#COMING IN CLUTCH OG MY GOD

[hi-there-cake]

OH MY GOD MILES EDGEWORTH

[imbeingtauntedbyachild]

God it’s so embarrassing to hate vbs cuz of sensory issues

[runningfrom2am]

in this life or the next (part II)

summary: you and rafe won the 75th annual Hunger Games as a team, but at what cost?

pairing: rafe x fem!reader

wc: 11.4k

tags/warnings: not as much as you would expect for a Hunger Games fic honestly. spoilers for the og Hunger Games movies I guess (but also not bc i changed it up a bit- you'll see), Ward being a shitty dad (as per usual). also this isn't thoroughly edited bc.. it's long and i'm still lazy.

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a/n: hi guys! this is part two of this fic, and i'm honestly pretty proud of how this story is coming together!! i hope anyone who enjoyed that one enjoys this one :) also i very much set it up for part three so look forward to that (eventually).

"Without further adieu, I'm pleased to welcome back, from District One and District Five, Rafe Cameron and Y/N Y/L/N, this year's Victors!" The base of the talk show's theme music bellowed in your ears as you followed your cue, holding tightly onto Rafe's hand as you took the stage again. You never imagined you would be back here, but you're grateful to be.

"Rafe, Y/N, I cannot honestly put into words how pleased I am to have you both back with me tonight. We're all so excited to have you- aren't we?" Caesar smiled, riling up the crowd once more as the cheers had died down. Rafe had a smile glued to his face, squeezing your hand once you were both sat down before letting it go.

"We're happy to be back." Rafe replied and you nodded, smiling over at him. He looked so much better- the colour had returned to his skin, a subtle pink flush you didn't care to take notice of before the games.

"I bet you are." Caesar nodded. "We have so much to talk about, but first, I'd like to personally congratulate you both on your win. This was the first-ever games to produce two winners, I hope you understand the extent of your accomplishment."

"Thank you, yeah." You smiled, turning your attention to the man across from you. "I couldn't have done it without him."

"Likewise," Rafe said, gently nudging your shoulder with his hand. You rolled your eyes, shaking your head with a smile.

"God, I just love your chemistry." Caesar said, smiling and leaning his chin onto his palm. This resulted in more laughs and cheers from the audience. "This is a perfect segue, actually," He sits up straighter again, a slight laugh leaving him. "You were aware that we were all watching, right? Because there were some very real... intense moments between you two in the arena that had us on the edge of our seats. The whole 'will they, won't they' tension was so palpable. So, I think we all just want to know, was it real?"

Rafe nodded, watching the man intently as he listened to him speak. You were both wondering where he was going with that, but while you felt your face burning red, you came up with a logical answer that effectively dodged what he was really asking. "I mean, yeah, of course, such significant amounts of stress on both the body and the mind would make anyone vulnerable in a way you wouldn't expect."

Rafe shifted in his seat, turning his gaze to you as Caesar nodded at your answer. "But with Y/N it was just so easy. She gave me a new perspective on everything, which I appreciate still so greatly. Just, yeah I don't think I could ever see myself sort of... opening up in that way with anyone else." Rafe added, thinking for just a moment before shaking his head with a slight laugh. "I didn't even care that the world was watching, because I knew she was listening, you know?"

A chorus of 'aw's came from the audience and you smiled at him, looking to Caesar quickly to gauge his reaction. His was fairly similar, hand clutched to his chest with a pout in his lip. "Well, there's your answer, folks. It's very real. That is just so sweet." He nods.

"Rafe is right," You chimed in, silence falling over the building. "But truly it is just such a harrowing, scary experience, and up until last year's games we had never seen tributes connecting in a way that we were given the opportunity to, in a similar way to Katniss and Peeta had, the tributes from twelve last year. I think that is a new experience for both the viewer and for us as tributes, and it sets a new standard for the games. I just count myself so lucky that I got chosen to be Rafe's partner, because otherwise we never would have met- or we at least wouldn't have gotten the chance to see each other as real people, with thoughts and feelings and families waiting at home."

When you finished speaking, the silence stuck for a few moments that felt like an eternity. "Well... Yes, I suppose you're right, Y/N." Caesar agreed, but you still felt in your gut that you had said something wrong as the audience murmured and whispered to each other. "I think this is a good time to move on, because Y/N, you just have such a way with words, and we all saw in the games that you have... just one of the most amazing minds we have ever seen in a tribute."

"Isn't it cool?" Rafe added, leaning in and looking between the two of you with a smile on his face. "Caesar, I told you she had a secret weapon!" The audience loved this, instantly coming back to life with laughs and cheers.

"Yes, you did! We definitely didn't expect that!" Caesar chuckles. "So, Y/N, let us in a little bit more- at what point did you realize that the arena was recycled?"

"Oh, immediately." You answered with a nod, folding your hands in your lap. "Honestly by the time I saw the cornucopia for the first time I confirmed it, it was kind of a relief."

He claps his hands together, clearly impressed. "That's incredible! You proved it over and over again. My favorite part was the bag- we were all so confused and I personally got a bit of a laugh when you were trying to point it out to Rafe and he just had this hilarious confused look on his face! From the first thirty seconds, you guys already had this dynamic that had everyone in Panem hooked on watching you. So please, Y/N, tell us what your secret is. How your brain works, if you will."

"Please, Y/N/N." Rafe agreed, mocking Caesar's intrigued posture as he gazes at you waiting for you to elaborate.

You laughed, gently smacking his shoulder. "I just... I don't know. I see something, learn something, whatever the context may be, and then I just know it. I assume it's the same for you, but I just hold on to all the extra stuff. I think I'm broken, or something. I didn't even know this was abnormal until Rafe pointed it out during our training- I just always thought I was smarter than my siblings." You joke, laughing slightly.

"Well, I can only imagine you would be hard to compete with academically with a mind like yours." Caesar chuckled. "So, tell us, what's next for Panem's favourite couple- as I understand you now are."

You and Rafe made eye contact briefly. You hadn't talked about it, despite having hardly left each others sides since you returned. "I don't know." You shrug. "I suppose whatever you guys tell us to do."

"I think we'll go home, see our families, relax a bit and then we'll be back and ready for the victory tour in a few months." Rafe cut in. Had you said something wrong again?

"And we can't wait- we will miss having you guys on our screens everyday, that is for sure." Caesar smiled, standing up which made up your signal to do the same.

"We look forward too seeing you again soon." Rafe smiled, shaking Caesar's hand as you stood up, quickly adjusting your dress in the meantime.

"Thank you so much for joining me tonight, and congratulations again on your win. Enjoy your time at home." Caesar turned to you, giving you a quick hug before you held Rafe's arm and walked offstage, waving to the audience for hopefully the last time in a while.

As you recalled the memory of the last time you saw Rafe in person, you find yourself getting nervous at the idea of seeing him again. It had been a long six months- and you had exchanged an endless string of handwritten letters.

Life for you in the Victor's Village was pleasant, refreshing, even- since it had felt like forever since you had known any kind of peace. It's in a quiet area of town, giving you lots of space to enjoy real fresh air in a way that felt safe. Unfortunately, your vivid nightmares couldn't be quelled by the cool breeze or your sisters sleeping peacefully next to you or the room across the hall.

Rafe had found out that yes, you did sign your name with a heart normally. At least, you did in the many letters he had received from you. It had been the longest six months of his life, but at the same time, a whirlwind of everything happening all at once. Regardless, he spent the entire time walking on eggshells around his father.

When Rafe was reunited with his family, his sister had thrown herself at him with such force he stumbled back when he caught her in his arms, holding her tight with a hand over the back of her head. "I never thought I would see you again..." She mumbled, chin wobbling against his shoulder.

"I missed you so much, Wheeze, you have no idea." He whispered back, gently stroking the back of her hair. He put her down gently, but she refused to let go of his waist as he acknowledged the rest of his family. Sarah, stoic, standing alongside their dad with a matching expression. She, somehow, had a smile behind her eyes that Rafe was all too familiar with. Sarah was happy to see him, though she would never admit it in Ward's presence.

"Rafe." Ward smiled, suddenly, shockingly, only until Rafe realized they had cameras on them as his father walked up and smacked a hand onto his shoulder, guiding him away. District One was proud to have another Victor to add to the growing roster, and they would always celebrate accordingly. Somehow, Rafe didn't feel special.

"Hey, Dad," Rafe replied, smiling nervously as his dad gave his shoulder a squeeze. He knew he was in trouble- big trouble, and maybe staying in the capitol wouldn't have been so bad. He hoped you were facing a more genuine welcome in Five.

"Are you excited to see your girlfriend today?" Sarah asks, bringing him back to reality as she leaned against the entryway to their home gym. To Rafe, their whole house felt cold now. The mansion was decorated mostly in white, with marble flooring and high ceilings that made the home feel so much emptier than he remembered it. Most of the time, he stayed alone at the home he'd been granted in the victors village.

"Yeah. I don't think she's my girlfriend, though." He replies, hardly tearing his eyes away from the combat training equipment that still haunts him.

Sarah furrows her brow accompanying a confused laugh. "What? Only all of Panem sees you as the hottest couple, but you don't know?"

"We never got to talk about it. So, yeah, I don't know."

"Will you ask her?"

Rafe shrugs, getting up from the bench and throwing the towel over his shoulder. "Probably. She's the only good thing I can think about, these days."

"You better get on that. I heard from the news that there's an engagement announcement on the horizon!" Sarah calls, turning on her heel as she heads back down the hall.

Rafe sighs, grabbing his water bottle and heading out after her. He's wanted to talk about this, of course, but in the victor's interview you mentioned that anyone would be so vulnerable with all that stress- and he couldn't help but be a little hurt by that. Then again, you've sent him letter after letter since you had been apart, so the signals he's getting are mixed- to say the least.

As he changes into the clothes his dad picked out for him for the first day of the Victory Tour, he hopes that seeing you again will bring only good memories. Not that there are many to choose from- but something in his gut is telling him that you will be the cure to his nightmares, or at the very least, someone to talk to about everything, even if it's just for a few months a year. Forever.

You're standing at the train station, surrounded by your family and an array of cameras, everyone anxiously awaiting the two of you being reunited. It's unknown to you if he will even get off the train, part of you hopes that he doesn't so your sisters don't get the chance to bug him. "He'll be happy to see you, hey?" Your mom interrupts your thoughts, nudging you gently with her elbow.

"Maybe." You shrug, pulling at the loose strings on the hem of your dress. "I don't know, I don't want to go. I'd rather stay home, Mom."

"I know, sweetheart... And we'll miss you." She sighs, kissing the side of your head and pulling you close with an arm around your shoulders. "But maybe it'll be nice to talk to him. He must understand you better than we can, these days."

"I don't know about that." You say softly, gazing down the tracks at the sound of the train quickly approaching. You take a deep breath, turning to hug your sisters so you have time. You were on a very tight schedule already, Opal was making sure of that. The train couldn't leave a minute late- even though you're sure that you and Rafe may be precious cargo, considering you're the only ones on it, spare for your teams, and the only reason the train is making this journey at all.

"I'll bet he jumps out of the train and tackles you to the ground because he missed you so, so, soooo much!" Your youngest sister giggles, clinging tightly to your arm.

You decide not to acknowledge it, eyes locked on the silver metal as it pulls up in front of you. "Don't say anything to him, you best leave him alone." Your dad reminds her, peeling her from your arm and into his side instead.

The door slides open, and just as you're lifting your one bag you're met with Rafe. Seeing him for the first time in person for months is shocking. He looks tired- you guess he's been having nightmares too. "Y/N.." He says, almost breathlessly as he leans against the door of the train.

"Hi." You whisper, giving him the best smile you can muster. Truly, you are happy to see him, but you do know he has to put on a show of the two of you being reunited. He jumps down, taking three large strides toward you before pulling you close and burying his face in your hair. "I'm so happy to see you."

"Me too." He mumbles, letting you go after a moment.

"Welcome to District Five, I guess." You laugh nervously, gesturing around you.

"Thank you, I've never been here before," Rafe explains, rather unnecessarily. "The ride was beautiful."

Opal is trying to usher you from behind the camera to move onto the train, and Rafe's hand is hanging at his side, fingers brushing gently over your arm. You get the message, just about to finally wave off your family for a second time. "Wait, hold on." Your dad cuts you off, stopping you both in your tracks.

"Thank you, Son." He nods, holding out his hand to Rafe. You can see his chin wobble, but you can also see that he's trying to keep a brave face for the cameras. Your family had been warned to not speak to him, to just say goodbye and let you walk onto the train since your reunion would be telecasted live- but he just couldn't let Rafe get away without him knowing how much he appreciated him saving you.

Rafe takes his hand and shakes it, returning the nod. "I would have died before taking her from you." They would have a less formal opportunity to meet towards the end of the tour when you revisited Five for a big celebration in both of your honour. You were already dreading it. Anyway, now, they only really had time for pleasantries. Not even that, if they were to follow Opal's schedule.

Cameras are quickly cut, and you wave goodbye now as you're actually forced onto the train. "Gosh, you two, we have places to be. Seriously." Opal says sternly, walking on behind you along with your stylist's team.

It's only a little while until you were talking again, like you had never been apart- and like everything was normal. Until, as the sun set over the mountains in District Eleven, you both got quiet, looking out the array of windows in the very last car.

"I'm glad to see you normally sign your name with a heart."

"Huh?"

"Uh, in the cave. You put your name on the wall, with a little heart beside it. I remember wondering if you normally write your name like that, and you do."

"Oh, yeah. When I'm signing something, I guess." You agree with a slight shrug. After a few moments of comfortable silence, both of you staring out the window over the tracks, you continue. "We're going to get in trouble. About what you said to my dad."

"I meant it," Rafe replies, not missing a single beat.

"Did Snow come to see you too?" You ask.

"Yeah." He nods. "I don't really care though, what can he do to me that he hasn't already done, you know?"

"He'd go after your sisters."

"He mentioned something about that. He won't, though. He's just trying to scare us into smiling for the cameras."

"I don't know..." You sigh. "I'd rather not risk it. Play it safe."

"You'll be doing that for the rest of your life, and he'll only demand more and more." Rafe shakes his head at you, reaching out and taking your hand. "With whatever is happening in the districts, he wouldn't run the risk of hurting our families. Your family, in particular. Panem loves your family, you gave them security by speaking so highly of them in the games, and they bought their own by spending all that money to send both of us something from home. He couldn't touch them without the whole country losing their minds."

"What? What's happening in the districts?" All you had seen on TV was reruns of your interviews and highlight reels of your own games. You tried not to watch much TV.

Rafe's eyes flicker with confusion as he scans your face. After a moment he realizes that of course, you wouldn't know. He only knows because of his dad- the news was so heavily censored in the outlying districts that there's no doubt you wouldn't have heard about the uprisings. "I-uh... My dad told me some stuff. There's been a couple of uprisings, nothing serious, but still. He wants us to keep them happy." He decidedly leaves out the fact that people in farther districts, outside of your own, are really not your biggest fans.

"Oh... Well, I'll try my best. Do you know what they were about?"

"No, uh, I don't know much about it. Sorry." Rafe mumbles, dropping your hand to push himself up from the couch. "I should probably get some sleep. You too."

Looking at how dark it is outside now, he's probably right. You have a long couple of weeks ahead, starting tomorrow. Starting it off with a full night's sleep would no doubt be beneficial- and who knows what time Opal will be waking you up in the morning.

You stretch out your arms as you stand up, yawning as you follow Rafe out the door and toward your cabin where your things are waiting for you.

It's not long after a quick shower that you pass out in bed, already tired and lulled to sleep by the steady movement of the train. And it's not long after that until you're standing on the silver pedestal that typically haunts your dreams yet again.

You look around, trying desperately to put together the pieces of where you are. You can't. You can, everything looks the same, but there's a feeling of panic in your gut that tells you you don't know a thing as the timer ticks down in front of you, the sound echoing throughout the arena.

Your head snaps to the left when you hear someone yelling for you. Your sister. She looks pale, you can practically see her shaking from where you're standing. She's yelling at you still, but you can't make out what she's saying as you realize that it isn't just her. Your whole family is there, and no sign of Rafe.

How are you supposed to do this without him?

The timer reaches zero, and the alarm blades signaling the games have begun. You're quick to sprint for your youngest sister, your first goal being getting her away. As you reach her you look back toward the cornucopia, blood already sprayed across the side of the glistening metal and bodies on the ground. Exactly the way it was last time.

"We have to get you out of here. We have to go south, we have to-" You're cut off by her freezing, stumbling back, and falling into the grass.

You call for her in a panic, looking back over your shoulder. You have nothing. There's nothing you can do to help as she chokes on blood from the knife now embedded in her chest.

It was you. You're standing there, a sick smile on your face with dropped shoulders- you had thrown it. Just how Rafe had taught you.

You wake up to the sound of your own screaming, sitting up quickly and kicking off your blanket. Your hair is stuck to your forehead as you scramble to place your surroundings. It wasn't real. It felt so real.

"Y/N?" You look up to the door in a panic as Rafe pushes the door open, brows furrowed in concern. "Are you okay?"

His presence starts to calm you almost instantly. "Yeah, just a dream." You say breathlessly. "I'm sorry if I woke you."

"I couldn't sleep anyway." He insists, stepping in and closing the door. "Can I stay?"

You just nod, sliding over to make room for him.

Rafe pads across the floor, climbing in bed next to you and laying down, getting comfortable as you lay facing each other. Your heart is still racing. You still see your sister suffering at your own hand.

Without saying a word, Rafe reaches up, hesitating for a moment before brushing your hair back from your forehead. "I get nightmares too." He whispers, settling his hand on your cheek, gently brushing over your skin with his thumb.

"I'm sorry." You whisper back, eyes still open as you try and look at him in the dark.

He knows you're not apologizing as if it's your fault, more so saying you wish that neither of you were plagued with the memories of what you had been through. "Me too." He whispers, finally closing his eyes. Maybe now, with you here, he'll feel safe enough to get a full night of sleep without being interrupted by the screams of the kids that he killed.

You wake up with another jolt when the door flies open, slamming against the wall. "Oh, thank god. Rafe! What are you doing in here? Get up, hurry. We've spent far too much time searching the train for you." You blink a few times, rubbing your eyes as you process the harsh awakening by his escort, Zara.

"I'm up..." Rafe grumbles from beside you, taking a deep breath in with his head pressed against your back and an arm over your waist.

"God, you scared me. Now come on, we're already late." She says, standing and holding the door, waiting for him to get moving.

He sighs in response, and you feel a rush of cold air as he leaves you, stretching as he gets up and follows Zara out of the room. The train has stopped moving, you notice this quickly as you get up yourself. It's safe to assume Opal is waiting for you as well.

Walking out onto the stage of District Twelve is humbling, to say the very least. They are among the poorest of Panem's districts, even District Five seems like the Capitol compared to this. The pedestals in front of us display images of the four tributes behind where their families stand. It is all too real as you stand there in front of a large crowd in yet another uncomfortable dress.

Rafe holds your hand as you walk out, scanning over the crowd too. Even his already fake smile begins to fade at the sight and he looks pale. He's clutching your speech cards in his other hand, and you clock how it's slightly shaking from nerves as you are directed to begin speaking and he raises the cards.

"We are united as Panem is united. Our love has opened our eyes to the greatness of our country." You can tell in his voice he's trying to maintain his charismatic charm, but it's failing him. He can't tear his eyes away from the tributes' families, recognizing the faces on the screens behind them. One of the girls stands out, and he shakes away her voice in his head begging him to spare her life with her leg caught in the trap he asked you to set. He adjusts his focus to the mountains in the distance before he continues. "Love illuminates the truth-"

"You're standing where Katniss and Peeta should be!" He's interrupted by someone shouting from the crowd. It's easy to pick out the voice in the sea of people. A boy, a few years older than you with dark hair and a strong build. He's worked his whole life, no doubt. There's a blonde girl next to him- Prim. Katniss's sister, who she had volunteered for last year.

Rafe is frozen, staring at them for a moment before looking back to Zara, who gestures for him to continue. He's squeezing your hand now, tighter. "That's her sister." You whisper to him before he gets the chance to speak again. "May I?"

He looks down at you, silently asking if you're sure. Secretly, Rafe is relieved. You nod to him again and he hands you the cards. You don't need them, so you place them down on the pedestal in front of you.

"I understand the tremendous loss your community has faced at the hands of these games. And I am sorry." Rafe taps your arm, watching you now as you speak. You look up at him briefly and he nods to you. "We are sorry." You correct, reading from him that that is what he wanted.

"We can't fix the past, but I can tell you that without Spruce, Fletcher, Trilly, and Cerise we wouldn't be standing here today. We are forever in debt to them, and to you, for something that we didn't want to take in the first place." You pause, clearing your throat as you feel a tightness in your chest. "I never knew Katniss or Peeta, but watching them at home inspired me, and remember wondering when I watched Katniss volunteer for little Prim if I would do the same for my sisters, and as much as I love them I realized that I don't know if I ever could. And then, at the end, when she and Peeta both chose to die rather than live without each other, rather than pumping out another victor from the games- I was in awe. Of their bravery, and of their sacrifice. I thought I could never do that. They were braver than me."

You stare around the silent crowd, aiming to memorize every face. "Then I met Rafe, and I finally understood them. We would have done the same, but we were given a greater opportunity. I don't know why it was us and not them, and what we did to deserve our lives again, but I am truly sorry that it wasn't them." You spit out, choking over every word.

"It's because he's one of them!" The same boy shouts, pointing at Rafe and you notice peacekeepers shoving their way through the crowd toward him.

Rafe swallows the lump in his throat, keeping a straight face as he looks out at the boy.

"We are sorry that you lost loved ones." You say again, looking up at him briefly.

Before you can continue, Rafe is moving you aside to speak again. "I will donate half of my winnings to the families of our fallen tributes, as well as the families of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. It is the very least I can do, and I know that it won't bring them back, but I am sorry."

Rafe sees the peacekeepers quickly approaching and he wraps one arm around you, holding the other out towards them. "Hey, hey! Don't touch her, we'll go." He says, letting the peacekeepers guide you back off of the stage and out of view as chaos breaks out in the crowd.

"Y/N Y/L/N are you crazy?" Opal is there quickly, looking like she is ready to smack you if she didn't know better.

"What? What did I do?" You ask, panic evident in your voice as you hear shots firing outside.

"She just said what she thought they wanted to hear." Rafe defends you, but even he knows you messed up. In the eyes of the President, anyways.

"Yes, but that is the exact opposite of what Snow wants to hear! And you! Offering them his money? Did you think that was smart?"

"I- I don't know, I didn't know what to do and lord knows I don't need it! They can have it all for all I care." Rafe sighs, shaking his head dismissively.

"Rafe! You were given explicit instructions to keep the peace! Your father is going to be furious, you realize that right?" Zara intervenes.

"Instructions to what, sell this 'against all odds love story'? They want us together so they can brainwash Panem into thinking that privileged districts and the stupid Capitol can get along with the others, and that we're all a big happy family, but its all bullshit. I don't want to be a part of that and I never asked to be." Rafe shouts at her, and Opal gasps as you look away.

"I'll- uhm, yeah. Right. Opal, can you come with me back to the train? I want to leave." You mumble.

She glares at Rafe as she places a hand on your back, leading you toward the exit with peacekeepers following to escort you out of the building.

Heartbreak wasn't exactly on your bingo card for the first day of the victory tour. At least you got your answers, though. Rafe wants nothing to do with you, and now you can go about the rest of your life being forced to pretend you're in love. Great.

The tour continues as scheduled. Every day, occasionally with a day of travel time in between, you find yourself standing on a stage, a smile glued to your face, reading from a script with your hand wrapped around one belonging to a boy who couldn't care less about you. It's torturous.

The day finally comes, after cycling painfully through all the other districts that you make it to the first of two big parties, you're finally home.

"Y/N, Honey, welcome home." Your mom greets you at the door with a hug.

"I missed you." You mumble, pulling her into a hug. She shuts the door behind you as you step away, looking outside for just a moment.

"Where's Rafe?"

"He's staying down the road." You mumble, avoiding eye contact with her and stalking up to your room.

You feel guilty about being grateful for the many empty houses in the victor's village, allowing him his own place to stay instead of staying with you.

You have a few hours of peace before Opal will come with your stylist to prep you and your family for the party and address that's happening tonight, and the one thing on your agenda before then is a good, long nap.

A good, long nap, however, was not something on your sister's agenda, and it was only a matter of minutes before she was barging into your room.

"Y/N! How come Rafe isn't here?" She asks aptly, throwing herself onto your bed next to you.

"He's busy." You grumble, pulling the blankets tighter around yourself.

"Oh, like you? So busy right now you can't say hi to your favourite sister?"

"You're not my favourite."

"Rude." She makes herself at home in your bed, curling up next to you. For the first three months you were home, she didn't leave your side. She had slept in your bed every night, uncomfortable both with the move and her new room away from the one you had previously shared, and also with the idea of losing you again. "Did you kiss him?" She giggles once she's settled in, whispering despite the first time you kissed Rafe being broadcast on national television for the whole country to see.

"No." You whisper back, feeling tears prick at your eyes. "He hates me."

"What? How? I need more details than that, I'm sure he doesn't hate you."

"It was all fake. To get people to like us, to make us win and now to keep Snow from coming after our families." You say quietly, finding it difficult to admit your naivety to even yourself. "He never meant any of it."

Your sister is shocked, jaw slack with your explanation. She's only sixteen, but you can see the gears turning in her head. She loves a romance book, and growing up in a house where your parent's hands were rarely disconnected has built her into somewhat of a relationship expert. Or so she thinks, at least. "No. No, that's not true."

"It is, he said it."

"Exactly like that? What were his exact words?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"I don't remember."

"You're lying. There's not a thing anyone has ever said to you that you've forgotten." She insists. "But, fine, I guess it doesn't matter because I know it's not true. I've seen the way he looks at you when you're not watching. He's so in love with you it's absurd. Trust me."

You sigh, pulling the blanket away from your face to look up at her. "Don't say that."

"Why? I'm right."

You sniffle, wiping your eyes on the sheet before explaining. "He said we're being forced together to prove something to the public, and he never wanted to be a part of that."

"I knew you were lying." Your sister smiles, pushing your hair back from your face. "But that means nothing. Less than nothing! I wasn't there, but he probably meant that he doesn't want to be together just to be a public spectacle, or to push some agenda that's not his own. That says nothing about how he truly feels about you."

"I don't know..." You reply, skeptical of her thought process. "You should have seen him. He was so angry-"

"At you?"

"Well, no-"

"Then it wasn't about you." She assures you, tucking herself into the blanket. "We'll have a nap, and then you'll talk to him tonight."

"I don't think that's a good idea." You protest.

"It is. Now shh, I'm napping." She hums, eyes already closed as she drapes her arm over your side.

The exhaustion took over and you did end up falling asleep, your sisters breath on your face calming you enough to get some well-needed rest.

You're woken up abruptly, thrown into a show dress that is at least comfortable enough to breathe in, and after being smothered in makeup and hair fried, you're pushed out of the door and into a car.

This address will be hard. You know Jack's family, and to see them standing on the pedestal across from you, behind the crowd, leaves you sick just at the thought of it. Maisie's as well, though you were far from responsible for her death. Again, the idea of why it was you and not them crosses your mind. At this point, you doubt it will ever stop.

Standing backstage, waiting for your queue, Rafe approaches you hesitantly. He knows you're angry, but over the last couple of weeks, you haven't given him a moment to explain. He wishes he could just explain.

"Do you want me to take the lead on this one?" He asks, adjusting the collar of his shirt as he takes his spot next to you, suit tailored to match your dress.

"No. I've got it." You reply coldly, eyes locked on the door ahead of you.

Rafe sighs, reaching out to grab your hand, as was your routine now. You can hear the introductions on stage ahead of you, the audience quieting down. At least this time, the district is mostly celebrating a local win, rather than mourning the senseless deaths of four of their children. This time, it's only three.

You take his hand, building up the energy to smile. You're happy, and you're happy together. Convincing your home district will be harder because, for the rest of your life, you have to keep up this show.

"Can we talk later?" Rafe whispered, leaning down and your skin tingled with the contact of his breath.

"Okay." You say, tone hardly audible as the doors open for you. Let the show begin.

You both smile and wave your way onto the stage, for the first time being met with cheers rather than blank stares. It's refreshing until you see Jack's parents adorning their little stage at the back. You wish they looked angrier, like they believed you were responsible. For some reason, you feel like they don't.

You don't realize people are waiting for you to speak until Rafe does for you, once again ignoring the queue cards.

"District Five, thank you for welcoming me into your community. I have never been here before, but when I say it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, I mean it." He smiles, clearing his throat while the people clap. "I also want to say thank you, because without the sacrifice of your people, I wouldn't be standing here today. That means the world to me, more than I can ever express."

You chew on your lip, scanning across the back and finally seeing your own family. Their presence brings you a comfort you didn't know you needed so badly. "And to Y/N's family, thank you, truly, for raising your daughter into the incredible girl that she is. Without her, there is no chance I could have survived. She saved me. I can never repay you for what you have given me." You watch as your dad pulls your mom close with an arm around her shoulder, hugging her. She looks like she's going to cry, your dad does too.

You try not to laugh as your sister stands with her arms crossed, shaking her head at you, a smug smile on her face. "I told you." You read her lips, and you shake your head back at her.

"Okay, okay, thank you, Rafe." You chuckle, taking the mic from him. "I would just like to say, I am so lucky to be back, and thank you to all of you for being such amazing, supportive people my whole life. It takes a village, they say, and I know I was enough of handful for the whole village to be sick of." You shrug, pulling some laughs from the audience. "I also want to say, to Maisie, Jack, and Caylen's families, I am truly sorry for your loss, but they fought hard. I hope you are proud of who they were. And Mr and Mrs Kyle, I hope you know I never wanted to hurt Jack. I'm so sorry I ever did." You finish, taking a step back to signal that you were done.

Rafe drops your hand to gently rub your back as your eyes are once again trained on his parents. They're crying, of course, as are you, but as his mom nods at you, you feel an incredible weight lifted off your shoulders. One death you felt so personally responsible for, and their family was kind enough to forgive you. Rafe hasn't been so lucky, you've seen it first hand. As you guessed, he is sick about it. Somehow, seeing Jack's family offer you that moment of forgiveness makes him feel better, too, knowing that you won't be suffering the way he is forever.

"Remember, this is your day. Everyone is here to celebrate you, dear." Opal reminds you, gently smoothing the front of your dress back at your home, getting changed for the party. "I am so proud of you."

You smile, for some reason finding yourself fighting off tears. "Thank you, for everything. I know I wasn't always pleasant to be around."

"No one expected you to be." She assures you, planting a kiss on your cheek. "My beautiful victor..."

You look up as there's a knock on the door to your room. "Rafe is here, can we let him in?" One of your stylists assistants says through the wood and Opal answers before you get the chance.

"Yes, let him in." You give her a look and she chuckles, placing her hands on your shoulders. "He's been dying to talk to you, dear. We'll give you a few minutes, and we'll be right outside."

You sigh, nodding as the door gets pushed open. "Rafe! Dear, you look so handsome." Opal smiles at him, patting his shoulder as her and your stylist shuffle out, letting Rafe in and closing the door behind themselves.

Of course, you would be matching his outfit. By now you anticipated it, but Rafe's suits never failed to impress you. It was almost entirely white, with gold cuffs and collars, and somehow, the shoes were a gold leather as well. All matched perfectly to the accents on your dress, and you wonder if his suit alone cost more than the house you grew up in. It's likely.

"You look beautiful." He breaks the silence, smiling at you nervously.

"Thanks.. You too. Handsome. I mean, white suits you."

He clears his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. "I've missed you." He says, looking at you intensely to gauge your reaction. "Look, if... I did something I'm sorry. I was hoping we could talk, I want to fix things."

"If you did something." You scoff, nodding. You can't help but laugh a little bit.

"Okay, I did something. That's obvious, then. Okay." Rafe says, wracking his brain to figure out exactly where he went wrong. He has a good idea, because you ghosted him immediately after his fight with Zara and Opal in Twelve, but they had both forgiven him, understanding that he wasn't upset with them personally. "How do I fix it?"

"Oh, you want to fix it? That's rich. Truly."

"Y/N, I don't understand. You have to level with me, please." He begs, brow furrowed with upset now.

"You wouldn't want the Capitol to think we're fighting, right? You had a change of heart?" You ask rhetorically, grabbing a drink from the cart they moved into your room.

"Please, just spell it out for me. I can't go on like this, I almost lost you once. I'm not doing it again."

You sigh, the desperation in his voice forcing you to be more empathetic. "Okay, Rafe. Fine. You told them that you wanted nothing to do with this relationship. Right in front of me. I don't understand why you couldn't grasp that that hurt me, but if it wasn't clear, I really care about you."

Rafe looks down, staring at the carpet as he listens, nodding as he connects the dots. "Oh- oh! Oh, no, I didn't mean that. You have to know I didn't mean that, Y/N, come on!"

"Then why would you say it?" Your tears are threatening to return now as your voice shakes.

"Okay, I mean, I meant it, but that has nothing to do with you."

"Nothing to do with me? It has everything to do with me!"

"No, it doesn't." Rafe insists, stepping closer to you now. You can't bring yourself to back away. You've missed having him close. "I meant I don't want to be with you just so they can have a new front page couple. I meant I want to be with you because I want to be with you. Because I love you, not because they want me to love you."

You freeze, thinking over what he said. His I love you echoing in your mind like you're standing in a wind tunnel. "I... What?"

"Y/N," Rafe chuckles, reaching up now and holding your face in his large hands. "You are the smartest person I have ever met in my life, but sometimes, you are so dumb."

You can't help but giggle at that, shaking your head slightly. Rafe looks at you like you're holding his world in your hands. "Do you mean it?" You ask after a few moments.

"I've never meant anything more." You can feel his breath on your skin for the second time in one day, and you don't think you can go without it for another. You're sure your heart stops beating for a moment as he thumbs over your bottom lip, and just as you're sure you could throw up from how pretty he looks up close, you're pulling on the front of his jacket to close the gap between you.

It works, beautifully, and despite your confidence in the moment, he's very gentle. You've kissed before, sure, but you were both pumped so full of adrenaline that you couldn't stop laughing long enough to enjoy it- and that's looking past the fact that he was likely moments from death; thank god for the anti-venom the peacekeepers brought on board.

You hold tight onto his jacket, likely to keep your knees from buckling under you as his lips pass over yours, over and over again. "I love you too." You mumble into his skin, and you can feel him smiling against you.

"Kids? It's awfully quiet in there! Not to interrupt but we are on a deadline here!" Opal calls through the door, knocking on it gently with a gloved hand.

At the intrusion you practically jump apart, sighing a breath of relief when she doesn't open the door. "Okay, coming! Just one second." You reply, trying to hide the shakiness in your voice as you gather your things.

You don't know why you're desperate to avoid suspicion, but you're pulling the door open before either of you say anything else to each other. You both know you're okay, and that's what matters.

"Oh! Good, you're ready to go? Let's get moving." Opal nods at you as you pass her, cheeks burning. "Oh my, absolutely not!" She gasps, and you turn to see as Rafe walks out and she's producing a small linen from her bag and wiping off his mouth for him.

"I can do it..." Rafe mumbles, grabbing it from her to remove the rest of your lipstick from around his mouth as you both feel your faces turning red.

Unfortunately, you were only allowed time for one night at home before you moved on to the last uncovered district in your tour, District One.

"Are you excited to be home?" You ask Rafe, once again curled up in the back train car looking at the view. You've got a blanket draped over both of you, your legs falling over his lap.

"I really liked your brother. He's cool." Rafe dodges the question tactfully, and it's not lost on you that he doesn't want to talk about his home. "And your sister was hilarious."

"Yeah," You scoff, shaking your head. "I don't know who gave her Posca, but they shouldn't have. She was drunk out of her mind."

"Isn't she fifteen?"

"Sixteen actually, her birthday was last month." You laugh, dropping your head back onto the armrest behind you. "Be honest though, if you were given that opportunity at sixteen wouldn't you take it?"

Rafe shrugs, running his hand up and down your thigh. "Probably not, my dad would throw a tantrum."

"Is he strict?"

"Extremely."

"Oh. Still? I mean, one, you're eighteen- you're not a kid anymore, and two, shouldn't he just be happy you're alive? Even if that means you're drinking underage?"

"You would think." Rafe sighs, patting your leg gently. "Our reputation is his number one priority. Not his kids."

"I see." You nod softly. "That must be hard for you."

"Well, it's all I've ever known. So it's not that bad. I just worry about my sisters."

"I would too." You agree. "But, they have you. That makes all the difference."

"I try to. He wants them to volunteer, though. The only thing better for his business than one kid in the games is two, and the entertainment factor in that is valuable." Without any cameras around to record your every move, for one of the first times ever, Rafe can speak more candidly to you about it. And it is such a relief.

"That is just... so unfathomable to me." You reply. "Not to disrespect him, or anything, I mean all the respect for who he is and what he does, but I just can't imagine why he wouldn't prioritize your lives more. Especially after your mom..." You trail off here, realizing that's a door only he should open. You had seen a profile of him on the news, as a matter of fact your whole family sat down to watch it together after you got home. You don't know details of what happened, but they mentioned that she passed when he was ten. It broke your heart.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..." You try and correct yourself, feeling him tense up under you as he stares out the window across from you.

"It's okay." Rafe insists, relaxing himself again to continue tracing patterns on your leg. "You're right. It is kind of backwards. I never got that before, but after going through what we did... I wouldn't ever want my sisters to get pushed through the same turnstile. You know?"

"Of course." You nod softly, grabbing his hand off your leg and holding it.

"Anyway, my mom never wanted us to volunteer. She stood out that way, people looked down on her because of it. Then she got sick and... yeah." Rafe continues and you squeeze his hand.

"I'm sorry, truly." You say, tone gentle.

"It happens." Rafe shrugs. "I admit, I was disappointed when Sarah didn't get picked with me. Especially with the team aspect, and I'm surprised that she didn't, but now I'm so glad she wasn't. Not to say she wouldn't have been a strong competitor. If she gets picked next year I guarantee she will win, actually." He says, smiling fondly with a shake of his head. "I've tried talking her out of volunteering, but she hasn't budged. She wants to please Ward, and I get that. I just hope she has the strength that I didn't."

"That's hard. I mean, at least I don't have to convince my sisters not to volunteer. They wouldn't do it if we begged them to, not that we ever would. Obviously." You chuckle, and Rafe does too. "Maybe... Would you mind if I talked to her? I have a way with little sisters."

"By all means." Rafe nods. "Good luck, though."

"I have a question." You say, after a moment of silence between the two of you, the train rattling over the tracks below you with an almost unsettling smoothness.

"Shoot."

"Since so many people volunteer, doesn't that take away the purpose of volunteering? Do they put all the volunteers into a bowl and draw names anyway? How do they pick?"

Rafe laughs, dropping your hand to reach out and ruffle your hair. "You will see."

It isn't long before you start pulling into One. It looks like a mini Capitol, but with more mansions and less giant buildings, it was extravagant nonetheless. Your face was practically glued to the window the whole drive in, as Rafe pointed out who lived where, and any landmarks you passed. It was fascinating, and you wished you were on speaking terms when you arrived in Five. There would have been lots to share.

You can't help but note that his family wasn't there to greet the train, at least you don't think they were- there was a crowd of strangers there waiting excitedly, along with more security to escort you and your teams away from the station.

Everyone there seemed to be a fan, particularly of Rafe's, and this was a comforting change of pace.

Rafe watches you with a fond smile as you stop, crouching down to talk to a little girl who wiggled past security and pulled on the bottom of your dress.

"This is for you, Miss Y/N." She says, so quietly you can hardly hear her over the sound of shuttering cameras and shouting in your direction.

You take the small flower from her and smell it. "It's beautiful, thank you, hun." You smile, taking it and tucking it behind your ear. "What's your name?"

"Clara."

"Clara, that's such a lovely name. Thank you for coming to say hi."

"Can I give you a hug?"

You nod, opening your arms to the little girl who practically falls into your lap, hugging you right around your neck. "When I grow up I'm going to be just like you. I'm gonna win." She says as you let her go, and your heart drops in your stomach.

Your smile falters and you nod at her a little. "Stay safe, okay?" You settle on, gently pushing her hair out of her eyes and standing up as Rafe places his hand on your shoulder, signalling it was really time to go.

You ease the girl back to her waiting parents, before standing upright and joining Rafe, waving to people as you follow him to the car, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling you're left with after that interaction.

The speech in District One was easier, similar to District Two, where people seemed happy to see you- more careless of the lives of young people they had lost. To them, it was an honour to go, even if you never returned home. That's where you first laid eyes on Rafe's sisters, and you could see immediately the difference he was telling you about.

Sarah looked much more like him, and Wheezie like their father, you could only guess that their mother had the dirty blonde hair and blue eyes she passed onto her oldest children.

At the party, it wasn't long before you saw her again, despite the large property and the sea of guests. Pretty much the moment you walked in, Ward was on the two of you with the girls in tow.

"Y/N! It is so good to meet you." He smiles, reaching out to shake your hand which you quickly oblige.

"You as well, Mr. Cameron."

"Please, call me Ward. All my friends do." He grins, nodding to the two girls with him. "These are my daughters, Sarah and Louise."

You try and introduce yourself, but you hardly get past a smile before he's ushering the group of you along. "There are loads of people who have been looking forward to meeting you. Come with me."

You just smile and nod, Rafe staring blankly at his dad as he leads the way.

You meet lots of people, and despite your average height you feel like they're looking down on you. No doubt you're seen as somewhat of a freeloader- carried through the games by Rafe's strength and training, but despite this, Ward introduces you to every last person as Rafe's girlfriend. Not that you mind, you had to assume that's what you were. He didn't seem bothered by it, so neither would you.

"I'm off to grab a drink, care to join?" Sarah offers, linking her arm with yours after what must have been the twenty-fifth new person in the last hour.

"I'd like that." You agree, giving a slight wave to Rafe who nods in approval before you're gone.

"It's a lot. I'm sorry." Sarah says, smile on her face as she guides you through the crowd.

"No, it's nice. I like meeting new people."

"No you don't." Sarah cuts you off, and you can tell it's not with bitter intentions.

"Not really, no." You cave and agree, laughing quietly.

"Rafe told me that. He said you didn't talk the first few days he knew you."

"That's not true." You laugh, correcting her quickly. "Not entirely. I was in shock, I guess."

Sarah shrugs, dropping your arm as you reach the bar. Before either of you say anything the bartender, an avox clad in the standard red uniform, places two drinks in front of you.

"Thank you." You smile, lifting the glass. They just nod and quickly move on as Sarah grabs her drink as well.

You sneak off into a somewhat quiet corner, where you can sit and talk without too many people overhearing. "Rafe speaks very highly of you, I was looking forward to meeting you." You offer as you both sit down at an empty couch.

"Now that," Sarah laughs, coughing slightly on her drink. "Is a shock."

"What?" You laugh. "No way, he loves you."

"No." Sarah shakes her head, gesturing across the room to where she's spotted her family. "He loves Wheezie. I'm just around."

You look over to where she pointed, seeing Rafe standing with his sister as they discreetly jab each other in the side while Ward is talking to yet another "important" friend. Rafe is trying to hide his smile, keep it professional, but he's cracking.

"He loves you too. Just as much." You insist. "Are you open to my theory?" You ask, looking at her as she returns her gaze to you, raising a questioning brow.

"Please." She tilts her glass toward you, urging you to continue.

"I think you guys are a lot alike. And that scares him because he doesn't want you to be like him." You say confidently, polishing off the statement with a sip of the champagne in your hand.

"That..." Sarah takes a drink before continuing. "Is not an entirely bad theory."

"Are you going to volunteer?" You ask, deciding to get right to it. Sarah doesn't seem like the type to dance around what she wants to say, she's confident in every statement she makes. She truly does remind you of Rafe when you first met him.

"Did Rafe ask you to talk me out of it?"

"No. I offered." You reply honestly. "But really I'm just curious. He does tend to be kind of biased these days."

"I see." Sarah nods, thinking on it for a moment. "Tell him I haven't decided yet."

"I have two sisters, both your age and Wheezie's, but I also have an older brother. I see myself in both of you." You explain. "I think you should do what feels right to you. Not to Rafe and me, or to Ward, or to anyone, really. But if you did ask me, I would tell you I would volunteer again somehow if it meant sparing my sisters. I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

Sarah listens to you intently. Whether her reaction shows it or not, you can tell she's really thinking about it. That's all you could ask for. "All the fame and the money it could bring your family isn't worth Wheezie's life, so why would it be worth yours?" You add.

"Would you give it up now if it meant you would have never met my brother?" She follows up with a simple question, but it stumps you.

"I don't know." You answer honestly, watching him again across the room. "But he was the only good thing to come out of it."

The air is warm in the Capitol, and you're not sure whether to attribute that to the humidity of polluted and stuffed air, or the several fire features decorating the President's property lawn where you're attending yet another party in your honour. It feels far from welcoming.

You can't bring yourself to drink, despite how tempting it is to drown out the evening in bottles of whatever alcohol they're handing out on seemingly endless trays of crystal glasses. 

You're clinging to Rafe's arm, accepting compliments from people who look like they've never known any kind of trauma in their lives. The way the Capitol elite feel entitled to every detail of your life makes you nauseous.

"Thank you everyone for coming." The President's voice is booming suddenly over speakers you can't see, and everyone's attention is drawn to where he's standing on the balcony overlooking the property. "It is my honour to host our most recent victors here with us tonight, Rafe Cameron and Y/N Y/L/N!" He stops to allow applause as you smile awkwardly and nod to those around you, waiting anxiously for him to continue. You just want to get this over with. 

"Your love story has been an inspiration to us all, and I'd like to raise a toast to your success and to your happiness." People around you congratulate you, and you lean your head onto Rafe's shoulder, squeezing his arm.

"President Snow would like to see you both in his office." A peacekeeper says, appearing out of nowhere and gently escorting you into the building.

"What do you think this is about?" You whisper as you reach a blocked-off hallway.

"I don't know." Rafe mumbles back. He has a good idea though, to him toast sounded more like a threat than a celebration. "Just... let me handle it. Okay?"

You just nod, stopping behind the peacekeeper at a big wooden door. He nods, gesturing that you enter.

"Have a seat." Snow offers, and Rafe pulls out your chair for you, deciding that he would stand. "Thank you for coming."

"We were in the area." Rafe replies impatiently. "What can we do for you?"

"I wanted to discuss our agreement one more time, since clearly, the two of you were left a little confused." Snow says, resting his hands on the desk that sits between you. 

"The money was a show of good faith." Rafe replies, resting his hand on your shoulder. 

"To you, maybe, but to them, it is a sign that you are on their side." The President corrects. "You are not one of them. Not anymore. If they believe that you are, that they have people with power on their side, the uprisings will continue and the death toll will be catastrophic. I have a feeling that both Districts One and Five will not recover."

You bite your tongue, keeping your eyes locked on the rose sitting in front of you on the desk. "I think there is no use in giving the people of Panem false hope, because you do not have the power you think you do. You are not invincible. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." You nod softly, anxious to leave.

"Go enjoy the party. After all, it's all for you." Snow dismisses you, and neither of you are in a position to argue.

Leaving the Capitol again was a relief, especially with the promise that a train would be made available to either of you as you wished to travel exclusively between your home Districts. Not that you would particularly want to travel anywhere else, anyway. 

Rafe had a preference for coming to visit you, despite your home being much smaller than his. And much more crowded, but he didn't mind. Having a home full of sounds felt much more welcoming to him, even if he was only there for a weekend here and there. He had sisters to look after as well.

In all those months, he came down twice a month, and you looked forward to it every time. Everything was so normal, besides the interviews you did every so often, just to show everyone how happy you were thanks to the "generosity" of the Capitol, and that's a story you're more than pleased to stick with if it means keeping your families safe.

"It isn't far, right? Because I'm too out of shape for a long hike." Rafe jokes, letting you pull him by the hand through a wooded area not far from your house.

"Oh please, you could do it in your sleep." You laugh, shaking your head. "But no, if you must spoil the surprise, it's not far."

Rafe follows you silently, smiling as he watches you beat your way through a slightly overgrown path. The image flickers in his mind of you in your windbreaker, hair tied back around itself to keep it away from your eyes as you run through the bushes in the arena.

"Here, look." You interrupt his thought process with a jolt, the sunlight blinding him as you push past a final branch and hold it out of his way. "Behold, the pride and joy of District Five." You smile, gesturing out over the cliffside.

"Oh, wow." 

"Isn't it pretty?" You ask, dropping his hand to walk closer to the edge overlooking the large dam. "All the electricity in all of Panem comes from here."

"I didn't expect it to be so... scenic." Rafe says, joining you closer to the edge as you sit down.

"Yeah, it's pretty." You agree, crossing your legs. "My dad worked in there for years, he just retired. My brother works there now."

"I can imagine." Rafe says, tearing his eyes away from the depth of the ravine in front of him to look at you. You look so at home here, he can tell by how you're hunched over so casually tossing pebbles off the cliff that must be a thousand feet deep. Even then, you're not scared. "Do you come here a lot?" 

"Is that a pickup line?" You giggle, leaning back on your palms as you look over at him.

"Well, no, but would it work?" He smirks, placing his hand over yours as he matches your position.

"Only because it's you." You laugh, shaking your head.

"That was the correct answer." Rafe chuckles, looking back down at the giant damn that's filtering water through, powering his family's mansion back home. He thinks of all the hours your dad put in, sometimes sixteen-hour days he recalls him sharing, that he was working in the power plant to keep the lights on at Rafe's kitchen table where he sat with his dad and his sisters rarely uttering a word. The same hours your brother is working now.

"How do you feel about this mentor thing?" You ask out of nowhere. "We start soon."

"I don't know. It'll be weird to be working against you." Rafe replies.

"Don't think of it like that. Besides, what was it you told me, that you have a whole team of them? You probably can just sit back and watch them work." You say, trying to raise his spirits a bit. "That gives us more time to visit."

"I feel like 'visit' is a strong word." Rafe laughs. "Hopefully it'll be more than that." He says, moving over to wrap his arm tightly around your waist, kissing your cheek.

"That would be nice." You agree with a sigh. "I don't know, I just don't know what kind of advice to give. What, find someone you trust? I think we just got lucky."

"You'll be the best mentor." Rafe insists. "I wish I had you."

"I wish we hadn't needed one. I don't want to see kids come through year after year and watch them die. I wish I could make it stop, it all seems so pointless."

"It's about control. They'll never give that up." Rafe shakes his head. "So don't think for a second it's your fault."

"I know... It's just so complicated."

"I'm glad it brought me to you, though." 

You smile, leaning your head on his shoulder.

"Hey!" You're startled by a voice behind you, both of you standing up quickly. "You have to come back." Your brother says, chest heaving from his exertion of running all the way up the hillside.

Rafe relaxes from where he placed himself in front of you at the sound, letting you step in front of him. "What happened?" You ask, seeing the look on his face.

"There's been an announcement." He answers, laboured breathing starting to return to normal. "About the games."

The two of you follow him in silence all the way back, anxiety in both of you spiking after your brother wouldn't answer any more questions. When you walk into the house, you're met with a paused TV, your parents on the couch, and your sister with tear-stained cheeks and reddened eyes. "What happened?" You ask again, hoping to get some answers.

Rafe pulls you close to himself after shutting the front door, leading you into the living room. "Here, um, have a seat, kids." Your mom says, hardly audible as you sit down.

She wipes her eyes as your dad presses play on the television, and it's a rewound clip of the news. Rafe wraps a shaky arm around you on the couch as Caesar Flickerman starts speaking.

"We have a unique announcement today regarding the upcoming, highly anticipated, Seventy-Sixth annual Hunger Games." He starts, and you get tunnel vision as you stare at the screen. "This is a twist no one saw coming on the heels of last year's Quarter-Quell, but President Snow has decided there will be a permanent change in the rules. From now on, any victor remaining under the age of eighteen will once again be eligible for the reaping."

taglist: @bookishbabyyy @madelynie, @whore-4-drewstarkey, @slut4drudy, @winterrrnight, @totalswag, @sadfury @fullfledgedemo @rafemotherfuckingcameron, @urfaveluvr, @chenslucy, @hxnnah-397, @s-we-e-t-t-ea, @tahliac11, @saccharinesammie, @ietss, @maybankslover @redhead1180, @suzyheartsrafe, @wpdailyminimeta, @aegons-bitch, @rafegirly, @lovelyxtommy, @dee127, @r1vrsefx, @gillybear17, @flonkertn, @thatsthewaythechrissycrumbles, @thelomlisrafecameron

[irisintheafterglow]

of daisies and collisions

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺ now playing: thelonious monk - "green chimney's"

summary: nanami kento felt a little out of his element, with a small bundle of flowers sitting in his lap and brooding in the dark corner of the jazz bar. yet, you play that song he likes again, and nothing else matters. (nanami x you)

wc: 1.9k

cw/tags: strangers to lovers (??), first meeting, banter-driven fluff with a little bit of angst at the beginning, gojo cameo

note: FIRST TIME WRITING FOR NANAMI RAHHHHHH. thank you to @yutaleks for donating as a part of @ficsforgaza !!! also,,, threw in a little reference for @mididoodles my og nanami lover. i hope you like this :))

likes, reblogs, and replies are always appreciated <3

Nanami Kento considered himself a simple man. 

A week ago, he would have clocked out of work and driven home alone, maybe throwing a baking show on the TV while he made pan-fried dinner in solitude. Nothing got past Nanami’s walls because he didn’t let them. Simple, easy, boring–that was his life since leaving Jujutsu society. Nothing exciting and nothing new, life passed him by and he allowed it to slip through his fingers like water, letting himself become pulled into the mundane pushing-and-pulling tide of everyday life. He wasn’t a sorcerer anymore; just a working man with too much time on his hands, seeing shadows no one else could. Yet, the thought lingered in his mind: who was benefiting from his efforts?

That was his existence, up until a week ago when a novice driver scraped the hood of his car in just the right way to make the engine go completely kaput. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, sir!” 

“I am aware of your remorse. Kindly give me your information so we can handle this in a timely manner.” 

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir!” He exhaled through his nose. The boy couldn’t have been older than eighteen and any other decent adult would have sympathy for the kid. Nanami, however, couldn’t be bothered and took down the teenager’s license and registration with as minimal words as possible. Soon enough, his phone was pressed to his cheek as he called a cab, the nearest one being at least fifteen minutes away. Before he could slip his phone back into his pocket, he senses a body rushing toward his seconds until an inevitable impact. He tries to pivot so that the figure brushes past his arm instead of colliding, but it’s no use. Your shoulder rams into his and you stumble, briefly aware of his hand brushing your forearm to catch you. 

“Sorry about that!” You’re giving him an apologetic smile, still continuing in your current direction. You’re clutching a small stack of papers and you grasp at them as they start to slip from your arms. He gapes unexpectedly, meeting your eyes from over your shoulder. His silence seems to concern you and you take a few steps back toward him with drawn eyebrows. “A-Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” he forces out after a moment, taking a disorienting amount of time to regain his bearings. Why was he so startled by you? “Are you–”

“Okay, great! I have to,” you stutter, gesturing the opposite way, “I have to go. I’m so sorry about running into you, again. Have a good one!” Nanami finds his hand acting on its own, stretching out to grab your attention before you’re gone. He’s a millisecond too late and realizes with a weight in his stomach why he couldn’t stop staring at you. There was something attached to you, something inhuman. It was nearly imperceptible because of your normalcy and any other sorcerer would have missed it, but he saw it, the grotesquely snake-like Curse winding its coils around your neck. The question comes into the forefront of his mind again: who was benefiting from his efforts?

Shit. 

He trails after you without thinking, without any regard as to whether he would miss the cab or get home after the sun disappears. You’re texting someone frantically while still shuffling around your papers, checking street signs every so often before taking a sharp turn right into a brick building Nanami had never entered before. MIDI’S: JAZZ AND DRINKS, read the neon yellow sign, and he pushes through the door without another moment’s hesitation. 

“How are we feeling tonight, ladies and gentlemen?” Cheering, a few hoots and hollers. It’s comfortingly warm in the dark space, dimly lit by a few dandelion lanterns and a tasteful amount of plain candles. There’s a bar tucked into the left wall with two bartenders chatting up distinguished-looking customers. Crowded tables and attendees lounging in creaky chairs litter the space, sipping from honey-colored bottles and crystal glasses. It’s homey, Nanami thinks. Not necessarily his usual crowd, but he could find solace in it. “We’ve got a lot more music up for you tonight, featuring our very own pride of Midi’s.” Nanami’s eyes are drawn to the circular stage at the center of the room, where the announcer gestures behind her to a person seated at the piano. He blinks once, then twice, before realizing that it’s you. You smile into the darkness, wincing a bit when the snake Curse around your shoulders squeezes tauntingly. You had no idea of the danger you were in, which Nanami figured was the reason he orders a glass of bourbon and finds a less-crowded corner of the club. 

Your fingers dance on the keys of the piano, gliding and crossing over each other lighter than touching a paintbrush to a canvas. Your movements are smooth and unrestrained, flawless except for the momentary constriction of the Curse attached to you. The Curse’s eyes find Nanami’s and it seems to smile, constricting harder than it had previously while maintaining eye contact. You cough hard enough that your song is interrupted and the other musicians around you quickly cover for you as you struggle for a drink of water. The Curse was restricting your ability to play, and his body again reacted before his mind. 

He focuses a significant amount of Cursed Energy into his balled fist–not enough to be noticeable to non-sorcerers, but enough to serve as a warning for the Curse blocking your airway. It recoils like a vampire caught in direct sunlight, slinking away into the darkness behind the piano. It was still attached to you, but he knew it wouldn’t pester you for the rest of your performance. Exorcizing the Curse himself was risky, since you’d recognize Nanami as soon as he was in close proximity. As the last step in his quiet plan to keep you safe, he opens his messages and scrolls through the endless amount of heart-emoji texts he left unanswered, sending his location to the one contact in his phone that isn't involved with being a salaryman. 

> LOCATION SENT - NANAMI KENTO TO GOJO SATORU 

— 

“That’s them? That’s why you send me to a jazz bar at 7:00 P.M. on a Thursday?” 

“Don’t call them ‘that,’ Gojo. It’s crass,” Nanami mutters, another sip of bourbon burning down his throat. The blindfolded sorcerer beside him shrugs indifferently, considering you again. You’re playing with more life than you were the week prior, when the Curse was snug around your neck like a deadly scarf. He might have imagined it, but Nanami could have sworn you caught his eye and winked at him. Gojo insists those winks were for him, though. “But, yes. They are the reason I sent you that message.” 

“Why’d you do it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why’d you follow them and get involved, anyway? It’s not like you to get concerned with things that don’t benefit the collective. At least, not since you left,” Gojo replies. It’s harsh, a little blunter than Gojo’s usual lackadaisical comments, but he’s right. Nanami hadn’t been worried about a single person besides himself in a long while, however much he didn’t like to admit it. He was fine protecting his own simple, boring existence, until he realized just how much he wanted to protect your existence too. Nanami Kento was a selfish man, inside, and he considered his actions to keep you safe not altruism, but an extension of his selfishness. That’d be too hard to express to Gojo, though, so he settles for mirroring his former colleague’s indifferent shrug. 

“Felt like the correct path to follow,” he answers. The small bundle of daisies sitting in Nanami’s lap weighs heavier than a dumbbell, and it occurs to him just how out of his element he was. He was used to things being clean-cut and easy, but his recent interest in getting to know you had thrown off his entire livelihood. “We are to keep people safe, are we not?”

“I’m supposed to keep those people safe. I don’t really know what you’re doing anymore,” Gojo drawls. “Though, I will say, they’re really pretty. You think I can pull them?”

“The only thing pulling you is my arm out of this establishment if you don’t be quiet,” Nanami deadpans. “Plus,” he looks down at the stray flower petals sprinkling his dress pants, “I have first dibs.”

You smile at him when he approaches you sidestage after your set, visibly more relaxed without the Curse on your back. Gojo was long gone doing who-knows-what, leaving Nanami to deal with the unwanted fluttering in his gut. 

“You’re back again. Enjoy the show last week?”

“Yes,” he affirms, “You are incredibly talented.” 

“Thank you.” Your eyes flick down to the flowers in his fist, comically small in comparison to his large hands. “Those for me?” 

“Y-Yes, of course,” he sputters, handing you the bunch more stiff than he planned. A silent understanding hides behind your expression; you can see through him like glass. Somehow, he doesn’t mind. “Were you–”

“Are you–” You both speak at the same time and abruptly trail off, insisting that the other goes first. “Please,” you concede with a wave of your hand, “go ahead.”

“I was going to ask if you were playing here for the first time when we ran into each other, last week.” 

“Was it that obvious?” You rub the back of your neck with your hand, your smile turning playfully embarrassed. “I had this weird cough that was messing with my health, so that’s why I was running late. It was also probably why I collided with you on the sidewalk,” you chuckle. 

“I am unbothered,” he admits. His thoughts slip out from his mouth without thinking. “I wouldn’t mind if you collided with me again.” Your eyes widen and Nanami can feel his face begin to burn, Gojo’s devilish grin at the back of his mind accusing him of being terrible at relationships. “I-I’m not sure why I said that–”

“It’s Kento, right?” You’re peering at him curiously, as if you were trying to hold in a laugh. The sound of his name on your lips is more intoxicating than any amount of alcohol from the bar. 

“Yes, how did you–”

“The blindfolded guy came up to me during my break and said he was with you,” you state, the corner of your mouth still quirking like you were hiding a secret. “You have weird friends.” You didn’t know half of it. 

“Right,” he forces out. You didn’t seem to mind how goofy Nanami was acting; in fact, something in his head told him that you liked it. “Well, I-I apologize for such a bold–”

“You know,” you cut in as the back of your hand delicately brushes the tiny flowers in your hand. “My set tomorrow night ends early and there’s a really good sandwich shop just up the street. Maybe I could collide with you there?” 

“That would–Yes, I would like that,” he barely replies. You tear a corner from your sheet music and scribble something onto it. You press it into his palm as you head backstage, your touch electrifying every single nerve you made contact with. 

“See you tomorrow,” you wave with that same small smile he was losing himself to. For better or for worse, something about meeting you made Nanami unwilling to go back to that simple, easy way he was living before. 

GREEN CHIMNEY’S (PG. 3)

(XXX) XXX-XXXX 

here’s that song you like, it’s the one you smile at every time <3 

if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee on my ko-fi! you can also check out my full masterlist here :)

[dont-f-with-moogles]

Hi 🤎

I would love to read the long version of all those fake fics if I'm being honest! But: 🦮 for Campfire please dear and lovely Terra 🤎

Campfire Rating: Mature Fandom: Attack on Titan Relationship: Levi Ackerman / Hange Zoe Additional tags: #OG levi squad  #canon universe   #friendships  #friends to lovers  #field trip  #camping  #campfires  #fluff  #romantic feelings  #romantic gestures  #romantic… dreams?  #sleep talking  #no  #smutty sleep talking ;)  #secret relationship  #but not for long #oops  #relationship reveal  #accidental public love confession  #Levi Ackerman is a mess #severe second hand embarrassment Word count: 860 words The clearing was ringed by trees, their great limbs reaching skywards. Spindly branches grew to sharpened points like gnarled fingers, each clutching a thin fabric of leaves which wove into a threadbare canopy overhead. Pale light filtered between them; early evening sky turned grey by the rising smoke from the campfire. Bird calls pierced the quiet rustle of wind. Then, in the distance, a chorus of chirps echoed in response. Amongst the murmurings and stirrings of nature, the flames crackled. 

Two squadrons of Survey Corps soldiers sat upon the fallen logs and leaf-strewn forest floor. The assembly had broken out into smaller groups, conversing intently as they suspended corn cobs over the flickering flames. The air was filled with the smell of roasted vegetables. Hange was terrifying Moblit with a report of Sawney’s cavities, following a dental examination they had personally carried out on the titan. Meanwhile, Oluo was outlining squad formations at painstaking length. Levi nodded as his squad member continued on and on and on… At first glance, it appeared as though the Captain was deep in thought. His eyes narrowed as though he was concentrating on visualising Oluo’s detailed descriptions.

...of course, it’s just my opinion that the Standby Squad should ride ahead of the Transport Squad,” Oluo drawled, “they are in the most protected position after all. Besides which, the Transport Squad carries our spare food, medical equipment, ODM gear…”

Levi’s eyelids fell shut as Oluo began to list off each item on his fingers. The Captain nodded again, his head falling to the side. Petra gasped as she felt his chin brush against her shoulder.

“Captain! Not here! I’m not read-”

It took her a moment to realise that he had not been consciously leaning towards her, but rather unconsciously. The young recruit froze, her shoulder bearing Levi’s head. Oluo stared at them before he gave a bitter sigh, dropping his hand upon his lap in disappointment.

“Well, that’s not what you want.” 

“Oh my god…” Mutterings broke out around the circle amidst the nudging of elbows. Petra sat upright, her shoulders stiffened, not wanting to budge an inch lest she disturb Levi. 

“Come on…” she tried in a placating tone, “we’ve had a long ride here. Let’s just let him sleep. I’ll be fine… as long as someone passes me some corn?” Petra was attempting to sound mildly amused - inconvenienced even - by the fact she was trapped, sitting on her heels and unable to turn her head. However, her face glowed in pleasure as her eyes continually drifted down to Levi’s face, resting so close to her own.

The conversation around the circle continued. Petra lifted her chin, her demeanour inflated as she sat eating and speaking with Eld. All the whilst she affected a casual lightness as though her senior officer was not huddled close to her, open and vulnerable in his slumber. Then, suddenly, Levi interrupted with a murmur.

Petra and Eld lapsed into silence, uncertain as to whether or not the Captain was stirring. He spoke again, only louder this time.

“Ah, Hange… take em off, baby… I don’t care if they’re small… wanna bury my face in them…..”

Petra’s corn on the cob rolled along the forest floor. All eyes were trained on Hange. The titan scientist feigned a perplexed expression as their eyes roved the tree tops.

“Did you guys hear something? Was that a lark? A great tit maybe…?”

“Sounds like Levi would know,” Eld cracked dryly, causing a ripple of laughter to break out amongst the recruits. The sound was followed swiftly by a nervous shushing as Levi raised his head, his eyes opening.

“… the hell are you all looking at?” he muttered. His glare immediately sought out Oluo. In his semi-conscious state, Levi tried to piece together the fragments of their earlier conversation. He remembered it had been something about squads and supplies…

“Well?” Levi growled.

“Sir… I… I was just suggesting an amendment to the riding formation,” Oluo answered anxiously, “not to say you don’t know breast - best!”

The swell of laughter bubbled up around the circle again. Hange fell to wiping their glasses on their yellow shirt, a deep flush creeping up the skin of their neck. Scowling, Levi climbed to his feet.

“If you’ve all got time to sit there snickering, then you’ve got time to help rebuild this fire.” 

He scrutinised the dying embers. Most of the Survey Corps members had eaten by now. All that remained of the fire was a large charred stump, still smouldering in the centre. All of the smaller branches had collapsed to ash inside the middle of the pile. Levi looked up and caught Hange’s eye.

“Oi, Hange. Wanna give me a hand?”

Nervous titters broke out amongst the younger recruits. A few shoulders were shaking. Eld was grinning down at his lap. Oluo’s jaw was set. Gunther had crammed his fist into his mouth, tears pricking in the corner of his eyes.

“With what?” Hange asked, astonished.

Levi regarded her severely.

“Getting wood.”

The whole group burst out into a chorus of whoops and raucous laughter, Oluo hiccoughing loudly as he bit his tongue. @youre-ackermine

[l0vegl0wsinthedark]

Oh my god okay I’m so fucking excited for literally any fic you write from this little prompt challenge.

My prompt for you: Slytherin!Harry getting Ravenclaw!Draco to tutor him on potions or the subject of your choice; lots of flirting and tension and dijwbdjdjdns.

(TOTALLY get it if this doesn’t inspire. Go with your muse. I’ll eat up anything that comes from your brain)

LOVE YOU!!!!!

(I LOVE IT I LOVE YOU)

Draco was completely mental to be doing this. The very idea was preposterous but to be actually proceeding with it?

I mean, it was Potter.

Draco stood outside the classroom they had agreed upon, clutching his books, practicing the script he'd spent three hours on, over and over in his head.

'"There you are, Potter",' he murmured on repeat. 'It's "There you are, Potter", not "There you are, Potter". Spit out the "Potter", you sound positively giddy with happiness otherwise. And for heaven's sake don't let him kiss you this time. What a menace, honestly. "There you are, Potter. There you are, Potter"...'

He stepped into the classroom. It was nearly dusk and the room shone violently orange which was rapidly darkening. Potter hadn't lit the torches. He was sitting - no, lounging - on a seat in the first row with his feet propped up on the table, arms crossed, wand tucked behind his ear.

He smirked when he saw Draco, an indecent twist of the lips made even more worrying by the promise that gleamed in his eyes.

'Here I am, Potter!' said Draco shrilly and dropped his books.

Potter let his chair fall forward with a thud, the tips of his hair gleaming orange in the sun. He got to his feet and made his way over to Draco, who just stood there.

Potter stopped, waved his hand, caught Draco's books as they floated up.

'Here you are, Malfoy,' he said sweetly.

Only twenty minutes later, Draco was sure he was about to be violently sick.

Potter smelled incredible. He was also extremely warm which was definitely why Draco was so warm and also sweating everywhere and it felt unreal to even be sitting next to Potter, tutoring him for their Potions N.E.W.T.

'So, before we add the hellabore,' Potter frowned down at the bird-scratchings that were his notes, 'we need to simmer for eighteen minutes because otherwise the scorpion venom will curdle?'

'That can't be what you've written down,' Draco said, aghast. 'Why in heaven's name would a venom even curdle in the first place?! It's a venom! Class 7 substance! Non-reactive until it touches blood! This was covered in fourth year!'

His voice had gotten higher and louder with each word and by the end of it, Potter was grinning at him.

'Show me that,' snapped Draco, wrenching Potter's notes to himself and shoving on his glasses.

He squinted down at word shaped scribble. He could read five languages but this wasn't in any one of those. On the top right corner of the page, Potter had drawn a plump heart.

Inside the heart was written "DM".

Draco's face suddenly felt hotter than the setting sun. He pushed the sheaf of parchment back at Potter.

'I can't even decipher that atrocious rubbish,' he muttered, his glasses slipping down his sweaty nose. 'Venom can't curdle. We simmer to let the fairy wings dissolve completely. Next.'

Potter cleared his throat delicately, hunching over his notes again.

'So, once we've added the hellabore,' he said, voice full of something that made Draco's face grow even hotter, 'we stir clockwise--'

'Counter clockwise.'

'Right, counter clockwise, and then we add the moon salt and the Ogden's?'

Draco nodded along as Potter read, his knee bouncing uncontrollably next to Potter's solid thigh, his mind filled with absolute chaos.

'Yes, yes, right,' he said. 'Moon salt and two measures of Og-- Wait, what?! Ogden's?!

He ripped the notes out of Potter's hands but Potter was already laughing. Draco shoved the sheaf back at him, glowering.

'Look, Potter, I told you,' he shouted. 'I warned you that I don't have the time nor the inclination to put up with any of your nonsense! I knew you--'

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' Potter laughed, holding up his hands in surrender.

'--only to mess around with me but I agreed because everyone knows you're a giant dunderhead who can't even brew a simple Sleeping Draught if his life depended on it--'

'Now now, is that fair?' Potter said calmly.

'--told Hermione that you would faff about, I don't even know why she's friends with you, I've tried to understand why for seven years--'

'We're friends because she actually gave me a chance?' drawled Potter.

'--but I am done. I tried to do the right thing, the good thing, but you're just absolutely beyond incorrigible with your abominable hair and your untucked shirts and your revolting fan club--'

Draco had years worth of spewing left to do but suddenly he just couldn't.

Because Potter had dragged him in by the tie and kissed him, this time square on the mouth. Harry Potter was kissing him, Draco Malfoy, right on the mouth.

There he was. Potter.

(Part 1)

[nanivinsmoke]

The Breakup.

Sanji x blackFem!reader

needed another angst on here. also sanji and yonji’s personalities are different from the og story.

summary : when love has its limits, a relationship is shattered.

warnings: smoking, semi-violence, cheating.

note: italics is a flashback

The look in his eyes could kill. She had never seen his blue eyes look so dark. That happiness that once radiated through him was no longer there. Not after what she had told him.

The rain poured and danced on the windows, dancing to the beat of thunder, setting the mood for tonight. “Sanji! If you’d just let me explain!” She pleaded, reaching out to grab his arm, but he quickly moved away. Her face was painted with the mascara from her eyes, evident that she was crying.

“I don’t wanna fucking hear your piss poor excuse, Y/N! You fucking cheated on me!” His words cut through her like the sharpest knives that he owned, he meant every word. “Please! Just let me explain!” she pleaded once more, finally getting him to look at her. His face held pure disgust, this is the first time he ever looked at her like that, let alone a woman.

“Yes! Please tell me how you ended up fucking my brother!” The cat was out the bag, he had finally said it and she cringed at it. “Okay…I’ll tell you. Just don’t yell anymore,” she pleaded, her irises softening even though it still held tears in them. Sighing, she turned away not able to face him as she recounted that day, the day that changed her life.

“It was the day that me and you had got into that big argument and you left the house….”

She sat on the plush blue love seat, staring at the door hoping that he would come in, hoping to get an understanding on everything. She didn’t understand how one point she went from loving him, to hating him at the same time. She didn’t understand his feelings and neither did he with her’s and she wanted the opportunity to understand them, without another argument. The couple would usually have pointless disagreements and would get over them before the day would end, but this time it was different.

Hours before, Sanji had crept in their townhouse in the wee hours of the morning, hungover after drinking until he couldn’t know more. He had thought his girlfriend was asleep which would have given him the leverage to sneak in their bed with her, but when the lights flicked on and he saw her sitting on the loveseat; with a cigarette in hand. He knew he was in for it tonight. It was habit she had picked up from him whenever she was stressed out or pissed; and knowing her she was both.

“Why have you been coming in here so late, Sanji?” Y/N questioned, eyeing him as he kicked off his shoes and threw his jacket over the other sofa, ignoring her. “You don’t think i know who’ve you been with? Tell Viola i said hi” His eyebrows furrowed and he turned to her, his black eyes nearing hers.

“You spying on me now?” He questioned, watching as she took a pull from the cigarette that was in her hand before she ashed it on their tray. “I shouldn’t have to fucking spy on you if you called me! You don’t even have the decency to do that! But, you can call Viola to hangout whenever! Yeah…i checked that phone,” his eyes widened and he clutched his pocket where his phone was.

“Stay the fuck out of my business, Y/N!”

“I wouldn’t have to be in your business if you’d just tell me where you are and who you are with!”

“Did you ever stop and think maybe im trying to get away from you? God! You crazy bitch!” As the words left his lips he instantly regretted it and he didn’t even attempt to dodge as she hurled a the blue vase at him, letting it shatter into bite and pieces against his face. “Get out! Get out! I hate you! Leave me alone!” She hit his chest, tears streaming down her mahogany colored skin, pushing him out the door. And when he was finally out the door she broke down, sitting in that living for hours.

And then she heard the door knob move and she perked up, thinking he had came back. She nearly sprinted over to the door and opened it, but was disappointed when she saw that it wasn’t Sanji. Instead it was his brother, Yonji. He was about to say something smart and snarky, but when he had seen the state of the living room and her face, he knew there was something wrong. He may not have been his brother, but he still had same the attributes. He quickly consoled her, ran her a bath, cleaned up the place and made her something to eat; even though he wasn’t as skilled in the kitchen it had tasted just as good to her. And when she told him about what happened prior, he was shocked. Shocked that the woman lover, Sanji, had called his girlfriend a bitch.

“Look Y/N, im no saint so im not going to act like I am. But, my brother is a Vinsmoke just like the rest of us. Meaning there’s an asshole in him deep down, it’s in his blood. You deserve better than him…better than that” Yonji had a way with words, he knew how to control a situation. And by looking at Y/N’s plump lips then back up at her eyes, he went in for the kiss and was surprised when she kissed back. Things quickly heated and that’s when the two of them had sex on that same plush sofa.

“You hurt me. And all I could think about was hurting you back”

“By fucking my brother?!” He yelled, tears brimming his own eyes. It was very clear on what the outcome would be for this situation and Y/N was going to be the one to say it. “I think we should break up. We aren’t good for each other Sanji…not at all…”

“Yeah. I’ll be out of here by tonight”

[disney-is-mylife]

My criteria:

this list is ONLY pre-2000 films, and ONLY the Walt Disney Animation Studios line-up. So no Pixar, sequels, A Goofy Movie, Nightmare Before Christmas, etc

this is a list of Disney animated films that I now love EQUALLY as much (if not MORE so) as I did as a child. Basically, these are the films that I give the most passionate "commentary" for when watching with loved ones lmao (lots of "LOOK AT THAT SHOT LOOK AT THAT ANIMATION" and "MY BABIES" etc etc)

Y'all don't understand. Disney is embedded in my mind, heart, and soul, and ranking them is a herculean task because I LOVE SO MANY OF THEM YOU HAVE NO IDEA 😭😭😭 The vast majority of them fall into this nebulous middle region with me clutching them and crying DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE and constantly changing my mind on their rankings.

Case in point, the Top 3 are basically a three-way-tie lmao

Here are my honorable mentions that I seriously considered adding to the poll:

Hercules (1997): PLEASE DON'T @ ME, THIS HURT MORE THAN YOU KNOW 😭😭😭 It was this or The Lion King.... ultimately I chose TLK because it low-key feels wrong NOT to lmao, but also because while Hercules is a fun romp, TLK is a Cinematic Masterpiece that STILL makes me cry. That said, Hercules's songs motherfucking SLAP and Hercules/Megara are in my Top 10 Fave Disney Couples list for good reason.

Oliver & Company (1988): This one is a bit of wild card cuz I don't generally give it a knee-jerk "top 10" reaction. BUT GODS, I LOVE IT SO MUCH AND IT IS SO UNDERRATED KHBBJGHMBJJHK 😭😭😭

The Three Caballeros (1945): This is an absolute madhouse and I unironically adore every second of it lmao. My siblings and I would always quote it and act out scenes. It is as near and dear to my heart as any other title in the poll.

Alice in Wonderland (1951): To date, my fave adaptation of one of my fave books. It's solidly in my Top 15 Disney films of ALL TIME, regardless of date release.

Fantasia 2000 (1999/2000): This one toes the line due to the release date, but like COME ON. Epic flying whales?? Rhapsody in Blue??? FIREBIRD SUITE???? Idk what purists are talking about when they act like it's not good; it's fucking ART. The ONLY reason why it's not on the "same level" as the original Fantasia for me is cuz the OG is embedded in my brain lol

[belphegor1982]

Scanlan with 17, if you feel so inclined ✨

(17. Tending to an injury/wound/illness from the Put That Guy in a Situation™ Ask Game/Prompt list)

*rubs hands* You know, it just so happens that I had an idea floating in my head and that I was able to use it for your prompt. Thought it might be a nice little 1,000-word story, maaaaybe 2,000, but instead have this 6,100 word behemoth! Thank you so much for the opportunity to write for these characters 💜 I'll post it on AO3 ASAP!

—

Friends in Low Places

“—og! Grog! Scanlan! Can you hear me?”

There’s a voice in Grog’s ear, piercing through the fog, and he makes an effort to shake the cobwebs because Pike almost sounds scared and she never does.

It works, and he realises a few things in rapid succession:

Pike is calling through the earring.

They were all fighting some big beast with lots of teeth and claws. Now they’re not. (At least Grog isn’t.)

They were in a cave, deep underground, and the fight happened right next to a really big drop. Presumably Grog is still in the cave, just… a lot lower.

And last, he’s covered in rocks and pebbles and dirt like a blanket, curled up on himself around something warm and small –

Oh, that’s another thing: Scanlan is alive, too. His breath is coming hard and fast against the middle of Grog’s chest, tickling the scar tissue there, and he’s clutching Grog so tight Grog can almost feel the sting of nails. (Grog likes to think he has really thick skin, so that’s saying something.)

“Guys, speak up if you’re okay – or at least alive,” comes another voice, sharper. Vex.

Grog feels Scanlan move around a little.

“I don’t know about ‘okay’,” he croaks, like the inside of his throat is coated in dust, same as Grog. His voice makes a weird echo in the earring. “But, uh, the other thing, I guess.”

Scanlan is one of those people who often uses more words than necessary. Grog doesn’t mind; that’s just how he is. Besides, Scanlan being tricky with words is a good thing more often than not.

Still, Grog unlocks one of his arms to touch his own earring and says, “We’re good.”

There’s an assortment of relieved noises in his ear. Instead of trying to make out what Vex, Vax, Percy and Keyleth are saying (that would take too long), he zeroes in on Pike’s voice. It shakes just a little still when she asks, “Do you think you can climb back up?”

Good question. Grog unfolds completely – realising in the process that he’s been wrapped around Scanlan, who also slowly lets go of him – and looks up.

And up.

Not that he can see all that well in the dark, even with the dull light of some of the weird worms Keyleth said are attracted to warm spots, but man, this cliff is high. And, unfortunately, way too steep to climb.

“I don’t think so,” says Scanlan, his head tilted real far back, and Grog remembers gnomes can see pretty well in the dark. “I can’t even see you guys.”

“Man, this is deep. How the hell are you still alive?” There’s wonder in Vax’s voice. Now that Grog thinks about it, yeah, that’s a good question.

They’ve been hired by a local mine owner to kill a monster that mangled and munched on some miners; nobody was sure what it was, other than pointy, dangerous, and probably hungry. After two days underground the S.H.I.T.s finally found the thingy – a big beast with long spikes on its tail and fangs that had to be worth a lot of gold each. Grog, who still had no idea what it was except ‘a future corpse’ (and didn’t really care), called it ‘the thingy’. Then, since it just wouldn’t die, apparently, not without trying to take all of them with it, he called it ‘that fucker’ as he hacked at it with his great axe, grinning all the while (gods, whaling on monsters is fun). And then none of that shit mattered, because it scuttled back and swept its tail behind in a wide arc, aiming for the spot Scanlan stood at a safe distance hitting it with magic (and hitting them with healing spells).

Grog completely stopped enjoying himself or wondering what the creature was called. Instinct took over. He bolted between the spikes and his friend and the giant tail knocked them both over the edge of a drop.

Neither of them died, so clearly it was the best decision.

“What happened to the thingy?” he asks as Scanlan opens his mouth to answer Vax’s question. That seems more of a pressing concern.

“Oh, it’s dead,” comes Keyleth’s voice, then some shuffling as Grog pictures her nudging something heavy with her foot. “Yup, very dead. Ew.”

“I’ll put a handful of fangs into the bag of holding,” says Vex, sounding like she’s not exactly looking forward to it, “so we can show them to Barandiaran and get paid. A couple of those spikes, too. Doesn’t look like they’re venomous, but they might be worth something. Oh, and Keyleth picked up your axe, Grog.”

“Hey, thanks, Keyleth.” Grog feels a little naked without his great axe, but at least he knows it’s in good hands and he’s gonna get it back soon.

Scanlan, who’s been looking a little put out that Grog cut him off, crosses his arms and looks vaguely upwards, in the direction Grog assumes the rest of their friends are.

“Yeah, that’s nice. What about us? How do we come up?”

“I’m not sure you can,” Percy remarks, sounding distracted, like he’s thinking hard. Just as Grog and Scanlan glance at each other in alarm, he continues, “So I guess we’ll have to go to you. Do you see a way out?”

“Hah, yeah sure, we… Wait.” Scanlan peers towards the back of the cavern which, to Grog, looks exactly like the sides of the cavern – utterly dark. “Hang on, I think we actually passed this way earlier on our way up. It’s not far from where we last set up camp to lunch-dinner-whatever.”

“Are you sure?”

If it was anyone else than Pike who asked, Grog is fairly sure Scanlan would have said something snarky; but Scanlan is funny about Pike. Even in the dark at a foot of a cliff, where she can’t see him, he beams like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

“Sure I’m sure! I dropped an apple core not far from here – pretty sure I can find it again if nothing ate it in the meantime.”

“Do not move,” says Vex, almost as sharp as when she demanded a sign of life from them. “Seriously. Stay put, we’re coming down to meet you. You’re closer to the way out anyway, we’ll be retracing our steps.”

“Sure you’re both okay?” Pike asks. “Not hurt?”

Grog smiles. As usual, he took some damage in the fight, scuffs and scrapes and things – he’s definitely gonna have new scars on his shoulder and his thigh – but he’s super tough and he heals fast. And apart from a few bruises of his own Scanlan doesn’t move like someone who’s injured.

They both reply in the negative. Scanlan’s answer is longer and more flowery. Pike says, “…O–kay,” a little uncertain, but it sounds more like she’s still worried rather than her usual disconcerted and/or amused response to Scanlan being Scanlan. Then, because she’s the best, she adds just for Grog, “See you soon, buddies” before the earrings go silent as they walk away and out of range.

The scratch on his thigh is smarting a little and sending tingles down his leg, so Grog makes himself comfortable on the ground while Scanlan stares up the cliff with a funny look on his face.

“That really was a hell of a drop, huh.” He looks back at Grog and smiles. “Thanks, bud. I think I would’ve looked like one of those fancy holey cheeses if you hadn’t been there.”

Grog shrugs. “I mean, it’s not a big deal.” Then, as Scanlan gets a look on his face like he disagrees and it is a big deal, “Hey, by the way, did you do somethin’? ‘Cause for a second there I thought we were gonna go splat.”

He registered sensations as they fell, other than the wind whistling in his ears and his body trying to curl into the tightest ball imaginable to protect his insides and Scanlan’s. A muffled voice against his chest, a warm tingle enveloping him, the impression that the world slowed down for a couple of heartbeats before he crashed into the ground. Either he developed powers – which he doesn’t rule out, maybe he is a secret wizard and just didn’t know it till then – or Scanlan used his own.

It’s hard to see in the mostly-dark, but he thinks Scanlan looks miffed at the ‘no big deal’ for a second before he shakes his head and grins.

“Well, yeah. I had one spell left in me and I wasn’t about to—what the hell, Grog, is that blood yours!?”

His face went from smiling to shocked in the middle of his sentence. Grog frowns and looks down.

Oh.

Yeah.

Shit.

The scratch on his leg isn’t very big, but turns out it’s a lot deeper than he thought. One of the thingy’s tail spikes must have gone deep into the meat of his thigh. It doesn’t hurt more than the kind of injury that takes care of itself with a bit of rest, so Grog honestly hasn’t noticed till now, but it’s bleeding steadily, probably has been since their fall. There would be a little puddle of blood on the ground under his knee if rivulets weren’t slowly trickling down the slow incline and around the bigger pebbles. The back of his trouser leg is warm and sticky almost down to the top of his boot.

“Huh,” says Grog, blinking down. At least that explains the pins and needles in his leg. “That’s, uh. Not. Good?”

“Not good, sure, let’s go with that.” Scanlan hurries closer and starts rummaging around Grog’s belt and trousers. Good thing Grog isn’t ticklish.

“Lookin’ for something?”

“Yeah, the bag – where is it?”

“I don’t have the bag,” says Grog, who doesn’t like that Scanlan’s usual grin disappeared. Scanlan’s always smiling. “I gave it to Keyleth, and she gave it to Percy.”

“Gave it to… Why?”

“He wanted to keep working on a ‘project’ bigger than his pepperbox. Said he needed the bag to keep the parts.”

“Okay, but you don’t happen to have a healing potion on you, do you?”

“Nah, they’re all in the bag. That’s also why I gave it to Keyleth: you lot need those potions way more than me.”

Scanlan stops frisking him and stares up at him.

“I guess, but what happens when you need one and you don’t have any on hand?”

“Then Pike heals me, gets me back up. Or Keyleth, or Vex, or you. I mean, you have magic, right?”

“Sorry, big guy,” Scanlan says slowly, “I’m beat. I don’t have anything useful left – most I can do right now is try to send a message thirty feet away or hurt somebody’s feelings, and neither works on rocks.” He searches his own pockets and adds with a grimace, “Damn, I don’t even have the fun stuff on me.”

“What fun stuff?”

“Just straps and ribbons and things.” Grog blinks; Scanlan shrugs. “You never know when you’re gonna meet somebody who’s down with a bit of bondage. But they’re all in my pack, and I put my pack in the bag of holding –”

“Why’d you do that?”

“Because it was heavy and I wanted to move quickly in case we found the thingy, or the other way around!”

That’s… a good reason, Grog muses. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everyone has his muscles and endurance.

Scanlan stands there for a second, his hands in his pockets, slouching slightly. He bites his lip, looks at Grog’s leg, and shrugs off the leather vest he uses as armour. Then he starts to undo the few buttons on his shirt that aren’t already undone.

“Uhh,” says Grog, baffled, “what are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m stripping.”

“Okay, but why? Oh, you mean you wanna, like, bang?”

Grog knows Scanlan likes having sex, a lot. Which is fair; so does Grog. Having sex is awesome. But this is Scanlan, his second best little buddy, the guy who never balks at going with him to houses of lady favours, one of the very few people he knows who never talk down to him or treat him like he’s too stupid to understand things. Grog loves him a lot, and the thought of having sex with people he loves is too weird to contemplate.

Also, while a few girls Grog had the best kind of naked fun with had dicks, he’s never been with a dude, and he has a feeling it’d be kinda weird, too.

So he sits up straighter and tries to recall the words Pike taught him in case someone was interested in him and he wasn’t.

“’Cause if you do, I am sorry,” he says, sounding out each word carefully, “you are a great person and I respect you very much, but I am not attracted to you like that.”

He must have got it right on the first try, because Scanlan chuckles as he takes off his shirt.

“You don’t know what you’re missing, buddy. Don’t worry, though, I will do my best to live with the sting of rejection.”

He eyes his shirt, then Grog’s thigh, and makes a whole-body eh gesture before walking right up to Grog. “No, my big, incredibly sexy goliath friend, I’m not trying to woo you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d totally be DTF if, you know, you were interested and I’d get to not be dead by the time we’re done, but that’s not why you’re getting a strip tease.”

“So?” asks Grog, still puzzled. It was warm in the part of the cave where they fought the thingy; Keyleth said it’s because of some gas that makes it smell like walking into a fart at times. But Scanlan usually gets cold way before he does. Why did he take off his clothes?

“So, while we’re waiting for the others to waltz back in and save the day…” Scanlan stops, cocks his head to the side. “By which I mostly mean Pike. She’s amazing like that. Hopefully she still has energy for some spells left – but failing that, a bag full of healing potions works, too. Anyway,” he adds, crouching in front of Grog and trying to wedge the shirt under his thigh as gingerly as he can, “while we’re waiting, you’re getting a bandage so you don’t bleed to death. Or rather the funny word Vex said that time, way back, before Pike came into the picture… You know, the thing she tied around Vax’s arm when he got stabbed bad… What was it – sounded kinky, like pourniquey, or… Tourniquet! That’s it!”

The triumphant grin turns into a grimace when he has to pull on his shirt with all his might to fasten it properly. He’s so small there’s almost not enough material to tie a really tight knot, even when Grog gives him a hand and pulls on the sleeves as hard as he dares. So Grog also keeps his right hand firmly on the wound, half at Scanlan’s insistence and half because of a dim memory from when he was really young, of seeing a fellow member of the Herd clutching a gushing wound to keep the blood inside while other people ran for a healer. His father made him watch so he’d toughen out. Grog guesses it worked.

When they’re done, Scanlan takes a step back and a satisfied look at his handiwork with his fists on his hips.

“There you go. Deluxe bandage. I’ll be taking that shirt back when you’re done with it, though. That’s imported silk from Marquet.”

Grog watches the blood slowly seep into the fabric, dark on white, and frowns.

“Scanlan?”

“Yes, bud.”

“Do you really think I’ll bleed to death? ‘Cause that would be a shitty way to go.”

Scanlan’s eyebrows go up, his smile goes down. He goes to sit on Grog’s left and elbows him in the side.

“What? No, Grog, come on. You’ll probably go out fighting dragons and hydras, only you’ll be so old by then people will wonder How the hell is he still alive and still so awesome? Also, who is that extremely handsome gnome bard who seems so chummy with him? Do you think they’re single? Unless you’d prefer to die peacefully in your bed, surrounded by your kids and grandkids. That might not be so bad, either.”

“Pssh, are you kidding me?” Grog scoffs. “That last one sounds lame. I prefer the other one, it’s badass. Plus I’m a dude, so it’s not like I can have kids, right?”

Scanlan scrunches up his face.

“I mean. You don’t get to, you know, grow them inside you, but you do get to help make ‘em if you want some. As far as I know that’s the fun part anyway.”

Then, as Grog nods and does his best to look knowledgeable, he gives him a funny look.

“Grog.”

“Yes?”

“You… do know how kids happen, right?”

“Obviously,” says Grog, who has little to no idea, but who’d rather get stabbed by a thingy again rather than admit it.

Scanlan shuffles forward to perch himself on Grog’s good leg, just before his knee, and squints up at him.

“Okay. Spill. Where do you think babies come from?”

“’That a trick question?” Grog scratches the back of his head and tries to dredge up relevant memories. The topic’s never been of much interest to him. “Well, sometimes ladies get big, so they go to the healer’s tent and, well, they make the babies, I guess.”

About a year after he came to live with the Trickfoots, Pop-Pop Wilhand tried to explain what that entailed exactly. His explanation was long, rambly, and full of embarrassed hemming and throat-clearing. He said something about a man and a woman loving each other very much, then segued into flowers and bees, and by the time he reached the tadpoles Grog had checked out completely. He listened politely, or rather waited for Wilhand to finish his speech so he could go outside and help Pike chop up wood. Wilhand did so with relief and the pleased look of someone having Done Their Duty, and Grog walked away wondering what the hell that was about.

Technically he could ask Pike about it, of course, but he won’t. Either she got the same talk and didn’t understand either, or she knows a lot more than him and he’d look like an idiot.

It’s always hard to read Scanlan at the best of times, but at least he’s not laughing at Grog, just staring at him like he’s expecting more.

“Uh-huh. Okay. But before that?”

Grog is sitting in a puddle of blood that isn’t even someone else’s, his thigh started throbbing while he wasn’t paying attention, and he hates feeling cornered like this. His patience has limits. He crosses his arms against his chest and says in a huff, “I don’t know, mate, that looked like none of my business, so I didn’t ask, okay? Nobody ever managed to explain that shit properly, anyway, so I figured it was magic. Just works and no one really knows how.”

Scanlan looks blank for a few seconds. Then he smiles widely, and to Grog’s relief it’s not the kind of smile that means he’s gonna say something snarky.

“It’s not magic, buddy – well, not that kind of magic, anyway. It’s just sex.”

“What?” asks Grog gruffly.

“People make kids by having sex.”

“You’re messin’ with me.”

“I’m not!” exclaims Scanlan, throwing up his hands in the air. “I promise!”

Grog pauses to think. “…Really?”

“Yep. That’s why I said helping make them was the fun part, not actually making them.”

He did say that. Grog thinks some more.

“So… a dude really can’t, like. Grow a baby.”

“If he has a vag and the right insides, sure he can.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“But you need at least two people to bump uglies for that. One of each set.”

Grog taps his finger against his chin. “So, uh. How’s that work?”

And Scanlan explains, matter-of-factly, with normal words and all sorts of expressive gestures, what goes where and how. It doesn’t sound all that complicated. Why so many people clam up and go red about it is just baffling.

But then something disturbing occurs to him.

“Scanlan?”

“Oi?”

“Do I help make a baby every time I visit a house of lady favours?”

“Nah,” says Scanlan confidently. “There’s potions and cantrips for that kind of stuff. These ladies are pros, they know what they’re doing.”

“And the ladies that aren’t pros?”

Scanlan looks thoughtful for all of two seconds. Then he waves the thought away. “Like I said, potions and cantrips. I’m sure it’s fine. If you don’t forget to pull out in time it’s all hunky dory.”

“Oh, good.”

Then he remembers he’s supposed to keep a hand on his thigh, to help the doohickey do its thing. After he presses his palm flat on the wound again, though, he lifts his hand again to glance at it real quick, and frowns.

There’s a lot of blood on and under his leg. More than before. His palm drips with it and some of it is seeping up on the back of his hand from between his fingers. The doohickey did slow down the flow, but Grog’s pretty sure that so much blood on the outside rather than the inside is a bad sign. So’s the tingling that started in his fingers and has been creeping up to his elbows in the last few minutes.

Nothing he or Scanlan can do anything about, though, so he doesn’t bring it up.

Scanlan is humming absently, still sitting on Grog’s good leg. He leans back and yawns, then mutters, “Where’d they go, by way of Wildemount? We didn’t take so long going up, right?”

Grog shrugs. Without the sun or the night sky it’s always hard to tell the passage of time, so he stopped trying. Maybe it’s night outside and his body knows it, hence the impression that the ground is leeching warmth from his bones.

“Gettin’ cold too, huh?” he asks with a jerk of his chin to Scanlan’s bare chest. Scanlan shakes his head.

“Gods, no. This place is more stuffy than the Nine Hells. Well, maybe not literally, it’s probably even hotter down there, but I’m not sure it smells worse. Like… farts and rotten eggs. Ugh.”

“Can’t be that warm if I’m getting cold,” Grog points out, lower than he means to. Wait, when did it get hard to speak at a normal volume?

And why are his eyelids so heavy all of a sudden?

Scanlan’s gaze whips up to his face then down to his leg so fast Grog has trouble following. He springs up and sits astride Grog’s other knee, close enough to press a hand on the wound, right next to Grog’s. His hand is so tiny that it immediately looks like he dunked it in blood.

“Shit,” he says in a tone so sober it sends a chill up Grog’s spine. With the other hand he touches his earring. “Guys, can you hear me? Pike? Pike, we need you here, fast, it’s… Ah, fuck.”

Nobody answers. They’re still out of range. Numbers are stupid and make no sense, but ‘five hundred feet’ suddenly sounds like a lot anyway.

Numbers are stupid; Grog isn’t. He doesn’t need to be able to count to weigh up the odds and see that they’re starting to look bad. Like, bad bad.

The shirt Scanlan used as a doohickey has gone almost completely red, for one. So has the hand he’s pressing into Grog’s thigh with so much force – for him – Grog actually feels the weight of it. Maybe Grog should worry more about the dark that’s creeping up on the edges of his vision, but at this point it feels like too much pointless effort.

“Hey!”

Scanlan snaps his fingers in his face, making him start awake.

“None of that, you’re not going anywhere. Come on, you just gotta wait for the others. They’ll be here soon. Guys? I’m serious, get your asses down here stat. Tell you what, I’m gonna keep talking till one of you replies. I’m going to annoy the shit out of you and you’ll hurry back here just to get me to shut up. How’s that sound?”

Still no answer. Scanlan throws his head back and lets out a string of very creative swears. If Grog wasn’t halfway gone he’d congratulate him.

Gods, it is a shitty way to go. Bleeding out in the dark after fighting a thingy he didn’t even get to kill. Fighting dragons and hydras when he’s really old would’ve been so much more badass.

Somehow, without meaning to and even without much breath left, the words must have passed his lips, because he could swear Scanlan turns pale.

“Stop it, okay? You’re not helping. Forget the thingy, you’re not dying now just because of… Godsdammit! Guys! Help! Pike!”

The last word sends a jolt throughout Grog’s body. Pike is kind and bright, fierce and strong; she loves drinking and fighting and helping people. She would get sad if he died, and the world isn’t right when Pike is sad. Scanlan gets it. He’s always trying to make her smile or laugh.

“Come on, buddy, please don’t – PIKE! Oh guys, thank gods, just – no, shut up, get the fuck over here now! Pike… Please…”

Scanlan’s voice cracks a little on the last word. Grog didn’t know it could do that.

The last thought that successfully takes shape in his brain is that maybe this isn’t such a shitty way to go, after all. He saved Scanlan from the thingy, and Scanlan saved them both from the fall; and sure, he’s not taking a big badass monster with him, but he’s dying with a good friend at his side. It would have been a bummer to die alone, in the ass crack of the world, with miles and miles of rock between him and the open sky.

Grog’s right hand goes slack and slides down from his thigh.

Scanlan makes a strangled noise.

“Grog, don’t you fucking dare—”

Everything stops.

* * *

“—og. Grog. Can you hear me?”

There’s a voice in Grog’s ears, piercing through the fog, and he makes an effort to shake the cobwebs because Pike definitely sounds scared and she never does.

…Wait. This feels weirdly familiar, like a dream he’s already had.

Time pauses, rewinds. Grog recalls a fight, a fall, a friend – yeah, that definitely happened. His right thigh aches dimly, and exhaustion is weighing his bones. That tracks. But also, he’s alive, which definitely doesn’t.

Plus there’s a wet nose that smells of bear nuzzling the side of his head.

Voices burst out (“Hey furball! Back off, let him breathe!” vs. “Trinket, darling, give him some space”), but as usual there’s only one Grog really pays attention to.

Sure enough, when he works his eyes open, Pike is crouching just in front of him, very pale but smiling, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. Her holy symbol is still glowing faintly from between her clenched fingers and her dark hair is falling out of her crown of braids.

“Hey, buddies,” she whispers. “Welcome back.”

Her voice quivers a little, but the small hand laid on his chest is perfectly steady. Maybe it’s the residual warmth of whatever spell she hit him with, maybe it’s just because he’s surprised and happy to find himself not dead after all, or maybe it’s because he just loves Pike a whole lot and he’s glad to see her – the last vestiges of cold leave him.

“Hi, Pike.” He frowns. “Did I die?”

She chuckles, and lets go of her pendant to wipe her nose on her sleeve.

“No. Well. Maybe just a little,” she says, still with that weird combo of big smile and wobbling voice. “You gave all of us a hell of a scare, you know.”

All of us?

Indeed, now Grog’s eyes focus farther than Pike in the light of a torch planted into the ground, there’s Keyleth, staring at him with wide eyes, shoulders trembling just a little; Vax, a look of naked relief on his face so stark it startles Grog; Vex, one hand gripping Trinket’s fur and the other grasping Grog’s good leg – whether to prop herself up or to physically make sure he’s indeed alive is anyone’s guess; Percy, both fists clenching and unclenching as though of their own accord, breathing much too deeply and carefully to be natural; and Scanlan, sat slumped near Grog, his face almost as white as his shirt was before he took it off. Blood coats both his hands past the wrists and his eyes are almost as shiny as Pike’s.

“Told you,” he says with a weak smile, “dragons and hydras. Not some random thingy in a cave that smells like farts and rotten eggs. Also –”

He holds up the bag of holding and fishes out a sparkling red bottle that he hands out to Grog.

“There you go, big guy. Bottoms up.”

The healing potion must be one of the really good ones. It goes through Grog like a trail of fire, energy fizzing to his fingers and down to his toes. He doesn’t usually need potions to heal, so it’s odd to feel flesh knitting itself up and blood rushing along his veins again. His limbs still feel weird, and he has a feeling he’s going to need some rest before he’s back to full health, but life and strength are flowing through him once more.

Turns out Scanlan was right: it takes more than a thingy to kill Grog Strongjaw.

Vex takes the empty bottle from him and the bag from Scanlan, who barely reacts, and asks, “Better now, darling?”

“Yep, all good,” Grog replies. It’s not really true, and he doesn’t miss a look from Pike that says she’s going to keep an eye on him no matter what, but it feels kinda true, and that’s enough for now. “So what now? I mean, we’re done here, right?”

“I suggest we find a safe place to camp before we head out,” says Percy, looking around as though he expects another thingy to leap out of the shadows. Which wouldn’t surprise Grog overmuch, really. This place sucks.

They all agree, and after Vax suggests they set up camp where they stopped earlier, pretty close from here, most of them leave to do just that.

To Grog’s relief, nobody fusses over him more. He’s not used to people worrying about him outside of Pike and Wilhand. It weirds him out. Vax slaps his arm with a smile and walks away, Trinket padding after him; Keyleth climbs back to her feet and pats his shoulder awkwardly, though her smile is warm and genuine; Percy gives him a nod before following her, his breathing normal again.

And Vex tightens the bag’s drawstrings and puts it in his hands.

“Grog,” she says. “Um. Listen.”

Grog listens.

“I know you can take a hit better than anyone else. It takes a lot to knock you down, like… a lot. And I know today was, well, an anomaly. But I was thinking… You should keep the bag. You know, full time.”

“Okay,” says Grog, who’s waiting to see where she’s going with it before deciding if it’s worth getting angry about. He loathes being coddled. But Vex also essentially said he was a tough motherfucker, so that makes up for it. “Why?”

“Because you’re not just tough. You’re the fastest of all of us, so if anyone needs a potion or something else from the bag in the heat of battle, you can just run and give it to them, right?”

Oh. Yeah. That’s a pretty good reason. Good thing he didn’t get angry.

“As long as you don’t forget to take one yourself when you need it, okay?” Vex adds in a softer tone. “Anyone can need first aid at some point, dear. Even a barbarian built like a brick shithouse.”

“Right.”

She looks at him intently some more, as though there’s a question in there he’s supposed to answer. When it becomes obvious that he’s said all he wanted to say, she rises, winks at him, and leaves him with Pike and Scanlan.

Vex’s winks are something else. More often than not she uses them at other people like she fires her arrows, so being on the receiving end of a nice one for a change is a treat.

“What’s that on your leg?” Pike asks Grog as they all stand up.

Grog is about to reply ‘just some blood’, but then he remembers Scanlan’s shirt is still tied around his thigh and that’s why Scanlan’s holding his leather vest instead of wearing it.

“I forgot,” he says, “I did get first aid. Scanlan made a doohickey, look.”

Pike does look at the doohickey. Then at Scanlan. Then back at the doohickey, Grog, and then Scanlan again.

Scanlan stuffs his hands into his pockets.

“I mean,” he says just a little uncertainly, “I was tapped out of useful spells and I think that’s how you tie a tourniquet – but then again, you know, I’m a bard, if you asked me what rhymes with ‘tourniquet’ that’d be more my speed. Like, I might say ‘turning key’ but good luck fitting that in a song and it doesn’t really match the scans—”

Without warning Pike grabs him into a hug. An actual hug, so sudden Scanlan doesn’t even have time to say anything, and so tight he lets out a little breathless ooof. He goes an interesting shade of red. Although maybe that’s just because he just got crushed against chain mail.

“Thank you,” she murmurs, very quietly but so fiercely Grog has no trouble making out the words. “Just a minute more, and I wouldn’t have… He’d… Thank you.”

Well then. If Grog still had any doubt left that he really would have died down here without his best little buddies… He’s not afraid to die, as such, especially if it’s against something really badass or to protect someone he loves (which is not that many people). But he’s fucking glad he didn’t.

Scanlan looks at Pike (or rather the back of her head, mostly), looks at Grog, and, wonder of wonders, says nothing for once – just holds her back a little awkwardly, his vest dangling from his hand.

It doesn’t last long anyway. Pike lets go of him and steps back quickly, looking a little self-conscious, like she just only noticed he’s naked from the waist up. Chest hair or jewellery probably doesn’t count. And that’s funny, because she’s never like that around Grog, who rarely wears anything except his trousers, belt, and boots. Plus, now, the doohickey, which he manages to loosen but not quite untie; the knot is really tight and the congealed blood isn’t helping. So he shrugs it off for now and picks up both gnomes, setting one on each shoulder. Pike is a little heavier than Scanlan, because of the chain mail, but as usual it’s like carrying a couple of kittens.

There. Just as things should be.

“Hey, Scanlan,” he says, walking towards the others while Pike wipes her eyes and clings to his shoulder a little tighter than she usually does, “sorry your shirt got messed up.”

“It’s okay, buddy. It was for a good cause.”

“You know,” says Pike, “I think a tourniquet works better with a stick. I could teach you.”

“Well, not many sticks underground, but I suppose if needs be I can always use my—”

“Your what, Scanlan?”

“—flute! I was gonna say ‘my flute’! I am not risking the Cube just to make a dick joke, guys, come on.”

“Hey Pike, remember when Wilhand said babies come from birds and tadpoles? Turns out he was wrong.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. They actually come from people havin’ sex. Do you thinks he knows?”

“I… You know, I think you should definitely tell him next time we see him. Sounds important.”

“Pike? This Wilhand, he’s your… great-grandfather, correct?”

“Great-great-grandfather, why?”

“Oh, nothing. Hey Grog, be a pal and pass me my pack, will you, there’s a clean shirt in there. Also, tell me someone picked up my flute?”

Turns out Vax did.

Having friends, Grog reflects before they settle down around a campfire and take a flagon of ale from the bag, is indeed pretty great.

⁂

(uuughhh I'm still meh about the last sentence (it's been kicking my arse for the past two days at least) 😭 I'm waiting to see if/when my beta is available to look this over before I post it on AO3, but I will as soon as I can 💜)

EDIT oh!! I had fun with a 5e monster/NPC stat block builder and homebrewed a thingy :D Let me know if you think it's appropriate for a level 5-ish party! (ngl, I ripped the Deadly Leap feature from the bulette ^^')

What do you think? Total shit or could actually work?

[arcielee]

Let's spread some positivity! Tag some of your fellow content creators here and let them know why they are absolutely amazing!❤️

Okay, so I am relieved because I got two of these anons 💜 This will be some of my HotD favorites and forgive me if anyone slipped my mind. I just love reading the talent that floods my dashboard... and I let this sit in my drafts for fucking weeks because I hated the idea of forgetting someone.

So, just consider this just a few of my favorites, part 1. 😅

Anyway, Read More to save dashboard space!

@sylasthegrim I was obsessed with your work on ao3 and you were so gracious with every inane comment I left on your every chapter, every story posted. Love is a Downfall was one of my first HotD fanfics I read and I was a woman obsessed. Thank you for being so wonderful. 💜

@hamatoanne You are one of my og Tumblr kindred spirits and I have loved every story you have shared with us. Your writing is brilliant and gets better with every new piece you share. You have this brazen fearlessness with your words that I adore, and you are one of the sweetest people I know on this hellsite. 💜

@squirmhoney I just adore you writing style, the palpable tension you create in a one-shot or a series, just the raunchy deliciousness that leaves me clutching my damn pearls. 💜

@lonnson I truly adore your artwork, your writing, and your wit. The gods have truly favored you with your apparent talent (but also us, since you are so kind to share with us your writing and art) and I feel lucky to call you a Tumblr kindred spirit. 💜

@myfandomprompts Your humor has me cackling like a loon. I love your stories, your gifs, your random posts that have me a grinning fool. I love getting glimpses for whatever will come next, just blessing my eyeballs with your brilliance. 💜

@theoneeyedprince I love your prose and your pacing to create a narrative that allows me to just disappear from the real world. Your Aemond is just perfection and you are a gem. 💜

@inthedayswhenlandswerefew Maggie's Suffering Sundays are one of my favorite things. Your story telling has made me into a lifelong fan and I will literally read anything that you create. (Case and point, me in my Ben Hardy era.) 💜

@theromanticegoist Your talent, your prose literally breathes life into me. You have a flow to your words that reads like a dream and every piece posted is my comfort fic. Thank you. 💜

@myfandomprompts Your creations, your stories are some of my favorite. I know your talent is not limited to HotD (thank the gods) but you are just so truly wonderful and it must be said. 💜

@barbieaemond Your creations, from gifs to stories, are some of my favorites on this hellsite. I adore your brilliant brain and everything that comes from it. Your humor and wit have me cackling maniacally and I don't give a damn who hears it. 😂💜

@chattylurker Your reblogs bring me to life and your tags have everything so organized. You are a true gem in this fandom. 💜

Some of my favorite writers include: @aemonds-fire @evermorre @solisarium @sapphire-writes @namelesslosers @hightowhxre @lovelykhaleesiii @fan-goddess @dreamsofoldvalyria@dcmnatio @st-eve-barnes @lauraneedstochill @fairysluna @humanpurposes @farity @jacevelaryonswife @marthawrites @devthlyangels @zae5

Those whose art takes my breath away @cyeco13 @slytherincursebreaker @bluecoffeebeanz @paintb0x @anamiguelmendes @azperja (but their writing is also just as brilliant!)

[wendyfulmother]

Wendy's N.aruto Verse!

There will be MASSIVE SPOILERS for both the OG N.aruto and Shippuden. The verse was made along with my friend @believeandjump <3

Wendy is Kakashi and Guy's god-daughter (Like how Jiraiya was named Naruto's godfather). Mary and George both decided to name them her goddad's where Mikoto Uchiha (Sasuke and Itachi's mother) was named her god mother.

She grew up with Sasuke and Itachi. Sasuke was like a little brother to her whereas Itachi was like her big brother. She was very close with them, until Itachi left one day. Sasuke and Wendy's bond was still strong but they rarely saw each other, with Sasuke more so isolating himself and becoming colder.

She was NEVER told that Itachi was the one who killed the Uchiha clan, leaving Sasuke the only survivor. She was told that he had died alongside her Auntie Mikoto and the others because she was far too young to understand. (Having JUST turned 7 a month prior)

Wendy originally did not become a ninja. She went to the academy with Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and the others and graduated, but she decided to not become a ninja. That was...until she awakened her clan's power of flight and after a rescue mission to get her youngest brother, Michael, back, she decided that maybe being a ninja isn't a bad idea.

During the aforementioned mission, she began to rekindle her friendship and bond with Sasuke.

The next day after Michael's rescue, her 13th birthday, she became a ninja and starts tutelage under Kakashi in Team , being an honorary member.

Since Wendy did not become a ninja until then, she does not participate in the Chunin Exam with Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura. She DOES however hear what had happened with Neji and Hinata during the preliminary (Hinata and Sakura are two of her best friends) and she does end up slapping Neji in the face for nearly killing his cousin, much to EVERYONE'S surprise.

Wendy also had been keeping a horrifying secret that she had been being abused by her step-aunt who lived outside of the village to protect her younger brothers from receiving her step aunts harsh treatment. Sasuke and Sakura both are suspicious of it once she just ignores them one day and Kakashi is revealed to have been told the situation by Iruka Umino, who had heard it from John (Who is now in the academy).

Here it is also revealed to Sasuke and Sakura that Kakashi is Wendy's godfather. Kakashi, Sasuke an Sakura go on an unofficial mission to save her once John reveals that Mara took her away. They manage to get her out of there with minor injuries.

The night Sasuke left the village, like Sakura, Wendy saw him. But she did not even try to convince him to stay, for she knew her worlds would fall on deaf ears. All she said to him was "...I'll miss you..."

During the mission to retrieve Sasuke, her dear friend Peter Banning was sent along with the Sand Siblings (Temari, Kankuro and Gaara) helped try to fend off the Sound Ninja 4 only to die in the process, which Wendy grieves heavily over.

After finding out that Choji, Neji, Kiba and Naruto were also in the hospital for injuries during the fights to retrieve Sasuke, she leaves all of them flowers and visits them as frequently as possible.

Wendy begs Kakashi to train her to get stronger and he obliges. He trains her during the time skip.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN VERSE

Wendy becomes a chunin before Naruto comes back to the village (yes I know the other chunin exams were filler but SHHHHH it's canonically told during Shippuden's opening that everyone [excluding Temari, Kankuro and Neji] are chunin)

Wendy goes with Team Kakashi to save Gaara from the clutches of the Akatsuki

During this mission, Wendy finds out Itachi was alive this whole time and it hurts her. Not only the fact that she had been lied to for so long, but ITACHI was the one who was behind massacre, leaving Sasuke an orphan.

While Sakura and Granny Chiyo fight Sasori, Wendy joins Naruto and Kakashi in fighting Deidara.

She is NOT present for the Techi Bridge Arc

Wendy goes on the mission with Asuma's squad and witneses his death after being knocked into the collection's office wall by Kakuzu trying to fight him.

She is sent to the hospital soon after the fight with Hidan and Kakuzu and is soon diagnosed with PTSD by Lady Tsunade.

Wendy joins Team 7 and Team 8 for the search for Itachi. She finds out Itachi dies from Zetsu with eevryone else

Wendy, while separated from the group, encounters Sasuke for the first time since he left the village. He tells Wendy that he’s defeated Itachi, but tells her that he intends to kill “Madara” for his involvement in the clan’s massacre, hiding his true plans from her.

Wendy dies during the Pain assault but is brought back when Nagato uses Rinne Rebirth to bring everyone back.

Wendy joins Kakashi, Naruto and Yamato to the land of Iron to talk to the Raikage about sparing Sasuke from being killed.

During this mission, she also finds out the truth about Itachi from "Madara Uchiha" and she is absolutely b r o k e n by the news.

Wendy is sent to join Naruto, Aoba, Yamato and Guy on Genbu to keep the ruse of an S rank mission for Naruto while War is being prepared. Once Naruto finds out about the war, she reluctantly joins him and B to the battle field.

They run into Nagato and Itachi (reanimated) and after the fight, Wendy and Itachi finally reunite and reconcile. Wendy begs him to tell her mother the truth and Itachi agrees, because Wendy's mother, Mary, is Itachi's (and Sasuke's) godmother.

Wendy joins Kakashi's faction for the war.

She is trapped in the Infinite Tsukyomi with everyone excluding Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi and Obito.

Once everyone is freed, she is reunited with Team 7

She sees Sasuke off along with Sakura and Kakashi.

BLANK PERIOD VERSE

Wendy helps round up the prisoners at Hozuki Castle (Kakashi Hiden)

Wendy joins the Hanabi Rescue Mission (Naruto the Movie: The Last)

She is at Naruto and Hinata's wedding.

[fourswords]

Coming into your house and blowing you a kiss. 💗💓💘💖💞💖♥️❤️♥️💓💘💖♥️💓💘💓 Hello, Kate 💖💖💞💓💘💕♥️❤️💗♥️💗💕💖💓❤️!!!! I found a secondhand version of BotW and have succumbed to consumerism, so I'll be able to give you Proper Thoughts on the game uhhhhhhhhhhhh eventually. when it arrives. Anyway, please tell me all about 1986 Zelda if you want because I literally know nothing about her or the OG game, and you're so genius. Also, hysterical to see you complain about BotW's music. Get her ass. Okay love you bye hope you're having a fantastic day 💘❤️💞♥️💗♥️💗♥️💖💓❤️💗

HIIIIII FREYA HELLO ILY I AM WELCOMING YOU INTO MY HOME WITH A VARIETY OF SNACKS AND BEVERAGES AND BLANKETS <33333 also PLEASE let me know how the game is when you play it!!!! i would genuinely love your thoughts on it and on the characters and everything else about it (including the music).

and oh my god. the og princess zelda. my darling dearest. i'm going to have to stick this under a readmore because i'm going to go on a rampage about it i just know it.

okay. so. the original legend of zelda game. the best thing to say about this hyrule is that it's been completely fucking annihilated. people are scattered and living in caves. there is no safe haven anywhere. there are even secret fucking moblins that link can find that are friendlier (they give you free rupees! :]) than the people who've set up shop in caves of their own and the only thing they yell at you is "BUY SOMETHIN' WILL YA!" and like. that's it. your only allies are these weird old people who also live in caves who give you swords sometimes. there's no map there's no towns there's fucking NOTHING. and since it's a game made for the NES in the 80s the only lore you really have is in the original manual for the game, and that's where zelda comes in:

"One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the world into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa."

so the thing about having the entirety of a game's lore be based in a manual is that, essentially, the lore would have to be simplified. the full "story" is exactly two small booklet-pages long and it was going to stay that way because they were just trying to give hyrule a backstory and not write a novel. however. given how fucking treacherous and deserted hyrule is at the beginning of the actual game i think it's pretty safe to say that the war between hyrule and ganon's army lasted a hell of a lot longer than ganon just marching in and taking over everything. at least then there would still be ruins. but anyway. zelda. zeldaaaa my girllllllll the original zelda the one everyone in the fucking fandom consistently forgets about over and over again. she is drawn to be pretty much the exact same age as link in zelda 1 so i think it's safe to assume that they're both ten years old (since the sequel, zelda 2: adventure of link, happens about six years later when link is approaching his 16th birthday as per the aol manual). so it's like. you are a princess and you are ten years old and you have grown up on the legends of a hero that stopped the great evil every time it rose up (the hero of legend, for instance, who is the protagonist in games like a link to the past, oracle of ages/seasons, link's awakening, etc.) but ganon's army is winning and there is no hero in sight and so. what are you supposed to do. what are you supposed to do!!!! you command your nursemaid to escape, to potentially find a new hero to save the kingdom, but when you grew up in hell there's only so much stock you can put in the legends. so you take the triforce of wisdom, the triforce piece that You, Specifically were always meant to be the wielder for, and you shatter it, and you travel throughout the land hiding its pieces so that if everything goes to hell even harder then at least you can say that you tried to stop it. let some other princess be the one to panic and freeze and let the triforce of wisdom be taken. it will not be you. (and it IS implied to be her!!!! SHE is the one who hid them throughout the land! she didn't pass it off to her knights, she didn't have impa do it, no!!! none of that!!!! SHE DID IT!!!!)

and she's not hiding them in random bushes or anything!!! fuck no!!! SHE'S LITERALLY TRAVERSING THE DUNGEONS THAT LINK HIMSELF WILL GO INTO TO RETRIEVE THE TRIFORCE PIECES SHE HID!!!!! she essentially threw her hands up and went FUCK it if the goddesses of old won't send us a hero then i'll just be my OWN hero because i am NOT LETTING GANON GET AHOLD OF THIS TRIFORCE PIECE!!!!! like this girl had to be running across what might be the unsafest version of hyrule in the entire series and fighting all the dungeon monsters and dungeon BOSS monsters and whatnot all to hide the triforce pieces. and she's just a kid like link is!!! and it always makes me wonder. like. if she'd put just a little less stock in the legends. if she'd manage to get her hands on the magical sword and the silver arrows like link did. she would have been JUST as capable of killing ganon as link was. and actually i could go on and on and on about the courageousness of her actions vs. the fact that link actually genuinely only wielded the triforce of wisdom against ganon (which is a HARD left from the fact that. yknow. HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE THE WIELDER OF THE TRIFORCE OF COURAGE ACCORDING TO EVERY OTHER GAME). and then like. the thing is. okay so at the end of zelda 1 when link finally rescues zelda and she calls him the hero of hyrule and whatnot the sprites do a little victory pose where they both hold the two triforce pieces (wisdom and power) over their heads. BUT. the manual states that link quite literally leaves hyrule for a while WITH both triforce pieces. and it makes me wonder......did the triforce of wisdom "reject" zelda in a sense because she shattered it? there's such a gray area when it comes to the first two games because, again, the Lore Is Condensed Within The Tiny Fucking Manual Booklet Pages, but god. can you imagine it. the triforce you broke to protect suddenly deemed you unworthy of being its bearer. or something to that effect. my GOD.

AND!!!! this is only supported by the fact that in the zelda 2 manual, link is stated to have returned to hyrule in order to help the rebuilding efforts (because, as the manual states, "hyrule was on the road to ruin" as if it wasn't ruined already lmao) and in the zelda 2 game itself, LINK STILL HAS THE TRIFORCES OF WISDOM AND POWER!!! (not to mention the poor guy's fucked because he's got a curse on his blood that makes ganon's followers want to sacrifice him to revive ganon but this ain't about him). and combined with the triforce of courage (which he finally gets after six years) he uses it to wake.....another princess zelda. who was in a coma. for centuries. and she was put into this coma during a much happier time in history. and this is where people start to forget about the og zelda and focus on the sleeping zelda from zelda 2 instead because there's a zelink kiss involved at the end but whatever. and HONESTLY it opens up a whole NEW can of worms for the og zelda because god!!! fuck!!! there's now a whole new princess zelda from centuries past who was raised as a "proper" princess who wasn't fighting for her fucking life in dungeons after shattering the very thing she was meant to wield!!! i think about it so much. i wonder if she catches herself staring at this strange new princess zelda who never had to fight anything, who was never captured and kept in an inescapable circle of fire after shattering her birthright, who grew up learning about politics and inter-kingdom relationships while her own studies probably would've been about keeping the kingdom from exploding and imploding and every other type of fucking -ploding in on itself because Everything's Fucked, and thinks: maybe she would have made a better choice than me.

(and then in the other corner you have the now-awakened princess zelda from centuries past, waking up in a world where Everything's Fucked, and looking at the zelda who is her brother's descendant and seeing the strength of her willpower in every move she makes and thinking: she would never have simply stood there and let herself succumb to the magician's spell that made me sleep for generations like i did. but that's another post.)

and also. anyway. unrelated but also related. og zelda is cute as hell. look at her look at my girl:

she's so cute. she must've fucking destroyed so many monsters hiding those triforce pieces. if anything happens to her i'll kill everyone on this planet and then myself. i like to think over the years as link came back to hyrule and started helping hyrule rebuild they became close friends and fight monsters together sometimes. dynamic duo of all time. the feral little hero who appeared out of fucking nowhere like a demon in the night (no literally link has ZERO backstory in these games he's literally just Forest Child Supreme) and the courageous little princess who would have done anything to keep ganon from gaining even more power. someone did a comic on their take of their first meeting and i still think about it sometimes. "i nearly died getting those pieces you hid." "i nearly died hiding those pieces you got." I'LL FUCKING LOSE IT MAN!!!!! I REALLY WILL!!!!!!

ahem. did any of that make sense.

[the-horror-of-bloody-vixen]

Hello, would you have headcanons about the origins of each cenobite in the 2022 movie? I really wanted to see headcanons about each of them.

uwu MY FIRST HC ASKS. I'm only writing for the Priest and Gasp first. Hopefully will do the rest when they come.

The Priest

She was a very successful dermatologist and considered one of the nation’s leading experts in skincare.

Though she's charming, she prefers solitude and can count only a few people as her friends.

At first she wasn’t into the occult and was only interested in them as a lark.

That was, until a rival sent her the Lament Configuration Puzzle box with hopes of ruining her life.

She was entranced immediately.

She sees the box as a configuration of flesh, imperfect surfaces waiting for her to arrange it into perfection.

She started to neglect work and was put on probation and eventually she was fired.

She didn’t care, she wanted to solve it, to fix it but every step she took forward, she’d find herself taking a few steps back.

Eventually, she started to experiment on her flesh, to see, to find if she could find the path that would unravel the puzzle box.

Initially she did it with anaesthetics but she disliked how it made her foggy and unclear, so she does it without.

The first time she did, she nearly bit her tongue from the pain. So she began slowly, first a nick here, then a little patch there. She started from her legs then up her hips, then her waist and then her breasts until she uncovered all there was to her.

As she peeled her last, the puzzle finally, finally solved itself.

The OG Pinhead saw her work and called her ‘magnificent’ (the only other who got this praise was Kirsty)

She saw him and his Gash as a work of art and wept because how could she best that?

He carefully wiped the tears from her face and said: “Do not weep, for we have such sights to show you.”

When the chains pierced her, she saw God and rejoiced.

The only thing they found of her mortal flesh was patches of her skins, arranged neatly to a pattern of the Lament Configuration.

The Gasp

She has a lovely singing voice, clear and sharp as a bird, her grandpa would praise. And they would sing together – him in his old tongue and her in the new.

But she was very shy around people, so those who knew her singing abilities were her close family members.

So it came to a surprise for them, when she applied for music school and got in.

The puzzle came to her when she was on field trip with her new friends. One of them spoke of how this puzzle is a gateway to mind blowing pleasure. Most of them laughed at him about it, but she found herself simultaneously entranced and repulsed.

None of them managed to solve it, but somehow it slipped into her bag.

When she got home she was stunned to find it inside her things and threw it out the window. The next morning when she woke up it was back on her desk. She was spooked and knew the puzzle was bad news. She tried to burn it, she dropped it into a river and it still finds its way back.

After one too many she tried to smash it with a hammer, she heard it crack and a piercing pain in her throat.

She only managed to see a thin, small piece of the puzzle sinking into her neck. She clawed at it in horror and soon found herself gasping and unable to speak above a whisper.

None of the doctors could find what’s wrong and thinks that it’s all in her head. She tried to explain that it was the puzzle box but no one but her can see it.

Unable to sing, she became depressed and took a break from school.

She has nightmares of the puzzle unravelling in her throat, causing her much pain.

One day, feeling her lowest she clutched the spot where she thought she saw the piece sank into her, her nail caught a piece and she screamed – a pitch so high it shattered her bedroom window.

She’s stunned and tries again. She finds out if she could touch the fragment she could reach a tone of voice deemed impossible for human kind. The only downside was the pain, but she ignored it because she could sing and she could sing beautifully.

She returned back to school and stunned her teachers and classmates with her range.

But she doesn’t think it’s enough, so she tries to smash puzzle again, to swallow whatever pieces it had to become more, a singer without compare.

Her last show, she sang holding the puzzle in one hand and another clutching her throat. It was said her song was indescribably beautiful, so divine it shattered hearts and caused people into a frenzy of lust and pain. They said her last show caught the eye of the devil and as the final note ended, demons clad in leather and skin of twist and pain embraced her as she joins them in hell.

In the Leviathan’s Realm, her voice whispers to new followers, promising sensations not known to mortal kind. At times when you’re lucky, you can hear her sing the joys of Leviathan and if it made your throat ache and burn from pain, the better.

[multifandomloversthings]

All the things left unsaid

Summary: y/n and hangman have always been clearly head over heals for each other, but what happens when he leaves without either of them explicitly saying how they feel.

Pairing: Jake “ hangman” Seresin x female!reader

Warning: Angst, major character death

A/N: AAAAH this is my first ever fic so I’m sorry if it’s not great! But I hope you like it!

Y/n sat outside on the back porch of the hard deck. There was a dark blue hue in the sky as the sun had just set. She clutched the note maverick had just handed her, she couldn’t bring herself to read it.

She couldn’t read it because then she would have to face her fear, her fear that he was actually gone. That she would never hear another witty remark out of Jake “hangman” Serensins mouth again.

They never openly admitted there feelings to each other, but you would be blind if you couldn’t see that y/n and hangman loved one another. The constant flirting between the two, that each would worry about the other, the constant flow of texts from one’s phone to the next. And yet y/n never said those three simple words to him “ I love you” and never will as Jake was killed on his latest mission.

“hey y/n/n want a hand closing up as I’m still here.” Hangman called to her. See she would work late shifts closing up for penny at the bar when she could, mostly because Jake would come in with his other aviator buddies and was always kind enough to stay and help her out. “ are you saying this out of pity Seresin because it was your fellow pilots who left the bar a mess.” She chuckled to herself, “maybe or maybe I just want to spend some time with the gorgeous bartender who works here.” He always knew the right things to say to her. “ also I’m leaving tomorrow morning for the mission and I’m not sure when I’ll see you next.” Ah the mission, Jake had been coming here since his OG topgun days so y/n was no stranger to him getting shipped off to the middle of no where but he always came back so it didn’t bother her. “ you’ll be right back here in no time like always flyboy” he just put on a stoic grin at that comment. She didn’t know this was going to be his most dangerous mission yet, and he wasn’t going to tell her. “ your right y/n/n but just in case…” she just had to cut him off, “ no not today we ain’t going to do none of that sappy stuff Jake you will make it home and I will have your favourite beer chilling here ice cold like I usually do.” “ ok I guess that’s how it’s going to be I’ll text you before I leave.” And with that y/n’s last interaction with hangman ever came to a close. God she wished she just let him speak.

By now it was dark, and the bar was lively behind her. She thought “ to hell with it” and opened up the letter.

Dear y/n,

Im sorry we never got to be together I always hoped we would someday get that chance. You make me a better person, I feel as though I can be myself around you and I haven’t had a person like that in a long time. Even with me being gone and all please take care of yourself, I always hated seeing you cry. I wanted to tell you I really did. Tell you about everything my feelings, the mission but the voice in my head kept telling me you deserved better than me. I’m sorry I never told you I loved you I really did. I think we will be together in another life time.

With much love,

Flyboy <3

God that nicknamed chocked her up. At this point she was sobbing, not caring if patrons from the bar saw. She was just so upset that there was so much left to tell him. She loved him more than anything, why did her fear of rejection keep her from being happy.

***2 weeks later***

Y/n was visiting his headstone. She laid the flowers that she brought and sat down in silence. The cemetery was nice it sat on a tall hill overlooking the ocean. She could hear the birds chirping and the waves crashing beneath her. It was nice, it was the first time in 2 weeks she had felt at peace. She stayed for awhile maybe a bit to long but who was to judge. Just before she left she knew she had to do one more thing. She got up and went to speak for the first time since she got there, “ I love you Jake and I’m sorry for all the things I left unsaid.” And with that she kissed the headstone and left.

[storiesforallfandoms]

how they react when you walk in covered in blood and carrying a gun ~ mcu

request?: no

warnings: swearing, mentions of guns and violence

masterlist (one, two)

*only using the og six plus bucky, wanda and loki because there’s way too many marvel characters rn; also based off of a tiktok by anniedvorak!*

BRUCE BANNER/HULK:

The last person you expected to see when you entered Thor’s room on Sakaar with the intentions of saving him was your boyfriend, Bruce. He had been lost for so long, you had let your heart let go of him. But there he was, stood with a cloth wrapped around his waist after having turned back from the Hulk.

You were tempted to walk back out. This wasn’t exactly how you wanted Bruce to see you - an alien gun in hand and blood splattered over your face and clothes. But it was too late, he was already looking at you with wide eyes.

“(Y/N),” he said, turning to approach you but stopping halfway. You weren’t sure if he had stopped because of the blood or because he was still technically naked. “What are you...what did you...?”

“I’m trying to save Thor,” you responded. “Listen, we don’t have much time. I can explain everything once all of us are off of this planet. Put some pants on, we’re getting out of here.”

~~~~~~

BUCKY BARNES/THE WINTER SOLDIER:

You walked in after a surprise run in with the Flag Smashers. Bucky already looked about ready to kill someone, but when you walked through the door of Zemo’s apartment, blood covering your face and your gun clutched tightly in your hand, his face turned red with anger.

“What the hell happened to you?” Sam asked.

“Flag Smashers,” you breathed in response.

“I’m gonna fucking kill them,” Bucky hissed, abandoning his drink on the counter and making his way to the door.

You put a hand up to stop him. “I think that ship has sailed. This isn’t all my blood.”

Bucky cupped your face in his hands, his face softening as he looked at you. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” you insisted. “I just need a shower, and maybe a visit to a hospital or something. They hit me pretty hard, I think I have some bruised ribs or something.”

He kissed your forehead and took your gun from your still shaking hands. Once it was safely put aside, he brought you into the bathroom to help you bathe and to start dressing your wounds.

~~~~~~

CLINT BARTON/HAWEYE:

You were extremely lucky that Clint worked with someone like Natasha regularly, or else he would’ve been much more concerned when you arrived home from work covered in blood and still carrying you gun. He barley looked up from the TV as you walked through the door, immediately racing for your bedroom so you could shower and change.

“Hard day at work?” he called as you passed by.

“That last target they sent me after put up a hell of a fight,” you responded. “By the time I finally got him, I realized how late it was and rushed home immediately. I’m glad S.H.I.E.L.D issues those SUVs with the tinted windows or else I definitely would’ve been pulled over for suspicious activity.”

Clint chuckled and rose from his seat. He walked into your shared bedroom as you were pulling off you bloodstained clothes and throwing them into a pile to be tossed out eventually. His eyes raked over your body as you looked up at him.

“Red looks good on you,” he said, a teasing smirk pulling at his lips.

“That’s gross,” you teased. “You’re gross. Just for that, you can’t shower with me.”

He groaned as you walked into the bathroom and locked the door before he could follow you in. 

~~~~~~

LOKI:

The sly smirk on Loki’s face was enough to almost rid you of the annoyance you felt after what you just had to do. Almost.

You walked up to the panel that controlled his glass cage. You could’ve easily figured out how to deal with it, but instead you shot the control panel. Sparks flew from it before Loki’s prison sprung open.

“Seems like a bit of overkill,” he commented.

“Shut it,” you hissed. “You told me it was going to be easy to break you out. You failed to mention the entire team of guards that were watching this room, and, oh yeah, the team of super humans that were assembled to face you?!”

Loki walked free of his cage, taking a dramatic deep breath before smiling to himself. “Well, doesn’t seem like you had an issue with them, as I knew you wouldn’t.”

He approached you, arms out as if he were going to hug you and try to kiss you. You poked his stomach with the barrel of your gun, glaring up at him.

“Come one step closer and we see how much damage a mortal weapon can do to a God.”

Loki put his hands on your shoulders, keeping you a fair distance away to heed your warning. “I’m sorry for not giving you a proper warning. Thank you for freeing me, I do appreciate it.”

You allowed yourself to relax against his touch and smiled a little. “You’re welcome.”

“Now, let’s get out of here, shall we?”

“You’re doing all the work this time.”

~~~~~~

NATASHA ROMANOFF/BLACK WIDOW:

It probably wasn’t a good idea, but you didn’t know where else to go. Natasha had always warned you about the Red Room, and you were so stupid to not listen to her.

Now you were stood on her doorstep, covered in blood that wasn’t yours, your gun dangling from your hand as you wished to drop it but also too scared to let it go. It was what Natasha looked at first when she opened the door - the gun, then to your blood covered face.

“Put the gun down,” she said, her voice calmer than you expected.

You gratefully allowed her to take it from your hand as you felt tears starting to well in your eyes. She pulled you in for a hug, where you started to sob on her shoulder. She took a quick look around to make sure you weren’t followed before bringing you into her house.

“Go get cleaned up,” she told you. “We’ll figure out your next step together.”

~~~~~~

STEVE ROGERS/CAPTAIN AMERICA:

You showed up to Sam’s shortly after Steve had brought Natasha. You could barley keep yourself up, the fight had taken everything out of you. You were sure Sam was going to turn you away - you were a stranger showing up on his doorstep covered in blood with a gun in your hand. You were pleasantly shocked when he stepped aside and told you where to find Steve.

Poor Steve. He was already trying to help Natasha, who had been in the same situation as you just with a lot less blood. She was resting when you walked in, dazed and just wanting to also rest.

He was up in seconds, reaching out to wrap you in his arms despite the blood covering you.

“The Winter Soldier is one mean fucker,” you breathed, resting your head against Steve’s chest. “I think he finally got wore out and ran off. Unfortunately, I was wore out about an hour before he was, but I kept going.”

“You should’ve given up long ago, honey,” he said.

“I’m not a pussy,” you said with a slight laugh. “Although I am starting to succumb to the pain.”

He picked you up into his arms and carried you to the bathroom where he helped you to rinse the blood off of your body so you could finally rest.

~~~~~~

THOR:

It was a side of you that Thor had never seen before. He had lost you during the battle in Sokovia and was expecting the worst when he couldn’t get you over the coms. When you showed back up to jet, blood covering your tired looking face, he was overjoyed to see you were alright, but also a little shocked by your appearance.

“Those fuckers really thought they had me,” you said, a half laugh bubbling on your lips. “They were a little shocked when I got the upper hand on them. Even more shocked when I shot them dead.”

“I was worried for you, (Y/N),” Thor said, cupping your face in his hands as he approached you. “I truly thought they had taken you from me.”

You smirked up at him. “You really have no faith in me at all them, do you? Or you just underestimate me. I’m a little offended on both accounts, though.”

Thor smiled back at you. “Of course, I would never doubt you. Just a bit of fear is all.”

“When you two are done being gross,” came Tony’s voice from inside the jet, “we’d like to get back to the tower. I think (Y/N) needs a shower and a fresh change of clothes more than anything.”

~~~~~~

TONY STARK/IRON MAN:

“Miss (Y/L/N) incoming Mr. Stark.”

“Tell her to come back at another time, J.A.R.V.I.S, I’m busy right now.”

“I don’t think it can wait, sir.”

Tony looked up to see you walking through the door to his lab, your body trembling as you clutched the gun tightly in your hand. There was a splatter of blood over your shirt and some on your face. You looked up at him, looking like a helpless child.

He quickly walked over to you, his hand automatically reaching for the gun. You gladly let him take it, feeling like a weight had been lifted the moment the weapon was out of your hands.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I-I was attacked at-at home,” you stuttered. “I don’t know how they got in, I don’t know who they were. I walked into my house and was blindsided by these two men trying to attack me. I got the gun out of the hands of one of them and I...I...”

Your hands moved to mimic the action of shooting your attackers, but you couldn’t actually bring yourself to say you had done it. You didn’t want to admit to having shot anyone, even if it was in self defense.

Tony placed the gun aside and took you into his arms. You stopped fighting against the lump that had formed in your throat and began to sob into his chest. He ran a hand through your hair, calming you down.

“It’s okay,” he said, soothingly. “It’s alright. I got you now. I won’t let anyone else try to hurt you.”

~~~~~~

WANDA MAXIMOFF/SCARLETT WITCH:

You didn’t think of Tommy and Billy. You didn’t think about the perfect neighborhood Wanda had created. You didn’t even think about Vision, or the version of Vision she had created. Your only thoughts were getting to Wanda before Hayward and his people could.

She was horrified when she opened the door. Of course she was; you were stood at her doorstep, a ghost from the life she wanted to forget, holding a gun with blood splattered on your face.

“You have to get out of here,” you said before she could speak. “You have to break down that boarder and you need to get out of here now.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, her voice still in its sitcom mode. “Please leave before I call the police.”

You grabbed hold of her shoulders before she could walk away, startling her.

“Wanda, you have to listen to me. You know what’s happening here because you are controlling it all. I know that, everyone outside the Hex knows that. Including the S.W.O.R.D director Hayward, who is trying to break through your barrier right now to kill you. I know you don’t want to lose this perfect life you’ve made, but your are in real danger. You need to get out of here.”

It seemed like she was understanding. A hurt look passed over her face as she turned to look into the house where her perfect family was likely residing. She took a deep breath and turned back to you.

“Let’s go.”

[uchiha-7thsingularity]

Finished part two of the period. Sorry if there are misspellings or wrong pronouns. I might go back and edit these later. I made these the best I could interpret the characters or how I read them when the devs introduced them to us in the game. Tried my best. Eat this horny and wholesome content real quick.

Scylla Anguis Mirun:

The First Lady is waiting to put the ass in class. Visiting Felix's room to check you out, *cough* *choke on wine*. Her excuse is to check up on her little fefe. One day she stopped for a bit to get a glimpse of your charming smile and Felix's pout fit to settle her boredom. Instead, felix was out doing studies (hot nerd shit)...anyway, she saw you clutching your sides with a painful expression. Coming to your side she pats your back lovingly with a worried look to ask about your troubles. You try to overcome the cramps to then twitch and sweat buckets on top of buckets holding in a scream. At this point, she finally realizes that you are experiencing period symptoms to hurriedly drags your poor soul to her bedroom. She lays you down to reveal she is going to do whatever in her power to grant you your well-being again. Which translated to: you are stuck on bed rest and ask me for anything to your desire or needs/wants, pretty please. The starsworn will be notified of your condition later on when felix returns. (Little did he know he will be getting an earful from a pesky sister).

Going to Florian and Escell she demands a handful of servants to send dinner to her room with necessary accommodations to heal you in your weak state. (She wants to worship and baby you to her heart's content. Step on her ma'am)!!! Withers is told to not disturb you two for the time being, as well as for Scylla to have alone time with you. Returning to you she finds you fell asleep...in her bed...to admire every inch of your gorgeous figure you cover with questionable clothing she has never seen before. Evening arrives when she has prepared a bath and new clothes for you to take willingly. Given her taste, she has gifted you a silk robe with gold sewed to the fabric with a butterfly design. Lacing the bath with salts and perfumes she registers you awake rubbing your eyes. (Gods, you are too precious).

Taking a bath you've realized she lit a couple of cherry-scented candles to relax your state of mind for the time being. Drying off and changing into your new bathrobe you kindly are grateful for the period supplies she gave you. Soon after, you enter back into her chambers. And oh…..oh this is new...you gasp at the sight to behold. She has brought you dinner with a dessert of five different kinds. Candles are lit in every corner of the room to gently lay your gaze on her silhouette in the lit room wearing a matching bathrobe herself. Maybe a gold-painted rose sealed between her lips. I don't know. She's a hard OG simp for MC from what I got if she had gotten a route. Queen, please be my baby momma! You stride over to her ever so slowly as if this was a fantasy. She sits up slightly guiding you to cradle your hips with her delicate fingers. MC/ OC: I'm in your debt Scylla. Thank you for the items but is ALL *you wave a hand gesturing to room outlook* this is honestly a tiny bit much for a period?? Specifically, for myself when you already let me into your home. Scylla: Preposterous! A delectable feast is fit only to be stomached by a forbidden fruit such as yourself. (And tonight she wants to make you as comfortable and praised till you salivate for her). Let me tell you one thing MC * whispers in your ear* I want a taste if you let me. I promise you won't regret a single second. Ahem...what!?

She feeds you. Letting you pick which platter is your personal favorite to note for later date ideals. Such an absolute queen she lets you feed her. I feel like she would hold eye contact with Mc just to see their cute rosy cheeks light up as you avoid her intense gaze. Stuffed to the brim from a delightful dinner date you assumed, she plucks the rose she had off the pillow and tucks it in your hair smiling like a fool. Of course, the servants ruin the moment and haul away the empty plates and cups. You both thank them and bask in the calm silence surrounding the two of you now. You go to sit down on the bed when she follows you not a moment later.

Tenderly holding hands you both lay in bed staring at each other. She asks if you are comfortable enough. You nod. Then she gets a mischievous smile. She kisses each knuckle sending shivers up your spine. Scylla just wanted to distract you from the pain while getting some sugar. Then you cuddle up next to her to then ask her to give you a back rub. She obliges. Using the lotion you got from Florian it was pomegranate scented that tickled your nose every time you took a whiff of it. Laying on your stomach she gets on top of you. (No pause). Generously speaking she took any knot in your muscles she could fine to quietly hum a toon under her breathe. Entranced you closed your eyes to ask her what she was humming. A lullaby she used to sing to her fe when he was a tot with magical talent. It calmed them when they both heard their parents arguing down the hall for the most part. :( 

Night befell the room growing darker but you could care less when she hit a certain spot to make you feel like on cloud 9. Eventually, you two parted as she washed her hands with you exhaling in relief. Survived another day of your cycle. Drinking sparkling water or whatever this water was from refreshed you to think clearly for once without a shocking pain in your back. Swaying her hips she closes the curtains to then blow some of the melted candles out to dim the room for the sleeping period now. Holding you in her tattoed arms you ask her about each tattoo she has a story to share for each one. Oh boy. Falling asleep together you wake to her getting ready in the bathroom. She tells you to lay back and stay in bed. You hesitate but obey her offer. She tells you she is going to her bars to see the final renovation and that she will be back with more gifts to sway you with. 

At her bar, she meets with the star sworn. Plus Elowen, Tulsi, Ayanna, and Saaros. What a fine group of friends you and Fefe has gained. They inform her they will stop by later to see how you were doing and she teases them that she has the situation under control and to not have their panties in a twist. Felix gags and blushes at the same time. Though he is relieved for you and his sister having each other in times of need. Usually, she would get on Felix's ass about messing with spells and whatnot. Holding her tongue from this point on she only wants to use it to tell you sweet nothings from now on. Thank you my stupid little brother for bringing my future lover to the doorstep of my bar to sweep me off my feet. She has been in love with rings attached at the end of the string to follow through with her title as an Escellun. (Satisfied by Hamilton starts playing in the background). Love couldn't be anymore clearer when she heard you speak in a sarcastic tone. Not that you were different, brought her felix, or were sarcastic to her. You talked to her like a human being and not as a spoiled rich girl or mysterious bartender. Arrow in the heart. She wanted to have another conversation with you under any circumstance to see where you'll both end up talking about.  Perhaps, future plans!

Saaros the Ambassador of Rivathi:

Scanning their notebook for Azimuth's choice of sight for the possible future. They do not see this event show up on paper stained with galaxy ink. You crumbling on yourself in the castle with everyone to see. Normally, he would think you're being overdramatic and making a scene to gain their attention to peek at the journal. This is not the case. Without hesitating the elf has held you up by the armpits to drag you off to the room given to them to accommodate the needs of an ambassador. Anisa had walked off with Scylla because you both shooed her away to let her enjoy herself for once. In privacy, they mutter what poor choice of state the starsworn leave in after training. You tell them this wasn't the end result of training. (Rub chin in thought to appear calm but fail). MC smiles and talks about the body aches for a few minutes to let Saaros process the situation their in together. 

Flicks forehead. Saaros: Be still child and lay in the comforter. It sounded like a demand than a request. MC/ OC: Don't flatter yourself. I would have laid down for you even without your permission. Wink. Wink.  (Bite lip. Smack to head. What else shall I do in your presence?) Okay, moving on the elf retreats into the bathroom for hand lotion, as they would. Not for you. Sike. Kidding. Letting them apply it to each hand you feel their soft chocolate hands pinpoint the pressure you wanted on them in getting the elfs bag throughout porrima. It takes your mind off the painful shocks ricocheted within your abdomen and waist to let you savor their warm touch to the bone. Otherwise, the servants in the palace are summoned to fetch you both dinner with a tip to knock before entering the room after dinner is served to clean up. Much appreciated you thank the kind offer of the ambassador taking care of little old you. Rolling their eyes the elf strides to open a bottle of room temperature water to fill your empty stomach. 

All through the evening you develop a sense of stability that your elf harbors. The shared secrets and gossip among each other is gratifying to be spoiled with even on a bad day. Dinner is brought with silver utensils that gleams under the candlelight. Memorized you dig into your meal with three courses and several beverages to thirst your appetite to your hearts desire! The side dishes were mainly picked grapes and fresh cut melon. Seasoned potatoes grilled to leave a charred taste on the tip of your tongue. Besides the chicken being slathered in red wine sauce to only have the steam hit your nostrils and flare up with delight. For the main part Saaros shared stories of times when they would venture in journeys after meeting anisa for his work ethic. Seeing them open up seem like a whole new world in spite of the momentary silence every time you took a bite. 

Stuffing yourself and rubbing your belly you don't notice the elf get up and leave the room. A knock at the door and you open for the servants to clean up the room. After they left the corridors the elf returns with a big leather book with papers sticking out. They laugh at your curious look and gesture toward the couch. Sitting on the couch you bump shoulders to lean in for a better view of the pages. Turning every page the book contains memoirs of his past adventures while the elf smirks at any reaction you fail to cover up. Astonshied you ask questions on top of questions by glossing over notes they written and stuffed between the pages. Discussing their recent voyages have you wonder what you could experience together...if that is still a possibility. Would you stay in Astrea forever or leave to go home?

Yawning. Eyelids dropping the elf notices you falling asleep on their broad shoulders. Flipping the book closed they go to get up when you pull them back to stare up at them. Curious at your intentions the elf as sharp as they can be doesn't notice you lean up to brush your lips against their temple. Pulling back to grasp their jaw in your warm palm you can see a red glow tint their pointed ears slightly. The crinkle in your eyes must show because they take that as a challenge. Leaning you back on the couch they spread your legs and slowly rub circles on each inner thigh. The sensation is marvelously welcomed as you bite your lip and arch your back into the cushions. (Juicy...let me stop). Each trail of the slick elf's tender fingers massaging your aching muscles has your mind going wild as you begin to close your eyes to their touch. No one will see like this but them. Understood.

For a while the elf's eyes roam over your relaxed body to then take a sip of the wine you both were drinking before the touch starved moment. Still enjoying the rub they decide to lean toward you to give you a kiss on the forehead. Not expecting that you blank for a second and short-circuit for the rest of the night. Feeling accomplished in their daily nightcap the two of you head for bed to cuddle while not caring about any discomfort but each others warmth. That night you dream of the two of you on an exploration and adventure driven rondevous while the elf stays up thinking of their previous devious acts of affection they bestowed upon a foreign exotic species. 

The next morning they accompany you to inform the star sworn to be more aware of a ill comrade in need of help. They apologize and take you guys out for lunch. Of course, others are invited which Saaros recognize as nobility and you recognize as extended family. (Guess who they are…...Anisa mom, Sage sister, and Felix sister with florian in tow….surpised. No. Okay, sorry). In addition, thee elf watches you as you are hyper focused on a debate with sage about the definition of what counts as a sandwich. Nonsense. Usually, the elf would see meeting you as a sense of coincidence. Althoughh, as you warmed up to them, the elf couldn't help but yearn for your attention to detail. Especially, if that attention was toward them only to then have the courage to take your hand and never let go for even a second longer. If you want of course. Who's to know?(Asmo).

Elowen De Bhaldraithe:

She could bash her head into the nearest stone wall for not keeping an eye on you sooner. Swaying down the trail you both walk on everyday. Her feline eyes narrowed at your petite weak figure that kept wobbling every time you took a step. After a certain amount of time she got irritated and grabbed you to throw you over her shoulder. Heading to Fanthom to the room Anisa gave her she threw you on a stool to head into the bathroom for a moment. Coming back with a bucket and rags with clean clothes in her clawed palms. Telling her you were fine for the hundredth time she ignored your wailing and pouting. Filling the bucket up with warm soapy water she dipped the rag in and wringed it out. Grabbing your face she told you to undress. 

Feeling vulnerable you sigh and follow her orders stiporing to your under gamrnets to let her clean you the right way to feel more comfortable. Thanking her she brushes your blushy face off prioritizing your health first and trying not to think of your smooth skin at her disposal for her to glorify. Carrying on she lets you change for your sake while she notifies everyone in Fanthom to give you space during your painful conditions. If they don't understand (Felix, sage, and Saaros she rolls her eyes and points to anisa to tell her to explain. And then she runs back to your side with a jar of cookies she found fair and square.) Sorry rime. Stretching your body on her black sheets she offers a cookie to you and you happily take one to split with her. Munching together you rub your hips with a pained expression. 

Dusting her hands off of the crumbs she takes her gloves off to reveal her pointed fingernails filed to the tips. Smirking, she lays on your thighs to massage your abdomen in solemn silence as you watch her with adoration in your eyes. For a few minutes it is peaceful for the both of you. Then you ask her about her childhood and she is silent for second. About to ask her again she jumps into a story of her and lucan trying to jump on roofs to outrun each other across their homeland for fun. Listening to her dive into different memories no matter the ending of the stories she had with her late brother make you feel hopeful. Seeing a smile take your lips she gets off you seeing she pleased you more than with an easy task. You get up to hug her as she pats your head. 

MC/ OC: I want to take a walk around Fathom to bet some circulation. Wanna come with? She scowls at your question. Elowen: *grabs your hand* Let's just go. I'll carry you. No exceptions! Startled by her lifting you on her back you give a squeak. Grumbling, you muzzle your cold face in her blonde frizzy hair that smells of citrus and lime. Being a top must be hard for you since you keep pointing out every little detail you see. Your like a wiggly worm. She doesn't mind, instead she holds you even tighter by the thighs that seem more warmer now that your both sharing body heat. Weird paintings capture both of your interest to think of stories as to why the painter expressed their thoughts on to canvas. You come up with the idea of the artist just wanted to express the mindset one goes through of living in a world like Astrea. And she contradicts your story that the painter simply was in need of a pay raise or experienced whatever the painter expressed with paint. Snorting. You both see endless bookshelves which make you think if the time safe showed you the one at mournfall. Noting of sneak getaways with a tough female kitten that could easily drop you at her will. Gulp.

Empty rooms occupy the endless halls and you are curious but respect not to go in to any of them. Elowen continues her earlier stories adding to her training for the last five years she put her heart and soul into becoming the berserker. She goes silent for a second when she feels a peck at her fluffy ears. Tail poofed and pupils dilated. She huff's realizing you pulled her out of her overthinking her past intentions to harm your friend sage before knowing the truth. She still despises him but maybe…. Can learn to work with him and see him as a fellow comrade. Someday. Then she feels you grab her fluffy ears to steer her down the stone hallway. This does NOT amuse her but she keeps moving nonetheless, to then head out to the baths that sage showed you once. 

Lights in the night sky start to illuminate with the halo of the sunsets rays as they brighten the surface of the water. Hoping off your exhausted cat you take her hand and lead her to the steps of the pool. Taking your shoes/ sandles off you both dip your swollen feet into the chilling water that leaves ripples around your ankles. Seeing each others reflections you lean her head to lay on your shoulder. A sigh escapes her lips as she makes eye contact with your reflection with a smile on her pale face. Throwing compliments at one another you start to pet her ears. For her it's euphoria and for you it's a wholesome experiment to see what gets her riled up and makes her putty in your hands. One time she accidently hit you with her tail and so you decide to twirl her tail in your other hand. You see her face turn cherry red as her mouth forms an "O" while her eyes are screwed shut and her lip quivers up into a grin. This astounding sight exists for your twinkling eyes to remember for later shenanigans to mess with her. 

You both return to her room with slippery feet or paws. And she tackles you to the mattress hiding her face in your chest mumbling sweet worships. Falling asleep in her presence is not something new for either of you after spending time together. She watches for a while your chest going up and down. Hearing your heartbeat for every breath she takes for the borrowed time Lucan gave her. It makes her grateful for stumbling upon you before she took a dark path. Waking the next morning to you drooling all over her pillows she realizes she will fight anyone to see another blue sky with you. Or just to get another chance to care for someone she thinks she loves more than her brother's legacy. And to that she kisses your chest to wake you so you guys can start your training as one.

Tulsi Ain:

What a week in a heated environment. Wiping the sweat off she sees you coming up the stones jagged path of the alleys to bring her dinner like the previous times you showed up to greet her with a flashy smile. It reminded her of sage to then tell you to limit the time you spend with her intoxicated brother. You nod in silence with a basket in hand and bags under your eyes. She cups your face as she observes the blotches on your cheeks and sweat beading your forehead. That won't go down on her watch to see her beloved MC fall apart on her watch. That's her job. Pulling you to her house above the shop (I assume. Dorian let us into the lore and backstories of last legacy characters. You got me on my knees...I beg por favor)!!

Rinsing out her pots and basins she fills them to the brim with cold water with ice cubes to settle next to her bed she let you lay upon. Now she is well familiar with the cycle of womanhood. Guilty for not asking how you were feeling sooner she apologizes over and over again. Until you tell her it's not her fault but yours for not telling her sooner. Dabbing your forehead she furrows her brow when you start making silly faces to amuse her from your agony. She snickers to the point you both start laughing and enjoy each other's warmth. Forgetting the cramps and headaches coming on tulsi begins to head downstairs to cook dinner with the ingredients you bought early on. Relaxing on her mattress you roll over to welcome the smell of her scent on her pillowcases and sheets. (In this case, she has fluffy pillows and blankets that she wraps herself up in for cold nights.) Burying yourself deeper into her covers you start to massage your temple and hips. 

Hot plates in hand she scurries up the stairs to witness her other half rubbing themselves while in her bed. She thinks she might faint. Noticing her you sit up slowly to grab a plate as she blocks owlishly at you with a red glow to her complexion. Sitting next to you she gives you water to wash the delectable meal down with a satisfied gulp. You share a pleasant conversation about childhood stories as you eat her homemade meal. Her being a child while watching sage run from pissed-off bakers after stealing pastries or you mentioning outdoor games you played as a child with the neighbor kids next door. Finishing up dinner she cleans up as you let your eyes wander off around her sacred room she shows no one. There are tickets of scrap metal and knickknacks she's collected over the years. She comes back into the room to smile at your curious look to tease you about being nosy and wide-eyed. You brush her off but she comes beside to throw her arm around you and ask if you feel better. Leaning into her neck you give her a tiny nod. 

Bunny girl asks if you need anything and you stare at her for a solid minute. Then ask what's wrong to have you ask her about trying yoga poses with you to stretch your body out for a sense of relief. Without hesitating she pulls you up to only ask what "Yoga" is or does for your body?? (Wouldn't you like to know;)..... I would...oh). You explain to her about the results to do specific poses with a partner you trust to help you stretch your body and help your blood pump faster. She agrees to help you to make you feel well again. Both of you stunning ladies decide to stretch first before doing poses and cracking your knuckles. (Do any of you have a bad habit of cracking your knuckles like me?) Moving on you try simple poses like touching your toes. Seated cat cows. Twin trees. Temple. Seated twist. And so on. You suggested at one point to do a difficult one but then collapsed on each other with your face buried into her chest with a blushy bunny. Apologizing endlessly, she brushes it off with her contagious laughter that brings you to laugh with tears in each of your guy's eyes. 

You decide you did enough yoga together to pull tulsi on her feet and wash up and call it a night. Ever the hard stubborn worker she gets the tub prepared when you tell her you rather have a shower. Tulsi: You sure? I can run a hot bath for you to relax your muscle spasms. Running your finger through her brown locks MC/ OC offers: You done so well for me. All I want is to help you wash up to give my thanks. Is that okay with you? Stars twinkle in each eye as you both are careful removing each other's clothes and folding them somewhere nearby to share a hot shower together. You've never felt so loved and cared for that you thank her by pecking her jawline as steam comes from her long fluffy ears and shower head. She makes sure to be extra gentle as she washes your scalp with a fruity fragrant shampoo to calm you down during the struggles of your period. Drying off each other to be back in your clothes you braid her hair and the same goes for you. Or pinned if you had short hair? Air dry? (I rather air dry and braid my frizzy hair).

Hugging in the bed you stare at her to tell her how beautiful she is. Choking on her spit she reciprocates to get different expressions from you as well. It turns into a competition when you shut her up with a slow kiss and rub her back. Releasing her puffy lips she bites down for a second to catch her breath then pouts that she was supposed to be taking care of you. Giggling you tell her she has done the best thing to do during your cycle. Which is to have her by your side every step of the way. Fingers interlaced you both take turns speaking sweet words only you guys hear from each other. And share kisses, maybe a possible stolen kiss here and there. Falling asleep tulsi decides to wrap you in blankets while holding you close to say under her breathe she was lucky to have you walk into her shop with her brother that faithful day. She soon falls asleep by your side with a smile plaster on her cute face.

Waking up you smell bacon in the air. Tulsi no longer in bed (always awake before you) she has cooked a yummy breakfast with bacon, fruit, and eggs to have the star sworn around the table with elowen and others sipping coffee or tea. Ayanna and florian chat while Scylla waves to you from her seat. Saaroos just pulls a chair out for you. Smiling you greet everyone and Tulsi a good morning as the sun rises and you stuff yourself. She watches you and sage bicker about waffles vs pancakes that leads the silly debate no where for gods no how long. Anisa is to busy trying to explain her cooking skills to elowen who simply rubs her head at the thought of someone burning water. Felix and rime both watch the chaos unfold to then start disputing about a toast spell gone wrong. Snickering to herself tulsi realizes that she is the utmost great fun to have you in her life. She knows you treat her like she is your everything but in reality you are her life. Believe her when she promises to any gods that you and her will never be apart as long as she can preserve the home you created for each other.