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[duchess-kyuupid]

~The Duchess' Thoughts and Drabbles Pt. 4~ Ft. Neuvillette

Thinking about Neuvillette slowly falling in love with a reader who owns a dessert shop. Mostly just ideas of Neuvillette falling in love with the reader's Raindrop Cakes, rather than them as a person lol

[Neuvillette x reader, Very little romance/slow-burn set-up, Gn! Reader, fluff]

Well, it had all started when one of the Melusines had come across your new, quaint little dessert shop that's just got up off the ground. The shop was tucked in a little corner, but at the time it was all you could afford to purchase for your bakery. Unfortunately for you, the awkward placement meant that there was not a lot of traffic coming through your doors, and it didn't matter how many sweets you baked with the windows wide open- the smells of the other bakery shops nearby greatly overpowered yours.

It was tough trying to get by everyday, but you always held your head up high for the next day. After all, it was your dream to open up a bakery in Fontaine, and after all the shit you had to go through to get this up and running, you weren't about to just kneel over and give up when things didn't go as you planned.

At the very least, you've now managed to secure a couple regular customers, who prefer the tiny and cozy atmosphere of your shop compared to the grand and extravagance of any of the other bakeries.

On this day, you were sitting at the register, focused on your little stack of baking books around you and writing things down in your notebook. There wasn't a single soul in your shop besides yourself. The Melusine could hear you muttering things under your breath about ideas for new recipes and baking methods, and you were brought out of your thoughts when you heard the bell of your door ring as the Melusine walked in.

"Good evening!" you jump up excitedly. This Melusine could possibly be your first customer of the day! "Let me know if there's anything that strikes your fancy. I also offer free samples if you're unsure!" Well, it's not like you really had a choice with the free samples... With how much you ended up baking, most of this stuff was probably going to have ended up in the bin anyway.

The Melusine nods her head and starts looking around, and you can tell that she's rather timid as she takes a look at the goods you have on display. Though, with how much your focus was directed specifically to her, you can see the sparkles in her eyes as she browsed. You offered a lot of classic Fontainian desserts, like croissants, tiramisu, lemon tarts, macarons, mousse, and the like, but a majority of your items were things the Melusine has never seen before. Swiss roll cake? Key Lime Pie? She's never even heard of these- but you're more than happy to offer her a taste of your hard work.

With every bite, the Melusine's eyes started shining brighter and brighter, and her timid personality started to give way to her curiosity about your work and how you create these sweet confections.

At some point, she stops in her tracks when she sees a dessert that looked rather....bland, in comparison to the others. It sat in its display case, delicate and untouched. The surface was smooth, and you could see right through it.

"Oh, this? This is called Raindrop Cake. Some of my customers prefer desserts that aren't too sweet, so I have this. It really just tastes like plain water, at least until you add some toppings to it. It's quite pretty, isn't it?"

"I'll take a box of those please!" the Melusine exclaims excitedly. It was the perfect dessert to offer as a gift for the Iudex.

"Of course! I appreciate your business! Come back next time!" And the Melusine happily leaves your establishment with a skip in her step while you're just happy that you managed to sell something today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ever since then, Neuvillette has been asking for more of those Raindrop Cakes specifically from your shop. He's always much too busy to get them himself, so the Melusines are always happy to go grab some for him in his place. Every time they come back, the Melusines tell him all about the kind owner who works the entire shop single-handedly. They tell him about all of the amazing other sweets they've got for sale, too- some even offering him a piece of their cake for him to taste.

Of course, he's always happy to receive any gifts the Melusines offer him, but his favorite is always the Raindrop Cakes. Their delicate texture and subtle tastes always brings him to happiness. He can tell when you've used water from different places for the recipe. (His personal favorite is when you use water from Sumeru's waterfalls.) And at this point, it's become a part of his routine to enjoy some of your Raindrop Cakes while tasting water as part of his hobby.

Even Furina manages to hear about this new bakery and she demands Neuvillette to bring her some of their cakes, being a sweet connoisseur herself, she must find out what all of this fuss is about! So, for the first time, Neuvillette finally decides that it was time to visit this bakery personally.

You almost fall off your seat at the cash register when you see the Iudex of Fontaine walk in through your doors, with at least 3 different Melusines in tow excitedly. You recognize each of the Melusines- after all, most of your customers recently have been Melusines coming in to buy more Raindrop Cakes and a few other desserts for themselves.

"G-good evening, sir! How can I help you today?" you ask nervously. Neuvillette's eyes stare directly into yours, his face unmoving and stern.

"Are you the owner of this establishment?" he asks. You can do nothing but nod under his intense gaze. Did you do something wrong? Are you in some sort of trouble with the law? You're sure that can't be it, you've been doing everything correctly... Maybe there's some other law that you broke without realizing? Or maybe someone wants to charge you for murder!? You know that eating too many sweets isn't really good for your health, but it's not your fault if someone ate so many of your sweets that they died from it!! You're innocent!

"Could you please show me your Raindrop Cakes?" he asks politely, and you're knocked out of your thoughts at the unexpected question. So... you're not in trouble. That's good. You move to show him where you keep the Raindrop Cakes. Because you've had so many people (Melusines) ordering them, you expanded the space and you increased your variety of Raindrop Cakes.

Neuvillette's eyes widen when he sees how many you have in stock. Some of them appeared to have been drizzled with molasses, some with honey, some with caramel, and some with black sugar syrup. Some of them have graham crackers sprinkled on them, some with powdered cinnamon, and some with soybean powder. Some have sakura blooms inside them, some with cecilias, some with glaze lilies, some with kalpalata lotuses, and some with rainbow roses. Some of them have strawberries in them, some with blueberries, some with mint, and some with valberries. Not only that, but some of them are in different shapes too. Like, take a look at this one, it's shaped like a cat! Or an otter! How delightful. The point is, Neuvillette didn't realize there were so many different variations to his favorite dessert. And this isn't even going into the different water you used in each of them. The only way he'll know is if he tries it.

"I'll take your entire stock of these. And add in one of those Mille Crepe cakes as well, please. Lady Furina would also like to try some of your desserts."

"Huh?!"

"It appears I am woefully ignorant of the world of Raindrop Cakes, despite how many I've enjoyed until today. I look forward to trying out each and every single one of these," he explains with a subtle smile on his face. The Melusines behind him celebrate to each other- namely because they're happy that your ledger will not be in the red for today. With how often they've stopped by, they've become quite close to you, and they collectively have been praying that your business succeeds. But they're also happy that Neuvillette seems to have found another thing to enjoy besides his water tasting.

While they were celebrating to themselves, they noticed the dazed look on your face as you try to box up all of the Raindrop Cakes for Neuvillette, and their minds start delving into...creative territories.

"Do you see that? I think they might like Monsieur Neuvillette!" "Is it a crush?" "Could it be true love?" "Monsieur Neuvillette finally finding someone! How exciting!" "I'm sure they'd get along splendidly! They're so kind, it's hard not to love them!!"

The hushed whispers of the Melusines do not escape from Neuvillette's ears, but it appears you were too much in shock at the moment to hear. I mean, both the Iudex AND the Hydro Archon wants to try out YOUR desserts? You'll have to thank the Melusines later for their free advertising. (That is, if you aren't forcibly closed down due to Furina not liking your sweets...)

But after everything that he's heard about you from the Melusines, he supposes that officially getting to know a person like you wouldn't be too bad. Maybe he will prove them to be right after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was meant to be a lot shorter, and a little more romantic, but I'm happy with how it is now! But I just KNOW that Neuvillette would absolutely adore Raindrop Cakes since they're so simple and since they basically taste like water lol. I hope everyone enjoyed! <3

[duchess-kyuupid]

Not quite an X Reader request, but a fun little prompt: In the place of Yuu is a TWST version of Little Ghost from Hollow Knight. Everyone thinks the kid's some random five year old fae that got swiped up by accident and is mostly babysat by the staff, but that doesn't stop some students from trying to bully the baby.

However, the baby in question is very good at hiding knives on their person and is secretly a master swordsman, and one day stabs a bully in the leg for shoving them, right in front of the bully's dorm leader.

Question: How do the dorm leaders react in this situation?

Okay uhh... I haven't written anything for a long time I know, but this I feel like I absolutely HAVE to do. Hopefully Silksong comes soon...right?

« Little Ghost gets into a Little Fight™ in Twisted Wonderland »

[TWST x Hollow Knight, Platonic affection, Ghost is slightly taller than Grim, not an x reader, the bullies are from each respective dorm (like Riddle's bullies are from Heartslabyul, etc.)]

So this whole conundrum started when Little Ghost found their favorite dorm leader in the halls in between classes. In their little scurry to reach them, they had to bypass a couple other students who were also in the hallway. One such student, with their small group of friends, intended to punt them and disguise it as a mere "shove."

"Better watch where you're going, shorty- us tall people can't see you from all the way up here when- OW! God damn it, what the hell?"

Little Ghost hides away their sharpened nail within the cover of their cloak, as if it was never there to begin with. They look up to the bully, pure malice filling the void of its blank, unblinking eyes. The bully's friends decide it was probably best to take the bully to the nurse and apologize on their behalf because, just look at his leg, it's bleeding! And, oh god, how big is that hole in his foot? What even is this weird shadow stuff? Best to just apologize and get out of there while they still could...

~Riddle~

Riddle witnesses the whole thing from the very moment that the Little Ghost saw him to begin with. Yet, the bullies left so quick that he didn't get a chance to collar them for their blatant disregard for the lives of innocent creatures. And almost immediately after the bullies left, the knight headed straight towards Riddle.

He was angry at first, at how the bullies so flagrantly disobeyed Rule #75: Never kick any creature with your left foot on Thursdays. But rather, he ended up feeling more concerned over the safety of the knight than anything else.

He took a moment to make sure the knight was feeling okay before going off into great detail about how it's against school policy to carry and conceal any weapon that isn't a wand on campus. Granted, he momentarily stops himself mid-sentence during his rant about this, since technically Little Ghost isn't even a student at NRC, so perhaps those rules don't apply to them? Hmm... An interesting counterargument indeed...

Ghost merely stares blankly back with little reaction to the scolding from Riddle. He sighs and decides to say nothing else about the knight's hidden weapons because, ultimately, Riddle is just happy that he won't have to worry so much about the little guy getting hurt with the knowledge that they can protect themselves if they need to.

"Well," Riddle supposes, "I guess I can let it go just this once. But just make sure that you don't go around stirring up even more trouble. Just let me know if anyone else decides to bother you, and I shall make sure to deal with them properly. Still, I need to go make sure those other ruffians don't make the same mistake twice about breaking the Queen's rules."

Riddle leans down a bit and pats the top of the knight's head with endearment in his eyes before walking away towards the nurse's office, an obvious glare of anger in his stride as he walked.

And the Little Ghost, left all alone in the hallway, looks down to their little hand, holding onto their precious charm: Fury of the Fallen.

Ah, another time then... they think.

~Leona~

Leona catches the whole thing and laughs about it as he watches the bullies scurry away in fear. He'd be dead before he admits it out loud, but Leona was actually just about to step in for the Little Ghost. True, he was pretending that he didn't see them as they were trying to approach him in the hallway, but he's always trying to look out for Little Ghost, whether on purpose or not.

Anyway, his laugh was more like a snide snicker, filled with mocking amusement. It was almost ironic how those beastmen could be so frightened by such a small little mouse, and hearing them squeal like babies was almost like music to his ears.

Leona smiles wider when Ghost finally approaches him after the incident, and he dips down to give them a little pat on the head.

"Nice job there, runt. That's what they get for messing with the wrong pack."

However, Leona's caught by surprise when the Ghost takes his hand from their head and places something in it. It felt cold- metallic maybe?- in his hand, and he takes a look at the gift Ghost had given to him. A... brooch? Ehh... The thought is nice but he's not exactly a jewelry kinda guy, you know?

Oh wait, and there's a note on it too.

'Mark of Pride. To my favorite pack leader.'

The next day, almost all of the Savanaclaw residents took notice of the new brooch their leader started wearing around.

~Azul~

Well, those bullies did have it coming to them, to be fair. Azul is in equal parts surprised and not surprised at those turn of events. On one hand, he's not surprised that Ghost had a little something up their sleeves on how to protect themselves, but on the other hand, he just didn't expect it to be...that.

Like, you'd think that you wouldn't be able to do a lot of damage with just a comically sized nail, but apparently, it was enough to scare even Octavinelle students away. And what was with that shadow magic? He's never seen anyone use anything remotely similar- not even cosmic magic came close to what the Ghost wielded in tandem with their nail just now.

My, he's just reminded of how the land has so many things to learn and many more to gain from. Azul approaches Ghost after the bullies leave with a smile on his face. Whether the smile is from his eagerness for a new deal, his relief that Ghost is safe, or even a combination of the two- not even Azul knows.

"That was spectacular, Little Ghost! You really showed them what's what!"

And Ghost just looks back up at him with his eyes, devoid of any sort of emotion. Most people have become quite frightened of Ghost by now, and it feels like Azul is the only person who ever looks them directly in the eyes. After all, after spending basically your entire life at the bottom of the ocean, peering into the darkness is nothing new for someone like Azul.

For this reason, while Azul was talking his mouth off at the prospect of learning about Ghost's void magic, Ghost reaches into their cloak and pulls out a charm, picked out specifically for Azul.

Ghost stands on their toes and stretches out their arms to offer their one and only charm of Unbreakable Greed to Azul, and he receives it gracefully with a polite thank you and a semi-surprised expression.

"It's remarkably shiny. Beautiful even. Thank you, Ghost." Ghost quickly finds a pen and paper to write on for a quick note to Azul before he starts getting any ideas.

'Don't sell this one. It's supposed to bring you more money.'

~Kalim~

He was too carried away in talking off Jamil's ears, so much so that he never even noticed the kerfuffle until the bullies started making a fuss.

"NO! GHOST, STOP IT. That's mean!" He scolds ghost as if they were a cat, and he didn't even realize that it was out of self defense. He picks up ghost and cuddles him close to his chest and tries to apologize to the bully for the inconvenience.

Meanwhile, the bully just screams out about how the ghost is a devil in disguise- a monster. Kalim doesn't believe them as the ghost just looks back up to him with (seemingly) innocent doe eyes.

"Well if you were being mean like that to them then its no wonder why they hurt you!" And by that point, the bullies had already started to run off, frightened of getting on the wrong side of an Al-Asim as well as...whatever Ghost is- monster or devil.

"You didn't get hurt did you, little guy?" Kalim asks worriedly, and Ghost merely shakes his head no. With a sigh of relief, Kalim smiles and continues walking through the hallway with Ghost still in tow within his arms.

This was probably the most perfect time for Ghost to offer their gift to him, so from their pocket they take out their Hiveblood charm.

And Jamil has to stop Kalim from crying on the spot when the Ghost attaches the charm onto his cardigan. Ghost doesn't even need to explain what it does- Kalim will probably wear it every day anyway.

~Vil~

Vil sees what happens and also laughs for a second as he watched the bullies run away from the scene. Though, he was a bit disappointed, in a way. Those bullies were the ones who started it, and yet they didn't even have the courage to finish it? Not only that, but they didn't even look the least bit graceful in their bullying tactics. How shameful. He ought to scold them for bringing such disgusting habits into the Pomefiore lifestyle.

But, Vil decided, they were very much beyond his recognition right now. As Housewarden, he can probably set them up with a punishment befitting their actions later, but right now, Vil notices the Little Ghost approaching him with a sort of glee in their steps.

"Hello there, Little Ghost. You weren't hurt, I hope?" And Ghost shakes their head no before reaching into their pocket to pull something out from under their cloak.

Immediately, the hallway fills up with a strong stench in the air that seemingly came from nowhere. But, Vil knew better. After all, he can practically see the fumes radiating off of whatever the Ghost had in their hand. What confused him though, was why it only started smelling when the Ghost took it out from their cloak if they had it this whole time...

The Ghost reaches out their hand to offer their Defender's Crest to Vil, but he looks at it in disgust and pinches his nose so he wouldn't have to smell it. (Alas, this tactic did not help whatsoever, as now he was forced to almost taste the smell as the fumes visibly wafted into his face.) Still, he tried his best to decline the offer as politely as he could... In classic Vil fashion, of course.

"If you plan on giving me that, then forget about it and keep it for yourself. It's disguising and revolting. I'd probably catch 10 different diseases if I so much as touch that thing." Reminder, this was Vil trying to politely refuse the gift.

He almost felt bad about what he said once he sees the way that the Ghost lowers their arms and looks down sadly. Keyword: almost. While their eyes held nothing but emptiness, you could almost feel the small amount of sadness coming from them as they took a moment to think. To be honest, Vil was mere seconds away from reaching for his handkerchief to begrudgingly accept this...lovely gift before the Ghost puts it back into their cloak and pulls out something else instead. It was their charm of Deep Focus, and the beautiful purple gemstones on it shimmered gloriously under the lights in the hallway.

"That's much better," Vil smiles in acceptance and graciously takes the new gift, "And rather beautiful too. Thank you, Ghost."

Ghost was at least happy that Vil liked this one since it was pretty. To be honest though, they were still pretty hurt that Vil would call it disguisting... Ghost can't smell anything, so how were they supposed to know that Vil wouldn't like it?

At least, now it means that they can keep their memento from one of their best friends from their own world.

'I won't ever forget you, Dung Defender. Not even if I lose your Crest.'

~Idia~

Please don't blame him for not stepping in. He doesn't do too well with fights- or just drawing any sort of attention to himself. But! At least when the squabble was over, Idia stood in place and waited for the knight to come to him like they initially wanted. Usually, once Idia sees someone- anyone, really, with the exception of his brother- approaching him, he'll take any sort of excuse to get out of there to avoid confrontation.

Lucky for him, the Little Ghost can't speak. Or perhaps, they choose not to. Either way, it makes it a lot easier for Idia to hang out with the Ghost when he knows he's not going to be expected to answer any random questioning or have to actively participate in conversation.

It's gotten to the point where Idia and Ghost can communicate with each other without making any sort of sounds at all. It's kinda creepy to the other students at the college though... I mean, how can you tell what Little Ghost is thinking when they've never spoken, when their mask is immovable, and when their eyes hold nothing but empty void in them?

Ortho would just tell those people off for him though, because it's in those eyes of theirs that they can understand each other so clearly. Can't you see how much expression Ghost has? Just look at those eyes! [Its complete and utter darkness.] But...to be honest... Ortho doesn't understand it either. Idia supposes he might need to improve Ortho's emotional reading modules...

Going back on topic, Ghost approaches Idia in the hallway and their creepy nonverbal conversation began.

'Are you hurt?' 'No.' 'Good. I can dox them later if you want. Wanna play some games with me later?' 'Yes. I have something for you.' 'Let's see it then.'

Ghost pulls out from their cloak their most precious charm they own: Wayward Compass. Idia's gamer instincts can tell how much latent immense power that is stored in this innocuous brooch, and he accepts it gladly.

Later that day, Idia asks Ortho to scan the object to see what kind of power lays behind this brooch.

"It just shows you where you are on any map."

"Like a GPS?" Ortho nods.

"Oh."

~Malleus~

He's quite pleased actually. He, as well as most of Diasomnia (being the fae that they are), knows the ghost isn't quite a fae, but isn't quite human either, so even he's at a loss for what kind of being the ghost really is. And this mystery makes it all the more easy for Ghost to become the target of bullying, and thus all the more easy for Malleus to become super protective over little ghost. Ultimately, Malleus is glad to see that they were not hurt in the fight.

After all, from the moment when they first met and he looked into it's eyes, he could sense that same sort of empty loneliness within as he does within himself. The Ghost isn't scared of him either, so naturally it seemed that they've become good friends, even if neither party are prone to speaking very much- if at all.

As the Ghost approaches Malleus in the hallway after the fight, he pets the top of their head and wonders to himself- what sort of material is this mask thing made of? Bone? Or is it a type of exoskeleton? Is it made from ceramic or glass? Or perhaps a strange type of wood? Maybe it's made from a material that's only exclusive to the world that Ghost is from.

Lost in his own thoughts, Malleus continued to pat Ghost's head endearingly, and he didn't notice that Ghost was holding something out for him until Ghost takes his hand off of their head and instead wrap his fingers around the stem of a precious white flower. It looked delicate, like it could break apart and fly away at any moment.

And yet, it was such a beautiful flower.

"Is this... for me?" he asks, to which Ghost responds with a nod.

To be honest, the knight would have been completely infuriated if those bullies had managed to break the delicate flower from their home world. They would not have gotten away with the measly scrapes that they did. There was only one of these flowers, and I mean, sure- it was supposed to be for someone else, but the knight got transported here before they could even bring it to Elderbug. Truly though, it was a miracle that the flower had managed to last this long without being broken.

Meanwhile, Malleus gets lost in his thoughts again for a second after realizing that this was the first gift he'd ever gotten from someone he considered as a friend. A kindred soul. He must take great care to protect both the flower and this little creature that is neither fae, human, nor monster- but a friend.

He takes extremely good care of the flower. It might even become one of his favorite items, next to his precious Tamagotchi game, and he places it in an enchanted vase to protect it for as long as he can.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

POV: you're an aspid who broke the delicate flower

[duchess-kyuupid]

Doors or Wheels? [TWST]

It's time for the TWST gang to answer one of life's most weirdest questions. Are there more doors or wheels in the world?

[Not even a fic, just some crack on how everyone would react if you asked them this question]

Riddle: "What a silly question. Of course there's more wheels. "

Trey: "Uhm... Wheels, probably? When you add in gears, it makes sense."

Cater: "Oh? Hmm... I think it's gotta be doors, right? Hold on, let me go ask my Magicam followers!"

Deuce + Ace: Do NOT get them started on this again. They were already arguing about this last week and they STILL haven't gotten over it.

Leona: "Did you really wake me up to ask that? Well, herbivore, why don't you go find out for yourself with that smart brain of yours? Go count them."

Jack: "Doors, probably? Like kitchen cabinet doors. And there's a lot of doors around campus too."

Ruggie: "If you give me 500,000 Thaumarks, I'll go find out for you."

Azul: "Neither doors nor wheels are used very often in the sea, and yet you expect me to know which are more common on land? ... You can leave the VIP room now." The next day he walks up to you in full confidence and says, "Doors."

Floyd: "Don't know. Don't care. Not in the mood. Now go away, shrimpy, before I squeeze you to death."

Jade: "Oh, please excuse his rudeness. Azul just rejected his idea to refurnish the Lounge with string lights. In any case, I believe the answer would be wheels."

Kalim: "Doors! No- wait, wheels! Oh, but what about- AH! I can't pick! There's so many of both! How can there be so many??"

Jamil: "Have you been drinking?"

Vil: "What sort of absolutely nonsensical question is that? Don't tell me you've been spending too much time around those Heartslabyul troublemakers, have you? You're better than that, little potato."

Epel: "Erhm... Why are you even asking that?"

Rook: He doesn't even answer the question. He instead goes into a long tangent about the beauty of figuring out the answer. He ends up writing an award-winning poem titled, 'The Real Wheel Before the Door' in which he lists every single item that contains either a wheel or a door in perfect rhyme (with some French mixed in).

Idia: "I don't know, ask Ortho. Now go away, I'm trying to grind for this limited-time gacha..."

Ortho: "Processing request... Counting all available doors and wheels within 300 meters.... Processing complete. There are approximately 3,247 of wheels and 2,489 doors on campus. With that in mind, I have computed that there are approximately 46.2% more wheels than doors in the world."

Malleus: "Child of man, are you asking me to go count them for you?" He thinks for a moment before nodding with a smile, "This must be one of those 'friend' activities that Lilia told me about. Of course I'll go count them. Hopefully I'll be back with an answer that will satisfy you, my dear friend." And he disappears. You feel bad that you asked him.

Lilia: "Oya? You wanna bet some money on it?" He says as if he hasn't already counted them before... Don't ask me why he did it, because I don't know either.

Silver: "There is an equal number of both. Probably."

Sebek: "WHAT AN OBNOXIOUS AND UTTERLY RIDICULOUS QUESTION. OBVIOUSLY, DOORS."

Grim: "I'd rather there be more tuna than either one."

Crowley: "My! You clearly have a bit too much time on your hands to be asking me such a strange question! Could you spare some of that precious time to do this thing for me- I mean us! For the benefit of the whole school, no- the WORLD! Thank you in advance, Prefect, I knew you were just as generous as I."

[duchess-kyuupid]

~The Duchess' Thoughts and Drabbles Pt. 3~ Ft. Riddle

Thinking about Riddle x Bunny! Reader (basically like the White Rabbit from the original Alice in Wonderland)

Thinking about Riddle with a rabbit reader who's always much too busy running around doing too many things all at once. You're always in a rush, and you always carry at least 15 different watches on you at all times- each one set to ring at different times to remind you of all of the responsibilities you've thrown upon yourself.

As it so happens, you're basically like an unofficial second vice Housewarden with how much you do around Heartslabyul. One of the first years forgot to feed the flamingos and the hedgehogs? Don't worry, you already had that covered by 3:04 p.m.- already wearing your pink attire, and you immediately had to leave for painting any leftover roses before 3:23 p.m. because you were scheduled to pick up the baking ingredients you ordered for Trey at 3:51, and so on. Then after all that you would go back into your room to work on your homework, study, and to reset all of your alarms for the next day. Oh, sleep? What's that?

Anyone who's met you would probably agree that you're stretched thinner than even Jamil with how much work you do. Everyone can tell when you're particularly upset at the time when you start tapping your feet on the ground, and all of the professors are well aware of how you start fidgeting in their class when you're forced to sit still for longer than a minute. Almost like a hummingbird, you're always seen going a million miles per minute wherever you happen to be.

The list of the things you do around Heartslabyul can go on and on without end, and even Riddle has a deep appreciation for the amount of effort you put in to make sure that everything is perfect (and you're one of the few around here who actually knows and follows all of the Queen's rules too). To be honest, almost all of the other card soldiers (including Trey himself sometimes) ask why you're not the official vice Housewarden.

And well, Riddle has always diverted the question. The truth is, while you've proven yourself to be more than capable, he really doesn't want to add more responsibilities onto your already full plate of things to do. Of course, he's had the pleasure to speak with you on numerous occasions where you were scheduled to come attend one of his unbirthday or tea parties, and each conversation made Riddle's feelings stir, in both good and bad ways.

The good? He found that he just loved seeing the subtle smile on your face when you finally sit down and take a small sip of tea after so hours on your feet, after restless nights of scheduling and time management- after having to pick up after countless people's mistakes. He loved the look of peace on your face as you started to relax, even for just a minute, before you were rudely interrupted with the sound of your watch ringing, alerting you to a different task to attend to. He appreciates every second that you spare with him because he enjoys your company. He doesn't know it yet, but Riddle has been pining for you for quite some time now. Both fortunately and unfortunately for him, you always seemed too busy to get into romance...

And the bad? His temper oftentimes gets the best of him when he hears that you've had to pick up the slack of some of the other card soldiers. He hears from Cater that a lot of people around the school have made it a habit to call your name and ask you for favors when they were too lazy to do it themselves. You were always too kind and naïve for your own good, never able to say no when faced with a plea for help, and Riddle hates that so many people are just- just so eager to take advantage of that kindness. Riddle has made it his personal mission to try to reduce your workload as much as possible, and this includes severely punishing those who shirk on their duties.

Like, because of him, Heartslabyul has the largest amount of students, so much so that there's hardly enough room for everybody in the dorm rooms. And not one, not a single one person is able to feed the flamingos on time (and in pink)?? Such insolence will not be tolerated, not when Riddle can do something about it, because he'll be damned if he allows his card soldiers to pile more stuff on your plate because they were so incompetent and lazy that they couldn't even do this one thing.

In any case, as hypocritical as it may sound, Riddle just wants you to relax once in a while. He wants to be able to hold a real conversation with you- one that isn't rushed or forced. He wants to spend time with you when you have nothing else to do that day but to relax. One day, that time will come, but he will do everything he can right now to make it come faster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Bonus thoughts on Bunny! Reader in Heartslabyul that aren't relevant to the fic but still cute to think about~

You're the number #1 spot in the track team, and Deuce looks up to you for that (and also because you're the type of honor student he wants to be).

Your unique magic could be called "Rabbithole" and basically it's just small portals you can jump through to get to places faster. Essentially like the Spot's portals but you can only fit yourself through there. People have seen you disappearing down a top hat many times with this power.

[duchess-kyuupid]

~The Duchess' Thoughts and Drabbles Pt. 2 ~ ft. Elliott

Thinking of Elliott with a s/o farmer who's scared of crabs

[Minor spoilers for Willy's 6-heart event, Elliott x gn!reader]

Thinking of the farmer trying win Elliott's affection over time with giving him gifts that he likes. Oh? Leah said he likes duck feathers? Easy enough, you've got plenty of ducks in your shed! That 'secret note' said he likes pomegranates? Well, you planted a pomegranate tree some time ago, but you'll have to wait until fall before you get any harvest from it. Maybe he'll like some squid ink for his writing? You could always ask Robin to build a fish pond for you, and eventually you'd be able to get some ink from the squid.

But then... Elliott himself told you once that he likes seafood- especially crab and lobster. Which basically meant that you had to get him some if you wanted to woo him with your impeccable charms.

But you know, there's just one itty bitty little problem here. You were absolutely terrified of crabs.

So, just to clarify, there was one time where you ran off after bumping into Elliott at Pierre's store. He was in the middle of buying some groceries, and you were there to sell some produce. You two were having a great chat, catching up for a bit before Elliott looks down at his shirt with a surprised look on his face after feeling some movement in his pocket. "Oh dear! A tiny crab appears to have made his home in my shirt pocket-," he doesn't even finish what he's saying before you've already bolted out the door, leaving behind all of your produce in the classic 'fight or flight' response. Pierre wanted to keep them for free since you did just leave them behind without payment, but (after a very stern look from you) he eventually paid you back for it anyway.

And let's not forget about that other time where you were opening the door to Willy's shop one day when your eyes were violated with the sight of hundreds- no THOUSANDS of crabs (it was more like 15) scattered around Willy's shop. You could barely hear Willy asking for help in solving this predicament before you screamed your head off, alerting both Gus and Elliott into running towards the commotion in a concerned panic. By the time they got to Willy's shop on the pier, you were already running at top speed away from that godforsaken place. You learned later that Gus and Elliott helped Willy take care of those crabs after that, and that Gus would be providing a discount on crab cakes (at the request of Elliott who you learned loves crab cakes).

But to this day, you still haven't stepped a single foot back in Willy's shop since... that incident. Of course, Elliott came by to check up on you as he was concerned about your wellbeing after hearing you scream like that, but you were able to shrug it off, saying that you remembered you had something really important to do on the farm. Huh, what screaming? You didn't scream. Must've been the water crashing into some rocks.

I mean, you don't mean to brag or anything, but you considered yourself to be someone (almost) fearless. You brave the dangers of the mine on a regular basis, and you've hit the bottom a long time ago! You've explored the inside of a volcano on an island that was littered with the gigantic remains of dragons, and you've traversed deserts and fought against dinosaurs in the deep catacombs of the Skull Cavern.

Yet, you're still scared of...crabs?

And as well you should be! Crabs are the embodiment of evil, after all. They may seem harmless, but those eyes of theirs tell of unimaginable war crimes and if they could speak, you're almost certain they would cast curses upon those who'd dare to try to eat them.

At least, that's the impression that you get as you stare down at the lobster stuck in your crab pot- and it stares back at you with it's weird thin antennae and small, beady, soulless black eyes. You had never really intended to use these crab pots for anything until after you learned that Elliott loves lobster, in which you decided to leave some out in the water (with the hope that it wouldn't catch anything so that you at least had the excuse that you tried). But you caught a lobster anyway, unfortunately. How were you even planning to get it out of there anyway?

Maybe you could ask Willy to get it out? But then how are you going to give it to Elliott after that? And even if you do ask, you run the risk of outing this fear of yours to Willy (who probably already knows by now and is just kind enough not to say anything about it).

Maybe if you put on some oven mitts it wouldn't be so bad? Or you could ask Marlon for a full set of armor.

Ah, the lengths we will go to for love.

~~~~~~

My first Stardew Valley piece! My content so far has been almost exclusively Twisted Wonderland, so I just wanted to branch out just a little, see what everyone thinks. And before you ask, yes, it's me. I am legitimately terrified of crabs and lobsters. Hate them. They are evil. Let me tell you I *screamed* when I first saw Willy's 6-heart cutscene. Never again... But my love for Elliott is too strong ToT

[duchess-kyuupid]

~The Duchess' Thoughts and Drabbles Pt. 1~ Ft. Malleus

In order to get back into the spirit of writing (as I've had a bad case of writer's block for the past few months), I felt like I should just write some informal drabbles and short scenarios for the time being instead of my usual semi-long-form-formal writing. After all, I've heard of the best ways to cure writers block is to just... write. So here goes!

Imagine Malleus with a s/o who likes to arm wrestle.

[Gn!Reader, romantic Malleus x reader but can be read platonic, jealousy, fluff]

You have to teach him how the game works at first, but he's happy to indulge in your human interests if you ask to arm wrestle with him (agreeing to your condition that no magic is allowed during your match) and at first, you can't even get his arm to budge.

Like, you're trying so hard to get his arm the other way just a little bit, your face going red from the effort of trying to move something with the strength of a dragon.

And well, Malleus thought that the look on your face was just simply adorable, so he tried to mimic the way your arm was shaking to make it seem like he was also struggling against you. Even though he's objectively quite a terrible actor, it fooled you nonetheless, and he slowly allowed your arm to take over his.

You don't notice the satisfied look on his face as he grants you this opportunity, you were just so unbelievably happy when you had actually won. You started dancing around the room in your excitement, and all Malleus could think about was that 'losing' the game was absolutely worth it if he got to see you this side of you.

And he'd continue to indulge you in your arm wrestling games, so he continued to let you win. Of course, this winning streak against literally the strongest mage in possibly all of Twisted Wonderland made your ego inflate like a balloon. So much so that you had dared to challenge Jack to an arm wrestling match. In which he won by an almost embarrassingly large landslide.

Malleus thinks nothing of this at first- you were just playing around with your fellow man much in the same way that the smaller fae might play together in Briar Valley. But over time, he continued to catch wind that you were going to Jack and demanding rematches on a near daily basis, all of which ended up with you losing almost immediately.

Now, Malleus has a lot of patience. But it was starting to run thin with the way that you were spending a considerable amount of time away from him just to go to another man to play a silly little game. Now why in the world would you prioritize hanging out with Jack more than him? He once asked you this question (not exactly with those words), to which you replied that, "Well I mean, I know that I can win against you any time, so I'm widening my horizons and facing difficult challenges! I haven't been able to beat him yet, but when I do, I'll find a new rival to beat!" So in other words, you'd keep coming to back to Malleus instead of Jack if he just won every arm wrestling competition against you? Easy.

And so for the first time, he asks for a rematch, to which you gracefully accepted, confident that you'd easily be able to win against the opponent you've beaten 37 to 0. Unfortunately for you, Malleus was quite serious about winning this time. And every other time that you asked for consecutive rematches.

"You aren't using any magic, right? That's cheating," you claim. He shakes his head and reaffirms that he has never used magic to win against you. "This must be the first time you've had to face against the true strength of a dragon, dear, " He states with a smug smirk on his face. You, with your now severely deflated ego, sigh and officially declare your loss, coming to terms with the fact that Malleus was only going easy on you for those previous 37 times. Now you're faced with an embarrassing ratio of 37 wins to 115 loses.

With that same smugness on his face, he smiles at you and asks innocently, "Now, am I going to be your new challenge to face against from now on?"

Dejected, you sigh to yourself, "I don't think it's possible to win against you when you've got that much raw strength... At least with Jack it actually seems somewhat plausible," and you finish your reply with a small little pout.

Okay, and now you've just straight up confused Malleus at this point. Why were you humans just so weird? He thought at first that the problem was the he didn't give you enough challenge, and now he's too much of one? What do you even like about these challenges where you fail so miserably until you get a even a single victory? What's so entertaining about that? Malleus even gets mildy upset when he comes to the realization that Jack's been quite cruel to you in the sense that he never lets you win, even though he knows quite well that there was little you could do to get yourself to be able to physically overpower someone like Jack (or even Ruggie, to be honest).

Doesn't he know that your little victory dance is the single most cutest thing in this world? That your smile could singlehandedly cure any ailment? That the look of pure joy on your face after a victory hard-earned could even stop world wars? How could Jack be so cruel as to deny you any semblance of that happiness that solves world hunger and prevents global warming? What a foolish beastman, to not be able to recognize such things, Malleus thinks.

[duchess-kyuupid]

What Color Is Their Shower Loofah?

April Fool's special! Would you be surprised if I told you that I thought of this idea when I was in the shower?

~Ft. all of the Twisted Men~

Riddle Red, obviously. It's his thing, you know? And the shape very slightly (if you squint) looks like a strawberry.

Ace Unironically, bright pink! I can't explain why, it's just a gut feeling. (I can, in fact, explain why: it's the vibes from his dorm card)

Deuce Dark blue. It's his vibe.

Cater Bright yellow, like the same shade as a lemon.

Trey Well, green, but it's one of those multi-colored ones with swirls of blue in it.

Leona You cannot tell me that he does not use one of those long body brushes that helps you reach your back. Like the color is your normal beige, but he likes the feeling of it scratching his back.

Jack Non applicable, he just uses bar soap and does the rest of the job with his hands.

Ruggie This man just uses a rag... So probably grey or brown? Doesn't really matter as long as it gets the job done.

Azul I highly doubt he (or any of the Octrio guys) actually needs to take showers with them being mermen and all, but if he did own a loofah it would probably be a light purple color, maybe grey. (When they're in the sea, the Octrio guys might also have sea sponges, but again they won't really even need it)

Jade I'm thinking a dark green, like the jewel of his namesake.

Floyd He prefers to take baths tbh, but he'd have a blue loofah with glittery swirls in it.

Kalim I'm convinced he uses one of those actual legit loofah's (like the vegetable kind), not the ones made from plastic, sooo beige?

Jamil He's got this one dark maroonish-red looking loofah, it might have a glittery swirl in it too. He also strikes me as a person to use a black loofah too.

Vil He uses an exfoliating wool sponge, and he's probably the only one here who makes sure to change it out often.

Epel Bright red, like the color of apples! (Ofc)

Rook Now hear me out here.... This man also uses bar soap, but like,, he's much more thorough than Jack and sometimes he'd rub the bar against a clean washrag and use that too.

Idia What's a shower?

Ortho Uhmm, while he is technically built to be waterproof, it's still not a good idea to get your electronics wet. Non-applicable.

Malleus He also uses one of the natural kinds of loofahs, like Kalim. He's a man of tradition, what else can I say?

Silver His loofah is just plain white. Not beige, not even a creamy off-white color- just plain white. It matches his hair quite nicely, but it's also just a little boring.

Sebek Another obvious choice, but his loofah must be bright green with some yellow thrown in there too.

Lilia Oh, his is most definitely 100% hot pink ( and this is definitely not me reflecting my old childhood obsession for Draculara from Monster High onto this old man)

Grim You have to drag this gremlin into the bathroom just to bathe him, so it's technically not his loofah, it's one that you picked out for him. You picked blue, to match his eyes!

Extra-bonus: my loofah is bright green with like dark blue swirls in it.

Does the color of your shower loofah say anything at all about your personality? Probably not. Is it fun to think about anyway? Yeah.

[duchess-kyuupid]

Hello! I saw that requests are open! I have a request but first I'd like to ask, do you have a set character limit?

Hello there, dear!

So depending on the request, this number could change, but generally speaking the character limit is 5! My main focus right now is Twisted Wonderland, and since the largest dorm has 5 members, I'll allow having any full-dorm requests, or you can specify which characters (up to 5) you may want specifically.

A little disclaimer though, the more characters you add in your request could reflect the amount of detail that goes into each character. (This also changes depending on what the request is and if I can think of any ideas to go with it). If you want something with a lot more detail, keeping to just one or two characters might be best, but I'm willing to do more if you ask!

I'm looking forward to hearing what you'd like for me to do! <3

[duchess-kyuupid]

hello!

Could I request Fem!reader singing Isabella's lullaby to Leona?

Of course sweetie! I loved watching the first season of the Promised Neverland, so I haven't seen the second season to keep my memories of it pure </3... But sorry for the wait, I hope that you enjoy! As always, for those who don't know the song and/or wants to listen while reading, here it is!

~Humming a Lullaby to Leona~

[Fem! Reader, Established relationship, Minor agnst to fluff]

It might sound a bit obvious, but sometimes you just felt like you needed to get away from everything. Away from all of the magic, the overblots, and all the lunatics that all congregate at this school. You never asked to come here, but you'd be lying if you said that you always hated it here. It's just that- sometimes it's all just too much. You want to go home, but what's left for you there anyway? And at the same time, how would the aforementioned lunatics deal with you leaving? They'd all probably overblot again, seeing as how their local 'therapist' would be gone all of a sudden. No, you couldn't leave them, but sometimes you wished that you could. That, at the very least, you could be carried off to someplace where there's just less everything. Where you're not the only female student in an all-boys school, where you're not the only magicless student in a magic academy, where you're not isolated and chastised for being the only one from another world entirely...

So when Crowley has a few too many new expectations of you, when you just can't finish that one magic assignment, when you feel that your brain is about to split in half from Ace and Deuce's bickering- when all of the stress starts to pile up too high, you go to a secluded area on the cliffside in the forests behind the Ramshackle dorm. You felt quite fortunate that the school was located so high up; the view of the expansive ocean was breathtaking at this spot.

This time, you had brought your mandolin with you (courtesy of Sam for finding one for you), and you planned on playing some music to let off some steam.

You climb up and sit down on your usual rock, which was fairly tall, and you begin tuning your instrument as the wind gently caresses your face. You close your eyes and listen to the nature around you- to the sounds of the waves harshly crashing upon the bottom of the cliff, and to the sounds of birds singing in the distance. You open your eyes again, looking out into the sea and thinking, 'If I had wings, like a bird, could I fly across that ocean?'

Your fingers begin strumming on your mandolin automatically as your thoughts continue to wander.

'Or if I was lighter than a feather, could the wind blow me away back home?'

You start to hum and sing softly to the tune that you were playing, letting all of your stress fly away in the gentle ocean breeze. There were no lyrics, just the sound of your voice harmonizing with the hypnotizing way your hands played the instrument.

This was a lullaby your mother sang to you when you were a child, and you always thought it was something beautiful anytime she sang this to you. Only now do you start to realize what she must have been feeling as she sang, because you think that you feel the same.

'If I could only escape from here...'

'But that would just be unrealistic, so I submit myself to this fate, and I will continue to survive as I always have... I will cherish this life I live and of those around me.'

'I just want them to be happy.'

And just like that, your song had finished. It was short and sweet, yet it carried the weight of your emotions away, just as you'd hoped. You take a deep breath and you felt that all of your stress had melted away, and now you were just left with the sounds of the natural world around you- feeling that sort of emptiness that happens when you let out a good cry.

"Oi, herbivore, what's with that song you were playing?" You hear a deep, tired voice suddenly come from behind you. In your shock, you yelp and almost fall off of the rock you were sitting on, and when you manage to catch yourself, you look behind you to see Leona sitting on the grass, leaning against the rock as well.

"Oh! So sorry I didn't see you there, Leona," you chuckle nervously, "Was there something wrong with my song?"

"It woke me up," he huffs as he looks up at you with his bright green eyes, "You always play creepy songs like that?" Creepy doesn't even begin to describe how he felt about the song. If he was being honest, while it is indeed a very beautiful song, he thought it sounded like you just wanted to disappear- that you were wanting to be whisked away in the wind like a fallen leaf with nowhere to go. To him, it sounded like you were crying in the form of a song. And that, no matter how much he may try to deny it, scared him on the inside.

You laugh at his comment, "Does it sound creepy to you? I think it's quite nice actually. But I don't think I could do any justice to the original, though."

"The original?" he hums curiously. You smile and sigh bittersweetly,

"Yeah, the original. My mom sang it to me when I was little... She was really nice.. I miss her."

"Then sing it again."

"Huh?"

"If it reminds you of your home, then go ahead and start singin' again. Don't let me stop you just because I'm tryin' to sleep," he fakes a yawn and closes his eyes again in a way to show you that he was going back to sleep. But with the way that his breathing didn't change, you didn't quite believe that he was actually asleep- even though you know that one of his 'talents' is being able to fall asleep that quickly. You giggle to yourself and turn back around to face the ocean again, saying out loud,

"Well, if the kitty wants a lullaby to go to sleep to, then I have no reason not to deliver."

You could tell that your little nickname got under his skin with the little grumble that you heard coming from him, but since he was trying to fake being asleep, he made no objections to the name.

So you begin strumming on your mandolin once again, with the same tune as before, but when your voice starting humming the song, the change was subtle, but Leona could definitely hear the difference.

You sang as if your voice was meant to comfort him, as if Leona was the one needing relief from all of the stress. And why was it working? Muscles that he didn't even know were tense started to ease, and it felt like the air he was breathing was clearer. Your song didn't sound creepy, nor sad- it sounded like unconditional love and affection. It sounded like hope. Does that make him crazy for thinking that? Probably, but as long as you don't know how soft and sappy he's gotten because of you, it's fine. He can handle being a little vulnerable on the inside, at least.

You had your suspicions about it, but it was true that Leona was only faking being asleep so that he could listen to your voice some more. He wanted to continue to listen to hear that angelic tone sing, and initially he had debated saying anything at all when you finished earlier. But now he's glad that he did, because the way you're singing now sounds much happier than before.

While in the midst of his own thoughts, you finished singing your lullaby once again, and you allow the place to fall into natural silence once again. Turning around to look at Leona, you ask,

"Do you mind if I come sleep next to you? The breeze is getting a bit chilly from up here."

With a moment of reluctance and a small huff, Leona grumbles and scoots to the side without saying a word, patting the patch of grass where he was lying at earlier. You climb down the rock (making sure to be careful with your instrument too) and settle yourself in his old spot, cuddling up to him and sending your hands onto his chest to try to warm them up a little.

"I think that lullaby had the opposite effect," you yawn with a breathless chuckle, "I got myself tired instead of you."

"Don't worry about it, almost anything will make me go to sleep. Including your lullaby," he says.

"Did you like it?"

"Yes, I did," Leona sighs, "Now go ahead and take your nap already."

"Alright," you laugh tiredly, "But just so you know, I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Even if I had the chance to go home, I think I'd stay here. I love you too much."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What if MC / Yuu originally came from the world of The Promised Neverland and never learned the truth about the orphanage, and Isabella somehow found a way to send her children to different worlds as a way to escape without being caught by the demons. Like there's not really *that* much you can do with that, so I didn't want to fully incorporate it into the story (also as a way to make sure that readers who hasn't seen TPN can also read this too) but I can't deny that I did write this with something like that in mind 👀👀

[duchess-kyuupid]

It's my birthday!

Yay!

[duchess-kyuupid]

Hi! Your fic about Idia melted my heart.

Could I request a female reader singing Zero from Vanitas no Carte (it's in English) to Jamil at VDC because she admires and adores him?

Of course! I loved Vanitas no Carte, especially the ed song- like it's so pretty! Once again, for anyone who wants to listen along or has never heard the song, here it is! And sorry it took some time, dearie! I should be working on my college paper rn, but I've kept you waiting for long enough! Hope you enjoy <3

[Fem! Reader (no pronouns used, so it can be read as gn too), Fluff, Set in Book 5] {Uh,, this is a long one guys... About 4,600 words, for reference...Whoops, sorry not sorry I love this man to bits lol}

~Dedicating a Song to Jamil at SDC/VDC~

Okay, well, admittedly, you may have been more relieved than you should have been that you were not accepted into Vil's little group to represent the school. You always thought that your voice wasn't that great, but Grim wanted to tryout with you, and Crowley was offering to improve your living conditions at the Ramshackle dorm, so reluctantly you had agreed. You felt quite fortunate that Grim's off-tune (and frankly horrid) singing drowned out your own at the audition. However, Grim did not share those same sentiments.

"Hmph, they're missing out by not picking me, my singing is clearly superior to those two," Grim pouts as you carry him in your arms back home. He said that it'd make him feel better after basically being forced into a manager role in their group.

"Shouldn't you be proud for Ace and Deuce for making the cut? Besides, we're still helping out by letting them stay at our dorm. You'll get to watch them work themselves to the bone while you'll be getting tuna for doing basically nothing on the sidelines, isn't that a win for you?" You reason in an attempt to cheer him up a little.

"Hmm, I guess you're right! I'll be living in the lap of luxury while those two idiots do all the work!" he chuckles evilly with a mischievous smile. You supposed cheering him up wasn't such a difficult thing to do when you knew what to say.

"But don't you want to participate too?" he asks out of the blue.

"What? Me, participate? Nonono, that sort of thing isn't for me- I'm not that great, honestly. I think I'd just rather just settle with being their manager than going up there with them," you chuckle nervously.

"But you know," he chuckles, a gleam in his eyes that tells you that he's up to no good again, "I think I remember hearing a certain someone's voice singing in the middle of the night sometimes. 'Was so pretty I couldn't go back to sleep."

"I-I, well, are you sure that it wasn't just the ghosts pulling a prank on you?" your face starting to erupt in that tell-tale sign of embarrassment that revealed to Grim that he was exactly on the right track. With a haughty laugh and an evil smile, he replies,

"Nope. Asked them already, and they even said they saw you singing in the courtyard." Busted. You groan loudly and try to look away from Grim's teasing looks, but alas, as you were currently carrying him in your arms, facing yourself away from him would require you to rotate your head around like an owl- that or you'd just have to stop looking where you were walking and risk tripping over something.

"Please don't tell me how many times you heard me..." you say as your ears become redder than Riddle's hair.

"Fufufu, I don't understand why you're so embarrassed about it! You've clearly got some talent in singing- not as much as me of course, but it's still impressive for a human! So why didn't you sing like that at the audition? We could've been part of the team and had all the spotlight together!"

"Well, that's the problem," you half-heartedly laugh, scratching your cheek nervously, "I'm not a big fan of the spotlight. I've actually always wanted to be a singer, but I always got stage fright so I never went through with it."

"OHOHOHO, is my dearest Prefect of Ramshackle in need of my everlasting kindness?" you hear a sudden voice proclaim from above you and you shriek in surprise as Headmaster Crowley, quite literally, drops right in front of you out of nowhere.

"Hey! Stop showing up out of the blue like that! Ya nearly gave me a heart attack!" Grim exclaims (who may or may not have accidentally scratched your arms in his own shock). Crowley ignores Grim's complaints as he stares into your eyes with a wide, knowing smile.

"I couldn't help but overhear that you enjoy singing, and!" he emphasizes, "I just so happened to be nearby the area when you were doing your audition. I believe that should be sufficient to grant you a spot for a solo at the SDC."

"Huh?"

"You need not thank me for my generosity! I know that I am just ever so kind to my wonderful students- it is simply a part of my job as the Headmage of this amazing academy! Oh, but, there is the tiny fact that you will not be representing our school in your performance, but I'm sure that you will be more than happy with the arrangements nonetheless!" Crowley proclaims excitedly. Your mind was still reeling in confusion, as is most encounters with this man, so Grim asks in your place,

"Right, so what's the catch?"

To which Crowley gasps dramatically as if he's been hurt by Grim's question, "To think of such a thing! Why, I'm merely extending my gratitude towards one of my favorite students who I only wish to see succeed!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure you do," Grim states with a pensive look on his face.

"Buuuut, if said favorite student of mine did want to sing at the SDC competition- the solo competition is considered separate from the group acts, and thus the first place winner of the solo's will also receive a fair compensation of around 25 thousand Thaumarks! Isn't that just enticing?" At the sound of that, Grim immediately hops on board; he looks to you with excited eyes, almost begging you to accept the offer.

"Uhm, why are you asking me for this specifically, headmage?" you ask quietly.

"Why, it's as I've stated earlier, I merely wish to see you succeed! Aren't I so generous?"

"Well, I mean, you probably heard what I was saying earlier. I'm not good with crowds, so I-"

"Hush, hush with that nonsense!" Crowley interrupts you by bringing up a finger to your mouth to stop you from speaking, "I know I already promised you better living arrangements for lending the Ramshackle dorm to Vil's group, however, if you decide to agree to this solo act, then I will also arrange for free personal catering for you at Ramshackle....But only for lunch!" And he steps back from you with his hands on his hips, standing proud at his joke of an offer.

"Isn't that just like lunch at the school cafeteria? And besides, I'm not even at the dorm at lunchtime during the school week."

"Sounds like a great deal, sign me up!" Grim exclaims, despite your words.

"Wonderful, wonderful! I'm so glad that you've agreed! I look forward to your spectacular performance!" And without another word, Crowley flies away to who knows where, almost as if to avoid having to answer to whatever you had to say next.

"Grim, you're grounded from eating any tuna until after the SDC is over."

"What?!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By now it was far, far too late to be changing your mind about this- if you've even had a choice in it to begin with. You wish right now that you could have just turned Crowley down when you had the chance, but now you were stuck with this. Stuck with having to come up with something for this show. Stuck here sitting in the middle of the night with only two weeks before the event, with nothing but a blank page to showcase for your 'routine.'

Half of it's because of your work as the new 'manager' for Vil's group, half of it's because you're also trying to keep up with your normal school work too, but the biggest reason why you've hardly touched it is because you just...don't know what to do.

Most of the time, the songs you'd sing out in the courtyard would be songs your parents wrote and sang to you as a child, so they became your way of connecting back to home. Sure, you've written one or two songs of your own because you really did want to become a singer, but you always felt that those songs could never compare to the ones other people would write. And now, having to watch over Vil's group like this, you can't help yourself from comparing yourself to them.

But you technically made a promise, and you were going to go through with it. So, you decided that you would not go to sleep until you've written at least one (1) verse. Unfortunately, this has resulted in you staring at a blank piece of paper for the past 5 hours, with nothing coming up in your head to write about for your song and the time was nearing almost 5 a.m. Vil was definitely going to reprimand you tomorrow for getting no sleep, but it is technically also your fault for deciding not to tell any of them about your entry.

There's no hard feelings against them, of course, it's just that, you thought that if you did decide to tell them that you were also participating in the event, maybe it wouldn't work out too well for you. Sometimes, they can be a little bit...overbearing, to put it kindly, so you didn't want them to influence the song you're writing with their strong personalities. Vil would probably make you go through his own special skincare routine, both Rook and Kalim would give you so many compliments that you wouldn't be able to find any constructive criticism, and Ace and Deuce would probably give you too much criticism, under the guise of teasing you. And Epel? You honestly don't know how he'd react. He might just be in agreement with you as you both mutually didn't want to do this, but in the end you don't see him being very helpful seeing as how well he's been doing recently.

Jamil was probably the only one you could bring yourself to trust with this. He'd give you his solid, honest opinion without being too harsh or too jokey about it. He knows a lot about a lot of different things, so he could offer some advice on your song- what to change, what might sound better, and the like. Which would be helpful, if you had anything written down to begin with.

And in your tired, sleep-deprived state, you thought it'd be a great idea to go to him and ask for advice at this hour. So you leave your room quietly, knocking upon his door to get his attention. It didn't really take very long to wake him up in this way, and he answers the door in his pajamas with his face looking like he was fully awake and ready for anything.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" he asks gravely as he sees the look on your face (to be fair, you almost looked like a dead person with your tired eyes and your hunched over posture).

"Not an emergency. Need advice," you mumble.

"Advice for what? Can it wait until the morning? What are you even doing up this early?" he sighs.

You take a second to respond to his questions in your sleepy, delirious state, but when your mind finally processes it, you just give him a tiny shrug and a measly, 'I dunno.'

So with yet another sigh coming from him, he gently escorts you back to your room, assuming that you're just one of those types of people who lucidly sleepwalk sometimes. But when he tries to set you back in your bed, you stubbornly stand in place, crying out, "No! I'm not going to sleep until I write something down."

"You're trying to write something?"

You nod, "Mhm, but I don't know what. My parents would write about each other. They would write about the things they love. I wanna be like them, but..." your words drift away as your mind tries to succumb to sleep.

"So you want advice on what to write?" he asks with yet another sigh, and you manage to nod your head again, stubborn as you are to not sleep until you've gotten something done. "Then my advice for you is to go to sleep. Forcing yourself like this isn't going to get you anywhere. Having a clear mind is essential to writing. And when you've got plenty of rest, go outside and try out some new things. Sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery to get your inspiration going. I'll tell the others not to bother you today, so just rest for as long as you need to," he says quietly. If you were actually lucid enough to pay attention to his body language, you'd have noticed the soft looks he was giving you, or the way that he was being as gentle as possible with you as he led you back to your bed successfully.

In any case, you accepted his advice, falling dead asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow, and Jamil is left shaking his head at your (adorable) antics as he walks back to his own room.

When you woke up, it was nearly 2 in the afternoon, and as promised, no one had bothered you at all. In fact, the whole dorm was quiet, with not a single soul to be seen. Which was completely reasonable, seeing as how technically school was still in session right now and the others would have practice for a few more hours in the ballroom of the Pomefiore building after that. In other words, you had the whole place exclusively for yourself for the rest of the day.

And yet, you found something quite peculiar sitting on your bedside table. It was a tea set, with a piping hot cup of tea sitting in the middle and a small note leaning against it. Holding up the note closer to your face, you can see that it reads,

'I've used magic to make sure that the tea stays warm no matter how many hours pass, but it starts to wear off when you touch it. The tea is an herbal remedy, supposed to help you clear your mind and stay focused. I wish you luck with your writing. Signed, Jamil'

Jamil made this? For you? Your face grows red in embarrassment as you recall asking for vague advice last night (or this morning, technically). You take a sip of the tea anyway, and you could feel inspiration coming to you as your thoughts continued to wander to Jamil.

'His smile. His kindness. His determination and his thoughtfulness. There's a million different things I could write about him and yet never reach the end of all the amazing things about him.'

And for the rest of the day, it was as if your pen had a mind of its own as it flew across the paper to retell your experience of you finding something that has always been there, yet you're only just realizing it now.

~~~~~~~~~

And so finally, the day of the event had arrived. It was organized so that the groups would perform first, then the solo performers would come after, and then the results of the competition would follow that, which admittedly made you nervous because it meant that the person you've dedicated this song to will be watching you perform said song. You dreaded the idea of being so vulnerable in front of this many people, however, if it meant that you could release all of these pent-up emotions within you, then perhaps it might do you some good to let it all out...

You dressed as nicely as you could, given the limited amount of clothing you had available to you since you've come to this world, but you thought you did a pretty good job at making yourself look presentable out there.

But now, it was finally go-time. All of that preparation, the secret trips to the woods at night to practice your singing and your dancing, the little glances over to Jamil as he's practicing his own routine- all of it is going to be put to the test here and now. The only barrier between you and first place now is your conviction to sing about your love for a certain Scarabian dorm member.

Your name gets called on the speakers, and you sheepishly walk up on stage with your microphone. Your eyes instinctively begin to search the crowd for your friends, but you stop yourself before you could find them because seeing their faces might make you even more nervous than you already are. You stand in the middle of the stage for a moment as the crowd quietens and the instrumentals of your song begins.

'Jamil, I dedicate this song to you- you who gave me the inspiration to compose, you who has given me the courage to follow my dreams. To you, who I've loved for all this time without realizing it. Please, accept my feelings as I sing just for you,' you think, taking a deep breath, and you start to sing.

'Ahead in the empty distance, Fading away unanswered, I turn off the lights to see all the colors in the shadow, Travels across an instant, Far beyond tomorrow, I'm watching a faint breath send a ripple through the water'

Your voice rings out softly, with a gentleness most wouldn't expect for a song appearing at SDC as it echoes through the stadium. And you smile as you get lost in your thoughts again about Jamil. He has always been the type of person to stay in the shadows, always trying his best to avoid any unnecessary attention being drawn to him, but alas, it was exactly because of this that his presence made such faint ripples in your heart to begin with. As the music kicks up a notch, you begin to start your carefully choreographed dance that accompanied this song.

'When I lose myself, I become you, Ichi kara juu leads me back to, Here inside your veil, Finer than a grand view, We'll take a dive, Not even tides can come between us,'

And you recall clear as day how when you were basically delirious from sleep deprivation, your mind's first thoughts were to go to him. Because you knew that you could trust Jamil with anything (despite his many warnings that you shouldn't trust him as much as you do). Your dance suddenly changes its slow momentum as the song progresses to be a bit faster.

'Was it you who I've been searching for, Spent my life alone and waited for, So tenderly and endlessly, You made me whole, you made me whole'

Coming to Twisted Wonderland has been in equal parts exciting and fun, yet so terribly lonely for you. You were lonely even in your own world, never having many friends who would support your interests, but Jamil always made you feel like you could be yourself around him. He was always just,,, safe.

'And the walls I built they melt away, With every touch in your embrace, Every day, every night, every note I play, You made me whole, you made me whole.'

You've become truly entranced into your thoughts, the lyrics and the dance movements coming to you naturally as your mind focuses on other things. From the crowd (that you've long since forgotten about), the people listening in were stunned to silence, enchanted by your voice and your song. Even your group of friends were staring at you with wide eyes as you continued to sing. Especially Jamil.

'How could I have been so blinded, Running away in circles, I hear my doubts drop, When I see you in the mirror,

Right beneath the surface, Washed away my sorrows, I feel your heartbeat, As it echoes through the hour'

Jamil can only stare at you with his eyes as wide as saucers, just like everyone else. Has he ever heard you sing before? No, he doesn't think he has, but he knows that you auditioned with Grim, Ace, and Deuce in front of Rook and Vil, so with a voice as beautiful as yours, why weren't you picked to represent the school? There must have been some sort of mistake in the auditioning process. You clearly had more talent than Ace and Deuce combined...

'When I lose myself, I become you, You are the moment I belong to, Here without our names,'

'Yes, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet... Jamil is so much more than just a servant to the Al-Asims. Oh, to be rid of the Viper name so that he no longer needs to suffer like he has.'

'We're back to being brand new, There's no need to hide, Just you and I until forever'

And as you repeat the chorus, Jamil can't help but to feel like certain parts of this song are quite familiar to him. Like the lyrics are grabbing hold of his heart and caressing it with the tenderness of a lover.

'Was it you who I heard through the door, When I cried and had no place to go? Every day, every night, every note I play, You made me whole, you made me whole.

Tracing and tracing the sunset, Appearing a zero and finally, Now I remember, Oh I have never lived a day without you

Untie the layer of memories, Louder we spin with the melody You are the only, only one for me'

No no no, this couldn't possibly be what he's thinking. This song is clearly a romantic ballad for someone that you must've fallen in love with at some point in time (either here or in your world). This 'familiarity' is just something his mind is making up. And just as he begins to dismiss his initial thoughts, you happen to finally make eye contact with him. You repeat the chorus again with a look in your eyes that convey everything that you're singing and more as you lose yourself to the music.

'I'll never believe I'm alone, In the end, we begin, 'till we meet again, You made me whole, you made me whole

I know I'm never alone.'

And with that, the song comes to an end, and the instrumentals fade out until the auditorium just sits still in complete silence. About a solid minute passes of silence, and you stare up at the crowd with an awkward look on your face. Thinking that this was something that the crowd has disliked, you were just about to apologize for your performance, but then the entire place erupts in an excited cheer.

"WHAT AN AN AWE-INSPIRING PERFORMANCE FROM A STUDENT AT NRC! WHY I DO BELIEVE THAT THIS MUST'VE BEEN ONE OF THE BEST WE'VE SEEN SO FAR!" you hear the announcer exclaim loudly on the speakers. You stare in shock at the loud crowd, looking at all of the happy faces (some were legitimately crying, namely Rook) cheering for you. In your embarrassment, your face reddens and you try to hide it behind your hands as you let out a meek 'thank you' to the microphone. You bow quickly and move to go backstage, but then you hear someone starting to chant 'Encore!' with many others following suit.

You leave it to the announcers to try to calm the crowd- there was absolutely no way you were going to sing another song up there again. You walk through the halls of the backstage area to get back to... Well, you didn't know where you wanted to go right now. Your face was so red right now and you were so embarrassed that you didn't know if you'd be able to handle the reactions of your friends congratulating you. Even worse, you don't know how you'd handle having Jamil congratulating you, with his stupidly cute smile and his devilishly charming eyes. You'd probably faint.

But speak of the devil and he shall appear, you see Jamil and the rest of your friends in Vil's group walking up to you with various different reactions on their faces. Predictably, Ace was teasing you for hiding away your good singing voice, Deuce and Epel both congratulated you like a normal person would, and Rook and Kalim were both brought to tears at your performance- to the point where Vil and Jamil basically had to rip them away from you (with the condition that you'd give Rook your autograph). Vil stared at you with his normal stern look at first before smiling and patting your head, saying something along the lines of you becoming yet another rival of his.

Jamil, though, he waited until everyone else was done with you before approaching you. Your heart had calmed down tremendously by then, but when you saw him walking up to you, you could feel your heart pounding inside your chest nervously. He gives you his most charming smile with a proud look on his face, and he says gently,

"You were amazing up there. I had no idea you could sing like that."

"Hehe, thanks," you chuckle nervously, looking anywhere but his handsome face, "I-uh... Remember that time I went to your room asking for advice on what to write?" he nods. "Yeah, well, that was for this, so uhm... Thank you, for, you know- giving me inspiration to write that song..."

"I gave you inspiration?" he hums, "I only told you to rest. I don't recall doing anything particularly inspiring." You let out a tiny squeak as you try to explain,

"Well! You know how it goes, one day you've got nothing and then another, you've got everything! You don't need to do anything specific to be inspired, it can just come out of nowhere!" you chuckle awkwardly, and in your nervousness you continued to talk, "And besides, you're plenty inspiration for me without even having to do anything! I wrote it for you, after all!" After the words left your mouth, you gasp and cover your mouth with your hands as your face burns bright red in embarrassment.

Jamil stares at you in shock for a moment after hearing your words. You wrote that...for him? Really? Him?

Well, he did have his suspicions of that at first, with the lyrics sounding as familiar as they did, but he brushed it off earlier, thinking that there would be no way that you would've written something so...so... romantic, for him. Did you really feel that way about him? Did you really reciprocate his feelings for you-- the ones that he's decided long ago to bury beneath the ground because there was absolutely no way you were going to like him that way?

Only one way to find out, he supposes.

Jamil slowly brings his hand to lift your face to look at him. The look in your eyes betrayed many of your emotions- embarrassment, anxiety...and hidden in it's depths, he thought he could see hints of adoration within them. In the past, he has considered using his unique spell to make you fall in love with him, however he has always decided against it, for one reason or another. So he knows that the emotions behind your eyes are real- that the lyrics for your song, which was made for him, was real.

So he takes a small leap of faith, choosing to kiss the side of your cheek, "Thank you, Prefect. It was a very lovely song."

"No," you say breathlessly (you were also in shock because you thought he was going to kiss your lips), "Thank you for being my muse."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OKAY, admittedly, this took me forever, but that's mostly on me for writing so much exposition before getting to the *actual* request part of the story lol Anon I hope that I didn't keep you waiting for too long for this request, and I hope that it was to your liking!

[duchess-kyuupid]

So I had an idea, what if reader was the magicless student and didn't feel like going home because they knew they were dead in their old world?

So one day a friend asks, "What do you think you'd do if you got back home?"

And reader just replies nonchalantly with a straight face with, "Probably lie in a coffin six feet under."

The friend thinks they are joking but little do they know...

Could it be with Ace and whoever else you'd think best fit the scenario? Thanks! <3

Hello anon! Sorry this literally took forever (-ω-、) At first I had a hard time trying to figure out how to put it all together and who to do lmao I think I ended up doing pretty good, if I do say so myself (maybe a little bit overboard as it went on, though? Like the request looks like it's supposed to at least be a little bit funny but my brain says 'haha sad reader go brrr') Either way, I hope that you enjoy, darling <333

~ "I'm probably never going back." With Ace, Kalim, and Grim ~

[Angst to fluff, Platonic Grim, Gn! reader]

Ace

"So," Ace started, munching on his sandwich, "What d'ya go to the Headmaster for this time? You get stuck with another random job again?" he asks with a sinister innocent smile on his face as he eyes your own lunch.

"Actually, we were discussing the prospects of me going home," you stated nonchalantly, casually sliding your plate of food closer to yourself, knowing full well that Ace really only started this conversation to get you distracted so that he could get at your cherry pie (which the chefs had made specifically for you, as a thanks for helping keep the fireplaces warm over winter break).

Now, while you had certainly noticed that Ace was after your food (you were used to it already, after dealing with Grim after all of this time), you had failed to notice the way that Ace's smile fell off of his face for the faintest moment after he heard the words 'home' leaving your mouth, but he was quick to regain his notorious smile before you could see his disappointment. And in an act to tease you a bit (and to rid himself of the unknown feelings bubbling in the pit of his stomach), he brazenly chuckles and states without thinking,

"Ha, I bet that old man probably told you to give it up. Like, what would you even do if you got back home?" Without a second beat you tell him with a straight face,

"I'd probably just be six-feet under."

"Right?" Ace agrees with a hearty chuckle. And he sees that you still for a second, lowering your head and taking a deep breath for a moment. In that quick moment of you losing concentration, Ace swipes the last remaining bite of your cherry pie with a cheeky smirk.

"So that's why I'm probably never going back," you clear your throat and look at Ace with a sad smile, tears brimming your eyes. And suddenly, Ace feels really, really guilty. He was just trying to lighten the mood by joking with you...about going home...

Ugh, how could he have messed this up, worse? It's impossible, I tell you! Ace knows that you've just been suddenly thrust into a world that you know nothing about, forced to attend a school where you barely even meet the minimum for the curriculum, and, to make matters even better for you, you're basically forced into doing whatever that Headmaster of the school tells you to, simply because he was just kind enough to let you stay at the school since you hadn't even a penny to your name nor your nonexistent family in this world.

Not only that, but you're also the prefect of this new dorm without any magic at all, and you're supposed to keep an eye on this random cat that nearly ruined the Orientation ceremony. And! You've also got to handle both him and Deuce, also known as the chaos duo to everyone who knows them. And he just stole the last piece of your cherry pie, which was honestly something that you more than deserve after all the shit that you've gone through. We all know that you weren't crying because of him stealing your pie, but this fact really was just the cherry on top of his sundae of regret.

So yeah, just label him as Dumbass #1 in your book, if he isn't already.

And he's not sure why he was surprised to see those tears in your eyes, but he was, and he's ashamed at the fact that he's never noticed how you've felt before. So in a frantic motion to fix things, Ace stands up quickly, saying a quick excuse to you about accidentally leaving something in his last class or something, and excusing himself from the lunch table before you could even react.

~~

You honestly didn't know where he went after he left you at lunch, because he wasn't in any of his classes for the remainder of the day. It was only after classes, as you were walking back to Ramshackle with Grim, that you saw him next. He was standing in front of your front door with a nervous look on his face, but he was dressed quite nicely. Not quite formal attire, but it looked like he was expecting to go somewhere, at the very least. Once he saw you approaching, his face brightened for a moment, with a slight blush cropping up on his cheeks as you ask him what he's been doing all day.

"Well," he starts with a chuckle and his infamous smile, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "I got permission from the Headmaster for us to leave campus for a while, so why don't we go check out some stores at the village nearby? I thought that maybe I'd show you around, since you'd probably beg me to keep you from getting lost anyway... Oh, and don't worry about paying for anything, I have it allll covered." He says that last part with extra emphasis and a more confident smile than before, hoping that that would be the ticket to getting you to agree. Little did he know, you were going to agree even if he wasn't going to buy you anything. And little did you know that one of the biggest reasons why he's decided to do all of this can be explained through one simple sentence: 'I want you to start liking this world more than your own.'

In truth, he'd struck a deal with Azul again in exchange for enough cash to buy whatever you wanted from any store (he's got a lot of work cut out for him in the upcoming future), but shh, you didn't need to know that. It would be all worth it if it means that you can get a chance at starting a normal life here...

And perhaps, maybe one day you might want to start living your new life with him by your side.

Kalim

Oh, Kalim. This epitome of sunshine was sharing everything about his family, his childhood, and his homeland to you with so much enthusiasm that you felt yourself feeling the twang of homesickness starting to erupt in your heart. But of course, this always happens with Kalim, doesn't it? First, he hurt the one who he's always adored as a brother- Jamil, and now, he's hurting you too, all without realizing it. You could never blame him for it, though. His genuine happiness and warmth was something that you looked forward to every day, and most of the time just being around him felt like you were basking in the sun on a cold day.

But, sometimes the warmth that he radiates so fervently starts to feel like too much, as if you were being scorched alive under the unbearable heat of the sun.

"So," Kalim says, taking a moment to catch his breath, "I think that's all of my brothers and sisters, plus all of my extended family too! We're a big family, so I know it's a lot, haha! Say, what's your family like?" he innocently asks with bright, expectant eyes.

And you know that he doesn't mean to do this to you, but you can't deny that right now you felt like his beautiful red eyes were burning themselves into your soul like a branding iron. You don't want to make it sound like you blame him for your predicament or his enthusiasm about his family, so you give him the best smile you can muster and divert the subject to the best of your ability.

"Well, they're really not as important as yours is. Can you tell me more about how the Asim family started out? Your family must have a lot of really interesting history."

"Oh, sure!" Kalim nods happily to your request, forgetting his own question shortly after as he continues in his own rant about his gigantic family and some of the more interesting parts of its history.

At this point, Jamil really couldn't bear to listen to this anymore. He's been quietly watching and listening in on your conversation with Kalim from his seat in the corner of the room, where he was supposed to be 'studying'. Jamil sees that Kalim's doing the same thing to you as what happened to him, and decides to step into your conversation. 'Might as well go ahead and rip the band-aid off before it gets to the point of no return,' Jamil thinks.

"Hey," he begins, cutting Kalim off mid-sentence, "Do you have any sort of plans for when you get to go home? If you can go home?"

And Kalim looks at you with a surprised look on his face at Jamil's question for you because of course you'd want to stay here in Twisted Wonderland with him and everyone else! He'd never thought of the idea that you'd ever want to go back home to your original world, Kalim felt like it was just a given that you'd want to stay even if you had the choice to leave. But now that he thinks about it a little more, he doesn't understand where he even got that idea from to begin with. After all, as someone who cares for his family and his homeland a great deal, he can kindof understand how you might feel after being torn away from all of that without any way of returning.

"Haha, well," you chuckle heartlessly, "I'm probably never going back anyway. I think if I went back home now I'd just be six-feet under or something." Your attempt to lighten the mood with your 'joke' fails when you hear the sound of your own voice saying it. You would be lying to yourself if you tried to claim that, no, your voice wasn't shaky, and that yes, you were completely fine with never seeing your family ever again. Jamil makes a comment that he was going to grab something to drink from the kitchen, leaving you in a moment of silence with Kalim following your rather dark 'joke.'

"Well, what's the harm in trying anyway?" Kalim asks softly, "You never know unless you try! Plus, even if it doesn't work out, at least you can say that you've given it your all, right?"

"That's the FUCKING problem," you snap, "I've BEEN trying to go back home, and nothing's ever working! And there's no way in hell I'm just going to give up and go ~'Well at least I tried'~ when it's my goddamn LIFE on the line here!"

Oh no, you didn't mean to start yelling at Kalim like that... But after hearing his flippant "at least you've given you're all" comment, all of the pent-up emotions just felt like they were going to explode if they were kept inside any longer. You feel bad for suddenly yelling at him, but at the same time, it felt like the water gates have finally opened, and before you knew it, more kept spilling from your mouth.

"I had a normal life back in my world, you know! I had people who cared for me, I had plans for the future that I painstakingly paved the road for for my entire fucking life. Everything that I've done in my life up to this point, it's all become utterly useless now that I've come here," you wailed, tears escaping your eyes as you spoke without constraint, "Can you imagine how it feels to have everything stolen away from you, Kalim? All of the people that I've created my childhood memories with, they're all gone! My scholarships, my college applications, my work experience- nonexistent! Hell, if you want to get into the legalities of it, I technically have never gone to school in my life before attending NRC because I never existed in this world before then." You take a breath to help calm yourself down, but after still feeling the flames of rage bubbling in your lungs, you continue to vent out your feelings.

"Do you know how it feels, Kalim, to have no idea whether the people you love know if you're dead or alive? To have to think about how they would react to my 'death' when I'm still kicking and screaming inside another world?! To have to think about everything that you've been forced to leave behind all of a sudden?" You're basically screaming out your frustrations to the sky now, as you couldn't bear to stare at Kalim as you cried out your miseries, "To have to think about the life you could be leading right now if you weren't dragged to some random world with no knowledge about it's countries, it's history, or even it's most fundamental principles like magic?"

Kalim's staring at you intensely, taking every single word you speak into account. Even as you got to the point where you couldn't speak clearly anymore, when you pushed yourself to where all you could do was sob, snivel, and blubber out your words of woe, Kalim sat there listening to you the whole way through.

At some point during your crying, Kalim pulled you gently into his arms in a tight embrace as he let you continue to let your feelings out. He was going to wait until it was all out before he even tried to say anything (reason one being, because it would be rather rude to interrupt you, and two is because he's been rather notorious for crying when he sees other people cry and he didn't want to make the crying spotlight on him)

When you were finally done, Kalim patted your head soothingly and spoke quietly. His own voice was shaky too, and he was also on the verge of tears just from watching and listening to you.

"I never knew you felt like that, I'm sorry for not realizing it earlier," he says, and just the sound of him trying to keep in his tears breaks your heart to pieces.

Your pain is his pain, your tears are his tears, and your smile is his smile because, even if he doesn't realize it yet, he truly loves you dearly. Kalim knows he can be really, really dense most of the time, which is why he never noticed these pent-up frustrations of yours when they were so obvious to Jamil, but he hopes that you'll forgive him for making you feel even worse.

"It's not your fault, Kalim. I'm not angry at you or anything- I'm sorry for yelling like that," you inhale, "It's just-... It just hurts, you know? Thinking about all of the what-ifs and the could-be's... But the truth is, I've had more fun in the short time that I've been here than in my entire life back home. And most of that's because of you, actually."

"Really?" he asks, a spark of his normal cheer returning to his voice.

"Yes, really. I might not be able to use magic, but it's been something that I've loved learning about since coming here. You know, the very first time you took me on a ride with the magic carpet, and I got to see this whole new world from way high up in the sky, I knew that nothing from my home could beat that experience. I'm going to miss my home, but it's not so bad when I know that you're here."

Oh, look at you- you were the one who just had an emotional breakdown right in front of Kalim, and yet you're the one consoling him! Your sweet words struck through his heart like cupid's arrow, and he internally vows that he will always be someone who brings a smile to your face- that he will do everything that he can to make sure that you're happy.

"Then," he perks up, wiping his face from any stray tears that might have escaped from earlier, "Let's go on another carpet ride together, outside of campus!" He exclaims excitedly, all hints of previous sadness gone from his eyes and voice.

"There's so many places I want to show you, but I think we should look for spots that look like your home! This world is a pretty big place, so I'm sure there must be somewhere that looks similar to yours. Tell me everything about your homeland- If we can't find something like it, then we'll just have to make it ourselves!"

Grim

It was in the midst of winter break that you started to feel more lonely. All of your other friends were gone and spending the holidays with their families, while you were still here at the school with your only company being Grim and the Ramshackle ghosts, who would come and go as they pleased. Everything was just so,, quiet, without the chaos duo Deuce and Ace around. Of course, Grim was almost always up to his own little shenanigans too, but most of the time they were harmless and it was just him entertaining himself with catching mice and such.

The silence of the winter break and the bleakness of the white snow was staring to take a toll on you, and it wasn't helping the fact that you're still experiencing nightmares beyond what you see in the mirror at night (this is not a jab at you, I swear).

For reference, you just had a dream that woke you up in the middle of the night, sweating and gasping for air as you tried to recollect yourself. Of course, you couldn't fall back asleep after what you've just seen, and Grim was still sound asleep in his corner of the bed. Quietly, you move to get up to go get some fresh air outside- not forgetting to bring your jacket with you to the freezing cold weather out there.

And you spent a bit of time in the silence of the night, sitting on the stairs of the front porch of the Ramshackle dorm with a heavy jacket tied to your shoulders, just staring up into the sky. This isn't the first time that this has happened, so you know that looking at the stars would usually help you out in times like these.

'I can see the stars so clearly from here. Back home, the stars would be so dim that most nights you could hardly see them because of all of the lights around.'

'Huh, I wonder what kind of constellations this world has thought up of. That kinda looks almost like a horse, if you look at it sideways.'

'I wonder what kind of galaxy this world is in. The Milky Way was nice and all, but something different could be nice, too.'

Those would be the kind of thoughts that would help calm you down after your nightmares and you'd start feeling sleepy again. You'd go back inside, maybe drink a little bit of water, and then delve underneath the covers of your bed and go to back to sleep.

But this time, though, you could hardly focus on anything else except for the contents of your dream. No matter how intently you stared into the night sky, there was nothing else that you could think of other than, 'It was just so realistic.'

"Hey, hench-human! There you are! 'Was wonderin' where ya went so late at night. Come back in already, you let the fireplace in the room die out and now the whole room's gone cold again," you hear Grim calling out to you from the now open door of the Ramshackle dorm.

"Sorry Grim, I'll be back inside in just a bit, just gimmie a minute, alright?"

"What? You're just gonna sit outside in this cold?" Grim exclaims, "What are ya even doing out here anyway?" And you hear Grim's paws tapping on the old wooden flooring as he scampers his way to you.

"Couldn't sleep, so I went out for some fresh air, that's all."

"Oh yeah? Had another dream about the Great Seven? Or was it that Mickey dude in the mirror again?" He pushes your arms away from your legs and jumps into your lap without another thought. If he was going to wait for you to get up and relight the fireplace, he was at least going to wait somewhere that's nice and warm- your lap.

"Actually," you clear your throat, "not this time, no."

"Then what's up?" And he just said it so casually, like either he knew that something was bothering you and he wanted to make the conversation comfortable enough to talk about it- that or he's just completely unable to read a room (which was honestly the more likely option). Either way, it made you pause for a moment, to think about whether you wanted to answer his question honestly or make up some sort of lie about it.

"I'm thinking about whether I should just go ahead and tell Crowley to give up on looking for my way back home," you admit, deciding on telling him half-truths for now. But your comment caught him off guard, and he looks back at you with surprise. "Huh, why would ya do that?" he asks.

"Well, I mean I'd probably just be lying six feet under if I do manage to go back, so what's the point in having Crowley waste his time on this? Besides, he's been using it as an excuse to make me us do all of his dirty work for him, and I don't want to be indebted to him anymore than I already am."

"Well, I guess that does make sense, but still, haven't you been wantin' to go home this whole time? What's with you givin' up now?" he grumbles.

"Awe, I had no idea that you hated me this much," you joke, "To think, that even my closest friend even wants me gone from this world! Oh, woe is me!"

"Hey, you know it ain't like that, henchman!" Grim pushes you playfully, "I'll have you know that, unlike SOME people, I care about my minions. If ya wanna go home, then you should keep tryin' to find a way back, especially if there's someone else doin' all the work for you."

"That's sweet of you to say, but I'm probably never going back."

"What makes you so sure?" And you don't say anything to his question, not for a while. Grim notices your silence and concludes his statement, "Well, if that's what you want, then alright. It just means that you'll be here to see me become the greatest mage in the world!"

"Mhm," you nod sluggishly, and the conversation goes quiet from there. Now, the heavy silence of the winter night fell upon the both of you, the only sounds being the creaking of the old wooden planks of the Ramshackle dorm, the frostbitten wind blowing through the air, and the soft shuffling of you petting through Grim's fur as he sits idly in your lap. The silence didn't bother either of you much, as Grim was nearly falling back to sleep with the soft movements of your hands brushing him and the warmth from your lap keeping the cold at bay. But as time continued to pass, your anxious thoughts started clouding the deep recesses of your mind once again and you felt compelled to speak upon them.

"Grim, I know that you're a monster and everything, but do you know anything about reading a human's pulse?" you speak suddenly, and he flinches awake at your question, rubbing his eyes tiredly as you continue without letting him answer, "You can find your heart rate just by pressing on your wrist, or placing these fingers against your neck, like this." And you demonstrated both actions to him.

"Grim,, I," your voice chokes up, "I can't feel my pulse... Earlier I had another nightmare, and I saw myself dying. In my world... It was so realistic, I..." Tears start erupting from your eyes as you recall the vivid memory, and Grim stares at you with wide eyes as you continue, "When I woke up, I felt like I could still feel the pain. It was so excruciating, I felt like I was going to throw up, so I came out here."

Your body was shivering uncontrollably with how you were trying to keep your tears in as you spoke, and you pull Grim closer to you in a hug close to your chest, "Grim, please tell me. Do you hear anything? Anything at all? Even if you lie to me, please just tell me that you can hear my heartbeat."

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

"I can hear it," Grim states seriously (I mean, after seeing the state you're in, it would be more than a little rude if he wasn't serious), "And I'm not lyin' to ya. It's super cold out here, which is probably why ya can't feel it, but you do have a heartbeat. I promise you, you're alive, right here, with me." He wasn't expecting this, but he tries his best to comfort you, though really he has no idea about what to do or what to say. But as awkward as his words come out as, it still works to help you calm down after a while. He waits until your breathing starts to slow down and your tears have stopped spilling.

"Henchman, I'm startin' to feel hungry for a midnight snack," he states, "I know you're hungry too, so let's go sneak into the cafeteria and see what they've got!" And he leaps off of your lap and looks at you with his bright blue eyes, "We can warm up by its fireplace while we're there too."

As he starts dragging you towards the school, he turns to look at you and he says, "The way I see it, the way you still get hungry or thirsty is how we know that you're still alive. You wouldn't need to eat or sleep if you were dead, like the ghosts, now would'ya? You really need to stop overthinking things like this, givin' me a heart attack when you start cryin' outta nowhere like that..."

~~~~~~

I accidentally wrote a whole mini-story for them, no wonder this request took so long </33 I really hope that you enjoyed reading this, anon! While I did have trouble at the beginning, things started falling into place as I kept writing 👏👏

[duchess-kyuupid]

~Azul finds Fem! Reader Singing~

I was inspired by my last request about singing 'Good Riddance' to Idia, and I felt like I just HAD to write this unless I would just explode. This time it's based off of Marissa's song from Hollow Knight! It has no lyrics so you don't technically need it, but here's the audio if you wanted to listen because it really is just beautiful.

[Fem! Reader / Reader is NOT Yuu / Reader is a merfolk (siren) / Story takes place after the overblot of Book 3]

"Gone...They're all gone," Azul takes a final glance at his vault, now completely empty and devoid of any of his golden sheets of paper.

"My contracts, everything that I've built up over these years... All of it, gone..." He's breathless, empty. How many contracts did that have to be? He was sure he must have at least had a few thousand or so... And now it's all gone. Now he's just the same stupid little octo-twerp that he was as a kid. What has he even been able to accomplish?

Nothing. And now he's back to square one.

"Jade, Floyd, take care of the Lounge for me while I'm gone. I'll be going back to the Coral Sea," Azul sighs, straightening out his suit and pushing his glasses up his face. 'This is no time to dwell on what's already been lost. Every second I spend wasting here is another second that I could be using for my benefit,' he thinks. The two twins smile devilishly and bid him farewell.

In a small corner of the Coral Sea, there lies a petite little house on the seabed, hidden away from view. Your house, to be specific. And as he approaches the one place that he could call home, he hears the sound of singing, and oh, was it beautiful.

The voice was undoubtedly yours, and Azul stood still in his tracks as soon as he heard it. Ah, how long has it been since he last heard your singing?

'Far too long,' he thinks to himself, deciding to lean against the outside of your home quietly, settling as a one-man audience to your show.

Azul knows that he's always been enchanted by your singing, after all your species was known for having captivating voices that would send nearby sailors in a mad frenzy to get to you. Your species was infamous for having driven men to their deaths to the sound of your singing. Sirens around these parts were in equal parts admired and feared for the power they held in their voice, and so you were content with living on your own, away from everyone else.

Azul knows how much suffering you went through because of your voice. It's a bit ironic, really, because you basically had the exact opposite problem as he did, and yet the two of you became best of friends nonetheless.

To the sound of your voice echoing through the waters, Azul reminisces on his first childhood memories with you.

The first time you two met, the two of you were small children, barely into 2nd grade, and he found you in his octo-pot, sobbing. As a matter of fact, he himself was on the verge of tears from the other kids who were bullying him, and he didn't know what to do after seeing you in his usual spot. He wanted to leave immediately, as he recognized you as the most popular girl in his class, and of course the two of you have never spoken to each other before. But as much as he wanted to leave, he couldn't help but to stay. Maybe it was your crying voice that compelled him (it sounded so lovely even when you were crying), maybe it was the fact that he didn't want to see you sad anymore, or maybe it was because he wanted his octo-pot back. In any case, his life had unknowingly changed from the moment that he spoke up to ask you, "Hey, what's wrong?" You were startled when you heard him speak, but you quickly got over your initial fright as you continued to sob. "Sorry that I'm in your octo-pot, Azul," you cried, and he was surprised to hear that you recognized him from class or even knew his name for that matter (or even that you'd apologize to an octo-twerp like him), "But I've seen you cry in here a lot and I thought maybe it would make me feel better like it does for you..." "It's okay," Azul replies quietly, "Do you feel any better?" "A little," you sniffle, and an awkward silence follows after. Azul was too nervous to say anything else, so you break the silence as you continue, "I hate the sound of my voice..." And your comment catches him off guard, because how could you not like your voice when it sounds so pretty? "Why?" he asks. "Because everybody goes crazy when they hear it," you cry, "Mama and Papa were yelling at me, saying that I need to be a singer like them." You pause for a moment to catch your breath as tears continue to cascade off your face and dissolve into the sea, "But I don't wanna... I don't like how everybody looks at me when I talk. I don't even wanna sing for anyone. I don't wanna be a singer, I wanna be a painter, like my grandma." Azul thinks to himself for a second. Ever since kindergarten, he's been studying as hard as he could, transcribing spells and memorizing everything that he could so that he could get back at everyone who's ever made fun of him. At this point, he's learned about his own signature spell which allows him to take the abilities of someone and claim them as his own, but he hasn't perfected it yet, and he's never tried using it on another person before. But Azul knows that there are some people who would kill to have a voice like yours, and he's in the perfect position to be able to take your voice. "Hey, I know a way to help," Azul says quietly. "You do?" you reply quickly, a glimmer of hope in your eyes, and he nods sheepishly. "I can take your voice with a spell. Do you want me to?" "Yes, please take it. I don't want it anymore," you stare into Azul's eyes with confident determination, trusting his words without a second thought. Azul felt uneasy for a moment because, as stated before, he's never tried doing this to another person before... But he decides to go through with it nevertheless. He finds a small, empty snail shell on the sea bed and he shows it to you. "I'll put it in here, and your voice will be mine from this point on, ok?" he says, and you nod enthusiastically, your face still red from crying, but at least the tears have stopped. And with your permission, he takes your voice as his own using his signature spell. Afterwards, you try to say something, but nothing comes out. He really had completely taken your voice... And you couldn't be happier! "Ah, ah," Azul holds onto the snail shell, his voice now having changed to sound slightly like yours, "Is it working? Do I sound like you now?" You smile proudly and give him two thumbs up with a nod.

And so that was the story of how you two met, so long ago. Of course, it wasn't all good afterwards, because you became bedridden in sickness following the impromptu 'contract,' and that was how Azul found out that he had to have a form of mediator, like his golden contracts, to prevent him from taking too much. But, Azul remembers as clear as day, how even when you were sick, you were still as cheerful as ever whenever you saw him. You would write into the sand endless thank you's to him, as everyone who liked you in class eventually stopped caring, like the magic laced in your voice had worn off of them. And you were finally able to have some peace.

'Now, people can love me for who I actually am! I'm not tricking anybody into loving me or my paintings. And the best part is that I get to be your friend now, too!' you signed to him one day when he asked why you were so happy, despite becoming chronically ill and weak. And Azul never really understood it. At first he felt like he had used you to get something that he needed, because he used your silver-tongued voice to aid him in amassing even more contracts. When he used your voice, people would listen to whatever he wanted to say, and even some of his bullies stopped bothering him!

So now that brings us back to here, in the present, where he's been sitting on the seabed for hours, listening to your singing after having regained your voice. To be fair, there was a brief time when he had switched your contracts after he'd perfected his spell so that you could officially recover, and he had kept it safe in his vault as his very first and most valuable contract he's ever made.

Ah, but listening to your voice now... It almost makes him happy that Leona had destroyed the contract.

But it was time to stop reminiscing. It's not like he hasn't seen you in years, after all your house wasn't particularly far when Azul could use the dark mirror to get here, so he was able to visit often, and besides, he's been keeping many of your paintings hung in the Mostro Lounge as a way to advertise your work and as a way to keep you close while simultaneously being far away.

So he knocks on your door sheepishly. Your singing stops abruptly, and you answer the door, looking as beautiful as you've ever been.

'So, you remember the terms of the contract, right?' you sign to him with a delicate smile. Even with your voice returned back to you, you would still prefer to sign to him, because that's how you've always done it. He nods. "I do," and he gulps nervously. It remains as clear as day in his head, after all. Because the terms of the golden contract were:

Azul Ashengrotto hereby has every right to use (Name)'s voice to do as he may see fit. In exchange, (Name) will reserve the right to her end of the contract until termination. If for any reason this contract becomes null, Azul Ashengrotto will be obligated to fulfill any single desire of (Name)'s wishes, within reasonable expectations of ability to do so. (Name) will not receive anything from the results of this contract until the termination of the contract, or once she regains her voice.

Azul thought that this contract could only benefit him, that you must have been stupid to sign off on this kind of deal. After all, his contracts are utterly indestructible when they are in his hands, and he'd take every measure he could to make sure that the contract would not be broken. But now here he is, at your mercy.

"So, (Name), what is your wish?" he asks, "Anything you want, and I shall grant it."

'I want you to love yourself, and every piece of the puzzle that completes you.'

'Huh?' Did he read that right? His sign language hasn't gotten rusty, has it?

'Because I love you. I love your determination, I love your kindness, I love how sweet you are even when you don't even realize it. I gave you my voice the first time because I didn't know how to control it's magic. But I gave you my voice the second time because I wanted to be a part of you. A corner piece of your puzzle. So now I ask again, my greatest wish is for you to love yourself, and every bit that makes you, you. And of course, that includes me. '

"Why didn't you just say that when we first made the contract?" Azul asks, almost stupefied at the revelation that the woman that he's fallen in love with is using this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ask for something that he'd be willing to give to you for free. Anytime.

'Because I want you to see how amazing you are first. How am I supposed to convey how much I love you if you won't believe me when I say it?'

"Well," Azul chuckles shyly, his race reddening in hue, "How long were you planning on waiting for then? The contract could have been in effect for the rest of our lives, and then you'd never get to say this. What was your plan with that?"

'I didn't have one. I was going to wait however long it took until you were ready. I figured that once you got tired of using my voice, you'd start to appreciate your own and then you wouldn't need the contract anymore.'

"Oh, dear sevens, you really are stupid," Azul chuckles out, rubbing his face in disbelief. You fake a gasp and push him playfully, sending him a warning glare before officially inviting him inside your house.

Ah, it's nice to be with you like this again. To be able to laugh at with you, to be able to sit next to you, knowing that you've loved him for years, and now he was finally able to act upon the feelings for you that he's felt for a while. Upon entering your home, all of the stress, and the pent-up feelings that he's had... All of the memories that he's created with and without you, it all starts to crash down on him once again. The fact that he's overblotted and gone berserk at school, and he finally notices that he's still feeling sluggish. But it's not so bad, because you're here.

"So, that song you were singing earlier," Azul starts, "Do you think you could keep going?"

"Of course, my darling," you say out loud to him, "I was actually practicing using it without magic, so that I could charm you without using any of my siren-cheats."

"So that singing was without any magic? You had me fooled," he chuckles, and a comforting silence befalls the two of you before you start singing for him again. And it feels like he can finally start to accept himself. Both his past, and his present. He is no longer the same 'octo-twerp' that he was when he was a kid, but that doesn't mean that he has to hate his old self, because, if you've loved him since back then, he must've not been as bad or as ugly as he initially thought.

'I guess, tomorrow, I'll have the picture returned to the museum. And maybe I don't need to take myself out of it because, you were in it too, smiling and happy and adorable.'

~~~~~~~~~~

Azul, bby ilysm ToT I hope that you guys enjoyed reading this! I have another request rn that's also based around singing to a twst character and I can't wait to start working on it <333 Look forward to seeing it soon!

[duchess-kyuupid]

hi there

can you write idia’s reaction to his fem or gn s/o singing “good riddance” from Hades (the video game) pls? this song and idia both live rent free in my head rn lmao

have a nice day 😸

OMG You literally made my day with this ask, darling <333 I love Hades, and the first time I heard Eurydice singing it I was nearly brought to tears ToT Of course, I'll be more than happy to fulfill your request, and I hope that you enjoy!! For anyone who hasn't played Hades or just wants to listen to the song anon is referring to, here it is! (The audio comes out too loud for me, so I'd recommend lowering your volume a touch just in case! When I was testing it, the sound was just blaring into my ears and I don't know how to make it quieter;;)

~~~

~Idia Hears Fem! Reader Singing~

[Tw: Soft angst to comfort] *Don't need to know/play Hades to read*

To say that today has been a bad day for Idia Shroud would be an understatement. It's been one thing after another, each terrible thing piling up on his shoulders heavier than the last. They say that when it rains, it pours- and Idia feels that this statement could not be closer to the truth. He feels exhausted just thinking about how long this day has been, and it's barely even 3 pm! But he's had enough social interaction in all of today to make up for a lifetime of self-isolation. He's tired, his battery has run out- there's no chance that anyone's going to be seeing him leaving his room at least for the next week, and even when he does leave it'll be with his floating tablet.

At last he makes it back to his room, but he's far too tired to do anything but to crawl into his bed and lie there, doing nothing but hope to start feeling better. He doesn't want to see anyone, doesn't want to hear anyone, he just wants some peace and quiet, away from everything that's making him anxious. But apparently he can't even have that, as a sudden knock on his door pulls him away from his sulking. "Big brother, big brother! I have something to show you!" Ortho says excitedly, "I know you'll just love it! Can I come in?"

'I can't have Ortho seeing me like this,' Idia thinks, 'I'm just a useless Housewarden who can't do anything... Ortho doesn't need to see his brother being so cowardly, so utterly worthless that it'd be better if I'd just go back home to the underworld and never see this place again...'

"If you don't wanna open the door, I'll just play it for you from out here!" Ortho exclaims, and suddenly Idia is pulled from his gloomy thoughts when he hears a golden tune ring out from behind the door.

'Farewell, to all the earthly remains,' wait, Idia knows that voice... 'No burdens, No further debts to be paid,' that's the voice of the one person who could make his day even slightly better.

'Atlas, Can rest his weary bones, The weight of the world, All falls away, In time,' That's right, it's you. You're singing. To him.

'Goodbye, To all the plans that we made,' Wait, are you actually outside of the door with Ortho? You're actually here? To see him?

'No contracts, I’m free to do as I may,' Idia heard your voice continue to sing, to ring out beautifully as if your voice was weaving gold through a spindle.

And he couldn't take it any longer. He wanted to hear your singing, not through the door of his room, but right next to him, and he wanted to hold you and have all of his worries from today melt away with you in his arms. He rushes out of his bed and opens the door, his eyes glimmering with hope of seeing you behind it, only for the small smile that was invisibly growing on his face to extinguish when he realizes that Ortho was the only one there.

Ah, and now he feels even worse. His disappointment was so apparent, he didn't even try to hide it when his eyes met Ortho's big, bright, and innocent ones. He felt bad that he was so disappointed that it was his baby brother, because don't get him wrong, he absolutely adores Ortho, it's just-

It's just that today's been really long. He already felt shitty enough. But he should have known that you weren't going to actually be there, after all you were travelling outside of the college for once to see the world of Twisted Wonderland. You had told him before you left that you were going to be gone for a while, which makes him even more miserable, knowing that he won't be able to be with you when he's already so stressed out.

But is it really so bad that he had even a glimmer of hope? The hope that maybe, just maybe, you had decided to come back early and surprise him with a visit?

"There you are, big brother!" Ortho says, unaffected by Idia's visible disappointment in seeing him, "I know that you've been missing miss (Name) a lot recently, so I've got this recording of her singing for you!"

"U-uhm, thank you, Ortho...Where did you even get this recording from?" Idia asks timidly.

"I came across her one day when she was singing on her own in the woods! So I used the recording feature you installed in my programming so that I could show it to you," Ortho states, and even though his mouth was covered, you could basically hear his radiating smile. Idia smiles softly and his eyes soften as he replies,

"Thanks Ortho, would you mind sending me the file? I wanna listen to it through my headphones for a while."

"Of course, big brother! I've already sent it to your phone." Ortho 'smiles' brightly as Idia thanks him and closes the door. And without a second thought, Idia pulls up his phone, finds the recording file and starts to play it through his headphones, drowning out the rests of the world in preference to the sound of your voice.

'No hunger, No sleep except to dream, Mild and warm, Safe from all harm, Calm....' As you sing these lyrics in particular, Idia feels pounds of his anxiety and stress wash off of him in waves. As if your voice itself was a spell, Idia was in a trance. And he feels mild, and warm...He feels safe from all harm...and calm.

'Good riddance, To all the thieves, To all the fools that stifled me, They’ve come and gone, And passed me by, Good riddance, To all...' 'Farewell To all the earthly remains...' 'No burdens No further debts to be paid,'

'Atlas, Can rest his weary bones, The weight of the world, All falls away, In time...' And by the time your lovely song is over, he's already manually repeating the recording. It looked like there was probably an extra two or three minutes of empty sound at the end of the recording, and Idia wanted- no, needed to hear your voice right now, he didn't want to wait like 3 minutes before the song automatically looped, after all he could have listened to your whole song again in that timeframe!

It came to no surprise to him that he accidentally fell asleep listening to you sing. Again, it's been a really, really, long day, and just,, being able to listen to you like this was just what he needed to begin to relax and calm down.

What did come to him as a surprise though, was when he woke up early the next morning and your song was still playing through his headphones. And he felt good, he never knew that this is how feeling truly rested feels like. So as he's lounging on his bed, staring at his ceiling as your song continues to ring through his head like silk, and he figures that he'd listen to the rest of your song one last time, and then he'd get up and get something to eat, or perhaps he'd go take a shower or something.

So the song ends, and he's left with the empty sound at the end of the recording. He sighs and stretches out languidly, and then he starts to move to take off the headphones before he's surprised to hear a startled gasp, followed by the sound of you talking.

"Ortho! Geez, you nearly gave me a heart attack there! How long have you been there for?" "Sorry miss (Name)! I heard you singing and I wanted to come and listen!" "My singing? Oh, it's not that good, really." "I disagree! I heard your whole song, your voice is so pretty!" "Why thank you."

Idia hears you chuckle breathlessly. 'Your laugh is beautiful' he thinks.

"Actually miss (Name), do you mind if I keep your song as a recording? I'm sure that big brother would be ecstatic to hear you sing!" "I don't mind. As a matter of fact, I was thinking of him when I was singing it anyway, so it would be nice if you did show it to him. I don't know if I'd be able to sing it in front of him perfectly like that without knowing what his reaction would be.. Oh, but are you going to keep this conversation in?" "Don't worry, I'm not going to!" "Actually, do you think you can leave this in? I wanna leave a message for him, if you don't mind." "Okay, sure thing! I'll make sure that he listens to it."

He hears you walk closer to Ortho, and he's holding his breath as if he wouldn't be able to hear your message if he took even a single breath of air. But what you say, though, knocks the wind right out of him, because he realizes that he's been asleep listening to you talking to his beloved younger brother (and he's so, so happy that you care for Ortho as if he was your own brother too), and that he's been asleep listening to you say these last few words saved for the very end of the recording.

"Idia, I love you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

LITERALLY this was so cute to write TwT I think this might be my favorite so far.... Eurydice is my comfort character ngl and I spent like this whole morning listening to her sing (even singing along myself to get a feel for what kinds of emotions she's trying to convey) and just generally I had so, so much fun with this prompt. Thank you anon for the request, and I hope that you all enjoyed reading!

[duchess-kyuupid]

Twst Men and How to Fluster Them

How should one go about teasing their love to get that desirable shade of red on their faces?

[GN! Reader / Suggestive, but SFW] *All of these are pre-relationship and you trying to flirt with him*

~~Savanahclaw Edition~~

[Ft. Leona, Ruggie, and Jack]

Leona - When you steal all of his favorite sleeping spots - The first time today that Leona saw you sleeping peacefully in his spot in the botanical gardens, he thought nothing of it. Actually, he might've been a little bit annoyed. You knew that that was his go-to spot, and there's only so many people out there who knows about it! Probably just you and Ruggie, actually. - As annoyed as he was though, he was still too lazy to bother trying to wake you up. You'd never hear him admit it out loud, but he thought you looked rather cute, all tranquil-like and sleeping like you didn't have a care in the world. - So cute in fact, he didn't want to bother trying to wake you up. Instead, he just rolls his eyes and decide on the next best thing- his super secret special spot on the roof of the school. It's not as comfortable as he'd like, but the roof shingles keep him warm and the wind's got a nice breeze today. A nice spot to kick back, get some sleep, and relax while he waits out the rest of the school day. - Well, that was his plan until he found you, again, in his spot- on the roof. How the hell did you even get up here, before him even?? - And you were already fast asleep too! And if he didn't already see you asleep back in the botanical gardens, he would have thought you've been here the whole time! - Well, no matter, as annoying as it is that he's climbed all this way just to find that his spot has been taken, again, he grumbles and walks away to his next spot- one where he's 100% sure that you won't be. - Why didn't he just plop down right next to you, you ask? Why, it's because you've taken the exact spot that he sits in. And you'd be wrong to assume that he'd accept anything less than the best- at least when it comes to his sleeping spots at least. And he's got his pride to think about, too! He's not just going to let some herbivore force him into submitting his favorite spots. If you want that one, fine, he's got other, better places to go anyway. - It's definitely not the fact that his heart starts hammering in his chest at the thought of something so intimate, so vulnerable, as sleeping next to you. He subconsciously knows that in that sort of situation, he probably wouldn't get very much sleep out of it anyway- he'd just be too focused on keeping you safe while you're sound asleep. (But if you're sleeping in a spot where he's not around, then that's your fault for leaving yourself so vulnerable. Not his fault that you're so naïve, so gullible, so sweet, and charming and adorable and- - Ahem. - In any case, Leona's absolutely sure that you wouldn't even dare to come to his dorm room without his permission. He knows this fact without even a shadow of a doubt. - Absolute confidence in this-- until he sees you there, on his bed, tucked in and sound asleep. - At this point, he's beyond just being grumpy about losing his spot. He's flustered to the point of speechlessness. At this point, you've won. He gives up. He doesn't even care about how you keep getting here faster than he does, hell he doesn't even care about the fact that you've basically trespassed in his domain (because in all honesty, you're welcome to come and go as you please, even if he doesn't explicitly say so). - So, he begrudgingly concedes with a dust of pink on his face, and with a tired sigh he flops down next to you on his bed. If you were brave enough to fall asleep in a lion's den, then you shouldn't be surprised to find that lion snuggling up right next to you when you wake up. Oh, but do expect to be interrogated about your actions when the two of you do wake up. - For now though, he supposes that it's not so bad to have someone to share his sleeping spots with.

Ruggie - When you surprise him with food - Ruggie is well-known for being rather mischievous when the time calls for it. And there's only one thing that you can think of that could possibly tame him. - And that one thing is food. So you decide to make lots of it, for him. Some of it you do end up buying, both to save yourself some extra work and because you wholeheartedly believe that store-bought can be better than some of your homemade stuff. But you figured that he'd at least appreciate the effort that you've gone through to prepare this feast for him to begin with. - What's the occasion, you ask? Because Grim was hungry of course. - Well, he's always hungry. But you talked with him and he agreed to be your wingman just this once, but only if he gets some of the food too, it is a feast after all! (To be honest, Grim doesn't really understand your taste in men- he's still upset about the loss of his grilled cheese from last time. But he supports his henchman nevertheless but only because there's food involved.) - So you invited Ruggie over to your little makeshift 'party' at the Ramshackle dorm, making sure to invite just a few other of your friends to make sure that the little 'party' seemed at least persuasive enough to get Ruggie to lower his guard. - We all know that this man is an absolute rascal when it comes to food. And you plan on taking full advantage of this fact. But he's a hyena- a wild one at that, so it's not a very common sight to see Ruggie lower his guard around people, even if it did seem on the outside that he was easy-going and carefree. - So the day of your party arrives, and to be honest you're quite exhausted from all of the cooking you've been doing. But it would be all worth it if your plan manages to work. - Of course, Grim got first dibs on whatever food he wanted- it was part of your deal with him and there was plenty to go around anyway. And Ruggie sat somewhere in the back, eyeing everything up. - To be fair, Ruggie had some suspicions when you first invited him over to Ramshackle dorm for a feast, and the fact that you explained that it was only because Grim was hungry and wanted a party. He became even more suspicious when you specified that Leona wasn't coming, so he could grab whatever food he wanted for himself (your real thought process was that you didn't want Leona dragging your future boyfriend everywhere for random chores when you're trying to flirt with him, but of course Ruggie's a little too dense to realize this). - 'Well', he thought, 'I've never been one to turn down free food.' And so here he is, unknowingly falling right into your trap from the moment that he stepped through the door. - "Psst, Ruggie, come here a second," you call over from across the hall, away from the party, "there's something that I want to show you." - And you lead him to a separate room, and you at least feel happy that he didn't ask very many questions as lead him through the halls of the decrepit Ramshackle house. - You stop at your destination and dramatically open the door to showcase a hidden stash of donuts, set aside specifically for Ruggie. He looks at you in surprise at this, at the absurd amount of donuts of varying sizes and flavors in front of him. - "So I know that if Grim saw these before the day of the party, they would have been gone within a second, so I hid these away so that you can get your favorites. Some of these I did make myself, but then I figured that they probably don't really taste as good as store bought anyway, so there are some normal ones here too!" you explained with a proud smile. (Of course, you had many, many failed attempts when you were first attempting to make some of these, but we don't talk about those.) - There was only one teensy little catch though. These donuts were in all sorts of different flavors, shapes, and sizes, but only because you had arranged them to spell out the words 'DATE ME.' - How could he say no to that? And the red on his face brought even tomatoes to shame.

Jack - When you show him your sincerity - Jack is a simple man. He likes things being straightforward. He doesn't like to assume things when they aren't being explicitly said to him. - Unfortunately for him, you are not as straightforward. In fact, you find a sadistic type of joy in teasing him when he's least expecting it, and he falls for it every single time. - Just like right now, when you've caught him just finishing up his morning workout. It was the perfect opportunity to start teasing him, after all it's always a pleasure to see him when he looks as fine as he does, especially after he's done working out. - "Hey, Jack! You feeling tired?" you start with a friendly wave and an offer of a bottle of water. He thanks you with a relieved smile and starts to drink the water and he was just about to deny your statement- in fact he was feeling pumped for the rest of the day now- but you continued, "Because you've been running laps around my mind all morning." - He coughed on his water at your blunt statement, and he was still reeling from the emotional impact when you continued, - "Your muscles are looking pretty heavy there, mind if I hold them for you?" - Okay, he realizes, you're just messing with him now. He laughs at your joke with a slight tinge of pink on his face. He should be used to this by now, you do this all the time! - "First one I'd rate it as a 6/10, but the second one was terrible- 2/10," he chuckles as he gives you a rating on your pick-up lines. To be honest, you caught him completely off guard with your first statement and he thought for a second there that you had actually meant it (you do). But this is the normal for the both of you now, you 'flirt' with him playfully and he'd rate how well you did. The one terrible thing about this arrangement is that he just never knows if you're being serious with your pick-up lines (you are). - So even though you're basically just spelling it out for him every single day, he still somehow convinces himself that you were just joking, that you weren't actually being sincere with him, and it's been driving you absolutely mad! - How can he not see how obviously down-bad you were for him? Is it not apparent enough with all of your longing stares, your flirty pick-up lines, hell, even the way that your eyes are always looking for him when you walk into a room, or the way that he's always the first person you go to during an event?! He's the only one you do this kind of thing for! - No matter. As stated before, Jack is a simple man. And you will be incredibly gracious and patient with him. As long as it takes, you hope that Jack will come to realize your true feelings in due time. But a part of you wishes that you could just blurt it out already, lay it all out on the table so that there was no way that he could misinterpret it, because Jack is simple, almost as simple as the words, - "I love you." - Jack pauses stiffly, his ears and tail standing tall in alarm, and he turns his head to look at you with wide eyes, only to meet your own staring right back at him with nothing but love and adoration swimming inside of them. They glimmered and shone in a way that he's never noticed before, and his gut instincts are screaming at him that you were actually being sincere when you said that. - His mind is reeling, and the cogs in his brain are basically forced to a halt as he processes this 'new' information that he's received. - And after an awkward few minutes of the both of you just staring at each other (mostly because you really didn't mean to say that out loud, but when you did you thought that you'd at least see what his reaction would be), Jack comes back to reality with a cough as he tries to hide his face. He turns so that his back is facing you so that you didn't see his embarrassment, but he absentmindedly forgot how obvious he actually is- because his tail was wagging furiously in a way that betrays how he wanted to showcase himself. - "Well," he says, trying to keep his voice steady (and failing), "I guess we should start dating then?"

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Thank you to everyone who's enjoying my work thus far! I'm finally finished with Savanaclaw, and I had a great time writing for these characters :D Next dorm is Octavinelle, everyone's favorite fish mafia, featuring my personal favorite of the bunch, Azul <33

[duchess-kyuupid]

WE NEED THE OTHER DORMS WITH THE FLIRTING THING TOO

Don't you worry! I'm working on doing all of the other dorms too! It's taking a little bit of time to cook them up though lol Glad that you enjoy! <3

[duchess-kyuupid]

I'm just in love with your writing! I would like to know if requests are open? :3c

Hello lovely! Thank you for enjoying my work! And yes, requests are open, feel free to ask whatever you like :)