#BC IT WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE A COMEDY but the far left beat the laughter out of me...

[the-acid-pear]

Honestly to expand on my last RB a little . . .

Like, remember all those stories about UFOs and, well, not really UFOs since they were on the ground but, those stories about things some suspect to be of alien origin and while unknown what's known is that you're going to die in 5 minutes. (Radiation poisoning)

If you truly went on to believe those were made by aliens it'd be like... So sad. Like imagine you crashed a fucking shit crash you're in a new place confused lost maybe you've been looking at it for a while but now you're stranded and now everyone who so little dares to come across you will literally die an horrible death. Like man. It'd fucking suck.

[lemonietrinket]

What were you thinking? ||| Jongho x Reader

Summary: Maybe leaving you in charge of the most important part of a plan wasn’t the wisest decision. Then again, how were your friends supposed to know that you wouldn’t react well to accidentally kidnapping an idol?

Genre: Comedy, Action? A lil bit of fluff bc Christmas be comin’

Warning(s): Borderline criminal activity? PLEASE do not do what Y/N does in the story, just, there are better ways of surprising people dear lord--I repeat we DO NOT ENDORSE SASAENG BEHAVIOUR otherwise enjoy the fic

Word Count: 3451 Theme Song: Emergency - Day6 

AN: Based off this prompt. This is not going to be the only time I use this song I know it. Stan Day6 my dudes, Entropy is just bop after jam after bop after jam. Please, do yourself a favour and give it a listen

~~~

It was meant to be a prank.

And an easy one at that.

You could hear the steps in your head as you drove, eyes flicking back to the monitor then back to the road. 

Step One: Find your best friend. He’ll have been out at a business meeting, and will be waiting for a night bus on Fehler Street. An empty street, with an empty bus, that always ran late. No one would be there to see and demand an explanation and thus ruin the surprise. This was, by far, the easiest part.

Step Two: Slip on the blindfold and quickly yeet him in your car (gently, no matter what the others said you should do, you were not going to throw him.)

Step Three: Bring him back to your house, put him in your room until the downstairs is surely decorated and then finally... 

Step Four: Surprise him with his early Christmas present by removing his blindfold to reveal his family, flown over after two years of living on the other side of the planet.

Simple really.

You spotted the road sign demanding 30 along the street and you cursed, applying the brakes a little bit too hard. A small grunt pricked your ears and you shot back an apology, before being forced to bring the car to a stop at a red light.

Your friends had encouraged you to be the one who did it. After all, he knew you best and wouldn’t freak him out as much if you were the one to apply the blindfold.

You’d had it all clear in your head. You'd calmed your nerves, but there wasn’t even many of them to begin with. What could have possibly gone wrong? You were clever and he was a calm guy, he’d see the funny side and then probably burst into tears as he saw his mother’s loving smile, after all that time of only seeing it digitally.

Heart-warming.

Easy.

God, how could you have been stupid enough to screw up on Step One?

The red haze continued to drift across the streams lacing the edges of the road, dashed methodically by the diligent attempts of windscreen wipers to chase away spatters of rain from the glass.

But the rain kept pouring. You figured it’d flood the streets at this rate. Perhaps a bonus, a mark in your favour. 

Truth be told, it had been excessively dark when you’d gotten into your car to make the drive and enact the plan in the first place. Blame the winter weather, it had banished the sun for weeks.

It was pitch black when you’d reached Fehler Street, the rain lulled into a silent drizzle, speckling the windshield like glitter. The bus stop was illuminated by a dull lamppost, its bulb clearly overdue for a change by months. You’d pulled up against the pavement where the bonnet just brushed the light, keeping a close eye on the lone figure, hunched to stare at his hand.

His back had been facing you, he was the same height and wore a long, fashionable trench coat, much like your best friend always did. You questioned the beret that became apparent the closer you drew, but he always kept with times, a close eye on the fashion trends and threading his own twists in them. Perhaps berets had finally become ironic. 

The issue here was, you hadn’t thought much of it, even if the signs were there. He seemed a little shorter than usual, wearing a pair of boots that seemed a lot heavier than he ever would have normally considered wearing. A broader shoulder too. And that beret.

Scarlet morphed into amber, setting you free. You accelerated round to the left, tipping your head to avoid the spotlights of an oncoming van.

Where you could you go?

Could you logistically catch a train?

A plane?

What were you thinking?

What were you even doing?

The blindfold had caught his nose slightly, and you hadn’t been able to halt an apology before it left your lips.

Luckily he didn’t fight back. You hadn’t worried about fighting then, your friend had the biceps of cooked tomatoes and a will as weak as them too.

But even as your hand enclosed around his arm and led him away and into the darkness, urging him into the backseat like a cat into a carrier, not a single thought of how your fingers no longer reached halfway round his arm crossed your mind.  Of course they did now, but what use was it now? You’d been too preoccupied with the frozen figure on the opposite side of the road, trying to calculate if they were looking at you or the other way.

It was too late.

“Where are we going now?”

You swerved, a yelp stuck in the back of your throat as you straightened your lines. He hadn’t said a word since your brief exit from your car, where the porch lights had made reality seem too cutting.

“D-Do you mind?” you clamoured, making the mistake of glancing into the rear-view mirror.

Your eyes met ink, a pair of black stars, catching the passing white of the headlights that briefly unveiled their true deep brown from the shadows.

You immediately shot your eyes back onto the road. You imagined he smirked a little. Not that you really knew. 

On the drive back to the house your roommate’s boyfriend offered freely as HQ, you’d said very little, and he had said nothing at all. It was a short journey, and your excitement had kept you preoccupied, away from glancing back at the man you’d ‘kidnapped’. 

It wasn’t really fair to even include apostrophes. You had kidnapped someone. 

Abducted. Snatched. Captured.

Mistakenly.

As you’d pulled up, you clambered excitedly out of the car and didn’t grace his face with a single glimpse, not even as you brought him up to the back door, outdoor lamp startlingly piercing, and knocked.

You didn’t look up even as you had a realisation while waiting for the door to be unlocked, “Ok, you don’t have to worry- wait, did I tell you that it’s me, Y/N?” 

You only raised your head when the voice you heard was not one you recognised, as the man replied, “No, you didn’t, and I wished that made all of this make more sense.”

It couldn’t really be described as a head-raise, really. More of a snap.

The face you saw bore no resemblance to your best friend.

His nose was pointed, jawline too broad and sharp to match his proportions, cheeks shallow and lips beautifully curved but thin.

This man, that you’d seized from the streets, with no knowledge of who you were, was the complete opposite of him. His nose was much rounder, his cheeks soft, lips full, and his whole stature in possession of a much more mature aura. Lord his skin tone was several shades darker than your best friend too.

He was also much higher on the social ladder.  Hell, he was actually on it.

You’d always admired that trait in your friend, actively going against the grain and commenting on the order that everyone merely followed without a second thought.  It rarely made him popular however, and he was not a celebrity by all means, even if he stood out in the crowd.

This man though, was. And wouldn’t stand out in a crowd, because the crowds were too big to let him be seen at all. 

Instead of your friend, you’d blindfolded and taken Jongho instead.  The main vocalist of Ateez, who could sing an entire stage away. A K-pop idol, who didn’t know you, and never should have.

.

.

He gazed somewhat absently at the back of your head, your hair obscuring much of your face from his angle in his seat.

He allowed his lips to spread into a tiny smile.

God, was this hilarious. It took an immense amount of strength to not burst into utter laughter. But he knew you wouldn’t appreciate it, so kept it under wraps.

You weren’t a sasaeng. It was obvious. They all possessed a strange glint in their eyes, the kind of gleam that he imagined the Victorian archaeologists had when they were presented with a new sarcophagus.  Deranged people going out of their way to steal treasure they were never destined to find.

But you, when you pulled down his blindfold and he found himself standing in front of the backdoor of a small but quaint house, and then peered down and looked you square in the eye.

It was clear there had been a mistake. 

Now, why you had planned to blindfold someone in the middle of a winter’s evening and take them to that house he had no idea, but you hadn’t been rough, nor did you seem unkind, and so he’d waited. 

After seeing an excitement quickly drain away from your features to be replaced with sheer terror, and after watching you interrogate yourself under your breath,  leading him back to your car, urgently clambering back inside and immediately driving the two of you away... 

He felt a kind of pity.

It was also evident you didn’t know where you were going, or what you were doing. You were too jumpy for that.

He lowered his voice, trying to avoid startling you again - lest it sent you off the road this time. 

“Look, Y/N? It’s ok, just drive me back to the bus stop, I doubt the bus will even be there yet.”

He didn’t receive a response. All he heard was the squeak of your hands as you tightened them around the wheel.

He tried again, a laugh lilted into his voice. “Hey, I won’t even say a word about what just happened, ok? We’ll go our separate ways. Sound good?”

You considered his offer, and dearly wanted to say something, only to find your voice stuck in your throat.  You resulted to a nod, though a part of you hoped he would ask something again, as if he took that as an answer, it meant he was looking at you.

“Good,” he responded, jolting your heart into an even faster beat.

As your head swam in a sea of churning thoughts, your subconscious took charge and managed to get your hands to take you back to the bus shelter. 

Taking the corner, you just about managed to steady your breathing.

Until your vision was slapped with coursing red and blue.

You slammed the brakes, body lurching until your ribs dug into the wheel. 

It was a single car, with two officers, one on the pavement talking to a woman, the other in the road, standing where you had previously parked.

Their heads flicked towards the origin of the screeches of tires, the woman’s hand flying up in an affirmative point. 

"Ah.” Jongho muttered. “I’m sure we can-”

He never got to finish, as you kicked the reverse pedal and spun the wheel, sending the car back up the road in a frenzy. He gripped onto the shotgun seat desperately, feeling his body being shoved into the footwell by momentum. 

The rear-view mirror depicted an officer running towards the vehicle, an open hand raised urgently, lips parted wide in a shout. 

You didn’t stop.

Another mistake.

.

.

Tearing out of the junction, blessed with clear roads, you sped away from the city, away from the house, the plans, the friends you had. 

Once he retrieved himself from the floor, eyes as wide as dinner plates, he exclaimed, “What the hell are you doing?”

“I don’t know!” you yelled back. “What am I doing?”

“Driving away from the police?! Making them think you’ve done something wrong!”

“But I did do something wrong!”

“Wasn’t this an accident?!”

“Yes but-”

“Well then you didn’t-”

“I abducted a K-pop idol!” you insisted. “Whether it was by accident or not, I don’t think the law cares!”

He sunk back into his seat. How did he even get into this situation.

“Why did you blindfold me and drive me to that house?” he asked as gently as he could muster.

You swallowed thickly. “I... I was supposed to bring my best friend to my roommate’s boyfriend’s house for his surprise Christmas present.”

“The boyfriend’s surprise present?”

“No! No my best friend’s present.”

“A Christmas present on the 1st of December-?”

“An early Christmas present,” you added indignantly, lips pursed and eyes narrowed into a scowl, almost boring a into the glass.

 “I...?” It was his turn to run out of words.

.

.

As you drove into the night, the number of other cars thinning one by one, you began to grow antsier by the second.

Jongho decided to break the silence. 

“Does this mean that we’re fugitives now?”

After a few seconds of silence, as you pondered his statement, you replied gruffly, “No, only I’m a fugitive.”

You glanced into the rear view mirror, not meeting his gaze, to you fortune, but rather watching his expression fill with... disappointment?

“What am I then in this scenario?”

His eyes flicked up. You pushed yours to look away.

“Uh, I don’t know,” you paused, “hostage?”

You cautiously peered into the glass, hoping not to run into his stare there.  You didn’t, instead finding him nodding, opting to look out of the window.

You managed to work up the courage to state, “You seem, really too calm about all of this.”

He didn’t look away from the window. 

“Do I?”

You hummed in affirmation.

“Oh, well,” he shrugged, “I guess it’ll just look funny on my KProfile page.”

You scoffed in horror.

“And Twitter is going be quite amusing when I get back.”

There was so much wrong with what he just said. Your thoughts were entrained on just one objection to it.

“Jongho! I could go to jail!”

You heard a chuckle, and you opened your mouth to call him out, when he leant forward, leaning against the back of the other chair. He was far enough forward that you could just about see the edges of his face in the corner of your eyes.

“Relax Y/N, I wouldn’t let you go to jail. Victims get a say in the punishment for criminals here. And you’re not even a criminal. You don’t deserve a prison sentence. You didn’t do anything wrong, just messed up.”

“A lot,” you interjected.

“Well, yeah, a lot, but it was a good intention.”

“You really believe my mess of a story?” you cried. You regretted your words immediately, it made you sound like it had all been a lie. 

“Should I not?” he asked lowly, almost reassuringly.

You shut your mouth, turning your head away so you didn’t have to catch a glimpse of his handsome face.

He smiled tiredly. He wasn’t sleepy, only that the adrenaline had worn off and left him a little low. Still, he wasn’t going to waste a minute. This was almost as exciting as his concerts. 

“Can we have some music on?” he enquired.

“Sure.” You pressed the stereo on without thinking. 

The playlist was the one you always used. It wasn’t all Ateez.

But of course the song you’d left it to start on was automatically an Ateez song.

As soon as the rousing horn of Pirate King played you wanted a sinkhole to swallow you whole. 

“Oh, you’re an Atiny?” 

The lilt of surprise shocked you to say the least.

He continued. “Sorry, you just don’t seem like the type.”

“I just,” you searched frantically for words, “listen to the songs sometimes.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. I-I think this playlist is the one with the most Ateez on it, though. The others don’t... they don’t have any where near as many on them. Uh, sorry.”

“So no bias then?”

You almost choked on your own saliva. “Nope. No bias at all. I actually only know you, and... what’s the other one? Min- Mongo?”

Jongho let a rise of laughter bubble from his lips. “Mongo? Yeah there’s Mongo too, I love Mongo. My favourite hyung, Mongo.” 

His laughter was slightly contagious, if you were honest. However it didn’t subside the horror that twisted your heart and gripped your vocal chords.

Truth be told, you’d been a fan of Ateez since the first unveils. Jongho had always stood out to you, with his soaring vocals and softer personality. He wasn’t the one everyone else went for, but they were always the more interesting people. 

You felt awful lying to him, but you weren’t sure you wanted him to know the truth either.

You heard him mumble, “I’m telling Mingi that that’s his name now. Mongo. Knowing him he’ll like it. Mongo-hyung. You know what, it’s got a little bit of a ring to it.”

You interrupted, knowing you would relive the moment before your eyes for as long as the song played, and asked, “Hey, do you mind if I skip? Not really... feeling the vibes right now.”

“Be my guest,” he answered, voice still tinged with amusement. 

You felt traitorous pressing skip. Never had you skipped Pirate King before, when it came on the stereo. The only thing you pressed when it came on would be the dial to turn the volume up.

Luckily, shuffle granted you a song by Day6, which was much more harmless. Though the lyrics were apt to say the least.

“Hey, I know this one,” Jongho mentioned, “what’s it called again?”

“Emergency.”

“That’s the one.” 

There was a brief silence. You knew what was coming.

“Hey that fits the situation quite-”

“Yeah I know.” You rolled your eyes. 

You tried to pay closer attention to the song rather than the feeling of Jongho’s presence. You relished in the familiarity Young K’s vocals, and the satisfying harmonies of Wonpil’s voice. Hearing the siren in the distant background of the song set you on edge a little bit, but listening to Dowoon’s part forced you to crack a smile. 

Until the sirens didn’t stop. 

You snapped your head up, eyes reaching the wing mirror instinctively.  Just as you did so, there was a flash of blue as headlights blinked aggressively, with two other cars careening round the corner you’d just passed.

“Oh sh-!”

Jongho, who quickly caught on, sat bolt upright in his seat. 

“What do I-?!”

“Well you can do two things,” he asserted, “you can either pull over and that’ll be that,” he hesitated dramatically, “or you could drive like a maniac and see if you could escape, drop me off and then burn the car.”

“I- what?!”

“I’m kidding, just pull over,” Jongho sighed. “It was nice meeting you though, Y/N. Thanks for the ride.”

“No problem,” you replied out of reflex, very much confused, stress evident in your voice, as you manoeuvred your hands to steer the vehicle into a stop by the side of the road.

As the engine puttered into a stop, you felt your breath get stuck in your throat, fear trembling through your veins.

.

.

You weren’t expecting what happened after to say the least.

The officers had questioned you, but Jongho did as he promised.

You weren’t even going to go to court. 

You’d never felt more relieved in your life after you heard the laughs from their mouths, as Jongho seemed to tell a tall tale of sorts, twisted to feature some of the events that had transpired.

You’d been completely zoned out, however, your thoughts whirling as your face showed nothing, reliving the conversation you and your bias had had.

It was short, and fleeting, as all these things were, but that meant it was all the harder to forget.

“Can we do this again sometime?”

“What?” you’d cried incredulously. 

“Though, with less blindfolds and more talking next time?” he continued, as if you’d understood his words fully.

What he’d said was barely tangible to you, but you nodded all the same.

Before he’d gotten out of the car, you’d met eyes again.  This time, you forced yourself to stare back, let yourself melt into that watchful, yet patient and welcoming gaze.

And then he was gone. Well, he was right outside your car, with the door left open so it let all the cold of the night in, but you barely noticed it swarming at your legs. 

Instead, you just stared at the torn piece of paper, twitching in the cool breeze upon the seat empty beside you. The scribbled number etched across its surface seemed to drift across the lines, and blurred in your eyes as you focused too intently on it. 

You’d gotten Jongho’s number? By accidentally abducting him? Why had he trusted you with it?

What was he thinking?

~~~

AN: This turned out to be way longer than expected. Who saw that coming, am I right

Masterlist

[mx-sfthrs]

"we can't keep doing this"

"we're not just friends and you fucking know it"

a/n: i got the starter sentences from this post if u wanna use some !! no one asked for this i just felt like writing because i love me a good friends to lovers troupe and yall already heard me rant abt it but lowkey prob i love w my own best friend so yikes anyways there’s no other warnings besides it getting kind of suggestive but nothing explicitly sexual happens it’s just super hinted at lol also there’s no time on purpose bc this all happens over a span of two weeks so it felt weird to add a time

word count: 1.4k

[__:__] you've had feelings for your best friend changkyun for quite some time, but once you realized it you almost immediately pushed them down. he had never given you any indication that he had feelings for you, and your friendship meant too much to you to screw up with what you thought was some dumb crush.

you'd gotten pretty good at ignoring your feelings, enduring a couple of girlfriends on his end and even dating some other boys yourself.

right now though, both of you guys were single and changkyun had been especially clingy lately, making it your ‘dumb crush’ increasingly more difficult to control.

earlier this week he had asked if you were free on friday night

"yeah, why?"

"i don't know, i was thinking about it and we haven't had a sleepover in a while and... well, i guess i miss it - uh miss you... my place at 7?"

you agreed since you already said you were free, but you knew that the whole thing would make you uncomfortable. you’d probably end up hyper fixating on whatever movie or video game you guys were playing to avoid letting your mind wonder too much.

-

that friday night, you guys were halfway through some old comedy movie when changkyun slid next to you and pulled you into him

"hey" he put his arm around your shoulder "you good?"

you looked up at him and he just looked so... soft? sweet?

"huh?” your heart felt like it was on fire from beating so quickly “y-yeah. i’m fine, just tired”

you guys have snuggled before, that wasn't what was making you nervous. the genuinely sweet and concerned look on his face was what was making your heart flutter

"okay" smiled a sweet, closed mouth smile that you've never seen before "you just seem kind of off"

he took the string of your hoodie into the hand that was around your shoulder and started to twirl it around his fingers while he went back to focusing on the movie

the movie finished and he leaned forward to grab the remote and click to another movie while you checked your phone. when he leaned back he kissed your cheek, grabbing your attention before pulling you back into him

you looked up at him, desperately hoping your ears weren't too noticeably red, just to see him looking at the screen with a smirk on his face. you had no idea what game he was playing but at this point you thought it would be harmless to play along

so, you leaned over and kissed his jaw before leaning back down onto his chest

-

nights like these started to become a lot more frequent, and a lot more intimate. it was actually really nice to receive this kind of attention from changkyun, but you still had some uneasy feelings. both of you had yet to talk about any kind of feelings towards each other, and while you two had been showing a sickening amount of physical affection for two people who were just “best friends”, it seemed that it wasn’t enough for either of you to be completely candid about wanting to be more than friends

almost every night for the next two weeks, one of you spent the night at the other’s house, no matter what you guys had to do in the morning. you were almost always in each others arms, complimenting each other more, and giving soft, chaste kisses everywhere but the lips. during sleepovers you two would usually sleep in the same bed but now you would fall asleep holding hands or cuddled up together under the covers.

-

one night, changkyun had you and some friends over for a small party. he didn’t pay much attention to you and at first it didn’t bug you, until you over heard him talking to one of his friends

“...you’re crazy, dude” changkyun nonchalantly sipped his beer “we’re just friends”

“whatever you say man...” his friend teased

as soon as you heard him say that you avoided him for the rest of the night. you felt like you had been taken advantage of

after everyone had left, you stayed back like you’d promised him before the party. you were cleaning up in the kitchen when you heard him say his last goodbyes and close the door

he came up to you from behind and wrapped his arms around your waist. with his chest flush against your back and his chin on your shoulder, he started to kiss your neck

“hey, thanks for stay - “

you tried to wiggle out of his grip, unamused and not in the mood to receive any kind of affection from him

“woah... you okay?”

“we can’t keep doing this, changkyun” you turned around and tried not to get more upset than you already were “i can’t keep doing this”

he looked confused so you kept going

“listen, you’re my best friend and if it’s not obvious by now, i’m kind of maybe sort of a little bit in love with you and have been for quite some time now...” you looked down trying to blink back tears

“...and i guess i misread the situation or something, i don’t know but all of this - whatever this is - i don’t want it anymore. it’s too much. and maybe you’re fine with all of this while still being friends but it’s really messing me up so can we please just go back to how things were two weeks ago, before that night? before all of the snuggling and kisses and hand holding and whatever, just...please?” 

changkyun took both of your hands in his

“y/n?” he tried bending down to look at your eyes

your voice was barely audible “please don’t...”

“why? why do you think we’re just friends?”

your head snapped up at him “are you serious? don’t pretend like you don’t know what i’m talking about. i heard what you said tonight. i heard you say that we were just friends”

“wait, just - “

“no! do you have any idea how used that made me feel?? for two weeks now all of the feelings i’ve had for you actually made me happy and excited instead of scared and ashamed and i guess i should’ve been more upfront with what i wanted because - mmph”

he kissed you. 

he’d kissed you before but never on the lips and never like this. it was sudden, but deep and soft and full of well, feelings. the same feelings you had for him.

when you were starting to get dizzy you pulled away

“what the - “

“we’re more than just friends and you fucking know it”

now you were the one who was confused, so he continued to explain

“my friend was making some dumb joke about that video of me kissing jooheon on the cheek, y/n. do you really think i’d just play with you like that? that i’d use you? listen, i know that i’ve done some dumb things before, but i knew exactly what i was doing this time, and exactly who i was doing it to. it was never my intention to...”

he stepped closer to you as you lowered your head, inwardly scolding yourself for being scared away at the smallest sign of trouble

“...hey” he gently lifted your chin to get you to look at him

“i’m sorr - “

“no, y/n, i’m sorry. you’re right, i should’ve been more upfront” he tucked some of your hair behind your ears “i should’ve just told you that i was in love with you instead of just showing you”

he stepped closer and guided your hands around his waist

“but i promise” he kissed your forehead, “that i” your left temple “want” your right temple “to be” your nose “so much more” your left cheekbone “than just” your right cheekbone “your friend” your lips

“oh yeah?” you giggled against his mouth

“yeah” he said as he smiled and kissed you again

and this kiss seemed to be making up for lost time and hurt feelings because when it was over, thirty minutes had passed, you were on the counter, and both of your hair was an absolute mess

“so” you sighed “what do we do now?”

“well...” he took a step back a looked around the messy kitchen “we could clean all of this up, or ...”

“or...”

“or... i have about twelve other things in mind that are way more fun and involve far less clothes”

he looked at you with his hand stretched out with expecting eyes, waiting for an answer

“i think i like option two” you giggled as you let him pull you into his bedroom, and with that the mess in the kitchen was long forgotten

[dontmindmedear]

Of Mediators and Missionaries

Or something like that.

Okay some of you might have seen >> this << before. The following is roughly based on that.

First of all, imagine Oikawa in her situation/position. Long rasters, feather earrings, simple clothes, an uncommon instrument in their hands.

Now imagine this: The earrings are actual bird feathers and on top of them, Oikawa wears more multi-colored feathers entangled in his hair as well as necklaces with animal bones/fangs/claws around his neck, wrists and ankles. Bc like all the other people in his village, Oikawa is a born hunter. But the animal materials aren’t trophies. They are memorials, reminders of the lives they have taken to ensure their own. They take the parts with them in the believe that a part of the animal’s soul is still inside their remains and by taking them with them and cherishing them, presenting them to the public, a part of the animal will live on forever.

Of course there are far better hunters than Oikawa out there. Ushijima for example. He is so good, that he owns one of their special made wooden boxes where he stores the memorials he can’t wear. He always has it with him tho to ensure the goodwill of the spirits he carries with him. Not taking a part of the animal you killed with you or leaving it at home when you head out, is a bad omen that will bring you bad luck and misfortune.

Oikawa used to be very jealous of Ushijima when they were younger, bc he was so much better than him in hunting and everyone admired him and looked up to him. But however much Oikawa trained secretly, he just never seemed to beat UshiWaka. A part of him rationalised that it was bc he didn’t kill every being he saw. When he saw a lonesome bunny, he ignored it. When he saw a bird building a nest, he watched in the opposite direction. When he saw a deer with a fawn, he stepped on a branch. He knew that this was one of the reasons for the difference between Wakatoshi and himself, but Oikawa believed he could beat him even without killing with the slightest movement.

And then their 16th birthdays came around and as the days got shorter and nights got longer, when the sun lost strength, their village held one last feast before they would have to ration their food and everyone would have to ignore their individual role in their group to join the hunt. With the fields and plants frozen and the animals hiding there wasn’t much they could do anyway. But still, with that one last feast a big decision was made that would decide the rest of their life. Based on what they had shown in the recent years and how their character had developed, the mediator of their group, an old woman with a link to the gods, as well as her 5 apprentices, would conduct a ceremony to reveal everyone’s true vocation.

Giving their blood in bowls mixed with herbs and the bones of their most recent kills, the young members of their society watched as Ushijima’s bowl’s content was given to the flames of their bonfire. The flames darted out suddenly, reaching for the sky, then subsided, leaving a thick cloud behind in the shape of an eagle. An eagle was fast, had sharp eyes, good observational skills, watched careful from a distance first before falling from the sky in a deadly attack. Once you were in the talons of an eagle there was no escape for you. As such Ushijima was chosen to become one of their elite hunters, their only group that went hunting throughout the year without pause. Sometimes they were even gone for several weeks as they scouting their prey’s hunting grounds or travelled to other areas, not wanting to drive all of the potential quarry in their region away. It was the kind of work all of the younger generations dreamed to do as it was the only way to see something outside of their village and away from the familiar wilderness.

Then it was Oikawa’s turn. Praying to the gods that they might give him the same chance as Ushijima, Oikawa cut his hand and let the blood fall into the bowl. Then he stepped back, barely breathing, and waited for the gods to make their decision. Their mediator stepped forward and emptied his bowl into the fire. Just like in Ushijima’s case the flames darted out suddenly and high, reaching with greedy hands for the moon, and as they fell they left a giant cloud of smoke in their wake. In Oikawa’s case it was a tree. A symbol of slow, but constant, unstoppable growth. A connection throughout the centuries, giving life and strength to other beings and clearing their air, promoting more growth and an easier life. Trees were simbols of wisdom and eternity and while that didn’t make Oikawa immortal it made him something else. It made him into a mediator.

Frozen in shock, Oikawa stared at the dissolving clouds that had decided his future. Oikawa wouldn’t become an elite hunter like Ushijima, wouldn’t get the chance to see more of their world. Instead he would be forever bound to their home and their gods. He would learn to mix herbs to allow the transcending of earthly bounders, he would learn to play their instruments to please the gods, he would learn to create tinctures to guide the gods goodwill towards helping a soul in need, he would learn how to help their healers and how to keep their their fields protected by their gods blessing. He would sent the hunters off with blessings and requests of success. But he would never leave on his own.

Oikawa was more than simply disappointed, but knowing how much everyone looked up to their mediators, seeing the astounded pride in his parents eyes, he knew he couldn’t refuse such a fate. And so, keeping his frustration to himself, he smiled and accepted his fate. Even if he truly didn’t.

Years later, it’s the day of their old mediator’s funeral. Irihata had been chosen as her predecessors only minutes before her death and Oikawa was glad that it was him. There could have been made choices far worse. He still hadn’t fully come to love his new life, but he had learnt to deal with it, to deal with the bitterness he tasted whenever he wished Ushijima a good hunt had learnt to ignore the yearning tugging at his whole being whenever he came close to their borders during a winter hunt.

He hadn’t come to love it, but he had come to be fascinated by it. He hadn’t known how much more there was to being a mediator that what he had known of before. Mediatiors were Magicians. Not in the controlling the elements or creating new things with a simple spell way. But in a supernatural, spiritual way. Having learnt how to play their instruments during their ceremonies, Oikawa has come to experience what it meant to feel flooded with spiritual power. He was quick to understand that it wasn’t his own power but the energy the gods left when they were especially close, when they were watching him or the ongoing events through him. The gods had no interest in watching them 24/7. But they had their attention on them, had their minds open for their calls and pleas and when they were invited, they attended, even if not in person but through the link that bound them to the mediators.

Oikawa had always believed in the gods, but actually feeling them exists was something he could have never ever imagined. He was drawn to the feelings of infatuation he felt whenever they were close to the amusement they seemed to pulsate with when the fourteen year olds displayed their annual comedy play to remind their elders what and who they were working for, heard them whisper about their new generations development, leaving impressions of praise and disappointment, like parents who watched their children grow unable or unwilling to influence that growth as they wanted them to grow into their own person.

Oikawa hasn’t come to love his vocation. But he loved their gods.

But things started to change when their old mediator died.

The gods grief was the first thing Oikawa had felt. It was a suffocating feeling he had never felt before. The old mediator, his mentor, had told him that Oikawa had been closer to them than anybody else she had none of. In the phase of Oikawa’s education that was. He was still new to the gods guidance but he would grow and with the growth his connection to the gods would only grow stronger. Oikawa was unable to imagine something like that. The connection he felt to the gods was already strong as is and even if it got stronger he doubted he would ever have such a strong connection to them as his mentor had. Her connection to them was so strong Oikawa sometimes had doubts she was even human anymore. She was wiser and more empathic than anyone else and she could bring the gods blessing to concentrate on a bloody wound inflected by a bear within moments without even having murmured the plea yet, saving people that probably would have died if it was Oikawa to make the plea.

But with her death things changed. The gods grieved and their grief made it hard for Oikawa to breath, less to stop crying. Tears stained his lashes nonstop for days, more often caused by the gods heavy grief than his own. And then it suddenly stopped.

At first it was only one or two gods that disappeared from the weight of grieving gods. Nothing that was worrisome or similar. But then more and more disappeared and then, within only one week, Oikawa found himself disoriented as he was, for the very first time since his initiation as a mediator, left without the soft, muted guidance of the gods in the back of his mind.

Irritated and worried he started praying to the gods, asking them for a moment of attention, just a flickering to signal their wellbeing. But the link didn’t communicate any signs. SO Oikawa hurried to Irihata, asking if he knew what was going on, but he only found the other mediators in a confused panic similar to his own. Nobody knew what was going on or how to solve it, so they made up two teams. One to do research, the other to continue doing what they did, acting like nothing was wrong to keep a panic from happening even when the gods blessing seemed to have left them. Oikawa feared the link might have been cut and joined the research team to find the legends that spoke of how the initial link came to be. After days of searching and helping the others on their search, he finally found it. According to the legend, one of their own, a person with incredible spiritual power that allowed them to feel the gods unrestricted power when they were close, had travelled throughout the lands and visited them at home to pay them their respect. They stayed to learn from them and earned their blessing as well as their friendship. SO Even as they returned home, their friendship stayed, creating a deep bond between them. When the person was close to death the gods offered them an eternal life, but they refused, wishing instead for them to keep guiding his village, his home and they agreed. So they gave him the knowledge of the vocation ceremony and the chance to find a successor to their bond. That was how the mediators were created.

Oikawa figured that, if the legend was true, then that must mean the gods were still residing at their original places and thus could be found.

He went with his idea to Irihata, asking him to send someone out to find those places, whoever it might be. The others rejected his idea. It was just a legend probably made up, who knows if they even would still be there if it was. But Oikawa insisted it was at least a chance they had to trust in, for it was as good of an option as anything else at their point. And Irihata agreed.

Seeing as Oikawa had the highest raw potential among them, and came up with the idea, he gave the task to Oikawa himself. Use what hints you can find in the legend and find the mentioned places. Try to find them. Oikawa was as thrilled as shocked as he realised he was being sent on a mission to go past the areas even their hunters went to. But of course there was a restriction Oikawa had to follow. He had to keep to certain requirements, like tell nobody your goal or where you came from, but also, Oikawa had to choose people to join him. And at least one of them had to be an elite hunter. Oikawa insisted that he knew how to defend himself, but Irihata didn’t budge. Either he took someone with him that knew how to deal with areas unknown to him or Oikawa wouldn’t go at all. So Oikawa gave in.

He chose Mattsun with him, because Mattsun was one of his dearest friends, as well as very excellent in creating weapons. It was his chosen vocation, repairing old and creating new weapons and tools for daily usage and while Oikawa know Mattsun would love to leave the village with him, he was also certain that Mattsun was great in reacting in flexible ways to whatever they would have to face.

Additionally he decides on a healer friend of his and someone who deals with pelts and clothes, since they don’t know what to expect to find during their travels and might have few time to adjust. [As in their village doesn’t use money or similar so they wouldn’t be able to buy things. Since they don’t know about the concept of money though the clothes guy is important for them not to have to rely on unknown people who might no good intentions for them]. He also takes someone from the farming area with them. Oikawa himself knows which herbs and mushrooms to know for what but he’s got no ideas about which vegetables and fruits can be eaten or which grow in the wilderness on their own and he doesn’t want to make enemies by accidentally eating other people’s hard work without the right formalities.

The hunter of their group is decided by Irihata since he knows Oikawa’s stubborn. It’s Wakatoshi. Not to piss Oikawa off of course but bc he’s good and they are the same age so they are more familiar with each other. Also since they have opposing minds often times they might give room for more possibilities to act.

As they’re about to leave without telling anybody the real goal of their journey, they’re being followed by UshiWaka’s bff Tendou. Oikawa didn’t choose to take him with them for a reason, despite his talents, but Tendou is stubborn and hard to get rid off so Oikawa has to deal with it.

Since they live on an Island, they travel to the coast where they get a boat and some fishing rods from the fisher village there in exchange for some pelts and similar. Then they can finally start their journey.

During their travel they observe the people they see from where they are hiding in the woods and copy them to be less obvious, as in they change their clothes and hairstyle, but they still have difficulties. They ask for hints on the places they need to visit but people only tell them to try their luck in the city. So they go there.

As they’re in a city for the first time, they get lost and separated. That’s when Oikawa meets Iwaizumi, a mercenary/headhunter who’s there to hunt for a certain criminal. Oikawa accidentally hinders Iwaizumi as he tries to catch his target and they end up fighting. As Iwaizumi tries to ignore him to follow his target, Oikawa follows him since he doesn’t know anybody else. Eventually Oikawa even somehow manages to help Iwaizumi in catching the guy (mostly thanks to his hunting training) and Iwaizumi pay him late lunch as thanks. Iwa soon realises that Oikawa isn’t from there and starts to worry if he’ll be okay. He gives him a portion of the money he got for handing in his target and they separate ways only to meet again a bit later as Iwaizumi finds Oikawa, as well as some of his companions he found again, sleeping outside of the inn he stayed in cause Oikawa doesn’t know how to use that money. Against his better judgement, Iwaizumi helps them out again and shows them how to get rooms etc. Worried they’ll do something wrong and get him in trouble, since they know his name and face now and people saw them together, Iwaizumi stays with them throughout their stay in the city and teaches them stuff.

One of their group got lucky and became friends with a rich kid and therefore access to a library where they found the first hints for where to go to. When they ask Iwaizumi where they can find place XY, Iwaizumi responds he’ll lead them there since he’s got another target close to there. (He actually got paid by the rich kid to keep an eye on them and protect them as he intended to run away from home for a while now and the group fascinates him.)

The guy Iwaizumi is hunting is a thief who had stolen some weird stuff as well as expensive stuff, not necessarily the same, and people found it hard to find leads to his whereabouts or next place of attack. Showing the group drawings of the stolen objects, Oikawa wonders quietly why some of them look familiar to him but doesn’t say anything. Meanwhile Iwaizumi and Ushijima compare fighting styles. Since Iwa uses a longsword with some light armory, tho he also owns a shortsword that’s hanging on his hip and which he sometimes uses to fight with two swords, as well as a broadsword on his back that he inherited from his father, he has a more well-protected, if restricted, range and attack strength than Waka who uses knives, arrows, spears and traps, but Wakatoshi has trained since he was small and is used to hunting for days, so he’s used to fight under strenuous circumstances, has better stamina and higher flexibility in his movements while Iwa is restricted through the heavy weight his weaponry brings along. Both are trained in close combat without weapons but their styles differ. They usually fight in the evening or morning instead of single practice and they often gather a little crowd as the others in their groups ignore their tasks to watch them instead. (Oikawa is salty bc he too can fight like them but nobody lets him proof it cause “he might get hurt or destroy his shaman stuff”. Oikawa calls bullshit, but even as Iwa gives in, he still isn’t allowed to participate without sufficient handicap. He doesn’t let the others know he enjoys watching the matches just as much as participating himself. Especially when they go close combat without shirts. Oikawa thinks Iwa would look very good in the clothes they wear at home.)

The first holy place they visit is a place hidden between two mountains in a crevice that inhibits a number of rare animals. They find it in an awful condition. Some of the trees are knocked over, some areas are completely burnt. Oikawa does everything he knows to attract the god’s attention but finds nothing. He can feel a spiritual energy lingering in the air but it feels old and dusty as if the place had been left weeks ago. Roughly around the time of his mentor’s death.

When Oikawa’s close to a mental breakdown with the others in a similar situation of confusion and a lack of knowledge on what to do, it’s Iwaizumi who brings him back to the present with his mind set on another goal “searching for the other places in the legend and finding at least one god who can help them and explain”. It’s then that Oikawa decides Iwa has the right to know everything and they explain.

They keep travelling after this. To mountains, rivers, underearth lakes, caves hidden by waterfalls and many more. But they fail time and time again. And their desperation is mixed with the idea of an alternative life, where there are no gods, no vocation, no life bound to a single village. Oikawa is transitioning between depression and lust of travelling and the longer they travel the stronger Iwaizumi’s presence is anchored in his heart. He didn’t know feelings like his were possible towards a being that wasn’t godly if it wasn’t for his heart to skip a beat whenever Iwaizumi touched him or his lungs to forget to function when he told him he felt the same. Oikawa got to the point where he started to think maybe it’s fine, maybe there was a reason why the gods disappeared, why he had always been longing to leave their home. Maybe it was his fate to meet Iwaizumi. Ignoring the frustration and hopelessness he felt whenever they found a vacated god’s house, Oikawa got lost in those new warm and happy feelings he shared with Iwaizumi and the comfort their friends offered, just as torn as Oikawa was. And for a while they all allowed themselves to dream.

Until they succeeded. One early morning, the sun was just about to raise, they found themselves by a lake covered in mist as Oikawa played their traditional instruments, praying to their gods as with the passing of a single heartbeat everything fell silent and Oikawa froze as the almost forgotten overwhelming sensations of a godly presence filled his being. And then they saw. The mist moved, enlightened by fading moonlight and arising sunlight, the mist formed the shape of a person. A human person. And the person’s voice resounded over the lake, echoing in Oikawa’s head. The god told him they had been waiting for him, hiding from the one they called the “god collector”. The god was ashamed to admit they had to hide like a toddler to save themselves as they watched the other gods fail to resist their pride and lose before being sucked into the object the god collector had brought with them.

Confused by everything the god told them, the group didn’t know what to do. How was that all possible? They were gods, they were supernatural beings. It was impossible for mortals to do sth like that. And so the god explained.

They weren’t always gods. They used to be human. Until one day a meteor shower rained upon the earth, small reminders of a forgotten planet. They hid in the weirdest places and their energy urged the nature around them to grow in incredible, unnatural ways. Humans grew curious of what was going on and searched for the places. And they found them. But once they touched the fallen objects, the objects fused with them and they lost their human shape. They gained the ability to watch all of earth at once and the places that received their blessing where given the power to grow with supernatural speed. The gods were given the powers to have an awe-inducing positive influence on nature and its inhabitants, especially the are where they found their specific objects. But in return their soul was bound there. Humans arrived and found the objects they were bound to, but having fused with a human already the objects were nothing but mere shells and the finders took them with them as a reminder. That’s how the gods came to be. They didn’t know that those empty shells, if used right, had the ability to absorb a god’s presence, like a djinn stuck in a lamp. The god couldn’t explain properly how the person did it or how they found the gods, something about having the ability to feel it when the gods conversed with humanity, but the given information made Oikawa dizzy and he felt like fainting, the gods worried, panicked presence too much at once for him after having been alone in his head for such a long time. The god apologised for the troubles their own lack of knowledge brought to them and told them it was okay to do whatever they wished to do, no matter whether that meant helping the caught gods or ignoring them. It was their problem and they had no right to drag Oikawa and the rest into it. They humans promised to be careful, then they left.

They didn’t talk for a long while, until a drawing fell from Iwaizumi’s backpack and Oikawa recognised the drawing, one of the things the thief stole, as one of the objects the god had used to describe the items they and the other gods were caught in. And suddenly it all made sense. The reason why the thief’s targets seemed so random, why all the places they visited while following the thief’s trail, once the legend became too confusing to follow, were leading to godless shadows of their former glory.

Oikawa once more got the feeling his meeting with Iwaizumi was fate. But this time there were no romantic, giddy feelings connected to the thought.

Note:

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