#aera gives tips

[nctsplug02]

dad!johnny wanting another baby 😃😃 thanks!!!

[7:34PM]

GENRE: smut and fluff

WARNINGS: breeding kink, kissing, unprotected sex, praising, degrading, spanking and marking

it’s usually the women who have baby fevers but this time.. your husband, johnny had it.

whenever you and him went to stores, he’d separate from you and find the baby aisle to ween over the stuff. his reason for wanting another child was, “so our daughter can have someone to play with.”

your three year old was fine being the only child but sometimes she would beg and ask for another sibling.

“babe, check out these—?” you sigh, not turning around. “if it’s baby shoes, again, then put them away.” johnny clicks his tongue and frowns. “but it’s cute ones.”

you turn and slump your shoulders. “johnny, we aren’t having another baby. let it go please.” johnny nibbles on his bottom lip and sets down the pack of tiny shoes.

“look at you.” johnny pins you to his chest and holds your head up, forcing you to look at yourself in the mirror.

“imagine me fucking you dumb and pregnant right now.” you softly laugh. “you’re so desperate and needy, it’s really adorable.” you wince when johnny pinches your hips.

johnny nips your neck and groans. “the things you do to me, baby.” he sighs and you push away from him, turning around to meet his eyes. “honey,” you cup his face. “control your dick.” he laughs.

“my ovulation week is in two more weeks. so, let’s wait, okay?” the mention of your ovulation week sparks a sparkle in johnnys eyes. “okay, john?” he nods and grins.

“now, get out my way i have to pee.” you say, shoving johnny aside.

dramatically, johnny spins himself to the small chair in the corner next to the mirror and cries out. “uch! babe, you hurt me!” johnny holds his waist and you give a nasty laugh as you enter the bathroom.

two weeks had passed and johnny couldn’t wait.

“honey, i’m— oh, my god!” you shriek when being snatched up. “upstairs, baby.” johnny says with his arms wrapped tightly around your legs.

“johnny!” you laugh and hold his head while ducking yours. “it’s ovulation week, baby!” you let out a scream as johnny drops you on the bed.

you laugh and curl your knees to your chest. “where’s aera?” johnny yanks off his shirt. “at my moms with taeils daughter and son.” his hand lands on his belt. “this whole night is to ourselves.”

you flinch as johnnys belt hits the floor with a clink. “strip for me.” your hands fiddle with the buttons on your jacket.

your eyes so focused on johnnys hand, his hand stroking his cock and his thumb rubbing his tip and smearing the precum.

by the time you’re pulling off your shirt, johnny is sinking on the bed in front of you. “god, you’re sexy.” you lick your lips and toss your clothes off the side.

“oh!” you gasp out in shock when being pinned to the bed. “baby,” johnny groans and buries his face into your neck. “i’m dying to be inside you.”

you cross your legs around johnnys waist and you hold his face up. “well, i’m waiting on you.”

johnny doesn’t need to be told twice before he nudges himself up against your entrance and sinks himself in.

“waited two weeks for this, baby. saved up just for today.” johnny exhales and sits up, his knees under your thighs and his hands on your waist.

“fuck, you smell amazing.” johnny groans and doesn’t waste anymore time before pinching your waist and forcing his hips against yours.

you bite your lip and hold back a moan that ached to be let out.

“cmon, baby.” johnny reaches forward and grabs your jaw, shaking your head side to side. “let it out, baby. i wanna hear you.”

your lips part and your jaw is sacked.

moans escape your throat and pleasure trickles up your throat. “oh, johnny.” you gasp softly and feel his tip briefly brush past your g-spot.

“oh, god.” you grasp his wrists and moan, his cock nestling against your g-spot.

you whine feeling your orgasm build up. “j—johnny, i’m really close!” you release his wrist and bring your balled up fist to your mouth.

your teeth dig into the soft skin of your knuckles.

“jo—johnny!” you whine as your orgasm crashes over you.

“ssssshit, baby!” johnny winces and attempts to meep his hips moving but, with how tight you’re clenching around him, he stops and releases his first load.

johnny slowly cranks himself forward and lays himself on you. heavily breathing and huffing.

“johnny—?”

“still going, baby.” he softly grunts out.

you softly chuckles and pat his back with a sigh. “you really were saving up, huh?” you laugh and so does johnny.

“okay, this isn’t fair.” you say putting down your plate full of tiny trees.

your husband and daughter looks up at you from the kiddie table. “what ain’t fair, honey?” johnny asks and picks up his fountain drink.

“that i have to eat broccoli while the two of you eat junk food in front of me.” your plate of broccoli balances on your huge belly.

johnny knocked you up with twins a few months back and now you’re on a strict veggie diet from the doctor.

“honey, you heard what the doctor said. she said you must only eat veggies. it’s just for this week.” you groan and hold the plate as you struggle to sit up. “it’s been so loonngggg.” you whine.

“it’s been an hour.” you glare at johnny.

“it’s okay, mama. here, take a fry!” she hands you her small box of fries. “oh, sweetie,” you ween over her cuteness. “gimme the whole thing—?” you attempt you snatch the box but johnny is quicker than you and snatches it.

aera gasps and takes the box of fries back from her dad. “no fries for mama!” she hugs the box of fries to her chest.

[lgcsumin]

a break!

starter for @lgcaera

it’s not like sumin thinks that she’s an amazing singer by any means, but she’s well aware of the fact that she’s a much better singer than she is a dancer –– because truth be told, she’d probably been born with the inability to dance and at this point in her life, she was just trying her best to work with what she’s been given. at the very least, she’s got aera by her side, the two of them practicing together and aera helping her out. 

she’s of course, thankful to aera and glad to have aera giving her tips ( because god knows just how much sumin needs them ), and practicing with aera is a lot less lonelier than practicing alone. as they finish up the last part of the choreography, sumin finds herself practically falling onto the floor as she ungraciously lies down, body covered with sweat. 

“aera,” she says, chest heaving heavily from all the dancing they’d been doing. “i don’t think i can feel my legs anymore and –” as though timed, her stomach begins to rumble. “i need some juice,” she pats her stomach, looking up at the older girl as if to say, let’s go grab something to eat please. 

[vanaera]

Hi!! I was wondering if you had any basic writing tips. I honestly NEVER through I would write anything but one day I just did casually because I loved reading fics so much and now I'm in way too deep and became way too attached to whatever I'm creating rn. I love THH and your style and you blog in general so I was just wondering if you had any basic tips to offer. ok thank you luv you Bye

Hi hon! I'm happy you enjoyed The Heart Holiday and had a great time in my blog! But I am happier that you are enjoying writing. It's going to be a wonderful adventure! 😊😊😊

I don't really know much how to make a cohesive writing advice post bc my thoughts are just scattered around when it comes to the how-to's of writing (I'm a mess, I'm sorry). However, these are some tips that really helped me to write (Idk if they're basic but these are the fundamentals I always consider when I write).

*Contains spoilers for movies Minority Report and Whiplash

Define your character's wants/needs

So you've got your character. You know how they look like. You know what are their likes and dislikes. But the wants/needs will help them become more substantial. More interesting to follow bc your readers are going to be hooked as to whether your character will be able to achieve or not their goals. A character's want is what they desire. It's usually evident at the very start of the story. Most often, it is the premise, itself. (Ex: Minority Report's John Anderton wants to prove his innocence to a future-predetermining system). Meanwhile character's need is what they have to become to fully achieve their goal. Unlike the first, this needs more unearthing in the story. The character usually don't know their needs at the start. The conflicts in the stories pushes them to realize their needs eventually (Ex: John Anderton realizes he needs to let go of his belief in pre-determined futures bc the system has great faults and they are already ruining his life). It's like this: wants = the temporary goal; needs = the real goal. And both of them project character development, for better or worse or to stay the same way despite the challenges (hello flat character arcs). The needs especially show this. This is one of the factors that make your story interesting to follow. Your readers are going to want to know how your characters are going to realize their needs, how they will change to become what they needed to be.

Define the conflict

Conflict is the one that creates the drama. It orevents your character from achieving their goals. It is the obstacles your character must overcome to reach their wants/needs. Conflicts propel the story further. It also makes it more interesting, especially when they layer upon each other (ex: Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight). But conflicts also define characters. The decisions your character makes in face of a conflict says a lot of things about them. (Ex: In Whiplash, Andrew is faced with the decision to sue Fletcher for his extreme teaching style. Or to endure it and become the great musician Fletcher claims he can create. Andrew chooses the former but soon feels empty. When he meets Fletcher again, he gets enthusiastic and even agrees to play for him, despite knowing Fletcher's extreme methods. So in here, we see Andrew is driven by his need to be a great musician, no matter what it takes). Bc of this, your reader gets to know more about your character in a deeper level. It also helps them sympathize more with them.

Establish your story world

This is something I really want to emphasize. The story world plays a large part in defining your characters. It consists of the things that will help your character grow stronger, as well as the conflicts and limitations that will challenge your character to realize their needs. Not only that, a fleshed-out story world sucks the readers into your story (I think this is the reason why Harry Potter and Avatar: The Last Airbender are so fun to read/watch; it feels like you're going onto a vacation in another place whenever you indulge in them). This tip tho doesn't only apply to fantasy genres. Slice of life stories also need a stable story world to work on so your story can be as realistic as you want it to be (Ex: In 3 Idiots, we see how much education is greatly valued, at the same time, how much the students are letting their grades affect their lives. Much more in a prestigious unibersity for Engineering. Readers, especially those who are studying Engineering like the protagonists, will be able to empathize more with the struggles of the characters).

Lengths of sentences

This is something I'm still struggling to learn. Okay, so now you've got your story world, characters, and conflict. You now have to execute your story. Different lengths of sentences will help you that. Sentence lengths help the flow of reading. It creates the tempo and the beat of your story. If the scene is fast-paced, you can opt for shorter sentences bc it creates wuick beats. If you want your readers to stay for a while, say for example, you're describing a place, long sentences are great for defining those details. But make sure you must have a combination of both bc you may lose your reader in the story if you wrote long sentences upon long sentences. While keeping everything short will make your story sound robot-like. Chsnging it up also makes the tone of your story not monotonous. You can better keep the attention of your reader that way bc a non-stagnant flow helps in seamless reading. I tend to write long sentences before and I realized this is true when I tried reading my past works. I then learned how to change things up and then I saw how interesting and enjoying to read my stories now have become.

Find your own style

This is a lesson I learned the hard way. When I was just beginning to write, I followed the footsteps of a lot of reknowned writers. Only to end up writing in a way I'm not happy about. End up writing something that doesn't feel truly myself. I made a lot of mistakes until I learned that no matter how many people say "don't write this way, but this way," or how much you get pressured with thoughts like "Oh, I have to write this way bc this is the trend, this is what most readers will like," nothing feels better but to write how YOU want to write. It's your story. How to write it should be totally up to you, because no one will be able to write your story, but only you. Find and do your own style. It may not feel rewarding sometimes. But trust me on this, there are people who will like what you and how you write and they are going to look for you and anticipate your upcoming works. You know why? Because only you can write that story/that way. So don't lose hope, and just keep writing.

These are just some I follow to help me write my stories more effectively. If you wanna learn more, you can search the tag #writing tips in my blog. I reblog writing advices and encouragement posts for writers there.

Also go to amazing blogs like @theliteraryarchitect and @yourlocalwriterblog . They give the most helpful advices here when it comes to writing in general- writing, editing, publishing, and even screenplays, you name it.

You can also go to nerdwriter1, justwrite, and Lessons From The Screenplay on YouTube. These channels have helped me a lot in writing my stories. Though they usually talk about films and screenplays, their tips are very hepful in writing in general. I always go to them whenever I feel lost and need guidance in writing some certain parts.

Sorry this got so long. I just lobe love writing so much, I don't know how to shut up about it. I hope I was able to help you, hon. Good luck in your writing and if you finally posted it and want me to see it, just feel free to hit me up 😊😊😊

[heeswrld]

seven minutes in heaven,

wonwoo x fem!reader

warnings | SMUT SMUT SMUT.

my first friends to lovers fic..

enjoy..

“want to have a sleepover?” your friend, aera suggest. “yes!!” the group around you collectively agreed. “who’s house?” you ask, unsure. “wonwoo’s!” aera announces, turning to wonwoo. he just nods awkwardly. wonwoo was the only one who lived alone, so his house would be the most practical.

but what no one else knew was that you had liked wonwoo. for years. how could you not fall for him? he was tall, with other-worldly features, and a kind heart. the ideal boyfriend, but not the ideal friend. you had constantly regretted even getting to know him. he was too perfect. too perfect for you. you knew he’d only ever see you as a friend. never more.

you packed your bag full of all of the necessities, a hairbrush, a toothbrush, makeup remover, etc. because embarrassingly enough, this was the first time you have ever stayed the night with a boy.

you were the last to arrive at wonwoo’s house, thank heavens. you sat down in the circle the others had already formed. “what are we playing?” you ask excitedly. “7 minutes in heaven.” seo-ja, your other friend, replied. “HUH?!?!” you exclaim, jumping out of the circle. this left the others laughing. “you don’t have to play y/n!!” aera giggled.

you let out a sign of relief, taking a seat on the couch nearby, observing the others. “wonwoo!! it’s your turn!! go with seo-ja into the closet!!” aera shoves wonwoo forward. seo-ja giggles and pulls wonwoo towards her. “i.. i don’t think i wanna-“ wonwoo mutters. “ill play.” i yell hurriedly. “we’ll then.. wonwoo go with y/n instead!” aera offers, with a smirk.

you stand quickly, trying to contain your excitement, fear, and gut-feeling that this won’t go as planned. wonwoo just looks at you, before standing up aswell. you make your way to the closet. “listen y/n, we don’t have to-“ he starts, but you wouldn’t waste this opportunity. so you pull him in. you snake your hand around his neck and pull him closer. his hand trails down your back. his tongue gliding along your lip, begging for an entrance. you happily oblige. you push his back against the side of the closet, entangling your hands in his hair. and then you pull away.

“i..” you try and speak but the look in his eyes told you he wasn’t someone who liked to be kept waiting. “how much time do we have?” you ask. “3 minutes..” he replies, just above a whisper. “then,” you reach to your wrist, grabbing a hair tie, “let’s make this quick.” wonwoo watches as you fall to your knees. “y/n.. ive never..” he tries to explain but you calmly put a finger over your mouth.

the zipper of his jeans was noisy enough for everyone out outside to hear and understand what was happening in the closet, and they all left the room.

the jeans fall to the around, leaving only his boxers. you look to him, and without saying a word you pull his boxers down. his cock was an impressive size. and seeing as this was also your first time giving a blowjob, you were intimidated.

you press your tongue to the tip of his length, releasing a moan from wonwoo. and then you took the entirety of his cock in your mouth. “f-fuck! not so fast y/n..” he says, grabbing your hair huskily. he didn’t last long, eventually he was begging to cum. “y/n i can’t m-“ he tried to warn you but it all happened to fast.

he came in your mouth, so as to not leave any evidence. you stood up, pulling your hair down, trying to fix it, and eventually the time in the closet came to an end. you stepped out, looking at eachother awkwardly after realizing everyone had left the room. you found them outside, on the balcony.

when you walked out side, it went silent. aera was the only one who spoke,

“it’s been 10 minutes.”

[sooibian]

So Let's Runaway - Costa Brava

Prologue >> Costa Brava >> Seville >> Cuéllar

Pairing: Kyungsoo x Fem!Reader ft. bff!Chanyeol

Genre/Themes: Fluff, angst, humour, travel AU, road trip through Spain, travel buddies Chansoo

Warnings: Grief, loss, heartache, toxic relationships, mildly explicit language

Description: A bachelors trip turns into a soul-searching journey when an unlikely group of three travels through the scenic landscapes of Spain. Their experiences present them with opportunities to mend bridges, face their fears and fall back in love with the true essence of life.

Word Count: ~ 5.3k

A/N: this story is a part of @supermwritersnet​ ‘Around the world in 31 days’ event. event masterlist. 

Tag list: @sooadorable @rosetvler @changshapatrol @his-mochi-cheeks @is-that-baekhyuns-shirt @j-pping @kysoobydoobydoo @exoxobsession @camillapad @reekyungsoo​ let me know if you’d like to be (un)tagged.

@smolgirlbigthoughts​ thank you so much for the description!!! ;~~~~~;

After having stayed the night (or whatever was left of it after a red-eye flight) in an Airbnb in Barcelona, the three of you hired a Lyft to Europcar to pick up the SUV that Chanyeol had pre-booked for the Costa Brava - Seville - Cuéllar itinerary. What you’d gathered from your several conversations with Chanyeol after that serendipitous coffee date was that each of the three friends had handpicked an adventure sport to try out in these places.

Chanyeol had chosen scuba diving in the rugged coast of Costa Brava with its spectacular cliffs and countless coves. Kyungsoo had appositely picked out an adventure sport involving throwing oneself out of an airplane thousands of feet above ground a.k.a. skydiving in Seville, the capital of Andalusia, resting, wise and old, upon the Guadalquivir river. And Yixing, bless his heart, had wanted to take part in a bull run in Cuéllar that takes place on the last Sunday of August each year.

Twirling the car key on his finger, Chanyeol, dressed in baggy black shorts, a loose fitting purple tee, super dark oversized shades and a snapback cap worn backwards, strongly resembled that ‘smiling face with the sunglasses’ emoji as he walked out of the booking office with Kyungsoo following closely behind. All set to catch a few winks in the rear seat comfort of the SUV, you pulled down the brim of your sunhat but suddenly, a blur of turquoise swooped past you, capturing your attention. Your drowsy eyes wrestled the summer sun to land upon a gorgeous turquoise Buick convertible swerving around the parking area before coming to a fashionable halt. A portly, bespectacled man stepped out of the vehicle and deposited its key with the booking office.

This was it.

This was the car ideal for a road trip, not some mafia boss’ kidnapping vehicle.

The essence of time dawned upon you so you trotted to where the Buick was parked and went down on your knees, hands folded in an implicit plea. The two men, startled at first, were quick to realize what was up.

Kyungsoo fixed you with a judgemental gaze that wasn’t any different from a mother’s fed-up of her child’s tantrums while Chanyeol broke into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Shoulders hunched under the weight of his tan leather backpack, Kyungsoo crammed his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants and sighed, “The SUV’s more practical.”

With a twinkle in your eye, you exclaimed, “Screw practical! Just look at it! It’s a convertible and we’re on a road trip!”

Grinning from ear to ear, Chanyeol advanced towards you gingerly. “Shifu, my love-”

Jutting out your lower lip, you crossed your arms over your chest and whined, “Don’t call me that after you’ve ditched me for Miss Perfect Hair!” causing Kyungsoo to roll his eyes which distracted you from Chanyeol’s stealth attack.

All of a sudden, the beanpole leapt at you, maneuvered you like he would a balloon sculpture, tucked his arms under your knees, picked you up and shoved you in the backseat of the dreary black vehicle with sun shades on windows darker than Kyungsoo’s soul. With Chanyeol’s finger pressing down on the ridge between your eyebrows, you laid down on your back, sulking, “Some road trip this is. Can I atleast drive?”

Before slamming the car door shut, he teased, “Take a nap.”

And...you tried.

Forty five minutes into the drive, you tried so hard to make up for the red-eye flight but Kyungsoo’s phone Just. Wouldn’t. Stop. Ringing. To make matters worse, he sounded like a broken record parroting the words ‘margin call’, ‘shorting’, ‘S’, ‘B’, ‘stop loss’ over and over again. The same damn thing, every single time.

“Enough Kyungsoo! We’re on a vacation, dude,” Chanyeol chided, the almost indiscernible crack in his voice indicative of his annoyance.

Leaning back into his seat, Kyungsoo bragged, “The last thirty seconds earned me enough commission to be able to buy at least five bags of the kind I bought Aera yesterday.”

“Now, why would you buy Aera a bag?” Chanyeol asked, a hint of suspicion evident in his tone. The sounds of their voices had been mercilessly thwarting your attempts at a peaceful slumber but, this was different. The lack of response from Kyungsoo seemed to have piqued your interest. Your eyes fluttered open to a one eighty shift in Chanyeol’s mood. Brows knit together, his fingers impatiently drummed on the steering wheel as you both waited for Kyungsoo’s answer with a bated breath. But in his stead, it was his stupid phone that broke the silence.

Wide eyes fixated on the screen, Kyungsoo suddenly cried out, “Stop the car!”.

“What?!”

“Stop the car, Chanyeol!”

Letting out an exasperated groan, Chanyeol rashly veered the car to the right before hitting the brakes, causing you to nearly roll off your seat. Kyungsoo darted out of the vehicle and the next thing you knew, he stood facing the hood of the vehicle, his laptop perched atop the bonnet and his life support cellphone clutched in one hand.

Bowing to the screen, he greeted, “Moshi Moshi!”

“Is he taking  a work call right now?” you mused.

Chanyeol snorted, “That’s Doh Kyungsoo for you.”

Chuckling softly, you squished your face against the back of Chanyeol’s seat and groused, “Well, along with loony, your friend seems to be fluent in Japanese.”

“Yah! Cut him some slack. He’s had a rough couple of weeks,” explained Chanyeol, wrestling with a bag of chips in his hands.

“Yeollie -”

It was on the tip of your tongue.

You wanted to tell Chanyeol about your encounter with Kyungsoo on the rooftop but there was no way you could explain your own presence in the first place. To make matters worse, you were the worst liar you knew. So, you decided it was a story that best remained untold for your own sake, your mother’s and inadvertently, Kyungsoo’s.

“Yeah?”

“Can I have a chip?” you asked instead.

“All yours!”

“I’ll have just one, thanks.”

“You alright, Shifu?” Chanyeol slurred around a mouthful of chips, “Is there anything you need?”

“A nap would be nice,” you jested while nibbling at the edges of the deep fried snack.

“Aww, sleepyhead, we’ll be there in an hour.”

Humming in agreement, you reached for another chip and cooed, “Are you alright, Yeol? What’s with the whole ‘bag for Aera’ situation?”

Chanyeol’s head spun around to give you a warm, dimpled smile. “Don’t worry. It’s not what you’re thinking.”

You couldn’t help but notice how he had wolfed down an entire packet of chips in a matter of minutes along with a can of some neon and black fizzy drink. A distant memory of Chanyeol guzzling an entire bottle of water in three seconds for shits and giggles back in Uni stretched your lips in a wistful smile.

By then, Kyungsoo was done with his twenty minute long call against the quaint cerulean and stone backdrop of fishing villages by the coast. Who needs a virtual background when you’re surrounded by coves of deep blue sea and beaches of golden sand? As he reached for the car door, you whispered in Chanyeol’s ear, “One more call and I’m chucking his phone out the window.”

Grinning mischievously as he fastened his seatbelt, Chanyeol sang, “Oh, Shifu, I’ve missed youuuu!”

The moment Kyungsoo stepped inside, a tangible gloom proliferated in the enclosed space. Chanyeol started the car and you quietly curled up in the backseat. Kyungsoo’s head spun around, round eyes blazing with conviction. Pointing towards the trunk, he said, “Do you see that cloth bag on top of Chanyeol’s trolley?”

“This one?” you asked, hoisting yourself up on one elbow, your arm carelessly flapping all over the luggage before landing on said cloth bag with a dull thump.

“Hand it over, please,” winced Kyungsoo, “Be gentle, it’s a gift.”

Passing him his precious ‘gift’, you let out an annoyed huff and laid down again, facing the backrest. But curiosity got the better of you. You immediately turned back around to see what this ‘gift’ looked like.

Kyungsoo loosened the strings of the canvas tote to reveal a black Birkin Cargo. Soft and lightweight, it was supposed to be Hermès first off-road bag. Your droopy eyes flew open in awe of its high-brow craftsmanship and it was certainly a thoughtful gift for a bride-to-be. If this gift was meant for you, you were sure to forgive any and all of his crimes but the bag didn’t seem to have the same kind of effect on Chanyeol.

The air was still thick with tension.

Gaze fixed on Chanyeol’s profile, Kyungsoo murmured, “I didn’t want to do this now.”

Eyes on the road, “Spill,” grunted Chanyeol, as if expecting the obvious.

“This is an ‘I’m sorry’ gift for Aera,” started Kyungsoo before lowering his voice to a whisper, “I picked it up from duty free last night...it’s fifteen times Yixing’s annual agricultural income.”

Chanyeol clicked his tongue in disapproval at Kyungsoo’s snide remark.

“What do you want to apologize to her for?” he then asked with a deep sigh.

“I- I can’t make it to the wedding,” said Kyungsoo, faltering in his otherwise steadfast speech.

“Why?” quizzed Chanyeol in a terrifyingly cool tone while anger started to rise within you. Why he allowed this midget to walk all over him was beyond you. Didn’t he have better friends?

“I pushed back an important appointment for this trip. It was either Spain or the wedding. And since you insisted on Spain...”

Furious, Chanyeol struck the steering wheel with his palm. With the rattle of the metal strap of his Rolex reverberating in the car, he bellowed, “The actual fuck, Doh Kyungsoo?!” 

“What?! I said I’m sorry!”

“No, you didn’t! Besides, ‘sorry’ doesn’t fix anything! You’re supposed to be my best man - are- are you listening to yourself right now?!”

Chewing on the insides of his cheeks, Kyungsoo patiently waited for his friend to simmer down. After a pregnant pause, Chanyeol resumed reasoning with him, his tone evidently milder this time, “Okay, okay, talk to me. Does this appointment have to be on the exact same day as the ceremony?”

“No, it doesn’t and...it isn’t,” Kyungsoo explained before hurriedly requesting, “Can we do this later?”

Chanyeol took a sharp right turn along the tapering road and brought the car to a screeching halt. Brows furrowed, lips quirked in an angry smirk, he looked Kyungsoo straight in the eyes and you felt as if the air conditioner had suddenly started meting out the chilliest of blows.

“No, I want to talk about it right now! So, tell me. What’s more important than your best friend’s wedding?”

Kyungsoo took off his glasses, threw his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Chanyeol, please -”

“No, I need to know!”

“Then remember it was you who wanted to have this conversation on the first day of our trip,” he stated curtly.

“Enough with the drama Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol’s roar rang through the car.

“FINE!” Kyungsoo grumbled, “I got a job offer from the London office and...I accepted. I leave a week after we’re back in Seoul….since it’s a new position I cannot fly back for the wedding. And I would’ve...I- I was going to fly back for the wedding had it not been for this trip.”

“So you decided to leave. Forever. Just like that. Without even talking to me about it first.” Chanyeol thought out loud, his tone tellingly casual.

Looking out the window, Kyungsoo whispered audibly, “There’s nothing left for me in Seoul.”

Without another word, Chanyeol started the car.

Putting his glasses back on, Kyungsoo threw his hands up and argued, “So you’re not going to say anything?!”

Chanyeol cranked up the volume on the car’s stereo in response, leaving Kyungsoo tongue-tied.

***

Ten minutes into the drive, Kyungsoo’s phone blew up for, conservatively, the fifteenth time. But before he could even swipe to answer, Chanyeol lowered the car window, plucked his phone out of his hand and chucked it into the shrubbery by the roadside and continued to drive at an accelerated speed.

Kyungsoo’s mouth fell open but no words came out and unbeknownst to you, you were mirroring the dazed look on his face.

Chanyeol stuck his thumb out to where you were seated and justified indifferently, “It was her idea.”

.

.

.

It wasn’t a house. It was a warzone.

The spacious three bedroom apartment had invisible borders drawn out and nobody dared to encroach upon the other’s territory.

After arriving in Costa Brava, the three of you settled in and freshened up before heading out for a scheduled theoretical lesson on scuba diving conducted by your PADI certified instructor. The lesson had ended sometime around sunset and through the entire thing, you acted like complete strangers, making it more awkward than necessary for the twenty something instructor.

After the lesson, Kyungsoo offered to drive the trio to a boutique hotel, Hostal Sa Rascassa’s restaurant, which was supposed to be located on the edges of a tranquil, secluded cove and served traditional sea-food centric dishes like -

“- grilled sardines, cod fishcakes and octopus stewed with onion and pepper,” Kyungsoo counted on his fingers, making your stomach growl and your mouth water.

Chanyeol brushed him aside with a bitter, “I’m not hungry.”

Turning to you, Kyungsoo asked politely, “Wanna come?”

From the corner of your eye, you noticed Chanyeol shooting you a death glare so you decided to wriggle out of the situation by citing tiredness.

Kyungsoo lifted his shoulders in a dismissive shrug and took off in a taxi, leaving the car to the two of you.

“Where do you wanna eat?” Chanyeol asked as you got into the passenger’s seat.

Slack jawed, you chastised a giggling Chanyeol, “Yeollie, you’re absolutely horrible!”

.

.

.

It had been months.

Months since Natasha had walked out of their shared apartment.

And ever since then, every night, the moment Kyungsoo’s head would hit the pillow, a sense of hopelessness would erupt right in the middle of his chest. Spreading its wings far and wide, this despair would engulf him entirely and render him sleepless.

Nothing he tried helped his disposition so he’d started working on accepting this feeling as an inextricable part of his being. Something he’d have to learn to live with for the rest of his life.

Overcome by exhaustion, Kyungsoo drifted off only to be jolted awake by a jarring memory.

Hands balled into fists, Natasha yelled, ‘HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?’

‘This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, Natasha! This deal could help us!’ Kyungsoo thundered in the face of her dogged determination to not let this slide.

‘Can’t you see that I don’t care?’ She met his bloodshot eyes with tears welling in hers.

Brows knit together, Kyungsoo ruminated on his thoughts before firing back, ‘Are you saying that you don’t care about my life?’

Exasperated, Natasha ran a hand through her hair to ground herself and argued, ‘Stop it, Kyungsoo! Don’t confuse your work with your life! Your work isn’t your life. It’s just a part of it. WHAT ABOUT US?’

‘Us?’ Kyungsoo deliberated, ‘I bought this apartment so that we could live together.’

Natasha retracted with every step Kyungsoo took towards her, expression coloured in unpleasant shades of anger and disgust.  Letting out a mirthless laugh, she taunted, ‘Oh, please! You bought this apartment to impress people with your upmarket address.’

Aghast, Kyungsoo sank into the couch, his mind flitting between despair and hope. Head in his hands, breathing jagged and raspy, he reasoned, ‘I can’t believe you’re saying this to me! I’m planning a future with you.’

‘The future is yet to come, Kyungsoo. WHAT ABOUT OUR PRESENT?’

‘STOP YELLING!’

‘THEN LISTEN TO ME!’

Hands on his knees, Kyungsoo’s gaze shot up to rest upon Natasha’s flushed face. ‘What do you want?’ He demanded in a terrifyingly low tone.

A silent tear slid down her cheek as she explained with a quiver in her voice, ‘I want your time, Kyungsoo. I want a relationship not a retirement plan.’

Helpless, Kyungsoo toyed with the words in his mind before blurting, ‘If the chairman of Nakamura Corporation wants to meet me then I have- to- go! If he likes the presentation, he’ll give us the entire account. Don’t you see how big this is for me?’

‘But what about us, Kyungsoo? What about our dinner plan?’

‘We can postpone it to next month, can’t we?!’

‘It’s my birthday, Soo. I can’t postpone my birthday. You’d promised me this dinner...no matter what! You cancelled the reservation without even asking me first.’

Cupping her face in his hands, he pressed his lips to hers and whispered, ‘Baby, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry...but I have to go.’

.

.

.

When you padded into the living room, sleep befuddled at 5 a.m., you caught Chanyeol and Kyungsoo locked in an embrace, both of their eyes squeezed shut, as if wordlessly conveying an incredible degree of warmth and affection towards each other.

All of it….in “bro code”.

You imagined the conversation in your head, in two deep, distinct male voices:

‘I’m sorry I threw your phone out the window, bro!’

‘It’s what I deserved, bro!’

Rubbing away the drowsiness from your eyes, you tiptoed back into your room so as to not disrupt this….whatever this was supposed to be.

***

Underneath the purple-pink skies, enveloped in the cool early morning breeze, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol, and you, dressed in spandex scuba suits, huddled together in solidarity on the boat’s bulwark.

The diving site that Chanyeol had picked was called ‘Boreas Wreck’. The Boreas was a high sea tugboat that served for the German Navy during World War II. It was deliberately sunk in 1989 for the purpose of creating an artificial reef and thus, a scuba diving attraction.

“Any non-swimmers?” the trainer asked and Kyungsoo’s hand shot up in the air.

Her full lips curled up in a dazzling smile. “You’re brave,” she remarked and you heard Kyungsoo swallow hard, inviting a snigger from Chanyeol.

Hands on hips, her perfect figure accentuated by the spandex, she instructed, “You will be diving deep into this sea now, do you remember the theoretical part I taught you on the shore?”

Chanyeol and you were confident (and loud) in your affirmation.

Kyungsoo, not so much.

With the bulky dive equipment on, the instructor created a circle with her thumb and forefinger, gesturing, “All okay?”

The three of you responded by following suit.

First dive, twelve metres depth.

You’d become the proverbial fish out of water except you were not the fish and you were under water and your whole world had been turned upside down….quite literally.

You spun around to find the instructor assisting Chanyeol with his breathing rhythm and Kyungsoo curled up like a shrimp, hugging his knees. Arm extended, he gave you a “thumbs up” which meant an entirely different thing under water from what it did on land.

Thumbs up, in diving lingo, spelled trouble. It meant that, for whatever reason, the diver wished to ascend. But, by then, you’d known Kyungsoo long enough to understand that there was no real cause for concern.

The look in his eyes told you that he was simply struggling to adapt.

You swam towards him, with your legs and not your arms, in order to maintain good buoyancy control. Clasping your hands together in a mitten grasp, you signalled him to hold onto you. Kyungsoo created a circle with his thumb and forefinger to signal “okay” before putting his hand on your forearm, the soft ripples caused by his gentle movements gleaming in the artificial light from your gear.

You then raised your other arm and flattened your hand, palm down, to “pat” the water in front of you as you would the head of a dog. Wearing a comforting eye smile, you essentially asked Kyungsoo to take it easy and relax. You then levelled your hand with his eyes, palm facing up before drawing a deep breath, wordlessly asking Kyungsoo to breathe slow, deep and long.

Another nod. Another “okay”.

He then pointed his index finger to his ear, the gesture indicating that he couldn’t clear his ears and had trouble equalizing. So you locked your eyes with his and took his elbows in your hands to pull him up to ascend slightly before quickly pushing him down again while wondering whether he’d paid attention to the theoretical lessons at all.

He squeezed his eyes shut before giving you another nod which meant that the equalization was a success.

Kyungsoo’s thumb and forefinger met in another “okay” but this time with an eye smile which you reciprocated with an “okay” before snapping your fingers into a teasing finger heart.

All traces of agreeableness instantly vanished from his visible features.

***

The deeper you went, your fluo green spectrum widened, whelming you with the underwater world’s tranquil beauty which neutralized the shooting pain in your ears and the violent thumping of your heart. Corals in the shape of giant mushrooms floated around you and sea urchins greeted you with their bright purple-brown spikes glowing under the ocean’s natural light. At your feet, a shy goby fish with its large head and tapered body tunneled its way into the sand upon sensing the arrival of strangers.

While you were immersed in this exquisite scenery, a wide eyed Kyungsoo grabbed your attention by waving at you, his hand holding a pink fin.

‘That fin looks familiar,’ you thought before realizing it was your fin that had released itself from your right foot. You almost choked from laughing with the regulator on and the mask attached to your face as Kyungsoo helped you stick it back on.

Having been privy to breathtaking videos and countless stories of the mysteries and magic of the underwater world, a first-hand experience felt surreal. You were quick to adapt to the environment and didn’t try to fight it or control it and your first breath under water had been an experience like no other.

The Boreas Wreck was home to a number of incredible marine species such as Mediterranean sponges and blue gorgonians, scorpionfish, sea urchins, starfish, goatfish, mullets, bream, lobsters, groupers, and barracuda. While you couldn’t pindown all the enticing, drop dead gorgeous palettes of reds, blues, and yellows that crossed paths with you, shoaling, schooling...or even solitary, it didn’t take away from the sheer awe you were overcome with at every second of your time several azure and viridian metres below the surface of land.

The instructor then guided the three of you inside the boat’s wreck, which was safe to enter since all hazardous items had been removed before Boreas was scuttled. With an excited Chanyeol in the lead per usual, you visited some of its confined rooms, and went further in to explore the kitchen, the engine room, the bridge and even the captain’s cabin. The dilapidated metal and wood body of the civil boat, covered almost entirely in sea fauna, was nothing short of a beautiful nightmare.

Traversing, you reached one corner of the boat basked in a blinding white light, enveloping you in a gentle embrace. Emotions so carefully locked away came flooding through the dam of your forced stoic indifference. Giving in, you stretched your arms out, allowing yourself to freefall into a distant memory.

Haphazardly flapping your arms and legs, you struggled to keep your head up but no matter how hard you tried, the pool water made its way into your mouth, nose, and eyes, even.

‘Appa!’ you managed loudly as you felt yourself drowning again.

Your Appa was the one who always came to your rescue.

No matter where you were, no matter how bad things got. He was always there. So when he just stood there, a smile on his face, watching you grapple with a force that mercilessly dragged you down while you kicked and punched and floundered to stay afloat...a mysterious emotion rose within you.

You felt betrayed by the man who was supposed to have your back.

Seething, ‘Appa!’ you bawled, but to no avail.

Until...magically...you didn’t need his help anymore.

After days of relentless torture, you’d finally found yourself moving forward, cutting through the water with synchronized movements of your arms and legs.

But the exhilaration hadn’t lasted long.

A couple of minutes in and you realized that that force was winning again but this time, you didn’t drown.

This time a familiar pair of hands grabbed you before you went under and threw you up in the air as your misty eyes took in the biggest smile on your father’s face with an equally big one gracing your bright features.

Circling his arms around your tiny torso, he nestled you into himself.

‘My champion!’ he whispered into your swim cap covered ear.

***

Back on the boat, with your diving gear off and fresh towels wrapped around your shoulders, you sank to your knees, completely wracked with sobs.

You felt a million emotions, all at once, the reigning one being embarrassment at this sudden outburst. With his arms around you and his chin resting on the top of your head, Chanyeol whispered, ‘It’s okay, it’s alright,’ to ground you while gently rocking you back and forth until you’d let it all out. Turning around, you buried your face into the crook of his neck as if to hide away from the inquisitive eyes of Kyungsoo and the instructor. Chanyeol held you closer, his hand stroking the back of your neck in silent support.

.

.

.

Even after a sumptuous lunch of salmon canapes, baked scallops, rice with spiny spider crab, mixed seafood finger foods complete with a chocolate semi sphere, Chanyeol was uncharacteristically quiet and Kyungsoo, uncharacteristically amiable.

“Feels a little morbid to be eating all this seafood after a dive,” you jested with a serious expression, nibbling on a piece of dark chocolate. And it was only then that the boys went back to being their true selves. Amused, Chanyeol guffawed, “Good to have you back!” while Kyungsoo choked on his sparkling white wine.

Shortly after, Chanyeol excused himself to make a call to Aera.

Kyungsoo ordered two coffees for the both of you and you noticed how he kicked about a conversation starter in his head as opened his mouth only to clamp it shut several times, before finally mustering, “I just want to say -”

“No,” you interrupted him in a mortified haste, “no, please don’t say anything I don’t wanna talk about it except, I’m really sorry for making it so awkward for you guys back there.”

“Oh, no,” he gave you a dismissive wave of hand, “it was just Chanyeol, me, and...erm...the pretty instructor who we’ll never see again. Chanyeol makes a complete ass out of himself every waking hour and as for me, please don’t worry about me. Especially not after you found me blind drunk on a rooftop in the dead of night. We all have our moments. I’m sorry,” he suddenly stopped short, expression solemn, “you said you didn’t wanna talk about it.”

You chuckled, teasing, “Pretty instructor, huh?”

This was the longest conversation you’d had with Kyungsoo so far and truth be told, you were caught off guard by... his smile. His resting face was a natural frown, mostly due to his poor eyesight. And in your experience, if he had his glasses on, it was Chanyeol who was the primary reason for his scowl, with you being a close second.

It took you a moment to take in that dazzling, heart shaped smile of his before you could speak again but it was Kyungsoo who lugged the conversation forward.

“I just wanted to thank you for what you did for me back there. I think I felt a little overwhelmed by the,” he pondered his thoughts before concluding, “the vastness of the ocean. Sorry, I’m no poet.”

“Don’t mention it,” you smiled, “How did you feel by the end of it?”

“Umm,” Kyungsoo ruminated on your question, “I felt like I was in the moment...like, reaching a stage of subtle awareness from surface awareness.”

“And you say you’re not a poet,” you quipped, “So, like, meditation?”

“Maybe. It felt as if I was letting go of...of all the emotional baggage -” he trailed off rather plaintively.

Voice laced with hesitance, you sang, “So….maybe…you’ll sleep better tonight?”

Clearly taken aback by your question, Kyungsoo exclaimed, “What?!”

“I’m sorry but, it’s very obvious that you haven’t been sleeping too well.”

Thick eyebrows scrunched together, he let out a confused ‘Oh!’

“Did Chanyeol -” he continued, only to be interrupted by a booming, cheerful voice, “Think of the angel and the angel appears!”

Kyungsoo looked up at a beaming Chanyeol and deadpanned,  “That’s not how the saying goes. Anyway, what took you so long?”

Eyes holding a glint of humour, Chanyeol placed a neatly wrapped iPhone box in front of Kyungsoo and took the dramatics up a notch with a stage performer-esque curtsey thus inviting amused stares from the nearby tables in the courtyard style restaurant. Kyungsoo unwrapped the packaging with the eagerness of a five year old on Christmas Eve and to his disappointment, instead of the high end handphone, he opened the case to a hot pink flip phone.

Kyungsoo let out a low growl, “The fuck is this?”

Standing at a safe distance from his fuming friend, Chanyeol quipped, “A phone,” while making no effort to suppress his laughter.

“Thank you, Mr. State The Obvious, but I’m an adult male, not a Japanese schoolgirl!”

Tickled by his own little prank, Chanyeol threw you under the bus by triumphantly howling, “It was Shifu’s idea!” before darting out of the premises.

Dumbfounded, you exclaimed, “WHAT?! NO!” as Kyungsoo fixed you with a death glare.

.

.

.

‘When were you going to tell me about this?’

Maybe this was one of your endless nightmares.

Maybe this wasn’t happening at all.

Your mother deflected your question by putting things away. Dirty dishes in the washer, clothes in the dryer, leftovers in the fridge, while you followed her around like a lost puppy, a crumpled, time stained letter held delicately in your hand.

The throbbing in your head now bordering on numbness, bile rising up your throat, your legs threatening to give away, you reiterated your question, vociferously this time, surprised at your own power of will. A quality that forever eluded you. The inability to voice your needs, your opinions, masked under a not so thinly veiled sense of self deprecating humour was...you, in a nutshell. This sudden surge of fighting spirit consuming you whole felt alien but at the same time, very natural and, at the same time, it was taking a toll on every nerve, every muscle, every bone.

Every second felt like your last.

‘Would she be able to handle it all over again?’ crestfallen, you mused, ‘The grief. The sympathy. The cumulation of my life -- all these decades condensed into a tiny vessel of ever fading memories. The sands of time trickling through her wrinkled fingers.’

‘Eomma, please -’ you cried out, only for your plea to fall upon deaf ears.

It wasn’t until the next morning that she spoke to you again.

Bloodshot eyes framed by the weight of living, she handed you a warm cup of tea and let out a deep sigh.

‘He never wanted you. It was your Appa who accepted me...he accepted us… It’s been three days since your Appa -,’ wracked with sobs, it took her a while to compose herself to be able to speak again, ‘don’t dishonour his memory.’

‘Why should I believe a word you say? Why should I believe that- that my own father never wanted me?’

[luxmaeastra]

He'd seen Abraxas moping for weeks now and it growing tiresome. He turned gesturing down to the valley hidden undergrowth.

"The outskirts, every village has them. The -"

"You say I'm not giving you time to mourn, to feel. Yes, sure I am. But you're not feeling Raelyn you're drowning in it!"

Abraxas rubbed at his face stalking off. Aerleas gestured to Marsaili to follow him down the gorge, Abraxas a step behind them muttering to himself.

"I would call Abraxas mad but your sister has a pull on me I can scarely control so I understand his irritation. We are at war Realyn and I don't mean in some metaphorical sense. Fae have cut us from our magic, they have destoryed our so we need those who can be strong and not break."

"Aerleas I haven't seen you around. I hear you have a mate congratulations. Is this her?"

Aerleas looked away from Marsaili his hands clasped behind his back as he dipped his head to the Madam of Briarwood.

"This is Asha, she runs the best Pleasure House here. And no Asha this is not her. This is Abraxas mate Marsaili."

Asha was old, her body toned with years of work and age. She eyed the other for a moment before she hummed.

"Abraxas is one of the good ones. Never forced himself on any of my girls, went for the old ones who never got any clients left them satisfied if that matters to you. You haven't brought me any new females in months Aerleas I was beginning to think someone finally killed you."

He grinned and ducked his head.

"No Madam Asha I am very much alive. I don't have good enough bait to help you any. Give me a list and I'll find someone. May I see my brother? He's here isn't he?"

Asha gave a nod and dissapeared inside. Abraxas wandered back to them with a low whistle.

"You're just throwing everything at her."

"Do you think she can't handle it Abraxas? And before you get on for morals Marsaili this isn't the fae. Mirella knows everything I've done and what I intended to do. It she had an issue she can very well open mouth and tell me."

Abraxas eyes glittered as he looked back at Marsaili.

"I think she can surpass every fucking expectation we have for her. Maeve would -"

He went quiet as Phelan burst through the doors. He tipped the bottle back eyeing them all before he looked to Aerleas.

"Is there a party I wasn't told of? She looks like your mate is she glamored here Aerleas?"

Phelan tisked and swerved away from them toward the forest. Aerleas pivoted to watch him stumble.

"What's the date Phelan? I need to stamp something for Father."

"Itsthursday....obviously. Are you getting slow in your old age Aera?"

Aerleas didn't react only titled his head.

"Yes I know the day. I mean the date. What's the date Phelan today?"

Phelan stilled looking into a basin of water, horror flickering across his face again. The bottle fell smashing into pieces around him as he slid to his knees.

"The 15th. I don't, Aerleas. They're gone. They're all bones and rot now! They're gone, they -".

Aerleas moved toward them. Abraxas picked at his nails, the only sign of how much he hated this was his jaw clenching and how he held himself.

"He - the war broke him in ways no one really saw coming. His mate was from here and he killed her and their children after a tour. He was found in their blood finger painting. He -"

"No! No I need to remember. I need to-"

Aerleas hushed him cupped his face. His eyes glowed liquid silver.

"It's okay Phelan you don't remember. I'll remember for you. I'll remember for you. Rest. It's okay, rest."

Aerleas caught him easing him to the ground. Abraxas swallowed and he didn't look away from them as men came to take Phelan back inside.

"Kindred can take each other's emotions and pain. He -"

Aerleas stood striding back toward them.

"Father should cut him loose but he has a soft spot for him. I and Luther check on him. He's usually fine and harmless. That is what I'm trying to explain. Don't be like him Marsaili. You want to belong, you belong to the Changelings so stop running and come home."

The invite to come at been from Aerleas, it was one of the only reasons she came. A curiosity above all else, why was her sister’s mate reaching out to her? She had found a peaceful rhythm by the ocean, able to sort through her thoughts and focus on herself.

Seeing her own mate, hearing his voice beret her once again caused her to stop in her steps. Her jaw clenched, words itching to be said but she stopped herself. Let him think what he wanted, just as she let everyone think what they wanted. Let them judge her, view her. None of them had really spent the time to get to know her, all they did was judged her at her lowest.

Marsaili turned away from Abraxas when he stalked off, following after Aerleas as they continued down the gorge. She ignored the sound of muttering behind her, focusing on the reason why she was brought there.

There was the wording again, the stab. Though at least there was no judgment in his words, but she knew better than to believe they would not come. After all, did they not realize she knew they were at war? Did they not know she understood how fragile things were? She was not some fragile little flower who would break.

Any words she wanted to stay were quickly silenced when Asha arrived, her attention drawn to her. Her posture changed, standing taller and a kind smile crossed her face. Even being introduced as Abraxas’s mate didn’t cause her to falter, cause deep down despite how they were there was some pride in that. Pride in their bond, their connection.

She allowed the conversation to progress without saying anything, she maintained herself until Asha disappeared. She turned and looked towards Abraxas briefly before she looked towards the other. His comment caused a laugh to come from her.

“Maybe before you make rash judgments and think I am about to chide you for morals, you should get to know me. Which is a feat I know all you all struggle with,” her attention turned back towards the pleasure house. “This is not the first Pleasure House I’ve been to. While my sisters found solace in places I don't know, when I was away from the claws of the Harpy, I took solace walking in the areas where the creatures lurk and many are forgotten.”

Marsaili’s attention was drawn to Phelan, her hands moved to settle behind her as she watched the scene play out. There was a reason they wanted her to see this, the lesson was not lost to her. The fact that Aerleas was revealing this must have taken a lot. A family tragedy, it was not missed her mate’s own reaction.

The explanation of the Kindred caused her to look to Abraxas. “I am aware, I have seen it with my own brothers.” She turned when Aerleas returned, the conclusion of the lesson came straight from his mouth as she rose her chin slightly.

“I respect what you did, you didn’t have to reveal this to me. You are a good brother and a good mate for my sister,” the but lingered on her tongue before she came out. “However, I already know the edge of that darkness your brother wanders in. I have seen it with my own siblings, I have witnessed it firsthand and I have seen who I could become, the nightmares I had as a child. So, I have no intention of breaking. As for a place to belong, I never said the Changelings were not my home.”

She looked towards Abraxas, her hands tightened before she looked away. “I stay away as I believe you all, even my sister, view me as an airheaded princess who is too emotional for her own good. Not once as any of you ever attempted to get to know me. Not even my own mate, despite the pull we both feel…No one has gotten to know the girl who prefers getting dirty tending to a garden or climbing trees, the girl who loves going hunting and feeling the thrill of it. Who prefers to dance and lose herself to the music, who enjoys learning how to fight so she never has to depend on anyone else. The pain and emotions you see are only a brief moment of who I am, it is because you all treat me the same as my family. You expect me to be one way, you expect me to fail, never really listening. If we are done, I will return to my cottage. I will come if summoned…”

[deredere-fae]

In the Nursery

Daniel gently laid a sleeping Hagen down in his crib before swaddling him in his blanket, giving his son a kiss on the forehead before moving to the crib where his daughter wiggles. She blinked up at him bleary eyed with a little smile that reminded him so much of his sister that it nearly brought a tear to his eyes. He reached down, running the tips of his fingers over her soft dark brown hair, tracing her cheek before touching her tiny hand. Aera wrapped her tiny fingers around his hand and Daniel smiles. "Daddy loves you so much, my princess." He says softly, having already given his love to Hagen before he fell asleep in Eric's arms right before he brought him back to the nursery. He lifts Aera from the crib, holding her close to his chest as he carries her to change her. Once this was done he continued to hold her close, humming an old melody his mother once hummed to both him and Yeunmin when they were children. "My family would have loved you and your brother, my princess, you would have been the most precious thing in the world to them. I only wish they could have met you, met your Eomma, your Appa. Omo met your Appa once right before she died, she loved him. You remind me so much of your omo." Daniel sniffles softly as his holds his daughter close "You have her eyes." He says blinking away tears. "Your samchon loved her very much, you know. She was his soulmate, just like you are Dae's." He says tracing the tiny gold DZ on the top of her foot. "I'll always tell you and your brother about them. I just wish they were here." He says as he continues to hold his daughter close, unaware someone had walked in behind him.

[crownjimin]

✰ 099 | no takesies backsies

la vie en rose ━ in which lee aera, a girl who has been crushing on choi soobin for a long, long time, is starting her junior year and her friends decide that its time for her to make her move.

( masterlist | prev | next )

A/N: whoop! one more update + the epilogue and we’re donezo!!

“I can’t believe it’s really red—,” He flipped and shuffled his hands through her hair as he said this.

“So bright, so pretty,” Soobin muttered to himself, going as far as to bend down and push his nose into her scalp, taking a long, dramatic sniff. “Oh, it doesn’t smell like strawberries.”

Aera laughed at this, shoving her not-boyfriend away from her softly. “Of course not. That’s like me saying your hair should smell like chocolates.”

Soobin had recently dyed his hair back to brown--well, dark brown, and as much as it made Aera sad to see the purple gone from his hair, it was well past due. His roots had grown out terribly, meaning that he was either going to have to redo his roots or retreat back to his natural brown. Also, the purple was less purple and more of a faded ash gray, from all the washing Soobin did to his hair.

For a while, he was set on just letting his hair grow out, then cutting it at the brown once the ash gray was to the tips of his hair but Aera told him he would look crazy. They debated about it for a few days, but one day Aera showed up at his house with a kit with brown hair dye and a few hours later his chocolate brown locks were back. 

“Well, if you used strawberry shampoo it would smell like strawberries.”

“I will when you use chocolate shampoo.”

Soobin pouted. “I bet Ariel’s hair smells like strawberries.”

“Go sniff her head then,” the red-head quipped. “And I actually highly doubt that is true. She lives in the ocean, you know. The place where fish pee--that ocean.”

“Is there another ocean that I should be thinking of?”

“Yeah,” There was a teasing lilt in Aera’s voice. “The one I’m going to toss you in if you keep sassing me.”

The two were currently sitting in Soobin’s living room on Saturday morning, Soobin having asked Aera on Friday night if she wanted to spend the next day with him. Of course, without hesitation, Aera agreed, telling him that she would be there by ten, and now they were there.

Soobin had suggested watching YouTube in his living room until his mom got home from the gym, and Aera found no issue with the idea. During the past hour and a half, they had watched way too many Girls’ Generation music videos, and even attempted to learn the choreography to Catch Me If You Can. After forty minutes of them attempting to get past the first verse, they called it quits. Soobin claimed that he was too talented in girl group choreography to continue and further embarrass Aera with her lackluster movements.

But if you asked Aera, Soobin just didn’t want to have a dance battle, because he knew he was going to lose.

At noon, Ruha walked through the front door, her arms loaded with three market bags, filled to the brim with groceries.

“Soobin-ah,” Ruha yelled, a little too loud since she hadn’t realized he was right there in the living room. “Come help me with my bags!”

Both Soobin and Aera rushed to help Ruha, the older woman being slightly startled by Aera being there but she quickly perked up and said, “Oh good, Ae Ae is here. More hands to help!”

Everything felt so natural with Soobin and his family. Aera had spent a lot of time at his house since the picnic, and his parents seemed to love her. Soobin’s dad was obsessed when he saw how small Aera was, often leaning his elbow on her head whenever he stood beside her as a way to ridicule and tease her about her height. Then when she turned up with red hair, he almost had a better reaction than Soobin, dubbing her Strawberry Shortcake and hasn’t stopped calling her that since.

Aera had also gotten Soobin’s parents’ phone numbers, Ruha often texting Aera at random times throughout the day whenever Soobin talked about her.

ruha-ssi

he said you brought him lunch to school today. says that he loves how much you care about him

i’m sure he cares about me way more than i do him

ruha-ssi 

does he show it well?

that he cares for you.

wouldnt ask for him to treat me any better than he already

does ruha-ssi.

Or the time Ruha told her that Soobin was sleep talking and had muttered her name.

ruha-ssi

he’s napping.

[picture attached]

ruha-ssi

he just grumbled your name and had the biggest smile

aw that’s so cute

ruha-ssi

i know :)))

Soobin was aware that Aera had his mother’s number, but he didn’t know that his mother was revealing just how lovestruck he was. Aera didn’t plan on mentioning it to him either, thinking that Ruha is godsent for giving her so much dirt and content to tease Soobin with whenever he decided to get too sassy with her.

Plus, Soobin has had Dongmin’s phone number much longer than Aera has had Ruha’s, and she is one-thousand percent positive that her mother lived to embarrass her, so Soobin for sure had some dirt on her.

 It’s a win-win situation, all is fair in love and war.

“So, Soobin-ah,” Ruha spoke as she walked into the kitchen. “What time do you want to head out?”

Aera was busy placing things where they belonged from the market bags (yes, she knows where their groceries belonged—she’s been over there that much), but she raised an eyebrow at Ruha’s question.

“Head out where?” she asked.

“Soobin wanted to take you to an early dinner today,” Ruha paused, with a nervous expression on her face. “I-I don’t know if it was supposed to be a surprise or not-”

“No, mom, it’s fine,” Soobin waved it off. “It wasn’t really a surprise, I was gonna mention it to you later, Pouts.”

Aera walked out of the pantry, an excited glint in her eyes. “Will there be steak at this dinner?”

“Do you want there to be steak?”

“Yes.”

“Then there will be steak.”

━━━━━━━

The restaurant Soobin had chosen was very dark, Aera noted. The only light that was supplied was from a single candle lit in the center of the table, which left everything as shadows and tinted orange.

It seemed super expensive, and once Aera picked up the menu, her suspicions were confirmed.

“Soobi,” her voice seemed hesitant. “How are you affording any of this?”

She should’ve realized that the meal was going to be an expensive one when Ruha had offered Aera one of her old dresses, seeing as Aera had came over to their house in a pair of ripped jeans and a tattered t-shirt. The dress Ruha lent her was a dark blue, high-necked dress, where the waist tapered in and then flowed out to mid-thigh. Luckily, Aera had worn black flats that day, those being the shoes closest to her front door when she left for Soobin’s house.

Soobin was dressed in a simple button up and black slacks. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and the top button of his shirt was undone—if Aera hadn’t known better, she would’ve thought Soobin was a young adult that worked a nine-to-five office job and not a sixteen year old boy taking his not-girlfriend out for an early dinner.

Everything was fancy, and the two of them were tucked into a corner booth where once they sat down the hostess had wished ‘Mister and Missus Choi’ a nice evening. 

“Months of allowance that I’ve saved up,” Soobin lifted his gaze from the menu and once he saw how worried Aera was, he rushed to reassure her. “Plus, I work a summer job! Don’t worry, Pouts, I promise it’s not too much.”

“You don’t have to spend your allowance on me, Soobi,” she spoke softly. “You should spend it on something you really want-something to make you happy.”

“Seeing you happy makes me happy.”

Aera blushed. “Don’t try to flatter me into running your pockets dry.”

“Ae Ae, seriously,” Soobin put down his menu and reached his hands across the table to touch her hands, which laid on the table. He tugged her index fingers once, attempting to soothe her and get her to not worry. “It’s fine. If it makes you feel better we can just split something, so that way I won’t have to spend much.”

The crease in her eyebrows gradually faded and she nodded in agreement. “Are you okay with splitting a steak?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he nodded. “Just order whatever, I’ll eat anything.”

Aera looked over the menu, her eyes skipping over the more expensive items but honestly the cheapest things were the hor d'oeuvres and even those weren’t cheaper than 74,000 won. 

“How about I choose one, you choose one, then we pick something together?” she suggested. “That way we can both enjoy something.”

By the time the waiter came to the table, they had decided on their personal picks and their combined choice, and once the food came to the table, Aera knew it was more than enough. The steak she had chosen ended up being as big as her face and had the both of them gasping in surprise once it was set on the table. Soobin decided on a rose pasta, in a dish large enough that it could feed a family of five. And their combined choice was a large platter of American-style french fries, but the way the menu phrased it made it seem like they were ordering a fancy potato.

Soobin offered to have the kitchen take it back, but Aera refused to give back french fries--she’d be crazy to ever turn down french fries (plus it came with a gravy boat filled with a white sauce that Aera could literally guzzle down in one go, so she was more than happy to keep it).

The moment the waiter told them to enjoy, Aera was shoving her fork into the steak, which was thankfully pre-cut, and the second she bit into it, juice ran down her chin and she had to squeeze every muscle in her throat to not let out a moan.

Soobin noticed her expression, the way her eyes fell close and she paused mid-bite. “Is it good, Pouts?”

“Tho goof,” she attempted to speak around her bite but she just gave up and nodded enthusiastically. 

“It’s so juicy,” she said once she swallowed. 

When they were ordering, she wanted to get the steak cooked well-done, but Soobin had told her to get it medium preaching something about it being more tender and juicer as if he knew everything and anything about steak. Aera argued and said she didn���t want to cut into her steak and hear it mooing back at her, and Soobin chuckled but promised if it was too raw for her when it came out, they could just send it back and she obliged.

She most definitely was not sending back this beautiful piece of heaven, and shoved another piece into her mouth. The scene from Ratatouille when the rat fused together strawberry and cheese and had color swirling around his head played inside Aera’s head the second she took another bite of the steak. Her eyes were closed, her head lolled from side to side as she swayed euphorically to the warmth of the steak and the flavor on her tongue.

Once she noticed what she was doing, she sat up stark straight and opened her eyes, watching as Soobin recorded her and laughed silently at her actions.

“You seemed to be enjoying yourself alot there,” Soobin ended the recording and set his phone on the table.

“Delete that.”

“I won’t. Here,” Soobin held out his fork where some of his pasta was twirled on the end. “Try it.”

Aera opened her mouth, letting him guide the fork inside and once she closed her mouth around the fork, the Ratatouille scene played again. She pulled away from the fork, her hand shooting over her mouth as she chewed and her eyes shot wide.

“Good?” Soobin asked, stabbing his fork in a piece of steak and eating it, much less dramatically than Aera had. 

“Is amayshin,” Aera muttered. “Why ish ev-wee-shing hwere sho amayshin?”

Soobin swallowed and laughed. “It better be with these ridiculous prices.”

“Oh, yeah,” she nodded and swallowed her bite. “It’s so worth it.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I’m glad I like you,” Aera giggled, shoving some fries into her mouth. “You buy me expensive steak.”

“Only because of the steak?”

She nonchalantly shrugged. “Pretty much.”

Soobin faked a scoff, halfway knowing she was joking, but once he watched her pick up another piece of steak, and then kiss it before she ate it, he wasn’t so sure if she was joking anymore.

━━━━━━━━━

Thirty-five minutes and an entire steak later, Aera and Soobin were slouched over, bellies full, with their plates cleared.

“I am going to sleep so well tonight,” Aera grumbled as she rubbed her stomach. “This was so amazing.”

The waiter came to give the receipt and return Soobin’s card, wishing ‘Mister and Missus Choi’ a good night, and left them to their vices. Aera chuckled at being called Missus Choi, because did she look old enough to be married?

Did married people dye their hair red? She didn’t know but did she look married? Did her and Soobin resemble a married couple? Oh god, that just fueled her fantasy of marrying Soobin and she knew that she would never let this go.

“Alright,” Soobin groaned, shoving the receipt and card into his pocket as he stood and rounded the table, reaching his hand out to help Aera up from her chair. “You okay?”

Aera blew out a breath. “I’m stuffed.”

They both stood in place, Aera swaying a bit from standing up too quickly and Soobin attempted to stabilize her by setting a hand on her waist. “Careful.”

“I’m fine,” she tapped his hand on her waist. “I’m okay, just stood up a little too fast. Let’s go.”

They walked out of the restaurant hand-in-hand, Soobin somewhat leading Aera as she momentarily closed her eyes as a way to wheeze out air around her full belly. This was the best meal she has had in entire life, one that she never imagined having unless she was filthy rich and drank gold for breakfast, lunch, and dinner but here Soobin was taking her on a date just because he wanted to see her happy.

When they made it outside, Aera tugged his hand, causing him to stop and turn to her. She eased her arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder as she softly hugged him. He returned the gesture immediately, cuddling his head on top of hers and they just existed in the moment, in each other’s arms.

“Thank you for this, Soobin,” Aera squeezed him tightly, nuzzling her head further into his shoulder. “You made me really happy by doing this—you make me happy always.”

“I’m happy to make you happy,” Soobin chuckled, pulling away from the hug. “But the night isn’t over, we have one more stop!”

“Is  it far?”

Soobin nodded. “My mom is going to take us there. She’s on her way here now.”

“Where is it?”

“The beach.”

“The beach?”

Soobin nodded again. “The beach.”

“The beach,” Aera said flatly. “I like the beach.”

“That’s why we’re going.”

“Hm,” Aera sighed happily. “The beach.”

━━━━━━━━━━

Upon their arrival, Aera realized that when Soobin said the beach, he actually meant the boat dock by the beach. Well more like the yacht dock by the beach, because as they made their way to the end of the dock, they passed massive yachts, the type that only rich people could afford. Ones with balconies and two-stories that have some corny name etched onto the side that were either named after an important woman in their life or something like Old Betsy.

“What are we doing on a dock,” Aera giggled, swinging her and Soobin’s hands where they were connected. “I’m almost positive we aren’t supposed to be here.”

Soobin laughed as they came to stop in front of one of the smaller yachts, which wasn’t exactly small (but in comparison to the other yachts it was more compact), where a man was waiting for them.

“Choi Soobin?”

“Yes sir,” Soobin nodded, then gestured behind him. “And this is my mother, Ruha.”

The man extended his hand to Ruha, giving it a firm shake. “Yes, we spoke on the phone. Everything is set, if you guys want to climb on in, we’ll head out in about ten minutes.”

“Thank you,” Ruha said as the man helped her onto the yacht by her hand. 

The man then lent his hand to Aera, but instead of grabbing it, she took a step back, a conflicted look on her face.

“Wait,” Soobin placed his free hand on Aera’s wasit, causing her to look up at him. “You aren’t afraid of water, right? Boats or anything? Because I was just trying to surprise you, that’s why I didn’t as-”

“No, no,” Aera shook her head. “That’s not it, but Soobin how much was this?”

Soobin raised an eyebrow at the question, confused as to why she was asking this. “What?”

“It’s just—” she sighed. “You’re spending a lot of money today, and I don’t want you to think you have to blow a bunch of money just to make me happy. You could’ve just given me a bottle of water and I’d be happy that it came from you, so I don’t get why you are taking me to all these expensive places and things.”

“I just want to spoil you,” he softly replied. “Even if it’s just for a day. I want you to have some of the best experiences with me, so I don’t mind spending a lot of money on you.”

“But, Soob-”

“And plus,” Soobin smiled wide. “My friends chipped in to help, they wanted to make us both happy so they offered to help. You don’t have to pay them back, I don’t have to pay them back, they were just doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Me as well.”

Aera stood there frozen.

“I just want you to be happy.”

“But I’m already happy with you.”

Soobin leaned down to rest his forehead on Aera’s. “Yes, but you’d be even more happy on the boat, so let’s go!”

Aera laughed as she reached out for the man’s hand, him having stood there and watched that whole sappy ordeal, and he pulled her into the boat. Soobin followed and guided Aera to the very front of the yacht, where Ruha sat with a blanket over her legs.

“Choi Soobin, this will be the last time you spend a shit ton of money on me, do you understand?” Aera scolded, her finger pointed at Soobin but a smile was on her face.

“Yes, ma’am, never again,” Soobin spoke jokingly, totally not meaning a word of what he just said. 

“You’re not going to listen to me are you?”

“Nope.”

The yacht got moving a few moments later, things feeling a bit shaky for a few minutes, but Aera acclimated to it quite fast. She and Soobin had taken to roleplaying the scene from Titanic that nearly everyone does when they are at the frontmost point on a boat.

Soobin held her waist as Aera held her arms out to her side, feeling the wind whip on her face and the smell of salt infiltrate her nose.

“The ocean is kind of stinky,” her nose scrunched up as she said this. “Smells like raw fish and high cholesterol.”

Soobin cackled, tightly wrapping his arms around Aera’s waist as he pulled her into his chest, her back to her front. “You ruined such a good moment.”

She giggled, placing her hands over his arms and squeezed. “I was just telling the truth.”

“Kids!” Ruha called out. “Come sit down for a few minutes, you’re making me nervous by the ledge.”

They obliged, walking to sit across from Ruha and they talked amongst themselves for a few minutes, playing a few rounds of rock paper scissors to pass the time.

“So are we just going to cruise around the ocean for a few hours or what?” Aera asked, peering over the side of the boat to look down into the water. “Because no offense to the ocean or anything, but this is a bit boring.”

Soobin pulled out his phone, checking the time before he answered, “Actually, no. Just seven minutes until what we came here for happens.”

Aera looked intrigued now, “Oh, is it fireworks? Are we looking at fireworks?”

“I don’t think lighting explosives on a yacht would be smart.”

“A yacht,” Aera chuckled. “Never thought I’d see one of these in my entire lifetime.”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything.”

“I’m glad my first time was with you,” she softly spoke, her voice almost a whisper.

“Me too,” Soobin smiled. “We’ll have many firsts together, hopefully.”

“Hopefully.”

At the moment, they were sitting side-by-side with their waist turned to face one another, but Soobin pointed behind Aera as he muttered, “Look.”

Aera turned her body around, to face the ocean, a gasp leaving her mouth as she absorbed the breathtaking scene in front of her. She watched as the sun burned a hypnotizing orange and pink hue, reflecting on the ocean’s surface. Slowly, the orb lowered to meet the horizon line, kissing it softly as the glares glittered across the rippling water.

She had seen nothing like this, ever. Mother nature and the Earth’s natural occurrences never appealed to Aera, they were never something she found interesting or attention-catching, but this—this was so worth it.

Her awestruck trance was broken when Soobin rested his chin on her shoulder, whispering, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It’s-I-” Aera searched for the right words but there were none that could accurately describe exactly what she was witnessing. It made her speechless, her jaw going slack as she once again watched the sun move lower and lower.

They sat in silence, taking in the scenic view before them. Ruha sat opposite of them, snapping pictures of the sunset as she oh’ed and aw’ed at the scene.

“Pouts,” Soobin muttered into her ear, keeping his voice low so as to not ruin the moment. “I, uh-”

“Hm, Soobi?”

“Please, be my girlfriend.”

All of Aera’s breath left her body, all of her blood seemed to run cold. Was she hallucinating? Was she hearing things?

“Huh-” Oh god, she sounded so stupid. Who responds to the boy of their dreams asking them to be their girlfriend with ‘huh’.

“I-” Soobin sat up straighter, Aera being able to feel so behind her. “I really like you-no, love you, and I want to be with you. Officially. For a very long time.”

Aera eased her way around, turning to face Soobin who looked like he was going to pass out any second if she didn’t give him an answer within the next millisecond. So she carefully raised her hands to his cheeks, cupping his face softly.

“I’d love to be your girlfriend, Choi Soobin,” she breathed. “I’d kind of be an asshole if I said no after all of this, am I right?”

Soobin held onto her wrists. “I hope that isn’t the sole reason you are saying yes.”

“Lucky for you, it is not. It’s probably one of the lower list reasons.”

“There’s a list?”

She giggled. “There has always been a list.”

The sound of her giggle seemed to have him smitten, his eyes zoning in on her lips which caused her heart to skip a beat. She wasn’t dumb, she knew what he was thinking of, what his eyes were asking for, and for some reason, she had no qualms about complying.

Her first kiss was always something Aera fretted about, thinking about how awful it was going to be, how she was going to mess everything up. But for some reason, right here, right now, with Soobin, she knew for a fact it was going to be amazing. This is maybe the first and only decision Aera didn’t hesitate to make, and so she leaned in.

The touch of their lips was soft. Simple. A measly, quick peck.

When they pulled back, both of their cheeks were colored rose, a look of fondness between the two of them and Aera leaned in to kiss the the corner of Soobin’s mouth before pulling away and dropping her hands from his face.

“No takesies backsies, Choi Soobin.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Lee Aera.”

[alexlwrites]

Liability

Summary: The one where your best friend of years and love of your life is getting married and wants you to be the maid of honor. Luckily for you, the best man is not exactly happy either.

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader, Jungkook x Reader

Tags: Romance, Humor, Fluff, Angst

A/n: if you enjoy this, please comment and reblog. It really means the world to me and keeps me going!

Part 2: If one thing had been different  (1/3)

(Fanfic masterlist)

(support me on my ko-fi <3 )

(<<<Part one)

The weeks leading to the wedding day felt like a fever induced nightmare, hazy and blurry, filled with stomach aches and anxiety nausea. You threw yourself into work, typing until the tips of your fingers were calloused and your wrists hurt, only leaving the office when the janitor kicked you out with a broom to the butt.

You couldn’t avoid Taehyung. No, that would lead to questions with painful answers or over complicated, dead end lies. So you were avoiding yourself - filling every single second of your schedule with some sort of meaningless task, only resting when your body was exhausted enough to not even bother dreaming.

Sunken cheeks and eyes with purple galaxies around it, you carried yourself like a ghost from place to place, saving up energy for the days when you had to try wedding cakes and pretend that you weren’t going to throw them up later, when you agreed with whatever flower or fabric Haewon chose, holding back your real opinions out of spite, wanting to keep the details of the wedding you’ve planned since you were twelve to yourself.

You already stole the groom, you thought bitterly to yourself while sipping whatever champagne they offered at the venue at 2 pm on a Tuesday, you’re not stealing the lilies too. “No, yeah” you’d end up saying “roses are definitely the way to go.”

Taehyung didn’t notice your sudden introspection, didn’t bat an eye at your pale skin and bitten nails, blinded by Haewon’s ever growing brightness, both riding the newly-engaged high. At this point, you were comfortable on the sidelines, happy at their obliviousness. People in love were easy to fool - you had been fooling yourself for years.

In the first few wedding planning appointments, it was just you and Haewon. She wanted to choose the dress first and the process had a strict “no guys allowed” policy. So you followed her from store to store, accompanied by her supportive mom and overly critical friend, running your hands through dresses you were pessimistically sure you’d never get to wear.

“I still think this is too soon.” Aera, Haewon’s college friend, said in one of the dressing rooms, legs crossed and tapping her heel. Aera was nice and friendly, but vocal in a way that was starting to get to your nerves. Although both of you weren’t happy with the wedding, her approach was to complain her way through it. Yours was to pretend it wasn’t happening, hoping everything would be over.

“I know, Aera” Haewon replied, barely bothering to look at her friend, eyes fixed on her image in the mirror, shining in a lace dress “you have mentioned several times before.”

“But yet you’re still going through with it.”

You rolled your eyes, but didn’t say anything, just like you wished Aera would. Haewon saw your annoyed expression through the mirror and winked at you, amused at your annoyance. “Yes, Aera” she said in the same patient tone a person would use to explain something to a child “Funnily enough I don’t need your approval on all my decisions”.

“I’m not saying you do” Aera was not letting go and you wished for the millionth time you could leave or at least get a pair of earphones “but it is my job as your best friend to give you unsolicited advice. You have only been with Taehyung for like, a year and a half? And your career is just starting to pick up too! Is he really worth it all this…”

“As the groom’s best friend it is my job to tell you to not finish that thought.” you warned, voice still monotone and calm. You didn’t want to start anything with Aera, but you already hated this wedding enough on your own, you didn’t need her help “Look, I’m sure Haewon appreciates your input and how much you care, but if she’s not gonna listen to it then you should support her either way, not try to convince her to leave my best friend everytime we get together.”

Aera didn’t say much after that. She didn’t seem upset or chagrined, more deep in thought than anything else. All her commentary from then on revolved only around the dresses and so the fitting carried on quietly and without further problems.

Later, when the sun was getting down and you were just getting ready to leave the store, Haewon pulled you to the side gently before you had the chance to escape. “Hey, I just wanna thank you for today” she said, closing the door behind her in one of the rooms filled with white gowns “I know Aera can be too much sometimes and I know she didn’t mean to insult Tae or anything…”

You waved her off, avoiding eye contact “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I get it, really, she’s just looking out for you.”

Haewon had smart eyes, you’ve always thought so. Her stare made you feel exposed, vulnerable, never 100% comfortable. “Taehyung cares a lot about what you think, you know” she sat down in one of the couches “If you said something to him, like Aera’s been saying to me… I don’t think he would’ve gone through with it”.

You wished people would stop telling you how much power you had over this wedding. It felt like the universe was tempting you, giving the opportunity to stop it, to have it your way. But in the end, you could never bring yourself to purposefully get in the way of Taehyung’s happiness, even if for a second you thought you could make him happier.

“I wouldn’t do that.” you ended up saying, crossing your fingers over your lap.

“I know that. Well, now I do.” your heart stopped for a second and silence hung like a death sentence before Haewon continued “You know, before I dated Taehyung I dated a guy for a little over a year and I really thought he was it for me. But he had this best friend and they went way back, just like you and Tae, and I would get so nervous around her. It always felt like a competition, always felt like a pick-your-favorite game that I never won” you didn’t say anything, couldn’t even if you tried “They started dating a week after we broke up.”

The story is so similar but so different at the same time - how many times had the world created variations of the same heartbreak?

“When Taehyung first told me about you, I almost broke up with him” she continued, voice a little quieter, a bit more strained “I thought it would be the same thing all over again. But I just liked him so much.”

You closed your eyes, thinking that maybe you could pretend for a couple of seconds that you weren’t your awful self, someone who spent so much of their times daydreaming of scenarios where you got to be happy and this girl didn’t, where you were the one that got the guy and she got her heart re-shattered.

“And when I first saw you…” well, that probably gave you some peace of mind, you mused bitterly to yourself, nothing to fear here, just a depressed, teletubbie-looking chick “I thought it was a lost battle already.”

If life had a soundtrack, the sound of a scratched vinyl would play loudly enough to scare every bride in the store.

“What?!” you exclaimed, eyes flying open in surprise.

“You are so great, Y/N” Haewon’s tone was so soft “and it sucks that you don’t see yourself the way literally everyone else does.”

Who the fuck is everyone else, you thought, but didn’t say anything, please send them my way.

“You’re so funny, so warm and smart and when you talk everyone in the room listens” she must’ve read the confusion in your face, the absolute bafflement, because as she continued, exasperated “Taehyung cares so much about you and I just thought… I could never really compete with you.”

Huh.

It almost made you laugh, the sick irony of it all, the ridiculousness of this race you both created and then stopped running, thinking the other would inevitably win. How much time you wasted torturing yourself nitpicking everything Haewon had that you didn’t, not thinking that perhaps she was going through the same thing.

“But you’ve never made me feel like I was losing, Y/N.” Haewon grabbed your hand, interlacing your fingers together “You’ve always been so kind and welcoming to me and I’m so thankful for you not making this feel like a competition. For allowing me to be happy with Taehyung.”

The cheap champagne was swirling in your stomach and you felt like throwing up, but what else was new?

“I just want him to be happy.” you had been holding these words close to your chest, repeating to yourself like a mantra. And though it didn’t bring you much peace, it seemed to be enough for Haewon.

“Thank you” she repeated, giving you a hug and a watery smile.

“You’re welcome.” you awkwardly patted her back, hoping she wouldn’t start crying otherwise you would too “Now that I know how important I’ve been to this relationship, don’t expect any wedding gifts from me.”

“You already told me you got us a mini bar.”

“And I’m keeping it to myself. I’m gonna fill it with skin care and alcohol.”

Haewon shook her head “God, you sound just like Taehyung.”

You know the saying, you thought while walking out into the street, still hand in hand with her, like repel like.

[just-another-author-i-guess]

The unholy

Warnings: she/her pronounced reader, mentions of blood and biting, some making out, but honestly there’s not much, I didn’t edit it through tho but what did you really expect

Pairing: bts ot7 x reader, nun! reader, princess! reader, vampire! Jin x reader, hybrid! Namjoon x reader, hybrid! Yoongi x reader, vampire! Hoseok x reader, vampire! Jimin x reader, hybrid! Taehyung x reader, hybrid! Jungkook x reader

Parts: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 -

Author’s note: so it’s currently really late and I’m just now finishing this, which I should have done yesterday but oh well. Anyways, since it’s so late and I’m so damn tired there’s probably a lot of mistakes and stuff and I’m really sorry, but it’s too late to edit it through and I’m sooo tired, and I have school tomorrow T.T damn this chapter just sucks. Anyways I hope you’ll still enjoy it, I would love to know if you did enjoy it!

(Updates; every Sunday!)

Summary:

The king and queen, your mother and father, rules the southern kingdom. The eastern and the western are ruled by kings and queens alike, but the northern are ruled by the most unholy of creatures. Or so you've been told.

Every citizen in the three kingdoms, have been warned about the creatures of the north, and it is with good reason they're all terrified. All your life, your parents have tried to keep the knowledge of the northern creatures from you, but that just made you more curious. Everyday, you would sneak down to the castle library, and read everything you could about the north, wanting to know the secret behind the unholy land.

That of course didn't go well with your parents, and when they found out they decided to send you to the most holy of places, to forget about everything you've read. One of the biggest church organizations in the south agreed to take you in, to rehabilitate you and learn you that you should never question such things as the northern creatures.

By day, you follow the strict prioress around as she lectures you about the holy and the unholy, and by night, you have to go on patrol alone through the church as a punishment for reading about the unholy. But one night, everything changes, when you find the prioress dead, with bite marks all over her body. Of course, you have read about this, and you know exactly what killed her.

But what happens when that exact creature you've read about, shows up right in front of you?

Taglist:

(Please let me know if you want to be tagged!)

@joonsroses @boononx @i-am-supermerwholoked221b @karissassirak @bvblackarmy @queenbianca-7 @someslightobsessions

It wasn’t the first time, you woke up in strange new surroundings, and it surely wouldn’t be the last, but this time it was neither the bathroom nor Seokjin’s bedroom, and you weren’t alone.

Slowly, you blinked your eyes open, definitely not missing the way your head instantly began to pound, as your eyes searched the foreign room.

Your eyes widened, and with a slight gasp and a startled expression, you met the scarlet eyes, of a girl dressed in a similar dress as yours, sitting on your bed and smiling down at you, pearly white fangs on display.

“Oh thank god!”

She exclaimed, and looked like she could jump on you and hug you at any moment, but she didn’t, she just kept smiling, and you were sure that her mouth would be aching by the time she stopped.

“Seokjin would just about have murdered Jeongguk, if you didnt wake up,”

She continued, never even giving the fact that you had no idea who she was a thought, as she continued to ramble on about Seokjin’s distress.

Carefully and with stiff limbs, you started to move up from under the covers, slowly sitting up and feeling you sore body as the girl looked at you with careful eyes.

Her smile was hypnotizing, your eyes seemed to be permanently glued to her pearly white fangs, as her mouth remained in the same wide smile.

Suddenly, a thought seemed to cross her mind, and her smile faded, but the gleam in her eyes remained the same, as she lowered the voice, and leaned closer into you, the smell of metal following her every breath.

“Is it true that Seokjin fed from you?”

The words were carefully punctuated, and just as quick as she leaned in did she pull away, leaving you with a rather confused expression.

“S-sorry?”

Your voice was hoarse, and your throat felt raw as you spoke, as if you hadn’t had water in days.

“You know, there’s a rumor going around, and it’s a great honor to have Seokjin drink from you, and even having fed from him,”

She continued, and your mind began to spin as you tried your best to remember, you tried so hard, but your memory was like a static tv. You furrowed your eyes brows, as the pounding behind your skull got worse, quick flashes of Jeongguk’s fangs flashed before your mind and you started to wonder if your whole interaction with Jeongguk actually happened.

“I-I can’t remember,”

You stuttered, as the intense pounding kept building up, making it hard to focus on the girls shiny fangs, as you shut your eyes hard and pressed your palms against your forehead, helplessly.

“But that’s what everyone is saying, that you’re Seokjin’s feeder, and he said himself that he gave you blood to keep you alive-“

“Aera, enough.”

Suddenly, the door was opened, almost violently, and Seokjin’s voice cut through the air like sharp knife, trying to cut into the girl, Aera as well.

Shocked almost, her eyes widened, and she stood up, head held low as she turned around to face Seokjin.

“I-I’m sorry your highness-“

She started, but only received a half threatening growl from Seokjin in response.

“Continue your chores for now, but don’t ever come in here unless you’re told to, understood?”

Seokjins voice was dripping with authority, the same voice he used to scold Taehyung, Hoseok and Jeongguk prior, and if it hadn’t been for the blinding headache a shiver would have run down your spine.

Aera merely whimpered in response, before scurrying out of the room, her quick footsteps could be heard down the hall long after she was gone.

“Drink some water,”

Suddenly, Seokjin was sitting were Aera had been sitting seconds ago, holding out a glass filled with icy water towards you, and with shaky hands you accepted, quickly gulping down the water like your life depended on it.

Slowly, the headache seemed to calm itself, and your brain was now only numbly bumping against your skull, easier to ignore.

Carefully you handed Seokjin the glass, arm tiredly lifting itself off the bed and reaching out to Seokjin.

“What happened?”

You demanded, as soon as the glass was set back on the table, searching Seokjin’s brilliant eyes for answers, but receiving nothing.

“What did Aera ask you?”

He shot back, and you shook your head, more careful than you normally would, as your eyes continued to search Seokjin’s.

“You didn’t answer my question, what happened with Jeongguk?”

You continued, not intending to give up. After coming here, you had gotten absolutely no answers from no one, and you were getting fed up.

Seokjin’s eyes seemed to harden, when you mentioned Jeongguk’s name and quick memories of the interaction with Jeongguk began to flash before you.

You remember how incredibly nice it felt, when you felt asleep against his chest, and how he didn’t feel cold and unwelcoming, unlike Seokjin and, what was the other boy called, Yoongi.

Both their eyes were cold and deep red, but Jeongguk’s was so much more human like, they were big, and brown and welcoming. They were everything Seokjin wasn’t, and you had to fight the shiver that went through you, when Seokjin leaned closer and you could feel the coolness emitting off of him.

Seokjin sighed, he sounded just as tired as he always did when you pried, and he looked the part too. He looked like he hadn’t fed in days; he looked like Jeongguk had before he fed on you.

Suddenly, the same strange sensation went through you. You wanted, no you needed to let Seokjin feed on you, you needed to feel his fangs sink into your skin and you needed to see how his cheeks would round and turn a more pinkish color than the pale white they were now.

“S-Seokjin, are you hungry?”

The question itself was an intruder in your mouth, but it escaped before you could even react, making Seokjin look at you with a shocked, almost worried expression.

“If you’re hungry, you should feed,”

You continued, the words escaping your lips without your consent, as you absentmindedly began to lift you tired arm, presenting your wrist to him, already with two, almost faded bike marks on it from Taehyung.

“(y/n), stop,”

Seokjin started, his eyes betraying him, as they followed the multiple bitemarks visible on you, and the tip of his pink tongue, coming out to wet his lips, fangs gently starting to protrude his botttom lip.

“You look hungry,”

You hummed, the idea of Seokjin sinking his fangs into your wrist, making you blood almost boil over with excitement and your body began feeling warm and fuzzy just at the thought, a weird contrast to Seokjin’s ice cold one.

“You lost a lot of blood already bunny,”

Despite his words, slender fingers began to gently curl around your wrist, making goosebumps appear as his cold digits met your skin.

Your eyes seemed lost in each other’s, as Seokjin gently brought your wrist to his mouth, furrowing his brows as the smell of blood started to take a hold of him, but still fighting against it with the little self control he had left.

Slowly, his tongue game out to taste your salty skin, and instantly a shudder ran through him, just at the thought of tasting your blood once more.

Truth be told, you were right; Seokjin was hungry. He hadn’t fed since the night in the church, afraid to take too much, and drain you too soon, but his brothers sure didn’t care for his worry. He had endured watching both Hoseok, Taehyung and Jeongguk drink from you, without ever having a taste himself, and he was getting fed up.

He brought you here to be his feeder, not theirs, his.

The thought made Seokjin growl against your skin, almost animalistic, as his fangs began to slightly poke at your wrist, without cutting into the skin.

His brothers weren’t supposed to drink from you, they should be drinking animal blood he gave them, the only exceptions being himself, Jeongguk and Yoongi.

The thought made him slightly retreat his fangs, it wouldn’t be safe for any of you if he drank from you now, you needed to have your bloodlevels up, and he should be in his right mindset, not just doing it out of raw jealousy.

“Bunny I can’t, it’s not safe,”

He let your wrist go, mourning the loss of the delicious smell emitting from you, as he watched your arm limply fall down on the sheets.

“But Jeongguk could-“

You started, feeling the unbearable loss when Seokjin let go, still desperate to see his cheeks full and well fed.

“Jeongguk doesn’t care about safety,”

Seokjin cut you off, voice sharp as his still protruding fangs, and you instantly quiet down, as he let out a long sigh.

“Besides, you don’t have to feed me, bunny, I’ll come to you when I need it,”

He spoke again, voice turning softer, as he looked at you with soft, caring eyes, fangs slowly disappearing.

“Jeongguk’s And Taehyung’s venom must still be messing with you, it’s never a good idea to combine it,”

Seokjin sighed, looking at you with worry in his eyes, as you let the past few days slowly weigh down on you. Some parts of your memory were still fuzzy, but slowly you were starting to vividly remember the way Hoseok and Taehyung had fed on you in the kitchen, and the way Jeongguk had growled when they had tried to pull him away from you.

You lightly cocked your head to the side, not completely getting what he was hinting at, but remembering him mentioning it when you were inside the lab room with Jeongguk.

“Don’t worry too much about it,”

He spoke again, voice a little more strained this time, and you noticed once again how tired he actually looked, you wanted nothing more than to offer him a space on the bed, cuddling up to him and sleeping until all your troubles went away, but before you could even open your mouth he spoke again.

“Namjoon will come in a bit, the two of you will go to the library so he can tell you a bit more about the different venoms,”

Seokjin sounded sounded so hollow, just as hollow as he looked, when he got up from the bed, making the wood under his feet slightly creek, and before you could even blink, he was long gone down the hall, and you were left all to yourself, to wonder who exactly Namjoon was.

Later that day, a tall boy, definitely taller than Seokjin and the rest, with a friendly smile and dimples, contrasting his pitch black hair and pale skin, knocked on your door.

“I’m Namjoon, Seokjin sent me to get you,”

He shortly explained, giving you another friendly smile, again making a big contrast to his icy cold skin.

You nodded once, and for up to follow him out the door, as you took in his attire from behind. He was dressed like Seokjin and the others, the only way you could describe it was prince-like.

He placed a protective hand on the small of your back, like Yoongi had done, but without pushing you, as he began to lead you to the library.

Walking down the many hallways, the castle was not nearly as empty as it had been the other multiple times you had been out in the halls. Now, the two of you would meet a servant almost at every corner, cleaning or doing other chores, and you couldn’t help but wonder if there were anyone down in the kitchens as well.

With the many new surroundings and people to look at, the walk didn’t seem to take long at all, and before you knew it, Namjoon had led you into a big, magnificent library, with books from all over the world.

He seemed pretty proud of the collection himself, as he went into explain about it, utterly mesmerized by the way your eyes would light up in excitement.

He let you to a group of comfortable looking, red chairs in a more secluded area of the library, and he gently patted one, indicating you to sit down.

“Here, Seokjin told me to give you this,”

Namjoon spoke, as he stood with his back to you, picking out books from the shelves. Suddenly he stopped, eyes focusing on a big, heavy book standing a little behind the others, and without the slightest struggle, did he pull it out and present it to you on the table.

‘The vampire anatomy’

Was written on it with big, bold, golden letters, and instantly your hands reached out to gently brush over the old looking book, afraid it might turn to dust in your grasp.

“You’ll need to know about us, if you’re going to stay here,”

Namjoon reasoned, taking a seat in a chair besides your, opening the book with less careful fingers, landing on a chapter about different venoms stored in a vampires fangs.

“Here, Seokjin wanted you to read this,”

You looked from the handwritten, cursive letters, to Namjoon with a curious expression, question after question just at the tip of your tongue.

“Seokjin mentioned something about Jeongguk and Taehyung’s venoms,”

You said absentmindedly, but Namjoon’s ears seemed to perk up, brilliant dark red orbs, searching yours.

“That would be because they’re fusing, when you’ve been bitten by different vampires in a small span of time, their venom’s will fuse and sometimes that can be very dangerous,”

He went onto explain, and you cocked your head.

“What about Hoseok then? Why didn’t he say anything about him?”

The questions came stumbling out of your mouth, but Namjoon didn’t seem to mind, happily lecturing you on what you needed to know.

“That’s because Hoseok’s venom is harmless, if you didn’t know about it’s existence it would be as if it was never even there, Taehyung and Jeongguk on the other hand both has dangerous venoms, and because they bit you in that short timespan they’re clashing, that is probably why you fainted when Jeongguk bit you,”

You hummed along, indicating you were listening, as you focused on Namjoon’s kind eyes, and the way his face lit up in a most endearing way when he was talking.

One thought was still bugging your mind though, you still couldn’t let go what the maid, Aera had said to your earlier.

It’s a great honor to have Seokjin bite you.

“Did Seokjin bite me while I was unconscious?”

The question slipped out of your mouth, surprising both yourself and Namjoon.

“Who told you that?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, and you sank the lump in your throat, slowly backing a little way when you realized you had leaned so much to the side that your head was practically leaning on Namjoon’s shoulder.

“A-a maid,”

You stuttered, and Namjoon just shook his head with a tired expression.

“Yes, yes Seokjin bit you, he didn’t feed off you though, he only bit you to balance out the fusion of Jeongguk and Taehyung’s venoms, and he also had to let you feed on him, but only to balance out your bloodlevels, Jeongguk almost killed you,”

Your eyes brows furrowed more with every new information, and you closed your eyes trying to grasp everything. Namjoon gently smiled at your confused expression, and handed the book back to you.

“Please read yourself,”

Carefully your hands grasped the book, lightly brushing Namjoon’s cold ones, and you placed the book in your lap.

-

Just half an hour into reading, did your mind start to get tired and the words you read were starting to make no sense.

From time to time, you would spare glances at Namjoon as he was deeply immersed in his own book, too immersed to really care about your boredroom, as you took in his sideprofile.

He was beautiful, there was no denying it, with his pitch black hair, slightly dipping down into his eyes, causing him to brush it away every few minutes, and his deep red, mesmerizing eyes as they scanned the book he was reading, along with his otherworldly proportions.

“Can I help you?”

A look, a little too cocky for his own good, adorned his features, and you realized in embarrassment that you had been caught, quickly looking up to meet his kind eyes, a subtle blush covering your face and ears.

“I-I’m sorry,”

You stuttered, as you began to realize just how close you were to him, noses almost brushing, when you turned your head.

Namjoon chuckled, voice noticeably lowering, making all sorts of emotions stir inside you. Long forgotten was the book, and whatever venom you were reading about, Namjoon being the only thing currently on your mind.

“No worries, bunny,”

He tilted his head a little, giving you a way too obvious invitation to his softlooking lips, and you couldn’t bring yourself to deny, slowly leaning forward again, lips carefully coliding.

Instantly, you sighed into the kiss, as his large hand came up to cup your rounded cheek, deepening the kiss, as you continued leaning forward, till you were almost halfway into his chair.

He felt like fire and ice, the kiss was soft and smooth, making your head spin, warm sensations shooting straight to your core as you felt his fangs slightly protruding, carefully poking at your bottom lip.

Testing out the waters, the tip of his pink tongue began to poke your bottom lip as well, carefully sliding into your mouth, dancing around your own tongue.

He tasted like metal and a certain sweetness that belonged to him, but you wouldn’t have it any other way, letting his tongue roam your mouth freely.

You did however need air, and sooner than you wanted to, you parted from him, a string of salvia connecting the both of you, making it clear how messy your kiss had actually been, and Namjoon looked at you with blown out pupils, fangs now fully on display for you and you felt your skin tingle.

He swallowed, hard.

“Can-can I have a taste?”

Without hesitation, you nodded, already offering him your wrist, like you did with Seokjin.

Instantly, his long fingers curlers around you, ice cold digits making contact with overheated skin, again feeling the wonderful feeling of fire and ice colliding.

First, his soft tongue came out to lap at your salty skin, followed by his nose, as he gently nosed around the area he intended to bite. He sucked and playfully nibbled at your skin, before finally biting down, sinking his teeth into the area he had already marked with a couple of hickies.

Your breathy moan escaped out into the empty library, as you felt his fangs sink in, instantly drawing moans and groans from him as well, as he slowly began to gulp down your sweet nectar.

You watched with hazy eyes as he drank, amazed by the way his Adam’s apple would bop up and down every time he sank another mouthful.

He was viciously licking at your bite marks the same time he was sucking, making sure no excess blood would go to waste as he fed.

Before long, he retreated with a satisfied groan, licking greedily around his mouth for any excess blood, two bite marks now permanently dug into your skin.

Your two wounds were still leaking the smallest amount of blood, but it was quickly fixed once Namjoon carefully dipped his thump into each wound, gathering whatever excess was left and greedily licking his fingers dry.

“Thank you, Bunny,”

He said, voice sincere as he gave your hand a squeeze, making your heart flutter when he didn’t let go, but only carefully intertwined your fingers, his big ones almost completely covering yours.

Much to your disappointment, Namjoon had to go sooner or later, leaving you to wonder around on your. You had just made your way out of the library, when a strange sensation filled you up.

It was the same feeling you had, before feeding Jeongguk, it was the same yearning to see his cheeks rounded and the happy satisfied look on his face, but he wasn’t there.

You could have sworn you were alone, except the couple servants walking around the castle cleaning and doing chores.

You felt restless, wondering around with the urge to find Jeongguk, but something told you that it was the last thing Seokjin would want you to.

You were torn, as you stood between the hallway that led to what you assumed must be a dining room, and the staircase you had talked earlier down to the kitchens.

“Bunny..”

A shiver ran down your spine, and you instantly turned around, upon hearing Jeongguk’s hoarse whisper in your ear, but nothing. The hallway couldn’t have been emptier.

“Bunny, I know you can hear me..”

Jeongguks voice continued, almost tauntingly as you stood there, confused in the hallway.

“Go to the dungeons, be a good girl and come down here for me, bunny,”

Your mind seemed to be made up, as you step by step, carefully began to walk down the stairs leading to the cellar and the kitchens.

“Come on Bunny, hurry up, I’m hungry..”

His raspy voice filled your senses, and instantly your only goal was to feed him, you wanted, no you needed to feed him, at the moment it was all your heart desired.

With your eagerness, it wasn’t long before you were stood before a big wooden door, looking like the kind of door you would never go through under any normal circumstances, but Jeongguk’s voice was egging you on.

“Come on Bunny, just open the door..”

He was persuasive, and you were sure you could feel him behind it, you knew he was there, and there was nothing you wanted more than to come to him, so it wasn’t long before your hands were gently placed against the wood of the door, and you pushed.

The door was heavy, but not so heavy you couldn’t open it, slowly you slid it open, revealing a dark room with multiple cages, all badly scratched up and clearly meant for something much stronger than a human.

Then you saw him, you gasped, and instantly forgot about the door as you ran to him, letting the door slam behind you.

“J-Jeongguk,”

The small amount of sunlight shining in through a tiny window, was just enough for you to see his state.

He was standing pressed up against the cage, looking paler than ever with hollowed our features and the most agonized look on his face.

Without even thinking, you instantly pressed yourself up against the cage as well, wanting to feel the small amount of warmth he emitted, and he instantly reached out through the bars, squeezing your hips trying to get your closer, closer, closer.

“Bunny..”

He rasped, looked down at you with dark eyes as he was towering over you.

“You found me,”

A cocky smirk crossed his features despite his state, and you instantly nodded, ready to do whatever he asked.

Gently, you let your fingers come up and hold his hollow cheeks, turning his face down so you could look into his brilliant eyes once more.

“What did they do to you?”

You whispered, worriedly stroking his cheekbones with your thumb, as you stood on your tiptoes, noses brushing as Jeongguk inhaled sharply.

“Nothing you cant fix,”

He reasoned, voice still raspy, boarding on a growl as he without warning leaned down and crashed his lips onto yours, almost violently, instantly igniting all sorts of flames in your lower stomach.

[secret-engima]

*thunders in* LIGHTBULB MOMENT.

Okay so in Nox!Taur verse I’ve said that the only dragon lines are the Lucis Caelums (who are sorta catlike western dragons), and the Oracles, though only the women, which is why I say Oracle and not Nox Fleuret. I was originally picturing catlike western dragon for Oracles too but what if-

What if NOT?

What if they’re more in the eastern dragon style? Because honestly that would be so PRETTY (also I was thinking about Spirited Away earlier and Haku is the most adorable/prettily animated dragon ever don’t @ me.)

Not- completely eastern, not quite as serpentine, but definitely leaning toward that kinda vibe even though they DO have big pretty western dragon wings on their Taur halves because Bahamut wasn’t quite jerk enough to give only one family line the ability to fly (also wings are, in general, very pretty). I’m picturing .... something in build a lot like ermines. Shorter legs and very lithe bodies, though probably LONGER between forelegs and hind legs than an ermine for that more snaky look and with a MUCH longer, willowy tail than ermines, long enough to do the cat loaf thing.

Also while Oracles are primarily scaled, they have beautiful gold manes running down the spine of their taur halves to end in a fluffy, feathery tuft on their tail tips (like Haku from Spirited Away because I LOVE THAT MOVIE OKAY).

It would also ... possibly tie into their roles according to Bahamut’s Blessing/commands. The LCs are more Western Dragon because their magic is battle focused like classic western dragon portrayals (lookin at you Smaug and the Beowulf dragon and a lot of others) while if I remember correctly (which I might not) Eastern Dragons are more commonly depicted as wise and benevolent. At if not benevolent, at least not outright evilz and also possibly important to nature (don’t they command the storms or the oceans? sorry if that’s wrong but I am reluctant to trust Wikipedia on this).

Also also Luna is known from very early on among her family as the Chosen King’s Oracle because she is one of only TWO known Oracles to have a Sylleblossom blue mane rather than a gold one. The other known Oracle was Aera, founder of the line (and lover of the original male Taur!Ardyn who was the original Chosen King but shhh no one knows that bit).

If those of you who are artistic ever feel the need to Art something- I will scream and dance for joy if you ever feel the itch to do pretty eastern dragon Lunataur.

But only if you want to Art, obviously.

[drunkdaisychains]

Aera the Fair

full story updated regularly  @

 https://www.wattpad.com/story/258839356-aera-the-fair

Pairings: OCF/OCM, OC/Brynjolf

Warnings: Smut, killing, theft, fluff

Summery:Between the Butcher murders, lovers spats, and the war going one, it’s a wonder that there is any peace in Windhelm. Valun Stormcloak, son of  Ulfric, has taken an interest in a fair maiden adopted into clan Shattersheild. But she has an incriminating secret. Can she keep her man, avenge her family, and keep her secret or will she be cast out of the city, never able to see her family again.

chapter 1 (first half posted already)

"You also travel a lot for buisness. Do you bed every man of Skyrim?" 

"Ofcourse not. I'm cloaked and painted when I leave," Aera glanced over at the back of the inn. 

"Get a room here. You never know what might happen," the door opened once more and a shivering Nilsine approached her mother. Aera stood up and hugged her before giving her the seat. 

"Nilsine how is your sailor!" Aera giggled. 

"Mother you were right. I should have never gone for a sailor!" Nilsine almost sobbed.

"Get a grip. Young daughter, there are plenty of men here tonight. Catch up with your sister and you two can share a room. I think your father and I should go before he is too deep in the mead," Tova stood and hugged her daughters. 

Aera turned to Nilsine. "Where is your amulet of Mara?" 

"I took it off Aera. Men see it as a lock begging to be picked! Even if they don't want what's inside," she tipped her mother's left over goblet to her lips and polished it off. 

"Another bottle for us and a room please," Aera ordered. First one down to the left. Perfect. She only wished she had brought some spare clothes instead of just her armour. It was dark leather and could easily be mistaken for the assassins armour everyone feared. Except she had a warm cloak tied around her neck. She had spent a lot of time in the armour so it was comfortable but not appropriate for impressing a husband at a bar. 

"Is that Valun? I don't even want to look at him. He acts like I don't even exist anyways," Nilsine muttered. 

"Let's go up by the fire, you are frozen," Aera wrapped her cloak around her friend and guided her towards the stairs as she doubled back for the drinks. They sat listening to the bard, catching up as the party moved upstairs aswell. Before they knew it, the group of soldiers were upstairs at one end, sailors at the other and the two girls in the middle of it all. Men would stumble up to them once in a while and try their luck. One of Valun's group had taken a liking to Nilsine and they had been flirting across the room for a while. 

"Here they come," she patted Aera's leg. 

"Good evening ladies," he smiled and his crew followed slowly behind. The one named Oleif picked up a chair as they were walking by and sat on one side of Nilsine as the other leaned on her chair. " The names Adrief the Unfallen," he held his hand to her. She placed hers in his hand and he brought it up to his mouth and kissed it. Valun took a chair and swung it around backwards beside Aera. 

"I'm Valun Stormcloak," he smiled and did the same gesture to Aera. As she placed her gloved hand in his, he too kissed it. 

"They call me Aera the-" and she was cut off.

"The fair. I've heard of you. You're much fairer than the tales are telling," his gold eyes peered into her burgundy ones. 

"I see you're wearing an amulet of Mara," he noted and she looked down covering her embarrassed smile. She had forgot she was wearing one. 

"I seem to have forgotten mine at home, what a shame," Nilsine said, still not taking her eyes off Adrief. 

"He only claims to be Unfallen, but I think he's falling for you," Valun quipped to her, helping his friend out. 

"What do you do Aera, besides glowing in every room you walk in," Valun glanced at her lips then back at her eyes. She crossed her legs. 

"I travel for business," she blushed.

"And what kind of business?" Valun implored. 

"I balance ledgers for merchants all over," she sipped from her cup. 

"A smart lass eh? Is there anything you do for fun?" He rested his chin on his fist. 

"You don't want to hear about me. I'm sure you have more important things to worry about," Aera blushed again. 

"I can't think of anything," he tipped his tankard to his lips. 

Nilsine was fully immersed in the man standing beside her, laughing and giggling. 

"How would you like to come back with me to the Palace of Kings?" He whispered into her ear, leaning in so close his lips grazed her ear. 

"Thank you but we have a room here already," she answered timidly and glanced over to Nilsine. 

"She won't be sleeping alone tonight. And it would be a shame for a woman like yourself to become cold at night." He reasoned. It was well into the night already and she had been up since dawn. The wine was clouding her brain and she knew if she stood now she would stumble. 

"You could have any maiden here and you choose the one in full armour with two swords attached to her hips," she observed. 

"Is that not commentary on your beauty?" He teased. He glanced at her lips again, only for a second. "I've heard that every man in town has tried to bed you and you won't, if you want to keep that reputation, we can simply sleep. It looks like Nilsine will ensure that room is used. Come with me," he reasoned. She sighed with a grin and studied her cup that had been empty for quite a few minutes now. 

"I'm afraid I won't be an easy lay for you. But if you truly mean it, I would like to be warm tonight," she gazed at him. He was handsome, only a few small scars that told of his battles. He had broad shoulders and a strong face but kind eyes. He held his hand to her and she took it, using it to steady herself as she stood. 

"Nilly, do you want my cloak for the walk home tomorrow?" She asked, tearing her friend’s attention away. 

"Oh thank you Aera, I won't have to bear the cold in the morning. Are you leaving?" 

"Yes, you can return my cloak to my room when you get home. Stay warm," she affectionately squeezed her shoulder. Nilsine waved at her as she made her way to the stairs. Valun was close behind her and one of his men wolf whistled. 

He handed over another large coin purse to settle the tabs before following her out into the night. The city was still lit with torches but the wind blew in brisk. She shuddered and stumbled over some ice. 

"Woah there, no need to fall for me that fast," he quipped as he caught her. He pulled her into him, wrapping his arm around her. 

"I fall for wine and Mead, but men and skooma are dangerous," she quipped back. He just smiled down at her. He nodded to the guard as they stepped up to doors and pushed them open. The palace was quiet and warm, a large feast was still spread on the table in front of the throne. As they passed he picked up a sweet roll and cheese wedge on a plate before taking her hand and leading her to his quarters. 

[sky-kiss]

Aerdyn Modern AU

A/N: Aerdyn is soft and pure and we need more of it in the world. Also. This will give you cavities.

______

Soft Modern Aerdyn

______

His first experience with Professor Fleuret is certainly...unique. 

There is one word that comes to mind as he surveys her ‘office’: chaos. She is a fae creature, flitting from table to table, muttering to herself as she goes. Her hair is piled on the top of her head in a sloppy bun, stray tendrils curling about her face. Dust is caught amidst the strands. A smear of dirt is traced across her cheek. He wonders precisely how that’s come to happen until she stops and scrubs at her face, frowning.

“Are you quite alright?” he says by way of introduction. There’s a wild light in her eyes when she turns to face him. Ardyn stares at her dumbly. For a brief moment he can’t remember his own name. Her eyes are the most brilliant shade of cornflower blue and there’s so much energy and life to her that he just can’t. She is wildly different from everyone else in the department. 

He thinks, in that moment, that he might be in love with her. Inane, yes, but equally undeniable.

Aera’s eyes narrow. She locks her posture and levels a finger at him. “Don’t touch anything. Everything is…” she presses her lips into a thin line and then nods. “Precisely where I want it.” 

“Is it now?” It’s anarchy. He arches a brow, rocking back on his heels. “Well...I shall make certain I do not disrupt your...system.” 

The Professor looks at him, really looks at him, for the first time. Her eyes widen and she glances away. Aera clears her throat. “Then...um...yes. You’re welcome to stay.” 

He’s been assigned to her so that was never really in question. Ardyn smiles regardless, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “How very generous of you, Aera.” 

She flushes a violent shade of pink, mutters something in response, and then she’s back to it. A storm trapped in this dingy, half lit, office.

____

Aera is unaccustomed to traditional niceties. 

He supposes it’s owed to the company they keep. Academics were rarely socially apt, ranging from cripplingly shy to tediously arrogant. The first morning he brings her coffee, she just stares at him. He shakes the cup in front of her, smiling. “You’ll have to forgive me, professor. I don’t know your preference.” 

She chews her lower lip, smiling. “We don’t usually drink in the lab…” 

Spills and all that. Ardyn decides to push his luck. He winks at her, pushing the cup into her hand. “...then we shall very careful, hmm?” 

It earns him a laugh. He cannot recall a lovelier sound. 

_____

Aera is tactile. 

He wonders if she’s aware of it. Ardyn stiffens as she sidles up beside him. She half hugs his arm to her chest as she leans over him to inspect the scroll. He wants to focus on the conversation.  Aera is brilliant and their conversations are the highlight of his days. 

But he is only a man. And she is wonderfully beautiful and soft. 

“Ardyn?” She glances up at him, head cocked to the side. A single strand of hair falls in front of her eyes and his instinctual, inane, urge is to brush it back  behind her ear. He takes a shuddering breath. 

“Forgive me, my dear. I…” he clears his throat. “My mind was elsewhere.” 

“Oh?” Aera grins. The minx sets her right hand over his. “Tell me where?” 

In that moment, he couldn’t have told her his own name.

____

He still stops to watch her every now and then. Aera paces the length of the office when she’s lost in thought. The movement helps her process her thoughts. He chews the inside of his cheek, hiding a smile as she pivots on her heel and begins another circuit. She’s muttering to herself, tapping her chin and working herself towards a halfway frenetic state. It’s how she gets just before a breakthrough. 

After months, he’s learned how to best help her. 

Ardyn crosses the lab, silent in a way most find uncanny, and winds his arms around her waist. The top of her head barely clears his shoulders, leaves him able to fold himself around her. He has to slouch to rest his chin on the crown of her head. 

“It’s much too early for your pacing, love. I’m exhausted just looking at you.” 

Aera scoffs, plucking at his sleeve. “Oh, hush.” But it’s soft and she makes no effort to pull away from him. Aera closes her eyes, pulls his arms more securely around her, and leans back against his chest. “Help me, won’t you?”

He kisses her temple. “My Aera...I would wish nothing more.”

She smiles at him, this fae creature, and he knows he could never resist her. He would never try. 

_____

He’s in love with her. 

She is life and spirit and joy. A bright spot in a dingy office, brilliant and warm. 

She tastes like honey when he kisses her. Aera makes a small, curious, sound. She tips her head back, palm still pressed flat against his chest. She licks her lower lip as if attempting to gauge whether she likes his taste. Then she steps into him, burying her face in his jacket. 

Ardyn laughs. “Aera? Dearest, are you well?”

She nods, quick and violent. Instead of stepping away she tips her head back, chin resting against his sternum. When she speaks he feels the words vibrate in his chest. “Yes. Apologies, it’s just…” she laughs and drags a hand through her hair. It leaves everything wild and all the more perfect. “...I’ve just...I’ve wanted that for some time.” 

“Oh?” 

He trails the back of his fingers down her spine, delighted when she shivers. Aera winds her arms around him, holding him close. “It’s unfair, you know. How attractive you are.”

Ardyn laughs. It takes a feat of gymnastics to contort and kiss her. Aera hums against his lips, squirming until he can’t help but groan. “Aera…” 

She grins at him, brilliant as a summer’s day, and he’s lost.

[liannyeong]

Say you want me (out of your life)

Summary: Agents or not, they are still humans.

Word count: 7654

Pairing: Jaebum X OC

Warning(s): angst?, some blood and violence involved, tons of time skips and pov changes (but fret not! the numbering is supposed to help...)

A/N: It’s been a little over 2 months. Enjoy this agent/spy AU that I've always wanted to try (though I don’t really have the confidence in this plot...) Summary is bad, I’m sorry I didn’t know how else to write it. Oh and the title is a line from 5SOS’s Youngblood. :)

xi.

"It's over," Jaebum speaks, tone serious. A gun pointing at her.

"Indeed," Aera whispers to herself, reigning.

She closes her eyes.

The sound of a click and then--

Bang!

---

i.

The tension between them has always been there. Aera doesn't know how it all started, but it has always been palpable. Perhaps it was due to the rivalry between them at being the best agents in the company. Or before that, when they started on the wrong foot. Or perhaps, it was even way before that, when they lived in the same orphanage.

While Aera was a bully, Jaebum was quiet. Aera had a foul temper and was always aggressive. She would cut up soft toys of other girls. She would wreck buildings constructed by the boys for the fun of it. Most important of all, she resorted to violence. An avid fighter. She was always throwing punches and kicks at the other kids in the orphanage. On the other hand, Jaebum only talked when spoken to. But Jaebum stood up against her when she targeted him. The boy easily shoved her aside as if she weighed nothing. Then, a brutal fight occurred, much to the caretakers' chagrin.

From then on, Aera and Jaebum became sworn enemies -- though unsaid. They fought almost daily, over the littlest of things. With all the disciplinary issues, no one wanted to do anything with them. While all the other kids got their foster families, none would adopt them.

Until she turned fourteen, when Mr Park came to the orphanage. He approached them with a fatherly smile, tried to get close to them though Aera was adamant on being closed off. Still, the older male didn't stop trying. Finally, Mr Park won Aera's heart and she agreed to being his foster daughter. However, much to her great dislike, Mr Park took Jaebum along. When asked why, the older male would only reply, "Isn't it nice to have a friend?". So Aera had to live under the same roof as Jaebum again. And for the rest of her life.

But it became more bearable as they grew up. Mr Park introduced them to the secret agent organization when they were of age, having slowly trained them in combat. With more rigorous training, they easily topped the ranks: Aera was the best combat agent, Jaebum was the best marksman. Mr Park and the rest of the company staff saw how complementary they were. Thus, they were always paired up in missions.

Maybe it was the growth spurt, or maybe she grew out of it. But as she aged, as she spent more time with Jaebum, Aera slowly found him attractive. Not that she will ever admit it. He's masculine, his muscles now defined, his jaw sharp. His voice deep and manly, with authority in his tone. Aera likes to push his buttons, always wondering what it would take for him to burst.

Sometimes she thinks it's just a physical attraction. But when he always has her back, always protects her from a distance, shooting down enemies in her blind spot, Aera thinks it's more than that. When Jaebum was injured and Aera had to do a mission without him, it felt off-balance. As if nothing works. That was when Aera realized how true Mr Park's words were: "The two of you can't work without the other." Afterwards, she vowed not to do missions without Jaebum.

---

ii.

Their new mission isn't something easy or familiar. They have always been tasked to retrieve certain information or artifacts. But now? They have to bring in a human being, who just happened to be an assassin. It gives Aera the jitters. Perhaps, she's just nervous to capture a skilled criminal. Yet she knows deep down that it's nothing like that.

Based on the assassin's profile, the man is in his forties, named Jung Jihoon. He has cat-like eyes, wavy hair tied up in a bun. His jaw is defined, his body fit and masculine. It's weird, Aera thinks, that she's intrigued by this man. There's something about him that doesn't feel right. An alarm in her mind starts ringing, though she can't quite put the reason why. But she casts such thoughts aside, tries to focus on accomplishing the mission smoothly.

Chasing Jihoon down hasn't been easy for them. Heck, what were they even expecting, considering Jihoon is a trained assassin. Of course he would cover his tracks, or move stealthily like a shadow in the dark. In their chase, Jaebum managed to get a clean shot of the target on the rooftop, allowing Aera to corner him.

With Jihoon momentarily stunned, Aera bolts forward, then strikes with an uppercut. She quickly throws punches and kicks, getting him weak as much as she could. But Jihoon blocks her attack, an arm raised to guard against her kick. He twists the arm around her leg, then grabs her by the ankle. Aera loses balance, and Rain repeatedly hits her shin. She groans in pain as she collapses onto the ground.

Jihoon turns, heading for the helicopter. Aera pulls herself up, disregarding the pain on her leg. She limps forward, as fast as she could. The deafening sound of the helicopter blades help to cover her footsteps. So Aera stretches her hands out, grabs Jihoon by the back of his shirt. He resists, stays strong against her pull. The fabric gets stretched, then torn. It reveals an expanse of skin inked with a crimson dragon. Aera's brain flicks with pain and she's out of focus. Jihoon takes this chance to land a punch at her gut before breaking into a run towards the helicopter.

Aera can barely register the whole event, her mind throbs. Aera's body trembles. Hands pressed to the sides of her head, fingers dug into her hair, eyes shut tight, brows narrowed. She gasps. Surges of memories flow into her mind, all of them new and unfamiliar yet she knows it's flashes of her past. It's as if she just opened a box she totally forgot over the years. She sees that man standing over the bodies of her parents, sword glistening with blood, a grin on his face so wicked, his back inked with the same color and design. The engraving on his sword. The striking red dragon tattoo on his back.

"Aera!" she hears her name being called in a faraway distance, but the pain in her brain is too much for her to bear. She loses consciousness at the moment she feels someone hovering over her. The moment she hears an all-too-familiar voice speaking to her.

---

xii.

Aera feels numb. She barely registers the blooming wetness on her left stomach. She barely feels the pain. Her knees buckle, and she struggles to stay standing. She falls on her knees, holding her body up with just a hand. She looks down at her wound. The blood has soaked her clothes. She tilts her head up, meeting the male's eyes. It seems to have no remorse, no emotions whatsoever behind it.

Aera always knew it would come to this. She always knew this is how things would end. That she would run away until her lungs give out, until she gets tired. That it would be Jaebum who'll finish her. She always knew, but it still catches her offguard. She always knew, but deep down, she always hoped it wouldn't turn out that way.

Jaebum steps closer and Aera can only watch him, breathing as proper as she can with the pain. She's too vulnerable to attack. Even if she can, she wouldn't. She doesn't want to.

"You..." she says between her heavy breathing, "really hate me that much, huh?" Jaebum crouches in front of her, the gun still in his hold. Aera keeps her breathing steady, tries to stay awake enough to see the next move. She reckons he will place the gun to her head and pull the trigger. She reckons there won't be any last words from either of them. She reckons Jaebum will just leave her with the pool of blood oozing from her body.

Aera's eyesight becomes blurry, her mind slowly shifting out of focus.

Then, she falls forward.

---

iii.

Aera doesn't remember her parents, apart from the fact that they died when she was seven. Oddly enough, she could not remember a single thing about her dead family. The only possession she ever had of them is a pendant of their family photo. They were all smiling, but it felt so foreign to Aera. Nevertheless, she kept the pendant, as a hint of her past.

But sometimes, Aera dreams about them. It's always the same scene. Young Aera would be holding a teddy bear, clutched to her chest, as she tiptoes to her parents' room in the middle of the night. And when she opens the door, the next thing she knows, she's startled awake. It never goes beyond that.

However, this time, she dreams it all. When she pushed the door open, with a small cry for her mother, she saw her parents on the floor, lifeless. As she looked around the room, her eyes met the killer near the opened window. Most of his back faced her, body slightly turned, but she still saw the way his eyes were darker than the night sky. He held a shiny sword in one hand, blood dripping down its tip. Aera froze at her spot, watching traumatically, the way Jihoon bent over her father. He lowered his sword, wiping off the blood with her father's shirt.

Then he sheathed his weapon, before coming closer to her, step by step as if not wanting to scare her away. Aera couldn't move, totally immobilized at her spot. Jihoon stood in front of her, then crouched to match her level. He held up a finger to his mouth, and shushed. He brought the same finger to her face, and brushed away a tear that has rolled down without her realizing.

In a blink of an eye, Jihoon pressed a cloth to her mouth, and she breathed, before slipping into unconsciousness.

---

v.

The second time they got on Jihoon's tail, they were relentless. Ruthless even. Aera doesn't let the male out of her sight at all. She chases him down as if her life depends on it. Jaebum trails behind, riding a motorcycle onto the pedestrian's pathway just to catch up to the assassin. Aera goes by foot, into the alleys and out.

"I got him!" Aera reports over the radio, voice ragged from all the running.

Jaebum glances at his navigator, a red dot signalling where Aera is. The map shows her in an alleyway, a dead end. Over the earpiece, Jaebum can hear grunts and thuds. He speeds up a little more, swerving between lanes to get past the traffic faster. The groans sound more painful with each second, coupled with some murmurs.

"Aera," Jaebum calls her name over the communication device. "Focus on the mission!"

Aera doesn't respond, but Jaebum hears a cackle in the back.

"Aera!" Jaebum tries to get her attention. "We are only tasked with capturing him," Jaebum reminds her. "Nothing more."

Don't go for revenge, is what he truly means.

There's a pause, that Jaebum fears something might have happened. If Aera is hurt -- or worst, killed -- Jaebum wouldn't be able to control his own emotions. He prays internally, hopes that Aera is fine. That she would respond.

The pause drags on.

Then he hears a firm, "Of course."

Afterwards, the connection dies.

---

xiii.

In the time spent hunting her, Jaebum wanted to hate her. He wanted to get angry at her. He wanted to track her down and kill her in the most excruciating way he could ever do to a person. But whenever he gets a glimpse of her during his chase, that fury in him just disappears. Jaebum doesn't know why either. After all, it was Aera who betrayed him. It was Aera who turned against him. It was Aera who abandoned him. Yet, he can't bring himself to kill her. Being a loyal and obedient agent, he believes an assassination mission would force him to commit the act. But here he is, the target right in front of him, yet he still hesitates to aim for her head or heart.

Even with those pleading eyes, Jaebum falls for the trap despite being the ruthless agent in the organisation. Just what has Aera done to him?

Before Aera's unconscious body hits the ground, Jaebum catches her in his arms. Her body still warm against his skin though her breathing is slowed. Jaebum injects some drug, making sure she's knocked out totally. He stares down at the female, pushing some hair strands aside to see her face clearer. Jaebum has always thought Aera had a beautiful face no matter how rough and strong she is. He has always thought if Aera wasn't a trained agent, she could become a well-known actress. Maybe things wouldn't have turned out this way if neither of them became agents. Maybe, if they were to meet as completely normal human beings, they could have had a happy ending.

Jaebum leans forward, eyes shut, as he presses their foreheads together.

"I can never hate you," he whispers.

It takes him a while to break free from his own thoughts and to proceed with the mission. It's always hard to choose between desire and duty. But he has to make a choice ultimately.

So he throws the body over his shoulder and exits the office.

---

vii.

The disbelief in him is tremendous. There is no way Aera would do this to him. Jaebum couldn't wrap his mind around the whole situation. Aera abandoned the mission and went rogue.

Upon hearing that Mr Park sent another team to hunt Aera down, Jaebum immediately protested.

"Why? Are you protecting a fugitive? A criminal?" the older man questions, eyebrows narrowed at his agent.

Jaebum slams his hands onto his desk, body leaned forward, resting his weight on the desk. "She's my-- was my partner. I know her better than anyone in this organisation. I know her tactics, her strengths, her weaknesses," Jaebum argues.

Mr Park's brow furrows even more. "What are you trying to say?"

Jaebum takes a deep breath, standing up straight. The words that he says next doesn't bring relief over him. Instead, it makes his heart tinge in pain. Nevertheless, he pushes it aside, dismissing it as just a dilemma.

"Let me do the mission."

This surprises the older man but he leans back in his chair, eyes lingering on Jaebum before he narrows his eyebrows again. He nods at the agent. "Name your price." 

"Freedom," Jaebum answers. "This shall be my final mission."

This has Mr Park thinking a little. Then he nods. "Very well. Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Of course," Jaebum says, dead in the eye. "I hate traitors the most."

---

vi.

Aera knows that Jaebum would get angry. She's confident that this will strain their relationship. But she doesn't think twice. Doesn't care either. All her life, she had been haunted by dreams or nightmares or memories of the past. All that she has become is because of the man in front of her. Everything that she is is because of him. It's time to end it all.

Aera keeps her focus on Jihoon, eying his every move, tracking him down like a hawk preying on its food. She manages to corner him into a dead end, blood pumping with the need to kill. Jihoon doesn't even seem scared. Instead, his grin is still as wicked as ever. He draws his sword from his back, the blade reflecting light in the dark alley. He may be skilled with his sword, but Aera has been trained hard to fight any weapon possible.

She darts forward, closing the distance within seconds. She evades his sword while simultaneously landing a hard punch on his stomach. He grunts in pain, but recovers quickly. They battle, Aera successfully dodging his sword, yet failing to knock him out. Jihoon slides a foot across the ground, and Aera loses her balance. The man raises an arm and elbows her down to the ground. In a swift of a moment, Jihoon has his sword aimed at her throat, but she managed to hold it away, her hand coiled around the blade. It's razor sharp, cutting through the layer of skin on her palms, blood slowly dripping down.

"Your eyes... Ah, yes, I remember you," Jihoon speaks, grin plastered on his face as if it's permanently tattooed. "You're that little girl. From the Kwon family."

The male removes his sword, crouches down, his face peering into hers. He grabs her by the neck, pressing her throat, blocking her airway. She coughs.

"W-Why did you k-kill my family?" Aera croaks out, struggling against his hold. She has her nails scratching against his skin, begging for release.

Jihoon tilts her head to meet her eyes directly. "To get to you," Jihoon replies, expression something similar to a devil. He smiles, the tip of his lips stretching up to the lobes of his ears. A taunting image to see.

"What better way to create a monster but by taking away everything one has?" the male spits.

"Why me?" she chokes out, her nails already digging into his skin as hard as she could. It would have already draw blood, but the male seems unaffected.

"I think the better question is: Who gave the order?"

Aera twists her body sideways, lifting a leg and hooking her knee against the man's neck. Then she brings him down, so close to breaking his neck if she applied more force. Jihoon grunts in pain, and Aera pulls the arm that held her before.

"Who?" she bellows, twisting the arm, bending the wrist backwards.

The man doesn't respond, only groans. Aera rolls away, detaching herself from Jihoon. At the same time, she slips a knife from the side of her boot, plunging the weapon into his thigh before the man can even move. He cries in pain.

"Answer me!" Aera roars.

Jihoon manages a laugh, sinister. "He trained you well."

Aera frowns. She was about to ask, when she hears in her earpiece.

"Aera, focus on the mission!" Jaebum's voice, reminding her about the mission. Her eyes flick to the man lying just below, face bruised and bloodied. She feels guilty, yet she lies of a promise that she doesn't intend to keep.

"Aera!" Jaebum calls once more. "We are only tasked with capturing him," Jaebum continues. "Nothing more."

Aera fully understands what he means. She knows. But at this point of time, the mission isn't her priority. So she replies curtly, "Of course."

Afterwards, she yanks the earpiece out, crushing it with her foot. Her attention now solely on the assassin.

"Who sent you?" Aera demands.

"You'll figure it out," he answers.

Aera spots his glistening sword just a few meters away. Glancing at the man's state, there's no way he can move quickly. So Aera grabs the sword, examining the blade. It bears an engraving of a dragon on the body. She tests the weight of the sword, swinging it back and forth. Lightweight, yet sharp. Deadly. Fitting for an assassin.

"Quit with the riddles," Aera speaks, raising the sword to Jihoon's throat. "Tell me the name."

Jihoon smiles, teeth all bloodied. "Never."

"Then pay for what you've done," she utters, cold. She raises the sword then--

With a devilish smile still plastered, Jihoon says gleefully, "You've become a monster!"

-- thrusts it through his chest. Merciless. Ruthless. Jihoon's screams are nothing but pleasing to her ears.

He collapses onto the ground with his knees, yet Aera doesn't let go of the sword. She pulls it out, the metal stained -- dripping -- red down the length. Again, she raises the sword with her two hands, before plunging it through his heart. She twists the sword, more blood spilling at the ends. The male's face turns red, blood spurting out of his mouth. Aera watches contentedly the way his eyes bulge, the way his life gets sucked out.

"Aera!" she hears Jaebum yelling behind, breathless. "What have you done?!"

Aera drops the sword, takes a step back, staring at the now dead Jihoon. Blood oozes out of his wound, pooling underneath his body. His words echo in her head.

You've become a monster.

As if broken from a spell, Aera snaps her attention to her partner. Jaebum has a gun pointed at her, his hands are trembling. The disbelief in his eyes, the horror in his face, Aera cannot help but commit them to memory. She hears a helicopter in the distance, then glances at Jaebum for the last time. She darts forward, aims straight at her partner, but slides when she's close enough. Then she hooks a foot around his ankle, destabilizing him to the ground. Afterwards, she quickly stands and kicks his gun away before breaking into a run on the streets.

You've become a monster.

She truly has.

---

xiv.

When Aera comes to, she nearly thinks she's in heaven. The sunlight that seeps through the curtains gives the room a soft glow. It gives her a feeling she hasn't felt in a long time: serenity. Everything seems so peaceful, so pure, so innocent -- something she knows she doesn't deserve. Not when her hands are tattooed with red ink.

She tries to sit up, but feels a slight pain on her left. She glances down, fingertips pressed against the layer of clothes and bandages. Slowly, she moves to get off the bed. It feels as if she has been unconscious for so long, her motor skills not as fluid yet. She stables herself with a hand against the walls of the house. Aera makes her way out of the room, though as silent as possible just like the trained agent she is. Pain may hamper her movements, but her skills are still deeply engraved in her body.

It's a pin-drop silence in the house. It's a big house, Aera concludes. There are still rooms on her left and right, and a staircase leading down. She takes a peek at the lower floor, before tiptoeing down the stairs. When she reaches the base of the stairs, there's no one at all. All she hears is the chirping of the birds outside. A countryside, perhaps?

Where on earth is she right now? Aera roams around the house for clues. There's no human picture frames hung on the walls, only landscape paintings and photographs. She tries to rack her brain for the last memory before she blacks out.

She had been searching for answers until she got it. She always thought she’d be killed when she learnt of the truth. She remembers the gunshots and the pain at her stomach. She thought Jaebum would have killed her. But here she is, still alive.

Something in her peripheral vision catches her eye and she looks up. It's a dartboard hung on the wall, the darts stuck at the bullseye.

Bullseye.

Jaebum never misses.

Then she hears it: the rustling of keys and the creaking of the door. On reflex, she grabs the nearest object she can use as a weapon: an umbrella. She wanted to hide herself behind a pillar, and wait for the right moment to strike. But before she could even do that, footsteps came closer, and the person steps into the room. Aera could only hold the umbrella up, the tip pointing at a familiar face.

Jaebum's eyes dart between her face and the umbrella. She can't describe the feeling inside her when she sees his face. With no cap and no mask, his face is bare for her eyes to roam. He looks the same as before but it still takes her breath away. He is still as handsome as she remembers. It's overwhelming for her. Especially when he lets her live. Tends to her. Aids her. Her eyes get cloudy.

She doesn't notice that Jaebum has taken a step closer, ducking away from the umbrella. She barely registers a firm hand pulling the umbrella out of her hold, then, the clanking sound as it gets thrown aside. Aera has been reduced to a vulnerable girl, as Jaebum grabs her by her shoulders and maneuvers her onto the couch.

Jaebum leaves the room, but comes back with a medical kit in hand. Aera doesn't resist when the male tugs at the hem of her shirt, and pulls it up just enough to expose the bandaged area. Aera remains mum as Jaebum cleans her wound and changes the dressing.

"You reopened your wound," Jaebum says, so softly and gently that Aera feels as if they haven't been apart for a day.

"I really thought you'd--" Aera can't bring herself to say. "I thought you hated me--"

Jaebum shakes his head. "I could never."

That is all that it takes for a tear to roll down her cheek. The realisation that Jaebum can never hate her despite all the things Aera put him through. She was so self-centered with her revenge that she sacrificed her partner. Yet, Jaebum couldn't bring himself to hate her. Jaebum still forgives her.

---

viii.

When Jaebum retreats to his safehouse after receiving the assassination order, he finds Aera in his living room. Clean, sleek and smart as she always looked. Her arms and legs crossed, Jaebum knows she has been waiting for him. For how long, Jaebum doesn't ponder about it. He pretends not to care.

"Why are you here?" Jaebum can't help himself but spit bitterly at her. He can't even look at her in the eye. He keeps himself at a safe distance, feeling a little out of place despite being in his own apartment.

"I..." Aera starts, but it dies on her tongue. Jaebum glances at her. She has the audacity to look guilty. She slowly gets up, cautiously makes her way towards the male. It's as if they've become strangers after spending all their lives together, unable to read each other anymore. "Did I hurt you?" she asks, concerned. Her eyes are soft, her voice sweet, her touch gentle where her fingers are on his cheek. Maybe if they weren't in this situation, Jaebum would have reveled in it. Maybe if they weren't in this complex situation, Jaebum would have given in to her touch.

But Jaebum tilts his face away, and shifts from the spot. He pretends not to notice the way Aera flinches. If she's hurt, Jaebum doesn't sympathize. He pads over to his couch. Now it's him who has his arms crossed over his chest.

"Why are you here?" Jaebum repeats.

He hears a deep exhale. Then she turns around, looking at the male in the eyes.

"I don't regret it," her voice is now stronger yet trembling. It's filled with anger, and no remorse. "Not even one bit. He deserved it."

He shakes his head, disapproving. "This isn't you, Aera."

Aera stares at him, a little frown appearing. But she disregards his words, as if she didn't hear it. She continues, "I still have questions left unanswered. I need to know."

"Aera," Jaebum calls her name, exasperated. He's leaning forward, his elbows to his knees, hands clasped together right in front of his face. "Stop this. You're not one to go after revenge. This isn't you."

"I need answers!"

"But you promised you wouldn't--" Jaebum halts himself, trying to compose his own emotions. But his chest feels like a volcano at the time of eruption, lava spilling out burning its way down the course. "Do you know what you've become? A fugitive. A criminal! And I'm tasked to hunt you down and finish you!"

There's a pregnant pause, their chests heaving. Jaebum hadn't even realized he's on his feet, standing in front of his former partner. Aera takes a step closer, eyes aflame with challenge. Her voice serious, she dares, "Do it then. Kill me right now."

Oh, if only she knows. How desperately Jaebum wants to do it. How desperately Jaebum wants to end this madness. It's so easy. It's just so easy to finish his mission and kill this vulnerable Aera in front of him. It's so easy, Aera already offering, making it much simpler than ever.

It's so easy, yet why is so hard for him?

Jaebum resigns, shaking his head. "You should leave."

He turns to move, but Aera speaks again.

"Run away with me," she says, voice softer than before. Any emotions from before vanished. What's left is just a plead. "Come with me." Jaebum glances back at her. Aera has a hand reached out to him, palm facing up, for Jaebum to take.

Jaebum casts a glance at her outstretched hand, then back up to her face. She's desperate to have him join her. She wants him on her dark journey. The way her eyes are pleading, Jaebum knows how much she doesn't want them to fight as enemies. But have they ever been comrades in the first place? So Jaebum takes a step back, along with a subtle yet obvious shake of his head.

He sees it anyway: the tinge of pain in her eyes by his rejection. Her hand hovers for a few moments before she closes it into a fist, dropping it by her side. She moves past the male, heading towards the already opened window. It must have been the way she came in. She doesn't look back, doesn't cast another glance at the male as she says, "Goodbye, Jaebum."

Jaebum just watches helplessly as Aera climbs out of the apartment, and off into the streets. That same night, he didn't know it was possible for a heart to hurt so bad. That same night, he didn't know a goodbye could mean so much.

---

ix.

Contrary to his words, Jaebum couldn't hunt Aera down that easily. In his anger, he overlooked how unpredictable Aera could be. She has always been the box of ideas whenever they were on a mission. Very easily, she slips out of his fingers. Whenever he thinks he's close enough to get a shot, she evades. Jaebum wonders if she knows it's him who is chasing her. He wonders if she knows him so well to evade his traps. But he pushes on anyway. It's his mission. He must end it.

The next time he hears news of Aera, it was through a phone call. She has infiltrated the company building, approaching Mr Park's office. Jaebum doesn't waste a second as he stumbles out of his apartment and rushes to the scene.

Jaebum tries to crack his brain. Just what exactly does Aera want with Mr Park now? He hoped it wasn't anything bad. But--

"I need answers!" was what Aera yelled back then.

Could it be--?

Jaebum gulps his saliva.

No way.

That's messed up.

Jaebum speeds up his motorcycle, running the red light, swerving between lanes.

---

x.

Clad in the company's guard uniform, she managed to infiltrate the building easily. A flaw, she realizes, but she doesn't complain. After all, it's to her own advantage. Now Aera stands in the president's office. Pictures of her with Mr Park and Jaebum throughout the years are hung on the wall. Those years feel like a lie now.

Mr Park sat in his leather boss chair, eyes on her. He seems calm, his two arms resting on the armrest. Perhaps he knew that it would come to this. While Aera knew nothing all her life.

"My parents... Why?" Aera spits, not wasting a single second.

"I loved your mother. She was everything I wanted," the older man says so fondly. It's as if nostalgic. The next moment, his eyebrows are knitted together in anger. He continues, "But she loved your father so much. I couldn't take it. I wanted him dead, so that your mother would come to me."

His eyes soften again. Now he's gazing at a photo frame on his desk, his finger reaching out to it. "Of course she wouldn't. She swore she would never. So I ordered Jihoon to kill her too."

Mr Park's eyes flick to Aera. Then he slowly stands, moves away from his desk, and approaches Aera. He stops right in front of her, eyes now fond and soft, the fury from before gone. He raises a hand, brushes his knuckles against her cheek. "I let you live so that at least, I had a part of her."

"You're sick!" Aera spits as she slaps his hand away. But in the spur of the moment, the older male managed to grab a hold of her wrist, firm and tight. He bends her arm in a way that it has her locked, and in pain.

"I waited before taking you with me. I waited -- made sure -- you would trust me. That you wouldn't hate me!" Mr Park raises his voice. "Everything I ever did, it was for you!"

"No," Aera interjects firmly, eyes burning into his. "It was for your own selfishness."

Furious, he twists Aera's arm, earning a groan from her. The female endures the pain and exerts force against his hold, successfully breaking free. At the same time, she slips a knife in her hand from the back of her belt. But before she can even aim for the desired target area, Mr Park is swifter. He pulls out a gun and presses it against her forehead.

"Do you really think you can kill me that easily?" he spits. "I trained you! I know all your techniques!"

Aera tilts her chin up, fearless. She twists her hand and the male whimpers. In that moment, Mr Park glances down his body. A knife delved into the side of his stomach, blood slowly spreading through his shirt. Aera takes the chance to pull the knife out, and using the same arm, she pushes his gun-held hand aside. Then she quickly maneuvers herself such that she gets behind the man, holding him in a chokehold, the blade of the knife pressing against his throat.

"But you didn't know you made a bigger monster than yourself," she utters right into his ear.

Aera slits his throat, letting his body falls forward, blood gushing out onto the carpet. The older man grapples for his throat, trying to stop the bleeding but it's of no use. Aera made sure the cut is deep enough for a fatal injury.

She stands over the dead body, the blood spilled over the floor, carpet soaked in red. Watching the death of her former guardian, it leads to an inner turmoil. She grew up with the memories of Mr Park as a great teacher, a figure to look up to. But the truth revealed itself after much searching. That the person she admired was never the person she thought he was. Her own foster father took her parents' lives for his own greed. In the years of growing into a barely emotional person, she feels her own heart hurt. She feels the swell in her chest, the tears threatening to flow.

She hears footsteps behind and she turns just slightly to see a man she's familiar with stand at a distance. Aera feels a tear roll down her cheek as she turns her whole body to face him. She drops her weapon and raises her hands in surrender.

---

xv.

"You can go anywhere you want, you know," Jaebum states as he gives attention to the fabric of the couch, brushing off some invisible dust. "You don't have to stay here."

"Do you want me to go?" Aera asks cautiously, peering into his face. But Jaebum is adamant in being interested at the couch.

He swallows his spit. "I don't know..." he whispers weakly. Then he tips his chin up. "But I won't make you stay."

She blinks at him. If there's disappointment in her eyes, Jaebum doesn't read into it. It's better that way.

The girl stares off in a distance, seemingly lost in thought. Then her eyes flick back to Jaebum's.

"And if I leave?" she asks again. "Will you chase me?"

"I... don't know."

Aera nods. "You're still unsure. Even after all these years. You didn't hold on to me when I wanted to leave. And now, you won't hold me even though I'm right in front of you."

Jaebum dares himself to look into her eyes, trying to gauge her hidden emotions. But what he sees is the same look on that night when Aera returned to their mission. Something between yearning for him and suppressing her feelings for him.

This time, it's Aera's turn to break the eye contact. She stands, saying her decision as if it's not a big issue for the both of them. "I'll leave at dawn."

Make your decision by then, is what Jaebum deciphers.

"Where will you go?"

Aera pauses at the door and for a moment, Jaebum thought she didn't hear him. For a moment, Jaebum thought she was about to say something else.

"Somewhere you won't find me," she says with finality, before heading out the door.

---

iv.

When Aera wakes, no one says anything. No one asks her anything. Not even Jaebum. He wasn't present when she regained consciousness. He wasn't even around when she recovers.

But once Mr Park gave her the green light to join the mission again, Aera gets sent to where Jaebum was: a rundown apartment just a few streets away from the location of the target.

Jaebum slips into her allocated room, eyes on her. It's as if he's observing her every move, to catch a glimpse of something, she thinks she knows what. A question in mind, but too hesitant to ask.

"Shoot," Aera breaks the silence, perched on the edge of her bed.

Jaebum eyes her still, but allows his curiosity get the better of him. He stays at the doorway. "What happened back then?"

Aera freezes. It's not something she's comfortable to talk about. It's not something she's willing to share with another person, worrying that it could be her weakness. But Jaebum and his hawk-like eyes, everything seems to be harder to be hidden away from him. It's like he emits a kind of truth serum that has her talking no matter how much she doesn't want to. Then again, she has always found comfort in confiding in Jaebum. Something about him makes her relaxed. Makes her feel home.

"I remembered my past," Aera says slowly, her fingers touching the pendant around her neck. "I... It was a memory I've forgotten. I think Jihoon-- I think he killed my parents. I remember that dragon tattoo. And that sword."

By then, Jaebum has walked over, settled next to her on the bed. He's so near that she can feel his body temperature. That she can feel his soft breathing. The male peers into her face, eyes filled with concern, emotions bare.

"You okay?" Jaebum asks ever so softly, his knuckles lightly brushing against her cheek.

It's too much for her to bear, too much for her to feel at once. If Jaebum is trying to console her, this is too much. Yet Aera leans in to the touch, eyes closing. Her nodding to the question was almost unnoticeable. She brings a hand up, her fingers coiling around his wrist, a thumb rubbing circles on the back of his hand. She relishes in the moment as much as she could, before finally mustering the strength to pull his hand away and down to his lap.

"Don't worry about it," she says as she moves back, preparing for bed. "I'll be fine."

Jaebum pulls her back by the arm, much to her surprise. If she were outdoors, out of these four walls, she would have had her guard up. She would have defended herself. But at this moment, she lets the male do whatever he wants, as if she's a lifeless person. Jaebum tugs her into his chest, a hand around her waist, the other cradling around her head.

"You're clearly not," he nearly whispers.

It's like her heart stops. It's a little awkward, her body angled such that there's still a significant gap between their chests. Yet Jaebum's embrace is so warm, Aera just melts into it. She hasn't had a hug in years, always thinking that it's a weakness. She keeps thinking that love is something pure, something she can never have with all her blood-stained hands. But right here, right now, she thinks that maybe, she has a chance. That maybe, she can have it too.

Aera snuggles closer, snakes her arms around him, up his shoulders, cheek pressed against his. They revels in the moment, letting the embrace soothe their hearts. Moments later, Aera feels his hands move, pulling back, fingers trailing across the skin of her arms.

"Better?" Jaebum asks, so soft, so gentle, she wouldn't think he is a trained agent.

She stares. An answer be damned, consequences thrown to the wind, she leans forward. Aera presses her lips onto his, her palms having slid up to the part where his shoulders meet his chest for support. Her eyes closed, she doesn't know -- doesn't see -- Jaebum's reaction. But she lets her senses take over her: Jaebum's lips are soft to touch, rather chapped.

She pulls away when she feels his lips are still, and that he doesn't return the kiss. Her eyes flutter open to see Jaebum's stunned face. Perhaps Aera misunderstood. Perhaps she read it wrong. Perhaps Jaebum never really meant anything other than consolation when he hugged her. But she doesn't care. She had always wanted to kiss him, had always wanted him. Even if she misunderstood the situation, even if Jaebum now knows her feelings, she doesn't care. It's about time he knows too. She fears she may not have another chance to show him.

Aera was about to back away, to break apart, but that movement seem to snap the male out of his daze. Because Jaebum closes the newly formed gap, pulls her even closer than before, a hand cupping the side of her face. Then he brings their faces close, connecting their lips again. This time, he moves. He rolls his lips, nibbles softly onto her lower lip.

And it feels way too good to stop.

They kiss as if they were teenagers, as if they will die without the other's touch. They don't go beyond that though. Even if they're pressed together on the bed, even if their hands roam around each other's bodies, they don't step over the boundary. They kiss until their lungs give out, until their lips are red and swollen, until fatigue washes over them.

In the end, they sleep on the same bed, limbs tangled, clothes on yet way too intimate for partners.

---

xvi.

Jaebum can barely sleep a wink. Not with his mind so filled with thoughts of Aera leaving again. Not with his mind so filled with the thoughts of not having Aera by his side. God, Jaebum had only got her back a few days ago, and now she's leaving. And now, he's not even making an effort to keep her.

There's some movement outside of his room, and he glances at the clock on his bedside. It's already dawn. It must be Aera making her move. So eerily silent, yet Jaebum manages to catch the slightest sound. He's so attuned to the way Aera moves, that it's so easy to pick her out. Jaebum stares at the ceiling, hands clasped on his stomach.

The slightest creak of the door, then a soft click.

That's what it takes for Jaebum to jump off his bed and hurry downstairs. He nearly breaks the front door with how harsh he's moving, but he doesn't mind. After all, he has all the time he needs to fix the damn door. But he doesn't have time to fix this vague relationship with Aera.

The female doesn't turn around despite all the noise, continues making her way towards the forest.

"Aera!" Jaebum shouts her name. He gives chase when she doesn't stop. When he catches up to her, he blocks her path, standing in front of her. Aera pauses, looks up at his face.

"Don't--" Jaebum tries to articulate as he pants. "Don't go. Please. Stay here."

Aera shoots him an unconvinced look. "And what? You won't even--"

Jaebum closes the gap in just one huge step, arms winding around her body. He pulls her close to his chest, tucking her head over his shoulder. There's no flowery scent nor any body wash on her skin. So plain, so characteristically Aera.

"Stay with me," Jaebum whispers into her ear. "Stay here with me."

Aera doesn't move, doesn't answer. She just stands as still as a statue in his arms. So Jaebum pulls away, but his hands stays on her shoulders, eyes peering into her face. "We can have this."

"I want to have this with you," he adds.

"Please," he begs.

"Will I have you entirely? Will you give me everything?"

Jaebum nods. "Everything. I'll hold you if you want me to. I'll kiss you if you want me to. I'll make love to you if you want me to."

"No more running away?" Aera asks, her voice small like a timid girl asking for assurance.

"No more," Jaebum asserts. "No more running. No more missions. No more fear."

"Just us?"

"Yeah," Jaebum breathes. "Just us."

Aera steps forward, into his chest, arms finally winding around his waist. She tucks her head underneath his chin. Dawn slowly breaks, the sun casting its soft light over the field. The morning dew is now obvious with the light, forming a low cloud around their ankles.

It's the start a new day.

A new life.

[guktwt]

Hi Mara! It's been a while hehe. Im not that active in tumblr recently but Ive seen your posts about your travelling in Japan. And I just want you to know that thank you for blessing my dashboard with those posts. They're so aesthetically pleasing and I love how you write them like travel logs(?). Thank you for giving tips, too! I may use them as future guide when I'm finally not broke enough to travel. may you have a nice day/night there and I hope you're taking care of yourself. Love lots 😳😚

hi aera!! yes it’s been a while indeed. i hope life is treating you well! and ahhhh thanks for not getting tired of reading those ajsjsj i wanted to document them some way so i could look back and read through them later if i wanted to :( and you’re welcome!!! im not the best at giving tips but i hope those can help a little for your future trips! have a lovely day ❤️

[stardust-and-bloodstains]

Rant under cut:

Okay, I just watched this and it made me mad. Let me tell you why:

1. 

This is our introduction to Somnus, The Asshole. When did he become an asshole? Why is he an asshole? The answers are left to you, because no one is going to tell you here. 

Watch as he turns an entire militarised force against regular citizens who are unarmed and ailing. 

Somnus, your people need your help! 

Yeah, no worries, man, I’ll just blindly eradicate every single person who even vaguely suggests any threat of Starscourge!

Somnus, you’re a genius!

2.

Ardyn clearly disapproves. 

Suddenly we have a dynamic that honestly no one prepared us for.

Ardyn also has a dry cough, and that’s bad because anyone with a cough now will probably be rounded up and barbequed before they can even say “urti”.

3.

Keep this in mind, everyone. God-given.

And of course, you’re not gonna show me how charismatic Somnus is, so you’re going to tell me this irrationally blood-thirsty son of a bitch is definitely someone absolutely charming through a bunch of narrative exposition. Gotcha. Thanks.

4.

Oh, Proto-Luna, hi. I wonder what wonderfully deep emotional balance and narrative contribution you’re going to bring to this story? I WONDER WHAT YOUR ROLE IS IN THIS?

5.

The first of many wasted seconds of filler where whoever wrote this simply had zero faith in our ability as an audience to understand what is happening without it having to be spelt out word for fucking word.

6.

I might as well take issue with the way this random Daughter of Farmer is drawn - double Ds with clingy shirts is the flavour of this damn scene, because if she was anything else, then she wouldn’t be worth saving, would she?

7.

Yeah, don’t do what my dickhead brother did to me. Dickhead.

Is it sufficiently clear that Somnus is a Bad Guy yet?

Here’s where we take a moment to look at this - as @thatonedaydream has stated, there’s no good solution to the situation these people have been placed in, and in their own, hamfisted way, the Prologue is trying to make that point. 

The Starscourge seems to have changed in origin throughout the course of the known canon lore of FFXV, and this Prologue leaves us no more enlightened than we were before it. That said, it seems we’re sticking to the idea that the Astrals presented a way of curing the Starscourge, which Ardyn is utilising as prescribed, but that’s resulting in corruption. Somnus, on the other hand, is attempting a complete purge of any signs of Starscourge, but honestly, it’s looking more and more like simple mass murder for all his efforts to keep things under control.

8.

I’m sorry, what? Isn’t being denied the throne your whole schtick the entire game? And yes, I know what’s coming in the next ten minutes, but if you genuinely didn’t care about being king, then why do you adopt being denied it as the summary of your motivations for all your bad deeds in FFXV?

Why is there no consistency to the characterisation of Ardyn? Why is he suddenly being presented as this altruistic, generous and self-sacrificing individual who is willing to face persecution for the sake of others? This gels in no way to the character that he eventually becomes by the time the events of FFXV occur, and stinks of lazy writing hoping to justify eliciting sympathy from a dumb audience by contrasting blatantly “good” traits against a character (Somnus) who is being portrayed as blatantly “evil” just to ensure that Ardyn looks especially sympathetic.

And I hate that so much.

9.

Look, I actually like Aera. For all five seconds of screentime she is granted to give us any indication of her personality, she seems to be a strong-willed, sassy Oracle who does as she likes, despite the rules.

Too bad that doesn’t hold true when she has any possibility at all of influencing the plot.

And guys, does anyone know who Aera is meant to be engaged to? I know something was lost in translation here, but I can’t figure out which brother it is. Not that it matters...

10.

What is even the point of this filler scene? We learn no new information, learn nothing about the characters, their history, the world’s history. If this is meant to foreshadow Ardyn’s fate, then there isn’t much that really couldn’t be said with just the final frame of dialogue where Aera freaks out over a very boring waterfall.

I suppose we’re meant to feel sorry again for Ardyn, who has given up everything and lives like a hobo because the only thing he wants is to be with Aera. Too bad she’s gonna end up in a freezer - 

11.

So someone please tell me what the point of this scene was? Oh no, his cough is back. Oh no, he’s being chased by some of Somnus’ guards. Oh no, he fell. Oh no, it’s raining. Oh, poor Ardyn, he’s got it so rough.

12.

Look at this asshole, assholing all over the place, what an asshole.

13.

And now, ladies and gentleman, that the strong and sassy girl has the opportunity to say something in defence of all that she fights for and believes in, A Mysterious Hand that is Evil (see the pointed tips of the gauntlet for proof) BLOCKS HER FROM DOING SO. OH NO.

14.

I am so fucking. angry. at this stupid scene that I cannot. THINK. 

THERE GOES THE GIRLFRIEND INTO THE FREEZER. 

THANKS FOR RUINING THE PIECE OF MUSICAL GENIUS THAT IS THE THEME OF SOMNUS FOREVER.

15.

Mind fucking you, the whole damn nation is out to see this, and no one does a DAMN THING ABOUT IT.

16.

You’re telling me he had a loyal population of followers and not a single person thought that this was maybe a little bit unfair and decided to form an underground resistance? Oh wait, Big Evil Somnus probably stamped them out in the subsequent tyranny that the Great Nation of Lucis was founded upon. Of course.

---

And at the end of all this, not even the shitty gods know who the heck Izunia is.

This Prologue made me so angry, I spent my Sunday afternoon thinking about it, and I’m still not over it. As I told @lacertius, I feel betrayed. I’m a big Final Fantasy XV fan, and I was excited about Episode Ardyn. I was open-minded to meeting the man behind the enigmatic smile and the douchy fedora. I expected more from this, and I was let down. 

I’m angry because this is not the story I hoped for. This is artificial and lazy and it breaks my heart that this is the last hurrah for the game that we’ve all grown to love.