#also hey look how clean that geo turned out :)

[mewkwota]

Partially covering your face in battle makes you look even cooler. It's an anime rule or something, yeah? I've previously shared my intrigue with Geo utilizing it, but surprisingly I haven't done it so much for Hub.

[bullshit-bulltrue]

☆ hawk talk 8/14/23 ☆

so i found out that my school practically treats PDA as The Big Bad Sin™️

like literally in our handbook it says it is NOT tolerated under ANY means

so like

even if i had the courage to hug my friends

i fucking can't

unless the monitors aren't paying attention but like

what if one day i'm like crying in the hallway and my bestie sees me and wants to give me a hug

but like they can't 0_0

and vice-versa

FUCK

okie. anyway.

lanie is out of town visiting family :(

BUT I STILL GOT TO EAT LUNCH WITH SOMEONE

and if you've been following along, you would know the person i ate lunch with is Delgado

✨️✨️✨️

we'll go back to that in a sec, i promise (highlight of my day)

so since it was an odd day i went to history & geo first

so we get there and we have a debate on whether school should start earlier/same time or later

and i of course backed up my reasoning with evidence unlike everyone else

they're all dumbasses

and the sleezy hoebags behind me started trying to fuck with my hair

but then i hit one of them <3

so then mr. m had us go over the fire drill and where to go in case of smth happening during his period

so we went outside and lined up where we would in case of an emergency

and then the desk buddy bitch asked for the answers to a quiz and i gave her the wrong ones <3

so then that was it for history & geo

andddd it turns out that delgado passes the math room on his way to his next period so i have to make sure i don't look like utter shit BEFORE MATH TOO

i felt bad tho bc i almost hit him 😭😭

so when i was walking towards the math room my back was turned to him so i obvi didn't know it was him when he tapped me on the shoulder

and it scared the crap outta me cus the recent school day (last friday) some dick did that to me and i hit him

and i thought it was the same guy

but it wasn't, it was delgado <3

and he just wanted to make sure we were still good for lunch and this is how the convo went:

d: *taps my shoulder* hey so lunch today, right?

me: *puts fist down after i realized it was him* yeah!

d: oh and also what do you have for first period?

me: [insert history & geo teacher's name]

d: oh cool. where you going next?

me: math with Mr. H. right here *points at door*

d: *groans* i just came back from math. that's my first fucking period 🙄

me: *laughs* ahh it's my 2nd. well, technically 3&4 but ykwim (if you need me to explain the schedules lmk)

d: Okay well i gtg

me: yeah me too, see you in like an hour or some shit *smiles and waves*

d: *smiles and waves back*

sooooo

then math

these bitches at my table

are fucking horrible

i'm trying to do a placement exam

and they keep talking

like BITCH I DID NOT MAKE IT TO AN ACCELERATED CLASS JUST FOR Y'ALL TO BE THE REASON WHY I FAILED

TAKE YOUR ASSES AND CHEAT ON THE EXAM SOMEWHERE ELSE HOES

I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR YOUR BULLSHIT

"wElL Mr H sAiD wE CaN tAlK" "We ArEnT eVeN bEiNg LoUd"

SHUT THE FUCK UP

HE SAID WE CAN TALK ABOIT MATH AND UR LITERALLY TALKING ABOUT YO UGLY ASS FACE

so that was fun.

oh and also Mr. H (the teacher) draws so we can like give him a photo and he'll draw like the outline and give it back to us to color and then hang it up in the room!! so i'm gonna ask him if he can draw Stitch or smth so i can color it and hang it in the classroom!

yk if i remember lol

oh and like towards the end of class i went to the bathroom to fix myself up a little bit™️ bc on odd days i have

✨️english class✨️

after math <3

so i put on my favorite lipstick and tamed my hair a bit more and just made sure my clothes looked alright and shit lol

i also cleaned up my boots too while i was at it <3

i love my boots so much

i want moreee

like

actually i don't want more

i NEED more

if i had the money, i would be a doc martens addict and i'd have hundreds of pairs

but alas

bitches are expensive

*sads*

okeu anywayy

i get back to class and these hoes are still talking about the girliest shit ever i literally was going to kill myself if i had to listen to anymore of it

so then we started packing up and then we left

AND THENNNN

ENGLISH CLASS TIME

so we all lined up outside the door bc the teacher wasn't in yet (Mrs. K)

and i tried to stand next to him (delgado) but this bitch got in line RIGHT before me so she was in-between us :/

but thats alr cus he sorts slowed down in line and i caught up so we walked in the room around the same time

and i was wearing a shirt with a Mexican food place and Mrs. K was like "oh my gosh that's my favorite Mexican restaurant in [insert location]!!" and i was like "yeah its pretty good. well, for white people cooking the food. the only real Mexican food you get is from Mexico, or your mamás kitchen" and delgado looked at me like he knew lol so that's when he sorta started catching on that I'm Mexican too

it's nice not to have to tell someone about my ethnicity for once and them figuring it out on their own

so yeah <3

and we had to finish these state mandated tests bc we got only like halfway done on friday

so me and delgado were writing each other notes and doodles to help keep ourselves awake and not fall asleep during that godforsaken fucking test 😭😭

so after we got done (we finished our tests around the same time lol) Mrs. K let us kinds do our own thing as long as we weren't disruptive

so i read DPS and he was playing some game on his Chromebook

and it was so funny bc he had his chromebook on mute but you can tell when he lost and stuff bc he would make a fist and be like "noooo" really quietly

idk

it was funny to me, at least

and there was someone's alarm going off and it sounded like the beep a bomb makes before it goes off

and ofc my mind immediately went to JD <3

and then me, delgado, baseball guy, and d's short bestie all looked at each other like "you hear that 👀"

and then me and delgado crossed ourselves and said "el padre, el hijo y el espíritu santo" but he said it in english lol

and like he's so sweet

so not only did he double check we were still eating lunch together in the hallway but he also asked again at the end of english class

ik it may not seem like anything to you but it means a lot to me

bc i'm always the one to make sure plans are still plans and i feel annoying for asking so many times and that i'm bothering the other person and it just feels nice to have someone else take the time to ask, yk?

so it also turns out our lockers aren't that far away from each other's so even though he's English Class Crush™️ he also qualifies as Hallway Crush™️

speaking of hallway crushes

yk Luca? his locker and also Mikey's (Michael, but we all call him Mikey) lockers are close-ish to mine

so yeah that's great/sarc

it is, in fact, not great.

BECAUSE THAT MEANS I CANNOT RISK LOOKING LIKE SHIT IN THE MORNING

i mean i make sure i always look somewhat good before i leave the house

BUT STILL

anyway

we go to lunch and his friend Alex comes along and im like ooo cool i get to meet his friend

and i sat down and saved us some seats while they went to get the food from the lunch people

so when they come and sit down i was hoping that i would sit next to delgado bc that was the whole fucking point of eating lunch with him

but Alex sits his ass right in between us

but like ig Alex is a protective friend or smth?? idk but like yeah i didn't take offense or anything bc id be the same way

we were stil able to talk tho <3

and anyway they come and sit down and the lunch for the 14th was grilled cheese

but lemme tell you

that, was in fact, not grilled cheese

it looked like two soggy pieces of bread with orange food coloring in the middle

that cheese? was NOT cheese

and i was like oh hell nah no way is Boy Bestie™️ eating whatever the fuck that government looking waste was

so i was like dude have what you want out of my lunch, there's no way you're eating that on my watch

and i was like hey Alex you can go ahead and eat my lunch too

so Alex took the dragonfruit and smth else i think

and delgado had the tortillas mi mamá packed for me

again, i wasn't hungry at all because i had thrown up earlier but i forced myself to eat something before i passed out

oh and forgot to mention

delgado fr said "AYYY MEXICAN STYLEEE" bc i had the tortillas wrapped up in tinfoil and some chorizo con papas y huevos and i was like "HELL YEAHHH"

idk if the white people understand this or not but like this was a bonding moment for us bc there aren't a whole lot of mexicans at our school

so like to see that we're apart of the same culture is really nice

oh and he was also like "my mom makes that like every morning!" and i was like "my mom made it yesterday and decided to pack me some for lunch!"

i would've given him like a fist bump or smth but i wasn't gon put my arm across Alex to get to delgado cus like

just no

so anyway sometime in the middle of lunch i was eating my food and then

poof

woosh

*shimmery sound effects*

THEY'RE GONE

I DON'T KNOW HOW OR WHEN BUT THESE BITCHES JUST VANISHED

SO THEN I WAS LIKE NO NO NO I'M GONNA HAVE TO BE ALONE FOR THE NEXT 20 MINUTES WHYYY

but i didn't wanna move and go look for them bc not only are we not allowed to i also thought maybe they just needed to go the the bathroom

so i just sat there looking like a kicked puppy with sad eyes because i'm not fucking tall enough to look for them in the crowd of gross teenagers

so i just sit there and text my friend because when i lose my friends (and this has happened since elementary) i get really aggressive bc i get overstimed so yk i texted my friend to calm myself down

anyway

lunch over

i get my shit from my locker and head to gym

we go over where we will sit for attendance

and then we go over fire drill procedures and shit

and then we spend most of our time doing jackshit

and like the last 20 minutes of class coach was like okay you can play basketball with the boys orstand around idrc bc we only have a little but till the end of the day

so i channeled my inner white girl and just watched delgado play basketball

and like he's one of the only guys who actually knows how to fuckin play 😭😭

also this one kid got hit in the back of the head and fell straight forward and on his face like a looney tunes character

comedic gold right there

and at the end of phys ed me and delgado were walking the same direction bc our lockers are near each other's and it looks like we're gonna have lunch again on Wednesday since that's the next time i have 3rd lunch <3

so yeah i hope i was midly entertaining

it's 1:36am and i gotta get up at 6:30am so goodnight and sorry for not Finnishing this earlier, i got caught up in something

[koushou]

an archon’s jealousy

pairing : zhongli x f!reader {fluff}

warnings : none! zhongli cuteness overload 

word count : 1.8k

a/n : genshin has taken over my life so enjoy my favorite peepaw 

the geo archon, once feared by all beings in teyvat, was known for his strength and abilities in battle, as well as his logical way of thinking and planning. his weakness? well, he’s definitely not great with emotions. especially jealousy.

“Ah, this painting reminds me of when an old friend and I had been travelling together for the first time, there was-” 

Zhongli turns around, smiling as he reminisces of events from hundreds of years ago, however turning into a frown quickly. 

His golden eyes scan the dining room, sighing as they fail to identify a certain someone. Placing his cup of tea down onto the polished wooden table, he walks out to the private balcony area of Wangmin Restaurant, breathing in the familiar fresh air of the nation he’d known for as long as he existed.

It had been two days.

Two days since he’s spoken to his lover, two days since the small quarrel you both had in the exact restaurant he’s currently standing in.

It had been quite a trivial matter in his opinion, when a young waitress working there had just been a tad kinder to the geo archon, leaving a few light touches here and there. Even “accidentally” spilling tea over herself, putting on a show of cleaning herself. 

Not noticing the dark glare of his lover from across the table, he offers the apologizing waitress a small smile, assuring her it wasn’t a big deal. As she walks away, he finally turns back to the now fuming Y/N who was shoving food down her throat to avoid speaking to him.

He chuckles softly, still unaware of the reason for your anger, “Love, slow down, the food isn’t going anywhere.”

Refusing to acknowledge his presence, you huff and continue chewing your food as if he wasn’t even there. Zhongli looks at you with a confused expression, but just before he had a chance to speak, the waitress returns.

She takes a few of your plates that were finished being used, occasionally sending small looks at your boyfriend, oblivious to the whole situation.

“I love your earring, Mr. Zhongli,” she bats her eyelashes at the man, your man, as she continues cleaning the table at record slow speed. 

“Ah, thank you.” He sends a small nod her way, not noticing the way she might as well be sitting on top of him with the close proximity of their two bodies. 

“Where did you get it from?” You roll your eyes while still focusing on your food, anyone could tell the way she was speaking in a faker, higher tone.

“Actually, they were gifted from an old friend of mine, we would travel together all the time and-” Zhongli goes off on one of his rants again, to the waitress’s pleasant surprise. To your shock, she takes a seat right next to your unsuspecting boyfriend who was still speaking, nodding along with his words. 

The audacity of this bi-

You slam your hands on the table abruptly, stopping Zhongli in his story as he looks up at you.

You shoot the coldest stare at him, one that even the geo archon, who had fought every monster, travelled to every corner of the world, swore sent shivers through his body.

“Love?”

“I’m finished, have fun on your date,” You spat, emphasizing the last word, and you could’ve sworn you saw the waitress roll her eyes.

Leaving Zhongli still in a confused state, you stormed out of the room, not paying mind to the distant protests of your boyfriend.

Zhongli sighs, snapping out of his thoughts, leaning against the railing of the balcony. He had walked out and tried to find you, but failed and you hadn’t appeared since.

After finally consulting Childe, the last person he’d ever want to speak to, about why you had acted like the way you did, he simply laughed at the man, claiming that you had been feeling jealous.

That had left Zhongli even more confused. Jealous? He was simply sharing his tales with a curious person, what was there to be jealous of?

He sighs again, ready to head back into the dining room until he spots a familiar figure below him.

You were standing below the balcony he was on, not seeming to realize he was there. Zhongli breathes a sigh of relief, oh how he missed seeing you. About to go down and surprise you, he stops in his tracks when he sees a young man walk up to you and begin talking.

An unfamiliar feeling seeps through his body when you laugh at something the stranger said, a wonderful sound he thought was reserved for him, and him only. 

You probably knew each other, that’s why you guys looked so close, right? Friends can laugh at each other, of course there was nothing wrong with the scene unfolding before the archon. That’s why the man’s hand had reached towards a stray strand of hair and tucked it behind your ear, right?

Zhongli grits his teeth, and makes his way down the restaurant as fast as his feet could take him.

He could hear you giggling upon walking out the restaurant’s doors, and quickly makes his way to you.

Walking up behind you, he slips an arm around your waist and pulls you softly back against his chest. 

You let out a surprised yelp, ready to attack whoever was touching you, until you turned and saw that it had just been your boyfriend, who seemed to be seething at the moment.

“Zhongli..?” Something about him seemed a little different, maybe it was the way he glared daggers into the other man who had just been talking to you and touching you. 

If looks could kill? Let’s just say The Wangsheng Funeral Parlor has an extra client today. 

“Hey love, I missed you,” Zhongli presses a kiss to your cheek, “Who might this be?” 

A bit flustered from the contact, you looked at the other man who seemed on the verge of peeing himself right there, and had to suppress a laugh.

“Ah, this is just a friend I met a few days ago when I was exploring, he-“

Before you could finish your sentence, the man stutters out an incoherent sentence and almost trips over himself running off in the other direction.

You raise an eyebrow, turning your head back to look at Zhongli who was still holding you protectively against him. He had created a small yellow meteor in his hand and was currently levitating it above his palm in a threatening manner.

He turns to you, putting the meteor away, smiling as he presses a kiss to your forehead. 

“Zhongli, you scared him away.”

He puts on a thinking face, nodding slowly.

“Oh, no.”

“Oh, no— That’s it? You probably scared the poor man into thinking you were going to murder him or somethin-”

He chuckles and raises your chin up to face him with one finger, “Then maybe next time, he should think before touching something that belongs to me.”

You huff, cheeks tinting the lightest shade of red before pushing him away.

“Whatever, I’m going now.”

You start to walk away, not before Zhongli catches your arm and stops you.

“Love, are you still angry?”

You could hear the concern in your boyfriend’s voice, and your heart softens a bit. In truth, you had already forgotten the incident back at the restaurant a few days ago and was about to apologize today when the man from before had stopped you. 

A lightbulb went off in your head, so you decide to play with him a little longer. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Snatching your hand back from his grasp, you continue walking away from your surprised boyfriend.

He quickly follows you, unsure of how to continue. He couldn’t just ask you if you had been jealous, could he?

As your boyfriend got lost in his thoughts of how to ask, you almost laughed at his intense thinking face while nervously walking beside you. 

“Uh, I-,” He cleared his throat before speaking.

“I’m sorry for upsetting you that day, I did not realize that it would have made you feel jealous.” 

He takes both of your hands in his, softly enveloping them as he continues.

“From now on, I promise that I’ll only share my stories with you, and you only, so don’t worry, love.”

He smiles at you, as you suddenly burst out in laughter. 

“What is so funny?” Zhongli asks, confused.

“Nothing, nothing at all, baby,” You finally recover from your laughing and wrap your arms around his waist.

Leaning your head against his chest, you couldn’t help but smile at the way your boyfriend thought you were upset because he was sharing his stories with another person, when you had just been jealous of another woman being so close to him. It was adorable.

Deciding not to tease him any further, you lift your head up from his chest to press a kiss against his lips. 

His eyes brighten instantly. “So, does this mean you forgive me?” 

If Zhongli was a dog, his tails would be wagging expectantly at you with puppy dog eyes right now.

You giggle, nodding at him. “Of course I forgive you, just don’t talk to other girls like that again.”

You pout, as he chuckles and leans down to give you another kiss. 

“I promise, love.” He softly strokes your hair, running the strands through his fingers.

“I also didn’t like seeing you with that man, so don’t let anyone besides me touch you, alright?”

You smile against him, nodding and opening your mouth to speak again when your stomach suddenly rumbles.

Eyes widening, you push away a now laughing Zhongli, embarrassed.

“I assume you’re hungry, my love?” He teases at you, taking your hand in his as he begins to walk the both of you back to Wangmin Restaurant.

“Who was the one who cut my meal short two days ago? I barely had anything to eat recently because I didn’t have any mora on me.” You take your hand out of his hold, crossing your arms and looking the other way.

He laughs softly at you, taking your hand back and kissing your knuckles softly. 

“Ah, you haven’t been eating welI?” He looks at you with concern laced in his golden eyes.

“I apologize, darling, but… I have something to confess to you.”

You turn to him, curious at his words. “What is it?”

“I..do not have mora on me at the moment either.”

“What?! You’re literally the god of mora, Zhongli, but you don’t even-“

He cuts you off short with a kiss, smirking against your lips as he feels you blush.

Pulling away, he chuckles and shrugs. “We can go ask Childe, come on.”

You laugh and continue walking with him, “Poor Childe, at least he’s useful for one thing.”

Zhongli lets out a laugh, as you two walk off, hand in hand, searching for your human wallet.

[hiddenlife-manager]

Hi! Well, can i request a crossover between genshin impact x haikyuu? Settings are in haikyuu time, and there’s less people that got a vision from a god. (Headcanon) So, how would Hinata, Asahi, Sugawara and Adachi that their s/o got a vision? Mb a vision with geo or anemo element? Sorry if this au is difficult, I’m working on it....

𝕳𝖔𝖜 𝕳𝖆𝖎𝖐𝖞𝖚𝖚 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖘 𝖙𝖔 𝕾/𝖔 𝖌𝖊𝖙𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖆 𝖁𝖎𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓

Prompt: How would Haikyuu react to their S/o getting a Vision by the gods due to it being rare

Au: Haikyuu x Genshin Impact

Hinata, Asahi, Sugawara, and Daichi x reader

Extra: Non Binary as it seemed to be S/o, in the Haikyuu timeline, and also head cannons

There will be a message at the end always! (≧▽≦)

//////////

Hinata x Reader

Oh boy how much Hinata wanted a vision though people now a days thought of them as a story due to how rare he believed

The moment you got it was when you were setting for him

You were setting and the ball blew up in flames red like his hair and he was shocked

You were as well the moment the ball fell to the ground he had stars in his eyes

He finally met a vision user

But that was all pushed aside when the ball started to burn the grass both freaked out and went to go get help

Finally stopping the fire he turned to you and asked how could you possibly not tell him he wasn't angry he is so excited

That was when you told him you didn't know it just happened

He is a hundred percent willing to help you learn how to control your vision

He is by your side supporting you and trust me he tells everyone! He is your number one fan

Asahi x Reader

You were cleaning the gym with the team and as you went to go grab a mop it was shocked my lightening

Everyone stopped and Asahi looked at you in shock

You screamed and boy did he join in with your scream

He is so worried like extremely worried if you were okay

Kind of forgot Visions existed till Hinata said that this had to be a vision gifted by the gods

Asahi wouldn't even mind he is more worried about you so when a sudden bolt of electricity leaves you he is there to help you out

You embarrass yourself he hates it but he'll do something even worse for people to focus on him

He is reading books on the side to help you learn

He's a keeper!

Sugawara x Reader

Literally the both of you were laughing at Hinata failing

That suddenly the both of you are lifted by a gust of wind

He screams out loud in shock as you held onto him

Both of you are holding onto each other tightly

But after the shock the two of you are laughing

Finally placed on the ground he stares at you and points it out that you were gifted a vision

That is when a wicked smile leaves your face and his too

Everyone will be so scared Suga and you are pulling pranks

I don't think the gods are going to be happy oh well

Daichi x Reader

So both of you were going on a jog before school and trust me it was a race

He was super competitive till one point of the run you trip over a rock that just appeared

He turns tries to help you and pulls you up but then another rock popped up below him

He looks at you and you look at him

All he does is chuckle while trying to calm you down

He explains he has a possibility to be a vision from the gods

Oh how much he just sits you down and explains the entire story of how visions work

He admits it's new to him but due to it's rareness but oh boy does he think you are you graceful

Failing? He helps he is there for you not just by being support but actually messaging people of visions to help

I'm back! Last person of the day. I hope this is what you asked for. I do need to head home take a nap from this day of work. It was a pretty successful day at work.

Two request!

You know I did have the spill with Sara but hey I think I'm ready to go home take a nap and relax. I worked hard today and so did you. I just finished closing the cafe for the day I'll be back tomorrow if I have more request.

" Bye! I just entered my car and I'm heading home to my dog and tv. Go to sleep, I need it as well. "

[sakurawarfare]

Amidst the golden blossoms (Lumine x Childe oneshot)

Olah! I'm back~!

First off, thank you so much for all the likes and love that you've given for my first oneshot 🥺

I'm sorry for not posting anything new for almost a month and honestly, writing this one was a real doozy. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy it and again,

Thank you very much and have a nice day!

-Sakura

Exploring Liyue was certainly a challenge. Given how the terrain is a mix of tall mountains, wet marshes and winding paths that go over and under the surface, it was completely different from that of Mondstadt. Though of course, the monsters here were a lot tougher and certainly became a pain in the ass when all she wanted was to explore this new land. 

However, Lumine would always marvel at how everything is so yellow here. In many of the worlds they had visited before, yellow always symbolizes joy and light. In Teyvat, it represented the Geo element, loyal and grounded as it painted the trees, leaves floating in the breeze and the flowers that bloomed almost everywhere she went, resonating with the power of Geo that once lorded over this vast domain.  

Though perhaps, it was the color she was most of as it that reminded her most of her beloved brother.

The girl let out a sigh as the Ruin Guard finally collapsed, fading to blue dust as she continued on her afternoon stroll. Nearing the clearing, she noticed the golden spiral she had discovered just a few days ago. 

She remembered how beautiful it had looked from afar as she first saw it atop the mountain near Guili Plains. It was fascinating to say the least, as she glided down to examine it even further. Unfortunately, she was interrupted by some hilichurls nearby that somewhat soured her mood. Even after that, once she'd activated the elemental monuments, she was ambushed by an Eye of the Storm that she disposed of with some difficulty given that she only had Fischl as her team’s archer. 

Yet at this moment, it seemed that what truly caught her eye was a blot of orange and gray that stood out from the golden landscape.

Deciding to take a closer look, she slowly approached with her footsteps slow and steady. When the figure finally came into focus, she tried to ignore how her heart skipped a beat.

Standing there was no other than Childe, or rather, Tartaglia, the eleventh Harbinger of the Fatui. 

She quietly ducked behind the rock near her, peering out enough just to see. What was he doing here?

Their last encounter had not been so pleasant. After all, she had to defeat him three times and even after that, she had to clean up after him as he decided to summon an ancient god in the midst of a temper tantrum and beat the crap out of countless of his lackeys. 

Looking at him like this seemed weird, listless and silent.  It was certainly different from the Childe she knew, given how she was well aware that underneath that boyish, annoyingly handsome exterior lay the fearsome spirit of a bloodthirsty warrior. 

He was still staring up at the sky when she heard him speak. "Like what you see, ojou-chan?" Her eyes widened, somewhat startled. "You could take a picture you know, that way it'll last longer."

She clicked her tongue. There was no point in hiding anymore. She got up from her spot and strode near him seeing as he stood in the center of the spiral. 

“So what brings you here?” he said with his usual, playful tone, a major difference from when he spoke during their final battle in the Golden House. His eyes were focused on her now, a smirk adorning his face.

“ I could ask you the same thing,” she huffed. She reminded herself to be on guard, after all this is the very same man who threatened to wipe out dozens of innocent people with zero hesitation. 

He chuckled in reply. “Staying inside a stuffy bank the whole day just isn’t my style, you know?” He placed an arm on his hip and she noticed how the action made his top rise a little bit, giving her a peek of his well-toned abs. 

He was a bloodthirsty warrior, yes, but an attractive one nonetheless.  

He continued, “Plus, it’s amazing to see how different Liyue is from Snezhnaya.”

That statement certainly piqued her interest as she asked him with genuine curiosity. She was a traveller at heart after all. “Really? How so?”

Childe looked at her, somewhat surprised. She tilted her head a bit, somewhat bemused by his reaction until she realized the absence of caution in her words. “Shoot,” Lumine thought. “I-I mean-”

“ You know that there’s no harm in me telling you about my homeland, right?” he turned to her, crossing his arms. 

She took a step back, “You can’t exactly blame me for not trusting you after you threw a whale at me. Twice.” 

The girl was surprised to see him frown, eyes lowering a bit narrowing slightly.

Since when was he so emotional? Lumine thought this is definitely a big contrast to the Childe, or rather, Tartaglia, she was familiar with. 

Although, she can’t deny that a part of her wanted to say sorry. It certainly wasn’t nice of her to treat him so coldy, especially now when he seemed to resemble the look of a kicked puppy. Sad but oddly cute. She immediately stopped her train of thought. She shouldn’t think that this man could be in any way adorable. 

He sighed. “Then how about a spar? If you win, I’ll tell you all about Snezhnaya,” she noticed how his eyes gleamed at , “but if I win, you’ll share stories about your place.”

She blinked. “ I don’t see how this benefits you at all.” Given her time with Zhongli, she knows that there should be more to their deal than just stories.

He simply shrugged. “I mean I do get a good fight out of it and honestly, I’d really want to get to know more about you, ojou-chan.” There it was again, that impish, boyish smile that made her heart flutter slightly. 

She put a hand to her chin, a vain attempt to hide the growing warmth on her cheeks.  Although some part of her told her she certainly shouldn’t be fraternizing with the enemy, there was no harm in a little sparring session. After all, she had beaten him before and this also seemed like a good chance to know more about the Tsaritsa too, if she could figure out a way to worm it out of him. 

She wouldn’t dare to acknowledge how her heart did a little dance at the thought of getting to know more about him though. 

She gazed at him, the small smile from earlier returning. “Fine, we have a deal.”

That seemed to have cheered him up as he quickly ran to one side of the spiral with her following suit and taking her place on the opposite end. 

Even as the sun began to dip in the horizon, she could see glimmer in his eyes, blue orbs glowing in the faint sunlight. There seemed to be no trace of his gloomy disposition earlier, and she could almost imagine him with a tail that swung back and forth, much like how a puppy would greet its owner.

She shook her head. She really should stop with the dog similes.

She was immediately brought back to the present when an arrow whizzed past her, the sound ringing in her ear. She tried to mask her surprise with a straight face, eyebrow raised as she summoned her sword.

“Hey, eyes on me ojou-chan,” she didn’t miss how his voice sounded deeper, huskier, almost like a low growl. Pushing that thought away, she rolled sideways to dodge the incoming arrows then lunged, quickly closing the distance between them.

She wasn’t surprised to hear the sound of metal and water clashing, as she tried to push against him. She was forced to jump back when he switched to a spear, slicing a wide arc in front of him.

He continued his offense, switching again to his blades this time. He gave her blow after blow, leaving little room for her to maneuver in. She parried his every thrust with her own strikes, matching his speed and power. Lumine scanned his movements, eyes calculating for an opening.

Just as she expected, he became more apparently irritated with her sticking to defense.

“Come on, it isn’t fun when-” Lumine quickly cut him off, releasing the Anemo energy she had secretly been building up with her other hand in front of her, making him stumble slightly as she pressed on with her own barrage of attacks.

Even as he stepped away, she made sure that the last swing contained a small gust of wind that managed to graze his cheek. As he caught his breath, she tried to mimic his own cocky smirk. “Eyes on me, Childe.”

She had meant to mock him for earlier but instead she heard him laugh, a sweet, melodious sound that resonated within her. A voice in her head kept reminding her to stay on guard, that she should take the first chance to strike back.

But seeing him like this, eyes filled with so much light and a wide smile adorning his handsome features, filled her with a sense of satisfaction that tugged at her heartstrings. 

“Ojou-chan," his laughter slowly calming, "you are simply adorable."

Lumine felt her cheeks flush as the grip on her sword tightened. "H-hey!"

"Alright, alright." His laughter finally died down as she saw him return to his former stance, his predatory gaze set on her once more yet the smile never left his lips. "Let's have some fun."

~

Their battle lasted until the moon had settled in the sky, bathing the land in its iridescent glow.

A strike here, a hit there, the two exchanged blows with no hesitation. The young warriors fought amidst the golden flowers, filling the air with the sounds of their blades clashing as the yellow petals glided along with them.

Time was lost to the two as they continued in their own world, a dance that only they knew as they kept up with each other's paces, making sure to keep the other on their toes. 

But as always, Lumine was once more the victor, her blade pressed closely to the Harbinger's nape, successfully trapping him underneath her.

He was panting quite loudly, his chest rising steadily against her own. "Fine, you win." He let his blades melt away, hands raised in defeat. 

Lumine smirked at his surrender as she could finally focus on steadying her own breath, willing her sword away as she huffed. 

"Though I've gotta say," his eyes peeked downward then back to her, "I didn't expect that you'd want to go for another round."

She raised an eyebrow in reply, continuing to stare at him in confusion. That is until she glimpsed in the same direction, finally noticing how her legs were straddling his hips as she sat on top of his stomach, the heat emanating from his body seeping into her.

"Ah!" She immediately scrambled to get off of him, trying desperately to mask the crimson that bloomed on her cheeks by sitting a few meters away. Though some part of her missed his warmth, the rational part of her brain shoved that way back inside the depths of her thoughts.

Lumine noticed from the corner of her eye that he was gazing up at the sky. Feeling her blush slowly dissipate, she moved a little closer.

"So, what do you want to know first?" He was lying down now, his blue eyes shining underneath the moonlight.

She laid down next to him, her back slightly tickled by the blades of grass underneath her as they both stared up at the sky in silence.

"Can you tell me about your favorite places there?" She faced him, trying to mask the enthusiasm in her voice.

"From what I can remember…" he muttered, "We had this huge marketplace in the center of the city where my father would always take me and my siblings to buy all sorts of trinkets and goodies for mother. Afterwards he'd take us to an old bakery that also sold Sharlotka."

"What's that?"

"It's this really fluffy cake with apples that melts in your mouyh while you eat it. The apples give it a tart, fruity taste that also balances the sugar dusting on top." He sighed. "Man, I should really make some sometime."

"Hmm, where else...Oh, we also used to go to this frozen lake just a few minutes from our house where my father taught me how to ice-fish." He smiled at the thought. "My old man would make a competition of who got the biggest fish, and he'd always say these really corny jokes just to make me laugh when I had a bad day."

"Those were definetly simpler times." He looked wistful as he spoke.

Noticing how his mood lowered, Lumine spoke in a teasing tone, "you sound just like Daddy's little boy.

He was quick to return her taunt.  "On the contrary, I'm actually a proud Mama's boy," he smirked, "where do you think I got my passion for cooking?"

"Oh?" Playing along, she rolled her eyes. "So you're saying that your cooking tastes better than mine?"

"Girlie, I'm not saying. I know that I'd wipe the floor with just my own version of a Sweet Madame."

"I'd like to see you try, water boy." She laughed.

Their playful banter died down as they continued to watch the starry sky, the two basking in comfortable silence.

Childe was the first to speak. "Perhaps when you get there, you'd need someone who could show you around the city, maybe a few spots outside it too."

She smiled. "That does sound nice." 

There it was. An unspoken promise that they would make plans to spend time with each other, not as Tartaglia and the Traveller, but as….friends? 

She huffed slightly, friends was one way to put it. She was supposed to be wary of him, push him away and strike him down when the chance presented itself. He was a bad guy after all.

Yet somewhere in her heart knew that there was more to this man than his thirst for battle and his honey-sweet tongue. 

"Lumine?"

"Hm?" Turning to face him once more, her eyes widen slightly at the foreign sight before her. For the first time ever, Childe's eyes looked unsure, perhaps even a little shy.

"Thank you for tonight." Never would she imagine that she would hear those words from him. 

"What for?" 

"It's been a while since I've shared something that wasn't work related…" he grinned, though she noticed it didn't reach his eyes this time, "I don't exactly have anyone to talk to about these things."

It finally dawned on her as she continued to stare at him, astounded at his confession. He was a lone soldier facing the world with nothing but his own strength to rely on. He was fierce and merciless, a force to be reckoned with.

Yet the Childe that she was talking to right now was the complete opposite. He was lonely. Vulnerable.

 Lumine tried to speak, but she couldn't think of the right words to say. Instead, she reached out a hand to cup his cheek, breaking him from his stupor.

This was too risky. Too bold of a move that broke all the rules she had followed this whole time. Aether would warn her not to get attached for a traveller will never linger in one place for too long.

However, here she was stuck in an unknown world, comforting one of the most dangerous people in all of Teyvat.

"Well," she whispered, "you have me."

She expected him to laugh, to scoff at her and remind her that they were on opposite sides of a war. She thought he would pull away, and turn around to leave her there.

To her surprise, he squeezed her hand in his, relishing the warmth of her palm as he gazed at her with...Was that fondness? Were her eyes playing tricks on her or was his face turning pink too?

She squirmed underneath his stare. Why was she feeling so weird tonight?

Lumine couldn't stop a yawn from escaping her lips as she tried to fight off the wave of exhaustion that overcame her. Her whole body ached from their little skirmish earlier, on top of that she still couldn't make sense of all the emotions that swirled inside her head. 

"Hey, stay with me." 

Even though her mind screamed at her to move, her body struggled to do anything in her tired state. Her eyes were becoming heavier by the second as she struggled to stay awake. It didn't help that his voice sounded so calming, echoing in her ears until she was lulled to sleep.

~

Lumine opened her eyes as light illuminated her cozy room. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, confused as to how she ended up here.

She wondered why she felt warmer than usual when a red cloth fell from her neck. She pulled it away, finally recognizing it as the scarf that Childe always wore.

He had brought her here. He actually went out of his way to make sure that she was safe despite how late it was. The thought warmed her heart a little more than she would have liked but she welcomed it all the same.

The girl looked around, wondering just where her flying companion was, cheeks warming as she took in the scent of his scarf. 

It reminded her of an ocean breeze, salty and strong, with a hint of lemon as well. Wild and full of energy, just like him.

She shook her head out of her thoughts. It was too early for her to be so sappy.

Though try as she might, she couldn't seem to wipe off the wide smile on her face as she looked forward to the day ahead of her.

[snowbarryiscoming]

The First Time- Namjoon

After a long time, I finally rose up from the dead.

Honestly, I had to think about what I was going to write for every member and Namjoon was the only one that I hadn’t thought of yet, even though he was the one who was next. 

Anyway, all this isn’t planned so I’m sorry if it’s short. 

Also, the portrayal of the BTS members does not reflect how they actually are. These are just imagines and what I think would happen in these situations.

As always, my Korean translations are from Google as I do not speak Koren, so I apologize if the translation isn’t as accurate as it should be

Thank youuuu 

Being a college student sucked.

The pressure, the lack of sleep, and the amount of studying one had to do was intolerable.

You felt like a zombie as you sat at your desk, the room dark except for a lamp in front of you. Loose leaf pages were scattered on your desk as your had a textbook opened in front of you.

Why were there so many body parts and why did they all have long ass names?

You let out a groan as you rested your head down on the book, feeling like you’re just about to give up.

Suddenly, there were voices outside your door and then there was a knock, followed by the door opening.

“Babe?”

It was your boyfriend, Namjoon, who closed the door and walked over to your side. You turned to rest your cheek on the book as he glanced down on you.

“Hi, aga.” (baby)

He crouched down to your eye level. “What’s wrong?”

You sighed. “I just can’t do this. This is all too much and I feel like I’m just going to fail, and-”

“Hey.” He rubbed your back soothingly as he placed a kiss to your other cheek. “You can do this. You’re a smart girl and I know that if you keep at it, you’ll get and you’ll pass and I know that I’ll be so proud of you.”

“Says the man with the high IQ level.”

“I have an idea.”

He stood up straight and tapped your back, making you sit up. Taking the book from the desk, Namjoon took a seat at the edge of the bed as you turned in the chair to face him.

“I’m going to help you. I don’t like seeing you like this. I don’t care how long it takes, I just want to help.”

Your lips curl up into a smile as Namjoon begins, and you feel like you are so lucky.

A few days later, you’re watching a movie with all the boys and Joon, but all you could think about it your exam, and how Joon would react when you told him the results. 

You loved Namjoon, and he loved you, but sometimes, you have your insecure moments and it leaves you to doubt Namjoon’s love for you. 

But the best thing you love about him is that no matter how many times you doubt Namjoon’s love, he’d always be right there to show why he does. He’d much rather show you his love than to tell you. 

But in that moment, you couldn’t stop the thoughts circling in your head like a storm cloud. And just like rain, a tear fell from your eye. You didn’t want to sniffle, as that would give you away, so instead you wiped it when it came all the way down. You checked to see if anybody noticed, but they were all watching the movie. 

All except, Jimin, who was next to you and watched the whole thing. 

“Gwaenchanh-a?” (Are you okay?)

You shook your head, and before Jimin could ask another question, you got up and ran to your (and Joon’s) room. 

Namjoon got up and followed you as Tae paused the movie the remote and Jimin told the others you were crying. 

“What happened? Are you hurt?”

You shook your head as Namjoon held you.

“Please tell me what’s wrong? Let me make it better.”

“I failed the test, Joon. I studied so hard and you helped me, but I forgot because I’m so stupid and you don’t want a girl who’s stupid.”

Namjoon held you tighter against him as you sobbed on his shoulder. He let you go only when your sobbing stopped and held your hands.

“I love you, and you know that. I don’t care how smart you are. You’re one of the best things in my life and I’m not letting you go, ever.”

He pressed a kiss to your lips. “I want to show you how much I love you. But only if you’re ready for... that.”

“You mean.. sex?”

He nodded and rubbed his thumb against the back of your hand. “Only if you want to, and if you’re ready. I know.”

You nodded, which was too quick of a response. 

“Are you sure? This is your first time. I want you to be sure of this.”

“I love you, Joon. And you want to show me how much you love me. So yes, I’m sure.”

He pressed another kiss to your lips, this one more heated than the last. He led you over to the bed and settled against the headboard before bringing you to sit on his lap. 

He kiss your lips and then began to kiss your jaw and then your neck, which made you let out a sigh along with his name.

“Joon.”

“I love you.” he murmured against your skin

One hand was supporting your back as your arched, and the other was in between your legs.

“Budi.” (please)

“Innae.” (patience)

Much to your dismay, Namjoon pulled away and helped you out of your shirt, and your bra. 

You could feel your cheeks tingling, no doubt in a blush, and wanted to cover yourself up, but you know Namjoon wouldn’t like that.

“Beautiful. So perfect.”

You felt tear coating your eyes and immediately closed them, which he noticed. 

“Look at me.”

You shook your head, and then felt a kiss in between your chest.

“Your body is so incredibly beautiful. I love it just as much as I love you, don’t you forget that, okay?”

“I won’t.”

He pressed his lips to yours, as if he was sealing this with a kiss. His attention went back to your chest and he placed a kiss to each nipple with a slight flick of his tongue against the nub, making you moan. He focused on one breast at a time, making sure to give them both equal love before kissing you again. His hands were at the top of your pants and in a second, they were off with your panties in one pull. 

“I think you should be like this too.”

You helped him out of his clothes and before you knew it, you were sitting back in his lap, his length was hot against your core, and you were making out. 

“Are you ready?”

You nodded and Namjoon reached for the condom, opening it, rolling it on and guiding you up. 

“I love you.”

“I know.”

In one swoop, you sat on his length, and he filled you up to the brim. 

“Do you? You seem to doubt my love for you.”

You involuntarily clenched around him and that caused him to moan. “I know you love me, Joon. I’m sorry for ever doubting your love.”

“It’s okay, baby. I’ll always show my love for you.”

He thrusted up unexpectedly and you moaned a bit too loud, which caused you both to giggle.

“They might be watching the movie still, but let’s keep it to indoor voices, just in case.”

You nodded and he continued to thrust into you while you used your knees to ride him. It was a normal pace that you were okay with (at least for this time) and a couple of minutes later, you were both reaching climax.

Helping you off, Namjoon got up to throw the condom away and came back with a towel to clean you up. Once you were all clean, you both got dressed and he grabbed you by the hand and led you back out into the living room. 

“Eotteohge doen geoyeyo?” (what happened?)

“Geunyeoneun himdeun sigan-eul bonaego issgo geunyeoga naleul silmangsikineun geoscheoleom neukkyeojibnida.” (She’s going through a tough time and feels like she’s letting me down.)

They glanced at you, which caused you to look down at your feet. Jimin stood up and walked over to you and gave you a big hug.

“Ulineun dangsin-eul wihae balo yeogieiss-eul geos-ibnida.” (we will be right here for you)

You sniffled and then felt multiple arms wrapped around the two of you.

These boys simply are the best

“Naneun neohuideul-eul maeu salanghanda.”

I love you guys very much

[avengerscompound]

Running to a Standstill - 10

Running to a Standstill: A Captain America Fanfic

Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers x F!Reader

Word Count:  1882

Rating:  E

Warnings: nothing much

Synopsis: While on the run from an unknown organization trying to take your son, you meet two super-soldiers.  While they try to help you get to the bottom of who is hunting you and your son, feelings come out and admissions are made that make your personal life even more tricky.

Chapter 10

It wasn’t until the following day that Steve and the other’s finally returned from their mission.  Bucky couldn’t remember ever feeling so excited before.

He was apprehensive and scared, but those emotions were the ones that he often felt the most to the point that they’d become dulled.  Like a drug addict who needed more and more heroin to feel high, it took a big bad before he truly felt fear.  Excitement though?  Excitement was rare and it gave him a high that kept him running until he got word that the Quin was coming into land.

He had no idea what Steve would do.  There were options that could be good or bad and Steve would be well in his right to pick any of them in the pursuit of his own happiness.  But that unknown was almost adding to the excitement.  As was the potential that this could actually lead to something good for him.  That he might actually get to have some love and intimacy, even if he didn’t quite think he deserved it yet.  Just the thought of Steve’s lips on his, or your hands raking through his hair made him shiver and his cock twitch.  He thought if it actually happened he might just explode.

He went up to the landing pad in time to catch Steve and the other’s disembarking.  He approached Steve with Hill, and he immediately went into debriefing mode.  “We found a supply of the drug there,” Steve said, handing a little baggy over to Hill without breaking his pace.  “Have it analyzed.  The guy who sold it to Clint said it can give you powers but how they express varies.  He also said you needed to take them in order.  Red pill to get the powers, blue to turn them off.  Apparently, if you don’t take the blue you can go into cardiac arrest and your lungs stop working.”

“And people are taking these as what?  Recreation?  Fight club?” Hill asked as the group got on the elevator.

“From what I gleaned off people it’s a mixture.  Having powers gives people a high.  I can attest to that from when I was given mine when they first kick in it’s like all your synapsis start firing at once,” Wanda said.  “But there are underground groups where people take them and then fight each other.  There’s even an enhanced prostitution racket happening.”

The elevator stopped and opened up onto the armory.  Steve, Clint, Sam, and Natasha all started putting their weapons and armor back into its place.  Steve began to strip off parts of his suit and handing them back in his locker.  “Thank you, Wanda,” he said to the young woman who was standing back trying not to watch as everyone stripped off in front of her.  “Go get some rest and food.  We’ll debrief this afternoon.”

“Thank you, Steve,” she said and headed back to the elevator.

“Do we know the source?”  Hill asked as Sam, Natasha, and Clint headed into the showers.

“Take a look at the pills,” Steve said.

Hill picked up the baggy and turned the pills around in the bag.  Bucky looked over her shoulder and saw the small image of the skull with tentacles coming out of it.  “So it is HYDRA?” He said.

“Well, we can’t say for sure,” Steve said, gesturing back to the elevator.  “Wanda didn’t pick anything up from the sellers indicating they were HYDRA.  So it could just be someone thinking that packaging it like that will make it more exciting to buyers,” he explained as he, Bucky, and Hill got onto the elevator.  “But it’s a potential lead.  The problem is from what Wanda and Clint came back with was either a mass group conspiracy that the government of Madripoor is supplying the drugs to the citizens or more concerning, that is what’s actually happening.”

“So we need to send in some undercover operatives?”  Hill asked.

“Absolutely,” Steve said.  “Honestly it was my mistake to not have started with that.  So if you could select some agents to do a deep cover operation, and get that to the lab, Hill. I just need to shower and get something to eat and I’ll meet in my office in an hour.”

“You’ve got it, Cap,” Hill said as the elevator stopped.

Bucky followed Steve out and down to the hall.  “I know you want an answer, Buck,” Steve said.  “I want to talk to both of you.”

Bucky rarely had any trouble hiding his emotions, but right now he was buzzing.  “We wanted to talk to you too.”

Steve glanced at Bucky through the side of his eye and unlocked his door.  You were inside at the table eating a sandwich while Geo seemed to be wearing most of a can of Spaghettios.  You looked over when they stepped inside and Geo bounced in his seat.  “Steeb!”  He cheered and scrambled off running over and holding his hands up.  You got up and seemed to move forward and then backed up, eventually settling on going into the kitchen.

“Hey, Geo,” Steve said, hesitating a little before picking the little boy up.  “You’re very messy.”

“Sorry,” you said.  “He likes to try and put the bits of spaghetti on his fingers.  Can I get you anything?  You must be hungry.”

“It’s alright,” Steve said.  “Sit.  I can get myself something.”

You hesitated again before going and taking your seat.  “How did it go?  Did you find anything?”

“Yes and no,” Steve said, putting Geo back in his chair and kissing leaning down to kiss your cheek.  “We’ve got a trail.  We’re going to need to put some undercover operatives on it.”

You nodded and your eyes flicked to Bucky.  Bucky gave a nod and as Steve went into the kitchen you let out a breath.  “Steve,” you said, a slight tremble to your voice.  “I know you ran off yesterday because you didn’t want to confront either of us.  That you had a choice to make and it was hurting you to make it.”

“About that,” Steve said as he pulled out some ingredients for a sandwich. “I know that was a really horrible thing to do.  I’m sorry.  I just needed time to think and I should have spoken to you both first.”  He looked over at Bucky. “You want a sandwich?”

“Thanks,” Bucky said.  His heart was hammering and he was glad you were taking the lead, because he had no idea how to bring up. It was hard enough admitting he was in love with Steve in the first place.

“We were talking…” you said.  “When you were away…”

“Yeah?”  Steve asked.  “I know you both must be angry with me, and you’re in your right.  But if you can just hear me out…”

“Steve,” Bucky said.  “Can you let us go first?”

Steve seemed to blanch, and Bucky could just picture the kinds of things that must be going through his head.  Top of them was probably that you’d both decided you didn’t want him anymore.  Bucky wanted to let Steve speak, just so he wouldn’t panic but if he did and he made a choice it would be too late.  That would be it.  He would have made his call about which person he liked more and the other would always feel like they were playing catch up.

“Right,” Steve said, standing frozen in place. “Sure.”

“How would you feel about… dating both of us?”  You said, your face scrunching up as you spoke.  “You know... polyamory?”

Steve started at the two of you with his jaw dropped.  Geo started opening and closing his hands as he held them over his head and you got up without thinking and started to use some wipes to clean him up.  Bucky felt as frozen as Steve was.  He should have known better.  Steve was a traditional guy.  This was never going to work for him.  Why Bucky even thought for one second he might…

Slowly Steve started laughing.  It was quiet at first and it just got louder and louder.  Bucky blinked at him in shock.  “What’s so funny?”  Bucky said.

“That was what I was going to say,” Steve said.

“You what?”  Bucky asked.

Steve wiped a tear from his eye and went back to making sandwiches.  “I swear to god, Buck,” Steve said.  “Natasha bailed me up on the mission and made me tell her what was bothering me and she said that there was no reason why I had to be monogamous if there were two people who loved me if those two people loved each other.  And you do right?  I’ve seen it.”

“Yeah, Steve,” Bucky agreed.  “We do.”

“So,” you said, standing up with Geo on your hip.  “We’re going to actually do this?”

Steve nodded.  “I guess we have … boundaries we need to discuss but … yeah.  If you both want that, and I want it… what’s stopping us.”

You took Geo over to the couch and turned the TV on for him, putting on some cartoons before returning to the kitchen.  Steve pulled you close to him and hugged you tightly.  “I don’t think there’s anything stopping us,” you said, hugging him back.  “I have spent so long now living in fear and not letting myself be happy.  I’m gonna take it.”

Steve sighed and closed his eyes, breathing you in as he held you.  Bucky stood watching, knowing that he was now part of this, and if he could just will his legs to move, he could be part of it too.  Steve would draw him in close and the three of you would be hugging.  Instead, he just watched like an outsider.

You slowly pulled back and looked up into Steve’s eyes.  He smiled down at you and caressed your cheek with his thumb.  “Okay.  I really need to eat and shower and we can talk a little now, but I have to get back and sign some paperwork, plus we still have to do the debrief.  But how about we ask Tony and Pepper if they’d like to babysit and I take the two of you out tonight.  You know he loves having Geo around.”

“I think that sounds really good,” you agreed.  “But first, I think there might be a kiss that’s been 70 years in the making.”

Steve looked over to Bucky and held out his hand as you stepped back from him.  “What do you say, Buck?  Think it’s time we actually act for a change.”

Bucky approached Steve slowly, his heart hammering in his chest.  When he was close enough, Steve took his right hand and pulled him close.  Bucky leaned in a little.  He hadn’t kissed anyone since before he fell from that train.  The fact his first kiss was going to be Steve - his Steve - was terrifying and exciting all at once.  It was going to change everything between them.  Steve bridged the difference, and Bucky didn’t close his eyes until the last second, afraid that Steve would change his mind and he’d just be left hanging like an idiot.

Bucky closed his eyes and the soft press of Steve’s lips touched on his, Bucky hummed and relaxed into the change.

// NEXT

[fieryhonesty]

The life of You

[AO3]

Words: 2490

Next day when you arrived at the office Yue was already there, brewing tea. Looking around, everything seemed just like you had left it last night when you finally finished all documents. She probably just arrived. You greeted each other. 

Before you could sit down she already informed you about getting through the documents you had with you in Monds. Rising an eyebrow at her in question.

"I'm not your assistant for nothing, right?"

"It's not even seven and you are telling me that you chewed through all of that? C'mon I was writing it for hours after feeling better! You can't just check all of it in a matter of a few minutes before I appear here!"

She giggled but gave you a concerned look. 

"You didn't feel well? Got sick? You? I can't believe it!"

"I know right? Miracles happen. So next time please don't rush through something I was sinking hours in. Makes me feel like I do unsatisfying work!"

The way she looked at you could be read in two ways. Either 'I'll try but no promises' or 'Nothing can stop me'. Whichever it is out of the two you didn't like it. However you decided to change topic as you really didn't feel up to talk about work this early in the morning.

Telling her what caused your sickness. How you and Kaeya discovered so many ruin guards residing in the for so long locked up area. Skipping the part where you two cuddled under one blanket. You knew she would be teasing you. 

Well she already did the moment she asked how did you manage to cook. Knowing about your culinary skills. And the way you described it, you were not able to get out of your house at all. Noticing your blush. You really didn't want to say it but she made you.

"Ah, I see. So tell me, how was it to have a guy cooking for you? You also said he is quite good looking right?! C'mon tell me all the details!" 

She surely is like a teenager when it comes to things like this.

"There's not much to it, really. Just a dude who got worried over his idiotic friend and decided to mercy on me. Although, the stew he made was amazing..." 

You had to admit Diluc's cooking was different from what you had eaten until now. Wasn't really fancy, really simple but damn good tasting. Maybe you will ask him to cook you something for your birthday, that's it if he will have time of course.

"Mmmh. I want to be young again, to feel loved for the first time. Ah I'm so jealous of you!"

Coughing, trying to suppress the blush crawling on your face. 

"Once again. We are childhood friends, wouldn't you extra worry for your close friend?"

She chuckled and admitted that she married her childhood friend. Well that didn't help you much with justifying anything. Giving up. Being glad you skipped the thing with Kaeya. She already teased you back then for that sleep over. Luckily it seems she had forgotten about it.

Or maybe not.

"Oh right! You were alone with that other friend of yours, right? Any progression at all?" Giving you a wink.

If she wasn't older than you, you'd smack her head by now. Feeling annoyed by her teasing and just huffing. Rather busying yourself with searching for something in drawers.

Mrs. Yue could be described as a grown up woman with a very warm and caring personality. Yet sometimes her curiosity and childish self took over, it wasn't that bad until she started pointing out how you should start thinking of laying your eyes on somebody. And just knowing about your friends was giving her reason enough to tease you about it.

However she has good judgement and when she notices her boss is irritated she stops. Bringing up her business woman behavior and getting serious about the work. Well after pouring two cups of tea of course. She can't start her work day without tea. You have never been a tea person but neither coffee. Not caring what it will be and simply taking whatever the other person offered you. 

The day at Qingshan was slowly passing by. Around noon you had a meeting which was tied to those documents from last night. You were glad to actually read through them. Having a clueless CEO is probably the worst possible scenario. Once again you could have not attend it as it was not so really important one between the company and supplier. But you felt like the more physical contact you do with people around, the better.

"Hmm the rite will be held soon right?" 

"Oh, yes! I nearly forgot about it. Gosh." 

Yue was quickly folding the invoices into correct boxes. Boxes which were emptied every friday and put into right folders. It was something easy to do and usually you did it before leaving home. 

"Well I call it a day then. I promised to go there with you. Also we have to grab some snacks on our way, I'm dying!" 

You decided and got up. Ready to quickly clean and prepare the office for tomorrow. Little did you know your favorite restaurant will be closed today. You wanted to grab some chicken and they made it the best. You had to satisfy your hunger with noodles. Quickly munching them on your way up to the Yujing Terrace.

When you arrived, there was already a crowd. Taking a hold on Yue just in case of separation. Wondering if you will see with Aether and Paimon. However there were way too many people and they are quite short. Abandoning all your hopes.

"How about we make our wishes before it starts?" 

Tilting your head to the side, giving it a thought. You never believed in those so called wishes to the Adepti or Archon himself. Part of you feeling like you are not even deserving to wish for something. You are not a citizen of Liyue. You might have been born here but you are from Mondstadt, by heart and soul. 

"You can make wishes for both of us, I pass." 

You received a disappointed sigh from her. However you accompanied her as you knew the moment you separate you will be lost until the rite is finished and the crowd gets smaller. 

When she was done, smiling at you. You were about to turn away and walk back but she held your wrist. 

"No, no~. This is the second time I got you here. You won't escape the tradition." 

Rolling your eyes, clapping hands together. Giving her one quick glare before closing eyes. What should you wish for anyway? Wealth and good business? Happiness? You were quite happy with your life, could be better but nothing too drastic. Perhaps you could wish your assistant would stop teasing you about men every time. There were many possibilities you could make a wish for. 

'I wish... I wish for a never ending package of cookies! But seriously if anyone can hear my prayer, I have only one wish. May my friends make up somehow... someday. I want them to be happy. Not keeping everything to themselves. I hope one day things will get better and we could celebrate!'

Opening your eyes again, noticing Yue's smugging at you and you raise an eyebrow at her.

"What?"

"You were smiling. Perhaps you wished about somebody, mmh?" 

And once again she was teasing you. Maybe you should have prayed for her letting you be. 

Your attention shifted towards the middle. The rite has started, making your way through the crowd so you can see. You knew the Lady Ningguang was the one who would be summoning the geo Archon. What you did not expect was seeing something falling down from the sky at high speed.

Usually the Archon would be descending at a slower pace. Narrowing your eyes. It felt odd. It didn't feel any better as in the next few seconds the Archon crashed. 'That's strange.'

He didn't move, in fact the body looked lifeless. As Lady Ningguang approached it, she quickly turned around and said something that made you panic inside. Dead?! Like for real? Isn't Archon something or somebody that doesn't die so easily? What happened?

People started panicking but nobody could leave the Terrace. All exits were blocked and so you got stuck here while having this weird feeling in your stomach. Looking at Yue who was shocked, holding a hand over her mouth. She looked like she would start crying soon. Pulling her away from the sight at the lifeless body.

You spend way too long at the Terrace. You were irritated and the Millelith’s useless questions didn't make you feel any better. Just how much dumb they have to be to realize nobody present is strong enough to take down an Archon. Not even vision wielders. Obviously most of the questions were aimed at your vision.

Feeling like to punch the man's face at any minute but once one his people whispered him something he left you. You could have heard 'blonde'. Which didn't make sense at that moment but when you and Yue were walking through streets and noticing Aether with Paimon, talking to somebody. You put one and one together.

"May I ask you to go ahead and order some tea? I have to... check on somebody."

She gave you a confused look but nodded nonetheless. You made your way to the trio. As you came closer they had noticed you. Paimon waved while Aether had that nervous expression on his face. With one glance at the third you could tell who they are. 

You sure had heard some rumors about the ginger male. He has been in the city for a while to make some reputation. You did not even realize it but your hand instinctively reached behind your back, nearly summoning your sword. You just couldn't stand Fatui.

Realizing what you were doing and trying to play it off like you were scratching your neck. However the tall male has noticed it, he knew who you were. He didn't feel like to fight or argue tonight, he got his share earlier while saving the blonde. Deciding to leave it slide for now, although he never let his eyes off you.

"So as I said. I'm kind of worried they might find you out. I'm sure you did nothing wrong but trying to reason with guards now... might be quite bothersome."

Which wasn't that far from the truth. The Rex Lapis's death quickly spread across the whole city. It will surely shake with all business. And everyone will be looking for somebody to blame.

"Hmm." You looked at Aether up and down. "Hey, how about you drop at Qingshan. We could give you new clothes, something less exotic. So you could fit in. Besides the ones you have right now, they look like they deserve to change. Oh also it will be for free, anything for friends."

This piqued the ginger's curiosity. So you knew with the blonde, well enough to offer him free clothes, huh?

"Does the offer work for me too?" He knew your answer already but he still wanted to mess around.

You still faced Aether, so far you ignored that guy’s presence. Whatever was the reason these three talked together, you didn’t care. But now, he had the audacity to talk to you and- how the heck did he fall to a conclusion the offer is for him too?!

"I'm sorry mister but the offer is only for my friend over there. Close friend to that." Turning around and looking up at his face. The smile he had irritated you. "You will have to pay full price... with all the taxes included." 

You said the last words very slowly, trying not to spit at him. The eye contact you two kept was more than challenging. Reminding yourself where you are. You just can't beat this guy, especially when he did nothing more than speaking up. How would you justify that anyway?

"Aww, not even a friend of your friend's sale?"

"I'm sorry, mister. Besides, your clothes look more than well and in good shape."

The air between you two got heavier every passing second. Aether was looking from you to the guy back and forth. Should he say something? 

"Ah, well. Perhaps I'll check your business later Lady y/n."

"Drop the act Fatui." You snapped. Growing irritated by his pointless play. "I don't know what you are plotting but..." You looked down at your palm where you had summoned a small snowflake. It levitated above your hand. 

"If I find out something has happened to my friend over there." Crushing the snowflake in your palm, looking up back at the ginger. "I might get angry. You wouldn't want to anger a lady, would you?" 

The glint which quickly flashed across his eyes. You couldn't not notice it. However you were surprised by his laugh. This was more than an obvious threat yet he was laughing. Were you funny?!

"Oh dear. Why does everyone think I'm a bad guy? I just saved your little friend. Yes, I am with the Fatui. But I have no intention to fight, cause trouble or hurt him. I mean... if I wanted to. I'd do it already, wouldn't I?"

You didn't bother to answer, turning away whispering Aether to not let his guard down. You wanted to leave but stopped for a while as the Fatui said something that made you quickly turn back and glare at him.

“Although, I might be a bad guy just for you, Sweetie. You just look like that type of a girl who would enjoy bad treatment. And yet keep screaming my name while-” He chuckles, realizing he would need to tell the two to cover their ears before continuing.

It's hard to make you angered enough to be willing to jump at somebody. But this guy just did it. Aether has noticed your twitching eye and quickly saved everyone from an embarrassment. 

"Y/n I'll drop by tomorrow! I might need help with choosing so please bear with me!"

You knew he said it only to distract you. Which to be fair you were glad for. Playing along and giving him a nod before leaving. Quickly disappearing, walking towards the tea house where Yue was probably worried what took you so long. 

If one thing is for sure. The moment that dude dares to show up his face he will get higher prices just because how much he irritated you. Equal customer treatment? Pff, no way. Not for the Fatui. You were sure Diluc would do the same, then you had realized the said man would most likely lose his cool and throw the guy out of his tavern. Or better never let him enter.

Previous ✨ Next

[mrslittletall]

Whump prompt: Leaning against someone

Tiso and God Tamer

Title: Not Just Another Corpse Fandom: Hollow Knight Characters: God Tamer, Tiso Word Count: 1.780 AO3-Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30382413

Summary: God Tamer shouldn't check on the bug in the blue hood. He was just another corpse that they kicked out of the coliseum, but why was she feeling so strongly about him?

(Author's note: I adore this two as pairing, but I am not too sure if I wrote this very shippy. Feel free to read it as either friendship or pairing, but I think I see it more as friendship. Maybe a romance blooms between them, who knows?

Anway, please enjoy.)

She didn't even know why she headed down the cliff.

Day after day, different bugs would come into the coliseum. They would fight for geo, they would fight for glory, they would fight for fame, but almost all of them ended up as corpses on the cliffs, being kicked out to keep the arena nice and clean, to ensure that the mechanisms would work as intended.

Surely he also would be a corpse lying on the cliffs. She had seen how he had been collected, having been kicked out. If not her glaive had killed him, so would have the fall.

Still, she headed down, searching for the telltale blue sign of the hood he had been wearing. She just needed to know. It had been so long since someone had managed to challenge her. She, called the God Tamer, was the current master of the trial of fools and it could have very well been here that she had gotten kicked out to rot on the cliffs.

She still didn't really know why she was searching for him. What had his name been? Tiso or something? He surely had boasted in front of her, before the combined power of her glaive and her beast had put him into his place.

Still, there had been something else about him. A feeling that she couldn't really align somewhere. There had been something in his eyes, that just didn't leave her mind.

She surely would feel better if she saw his corpse and could forget about him once and for all.

As she was still heading down, searching, more bodies fell. Another fool had started the challenge, not hers obviously, hers would never start without her present. The impact of the bodies left and right, stirring up the ashes made it hard to see, so that she hinged down the visor of her helmet, suppressing a cough as the ash threatened to fill her lungs.

She moved a little further away from the centre, more to the left and as she was about to drop down to the next foothold, she saw it. The telltale blue hood.

She dropped down as fast as she could, hoping that she would find peace upon finally being able to see the corpse and then return to her duties in the coliseum. She just... she needed to be sure, that was all. She opened up the visor of her helmet a tiny bit to get a better look at him, when she saw and heard it. A tiny stir and a low groan.

Her first instinct was a slight shock, then she felt utterly relieved. She hadn't killed him. Why was she even so happy about it? She should be ashamed, she must have lost her edge when she hadn't finished the job.

Still, that he was still alive calmed her somehow, but he wouldn't stay alive much longer when nobody took care of his wounds.

She kneeled down and spoke: “Hey. Can you hear me?”

There was only another groan as response.

“You don't look like you are able to walk.”, she said and then moved to help him up, carefully avoiding the stained part on his front, where his shell had cracked and milky white blood was seeping out. “Come, lean on me.”, she commanded, feeling the weight of him as she hefted him up. There wasn't a bench nearby and the coliseum was too far up, she would need to get him into one of the alcoves, where the primal aspids wouldn't lurk. The one where the tail of that giant, Bardook resided, felt like the best bet.

As she started walking, Tiso's shaky feet stumbling along with her steady steps, he managed to find his words.

“Why?”, was the only word he spoke.

“I don't know.”, God Tamer replied, truthfully. She knew that he asked her why she saved him, after she had nearly killed him. Not why he had lost to her or why he had been tossed out to the cliffs. He had known about the risk. “We can talk later, after your wounds are patched up.”, she continued and led Tiso to the alcove, grateful that someone or something had dispatched of the primal aspids recently. They would be back soon, but for now, her path was without hindrance.

Once they had arrived at the intended location, God Tamer laid Tiso down, letting him lean against a wall, getting a first aid kit out of her armour. As the champion of the coliseum, she always had to be prepared. She made quick work, cleaning the crack on his shell, which made him hiss in pain, and then bandaging the whole deal with some silk that the gladiators coming from Deepnest provided.

Then, she just stayed kneeling in front of him, not knowing what to say or to do. Technically she should just leave. There was nothing for her to do anymore. Tiso would be able to challenge the coliseum again once he healed up, if he dared. She was halfway on her feet when he repeated his earlier question.

“Why?”

“I... I don't...”, God Tamer sighed, a deep sigh. She knew the reason. She knew it very well. “You impressed me.”, she admitted. “It has been so long since someone managed to get far enough to fight me. I... when you fell, I felt... disappointed at first... and then.. guilty.”

For some reason, God Tamer had felt guilty about not having fought him head on, even though it wasn't a noble duel between them, but a dirty fight in a lawless zone. She had the feeling he would have deserved that duel though.

“I came to make sure that you had died.”, she admitted further. “Only to see that you haven't. I couldn't.... let you lie there like this...”

“I see.”, Tiso said, no humour in his voice, “Don't expect any thanks, you brought me into this state to begin with.”

“I... I am aware, yes.”, God Tamer hated how much her voice wavered. She wasn't used to such conversations anymore. Most of the population was infected and the gladiators didn't talk much. She mostly had her beast to talk too and while she still could control it, the infection long had clouded its mind as well and so it would never answer to her.

An awkward silence spread between them, only broken by Tiso's raspy breaths.

“May I ask you something?”, God Tamer suddenly said, wanting to break the silence between them.

“You probably will even if I say no.”, Tiso just said. God Tamer didn't waste time to be offended, he was right.

“Why did you fight in the coliseum?”

“What kind of question is that?”, Tiso replied, coughing a little, averting his eyes to not look into her face. “It should be obvious.”

“Fame, glory, most of the fools come for it.”, God Tamer said. “You must have seen them on your way here. The corpses we kicked out. The ones who didn't make it.”

“Yes, because it is so hard to overlook corpses falling from the sky.”, Tiso retorted, rolling his eyes, “Or the ceiling. This place doesn't even have a sky.”

He apparently was better already when he was in the mood to react with such dripping sarcasm. “Anyway...”, God Tamer crossed her arms in front of her chest. “You can tell me hundred times you came for fame and glory, I know it wasn't your only reason. I could see it in your eyes.”

It was Tiso's turn to sigh now. “So you figured, huh?”, he said and then raised an arm, the arm in which he was still clutching his weapon, a shield. It was rare for any bug to use a shield as a weapon, most of them preferred nails and the ones without would use their claws or toxins. She had seen him use it like a boomerang. Though, what did the shield had to do with his reasoning?

“It's about your weapon?”, she asked.

Tiso let out another sigh, this time sounding more frustrated than before. “Not the weapon itself, but what it is made off.”

God Tamer narrowed her eyes and then took a closer look at the shield. It looked nothing out of the ordinary at first, but when she noticed, a gasp escaped her. That weapon clearly had been made out of the shell of another bug.

“So, you figured.”, Tiso said dryly.

“Who were they?”, God Tamer asked in return, there clearly was a story behind the shield.

“My friend...”, Tiso said after a long pause, so long that God Tamer already thought that he would never talk. “We were both in the search of a challenge, to fight at a place that was tough enough for us, so that we could challenge each other in the end. He... he died while protecting me before we even reached Hallownest. I had promised to him that I would be victorious in the coliseum.”

God Tamer didn't had any words to say after Tiso was finished with his story. What should she say? Words of comfort? They would feel empty and hollow, especially after she had been the one to crush his imminent victory. Instead of saying anything, she leaned herself against the wall as well and then slowly slid down until she sat next to him.

Minutes must have passed before she found her words again.

“I am sorry.”

“For what?”, Tiso asked.

“For treating you just like another corpse.”

“Hey...”, Tiso started, “You have come looking for this corpse, right?”

That made God Tamer smile. “I guess.”, she said.

They fell silent again, but this time the silence wasn't awkward, but kind of comfortable. Eventually, God Tamer got up.

“I should head back to the coliseum.”, she said. “You are safe here for the time being. You shouldn't move too much until the wound had closed. And once it has, I am awaiting you in the coliseum.”

“No thanks.”, Tiso replied. “I think I am done with the coliseum for now.”

They both just stared at each other and then chuckled, Tiso's being broken up by coughs.

“I fear I am not done with you though.”, God Tamer said. “I will come back to check on you and I better not see you move elsewhere.” She turned around and without looking back, she said: “See you later.”, before heading back to the coliseum.

She still didn't know why she had checked on him, but she didn't regret that she did.

[asans]

A Welcome from Sumeru

This is how I want my OC to meet the traveler.

:)

“Paimon is starting to feel very… slime.”

“Slime?” You ask.

“Yeah! Like… jelly.”

The traveler only nods, having noticed their companion talk less since entering the deserted land to reach Sumeru.

“Argh! We just left Inazuma where everyone looked strange at us to walk around for hours without seeing anyone! Paimon is even starting to worry if we are heading in the right direction.”

Hearing that, you decide to check your map again. Lisa had helped a lot when giving it to you, marking where she remembered to have identification spots to make the travel easier to reach the Oasis city.

And it does seem like you have lost your way at some point.

Looking around, there doesn't seem to be any landmark to explain where exactly you are. If you two are lost, then it would be better to wait for the stars to come out at night and find more precise directions again.

“Paimon is getting hungry. Do we still have any leftover from that Sweet Madame?”

She hovered closer, eyes sparkling at the thought of food. You ponder between giving it to her or not. In the end, seeing as no one knows how long it will take to reach the city, you tell her to eat later.

“But Paimon is really hungry! And Paimon knows you are too! So stop being a worry-head and let me eat something!”

Letting out a sigh, the traveler took out some food and both sat down to eat. It doesn't take long for something to happen.

“It’s another vishap again! Are these lizards following us?!”

While Paimon screams, you take out your blade to prepare for battle. Since entering this deserted land, geovishaps have been attacking you more intensely than ever. Perhaps it's your tiredness, but they feel stronger when compared to the ones in Liyue.

“Ah!”

Being whacked back, your body hurts from the impact and your hand lets go of your sword mid-flight. With adrenaline pumping inside your veins, you prepare to deliver a geo attack even down.

But upon looking up quickly, you get to see the moment two arrows strike the enemy in the eyes from behind you. It makes the monster tumble to the side before falling dead.

Turning your head, a tanned stranger with a bow seems to silently observe you.

“Are you ok? Did you break something?” Paimon flies over from where she had hidden. Tiny hands patting your body to make sure of your wellbeing.

The stranger squint their eyes behind rose-tinted glasses. With long steps they reach for your travel bag and food that have been forgotten to the side.

In swift movements, your bag of mora is in the stranger's hand.

“Hey! Those are ours, you thief!”

The tall woman scoffed at Paimon.

“Thief? I am no thief. Would I have helped if I was only after your money?” Reaching inside the bag, she takes five large coins before throwing the bag to you.

“Well, maybe not…? Still! It's not right to pick things from others like that! Right?” Paimon finishes looking at you for support.

You stand up, backing up your friend's opinion about the newly met stranger and her actions.

“Geez. You two are asking to be killed.”

Your blood runs cold from that. Even Paimon hides behind you when sharp pink eyes glance at you. Reading yourself to another fight, you get caught out of guard when the woman kneels and starts burying all the food you had left.

“Nooo! Paimon didn't even finish that!”

“Traveling with this type of ration. No wonder geovishaps keep ganging up on you.”

Some realization downs on the travelers head. You know how some life forms have a better sense of smell. So carrying something with such an appetizing smell, it was bound that monsters and animals would attack for it.

“Wait a second. How did you know this wasn't the first attack we suffered? Were you following us?!”

Instead of answering Paimon, the stranger stares at you for some time. You decided that there will be no better time for introductions than now. So that’s what you do.

“Sana from Sumeru.” It's her response, “Do you want me to escort you to the city? Travelers like you have less chance of arriving there in one piece without a local.”

Well, it would certainly help. You look at Paimon who is glaring at Sana.

“Or you could continue this wrong way and end up dying of thirst and hunger. It's not much of a problem for me anyway.”

You aren’t sure if Sana was joking.

“Ugh. Paimon doesn't like this, but we should follow her to Sumeru. When we arrive we will part ways right away! Delicious chicken wasted like that, so heartless…”

“Stop crying over food. Or do you want me to bury you instead?”

You intervene, saying that Paimon is emergency food now that there was no more Sweet Madame so there is no necessity to bury her.

“Stop saying that! It only makes Paimon angry now. It's not funny anymore!”

Ignoring the two of you, Sana starts to walk away. Quickly grabbing your stuff you run to stay close to her.

While following her, you ask about the five mora coins she grabbed earlier.

“What? It’s the payment for my escort. And from saving your butt back there. I don’t do things for free, sorry.”

She didn't sound apologetic at all. It has been some time since you met such a sardonic person. Even so, Sana doesn't appear to be a bad. To help someone in peril, there is no doubt the woman has some morals. Even if she's a bit rude about it.

“Since you are our guide now, can you tell us how to get to Sumeru? Or how the city is like?”

“I don't do small talk. And I'm not a travel guide. When escorting someone or a caravan, it's courteous on my part to keep my mouth shut. Paimon, right? Please try to understand my side.”

That made Paimon pout and get near you. In just one interaction Sana got to make your flying companion silent in their own volition. If that was not an achievement, it was impressive all the same. Most of the time Paimon speaks in your stead in dialogues.

So the trip goes like this:

Paimon talks and complains about Sana to you while the escort ignores and keeps her attention on the environment.

“Quiet, someone is here.” Is the order out of nowhere from Sana. It makes your friend shut up and glance around wary.

Using your elemental vision it is easier to see a thin trail left behind by something. For you it could be a rock slime or a lizard, but Sana’s head keeps turning. Almost like she is trying to hear something.

“Found you.” Is the warning, before the archer uses her elemental ability. Yellow vines surge from underground, pulling a man immobilized from it. Thorns make him grunt in pain as they dig his dark skin. A faint green glow on his clothes suggests him to be another dendro user.

“Wow, Deron! It’s been so long since we last saw each other.” Sana smirk and approached this Deron man. A cold breeze makes your hair stand on its end.

“Sana. You bitch!”

“Hahaha! Always the gentleman.” Her green ponytail danced with her outburst of laughter. “Say, are you here only to greet me?”

Deron doesn’t answer. His death glare to Sana didn't flinch.

“Deron, you empty headed child. Not answering is a type of answer. Who sent you?” She put a hand inside his tunic while asking, some blood getting on her tanned skin. A small bag of mora is the only sound breaking the silence.

After looking inside it, Sana gives it to you. Seeing how the men didn't speak, your escort sigh. She also takes his dendro vision, putting it in a hidden pocket on her trousers.

“You were always a pain for me. Why would it be different now? Well, it was nice seeing you again Deron.”

Taking his knife, Sana cut deep in his throat faster than anyone could blink. The sound Deron makes before dying is chilling to the bone.

When she turns to you again, Paimon hides behind you shaking in fear. You want to ask so many things, but nothing comes out when opening your mouth. She notices it nonetheless.

“Ah, him? Was an old friend from my last workplace. Wow, how time flies.” Her thumb point back to the body. The little splashes of blood on her face making her intimidating to look at.

After cleaning her hands, Sana grabs Deron’s purse from you again. A smile appearing on her serious expression.

“Heavy. I’d say… someone with power is after you already. What a great Welcome from Sumeru.”

[kalypsichor]

five’s a crowd [ beatles x reader ] chapter nine

summary: George fancies himself to be Sherlock and drags you along with him, determined to figure out why Ringo’s been acting so weird lately. What you find changes everything.

warnings: 2.7k of an emotional rollercoaster

i’m sorry. notes at end of chapter

You float through the next few days on a bit of a cloud. George doesn’t see Maureen again, which you know you should be bummed about since he’s your friend and all, but… okay, you admit it. You don’t like them together. It’s nothing against Maureen, of course, and everything due to you being a shitty friend.

Wait… that’s it. You’re sitting on the steps leading up to your building and, jumping up, you almost hit your head on the railing. That weird, acidic feeling that sat in the pit of your stomach and reared into your throat whenever Maureen had laughed or George had put an arm around her… that was because you didn’t want to lose George’s friendship. It all makes sense now. And sure, although you admit that it’s not healthy to be so possessive of a friend, it’s better than the idea that you could possibly be… possibly be in…

“Love? What’re you doing out here?”

You know who it is before you turn around. Still, your heart catches in your throat, and you can’t help feeling like you were just caught doing something you shouldn’t be.

“Just enjoying the nice weather,” you say, smiling at George as he joins you on the steps. Are you smiling too wide? Is it too forced? Fuck, you’ve forgotten how to smile, what’s happening to you??? “How ‘bout you?”

George bumps his shoulder lightly into yours. “Was wonderin’ where my friend went. Have you seen her? She’s about yea high, can’t play Clue for shite-”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I’m very good at Clue. Better than you, at least.”

“Hm, but who was it that won Monopoly at Game Night?”

“You were cheating!”

You grin at each other and it’s so… natural. Yes, this is natural, this is just good ol’ banter between good ol’ friends. And being so jealous of Maureen had been stupid; how could you have possibly doubted the bond between you and George? The bond which has kept you together through thick and thin, through all your ups and downs…

Ever since that first night you met him.

***

Uni was nothing like the movies.

For one, there were no cliques or anything like that. People were generally nice and welcoming.

Which made the fact that you were feeling so out of place at this party even more pathetic.

Your roommate, a bubbly theatre performance major named Jane, had convinced you to come—well, her exact words were that you needed to “stop sitting on your arse and get out of the dorm a little”—and you weren’t having a bad time. You just weren’t having much of a good one, either. The music was loud yet also unintelligible and the flat, which belonged to some third years, was stuffy and packed with way more people than should be legally possible.

So, there you were, nursing a cup of Sgt. Pepper and trying to find somewhere that didn’t smell like B.O.

People kept on bumping into you, making your drink slosh around dangerously close to the top, and you kept on apologising for some fucking reason. Eventually, a set of double doors caught your eyes. It led to a porch of some sort, and just the thought of fresh air was already making your breathing easier. With quick, careful steps, you made your way through the throng of people and into the warm summer air.

It’s so dark out that you don’t notice there’s someone else on the porch until he turns, melting right out of the shadows and startling you a little.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you…”

The stranger just blinked at you, looking as though he was about to scowl but suddenly forgot how.

“Er, I’ll just find somewhere else to, uh, sulk.”

You made to leave but froze at the feeling of a grip on your wrist. Your gaze followed the long, almost elegant fingers to a tense shoulder. A bobbing Adam’s apple. Dark eyes which widened comically when he suddenly snatched his hand back as though burned.

“Stay. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.” When he noticed your shocked expression, he quickly backpedaled. “I mean, you don’t /have/ to stay. You can. I’m not tryin’ to tell you, uh… I’m…” The boy sighed and slumped forward, his next words more to himself than you. “Jesus Christ.”

Normally you’d sprint the other way if you accidentally found yourself alone with a complete stranger, but something drew you to join him, drew you to stand shoulder to shoulder and drape your arms over the railing. Something, something… you weren’t sure what. You would figure it out eventually, probably.

“Well, it’s an honor to meet you, Jesus. I’m a big fan of your work.”

His head turned slightly, dark mop of hair shifting and parting in the breeze. When your eyes met, you both started laughing, the sound carrying over the din of the party behind you.

And when he told you his name, and you told him yours, they fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

***

George brings you out of your reverie, calling your name softly. You shake your head and try to swipe away the cobwebs of that fond memory.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something.”

He grins and shoves a hand in his pocket, bringing out his phone. “I’ve been doing a little thinking of my own, too. Have you noticed how Ringo’s been sorta sus recently?”

Huh. You think back to Ringo's odd behavior last Sunday, and how he’d come back from supposedly walking dogs with a grin that lasted til dinner. Dogs are cute, obviously, and you’d die for one in an instant, but you’ve never seen them have that kind of an effect on Ringo.

“Yeah, I guess. Do you know why?”

“No, but!” George accentuated the ‘but’ with an adorably excited wag of his finger. “I know how we can figure it out… using the wonders of technology!” George’s phone is shoved in your direction and you blink at the familiar yellow app glowing right back at you.

“... Snapchat?”

“Ringo left half an hour ago to do some more ‘dog walking’,” cue air quotes, “and I was thinking we could try and figure out what he’s really up to.”

It takes your brain a few seconds to process this. “Wait, but—shouldn’t his location be turned off?”

“Yeah, it should be. I tell him to do it all the time, 'cept he doesn’t know how. Anyway, it’ll come in handy now.”

“Wait wait wait.” You bring up a hand and slowly move the phone out of the way so you can meet George’s eyes. “You’re talking about stalking your friend.”

“Our friend,” George corrects. “And it’s not really stalking if he’s so easy to find.”

“Say that a little louder, Geo, I don’t think the police heard you.”

“Listen, there’s no harm in it. If Ringo’s really telling the truth, we’ll get to see some cute dogs. And if not, we can catch him red-handed doing… something sketchy!”

You want to say no, partly because this is a crazy plan and partly because you weren’t too keen on spending your afternoon on a wild goose chase. But with your exams over, you really haven’t got anything else to do.

Also, you just can’t bring yourself to let down that adorable anticipation on George’s face.

“Fine. But!” This time it’s your turn to jab a finger in his direction. “If it’s the mafia or something, I’m using your skinny arse as a human shield.”

George frowns. It’s more of a pout, really, and you privately think that it puts Paul’s to shame. “First of all, it’s not skinny. Second,” he grabs your hand and starts pulling you along the sidewalk, “we’re losing daylight! The game is afoot, dear Watson!”

You can’t help but laugh, even as you’re being unceremoniously dragged along. “Why do you get to be Sherlock?”

George lets go of your hand (you are not disappointed, you’re not) and turns up the collar of his jacket, sending you a sly grin. “It’s the cheekbones. Benadryl Cucumber could cut glass with those things, y’know.”

As you look at George’s side profile, platonically admiring his sharp jawline and defined nose, you can’t help but agree. Personally, though, you think that his cheekbones put Beelzebub Cabbagepatch’s to shame.

***

The problem is that Ringo keeps on moving. Sure, you have Google Maps, but you can’t exactly put in a destination because Ringo doesn’t even seem to have one. George isn’t any less directionally challenged than you, so for the past half hour you’ve both been just walking in the vague cardinal direction of Ringo’s last location.

“Consider this,” you say, huffing a little from the endless walking. Okay, so maybe you should get out of the apartment and, god forbid, exercise more. “What if he’s actually walking a dog? He’s moving around enough to be doing it.”

George comes to a sudden stop and you smack right into him, nose squashing momentarily against the back of his jacket before. Before you can withdraw from the warmth of George’s body, though, you catch a whiff of something—clean laundry, fresh linen, George—and you’re overwhelmed by a sudden, ridiculous urge to press into him again.

“There’s got to be something going on,” he insists. “Ringo can barely wash his hands with that cast on, much less walk dogs. Don’t you think?”

You nod, but really only because you’ve suddenly forgotten how to speak.

“Wait, look! He’s walking around in circles now… think he’s at some sort of park. Come on, before we lose him!”

And then George is taking your hand again, sprinting across the street with no warning. You can’t bring yourself to mind. His palm is so warm against yours, fingers intertwining perfectly as though they were made for each other. He lets go when you reach the sidewalk, of course, which is absolutely normal. Friendly. Your fingers don’t suddenly feel cold, not at all.

God, you wanna hold his hand.

You get to the park pretty quickly, which the stitch in your side is grateful for. It’s your run of the mill ordeal: benches, trees here and there, a nice duck pond in the middle of it all. Before you get the chance to look for Ringo’s mop of hair, though, George pulls you into a clump of bushes. Your knees hit the dirt and send a jolt of pain up your leg, making you hiss.

“What the hell, George?”

“Sorry, sorry!” He gives you an apologetic look and his hand finds one of your knees, rubbing little circles where there’s a smear of dirt. Suddenly, you don’t care at all about falling down. “Just wanted to make sure we wouldn’t be seen.”

You huff and glance around. Thankfully, there aren’t any passersby to give you weird looks. “This Sherlock thing is really going to your head. Don’t you think we’re making a big deal out of all this?”

George goes to make a retort—looks a little sheepish, though, so you’ll give him that—but then he freezes. He doesn’t even have to say anything for you to know that he’s spotted Ringo… and that something’s wrong.

Ringo’s walking around the bend of the path that circles the pond, laughing about something. He looks so happy, his laugh so lighthearted, that your own lips twitch upwards at the sight. But then you see what’s making him laugh and the grin disappears.

It’s Maureen.

Ringo’s got his arm around her and they’re looking at each other like nothing else exists. You’ve seen that look many, many times, having to suffer through it whenever John and Paul get very, well, JohnandPaul. It’s not friendly, like you and George, it’s… it’s like love.

You want to pull George away, cover his eyes, anything that could possibly undo this, this… whatever this is. But the damage has already been done. You can see it in how his jaw clenches, how his eyes flash vulnerable before settling on guarded, and how his posture is stiff when he stands up and walks right through the bushes you’re crouched behind.

“George, wait-”

It’s too late. Ringo’s head turns to the sudden commotion and his smile slips away so quickly it’s like it’s been slapped off. He stops in his tracks. Maureen is a second behind, takes another step forward before jolting back when her partner doesn’t move. And when her gaze lands on George, who’s barreling towards them, the emotions on her face are so visible that you almost cringe. Shock, fear, and then, overwhelmingly, guilt.

You don’t have to see Ringo to know he looks the same.

Your feet are carrying you towards them before your brain can catch up, but something stops you a few feet away from the scene. It almost feels like you’re eavesdropping because this has nothing to do with you. Except, you realize, everything concerning George concerns you, too. Because you care about him.

So much.

“Ringo! We were just walking through the neighborhood!” George gestures in your direction and Maureen’s eyes snap to you. You flinch, partly at the motion and partly at the false cheeriness George has inflected into his voice. “You know, she said to me, she said ‘well isn’t that Ringo?’ And I thought, no, it couldn’t be. My best friend wouldn’t go behind my back and take out the girl I was seeing.” His voice cracks halfway through ‘best.’ You know that George notices, because his cheeks have turned a furious, embarrassed pink. “But I guess it really is you.”

Ringo’s eyes stay on George the whole time. They’re really so, so blue and light enough that a part of you fancies you could see George’s reflection in them. They don’t look away, not when George points at you, not even when he’s done speaking. You know, then, that Ringo really cares about George. Loves him, even. And George must know that, right?

“George.” Quiet, restrained. “How did you find us?”

It’s like George doesn’t hear a word. “Did you already have your eyes on her at the bar? The morning after, you were already texting her, right? God, you took her out. The morning after.” His voice breaks again at the last sentence, catching on something sharp and stumbling out of his throat.

There’s nothing to say. Everyone knows the answer, really. It’s obvious—yes, yes, and yes. The silence that stretches between George’s shuddering intake of breath to Ringo’s next words is heavy.

“Did you follow me?”

The atmosphere becomes paper-thin, now. Changes so quickly you feel the breath rush out of you. And George tears right through it.

“Does it fucking matter?” You’ve never heard George sound like this and you know you’ve got to stop it, got to slam on the brakes before it all breaks. But how?

“George-”

“Stop. Just stop, Ritchie.”

That’s when something cracks in Ringo’s eyes. Only his closest friends call him that, Ritchie, and hearing George say it like that, practically spitting it out… even Maureen feels the venom in his tone. She takes a half step forward and Ringo stops her, hand grasping her arm and tugging her back. George sees it and his face falls.

“I’m sorry, George, he was just—being nice to me, that’s all.”

“Nice? Is that what you call it?” George laughs bitterly. “God, I couldn’t even keep you for a day, huh? This is pathetic. I’m-”

He doesn’t finish his sentence, takes a deep breath instead. Runs a shaky hand through his hair. George is angry, trembling with it, but for some reason you almost feel like it’s more towards himself.

“I guess you really were dog-walking, Ritchie. Just didn’t think she’d be a bitch.”

Whatever holds the four of you in place shatters. George stumbles backwards and the regret is already painted all over his face, the shock evident in his wide eyes. Maureen gasps, tearing her arm away from Ringo’s hold to clasp a hand over her mouth. And Ringo—Ringo doesn’t stop her this time. They both know he doesn’t mean it, even you do, but the word still hangs in the air between them. Ringo has always been the slowest to anger, the hardest to rile up, but this time is different. You see a fire rise to his eyes, a line harden around his mouth, a subtle change in his stance.

Still, nothing prepares you for when he rears back and strikes George right across the face.

- - -

notes: 1) i know nothing about college (or i guess “uni”) in england, so some of this is probably so wrong. Like i guess you guys only have three years?? And apparently NO GPA??? So, that was def a mistake on my part in ch six. Also, I guess midterms aren’t a thing. That brings me to 2) this story is taking place during the first semester of their third and final year at uni. Which means they are in… the middle of October! IDK i’m making this tf up rn. Mostly bc I really wanna write a halloween chapter (dee here! We’re making an executive decision to set this before halloween because we NEED christmas feels)

taglist: (wanna be added? dm me or @spaceyantique!)

@1-2beeble @beatlevmania @theclassicsl @withthebeables @thasbooooooi @geostarr @report-abuse

[slut-kiss-g1rl]

geostorm <3

FADE IN:

INT. COURTROOM

GERARD BUTLER is at a COURT HEARING... in the FUTURE!

GERARD BUTLER

It is the future. Natural disasters have become alarmingly commonplace. Hurricanes, mudslides, floods, you name it. The level of destruction is catastrophic.

RICHARD SCHIFF

To be clear, this is the FUTURE you’re talking about?

GERARD BUTLER

The nations of the world have finally decided to take action. So, pooling our resources, we’ve invested heavily in environmental research and clean energy, and cracked down heavily on industrial emissions standards-

(laughs and laughs and laughs)

Just kidding! We’ve built a giant orbital platform that shoots the bad weather with space missiles and space lasers, of course.

RICHARD SCHIFF

So you’re the genius who built the space station. But instead of just making you the chief engineer, which would make sense, we made you director of the whole multi-national program, despite the fact that you have no administrative skills or political experience and mostly get what you want by yelling at people and punching them in the face?

GERARD BUTLER

That’s correct, you useless government fucks. You can all lick my sweaty gonads.

(moons everybody)

RICHARD SCHIFF

You’re fired and we’re giving your job to your little brother Jim Sturgess. At least he can do a passable American accent.

GERARD BUTLER

Och, ye dinnae hae ta be a deck abote et!

INT. SPACE STATION

Engineer RICHARD REGAN PAUL is aboard the WEATHER STATION when he notices that somebody has stuck a SMARTPHONE on an important CIRCUITBOARD.

RICHARD REGAN PAUL

Oh crap, somebody’s sabotaging this hundred-trillion-dollar space program using consumer electronics! I better draw everybody’s attention to this and alert my superiors!

(falls down and hits head very hard)

Duhhhh I mean I should hide this evidence and tell nobody yessss.

He stashes the EVIDENCE, but shortly afterwards the CORRIDOR he’s walking through is SEALED and all the WALL PANELS START BLASTING OFF!

RICHARD REGAN PAUL

What the fuck? Why would we design them to be able to do that? What possible situation could arise in a space station when we’d need to get rid of the WALLS in a hurry? This makes no-

(spaced)

The SPACE STATION then proceeds to turn a bunch of VILLAGERS in AFGHANISTAN into SNOWMEN.

INT. WHITE HOUSE

JIM STURGESS is having a meeting with the movie’s entire supply of Oscar-nominated actors.

JIM STURGESS

So yeah, we kind of murdered a bunch of innocent people with a giant ice ray like Mr. Freeze, oops. We need to send up an international team of brilliant engineers to the space station to investigate what went wrong, despite the fact that there’s already an international team of brilliant engineers ON the space station.

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE ANDY GARCIA

No way, Jim. As the president, I can’t have foreigners touch this station which has been funded and staffed predominately by foreigners! We’ll send up Americans.

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE ED HARRIS

ONE American. I mean if we’re going to half-ass this thing, let’s half-ass it, y’know?

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE MARE WINNINGHAM

I am also in this scene for some reason.

JIM STURGESS

Ugh fine, let’s send up Gerard. It’ll take some doing though, he and I haven’t really gotten along in the vague amount of time since you gave me his job. Seriously, the timeline is super nebulous, it could have been anything between a week and five years.

ED HARRIS

I have faith you can convince him, Jim. As your father figure and mentor, you know I support you in everything, and if you ever need somebody you can implicitly trust-

JIM STURGESS

We get it, you’re the villain, whoop-de-doo.

(leaves)

EXT. LOSER SHACK

JIM goes out to see GERARD, who is hanging with his DAUGHTER.

JIM STURGESS

Hey bro, the space laser’s been acting up. Think you could pop up to space real quick and fix it? Thanks.

GERARD’S DAUGHTER

Dad, no! You can’t go back to space! It’s too dangerous! Don’t abandon me like this!

GERARD BUTLER

OH GOD NOT THIS FUCKING TROPE. Yeah, parents should never do work that takes them away from their families for any amount of time or puts themselves at risk, no matter how important it is. I’m a shitty father because I’m agreeing to go save hundreds of millions of lives, possibly including yours. Shut the fuck up, you little turd.

GERARD immediately storms off and goes to SPACE.

EXT. HONG KONG

Suddenly the movie remembers the CHINESE BOX OFFICE and cuts to HONG KONG, where DANIEL WU is heading home with some SHOPPING.

DANIEL WU

(looks around)

Aw fuck. A famous capital city in a disaster movie? This isn’t gonna end well.

Sure enough he drops some EGGS on the ground and they immediately begin to FRY!

DANIEL WU

Holy shit the ground is apparently as hot as a stovetop! You’d think this is something the people in the street would have noticed, but uh, I guess all our shoes are made entirely of thermally nonconductive silica fibreglass?

(jumps in car, speeds off)

And our tires too, don’t forget our tires!

DANIEL drives through the streets as the pavement CRACKS and FIRE erupts out of the SUPERHEATED PAVEMENT!

DANIEL WU

Damn, the space station must have done that! Not that we ever explain how geothermal energy could possibly be controlled by space lasers!

INT. SPACE STATION

GERARD arrives aboard the SPACE STATION to meet the team of ENGINEERS.

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Welcome, Gerard! I am an asshole. A smug, unlikeable asshole. The exact kind of jerk you’d think would turn out to be the saboteur. Which is kind of awkward, because I DO turn out to be the saboteur.

AMR WAKED

It’s okay, I’ll cover for you by red herringing as hard as humanly possible in every scene I’m in.

(lurks sinisterly)

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

Meanwhile I’m the station’s commander. I exist to be your sort-of love interest with whom you never get beyond meaningful eye contact, and to make you seem hypercompetent by standing around uselessly while you do everything important.

GERARD BUTLER

Okay then, now that everybody’s in position let’s get this 2012-but-with-weather/Gravity-except-stupid-and-with-more-explosions hybrid on the road! Bring on the barrage of gratuitous global annihilation!

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

Actually there’s nowhere near as much of that kind of thing as the trailers promised. But if you like scenes where someone stares at tiny gobbledegook on a computer screen and explains what plot points it discloses, we’ve got a buttload of that!

GERARD BUTLER

(puppy dog eyes)

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

Oh fine, here’s one to tide you over.

EXT. TOKYO

Giant hail in Tokyo!

INT. SPACE STATION

GERARD BUTLER

Ta! Now let’s look at that satellite that fried Hong Kong.

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Uh, oops, unfortunately that malfunctioning satellite got smashed beyond usefulness because the hydraulic arm which was holding it malfunctioned!

GERARD BUTLER

Fine then, let’s look at the surveillance footage from when Richard Regan Paul got spaced.

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Um well we can’t see the footage of that wall malfunction because the footage has also malfunctioned.

GERARD BUTLER

Wait though, there’s still a useable recording in a leftover bit of wall that got stuck in a solar array panel! Let’s go for a spacewalk and get it.

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Sure thing WHUH OH while you’re trying to retrieve that malfunctioning bit of wall, your space suit has malfunctioned!

GERARD BUTLER

(bouncing off every part of the space station)

HEY YOU KNOW WHAT, I’M STARTING TO THINK THAT MAAAAYBE THERE’S JUST A SMIDGE OF SABOTAGE GOING ON.

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Damnit! Turns out that by the time you’re committing sabotage to cover up your sabotage to cover up your sabotage to cover up your sabotage, it starts to get kinda obvious what you’re doing.

(pause)

Nnnnnot that I have anything to do with that. Right, Amr?

AMR WAKED

(hovers creepily at the edge of frame)

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Exactly.

GERARD retrieves the DATA from the WALL FRAGMENT, but finds that he can’t ACCESS IT.

GERARD BUTLER

Oh crap, only a high-level government official could have restricted the data like this! That means that SOMEBODY extremely high-ranking is behind all this, but we don’t know who!

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

It’s Ed Harris. Everybody has figured this out already.

GERARD BUTLER

I have to tell Jim about this. But they might have bugged our comms, and my message may be intercepted by whoever the traitor is.

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

It is quite obviously Ed Harris.

GERARD BUTLER

I better use a code.

(calls Jim)

Hey there, Jim! Just thought I’d stop in the middle of this deadly crisis to randomly reminisce. SOMEtimes I think about that old WHITE porch we used to have at our HOUSE, where our pathetic inbred ASSHOLE of a father used to get FUCKED up on tequila and whale on US with a wrench. Glad that’s all OVER.

JIM STURGESS

A high-ranking government traitor? Why that could only be-

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

ED HARRIS, IT’S ED HARRIS YOU IDIOTS, THERE'S NO OTHER REASON FOR HIS CHARACTER TO EXIST

JIM STURGESS

-the president! America is soon scheduled to hand control of the space station over to an international committee. The president must be causing these disasters in order to retain control!

GERARD BUTLER

Right. Because after a fuckup of this magnitude, obviously the last thing people will want to do is remove the administrators responsible for killing everybody.

JIM STURGESS

And he’s not gonna stop with these penny-ante special effect showcases, either! He’s trying to chain a bunch of them together and bring on a geostorm!

GERARD BUTLER

You mean the tiny, ugly-ass sports compact from Isuzu?

JIM STURGESS

Not a Geo Storm, a GEOSTORM! A made-up, probably impossible meteorological phenomenon where it storms everywhere on the planet at once! According to our computers, this precise sequence of weather disasters - including the ones which the space station hasn’t caused yet - will lead to a geostorm in EXACTLY the nice, round timeframe of ninety minutes!!

GERARD BUTLER

Fuck! Fine then, let’s do an emergency shutdown of the station so it can’t frag the planet. This potentially apocalyptic orbital weapons platform DOES have an emergency off switch, right?

JIM STURGESS

Well, yes... but, ha ha, it turns out it can only be activated using the president’s biometrics. So if the most dangerous thing ever made malfunctions, it can only be stopped if you can get the president into the right specific room quickly enough.

(shrugs awkwardly)

Fortunately, I have been provided with a convenient secret service girlfriend who can grab the president for us!

ABBIE CORNISH

Okay then, I’ll-

JIM STURGESS

Plot devices don’t speak, honey.

ABBIE CORNISH

Then why does this movie have any dialogue at all?

INT. DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

JIM and ABBIE go to find PRESIDENT ANDY at the DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION in ORLANDO. But first they run into ED HARRIS.

JIM STURGESS

Ed, thank god I ran into somebody I can trust! We need to grab the president so we can shut down this Bond villain-esque weather scheme.

ED HARRIS

Uh, okay. I have the president right here in this gun. Stand still so that I might fire him at you.

JIM STURGESS

Wha - YOU?! EVIL?!? DWAAAHHH?!?!?

ED HARRIS

Don’t patronize me. Anyway, part of my plan is to set off a giant lightning storm here and kill everybody in line of succession ahead of me, so I become president!

JIM STURGESS

Are you fucking kidding me? We’ve gone to the trouble of pointing out it’s an election year! Do you honestly expect an administration that ran an environmental program so badly that it KILLED THEM ALL to get reelected?

JIM and ABBIE grab ANDY and run for it! Then a fuckton of LIGHTNING starts DESTROYING THE DNC!

BYSTANDER

Man, those Russian hackers have really stepped up their game.

(incinerated)

ABBIE CORNISH

Quickly, we can get away using this SELF-DRIVING cab we just commandeered! Since I’m driving it there might seem to be no reason for us to point out that it’s a SELF-DRIVING cab, so I guess now the audience has already figured out we’re shortly going to be pulling some trick where it SELF-DRIVES. We’ll still act like we’re being clever, though.

ED HARRIS

Chase that cab, my suicidally dedicated minions! Meanwhile I will teleport to the road ahead of them, so I can set up a rocket launcher ambush! Nothing screams “accidental death” like getting blown up by a fucking rocket launcher. FIRE!

MINION

Uh, you sure you don’t want to wait until we can see who’s driving? Disregarding any possible self-driving tricks, cabs are pretty interchangeable and that could in fact be entirely the wrong car-

ED HARRIS

I SAID FIRE!

They BLOW UP THE CAB! But then ANDY appears and shoves a GUN in ED’S FACE.

ANDY GARCIA

That’s right, we sent the empty cab driving towards you at sixty miles an hour! And now here we are, having caught up to it on foot within the next twenty seconds. My legs are KILLING ME.

ED HARRIS

Come on Andy, you should still let the geostorm happen! My theory is that the massive catastrophe which is going to demolish the face of the planet will handily attack only our political enemies and we’ll be fine!

ANDY GARCIA

Goddamn, how is it that each new layer of your motivations is even dumber than the last?

EXT. EVERYWHERE

Meanwhile DIRECTOR DEAN DEVLIN looks under the COUCH and finally finds the movie’s MISSING DISASTER EFFECTS, and they all start happening at once! Ice storms in Rio! Fire storms in Moscow! Tsunamis in the desert!

GERARD BUTLER

Opposite weather, is it? In that case I’m guessing London is currently having a pleasant sunny day HEY-OOOHHH!

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

But we’re not doing so great here in space either. Somebody’s set off our self-destruct system, and the station’s gonna explode in [amount of time left in which the geostorm can still be averted + just enough time for a thrilling escape]!

GERARD BUTLER

Wait a minute, according some kind of plot mumbo jumbo, the only one who could have started the self-destruct protocol is... ROBERT! You little traitor, you’re working for Ed!

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Okay okay, you’ve got me, but SURPRISE I had a gun strapped to the underside of this desk and now you haven’t got me at all, HA!

GERARD BUTLER

What was your plan if I’d confronted you in literally any other room?

ROBERT SHEEHAN

Clearly I must have guns strapped underneath every surface in the entire space station.

(opens fire)

Aw yeah, no better strategy for staying alive than shooting bullets in a room which is separated from the vacuum of space by a single pane of-

ROBERT accidentally SPACES HIMSELF! The movie does not reveal whether, in his last moments of consciousness, RICHARD’S FROZEN, ORBITING CORPSE happens to collide FOOT-FIRST with ROBERT’S CROTCH, so one is forced to assume that it DOES.

INT. SPACE STATION STOPPING ROOM

Back on EARTH, ANDY arrives in the ROOM he has to be in so that he can turn off the SPACE STATION.

ANDY GARCIA

All right, we did it! I just used my biometrics to activate the thing, so now the world is saved! Right?

JIM STURGESS

Actually Gerard still has to get to another specific room on the station itself and press a big “YES” button for it to actually work.

ANDY GARCIA

OF COURSE. What was I thinking, we can’t let this emergency shutdown be activated merely by having the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED FUCKING STATES TURN IT ON WITH HIS OWN SPECIAL BODY SCAN. No, we need the extra, mega-secure step of having some engineer click “confirm”!

JIM STURGESS

Look, we wanted to do the president kidnapping scene but still give Gerard a big action climax, this was the only way.

In SPACE, GERARD and ALEXANDRA make it to the SPECIAL ROOM, shut down the SPACE STATION and SAVE THE WORLD!

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

Phew, and with one second left to go! That’s right, because we turned off the weather machine when we did all the bad weather instantly cleared up; but if it had gone on for even one more second it would have become a global superstorm which would have wiped out most of humanity. What a sensible premise!

GERARD BUTLER

Unfortunately while we were able to get everybody else off the station, there’s no time left for you and I to escape. But I knew this when I stayed behind. I may not have been a good father, but I hope my daughter can at least appreciate the sacrifice I made by dying in space in order to save-

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

Are you seriously copying Bruce Willis’s death from Armageddon?

GERARD BUTLER

Oh FUCK you’re right. Screw it, let’s just jump in a spare satellite and fly to safety then.

ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA

Hooray! I’m not even gonna ask why a weather satellite has room inside it for passengers!

They HOP ABOARD the SPACE EX MACHINA and fly away!

EXT. LOSER SHACK

Months later, GERARD, JIM and GERARD’S ANNOYING DAUGHTER are all hanging out and fishing.

GERARD BUTLER

Neat, our family’s come un-estranged! What a happy ending. Why if we keep the focus on stuff like this, and the fact that in Brazil the dog didn’t die, we can ignore the fact that millions of people just got horribly murdered!

JIM STURGESS

And the rebuilt space station is now in international hands as intended, and they’re gonna make sure none of this can ever-

GERARD BUTLER

Wait, what the fuck? They’re doing the space station again? After the last one turned out to be a city-destroying death ray which could be commandeered by a single nerd with a smartphone? That’s the least plausible ending this movie could have possibly had!

JIM STURGESS

Uh huh. Yeah, I’m sure in real life politicians the world over would instead start seriously committing themselves to environmental policy. Hmmm?

GERARD BUTLER

...Okay yeah this way’s more realistic.

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

>:(

[fraink5-writes]

From Darkness Into the Lantern Light - Chapter 4

As promised, these chapters are coming out really fast now.

Thanks, of course, to @leio13 for her hard work editing!

Summary: Once upon a time, there was a cold-hearted queen. Although the Tsaritsa, as she was called, possessed her own divinity, she coveted the powers of the other Archons. Aiming to steal the Geo Archon’s gnosis, she sent her strongest warriors to Liyue Harbor. But just when Rex Lapis was almost defeated, he escaped to another vessel, that of a powerless baby, and was swept away to a hidden tower for his protection.

Many years after the great fight, the young and ambitious Harbinger, Childe, arrives in Liyue to grant the Tsaritsa’s desire, but, on his search for the Geo Archon’s gnosis, he ends up tangled in a mysterious man’s dreams to see Liyue Harbor’s Lantern Rite.

This chapter can also be found on Ao3 here. Without further ado, please enjoy!

Mingyun Village hardly lived up to its name. Childe doubted that it constituted as a real village even in its peak. It consisted of a few distant buildings, located near the entrances of mines. Given a couple of years, the buildings would cease to exist entirely. They were in ruins, not much more than straw roofs held up by dilapidated wood. A ghost town like this was a perfect haunt for hilichurls, yet there were none to be seen. Stranger still, one of the buildings appeared to be insignificantly less disrepair than the others; in fact, the lights appeared to be on. In front of the building, over what was once probably a village message board, a new sign with obnoxious lettering read "THE CRUX" and in smaller letters below, "Tavern."

Childe's lips curled. This was an even better situation than he had hoped for. "Let's go there. We should be able to get something to eat."

Zhongli nodded slowly.

On cue, Childe swung open the door to the establishment with perhaps too much enthusiasm. The door's hinges jostled, and Childe was met with stares and murmurs.

"A guest?"

"Our first guest?"

"Here?"

"Ahem, hello." Childe cautiously closed the door behind him and Zhongli. "Sorry about the door. How are you fine folks doing?"

"Wait a minute…" A large man with messy hair surrounding his face stepped forward, clutching at the knife on his hip. "I know who you are." Childe only had time to force a grin before the man pointed his knife and called out, "Seize him!"

Where an ordinary person would feel caution, Childe felt excitement. He counted in his head: nine people in the tavern, three of whom probably couldn’t fight. In other words, favorable numbers. He pulled out the dagger on his right to parry the incoming slice. Then, he swung into the man’s left side, but he was blocked. Swipe after jab after swipe, the man left no openings for Childe’s offensive. So the people of this tavern are, in fact, the crew of the legendary Crux Fleet. It was time for Childe to take the fight a little more seriously. 

Right as Childe’s blood got pumping, two pairs of arms seized him from the sides. A woman of unassuming stature stepped in front. “Make no mistake: our goal isn’t a fair fight. We’re just going to subdue you until the Captain returns.”

So the captain isn’t even here? Childe’s sigh was cut short by a fist in his chest. The two bandanaed men tighten their grips on his arms before another punch landed under his chin, rattling his brain. 

Think. The two men at Childe’s side wouldn’t be so hard to shake off. But once he broke free, another punch flew into his abdomen.

“You wouldn’t stand a chance against Captain Beidou,” the woman scoffed while preparing her next fist. 

Another blow to the face. Childe could easily dod—her knee slammed into his stomach. When Childe staggered, the anticipated fist knocked his jaw. She was relentless, and the next kick was sure to be worse than the first one. Childe braced himself.

“ENOUGH!” Someone’s voice boomed as a spear cracked the floor between Childe and his opponent. “Don’t touch him!”

As the tavern crew faltered, Zhongli stepped in front of Childe and plucked his spear from the ground. His straight back towered over Childe as power coursed from his firm legs to his wide shoulders. His stance was as impenetrable as a shield, sturdy as a boulder and sculpted as a statue. Childe’s heart fluttered as his breath finally started again. For a brief moment, he had even forgotten the Crux Fleet and his desire to meet their captain.

But Childe’s rationality returned when Zhongli cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for raising my voice.” He was regular Zhongli again. The other had been but a fleeting manifestation—a dream. “But he has sworn to guide me to Liyue Harbor in order to see the lantern festival. Don’t any of you believe in the sanctity of contracts? Or, if Liyue is so different than what I have read, don’t you all, at the very least, value the pursuit of dreams?”

Both the Crux Fleet and Childe were taken aback by Zhongli’s efforts at peace. Finally, the acting leader of the crew, the one who had ordered Childe’s capture earlier, stepped forward.

Now he will make a mockery of Zhongli’s pacifism and cause such a great trauma that Zhongli will want to immediately return to his tower. Childe squeezed his dagger, preparing to fend off anyone who dared challenge Zhongli.

However, the man sheathed his knife. “I know the importance of following your dreams. In fact, if it weren’t for Captain Beidou, I’d probably still be wasting my life away on the docks.”

Childe’s knife fell to the floor. He painstakingly squatted down to pick it up without creating a stir, all while intently watching the brawny man.

“If the Captain heard that, she’d laugh!” The scrawnier of the bandanaed men taunted.

“Ahem.” Ignoring the comment from his fellow sailor, the man turned back to Zhongli. “Anyway, what’s your name?”

“Zhongli.”

“I’m Juza, Chief Mate of the Alcor. When the Captain isn’t around, I am in charge here. Out of respect for your goals, we’ll let you go.”

“Thank you.” Zhongli bowed politely.

“Really?” The eyepatched woman whined. She looked ready to punch Childe again.

“Yes, really! I wouldn’t want him to become like the old me, wasting my days away. It’s thanks to Captain Beidou that I am living a fulfilling life, and I think she would give Zhongli the same chance.”

“That’s so corny though.”

“I don’t think you have the right to call anything corny, Furong,” another woman with a braid teased.

“Hmph! Finding the right person is important. Besides, we’re both looking for a fight, anyway, aren’t we?”

“A fight?” Zhongli interrupted, bewildered.

“Yes, you see, I am the strongest person on this ship, minus Captain Beidou. Even Juza has never beaten me at arm wrestling! But one day, I’ll meet the right person who can beat me in a match. Ahh… That’s how I’ll know they’re the one for me!”

“I hope you meet them someday soon.”

“I’m in no rush. I do enjoy this freedom. But, if you want, we can go a round? I’m sure you’ll fare much better than your partner there.”

Childe grumbled. He wanted to warn Zhongli against it for many reasons. What if he lost? What if he won?

“I accept.”

“Alright!” Furong led Zhongli to a nearby table where the woman with braided hair and a woman in purple were having drinks.

“Good luck!” The first woman muttered as she stepped out of the way.

Furong put her right elbow on the table and encouraged the clueless Zhongli to the same. “You mean, you’ve never arm-wrestled before?”

“No, but I was curious.”

“Well, it’s simple. Grab my hand. The goal is to bring it down to the table with yours on top.” Furong firmly clasped Zhongli’s hand. “We can do a practice round. Not that the results will be any different though.”

“Ready?” Juza stepped in as referee. “Go!”

Furong immediately slammed Zhongli’s hand to the table. With an unchanged expression, Zhongli remarked, “I understand now. I am ready for the real match.”

“You sure?” Furong gloated, but Zhongli would not be deterred.

“Alright, ready? GO!”

Zhongli’s and Furong’s hands vacillated at the center, but they steadily tipped in Zhongli’s favor. Then, when they were a mere 45 degrees from the table, their position flipped, and Zhongli’s hand hit the table.

“Haha! Winner again!” Furong beamed. “No offense though! You put up a great fight, but it would take exceptional strength to actually beat me."

“Yeah, yeah, enough of your boasting.” The skinny man with a bandana sighed then turned to Zhongli. “At least, you’re not trapped in marriage. Oh yeah, I’m Xu Liushi. You may have heard of me. Probably not though—too young.”

“Have you ever heard of Third-Round Knockout?” The other man with a bandana chimed in.

“No, what is it?” Zhongli asked, slightly taken aback by the name.

“It’s a famous hole-in-the-wall at Liyue Harbor. Xu Liushi here gave it its name.”

“Oh really? What an honor.”

Xu Liushi fidgeted with his bandana, “Oh, it’s not such a great story…”

“Yeah!” The woman with the braid raised her drink. “He’s the one who passed—”

“Sshh!! Let me tell it at least!” Xu Liushi cleared his throat before resuming his proper story. “You’ve never been there, but their speciality is fermented rice balls.”

“It sounds delicious.”

“Well, essentially they are just rice balls swimming in wine. When I was younger, I lost a bet and had three whole bowls…”

“And fell into the harbor! Haha!” Furong cheered, joining the other ladies in a toast.

Xu Liushi averted his gaze. “Yes, that’s basically what happened. No employers want a sailor who can’t control his drinking. Only Captain Beidou gave me a chance. I’ve cleaned up my act since then thanks to her, and one day I will make it back there and show them how much I’ve changed!”

The whole tavern went up in cheers.

"Hey, why does his dream get applause and not mine?" Furong demanded.

"Because his is actually good." The purple lady remarked nonchalantly.

"Pay them no heed." Juza cut in before Furong could retaliate. "Third-Round Knockout has a good reputation—in spite of its nickname—you shouldn't worry about going there."

Zhongli, his eyes glittering, turned back towards Childe, who just shrugged with a small smile. But Zhongli’s attention was quickly snatched back by the other man with a bandana. 

“Wanna drink?”

“Yes, please. May I have a glass of water?”

The man filled a large beer mug with water. “I’m Drake, by the way. The ship’s  steersman. It’s actually pretty rare that I leave my position on the Alcor, but the Captain let me off this time. Although, frankly, I prefer being at sea.” He poured another mug for himself (this time with beer) and promptly chugged half of it down. “That’s probably true for most of us. I actually wanted to be at the helm of my own ship, going wherever I please. Of course, I trust Captain Beidou’s leadership, but sometimes I still dream of my own vessel…”

“Most of us, though, are pursuing our dreams by following Captain Beidou,” the braided woman interrupted. “I’m Huixing, the helmsman. Nice to meet you!”

“The pleasure’s mine.” Zhongli bowed. “What is your dream?”

“Mine? To see a leviathan with my own eyes! A giant sea monster. I heard Captain Beidou slew Haishan, the legendary creature of the sea, by herself—how cool is that? That’s why I believe that if I stick with Captain Beidou, I will surely get to encounter a behemoth myself. Suling must think the same way.”

A man with a goatee waved from the back of the room and headed over. "I'm just a smith. I don't have any dreams of taking down behemoths. I joined Captain Beidou’s crew in order to see rare weapons. With the Captain’s guidance, finding a legendary weapon won’t be a dream for much longer.” He eyed Zhongli briefly. “Oh yes, have you heard of Hanfeng’s Ironmongers?”

“No, sorry, I have not.”

“Well, my cousin, Master Zhang, is the boss there. If you visit him when you get to Liyue Harbor, he can fix you up with a better polearm than that one. You can tell him I sent you.”

“Thank you. That’s very generous. I must do something in return for all your kindness.”

“Have any mora on you?” The woman in purple chimed in.

“Sorry, I left my wallet at home.”

Childe held his forehead in his hand with a sigh. There was no way this kindness, as Zhongli put it, would be free, which meant one thing: Childe would be paying the expenses.

The woman chuckled. “Well, you’re in luck right now. I’m just the bookkeeper for the Fleet. I can’t set the prices.”

“If she was able to charge you, you wouldn’t have anything left for the rest of your journey,” Juza laughed.

Unlikely, Childe thought to himself.

“I’m all about making money,” The bookkeeper emphasized. “Afterwards, I don’t care what happens to it.”

“That’s a fascinating economic philosophy,” Zhongli remarked without a hint of irony.

“It’s a life philosophy. Life isn’t all about the results—life is the process itself. You should keep that in mind with your dreams too.”

“Don’t mind her; it’s good to focus on your dreams.” A woman in blue nudged the bookkeeper. “Although, I’d say I’ve gotten awfully sidetracked.” She laughed. “Oh, excuse me, my name is Yinxing. I’m the Alcor’s surgeon.”

“What happened to your dream?” Zhongli asked.

“Oh, nothing really. I always wanted to be a veterinarian, but somehow I ended up working as a surgeon on this ship. I don’t regret it, but sometimes I do worry about the kittens I’ve left behind on the harbor.”

“When we get to Liyue Harbor, we can check on them.”

“Oh really? You’re a lifesaver, for the kittens. They should be with a Millelith named Yong’an.”

Zhongli had signed Childe up for three additional activities at Liyue Harbor already, and this last one was particularly risky. Childe would have to chat with him later, although he already considered it a futile effort. Childe was no longer the one in charge of the expedition.

“Hey, hey!” A child appeared from nowhere and tugged on Zhongli’s coat. “Do you wanna join the Cygnus Fleet? We could use someone strong like you!”

“The Cygnus Fleet?”

“It’s my very own fleet—er, will be! I’m gonna create a fleet even stronger than Captain Beidou’s! So you wanna join?”

“Aren’t you a little young to be sailing?”

“No fair! Captain Beidou says the same thing! But I stowed aboard our last voyage and was absolutely fine! Well, Captain Beidou was very mad, but…”

“If you start now, I’m sure you will be an excellent sailor by the time you reach adulthood.” 

“Right?! Right?!” The kid shouted gleefully. “So will ya join?”

“Ask me again in a few years, and we’ll see.”

“Don’t forget: it’s Captain Yue and the Cygnus Fleet!”

“I look forward to hearing of all your accomplishments, Little Captain.” Zhongli smiled gently. The small curve of his lips was very unusual for his face but also becoming. Each second needed to be savored. 

However, the blissful moment was interrupted by a rough voice. “So, what about you?”

“Who, me?” Childe snapped back into reality to find all the predatory eyes of the fleet upon him.

“Yeah, you.” Juza’s hands slid ever so slowly towards his sheath. “What do you want? Your dream?”

“My dream? Oh.” Childe laughed lightly. “Well, this is embarrassing…”

“Go on.”

“You see, what I’m really looking for…” Even Zhongli was watching Childe intently. “Is love.”

“You?!” Furong clutched her stomach in laughter.

“Hey! I don’t think you have any right to laugh! At least I don’t judge people by their arm-wrestling capabilities.”

“You wanna go a round? I bet you couldn’t beat me!”

“I wouldn’t want to try. I don’t want to accidentally end up your husband.”

Furong reached for her knife.

“Hey.” Huixing held Furong back. “You romantics shouldn’t fight. Shouldn’t you be wingmen?” She snickered. “But, I agree. It’s very odd that someone like you would be looking for a romantic partner.”

“How is it odd? We Snezhnayans have feelings too. In fact, our Tsaritsa is the Goddess of Love.”

“So?” Xu Liushi asked, “What kind of person are you looking for?”

Childe had not thought that far. He was hoping that a vague, universal would tide them over. “Someone who is gentle but tough when they need to be. Of course, although they strive for peace, they would be a warrior through and through.” That was the kind of person Childe would offer his life to.

“Good luck finding someone like that. It almost makes Furong’s marriage contest look reasonable,” gibed Xu Liushi, earning him stares like daggers from both Childe and Furong.

“Aaanyway,” Juza tried once again to reign in the rambunctious crowd. “What about you, Zhongli? You’re going to Liyue Harbor to see the Lantern Rite? You’ve never been before?”

“Yes, every year, I have watched them from my window. They twinkle so distantly like stars, yet they call to me. They beckon me. That is why I wish to see them up close.”

“They are quite a sight to behold,” Suling interjected. “Even when we’re at sea, we also enjoy watching them. Then we know we’re not so far from home.”

“Well, you know the legend about the Lantern Rite, right?” The bookkeeper asked.

“No, I do not. What is it?”

"They say that they started lighting the lanterns for the soldiers in order to show them the way home." The bookkeeper and other members of the crew began weaving many tales of Liyue’s history, none of which interested Childe. There were no lanterns for Childe. There was no snow, no fishing holes… Childe was very far from home.

Childe shook his head. He had left his old life behind when he went to the Abyss. As long as he kept the Tsaritsa in his heart, Snezhnaya was always close. 

Childe watched as Zhongli exchanged stories with the Crux Fleet. He couldn’t help but admire the curious glow of his gaze and the grace of his gestures. Childe had thought of Zhongli as a paranoid recluse, yet, at the tavern, he melted in seamlessly with the group—or rather, he had melted the rough crew members into friendly conversationalists. His polite mannerisms exuded a gentle power.

But at the same time, there was another part of Zhongli that set Childe’s heart ablaze. Childe was itching to bear witness to his latent strength again. The same excitement that danced through his nerves before a battle ran rampant with desire: combative and carnal.

[givemequeen]

meeting your parents/family ; the beatles headcanon

request: hey :3 love your writing. how do you think the Beatles would behave in regards to the "meeting your parents" thing? thanks x a/n: y/s/n : your sister’s name pairing: paul x reader, ringo x reader, john x reader, george x reader summary: basically the request warnings: mentions of a deceased father? year: early 60s, 65? word count: 984

Paul-

you would be at home one day and he would bring it up

you agreed because you also thought it was time and you really liked him

your parents would be very excited

honestly, you aren’t too worried

it would be at a restaurant

you got there early but your parents being themselves were already there

paul finally understood where you got your punctuality from

he would be such a gentleman (like always) and your mum loves him so much

like he would shake your father’s hand, kiss your mother, pull your chairs out for both you and your mother, constantly complaint your mother

after the dinner you went for a walk with your parents and paul would be ahead with your father talking about his job

paul would have a very concentrated look and it wasn’t fake

you walk your parents to the train station

“He’s a keeper” whispered your mum to you before getting on the train

overall, the love him very much

bonus:

you and paul rush home because of fans

your mum and dad smile at the sight

paul has his arm around you, protecting you, and a big smile on his face as he looks down at you

Ringo

ringo is nervous as fuck

you brought it up one day when you were eating ice cream by the fair

it reminded you of you as a child with your parents

he said yes though, he loves you and wants to make you happy

you have an older sister and brother and a younger sister so you meet them as well

you tell your parents and they get very excited

they are always hearing about him in your calls or letter

and he’s famous so they know about you two from the papers

it’s at a full family dinner at your parent's (big) house the day before christmas

your whole family is going

aunts/uncles & cousins

ringo has been stressing about it since last week but he tries to hide

you calm him down in the car in the driveway

“they’ll love you, Ringo! I promise.”

he gulped and nodded

he looked so innocent and before stepping out the car you kissed him gently

“HI!” your sister yelled when you opened the door, she immediately hugged you

ringo awkwardly stood by the side and once your sister pulled away she hugged him

you have a younger sister who’s 13 and she freaks out

at first, she was so shy but once you introduce him to her, she calms down

you find them talking all night, sitting on the couch and you’re very happy your family loves them

they each take turns to interview him and they each love him

your brother and him chatted during dinner about music and your brother’s job

by the end of the night, he has one of your baby cousins on his lap and all the kids are around him as he tells stories about The Beatles

John:

at first, john acts like its nothing when you bring it up

but inside it freaks him so much

this means your relationship is going somewhere

and he’s scared

so he calls his friends and your confused when you get home and they’re all around him in the living room

“we’ll leave you two alone.” paul said to you as the three of them left

“everything okay?” you asked john

john didn’t tell you immediately what was happening

“i’m just scared” he finally admitted

“of my parents?” you said with a laugh

“no. of this, of us.”

you were super confused now

what was going on with him?

“it’s my first serious relationship” he confessed “and parents don’t like me.”

you smile down at him, he’s so cute

you spend the rest of the night convincing him you love him very much and everything is going to be ok

turns out, you were right

the dinner went very well

it was at your (and your mum’s) favourite place

your dad kept on asking questions making him nervous

you squeezed his hand under the table and he relaxed

your parents love him 10/10

George:

george is freaking nervous

maybe more than nervous

he bought flowers for your mum and wine for you dad

“Geo, my dad- he isn’t with us.” you said right before you broke down

george apologises so much and you assure its fine

you didn’t tell him, how should he know?

when you two show up at your mums' doorstep george looks sick

you pull him to the side and confront him

he just doesn’t want to mess up

“You won’t! Trust me.” he nods and you ring the bell

your younger sister shows up

she looks at george like he is a fucking ghost, squeals and runs away

after your laughing dies down you go in and call out for you mum

“I’m so sorry honey.” she keeps on saying

your mum was still in the kitchen so she didn’t hear the doorbell

george stands awkwardly behind you, following you around

“where is y/s/n?” you ask looking around the house

“her room, she came into the kitchen, screamed and rushed out.”

suddenly your mum remembers george came

she pulls him into a hug

george was surprised but he quickly relaxed into the hug making you smile

after introductions are made, you go to the table

everything is set out nicely and your sister finally joins you

every now and again she looks at george who is chatting with your mum

“he doesn’t bite, y’know?” you whispered into her ear when you (once more) catch her looking at her

y/s/n jumps a little (you scared her) and scowls at you “shut up.” she snaps making you giggle

she finally calms down when george turns to her and sticks out his tounge making her giggle

while you and your mum clean the dishes (after a mini fight with george, he insisted on doing it himself but you said no) you watch them in the living room chatting

your sister (very shyly) asked him to sign her The Beatles album

your mum got mad at her but george said it was alright

“Sorry.” both you and your mum whispered to him

before you and your mum are done george joins you and takes over for your mum

“They love you.” you say as you gently bump into him

“Yeah, yeah they do.”  george leans down and kisses you

“EWWWW!” yelled your sister from the entrance to the kitchen

[fiesta-freddie]

I love yr blog! how would each of the beatles react to you being pregnant at a young age? thanks sooooo much! i know you’re very busy but i hope you can get around to it?

A/n: I’ve wanted to do one of these for a while now, so thank you for requesting it! I had a lot of fun with it (if you can’t tell from reading it) Feedback is always appreciated!

Paul

When you first give him the news that you’re pregnant he has a look of shock on his face

“Paul what’s the matter?”

“Wait wait now hold on just a minute.”

“Yes Paul?”

“Y/N, If we fucked twice and now your pregnant...does that mean your having twins?”

*mental face palm*

You loved this man but sometimes his level of thinking blew your mind

“No Paul, just because we fucked twice does not mean I’m having twins.”

“Oh thank God” he’d say with a sigh of relief

“But I am still pregnant so weather it’s twins or not there’s still going to be a baby.”

He nods to show he understand

But soon his nod turns into a slow head shake

And his eyes begin to water

A frown falls upon his face

Not even thirty seconds later he’s crying

Why? You don’t know

So keep reading to find out

“Paul why are you crying? You should be happy! Your finally going to be a father!”

He doesn’t think he’s good enough to be one though

“I know it’s just that- what if I can’t do it? What if I’m not capable of being a father? What if the baby doesn’t like me?”

“Paul I know for a fact the baby will absolutely love you and your going to be a great father, I know it. Sure it might be a little harder because we’re younger, but this is a learning experience for both of us.”

You sit and comfort him for a while until he calms down

Once Paul is done with his emotional breakdown he begins to come around more

He starts to talk about the baby which melts your heart because you can see a sparkle in his eyes as he does so

He really does want to be a father and he wants to help you as much as he can

You two start to talk about names

“If its a girl we’ll name her Paulina and if it’s a boy Paul Jr!”

*mental face palm once again*

“Okay...so maybe we should give a little more thought into names before deciding, but I love the enthusiasm”

He talks about your future and how he wants to make sure you have everything you’ll ever need

“-and once the boys and I make it big, I’ll buy us a brand new house in the countryside! I’ll buy anything you could possibly need! We can take vacations to the IsIe of Wight every summer!”

“Paulie, baby love, you don’t need to spend every cent you make on us. As long as I have you and the baby that’s all I’ll ever need.”

He leans in with that adorable smile of his and cups your face in his hands pressing a gentle kiss to your lips

Then he moves his head down so it’s level with your stomach as kisses it.

“Paul what are you doing?”

He looks up at you, hands still in your sides. “I’ve got to give one to the baby too.”

John

Your nervous to give John the news at first

Its because you think he’ll leave you after the baby is born

Of course you don’t want that, no one does

But you decide to tell him anyways, because its better to get it done and over with instead of waiting to do it

What else were you supposed to do? 

Wait seven months before telling him

“Oh hey John, sorry for waiting seven months before telling you, but i’m pregnant! You see how my stomach has gotten bigger? Yeah, its not because I’ve gained an excessive amount of weight, no no its because I’m carrying another human inside of me...yeah so your gonna be a father now!”

Obviously you weren't going to do that (...unless?)

You find John and sit him down to tell him the news

“John there something I need to talk to you about, it serious.”

“Sure sweetheart, what is it?”

You hesitate at first

“Well John I- I don’t really know how to tell you this, but um you see I’m uhh. Well, John I’m pregnant”

He’s silent for a moment before saying anything

“Wait i need to know something important”

“Yes, John?”

“Am I the father?”

*prolonged silence*

“Yes John your the father”

He gets a sudden burst of excitement

He picks you up and spins you around

And he starts to cry a little too

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, the unexpected has happened

John Winston Lennon is crying real tears

*cue emotional music*

“Y/N this is so exciting I’m gonna be a dad!”

It wasn't the reaction you were expecting from him, but you weren't complaining 

He promises to be a better father than his ever was

he knows how important it is to the both of you 

“I’ll look after the little guy all time! I’ll play with him and he can even share the same special star my mother gave to me! Then maybe when hes old enough I can teach him the guitar!”

It warms your heart to see that he is genuinely interested in being a father

“Your going to be a wonderful father John, I can already tell.”

George

Absolutely thrilled when you give him the news

“Y/N this is wonderful, I’m going to be a father! I’M GOING TO BE A FATHER!”

He doesn’t stop talking about it

The first thing he does is call the rest of the boys to tell them the news

He also calls his parents

And your parents

And your other close friends

He makes sure all your craving needs are met

No matter how weird they may seem

“George? You know what sounds really good right now? Tomatoes and icing!”

“Did you- Icing? Like the kind you put on a cake?”

“Yes what other kind would I be talking about?”

“And you want that with a tomato? Like as in a regular plain tomato?”

“Umm yeah?”

So because George loves you so much he makes sure that you get exactly what you want

Sometimes you even convince him to eat some of your weird craving foods too

“Come on Geo, it doesn't taste that bad. Just give it a little try”

He does

He ends up liking some of them

“Sometimes I wish I was the pregnant one so I could eat this stuff without it being weird”

“No you don’t”

Hes extra cautious with a lot of things pretty much everything

And he offers to do almost everything for you even if your capable of doing it yourself

Like with doors

He’ll hold them open and make sure you get through okay

“Hey! Everyone shes pregnant okay? Let her go through the door first and wait till shes all the way through before you go in? Got it? Good”

“Jesus George, I’m pregnant not disabled”

Its only because he loves you and wants to protect you

“But Y/N, it’s my duty to protect you and be by your side at all times...especially when the baby’s born”

You give him a small peck on the lips

“Thanks Geo”

Ringo

Okay let’s get onto Bingo

Wait....

I did this last time

Okay anyways here’s what’s up

Ringo is out here being very protective of, not just you, but the fetus inside of you too

The moment you tell him that your pregnant he baby proofs the entire house

He puts away all the things that could potentially cause harm to a new born child

Sharp objects? Hidden in cupboards (if you look hard enough you might even find Roger in there, who knows?)

Any form of glass? Stored away

Rugs and blankets? In the closets

Jewelry? In the drawer

Hotel? Trivago

I’ve made that joke so many times it’s not even funny any more

Anywhomst, back to

Richard Starkey

Pringle Stone

Richie Tozier (yeah that’s right, I did that😏)

Ringo Starr

“Ritchie, you don’t have to worry. And besides the baby isn’t even going to be here for another nine months”

“Y/N it’s always better to be safe than sorry.”

He goes full mom mode

Constantly cleaning and sanatizing everything

Washing clothes, bedsheets and towels all the time

“Ringo, honey you don’t need to go overboard on the cleaning. I appreciate it a lot, but don’t you think it’s a little much? I mean especially if the baby isn’t going to be here anytime soon”

“Y/N babies can get sick very easily”

He doesn’t want your child to end up like he did

Sick all the time

In and out of hospitals

Missing out on opportunities

“I just want the little fella to have a good childhood, ya know? Better than what I had to go through”

“Ringo, I know that the baby will have a great childhood. I mean look at us! We’re going to be great parents, I know it!”

“You think so?”

“Honey, I know so”

👏CUDDLES

👏ALL

👏THE

👏TIME

(Part of it is because blankets are being washed half the time)

When you two cuddle he always ALWAYS, wraps his arms around your stomach because he says “it’s like we’re cuddling with the baby too”

You two usually end up falling asleep like that and wake up in the morning wrapped in each other’s arms

“Good Morning Ritchie” you kiss him on the head

“Good morning, love”

He faces down towards your stomach and places a gentle kiss on it

“Good morning little one”

————

Taglist: @beatlevmania @givemequeen @harrimoon @wrongbea-tle @princesof-theuniverse @john-lemonade

If you want to be added to the taglist let me know!

[avengerscompound]

Running to a Standstill - 3

Running to a Standstill: A Captain America Fanfic

Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers x F!Reader

Word Count:  2219

Rating:  E

Square filled: none

Warnings: canon typical violence

Synopsis: While on the run from an unknown organization trying to take your son, you meet two super-soldiers.  While they try to help you get to the bottom of who is hunting you and your son, feelings come out and admissions are made that make your personal life even more tricky.

Chapter 3

You were starting to feel antsy.  You’d been living in your small apartment in Bedstuy for much longer than you had stayed anywhere since you’d gone on the run.  You were growing actual roots and it was starting to make your skin itch.

Being in a building owned by an Avenger had lulled you into some sort of sense of security.  Clint was low key enough not to draw too much attention to the building while also adding the protection because of the fact he was an Avenger.  You’d let that make you think you were safe.  You’d made friends.  There were kids that Geo played with.  You had semi-regular jobs so you could actually buy furniture and other things that couldn’t just be shoved into your bag when you had to run.  You’d started to think of it as your home.

That alone had been enough to make you antsy.  You’d find yourself relaxing and forgetting that there were people trying to take your son from you and then it would suddenly hit you and you’d start double-checking there was no one there watching you.

Then Captain America got involved.

You worried that him just being around would attract looks from the wrong people.  The fact that Steve was actively searching for the people looking for you made you worry that it would draw their attention and they’d find you like that worried you too.

It put you on edge and you felt torn.  In the past, as soon as you felt like this you’d pack up and run.  You didn’t ignore your gut feelings like that.  The couple of times you had, you’d ended up nearly getting caught.  You had a home now though and you were reluctant to leave it.

The other problem was, the longer you waited to run, the more reasons you found to stay and two of those big burly reasons were currently at your apartment trying to balance talking to you and playing with Geo at the same time while you were in the middle of an anxiety cleaning session.

Over the last month, they’d been around a lot.  After your first date with Steve, he’d called and asked you out a few more times in much more casual settings.  He always spoke to you about your ‘situation’ as he liked to call it, but it wasn’t just that.  He told you about his friends.  He asked you about yours.  You each spoke about your childhoods.  They felt like a mix between genuine dates and being questioned as a witness to a crime.

Bucky had come by a few times on the pretense of coming to see Clint or Natasha and wanting to check to see if you were okay.  He brought you and Geo lunch another time saying he was in the area and he thought he’d check in on you.  And another time he brought a little Stark Pad as a gift for Geo saying Stark had asked him to drop it off.  He always spent a little time talking with you and you wondered if Steve had actually asked him to check that you hadn’t run and that there was no one watching you.

Whatever the case, they both became comfortable with just visiting after not too long, and you quite liked when they did.  They were kind and funny and they understood what you were going through in a way most people didn’t.  Geo liked them too and with all the running you’d been doing, he didn’t warm up to people easily.  Even Clint and Natasha had made friends with him through Lucky initially.

You really liked them.  Really, really.  You could see that becoming more than just the slight crush you were harboring for each man if you let it - and god did you want to let it.  Yet that desire made you feel anything but good.  You had a tight knot of anxiety in your chest and you were jumping at every shadow, yet anytime you considered actually running, it made you feel sick.

“... and then he just turned into 100 birds and flew off,” Bucky said.

You’d been staring out the window and you slowly looked back at him as the words sunk in.  “Huh?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Bucky said.  “I was asking if you wanted to order in.”

“Oh… uh… I probably should cook,” you said, looking back out the window.

“We can pay,” Bucky said, but your attention was back on the man who’d been standing in the entrance to the alley slightly down the street again.

Steve put down the Lego bricks he’d been adding to the structure he, Bucky, and Geo had been assembling and he got up.  He came over to you and looked out the window, putting his hand on your hip to pull your attention back to him.  It was quite an intimate gesture for Steve.  Despite the fact you’d been sort of dating for a month now, neither of you had made any kind of move to make it at all physical.  You hadn’t wanted to make a move because it was just one more push towards having a life here that you were unwilling to leave.  Why Steve had kept his distance you weren’t sure.  Part of you thought he was taking his lead off you, but there was also his confession about how he’d been carrying a torch for Bucky his whole life and maybe it was just that you still hadn’t cleared the Bucky level of minimum attraction he had admitted to.  “What’s wrong?”  He asked.

“I don’t know,” you said.  “There’s been a van parked across the road all day.  Not the same van, but always a van.  And now that guy has just been standing in that alley for an hour.”

Bucky tensed and stood.  “I’ll go check it out.”

Steve held out his hand for a second as he assessed the street.  You don't know what he was looking at but he gave a small nod.  Bucky stalked out the door with his jaw set and Steve looked back at you.

“How about you go get some things together.  We’ll have a sleepover at the tower,” he said.  His voice was far calmer and upbeat than the implications that the suggestion held.

You nodded and as you hurried off, there was a squealing of wheels from outside, followed by a gunshot.  Your heart started hammering and you spun back around and nearly slammed back into Steve.  He was holding Geo who had his Stark Pad clutched in his chubby little hands. “Okay,” Steve said in that same cheery, calm voice.  “We're not going to pack.  I assume you have a ‘go bag’?”

You didn't even answer, you just went to your closet and pulled it out from under a pile of blankets.  It was a duffle bag and contained spare clothes, all your ID both real and fake, and rolled up wads of cash.

As you went out, Steve put his arm around you and began to escort you outside. “Just nice and calm. We’re going to take Nat’s car.”

“You have the keys?” You asked.

“Don't need them,” he answered, as you both entered the street.

It was empty now, and as you went around the side of the building you saw Clint sitting on the fire escape shirtless but with his bow out.  “Bucky took after the van, Nat went for the guy,” he yelled down and dropped some keys as Steve passed under him.

Steve caught them easily and looked up at Clint.  “Thanks,” he called up.

Natasha’s Chevrolet Stingray sat a little further up the ally and Steve pressed the button on the keys to unlock it.

“I thought you were going to break into it,” you said with a nervous laugh.

Steve chuckled as he opened the door for you.  “I was going to.”

You looked around wildly.  “I don’t have a seat for Geo.”

“It’s okay,” Steve said, putting Geo in your hands.  “Just hold him on your lap.  I’ll drive carefully.  If a cop stops us, I’ll get them to escort us.”

You got into the car shaking and put the seatbelt on, holding Geo tightly.  Steve started the car and started it.  “Hey little guy,” Steve said, softly.  “You think you can get the traffic lights to be green for us all the way?”

“Umm…” Geo hummed and the tablet in his hand began to flicker.  You recognized what was happening.  Your son was talking to the network that ran the traffic lights through the network connected to the tablet.  The light on the street ahead turned green and as you passed through it, the one at the next intersection turned green too.  All the way over the bridge and into the underground garage at the Avengers towers the lights changed to green before the car reached them.  You got out of the car with Geo and Steve went and grabbed your bag.  Geo looked up, his eyes wide and his mouth opened.

“Mommy,” he whispered.  “She’s everywhere.”

“Who is?”  You asked as you tried to see what he was seeing in this dark, underground parking lot.

Geo raised his hands in the air as you carried him to the elevator with Steve.  “Is Fwiday,” he said.

“No, sweety.  It’s Wednesday,” you answered as the elevator door opened and you and Steve got in.

Steve chuckled.  “FRIDAY can you introduce yourself?”

“Of course, Captain Rogers,” a disembodied female voice replied.  She had an Irish accent which surprised you almost as much as a random woman’s voice coming out of nowhere.  “Good evening, ma’am.  I’m FRIDAY, I’m the Artificial Intelligence system that runs both the tower and Mister Stark’s Suits.”

“Fwiday!”  Geo said excitedly, bouncing in your arms.

“Hello Geo,” FRIDAY replied.  “I’m so happy you are visiting.”

“You is nice, Fwiday,” Geo said and the elevator doors opened.

“Thank you, Geo.  You are very nice too,” the AI replied.

“Oh man,” you said, putting Geo down.  “I don’t think he’s ever been near an AI before.”

“I told you he’d like it here,” Steve said, putting his hand on your shoulder.  “Get comfortable.  We’ll have a sleepover.  You’re going to be safe here.”

He put your bag down and went into the kitchen.  “How about we order a bunch of comfort food to be delivered.  Pizza, mac and cheese, fried chicken.  I’ll make some popcorn.”

You looked around nervously.  “You sure we’ll be safe?”

“I promise,” Steve said smiling.  “Now, the two dark blue couches fold out.  But you just need to press a button on the side of them.  And there are blankets in a hidden cupboard on the wall.”

You looked around and Geo pointed at the door as the couches opened up on their own, you assumed because he’d asked them to.

You set up and made a food order together.  You calmed down for a little while as you all sat eating popcorn together.  Steve put his arm around you and you settled in against him feeling the closest to actual boyfriend and girlfriend you had yet.  When the security guy brought the food back you panicked again.

“Where do you think Bucky is?”  You asked.

“It’s fine,” Steve reassured you.  “If there was a problem, FRIDAY would have told me.”

“You’re sure?”  You asked.

“Yes, ma’am.  Sergeant Barnes is currently on the way back to the Tower,” FRIDAY said.

You relaxed again.  “Okay.  Okay.”

Bucky arrived about twenty minutes later looking a little beaten up.  “Man, they took me on a chase.”

“Did you catch them?”  You asked as he hopped up on the fold-out bed beside you and grabbed himself a slice of pizza.

“Yeah, don’t worry.  They’re being held,” Bucky said.

“By who?”  You asked.

“Don’t worry,” Bucky said, rubbing your back.  “The good guys.”

You let out a breath and leaned your head against his shoulder.  “Thank you,” you whispered.

“Of course,” he said rubbing your back. “You’re with us now.”

It took a little while for you to relax again.  Geo babbled happily to FRIDAY while Bucky ate and you all half-watched a movie.  By the time he was asleep on the fold-out couch, you felt relaxed.  Actually relaxed too.  Not in the way you usually were where you kept checking out the window or squirreling away money in your go-bag for when you weren’t anymore.  Not safe for now.  Actually safe.

You drifted off to sleep between them quickly once that feeling of contentment hit you.  Plates and containers of food were scattered around you.  You woke again as Bucky started climbing off the couch.  It was dark in the room except for the lights from things like the microwave and the power button on the tv.  Steve was sleeping beside you, his arm draped over your waist.

“Where are you going?”  You whispered.

He looked back at you and ran his hand down your arm.  “To bed.”

“Stay…” You said, looking up at him.

“You sure?”  He asked.  “It’s pretty squashy on that bed.”

You nodded and grabbed his hand.  “Please?”

He climbed back into the bed and wrapped his arms around you, pulling himself up close.  It was warm and quiet between the two super soldiers and it wasn’t long before you were asleep.

// NEXT