#< thanks for that thought fen

[dark-elf-writes]

I don’t remember all of the Solas romance scenes off the top of my head and the logical option for fixing that would be to just look it up on YouTube… the option I’m taking however is changing the entire world state and starting a new play through after I finish the one I’m on

[romancemedia]

THANK GOD! I WAS RIGHT! Although Sugar Apple Fairy Tale just ended it’s first season, it’s officially been confirmed the anime will return later this summer in July! THANK GOD! I Can’t Wait to see Anne and Shall reunite. The second season story will show Ann working at the Page Workshop, determined to reunite with Shall and regain his freedom! It’s a huge relief knowing that I was right about the anime getting a season 2. I can’t wait for this summer!!!

[nocandnc]

The same anon about Ann and Shall's romance. Thanks a lot for replying back so soon. Do you think Ann and Shall will get together at the end of the anime (or at least share a kiss) and do you think it'll return for a second season?

Hi again! Given the adaption's current pacing, I think we're likely to cover up to the end of Vol 3, with some potential side stories mixed in (the episode introducing Kat was a side story for example.) With that in mind, I think it's very unlikely they'll get together by the end of the current season as it sounds like that'd go against the novels. I think sharing a kiss is unlikely as well, but I suppose not impossible... As for a season 2, I'm not sure either. I don't pay much mind to sales and fan reception, but the anime's twitter account is quite active in promoting the home release and other extra content - these posts seem to get a decent amount of traffic in terms of likes and reblogs. Since the anime is produced by JC Staff I think there's a higher chance for S2 than some, as they're a studio that does do multiple seasons quite often. And of course, there's lots of material left to adapt!

[callsign-rogueone]

you're somebody else - b.s.

Brennan Sorrengail x Reader words: 1.7k 🏷: IRON FLAME SPOILERS. reader uses she/her pronouns. angst, angst, angst (but a happy ending!) blood, discussion of injury, scars and stitches. inspired by / titled after the song by flora cash

Your fiancé has been dead for six years. You’d read his name on the death roll, and burned his belongings in an offering to Malek. 

Now he’s standing thirty feet away from you with both of his sisters, breathing and moving, reacting to something they’d said.

He’s alive.

Your grip on your bag falters, and it falls to the floor with a soft thud. 

Everyone’s eyes turn to you. The younger of the two Sorrengail girls recognizes you instantly, her lips parting in shock as she takes you in for the first time since Brennan’s graduation from Basgiath. 

Her gaze shifts to her brother, whose eyes are now locked with yours. You look like you’ve seen a ghost, unable to pull your eyes away from the man in front of you. 

You make no move toward him; don’t leap into his arms like he’d imagined for years, don’t hug him as tightly as you can, don’t cry tears of happiness. Your boots are still glued to the polished floor of the hall. 

“Sweetheart,” he breathes, “I…”

You flinch at his voice, the sound you’ve only heard in dreams for the last six years.

The tall man standing beside him, who you distantly recognize to be Fen Riorson’s son, motions for the two girls to leave.

“It’s good to see you again,” Violet says softly. You’ve always had a soft spot for her, had written her letters after you’d gotten the news, sharing in her grief. 

Mira only gives you a lingering glance as she follows her sister, leaving you alone with Brennan.

“You’re hurt,” he says gently, seeing the tear in the right thigh of your pants and the bloody gash beneath it. “Can I mend you?”

You remain silent, but you nod once in affirmation.

You pretend the hands on your leg belong to anyone else, keeping your eyes forward while he kneels in front of you, working to close the wound.

He finally speaks. “My love, I’m so-”

“Please don’t call me that,” you interrupt, and he feels a pain rival to that of the arrow he’d taken to the chest, the one that should have killed him. 

He’s silent, letting you continue. You’ll likely have as much pent up emotion to release as his sisters did when they found out. Thankfully, you choose Violet’s path over Mira’s, eviscerating him with words rather than fists. His nose still doesn’t feel right; mending himself has always been difficult.

“I still mourn you,” you tell him. “I've lit a candle for Malek every night in your honor since I got the news. To have my life crumble around me, to find out we’re at war, that I’ve been on the wrong side the whole time, and then to find that for six years, you’ve been alive, but you never once thought about writing to me to tell me any of it…” you shake your head, pressing your lips together to hold in a sob.

You steady your breathing after a moment. “I’m glad you’re alive, Brennan, I really am. But my Brennan, the man I was supposed to marry, the one who wrote me love letters in ancient languages, is still dead. He has been for years.”

You reach into the chest pocket of your flight jacket, placing something cold in his hand and closing his fingers around it. He doesn’t need to look down to know that it's your engagement ring.

“Thank you for the mending,” you say, picking up your bag. 

He waits until your footsteps have retreated back into the hallway, letting loose a shuddering sob.

Marbh sends him a wave of warmth and empathy. If there is any being who knows how much it had hurt Brennan to be away from you so long, it is him.

“Your brother needs you, silver one,” Tairn relays to Violet, a resigned quiet in his tone that has the cadet slipping away from the group to run back to the assembly room.

When she arrives, she finds Brennan sitting on the floor, knees tucked to his chest, sobbing. It’s a sight she never wants to see again; it just feels so wrong. 

Brennan had always been the strongest of the siblings, the tree that could weather any storm, a perfect balance of their mother’s intense strength and their father’s calm intelligence. It was always her crying after an injury, Mira or Brennan taking her to the infirmary for Nolon to mend it, soothing her all the while.

It’s her turn now to hold him as he cries, murmuring reassurances.

“She’ll come around,” Violet promises, though there’s a nagging feeling in her chest that says you might not. “Prove to her that you are the same man she fell in love with, that you are still worthy of her, and she’ll come around.”

-------------------------------------------------------

You don’t speak with him for two days, only seeing him stand on the dais at Battle Brief. 

It had stung to hear Devera refer to him as Lieutenant Colonel Aisereigh. He’d changed his name. He really isn’t your Brennan anymore. 

He catches you at breakfast — none of your squadmates had come with you from Montserrat, so you’re sitting alone at one of the long tables.

You look up at him silently, letting him speak first. 

He lays a thick bundle of papers on the table in front of you. “The first year of letters,” he answers before you can ask, “that I was too much of a coward to send.”

You look down at the stack of aged parchment. There have to be at least twenty letters there — one a week since July, when he’d been sent to Aretia.

By the time you look back up, he’s gone.

-------------------------------------------------------

A week passes, then another. 

He’s nearly too busy to worry about you, between the arguments among the assembly, the arrival of the gryphon fliers and the subsequent issues integrating them, and his duties mending the injuries resulting from the animosity there.

Someone steps through the door of the infirmary, panting as they limp an injured rider forward. “She just collapsed. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Brennan realizes it’s you they’re holding up, his heart pounding. He wraps an arm around your waist to take you from your friend, and his hand slips against your side, warm and wet with blood. 

He guides you onto one of the empty beds, pulling up the sticky fabric of your shirt.

The messily-wrapped bandage around your torso has absorbed all the blood it can, the row of stitches underneath torn open. You must have done this yourself in an effort to avoid him, and it didn’t hold.

At least the wound doesn’t seem infected.

He presses a clean palm into the skin, apologizing when you whimper and flinch away. “S’okay, pretty girl,” he soothes, brushing the hair from your forehead gently.

You don’t seem to hear him, your eyes still closed. Fuck, how much blood have you lost?

It’s easy enough to mend the wound, but it’s going to scar — it’s not fresh enough for him to make it disappear without a trace.

He washes the blood from his hands, pulling up a chair beside the bed and watching the gentle rise and fall of your chest as you sleep.

He has no idea if you’ve read the letters he gave you had changed your mind, or if you’d read them at all. You may very well have burned them. You’d be right to, after the way he’d lied to you.

You might never take him back. This may be his last chance to touch you, to feel the warmth of your skin against his. 

He takes your hand gently, intertwining your fingers and pressing a soft kiss to your knuckles, squeezing your palm three times — three times means I love you, you’d told him years ago.

His heart nearly stops as you squeeze back weakly; once, twice, three times.

—————————————————————

You blink the sleep from your eyes, your gaze settling on Brennan sitting beside you, an ancient looking book in his hand, pen between his teeth and a notebook covered with nearly incoherent scribbles in his lap.

Maybe he hasn’t changed as much as you’d thought.

The book and notes are quickly abandoned when he realizes you’re awake. “What the hell happened?”

“Godsdamned gryphon bit me because it didn’t like the order I gave it’s flier,” you explain, stretching your aching muscles. How long had you been asleep?

“And rather than seeking professional help, you stitched it up yourself?” He asks in that same stern tone he’d always used with you after you put yourself in danger.

This time you don’t find it endearing. 

“Yes, I did, like I have for the last six years every time I’ve been injured,” you snap. “The way people do when they don’t have a mender with them.”

He holds his tongue, realizing how many scars you’d acquired over the years. Since he developed his signet, he’d always mended even the smallest of scrapes for you, but now stripes of scar tissue run across your skin like rivers on a map, ghosts of past wounds, some healed better than others.

He imagines you sitting alone in your barracks room with a needle and thread, a folded shirt clenched between your teeth as you sewed the wounds shut.

“Please come see me next time?” He asks softly, genuine concern in his voice. “It could have gotten infected, or worse. And if your friend hadn’t been there…”

You sigh, guilt tugging at you. “Okay.”

“Thank you. Get some rest,” he encourages, turning to gather his things.

“I read some of the letters,” you say, and he turns back to face you. “I’m still hurt, but I’m not angry. I don’t think I could ever be angry with you. You’re a good man, Bren. You’ve done great things for these people.”

The weight on his chest lightens, but he stays quiet, waiting for another heartbreaking line.

“Can we start over?” You ask in a whisper, looking up at him. “Can we try to be us again?”

He smiles. “I’d love nothing more, sweetheart.”

Your heart flutters at the word, as if you’re hearing it from him for the first time. In a way, you are.

[artssslut2]

hey I have a freaky request.

Could you write a fanfiction where reader is heavily pregnant and art helps her with her h0rniness. Ty

First time writing smut tell me what you think!!

Art Donaldson x Reader

It was June and you were heavily pregnant with your husband Arts baby. It felt like it was a million degrees outside, you were growing more uncomfortable every single day. Your hormones were an all time high and you would go from being furious at Art for no reason to needing him inside at that second. You and Art had been very sexually active all through your pregnancy however it started slowing down when you reached the eighth month because of how huge you felt,it became harder.

Art was more attracted to you now than ever something about seeing you pregnant knowing he did it to you made him so horny. But he always waited for you to initiate things because he knew you were adjusting to changes every day. Today you were feeling particularly hormonal, you started the morning sobbing because Art had to go to the gym, it was like no part of you could be rational lately. Your meltdown caused Art to be late for training, after he left you were so mad that had no control over your emotions you forgot why you were sad. But now you felt so unbelievably horny, like you’ve never felt before. You needed art, right now. You didn’t want to pull him away from training but it’s not like you could do anything about it considering your size. You tried not to call him, your being crazy you thought. You tried so hard to distract yourself but soon you found yourself in tears calling your husband.

“Art? Baby can you please come home? Like right now?” You asked clearly very upset, you could here Art running from the courts to his car

“Yeah yeah I’ll be there in ten minutes is everything okay?” He asked franticly thinking something bad was happening.

“Yes but please hurry” you cried. Arts coaches were only letting him go because they knew his wife could give birth at any second.

Art raced home and burst through the door

“Y/n!” He called out looking for you, you were on the patio on the lounge bed

“I’m out here!” You called, Art ran outside looking terrified

“What’s wrong are you okay is the baby okay!?” You felt a little guilty seeing him so worried

“Art I’m okay. The baby is okay. It’s just- I just-“ you stuttered wondering how to tell him you called him out of training so he could fuck you. You sat up on the edge of the bed looking up at him

“I really needed you.” You said batting your eye lashes

“For what, what do you need my love?” He asked not understanding what you meant

“I need you” you said reaching under his shirt exposing his V line as you Laid kisses on it. Art finally understood

“Ohh, wait you calls some out of practice for sex?” He questioned, you nodded hoping he wasn’t too mad, he chuckled softly. “You should have said something I was scared” he admitted as you continued to open mouth kiss his v like fidgeting with his waistband. Arts breath hitched giving in to your kisses

“I need you so bad Art. I need your dick inside of me.” You felt him grow under you palm. It had been a while since you and Art had been intimate like this, Art didn’t think he was gonna last too long. You wasted no time, ripping his cock out and shoving it down your throat instantly. Art gasped running his hands through your hair

“Fuck baby you feel so good I missed your mouth on me” he moaned letting his head fall back

“You taste so good Art, I need all of you” you devoured his dick I’m the sloppiest way you ever had. Art bucked his hips gently into your mouth rolling his eyes unwillingly. He came down to his knees to be at your level grabbing your face and kissing you. You moaned into his mouth pulling his hair. You were desperate for him. The make out session was sloppy and hot he cupped the back of your head to stick his younger further into your mouth.

“Lay back love” he instructed you helping you lay back on the lounge bed. Thank god for high fences. Art crawled over you taking your shirt off then ripping his off he kissed your swollen breasts making your shiver,

“Art please I need it” you begged

“Need what use your words baby” he looked at you

“Your mouth. Please. Now.” You moaned, he smirked pulling down your shorts then painties.

“How bad do you need it my love?” He teased

“ART!” You yelled not in the mood for his games. He chuckled then started kissing and sucking your clit, you moaned a little too loudly hoping your neighbors weren’t listening. You were so sensitive it made everything feel so good

“Fuck Art” you pushed his face into your soaking Pussy

“So wet for me darling” he breathed into you making your hips buck,

“Use you fingers baby please I’m so close” you begged breathlessly

“Eager huh?” He said shoving two fingers inside you curling then towards you searching for your favorite spot. He heard you gasp and throw your head back

“There it is” he smirked he kept pumping his fingers into you while sucking your clit you were so close, then he stopped suddenly

“Fuck why’d you stop?!”

“I want to be inside you” he ordered getting rid of his shorts and lining himself up with your entrance. He slid in with ease and you both moaned in sync.

“Fuck y/n your so tight” he groaned. He thrusted into you, your boobs were following his thrusts. Sex at this point in your pregnancy was difficult you had to get creative with positions almost everything was uncomfortable.

“Switch come behind me” you told him pushing him out of you and rolling to your side, he followed quickly so he was to the side of you. He slipped in again reaching around grabbing your hip to move you in a rhythm with him.

“Fuck right there baby please fuck me harder” you shouted sounding animalistic. You once again had no control over yourself. It drove art crazy. You could feel him getting closer with every thrust, you were right on the edge

“Cum for me baby, cum around me” he said in your ear kissing your neck. With a heaving moan you let go around him he followed you soon after.

You stayed in position as you both caught your breath.

“You should call me out of practice for this more” he laughed, you felt so safe in his arms you smiled enjoying the moment. Skin to skin with the man you love most in the world.

“I’ll miss carrying Lily I really will. But I can’t wait to be able to fuck in normal positions” you told him interlocking your fingers with his, Art laughed

“I’ll miss seeing you carry her, it’s so beautiful I can’t even explain it. I can’t believe you grew her inside of you.” Art expressed moving his hard to your belly. Time and time again he was telling you how thankful he was for making him a dad and doing all the heavy lifting. You couldn’t imagine anyone better to be doing this with.

“Well we’re gonna have to give Lily a sibling at some point so don’t worry it won’t be the last time” you winked, already thinking about carrying more of Arts babies. He smiled at you in awe.

“Are you ready to go again?” You looked back at him, he looked kind of surprised but wasn’t arguing he just nodded. The rest of the afternoon you had multiple rounds of slow hot side by side afternoon sex, you couldn’t get enough of your husband. You secretly hoped maybe he would fuck the baby right out of you because you were ready to not be pregnant.

After one final round in the shower you and Art were curled up in your bed watching a movie and enjoying a pizza that he definitely shouldn’t have had but was gonna let it slide for one night because he was too tired to make anything. You cherished every second being in his arms realizing soon it wouldn’t just be the two of you.

[phoward89]

Based on this ask

Best friend!Coriolanus x Reader, Coriolanus x Best friend!Reader, Academy!Coriolanus x Academy!Reader

You just couldn't believe what happened. Your boyfriend, Livinius Cardew, who was a year older than you, was cheating on you. And you just had to find out by walking in on him and the skank from the University that he was cheating on you with. God, why did you decide to go to Vinny's apartment (that his parents got him whenever he graduated from the academy last year) to surprise him for? Usually you call and see if he's busy or not.

But no…today you decideed to just drop by since you were already in the neighborhood. Well, you were actually in the library working on a project with your best friend, Coriolanus, but decided instead of going home to your Corso apartment you'd go see your boyfriend instead.

Coryo couldn't stand Vinny, but he tolerated Livia Cardew's older brother because he was your boyfriend. The platinum blonde didn't want you ditching him to the curb over some asshole, so he played nice with your boyfriend.

But after tonight, well, he won't be hiding his hatred for the older Cardew sibling anymore.

Of course, after being let inside of Livinius’ apartment by the Avox and finding him in his study getting ridden like a trick pony by some university girl, you ran to the only place you could. Your best friend's penthouse.

You were a wreck, tear stains and mascara rolling down your cheeks, as you frantically knocked on Coriolanus' door. You felt so stupid, felt so heartbroken by being cheated on and just needed your best friend.

Coriolanus had just sat down for a dinner of gloopy mashed potatoes and water cabbage soup with Grandma'am and Tigris whenever a loud frantic knock sounded at the door. Since the Snow family didn't socialize with too many people (due to keeping their status of not having a pot to piss in on the down low) they knew that it could only be one of two people. You or Pluribus Bell, their neighbor.

Standing up, Coriolanus told the women at the table, ‘I'll get it, Grandma'am, Tigris. Just keep eating.”

“Invite whoever it is for dinner. It's not too late for us to include a guest, Coriolanus.” Grandma'am told her grandson before sipping on her watery cabbage broth. Only that old woman would act like they're holding a grand feast instead of eating a bland meal for peasants.

Coryo just nodded and thinly smiled at his Grandma'am, who he felt was growing more delusional by the day. “Of course, Grandma’am.”

“Go on, Coryo, before they break the door down.” Tigris shooed her cousin as the knocks on the door got louder and more frantic.

Honestly, Tigris was getting tired of doing ‘favors’ for the maintenance man in order to borrow tools or electrical tape, etc. She shuddered at the thought of how many ‘favors’ the maintenance man would want to sand out and fix a dented door.

“Y/N, baby, what's wrong? What happened?” Coryo asked as soon as he opened the door and saw you standing in front of him, looking like a heartbroken mess with mascara and tears staining your cheeks. Your eyes, usually so beautiful and bright, were dull and blood shot. And when all Coryo got for an answer was you bursting into years and flinging yourself at him, he knew that somebody hurt you. “Who do I gotta kill?” He seriously asked while wrapping his arms around you; giving you a hug.

A hug that was warm, tight, and protective all wrapped up into one.

“I caught Vinny cheating on me.” You told your best friend as sobs wracked your body.

If Coryo didn't already hate Livinius, well he definitely does now. How could that stupid asshole cheat on you? You're perfect. You're the entire package. Any man would be more than lucky to have you

Then, one thought popped into Coryo's head. The reason why you got cheated on. Coryo and you talked about a lot of stuff, including sex. You knew about how he lost his virginity in some ally behind a club when he was drunk (thanks to a bet by Festus) and he knew that you were on the fence post about going all the way with Livinius. That everytime things should go past foreplay you seemed to get nervous and stop things from going further. So, Coryo figured that Livinius Cardew got tired of blowjobs and handjobs; decided to find some whore to get his dick wet with.

“I hope you broke up with him.” Your best friend told you, because he really didn't want to see you get used and trampled on. Once a cheater always a cheater, or at least that's how the old saying goes.

Nodding against his chest, you sniffled, “Yes, I broke up with him.”

“How about we get you inside and cleaned up in the kitchen; then we'll join Grandma'am and Tigris in the dining room for dinner.” Coriolanus suggested, hoping that eating with him and his family would get your mind off of your recent breakup. Plus his family loves you, they’ll be able to help cheer you up.

Looking up at him through teary eyes, you sadly said, “Okay.”

Coriolanus rubbed your back and assured you, “You're heartbroken now, darling, but it'll mend. It won't hurt forever.” Breaking the hug, because he needed to get you inside of the penthouse, he said, “I'll make sure you forget all about that cheating bastard. We'll hangout, do whatever you want. Okay?”

“Okay.” You nodded, giving your best friend a sad smile.

Wrapping an arm around you, the platinum blonde simply said, “Come on, let's get you cheered up.’, while ushering you into his house.

And cheer you up he did. Coriolanus let you sleep over that night and listened to you vent about Vinny. He sat with you as you cried it out. Then he swore, as your best friend, that he'd never let anyone hurt you ever again.

Tags: @kuroosbby001 @purriteen @poppyflower-22 @meetmeatyourworst @whipwhoops @bxtchopolis @readingthingsonhere @savagenctzen @ryswritingrecord @erikasurfer @tulips2715 @universal-s1ut @thesmutconnoisseur @squidscottjeans @sudek4l @wearemadeofstardust0 @mashiromochi @gracieroxzy @belcalis9503 @shari-berri @aoi-targaryen @whiteoakoak @spear-bearing-bi-witch @gisellesprettylies @loverandqueenofdragons @qoopeeya @mfnqueen1 @permanentlyexhaustedpigeon88 @v-love @swiftieblyth @joyfulyouthlover @harvey-malfoy @tian-monique @chxrrybomb22 @marvel-hiddles-stark @twinkletwinklenotastar @xjinnix @devils-blackrose @shellybellysstuff @zombicupcake3

[jpitha]

Between the Black and Gray

Next

Fen rushed around the corner and slammed her back against the wall, willing herself to be thinner. Station security ran past the alley, their boots clanging on the plates in the floor. Gulping air, Fen tries to slow her breathing.

The comm glued behind her ear buzzed. "Fen, what happened? There are security alerts lighting up the boards looking for you."

Fen winced. She had hoped that she would have had a little longer to try and explain things. "Hey Ma-ren. Sorry. Looks like things got out of hand at Stations End. I uh, might have gotten involved in a small... altercation."

"You were in a bar fight? Fen, what the hell?" Ma-ren managed to sound exasperated even over the bone conduction comm while speaking Levinen.

Fen switched to Colonic. Hardly anyone here spoke the old language and it was easier to talk to Ma-ren in their native tongue. "They were shit talking K'laxi, Ma! I couldn't let that stand. 'Furball' this and 'Cats' that. It was making me so angry!" Fen balled up her fist at the memory, winced when her bruised knuckles complained, and straightened her hand again. "I threw a few punches, tossed a couple Bears, and chucked my chair. It was hardly a fight. Look, I ducked station security, but I need to get off the promenade. I'll keep to the alleys and the maintenance tunnels. It'll be fine. I'll be fine. See you in a bit."

Before Ma-ren could reply, Fen touched the stud on her comm, silencing it. Peering around the corner, she saw that security was looking around. Fen crept further down the alley until she was behind a restaurant. Even here on the station, behind restaurants were messy places. Odd smells, greasy floors and detritus scattered everywhere.

Fen crept behind the restaurant until she came upon a maintenance tunnel. She tried the wheel, but it was stuck fast. "Uh Station? Can you open maintenance door-" she peered at the door and wiped some slimy dirt away "-775-OPR-23?" Fen spoke as quietly as she thought she could get away with.

"Fenchurch Imar, you are not authorized to enter the maintenance tunnels." Station at least had the grace to reply in a low voice matching hers.

"I know Station, but I just need to use it as a shortcut to get home. You saw security, there's no way I'll get treated well if they catch me"

"Fenchurch, I also know why they are chasing you. You tossed two Sefigans and threw a chair at a Gren. All three are in the medical ward."

Fen stopped. She didn't think she had injured anyone. "How badly are they hurt?"

"They will recover. The Sefigans are bruised and the Gren broke one of their legs. You know that you are stronger than both of them. We make it clear to humans when they come onboard."

"I know Station, but you also know how they were bad mouthing K'laxi. They were calling them our pets!"

"Regardless Fenchurch-"

"Please, call me Fen."

"Very well. Regardless Fen, you started a bar fight. Whatever your reasons, security wants to speak to you."

Fen rolled her eyes. "Station you know very well that speaking is the last thing on their minds. They want to shock baton me until I'm a gibbering mess and then toss me into the drunk tank until Ma-ren bails me out and everyone has a good laugh. I'll probably get evicted for good measure."

Station said nothing.

"Well Station? Are you going to open the hatch, or am I going to get arrested, beaten, and humiliated? You know what I did. Does defending my girlfriend warrant all that?"

There was a click, and the hatch bounced off its seals.

"Thanks Station, I owe you."

"You do, Fen."

Fen made it home without further incident. As she approached the stairs she passed an old K'axi, gray around their muzzle, sitting on a folding chair, reading a pad.

"Hey Da'reni. How's things?"

They looked up from their pad and flicked an ear. "Causing trouble again Fen?"

Fen crossed her arms defiantly. "They were shit talking K'laxi, Da'reni. I wasn't going to let that stand."

Da'reni nodded slowly. "I get that Fen, and I appreciate it, but you also have to think about what kind of trouble this will bring down on all of us. The knock-on effects. We're not in the Colony Worlds. Humans and K'laxi are thin on the ground here. You could take anyone here in a fight one on one, but they're in charge. Security can come here and evict us and then what Fen? Spyglass barely made it here, and I know that you can't fix a Starjumper."

Fen sighed. Da'reni was right, but that didn't make what she said feel good. "I know Da'reni, I know. But..." her shoulders slumped. "Okay. I'll try and be more careful."

Da'reni looked down at her pad. "I know you will Fen."

Fen's energy sapped, she walked slowly up the steps until she reached her apartment. Touching the locking stud, the door clicked and she pushed it in. Suddenly, her vision was obscured, and she felt warm fur on her face. Her arms shot up to catch Ma-ren after she jumped onto her. "Hey hon. I thought you might need a hug."

Fen squeezed her girlfriend gently and held her. "You always know just what I need Ma." After a moment she set the K'laxi down. "I talked with Da'reni on the way in."

"Oh? What did that old warhorse have to say?" Ma-reni's tail flicked playfully.

"She warned me about causing trouble. We don't want to get evicted or worse, especially since Spyglass isn't in any condition to thrust away, let alone link anywhere."

Ma-ren nodded. "She has a point Fen. Still, you came to my rescue today and while it might cause trouble, that's part of the reason why I love you.

Fen smiled. "I love you too Ma. You wanna go get dinner?"

Ma laughed. "After the trouble you just caused? I think we'll cook at home tonight."

[she-whatshername]

MORE Tyrrish Men Headcanons you didn't ask for (now with 30% more Garrick)

I was excited to see my last post on this was so popular so here is more. Also a disclaimer: I made all of these up as there is very little information on these characters. They are all Facts in my head...but questionable IRL, haha

Garrick is 100% wingman first and right after that is ladies man, mares in the stable and all that. He knows he's attractive, is a show off about it, and has had many lovers because of it. Relationships, probably none, but countless of trysts and 1 nighters

I think thats probably why he's so on-and-off with Imogen. I think he's ten toes down in love with her, and I think love scares him because love makes you do foolish things (he's watched his parents die for their country and Xaden be...Xaden, to be cautious of giving his heart to someone)

With his father's job being Fen's aid, Garrick is ultra perceptive, loyal, and hella charismatic. When Xaden says that Cat wasn't his first 'by a long shot' It was 100% due to him being around Garrick.

Could you image those two out on campus or in Cordyn before Xaden met Violet The backs hearts these two must of broke...

Should his S/O be in a relationship with him, they'd have to prepare for his quips and gawks at other people, I think his rizz level is so high he couldn't help himself

But, he's so so loyal. He will know everything about you due to how observant he is and will never miss a birthday, solstice, equinox, anniversary, you name it.

Probably has the most thoughtful dates; they are few and far between during his schedule but makes it happen. I imagine he's a bit more long distance (the revolution/being there for Xaden comes first) but when its 1:1 time with his partner, he's 100% giving you his time.

I be he has an excellent mental calendar

Also, he's the BEST person to come to if you need to vent. He will listen and wait until you're done to ask questions/respond. I think a lot of people go to him before going to Xaden so he gives really good advice/leadership.

Maybe a lil spice for this thread but his familial ties to supporting and aiding royalty he enjoys the role power he has as an XO and right hand to the revolution...but I do think he likes being told what to do behind closed doors. When his partner finds this out. Its over Gare.

Did i mention SO. LOYAL. He wouldn't have a who hurt you moment he would totally be that person that would take care of the problem secretly before they could even hurt you. Like your bully/nemeses is suddenly nice to you or randomly apologizes, go thank Garrick for that.

All Tyrrish men have giant sweet tooths, Garrick being the largest (Again, I explore this theory in humorous detail in 'Drifted')

Again, no facts to back this up but I bet he's a good dancer and has dragged just about everyone up on a table at one point to sing a Tyrrish song

He supplies the churam for the group. The man has connections.

Should I do Xaden next?

[herecirmsims]

Sunshine Protector

So here we are - my 100th posepack! That feels like a silly number to be honest, and like I should apologise for spamming with my nonsense over the last two years. I'm so grateful to everyone who's used my poses, and who've made requests; it's definitely helped me improve! Thank you!!

For this 100th pack, I decided to make some poses specifically for it rather than sharing requested poses/poses I've already made for my story. I adore the sunshine x protector trope so that's what I did here, except because I'm me and I'm annoying, in this pack it's the shorter Sim who's in the protector role. It matches the dynamic of my main couple and it's been hard to find poses that reflect that.

These were made with masc rigs and there may be clipping or floating depending on Sim and body type.

You will need: - Pose Player - Teleport Any Sim or MCCC

TOU: please don’t paywall or claim as your own. You may adjust for personal use to avoid clipping etc., but please don’t pass them off as your own work.

DOWNLOAD HERE (SFS)

You can easily browse more of my posepacks in my gallery.

Also! My Sims story's 2 year anniversary was a couple of months ago and I missed it for various reasons, so I thought I'd do a joint celebration since it's this story that got me into making poses in the first place. I made a bunch of gifts and hated them all except for this one - Fen's sock collection, since his socks are the real main character. I used prints from the freebie section of the CreativeFabrica site btw which I highly recommend!

Download Fen's sock collection here (SFS) The Maxis Match Feet link is here

Thank you @ts4-poses and @alwaysfreecc !

[mehiwilldoitlater]

*throws a mooncake into your inbox* part 2 of the erlang x reader fic plsssss. Let our boy pine and long from the distance. Yuan Fen just KNOWS he caught feeling and is giving him the stink eyes. Maybe reader is unaware? up to you. LOVE YOUR WRITING AND HAVE A WONDERFUL DAYYY

((mooncake?....mooncake...this gave me setting...thank you!))

The mid-autumn festival, or the festival of the moon. You heard it back in your world, but you never thought that one day you would actually participate. After all, you showed some curiosity when you heard from the other monkeys that in the nearest city the humans were preparing everything for the festival, and it was natural for you to ask to be able to attend it.

What you and your companions didn't know was that you weren't the only not-so-human beings that were ready to take a free night for the Moon festival.

"And WHAT are you two doing here?!"

Yuán Fèn almost snarled at the two deities that looked so normal under their own spell and some normal robes. In front of you, Erlang Shen, THAT Erlang, and the third Lotus prince, Nezha, were just in that moment entering the city walls.

Even if under a glamour spell that made him look like a human, Yuán Fèn still held that small trait that didn't allora his tail to disappear, and it was currently moving like a snake around his torso.

"We have all the rights in the world to attend this celebration!" Said the younger one, snarling like your friend and showing some clean in his eyes.

"Of every city, this one?!"

"Yes! Something to say about it?!"

And while the two were arguing, you couldn't look straight in the eyes of the older deity. You remembered quite well what happened to that mountain in that illusion, and... well, it made you feel quite awkward since that was the last time you saw him. You played with the hem of your sleeve, looking from time to time at the man, maybe searching for a good way to green him.

"You look stunning, y/n."

Instead, Erlang couldn't take his eyes off you. Your hangu was of a sweet shade of blues and lilac; flowers aforned your hair and the silks, making you the most beautiful thing that his eyes ever laid on. But you could have been beautiful in everything to him.

Chang'e needed to be careful, because now she had a rival that night.

"oh!" You scratched your head from embarrassment, a little more nervous than before. "The dress?... it's just an old thing that a friend had borrowed me."

"The third sister?" He said it with a genuine but funny tone.

"Yeah! She said that I need to start tò Look like a lady from now on!"

"She has good taste."

He kept his tongue by making remarks about her being a Yaoguai. After all, you befriended many of them. On your behalf, you laughed a little, feeling the nervousness finally calm down. Then, you remembered that Yuán Fèn and that Sassu child were nearing a handfight, and you had an idea.

"Since we're all together, why don't we go as a group? Tò know each other better!" The looks of disbelief on their faces were priceless. "I mean, we should start to act as allies now that the time has changed. And it would be fun!"

Yuán Fèn wanted to say something. I saw your hopeful face. You really, really wanted to attend the festival without troubles, and if going with Erlang and Nezha was an option for that, then it was worth it!

"All right, if they're not against it."  Which he hopes they were.

Well, they weren't; they both agreed on the spot, and so here you all were, walking in the street, full of people, ready to start the celebrations with two deities, really important ones too, and the One that had hereditated all of Sun Wukong powers—a normal group.

What really caught your attention was the decoration around yourself: everywhere someone had hanged a lantern, on their house, on the streets, between the house and palaces. Children were running around, holding small lanterns made of carved melons, where the adults had cut shapes in the zest, then putted a candle inside. 

Music could be Heard from the taverns, in the streets, around some temples, and everyone seems busy to have a good time. Your eyes couldn't concentrate on one spot, so immediately they were caught by something else, and you were so distracted that even Yuán Fèn needed to pull you a little. And of it wasn't him; a certain child was now fully invested in the area sourranding him.

"There there! I bet they sell flying lanterns! Bián huá, led me some money so we can take a few for later!"

"Why should I? Firstly, my name is Y/n, and secondly, you have to ask for them!"

"Hey! Have you forgotten who I am? I can turn you to-"

"To nothing. Because if a certain emperor find out you both sneak here, you're in big trouble!"

It was funny seeing Nezha act like a brat with someone that didn't care about his status, and of course it needed to be you.

While he kept complaining or tugging at your sleeves to get your attention on something, a small crowd got your attention. The music and the dances were blasting; a small group of musicians was playing an old song about Houyi and Chang'e, girls were launching handkerchiefs around, and boys were trying to catch them as fast as they could.

"Hey! Over there! What are they doing? What kind of dance is that?"

"That? It's a matchmaking dance." Said nonchalantly Yuán Fèn. "Of the boy can give back the handkerchief to the girl who has tossed, they may get married in the future."

"Oooh, it's cute!" You got closer to the crowd and, without even noticing, a few old ladies, maybe caught in a joyful spirit, had already caught you and dragged you inside.

"Little help here?!" You tried to call for your friend, but he was stopped by the young one.

"Just throw the thingy! Who's going to pick it up anyway?!" He laughed about it, while you just stuck your tongue out at him.

Once you did what they told you, you were free and without your handkerchief.

"Wow, those ladies are crazy about it!"

"They just like seeing young ladies march with young men, even strange things like you!"

"Careful, or I'll ruin your makeup, boy..." The both of you were now making faces at each other, to the dismay of Erlang and the joy of Yuán Fèn.

"so! What now?"

"We should go and pay and offer to the moon goddess; it's her festival after all."

"Allright! Let's move!"

While you, Yuán Fèn, and Nezha started moving, you hadn't noticed a Swift of Wind between the crowd. When you turned around, Erlang was adjusting his robe and hair.

"Aren't you coming?"

"Ah yes. Sorry, I was just...thinking."

He deliberately avoided the monkey glare; the only one who knew that had noticed maybe.

///

After you all had offered the incense, prayed for some good fortune, and paid respect to the goddess, you all decided that it was the right moment to stop and enjoy some dinner.

"Why don't we stop here? It seems nice!"

"I wouldn't mind some crabs."

"I'm starving!"

If it wasn't just for the small details that the place was crowded like nowhere, it would have taken hours to eat something! And you still wanted to participate in other events! Especially when the lanterna would have been left free in the sky to fly! You bought a few without Nezha knowing—a small surprise for him. Your mouth started tò watering while you saw all of those plates full of food and delicacy moving between table to table, and you were really beginning to think that losing at least the lion dance could not be such a terrible idea.

Until you noticed the monkey and the boy eyes fixed on the door that seemed to lead to the kitchen. There, your thoughts start tò running.

"You really shouldn't do that!"

"They won't notice!" Said Nezha, ready already to sneak in.

"We'll leave a few dollars, so it won't be a real robbery. What do you think?" Yuán Fèn winked at you. Just before taking the form of One of the waiters was alongside Nezha, making his way towards the kitchen. You blushed a little, still a little uncostimed by his new-found cockiness that accompanying tò Bajie was provoked by his mind now clear about his love towards you.

"Yuán fèn or Sun Wukong, they won't change. Troublemakers Deep in Their Heart." Erlang sighed, observing the scene.

"I like him this way... He may be a troublemaker, but he got a big heart."

The deity couldn't shake that pounty feeling in his heart when he saw with what gaze you were looking at the monkey. Deep, really Deep, he wished that you could have spared those dreamy eyes for himself. Such a selfish desire, but he was selfish inside...

"I never got the chance to thank you properly for what you've done for me back there." You started again to play with your sleeve, looking at your feet with some shyness that, in his eyes, made you more precious than ever.

"You don't have to. It was my duty to do so."

"I know, but...thank you...for everything."

And there it was again—that damn smile. That smiled so full of kindness and life that virtually you could possess, one smile that could break everyone's heart, especially Erlang's. He looked at you fondly and started to search for something in his robe.

"Y/n, please, I would."

The screaming of the owner echoed in the crowd. Laughs and screams started, and two troublemakers were running out from the restaurant, holding some food and wine.

"THEY'RE NOT THAT GENEROUS!"

///

You were able to get away from the owner fast enough, and, with your spoiler, you were able to find a nice spot. Next to the river, the boat, all of them decorated with more lanterns, seemed like a celestial vessel with reflections on the water. The light played on the surface, the colors shone like the aurora, and the moon, now high in the sky, set herself to be admired by mortals, Yaoguais, and celestials on that peaceful night.

Everything was just nice, with some food, wine, and good friends. 

After a while, you and Nezha standard up and get closer to the river bank to spot more interesting lanterns, leaving Yuán Fèn and Erlang alone and together.

The night was peaceful, but between the two of them, the tension seemed palpable, and the brother of them wanted to open their mouth to speak up. Erlang proved no animosity towards the monkey; he had made sure of that, but it wasn't like he liked him anyway. But he was sure that that night, the monkey really didn't enjoy his presence at all.

"If you have something to say, then talk. Don't ruin the night with this."

"Then give me the handkerchief."

Erlang stopped tò eating his crabs. His expression seemed calm, for now.

"I can smell it from here. Hand it over."

"Are you afraid of some silly mortal tradition?"

"I'm afraid that another stunt from you will cause some damage that I REALLY don't want to fix."

Erlang was sure that Heard a well-hidden snarl from the monkey. He enarched his eyebrow, looking at him with an inch of doubt.

"I'm Sorry?"

"I could smell it... your scent that day... She was soaked in it."

"I tended to her for weeks. Is normal?"

"She told me you kissed her."

He didn't retract this time, preferring to avoid the angry eyes of the companion, while his first became White.

"...she told you?"

"She wanted to come clear to me, and so I am to you. Do not do anything that you would regret."

He chuckled, ignoring the desire of the monkey to just grab him and destroy him.

"It's a treat?"

"It is, if you'll go over the line. I want to protect her from what can hurt her, especially deities that can't keep their eyes on the ground? She already told me she loved me; she doesn't need confusion now."

Erlang couldn't hold a smile. He always loved some good challenges, but you weren't one. Or, at least, you were already being won.

Yuán Fèn stood up, readjusting his scarf and his neck.

"I won't tell you to stop your feelings; I can't do that. I just ask you to be concederate for your own well-being."

He reached his hand towards him, mimicking the gesture of handing over that small piece of silk. That monkey... he could be so cruel, even against a small and harmless tradition.

He gave it to the monkey, observing that stupid and small thing disappear in the monkey pocket. Before leaving to reach you and Nezha, the monkey stopped in his tracks. His eyes shining with a dark light, his teeth showing...

"I won't hesitate to destroy you to keep you with me...got it?"

The first thing that Erlang thought was that the Destined One and Sun Wukong looked so alike and so possessive.

When he keft, Erlang eyes kept in following him..and then you.

He now understands how It felt Houyi, something the man desired, yet he never reached.

@sun-jglim @crimsonflameproxy @everlastingmoonlightsworld @biankanoir

@miraclecherryblossomsblog @certifiedsimpinggalore @sleepingdramaqueen @cromboloni @masksandfeathers

@cinnamonroll-anon @justrandomlypassing @cute-angi @luckyangelballoon @dressycobra7

@naarra @virtualexpertanchor @phoenixeclipse-lmkau @szynkaaa @kirax-the-lazy-girl

@sleepydang @weaverworks @kishimiest @marcu-bug @thepoweroffiction

@riolu4 @angryvampire

[angstywaifu]

Black Dahlia - 4. Third Squad.

One tragic day changes Dahlia's life forever. Despised by her father and brother, she's spent her entire life trying to be the child and sister she use to be. But nothing she ever does is good enough. She joins the Rider's Quadrant to prove them wrong. Garrick now in his second year has proven he is more than the mark on his skin to his fellow riders, and taken leadership of his own Squad alongside Xaden. Little does he know the girl walking across the parapet is about to send him on a rollercoaster of a year.

Garrick Tavis x OC (Dahlia Aetos)

Black Dahlia Masterlist | Masterlist

“What the hell was that?” Dain asks as he rushes after me.

I roll my eyes at him. “Just leave it be Dain.”

I shouldn’t have said it. But I did. Dain was most likely going to go running to our father about it, but I couldn’t care. I was my own person here. No one really cared who I was. I wasn’t going to get any special treatment.

”No, you heard what father said only a few hours ago. And here you are already blowing it.” He hisses at me. Grabbing my arm to turn me to face him.

I rip my arm from his grip and shove him back. Luckily there is enough going on around us for no one to notice. Not exactly a good impression to already be shoving other cadets around.

”I am not blowing anything. I highly doubt Fen Riorson’s son is going to go running back to father and tell him what I said. It will be fine.”

”He could say someone to something else, then word spreads and you get us both in trouble.”

I roll my eyes. “You need to learn that his opinion isn’t everything. Be your own person Dain, you might be surprised what comes of it.” I hiss back before walking off into the crowd, leaving Dain to ponder my words.

All his life Dain tried to please our father in any way he could. Which honestly was easy for him thanks to me. Dain could have gone off the rails and still been the golden child in his eyes. Part of me hoped that this would be a reality check for him. Father wasn’t here to sing his praises, look after him. He was on his own, and no one cared who our father was. If anything it would put a target on our backs.

Dain and I had waited till later in the day to walk the parapet, meaning the rotunda is full of cadets. From what I had heard before climbing the stairs, nearly three hundred cadets had walked the parapet before me. But a decent chunk of those would have fallen victim to the parapet. I had heard countless screams while waiting my turn. It’s easy to tell the first years from the other cadets, standing at the back in small groups or on our own as they stand in squads or friend groups watching us.

A hush falls over the crowd, and I turn to see the last of the cadets walk into the rotunda, followed by Xaden and the other guy who had questioned me about my name. They’re easy to spot in the crowd, both of them towering over the majority of the cadets. Though his friend was significantly taller. Also helps nearly every cadet gives them a wide birth as they walk by to join the second and third years closer to the front.

”Two hundred and ninety of you have survived the parapet to become cadets today.” The all too familiar voice of Commandant Pancheck says, his voice carrying across the rotunda as he gestures to us. As per usual he’s talking with his hands. “Congratulations. Because eighty of you did not.”

Damn. That’s one of the higher numbers I had heard. Clearly the wind had claimed a few extra victims today. Or we had a bunch of cadets willing to kill anyone who stood in their way. Which sadly was not uncommon. But I can tell I’m not the only one with these thoughts, as whispers pick up around me.

”As the Codex says, now you begin the true crucible! You will be tested by your superiors, hunted by your peers and guided by your instincts. Now amount of training or who you are will prepare you for this.” His eyes landing on me before moving elsewhere in the crowd where I know Dain is standing. Wonder if father told him to include that in his speech. “If you survive Threshing, and if you are chosen, you will be riders. Then we’ll see how many of you make it to graduation in three years.”

Three years. I could do this. Despite what Panchek said, my training would give me some advantages early on. I had spent countless hours training various weapons, weight training and running. Enough to prove myself. But after that, no amount of training could guarantee me a dragon at Threshing. Or take the target off my back once everyone knew who I was. The majority would not care who I was, but the marked ones would. And extra obstacle to overcome.

”Your professors will teach you. But it is up to you how well you learn and how you use that knowledge.” He gestures to the professors near the academic hall watching us all, before gesturing to the wingleaders behind him. “But your discipline falls to your units, and your wingleaders. And if I have to get involved…” The sinister smile I’ve seen too many times in my years spreads across his face, one that never fails to send a chill up my spine. “You don’t want me to get involved. But for now I leave you to your wingleaders. And try not to die.”

Easier said than done.

A male with blonde hair steps forward, eyes scanning the cadets in front of him. Just like the other second and third years, his uniform is altered to his liking. An upside to being in the riders quadrant, our uniform policy was on the looser side. His jacket is void of sleeves, in what I assume is a vain attempt to show of his muscles. Which honestly were nothing to talk about compared to some of the other cadets.

”I’m Damon, the senior wingleader of this quadrant and the head of the Fourth Wing. Section leaders and squad leaders, take your positions. Squads take your positions accordingly.”

The cadets before me start to move into formation. Four wings. Three sections in each wing. Three squads in each section. Without the first years, a lot of the squads look quite empty. Obviously taking a hit from last years third years graduating, or not many first years surviving last year.

”First years. When your name is called, take up formation behind your quad leader.” Damon instructs as another wingleader steps forward. A short brunette who barely comes up to his shoulder.

One by one cadets names are read out in quick succession. Each cadet quickly taking their place with their squad. Dain’s name is called for Second Wing, Flame Section, Second Squad. I look up to see him take his place next to a girl with bright pink hair. She immediately scowls at him before turning her attention back to the front. God I hoped she gave him a hard time. And something tells me she would.

I breathe a sigh of relief as they move onto the next squad. I wasn’t going to be with Dain. Part of me had been worried we we’re going to be paired together due to our last name. But apparently luck had been on my side today. But despite that I can’t help but be nervous about where I will be placed. With each name being called, my heart beating faster and faster.

”Tail Section, Fourth Wing.” The brunette calls out.

The last section to be filled. This is where I would be placed. I look over to see the last three squads remaining to be filled. I immediately recognise two of the squad leaders. Xaden and his friend from earlier. Maybe the odds weren’t in my favour. Dain or father where sure to blame me for somehow being placed in a squad run by a marked one. First and Second Squad fill up, leaving one squad left. And one squad leader. Xaden.

”And lastly third squad.” She calls out. “Bodhi Durran.”

A boy that looks so much like Xaden, they could almost be brothers steps forward. As he passes Xaden he gives Bodhi a pat on the back. Definitely family.

”Dahlia Aetos.”

I step forward, feeling majority of the eyes on me as I walk towards my squad. Even Xaden turning to look at me. He hadn’t even turned to watch Bodhi walk forward. In front of him his friend also turns to look at me before briefly looking at Xaden, almost like he was worried or concerned. But Xaden doesn’t look remotely phased by me being in his squad.

I join Bodhi in the formation, standing tall and trying to keep my expression neutral. It doesn't escape me that Xaden's gaze lingers on me for a moment longer before he turns his attention back to the brunette reading off the names. I let out a breath I didn't realise I had been holding, preparing myself for what's to come. Ready to prove that I belong here, no matter what my last name is.

@imtoanonymousforyou @simplyme-fornow @omalmal @lalaluch

[danikamariewrites]

hi there, can you write something fluffy for fenrys??

Book Delivery

Fenrys x reader

A/n: I haven't written for Fen in so long and he's literally one of my favs from ToG. He deserves happiness after everything he's been through

Warnings: none

Fenrys watched from the balcony as Aelin walked you through the castle gates. He lets out a dreamy sigh as you throw your head back from laughing at something the queen said. Fenrys was so lost in his little fantasy land he missed Rowan come to stand next to him.

“You feeling ok?” Fenrys jumps, backing away from the railing and clutching at his heart. “Good gods! Don’t do that Rowan!” The king couldn’t help the shit eating grin that spread across his lips. Rowan looks out at your retreating figure as you leisurely walk back to town. “Aelin thinks you two would make a great match.”

Fenrys lets out an annoyed huff, taking his piercing gaze off of Rowan and watching you again. He was always so charming and smooth when it came to talking to females. For some reason when he tried speaking to you Fenrys always made a fool of himself. He either tripped over air or fumbled with his words before excusing himself. There was no other way to say it, Fenrys is in love with you.

How could he not be? You’re so kind and intelligent and beautiful. Fenrys can’t help but feel butterflies in his stomach when you’re around.

A week later - on the day you usually visit, Fenrys noted - Aelin called him into her office. Striding through the open door Fenrys stopped before her desk, sketching a bow before standing with his hands behind his back. “What can I do for you?” Aelin gave him a smile that told Fenrys she was scheming. Fenrys mentally rolled his eyes, waiting for Aelin to tell her plan.

“I need you to do me a favor.” She said sweetly. “Nothing crazy, just an errand that I can’t get to today.” Fenrys nodded. “What kind of errand?” The queen’s smile became toothy and far too happy looking for his liking. “Can you go to y/n’s store for me and pick up the book she set aside for me?”

Fenrys felt his heart stutter in his chest. He had never been to your store. He had avoided it at all costs after the second time he made a fool of himself in front of you. “Erm…” He had to answer quickly before Aelin turned this into a command and he no choice. Not like he had one anyway. If Aelin already thought you two were a match the whole court must know by now. And Fenrys would never hear the end of it from Lysandra if he never made a move.

“Yes.” He blurts out. “Excellent.” Aelin claps her hands in approval and stands to guide Fenrys from her office. “And no rush whatsoever. Take your time, enjoy a stroll through the city. Get some tea with someone. But don’t come back here without my book.” She said sternly before shutting the door on him.

Upon entering the bustling city Fenrys found himself taking the long way to your shop. Inevitably he found himself standing outside your shop, dreading how he would mess up this conversation with you. Inhaling deeply through his nose and out through his mouth, Fenrys pushed open the door to your shop.

The bell ringing above his head caught your attention immediately. You rushed to the front of the store, your arms full of books. Your eyes widen in surprise at the tall male in the middle of your small book store. “Hi,” you say cheerily, “Fenrys, right?” It took all of his training to keep calm. To keep the butterflies from swarming his insides.

“Y-yes. Yup, that’s me.” Dear gods he hoped Lorcan would show up and stab him.

Then you did something unexpected. You giggled at him. It wasn’t a pity laugh, you genuinely giggled. Fenrys smiled at you. Realizing you looked like you were about to drop the stack of books in your arms Fenrys cleared the space between you, reaching his hands out to help. “Can I take these for you?” “Oh, yes. That would be great, thank you.”

As you handed over half the stack Fenrys noticed your hands were shaking. If it was because of him he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. The last thing he wanted to do was scare you. You cleared your throat before speaking again. “Can you put them on the front counter?” “Of course.” You give him a small nod and lead him to the counter.

After putting the books down you nervously fiddled with your hair, glancing at Fenrys every other second. You felt like you always messed up when you spoke to him. That awkward laugh would always leave your lips and you always forgot where you were going when you bumped into him in the castle.

Clearing your throat you finally look make eye contact. Maybe that’s too much eye contact, you think to yourself. Fenrys isn’t shying away though. If anything he’s looking at you with the same shy, unsure intensity.

An awkward moment of silence passes between the two of you before Fenrys finally remembers why he’s here. “Aelin sent me to pick up her book. She said you had it set aside for her.”

The realization clicked in your eyes and your cheeks redden. It was silly to think he was there for you. Pulling the book from the shelf behind you and turning back to Fenrys you give him a small smile, hoping it didn’t look as sad as you felt. “Here you go.” His fingers brushed against yours. You felt a warmth rush through your body at the soft touch.

Your cheeks heat even more as you bite back your smile. Fenrys takes the book giving you a reassuring smile. “Thanks,” he says softly. “You’re welcome.” He nods and turns to leave. Fenrys cringes at himself, squeezing his eyes shut.

He stopped with his hand on the door, thinking screw it. Marching back up to the counter Fenrys takes a deep breath. You look up at him with bright curiosity in your eyes. “Would you like to go out to dinner with me?”

You nod your head excitedly. “I would love that. Is tomorrow night ok?” “Absolutely.” You give him a bright smile. Taking out a pen and paper you write down your address for him. He takes it happily and practically skips out of your store back to the castle.

[soleilceirinen]

WHEN THE DARKNESS COMES | Thomas Shelby x Shadowhunter!Reader - Part 5

Summary: you are a shadowhunter investigating the sudden rise of yin fen in the Downworld, the trail leads you to Small Heath and a blue eyed gangster. Warning: nothing. A/N: English is not my first language, sorry if there are mistakes and thanks for reading! Words: 2.9k

Part 4 - PEAKY BLINDERS MASTERLIST

What are you supposed to wear to the races?

Despite not having been there before, at least you knew that it was some sort of social event, right? So you decided to wear a dress, the one that you brought with you to Birmingham just in case. Guess today was the day.

You took your time doing your hair and makeup, feeling the palm of your hands tingle with excitement. Tommy was taking you to the races and that had to mean something. Was it a date?

A little voice in your head reminded you of the purpose of your presence in Small Heath, but you pushed the thought away. For once, you were going on a date with no one but the leader of a gang, who by the way, was quite attractive and also had shown an interest in you.

Just a day, you thought, tomorrow I’ll continue with my duty. I swear by the Angel.

Without realising it, you had been clutching your tiny purse in your fists, so hard that your knuckles had turned white. Slowly, you softened the grip while shifting your weight from the tip to the heel of your feet as you waited for Tommy to come and pick you up. 

There was no reason to be nervous, but nevertheless, you were. And it was kind of irrational because almost every night you faced the most disgusting demons, all your life since you were a little girl, you had been surrounded by horror and death. Tommy was just a man, probably mundane. The small possibility of him being a warlock was not clear yet but still, why couldn’t you think of him without your heart beating like crazy?

You did not have the privilege to behave like a silly teenager in love, you were a nefilim. However, you couldn’t help but feel butterflies in your stomach whenever you remembered the night before. The thought of his plumped lips devouring your mouth with his hand on the back of your neck and the taste of whiskey on his tongue. 

Nothing to worry about, you repeated to yourself, like a mantra. You had been in worse situations.

In order to try to calm down, you started thinking. Perhaps you were feeling a bit uneasy due to the fact that you were quite exposed since you were not wearing any sort of shadowhunter gear or weapons. Only your trusted old dagger, attached to your thigh where your dress covered it from anyone’s sight. Your bag was too small to carry any weapon in it, even your stele did not fit, it was too long. 

Hopefully, none of those things was going to be necessary. Who or what was going to attack you in broad daylight? One of the horses? No demon would come out until the sun went down, anyway. And there were still several hours until that moment.

A car stopped in front of you, pulling you out of the tangled labyrinth of thoughts about everything that could go wrong.

Tommy was in it, watching you with interest. His blue eyes scanned you from head to toe. When he finished, you could see a tiny smile at the corner of his mouth. He raised an eyebrow as you approached the vehicle.

“Hello, Thomas”, you said, getting into the car. With the small bag on your lap, you crossed your hands over it and stared at the man sitting next to you.

He leaned over to kiss your cheek, barely touching your soft skin. “Hello,” he replied hoarsely. The scent of cigarettes filled your nose. “That’s a nice dress.” 

You looked down and touched the fabric with your fingers. “Thank you, I wasn’t sure about what I should wear.”

“Well,” he started the car, “you surely look lovely.”

Biting your lip, you tried to hide a smile and glanced away in a futile attempt to keep your thoughts at bay. It was complicated though, with Tommy’s hand on your leg.

-

The place where the races were held was packed with people. You caught glimpses of them staring at you as Tommy guided you through the crowd with a hand on the small of your back. Even when he stopped to talk to some of them, about business or politics as you could hear, he did not let you go away. He kept his hand constantly connected to your body, until you found the stables and Tommy took a few steps away from you, stopping in front of a horse. 

You approached them carefully, trying to avoid ruining your shoes, and admired the beautiful animal. 

“This is your horse?” you wondered in awe, slowly bringing your hand closer to the animal’s snout. 

The smell of the horses and the hay brought back some memories from your childhood in Idris, suddenly you felt very small. Tommy nodded in silence, caressing the horse’s neck with affection. 

After weeks of following Thomas Shelby around, watching and studying his every move and even the slightest interaction, this was the first time you had seen him showing anything resembling tenderness. This man had nothing to do with the intimidating and cruel facade that he showed to the rest of the world. In front of you, you had a man who was whispering words of affection to his horse in a language that you were not able to understand. 

“Oh! You’re here, Tommy” a feminine voice caught you off guard. She hadn’t seen you yet, so she kept talking to him. “I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon, not before the races at least. I’ve been thinking about our last conversation and…” 

Her voice grew smaller when you moved to the side, stepping away from the horse and a little closer to Tommy. The lady’s dark eyes danced from you and Tommy, almost as if indecisive. 

“I’m showing the horses to Y/N,” he said as if that explained his presence there, brushing your arm when he said your name. Her eyes finally rested on you for a moment, taking in the information before returning to Tommy. He was looking at you. “This is May Carleton, she trains my horses.” 

“Nice to meet you,” you said, as friendly as you could. 

She nodded, touching her hair and quickly looking away. You almost felt bad for her, disappointment oozed from every pore of her skin despite her attempt to hide it.

It made you wonder if something had happened between them. Probably, based on the way she tried to meet his eyes but he wasn’t into her, at least not anymore from what you could tell. 

It did not surprise you. Actually, it just confirmed one of your assumptions about Thomas, the fact that he was the kind of man who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. 

May’s face was so devastated that it only increased your sympathy for her. It wasn’t her fault to have fallen in love with him. The bastard had something that made it really hard to ignore him. He was like a light in the darkness alluring you to get closer and once you realise it, it is too late. You’re burnt and he is leaving you. 

Tommy cleared his throat and placed his hand in the small of your back once again, ready to lead you out of the stables. “We’re going to find our seats before the race starts, we’ll talk another day, May.”

As you two moved forward among the crowd, you gave him a side glance. He seemed unfazed after the encounter with her. 

“You could have been a bit nicer, you know. She clearly still feels something,” you said once you found your seats. 

He raised an eyebrow at you and shook his head, lightning a cigarette. 

“What May and I had ended a long time ago. Our current agreement is purely professional.”

“Does she know?”

“She’s a smart woman, she must have figured it out by now.”

-

You had no idea of what to expect of the horse races but definitely it was not this. People cheered and talked loudly about their bets and the horses and whatever. And you were bored as hell. Thomas kept his eye on his horse and he even smiled from time to time, probably every time he won a bet which meant he was making money.

It was hard to stay focused and enjoy, as much as you tried. Everyone around seemed to be having the time of their lives but you just couldn’t. The nerves were creeping up your stomach, making it impossible. Something was off, but you didn't know what it was. 

On more than one occasion, your intuition had saved your life. So you began to scan the crowd, searching for something that could explain your uneasiness.

As you did so, your fingers dug into Tommy’s forearm a little too hard. He frowned and turned his head to look at you. “Something is going on, I don’t know what it means yet but I would say that we are being watched,” you told him in a low voice. 

Tommy took a quick look around and shrugged before glancing back at you. He sighed at the sight of your face contorted with worry. His hand caressed your cheek.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to worry,” he said softly, resting an arm over your shoulders and pulling you closer to him protectively. As if you were a naive and vulnerable girl, as if he had forgotten the fact that you were a demon hunter. “People will stare, it’s normal. Don’t you know who I am? Also, my date is a beautiful woman. Let them look all they want.”

His arrogance made you frown. “No, Thomas. It’s not about that, you don’t understand what I mean. I think this is something beyond mundane, and we need to get out of here. We are too exposed, I need to figure out what’s going on.”

“Nothing is going on,” he said firmly. You opened your mouth to reply but he put a finger over your lips, pressing them gently. “Take a look around, see all the Peakys? We are safer here than anywhere else right now.”

He was right, all around you could see men wearing peaked caps and tailored suits. You even recognised some of them, there was Arthur and others whose names you did not remember. However, you were convinced that whatever it was, they couldn’t stop it. 

“Love, look at me.”

You looked up at him, he seemed so calmed that it made you feel a bit embarrassed. What if you had just let yourself get carried away? Tommy squeezed your hand. 

“But Tommy…”

“But nothing,” he cut you off before you could keep insisting. “Enjoy the races. I have a surprise for later.”

He was smiling almost imperceptibly, only for you to see it. You pursed your lips and ended up nodding, there was no point in trying to convince him, he was as stubborn as a wild horse. Even more than that.

So you rested your head on his shoulder and looked up, staring at the sky. The sun was starting to set. Now, more than ever, you regretted not bringing enough weapons with you. 

-

Relief filled your body once everything was over and you stood up, ready to leave. Tommy seemed to be in a good mood. Once again, he guided you through the crowd, this time he offered you his arm to hold on to as you made your way back to the car. You let him guide you, without paying attention to him or what he was talking about, still alert to any suspicious movement around. 

As you walked further into the dark streets, the feeling of being followed intensified. You were only a few metres from the car when you looked over your shoulder and saw it.

You stopped walking, digging your heels into the ground and making Tommy stop as well, he gave you a questioning look that you did not return because your gaze was on the alley you two had just walked by a few seconds ago.

A creature had sneaked there so fast that if you hadn’t been feeling that something was off all that time, it probably would have gone unnoticed. It seemed to be a ravener demon, like the one you had killed the night before.

Was it following you, or Tommy?

With a fluid movement you unhooked your arm from his and threw him your bag. It hit him in the chest but he managed to grab it before it fell to the floor. Reaching under your dress, you grabbed the dagger. The blade shone under the street lights. 

“Stay here, I’ll be back in a second. Don’t get any closer,” you warned him, adjusting your grip on the dagger. 

Before he could reply anything, you had already disappeared running towards the alley. But Tommy was not the kind of man who follows other people’s orders. He headed towards the alley too, stopping a few steps away from the entrance, unable to take his eyes off the scene in front of him.

The demon was hiding there, waiting for you. It only took you a couple of minutes to kill it, although you ended up covered in black, viscous ichor.

“Damn it,” you muttered, dropping the dagger and wiping your hands and arms on the fabric of your dress, trying to clean as much ichor as possible from your skin. The dress was ruined. 

You hissed at the burning sensation, taking a moment to put yourself together. Then, you turned around to face the entrance of the alley. Tommy was standing there, a lonely figure in the middle of the dark street. But wait, he was not alone. There was someone else. 

Suddenly, it all clicked in your head. The ravener demon was just a distraction, the real danger was still out there. 

Tommy was staring at you wide eyed. He had presumably witnessed the whole encounter with the creature and now more than ever since he saw you for the first time, he looked as if he had lost his mind.

Actually, he was kind of astonished by the speed at which you had moved and the way you had made that horrible thing disappear. 

He was not paying attention to his surroundings and even if you warned him, he could not react fast enough to avoid the man approaching him from the back. Luckily, you could move faster than a regular human. Using what was left of your speed rune, which wasn’t much because it had almost faded away at this point, you run to get between the man with the gun and Tommy. 

If you hadn’t been busy with the ravener, this guy would not have had a chance to get so close. The man pulled the trigger just when you were about to push Tommy away, the loud bang of it sent a shiver down your spine.

The sound seemed to snap Tommy out of his stupor. A million thoughts and emotions flooded his mind, this could not be happening. Not again. All of a sudden he was no longer in the middle of a dirty street but knelt on the floor while holding the limp body of his wife, who had just been shot by a bullet intended for him.

Tommy held you tightly, with his vision clouded by anger but focused. He took out his own gun and shot the man many times, not stopping until there were no more bullets left. The man fell like a ragged doll on the ground, a dark pool of blood under his thin body. 

It had all happened so fast... as you held onto Thomas tightly, he spoke softly in your ear. Or maybe he wasn't speaking softly, but the gunshots had sounded so close that you couldn't hear anything now. Well, you could hear your heartbeat inside your eardrums. And something else, a sharp pain that increased by each second. 

With trembling hands, you touched your chest just below your collarbone, where the pain was coming from. You looked at your fingers, covered in crimson. A sob escaped your lips and then you began to understand what Tommy was telling you. 

He kept repeating that you had to stay calm, that everything was going to be okay. A few men, Peaky Blinders, arrived at the scene alerted by the gunshots and Tommy started screaming orders at them. 

“I need an ambulance now!”, he shouted, returning his attention to you. “You’re alright Grace,” his voice was barely a whisper as he caressed your hair and rocked you back and forth. 

Even though it hurt, you tried to get out of his hold. Although it was the first time you had been shot, there were worse kinds of pain than the physical one. Tommy tried to make you stay still but you needed to see the man who had attacked you. 

Being closer now, you noticed his frail body, he seemed young. A teenager or a young man, he could not be older than you. But his hair was matted and completely silver. It was too dark to see the colour of his eyes but you were sure that they were silver too, just like the greyish tone of his skin.

A yin fen addict. 

[mariaofdoranelle]

Look at Us Now - ch. 25

Fic masterlist

Omfg it was about time!!

I used a prompt Diana sent me forever ago about mom&daughter matching outfits but I’ll never find it again to attach the link. Thanks @autumnbabylon! <3

Also, things got a liiittle freaky in the last scene. Is it because I re-outlined URDAD while writing this? We’ll never know!

Warnings: NSFW, golden lingerie

Words: 3,1k

To Maisie’s dismay, she was stuck with her father’s poor braiding skills until she could do better herself. Ever since Rowan found out that he could get himself and Maisie ready in the time Aelin did only her hair and makeup, getting ready to go out became a lot less chaotic.

Simpler, but not simple.

His daughter was almost ready to be dropped off at Aedion’s to go to the movies with him, Lys and her son Timmy, while Rowan and Aelin went to a small party at Dorian’s and Fen’s.

He thought he was prepared for the evening, but one sentence, five words were enough for Maisie to shake his entire world.

“I want the fishtail one,” the little girl said in her bedroom, after he asked her what she wanted to do with her hair.

“Not the one with the ribbons?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Of course,” Rowan said, trying not to show his defeat.

Shit. He had just learned how to do the double french braid with ribbons.

But that what was YouTube was for, anyway. His learning process wasn’t so slow after years of this, but Rowan still praised Maisie for staying still every now and then—he’d never forget the ordeal that was learning how to do her hair from scratch, all alone with an overactive toddler. He had it easy these days.

Aelin burst through the door when he was adding his finishing touches, and her eyes lit up when she saw the little girl’s outfit.

Maisie jumped from the chair and said, “Mommy, we’re twins!”

Rowan may or may not have peeked into Aelin’s closet while she was getting dressed to coordinate her outfit with Maisie’s. Now they were both wearing jean pants and jacket with a white shirt, and it looked adorable. He was even considering taking a picture for when Aelin mocked him for not having a “sense of style”.

Aelin’s eyes widened. “Maisy Daisy! Is your dad trying a new hairstyle on you?”

“Yep!” The little girl turned around to show off her dad’s work.

She swallowed, then plastered on the fakest smile he’d ever seen. “I love to see that, honey! Can I just fix…” Aelin put her thumb and index finger close together to indicate a small amount. “One little thing before we go?”

When Maisie sat back, her mother undid Rowan’s entire work and redid it in the blink of an eye. Flawlessly. And with a jellyfish hair clip.

He blinked, stunned while his daughter picked a toy to take out with her.

Aelin wrapped both arms around his middle and kissed his cheek. “This one’s all about tension,” she whispered in his ear. “I’ll show you later.”

Her breath against his flesh and the double meaning behind her words sent a shiver down his spine, but it was quickly stifled by his daughter’s next words.

“Come on!” she shouted. “Uncle Aedy is waiting!”

Rowan froze. That name triggered a rush of memories, dragging him back to a time and place he wished he could forget. It came back in flashes, his last visit to the sex shop. His unwanted encounter with the man he wanted to call a brother, while Rowan held a purple clit sucker in his hand.

The fact that they found out about each other’s new girlfriends between then and now didn’t make it any better.

“Buzzard, you coming?” Aelin’s voice brought him back, and for a moment he wondered if she saw something haunted in his eyes.

“Do we really have to go see Aedion?”

“You wanna drop Maisie off like she’s an Amazon package?”

“We could.”

Aelin crossed her arms, eyes squinted and scrutinizing him. “Why are you avoiding Aedion tonight?’

Rowan mirrored her position, trying to mimic his girlfriend’s bravado. “What makes you think I’m avoiding Aedion in the first place?”

Truth is, he absolutely was. But admitting it meant explaining the reason why, and there was only so much a man could take.

˜˜

“Munchkin didn’t wanna come?” Was the first thing Fenrys asked, crestfallen when he first saw them at the entrance of his modern apartment downtown. If their friends hadn’t been at the front door to guide them inside, the incense smell and the mixed sound of chatter and little paws on the floor would.

Today’s party was more like a small gathering, so Maisie and Fleetfoot had been invited—Dorian and Fenrys stopped asking Rowan and Aelin for their ragers a long time ago, but it was still nice to make sure exactly how kid-friendly the evening will be.

For a moment, Rowan felt bad for them. Maybe it was because they chose not to have kids, but they really did uphold that vow to become the cool, doting uncles.

And Maisie absolutely adored them back. Until Aedion blurted out that Dorian used to date her mother years back—now the kid got all weird whenever someone mentions his name.

But she’ll get over it. If Rowan did, Maisie will too.

Aelin’s eyes darted between her two friends, a truly apologetic look on her face. “She’s at the movies.” A sigh. “She still hasn’t processed all that… history. Between Dorian and I. But she’ll come around.”

“She will.” Dorian nodded with a mournful look and a curling corner of his lip that betrayed his somberness. “They always get like this when I fuck their moms.”

Rowan tensed, his teeth gritted, but before he could give the man a piece of his mind, Aelin slapped the back of her ex’s head. Still, her scolding expression twitched with suppressed laughter.

She pointed a finger at him. “Do. Not.”

The man took a step back with two hands up in apology and surrender, and gestured for them to wait there.

The living room was large enough to defy the concept of an ‘apartment’, but that and the expensive furniture were the only clues of Dorian’s generational wealth. The place had a bunch of shelves and it still was a huge mess of books scattered everywhere, likely because the man didn’t let anyone help organize them.

The one time he asked about it, Dorian said it ‘fits the aesthetic’. Rowan asked if it was his architect’s first intention to go for an ‘untidy look’. Aelin carefully redirected the subject and it was never brought up again.

Out of thin air, Dorian came back with one drink in each hand.

“Sangrias,” he said before handing them to Aelin and Rowan.

By her eager eyes on the drink, Rowan knew he wouldn’t be drinking much of it today.

Aelin tilted her head, a question in her eyes only he could read. He nodded and squeezed her waist, wordlessly knowing what she wanted.

He’d be glad to be tonight’s driver if it meant his Fireheart was having fun.

Aelin’s first sip was eager; however, her face soon contorted into disgust, her grimace turned into a cough, and soon something in that drink had her gagging. Rowan ran a soothing hand on her back, confused at this reaction.

After a few deep breaths, she turned to Dorian and said, “Did you slide some rotten fruit into this?”

The man gasped. “I find this question highly insulting, Aelin Galathynius.”

Rowan took the drink from Aelin’s hand and smelled it, at the same time Fenrys took Rowan’s untouched drink. Both men sipped it, then gave each other confused glances.

Aelin gaped. “You like it?” she screeched.

He shrugged. It was a little too sweet for his taste, but good sangria still. Dorian and Fenrys were great bartenders.

She waved him off. “You can have it.”

Aelin and Dorian excused themselves to talk with two people from their residency days, so Rowan sat on an armchair by a tall, arched lamp and his friend brought an empty chair so he could sit by his side. Which meant he was alone with Fenrys and his big mouth.

He perched on the edge of his chair with both forearms on his thighs and his trademark smirk. “Now that Maisie won’t come here anymore, I think it’s time for you to make Munchkin No. 2.”

Rowan remained silent. He refused to believe he agreed with one of Fenrys’ jokes.

His friend continued, “And you need to make an honest woman out of Aelin.”

Rowan’s brows went up. “Are you making an honest man out of Dorian anytime soon?”

“And you need to make me a godfather this time…” Fenrys added, completely disregarding what Rowan last said. His friend kept going on the subject, and he zoned out a little, having his own related thoughts.

The ‘marriage and more kids’ subject had been brought up constantly when they finally told everyone about their relationship—nothing Rowan wasn’t thinking about himself.

He had things figured out and was ready to do it, the only problem was finding the right timing.

On one hand, he didn’t want to get ahead of himself, rush it and risk fucking up again. He and Aelin had been dating for a little over three months, not the usual time to wait until the proposal—then again, they weren’t an usual couple.

He caught her eye from across the room, gold and turquoise glinting with excitement that soon turned back to the group she was talking to.

On the other hand, a four-letter word plagued his thoughts all day, every day. When Aelin wore his t-shirt after sex in the morning, when he saw the button of her nose on his daughter’s face, when he held her to sleep, drunk in the smell of her hair.

Day and night, Rowan ached to call her his wife.

˜˜

“Buzzard,” Aelin called at his suite, from outside the bathroom. “Why did I find a gift box with my name on it in your closet?”

“You weren’t supposed to find it!” Rowan shouted, quickly wrapping a towel around his waist.

They’d just gotten home after the party at Dorian’s and Fen’s, and were their way to bed. The gift she’d just found was from the sex shop he visited a while ago, but Aelin had been so tired from work lately, he was struggling to find the right opportunity to give it to her.

When Rowan finally got out of the bathroom, the sight of Aelin holding the golden lingerie set he hadn’t given to her yet made his heart hammer inside his chest.

“Menace,” he teased.

She stared at the set with her mouth ajar. “When were you giving it to me?”

Leaned against the doorframe, he cocked his head. “Why were you snooping in my closet?”

“Afraid I might find something, Buzzard?”

Very.

Rowan squinted his eyes at her. “I thought you were ‘so sleepy’ you could ‘die from it’. Your words exactly.”

“Well, Buzzard, I’ve just changed our plans,” she said on her way to the bathroom. Right after closing herself in, Aelin opened a crack in the door to face him and ask, “Is it clean?”

He chuckled. “I washed everything so we could use it right away.”

“Perfect.” Her smile was so bright it lit him up.

She had been suggestive enough that Rowan hung his towel without bothering to put his clothes on, and it gave him time to think.

First, he needed to keep an eye on Aelin’s curiosity regarding his closet.

Second—there was no second. He was just dying to see Aelin in gold again.

“You okay there, Ae?”

“Eager much?” she asked on her way out of the bedroom. Aelin squared her shoulders and did a little twirl, cocky as ever, but then adjusted a strap. “It feels a little weird on the breasts, but it fits.”

“Pity,” Rowan said, unable to keep his eyes off her. “I think my hands need to get more acquainted with them.”

His movements were languid as he slid his hands from her hips to the sides of her chest, trembling with desire. His Fireheart looked like a living flame and, fucking hell, he couldn’t believe his luck to be the one that got to touch her.

Rowan felt the warmth and softness of her skin, her shiver as his ravenous eyes devoured the curve of her hips to the slope of her breasts. It was dizzying, the creamy of her skin, the brown of her freckles, dusty rose round tissue poorly hidden, taut with the need to be touched.

All wrapped in thin straps and golden lace.

Rowan’s loins grew near feverish with just the sight of her, and so far the way he touched her only worsened the ache in his fingers.

“Buzzard?” Aelin’s eyes were filled with something he’d recently realized that stood between mirth and desire. “Are you gonna stare at me all night?”

He chuckled, a pained sound, and hid his face on the side of her neck. “I could, you know.”

Before she got the chance to tease him further, Rowan brushed his lips against her pulse point. Standing in the middle of his room with both hands on her hips, he intensified his ministrations on her neck until Aelin’s teasing disappeared, leaving him with small whimpers and the goosebumps she left with those nails on the roots of his hair.

She pulled his mouth to hers, fingers now busy tracing his abs and pecs. His muscles were mostly a welcome consequence of his job and lifestyle, but it did make him feel smug when Aelin openly delighted in it the way she did.

Rowan grabbed her waist tighter and pinned their waists together, his naked length pressed against her stomach while he flicked his tongue against hers. She held his neck and let out a breathy moan, chasing the friction as much as he did.

That is, until Aelin took a step back and turned around. He stopped her by the foot of the bed, one hand splayed across her lower belly, the other covering her breast.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Rowan asked before he tilted her head to the side and sucked the skin of her neck into his mouth.

Her breath hitched, then she let out a breathless chuckle. “Going to our bed?”

Our. Not quite, but he liked the sound of that.

Rowan sneaked one hand in between her folds and cursed. “You’re so wet, baby.” A peck on her shoulder. “Is that for me?”

“Um—“ He pinched a nipple, and the back of Aelin’s head fell against his shoulder. “I did take a good look in the mirror before too.”

So fucking sassy.

In one quick thrust, Rowan slid all the way in, spreading her cunt open to fill it whole at once. Aelin cried out, and her body jerked forward a little—would’ve been a lot if he hadn’t held her so closely.

“Shit, I—“ Rowan could barely think, his thoughts clouded with lust. “Too rough?”

“Too good. Lemme just…” Aelin kneeled on the edge of the bed, making herself taller so Rowan could and fuck her from behind better.

And that he did.

Standing still with her kneeling on bed before him, her back to his chest, Rowan ruthlessly snapped his hips against hers. Aelin gave it as good as she got, back arched as she met his thrusts and pushed against them—there wasn’t much she could do in this position, but he liked having her at his mercy like this.

With tension bursting under his skin, Rowan brought one hand to Aelin’s neck, slightly choking her. He felt her tremble under his touch, and the shaky way she moaned his name in return was enough to make his skin burn.

The other hand went back to her pussy, muscle memory eased his finger’s path to her clit. The friction made her gasp, then Aelin ground her hips against his hand and cock both. The way she writhed on his arms was telling enough, so Rowan held himself back to keep her preferred pace constant. Soon enough she screamed his name and collapsed on his arms. Rowan pulled out, but watching Aelin orgasm so prettily for him it didn’t ease his ache in the slightest.

He placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder. “You alright, honey?”

“Perfect.” She had a dazed smile on. “Did you—“

Rowan snapped his cock back inside her because no, he did not. And he wouldn’t until she did again.

Aelin whimpered, then continued to roll her hips against his as he picked the pace once again. She took his cock until Rowan decided otherwise, like the good girl she was.

The only problem being that Rowan didn’t exactly choose when his cock would give out, and he was already too excited from Aelin’s first round. He did have his tongue and fingers in case the worst happened, but…

He pulled out took a step back—which didn’t go unnoticed by Aelin, given her frown—to grab the clit sucker.

Rowan aligned himself with her but didn’t thrust, earning him a whine from her.

“Greedy much, love?” He grabbed a fistful of her hair with one hand, while he figured out the vibrator with the other.

Before Aelin could complain further, he turned it on and put it on her clit at the same time he pounded into her again. Aelin screamed, her hips moved in a lost, frenzied pace as she tried to grab whichever parts of him she could with her back to him.

“Do you want to…” Rowan managed while panting, “The speed.”

“I—“

A thrust, or the spot it hit, made her moan and clench around him, which brought the messy string of curses uttered by Rowan. Well, she’d change the speed if she wanted to.

Aelin covered his hand with hers to change the vibrator’s speed, chasing her second climax. And Rowan—fucking hell, he wasn’t lasting much longer. His muscles felt as tight as they could be, surrounded by fire, and in this pre-orgasm state, if Rowan had the spare mental energy to pray and ask to last any longer, he would.

Aelin went still, calling out his name with a shattered breath. He waited until she completely fell apart to turn the vibrator off, and a few thrusts later Rowan shattered with her. With a blurred vision, he emptied himself around her walls, which still spasmed and contracted around his cock.

A brief kiss with a tug on the strap of her golden bra. “Take this off for me and lay down on the bed, will ya?” Rowan asked from behind, his hands still holding onto her body. “I’m not done with you yet.”

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[cosmichorrorsarestillnicerthanme]

Can you please do relationship (preferably both NSFW and SFW) head cannons for juri,chunli, and Cammy x !male reader, the son of M.bison

He was supposed to be another vessel for bison to transfer into, but he rebelled(the reader is stronger than bison) and wants to replace all the bad his dad had done with his own legacy of good

I was up late playing SF6 and thought this would make such a good angsty and fluff post this my first time requesting something so a little nervous. Sorry if this makes you uncomfortable

Don't worry about it! You did great in submitting your ask, not to mention I had a blast writing this! Also, sorry if this is a bit long!

Now! Your wish is my command!

The first time Chun-Li met you, it was when she was chasing down Neo Shadaloo, trying to figure out exactly what they were doing.

She had got the upper hand on their leader, the young man called Ed, and just as she was about to knock him out before bringing him back to the interpol offices to interrogate him when you interfered.

Just as her kick was about to land, Ed disappeared in a flash of purple and pink and he reappeared, alongside you, only just barely outside of her range.

“Thanks, I thought I was done for!” Ed exclaimed as he breathed heavily.

“You should probably get out of here Ed, you are not in the best of states.” you told the blonde young man as you walked towards Chun-Li, your eyes closed and hand on the back of your neck before you cracked it, and Psycho Power began rolling off of you like waves, your eyes opening in tandem, your irises painted pink and purple and your hair turning stark white.

“Now then miss Chun-Li, you’ll be dealing with me. Though do be aware, I can only spare seven minutes to play with you.” you told the woman as you removed your hand from the back of your neck and closed your fists tight, raising them to face her.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The next thing Chun-Li knew, she was fighting someone that reminded her all too much of the man who took her Father away from her.

And what made it worse?

She couldn’t land a hit on you.

She would get within a hair's breadth of touching you but then *poof* you were gone in a wave of pink and purple before she would be sent flying away.

But then, after seven minutes, you declared that “Your time was up.” and that you had “Enjoyed the game the two of you played.”

And that left Chun-Li in an abandoned warehouse, cut up and covered in scrapes and bruises, watching the wave of pink and purple fade away from where you stood only a split second earlier.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After that, it was quite a bit of time before Chun-Li met you again.

Almost a year had passed before Li-Fen had shot into the dojo, dragging someone behind her.

That person Li-Fen was dragging behind her?

Was you.

Li-Fen said she found you “Wandering around the city, looking for a “Certain Martial Arts Master”.

Needless to say, Li-Fen brought you to Chun-Li, not knowing at all who you were.

But, she quickly figured it out when you and Chun-Li started talking.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Chun-Li and Li-Fen were, of course, shocked by what you told them.

How you were the son of Bison.

How you were made.

How you were able to use Psycho Power without drawbacks.

And why you were working with Neo Shadaloo and just exactly what Neo Shadaloo was.

Chun-Li, was of course wary of you telling her all of this and why you were doing so.

However, when you gave her access to the Neo Shadaloo archives, that wariness was lessened, even if only slightly.

After that, you stuck around, helping out around the Dojo and helping Chun-Li teach.

Quickly the two of you struck up a friendship despite the… messiness that your pasts shared.

After a while, Li-Fen started teasing Chun-Li about her “Crush” which would lead to Chun-Li hitting her over the head with a blush on her face.

But then, one day, Chun-Li asked you if you would mind spending the day with her.

And so, the two of you painted the town red, setting off in the morning and only heading back home long after the sun had set, plenty of souvenirs in hand.

It was only when the two of you were walking down the street on the way back to the dojo, that you said exactly what had been running around in your head the entire day.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Y’know Chun-Li, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was a date.” you told the woman who simply blushed and said.

“I wouldn’t be… opposed to that.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After that, the two of you were inseparable.

Li-Fen was of course the first person to figure it out, saying that “She wondered how long the two of you were going to dance around eachother like that!”

She also told you two to “Stop training so loudly at night” and that it was “Stopping her from sleeping!”

At this, Chun-Li nearly melted into the floor out of embarrassment.

Why? 

Well, the two of you weren’t “training” in the traditional sense.

She, of course, was definitely showing off how flexible she was at night but…

Well… Li Fen was a bit too young to know anything else besides that.

And all Chun-Li could say was that the two of you would “Try and keep it down.” knowing all too well that she may not be able to keep that promise.

Juri wasn’t too sure what to think of you when she met you for the first time.

On one hand, that was Psycho Power you were using, the same type of energy that the bastard who was responsible for her parents death used.

On the other, you were on a rampage through the Shadaloo base, tearing the place apart.

Bringing down the ceiling, ripping up the foundations, tearing down the walls, the whole shebang.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay and chat at the moment.

In part due to the fact that you were bringing the base down on top of their head.

But also because she was helping a certain blonde get the hell out of dodge.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The next time Juri saw you was a few years later during one of the times she crossed paths with “Neo Shadaloo.”

Much like last time, you were tearing down a building with reckless abandon.

This time however, Juri was watching from the outside with the other parts of the Neo Shadaloo freak show.

“*whistle* That guy is really ripping the place up!” Juri exclaimed as she watched you work, pulling down a helicopter with Psycho Power and launching it into a tank, destroying both.

“He’s always been like that as long as I’ve known him. Very… wild.” the leader of the group, Ed responded whilst drinking from a juice box.

“Heh, sounds like me and him would get along!” Juri said with a laugh.

“It would definitely not be beyond the realm of possibility, especially with the hatred the two of you share for his father.” Ed’s second in command, Falke, stated absentmindedly.

“For who?” Juri asked, confused for a brief moment about who Falke was talking about before the dots connected.

The Psycho Power, the overwhelming animosity to Shadaloo Remnants, the overwhelming force.

“Holy shit. THAT FUCKER HAD A KID!?” Juri screamed in a mix of shock, fury, and disgust at the image placed in her mind.

“Yes, Bison created that person down there with a mixture of his own DNA, Data from the experiments like us, and a woman who had her genome altered to have a high regenerative factor. Though, he was far too strong for what Bison originally intended for him. Which in turn led to us being experimented on.” Ed told Juri who was still in shock at what she had just learned.

After a moment, the words registered, and Juri asked.

“What do you mean by “Too Strong For What Bison Originally Intended?” 

“To put it simply, Bison wanted a perfect body, one that could heal from the stress and damage using Psycho Power at such a powerful level, hence the experimentation and search for the way to create the Perfect vessel. If he had been successful, he would’ve been basically unstoppable. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for us, that guy had a will of his own, one that seemed to be completely unbreakable, even with Bison and F.A.N.G. doing their worst to break it.” Falke explained.

An explosion rang out, catching Juri’s attention as the sound of missiles roared out.

On the main runway, missiles being held aloft by Psycho Power launched into the base, turning the entire place into a blasted landscape of craters, ruins, and purple and pink fire.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After that, Juri got… curious.

She started hanging around Neo Shadaloo, taking more jobs for them, making a sort of… alliance with them.

All to satisfy her curiosity in you.

All to learn more about the object of mystery that you are.

Over time, Juri did, eventually meet you in a… less than official capacity.

As it turns out, you had noticed the interest she had taken in you, and in turn, you took an interest in her.

After that… well… one thing leads to another.

The two of you kept it secret for a while, trying to figure how this thing would work.

After all, Your pops was responsible for the death of Juri’s parents and if she thought about it for too long, she would start laughing like crazy at just how ridiculous it is, with you often doing the same.

Nonetheless, neither of you are particularly subtle people and, eventually, someone, probably Falke, found out.

It will probably be made into this big thing by Ed and the other members of the group Ed personally leads.

There will be a party, there will be cake, there will of course be spicy food for Juri, and she will be formally named as “Part Of The Family” by the others.

It is a whole event, and pretty overwhelming for Juri.

Nonetheless, it was… kind of nice to be welcomed so openly.

Though if they knew what the two of you got up to in bed… 

Heh, well, she got the feeling poor Falke would have a heart attack on the spot.

After all, she is a pretty flexible lady with quite a bit of power in those legs of hers.

Not to mention… well… she’s got her own… kinks.

You were so cute when you were below her and so hot when you got the upper hand.

And Juri Han knew that she was a very, very bad girl.

If there was one thing Cammy White was good at, it was fighting.

She was quite literally built for it.

And yet, there was one person she had never been able to land an actual hit on, much less defeat.

You, the left hand of Neo Shadaloo and a master of the same power that Bison once used.

Psycho Power.

And you seemed even more powerful than him.

Weapons always stopped short of hitting you, punches only ever hit empty air, artillery would be crushed into scrap metal.

Despite that. she was the only person to ever get close to you.

And all she had to show for it? A patch that tore off of your outfit that depicted the symbol of Neo Shadaloo.

It was frustrating to her.

Despite that, she had to admit that she was… curious.

How did someone like you come to be?

How could you fight like that without falling to pieces due to Psycho Power tearing you apart?

It made her want to find you and make you tell her everything.

It made her want to know exactly who you were.

Little did Cammy know that her wishes were soon to be answered.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

There was a Cafe Cammy frequented.

It was a nice little place, just a few minutes walk from her home.

Good coffee, good tea, and good sweets.

The owners were an old couple, very nice people and they knew her by her name, not to mention that they had an absolutely beautiful black cat.

And so, when she arrived one day, she was surprised to hear them talking about her to a stranger.

Telling the stranger how “Nice” and “Sweet” she was and how much she loved her cats.

And then, the stranger turned around and instantly Cammy was on high alert.

The stranger was not any stranger.

The stranger was you.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

There was a tenseness between the two of you as you both waited to be served.

“What are you doing here?” Cammy asked you, trying to find a way to force you outside and away from the couple if she had to fight you.

“Me? Oh, I am here for you Miss White. You see, I find you quite intriguing.” you told her truthfully.

For some reason, Cammy felt her cheeks flush at this.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After that, you became a constant fixture at the Cafe.

Either helping out around it, or trying to get over the walls Cammy White had while she was there.

Eventually, after quite a long time, you managed to get past her walls by letting you through hers.

The two of you talked about your respective lives or what both of you could recall about them.

Cammy was shocked to learn who you were and why you were doing what you were doing, but she did understand it.

You were shocked to learn about who Cammy used to be and why she existed, but you were glad for her and how much she changed.

And eventually, the two of you became friends of sorts.

The owners of the Cafe were quite happy to see their best customers getting along and said something about “Wondering when both of them will really get together?”

Neither of you knew what this meant until much, much later when Cammy, for some reason she didn’t really understand, invited you to her place.

After that things… escalated… quickly.

Confessions of love, happy crying, hugging, and so much more.

When morning finally came around for the two of you, it was almost midday, and neither of you felt like you could stand, much less walk.

Though… there was still plenty of energy for round two.

Besides, Cammy had a few moves she wanted to try on you.

[writtenonreceipts]

Rowaelin Month Day Seven: All Dressed Up @rowaelinscourt

Month Masterlist // Part One // Part Two // AO3

Doesn’t fit in with today’s prompt, but, I did finish this story one year later so...I think that counts for something.

Warnings: nothing major, ~3.5k words

The Words We Share--Part Three

Rowan Whitethorn grew up on the stories of his homeland.  Little myths and legends that fueled his imagination since he was a child.  It hadn’t taken him long to learn how to create his own stories, how to twist tales and give a voice to his musings.  He just never thought it would get him to where he was now.

He stared at the projected numbers for his new release, already there had been two calls for reorders and the official publication date was still a month out.  It was set to be his biggest release yet.

And still he felt…unsettled.

If that was even the right word.  He could spin a villain’s origin story that could chill anyone’s blood.  He could paint the Scotland highlands with vivid accuracy and enchanting detail.  He’d won awards and been featured on dozens of sites and bestsellers lists.  He’d even been offered an adjunct professor position at the local state college to teach creative writing.  But he couldn’t put a name to this emotion roiling through his chest.

Nothing came.

His phone buzzed with an incoming text on the table beside him and Lorcan’s name flashed on the screen.

>>u see this?

A link to the comment section on a website followed.  Aelin’s website.

Rowan’s stomach dropped as his thumb hovered over the link.  He tried to imagine just what he was getting himself into.  He’d experienced his share of feedback in the form of book reviews and he’d seen plenty of other comments from other shows he’d been a part of.  But this…this felt different.

He clicked the link before he could second guess himself.  And he opened himself up to hell.

It ranged from the usual notes from his fans, those that kept up with his books and how he wrote.  And then he found the comments from Aelin’s fans.  Which was where he found the crazies.  The TikTokers, the influencers, the people who absolutely devoured any form of content with their theories, their headcanons, their passions.  Rowan never begrudged a person their hobby, in fact, he encouraged finding something that brought you joy.  But this…this…

xxgalaCREWfan99xx: ok but was no one going to tell me ROWAN WHITETHORN HAD A SEXY VOICE?? Do I have to change my reading habits now??

Readingbaebe: Does he write romance at all?? I refuse to read anything else.

TheMidnightBookClub: to much historyyyy YAWN

BOOKS4LIFE: but y wuz there banter so on point?? Talk about sxxxyy!

Letsreeeeead: @BOOKS4LIFE: I KNOW RIIIIGHT? Tlk abt meet cute??

Jdashbywriter: would love to hear more of your craft Rowan! Thanks for your books.

Some of the commentors were not as crazy as others.  There was a reason he refused to get a TikTok account no matter what Dorian tried to tell him it would do for his sales.  And there was a reason he’d hired an assistant so he didn’t have to deal with any of this.

He reached for his phone, fully prepared to call Aelin and see if she’d seen any of this.  He stopped himself.  He couldn’t let himself do that.  Not after everything that had happened.

Just as he pulled his hand back from his phone, the screen lit up.  His heart made an uncomfortable leap until he saw the name.

“What, Fen?” he demanded.

“Dude, I didn’t know you were dating Galathynius,” Fenrys said from the other line. “Congrats!”

Rowan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Stop reading random comments on the internet.”

“But they’re so entertaining!  Probably doing my job better than I can,” Fenrys replied.

Indeed, Rowan had made the remarkably stupid decision to let Fenrys be his media manager.  It wasn’t that Fenrys couldn’t do a job properly or was stupid himself (an idiot, sure, but that was different) he could.  It was only that Fenrys had a different vision for just about everything when it came to his books.

“Please don’t let the TikTok win,” Rowan said.

“It’s just TikTok,” Fenrys said.

Rowan cursed. “I hate you.”

“I’m just saying,” Fenrys continued, utterly unaffected by Rowan’s disdain, “you’re getting more hits on your recent Instagram reels and followers.  This whole thing will be good for you.”

Rowan wasn’t sure about that. “Is that the only reason you called?”

There was a pause from Fenrys and Rowan felt a distinct rise in dread.  Nothing good came from a silence like that.

“Remelle St. Moore wants you on her podcast,” Fenrys said, the words coming out in rapid fire.

“Oh for shits-sake,” Rowan muttered, “no.”

He remembered the last time he had interacted with the book influencer at a launch party for one of his fellow writers.  Between the alcohol and suggestive comments on her part, he’d barely made it out alive.  Really, it was because of that experience he preferred to keep to his own group of fans, or too himself.

“That’s what I thought you’d say, but she’s got a lot of viewers,” Fenrys said.

“Which is why I agreed to the podcast with Aelin,” Rowan groused, “at least she didn’t try and grope me at a party.”

“No, you just tried to play hero and save her from being stood up.” Rowan could practically hear the grin growing on his friend’s face. “Which must have worked out really good for you based on some of these comments.”

“I’m hanging up,” Rowan said, “no more podcasts.  Or interviews.”

“What if Aelin’s the one asking?”

He hung up before answering.

Leaning back in his office chair, he tried to ignore what Fenrys had said.  Especially the bits about him and Aelin.  He knew that nothing had happened between the two of them.  And nothing ever would.  He’d known it even before he stepped in to help Aelin save face after being stood up.  That hadn’t stopped him from stepping in though. 

He didn’t know what had come over him that night at the restaurant, only that he couldn’t believe someone had stood her up.  He hadn’t known it was her, at first.  Only that Lorcan and Fenrys were commenting on the fact a woman was dining alone and they were taking bets on what she would do.  When he had finally grown tired of their antics, he’d turned to find Aelin swirling a glass of water in her hand looking utterly dejected.

It was a far cry from the Aelin he’d gotten to know over the years.  Headstrong and stubborn, wild and untamed, charismatic and independent.  Something had shifted over the last eight months, though.  He’d been sure to keep his distance, relying on the illusion of finishing his book.  It was mostly a lie.  His book was going along well, remarkable even.  But then Aelin had gotten a boyfriend.  And from the sounds of it, it had been everything she’d wanted.

Pining after women had never been something Rowan did, but after Aelin and Sam had gotten together it felt like that was all anyone ever talked about at the office.  The only response Rowan could think was to take his work elsewhere.  He went back to Scotland to visit his mother, he travelled the continental U.S. He did everything in his power to put some much needed distance between him and Aelin Galathynius.

Which did absolutely nothing.

She had already wormed his way into his manuscript.  And like a fool, he’d insisted she read it.

Maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised she never caught on to his rather blatant illusions.  She didn’t like him, made it clear.  Which was another reason his stepping in at the restaurant was psychotic. 

But she was Aelin and there was something about her that he couldn’t ignore or let go.  And seeing Sam stand her up?  Hell, it made him angry.  And Rowan didn’t even know Sam.

Rowan shook his head and shut down his computer.  He was being foolish.  On so many different levels.

He knew he wasn’t going to get any writing done.  Instead, he grabbed his jacket, keys, and wallet.  He needed to get out of his apartment even if he didn’t have a destination in mind.

.*.

The manuscript stared innocently up at her.  The Times New Roman font was evenly spaced, paper fresh and crisp from the office printer.  She’d used Dorian’s own code to print all these pages out so no one would trace the mass printing back to her.  Technically she shouldn’t have done this.  It was a lot of paper and she wasn’t even on the editorial team for this author.

But Aelin never did like listening to rules.

I thought it was obvious.

Rowan’s words from earlier that afternoon rang in her head.  They bounced around in a relentless beat and refused to be dismissed.  Because they meant one thing and one thing alone: she had missed something while reading his book.  And she didn’t miss things.

So, red pen in hand, fresh coffee on her desk, and a newly printed manuscript before her—Aelin set to work.

Just like with the first time reading Dead Man’s Game, she was drawn into the world immediately.  The setting, the characters, the subtle tones of magic all worked to create a plot that gripped her by the throat.

During this reread, Aelin focused more on Celaena.  Celaena who was reckless and selfish.  Celaena who put her life on the line too many times.  Celaena who loved fiercely and didn’t let anyone hold her back.  Celaena who killed witches and broke curses. 

She stopped reading somewhere around chapter five when something started to prick the back of her mind.  Something she’d tried desperately to stamp down all these years.  Even the past few months.

Though, it had been easier as of late because Rowan had disappeared into whatever writers’ nook he had.  That night at the restaurant had been one of the first times she’d seen him since learning about his new book.

She took a long drink of coffee before she fired a text off to Elide.  She needed someone to rant to about this because she had no idea what was going on or how to put into words what she was feeling.

When her phone rang a few minutes later, she picked it up on instinct. 

“Elide, did you see what I sent you?” she demanded, still staring at the cliff hanger of chapter five.

Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t her friend on the other line.  It was Sam.

“Aelin.”  He sounded relieved, which only made her blood pressure boil. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you, baby.”

Aelin glanced at the Caller ID.  He must have gotten a burner phone and she’d been too distracted to make sure she knew the number.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said.  “I broke up with you, end of story.”

“You didn’t even let me explain—”

“Explain what, Sam?” Aelin demanded.  All the pent-up anger she’d been trying to ignore and push aside rose too quickly to the surface. “That you stood me up again without bothering to try and call, hell, even text me?  Instead, I was left alone. Again.”

The anger burned away the tears she might have shed.  He didn’t deserve her tears; he didn’t deserve anything from her.

“You’re blaming me?” Sam scoffed. “I have a job, Aelin.  I’m a lawyer, I don’t get to sit around all day reading books—”

“Lose my number, Sam,” she said, eyes squeezed shut, “or I swear I’ll give your lawyer ass something to work over.”

She ended the call before flinging her phone across her office where it clattered against the wall.  The pain that ripped through her chest was more than just anger, but sorrow and pain.  She’d wasted so much time over Sam that coming out of it she felt like she was drowning.  She was barely treading water, she was—

“Why am I not surprised to find you here?”

Aelin nearly jumped out of her skin at the deep, careful voice coming from the doorway.  She spun in her chair, nearly careening out of it at the force, and found Rowan standing there.  How much had he heard?  How would he laud this over her head?  Did he judge her at all for the things she’d said?

“Rowan,” she said, far softer than she meant to.  Her skin was blazing over the phone call with Sam and she felt the flush deep in her cheeks, horrified that she was actually on the verge of crying now.

He jerked his chin over to where she’d tossed her phone. “Bad call?”

Aelin huffed a breath. “Sure, if you wanna call it that.”

Rowan stepped into her office, slow and careful as though he expected her to toss him back out.  He was dressed far more casual than Aelin had ever seen him.  With a pair of dark washed jeans and gray sweater, plain leather jacket—he seemed relaxed and at ease.  Not at all how she’d imagined him on a regular week day.

And then, because he seemed to know her so well, he made another comment. “Your boyfriend really seems like a keeper.”

“Not my boyfriend, not anymore.” Aelin didn’t look at him as she grabbed her coffee.  It was shocking how good it felt saying the words, like a weight was lifted off her chest. “Just doing some late-night reading, right now.”

Rowan frowned glancing at the manuscript.  The title page was tossed to the side so it was obvious what book it was.

“You already gave me your edits,” he said.

“Yeah, but I thought I was missing something.”  She shrugged and set the coffee aside.  “What about you?  Why bother coming here?”

Rowan ran a hand through his hair, messing the easy style it had settled into.  He didn’t answer her question immediately, choosing instead to fall into one of the chairs before her desk.  The movement was so easy, as though he’d practiced it a hundred times, as though he belonged right in that chair.

“Did you see those comments on the podcast?”

Aelin’s brow furrowed.  Then, startling not just him, but her too—she laughed. “Oh, Whitethorn, you don’t actually read those comments.  Those people are insane.”

“A warning might have been nice,” he grumbled.

Another laugh tore through her, dispelling the sick feeling roiling in her gut. “Oh, poor little buzzard.  Are you traumatized?”

“Yes.”

Dissolving into another fit of giggles, Aelin clutched her stomach.  She couldn’t catch her breath as she kept laughing.  It didn’t help how affronted Rowan look, how confused.  It was…it was actually cute.  Not that she’d tell him that.

“What’s the madhouse got to say this time?” she asked once she’d gotten a hold of herself.  She also reached for one of her desk drawers and pulled out a bag of chocolate she only saved for rainy days.  She popped a truffle in her mouth and shook the bag at him.

Rowan declined the chocolate.  “It doesn’t matter.”

“You’re blushing,” she said, leaning towards him. “Oh, I’ve got to see these.”

“I’m not—no—” he tried protesting but Aelin was already motivated to see what had gotten him so riled up.

It didn’t take long to get the gist of what he’d gotten so riled up over.

“Oh, these people need to touch some grass,” Aelin muttered.  Many of the insinuations and comments were…out there.  Far worse than when she’d interviewed an audiobook narrator known for his smut and spice scenes.  And that was saying something. 

“You deal with this a lot?” Rowan asked.

Aelin looked at him. “And you don’t?”

“Fenrys filters a lot of them,” Rowan said absently, he paused just a second. “You think I get a lot of these types of comments?”

“I—” Aelin only then realized what her comment sounded like. “You’re a famous author, the crazies exist everywhere.”

She fought down the heat rising in her cheeks while Rowan only smirked.

“That’s it?” she asked, tightly, “you wanted to compare notes on comments?  You could have called.”

“Seeing what you do to your phone, I don’t think the call would have gone through.”  He met her gaze, green eyes intent.

Hell.  He must have heard more of that phone call than she’d have liked.

“Yeah,” she said dryly, “I guess I don’t like phone calls.”

They sat in silence together for far longer than Aelin would have thought possible.  She couldn’t help but shake her head at the fact.  Drawing a finger over the last few lines she’d read of Rowan’s manuscript; she snatched another truffle.

“So,” she said, “can I ask you something?”

Rowan raised a brow. “As long as it’s not gonna make it on another podcast.”

She rolled her eyes. “No need to fear, buzzard.  This is off the record. It’s about Celaena.”

Rowan shifted in his chair. “Why?”

Was he annoyed?  She couldn’t quite tell.  He wore a frown, that charming shit-eating grin long gone.  It was replaced by something guarded.

Aelin drummed her fingers on the manuscript, wetting her dry lips. “She’s based on someone close to you.”

“Close enough,” he shrugged, but Aelin had long ago learned how to read people.  He was tense, worried. 

“Does she know?  The woman she’s based off of?” With far more bravado than she felt, Aelin rose from her chair and came around the table.  She leaned against the desk, facing him, and crossed her arms.

“Aelin—”

“Or is she just supposed to figure it out along the way?”

She wasn’t mad, really, she wasn’t.  More, shocked than anything.

“To whatever end,” Celaena said, pointing the sword to the horizon where the ship holding her captive lover could be seen retreating. “I will find you.”

And Aelin remembered the last time she’d reviewed Rowan’s book.  Where she’d told him to raise the stakes, to let his characters face the unspeakable, to let them be reckless, to let them love.  And here was Celaena.  It wasn’t just that, but Aelin had shared those exact words with Rowan. That had been eight months ago.

Romance, Whitethorn, should be consuming for a character.  Let them have a purpose, let them have a duty to fulfill, to whatever end.

“To whatever end, Rowan?” she asked.

“I’m not allowed to find inspiration in real things or people?” He was still sitting, looking up at her the almost perfect picture of innocence.

She nudged his foot with her own. “Rowan.”

“Why does it matter?” he insisted.  He rose from his chair and it struck Aelin then how big Rowan was.  He was practically a tree—broad shoulders, thick muscles, at least six feet, probably six-four.  Aelin had never really felt small before, delicate, or breakable.  But next to Rowan? 

She lifted her chin to meet his gaze.  She didn’t want to hedge around this question, this tension brewing between them anymore.  She would wait out his answer no matter how long it took.

Rowan leaned closer to her, close enough that Aelin could smell the pine and salt on his skin.  He was close enough that she could see the flecks of deeper green amid the light in his eyes.

Her heart rate picked up.  It would have been embarrassing if she thought about it a little more.  But now, all she wanted was for Rowan to answer her.

He shook his head, just barely, and muttered something under his breath.  It was something in Gaelic if she had to guess.

“You really don’t get it,” he said.

“I want to hear you say it,” she insisted.

“You really are impossible, you know?”

“So I’ve read.”

A small smile quirked his lips and before Aelin could say anything else, he reached out to run a thumb down her jaw.  A shiver ran down her spine with anticipation. 

“I like you, Aelin,” he said, thumb still tracing her skin, “and I have for a while.”

Something clicked in her mind at those words, an understanding of sorts and she furrowed her brow.

“Is that why you disappeared for seven months?  You were here practically every day and then you just weren’t—” she trailed off slowly as the pieces fit together. “Sam.”

Rowan shrugged as though her words had no effect on him, but she felt the barest hint of pressure as his fingers tightened along her jaw.

“I had a manuscript to finish,” he said, “didn’t help that you hated me and then you were happy with someone else.  So, yeah, I left.”

As if on instinct, Aelin reached out and fisted a hand in his sweater.  Somehow in the last twenty-four hours since the podcast, the last week since the pseudo-date—she’d gotten attached.  Which was both hilarious and terrifying.  But was she surprised?  No, no, she really wasn’t.

“I was going to tease you for writing romance into your book,” she began, head tilted to the side, “but I think being the brilliant inspiration behind Celaena will be a lot more fun to hold over you.”

Rowan cursed, shaking his head. “I’m never going to live it down, am I?”

“Nope.”

They moved at the same time, coming together in a kiss that Aelin would later describe as the best first kiss she’d ever had.  One of Rowan’s hands delved into her hair, the other dropping to her waist to pull her closer.  Aelin wrapped one hand around his neck, just as desperate to keep him close. 

His lips were hard, bruising against her own, but Aelin couldn't find it in herself to care. All she could think about was the fire burning within at the feel of him, the taste of him.

“You gonna take me on a date first, Whitethorn?” she gasped, breaking the kiss.  She shivered as on of his hands slid along the bare skin of her thigh. Wearing a skirt did seem to have its perks.

“Already did that,” he replied.

She gaped at him, ready to tell him off. He cut her off with another kiss, which Aelin supposed was just as well.

In the end, no one would get the real story about what really happened that night or how it happened.  But maybe, along the way, a future book would hold some of the details.

end.