#also why can i freely edit every post but that one | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vincentcheungteam · 2 years

Text

Freely You have Received, Freely Give

Posted by Vincent Cheung on May 11, 2005

(The following is an edited email correspondence.)

Mr. Cheung,

Why do you think that it is "Christian" (if this is not how you would put it, please say so) to make your works available to the public free of charge?

I indeed consider it a Christianity duty to offer my teaching materials free of charge. Let me explain.

One reason that I have been successful at my studies is because God has granted me intellectual capabilities that can handle the subjects that I must deal with. No, I do not claim that I am a genius, but I will affirm that my mind "delivers" — it performs well, at least well enough to competently learn, process, and teach the relevant materials.

(What do we have that we have not received? A sound mind can be one of the gifts that God endows upon his ministers, given for the purpose of serving him and his people. It is sustained and developed through the means of grace, such as prayer, reading, and biblical meditation, by which the Spirit of God enhances a person’s mental capabilities. See Daniel 1:17–20, Psalm 119:97–100, Ephesians 1:17–18, and James 1:5.)

But another reason that I have been successful at my studies is because, in his providence, God has provided me with the means and the opportunities to acquire an abundance of intellectual resources. This is more relevant to our focus.

My home library includes over 300 systematic theologies (excluding works that treat specific theological topics but are not complete systems), the complete or almost complete works of Calvin, Owen, Edwards, Clark, Van Til, Schaeffer, Warfield, Spurgeon, and a number of other theologians and preachers, almost all the prominent classic and contemporary biblical commentaries, the complete works of Plato, Aristotle, and other major classic and contemporary philosophical works, the works of the early church fathers, several sets of encyclopedias, many obscure books, and many other classic and contemporary works.

All of this adds up to almost 15,000 volumes. This does not include all the materials that I have in electronic format, or theological journals, or audio lectures and sermons. Some people probably have even more than I do, but I doubt that most people’s private libraries even approach one tenth of the above.

Of course, one still has to read the books and use them well, and most people’s reading comprehension is dismal, so giving them more books will not proportionately increase their theological aptitude. Possessing a mind that can perform means that I am able to get more out of the same books than many other people, and at times to go beyond the works of other scholars to form my own improved conclusions. In other words, it is not enough to have access to information, but you must also have a capable mind to work with the information.

In any case, right now the point that I wish to emphasize is that it does make a difference to have more books, or to have greater access to scholarly writings. But this also means that, at least from this perspective, the poorer you are, the more limited you are in your theological growth. To the extent that this is due to the failure of Christian ministers and scholars to freely distribute their teaching materials, I find this very disturbing.

Moreover, pastors who have been to seminaries are taught to hide academic and technical information from their congregations in their sermons. The members are almost never exposed to all that the pastor received in seminary. As I have stated in my Preach the Word, this is the wrong approach. Even if they do not make their sermons as rich in content as seminary lectures, pastors should hold classes in their churches that offer at least the essential materials taught in seminaries. (These classes should be opened to every church member — men, women, and even children — and they should be given free of charge.) In fact, I believe that churches should provide adequate instructions to their own members so that they don’t even need to attend seminaries before taking on an office in the church. In a sense, seminaries are needed only because churches have failed in their teaching ministries.

With the above in mind, I have determined long ago that I will do my part to help by always making all of my works available for free in at least one readily accessible format. God willing, as the resources of this ministry increase, I will be publishing materials produced by other people also, so that together we can cover more topics, including those that I lack interest or ability to write about. Most of these people will probably be trained by myself, or at least heavily influenced by this ministry’s materials, so that all the materials published by this ministry will be consistent in content. In any case, no matter how gifted a person may be, if he refuses to let me distribute his materials for free, then I have no use for him. He is a disgrace to the kingdom of God, and I will tell him to GET OUT!

Jesus says, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). Now, I do not believe that a minister should never ask for money, since Paul says, "If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?" (1 Corinthians 9:11; see also 1 Corinthians 9:13–14 and 1 Timothy 5:17–18). In fact, I believe that all faithful Christian ministers should be paid well, and that most Christians are free loaders who are practically robbing their ministers. They should be harshly rebuked. But this is different from saying that we should always charge money for our books and sermons without providing a free option; rather, we must arrange it so that those who are poor but are eager to learn may still advance in knowledge.

I would not consider it necessarily wrong to charge something for a sermon tape to defray the cost (although my policy has always been to give them out without charge), or even to make a profit for the ministry, so that the ministry can grow; however, I would always make a way for people to get it for free, so that the relatively poor will still have some way to access it. And if there must be a charge for the product (such as my paperback books, since their sales are handled by a book printing company), I would forgo all royalties, or find some way to minimize the cost.

In other words, I understand that Christian publishing is a business, and to survive and grow, the company must make a profit. However, if it is really Christian publishing that they are doing, then they should make some way for the poor to obtain the same materials for free, even if it has to be in a less convenient format. This is very easy to do in today’s world. For example, they could charge money for their paperback books, but offer the same materials in electronic format.

On a related note, ministers should never enforce their copyrights on their books and sermons (Philippians 1:18), unless these materials are somehow being abused by unbelievers to oppose the Christian cause. From a biblical perspective, a minister must allow people to make unlimited copies of their materials and distribute them.

This is why I will never consider signing an exclusive agreement with a publisher for my materials — that is, one in which I give up control over my own materials, that prevents me from freely offering them to people in the formats that I choose, and that prevents people from freely making unlimited copies.

This issue is also related to why I am so ambitious about eventually getting certain things published, such as materials comprehensive enough to cover the entire Christian worldview, and perhaps even homeschooling texts up to the 12th grade level — all for free in at least one format. God willing, we will get at least some of this done.

As I have mentioned to you in a previous message, one of my regrets is not having the time and the talent to write songs that I can let other people use for free in their private and public worship. Perhaps God will send someone who can do this for us in the future.

By the way, I am aware of at least two instances in which my orthodoxy has been questioned precisely because I offer my materials for free. In both instances, the reasoning was that since heretics and cults would do anything to spread their teachings, the fact that I offer my books and recordings for free should immediately cause suspicion.

What does this say about the usual practice of Christian ministries? (It also betrays the stupidity of these Christians, since this process of reasoning is fallacious, and there are more than a few other legitimate ministries and churches that also offer their materials for free.)

According to them, real Christians would not so eagerly spread their teachings, and real Christians — if they are really orthodox in their theology — would charge money for their books. If you are a real Christian, or if your teachings are sound and biblical, then you would certainly try to make a profit instead of trying to maximize distribution and to help the poor. If you don’t charge anything, then you are probably a heretic. Charging money makes your work legitimate! This is how twisted things have become.

(The following an edited response taken from a separate email correspondence. The topic has to do with a pastor who stubbornly refuses to freely distribute his sermons.)

…This is a very strange situation. I have never even heard of such coveting. Am I stepping out of line by asking for a reason why he will not allow this? How should I approach this man? He is a very gifted teacher…

As you know, I insist that sermons should be available for free — we should emphasize distribution, not profit.

Keeping in mind that I still have very little information about this man and your relationship with him, I will give the following broad advice.

If you are in a position to pursue the Matthew 18 church discipline procedure with him, then you may choose to do so.

If I were the head of his ministry, and he is under my authority, or if I were one of the elders, I would certainly side against him, and if he does not repent, vote to remove him, and treat him as one would regard Balaam. I think the situation is this severe. If upon examination, I discover that he is really doing this because of covetousness, and not because of some misguided but comparatively innocent motive (he cannot be completely innocent), then I would deal very harshly with him.

Nevertheless, legally speaking, he has a right to restrict the distribution of his materials, so unless you can pursue church discipline with him, there is not much else that you can do, especially since it seems that you have already registered your disagreement with his policy by writing him a letter.

A minister must be sound in both doctrine and character, and if he is as you say he is, then it is no great loss to the church that he limits the distribution of his materials. We don’t need him — even if he is as gifted as you say, just as God could raise up children of Abraham from stones, he can raise up another like him or better. In this sense, any one of us is easily replaceable, no matter how gifted we are; therefore, let us flee pride and covetousness, but serve with gratitude and generosity, with fear and trembling.

From: https://web.archive.org/web/20060316175951/http://www.vincentcheung.com/2005/05/11/freely-you-have-received-freely-give/

#vincentcheung #copyright

1 note · View note

felinedetached · 3 years

Text

Fandom Ableism in the MCYT Community

[Edited 14 June 2021]

One thing I’ve noticed about the MCYT (Dream SMP, specifically) community on both Tumblr and Twitter is that when informed of things that are ableist, or harmful to ND people, a lot of people ignore the post/tweet, derail it or actively fight against it.

“I’m ND so I can’t be ableist” is a common statement, which is blatantly untrue. Even I’ve used ableist terms and phrases before, without realising they were harmful. So as a neurodivergent person, with autism, BPD, depression/anxiety, dyslexia, psychosis & brain damage*: here’s some common ableist things both CCs and fandom say almost constantly**.

*note that not every neurodivergent person will agree with me on these, but these are commonly ableist things people have previously talked about online, and/or have been discussed between me and other neurodivergent friends. No minority can ever speak for the entire group.

**note that a lot of these are common outside the MCYT community as well, and that some of these are just considered societally acceptable. This isn’t okay, but it explains why a lot of people don’t recognise jokes or comments like these are wrong, and it means that it’s not a direct moral failing of people that they don’t immediately or directly recognise these comments as wrong.

Now, let’s get into the things you might not have realised are potentially ableist:

1. Use of “Psychopath/Psycho/Sociopath/Schizo” and other demeaning terms for people with mental illnesses as insults, or to describe characters who are considered villainous. Psychopath/Psycho/Sociopath are already terms that people with ASPD dislike using, even not as an insult, but using these terms to describe people or characters who you disagree with or see as villainous only contributes to the villainisation of people with ASPD and other mental illnesses. Using c!Dream as an example: Dream as a character is not confirmed to have any of these mental illnesses. He is, however, commonly labeled as psychotic/psychopathic, incapable of any kind of compassion.

He is also a character that fandom largely insists that nobody is allowed to sympathise with. This is a huge issue, and has hurt a lot of people, especially people with low empathy, or mental illnesses that cause them to relate to some of c!Dream’s actions (e.g. pulling away from all his friends, desperately grasping at straws to gain control of situations etc). Insisting that these characters are characters it’s impossible to sympathise with, all while calling them psychotic/psychopathic/sociopathic, is extremely harmful, and I hope this post draws attention to that.

Here’s another post that talks about that.

2. Use of the term “freak”, in general. As an insult, “freak” has been typically used to insult neurodivergent people, people with visible physical disabilities (ex. “freakshow”, and the term was reportedly created with the intent of insulting people with physical disabilities), or people who display any kind of abnormal/atypical social behaviour/physical aspects — people who are usually ND people who lack a diagnosis or people with physical disabilities. Recent usage has come to mean “people who do things that hurt other people”, but this is harmful as well; using words like “freak” or “weirdo” which mean “socially atypical behaviour” to refer to people who are actually doing things that hurt other people conflates the two, and often has a side effect of hurting disabled people who see it.

3. Calling ND ccs like Technoblade monotone/emotionless. While the term “monotone” isn’t ableist in and of itself, the fact that it’s being used against a neurodivergent man who emotes in a different way to neurotypical people rubs a lot of ND people the wrong way. I’ve partially discussed this here, in a tweet responding to a person who said that c!Technoblade, quote, “has no human capabilities like emotion for example”. This, however, is not something contained to c!Technoblade — one of the most common jokes in this fandom is how rare it is to hear emotion in Technoblade’s voice.

The issue with that is that neurodivergent people almost universally agree that Technoblade emotes perfectly fine, and, in fact, emotes more freely and clearly than a lot of others do. Hence, calling him monotone perpetuates the idea of ND people as emotionless/less able to be hurt/less expressive, which often hurts us. It also contributes to the dehumanisation of ND people — related to how ND symptoms are most often seen in robots or monsters in shows — and is generally extremely harmful, on top of being untrue.

4. Related to point 3: the infantilisation of ND ccs like Tubbo and Dream, usually paired with assigning “caretakers” of their friends, like Tommy and George. This is about the posts that spread like “omg, Tommy helps Tubbo with his dyslexia, that’s so cute” or “omg George is so patient with Dream, I could never sit through that” on videos of Dream vocally stimming because of his ADHD. This is another post that talks about this, but I wanted to talk more about why this is harmful here.

4a) With Tubbo’s dyslexia, from someone with dyslexia, it isn’t harmful to correct his spelling and move on. Personally, I think this is helpful — others will think it’s condescending, because not all ND people are the same — but as the above linked post mentions, this is not what Tubbo’s twitch chat does. This is not what the comments say. It’s all things about how it’s “so cute” that Tubbo can’t spell, how Tommy/Ranboo are “so patient” with correcting him. This is rooted in the need to constantly watch over ND people while acting like we can't live our lives without someone having us under constant vigilance. It feels like savior-complex ableism, like people are trying so hard to not be ableist that they spin back around to hurting us instead. And it feels like we are being treated like children. Like we are lesser than, and need to be monitored/watched over.

4b) Similarly to what people do with Tubbo, the comments on posts about Dream’s vocal stimming are often full of people calling George “patient” for “dealing with it”, or claiming they “wouldn’t be able to handle it”. This is inherently ableist. They’re praising George for basic human decency towards ND people, and claiming in the same breath that they wouldn’t be able to do that themselves. And then there’s these.

These comments infantilise Dream — claiming he “wouldn’t be able to stop/calm down” without George’s help, implying he’d “spiral out of control” or claiming “everyone is now my child”. It’s all related to the infantilisation of ND people, and the belief that without help/a caretaker we cannot take care of ourselves.

5. The way people treat ccs who likely have undiagnosed neurodivergencies, like Wilbur. Wilbur has openly admitted on stream before that his parents considered getting him an autism diagnosis. He also openly admits on stream that he has habits he doesn’t understand why he does, and hyperfixates on things for months at a time and doesn’t know why. Posts like this have gone around Tumblr, in which Wilbur displays blatantly ND traits.

And fandom generally calls him weird for expressing those traits. This video where he talks about eating sand because he likes the texture? That’s an ND trait. This video where he talks about his irrational hatred for anteaters? While mostly a joke, irrational hatred of something when you can’t explain/understand/articulate why is also a common ND trait. He spends 20 minutes during a Philza stream info-dumping about self-sustaining ecosystems (sharing the photo, because I think it’s really cool) and fandom begins calling them “Wilbur’s weird jars”. It’s demeaning to people who infodump, and as a ND person who hyperfixates and infodumps it’s really upsetting to see. It’s also upsetting to see other ND traits being called “weird” or “freaky” & made out to be soley some funny joke for NT people to laugh at us about.

Additionally: It’s strange to me that people think it’s okay to make fun of ND traits just because they know that or perceive that the person they’re making fun of is NT. It’s still making fun of ND traits. It’s still insulting ND people. It’s still ableist as hell. Why is it okay just because the person is NT?

6. Implying that c!Ranboo’s enderwalking is inherently violent. Ranboo has shown us time and time again that the enderwalk state isn’t a violent state. That the enderwalk state isn’t a seperate version of c!Ranboo that does horrific things. Why, then, is it so common to imply that Ranboo would be violent and hurt people why he’s enderwalking?

It comes back to the perception of c!Ranboo as a character with “two halves”, or as a character with DID. Ranboo has made it clear that his character does not have DID, but this headcanon about his character persists, and it persists in a way that is directly harmful to people with DID — and to people who dissociate or sleepwalk. We do not commit horrific acts while we dissociate, while we’re sleepwalking, because the majority of the time we’re just checked out, our body is on autopilot. Insinuating that we do is harmful. Insinuating that Ranboo has “another half” that’s inherently violent or evil is harmful to people with DID. I’m not going to ask you to stop writing these headcanons etc, but please consider the effect you have on people before you do.

7. Related to point 6: the perception of c!Ranboo as “soft” and “cute” and/or perfectly moral because of his canonical anxiety. This is really harmful, and comes once again from the infantilisation of disorders like anxiety and depression. Ranboo has made clear time and time again that his character isn’t moral, and in fact is extremely inconsistent. He’s portrayed his character as inconsistent, as someone who hurts his friends unintentionally and often due to his want to please everyone, and yet he’s constantly seen as “soft/pure/the only moral one” because of his anxiety causing to have repeated and consistent spirals on-screen. These spirals are not healthy. They don’t indicate his “perfect morals” or make him more moral than anyone else on the SMP. Please stop infantilising people with anxiety, it’s really hurtful.

8. Implying that c!Technoblade is inherently a violent person because of his voices. I’ll admit here: my hallucinations are visual. I do not get auditory hallucinations, and I cannot speak for people who do. But many people have spoken out about this, and discussed how talking about Technoblade as an inherently violent character because of his voices is harmful, and a stereotype of people with schizophrenia.

Technoblade’s character is, in and of itself, inherently a stereotype (despite the fact that his chat are more likely to be a supernatural entity than a symptom of a disorder such as schizophrenia) in that the idea of “hearing voices that encourage violence” is a stereotype of people with schizophrenia. As an actual symptom, is a very uncommon one. More common auditory hallucinations for people with schizophrenia or psychosis are, reportedly, whispers or unrelated conversation. One of my friends hears screaming.

But the issue is with the implication that c!Technoblade is “driven to violence” by the voices. Canonically, he has dealt with the “bloodlust” of chat by grinding withers. He’s perfectly capable of being peaceful, even with “voices pushing for violence”, and he’s perfectly capable of being violent without the “voices” influence. It’s the connotations and the history that fandom has in demonising and villainising c!Technoblade for even having the “voices” in the first place, and acting having them makes him inherently violent and unstable. There’s precedent for that already in society, and it’s not okay to perpetuate it.

[Edit: as of 22/05/2021, I do experience auditory hallucinations, and I can confirm that I am not any more violent, and the voices I hear don’t push me to violence. The clearest one just said ‘click’ in my ear.]

9. Jokes about brain damage and the use of “brainrot” as a term. I made a post about how common jokes about brain damage are here, and I would like to reiterate bits of it.

Jokes like these are really really normalized in modern society. I’m sure a lot of you didn’t even register it as wrong, and that isn’t a moral failing! It’s a norm in society, and that means the majority of people arent going to register it as something hurtful, because it’s said so often. But it does still hurt. The idea of using a disability as an insult is really harmful and it feels dehumanizing, like our disability makes us lesser, something that should be laughed at.

“Brainrot” as a term originated in Skyrim, as a disease that literally rotted your brain. However, as a term, it has very similar connotations to “brain damaged” and has been used in similarly joking and insulting ways. It’s something that feels really off to me and other neurodivergent people to see used by neurotypical people. It even sometimes feels uncomfortable when used by neurodivergent people, even if it’s used in positive ways. I know quite a few people who have removed it from their vocab completely because of the connotations, and I have personally done the same. Once again, I am just asking you to please consider your words before you use them.

10. Calling c!Wilbur during his Pogtopia Arc “Vilbur”. Yes, he was a villain. Yes, he hurt people. But c!Wilbur during the Pogtopia Arc only has one major difference from c!Wilbur during the L’Manburg Arc: a visible depiction of mental illness, specifically paranoia and psychosis. Treating him as a seperate person and calling that seperate person “Vilbur” comes across as extremely hurtful, and contributes to the villainisation of mentally ill people. His mental illness does not excuse him from hurting people, but calling c!Wilbur “Vilbur” upsets a lot of us, because wether or not it’s intended, it feels reductive, hurtful, and insulting.

If you got to the end of this post, thank you so much for reading. I hope that this helped you recognise things that you might not have known were ableist, and that you consider what I’ve said here. I also know that I haven’t addressed everything ableist that’s spread through the MCYT fandom community, so if you’re ND and have something you’d like to add, please feel free.

2K notes · View notes

flightless-rising · 3 years

Text

Made a new Flight Rising iceberg and also wrote an explanation.. man, this took way longer than it should have.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy :D

Iceberg explanation

( If there are any mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this asap. Also, English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical errors)

EDIT 28/06: Added some new info! Thanks to everyone who tagged and responded with new stuff to add, I really appreciate it!

The Sky

Naomi

Back in the day, whenever you bought or sold something on the auction house a message would show up in your inbox confirming the transaction. These messages were sent by one of the dragon couriers: Pearl, Spitfire or Edgar.

On January 2016, a strange glitch occurred that replaced the images and names of couriers with the ones of a female fae named “Naomi”.

It goes deeper than that, though: if you looked up her name in the user search menu, a clan would pop up with over 15 million dragons.

It was quickly discovered that all exalted dragons had somehow become part of her clan. Naomi herself apparently didn’t exist, and clicking on her page redirected to an error page. This was later fixed and the original Naomi page can be now visited.

What exactly caused this glitch is still a mystery and today Naomi is still a well-known piece of Flight Rising history.

Missing Tidelord

In the official lore, the deity of the water flight disappeared in early 2018, as described in the short story “Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow”.

In the follow up story (Mixed Elements) posted in April of the next year it is confirmed that the Tidelord is still missing, but alive. This coincides with the fact that the Tidelord account hasn’t made any forum posts aside from festival announcements.

Emperors

Emperors are a type of unobtainable dragon that are formed when several Imperial corpses are left in close proximity to each other, which then fuse forming a multi-headed chimera.

Emperors are described in the lore as having an animal-like behavior and destroying everything in sight. They are extremely difficult to kill, which is the reason why in-universe Imperials have such strange burial rites.

An emperor named Luminax is first described in the Raising a Family short story, and their sprite can be seen walking around on the world map.

The Surface

Old color wheel

Originally, there were only 67 available colors for dragons. On June 8th 2016, 110 more colors were added, meaning that currently there are a total of 177 colors available.

When making a custom progenitor dragon, it is only possible to choose among the 67 original colors because it would be otherwise unfair for those who made their account before the new colors were added.

Imperial breed scrolls

Imperial breed change scrolls are one of, if not the most, rare type of item on the site. They were given only to those who pledged 30 dollars or more on the original Flight Rising kickstarter.

At the time, this was the only way of obtaining an Imperial dragon, which meant that the breed as a whole was pretty valuable. Now that Imperials are abundant this is no longer the case, but First generation Imperials are still extremely sought and probably the most expensive type of dragon on the site.

There were also other items that were only given to Kickstarted backers, namely Skycats, Bonefiend, Golden Idol and Cogfrog familiars, and those are also pretty much impossible to obtain.

Baldwin breed change

When Baldwin was introduced in 2015 he was originally a Pearlcatcher. On September 14th of 2016 however his site art started to gradually change, until his transformation was completed five days later.

In-universe, Baldwin started to change after a lightning strike hit his cauldron during an experiment, which made him slowly mutate into the breed we now know as Bogsneaks.

Trans Fiona

When Fiona was added as a trading post dragon people speculated that she was trans, because the female pose for Skydancers only displays two antennae, while the male one has four.

Since Fiona has four antennae in her site art, many wondered whether it was an oversight or actually intended. Aequorin later confirmed in a forum thread that Fiona is indeed trans.

Boolean

Speaking of rare items, the Boolean familiar was only given to a handful of Flight rising beta testers and as such is extremely rare and valuable.

Plaguebringer coli team

On the Plaguebringer’s page she is listed as being part of a coliseum team.

As of now we have no clue as to why this is, and even more strangely she is the only deity that does this.

Boston & Hope

This story is a bit complicated. I’ve scoured the forums in search of info but it seems like there are still some pieces missing. I’ll try my best to explain anyway.

So, for a long while the Lightweaver was the only deity that had other dragons aside from herself in her lair: these dragons were a Spiral named Boston and a Tundra named Hope. Strangely, they were both Earth dragons and apparently have been there since the beginning (?). When asked why (this happened back when deities would interact on the forums) the Lightweaver responded that they were having a dinner party together.

In August 2014 during a pretty heated dominance battle between Shadow and Light Boston and Hope disappeared from the Lightweaver’s lair.

The Shadowbinder now had them, and both their elements were alsochanged to Shadow. The two deities acknowledged this and changed their broadcast messages accordingly.

If I had to guess this was some kind of inside joke that the admins had, although some people got angry that the Shadowbinder now had both Hope and Boston. Some time later(?) Boston was returned to the Lightweaver and for some reason his element was changed to wind.

I don’t have any more info on the matter but if some of you do I would appreciate it if you tell me.

Shallow Waters

Eyepocalypse

On June 8th 2018 eye type variants were introduced. This update was pretty controversial for a bunch of reasons, and the topic is still discussed today. The majority of people(?) seemed to be upset by the fact the “best” eye types (primarily goat, primal and multi-gaze) could only be displayed on dragons that were born with them, and the fact that every dragon born prior to the update couldn’t have these eye types at all displeased a lot of users.

Another problem was the fact that most of the non-special eye types (i.e the only ones that could be applied to already existing dragons using a vial of Scattersight) were not clearly visible on the grand majority of adult dragons.

A smaller(?) complaint was that two of the primal eye types, Shadow and Plague, were seen as kind of disturbing by some people.

Three years later staff attempted to fix this issue by adding Eye type vials for every available eye type. This resulted in a market crash for special eye typed dragons, as now these eye types could be applied to any dragon. The value of Scattersights also tanked, and the people bought them and hadn’t used them yet lost money as now they were infinitely less useful.

EDIT 28/06: Goat isn’t actually obtainable via breeding, faceted is. Bad mistake on my part.

Also, Scattersights were given away freely by Galore on Flight Rising’s fifth anniversary in 2018 and could not be bought afterwards. I admit that I thought people could be able to buy Scattersights due to how upset people were that the value went down, but whatever.

Courier Breed

The courier dragons (Edgar, Spitfire, and Pearl) are part of an exclusive dragon breed that is currently unobtainable. Even though their eye color still reflects the flight they were born in, in-universe they are considered to be “neutral” and they are granted free access to all domains. This raises the question as to which deity created them, as every other dragon breed (Bogsneaks being the only exception) has been created by one of The Eleven.

Multiaccounting

According to the site’s terms of service, no one is allowed to have more than one account. This is pretty standard for pet sites, as having multiple accounts grants unfair advantages and can mess up the site economy. This doesn’t completely stop people for having more than one account, and the practice as a whole is called “Multiaccounting” or “having multis”.

Some people only do this to have multiple clans or reboot their account without deleting their old one. They mostly do no harm but it is reasonable that the site wouldn’t allow this because of how easy it is exploit.

The real harm of multis comes from a practice called “funneling” which is when someone creates multiple accounts only for the purpose of giving items to their main account. This practice violates the game’s rules and can result in a ban. Funneling is not limited to multiaccounting though, and having an account only to feed another is against the site’s rules whether or not the account in question belongs to another person or not.

Some people fear of being banned for multiaccounting even if they haven’t done so, especially if they share a computer with other people.

Purble

“he purble” is probably among the most famous Flight Rising memes.

In 2016(?) a rant was submitted to the original Dramarising blog by a very angry user that wanted to buy an XXX Purple Ridgeback back when triples were pretty expensive, but got beat by someone else.

I’m not going to copy paste it here because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest Flight Rising related posts ever and I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading it for the first time. You can find it pretty easily by searching it up.

Tert Picking

This is something that refaced recently, even though I’ve seen people talking about this for a while. Some people vividly remember being able to pick their custom progenitor’s tertiary color, even though the developers have made it clear that such thing would be impossible. This is without a doubt just one of those weird situations where a lot of people somehow remember the same thing wrong.

Still, it’s fascinating just how many people claim to remember doing picking their tert.

Swiftwings

Swiftwings were a dragon breed that was scrapped in development. The design was rejected because it didn’t fit the 2 arms 2 legs 2 wings format that every dragon design had to follow before the introduction of ancient breeds.

The reason for this rule is that otherwise it would mess up apparel placement. Although the concept was scrapped, echoes of the design were scattered throughout the site: for example, the empty dragon slots that were present prior to 2019 had the silhouette of a Swiftwings dragon. They are also mentioned in the April Fool’s update of 2018.

“Real” Lore dragons

Most people don’t know that some of the dragons featured on the lore stories are actually real, and you can visit their pages. This is the case for Tetra, Cracklinne, Velya, Liefa, Garote and Mirth, which are currently chilling in Aequorin’s lair.

All of the other dragons in the developers’ lairs are not canon and are used to test bugs and features on the site.

The Middle ground

True deity names

When the site first started the deities used to have actual names instead of titles. Some of these names were based off of the site founders’s usernames on other sites.

The names are the following:

Amogayvhi - Gladekeeper Xhaztol - Arcanist Rhenik - Tidelord Akiri - Flamecaller Thrage - Stormcatcher Undel - Shadowbinder Jhortanas - Plaguebringer Ghurab - Windsinger Artaios - Earthshaker Rhiow – Lightweaver

As you can tell, Xhaztol, Akiri, Thrage and Undel are the usernames of some of the admins of the site, and the flight they are a part of corresponds with the previous name of their deity.

No leg coatls

On January 16, 2015 an iconic thread was posted in the flight rising discussion forum, which displayed a photoshopped image of a coatl with its legs removed. Quickly the thread devolved into a general photoshop thread were people took official site art of dragons and modified it.

The thread was eventually locked due to spam and quote pyramids, but spiritual successors of the original “phoatlshop” thread still exist today.

Dress slot unlocking

A thing that a surprising amount of people don’t know is the fact that when buy an additional apparel slot, the slot opens for every dragon in your lair and not just the one you bought it on.

This is something I also discovered very recently and it’s kind of funny that so many people that have been on the site for very long don’t know this.

Clanbound scatterscrolls

I think the wiki explains it best, so I’ll just copy paste this here:

“Tri-Color Scatterscrolls suffered from an issue where they would only scatter a random range from colors 1-47 (white through sunshine) rather than 1-67 (white through rose). They have been fixed and are now functioning correctly with a random range within the 67 color set. The affected timeframe was from August 15th, 2013 until September 22nd, 2013. The admins allowed users who were unsatisfied with their bugged Tri-Color Scatterscrolls to receive the same amount of them back in the form of Clanbound Scatterscrolls to try scattering their own dragons again with the full color range.”

Beta Mirrors

Ever wondered why they’re called Mirrors?

According to Undel, the main artist of Flight Rising, mirrors originally were supposed to have every part of their body “mirrored”, meaning they had two sets of eyes, two pairs of wings, two tails, and so on.

This design ended up being too cluttered and looked weird shrunken down. The name was kept the same, even though the only mirrored part of the design are the eyes.

Dragons are evil

If you read the “Beastclans on the rise” lore bit, the dragons come across as… very evil, stealing territory from the beastclans when they have been living on Sornieth way longer than the dragons have and killing them for loot.

Furthermore, in the Bounty of the Elements lore bit the Beastclan rebellion guided by Talona is seen by the dragons as unreasonable and wrong even when in canon Beastclans are framed as the innocent party.

The Depths

Scroll of Divorce

In the alpha stage dragons were supposed to be monogamous and could only breed with the dragon they were “paired” with. To break their bond you had to use an item called “Scroll of Divorce” which even featured broken marriage rings in the art.

If I had to guess, this item and the concept as a whole were scrapped because the idea of dragons having “weddings” and needing to divorce before breeding with another dragon felt kind of weird, especially in a game targeted towards teens.

First Festival

The first Holiday festival in Flight rising history was the 2013 Brightshine Jubilee. The items that were available for this festival only are incredibly rare, particularily the Light Sprite which is one of the most valuable items on the site. Apart from that and the fact that the skincent contest only had 6 winners, not much is notable about it.

Offsite drama

Flight Rising has had its fair share of drama both on and off site, but due to the fact that it’s against the site’s rule to discuss user drama on the forums most of the notable drama happened off site (mainly tumblr).

Egg rot

Egg rot was a very early mechanic that was pretty quickly removed from the site. If you forgot to incubate your eggs, they would “rot” and no longer hatch.

It’s the reason why in the nesting grounds the text reads “Eggs healthy” and also the reason why on the stats section of the Account settings it says “Eggs discarded”. The mechanic was removed because it heavily punished casual players and the frequent downtimes of the site meant that even if someone logged in every day they could still have their eggs die.

Also, the images of egg rot look extremely cursed.

Pablo

From what I could gather, Pablo is a dragon which became somewhat popular after user “Desmondtiny” wrote a very long and detailed backstory of them being the Arcanist’s lost boyfriend.

I’m pretty sure it gues deeper than that but I couldn’t find any further information. As usual, if you know something more let me know.

Latest News

On November 12, 2014, a glitch(?) occurred that let anyone post in the Announcements thread. Anything that was posted went directly to the front page, which resulted in quite a bit of chaos.

This was fixed only half an hour later, but the screenshots people have from that time are extremely funny.

Lameforger

On the 2014 Flameforger’s festival announcement Undel accidentally misspelled “Flameforger” as “Lameforger”, which prompted the official account of the Flamecaller to respond aggressively. Lameforger is still jokingly used by users, even after the typo was fixed.

Festival of one (1)

On the first day of the 2014 Greenskeeper Gathering a glitch occurred which switched the site banner for the Starfall celebration banner instead of the Greenskeeper one.

It didn’t end there, in the coliseum Magical shards dropped instead of Bladed Flatleaves, even though skin chests dropped as normal(?).

The weirdest thing about it all was Joxar’s Space inventory, which didn’t display any items at all and had glitched dialogue.

The event was nicknamed by the fanbase “Festival of 1” and even the deity’s official accounts acknowledged the incident.

Vape Juice

As far as I know the original forum thread as been lost, but the vape juice fiasco will always remain cemented in Flight Rising History.

A company called Vape Daugz was making vape juice with Flight Rising dragons plastered on their packaging, completely violating the site’s policy.

The company’s site still exists, and browsing through their products I found that the products that previously had Flight Rising dragons on them still exist, but now feature completely different packaging.

I have no idea whether they changed the packaging spontaneously or staff did something about it.

I think there’s a potentially interesting story buried down there, but we’ll likely never the truth behind the Flight Rising vape juice.

The Abyss

Humans

There’s been some speculation over the years as to whether or not humans are canon in the Flight Rising universe. Some people believe that the “Mages” of the second age in the official lore are actually humans, but we can’t be sure because they are depicted with long robes that cover their whole bodies.

The idea of humans existing in canon has spawned a couple of memes, most infamously Thomas.

Plague healers

Again, I think the wiki explains this one better:

“According to Aequorin, Plague healers are an interesting bunch because rather than administer treatments that counter illness, they use a mixture of magic and contagion that stress the affected dragon further, allowing them to reach a stronger, healed, and resistant state faster than other elements. Plague healers will treat physical injuries with sutures, bandages, and braces, but they won't clean the wounds or apply ointments."

Akitla

As described in the original thread, Akitla was a dragon that user “qunii” saw on the front page, but noticed that she wasn’t accompanied by the username of the person owning them.

After clicking on her, an error page loaded. It was discovered that putting her color combination or ID in the search bar would result in an error page. This was later fixed, and both Akitla and her mate were now displayed as being exalted to the Arcanist. T

here are some theories as to what happened to the Akitla’s user, some think that she belonged to a deleted account, others that it was the result of an incomplete account creation.

As with a lot of things on this iceberg, it will likely remain a mystery forever.

Arcane sprite book

“what is the arcane sprite reading??” is probably one of the oldest still active threads on the forums.

On September 25, 2013 user “Kaadashi” started a joke thread were they wondered what exactly is the arcane sprite reading, and playfully suggested that it could be erotic fanfiction. People went crazy of course, and started to wonder what kind of juicy secrets were hidden within the pages of that book.

I don’t want to say too much because I really don’t want to spoil the experience of reading through this very cursed tread.

Sunshine

Sunshine is one of the most… interesting lairs on the site, and certainly one of the most well-known.

They(?) have a lair (almost) completely full of triple basic sunshine dragons, most of which are Tundras. So far they have collected about 320 triple hundred Sunshine dragons, almost all of which are also named “Sunshine”. They’re not all the same, some of them have apparel, some of them are gened and some have unique art and descriptions.

They’re dedicated and I respect that.

EDIT 28/06: Apparently some people seem to think that the sunshine-dedicated lair is based on a meme concerning the announcement of the color wheel expansion, which became so discussed that the itself site broke. The two things are unrelated however, as the Sunshine lair has been around for much longer.

The announcement of the color wheel expansion was cryptic, with only a few post showing off differently colored coatls and then 3 pages of reserved posts, with no explanation whatsoever.

Simple Farmer

Another very famous thread is the “I am but a simple farmer” thread started by user “someKindOfGenius”. It’s not really about anything specific, it’s just a rather silly thread were people photoshop flight rising dragons onto various crops.

Still, this thread is iconic so I had to include it.

Dragon Deaths

Way back in 2014 former flight rising programmer Thrage revealed on a forum thread that way back before the beta, dragons could actually starve to death if left unfed.

Yep.

Obviously they had to remove this mechanic because it would have been extremely harsh to casual players and make people frustrated with the game.

Zalvador

User “manojalpa” became fairly well-known for the extremely dark lore they(?) had written for their Clan, it was so dark in fact that every single one of their dragon’s bios had to moved to their tumblr where they couldn’t be easily seen by the site’s mainly underage usebase.

Their lore centered around their progen dragon, a tundra named Zalvador, which behaved and had the same powers as a flight rising user: buying dragons off of the action house, having “breeding projects”, exalting dragons, etc.

These things seem pretty normal when done by a player, but when taking them as actual real things that happen in universe… yeah, it was way too morbid for the site.

The Pit

Black linen neck wraps

For some weird reason, the apparel piece “Black linen neck wrap” when put on a male pose Coatl wraps around the dragon’s throat instead of it’s neck. It’s kind of subtle and hard to see, but if you compare it with the female pose the difference is clear. This is probably just an art error, although it’s weird that it hasn’t been fixed yet, since linen wraps are a very old piece of apparel.

Another weird thing about linen wraps in general is that the wing wraps just sort of… go through the membrane? This is not possible. These dragons are in pain.

Icewarden ears

Another very remarkably popular thread is the Icewarden ears thread.

In 2014 user “Llanai” simply makes note of the fact that the Icewarden has teeny tiny ears.

As we have come to expect from these threads, it quickly devolved into nonsense.

Forbidden Snapper lore

Snappers used to have a way different lore section that was changed because it deemed too similar to the lore of another petsite.

This is what the original section read:

"Snapper dragons do not sleep, but exist in a constant state of reverie. They receive and catalogue all experiences and stories told within their dreams. This persistent state of awakened dreaming awards them the longest memory of any dragon species. They are living encyclopedias, and any dragon who is seeking difficult-to-obtain information will have the most luck unearthing it from a Snapper clan - provided they have the patience for it. If you want two dozen quick answers, talk to a spiral. If you want a fully developed answer, camp out around a Snapper. These dreamers move at their own pace, which varies from dragon to dragon. For some, the awakened dream can prove to be more interesting than their surroundings. This leads to a focus upon the dream, and the waking world as filtered background noise. Interacting with these sleepwalkers can be a trying and repetitive task. Other Snappers may be fairly lucid, with a focus upon their surroundings and the constant hum of the dream pushed aside."

Bee movie script

I’ve seen this story around the forums a few times but I’ve never been able to learn the details.

From what I’ve heard someone copy pasted the entire bee movie script into their clan bio in a drop down text format, which completely broke the page for anyone who visited it. This was fixed, apparently, although I have no clue as to who this user is.

EDIT 28/06: Zeus

Zeus is an XXX gold g1 permababy imperial that used to belong to user "happywing".

Their account is now locked because Zeus was created with the use of a duplication glitch on an imperial breed change scroll, which is obviously not allowed (although I've heard some people say that the dragon was hacked in altogether). Before the account was locked, people speculated that Zeus was the most valuable dragon on the site, because an XXX g1 imperial is impossibly rare.

Wegg shaming

On July 2017 user “Dreamnorn” made a thread were they(?) claimed to have a dream where everything was the same except people used the term “wegged” when two dragons would lay only one egg in a nest.

Ex. Aw man! I’ve been wegged again! = Aw man! I bred two dragons and they only had one egg!

The dream ended up being prophetic, as the term catched on and people started to use it unironically.

The practice of “Wegg shaming” I think refers to the trend of people posting pictures of the dragons that “wegged” them in order to “shame” them.

Plague nest skull

The site art of the plague nest features an unique dragon skull that doesn’t match with any currently existing dragon breed or creature: It appears to have two sets of eyes, like a mirror, but also long and curled horns.

It’s probably just for decoration and it likely doesn’t have any significance whatsoever, but personally I believe it would be pretty cool if when they eventually release plague ancient it at least somewhat resembled this skull.

EDIT 28/06: On second thought, the skull doesn’t seem to have two pairs of eyes, It just has the generic shape of a carnivore.

Rock bottom

CAPTAINPLANET

…this is CAPTAINPLANET. Somehow, user “Decres”' managed to overlay a Fae skin on top of a Tundra, creating this horrifyingly fascinating abomination.

I have no idea how she did this, and she seems pretty adamant to tell.

EDIT 28/06: People have pointed out that this skin overlay glitch was actually somewhat common (although I still haven't found another dragon like CAPTAINPLANET). What you had to do was breed change a dragon while attaching a skin to them in another tab.

This glitch has been patched and such thing is no longer possible.

Lair 46264

A cursed lair.

Dreams

I’ve seen a lot of people, both on forums and on Tumblr, sharing dreams they had about Flight Rising.

A lot of people dream of just being on the site, while occasionally weird things happen.

I’ve read of people who dreamed the distribution of a new breed, buying an exclusive item, a new Fiona feat or Swipp trade, or just browsing the forums.

The most common type of Flight rising-associated dream I’ve seen however is being caught multiaccounting and having their account banned.

I’m no psychoanalyst, but I think it’s pretty clear that these nightmares stem from the paranoia of being banned from their beloved petsite instead of showing any actual intention of doing the “crime” in question.

Anyways, I think it’s fascinating how so many people dream about this site, and it reminds me of the dreams people claimed to have about Mario 64 where completely new levels were added or a scary monster appeared.

Dragon Slime

Dragon Slime was an infamous thread which was supposed to be start off point for an ARG.

It was deleted because it was considered too “spammy” and also because ARGs are banned from the forums. The thread has been lost, unfortunately.

EDIT 28/06: Thanks to @randompurple-fr for providing screenshots of the dragon slime tutorial! You can find them here

Cucumber

Cucumber is the only dragon ever to have been exalted with a skin, which is something that should not be possible. This raises some questions as to what exactly did the person that exalted them do to achieve this, but we have no way of knowing who Cucumber belonged to.

EDIT 28/06: Actually, we do know who used to Cucumber belonged to! Its owner was Osiem: an official flight rising artist. I couldn’t find the thread where they(?) acknowledged the glitch though, if someone has it please let me know!

#flight rising #fr #flight rising meme #iceberg meme

849 notes · View notes

anlian-aishang · 3 years

Text

I’ve been writing on tumblr for a year - here’s the advice I would have given to myself.

It’s not easy.

It’s not easy, not for anyone. No one would tell you it’s easy, and if they do, they’re not telling the whole truth. Now, is it worth it? I would say 100% absolutely yes!

It’s not a competition.

Can you have a favorite artist? Sure. Can you say that one is definitively better than another? No. Writing is an art. Everyone has their own style, which should be celebrated, not compared.

Of course, it’s nearly impossible to ignore notes, right? It’s a big bold number at the bottom of the post. You get cute little lightning bolts to tell you when you get more notes. In a perfect world, I would advise others to completely ignore notes. In a more realistic sense, I would urge others never to compare notes between themselves and other authors because...

There’s so much randomness - it can’t even be called a fair fight.

And I say this - not as a casual phrase - but as someone who majored in statistics. There are so many levels of randomness on tumblr. Will your followers be asleep, busy, afk when you post? Will it be buried by other things on their dash? Your fic may not show up in tumblr’s tagging system. On the other hand, it might show up in others’ orbits. There is so much randomness, and this is before we even get into the ripple effect of reblogs, it should not be viewed as a competition because it’s not a fair fight.

The fics that you love the most - they might not take off, and the fics that you rush through, they might be the ones that do.

I’m not sure why this phenomenon is. I have a few theories, but nothing that I can say for sure. What I do know, though, is that it is indeed a phenomenon.

There are so many authors I have seen express the same exact sentiment: I spent 5 days on this fic and it got three notes / It’s the fic I have been staying up till 4 AM writing and it turned out to be my least popular fic / 12k words and not even 12 notes.

On the other hand, the fics that you don’t really care about, didn’t try as hard on, spent little time writing and editing, those often are the ones that do surprisingly well.

Like I said, I can’t say for sure why this happens. If I had to guess, I’d say word count is a factor as well as specificity. Okay, so what do I mean by that?

Fics that authors feel so passionate about are likely to be longer. Well, more words demand more time and few are the people who have a ton of time. It’s less of a commitment to read a 600-word drabble than a 10k fic. You can read about 1000 words on a bus ride, but not much more than that. So, quick fics, they’re more likely to be quickly read and quickly liked/reblogged, but of course - the fics we love the most are unlikely to be short.

And specificity. If an author is super enthusiastic about a fic, it’s unlikely to be generic, right? You probably have a very precise vision in mind - something particular you envision, feel, and want to write about. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, if you write this incredible breakup fic, it’s going to thrill those in your audience who love breakup fics, however, it will also isolate those in your audience who don’t like (or even read) breakup fics. This is not to say that you shouldn’t write it! It’s just to say that the more specific a fic is, the more potential it has to detach part of your audience - but also, that potential to really thrill part of your audience.

[NSFW example: To speak more on the point above, think of a particular fetish you have. That one deep down that you’ll probably never speak freely about and maybe won’t even admit to yourself. It’s super rare and not nearly in the realm of vanilla. Now, wouldn’t it be awesome to see a fic about it? It would make your day and then some! Wouldn’t you be so thankful to see that fic? Wouldn’t you be so happy and grateful that the author wrote it? At the same time, though, you wouldn’t expect it to get a ton of notes cause barely anyone has that fetish in the first place. Now, take that same idea and apply it to whatever specific idea you have in mind for your fic. The logic still applies.]

Burn-out is common - so don’t be scared of it!

Seriously, who wouldn’t get burnt out from this? Writing day in and day out, requests stacked on top of each other, so many WIPs and even more ideas, it’s overwhelming to say the least. On top of it all, it’s for free! No one gets paid to do this. In the end, we do this for fun, but oftentimes - it feels more like work without pay.

For many, even when we’re not writing, we’re not on a break - as our minds are still thinking about writing, so that’s even more time spent. There’s also guilt that often accompanies not writing. We think about how long certain requests have been waiting, the events we put on months ago that still aren’t finished, the multichapter fics and their updates. It’s taxing.

So, take a break! I’ve always always always found that this helps. It can be any length of time. It can be one day, three days, a week, a month, a year or more or forever. I would discourage any deadlines for yourself. Don’t say, “I’ll come back to this Wednesday.” You don’t even have to say, “I’ll come back to this when I feel like it.” Just do something else until you feel that spark naturally come back. Detach a little bit. Take a walk, call a friend, draw something, play a video game. When you are itching to write again, it is so much easier and the fics will turn out so much better. When an author wants to write and when they don’t - it’s clear. Give yourself a break, you and your readers will be thankful for it.

Anything that you wrote is more than you ever had to.

Don't feel guilty. That's the first thing. Next, don't feel guilty for anything that you didn't get done, that isn't finished, that you haven't even started. You have volunteered your time to provide others. There is no contract, and even if you told yourself or others that you would write something, of course you don't have to!

It's silly, because this sounds obvious, but it's important to remind ourselves of this: you are not obligated to write a single thing. Remember that anything you have written is more than you ever had to. Don't feel unsatisfied with what you didn't get done, feel proud of yourself for what you did do.

A great writer does not mean a great person.

It’s easy to fall head over heels. In person, it’s hard to find someone that has the exact same interests as you. So, when we do find that person online, we get attached super fast! Finally, we found someone that loves this character as much as I do!

However, this does not mean a friendship, at least, not necessarily a close one. Something might happen that makes you go hmm and question their character. Oh. Maybe they’re homophobic. Oh. Maybe they’re a cyberbully. Oh. Maybe they disagree with me in this way that is unignorable. Oh. Maybe they’re just a bad person? It can feel awful to have the rug swept out from under you, but it’s something that could easily happen. Now, you don’t have to live with your walls up, but just be prepared for that possibility.

You will make some of the best friends you will ever have.

Of all that has happened in my year writing on tumblr, by far the best thing has been the people that I have met. There have been some shitty ones, but I would take ten thousand hateful anons for every single friend that I have made on here. Friends that I talk to every day, friends that check up on me and I on them, friends that send me tiktoks and say “this made me think of you”, friends that play video games with me, friends that send me snapchats, friends that write me stories, even friends that have connected with me on linkedin and facebook XD, friends that would do anything for me and I for them.

These friends will understand you, relate to you, be your friend in a way unlike anyone else. They mean the world to me and I love them with all my heart. If not for tumblr, I never would have met them and I would have missed out on a lot of happiness.

Here, and in all aspects of life, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

You are someone's favorite author. You are someone's best friend. You have a whole community of people, online and in person, who want nothing but the best for you, who are rooting for you, and who are here to help you.

No one gets through anything alone, so don't hesitate to ask for help.

#long post #reference #alias's #writing advice

160 notes · View notes

wangxianficrecs · 4 years

Text

The Election Collection (as if 2020 isn’t hard enough)

WangxianFicRecs Presents:

The Election Collection (as if 2020 isn’t enough)

***If the links don’t work for you, try reading this post about a work-around: https://wangxianficrecs.tumblr.com/post/633343850886365184/what-you-can-do-if-the-links-dont-work

These are stressful times, my darlings, and while xanax and alcohol are certainly an escape, I like to have a somewhat healthier option in reserve. We have one week to go before life in the U.S. will/will not end, and it’ll probably drag on forever after that, so, here, have enough fic to last you a full month.

Not every fic in this compilation is fluff (like, I wouldn’t call sickfics fluff, necessarily), but all of them make me feel better in some way. This list is waaay long -- ohmygawd it’s got 88 works in it -- so I’m actually going to tuck it behind a read more. I broke it up into categories, which are in alphabetical order (the works themselves are in no order whatsoever):

~*~ bunnies ~*~

The Bunny Next Door by detailsinthefabric (E, 43k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Lan Wangji did not know what he was doing. He did not know what he was going to say. He was frozen in place, puzzling over the situation. Maybe he had made the man uncomfortable, which is why he wanted to leave? But his tone had still been so friendly—maybe…

“Would…” he paused, swallowed, forced the last words to come out of his suddenly parched mouth, “would you let me pet him?”

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

Lan Wangji, who doesn't know how to socialize and whose icy demeanor scares everyone away, lets down all his defenses when he meets the bunny next door...oh, and also its owner, Wei Wuxian.

it’s you, it was always you by myung (G, 8k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: In which Lan Zhan can turn into a bunny and Wei Ying is the fool who loves him.

*Based on a Tumblr post: “The most wanted woman in town has announced that she’ll only marry the one who can open her front door with the key around her cat’s neck. Many men try to hunt the cat down, chase and trap it, but to no avail; the cat is simply too quick, smart and clever, and always finds a way to evade and avoid them. You are the first one to figure out the obvious: Do not chase the cat. The cat is befriendable. Get the cat to trust you, to genuinely enjoy your company, and you can hang out with the cat. You may eventually be allowed to touch the cat. The cat will freely let you take the key. Secondary plot twist: The woman is a shapeshifter. She is the cat.”

love & longing, rabbit edition. by jaws_3 (G, 18k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Lan Wangji makes a (minor) miscalculation and gets turned into a rabbit. He then makes the (ridiculous!) mistake of seeking Wei Ying out for help.

everybody lives because i said so by Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane) (G, 46k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Lan Zhan has taken to visiting the Yiling as often as he can, bringing as many rabbits as he can carry.

It is not against the sect rules so there's no reason for him to feel guilty about it. And after all, he made a promise.

Or the one where Lan Zhan sneakily moves into the Burial Mounds and this may or may not have helped stop a lot of bad things from happening.

an armful of warmth by Alaceron (G, 11k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: In the winter, 10 years after the death of the Yiling Patriarch, Professor Lan Wangji finds an injured rabbit at the edge of the school grounds.

nothing so sweet as a bunny by jaws_3 (G, 15k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian turns himself into a rabbit. It’s mostly an accident.

~*~ feel good fic ~*~

crying like a fire in the sun by cl410 (T, 10k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian leaves the Jiang Sect after he's ejected from the Cloud Recesses lectures, unable to bear Madam Yu's abuse towards him and his siblings any longer.

❤️Candy & Conspiracies by cl410 (T, 16k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: “Wei Wuxian is the son of two rogue cultivators who recently died on a night-hunt,” his mother explained. “We are taking him in as a favor to a friend.”

At least it wasn’t another surprise half-sibling.

It did not take long for Jin Zixuan to reconsider. Wei Wuxian was a gremlin, brought to Koi Tower for the sole purpose of driving Jin Zixuan into insanity.

Cave Survival (or: how the Xuanwu cave could have gone) by cerbykerby (T, 6k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: “Why,” Lan Wangji said each word in sheer agony, “are you not decent?”

“My clothes are wet,” Wei Wuxian answered. “If I don’t take them off, I run the risk of freezing to death. Don’t you live up in the mountains? I thought you’d know about the dangers of the cold.”

“I do.” Lan Wangji looked absolutely tortured, staring at the cave wall. “So long as there’s a heat source and your clothes are no longer soaking wet, you can put them back on.”

Wei Wuxian made a face. “But I just got dry. I don’t want to put damp pants back on.”

“Wei Ying!”

“Alright, alright, fine! But just the pants.”

——————

An alternate version of the events in the Cave of the Tortoise of Carnage. All the cheesy romantic tropes. All of them. ALL. Basically an excuse to write Lan Wangji panicking and Wei Wuxian being oblivious.

❤️Where the nightingales are singing, and a white moon beams. by Moominmammashandbag (M, 33k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Lan WangJi was married off when he was young, at the whim of the Emperor of the time, to a boy he hardly knew. They lived in the same house for less than two months.

He was still married, though that boy had been dead for thirteen years. It seemed quite clear to him that he was still married.

Stay Right Here and Hide by etymologyplayground (T, 3k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian has always wanted Lan Wangji to look at him.

❤️ Demonic Cultivator’s Blessing, or: Curse of the Bunny Gods by FayJay (E, 25k, wangxian, sangcheng) my post here.

Summary: Written for the Reverse Big Bang Challenge, to illustrate the beautiful art work below, by Saph0000 (qr-sa on tumblr).

Her prompt was to write something about WWX and LWJ ascending to become deities; I took the liberty of slightly crossing over MDZS with Heaven Official’s Blessing for the worldbuilding, and set myself the goal of bringing a smile to the faces of Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen.

So: a story in which the newly-ascended bunny gods set out to give Jiang Cheng’s love life a boost, and find a way of cheering up Lan Xichen along the way.

A Lot’s Gonna Change by etymologyplayground (T, 6k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: “Are you each other’s beards?” Wei Ying guesses, mostly joking.

Lan Zhan says, “I don’t know what that means.”

Wen Qing says, “Yes.” Then, to Lan Zhan, she says, “It’s what we’re doing.”

–

What’s even better than attending the wedding of someone you hate? Being the bartender at the wedding of someone you hate.

And They Were Quarantined by thunderwear (E, 49k, 3 works (complete), wangxian, 3zun) my post here.

Summary: Lan Wangji didn’t look out across the other apartment building often, but now, as he scooped up his escaped rabbit, he looked over only to see a piece of paper taped to the window of the apartment across from him. It was written on purple construction paper in big block letters, like a child had written it.

WHAT’S YOUR BUNNY’S NAME???

And they were quarantined.

Oh my god, they were quarantined.

sentimental education by everythingispoetry (G, 5k, wangxian, nielan, xuanli) my post here.

Summary: Lan Qiren is the worst of them all.

(And he won’t let the lack of his own success at love hinder him. He is not above using the teenagers at disposal.)

Life by scifigeek14 (T, 66k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: A wedding is proposed for a practical reason… mostly practical… what wouldn’t be practical about marrying the person who you love most in the world? Especially if it could save some lives along the way? And if the end result is a huge family, well… that’s just Life.

of all that is tender and good by SoManyJacks (M, 8k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: After half a year traveling as cultivation partners, Lan WangJi has something to say.

❤️To be of use by Erisette (not rated (I’d say G), 53k, lan wangji & lan sizhui, wangxian in spirit, although wwx hasn’t showed up yet) my post here.

Summary: Love was not forbidden in the Cloud Recesses, despite what was whispered by the common people and, often, even by the other great sects.

(Or: how Lan Wangji became both a father and the object of worship to a generation of juniors in 13 easy steps 13 long years)

❤️ Senseless by carolyncaves (T, 6k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian will leave Cloud Recesses to wander the great wide world, and in a year or two, he’ll return with a head full of stories so he can tell Lan Zhan all about the interesting places and people of the world he’s missing while he’s cooped up as Chief Cultivator.

That’s his plan, anyway, truly.

He just doesn’t actually seem to be managing to get any farther away.

And the world's alright with me by so_shhy (E, 13k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Wei Ying has been feeling like a grey, wrung-out, mildewed dishrag for a week when Lan Zhan slopes in from a trip to the store looking blank-faced and awkward and sets a pregnancy test down on the kitchen counter.

❤️ A Civil Combpaign by Ariaste (T, 31k, series, zhuiling, background wangxian) my post here.

Summary: “And,” said one of the pompous ministers, “there’s the matter of a marriage to consider as well!”

Jin Ling, who at the beginning of that sentence had expected to slam into the very last wall of his patience and lose his temper entirely, paused. “A what?”

Thing was… it wasn’t such a bad idea.

Rumor Doesn’t Have It (But Wei Wuxian Is Determined to Change That) by misscam (M, 5k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: The picture of himself and Lan Zhan that the gossip and rumors are painting is alluring, tempting, captivating – in love, together, kissing, sleeping together every night - oh, how captivating. A far better picture than Wei Wuxian sitting in a inn missing Lan Zhan with every breath after three weeks at Nie Huaisang’s whining about how much he missed Lan Zhan and yet not quite daring to do something about it; meanwhile Lan Zhan is being His Excellency and making the cultivation world hopefully better, but on his own, possibly missing Wei Wuxian as well. (Hopefully missing him, Wei Wuxian is selfish enough to think.)

Maybe it’s time to be a little daring – and make the rumors come true, one at a time.

❤️The Yiling Wei Clan by scifigeek14 (G, 45k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Lan Wangji stays in Yiling with Wei Wuxian and helps him build his home and family.

Just You, Just Me (Just Us, Just We) by wincechesters (E, 20k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: When his brother had sent him the appointment confirmation, Lan Wangji had assumed it had been for Lan Xichen’s oft-praised and highly recommended acupuncturist.

It is not, he soon found out—standing inside the lobby of a studio lit by soft, warm light and faced with a beautiful man in well-worn, rumpled clothing and with a lopsided bun on top of his head, wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket and wearing no shoes at all—an acupuncturist.

“Cuddle therapy,” Lan Wangji says, his voice drawn carefully flat over the overwhelming panic welling up inside his belly. He had not thought his brother so cruel. This must be some sort of horrible mistake. —– In which Wei Wuxian cuddles people for money, Lan Xichen takes matters into his own hands, and Lan Wangji is doomed.

❤️with you, I am home by tellthemstories (M, 47k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: “I can’t go back home alone, Lan Zhan.”

Wei Wuxian gets a summons to return to Lotus Pier for marriage proposals. To avoid this, he convinces Lan Zhan to come with him and pretend to be his cultivation partner.

❤️Shifting Suspicion by scifigeek14 (T, 3k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: When Wei Wuxian’s paperman escapes Jin Guangyao’’s hidden room, rather than waiting for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji to call him out, Jin Guangyao goes on the offensive and Wei Wuxian is forced to create an alibi on the fly.

An AU from episode 41 of the live action.

❤️ anyway, here’s wuji by kakikaeru (T, 18k, lan jingyi & lan wangji, zhuiyi, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: The melody gets a little clearer when he breaks out of the trees, and Jingyi changes course with certainty, barreling down the back hill and through the Cloud Recesses, dodging scandalized disciples left and right. He throws open the doors to the Receiving Hall without announcement and bows nearly double, eyes on the floor instead of on the shocked faces of the Mei delegation and the impenetrable gaze of the Chief Cultivator.

“Forgive this disciple,” Jingyi shouts, because he’s going to get punished for rule breaking regardless. “From the back hill, Hanguang-jun, there is a song in the wind!”

Lan Jingyi comes of age.

~*~ goofy students in love ~*~

❤️ A Wedding of Choice by scifigeek14 (T, 17k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: When Wei Wuxian asked Lan Zhan to tie his headband to his wrist he didn’t know the connotations. But, Lan Zhan fully knew that his actions would result in a wedding.

Set as a happy au/canon divergence starting at the Cold Pond Cave scene. Instead of some Yin Metal, Lan Zhan gets a new guquin and a new fiancé.

Losing My Mind by pupeez4eva (T, 6k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: On a drunken dare, Jiang Cheng drinks a potion that allows him to hear other people’s lustful thoughts. It’s just his luck that he’s stuck in close vicinity with the guy who is completely and utterly besotted with his idiot brother.

One thing’s for certain - there is no way he’s leaving this with his sanity intact.

(Or, where Jiang Cheng has a lot of regrets, Lan Wangji is having an ongoing sexuality crisis, and Wei Wuxian is as oblivious as ever).

❤️ You Are My Euphoria by tangerinechar (M, 18k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: This odd new push and pull between them is something Wei Wuxian is just discovering, and he’s also discovered that he likes the ideas it gives him - hug Lan Zhan, run your fingers along his arms, get him to look at you, say your name - the simple light that being with Lan Wangji brings to his life, the feeling that he could smile forever if Lan Wangji stood by his side.

Wei Wuxian arrives at the Cloud Recesses, breaks at least seven rules, and gets his heart stolen by the prettiest boy he’s ever met, in that exact order.

Or; 5 times Wei Wuxian smiled at Lan Wangji, and 1 time Lan Wangji smiled back.

❤️Bet Your Heart by Vamillepudding (G, 14k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian grins. “I’m going to use this summer to seduce Zewu-jun, and I’m going to get his brother to help me do it.”

Or: To win his bet against Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian has to kiss Lan Xichen. Who better to ask advice from than Lan Zhan?

talk sense (to a fool) by Turtles (M, 2k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Lan Zhan and Wei Ying’s PDA is driving everyone crazy

How Wei Ying Went from Oblivious Idiot to Shameless Boyfriend in Three Days by misscam (T, 5k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: “If you give him some relationship advice and I help him with flirting, we’ll get Lan Zhan his heart’s desire in no time!” Wei Wuxian says boldly, and Lan Xichen rubs his temples as if he’s having a headache. “What?”

“… I have offered him relationship advice,” Lan Xichen says finally, slowly, giving Wei Wuxian a look. “I believe the object of his affections is oblivious to his feelings despite numerous gestures.”

“What an idiot,” Wei Wuxian declares, and Lan Xichen looks downright pained. “Don’t worry, Lan Xichen, between your good advice and my excellent tutoring, we’ll make certain Lan Zhan’s affections will be clear to even the most oblivious.”

“… I certainly hope so,” Lan Xichen says after a moment, looking down at the counter and sighing.

Unable To Stay Away by Waterrain (E, 23k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: AU: ABO Verse. 15 Year Old Omega!Wei WuXian (wears a ring which masks his scent into smelling like an Alpha) and Alpha!Jiang Cheng go to visit the Cloud Recesses for a year. Wei WuXian at the Lotus Pier does not wear a ring to cover his scent up, but Jiang Fengmian informed him the ring must be worn or else he won’t be able to go with Jiang Cheng to the Cloud Recesses. At the Cloud Recesses there is an handsome and cold Alpha known to be able to resist any Omega in heat with ease. (I have a Sequel for Unable To Stay Away and it is named Let’s Always Be Together)

❤️ unabashed indecency by quags1re T, 25k, WIP -- READ IT ANYWAY!!!, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Jiang Cheng glances down at Wei Wuxian’s notes, which have tiny doodles of Lan Wangji and many variations of Lan Wuxian drawn into the margins. “Holy shit,” he gasps, unable to contain his glee. ... wei wuxian falls at 15.

❤️tame by rikke (M, 12k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: After the Xuanwu Cave incident, Wei WuXian wakes up back in Lotus Pier with one hand clutching Lan WangJi and the other hand clutching…an egg?

in which wwx and lwj accidentally hatch a baby xuanwu

Caught Red-Handed by ExtraPenguin (T, 895, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian challenges Lan Wangji to a friendly duel. Then Lan Wangji’s relatives turn up and congratulate them on their nuptials. WTF?

❤️Patience is (almost) a Virtue by Handmethatbing (T, 8k, wangxian, WIP) my post here.

Summary: “Why now, Lan Zhan has come to see me,” he says, cutting into the crowd and going up and slightly leaning into Lan Wangji, who surprisingly doesn’t flinch at the almost-contact, “We slept together back when I was studying in Gusu, you see."

Wei Wuxian knows how fast a crowd clears out when you say something embarrassing out loud. The crowd mostly fizzles, tired and familiar of his antics than actually believing his words. Lan Wangji looks into nowhere and hums in his unbothered voice. "Mn.” The crowd fizzles faster. “Did you just – did you just play along? Feeling a bit adventurous today, are we?” Wei Wuxian cannot stop laughing. He would be lying if he says there aren’t wicked prank ideas already swimming in his head. No one believes his silly mischiefs anymore but what if the Second Jade of Lan backs him up? What a riot.

An innocent Lan Wangji visits Yunmeng and partakes in Wei Wuxian’s usual fuckery but things spiral out of control.

~*~ happy making ~*~

❤️ The Beast of Gusu by Netrixie (M, 212k, wangxian, nielan) my post here.

Summary: A world where I went, “What if Wei Ying was a wolf?” and then ran with it. We’ve got wangxian, nielan, fluff and angst, soft!boys and A-Yuan. You’ll want to get comfortable, because part 1 is 150k words :)

❤️The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: A Manifesto in Many Parts by aubreyli (T, 20k wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian’s hand jolts, spilling a drop of wine onto the tabletop. “Love?” he croaks, then clears his throat and tries again. “Lan Zh— uh, Hanguang-jun, in love?”

“Have you not heard the story?” the other young woman asks, looking pitying. “You must, it is a truly heartrending tale of star-crossed romance and mutual pining — go to any storyhouse in town, everyone has been requesting a reading of this book.”

“There’s a book?” Wei Wuxian says blankly.

In which the junior disciples (namely, Lan Jingyi, Ouyang Zizhen, and a reluctant Lan Sizhui) turn to RPF in an attempt to rehabilitate Wei Wuxian’s reputation so that he and Hanguang-jun can get together and get married and live happily ever after. It’s… surprisingly effective.

❤️ to arrive late is better than not to arrive at all by Moominmammashandbag (M, 35k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: “Lan WangJi is not sure he can bear meeting with a matchmaker yet again, but at the same time, if he wasn’t going to care deeply about the person he was going to marry, he could just as well have settled for Wei Wuxian six years ago .”

or, Lan WangJi goes to a Discussion Conference and his soulmate is there. His soulmate, whom he doesn’t love.

~*~ harlequin/white knight ~*~

❤️this river runs to you by sundiscus (T, 53k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Framed by the soft morning light, sleek hair swept back and pale blue robes not even slightly rumpled, he looks almost inhuman.

He looks like the last person who should be knocking on Wei Wuxian’s door.

In which Wei Wuxian is a curse worker secretly searching for a lost dragon, Lan Wangji is his new assistant, and the two things may not be entirely unrelated.

❤️save a sword, ride a socialist by sysrae (E, 33k, wangxian, and also lan wangji & jin zixuan) my post here.

Summary: In which Lan Qiren and Jin Guangshao are conspicuously terrible, Lan Wangji decides to fake-date Wei Wuxian about it, and literally no braincells are consulted.

❤️hunters seeking solid ground by Attila (E, 24k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: “Hanguang-jun,” Wei Wuxian repeats. His heart clenches. He wants—but he’d really meant to have this nightmare stuff down before they met again, so he wouldn’t find himself relying on Lan Wangji’s nearness. He’s not supposed to go back yet. But he’s so tired, and his will crumbles. “Yeah,” he says. “All right. Take me back to Gusu with you.”

❤️The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane (E, 71k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: It’s a really unfortunate thing, developing a crush on your husband. Wei Ying had assumed this would be easy. Lan Zhan had been so icy and unpleasant to him, it had never occurred to him that he might end up spending the next however many years with this dumb, burning feeling in his chest whenever he looks at him.

“Okay,” says Wei Ying. “But tell me if I…if the pretending gets to be too hard, okay?”

“It will not,” says Lan Zhan, quietly certain.

❤️Love wakes me by dea_liberty (E, 43k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: It starts with a bet. All mistakes, Wei Wuxian thinks, start with a bet.

It’s starts with a bet and ends with Wei Wuxian losing everything.

Nine years ago, Wei Wuxian made a bet with disastrous consequences. Now, he is part-owner of the popular and eclectic Yiling Cafe, years and miles away from his old life, making the best of things and trying to leave the past where it belongs. When Lan Wangji walks into his cafe by accident, Wei Wuxian finds himself doing what he thought he’d never do again; reclaiming some small part of his past, and hoping for a future he’d given up as lost.

❤️ the best of you by sysrae (E, 42k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: When Jin Zixuan calls in a favour, Lan Wangji ends up renting his spare room to Wei Wuxian.

It doesn’t go how any of them expected.

~*~ homesteading ~*~

wide enough and wild by impossibletruths (E, 64k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Wei Ying leaves. He follows.

To Do With You What Spring Does With Cherry Trees by sfbluestocking (M, 37k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: It’s all well and good to, on the spur of the moment, in driving rain, in the middle of the night, romantically run away with the man you love—because of course he loves Wei Wuxian, though he hasn’t said it aloud yet—on a noble quest to rescue and preserve the survivors of an atrocity, but at some point you have to consider the logistics of that preservation.

the exception proves the rule by defractum (nyargles) (T, 5k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Ying laughs shakily. “I’m glad you’re behind me on this single-plank bridge. I was prepared to do it alone, you know.”

“Not behind,” says Lan Wangji, heart in his mouth as he dares to say it.

“What?”

“Not behind you. Beside you. On the single-plank bridge.”

Wei Ying straightens up, his lips twitching. “That makes no sense, Lan Zhan. It’s a single plank, there isn’t room for both of us to walk across side-by-side.”

The canon divergence where Lan Wangji stands in the rain with an umbrella and looks into Wei Ying’s eyes and follows him.

Claiming Life from Death by MarbleGlove (E, 24k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary (Part 1): The Wen refugees in the Burial Mounds settlement survive, but it was always going to be a struggle. Wei WuXian lives with the dead as much as he does with the living, but even in the deep shadows, there is the potential for joy.

Until It’s Dark by suzvoy (M, 121k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Lan Zhan finds out.

It changes everything.

~*~ humor ~*~

Marital Prospects by Vamillepudding (G, 19k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Jin Ling's birth is the happiest occasion of Jin Zixuan's life. But every gold spoon has some rust: Wei Wuxian has taken up residence too. However, Jin Zixuan has a fool-proof plan to get Wei Wuxian out of his life for good: he's going to find him a spouse. And he's got the perfect person in mind: Nie Mingjue.

Lan Wangji has resigned himself to losing the love of his life without saying a word.

Patient came so hard from prostate exam he kicked me in the dick by Hades_the_Blingking (E, 17k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Lan Zhan's puritanical life is thrown into sudden, sinful chaos when one especially handsome doctor gives him a prostate exam and he busts a surprise nut. Mortified, Lan Zhan is consoled by the fact that he will never see this harbinger of anal pleasure again... until one fateful night. Cue a matchmaking brother, cue a bad excuse for a lie, and cue things not turning out as embarrassing and terrible as they seem between one Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan.

Cut sleeve (m/m), slow burn, pining (lots of pining) by Lucky_Moony (T, 6k, wangxian, zhuiyi) my post here.

Summary: Nothing to see here, just Lan Jingyi writing fanfiction about his favorite ship: Wangxian.

How Lan Sizhui discovered his best friend was writing romantic stories about his parents.

❤️A Match Made In Heaven by Ariana (T, 38k, WIP -- don’t let that stop you!, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: After getting fed up once and for all with Wei Wuxian getting into trouble, Madam Yu decides it’s time to call in the matchmaker.

vinegar jug by dandelion_san (G, 8k, wangxian, WIP) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian gains a taste of first love for the future Lan Wangji, following him like an adoring puppy.

The present Lan Wangji chugs vinegar and tries his best not to kill his future self, or Jiang Cheng.

❤️Beauty and the Boot by PTchan (T, 45k WIP -- READ IT ANYWAY, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: In which Mo XuanYu’s spell get’s stolen by a not-so-random girl, and so begins Wei WuXian’s hilarious journey of fighting monsters, solving mysteries, raising children, and finding true love (or at least acknowledging it’s existence) while trying not to kill everyone who calls him ugly to his face.

And really, he knew Lan Zhan had the potential to be lady killer but this is way too much!!

The Nie Sect Discussion Conference That No One, Ever, Will Discuss Again. by mondengel (2k, No Rating (I’d give it a G), wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Lan Qiren sits at the head table at the latest Discussion Conference and makes an observation.

The Great Bathtub Conspiracy by pupeez4eva (M, 3k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji keep breaking bathtubs, and the Juniors come up with the obvious explanation - someone is clearly tampering with them in an attempt to torment the Yiling Patriarch. Obviously they need to do something about this; no one is allowed to mess with their Senior Wei.

(Someone really needs to tell them that there is no huge conspiracy going on, and that Wangxian are really just that enthusiastic).

A Flower in Bloom (or Wei Wuxian Crashes a Party) by UmbrellaMartialGod (E, 30k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: If everyone really thought that Wei Wuxian was going to wait around during the New Year for Lan Wangji to come home when there was an entire party happening at Carp Tower, they had another thing coming.

All he needed was a good disguise.

it goes like this by moonsteps (T, 15k, wangxian, background sangcheng) my post here.

Summary: Jiang Cheng is staring at him with wide eyes. “You met your soulmate today and didn’t tell me?”

Wei Wuxian stops. “What?” he asks, not quite understanding. “What are you talking about? No, I didn’t?”

“You idiot,” Jiang Cheng spits, holding his hand out to point directly at Wei Wuxian’s wrist. “Your timer!”

Oh.

Wei Wuxian’s eyes dart down, and his heart stops.

(Or, Wei Wuxian finds that he has no idea who his soulmate is. Enter Lan Wangji, resident unapproachable genius, who suddenly requests to be his lab partner.)

❤️Questions at Dusk by ExtraPenguin (E, 18k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: An encounter with the Xuanwu of Slaughter leaves Lan Wangji with an ability he didn’t realize he could gain. Wei Wuxian is left to take responsibility, and the Wen sect’s threat still looms on the horizon.

Hiding Place by HanguangMoon (T, 26k, chengyi) my post here.

Summary: Jingyi only realizes that he’s staring when Sect Leader Jiang turns to look back at him with narrowed eyes and an annoyed expression. Jingyi gulps but can’t look away. Their eyes meet, and Jingyi panics.

And then he realizes that he’s been pouring hot water on his boots for the past five seconds, panics more, and manages to brush the teapot, teacups, and tray crashing to the floor with the edge of his sleeve.

~*~ kid fics ~*~

❤️Something Yet to Learn by Glitterbombshell (T, 37k, wangxian, 4 works, series Joy In the Midst of These Things in progress) my post here.

Summary: “Wei Wuxian,” the man grits out, and he pauses with one hand reaching for the door handle. The disciple who had come in to speak to Lan Qiren brushes past him and exits the pavilion without a backwards glance. Wei Wuxian turns back to Master Lan, one eyebrow tilting up in question. “An urgent matter has come up,” Lan Qiren says, every word sounding like it’s being forcibly dragged from him. “His Excellency requests my presence. Their current instructor is ill, I was meant to take over classes for today,” he continues, gesturing towards the tiny juniors. He swallows heavily, and the next sentence sounds bitter. Choked. “I cannot leave them unattended.”

Wei Wuxian just blinks at him.

Wei Wuxian is asked (under duress) to babysit a class of tiny Lan cultivators for just a few minutes. A few minutes turns into an hour, turns into two hours, turns into an impromptu literal field trip and now there’s an entire class that is weeks ahead of their curriculum, their most junior disciples have apparently imprinted on Wei Wuxian like baby birds, and Lan Qiren has no one to blame but himself.

Where the Lonely Ones Go by CSHfic, VSfic (T, 24k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: “When did you arrive?” Lan Zhan asks, but he’s looking at the child in Wei Wuxian's arms, and the question is clearly, who’s baby is this, and maybe, should I be concerned?

Accidental (haunted) baby acquisition

A Crying Shame by thunderwear (G, 16k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Lan Wangji gets emotionally blackmailed by a toddler. It somehow fixes everything.

“You two act like young parents with their first child,” Granny said after Lan Wangji ended up with Wen Yuan sleeping against his chest once again. “Not wanting to let him go or hear him cry.”

“Aw, but Granny, don’t we make a cute couple with our little one?” Wei Ying teased, tipping to the side to lay his head on Lan Wangji’s unoccupied shoulder.

Granny reached over and pinched Wei Ying’s cheek while Lan Wangji tried to pretend his heart wasn’t suddenly trying to pound out of his chest at how close Wei Ying was.

Life is Like a Stranger by through_shadows_falling (G, 43k, wangxian, WIP) my post here.

Summary: The marketplace was too loud, too much, and Lan Zhan couldn’t breathe.

So he ran from his brother and uncle and hid in a back alley, which was not as empty as he thought.

Enter the dirtiest boy Lan Zhan had ever met - a boy who called himself Wei Ying.

(AKA Lan Zhan brings Wei Ying back to Cloud Recesses and this is their childhood as they grow up together)

❤️Attempting the Impossible by Ariaste (T, 36k, jiang cheng & wei wuxian, wangxian, background zhuiling) my post here.

Summary: Jiang Cheng gathers up his determination in both hands and goes to the Cloud Recesses to embark on one of the most difficult endeavors he can imagine: Repairing his relationship with his brother.

To his surprise, he discovers he’s become an uncle again… several times over.

Wei Wuxian, what the fuck?!

❤️ever a part of me by AlotikaWolf, RennieOnIceCream (Hitsugi_Zirkus) (E, 53k, series (series ongoing), wangxian) my post here.

Summary: AU formed by AlotikaWolf and me! ABO-verse, mostly canon-compliant AU where omega Mo Xuanyu was unknowingly pregnant when he sacrificed his body. What follows is a bunch of misunderstandings, Wei Wuxian constantly giving Lan Wangji heart attacks, a second helping of angst, and plenty of Wangxian cuddles~

Holding the world in my hands by Lucky_Moony (T, 64k, wangxian, sangcheng) my post here.

Summary: The Yiling Patriarch has often claimed that if he could bear a little Master Lan for his husband, he would do so. When the impossible finally happens, Wei Wuxian and his husband are over the moon as they get ready for the arrival of their little one.

When Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng’s secret love affair is exposed in the most dramatic way, Jiang Cheng starts to question his feelings for his longtime friend. Could he be in love with the Headshaker? If so, will Nie Huaisang ever agree to take him back after he messed up so royally?

Meanwhile, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are planning to unite their lives, but wedding planning turns out to be way more complicated than they thought it would be at first…

❤️The Three Jades of Lan by IceBreeze (T, 37k, series with 5 works, WIP, incomplete -- READ IT ANYWAY) my post here.

Summary: “Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, look!” Wei Ying did a twirl. “I’m the same as you now! Am I pretty? Say Lan Zhan, am I pretty?”

Huan muffled a laugh behind his sleeve as A-Zhan said “Mn,” eyes never once leaving Wei Ying. There was something a little like awe in his stare, like Wei Ying was the only one in the world to him at that moment, and if Huan hadn’t already known that his little brother cared deeply for Wei Ying then that look would have been all the confirmation he needed.

(If A-Zhan knew what marriage and romance was beyond the vague explanations he’d heard then he’d probably already be courting Wei Ying, with all the dogged determination he shows everything he puts his mind to. It’s adorable, and Huan supports it wholeheartedly, no matter what direction it heads in the end).

Or: an AU Wei Wuxian is taken in by the Lan clan instead of the Jiangs.

❤️Attempting the Impossible by Ariaste (T, 36k, jiang cheng & wei wuxian, wangxian, background zhuiling) my post here.

To his surprise, he discovers he’s become an uncle again… several times over.

Wei Wuxian, what the fuck?!

soft-hearted by sarahyyy (G, 6k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Lan Zhan finds himself returning the smile. “Go home,” he urges gently, because it’s cold, and Wei Ying does not look like he’s dressed warmly enough to be out in the streets like this.

Wei Ying’s smile dims. “A-Ying sleeps here when it’s cold,” he tells Lan Zhan. “When it’s summer, A-Ying likes to stay by the pond!”

Lan Zhan frowns, looking at the alley around them. His stomach churns at the thought of leaving Wei Ying there. “Has Wei Ying eaten?”

(Or, the one where Wei Wuxian grows up in the Lan Sect.)

~*~ sickfic/caretaking ~*~

Red Flower With One Hundred Petals; Smoke Carried on the Blue Dusk Air by carolyncaves (T, 33k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian had been somewhere terrible for three months, and he was not well. Wangji was forbidden to leave Cloud Recesses, so Lan Xichen had come to Lotus Pier in his place.

Please, Xiongzhang, you must get him to agree to come to Gusu, whatever it takes.

❤️the kite string and the anchor rope by fleurdeliser (M, 39k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: When A-Yuan gets sick and Wen Qing doesn’t have the supplies she needs to properly treat him, Wei Wuxian can only think of one place to go for help.

i don’t wanna lose you (hope it never ends) by annemari (T, 21k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian presses his fingers against Lan Zhan’s forehead, gently moving the ribbon, and sighs. “Lan Zhan, you have a fever.”

“I feel fine,” Lan Zhan says, a blatant lie.

Lan Wangji falls ill. Wei Wuxian worries.

Then There’s No One There by etymologyplayground (T, 13k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: “Oh, and speaking of pretty boys,” Nie Huaisang says, turning back to Wei Wuxian’s unconscious form, “Don’t get me started on poor Second Master Lan. He’s pathetic without you, you should really see him. He’s practically in tears without you here to flirt with him! He’s mooning over your corpse like —”

“Nie Huaisang, that’s enough,” Lan Wangji snaps. He struggles with what to address first; the worst is that, “Wei Ying is not a corpse. Don’t say such things.”

“Sorry,” Nie Huaisang says. “But sitting there silently and willing him to wake up isn’t going to help, Hanguang-Jun. You want him to wake up, right? Then tell him why!” He whacks Lan Wangji’s shoulder lightly with his fan.

Accidents Will Happen by mrsronweasley (E, 46k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian downs the cup of tea. “All right. Now, I’m fine.” He isn’t, though. The tea is a mild kind, the sort that Lan Zhan prefers before bed, but even so it makes his taste buds revolt. It’s only through sheer force of will that he doesn’t vomit a second time.

Fucking hell, who cursed him, and how soon can he kill them?

Wei Wuxian finds himself in a whole new situation.

they do not fall to earth by LtLJ (G, 2k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: A missing scene from episode 33.

The Zidian didn’t knock Wei Wuxian out of this body but it rattled his brain and turned his bones to jelly. This is a transformation, not a possession, and poor Mo Xuanyu is not coming back, no matter how many times Jiang Cheng whips Wei Wuxian.

Wherever the Chaos by shadowsapiens (T, 3k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Perhaps it’s a fool’s goal to keep Wei Wuxian from hurting himself. Perhaps it’s enough to stand by his side, to put him back together when he breaks.

Stay Right Here and Hide by etymologyplayground (T, 3k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Wei Wuxian has always wanted Lan Wangji to look at him.

~*~ time travel fix-it ~*~

oh they call us young and free (hold the golden gates open) by Treha (T, 11k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Before he was feared for massacring people by the four digits, before he was the master of a mountain built of corpses and rage, Wei Wuxian was just a wild child with dreams too big to hold. He set them aside to drag the sun down to the earth, then let them go when he took his last breath. There is no room for blooming stars when the night sky is filled with smoke and screams.

Except now there are fluffy rabbits in the hills, less fluffy but equally cute duckling disciples trailing behind him, and a loving husband on one side and a loving son on the other. Perhaps it is time he picked up those long forgotten dreams.

::In which it's another time-travel fic, except there's very little substance and far too much prose - but at least there's happy endings all around.

Lan Zhan time travels to the Burial Mounds by JelloMarshmallowGlade (T, 4k, wangxian) my bookmark here.

Summary: Lan Wangji time travels, to a point in time in which Wei Wuxian is suffering, alone, in the burial mounds. And what can he do but rescue him?

- "Uncle, I come with news of Wangji." Lan Xichen's face is strange, and Lan Qiren is suddenly feels a headache coming on. He has no idea what to expect of the forthcoming news. "Yes," He says, "What of Wangji?" Some townspeople said they caught sight of a figure in white, on a sword, flying, in the early hours of the morning. Leaving the Burial Mounds." 'The Burial Mounds? What did Wangji deem so important that he left without a word, and during curfew as well, to such an accursed place?' "Apparently, he had another with him." Lan Xichen tongue seems to trip over itself at this point, and his eyes are twitching near-imperceptivity by habit. "They were sharing a sword, and one seemed… injured." Lan Qiren nods impatiently. "Continue," He commands. "The other was wearing black and red robes. I have reason to believe that was…" There was an uncomfortable pause. "Wei Wuxian, uncle." Xichen finishes.

Family by Quiet_crash (G, 57k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: The truth of the matter was that when it came to taking care of people and their problems, both he and Wei Ying were of one mind. However, whereas Lan Wangji was taught to care for himself as much as other people, Wei Ying, from early age, was taught that him having needs was burdensome. He disregarded his own pain with frightening ease and offered up evey part of himself for others to use with no reservation.

Thus, Lan Wangji made sure that his husband’s needs were never overlooked, his hurts never unadressed.

So it was that when they purified an ancient temple and its goddess benevolently offered them each a wish in return, Wei Ying asked for his family: for Jiang Cheng to never have lost his parents and his core, for Jiang Yanli to never have lost her husband and her own life because of him; Lan Zhan asked for Wei Ying.

What Your Heart Desires by pupeez4eva (M, 8k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Needless to say, he soon realises that he hasn’t even scratched the surface of the strangest parts of this new world yet. Like the fact that there is a book based entirely on his life.

(Wherein Wei Wuxian is reborn into a world where everything is different, his entire life is part of a novel, and where his new mother is apparently its biggest fan).

things happen, don’t ask by MarbleGlove (T, 5k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Time travel from the outsider perspective mostly looks like you somehow missed *a lot* of character and relationship development.

AKA, that time sixteen-year-old Wei WuXian showed up at Cloud Recesses, took one look at Lan WangJi and declared, “That’s my future husband!” … and Lan WangJi said, “Mm.”

Waiting by Morgana_avalon (G, 47k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: This story starts with Wei Ying falling to his death from that cliff at Nevernight. Of course he doesn’t die, or does he? When he finds himself at the jingshi where Wangji is kneeling in the snow, waiting for his mama to come back, Wei Ying wonders what he is nowadays; spirit, ghost, or human?

❤️ Here Again (Spirits Rise, Unbroken) by TheDefenestrator (T, 74k, WIP - read it anyway!!!, wangxian) my post here.

or, Catharsis: The Fic

Summary: In which Wei Wuxian, shortly after being called into Mo Xuanyu’s body, is further forced into the past, where he proceeds to tumble his way into absolutely nailing a time travel fix-it.

Looking at You Always, All Ways by Keysmashed (T, 29k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: Lan Wangji thought it was just a dream but the pain of being pierced in the chest by his own sword, by his own self whose appearance was taller and older was too real. The ground under his feet disappeared and he fell, and fell, and continued falling until a voice he thought he would never hear again broke his fall and suddenly, he was no longer falling. It was the voice he had so dearly missed.

Wei Ying’s voice.

—-A Time Travel Fix-It where Lan Wangji goes back in time to his first fateful encounter with Wei Wuxian for a chance to rewrite history.

❤️Just a Tiny Mistake by Dudette_Mal (T, 58k, wangxian, WIP) my post here.

Summary: Wei WuXian makes a mistake and wakes up to find himself in the past. Sure, he has a headache, but Lan WangJi is still there and everybody he loves is still alive (or will still be born). This is absolutely fine.

❤️Wangxian’s Time-Travelling Shenanigans by pupeez4eva (T, 13k, (series in progress) my post here.

Summary (Part 1): “Wei Wuxian ignored Jiang Cheng’s hysterical yell, the whispers that had suddenly broke out around them, the scandalised looks of the Gusu Lan disciples — or the way Lan Qiren’s face paled in a mixture of shock and horror — and pulled back, peering into Lan Wangji’s face. His face which, Wei Wuxian suddenly realised with mounting dread, was a lot younger than he remembered it being.”Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji end up in their younger bodies mid-way through the events at Guanyin Temple. Wei Wuxian isn’t about to let a little issue like that — or the numerous other people surrounding them — stop him from confessing his love.

❤️Fallen by Jaywalker_Holmes (M, 151k, wangxian) my post here.

Summary: A cultivation accident in the future destroys Mo XuanYu’s frail body and sends Wei WuXian’s soul back into the past, in his six-year-old body. This time, armed with the knowledge of his future self and his love for his beloved Lan WangJi, he decides to rewrite his destiny and protect those he loves. Will the YiLing Patriarch have a happier life this time?

#wangxianficrecs presents #Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #mdzs #comfort fics #feel good fics #The Election Collection

782 notes · View notes

thatsshowbizbby · 3 years

Text

ishq sufiyana

pairing: steve rogers x desi!reader

summary: your weapon of choice is a blade. his is a shield. both were made to clash with one another.

warnings: mention of blood and violence (slight). tension, angsty-ish? the wrath and the dawn, arranged marriage vibes. enemies to lovers-ish.

author's note: this is my first thing lol pls be nice. this isn't a full story but just an idea i had in my head. i believe this is called a headcannon (?) also my second time posting bc tumblr drafts/editing is killing my vibe

you are royalty - raised in a palace made of white marble, and clear, blue waters all around - handcrafted clothing and magnificent jewels at your disposal.

and your beauty. talk of your beauty attracts suitors from the farthest ends of the earth, coming to prove whether that talk is just mere gossip.

it’s not.

but that's not what got steve's attention when he first laid his eyes on you. it was the sword in your hand. a talwar.

your movement mimicked the flow of the water surrounding your palace - a fight style disguised as delicate. but to the trained eye, steve's eyes, it was anything but. it was dangerous. you were dangerous.

and you made sure to let steve know that you were far from a damsel in distress, waiting stupidly for her knight in shining armor.

"i don't know you, nor do i care for you. as far as im concerned, you're just another candidate waiting for my rejection. and trust me, it's coming soon but i'll let you enjoy your time here for a couple more weeks.”

steve scoffs because of course you would have an attitude. you were a spoiled princess. a beautiful, fierce one whom he was beginning to respect, but he would never admit that to you. not anymore. your arrogance trumped your beauty.

"oh sweetheart, what makes you think i want you at all?"

you two continue to bicker and roll your eyes at each other and make snarky remarks when crossing paths inside the palace walls for the remainder of steve’s visit.

“what’s wrong, princess? too scared to go up against me?” he would tease, sitting in on your sparring practices.

“believe me, rogers. you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if i were up against you.”

so when your father offers your hand to the nuisance a few days prior to his departure, you’re dumbfounded.

“beta, you two will get along. trust me.”

“i will only agree if he can defeat me.” you both knew full well that no one has ever been able to.

with that, you and steve prepare for a fight. you with your sword and dagger. him with his shield. how pathetic.

you got a few good hits in, starting off strong - cutting through his suit, hitting him in the face with the hilt of your sword, blocking his punches - he really only chose a shield? out of the entire palace armory, he chose his stupid, little shield.

but all that inner shit-talk came to a full stop when he disarmed you in one swift motion. your sword was on the floor, as were you, with your hidden dagger pressed against your throat and steve on top of you. how did he find that?

his breath fanned over your face. “always know your enemy, princess.”

___________________________

as you sat in your chambers, heart racing for the wedding tomorrow morning, you looked over your mehndi (henna). it had gotten so dark.

“deeper the color becomes, deeper the love. and your groom’s love for you must be competing with the darkest parts of the ocean,” one of your ladies said to you.

yeah right.

you pull yourself out of your thoughts and make your way to the room of your unenthusiastic betrothed. you’re careful to not be seen by any palace guards or maids. visiting your soon-to-be-husband in the middle of the night? the rumors would spread like wildfire.

you knock on the door and hear a “come in.”

steve turns around in nothing but a pair of sleepwear bottoms. oh boy. at this point, you’ve become extremely aware of your own appearance. long brown hair flowing freely, a smaller nath (nose ring) than your usual daytime wear, an almost sheer nightgown, and small shawl that barely covered your upper body. steve’s breath hitches in his throat from across the room.

you look at the cuts and bruises healing from your spar a few days ago. but the satisfaction of those memories, of the times you got him, were interrupted by the sight of a much darker bruise running along his broad shoulder. then you see his face. more bruises. more cuts. and bowl of water and rag in his hand.

“what happened?” you rush over, concern overcoming you.

“nothing, nothing. don’t worry about it,” he tries to brush off, but you’re not having it. you grab his chin and direct his face towards your own to get a good look. busted lip, busted jaw, swollen cheek. full lips. chiseled face. gorgeous blue ey- snap out of it.

“well if you’re going to look like this for tomorrow morning, i’d like to know what the hell happened.”

“there was a boy running from a couple of bandits in the market. i saw and helped him. the bandits didn’t like that,” he laughs, “it was ten against one.”

“and you got out with only a few scratches here and there? you’d think the damage would be worse,” you say, trying to hide your respect and admiration.

“yeah, you’d think.” there were those eyes again, this time burning into your own.

you take the rag from his hand. “sit,” gesturing to the embroidered armchair.

you soak the piece of cloth in the bowl of water, wring it out, and begin to clean the wounds on his face. he winces when you get to his jaw.

“sorry.”

trying to get a better angle, you step in between his open legs and take a seat on his thigh. gently holding his face, so gentle he could barely feel it, you wipe away the dried blood.

steve’s eyes rake over your face. the talk was not mere gossip. beautiful.

he was so immersed in his thoughts of you that he did not notice you were done. but still sitting on his lap. his face in your hands. it was your turn to stare intently at him.

your noses almost touching, as you instinctively run your hand through his hair. he sighs in content and relaxes into your touch. you feel your heart skip a bit at the response.

“try not to take another beating while you’re here, rogers. or better yet, why don’t you learn a few tricks? your swordsmanship could be better” you joke, as you get up and walk away.

but he grabs your hand, getting up from the armchair, and slightly pulls you towards him.

“i recall winning every fight i’ve been in. or did you already forget how we got here in the first place?” his eyes held a playful look, as if letting you know that he was not challenging you this time. he was merely….joking, alongside with you.

a smile tugs at your lips as you pull your hand away. “yes, well you still need to work on your swordsmanship.”

“only if you’ll teach me, princess.”

#chris evans #chris evans imagine #chris evans headcanon #chris evans x reader #chris evans x y/n #chris evans x you #steve rodgers x reader #steve rogers #steve rogers x y/n #steve rogers x you #marvel #marvel imagine #headcanon #steve rogers headcanon #bajirao mastani #bollywood #south asia #desi #enemies to lovers

310 notes · View notes

sebstanseabass · 3 years

Text

Afterglow (A Bucky Barnes AU fan fiction) - Chapter 22

Afterglow chapters

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Tag: @maladaptivexxdaydreaming

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The next few weeks went by in utter bliss.

The days after the pitch presentation with the marketing team were spent shooting the models in Sam's building. When Bucky told me you'd had assistants for the shoot, you thought that he was just joking or just wanted to make you feel better but you knew now to believe everything he would tell you. It was the first time you'd had people help you work; the first time you had to order people around. You had people working for the lights, reflectors, fans, backdrops, wardrobe, and make-up. You also had people sitting behind two large desktops connected to your new camera to skim over the photos. You would head over there for every five minutes to look at the photos and if you found something that could work better, you'd have another round with the models.

Considering it was the first time you've handled professional models and athletes in photoshoots, you did excellent and handled everything smoothly. Even Sharon knew it, giving you a small reassuring smile from time to time.

Speaking of Sharon, she actually helped you with the models' wardrobe, and got every new clothing from their inventory, making sure everything and everyone were photographed. She was still walking around with her clipboard close to her chest. She never walked the grounds without it.

Sam would go in and out from time to time. With the other matters he had in his hands, countless partnership meetings on-site and online, it was understandable.

But you knew he trusted me in this. After all, you were partners in this project.

Meanwhile, Bucky had made himself comfortable watching you from the corner of the studio. He made himself too comfortable watching you the whole time you were working that the models thought he was planning something heinous. You laughed them off and told them you were dating.

"Isn't he too old for you?" One model had asked.

"Doesn't really matter to me." You turned your head and glanced at Bucky, his eyes glistening as he stared at you. You bit your lip and faced the model. "Plus, he's hot. I would be crazy not to jump on that."

If only Nat could hear you, you knew she'd be proud.

Even though the two-day shoots were brutal, you felt a sense of satisfaction wash over you. More when you finally had to do post-production the following week which meant editing the photos.

As promised, you spent your break time over at Bucky's penthouse, naked in his living room, his master bedroom, the kitchen, and his home office. Your legs would be trembling during the shoot but you persevered. You didn't want Bucky to see you weak while working, even though it turned him on. It wasn't helping that he was watching you the whole time. You couldn't see him but you always felt his eyes on you.

The Falcons' new release was set to be launched a month and a half later, just weeks after Bucky's birthday (I'll get to Bucky's birthday in a bit, 'cause that was a whole other thing kept at the back of my mind, you thought). There were still a lot of things happening with advertising and marketing such as the new website, and pages on social media platforms and new packaging.

After the project with Sam, your paycheck came one Monday morning in the mail. Peter kept asking you how much you were paid but you never told him because if you did, he'd let you pay the next six month's rent — and that wasn't even just for your half. It would be for the both of you. You would gladly pay of course, seeing that he's helped you enough financially but you wanted to invest this money to earn more. The paycheck wouldn't stop there, of course. Sam would still pay you if your photos ever get on billboards across any city or when he opens up a new branch.

Sam referred you to a couple more guys he knew. One who needed to photograph models for a skincare brand he'd been rebranding for the past couple of weeks and one who needed to photograph paintings to be sold online. They weren't as big as Sam's business but were big enough in the industry. The production of both were still in the talk.

The next day, you and Bucky went studio hunting downtown. Obviously, your little home studio wasn't fit for incoming clients and this was surely an investment you couldn't pass upon. After renting and earning more profit, you figured you could move into another studio and buy it; a permanent place where you could freely work.

While studio hunting, Bucky insisted to buy the place that you wanted — or better yet, buy a much bigger place so you wouldn't have to move to another studio. But you've already made up your mind. You told him you wanted to do this your own way, with the money you've earned. After signing the contract and lease with your name on it, Bucky hugged you from behind. The property agent eyed you.

"At least let me buy you something, doll." He whispered in your hair as soon as you were left alone. You stood at the center of the empty office, overlooking the busy streets of New York City through the glass walls. "Please."

You met his arms with your hands, pulling him closer. You leaned on his chest, sighing at the comfort his arms gave you. "Even if I tell you no, I know you're still going to do it."

"You're damn right. Do you have anything in mind you might like?"

You turned around and wrapped your arms around his neck. "Surprise me."

He chewed his inner cheeks before dipping his head to yours, your lips meeting each other. "Oh, I definitely will."

The next day, a whole studio setup filled the used-to-be-empty studio. Complete with backdrops, lights, light boxes, and reflectors. In your new office was a fully furnished desk, complete with a desktop setup where you could edit photos.

You looked at him with wide eyes, ready to lecture him that this was all too much and that you definitely made it clear that you wanted to do all of this by yourself.

Bucky had caught your expression early on, scared that you might have our first argument.

"Before you say anything, this wasn't all me. I figured out a loophole on how I could buy you the things you need for this studio and at the same time, still make you like me and would still make you want to rip my clothes off."

"What did you do this time, James?"

"All of this," he said, gesturing to all the equipment in the studio, "was both me and Sam. Think of it as an investment. If you can get more work and clients, then you can keep everything but if you can't, we'll pull them all out. When you afford to buy everything here, only then can you pay us. This little string here," he pointed to the both of you, "is just business."

You looked at him in disbelief. "Just business?"

He bit his lip. "Okay, maybe a bit of pleasure too."

"A bit?"

"Maybe a whole lot." He shrugged.

"And the whole idea was... just you?"

"Just me, sweetheart. Plain James Buchanan Barnes. You get me, you get the whole package."

"And besides money what will you get out of this little investment idea of yours?"

"I have little care about the money, honestly." He said. "But I'm doing all this for you and you is all I care about."

"You're damn lucky I like you, James."

"Like me enough to have some hot sex right here, right now?"

You smirked, pressing your crotch against his, teasing him. "I get the whole package, right?"

Bucky took you from behind. Your tight skirt hiked up to your waist. Your tits bouncing against the fabric of the beige curtains, your hands gripping them as hard as you could as Bucky thrusted himself hard and deep behind you, his hands either on your hips, your hair, your neck or your breasts. And as you both finished, the curtain rod broke in half, making you and Bucky topple on the ground, the huge curtains falling down on your bodies. The bright sun radiating across the room, the view of the streets startling you.

Laughter filled the room as you stared at each other. The look of exhaustion still evident in your faces and body.

"You're buying me new curtains." You breathed out.

"Me?" He chuckled. "You're the one who pulled them off!"

"The reason why was you."

"I have a better idea."

"I doubt that."

"We should just get these windows tinted." He smirked under the curtains and rolled over towards you, his arms wrapped around your waist. "That way we could just ravish each other in front of this goddamn city without anyone ever seeing us. How does that sound, doll?"

You hummed, brushing your nose against his. "Tempting."

"Is that a yes?"

You shrugged, pulling away from him. "You have to convince me more, Mr. Barnes."

"Oh babydoll, you're gonna regret saying those words."

The following weeks with Bucky was all you could ever ask for but it was getting harder and harder to hide all of this from Peter. Your time together was spent in the confines of Bucky's expensive penthouse when he wasn't in meetings and when you weren't busy finishing the setup in your new studio.

All day you'd cuddle up, watch movies, read books, and just talk more about the beauty and perils of life.

You couldn't go out that much because you couldn't risk Peter or any of Peter's friends to see you and Bucky around. When you visited the bar one day and told Nat all about it, she told you to go to places Peter and any of his friends will never be at.

"Besides, isn't Peter always working?" She asked as you sat down on the booth.

"We still don't want to risk it."

"So, go with my plan."

"Hey," you said, finally thinking her idea was a good one, "how's it going with Steve?"

She shrugged, chewing on her lower lip. You eyed her suspiciously. "Uh-oh, what's wrong?"

"It's still good but..." she paused, her eyes strained. "He's been acting strange lately."

"Isn't he always?" You chuckled. "You may not notice this 'cause you're sleeping with him but he's a bit peculiar for a man his age. Always cramped up in that little office of his. Seriously, how on earth do you have sex in there?"

"I'm bendy, bitch."

"Never should've asked." You mumbled, getting the picture of Nat, well, bending, out of your head.

"Anyway," she sighed, "it's just... he's acting really weird. I can't even begin to explain it. I think something happened."

"Do you think it's about you two?"

"I doubt that." She frowned. "I just know it's something else."

"You want me to talk to him? I'm like a little sister to him." You replied. "Sorta. It's a weird dynamic, I know."

"Sure, if you ever catch him in the office. He's barely even here."

You nodded, taking the new information in. "Now, that's a whole level of weird for Steve."

"Maybe he's just having problems with the bar or something." You shrugged.

"If he did, he'd be here in the bar. I tried talking to him but he says he's just fine. I don't know, I'm just letting him be. It's not like we're in a relationship."

You and Nat talked a bit more about Steve right before her shift started. Then the next day, you gave Bucky a map and marked all the places you could go to without risking being seen. Brooklyn was the only place Peter would never go to. You thought about Queens but May, Peter's aunt, lives around that area.

Brooklyn was no Upper West or Upper East side but it didn't matter to you or to Bucky. You had each other; just the two of us — in the restaurant & lounge, movie theater (where we always end up making out), Barnes & Noble, local coffee shops (where we read the books we've bought), and in the streets of Brooklyn. Strolling hand in hand, stealing kisses on every empty corner, and you taking photos and videos of the beautiful landscape, and the beautiful man who managed to steal your heart.

All the rendezvous with Bucky felt like you were a married woman having an affair — without the secret handwritten letters.

But everything was in place and your heart was full. It was so full it could almost explode.

Spending all the time in his penthouse, in Brooklyn and your studio made me miss your rooftop. A place you've claimed yours and Bucky's; a place he'd claimed you his, and he, yours. You wished we could just go there freely, without having to worry Peter seeing you together doing unspeakable things to one another.

And yes, telling Peter was getting much harder as the month went by.

Back in the Upper West Side, nothing much was going on in the bar. You barely see Steve (though according to Nat, he comes in the bar every now and then), Nat was still Nat of course (and nothing much had changed in whatever was going on between her and Steve), Nick got better at making drinks (thank the heavens for that), Sam would give you constant updates whenever he came with Bucky in the bar, and Peter had been having problems with his marketing team and Wanda's vision for the clothing line they landed.

Now that was something you couldn't believe and was the reason you and Bucky kept postponing on telling him.

Peter was constantly in a bad mood. It got to one point where he wanted to quit the team.

After that, you went to pay Wanda a visit at her studio. You found her sitting in her office in deep thoughts. She was surprised to see you but managed to put on a smile when she approached you with a hug. You offered if you could get coffee from a coffee shop down the block and there you talked about the conflict happening between her and Peter's team.

Boy, when you and Sharon had had an argument, you thought that was already big. But Wanda's case was much bigger.

"This isn't a collaboration anymore. It feels like my artistic vision has no place in it. It's like they're telling me, 'hey, you have a camera just shoot whatever we want you to shoot the way we want it to be shot.' I keep telling them that's not how it works. They keep throwing in my face that they hired me, that they're paying me." Wanda being Wanda, kept on and on and on. "... and that roommate of yours is no help either. He just stays silent the whole time during those god awful meetings. We're already behind track and apparently it's my fault. Can you believe it? God, I don't know what to do. I've never had a marketing team work alongside me before! Have you at least talked to Peter about it?"

You raised your eyebrows, taking a sip of the coffee. "Oh, I wouldn't wanna talk to Parker. He's been in quite a mood."

"Too bad, I was kind of hoping you could knock some sense into him. Should I just quit?"

You talked for about two hours in the coffee shop catching up. It felt kind of rude to talk to her about The Falcons but she insisted. And she genuinely looked and sounded so happy for you, which made you feel a bit guilty for being so envious of her success.

You parted ways in her studio but before you could even get out of her office and go to Brooklyn to meet with Bucky, Wanda called out your name and handed you a film camera.

And it wasn't just any film camera. It was yours — the one that she borrowed back in college.

"It's long overdue, y/n. I was just finding the right time to give it back to you."

You gave her a reassuring smile, telling her it's okay. Hell, you even forgot you lended it to her until today. "Thanks, Wanda."

"I haven't had the film developed, by the way. I took a couple of photos before realizing I've run out. I didn't want to get them developed since most of the photos are yours."

After that, you convinced Bucky to go to some shops in Brooklyn where you could get them developed but he insisted you should just make the little spare room in the studio into a dark room. You didn't know why you agreed but you did, anyway. Bucky always had a way with words. Or perhaps it was because of his intoxicating voice. Either way, you were addicted to every part of him. He could try to persuade you in gibberish and you'd still say yes.

It was already the week before Bucky's birthday. You've already met with your new clients, began planning pre-production, and almost finished setting up the studio, yet your brain was still racking what on earth to get Bucky for his birthday.

Howard picked you up in your studio an hour after your meetings and thanked him as you got out. Leonard greeted you inside and led you towards the elevator that goes right up to Bucky's penthouse.

Bucky just came out of his study when you greeted him with a kiss, his phone in his hand.

"So, who was on the phone? Parker?" You asked as soon as you sat down on the couch.

"That was Tony."

You pursed your lips and nodded, caressing the top of his head. "Tony's been calling you a lot lately." You commented, recalling the times you've seen Tony's name on Bucky's phone screen. "Is everything fine?"

"It's kind of weirding me out too, doll but this time, I kind of figured why he called."

You frowned and stopped playing with his hair. "What do you mean?"

"It's the first time in five years I'm in New York for my birthday and knowing him, I know he'd throw me this huge party." Bucky chuckled. "And I couldn't say no because well... It's Tony — "

You smiled at him. "That's really sweet of him! He must've been missing you a lot."

"I'm not done yet, doll." He placed his finger on your lips.

You giggled and hid how easily that gesture turned you on.

"The birthday party has a theme." With his finger still on your lips, you waited for him to finish. Something you always anticipated in bed. "It's the Great Gatsby."

Your mouth fell agape, smiling at him. In your head, you were already seeing him in a neat, dazzling vintage suit. "Oh my god, why do you look so glum? It sounds like a great party!"

He shrugged. "Honestly, I just want to spend my birthday with you." He pecked your lips then whispered. "No fancy party. Just you."

You kissed him back, then placed your head on his shoulder. "I'd love that too, boo but I'm nothing compared to a Great Gatsby party."

"You couldn't be more wrong, sweetheart." He sighed, pulling you up to his lap. "I'd choose you over any fancy party. I just want you."

"You still have to go, Bucky."

He groaned, dipping his head on your shoulder as he pulled you closer, his hands tight on the sides of your thighs. "I don't want to."

"You have to." You giggled, lifting his head. You put your hands on his jaws, looking straight at him. "Okay?"

"I'm turning thirty-nine in a week, y/n. I'm too old for a costume party."

"Puh-lease." You scoffed. "You streaked in the streets of Greece when you turned thirty-four and you're telling me you're too old for a costume party?"

He groaned, throwing his head back. "Why do you always bring that up, doll?"

"It's one of my favorite stories I've been told about my boyfriend." You smirked, bringing his head back in between his shoulders. "It would be my favorite if I were with you."

Bucky sent you a glare. "No way am I letting other people see you naked. Never in a million years."

You shrugged. "You almost did when we had sex that one time in my office, Buck. Come on, go to the party. It's your party, anyway."

He chuckled, brushing a strand of hair away from your face. He tucked it behind your ear. You smiled at the gesture. "If anything, it's Tony's party, Not mine. He's sort of a diva."

"He's still throwing it because of you. Come on, boo."

A moment of silence occurred.

"You're coming with me, then." He replied. "I'm not going if you're not going."

You hummed, looking up at the ceiling. "Let's see... A party with my boyfriend, his adoptive father who's one of the richest people ever to exist on this planet, and his stepbrother. Well, it's a party but not that fancy."

He moaned. "Then be my date in secret. Come on, doll, we've been really good at it. We can sneak out for a few minutes and make out. That way, I could still be with you."

You knitted your brows. "That sounds more like Romeo and Juliet. Not the Great Gatsby."

He chuckled, kissing the tip of your nose. "Come on, y/n. It's my birthday. Don't I get special treatment on my special day?"

You looked at him with narrowed eyes, knowing he would never drop this. The worry of a party with the person you had been avoiding the past month was settling inside but Bucky's arms around your waist made that all disappear.

"Fine." You sighed. "Your wish is my command, Mr. Barnes."

Bucky smiled in victory, leaning in closer to your face. His lips brushed against yours. "Wishes, baby. That's not the only wish I want."

"You have two more then."

"Oh wait, I should rub you first after making a wish, right?"

You shook your head. "Don't push it."

He sneered, carefully rubbing your thighs. "My second wish would be me buying you a dress but don't let me see it until my birthday comes."

You hadn't had any chance to argue because well, it would be his birthday. And you couldn't resist Bucky.

I don't think I ever could.

"Deal." You sealed it with a small kiss then stood up from his lap. "Only if you let me go shopping now,"

"Now? Like, right now? It's a bit too early, don't you think?"

You nodded and gave him a playful smile. "It is. I just wanted to tease you with a little secret I'll be bringing home with me tonight."

"Oh no," he reached out his arms, "don't do that to me. Come on, get back here. I have a better idea."

You sighed, getting back on his lap, straddling him. "Of course, you do."

"I'll have someone over here tomorrow. I'll have one of the best dressmakers here to make you something gorgeous. How does that sound?"

"It sounds expensive." You warned. "But wonderful. I'll be here in the morning."

After spending another hour at Bucky's, discussing what could've been his birthday plans with me (a simple rooftop dinner, where we could get drunk and have drunk sex underneath the tent — that was just one of the crazy options he offered), you went straight to the bar and looked for Nat, hoping she could help me what to get for Bucky on his birthday.

As you got there, you barged inside only to find the bar empty. You looked around, wondering why there were no people inside only to realize it was two in the afternoon and it was a Monday. You looked back on the door, wondering why it was open. Then, it hit you: Steve. He must be here.

"Steve?" You called out as you neared his office. "Steve, you here?"

No answer.

You knocked on the door and called out his name one more time but you were only met with silence. Without hesitation, you opened Steve's door. You were greeted with a pile of papers. It was like they were growing from the ground.

"Steve?" You called out once more but there was still no answer. You walked around the room to find more papers. You picked one up, seeing it was a newspaper dated back 2012. It was an article about an explosion that happened in the Upper East Side. But you couldn't see the details since only the headline was in sight. It seemed like the whole article had been cut or shredded.

You wondered if Steve was the one who wrote it.

It was the first time you ever got a good look in his office. Inside were dusty. To think that he spends most of his time here, he'd bother to clean once in a while.

On the back of his table were a bunch of photographs lined up. Some of his family, you assumed, fishing on a lake. Then, something caught your eye: a small framed picture that was facing down.

Curious, you slowly picked it up.

An audible gasp came out of your mouth when you saw the photo.

It was Bucky and Steve.

#bucky barnes fanfic #bucky fanfic #bucky barnes au #bucky au #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky fanfiction #bucky x you #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky #bucky fic #bucky barnes fan fiction #james bucky barnes #james buchanan barnes #marvel #marvel au #marvel fanfiction

47 notes · View notes

fanficsrusz · 3 years

Text

POWER - Henry Cavill Smut

Warnings: Smut.

Pairing: Y/n x Henry cavill

Summary: Y/n's plan to seduce Henry backfires but in a wondrous way.

Word Cound: 7.7k

A/N: Its been a while since I've posted anything and I feel a little nervous 😅. However I've missed the thrill of creating a world all of my own. I also apologise for any spelling/grammatical mistakes. I havent edited anything for a long time so yeahhh.

Please comment/reblog if you enjoyed ❤️

"You're drunk"

The accusation, issued through Henry's teeth, was an angered hiss and Henry's reaction was everything that Y/n could have wished for… And more.

Y/n forced a little hiccup, feeling it bubble its way through her body before it made its escape out of her mouth, and almost laughed at the thin set of lips across from her that stayed in a straight line.

He looked positively prim - just like he always did.

"No-" she defended, "-I'm happy". The correction came with a sly smile, her upper body leaning towards him across the bar, her inner amusement increasing as she watched his body stiffen in annoyance.

Henry was keeping a distance between their bodies, as if he thought her intoxication may be infectious.

The hold he quickly took to her waist was more of a brace rather than an intention as she swayed forward and then backwards.

"Don't you want me to be happy, Henry?"

Y/n pouted, tilting her head back and looking at him with what she hoped would be a sultry invitation. She laughed, a bold, wicked sound that drew a few glances from others in the bar. Henry stared stiffly over her head, swallowing the lump in his throat that had seemed to form as he grew more irritated with the woman's involuntary outbursts.

"For God's sake, Y/n, control yourself", he whispered tightly.

Was he embarrassed by her lack of inhibition? No. It was quite the opposite. He felt… lost. As if he had no idea how to act in the situation he had found himself in.

It was normal for him, the playboy, to taunt her with his fancy words, to distract her with his sinfully dark looks and honeyed phrases, but turn the tables and he wasn't quite so poised himself and Y/n felt a delicious thrill of power at the knowledge that she had him off balance.

She deliberately let herself go limp in his arms, and, when his grip relaxed in relief at the stability her body found, she quickly slipped under his guard, pressing the entirety of her body sinfully against him.

Her tactics immediately threatened to backfire as Henry's coldly rigid body seemed to be generating an incredible amount of heat and that in itself was enough for her to lose focus of her goal.

She rested her check against his chest and willed away her trembling response even as she measured his annoyance by the wildly uneven thump of his heart.

"You'll regret this tomorrow," he told her sternly, his hands tightening painfully on her waist.

"'Why in hell did you drink all that champagne? Do you want to make a total fool of yourself, jeopardise a deal with Dere-?"

"Rubbish. Derek thought I was as graceful as ever; he told me so," y/n said airily, thinking that it was too late to regret drinking at a business meeting with her boss and other potential clients.

Y/n moved steadily in his arms to prove it, brushing her breasts against his chest, hoping that the crushed velvet of her dress would hide the multitude of her sins that had seemed to accumulate quickly throughout the night and not to mention the past year that she had worked beside Henry, every single dirty thought she ever had about him portraying itself as nothing more than a red stain upon her cheeks and chest.

She had never been sinful before, always a dutiful daughter, just as she had later been a faithful business partner to Henry but there was only so much a woman could take before she had to take drastic measures. Now she was neither a daughter nor a business partner. She was Y/n Y/l/n. Herself. A woman before anything else and more specifically a woman with needs.

"You're the only one who thought I was wrong for declining the partnership" , she drawled mockingly, too caught up in her reckless self-absorption to monitor his surfacing awareness. "Chill out, Henry. If you can't fix it with a snap of your fingers, you might as well lie back and enjoy the open bar…"

The thud of his heart had settled down to a swift, arrhythmic beat that set up a sympathetic vibration throughout her body from her scalp to the soles of her restless feet.

There was a small pause as he manoeuvred her pliant body away from another couple that wanted to get to the bar. Then he tilted his head to look down at her.

"Chill out?" Amusement leaked through his iron control as he suppressed the grin he held in tight. " wow- I never thought I'd hear street-slang from that elegant, business-lady mouth of yours…".

For a second Y/n gulped, thinking she had lost all control of the situation that she had perfectly built up all evening but then Y/n moved dreamily against him, fully immersed in her ideal scenario.

She linked her arms round his back and arched her neck slightly so that she could see his expression.

"But I'm not a lady tonight, Henry, I'm a woman," she said huskily.

"Should I lie back and enjoy that too?" he enquired cynically.

That conjured up indecent images that for a moment left Y/n shocked, breathless even and if it wasn't for the distant sound of a glass breaking somewhere in the bar then she would have stayed in her trance like manner.

Her lips parted as she tried to say something sophisticated in response but she couldn't think of a thing and for a moment she feared that she had lost the edge. Y/n bit her lower lip and suddenly he had control over her again, his voice rough with threat, as he gave her a small shake.

"Behave yourself, Y/n. Stop being so fucking provocative. You should go home"

"I'm not ready to go home yet" she mewled, eyes darting over to the dance floor that served as a pick up ground.

Henry sighed, his eyes following her gaze

"One dance, that's all you get. Then I'm getting you out of here before you start leaping onto table-tops and doing the can-can!"

"What a killjoy you're turning out to be, Henry" with fresh fury, she suddenly spun out of his arms and danced freely for a few moments before cutting mischievously in on another couple. Soon Henry was glaring murderously over the shoulder of a blonde woman while Y/n languished in the sweaty grasp of a nervous young man who was very aware of the hovering blue-eyed menace.

When Henry cut back in a short time later, Y/n was relinquished with ill concealed relief.

"You're playing with fire, Y/n" , Henry warned, his firm hand taking hold of her again. This time he held her so captively close that she could feel the lines of his suit being imprinted on her velvet dress.

She had the feeling that if he had been able to shackle both her wrists behind her back without attracting attention he would. He wanted to cage her, tame her, but tonight, surrounded by the security of a crowd, she was determined to be untamable, just to see how far she could push him.

"Mmmm, I know, and I feel so gloriously toasty and warm," she murmured wickedly, waggling her eyebrows at a passing male.

Henry swore under his breath and pulled her flirtatious eyes away from any male that passed by capturing her gaze before she could perform some similar impropriety. He quickly brought his own hand to his mouth to mask his aggression in the pretence of courtesy. She had been right about the shackling.

"You're drunk", he repeated raggedly, more as if he was telling himself than her. She rather liked the hint of desperation that seeped into every word he spoke. It was almost as satisfying as having him grovel at her feet.

Y/n laughed, a sensuous 'cat-with-the-cream' look of satisfaction on her face as she widened her eyes and purred, "But not incapable, darling…".

She tamed a deliberate misstep as she spoke so that her leg slid caressingly between his thighs as they turned.

Henry almost stumbled as she lifted her knee, briefly applying the pivoting pressure of her thigh firmly to the juncture of his. Her provocation had an immediate effect and she drew back instantly, finally aware that her teasing had gone too far. But it was too late. Henry had reached the end of his tether.

"Fine -" he seethed, "-we'll do this the hard way then"

Five minutes later Y/n was belted roughly into the passenger-seat of her own car.

" I'm perfectly fit to drive, Henry" she raged at the man who slid angrily behind the steering wheel before inserting her keys into the ignition.

"I'm as sober as you are!"

" For your sake, I hope that's a lie, Y/n".

His voice was nothing but a growl and y/n felt the shiver that started in her groin slowly rise up through her spine.

"But if it is true then maybe you've done me a favour. If you were teasing me deliberately I don't have to feel guilty for what I'm about to do." his eyes stayed focused on whatever he was staring at, his fists curling tightly around the steering wheel until his knuckles turned pale.

"Do?" Y/n asked faintly as the car sprang into motion with far more power than she ever managed to coax from under the unimpressive bonnet.

"Did you think I would calmly walk away like an obedient lap-dog when you got tired of your little game ?"

"I...I... didn't think-" she began to splutter.

"No? Just instinct, was it? Trap the beast, then rattle his cage until he howls? Wasn't that your goal?"

"Henry!"

He hadn't looked at her since they had got in the car, driving with a narrow-eyed concentration, but now he slipped a grim sideways glance at her shocked expression and what he saw there seemed to ease his ferocious tension but the wolfish twitch of his mouth wasn't reassuring

"You did, didn't you? You really thought I'd let you get away with it. You didn't think I'd have the guts to drag you kicking and screaming out of there"

Y/n swallowed the dry lump in her throat. She had definitely underestimated her victim and definitely forgot to plan this far ahead.

"'I wasn't kicking and screaming," she protested weakly, avoiding the obvious answers he wanted.

"Not on the outside maybe. But your innocent act never did cut any ice with me" Henry's eyes glanced over at Y/n

Y/n clenched her fists tightly, until her nails dug into the palm of her hand, but she barely noticed. The only thing she was really aware of, was the sound of her heart throbbing against the cage of her chest.

It wasn't until she looked up into the rear view mirror, that she noticed she had been biting her lip so much so that they were almost as red as the lipstick that had wiped off hours ago.

"Scared, Y/n?" Henry jeered softly as she swallowed again, this time audibly. "You should be." he said lowly

"What about your own car?" she began weakly, hoping that practicalities might prevail where argument hadn't.

"I'll pick it up tomorrow." Y/n went quiet. This fantasy was easier to plot when she didn't have to concentrate on parrying his verbal thrusts and she tried to calm her nervous actions with whatever had made her think that she could best him at his own game.

She wished she were drunk but all she could do was hope that the drive would cool down that scorched male pride. All she could do momentarily was create another plan.

When they would finally get back to her apartment building she would placate him, contrive to convince him that it had all been a silly mistake. For all his threatening manner, she knew instinctively that he wouldn't use violence to enforce his threats. He didn't have to... all he had to do to seduce her was to take her in his arms and then she would be at his mercy. But once she had bolted her door on him she would be safe from her own wicked urges.

He could rage and huff and puff all he liked but he wouldn't be able to get in. The irony was rather quaint. All the security locks that he had insisted she have installed on her doors and windows when he first found out she lived alone in a not so friendly neighbourhood would ensure that her virtue remained unassailable - well for tonight at least.

Y/n had almost convinced herself that she had already outwitted him when she noticed the unfamiliarity of their route.

"This isn't the way to my home!"

He ignored her. The moving light thrown by the passing street-lights illuminated his shadowed expression. It was a hard mask of satisfaction.

"Dammit, Henry, where are you taking me?"

"I told you. Home."

"This isn't where I live."

"I never said I would take you to your home. I simply said 'home'. It's not my fault that you assumed I meant your home."

Henry turned into a steep, dark, curving driveway that seemed to drop away directly into the deep black glitter of a Lake that Y/n didn't even know existed in the area.

Y/n's heart was in her mouth as the car swooped towards the water, but when they reached the lower curve into darkness, security lights suddenly flickered on and she saw the brick paved courtyard clearly for an instant before the car was swallowed by the lower level of the house.

The garage door closed automatically after them, and for a moment after Henry cut the engine, the only sound in the softly lit enclosed space was the faint ringing echo of the metal door. Y/n was irresistibly reminded of the metallic springing of a trap. One that she had baited herself into.

"Welcome home, Y/n." Henry leaned towards her and she flinched, but he was merely flicking open her seatbelt.

She couldn't see him smile but she could hear the amusement in his voice as he continued, "No, not here in the car. I'm not so crude as to take up your generous invitation without due ceremony and at least a few comforts."

Henry leaned even further, reaching across her to push open her door, this time dragging his arm deliberately against her rapidly rising breasts as he withdrew.

"Get out. I'd prefer to go inside" he purred dangerously, pointedly placing her car keys out of reach in the inside pocket of his jacket.

" but If you can't restrain your wild passion and don't mind a little discomfort I'm quite ready and willing to make love to you against the dashboard"

Y/n was up and out of the car with as much alacrity as her fumbling apprehension would allow. His mocking laugh as he followed suit had her searching for the door, but he was there before her, opening it with a flourish and a small bow.

" After you. "

All the way up the narrow, spotlight staircase, Y/n was aware of the movement of her hips and legs, the breathless difficulty in her chest and, most of all, the steady, inexorable masculine tread that stalked her.

The room at the top of the stairs was shrouded in darkness, relieved by vague glimmering white shapes that made her gasp.

"Afraid of ghosts, too, Y/n? What a timid little thing you're turning out to be…". The murmured words smoked across the small area of vulnerable skin between her shoulder-blades, exposed by the discreet scoop of her gown, whispering across her sensitised nerves. There was a faint click and the room sprang into light.

The white shapes were sheets, draped over bulky objects.

Even the floor was covered by a dark green sheet, and the reason was obvious. The walls were stripped and primed, but had not yet had their first coat.

They were in the kitchen, Y/n guessed from the positioning of the shrouded fittings. Scattered about were cans of paint and rolls of wallpaper, brushes soaking in paint and the odd ladder or two. The only ghosts here were those of the tradesmen.

Yet, Y/n's heart continued to flutter with a deliciously disconcerting fear, an excited apprehension.

Without a word Henry took her by the elbow and ushered her impatiently through several more similarly dust-shrouded rooms with the unswerving instinct of a guided missile, not bothering to turn on any more lights.

The place seemed huge, and as silent and brooding as the explosively primed man beside her.

"You-you're redecorating!" Y/n grabbed at the chance to divert him from his relentless intention. Honestly it surprised her that she had known him for so long and yet had never seen his home, he didn't even talk of it much.

Henry didn't answer and she fell quiet.

He let her resistance slow him but he didn't let his grip ease. He had already been taken by surprise once too often that night.

"Have you been feeling hunted, Y/n?" Her answer was in her uneasy sidelong look. He smiled secretively. "Now you know how I felt this evening: like the helpless prey to your brazen huntress…" Y/n flushed, her whole body heating at his words. She had been brazen, utterly so, and she had enjoyed it far too obviously to try to deny it now.

Henry let her dwell on her folly for a moment before he murmured, "The answer to your question is…" his slow smile drew out the suspense for a wickedly long second "...perhaps."

His eyelids drooped, not quite hiding the predatory gleam that smouldered in the darkness. He was still very, very angry and he wanted her to know it.

"Certainly it turned out to be very convenient for you…"

His free hand came up under her other elbow and he stepped around to face her, forcing her backwards and into the realisation that while he had held her enmeshed with his equivocating words he had been slowly backing her to the wall.

"I'm no one's convenience," she spat, determined not to see the effect his calculated menace was having on her already chaotic nervous system.

"You have to admit you qualify in one or two forms of the dictionary meaning, Y/n," he drawled, driven to foment her the way that she had tormented him. "You're certainly suitable for my purposes and needs and you're close by... but no, I don't suppose you could be considered "easy to use"...

The fear that had inhibited her flared into an open temper at his overt mockery.

"If you think I'll let you-" "-Challenging me, y/n?" he interrupted softly, and watched her hesitate as she realised the certain consequences of goading him from her very vulnerable position.

"Actually," he continued almost kindly, "it's a little late for second thoughts. You've led me this far with your little game. Now it's time to pay the piper…" He dipped his head and to her tingling shock bit her gently on the side of her satiny throat. She reared back, but there was nowhere to go, no escape that didn't involve going through that broad-shouldered, lean-hipped wall of male arrogance!

"led you! You're the one who practically kidnapped me" She was appalled to hear the breathy lightness in her words when she had meant them to be firm.

"Mmm. Exciting, isn't it?" He bit the other side of her throat. "Just think how thoroughly helpless you are right at this minute. You're in a strange house, while I know every nook and cranny. All the exits are deadlocked. Even if you ran, where would you run to? I'm stronger than you are. bigger, harder, faster. You can't get away, no matter how hard you try. I can do anything I want with you. And there's nothing you can do about it, except…"

" Except what?" The mouth skimming her throat was having as violent an effect as his taunting words, arousing the deeply buried desires that she had tried to deny.

" accept what you caused" She felt the curve of his lips against her smooth skin, heard the amusement in the sensuous rumble.

He was laughing at her.

He wasn't content with merely seducing her. No, he wanted to humiliate her, too.

Sudden panic struck and with a fierce surge of strength she shoved at his solid chest. To both their surprise, he staggered back, far enough for her to dart away. With a roaring curse he gave chase.

Y/n's heart hammered as she scuttled from the safety of one covered piece of furniture to the next. She froze, listening for the direction of his pursuit, but Henry had also stilled. He was out there somewhere, crouched and aware, listening, just as she was, waiting to pounce. Her skin prickled hotly and she could feel the blood pulsing heavily through her veins. Y/n shivered with a strangely febrile excitement. She peered around what appeared to be a small table and saw a graduation of the blackness - A doorway!,

Taking a deep breath, she took to a low crouch and ran for it. As she did so she felt a rush of air as close as a blow and a throaty growl. He had only just missed her! She couldn't help letting out a little scream as she abandoned stealth and bolted, darting breathlessly to the darkened room.

Henry was never far behind and at first she was grateful that he didn't switch on the lights, the better to find her, but as his taunting laughter infiltrated the night she realised that he was revelling in the chase...and so was she!

Her inner certainty that Henry would never physically hurt her, even in genuine rage, gave an added piquancy to the situation.

She had challenged him in the most clemental way possible and he was responding in a way that was as different and exciting as he was.

The panic which had precipitated her flight became a delicious terror as the teasing game of hide-and-seek continued.

Sexual tension flourished in the shrouded silence like a living thing. He was no longer in a hurry to catch her, whispering silky-voiced threats into the night that curled her toes and dampened her palms, describing in sensual detail what was going to happen when he found her.

It didn't take Y/n very long to break. When Henry suddenly went quiet her imagination ran riot. She pressed herself even more tightly against the reassuring solidarity of what appeared to be a sideboard and quavered, "Henry?".

There was no answer and she tried hard to sound convincingly calm.

"Henry, this is ridiculous. Why don't you turn on the light and we'll talk about it sensibly?" Sensible was the last thing she felt but she couldn't stand the waiting no longer.

Y/n was just close enough to the edge of her self control to try shameless grovelling.

" All right, so I acted foolishly this evening. Now you've got your revenge and now we're even aren't we?"

Silence

"okay fine , yes, I admit it!" she cried. "I pretended to be drunk to tease you but…"

Silence,

"I did it because... because I didn't expect you to respond." And may God not strike her down for that awful lie!

"I wanted to annoy you, that's all. It was wrong of me. Childish. I'm sorry. I just wanted to give you a taste of your own medicine. You always seem to have this - control over me. I just wanted to get under your skin for once."

Silence

"Henry? Henry!' Her placatory tone slipped badly.

" Fuck!, stop it. Henry, this isn't funny anymore!"

A soft chuckle floated out of the darkness. Y/n was too disorientated to guess its direction and she whirled a full circle.

" I'm not playing your stupid game any more, Henry, so you may as well come out. I won't try and run away again. I promise."

Silence.

Y/n began to tremble, not from fear but from helpless desire. Dammit, why didn't he come out and finish what she had started already. There was a soft sound to her left, a tiny echoing click that acted like a trigger on her taut nerves, catapulting her automatically to the other wall of the room, where she backed hastily between two tented objects that provided her with a solid sense of security. A false sense, she discovered, when a hand suddenly whipped across her mouth from behind, smothering her scream.

"So much for your promises, Y/n," came the clipped murmur in her ear. "That was only my cuff-link. You ran straight into my arms."

The hand across her mouth tightened as she tried to protest, and an arm lashed around her waist, drawing her back against a hard, familiar body. He hadn't lied in his silken whispers. He was just as aroused as she was by their foolish game.

She stood there for a moment, her head against his shoulder, trembling and breathless. She tried to speak and tasted the sweat of his palm. Instead of dropping his hand he trailed it deliberately across her lips, his fingers curving into her parted mouth, stroking the inner surface of her mouth and fondling her tongue with an intimacy that was far more shocking than any explicit sexual caress.

Her heart thundered in her breast as he softly probed her moistness, scaling the breath from her lungs, as he whispered, "Do you like this, Y/n? Your mouth is like wet satin, wrapping around my fingers. Use your tongue, tell me if you like the taste of me…" The sheer intoxication of his husky plea made her moan and he quickly let his hand drop.

"Am I hurting you?"

She couldn't answer and his hand continued to fall, until it settled on the firm roundness of her left breast, his palm cupping her, feeling the pounding tumult within.

" You...frighten me," she managed to say, her taste buds tingling with each word, drowning in the full flavour of him.

"This isn't fright, Y/n…" His hand tightened and then released, to flatten and move against her in soft rotation, compressing the flesh in a way that made her tremble even more.

"This is excitement. You wanted to be caught, didn't you? You're as curious about me as I am about you, only you wouldn't let yourself admit it. Tell me now if this is not what you want, Y/n, because from here on in I can't guarantee my control…"

As he issued his rough command his hand moved to explore her other breast. The hand around her waist strayed, fingers splaying against her velvet belly, digging into her softness, reaching for the ache that was forming in the pit of her stomach. His mouth was moving against her shining cap of hair, seeking the sensitive hollows at the nape of her neck.

He was handing control to her because she made him feel wildly out of control. She had never driven a man so wild with desire that he didn't know what he was doing...

"Henry, God, -"

"don't say no, Y/n. Not now." He spun her tightly in his arms and she made a discovery that drenched her with sensuous delight.

"Your clothes…"

He had taken off his jacket and tie some time during his dark pursuit and unbuttoned his shirt so that it hung free from his broad shoulders. The hands that she had placed against his chest met with bare skin- hot, damp, satiny skin covered with thick, soft hair. His heart was almost leaping from his chest and he shuddered as she pressed her palm harder against him, marveling at the strength and power rippling beneath the skin.

"I got hot, chasing you," he said. "I still am. Wanting you makes me that way. Hot and so ready that I can hardly stand!"

He made a subtle movement with his hips and groaned as he brushed against the thick velvet folds of her dress. She felt a fresh moisture break out on his skin and in an instinctive gesture of acceptance leaned forward to nuzzle it from his chest, her mouth inadvertently brushing against one of his large, flat nipples in his nest of hair.

He made a choking sound in his throat, arching back to give her free access to his upper body and in the process ground his swollen hardness against the juncture of her thighs

"do it"

Y/n barely heard his ragged plea. Henry was so exquisitely responsive to every tiny movement she made, even to the very breath from her lips upon his skin, that he was soon deep in the toils of a dreamy delirium.

She wasn't aware of the rip he made in the back of her dress when his shaking hands wrenched the zip down, only of the molten sensuality of his gaze as he steered her into a shaft of light near the window and studied her breasts. nestled in their cups of pure white lace.

"Did you wear this for me?" he asked thickly, roughly tracing the outline of the lace across the curving swells. "Did you want me to take off your dress tonight, Y/n? To admire you like this?"

His arousal was so flatteringly intense that she couldn't deny him the truth.

"Yes…"

She closed her eyes, gasping as she felt the stroke of his thumbs across the seams, finding the rigid tips that were evidence of her own desire. He made a sound and she felt him kneel to pull her velvet gown over her hips, revealing the white panties and suspender belt in the same simple lace design as the bra, demure yet sexy in their essential femininity.

He made another sound, this time deep and guttural, his hands running up the backs of her thighs, pulling them closer and parting them slightly.

She opened her eyes, clutching at his naked shoulders as he moved his mouth hotly against the lacy front panel of her panties and pressed a string of kisses from the soft skin at the tops of her stockings to the deep, frantic pulse at the hollow of her hip.

Y/n could feel the cool air along her pussy as warmth settled there. Rough hands sent a shiver through her body as they ran the length of her thighs, kneading her ass before finding their way back to her pussy, and pushing her panties to the side for a better look at what she had to offer. Y/n shook and he purred in approval of her reaction.

Henry pressed forward until Y/n felt his lips along her folds, teasing her before delving deeper. Y/n gasped at the first taste, the tip of his tongue poking at her entrance, her arousal spilling forth. Henry ran the length of her pussy until he flicked her clit, the twitch it brought forth made him snicker into her skin. He dragged his tongue along her clit again, grazing it over and over as her pelvis flinched unwillingly.

“shit,” she hissed, trying not to moan though it felt so good.

Y/n clung onto his shoulders, the buzz she felt in her stomach coming closer to finding its release. Her thighs trembled as he grew more persistent, his tongue agile as it drew forth an orgasm but just before she could relish in the exquisite feeling, he pulled away. It had been almost a year since you had been pleasured by anything other than her own hands and this was starting to drive her mad.

The sight of his dark head moving against her and the sensations he was creating made her cry out in helpless need and he looked up, a dark blush crossing his face when he saw her starlit expression.

He stood and kissed her on the mouth until they were both breathless. Then, still holding her, he reached behind him, dragging the sheet off the nearest object.

It was a smooth, polished mahogany dining table, it's dark surface reflecting the muted lights from the moon.

Y/n imagined him laying her down on that smooth hardness and leaning over her, feeling the melting pleasure of his touch.

Henry turned her, pressing her hips against the carved mahogany edge.

"I've never made love on a table before," she whispered raggedly, hoping that she wouldn't disappoint him with her relative inexperience. No doubt he was used to women who were terribly adventurous and sexually sophisticated. She thrusted the jealous thought away and linked her arms around his neck, reminding herself that she could make him shake with passionate need. She could make up with enthusiasm for what she lacked in experience and he would never know the difference.

He stilled and she was afraid that she had destroyed the moment with her naive little confidence. Henry lifted his head and looked at the table behind her. Then he stopped and swept her off her feet, lifting her into his strong arms.

"No, not here," he said hoarsely. "The first time should be in a bed.." He began to move with Y/n in his arms and she turned her hot face against his broad chest, adoring him for caring enough to make this exactly right for them.

"I don't want to wait." She told him shyly of her need and his arms tightened, the muscles of his shoulders and neck bunching into prominence as his stride quickened.

"You won't have to." He turned into another doorway, dipping an elbow against the wall until twin lamps glowed, their light filtered into a soft, golden delicacy by the cloths that swathed them.

Henry didn't let her go as he removed the covering over the bed and stripped back the dark feather quilt. When he finally put her down it was on to crisp white sheets that released a lavender fragrance to mingle with the heated scent of arousal that perfumed their bodies.

Henry stood by the bedside, looking down at her. Then he spread his hands, revealing the light tremor that shook his hand ever so gently.

"Look what you do to me. You make me weak. No one has ever had that effect on me" Y/n reached out a hand and touched his trident stomach.

"You're the strongest man I know," her hand ran down his stomach and over the muscle underneath as she moved down to his belt. She tugged at it gently

"I want you" she purred.

The knowledge of their mutual desire flared in his hungry eyes, hardening the planes and angles of his face until it looked as rigid as his body under her exploring hand. He caught her wrist before she would have touched him intimately, folding her arm back into the pillow behind her head he knelt beside her.

"Say it again. Say my name."

"I want you to make love to me, Henry." Her words were a promise to give him all that he wanted and more.

"No more running?" he raised his eyebrow jokingly and Y/n shook her head, unable to speak as he unclipped the front fastening of her bra, sensing that he wanted her to lie quiescently as he bared the last secrets of her body.

She felt shy, like a precious gift being gloatingly unwrapped, but she didn't resent his moment of purely masculine triumph. The glory of the moment was also hers, this beautiful man that she had known for so long finally hers. He was giving himself to her and asking nothing but what she was willing to give in return. For tonight and perhaps for many nights to come she would let him satisfy the hunger in her soul, colour the cold grey corners of her world with a warmth and vibrant life that would dispel, at least for a time, the loneliness she had come to accept many years ago.

"I want you, too…" she whispered as she welcomed the joy of his touch.

Henry undressed himself with a fumbling haste that she found inexpressibly exciting and when he came down on to her she gasped at the violent energy of his enthusiasm. Y/n stared up at him, his cock hanging out for all to see.

The controlled, disciplined man she had grown to know vanished completely. In his place was a greedy, intemperate, ardent and impetuous male, urgently intent with plundering each and every lavish pleasure of flesh.

Henry smirked, his hand slowly pumping his dick a few times before he bent down and slid the tip over her slit and pushed inside roughly, allowing her no resistance as he filled her entirely.

This moment when he took her would live vividly in her memory forever.

The shocking reality of his first thrust stilled them both but then he stilled, chest shaking, half across her body, his head buried in the curve of her neck.

'Surely he's not going to stop now,' y/n thought hysterically as her body slowly adjusted to the agonising fullness, and she felt the involuntary ripples of tension begin to absorb him even more deeply into her being.

Y/n dropped her head back as she let out a low growl as he thrusted sharply, allowing a moment between each as they were jolted into the bed. His hands were on her hips, holding her down as he slid in and out.

Relax and enjoy was about all Y/n was capable of doing as his sensual onslaught built towards a fiery climax. He devoured her, feasting on her body with blind hunger, biting lushly into her skin, sipping and suckling the sweetness from her achingly swollen breasts as his hands adjusted her body around his, moaning and shuddering so violently when she even lightly caressed his body with her own that she resorted to merely riding the exquisite storm as he sank deeper than before.

Henry groaned and y/n felt a sudden burst of warmth, his cum leaking down her legs as she let the feeling of her own orgasm near

She plunged a hand into his sweat-drenched hair, and pulled his head back.

"Henry-"

The moan came quickly and she hardly recognised him as she gawked up at him. His mouth was full, reddened, the skin drawn tightly over the bones of his face giving him a lean, hollowed-checked wildness, his deep set eyes open but blank with inner turbulence. He looked almost totally insensate.

Y/n felt shaken by a sudden wave of tenderness as his cock slid over a soft spot inside her, her fingers curling tightly into silky-damp hair.

"Henry--"

The tenderness flooded her being and was just swiftly followed by another wave of intense feeling as Henry stiffened and pulled back slightly, the pupils of his eyes contracting, his jaw clenching as he fought the blind instinct that was relentlessly driving him.

"I hurt you, didn't i." he gritted. "I went too fast for you. I'm sorry." He moved up on his braced arms and tried to withdraw further but she stopped him, almost sobbing.

"No... oh, no"

Henry hesitated and she moaned again, this time a bitter protest, "No, please, no, not yet…"

Y/n's pussy tightened and she murmured in delight as he slowly thrusted against her again, her sensitive walls sending a thrill up her spine.

She was fighting to hold on, and he watched, puzzled and then fascinated, as she moaned, her eyes wide with a strange fear and confusion. Her fingers slid laxly out of his hair to clench and unclench helplessly on the pillow. A deep rosy flush spread up from her damp, heaving breasts to mantle her throat and face. He realised then what was happening to her and waited, afraid to move again for fear of breaking the wondrous spell, watching hotly as the inexorable momentum built swiftly to a flashpoint.

Only when she rolled her flushed cheek sideways into the pillow did he move, cupping her face with his strong hand, forcing her to look at him.

"No, let me see... let me watch it happen to you...I want to watch"

Her eyelids fluttered at his husky command, her blush deepened, but she was too enraptured to feel embarrassed, too stunned by the speed of it all to deny him anything he asked. Her mouth trembled and parted and she began to gasp in light, shallow breaths that made her flushed breasts quiver deliciously, invitingly.

He bent and touched a stiff pink nipple experimentally with his mouth, very gently. She jerked and cried out, exploding beneath him in a series of violent convulsions that almost unseated him. He gripped her thighs and held her steady while she sobbed and moaned and poured herself into him, and then, as she melted lovingly around him he at last began to move, uncertainly echoing her undulating movements until he established his own powerful rhythm, this time driving her with him, until his raw shout of exuberant satisfaction signalled that the whirlwind was spent.

In the morning Y/n was grateful for the resilience of her relative youth. Even after a long hot shower, her muscles ached with the extravagance of her strenuous exercise. She felt as if she had been battered, not by one whirlwind, but several. And she had. If she had thought that Henry's incandescent passion would swiftly burn them both out she discovered, through the ravishing reaches of the night, that she was marvellously mistaken.

His desire, like his curiosity about her body, had proved insatiable. And, although the second and third time they made love it was not with the stunning speed of the first, it was still fiercely, gloriously energetic. He encouraged a boldness in her that she hadn't known she possessed.

He made her feel unutterably sexy, as if she was the only woman in the world who could satisfy his lavish appetite for lovemaking, and he devoted and demanded the same kind of single-minded commitment to creating pleasure that he did to his more worldly objectives. In short, he was every bit the fantastic lover she had imagined he was.

Y/n smiled to herself as she sipped her coffee. Was this a case of being hoist by her own petard? If so, everyone should have such a virile executioner!

"You look quite disgustingly smug."

Henry had showered, brought her coffee and toast in bed and casually dressed in front of her with the ease of a man who was thoroughly satisfied with himself and the world in general.

"You're looking fairly smug yourself," she answered boldly.

"Making love in the morning obviously suits us both and in the evening, and at night. By the way, what are you doing at lunchtime?" Y/n couldn't stop blushing and Henry smirked.

She wasn't that bold - yet.

If she and Henry were lovers for long she didn't doubt that she could become very, very brazen.

"Eating," she said repressively.

Henry refused to be repressed. "you're a wicked, decadent woman." He leaned over and tugged at the sheet that was tucked over her breasts and down to her waist. Y/n squeaked and held out her cup, afraid she would spill some of the hot liquid as he bent to lightly kiss her rosy softness.

" is all of you on the menu, or just selected divine parts?"

"You're a glutton!" Y/n murmured weakly, closing her eyes, shivering at the tingling pleasure his delicately teasing tongue evoked.

"Ouch!" Henry winched, The coffee having splashed onto his cheek as y/n unconsciously let the coffee cup slip.

"Serves you right." She didn't pull up the sheet, sitting primly among the crumbs and cotton sheets, deliciously aware of the contrast between her nudity and his dark, formal suit as he moved away.

He had told her he had an early meeting --one reason for the necessity to rouse her just after dawn by making love to her sleepy, languorous body.

Waking up to find Henry inside her was just one of the new, fresh pleasures of life!

"Will you meet me for lunch? This meeting should be over by then." He straightened his tie in front of the mirror then walked back to her.

"If you want me to…" He cupped her chin, reminding her of the way he had refused to allow her to hide from him last night.

"I want you to. Make no mistake about that, y/n. I have no regrets. None."

"Good." She lifted her chin and tried for a little of the sophistication he was no doubt used to. "I wouldn't like to think that I had disappointed you."

To her annoyance, he laughed. He straightened, letting his fingers trail down her throat. "There wasn't much chance of that, believe me."

"Oh, are you so confident of your prowess?" she snapped defensively, feeling suddenly restless and mentative. "You can turn any woman into your personal love machine?"

He seemed unruffled by her irritable crudity, a strange smile still playing around his lips.

"On the contrary. I'm afraid I have no basis for comparison."

"What?" Y/n stared at him blankly.

He scooped up a slice of toast and bit into it. "Couldn't you tell, Y/n? Was my gift such a paltry thing? I thought one's partner could always tell."

What was he talking about? To her horror, Y/n suddenly realised that, although he had used protection afterwards, that first, rough coming-together had been utterly spontaneous and Henry certainly hadn't held back. Did he purposely try to get her pregnant? Was he not really the man she thought he was? No- that couldn't be it.

"What gift? T-tell- me. what?" she stammered, raising her cup to hide the quiver of her mouth, hoping he wasn't going to prove as selfishly arrogant as she suspected!

" Why, that it was my first time, of course." And, as she continued to stare at him uncomprehendingly over the top of the cup, his smile gentled into a tender warmth. "You were my initiation, Y/n. I gave you my virginity, you gave me my manhood."

And, leaving her gasping and choking with shocked disbelief, a pool of hot coffee soaking into the sheets around her, he calmly turned and walked out of the house, a new found pride in his stomach and so much more to be discovered.

Taglist (added in reblog ❤️)

#Henry cavill #henry cavill smut #henry cavill x you #henry cavill one shot

415 notes · View notes