#an accidental duchess started off rough to say the least

[rillabrooke]

2021 Reading List

An Accidental Duchess - littleLo (Wattpad)

Les Miserables, Vol. IV: Saint-Denis, Book Twelfth: Corinthe - Victor Hugo

Room Service - leigh_ (Wattpad)

Anne of Windy Poplars - L. M. Montgomery*

The Crucible - Arthur Miller**

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie**

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston**

Cherry Knots - hepburnettes (Wattpad)

Breakup Formula - hepburnettes (Wattpad)

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde**

Plunder - rskovach (Wattpad)

Lost With You - ArabiaJ (Wattpad)

A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway**

Hired To Love - JordanLynde (Wattpad)*

Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw**

1984 - George Orwell**

In the Arms of My Enemy - TenayaGatrell2 (Wattpad)

The Ultimate Gift - Jim Stovall**

A Thousand Storms - yuenwrites (Wattpad)

Bartleby, The Scrivener - Herman Melville**

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman**

The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe*

The Awakening - Kate Chopin**

Of Beauties and Beasts - gingerbread250 (Wattpad)

Sleepwalker - humored (Wattpad)

Les Miserables, Vol. IV: Saint-Denis, Book Thirteenth: Marius Enters the Shadow - Victor Hugo

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens* **

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson* **

Othello - William Shakespeare**

The Bully - TeaRainAndLove (Wattpad)

The Quirky Tale of April Hale - demonicblackcat (Wattpad)

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald**

Quirky Romantic Queries About Love - demonicblackcat (Wattpad)

The Fog Horn - Ray Bradbury**

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury**

Les Miserables, Vol. IV: Saint-Denis, Book Fourteenth: The Grandeurs of Despair - Victor Hugo

Shoot the Jerk - TheStupefying (Wattpad)

An Abundance of Katherines - John Green*

Annabelle's Will - LeeleeKez (Wattpad)

Million Dollar Woman - arcticstars (Wattpad)

Taxi Service - SydneyDruckman (Wattpad)

Door To Door - defend (Wattpad)*

Prince Charming - romanceandcake (Wattpad)

Daughters of the King - Purplejeans (Wattpad)

Falling for the Seat Filler - steffy_t (Wattpad)

Sarah, Plain and Tall - Patricia MacLachlan*

The Game Changer - steffy_t (Wattpad)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne

Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne*

The Bachelor - greenwriter (Wattpad)

Paris in the Rain - arcticstars (Wattpad)

Les Miserables, Vol. IV: Saint-Denis, Book Fifteenth: The Rue de l'Homme Armé - Victor Hugo

Snapshot - arcticstars (Wattpad)

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book First: The War Between Four Walls - Victor Hugo

The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart*

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book Second: The Intestine of the Leviathan - Victor Hugo

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book Third: Mud but the Soul - Victor Hugo

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book Fourth: Javert Derailed - Victor Hugo

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book Fifth: Grandson and Grandfather - Victor Hugo

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book Sixth: The Sleepless Night - Victor Hugo

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book Seventh: The Last Draft from the Cup - Victor Hugo

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book Eighth: Fading Away of the Twilight - Victor Hugo

Lady in Rags - Spiszy (Wattpad)

Les Miserables, Vol. V: Jean Valjean, Book Ninth: Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn - Victor Hugo

Widow in White - Spiszy (Wattpad)

A Song For You - UnsinkableShips (Wattpad)

Anne's House of Dreams - L. M. Montgomery*

Friendship for Dummies - leigh_ (Wattpad)

The Mermaid Hypothesis - adam_and_jane (Wattpad)

The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Edgar Allan Poe

Take Me Home - blissom (Wattpad)

The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe*

The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe

62 Letters to You - UnsinkableShips (Wattpad)

The Chances of Mary Jane Chaucer - arrowheads (Wattpad)

The Pit and the Pendulum - Edgar Allan Poe

Bequest - rowena_wiseman (Wattpad)

Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare

Age Matters - Enjelicious (Webtoon)

To Love Your Enemy - Jungyoon / Taegon (Webtoon)

Noblesse - Jeho Son / Kwangsu Lee (Webtoon)

The Steward of Blackwood Hall - flights_of_fantasy (Wattpad)

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare*

Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare*

Macbeth - William Shakespeare**

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen*

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Matilda - Roald Dahl

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

The Mystery of Marie Rogêt - Edgar Allan Poe

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - Edgar Allan Poe

The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade - Edgar Allan Poe

The Balloon-Hoax - Edgar Allan Poe

The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

The Premature Burial - Edgar Allan Poe

Berenice - Edgar Allan Poe

Never Bet the Devil Your Head - Edgar Allan Poe

The Sphinx - Edgar Allan Poe

Morella - Edgar Allan Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe

* reread ** for school

[jimlingss]

Moirai [6]

Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7

➜ Words: 2.9k

➜ Genres: 60% Fluff, 40% Angst, Isekai!AU

➜ Summary: Death is supposed to be the end. Or at least that's what you assumed when you're hit by a TRUCK. But the moment you open your eyes again, instead of being sent to the afterlife, you've become a baby. And not just any baby. You're the female villain of a video game.

What the fuck.   Those three words encircle your brain as you’re drowned in darkness, body jolting while the wagon shakes violently down the rickety path full of rocks and holes.   Bounded and blindfolded, you shift around until you can feel the wall and you use the remaining strength in your body to sit upright. Whoever kidnapped you clearly wasn’t the brightest when they decided to tie your wrists together in front of you. With just a bend of your elbows, you’re able to tear the blindfold off of your eyes and spit out the cloth in your mouth.    It takes a second for your vision to focus.   It’s difficult to see in the dark, but you’re able to make out the wooden walls around you and the hay underneath your form. You figure out that you’re in the back of a windowless wagon, heading to god knows where.   You can’t believe this. You can’t begin to fathom how something like this could happen. But there’s no point in banging your head on the ground and screaming.   You struggle with the tight ropes tied around your wrists and ankles, jaw clenching as it burns into your skin further. It seems like they coiled it around your limbs a hundred times and each moment your fingertips can graze one of the many knots, your fingers become more numb.    But you don’t want to admit that your attempt is futile. That every movement only exacerbates the pain. You don’t want to acknowledge that your effort is only making it harder for yourself.    “Fuck!”   The wheel of the wagon crashes through a rock. The entire wagon angrily tilts. You slam back onto the hard ground.    Tears sting your eyes and you grit your teeth.   In the original game, it was the heroine who was kidnapped. It was a scheme set up by Anastasia. But it’s obvious that you’ve taken her place, that a mistake was made, based on the threat they muttered to you.   You don’t know who could’ve done this, who would have such animosity towards her. But you suspect it’s your own parents. If so, it’s a great irony that their own daughter got kidnapped instead.   Karma’s a bitch.   You just don’t know why you have to suffer the consequences for it.   “This gold’ll last me a lifetime!” there’s muffled voices through the other end of the wagon, no doubt the perpetrators on the other side.   “And she’ll sell for a pretty penny!”   Chortling laughter grates against your ears.   You remember it was also in the original game that the heroine was rescued by whoever her love interest is. But you don’t have a love interest. Most certainly Jungkook won’t be the hero and save you, not when Lucy reassured him that you chose to head to your bedroom early.   No one’s coming for you.   No one.   Inside the wagon, you are an island. Or rather, it has always been that way. From the very start, you have been alone. Deserted. Fighting for yourself and fighting to survive the next day. You are a villainess self-turned into a side character without a redemption arc or a beautiful story.    Not only are you weighed down with your burdens, but you bear them by yourself.   Tears bite at your eyes, the temptation to succumb to your despair overwhelming.   But before the thick darkness can consume you whole, you force yourself upwards once more. Once more, you gain your balance. Once more, you attempt to undo your binds.   Once more.   And by your teeth biting into the rope, you manage to pull at a loose knot. Then, one by one, it starts to untangle, rope plunging downwards, and you yank your hands free. Your wrists burn, rough to the touch. But you don’t dwell when you begin to frantically unravel the binds around your ankle.    You rush towards the door once you’re free and throw them open.   The wagon is rapidly moving, the horses attached are practically sprinting through the open forest. Every pebble in sight only lasts for a second before it’s gone in the distance. You grasp onto the edge, knowing you need to jump. You need to. You—   Can’t.   At that exact same moment, the left wheel is knocked into a hole in the dirt road. The wagon jolts violently again and you accidentally stumble forward with a sharp inhale. You brace yourself, eyes shut tight, ready to collide with the ground.   But the impact never comes.   Instead, you open your eyes to find brown irises gazing into yours.   “I’m so glad I came in time.” The corner of Taehyung’s mouth upturns. He’s out of breath, levitating in mid-air with you in his arms.   You grasp onto him with tight fists, still shaking.   The footman in front notices the noises, slows down and peeks over the wagon. “Hey!”   Taehyung sets you down on the ground. “Don’t look,” he says in a low timbre as if asking you to promise him.   You swallow hard and shut your eyes tight. Taehyung brushes past you.   You hear the footman and another yelling. And then they’re apologizing. There’s the crunch of leaves, a shout, a crack of bones that startles you, and thunder booming in the distance.    “Who did this?!” Taehyung’s ear splitting voice makes you flinch. You’ve never witnessed him this angry before. “Was it the King?! It was him, wasn’t it?!”   You turn around with your head down. You run towards him. There’s blood seeping through the dirt on the ground, but you don’t give it attention to it as you grab a hold of Taehyung’s arm.   “Stop it.” There’s a long pause and you repeat yourself. “Stop.”   A body drops in front of you and when you lift your eyes, Taehyung engulfs you in a hug.   You’re overtaken by his frame, his warmth keeping the cold away and for once, you give into the temptation. Your lashes flutter as your eyes close and you hug him back.    You allow yourself to savour the moment.   //   The palace awakens past midnight.   Barely after the feast has come to a halt, a guard with his sword by his side enters the throne room and strides down the aisle towards the King who was entertaining guests a minute ago.   “Your Majesty.” The guard bows. “Prince Taehyung is missing.”   “What?” A fist slams down on the armrest. The King’s face is reddened, wrinkles deepening as he scours his mind at where that boy could be, what he could be scheming. “Does anyone know?”   “No, Your Majesty. A guard of the Western tower found him missing and reported it. Only the guards and a few maids are aware.”   “Then search immediately! Report what you find!”   Several guards respond and rush out of the room.    At the same time, a maid stands at the doorway with her eyes wide in fear. She hesitates, then cuts through the crowd in the opposite direction, fighting against the current of men. “Y-Your Majesty.” She bows her head at the end of the steps leading up to the throne.    “What is it?”   “Lady….Lady Anastasia is missing as well.”   The King is taken aback, not sure how the castle can be so chaotic at this hour, how it can spiral out of control so quickly after the festivities. He deems himself negligent. “Have you searched the rooms?”   She nods. “We’ve looked everywhere, Your Majesty. No one’s seen her ladyship since the feast.”   The King sits back, brows furrowed deep enough to hurt. It can’t be a coincidenc—   A guard swiftly enters the room. “Your Majesty, they’ve returned.”   There are whispers throughout the palace. Those who are still awake at this hour murmur under their breaths, taking second glances, knights and maids, servants and guards alike. They speak of rumours that are sure to be spread when morning comes. But the two of you don’t pay mind.   Taehyung’s cape is wrapped around your shoulders, you squeeze his hand and approach together.   You don’t know why you thought this would be simple. That you could just slip into your room, into bed and try to stop shaking by yourself. You were gone for far too long to do such a thing. There are too many eyes around, too many who notice when a single hair is amiss. The moment you came back, they told you to meet the King.   “What is the reason for your absence?” His eyes scrutinize the both of you as if you were on a scandalous endeavour — the Prince’s fiancée and the bastard son, a pair that would sure ruin the reputation of the entire empire. You don’t even have time to think how far you’re deviating from the original story.   “Your Majesty, I was kidnapped,” you confess in a loud voice and the maid standing by gasps. She covers her mouth abruptly the moment it happens and retreats into the side.   The King’s eyes dart to her and heavy silence boils throughout the room.   You look at the man beside you, his fingers still twined through yours for reasons you’re not sure you want to divulge. “It was His Highness Taehyung who noticed something suspicious and came to rescue me. The perpetrators ran, but I’m safe thanks to him.”   You can tell the few people in the room are surprised Taehyung has the capabilities to save you. And that he did. A courageous act that is sure to gain reward.   The King makes a disgruntled noise at the back of his throat. “I will find the people responsible for daring to threaten the next Crown Princess.”   As if the throne hall was not full of nosy people already, the Duke and Duchess enter with frenzied expressions. It’s unsettling to see them feigning concern. If anything, you’re guessing they’re simmering with anger that their men captured the wrong girl.    But it still doesn’t stop your mother from coming to look at you, grasping onto your arm while your father addresses the King, “Your Majesty. We heard the news a moment ago and—”   “No need for the formalities, Herrick.” He smiles cordially. “You should take your daughter to rest. We can discuss this matter at a better hour.”   He nods and they both usher you out with a parade of servants. But you don’t miss the chance to peek over at your shoulder to look at Taehyung’s form until you have to turn the corner.   You stay silent as you lead them into your room.   The doors shut, servants outside for the time being and you turn to face your parents. “You did this….didn’t you?”   Your mother’s expression is cold and impassive. “Excuse me?”   “Can’t you be honest with me?” you plead from them, desperation leaking into your tone. You ache for their sincerity, for their compassion. “I know they captured the wrong person and I know the only people who would want to harm the baron’s daughter are the both of you. You probably thought she was in my way—”   “You’re tired, Anastasia.” Your mother waves you off. “You should rest.”   “What happens if the King investigates and this leads back to the Devereux house?” Your voice never wavers, feet rooted into the ground. You know they’ll make sure it never traces back to them. But they’ve gone quiet once you’ve mentioned the title they’ve risked. Your father’s frown is unmistakable and your mother doesn’t look at you. “Don’t do things like this anymore. Please.”   The two of them look at one another with faces you can’t decipher.   You’ve never asked for many things from them before. But this time, you’re begging.   There’s a knock on the door and Jungkook enters a second later. He doesn’t notice the tension in the room, the stiff atmosphere that’s put you on the verge of tears. “Anastasia!” He comes to your side, scanning you up and down and your parents take their leave to give you privacy, probably with the hope that this incident will drive you and Jungkook closer together.   “I’m alright,” you lie and sit down shakingly on the edge of your bed.    Even with the horrors of your reality, you can’t help but wonder what’s going on with Taehyung.   //   Across the castle, the throne room empties.   Everyone’s attending to the Crown Prince’s fiancée after all and an incident like this won’t be taken lightly. It’s a threat to the royal family, something Taehyung knows most about since he’s the embodiment of one.   Taehyung turns away. “If I can be excused.”   He doesn’t expect a reward, acknowledgment, recognition. He didn’t come to you for those things, but the King would never offer it to him anyway. He’s the bastard son. The shame of the family.   And yet, he can’t even leave in peace.   “I know what you’re doing,” the King speaks up in a low tone, a warning.   The dark-haired man halts-mid step, his brows furrowed in puzzlement.   The King’s wiry lips upturn but the smile never reaches his old eyes. “You’re trying to undermine the royal family and take the crown for yourself. First by taking your brother’s fiancée and then gaining the acceptance of the people. Winning the Hunt was only the first step, wasn’t it? I’ve underestimated you, boy. But I’m not blind to greed.”   “No.” Taehyung turns on his heel to look at his so-called father. “You’re blind to benevolence. You don’t understand how someone could be motivated by something other than power.”   “What is it that you want then?” he challenges him. “If not to take the throne for yourself.”   Taehyung walks away. “I want the one thing I could never have.” 

The flower petal is plucked.   It’s pulled from its center and flutters in a downwards spiral, dusting the grass in a blushing hue.   “Are you okay, Anastasia?” Lucy leans in close, her murmur full of concern and you muster a nod as you continue to pluck flower petals. Instead of a game of he loves me, he loves me not, it’s I’ll live, I’ll die.    “I knew I should’ve come with you. I was so worried. To think that….that something like that would happen.”   You wonder what she would think if she knew that you took her place. That she was the one who was supposed to be taken out in the open in the middle of the night like that. That the both of you traded positions.   But she isn’t the one to blame. “It’s not your fault.”   “Lady Anastasia...”   “You didn’t know something like that would happen.” You muster a smile. “I was the one who told you to go back, right?”   Gossip about the incident has spread through the palace and past its walls, especially the fact that Taehyung was the saviour. He rescued you, saved your life. He was the one who came after you when you were confident no one else would.   How could someone like that be the villain?   You don’t understand. No one does.   In the original game, Taehyung instigated a civil war and in one of the final scenes, he dies by his brother’s sword as the heroine he had fallen in love with stands by his brother’s side. The last thing he says is her name before he crumbles on his knees. A death that only brings celebration to the empire.   It’s as tragic as your ending.   You wonder if such a thing is going to happen in the near future. You wonder if it’s possible you could avoid his bad ending as well as your own. But you don’t know if you can prevent Taehyung from committing his crimes. You don’t know if his hatred and jealousy will ruin him.   The pit of your stomach stirs uncomfortably at the thought.   He’s done so much for you. He’s saved your life. He shouldn’t succumb to his darkness.   You owe him at least that much.   “Lucy.” You snap back to attention, turning to the girl who’s been keeping you company all afternoon by her own accord. “What do you think of Taehyung?”   You saw her earlier talking to Jungkook in the open corridor. It looked like they ran into one another on accident, but while you couldn’t hear what their conversation was about, it seemed intimate. Or at least, you’ve never seen Jungkook look so delighted and shy at the same time.   Usually, you’d watch from afar. Admire the scene at a distance.   But you’re not sure what to think of it anymore.   “His Highness?” She blinks and admits, “I’ve only held one conversation with him before. But he seems very kind.”   “He is.” For some reason, your smile can’t reach your eyes. “You should speak to him more. He would be a good match for you.”   The girl is caught off guard by your bluntness and blushes while looking away. “I-I would never dare to dream of marrying into the royal family. I’m already honoured to be your friend, Anastasia.”   Your arm extends and you clasp your hand on top of her’s that’s within her lap. “Then think of it as a favour you’re doing for me.”   Lucy meets your eyes with a frown, unable to understand why you’re oddly persistent.   But she doesn’t know that the only route to save Taehyung is through the heroine, albeit she will suffer the most and it’s the hardest path to take. Instead of being with Jungkook, it’s possible she can end up with Taehyung. But only she has the capabilities to save him, just like the game.   You look down to your ground that’s filled with the remains of the flowers you ruined.   It’s just like the villainess to have to destroy everything she touches.

[presumenothing]

wherefore // 几生轮回

unfinished nirvana in fire fic for @goodintentionswipfest​

(aka the kimi no na wa au that i posted the first part of in 2018 before being once again reminded that i am physically incapable of plot. sections i-iii are complete, rough outline follows afterwards)

i.

When Jingyan wakes up in another body, his first reaction is to be altogether grateful that he’s spent much more time at the borders and generally out of the capital than your average nobility. The slightest breath of unusually chilly morning air is enough to confirm that this is all the way to the border – of Liang and Da Yu, Jingyan suspects, much further north than even he’s ever gone.

(…well actually his first reaction is a flat startled “what”, right before he’d pinched himself to check if he’s still dreaming, but Jingyan figures anyone would’ve done the same anyway.)

The first bell of morning rings outside, and out of long habit Jingyan swings his feet off the bed and makes to rise before he can entirely realise what a terribly bad idea that is.

At least he manages to catch himself with a hasty hand on the bedframe. He’s even less coordinated than he was right after his growth spurt, when Jingyu-gege had kept a very straight face and not laughed at him at all.

That’s when Jingyan sees it: the ring of a silver bracelet around his ar– well, not his arm, but currently-his arm. Whatever.

He runs a light finger over the cool metal surface, over the deep grooves of an emblem that curls like flames and the shallower etch of a name. Lin Shu, it says.

Jingyan stands, properly this time, and goes to peer out the window, wondering if this Lin Shu can afford to take a day off. Whoever he is.

.

As it turns out, the answer to that is a resounding no, because Lin-Shu-whoever-he-is turns out to be the young marshal of this border army, as Jingyan swiftly finds out as he makes his way to morning drills.

Something he probably should’ve noticed right off, really, given the room he’d woken up in. Not large, certainly not by Jinling’s standards, but the noticeable lack of sharing made it a rare luxury in the barracks.

By the time he arrives at the training grounds, navigating purely on long-honed familiarity with army facilities, Jingyan’s already learnt to answer almost automatically to the many cheerful hails of “Young Marshal!” coming from the general outflow of people from the mess hall – many many more people than he’d been expecting, to be honest.

He doesn’t remember the actual numbers like Prince Qi probably does, but from personal experience Jingyan does know Da Liang’s border armies to be fairly impressive on the whole. Yet he’s never even heard of one this large, save perhaps Duke Mu’s army to the south.

It’s unmistakeably Liang’s colours they’re flying, though, alongside the same fiery emblem engraved on his bracelet, so Jingyan decides not to worry about it too much.

Either way it puts paid to his vague ideas of begging illness and staying firmly on the sidelines, though Jingyan finds to his pleasant surprise that this young marshal has trained some fairly competent lieutenants clearly capable of running the drills themselves.

It’s almost reminiscent of mornings in Jing Manor, honestly.

(And it could be worse, Jingyan thinks. “Young Marshal” is just a title, like “Your Highness” is, and after a whole life of answering to one it’s hardly a suffering to be addressed by the other – almost freeing, actually, even if he has to err on the side of caution by being much more taciturn than usual and hoping that the edge of exhaustion from sheer shock shows just enough to excuse him for it.

All said and done, though, Jingyan rather believes he’s done quite the good job of things.

Certainly better than whoever’s now in Jinling has probably managed, but as long as he hasn’t accidentally offended the Emperor or anything.

…Jingyan can only hope.)

–

ii.

This, as Jingyu-gege often says, is why Jingyan should never, ever jump to conclusions about things.

Admittedly this doesn’t backfire so much as it goes completely off the rails of his expectations, trundling like a particularly enthusiastic horse in the opposite direction.

Nothing terrible awaits when he wakes up back in his room the next morning, and a quick inquiry to Zhanying confirms that he definitely hadn’t entered the palace yesterday.

Jingyan breathes a deep if silent sigh of relief.

(A quick check of the outer walls turns up a scuff mark matching his shoe on the roof, so faint as to suggest that it’d only been left because someone obviously hadn’t entirely adjusted to his new height yet.

Fair enough, Jingyan thinks. He’d have done the same last night if he hadn’t been too tired from the sudden cold to sneak out and explore anywhere.

Maybe next time, he catches himself thinking, and pulls a face, because no, none of that.

That jinxes it right away, of course, as he promptly realises the morning after.

Jingyan stifles a shiver in the wintry sun, even colder now after a day in Jinling’s warmth, and thinks – really, Jingyu-gege would have a field day with this.)

.

Possibly the oddest thing about this, thinks Jingyan on the eighth day he wakes up at the border instead of Jinling, is that neither of them have ever thought to question, even once, whether this is really happening.

Or at least Jingyan hasn’t, and if Lin Shu’s wondered about it he hasn’t mentioned it either, at least not in the increasingly copious notes they’re leaving for each other.

They end up making a routine of things without much discussion about it, even though the setup in each of their rooms almost mirrors the other. Jingyan begins to stock more scrolls of paper and sticks of ink at his desk, keeps their correspondence in a hidden drawer within easy reach of his chair.

But Lin Shu apparently fears the cold as little as his relatively thin wardrobe would suggest, because his stationery inevitably is set up at the low table with only a cushion to sit on – admittedly quite a comfortable one, yes, but still unseasonably chilly for the stone floor.

Either way, what had started out as a simple way to update each other on the day’s events devolves into something else altogether, and Jingyan can even pinpoint the moment it happened: when Lin Shu had added also stop wearing my hair down you’re making me look like an idiot as an afterthought on the third entry, followed by oh and don’t eat hazelnuts squashed into too few inches of space.

Jingyan’s learnt enough of medicine from his mother not to take the second part lightly, but the first almost tempts him into putting a flower in Lin Shu’s hair just because.

But only almost.

Then you stop tying my hair all up like that first, he adds to his next summary, it’s giving me a headache.

The palace would give anyone a headache, he finds written almost musingly in the reply margin.

Jingyan rubs at his temple, and finds that he can’t even argue with that, really. So instead he pulls up a fresh sheet of paper and quickly outlines the basics of court etiquette, because the Emperor’s probably going to end up summoning Jingyan while he literally isn’t himself one of these days, if this is going to continue.

He has a feeling it will.

.

It takes Jingyan a whole month of alternating days to admit, not quite grudgingly, that he is rather impressed by the fact that Lin Shu is already the young marshal of such a large army at this age.

In his defense, he’d rather naturally assumed the worst when he first found out that Lin Shu was the son of the commander himself, but that was before seeing the genuine respect rather than mere tolerance he got from every last man in the army, even those thrice either his or Lin Shu’s age.

(It’s the Chiyan Army, Lin Shu writes back, the very turn of each stroke arrow-sharp with irritation. Chiyan! Army! Will you get it right, it’s not just any army!

And I’m literally a prince, Jingyan snipes back in his most practiced handwriting. Also, if you’re insulting my men…

Hardly. Zhanying deserves a pay raise and a better boss, Lin Shu answers, then adds, pointedly, Your Highness.

Probably just so he could use up the last bit of paper.

Jingyan scowls at that last scrawl before pulling out yet another fresh sheet and dipping his brush in ink.

As if he’s going to let anyone have the last word over him quite so easily.)

–

iii.

“I didn’t know you liked archery, Prince Jing-gege,” says Nihuang one afternoon when they’re resting in his manor’s study after an impressive practice bout. The young duchess Mu had gotten quite formidable enough to attract the rapt attention of the entire training field – or she would have, if Zhanying hadn’t promptly barked at all of them to get back to their drills right then.

(It’d almost tempted Jingyan into asking, really, whether Zhanying had noticed anything different about his fighting style on the days when it’d been Lin Shu instead.

Not that Zhanying necessarily knew anything, per se – but from the subtly helpful way in which his general had volunteered information that Lin Shu’s writings occasionally failed to convey, between the carelessly precise updates and snarky comments in the margins… Jingyan rather thought he did suspect something, at least.

Wei Zheng was the same, up north at the border, which was just as well.

Lin Shu doesn’t know how good he has it, really, that the Jing army has closer to seven hundred men than seventy thousand – all of whom apparently assume that their young marshal will recognise them. Which says something fairly impressive about Lin Shu, of course, but still. How fortunate for him.)

Both their fathers have been closed up in Yangju Hall all day long – all the palace servants had been dismissed, and he’d heard that even Xia Jiang and Xie Yu had been summoned in.

Whatever it is they’re discussing must be important indeed, he knows. It’s hardly unusual, for both the Marquis of Ning and the Xuanjing Bureau’s head officer to meet the Emperor, but Jingyan doesn’t think he’s ever seen the Duke of Yunnan even half as stern as when he’d arrived this time, both his children firmly in tow.

Mu Qing had been unabashedly cheerful as always, and easy enough to handle – Aunt Liyang had been more than happy to help. It wasn’t like two more kids running around the house would trouble her much further, anyway, what with Yan Yujin already practically living there half the time.

But Nihuang had declined her offer politely before asking to see the Jing manor’s grounds, which is how she’d ended up here, hands clasped behind her back as she considers the red bow in pride of place on his weapons rack.

At least the sparring earlier had worn away most of the tension in her features, though Jingyan can still see the trace of it in the graceful stiffness of her posture, and wonders silently if she too feels the same thing he does, the slight wrongness in the air.

He shrugs anyway, trying for relaxed. “I got back into practicing it over the past couple months. It’s quite a bit more enjoyable now that I actually have enough strength to draw the string back fully.”

Which is completely true, even if he’d only had reason to discover it because Lin Shu’s weapon of choice is bow and arrow, as Jingyan had found to his utter surprise.

Nothing like muscle memory when the muscles weren’t even yours to begin with – though he supposes that it’s a fair trade, since Lin Shu’s also had to up his own proficiency with swords and spears to match Jingyan’s.

Neither does he mention that he’d only bought this bow on a whim because it reminded him of the one Lin Shu used. A resemblance that the young marshal had swiftly noticed, from the way he’d filled entire swathes of paper with gleeful gloating, only punctuated by a brief note on how he’d restrung it and adjusted the tension to match.

(Jingyan had kindly reminded Lin Shu about the fact that he’d gone and taken one whole day off to go diving for pearls that time the Jing army had been at Donghai, apparently having completely forgotten that he wouldn’t be able to bring the pearl back with him anyway.

The answering blankness had somehow conveyed a very mulish silence nevertheless.

Jingyan had rolled his eyes before writing if you really want it back I can always ask a courier to bring it over, it’ll just take time to reach the border.

And money, came the reply, or do you think I’ve no idea how much it costs to send something from Jinling? Nah, just keep it and go spend that money on food instead, you’re like a stick.

You’re just jealous because I’m taller, Jingyan does not answer, because he can be the better person here, so instead he writes Tried my mother’s hazelnut pastries yet?)

Nihuang gives him an inscrutably knowing look, even though Jingyan’s plenty sure he hasn’t shown any signs of his thoughts. “Maybe you should teach Qing-er then,” she muses as she comes back down to sit at the table. “The way he’d always playing around, I don’t know if he realised that he’s going to take over Father’s position someda– huh.”

Jingyan glances up from where he’s pouring out another glass of cold water, and finds her attention apparently caught by the documents he’d left out on the desk. “What is it?”

At his nod of permission Nihuang lifts a half-familiar paper from the stack, and there’s a brief moment of alarm when he spots Lin Shu’s handwriting, though it fades when he realises it’s not one of their written conversations.

Luckily Nihuang doesn’t notice either way, too intent on reading. “This naval strategy…” she finally says, “it’s just like the one we received some time ago, when Yunnan was under attack by river.”

Jingyan doesn’t need to feign his surprise. “Really?”

Nihuang nods, smiling faintly. “It saved all of our lives.”

“Oh,” Jingyan answers a little dumbly, his mind spinning. All of this is quite real, obviously, everything has convinced him of that, but for some reason it hadn’t struck him how Lin Shu too existed in this same world as him, more than just another body he sometimes woke up in. Rather slow of him, he thinks wryly, Lin Shu would have a laughing fit if he found out.

The specifics of this paper escape him now – it’d been part of some grand point Lin Shu had been trying to make, he thinks, as if they didn’t both know he was just cribbing the strategy from Nie Duo – but Jingyan doesn’t even need to look at the paper to see that familiar handwriting half his own. “Do you know who sent it?”

Nihuang shakes her head, her expression clouding over. “Father refused to tell me who’d sent it, forbade me from even mentioning it to Qing-er.”

And as if everything’s just been waiting for this last piece to fall into place, Jingyan feels the thing niggling at the edge of his consciousness, just out of realisation.

“Jingyan-gege…” Nihuang says, slow and terribly hesitant, “what do you know about the northern b–”

“Your Highness!” comes Qi Meng’s harried shout from outside, and Jingyan has never been more infuriated with any of his men in his life. “Duke Mu is here, he says the Duchess is to go with him immediately!”

Jingyan looks across the table to find his own frown reflected fiercely back at him.

Nihuang rises, looking suddenly older than she is, and says, quietly, “Be careful, Jingyan-gege. I don’t know what’s going on but I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I,” Jingyan says honestly, and doesn’t press her for whatever it was she had been about to ask earlier. He stands to see her out. “You be careful, too.”

Nihuang nods firmly, then she turns and is gone.

(Spoke with Nihuang today, Jingyan writes before going to bed that night. I don’t think you’ve met her yet, she’s the daughter of the Duke of Yunnan.

You know, he finds written beneath it the next time he wakes up in his own room, it’s been a whole year and that’s the first I’ve heard you talk about any lady. And don’t say Xia Dong, she’s just terror manifest.

The raised eyebrow is clearly audible, even via text.

Jingyan snorts, grabbing the brush that sits ready and waiting, as always. Nonsense, he starts, then pauses for a moment before adding I think you’d like her.

He’s looking oddly forward to the reply, whatever it is: which one, and don’t say Xia Dong or even well certainly she’ll like me, all the girls do – though the last of that is nonsense, seeing as there aren’t really any more ladies hanging around the border pass than in Jing Manor.

But he never hears from Lin Shu again.)

–

iv.

Jingyan still finds himself in his room when he wakes up the next day.

And the next, and the next after that.

(On the eighteenth morning in a row he remains stubbornly stuck in Jinling’s oppressive warmth Jingyan punches the wall so hard it almost cracks cleanly in half – or maybe that’s just him.

Zhanying hurries up, voice tinged with ill-concealed worry. “Your Highness?” he says tentatively, except the words themselves feel like a shackle now.

Jingyan leans just slightly against the cool smoothness of the wood, and tells himself to breathe.

“Zhanying,” he says, finally, “what do you know about the northern border army?”

It’s the Chiyan Army, not just any old military! echoes Lin Shu’s voice in his head.

“…not much,” hedges Zhanying, and it clearly isn’t a lie but his eyes are also very wide.

The wrongness from before congeals into an ugly mess, settles decidedly in his heart. It’s the only thing he can be sure of not imagining.

Jingyan suddenly feels very tired indeed. “It’s nothing.”)

–

v.

And then he finds out in the worst way possible: far too late, and all at once.

.

.

.

would have been: jingyan finding out the truth about what’s been happening, which is fairly true to kimi no na wa canon except that it’s everything at meiling instead of a meteor extinction event. in jingyan’s present time he finds the lin manor in absolute disrepair, asks questions of his mother that make both of them sad, and eventually forces a bodyswap to save lin shu and the chiyan army by… using the pearl somehow? and how would he stop this single-handedly anyway? never quite managed to figure either part out. though on his side lin xie is shown to also have realised Something was going on with lin shu (like zhanying realised about jingyan) and even if he doesn’t buy the “hey i’m from the future” shtick, he at least would be willing to hear out someone with a good idea of what’s currently happening in the capital, which helps.

anyway there would’ve been one section where we finally get lin shu’s pov which is when he realises what This Bloody Idiot xiao jingyan is trying to do and curses up a blue streak. from there this could’ve had one of two endings:

a HE where jingyan succeeds, lin shu and the chiyan army survives, and they forget but eventually find each other again (after remembering when jingyan sees lin shu doing archery or vice versa).

or a BE where jingyan doesn’t succeed and we end up right back in the canon timeline, dammit guys. optional extra being that changsu remembers for some reason even though jingyan doesn’t… but sometimes, jingyan can’t help thinking that changsu reminds him of someone. a person he’d forgotten? angst ensues. the end.