#Elementary My Dear Pan

[foxspeterpan]

[pnfoutofcontext]

[keouil]

as long as the sun remains the sun

"rise and shine, boys!" mattsun yells over the drowsy first years, banging pots and pans together. "rome wasn't built in a day!" "we're japanese!" tsukishima barks. 5k. iwaizumi/oikawa/kageyama. camping!au. also on ao3.

Asahi is the one who breaks first.

“WHAT THE FRICK!!” came a decidedly shrill, possibly embarrassing, surely pathetic scream from over all the way at the other side of the camp that had Iwaizumi snap his head in that direction and Oikawa inch closer to him almost imperceptibly.

"Don't tell me—" Suga shakes his head at the same time Daichi curses low under his breath, "What now."

A dozen things happen at once in rapid succession.

Noya sprints to the direction of the voice, Hinata close on his tail because he was basically His Tail. Ennoshita scrambling after them after Suga hissed at him to not just stand there and follow. Yahaba quirking an eyebrow at the elementary choice of a curse word, Narita catching his judgment and getting all up in his space until he apologized, Tanaka acting as his back-up.

Daichi, who had so far been in the middle of a passionate rant detailing Karasuno’s dependability when it came to these things—What things, Mattsun interjected. Roughhousing and getting our hands dirty, Suga supplied proudly—when Asahi all but debunked it in less than the time it took for Makki to count heads as soon as they arrived at the campsite.

“Your kid is missing,” Makki comments, looking over the list of attendees.

“Ours?” Oikawa asks, at the same time Daichi stands up, “Probably mine.”

Makki looks back and forth between them, suddenly feeling unsteady on his feet and fumbling around for an out. Iwaizumi knows exactly the reason why, and voices it out loud for everyone to hear: “It’s Kageyama.”

Again, a dozen things happen at once.

Daichi gasps out in horror, head whipping around the campsite.

Mattsun palms his forehead, already dreading the absolutely normal reaction he was absolutely going to get from Oikawa.

Suga decides he wants to permanently end Iwaizumi’s life for the multiple grave offenses he’d been committing against his soul throughout the day: getting the last window seat on the bus, being a loud snorer, breathing near him and making it his problem, choosing gluten-free marshmallows at the rest stop like a deranged psychopath. He told him as much at check-out, You’re a deranged psychopath and I don’t trust my first years with you, Suga admonished. Likewise, Iwaizumi replied, looking menacingly down at the copious amounts of sugary pastries in his basket. And you’re not feeding my first years this shit.

And really it was that bold and unfounded sense of entitlement that had Suga adding another box, more out of sheer spite than anything as he passed him, glaring, Watch me.

"We've been here less than an hour," Makki looks around in confusion, exasperated. "How have we already lost one of them. What exactly could have happened in less than an hour."

Suga and Daichi look at each other.

"Hinata," they say at the same time. 

-

They find Kageyama lost in the woods.

It’s Iwaizumi, best tracker on the team and just generally more adaptable to wilderness survival, who finds him holding onto his duffel bag for dear life under the bark of an ancient looking tree. He apparently challenged Hinata to a race on who can get to the campsite first and got thoroughly sidetracked by the similar looking trees and having ostensibly no sense of direction or self-preservation, huddled in an open area easily accessible to rain or wild animals.

Iwaizumi sighed and mentally noted for later: Teach Kageyama basic life skills, that he then revises to, Make Sugawara teach Kageyama basic life skills.

“Kageyama,” he says, approaching the clearing. Kageyama’s head snaps up and the look of such open relief on his face tugs at Iwaizumi’s heart a little, because it really was so easy, to slip into a senpai complex for someone like him. “You okay?”

Kageyama blinks. "I-Iwaizumi-san," he starts hesitantly, standing up on shaking legs. "I—"

"Got lost," Iwaizumi answers for him. "I know. We've been looking for you for a while."

Kageyama flushes. "You have?"

"You mean you haven't been hearing your vice captain call your name bloody for the past hour?" Iwaizumi tries for a joke. Only it's not really, because Suga was swearing himself raw, if not for Daichi reminding him to preserve his voice for later. 

But Kageyama still just blinks, still so disoriented, still so wet behind the ears no matter the facade he puts up.

"Right then," Iwaizumi clears his throat, beckoning him over. "Let's go."

Kageyama all but trips over his feet to follow after him, clutching his bag even tighter to his chest as he hangs off Iwaizumi’s every word.

“The next time you find yourself lost in the woods,” he starts explaining. “Try tracking the movement of the sun.” When he looks over to check if Kageyama was listening, instead notes the absolute gobsmacked expression on his face in return, amends just as quickly: "Oh, he says. “You can just — follow the sunset.”

Kageyama begins vehemently nodding, scrambling to get a notebook out and listing all the other things Iwaizumi was rattling off about when it came to Camping Survival 101. Don't eat this, he points to a patch of enticing ivy. Only drink from fresh water sources like rivers or streams, he adds. But if you find yourself in a pinch, carve out an opening from a tree and wait for the water to follow.

By the time they make it back to camp, Oikawa has half the Karasuno team—and some of Seijoh—in a formation line much like a militant officer does with its army lines, barking out orders to fan out across the different areas of the campsite. Go to the forest, ordered Oikawa at Noya. Try the trail behind the waterfalls, he yelled at Kyotani.

Daichi and Suga sported uniform looks of indignation as Oikawa looked an hour away from splitting his hair out in frustration.

“If someone doesn’t get Tobio back by midnight,” he warns the rest. “I swear to G—”

Iwaizumi coughs.

Oikawa doesn’t turn, doesn’t even acknowledge his return. He senses it, Iwaizumi knows, the change in the air and the very real presence Kageyama takes up in any space. So instead his shoulders just stiffen, tilting his head their way just so.

“I mean,” Oikawa coughs, loudly and not at all awkwardly. “Tobio can sleep in the rain for all I care!” he claps. “Right then, back to unpacking!"

-

Naturally, as with all order of things, sleeping arrangements go by as smoothly as everyone expects.

“No.”

“At least look at it.”

“No.”

"You didn't even look!"

"I said no."

Yamaguchi looked like he was tempted by the devil himself to throw a log Kunimi’s way. “Oi,” he hisses, growing annoyed. “What’s so wrong with this sleeping bag? It’s the same as everyone else’s.”

Kunimi cast a bored glance at the pack Yamaguchi was holding up, all neatly folded and prepped for use. “It’s orange,” he deadpans. “I hate orange.”

“It’s just a color!” yells Yamaguchi. “It functions exactly the same!”

“Then why don’t you use it?” Kunimi lifts a brow. Behind them, they can hear Hinata yelling at Kageyama to move his sleeping bag by the outskirts of the camp, his longer than usual pack taking up half the space designated for the first years. Kindaichi looked equally awkward trying to fit himself and his belongings in what little space they were allowed to take up. “If it’s basically the same thing anyway?”

Yamaguchi breathes once, twice. “It’s not for me,” he explains slowly. “None of our sleeping bags fit Tsukki. He needs a longer one like Kageyama’s.”

Kunimi crosses his arms in defiance. “And that’s my problem because?”

Yamaguchi has half the mind to call out for Daichi, or Iwaizumi, or literally anyone else who could demonstrate even a modicum of empathy so clearly lacking in Kunimi. 

"You don’t even need it!” he gestures wildly to the mint green one by his legs. “You can use the large one like everyone else’s! Tsukki can't use anything else but extra large!”

Kunimi huffs, brushing past him. “I’m not like everyone else,” delivered in the same cadence as a main character in a 2000s romcom who finally decides she's better than everyone and doesn't need a man to fulfil her needs both emotionally and physically. 

"What the fuck," Yamaguchi swears under his breath as he stared after him.

He turns his head in time to see Hinata and Kageyama running around and demanding Kindaichi to share his insect repellant spray, along with some of the manga he brought, telling him to not be so selfish and stop hoarding all the survival items. Iwaizumi stops them all with a glare and forces Kindaichi to share, Hinata to shut up, and Kageyama to let him know if he needs anything else. 

"What the fuck," Yamaguchi swears under his breath as he stared after them.

-

By the time dinner rolls around, everyone is either pissy (first years), amused (second years), or elated (third years). 

They were all lounging about the makeshift campfire that took all afternoon to build, the warmth of the fire lighting up everyone's features along with the moonlight streaming in through the gaps in the trees. It was unusually cold that night, a breeze in the air that began from deep in the forest until it tapered out to just north of chilly in their site. But even so, the expressions on everyone's faces felt far more frosty.

Oikawa is the first to pick up the tension.

He leans over to whisper as much to Daichi, who was busy arranging the logs in the fire. “I think,” he starts curiously. "Something is going on."

Daichi looks up to survey around the camp, taking stock of his own kin and then some.

Hinata and Kageyama are, predictably, huffing and puffing and very pointedly looking away from each other because God knows what and who has the time. Yamaguchi has been apologizing for the better part of ten minutes, very nearly close to begging to a Tsukishima who hasn't even so much as glanced his way, because God knows what and who has the time. Kunimi and Kindaichi are the only ones who at least look mildly cohabitative, but then again Daichi thinks he’s never seen them be anything but bored and nervous, respectively and in equal measures.

His eyes trail over everyone—in various states of pissed, amused, elated—before giving up and shrugging, “God knows what and who has the time.”

But evidently, Suga and Iwaizumi do.

“Well well well,” Suga cooes, straddling up to where the first years were, sensing turmoil between Yamaguchi and Kunimi. "What say we turn those frowns upside down?"

"Oh god," Yamaguchi audibly groans into his hands. "Please stop."

Kunimi looks on in horror at a grinning Suga, slowly inching away from the fire before Iwaizumi clamped a hand on his shoulder, "Not so fast."

Yamaguchi and Kunimi lock eyes in a rare moment of unity. There was an internal conversation happening in the span of a second, before both of them, as if on cue, break open.

"HE WON'T GIVE ME HIS BAG!"

"HE WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Iwaizumi puts both his palms up. "Bedside voices, boys," he chides, stern. Suga instinctively took a step back at the sound, but rights himself on time as he comes up next to Iwaizumi. "Yes yes," he agrees. "What he said."

Across the crackling of the fire, Daichi looks on impassively as Oikawa sports a drool.

"Think we should do something?" Daichi nods to the almost ridiculous scene of Yamaguchi and Kunimi both kneeling by the dirt, heads bowed low in shame as Iwaizumi rattled off about team camaraderie and the importance of communication. Suga was animatedly agreeing along to whatever he was saying and sporting his own That's right! That's right! comments from time to time. "We are technically their captains."

"Captains, shmantains," Oikawa mumbles distractedly, and when Daichi turns to look, notes in annoyance his attention wasn't even directed at the scolding but more so the matters of Iwaizumi's backside in shorts. "We do enough. We work hard. We earned this."

Daichi coughs awkwardly. "Earned what, exactly."

Oikawa doesn't even budge, stars shooting out of his eyes as he gave possibly the most obvious and inappropriate once-over Daichi has ever seen in his life. And he's seen Tanaka with Kiyoko.

"This," he says, gesturing to Iwaizumi and in Oikawa's words, "glorious display of aesthetic athleticism."

-

They threaten everyone with suicide runs the next morning.

If there was anything at all both third years unanimously agreed on—aside from their perverse sense of ownership over exactly who it was that raised Kageyama, with Iwaizumi putting up a surprisingly good fight—it was the equally perverse sense of joy they derived from torturing underclassmen. The sun was glaringly bright, the blue of the clouds so open, and the ringing voices of their seniors all the more jarring.

"Rise and shine, boys!" Mattsun yells over the drowsy first years, banging pots and pans together. "Rome wasn't built in a day!"

"We're Japanese!" Tsukishima barks, putting the covers back up on his head. 

Suga just yanks his blanket from his sleeping bag, earning him a death glare he expertly deflects with a smile that was deceptively way too chipper for someone he swears he heard yelling at Daichi during Golden Week to shut his phone up or he was going to hurl it across the Pacific Ocean.

"Japanese, Yappanese," Makki strolls over to shake Kageyama and Hinata off of their matching sleeping bags. "Today, you're all under our command."

Hinata just rolls over Kageyama. 

Kageyama just lets him.

Makki curls a brow, a single foot raised to kick them before Oikawa gets there first, pushing him away. "I got it," he says. "Jesus Christ, Makki, they're children."

"We're sixteen!" bites out Tsukishima again, who was now being forcibly dragged by Mattsun along with Kunimi and Kindaichi to the shower stalls. "And we have legal rights! My brother will hear about this!"

"Your aniki will be glad someone finally put your spoiled ass in place," Daichi declares, trying to separate Hinata from their tangle of limbs. From his peripheral, he can see Asahi gently trying to get Yamaguchi to stop mumbling in his sleep. "He sends his regards by the way! Saeko-neesan too, Tanaka!"

"Tobio," Oikawa crouches, rocking his sleeping bag. "Tobio," he says again, shaking his shoulder. "Tobio," he hisses directly next to him. Nothing. Oikawa breathes once, twice, before standing up and very pointedly bringing a leg up to stamp on him before Iwaizumi, too, beats him to it.

"What the fuck," he swears, putting a hand out to stop him. "So much for them being children!"

Oikawa has his mouth open to retort, before a ball of orange fur snowballs its way past them and lumps itself together again with the black mass that was Kageyama. They hear Daichi stomping over the next second, cursing under his breath at Hinata for once again getting past him. 

"Kageyama.." Hinata mumbles into his hair sleepily, and to their horror, sees Kageyama actually melting into the embrace almost unconsciously. "Think... someone's calling.. Let's.. ignore.. if.. Tsukishima."

-

By the time they wrangle everyone awake and slap water on their faces, Daichi and Oikawa are only too happy to introduce them to the 10-km hiking trail everyone was required to complete.

"Mind," recalls Oikawa, looking over his nails in boredom. "We heard there were some snakes in the more woodsy areas."

"Bears too," adds Daichi, grinning.

"Bears too," affirms Oikawa, also grinning.

Kyotani and Tanaka try to run. 

Iwaizumi hauls them both back by the necks of their shirts, all pearly white teeth in the shit-eating grin on his face when he dumps them back on the line. Hinata shudders and rapidly gets his phone out, shaking hands wobbly typing out his last will and testament to an incoherent text meant for Kenma; when a hand shoots out to yank it out of his hands. Mattsun, grinning down on him like a feline cat, as he then began patting everyone down and demanding they surrender their electronics. Next to him, they can hear Yamaguchi pleading for his life to a bored Makki. 

Suga doesn't answer to a single one of their cries for help.

Asahi just hid cowardly behind him.

Daichi whistles to get everyone’s attention. 

“Alright then,” he grins over the growing crowd and uses their agony to fuel his adrenaline higher. Oikawa was doing the same. “With this, we formally welcome you to the Annual Karasuno-Seijoh Summer Teambuilding Camp!”

Oikawa’s smile fades a little at that. “I thought we agreed on Seijoh-Karasuno?”

“Are you perhaps a secret fujoshi?” Daichi asks innocently.

Oikawa blinks. “I—” he starts, unsurely, ignoring Suga chuckling behind him. “I don’t particularly think so, no.”

“Then it doesn’t matter,” Daichi snaps, turning his attention back to their first and second years who were only growing more creative with their complaints and vain attempts at getting out of the day’s torture activities.

"I sprained my ankle," whines Hinata.

"You're our fastest runner," rebuts Suga.

"I'm allergic to trees," pipes Kindaichi.

"Not a thing," offers Mattsun.

"My sister said no," weeps Tanaka.

"You wanna try that again?" warns Daichi.

Iwaizumi clasps his hands together. "Enough!" he booms. If Oikawa inched closer to him in turn, everyone has the good foresight to keep their mouths shut about it. "Are we doing this or what?"

"Y-yes, Iwaizumi-san!" the first and second years chorus.

Now both Oikawa and Daichi's faces fell.

"Why do they always only listen to him?" wonders Suga, falling into step with the third years at the rear of the line. The first years were ahead, yelling and grovelling and swearing all their seniors rotten. It was music to their ears. "Is it like an alpha thing?"

"Most definitely an alpha thing," muses Makki, who also falls into step beside him. "Have you seen the way even Oikawa looks at him? Omega ass behavior."

-

They take their first break after three hours. 

Or, maybe it was more accurate to say, Tsukishima wouldn't stop grinding everyone's ears about the asthma condition he conveniently picked up within the first thirty minutes despite Suga knowing from Kiyoko no one on the team had such an autoimmune disease, that then suddenly morphed into an apparent life-threatening mutation that was going to kill him and everyone around him if he didn't let his body pause to take a break now, right now, this instant; that had Daichi snapping at everyone to take five.

"Oh thank god," Tsukishima wheezes, falling to his knees. 

"Tsukki!" came Yamaguchi's predictable cry of concern no sooner.

Most of the first years are sprawled out on the ground, chests heaving and breaths coming out in pants. The second years look as equally insufferable, but are too prideful to show any form of weakness to the third years who all but look like they just came out of a sports magazine photoshoot. There wasn’t a sliver of disorientation or a hair out of place. Iwaizumi even passed around the loot bags they had apparently so lovingly, out of the goodness of their hearts, prepared for them while they were all sleeping the night before.

Only the best for our cute kouhai! singsung Oikawa gleefully. 

Be thankful we even remembered to bring snacks for you forgetful brats! scolded Daichi sternly.

Hinata gingerly brings himself back to life, dragging his aching bones and his pack to where most of the first years converged purely out of a symbiotic survival instinct to band together against exploitative seniors. They were already angrily in a discussion about something, something that sounded much like plotting for the demise of Oikawa.

Or Daichi.

Or both.

"Do you know what they're feeding Goshiki right now?" Hinata seethes in a low voice, eyes darting around in alarm. "Fresh bread and crepes. Crepes. And what has Iwaizumi-san fed us so far?" he frowns down at the loot bag. "Fish crackers. Frog legs. For nutrition. Jesus Christ."

Kunimi grimaces, rubbing at his sore neck. "Welcome to the club."

"Have they always been this insufferable?" groans Tsukishima, angrily munching on a fish cracker.

"Oikawa? Yes," Kunimi replies. "Iwaizumi? Also yes." 

"Oikawa-san is usually nicer," Kindaichi offers, breaking off a piece of a protein bar he snuck into his pants that morning to split with Kageyama and Yamaguchi. "But Iwaizumi-san is a dictator, yes."

"Can confirm," Kageyama adds, after mumbling his thanks.

"Shut up!" Tsukishima hisses, yanking his share of the snack and shoving it in his mouth. "They basically pamper you!"

Kageyama points to himself incredulously. "M-me?" he stammers. "Daichi wouldn't give me another blanket because he told me children in third world countries didn't even have a roof over their heads and to not be so selfish, Kageyama. We raised you better than this, Kageyama," he mimes hotly. "And I'm the spoiled one?!"

Now it was Hinata's time to be annoyed. "Remind me again who was it that Oikawa-san made sure to get extra servings of rice last night."

Yamaguchi was only more than happy to pile on. "And who Iwaizumi-san made sure got warm water for his bath."

Kindaichi, surprisingly, also joins in. "And who warned me and Kunimi a day before the trip to be nice to Kageyama."

"Can confirm," is all Kunimi says, stealing Kindaichi’s insect repellant spray from Hinata's pack.

-

"A little more to the left, Kunimi."

...

"More."

...

"More."

...

"Are you an athlete or what? Tilt further and higher than that! More!"

...

"Daichi-san," Kunimi starts slowly, struggling to hold up the fishing pole that was already struggling to break with how brittle it was. Behind them he can hear Oikawa and Iwaizumi using far less harsher words to Kageyama and Hinata.

"This," he croaks out, "is my more."

They were somewhere by the open river, honest to gods fishing for their keep because someone—aka Iwaizumi—got it inside Daichi's and Suga's heads that real men should earn their keep and not wait to be fed. Nevermind all of them were literal minors and had literal permission slips signed to delegate these seniors with their lives in the event something should happen. Nevermind all of it was legally binding. Nevermind the second years didn't even bat an eye as soon as Iwaizumi got the fishing poles and worms out, apparently already expecting this method of torture from the previous year.

Tsukishima of course put up a riot.

He sputtered out and about as he rallied for the perfectly good rations they had back at the campsite and even volunteering himself for cooking duty if that was the problem. Makki and Mattsun were only too happy to tug him along to the deepest end of the waters, hunking him down and forcing him to wield the longest fishing pole they had. Might as well use that height for somethin', Makki quipped, Rather than just bitchin' and moanin'. Yamaguchi was tasked with the gruesome chore of feeding the live worms to his bait, his features squeamish and disgusted. Y-you can do it, Tsukki! 

"Ease up on him a little, Daichi," Suga teases some ways near them, helping Kindaichi keep a line steady.

"I will if he would just tilt to the left," Daichi warns, arms impatiently pointing to the side. Kunimi groans again, digging up some of his reserves to wield the stubborn line that wasn't budging this way and that. "It's really not moving!"

"You're just not tilting hard enough," demands Daichi.

"I am!" cries Kunimi, a bead of sweat trailing down his jaw. 

"More!" barks Daichi, insistent. "Unless you're okay with Kindaichi one-upping you?"

Kunimi's head snaps to Kindaichi, who was raising about a 15-inch slapjack hooked to his pole, along with the world's most shit-eating grin he wants to wipe off. Suga was beaming up at him proudly and yelling out his accomplishment for all of them to see and hear. Cries of congratulations and envy are volleyed throughout the stream. He sees foam rise out of Kageyama's ears as he huffed and rolled on his line even more fervently, an amused Iwaizumi telling him to go slowly and Oikawa taunting Hinata to do the same. 

"Let this be a lesson to you boys," Suga jeers across the field. "If you have a good mentor, the rest will follow!"

All the third years lock eyes.

They dine on the entire sea that night.

-

The training camp ends with an old-fashioned bbq party.

Iwaizumi was on the grill with Daichi and Asahi, moving in a routine that’s far smoother and more amicable than the rough patch they started with. They find out Iwaizumi is particularly adept at manning the grill and flipping the meat over, all grunt work and being the only one of the two who actually followed through with his verbal warnings to any of the first years who kept trying to sneak an early bite. 

I wouldn't do that if I were you, he warned to a stunned Yamaguchi. Unless you want this knife aimed somewhere lower.

Daichi, in charge of seasoning and Asahi with prepping, deft and nimble hands making quick work of both; don't even bat an eye when they see Iwaizumi set aside three plates he starts unceremoniously piling up with the leaner portions of meat.

Kunimi and Kindaichi are a given—Daichi pleasantly surprised to see him gentle somehow where they are concerned—but it's Kageyama who still comes as a surprise.

"Are they related or something?" Asahi whispers, oiling some of the grill grates. "Maybe cousins? Kageyama does look a little like him."

Daichi shakes his head, rubbing a thin layer of salt and pepper to a piece of chicken thigh. "I don't think so," he admits. "Just former teammates, I think."

Asahi nods along. "And Oikawa?"

"What about him?" pipes Iwaizumi, having overheard part of their conversation as he transfers some leftover charcoal Hinata brought to the pile. "What about Oikawa?"

Asahi flushes a little. "Oh," he says. "It's just that he's — well —"

Iwaizumi gestures for him to go on.

"He seems—" Asahi continues, unsurely. "I don't know. Like he wants to both kill Kageyama in his sleep and feed him until he fattens up like one of those kids from Hansel and Gretel."

Daichi suppresses a laugh.

Iwaizumi just looks amused. "Actually," he surmises. "I think you got everything right. Definitely the feeding part, at least. It’s why he’s threatened me to set aside all the leg parts for Kageyama since this morning,” he chuckles. “But we're working on the killing part."

Everyone is only too happy to be fed normal food for once.

The sun was just shy of setting around the campsite, hues of golden orange and pale yellow streaking the place in a healthy, lovely glow. The sounds of birds chirping and flitting about the pine trees are a welcome break from all the yelling, the wind at just the right temperature to be breezy and warm.

Hinata, especially, is overjoyed with all of it. "Waaa!" he gushes, all bright eyes looking up at Iwaizumi who handed him his plate he filled with extra enoki mushrooms. "This looks soooo good, Iwaizumi-san!"

Iwaizumi blushes, looking away. "R-right," he stammers. "Yes. Um. Eat—well, then."

At his side, he can feel Suga eyeing him knowingly. "You can say it," he says, setting up the drinks. "Hinata is very cute and will feed your senpai ego well."

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” mumbles Iwaizumi, assembling the next plate.

The rest of the afternoon goes swimmingly. The sounds of easy laughter and open conversation flowing seamlessly throughout, seniors and juniors alike mingling. Asahi manages to hold a conversation with Makki and Mattsun that doesn't end with him sweating buckets at potentially overstepping anything he says, the Seijoh third years only too happy to know he was also a fan of the Sendai Frogs and was he looking to go pro after highschool, they wonder? 

Tanaka and Noya were in a heated discussion with Yahaba and Kyotani, both parties having very spirited opinions on whether Kubota Sayu or Fujino Ryoko were the representatives of 2000s actresses for Nippon cinema. Daichi was giving even more pointers to Kunimi about fishing, Kindaichi not even bothering to hide he was listening in and Suga only too happy to use his distraction as a way to funnel more meat into his plate.

Oikawa was busy fussing over Kageyama in his usual roundabout way, frowning down at the lack of vegetables in his plate and blaming Iwaizumi for sabotaging the child's health intentionally. I know he's our rival and everything, Iwa-chan , Oikawa chides. But doesn't he deserve nutrition too? Iwaizumi gave him an amused look, perhaps knowingly, Oikawa not budging an inch. Iwaizumi relents and goes back to fetch an entire plate full of hijiki seaweeds and cucumbers and seasoned radishes.

Kageyama flushed at all the food and attention, but where those two were concerned, he's long since learned it was best to just let them have their way unless they argue and make it everyone's problem. Again.

Towards the end it's Daichi who approaches Oikawa first, two cups of yuzu in hand. "Think we did okay?" 

Oikawa looks over at him, smiling in a skittish way, before accepting the drink. "I think," he takes a sip. "We did better than okay."

"Stellar endorsement from The Great King," Daichi teases. "Want to do it all over again next year?"

"There won't be a next year," Oikawa reminds him, an inflexion of something to his tone.

"Ah," Daichi blinks, and then: "Right."

Oikawa bumps shoulders with him. "But there's still be the next spring, and summer, and winter."

"Tsukishima might actually kill me if I even suggest we do something like this out in the cold," Daichi is quick to stop him. "Like actually kill me this time I think."

"Kageyama doesn't do well during winters either," Oikawa finds himself saying almost reflexively.

Daichi catches on, because of course he does. "Right," he says, smirking knowingly. “Of course.”

Oikawa blinks, unable to look at him. "R-right," he coughs awkwardly, before gesturing to the rest of the crowd. "Well then. Just as long as you stop threatening to make fishermen out of my players, I guess we can clear our schedule for you."

"And just as long as you stop trying to claim my first years as yours," Daichi's spread grins wider. "Then we would be more than happy to do this with you all over again, Oikawa-san."

[teaberrii]

Matching/Couple Costume Outfits with the Genshin Boys

Characters: 5WIRL (Aether, Xiao, Kazuha, Heizou, Venti) and DCKZ (Diluc, Childe, Kaeya, Zhongli)

Type: Bulleted headcanons

Warnings: Slightly suggestive

Notes: Wanted to write something for Halloween, so I’m trying headcanons for a change because time. 💀

Teyvat’s biggest Halloween party is tonight. You and your boyfriend got the invite, so who are you dressing up as?

Aether as Rapunzel. You as Flynn Rider from Tangled

Aether knows you’ve always admired his long, luscious blonde locks. But, when you suggest he go as Rapunzel, he isn’t sure what to feel.

Aether eventually agrees just to make you happy.

You and Aether thrift your outfits. He also brings a frying pan as an accessory.

You braid his hair to match Rapunzel’s hairstyle on the boat scene.

Aether is the center of attention; he gets teased to wear a dress and braid his hair more often as it “suits him”.

You and Aether win the best couple costume of the night by popular vote.

"Should this be considered one of my best days ever?”

Xiao as a samurai. You as a feudal princess.

Xiao is 100% on board with your costume idea, even though he isn't smiling when he tells you.

Xiao opts for a robe samurai costume with a black/white/green colour scheme.

You go all out with your hair, makeup, and kimono. You also bring a paper umbrella as an accessory.

Xiao treats you like a princess the entire night (as if he doesn't already). He gets whatever you need, makes sure you don't have any wardrobe malfunctions, and carries your umbrella when you're tired.

You hold each other's hand when the ghost stories get a little too intense.

“I live to protect you, my princess.”

Kazuha as Jiji. You as Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service

You always thought Kazuha would be cute as a cat. As both of you are Ghibli fans, you don’t think he would object, and you’re right.

Kazuha helps you make your costume; his costume is just all-black clothes.

You help him do his cat makeup.

Your favourite couple photo for the night is you and Kazuha on the broom together. He's hugging you from behind.

You and Kazuha grab the same chair when playing spooky musical chairs. He lets you have it.

“I think it’s better to leave with great dignity.”

Heizou as Sherlock Holmes. You as Watson.

You and Heizou suggested the idea at the exact same time.

Everyone knew who you and Heziou would go as. So, no one is surprised when you two show up like you're looking to solve the biggest murder mystery in town.

Heizou’s accessory is a tobacco pipe. Yours is a pocket watch.

You end up trying to solve an actual mystery at the party when the alcohol goes missing. Turns out it was Venti.

You and Heizou win the classiest costume of the night.

"Elementary, my dear Watson. We're the perfect team. But, of course, we'd win."

Venti as Sailor Moon. You as Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon

You thought Venti would want to go as Hatsune Miku, but he was the one who thought of this couple costume idea.

He's more excited than you are and goes all out.

Klee dressed up as Chibiusa, so the three of you take many group photos together.

You think Venti gets a little too drunk at the party, but he just wants to get you alone.

Heizou walks in on your little makeout session. He quickly looks away and says he's just looking for the missing alcohol.

Venti didn't realize he'd taken the entire bottle with him.

“Seems like someone needs to be punished in the name of the moon.”

Diluc as Jessie. You as James from Pokemon

Diluc was not planning on dressing up. He’s there for a job, after all. Catering. Well, he’s providing the drinks, to be exact.

You pitch the idea to him, saying that the costumes will be pretty low-effort. Plus, he has awesome hair for it. So, he eventually agrees just to make you happy.

You're in charge of the costumes, which won't take you long to get. All Diluc has to do is keep his luscious hair in good shape, which he does anyway.

You help Diluc with the drinks for the entire night, and you get a lot of compliments for the costume.

You dare him to do the catchphrase with you when he refuses to drink for a game, not knowing that you’ll pay for it later.

“...I hope you’re ready for trouble tonight.”

Childe as Nick Wilde. You as Judy Hopps from Zootopia

Childe is a little iffy on the idea as he’s never watched Zootopia. How good of a character can a talking fox be?

He’s totally convinced after watching the movie with you.

Childe already has the clothes. All he needs is a tail and ears.

Childe goes shopping with you for your outfit. You give him a deadpan look for acting innocent when giving slightly suggestive remarks.

Childe calls you “Officer Fluff” and tries to get information out of you on a spooky scavenger hunt.

“You know I’m innocent, Carrots. Unless you’re arresting me for another reason entirely.”

Kaeya as the Phantom (Erik). You as Christine from Phantom of the Opera

You just want to see Kaeya in a fancy schmancy suit, which rarely happens.

Kaeya likes the idea. He also wants to see you in a fancy dress.

When you walk into the party, your arm is looped around his. He treats you like royalty throughout the night.

Has a few too many drinks but still manages to keep it classy.

Kaeya ironically gets his character in a game of Halloween character charades. He instantly walks toward you and takes your hand.

“Love me. That’s all I ask of you.”

Zhongli as Loid. You as Yor from Spy x Family

You've never seen Zhongli blonde. So it's the perfect opportunity to get him to try new hairstyles.

He pulls it off well. He also loves the black dress on you.

Diona dresses up as Anya, so the three of you take a bunch of photos together.

You end up losing the game, which means you have to drink a small pitcher of mixed alcoholic drinks.

Zhongli drinks it for you.

“No matter what kind of trouble, let’s help each other.”

[scooptroopfanfic]

Cas with a C CH 8

Note: Please go to the Cas with a C Chapter Select to see previous chapters and story warnings. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Summary: The beginning of Cassie's life post Starcourt Mall

For the next week or so after the Starcourt Mall incident, people started to slowly let their guard down again around Cassie. For the most part, they kept her on bed rest and away from people. Well according to them. During that time Cassie kept Eddie tucked away and out of sight when he visited. He was planning for the final session of the summer campaign he ran for his friends who stayed in town. Cassie goes through all the lines he wants her to say and acts to make sure it is perfect.

“So you railroaded them into this type of ending huh?” Cassie says with a hint of sadness in her voice. She is going to be playing a long-lost wife of the main ally of the story who thought after the amount of time she was missing that she died. Turns out she was held hostage elsewhere, cursed, and will unfortunately only reunite with him in either his death or her death. Eddie looks offended.

“No. They just failed all the rolls they needed to piece things together. You watched sweetheart.” He says as their hands locked together as they lean in the same direction as Eddie’s notebook. At this, Cassie turns a bit red and Eddie looks away. “Sorry. I guess the whole acting as a couple thing kind of slipped through there for a second.”

“No. I mean I don’t mind.” Cassie says with a laugh. She can hear his thoughts going everywhere even without having to focus on racing.

He makes an odd noise out of his mouth, but it seems pretty happy and normal for the guy according to Cassie. “Well in my opinion they still get three chances. One before the fight, one at the beginning of the fight, and one right before the end of the fight. Some people may think to do checks then especially if you play up being my dear and loving partner well enough darling.” She says with a wink. Eddie laughs at this as he writes in his notebook he uses for DM ideas. “If only you were this devoted to your studies.”

“Then we wouldn’t be graduating together Harrington.” At this Cassie gags.

“I’m not my father or my brother. I’m Cassie. The last time I was called Harrington was by Hargrove. If you want to go for something people find odd just call me Cas. I used to beat the snot out of people who did in elementary school.”

“I forgot about the pigtailed terror! That was you!”

“Yup! Never lost a fight. Never have and never will.” She says as she does her best impression of Rosie the Riveter. 

“How did I forget about that?” He seems genuinely shocked.

“Because King Steve was more of a terror and made me look like a saint. Hairspray flamethrowers and all went away when big brother Steve came knocking. Sometimes with a bat.”

“Jesus I forgot about Chrissy’s hair. How were you not expelled for that?”

“Harrington money.” She says with a dry laugh. 

“Remind me not to anger either of you two fluffy-haired people.”

“You mean majestic maned? I mean he uses the same brands I do to keep his style and shape.” 

“Wait what?!”

“Eddie!” Cassie hears the thundering of footsteps coming up the stairs as she quickly shoves him into the closet and uses her powers to hide all signs of him. Suddenly Robin busts in with a frying pan at the ready and gives out her best battle cry.

“Robin! All good. No code reds.” 

“But I heard a noise in here.” At this point, Nancy walks in and notices the stacks of movies and books that Cassie didn’t think to hide.

“Robin, I'll handle this.”

“But what if she-“ Nancy gives her a look and Robin who doesn’t know any better scampers off.

“Look. We don’t really know each other really well Cassie but if you want to have a boy over you have to hide it better. Steve would have noticed immediately. Like seriously who leaves out the books and movies you guys are watching.” She then looks over the pile. “Seems like you Harrington’s have a type and that is brainy,” Nancy says as she grabs a Lord of the Rings book which has a ton of little post-it notes sticking out of it. Cassie opens her mouth to protest but Nancy continues as she looks under the bed. “I mean I find it cute that he decided to visit you after the fire. I mean really. It shows he cares.” 

“He is a friend.” Cassie then blocks the closet door with her body as Nancy tries to open it.

“Jonathan and I were “just friends” after me and your brother broke up and now look at where we are. He was a sweet awkward guy who worked his way into my heart. While I may no longer be in a relationship with your brother I still have a vested interest in seeing who finally got past the icy exterior.” Cassie is only so good at playing defense on the door and eventually, Nancy breaks through and spots the terrified Eddie Munson who is trying to make himself as small as possible. He then gives the most unsure and awkward wave imaginable as he slowly walks out.

“Surprise…. Please do not tell my brother. He already knows someone drops me off from work sometimes but nothing more. If he found out more I would have iron bars on my window.” She says as she grabs his hand as she stands next to him. Nancy still seems to be processing the fact that the town’s princess is at least friends with the town freak. 

“Steve is going to kill you.”

“More accurately him but thank you for that Nancy. Now please do me and Eddie here a favor and don’t let Steve know. Please.” Cassie puts on her best pleading face and Eddie looks very confused and concerned.

“Fine. I won’t tell them, but if they ask I am not going to lie about it.”

“Deal,” Cassie says as she rests her head on Eddie’s shoulder. “Now can we please get back to planning our nerdy stuff? Eddie here has a reputation to uphold.”

“Ok.” She says a bit drawn out still weirded out as she shuts the door and Cassie immediately locks it.

“Thank god it was Nancy and not Steve.” 

“Why is this a good thing?” Eddie asks, a bit skittish and heading closer to the window.

“Because Nancy will keep our secret. Not like she can post things like that to her paper. She is more into exciting stories anyway. Things with real weight. We are just two nerds.” Eddie opens his mouth to protest as he gets in his DM voice but Cassie proceeds to point to the game he was planning, the books and movies he bought, and the character sheets for her character and Eddie’s. “Two nerds. Your ‘freak’ persona doesn’t erase that.” 

“Fine. I guess you win.” He keeps the DM voice as he says this. 

“Like I said. Never. Lost. A. Fight.” Cassie says with a smirk as she pats where he is sitting next to her on her bed which the boy immediately flops down on and they continue to work out the encounter.

Eventually, Steve couldn’t come up with any more excuses to keep her inside on bed rest after two weeks in her room so Cassie was finally allowed to leave on the condition that she take it easy. Cassie rolls her eyes as she loads up her backpack with her notebooks, snacks, and when Steve isn’t looking, drinks. She slightly sticks out her tongue in concentration as she remembers where Steve hides his stash of beer and grabs a pack.

“Hey!” Steve comes barreling around the corner as Cassie zips up her backpack and hauls it out of the house. In the driveway is one of Eddie’s DND buddies and he waves as she runs out, but his eyes go wide as he sees Steve Harrington running out after her. She quickly throws herself through the open car window and screams at him to drive. The dude quickly hits it in reverse and takes off as Cassie pulls herself fully into the car as they see Steve get smaller and smaller.

“I thought I was going to die.”

“Oh, you were if he caught us,” Cassie says with a laugh. “So you know how Eddie claims he has to fight a dragon every time he needs his princess voice. Well, you have met the dragon.”

“Jesus.”

“Tell me about it. A bit of an overkill for a six-pack.” Cassie says as she sighs in relief that the beers didn’t burst in her bag. 

“We did all of that for beer???”

“Better than stealing it from someone who actually cares. Steve is just upset that I did what he never had the guts to do.”

“And what’s that?”

“Swipe it right in front of someone and get away.” She says with a laugh as she places it next to her as she buckles up. She pats the shoulder of the kid she would later learn is named Gareth.

When Cassie and Gareth get to Jeff's basement Eddie laughs as he sees Gareth looking like he is crapping his pants as Cassie plops down her share of snacks and beers.

“I see you met the ferocious dragon,” Eddie says as he tries to make himself look beastly.

“Yep.” Cassie says popping the p. “And he was breathing fire this time.”

“Ooh. Nice one Gareth. Thank you for picking up the princess for me.”

“Never again.”

“Fair enough brave knight. It is not a journey for the weak of heart.” Cassie says, trying to imitate Eddie. Eddie seems to appreciate it as he laughs at Gareth’s confused look. 

“I’d say. Last time I went there the dragon took flight for many miles and we had to lose him on the roads near Lovers Lake.”

“I never thought the King would be…”

“Like that? Welcome to having a big brother.” Cassie says with a sigh but claps her hands together as she plops herself down on the bean bag next to Eddie’s DM chair and sets up. “But let’s move on and actually make this worth it and play. I want to see how this finally ends.”

After Gareth has had enough time and a beer to shake off the rest of the boys gather around the table each with their beers in hand. Jeff offers her one and Eddie almost objects until Cassie reaches out and grabs it taking a swig. Eddie seems shocked as the rest of the boys cheer. Cassie is trying not to cough.

“Relax Eds. I’ve had a beer before. We talked about this.” 

“I thought you were a little Miss Goody Two Shoes.”

“Pigtailed terror.”

“But all those words back at the bookstore-“

“Quite simply I thought you were an ass and I just wanted to prove you wrong.” Eddie looks offended. “Hey, you thought I was pretty little princess Harrington who was one of the popular kids who didn’t give a crap about any of this.” He then reluctantly nods at the statement and gestures to her to take a drink which she takes a smaller one this time. Just because she has drank in the past doesn’t mean she can handle the fizz. She winces a bit as she settles back. “Now let’s play some D&D.” The boys cheer as Eddie stands up menacingly.

And it seems to be with good reason. Cassie has remained silent but is a looming threat to the other players as they try and figure out what role she has to play in the web of the story that Eddie is weaving. Eddie leads forward the charge toward the final boss encounter with his NPC.

“The monster who killed my wife is just past this corridor and-“ At this point, Cassie places a hand on Eddie’s mouth with a glint in her eyes. The other members of Hellfire look terrified at the girl who silenced their leader.

“And up ahead in the dark, you can feel something. Lurking. You then hear the slow scraping of the claws of the beast on the ground. As you and your companions look around, that is when you see the monstrous beast in front of you!” Cassie then slams down her character on the table as Eddie sets up the other enemies. “Welcome to your final test. Don’t die too quickly.” She says in a lower tone that even causes Eddie to pause in his movements. At this point, everyone rolls and it is game on.

You would think with this being Cassie’s first time actually having a character on the board she would be timid and die off pretty quickly, but as she takes out Jeff the others start to panic. “And as she-beast launches for you, it takes a large bite out of you and-“ Eddie and her eyes go wide as they see her crit behind the DM screen. “And you feel your life force suddenly sucked out of your body and you are down.”

“WHAT?! What is this thing?” Doug freaked out as Cassie recovered and smirked. 

“As you watch your friend drop, the creature shifts forms.” At this point, Cassie switches out her figure to something slowly becoming humanoid. “But it still hungers.”

“We have to kill this thing quickly before it kills again.” Eddie cries as his character charges up to grapple with the creature. Gareth then looks at Cassie and Eddie for a second like he is trying to read them. 

“Is there any way I could roll to figure out the identity of the creature?” This causes Eddie to do a few long blinks. 

“Intelligence check. Just going to let you know this will be a difficult roll to succeed.” Eddie says with a poker face, but Cassie looks excited. Cassie gets a look in her eyes and as the dice start to roll the lights flicker for a second and Cassie’s nose bleeds causing her to reach for the tissues Eddie put by her. The die begins to slow down until it softly lands on the 20 which causes Eddie and Cassie to look at each other in amazement as the other boys look on in excitement. 

“Well. I didn’t see this one coming.” Eddie says as he looks down at the dice. He then sees the bloody nose and looks at her in suspicion.

“Suddenly as you look at the new form it seems to remind you of a portrait you have seen before. The one in the household of your dear new companion the monster hunter.” Cassie improvises and hopes Eddie will approve/go along.

“Oh shit it is the wife.”

“What are you talking about? This monster killed my wife.”

“No, this monster is your wife.”

“Charisma roll… this will be an easy roll,” Eddie says as he passes a paper to Cassie. Her eyes scan over the paper and she blushes a bit but nods subtly.  Doug rolls for it and when the die clanks onto the wooden table it reveals an 11. Cassie looks at Eddie with confusion but he nods to her. 

“As the hunter slowly scans the face of the creature a flicker of recognition shows in his eyes as they look down to notice familiar markings that can be found on his wife.” 

“Eliza! Eliza, can you hear me? You need to fight this!” Eddie exclaims as he shifts the mock grapple he had earlier to Cassie’s shoulders to try and shake her awake. Cassie hesitates for a second before she slams down a pretty feminine figure onto the board.

“After a few moments, the creature shifts again. This time to the familiar face of the wife.” Cassie says in her narrator's voice before she keys in her vocal cords again. “Hello? Who’s there?” Cassie asks.

“Can you not see that it is I, my dear?” Eddie asks.

“No. I can’t see. I can only smell the gore. Your pleasant smell. It’s gone.” Eliza says as she wanders around blind. Eddie then rolls his eyes before grabbing her hand.

“Well then let me guide you out of here.” At this point, the other members of the party look into the scene in shock. Eddie then takes over as he guides the boys back to the manor of his character. They start tying up loose ends in the campaign and Eddie continues with his condescending tone of a noble that he adopted for his character. Cassie and Eddie are still holding hands as the evening draws to a close. 

Eddie offhandedly mentions that the husband and wife kiss and Jeff laughs.

“So that’s the one line huh?” At this Cassie and Eddie look at each other. Cassie’s heart races a bit and she can feel her cheeks redden. Cassie then shrugs as Eddie goes wide-eyed as she quickly and gently gives him a peck on the cheek. Eddie seems to just go off into his own mental headspace and stare intensely at the wall across from him. She can hear his thoughts going wild.

“Nope. The line is much further than that.” Cassie says with a smirk as Eddie seems to be processing. The other boys are laughing at Eddie’s reaction while Cassie’s heart rate speeds up. At this point, the duo notices they are still holding hands and violently/dramatically separate causing the boys to laugh more. 

For the next hour or so between cleaning up from the session, the boys goof around as Cassie chimes in every now and then.

“So we still have that gig for this week right?” 

“Bev said we should be good to go. It’s one of her fifty-cent beer nights so be ready.” Eddie says as he lays across the couch just out of reach from Cassie who is still sitting tall.

“You guys are playing at the Hideout this weekend?” Cassie squints as she faintly remembers the name Bev from her time in Eddie’s memories. 

“You know about Corroded Coffin?” Doug seems shocked.

“Oh! I forgot to tell you guys. Remember the Ellen Ripley?” Eddie then reaches over to ruffle Cassie’s hair up to match how it looked that night. Of course, Cassie tries to block him as he does so trying to protect her precious hair. 

“Stop it, Eddie! Don’t touch my baby!” Cassie cries out as they tumble off of the couch. Cassie ends up landing on top of Eddie. Her eyes widen in surprise from the sudden rush and then the feeling of his hand ruffling her hair.

“Oh shit! You were the Alien fan?”

“Why is everyone so surprised?” Cassie whines as she tries to fix her hair. As revenge, she decides to use Eddie’s stomach as a seat looking around at the others as she plants her feet on the ground. Eddie seems content and even adjusts himself to get comfortable, with his legs still on the couch. 

“You don’t seem the type.” Jeff awkwardly smiles as he watches his leader accept his fate. Cassie leans back and plants her arms on the carpet floor. 

“Your friend’s female Dungeon Master voice who also is now your illustrator apparently doesn’t do nerdy shit?”

“Ok fair.” Gareth seems to get on board with nerdy Cassie quicker than the others. Probably due to the dungeon escape pre-session. 

“Anywho let me know when you guys are going. I may want to listen for a bit. Seems pretty cool.” 

Cassie can feel the surface emotions of the group throughout the afternoon and evening slowly turn from suspicion to a reluctant acceptance. She is relieved as she feels this and the slight tension she is keeping in her shoulders. For the first time in a while, she feels at peace. She doesn’t always have to use her powers to listen in. She can finally turn it off. For the first time in a long while she can think without hearing anyone else do the same. How is this happening? Cassie must have been making a face because Eddie quirks an eyebrow at her as he reaches onto the counter for some chips to shovel into his mouth. 

Cassie was planning on leaving soon after the DND session ended, but plans changed, and early into the morning where she ended up curled up on the couch sharing a blanket with Eddie. At this point her brain is dead and she can’t process much beyond pretty colors and people on the screen. It feels nice. Not constantly on alert. She smiles to herself as she sinks into the couch and blankets, taking more for herself.

“Hey blanket hog. I want some too.” Eddie grumbles trying to steal some back.

“But I’m cold…” She mumbles sadly as she tugs at the blanket trying to keep the icy feeling away. She hasn’t felt warmth for a while and she is not going to let noodle arms take it from her. She looks at him with pleading eyes. “Please…”

“I’ll fold just this once.” Eddie then tugs at the blankets causing her to scoot closer. “Sike.” 

“Ass.” She mumbles as she goes and leans on his shoulder. At least if she has to share a blanket she may as well get a pillow out of it too. She can feel nerves coming from him as he taps to an unknown rhythm with his left hand which is the one on the opposite side of her. Cassie smiles to herself as she gets cozy on his shoulder and pretends to watch the movie. In reality, she uses this first sense of peace in a while to get some proper sleep.

“Hey, Mr. Peter!” A young Cassie cries out as she runs over to the man. He has his back turned to her. His burned and tattered white outfit has slowly started to wear away. Underneath it is more corrupted-looking flesh making him look less and less human each time she visits her friend.

When she gets to the other side of him she can see his face display a look of horror.

“Mr. Peter! Wake up! The Spider put you in a nightmare again.” Cassie says as she gently shakes Peter. When she sees that isn’t working she turns around to the giant shadows in the form similar to a spider.

“Spider! Can you please let Mr. Peter out?” All she gets in response is the sound of swirling wind and particles whipping around. “I really don’t want to do that.” The particles get excited as she says this. Cassie sighs as she holds up her right hand in a sort of crushing motion towards Peter. 

At first, nothing happens. She then feels a rush of power through her as she sees a few particles fly out of Peter and into her outstretched hand. They slowly start gathering and forming the cluster of a small dog. Cassie uses her other hand to keep its shape as she continues to gather more. While the rush feels amazing there is also a twinge of something… wrong.

Eventually, Cassie can draw enough away that Peter forces the rest of it out.

“Thank you, Cassandra.”

“No problem Mr. Peter.” He looks annoyed at this name but then sighs.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have school?”

“Yes, but I felt your fear and got worried. I know the Spider and you sometimes get into fights.” He then looks confused.

“You can feel that from our dimension?”

“Yeah! I mean I can kind of feel… everyone. It really hurts my head and it won’t turn off. That includes you.” Peter then looks at her for a second.

“So you lied about the reason for your arrival.”

“Not fully. I did feel your fear Mr. Peter, but sometimes the noises of people’s thoughts can be a lot so-”

“You come here for a break.” He looks at her with pity as he gently taps her head. “But that doesn’t explain how you can still be aware of me even in another dimension.”

“I think it is the Spider. I can feel things through it. Like another set of eyes and hands.” Cassie says as she gently touches what is currently a compass hidden away in her jacket. She then feels a cold knife in her brain. She sees a flash of her father appear and fear grips her heart for a moment, but then she thinks about her brother and the two of them playing basketball together while listening to music and it goes away. “Spider I am not falling for that one again.”

Younger Cassie does not see Peter wipe his nose or the scowl on his face. 

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

Cassie wakes up to the sound of chirping birds and snoring. When she does she jumps up, or rather attempts to before she is stopped by something. She feels a weight on her shoulder and a slight wet spot on her head as she identifies the location of her binds. 

Eddie Munson. Apparently, he fell asleep during the movie too, and thought her head was the perfect little place to nap. And slightly drool on. When Cassie tries to move the deadweight stops her altogether from being able to lift her head or wiggle out. She continues to try and struggle but each time she does it feels like a boa constrictor around her tightening down on her. Eddie grumbles as she tries to move.

“Five more minutes.”

“My brother is going to kill me for staying out. He already was going to kill me for the six-pack.” She harshly whispers back. As he hears her voice he makes a panicked noise as he scrambles back trying to give her space but just ends up tumbling over the side of the couch with a soft thud.

“Shit! We gotta go!” He whispers loudly as he grabs her hand and guides them out with minimal effort, but not without a few stumbles over some randomly placed garbage on the ground making him twist around. Somehow the two succeed at not waking up the others as they creep out the door. 

As Cassie and Eddie speed through Hawkins, they blast music and try to wake up.

“Is he really that bad?”

“Not if you are me, Batman.” She says as she notices the bat tattoos. She didn’t really notice before. Probably because she thought she was going to die all summer but now she can see. Like really seeing everything around her. “But for you yeah…” Cassie then looks at her shoes that she shuffles around. “Our dad kinda told us to stay away from people like you.” 

“What?”

“Yeah. Not sure if it is the poor thing or…” Cassie contemplates her next word. “Family stuff, but yeah.” Cassie then sighs. “Our dad is an ass though so fuck him.” She leans over to him and puts an elbow on his shoulder. “If I would have followed that advice I would have missed out on hanging around the coolest guy ever.” 

“You’re gonna make me blush Sweetheart.” He is clearly trying not to look over at her and focus on the road. “You are going to be ok right?”

“Yeah. Steve likes to sleep in late, especially when those things can’t get you in the sun easily.” She cuts herself off. “You know what. You already know that and more so.”

“I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about you and the weird magic shit.” Eddie gives a look of suspicion. “And if you are going to use it to game the system again.”

“Oh.” Cassie then laughs. “All good up here. In fact better than ever.” She then notices something. The feeling sensor she couldn’t turn off is silent again. “I don’t constantly hear thoughts and feelings anymore.”

“Did you lose your powers when they closed the gate?” Eddie says the word gate unsure. She told him things secondhand during their time together in her recovery.

“No, but I think the constant on powers may have been due to something beyond that thing. Maybe the Mind Flayer wanted to see how good my powers were or something?” Cassie shrugs as she changes the station with her powers due to the slight static. “But I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m free!’ She then leans out the window next to her and laughs as they race through Hawkins.

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

When they arrive Cassie has Eddie drop her off a street away. Cassie gives a mock salute as Eddie guns it away like a bat out of hell. Cassie smiles to herself for a few moments, but as she gets closer to her house her stomach starts to twist into knots. The air around it is suffocating with fear making her queasy and almost double over. After holding her head for a few moments standing still and getting her bearing she marches on to the back of the house. 

As she scrambles up to her window to open it her eyes soften as she sees her brother asleep. He has set up a corner in the room on one of the chairs she uses at her desk to study. He has his arms crossed in the usual disapproving look but his features were soft as he slept away. Tucked away next to him is his infamous bat somewhat ready to go. 

Cassie uses her powers to slowly open the window and climb inside to muffle most of the sound that the break-in would cause. Unfortunately, that is not enough as she lands with a thud. Quickly Steve shoots awake and grabs the bat, trying to locate the source of the noise.  When he sees his sister he gives a frustrated sigh and puts down the bat

“Jesus Christ I could have hit you with this thing Cassie! Where the hell have you been?”

“Out.”

“Out where? I called everyone and no one threw a party where there was beer last night.”

“Eww. You sound like Mom.” Cassie throws her backpack next to her bed and sits down in it. 

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does. What if there is another weird thing happening and I don’t know where you are.”

“I’ll be fine. I can handle myself, Steve.” She puts her hands on her hips in a sort of power pose. “Besides, while you were dealing with Russians my friends and I were handling the weird ass possessed people.”

“What?” Steve looks at her shocked as she realizes she didn’t actually talk about her experiences over the summer with him.

“Shit, I really didn’t want to go into this Steve.” She sighs like she is letting out a breath of air she had been holding in. “But you forced my hand. That night my friend and I went to the movies we got jumped. By the hoard. If I didn’t get the knife and cut us free we could have been one of those things, Steve. When I say I get it trust me when I say I do. I can handle myself.” She digs into her bag and fishes out the switchblade she used to cut her and Eddie free. “But we got nothing to worry about Steve. The gate is closed. That thing is gone. We can just move on. I can be a normal-ass high school and when I graduate I can get the two of us out of Hawkins. Away from our parents.” 

Steve looks surprised when she brings up her plans for the future. His nervous energy is still around, but it is no longer suffocating. 

“You would put up with me?”

“Fuck yeah, loser. Oh yeah. You would have to be able to deal with my friend too. He is coming with.”

“He?” Cassie curses to herself as she realizes her mistake. She sits down for what she imagines is going to be a long talk from her brother. Turns out she was right.

[hijinks-n-lowjinks]

💛💙💖🏳️‍🌈 get asked loser

My arms are thrown wide open for these pan coded questions~

💛: What is a popular ship you just can't get behind, and why?

People are going to smite me for this... but bakudeku lol. I can see why people would like it, but... it just doesn't do it for me. If Horikoshi hadn't made Bakugo as horrible to Deku as he was in elementary/middle school I would be more open to it but he was so bad. Every time I rewatch/reread mha it makes my stomach curdle. He fucking sucks! Until like seasons 3-4! He stays shitty for so long and the two NEVER talk about it!!! What the fuck!!!! (This is Horikoshi's fault, not theirs)

Bakugo is the only one to acknowledge that he was shitty to him (I like Bakugo, I think he's a fantastically complex character) but there's no way I believe that Deku doesn't hold any resentment against him. I love them being friends and partners, but I don't think a romantic relationship could realistically work out with their history, sorry, but that's what I feel deep inside.

And tododeku is right there..... healthy rivals to friends to lovers, babes. They're also foils of each other and have a much healthier relationship from beginning to end.

💙: Which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

Roy Mustang lol. That man has never done anything for me and everyone and their mother talks about how hot he is, but I just don't see it. I think he's average/handsome enough, but I don't find myself attracted to him at all lol.

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about a series?

I don't think I have that many unpopular opinions, but a bigger one is that I think Part 2 of Chainsaw Man is good lol. Sooooo many people shit on it, but Asa is so near and dear to my heart that the end of Part 1 was worth it to me. I don't think this is as controversial of a take anymore, but I've seen a lot of shit takes concerning Part 2.

🏳️‍🌈: Which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn't seem queer to you?

First instinct is to say Denji. I don't think it's uncommon for people to think he's straight, but it's also common to headcanon him as bi. Peronsally, I've always seen him as straight. But if Fujimoto ever did explore Denji's sexuality as something other than straight, I'd be super down with it.

I'd also say Tanaka from Haikyuu but that's not an uncommon take lol.

send me asks <3

[absolutely-zero-regrets]

Top 5 favorite movies?

Uhhh. Oh dear. To be completely honest, I don’t have a favorite movie, period 😂 But here are some I enjoy, in no particular order!

I recently finally saw Pan’s Labyrinth! A bit too gorey for my tastes, but it was very good and lived up to the hype of all the people I’ve seen saying it was very sad, haha. Also, the theme is GREAT.

I thought the Mario movie was pretty cute! It always makes me a lil sad when people portray Mario as cruel to Luigi, so seeing them be so caring to each other especially in official media (if you can call it that) was a breath of fresh air! I also really liked the orchestral renditions of the songs from the games. I’m always a sucker for that kind of thing 😆 The only thing I can say I disliked at all about the movie was Chris Pratt’s voice. He reeeally put his all into it 🙄 Maybe the climax of the movie too. I’ve never really been a big fan of the worlds-collide-for-the-final-battle trope. Aside from those though, very fun movie!

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! I haven’t seen it in years but I LOVED it as a kid. I think this is probably my closest bet to a favorite movie considering just how much I WATCHED it.

WALL-E. I was OBSESSED with this movie as a kid. Maybe even more than the previous title, actually. I cried at the ending and proceeded to doodle those robots excessively throughout elementary school.

Ratatouille. What more is there to say.

If anyone has any movie recommendations I’d love to hear them! I really don’t watch that many 😂

[nemo-of-house-hamartia]

*dropping in with a plate of pan cakes* so you've got this interesting game on your wall as well. So how about you tell me about No. 11, 14 and 28? *grinning offering you pan cakes* take your time, hun. I hope your vacation is enjoyable and gives you the rest you need. Miss you.

Hiii my dear!! how are you!?? omg you bring me pancakes??? You know how much I adore them!!!! *slather a crapton of maple syrup on top of them* and I am thoroughly enjoying my vacation, it was sorely needed, tbh. I am glad to be in France again, and so looking forward to see Paris and give a buzz to my braincells, so that they might wake up and give me materials to write about lol

but now!! LEMME OFFER YOU SOME KANELBULLE AND ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS! :D

11. Do you prefer ‘blank slate’ main characters you make yourself or otherwise project onto, or characters with a set personality and backstory? Answered here :)

14. A song that’s sure to hit your nostalgia buttons? I actually have two!!! This one (because omg you have no idea how many hours I spent playing this with my baby brother, and fml Kazuya was my man and my main choice for fighter!)

And this one right here. I remember playing Tomb Raider when I was a small bebe, alongside with an old elementary school friend, and this song was just so beautiful, it stuck in my mind.

28. Pick a series you like. What was the first game you played for it? Was it a good starting point? Would it still be a good starting point now?

Answered Here! :D

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR QUESTIONS! <3

[lauranthalasah]

So, I read this excellent post about representation and left me thinking.

Since the end of BBC Sherlock* I've had a big problem in the way fandom demands representation sometimes, the way that if it is not exactly what they want then it is worthless. Let me explain myself.

For a long long time a lot of people have seen Holmes and Watson as a couple, and in new recreations of Doyles' work people get more and more hype for a possible in screen representation of this "headcanon", because new times gives hope to them that sooner or later Holmes and Watson ARE going to be gay (sooner or later they are gonna get it, tho).

Now, my issue is that Holmes and Watson have always... ALWAYS been a representation of something that is very dear to me, you see, Sherlock seems to me like asexual and aromantic, while Watson is very clearly heterosexual, but THEY ARE A COUPLE. They are life partners, they are! They just are not interested in each other in a sexual/romantic way, but they very much construct their lives around each other, at least for a while.

BBC Sherlock gives us that end, they end up raising a child together even! For me, the show that gets it right and makes it obvious is Elementary, they purposely made Watson female (and I think heterosexual? maybe bi?), and Holmes is quite sexually active (he might be pan), and then they proceed to give us a story in which they never fell sexually and romantically in love with each other. But do you know what they are at the end of everything?! Life partners!

For a long time people have been trying to put Holmes and Watson's relationship into one tag, when they are a perfect representation of another one that it needs its due representation as well. Like, the day someone finally makes them gay I'm gonna be okay with it, because it is gonna happen and it is gonna be a blast, but I need people to understand that there are other things that are valuable too.

The same happens with Good Omens, there are interesting representations going on there from season 1 (and the book if you want too). But because the author explained that the two protagonists we love were not MEN therefore they were not GAY** a round of "queerbaiting" accusations raised against it. Like they are undoubtedly queer, but because they were not explicitly gay then it was queerbaiting. And I don't like that. 

How many opportunities we'll have of seeing two people fell in love, one of them usually male presenting, one of them however they want to present themselves, both of them in which gender is literally a choice, both of them loving each other, I'll say romantically at least, not necessary sexually, but it could be (more after season 2 I guess). How many times are we gonna see this kind of complexity in a love story? And it is queer! Is so damn queer that we don't have the words for it! They are not humans! But it is a representation of love beyond heterosexual conventions without a doubt.

Also, tell me that Aziraphale and Crowley's romance is the only representation in that show! Or that even Aziraphale and Crowley are the ONLY characters who represent queerness on it?! Tell me that Crowley's gender fluidity isn't fucking amazing! I haven't watched every show in the world, but Good Omens is the most gender transgressive fictional show I have ever seen!

To be fair, I do think we need more queer representation, my point here is that we shouldn't stomp on one kind of representation simply because it is not the one we wanted from it. I don't think any piece of fiction is ever going to meet everyone's expectations of it, it is impossible, but we need to start thinking critically about it. Even when it represents part of what and how we are, it might not be perfect. It might not reflect my reality (there's no fictional work that has ever done that for me), but it doesn't mean it is not representing someone's reality. There's not a singular individual who is going to experience the full spectrum of anything except for their own personal experience of it.

What we need to learn to do is to look around us, to other people that are in similar boats as us who might be telling us "oh wait… I'm sorry that is not you, but that's me!", and we are not listening, and by condemning those fictional works we are kinda telling those people that they are not worthy of representation, or that their representation is less valuable than ours… and I don't like it! Just... just look around once in a while.

*Once upon a time I defended BBC Sherlock over the queerbait allegations against them because the creators were always clear they didn't intend to make Holmes and Watson gay in their show. Later on I realized that not everyone who watches a show watches interviews, cons, etc., but everyone who watched the show would get all those little jabs that, mostly Watson, would get about him and Sherlock being a couple; and I understood why people were so angry and disappointed. They were right to be. So this is not a defence of BBC Sherlock and the shit show they created. I just use the show as an example about Holmes and Watson in general because it's well known on Tumblr.

**I hate that the two examples I used were of gay couples that fandom wanted, I use those because are the cases I know the best, and I truly believe a canon gay Holmes/Watson is just a matter of time.

[elgallinero]

Jemaya

apple.news/AAPnagfEkSYWK-EwqA_wtaA #Orishas #AfricanPantheon #AfricanDiaspora #LaRaza #waterEarthWindFire #oneOutOfFour

[foxspeterpan]

[sr-stories]

Capture the Flag - A WordGirl Comic

1/??

Happy Pride Month, WordGirl fandom! (Hush, child. I’m well aware that it’s the last day of Pride Month. /lh) I’ve got another comic that I’d like to share with y’all! It’s a continuation of my previous comic Tobey Becomes Emo. If you haven’t read that comic already, feel free to do so at your leisure.

Now, without any further ado, I present to you... Capture the Flag!  🏳️‍🌈

Narrator: It has been a month since Woodview Elementary’s Class of 2002 has graduated. Former 5th-grader, Victoria Best, has been using this time to reminisce about her elementary school days. Minus the drama and emotional neglect from her overbearing parents, the blonde-haired girl still enjoyed her time at Woodview. Due to being a social butterfly, Victoria was able to make friends quite easily. However, there was this one girl that stood out from the rest. She was compassionate, pulchritudinous, and not to mention intelligent. The girl never saw eye-to-eye with Victoria thanks to her boastful nature, but she never loathed her company. Phone calls from this girl have been becoming more and more frequent these past few days. And the blonde-haired girl cherishes every conversation. As a result, Victoria has started to listen to her heart.

(Victoria clears her throat.)

Victoria: Dear Becky Botsford,

                         I’m putting my arrogance aside to write you this letter. Now, I’m not the best with words by any means (that’s your department), but I will say that you're the best person I’ve ever met. You’re ambitious, quick-witted, compassionate, and just downright-

(Victoria clears her throat yet again.)

Oh geez, my throat is parched. I shouldn’t snack on salty crackers anymore. I need to get a glass of water.

(Victoria exits her bedroom.)

(Victoria’s letter reads, “Dear Becky Botsford, I’m putting my arrogance aside to write you this letter. Now, I’m not the best with words by any means (that’s your department), but I will say that you're the best person I’ve ever met. You’re ambitious, quick-witted, compassionate, and just downright beautiful. However, I still can’t shake the feeling that you weren’t born on this planet. Your flawless vocabulary makes you stand out from the rest. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I admire your immense lexicon. During our conversations over the phone, you would use words that I’d never even heard of before. And when I would ask you to define a word for me, you wouldn’t hesitate to do so. Now, before I finish writing this letter, I’d like to ask you a serious question. Would you like to go out on a date with me? It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other in person. Love, Victoria.”)

Victor:  Heh heh… Oh, Vicky. So naive. You’re in for an odious awakening.

Narrator: Meanwhile, at the Botsford residence, Becky “WordGirl” Botsford is currently working on a letter for a special someone.

Becky: Could you please pan the camera over to TJ? Having a camera in my face while I’m working on something is very cringe-inducing to me. Understood?

Narrator: Oh... okay.

TJ: What’s up with her?

Narrator: Just... stick to the script.

TJ: Alright. Now, what was my line again? Ah yes, I remember.

~

Greetings and salutations, folks! And welcome to the first episode of…

Cooking with TJ and Johnson

Volume Ⅰ: Sweet Treats

Episode Ⅰ: Rainbow Cupcakes

TJ: Johnson? Where did you go?

Johnson: H-Here I am!

TJ: Hmm?

Johnson: I’m so sorry for the hold-up, TJ. I was having trouble finding an apron. The rest of the aprons were in your laundry bin, so I had n-no choice but to dart back home to retrieve this apron I’m wearing now. D-Does it look bad on me?

...

Hey, man. Are you feeling okay?

TJ: Y-Yeah, I’m okay! No worries! Haha!

To be continued...

~

Application Used: ibis Paint X

Time Spent: 41h 33m

 Have a nice day/night! 💕 🏳️‍🌈

[bluejaem]

7 THINGS — J.JH

❝ The seven things I like about you. Your hair, your eyes, your old Levi's. When we kiss, I'm hypnotized. You made me laugh, you made me cry, but I guess that's both I'll have to buy. Your hand in mine when we're intertwined, everything's alright. I wanna be with the one I know. And the seventh thing I like the most that you do. You make me love you. ❞ — ♫ 7 things by miley cyrus

↳ PAIRING — jaehyun × gn!reader

↳ GENRE — tooth-rotting fluff lmao, slight angst in the end, post-break-up!au

↳ WORD COUNT — 2.16k ; « 8 min »

↳ WARNING/S — a kiss, mentions of food at one point, like one curse word ig

↳ PLAYLIST — paris in the rain by lauv :: fly away with me by nct 127 :: king of my heart by taylor swift

↳ A/N — perhaps I fell in love with jaehyun while writing this fjsnfjdjf. low-key plagiarised some of my own works while writing this lMaO. Anyways, I just hit my 3-month mark with this blog on this hellsite. So this is a celebratory work ig?

↳ SYNOPSIS — Sure, he broke your heart. But you still weren’t over him. No matter how much you tried, he was the only one in your heart.

And here lie the 7 things you love about jaehyun.

the first thing — your eyes looking in mine

“Ooh, do you remember this one? We took this on our first ever date. You were so cute then — not that you still aren't—” you pulled out the polaroid picture of the two of you from the album and showed it to Jaehyun, who was sitting beside you.

But he turned out to be staring at you.

His eyes were like an empty canvas, gradually being painted with love after every moment that passed. His eyes were always gentle. They looked at you with a softness you had never encountered before. The gaze that was filled with nothing but warmth and fondness. His eyes that spoke a thousand words at once. With a thousand tales to tell.

You were lost.

Lost in his eyes. For who knows how long. But all that mattered was that he was too.

“What?” you giggled when you saw him smile. “nothing, you're just really endearing,” he gushed.

This statement was soon followed by a shy smile taking over your face. He couldn't help but chuckle at this sight. How you'd always shy away whenever he complimented you. Or how you'd try to be the flirty one, but when he said something next, you'd be the flustered one.

He loved the fact that he still had the same effect on you.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

the second thing — your smile

“hi bubs, and what's your name?” you crouched down to talk to the little toddler holding onto her mother's hand. “I'm Zoey!” the girl replied. 

“Hi, Zoey! I'm y/n!” you flashed her your sweetest smile and put your hand forward for a handshake. She returned your smile with the same amount of affection and shook hands with you.

“And this is uncle Jaehyun,” you take Jaehyun by his hand and make him crouch down beside you.

“Hi, Zoey! That's such a pretty name!” Jaehyun cooed with delight. “Thank you,” the girl giggled, and you did too.

The way his smile grew wider, the dimples making an effortless appearance. He adored you so much, and you had no idea about it.

“Bye!” you waved Zoey and her mom goodbye and turned to look at a smiling Jaehyun.

His eyes, his lips, and his spirit all at once smiled at you. He paints a ray of sunshine all over his face. His smile lights up your world — always. His smile was one of happiness growing, much as a spring flower opens. You could see how it came from deep inside to light his eyes and spread into every part of him. In his sweet smile is all the love you'll ever need.

And there you went, falling for him all over again.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

the third thing — your hand in mine

“Do you trust me?” he asked as he finished tying the black cloth on your eyes.

“with my life,” you replied, feeling the soft fabric of the clothing on your eyes.

“Well, then,” he smiles, taking your hand in his as he leads you to a surprise that awaits you.

The warmth of his hands penetrating through your skin. The way your hand fit perfectly in his. The feeling of his fingers intertwined with yours was one that couldn't even be described in words.

It felt like holding onto your world at your fingertips and never wanting to let go of it.

“And we're here! Please don't open your eyes until I tell you to do so,” he untied the cloth and ran to the other side.

“Can I open my eyes now?” you snickered because you kind of knew where this was going.

“Yes!” that was the last thing you heard before opening your eyes to a smiling Jaehyun holding a huge card that read, "”ill you be mine again?”

You slowly made your way to him, a candle-lit pathway made just for you. “happy 1st anniversary, love” he gave you a peck on the cheek as he kept the card down.

“you didn't have to do all this?!” you let out a shocked chuckle as you looked at the rest of the decoration. “Now you're making me feel bad that all I did was gift you a bottle of perfume!”

He smiled at your comment and took out something from his pocket. He went behind you, and you felt a cold chain making contact with your skin. He locked the necklace from the back and made you turn to face him.

“Don't feel bad — your presence itself is a gift from heaven above.”

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

the fourth thing — your ears when you're shy

You woke up to the sound of the sizzling of eggs on the pan. You broke into a big yawn as you sluggishly made your way towards the kitchen.

“Good morning to you too,” he chuckled when he looked at you barely able to open your eyes.

You instantly found yourself smiling when you heard his voice. You walked up to him and hugged him from behind, resting your chin on his shoulders as he continued cooking.

“we're eating eggs again?” you groaned out of boredom. “What did you want to eat?” He snickered.

You wore a sly grin as an idea hits you at the right moment, "I want you.” you whispered in his ear. His eyes slowly grew wide, processing whatever the fuck that you just said.

He turned around — only to see you, a laughing mess. And as soon as you saw that smirk on his face, you knew it was time to run.

“aww, your ears are turning red. What happened, loverboy? Were you flustered because of what I said?” You teased him as you both were waiting for the other one to leave their side of the couch and run.

It was one in a million moments when jaehyun was the flustered one, and you were the one who provoked him to be. And so, these moments really had to be the most memorable ones.

“Jae, no–” you sprinted to your room as he followed you. “Let's not–”

Your legs hit the end of the bed, and the next thing you knew was that you had fallen on the bed and jaehyun got on the bed with you, tickling the life out of you.

“Wait, do you smell that?” you said as you sniffed dramatically. Jaehyun stopped tickling you for a moment, and the look on his face when the realization hit him was honestly the funniest thing you had ever seen. You let out the weirdest chuckle when your heard him shouting in horror,

“my eggs!”

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

the fifth thing — your lips when we kiss

"”want a sip?” he offered you his coffee while you were sipping on yours. “How'd you know I wanted to try it?” You let out a soft chuckle while you take his coffee to try.

“I mean, even when you're sipping on yours, your eyes were on my drink. What else should I decipher it as?” he continued walking along with you, smiling when he saw your reaction to consuming his cup of coffee.

You let out a dissatisfied cough after drinking a little bit of his coffee. You hand him his coffee back. “How do you drink that stuff, dude?” you gulped hard, trying your best to get rid of the bitterness by taking long sips of your drink.

“Not like yours is that great,” he said in his cockiest tone in an attempt to provoke you.

You stopped on your tracks, disbelief was written all over your face, “Excuse you, for this is my best buddy!” you scoffed. Well, almost choked, but we won't talk about that right now.

“Then let me try yours—”

“Nope, sorry. And now you've lost the both of us.” Sure, you were fighting like an elementary school kid at that point. But in your defense— yeah, no. You were just being petty, and Jaehyun was just playing along.

You walk ahead of him while he stood there, trying to think of how to get back at you. An idea perks him as he looks at your figure slowly getting smaller the further you walked. He quietly jogged his way towards you, wearing a smug smile on his face.

Oh, dear y/n. You signed up for something you didn't know was about to come.

When he finally caught up to you, he tapped on your shoulder. As a reflex, making you turn around to look at who it was. But instead, you were met with a pair of lips on yours. Not just anybody, but the only guy ever, Jung Jaehyun.

Resistance — was something you were always pretty bad at. And especially when it came to Jaehyun.

No matter how hard you'd try, you always end up giving in. And as a matter of fact, that's what happened then too. He smiled in between the kiss, knowing very well that you had once again given in to him. Your other hand runs through his hair while he pulls you closer to himself, closing any distance between the two of you.

God, you missed kissing him.

He finally broke from the kiss, and started walking, leaving you totally confused. He wore a smile of triumph as he said, "I never liked Mocha anyway," not once did he look back at you before saying that.

For a hot minute, you were pretty confused as to what he meant by that. And that's when you understood that he was talking about the coffee.

You stood there, totally baffled — screaming on top of your lungs while he still kept walking,

“Get back here, Jung gorgeous-ass-man-who-just-tricked-me-like-that Jaehyun!”

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

the sixth thing — your voice when you call out my name

“you coming?” you shouted as you got out of the water, walking your way up to where jaehyun was standing. He seemed to have been writing something on the wetter side of the sand.

“And, done!” He presented you with the small surprise he had prepared for you. You smiled when you saw what it was. He took you by your hand, giving it a kiss before making you stand beside him.

“Jaehyun + y/n forever” he read it out loud while pointing at the sand.

The way your name rolled off his tongue so easily, yet giving it its own unique color. It felt foreign but at the same time, it was so familiar and resounded through your whole self. No matter how many times he calls out your name, something about it still gives you a sense of serenity and you could never get tired of it.

“you plus me forever indeed,” you softly said, burying your head in the crook of his neck as you hugged him.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

the seventh I like the most that you do — you make me love you

“This is the last one for today, I promise,” Jaehyun said as you both climbed up the stairs of an unknown building. You both entered what looked like an empty terrace with a bench in one of the corners.

He sat on the bench and signaled you to sit beside him. “We're ready!” he shouted.

You were kind of confused by whatever that was going on at that moment. “For what?” you looked at him. Anticipation getting the best of you when you saw the proud look on his face.

“For that,” he put both his hands forward, pointing at the other side of the terrace, basically the wall.

And that's when the led lights lit up, and you could see some words coming the other way like a long led banner.

He read, “There are days when I feel down, and there are days when I feel joy, but the best part of it is going through it all with — you. I know what I'm going to say next is kind of cheesy, but”

This time he turned to you, reaching out for your hand “— will you be my once upon a time?”

It was like the flower of love bloomed once again. There’s something about him that you find so intriguing. Something to his aura that never fails to bring in pleasant surprises. It was like this weird force of attraction that never failed to make you fall for him all over again — if that was even possible. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

But as history has seen it before, every story has an ending. And the one of yours and jaehyun's was of no exception.

© BLUEJAEM, 2021

Tysm for reading! Feedback is very much appreciated <33

[peaches-writes]

penalty kick

description: maybe you got off on the wrong foot...actually, jisung did actually pushed you off the wrong foot.  member: jisung / han  genre: fluff, slice of life, coming of age, childhood frenemies / rivals to lovers au, idiots to lovers au, neighbor au, high school au, college au, lil dashes of soccer baseball musician & campus dj au bc jisung ace, female reader, off-season universe (mc from naturally is jeoyeon, mc from tumbles & turns is bora, and mc from off-season is kira hek)  word count: 12k warnings: explicit language, alcohol (a tiny mention of underage drinking pls drink responsibly!), mentions of injuries, jisung issa lil dumb & a lil shit but issokay hes an adorable lil shit note: @crscendoforsung so i scraped the witch jisung au (but i’ll come back to it in the future maybe it’s still in my drafts lol) so here is dumbass jisung for now + im away on christmas day so here’s my gift a day in advanced lmao

Age four. Your neighbor and favorite playmate, Han Jisung, pushed you so hard on the swings at your neighbourhood playground that you literally flew out of your plastic curved seat and bruised your knees, elbows, and chin. 

Maybe you did had it coming from continuously complaining that he ‘pushed like a sissy’ and even standing up on the swing set just to brag that you can balance all of your body weight on such flimsy material. Maybe your neighbor has always had a secret grudge on you finally enacted through this incident. Either way, the next thing you knew, a wide-eyed Jisung was on your side alternating between calling for adult help, crying over your bruises, and muttering curses he probably heard from his older brother under his breath. 

“Shit, shit shit...” He squeaked out frantically in his tiny voice, gently moving you to a sitting position on the stone pavement and dusting the dirt off of your bleeding injuries despite your loud complaints that your entire body was hurting. Looking around your surroundings, his breath then got caught up in his throat at seeing your mother fast-approaching with a mix of furious and worried in her expression. “Auntie! Help!” 

Your mother was hovering over you in an instant, examining your bruises with furrowed brows and clenched teeth. “Ah, dear God, what happened here?!” She exclaimed in a scolding tone, piercing gaze darting between your tearful eyes and Jisung’s panicked ones. “Jisung, did you do this?” 

“It was an accident auntie!” The boy in question answered immediately as he shook his head nervously and scooted away with his hands up in defense. “It was an accident, I promise!” 

However, with your back turned to him then, you naturally had a different impression of the incident as you quickly retorted, “He pushed me, mommy! He pushed me off of the swing!” 

Your mother never made any clear indication that she believed you as she simply shook your head and lifted you by your shoulders and knees, carrying you to a nearby bench to treat your wounds. 

Angered by your outburst, Jisung reluctantly followed you and your mother to the bench then glared at you until your injuries were cleaned and bandaged. With his arms crossed and a permanent frown bordering a pout on his lips, he stood next to you in his attempt at looking visibly angry for a puny five-year-old while you hissed and whined in pain the entire time. 

What’s worse is that his own mother made him apologize by sending him off to the nearest convenience store to buy you apple juice and steamed buns. Because of this, you’ve been mortal enemies, rivals, each other’s designated future potential killer, whatever you want to call it ever since.

Age seven. Han Jisung helped perpetuate a wild rumour that you and the rest of the class’ female population had ‘cooties.’ 

It’s only natural for boys at this age to gravitate to similar actions, of course. After all, you’ve heard worse from boys in the other classes (read: Hwang Hyunjin crying and demanding to get sent home because a girl kissed him on the cheek on the first day of classes). It’s the fact that Jisung actually seemed to have to believed it for a brief period of time in your first grade, however, that completely threw you off. 

He pulled on your braids during the time he sat behind you and kicked your shins while in line for P.E. class to ‘test your anger patience’ that was apparently fueled by cooties and occasionally stole your snacks for actual ‘DNA evidence’ of said cooties among other petty little things. It was nothing short of annoying and the very bane of your existence then. 

“Han Jisung cut it out!” You yelled at him one day, hitting him on the shoulder with the curved end of your wooden broom during after-class cleaning time. In this particular incident, the boy managed to swiftly take one of your pigtails out while wiping the windows in an attempt to ‘examine’ the DNA in your hair. 

“What?!” He snickered, taking a big step away from you and lifting up the blue scrunchie to examine it for miniscule strands of loose hair. “It’s for research!” 

You groaned in annoyance, reaching forward to retrieve the scrunchie with one hand while the other instinctively ran through the messed up half of your hair. “Jisung, give it back, you weirdo!” You scolded through gritted teeth, rolling your eyes when he shakes his head stubbornly and takes another step back from your reach. 

“Tell me the secret first!” 

“Secret of what?!” 

“Do you girls actually have cooties?” He quirked a genuinely suspicious eyebrow at you, raising the scrunchie above your heads after when you proceed lunge forward at him. “Does it actually make you guys this irritable all the time?” 

Somehow, the questions struck some kind of nerve in you. You were tired from classes, cleaning, and having to put up with Jisung’s childish antics. Maybe 1st grade girls did have cooties but for tapping into unbridled anger. “I’m going to kill you!” With the broom in your hands and the dust pan you snatched from his in retaliation, you then proceeded on repeatedly hitting Jisung in the forearms and shoulders until he surrendered with his arms protectively over his head and your scrunchie finally within reach. 

He also offered to fix your pigtail back for you but given the amount of distrust you already had for him, you simply smacked him one last time and went to the other end of the room to fix your hair. 

Age nine. Maturing a little bit through summer camps and classes, you and Jisung redirected all of your energy from physical violence to outsmarting each other in class. 

It started in English class when Mrs. Lee introduced the idea of recitations garnering students points and a fancy award at the end of the school year. Coming from the same piano class in the summer prior wherein you and Jisung also competed for your instructor’s attention, the two of you were quick to consider this as another one of your competitions. 

You devoted most of your time to studying the lesson from the what’s, who’s, when’s, and where’s while Jisung thought that focusing more on the deeper why’s and how’s would somehow garner him better points no matter how many times Mrs. Lee reiterated that all recitation points are given in 1 point’s. 

As the school year progressed, especially after the first semester report cards came out and the two of you were tied to first place in English to the very third decimal, the academic rivalry immediately extended to competing for the most amount of extra-curricular activities. You were more favored with the way you handled baby animals at the local shelter and competed in debates and quiz bees while Jisung was mainly noticed by the soccer and baseball coaches and the school choir’s moderator for his skills in sports and music. 

Jisung’s mom, who always picked the two of you up from school in her minivan, obliviously thought it was cute. 

“You know, instead of competing over everything all the time, you guys can take some notes from each other.” She pointed out one time after hearing your comment on Jisung ‘smelling like a polluted Pacific Ocean’ as he climbed in the backseat of the car. The sentiment almost went in one ear and came out of the other with the two of you, however, as Jisung proceeded on complaining that you smelled like ‘Cruella de Vil’s fake fur coat’ then hitting you on the head with his soccer ball. “Especially you, Sungie. You can learn a thing or two of keeping a goldfish alive for more than a week from Y/N.” 

You laughed at Jisung’s immediate shocked reaction of wide eyes and gaping mouth at this, slapping his arm in amusement and toppling over the backseat in laughter. “Yeah, Sungie, you really need help from that department.” You stuck your tongue out at him teasingly, laughing even more when he groans and hits you back with a light punch to your own arm. 

“Stop it.” He hissed at you before turning to his mother again, meeting her gaze through the rear view mirror. “Mom! You’re supposed to be on my side!” 

Mrs. Han was also stifling her own laughs then, forcing herself to focus on the road ahead instead of checking for her son’s pouting expression and crossed arms through the mirror. “Okay, okay.” She chuckled playfully with a dismissive hand, catching your eye after with a giggle. “Y/N, you should learn how to commit to exercise more with Jisung, then. There? Happy?” 

Satisfied, Jisung stuck his tongue out childishly at you as if completely forgetting the fact that he was attacked by his own mother first. “Bleh!” 

You rolled your eyes at him with a light-hearted scoff of your own, laughing away the way he proceeded to exaggeratedly tease you. “You’re so childish, Sung.” 

When your moms did seriously consider this idea later on, you were then forced to dedicated one weekend to taking each other to your respective extra-curricular activities. It was right before your final examinations and Jisung ended up getting scared over a golden retriever giving birth while you received severe cramps from the elementary soccer team’s rigorous conditioning training. 

It was a recipe of disaster, basically, and it ultimately led you and Jisung to cram knowledge for your exams on Sunday night in his bedroom. When you stubbornly didn’t learn anything from going to each other’s favorite extra-curriculars, you unconsciously ended up learning from each other in the six hours you both stayed up trying to review your notes. Miraculously (as in the miracle of hot brewed Milo-induced sugar rushes), it went well and the two of you tied or were close in grades at the second release of report cards.  

The only downside of it all was just the fact that the fancy recitation award in your English class that started it all somehow went to Hyunjin. 

“Ah, this is so frustrating!” You exclaimed on the ride home from school. You had your report card in your hands like Jisung, looking back on it all the while stressing out about Hyunjin winning the award the two of you spent a whole school year competing for. 

On the other side of his mom’s backseats, Jisung then turned to you and suggested, “Want to prank him? We’re playing soccer next week, you can swap his Cola for soy sauce.” 

You glanced over at Jisung, your pout slowly turning into a mischievous grin at his raised brows. “You’re onto something...” 

Age ten. You went on your first class field trip with a stuffed purple lunch bag of snacks.

Your mother specifically suggested that you share it with Jisung, thinking that the two of you would sit next to each other on the bus since he’s your only classmate she’s actually familiar with. But of course, when Jisung didn’t bring up any hints that he knew of this while waiting for the school bus to arrive, you immediately thought against it and planned out how you were going to hide your seemingly endless supply of snacks from him on the back-and-forth rides to Namsan Tower.

It was a well thought-out plan involving sitting near to the front and as far away from him as possible with your own group of friends then hiding the lunch bag under your seat until you caught Hyunjin not-so-discreetly trying to steal from you while he re-checked attendance after a stop-over.

“Jisung put you up to this, didn’t he?” You frowned, candy successfully retrieved from Hyunjin’s prying hands and popped into your mouth as the lanky boy scratched the back of his head in shame. “It’s okay, Hyunjin, I won’t kill you. It’s Jisung’s corpse I’m planning to roll down Namsan if he’s actually behind this.”

After a few more coaxing, Hyunjin eventually nodded sheepishly and admitted to Jisung convincing him to take a candy bar from you.

“Ya! Hyunjin!” Jisung whined from across the bus, peeking his head up from the identical red seats with balled up fists. “I told you not to rat me out!”

“Y/N was being scary!” Hyunjin argues back, sprinting back to his seat as soon as the the bus stopped at a streetlight. Hiding under the sea of seats, he then exclaimed, “You two take me out of your fights! Geez!”

Jisung pouted at you as soon as you lifted your own head up from your seat and turned around to face him, holding his hands out in front of him and then asking, “Can’t I really have candy?”

You shook your head stubbornly. “If I give you one, everyone’s going to ask me for it too.”

“But everyone’s basically asleep!”

“They could be fake-sleeping for all I know!” You hissed, popping another ball of candy in your mouth. “I don’t trust anyone in this class with food but myself.” 

“Y/N!” He whined, only to get pulled down by force when the bus abruptly begins moving again. Scrambling up right after, he then continued pleading, “Please?”

“No.” You firmly concluded, sitting back down on your seat. 

Jisung even tried staying behind to try and steal candy off of you while the entire class was piling outside to enter Namsan Tower, only to trip in surprise when you jumped on him from crouching under the seats. Poor boy almost hit his head on the seats in shock.

“I knew you’d pull this kind of shit.” You tsked in disapproval with a slight stutter towards cursing at such an age, smacking him over the head anyway before throwing the smallest piece of chocolate candy you had from your bag. Moving past him to the bus exit, you then added, “You don’t even do nice things for me.”

You only meant it half-heartedly, though. Whether Jisung actually wanted more candy or he did sincerely felt bad over what you said, either way, he paid for the expensive pink lock you and your friend wanted to hang at the very top of the tower later on but only if you promised to share your snacks.

Jisung received three packets of gummy bears and a bottle of banana milk from you in the end on the ride home.

Age twelve. The Hans temporarily moved to Malaysia in the summer before the seventh grade because of an assignment for Jisung’s father at work.

On the day before their flight, Mr. and Mrs. Han organized a farewell party in their house at the other end of the block and invited your entire class. Jisung tricked you into getting him a farewell present by telling you that everyone was planning to do the same thing as a surprise but he secretly found out thing.

He didn’t actually expect you to get him something, not with the way the two of you have always been at each other’s necks since you were kids, but you ended up surprising him in the middle of the lunch party by giving him a small notebook of useful Malaysian phrases you wrote down yourself. You don’t always agree with Jisung but you think of yourself as thoughtful and civil enough to buy something practical. Also, your parents insisted. 

“O-Oh, you actually got me something?” He fumbled through an intense blush that matched the redness of his Supreme cap, almost tripping over nothing as you both stood on the steps leading down to the back of his house. It didn’t help that a few classmate passersby were glancing your way as well, either cooing or snickering at the awkward sight in the corner of all the socialization. “L-Like—like, this is actually for me?”

You raised a brow in confusion and reluctantly shrugged, releasing the red phrasebook from your grip as he held onto it by the other end. “Yeah, you said you’re getting presents so I...got you one.”

“I actually lied—“

“What?!” You exclaimed a little too loudly for your taste, earning you a sharp glare from your mother all the way across the backyard. Mouthing a quick apology to your her, you then quickly averted your glare back to Jisung who instinctively resorted to looking at anywhere but you. “But you said—“

“I thought for sure that no one would give me any farewell presents since it’s not a birthday or anything but I know you would if you’re like forced to or something so I thought...hehe...” He mustered up a sheepish grin, pressing his index fingers together in a comical shy gesture. When your glare intensifies, he then immediately held his hands up in defense and visibly winced, “Ya, don’t hit me!”

Every fiber in your being really wanted to hit him with the notebook then, maybe even push him down the stairs while no one was looking, but after a moment of thinking your way out of such violent thoughts, you resorted to exhaling a sigh and saying, “Whatever, just keep the notebook or something. I don’t care. It’s not expensive, anyway.”

You chanted to yourself that you’re mature, especially as Jisung’s eyes lit up and he immediately thanked you for both the gift and sparing his life that day.

Though he didn’t hear the end of the other teasing from Hyunjin after that, Jisung kept the notebook around anyway throughout his entire two-year stay in Malaysia. It was helpful but he’ll never admit that to your face.

“You kept it.” You pointed out one day, more as a statement than a question as you realized that the notebook he was using for exam reviewer notes was in the same color as the phrasebook you gave him. When Jisung came back in the summer before the ninth grade, the two of you met again in the same cram school wherein mostly everyone but you and the transfer student, Kim Seungmin, refused to help him keep up with the heavier than usual workload. “The phrasebook...”

“Yeah—well, I didn’t want to waste any of the pages you didn’t write on.” He pouted stubbornly as he flipped through the older pages to compare the amount of pages you used to the empty sheets. His tone actually sounded like he was convincing himself much more than he was trying with you but you missed it complete in the moment. “Be more eco-friendly, Y/N.”

You simply rolled your eyes at him. “Glad to know I kept you alive in another country somehow, then.”

Age fourteen. You went to a soccer game to see Jisung but only because one of your friends, Eunha, developed a crush on the striker and eventually hatched a plan to confess on the game before Valentine’s Day. Fortunately, Jisung barely noticed and didn’t tease you for it since it’s already an established fact that you’re always at his games with either Yang Jeongin or Seungmin to cheer on Hyunjin instead.

You really didn’t get it. Of course, fifteen was the time when some, if not all, parts of your day were starting to become dedicated to vanity and all the artificial things in life to attract kind of puppy love in school but at this point Jisung always wore the same green hoodie, red Supreme cap, and white ‘Eyez on You’ shirt to every school function that didn’t require wearing a uniform.

You understood how your classmates suddenly began fawning over Hyunjin right after the summer when he got his braces removed and then Seungmin for bringing a suit and tie one time for an inter-school debate but the hype over Jisung suddenly bringing in his guitar to class breaks everyday and re-emerging as a star soccer and baseball player throughout the school year is an absolute mystery to you. That or, maybe compared to your junior high peers, you’re just as used to him at this point than they all are. In your perspective, the only legitimate thing he has going on is how he always seems to beat you in most Arts subjects and how annoying it is that he always makes sure to rub that in your face. 

“I’m pretty sure he still doesn’t shower properly right after training.” You shook your head disapprovingly at Eunha during the game. Soccer is an interesting sport for surprisingly bringing you up to stand and cheer at some moments, you’ll give it that, but watching Jisung get cocky and interact to the crowd whenever his team scored a point was somehow cringe-worthy to watch. “And I’m so sure he still doesn’t clean that soccer ball of his right after practice. You deserve better, sis.”

But no matter how much you talked shit about him throughout the entire game, Eunha still held onto the box of handmade candies she coerced you into picking up from Jisung’s favorite candy shop on the weekend prior and cheering him on with the slogan she made herself. It would’ve looked cute and sweet to you if it was some other guy but it’s Jisung—the guy who pushed you off a swing, pulled your hair, stole candy from you, and made all of your elementary after-school rides home an actual rollercoaster—and you would never wish his treatment of you to any other person ever.

“You said that was in elementary, Y/N.” Eunha chuckled softly, nudging your elbow before a sour expression could completely overtake your face. “Surely he’s outgrown that girls have cooties phase every boy had then.”

“No, it’s Jisung and I refuse to believe it.”

You really didn’t want to believe it with your natural instinct to see Jisung as the bane of your existence. What’s worse is that Eunha was right and Jisung shyly accepted the Saturday movie date at the mall that she came up with on the spot when he surprisingly received the candies well, a complete stretch from the Jisung who would’ve lied about being busy or tricked your friend into doing something else altogether. Suddenly, it was selfishly annoying that you’re the only one he actually tortures the life out of.

“Told you.” Eunha giggled throughout the drive back to your house. Your mother picked you up from school right after the soccer game for a sleepover you insisted was a must whether or not your friend scored her Valentine’s Day date. “Ah, I’m glad he accepted. I was a nervous wreck there! You don’t happen to know what kind of movie he likes, do you?”

You never heard the end of it from her for the remainder of the semester. The two were never official—middle school just didn’t have that solid idea of significant others, then—but they did went on numerous ‘dates’ almost every weekend that followed Valentine’s Day. Naturally, Eunha would tell you all about it. 

“He’s so sweet and caring and thoughtful!” The girl endlessly gushed out to you so genuinely you would’ve been happy had you not been sincerely expecting a major fuck-up from Jisung. Nothing romantic really did come out of these dates, even Jisung surprisingly swears by it, but they did become really close friends after and as Jisung’s only other female friend at the time, you can clearly see a point of comparison between his different treatment of you. “Though, I’m gonna give it to you that he is annoying sometimes but he does know a lot of good places to hang out around town for someone who’s been away for two years!” 

“He does the bare minimum for everything, Eunha. I could barely call it sweet.” You scoffed unamused. 

Age sixteen. In the summer after the tenth grade, an upperclassman from school by the name of Lee Minho started volunteering at the same local shelter you’ve been under since elementary after surrendering a lost cat to you while he and Jisung were playing baseball at the nearby park. 

He adopted Dori in the end but prior to finalizing the adoption papers, he actually made the effort to come in at your MWF schedule to help around and see the dark grey kitten. To you, it was endearing and thoughtful since you didn’t have much active co-workers at the shelter your age but to Jisung, it was slightly inconveniencing how Minho would cut off their play-time to see the cat. He even thought Minho had a crush on you and vice versa but you knew that Minho liked one of his own closer friends. 

“Jeoyeon?” Minho scoffed, crouching down next to you one time as you watched over the new litterbox of kittens eating with Dori on your feet. Crossing his arms over his knees, he shook his head and chuckled, “They’re cool and we’ve been friends for a long time but I’m sure they have a big fat crush on Bang Chan. Something happened after their McDonald’s date after our prom, I’m telling you!” 

“No, not Jeoyeon! I meant Bora!” You argued back with a laugh, picking up a white kitten that wanders off to your feet and lifts its body up cutely for a lift. Gingerly pressing the kitten to your shoulder, you then turned to Minho and continued, “The one who came by the other day to see Dori with you. Aren’t you guys rooming together in college?” 

Minho clutched his chest dramatically at this, shaking his head with a comical conviction. “What?! How could you accuse me of that, Y/N? Bora’s from a different cheerdance team! That would be like sleeping with the enemy!” 

You rolled your eyes, knocking him off of his balance by elbowing his sides. “Ya, I didn’t say that, you did!” You scoffed at him, sighing when he laughs off landing on his butt before sitting up in a crisscross position. “Anyway, don’t you like her?” 

“If I don’t like her, we wouldn’t be making all these plans to move in together for college, stupid.” Minho snickered, earning him another elbow jab from you. “Well, what do you want me to say? You asked me if I like her, you didn’t ask me how exactly I like her.” 

"Okay then, you wise wise person: how do you like Bora?” You sighed dryly, plopping down on the ground at feeling your ankles starting to ache from crouching. The kitten on your arm then jumped down to your lap, circling your legs a few times before finding a comfortable position to sleep in. “You know, the more you visit here with this kind of sarcasm, the more I’m starting to understand where Seungmin and Jisung are suddenly getting all of their newfound sassiness from.” 

Minho chuckled next to you, picking up Dori for himself once he saw him finish eating before hugging the kitten gently to his cheek. “Bora’s...someone I’d probably punch a guy in the team for if they ever disrespect her. I mean, I’d punch a guy for Dahyun, Jeoyeon, and Jihyo, too, of course, but Bora’s in the same sport where she’s always getting lifted in the air and touched by who knows who and now that we won’t be in the same team, I feel even more responsible for keeping an eye out for her.” He shrugged casually, ignoring the way your jaw just dropped at how naturally he explained himself. “Plus, it took a lot of convincing to get her to be my roommate so I can’t really have her dying under my care in the next four years.” 

“I—” You furrowed your brows in thought, pursing your lips in a pout. “Wow, I’m jealous.” 

“Then get on my good side, Y/N.” Minho winked with a laugh, holding Dori in front of you. “Let me take this baby home at the end of the summer.” 

You rolled your eyes again at this, shaking your head. “No, I mean...I hang out with Jeongin, Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Jisung and they aren’t really the most well-versed boys on treating girls properly.” 

“That’s why you hang out with me. We all know that Hyunjin just can’t say no to anyone who offers him a slightly more expensive bouquet of flowers, Seungmin’s in a relationship with baseball and academics, and Jisung...Jisung’s just dumb in general.” Minho then pointed out with a somehow knowing tone, smirking when a familiar figure passes by the hallways right behind you. “Speaking of...” 

Jisung joined you and Minho after, making sure to sit in between the two of you and drowning himself in as many kittens who wanted to sit on his lap as much as he can. “Dude, you shouldn’t have left early!” He scolded Minho with a pout and a slightly breathless tone from running all the way from the park. “Seungmin joined us today and he completely wiped out Sunwoo’s team!” 

“Then even more reasons to come here early so you guys could play with Seungmin on your team.” Minho laughed, gently handing Dori over to you from across Jisung before standing up and dusting the lint off of his jeans. “Y/N needed help with feeding the cats and puppies today, anyway.” 

Jisung frowned, turning to you after and asking, “Don’t you have any other co-workers around here?”

“Jeno has allergies so I don’t let him in here on most days.” You shrugged, handing Minho the empty pet bowls nearest to you as he proceeded to clean and collect them. “I can do it myself, you know. It’s just that Minho comes over and insists.” 

“Then you should’ve just told him that so we can play longer.” 

“Why is it a big deal? Do you like Minho?” 

“Do you?” Jisung’s eyes widened, almost getting scratched by a random cat in the process. “Because...because that’d be gross, to be honest...”

At this moment, your eyes accidentally met Minho’s right behind Jisung and the older boy had the audacity to wink at you before sprinting out of the room with a thumbs up above his head. 

In the end, you shrugged and answered, “I like him.” 

“What?!” Jisung sat up so quickly he almost scared a bunch of kittens walking all over his chest into jumping away.

“I’d be a psychopath if I don’t like him but let him volunteer around here, dumbass.” You deadpanned, moving the kittens around him to a safer space on the floor. “Besides, you asked me if I like him, not how I like him.” 

“What the fuck does that even mean?” 

Minho had a whole laugh out of eavesdropping from this conversation that he felt bad and actually adjusted his schedule for volunteering and playing soccer better so ‘Jisung would have one less thing to whine about all the time.’ 

Age seventeen. You and Jisung tried convincing your respective parents that going to prom as a group is the more practical and actually trendy thing to do but your mothers wouldn’t have it. Ultimately, the two of you ended up lying that you’re going as each other’s dates. 

You initially planned on begging to Seungmin until he pulled up balloons, roses, and a song number to his lab partner right on the lunch break that you planned on doing it and, of course, you had enough dignity to not fall in line with the countless of students that basically worshipped Hyunjin’s locker as if it were a shrine. 

Jisung, with Eunha already set on going with someone else she started dating at the beginning of the 11th grade school year, was the convenient choice. Your parents knew each other, he knows someone (his older brother) who can drive, and he’s recently gotten over his Emo-Hypebeast wardrobe phase after joining the school’s radio club with Chan and Changbin. With some convincing (read: an elaborate PowerPoint Presentation he made you do on the spot during one of your lunch breaks), the two of you decided that you would take all the photos your respective mothers wanted, carpool to the hotel, then go on your separate ways until his brother picks the two of you up at the end of the night. 

It was a simple and fool-proof plan, one that you almost forgot when you rented an emerald green and gold prom attire then Jisung’s mother told you right after about hearing her son trying to order a purple callalily boutonniere that clearly did not match your taste nor your colors (you sorted this out by cancelling the order and taking matters into your own hands). Then, the most awkward photo op at your house happened. 

“Sungie, put your arm around Y/N!” 

“Y/N, stop slouching, you’re going to wrinkle your outfit!” 

You were never serious-looking in any photos that had Jisung in it as well, preferring to pose like the two of you planned on murdering each other right after the photos instead, but your respective moms were holding your Instax camera and the family film cameras across the living room in this particular situation and so you reluctantly kept it inside. Straightening up your shoulders and elbowing Jisung to at least wrap an arm over your shoulder, you held up smiles right next to your red rose corsage and boutonniere set until the two women were eventually satisfied with their photos. 

“Aah, you two really make a cute couple!”

“Mom, we’re not a couple!” Jisung whined, glaring at you after which you immediately returned with the same expression.

“God, I’d sell all my limbs first before we actually become a couple.” You deadpanned back at him.

Fortunately, Jisung’s older brother allowed the two of you to basically try and throw each other out of the car windows on the thirty-minute ride to the hotel venue in compensation. You almost had him by the neck and he almost ruined your hair that you spent hours curling until Hyunjin pulled you back with a smack to your head and dragged the two of you away to help in the Prom Committee’s final preparations since Jisung was going to perform with Changbin and you were a part of the Prom’s Logistics team. 

You mostly stayed out of each other’s hairs for most of the first part of the program as you were busy pulling everything together while Jisung was having the time of his life with the soccer and basebal teams. The next time you bumped into each other, you scolded him for running late to his and Changbin’s set after dinner. 

“Where were you?!” You mostly hit him in the back with your clipboard, frantically passing him his already set up electric guitar and a microphone. First, one of your peers got drunk too early in the dinner to help out in the program, then one of the event’s award sashes briefly went missing and, not to mention, a lot of the people from the other committees somehow forgot about their event tasks when you asked in the main groupchat. You really weren’t having anyone’s antics at this point. “Geez, we already practiced this!” 

“Ow, ow, ow! Stop hitting me! Why are you so on edge?” Appropriately, he whined in complaint and took a step back after receiving his equipment, holding his hands up in defense as he always does. “Cut me some slack, Y/N! It’s prom!” 

“You’re so late when your table is literally right next to the side of the stage!” 

“I was dancing with everyone else! You wouldn’t know since you wouldn’t even take a break!” 

“Because I’m busy!” 

“No, you’re just being more irritable than usual!” 

“Fuck you, Han Jisung.” You rolled your eyes with an exasperated sigh, coldly directing him to the stage. “You’re on, get on the stage.” 

You knew he didn’t mean it cruelly, especially when his pupils started to shake and his shoulders instinctively slumped as he glanced back at you right before reluctantly stepping up the star-filled stage, but you were too tired of having to run around and making the event perfect for most of the night to process anything, much less his usual jabs at you. Being in such a tired headspace, you couldn’t enjoy his songs no matter how undeniably great they were, much less meet his eyes when you knew how he kept glancing at you throughout the entire set. 

He even covered your favorite song on the spot (which surprised Changbin and had Hyunjin running around backstage to inform everyone of the sudden extension) but you already sat down on your shared table with Hyunjin, Seungmin, Eunha, and their dates before he could even begin singing the chorus.  

“Hey, you good?” Minjung, Eunha’s date, asked you with an offering of an extra shawl to cover your exposed shoulders from the nearby air-conditioning unit. Eunha had previously left to go to the bathroom after stopping by your shared table. “Y/N, I told you if you needed extra help with the program, you could’ve just told us. We just planned on dancing tonight, anyway.” 

“I’m good.” You grumbled in a half-lie, resting your chin on your propped up hand tiredly, mumbling a small ‘thank you’ for the shawl as you fought away your tiredness. “I think I’ll just sit the rest of Prom out. Hyunjin can run the program on his own.” 

Minjung frowned, sitting down next to you and fixing the loose strands on the haphazard ponytail you managed to pull up in the middle of the program. “Are you sure? Eunha and I can stay with you until you’re feeling better. Besides, the program’s still long, you deserve to enjoy your hard work later at least.” 

Stubbornly, you simply scrunched up your nose and shook your head. “I think I’ve had enough of prom for one night. You should go and dance more, though. I’m okay as long as you guys are having fun.” 

But equally as headstrong as you are, Minjung got Eunha in on convincing you to agreeing to one dance with them as soon as she came back from the bathroom, reasoning out that, “We can stay in the back and just dance silly! It’s prom!” 

The pair proved themselves to be unstoppable in their joint persuasiveness when they got you to stand up and actually join them at the next set, right as Jisung was about to approach you to apologize. The poor boy ended up waiting the entire night until the two of you were alone instead, shivering right next to each other at the lobby while waiting for his brother to pick you two up. 

“Why did you even pick out something off-shoulder? I get that it’s trendy these days but you picked the venue knowing it’s cold and didn’t even connect a few dots there.” He hissed lowly, contemplating on teasing you further or keeping it quiet until he can muster up a ‘sorry’ to you. Shrugging off his jacket, he then gently draped it over your shoulder and added, “Don’t catch a cold or something...your mom’s going to kill me.” 

“Shut up.” You hissed back, crossing your arms further in over your chest as you spotted his brother’s car approaching the lobby’s driveway. You didn’t remove his coat from your back, though, clutching it tightly instead while convincing yourself that he willingly gave it to you so there’s no reason for you to throw it back at him when you really needed it. “ You don’t even do nice things for me.”

The familiar words visibly caught him off-guard, almost foiling his plan of opening the door for you as he freezes in his steps but he regains composure in time and almost trips ahead to swat your hand away from the car’s door handle. “I’m sorry.” He mumbled in the awkward silence, gulping down his fears of your death glare as he briefly averted his gaze away from you. With this, he missed the way your gaze softened. “There’s candies in the pockets.”

And there was, coincidentally enough the same brand he tried stealing from you on your school field trip.

“These aren’t expired, right?” You chuckled, popping a chocolate in your mouth anyway. 

That was enough for Jisung to relax his shoulders and laugh along. “No, promise.” He held a hand up as if he was swearing by his words, easing you into another fit of laughs. “I ran all the way to the convenience store down the block to get you those tonight! I felt really bad...I didn’t mean it.”

He could be sweet if he wanted, you’d give him that. 

“I’m sorry too.” You whispered to him at the end of the night, right after scoffing at him for insisting to walk you all the way to your doorstep of course. “I was so stressed with managing everything that I took it out on you.” 

Standing awkwardly with you right in front of your house’s front door, the sheepish boy rubbed the nape of his neck and shrugged. “Nah, I think I deserve it. I do annoy you a lot, don’t I?” He chuckled, eyes trained to the ground. “I didn’t even ask you to one dance.” 

“Not like you actually had to, we’re no—” 

“But you were still technically my date and I don’t want to be a bad prom date, even to you!” He insisted anyway, only then looking up at you. “I’ll make it up to you in the distant future, okay? Reserve me your next dance in the distant future, no matter where it is!”  

Before you could even retort, he was already running back to his brother’s car. 

Age eighteen and a half. Jisung began dating a girl named Haneul whom he met in one of his general classes and didn’t have one single clue about baseball or soccer. Naturally, his entire friend group was concerned. 

Though you’re much civil friends now, you still didn’t really care. Or maybe you didn’t want to out of spite (or a really really weird and displaced feeling of jealousy?), you weren’t sure. You just thought that Jisung can do whatever he wants even when it’s something that’s generally not advisable when you’re a freshman in college, but it seemed as if it was all Jeongin talked to you about whenever the two of you met up to study for one of your shared classes so naturally you forced yourself to take in all of the gossip. What’s worse is that Hyunjin would come over often to loiter around the library and gawk at the cute student librarian, ultimately encouraging the younger boy to talk about it more. 

“You’re being unfair to her.” You always reminded the two, sometimes Seungmin when he would sit quietly in the middle of the topic and say nothing to defend Haneul. In this particular time, Jeongin took you to watch the baseball team’s Wednesday scrimmage after hours of studying your nursing notes together at the nearby library. “Like, look, I don’t even do any sports myself but you guys hang out with me.” 

“But you’re different, you’re not dating any one of us.” Hyunjin snickered, hugging his helmet to his chest as he sat a step below you on the bleaches. When a thought then crossed his mind, he dramatically gasped over his gloves and added, “Wait, does that mean you have a crush on someone? Is it me?” 

You smacked him in the head with your hand, rolling your eyes after. “You know what I mean.” 

Next to you, Jeongin mustered up a shrug as he tried getting an injured Kira to sit back down on her seat. Your stubborn best friend, after playing at an underground derby game on the weekend prior, kept on moving around because sitting down with her injuries made her uncomfortable. “But at least you make an effort for us even if it’s just small.” He reasoned out, huffing tiredly when Kira finally sits down and promises not to move for the next five minutes. You would’ve helped him but personally you thought he deserved to suffer alone after letting her go out despite her injuries today. “Haneul got dragged by Jisung to watch last week’s scrimmage and didn’t even last a set. She just left in the middle of the game—literally!”

“He made Jisung skip on my derby game to too!” Kira pouted, waving her bandaged hands frantically in the air. “I’m personally offended, Y/N!”

“And she doesn’t seem to like talking to us in general.” Hyunjin shrugged in conclusion. “Like, sports aside, she’s a bit rude and nonchalant when she talks to us in general especially when Sung isn’t around. It’s a bit sus to me.” 

“To be fair, Kira, I wouldn’t be going too if you and Yeji aren’t so insistent on it. It’s so worrying seeing the two of you get hurt.” You pointed out before averting your attention to Jeongin once more. “And Jeongin, you know the only reason I can’t leave baseball and soccer games these days is because you and Seungmin are usually my ride home.” You scoffed. “If I could, I’d be hanging out with Felix more and only going to Kira’s games. Ya, why is he even allowed to skip games and I’m not, anyway?”

“Because he’s taking classes and training with the cheerdance squad until 8 PM and as far as I’m concerned, you’re free after 12 noon like me!” Jeongin simply grinned at you, earning himself a glare. “Also, I need you here with me as the medic team. You know I’ll panic alone!” 

Fortunately, no one ever actually gets injured at any of the games regardless if they were formal or not. By the time the game has finished, you were reminding Kira to rest more at her dorms and sprinting out of the baseball field to the samgyeopsal place the team promised to treating dinner at. You completely missed the boys’ conversation on Haneul in the process but you did get free food.

You really didn’t get it. The one time you met Haneul by chance, when you and Felix bumped into the two at the mall near the supermarket, she seemed a bit distant but she could be polite when she wanted to. Of course, it rubbed you the wrong way but you and Felix thought that it was none of your business anyway, given that neither of you are dating her. 

“When the guys walked me out of the baseball field last Wednesday, they did mention something about Jisung aiming for the soccer national team but who knows if they’re exaggerating again or something.” Kira confided in you later that week when the two of you met up over lunch. “Either way, I’d understand. If I were in Jisung’s shoes, I’d feel a little disheartened if someone I really like doesn’t appreciate the things I’m passionate about!”

Still, you simply let your friends sort it out for themselves. “Jisung’s a grown-up, he can figure things out on his own at the end of the day.” You reasoned out. 

Age eighteen and three-fourths. Jisung asked—practically begged—you to go to the movies with him because he and Haneul broke up the week before his birthday after opening up his worries to her. The other ticket was meant to be a surprise for his ex-girlfriend.

From what Jeongin and Felix have gossiped to you on two separate occasions, Haneul apparently didn’t like you and the rest of Jisung’s immediate friend group no matter how many times the boys tried warming up to her and getting to know her over the summer. She didn’t really support Jisung’s passion for sports, too, and mostly just stuck around for the ‘clout of it all’ or however Felix worded it to you. 

“I’d ask Hyunjin but he has a date with that librarian!” Jisung frowned over the phone on the night before the scheduled screening of Weathering with You. Reminiscent of a similar time long ago, he sounded more like he was convincing himself than you. “And Seungmin’s taking care of Kira, Minho and Felix are training, Changbin’s doing God knows what with his finals, Chan has swim training and—and yeah, you know where I’m going with this!” 

You sighed, rolling over on your back in your bed after submitting your online work. “You can ask the baseball team, the soccer team, your Introduction to Musical Theory class, the campus radio club, and—and yeah, you also know where I’m going with this.” 

“Yeah but—but it’d be weird if I just went with anyone or something!” He mumbled under his breath, pausing on the other line to scratch his head in thought. “Come on, it’s not your midterms week yet, right? Can’t you come over and go to the movies with me?”

“You’ll probably strangle me in the dark or something.” You argued next. 

“But it’s free tickets! At least you’re going to die with free tickets!” 

“So you are planning to kill me! I knew it!” You snorted dryly, rolling your eyes. “Seriously, don’t you have anyone else to go with? Why me?” 

Jisung took in a sharp breath in the longest pause you’ve ever heard from the usually rowdy boy. At that moment, only then did you notice the faint sounds of pre-recorded dialogues for soccer arcade games. He must’ve been at the one near his dorm then as he usually was when he was contemplating on something. “I just—honestly, I’m still processing all of this and I don’t want to open up to the guys...and Eunha’s abroad and I’m not that close to Kira or Bora so I thought of you.” 

Now, it was your turn to be speechless. 

“It’s silly, I know.” Jisung continued with an awkward laugh when he didn’t hear anything on your end. “But even when you’re annoying sometimes and you always get angry at me because you always misunderstand, you’ve known me the longest and I know you listen well and you’re always open-minded about things so I thought I’d vent to you, if it’s okay...” 

You finally released a defeated sigh, sitting up properly on your bed as if he was actually in the same room as you. “God, you’re too good at making me feel guilty.” You mused out loud. “Fine, just text me the place and time and no funny business!” 

You met up with Jisung at the nearest shopping center the following night, surprise paper bags of take-out and a mini cake for two to eat at the cinema. 

“I’m only going to be nice to you this time because you just got dumped and it’s your birthday later.” You explained as serious as you can to a giggling and blushing Jisung, handing him the take-out paper bags. Once the dinner meals are in his hands, you then take out the blueberry mini cheesecake from its separate paper bag and set up the candle you brought along with it. “Now, make a wish and get it over with.” 

Jisung’s eyes widened at the pink candle suddenly being pushed up to his face, distracting him from the passersby cooing and making comments at the two of you. “Really?” 

You nodded impatiently, thrusting the cake further up his face. “Yes! Now, blow on your candles or I’ll do it myself and eat the whole thing!” 

Jisung wasted no time blowing the single candle and taking the cake from you as well, jumping up and down in place as he closed the lid carefully and returned it to its paper bag. “Thank you!” He exclaimed gleefully, pulling you to a side hug. “Now, I feel a bit better.” 

“You better.” You frowned back at him, biting down a small smile when his hug lingered on a second longer. “Now, let’s go or we’ll be late to the screening.” 

Fortunately, Jisung didn’t actually tried strangling you in the dark while the movie played since he became busy with eating his dinner and cake as well as crying over the plot. 

Age nineteen. Jisung took you to the arcade inside the shopping center after to vent while scoring kicks at the mini soccer game. 

“Basically, she said—” Score. “—that she felt annoyed that Hyunjin, Minho, Jeongin, and Seungmin were mostly onto her for ‘seeming off’ whenever they met or interacted.” Another score. Standing outside the protective fence, your gaze darted quickly between Jisung and the small net across the long room. “So I said that’s just how those guys are: they’re very curious of new people and make a lot of effort over it so when they feel that the other person’s energy seems off or doesn’t match theirs in any way, they’d worry.”

You nodded along whenever he glanced over to you, agreeing halfheartedly. “Hm, those guys don’t take bullshit, of course...”

“Yeah, right...” Jisung kicked another ball, barely missing the goal as he thinks of what to say next. “Then she started accusing the guys that they don’t like her because she doesn’t do sports which doesn’t even make sense because I know it’s not superficial like that.” He sighed, scoring again. After this particular kick, he then stopped altogether and turned to you. “The guys just feel off that, as someone I’m dating, she doesn’t make enough effort to watch my games or be familiar with the sports I love. It’s not the same thing.”  

“But does she make an effort to listen to your music?” You blurted out of nowhere, surprising not only Jisung but also yourself. 

It just occurred you to on the spot. All this talk about Jisung’s passion for sports had you thinking if Haneul also disliked the one other thing that Jisung was absolutely passionate about: his music. 

And it seemed to have caught him off-guard as it took the boy longer to contemplate on the question. “I—n-no? No...” He furrowed his brows in thought, walking over to you on his side of the chain link fence. “Come to think of it, she never told me what she thought of the songs I used to send her for feedback...”

You nodded, mumbling under your breath, “So much for defending her from everyone last summer...” 

“Hm?” 

“Like, I’d get it if your friends don’t immediately warm up to her because that really does happen in some relationships and it can be remedied over time but not appreciating the things you, the person she’s dating, are passionate about is another thing. If she doesn’t like the things you’re passionate about, then maybe she really isn’t the one you should be with.” You shrugged nonchalantly. “She could be all things nice but if she doesn’t support your own ambitions, other things that make you really happy, then everything else doesn’t mean anything.”

When he doesn’t speak, you allow yourself to continue. “Kira told me that you’re aiming for the national team in either baseball or soccer which is a bit surprising since I know you’re already being sought after for your music even at university so clearly those things are very important to you. Having someone around that doesn’t see that importance enough to make efforts is a bit meaningless in the long run, if you think about it. You...you deserve better, it’s what I’m trying to get at.” 

Still, he wouldn’t speak after everything you said. Instead, the boy just gaped at you from the fence. It definitely unnerved you as time dragged on longer. 

“I let you vent and made my own input on it like you wanted me here to and you just gape?” You tsked through your nervousness, crossing your arms teasingly and leaning over the fence on your side. “Ji, say something.” 

“...thank you.” He finally breathed out before you could complain further, catching you off-guard this time. “I needed that.” 

“What?” 

“This whole thing just made me feel really conflicting feelings.” He confessed, voice lower than usual now as he mirrored your position. “Thank you for listening and telling me what you thought. They definitely made a lot of things clearer.” 

You smiled, shoving him slightly through the fence separating the two of you. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it birthday boy?” You teased, laughing even more when he pouted at your teasing tone. “So? Feel better, then?” 

“A bit, yeah.” He nodded, grinning widely now. “Thanks for tonight, Y/N.” 

“You won’t admit it to my face but I know you’d do the same for me if I annoyed you into it enough.” You shrugged, standing up properly now and walking over to the entrance. “Now, would you let me play? You’ve been at it for twenty minutes, it’s getting tiring watching you.” 

He laughed at this as you joined him in the arcade space, kicking a soccer ball towards you as soon as you came in through the chain entrance. “What? You think you can do better?” 

“I had to watch you all the time after school back then because you were my ride home and Mrs. Han always picked us up late. I’m sure that could amount to something.” 

Age nineteen and a half. For a mandatory community service class, all of your friends signed up to volunteer at an orphanage. 

The majority vote was actually at the shelter you used to volunteer at but your old neighbourhood was too far from the university you were attending and so the most practical option, the orphanage just two blocks away, was the natural next best thing. And from this one semester’s worth of experience, you definitely learned a lot about your friends. 

For one, Hyunjin, Felix, and Jeongin were only popular with kids but only for their looks (additionally, his baking skills for Felix). Whenever you passed by them during volunteer hours, you would often find the three buried underneath a pile of toddlers hitting them with all kinds of toys. Feeling bad, you actually got the orphanage’s matron to assign them to the older kids after a while. 

Seungmin and Kira, on the other hand, were so awkward at first but naturally got into the groove of it. Maybe it’s because they only started dating then and everything was flustering but they surprised you the most with how much they got along with almost all of the kids regardless of age. 

Then, there was Jisung whom almost all of the younger kids practically fought over to play with at the playground. As if it was an inside joke of some sort, it made you laugh the most how the kids would often ask him to push them at the swings. 

“Careful now,” You reminded him once jokingly, elbowing his side as the two of you approached the swing set where the kids were already waiting to get pushed on their respective seats. “don’t want their knees to get scraped or something.”

He simply scoffed at you, shaking his head in disbelief. “I won’t let that happen, not at this age.” 

“So if I asked you to push me on the swings later, you won’t try and kill me this time?” You asked next, waving hello to the children before going around the swing set to gently push them to momentum. Jisung followed suit, making a beeline to his favorite, a toddler named Ara who always asked to be pushed higher on the swings. 

“That’s a trick question because we’re not actually allowed to play here.” He answered matter-of-factly, turning to Ara right after. “Isn’t that right, Ara? Y/N isn’t allowed to play here because she’s an adult, right?” 

The two of you would sit on the swing set and take turns pushing each other when the orphanage staff weren’t looking anyway, giggling amongst yourselves while watching the kids migrate to the jungle gym. 

“You were so annoying when we were kids!” You mostly complained, letting yourself laugh about it now as it was all in the distant past. “You had the ‘girls had cooties’ phase and everything.” 

“Because the boys all said it was true!” Jisung was quick to say in his defense, twisting the chains on his swing around to make himself spin. “And I was seven so of course I’d believe them that easily!” 

“What about when you pushed me from the swings?” 

“We both know that was an accident.” 

“You could’ve secretly held a grudge against me as early as that time! You were so mad when your mom made you buy me snacks!” 

“Because you told your mom that I did it on purpose! I thought you hated me even before that too.” 

“Well, I never hated you before that, just to set the record straight.” You shook your head immediately, turning your swings to the side to face him briefly. “You? Did you ever hate me?”

“Never.” He shook his head back at you in response, equally serious now. “You were annoying at times but that was because I was kinda annoying to you too.”

“What about now?” You asked next, voice unexpectedly wavering at asking such a question and even more when he chuckled at this. 

“You were with me on my what was almost my worst birthday ever just three months ago. What do you think?” He scoffed playfully, returning to his spinning to ease his flustered face. “Besides, we’re like better less-trying to kill each other all the time friends now! We’re even studying together again these days.” 

“We both know you’re only at the library since you’ve been trying to wingman Hyunjin with the librarian and dote on Jeongin like he’s your baby.” 

“What? No, I’m there for you too! Moral support!” 

Age nineteen and three-fourths. Jisung’s older brother invited you along with your parents to his wedding during the Spring break and Jisung immediately jumped on the chance to redeem himself as ‘the best dance partner you ever had.’ 

You didn’t even think he’d remember something he said himself back then. Personally, you thought it was just his guilt from pissing you off or sleepiness from dancing too much at prom that was talking then. But the moment the dance floor was opened at the rather extravagant cherry blossoms-themed wedding, the best man was by your side within seconds after sprinting from his table across the wedding hall. 

“Y/N!” He called to you as he ran to your table shared with all of your friends, your parents, and a few people from your childhood neighbourhood; his obnoxiously loud voice against the jazz music and his hand raised up above his head to wave at you catching a few guests’ attention. “Y/N!” 

Felix was about to ask you to dance after Seungmin and Kira as well as Hyunjin and Jeongin paired up, your hand already up in the air to accept his, but Jisung was quick to swat your hand away from the other boy as soon as he arrived. “Sorry, Lix, I’m afraid I’ll have to steal Y/N away!” He dramatically interrupted in between tired pants, flashing the confused Felix with a sheepish grin. “I owe Y/N a very important dance!” 

“What dance?” You raised a brow, bringing your hand away from his and back to your lap. 

“The one—t-the one I promised you that night a-at prom.” He sighed, finally catching his breath after. “I promised you then, remember?” 

From the corner of your eye, Felix’s eyes lightened up in excitement as he clasped his hands together and cooed. “Aww!” He giggled, making you and Jisung turn to him after. “If that’s the case, then why should I stop you two? I’ll just see if Chan or Changbin aren’t dancing yet!” 

“But Lix!” 

The other boy’s quick to wave his hands to you snappily, shaking his head. “No buts, Y/N! You two go and do that cute promised dance thing you have going on! I’ll be fine!” He assured, much to your protests. “I knew something was going on!” 

“Nothing’s going o—“

“Thanks, Lix! I owe you, dude.” Jisung pats Felix’s shoulder appreciatively, turning to you after and taking your hand once more to pull you up into a stand. “Now, come on! My brother said he has my songs on queue!” 

He whisked you away before you could protest further, taking you to the dance floor just as the music slows down to his own song. “Right on time!” He even exclaimed happily before placing his other hand on your waist. You’ve heard this one before as the one he would always sing at the Open Mic Nights at university. “Now, to make it up to you...” 

Jisung didn’t dance so bad. He was still playful, making it a game between the two of you on who can step on the other’s feet the most when the next songs became more upbeat, but he was serious when he wanted to, sheepishly apologizing that it took him long to make it up to you. 

“I didn’t even remember it until you brought it up tonight.” You assured with a laugh as the song slowed down once more. Without even realizing it, you’ve danced all of the songs in the two-hour setlist with him. “I didn’t think it was important.” 

“Well, it is to me.” He shrugged as nonchalantly as he can, visibly looking nervous towards the end. When you quietly asked him why, his only response was, “Because that night I really realized that even when I liked annoying you, I don’t like pissing you off so much to the point that you hate me.” 

And at that moment you realized that Jisung has some way of catching you off-guard so randomly. “W-What? I mean—” You wanted to joke something along the lines of ‘wow, took you long enough,’ but the words ultimately never came out as Jisung chuckled at your baffled expression. 

“I mean, trying to piss each other off, joking around, competing over studies—those are our things.” He confessed sincerely, unconsciously tightening his grip on your hand as the song progressed. “But I said something that night thinking of it as a joke and not really considering the thought that it would piss you off so much because you were so stressed already. I didn’t like pushing you on edge like that—” 

“You already apologized and everything, it’s all g—” 

“—But most importantly, I really wanted to dance with you then, regardless of the incident.” He breathed out before you could even finish your thought, rendering you speechless for the second time. “Maybe I’ve always liked you then, maybe even before that; either way, I really wanted to have one moment where we weren’t fighting or anything—and, surprisingly, even when we’ve started hanging out better, I still want one. I still like you.” 

You immediately stopped dancing, bumping shoulders with a stranger behind you which Jisung instinctively responded to by pulling your frozen form to the side of the dance floor. You pursed your lips once to speak, only managing to fumble out, “Y-You...you liked me?” 

“I said I like you. Present tense.” He cleared his throat awkwardly, hands dropping to his sides immediately at sensing how tense and awkward the atmosphere suddenly became. “And I like you the way Seungmin dotes on Kira and Minho’s always protective of Bora and Jeoyeon’s been helplessly pining over Chan, those kinds in case you’re going to pull that how exactly do I like you bullshit you learned from Minho before again.”  

“I—r-really?” Was your only response as you tried your best to process this revelation. “You like me? W-Why—why me?” 

He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the nape of his neck. “Yes, Y/N, how many times do I have to repeat myself?” He teased as casually as he could muster with his growing nervousness. “And why you? I don’t know, either, but I think I can start remembering as far back as the time you teased me at the playground that I push like a sissy but didn’t look for another playmate anyway. I’ve always liked you...just a little bit more now that I’m much more sure of a lot of things.” 

It was all so overwhelming, honestly, but you belatedly muster up a laugh as he recalled such a distant memory from you. “Y-You...God, Han Jisung, you’re insufferable!” You mumbled under your breath, hitting him by his arm with one hand while the other covered your mouth. “Why didn’t you say so?” 

“So, does that mean you like me too?” 

“I let you dance with me the entire night. What do you think?” You scoffed playfully, gaze softening as you looked up at his relieved smile and bright eyes. “You did push like a sissy at the playground when we were kids, though.” 

Age twenty. When Minho bought his roommate flowers to their last cheerdance competition and asked her to be his girlfriend, Hyunjin dared you to one-up the upperclassman and wear Jisung’s jersey to his own final game of the year.

“Well, you did give him that talk over dating someone who appreciates the things he loves.” Eunha told you over video call with the rest of your friend group on the day Hyunjin brought up the idea. Before you could even protest and repeatedly assure that you do support everything Jisung does, she was quick to add, “Yeah, I know you do appreciate them but I just think it’s fitting now! He’s been making a lot of effort for you lately and didn’t you say you wanted to do something in return? Maybe you can finally ask him what you’ve been wanting to ask for a while now too...” 

You hated how she was right and very convincing about it. Since the wedding earlier in the year, Jisung has been nothing short of nicer to you. From actually hanging out with you at the library now (and not just to wingman Hyunjin or dote on Jeongin), buying you food randomly, to letting you vent your own worries and unwind from school by playing soccer with you or playing you music with his guitar, he’s been ‘making it up to you’ with quality time and sweet gestures; the only catch is that he hasn’t officially asked you out like he would. 

The two of you aren’t exactly the direct words type of people but it’s still nice to have some sort of affirmation. 

With a few more coaxing on her part combined with Seungmin’s own persuasiveness nagging at you in real time, your friends eventually got Jeongin to steal one of Jisung’s spare soccer jerseys later that day to give to you for his game on the following Saturday. 

To say that Jisung was flustered is an understatement to say the least. Quickly catching you at the very front of the bleachers before the game started, he waved at you and the rest of your cheering friend group shyly, approaching only when the coach gave him permission to. 

“Hey, that’s mine.” He snickered with even more sheepishness at seeing you up close, holding the jersey he wears by its shoulders before gesturing to the identical one you wear. The two of you stand by the stairs leading down to the field, on the side where you aren’t in the way of passing players and staff. “The jersey—maybe the one wearing it too.” 

You held up the bouquet of daisies in your hands close to your face, effectively hiding the heat rising up to your neck. “I bought your favorite flowers too.” You pointed out next before gesturing to your friends sitting around you. “Those smartasses dared me to outdo Minho’s stunt at the cheerdance competition which I still think is dumb since you were in on that one but, hey, it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?” 

“Just seeing you is already enough.” He added with a flirty wink, making you cringe teasingly. “The jersey’s a really big bonus, though. I think I can score everything on this one because of you.” 

“You better or else this jerseys’ going to be mine now.” 

“I don’t mind.” He shook his head immediately, pulling you closer by the waist in his now ritual good luck hug from you and placing the flowers back on your sides. “I don’t mind calling you mine too.” 

The cheesy pick-up line makes the two of you laugh. Either way, you push yourself to not let go of him too soon. “...ew, Jisung!” You hit his back instead, heaving a sigh of relief anyway before finally pulling away from his hug to send him off. That’s enough confirmation now. “Now, go win this game and get it over with. We’re still on for movies later, right?” 

“Yep.” He assured, patting your head affectionately before boldly leaning closer again for a kiss. “I’m looking forward to it!” 

[writesowhatnext]

elementary, my dear weasley // fred weasley

Summary: Fred receives an anonymous love letter so he enlists his best friend to help him figure it out

Request: Could you write some fluffy Fred W x Reader? The reader gives Fred an anonymous love letter but since they’re friends, he asks her to help him figure out who it is? You can go anywhere from there! Thank you x

A/N: this is such a super cute prompt so I really hope I can do it justice

Reader: unspecified

Warnings: none actually, I think

As Fred walked towards you with a very serious look on his face, you regretted every decision you’d ever made, simultaneously. Why did you tell your mum that your cat had broken the vase? Why did you snog that boy in first year? Why did you dye Ron’s hair pink and let the twins take the fall? Why did you start your last Charms essay the day it was due? Why did you write Fred that stupid letter? Your mind was in overdrive trying to devise a getaway plan, if you avoided Fred now then he’d definitely come and find you at some point but then, at least you could be more emotionally prepared for rejection. How had he even found out it was you? You’d gone to extreme lengths to throw him off the scent.

In your panic, you’d forgotten to actually try to execute any form of escape plan and so there you sat, a sitting duck, with Fred Weasley charging towards you. You winced as he slammed the familiar paper down in front of you, familiar handwritten peeking out from between his spread fingers. You looked up from his hand to his face very, very reluctantly. And for some reason, he was smiling.

“You will never guess what I’ve just found.”

You frowned, watching him with a fairly healthy level of confusion as he dragged a chair to sit at your table. He ignored the annoyed looks from the Gryffindors at the table he’d stolen from and sat down, pushing your letter towards you.

“Read that.”

Your frown deepened as you slowly pulled the letter toward you. What sort of mind game was he playing?

Your heart beat loudly in your ears with every word you read: from the ‘Dear Fred,’ to the ‘With love.’, you’d reread and checked the letter more times then you could count and you could practically recite it by heart at this point. When you left it for him, it had been a good idea, now it just filled you with regret and a horrible sick feeling in your stomach. You raised your head to look at him and hummed, carefully watching his reaction.

“Hmmm?” he asked incredulously, snatching the letter back and staring at it. “I know it’s not surprising because I mean, come on, but surely someone confessing their love to me via the timeless art of letter-writing deserves more than a ‘hmmm’, don’t you think?”

You stared at him for a moment. All the while, he just looked at you expectantly. And then it clicked; Fred had no idea you sent that letter. Your mouth fell open slightly as you tried to figure out how you would behave in this situation – if it was someone else that’d been hopelessly in love with Fred.

“Let me read it again.” You insisted, pulling it from his hands. You didn’t read it; you just stared down at parchment, trying to figure out what you were going to do about it. He didn’t know it was you; that was perfectly clear. It would be fine. He never needed to know it was you, not really.

“Who do you think wrote it?”

Happy that you were finally asking the right questions, Fred smiled and rested his elbows on the table.

“That’s what I need your help to find out.”

“You want to find out who sent it?” you asked loudly. Perhaps a little too loudly, you discovered; a couple of people in the common room looked up at you.

“Do I-“ Fred shook his head. “Blimey, Y/N, what has got into you today? Of course, I want to find out who sent it.”

“Why?”

Fred could not fathom your behaviour right now – his fish impression proved that. Once he’d stopped opening and closing his mouth, he placed a hand on the paper, pointing at it with his finger.

“Whoever wrote this says that I am the sunshine of their world, Y/N.” he shot you a deadpan look. “The sunshine of their world.”

You made a face, your composure slipping, a horrible cringing sensation coming over you. “And?”

“And…” he stressed, rolling his eyes. “I want to find out who thinks so highly of yours truly.”

“To do what?”

“Bloody hell, Y/N, what’s with all the questions?” Fred huffed, making a face. “I just want to figure out who sent it – I have to talk to them.”

You wanted to know what he meant by that but you couldn’t afford to keep asking questions without raising some sort of suspicion.

“So how are you going to figure out who?”

“Well,” he said, frowning. “That’s why I’m here. George took a look and said that if anyone could help me, it was you. So, dear, dear Y/N, any ideas?”

You paused for a moment, confused. Why would George think you knew who wrote it? Sure, you knew a fair few people but you were hardly Sherlock sodding Holmes. It was probably a coincidence, you thought. Though, the strange nervous feeling in your stomach lingered.

“Well,” you leant your chin on your elbow. “Tell me how you found it.”

The smile that lit up his face at the promise of your help was almost enough to quash your guilt at the fact that this definitely, probably, certainly qualified as lying to him.

You barely listened as he talked you through his morning routine. He’d woken up, late as usual, and thrown on his robes because he thought it was Monday – it was not. When he was rifling through them to find some Helium Toffees that he swore – though you were thoroughly unconvinced - he didn’t plan to use on you, he found a folded-up section of parchment. And, the first thing he did was smell it.

“You what?” you asked, definitely now listening. “What did you do that for?”

“To see where it came from.” He replied as if it were obvious.

You frowned at him, lost for words. Not only had you not disguised any sort of smell when you’d written it, you were also kind of worried about Fred’s mental state that that was his first thought.

“So, what did it smell like then?”

“Nothing, really.”

You stared at him for a moment. You were exasperated, for sure, but you couldn’t help the way your stomach flopped, replacing it with fondness.

“Well given that very promising lead didn’t pan out-“

“Oi!” Fred poked you in this side, earning a hideously loud spout of laughter from you. You grumbled as he smiled proudly.

“What’s next?”

“Well,” he began, leaning forward as if revealing the biggest conspiracy to sweep the wizarding world since, well, Harry Potter. “I figure whoever it is has to be close to me, right? To get it in my robes and all.”

You tried to fault his logic, but you’d forgotten, with how horrible of a student he could be, that Fred was actually a genius when he wanted to be. You just nodded.

“I don’t know where to go from there though: I don’t recognise the handwriting; I don’t know when they put it in there; I can’t write one back-“

“You’d write back?” You tried to hide how breathless the thought made you.

“It’s like you know nothing about letter-writing etiquette.”

If only he knew.

Forgetting that you were trying not to be helpful, lest he discovered that you were his secret admirer, you were accidentally helpful.

“Didn’t you go through your pockets before you changed last night to find that chocolate frog Ron stole?”

“So, Ron stole that frog.” he turned to you, smirking. You remembered in that second that you’d promised Ron that you’d keep that information to yourself.

“What? Who told you that?”

He narrowed his eyes as you painted the most innocent expression you could on your face.

“But yeah, you’re right. So what?”

“So what?” This boy. “So, they must’ve put it in your robes after that.”

His face lit up.

“Okay so, who did you see after that?”

Finding his concentrated frown much cuter than you should’ve, you were almost disappointed when he started talking.

“George, Ron, You-“ you were both sad and happy that he didn’t pause. “Hermione?”

You shook your head, making a face. He nodded in agreement.

“Harry, Lee, Angelina. Do you think it was Angelina?”

You stomach sank at his excitement. “Could be.”

He smiled, leaning back on his chair, pleased with himself.

“So, what are you gonna do?”

He seemed surprised at your question as if he’d forgotten what the point of your detective work was.

“It’s still lunchtime, right?”

You looked at the clock on the wall. “Just about.”

“Come on then, my little detective.”

As you followed him to the Great Hall, you tried to ignore the way your heart jumped at the nickname.

When you reached the Hall, Angelina was sat down, surrounded by her friends. George was also there, probably late from his detention with Snape.

“Alright, George?” Fred said, nudging his shoulder against his brother’s. George looked at you, and then at Fred. Something was strange about his stare.

“Why do you look so happy?” George asked, crossing his arms.

“Y/N and I have cracked the case!”

“Oh, really?” When George looked at you almost pointedly, a lump formed in your throat. He knew.

“And I’m going to go seal the deal – wish me luck, Georgie.”

As Fred walked rather confidently over to Angelina, you and George stood shoulder to shoulder. In silence. It was eating you alive. Your mind swam with things to say: explanations, excuses, ways to make a clean exit.

“I didn’t think you had it in you.” He said, his tone light and a smile on his lips as he watched his brother strike up a conversation. Out of all the things he could’ve said, you hadn’t expected that. You looked up at him and he nodded over to Angelina’s confused face. “Letting him trot over there thinking Angelina wrote that letter? Very wicked.”

You paused before deciding you had nothing left to lose.

“What was I supposed to do? Tell him?”

“Yes.” George said as if it was obvious – his expression a carbon copy of Fred’s.

“He would hate me, George.”

He laughed, throwing his arm around your shoulder, pulling you into him. You wondered what about your misfortune he found so funny. “My sweet, sweet Y/N,” you both watched as Angelina’s friends burst into laughter. You felt even more guilty at Fred’s discouraged expression. “Fred could never hate you.”

As Fred returned to you, tail between his legs and ego wounded slightly, he didn’t even notice George’s arm around you. He just frowned, nodding.

“At least that narrows down our suspect pool.” Then he turned to George. “Up for helping us figure out the mystery?”

George let go of your shoulder, making apologetic gestures as he backed away.

“Sorry mate, still got detention.”

Fred made a face before turning to you. George winked as he left the Hall in the opposite direction of the dungeon.

“So, who’s left?”

You were worried about how short the list of possible authors was getting and George’s words were echoing in your head.

“Fred,” you started, tilting your head to the side. “I have to tell you something.”

“What?” he asked, frowning and crossing his arms.

“Well, I-“

You cursed yourself.

“So, I-“

“What I’m trying to say is that I…”

You closed your eyes and sighed.

“Basically this is really hard to say and I really don’t know what to do if you hate-”

“You wrote the letter?”

Your head shot up to see Fred, smirking with an eyebrow raised.

“I can’t believe you’d send me off to go ask Angelina whether she wrote it. Blimey, love, you’re more ruthless than I thought; should be a bloody Slytherin. It’s a good job I figured it out before I plundered over there like a right git.”

You blinked. What was happening? Why was Fred smiling? How did he know?

“You knew all along?”

He just smiled.

“Why- Why did-“ you stopped, mouth open. “Why did you make me help you?”

“Bit of fun,” he shrugged, pressing his lips together. “Wanted you to tell me.”

You placed your hand to your forehead, groaning. You must look like a right idiot.

“How did you know?”

“Smelt like you, didn’t it.”

You frowned, moving your head.

“You pay attention to what I smell like?”

“I pay attention to everything about you.”

He placed his hands on your hips. You were sure you’d short-circuited.

“The way you smell… the face you make when you lie… how suspicious you look when you’re messing with my robes.”

It was impossible, you thought, to be more embarrassed than you were in that exact moment.

“You saw me put it in there.”

“I saw you put it in there.” He said, pulling you into him. “Was quite pleased when I read it, actually, I’ve fancied you for years.”

“You’re lying.”

You placed your hands very tentatively on his chest, his soft jumper underneath your palms.

“There’s only one liar here.”

You made a face. He looked over your head, pursing his lips before looking down again.

“The sunshine of your world, ay?”

“Shut up.” You groaned, cringing again. He laughed, his whole body shaking. “What does this mean?”

“Well,” he moved his hand to the small of your back. “I was hoping it meant I could kiss you.”

You nodded, again at a loss for words.

“That alright with you?”

You just nodded.

[bookclub4m]

Episode 155 - Literary Fan Fiction

This episode we’re talking about Literary Fan Fiction! We discuss ancient myths, fairy tales, Sherlock Holmes, copyright, Sherlock Holmes, authorized sequels, Sherlock Holmes, and sequels vs reinterpretations! Plus: Sherlock Holmes! (Okay, he didn't get mentioned that much.)

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss

Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was reprinted in Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J. M. Barrie (Wikipedia)

Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie (Wikipedia)

Copyright status

Telling Tales by Patience Agbabi

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Other Media We Mentioned

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer

Shadow Master Series Volume 3 by Andy Helfer, Kyle Baker, and Joe Orlando

Includes the comic in which The Shadow’s head is placed on a robot body

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny

Jack the Ripper in fiction (Wikipedia) (Yes, there’s an entire article and it mentions at least five additional stories that feature Sherlock Holmes.)

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill

Fables (comics) by Bill Willingham (Wikipedia)

The Argonauts and the Quest for the Golden Fleece (Wikipedia)

Beowulf (Wikipedia)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and  Jane Austen

Grendel by John Gardner

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (Wikipedia)

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

The Great Mouse Detective (Wikipedia)

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (Wikipedia)

Elementary, Dear Data (Wikipedia) - Star Trek: The Next Generation episode

House (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Elementary (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Sherlock (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Dorian Gray (2009 film) (Wikipedia)

Victor Frankenstein (film) (Wikipedia)

The Adventures of Shirley Holmes (Wikipedia)

Enola Holmes (film) (Wikipedia)

Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith (Actually just about cowboys who really like Sherlock Holmes)

Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the American West by John S. Fitzpatrick

Links, Articles, and Things

Fan fiction (Wikipedia)

Matthew was probably combining Robert Ludlum (died in 2001 and since then thirty books have been published under the “Ludlum brand”) and Tom Clancy (died in 2013 and since then 18 books have been published under the “Clancy brand”)

Marple: Twelve New Mysteries A 2022 collection of new stories by various authors about Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple character

Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture (Wikipedia)

Robin McKinley (Wikipedia)

Frankenstein's monster (Wikipedia)

How Rocket Raccoon Rescued My Brother, Famed Marvel Writer Bill Mantlo by Mike Mantlo

Doujinshi (Wikipedia)

Doraemon Doujinshi Accused of Infringing Copyright

Hark Podcast

Sherlock Holmes  (Wikipedia)

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Copyrightable Character by Nicholas Perrotti

Sargasso Sea (Wikipedia)

22 “Literary Fan Fiction” (retellings, adaptations, sequels, parallel novels, etc.) books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

For this booklist, the original story being retold/referenced appears (in parentheses).

Telling Tales by Patience Agbabi (Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer)

The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (El Gaucho Martín Fierro by José Hernández)

The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang (The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Windward Heights by Maryse Condé (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud (The Stranger by Albert Camus)

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan (A Room With a View by E.M. Forster)

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (The Horror of Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft)

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells)

The Holder of the World by Bharati Mukherjee (The Scarlet Letter by Nataniel Hawthorne and the Ramayana by Valmiki)

Mama Day by Gloria Naylor (The Tempest by William Shakespeare)

Even in Paradise by Elizabeth Nunez (King Lear by William Shakespeare)

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (The Tale of Shim Ch'ŏng)

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (The Ramayana by Valmiki)

The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall (Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)

My Jim by Nancy Rawles (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson (Wee'git stories)

Unforgivable Love by Sophfronia Scott (Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos)

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Prince of Cats by Ron Wimberly (Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)

Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita (Various works by Jane Austen)

Pride by Ibi Zoboi (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, August 16th we’ll be discussing an update on what media we’ve been enjoying outside of the podcast. (Oh no that’s next week.)

Then on Tuesday, September 6th we’ll be discussing the format of Audio Book Fiction!