND went to ask her own father about Lorelai raising her on her own. And imo even if she has the kid on her own, (which is a valid choice since it's her body), that doesn't mean that Logan can just swoop in and save her? Esp when she made it clear that she didn't want that from him at the end (lol for a fandom that loves being all 'uhm Rory loves Logan!' they certainly love ignoring Rory's choices whenever they involve not choosing him). Anyway, Logan imo def represents someone who brings out Rory's more negative sides because she always goes to him whenever she wants to escape her own life and issues (and this happens several times in season 6 before she goes back to Lorelai).

Yeah, as I was typing that I was like “hmm I don’t think regressive is the word I’m looking for here...” basically what I had in mind was the ‘Logan changes for Rory’ line of thinking – he makes these quick decisions in their relationship that appear to be growth, like when he wants to be in a committed relationship and then brings her to dinner with his family in the same episode. But after Rory rejects his proposal, Logan ends up in much the same place as where he began: in London working the family (I think?? I don’t even remember lmao) business, tied to a dynastic plan and romantically uncommitted. All of that is a roundabout way of saying that Logan may make positive changes while with Rory because he wants to be with her, but ultimately those changes don’t progress his character in a meaningful or lasting way.

Even when non-shippers say they deserve each other just because they dislike both characters after the revival I’m like... really, though? You��d rather have two characters continue to spin around in a cycle of bad, repetitive choices rather than see how the characters can come back from this and be better? I watch a lot of television and have thus been disappointed by many shows and this sort of thought has just never crossed my mind, so I struggle to wrap my head around it. Find something more interesting to do with the characters!

The fact that Rory is the one to break it off with Logan during AYITL is pretty significant, I think, considering she is never the one to make that definitive choice: Dean in S1 and his public breakups in S3 and S5; Jess goes to California and only sees Rory on the bus because her first class was cancelled; the one-sided breakup from Logan’s end during mid-S6 and then when she says no to his proposal, which he makes out to be all or nothing; even Paul is the one who does the breaking up. The only exception I can think of is when she doesn’t want to casually date Logan anymore but that choice changes within the same scene. In these instances, Rory is only able to react to what’s been done because she can no longer make an active choice in the matter. Obviously a child would change the circumstances but Rory has made her choice with regard to Logan as a romantic option, and kids can’t act as band-aid fixes... especially to what has clearly run its course. Sometimes, love just isn’t enough and it seemed like Rory realised that throughout the revival. Yep! Logan has pretty consistently been a source of escapism, which can only go on for so long until it inevitably ends.

(I definitely think the running Paul bit was given no more thought than ‘this would be such a funny joke haha’ which is highly annoying because it comes at the expense of Rory’s character, ugh!)

While we’re on the topic of AYITL and characters making their own choices, I suppose I’ll just let out how wild the talking point of ‘Logan would’ve broken off the engagement if Rory told him to!’ during that whole “Are you really going to marry Odette” scene is to me......please, he is a grown man! If he doesn’t want to marry her then he doesn’t have to, and he shouldn’t be sitting around waiting for someone to tell him not to because like I said, grown man. Logan could break it off and live his own life whether Rory wants to be with him or not, but he chooses to stay because to some degree he must be content with his life. So if Rory were to "choose” him, that leaves them with two paths: Rory stays with him in London in a life that has little room for her, or Logan uproots his life – potentially dropping all stability in his life – to wherever Rory is in a life that has little room for him. This paragraph started off as me being annoyed with people babying a grown man and placing so much of the responsibility on the woman but I think I managed to find a point there lmao

[hargroves-angel]

you and billy get in a fight and he asks max for help

I Really Fucking Like You Billy Hargrove

Summary - Billy does something he regrets but lets his temper get the best of him resulting in you and him having an argument, however this just makes Billy even more angry causing Max to help her step brother out.

Warnings - Swearing, Billy being mean, Angst, Fluff

A/N - So sorry that this took so long to get out I’ve got a lot to do this week so uploads are going to be spaced out, I hope that’s ok, I apologise in advance though angels!

The front door slammed shut gaining Max’s attention away from her homework. Billy was obviously home. he’d actually been pretty happy recently especially after having been dating you. He just hadn’t stopped smiling, she thought he was sick! you were having some sort of effect on him and it was quite scary for Max, someone had tamed the beast in her eyes. 

Billy hadn’t stopped being annoying but he wasn’t as mean, he even apologised to her for the whole car and her friends incident. 

“Fucking bitch” Billy grumbled as he walked past her open door. “Turn down that fucking music!” he yelled at her from his room. She rolled her eyes but none the less turned it down, going to shut her door. 

That’s when she got really confused. Were those sobs? from Billys room? Was he crying?

She peaked her head round the gap of his door. 

He had his head in his hands. She glanced around at the room seeing how much you really had changed him, everywhere was clean. No dirty washing, no empty beer cans, no cigarette butts in the ash tray. it was so clean. 

“What the fuck do you want shithead?” Billy growled. 

“What happened?” Billy shook his head and laughed lowly. 

“Why do you even care?” He shoved his head back in his hands. Max slowly crept over to sit next to him on the bed. 

“Because like you said, we’re family now… we’ve got to look out for each other” she mumbled cringing at her words as she looked around at his transformed room. To be honest you should come round more often, her room could do with a reorganisation.

“yeah well whatever, doesn’t even matter anyway”

“It clearly matters Billy, I’ve never seen you cry-”

“I wasn’t even crying… that much. Basically we went to a party and I got really drunk, I ended up kissing some girl… I thought it was Y/N, I promise I thought it was her- Same hair, same eyes, same everything to me at the time. The worst part is that this girl pulled me in for the kiss first and me thinking it was Y/N - I just kissed back” Max sucked in a breath. “I should’ve known it wasn’t her - and then I started yelling at her… Fuck I feel so bad” Billy shoved his head in his hands. 

“Well I think… the best thing is to talk to her”

“Ive already done that Maxine, she doesn’t want to talk about it”

“I don’t think think yelling about your point is the same as talking Billy” Max mumbled. 

“Whatever, It’s just she deserves more then just some half assed apology… She’s so important to me Max…”

“How about tomorrow you show up at her house, pick her up and take her to that movie she wanted to watch”

“What movie?” Billy asked genuinely confused.

“she’s been talking about it loads! It’s all she mentions?” 

With that Billy shoved his head right back in his hands. “I didn’t even fucking know that- you know what Maxine, fuck you! get the fuck out of my room now”

“Wait what?!” Max furrowed her eyebrows and huffed.

“Just fucking get out!” Billy yelled at her. Max knew better than to stay, she stomped out. Billy was definitely falling hard for Y/N, in a way it amused her, to see him even getting all angry every time a love song played, let’s just say he’s been working out a lot recently, he was hitting the weights every chance he got whilst the radio played some sort of love song, but it was when your song came on did she see Billy really fall apart, he dropped the weight on the floor and stomped into his room, anger and hurt radiating off him.  

Thats when she felt bad, he usually didn’t give a shit, every girl he’d been with eventually got mad or fed up of his antics and he would come home, bitch about them and then sleep it off not even caring about it the next day. He was so grumpy now a days so she had to do something. So she made a plan, she was going to get you two back together again. God knows you were both way too stubborn and Billy had locked himself at home for the most part, rock music blaring through the walls, the heavy stench of cigarettes and Mary-Jane coming from his room, but as much as she disliked her older step brother she knew she had to help him. 

You were definitely the nicest girl he’d dated. 

So that’s what she did. At 7am sharpish she asked Billy to take her to the lake, to “Meet some friends” He said no at first obviously so she did a bit of extra planning and made a deal, Dad won’t know about weed as long as Billy agrees to take her. He agreed eventually. 

Little did billy know that he was to meet you at that lake. Max had told you to meet her at the lake because she wanted to talk about ‘girl problems’ shed been having and she didn’t want to say it at home because it was embarrassing. 

Billy drove the whole way, cigarette dangling from his lips, sunglasses covering his sleep deprived eyes. 

She noticed how he hadn’t been sleeping recently. He’d been up all night crying but she wouldn’t tell him she knew because he sure as hell would have her for it. 

she impatiently tapped her foot on the floor of the Camaro, her lip caught between her teeth as she chewed on it nervously. This could go a few ways, either Billy gets hurt or you get hurt or maybe you make up. She hoped that you would make up. 

“Would you quit fucking tapping, so fucking annoy-” He paused as he saw you, he pulled into the clearing. 

“I have to go! Ummm maybe you should talk to her” Max ran out of the car. 

“You little fucking sh-” He stopped as he watched you turn around, your eyes landing on the blue car. He saw your smile slip, your eyebrows furrowing and a frown on your face. 

You were wearing his AC/DC shirt. He sighed, opening the door the cigarette being discarded on the floor. 

“Hey!, angel… look im really fucking sorry princess”

“Really Billy! Because Dana told me you didn’t care” You huffed. 

“Look just let me explain…” He felt his patience wearing thin. 

“No Billy! Because every time I let you ‘explain’ you end up yelling at me! telling me it’s my fault and im sorry but I don’t think I can-”

“I DON’T FUCKING YELL” He yelled. A regretful expression on his face as he carded his hands through the ends of his hair. He realised what he’d done, he sighed. “Im working on it baby” his eyes flickered to the floor. “It’s just gonna take time… I promise im working on it” 

“How much time Billy!? Because we’ve been together for 3 months now and you still have this temper! You don’t know how to control yourself, sometimes I get scared, and I know you won’t ever hurt me but, its just I hate this constant screaming match between us, I really fucking like you Billy Hargrove”

He sniffed, his nose scrunching as he looked away, thinking. He felt his eyes gloss over with tears again. He hated crying in front of you. He sniffed again, his face getting more scrunched up as he tried to hold back the tears. he felt your arms wrap around his waist. Your head rest against his chest as you held him. He’d cuddled you before, hell you’d hugged so many times but this felt like more. 

He felt the tears fall. You looked up at him and cradled his cheek in your hand. He still looked the other way, he hated you to see him like this.

“I really fucking like you” you whispered he stood stiff, not being used to this full out intimate feeling. He started to blink and shift his head to look down at you. he placed his hand on top of your one which was holding his cheek. 

“Im sorry…” he mumbled, his eyes were red and puffy. You nodded. 

“I know baby, it’s ok. I believe you over Dana, and im sorry for being impatient, you’re right, we are working on it… slowly but surely” You got on your tip toes to kiss him, he leaned down to meet your lips. you kissed passionately for what felt like hours until Max intervened. 

“Finally you’ve made up! Now can we stop being so dramatic and get home because I can’t do much with a skateboard in a wooded area” She held up her skateboard, her eyebrows raised at you both. 

“Sometimes I really fucking despise you Maxine, but you get the day off for now” Billy grumbled. His arm wrapping around your waist as you kissed his cheek. 

“You need a shower Hargrove, you reek of weed” You giggled into his ear. 

“Suppose you’re gonna have to take one with me, make sure im getting the smell out and everything” he mumbled.

“Ugh get a room” Max cringed as she shoved herself back into Billys car. Thank god she’d gotten you two back together otherwise she’d have to listen to (in her opinion) Billys god awful music for hours. she rolled her eyes and smirked at him. As much of a dick he was, he was family now. 

[ofheroesandvillains]

First Impressions - Bucky Barnes

Bucky Barnes/Fem!reader

Words: 1.5k (a super short one for once!) Warnings: None. I’ve posted something similar to this years ago, so if it seems familiar that’s why :) Summary: Bucky meets his girl’s parents for the first time.

(Gif not mine!)

When you’re done swimming please don’t forget to take the wine out of the freezer, I love you! 

Those were the final instructions you had given him before you went to pick your parents up from the airport. It was the first time he would be meeting the people that had given him the incredible woman he’d been dating for the past 6 months. No pressure.

The early morning had been spent cleaning your house - you wanted it all perfect for your parents after not seeing them for so long. You had reassured him that they were nice, friendly people and that he had nothing to worry about…and then you gave him a long list of things to do that made it seem like he definitely did have something to worry about.

“It’s okay, they’ll love you! Just be yourself…well, maybe not, I mean…be yourself, just maybe dial down the sarcasm…and don’t make any sex jokes, definitely no to the sex jokes. In fact, maybe don’t even mention sex, or touching, or…beds?”

He snorted. “Don’t mention beds? Damn, I was really looking forward to that conversation.”

“See that? That was the sarcasm I was talking about.” You looked at him pointedly, but couldn’t help but chuckle when he shot you that million dollar grin.

Their flight would be landing just after midday so Bucky has spent a few hours in the pool, enjoying the warm, sunny day and getting lost in his thoughts after putting his washing out to dry. His future in-laws (and hell yeah he was certain of that fact) were from Chicago, and if they were anything like their daughter, then Bucky was looking forward to meeting them. It would be nice to finally-

Oh no…

He cringed when he heard a shout come from over the fence. If there was one thing he didn’t like about your house, it was your neighbour. Your young, single, male neighbour who Bucky was convinced took any opportunity he could to interact with his girl. The only thing Bucky disliked more than him, was the annoying pug that he'd released into the backyard. The very same pug that would somehow ‘magically’ find its way into your backyard all the damn time. And if by some chance it did manage to stay in its own yard, it would never stop barking.

Bucky wasn’t stupid, he knew what the neighbour was trying to do. Every time the dog ended up in your yard, he would have an excuse to look over the fence and flirt with you. Sometimes the little pest would even steal things and carry them back home too! Ugh. He hated them both.

Not this time, pal. 

Bucky closed his eyes and sighed in irritation when he heard the familiar yapping. So much for relaxing before they arrive, he thought. With another dramatic sigh, Bucky paddled his inflatable donut to the steps of the pool, before getting out and drying off. It was nice having some time off from training and travelling with the team. 

Bucky didn’t get to see you as often as he would like, but he was working up the courage to change that. He’d been wanting to ask you to move in with him for a long time, but this was his first serious relationship and he didn’t know when it would be appropriate.

The timing felt right, it’d felt right for a while…but he didn’t want to freak you out, even if you were usually the calmest person he knew. You would say yes, he was almost 100% sure of it, but it was the ‘what if’ that made him hesitate.

But that wasn’t his concern at the moment. Instead, he took the wine out of the freezer and made his way upstairs for a shower. Usually you would stay at his place, so he didn’t keep too many of his things at your house…which was probably why he had completely forgotten to take a change of clothes with him into the bathroom. Earlier in the morning he’d washed all of the clothes he kept in his designated draw of your dresser and put them all out to dry in the warm sun.

He groaned at the thought of going back downstairs. With a towel hastily thrown around him, Bucky made his way outside and started gathering his clothes. It was all well and good…until he felt the towel being viciously ripped from around his hips. He dropped the pile of clothes with a startled yelp and quickly stomped on the edge of the towel to stop the little monster from getting away.

“Oh no you don’t!” Bucky growled.

The pug was practically foaming at the mouth as it growled right back, eyes bugging out and angry that Bucky was putting up a fight. It was no match for his strength, but the damn thing was so stubborn he could hear its paws scrapping against the large tiles in resistance. He could also hear the edges of the towel tearing, and the pug went stumbling back when it was finally ripped out of its mouth.

“Aha! Got it, you little mutt!” 

Bucky held the towel over his head in victory, that wide loveable grin on his face. The pug scampered away, and Bucky froze in his tracks when he turned and noticed the three new faces staring at him from the other side of the glass sliding door. His girlfriend’s jaw had all but hit the floor, and while that was usually the reaction he was going for when naked, the sight of the two people behind you had him quickly wrapping the towel back around his hips. He must have been 10 different shades of red when he realised that your parents, the ones he was meeting for the very first time, had seen him…all of him.

Bucky could have sworn that your mother’s startled gasp echoed throughout the whole neighbourhood, and then she was collapsing into the arms of the man beside her. Your dad cried out in panic, finally drawing your attention attention. You still didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that you’d just witnessed your man locked, butt-naked, in the most intense game of tug-of-war you’d seen to date.     

“Bucky…”

“Uhhh…I can explain?” He tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

Steve was never gonna let him live this one down.

“You know, that went a lot better than I thought it would. I think they like me.” 

Bucky smiled, looking awfully self-satisfied. You knew he was just glad that his little show hadn’t condemned him in the eyes of your parents. They were actually very cool people, he found out - that must have been where you got it from. They had even joked about the whole situation all night long.

“Yeah? I’d like you too if you showed up on my doorstep naked when we first met.” You joked, settling into bed beside him.

“Hey, you said not to mention sex, or touching, or beds…and I didn’t.” He smirked and pulled you into his arms, your head resting on his chest.

“Oh, I’m sorry that ‘don’t play naked tug-of-war with the neighbour’s pug’ wasn’t on the list, I’ll be sure to add it next time.” You laughed sweetly and pressed a kiss to his bare chest. 

“At least you gave Lawrence a good show…” You nodded your head in the direction of your neighbour’s house even though neither of you could see it. 

“He’s been asking me to set him up with a sexy superhero for months.” You raised your brows pointedly.

Bucky eyes widened.

“Wha-? You mean he’s…?”

You laughed at his bewildered expression. “Of course! Why else would he always send his dog over here? You know he named that thing ‘Barky’ to match your name, right?”

Bucky snorted, unable to hold back a laugh.

“And that is one of the many reasons you should move in with me.” He held his breath for a moment, not knowing where that came from. He hadn’t even thought about it since morning, but it was out there now.

“Oh I don’t think that’s such a good idea…” There was a teasing tone to your words that made him silently sigh in relief. You propped yourself up on his chest to look up at him. 

“My mom is already convinced that ‘that well-endowed boy’” he snorted, “will have me pregnant by the summer.” You added in a scandalous whisper. 

“She did not say that.” He laughed in astonishment.

“You have no idea…don’t worry, I told her you wouldn’t know how to use that thing even if you tried-ah!” Bucky quickly flipped you over, admiring the stunning smile he was graced with and cutting your laugh short with a kiss.

“Liar.” He whispered against your lips. “But if you need a little convincing, I’m all for a demonstration...” He cocked a brow, never one to back down from a challenge. You smiled.

“Mhm…consider it a reward for helping me pack tomorrow.”

[onewaywardwitch]

Just A Typo (5/?)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Hacker!Reader

Summary: It was a simple challenge between a very competitive group of friends. A challenge that ended very differently than anticipated.

Warnings: None I think

Word Count: 2213

A/N: I finally got a chance to write the next part! The feedback has been amazing so thank you to everyone who likes, reblogs, and comments. It really does make my day! Also I just watched Fantastic Beasts 2 and I have so many questions.

It didn’t take long for me to settle into my new routine. Alarm goes off, get up twenty minutes later because I pressed snooze again. Look for my keys which I somehow manage to misplace every morning. Then grab my morning hot chocolate and a bag of jellies on my way to the tower.

Each morning I made the effort to greet everyone I bumped into in the tower, and soon enough, it payed off. People that were previously cautious around me grew fonder. I was doing my best to not give anyone a reason to dislike me. It worked with most of the staff, but the Avengers themselves were a whole other story.

Tony and I grew close. He invited me upstairs often, sometimes to talk about work, others to just have a chat. It was nice to talk to someone other than Angie or Becca. I couldn’t help but notice that there was never any other Avenger around when I was there. When I mentioned it to Tony, he brushed it off, claiming they were on a mission or simply busy elsewhere.

From that moment on, I became determined to make them all less uncomfortable around me.

~~~~~

“Why do you have this need to make everyone like you?” Angie questioned me a few days after my conversation with Tony.

I scoffed at her and shook my head.

“Don’t be ridiculous, why would you think that?”

“Because you're literally making brownies for the Avengers that apparently hate you just to get them to like you,” she replied, eyeing me in my current situation.

My hair was thrown up haphazardly in a bun and the sleeves of my jumper were rolled up to my elbows. The flour that was supposed to be in the bowl was on the floor, but I was too busy trying to scoop out the eggshells that had fallen into the mixture to notice. I tried brushing some of the flour that was on my face away, only succeeding in getting egg on my face as well.

“No, I was just in a baking mood. I didn’t think there was any harm in making some for my co-workers too. It's not a big deal.”

“We both know those brownies are going straight to the top floor and nowhere else.”

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, hoping the Avengers would accept my peace offering. It was incredibly frustrating that most of them hadn’t forgiven me for the hacking incident and for some reason, I couldn’t accept that. That was why I was desperately trying to bake brownies while unbelievably close to tears.

“Please help me, Angie,” I whined. “I can’t make the food taste like actual food by myself!”

She chuckled at the state I had gotten myself into and began rolling up her sleeves to help out. I let out a sigh of relief, yet still unsure about whether or not this would work at all.

~~~~~

On one hand, I had hoped to just give the brownies to Tony so he could distribute them to everyone else. On the other, I knew that I needed to do this in person to have a chance at apologising properly.

The secretary gave me a quick glance before allowing me on the lift once they recognised me as a friend of Tony. Once in the lift, I attempted to fix my hair a bit. I had woken up late again and barely had time to get ready and grab the large box of brownies I finished making with Angie late last night.

The ding of the elevator caused me to nearly jump out of my skin. My nerves had increased tenfold and I resorted to mumbling reassurances to myself to try and calm down.

“Are you alright?”

The soft voice behind me made me whip around quickly. It was Sergeant Barnes, watching me curiously as I fumbled over my words. He definitely wasn’t the person I thought I'd be bumping into first. He seemed far more reserved than the others and was known to showing up to very few public events.

“I, ugh, yes I'm okay. I mean, I have these, ugh, brownies? I thought, well, I don’t really know what I was thinking,” I scratched the back of my neck, only now realising that perhaps this wasn’t the best idea. “I know you guys are still annoyed about what I did, and I thought this might help make up for it. But it was stupid of me. You guys are superheroes, you probably don’t even eat brownies! But I don’t know what superheroes eat. Oh God, I've screwed this up completely, haven’t I? Sergeant Barnes, I am so sorry− “

“Bucky,” he cut off my ramblings as soon as he processed why I was here. He found my predicament endearing. I gave him a confused look. “Call me Bucky.”

“Right, sorry, Bucky. I just shouldn’t talk anymore− here.” I practically shoved the box into his hands as he looked at me with an expression that I couldn’t quite identify.

I rolled on the balls of my feet slightly while he glanced at the contents, a small smile forming on his face. He actually has a nice smile, why haven’t I noticed before− no! Stop it, you moron.

“I should probably just go,” I said slowly. Bucky lifted his head up quickly.

“You don’t have to.” He cringed inwardly at how eagerly he replied. “Don’t you want to see the others?”

After a few moments of hesitation, I agreed to his suggestion. It couldn’t hurt to try apologising in person once again.

We found most of the Avengers gathered in the kitchen, chatting amongst themselves. Their conversation died down when they saw me. An awkward silence hung over us all before Bucky cleared his throat.

“Y/N brought us brownies.”

It was only when Bucky said it out loud that I realised how ridiculous it sounded. I was in the middle of working out the probability of my survival if I was to jump from the nearest window, when another voice spoke up.

“Yes! I'm starved,” Clint exclaimed, jumping up and heading towards the food.

I let out the breath I didn’t even realise I was holding in. Natasha was eyeing me suspiciously as I shot Clint a grateful smile.

“Oh man, these are great! Here, try some,” Clint said, thrusting the box towards the remaining Avengers who were now looking a lot less uneasy.

“They were supposed to have chocolate chips in them but I, er, ate them,” I said tentatively, but no one was listening other than Bucky. I noticed he was still nervous around me but tried to brush it off.

Wanda saw me standing beside him and invited me to take the seat across from her, which I accepted gratefully. Just as I sat down, Natasha quickly got up. Before she left the room, she whispered something to Bucky, who tensed immediately. I didn’t think too much of it as Wanda pulled me into a conversation between her and Sam.

~~~~~

Bucky, being the gentleman from the 40’s, offered to walk me back to my apartment. I was surprised at first, until I saw that I had spent nearly the whole day at the tower, and it was pretty dark outside. Not too keen on walking back alone, I gladly took him up on his offer.

We walked in silence for a bit, the winter wind not as strong as it normally would be. I took a moment to observe the man beside me as discreetly as possible. His dark hair was pushed back behind his ears, and every so often a few strands would fall into his face until he pushed them back again. He had kind blue eyes, much softer than I previously thought. I heard his story before, of course. But it was difficult to be intimidated by him after seeing how gentle and soft-spoken he really was, and I couldn’t help but comment on it.

“Hagrid!” I blurted out, my face turning a bright shade of red. Bucky turned his head in my direction slightly and raised his eyebrows. At least we weren’t walking in silence now.

“Sorry?”

“Hagrid… that’s who you remind me of. From Harry Potter. Y’know, the whole ‘gentle giant’ kind of thing? You both look scary, but you're softies on the inside.”

It was Bucky’s turn to blush, his ears tinged red. I smiled to myself at his reaction while he stuttered a reply.

“Thanks? Is that a good thing?”

I stopped walking and narrowed my eyes at him in thought before breaking out in a grin. “Definitely a good thing,” I agreed.

He accepted my compliment and nodded his head, continuing on our path home. But I couldn’t help but notice the small smile that graced his face after that.

“Tony said you were working on something new to prevent another hacking incident,” Bucky said in attempt to keep our conversation going.

“Oh yeah! See, I figured that if someone else is going to try hack into the tower, they’re not going to make a stupid mistake like I did, right?” I glanced across to Bucky, who was focused on what I was saying. Not needing any reply, I continued on.

“I'm installing this new system that’ll basically send a virus to whoever is hacking you. So, while they’re hacking into our system, we’ll be doing the same to theirs without them even knowing. That way, we’ll be able to access everything they have and know where they are. And it’ll be impossible for them to get into our system at all now. They can try, but I've made it virtually unhackable. The only person who would be able to hack us now is, well, me,” I explained proudly.

Bucky nodded slowly, deep in thought. I could tell he was trying to process what I said, and I was about to explain once more before he spoke up.

“I don’t think ‘unhackable’ is a word.”

“Oh shush.”

~~~~~

Surprisingly, everyone was still in the kitchen when Bucky returned home. The box that previously held Y/N’s brownies was now completely empty, lacking even a crumb. Bucky was about to complain when Steve appeared at his side, a small brownie wrapped in some tissue in his hand.

“Here,” he said, handing his friend the food. “You're lucky to even be getting this much. Sam and Clint devoured the rest.”

Bucky was munching on the brownie happily when Wanda noticed his arrival. She nudged Sam, a grin forming on his face at once.

“Hey, Bucky, get your girl home safe?”

Tony looked up from his conversation with Natasha in interest. Bucky glared at Sam, who could barely contain his glee at having something to tease Bucky with.

“She’s not my girl. It can get dangerous here at night. I was just making sure she got home safe, that’s all.” Bucky tried to convince Sam with little success. He stared at the rest of the group. Wanda, who had immediately taken a liking to Y/N, was beaming at the soldier. Tony and Rhodey both appeared slightly confused at what was going on. Steve simply clapped Bucky on the shoulder, but Bucky’s gaze was fixated on Natasha, who had yet to say anything. She must have felt him watching her, as she sighed before speaking.

“Look, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, but I still don’t think we should be trusting her this soon. She spends half a day up here, and suddenly everyone approves of her? Are we forgetting the reason we met her? We don’t know her.”

“We know enough,” Tony replied, getting tired of Nat’s constant disapproval of the woman he had grown quite fond of. “Give her a chance, Nat. You might actually like her.”

She shook her head and caught Bucky’s eyes.

“Whatever you do, be careful.”

~~~~~

“Why does everyone think I like Y/N?” Bucky questioned Steve the following day while they were on their morning run. It had become a routine for the two. They enjoyed having the few hours to talk, and Bucky found it beneficial to have a constant every morning. His life had been a series of unpredictable complications. This gave him something steady to hold onto.

“You’re just acting different around her, Buck. A little more nervous. And you stutter around her too. You don’t stutter,” Steve laughed, his friend glaring at him.

“I don’t know, she’s different, but a normal kind of different. Not our kind of different. She’s gentle too. And nice, but for no reason. No one is ever just nice anymore. But she doesn’t take anyone’s bullshit either. She nearly lost it when Clint told her he still uses Internet Explorer.” Bucky chuckled at the memory of how frustrated Y/N got last night while trying to explain to Clint that Internet Explorer was completely rubbish. “But it doesn’t matter. She deserves someone who’d be good for her. She’s probably already got a boyfriend too.”

“You’re too hard on yourself, Buck,” Steve remarked. “She’d be lucky to go out with you. Plus,” he picked up his speed, shouting back to Bucky, “she definitely isn’t dating anyone right now.”

“Wait, how do you know that? Are you sure? STEVE, ARE YOU SURE?” Bucky yelled at Steve as he chased after him.

Taglist (open):

(if there’s a strike through your name it means I couldn’t tag you)

@amybarter15 @imperialoath @throw-some-music-my-way @mamaraptor @marbleowl @lydklein1 @wantingtobekorra @alysawrites @uhholyhazza @ladymelissastark @sarcasm-n-insomnia @foxylupines @myrabbitholetoneverland @amazingficsthatididnotwrite @markusstraya @padfootormoose @worldofchoices @just-some-stuff-in-life @colie87 @catsandbooksinafarawayplace

[thou-crusty-batch-of-nature]

Friends will be friends (or more)

pairing sirius x reader

warnings  angst, swearing and fluff

A/N Soo this is my first fic. I would like to thank @futurewriter2000 for everything she has done for me. She is such a kind, caring friend and such a good writer. She helped me so much and without her I probably wouldn't have posted this. 

GIF IS NOT MINE

READER'S POV

 I knew I was in deep shit when I realised that I had a crush on my best friend, Sirius Black. But how could I not, with his silky, thick, curly hair and those eyes that seemed like the sky on a - ugh, I was daydreaming again. And the worst part, I was almost certain that he liked me just as a friend. Fortunately, I was able to act like I wasn't l̶o̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ liking him. I was just leaving the classroom with the marauders after a really boring, long class of history of magic, spent doodling on my parchment. Despite the fact that they had been talking about Quidditch for the last five minutes (I disliked Quidditch because I was as tactful as a bull in a china shop), I was too busy to make a sarcastic comment as I was doing more important things - meaning that I was stealing glances from Sirius.

 I began the deep friendship with the marauders in my fourth year. I was the first person who outranked them at a rather unsuccessful prank.

 -throwback-

 I barely woke up after the last night's Halloween feast, swearing that I would never eat so many sweets again - a lie that I had told myself every other year. I lazily got up and went to the bathroom, then got dressed. My best friends, Lily and Marlene, were still sleeping. I chuckled as I heard Marlene mumbling in her sleep, catching the words "pastries everywhere". However, when I looked in the mirror, I couldn't help but scream.

"FUCKING HELL I SWEAR I'M GONNA-" before I could stop the door was ripped open, a red-head staying in front of me.

 "Wha-what is happening?" asked Lily worried, but as soon as she saw me she started laughing hysterically.

 "LILY IT'S NOT FUNNY MY BLOODY HAIR IS BABY BLUE! IT LOOKS LIKE MERLIN'S HAT!" I roared annoyed.

 "Calm down, Y/N, stop being ridiculous. It was obviously the 'mighty' marauders." she joked. Then she stopped and looked at me for a moment. "This morning we go to Hogsmeade, don't we?"

 "Yeah...but where do you want to go with that?" I asked confused, not seeing any connection.

 "Oh sweet, innocent Y/N/N, " she teased, a devilish smirk spreading on her face, "today you are going to make such a big statement that you are going to leave our dear Sirius with his mouth open like he is at the dentist. Marls, it's a fashion emergency!" I have never seen Marlene getting up so quickly before.

 Long story short, when I arrived in the Great Hall wearing a lace crop top, skinny jeans, high heels all matching to my now slightly wavy hair, I could have sworn I saw Sirius spilling his pumpkin juice in his lap. Then, James complimented my hair. Remus apologised and Sirius invited me to go with them at The Three Broomsticks. I spent my day talking, laughing and drinking Butterbeer, and, to be honest, it was one of the most beautiful days of my life.

 -end of throwback-

 That's how we became friends. I figured out Remus' "furry little problem" at the end of the fourth year, and by now I was known as the fifth marauder. I've always helped them with their pranks; setting them up, finding ideas or even getting them out of trouble. After all, I was considered by most of the professors a quiet, model student, and it was quite useful added to a completely chaste smile.

 "Um... Y/N/N?" a pinch on my cheek broke the trance in which I was. I saw the boys all staring at me. 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘵.

 "You said something?"

 "No...We just asked you two times if you want to have lunch outside?" Remus admitted in a sarcastic tone.

"Yes! Sorry, I zoned out a bit." I mumbled. 'Yeah, thinking about the constant cliche drama-love-story in which I star for some time. Keep going that way, Y/N!' I thought.

 "Well it's certainly not the first time, is it honey? Is something or someone on your mind?" James retorted, followed by a knowing smirk and a wink. How did he knew? It wasn't like I told anyone. That annoying brat!

 Later that day, after an uncomfortable meal, I finally ran into James sitting on an armchair in the common room, reading a quidditch magazine.

 "How do you know?" I asked as soon as I'd seen him, taking the magazine from his face.

"Well good afternoon to you, too, my dear friend! What a beautiful day it is, isn't it? Bright sun, a warm breeze, teenage love -" I gave him a smack. "Augh! I don't think I deserved that!" he stopped, dramatically rubbing his shoulder.

 "Tell me this instant, Potter!"

 "What?"

 "How do you know I have a crush on Sirius?" I said, feeling the blush starting to creep up on my cheeks.

 "I've only suspected, but now I certainly know that it's true!" Prongs stated, proud smile on his face, turning to leave.

 "Oh, don't you dare leave! I haven't finished yet! Promise me that you won't tell a soul! He can't find out!" I exclaimed, a little panicked.

 "Ok, ok! I swear! Geez, chill out, crazy woman! But what are you going to do about it?"

 "What do you mean?"

 "I mean - you can't just act like nothing's happening forever. Won't you tell him?"

 "It's useless. He doesn't like me that way. It will only destroy our friendship!" and that was my biggest fear. I couldn't let that happen.

 Both of us were startled when we heard the door swung open, Sirius bursting happily in the common room.

 "What happened?" I asked curiously.

 "Guess who's got a girlfriend?" Sirius said proudly, adding then in a whisper "Hint: it's me!"

 "What!? Who?" I asked cautiously, hoping that my voice wasn't as brittle as I thought.

 "Madeline" he responded, his eyes twinkling like stars.

 I felt my heart sunk. Madeline Vega was a gorgeous Hufflepuff; beautiful, funny, charismatic, smart, she had it all. All in all, she was a perfect match for Sirius. Like he'd read my thoughts, James shot me a pitiful look. And I tried to be happy for my friend, I really wanted to. But at that moment all I wanted to do was to tell him the truth and run away from everybody. But I didn't.

 SIRIUS' POV

 I arrived in the common room after I had spent the whole day in Hogsmeade with Maddy. 𝘎𝘰𝘴𝘩, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭. She was a light in the darkness that seemed to follow me everywhere. She was the breath of fresh air that I needed. However, she was not the only girl that cared for me. Y/N has been quite distant lately and it started to feel strange. She always loved to make people laugh and now she barely speaks. 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳. I reached the dorm where the boys were lying casually on their beds, looking at me.

 "So you have a girlfriend now, don't you?" Remus broke the silence. "How come?"

 "Remy, you know that no one can resist my charms! Just look at me!"

 "I am serious."

 "No, you are Remus!" I reminded him, earning a death glare and a thrown book, from which I dodged easily. "Ok, ok. I started being friends with her through Potions, and we'd become closer and closer until I asked her to be my girlfriend today!" I was assigned with Maddy at the beginning of the year and I've always liked her. "She is wonderful," I said. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥- "Hey! Where is Y/N? Weren't we supposed to meet this afternoon?" I asked, remembering that today I promised Y/N to help her with the Transfiguration's essay.

 "Yes. She came here at three o'clock when you should have met, waiting here for an hour, but 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 clearly had better things to do than keep promises!" James frowned. I looked at the clock - 6 o'clock. 𝘉𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴!

 "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to the Quidditch practice and be there on time because I respect a fixed arrangement!" he'd added before storming off.

 "What should I do, Moony? She'll never forgive me." I asked hopelessly.

 "Of course she'll forgive you, you drama queen, you just need to apologise."

 "And give her some sweets!" Peter added, pointing at the Honeydukes bag I had bought earlier. I took it and headed to the girls' dorm. 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝗰𝗸, 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝗰𝗸.

 READER'S POV

 I was still mad at Sirius for forgetting about our study meeting, but fortunately, James helped me with that essay. I was on my way to the girls' dorm when I saw Sirius staying on the ground, waiting for somebody.

 "Oh! Y/N! Thank god! I am so sorry! I know you needed help and I am so, so sorry that I forgot! Please let me at least make up!" Siriuis implored, sadness darkening his grey eyes.

 "Calm down! Of course, I'll forgive you, you're my best friend!" I said reassuringly.

 "Thank you! Thank you!" he shouted exited, squeezing me in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh! I almost forgot - I also got you some sweets!" he remembered, giving me the bag. It was full of my favourite chocolates and jellies from Honeydukes.

 "You shouldn't have, thank you! But why were you waiting on the floor?" I asked, suddenly remembering how I've found him.

 "Well, actually Lily didn't want to let me in..." he admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "She said, I quote, 'We don't let losers here!'" he imitated Lily's voice."But I guess I deserved that."

 "Yeah, you kinda did," I told him, but at his shocked expression, you added "What? You are a loser! Forgetting about a meeting with your amazing, smart beautiful friend!"

 We both stared at each other for a few seconds, then laughed. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴!

 But everything came back to the usual awkwardness the next day at breakfast. I couldn't stand watching them holding hands while eating, or kissing after class, so I started to avoid him. Every day I spent my free time in places where I knew for sure he wouldn't be, but I still saw him in the common room or at lunchtime.

 Today, for example, I went to the library and stayed at the most isolated desk. I'd just finished my Potions essay when I saw a couple kissing near me. 𝘐𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘦. Taking a closer look, I couldn't believe my eyes. Corey McLaren, a seventh-year Hufflepuff was snogging with... Madeline! She's Sirius girlfriend! That cheating liar! How could she?

 I quickly took my books and left without being seen. I needed to tell him. I hurried to the boys' dorm and knocked a few times. In a moment, Remus opened the door.

 "Hey Y/N/N! What are you doing here?" he asked happily.

 "I need to find Sirius! Do you know where he is?"

 "He left a couple of minutes ago to the Great Lake. Why?"

 "I can't tell you right now! I have to go! and with that, you left.

 I saw Sirius sitting on a bench, staring at the lake. I quickly sat next to him.

 "Y/N! What happened?" he asked worriedly.

 SIRIUS' POV

 I have received another letter from mother. Last summer I ran away from that hell, and now apparently she disowned me. 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵. Still, after I'd read it, I needed to go outside. I wanted to break free.

 Soon I saw a silhouette that resembled Y/N coming closer. When I saw her face, her big, usually bright, Y/E/C eyes now veiled with sadness, I knew something was wrong. Very wrong.

 "Y/N! What happened?" I asked, seeing that she was avoiding my stare.

 "Sirius I am so sorry - I was in the library, studying when I saw Madeline... Maddy kissing Corey McLaren," she confessed. "As soon as I'd seen her, I looked for you in your room, and Remus -"

 "Stop. She couldn't have done that. She is Madeline, she wouldn't cheat on me." I interrupted her.

 "Maybe she is not the angel she pretends to be." she tried to explain.

 "I knew you didn't like Maddy, but did you really think that you could come and lie to me like that?" I spat.

 "You don't believe me? I had seen her with my own eyes!" she snapped.

 "Of course I don't believe you! I thought higher of you, but you clearly let the jealousy talking! I rebuked.

 "You know what, you're a bloody idiot! I can't believe that I actually loved you!" she shouted. "Stay with your cheating girlfriend, for all I care- but don't ever come back to me when you find the truth!" with tears spilling on her cheeks she left.

 She loved me and I had just broken her heart. 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵.

 I lit a cigarette. 𝘐𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘦. 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘶𝘵. I haven't realised when it started to rain. A hurricane of thoughts was ravishing my mind. Did Maddy really do such a thing? Did I destroy my friendship with Y/N? Did she love me? I threw the stump in the lake and left. I was soaking wet, but I didn't care. 𝘒𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢'𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩.

 When I reached the dorm I was welcomed by a furious James. He smacked me right in the face.

 "What the fuck, mate!" I asked, feeling the blood trickling from my nose.

 "Do you really believe that cheating bitch instead of Y/N, our best friend for two years?" James roared.

 "Hey! She's my girlfriend!"

 "Look at him! Then go to your pretty, angelic girlfriend who is more important than your friends!" James frowned.

 "Remus?" I asked, hoping that he would understand me.

 "I agree with James here, mate," he responded.

 "Fine," I said. And I left.

 READER'S POV

 I had been crying long before I got into my dorm, our argument playing and replaying in my mind. Lily and Marlene weren't there, so I decided that I needed a nap.

 I was woken up by Lily, who was nudging me gently.

 "Y/N? What happened? Have you been crying?"

 So I told them everything; how I'd seen Madeline, then went to Remus, found Sirius, then finally the argument we had.

 "Hmm...A cheating liar and a stupid brat, I think they deserve each other!" Marlene stated after I'd finished.

 "A stupid brat that I happen to know and love!" I said, with dried tears on my cheeks.

 "Oh, I promise if he tries to hurt you once more I am personally going to beat the shit out of him!" Lily vowed. I laughed for the first time that day.

 "There's that beautiful laugh!" Marlene smiled.

 They stayed with me for a while, chatting and eating our stash of sweets, listening to old records.

 "We have to go to dinner!" Lily announced after two hours of fun.

 "You go, I'm going to stay here!" I told them. I still wasn't ready to face the boys.

 "Are you sure?" Marlene asked.

 "Yes."

 They hugged me warmly and left.

 Two weeks have passed and I have barely talked with the marauders. James tried to reach out to me several times, but I've brushed him off. We only greeted each other in the common room. And Sirius - he was still with Madeline. He made his choice not to believe me and I made my choice, too.

 It was another night when I only shifted in my bed; I couldn't sleep. 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯.  Suddenly, I heard a knock at my door. And another one, and another one.

 "Y/N, OPEN THE BLOODY DOOR!" Marlene shouted from her bed, her head under the pillow.

 I got up, put on my slippers and opened the door. I immediately recognized the person in front of me.

 "Sirius."

 SIRIUS' POV

 The weeks without Y/N being near us, speaking, laughing, drove me mad. Maddy still was my girlfriend, though not a day passed without thinking about Y/N's words.

 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦.

 I was in the library with Remus. While he was looking for books, I took the liberty to wander around. As I was turning to leave, I saw two people snogging in the darkest corner. However, I could recognise that wavy, golden hair anywhere.

 "Maddy?" I saw her jump a little when she heard my voice. She turned to look at me and I saw the boy she was kissing - Corey McLaren.

 "𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 - 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺, 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦... 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘺 𝘬𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘺 𝘔𝘤𝘓𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯."

 "𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦?"

 "𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦- 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩!"

 She was right. And I was an idiot.

"We're over," I told her with a deathly calm, but before I'd left, I punched Corey in the face.

 I went outside to the bench by the lake and looked around. The sun was setting. The sky looked like a canvas, colours blending in harmony. How could I let everything happen that way? Why didn't I believe Y/N?

 Soon the night came, but I didn't care. I stayed outside, looking at the stars. Then, I got up and let my feet carry me anywhere they wanted.

 I was in front of her bedroom. Before I could stop myself, I knocked.

 READER'S POV

 "Sirius."

 "Please listen to me for a few minutes. Then, I won't bother you anymore." he begged.

 "Ok."

 "Follow me," he said. We walked without saying anything, finally arriving in the Astronomy Tower. He stopped near the window and turned to me.

 "I am an idiot and I know it. And you were right. So right. I was blinded by the idea of love and forgot about those who really care for me, truly love me. And I was lying that day, I trust you with my life. I am truly sorry that you had to distance yourself from your friends because of me. I love you. I realised when you told me that you had loved me. Please give me one more chance- "

 "I love you too," I interrupted and came closer. I could feel his warm breath on my face, "I love you so much that it hurts."

 Then he kissed me so gently and softly, yet so lovingly. I put my hand in his curly, dark hair and he put a hand on my back, slowly drawing patterns. Then he broke it, not letting go of my back.

 "I love you." he whispered, before pulling me in another sweet, long kiss.

MASTERLIST

taglist   @futurewriter2000 

[polyglotturtle]

My many tongues

Here on tumblr, there are a lot of people that are in love with learning new languages as much as I am. Behind every such multilingual character is a different story and I wanted to share mine.

I got a bit of a head start since I grew up bilingually. My parents are from Poland and migrated to Germany. The first language I learned at home was therefore Polish and some bits of German my parents knew. When I started to go kindergarten I learned German from other children and the educators. So when you listen to me speaking German you notice that I’m from the south of Germany, but you really don’t hear that my parents are from a different country originally. Oh, the treat of learning languages early.

Let’s wind a bit forward in my life, to the point I start attending the German version of Highschool I guess? It’s called Gymnasium. There you often start learning English as the first foreign language (nowadays children already start in elementary school). You know because English is the very most important language of them all. Ugh, how that annoyed me. In this very same year, we had “test classes” for French and Latin, so we would know which language we wanted to choose to learn in the following year. Attending both “test classes” was mandatory, so each student got to know what they’re more interested in. Well, all my friends wanted to choose French. I wanted to choose Latin. Everyone started to try and convince me to take French because a) it’s more useful and b) all your friends are taking French. Many thanks to my guts though I chose Latin, which I ended up studying later in Uni, but that is a story for the next paragraph. In this one, I want to tell you about my Spanish experiences as well. Two years later, we again had “test classes”. This time it was about choosing whether we wanted to learn yet another language, which was Spanish, or whether we wanted to learn some more additional physical, biological and chemical stuff, which was a subject called Sciences, where you learned all sorts of stuff of which one was, how to build a bridge out of spaghetti. Again everyone had to take both classes. And I chose Spanish. Want to know why. Not because I fell in love with it like I did with Latin. I chose it because I got a bad grade on one of my physics tests, so I didn’t want to risk anything. Well, the first year of Spanish was ok. The second was a disaster because I grew to hate our teacher so much. She was overdoing class a bit with a lot of boring and repetitive tasks, so I wasn’t the only one that started to dislike her. My grades went down quite a lot, I started regretting, not choosing the Sciences, but now it was too late I had to pull through. And guess what. When I had to decide which two languages out of three I would like to have as A-Level classes, I went with Latin and Spanish, just because I saw the list of English teachers taking on the A-Level classes and I was like no! Not those, nopedy nopedy nope. At first, I was afraid that Spanish would continue to be a torture, but it was a different teacher teaching this one so I was hoping it would all get better. AND IT DID. Although this teacher recommended me not to take Spanish in my A-Levels, because of the bad grades I used to have, she still took care of me as she did with the others and my grades started to get better again. I passed my A-Levels and was moving on to University. To one far away from all those traumas I experienced.

What to study? There was a huge dilemma because I was both interested in computer sciences and languages. My brain told me to pick computer sciences because getting a job after graduating would be easier, but my guts reminded me that I’m shit at maths and that I really really love Latin! So I applied for Classic Philology in Cologne in Germany. I studied Latin and had to learn Ancient Greek from scratch, which was a beautiful experience, but soon I’d realise that both such demanding languages would be too much to handle. Luckily at the University in Cologne, it was possible to combine Latin with languages form other fields. That is how I came to study Polish as well. Since I didn’t grow up there I never knew much about the literature and the culture connected with them. The short family visits only really showed me some of that everyday life, but it didn’t teach me anything about history and the great works of the intellectuals. It was exciting to connect to the home of my family in a new way and understand better where a lot of the grudges and oddities come from. Especially since Polish authors connected a lot of their literature with the ancient culture of Rome. I graduated in both those subjects and moved on, to a new subject for my master’s studies. During my studies, I met a lot of people with a lot more passion than I had both for Latin and Polish, so I figured that maybe it is not quite the right thing for me. I looked through the course catalogue and there I saw it. LINGUISTICS. “A possibility to learn all things about all the languages?!”, I thought to myself and applied. They took me! That was my ticket to explore my new favourite language. Welsh.

How I got to know about Welsh? While playing an online game called DotA 2, I met a guy who studied in Cardiff. We got along so well, that we decided we want to meet up, so I went and visited him. There I saw bilingual signs everywhere and I wondered: What is this wicked language? I knew about Ireland having their own Celtic language, but I didn’t know about Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Manx and Breton. This is how I learned about another European language family and I got excited. I promised myself to only look into the basics of the language to get a grasp of how it works and then to focus on Latin again. Unfortunately, I’m not good at keeping promises, especially those I make to myself. I never stopped learning and am still learning until today.

So my masters began and I participated in all the different courses about first language acquisition, psychological and neurological linguistics. Additionally, I decided to freshen up my Spanish and start learning French. Both courses had amazing teachers and I loved everything I learned. They were not only teaching us the language but the culture of the different countries they were spoken in. I’ve learned so much and enjoyed experiencing all this input a lot!

Now that my master’s degree is coming to an end slowly I’m looking for a nice university to do my PhD at. I would love to do research on something that is related to the Welsh language, so I’m looking at universities in Britain. I visited Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Bangor already. In March, I would love to see Swansea as well. It is very important for me to have visited all those cities in order to make the right decision since it involves spending another three to five years at that location. Unfortunately, Brexit might destroy those plans for me, so of course, I will be starting to learn Norwegian in October because I want to have a plan B.

Oh wow. This post got a bit on the long side. If you have spare money and like to throw it out for unnecessary things you might consider supporting me on Ko-Fi. You’d help me get some money aside for visiting Swansea or for a flat deposit when I’ll move for my PhD next year.

I hope you all have a good day! Feel free to ask me anything about languages!

[sieben9]

“murder most foul” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I’m watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I’d be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

So there’s ghosts now?

I’m not complaining, I’m just surprised. When did we get ghosts? Why is this not a bigger deal? Snow and David couldn’t even be certain their son could hear their disembodied voices through the only haunt-phone in the Underworld, and now we have a whole entire ghost?

I have to say, as “filler” episodes go, this one was actually pretty nice. Good pacing, excellent acting in all the right places, and some quality comedy. I’m not entirely thrilled with the resolution, but mostly because I’m worried how it will be handled in future episodes, rather than disliking it for its own sake.

And now, the cut, before I get even more long-winded.

As mentioned above, there isn’t much of the main plot going on this episode. Hence the “filler” comment. Still, I greatly liked the stuff that was going on, though I have to say, they took their sweet time resolving that particular mystery, didn’t they? And I’m also annoyed that Hook instantly becomes a more interesting character when he’s not busy being Emma’s Boyfriend™. It’s like a glimpse into an alternate universe where the guy actually had consistent character writing from s3 onwards, and I wasn’t annoyed half to death by him.

Ah, the world that could have been… Anyway, back to actual reality.

The present-day plot and the flashback are definitely well-connected. As David and Hook get closer to uncovering the truth about the murder of David’s father (whose name I may or may not have had to look up on IMDb…), the flashback gets closer and closer to that point, too, and shows him as… well, not a totally different man than David assumed he was, but different in vey important ways. Mostly in that a lot of his actions in life were driven not by indifference towards his family, but by deep regret over the “choice” he made to give up one of his sons. (Please note the sarcasm.)

And is it just me or is Rumple’s behaviour in this scene notably different from that in “The Shepherd”? I mean, David was a grown man, perfectly capable of making his own choices, but he seemed much more guilt-ridden for taking him from his mother than taking little James away. Which may just be indifferent writing, but I can’t help but think that he was hiding very far behind the Dark One mask to go through with this.

The whole flashback is obviously heading for tragedy—we know how this story ends, and it’s not with Robert returning home with little James in his arm—and the writing really leans into it. Considering I’d never even seen the man before, I sure got invested in Robert’s plight and struggle, and seeing him stand up to George made my stomach twist with genuine regret, because… yeah, like I said. We all know how that ends.

Or very nearly. ::glares at Hook:: So, I had to check twice, but I’m pretty sure right up until he saw that page from August and recognised the scene, he didn’t know that this was a case of “Oh, so I’m the asshole.” Still, I’d just... like to ignore the guy and it looks like that won’t be an option. This, plus the pending proposal promise quite a lot of Hook-time in the coming episodes.

It also somewhat sours that nice moment David had at the docks when he threw away the coin and finally laid the past (and his father’s ghost?) to rest. It’s not awful, I’m just not entirely happy and more than a little worried.

Going back to the murder for a moment... I’m not sure why Hook would be worried about witnesses to his killing of the king’s men. He’s already a pirate, which makes him hostis humanis generis, if I’m not completely confused about how piracy worked, and he lives in a spooky otherworldly realm where nobody can find him unless Pan wants them to. What, pray tell, is the worst that could happen even if Robert did talk? ::annoyed grumbling::

Oh, and apart from all the other things in the flashback plot that hurt my heart (so, nearly everything that wasn’t Pinocchio’s incredibly “convincing” lying), there was this little standout moment:

I’d ask “why are you like this”, but at this point I pretty much know and I’m afraid of more answers

Rumple’s complete indifference turning to sympathy in pretty much the blink of an eye when Robert confessed his deep regret and announced that he was determined to find his son… damn. Why. My heart. And the whole drama about exacting a “price” that meant absolutely nothing in the end, because sparkly Rumple is even worse at being a human than current Rumple. I just… guh. It was a really good moment. And “May be all reunited with our sons” killed me, because Neal, and then it killed me again when I remembered that Rumbelle are in a very similar situation with Gideon. Please, show, just let them be happy.

Contrasting with the very in-the-feels flashback, the present-day search for the murderer was surprisingly lighthearted and even fun, right up until the very end. Standout moment was the potion brewing scene, because… well “turn counter-clockwise”. Also, I’ve seen some of my friends trying to cook for the first time, and the similarities were highly amusing.

And then… then there was that last scene. Goddamn, but Josh Dallas can act. And Alan Dale clearly knows how to give someone room in a scene; that duel, and really the entire “conversation” leading up to it was excellent. And the amazing acting just kept coming after Hook pulled Charming off the man he was about to murder. I’m… still not happy with how Hook’s entire story arc was handled (e.g. that the narrative insists that there was some great big redemption arc that I must have missed), but scenes like this make me wish so much that he had been handled better. Because him all but begging David not to kill George, because revenge won’t make him feel better, won’t bring back his father and will only ever make him miserable was such a good moment. Especially since it didn’t come from a position of faux moral superiority. Hook’s main argument was “don’t do this, because I have and it sucked”. And David breaking down in tears was just… ugh. Buddy. Doubly awful, too, because you realise that he can’t just go home and tell Snow about this, because they can’t both be awake at the same time and everything is awful.

Oh, and for an extra dose of heartbreak, we had this subplot:

I know I said that during the liveblog, but Regina…. honey… don’t do this to yourself. And at the same time, it’s really easy to see why she did it anyway. Missing someone is hard, and she’s only human. And the signs were there all along; him going out to kill Keith was... not entirely unsatisfying, but also a clear warning sign that this is just not the same person.

And the talk with Snow shows that she immediately knew that this was the wrong way forward. This isn’t Robin—not her Robin, anyway—and kissing him meant nothing, because this particular person meant nothing to her. It’s really not that different from hooking up with Robin’s identical twin—they may look the same, and they may have had a similar upbringing, but that doesn’t make them the same person. And I know what Snow means, too. It’s no fun being right about this.

Though this should make things easier. Emotionally, I mean. I’m sure that box will only make things more difficult in general.

[nine-prcnt]

all your life

request ; hi ! can i please request a wenjun au (whatever format bc i honestly dont mind) where he is your family friend, but for some reason you have beef. enemies to lovers i guess?? thank you so much :))

requested by ; @duckmcduckerson

your family is the type of family that always has people over and participates in the community

and somehow, bi wenjun has managed to attach himself to your family

you don’t know when it happened but it did

at first everything was fine but then the fire nation attacked

jokes jokes

something happened and you just started hating the fact that he was always around you, even when it was supposed to be just family

honestly it’s been so long that you can’t even remember what happened

all you remember is that something did and it warranted you disliking him to the point where him even being around pissed you off

now it was your first birthday since you had begun college

you had gone home and looking forward to the celebration without wenjun around

he was supposed to be off at his own respective college

keywords, supposed to be

and yet when you got home he was already there, waiting on your parent’s damn couch

somewhere he had also developed a dislike towards you, from what you saw of him around you

you kicked his legs off the coffee table without a word

‘mom! we are back!’

your mother popped her head out from the kitchen

the two of you hugged and your father who had come in from the car joined the two of you

they sent you upstairs to your room to get changed since that night was just to relax and catch up, your birthday actually being tomorrow

you took a shower and you had just come out with just a towel wrapped around you when a figure propped itself up against the door

‘come on, don’t you want to to play?’

you looked over your shoulder and saw bi wenjun who made your doorway look small

‘okay first of all, last time i did anything with you, you hit me with your yo-yo

‘secondly, this might seem a bit indecent if anyone saw, considering i’m in just a towel.’

without missing beat, he said ‘I think you look pretty decent.’

grabbed the towel you had been using to dry off your hair and whipped him

he held up his hands in surrender

‘alright, alright, geez no need to be kinky with me’

‘just get out of my room’

by the time you had gotten downstairs, your parents had managed to break out all of the snacks and desserts which sat on a coffee table in front of the selection of board games they put out

the night was filled with the snide remarks that you and wenjun threw across the board at each other

the next day you and wenjun spent as little time together as possible 

or at least you had tried to do that, he seemed stuck to your side which was frustrating beyond your imagination

it wasn’t until your parents left to the store that he finally left you alone

even though it was a small get together with the four of you, your parents insisted on having a proper party with a big dinner

you had to go out to the shed which, for some reason, was where your parents still had the freezer

they said it was because they had too much and it wouldn’t all fit in the fridge freezer

you were hesitant to go to the shed on your own bcos the door had a habit of closing itself and locking

you figured your parents would be back soon so if the door did shut then they would realise

it wasn’t until you were out in the shed and reaching into the freezer that wenjun appeared

‘what are you doing out here?’

he was leaning against the doorframe with the door right behind him 

‘i could ask you the same thing?’

‘i saw you from upstairs and was curious. now why are you out here?’

he took a step towards you

‘i’m just getting some food for- the door?’

he turned around just in time for it to slam in his face, gust of wind disturbing his hair and all

‘what’s wrong with the door?’

you sighed and thought to yourself, just what was wrong with this boy and now you were stuck with him

‘oh nothing, nothing at all. except the fact that until my parent’s come back we aren’t getting out?’

your voice was dripping with sarcasm and spite

‘what do you mean not getting out?’

he was as pretentious and condescending as you had remembered, not a bonus considering today was your birthday

it was then he tried the door

surprise, surprise, it wouldn’t open

‘well hey, we wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t come out, distracted me from getting the food out and then let the door slam shut’

‘i didn’t even know that it would do that, sorry i can’t control the weather’

you threw the food back in the freezer and sat on it

‘you know what, just don’t talk to me and let’s wait until my mom and dad come back’

you check your watch

‘which should hopefully be soon’

wenjun sat on an upside down pot

well he tried to before giving up, he was too tall for this

instead, to your delight, he sat next to you on the freezer

‘what do you think you’re doing?’

‘sitting down, the pot was not a good idea’

‘ugh fine’ 

you moved over so that there was the most amount of space as there could have been between you two

the silence that came next lasted for way too long

your parents should have come back at that point and yet you were still with wenjun

‘do you have your phone?’

‘no, why?’

‘i just wanted to check what was taking them so long’

‘oh’

and the silence came back, heavier than ever now that you both had spoken a few words

‘hey, why don’t you like me?’

you thought about it but you couldn’t remember what he had done in the past to annoy you so much

‘i dont remember but i do remember that you really pissed me off’

‘wait- you dislike me so much because of something that you can’t even remember?’

‘well it’s not as though you helped it because you act as though you don’t like me either’

‘that’s only because-’ 

he cut himself off as though about to say something he would regret

‘oh come on wenjun, i’d love to hear this. why did you act as though you didn’t like me for so long?’

he hesitated for a moment

‘it’s because i like you!’ 

the words poured from his mouth in a rush

‘you’re kidding me?’

‘oh come on y/n, we were kids and i thought that i was supposed to be mean to the girl i liked!’

he was off the freezer now, a few steps ahead and facing away from you

‘so why did you keep being mean to me then?’

‘i don’t know, you just kept being rude so i was rude back and it just became how i talked to you?’

you snorted but took a while to process all of this

‘look, i know that it’s not the best reason but it’s the truth or at least what i can figure out’

he was quiet, studying your unreadable expression

‘so,’ you said after a while

‘you still like me?’

the blush crept up his neck as he opened his mouth

‘don’t try to deny it, you said that you acted like that because you like me, present tense.’

he leaned against the door, arms crossed and a pout on his face, looking anywhere but at you

‘maybe, it’s not as though it matters though’

‘and why not?’

‘because you don’t like me like that. hell. you don’t even like me as a friend’

you shrugged

‘i don’t even remember what i was angry over wenjun’

he looked up at you

‘i’m sure we could start again, maybe as friends’

you glanced at his face and something told you that if you said it you wouldn’t regret it

‘maybe as something more?’

his heart leapt as the words left your mouth

‘are you sure?’

it was then that the door from behind wenjun opened and he stumbled backwards, almost falling over in the process

‘finally you guys are back!’

you and your dad went to the kitchen to start on food, not forgetting what you had meant to pick up from the freezer, unlike wenjun’s question

you didn’t need to remember it though

your mother who had caught wenjun comforted his doubts

‘trust what she says, she wouldn’t say it if she didn’t mean it’

DONE! okay this took forever and i’m so sorry but i’ve been bogged down with school and just i’ve had writers’ block which hasn’t been pleasant so this has been sitting in my drafts unfinished for the longest time! i’m so happy to get this out as i’m off to bed in the next few minutes~ 

i also have an oral tomorrow (i think) and i have been trying to get both study and this done all day! i got one done tho

-xinru

masterlist // rules

[producingnct-blog]

sometimes failure is better than success

jihoon/samuel fake dating au

requested by anon

honestly it all started in the weirdest way

jihoon had been friends for a few months when it happened

it wasn’t their fault that bae jinyoung was literally so pretty

they couldn’t keep their eyes off of him and so they bet on who would get to take him out first

(spoiler alert: none of them did)

jihoon and his group of friends, which consisted of samuel, euiwoong, seonho, gualin and hyungseob, were like the groups of friends that people see in the movies

they had lunch together everyday, they sat next to each other and they told one another everything

jihoon couldnt have asked for a better group of friends, really

but then again... he could

i mean, how was samuel considered a good friend if he insisted on crushing on the same guy as him????

jihoon didnt understand

for all everyone knew, jihoon had been crushing on jinyoung first!

he’d fallen in love as soon as they made eye contact (which in fact, did not happen bc jinyoung was always looking at the ground, but please. let jihoon be happy)

and jihoon had started talking about him to their friends just to be met with “i know right!!!”’s from samuel at everything he said

jihoon, the fucking gemini, had glared at him. “he’s mine, i saw him first.”

to which euiwoong had replied, after taking a bite of hyungseob’s sandwich. “hyung, you do realise he’s not food, right?”

maybe jihoon had ended up blushing a bit, but who was to blame him for that? he quickly shook his head, “thats not what i mean, woong. you know that.” then turned his head to samuel

“cmon sam, for real. i feel like this is my sappy romance story yk. you gotta let me have it.”

“but hyung, i like him too! look, im not gonna dislike him for you and neither will you. its bros before hoes, not bros before ros-”

gualin, at this, perked up “what even is this conversation that does not make any sense”

“yes it does, omg! bros equals friends, ros equals romance between bros ok lemme live jesus! but anyway, we aint gonna budge our asses for one anoter, we might as well fight for it. agaisnt each other”

“what??!???” “are you crazy???” “what the fuc- i mean what????”

jihoon looked terrified, but then he set up his tray a bit closer to him, smirking. “fine. whoever gets to take him out first, gets him. after losing you gotta give him up. and give me 20 bucks as well.”

“why are you saying its me whos gonna lose?? and why do i have to pay you??”

jihoon smiled mischiviously. “duh. because i want, obviously.”

and then it was set

they started playing games, trying to get jinyoung’s attention

samuel would write lyrics to songs he wanted to play to jinyoung

jihoon would daydream about coming up to jinyoung and telling him he wanted him to be his bae 

samuel would start laughing louder, so that he could call for jinyoung’s attention indirectly

jihoon would wear different neon laces everyday to be different and stand out in his crush’s eyes

and yet, jinyoung didnt care for either of them

“ugh, this is so hard jihoon hyung.”

“i know right? he hasn’t even looked in our way at least once”

“what is it that we’re doing wrong??”

“idk sam. maybe we should try to get his attention in another way?”

samuel stopped writing down the answer to his english homework of the day to look up at jihoon, who was wearing a frown on his face

“how so hyung?”

“well, we could try to make him jealous?”

“but how is that even going to work if he doesn’t notice either of us”

jihoon threw his pencil in the table, and rolling his eyes as he sighed

“i dont know okay???? i just want him to look at me and like me back, but he doesnt even know i exist”

“hey hyung... its okay, i get it remember? we’re the same. just... how do you think we can make him jealous then?”

jihoon smiled a bit at that, lifting his head from where he had laid it into his arms, “we could date someone”

“oh. who?”

“well. hyungseob and euiwoong are the only gays from our group of friends that are out, but they’re dating each other. so....”

“so....?”

“sooooo.... we could date each other!”

“WHAT oh my god no way”

jihoon pinched samuel’s arm, making the younger flinch away. “what do you mean no way, you punk! im damn handsome, smart, intelligent and funny! theres nothing not to like!”

“hyung.... get your head out of your ass and listen. i dont wanna date you omg. you literally are so.... annoying sometimes no offense. and you snore when you sleep!”

“omg sam shut the fuck up u idiot. firstly i am not annoying youre just not old enough to understand how real and amazing people like me function. secondly. bitch we aint gonna sleep together what the fuck is wrong with my snoring. you talk in your sleep!”

samuel shook his head. “this is seriously not gonna work hyung, what even went through your mind.”

“an idea, thats what. at least i try to come up with those and help ourselves!!!!!” jihoon sighed once again, throwing his hands up. “so are you in or what? we can give it a try right? for a week or two?”

“ugh. fine but if it doesnt work out im killing both you and myself.”

“wow.... thats sad”

“shut up and study”

it..... didnt work out

but also no one died

“ok. what is happening??” was the first thing that met them when they walked to their lunch table holding hands, gualin was currently staring at them both intensively

“listen. this is not weird i promise but we’re dating.”

“you’re what???????”

“dating, you dumbass.”

euiwoong fixed up his glasses, “when and why and how did this happen. am i in a alternative universe”

“ok what the fuck is so wrong with us loving each other” samuel tried not to gag at jihoon’s words, instead squeezing jihoon’s hand stronger

seonho stopped snacking on a chocolate bar “you have been crushing on jinyoung for weeks remember?”

hyungseob continued, “yeah and why wouldnt you tell us if you liked each other???”

at this jihoon started laughing, “im kidding jeez!!!” he then sat down and mentioned for them to sit closer

“we’re pretending-” “WHAT” “omg shut up gualin youre so loud. we’re pretending to date so that jinyoung will be jealous”

euiwoong sighed “im not even going to care this time around. you two are lost cases.”

hyungseob smiled as he pinched euiwoong’s cheek and jihoon fake vomited “ew. YOU are lost cases stop being so in love”

“you jealous hyung?” “omg shut up seonho”

“anyway woong. i am telling you that you should be more respectful to me. when im married to jinyoung, with kids that are twice your height and with more money than all your three next genarations, i wont remember you punk.”

“GOOD”

“OMG YOU FUCKING- I HATE YOU”

turns out fake dating samuel wasnt soooo bad

they hang out like they used to, the only difference was that they held hands a bit more

it still, however, didnt work for them as jinyoung never looked their way

therefore, ofc the obvious and only solution was for them to take their relationship to the next level and to kiss

they decided on a plan

jihoon would be walking to school and hed pass by jinyoung and smile at him casually, but then he’d fall

samuel would then see and help him up, ask if he was okay!! and then kiss his cheek

it was a good plan, really, it was a good plan BUT

fucking samuel didnt do shit! he stood there looking

which ended up in jinyoung looking up to see what had happened and walking towards jihoon to help him up

jihoon started blushing when jinyoung asked him if he was okay, and jihoon could only nod

at this samuel came closer to the two of them, glaring at jihoon but trying to cover it up with a smile “hey you okay baby?”

jihoon blushed at the pet name, how could samuel call him baby when he was talking with his crush. “im fine”

jinyoung then cleared his throar, “hm. im glad youre okay i should go. see you around i guess...”

“jihoon!!! my name is jihoon”

after jinyoung had left, samuel turned to jihoon “what the hell was that?”

“that do you mean??? you didnt even fucking try to help me. what was THAT???”

“i was... thinking. listen, why didnt you pretend??”

“fuck. because i was actually talking to him! and you had to ruin it all sam omg. cant you fucking let me win? youre such a sore loser.”

“what??? i was doing what you asked hyung! i was pretending.”

“whatever, im done. i dont want to pretend anymore. i got to talk with him alone, not by pretending.”

“what??? but how come you want to pretend and then you dont?!?!?”

“jeez sam dont make it that deep. we played a game, the game is over now. thats it, im gonna keep trying to get jinyoung and so will you”

“but hyung. i thought we were on this together?”

“hm no??? sam, we’re agaisnt each other”

samuel shook his head, rubbing his hands agaisnt each other, “fine.”

“fine!”

when samuel didnt answer, jihoon sighed “goodbye”

“where are you going??? it’s the middle of the day?”

“mind your business”

they didnt talk for two days, damn that gemini stuborn ass

samuel ended up reaching out to jihoon and apologising for overreacting, to which jihoon agreed and also apologised for doing the same

they sorted things out and promised to not let this jinyoung matter ruin their friendship 

everything was really great until jihoon started talking more with jinyoung

jihoon would cross ways with his crush and he’d actually hold his head up long enough to shoot him a smile

they’d say hi to each other if they saw one another

sometimes jihoon would even sit next to jinyoung for a few moments when he was alone

and jihoon was loving it until he noticed that samuel was growing sadder by the days

he was quieting down and focusing more on studying

and he was always avoiding him

jihoon could for the love of god understand why 

and he couldnt not talk about it, so he did ofc

him and samuel talked about it although the younger avoided saying the reason

jihoon let him be for a few more days but once the week mark passed, he got really worried

he thought that maybe it was because samuel was jealous that he’d lost and jihoon even went to the point of talking to him about giving up jinyoung just to let samuel be happy-

when he noticed exactly that. since when did samuel’s happiness become soooo important? sure it was always important, they were friends

but jihoon cared to the point of giving up on his crush just to see samuel happy???? that was new

jihoon then started thinking more about that and even talked to euiwoong about it, who told him that he was thinking of it as something more complex than it really was and that he should just talk with samuel

at first, jihoon didnt get it. but as he started missing his best friend more and more (since when did samuel become his best friend that he missed more than the others???)

he realised something had changed and he decided he really needed to talk with samuel about it

“hey”

“oh. hey hyung” samuel went to leave the bathroom

its not live jihoon purposefully stalked him there just to prove to himself that the younger was in fact avoiding him

“hey wait. we need to talk sam”

samuel shook his head quickly, “we dont. for real i swear im okay”

“i dont believe you. just talk with me please, for a second”

“fine hyung. here?”

“hm.... no, lets go to the seats okay?”

“okay hyung.”

they sat down in the outside of the school, close to each other but not too much

jihoon cleared his throat “ok so, ive been thinking. and listen. i really miss you sam. like ive been talking more and more with jinyoung but less and less with you and i miss you like crazy-”

“oh.”

“yeah. i.... dont know sam. i really miss you, what happened? we were fine but you started avoiding me. is it because i talk with jinyoung more than you? i...i. i could let you meet him. talk for real with him.”

“no, hyung. its not that.”

“really? then what? bc i swear sam, i’d give him up for you to be happy, for real.”

“really hyung? you’d. you’d do that? for m-me? seriously?”

“yeah. of course. is it really not because of that?”

“well. i guess technically it is. but hm. just hear me out and please dont hate me okay?”

jihoon nodded “of course not.”

i dont how or why but ive been feeling different... towards you. i was jealous yes, but then i realised i was jealous not because of jinyoung but because of you... hyung. i wanted to be him. i wanted you to be crushing on me and i know youre not and i know you wont. and im happy for you to be talking with him but. im sorry i just dont feel ready to be your friend right now.”

“oh hm. wow i didnt realise you felt that way. i.”

samuel shook his head, “part of me was hoping youd confess like in the movies yk? im... god im so stupid.”

“hey, dont say that. youre not. im too perfect, you cant resist me i get it-”

“not now hyung, please.” and the way samuel’s voice sounded so broken. it left jihoon speechless and at the same time wanting to scream out everything at the world.

“sam. im sorry i really am i didnt know you felt that way. i...”

“its okay hyung. i myself only realised when i talked with woong-”

“wait you talked with him too?”

“what? you talked with him?”

“yeah i asked for his help-”

“about what?”

“ohh. hm. oh. i.”

jihoon completely spaced out and he felt like he was in a movie. he felt like a character that just understood everything at once, like a stupid girl that didnt realise she liked her best friend over her crush. like a fool

“i wow sam.”

“what hyung? are you okay??????”

“jesus christ im dumb”

“i know. tell me something new.”

“bitch shut up listen i.... like you too omg- i cant believe it but i do.”

“what?? you just daydreamed for two minutes straight and now youre back and u like me??? dont play me like that. i thought you were better than this-”

“omg sam shut up let me talk. i talked to woong because i needed help reaching out to you. i was so worried! i even told you that i’d give jinyoung up for you and you talking with woong just reminded me of what he said... and its true. i was making it out to be too complicated when in fact its so simple. i like you, plain and easy.”

“are you sure??????”

“yeah sam. i am, i really am. i feel like i have a bulb over my head.”

“you might as well, what you just said was more moving and inovational than the creation of ipads.”

“damn im blessed to have such a nice boyfriend that compliments me so much! i mean, wait no.”

they both blushed, the losers.

“so.... boyfriend huh?”

“what the fuck gualin since when were you there????”

they ended up discovering a week later, as they held hands under the lunch table, giggling and blushing over the touch, that jinyoung had been dating daewhi for months.

[magicalgirlmascot]

Heya I don't mean to sound passive aggressive in any way, but I was just wondering why is it that you dislike Super a lot? I mean you're allowed to like and dislike whatever you want, and I'm in no way trying to change your opinion. I'm just curious as to why you seem to have a burning hatred for it?

Nah you don’t sound passive aggressive ^^ if you were you wouldn’t have acknowledged that my opinion is a valid one, you’re cool

I’ve avoided going into too much detail to avoid The Discourse, but essentially it comes down to a few main points: ships I don’t like, characters I don’t care about, pacing, terrible one-note characterization, and the fans.

I know a lot of that sounds really petty but with all my Sweet Home Alabama discourse yesterday are any of you surprised

I’m going to put my more detailed reasoning under a cut because boy howdy it is long and I have some Things To Say

Ships I Don’t LikeOkay this, honestly, is incredibly petty, and it’s not even the pettiest thing on here. But I HATE Trunks/Mai. I hate it. It is the worst ship that’s had the word “canon” sneezed at it in all of DB history, and that’s coming from someone who firmly believes Yamcha/Bulma was unhealthy for both parties. One of my rules for accepting writing commissions and requests is that I will not accept ships with an “aged up” child character in a relationship with an adult. (Aged up children in relationships with other aged up children are a different story, as they’re at least at the same stage of development, but that’s an issue for another day.) Trunks/Mai has the opposite problem: it’s an “aged down” adult character in a relationship with a child. You can argue about Future Trunks’s age all you want, but that changes nothing about kid Trunks and Mai. She’s in her forties. He’s nine at most. How is this not the creepiest thing in the world what the fuck.

Even with Future Trunks and Future Mai, it still grosses me out because it’s the same thing. Assuming the Pilaf Gang did (somehow) wish to be young again in the Future timeline (which...I don’t see how they could have, that doesn’t make sense continuity-wise, but continuity has never been DB’s strong suit), that still makes her way older than him. And if they didn’t, well, that’s just worse. Also how is she still that young looking.

Honestly the only reason I can think of for Toei/Toriyama to bring that into existence was so people would stop shipping Trunks with Goten and Future Trunks with Gohan. Which. I get it, you don’t like it, they’re your characters, et cetera, but could you maybe not have done it in a somewhat less creepy way? Dude. What 40-something wants to be in a relationship with a kid? Even if said 40-something looks like a kid? It’s creepy and gross and I hate it more than any other canon ship.

Characters I Don’t Care AboutI’ve heard a lot of people refer to Super as The Goku and Vegeta Hour and...yeah. DB’s never been great at remembering their MILLIONS of side characters (humans especially once Z happened) and Super doesn’t take enough steps to change that imo. Don’t get me wrong--I like Goku, and I...tolerate Vegeta, but characters who were once considered major players are relegated to backseat viewers again, and nobody can keep up with Goku except Vegeta sometimes (when previously most of them could at least hold their own). I’ll admit, I like the looks of some of the new characters, there are some who seem like they have interesting characterizations (like Kale.....though I’ll be the first to admit I’m biased as hell towards buff women). But Zamasu/Goku Black or whatever just seemed like a couple of shitty Hot Topic teens. I went to high school with people like them and they were annoying.

There’s just too much of a focus on a few specific characters while other characters get the shaft, and the new characters and plot points they bring up just...aren’t interesting. I don’t give a shit about yet another “gotta get stronger” plot you guys. Ugh.

PacingOKAY I’LL ADMIT this is the pettiest thing on this list but like...I’ve never liked the DB anime’s pacing. Ever. Remember how I used to liveblog DBZ? I got like 10 episodes in and got fed up with how long it took to get anywhere. Stuff that took like...a couple chapters in the manga took five half-hour episodes to deal with. And you’d think they would’ve learned in 30 years, especially since they don’t have to base everything off the manga now, but no, the pacing is still awful. And it’s not just the whole “Namek takes half a season to explode” stuff (although that is really annoying, and knowing the real-world reason for it doesn’t make it less annoying), it’s that every shot lasts longer than it needs to. You could cut the running time in half just by trimming the shots slightly. It’s bad, and I’ve always stuck to the manga because of it. It’s not that I’m a Manga Purist(TM) or anything, I just...can’t watch the anime.

Terrible, One-Note CharacterizationYou all know who I mean when I say this, but it extends to more than just Yamcha.

Videl’s character was absolutely decimated in this show. 18′s the only female fighter we have left anymore because of it. I once saw an argument saying that Videl not fighting anymore makes sense because she was traumatized by being killed by Buu, which okay fine fair enough, but 1) nobody said she had to fight in life-or-deaths situations, AT LEAST LET HER BE SAIYAWOMAN AGAIN YOU COWARDS, and 2) that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of her firecracker personality and replace it with the sweet, docile housewife type. We saw it with Chi-Chi...sort of, we don’t need it with Videl, too. Once a female character gets married in DB, they stop fighting (except 18) and stop being important to the plot (except Bulma...sometimes (remember when Bulma was the main character? Pepperidge Farm remembers)). Three times is a pattern, Toriyama, I’m just saying.

Goku even gets hit with shades of this. He’s not an idiot, you guys, he can read a dang grocery list. Yes, he’s selfish and simple and bad at communicating and often doesn’t realise what he’s done wrong until it’s pointed out to him, but he’s also a fast learner, a really good tactician (like. look at some of his fights in DB and early Z, those are some Good Tactics), and not a complete asswipe. We don’t get to see those good traits much in Super. He had no reason to not tell people the stakes for the tournament to get them to join. None. There was no reason to lie. Yes, his biggest flaw is his inability to communicate with his friends and teammates (COUGHS LOUDLY AND LOOKS AT THE CELL ARC) but Jesus you guys, his friends would have helped him if he told them the real stakes too? He didn’t need to lie? There was no point? I’m so angry?

The worst of it though is Yamcha. For the love of fuck, you guys, Yamcha has more characterization than just “guy who sucks at everything and has a thing for Bulma.” Like that’s some Funi dub shit there, not original canon. What happened to when he said he’d given up fighting in the Buu arc? Where did that go? You could have done so much more with that concept rather than have him still be overconfident in his abilities and slamming him at every turn. Even when he does get to do stuff, it’s obvious that it’s just a setup to make him fail so Vegeta will look good by comparison. It’s awful. The writers have such an obvious hard-on for Vegeta and they keep cutting Yamcha down. Those bits where he’s waiting for Goku to ask him to the tournament even though we all know he won’t? They’re not funny, they’re just sad. Also, on that note, why is Roshi there? Yamcha surpassed Roshi years ago, Roshi himself says so! I get that he wasn’t in the RF movie because his voice actor was busy, but they couldn’t have given a better reason than just Tien leaving him behind because he didn’t think he could keep up? At least have him sick in bed with a fever and wanting to go anyway and being forced to stay behind by a worried Tien or something guys, geez. And his VA was obviously around for that arc of Super, so what the hell.

(Yes I was salty earlier about Yamcha still fighting and shit but if you’re going to drop the “Yamcha retiring from fighting” plot point then at least DO something with it you cowards)

FansOH GOD, THE FANS. Not to say that people who dislike Super are perfect or ideologically pure (I once knew a person who bragged about trolling/picking on Super fans...we do not talk), but the people who do like the show seem to spend an awful lot of time yelling at us and telling people they’re not real fans if they like GT more than Super or don’t like either or whatever.

And of course the VegeBullies are out in full force over it, too. VegeBul gets a lot of screentime, and when fans of other ships (GoChi primarily) say “hey we’d like more content” they get shut down or yelled at. They demand more content despite already having more than anyone else at this point. Shut the fuck up and let me enjoy the fact that Tien and Yamcha stood next to each other again in peace.

But that’s getting dangerously close to ship war territory and I try to stay out of that. (It’s hard, because I’m a salty, bitter person, but I try.) I’ll also say Not All VegeBuls(TM) even though I shouldn’t have to because if I don’t I’ll get at least 10 angry anons in my inbox flipping their shit.

You know what the really sad thing is? When Super was first announced, I was mega excited. And I really liked the first couple episodes! But they veered away from making it the Martial Arts Themed Slice of Life Comedy Hour we deserved, they retold the same story the movies already did instead of just making the movies canon and continuing from there (thereby drawing it out way too much), and they just...fucked it up in general. I can’t stand Super and while I don’t expect to sway anyone’s opinion with this, you did ask me why, and I hope now you can understand.

[cactuarkitty]

Random DA:O Thoughts - Pt 12.

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to Orzammar we go!

The shop keeper at Orzammar said his wares were guaranteed by his 24hr life time guarantee. LOL

Wow I’m shocked that the first scene I saw between the dwarves is of one being killed with an axe because he disagreed with him. Maybe I shouldn’t be shocked.

What is a nub?

Well a nub is a naked rat animal thing haha. Kinda cute. Collecting the nubs now.

The King has died. There are two dwarves, a noble and a prince who I are vying for the throne. You have to pick a side. I was sooo confused I really didn’t know who to choose. I ended up going with the Prince. We’ll see what happens haha.

I had to show two nobles some papers, proving that the other guy had promised them the same land for their vote. I’m pretty sure one of the nobles had Canderous’ voice from KotoR. :D

I had to travel into the deep roads to find one of the nobles. Found it kinda creepy. More of those baby raptors who squeak awww.

Every time I die and get swapped to Alistair or something, I have no idea what the hell I’m doing haha.

Oh yeah just searching the Dwarven palace and looting chests. Just another day as a grey warden. :P

Now I have to clear some gang out. That was fun! Quite cool how they have little secret quests. Like having to take the least expensive item from each chest to be able to access their stash. Also it made me laugh that the exit was out through a shopkeepers wall lol.

Dwarves carry lots of coin.

We’re off to find Branka. Her husband I guess joined our team. Yay I have the dwarf now!

I like how Oghren says sodding a lot. His beard and hair are so red :D

Ahaha he keeps making funny comments on Alistair’s and Norua’s relationship.

The deep roads quest is very long. Only thing that bothered me about it being so long is the fact I ran out of health potions and those roots to make them.

I found Huck. He is crazy, doesn’t want me to tell his Mum he’s still alive. So I won’t.

That whole bit with the dwarf lady saying some weird poem super freaked me out! :/ Creepy.

Eww what the fuck is this brood mother thing. Gross! So they’ve been feeding her heaps of dwarfs maybe.

Killed her. Focused on her with spells while the rest of the team fought her minions and tentacles.

I don’t really like Branka much.

The totem poll fight with the spirits was super hard! Probably didn’t help that I was low on health potions.

Oh so the other paragon guy is in a golem (I forgot his name). He wants me to destroy the anvil because to make the golems they had to take actual lifes. Wow so yeah I decided I’d destroy it and of course Branka wants to fight. -_-

Awww after I destroyed the anvil he committed suicide. I guess it wasn’t much of a life for him. He made a special crown for the next King.

As planned I chose Baleen and instantly regretted it! He ordered Harrowmont to be executed :O even after I said “I didn’t give you the throne so you could be a tyrant” he refused to change his mind. I’m actually finding him super annoying now. I actually had a memory of watching my ex play as a noble dwarf, and a picture in my head that someone had poisoned others. I think it was Baelen. I felt so bad I loaded and gave the crown to Harrowmont, who was like “I’m surprised.” cause I never tried to get their trust. Baelen attacked us lol. So now he is dead. Oh well.

I said to the new king I wanted my face on a giant rock ahaha

I think I only have a bunch of side quests before the lands meet stuff, so I’m kinda at that point where I dunno what to do. I don’t really want to go to the lands meet. Maybe I’ll buy some of the dlc to do in the mean time.

It’s weird but I wondering why I hadn’t gotten Leliana’s loyalty quest to do yet, since she is at full approval. Also when I talk to her there is no new convos. Someone said that she talks about your relationship with Alistair but it’s never came up. I found out that for some reason her approval being so high has locked out convos. I had to give her some rotten onions to get it down. Then she had more convo options. There was even a cutscene with her singing which I thought was beautiful. Kinda makes me wonder if I missed other convos cause I gave them too many gifts at once. Oh no I just did that with Oghren. Oops.

I think when I play again I’ll try to talk to them more often and space out the gifts a bit more. Like one gift per quest. This time I usually gave them about 5 gifts in a row lol. What if I missed out of Alistair convos by giving him too many gifts. I actually have about 4 gifts for him now which I useless since he has the gold heart now. Don’t really wanna mess with his meter.

Haha Oghren is drunk and he told me to sod off.

Did Oghren’s loyalty. Lmao of course it’s to help him hook up XD was very funny!

Now I’m doing Shale’s loyalty. It was a cool quest. So Shale used to be a female dwarf - interesting. I guess Shale is still a they/them since they have no gender, being a golem. Actually just now in a convo with Leliana, Shale said they weren’t a she… that they are a golem.

Don’t really have much else to do so I’m going to do the prep for the lands meet. I was relieved that it wasn’t yet the point of no return.

Ugh I hate Loghian so much! And that horrible Arl who he has under his thumb. He’s obviously a snake. Gonna enjoy killing them. No fucking way am I making Loghain a grey warden.

So a handmaiden elf needs us to rescue Queen Anoia. That bastard snake arl has her locked up. I knew he was creepy! I know he has Tim Curry’s voice and he’s good at playing creepy evil weirdos haha.

Haha we had to get dressed up as soldiers. I’d never seen Norua in armour before - she looks quite striking. Not as lovely as in her robes though. Of course I had her and Al kissing before they got into the castle.

AHAHAHA OMG! I intruded on a maid giving a guard a bj XD so funny! Now he is dead. I hope he enjoyed his last moments of pleasure.

I was so excited when I found all the treasure piles in the locked room :D

Whoa a guard just got strangled. Pretty graphic haha. Poor Norua took a step back all scared like towards Al. “Hold me Alistair!” “Come here, my love. Alistair has you.” Tee hee <3

Oh it was a grey warden who had been captured. Wow so King Cailan had asked about 200 grey wardens to come help. Damn that Loghain bastard! The grey warden seems cool. Alistair had met him previously at his joining. He just told us about a wardens stash… oooooh! Exciting!

Holy crap some of the fights are super hard! Had to load a couple of times.

Yay that Arl dickhead is dead! That was a hard fight too cause he had two mages helping him.

In the dungeon there was the real Arl. He seemed to be a bit of a dick but I let him out anyway. Zevran disapproved by 5 points. Also opened the door for a captured Templar. I feel so sorry for him :( he has lyrium withdrawal so isn’t right of mind. He was captured trying to bring Jowan back. God that Jowan all he does is cause trouble. I really dislike him. Anyway the Templar asked me to give his sister a message or a ring, I can’t remember.

Rescued the queen. Loghain’s second in command (can’t remember her name) stopped us when we tried to leave. I made the mistake of revealing the queen was with us. Then the queen said we tried to kidnap her :O Norua was NOT happy! Wasn’t until later she realised she wasn’t as subtle as she could have been. Oops!

Haha Norua and Al have been captured and are in the cell together half naked. Who’s great idea was that?!

I took Wynne and Leliana to rescue them. Hehe this mission was amusing! Some of the fights were quite hard. I summoned a spirit wolf with Leliana to help us. :)

Aww when we travelled back to the Estate, the spirit wolf died. Made me sad :( I thought it wasn’t an actual wolf. Maybe I can dismiss it while in combat. Kinda gross to have the wolf just drop dead then turn into a skeleton.

The warden gave me the location of the stash - woo!

OOOOOMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGG I FOUND DUNCAN’S SHIELD TO GIVE TO ALISTAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He was SO happy!!!! He said he would cherish it forever. It was amazing! I’m so happy! Looks awesome with his Warden armour and Starfang sword too. :D 

Norua: “Who loves you, Al?” Alistair: “My sweet little rose petal.” <3