#I plan on drawing him soon but his design is quite intimidating to me…

[bouneilly]

Why not post this ryuzaki doodle here as well !

[the-firebender-girl]

The Dragon’s Bride (Zuko x Reader)

A continuation to “The Dragon’s Mark”

-> Planning a wedding turned out to be way harder than ending a war.

A year has passed since Zuko formally courted Y/N. Ever since then the Fire Nation has been busy preparing for the wedding of a lifetime, after all the wedding of their Fire Lord is celebrated as one of the national holidays. It’s a grand occasion made for all, excitement buzzing in the air.

Wedding planning has been.... interesting, if you want to put it kindly. Y/N never knew that her wedding will be this elaborate. Iroh and Ty Lee has been drilling her non stop every single day on all the important details, especially when it comes to Fire Nation culture and customs. Long story short, she’s feeling more than slightly overwhelmed.

Today her parents will arrive in the capital, they had sailed all the way here from Agna Qel’a from about a month ago, it’s quite a long journey to make after all. This is definitely a break that she deserves and look forward to, although Zuko is all worked up about it, scared that they won’t like him. Not that she can blame him for feeling that way, after all he was there when the Siege of the North happened, and in some ways played a part in what follows.

But Y/N assured him time and time again that no matter what, she would do anything that she could to convince her parents to accept him as their son-in-law. She truly believes that despite his questionable past, Zuko has learned a lot and he has changed into a fine man. She only hopes that her parents could see him in that light too.

Zuko and Y/N stand side by side in the deck of the harbor, ready to welcome the visitors from up north. Specks of blue dot started to appear in the horizon, signaling the arrivals as the shape grew bigger and bigger. As the boats passed what remains of the Great Gates of Azulon, Y/N can see clearly the double-hulled vessels powered by waterbenders. Lips tugging up into a smile at the anticipation of meeting her parents again, how she misses them.

Y/N look to the side towards her betrothed just to find him swaying back and forth even though his feet is planted firmly. Hands fidgeting with the edge of his crimson robe. Biting his lower lips as his eyes is trained on the approaching ships. Even though the Water Tribe ships aren’t designed to be half as intimidating as how they make it in the Fire Nation, it still doesn’t help Zuko’s case.

Y/N chuckles and reached her hand towards Zuko’s, clasping their hands together. His head snapped towards her and he gave her a weak smile, a poor attempt on his part to cover just how anxious he is.

She extended her other hand to settle on his cheek, rubbing it soothingly. Feeling the texture of his freshly shaven skin, Iroh has been bugging Zuko to try and grow a beard or at least some stubble. But it seems like the idea hasn’t grown on him yet.

“You doing okay there, champ?” Y/N asked softly, cocking her head to the side.

“Honestly? I think i’m about to faint any moment now” Zuko replied, grimacing.

She trailed the both of her hands down slowly and finally settling on his waist, pulling him in closer into a hug. She leaned her face forward so that the tip of their noses and forehead are touching. Zuko sigh contentedly, enjoying all the ways that their bodies came into contact with each other. Relishing the feeling of her being soo close to him. Y/N once said that he might have a case of touch-starved, reluctant as he might on admitting it, he’s starting to see her point.

“Don’t let go” He mumbled out breathily and he earned another chuckle from his lover, a sound that always brings a smile to his lips.

“I see the appeal, love. But how are we supposed to greet them properly with the sickening amount of PDA that we’re displaying?” She teased him, to which Zuko just grunt in response, grudgingly putting some space between them.

They turned to look towards the ships, seeing that now it has dropped its anchors and the ramps are being lowered to the harbor.

One by one the passengers stepped out, the first few ones out is Chief Arnook and his wife, followed by the rest of the Council of Elders. Then two familiar figures made their way down, Tulok and Yuka, Y/N’s parents.

Y/N waved a hand excitedly towards them and they too gave a bright smile in return as they approach. When they all have stood in front of each other, Zuko and Y/N bow first to show their respect towards the elders, and they too follow suit after.

“It is my pleasure to welcome you here, Chief and Chieftess, I wish you a pleasant stay and the best of the Fire Nation can offer” Zuko said, addresing the leader of Northern Water Tribe.

“The pleasure is all mine, Fire Lord Zuko. After all this is a joyous momentum for both our people, the joining of Water Tribe and Fire Nation” Chief Arnook said solemnly, face showing his earnestness and support towards the union. “And it’s good to see you too, Ambassador Y/N” He said, looking towards Y/N.

“As do I, Chief Arnook. Thank you for coming all the way here for my wedding” She gave him a grateful smile.

The chief and chieftess then moved back to give space for Y/N’s parents. Y/N can hear Zuko’s breath starting to get heavy and she discretely put her hand on his lower back, rubbing soothing circles there.

Zuko and Y/N gave another bow, this time lower than the previous one. “Elder Tulok and Yuka, i’m humbled by your presence” Zuko said, still maintaining his bow.

“That is supposed to be my line, Fire Lord Zuko. Although formalities should be put aside if can, seeing that soon we’ll be family” Tulok said warmly, catching him by surprise.

Y/N’s mother also gave him a welcoming smile. “Thank you for taking care of our daughter, Fire Lord Zuko. And please just call us Yuka and Tulok, no need for the titles”

Zuko gave them a nod and smile back in return, “Of course, but only if you call me Zuko, after all i’ll be your son soon like you said”.

Y/N felt her chest swelling with happiness at the exchange between Zuko and her parents, they are off to a good start and that is more than she hoped for. Hopefully the rest of the week will be even better.

———————————————————————

That night, Y/N was preparing for bed, humming a tune under her breath when the door to her bedroom swung open.

It’s Zuko, standing in his sleeping robe, hair cascading freely down his shoulder. It’s getting quite long and she really likes how it looks on him, by Tui how is it even possible for someone to be that effortlessly good looking.

“Hello there, my soon-to-be husband. What brought you here?”

Zuko stood for a while, just leaning against the door, watching her. Wondering to himself how did he ever get soo lucky?

He took a few strides in and sat on the edge of her bed. “Uncle has taught you the complete procession of a traditional Fire Nation wedding, right?” He asked.

“Only about three times on every single day, him and Ty Lee both” She said, rolling her eyes. Even Zuko let out an amused snort. “What about it?”

“The tea ceremony... it’s been weighing on my mind a lot lately, more and more as our wedding draw closer”

Y/N’s expression turned into one of understanding as she knows for sure it’s not pity that he needs. The tea ceremony comes after the exchanging of vows, the both of them are supposed to serve tea to their elders, meaning their grandparents and parents. But Zuko only has Iroh, of course there is Ozai but it’s not exactly ideal isn’t it?

She moved towards where he’s currently sitting and let his head rest on her shoulder, fingers moving up to tangle itself between his silky locks.

“What do you want to do about it, Zuko?” She asked him softly.

“I know I owe him nothing... my father I mean. But it’s just that I’d like him to know that his son is getting married, not that I think that he would care. I was never his favorite child”

“Hey look at me” Y/N glides her fingers to cup his chin, moving it upwards so they see eye-to-eye. “There’s nothing wrong about what you’re feeling. I know that Ozai is a bad person and there’s nothing we could do about it, but he’s still your father”

“Yeah... I just feel so... helpless and pathetic. All he ever did was shun my existence and treat me like trash, but here I am still wanting to keep him on the loop as if it would matter” His eyes are closed, face contorting into one of pain. Y/N can’t even imagine the depth of his inner struggle when it comes to his family. She even felt bad because family is everything to her, and she’s lucky to be blessed with a great one.

“Look... the decision is all yours. If you decide to face him one more time then i’ll support you no matter what, get yourself the closure that you need, Zuko.... and find peace”

“Y/N?” He called for her, there’s a change in the tone of his voice, no longer somber.

“Yes, love?”

“You’re starting to sound more and more like Uncle Iroh these days, I think you’re spending too much time around him”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” She asked, scrunching her eyebrows together, slightly confused.

“Meh...” Zuko said, shrugging his shoulder. “ —I haven’t decided yet”

———————————————————————

After his defeat and stripped of his firebending abilities, Ozai was sentenced to a life in prison for several war crimes. The Capital City Prison where Iroh was once held captive, is now his new home. To spend the rest of his life behind bars and cold stone walls, with the ghost of his failure as the only companion.

But perhaps today fate and Agni decided to humor him as the door that leads to his cell swung open, revealing none other than the face of his son, the new Fire Lord.

Ozai hands involuntarily clenched at his side, face pulled into a sneer at the unexpected visitor. He watched as Zuko closed the door behind him, his other hand balancing a tray of teapot and 2 small cups.

“I was not aware that tea is a specialty of this particular prison” Although what Ozai said could passed as a banter, his cold tone indicates anything but that.

Zuko took his sweet time sitting down, folding his legs crossed style and placing the tray in front of him slowly. Keeping his nerves intact and delaying the inevitable as long as he can.

“It’s jasmine... care for some?” He finally spoke, looking straight back at Ozai’s amber eyes for the first time since he entered the room.

Their fondness for jasmine tea is the only thing that Zuko can confidently said shared between the two of them. Even the first time that he tried this kind of tea when he was little, was from the leftover of his father’s unfinished drink. He was curious and the tea was still hot anyway, so he took a sip. The deliciousness of the brew tickled his taste bud. That’s how he developed his love for jasmine tea until today.

Although Ozai made no answer nor any indication, Zuko still poured the hot liquid into one of the cups and slide it beneath the bars. The calming scent of jasmine filling the air, ridding it of the usual dampen smell.

He poured another cup for himself, all the while sparing one or two glances his father’s way. Watching the calculation that he could see clearly behind his eyes, although he’s never good at reading him, Zuko can definitely tell that right now he is bemused.

His hand toyed around with the cup, drumming his fingers on it. One two seconds later he finally grasped it and bring the cup under his nose, eyes closed, inhaling the scent deeply as he swirl the liquid around counter clockwise.

After he took one long sip, Ozai turned his attention to Zuko. Taking in his appearance, from the Fire Lord headpiece to the flowing ornate robe.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of being graced by His Highness’s company?”

The stony look plastered on his face combine with his disdainful voice nearly made Zuko freeze on spot, it certainly brings back a lot of bad memories.

“I’m getting married” He said, keeping his voice as even as possible, showing no sign of emotions, just as how he taught him.

But that statement piqued Ozai’s interest as he raised one of his eyebrows. “Indeed?”

“My betrothed... she’s Northern Water Tribe” He continued, trying to gauge out a reaction. It surprised him that his father still manages to keep his restraint.

“How....” Ozai stopped mid sentence, cocking his head to the side, eyes looking upward as if thinking hard. “—Intriguing” He finally said, finding the fitting word that he’s looking for.

“Intriguing? that’s it?” Zuko asked, now he’s surely the more confused one out of the two.

“Well at least she’s not Southern, what else do you expect me to say, Zuko?” Ozai retorted back, he is clearly enjoying this confrontation. “I don’t think any of your actions would astound me ever again, ever since you turned your back on me and chose to support the Avatar, I know better”

Zuko let out an aggravated yell, “I don’t know why I even bother”

Ozai had the nerve to laugh, “Believe me, son. I thought the same thing, if you think keeping me here is going to change anything well you misread it all, I raised you better than that. That is stupid even for you”

Zuko stood up quickly, tossing one last look at his father, “Bold of you to say you raised me when you were never there”

He turned around and reach for the door handle, turning it open.

“Goodbye, father”

Then he closed the door after him, along with a chapter of his life.

———————————————————————

Y/N is bringing her parents along to take a stroll through the palace. Showing them all the nooks and crannies that she herself has gotten familiar to. They had visited the gardens earlier and now is in the Royal Gallery, a hallway that displays large hanging portraits of previous Fire Lords.

“They executed the menacing look excellently, that’s for certain” Tulok said, head tilting upwards, eyeing the portrait of Fire Lord Sozin. He looked both amazed and terrified at the same time. Her father is quite the art enthusiast after all.

“I believe that’s exactly what they aimed for, dear. To strike terror into whoever is looking, fear is power to them” Yuka replied as she too stand in-between the portrait of Azulon and Ozai, admiring the details.

Meanwhile Y/N chose to stand a few feet back from them as she already had her fair share of looking at every single portrait there. But then Yuka turned around and direct her attention to her daughter, “Does Zuko not want a portrait of himself? I see that it stopped at Fire Lord Ozai” She asked curiosly.

“I don’t think so, mother. He said the style of the portraits doesn’t suit him, he doesn’t want people to view him like his predecessors”

“I see, that’s a relief” Her mother look satisfied with the answer, even letting out a smile. But her father doesn’t look appeased.

“Sweetheart?” Tulok said as he slowly approached her, taking the both of her hands in his. Her mother follow suit by placing one of her hands on her husband’s shoulder.

“Are you happy here? now don’t get me wrong, I know you are a smart woman and you’ll make all the right choices but as a parents we can’t help but worry anyway” Her father started out, her mother hummed in agreement, nodding her head. “Especially because your marriage is such a unique case, of course there are lots of people who have done this before you, marrying someone from other nation. But sweetheart, you are marrying the leader of a nation, your burden is way bigger than them”

Y/N gave her parents a reassuring smile and she placed her palm on top of her father’s hand. “I know you’re worried, but please father and mother, there is absolutely nothing for you to worry about”

“I am happy here, truly. And Zuko... he’s everything to me, I love him to the ends of this world. I always dreamt that one day I will find someone who will love me the way that you love mother, and I believe that I have” She said earnestly. Her words brought some sort of comfort to her parents.

“If you are happy, then that’s all that matter to us, sweetheart” Yuka said, giving a kiss to the crown of her head.

Y/N hugged both of her parents tightly, “Thank you... for everything”

And the three of them stayed inside the embrace, letting faith run its course.

———————————————————————

1 day before the wedding....

Y/N and Zuko sat side by side in the Royal Spa, with Tulok, Yuka, and Uncle Iroh as audience. A handmaiden stood behind them, holding a tray with 2 scissors and a red pouch on top of it. They are about to do one of the sacred traditions for bride and groom before their wedding takes place.

The handmaiden passed out the scissors to each of them and thus the ceremony begins. Y/N hold a lock of her hair and cut some of it off. Zuko doing the same thing beside her. Uncle Iroh then stepped forward and took both locks of hair and tied it together in a knot. The handmaiden present the pouch to him and he put it inside carefully before sealing it tight. The tying of knot signifies the bride and groom becoming one in flesh and blood to live happily ever after, or so they believed.

In no time at all, the ceremony is done and Uncle Iroh congratulated the both of them. Tulok then approached Zuko and said “May I have a moment?” to which Zuko nodded.

Both men then stepped out to the hallway outside to have some privacy.

“I know you are the Fire Lord and all but if you hurt my daughter in any way, I won’t hesitate to hunt you down myself” Tulok said, damn Zuko is even more scared now than he was at his first Agni Kai.

Zuko gulped and gave him a firm nod, “Understood, sir. I wouldn’t have it any other way and I promise you that that’s the farthest thing from my mind”

“I love your daughter with all my heart, by Agni I would die for her if I must”

Tulok’s cold manner melted, replaced with a knowing smile, “I know you do, I can see it in your eyes”

“Thank you for making her happy, Zuko” He said as he suddenly pulled Zuko into a hug.

A stunned Zuko hugged him back awkwardly, clearly taken by surprise but he accept it anyway. “Oh and Zuko?” Tulok said again, making him straightened his posture back so that he can look at him better.

“You can call me father... if you want to that is”

Zuko is overcome with bliss, not only did he earned Tulok’s blessing but now he is openly accepting him in the family. A wide grin made its way to his face, making him appeared like his younger self but less burdened.

“Father....” Zuko said, testing the word out to which Tulok gave him an encouraging nod.

“Father works for me” He said lastly, as both men gave each other a pat in the back before they walked back inside the spa.

———————————————————————

The Wedding....

Y/N took in a deep breath, admiring her surroundings as she stood in front of her now husband after exchanging their vows. Smiling at him brightly as she can’t contain her happiness that this day has finally come. Although wedding is usually presided over by a Fire Sage, Zuko and Y/N decided to have Aang to stand in instead. Which is the right decision since he made it a lot more fun and enjoyable. He might have even tripped over the words at some point, he’s not even the one getting married but his excitement is sky-rocketting.

The wedding ceremony is held in the Throne Room that has been transformed completely it’s even hard to recognize at first. Large-scale decoration in the form of red lampions and lanterns of flowers decorated every inch of the walls. The invitees cheered loudly as they sealed the vow with a kiss. Zuko even vaguely heard Sokka’s voice shouting “OoOhH get it, buddy!!!” over the crowd.

They decided to keep the kiss short but sweet to save some for later, when they’re finally away from prying eyes (and Sokka’s inappropriate comments). Zuko and Y/N moved to do the next procession which is Baitang. Firstly they bow to worship the heaven and the earth. The second they bow to Tulok, Yuka, and Iroh as a respect to their elders. For the last bow, Zuko and Y/N stood face to face and bow to each other as a respect to one another as husband and wife.

The last item that they must do is the tea ceremony. The very thing that Zuko was stressing over sometime ago, but now he feels nothing but relief. He had done his duty as a son by serving tea to Ozai, although it’s under a rather unconventional situation and doesn’t turned out the way he wants it to. But at least he had tried and that’s what counts most.

Zuko and Y/N both knelt in front of Tulok, Iroh and Yuka, as a handmaiden passed a boiling teapot to them. This time it contains ginseng tea, Iroh’s favorite, as per Zuko’s request. Zuko took delight in the way his uncle’s eyes lights up as he recognized the scent and throw a big smile his way. The both of them then poured the liquid carefully into separate cups and served it. The sound of striked gong reverberated around the room, signaling the end of the wedding ceremony. And Y/N and Zuko rise together, now officially the Fire Lord and Fire Lady of the Fire Nation.

Y/N watched as performers started to crowd the makeshift dance floor, Fire Nation performers stood to the right and Water Tribe performers to the left. With the steady beat of drum accompanying them, they started to perform both fire and waterbending. Awed gasps can be heard all over as all eyes are on the elegant harmony that the performers have successfully created out of the two opposing elements.

Y/N and Zuko sees it as a promise of what’s to come, of what the both of them can achieve despite their differences. They are fire and water and they are made for one another.

———————————————————————

A/N : Whew that’s definitely a long one! Personally I love this so much I think this may be my best piece yet but I would love to hear what you think about it 😄☺️ As always, feedbacks are appreciated and hoped for!! thank you for reading 💙❤️

[jeonqquk]

tattooing | jjh

Pairing- Jaehyun X Reader

Genre/ Tags- fluff, crack, bi jaehyun, lucas royally fucks up, tattooing

Age rating- 13+

Word count- 2.6k words

Summary- Tattooing doesn’t go as planned.

POV- Third person

Your whining wasn’t gonna get you anywhere, you were well aware of the fact. But you supposed that you might as well give it a shot. The ‘it’ here being the fact that you really wanted Jaehyun to get a tattoo. It wasn’t that you wanted to somehow blackmail Jae into getting a tattoo. Oh god, no. You’d never want that. It was just that you had always been fond of tattoos, the meaningful ones, not the totally unnecessary, really weird looking, out of the world ones. Jaehyun with a tattoo would be fucking hot though, that was just a plus point- not the main reason as to why you wanted him to get one. 

You were thinking a sweet quote or something, but that would only be possible of he was willing to get one.

“Jae, baby, what do you think about getting a tattoo?” your boyfriend of 3 years sighs, rubbing his hand on your knee that had been placed on his thigh. “I don’t know..maybe later. Why are you so intent on me getting a tattoo though?” he wiggles his eyebrows, suggestively or whatever, and you look at him in confusion, trying your level best to stop the blood threatening to creep up your cheeks. You clear your throat and reply simply “I feel like a tattoo would be beautiful. Just permanently inked onto your skin. It should be something purposeful though. I don’t want you going bald and tattooing a zipper on your scalp.” 

A snort is heard from him “Don’t worry, I’m not going bald. Although it’s a very tempting idea.” Rolling your eyes at his lame comment, you sit up and move over to cuddle closer to him on the couch. He wraps his left arm around you “Why don’t you get a tatto Y/n?” he questions and you look up at him in mild shock. Well, you could get a tattoo. You are of legal age and stuff but the thought had never crossed your mind. You don’t know why.

“....I could...” Jaehyun smiles, his dimples popping out and you can’t help but mirror the sweet action. “So why don’t you? We’re not even doing anything and I know for a fact that you have a lot of designs saved on your Pinterest board. Even if they were for me, you can try finding one that suits you too.”

Suddenly feeling giddy, you quickly grab your phone from the coffee table and unlock it, clicking on the app you needed. As you find the board, you see that you’ve gained 18 followers in the time span of 2 weeks. Huh.

As you scroll through the pins of small intricate designs that could be engraved onto a finger or hand, Jaehyun points out one that looked like watercolour art and was in the form of a small flower with red petals. It did look quite cute, to be honest. “Hmm, this does look nice. Won’t it look good on my collarbone?” Jaehyun nods in agreement “I was thinking that too.” Smiling up at him, you look into his eyes “Well, should I get this?” Your boyfriend chuckles at your excitement, and pats your head in adoration. “I know that you’re excited, sweetie. But don’t you wanna try looking at other designs before deciding?” Humming, you scroll a bit more as Jaehyun reads a novel. But you don’t find anything that captures your attention a lot. Sure the sweet quotes, couple tattoos and nature-related  designs are great ideas for a tattoo but you were set on the one with the rose.

Jaehyun coos when you tell him that, squishing your cheeks and telling you that the two of you could go to a shop tomorrow and get design inked onto your collarbone forever. 

It’s 9:28 am when you wake up from your slumber and turn to give Jaehyun who looks like he had also woken up just a few minutes ago a peck on his lips. His dimples are visible as he smiles and greets you. The two of you get up and freshen up before you’re sitting at the dining table to eat blueberry pancakes. 

The clock shows that it’s 10:30 am by the time you two leave the house and head for the tattoo store you had researched last night. It takes 15 minutes to reach said shop and Jaehyun parks the car before looking at you with concern evident on his face. “Y/n, you are sure about this right?” Smiling fondly at his worry, you keep your hand on his cheek “I’m sure Jae. Don’t worry.” One kiss is enough to relax him and you pull away before you get too carried away and end up dirtying his car again. Oops.

You enter the cosy shop hand-in-hand with Jaehyun and see someone sitting at the reception wearing an oversized blue shirt. Definitely not the vibes you had expected to get from a fucking tattoo parlour but oh well. You had expected everyone to be intimidating and were ready to hide behind Jaehyun as soon as you entered. But it seems as if that wasn’t happening because all you had deciphered from the shop called Inkphoric was that it was built in a way not to scare the people who had gathered the courage to even stop foot in it. 

The receptionist, she said her name was Nara, leads you both to a room in a corridor. Your hands are sweaty and thankfully she allows Jaehyun to go inside as well. When you’re seated on the chair comfortably, Jaehyun grabs a stool to sit beside you and you wait for the tattoo artist. The wait isn’t long because a minute later, a man who looks about your age is walking towards you all. His all black get-up matches the tattoos littering his arms and he also seems to have a piercing in his right ear, a silver dangling. 

“Hello, I’m Lucas. I’ll be tattooing…” he introduces himself and looks between the two of you, silently asking which one of you he would be tattooing. Honestly, you would have expected him to at least  know who he would be drawing on but quickly brush the thought off as you greet him, telling him that you would be the one getting the art onto her skin. He smiles cutely and nods, and you look at Jaehyun, his comforting smile relaxing your tense body. 

Nara talks to Lucas for a minute or so and then walks off, shooting you an encouraging smile before closing the door behind her. 

“So what is it that I’ll be tattooing onto you, ma’am?” Lucas speaks and you show him the image of the flower. Jaehyun is holding your left hand in his, the warmth seeping throughout your entire body and you’re grateful for Jae’s beautiful ability of being able to calm you down in only a matter of seconds- no matter how serious the situation would be. 

“Oh, that’s very pretty.” “Thank you.” you smile at him, and he prepares his stuff. You’re pulling down the hem of your shirt slightly and exposing part of your left collarbone, where you want your collarbone. 

Lucas says that he’s tracing the design out first and you wait patiently. 

“Now, don’t be scared. It’s gonna hurt at first, especially at the bone but it will soon go away. You can hold your boyfriend’s hand.” he instructs and gives you an encouraging look as Jaehyun moves to your  right to give Lucas space, his large hand completely enclosing yours. 

“Okay, here goes…” the sound of the gun whirring to life fills the room that has tattoo designs filling the wall. 

“Fuck!” your voice pierces through the air and you jolt from the sudden pain. It felt as if someone was impaling you with a sword- which was partly true- but they were doing it continuously. Jaehyun is shocked from your sudden movement and struggles to catch you in his arms. Lucas quickly tears the gun away from your neck and you whimper out, the pain searing through your entire being and Jaehyun tries shushing you, his attempts all going in vain. 

Shitshitshit. This is torture. It’s only the first touch of the needle against your skin and you’re already this close to crying. How the fuck do people get those huge ass tattoos?! Trying your best to calm down and ignore the pain spreading throughout your entire being, you squeeze Jaehyun’s hand hard enough for it to pain but you don’t really care at this point, the throbbing of your collarbone enough to send you flying. He’s stood up from the stool by now, standing behind you.

“Okay..sorry sorry, you can continue.” you whisper out and clamp your lips shut so as to not let out any more weird noises. You’re sweating by the time Lucas gets the gun closer to you and bite your tongue hard enough to draw blood when the feeling of the needle pressing against your skin fills you up again.

Holy heck, I can’t do this. 

Your face is an accurate representation of agony, your entire body tensing as Lucas tattoos your collarbone with his long hair slightly brushing against your neck. You try leaning your head back and lean against Jaehyun. He’s whispering soft comforting words as countless profanities leave your mouth and you feel sad for Lucas, having to hear the shit you were spewing. 

“It’s alright, baby. Just think about other things, happy things.” your boyfriend pecks your cheek and hugs you lightly, trying not to disturb Lucas.

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale inh-

“I think I just popped a boner.”

You gasp. Lucas chokes. He moves. You shriek.

“Ah, shit!” the gun’s needle scraped against your skin, it was all so sudden. The pain suddenly shoots throughout your entire body, tears filling your eyes. Nononono. 

“Jesus! It’s paining too much!” you’re sobbing by now, Lucas is frantic and Jaehyun..well..he is burning. He’s too busy regretting all his choices to even notice what’s happening around him. Jaehyun bends down to fix his problem and emerges 5 minutes later, when you’re still twisting in torment. Everything is red, your lip being abused by your teeth in order to calm down.

“Y/n! Ma’am! I’m so sorry! Shit, no!” Lucas apologises and sprints over to get a cloth to wipe something you feel trickling down your chest now. Blood. You’re bleeding. 

Writhing in agony in your seat, you clench your hands as if that would somehow reduce the sting, and pant, trying to relax. Your eyes are widened at an attempt of keeping it all in but the throbbing just doesn’t seem to dissipate.

Oh God…

Lucas is now carefully dabbing at the source of blood with panic written clearly all on his face. You look at Jaehyun through the ache to see that he is now coming back to reality and upon seeing your state, a gasp tears his throat and he’s looking at you with his eyes widened. 

The distress prevents you from speaking properly but you manage to call out, “J-Jaehy..Jaehyun.” Said man is desperately looking between your blood gushing out and your face twisted in discomfort. He figures it out and as soon as he does, takes your whimpering form into his, murmuring endless apologies and if you could, you would stop him from saying that but the sting is still there, only lessening a tad bit.

It’s hell, trying to clean the blood away and getting it sorted out. You cried a bit during the process as well but you were perfectly entitled to do that, the gun had pierced your skin quite deep when Lucas had jolted upon hearing what Jae suddenly said. 

30 minutes later, you’re hiccupping slightly and trying to breathe normally after the mad incident. Surprisingly, no one had come in during that time and you were thankful for that, not having wanted anybody to see the mess that had been caused because of Jaehyun’s unexpected confession. Speaking of which, you wince and turn around to look at him and when his eyes meet yours, ask him what he meant “What was that about you popping a boner?” the incredulity just hit you now and you wait for his response impatiently.

“Nothing babe...just forget it. I’m so sorry for saying it so randomly, though. I should’ve thought before speaking. I’m so careless.” the look on his face melts  and you are about to pull him into your chest when you realise that you can’t.

The pain has subsided by now, it’s bearable and you turn to look at Lucas who- when he catches your gaze- immediately walks over to you and starts speaking. “Ma’am, I’m so sorry! That was so sudden and I messed up your tattoo. It’s all my fault, please forgive me if possible.” he looks scared, and you understand why. He probably thinks you’ll sue him or something but you weren’t planning on doing anything of the sort. “It’s alright Lucas. I’m also not gonna tell anyone. We’ll just tell everyone that as soon as the gun touched me, I chickened out and told you to stop.” you keep your hand on his head that’s bowed and he looks up. There are tears brimming his eyes and you don’t know if it’s out of fear or the fact that he genuinely feels terrible for what he did. It really wasn’t his fault anywhere though. You didn’t understand why he was so stressed. 

“I’m sorry Lucas, I just said something stupid without even thinking before. You don’t need to take nay of the blame.” Jaehyun’s voice fills the room and Lucas’ features relax a little before he smiles forcefully. “Well, if your cuts get better, then maybe I can continue the design?” he jokes and you laugh along, knowing all too well that you wouldn’t be coming here again. Your first tattoo and this had happened.

“So do you wanna tell me about that boner-popping now? Lucas isn’t even here.” you’re sitting at the dining table, having just finished your dinner with empty bowls of pasta in front of each of you. Jaehyun shifts slightly in his seat and you wonder if you made him uncomfortable, although you don’t understand why- the reason couldn’t have been that  bad. As soon as you start to backtrack, Jaehyun’s voice is heard.

“Well..just..you know when you were getting the tattoo?” you nod slightly “Lucas was just, his black clothes..and he was bending over and I don’t know. You were whimpering..” “So the scene was too hot and you popped a boner?” you complete his sentence and he meekly nods before you’re howling with laughter, almost falling iff the chair and forgetting about the pain around your collarbone. The bisexual in Jaehyun was showing and he was afraid to admit it, you don’t now why. He had told you about this when you started dating, and you were totally fine with  it, because you knew that he wouldn’t cheat on you. 

“Hey..” your boyfriend half-heartedly attempts to stop you but you’re too far gone to realise that he may be feeling bad. When your laughing fit is over, though, you look at him for any trace of sadness but are relieved to see that he’s only blushing lightly, his dimples showing when he smiles. 

“So, do you wanna get a  tattoo now?” the answer is obvious, given the fact that today did not go as planned. You’re surprised when he answers.

“I don’t think so. My body is a shrine and a tattoo will take away its chastity.”

“Shrine indeed.”

Ty for reading! Yes lmao ik the ending is weird asf, as is the entire story, but nvm

Feedback is always appreciated!

this was supposed to be a drabble for jae’s birthday 😭excuse the typos they’re terrible and i’m literally the most impatient living being you’ll ever encounter

also, the shop name lmao i just got it from google- not creative i know

Tagging: @neoculturedtrash , @jeongjeffrey , @orange-lemon-cross , @nanasimp , @bluejaem​

[writteninkat]

iv - carnival tickets

word count: 2,246

warnings: mentions of blood and dead animals

"I'ma break you off, let me be your motivation"

index

Today was the day you and the rest of class 1A can finally try out their hero costumes. You smiled, looking at yourself in the mirror, giving yourself butterflies as you do so.

Your hero costume was a simple black bodysuit type. Garters attacked to the clothing helped keep your thigh high boots up. The top covered your entire arms, hands and fingers- you designed it this way so your palms wouldn’t be littered with callouses given that you deal with weapons like swords and scythes every time you use your quirk.

The bodysuit is a title neck type that showed off your shoulders. Your costume is finished off with a full face black kitsune mask with glowing blue paint around the eyes, it makes up the whiskers as well as a little nose of a fox.

You keep it up on your head, not wanting to put it on unless you're engaging in combat.

You close your locker, joining the girls who are hyping each other up in what they’re wearing. You all step out of the changing area and you can’t help but feel giddy as you approach your teachers, excited with the activities for today.

Everyone begins freaking out at the site of All Might- which you don’t get at all. He’s blond, has a freakish smile and a built body. So what? “Who’s he?” You whisper at Mina who looks at you as if you’ve grown two heads.

“What?”

You sigh, “Who’s he? And why is everyone freaking out about him?” You ask again and Mina gives you that same look, but much worse. She’s acting as if you’ve just asked a very stupid question. “That’s All Might.” She answers, tone unusually calm and soft.

“I meat who is he?”

“The number one hero.”

You furrow your brows, gaze scanning the man who’s busy talking in front of the awestruck class. You tilt your head to the side, “That’s your number one pro hero?” You ask, pouting.

“You sound a lot of things- underwhelmed? Disappointed? Dissatisfied?” Bakugou says from behind you, the look in his eyes catching you off guard. You pause for a moment, choosing your words carefully to make sure you’re not offending anyone who’s within earshot.

“You look up to him?” You ask and he raises a brow at you as if you’ve just asked the most obvious question in all time. “He’s been my hero since forever. I look up to him more than anyone in the world. He’s my inspiration and the one of the biggest contributors to my dream go being a hero.” Your eyebrows lift in shock, you’ve never heard nor seen Bakugou respect a person so much. And by the looks of Mina, Kirishima and Denki, they haven’t seen this side of him either.

Your heart breaks as you return your gaze to the number one hero in front of you, smiling sadly. You don't know how or why, but your judgement tells you that the seven-footer man in front of you isn't all that powerful- not anymore at least.

"Here's the breakdown. There will be four teams of two- half of them will be heroes and the other half will be villains. The hero team can win in two ways; you can either capture the villains or retrieve the bomb. The villain team wins if the hero team is unable to do any of the tasks within the time limit." He explains quite clearly and thoroughly.

You feel your heart beat against your chest, you're feeling very giddy. Your excitement causes Bakugou's lips to twitch upwards, carving out a soft smile to which he hides almodt immediately so no one can see him.

All Might pulls out a draw lots box, letting fate decide which teams everyone belong to. You end up being teammates with Aoyama and Mina who you happily greet.

Everyone is asked to stay inside a monitoring room to watch and observe their classmates in battle. When All Might announces Bakugou and Izuku's team being up first, you don't think before walking up to the blond and placing a hand on his shoulder. He turns his head to the side, raising an expecting brow.

"Good luck out there." You smile softly to which he scoffs at. "I don't need luck to win." He punches his palm as he sets of his quirk, "I already know I will."

You roll your eyes, walking towards Izuku to wish him good kuck as well before following the class to the monitor room. Your eyes scan over the wall of monitors, finding it closely similar to the monitor room your house has back in the US.

As you watch Bakugou and Izuku in battle, it's clear to see that there's something going on between them. There seems to be a conflict between them that you can't quite point and as much as you wanted to ask Bakugou about it, you decided to wait until he'd tell you.

Why on earth do you think he'd tell you?

You shake your head and clear your stupid thoughts, stepping away into a corner and sitting down to mentally prepare yourself. As you try to meditate, you don't realise how much time has went by until you're being called by All Might for your turn.

You scan the room but don't spot an angry blond nor an angel look-a-like green haired boy. You pout, hoping to at least see thosep pretty vermilion eyes before the activity.

As you take your steps towards the building, a small smile stretches across your lips when you see Bakugou's familiar back towards you, only for it to smile when you see just how upset he looks like.

"C'mon, Y/n! We're the villains right now we can't be late!!" Mina calls out to you, waving her hand up. You look back at Bakugo one last time, your gazes catching each other before you step inside the building, pulling your mask down to cover your face.

"Hey Mina? Can you let me take charge of our group?" You ask as the three of you make your way towards the room where the fake bomb is. "Alright! We'll be at your command!" She salutes to you a little too enthusiastically to which you chuckle softly at, making sure to smile with your eyes to make sure she sees you're smiling despite the mask covering your face.

After All Might makes sure each teams' statuses are a go, he commences the activity. "Alright. What would you like for us to do, captain?" Mina asks. You stay quiet for a moment, summoning two katanas in each of your hands. You move them around, making sure your wrists are loose and flexible before actually using them.

"You guys can stay still and guard the bomb." You say, adjusting your gloves before turning around to face the only entrance and exit of the room. "I'll have to go and hunt me some heroes."

"It's been a few minutes since they started and when Y/n suddenly disappeared like that. What do you think the villains are planning?" Tsuyu asks, eyes on the screen as the class continues to search for you in every monitor in the wall, but to no avail.

"I've been seeing a few mice here and there. Do you think that's Koda's doing?" Kirishima asks, to which Denki asks back, "Are the mice you see dead or alive?"

Kirishima furrows his brows at the blond, about to explain how the mice are alive but stops himself when he looks back at the screen and sees the mice he was looking at just a few seconds ago was now dead, body sliced in half. He checks the other monitors as well and his confusion rises even more at the sight of multiple dead mice all over the floors.

"Time is ticking, heroes. You better get to the bomb or if this was a real life situation it'd have blown up by now." All Might says into the mic which puts pressure on the two boys.

The class watches in anticipation as the two steps into a wide and open room, somewhere similar to where Bakugou and Izuku were fighting in a while ago.

"No one's here." Sato states, turning around. "Then, there should only be one room left-"

"Leaving so soon, heroes?" You ask, body leaning on the closed door with one foot pressed on it and your arms crossed across your chest.

Sato and Koda raise their guards, stepping into a fighting stance as theylook at you with such focused eyes. You chuckle, "Your little friends running around the building were pretty hard to find. Not to mention there were quite a handful of them which caused me to reach my speed quirk's limit."

"So it was Y/n who sliced all those rats? But we didn't see her at all. There were no movements in any of the cameras." Sero points out, confusion evident in his face. "Well, she did use her speed quirk. And if what she stated was true, then she'll be no longer to use that quirk of hers, at least during this fight." Iida voices out.

"Two guys against one girl? Isn't that too unfair for her?" Mineta asks, receiving a growl from Bakugou. "If you think her being a girl puts her at a disadvantage you're wrong. If you wanna be a hero, it doesn't matter what your gender is, as long as you're strong."

Despite being in a foul mood, Bakugou still found himself wanting to fight for you. He didn't like the thought of people lookibg down at him, but he found it weird how he preferred it when people not look down at you instead.

"Come on boys. I'll keep this quick and short for you so we can end this activity already." Fingerless boxing gloves appear in each of your hands, they're black but with neon blue accents. You get into a fighting stance, "I really hate sweating."

Sato charges at you, throwing a naive punch at your way to which you dodge easily- scoffing. What was he trying to do, intimidate a little child? As you moved your body to the side, dodging his immature punch, you punch him in the gut, eyes on Koda as you do this.

You hear Sato wheeze before his body falls to the ground. You crack your knuckles, walking towards Koda who begins to panic, using his quirk to call in all sorts of birds and squirrels.

"Koda, this is as scary as being chased by a street gang of kittens." You say, stepping towards him. You step to his side, bringing your hand up to his forehead and flicking it, the contact causing him to tremble before losing consciousness.

Your mother's body guard taught you this- it was a skill he said that most assassins he worked with knows about. He never clearly explained to you how to do it, but as long as your opponent had the slightest bit of fear for you, it will end up working. For Koda's case, he looked like he was about to piss his pants, so it worked out a little too well for you.

"Y/n's team wins this round." All Might announces as the rest of class 1A stands behind him, unsure of what they had just seen.

As the day comes to an end, you learn from Kirishima and Mina that Bakugou has been feeling off since the fight lately. "We tried to stop him from leaving, but he just wouldn't listen. Izuku went and ran after him too. If you go now you should be able to catch up to the both of them." Urataka explains, setting the stack of books she's carrying on a desk.

You run out of the classroom, jumping down flights of stairs to get to the entrance of the highschool as quickly as possible. By the time your eyes finally caught sight of the two boys, they were already talking with each other.

"I wasn't hiding my quirk from you. It was given to me by someone else, recently."

You raise your brows, quickly hiding yourself from the both of them. You place a finger gently on your lips as you stared at the floor, listening as Izuku explained to Bakugou.

The next thing you know it, Bakugou was now yelling at the green haired boy. He sounded so upset, as if he wanted to cry. It was clear as day that the blond didn't like losing, not to anyone and especially not to Izuku.

You took a peak, eyes widening as you see Katsuki Bakugou looking so vulnerable with tears in the corners of his eyes, his brows knitted from being so upset with himself. He walks away, slouching as he wipes his tears with the back of his hand.

You step out of your hiding spot, Izuku's expression growing nervous when he sees you. "O-oh hey, hey Y/n! I didn't... ummm... did you..." He looks down, scratching the back of his head. "Did you hear something?"

You stare him down for a moment, unsure of what to answer before sighing. "I'm not going to say anything to anyone nor ask you about it. But I will tell you this." Your words causes Izuku to look up at you in anticipation. "The second you master that power of yours, you have to fight me with everything you've got. Alright?"

Bakugou grumbles to himself, kicking at a rock, watching as it rolls into a canal. He huffs, annoyed. "I'd tell you you look ugly when you're mad, but then I'd be telling you you look ugly everyday." You yell at him from behind, causing him to turn around.

"School isn't over yet." Bakugou furrows his brows as he watches you make your way towards him. "And yet here we are." You point out, smiling as you put your hands behind your back.

He sighs, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "What do you want?"

You take out two pink carnival tickets from your pocket, shoving it at his face and waving it in front of him. "I've always went to this carnival with my mom back in the US and I'm feeling kind of homesick. I accidentally bought two tickets too so now you gotta go with me."

You begin to pull at him to which he pulls back, a bored expression resting on his adorable face.

Adorable?

"No." He grunts.

You smile at him, "I wasn't giving you a choice."

[shhhlikeme]

“Losty Aone” / “Losty Mountain Man🏔” Series:

Outtake Collection #10:

———————————

A/N: please reload if you saw this early! HAD TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH THIS ONE. Smh! Some fluff after so much smut, but the next outtake is a MUST read.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

———————————

6 Months Into Dating - Aone Introducing Y/N To His Pet Turtle 💚🐢💚

“Okay, you can open your eyes now.” Ordered your boyfriend kindly.

You quickly opened your eyes, immediately greeted with the most adorable sight in the world: your giant scary-looking mountain man holding a small shelled reptile in his both of his hands.

“Oh. My. God!” You yelled, hopping off Aone’s couch to run to him. Aone lowered his turtle so you could pet him and he watched your eyes fill with unmistakable adoration. You pet the reptile softly with your small index finger, and Aone noticed his turtle lean towards you automatically, just like he does whenever you touch him.

“He likes you.” Aone smirked.

You looked up at your boyfriend. “What’s his name! What’s his name! What’s his name!” You squealed, coming in close so that your nose was close to the turtles nose.

“Perdu.”

A/N: y’all know I speak French so search up what that means AHAHAHA

Also, if you haven’t had your daily dose of cute today google imagine search ‘aone turtle’ and see our baby!

I would have included a pic but not enough artist credit

You started jumping up and down out of excitement. “Ahhhhh! Hi Perdu!!!! I’m your new mama!”

Aone sucked in a breath at you calling yourself his pet turtle’s new mama. He always embarrassingly dreamed of having kids with you one day so it really hit him in the feels.

“He’s perfect. Can I hold him?”

Aone grunted and nodded.

“Can you show me how, Aone? I don’t want to hurt him.”

Aone gave you instructions and then placed the African Aquatic Sideneck Turtle in your hands. Takanobu stood there with his hands to his side like a lovesick idiot, watching you speak baby-talk to one of his best friends and just melting inside. He loved the fact that his love loved his other love. He was beaming.

“Hi Perdu! I am going to be taking care of you because daddy is going on a volleyball trip! But I promise you will have so much fun staying at my house!”

“I’m sure he will love staying with you, Y/N. He doesn’t like Kenji-san very much, bites him every time Futakuchi tries to pet him. You, he likes.”

Your eyes shone with pride as you cradled Perdu.

“Babe, he’s so cute!!!” You switched your expression to angry, glaring up at Aone. “Now Can I know why I’m just finding out about him now and why the hellyou hid him away in the basement when I came over?! 😡”

Embarrassed, Takanobu looked away. “Well.......”

You stared up at the white-haired beauty expectantly. “Welll.... what?”

“Well....... I um, I didn’t want you to think I was weird. For having a pet turtle.”

Your jaw dropped. “What! Excuse me?!”

Aone frowned, looking at the floor. “I apologize Y/N, Kenji even said that if you didn’t like Perdu then you may not be the one for me—but—I didn’t want to risk anything..... I didn’t want to risk you thinking I was odd and then not giving me a chance.”

Your face softened, hearing your boyfriend’s insecure thoughts.

☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️

“Aone baby, come here.” You used one arm to cradle Perdu then used your other hand to lead your boyfriend to his living room couch so he could sit down. When he did, you sat in his lap, so that he was behind you, looking down at your son together.

“Aone, you make me so happy. I think of you some days and think that you’re too good to be true.”

Aone’s eyes widened over your shoulder. “Really??”

You nodded earnestly, going back to petting Peru softly on his head. “Can we talk? I think it’s time.” You said and Aone felt his heart drop. He knew what this conversation was going to be: and while he didn’t dread it per se, it was kind of embarrassing— and he just hoped you didn’t scare easily.

“Yes, we may talk, I’ll just put Perdu back in his tank for a bit.” You kissed your boyfriend’s cheek and got up to hand him your son. “Don’t forget to change his water tank, it’s been 2 hours!” You called as he made his way downstairs.

Aone stopped, turning back to look at you with admiration in his eyes. You remembered everything about Perdu already: it made him fall in love with you even more.

“Well done, Y/N. I will. I’ll be back in 10 minutes.”

10 Minutes Later - Aone Embarrassingly Telling You About The Things He Did When He Was Crushing On You :/

When you two were settled back on the couch, Aone sat far away from you as if you had cooties. Knowing that your bf was just uncomfortable with this convo, you did what you always did and crawled over to him, climbing into your favourite spot on his lap so you were sitting on him sideways like:

This position had a way of instantly calming him down as he loved having you so close. You saw him visibly relax. Good. You took a deep breath and turned his chin so that he was looking at you.

“Aone. I’ve always wondered—did I do something when we weren’t together? Like is there something I did that made you feel like you couldn’t just approach me, say hi?”

Aone blushed, then shook his head. “No, not particularly.”

You knew there was more he wanted to say he was just being shy. “Go on.......... I promise not to judge you. I’m here to stay.” You leaned in to kiss your boyfriend’s lips, knowing that he was terrified of you finding him creepy and deciding to leave. You had to reassure him that that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Mountain believed you, and hearing your reassurance gave him the confidence he needed to begin:

“Y/N. I need you to somehow understand that you weren’t just some ‘crush’ to me. Not in the amateur sense like the way Katana is crushing on Futakuchi, or Koganegawa’s crush on Kusa. I mean yes, I was definitely crushing on you, but I realized early on that it was.....different. It was a bit more than that. It is like this: You were—are—my dream girl. Like, if I had never met you and someone asked me to describe my ideal woman, I would have described you......to a T. So, when I saw you for the first time at the pep rally, my mind went: thats her. That’s the perfect girl.”

You melted, listening intently and trying not to interrupt by jumping him. He continued.

“So, you kind of startled me. Because everyone always thinks their ‘dream person’ is just that....a dream.....right? They seem very unattainable. Very intimidating. Not to mention I am not one to approach a woman. And then add the fact that you’re one of the most popular females in our grade, plus you don’t notice me despite the fact that—according to Futakuchi and Koganegawa—I was painfully obvious in my pining—combining all of those factors, it was hard to just one day go up to you and ‘say hi.’” He stared at your thighs, beginning to draw random designs on them. “However, I wanted to. Every time I saw you I wanted to go over and introduce myself and ask you if I could walk you home but.......” he sighed. “I guess I was too cowardly.”

You went: 🥺🥺🥺🥺 grabbing Aone’s face and showering it with kisses, making his heart race.

“Oh, Aone, I wish you approached me baby. You were in pain—“

“Pain? Only at certain points. Actually, for the most part I was rather happy to be crushing on you. You made my everyday better. As soon as I began having feelings for you seeing you in the halls was like being presented with tickets to my favourite sporting event! I looked forward to class because you would be there, meaning I could hear more about you and see you smile. I’ll admit I stared at you quite a lot.....but it was because you were always smiling with your friends and that smile alone brightened my week, too.”

You heart clenched. “That’s so sweet Baby. But then when were those painful moments?”

Aone frowned, recalling the memories. “Uhhh......when you were seeing that baseball player.”

You scoffed. “Ew I was never seeing that fuckboy—“

“—And when you asked the teacher who on earth I was.”

“What?!” You gasped.

Aone peaked up at you, not wanting you to feel bad. “Please, don’t feel bad now, Y/N..... it’s not your fault my presence wasn’t really on your....”

“I did?! When ?!”

Aone sighed and shyly told you the story about how he had slowly packed his books so he could eavesdrop on you/his crush’s academic conversation. He explained how what happened when the teacher suggested him made him lovesick for a while.

“Ohhhh, my poor baby......” mortified, you put your head in your hands and shook your head. “I’m so stupid! I’m so sorry! please..... oh God and you were right behind me?! That is so unbelievably rude of me! What the hell did you see in me!” You we’re MORTIFIED.

Aone placed his hands around your wrists , gently prying your hands away from your beautiful face. He leaned in so that you were looking at him. “Y/N. my intention is to not make you feel bad about any of this. You didn’t know I was there, and you didn’t know who I was. I didn’t even try to get you to notice me, not really. If anything you asking who I was that day probably subconsciously pushed me to defend you against Tsume Lian weeks later. Everything happens for a reason.”

Still mortified, you nodded, looking down.

Aone was desperate to cheer you up because that frown of yours tugged on his heartstrings more than anything else in the world:

“When I was crushing on you, and you were a genie on Halloween, I was the one who donated 106,000 yen on behalf of our volleyball team.”

You snapped your head up, eyes wide and hit your boyfriend on his chest. “YOU DID WHAT!”

He rewarded you with a chuckle. “I’m so embarrassed right now. I’m sorry. I just wanted you and the team......but mostly you.......not to struggle.”

“Aone Takanobu! You mean to tell me that you were a perfect boyfriend to me before you were even my boyfriend?!”

Aone shrugged, kissing your cheek and turning red. He’s glad that his embarrassing admission made that frown leave your face. Worth it. “Futakuchi seemed to think so. And while we are admitting things..... and Koganegawa already exposed your birthday plans...... I also feel inclined to tell you that your Halloween costume last year made me weak.”

You pouted out of sheer adoration for your boyfriend! “What! Really?! The genie thing?! You liked it?”

Aone nodded, feeling himself get a semi just by remembrance. “We had a math test that day and I almost failed for the first time. I couldn’t stop looking at you. I’m sorry please don’t think I am one of those perverted boys. I just couldn’t help it.......”

Feeling aroused by the idea of you arousing your boyfriend in class, you moved to straddle him and gave him a deep kiss. Aone moaned into the kiss and pulled you closer, internally joyous that you weren’t running away after all he’d admitted to you.

You both pulled away at the same time, trying to catch your breath. You leaned your forehead on his.

“Aone, I think it’s adorable that you liked me for so long. I’m kinda kicking myself because if I wasn’t so lost and just noticed you, we would’ve been together way longer now.”

“No! Please don’t feel bad.” He begged, “Time with you since that day with Tsume has been the best part of my entire life. It may come off as pathetic, but.......when you spend time with me—no, when you simply smile at me not anyone else.....it makes up for the years I spent hopelessly pining and dreaming about you.”

You smiked, deciding to tease your boy because a word he’d said spiked your interest. “Dreaming about me....huh?” You raised your eyebrows.

Aone flushed—he really walked into that one—then shook his head firmly. “Yes. But before you ask any more questions: the answer is absolutely not. I am not telling you about my wet dreams about you, Y/—“

You eyes widened. 👀 “WAIT, WET dreams?!?!?! As in the things I did in your dream made you cum in real life?!?!”

Because he hadn’t realized what he said, Aone stopped breathing. He stood up abruptly with you in his arms, leaning down to place you on the couch. Looking anywhere but at you, Takanobu tried to come up with a reason to escape. He looked so fucking cute so-crippling shy you were going to combust!

“I m-must take Perdu out f-for a walk, now.” He said awkwardly, clearly making something up to get himself out of that one.

Your eyes twinkled. “Aone baby, I think it’s cute......”

Aone looked at you in horny disbelief. “.....Hm..... y-y-y-you do?”

You smiled, taking his hand. “Sure. I just want to know what you dreamed about so I can make the real-thing that much better......” you said seductively, leaning in to ghost a kiss over his pants where his dick is. “I’d love to act out one of your dream sequences right now, before I go....” you bit you lip while batting your eyelashes at him.

Aone bit back a moan, immediately growing hard. He wanted to tell you that real-you always felt better, but he couldn’t think straight. “Yes. Yes, If y-you’d li-like....... 😩 I’m powerless to resist you.”

You stood up happily, still holding Aone’s hand, and lead him back to his bedroom. “Look on the bright side babe,” you squeezed his hand. “When Perdu grows up you can have a father son chat with him when you tell him from experience that dreams really do come true.”

While Aone was relieved because the conversation he’d been so scared to have ended up being taken light heartedly and fun, he’d soon come to regret having it at all.

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Taglist: @crushzone @galagcica @chaichai-the-weeb @nairobiisqueen @bisasterrr @juminly

A/N: hold onto your seats folks. Last outtake post next! ....and you’re going to want to read it.

Outtake #11: CLICK HERE

[smollestnerd]

XigXem SFW Headcanons

I love doing these to get ideas for headcanons I wouldn’t normally consider, and since I finished filling these out today I thought I’d share! Borrowed from the @otp-imagines-cult post here!

(Just a heads-up, this is a messy mashup of canon-compliant and modern au headcanons)

1: Who spends almost all their money on the other?

Xemnas spends so much money on Xigbar. He doesn't even try to say no at this point, he knows Xig will get his way.

Xigbar sometimes feels guilty about how much Xemnas spends on him, but those feelings fade as soon as Xem comes back from shopping with bags full of gifts for Xig.

2: Who sleeps in the other’s lap?

Xigbar sleeps in Xemnas’s lap. It's rare that it's the other way around, usually only if Xem is extremely tired or upset (he'll fall asleep while being comforted and held of course).

3: Who walks around the house half-naked and who yells at them to put on some clothes?

They both do. Well, Xigbar runs around HALF naked, Xemnas is just full frontal at any given point if they’re home alone. Xig will tell him to cover up, but he doesn't ever mean it.

When they have guests, Xigbar is fully clothed 100% of the time. Xemnas, though? There’s always at least a 10% chance he’ll forget wearing a shirt is a thing people expect from him. Everyone is either too afraid or horny to tell him to put one on, thus the responsibility falls on Xigbar to tell him. (Again, about a 10% chance he’ll “forget” to tell him to put on a shirt.)

4: Which one tells the other not to stay up all night and which one stays up all night anyway?

Bold of you to assume they both don't have 11pm bedtimes.

But every so often Xemnas will lose himself in his work and suddenly it's 3am.

5: Which one tries to make food for the other but burns it all by accident and which one tells them that it’s okay and makes them both cookies?

Xigbar is forbidden from cooking anything that isn't microwaveable.

Xemnas's fallback career was fancy chef if “Superior of the In-Between” didn’t work out.

6: Which one reads OTP prompts and says “Oh that’s us!” and which one goes “Eh, not really”?

Neither, but only because neither of them are very online. I think if they were though, Xemnas would see their relationship in everything but not say anything out loud. He just smiles to himself and moves on.

7: Which one constantly wears the other’s clothes?

Xigbar is an accomplished hoodie thief. Xemnas wears Xig’s croptops sometimes to work out in, but always returns them when he's done.

8: Which one spends all day running errands and which one says “You remembered [thing], right?”

Xemnas is usually the one running errands, but he rarely forgets anything on the list. Xigbar always asks if he remembered everything, though, just to soothe his own anxiety, and quietly hoping to catch Xemnas slipping up so he has something to tease about.

9: Which one drives the car and which one gives them directions?

Xigbar drives ever since Xemnas got his license suspended for running too many red lights.

Or; Xig drives like a maniac and Xem is just so used to it he doesn't even bother to insist on driving anymore (unless he's the designated driver, which usually he is). Xem is lowkey surprised Xig has a clean driving record.

10: Which one does the posing while the other one draws?

Xemnas poses, Xigbar draws. Xig’s had plenty of lifetimes to perfect his hobbies, and even though he hasn't had time for them in a while, it doesn't take long for him to get back into the swing of things. What better way to capture his lover's radiance than through charcoal drawings and oil paints?

Plus, Xemnas absolutely adores the attention. He just basks in the glory of another being finding him beautiful enough to immortalize on canvas.

11: If they were about to rob a museum, which one does backflips through lasers and which one is strolling behind with a bag of chips?

I want to say Xemnas is the super cool backflip guy and Xigbar is the one with the chips, but honestly? It's the other way around. Xig likes to show off in front of his man, and who could blame him?

12: Which one of your OTP overdoes it on the alcohol and which one makes the other stop drinking?

Xemnas overdoes it. He doesn't drink nearly as often as Xigbar does, so he doesn't exactly know his limits. Xig tries to keep his eye on him and make sure he doesn't drink too much, but unfortunately Xem is REALLY good at acting sober, so Xig never realizes Xem has overdone it until its too late.

He takes really good care of Xemnas, though, no matter how drunk he is himself.

13: Which one likes to surprise the other with a lot of small random gifts?

Xemnas and Xigbar both surprise each other quite often. Xigbar gives Xemnas little things like seashells and shiny baubles he finds on missions/outings that he thinks Xemnas will like for his office shelves. Xemnas sends Xigbar flowers when he senses Xig having a bad day, and buys him every new book that Xigbar expresses even a passing interest in.

14: Which one keeps accidentally using the other’s last name instead of their own?

Xemnas. He's definitely the romantic here. He's got an Entire Notebook filled with different combinations of their names squashed together.

Xigbar is lowkey terrified of major commitment. He'd say yes if proposed to of course, but he'd never offer himself up like that.

15: Which one screams about the spider and which one brings the spider outside?

Xemnas saves it, Xigbar just squishes it. Neither are afraid but they have different approaches to dealing with bugs.

16: Which one gives the other their jacket?

On most cold days you can find Xigbar wearing a too-big leather coat and Xemnas in naught but a t-shirt or turtleneck.

17: Who keeps getting threatened by the other’s overprotective older sibling?

Ansem tried. He tried so hard. But he severely underestimated Xigbar’s resistance to intimidation tactics.

18: Who’s the first one to admit they have feelings for the other?

Xemnas. He planned out a whole mega-elaborate date for the two of them, and confessed his love for Xigbar.

Xigbar: "Wait we weren't dating already??"

19: How good would your OTP be at parenting?

They would make fantastic fathers, they'd care about their kids so much. But christ alive that household would be chaotic as all fuck.

20: Which one types with perfect grammar and which one types using numbers as letters?

Xemnas used to type with perfect grammar and spelling until he learned about text lingo. "It's more efficient, Xigbar, I am a busy man and don't have time to type everything out." It's a damn lie, though, he just thinks it's neat.

Hell will freeze over the day that Xemnas uses an emoji.

Xigbar relies on emojis and autocorrect and if it doesn't catch a typo or he sends the wrong emoji, “Oh well.”

21: Who gets attacked by a bully and who protects them?

The bully gets attacked by them.

22: Who makes the bad puns and who makes a pained smile every time the other makes a pun?

Xigbar is the pun king. Genuinely funny. “10/10 would hear again.” -Xemnas, probably

Xemnas tries sometimes, bless his soul. Xigbar just doesn't have it in him to tell him they're bad.

23: Who comes home from work to see that the other one bought a puppy?

To Xigbar's dismay, this has happened more than once. He's the dad that is against the pet but ends up loving it, and Xemnas just can't resist bringing home strays.

They have 2 big dogs, a little dog, and a cat, and have fostered a few puppies and old, sickly cats here and there.

24: Which one gives the other a piggyback ride when they’re tired?

When Xemnas gets too drunk to stand, Xigbar will give him a piggyback ride, but he never tells him the next day. Xemnas is too prideful and would be very ashamed to hear of it. Plus, Xigbar kinda likes keeping those moments between them to himself; like a secret he’s keeping safe for a special occasion.

Xigbar will ask for piggyback rides all the time, and Xemnas is happy to indulge him.

25: Which one competes in some sort of activity and which one does the overzealous cheering?

When Xemnas cheers for Xigbar, it's less overzealous and more normal cheering, it's just that Xemnas' voice is booming and carries over the rest of the crowd with ease.

(Don’t ask me what competitive activity Xigbar does, for I Do Not Know)

26: Who takes a selfie when the other one falls asleep on their shoulder?

They both do. The main difference is that Xemnas focuses the camera on Xigbar, and Xigbar gets them both fully in the shot.

27: Which one would give the other a makeover if they asked?

Both of them would be willing to give the other a makeover, but neither of them have asked.

But! Xemnas does Xigbar’s makeup sometimes, and Xigbar has bought his own style of clothes for Xemnas on a few occasions, just to see what he’d look like.

(Unrelated sidenote: they have matching onesies with cat ears and a tail that Xigbar refuses to wear unless he has to, or unless Xem asks him while Xig is wasted)

28: Which one owns a pet that the other is absolutely terrified of?

Before they moved in together, Xigbar refused to go inside Xemnas's house unless his husky was in the backyard. He got used to her over time, and now Xemnas sometimes comes home to them asleep cuddling on the couch.

Xemnas was never actually afraid of Xigbar's beloved corn snake, but he wasn't a fan either. He’d hold him, but he wasn’t thrilled about it.

29: Which one holds the umbrella over both of them when it rains?

Xemnas holds the umbrella, Xigbar holds the Xemnas

30: If your OTP went on vacation, where would they go and what would they do? Who would take the pictures?

In a canon setting they’d go worldhopping for a week, but in a modern au they'd take trips every year to cities and small remote locations around the world.

They've never been properly camping though. Xemnas refuses.

Their first trip together was small, just to a little known beach on the west coast. They lounged on the beach most of the time, and every night they ate at a different food truck. The last night they were there Xemnas surprised Xigbar with reservations for the fanciest 5-star restaurant in the city.

Xigbar thought he took all the pictures until he was going through them after the trip, only to find over half the memory card filled with photos of himself that Xemnas took when he wasn't looking

[changingthelights]

Green Grass and High Tides

Only a few days out to sea was all it took for Cam to start getting antsy in his secret hideaway. A rarely used storage room in the ship provided excellent cover, and a few shifted barrels meant Cam had a hidden place to sleep and squirrel away whatever food he could swipe from the kitchen. Yes, a few of the crew were suddenly missing pillows and a blanket, but Cam kept his thievery to a minimum so he didn't draw attention to himself. It was easy enough to avoid the crew when all he had to do was slip through an opening he'd created in the floor or the wall, and the rest was keeping to the shadows. He'd listened to more than a few of his father's 'private meetings' while hiding in the rafters of his office, so doing the same in this ship was easy.

Unfortunately, hiding for this long was Cam's problem. He was an extrovert- he loved people, he loved talking, and he especially loved sunlight, all of which were unavailable while hiding in the darkest parts of a vessel this size. The closest he came to fresh air was the kitchen, further up the ship, and even that was at night when there was no sunlight to be found. On top of that, he had no idea how long this ship planned to be at sea. The uncertainty made the silence all the more maddening, but then he considered the alternative. The silence, as much as the consistent creaking and groaning of a ship could be silent, wasn't so bad when the other choice meant he was in chains in some rich bastard's basement. Some solitude might be exactly what he needed to formulate a plan, or so he told himself, and he pulled the blanket tighter around him.

-----

Adrik didn't often wander this deep into the ship, but the particular barrel the cook asked for weighed quite a bit, and having supernatural strength meant he was one of the go-tos for such a job. He didn't mind, it gave him a break from the usual chores of the ship, and he liked the silence that came with the storage rooms. Any outside noise, the activity of the crew members or sounds of the sea, were all blocked out when you came this far down, and it was a good place to relax when Adrik needed it.

The werebear quickly found the room he needed, and it took only a minute of searching to find the barrel. As he placed his hands on the unit in question, he froze as a bright green flick of something long and prehensile flashed around the edge of a nearby container. At first he thought it might have been a trick of the magically flickering lights, until it swayed lazily back into view a moment later. It was definitely a tail, the shape of which he couldn't place. Adrik watched a series of mirrored appendages – they almost looked like long, dark green scales – flex along the tip.

Curiously, Adrik peered over the first line of barrels, and he was startled to find a man fast asleep among the supplies. How this man had evaded the crew up until now, Adrik had no clue, but even more curious was the rest of the stowaway's appearance. On top of a bright green tail, long, black horns arched back from the corners of his forehead, and twisted away from his head towards the ends. His hair was about shoulder length and tucked loosely back into a pony tail, and upon closer inspection Adrik realized it was two different tones of green, split down the center. The ends of his fingers looked as if they were stained black, and his nails curled into dark claws.

The longer Adrik stared, the more oddities Adrik noticed. The tattered clothes of a noble were the last thing he would expect. Yet, the vest the man wore, though damaged and smudged with dirt, bore intricate designs stitched in gold thread. His blouse, if it didn't have a tear in the arm stained with blood, would have been of high quality, along this his mud-covered trousers and knee-high riding boots. This man had been in some sort of tussle, and Adrik could make a few, though speculative, guesses as to what might make a creature like him desperate enough to stow away on a ship.

What an odd one. Adrik thought to himself as he watched the man sleep, and he wondered just how long the wound on his arm had been left to fester. It'd probably need some cleaning....

It was about this time another of the crew came looking for Adrik, having been sent by the cook when Adrik didn't return in a timely manner. He wasn't known to dawdle, so he knew someone would be sent after him if he waited long enough. As soon as the door opened behind him, Adrik turned, and he placed a hand over the crew mate's mouth to silence her.

“Shhh,” Adrik whispered as he held a finger to his lips, and the young woman's eyes widened in surprise. “We have a stowaway,” Adrik gestured vaguely behind him. “Tell the captain that I will be up with him shortly.” The woman seemed confused but she nodded, and Adrik turned back to the man in question as she left the room.

Another moment of contemplation, and Adrik grabbed a length of rope off a hook on the wall. Then he reached behind the barrels, grabbed the man by the scruff of the neck, and hauled him up an onto the top of a nearby crate.

Cam woke with a start as the world tilted, and he felt himself being moved by a force he had no chance of stopping. He grunted as his chest hit wood, and he fruitlessly struggled to free his hands from the vice grip pinning them to his back.

“H-hey!” he cried out as rope replaced the grip on his wrists. By the time the world stopped spinning and he finally had his bearings, the rope had made it's way around his forearms, trapping them against his sides. “S-stop– no! I– I can explain-!” he squirmed, but he stopped as the rope suddenly tightened, almost painfully, around his wrists.

“We do not take kindly to stowaways,” Adrik rumbled, putting on an act as best his stoicism would allow. Compared to most pirate ships, this was arguably the one most likely to be lenient with stowaways, depending on the circumstance, but intimidation was all a part of the information gathering process. Thankfully, this man couldn't see the amused smirk on Adrik's lips from where he was bent over the crate, and Adrik intended to keep it that way. With an easy pull he grabbed the rope at the center of Cam's back and lifted, and Cam yelped in surprise as he suddenly found himself hoisted into the air. While Cam was rather slippery, his kicking legs and flailing tail forced Adrik to make a concerted effort to keep Cam suspended at his side, Adrik's grip remained firm. He walked Cam up to the top of the ship, maintaining silence despite Cam's occasional plea, and he stopped just in front of the door to the captain's cabin.

If this had been any other situation, Cam would have basked in his reunion with fresh air and sunlight. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by an intense dread that increased with each ascending step.

It was over. He'd been caught. Pirates like money, right? It'd be easy enough for them just to sell him off to Hannigan – and that disgusting bastard was likely to pay a pretty penny if they turned him in. Or, they might just sell him off to whoever wanted him. Even if the buyer didn't know what Cam was, he looked odd enough that by appearance alone he'd be interesting to a collector. He could try to escape once they were close enough to land – but if Hannigan or another trader got to him before that....

By the time they came to a stop, Cam's entire visage had visibly drooped, and it was then Adrik took note of the young man's ears. They were shaped almost like that of a donkey, only these protruded from the sides of his head instead of the top. A small small layer of black fur coated the outside, and based on their downward angle it looked as if Cam had lost some of the fight he had when Adrik first woke him up. He no longer wiggled against Adrik's grip, and his tail hung limply between his legs.

Then Adrik knocked, and, as if summoned by the sound, a sudden spark returned to Cam.  He stiffened in his bonds and steeled himself for whatever would happen next. Even if he was caught, and becoming a pretty piece in some sicko's collection was his inescapable fate, he could go down fighting. Cam wouldn't make selling him easy, that much he promised himself.

Cam writhed against his bonds one last time as he was hauled into the room, and he only caught a glimpse of a garishly decorated red and gold rug before he was dropped unceremoniously into a plush red couch.

For a moment Cam looked past the man in front him, presumably the captain, because he was distracted by the...almost gaudily opulent decorations of gold and red that covered the entire room. If it didn't all work... somehow– Cam would call it ridiculously out of place. It took another moment for Cam to peel his vibrant green eyes away from intricate gold furnishings, and through a few loose strands of green hair he finally focused a sharp glare on the captain.

His glare faltered.

Shit. He was hot. Really hot, and Cam made no attempt to hide the way his eyes traveled down the line of the v-in the captain's dark shirt, down to his navel. It wasn't his fault, who wore shirts where the neck dipped so low?! Cam's own shirt was partially opened, stopped only by the edges of his vest, but he'd never worn something that obscene. Unless it was in bed. It didn't help that the man was also covered in tattoos, and that made Cam want to use seeing the hidden parts as an excuse to get the captain undressed.

Before Cam could stop himself, he gave the captain a full once-over. His ears perked up, his tail flicked playfully behind him, and his next words followed like a reflex.

“At least buy me dinner first,” he smirked to mask the fear clawing at his chest, “I don't usually start out with hardcore bondage on a first date.”

[lwjstiletto]

wangxian au where lwj is a popular hand model and wwx is an independent jewellery maker [Part 2]

[Part 1]

their monthly sibling catch-up jenga ruins wwx’s plans to mope for the foreseeable future.

jc is concentrating very hard on wiggling a piece out and wwx would usually make fun of him but he can only conjure enough energy to pull out the easy looking pieces today so he has no high ground.

“name 3 good things that happened to you.” jc frowns as he reads the wooden cuboid, “like ever? or in the last month?”

jyl doesn’t quite give him a look, but a slight downturn of her lip still gets the point across.

jc sighs, “an old student of mine opened a gallery, xichen and i went for brunch and wei wuxian hasn’t bothered me in a while. what’s up with that by the way?”

“my turn.” wwx says unenthusiastically and pulls a loose jenga piece. ‘how is your love life?’ it reads. can jenga be rigged? it has to be rigged.

“you know we’re allowed to ask questions outside the jenga right?” jc snaps.

wwx knows. wwx also knows that the jenga questions were only introduced by jyl to stimulate conversation between an angry jc and a stubborn wwx when he’d come back two years ago from his apprenticeship abroad.

but wwx also doesn’t want to talk about his humiliating interaction with the man who his brother had called ‘wangji’. he even has a nice name. why is wwx’s life so hard?

“a-xian,” jyl starts, “are you alright?”

wwx looks at her with a pout, “how can i be when we’ve not seen each other for weeks? i missed you.”

jyl smiles indulgently, “i missed you too. next time you should come with me, lotus pier seems empty without you two.”

jc looks like he wants to prod wwx more but then he looks over at wwx’s jenga piece and starts to laugh. wwx hates it here.

—•—

lwj wears gloves when he’s not working to shield his hands from things like tanning, small scratches, drying out etc. any normal person would overlook these as minuscule imperfections but it could put him out of his job for weeks

he has custom made moisturising cotton gloves that he wears during the night; and thicker cotton or leather gloves for the day, depending on the weather

at first, he had found this incredibly bothersome. a month or so into it he stopped noticing them and suffered through various incidents where he tried to eat with gloves on or, on a particularly horrifying occasion, wash his hands with them.

but now, he has begun to indulge. he buys gloves in materials which are impractical, which he can only wear when he has nowhere to go and nothing to do.

there are the pastel lace gloves that draw patterns from his fingers up to his elbows, the white satin ones with frills, and finally the fingerless black gloves made of supple, soft leather.

(for ref)

they make him feel a certain type of way that he is too embarrassed to put in words, so he doesn’t.

he puts them away in a drawer on the furthest corner in his wardrobe that he only opens when he needs a confidence boost or after a particularly tiring shoot

today happens to be the latter, except it has been multiple tiring shoots and while his muscles aren’t aching anymore, he still feels like he deserves something nice.

he retrieves a new pair of leather gloves that have an adjustable belt at the wrist. he tightens the strap to the point that he can’t move his hand too much without it hurting. he hums, a pleased sound escaping his lips, and finally lets himself go

—•—

wwx has spent the last hour answering nhs’ questions about his business, future plans and why he wants to work with lan wangji (who is apparently a hand model? and a super successful one at that???)

wwx answers to the best of his abilities as his head spins from the turn of events and the recent information that has come to light. it’s- a lot.

finally nhs nods and picks up his phone to call someone.

“not presentable... what does that- it doesn’t matter, i’m not calling you here for a shoot. just come here and i will explain.” with that nhs hangs up the phone as if someone would have jumped through it otherwise

wwx, who has finally managed to absorb everything, asks, “was that lan wangji?”

nhs just smiles cryptically. wwx’s question is answered soon enough though, as lwj walks into the office twenty minutes later. he blinks at wwx but does not show any other outword reaction as he takes a seat

nhs begins to speak, “i have spoken to wei-xiong and come to the conclusion that he is not stalking you.”

lwj looks at wwx and then back at nhs, not quite an eyebrow-raise but as close to it as it gets.

“wei-xiong wants you to model for him. i will let you two speak for a while. there is no pressure, just a light discussion.” nhs says and then skips out before any of them can stop him

the air in the room gets significantly more tense. lwj’s expression is blank and when wwx can’t look at it anymore, he decides to look at his crossed arms instead

“holy shit dude, are you ok?” wwx shouts, alarmed at the bruised red marks lining lwj’s wrist where it pokes out of his long sleeved sweater

lwj looks down at it, seemingly horrified, and pulls his sleeves down before wwx can get a better look.

“are you... hurt?” wwx asks gently.

lwj shakes his head. “i’m fine.”

he sounds like he’s telling the truth. this immediately short circuits wwx’s brain because.. why else are there bruises on his wrists... what else could possibly... oh my god he likes to be tied up, wwx’s brain supplies

thankfully he manages to keep the thought to himself this time. lwj still looks at him like he heard it all the same.

“you are not stalking me.” lwj states.

“not really? i mean not for the reasons you think.” wwx cringes at himself. but lwj hasn’t walked away yet which means he must be willing to hear him out this time.

“to be honest i’ve been in a bit of a slump these past few months. i saw you at the university and wanted to work with you, i had no idea you were a hand model. i didn’t even know that was a thing.” wwx says.

lwj scrutinises him for a few seconds then nods. “thank you for explaining.”

lwj clearly sees this as the end of the conversation but wwx doesn’t want him to leave again so he starts to talk about the hand chains he has been working on the past few weeks, pulling out his phone to show lwj pictures of a few.

wwx is with his jewellery how new parents are with their babies. he has been gushing about the complicated silver work that he plans to refine over the next few days when he looks up to see lwj’s face inches from his.

lwj is looking at his phone, seemingly absorbing his words, because when wwx pauses lwj looks at him as if to ask him to continue. wwx gulps. being on the receiving end of such undivided attention, no less from such a beautiful man, is almost intimidating.

then lwj blinks again and the spell is broken.

wwx straightens up, “ah sorry for rambling.”

“if we were to work together,” lwj starts, “what would it entail?”

the implication that lwj is seriously considering working with him, a small business beneath his usual collaborations, is both flattering and slightly unreal.

“i would need you to come in to take measurements, maybe a couple of photographs so i can have refrence to your skin tone and bone structure when designing.” wwx says, voice professional.

“my... are you making these specifically for me?” lwj tilts his head, a gesture so adorably confused that wwx wants to coo.

wwx rubs his nose, “more like i’m using you as a reference? having a clear picture in my head helps kickstart my creations. once i have cohesion within my designs it’s easy to expand my range from there if that makes sense.”

lwj nods, looking contemplative. “won’t you need me to try them?”

wwx nods, seeing them on someone is usually important. after all, jewellery is made to be worn. “you’ll need to come to my workshop for that though, so i can make minor adjustments on the spot. my thoughts tend to run away from me sometimes and i forget half my observations as i work. it won’t be often though, i’ll only call you in when necessary. and if you’re too busy then we can always reschedule.” wwx says.

“you are too accommodating.” lwj says, “in this industry, you shouldn’t be.”

wwx feels a little stricken by the statement. he laughs nervously, “it’s not like i can have you sit there for hours while i work.”

“if it makes it easier for you, then you should. i’m used to holding still.” lwj says, serious.

“is that an offer?” wwx raises an eyebrow. because this whole discussion certainly sounds like they’re making a deal.

lwj turns his head to the side and the loose strands of his hair swish with the movement. it’s such a graceful motion that wwx thinks he has surely practiced this before.

when he turns back, wwx notices he’s holding a business card out towards wwx. “you can contact my agent about my scheduling. my number is only for emergency appointments in case you need them.”

wwx is speechless. he cannot believe he actually pulled this off what the fu—

he’s still feeling thunderstruck when he gets home. with numb fingers, he has managed to program lwj’s number into his phone because he knows he’ll lose the card sometime soon. his contact name is just ‘💅🏻’

it’s both because wwx thinks lan wangji is too formal, and because he has an undeniable urge to see his nails painted.

it’s just so he can know what colours and gemstones would suit him of course. the thought that probably everything would suit lwj is firmly shut down and pushed at the back of wwx’s head.

—•—

lwj gets a call at 6am the next morning. he doesn’t know why but he immediately thinks of wwx. it turns out to be nmj

“wangji, have you been well?” nmj asks.

“yes.” lwj says, unsure of why nmj is calling him so early in the morning. isn’t he supposed to be at the gym at this hour?

“that is good to hear. are you busy?”

“no. i have five hours until my shoot.” lwj says, still confused. a feeling of dread settles in his stomach.

“let’s go for coffee then. i want to treat you.” nmj says.

lwj is silent for a few seconds then, “why?”

“i need to discuss an urgent matter with you.” nmj says.

if lwj wasn’t alarmed before, he definitely is now. he agrees to meet nmj in a cafe he visits regularly.

when he gets there, nmj is waiting for him at the door, attracting every passerby’s attention with his muscles bulging out of his grey t-shirt.

when lwj comes to a stop before him, nmj gives him a small smile and opens the door for him, gesturing him to go in.

people look as they walk over to a table in the back and keep looking as they take a seat. lwj makes nmj sit with his back to the cafe so he hides lwj completely from their eyes.

“wangji,” nmj starts seriously, then pauses, pushing a glass of water towards him.

lwj doesn’t touch it.

nmj sighs, “i was at huaisang’s office the other day and bumped into a man. he came there looking for you so i asked who he was. luckily huaisang had told me about him before, su she?”

lwj takes the glass of water and chugs it. nmj looks at him with concern.

“i turned him away but i’m worried about you wangji.” nmj says, pushing his own glass of water towards lwj.

lwj doesn’t frown but it’s a close call. “i do not know what he wants.”

nmj’s face hardens. “clearly nothing good. huaisang stopped me from punching him but if you ever need me to, feel free to call me.”

lwj shakes his head, “it’ll be okay. possibly.”

this makes nmj frown even more. “i’m serious, call me if he dares follow you. we cannot press charges until he portrays to be an actual threat but i will protect you.”

“i do not need protection.” lwj’s grip tightens on his glass.

“i know that.” nmj says, “but i will offer my protection either way. it’s good to know someone has your back.”

lwj wants to fight him on this, they barely know each other outside work and lwj does /not/ need someone to do his dirty work. he doesn’t though, because he is tired of carrying the fear of being recognised/followed all by himself. it’s not like he can burden nhs or lxc.

and nmj is neither judging, nor underestimating him. he is just offering to have his back should he ever need it, and it’s not... a bad thing. it’s almost like having a friend in the industry, and maybe he needs some of those.

so he nods. even nmj seems surprised by this but gives him a smile and orders him a coffee, true to his word.

nhs emails lwj a document containing his schedule for the next month and wwx is nestled comfortably in the only free hours he gets on fridays. he’s not as upset about it as he thought he would be

at 4pm friday, lwj drives to wwx’s ‘workshop’ which is simply an extension of his untidy living space. lwj doesn’t know how someone so meticulous with their handiwork could be so in a borderline hazardous workspace.

wwx conjures up a beanbag and gestures for lwj to sit down. lwj looks at the purple monstrosity and then at wwx, dubious.

“aiyah i’m just trying to make your comfortable!” wwx says, “graphing out your measurements will take a while.”

lwj doesn’t remember the last time someone cared for his comfort when he was at work. he has to stand for hours when only his upper body is in frame, and bend his fingers in unnatural ways as per the director’s requirements. discomfort is his status quo

he has never complained. it’s part of his job to hold still and not draw anyone’s focus to the less important parts of him, i.e. his face, by voicing his discomfort. it hardly bothers him anymore.

“are you sure you wouldn’t rather have me sit upright?” lwj asks, because while wwx seems like a considerate person lwj does not want to compromise the quality of his work.

“it’s gonna take an hour,” wwx says scandalised, “i’m not cruel. besides, i already received the photographs i needed for reference so you can just chill out till i do my work.”

lwj doesn’t mention how an hour is nothing compared to the time he had stood with his hands outstretched for seven hours. with an internal sigh, he gingerly sinks down on the beanbag. he hates to admit it, but it is actually comfortable.

wwx smirks at him like he knows, then gathers his measuring tools and approaches lwj. lwj removes his cotton gloves and places them on his knees.

once wwx is close enough, he takes lwj’s proffered wrist and winds a measuring tape around it. lwj doesn’t want to stare straight at wwx’s.. ehm yeah so he looks up.

this is just as bad of an idea, because where lwj has noticed wwx is attractive, seeing him from this angle is just... too much. he can’t close his eyes either, because that will make it look like he’s— enjoying this or something.

he decides to look to the side instead, spotting a framed picture of wwx and a toddler.

“is he your son?” he asks, because he feels the need to fill the silence for the first time in his life.

wwx looks at the picture, then laughs, “no, that’s my nephew, jin ling. he’s three and already spoiled rotten by my family.”

“do you have a big family?” lwj asks. asking personal questions is both unlike him and probably very unprofessional.

wwx, however, smiles indulgently. “it’s just my shijie, her husband jin zixuan, jin ling and my brother jiang cheng. well those are the nearest and dearest ones.”

“jiang cheng?” lwj asks.

wwx frowns, “yeah. do you know him?”

“he and my brother are close friends.” lwj says.

“wait, xichen is your brother?” wwx asks, then cringes at his informality, “i guess that’s lan xichen huh? i never knew his family name.”

“and what about wen qing? how do you know her?” wwx asks as he starts to try different sizes of measurement rings to see what fits lwj’s fingers.

it takes lwj a few seconds to answer. “wen qing drew studies of human anatomy for her final project.”

“let me guess,” wwx grins, placing a ring on his middle finger, “were you the hand section of her anatomy?”

lwj feels his ears burn for some reason. “yes. it’s how i got discovered.”

“discovered? like you got scouted for hand modelling based on a painting?” wwx pauses in his movements.

“nie huaisang was present at the final display at the university’s gallery, he’s fond of art.” lwj says.

wwx looks impressed, “just like that?”

“it is common for hand models.” lwj says.

“okay, so in your professional opinion, could i sell-“ wwx pauses, “could i be a hand model?”

he wiggles his fingers in front of lwj’s face.

“no.” lwj says.

“oh wow, blunt but effective.” wwx pouts

“you have callouses.” lwj explains, taking a closer look at wwx’s hands, “and dents from using your tools. things like cuticles, tanning and nails are fixable, but the others will remain permanent if you plan on still making jewellery and doing other strenuous work.”

when he looks up, wwx’s face is unreadable. thinking that he has offended the man, he draws back. “i apologise.”

that seems to snap wwx out of it, “don’t! you don’t need to apologise. it’s just– i don’t think anyone has ever answered a silly question of mine so sincerely. i’m still absorbing it.”

“i’m just being honest,” lwj says, “you have a good bone structure. you could have considered this line of work were it not for your existing business.”

wwx drops lwj’s hand and places both of his own on his cheeks, “i’m pretty sure that you’re messing with me but i can’t prove it so i’m gonna let it go.”

lwj suppresses a smile. maybe he doesn’t need the free hours on fridays.

[Part 3]

[kmelanin]

Permanent Ink \\ 1 // kth

A/n: So lately, i've been feeling almost nervous to post. Because I know that what I post most people don't want. So you've missed out on like five different oneshots. Lolll. But i don't know why I was feeling like that when this is MY blog. Soooooo, the recent request for the Stoner Tae, I was tooooooooooooo excited for, soooo here is part one of who knows how many. Lol. This and Prince J are the only multipart stories i'm working on. Even though I will posting oneshots. Anyways here it issss….

Main Masterlist~

( Permanent Ink ) masterlist~

WARNING- 

word count: 4k+

Request: So tattoo artist stoner tae (I want tae to be intimidating and have an intense aura, bold and blunt) (y/n) daddys girl spoiled brat that owns a fashion company (personality i want her to be confident, honest and daring) she’s brown skin with a fat butt lol that’s it, you can turn it into a series if you want but no pressure. I forgot to say I made their personalities like that so (y/n) don’t walk all over tae, i want her to find him intimidating and challenging and for tae to not be that impressed by her.

three years earlier~

“Wake up! You are so late!” A familiar voice popped into your lovely date night in paris. Your blurred face dream man slowly turned into your best friend in whole world.

“Ro?” You mumble, everything crumbling and reality setting in. Your eyes started to open, regretting it soon after since Rowan opened all of your curtains. The morning sun was seeping in and right into your face. You groan and roll over, covering your head with the closet pillow. You were happier since you black silk sheets somewhat block the sun out.

“No, no. You have a meeting in a hour. You need to get up.” She says yanking the cover off of your body. The sudden cold air made you groan again. But she was right, today was the day. In a hour you were suppose to meet with your father and explain your project to him.

About a year ago he gave you the chance to make your dream come true. To become a fashion designer. Not only did you want to design clothes, but you wanted to own your own company. Your father had quite a bit of money, and he told you if you convinced him with a layout and perfected plan then he will support you financially.

Not only did you draw out amazing sketches and clothing ideas, but you have a estimate on how much you would need.

With your father's company, it allowed us to live very well. And with the help of social media, you were pretty well know, which you hoped would help with your clothing line.

You didn't have time for a shower, and you thanked the universe you took one before you went to bed. You went to the bathroom and did your hygiene routine.

You got your hair done currently. A simple blow and press, with some extensions. You quickly went to your closet and pulled out a strapless tube dress, that went down right to your knees. You then grabbed a leather jacket and some black shin socks. You put it all on and slid on some black ankle booties. You went to your vanity and did a natural glam. You loved having a pro mua come in and glam, but only on days you really felt like looking good. You grabbed your brush and gently brushed your hair down in it's natural flowy way.

Some things you were known for was your fashion and hairstyles.

“Here, here. The car is outside, so eat this because by the time you get there you won't have time for your usual.” Rowan comes in holding a water and breakfast bar. You grabbed your purse and phone and headed out.

You pulled into the private parking ramp of your fathers building. Rowan lead you in, you nod in acknowledgement to the lady at the front desk. You made your way up and to your father's office. When you got to the door. Rowan hands you the binder of all your ideas. You take a deep breath and enter.

You see your father sitting at his desk with his hands folded in his lap with  a big smile on his face that you loved to see so much.

“Hi Dad.” You smile talking a seat in front of him. You instantly start showing him everything that was in your binder. You made sure to keep your voice professional and to let him know what you want. You show him everything from the types of fabric you would be using. You let him know that they would be made towards the warmer weather and also autumn. You also let him know that you want to keep things classy with a tingle of edge and sexiness. You continue to show him other things like how many people you need on the team and the equipment you need.

You were finishing you final sentence and take a deep breath, you smile and nod you head, letting him know you were finished. You weren't really sure what he was thinking, he kept that same smile on his face.

“Already, I'm so proud of you. I'm so happy that you realize that you have to work for what you want. I would be happy to help you financially, but other than that you are all on your own. Don't disappoint me.” He stands up opening his arms. Your heart was beating in your ears, so it took you a minute to process, but when you did, your body automatically ran over to your fathers. You chant thank yous over and over again.

now~

You sat across your best friend and now PA, Rowan, at a nice dinner. In three days, part one of your clothing line is going to finally drop. After three long years, everything was perfected and a two part series will drop slowly as the year goes on. So you both say here in one pieces of the new line.

You had on high waisted, long baggy black pants that's went all the way down to the floor, causing you to have to wear heels. You also had on one of the many halter tank tops on as well. Rowan stuck with the simple rose gold slip dress and some heels.

“So I was thinking, everyone in the world right now is talking about your clothing line. I've read some articles saying how it's a luxury brand. And not trying to brag or anything but I agree.” Rowan goes on as she twists some noodles up with her fork.

“Luxury? I'm not making this brand specifically for the rich.” You say frowning. Some pieces were a little higher in price, that's only because the materials themselves are expensive. But there were pieces affordable.

“I mean come on, you are using silks and jewels.”

“There's only two pairs of diamond earrings releasing.” you laugh at her. “Come on Ro, get to the point.”

“Fine, we need to celebrate, doing something other than eating a over priced plate of noodles.” She sets her fork down and picks her phone up. She goes to a instagram account and hold it up to you. “Here look, I think we should get tattoos and by him.” she says picking her fork up again.

You look at the account and see all different types of styles in tattoos and in different places.

“How many artists are there?” You ask and hand her phone back.

“It's just him and another. His name is Kim Taehyung. He’s Korean and he owns his own shop about a mile from here. And the others name is Soobin” She shrugs. “I think both of us getting a tattoo, would be cute and help celebrate this big moment coming for you.”

“And you want to get it right now? I don't even know what to get.”

“Exactly, which is where my role as your best friend and PA come in, I know you pretty well. Soooooo…” she taps her phone a couple of times then hand back. “Swipe left.”

You first seen a rose with a cute diamond floating above it. Then the next one was a pretty jeweled out snake. Then the last one was a butterfly of some sort.

“These are pretty fucking sexy. I’ll probably do the rose and something else. I think this idea is cute.”

“Ill call the driver. Even though I know how to drive, and have my license unlike you.”

“Hey, chill. Father hired a driver for me, there’s no point.”

You and Rowan met in high school. You both went to a private school and met in english class. You sat next to her and you looked at her once and you knew you wanted to be friends.

You two did become friends, and quiet fast. You found out that she wasn't from here, she was from China. She was chinese and black. She was happy that she made a friend so fast. After meeting that day, you two were stuck to each other. Your father was so happy that you made a friend that you could trust. He gave you and Rowan the best birthdays, since her family wasn't able.

It's crazy how long and stuck still you both were. Which is why you would be willing to get tattoos with her.

“The fuck do you mean you can't pay the full amount.” Taehyung was quickly getting annoyed with the teen in front of him. “The price of that tat is $530, and we agreed. So no, I will not take only $400.” Taehyung's face wasn't moving, it was the same as any other time, emotionless and scary. The way his eyes never leave your, it makes anyone nervous. Taehyung wasn't small either, he was almost six foot, his shoulders broad, his arms thick.

The teen who just got a half a sleeve done, which took Taehyung all morning, sighs. He takes his wallet back out and gives him the rest of his money.

“If you had the money, then why lie?” Taehyung asks, his voice going lower.

“I'm a student, it's habit I guess.” The teen shrugs. His really didn't look like he was a true problem, and Taehyung knew he was telling the truth because they were talking about how ugly his student ID looked. Taehyung sighed.

“Look here, I’ll make it 500 even, stop spending money on tattoos.” Taehyung hands back thirty dollars and the teen leaves.

“Soobin, clean my station up and Ill give you my next appointment.” Taehyung yells back towards where their stations were. He smirks a little when he hears lots of noise and feet running, knowing he ran to do it.

Taehyung was checking the calendar when when the door ringed, letting him know that someone was coming in.

As you and Rowan enter the building, you could easily tell that it was a tattoo shop. Even though from the outside it was a all black brick building. You follow Rowan up to the counter, your eyes all over the paintings hung up on almost every inch of the walls.

“Hi, welcome. What can I do for ya?” A deep voice catches your attention. You turn your head towards the desk where Rowan and the man stood. When you first look at him, you felt frozen for a second. He was fucking perfect. He was taller than you, his jawline sharp, and his eyes intense. He seemed really scary, which is why you were stuck, unable to say anything.

“Um, yes. We are here to get some tattoos, I'm not really sure what she wants, but I know what I want.” Rowan says nodding. The guy behind the counter nods and leans up off the counter, he runs his hands run through his ashy brown hair. He had a long sleeve shirt on, hiding the tattoos you see peeking out on his hands and neck. God, you wanted to see what was under it.

“Soobin!” He yells behind his back, within a couple of seconds another guy comes out. He was a little taller, but also lankier. He had a short sleeve shirt, showing a full sleeve on one arm and a couple on the other. His hair was a dark brown and it was kind of in his eyes

“We have two tattoos to do.” Ashy brown hair guy says. “You can take her, and I’ll take miss quiet over there.” He says, his eyes finally landing on yours. He frowns slightly and his hand drops, he doesn't look away for a second. Soobin speaks up.

“You can come this way, and I can start sketching up.” Soobin waves Rowan over.

“Good luck.” You whisper to her as she walks by giving you a okay hand symbol. Once she was gone, you slowly look back towards him. He eyes were already on you, it was like they never left. But he was leaning against the counter, with one hand on his chin holding his head up.

“I'm YN.” You say trying to break the awkwardness you felt.

“Taehyung.” He says, his voice sent shivers down your spine, it was low and sexy. “So what were you wanting?” he asks leaning up again and walks towards the doorway that leads to the back. He waves you to follow him. You do and follow him all the way down to the last door. Once you were in, he shuts the door and he sits at a desk.

“You can sit here.” He says pointing to the tattoo chair next to his desk. You walked over and sat down trying not to expose yourself in anyway. Once you were comfortable. He pushes a button on the side that makes you sit up some.

“So, what would you like?” He asks getting out some paper and pencils.

“Um, I'm actually not really sure, but I think I want it under my boobs.”  You say trying not to look into his eyes. You could feel his warmth from where he was and it made your cheeks feel warm. “I seen your instagram, so I trust your opinion.”

“And you said under your breasts? Can you lift your shirt up until it's under them?” He asks. Your eyes bugged out for a minute at the straightforwardness. But you nodded and did it anyways. You pushed them up as far as your can and leaned back. He pushed the button again making you lean back a little. He scooches up a little in his chair, he grabs the hangover light and turned it one, letting him see his clean surface. He raises one of his hand up and over your torso.

“Tell me a little about yourself.” he says. His fingers grazed over your rib cage, making goosebumps rise on your skin.

“Uhm, I'm releasing a clothing line in a couple of days. Rowan, the girl who came in, she's my best friend and PA. My father owns a really big company, and he helped me actually make my fashion future even possible.” You say looking up at the ceiling trying to ignore his fingers going over your skin.

‘The typical daddys girl’ Taehyung thinks as you keep talking. ‘Probably going to pay for the tats with her daddies card.’ He tried to keep a scoff in.

“Okay, I think two koi fish would look beautiful right here.” He says tracing a circle into your skin. “Like a in the shape and shaded like the yin and yang symbol, but separated.” he pushes himself away and picks his pencil up to start sketching. You went on your phone to distract yourself as he draws again.

“How long have you been tattooing?” You ask.

“I picked up the gun around age 13.” He says, as his hand was going crazy on the paper.

“Oh, nice.” You say trailing off, unsure on what to say next. Then you get a idea. You go to his Instagram page. You see that he has almost 50k followers. You smirk when you think about your couple of million. You click out and go to your camera. You take a couple of pictures of your legs and shoes in a cute position and you go back to instagram and pick the best on to post. When you chose, you captioned it with the eyes emoji and below it something about the pants being in your clothing line. Then you tagged his account and you post. You turn your phone off and wait, maybe he will notice maybe not. He had some pictures of himself on his account, so it wasn’t just his artwork. Within the next five minutes, you go back into your instagram and see that your post had a couple thousand likes, you quickly edit your post saying to follow him.

Within the next couple of minutes, he was done and he showed the picture to you. As soon as you seen it, you knew that you would love it. He explained that what ever white you see other than the background would be your skin and the rest is ink.

“God, I'm so excited for this.” You say as the chair starts to lean back. You stick your shirt into your bra so it would stay up and he starts to prep. Before he put his gloves on his takes out his phone and pushes himself over to a speaker in the corner of the room. He plugs his phone up and turns some on. You peek over trying to look over his shoulder, the only thing you notice, is he pulling his notification screen down. You smiled to yourself when you see the white rectangles going down super fast.

“Holy fuck.” You hear him mumble.

“I tagged you in my post, I hope you don't mind.” You smile. His head snaps over to you and back to his phone, he had a slight frown.

“Uh, Thanks.” He nods his head and sets his phone on the speaker and scooches over to you and continues prepping. His reaction wasn't what you were expecting, but something is better than nothing. You went to look at his account again and noticed that he had over 100k. You felt like a proud mother, but he didn't seem to be too happy about it.You sighed. You weren't sure what to do, he was so closed off. Keeping things professional. But all you could think about it how fucking beautiful he is.

Once his gloves were on he grabbed a wipe and cleaned off your skin, in the area was going to tattoo. You closed your eyes to try and control your breathing, and calm your nerves.You felt as he transferred the drawing to your torso. As soon as you heard the sound of the tattoo gun buzzed you knew you couldn't go back.

Throughout the whole process, he would hold you down when you flinch when he hits the ribs. He would whisper helpful saying like ‘it's okay, this line is almost over’, or ‘You got this, you're strong.” It wasn't even the sayings that helped, it was how he said it, and his voice was low and rough. You kept peeping down, looking at his neck tattoos, or just how his hair laid on his head.

Your mind finally calmed down when he switched the gun off.

“You did a lot better towards the end, good job.” He says taking his gloves off. He grabs some paper towel and a spray bottle. He sprays the paper and he wipes and dabs it against you. He then grabs some plastic and lays it over the tattoo with a little bit of skin tape. He then bends down and pushes the button letting you sit up. He helps you stand up and pull your shirt down. You went to go look in the full body mirror he had on the back of the door but he stops you and stands in front of you.

“No, I need you to come back tomorrow. I take pictures, so I wanted to take a picture of this with my professional camera. If that's okay?” He ran his fingers through his hair, exposing his brows a little, showing that they were frowning a little, which made his eyes look so intense when his hair cover his brows. “So I need you to keep that covered because I put this ointment on it that will help the swelling go down.”

So he wants you to come back tomorrow? You could do that.

“Okay, sure. But I can't look at it?” You ask, feeling the stiffness of the plastic.

“Nope, I like to show my clients the picture first. It will give you a different feeling when you see it then look at it on yourself.” He says looking down at you. You look back at him and nod.

“Um, time?” You ask. Your throat was suddenly dry, and he felt way to close.

“Whenever.”

“Okay, I’ll come in the morning, I have afternoon meetings.” You say nodding. You grab your purse and walk out behind him. You see Rowan getting her card back from Soobin when you come out. She smiles towards you as you walk up.

“Lemme see!” She says excitingly.

“Nope, I haven't even seen it. We can tomorrow.” You say.

“Oh, well I can show you mine.” She says and lifts her other hand up and on the inner part of her upper arm was a rose that wasn't shaded, it went across the whole space.

“That's so pretty!! I like how the stem goes into your armpit.” You joke. “You don't want a pity rose.” and you both laugh at your horrible joke. Soobin even joined. After Rowan was done, she told you that she was going to wait out in the car. Soobin leaves to the back, leaving you with Taehyung.

You take out your card. You father made sure to get you the black one. You had it to him and rings you up.

“Um, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime?” You blurt out. Your face burned at 450 when his head pops up to yours. He scoffs and looks back down to what he was doing. Once he was done he hands you back the card. But before you can get it back completely he holds it still.

“I don't know if times had change, but last time I checked, you don't try to guilt someone into hanging out with them.” He says, letting the card go.

“What? No-”

“So drooling over me, then give me over sixty thousand followers, then you wanna hang out.” He makes air quotes with his fingers.

“No, I didn't mean it like that…”

“I’ll see you tomorrow. I open around 8am.” He says then he nods his head and heads to the back.

The next day, in the morning, you got up around 7 in the morning and got ready for the day. Since you had two meetings to go to today, you put on some casual clothes, consisting of some leggings and a oversized sweatshirt and some sneakers. You finished getting ready around 8:30. You quickly got into your car and headed back to tattoo shop.

You quickly parked and went inside. You were so excited to finally see your tattoo, but you weren't as excited to see Taehyung. You hated how a simple glance your way made your cheeks burn and your heart race, but yet he was so blunt and rude. You didn't know why you felt like you had to, but you wanted to try a different way. Maybe not do the first thing that comes to your mind.

You just, you just really wanted to kiss him, fuck.

As you walked in, you noticed how much smokier it was in the place. The door dinged as you walked in, so Taehyung was walking out pretty quickly, spraying some febreeze. That's when it hit you, the smell.

You didn't know why,  but the fact that he smokes marijuana, just makes you feel so much hotter inside. When you walk up to the counter and his eyes were so much lower than yesterday.

You’ve always wanted to smoke weed. You did in high school, but after you found out you can't always trust who you were getting it from, you were scared.

“Ah, fuck. I'm sorry.” He says laughing a little. His smile wasn't huge, but since his eyes were low, his eyes went more smiley, making your heart race.

“For?” You ask confused.

“The smell.” He says also confused, did you not smell it?

“Oh that's okay.” You smile to him. “I actually smoke myself. Well once.” You mumble the last part, kind of embarrassed.

“Only once? Why only once?” He asks tilting his head. “What? Did daddy threaten to take away your allowance if you did?” he waves his hands around and scoffs. You were shocked to say the least.

“Um, one, I don't call my father daddy. Two, he doesn't care what I do, as long as I don't end up dead or locked up.” You put all of your weight on foot.

“Ah, sure sure. Let's just get these pictures over with.” He says and turns walking back, you follow. Instead of going to room you went to before, you turn right and make your way into another room. On one side there was a white screen posted up with light in front, and on in the back.

“I have a sports bra on.” You say and pull your sweater over your head.

“You didn't have to take it all the way off.” He says quietly. You look over at him, and his eyes were on you. When you looked at him, he quickly looked down at the camera he was holding.

“Well it's hot and smoking in here Taehyung.” You say in a duh tone.”Plus, I don't feel like holding this is up.” You say, folding your sweatshirt up and setting it on the chair.

“Whatever, go stand over there.” He says pointing towards the screen. You nod, ignoring his rudeness. You stand in front and feel the make sure your bra wasn't covering anything. He sets the camera down, and he grabs a couple of items you couldn't see because of the lights in your face. When he walks in front of you, you notice three different things in his hand. A spray bottle, a towel and a tube of some sort.

He throws you off guard when he drops to his knees in front of you. He puts everything on the ground and reach up. He pulls the plastic wrap off and then he grabs the spray bottle and sprays. You didn't think it was going to be so cold, so the water made you flinch.

“Don't move.” He grumbles. You just rolled your eyes and his attitude. He then grabs the towel and dabs at tattoo. He sets that down then grab the tube and opens it, he pushes some white cream on his fingers and he rubs it between his fingers before rubbing it on you. His fingers were soft on your tattoo so it doesn't hurt. You wished he would bring his hand farther down. His fingers left, and he stood up grabbing the other stuff and he wipes his fingers off.

“I put on some non scented lotion and rubbed it in all the way.” He mumbles and brings the camera up to his face. You nodded and stood still.

Taehyung zoomed in to the tattoo, snapping a couple of pictures. As he did, he couldn't help but to look at you, really look at you.

You were actually beautiful as fuck, and he knew that the first time he looked at you. But he doesn't hate anything more then a spoiled rich girl.

Make sure you like, and reblog if you enjoyed what you just read :) 💜

[allthephils]

You Were Only Waiting

Word Count: 8510 Rated T (language, mental health mentions, strangers to lovers)   Read on AO3

This is my fic based on this art by the amazing and talented @lovelydeps for the @phandomreversebang. Huge thank you to @wolfstarphan for betaing. You were immeasurably helpful! This was such a lovely and fun team to work with!

Summary: Dan is stranded at the airport and stuck in his head, Phil is just looking for some company. A fic about delayed flights and delayed connections.

Dan’s flight is delayed just enough that he’s uncharacteristically on time. It has improved his mood from incredibly irritable to very annoyed but still, this trip was exhausting. New York is cool but there are just so many people and he’s drained. He’d rather be alone with the friends coming through his headphones than fielding questions from his Uber driver. Apparently, he didn’t get the memo that headphones mean no talking. Janelle and Kevin and Troye understand, they don’t ask anything of Dan.

  He’s never been so relieved to step out of a car. The ground is covered in a thick blanket of snow, bringing a magical beauty to this decidedly mundane setting. Unfortunately, inside it’s still an airport. He watches his feet as they carry him across the ugly airport carpet to the end of the security queue. It’s a mess, a labyrinth of twists and turns that feels unending. It does end though and Dan goes through the motions by rote. Laptop out, shoes off, little baggie of travel toiletries into the tray. He stands in the scanner, arms above his head and the TSA agent nods and waves him through. It’s the same every trip. He’s come to accept that the time lost in airports is just a necessary evil, something to get through.

  At least he doesn’t have to run. He should get to the gate just in time for boarding. It’s quite a hike though, the airport is huge. This is far more exercise than he’d like to be getting today and the constant drone of voices rushing past in all directions is doing nothing for his mood. It feels like a big American mall in here. Dan hates malls, they’re just big monuments to capitalism. So much wasted space filled with useless plastic junk and cheaply made decadence. He passes a Victoria’s Secret and a store that just sells massage chairs. There’s a very posh jewelry store and a shop filled with designer bags and key fobs. He wonders who drops two grand on a handbag at the airport until he catches a glimpse of his reflection in the glass case and remembers what he paid for his jumper. He picks up his pace, choosing to ignore the voice in his head that says he’s part of the problem.

  The gate is purgatory. Close quarters packed with people who would rather be somewhere else and bright unnatural lighting. It’s stifling and Dan wants nothing more than to move on. In a few minutes, the flight will board and he can finally relax. He’s got a guided meditation all queue up and some chamomile tea in his bag, ready to brew. With a deep sigh, he pulls out his phone to get his boarding pass ready. Just then, a notification from the airline pops up. Before he can read the whole thing, the announcement booms out all around him, a long list of cancelled flights, his included. Shit.

  Cancelled due to inclement weather. That’s what the notification said, no follow up information, no instructions on what to do next. The website isn’t any help either. He glances around at the crowded room but everyone looks just as lost as he feels. He’s going to have to do the adult thing and actually ask for help. He’ll have to physically walk up to the counter and talk to a real human being, like its fucking 1985 or something. He flicks his hair from his eyes and takes his place in yet another queue.

  Soon he’s listening while the guy in front of him demands to know why they didn’t predict it would snow so much and how come they can’t just fly around the storm. The agent shows far more patience than Dan would have, repeating her well worn speech, “We are so sorry for the inconvenience but it is very difficult to predict at this time. You’ll receive notification as soon as we know more.”

  The man throws his hands up and Dan softens a bit, knowing the agent is having a much worse day than he is.

  “What a twat.” He says as he approaches the counter and she spares a thin smile. “I realize you can’t control or predict the weather but I’m wondering if this likely to be an overnight thing or a booked on another flight in a few hours thing?”

She gives Dan the same answer she gives everyone but he leans forward on his elbows. “Yeah I know, but like, if you had to predict how long we’ll be here...Like just between us.” He musters a sweet smile and an awkward wink that he wishes he could take back almost immediately. Before she can repeat herself again, he apologizes and slinks away.

Dan is stood near the desk, hoping to catch any snippets of news that might come up. There’s nowhere to sit and crawling into a hole isn’t an option so standing will have to do for now. That’s when fate smiles upon him. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees movement, someone gathering their things. Thrilled by the prospect of actually getting to sit down while he waits an undetermined amount of time, Dan makes a b line for the soon to be vacated seat. The previous occupant has barely stepped away when he swoops in, nearly colliding with someone who had the exact same plan.

  “Oi, sorry mate, I was eyeing this seat.” Dan says, standing his ground.

  “Yeah so was I, mate.” He’s pale and lanky, his shoulders hunched over in a painful display of poor posture. He looks like he’s trying to be shorter. If he wants to blend in, he probably shouldn’t have worn a jumper that looks like a lady bird. Dan supposes he’s kinda cute, maybe a little hot, but sarcasm doesn’t look good on anyone. He’s not the least bit intimidating but he’s trying, lips curled up from the snark, wild brows raised. Those blue eyes are too dreamy to be shooting daggers like that.

  Dan should look away, he should square his shoulders and pretend he is not to be messed with. This is a snowed in airport, the wild west, he should claim his territory. He doesn’t look away though, he can’t or he doesn’t want to. Whatever the case, his defenses are weakened along with his knees.

  “Actually, you take it.” He concedes, “I have too much nervous energy anyway.”

  The guy drops the totally ineffective tough guy act. “No, no, it was a draw. Rock, paper, scissors?”

  Dan truly believes there are few conflicts in life that can’t be solved with rock, paper, scissors. They draw again and again, both of them laughing at how completely this strategy has failed. On the next 1, 2, 3, the guy pauses and his eyes wander to Dan’s left, his whole face softening. Dan turns to see what brought on such a change and damn. There goes his chance at a restful wait. Just behind Dan is a mum with a very heavy looking toddler crashed out on her shoulder.

  “Would you like to sit down?” The guy says sweetly, tripping over his luggage as he moves out of the way. Dan steps aside too and forces a smile though he’s pretty resentful.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Thank you so much!” She looks about his age, like someone he could be friends with. He can’t imagine being stuck here with a child to care for. “Sorry, It’s been a long day.” She says and sits down with a sigh. Dan catches a glimpse of the angelic sleeping face on her shoulder and he’s over it.

  Resigned, he walks to the corner of the room and plops down on an empty patch of carpet, facing a big window overlooking the snowy runway. He searches for a hotel and is unsurprised to find every room in the vicinity booked. Headphones back in, he leans forward on the glass and watches the snow fall.

  Time doesn’t follow the rules in airports, not when all the flights are delayed and most are cancelled and it’s late afternoon but people are curled up, asleep in chairs. Dan has changed positions roughly 43 times but his restless legs are still nagging him. Funny how being lazy only comes easy when it’s entirely inappropriate.

  Standing takes some work, his hips don’t want to straighten up and do the job they were built to do. He’s partially hunched, one hand on his lower back when he sees himself in the window. He looks like an old man, groaning as he pulls himself to stand and he makes a mental note to find a personal trainer when he gets home, and to stop standing near reflective surfaces.

  Hoisting his bag onto his shoulder, he shuffles toward the main corridor. The floor is dotted with people who have accepted the long wait ahead, setting up makeshift camps with laptops out and backpacks for pillows. Dan steps carefully through and heads in the opposite direction from how he came, hoping for something better and more interesting than what he found on his way in.

  He’s been poised precariously at the edge of an emotional pit all day. Social exhaustion left him vulnerable and in need of time alone in his own space to refuel. That’s not something he’s gonna get right now so the best he can do is to keep busy, try to stave off boredom and loneliness before they spiral into something darker.

  This side of the terminal has nearly the exact same upscale nonsense as the other side. Just when he thinks he might scream if he sees one more mannequin in resort wear, a beacon of hope appears. A bookstore, and not an Amazon store, or an airport newsstand but a real, honest to god book store. To be honest, he doesn’t really read much, but he wants to. A place like this is only going to attract certain people, people who think, who want more than the few best sellers available at the newsstand.

  It’s small in here, an airport version of a larger, local bookseller, but there are real shelves to walk through and quiet jazz playing. He wanders through the classics, pausing in poetry to pick something up and read a few lines to himself. ...roused up from hole to itching head. Bodies locked shuddering naked, hot lips and buttocks screwed into each other.

  Well, he wasn’t expecting that. He finishes that one and pages through to read a little more.

  “Hello again.”

  Dan nearly jumps out of his skin. He slams the book shut, shoving it onto the shelf haphazardly. Fighting the blush rushing to his face, he folds his arms, defensive. Ready to glare at whoever is to his left, to send a clear signal that he is not in the mood to chat. His head snaps around, eyes narrowed, then he sees him.  

  “Allen Ginsberg, huh? Just a little light airport reading?” It’s him, the hot guy who gave up their seat for a tired mum. He laughs at his own joke before continuing. “He was always a little dark for me. Have you read D.A. Powell?”

  Dan’s eyes are wide as he stammers out a thought. “No, I haven’t read anybody really. I just grabbed a random book. Not really a reader.” Shut up Dan. He knows he sounds like a dick.

  “Well, fancy meeting you in a book store then.” This guy doesn’t seemed fazed by Dan’s weird outburst. “I hate these crowds, don’t you? Also hate being alone though. Just trying to find a happy medium I guess. You want some company?” He’s fidgeting now, nervous, but still doing it, still asking a complete stranger to hang out.

  “Oh um no. Thanks, I’m good, busy. Sorry.” The words stutter out even as Dan is arguing with himself internally. The guy looks a little deflated but he manages a smile before walking off. Dan has no idea why he said no, why he defeats himself like this again and again, why he’s not kinder to himself, even now.

  He’s tired, from residual jet lag and from just living in his head all day. If he doesn’t get some caffeine soon, exhaustion will set in, adding to the dark cloud currently floating above his head. Anyway, if the caffeine doesn’t lift his spirits, coffee shops have a long and storied history for being great places to be sad and alone.

  ***

  There’s one free table. Dan sets his backpack on one of the chairs, ignoring the warning he’s been hearing all day to not leave his bags unattended. He pulls his reusable mug out and soon it’s filled with a steaming hot, mediocre latte. He puts his feet up, headphones in, and searches for an anime to catch up on. As the end credits roll on his third episode, he cracks his neck and looks around, stretching his arms above his head. There’s a long daunting line of people and behind, towering above everyone, a flash of jet black hair.

  Dan thinks maybe he was wrong about how big this terminal is because this guy just keeps popping up. He’s shivering, his hands wrapped tight around the coffee he just picked up and he’s scanning the room. God, he’s really good looking, and tall, no one is ever tall enough. There are no tables left, Dan knows that but he looks over his shoulder anyway. He should talk to him. How often in life do you get a second chance, much less a third? The guy’s eyes move from table to table until they land squarely on Dan.

  Dan wears a a thin, nervous smile but there’s some good solid eye contact. He is really proud of himself for that eye contact. He lifts his feet off the chair opposite him and sits up straight in his chair, gesturing an offer to sit.

  The guy looks the room over one more time and Dan doesn’t blame him. He couldn’t have made the best impression. He doesn’t try to hide his heavy, resigned sigh before weaving through the maze of tables to where Dan sits.

  “This is prime real estate. You sure you don’t want to sell it to the highest bidder?” His teeth are practically chattering as he speaks.

  “I’m a socialist.” Dan says, sipping his latte.

  “You’re in a Starbucks, mate.”

  “I’m at an airport, I’m doing my best.” Dan watches him sit, searching his mind for something to say. It’s been ages since he flirted. Does he even want to flirt? All he knows is this guy is so cute and he’s the sort of person who gives up his seat to a tired mum. Dan’s not sure he even would have noticed her, lost as he’s been in his own mind. And he’s already proven himself patient with Dan’s bullshit.

  “Um, Phil.” Dan says, reading the name written on Phil’s cup. “Your lips are a tad blue. Are you feeling ok?”

  Phil takes a long drink from his cup, wincing because it’s still too hot. He rubs his lips together then cups his hands over his mouth and breathes into them, warming himself. “How do you know my name?”

  Dan reaches over and taps the side of Phil’s cup. “Don’t change the subject. I’m genuinely concerned about your lips.”

  “I have that effect on people. The moment you meet me, you start thinking about my lips.” Phil’s smirk hides behind his cup as he attempts to breathe in the warmth.

  It takes Dan a moment to catch up. He sits staring for a solid three seconds before his eyes crinkle with surprised laughter. It’s the first laugh he’s heard from himself today, the first genuine laugh he’s heard in a while. He’s not totally aware of the way his shoulders drop but he arches his back, stretching again, surprised how much better it feels this time.

  “Also, it’s very cold outside.” Phil sits back in his chair now that the shivering has passed.

  “Outside?” Dan can’t fathom what he means but that but Phil just keeps drinking with a barely discernible nod.

  “Like outside outside? Like where the snow is coming down and blowing sideways?” There is genuine concern in Dan’s voice.

  “Yeah that’s the one.”

  “Why did you have to go outside?”

  “I didn’t have to. I had some time to kill so I made some snow angels.”

  “Why?” Dan’s lip is curled in something that looks more like disgust than he intended.

  “I like snow.” Phil says, unaffected.

  It’s mildly annoying the way he doesn’t see anything unusual about this scenario. Dan sits up abruptly and leans forward. “Ok, so your stranded in the airport for god knows how long and instead of getting a hotel or going to the bar, you went all the way outside, through security, to play in the snow?”

  ”I mean, I actually just went to be in the snow. Catch some flakes on my tongue, see the lights reflect off the white. It’s really settled out there. You can hardly tell it’s an airport loading zone, it’s looks so pretty.” Phil tilts his head as he speaks, looks to the window, even though it only looks out on the ugly airport corridor.

  “There were these little kids watching the snow through the window, they waved at me and I waved back. They had their noses pressed right up to the glass. I was pretending to slip and fall and all that and they were laughing. But then I actually fell, right on my bum. So I made a snow angel for them.” He stands and takes his jacket off, must be warming up a bit. “Just putting it out there, snow angels are the least fun thing to do. I got snow all up inside my jacket and my hands are frozen. Might not be dressed ideally for literally laying in the snow, my ass is soaked to the bone.” He laughs a little to himself as he sits and goes back to sipping.

  Dan’s mouth has dropped open a bit and he stares. He’s pretty sure Phil is the good kind of weird but he studies his features looking for signs to the contrary. All he finds are the prettiest lips and something oddly comforting in the dark centers of his eyes.

Phil’s watching him too, just drinking his coffee and watching, wearing a coy little smile. It’s a reaction to his staring, either judgement or flirting or just a smug acknowledgment that Dan can’t or won’t look away.

  The quiet should be unnerving. Dan has conditioned himself to fill every moment, with sound or image or information. It prevents him from ever really feeling alone, from being alone with his thoughts. It’s not unnerving though, he just feels, calm. He wonders what sort of break through he could have if he wasn’t so afraid of being in his head, if he let his mind wander. It’s then he realizes his mind is wandering now and maybe this is some sort of gentle breakthrough of it’s own.

  “Where’d you go?” Phil asks.

  He hopes his expression hasn’t given away the micro crisis he’s having in his head. Pulled from his introspection, he smiles thinly.

  “Sorry. I tend to drift off during awkward silences.”

  “Awkward? I didn’t think it was awkward,” Phil says. “How often do you get to do nothing like this?”

  Dan shrugs, a little guilty. So much of what he spends his time on feels like nothing.

  “You know, you didn’t have to invite me to sit down. If I’m bothering you…”

  “No, no. I’m sorry.” And he is sorry, really sorry. He wants to be friendly and flirty and easy to talk to. This guy is really sweet and cute and it’s not awkward, not even a little. Dan can’t explain why he always goes on the defense.

  “You aren’t bothering me. I’m just kind of a dick sometimes.” Dan heaves a breath, dredging up some courage and mumbles, “I’m actually really glad you showed up.”

  “I’m sorry, what was that?” Phil says with his hand to ear.

  Dan rolls his eyes and quickly spits out, “I’m glad you showed up cuz I was really bored and we’ll probably be here all night and you’re really nice so thanks for not writing me off when I acted like a twat.”

  “Which time?” Phil asks but he’s smiling. “You’re welcome.”

  It goes quiet again and Phil stands suddenly. “Alright, we need sugar.” He walks off before Dan can protest. Normally, Dan would pick up his phone, cycle quickly through all his social media so he doesn’t miss anything. He gets as far as picking it up but it just sits in his hand unattended. His eyes are otherwise occupied, following Phil’s long legs as they carry him to the pastry case. They’re good legs, pretty legs that end in wide hips and a nice round ass. His lip has somehow found it’s way between his teeth when Phil glances back. There’s a beat before he realizes and looks away, rather conspicuously.

  When Phil returns, he hands Dan a snowman shaped cookie and makes a toast to snow.

  Dan taps his cookie to Phil’s, “we’re toasting to snow? But that’s why we’re stuck here.”

  “Exactly.” Phil says like it’s obvious. Dan savagely rips the head off of his snowman then thanks Phil around his mouthful.

  Phil laughs softly. “Ok, Dan. Snog, marry, avoid. Mario, Link, and… um, the king of all cosmos.”

  “Excuse me, the king of what now?”

  Phil’s eye grow wide, his mouth open in genuine shock. “The king of all cosmos? Do you even video game? Katamari Damacy?”

  “Yeah I know, obviously.” Dan sinks down in his chair a bit. “Kill Mario, marry Link, fuck the king.”

  “Really? You’d kill Mario. I could never do that after everything he’s done for me. Also he’s handy.” Phil takes another bite, speaking through crumbs that he wipes away with his fingers. “He’s literally a plumber. He could fix stuff around the house, total husband material.”

  “Ok fair.” Dan says, “but Link is brave and humble, he’d be a great life partner. And I grew up with him. Also he’s left handed so we could both use the same scissors.”

  “Wow. Nerd alert.”

  Dan sticks his leg out under the table to gently kick Phil’s leg. “Shut up, look who’s talking.” Dan’s voice goes high pitched, mocking. “Oh, Mario’s done so much for me.”

  Phil laughs out loud, a proper laugh, head tipped back, hands clapped together. It’s a good, warm laugh that wraps Dan up like a blanket. Any remaining angst hanging on to the edges of his psyche lose their grip and all that’s left is an unfamiliar contentment.

  “Ok, ok, I think we’ve established we’re both massive nerds.” Phil says, popping the lid off his coffee and dipping his cookie in what’s left.

  Dan is a man of extremes. When his guard comes down, it comes all the way down.

  “And who would you fuck Phil?” He’s hears his own voice in exaggerated slow motion as heat spreads across his cheeks. His palms are sweaty now, his stomach in his throat. What the hell did he just say? This is why we can’t have nice things, Dan.

  Phil seems to be considering his response, slowly sipping from his cup, his lips clearly fighting off a smirk. He catches Dan’s eyes and sucks his bottom lip for a drawn out moment before showing him mercy and moving on.

  “Link, obvs.”

  Dan clears his throat and tries to act natural. “But the king...that package.”

  “I don’t know, I like someone a little younger, not so beefy.” Phil takes a moment then quickly adds, “I’m talking about like, young adult link. Of course.”

  “Of course.”

  If Phil was trying to break the ice, it worked. The conversation flows easy after that. Dan could talk about video games all day, a topic just impersonal enough to loosen him up. Eventually he’s sharing some of his most embarrassing stories, stupid shit he did at uni and the time he got sacked from a DIY shop for selling an axe to a little kid. Phil laughs at every story and Dan is prepared to dig deep into the repressed corners of his mind if he can keep hearing that laugh. And it seems every story he tells earns him an equally embarrassing and far more amusing story from Phil. Dan is literally wiping away tears as Phil tells him all about a squirrel that bit him right in the Florida.

  They both catch their breath when the laughter finally fades and they slip back into quiet. With nothing left to drink, it is a little awkward this time. Dan’s not sure what to do with his hands or where to rest his eyes. He checks his phone.

  “No news?” Phil says to a quick shake of Dan’s head. “You want another round?”

  “I think I’d better switch to herbal tea.”

  Phil moves to grab Dan’s mug but Dan stops him. “Let me. What’s your poison?”

  “Caramel macchiato?” Phil says, a little sheepish and with a nod and as kind a smile as he can muster, Dan walks away.

  “Sweets for the sweet.” Dan says as he sits down and hands Phil his drink. Their fingers brush as Phil takes the cup, his eyes looking softly into Dan’s. It seems Dan isn’t the only one who’s let his guard down.

  The table is small. They’ve both had their legs tucked back this whole time. As he scoots his chair in, Dan’s knees bump Phil’s and it’s clear he’s unfurled them into a more relaxed position. His instinct is to pull back but his body has proven to ignore his better judgement when it comes to this new variable. He lets his foot slide between Phil’s so their legs are slotted perfectly together. Neither of them acknowledge it, holding still to keep from touching more than incidentally.

  The conversation continues and they both open up more than makes sense for strangers in an airport. Nothing feels real anymore, time is suspended with no end in sight. Maybe it’s that or maybe it’s the relief of letting go a little bit or maybe it’s just Phil. Whatever the catalyst, Dan feels safe, not something he feels often.

  Phil talks about his grandma, his brother, his failed attempts at heterosexuality. Dan’s topics are broader but the political is personal to Dan, and Phil seems to understand that. Time stretches and the nods turn thoughtful, the laughter sweeter. Moments of empathy are punctuated with bumps and nudges under the table. When the next lull comes, Phil shifts his weight. Dan watches as he lets his head lean to the wall next to his chair. His eyes look heavy.

  “How can you be tired after all that sugary coffee?” Dan asks, shaking his head.

  “Not tired,” Phil says, “just relaxed.” His legs follow the lean of his body, taking one of Dan’s with him. He hooks a foot around Dan’s ankle, coming to rest there.

  Dan let’s one dimple peek out but he doesn’t move his gaze from Phil. “Comfy?” He asks, with a hint of mirth.

  Phil nods, his crooked lips soft. “This is nice. And I’m enjoying the view.”

  Dan looks over his shoulder. Yep, hideous airport corridor, lots of grumpy people he’d forgotten about entirely. “What view? What are you on about? Are you aware that you often speak in riddles?”

  “I don’t know.” Phil moves Dan’s leg under the table. “I feel like I’ve been pretty clear.”

  Dan’s heart does a somersault and he huffs a nervous laugh. Nervous again after such an easy talk, but it’s a good nervous. The kind that comes from the promise of something good.

  Phil isn’t subtle, he wears a cocky grin that says he knows exactly what effect he’s having. Dan’s feels an urgent need to kiss the smile right off of that smug little mouth. He wants to grab the tip of Phil’s tongue that’s poking through his teeth and pull it. He imagines he’d taste like a coffee milkshake and his mouth waters at the thought. He could spring right across the table, charged as he is. Now they’ve stopped chatting, the energy between them just sits, an electric tether holding them there.

  Dan can’t help his mind going to the physical first, it’s not often he’s this open with anyone, much less someone he just met. Some piece of him wants to grab ahold of that hint of intimacy lest it get away. What he really wants is to just get closer, to wrap his arms around the beautiful friend he’s found and not let go.

  Phil’s phone is vibrating on the table but he doesn’t notice, his focus is on Dan, gaze moving from his eyes to his mouth and back again.

  “Brah, you’re blowing up.” Dan says in far too smitten a tone.

  “Hmm? Oh!” Phil takes a quick peek and puts the phone to his ear. “Hi love. Nah, still here.” He stands, points to the exit to let Dan now he has to take the call, and walks out to lean against a wall of lockers.

  To Dan’s credit, he doesn’t spiral right away. He starts silently rehearsing ways to ask for Phil’s number. He doesn’t even know where he lives, as deep as they got, they kinda bypassed the everyday stuff. Maybe he should just write his own number down and hand it to him. Except he definitely doesn’t have a pen because who carries a pen anymore? He could ask the barista but then they’d know and they’d be watching and it’s hard enough to be bold without an audience much less with one.

  He looks over his shoulder, trying to appear casual. Phil looks so cool leaning like that, beaming and chatting. Dan wonders who he’s talking to, someone close enough to call ‘love.’ It’s taking a while and he looks really happy. Dan realizes Phil never actually said he was single. Sure, he seemed interested but he was just looking to find some company for the wait. This is probably just what friendship looks like to Phil, socially awkward but strangely confident Phil. Of course he’s taken, he’s funny and smart and he listens. He probably has someone waiting for him, someone cool and quirky who reads poetry and plays Katamari Damacy with him. Someone who doesn’t wear plain black jumpers that cost hundreds of pounds even though they were made in China. They probably know he’s a flirt but they don’t care because he’s coming home to them.

  “Sir,” There’s a barista standing at the table. Dan has no idea how long he was lost in thought, ignoring her. “So sorry but we will be closing up in about 5 minutes.”

  “Yeah, ok.” Dan stammers, embarrassed as always. “We’ll, I’ll clear out. Sorry. Thanks.”

  She takes the trash from the table and Dan pulls on his hoodie and backpack. He throws Phil’s jacket over his arm and grabs the handle of his suitcase, rolling it behind him. Phil is humming affirmative responses to whoever is on the line but not talking much. He takes his jacket from Dan with a smile of thanks and a roll of his eyes. He mouths the word sorry.

  Dan waves the word away. He mumbles something about needing to find a place to get some rest though he knows Phil can’t hear. The only thing worse than walking away from this well of potential would be to stand here and fidget, listening while Phil talks with his boyfriend only to have to say an awkward goodbye afterward. He points over Phil’s shoulder at nothing in particular and Phil sort of nods though he looks confused. Dan’s heart has no right to crack like this. He barely knows Phil. That tether though, it’s got some strength to it. He swallows hard and walks past Phil then just keeps walking. He just keeps walking, waiting for the tether to snap.

  He turns the first corner he comes to and finds a lounge. People are curled up asleep on the benches. The sound on the tv is muted. He moves to the far back corner and lays down on the floor, resting his head on his back pack. His headphones are in, a movie queued up on his phone, he’s right back where he started. At least he got to pass the time with someone. It was a nice moment out of reality. So he was attracted to him, it’s not a big deal. He’s attracted to people all the time, it never goes anywhere. There’s no reason it should be different this time, no reason he should feel a dull ache in his chest. It’s totally irrational and unrealistic to think that anything could come of a random meeting like that. It was just a few hours with a friendly stranger.

  Twenty minutes later, just when he’s settled into a position that is almost comfortable, the movie pauses and notification pops up. Dan has been booked on a new flight and if he wants the seat he needs to check in at the gate, like now.

  The waiting area is still full but the settled resignation of earlier in the day has turned to frustrated exhaustion. Blurry eyed travelers stand, gripping their phones, close to the counter, watching for some glimmer of hope that they’ll get home soon. The paper boarding pass in Dan’s hand feel like a winning lottery ticket and he tightens his hold, imagining the vultures who would swoop in if he were to drop it. He knows it’s irrational, he’s booked, the seat is his but he feels undeserving in light of all these folks waiting. He’s looking down, embarrassed at his good fortune, as he turns to find a place to waiting for boarding.

  Two steps forward and he hears him, “Are you kidding me? You’re on this flight?” It’s Phil and he sounds none too pleased to have run into Dan once again.

  “Oh hey Phil.”

  “Hey Phil?!” Phil sounds angry now, his voice low and controlled, “Hey Phil?! Are you mental?”

  That stings. He could deflect, point out the problematic nature of Phil’s choice of language, but he stays quiet.

  “That was bloody rude. I thought you’d gone to find a place to sit but I turned around and you were gone. You could have said a proper goodbye.”

  “You were on the phone.” Dan’s stomach feels sour at the sound of his own voice, his own immature, cowardly voice.

  “Yeah. I was.” Phil’s eyes are right on Dan but he doesn’t meet his gaze, he’s staring at Phil’s shoes. His voice softens, “I was really excited Dan. We have a lot in common and I was gonna get your number and like, you just left.”

  “Well, it’s not like you came to find me.” Dan really wishes he would shut up and stop sabotaging every good thing that happens to him.

  “Came to find you!” It comes out loud, clearly louder than Phil intended as he looks around and clears his throat before speaking again, this time in a loud whisper. “You chatted me up for hours, flirting with me, letting me flirt with you and then left when I was on the phone so you didn’t have to deal with rejecting me!”

  “Sounds like you dodged a bullet then.” Dan says, defeated, “So why bother confronting me?”

  “Because I had a good time, Dan. I really did. A better time than I had any right to with a total stranger.” Phil runs a hand through his hair.

  He does that when he’s frustrated or nervous. He fidgets, he can’t stand still. Dan knows this about him, he learned it along with the fact like he likes his coffee unreasonably sweet and has a stupidly high tolerance for caffeine. He learned that he sticks his tongue between his teeth when he’s delighted and that he’s delighted a lot. He knows that he’s flirty and confident even though he’s clumsy and messy and has a really weird sense of humor. He knows that his weird brand of conversation meshes with Dan’s uncommonly well. He knows he’s unashamed. He’s a lot of things Dan isn’t and the lump in Dan’s throat is rudely pushing him to face the fact that Phil never would have ditched Dan like that.

  Dan swallows hard. “Ok yeah, you’re right. It was really fucking rude of me to leave. I’m sorry. But I wasn’t avoiding rejecting you.” He heaves a sigh, hoping the force of it will push the words out. “I was avoiding being rejected by you.”

  “What? I was so into you. How was that not obvious, Dan?”

  Dan shrugs and mumbles something about a boyfriend on the phone.

  Phil laughs a laugh that’s not at all amused. “That phone call was my friend Louise.” He says flatly, “She literally had a baby today. A fucking baby, Dan. I couldn’t bloody well cut her off in the middle of her birth story.” He flicks fingers through his quiff, laying it down and then picking it back up. “Stomach churning as it was.”

  Dan feels sick. He wonders how long he’s going to let his negative self talk make him miserable. He knows there are things he has to forgive in himself, that he can’t help some of it. But he also know the parts of him he hides behind and he wonders how much his low self esteem would improve if he stopped leaning on it like a crutch. His eyes sting, embarrassment and exhaustion are making all of this seem insurmountable.

  “I’m really sorry Phil.” He tries to look at Phil but turns his head, too aware of his wet eyes. “I got scared and I didn’t think I had a chance with you. I fuck these things up, I told you.”

  With a moment of static, first class boarding is announced.

  “That’s me, Dan. I have to board.” Phil doesn’t sound angry anymore, just tired. “This has been a weird day. We were strangers yesterday. But I know a few things about you now and since we’re standing here, fighting like boyfriends, I’m gonna go ahead and overstep one more time.” He reaches a hand to lay it on Dan’s arm. “It’s a heavy weight you carry around with you. I know how that is, Dan. And I’m telling you from experience, life is so much more enjoyable if you let someone else help you carry it once in a while.”

  With that, he turns and walks to the doors, hands his boarding pass to the attendant, and disappears down the jetway.

  Dan wipes his eyes before they can betray him with actual tears.

  ***

  Sipping his subpar whisky sour, Dan let’s the soothing voice in his ears guide him through step by step relaxation. His legs are heavy and relaxed, the only thing he has to do right now is breathe. In for a count of 5, out for a count of 8, in for a count of 5, out for a count of 8. With every inhale, soft blue healing light spreads through your body. What color is your blue? The color of the sky? The sea? Phil’s eyes. Definitely Phil’s eyes. Dan shifts in his seat, shaking his head as if to dislodge the image from his mind. He takes a long drink of his cocktail, heaves a breath and tries again.

  It’s time to get over it. Soon, he’ll be home and settled back to his routine, alone in his flat, back to real life. He tries to do to follow the voice, to do the breathing thing. When a thought enters your mind, acknowledge it, without judgement and let it go. There are a million thoughts in his mind and a million judgements. That was a dick move. He was really great and you just ditched him. Why are you such a coward? You can stop thinking about him now.

  With a rather violent jab of his finger, he quits the app, switching to music. He shoots back the rest of his drink and closes his eyes but regret gnaws at him until his stomach is an empty pit, twisting a constant reminder that he’s lost something.

  He’d walked past Phil’s row on his way to his seat, carefully avoiding eye contact. He looked sad, this would be easier if he’d stayed angry. At the risk of looking like a dejected lover in a romantic comedy, he makes the rash decision to go talk to Phil. Before he thinks too deeply, he throws off his seatbelt and moves to stand, only to find himself face to face with a stern looking flight attendant.

  “I’m sorry sir, but I’ll need you to take your seat. With this turbulence, we have to ask that you stay seated and buckled for the duration of the flight or until the safety light is switched off.”

  “Oh, um. My friend is in first class and he gets really frightened on planes.” He searches his mind for a story that will elicit some sympathy. “I’m really worried about him with this turbulence. Can I just go check on him please?”

  “I’m afraid not, sir. I apologize but it’s for everyone’s safety.”

  Dan presses his lips together, accepting his fate but just as she walks away, he speaks up again, “Oh, excuse me.” She turns with a forced hospitable grin and looks at Dan expectantly. “What about a drink? Can I buy him a drink? Send it to his seat. His name’s Phil, third row window seat, handsome, black hair.”

  “If he’s in first class, his drinks are complimentary, sir.”

  “Oh.” Dan looks down at his hands. “Then can you just bring him one? Say it’s from Dan?”

  There’s a long exhale that reveals just how long her night has been before she nods gently and says, “What sort of drink did you have in mind?”

  “Do you have hot chocolate?” Dan smiles up at her, grateful for her patience. His dimples really do come in handy at moments like this.

  A tiny smile blooms on her overworked face and she leans in a bit closer, “Ok, hot chocolate from Dan. I’ll bring him an extra blanket too.”

  With his hand to his heart, he thanks her, it means it more than she could know. The next thing he’s aware of is the same flight attendant’s hand on his shoulder, waking him up. The flight is descending and he needs to turn off his electronics.

  By the time he’s shuffling down the aisle, first class has long since departed. Dan walks quickly, ready to be done with airports and travel and new people and places. He’ll get a car, headphones in, and soon he’ll be curled up in bed. He can sleep all day. There’s nothing he’s late for, no one waiting for him.

  It’s terribly bright outside and Dan is personally insulted. He was counting on London gloom to validate his mood. He pauses next to the taxi queue, eyes on his phone, music in his ears, calculating the benefit of getting an Uber over jumping into one of these waiting cabs.

  “Dan!”

  “What the fuck!” Dan jumps, his heart races off down the road without him and he pulls his headphones off.

  Phil giggles behind his hand. His other, on Dan’s shoulder, is warm and heavy and works wonders to calm Dan’s flight or flight freak out.

  “Sorry. I said hi like three times.” Phil says, trying to curb his laughter. “Maybe you should turn your music down, mate.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t sneak up on people.” He’s reeling from exhaustion and emotional whiplash.

  “Thanks for the hot chocolate. And the blanket.” He moves to rub the back of his neck in a classic display of Phil nerves.

  “No problem. Hope it made your first class seat tolerable, you poor soul.”

  “Hey.” Phil’s smile is so subtle it’s barely there, his eyes fixed on Dan’s, “I like nice things.”

  They stay like that, inches apart, just looking at one another. It’s freezing out here but neither of them can feel it.

  “You wanna share a car? I’m in north London.” Phil hasn’t looked away, he sounds like he’s talking to himself, his voice quiet and directed nowhere in particular. Dan nods and they both turn. The guy managing the line ushers them into a cab, taking Phil’s luggage and Phil gives the driver his address. It makes sense for Dan to be dropped off first but he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t want to be the one walking away this time.

  “Did you have a good flight?” Phil asks, small talk seems the only way out of this tension.

  “It was ok. You?”

  “Yeah. I mean, first class.” Phil worries his lip and Dan can’t take it anymore. He can’t take the unknowns and the regret and the stupid magnetic attraction he feels toward this person. He’s looking right at Phil’s mouth, it must be so obvious, and he’s telling himself, do it, just do it. His heart is in his throat, his stomach in knots, sensations that usually elicit a firm nope from Dan. His stock reaction to this fear is to run but he can’t run, they’re in the back of a taxi right now. If Phil pushes him away, he’ll just get out and take a bus. Dan’s breath is coming out in huffs, still watching Phil’s pink mouth as his lip slips free of his teeth.

  A hand comes to rest on Dan’s leg, just above his knee. He startles a little and his eyes jerk quickly down to make sure he didn’t imagine it. The tether is taught, it’s either gonna break or he needs to grab hold of it and pull, hard.

  So he does.

  He leans forward too fast, his lips collide with Phil’s too forcefully, but Phil slides his hand behind Dan’s neck and leans into him till they find a perfect balance. Soft but urgent, they push against each other, Phil’s tongue dipping in between Dan’s teeth. Just enough to connect them but with room for so much more. They move with each other, unhurried until they feel the car pull to the curb and hear the driver clear his throat.

  “One second.” Phil says as they pull apart, “let me get my bag.” He hands the driver his card and opens his door, climbing out to wait for his luggage to be retrieved from the boot. Dan gets his phone out and sets up a contact for Phil to fill in. He leans into the open door but before he can speak, Phil crouches down.

  “You coming?”

  “Sorry?” Dan replies.

  “Are you coming up?” Phil always seem to think people just know what he’s talking about.

  “Up? To your flat?”

  Phil nods, “Everytime I lose sight of you, you run off. I think I’d like to keep you close if it’s all the same to you.”

  “Don’t you need to sleep?”

  “Yeah, and so do you.” Phil says, matter factly, “So come sleep. With me.”

  Dan could honestly say that nothing has ever sound better.

  *****

  It’s been a long time since he woke up next to a stranger. It’s been a long time since he woke up next to anyone, unless you count Colin, Dan’s family’s dog who shared his bed when he went home for Christmas. It’s a little alarming at first, feeling an arm draped over his middle as he makes the slow climb to consciousness. Reality sets in as his eyes blink open and survey unfamiliar surroundings. The room is unmistakably Phil, the plants, the books, the sentimental trinkets. It’s welcoming and homey, this is exactly how Dan would have pictured Phil’s room. It is odd to feel like he knows this stranger so well. He’s not a stranger though, not really.

  Gently, Dan lays his hand over the one resting against his belly. The body behind him is solid, pressed up tight. There’s so much intimacy in spooning. He closes his eyes, willfully rejecting any evidence of daytime that might be streaming through the window. He wishes it would snow now, right here in London; a wild, never before seen blizzard that would strand him here in this flat. The whole city would shut down, lives would be disrupted, but it all sounds worth it if it meant he could stay here just a little while longer. Maybe if he’s very still, his big spoon won’t wake up. He really hopes he doesn’t. If he wakes up, they’ll both be thrust out of the liminal space where they found each other and into purpose and schedules and wretched real life.

  There’s a sleepy huff of a breath against his neck, and the arm around him pulls tighter for a moment. It might just be his dire need for human connection but this feels so good, being held like this. He wants to turn over so he can look at his face, nuzzle into his neck, wrap his arms around him, but he won’t risk bringing all of this to an end.

  “You’re warm.” Phil’s voice is a low rumble against Dan’s back. It reminds him of the furnace coming on in the early mornings when he was kid, the promise of comfort that would stay even when he threw the blankets off. “What time is it?”

  “Almost 2.” Dan says after reaching to the bedside to tip his phone into view.

  Phil hums his acknowledgment and snuggles in closer, inhaling deeply with his nose tucked into the short hairs at the back of Dan’s head. “You smell like my shampoo.”

  Dan is still but for his fingers. They push between the one’s underneath them and curl around to ensure that hand is staying put.

  “Do you need to get up?” There’s a squeeze in his heart as he asks until he senses Phil shaking his head no behind him.

  “Don’t go.” Phil says, so quietly it takes Dan a second to register. “It’s not enough yet.”

  “Not enough sleep?” Dan asks.

  “Just not enough.” Phil says and Dan feels a quick, soft kiss on the back of his neck.

  “Go back to sleep, Phil,” Dan replies, calm spreading over him, a lightness he hasn’t experienced in so many years. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Soon, the embrace isn’t quite so tight and the breathing behind Dan is slow and steady. Sleep won’t come back so quickly for Dan, it’s just not how he operates. The sound of Phil breathing becomes a meditative soundtrack and he replays the last 24 hours, finding the moments, committing the details to a deeper place in his memory. There’s a small voice in his head that says he’ll want to tell this story later.

End.

[fernwehbookworm]

Knight of Kandor- Chapter 20

(Alex)

The tunnel was cramped and damp as we squeeze through it. Everything was going to plan and that made me extremely nervous. I just hoped that Kara could get Lena out safely. One lady was not worth all of this but it was worth it to Lena and in turn, Kara. So that meant I had to try. Soft light filters down from above me, flickering from a torch. This was it. I remove the drain cover as quietly as possible, praying that the guards were asleep. I poke my head up and see rows of cells, most are empty. As the women follow me through I begin to search. Some cells hold men. Only one holds a sleeping woman. Rao, I hope she's just sleeping. She looks thin and sickly in the faint torchlight. I slip my lock pick kit from my belt and work as fast as I can. The woman stirs from the soft jangling of the bars.

"Wha... Who are you?" She asks in a hoarse voice. It sounds like she hasn't had water in days.

"A friend of Kara's" the girl still looks confused.

"Shit umm... Kal's. A friend of Sir Kal's and Queen Lena." I say, struggling to recall Kara's old name.

"My lady? Is she safe? Don't save me, save her." She pushes further back into the cell.

"Kal is saving her. You will see her shortly. Then we will get you both back to Krypton where you belong." I say exhaling as the lock clicks open and the bars swing out.

"Now we have to go. The guards are asleep. It will be tight but we will keep you safe." I hold my hand to the girl still huddled in the corner. She takes in the hooded women around me, ten of us in all, before accepting my hand.

Just as I am helping her through the opening, the door at the end of the hall bursts open. Men in armor and swords flood in. My women draw their daggers. In close quarters like this, swords will be a huge disadvantage. Jessica stumbles into my arms. One of the men steps forward, out of formation.

"Jessica! Let her go!" He commands in a slightly comical way.

"No. She's coming with us. She is done being your prisoner." Lily says.

"Donovan?" Comes a soft whisper next to me.

"Do you know these men?" I ask.

"Yes, they... are... Kal's men." she manages in a voice like rocks scraping over each other.

"Stand down," I say, immediately they all sheath their daggers and the men are left looking uncertain.

Bells begin to echo through the castle, it sounds distant this deep in the castle but I recognize the warning bells. I groan at the meaning. Our stealth operation was blown.

"You idiots ruined everything."

"We came for our Queen and we intend to find her." Says a burly dark skinned man. He looks very intimidating. Something tickles at the edge of my mind, something Kara had told me.

"John, right?" The man looks taken aback.

"Let's skip the dramatics. Kal is one of us. She is saving the queen now. If you will follow us we will get you out of here safely." I cut off his question.

"Not without our Queen."

"For Rao's sake. Okay, ladies. Take Lady Jessica here to the base, I'll lead these men to their Queen. Hopefully, we can catch them before they escape into the tunnels."

"You aren't taking Jessica from me." The first man states. There it is, stupid love. Men were stupid when it came to love. I roll my eyes.

"You can follow them then. Thea, please take over. Quickly now, I'll shut the grate behind."

The man passes right through my assassins and takes Jessica from me. One by one my women hope back down into the tunnels, Jessica is slowly lowered in and the man is last. I slid the grate back over.

"Okay, we have to hurry. The drugs on the guards are going to wear off soon." John motions me forward with his still drawn sword. I sigh and lead the way.

The guards are still asleep, thankfully. As we hurry I have a whispered conversation about how they got in. A minor explosion and fire to draw guards away. They killed a few who lingered at their posts. Someone must have found a body and sounded the alarm. I use my knowledge of the castle to lead us through deserted servants corridors and to the other side of the castle as quickly as possible. When we emerge it takes a second to orient where the water drain entrance is in relativity to Lena's tower. Something sharp pokes my back. I turn to glare at John.

"Hey watch where you point that thing. You won't find them if I am dead." I continue around the corner.

"No offense, but I don't trust you," John says. This is it. The last stretch before Kara's escape. We either beat them or we're far too late. A figure steps out in front of me.

"John..." I hear Kara whisper from a distance.

"Kal..." he whispers back.

(Kara)

Sure enough, the next day wanted posters for Alex and Kara Danvers were hanging everywhere. All traffic in and out of the city was stopped, guards were searching everywhere for the kidnappers of Lady Elena Colby. Alex and I had to stay inside while Maggie and Sara did some scouting around to find all this out. We opted to practice in the training room to fight off the boredom of being confined. Lena sat in the corner and read, glancing up now and then to watch. We were practicing with dull versions of a new blade Felicity had come up with. It strapped to the forearm and extended out with the flick of a wrist. It was genius but also hard to get the feel of. One wrong move and the blade would appear accidental. I danced out of Alex's reach, only to stumble into a wall. A wall that laughed. I turn to find John right behind me.

"Hello, John."

"Hello, Kara."

"Actually it's Sir John now. Use the title, he loves it." Lena teases from the corner. John rolls his eyes, clearly not loving the title.

"My lady, please. We have been over this."

"Yes, we have, Sir John," Lena stresses the word. He sighs.

"Lena doesn't like titles either." He says to me.

"Oh, I know, she believes they are quite cumbersome. She did the same to me. Wait should I be worried? I thought that was you flirting with me." I turn to ask her and she laughs.

"Oh, it was with you. But John would use it so much it was exhausting. I had to put an end to it. Not that he really listened." Lena continues with her book, ignoring the room again.

"So this is what you have been doing in Cadmium, rescuing damsels and fighting like nothing I have ever seen."

"Not just that. But we don't have to get into the specifics now. John, this is my sister Alex Danvers, Alex this is my former squire and successor, John Jones." I say, making formal introductions with the two vastly different parts of my life.

"Sister?" John asks but still reaches out a hand to shake Alex's hand.

"By choice, not birth." she clarifies for him.

"What are you two doing exactly? I've never seen this fighting style."

"It's a DEO style. I've been teaching Kara since she arrived here. Now we are evenly matched."

"Ah, the teacher became the student." John rubs his chin, amused at the thought.

"Just briefly. I can still teach you a thing or two."

"Challenge accepted." He disappears. I look at Alex.

"Where did he go?" She asks.

"To get his sword." We wait until deep voices echo through the hall outside. John returns with the entire Guard, minus Donovan who was still by Jessica's bedside. Sure enough, John had his sword. He had also slipped on his chainmail shirt and a shield on his left arm.

"You want an audience for this?" I raise an eyebrow at him.

"They asked. They miss training with you." I shrug and drop into a crouch.

"No weapons?"

"Don't worry about me. I'm ready. Are you?" John draws his sword in response.

We circle each other, testing the newness of each other's familiar fighting. My entire style had changed and John had a new sense of confidence. No one had beaten him in a while. That would be his downfall. He was too confident in his own skills to anticipate mine. His first strike is quick and he pulls it, just watching my reaction. Good. He strikes again with a little more force and I sidestep it. Back and forth we begin, like a dance. His sword flashes while I turn and spin and step to avoid it. It's a delicate task as he begins using more brute force than before. I step in front of his shield, he lunges out to hit me with it but I roll around. As my turn puts me behind him, I extend my wrist, the dulled blade makes a soft snick as it extends. I slide it easily between links of chainmail like it was designed to do, resting it between the shirt and John's side. He tenses immediately at the cold steel on his skin.

"If this was a sharp blade, you would be dead," I say evenly. I think John stops breathing because he exhales heavily as I remove the blade.

"That...was...awesome!" Says one of the men that now stand behind me. I think it may have been Andrew.

"Guess I have more training to do." Says John as he turns to me, a grin on his face as sweat pours down his forehead from the exertion.

"Only if you plan on fighting us. But we are on your side so I wouldn't worry too much." I say. Some of the excitement drains out of his face.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. I umm... we were just hoping to spar with you again."

"Lee, are you okay spending some more time here?" Lena waved me off without looking up.

"I'll take that as a yes. Alex, do you want to join?"

"And miss showing up a bunch of men?" She teases.

"And I'll take that as a yes also."

Later, after several hours of sparring, when I was getting a snack in the kitchen, John walked in too. He looked happy at first but a hint of sadness crossed his features again.

"All right, whats wrong? I know you, John, that's the same look you had before." He picks up an apple and examines it much more closely than necessary.

"It's nothing Kal, sorry, Kara. Really. I'm just happy to see you again. I really thought one of us would die before that happened."

"John," I say, staring him down like I used to when he didn't do his chores or rub down his horse at the end of a long march. He makes the mistake of looking up, or down at this rate since he seemed to continue to grow. He flinches and hunches his shoulders.

"You... earlier, you said that 'we are on your side.' Like you aren't apart of the Queen's guard anymore. Like we aren't a family anymore. And I... I realized that this is where you belong. These women are so much like you. This is your family." John goes back to staring at his apple. He is still just a kid, a kid with way too much responsibility.

"John, you are my family too. And the other men. And Winn. You all are. And I have missed you so much." I place a hand on one of his shoulders, his eyes snap to mine, I had never touched him like this before, not with such a serious conversation.

"I belong with Lena. Wherever she is. I will follow her. The DEO knows that too, they knew it the moment I found her here. But I have been with these women a long time now so I do think in the terms of 'we.' I am sorry if you thought you didn't matter, or that I replaced you. John, I love you. You were the first to trust Kara and believe in her, even if I didn't know it." John wraps me in a hug so tight he pulls me off the ground.

"I love you too. And I love who you have become. Kal wouldn't have said all that to me." I laugh through the tears forming in my eyes.

"Kal thought it though. It just took Kara to say it. Are you done being all sad and moppy now? I have a beautiful woman waiting for me to bring her an orange."

"Yeah. I am glad you found each other. Lena had me worried for a few months. She hardly left her room. Honestly, she wasn't even this happy with Kal." I smile so wide it hurts.

"Me too. She was the only thing that kept me alive sometimes."

It takes four days of rest and food for Lady Jessica to recover. Donavon rarely leaves her side. They made a cute couple and Lena told me she was already planning on blessing the marriage whenever he worked up the courage to ask Lena for permission. I found the thought of who I would need to ask to marry Lena but quickly shook it off. That was a whole other bridge to cross if we were even allowed, if she even wanted to. No, for now, I had to focus on getting Lena back home and safe.

"Halt!" calls the guard, unnecessarily.

Traffic leaving the city had been crawling at a snail's pace all day. I squeeze Lena's hand in the darkness of the hidden compartment. It was tight, barely enough room to breath between the floorboard and false bottom hatch. Maggie was driving with Sara. Thea and Vasquez were driving a cart several back with Lady Jessica and Alex in its false bottom. The Queen's guard were disguised as mercenaries hired to protect the caravan we had joined. I feel Lena tense as the contents of the cart are shifted above us. I hold my breath and wait. It's over in moments but it feels like an eternity. A jerk and the cart is moving forward again to join the rest of the caravan that has already been searched and is sitting outside the gate.

Its well into the trip that Sara lets us out of the bottom, my whole body feels like a giant cramp. The only positive was that we were out of Daxam and Lena's hand was in mine the entire time. We settle into the back of the cart, we lean against the covered side, Lena's head on my shoulder. I can see Thea's cart behind us. They had caught up since the gates. In the next major city, we would take our two carts and our 'hired muscle' and head west before heading north while the others went east.

When darkness arrives, all ten carts are circled and fires are lit. Our 'mercenaries' aren't the only ones. They meet and set up a rotation schedule so not all of them have to be on watch at once. We build a fire near our own carts like some others, away from the communal fire in the center. We talk softly and share food. Being outside was much needed after being inside for nearly a week.

"Yup, so when enlistments went out, I was taken because my father had lost most of his fingers on his sword hand. That day was the last day I saw my parents. And well, I think my most notable career points have been spoken about at length." I finish explaining my life to everyone. The women knew most of it at this point, but the men were still in the dark.

"Well Kara, I know you have been through a lot, but I am sure glad I was able to serve you." Says John, causing me to blush, only hidden by the firelight and the wine we were sharing.

Before long we settle into bedrolls. Lena pressed to my front to fight off the cold night air. Alex and Maggie settle into another while Sara, Vasquez, and Thea fall in a row to fight off the chill. Other men lay scattered as they sleep until their watch.

"Kara?"

"Yeah Lee?" I whisper back softly.

"We could just leave. Disappear. Together."

"What?"

"I've just been thinking how hard it's going to be. And I love you but I don't even know if we can get married or if the people will hate me for it or..."

"Shhh... Lena, you know you would never be happy hiding. You belong on the throne, it's in your soul. Secondly, I love you, I will be by your side no matter what, even if... even if you must marry another."

"No."

"No?"

"I won't marry anyone else. My brother and his children can take the throne then." I kiss the back of her head.

"We can figure all that out later, for now, We get you back to Kandor.

We all breathe a little easier three days later when we separate from the others. We push faster than we should but none of us want to stay in Cadmium longer than necessary. The men pair off to scout ahead through the woods. When reports of patrols come back, we hid much like when we were leaving Daxam. It becomes much more frequent, the more north we travel. We soon have to rely on the fake papers that felicity provided to get us past roadblocks. Thea was a seamstress and her assistants traveling north to join citizens willing to settle in an outpost being established as Krypton focused on the eastern front. We were in the hiding place when a patrol near the borders calls for us to stop.

"Here are our papers, sir." Says Maggie. Silence follows as he examines.

"Follow me." the man orders.

"I'm sorry sir, is something wrong?"

"Yes, you aren't doing as you are told." Threat clear in the man's voice. Lena squeezes my hand hard.

"Yes, sir." The cart jerks into movement after another moment and I feel it turn off the main road.

When the cart stops I hear a drone of conversation, too far away to hear. Then protests from the women driving the carts as things start to be shuffled above us. They are cut off quickly and I feel the cart rock as things are unloaded from the top. I pull a knife from my belt and press it into Lena's hand.

"Be ready," I whisper. My muscles tense in preparation for a fight.

Suddenly daylight pours in as the hatch is lifted, I spring at whoever opens it. We fall backward, off the cart and onto the ground. The man's back hits and I hear all the air rush out of him. The blade of my gauntlet is out and just under his chin. I look into the eyes of the first man I will kill here. Then I stop. I know those eyes.

"Prince Alexander," I say, shocked.

"Kal?" He asks, unsure. I nod. Still stunned. We shouldn't have reached them for at least two more days. I retract the blade and slowly stand up to look around. We are in a camp filled with soldiers in Cadmium uniforms but I recognize a few faces here and there as ones I used to help lead.

"Lex?" Lena asks from the back of the cart where a soldier helps her out of the shallow compartment.

"Lee!" He calls and stands up, lifting his sister out of the back and embracing her.

"My Rao, I thought I lost you. I will kill every last one of the men who took you." He holds on to her, running a hand down her hair and she squeezes him back. I look around to see Alex and Jessica emerging from the other cart. They join the other three women in a loose defensive circle, it looks casual enough but I can see they are all on edge. John stays near them to try and be a comfort.

"Lex, mother did this. She planned it all. Queen Rhea told me. Mother wants you on the throne, not me." Lena says softly.

"What?" Lex looks back to look at his little sister.

"She was going to use me to marry the Prince of Cadmium so there would be peace and you could rule Krypton."

"But I despise court. I don't want to rule, why would she think I would want that?"

"I don't know Lex. But she won't stop until she's rid of me. You know she never wanted me." Prince Alexander looks around and realized how many people could be listening.

"Let's talk in my tent." He pulls Lena by the hand towards the biggest tent. She catches mine and tugs me after.

"I'll be right there," I whisper. Then I motion for John and Alex.

"John, have the men Guard the tent, no one in hearing distance. Alex, you guys scout the camp and reload the carts. I want to get out of Cadmium as soon as we are done talking to the prince. I am not waiting around to be discovered here." They both nod seriously and I walk to the tent.

Lena is already telling Alexander what she knows from her side of the story, He gives me a soft nod of acknowledgment. When Lena is done I begin telling him everything I know, starting with my kidnapping at the border. I leave out most my time with the DEO, only giving enough information to provide an excuse for serving in the castle and then finding Lena. The daring rescue and slow escape. After all is said, the prince sits back in the chair, absorbing all the new information.

"I can't kill my mother." Is the first thing he says. I look at Lena and she nods.

"I can, and I will." I say, letting the 'with or without you' go unspoken.

"Then we need to get back to Kandor. But we can't have a battle in the city walls. We need to find a way in with no bloodshed. If I return now, mother will know something is wrong." I think silently for a moment.

"I might have a way. But I will need to talk to someone inside the walls first."

"Then let's get our future queen to Kandor. We leave in two hours."

[chibinightowl]

Bakery AU, Part IX

One more chapter to go...

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII

~*~

“Tell me what?”

Tim’s heart starts to race, a last ditch effort by his body to give him the brainpower needed to get the words out of his mouth. He takes hold of Jason’s hand and removes it from his chin, but he doesn’t let it go. “I know you’re Redwing.”

To his credit, Jason doesn’t even flinch. “Right,” he drawls. “Tim, I think you’re a little sleep deprived.”

“Oh, I am,” Tim agrees. He forges on. “But I know I’m right.”

“Really? How so?”

“Because I figured out that Dick Grayson was Robin when I was nine years old.”

Jason’s grip on his hand tightens, the only sign his words are affecting him at all. “Okay, suppose I buy this tale. How did you figure it out?”

Tim launches into a story that has never once passed his lips. About how as a young boy he went to the circus with his parents and met an acrobat who promised to do a quadruple somersault just for him. He spoke of how that night ended in tragedy, with the acrobat’s parents falling to their deaths when their ropes snapped. “I kept tabs on Dick after I heard Mr. Wayne took him in. Sometimes I saw him at society events it was okay for kids to attend. When I was nine, I caught a clip on one of those paparazzi TV shows of Robin. They were running a brief segment on local urban myths. The video was absolute crap even if they did try to clean it up, but it wasn’t the person I recognized. It was what he did that struck me the most.”

“What did he do?” Jason prods when Tim pauses to gather his thoughts.

“He did a quadruple somersault. There’s only person in the world who can do it. Dick Grayson. After I figured that out, the rest was easy.” Tim bites his lip, stopping the flow of words.

There. He’d done it. No going back now.

Jason places his hands on Tim’s shoulders, holding him firmly in place as he stares intently at him. “Are you telling me a nine year old boy figured out one of the most closely guarded secrets on the planet?”

Tim nods. “If you’re referring to Batman, yes. He goes to great pains to hide it. Superman on the other hand…a pair of glasses? Really?”

A heavy hand covers his mouth faster than Tim can blink. “I think that’s enough tonight. You’re tired and obviously getting to the point where you’re not thinkin’ straight.”

What? Tim stiffens and jerks himself away from Jason. “You think I’m making this all up? I’m exhausted, but I’m not stupid. Jason, I have never, ever, spoken about this to anyone before. If you don’t believe me, fine. I was trying to be honest with you, because if you want whatever this is between us to work, then you need to be honest with me.”

“I don’t think this is the time or place to be having this conversation. You don’t have a door right now, remember?”

Tim’s mouth snaps shut. Son of a bitch. Had he been speaking too loudly? He doesn’t think so, but Jason is right. All that’s keeping the rest of the world out of his little shop is a piece of plastic. “Sorry. Sorry, you’re right. I’m just…”

“You’re tired, Tim.” Jason hauls him back in and plants a tender kiss on his forehead. “Go take a nap. I’ll finish cleaning this up.”

There isn’t anything Tim can do but nod. He’s blown it. He knows he has. Goddammit, why did he say it? Had he really misread things so badly? What’s going to happen now? Jason would be fully within his rights to never see him again after this little bomb. Fuck.

Tim lets Jason direct him into the kitchen and, under his watchful eye, gets his blanket and pillow out of the storage bin. Jason doesn’t comment about it, which says a lot about where this is all heading. He makes a little pallet under his desk and lays down. Through bleary eyes Tim watches Jason turn off the light and close the door, leaving it open just a crack. This is the last time he’s going to see Jason, he knows it. It hurts so bad that he doesn’t want the same thing as him.

So much for that gamble.

As Tim falls into a fitful sleep, he swears that he hears the low tone of Jason’s voice speaking to someone. “B? You won’t believe what I just heard…”

~*~*~

The next day Tim decides is quite possibly one of the worst he’s had in a while. Jason is gone when he wakes up to the alarm the man apparently set for him. No note, no nothing, not that Tim expects anything after the mess he made of things last night.

Stephanie tries to get the story out of him when she arrives an hour later with breakfast and coffee, but he refuses to say a word other than that he and Jason had a disagreement. This isn’t something Steph can help with. It’s all his fault.

“Do I need to call him and tell him to stop being an ass?” the blonde asks pointedly.

Tim loves that her loyalty is unwaveringly with him even if she doesn’t know all the details. “No, I’m pretty sure this is all on me.”

“Oh, Tim.” Steph wraps her arms around him and holds him tight. “Are you guys done then?”

He sighs into her freshly washed hair. God, he has to stink to high heaven at this point. “I don’t know.”

Steph squeezes him, then draws back, hands still on his arms as she gives him a serious look. “You know what’s going to make you feel better?”

“The ability to rewind the last twelve or so hours?”

“A shower. Go home, Tim. Get cleaned up, and for God’s sake, brush your teeth.”

Tim laughs weakly because what else can he do? He put himself out there and got rejected.

This is why he doesn’t date. It always hurts when things fall apart.

The rest of the day passes in a blur. It takes a few phone calls to get someone out on a Saturday to replace his door, and as soon as that was done, Tim calls it a day. He and Stephanie already have a plan in place to get things back up and running tomorrow, even if it will take at least a week to get a new display case. That’s fine, they can still take the truck out and Tim can set out a tray with a single cupcake of each design for any walk-ins to choose from while keeping the rest in back. They can make this work. Gotham and a broken heart are not going to keep Tim Drake down.

As he walks home in the late afternoon sun, Tim decides to allow himself one night to wallow in his misery. He deserves that much. A quick stop by the store gets him a six pack of his favorite microbrew and he swings by a Chinese restaurant that makes what he swears are the best noodles in town. Literally, since they make their noodles right there.

Properly fortified, Tim brings his prizes home. Another shower and a change of clothes later, he settles onto his sofa to binge watch Netflix. There are some shows he needs to catch up on.

He does not think about Jason. Much.

Three hours later, he’s finished half his stir-fried noodles and three bottles of beer. Sleep sounds like a great idea, lightweight that he is, so Tim manages to put away his food before returning to the sofa where he puts on a BBC nature documentary to fall asleep to.

He cuddles under his afghan and is out in under a minute.

~*~*~

It’s late when Tim wakes up. He feels like he should still be asleep, but something has drawn him out of that sweet oblivion where he doesn’t think about Jason. Everything is quiet, so he decides it must be his faintly hurting head that woke him. Some headache meds and water will fix that, as will sleeping in his bed rather than the living room.

Tim opens his eyes blearily as he sits up. Then he opens them wider and jerks upright, the afghan pooling around his waist.

Standing in front of his muted TV is Batman, outlined by the glow of the screen behind him.

Oh, shit. Why…Oh. Oh. Jason must have told him everything. Of course, he would, the little bomb Tim dropped on him last night impacts everything his family works so hard for. God, how could he have been so thoughtless?

His inner fanboy cowers in the corner of his mind, wailing in fear even though Tim is reasonably certain Batman won’t actually hurt him. Scare the crap out of him, yes. Intimidate him, hell yes. This is very intimidating, yup. Babbling seems like a stupid thing to do right about now, so Tim keeps his mouth shut and waits for Batman to say something.  

And waits.

And waits.

Seriously? Is he waiting for Tim to speak up first? He has not had enough sleep for this. Tim shoves the afghan off his lap and swings his legs to the floor. “Would you like some coffee? If you’re just going to stand there, then I’m going to need some.”

Batman doesn’t move. If anything, he frowns harder without even moving his face.

Now there’s a trick Tim would love to learn. He makes his way into the kitchen and flips on the overhead light by the sink to see by. Coffee prep is something he could do in his sleep, so while the little pot is brewing, Tim takes two mugs out of the cabinet and sets them on the counter.

“Do you take cream or sugar?” he calls out, not really expecting an answer.

He doesn’t get one.

Black it is.

Tim pours two cups and returns to the living room. He doesn’t try and hand Batman his cup, but he does place it on the coffee table in front of him before sitting back down on the sofa. This is by far the strangest interview he’s ever been part of. It must be a neat trick, using your reputation to get everything you need to know out of a person without having to say a word.

This could go on all night. “What do you want to know?” Tim asks eventually.

“Start from the beginning.” Batman’s voice is a low growl, one that makes Tim’s throat hurt just listening to it.

So Tim starts there, telling Batman how he met Dick, the promised quadruple somersault, and the tragedy that occurred later. He tells him about how he kept tabs on the former acrobat through the news, that he just wanted to be sure the boy was happy. Then he tells him what happened when he was nine… “I’m not sure there are many people who could have made that connection,” he admits slowly. “I mean, sure, the people at the circus probably can if they ever happen to see Robin, or Nightwing now, do that. But outside of there? I don’t think I would have if I hadn’t been there that night and saw it myself.” As well as everything that happened after, but there’s no need to rehash that again.

“You were very young.”

Tim nods. “I was almost four. My mom always said I have a mind like a steel trap. That when something goes in, it’s not coming out. I think that’s part of the reason why I didn’t forget. I couldn’t, even if I’d wanted to.” He sips his coffee, debating about the next part. This is where he could get into some serious trouble.

Well, this is supposed to be a confession of sorts. And it does feel good to get everything off his chest after holding it so close for years.

“When I figured out who was under Robin’s mask, I decided I needed to see Dick in action again for myself. We lived in the city, and Mom and Dad were never around much, so it was easy to sneak out…” Tim tells Batman about how he used to map his and Robin’s patrol routes, how he would hide and wait half the night for even a glimpse of his hero. As he got better and grew more confident, that was when he started bringing a camera.

If Batman was rigid before, then those words made him even more so.

“Those first photos were horrible,” Tim admits with a wry shake of his head. “It took a lot of practice to learn how to shoot at night, just as it took a lot of trial and error to learn to develop my own pictures because these were not something I wanted to take to the convenience store and have just anyone see. But I got better and by the time I did, there was a new Robin.”

Jason. The Robin he got all the best photos of.

“I took my pictures for a little over three years,” Tim continues. “And then my parents were murdered in a botched kidnapping. My life was turned upside down for a time, but when it became clear that I was going to end up in foster care since I had no family to take me in, I knew I couldn’t keep any of those pictures. I couldn’t risk it, even if no one knows the faces beneath those masks.”

“What did you do?”

“I took them up to the roof of my parent’s townhouse and burned them. Each and every one.” It still hurt, even after a decade and more having passed. But it hurt like ripping off a bandaid hurt, and no longer tore at his soul. “All my negatives, I soaked in bleach.”

Batman gestures to the pictures hanging on the walls. The black and white photos are taken from various angles high above Gotham. “You didn’t stop taking pictures completely.”

Tim shakes his head. “No, but I didn’t take those until I’d graduated from culinary school and had my own place. I like photography, it’s something I’m good at. But it’s a hobby now. A skill I can put to use in my shop for my website.”

“You understand the concerns I have.” It isn’t a question and Tim doesn’t pretend to take it as such.

Still, he knows he’s expected to answer. “I do. Honestly, I wasn’t planning to say a word about this to Jason at all. Until last night, I thought what we had was just a mutually beneficial arrangement between two consenting adults. He’d never given me a reason to believe otherwise.”

“Until last night,” Batman states, echoing Tim’s words. “Why did you tell him this?”

Tim hedges and sips his coffee as he tries to gather his thoughts. For all that opening his mouth had been a mistake, the reason why he did hasn’t changed. On that one fact, he still feels like he’s on solid ground.

“Because last night he said he cares about me. That what keeps him coming back is me.” No need to mention the frosting part. Nope. “I’ve known for a little while now that I like him more than what our arrangement calls for. I figured that if he wants a real relationship, then he has a right to what I know so that he doesn’t have to lie to me when the shit hits the fan or he gets all battered and bruised and needs to cancel plans we’ve made. I can’t imagine it’s easy for anyone who tries to date one of you guys.”

“It isn’t. Especially for someone like you who cannot protect himself.”

The implication is clear as day. Tim tightens his fingers around his warm mug. “I know I’m putting myself in harm’s way if Jason and I keep seeing each other. I know I can be used against him or as a means to hurt him. I know all of this. But isn’t it up to us to decide if that’s a chance we want to take?”

“Yeah, B, stop stickin’ your nose in our business.”

Tim almost spills his coffee as Jason comes striding around from behind the sofa in full Redwing regalia. It’s an impressive sight, from the battered leather jacket to the dark gray uniform underneath that fits him like a glove. How long has he been here? Oh, shit, what has he heard? Tim tells himself to get a grip. Everything he’s said to Batman is stuff he plans to tell Jason, if the other man ever gives him a chance.

He’s here though, so that has to mean something. Right?

Batman doesn’t move, but it’s clear when he turns his attention on his son because that weighted gaze no longer sits like a ton of bricks on Tim. “I am trying to ascertain what this man’s intentions are towards all of us.”

Jason snorts incredulously. “No, you’re trying to be a dad for a change and scare away a potential boyfriend. B, Tim knows and hasn’t said a word to anyone. Do you have any idea how much easier this makes things for me? I don’t have to fucking lie for a change.”

Tim clutches his coffee mug, afraid to make even the slightest of noises for fear of interrupting what is clearly a very important argument. Inside, his heart sings with joy because Jason is fighting with Batman for him. If that’s not a sign from the heavens, he doesn’t know what is.

“What happens if it doesn’t work out?” Batman says to Jason. “Think about the damage Tim can do in a single moment of petty spite.”

“I’d never do that,” Tim interrupts. This is something he has to speak up about. “What you guys do is so much bigger than anything I deal with. You’re important. You all mean something to the world. For however long this lasts between Jason and me, I’m glad to be able to support him in whatever way I can. And when it ends, well, I’ll at least know that for a time, I made him happy. Because I can’t imagine you guys get that a lot.”

Both men turn and stare at Tim, heavy and weighted and wow, this must be the same feeling that makes bad guys quiver in their shoes. But Tim holds firm and doesn’t drop his gaze.

“B, you’re done here,” Jason finally announces. “You got what you came for. Tim won’t spill the beans. Now get out.”

“Redwing—”

“Get outta my business, B. I can either air dirty laundry about you and Catwoman or toss you out that window. Take your pick.”

Batman looms over his son, but Jason is clearly having none of it as he just stares him down. All the long years of exposure must make him immune. Tim finds that impressive because wow. Just wow.

That heavy gaze settles back on him for a moment before Batman walks away without another word, brushing past the sofa towards the window leading out to the fire escape. Tim feels a faint rush of cold air on his neck and then nothing. He turns around to look, just to be sure. The only thing he sees is the faint movement of his cheap window blinds.

“So that’s what being interrogated by Batman feels like.”

Jason snorts and picks up the coffee Batman never even touched. “Sort of. There’s usually a lot more punching and getting tossed off the side of a building involved.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Tim feels faint at the thought. Although jumping off the side of a building doesn’t sound too bad if he’s with the right person…kind of like skydiving perhaps.

An awkward silence falls over the room, neither of them seemingly able to start the conversation that needs to happen. Tim fiddles with his mug and steals glances at Jason, who seems lost in thought as he drinks the not-so-warm coffee. What’s going on in his head? How does Jason feel about all this? He apparently likes the idea of him knowing who he is if his statement to Batman was legit.

Tim takes a deep breath and breaks the ice. “How much of that did you hear?”

“All of it. I followed B here and snuck in through your bedroom while he loomed over you like a creepy fuck until you woke up.”

“How long did that take?”

Jason chuckles quietly. “About half an hour. Color me impressed.”

“I may have had a few beers earlier tonight.”

“Lightweight,” Jason teases, but there’s a fondness to it. “You were quite the little stalker once upon a time, weren’t ya?”

Tim nods, feeling steadier now that they’re talking about his past. “I guess you could call it that. At the time though, I was so incredibly lonely that sneaking out for even a glimpse of my heroes was enough to negate the creep factor.”

Jason walks around the coffee table and takes a seat in the recliner. Under the jacket, Tim can just make out the stylized red bat on his broad chest. “You’ve mentioned before that your parents were never around that much.”

“No, they weren’t.” Tim takes a sip from his mug. It’s almost empty. “I had a hard time mourning for people who were never there. I got lucky when I was placed with Grandma Ives. She gets kids in a way I’d never seen before. Probably because she had six of her own, plus over a dozen grandkids. She helped me figure out what my grief was really about and gave me something constructive to do while I worked my way through it.”

“She the one who taught you to bake?”

“Yes.” Tim has many fond memories of Grandma Ives. Perhaps one day, he can introduce Jason to her.

“Did you really take all those pictures of me?” The question seemingly comes out of left field, but Tim has a feeling it’s a precursor to something bigger.

“I did.”

“Is it… Is this the reason you want to be with me?” Jason gestures to his uniform, to the mask he’s still wearing.

Tim is shaking his head before Jason finishes speaking. “No. Not at all. In the beginning, I was shocked that someone like you even spared a glance in my direction. I kept telling myself not to look too deeply into it, to not get attached, that we were both getting something we needed. But when we went out for dinner to that bar, it felt like a date. I wanted it to be a real date so badly that I had to keep reminding myself it wasn’t.”

Jason sighs heavily and leans forward, his solid arms resting on his thickly muscled thighs. “I think of that night as a date. It was all so clear in my head what I was doing, sweeping you off your feet and romancing the crap out of you, but in hindsight, I can see why you believed what you did.” He sounds defeated, which no. No. Tim is not letting this happen.

Standing, Tim sets aside his coffee and kneels in front of Jason, resting his hands over the man’s gloved ones and forcing him to look at him. This close, the lenses in his mask are disconcerting, but Tim knows Jason’s eyes are on him. “We’re both idiots,” he pronounces. “Doing everything ass backwards from the way we should have.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve fucked up,” Jason tries, but Tim shushes him.

“Me neither. But I think we have a good reason to want to do this right. If you want to, that is.” Tim trails off, his momentary boldness tapering into uncertainty.

Jason grabs hold of his hands, holding them firmly in his gloved ones. “I want to. Christ, I want to. But the risks…Tim, already the thought of something happening to you hurts like hell. If we go further…”

Tim raises their joined hands and presses a kiss into the material of Jason’s gloves. “I understand. Just know that I’m willing to take those risks. But really, the choice is yours, not mine. What you do, who you are…it’s all so much bigger than just me.” His confidence shocks him, even if it is nice to know he can bring it out when he needs to, despite the less than stellar circumstances.

“I need some time to think.”

“I respect that.” Tim tries to stand, but Jason rises along with him and draws him in close, pressing his forehead against the top of Tim’s head.

“Tim, this isn’t good-bye. I will let you know what I decide. And in person because you deserve that much, even if it’s not what either of us want.”

It’s more than Tim can reasonably expect. “I appreciate it.”

Jason pulls back a bit and runs his fingers over Tim’s cheeks, seemingly memorizing the planes of his face. “I’ll see you soon.” He leans in and presses a brief kiss against Tim’s mouth.

And then he’s gone, vanishing into the night.

[callie-the-snarky-geek-blog]

RvB16 Episode 1 Review: The Shisno

(Old Blog Repost)

Season 15, to put it lightly, has had mixed reception. Some liked it, some didn’t. Some like parts of it, others like different parts. Regardless of where you stand, I think we can all agree that it wasn’t a perfect season. Personally I enjoyed it, but I was also a newcomer to RvB so… you know, I’m biased. Regardless, Joe did well enough to be given the reigns once again and it looks like he has some MASSIVE plans.

So finally, here we are with the sixteenth season. With only one episode, it’s still too early to determine if this season will be an improvement or a disappointment. But the first episode is supposed to draw us in. Did it succeed in doing so? Lets find out.

Overview

The introduction is… weird. We saw the medieval scene on Twitter.. well the first few seconds anyways. It being a medieval version of the famous ‘ever wonder hwy we’re here’ scene can’t be for no reason. I guess it MAY be a hint at the time travel aspect coming up, but for now it’s just baffling. What is even mroe baffling is the vortex and the voice following it. We now know that the voice belongs to a being named Muggins as he speaks of things being provoked by humble actions and briefly going over the end of S15. Some kind of prophecy has been triggered due to the time drill thing and even with it gone, it still fulfilled it’s purpose. Which leads us to…

Fighting over food! So first, Joe wasn’t kidding about this whole thing beginning as a quest for pizza. I need to rewatch that tease later to see what other hints are in it. But regardless, with the Blues and Reds defeated and Dylan offering to talk to the cops since they’re still wanted (and I imagine this leads to her and Jax’s final scene in S15), our guys have earned some R&R. It was honestly a nice welcome back to see them just bickering over something as ridiculous as where to go out to eat. It fits them so well and feels like a very nice welcome back after all the insanity last season. Things are slowly tingeing back to normal… at first.

Simmons notices that Donut is missing, so Grif sends Caboose to go find him. Honestly the fact that SOMEONE realized that Donut wasn’t there is a sign of improvement since it’s always kind of been a running joke that no one. Sure, sending Caboose probably wasn’t THE best idea, but it’s a sign of improvement! Then we get the… body horror scene… dear God that looked painful. It was still funny due to how oblivious to it Caboose was, but still… MAN. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it weren’t for Donut’s screams of pain. Man, Dan Godwin nailed it… and I imagine that had to HURT so kudos! So yeah… Donut vanishes to I assume the same place the time drill went since they use the same sound effect. I guess Donut will then ascent not Godhood since he is beyond the plain of space and time now. We’ll see~

So Cabosoe comes back empty handed and at first everyone considers going to find him… except Grif. He wants to get the Hell off the island before the cops get there. We’ll talk more about this in a little while but man do I have thoughts! So the Reds and Blues all agree on pizza with Sister tagging along. Carolina and the lieutenants meanwhile head for Chorus, Carolina to go check on Wash and the lieutenants to get back to what Jensen calls ‘interesting things’. So I assume that we’ll get some kind of B Story involving Chorus hijinks. Maybe if we’re lucky, a certain green mercenary will show up… I can dream!

This is where things get interesting as we then see two tiny balls of light. Muggins, who we already heard, and a female-voice done named Huggins. He is apparently a rookie as Muggins sends her to keep watch over the Reds and Blues and to both not lose them and to not be spotted. He meanwhile shoots across space and we get a REALLY cool intro sequence showing all the cast and the main crew members… though they forgot Geoff’s name for some reason (the Youtube version has it, so I assume it’s an error). Oops. They also don’t have Becca listed, though Sister isn’t technically a main character so I guess that’s why. Maybe in the future. But it’s really cool and the alien-esque soundtracks sounds so perfect.

Muggins arrives at what we can assume is the villains lair. IDK if this is an original set piece designed by RT Animation or if it’s an actual Halo map. Either way, it looks awesome. Dark, with a lot of red and black, but epic in scale. A proper villain lair. We get a glimpse of a green-armored soldier with a British accent golfing… weird. Anyways, Muggins reports to their leader who we only see partially. They have black armor and while they only say one word, it’s a… pretty damn intimidating voice. Muggins informs the leader that the ‘pizza quest’ has begun and therefore triggered the last part of the prophecy, ending the episode.

Review

While the episode is only nine minutes long, BOY HOWDY did it leave PLENTY to talk about. I guess we’ll start with Donut though. I have no idea what the Fuck just happened. It’s clear that the blast from the drill caused… whatever the Hell happened and we can assume form the earlier narration, that this was meant to happen. So this is definitely going to be important. Going off the promo material, where Donut’s in a kind of meditative pose, it seems like he’s going to become a God-like figure. My guess is that he now exists outside the realm of space and time, which is where I believe the drill now is. What will this do to Donut? I have no idea, but this is definitely going it be a lingering plot thread. And hey, Donut deserves the focus.

Something I also liked is how the Reds and Blues DID notice that he was missing. Look, they do not have a good track record of remembering either Donut or Doc. So the fact that Simmons relied it is a massive improvement. And I do like how after Caboose said that he was gone, Sarge and Tucker DID want to loo for him and not leave him behind. Grif convinces them not to, but still it is a HUGE sign of improvement compared to normal. And while they DID ultimately leave, I think it’s good that they at least recognized that Donut was gone and considered looking for him. It’s a good sign that they are growing.

Next lets talk about Carolina and Wash. So it looks like, at least for now, they won’t be in on the main plot. I assume that they’ll be given a B Plot revolving around Chorus, considering Jensen’s line about the going-ons there, but it’s too soon to tell. But yeah Carolina and Wash will likely be on the sidelines at least for now. Honestly… I an good with this! I love them both, don’t get me wrong. But lets face it, both have had a LOT of focus and attention ever since their respective introductions. Freelancer has been running the series for a long time now, and for good reason. But I really want to see the Reds and Blues on their own for once. S15 showed that, when they get their act together, they can operate and be formidable on their own with minimal Freelancer help. I want to see them have to deal with a massive situation without just having Wash or Carolina deal with it for them. I did like that Tucker plans to get Wash his own pizza though, just showing how much he cares for his teammate. You’ve grown up Tucker!

The biggest thing I want to talk about before we get to the villains though is Grif. Because his lines here are… interesting. It is clear that he wants to avoid any adventure, insanity, and dramatics as much as possible. When Jensen starts talking about Chorus, he says he wants to avoid the subject before trying to take it back. Then there’s the entire pizza quest thing. He doesn’t want to call it a quest. He doesn’t want to look for Donut because it would mean staying around and having to talk to cops. He calls out the others on how everything always has to be treated like a major production. He outright tells Sister that they’re not getting into anything crazy when she is clearly enthused about the idea. Now this could just be because he’s ‘hangry’ and also doesn’t want to chance getting arrested, but… IDK. To me, adding in the ‘new science’ line, it all paints a very clear picture: Grif wants things to go back to normal, just like he did last season… and it makes sense.

Some may say ‘wait, shouldn’t he be over this after last season?’. No. No he should not. Last season had Grif regret quitting because he didn’t like being alone and in the end, he DOES care about the others. And yes, he did willingly get into the thick of things when he joined back up. But here’s the thing, he did so because the others were in trouble and they needed him. But now that trouble is over.  Now there is a chance for him to FINALLY go back to a level of normalcy with the others again. It’s why he’s trying so hard to avoid talking about serious matters or refusing Sister and Caboose’s replies about ‘adventures’ and ‘quests’. He never got over wanting to be done with that. We never had any kind of scene where he comes to terms with the insanity that is his life, only of him having regret abandoning the others. So it makes sense that this is still a thing with him like it was last year. The only difference is this time, instead of quitting, it seems like he’s going to try to actively attempt to keep them out of any insanity. Will this go anywhere? We’ll have to see. But since the promo art just has him facepalming, I think this may be his character arc for the season. And since Grif is my favorite character and I loved his development last season, I am all for it!

That leads us to our ‘villains’. And I say that lightly because while they ARE clearly the antagonists, I… can’t really tell if they’ve evil. Going off Mugigns’ narration and report to the leader, it sounds like they are trying to prevent some kind of horrible catastrophe that the Reds and Blues unknowingly started. As for WHAT they are… well they aren’t human, at least not fully. It’s way too soon and we still know way too little. But I am going to assume that they are aliens and some kind of high cosmic order. One that makes the head of it essentially a God. Heck the names Huggins and Muggins seem to be based off Huginn and Muginn, ravens who act as the eyes and ears to Odin in Norse mythology. Going off that… yeah, we’re going full Thor here apparently.

The leader we can assume is the equivalent of Odin, the king God in Norse mythology. IDK if we’ll get a Thor and Loki equivalent…. unless the green guy is meant to be one or the other. But yeah, this means that this guy is scary news. It’s too soon to say who he may be, though I saw one person speculate that it may be Donut. And with the time travel stuff, it IS possible. But again, too soon to say. Though if not I guess that Donut becoming a God will be the key to beating this guy. Either way, the goal is unclear other than that a prophecy has been provoked. Whether they’re going to try to stop it form coming to pass, or make sure it comes to pass is unclear. We also don’t know what the prophecy is other than that the time drill’s activation was the first sign and the pizza quest was the point of no return.

So here is my current theory. As I said, I don’t think that the ‘villains’ are actual villains. Or at least they aren’t evil psychos like Felix or a well-intentioned extremist gone mad like Temple. I think that this ‘prophecy’ is going to make them see the Reds and Blues as the villains. So they are going to attempt to wipe them out in order to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. It makes them the antagonists by default. How that will cause time travel to factor in unless an attempt to kill them goes horribly wrong IDK. Still, that’s my current stance. Will it get cleared up? Probably and it’ll lead to the true villain showing up. Bu it’s still WAAAAY too soon to say, but going off Muggins’ worry it doesn’t feel like he and Huggins at least aren’t antagonistic. But we’ll see as things unfold.

All of this of course leaves a LOT of questions. What is the prophecy exactly? What is the catastrophe? How does time travel equate into it? How does the medieval scene fit into it? Is this based on any of the alien stuff we’ve had in the past? Is it something completely different? How does Donut’s current situation equate into this? What kind of aliens/interdimensional beings are these guys? Who is the golfing guy? Who is that four armed guy that we saw in the trailer? Is he with these guys? Or is he a different antagonist? Is he an antagonist at all? How do the Reds and Blues end up caught up in it? Are we going to learn the definition of shisno? There’s a lot of questions man! And that’s okay, it’s the first episode, we’re supposed to be asking questions. Gotta give Joe this, he left us with plenty to think about.

So the way that things currently stand is the Reds and Blues are going for pizza (and I assume that the ship crashes since we see them in a forest area in the trailer), Carolina is heading for Chorus, and the villains are beginning their own plans. What’s going to happen next? I honestly have no clue. I assume that we’ll be following the Reds and Blues still next episode and maybe they’ll discover Huggins, but I honestly don’t know. Way to keep us hanging Joe.

Final Thoughts

This is how you do a premiere! The episode leaves a LOT of questions, but plenty of laughs in classic RvB fashion as well. It uses it’s time effectively and while it was only nine minutes long, it sure didn’t feel that short. The scenes all serve as a nice welcome back, opens up new possibilities, and sets up things for our heroes nicely. Sure the medieval scene is kind of out of place, but normally in animation a scene like that is there for a reason, so we’ll see later. But the machinima and original animation were solid, the acting was good as always, the humor and banter were on point, and we have plenty of mystery to look forward to down the road. It also sets up potential character development for Donut and Grif, which is very much appreciated. It was very well done and I am absolutely craving for more! Great episode!

[kosmicdream]

hey!!! i just read to the most recent update of ffak (my favorite webcomic ive ever read tbh) and i kinda wanna try making my own. did you have the whole story planned out before you started or is it an ongoing thing? also how did you make the website for it? thank you for making such a cool comic!

Thank you so much!! And let me try to figure out a way to answer this properly. My process is a bit complicated to explain because it is very organic. Its almost like I am never done writing it, because I am always letting it grow/stretch and explore as I think about ffak every day, and every night before sleeping I’ll try to brainstorm things I havent thought of. So spending that much mental energy on something, you never really get ‘done’ with writing a story. Even when i eventually finish ffak, im sure i will be still working on it (or things I would have wanted to do.)

However!! Before i started working on ffak, when it was just called HELP! i established many things narratively that I stuck to and have not changed about the story. So I think the process of this comic, in a simple way, could have been broken down like this in.. stages?

1) I laid down the basic framework of the world, such as the functions of king worms specifically, the aiguille family, helpers, several characters (some havent even appeared in the comic yet!), king leadman, as well as antony/rome’s narrative arc/dynamic. that way their character arc was already figured out before the comic started and I knew it would be the central ‘root’ of the story. I knew how i wanted Rome to be introduced, and how he would meet canary, not knowing the connection between canary and his brother. I had a rough idea, even from here, how their character arc would come to a point (and basically what sorts of things the story would likely eventually close on) I also knew the general setting was on moons and how the humans got there, and how advanced society was, and what the red lights “really" were and what they meant..i figured out what ‘vein’ was here.. ect.. many worldbuilding things!!!It might sound intimidating, but this process happened very quickly. I basically figured this out in the.. day? before i started working. I have had a lot of experience with roleplaying so i think that helps with me making quick decisions. I knew i had enough to work with that I didn’t feel intimidated to start actually drawing it out-- especially because i had the rome/antony thing already set down. 2) Then when I actually started to work, things started to develop very quickly. I knew basically all i needed to for Hekatons before i got to introduce knife (their origins, history, involvement in present day politics) and before ch6 i also wrote all of the “supporting cast” (at the time) which included dylan, fork/spoon/knife, paper/scissor/rock. So i ws able to write Thumb and Heel, and set up the overall dynamic of what the world was like in the present day. (also Spoon/Scissor’s connection.) Cash was actually written in the first batch of characters oops, but her design really became more detailed during this stage because of scissor. 3) then things got more complicated as i dug deeper into the past, and wanted to include crimson. So!! I fleshed out the origin and true history of this world. basically as soon as crimson appeared I had everything in place and felt comfortable enough to include crimson, who borrowed many things narratively from a character i roleplayed for years. Anyway, i figured out all of the deep past of the world and decided to draw it out since it was so interesting in ch 9/10. I think this was around in the 2nd chapter when i figured this out, but my memory is fuzzy. I know by the time i did the flash forward scene in ch2 i had decided many things and so all i had to do was get to them in the comic to cement it in. 4) I forget when exactly (maybe around in chapter 5 or 6) , but i decided to bring in a very old story i wrote in 2009 for good leadman’s origin story-- as i thought it would be cool to make good leadman the protagonist for this old comic i wanted to do, and that helped make the background for heel and thumb more “believable” to me because they were already symbolizing this old story i had written the entire thing of. Oh that’s something else to mention, because that world was part of a collection of stories- i was able to develop DMTIA that way because i already had this cast and just decided to merge the stories into the FFAK setting. I think when i did this, it pretty much was the final big thing to make me understand everything i needed to know about this world. All the story arcs felt pretty realized and I could see how the ending could go at this point.

I guess to summarize, is that i let things grow but also had things planned from the start and once i commit to an idea, it doesnt change. Even if it might appear somewhat frustrating to work with, i like to use them to make my next decision. sometimes that means i dont get to do all i want to do, but i still have a lot of flexibility in this setting like i wanted to have from the beginning.

Even now when i feel like pretty confident that I’ve explored every nook and cranny, I’ll decide to revisit a older storyline or facet of the world and strengthen or build on that. That’s why i ended up with so many fucking side characters because I’ll brainstorm for them for a day or two and suddenly have a lot of material i know wont even “technically” go into the story even though its there. (like, Spot for example was not meant to be so interesting, but i wrote a huge fucking story for him that obviously wont get really any attention.)

So.. its ongoing and it is also not ongoing and hasnt been for quite a long time now? (after two years of constant work it felt.. really complete and done in a lot of ways. we are now currently on year three, moving to year four!) I think the best thing to do is to keep in mind what kinds of methods for writing make you feel comfortable and is your natural brain-pace. I like working with an aspect of fluidity and room for growth and flexibility because i don’t like being boxed in or “outgrowing” my project too fast. So keeping that in mind, i designed ffak to be a comic where it could grow with me and change. that’s pretty much why i decided worms would be a great subject and theme to work with because they are characters that naturally, evolve and change based on what they eat and absorb. plus the themes in ffak just are so fun to work with i will never be bored of it. structuring a project with these things in mind for when i run into walls or feel unmotivated have kept me engaged. I think that is part of why i cannot let it go because I still feel really excited to write and contribute ideas to it.

However, Chapter 12 really feels like I’m settling back down to my original plans and taking my time and patience to communicating all the structured planning ive put into it. I’m not letting it grow the same way anymore because it doesnt need to. I feel comfortable with understanding its voice/style and pacing and im no longer recovering from the uhh.. shock of it existing? I promise that once you actually start making a comic, its a wholly different experience than just it being in your head. and it will sound, look, and feel different than what you thought it would be-- that in itself has influenced a lot of change in ffak because honestly at first i was not expecting to draw it so explicit. that was difficult to get used to but im happy to have embraced that aspect of my work.

So HMM.. I made a strong spine or foundational backbone in the beginning before i started, then fleshed it out as i was in the process of making it, and i always continue to leave room for it to grow. just not grow in EVERY aspect anymore. i also dont chop down branches, but i try to hone in on specific things to make them more clear. i think chopping stuff down and removing things is generally not the best to do because its easier to build up and work with what you have than make big retcons after youve already started or established. also the challenge of working with limitations makes you feel that needed bit of pressure to really commit to your work in the moment of making it and i feel like its helped make me more serious and confident about what i write about. I never feel lost on what to do because if I cover and figure out something, that’s how it is. I make it work regardless! 

everything is done with careful consciousness to the overall balance and product of the story, while also not suffocating it in a box of limitations of what it could be. i treat it like a living thing in my mind and heart and that means i work to have thoughtful conversations with it and myself about what its needs are, what my needs are, what i want to do with it and what it wants to be.. ect. its almost a spiritual thing really. i feel like its important to always reflect and engage with your art and art process to feel a stronger connection and purpose behind what you are deciding to do and what it means to you. i am probably repeating myself a little here but!!!!!! its worth saying!!!!!!!!! 

I also really think it adds to the interesting and fun “layers” to the story, as there has been different stages to its development and it brings in different feelings with each layer. But then the older or more ‘’foundational’’ ones pop in and they seem to give off a different atmosphere (antony and rome) vrs some of the newer additions (like jacket) who are more for shallow, fun decoration or an interesting potential to explore in the future. Like, Jacket is not a character that has a lot of foundational plot connected to him, but he’s an interesting development in terms of the potential of a worm and symbolizes that early-ffak-mindset of growth and experimentation. so i think it makes him a really unique and fun character because he embodies a lot of new and old aspects of ffak’s narrative and my journey with working on the comic.

I could go on and on, but I hope this sort of gives some insight to my process and how I write/work. because in a lot of ways, it isn’t linear. just like how my comic is! sometimes this makes ffak very disorienting for people to read, but if you keep in mind that ffak is very organic and personally tailored to my mannerisms  and with that in mind, it makes a lot more sense why it is how it is and the patterns in it become much more apparent. Anyway! thank you for reading and good luck working on your own stories! it can be challenging but i think it is absolutely worth the effort. 

Also i did not make the website, my good friend Tegan did. :3 i do not know anything about websites.

[spring-emerald]

I live your writing! Can i request a haikyuu fanfic? Some tsukki being insecure about his height bc it draws him so much attention and the attention is just too much sometimes and anyone from the team (preferably the second years? ) finds out and tries to support him

Anon! I hope you’re still out there! First of all, thank you so much! Secondly, I’m sorry for taking too long to get to this request of yours. Tsukishima was challenging to write, but I hope he turned out well. 

I hope you like it! :)

standtall

Tsukishima’s notsurprised that he’s the first one to be back in the classroom that serves as theirdesignated sleeping room during the training camp. Honestly, he doesn’t evenknow where the rest of his teammates are, although, right now, it’s the leastof his concern. He rather likes that he has time this time alone. He’sexhausted, after he’s been accosted by those nosy third years form otherschools that he doesn’t even know, to help them out in their own practice.

Practice wasexhausting, they even made it more so with their loudness.

He sits in front ofhis bag with a sigh, rubbing his hand on his arms and squeezes it occasionally,wincing a bit as they are still rather numb and are steadily getting sore fromtaking all those spikes. Just god, why is he a middle blocker again? Why did hehave to be so tall that he’s the one assigned to blocking incoming balls bydefault?

He’s not one tousually curse his natural height, often indulges it even. He enjoys literallylooming over someone smaller than him and intimidating them. But things likebeing irked to help out in blocking practice, and being slighted because he’stold that perhaps he’s just not good enough, (and the nerve for actuallycomparing him to loud mouthed shrimp), does a good job of making him feelbitter about his height.

He sighs again, whichis getting uncharacteristic of him, if he says so himself. Never mind. Anyway,he doubts that they’ll ask him again. Not with the way he just left. But ifthey ever do, he’s going to stubbornly refuse.

And, since it doesn’tlook like his teammates are going to come back any time soon, he might as wellgo ahead and take a shower.

He’s about to standup but then the door loudly slides open.

“ALRIGHT! I AM THEFI- What the hell?! Tsukishima?! What are you doing here?”

Tsukishima drops hiskit back in his bag in surprise and looks at Nishinoya, who is pointing anaccusatory finger at him.

“Aw, dammit. And justwhen I thought I’m the first one in the room. What are you doing here soearly?”

Tsukishima isn’t ableto reply as Tanaka’s voice floated from outside of the room, followed by otherfootsteps.

“Noya-san!!!”

Tanaka comes intoview, with a wide grin on his face, and soon after, Ennoshita, Kinoshita, andNarita are there as well.

“Why are you blockingthe doorway for?” Ennoshita scolds Nishinoya, shouldering his way inside theroom, and pauses briefly when he sees Tsukishima.

“Oh, Tsukishima,you’re here,” he greets.

“Chikara! I lost! Iwas supposed to be the first one but Tsukishima was here already,” Nishinoyadramatically clenching his fist.

“You’re overreacting,Nishinoya,” Narita says, as he pass by him.

“We don’t evenremember participating in your game,” Kinoshita adds.

Nishinoya childishlyputs out his tongue at them, before he stomps inside the room and sits down, crossedleg in the middle of the floor.

“As a man, I willstand by what I said. As consequence of my loss, I will be the last one to takea shower among us, second years,” he says, punctuating it with a pounding onhis chest.

Tanaka slams a handand his shoulder. “You are so admirable, Noya-san!” He kneels beside him. “Asyour loyal friend, I will take this consequence with you.”

“…Ryuu.”

“Noya-san…”

Ennoshita throws hispillow and hits them both squarely at the face, much to Kinoshita and Narita’sdelight.

Tsukishima thoughtthat he could use the distraction to get out of the room unnoticed, but he hadno such luck.

“Oi, Tsukishima!Where d’you think you’re going, huh?” Tanaka says, brandishing the pillow atdirection. “Our seniors get to shower first, that is law.”

It is, in fact, notthe law. Tsukishima, and as most the second years know very well, that yearhierarchy don’t matter much to their bunch of third years. What captain caresmore about is that they don’t make a ruckus wherever they go. But sinceEnnoshita, the most sensible out of the second year lot, did not say anythingto negate it, Tsukishima thinks better than to go through his plan.

This left himcompletely at the mercy of the second years. He doesn’t think he’s been withall of them at the same time and all by himself. He can handle Tanaka-san andNoya-san separately just fine. He usually ignores them whenever they’re causingsome trouble together. He doesn’t mind Ennoshita-san since he’s mostly quiet,although he’s never really spent any time with Kinoshita-san and Narita-san,for that matter.

This realization isquite unnerving.

He thinks oflistening to his music player while waiting to avoid any awkward conversation,but he remembers that it’s not charged, and damn it, why isn’t anything goinghis way today?

“We didn’t see youwith Yamaguchi. Where did you run off to? Your fellow first years are workingtheir butts off getting the most out of the training camp. You should-”Nishinoya didn’t get to finish the rest of his sentence, when another pillowhit him, this time at the back of his head.

“Kazuhito! What thehell?” Narita just shrugs and tips his head to Ennoshita’s direction.

“Don’t be rude,Nishinoya. Tsukishima’s gotten enough practice.” Ennoshita then pointedly looksat Tsukishima’s reddening arms. It took all of him not to squirm and resist theurge to hide them behind his back.

Ennoshita-san’sperceptiveness is both a blessing and a curse.

“Ehhh? Why didn’t yousay so?” Nishinoya says happily.

“Who did you practicewith then?” Tanaka asks, squinting suspiciously at him.

Tsukishima knowsthere’s no way he’s getting out of it, so he tells the truth. At least thewatered down, he doesn’t particularly care, it’s nothing special version of it.

“You caught the eyeof another team’s ace?!”

“Tsukishima, youpunk!”

Nishinoya and Tanakasay at the same time.

Tsukishima snorts outderisively. “They just noticed me because I’m tall. That’s it.”

“Oi, are youbragging?!”

“…and you think that’sa bad thing?” Ennoshita asks, ignoring Tanaka. His head is tipped to the side,looking at Tsukishima knowingly.

“Well they certainly didn’tnotice me because of my blocking,” Tsukishima mumbled under his breath.

And it’s not that he wanted to be noticed because of hisblocking skills, or lack thereof, either, because then, that would have giventhem reason to actually bother him more and work him overtime, like what theywere doing to that new lanky first year.

Ugh, why is he havingthis conversation with them anyway.

He notice theunderstanding look pass over Ennoshita’s face and tries to look unaffected.

“It’s hard to be puton the spot, especially if you’re getting attention for all the wrong reasons,”Ennoshita says empathetically. “Well, for what it’s worth,” He continues,stretching his legs out, “there are definitely worse qualities to be known by.At least you’re not loud and brawly like Tanaka.”

“Hey! Take that-”

“But that’s thechallenge, I suppose. There’s nothing like showing other people just what youare capable of, right?” Ennoshita quirks his lips slightly on the side, anddespite him looking sleepy, there’s a glint in his eyes.

Tsukishima knows thatit’s a challenge, if he ever sees one. He exhales, a bit impudently and crosseshis arms. It’s not that he’s annoyed about what Ennoshita said, but ratherbecause he knows he’s slowly taking the bait hook, line and sinker. And it’snot that his sentiment disappeared completely, it’s just that it’s replaced bysomething like eagerness, and he wants to squish that feeling before he doessomething about it, but he knows it’s too late.

And judging by theslight quirk of Ennoshita-san’s eyebrow in his direction, he knows that what hesaid got through Tsukishima too.

Damn hisperceptiveness.

And damn if it didn’tmake Tsukishima feel better.

Not a lot. Just abit.

[thebigladjake]

AX2002 - Dimensions Group Project: Storyboard and Script

The Dimensions project is an animation where each 30 seconds, the animator switches. The aim of this brief is to get us to communicate with one another and be able to present a cohesive chase sequence with a clear narrative.

When it came to planning this out, we needed someone to be at the front and set up the narrative clearly. Before anyone could, I put my hand up. I was starting this off, I had the perfect idea that established Vasyl as a strong no-nonsense character and Skip’s more easy going and laid back approach. I knew how to set up these characters, so the rest of the class would know what to do, understand the relationships and mechanics of the characters.

First Storyboard Draft

The first impression I got for an introductory segment was to set up a tense narrative with multiple things going wrong at once. Setting a tone where our characters HAVE to get Guffyn back or it’s absolute disaster for everyone! So, immediately the ideas came flooding in and I scribbled down a rough storyboard. The visuals came to mind first, linking them up with a loose narrative. There wasn’t a definite script yet at this stage.

So, this animation “begins” with Guffyn opening a portal in time and arriving into a quiet alleyway in the night. Here Guffyn is rather confused, giving the impression that Guffyn doesn’t really know where it’s going. This was supposed to be the ending shot to the whole animatic, where it loops back to the last frame of the film will mirror the first.

This is where my segment really begins, with Guffyn looking off at the moon for a few seconds before a portal opens to Guffyn’s side with them looking at it in confusion. I always wanted this shot to be the opening shot, have the alleyway there with a little entrance and the moon in the sky.

A foot zooms through the portal, hitting Guffyn and slamming them into a wall! This violence was to establish a more urgent tone because who would want to stomp on a small cute creature like Guffyn? Not unless it was absolutely necessary, showing the audience that this character means business.

An aggressive hand came in, grabbing the Guffyn tight causing it to let out a squeak! A huge gun is then pointed in Guffyn’s face, with a closeup of Guffyn’s shock! This was to make Guffyn look that much more innocent and small in comparison to the huge hand and gun. 

Finally, we see the aggressor, Character A! Not named at the time. Pointing the gun at Guffyn in a POV shot, we get to see their rather intimidating appearance and are only left with vague answers on who these characters are. Then, a hardcut to Character B! Taking out some boxes, the designs here are both simple just to block out the scene and what’s happening. We hadn’t finalised any designs or even discussed them before this, so kept it to know what I’m doing. In hindsight, not a fan of how little Character B is actually in this, and so this was changed in the next scripts and storyboards.

Character A shoots out a portal to take Guffyn back. This establishes the whole narrative of things going wrong when Character B trips up and accidentally stumbles into the portal, much to Character A’s dismay.

Seeing a chance to escape, Guffyn transforms into liquid and melts out of Character A’s hands.

Guffyn then flies into the portal as Character A tries to grab them before they go, but fails... Character A groans saying something like “Not again...”

Summary

This storyboard was a perfect foundation to build upon, the setting was something I really liked and Character A’s reactions where perfect for setting up that there’s more to this story, however this draft has several problems.

My biggest being the portal Guffyn escapes into, would not have been a random dimension as Character A shot the portal, it would have been to go back to the facility which Guffyn had escaped from. Thinking from a story standpoint, Guffyn would have gone back to where he escaped from and Character A would follow, catch them without a chase and also return Character B home without any mad chances between dimensions! This would have also meant that Bee would have to have set her animation in the WTF facility and that wasn’t exactly fair in my opinion.

That was my major problem, but I also didn’t like how Character B hardly interacts and I don’t get a chance to set up Character B’s personality. So, back to the storyboards, I had to find a way where Character B plays just as much of a role in the setup, where Guffyn manages to escape by it’s own rules and an animation that won’t conflict with Bee’s aims and wants in her own segment.

Second Storyboard Draft

So, working on my problems with the first board. This version actually begins with Character B taking out the trash, the same sort of shot of the alleyway with the walls, entrance and moon in the background. Suddenly, a portal opens up that catches his attention.

Guffyn flies out and into the arms of Character B, very fast and conveys the impression that Guffyn is escaping. A small level of urgency established as Guffyn takes comfort in Character B’s arms and we get to see that Character B is a kind and caring character...

While Character B is preoccupied with Guffyn, a gun points into view which causes them to jump and look up in shock! It’s Character A! Looking all intimidating and menacing while pointing an alien device into Character B’s face! Quietly and calmly telling Character B to let go of the Guffyn...

Character B turns away, claiming that Guffyn is harmless and that it likes him! Character A establishes that Guffyn is actually capable of many things and that it has the capacity to destroy dimensions, not once lowering their gun. Showing how contained and composed they are.

Character B steps back claiming that it might not want to destroy worlds. As they argue, Guffyn melts through Character B’s hands.

Character B reacts in disgust, letting Guffyn drop to the floor giving it a chance to escape! I’m quite a fan of how I got to keep the melting effect.

I’d noticed how flat this might have been laid out, so I decided to do this high angle shot to show the portal forming under Character B. Not only to be visually interesting, but to challenge myself by drawing at that angle. It also shows where the portal is formed and also accidentally brings Character B into the adventure!

Now alone, Character A reflects on what just happened and simply wonders why their job can’t be easy.

Character A quickly jumps after and my segment ends...

As you can see, it’s almost the same. However, just simply rearranging certain aspects to make a much more refined film. Elements like Character A being left alone and Guffyn melting away to escape. The violence and urgency much more toned down and in a sense reversed, since Guffyn is all cute and cuddly until it’s revealed that Guffyn can be weaponized. Making him more of a threat rather than make him innocent throughout and making Character A the aggressor.

With this rough draft done, I then began to write a script and create a much more refined product.

Script Development

With my new foundations, I began development on the script and storyboards. This time however with my artstyle in mind and something that will be much much closer to a finished product. 

When writing the script, I had to keep in mind the character’s personalities. Character A, a headstrong, determined figure that has no time for nonsense. Character B, a lighthearted and accepting guy that won’t hesitate to show kindness to the most dangerous creatures. 

With these attributes in mind, I gave Character B the name, Skip. His last name was going to be Anajump because what I was originally going for was a name based on the phrase, “A hop, skip and a jump away“. But, that wasn’t necessary.

Character A became Vasyl, a name in some languages that means leadership and independence. I felt it was important to give them a foreign sounding name since they are an alien.

When I pitched these ideas forward in the group discussions, nobody seemed to object and the names stuck!

These characters went through a bunch of developments, character-wise and visually. Both Vasyl and Skip had lines where they swore in initial scripts, while it felt in line with Vasyl’s character, it didn’t feel right for Skip, plus it made him less endearing. He just seemed like any old teenager than a kind hearted youth!

Their personalities remained the same, but when the brief asked for a sudden detail to be revealed that changes the dynamic, it definitely got me thinking. A rough idea I came up with was have Vasyl grow a bond with Skip because she knew a relative of his who had died on their adventures, seeing those key traits she saw in them. Specifically in regards to his kindness. And just before they part ways, Vasyl would make a comment like “The boy’s just like you”. This idea was soon shot down as it was a little complicated and to keep characters down to a minimum, I didn’t want to restrict people into including certain details. 

Another idea I entertained was Vasyl knowing everything that was going on while Skip had no clue, so when she first appears it’d be like “Not again! No time to explain, follow me!” This didn’t really work for me and I preferred having them meet for the first time.

Storyboard Development

Now I had names, designs and direction for the story to go in. All that was needed was to rebuild my vision and get it more clearly across...

So, we establish that Skip is just a regular human with a regular job in his regular routine. Just having him sigh establishes he is a little bored of his usual life.

Skip’s reaction to the portal opens also establishes that the wacky adventures that he will embark on throughout everyone’s animation would be completely new and mind-boggling to him.

Guffyn flies out, straight into Skip’s arms. Making it seem defenceless and innocent.

Skip’s reaction to Guffyn is nice, we see his open-mind and kind heart. His and Guffyn’s shock when confronted with a big tall alien woman with an unusual device gives the audience the initial expectation of Vasyl being the antagonist.

A small pause to let the bizarre-ness sink in, building tension as Skip refuses to answer her. We see Skip takes a few seconds to pluck up the courage to say know.

Vasyl’s gun was changed to look more like a taser and device, make her look like she’s using a tool rather than a weapon.

Vasyl’s rant and expression shows the audience that there’s more to Guffyn than it seems, maybe it is not to be trusted.

Taking advantage of the situation, Guffyn melts into Skip’s hands in an attempt to sneak away unnoticed. This is set up into the ending of Alex’s animation, where Guffyn takes advantage of the situation to escape.

Skip notices Guffyn leaking through his fingers and reacts accordingly! Vasyl jumps back in surprise due to Skip’s sudden recoiling. 

Vasyl’s attempt to save Skip is the start of their alliance, showing the audience that Vasyl doesn’t want to drag innocent lives into her job.

But, alas, Skip falls into the portal. Getting dropped feet first into the conflict, Vasyl can only react in disappointment...

Her casual reaction sets up a drier side to her personality, showing how these unusual situations are a regular occurrence to Vasyl.

Vasyl jumps in after Skip and straight into Bee’s animation with them falling down. Which further goes onto establish Skip’s kindness and Vasyl’s casual attitude to this situation.

Summary

Being sure in my vision, I simply continued in this direction and made some animatics with test audio. Hardly anything story-based changed from now until my final animation unless it was purely visual. I was really happy with how this turned out and I was even more happy about bringing this to life.