#((It took me a hot second to figure out who this is XD))

[flameheroesjourney]

Hmm~.... Agender, or genderfluid, it doesn't matter to me as a man~... I'm in my 60s, now, but people have always told me how young I seem~~ 6'3" ☑️ Eggs, children, teaching, science, discovery and exploration~~... ❌ Cold food, persistent and unintelligent people, the suppression of learning and science My hair is black, and my eyes are a lovely shade of yellow~.... Sometimes they can get a little golden, I suppose. Human, if you must know, but I am a Shirohebi and I'm a little... animalistic~.

I hope you're not afraid of snakes, Mister Flameo Hotman Todoroki...?

Has the feeling that he should be concerned for his safety but others......

[pathfinderswiftpen]

Re: Sharpe's Sword

Having read the book, I can see how the writers incorporated major aspects of it. But I have to say that Cornwell did it better.

Spoilers below

I enjoyed:

Simmerson's return from the villain vault and ambiguous end. Though making him an actual traitor felt too cliché. People can suck and still be loyal.

Weird death room and oddball who oversaw it inclusion from the book

How they adapted the Leroux to tv, even though it was very different. The subplot with Jack was So Good Ouch. And the way Sharpe handled the betrayal was so tactful. And the ACTING in that role! "El muchacho de los ojos tristes" goddamn. And his knowing Leroux and having to pretend ignorance for Honor's Sake? For his life's sake? Good Soup!

Harris. Harris. Spends all night reading. Looks surprised to see dawn. Small "oh shit oh well" face journey. Extinguishing candles. Big fucking same, Harris. I could make an entire post on how alike I feel (and look, fr fr) to Harris (Hey Harris I like your gender, wanna trade? I saw @chiropteracupola 's hc about transfem!Harris and now she lives rent free in my head. Riflewoman Harris can have 85% of my dresses and jewelry. And free access to all of my books of course) BUT ALSO Harris's handling of Simmerson and quoting Candide at him? *Chefs Kiss*

HAGMAN! "Permission to speak sir? Best paper and paraffin oil. For your wound, sir." Excellent callback to ep1. And his singing to all the little kids!

Harper <3 One of the best things in the book is how Harper made Sharpe a new sword, and while it was a bit different this way, he still put in Effort. Plus the priest's trick at the end was a bit funny. If cheap. Plus his face at "Good! You'll serve mass Sunday" (took me a hot second to figure it out but imagining Harper in one of those white robes was a bit amusing). Sharpe and Harper arguing about washing the tunics. LOL but also get over yourselves

Ramona standing up for herself! And Harper's caring about how she'd be treated in Ireland. I just love Ramona (Also one of the very few attractive people in the entire show. I said what I said.)

Unnamed Woman making Simmerson fear for his life and leading him by the literal nose! Goddamn! Weaponize the patronization and infantilization! Sharpe's respecting of her.

Artist dude drawing at dinner. Relate. also a red herring for El mirador, if downplayed

BAGPIPES BAGPIPES BAGPIPES but also dude you have a practice chanter for a fucking reason. The guy with earplugs 🤣

Leroux pulling a Stephen Maturin. His actor did well too, the Complete Switch in pretending to be a Poor Captain vs Defiant Colonel

DUELS!! It was fun watching Fr Whatshisface rip Simmerson to shreds. Also I want to (ohgod I'm aware how this can sound) handle his blade. Spanish fencing swords mwah. Also Sharpe and Leroux visibly getting less abled, Sharpe having to stop in the middle of the charge *hugs* as a disabled person who loves a good charge and fight but just Can't or if I do I nap and feel like shit for hours

Disliked:

Portrayal of women. I don't need to get into it. There's So Much.

Watching duels choreographed for a screen is really painful as a former fencer. "You are both WAY TOO FUCKING CLOSE!! Don't parry that, DISENGAGE!"

I'll be silly and mention the chartreuse jackets XD (I just don't like them)

SO MUCH of the book was ANGST about Sharpe's condition and it did exist here but not as viscerally. Give me Harper as a nursemaid. I'm begging you. I know we've had it but I want more. "There once was a lassie from Lisbon, from Lisbon..."

There was more but life's too short!

Overall I think this one is in the rewatch pile.

P.S. the Priest's singing. My poor ears. Though Sharpe's Tears (ha-ha) I did love that bit.

If you read this far, I am shaking you by the hand and offering to share my tea.

[squireofgeekdom]

haven't done a writing update in a minute, outside of doing wip memes, so --

meet in the middle, chapter 26, the very last chapter -- I think I last counted this at 35 scenes, now I'm counting it at 33, with three of those scenes not having been placed in the outline, i'm pretty sure i've shuffled and consolidated some things, also i may just be off in my counting, who the fuck even knows what i'm doing. Anyway, 7 of those are almost entirely complete, 13 are partially done with 4 of those being more than half done, and 13 are not started.

damn. usually breaking it down like that helps me realize i'm further along than i thought but uhhhhh this really just reminds me how much further i've got. and it's been over a year. trust me, no one is more frustrated at how long this is taking or wants this fic to be done more than i do. cheerleading is. welcome if you want to. That said, all told, writing and outlining and notes and all, the draft is already 8k/30 pages, so it's not nothin, and I do really love some of the scenes I'm finally getting to writing/finishing, and I feel like I've got a bit of momentum. Just gotta keep coming back. 2024 guys, 2024. (knock on wood)

Other things I'm working on - you think a year and change is a while, the Believe AU series hasn't been updated in two+ years cause whoops, that did in fact grow a plot and an ending and it took a hot minute to figure that out. There are four fics left, and the very last one is with my first reader! (thanks M!)

Things that I've started more recently include two Lucius & Fayeth fics, for High Rollers Aerois, inspired by my relisten through (which I've almost finished up!) The first is actually Fayeth & Aridan centric, tentatively titled 'for I cannot turn yet', structured around three scenes, one of which is done, one of which is partially done, and one of which is still notes

The second Lucius & Fayeth fic is tentatively titled 'many rings', which has four scenes mostly/partially written, and then a big ending montage and set piece I still need to break down

As for more things I've been working on for a long ass time - I started 'we both are' shortly after watching the kenobi series, so well over a year now - it's a reva & obi-wan centric fic, to absolutely no one's surprise. I've been making some progress on it recently, it's got 3 scenes pretty much complete, 8 scenes partially finished with 4 of those more than halfway done, and 5 scenes not started.

Plus, a bonus - if you've heard me mention Somnolence or #somnolence fic fuel, that's my post-canon Insomniac Spider-Man 2 fic concept, that's currently just 3k/9pages of notes and bits of writing, but hey, it has a title and a summary - it, in fact, weirdly had a title and a summary before i managed to put a single word of it on page. if you like the weird mindscape/dreamscape kind of stuff i've done in a fair few of my fics, it's going to have lots of that, and if you looked at the spider man 2 symbiote/symbiote hive mind stuff and thought 'this could be weirder and hornier', it should be up your alley XD

anyway, writing! it's a thing i do sometimes.

[throughalleternity]

Hi I just went through your genderfluid!Lucy tag and on one of the post you had the idea about top surgery!Lucy wearing breast forms so I had an hilarious idea for a fic: Lucy wearing a dress and breast forms and leaning on a counter/table trying to be sexy and suddenly one of the breast froms falls out and then a second of silence as Lucy and Maggie/Alex process what just happended XD.(Can you maybe tag nerdsbianhokie? If you are not up for writing it maybe they are?)

Lolol, I enjoyed this, thanks for the prompt! It got a tiny bit away from me, so it may be a bit haphazard? I'm posting it below, but I'll clean it up and post on AO3 once I figure out a title.

And @nerdsbianhokie, I'm sure that anon would enjoy your take on the prompt if you are so inclined. That goes for any other writers who see this too and feel inspired!

1.5k words of genderfluid!Lucy fic below:

Lucy took a breath, smoothing her hands down over her dress. She stepped back and looked in the mirror one last time. 

“Nia will understand if you aren’t ready to go,” Maggie had said earlier in the week after watching Leon distractedly pour Alex a cup of milk with a dash of coffee. “There’ll be more events—Lena was throwing money at Nia the second she heard about the Dreamer Center plans, so she’s bound to do a charity event for it in the future. Or we can still go but leave early.” 

That had gotten him to stop pacing, to reduce rehearsing the same conversation that yes, you might know of him as Lucy Lane, CatCo’s general counsel, Lois Lane’s sister, or General Lane’s daughter—but that right now he was Leon Lane, and no it wasn’t just a drag thing, and no he wasn’t transitioning to be Leon all the time.

The shift to Lucy this morning had brought some relief. 

But as she imagined the conversations with people now, she felt a different sort of discomfort rise up.

“Ready yet?” Maggie called from outside the bedroom, pulling her away from her thoughts. “We’re not in a rush, but Alex has opened the fridge to stare inside it like twice now, and I think she’s going to raid the food table with Kara the minute after we’ve said hi to Nia.”

“I’m just checking what we have,” Alex insisted, followed by the sound of the fridge being shut. Footsteps, and then a knock on the bedroom door. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

“I’m being removed from the kitchen. Which, I know, somewhat of a usual occurrence, but—” Alex stopped short, her eyes finally sweeping over Lucy. “Wow.” Her voice slipped into something breathy. “You look absolutely gorgeous.”

Lucy couldn’t help but duck her head against the fluttering in her body, affected by Alex too. It wasn’t an unexpected compliment, not exactly, but the paranoid part of Lucy had been worried that top surgery would change how Alex and Maggie felt about her. 

Reassured, she couldn’t help but pull Alex closer and make her blush too: “You should see yourself, Danvers.” Lucy played with the knot of her tie, pulling the tail out from behind her suit just for the fun of it. “I hope you don’t have other plans for tonight, because I know what I’d like to do.”

“You know I don’t have other plans,” Alex grinned, hands settling on Lucy’s waist as she stepped closer. “Just you and Maggie for the rest of the night. Though speaking of things we have to do…” The look in her eyes softened, and one hand came up to cup Lucy’s cheek. “We noticed you’ve been holed up in here for a while. You know that this is one of those things you don’t have to do, right? If you’re uncomfortable, or if you’re just tired of people, or whatever. This isn’t work.”

“I know. I just…” The weird feeling engulfed her chest again.

“Is it the dress? I can grab your suit, which you look just as hot in, by the way.”

Lucy smiled, but she shook her head. She was happy to be wearing this dress finally—she hadn’t been able to while recovering from top surgery because the one shoulder design meant that her pocket bras would be visible, and she had to wait to try her adhesive breast forms until her incisions were healed enough. Now it had been a few months, and it felt good, the shape and flow of it against her breasts, and against the rest of her body.

“Thanks for offering,” Lucy said, the sharp edge of her frustration lessening slightly. “The dress is actually fine. I think I’m just uncomfortable with people there seeing only this—” she gestured to herself, “and assuming?”

“Mm.” A look of understanding passed over Alex’s face. “Kind of like when people assume your sexuality based on who they see you with?”

“I… Yeah, actually.” She and James had even gotten shouted at once at Pride—by a group of teenagers who probably didn’t know any better, but it had soured the experience. “That I’ve figured out how to handle, at least. This is…” Lucy let her forehead drop onto Alex’s shoulder. 

Alex’s arms wrapped around her. “It’s really bothering you, huh?” she murmured.

Lucy just sighed.

“Would you like permission not to go?”

“I already know I don’t—”

“I know. Hey, I know that you know,” Alex said, rubbing her hand on Lucy’s back, the touch easing the tension that had gathered. “But it’s like what you tell Maggie and I, right? We’re still learning how to not feel so obligated, how to say no to things. And this isn’t life or death.” 

“I can’t just…”

Alex kept going. “This is me giving you permission. Okay? You have my permission not to go.”

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut harder. This gentleness still felt like an overwhelming spotlight on the weakest parts of herself, but Alex’s touch never left Lucy, steadying her a little more after each inhale.

“If you’re fine going but you need something from Maggie and I, we can absolutely do that too. But no one will be disappointed in you if you can’t go.”

Lucy breathed into Alex’s shoulder again, and then once more. She finally picked her head up to look at her. “What about you and Maggie? You’ve been excited for this.”

“We can still go and enjoy it for a bit,” Alex reassured. “I know that the three of us can kind of be a package deal, but I promise that Maggie and I will not destroy things if left unsupervised.”

A huff left Lucy’s lungs at the grin and the promise which, if the context were any different, would not be convincing at all. “You two have the worst track records, I swear,” she said, shaking her head. 

“But you love us anyway.”

“Somehow I do,” Lucy said, exasperated yet fond. She was stuck with the two of them, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She hugged Alex again, notching her chin on her shoulder. “And, um, thanks for saying all that. Can we do that?”

“Absolutely.” Alex pressed a kiss to Lucy’s head. “Love you too, Luce.”

--

A couple hours later, Alex and Maggie came back to the apartment, thankfully unscathed and with a plate of food swiped for Lucy. 

“We got you this, too.” Maggie pushed a set of jewelry across the kitchen table, the colors of the genderfluid flag and bi flag popping out. “We figured that the necklace would work well with most of your dresses, and there’s pins to put on other things too.” 

“So you can be a little more visible when you want to be.” Alex pressed her shoulder against Lucy’s.

Warmth spread through her even as she sputtered. “Oh you didn’t have—” 

The look Maggie gave Lucy stifled her protests. Maggie just inched the jewelry further towards her until she finally took them with an amused but genuine smile. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Maggie rested her elbow on the table and propped her chin up with her hand. “So.” She looked Lucy up and down, the side of her mouth quirking up. Lucy knew what she was thinking—the looks she gave her hadn’t changed. “Did you go anywhere while we were away, or were you just waiting around all dressed up for us?”

“I did some reading. Figured I’d keep the dress on because it’s fun to see Alex’s brain stutter,” Lucy said, smirking back at Maggie.

Alex reached across to shove Maggie’s shoulder. “You were the one rushing us home because you got reminded of Lucy’s dress, and, well.”

Lucy laughed at Maggie’s shrug, no attempt to deny it. “Yeah?” Lucy leaned forward. 

Evidently too much though, because her elbow had just touched the table when she felt her left breast form start to slide. One playful shoulder bump by Alex later and it was resting on the table limply.

“Well,” Lucy said finally. “Rough sex with these is off the menu until I figure out how to apply the adhesive better.”

“Oh my god.” The expression on Alex’s face was frozen in shock for a moment before she slapped a hand over her face and let out an embarrassed noise. “I forgot that could happen now. Please don’t tell me I ruined the moment.”

“No, you’re fine. Come here,” Lucy smiled, gently pulling the hand away to kiss her. 

“It’s only ruined if we let it be ruined, right?” Maggie was somewhat successfully biting back her own grin. If it was with anyone else, Lucy would have been worried that the laughter was directed at her. But Maggie was amused at Alex’s reaction, and when she met Lucy’s eyes, the mischievous look from before was still there. “We can wait if you want to switch to your bra, unless you want help?” 

“I got it.” Lucy took her runaway form from Maggie, the action as comfortable as being passed a binder. “You can help take off my dress after though, if you want.”

“Don’t take too long.” Maggie pulled her in for a kiss of her own, affection and heat that coursed over Lucy’s skin. “Alex and I, we definitely want.”

[norwayblogging]

Week: 04/08-13/08 4th august:

The longest and most exhausting day of my life. Got up early to check if everything was packed. When I thought I packed everything (I forgot a few small things.. No big deal!), we had to leave to the airport. It was the first time that I flew a plane alone and I was really nervous too. After a lot of tears and goodbyes, I left my family and boyfriend behind at the airport to go and get my plane. I bought myself a smoothie and anxiously waited for my plane to start boarding. After some time I boarded the first plane and I was really surprised. Apparently I got a business seat! They brought me a fancy snack and some water and bubbles. I felt more relaxed already, but not for long… I got off at Billund and looked at the time for my second plane to leave and saw something highly stressfull. My plane was delayed… Luckily I only had to wait one hour before my plane took off. I hoped I was in time for the boat. I got off the plane in Bergen and ran to get my suitcases, which I could succesfully collect! I ran further with my suitcases to grab a taxi which would take me to the last Ferry. I was very good on time, I had 15 minutes left before the boat arrived. A really nice older gentleman asked me if he could help with my suitcase, which I didn’t say no to ofcourse. He had to get off at the stop I also had to get off at. So he helped me to get on and off the boat with my suitcases. Ones on land again a girl was waiting for me to pick me up and bring me to my dorm. We drove with her car for 10 minutes before we finally arrived at my final destination. She helped me with my suitcases and my key. Since it was already 11pm, I only met my flatmates shortly before hiding back in my room. I was so tired that I fell right asleep.

5th august:

I stayed in my room until noon, unloading my suitcases, still wary of the new people that I haven’t properly met. Eventually I dared to go and sit in the kitchen, where no one was anymore. I didn’t mind the silence, the whole trip was exhausting and a lot to take in. Eventually 2 girls came into the kitchen asking me if I still had to go shopping. I did! And this was a good opportunity to get to know people better. There are 2 people in the flat who have their car here, so we drove to the store by car. I bought enough for the next couple of days before heading back again with the others. Ones back at the dorms, we decided to go swimming in the closeby Fjords. It wasn’t too cold or hot and the weather was perfect! Anxiously I jumped in the Fjords twice, only to slightly panic and get out again as fast as I could. But I enjoyed it a lot! Afterwards we left to the dorms, ate and went back to the water to chill next to it.

6th august:

It was a nice and chill sunday morning and we had planned to go biking/hiking. I felt like biking would be a little too much for me so I hiked with 4 other girls towards a point where the hikers and bikers met each other again. We hiked inbetween fields, saw some sheep and crossed a slippery rocky river (which was a huge challenge for me since I constantly thought I was gonna slip XD). We rested for a bit before picking and eating some raspberries. Closeby was a small cabin with a few books inside. People wrote their names and small poems in there for others to read. After some more time spend near the cabin, we hiked back towards our dorms. I was pretty glad we took some different paths to go back so we could see different parts of nature.

7th august:

The first day of actual classes. My first class was a small introduction to the project, our teacher is a very nice woman! Around lunch the school provided us with bread, ham, cheese and Norwegian products. For the first time ever, I ate brown cheese. It is some sort of caramelised cheese and it tasted weirdly good. After lunch we had another lesson with a male teacher. Sometimes it’s hard figuring out how he wants his questions answered, but we manage. At the end of the day, our teacher gave us a hammock that we can use whenever we want.

8th august:

Our lessons are pretty chill since we get a lot of breaks in between lessons. We got an info session about where we can go if we have a lot of questions and after that we got free lunch again! In the evening we got a lesson about the rights of public access, but the teacher had an appointment around 3 pm so our lesson was only 45 minutes! I went to the gym today! We have a gym only 2 minutes away from our dorms and we got a free subscription since we’re exchange students! Naturally I made the decision to go to the gym very often so I can come back looking pretty fit!

9th august:

My 3rd day with interesting lessons. We got some pedagogy and some theory about how it’s important to know the steps to saving someones life. After lunch we did some orienteering in the area around the school, which was fun to do. We had a stamp card and at every stop, we had to stamp our card as proof that we’ve been there. In the evening we went to the store by bus to pick up some groceries.

10th august:

The first day of our two-day trip, starts today! I’ve packed my bag with essentials like a sleeping bag, new warm clothes, a knife and fire starter… And off we went! We drove to Lundastøl and put up our Lavvu’s (some kind of norwegian teepee) before we got divided in 2 groups. In the first 1,5 hour my group build a mini stonebridge, we carved hooks and we baked small buns. The next hour existed out of making knots and learning how to work with ropes. After that, we had some spare time were people went to fish, pick berries and carving knifes. I had some fun with a stick that I was carving. For dinner, we had food groups and each food group prepared their own food on the small stoves. My group made wraps with rice, white beans in tomatosauce, bacon and corn. I found it surprisingly tasty! (although I would never make it for myself) :D Late in the evening we did some night orienteering where we had to follow a map and answer quiz questions along the way.

11th august:

Time for our mountain trip today! I’m so excited for this trip but at the same time it’s also nervewrecking too. I slept pretty well in the Lavvu with 4 other girls. We slept so near each other that we gave each other warmth, which was really nice since it got quite cold at night. When we left, the group stayed together pretty well, but after some time you could see that there were many people who hiked pretty fast! Me and a few others couldn’t keep up that well… But that was okay since there was a teacher with us who said that we should just hike at our own speed. The group took frequent breaks and everyone looked out for everyone, which was really nice.

The mountains were sometimes tough to climb but ones you reached certain stops, the view was breathtaking (quite literally with my asthma ;) ) We ate our lunch on top of the Stovegolvet (a mountain in Stord) and went down again after that. Ones back, we packed our Lavvu’s and went back to our dorms to rest from the exhausting trip.

12th august:

I went to the store today on my own since I needed to get some stuff to get my laundry to smell better. The bus takes me to the mall in 10 minutes which is very nice and not so far. When I got back to the dorm I worked a bit on my computer. After dinner, I went with some people to the water. The sunset was so amazingly pretty and the weather was so nice that we stayed there until around 11pm.

13th august:

Chill sunday vibes are in the house! I decided to stay in today since I still need to do a lot of stuff inside. I cleaned my room and washed my bedding. I called my mom and grandma today which was very lovely and I read a bit in my new book that I bought a few days ago since I didn’t bring any with me to Norway.

Week: 04/08-13/08 4 augustus:

De langste en meest vermoeiende dag van mijn leven. Vroeg opgestaan om te controleren of alles ingepakt was. Toen ik dacht dat ik alles ingepakt had (ik was een paar kleine dingen vergeten… niet erg!), moesten we vertrekken naar het vliegveld. Het was de eerste keer dat ik alleen met het vliegtuig vloog en ik was ook echt zenuwachtig. Na veel tranen en afscheid liet ik mijn familie en vriend achter op het vliegveld om mijn vliegtuig te halen. Ik kocht een smoothie voor mezelf en wachtte vol spanning tot mijn vliegtuig zou boarden. Na een tijdje ging ik aan boord van het eerste vliegtuig en ik was echt verrast. Blijkbaar kreeg ik een business seat! Ze brachten me een luxe snack en wat water en bubbels. Ik voelde me al meer ontspannen, maar niet voor lang… Ik stapte uit in Billund en keek naar de vertrektijd van mijn tweede vliegtuig en zag iets heel spannends. Mijn vliegtuig had vertraging… Gelukkig hoefde ik maar een uur te wachten voordat mijn vliegtuig vertrok. Ik hoopte dat ik op tijd was voor de boot. Ik stapte uit het vliegtuig in Bergen en rende naar mijn koffers, die ik met succes kon ophalen! Ik rende verder met mijn koffers om een taxi te pakken die me naar de laatste veerboot zou brengen. Ik was erg goed op tijd, ik had nog 15 minuten voordat de boot aankwam. Een hele aardige oudere meneer vroeg of hij me kon helpen met mijn koffer, waar ik natuurlijk geen nee tegen zei. Hij moest uitstappen bij de halte waar ik ook moest uitstappen. Hij hielp me dus op en af de boot met mijn koffers. Eenmaal aan land stond er een meisje op me te wachten om me op te halen en naar mijn studentenhuis te brengen. We reden 10 minuten met haar auto voordat we eindelijk op mijn eindbestemming aankwamen. Ze hielp me met mijn koffers en mijn sleutel. Omdat het al 23.00 uur was, ontmoette ik mijn huisgenoten pas kort voordat ik me weer in mijn kamer verstopte. Ik was zo moe dat ik meteen in slaap viel.

5 augustus:

Ik bleef tot de middag op mijn kamer om mijn koffers uit te laden, nog steeds op mijn hoede voor de nieuwe mensen die ik nog niet goed had leren kennen. Uiteindelijk durfde ik in de keuken te gaan zitten, waar niemand meer was. Ik vond de stilte niet erg, de hele reis was vermoeiend en veel om in me op te nemen. Uiteindelijk kwamen er 2 meiden de keuken in om te vragen of ik nog boodschappen moest doen. Dat moest ik! En dit was een goede gelegenheid om mensen beter te leren kennen. Er zijn 2 mensen in de flat die hier hun auto hebben, dus we zijn met de auto naar de winkel gereden. Ik kocht genoeg voor de komende paar dagen voordat ik weer terugging met de anderen. Eenmaal terug bij de slaapzalen besloten we te gaan zwemmen in de nabijgelegen Fjorden. Het was niet te koud of te warm en het weer was perfect! Angstig sprong ik twee keer in de Fjorden, om er vervolgens zo snel mogelijk weer uit te komen. Maar ik heb er erg van genoten! Daarna vertrokken we naar de slaapzalen, aten wat en gingen terug naar het water om ernaast te chillen.

6 augustus:

Het was een lekkere chille zondagochtend en we hadden gepland om te gaan fietsen/wandelen. Ik had het gevoel dat fietsen iets te veel voor me zou zijn, dus wandelde ik met 4 andere meiden naar een punt waar de wandelaars en fietsers elkaar weer ontmoetten. We wandelden tussen velden door, zagen wat schapen en staken een glibberige rotsrivier over (wat voor mij een enorme uitdaging was omdat ik constant dacht dat ik zou uitglijden XD). We rustten even uit voordat we frambozen plukten en opaten. Vlakbij stond een kleine hut met een paar boeken erin. Mensen schreven er hun namen en kleine gedichten in die anderen konden lezen. Na nog wat tijd doorgebracht te hebben bij de hut, wandelden we terug richting onze slaapzalen. Ik was blij dat we verschillende paden hadden genomen zodat we verschillende delen van de natuur konden zien.

7 augustus:

De eerste dag van de echte lessen. Mijn eerste les was een kleine introductie tot het project, onze lerares is een erg aardige vrouw! Rond de lunch voorzag de school ons van brood, ham, kaas en Noorse producten. Voor de allereerste keer at ik bruine kaas. Het is een soort gekarameliseerde kaas en het smaakte vreemd goed. Na de lunch hadden we nog een les met een mannelijke leraar. Soms is het moeilijk om erachter te komen hoe hij zijn vragen beantwoord wil hebben, maar het lukt ons wel. Aan het eind van de dag kregen we van onze leraar een hangmat die we kunnen gebruiken wanneer we maar willen.

8 augustus:

Onze lessen zijn vrij chill omdat we veel pauzes tussen de lessen krijgen. We kregen een infosessie over waar we heen kunnen gaan als we veel vragen hebben en daarna kregen we weer gratis lunch! s Avonds kregen we een les over de rechten van openbaarheid, maar de lerares had een afspraak rond 15.00 uur dus onze les duurde maar 45 minuten! Ik ben vandaag naar de sportschool geweest! We hebben een sportschool op maar 2 minuten afstand van onze slaapzalen en we kregen een gratis abonnement omdat we uitwisselingsstudenten zijn! Natuurlijk heb ik besloten om heel vaak te gaan sporten zodat ik er fit uit kan zien als ik terugkom!

9 augustus:

Mijn 3e dag met interessante lessen. We kregen wat pedagogie en theorie over hoe belangrijk het is om de stappen te kennen om iemands leven te redden. Na de lunch hebben we een oriëntatieloop gedaan in de omgeving van de school, wat erg leuk was om te doen. We hadden een stempelkaart en bij elke stop moesten we onze kaart stempelen als bewijs dat we daar waren geweest. s Avonds gingen we met de bus naar de winkel om wat boodschappen op te halen.

10 augustus:

De eerste dag van onze tweedaagse reis begint vandaag! Ik heb mijn tas ingepakt met essentiële spullen zoals een slaapzak, nieuwe warme kleren, een mes en een vuurstarter… En daar gingen we! We reden naar Lundastøl en zetten onze Lavvu's (een soort Noorse tipi) op voordat we in 2 groepen werden verdeeld. In het eerste 1,5 uur bouwde mijn groep een mini stenen brug, hakten we haken en bakten we kleine broodjes. Het volgende uur bestond uit knopen leggen en leren werken met touwen. Daarna hadden we wat vrije tijd waar mensen gingen vissen, bessen plukken en messen snijden. Ik had wat plezier met een stok die ik aan het snijden was. Voor het avondeten hadden we voedselgroepen en elke voedselgroep bereidde zijn eigen eten op de kleine fornuisjes. Mijn groep maakte wraps met rijst, witte bonen in tomatensaus, spek en maïs. Ik vond het verrassend lekker! (hoewel ik het nooit voor mezelf zou maken) :D Laat in de avond deden we nachtelijke oriëntatieloop waarbij we een kaart moesten volgen en onderweg quizvragen moesten beantwoorden.

11 augustus:

Tijd voor onze bergtocht vandaag! Ik heb zo'n zin in deze tocht, maar tegelijkertijd is het ook zenuwslopend. Ik heb redelijk goed geslapen in de Lavvu met 4 andere meiden. We sliepen zo dicht bij elkaar dat we elkaar warmte gaven, wat erg fijn was omdat het 's nachts best koud werd. Toen we vertrokken, bleef de groep redelijk goed bij elkaar, maar na een tijdje zag je dat er veel mensen waren die behoorlijk snel wandelden! Ik en een paar anderen konden het niet zo goed bijhouden… Maar dat was niet erg, want er was een leraar bij ons die zei dat we gewoon op ons eigen tempo moesten wandelen. De groep nam regelmatig pauzes en iedereen lette op iedereen, wat heel fijn was.

De bergen waren soms zwaar om te beklimmen, maar zodra je bepaalde stopplaatsen bereikte, was het uitzicht adembenemend (heel letterlijk met mijn astma ;) ) We aten onze lunch op de top van de Stovegolvet (een berg in Stord) en gingen daarna weer naar beneden. Eenmaal terug pakten we onze Lavvu's in en gingen we terug naar onze slaapzalen om uit te rusten van de vermoeiende reis.

12 augustus:

Ik ben vandaag in mijn eentje naar de winkel gegaan omdat ik wat spullen nodig had om mijn was beter te laten ruiken. De bus brengt me in 10 minuten naar het winkelcentrum, wat erg leuk is en niet zo ver. Toen ik terugkwam in het studentenhuis heb ik wat aan mijn computer gewerkt. Na het eten ging ik met een paar mensen naar het water. De zonsondergang was zo mooi en het weer was zo mooi dat we daar tot ongeveer 23.00 uur zijn gebleven.

13 augustus:

Chill sunday vibes zijn in huis! Ik besloot vandaag binnen te blijven omdat ik binnen nog veel moet doen. Ik heb mijn kamer schoongemaakt en mijn beddengoed gewassen. Ik heb vandaag mijn moeder en oma gebeld, wat heel fijn was, en ik heb wat gelezen in mijn nieuwe boek dat ik een paar dagen geleden heb gekocht omdat ik er geen had meegenomen naar Noorwegen.

[iheartgod175]

The Zula Patrol: Bonnie

I got around to working on a few ZP OCs, some of whom will be showing up in DCR, Love Language and a few other fics! First up on the list is Bonnie, whom I posted about before, and I wanted to do a proper profile for since FOREVER ago!

Bonnie

Age: 28

Gender: Female

Species: Zulean (for context she’s the same species as Bula, minus the bug like antennae)

Birthday: May 10th

Blood Type: B+

Height: 5’8”

Weight: 194 lbs.

Appearances: A Token of Appreciation (mentioned only), Heavenly, The Zula Patrol: Dreamscape Crusade, Dreamscape Crusade Remastered, Love Language

Appearance: Bonnie is the same bug-like species as Bula, minus the antennae due to a mutation. She possesses a curvaceous figure, which she is rather proud of. She has yellow skin, short, platinum blond hair done in a bob cut, and deep blue eyes.

Personality: True to her name, she’s an energetic go-getter in contrast to the reserved Bula, although not nearly as hot-blooded as Zeeter is. Bonnie is a fun-loving, romantic idealist who can find the good in any situation, and likes to lighten the situation with jokes when she can, although reading the room can be her weak point. She has a deep interest in supernatural phenomena, and as such gets ridiculously excited whenever chances to encounter it arise. She’s the only member of the team who actually likes Multo's cooking, as she was born in the same region of Zula that he lived in and has a fondness for their cuisine.

Though coolheaded in contrast to Zeeter, she does have her own bullheadedness when it comes to things that she believes in, and can be tempted to fall into impulsiveness as well. Once she’s onto something, she’s like a bulldog in that she doesn’t let it go. Unlike the rest of the Patrol, who when they are finally set off immediately go after the threat, Bonnie tends to bide her time, meticulously planning her revenge and never letting her enemy know her next move.

Backstory: Though born on Zula, Bonnie considers Earth, where she grew up, to be her home planet. Her parents, who work for the higher branches of the Zulean government, wound up moving to Earth when she was three years old for a special four year assignment to introduce alien culture to the human race. They were placed with an adoptive family known as the Browns, whom Bonnie considers her second family to this day. Sadly, she would be separated from them due to conflicts between the two governments, which resulted in Zuleans pulling away from Earth. Returning to Zula was a “fish out of water” experience for her, and it took her a while to become acclimated to Zulean culture again. Her interests in human paranormal activity would be amplified when she moved back home, and for a while she was derisively known as “the planet’s investigative reporter”. The insult didn’t have its intended affect, however, for she truly wanted to pursue this goal, and sought to enter the Zulean government’s ranks as a means to do so; unlike the humans who drove her people away, however, she wanted to learn more and help others in trouble. To that end, she set her heart on becoming a member of the Zula Patrol.

Notes:

—She’s one of my OLD OCs from middle school…and as you can guess, was definitely middle school cringe back then. ^^ My goal when I brought her back was to make her a fun character with flaws and interests different from my other female OCs. Hence her interest in paranormal stuff and what not!

—Her backstory was inspired by the fact that in my old stories, she wasn’t from the same planet as the ZP, even though she clearly looked Zulean. Again, cringey middle school self is to blame for that XD

—I did try to give her antennae, but it never looked right to me, so I left ‘em off.

—I originally did make her as a love interest for Bula, as I noticed that Bula’s cool approach to matters would bounce well off of an energetic personality (hence why I also like Bula/Zeeter). However, I wanted her to be able to stand on her own two feet without him, too, which was something I wanted to achieve when creating her new personality. She’s a love interest/girlfriend for Bula in the original ZP: DC and the Heavenly series, but is just a close ally to him and the others in DCR, since Bula/Zeeter is endgame in that story.

—She gets along with Multo, Wizzy and Wigg the best out of the team—the former treats her like another student/adoptive daughter, and Wizzy and Wigg see her as their cool big sister.

[drkineildwicks]

Okay you know what lemme see about just leaving Tumblr open and jotting down my thoughts through the whole episode over constantly reblogging my one post

Probably won't succeed but anywho:

Claire in her letter: Still alive!

Roger: look I punched a man!

Oh they're related

OH this is the guy who punched Roger when Roger hugged his wife and then got him hanged!

So the punch was well-deserved

Hessians--Sleepy Hollow time

"What are my odds for hitting a turkey?" Sir, not well

Horse: excuse me, that's MINE

So for a hot second I thought they fed him a pop-tart

Sir, you're in their house, eating their food--maybe shut up

Whoever is on Tumblr that said the one pushy guy has the hots for Roger...my Mom agrees with you

Nice save, guy, figured Bree would chuck you into that fireplace

Here comes Jamie, looking hot as usual

Claire: "A book?"

Jamie: "You remember books, right? Words on paper?"

Jamie's flexing his printer skills and also having the gall to have better eyesight than Claire at this point

I'm not sure if General Fraser is related to Jamie but he's got good I fight and bleed with my men energy

William: I want to fight!

Mom: Your dad says no

Me: Both his dads say no

Bree and Roger: oh no he's loose

Elder MacKenzie being educated on television by the kids XD

Bree and Roger arguing over who gets to babysit Cousin Buck X'D

Roger: Oh yeah we worked out our differences after I beat him to the ground

Cousin Buck: I just met this man and I want to kill him

Bree: plz don't kill my coworker that causes paperwork

Betcha ten to one said coworker rooted through their letters

Oh Miami Vice music!

ew horny

Okay back to plot

Uh-oh I'm getting bad vibes

Why are they meeting in the open I know we knew better after the French and Indian War

Oh man I liked that guy

This is very much how my history teacher described the French and Indian War too

"You got the British marching in line in bright red with a big white X on the front and in case you were blind they were also blowing trumpets and drumming drums--so of course they were dropping like flies and not listening to the Americans telling them this is not how you fight the Indians."

"Jemmy's gone!"

HE TOOK JEMMY THROUGH THE STONES

Mom on William: Where's his big X?

Me: That's why he survived

William's looking a little disillusioned there

UH-OH

DON'T YOU DARE

DON'T YOU DARE

AND THEN A TWO-WEEK WAIT!?

[chameleon-on-lsd]

Tatort Zürich E3 - E7 liveblogging

Episode 3 (Schattenkinder)

Love how tessa rides the bike to the crime scene and then doesn‘t get to ride with the car. They could‘ve loaded it, p sure that isabella has a prett normal car and not a police cruiser with equipment in the back, right? Noah ily so much. ‚Uf sim pc hets paar cooli games […]‘ ‚völlig kränk‘ !!!!!! Baby boy, ily Tessa‘s eyebrows are very intense this episode „Noah, es ist spät, hast du kein zuhause?“ xDD „äh doch“ Lmao what kind of reaction is ‚luegsch pornos?‘ from charlie to tessa not reacting right away to a question xd Lol isabelle. But also i love her eating his food in the kitchen. And I forgot his name again „Putain, tessa“ lmao What parking structure is that?? Never seen it before The art dude is wearing a very jazzy sweater. Almost Baby Genius like I love how isabelle‘s red-brown holster matches her red turtleneck sweater Yes, let‘s go party with the suspect Lmao tessa, that was the MOST obvious ‚talking into lapel mic‘ ever. Girlie, don‘t go undercover Aww love how Milan is being a server. What does your catering job include lmao AND THEN TESSA LEAVES THE DOOR OPEN WHILE SNEAKING AWAY. Get that woman some training Lmao tessa. 1A ablenkig. How to distract pretentious art wanker? The Arts!!! Just sing a little ditty (She‘s good tho) Also, another woman flirting with grandjean/ott lmao Holy fuck the tension ???!!!!! They actually almost kiss?? ‚Bini der z schnell?‘ fjalshdlal I FORGOT THAT ISABELLA HAS TO LISTEN TO THAT!!!!! W O W Lmao she just insta-installed something? I like the editing of all the different voice-overs in this one Whew max‘s actor Lmao smoking indoors? I guess the police is altmodisch but come on guys SHARING THE CIGARETTE!!!! (Almost sad that hörk don‘t get to share) !!! I figured out like half a second before the reveal that kyomi is the daughter lol Cries, the dad just looks so happy. No old man, don‘t make me cry, you‘re supposed to be a monster Damn bitch, that matte blue/purple car tho. Holy shit. (Also we do just keep with the suicide plots for zurich tatort huh. Are we this depressed??) Awww, cute tess and isabella moment

Episode 4 (Risiken mit Nebenwirkungen)

Lmao the lawyer with the super sassy ‚unzueläässssig‘ Will we finally get an episode without suicide mention? You live on a boat? What are we? Amsterdam? I already don‘t remember the 3rd title caard Isabelle walks onto the boat, instantly touching 3 surfaces lmao. Cool that she got offered gloves like 5 seconds later tho lol „Also = game over“, gamer boy noah lives on Lmao the boss of the lawyers: ‚chani ihne öppis ahbiete? Gin? Single malt?‘ Guess that‘s one way to do business Lmao just quoting law articles to eachother God, i‘m pretty sure they said it before but the sentence ‚folge dem geld oder dem sperma‘ made me half-choke so loud my cat woke up „der sah aus wie ein jammerlappen“ lmao get roasted hot lawyer (Praise kink!noah unlocked. Too bad I don‘t know who to ship him with and I hate reader insert) God that pharma conference is SO wanky We really just don‘t do subtitles huh? (It was a very easy english phone call but like) Uuuuh, does hit lawyer have a conscience? The pharma lady reminds me of that phony pharma lady. Theranos??Mhhh electro porsche Lmao noah losing his shit at his own doing …why is isabelle riding in the ambulance when the attack happend in front of the house? Where the stay at home mom is??? „Sie weiss bscheid“ and she doesn‘t care???! Aw charlie Still don‘t understand how it took the mom so long to get to the hospital NOAH XDDD (Also how did I not see a field day of posts about ‚tessa ott, du bist so hot‘ ??!) Also their reaction??? Also noah, truly a man of the people, writing fanfic on company time and using company equipment !!!!! Isabelle offering to drive tessa! (Under the guise of her not having a light, shush. Also tessa calling her ‚mami‘ lmao) Also the fucking fact that tessa keeps insisting on driving without a helmet!!! Christ „Du bisch en fucking nobody“ lol DAMN professor doesn‘t fuck around Awww the srf radio show Prime tower has fucking glass security gates inside?? What is actually housed in there?! Noah… that is your best work? I guess if you squint hard enough Jesus christ, everyone be killing xD Help the cringe is cringing ;-; xD

Episode 5 (Seilschaft)What the fuck is this english speech? Why do I feel like I know that actor‘s face? Tessa is not a great friend lmao What. The. Fuuuuuck Lmao isabelle again with the ‚you live here?!‘ inquiries (‚hat ihr tesla kein strom mehr?‘ to ms staatsahwältin) Lmao and the next lady to flirt with grandjean What the fuck was that greeting between fedpol guy and staatsahwältin? The french just for shits and giggles xD they literally didn‘t need to do that Have we ever seen inside grandjean‘s home? Wow. That is fucking horrifying. Thanks for showing it with such a banger of background music Aww isabelle's götti Slowly piercing together the ‚tessa was abused‘ backstory I see ‚Hast du hunger?‘ ‚ich will zu dir‘ different kind of hunger lmao ‚Jemand den du gut kennst‘ Aww bless charlie Christ tessa You‘re such a bitch lmao Of course charlie relapses in this environment Also love how boxing clubs are rife cop show material Noah my scruffy beloved Aaaa and he doesn‘t wanna say something wrong around tessa Poor baby boy. ‚Das staht doch da! ;-;‘ Kerim bby Noah‘s hair is SO good That‘s a fucking huuuuge schrebergarte …which protokoll?? Tessa looks so unkempt this episode lmao Poor bbies Aww she apologized Lmao that girl is wearing double denim as in ‚two denim jackets‘. Why ‚Huere komisch‘ Man that girl loves denim Hello hot police officer Lmao ‚watch.ch/watch‘ Is it.. child SA ? Again?? ‚Schnapped sie ihn und packed sie ihn ade eier!‘ xd Mov.ch/watch Slightly better, still odd Also, casually browsing child SA material in an open plan office? Weird, tessa Whew boy that was a lot ….are we heading into another suicide? I still don‘t know where tf I know his face from Oh hey, another rooftop scene W E L P another one bites the dust (on her own terms) Also lmao the fucking death pose. What was that comic meme? Family guy? Fidjsjskd The Hug. Finally Aaaaa söft Akdkfhdhsksjd De fucking blickwechsel vo grandjean und ott, ih dem softe liecht. The sapphic of it all

Episode 6 (Blinder Fleck)

Warum fahred ihr en vogel gassi? Achso, tierarzt Gross fucking moustache btw A kid case. For grandjean. Whooooo boy Good hair from botj ladies currently …..she would be sitting in her mom‘s piss…. Death is not pretty Oooo. Biker is also dead Bitch loves the forest. And his drone. And birds Lmao ‚ghat‘s?‘ at tessa dying after walking up the stairs How are you holding the child? Oh she is holding you Cries …oh the forstarbeiter didn‘t find the biker duse, they were talking about the others Aaaaand bird!guy knows bike!guy Isabelle, what the fuck was that sentence? Good look, noah (i do miss his ugly ties a bit) Lmaaooooo the fucking american deutsch with the weird r‘s xDD Lmao that fucking bird is just going on a weltreise Oh they were trying to bring it back to the kid, makes sense. And she‘s like?? This biih?! Aww milan Also, to be serenaded by two loving people? IMAGINE Aw isabelle. You‘re trying to use milan. Shame on you Also fully don‘t understand his backstory. Zeugenschutz?? Lol tessa playing peekaboo with the bird Wow… both those extras are doing…rough acting jobs Aaaaa noah outside! xD He left his IT den I don‘t like the banker lady Noah bby, y u so pretty Lmao lars. Way go be fucking creepy. And in danger Awww noah calling bird!guy DAMN. What a fucking outfit from bird guy ….you wanna tell me that tessa follows the traffic laws to a T? Absolutely not Mhhh microwave sketti and fake fanta xD And insta-triggered herself Frau staatsahwältin is so confounded by kids lmao Same tho What do you mean ‚er het nöd chöne cho‘?? He left after seeing the kid (which i kinda expected) but wut Lmao bird!guy keeping on flirting with tessa Seeleverwandt with birds. My guy, you‘re fucked …weird bank things are happening ‚Du kennsch mi sit 2 johr‘….. fully expected a longer time. 2 yrs is… nothing God those actors both look like leather couches …why we gotta see them make out Lmao bird!guy Interesting acting choices from both luca and ada. And with interesting I mean cringe Nice use of ‚police data bases take 2 seconds to find results‘ Awww milan baby boy. His love language is def food He calls her IsabellA right?? Guess that‘s why I was confused at some point with her name And you walked right into that one isabelle Ooooooh. Combat drone?? Amazing Lmao love the drone shots that are super unrealistic. You‘d hear that fucker, you can‘t stalk someone Background person with purple hair! (At least it looked so in the 0.5 they were on screen xD) They use ‚clear‘ as signal for cleaning rooms? Interesting Ada‘s garden is very nice But lol lars and ada are both weird JESUS!!!!!!!! A fucking axt to the head??? That was so graphic holy shit xD That kid has such a creppy stare lmao Damn luca, you‘re going on a rampage Damn mr jail man, you look good Bit of a weird beard but still hot ….the fact that tessa is allowed to go to a person of interest alone is so wild… like she's ready to engage and doesn‘t have a partner with her?? No buddy system??! How would any of this hold up in court? Do we not require that? Kill drone engage! Schön am walche kino verbi xD Aww and the landesmusuem ..how is noah supposed to find it exactly? You go grandma Is luca gonna shoot himself….. Or jump…. Come ON guys Can we have more episodes without suicides/attempts? This is depressing I guess that‘s what we get for tessa‘s failed attempt? Spatort gets spaten flashbacks, zurich gets suicides He‘s gonna juuuuuump Oh wow he didn‘t Aww that was a fun transition of the normal camera going up to the drone overlay

Episode 7 (Von Affen und Menschen) re-watch so skipping through it

Lmao staatsahwältin is such a flirt The sunglasses <3 Severin!!! (Zoo director) He always reminds me of elijah kamski Lmao for an ‚ebenso‘ und ‚sorry ich muss los‘ Nooooaaah, very cute in that hoodie and your fuckass headphones xD ‚Isch öpper hässig gsi‘ xD (about someone shooting 6 times) But god all the non-main actors are SO cringe in this one Staatsahwältin doing her little jig lmao I wanna hug noah$ ‚Warum düüted alles uf sini frau hi, noah? Oh ja merssi für d frag‘ bby boy, they don‘t appreciate you xD ahskkskaja The little moment of tessa tossing the wet paper towel at noah and the little ‚swish‘ sound edit and his smirk ????? I don‘t understand why isabelle and milan don‘t kiss more. They did so before. Why are they back to being coy? ‚Erpressig? Lösegeld? En banane? Um was ghats?‘ noah‘s face xD Lmao and so joyful to share gruesome details about the nail gun kill Zoom and enhance that doesn‘t work! The insta-toss of the phone is so funny THIS ONE ALSO INCLUDES A (staged) SUICIDE!!!! What the fuck is it with zurich So I think only 1 episode has none? Tessa‘s ‚lieber nöd :)‘ to the other police xD Lmao and severin‘s second scene is him hitting a glass and then standing there DaMN that‘s a neat white beard and moustache at the back Everyone hates their putzpersonal lmao That is the second one that gets their work interrupted I like the yellow and green theme of the outfits this episode for noah and tessa ‚noah, c‘est simplement genial‘ ‚ou, je sais :))‘ bless Lmao isabelle being a trash racoon Staatsahwältin‘s outfit is very strange.. Stripey top and tie thing, very wide belt, checked skirt Hello hot undercover cop(s) Yeah tessa, you done goofed. Bad friend award goes to you

Also I feel like we got over it way too fast that tessa was fucking fingerbanged at a club

[ao3komorii]

Tangling with the Lifeguard (Pool Party Sett/Reader)

The Pool Party Sett story is done! I’ve gone with a beach!AU sort of setting where league races exist in a modern-day beach sort of place. Also sorry to any MF or Syndra mains, they don’t really come out the best in this xD Hope you enjoy, and as always, there is a smut warning for the end!

---

The sun was shining high in the sky, crystalline waters lapping against the shore as beachgoers took advantage of the perfect summer day. Taking in the scene from your place in the shade of a tree on the border between the beach and parking lot, you let a smile grace your lips as you mused on just how much this place seemed to not change, even after so many years.

The last time you had set foot on this beach, you had been twelve years old, full of excitement and unaware of the harsh realities of the adult world. Your parents had brought you here for that summer, now thirteen years ago, the beautiful beach an unforgettable experience. You had left after that summer with treasured memories, and a new friend, that same friend the very reason why you had returned to Port Navori beach after so long.

Taliyah had been the same age as you, with fairly lax parents who let her roam the beach by herself, even as the small twelve-year-old she had been. You had bonded instantly, spending almost every day together, and keeping in touch through letters, and later emails and text messages.

You had long said that you had wanted to come back and visit the lively beach town, but the timing hadn’t been right, not until this year.

You were done all your schooling, and had quit your high-stress, low-pay job, and as Taliyah had said on your last phone call, you had no reason not to visit. Her parents had been travelling the world since they retired, so you would have her house all to yourselves.

In your absence, Taliyah had become a fairly accomplished surfer in the local scene, working at an ice cream shop on the beach to support her expensive pursuits. She had been so insistent that you couldn’t find yourself able to refuse her offer; work in the ice cream shop with her in the day, and then spend the rest of your time catching up with each other. You had missed your friend dearly, and had accepted the offer without a second thought.

And now here you were, waiting at the beach’s edge for Taliyah to show up. She had told you to dress for the beach, sounding casual as was her usual, so you had worn a swimsuit with a short, flowy shoulderless dress on overtop. Unwilling to look like a lobster by day’s end, you had carefully layered yourself with sunscreen, and now all you needed was for your friend to get here already. Just when you were about to get out your phone to text her, an excited call of your name had you re-stowing the phone in your bag and looking back to see your friend bounding across the parking lot towards you.

Taliyah, dressed in a two-piece water suit and carrying a tropical-flower-print surfboard, came to a stop before you, leaning her surfboard against a tree to free her arms to tackle you in a hug.

“You’re finally here!” she grinned, surprising you with the strength of her hug. “We’re gonna have so much fun!”

“So what’s first?” you asked as you pulled back from the hug.

Taliyah hummed. “I guess I’ll show you the shop.”

You followed her onto the beach, recognizing the small bright blue building from the pictures she had sent you before. Taliyah took you around the back, fishing a key out of her pocket before unlocking the door and leading you into the small room.

There were large tubs of ice cream in the middle of the room, the walls lined with containers of various toppings and machines. On the back wall from you were two windows, glossy menus pasted to the doors that would display out when they were opened. Upon walking closer to the menu signs, you noticed something.

“Hey, it says we open at nine, but it’s ten-thirty…”

“It’s fine,” Taliyah replied with a shrug. “The owners are pretty chill. If anyone complains, I’ll just tell them I had to train the new employee.”

You playfully rolled your eyes. Sometimes you really envied Taliyah’s ability to be so carefree. Her calm energy was a big help for you, having got advice from her on numerous occasions over the years.

Taliyah came over to where you were, eyes flitting boredly to the menu boards before turning her attention back to you. “So I’m thinking we get you taking orders while I make them.”

“Works for me,” you agreed. It certainly sounded easier than figuring out what a poro float was supposed to be. You never knew ice cream stands had such fancy options now, used to the simple menus of ice cream cones and bars back at the shops in your hometown.

You were about to open the order windows when you were stopped by a rustling noise from the back of the store. You turned to see Taliyah digging in a cardboard box in the back corner, pulling out some folded-up fabric that was the same sky blue as the stand.

“Didn’t think you’d get away without an embarrassing uniform, did you?” Taliyah teased, tossing some of her fabric pile your way.

You caught the bundle, unfolding it to find an apron with Poro Palace Frozen Treats in pink bubble letters, little white fuzzy animals dotting the apron. There was an accompanying blue visor hat that looked like something out of a kid’s store. You reluctantly slipped both items of clothing on, looking back to find that Taliyah had done the same.

“Stylish, huh?” she smirked, striking a modelesque pose.

“We look like we work at an amusement park, Tali,” you laughed.

“Feels like it sometimes with all the annoying kids that come by,” she replied. “Okay, you can open it up now.”

Taliyah settled herself down in a chair in front of the section of ice cream tubs, and you reluctantly turned to unlatch and open the windows, unsure of exactly what you were getting yourself into.

The small room lit up with the outside sunlight streaming in from your window to outside, the immediate glare of the sun making you wish you had worn sunglasses.

Almost immediately, the masses were upon you. You noticed a woman with several children in tow who perked up as she laid eyes on you, striding over to you with her children right behind her, pushing each other as they scrambled to be the first one to get over to you.

You heard Taliyah groan behind you. “Get the pen ready. They always have the most annoying orders.”

You rose an eyebrow, but picked up the pen and notepad that sat beside the cash register as the woman came to a stop before you.

“You know, I’ve been waiting for an hour already. You young girls don’t know how hard it is for mothers,” the woman complained, not letting you get a word in edgewise. “Alright, tell her what you want.”

“I want a brownie sundae!” a small boy with blue hair who clearly intended to make full use of his outdoor voice shouted. “But with cotton candy ice cream and pop rocks and I want only blue candies!”

“Uh…” The kid was talking too fast for you to write, but luckily Taliyah had your back, a got it ringing out from behind you.

You weren’t sure how you had managed to get their orders out before they melted, messing up their total several times before Taliyah had to come and help you out. With a last snide look and a fistful of blue napkins, the mother and her little terrors left the stand at last.

“She’s the worst,” Taliyah said, bringing your weary gaze her way as she cleaned off an ice cream scoop. “I accidentally put one red candy in that kid’s sundae once and he screamed until I remade the whole thing!”

You winced. “Feels like we got off easy today.”

“Yeah,” Taliyah agreed. “Helps that they order the same thing every time, so I’ve got some practice.”

“Are they all this bad?” you asked, turning away from the window after seeing no potential customers nearby.

“Not all of them,” she replied with a strained smile. “I swear the heat just brings the jerk out in some of the people here.”

Speaking of jerks… your conversation was interrupted by an impatient-sounding throat clearing noise from behind you. You whirled around to see a redheaded woman with heart-shaped sunglasses and a revealing swimsuit leaning against your counter. She was staring at you like you were gum she had stepped in, flipping some hair over her shoulder when she knew she had your attention.

“Five cherry snowballs,” she said, dropping a few coins on your counter, some of which bounced and hit the floor. “To the red umbrella, thanks ice cream girl.”

Without any further interaction, she turned on her heel and strutted away, hips swinging as she went, leaving you wondering what had just happened.

You slowly turned back to face Taliyah again. “Um, do we usually deliver?”

“Nope,” she answered. “Not to people like that anyways.”

“But…” you protested weakly. You knew Taliyah got away with a lot here, but you didn’t want her to lose her job because some rude girl complained to her bosses. “I’ll just take them over and next time I’ll just say we don’t deliver.”

“Still tempted to put rocks in their snowballs,” Taliyah joked as she set about piling the scoops of red ice.

Soon you had a tray with five cherry syrup-coated piles of shaved ice in little plastic bowls with accompanying little plastic spoons stuck in the side of the dishes.

“I’ll be right back,” you said, heading past Taliyah to the back door, opening it to find yourself back out in the mid-morning heat.

The sand still felt uncomfortably hot underfoot, even with your flip flops on. With how hot it was out, these would have to be delivered as soon as possible to not be a puddle by the time they were eaten. Your only problem was that you had no idea where to go.

The redhead had said that she would be at the red umbrella, but of course nothing at this ice cream stand would be that easy. Standing just outside the hut, you were treated to a veritable rainbow of colored beach umbrellas. You counted at least ten red ones scattered across the beach, none particularly standing out to you. You didn’t have many options, and were forced to go with the most tedious one; checking every red umbrella until you found the girl and her group.

The first umbrella had been a bust, as had the next five. The sixth had led to a sweaty old man who told you that you were just in time to help him sunscreen his back. By the time you had hurriedly fled from that creep, it had been about five minutes of searching, the snowballs on your tray looking considerably droopier than they had been when you had left the shop.

You stared down at the tray of melting treats, unsure of what to do now. Should you go back and have Taliyah remake the snowballs? Try a few more umbrellas and hope you got lucky? You really hadn’t been anticipating this much stress when you had agreed to work here with Taliyah for the summer.

You frowned at the now-more-water-than-ice treats, your decision made. You couldn’t serve these, not as melted as they were. You would go back and help remake them and see if Taliyah had any insight as to which red umbrella was the right one. You turned around to head back to the stand, only to trip on your overheating flip flops and fall forward with a cry.

You had closed your eyes with a flinch as you fell, but opened them with a start as you heard a grunt from right in front of you. Looking up from your position in the burning sand, you felt like your heart was going to stop in your chest.

Standing before you was the most attractive guy you had ever laid eyes on, with fire red hair and a pair of black animal ears that looked soft to the touch. He was dressed in a tight pair of swim shorts, a lightweight red jacket tied around his waist. He had a flower lei around his neck, but that was the only thing that he wore on his top half, his insanely-well-built torso on full display, a torso you realized with horror was currently splattered with red syrup and shaved ice.

You looked from the hot guy to the ground, the sand around you speckled with plastic cups, spoons and napkins, your tray turned upside down in the sand. You slowly risked a gaze back up, only to see the guy staring down at you from behind his pink-tinted sunglasses as a clump of ice fell from his stomach to the sand just in front of your hands.

Embarrassment forced you to spring up, grabbing some stray napkins from the ground and dabbing them against the mess of syrup and ice on the man’s abdomen.

“I’m so sorry, I–” You looked up from your apologizing to see the man silently staring at you, your hand freezing in place as you realized that you were basically feeling this guy up through the napkins, the realization making your cheeks burn with shame and embarrassment.

“I’m really sorry!” you cried out, pulling your hands back. He still hadn’t said anything, and you realized that you couldn’t just stand here like an idiot, your flight instinct kicking in as you reached down to grab your tray before moving around the man and fleeing in the direction of the ice cream stand.

“Hey, wait!”

The man tried to grab your arm as you passed, but you were faster in your embarrassment-fueled retreat, and soon the hot stranger was far behind you. You didn’t stop running until you were back at the shop, the empty sand-logged tray clutched tightly to your chest, your heartbeat pounding in your ears as you shut the door, making eye contact with a confused Taliyah.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked, getting up to approach you when you didn’t respond. “Talk to me. What happened? If that snob said anything to you–”

“No, no, she didn’t,” you replied weakly, sinking to the floor with your back against the door. “I didn’t even get to her.”

“Then what happened?” she pressed, bringing you a glass of water and prying the tray from your hands at last.

She ushered you to your feet and down into her chair, taking a seat on one of the counters. You took a deep breath, taking a sip of the water before recounting the events of the past ten minutes to Taliyah, who listened silently.

“…I didn’t know what to do, so I just ran,” you finished, setting your water down to bury your face in your hands.

“It’s no big deal,” Taliyah replied gently. “Everyone has embarrassed themselves in front of someone. Remember that time I tripped over my board in front of that group of tourists?”

“I covered him in cherry syrup, Tali,” you groaned. “I don’t think I’m cut out for this.”

“It’s your first day,” she stressed. “You’re bound to mess some things up.”

She stood up, returning to the shaved ice machine. “Now how about we remake those snowballs and then I’ll–”

Taliyah had frozen in place, a plastic cup in her hand as she stared straight ahead.

“Tali?” you questioned, standing up. “Are you–”

“That guy you dumped the snowballs on,” she quickly interrupted. “Did he have majorly cut abs and animal ears?”

“Uh, why?” You felt a jolt of fear shoot up your spine as you followed her gaze to see the man from earlier currently approaching the shop, well-defined abdomen now minus the sticky mess you had spilt all over him. “Oh god, it’s him!”

You and Taliyah exchange wide-eyed glances before you dove down out of sight, hiding behind the tubs of ice cream like they were a fortress.

“Please get rid of him!” you begged. “I’ll do whatever you want, I just can’t face him!”

You heard Taliyah sigh. “Fine, but this means you’re coming stone hunting with me tonight.”

You agreed immediately, even if the prospect wasn’t overwhelmingly appealing. Taliyah was always eager to add to her collection of shiny stones, but was so picky that it often took hours to find just one stone that met her standards. But right now you were so desperate that you would have promised her anything just to make the angry hot guy go away.

From your position behind the ice cream tubs, you could only hear Taliyah’s voice clearly, the general noise of the beach preventing you from hearing what the furry-eared man was saying. You wanted to peek out from your hiding spot, but found yourself chickening out. You really didn’t need him catching sight of you and making Taliyah’s job even harder.

You had gotten so in your own head with panic that you had completely tuned out of your surroundings until a hand waved in front of your face and you realized Taliyah was crouching in front of you, calling your name.

“You okay?” she asked worriedly.

“Is he gone?” you replied quietly.

“Yeah, he’s gone,” she confirmed, standing up and grabbing your forearms to pull you up with her. “Now help me remake those snowballs and then I’ll fill you in.”

You bit your lip as you scooped shaved ice into a row of plastic cups as Taliyah readied the cherry syrup. Soon you had five pristine-looking snowballs on your slightly-sandy tray, the sight of them bringing you back to your moment of collision with the cute guy.

The tray was snatched from your field of vision by Taliyah, who headed over to the rear door. “Be back in a few. Try not to freak out too much while I’m gone.”

And then the door was closed and you were left alone. Looking over at the order window, you decided that you were probably safer to just resume your position behind the ice cream tubs, unwilling to risk being out in the open in case the guy decided to come back.

While she was gone, you couldn’t help but fret over exactly what had been said between your best friend and the mysterious hot guy. She didn’t seem to be upset, so clearly their conversation hadn’t been that intense. Or maybe it had; Taliyah was a fairly relaxed person, so it would be difficult for a random angry customer to really get to her. But that didn’t quite make sense either; if he had yelled at her, you would have heard it over the noise of the beachgoers. All you were doing was overthinking yourself to death, exactly what Taliyah had told you not to do.

And it was there you remained until Taliyah returned, closing the door behind her and placing the serving tray in the sink before she turned her attention to you at last.

“Calm down, it’s fine… I think,” she said.

“You think?”

“Well he didn’t seem mad,” she explained. “He asked if a girl that looked like you worked here and I said you went home sick. Said he’d come back another time.”

“Another–” Oh god. Was he really so angry that he was willing to come back just for the chance to yell at you?

“I can see you freaking out,” Taliyah scolded. “Don’t. You’re fine. Musclehead or not, he’s not going to kill you just because you spilled shaved ice on him.”

She was probably right; hot shirtless guys on the beach likely had more important things to do than yelling at clumsy ice cream shop workers. By tomorrow, he would probably forget you ever existed, and you could go back to enjoying your time working alongside your best friend.

 The rock collecting that night had been long and boring, at least for you. Taliyah hadn’t found any rocks she liked enough to take home, only ending the search after she had found some sea glass that she had deemed acceptable to add to her collection. You could only hope that you wouldn’t owe her any more favors any time soon, unsure if you could survive another late night rock hunt.

The next morning, you entered the shop alongside Taliyah, who put her bag down and began to set up the day’s supplies. Considering it was ten minutes past opening time and Taliyah had insisted that she didn’t need help setting up, you decided that you might as well just open the order window for the day, hoping that mom and her group of demon kids wouldn’t be waiting out there, only to unlatch the widows and see something arguably worse.

The window had only been open a peek, but it was enough for you to see the large figure of the man from yesterday standing ten feet or so from your shop, his back facing you as he stared out at the beach. In your brief glimpse, you also noticed that the jacket wrapped around his waist had a white plus sign in a circle as well as the word lifeguard in white blocky letters above it. Oh god, of course you had gone and pissed off a lifeguard on your first day here.

You shut the barely-open windows with a too-loud slam that made you wince before you quickly locked them again and rushed over to Taliyah.

“Tali, he’s here again!” you hissed.

“Huh?” she replied, pausing her task of refilling a container of sprinkles. “Muscle guy?”

You nodded frantically and Taliyah frowned, putting the sprinkles down and approaching the order window herself. You watched as she opened the window ever so slightly, peering out for a few seconds before closing it back up.

“Well… can’t say I was expecting him to actually come back,” she said evenly.

“What do I even do?” you asked, staring at the order windows like they would burst open at any second and reveal you to the clearly-determined lifeguard. “He’s a lifeguard, Tali! What if he bans me from the beach?”

She rolled her eyes in response. “He can’t just ban you from the beach. Lifeguards don’t have that much power. If they did, I would’ve been banned a long time ago for all the times I’ve surfed after hours.”

“Then what does he want with me?” you asked, looking away from the window.

Taliyah shrugged. “You’d have to ask him that.”

“But what if I… don’t?” you replied weakly. “He’ll give up eventually, right?”

“I mean, maybe?” she said. “But it might be easier to deal with him now and get it over with.”

You saw her point, but it wasn’t her that was being pursued by a tall, muscly lifeguard with a vengeance!

Taliyah clearly caught the reluctance on your face and sighed. “Fine, I’ll switch with you for today. Now let’s go over how to make the basic stuff before we open.”

True to her word, Taliyah had allowed you to hide in the back making orders, telling the lifeguard guy that you were off today. You watched him walk away from behind the shaved ice machine, hoping that your ordeal was finally over, but your hopes were quickly dashed the next day as you went to open the store again, only to see the same broad back facing you from just outside the shop.

Taliyah had reluctantly agreed to switch again that day, and the day after. But by day four, even the promise of helping her scavenge for rocks again wouldn’t get her to agree to switch.

You closed the window again, turning to Taliyah with pleading eyes, but she was having none of it.

“It’s been four days,” she said, arms crossed. “Clearly he’s not giving up. You should just see what he wants.”

“But…” The thought still terrified you. You knew you deserved to be yelled at for what you had done, but it was made that much worse by the fact that the subject of your plight was just about the hottest guy you had ever seen.

Taliyah shook her head at you. “Okay, but I’m not doing orders again today, so if you want to keep hiding from him, we’ll have to move onto plan B.”

Plan B, as it turned out, was a mascot suit of sorts; three fluffy poros stacked on top of each other like a snowman. A poro each made up your upper and lower body, the last poro being the head of the costume. You looked incredibly awkward, the arms and legs of the costume hairy and tipped with little brown claws. You were momentarily stunned by the sheer lengths you were going to just to avoid this guy, but you were already in the costume, so you reasoned that you might as well follow through with it now.

Taliyah put the costume’s head on you and your world was plunged largely into darkness, minus the mesh one-way view out of the top poro’s eyes. You were helped to the back door, some fliers for the store shoved into your hands.

Taliyah helped you walk out front, and you were pretty quickly swarmed by kids. You couldn’t see the lifeguard guy, but the relief that coursed through you was short-lived, swallowed by the immediate explosion of business brought on by your costume.

One thing you hadn’t considered in your haste was the heat. You weren’t sure if it was the costume or if today was hotter than usual, but very quickly you found yourself becoming a sweaty mess under the weight of the dense, furry costume.

The longer you were in the costume, the worse you felt, but you were determined to stick this out. So you handed out fliers and posed for photos with children while Taliyah ran the stand.

You wished that you could wipe the sweat from your face, but you weren’t sure if you could even reach up to remove the costume’s head yourself due to the awkward shape of the costume. So you endured the ever-increasing heat, only feeling wearier as the time ticked by.

You waved goodbye to a group of kids as they left with their ice cream cones, the sweltering heat really bearing down on you. As you went to turn and head back to the stand to ask Taliyah to help get the head off, a wave of dizziness crashed over you. You took one step towards the stand, and then another, and then it all went dark as you felt yourself falling forward, too weak to stop your descent to the ground.

 You woke up with a heavy head, feeling foggy with confusion. The last thing you remembered, you had been heading back to the stand…

Immediately, you realized that you weren’t at the ice cream stand, and you weren’t wearing the poro suit, or even your beach dress. Sitting up in the cot you laid in, you found that you were wearing only your swimsuit.

As you sat up, a blue ice pack that you hadn’t realized was there fell from your forehead and into your lap. Picking it up, the pack only feeling slightly cold, you turned to look around the room, still unsure what exactly was going on.

You were in a room of some sort, guessing it was afternoon by the minute amount of light filtering into the room, even through the closed curtains. There was a fan gently whirring above your head, but otherwise the room was silent.

There was another cot beside yours, and a table nearby with a few red first aid kits stacked on it, some bandages messily spilling out of one of them. There was a sign pulled over the door, the side facing you reading come on in, we’re open.

You got up from the bed, shuddering with disgust when you noticed just how sweaty your whole body was. The bed squeaked as you got up from it, your knees hitting a bedside table between the cots that you hadn’t noticed had been there. On the small table was a glass of water, as well as a white fan that was emblazoned with what looked to be a group of cats waterskiing.

You picked up the fan, letting out a small laugh at the silly-looking cartoon cats on the fan. It looked like something you could win at a carnival booth.

“If you can laugh, then I guess you’re feelin’ alright.”

A deep voice from behind you made you jump, fingers fumbling the fan, which fell onto the floor with a clatter that was only made louder in the quiet room. You turned to look behind you, only to fall off the cot in shock when you saw the very lifeguard you had been trying so hard to avoid standing in the doorway of a small office you hadn’t noticed was there.

“Hey, careful!” He quickly crossed the room to squat down in front of you, taking your elbow and helping you back up onto the cot. You were too stunned to resist and found yourself falling into his chest as a wave of dizziness hit you.

“You okay?” he asked, and you tried to nod, but your head was spinning too much to focus. “Hey, hold still.”

He placed his hands on your shoulders, keeping you steady against him until you were able to regain your focus. When he was satisfied with your condition, he pulled back, releasing your shoulders and instead reaching out for the glass of water on the table next to you.

“Drink,” he instructed, handing you the cup before standing up. “I’ll be right back.”

He stared at you for a moment before finally turning back and heading into the office at the back of the room.

You watched him go, feeling on edge, but complied, bringing the glass up to your lips and taking a long drink. The last thing you wanted to do was give this guy more reason to be upset with you. You were surprised at just how refreshing the water felt, and you had soon downed the entire glass, placing it back on the table when you were done.

“Alright, lay back down,” the lifeguard instructed as he returned.

“What?” you replied. What was he going to do to you? How had you even got here? Where was Taliyah?

He stopped before you, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked down at your shaky, terrified form. “Are you–”

“I’m sorry!” you exclaimed, bowing your head. “I didn’t mean to spill the snowballs on you! If you need to yell at me, go ahead. I’m sorry I didn’t just come out sooner and–”

It had occurred to you mid-ramble that he had yet to say anything, and you cut off your babbling, slowly looking up to find him staring at you with what you could only describe as a bewildered look on his face.

He blinked. “Is that why–”

“I’m so sorry!” you interrupted, bowing your head again. “If you want to ban me from the beach, I get it!”

“Ban ya from the beach?” he replied with a bark of laughter. “The only thing I wanted to do was get your number.”

“My… what?” You had to be hallucinating. There was no way he had just said that.

“Lay down first,” he spoke sternly, and you complied, still feeling stunned by his words.

Once you were laid down, he picked something up from the bed, which you recognized as another ice pack. He placed it on your forehead, the cool pack immediately flooding you with a feeling of relief. Closing your eyes, you let out a tired sigh, suddenly feeling fatigued.

“Get some rest, princess. We’ll talk when you’re up again.”

You took his advice, the cooling from the ice pack lulling you back to sleep, your eyelids too heavy to keep open.

When you woke up again, you felt infinitely better, your head clearer and body feeling less overheated. The ice pack on your forehead was room temperature, and it was now dark outside. There was a light illuminating your left side as you sat up in bed, turning to see the office in the back with its light on.

The cot squeaked under you, which was responded to by the squeak of a chair from inside the office, the red-haired lifeguard emerging from the office and approaching your bedside.

“Feelin’ any better?” he asked, and you nodded, biting your lip nervously. “Got you some more water.”

You looked over to the bedside table to see the water cup refilled and took hold of it, grateful to have something to focus on other than the intimidatingly muscular man before you.

You drank the entire glass before you forced yourself to finally address the situation before you. “Um… why am I here?”

“You passed out,” he replied bluntly, taking a seat on the cot next to yours. “Overheated yourself in that rat costume.”

“They’re not rats, they’re poros,” you replied, unsure of what to say.

He let out a huff of laughter. “Poros that important to you that you’re willin’ to fry yourself for ‘em?”

“No, that was…” you trailed off. Well, you might as well just admit it. If he had gone out of his way to care for you after you had passed out like an idiot, then he deserved the truth. “I was avoiding you. I was scared you were going to yell at me. My friend didn’t want to keep covering for me at the window so I decided to wear that stupid poro costume.”

“So that’s what that was about,” he replied. “And here I thought you were avoidin’ me ‘cuz you weren’t interested. Gave up on gettin’ your number and then got news that someone passed out from heat stroke.”

You were still having a hard time comprehending the asking for your number part, so you instead chose to focus on the other half. “Heat stroke?”

“Not sure what you expected, wearin’ that costume in this heat,” he said. “Can’t say nobody’s ever been afraid of me before, but giving themself heat stroke just to avoid me is a new one.”

He sounded somewhat self-deprecating, and you immediately felt bad. You had clearly misjudged him, and realized that he hadn’t even mentioned the snowball incident himself.

You forced yourself to meet his eyes, even with as awkward as you were currently felt. “I’m sorry for giving you so much trouble, and for spilling snowballs all over you. I’m just really sorry.”

He laughed. “Ain’t nothin’ for you to apologize for. I’ve had worse get on me since I started workin’ here, and usually it ain’t from a cute girl.”

You tensed in your seat, tearing your gaze from his to look down at your feet, your cheeks feeling warm.

“Hey, don’t go overheatin’ yourself again,” he scolded, standing up from the bed. “If you’re not interested, that’s fine, but I think it’s best if I take ya home. Don’t need your friend yellin’ at me again if you pass out on the way back.”

As much as you wanted to deny his assertion of you being not interested, you couldn’t muster up the courage, so you instead quietly accepted his offer of help. You would have to ask Taliyah what he had meant when you got back.

It was surprisingly cold on the beach at night, the icy breeze sending shivers along your skin. You stared out at the dark ocean waves, entranced by the water crashing against the sand, when your focus was broken by some soft fabric being laid over your shoulders.

You turned to look over your shoulder to see Sett just behind you on the steps of the lifeguard office, the jacket that was usually around his waist now laying on your shoulders.

He caught your curious look and raised an eyebrow. “You nearly cooked yourself to death today, I ain’t about to let you freeze yourself to death now.”

“Thanks,” you replied quietly, reaching a hand up to keep the jacket around your shoulders.

Your feet met the soft sand as you followed Sett towards the parking lot. The beach was totally empty, an odd contrast to how things were in the daytime. It felt weird to actually see the shape of the landscape unobscured by giant beach umbrellas and a sea of bodies. You only looked away from the empty scene when you realized that you had left the sand, and Sett was staring expectantly at you.

“…what?” you asked, getting the feeling that he had said something that you had missed.

“Which way?” he repeated with a quick glance at the street ahead of you.

“Oh right,” you replied. “My friend lives on Sandstone Way.”

Sett’s ears perked up. “By that tacky souvenir shop?”

“Yeah,” you laughed. “Right by there.”

You giggled at Sett’s assessment; you had noticed the eye-hurtingly brightly painted store when Taliyah had walked you to her house from the train station. She had rolled her eyes at the store as you surveyed the display of t-shirts with embarrassing designs on them, stating that sometimes they got some good rocks in, but it wasn’t worth the amount of tourists always asking for directions when she was walking around the neighborhood.

Looking over at Sett out of the corner of your eye, you were struggling to think of anything to say. He was dressed in just his sandals and shorts, his sunglasses forgone and giving you a clear look at his golden eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.

“So this your first summer here?” Sett asked, breaking the brief silence as you walked side by side. “I know I’d remember you if I’d seen ya before.”

“I was here for a summer when I was a kid,” you answered. “But everything looks so different now. Maybe I just saw this place differently when I was a kid.”

“Nah,” he dismissed. “It never used to be this busy here. Tourists bring money to this place, but it means it’s always loud around here.”

The conversation was slowly helping you feel more comfortable with the intimidatingly handsome lifeguard. You felt dumb for putting so much energy into avoiding him.

“So have you always lived here?” you asked.

“Born and raised,” he answered with a grin that you couldn’t help but feel looked a little sad. “Ma used to work at the boating shop… and the laundromat… and the candy store.”

“All at the same time?” you asked incredulously.

Sett shrugged. “Didn’t have much of a choice. Pa ran off on us when I was a kid, and it wasn’t like anyone would hire a fatherless runt to work for them.”

“Sounds like it was hard,” you replied. “Did you ever find out where he went?”

“For his sake, I’d better not,” Sett sneered. “I heard ma cry missin’ that scumbag more times than I can count. There ain’t a family here for that bastard to come back to.”

“How is your mom doing?” you asked as you turned onto Sandstone Way, passing by the tacky tourist shop, the flashy paint on the walls too bright even at night.

“She’s doin’ good,” he answered, finally looking happy with a satisfied smile. “Got her to quit her jobs when I started workin’ enough to pay the bills.”

“You’re a good son,” you complimented him. “She’s lucky to have you.”

You smiled at him, coming to a stop before Taliyah’s house. “Well, this is me. Thanks for walking me back.”

“Take care of yourself,” he said. “I don’t wanna see you passin’ out again.”

“I’ll try not to,” you replied. “No more poro costumes for me.”

“On that topic,” he purred, leaning closer to you. “You never gave me an answer.”

“An answer?” you squeaked, flustered by his sudden closeness.

“I’ve been tryin’ to get your number for days now,” he replied, and you did your best to supress a shiver from running up your spine. Was this real life?

You wet your lips with your tongue nervously, unable to miss how Sett’s sharp eyes watched the movement.

“I, um, I don’t have my phone on me,” you said, immediately realizing how dumb you sounded. You didn’t need your phone on you to tell him your number! You hastily made to amend your statement. “…but if you come by the stand tomorrow, I’ll give it to you!”

“Oh?” Sett’s grin was wide, gold eyes flashing dangerously. “I s’pose I could find some time to stop by. See you then, sweetheart.”

Sett turned to walk away, but you stopped him with a call of his name. “Wait, your jacket–”

“Keep it for the night,” Sett replied. “I’ll get it from you tomorrow.”

You reluctantly agreed, stunned silent by his bold flirting, his jacket sitting warm on your shoulders as you watched him walk away. You stared at his broad back until he was out of sight, only then turning to head inside, knowing Taliyah would be waiting.

 The next morning she was still on you as you spent some extra time getting ready.

“I still can’t believe he gave you his jacket,” she teased with a grin. “I mean, I figured he was probably into you, but–”

“You what?” you replied as you paused styling your hair.

“I kept telling you to talk to him,” she replied. “No guy like that is going to wait outside your work for days in a row just to yell at you for spilling ice on him. But I didn’t think you’d believe me if I told you.”

“I just feel so stupid giving myself heat stroke just go avoid him,” you lamented.

“Yeah,” Taliyah frowned. “If I had realized it was that hot out, I never would’ve let you go out in that thing.”

“It’s my own fault for being so dumb,” you insisted.

“But hey, it all worked out, didn’t it?” Taliyah grinned as she slipped on her water shoes. “You’ve got a hot lifeguard coming to visit you at work today.”

“Don’t remind me. I’m still super nervous,” you said, adjusting your beach dress over your most flattering swimsuit.

“You’ll be fine,” Taliyah replied. “He’s clearly super into you. You should’ve seen him when you passed out yesterday.”

“What?” You had been so tired last night that you had only told her the basics before crashing for the night, completely forgetting to ask her what had happened yesterday.

“Someone got him when you collapsed,” she told you. “You should’ve seen his face when he pulled off the poro head and saw it was you inside the costume! I tried to come with, but he told me he’d handle it. I maaay have threatened his life if anything happened to you, but just a little.”

You laughed. So that’s what Sett had been referring to.

Taliyah came up from behind you as you stared at your appearance in the mirror, resting her chin on your shoulder and meeting your eyes in the mirror. “Relax, you look great. Fuzzy ear boy isn’t gonna know what hit him!”

“Fuzzy ear–” you sputtered, laughing at Taliyah’s choice of words. “I guess his ears do look pretty fuzzy.”

“Well if he lets you pet them, tell me how soft they are!” she teased, pulling back from you to grab her bag. “Now let’s go. You’ve got a boy to meet!”

You somehow felt even more nervous today than you had the few days you had spent avoiding Sett. You were still having a hard time wrapping your head around the fact that a guy that looked like he had walked straight out of a fireman’s calendar was coming to your little beachfront ice cream stand for the sole purpose of getting your phone number. And his jacket, which was folded neatly on the countertop beside you.

You weren’t exactly sure when he was going to come. Usually, he would be there waiting outside in the morning before you opened, but all you had opened up to today was a sparsely-populated beachfront, no handsome lifeguards to be seen. By two in the afternoon, your anxiety had begun to get the better of you.

“Stop pacing,” Taliyah scolded you. “He’ll be here.”

“But what if he decided not to?” you said, taking a deep breath to try and calm yourself down. “What if this was just a joke?”

“Then I’ll go kick his butt,” she responded plainly. “He’ll come. Relax.”

You were about to reply, when a ding of the service bell at the order window had you spinning around, ready to take an order, only for the words to die on your lips when you laid eyes on the well-muscled lifeguard with the fuzzy black ears just outside the order window, sending a grin your way.

“Here to pick up my order,” he said, leaning an arm against the window.

“Your… order?” you replied, too entranced by his appearance to properly make use of your brain.

“A pretty girl promised me her number if I came by,” he replied, looking down at you through his sunglasses.

“I… right… I…” You turned back quickly to see Taliyah staring expectantly at you, mouthing the word number at you. Right.

With slightly shaky hands, you reached for the small notepad at the front counter, taking that and a pen in hand and trying not to focus on the fact that Sett was watching you as you began to write.

Double-checking that the number was right, you handed the paper to him, your fingers touching as he took it from you. Remembering about your other promise, you reached over to grab the lifeguard jacket from the counter beside you. You went to hand him his jacket, surprised when he didn’t take it from you.

“What time do you get off?” he asked, and you answered a quiet six. “Give it back to me then.”

With a short wave and a grin, Sett made a show of stowing the phone number in his pocket before sauntering off and leaving you standing there slack-jawed.

“See? Was that so hard?” Taliyah called from her seat at the ice machine. “Now you just have to keep it together for your date.”

“I don’t know if I can,” you said, leaning back against the counter.

“You did last night, didn’t you?” she countered. “He’s just a guy. A really hot guy, but still. Don’t freak yourself out. You deserve a nice guy. It’s just a bonus that he has more abs than spiders have legs!”

You let out an amused huff. Taliyah was right, as she always was. You needed to get over yourself and let yourself have a good time tonight.”

But for now, you had customers to deal with. You and Taliyah let out a shared groan as you saw the nightmare mom and her army of brats heading towards you. You both returned to your posts, hoping their overly-complicated orders would be right on the first try this time.

 Taliyah let out a yawn, stretching her arms high above her head before beginning the process of cleaning up for the day. After the last customer left, you hastily closed the order window, not wanting to give anyone the chance to come and beg about how it was only five minutes past closing and they’ve been wanting a banana split all day. You had learned your lesson from that mistake on day two.

Once the order windows were closed and locked, you joined Taliyah at the side counter, helping to return all the different containers of toppings to their rightful places. You found your hands moving slower, your nerves slowing you down in order to prolong the inevitable.

Taliyah eventually got tired of your pitiful attempt at stalling for time and gently removed the container of blue sprinkles from your grasp. “Just go, I’ll finish up here.”

“Are you sure?” you asked, and Taliyah sent you an unimpressed look. “Okay, fine, I’m going, I’m going.”

“I hope you know I expect all the details later!” she grinned as you made your way to the door, hesitating with your hand on the door handle for only a moment before opening the door.

It was mercifully less warm outside today than it had been yesterday, not to mention that you were also minus a heavy mascot costume. Yesterday hadn’t ended too badly for you, but you would still prefer to not end today in a hospital if you exacerbated your current heat-sensitive state.

You weren’t sure if you preferred if Sett was already there, or if you got there first to wait for him; neither option seemed to abate your nerves. But of course, the lifeguard was prompt as always, leaning against one of the beams that held up the awning above the order window.

You didn’t think you had been making much noise walking along the sand, but he seemed to hear you, turning to face you with a grin as you approached.

“Ready?” he asked as you came to a stop before him, tucking some of your hair behind your ear in an effort to keep your cool.

“Yeah,” you answered, impressed that your voice hadn’t come out squeaky with how nervous you were.

“Good,” he replied, before his grin turned teasing. “Was half expectin’ ya to come on our date in that rat costume.”

“Poro!” you corrected again, trying not to get flustered by his mention of this being a date. You weren’t sure what else it would be, but you couldn’t help the butterflies that fluttered in your stomach when he had acknowledged the obvious.

He surprised you by taking your hand, pulling you along with him as you tried desperately not to stumble and fall into the sand.

The beach crowd was beginning to thin out, people heading home or to one of the many beachfront restaurants nearby. Watching as a kid packed up his sand toys, you wondered if one of those restaurants was where you were headed as well. Sett hadn’t told you anything about what the plan was, and you found yourself curious when he led you to the bright white lifeguard office.

At first, you had thought that maybe he had forgotten something, at least until you followed him into the small building to see what looked to be the table that had previously held all the first aid kits, now decked out in a soft-looking purple picnic blanket. On top of the makeshift picnic table was a spread of various tasty-looking finger foods, the scene completed by two chairs pulled up to the table, cushions with a starfish pattern placed on the seats.

You were perhaps too dumbfounded by the sight, as you snapped out of it to Sett calling your name, looking over at him to see him looking surprisingly tense. You should probably say something, you realized.

“It looks great,” you said, meaning every word as you looked over the table. “Are those cabbage rolls?”

“Ma helped me make ‘em,” Sett explained, looking bashful for the first time since you had met him as he raised an arm to scratch at the back of his neck. “Helped me with all of this, actually. Never done anythin’ like this before.”

“You mean a picnic?” you asked curiously.

Sett chuckled. “Picnics. Dates. Not a lotta women ‘round here who wanted anythin’ to do with a fatherless half-breed.”

You had a hard time believing that; you had noticed several mothers checking him out as they packed their family’s stuff to leave the beach. But the hint of something sad in his eyes made you reconsider. You had no memory of seeing someone like him that summer you had spent here, but it wasn’t like that was a surprise to you. You and Taliyah had been in your own little world at that time, only ever spending time with each other.

“Well I’m excited to try your cooking,” you said, figuring a change of subject was for the best.

Sett grinned as he sat down. “Should be decent. Haven’t poisoned anyone since high school.”

Your eyes widened, hand freezing on its path to grab a cabbage roll, startled eyes darting to his.

Sett let out a bark of laughter at your alarmed face. “Relax. Wouldn’t poison ya. Maybe those kids that keep swimmin’ into the boating zone, but not you.”

“Thanks… I think?” you replied, biting your lip as you stared down at the cabbage rolls, weighing your options.

“Wasn’t real poison anyways,” he scoffed, taking some rolls from himself. “Not my fault sugar and salt look the same.”

You laughed, grabbing some food for yourself at last. “I suppose they kinda do.”

“Ma didn’t wanna hurt my feelings, but I knew when I tried some myself,” he explained.

“It was nice of her to try,” you offered.

“Too nice,” he said. “Ma is always too nice. Never said anythin’ bad about my old man, even after what he did. Had to work three jobs for years because of that bastard, but not a word.”

“Well I’m sure she’s glad she has you,” you commented. “Even if you give her food poisoning sometimes.”

“Once,” he corrected, taking a bite. “Learned my lesson the first time.”

You followed his lead, finding the food to be entirely poison-free, and actually the best home-cooked meal you had eaten in a long time. The conversation moved to swapping work stories, and you were unsurprised to find out that the mother and her the demon children had been a thorn in Sett’s side as well.

“They really buried sleeping sunbathers in sand?”

“Five times in a day one time,” Sett grouchily confirmed. “Last time Braum went to handle it. Said I would bury those little assholes under the sand if I had to go yell at them one more time.”

You sympathized with his pain. You felt lucky that you had only experienced the tip of the annoyingness iceberg with that group of little terrors.

“Braum?” you inquired as you both left the lifeguard office, the beach now fully dark.

“Fellow lifeguard,” he answered, nonchalantly taking your hand in his as you made your way off the beach. “Bald, giant moustache, even bigger than me. Better at the whole gentle-but-firm thing than I am.”

“Oh, I think I’ve seen him before. He comes by for poro pops sometimes,” you said, mind drawing a picture of the surprisingly friendly man in the small purple swim bottoms with a weakness for poro-shaped ice pops. “So are you the head lifeguard then?”

Sett considered your question. “Guess I am the boss of ‘em. All of the other lifeguards are always comin’ at me with problems to solve. The extra pay doesn’t hurt either if I wanna keep momma from feelin’ like she has to work.”

“Say thank you to her from me for the dinner. It was really good,” you said as you passed by the familiar tacky souvenir shop.

“She’ll be happy to hear it,” he replied with a soft smile that made your heart thump in your chest. “I know she wishes she had more to cook for than just me.”

You both came to a stop before Taliyah’s house, and you sneakily glanced over just to make sure Taliyah wasn’t peeking out from a window, which she wasn’t. You turned your focus back to Sett, only to find him closer than he had just been. How was he so good at sneaking up on you?

A large hand came up to cup your jaw, thumb brushing against your cheek, and your face was tilted up towards Sett’s. You were glad it was dark out, because otherwise you knew your reddening cheeks would be obvious.

“Still afraid of me?” he asked, voice low, lips so close to yours that you could make out a small scar that crossed over his bottom lip.

“No,” you answered, making no move to pull away as you stared up into his eyes. “Not unless I was about to taste your high school cooking.”

“Smart,” he replied with a smirk. “But I’m talkin’ about right now, because if you don’t turn and run into that house, I’m gonna kiss you.”

Your bag almost tumbled from your grasp, but you held fast as you stared at Sett, whose own had already become half-lidded. You had no words to describe how much you didn’t want to run right now, so you didn’t use any, instead angling your face further upwards, trying to make your willingness abundantly clear.

With a grin, he leaned down and kissed you.

Pulling back slightly, he dove back in, his other hand coming to your waist to pull you against him. You happily leant into him, your hands on his firm chest.

When he pulled back again, you opened your eyes at last, feeling almost as dizzy as right before you had passed out from heat stroke.

Sett looked content, and you were only hoping you looked half as composed as he did right now. He leaned back in to give you one more peck before pulling back from you entirely, the cold from the air outside immediately apparent as soon as you were minus his warm hands against your skin.

“Think I’ll stop by tomorrow,” he said. “Been cravin’ a cherry snowball for some reason lately.”

 Sett was a man of his word, you learned, though you were less happy to see him the next day when he asked if he could order a cherry snowball served like last time, and then laughed as you had proceeded to sputter like a broken machine.

His visits became daily, sometimes bringing Braum with him, who continued to surprise you with the sheer amount of poro pops he was able to consume in one sitting. Quite a few nights a week, you had found yourself all around Port Navori with the half-Vastayan lifeguard. You were surprised at how supportive Taliyah was being, considering you had originally come here to spend time with her.

“Gives me more time to surf,” she answered with a shrug when you had asked her. “And maybe that boyfriend of yours can convince you to stay here after the summer is over.”

“Boyfriend?” you yelped, and Taliyah raised an eyebrow.

“You aren’t? I thought he would have made it official by now. It’s been over two weeks… have you guys even done it?”

“Taliyah!” you scolded her, switching back to professional mode as a group of people approached the stand.

As you helped prepare their orders, you couldn’t help but think about what she had said. You and Sett had kissed quite a lot actually, but he had yet to do more than that. But it was far too embarrassing a subject for you to have the confidence to broach, so you had resolved yourself to just be content with things as they were.

It was just your luck that right then was when Sett had decided to make his daily visit to the stand, approaching the counter as the other group left.

Taliyah apparently wasn’t done pestering you for the day as she sped to meet him at the counter before you could get there yourself.

“Hey!” she greeted Sett with a sly smile as you stood frozen behind her, nervous about her motivations. “You’re on your break, right?”

Sett raised an eyebrow. “What about it?”

“Well,” she said, in the voice you knew meant that she wanted something. “There’s a surfing contest I entered, and it’s almost my turn and it won’t even take that long and–”

“Tali!” you interrupted, rushing over to the counter.

“All I need is an hour,” Taliyah insisted, before pulling you beside her at the counter. “And she needs some help while I’m gone since lunchtime is when most of the people come by.”

“I’m fine, I–”

“I’m in,” Sett cut in, eyeing you with almost palpable smugness.

“Awesome!” Taliyah replied, immediately shucking her apron and hat onto the floor in her haste to get out the door. “Have fun, see you after I win!”

“Taliyah!”

Your call of her name fell on deaf ears as she already had her board and was out the door, leaving you standing at the counter with Sett still leaning against the counter.

Sett reached up to pull his sunglasses off, tucking them into his packet, his golden eyes fully uncovered and sparkling with mischief, the sight alone making you feel weary.

“Well? You gonna invite me in?” he asked. “Not sure I’d fit through the window.”

You scrambled to meet him at the back door, not wanting him to try and get into the shop through the order window that was less wide than he was. It was a strange feeling to open the back door of the shop to a guy that was almost too tall for the doorway, and another thing entirely to try and corral him into behaving as you tried to keep the ice cream stand functioning while Taliyah was gone.

“Aren’t lifeguards supposed to set a good example for others?” you huffed, wiping ice from your apron. At least he hadn’t made things truly equal and put cherry syrup on the ball of shaved ice he had pressed against your neck.

“Not when I’m off the clock,” he answered. “Besides, it’s my once in a lifetime chance to see what workin’ one of these is like.”

It would definitely be only one time if you had anything to say about it. If the almost-hour with him here had taught you anything, it was that Sett was not cut out to work in an ice cream shop.

The scoops of ice cream he doled out were easily twice the size of the ones Taliyah did, which made for happy customers, but a less happy bottom line if he was here for more than an hour. He was also lacking Taliyah’s patience, and you were forced to sideline him when an especially picky middle-aged woman came by who insisted you remake her smoothie four times until it had an acceptable pH level. The woman’s complaints had miraculously stopped the moment Sett had approached the window himself, becoming so invested in flirting with the handsome lifeguard that she had snatched her next smoothie attempt from you without complaint, not even glancing your way as she batted her eyes at him, only leaving when he excused himself with an excuse of needing to make more orders.

You approached Sett to check on him and found yourself pulled down into his lap as he leaned back in the chair.

Huffing, he pulled you against him, nuzzling against your neck. “Don’t know how you deal with that. Couldn’t pay me to make her damn smoothie one more time.”

“You get used to it,” you replied. “Don’t you deal with worse as a lifeguard?”

“Yeah,” he grunted. “But nothin’ sayin’ I gotta be nice when I deal with ‘em.”

“That’s true,” you laughed.

“If anyone complains, they can go somewhere else. Ain’t another beach within a hundred miles as well-run as this one,” he bragged, kissing at your neck.

As much as you were enjoying his sudden affection, you knew time was running low until Taliyah would return. You made to pull back to tell Sett that, but were instead pulled into a kiss that took you a few breathless moments to find the strength to escape.

“This Friday,” he murmured, face inches from yours. “There’s a party at the pool. You should come with me.”

You had heard about the exclusive pool parties on this beach from Taliyah, but hadn’t expected to ever get an invite. The pool, which was at the far end of the beach from the ice cream stand, was as exclusive as it got. Gated with walls so high that you couldn’t see in, it was the membership-only place to be for all of the elite in the beach town of Port Navori.

“Is that… okay?” you asked hesitantly.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” he countered, and you didn’t really have an answer. “It’ll be fine. Come. Have some people I wanna introduce ya to.”

The door burst open at the same time as you nodded your agreement, revealing Taliyah clutching both her dripping board as well as a shiny blue ribbon.

“You won?” you asked, trying to disentangle yourself from Sett, who reluctantly let you up.

“Easily!” Taliyah gloated. “Nobody else stood a chance. So how were things here?”

“The money ain’t worth the drama of this place,” Sett griped.

Taliyah laughed. “Smoothie lady come back with a vengeance?”

“I’ll take kids buryin’ sunbathers up to their ears over this any day,” he replied with a grimace, standing up and stretching.

At his mention of ears, Taliyah had brought both hands up to her own head about where Sett’s were on his head, and you quickly waved at her to cut it out before he saw. Thankfully she did, but you could tell that you were going to get asked if you had pet his ears yet as soon as his fuzzy ears were out of earshot.

“I’ll text ya the time when I know it,” Sett said, giving you a quick kiss on the head and a two-fingered salute to Taliyah before heading out the back door.

“So?” Taliyah asked, pulling the chair up to the ice cream station after she had stashed her prize ribbon in her bag. “Are they as soft as they look?”

“I didn’t pet them,” you answered.

“It’s been over two weeks!” she complained. “Has he at least asked you to be his girlfriend yet?”

You shook your head. “He did invite me to a pool party with him on Friday at that fancy pool.”

“Really?” Taliyah responded, eyes wide. “You have to tell me what it’s like! I mean, I’ve seen satellite photos, but it’s not the same…”

“I’ll probably be too nervous to remember any of it,” you grumbled.

“This is your chance!” Taliyah encouraged. “By Friday it’ll be three weeks. You need to ask him if he sees you as his girlfriend or not.”

You reeled back, waves of anticipatory anxiety rolling over you. “I don’t want to scare him off. What if this is just casual to him and I’m too dumb to see it?”

“Then you’ll know,” she replied. “I know you. It’ll eat you up if you put this much energy into a guy without knowing how he feels about you. So ask. If he says no, then at least you’ll have an entire store’s worth of ice cream to drown yourself in after!”

Taliyah was right. She was always right. You knew that you couldn’t keep whatever this was up without knowing where you stood with him. The more time you spent with Sett, the more you wanted, and if he intended to keep things casual, you would rather know sooner so you could make an informed decision.

So that would be the plan then. Go to the party, have a good time (and get some photos of the pool for Taliyah) and then ask Sett about the state of your relationship. Sounded easy in theory. You could only hope you could muster up the courage to go through with the plan when the time came.

 After hearing that the party was to start at four, Taliyah had gone all out, closing the stand at two so she could help you get ready to impress the snobs. You hadn’t put up too much of a fight, happy to have her help and her company, as your nerves only climbed higher the closer it got to four o’clock.

“You’ll be fine,” Taliyah said as she styled your hair. “You’ll only feel worse if you don’t get an answer from him. And with how good you’ll look at the party, he won’t be able to say no!”

“Thanks, Tali,” you replied gratefully. “I promise I’ll get you a bunch of photos of the pool. And whatever else you want.”

“What I want is for you to stay here for good,” she said. “So really I’m just doing myself a favor by helping you. This place has been a hundred times more bearable since you’ve been here, and I want it to stay that way.”

“Still,” you persisted. “I feel bad that you’re going to so much trouble. If you want anything, just let me know.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Taliyah dismissed with a wave of her hand. “You should get going, don’t wanna be late to the fancy pool party.”

She practically shoved you out the door, and then you were alone, walking down the mostly-empty sidewalk. As you walked along the street, you couldn’t help but dwell on the possibilities. What would happen at the party? What would Sett say?

If he told you that he wasn’t looking for anything serious, what would you do? It was hard to have an answer for until you were in the moment, since a lot of it would depend on what Sett’s answer would be.

You walked through the parking lot, and then onto the beach, passing by kids building sandcastles and games of beach volleyball as you walked towards the end of the beach where the pool was. As you made your way to the fancier end of the beach, you began to notice the differences that marked the split between here and the side of the beach that you were usually on.

The shops on this side of the beach were much fancier, the sand littered with designer beach chairs and umbrellas. It was crazy just how different two ends of one beach could be.

The pool was noticeable from a great distance, or at least the wall white walls that surrounded it were. At least you weren’t going to get lost and miss the party entirely.

You approached the pristine white stairs that led from the beach up to the pool entrance, equal parts excited and apprehensive. The entrance was an open doorway, covered by a deep blue curtain and guarded by a muscled bouncer in white. The sight alone was intimidating; why hadn’t you just asked Sett to meet you beforehand?

You plastered a reluctant smile on your face before approaching the man. “Hi, I–”

“Name,” he interrupted, not looking up from his clipboard, sunglasses too dark for you to see his eyes.

Well it wasn’t like you hadn’t expected some level of standoffishness from the elite side of the beach. Keeping your smile up, you told him your name, waiting the prerequisite few moments for him to leaf through the list.

He seemed to have found what he was looking for, as his hand with the clipboard went to his side and he moved over to the curtain, pulling it to one side to allow you to enter. He had said nothing further, but seemed to be staring in your direction, so you took that as your cue and walked towards the now-open entryway and into the pool.

The entryway led into a hallway with pristine white walls, soft lighting hanging overhead. You could begin to hear chatter as you got closer to the end of the hallway, exiting into an explosion of sight and sound.

The pool was huge, and there seemed to be an intricate gold pattern on the tiles at the bottom. The pool was surrounded by lounge chairs and umbrellas, tropical foliage bordering the inner walls around the pool.

There were people all over, in and out of the pool. There was also a bar in the center which seemed to be very popular, as many people were carrying around intricate-looking cocktails.

More than the scenery or the people, your eyes were scanning the area for Sett. You checked your phone again to make sure, finding that it was the time he had told you to be here for. Maybe he was just running late or…

Your rising concern was broken up by the tap of designer wedges on the granite heading your way. You looked up from your phone to see two girls heading towards you, one of which you realized you had seen before.

The stuck-up redhead that had been the reason you had been out on the beach to spill the snowball on Sett in the first place was striding towards you, not a hair out of place underneath her likely-expensive sun hat. At her side was a lilac-haired woman in a swimsuit with a plunging neckline that was color blocked with various shades of purple. Together they made quite a striking pair, but your previous encounter with the redhead had you wishing that Sett would get here soon to save you from the impending conversation.

“Look, Sarah,” the purple-haired one sneered as they came to a stop before you. “So eager to pretend she’s one of us that she rushed right over.”

You took a step back, but that only seemed to embolden them.

Sarah lowered her sunglasses, staring at you like you were in her way. “Sad when they don’t know their place, Syndra.”

“Sett invited me here,” you replied defensively.

The women exchanged a pointed look before Sarah raised an eyebrow at you, a hand on her hip. “You ever think about why that was?”

“What?” you replied, unsure of what she was getting at.

“She doesn’t get it,” Syndra said with a cruel undertone in her voice that unnerved you.

“Look around,” Sarah said sharply. “Really look. Do half the people here look like they belong?”

You looked around, not sure what you were supposed to be seeing. A man with a hook-nose sat at the pool bar, flanked by women in skimpy bikinis. A humanoid form that seemed to be made of water conversed poolside with a large purple man in a ratty straw hat who was holding a ukulele. What were you supposed to be noticing?

“Sett is too nice to break it to you, so the job falls to me,” Sarah said with a smirk. “This is our annual loser fest. Charity case race. Bring-a-freak-to-work-day.”

“Pig party,” Syndra supplied.

“Yeah, pig party,” Sarah repeated, noticing your confused look. “Don’t know what that is? Poor thing.”

“I don’t–”

“It’s pretty simple,” Sarah interrupted. “We take half the summer to find the biggest freak we can, and then we bring them all together and crown a winner, and by the looks of you, Sett is really going for the top prize.”

You gasped, eyes wide, suddenly feeling like you were going to be sick.

“Aw, you really thought he liked you, huh?” Syndra mocked with fake sweetness.

“He didn’t… he never…” you stammered, clutching your bag to your chest.

“Well duh,” Sarah replied haughtily. “He wanted to win. Do you tell a pig when it’s about to become bacon?”

“What is meaning of this?” Braum accused, storming up to your group. “I have not heard of such a thing!”

“Need-to-know, Braum,” Syndra dismissed.

“And you didn’t need to know,” Sarah added.

You felt numb. This whole time… is that why Sett wouldn’t ask you to be his girlfriend? Why he never did more than kiss you? All this time, he had just seen you as a prize pig for an ugly date contest? It all made sense now, why he had been so desperate to get your number. He had never liked you… it had all been one sick joke. You should’ve known; nobody as attractive as Sett would ever see you as anything but a freak. And was too cowardly to come and tell you the truth to your face.

“Look, she’s crying,” Syndra taunted. “Don’t cry! Soon you’ll be queen pig!”

You couldn’t do this. You couldn’t stay here with all these people who saw you as less than human as your heart was breaking into pieces. You were so, so stupid, now wanting nothing more than to cry in peace. So you did, turning and running as fast as your legs would take you out of this awful place.

“Bye, piggy! We’ll ship you the ribbon!”

You heard Braum shout your name, as well as the cruel laughter of the women, but you didn’t stop running. Not when you got to the beach, nor the parking lot or the tacky souvenir shop, the sayings on the gaudy shirts too blurry to read through your tears. Your feet didn’t stop until you were at the doorstep to Taliyah’s home, out of breath, tears running down your cheeks.

The door opened, Taliyah’s face appearing in the doorway. “Hey, did you forget– wait, what happened?”

 “Settrigh, stay still!”

Sett frowned, but did as his momma requested, allowing her to tie the ends of his hair after she had finished arranging it. He loved his ma dearly, but he really didn’t have time for her to redo his hair ten times right now.

It was getting way too close to the start time he had given you, and with how nervous of a person you were, he had intended to be on time, but that was before his mother had discovered the reason why he was cutting their visit short today.

Ma was aware that he had been seeing someone, had been ever since Sett had needed help making food for their first date.

“You do intend to let me meet her, Settrigh?” she asked, stepping back once she had fixed his hair to her satisfaction.

“Yes, ma,” he answered, standing up from the chair.

He wasn’t exactly surprised by his momma’s eagerness, considering this was the first girl he had ever dated, let alone considered introducing to her. This world was shallow; he had learned that early in life, which may be why he found himself so drawn to a girl who had put her all into having nothing to do with him. You broke up the monotony in this busy beach town and gave him something to look forward to other than seeing his ma for the first time in a long time.

Sett knew he was working on a time limit. You had mentioned that you had planned on only visiting Port Navori for the summer, and the summer was half over already, which meant his chances to convince you to stay were also halved, which is where tonight came in.

He had been taking things slow, not wanting to come on too strong and scare you off like he had watched happen to many a beachfront pick-up artist. He had been unwilling to rush things and lose you, but the slip of the calendar into August had forced his hand.

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a bit apprehensive as to how today would end. How would you take him asking you to be girlfriend? He could only hope that he hadn’t misread you entirely.

He didn’t go to the pool parties often, but it seemed like a good way for him to introduce you to his friends, as they didn’t often all gather outside of those parties. He knew you would likely feel out of place, but Braum would be there, and he intended to stick by your side the entire time. And then after the party, if things went well, then maybe he would end the night with you as his girlfriend, but the party would be the first step.

As he left his ma’s house, he found his mind turning to the party. If you were wearing that red swimsuit you had worn last week, then it was going to be a difficult night for his self-control. His desire to take things slow had really taken a hit then, his only saving grace being ma’s lecture on being a gentleman pounding in his head as he tried not to look at how your chest was half-busting out of your top as you leaned over to pick a thread off of his glove. You were really too hot for your own good, which made him all the more eager to see you.

He knew he was running late, the party having started at least ten minutes earlier. It wasn’t his style to be late, but he was also pretty helpless to defy his ma. He only hoped that you hadn’t given up on him and left.

He took the shortest route possible, which included a short trek through some bushes that left him more leafy than he would’ve liked, but it was all forgotten when he spotted the stairs that led up to the pool entrance.

He was able to bypass the doorman who was only half as big as he was and seemed to be wary of interacting with him, stepping out of the way as Sett approached. He pushed past the curtain, hurried steps heading down the hallway. You hadn’t been waiting outside, so clearly you had been able to get in. He tried to fight back the excited grin that wanted to take over his face, but it was a losing battle as he entered the pool area, eyes immediately scanning the area for you.

“Your cruelty is unimaginable!” Braum’s booming voice carried easily through the air. “That girl has done nothing to be deserving of such treatment!”

What had Braum so worked up? Generally he was an easy guy to get along with, easily Sett’s most tolerable co-lifeguard. Not much phased him, which was a little concerning. But Sett had other priorities, the most important being locating you.

You weren’t in the pool, and didn’t seem to be sitting in any of the chairs. Maybe you had gone to the bathroom and would be right back–

“Well how else was she supposed to know Sett is too good for her? She clearly wasn’t going to see reality without a little help.”

Sett’s ears perked up, his attention snagged by the mention of his name, but especially by the latter half of the sentence. He turned around to see Sarah Fortune with Syndra at her side, who had her arms crossed and looked bored. In front of them was Braum, looking more irate than Sett had ever seen him.

“What’s this about?” Sett asked in a warning tone as he approached, the fur of his ears standing on end, leaving him feeling like he wasn’t going to like where this was headed.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Sarah dismissed, flipping her hair behind her shoulder with a flick of her head. “We just showed a daydreaming little clout chaser the way out.”

Sett’s eyebrow rose. “A what?”

“Your ice cream girl,” Braum cut in. “These two have told her that this is a party for pigs. They have told her that you intend to bring her here to win ugly contest, and then she had run off.”

“What?” Sett growled dangerously, but the two women remained nonplussed.

“We did you a favor,” Syndra stressed. “If we get a reputation of letting just anyone in, then we’ll lose all status as members of the ruling class of the food chain. So we decided to throw this little pig party to make you come back to your senses.”

“You’re one of us, Sett,” Sarah added. “This pool doesn’t have room for little nobodies who don’t know their place.”

“Rather be a nobody than whatever the hell this is,” Sett snarled angrily, the full knowledge of the truth turning his bad feeling to a mix of simmering fury at the two women, and worry for you. He hated himself for being late and allowing this to happen to you. “Save your concern and don’t talk to me again.”

“But we were–” Syndra started, but Sett wasn’t in the mood.

“If you even look at her again, you’ll have me to deal with. And unlike that girl you just bullied outta here, I ain’t so nice.”

With that, Sett turned on his heel and stormed towards the exit to go do his best to fix this mess.

Braum quickly followed behind him. “My friend, I am sorry I could not stop them in time.”

“Ain’t your fault,” Sett replied. “Wish I’d have known. Gotta go see if she’ll even talk to me at this point.”

“I wish you luck,” Braum said as exited the hallway and emerged out into the sunny late afternoon.

Sett parted from Braum, taking the stairs two at a time as he surveyed the area, trying to see if he could catch sight of you. He quickly crossed the sand, making a beeline for the ice cream stand, even if it seemed like a longshot. He passed by a group of kids throwing sand on an older man sleeping on a towel, but ignored it and kept going. If anything was on fire, Braum could put it out. Sett’s sole focus right now was finding you and hoping you’d let him explain himself.

His chest felt heavy with anger and regret. How could he have let this happen? He hadn’t realized how cruel those women could be, and it had led to them making you believe he thought you were some freak he was using for convenience, which could not be farther from the truth.

Seeing those two talk about you like you were a pariah had brought him right back to when he was younger, to what he had endured at the hands of people just like Syndra and Sarah. People who had ostracized him, did their best to make him feel like he didn’t have a place here. Sett-the-beast-boy-bastard; the words had haunted him for a long time.

He had grown tough in response to the years of bullying, but you hadn’t. This was your first exposure to how awful this place could be. He and ma had dealt with it for years after pa ran off; he had nearly gotten expelled from school after a particularly bad fight with a kid that had made one too many nasty comments about his ma to his face.

Sett stopped, letting out a frustrated sigh as he saw the large closed sign on the front windows of the ice cream shop. So that was a bust. Without giving the store a second look, he continued on towards the rocks and then up to the parking lot.

There was only one other place to try. Chest tight, Sett followed the same path he had the night of your first date, the same path he took every time he walked you home. The walk there was one long blur, his feet unable to stop moving until the familiar house was in sight. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sett approached the front door, rapping his knuckles against the wood. When no answer came, he tried again, and after a few moments, the door opened to reveal Taliyah, who glared once she caught sight of him.

“What do you want?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Is she here? I need to talk to her,” Sett said, urgency bleeding into his voice.

Taliyah sighed, stepping outside and closing the door behind her. “You’re lucky I’m even talking to you after this. You don’t deserve to talk to her if that’s how you let your friends treat her.”

“They ain’t my friends,” Sett argued. “If I’d have known they were gonna pull that shit–”

A sly smile lifted the corner of Taliyah’s lips. “Good answer. If you had said anything else, then I’d be slamming the door in your face right about now.”

“Then can I–”

“Talk to her?” Taliyah interrupted. “Nope. Not a good idea.”

Sett’s face must have taken on a darker quality, because Taliyah retreated back a step, raising her hands in the air in mock surrender. “Relax, tough guy. I didn’t mean it like that. But she’s a little too upset to talk to you right now.”

The information only made Sett feel worse. He wanted so badly to talk to you, to do what he had wanted to do before this mess had happened and make you his girlfriend. You had never felt farther away than you did right now.

“Give me some time to calm her down. I can get her to be at the pier at seven, then the rest is up to you,” she said, levelling him with a stern look. “I know this wasn’t your fault. That’s the only reason I’m giving you a chance. She really likes you, so try not to make her feel any worse than she already does. Bye.”

And then Taliyah was gone, retreating back into the house and leaving Sett standing on the doorstep.

 “Brought you some water,” Taliyah announced as she entered the room, glass in hand.

“Who was at the door?” you asked.

She shrugged. “Someone looking for my dad. Told them he’s not here.”

You nodded. It was probably too much to hope that it would be Sett. You winced as you thought his name. You hated how much you wanted to see him, someone who had used you to win some popular kid ugly date contest.

So it had all been a lie then? All the things he had told you about his life, his family? Every time he had kissed you, was he picturing kissing one of those girls instead? Is this really what popular people did for fun? You felt stupid for falling for it, for falling for him. You were so stupid.

With some prompting from Taliyah, you took a sip of the water. After she had made sure you had drank the whole glass, she sat down next to you, taking the glass from you and setting it down on the bedside table.

“I should have known,” you croaked.

“Known that popular girls are bitchy? Maybe,” she responded.

“That it was too good to be true,” you corrected.

“You’re acting like you’re eighty,” she scolded. “There are other guys out there. Ones who don’t have shitty friends.”

“Yeah, I know,” you replied. “But I really liked him. And I didn’t even get to pet his stupid fuzzy ears.”

“Well if you’re joking, then you must be doing okay,” she said. “How about we go do something to take your mind off of things?”

You frowned, and she rolled her eyes. “Not right this second. I’ll give you until six-thirty to get yourself ready to go.”

Taliyah got up off the bed and headed towards the door. “I’m not gonna let your night be ruined because of a couple of snobs.”

She closed the door, leaving you alone with your thoughts again. You laid back on the bed, intent on taking some time before you got ready to just veg out. As much as the notion of going out didn’t excite you right now, it was probably better than being a mopey mess all night. There would be other guys; it was just a shame that you had liked this one so much.

Two hours later, you were walking down the street with Taliyah. Your getting ready to go had consisted of washing your face of all the smeared makeup from your crying, brushing your hair into a semi-decent state and then watching dumb cat videos on your phone until you felt like you didn’t want to crawl in a hole and die.

Taliyah had assured you that you didn’t look bad, which you might have believed if you hadn’t seen yourself in the mirror as you were leaving, but at this point you were beyond caring about how you looked right now.

Taliyah had refused to tell you where she was taking you, and so you were forced to follow her down the familiar path towards the beach, unsure of where it was you were being led. Part of you was worried that you might run into Sett, but then the more rational side of you took over; he was likely back at that pool, partying it up with those girls and lamenting that you had run off before he could win his ugly date prize. It was crazy to realize just how flawed your judgment had been.

You had expected to be walking onto the beach, as it was where you two usually spent most of your time, but Taliyah didn’t go to the parking lot, instead heading towards the rockier section of the beach. You hadn’t been over here before, only vaguely aware of the area as a prime fishing location, bait shops and the like lining the street across from this part of the beachfront.

She took you past the fishing spots, down to near the end of the beach, where there was a small pier that went about thirty feet out into the sea. Like most of the beach at this time on a weekday, the pier was empty, most of the fishermen also having headed out with their day’s catches.

Taliyah led you down the pier to the small bench at the end of it, pushing you to sit down. When she didn’t do the same, you looked up at her, confused.

“I’ll be right back,” she said. “I’m gonna go grab something to help cheer you up. You just enjoy the view for a bit.”

You decided to follow her advice, staring out at the water. There wasn’t much to see other than some boats in the far distance and some buoys bobbing in the water that marked the swimming section from the boating section.

It was kind of nice in a way, the calm waters helping you to relax as you watched the waves roll in and out. You stayed like that for a while as you allowed yourself to zone out until you began to wonder how much time had passed. Pulling out your phone, you saw that it had been almost twenty minutes, and yet there was no sign of Taliyah as you looked around.

You had assumed that she went to get you two some food, which likely was still the case. Some of the places here tended to have rather large dinnertime crowds, so a twenty minute plus wait wasn’t exactly unusual. You had no idea where she had gone, so all you could do was wait. If she wasn’t back by seven, you would just text her and ask what was up.

You let yourself be taken in again by the rolling waves as you continued to wait, trying to recall what kinds of restaurants there were on the beachfront. It couldn’t be that fish and chips place; Taliyah had spent a full half hour last week complaining about how stale their food was. Or the taco place, since it had been closed for renovations for the past week. You had been trying to think of a third option when your concentration was broken by someone taking a seat next to you on the bench.

You looked over, expecting to see Taliyah back with some food, but instead nearly jolted off of the bench when next to you was the very man you were out here trying to forget.

Just seeing him when you were feeling so pathetic sent a jolt of you weren’t sure what up your spine, your flight instincts screaming at you as you made to stand up, only to be stopped by a firm grip on your wrist.

“I know you don’t wanna see my face right now,” Sett said. “But I can explain.”

“Explain what?” you replied meekly. “Those girls explained enough.”

“I haven’t,” he insisted. “Just listen for a minute. Then you can leave, or punch me, whatever you want.”

You took a look around, still not seeing Taliyah anywhere. You weren’t sure what he could have to say that would make much of a difference, but you sat back down, and he let go of your wrist.

You turned reluctantly to face Sett, waiting for him to talk first.

“Never told ‘em to do somethin’ like that,” he said gruffly. “Didn’t even know about it ‘til I got there and you weren’t there.”

“But they said…” you started, taking a breath to keep yourself calm as you prepared to recount the hurtful words. “They said you were only spending time with me so you could win their whole ugly date contest.”

Sett’s eyes narrowed, the skin of his knuckles tightening on his curling fists. “First I’ve heard of it. Ain’t no way you’d ever place in an ugly contest anyways.”

His words threw you. “Wait, so you don’t think I’m ugly?”

He snorted, a grin playing at his lips. “Well I was plannin’ on askin’ you to be my girlfriend after the party, so nah, I don’t think you’re ugly.”

“You–” you gasped, pulse skyrocketing. This was not how you expected this conversation to go. You were half convinced you were experiencing auditory hallucinations until Sett reached over, pulling you into his side.

“This is my fault,” he spoke lowly. “If I hadn’t been late, I’d have been there to stop that from happening.”

“What happened when you got there?” you asked quietly.

“Braum told me what happened, then those two tried tellin’ me they did it for my sake,” he growled. “I thought I was used to seein’ through bullies from how I grew up. Doesn’t matter now, they won’t be botherin’ you anymore unless they wanna find out why momma says I got her temper.”

“Why were you late anyways?” you asked.

He groaned, leaning his head back against the bench. Even with the sun mostly set, you could clearly see a pink tone to his cheeks.

“What is it?” you pressed, curious about why the intimidating lifeguard was suddenly being so shy.

He let out a long sigh, finally meeting your eyes. “Ma was doin’ my hair.”

You looked him over, realizing that his hair did seem to be tied differently today. The only thing that looked the same was his ears, just as fluffy as they always looked. You could almost hear Taliyah’s voice screaming in your head to pet them. Speaking of Taliyah…

“Taliyah!” you gasped, trying to extract yourself from Sett’s grip, but failing. If Taliyah was to come and see you here with the guy she had taken you out to forget about… “My friend, she’ll be back any second and–”

Sett laughed, and you were immediately left with the feeling that you were missing something.

“She ain’t comin’ back,” he said amusedly. “I’ve got you all to myself for the night… if that’s what you want.”

“Taliyah set me up?” you breathed, not having suspected a thing.

“I asked her to,” Sett explained. “Wasn’t about to let you go ‘cuz of some shallow assholes.”

Taliyah was much sneakier than you had given her credit for, you realized, but you couldn’t bring yourself to mind right now. Though that didn’t mean you weren’t hungry, your previous stress melting away and removing the only distraction from your empty stomach.

“So,” you hummed. “Are you still going to ask me to be your girlfriend?”

You still had no idea what would happen by the end of the summer, but you really wanted this. You wanted him.

“Yeah, was plannin’ on it.”

 You had thought about it all the way back to Sett’s house. Was it really for the best to go back to your city when the summer was over? Back to your parents’ house to find an equally demanding and unfulfilling job?

The more you thought about it, the more you wanted to stay. Taliyah was here, Sett was here, and other than your brief nasty encounter at the pool earlier, this summer had been the best one you’d had in a long time.

Sett seemed intent on giving you more reasons to stay as he was on you pretty much as soon as you entered his house. You had been standing in the entryway, looking at a picture of what must have been Sett and his mother when he caught you off guard, picking you up from behind.

You yelped, turning your head back to face him just in time for him to dart forward to snatch a kiss.

“You’ll have time to look around later,” he said as he walked down the hall, nudging a door open with his shoulder and then taking you into what looked to be his bedroom.

Once again, you were scarcely granted a look around before Sett had overtaken your attention yet again. You were swiftly carried over and deposited on the bed, Sett eagerly caging your body down against the sheets with his own.

“I wanted to go slow,” he said against your ear. “Didn’t wanna mess things up. But that’s not what you want, is it?”

“No,” you gasped as he snaked a hand under your dress, and then under your swimsuit bottoms. “I… I want…”

“This?” he inquired, thumb brushing against your clit, causing you to jolt against him with a breathy moan. “Waited a long time to hear that.”

Seeking more room to work, Sett pulled back to reach down and pull down your swimsuit bottoms, tossing them to the side. You watched with reddening cheeks as he returned his attention to you, head disappearing under your dress next.

His first lick against your pussy felt back-archingly good, but you didn’t have a lot of room to move with Sett’s hands holding your lower half in place. His tongue felt slightly rough, bringing pricks of pleasure-pain along its path.

Closing your eyes tight, you tried not to squirm, but it was difficult as Sett’s tongue prodded inside you before moving back to sucking at your clit. It felt good, almost too good, but you found yourself wanting more than his mouth against you.

“Sett,” you moaned. “Please…”

You weren’t sure if he got the message until you reached down to grasp at one of his hands. He pulled back from you, wiping one forearm against the wet lower half of his face as he sat back. His position on his knees on the bed allowed you a good look at the decently-sized bulge in the front of his tight swim shorts.

Sett caught your eyes, reaching one hand down to cup his cock through his shorts. “All you, sweetheart. Still think I think you’re ugly?”

You somehow managed to shake your head, speechless from his ardent display of his body. Sett seemed to bask in just how speechless he had made you, a sexy grin overtaking his face as he stared down at you.

“Couldn’t ask for more than this,” he said. “But if you want more…”

He was such a tease. With a burning face, you relented.

“Could you just put it in me please?” you asked, too shy to make eye contact.

“Can do,” he replied, and you could easily hear the smug satisfaction in his voice.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sett stood up from the bed to pull his shorts off, wincing slightly when he pulled the tight fabric over his painfully-hard cock. Tossing the shorts to the floor, his attention quickly returned to you.

Giving his cock a few slow strokes, he watched you sit up on the bed. Feeling a burst in confidence from his display, you reached down to the hem of your dress’ skirt before pulling it up and off your body, Sett’s hungry gold eyes unable to look away from you as you moved onto your swimsuit top.

Once your top was off, Sett struck, pulling you towards him. Sitting at the edge of the bed, he pulled you onto his lap, reaching around to your front to cup your breasts as his mouth went straight to your neck. His hands were warm against the sensitive skin of your breasts, rolling your nipples under his thumbs as his teeth scraped against a sensitive spot on your neck.

You felt his hard cock under you and shifted yourself against it, Sett letting out a deep groan in response. You could feel how wet you were, but this wasn’t enough. You needed to fuck him, needed this building tension to come to a satisfying end for you both.

You turned in his lap, looping your arms around his neck and leaning down to kiss him. Sett was happy to meet tongues with you, one hand resting on your ass until you pulled back from the kiss.

You met eyes with Sett, who began to help you lift yourself up, lining up his cock with his other hand. When he brought you back down onto him, you both sighed as you were fully seated on his cock at last.

“Nothin’ else would feel as good as you,” Sett groaned as he began to help you move and up and then back down onto him. “Never wanted any girl as bad as I want you.”

You were much less coherent, moaning out his name as your hands grasped against his chest. With a further burst of confidence, you reached a hand up to his ear, running your fingers along the fur and enjoying the resulting groan, the next upward thrust of his hips hitting even better into you. Maybe you would leave this out at Taliyah’s interrogation later.

“There,” you moaned as he shifted you in his lap, his cock hitting even deeper inside you. “Right there, Sett.”

“You’re so tight,” he groaned, pulling you down into a rough kiss as he held you close, thrusting up into you as you eagerly moved along with him, needing to make this gorgeous man under you cum.

Sett came first, stilling for a moment before pulling you slightly back to put a finger to your clit, letting you cling to him as you followed him over the edge.

Once you had both come back down from the clouds, you were set back gently on the bed so Sett could run off to grab a cloth to clean you up with. You watched him leave the room, still having a hard time comprehending just how you had ended up this situation.

You definitely had some phone calls to make tomorrow. Your parents would be surprised, but you would probably focus on the Taliyah part rather than the new boyfriend part of your reasoning. Taliyah would be overjoyed for sure; you’d have to thank her for her meddling when you saw her.

As Sett returned, you realized something.

“Wait, is your mom home?” you asked in horror. You hadn’t made any effort to be quiet during sex, forgetting about his mother until he re-entered the room.

Sett laughed at your mortified face. “I don’t live with ma, so no.”

“Oh god,” you breathed in relief. “I was worried I was too…”

“She ain’t here,” he replied as he joined you on the bed, handing you the cloth he had grabbed. “You can be as loud as you want.”

You dropped the cloth, burying your head in your hands, Sett’s amused laughter ringing in your ears as you tried to content with just what you had signed yourself up for.

[fairestwriting]

Lmao so I just had a funky idea xD i hope its alright if I send in a request for it! Can i request Azul, Idia, Jamil, Vil and Jade getting caught checking out their fem crush? xD

+ if you like my writing, you can buy me a ko-fi to support me! 

Azul Ashengrotto

Feels bad doing something like this, genuinely. He wants to be a proper gentleman to you but, wow, it’s gym class, he’s suffering, it’s hot, and you somehow look insanely good in a tank top, with that NRC jersey tied around you waist.

You’ll only catch him off guard in a context like this, he’s usually too guilty and careful -- And when you point it out, he’s quickly flustered. He swears he wasn’t staring at you inappropriately! He’s... just... unused to seeing you in these clothes, is all.

He’s crazy embarrassed about it, face flushed up to the tip of his ears. The more you accuse him, the less sense his excuses make, you can actually get him to the point where he’ll just cover his face and promise he’s sorry like this. (Though I wouldn’t recommend that, he’ll be genuinely upset,)

Idia Shroud

Idia doesn’t want to look, doesn’t want to make this weird, but, but... that’s a skirt with thigh highs, talk about absolute territory. He couldn’t not look at least a little! Plus, you had your back turned, surely it was fine...

Well, it wasn’t fine, because you notice and point it out, and Idia goes from deathly pale to tomato red in just a second -- You’d worry about his health, really -- and he almost shrieks in embarrassment.

He’s apologizing and making excuses at the same time, like he doesn’t know what the hell to say (He really doesn’t). Poor guy’s genuinely scared that you’re gonna think he’s a creep now, he’s already thinking about hiding in his room forever after this...

Will need to hear that it’s not a big deal, or else you won’t be seeing him for at least a week. He’s absolutely mortified.

Jamil Viper

Is very sure he’s being sneaky. You two are walking outside together, it’s hot so you took your blazer off, some of your buttons were already undone... he doesn’t really mean to stare, but it’s tempting, and he doesn’t worry about it since there’s no way you’d see him while you’re not looking at him, so...

Then you laugh at him and say your eyes are up here, and he sputters. Quickly makes up an excuse, saying he was looking at the grass, not at your chest, but it’s a bit wobbly. Master manipulator or not, he got sloppy, and you caught him off guard...

He tries to change the subject right after, latently scared that this would sour things between you. If you press him on the subject, teasing him about staring at your chest, you might actually be able to get him flustered.

Vil Schoenheit

Swears he isn’t checking you out. Really! It’s just, he’s noticed your clothes seemed a bit more form fitting today, he was wondering if you got them tailored? It really did... compliment your figure.

Jolts a little when he’s playfully asked about where he’s looking at, his composure falters for an exact second -- And it comes back quickly, he just mentions that you seemed to put some more effort into getting ready today, the way you arranged your uniform looked good on you.

Vil is so good with these sort of compliments, you might just think you were imagining things. He sways the conversation easily, like he’s done it a million times.

But if you pay attention, you might notice that he’s gone a little pink on the face, embarrassed. Really, how could he just lose track of his stare like this...

Jade Leech

Actually checks you out often. Full on gawks even. But he’s so discreet about it, it’s extremely hard to notice.

It seemed he got careless today, but, well, who could blame him? You were wearing Octavinelle’s dorm uniform for a reason or another (Whether you’re a member, or you’re just playing around with him...) and it looked damn good on you.

This bastard doesn’t actually have any shame, and that shows when you teasingly ask him if he’s checking you out. He chuckles and says that, well, you just look stunning in these clothes, he couldn’t help himself.

Catch Jade staring at you and he’ll use it against you. He’s nearly impossible to fluster, every teasing comment you throw at him will have a rebuttal. You’ll be the one getting flustered instead.

[sabo-has-my-heart]

Hi there love! You're 100(CONGRATS!) follower event sounds really cool and I'd like to request but am not sure if said request would be too convoluted. If so please disregard! If not, could I please ask for a Cerberus!Ace/Sabo/Law x GNReader? Separate bodies of course(if not that would be one beast I would not wanna run into- not even mentioning a 'puppy' monster trio Cerberus XD). With the fluff prompts 3 & 8? Either way, thank you and stay hydrated👍

This took a bit of work to figure out, being a Cerberus, but I like what I came up with. Normally I wouldn’t allow this, because of the mythology, but I’m allowing it for 2 big reasons, 1) Ace, Sabo, Law fluff, 2) Guard Dog! Also, I made this a polyamorous fic as you’re asking for a Cerberus sort of creature made up of 3 hot anime guys and didn’t specify a specific love interest.

Standing in front of a dusty shelf in the dimly lit antique book store, you sighed. You’d been here for hours looking for anything that would help your guardian. Or perhaps it might be better to say guardians. He, they? Were a creature known as a Cerberus, named after the 3 headed dog who guarded the underworld. In truth, a Cerberus had nothing to do with dogs, but 3 people who shared an ‘existence’. Only one could inhabit this plane of existence at any given time, meaning that there were 3 people sharing one plane instead of one body. Watching the 3 was surreal, even if the other 2 weren’t out, they could still hear everything that the 3rd was saying, furthermore, they each had their own bodies and clothes. Ace was a black haired young man with an orange cowboy hat, refused to wear shirts, and black pants. Sabo was a blond with a top hat and what appeared to be noble’s clothes and was a few centimeters taller than Ace. Finally, Law was a dark haired young man in a black speckled white cap, a long, open black coat, blue jeans, a casual t-shirt, and was the tallest of the three. You desperately wanted to help them, to separate them so that they could each live on this plane of existence at the same time rather than sharing it. Unfortunately, the only thing the book store had on ‘Cerberus’ or ‘Guardians’ was the mythological guard dog itself and guardian angels, neither of which were of any help to you. To your left, sitting at a chair with a stack of books next to him was Law. The man was used to spending hours pouring over boring texts, making him perfect for your research.

“Anything?” you asked, looking over at him, your hope dimming. Law looked up from his book, glancing over at you before shaking his head.

“Sorry, Y/n-ya, but I honestly don’t think the information even exists. We’ve been like this since before we can remember, we’ve all just come to terms with the fact that we’re probably not ever going to… break up.” Law answered, massaging the bridge of his nose.

“You make it sound like we’re dating, Law. I mean, I know what you mean, but you could have picked a better word, aren’t you supposed to be some genius, you should know a whole list of words.” Ace said, suddenly sitting in the chair Law had been in literally a split second ago. Ace’s arm was thrown over the back of the chair, rolling his eyes.

“I’m a doctor, that doesn’t make me a genius, Ace-ya!” Law growled, once again sitting in the chair, hands on the edge of the table as he pushed the chair back so he could get up.

“Come on now, you two. We really shouldn’t be bickering. Y/n said they wanted to help us out of this predicament, so we should focus on helping them help us.” Sabo said nervously, hands up in a gesture to calm the two down, even if they weren’t physically there as the blond sat there for a moment, an exasperated look on his face. Ace and Law were often at odds with Sabo in the middle, often trying to settle disputes. He understood Ace and enjoyed the chaos and wild, feral antics of the black haired boy, but he was intelligent, calm, and sometimes collected, more like Law.

“Don’t worry about me, Sabo. I’m fine, I’m just worried about you three. What if you’re stuck like this forever?" It had always sounded like a cursed existence to you, driving you to want to help them.

“Hey, Y/n, it’s alright, really. It’s not as bad as it could be, we don’t mind… uh, too much.” Ace comforted, getting up and walking over to you, placing a hand on your shoulder.

“But I just, I want to help you, I want… I want to…” you chewed nervously on your lip, you didn’t want to deny that you’d fallen for all three of them, but you didn’t want to admit it either. You wanted to spend as much time with all three of them as possible and that meant at least trying to separate them.

“Ace is right, Y/n, you’ve spent so much time looking into this. It’s alright, so long as we get to watch over you, we’re happy.” Sabo added, caressing your cheek, smiling softly at you. You couldn’t help the blush that began to spread over your cheeks at his affectionate gesture, it was sweet. 

“It’s just, I don’t, I wish I could…” you trailed off, looking at the floor nervously.

“Wish you could what, Y/n?” Law asked, placing a finger under your chin and lifting your face up to look him in the eye. Your blush deepened, Law smirking at your reaction. In truth, he already knew how you felt, he was observant like that.

“Y/n-ya, you know I’m not normally one for this kind of moronic fate stuff, but Do you believe in soulmates?” Law asked, surprising you. You couldn’t help but swallow hard and nod. You suddenly found Sabo taking your hand in his, a soft look on his face.

“I think I get what Law’s saying and I agree, We cannot find the words to describe how we feel about you.” Sabo admitted before gently placing a kiss on the back of your fingers. 

“So long as we get to stay with you, we’re happy, truly. Let us stay with you.” Ace pleaded, moving your hand to his cheek so he could nuzzle it.

“We love you, Y/n.” the three said, their imagine flickering between the three so rapidly that they looked like a mirage version of the three of them combined, the sound coming out in all three of their voices. It was the closest to sharing this plane of existence as they’d ever come. You smiled, kissing Sabo on his left cheek under his scar, moving over to Law’s right cheek before finally placing one last kiss on Ace’s forehead.

“I love you three too. I’ll stop looking for an answer, just so I can be with you three.” you agreed, a pair of arms wrapping around you, the arms and body that held you changing at seemingly random intervals, your three loves, a Cerberus, they were certainly a strange creature, but not an unhappy or unwelcome one.

[thesunshinebunny]

Can I ask for the dorm leaders reacting to their S / O asking them to join them in the shower for the first time???

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, oooookkkk, I can see what you did there dear anon.

In my great humble imagination, I'd like to take a dip in the huge bathtub that Kalim surely has in Scarabia. Let me dream, I like to relax in big bathtubs with foam, bubbles, music and incense. Before we begin, I warn you that all characters are +18.

Let’s goooooooooooooo

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

Riddle

Oh dear, you don't know what you just did.

It was a decent proposal to be honest, you just wanted to spend a quality moment with our Queen, but I think the smoke got into his head.

"Riddle, I'm going to take a shower, would you like to join me?"

Puff red as a tomato and about to explode.

You stared at him in disbelief, until you realized your words. Maybe Riddle wasn't ready for that big step.

You entered the bathroom alone, but not before asking for forgiveness.

Now you left Riddle alone with his thoughts, that's much worse.

Your intention was to take a short shower, but with the event that had just occurred, you were eating your head as the water ran down your body.

The longer it took you to get out, the more your anxiety ate you up inside. You would have panicked if you hadn't heard the door open and close almost inaudibly.

Riddle stepped into the shower, standing behind you and circling your waist.

"Please don't turn around, it's still too embarrassing for me, but I can't help but feel calm right now"

Neither of you spoke or moved the rest of the time you stayed in the shower, even forgetting to wash properly. But that 'mistake' was the beginning of multiple long shared showers.

Leona

The lazy lion here wasn’t in his plans to get into the water, much less shower. If you had asked getting into the lounge’s pool, maybe he would have considered it.

He just lay on his bed, about to fall asleep, not caring about your figure in the middle of the room. He didn't care that you were getting irritated every second.

"I don't have the need to bathe, go alone"

He heard you leave and thought he was going to sleep peacefully before you get out of the shower… until an impact on his head dislodged him.

You had thrown dirt all over his hair, spreading over his chest and the bed.

“Now you have a reason to shower. You're dirty"

I recommend you to run to the shower, because the look Leona gave you… I highly doubt that you will make it out alive.

Arriving at the threshold, Leona grabbed you by the legs, placing you on his shoulder and getting under the faucet.

This fucker turned on the shower without letting you remove your clothes first, ending up drenched.

"Ah, my mistake, I think you're a little wet. Let me take off your clothes"

The malicious smirk on his face didn’t give you confidence, and didn’t disappear even when you were both naked under the water.

“You have courage to fill me and my bed with dirt, did you want to take a shower? Now you are going to clean me"

Ah… worth it?

Azul

Did he hear you well? Do you want to take a shower with him?

Oh dear sea witch, help him, he is about to have a neurism.

Azul wasn’t against your proposal itself, he was very concerned about his physique.

And what if you don't like what you see? would you are disappointed? And if it disgusts you to look at him naked or semi naked?

Thousands of questions ran through his head, making it impossible for him to give you an answer. If you looked closely, you might even see smoke coming out of his ears from the gears in his head moving; even tears were threatening to leak out of his eyes.

You placed your hands on both sides of his face, "Come with me"

You guided him into the bathroom, placing him under the shower head. You let go of your octopus and turned on the hot water before he could say anything.

Both were burned by the touch of the hot water, even Azul wanted to get out of there, but you stopped him by wrapping your arms around him.

The warmth of your arms on his torso made his heart skip a beat. He never thought he was going to be able to have this kind of intimacy with you, and I'm not talking about nudity.

It was literally like being in the rain in the middle of the courtyard, but in solitude inside Azul's room ... rather in his bathroom ... with clothes that were beginning to cling to the body.

"Do you feel better? Do you think you're ready to take off your clothes and really give us a hot shower?"

Azul never said a yes so fast in his life.

Kalim

A shower? A simple shower? What is that? Kalim only knows how to take big baths in tubs that could be the size of a house.

Either way he said yes, don’t be alarmed.

Wasting no time, he led you to the bathroom in his room, which you could swear was the same dimensions as the bedroom, apart from being very resplendent.

Kalim was very respectful at all times, he gave you your time to undress, he wasn’t invasive and he turned around when you asked him and thus enter the water.

Our sun here took the trouble to decorate the bathtub when you weren't looking, now the whole place was decorated with incense and scented candles from the Land of Hot Sands.

Even if you walked carefully, you might come across a few gold coins on the marble floor of the tub.

All very beautiful, but I think I would be very overwhelmed with such extravagance. And that is also your case, it’s better to tell Kalim directly.

Like before, don't worry, Kalim would understand your feelings a 1000% and if closing your eyes for the entire bath time makes you feel better, then Kalim would be willing to snuggle you on his chest and wash your head himself.

He ’s a gentleman, what can I say.

But, if you feel comfortable with all that, then I advise you to start a bubble war. Who said bathing with your partner has to be serious?

"Take care of your bubble ammunition, you wouldn't want to be left with nothing and for me to tickle you"

You made a mess in the whole bathroom, be careful when you leave, there is soap and water everywhere.

Vil

Oh no no no, dear, no dear.

One does not shower with Vil, one BATHES with Vil.

Like Kalim, Vil takes his bath quite seriously. He needs to follow his skin routine very meticulously and for that he needs oils, essences and… other things that my poor ass couldn't buy all the time, even if I wanted to.

His bathtub is not as gigantic as Kalim's, but it is much larger than average.

If for any reason you are embarrassed to bathe naked, don't panic. Vil has exclusively for you a bathrobe that you can use in the water, and one for him too obviously.

Prepare for a full-body massage session. The oils are not for decoration, they are to soften the skin and Vil would give the best massages of your life, you cannot argue with me

By the way, you also wash your hair with an equally expensive shampoo. There is no middle ground here: either you take a simple shower in your bedroom, or you go big with Vil.

That reminds me, the moment you take the first bath with this Queen of beauty, you have just signed a contract (not one of Azul's) in which it stipulates that from now on, every day you will bathe with it, end of discussion.

Vil may at first have been a bit ecstatic to the idea of ​​you giving him massages with his special oil and washing his hair; he has a very meticulous routine that he adheres to to the letter and your inexperienced fingers would not do enough magic.

Buuut, nothing like a good class in the middle of the bathtub to give good results.

In summary, taking a bath with Vil is like having a full day at the Spa, completely free ... well, almost free 😉

Idia

Idia.exe stopped working.

Jokes aside, Idia stopped reacting for a few seconds, he didn't even remember to breathe.

I can't tell if Idia is one of that kind of weeb that doesn't bathe, I want to believe that he does, please make me believe that he does, I implore you

Taking a shower with Idia can be a bit… embarrassing, mostly on his part. He isn’t used to so much human contact and that you ask him for such a proposal, is to get out of his comfort zone.

Nor could I tell if, when in contact with water, Idia's hair would evaporate, like the scene in Hercules blowing Hades’s head XD.

If so, it would be a lot of fun to watch, but you would have to reassure him because he would surely be much more embarrassed.

If that's not the case, maybe he would be around as long as the intimacy last with red hair, someone at some point mentioned Idia with red hair and now I can't help but imagine it

Many caresses from your part, hugging his torso from behind. Like Riddle, he would surely not be prepared to look at you for the first time or for you to see him.

Trie to calm the waters by asking him about his new inventions.

Also avoids telling Ortho all this bamboleo. He is too pure for this type of situation, let's not fill his head with indecent images of his brother.

Malleus

What a peculiar proposal, but it will be honored without a doubt.

He may have asked Lilia for instructions to abide by your proposal as well as possible… and Big Bear Mama Lilia may have asked him thousands of questions about it, perhaps embarrassing him a bit, but we will never know.

I have a slight suspicion that Malleus has a very rococo-style bathroom, in dark colors, but not necessarily black and green, do you understand?

Did you know those old tubs, from the Marie Antoinette years? Well, Malleus has one. He also has a shower, but to be honest, I see Malleus as a passionate lover, so the shower wouldn’t be in the game.

But, if you feel uncomfortable with the bathtub because it seems too much or you can’t step in (because, let's face it, hardly a person enters in that marble piece of furniture) then Malleus has no problem using the shower.

Whatever your decision is, the moment will be magical, and I mean it very seriously.

Our dragon daddy here would invoke any kind of magic to make the evening more enjoyable, like the little lights that fly around when Malleus is about to appear or disappear.

I recommend you don’t go around telling your intentions of take a shower with Malleus, we know that a certain lemon green hair is hanging around the corridors and he wouldn’t hesitate to listen to a conversation that has his young master as it’s center.

An uncomfortable moment if Sebek enter the bathroom screaming as always, demanding an explanation as to why a simple human is bathing with his young master.

[x-amount-verbs]

Ohhh... so you taking any Silco prompts?

How about Silco had a headache and his new adoptive daughter figures it out and brings him tea to make him feel better. Silco, who was initially irritated at being interrupted, decides he and Jinx deserve a little rest. So he and Jinx lay on his couch and Jinx reads to him aloud from a favorite book of theirs.

Just hardass kingpin taking some time with his daughter and relaxing

Not quite what you asked for, and I couldn’t come up with a book for them to read, so I hope the rest makes up for it xD ❤️-verbs

The Thought That Counts

Silco & Jinx parental fluff, Silco is an obliging parent (784 words)

Some people didn’t know just how much luck they had left. And they were very. Very. Close to running out.

The upstart chembaron was confident, but Silco wasn’t inclined to offer much praise beyond that— and the term ‘praise’ was being very loosely applied. Unfortunately, he’d had to endure the pissant well past his limit of both patience and bullshit, and offer just one tight-lipped thank you, now kindly fuck off smile to send the man away.

The things one must do to keep the wheels rolling.

Once the man was finally, mercifully gone, Silco allowed himself one weighty exhale, hand splayed across his brow as he rested his elbow on the desk. A persistent headache throbbed at his temples.

He could do with a drink. Or a smoke. Anything to free himself of the echoes of pathetic whining that clung to him like a child’s sticky handprints.

After a long pause, he readied himself to stand—

Only for said sticky-fingered child to burst through the door to his office.

Brows raised, mildly surprised, but more put out that his plans seemed to be receiving a delay at the very least, if not an indefinite postponement. “Jinx. To what do I owe the-”

He couldn’t even finish the even-keeled inquiry before she’d swept over to his desk and popped down a tray. The clatter made him wince. On instinct he surveyed the contents for chipped or overturned vessels, glad to find none. It was only then that he realized what she’d brought.

“Tea?”

She was grinning. The child looked so proud of herself, he could hardly fault her for interrupting his intended vices.

“That Finn guy annoys the heck outta me,” she confided, head rolling in emphasis. “But Sevika says we can’t shoot him.”

“No.” Unfortunately.

“So I thought I’d head to the kitchen, and we could make a secret recipe and come poison him, but she nixed that too.”

“A shame,” he hummed, dryly, “but reasonable.”

“So she suggested I ‘drink some hot milk or some shit and calm the fuck down-’”

Silco’s lips thinned, though it did sound par for the course for his gruff second in command.

“-and I decided to bring you something instead!” Her eyes darted down to the tray, hand shooting out to pin one last still-rattling cup onto its saucer to silence it. (Thankfully. The racket had not helped his headache.)

As per usual with the child, her boundless enthusiasm on his behalf was too endearing to fault. Lifting an arm with a sigh, he tried not to flinch as she practically tackled his side, his chair rolling a few inches sideways. “That is very considerate, Jinx, thank you.” He pressed a light kiss to the top of her head, rubbing her arm in a gesture he’d learned she found particularly reassuring. She found many things reassuring.

Scanning over the tray before him, Silco grimaced. The teapot was open, the liquid inside frightfully pale, and several ounces splashed out onto the tray below. The sugar and milk had apparently been combined into one gritty liquid, and the primary feature of the spread was a plate of edible-looking cookies that looked noticeably diminished, crumbs littering half the dish. But at least she’d brought two cups. “I’m not particularly thirsty,” he began, diplomatically, “but you know what I would like very much?”

“A cigar?”

Yes. “No.” But his lips were quirked up despite himself; she knew him too well. “I think I could do with a lie down.”

“On it!”

He took the opportunity her sudden disappearance offered to savor another long, cleansing breath.

“Boom. Gotcha covered.” Too soon she was back, tugging on his arm.

She made him feel old. He was hardly 37. How did she make him feel old?

Silco tried not to groan as he let her drag him from his chair and over to the sofa. Her dramatic flourishing gesture at the blanket she’d draped across the seat drew another reluctant smile. “Truly magnanimous,” he murmured. “I hardly deserve you.”

“Damn right.” She steered him to the sofa, pushing him down. When he sat, she only raised her eyebrows expectantly. He raised his right back. “Lay dowwwn,” she whined. “I’m gonna read you a bedtime story.”

It was difficult to stifle the snort at that. “I hardly think that’s-”

“Down. Now.”

“Jinx,” his tone was warning.

Her response was big blue puppy dog eyes. “Pleeease?”

A beleaguered sigh was all he offered in reply, before obligingly turning sideways and sliding down onto his back. “Very well.” Silco adjusted the blanket she’d set out for him, pulling it over himself and trying not to think of his boots on the upholstery. “What are we reading?”

[also it’s on ao3 now cause I archive everything; link in the source]

[captain039]

Secrets of mutation

Logan(wolverine) x reader

Warnings: Age gap, student/teacher, AOB, trauma, swearing, sexual, intimate, a little forceful, anxiety

Xmen/new mutants

AOB will be referred to second gender xD

The alarms were blaring in your ear when you woke. Startled and uncoordinated you got out of bed and looked out the door seeing no one but flashing lights, what the hell was going on?

You remember waking up in this strange place, handcuffed to a bed in some strange room filled with other empty hospital beds. You don’t remember much from before, your past blurry. A woman had come in, a tablet in hand as she scanned you with something.

“Where am I?” You asked.

“Who are you?!” You added tugging at the cuffs.

“Calm down Miss Y/n, my name is Dr Reyes, you’re at a facility” you frowned at her words.

“What facility?” You questioned.

“A facility for mutants like yourself” she said typing down something.

“You do know what mutants are yes?” You nodded to her question.

“I’m- not a mutant” you trailed off a little unsure.

“You are Y/n, a little late in showing but none the less, a mutant” she walked to your cuffs and you flinched as she unlocked them.

“What’s my mutation?” You asked rubbing your wrists.

“We have yet to figure that out” she smiled.

“I’ll show you around”

It was more of a cage for mutants than a program, you learnt after some time, the others you were with didn’t appreciate new blood apparently except Sam, Danny and Rahne. You were finding it difficult to present your power to anyone and yourself. Rahne said she could sense you differently from the others, you were unsure why though. As it became more clear you weren’t getting out you began to freak out. Your mind forcefully trying to figure out what happened before, your parents, your life? You couldn’t remember any of it, just flashes of faceless people and laughs. You got nightmares every night, something different each time, a jumble of memories perhaps. When those alarms rang though you sought nothing but freedom.

You had found the others as they looked around confused also. You all had headed outside a jet of some sort landing nearby.

“Who the hell is that?” Roberto asked.

“How are we supposed to know?!” Rahne yelled as a voice filled your head.

“It’s alright” it said as the jet opened and an old man came out on a wheelchair.

“No!” You heard Dr Reyes stumbling out as a orange bubble surrounded you. You were suffocating in it as you fell to your knees gasping for breath, desperately bashing on the force.

You had awoken to soft beeping, before it slowly picked up much like your heart beat. You looked around this feeling to familiar when someone walked in.

“You’re awake” she said as you stared at her, machine beating rapidly.

“What’s going on?!” You tugged against the tubes on you and panicked.

“Calm down” she said rushing to you quickly.

“My names Storm” she said and you frowned.

“You’re at professors Xaviers school” you frowned at her words.

“School?” You questioned looking around the high tech medical lab.

“Well above us is the school” she chuckled.

“You might know us better by the xmen” she said and you still stared.

“Took us a while to find your facility, I’m afraid you’re not the only one who was in that situation, they’re happening everywhere” she sighed sadly.

“That shield around it blocked the Professor out for a while till he got in” you laid back down, head spinning.

“Are the others ok?” You asked.

“They’re fine, getting use to the school, Magik causing some trouble but she’ll adapt” she stood by your bed.

“I-I don’t know my mutation” you mumbled.

“That’s why the professors here” she said softly as someone walked in. You sat up again seeing the old man in the chair.

“I’m not that old” he chuckled and you flushed.

“I didn’t-“ you frowned at him.

“My mutation my dear, I can hear people’s thoughts” he smiled stopping by your bed.

“Oh” you said.

“Don’t worry I won’t scope around in their unless you require me too” he chuckled you crossed your arms awkwardly.

“Bad joke I’m afraid” he said as Storm chuckled.

“How are you feeling?” He asked.

“Um?” You said.

“Yes I’d imagine this situation is rather stressful but we are here to help” he offered a warm smile.

“I don’t know what to do- I don’t remember my past apart from waking up in that facility, nor do I know my mutation” you said.

“Yes, the facility’s, the Essex’s program give you a serum that takes away your memories of your past life, to better focus the mind” he sighed.

“As for your mutation I can help you find it” he smiled.

“Essex’s program?” You asked.

“Yes there are secret facility’s around the world, covered by the orange shield, they hold powerful mutants in there for testing, turn them into weapons with no memories” he spoke grimly, his eyes downcast.

“It’s hard for me to get through the shield without causing a big war” he sighed.

“These programs are made by the government, to test on mutants the deem powerful and dangerous and turn them into killers in the future” he looked to the woman who had a saddened face also.

“It’s hard to find you all” she said sadly.

“Terrible thing” she added.

“Come, I’ll show you around the school, lighten your mood a bit” the Professor smiled. You stood slowly thankful your clothes were still on and not some stupid hospital gown. You followed the Professor through a bright hall and into an elevator.

As the door opened again you were stunned by the house and smells. Old but clean with students walking around.

“They’re all mutants” the Professor said as you looked to each one as you walked.

“We have classes upstairs and down stairs, down the end here is the cafeteria” he pointed down the hall and you nodded.

“Back this way is the smaller kitchen and toilets along with rooms on the left side” he added pointing out each room.

“The floor below us is where you train, like for PE and fighting” he said.

“There’s a courtyard and plenty of room outside as well as in” he smiled going up the stairs.

“Professor!” You jumped as someone called.

“Ah Logan” you turned with the professor seeing the man coming towards you. You were hit with something though, an overwhelming scent and you held a hand over your nose.

“What?” The man said.

“I don’t stink that bad” he sniffed himself and you shook your head.

“No Logan I don’t think she understands our second gender” the Professor said and you frowned.

“Jesus kid” the man muttered.

“Did you need something Logan?” The Professor asked.

“Yeah that girl you found her with Magik? She’s causing a bloody mess again” he huffed hands on his hips and you perked up.

“Shall we go see your friends?” The Professor asked and you nodded. As you walked away from the man you glanced back meeting his gaze. You gulped looking away and speeding up a bit.

“Y/n!” Rahne was the first to run to you. You sighed hugging them tightly. Danny joined and you felt tears in your eyes. Sam came over too and you chuckled giving him a hug also.

“You guys ok?” You asked pulling back.

“We’re fine” Rahne said.

“How are you?” Sam asked.

“I’m ok, I think” you gulped a little glancing to the professor.

“You’ve been out a couple of days” Danny said and you frowned.

“Really?” You asked and she nodded.

“Was worried you weren’t gonna get up” you turned seeing Roberto and went to hug him.

“I get a hug?” He said in awe and you chuckled shaking your head.

“Where is your friend Magik?” The Professor asked.

“Outside in her little world” Roberto sighed.

“She hasn’t taken a liking to this place” Rahne said.

“She never liked being cooped up anyway” you shrugged.

“Y/n are you happy to stay here while I go talk to her?” The Professor asked.

“Yeah, thank you” you whispered and he smiled leaving.

You sat on the couch sighing, head hung back.

“We’re really at Professor Xaviers school” Danny said in little awe.

“The xmen” you mumbled.

“Yep” Rahne said.

“Seems strange we weren’t sent here- but then again we were in a secret program” Sam said.

“Secret program of psychos” Roberto grumbled.

“I don’t understand why I was there though” you said saddened.

“I don’t know my powers, I don’t know anything apparently” you sighed leaning your head in your hands.

“What’s the second gender?” You asked.

“You don’t know?” Roberto asked surprised.

“No” you mumbled.

“The second gender is-“ Sam stuttered on his words.

“Alpha, Beta, Omega” Rahne said and you frowned.

“I don’t understand?” You said.

“It’s a ranking system almost” Roberto spoke up.

“When you hit puberty is when you know your rank, Alphas are the-“ before Roberto could speak Danny interrupted.

“Alphas are hot headed idiots” she rolled her eyes as Roberto huffed like a child.

“Betas are in the middle class, omegas in the bottom and alphas at the top” Rahne said.

“What are you guys?” You said.

“Robertos an alpha so is Sam and Illyana, I’m a beta and so is Danny” you frowned at Rahne words.

“What am I?” You said.

“You’re an omega” Sam muttered.

“So I’m beneath you?” You questioned.

“No it- it doesn’t work like that” he sighed.

“Then how does it work?” You asked desperate.

“I can’t explain it’s always been there” Sam shrugged.

“What the hell” you mumbled sinking into to the couch more.

“I’m sure the professor can help you” Rahne held your hand as you tried to smile and nod. You didn’t know your past, your powers, your second gender? Who even were you?

Next Chapter ->

[peanutpinet]

Yuta (cold mafia boss)

Prompt: 20)“The only time a man should be fast is when he’s trying to dodge my bullets.” - 100 Dialogue Prompts for Mob Boss AUs

A/N: since NCT 127 have decided to attack us since Friday with all their day/night posts and whatever more things they still got in the back storage, I just gotta do some fics about the dark concept, cause like, yea XD. I asked my friend whose bias is Yuta to choose a prompt and so, here we are XD

Warnings: some form of harassment, cursing (it's Yuta) drinking, spiked drink and hint of kidnapping

It was a Friday night and you were more than excited to finally have some time off to hang out with your boyfriend, Yuta, who was also part "gang leader" of NCT, an infamous group that people thought do illegal doings when they're the ones shutting the illegal businesses down.

Yuta being Yuta didn't disclose what he did from the beginning. But he also never fully tell you everything which, is understandable, it was confidential information. Despite so, Yuta never restricted your movements and you both would have some normal cafe dates, picnic dates, etc. Even so, there will be times where Yuta would have you do some personal training that includes self-defence, quizzes about types of chemicals, guns, etc. In his defense, he just wants you to be prepared should something goes wrong and you're alone.

Despite following Yuta's needs, you would sometimes joke about how it won't happen or that Yuta will make sure it wouldn't go too far or even if anything did happen, you were sure that Yuta would eventually find a way to make things right. Boi, were you in for a treat.

As mentioned, you were finally going to have a night out with Yuta after so long and had just finished getting ready when you received a text from Yuta saying, "hey love, sorry this is super last minute but could you change into a more black-tie dress code? We are sort of having a business dinner tonight and I want to bring you as my date. I'm on my way to pick you up right now. Don't worry, you don't have to put on anything you're uncomfortable cause whatever you wear, you still look hot to me ;)"

So of course you did what Yuta asked. You changed into a simple long black dress that fitted your figure and touched up your makeup a bit more and let your hair down. As you were putting on the last of your accessories and about to put your shoes on, Yuta was already ringing the bell. You quickly opened the door for him and told him that you were just going to put your shoes on which Yuta chuckled and helped you as he saw you struggling.

"You didn't have to go all out and wear heels babe, you'll have sore feet by the end of the night" Yuta mentioned, holding you steady as you were putting on your heels

"I mean, if it's just dinner, I'll just be sitting either way. You so owe me with a pizza movie night next week" you complained, finally putting your shoes

"Anything for you babe. Let's go" Yuta smiled, bringing your arm wrapped around his and helped you get into the car before he went to the driver's seat

Arriving at the dinner, you felt out of place since this was the first time Yuta actually brought you. Noticing your nervous state, Yuta wrapped his arm over your shoulder, telling you that he'll be right beside you unless you need to go to the restroom or need some personal space.

Nodding, Yuta gave you a heartwarming smile and brought you around. First and foremost, to his other members that were joining the dinner, the people you knew the week you and Yuta started dating. Allowing some weight off since how worried you were.

"Oh, (Y/N)!! Welcome!! Hope Yuta didn't force you to come here" Johnny greeted you which Yuta gave him a glare

"Well, he sorta promised me for a pizza movie night date next week, so I guess it's a winwin" you replied, chuckling

"Oooh, can we come? I miss just watching movies on the weekend" Jungwoo requested, pulling out his puppy eyes

"Maybe if you find yourself a girlfriend, I'd consider it" Yuta hissed, you hit him playfully

"Hey (Y/N), sometimes I wonder what you see in Yuta. He's so aggressive" Jungwoo joked as Taeyong tried to calm everyone and directed everyone to their table since dinner was starting

Dinner surprisingly went well and the opposing business partners were actually cooperating; like, they would agree to what NCT were asking, even giving some suggestions for the corporation. But nevertheless, every NCT member were on their best guard; heck, they all had their guns rested by their hips and even knifes hidden within their clothing.

Seeing how the talk about the business bore you, you took a big sip off of the drink the waiter had just poured for you. Suddenly feeling the urge to go to the bathroom, you excused yourself from everyone at the table, nodding your head when Yuta told you to immediately come back once you're done.

However, you didn't go to the bathroom because of the urge to pee or anything. Instead, it's because you didn't feel too good, maybe the alcohol in your drink was a bit too much to your tolerance but whether you want to admit it or not, you didn't feel good and felt like you could pass out at any second.

After purging and sitting down for a bit, you felt slightly better but not good enough because everything around you was tilted. Taking a deep breath, you just kept on thinking how the dinner table wasn't that far and if you hurry, you can just make it to Yuta's side and pass out however you like.

Pulling whatever willpower you have left, you stood up and started to walk out of the bathroom. Holding onto the wall, you slowly walked down the hall back to your table, until someone came up to you, asking if you were alright which you told them that you were fine. You may be dizzy and not feeling good, but you surely weren't dumb nor were you drunk.

Despite the guy saying that all he wanted to do was to help you, you clearly knew that wasn't his true intention since he was gripping you a bit too much to your liking. You've tried pushing him away but that only made his grip tighter. And to top it off, instead of helping you to your actual table or at least asking where your table was, he brought you to a more quiet area; making your heart beat quicker.

Unfortunately, at this point, whatever was in your drink was sinking it and you slowly start to lose consciousness and hope as from what you can see, you were far from your table. But thank the universe because all of a sudden you hear a loud ring and the tight grip was gone; instead, it was replaced by a warm embrace.

"Get him out of here before I actually kill him right here and now" you heard Yuta's stern voice commanding his other members

"I got you, baby. Let's get you back home, hmm?" you heard Yuta's voice turned soft; not having any more energy, you just nodded and fell asleep in his embrace

Because Yuta felt he can't leave you alone nor not torment the people that hurt you, he decided to bring you back to NCT's place. Wiping off your makeup and putting on your skincare for you, Yuta had one of the maids help change your clothes and then he tucked you in bed; not leaving your side until he's convinced that you're fully asleep before leaving a gentle kiss on your forehead then quietly leaving the room.

Walking out of the room, he saw Jeno and Jaemin, asking them to guard your room until he gets back. Making his way to the basement, he met with the NCT members that joined the dinner that did not end well at all.

Turns out, not long after you left, the neos already had a bad feeling; that something was not right, especially since their "business partners" were eyeballing the situation around them and it was revealed that the dinner was just a cover-up and that they were planning to use you to get to the neos, which clearly did not end well for them.

"Is she alright?" Taeyong asked, seeing Yuta was fuming

"She's very much passed out the second I found her. Are they all in there?" Yuta questioned strictly

"Yea. All tied up and blindfolded on the ground" Johnny mentioned

"Good" Yuta smirked, slamming the door open, making the prisoners jerked in surprise

"Rise and shine motherf*ckers. I hope you're ready for what's coming" Yuta shouted as some of the neos took their blindfolds off

"And y'all call yourselves men. Tch. You guys may be agile but not agile enough. The only time a man should be fast is when he’s trying to dodge my bullets. Not getting caught by their enemies. And surely not looking or thinking to do anything to another person's girlfriend. Oh well, what's done is done. Be lucky that we all got there in time. But, that doesn't mean I'll go easy on you. Let's see...should I start off with your fingers because you touched my girl or your head for ever thinking that little stunt of yours. Either way, I'm definitely going to take my time with you all" Yuta ranted, a smirk forming on his face as he saw the horror of his prisoners while the neos put their blindfolds back on

A/N: yeap, this turned out longer than expected. Welp, this is what happens when NCT updates with a dark concept I guess XD

[pies-writes-and-more]

HIHIHI I HAVE A REQUEST IF YOURE UP FOR IT KASJHDASKD i was wondering if you could do tsukishima, akaashi, and kageyama (you dont have to do all of them if you dont want to) with a s/o who loves giving affection but doesn't really take it *seriously* when they recieve it? like they think that the character is joking bc they could never actually be that amazing? (sry if this made absolutely no sense just ignore it if you want kaskjasd)

Warnings: potentially some swearing, Akaashi saying “good girl” which I do think deserves a warning, Y/N having some insecure moments, but all fluffy endings promise!

Characters: Tsukishima Kei, Akaashi Keiji, & Kageyama Tobio, all with a fem!Reader

A/N: okay @lucyheartfilias-wife i know this took foREVER for me to finish and I’m so sorry xD but i kept going back and forth between ideas so this is what we ended up with! I hope they’re decent enough!! <3 Not of the following gifs are mine! Creds to the original creators :)

Haikyuu Masterlist

Tsukishima Kei

If Tsukishima knew one thing, it was that he was a lucky boy. Somehow he had managed to make a girl who was probably made of sunshine and rainbows, like him back and somehow figured out how to keep you around.

Although he always had an annoyed look on his face when they did, anytime the team asked about you or mentioned you to him, he was always happy to subtly brag about you.

“Our little Tsukishima has grown up hasn’t he?” Sugawara laughed, slapping pats to the back of the tall first year. “You’re not blackmailing her are you?” Tsukishima just rolled his eyes in response.

“It must be nice to have such a pretty girl around!” Noya whined loudly, punching the wall angrily.

“It is,” Tsukishima smirked, enjoying the immediate anger that Noya tried to turn on him. Daichi held the wild libero back with an exasperated smiled, shaking his head.

“She’s really smart too isn’t she?” Hinata gaped, having only really heard of this girl that Tsukishima was dating but Yamaguchi said it was a girl in their class so she had to be smart.

“Anyone’s smart compared to you,” Tsukishima scoffed but shrugged. “She’s the top of our class.”

Everyone made sounds of excitement and surprise, the upperclassmen nodding in approval, “Who knew this salty bean pole could find someone smart and pretty to like him back?” Tanaka snickered and Tsukishima just rolled his eyes.

You hadn’t meant to overhear the conversations happening in the club room but you were just waiting for your boyfriend against the railing. To say you were a bit embarrassed was an understatement. And that embarrassment was probably written all over your face because when Tsukishima finally came out, his cheeks turned pink seeing your expression.

“What?” He asked after a beat, avoiding your eyes as he started to walk towards the stairs.

“You know you don’t have to lie to your teammates right?” You asked him eventually, giving him a small smile. “I’m sure they know you’re just being nice.”

For once, you had actually surprised Tsukishima. Normally he could tell exactly what you were thinking but this time, he actually stopped in his steps and looked at you like you had grown a second head in the last few moments.

“Lie?” He asked, tilting his head up in thought before scoffing a bit, “What part of what I said was a lie? For that matter, how much of that nonsense did you hear?”

The word nonsense rang in your ear repeatedly, echoing all your insecurities further into your subconscious, “I dunno, how much were you saying?” You retorted, glancing at him with a shrug. “Come on, I wanna get home before it gets too dark,” you decided when he didn’t answer right away. The two of you started walking, Tsukishima clearly deep in thought because for once on your way home, he wasn’t complaining about the boys or listening to music. He was just… walking.

“When did I lie?” He finally asked at your doorstep, as if realizing if he didn’t ask now, he never would. He grabbed your wrist before you could turn away and leave without answering him, tugging you closer so he could look right into your eyes (he could always tell when you were lying to him).

“What?” You squirmed a bit. You knew exactly what he was asking but did you really want to admit it?

“You said I lied to my teammates. What did I lie about?” His frown was tight, eyes as serious as ever. “I’ve been thinking about everything I said to them and I can’t think of a lie that I told. Was it about everyone being smarter than Hinata? Because I really was telling the truth.” The little smirk at the end made you feel like he was trying to keep this lighthearted. But the topic weighed so heavily on both your shoulders.

You could feel Tsukishima keeping your gaze right on him, and knew if you looked away, he might just get more upset. So you were forced to just look at him awkwardly, as if he was looking through your very thoughts.

“I asked you out didn’t I?” He continued when you didn’t respond right away. “Doesn’t that make you my girlfriend?”

You let out a little laugh, surprised that that’s what he had come up with after that very silent walk home. “Yeah, I suppose so,” you smiled, finally pulling your eyes away from him and staring at your hands as you fiddled with your fingers.

“So what-”

“They’re just being nice,” you tried to tell him awkwardly, cutting him off from asking one more time. “I’m not… I’m not everything they’re pretending I am. And you don’t have to keep up the charade with them.”

Tsukishima’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, what charade could you possibly be talking about.

“I know I’m not as pretty as your managers,” you explained quietly. “And I’m sure being surrounded by them all the time has got you having some high expectations and standards for girls. That’s why I was surprised when you asked me out… but I know it’s probably just cause we’re always together and we study together. I know I’m pretty helpful when it comes to schoolwork so-”

Tsukishima started laughing. Like genuinely, throwing his head back, from the bottom of his belly kind of laugh. Your eyes widened as you watched this normally cool and collected idiot snicker himself practically to death.

“T-Tsukishima?” You blinked, poking him a little to make sure he wasn’t just having some sort of weird seizure.

He finally ran out of breath, standing back up straighter than ever and hitting the top of your head (not as gently as he should’ve, how rude), “Listen here, shortie,” he huffed, leaning down slightly so you were forced to look at him. “I have high standards for anyone I even keep around me. The only one who’s exceeded my standards for dating though, is you.”

You watched him, blinking nervously as if he was going to laugh in your face again and tell you it was a joke.

“I didn’t lie to them, idiot,” he shook his head, flicking your forehead. “You’re way too pretty to be as self-conscious as you are.”

Words would never solve your self-consciousness, you knew this. But if there was ever a moment that would ever come close - it would be this one.

“Go inside alright,” he grinned at you, pressing a quick kiss to your forehead and shoving you closer to your door. “And the next time I compliment you, you better accept it.”

You couldn’t even retort anything back before he ushered you inside, gave you a cheeky wink, and started to head home.

You were still very bad at accepting Tsukishima’s compliments and almost felt tortured with how much he could try to get you to understand how much he loved you. So naturally, Tsukishima just did it more and more.

Everything you did became a compliment, just to make you all hot headed and make him chuckle. He would praise you for being one of the smartest people he knew after a test or assignment, he’d say you were the cutest person up on the stands after his volleyball games, would just shower you in aggressive amounts of affection (well aggressive for him).

And then one day…

One day you day you didn’t fight back as much. And Tsukishima just smiled because he would never say anything to you he didn’t mean.

Akaashi Keiji

Akaashi was literally an embodiment of everything that someone could want. He was calm and wonderfully humble, his voice was like a mellow song that you could fall asleep to and he had the most amazing biceps that just made your heart flutter every time you saw them.

He was everything you could ever dream of which was both incredible… and not at the same time. It almost hurt to know that he was this unobtainable boy standing near you. Sure, you were dating - but how long until he realized you were beneath him? How much longer would it take him to realize that there was better.

You couldn’t hide these thoughts from Akaashi and more often than not, he’d give you a look like I know what you’re thinking, stop that, and then tell you he loves you before you just nod and smile and try to focus on something else. He’d let it go there, but he’d probably spend the rest of the day with you trying to convince you he really meant it.

But today he wasn’t next to you to read your face. Today, he was going to be down on that court, showing off his incredible reflexes and sports ability, and you would be up here. Blending in with the crowd. You were a filler character - something to fill the stands with and not be noticed. Unoriginal. Boring.

“Y/N!” Bokuto ran to you, grinning as wide as ever. “Look what I brought you!” He held up Akaashi’s jacket happily, waving it over his head as he jumped up and down in front of you.

You tried to put on a smile, as if you hadn’t just been spinning in your insecurities a few seconds ago. Your eyes focused on the jacket that Bokuto was trying to put on you, blinking as you came to the realization that he had 100% stolen this from your boyfriend without his knowledge, “Bokuto, won’t he need this?” You offered with a small laugh.

He shook his head with a grin, “He practically discarded it somewhere. I thought I’d come bring it to you! It would probably make him super happy to see you in his jacket! And you look so cute in our colours!” Bokuto declared, patting your head. You tried to start telling him that he should bring it back and that you weren’t really sure Akaashi would want you wearing it, but suddenly you could hear his coach on the court screaming from him to get his ass back down there. “Whoops! Gotta run! Cheer hard for us!” Bokuto gave you a thumbs up before running down.

You stood there for a moment, face feeling hot as you start to smell Akaashi’s scent on the jacket. How did he manage to smell this good all the time?

You could hear whispers from people in the stands, some people wondering who you were or if you were Bokuto or Akaashi’s girlfriend, since it was Bokuto who gave you the jacket.

All the ruckus from his coach made Akaashi actually look over, smirking a bit while Bokuto was getting scolded. He sheepishly made his way over, trying to seem all innocent to his best friend.

“Where the hell even were you?” Akaashi asked, throwing him a toss as the boys warmed up.

“Oh! Just dropping something off to Y/N for you!” Bokuto grinned, nodding in your direction as he received the ball nice and high.

Akaashi shouldn’t have looked over. But he did. His eyes locked onto you and saw you in his jacket and for a moment, he definitely spaced out. His whole brain was just thinking about you and nothing else and he didn’t knock himself out of it until Bokuto’s pass knocked him right in the head.

“Akaashi! Are you okay?” Bokuto laughed, knowing the pass had been pretty soft. Akaashi’s cheeks turn a bit pink as he shook it off, running after the ball.

You were wearing his jacket. And you looked so good in it.

After a complete win for the game, Akaashi was so hyped up to see you. You had worn his jacket the whole game and he had to avoid looking at you because you were just so distracting.

But now that it was over, he wanted nothing more than to swoop you into a hug and admire you. You gave him a huge grin when you caught up with the team, excitedly cheering them for their win and giving Bokuto high fives.

Akaashi watched you with a small smile on his face. You glanced over at him and gave a nervous sort of smile, noting there was a difference in how he was looking at you. “Oh! Here, you’ll get cold soon when your adrenaline stops pumping,” you said, pulling the jacket off.

“It’s alright,” he insisted, smirking a bit down at you. “You look gorgeous, I don’t want you to take it off,” he admitted with a smile, patting your head adoringly.

Your face gets all hot again, avoiding his eyes quickly, “Alright alright, Mr. High Off Of A Win,” you laughed nervously, poking at his chest gently. He raised an eyebrow at your dismissive behaviour.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t go spreading stuff that isn’t true,” you shrugged, shoving your hands in the jacket pocket. Sure, you liked the jacket but there was no way you were as pretty as he was making you out to be. Gorgeous? No way.

Akaashi’s eyes darkened slightly hearing this, taking your chin into his fingers and tilting your chin up so you were forced to look at him, “You think I’d lie to you?”

The question made you shrink inside, noting his hardened expression. He didn’t like it when you were hard on yourself, always made you notice all the little great things about you. But this wasn’t a private conversation, and people were starting to stare, which just made your face go even warmer. “N-No,” you mumble out shyly, trying to look away but he kept your gaze.

“Good girl,” he smirked at you, tapping your nose gently, “Now take the compliment. And wear my jacket more often, alright?”

You couldn’t help but nod at that point, Akashi smiling in his satisfaction before dragging you off for the team’s celebratory meal. The pit in your stomach that liked to tell you you were a filler character was slightly less intense now, after talking to your boyfriend. Akaashi had such an effect on you and there was no denying it. How could a guy like that be with a girl like you, you would never understand. But there was such an honesty in his eyes, and he was right after all, he wasn’t the type to lie about these things… so maybe. Just maybe. There was some truth to it.

Kageyama Tobio

Kageyama wasn’t the best at noticing hints and subtle things, and honestly, he’d rather if people were just blunt and to the point with him. But with you, he knew that he would have to learn between the lines. It wasn’t because you weren’t great at communication (and let’s be honest, even if you were bad at it, Kageyama was in NO place to call you out on that), but rather, Kageyama understood that at some point in relationships, it was important to see what the other person wanted.

So when he started really trying to read you, he found himself almost discouraged by a reoccurring instance.

It was real subtle at first, and in that moment, Kageyama probably wouldn’t have noticed. But he probably just smile at you and press a kiss to your forehead, thanking you for always thinking of him.

“You’re always so thoughtful, Y/N. I appreciate what you do for me,” he told you, almost like he was thanking a teacher for their help on homework which just made you laugh.

“Don’t be silly, Kageyama, it’s just a milk box,” you insisted, giving a little wave to his teammates before he left.

But it wasn’t just a milk box and even Kageyama could see that. He had forgotten his lunch today and you had shared yours with him. But he always had a milk with his lunch and you didn’t have one, but he didn’t have the chance to actually buy one before he had to head back to classes. He didn’t think he had mentioned anything about the milk, or even hesitated to eat without it. But you had still gone out of your way to buy one for him and bring it to him after classes.

You had even apologized that it was later than he usually had his milk, as if you should’ve known to get it earlier. Kageyama was amazed that you even went and bought him one. He held the box in his hands for a moment before getting called over to start practice, promising himself to have the drink right after practice.

It wasn’t just that you brushed off his appreciation for what you did for him. Kageyama always felt something was wrong when he complimented you. So much so, he had to awkwardly ask his upperclassmen for help.

“Oh our little Kageyama needs help with his girlfriend hmmm?” Tanaka laughed, hands on his hips like he was some sort of relationship expert.

“I dunno why you’d come to us,” Daichi admitted with a smirk, leaning against a nearby wall as he considered the question. “It’s not like any of us are really all that experienced with girls.”

“But you know how to… communicate,” Kageyama explained, playing with his fingers as he shyly stared at the floor. “I’m just worried I’m… doing that thing that Hinata says I do. Where I think I’m complimenting her but I’m actually hurting her.”

Sugawara chuckled and threw his arm around his first year’s neck, fluffing up his hair playfully, “Aw! Little Tobio is growing up!”

“What kinds of things are you saying to her?” Asahi asked, offering Kageyama a smile as the blueberry boy tried to fix his now messed up hair.

Kageyama thought about it for a moment, not having to think that far back to remember an example. “This morning, she was wearing her hair differently,” Kageyama told them, gesturing towards his hair as if to act out how her hair was. “And I told her she looked very pretty.”

The boys just looked at him, as if expecting for there to be more. “Okay and?” Noya piped up, shrugging.

“That’s it,” Kageyama blinked. “Should I have said something else?”

“Why would you say something else, Kageyama?” Daichi raised an eyebrow, noting the distress in the setter’s eyes.

Kageyama huffed, remembering how you awkwardly turned away, as if he had said something brash, “She just said ‘you don’t have to do that, Kageyama’ and changed the subject. But I don’t know what she meant. Was… Was I not supposed to tell her? She did look very pretty but should I have kept that to myself?”

Sugawara gave him a sympathetic smile, “I think you did fine, Kageyama, don’t worry! Maybe she was just embarrassed.”

The others agreed, Tanaka explaining to him that some people were bashful when it came to their appearances.

“But she’s the most perfect being in the whole country!” Kageyama burst out, his forehead creased with concern. “Why shouldn’t I tell her?”

“Just in the country?” Asahi chuckled and Sugawara smacked his arm.

“Don’t tease him, I don’t think Kageyama has ever left the country!”

“Maybe she’s just not used to you complimenting her. Like how you weren’t too used to holding hands with her at the beginning of your relationship,” Daichi offered, remembering how red the boy’s face was you first took his hand at a tournament. He didn’t even know he had to hold your hand back and just had his hand staying there stiff.

Kageyama nodded slowly - he could understand that. It just took some time and then he was okay with it eventually. Now he would grab your hand out of instinct and it wasn’t something foreign to him.

After talking to his upperclassmen, Kageyama felt a little better. Perhaps it wasn’t his words then, maybe he just had to do it more.

But after a week of trial and error, Kageyama still couldn’t understand why you still seemed so uncomfortable. The day after consulting the second and third years, Kageyama had told you he really liked the way you hummed and that you had a really nice voice (he really did like it, it was his favourite thing to listen to).

But you just flickered your eyes away from him, offering a nervous laugh, “It’s nothing,” you mumbled before quickly asking him about his practice schedule.

So Kageyama thought maybe you just didn’t like talking about your singing. So when the two of you were studying, you noticed his laser focus wasn’t on his work but instead on you. His eyes were so trained on you, it was like how he was on the volleyball court.

“Kageyama?” You blinked in surprise, catching him staring at you. “Are you alright?”

“You’re really smart, Y/N!” He blurted out, a firm nod afterwards like confirming what he was saying. “I appreciate you always coming to help me work!”

But you just squirmed in your seat, turning your eyes back to your work, “I really don’t know all that much.”

It had been a week of this back and forth, Kageyama desperately trying to find what was going on. Was it him? Was he just not using the right words? Could he actually be being really rude and didn’t realize it? Was it his face? Was he supposed to smile more?

Finally, Kageyama felt like he was at the end of his rope. He didn’t know what to do now.

“The sunset is really pretty today!” You beamed as the two of you walked home from his practice. He glanced over and noticed the brilliant colours in the sky. It looked nice sure, but how could you understand that that looked pretty and you didn’t?

“I think you’re prettier.” He stated simply. Kageyama didn’t really know what lines were cheesy and what weren’t. But you did and your face just overheated immediately in response.

“K-Kageyama, don’t say things like that!” You insisted, staring to walk ahead.

“Wait!” Kageyama yelped, grabbing onto your wrist and pulling you back to him. “What am I doing wrong?” he asked you desperately, his eyes wide and searching yours for some sort of answers.

You stared at him for a moment, confused by his words, “Wrong?” You repeated softly, noticing how upset he looked.

“I…” Kageyama’s voice faltered as he watched your eyes. “I keep trying to tell you how amazing you are. You do all these things for me, you help me when I’m upset and you always help me train. You throw balls for me and Hinata, even when you’d rather be at home. You call me during my jogs just to keep me company. You bring me milk when I forget mine. And you always compliment me when I’m feeling like I’m not 100%… so what am I doing wrong? Because everything I say to you… it doesn’t seem to work.”

Something in you clicked. Is this why Kageyama had been acting so weird this week?

“Kageyama… I do all that because I like you and I want you to be your best,” you explained softly. “And I compliment you because I mean it! Not because I’m trying to make you feel better. Or try to boost your self-esteem.”

There was something in your tone that Kageyama couldn’t place. What was that in your voice?

“Why are you sad when I try to tell you things?” Kageyama was practically begging you for an answer. He didn’t understand how to read things from your tone, he wanted to desperately to understand but he just couldn’t grasp it. “Sugawara told me that complimenting people on things makes them feel good… am I doing it wrong? Please just tell me, I’ll be better! I’ll be the best boyfriend!”

Your smile was almost sad and Kageyama’s heart tugged a little in his chest, “I don’t want you to say things because you feel like you have to say them,” you sighed softly, now avoiding his eyes. “I know my hair is a mess most of the time, I know that my singing isn’t some professional level shit, and I know I’m not the model kind of girl or those gorgeous girls who come to your games. I don’t need you to try and convince me otherwise…”

Kageyama’s mind felt like it was blowing up. What were you talking about?

“Don’t be so stupid,” Kageyama whined, huffing at you and poking your forehead, “You think I’m lying about these things? You think I say them because I feel like I have to?” Kageyama shook his head, taking your face into his hands. “I’m not the best with words, I know this. But you are…” Kageyama’s face twisted into a funny expression as he tried to find the words he wanted, “the most perfect thing. You’re like when I make a perfect set and the spike goes right past the blockers!”

You couldn’t help but smile as he went on talking about volleyball. You weren’t surprised - he often related things to volleyball to understand better.

“You… are the perfect jump serve. Seeing you is like I’m winning full sets at Nationals!” He expressed, looking at you with wide eyes in hopes you were understanding. “I’m not trying to make you feel better about yourself, Y/N. You are everything I could possibly want. You make me feel like volleyball isn’t the only thing that matters anymore. I want to hear you sing all the time and I love your hair no matter how you think it looks.”

Your eyes were welling up with tears as he spoke dramatically, looking up at the sky as if that would help him figure out his sentences better. When he finally looked back at you, he jumped back almost immediately in fear.

“N-No! Don’t cry! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have brought up volleyball again! I-”

You laughed and quickly shook your head, grasping his hands in yours, “Happy tears, Kageyama,” you explained softly, almost immediately burying your face in his chest as you drew him closer for a hug. “Thank you,” you whisper.

Kageyama wasn’t really sure what you were thanking him for but he hugged you tightly anyways. He hated seeing you cry and he would squeeze them all out of you until there was none left if he had to. “You are very pretty.” He stated, pressing a kiss to your head.

And this time, you didn’t argue. You just stayed there in his arms, and listened to the genuineness in his voice.

Haikyuu taglist (let me know if you’d like to join!)

@scphiredrafts @aurumk @devilkittymusic @thisnoodlewritesao3 @satan-ruler-of-hells @trashy-simp @jeppiet @lucyheartfilias-wife @darkvadeeer @haikyuutothetop @wolfishwriting @livy384