#and all my faves on one part of a shelf

[wannaeatramyeon]

Hey!!! Can i plss request lookism men with a short and petite fem reader...like 5'1 And she is quite thin. If you're uncomfortable then plss feel free to ignore it 😅. Thank you ❤️🙏

Hey anon! Thanks for the ask and sorry for the delay! A few headcanons for you below. I've mostly focused on the guys that I think would react/care about it :) What a coincidence it is mostly consisting of my faves!!

Lookism Boys with Petite S/O

Johan, Vin, Jake, Samuel, Goo

Johan Seong

If Johan could roll you up and tuck you into his pocket, he would. He seems to have a habit of collecting small creatures: Eden, Miro, You (no offence), so what's one more in the pack to protect. Main goal to keep you feeling safe and secure at all times, which is easy to achieve being with Johan.

From a practical standpoint, actually enjoys your small stature cos that's fewer calories to maintain right? A little less to worry about with food.

Vin Jin

Look. You know what Vin is like. He makes fun of your height every chance he gets. Dangles your stuff just out of reach, making you jump and swipe like an idiot child as he laughs. Truly, the height of comedy. Not.

And yeah, all the mentions of literal 'shorty' in his rap makes you cringe like hell.

Jake Kim

Equal parts teasing and protective. "Oh poor Y/N, can''t reach up that shelf." "Babe, are you strong enough to open that can of soda?". But those jokes are reserved for Jake only. Any words from anyone else would be rewarded with a sharp look and a frown.

Expect him resting his elbows on your head, ruffling your hair and sweet forehead kisses.

Samuel Seo

Similar to Jake (though don't tell him that unless you want to die), your height and size does flare up his protective instinct. And being the silly insecure bastard he is, the height difference means he's also able to somewhat lord over you, which he loves.

The only annoyance is when he's in one of his moods, he tends to treat you like an errant child. Hand on your head, holding you back as he scrolls on his phone or whatever.

Goo Kim

You think he wouldn't just pick you up and carry you in his arms, without warning? Fireman-carry over his shoulders like a sack of unruly potatoes? One of the perks of a petite S/O is how easy you are to shift and he will take absolute full advantage.

The nicknames would also be endless. Shortcake, gremlin, ankle biter. All said with affection, of course.

Side note for these guys + Gun Park: Likely to have discovered a size difference kink with you.

[misc-obeyme]

Remade

Happy birthday, Barbatos!!

Listen, I don't normally do things for character birthdays because there are a lot of them and I just don't usually have time. But this one worked out. I had the idea for this a while back, so I just went ahead and wrote it today. Plus this guy is my all time fave, so you know.

I still need to get Barb's birthday card... all my pulls so far have been useless, but I will keep trying because WHAT. It's so gorgeous and I can't handle him. ETA- I managed to get him finally!

Right so enjoy this fluff for my true love's birthday. It might've turned out kinda cheesy, but I still like it lol.

Barbatos x GN!MC

Warnings: minor injury

Whenever you came to the Demon Lord's Castle for tea, your favorite teacup was always waiting for you on the table. Even if it didn't match the set that Barbatos was using that day, your teacup was there, in case you wanted to use it instead. And you always did. Because you thought of that teacup as yours.

It wasn't, not really. It was one of the many teacups that Barbatos had in his collection. You didn't know where it came from or why he had it. It didn't seem to be part of a set and you had never asked him where he got it.

You had been in the kitchen when you saw it the first time, sitting by itself on a shelf among teacups that had others it belonged with. This teacup sat alone, with not even a matching saucer.

That afternoon you had been helping Barbatos make the tea, though you weren't really doing a whole lot. Mostly you were just puttering around the kitchen while he did all the work. You were used to this, though. Anytime you tried to really help he always distracted you with some menial task. You knew what he was doing, so eventually you just gave up and kept him company instead.

So you were looking at the shelf of teacups and noticed this one all by itself. You took it from the shelf and told Barbatos that you wanted to use it that day.

Barbatos didn't question you. He only smiled and brought the cup to the table when the tea was ready.

You asked for that particular teacup the next handful of times you came over, but you didn't need to ask anymore after that. Barbatos always had the cup on the table for you from then on.

Just as you never asked him where it came from, so Barbatos never asked you why you liked it so much.

The truth was that it reminded you of his tail. The way it was bright teal around the rim and faded to black at the base. Even the handle curved out in a little fork. It was like if Barbatos himself ever became a teacup, this is what he would look like.

You wondered if it was custom made that way on purpose. If some teacup maker somewhere had been so taken with Barbatos's tail that they made a teacup to look like it.

You thought about asking him, but you also thought he would have told you by now if it was something he wanted to talk about. Barbatos had a lot of secrets. Maybe this was one of them.

Still, it meant something to you that he always put it out for you. He didn't seem to be bothered that your favorite teacup, the one you considered yours, looked so much like his tail. You sometimes wondered what it meant, if the cup symbolized something neither of you had yet managed to say.

That day you were sipping tea out of your cup as usual. Normally there were others at these gatherings, but the few people who were supposed to be there with you had other things come up at the last minute. So it was just you and Barbatos sitting at the table. You watched him as you sipped your tea. He seemed just as relaxed and content as he always did.

Barbatos was sitting next to you rather than across from you, both of you slightly away from the table and turned toward each other.

"Is this a new blend?" you asked, holding the teacup in your hands.

Barbatos inclined his head. "Yes, I made it myself. Do you like it?"

You had noticed the hints of your favorite flavors in the blend. "It's delicious. Did you… ?"

You found you couldn't bring yourself to ask, too nervous that the answer might not be what you were thinking.

Barbatos chuckled. "I combined several of your favorites. Not all of them work well together, so this is only a selection. I thought it might be a unique flavor for you to try."

You smiled and shook your head. You shouldn't have doubted him. "No wonder I love it."

"I will make it for you any time you like," Barbatos said.

Every day, you wanted to say. Let me sit beside you like this every day.

You weren't paying attention to how you were holding your cup, your eyes focused on Barbatos's face. The cup tilted and some tea splashed out onto your hand. It was still quite hot and you yelped from the pain, dropping the teacup.

Both of you went to catch the cup at the same time, colliding with each other and missing it entirely.

You were practically holding hands as you watched it crash to the ground, breaking into several large pieces.

You gasped and clutched at Barbatos's hands. "My teacup! Oh, Barbatos, I'm so sorry!"

"It's all right, MC," Barbatos said, holding onto you for a moment before pulling your burned hand toward him so he could inspect it. "Are you all right? That tea was still quite hot."

His calm reaction helped you to settle a little, but you were still upset about the shattered teacup at your feet. "I'm fine," you said, your voice shaky. "It's fine. I'm more upset about the cup."

Barbatos looked up at you, rubbing his thumb gently across the spot on your hand where the tea had burned you. "You needn't worry about that cup, MC. You have been burned. Come inside now and let me take care of it for you."

You didn't argue with him. You let him lead you back inside, briefly glancing over your shoulder at the forlorn pieces of your favorite teacup. Seeing them caused a pain to run through your heart and down into the pit of your stomach.

—

You were off for days. You kept thinking about the teacup, your burned hand, and Barbatos. He had brought you inside and helped to take care of your burn, but you didn't stay long. You were too distraught over the loss of your cup. Whether you had realized it or not, that teacup had become a physical representation of your feelings for Barbatos. Watching it break had broken your heart, even if it was only an inanimate object, even if it didn't truly represent your relationship with him. It felt so much like a warning, like an indication that you had made a mistake somewhere. It was your carelessness that had broken the cup, after all.

Everyone noticed your sorry state. Levi tried to distract you with video games, Luke brought over some of your favorite desserts that he had made, and Asmo painted your nails in your favorite color. Nothing seemed to help. You couldn't pull yourself out of the feeling of sadness you had sunken into.

You almost cried when Barbatos invited you over for tea again. It hadn't been that long since the teacup fiasco; only a handful of days had passed. You were surprised, but you agreed, hoping against hope that just being with him would be enough to lift you from the despair you were in.

Despite that hope, you were filled with a sense of dread as you went to the castle that evening. You ignored it as Barbatos let you in, smiling as he always did, seemingly undisturbed. He brought you out to the garden where the tea was already waiting.

The falling stars were especially beautiful that night and it made your heart ache to see them. You didn't fully understand until that moment that you were sure Barbatos was about to let you down gently. You didn't think he would reject you over a broken teacup, but the fact that you had broken it was an indication of all the things you questioned about yourself. And you were sure that Barbatos saw all your insecurities, every last one of your flaws. How could he accept them? He wouldn't. No more than you would accept a broken cup.

Barbatos had set up the chairs the way they had been that day and you sat down in your spot, eyes focused on your hands which you kept in your lap.

Barbatos didn't say anything as he poured you some tea.

And then you saw his hands come into your field of vision, holding the tea he had just poured, offering you the cup.

Your heart stopped.

It was your teacup.

You looked up at him, eyes wide, to find him already smiling at you.

"Are you familiar with the Japanese art of kintsugi, MC?" he asked gently.

You shook your head.

Barbatos raised the teacup to your eye level, so you could see it clearly. There were bright gold cracks all along the cup, as though someone had glued it back together with molten gold.

"Rather than throw away a broken object, it is remade in a way that shows where it has cracked," Barbatos said. "It is a representation of the history of that object, a celebration of the item's flaws. Your teacup will forever bear the memory of the moment it fell to the ground here and that makes it all the more beautiful, don't you think?"

You had to bite your lip to stop yourself from bursting into tears. The teacup looked even more like his tail now than it did before, the cracks reminiscent of the lines of brighter teal that ran though it. You reached out and took the teacup from his hands, letting your thumbs rub across the golden lines.

"Barbatos," you said, your voice barely above a whisper. You carefully lowered the teacup so that you could see his face clearly. "It's perfect."

"As are you, my love," Barbatos said, leaning over the teacup to kiss you.

And that was all you needed to hear to know that all along, Barbatos had realized how you felt and what you feared. The truth of his love sank into you, a solid and firm foundation that you knew could never break.

Always and forever after, Barbatos made sure that your teacup was on the table, should you choose to use it. Every time you held it in your hands, you felt the cracks filled in with gold, and knew that even flawed and broken things could be loved.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[drangercore]

Love and Other Historical Accidents by @pacific-rimbaud​

Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy never intended to blow up their life's work, but that's rather what they've gone and done. Now they're trapped 200 years in the past, with a broken Time Turner, a missing snuff box, a handful of overly-eligible daughters, and a House-elf in a cable knit cardigan. It will require the combined power of their keen intellects to get them home, if they'd stop arguing long enough to use them. As it turns out, history is just one damned accident after another.

Fandom: Harry Potter

Relationship: Hermione Granger x Draco Malfoy

Art by @gingerhuneybee​, @jjuuppiter​, @jaxxartbox​, & yours truly

My first fanbind! 

L&OHA is an impeccable story and is so very dear to me. This was the fic that made me go “I want that on my shelf!”, so here we are. 

keep reading for more binding info and to see my gushing on the fic.

QUICK SPECS

153,854 words | 571 pages | 5″ x 8.5″ 

Binding Method: 3 Piece In Boards Bradel  Body Font: Adobe Caslon Pro Decorative Font: IM Fell English

I am very proud of this book, having accomplished many firsts with it. My first book that I rounded and backed, sewed double-core endbands on, painted the edges, and used toner reactive foil and HTV on!

ON THE STORY

Sighs. What more can I say? It’s simply brilliant. A unique multifaceted story with incredible dynamics, clever foreshadowing, great character studies of Draco and Hermione, and such beloved original characters. It’s comedic and refreshing but it also takes on grief and goodbyes, and heartbreak. It’s fucking romantic and also So nuanced. I dislike stories that spoon-feed every little thing about the character, so the parlor tricks on this one? Ate every crumb of it. It was filled with implications and was misleading in the best sense. You’ve got to be an astute reader to catch some things the first round (which I definitely wasn’t). 

While it doesn’t entirely shy away from typical lovey-dovies, the regard for mundanity and the inconsequential, I just find more inherently romantic. The exploration on time travel and the vivid prose further underscores the depth of PR’s talent. She captures so eloquently, the mind of an extremely logical person in a very illogical experience. I saw myself in Hermione so many times. The story demands to be read again and revels upon doing so. Pacific Rimbaud is such an incredible writer *sobs* all her works are simply a masterpiece. 

That said, this beautiful story deserves to be turned into a physical book.

DESIGN PLAN (or lack thereof) 

This is my first fanfic project and my third book overall which I must say was quite a leap considering my very little binding experience. I think the demon small niggling part at the back of my head got the best of me and positively thought she could make a relatively fastidious book despite the lack of skill. BUT nothing can stop me when I am overly enthusiastic about something, thus began my 2 month research, soaking up every gobbet of binding info in reach. As far as my book binding journey goes, gathering supplies was the hardest part lol. Bookbinding is not a common hobby in the Philippines so it was tedious to to look for materials and/or to settle on alternatives.

I credit 70% of the 4 month stretch of this project to my indecision. The novelty and sheer excitement with a new hobby, I think, divested me to properly conceptualize heh. I redid my typeset 1 billion times because I kept switching softwares: Word→ Pages→ InDesign. I probably have 8 versions of the typeset that will never see the light of day. Anyway, I did finally get the stuff done. Here’s my little design dump:

Nothing symbolic about the design really. I just worked around elements I thought were appropriate with the regency era and time traveling aspect: vines/ flowers and the time turner. I tried to reflect PR’s elegant writing in the book so hopefully I did it some justice. I added my fave works for this fic too and even drew fanart myself, here are some of them:

BINDING

I watched DAS bookbinding religiously during my research phase and I knew then that I wanted to someday follow his in-boards 3-piece bradel tutorial, but it wasn’t supposed to be so early on in my binding journey. One look at this book however threw me off course. It was incredibly ambitious of me, so I guess I deserved all the stress I endured in the process. I was supposed to trim the edges in between glueing the spine and rounding/backing, but I only had my poorly sharpened Php145 wood chisel to finish the task. That and nursing the finger my chisel wounded took enough time for the glue to dry, so I was fiddling with a stiff textblock the entire time after. I learnt along the way that a blow dryer and bone folder will be your best friends (and plenty of patience). I’d also like to apologize to my neighbors if you heard any hammering at 1am 😳 

The covers were... finicky. For some reason, midway, I decided to make either covers differently, and all to the good because the one made following DAS’ tutorial ended up slightly warping. DAS’ was with two 1.25mm boards glued together, while my experimental one was with a single 2.5mm board of which I peeled layers off of to reduce its thickness in half as needed.  (see pictures below for reference)

A lot of how the book looks like now is either born out of impulse or a desperate remedy. The book in turn is very gold. Chapter headers were impulsively foiled with gold laser reactive foil (so much for illustrating the headers only to cover them up haha *eye twitches*). 

I accidentally stained the edges while smoothing with black sandpaper so I covered the mess with an admix of Sakura acrylic paint in black and Liquitex acrylic ink in iridescent gold (Paint order: 1 layer gold- 2 thin layers black- 3 layers gold).

 I am very proud of my sewn endbands as this was my very first attempt at doing a double-core. I used DMC cotton threads in cream (712) and gold (E3821). Below is a close-up because why not. (as you can see, I had some flaking on the paint, luckily this was on the bottom edge so I fixed the issue on the more visible sides.)

I don’t like the bookcloth selection where I’m from (if there’s anything at all) so I made my own with pastel blue eco-ramie cloth, flour paste, and 80gsm paper. I ordered my fabric online and the shade was too icing-like. It looked tacky so I bleached to lighten. The white cloth also came from the same fabric which I bleached till it paled to white.

Titling was one of my biggest worries because majority of binders I saw were using a cricut to cut HTV. I almost entertained the idea of cutting it manually or even painting or embroidery, but to my luck, I found a local shop that offers vinyl ! cutting !! service !!! I sent them my design and they cut and weeded the vinyl for me. I chose white for the title and metallic gold for the vine detail. I messed up applying the word “historical” though, but let’s pretend i did it on purpose for the vintage feel.

Four months of faffing later, I have this story in corporeal form! Overall, I’m overjoyed with the outcome and I’d like to thank PR for the opportunity to have such a wonderful story on my shelf (and free to be read by anyone!)

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! 

[storiesofsvu]

Love Comes Quietly Ch 1

Future Alex Blake x reader warnings: language, minor talk of fbi type situations, alcohol consumption.

Alex always felt like it was a breath of incredibly fresh air whenever she got to get out of DC for something that wasn’t FBI case related. Since the divorce she’d almost started to feel a little antsy, like there was something else she should or could be doing to take up her free time now that the house was empty. She and James were still in touch rather frequently, everything had been completely amicable after all, just two people realizing they were going down different paths in life, even if they still cared about each other, they knew their part of the journey together was over. He’d stayed in the house with her while they sorted everything out and got papers signed and figured out who things belonged to and who wanted what before he moved off to Boston to accept the teaching position at Harvard.

Which is exactly how she had found herself on the Harvard campus for a week and a half guest lecturing in a handful of different classes. Despite James being the one to make the original invitation it was Daniela who’d convinced her into staying for the full week. They’d worked together at Georgetown when Alex had first started teaching and were hoping to finally be able to play catch up in between work hours.

Alex had done one lecture already today, using the free time before lunch to poke around the campus a little bit. There were more than enough interesting places, including a handful of bookstores that were home to a lot more than text books and required readings. She wandered the aisles, skipping the non fiction, she had enough of those kicking around the house already. She slowed a bit through the fiction books, though her face grimaced at the mystery and crime novels, there was no need for those, she saw enough of that in her every day life. The last thing she needed was to come home from a case and have that be her bedtime reading. She slowed when she hit the romance section, it was cheesy, she was the first to admit it, but sometimes they just hit the spot, a pleasant over dramatic sappy distraction from real life. Her secret guilty pleasure, if you will.

Her fingers trailed along a couple of books, nose scrunching when nearly all the covers featured a broad chested half naked man. Something, rather a person, caught her eye a bit further down the aisle. It was as if the two of you were both trying to outwait the other before going for the books you actually were interested in. She surveyed you out of the corner of her eye, you were old enough she knew the chances of you being a student were unlikely, especially considering you didn’t have any kind of bag with you. Key ring dangling from your fingers, bulge of your phone in the back pocket of your jeans. You were dressed just on the brink of business casual, but not nice enough that she thought you were a professor.

She watched as your lips moved into a tiny grin, as if a fond memory was waving through your brain and you reached out to the shelf, picking out a book that she recognized the cover of, ‘Love Letters. 2000 Years of Romance’. You flicked through a couple of pages, eyes scanning the text with a little smile on your face before you flipped the entire books worth of pages and she just knew you were inhaling that new book smell. You turned the book over, reading the dedication on the back before slipping it back into its place on the shelf.

“Oh now that’s a good one, it’s not a put it back book.” The words left her lips before she even really realized she was saying them. You practically jumped, despite being more than well aware there was someone else in the aisle with you, looking up to her as you laughed softly.

“Oh! I know, I’ve read it, one of my faves. My copy’s just getting a little worse for wear.”

“A little wear and tear means a book’s well loved.” She smiled softly, “my copy usually lives on the bedside table.”

“Perfect bedtime reading.” You smiled and for a moment you thought she was going to turn back to the shelves but she looked you over briefly.

“You’re… not a student here are you?”

“What gave it away.” You laughed, “and no, just..” you checked your watch, “waiting for a friend to finish a lecture. Need an expert opinion on something.”

“Anything I could help with?” She asked and it was your turn to survey her, the blazer, shoulder bag no doubt with at least a laptop and lecture notes in it, the smudge of white board marker on her right hand.

“Dunno, what’d’you teach?”

“Well, technically just guest lecturing this week, but linguistics.”

“Ah…” Before you could comment that you were waiting on a friend who taught forensic science a man popped into the end of the aisle, a small grin on his face as he wandered down to her side.

“Now why am I not surprised to find you in the romance novel section?” He greeted with a tease and her cheeks tinged pink as she turned to him, “ready?”

“Yes.” She nodded in your direction and you gave her a little salute once his back was turned before you turned back to the shelf of books in front of you with a soft sigh, checking your watch once more. You didn’t have long before you had to be back at the office, you were hoping Daniela would hurry the hell up. Letting out a little groan you rolled your eyes, maybe if you met her at her classroom this wouldn’t take as long.

**

Considering it was Friday, Alex shouldn’t have been surprised when she was roped into after work drinks and snacks with Daniela and a few other friends. She was at least thankful that they’d ended up off campus, not wanting to be plagued with students or follow up questions from lectures during the week. City Bar Back Bay was the perfect place for them, a trendy lounge tucked away in the corner of a hotel on Exeter Street. There were cocktails, a few glasses of wine, a jug of sangria and plates of chips, cheese, soft pretzel bites and more spread across the table for everyone to share. Everyone’s spirits were lifted at the knowledge it was the end of the week, laughter and conversation flowing easily throughout the small group.

“So?” Daniela questioned, nudging at Alex’s arm, “how’re you liking Boston?”

“You ask that like I haven’t been here before.” She replied with a laugh.

“But now you’re teaching here… and at Harvard, nonetheless. That’s gotta be at least some kind of bonus points.”

“Daniela…” Alex eyed her with a chuckle, “I didn’t move here when my husband suggested it, I’m not going to uproot my life just because you hate having to do certain parts of your lesson plans.”

“Yeah.” Caitlin cut in from her other side, “I keep telling you to just hire a TA.”

“Maybe I just prefer having a friend come to town a couple of times a year.”

“You’re lazy.” Caitlin replied, stealing a chip off her plate, “where’s Murphy? She mention bailing or anything at lunch?”

“No, she said she’d definitely be here. She’s probably caught up at work.” Daniela turned back to Alex with a near whine, “c’mon… what about splitting the year? Half in DC, half here?” Alex laughed, affectionately rolling her eyes.

“Two weeks at a time is my absolute max. I love my job, and as much as I enjoy teaching, it doesn’t jump higher, I’ve spent way too long working to get where I am.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Daniela waved her off with a playful groan, she was about to say something else when a voice rung in from behind her.

“I am so sorry I’m late!” You swept in quickly, hand on her shoulder as you leant around her from behind to kiss her cheek before dropping into the open chair at the head of the small table.

“Yeah, where the hell have you been?” Daniela asked.

“Ugh.” You rolled your eyes, “turns out when you kill someone there’s an extra forty five minutes of paperwork.”

“Should I be concerned?” Alex’s ears had picked up the words, turning back your direction with a tease in her voice and a laugh on her cheeks, pulling a loud laugh from Daniela.

“No, Murphy’s FBI.” She explained.

Alex’s eyes met yours from across the table and a tiny grin split your lips as both of your heads tilted in recognition from the bookstore that afternoon. You’d changed half your outfit from then, no doubt wanting to get out of work clothes, button up swapped for a cotton tank while the blazer was replaced with a plaid flannel, your hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail, soft curls swaying as you turned your head to glance back to Daniela.

“Y/N, meet Alex Blake.” She gestured between the two of you and you extended out a hand that Alex was quick to shake.

“Oh!” Your eyes widened, “Professor Blake. I’ve heard wonderful things.”

“All lies I’m sure.” Alex chuckled with a smirk.

“There’s an Agent in there somewhere too.” Daniela teased, pouring out a glass of sangria to slide over to you.

“Don’t forget Doctor.” Caitlin cut in, snagging another treat from Daniela’s plate.

“Three titles,” you mused, “now that’s impressive.”

“Gives me a nice rotation depending on who I’m talking to.” Alex joked with a shrug and you chuckled.

“So linguist in one column.” You ticked it off on your finger, “gonna take a stab in the dark and say PhD in the next.” She nodded, “but what department for the last?”

“Behaviour Analysis Unit.”

“No fucking way.” Your arm dropped to the table, a little harder than you’d intended.

“What?” Alex asked with a small laugh, taking a sip of her drink.

“I just put in papers for an application to fill the open spot on that team.” You laughed, “I’ve got an interview with an Agent… Prentiss? Next week.”

“Oh thank god.” She let out a huff of a sigh, “we’ve been too shorthanded for too long. I was barely able to get away for this week.”

“Okay, I’m grabbing another pitcher.” Daniela grabbed the empty jug of sangria from the table top, hopping off her chair and Alex was able to slide into it to continue the conversation with you.

“So you’d say there’s a decent chance then?” You raised a brow over the rim of your glass.

“As long as Prentiss thinks so.”

“Is she a hard ass?”

“No.” Alex laughed, chewing on her lip for a moment, “she’s…. driven, loyal, passionate, has high expectations but also incredibly understanding. If you look good on paper things will probably look good, but honestly to her it probably matters more what you manage in person.”

“How so?” Your head tilted, “obviously it takes a particular type of person to be a profiler, but you’re hinting at more than that.”

“Nicely done.” She nearly smirked in your direction, “our team is a family. I know most places when you hear that term it’s a red flag you should run for the hills, but that’s not true here. We spend more time together than with anyone else, our secrets and pasts come out when we’re getting into the minds of unsubs or trying to talk them down. There are things my team knows that some of my closest friends of family have never been told, and that makes us stronger, makes us work together even better.”

“Hmm.” You nodded, sucking back more of your drink, “good to know.”

“You said your interview’s next week?” She asked and you nodded again, “I get back on Tuesday, I’ll be sure to bring your name up to Emily.”

“That’d be amazing!” You beamed, eyes widening with excitement and Alex smiled softly back at you.

She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but even from the very brief moment in the bookstore earlier she already knew that she liked you. Something was simply drawing her to you, like the universe wanted you to know each other, that you were meant to cross paths. After all, you’d already done so twice in one day without even knowing the other existed when you woke up that morning. Now that you were actually getting to spend some time together the two of you clicked instantly, falling into conversation like you were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. There was no awkwardness or weird small talk, just laughter and little jabs as if you knew exactly how to tease the other person without offending them. She knew deep within her that she had met someone that day that would be an integral part of her life, no matter how the interview ended up going.

Alex was about to elaborate to you when Daniela came back to the table with a tray in her hand and a wicked grin on her cheeks.

“It is time for shots!” She shrieked and Alex rolled her eyes.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Alex, c’mon.”

“Yeah!” Caitlin joined in, passing shots from the tray to the table, “I mean we do have a reason to celebrate after all!”

“Exactly!” Daniela high fived her, winking in her direction before raising a shot glass in Alex’s direction, “we didn’t get to celebrate your divorce when it happened, so now is as good a time as any.”

“Daniela!” Alex half scolded half laughed and the other woman simply shook her head, pointing to the shot until Alex huffed, picking up the glass and you followed suit. Glasses clinked together before liquor was sunk back, little winces echoing through the group.

“Okay!” Daniela shook it off, “that’s the liquid courage I needed.” Her eyes searched around the bar, “try to find myself a man.”

“On it.” Caitlin scooped up their drinks, handing Daniela hers before the two of them disappeared into the crowd.

“You know you’re more than welcome to join them.” Alex prompted, her hand squeezing at your arm on the table top and you laughed.

“That would require me being interested in men in the first place.”

“I’m sure there’s a few nice girls out there too.”

“Meh.” You replied, sucking back at your drink, “not into it. Besides, they invite you out and then bail? Rude. I mean…” you glanced across at her, “unless you’d rather bail too, hit up the guy from your lunch date?”

Alex couldn’t help but bark out a laugh at that, her smile reaching her eyes as she looked back to you.

“That was my ex husband.” She laughed, “we’re still good friends, just, no longer in love.”

“I’m sorry.” You frowned slightly.

“Don’t be.” She shrugged with a smile, “it wasn’t anything hurtful or sad. We got married young, we’re both incredibly passionate about our careers and we spent a lot more time working than together. Things simply… fizzled out.”

“I’m glad you’re still friends.”

“Me too.” She smiled warmly back at you and the two of you slipped into an easy conversation.

Two rounds of drinks later and Caitlin had disappeared from the bar with her conquest while you and Alex were still trapped in an endless conversation that neither of you wanted to halt. Even when Daniela would swing by every so often to check in she could tell that the two of you were clearly fast friends and there was no worry about her leaving the two of you alone any longer. So she took full advantage after another tequila shot to bite the bullet and see if the man she’d been flirting with wanted to go someplace else.

Your cheeks hurt from smiling so much, having not connected with someone like this in what felt like years and Alex would tell you she felt the same. She had just finished a story when your phone buzzed on the table top and your face fell when you glanced toward it.

“Got a case?” She asked, knowing the feeling all to well.

“Not now.” You sighed, sucking back the rest of your drink, “but my weekend is officially no longer a weekend. Gotta report to the office at nine tomorrow.”

“Ugh.” She grimaced.

“Yeah.” You huffed, sliding off the stool, thankful at least that Daniela had taken care of the tab already. “It was really nice to meet you Alex.”

“Right back at you.” She smiled softly.

“Night.” You smiled, giving her a little salute.

“Hey!” Her hand wrapped around your wrist when you were a mere foot away, tugging you back and you raised a brow in her direction, “can’t just leave without my info.”

“Oh?”

“I want to know how that interview goes.” She dug into her pocket, pulling out a business card to hand off to you, “I was serious about thinking you’d make a good fit to the team. I’ll send a text to Emily in the morning, put in a good word.”

“Thank you. Really.” With a smile, you pocketed the card, “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything.”

“I’m sure it’ll be good news.” She assured with a grin, watching the joy spread through you as you finally did turn from the table, waving goodnight to her once more before you vanished through the bar door.

____________

@svulife-rl @clarawatson @hbkpop @momlifebehard @alexusonfire @itisdoctortoyousir @temilyrights @alexxavicry @leelizzzle @mysticfalls01 @evilregal2002 @alcabots @ladysc @dextur @disneyfan624 @augustvandyne @supercriminalbean @lex13cm @prentiss-theorem @happenstnces @whiteberryx @heidss @geekyandgay98 @onmykneesformarvel @inlovewithemilyprentiss l @desperate-gay @amypoehlfey @overtrred28 @emobabeyy @theclassicgaycousin @kalixxa @leftoverenvy @bigolgay @rustyzebra @aliensaurusrex

[musashi]

I’d LOVE to talk about it!!!! There is NOTHING like holding a physical copy of a fanfic you love in your hands, whether it is yours or someone else’s. Though I do recommend you get a physical copy of your own work first and foremost, it really cements the fact that you wrote a whole ass novel, or a collection of short stories. The first few fics I ordered were ones I wrote myself and I still go out into my living room to pull them off the bookshelf and just hold them, sometimes.

There are a lot of websites that exist where you can print books without publishing them. The website I use to print fic is Lulu. There are other websites but this one is my fave. Some people have probably written beautiful guides on book binding but I would rather just have a service do it for me.  i thought it might be fun to make a whole ass tutorial on my process, if anyone is interested? Because I really think this should be something more people do, I am telling you it'll change your LIFE. Wanna re-read that old fave in your bookmarks? Cut down on screentime! go GRAB IT OFF YOUR SHELF and settle in all cozy :3

SO: HERE IS A WHOLE ASS TUTORIAL ON HOW TO ORDER PRINT BOOKS OF YOUR FAVE FICS.

I use google docs. There are probably ways to do this in other word processing software but google docs is my friend. So this is how I do it. Google is also your best friend when figuring out how to make these adjustments in other word processors fghdg.

So you kinda want to set up the skeleton of your physical fic first. You wanna make a blank document, go to file > page setup and change the paper size to A5. This’ll put it in peak book format! Hurray. You’ll notice things are a bit cramped here but don’t worry, the margins are supposed to be like that. I like single spacing with the typical indent (.50) so thats what I do. I know some people prefer double spacing, so if that’s your jam do it! Just keep in mind it’ll make your book a lot thicker, it really depends on how you want to condense things. Font size is also a factor here. Personally, I LOVE to condense–12 point times new roman font and single spacing is my jam, heres what that looks like:

But again, depending on how long of a story/collection you want to make, you can space things out too. 

Make a nice title page! Mine are pretty simple, just the title and the username. Sometimes I’ll put the fandom name like ‘a [fandom] fanfiction’ but for the most part thats just for PDFs i share of my own fic. When it comes to my own fic I also like to put little dedications at the beginning for flair. Again, that’s just for me.

this is from my sicktember anthology, which is just all my sicktember fics in a neat little book. here's Down's:

this is my favourite part of printing my own books. i like to get sappy with it.

Add page numbers! This is something you can do automatically in most word processors. You can put em anywhere, I always put mine as footers ‘cause I really just like my fic to feel like a real book. This is under 'insert' in gdocs.

If you’re doing an anthology collection or a lot of fics in one book, a table of contents is good to have! If you apply a heading effect to each story/chapter in google docs, you can automatically insert a table of contents. I usually have to play around with mine a little (and edit it after, pin in that for later) but it’s a good thing to have. But in order to make a table of contents you have to actually have the fic in the doc, so let me teach you how to do that.

Congrats @pictureswithboxes, you are hereby my guinea pig. Because your fic is a good length and it’s the first one that isn’t my own that I’ve turned into a physical copy. Everyone please watch as I turn Turnabout Substitution into a book.

There are many ways and many formats you can download an AO3 fic in. Personally I prefer the HTML format–don’t ask me why, it’s just the best one I’ve seen for keeping things easy to edit and intact. If you work better in PDF or EPUB feel free to download those, but it’s my tutorial so you get HTML.

I drop the HTML file into docs. When you open it, you get this nonsense:

'cause that's a whole ass webpage, obviously. so open it AGAIN, this time using this button up top:

And that gives us… well, a lot more nonsense–it drops all the tags in, authors notes, whatever. You’re welcome to keep author’s notes if you like, personally I do without them (i love to read them digitally! I just keep them out of my physical copies) and everything is in 11 pt times font. The first thing I do is highlight the body of the fic and ONLY the body of the fic. I do this chapter by chapter.

Once I have chapter 1 highlighted, i change the font to my preferred size and typeface–in this case, 12 point times new roman. And then, with the body of the chapter still highlighted, i fix the margins/indent–left to 0, first line to .50, and right to 6.50. Then, with all of that highlighted, I paste it into my ‘book’ doc and all the indents/font choices carry over. Easy peasy.

I go ahead and make a chapter header. I think when doing a proper manuscript a chapter is supposed to start at the mid-point of the page, but i usually have the title at the top and the body text starting halfway down.

(my doc is in grey to avoid eye strain. if you do this, make sure it's white when you save it xD)

After a chapter–or any time you want to move onto the next section–use a page break! These are under the ‘insert’ tab. They will automatically jump you to the next page, and they will be necessary, for many reasons, but also because!!!

A new chapter should always start on the right page. In order to keep this correct, I take note of if my right pages are evens or odds in page number. Your first page will always be on the right. If you add a table of contents, it should also start on the right–so add a couple page breaks between the two to make a fully blank filler page. In my experience, because page 1 is always right, this usually means your right page will always be an odd number, but for some reason I'm having some weird mandela effect where i swear it wound up evens one time. huh. never hurts to double check! and triple check.

I ignore this all while I’m pasting the chapters in, but then at the end I go through all of them using google docs’ outline feature. Which is honestly NECESSARY for something like this, if you aren't already using it:

(anything marked as a heading will show up here! or you can highlight something, right click, and add it to outline manually. It's great!)

If my right page is odd-numbered, i check each of them one by one to make sure they all start on odd pages. I add an additional page break in the chapter before if they’re not, to make a filler page. it might feel weird to have all these blank pages in your doc but trust me you will appreciate them when you are actually holding the book.

As I am doing this, I also scroll up to the end of the previous chapters to look for orphans/widows. These are single lines that wind up on their own on the page and look kind of awkward and personally irritate me. Most word processors also have a feature to get rid of these, in google docs you just have to highlight the whole paragraph the line is in (or the paragraph before it, if it’s dialogue or a single line on its own) and apply a heading to it. You can highlight it and click ‘update heading to match’ to do this without changing the font. Good as new! It’ll show up on your outline on the side, but you can delete it by hitting the x beside the lines.

Another thing I do with the body text is i scroll through the whole doc and look for line breaks. AO3 has built-in ones you can insert, and you’re welcome to keep those if they are in a fic you like. Personally i prefer the look of a space to separate, though, so I actually edit them out and replace them with 3 line breaks. Literally just hit the enter key 3 times.

TS here is a case fic, told in the style of the ace attorney vn, which means each chapter has a few locations and timestamps displayed. I do 3 blank line breaks before these, and two after. Because it’s what looks nicest to me. You can play around with aesthetics and see what you like.

Once everything looks good, I scroll back up to update the table of contents if I have it. Google docs has a feature where you can ‘refresh’ it, but… I do not recommend this, because if you formatted your table (which you most likely did, it looks kinda terrible on its own) this will reset the formatting, and that will more than likely space out things or add unnecessary things (like those widows and orphans you marked before) which will add to your page count which means your TOC will be wrong ANYWAYS. So what’s the alternative?

Open your doc in two tabs. Same doc, two tabs. In one tab, stay on your TOC. In the other, click through your outline and input the new page numbers yourself. A little painstaking, but less prone to error. Easy peesy! Here's a bit of my finished TOC for my sicktember book:

Like all things, you can play with fonts and margins.

Your book is READY TO GO. Save it as a PDF, you can do this by hitting the print button in docs and most other word processors. Then instead of choosing a printer hit ‘save as PDF.’ Scuttle on over to Lulu and make an account. Yes it is worth it. Fic!

Lulu is awesome because it has lots of customization options. If you wanna get fancy with it, you could insert images into your PDF and get a colour book! But I just order print books, basic black and white. Once you name and upload your PDF, you can choose EVERYTHING. What kind of paper you want. If you want hardcover or paperback. The world is your oyster. Lulu will then give you a template for your cover, fitted to the dimensions of your fic book based on page number and what options you choose. They technically have a guide that lays this all out for you, but I find it incredibly confusing, so here is the streamlined wendy version:

There are a lot of options for how to make this cover. You can use an image editor, like photoshop, or you can draw fanart, or you can simply go into MSpaint and add some shitty little text to a solid colour if you don’t feel like anything fancy. A lot of people also use canva, which has tons of templates and assets you can throw together. I use canva so much i actually paid for a pro subscription lmao fsdghfgh but I also use photoshop a good deal. I made DTE’s covers in photoshop:

And Down’s cover in canva:

When I’m doing canva covers, I always just save the PDF, pop the template into photoshop, and then paste the images over it and rearrange them to my liking. I think Lulu also has an in-site canva editor but I don’t like learning new software. Photoshop is easy gfhfhg.

WHEN YOU ARE SAVING YOUR COVER. LISTEN TO ME. LISTEN THIS IS IMPORTANT ESP IF YOU NEVER TOOK GRAPHIC DESIGN OR HAVEN’T PROFESSIONALLY PRINTED ANYTHING. When you are saving your cover. SWITCH YOUR COLOUR PROFILE TO CMYK!!! Do not save it as RGB! RGB is good for digital graphics, but if you EVER print something you need to switch it to CMYK. I FORGOT TO DO THIS SOMEHOW when I printed my first two fic books, so their covers look a little washed out. When you do this in your photo editing software, they will look washed out there too–this is normal. They will print SO much better. Just trust me. 

Make sure you save your cover as a PDF and pop it onto Lulu! It’ll show you a preview of your book and cover which you can go by page by page to look for mistakes or anything you may want to change. In this preview the cover will ALWAYS look like a shitty, jpeggy mess. IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THAT IRL. I was so concerned fghfg but they print fine the preview just sucks.

wow so cool. this is for Down's hardcover which has a lot of margin. the closest summation of what your book will be like is to turn everything here off but the folds:

so cool. thats my book.

And you’re good to go! Enjoy your fic!!! PHYSICAL FIC IN YOUR HANDS!!! I got to experience the most magical thing recently: my friend bought a copy of Down, and then SHIPPED IT TO MY HOUSE, and i got to SIGN IT. I got to SIGN a copy of a BOOK I WROTE. They loved it that much. And I had the PDFs. PDFs I need to update, because I didn’t know half the shit I just wrote here when I made them. BUT I GOT TO SIGN MY FIC!!! SOMEONE LIKED IT ENOUGH TO BUY IT, AND THEN SEND IT TO ME, TO SIGN!!!

All the money here goes to printing costs, if that wasn’t obv. Paperbacks on Lulu can be under ten bucks depending on how thick they are, and hardcovers are usually under 25. It’s insane to me how cheap it is to print fanfic, and once you try, you WILL be addicted.

I tried to make this tutorial easy to follow, i hope it was! If anyone has any questions about the process, I am always happy to answer. Or, um, if you just want me to do all this formatting FOR you… I might be open to doing it for free. Mutuals get first dibs but I genuinely LOVE formatting docs for printing. I can’t help you with covers (i flounder even making them for stories I love) but I’ll always format a fic or several fics for you. Just HMU ghfghgf

[borathae]

↳ Index [Chapter 23 - Mitte]

• Mitte (German, middle)

Warnings: this is a Tae & Yoongs chapter, they finally talk with each other, it’s beautiful to see, so much mutual respect and healthy conversations, Yoongi also tells him a little bit about vampire history, their friendship is beautiful i wuv them

Wordcount: 8k

a/n: this is one of my fave chapters, i fucking love them

He spent a lot of time down here. The candles have burned down by now, but he doesn’t care. The dark hasn’t bothered him since three millennia.

The floors are wet, as are parts of the walls. The sound of moving water can be heard somewhere. The stench of magic is in the air, it forces his head to pound in a terrible headache. His body is cold as well. The clothes he decided to wear aren’t suited for such rooms. Pants and a button up, both made out of fabric too thin for cold, wet cellars.

He likes heated rooms and being warm, but he is used to the cold, so he doesn’t really mind. He does care for it. He hasn’t done so always, but ever since he feels, he would rather take a warm room over a cold one.

He can’t be picky however, not when so much is at stake.

Light cuts through the darkness then. It aches in his eyes and for just a few seconds, he is blind. He blinks, adjusting to the new situation.

“What are you doing here?” he asks the person holding the oil lamp.

“I could ask you the same question. It has been hours and you are still locked up in this awful room.”

“I can’t leave yet, I have to find out how to stop him.”

“You do, but you also have other priorities.”

“For example?”

“Helping us with the clean-up for example? Or perhaps coming up with what to do next? Or simply making sure ___ is safe?”

“How is she?”

“She is still the same. She is in shock and refuses to speak to anyone.”

“I see. I will check up on her later.”

“It’s too late for that. I helped her fall asleep.”

“Good. At least she won’t be able to think that way.”

“Yes, it’s good. Jungkook is with her for now.”

“Good. He’s perfect for that, he’ll keep her safe if she wakes.”

“I agree.”

Yoongi looks into Taehyung’s eyes for the first time ever since the latter joined him in this wet, cold room.

“Why are you here?” he asks him.

“The others asked me to see how you are doing.”

“Well, you did, now leave.”

Taehyung stays in the doorframe, shaking his head in refusal.

“Tch”, Yoongi lets out defeated and stands up from the wooden chair he had been hunching on for hours. He stretches out his back and turns away from Taehyung in order to disappear deeper into the room.

The dozens and dozens of shelves were a labyrinth for him once, but he spent enough time in here to know his ways by now.

The first three rows are stacked with potions and their ingredients. They are useless to him.

The next five are stacked with books. Of both magical and normal nature. They are useless to him, except for one book, which lies opened on page 639 back on the table.

Yoongi skimmed through row nine and ten already. They were filled with all sorts of magical devices. Some seemed useful, some interesting and some boring, but none was the one thing he was looking for.

“What are actually doing here?”

Yoongi doesn’t startle upon hearing Taehyung’s voice behind him because he heard his steps before that. He looks over his shoulder. Taehyung left the oil lamp by the table. They can still see each other clearly despite that.

“I’m looking for something.”

“And what is it you are looking for?”

“Why do you care?”

Taehyung blinks in confusion.

“Because the last time I checked, we are on the same side.”

“Sure”, Yoongi says sarcastically and with a loud scoff, he turns away from Taehyung.

The latter stays quiet for now, trailing behind Yoongi as he loses himself farther and farther in the labyrinth of shelves.

The eleventh shelf turns out to be useless as well. Yoongi turns, almost colliding with Taehyung from just how close the younger vampire is standing.

Yoongi lifts his head, locking eyes with Taehyung again.

“Out of my way”, he hisses.

“You are angry at me”, Taehyung says, making himself big in order to force Yoongi to have the conversation.

“Angry is an understatement.”

“Angry, mad, furious. However you may call it. You are upset with me.”

“I’m disappointed.”

Taehyung knits his brows. He clearly hadn’t expected that.

“Now get the fuck out of my way before I decide to throw you all the way back there”, he says, nodding his head into the direction of the far away hallway.

Taehyung sneaks a glance at it over his shoulder then turns back to Yoongi.

“You are disappointed in me?” he asks.

“Tzt”, Yoongi lets out and pushes Taehyung to the side.

He stomps to the hallway in big steps. Taehyung follows him hurriedly.

“Talk to me”, he tries.

“Just piss off”, Yoongi answers him, taking on the next shelf.

“Hyung, I want to talk with you.”

“Don’t call me that”, Yoongi whips around, “I’m not your family, so shove it.”

Taehyung tries to cover up the hurt in his eyes, but fails.

“Now leave me the fuck alone before I actually hurt you.”

“You wouldn’t hurt me”, the words weren’t filled with provocation but rather with childish hopefulness.

“Yes, Taehyung. Yes, I would hurt you. Oh I would love to hurt you. If it wasn’t for ___, I already would have. Hell, you’d be dead already.”

“But why?”

“Why?” Yoongi’s nostrils flared as he growled the word, “now you’re just fucking with me. You really wanna push me?”

“No. No, I really wasn’t”, Taehyung insists with widened eyes, “I, I genuinely want you to tell me.”

“You-”, Yoongi hisses and grabs Taehyung by his chin.

Taehyung squeezes his eyes closed.

“I want to fix this!” he blurts out in his attempt to save his face from getting bashed in by Yoongi’s lifted fist.

Yoongi halts.

“___ is traumatised and, and she needs us both.”

Yoongi lowers his fist.

“And that means that we need to stick together.”

Yoongi lets go of Taehyung’s chin. The latter opens his eyes.

“I know that you are upset with me, but please Yoongi let’s try to fix this for ___’s sake.”

Yoongi listens with a tense jaw.

“She doesn’t need another burden on her shoulders in the form of us constantly wanting to kill each other. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Yoongi grinds his teeth, studying Taehyung’s face with iciness in his gaze. Taehyung falters in his confidence now that he is victim to Yoongi’s punishing look. Soon he touches his own hair, playing with it to soothe himself.

“I agree”, Yoongi says coldly.

“You do?” Taehyung almost gasped the question for Yoongi’ compliance truly surprised him.

Yoongi nods his head, but his frown stays on his face.

“Wow, hyung those are great news. I truly didn’t expect you to agree.”

Yoongi turns a cold shoulder to Taehyung.

“Don’t call me that”, he says.

“I apologize, force of habit. I won’t call you like that again.”

Yoongi begins hurrying down the small corridor. Taehyung follows him close by, looking at everything Yoongi looked at seconds before.

“So what are you doing here?” he asks him.

“I’m looking for something.”

“Yes? What are you looking for?”

“It shouldn’t concern you.”

“Well, it does. We are on the same side, remember?”

Yoongi sneaks a glance at Taehyung, grinding his teeth.

“I guess”, he murmurs, looking away again.

“So? What are we looking for?”

“We?”

“Yes”, Taehyung flashes Yoongi a sweet smile, “I want to help you.”

Yoongi sighs loudly.

“Fine”, he gives in, “follow me.”

And with that, the two vampires hurry back to the desk in silent steps. They both blink to get used to the change of lighting.

Yoongi hovers himself above the book, which is opened on page 637 because Taehyung flipped through it before deciding to join Yoongi. The latter flips it back to page 639 and presses his finger into the page.

“This”, he says, “this is what I’m looking for.”

“I see. May I read?”

“If you can read this language.”

“Oh, you underestimate me. Of course I can read it”, Taehyung says and sits down on the chair. He begins reading.

Yoongi disappears in the meantime, returning to the shelf in search for what he is looking for.

He doesn’t find it and continues to the next shelf.

Taehyung returns when he has looked through a quarter of the stuff.

“The Unbreaking Shackles. Why are you looking for such a terrible weapon?” he asks him.

“Because ___ destroyed the one we wanted to use.”

“Yes, because we would all be dead otherwise.”

Yoongi glance at Taehyung angrily.

“I wasn’t blaming her, so stuff that accusatory tone of yours up your pompous ass.”

“Yoongi”, Taehyung sounds disappointed, “you promised me that we would get along.”

“I never said that. I promised you that I wouldn’t fight with you in front of her anymore. I never promised you friendship.”

“Well, that is terrible. I thought you wanted to get along even when she isn’t here.”

“I could never get along with you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you are a terrible person.”

“Hey, now are you being unreasonable.”

“You drank her blood”, Yoongi growls, turning to Taehyung and stepping so close their breaths intermingle, “this is the literal definition of being a scumbag.”

“I don’t want to harm her.”

“And yet you still do.”

“You are twisting my intentions.”

“Am I? Now tell me, what’s so good about drinking the blood of the woman you swore to love and keep safe?”

“Because I love her.”

Yoongi scoffs, “no, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do!” Taehyung insists loudly, furrowing his brows, “stop questioning my feelings for her. I love her.”

“Let’s say you do. Why do you think it okay to drink her blood?”

“Because it makes me feel closer to her.”

“You’re sick”, Yoongi hisses and turns his back to Taehyung.

“I mean it”, Taehyung insists, “I was so careful when I bit her. I made sure she was comfortable and never in pain. And she enjoyed it.”

“Don’t say that”, Yoongi hisses, grinding his teeth at the image of how you enjoyed getting drained. It infuriates him too much.

“I am honest. She was never in pain and afterwards I helped her heal with just a few drops of my blood.”

“I told you not to say that!” Yoongi screams so loudly that the entire room shakes in his echo.

Taehyung closes his mouth, looking at Yoongi with fearful eyes.

“First you play with her life by draining her and then you play with her freedom by feeding her our cursed blood. How dare you? Do you have no respect for her?”

“I respect her, I really do”, Taehyung insists honestly.

“And yet you-”, Yoongi swallows what he wanted to say, “I hate you so much, you asshole. You are such a reckless child. Fuck, I should kill you.”

“I’m sorry”, Taehyung says, “I truly am sorry. I didn’t think that blood sharing carries so many negative connotations for you.”

Yoongi takes a step back. The apology reeks of honesty and it irritates him because he didn’t expect Taehyung to be honest.

“But I truly meant no harm when I fed from her. My intentions were of a good heart, one that loves her dearly and that craved the intimacy only blood sharing can offer.”

“That’s just a lame excuse. You can be intimate with someone without participating in this terrible thing.”

“Have you ever tried it?”

“I did. It’s disgusting.”

“Well, maybe you should try it with-”

“Don’t finish this sentence”, Yoongi growls, “I would never put her through that.”

“Maybe just once?”

“No”, Yoongi flashes his ruby eyes, “tread carefully now, Kim Taehyung.”

“Okay, I’m sorry”, Taehyung gives in, “I won’t talk about it anymore. I just”, he exhales through his nose loudly, “I just hope that you can find it in yourself to stop seeing me as a villain. I love ___ dearly and I don’t want to hurt her.”

“Then stop drinking her blood.”

Taehyung keeps quiet.

“Tzt. As I thought. The weapon’s not here, let’s go to the next shelf.”

Yoongi brushes past Taehyung and leaves. His steps are slow, almost as if he was dragging weight behind himself.

“___ told me that she wants to stop for a while. Did you force her to it?”

“Force her?” Yoongi’s voice trembles in anger, “I would never force her to do anything. How dare you.”

“But it must be because of you.”

“Yes, because she knows that it upsets me. And because other than you, she actually respects other people’s feelings.”

“I respect them as well.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I do”, Taehyung insists.

“Tell yourself that if it makes you sleep better at night.”

Yoongi abandons Taehyung on the main hallway, but the younger vampire doesn’t stay on there for long. Very soon and he is by Yoongi’s side, helping him look whilst trying to keep the conversation going.

“I respect them. That is why I want you to tell me why you are so upset and why you are disappointed in me, so I can understand you better.”

“I told you. You are a scumbag.”

“No, that is not it. I know your feelings for me changed. Back when we pretended to be a frat house we liked each other. Remember?”

“I think you only imagined that. I never liked you.”

“You are lying. The music nights we shared. When we thought of melodies together and then played them. You can’t tell me that those nights were nothing but pretend.”

“You are not that person anymore. Neither am I.”

“Indeed. Now we are both feeling and we are in love with the same woman, which means we have to work even harder to fix us.”

Taehyung grabs Yoongi by his shoulders and turns him. Yoongi lets him, making eye contact the instant they are facing each other.

“We can’t stay so broken. Eternity is too long to spend it with fighting, especially when it hurts ___.”

“Oh? Now you want to make it about hurting her? Start with thinking about what you did before pointing fingers at me.”

“Yoongi, I told you”, Taehyung sounds exhausted, “I had no evil intentions behind sharing blood with her. I just wanted to be closer to her. Why can’t you see it? I just wanted intimacy.”

“Because it’s not intimate or good or romantic. It’s awful and should be forbidden.”

“Why?”

“Because it is”, Yoongi insists, “aren’t we hurting enough people? Why do we have to hurt the people close to us? The people we love and, and promised to protect?”

Taehyung takes a deep breath through his nose and exhales it the same way. He relaxes his shoulders, pulling his hands away from Yoongi’s arm.

“I see”, he says, “have you hurt someone during blood sharing?”

“It shouldn’t concern you.”

“Well, it does if it helps me understand you better.”

Yoongi stays silent and leaves. He is looking at the contents of the shelf with such precision that Taehyung knows he is acting busy to avoid talking.

“I’m sorry that you did. I hurt someone too, a long time ago. Her name was Jackie and I bit too deeply by accident. She cried so much and told me that I was a monster. She wanted it initially, but never wanted to see me again afterwards. Till this day I feel terrible for what I did to her.”

“That should be proof enough for why you shouldn’t do this with ___. What if Jackie was ___? What if you bit her too deeply?”

“Because I was careful. Oh, Yoongi I am telling you, the moment my fangs touched her skin, I concentrated on nothing other than her comfort. I don’t go deep, just enough to get droplets of her blood. I am actively making sure to never repeat what I did to Jackie. I never went too far, you have to believ-”

“You never went too far?” Yoongi has Taehyung pressed against the shelf with his fingers around his throat and his face morphed into demonic anger, “you almost killed her the last time, you fuck.”

“I, I can’t breathe”, Taehyung chokes out, hitting Yoongi’s hand.

“I don’t fucking care. I don’t care about anything you fuck feel”, Yoongi spits, “you and your empty words. You speak of tenderness and love when your actions show the opposite.”

“I want to change, I urgh-”, Taehyung gags and writhes, “hyun- plea-”

“I want to kill you”, Yoongi growls, “you ruin everything.”

“Ple-” 

“I love her. I love her so very much that I wanna move mountains for her and because of you I will lose her”, the corners of Yoongi’s mouth grow, showing off his true teeth, “you’re gonna kill her, but not when I can prevent it. Hear me, Kim Taehyung? I’m gonna rip you to fucking shreds”, he says and runs his long tongue over his sharp teeth, “you think you know how Rippers kill? Fucker, I am the monster we are based on and I’m happy to show you why that is. Give you a taste of your own fucked up medicine and make you choke on your own blood before I rip your fucking head off with my teeth.”

Yoongi draws closer. Taehyung whimpers, squeezing his eyes shut. 

“Please don’t kill me. I don’t want to die.”

“And neither does ___ and yet you get off on ending her life.”

“I went too far!” Taehyung chokes out, “I lost control. Please Yoongi, I admit my fault. I truly lost control.”

Yoongi growls, pressing down harder on his neck. He unhinges his jaw, opening it so he can bury his fangs in Taehyung’s throat.

“And I’m sorry!” Taehyung squeaks, writhing in fear.

Yoongi's fingers loosen their grip. His once black eyes return to ruby. His mouth shifts back to human size.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry to ___ and I’m sorry to you. You are right. I was blinded by my blood lust and lost control. And I’m sorry.”

Yoongi’s fingers slip from his throat, now resting on Taehyung’s chest. 

“Please believe me. I don’t want to kill her and, and I don’t want to take her from you.”

Taehyung places his hand over Yoongi’s.

“You make her happy in ways I fail to do and in return I have never seen you so…alive before. Why should I ruin something so wonderful? So honest and real? Please believe me when I say that I want to change.”

Yoongi looks to the side.

“I want to change for ___ and I want to change for us. You are my friend, even if we fight. And I hurt you. I admit my faults and I’m sorry. For hurting you and for hurting ___.”

Yoongi takes a step back. 

“Fuck”, he presses out, “fuck you for actually meaning it.”

“Because I do. I really, really do. I don’t want to lose her and I also don’t want to lose you and the others. So I am here begging you for one more chance.”

“And if I give you one? How long will it take before you put her in danger again?”

Taehyung shakes his head, “I won’t put her in danger anymore, I promise. I will only give her my blood when she asks me for it or if she is hurt. I promise you.”

“Sweet talk it all you want, you won’t change my mind about the blood sharing.”

“I have realised that much by now and I don’t intent to change it. I guess this is a topic we won’t agree on. But I am trying to change your mind about how you see me.”

“Just help me look for that cursed weapon instead.”

“I am. I haven’t found it yet.”

“Neither have I.”

“Are you certain that it is in here?”

“It must be. That’s where Meredith keeps all her trinkets.”

“Have you asked her already?”

“No. The witches still aren’t back.”

“I see. Then we will find it without them. I am sure of it”, Taehyung says and reaches out to nudge Yoongi’s arm, “we’ll find it together, hyung.”

“Stop calling me like that.”

“I’m sorry. I am just so used to calling you that name, that it comes natural to me.”

“Tch.”

They end up leaving the corridor and walking to the next one. It is the second to last shelf.

“Oh dear”, Taehyung says, “this is a lot of stuff.”

“Yes. It’ll take a while. You start at the beginning, I’ll start at the end.”

“Understood. Let’s meet in the middle.”

“Mhm.”

Yoongi disappears.

Taehyung looks at the small form of Yoongi at the end of the corridor. He huffs out air in defeat. Well, this is going to be a lot of work. Not only finding the weapon, but also getting Yoongi to open back up to him. He knows that it is possible. He knows that out of his former roommates, Yoongi was always the fondest of him. He knows that there was a time where he could call him his family and Yoongi wouldn’t mind. And because he possesses such knowledge, he knows that he can get Yoongi to like him again. 

It will just be a long way to get there. A long, long way to meet in the middle. Taehyung almost has to laugh at just how perfectly the situation fits. Meeting in the middle. Yes, let’s do that for now, he thinks and begins looking through Meredith’s trinkets.

He finds a cube which can suck all air out of a room, but it isn’t what he is looking for. He also finds a very interesting looking coin. It has the word “eternal blindness” written on its back. Taehyung discards it quickly and moves on to the next section.

He finds a book. It is as light as feather and carries the words “Magnus Vasistas” on its cover. He doesn’t dare to open the book, placing it back on the shelf.

Then he sneaks a glance at Yoongi. He has already come a little closer. His brows are furrowed in concentration.

Taehyung turns his head away and begins sorting through the stuff again.

There is a goblet which catches his attention. It is made of metal as black as obsidian and with purple crystals embedded on its rim. He twists and turns it a few times then looks inside. It is empty safe for the dust covering the surface.

“This is not right”, he murmurs and places it back on the shelf.

His eyes lock on a stone next. It sits right in his palm. It feels cold on his skin. Taehyung widens his eyes. The coldness is disappearing. It becomes warmer and warmer and warmer and warmer and…

“Ah”, he gasps, dropping the stone.

Yoongi turns his head upon hearing the loud sound of it landing on the ground.

“It burned me”, Taehyung says, showing Yoongi his scorched palm, “ah it hurts terribly.”

“It’s your own fault for touching it.”

“It truly hurts”, Taehyung whines, staring at his palm, “why is it not healing?”

Yoongi sighs in defeat and within a second he is by Taehyung’s side. He wraps his fingers around Taehyung’s wrist and pulls his hand closer.

“What did you touch?” he asks, inspecting the deep wound.

“This stone”, Taehyung says, pointing at the inconspicuous looking stone sitting on the ground, “it felt cold at first but then it heated up and burned me.”

“Tzt”, Yoongi clicks his tongue is distaste, “that’s why you shouldn’t touch anything in here. This stone is dangerous. She probably laced it with eternal scorching.”

“What? Eternal scorching? Ah”, Taehyung gasps before he has to hiss in discomfort, “ah it hurts.”

“I know. Idiot. You just cursed your own hand.”

“Please make it stop, it hurts unbearably.”

“Serves you right”, Yoongi murmurs, but still tugs Taehyung with him, “follow me, I know a cure.”

He drags Taehyung all the way back to the first shelf and stops right when they are at the middle. He is still holding Taehyung wrist whilst the latter is trying not to close his fingers. His palm burns so much that he can barely handle it. His wound grows exponentially.

“That’s it”, Yoongi says and reaches for an emerald green bottle. He opens the cork with his teeth, spitting it on the ground. Then he turns to Taehyung and tugs his hand closer, “hold still.”

And without warning he pours the green liquid all over his hand.

“Ah!” Taehyung exclaims, trying to wiggle away, “what is this? This feels terrible.”

“Quit whining. It’s the antidote. Look, it’s dissolving the curse.”

The scorch on Taehyung’s hand is sizzling until it stops and magically becomes smaller and smaller.

“It healed”, Taehyung gasps.

“Yes, that’s what it’s supposed to do”, Yoongi says dryly and leaves him by the potion shelf.

Taehyung takes a quick glance at the bottles. He can’t read the letters they display.

“Yoongi”, he calls out and turns to hurry to the older vampire.

He finds him hunched over the book, reading page 639 once again.

“How come you know so much about all of this?”

“I lived long enough”, he answers him dryly.

“No, there must be more behind your knowledge.”

“Mhm”, Yoongi acknowledges him, but stays silent otherwise. He is too focused on memorising the words on the paper.

Taehyung studies his face then the book until he lands on his face again.

“Now this weapon”, he begins, “how come you knew of its existence?”

“I just do.”

“I would like to argue that I posses a great knowledge of witchcraft and yet I never heard of it. Let alone heard about curses of eternal scorching and emerald antidotes. How do you know so much?”

Yoongi lifts his eyes from the book, locking them with Taehyung. When he sees the determination in his gaze, he gives up with a loud sigh.

“Because most of those things I helped create three thousand years ago.”

“What?” Taehyung gasps, widening his eyes, “you helped?”

Yoongi nods his head.

“I was a warlock before I became a vampire. A pretty impressive warlock actually. I helped write most of those spells in this book”, he says, touching the book.

“Now that is”, Taehyung laughs in disbelief, “those are the most mindboggling news I have ever heard. You possessed magic as a human?”

Yoongi nods his head.

“This is wonderful. Why did you never tell me?”

“Why should I have?” Yoongi asks, scrunching his nose up in disgust, “it’s not like it’s any of your business.”

“Well, I think that it is. You were a warlock once, this is wonderful. How come you became a vampire?”

“It shouldn’t concern you.”

“Well, I want to know. How did all of this start? How did we start? Was it one of your spells?”

“No.”

“Well, what was it then?”

“Why are you so nosy?”

Taehyung huffs out air, sending Yoongi a little pout.

“Fine”, Yoongi says with annoyance in his voice, “I was still a warlock in apprenticeship. We all were, my friends and I. And one night we stole one of our master’s spells and used it. It was my idea. Our master told us that we weren’t ready for it yet, but I wouldn’t listen because I was a proud asshole, who wanted to prove him wrong. So we stole it and tried it out. Thirty people died, a couple hundred got injured and our village lost half of their crops.”

“Oh that is terrible. Was it the spell which started vampirism?”

“No. It wasn’t, it was the spell of Eternal Scorching. It is supposed to be used only on little objects. We tried to curse a rock with it, but we lost control and it spread over our lands and burned the people from the inside out.”

“Oh.”

“Our teacher stopped the spell before it could spread any further and captured all of us with magic. He created vampirism as our punishment. He cursed all of us to eternal life so we will never be freed of the terrible guilt of what we had done.”

“Well that is…not what I had expected. So our nature is truly a curse?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Taehyung asks and chuckles in confusion.

“For starting all of this.”

“What?” Taehyung asks, “but it’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is. If I wasn’t such a childish idiot back then, if I only had listened and not overestimated my own abilities, maybe then this awful curse would have never spread over the lands.”

“There is nothing to forgive, I don’t blame you.”

“Well, you should. I know it’s my fault. The sorcerer let me know by making me the only goddamn Gluttonous Ripper and I know how my lineage turned out. I know that my creations are fucking cursed to a sad life and I know that it’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault. Haven’t you spent most of your life teaching your lineage ways they could control their urges?”

“Yes? What about it?”

“So you helped them. They may have been cursed to a sad life, but you broke that curse by giving them back their control. So stop wallowing in self-pity when you did so much to prove the sorcerer wrong.”

Yoongi listens intently, staring at Taehyung with slightly widened eyes.

“You’re not that selfish person anymore. Hell, you are sometimes so self-sacrificing and, and righteous that it infuriates me.”

Yoongi scoffs and shows the smallest of smiles.

“Thanks, I guess”, he murmurs, looking back into the book.

Taehyung smiles as well. Yoongi is warming up to him again. He knows that he is. Taehyung steps closer until their arms were touching. Yoongi doesn’t put distance between their bodies.

“So that book”, Taehyung begins, “you created it while you were still a warlock?”

“Yes, my friends and I did, but the sorcerer must have finished it.”

“How are you so certain that he did?”

“Because of this.”

Yoongi flips the book on its last page. The handwriting is almost unreadable as if the mind which produced it was clinging to its last string of sanity.

“I think the sorcerer went insane in guilt for what he did to us”, Yoongi says.

“You think so?”

Yoongi nods his head, “I don’t think that his intentions were to create immortal monsters which hunt innocent humans and kill them so violently. I think that perhaps the curse of vampirism was too much for him as well and it laced itself in our bodies in a way which he couldn’t control.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes. I can still remember how he talked about dark magic and that the price for our punishment is the blood of an innocent. He sacrificed a lamb back then, but I believe that the darkness of the magic laced itself with the blood and as it entered our bodies it created the dark hunger for blood. I think the sorcerer wasn’t aware of just how unpredictable the dark magic he used was and I really think that he only wanted to curse us with immortality, but that the dark magic took over and turned us into how we function.”

“Do you think that this is also the reason why we dry out if we aren’t fed blood? Because the dark magic needs to feed on blood and if we don’t consume blood, the curse resorts to feasting on our own blood until we are drained?”

Yoongi sneaks a glance at Taehyung.

“I didn’t think that yet, but I think you’re right. It would make sense.”

Taehyung smiles proudly.

Yoongi looks at his smile for just a second before he averts his gaze back into the book.

Taehyung moves closer to get a better look at the page. He drapes his arm across Yoongi’s back. It forces the older vampire to tense up and sneak a confused look at Taehyung. He doesn’t move away however.

“What does this say? I can’t read it”, Taehyung asks.

“I think this is the solution to all of our problems”, Yoongi says.

“How come?”

“As I said before, I think the sorcerer spent his life trying to fix what he had done. I think that this obsession turned him mad in the end, but this right here”, Yoongi dances his fingers over the page, “this right here is the last proof of his genius.”

“It’s barely even distinguishable.”

“It’s a spell for reversing the curse of vampirism.”

“What?” Taehyung gasps, “a spell to reverse vampirism?”

Yoongi nods his head.

“It says right here. Lace it on to a blade. Yes, yes. Lace a blade. Pierce a heart with it. The heart of my demons. The demons. Oh what have I done? It will redeem my deeds. This will redeem my deeds. Lace a blade and pierce a heart.”

“You can read those scribbles?”

“I had to decipher his writing on a board back in school”, Yoongi says, making Taehyung laugh.

Yoongi allows a small smile to hush over his lips.

“I see. Well, then we can be glad that you have so much experience”, Taehyung says, rubbing his hand up and down Yoongi’s lower back.

Yoongi moves away with an arch of his back. He looks just slightly flustered. Taehyung ignores it, sitting down on the edge of the desk instead.

“So why do we need the Unbreakable Shackles?”

“I want to capture Namjoon with them and then use the blade on him.”

“What?”

Yoongi nods his head.

“You want to steal Namjoon of his vampirism?”

“Yes.”

“That is truly your plan?”

“Yes. Is it that unbelievable?”

“Yes, it is. What about killing him? Wasn’t this always our goal?”

“No. We can’t be killed. The only way has always been to weaken him and then keep him in a cell for all eternity.”

“This is”, Taehyung pauses for he finds no words to describe the utter surprise he is feeling, “how are you so certain that the spell will work?”

“I’m not, but trying never hurt anybody.”

“Until it does. What if it doesn’t work and Namjoon stays a vampire?”

“Then we will keep him in a cell for all eternity.”

“And if it works?”

Yoongi falters. Taehyung watches as fearful heartbreak glimmers in his eyes for a mere second.

“We’ll see when we get there”, Yoongi answers him.

“I see”, Taehyung averts his eyes to the book, “to know that such a spell exists”, he murmurs, dancing his fingers over the page, “this is…”

“Our hope.” “Terrible.”

The two vampires say at the same time, meeting each other’s eyes in a surprised look.

“What? Our hope?” Taehyung asks Yoongi.

Yoongi stays silent, tensing his jaw.

“Yoongi”, Taehyung jumps down from the table, stepping closer to Yoongi, “our hope? Why are you saying this?”

“Well, why do you think it’s terrible?” Yoongi hisses, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Because it’s terrible. If this spell falls into the wrong hands they can use it to drain whichever vampire is dumb enough to run into their blade. We could lose everything.”

“So? You’d still be human.”

“Yes. And mortal and weak and without the ability to heal or to never get sick and in the end you will die.”

Yoongi scoffs, looking to the side. Taehyung studies the features of his friend with worry in his eyes.

“What are you planning to do with this spell after we used it on Namjoon and it deemed successful?” Taehyung asks him quietly, dreading the answer.

“Nothing”, Yoongi dismisses him.

“Are you planning to use it on yourself?”

Yoongi gives him a quick glance.

“Let’s continue looking for the shackles, they must be here somewhere”, he dodges his question, stomping off in quick steps.

Taehyung runs after him, grabbing him by his elbow.

“Hyung, talk to me. Are you truly considering using it on yourself?”

“And if I do? What about it?” Yoongi hisses, ripping himself free from Taehyung’s hold.

Taehyung reaches for him instantly, holding his wrist.

“You can’t do this.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’d lose everything.”

“Yeah and gain much more.”

Taehyung laughs in disbelief.

“No”, he says, circling Yoongi until the smaller vampire can do nothing more than stop and look up at him, “do you hear yourself talk?”

“It’s my decision, isn’t it?”

“No, no it’s not. Not anymore.”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re not alone in this world anymore. You can’t be so bloody selfish.”

“Selfish? Do you even know how awful it is to know that no matter what you try, you can never die?” Yoongi hisses.

“Yes, yes I do.”

“No you don’t. You just have to rip your own heart out or run into a fire. You have the option to ram a stake through your heart and rip your own head off. Me? When I try any of those things? I’ll wake up again and continue to fucking live. You’ll never know how it is to actually be immortal because while you may not die through most deaths, in the end you still have options.”

Yoongi pushes Taehyung softly.

“You fucker can still end it whenever you want, but I can’t.”

Taehyung reaches for Yoongi, holding his wrists with utmost care.

“I understand what you mean, but please don’t use it on yourself.”

“Why not?” Yoongi asks, fighting Taehyung’s hold.

“Because you’d become mortal.”

“So? At least I could finally die.”

“Do you hear yourself talk?” Taehyung presses out, eyes filling with tears, “you selfish cunt, don’t you have enough reasons to want to stay alive? Isn’t ___ enough?”

Yoongi stops fighting, staring at him with widened eyes.

“Isn’t she enough to want to live? To want to stay immortal?” Taehyung’s voice is trembling, tears roll down his cheek, “how dare you do that to her. How dare you make the decision of how long she wants to be by your side for her.”

“You don’t-”

“Don’t tell me that I don’t understand. I understand a lot”, Taehyung interrupts him, “back when I was captured and you came to talk to me, you told me that I shouldn’t give up on life because ___ hasn’t given up on me yet”, Taehyung shakes Yoongi’s hands as if he wanted to shake him awake from his insanity, “you told me that it is worth wanting to live for her”, his voice is shuddering in emotion, “so goddamn, believe your own words and live.”

“If the spell is successful I can still live with her.”

“No”, Taehyung sobs softly, “please, don’t give up your immortality, not yet.”

He falls around Yoongi’s neck.

“What the hell are you doing?” Yoongi grunts, trying and failing to escape the hug.

“You can’t think like that. Not yet. You can’t become mortal.”

“Why not?” Yoongi pushes him away, “why can’t I become mortal? What if the day comes when ___ dies? Where she is old and grey and her heart gives up? What then? You expect me to continue living after I had to watch her die?”

“No.”

“Then let me become mortal and let me fucking die.”

“No, I can’t do this”, he intertwines his fingers with Yoongi, “you know ___, you know that there will come a day where she wants to become just like us. And, and when that day comes you have to be immortal with us. It would kill ___ if she knew that you wouldn’t be with her for all eternity.”

“She shouldn’t give up her mortality.”

“Well, if that is what she wants then we have to let her. She’ll drink my blood, become a Normal so she won’t be cursed and then you and I can make sure she learns how to drink blood without killing.”

“You’re sick for even thinking that.”

“I’m not sick. Don’t you want to be with her for all eternity?”

“Of course I do. That’s all I’m thinking about.”

Taehyung smiles.

“See? Then concentrate on that thought instead of wanting to die.”

Yoongi inhales deeply.

“I just want to know that I have an option”, he confesses quietly, “even if she becomes a vampire, she can still be killed. I could still lose her. Fuck, I just want to know that I am also able to die.”

“Okay”, Taehyung says, “I understand. That is why we will test it on Namjoon. If it works and he becomes mortal, then you will know that shall the day come where you lose everything and death seems sweet, you can end it. But please Yoongi”, Taehyung squeezes Yoongi’s hands, “please don’t think about it for as long as you have ___ and you are happy.”

Yoongi furrows his brows.

“You deserve to be happy. Truly happy, without thinking about wanting to die. And if you don’t believe me, take it from ___. I know that she wants you to enjoy your life. So goddamn, enjoy it for her if you can’t do it for yourself. And you’ll see, one day you will realise that you have long stopped enjoying it for her sake and that you like it because you genuinely enjoy living.”

Yoongi is deeply moved by Taehyung’s words. He is also deeply moved by the grief Taehyung showed when he talked about dying. He never even thought that Taehyung cared enough about him to find sadness in his death. Yoongi is deeply moved by how much he seems to care. But he can’t show it, because it embarrasses him.

He pulls his hands away.

“You’re a dreamer”, he murmurs, turning around to flee.

Taehyung follows him.

“Perhaps I am, but I genuinely believe that you have many bright days ahead of you.”

“Mhm”, Yoongi looks at the shelf with shy eyes, “let’s just look for the shackles.”

“Yes, we’ll look for them. And I hope you will think about what I said.”

“I won’t use it. At least not yet”, Yoongi whispers.

“Oh Yoongi”, Taehyung falls around his neck again, “this is great news.”

The latter wiggles out of the hug.

“Why do you keep hugging me?” he hisses with burning cheeks.

“Because I’m happy that you won’t give up yet.”

“So? Stop hugging me.”

Taehyung giggles and nudges Yoongi’s arm, “don’t lie, you like it.”

“No, I don’t. It’s weird.”

Taehyung grins, flustering Yoongi even more.

“Whatever”, he dismisses him, disappearing in the narrow corridor.

“I like this, Yoongi”, Taehyung follows him, “I feel like we made a lot of progress.”

“We made zero progress, except that you burned your hand.”

“I’m not talking about our search, but us.”

Yoongi halts and looks over his shoulder.

“I’m glad we made progress.”

“I’m still mad at you for drinking her blood.”

“I know, that is why I decided that I will stop it for a while.”

Yoongi scoffs, cocking his right eyebrow up in surprise.

“I can’t promise you that it will last forever because I truly love the intimacy of it, but for a while I won’t do it”, Taehyung says, making Yoongi turn.

“Why not forever?” he asks.

“Because it makes me happy. Yoongi, you should have been with us when it was still a thing between her and me. She didn’t feel a thing and was incredibly happy afterwards. We shared comfort that way.”

“Tch.”

“But you are right. It long stopped being what it was initially. I became greedy. When we started sharing our blood I only took a little, but ever since a few weeks, I took more than I should have. And I wanted to let Jimin feed from her as well, which I never should have allowed. I admit my fault.”

Yoongi nods his head.

“Do you know that he forced her to drink his blood?”

“Yes, she told me.”

“And what do you think of it?”

“I broke his nose, because I punched him way too hard.”

“Hah”, Yoongi scoffs, “good. I’d have done far worse.”

“I know.”

Yoongi studies his features.

“You’re bearable when you’re without him, brat”, he says, “why does he have to be with us?”

“Because he’s my best friend.”

“He’s an entitled bastard, that’s what he is. He thinks that he has a right to you.”

“Doesn’t everyone who loves someone think that way?”

“Being with someone you love isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. He should be happy that you put up with his shit and you should reconsider your own value.”

“What does that mean?”

“You deserve better. You know that, don’t you?”

“What are you insinuating?” Taehyung seems angry.

“Crying after sex isn’t normal, Taehyung. Feeling too scared to voice your opinion because he could scream at you isn’t either. Neither is making yourself as small as a mouse whenever he’s in the room.”

Taehyung stumbles back, back hitting the shelf. His eyes are widened yet glassy.

“It’s not like that anymore”, he whispers.

“Maybe, but we both know Jimin won’t ever better himself. Not even death was able change his ways.”

“He’s different now”, Taehyung insists.

“I hope you wake up one day. You’re a sweet man, terribly naïve at times, but at your core you are sweet”, Yoongi says, “Jimin shouldn’t be with us. I never liked that he was. He takes that sweetness from you.”

Taehyung blinks rapidly, seeming lost for words for just a moment. He is searching for his voice just long enough that Yoongi turns his shoulder to him to look for the shackles instead.

“So why did you allow Namjoon to live with us?” Taehyung finally throws back, “he’s far worse than Jimin ever was.”

Yoongi grinds his teeth, “because I had to make sure that he behaves and…and because he wasn’t always that way.”

“Neither was Jimin. Namjoon made him that way.”

Yoongi clicks his tongue, “touché”, he grumbles, turning his back to Taehyung.

“So you see? It all comes down to Namjoon”, Taehyung says, catching up with him in big steps.

Yoongi looks over his shoulder, right brow cocked up in question.

“He made Jimin the way he is, he is threatening ___ and he is the reason why we are fighting.”

“The reason why we are fighting is your own recklessness, brat”, Yoongi throws back.

“Fine, very well. I must admit, it is also my own recklessness”, Taehyung says, lifting his finger in defeat.

Yoongi scoffs and clicks his tongue.

“But I am truthful. I won’t drink her blood anymore. And if she feels ready for it again, I promise you that I will do it as carefully as possible.”

“And if she won’t ever want it again?”

“Then I won’t do it. All I want is her safety.”

“I want her safety too.”

“Then we can agree on that. Her safety”, Taehyung says, offering Yoongi his hand to shake.

Yoongi eyes it. He takes a deep breath and takes Taehyung’s hand to shake it.

“Her safety”, he says.

“Yes. Her safety”, Taehyung agrees and squeezes his hand, “thank you, Yoongi. For listening to me and telling me how you feel.”

Yoongi studies his face, clicking his tongue in the end, “you can call me hyung”, he whispers.

Taehyung takes a deep breath, feeling his stomach flutter in happiness.

“I understand. Hyung”, he says and smiles brightly.

Yoongi retorts it groggily, pulling his hand back. He turns his attention to the shelf instead.

Taehyung watches him with a light heart. So now they are here. Right in the middle. Quite literally, as well as figuratively.

They have finally met in the middle.

[harrywavycurly]

For the conversations may I ask for some between Princess and Wayne? I love that series and I just know Wayne treats her so wonderful🥹💞

Hiii lovey!! Awe yes of course you can get some Wayne and Princess conversations! I am so happy you enjoy the Princess series, it’s one of my faves it’s so comforting! I hope you enjoy💖

-there’s one that has a brief moment with Eddie and it’s marked with an ✨

*Wayne is determined to teach you how to be a little more independent*

“No darlin you gotta twist it to the right..remember what I taught you?” “Uh righty tighty…lefty losey? Right?” “Yeah good job now just a few more twists…and there ya go.” “Look at that!” “Yeah look at that…you changed a lightbulb and used a step stool by yourself.” “Let’s go check and see if there’s another one that needs changing!” “I got a few that need changing…if you wanna do em for me?” “Yes let’s go… oh uhm…don’t tell Eddie i used the step stool without him home…he doesn’t like that too much.” “Oh he can get over it you’re a grown woman and he puts all the shit on the top shelf so you need your step stool.”

“I think I messed it up Wayne.” “Let me see…no it’s just boiling darlin that’s what it’s supposed to do…you’re gonna cook the noodles for about ten minutes then we are gone strain em and add the little fake cheese packet.” “Okay…okay I can..I can do that.” “Of course you can…now stir the pasta every now and again so it doesn’t get clumpy…now don’t hover over the pot that’s how you get brunt by a rouge drop of boiling water and Eddie will have my ass if you get hurt on my watch.” “You think he’ll like dinner?” “Honey you could hand that man a bowl full of sink water and tell him you made it and he’d tell you it’s the best thing he’s ever had and ask for seconds.” “Really?” “Yeah…oh okay the timer is going off we gotta strain the pasta just take the pot to the sink…careful now…yeah and pour it into the strainer…good job now shake it a bit get all the water out.” “Like this?” “Yup now put it back into the pot…careful not to lose any noodles…now here’s the fun part you get to add this packet of fake cheese and just stir up all up.” “Smells good.” “Well now here’s the important part… gotta taste it.” “Oh wow it tastes like it does when he makes it!” “I’d say that’s the best Mac and cheese I’ve ever had…good job darlin….now you know how to use the stove…kinda.”

✨ “He’s gonna fucking kill me.” “Hammering things is so fun!” “Don’t look at me look at what you’re doing okay?” “Sorry…how’s this? Does it look good?” “I mean…yeah it looks good the nail went in smoothly so that’s good…time to hang the picture…now we just gotta make sure it’s straight.” “Can I hammer something else after this?” “I think the fuck not.” “Here we go…” “Hi honey! Look I finally hung that photo of us from Valentine’s Day! Isn’t it cute?” “So cute baby…Wayne can I talk to you for just a moment?” “I’d love to son but you see I’m late for something so yeah…gotta go but it was nice hanging with you today darlin and good job with the hammer.” “Thanks Wayne!” “Yeah…thanks so much Wayne.”

“What if I don’t have a spare tire?” “What? You don’t have a spare?” “Wayne I don’t have a car…” “right..well still this is a skill everyone should have so just pay attention okay?” “Okay…so you just jack the uhm…car up and take the lug..things off and then you take the flat tire off and put the new one on?” “You know what? Just watch me do it and if you have any questions ask me when I’m done and I’ll go over it with you.” “Okay…oh you use the righty tighty lefty losey things a lot huh?” “I mean…I tighten and loosen things a lot yeah…don’t tell Eddie I had you under this truck okay? He’ll never let you come over by yourself again.” “You got it…it’ll be our little secret until the day I get to change a tire on the van or something then I’ll tell him how you taught me.” “When that day comes I hope I’m long gone.” “Wayne!” “I mean like off to Florida to retire on a beach or something not like…gone gone darlin…sorry didn’t mean to upset you.”

[ravenwitch45]

What if human s/o freaked out on Blitzo for attempting to murder a family along with the kids after he told her sounding like Moxxie?

Oh Lord. Yeah I could imagine if Blitz was dating a human then this could cause...some tension. Fun prompt, let's see how much fun it is for out favorite Helluva Boss shall we? XP

Blitz's Human S/O Freaking Out at him upon finding out about the Murder Family Incident.

Blitz rarely went into detail about his jobs. You knew about his profession for sure, it was something he was pretty proud of after all, but in terms of knowing his specific targets, you never knew much, and whenever you asked, you'd generally get confusion from Blitz on why you'd want to know about the Asshats he kills.

So you didn't know about the whole thing until one day when you were helping him clean up his office, cause he's a mess generally and get's distracted easily, and when your trying to dust of the shelf he does just that.

He slams his arm into it right above your head in an attempt to loom over you like a flirty bully but he causes the shelf to shake, rattling all the things on it, almost causing a glass bottle filled with water to smash right into his face before you catch it with seconds to spare.

Letting out a hearty sigh, intending to chastise him a little but your eyes go wide when noticing the large red eye staring back at you from inside the bottle, making you scream at the top of your lungs as you impulsvley fling it into the air in a panic. Blitz catching it before it hits the floor and putting it on his desk, asking your still very out of breath self if your alright.

You say your alright, before asking why in Hell he has such a disgusting thing in his office, the ferocity of which makes him surprised, before admitting it's a trophy of sorts, just receiving a questioning look in return.

So he explains the whole thing. Mrs Mayberry's explanation, Moxxie diverting his shot (Which he's still bitter about) The whole mess that happened afterwards when the family proved much more capable then anticapated. And then finally Moxxie coming to the rescue, killing Martha, the owner of the eye in the bottle, ending the whole explanation nonchalantly as he does.

That's before you let a shriek of "What is wrong with you?!" Going into a rant about how awful what he and the team did was, blaming him most for leading the whole operation. And of course, Blitz defends himself, noting how it's his job to do things like this and clarifying it was just the mother he was after.

You don't care though, saying it was still awful to kill a family, even if the intent was just to kill the mother, noting how traumatic it would be to lose a parent at a young age, unintentionally digging at his own sore spot making his face go even more red before he screams

(Shit! I posted this before I I was done! Hold on!)

"I could have fucking died Y/N! Would you have prefered that?! Is me being dead preferable to you compared to people you don't even know!? Is it?!"

You freeze, stammering before realizing you don't have a good answer for that at all. Before groaning as you storm out, telling him that you need time as you leave, slamming the door behind you.

He stands there, in shock for a good while before realizing he could have handled that a lot better. Massaging his temples before he catches sight of the bottle that caused all this, grabbing it by the handle and throwing it into the wall at full force, not caring of the mess it makes, before he sits down in his chair, and covers his face with his hands, trying not to cry...

Okay then! I know that was way more angsty then I usually go with these, especially for a fave like Blitz but wasn't sure what else to do, feel free to send in for a part 2 if you want and I'll figure it out then, or may do it on my own, who knows? But hope it was a good response. However Angsty XP

[fisheito]

how would you eat/cook each nukani character

oh noooooooooo (holds my face in great contemplative agony) u can't do this to me

Eiden: oh mein gotTtTtt getting my hands on eiden would be like receiving an entire cart of summer fresh-from-farm produce. or an entire cow carcass . i would have SO MANY PARTS and SO MANY WAYS to prepare him and every part of him would taste delicious in its own way. there's no way i can ONLY cook eiden one way. i'd have to put him thru every process possible (true to his versatility). i thought about spitroasting him (for the joke) but that's too much eiden for one method. i need to covet him like the king tuna at the fish market as i take him apart piece by piece look. i am frying him like egg for a fast breakfast. i am meticulously grinding him to a paste in a traditional mortar and pestle. i am using him as pesto AND as dipping sauce. i will dehydrate him and drink him as tea. he will be roasted . braised. devoured raw in ceviche. i'll infuse him with vinegars! syrups! oils!! is there a way to make a sourdough starter but it's eidough starter so i can just keep him on my shelf and feed him every day and pass him down for generations? i want eiden for every meal of the day prepared 1000 ways

Aster: would aster taste like blood or the absence of it? hmmmm..... i guess it depends on when he feeds! maybe if i bite into him after a feeding session, he'll burst like a cherry tomato. but otherwise i feel like giving aster the sashimi treatment. put him all fancy on the plate with some garnishes after i treat him with a light citrus wash or smth. a fresh cool flavour!! i'm tempted to make some sort of beverage out of him. dilute him into a fancy mocktail of strange spirits and woody spices. aster juice?!?! looks like pink wine???! i have to treat this one like i'm spoiling him with gifts. he'll probably end up on the artisanal charcuterie board with the fusion jams and marmalades...

Morvay: i feel like he would have a very...particular aroma. he eats a very specialised diet so of everyone in the clan, he has to follow "you are what you eat", right?? my first instinct for some reason is to cure him. like, turn him into prosciutto. if he's gonna have a funky smell, might as well turn up the salt and cure him. tie him up and lock him in the carefully controlled environment of the curing basement. dark... surrounded by other meatbags... slap him around every now and then. slice him up thin and put him on that fancy cheese board with a bunch of other strong smelling foods. slurp him down him with a glass of astringent aster juice to balance out the richness of the morv

Yakumo: soup. he's getting souped. it's only right. might split him half and half into one soup and one stew. maybe the soup will just be a concentrated essence of snek-style broth. like a clear, warming bowl of pho that is DISTILLED YAKUMO and doesn't need much else besides some fave spices to accompany the flavour. as for the stew? i just straight up like stew and it can be so nutritionally complete. so he's going in the classic comfort stew. chunks of yakumo and seasonal vegetables simmered to make a thick hearty pot of glorp. maybe add some alcohol to it if i want to live dangerously. he will sustain me for days to come. anything that i do not turn into soup? i'm going to steam him. a mild little parcel of wrapped yakumo, gently steamed for a hot minute. yakumo tastes best to me when a little wet.

Edmond: to honour his thick sugary ass, i have to turn edmond into some sorta dessert. turn the defrosted ice queen into ice cream? now i could just put edmond in a pot and reduce him until he turns into a syrup but then i would waste all the extra good bits that make up edomon. u need the tsun with the dere and reducing him to pure dere is NOT balanced. he can withstand quite a bit of punishment so maybe i'll whip him up like a custard (by hand FIRST. if that's not strong enough, i'll use an electric hand mixer). turn him into an earl grey creme brulee where u can set him on fire then smack that caramelised crust before spooning out the goopy insides.

Olivine: i feel like i'd wanna enjoy olivine in his least processed form. just enjoy the pure marbled goodness of well-exercised, tender oli. so why not a steak? medium rare to rare? just a little pan-sear and we can chew on him all we want. (i considered searing on a grill, but it's easier around here to get a pan instead of a grill. and oli is all about being accessible to the greatest number of people.) on the other hand, that might not honour oli's nature. he, too, can stand up to a lot of punishment. he might even like it. so part of him can be the relatively unprocessed slab and the other can be a cutlet. that way i can beat him with a hammer, dredge and bread him, then toss him into the deep fryer. to be served with a variety of heavy or creamy sauces.

Quincy: this man is OLD and TOUGH and he probably tastes like every bit of wildlife in the forest combined. then again, he's also always sleeping so does that mean his meat is quite relaxed and i don't have to tenderise forever to be able to chew it? quincy probably eats the simplest diet (no processed microwave preservative type cocktails in here) so he'd be best appreciated in an equally simple dish?? i'd like to skewer him. make him bite-size and cook him over a campfire. alternating with simple salt vs. intricate dry rubs bc i'm not sure which i'd prefer. if he ends up being tough, i'll let him hang out in a savoury marinade for however many days he needs (do NOT make me put a pineapple in there, mister).

Kuya: i lied. **THIS** man is OLD and TOUGH and SINEWY and A BITCHASS to deal with and i bet if i cut him at *just slightly near the wrong spot* then some mystery sac of foul gunk will explode all over me like a punk'd prank. i will take any excuse during the cooking process to abuse this one. grate his rind to infuse in the sauce. mince him for the physical satisfaction then throw him into the blender anyway. toss him violently into a fiery wok and start saute-ing him with every other ingredient ever. i hope you get stabbed by a bunch of pointy carrots. i'll broil him as if he's not already crispy. and I BET at the end of all this work, i'll have somehow have messed up and made him inedible. skill issue. at this point i give up, toss the entire kuya into the pressure cooker, and turn him into stew.

G/Karu: i wanna toss them like a salad (i think they'll have fun with that). i could go the traditional way and make wolf jerky. bring it on the road for a durable snack! if i could somehow chop these two up and turn them into furikake, they could become my convenient, reliable flavour injector for a quick bowl of rice. it's tricky because there are two distinct flavours and they gotta be treated differently to bring out their full potential. but they're also inseparable. what do i do??? i might just put them into my party-type foods where flavours are supposed to mix and it's the wildness of the combos that make it all fun. he's going on the 12-topping pizza!! he's being melted onto the giant tray of nachos!!!

Blade: CAN I EAT THIS? WILL I DIE? WILL MY TEETH BREAK OFF? i have to debone him. i bet there are pointy bits hiding everywhere. get my special tools out and pluck at him for over an hour (i must be thorough). might just put him in the microwave (he'd probably enjoy that). i feel like essence of Blade would also do well as a bubbly drink. mix a simple edroid syrup with some club soda and some edible flowers to look pretty (low calories too!). if the legends are true and blade can adapt to any flavour, i might just turn him into a condiment or special spice mix. grind him to dust and put him in a nice glass container near my stove so i can add him to various foods (the weirder the combo, the better). keep the spirit of experimentation alive with Blade popcorn seasoning!!

Dante: i am gonna make him fragrant as hell. gonna smoke him over intricate spice combos or tea leaves and impart him with the most alluring lung-punchiest sniffs. i don't wanna be too harsh with him but i trust that he'll at least stand up to heat well. he'd probably complain about wasting time, but i'm not rushing the process. u will sit in the smoker and steadily break down over time. maybe after the smoke, i can tuck the odds and ends into a savoury saucy pie. bake him for an hour surrounded by a flaky buttery crust? i might also experiment with some fermentation, like a dante kimchi. i'm curious as to how he'd change flavours given time to age (and just relax for a bit, really).

Rei: i am pickling him. he's gonna become that sour salty lil accompaniment to every meal i have. he'll last forever and somehow never mould and no matter how long i leave him chillin in the fridge, when the time comes to put him on a bun, i know i can rely on him to not suddenly go limp. i still gotta be careful with him tho. can't just stick my fingers in the jar and introduce contaminants all the day because it IS possible to Spoil the Goods idk i just feel like i'd have to let him sit in SOME sort of marinade or brine. if i try to eat him raw i might turn 14 shades of purple before dissolving into radioactive bile

[fandomsbyladymelodrama]

No pressure on this, but I wanted to ask if you'd like to tell me about one of/some of your favorite Christy scenes, and the things you like most about it/them? I can't singlehandedly revive the fandom on here, but it's such a joy to talk over this show with other fans!

I didn't realize until recently how thoroughly the Neil/Christy relationship informed my romantic preferences in all the media and writing I've done since watching it in my teens. Older, scholarly man/younger, determined woman, some kind of angst in the man's past, a need to change things for the better as an intrinsic part of the woman's character, a taboo element that stands in the way of the relationship... Even in the slash pairings I love so much, there's still so many elements of it!

Hey filmmakers, don't think we don't notice that you frame these two with Christy on a step/incline half the time to de-emphasize the height difference...

Oh my, oh my. Okay, first, let's be real. I've been waiting for an ask like this since 1994 (baby Tumblr wasn't even born yet 😂) so get ready for some major Neil/Christy feels that I've been suppressing but also diligently-tending-in-the-background for 30+/- years. THEY. ARE. PERFECT. Top-shelf OTP bottle, for sure. You understand, right? Of course, you do. We've discussed. But yeah, I feel the same way about this show/book/pairing influencing and informing both my writing style and romantic preferences in fiction over the years. Happy to admit it. Yes *raises hand* 1000 times yes. Hello, my name is ladymelodrama, and the fact that CBS so cruelly stole resolution for Neil/Christy from us forever (I'm not counting the PAX movies, I'm just not) is a crime against good television everywhere and will haunt my Christy-loving bones until I'm dead and buried in the ground deep enough so's the critter's can't find me, as Little Burl or Creed Allen would say. Anyway, you asked about Neil and Christy and favorite moments and since I can't just pick one...

I have a proposition to make :) Let's trade fave moments until we run out of them, maybe? No pressure, of course, but this is me mostly unwilling to commit to my Top 5 Scenes until I finish my rewatch, and even then I'll probably change my mind a couple times 😂 But here's one that I'll discuss in detail today and which I like to call the "Will This Do?" scene aka "and then they both smiled their little smiles at each other and lived happily ever after. The end." <3

(Credit to @heatherfield for this gif, and bless you, friend, for continuously shipping the same pairings as me - makes my gif-hunting so much easier haha <3)

So why do I love this scene so much? Oh, you know. Margret's dress. Objectively, it's gorgeous (the woman had style, even if she had no heart). And hey, it only coded Neil/Christy as endgame from the first episode, no big deal. Plus it was one of the softest moments in the whole show and THE WAY THEY SMILED AT EACH OTHER. Ugh. Soffffffft. I'm mean, you're seeing this too, right? ;) Meanwhile, I'm sure David is over here in the corner...doing what David does best XD Lurking. Always lurking.

(and, based on the pic I chose, maybe taking notes on how to have better chemistry with Christy? - "Dear Diary, Neil MacNeill is kinda the worst, have I mentioned?" 😂) But in all seriousness, what I love about that scene (and the exchange of smiles, in particular) is how there's an honest-to-goodness, my-spirit-just-spoke-to-your-spirit bit of humanity happening there. I die for those moments, little and quiet as they may be. It's just so...SOFT. They don't know each other yet. Not really. There's no romance at play (other than what I assume might be mutual physical attraction, even if Christy would never let herself go there. Not on her first days in the Cove) so it's more a budding friendship that we're seeing and friends-to-lovers is one of my favorite things? (Jorleesi, Jisbon, Siegfried/Audrey, Obidala, Red Cricket, Dickon/Mary much?). I also really enjoy when she comes down the stairs looking all pretty-in-lavender with her hair down (still lolling at your comment on that detail btw because...c'est vrai 😂) and "Oh no, David, it's so late...how will we ever get to Lufty Branch in time?" "Not we, Christy." (exactly, David, you're getting it). Too bad she has to spend all afternoon in this rustic cabin with a plaid-shirted, barrel-chested, brogue-speaking, moody mountain man with inside pain for dayssssss. Oh the everlasting horror XD

So yeah, so much to love about this scene (and the entire convo in the cabin afterwards and him plucking her from Theo prior to the whole dress thing - guy helps girl down from horse = I'm in love 😍). To witness the very beginning of their arc (okay, Part II of the beginning, but the doctor was busy with brain surgery during Part I, so you know what I mean) and to have the actors play it so, so beautifully and in an Appalachian setting that's just misty and magical and to die for all by itself... Mmmm *chef's kiss* Your turn, @darsynia <3

[scribble-dribble-writes]

Heyyy,

I’d like to request an Obi-Wan One-Shot. I love the way u write him and tbh u ate my fave Obi-Wan writer.

So my request would be: falling in love with Modern!Dad!Obi-Wan. Thats it, oh and reader is a woman. Do whatever u want with it.

Lots of love <3

Thank you!! it's makes me so happy you love my stories, hope you like this one! 💖💖💖

---

Everything's got a price.

It was a Friday evening and the weekend awaited you but you didn't want to begin it without your traditional start. A strawberry and chocolate sauce crepe with a warm cup of hot chocolate with the marshmallows on top melted to the perfect consistency from Rex's cafe and a visit to Qui Gon's corner bookshop.

You were lost in between the bookshelves after having devoured your treats to peruse through sci-fi stories when as you pulled for it, someone else had reached out to do the same. He was dressed in an fitted brown sweater that matched the bronze of his hair. His beard well kept that you almost thought he was an author himself. His blue eyes found yours as you stepped away all too suddenly feeling quite shy.

"Sorry I was taken aback by the cover.", you smile.

"It's very pretty is it not?", he asked but he wasn't looking at the book, his eyes roamed your face.

"I'm not familiar with the author.", you tell him, averting your gaze back to the summary as a way to hide a blush on your cheeks.

"A compelling story though, might make a good weekend read.", you continued.

"Oh yes. It's about wizards and laser swords set in space.", he added to your conversation as you nodded along.

"Well it's gotten your stamp of approval. It has convinced me to buy it.", you look up at him, your eyes registering his features when you realised he did look familiar.

"Forgive me, have we met before?", you squeeze yours brows together holding the book against your chest when he pursued his lips.

"I would have definitely remembered.", he said and it was difficult to differentiate if he was paying you a compliment, if he was just nice or if he was flirting with you.

"Is this your first time here?", you ask determined to figure out where you had met him.

"I came here a lot as a teenager.", he shuffled his feet.

"My father owned this establishment soon after he took me under his wing.", he had a kind smile almost as if he was reminiscing along with you.

"But this is my first time revisiting this old place with my son.", he looked about the shop that held its own identity and vintage quality and behind his legs hid a tiny figure.

You draw nearer to him, a name at the tip of your tongue. Qui Gon was a gentle soul, a vibrant part of the community and he had helped you during a tough time in your life when he let you work as the cashier here. He mentioned his son often and you wondered how someone could be so perfect.

His eyes widened registering the lessened space between you and him. But it also looked like he was hiding a secret.

"It starts with an O, doesn't it?", you snap your finger trying your best to recollect.

"What does?", his back hit the shelf behind him softly as you step closer.

"Your name.", you whispered as you looked away.

A new author was supposed to visit, one who was well known and had a book signing here on Saturday. You tapped your fingers against the book that you held. When it struck you. You held the book in front of you and there it was, his name on the cover. You noticed his anxious gulp when your eyes narrowed down on his.

"You're Obi -

He placed his hand over your mouth, to shush you.

"Yes, yes you've got me.", he whispered but all you could concentrate on was his smooth skin and the smell of his cologne reminding you of forest berries.

He gestured to know if he could be certain you wouldn't scream when you looked at the little boy who stood behind him quietly. You nodded and he tentatively removed his hand from your mouth.

"I've finally found a corner of respite. I ... we would like it to remain that way.", he sniffed folding his arms smiling at his son when a mischievous smile spread across your face.

"Everything's got a price.", you mimicked his stance to which he narrowed his eyes.

"Fine. What's your request?", he asked.

You took a moment to think of a dare for him to do, something that could be silly. You caught sight of his son when he gave you a shy smile and the idea hit you.

"Write me in as a character in your next book.", you smiled and a moment later he did too.

"How do you feel about being a love interest?", he asked quietly, his eyes glimmering with interest.

"All depends on the character I'm supposed to love.", you prop up shoulders and walk beside him to hear his laugh.

"Coffee?", he glanced back at you and you couldn't help but believe in fate in this second.

"I know just the place.", you tell him as his little boy padded along next to him as you unraveled your umbrella outside the store to help them with their anonymity which he had noticed.

Maybe this was fate.

Maybe this was every book lover's fantasy.

But it had found you.

So you looped your arm around his that he extended towards you and walked down the wet pavement chatting about stories and magic.

[thrillofcontrol]

Robin Buckley- That Sworn Couple.

Robin x F!Reader

Fluff.

The one where you and Robin, unbeknownst to you, have become that one couple the pair of you usually mock.

This is REALLY messy. im so sorry!

Word Count: 1.2k

It is guaranteed that at least once a week you find yourself entering 'Family Video' to see your two favourite people, you loved adventuring into the store, mostly because you could spend time with your girlfriend, but you'd never tell Steve that. Robins eyes always light up when she sees you entering through the doors, dropping all of her tasks and jumping over the counter, wrapping you up in her arms, pressing soft kisses around your face, always causing you to giggle before sharing the same amount of affection towards her. You always stayed inside of 'Family Video' when visiting Robin, if it was up to her, she'd manipulate Steve in some sort of way into making him cover her shift so she could spend the day with you, instead of keeping you cooped up inside of her workplace, simply watching her work. However, you didn't want to be the reason that Robin loses her job, or is in potential risk of losing her job and you also appreciated Steves friendship too much to pressure him into covering Robin everytime you wanted to see eachother. Therefore when you pay your fave duo a visit, you find yourself sitting on the counter of the store, minimalistically distracting your girlfriend by praising her in compliments, for doing the smallest things, simply enjoying eachothers company as Steve complains about whatever is on his mind, but that part usually goes unnoticed.

Her tendency to think out loud increases when she is around you, rambling about her fantasies and how you are present in each one of her plans for the future. She is known to word vomit about her anxieties or small things that could of been a one word reply however when she is around you the words spilling out of her mouth are full of adoration, and if it is about a random object, or film in the store she'll always figure out a way to link it to you, for example she was speaking about an awful gory zombie movie the other day as she picked it up off of the shelf, and managed to turn the idea of 'the world ending by gormless brain eating beasts' into the idea of the pair of you 'escaping an apocalypse because you had eachother' its awfully corny but it always makes you happy, simply because Robin herseld, makes you happy. You currently find yourself sat on the counter with your legs dangling off as you watch your girlfriend sort out something on the computer, youre not too fussed about what she is doing, just how beautiful she looks doing it, your gaze seemingly has been held onto her longer than you thought because in the corner of her eye she caught you staring and chuckled over at you, "what you staring at" she teased as she turns her body, attention fully placed onto you, causing your cheeks to tint a shade of pink.

She walks a few steps, placing herself in between your legs as she placed a sweet kiss onto your forehead, causing your cheeks to tint a further shade of pink, a giggle leaving your lips, "just looking at my pretty girlfriend" you smiled up at her, causing her to smile down at you, the pair getting lost in eachothers eyes.

After a long while of the two of you being lost within your own thoughts, Steve spoke up, asking a question that had clearly been his mind for a while, "do you two ever get sick of each other?"

Robin sighed and sat up a little, "why would we get sick of each other?"

"Because you're always together," Steve answered with a shrug, "like all the time.", he took a long pause, thinking of how to word what he was saying without making you both overthink too much, causing the three of you to sit in an awkward silence, as you stare at the boy, running your thumb over the top of Robins hand as she stayed stood in between your legs, also staring at the boy, a look of confusion filling her face.

"It's not a bad thing, I was just curious because even if you're not together, you're talking about how much you love eachother to other people."

Both you and Robin started out as being the best of friends before you realised that the feelings you both had towards one another were beyond the point of platonic, however when you were simply friends, you constantly would mock the behaviour Steve portrayed when he was around girls he was attracted to, you would take the piss out of any of your friends 'honeymoon phases', you both audibly gagged at the words, "Suziepoo" Dustin Henderson once announced, the idea of the cringey couple stage simply amused the two of you, you found it absolutely pathetic, you never once questioned your own relationship as being the awkward to be around sort, as you genuinely were convinced that the cringey stage of constant affection skimmed over you both due to the amount you knock others for displaying public affecton.

Steves statement caused you and Robin to share a look, you had never realised how much time you spent with her until now, never realised how desperate you were for eachothers touch and words of affirmation, it took you this long to realise that the 'stage of the honeymoon' that you both constantly used to mock, is the stage you were currently going through. You hated to admit that Steve Harrington was right, if you weren't spending time together for whatever reason, you were talking to somebody about the next time you were going to spend time with eachother, and if you weren't talking about it, it was certain that the topic was on both of your minds.

You had never thought you would ever become so attached to someone to the point where you couldn't bear being apart from them, but something about Robin was different, the two of you seemed addicted to each other, a part of you finally understood certain behaviours your friends presented when it came to their significant other, however the whole idea of witnessing it does still make you cringe. You look down and notice your hand gently squeezing Robins, making your eyes widen as you truly comprehended the current reality of what you've became, you pulled your hand away from hers covering your mouth to hold back a half mortified, half joking laugh as you realise that even when being spoken to about how it is slightly odd that you cannot bear to be apart, you still find a way to touch eachother. You pull yourself fully onto the counter, trying to form a sentence out of your fits of giggles, watching Robins face drop as she over exaggeratedly slaps a hand over her mouth.

"Holy shit, we've become-" .

"Don't say it, we are better than this" Robin interrupted you as she covered her ears, over dramatically fake gagging.

"Robin, we need to accept it" you shudder at your own words, half laughing, "we've become the clingy couple that we constantly complain about." you watch Robin cringe at the idea of you and her behaving like 'those gross couples' in the street behave, derailing themselves from reality to solely focus on one another, and as the two of you come to terms with your current stage as a couple, you can hear Steve chuckling at the realisation of you both, the reaction to the current circumstance showing clearly just how perfect you are for one another.

[millenialfanfictionaddiction]

Being Nekoma's Manager

Finding Out their Manager recently Self Harmed

Nekoma x GN!Manager

⚠️ THIS REQUEST MAY CONTAIN TRIGGERING MATERIAL⚠️

Warnings: self harm mentioned, visible scars, talk about mental, emotional and physical health

A/N: This is an Anon request! This is my own personal experience. I went off the ask as best as I could. If you a triggered by self-harm, please do not read!

Nekoma is such a freaking fantastic team!

Seriously one of my top 3 all time faves 🥰

And our wonderful YN is the amazing manager who holds it all together

So like would you be the skin of the human body then 🤔

Ok that's weird Tiffany 😅 moving on

Anyways you are the glue that holds our cat bbys together

Without you they would literally crumble

Who would keep Lev from getting lost?

Who would keep Yaku from killing Lev for getting lost??

Who will steal Kenma's switch so he practices?

Who will keep Yamamoto in check?

Who will praise Shibayama and Inouka????

WHO I ASK???

Kuroo and Kai have most of it in order but there is just something different about our bby YN's praise 🤚🏻

You work so hard YN and the team truly appreciates you 🥰

But you've managed to keep a secret from the team for a while

You can have your good days and your not so good days

Suffering from major depression and anxiety is not easy

While you are able to function normally for the most part

Being alone can sometimes can be a different story

Which brings us to today

The boys are gearing up for Nationals 🙌🏻

We are so proud of them!

Seriously they earned this 👏🏻

You are writing notes when you start to feel warm

You take your Nekoma sweater off

Forgetting one teeny tiny detail 👀

That is, until our resident himbo points it out

"YN hey did you get in a fight with a bunch of paper or something?"- Lev says to you as the team looks at you

At first, you are confused 🤨

Like what the hell is he even talking about-

Then it hits you 😬

The team at this point has realized it as well and everyone is just staring at you

🎶 when they look at me and I look at them and they look at me and I LOOK AT THEMMMM 🎶

Oof talk about awkward

But we have a very teachable moment here YN and we are going to use it 👏🏻

"Lev you idiot-" Yaku says before you interrupt

"Yaku it's ok! I should probably explain"- you say

"YN you don't have too"- Kai says, our considerate king 🥰

"I deal with major depression and anxiety. Sometimes when things get overwhelming, I self harm"- you start to say

"YN"- Kuroo starts

"I know I know Kuroo. It's not healthy but sometimes it's the only thing that helps or at least, feels like it helps"- you say

This conversation is getting too serious-

So leave it to Lev to change that completely 🙃

"I get sad sometimes too YN. But I usually just eat and that makes it go away"- Lev ☺️

Please he's such a simple creature

You 👉🏻😐🤨

Kuroo and Kai 👉🏻🤦‍♂️🤦

Kenma 👉🏻😐🙄

Yamamoto and Fukunaga 👉🏻👀👀

Yaku 👇🏻

You really can't do anything but laugh sometimes YN

And luckily you choose to do just that

"Lev it's a little bit more serious than just that"- you say

"YN how can we help?"- Kenma interjects

You look at him and shrug

"Maybe we could help you look into getting help? Or find another distraction from self harming YN?"- Kai says

"I mean, it's worth a shot"- you say

We all know it's not exactly that easy but it's always worth a try

"You know we love and appreciate you so much YN"- Kuroo adds

"Yeah, I mean look at all the stuff you do for us"- Yaku says

"Yeah like helping getting down the poles from the top shelf when Yaku can't reach it" Lev

You 👉🏻😶 oop-

Kuroo 👉🏻😐😐

Kai 👉🏻 here we go 🤦

Yaku 👉🏻 😃 Lev you better run-

While Yaku is chasing Lev, Kai comes up to you and asks you what you need

He talks to you about getting help and Kuroo promises to make himself more available to help with practice

You smile and give them your choice of gratitude (hug, fist bump, high five, etc)

YN, Nekoma would be nothing without you and they know it

So they are going to take care of their manager the best they can 🥰

[almost-a-class-act]

Miscellaneous Tag game

Tagged by the beautiful faces of @softguarnere and @mutantmanifesto !

Favorite place in the world you’ve visited?

Iceland. Around every corner, a postcard view. Absolutely unreal. I can't believe it exists.

Something you’re proud of yourself for?

I went to an alumni event over the weekend for a big club I used to be a part of at my university, and heard from a few people that I made them feel welcome and included in the group when they first got there. A few "you probably don't remember this, but..." It was really fucking nice.

Favorite books?

The Alice books by Lewis Carroll.

Something that makes your heart happy when thinking about it?

I missed a call from my nephew on Messenger Kids the other day and then he sent me a drawing of a stick man simply titled "Gustavo".

Favorite thing about your culture?

Tough one, I'm a mayonnaise-blend Canadian. We make sausage every year so I suppose that's a fun holdover from ye old Europe days.

When did you join the HBO War fandom? What was the first show you watched?

I watched The Pacific circa 2012 and then I sort of forgot about it until I watched BoB in the fall of 2020.

Have you read any of Easy Company’s books? If so, which ones were your favorite?

I've got the Ambrose book and the Babe & Bill book under my belt. I own the Malarkey book which I've been told is fab but I haven't cracked it yet. My favourite HBO War book is (say it with me!) Helmet for my Pillow.

Favorite HBO War character and your favorite moment with them?

Robert Leckie, and it might be that bit at the end where he's snarking about having fought for television. That feels like book Bob Leckie to me. (And it doesn't hurt that Vera gets a kick out of it!)

Do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?

I write fic primarily for HBOWar and Justified these days.

Favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?

Andrew Garfield and everything he does puts a damn branch in my eye.

Favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?

"In the eighth inning, you can't hear the roar of the ninth. All you can do is hold yourself together, and trust." Jim Abbott

Random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?

I collect shot glasses. I have a big 'ol shelf of them from all over the world.

If you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader (say yes so I can be your beta reader 🤭)?

@fayestardust reads most of my stuff before I post it so she can tell me where I invariably left entire words or plot points out. Thanks ma belle!

Three things that make you smile?

My French press, summertime lake swimming, sucking nearby friends into whatever fandom black hole I am currently in.

Any nicknames you like?

My ball team calls me a nickname that won't make sense unless I explain a tedious sports pun to you, but otherwise I don't think I've had too many nicknames that have stuck.

List some people you love to see around on tumblr!

@mutantmanifesto and @cody-helix02 post my fave art. @mercurygray is just one of those fandom bright stars. @onehelluvamarine is a real sweetheart.

There are a lot! It's 11:30PM and I'm tapping out. But I see all y'all.

What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?

I am a backwoods camping gal so I have a water filter, camp stove, dry food, etc., and I live pretty wilderness-adjacent. You guys will have to come track me down if it turns out if was a false alarm.

Favorite movie?

Goon.

Do you like horror movies?

Love 'em.

Tagging: @educationalporpoises @dukesoakedoats @heystovepipeboys @batmanschmatman @terresdebrume @vintagelavenderskies @eoinmcgonigal @lionsaint @fayestardust

[selfproclaimedunicorn]

Was tagged by @emilykaldwen, @rainwingmarvel7, & @sshireens, thanks! 💕

Favorite Painter: John William Waterhouse, my beloved. Also very into Edmund Blair Leighton & Fracisco Goya. I'm so, so into medieval romanticism, & the pre-Raphaeites, & there's just something about how Waterhouse is just exclusively painting babes with great hair & long noses that especially speaks to me. Like, his paintings are consistently some of my faves. He also leaned into mythology a lot, so that probably has something to do with it too. Similar case with Leighton of just "his consistent painting of pretty princesses speaks to my soul." Goya is a pure goth answer though, because I am allowed to contain multitudes.

Favorite Poet/Author: I've never been the biggest poetry girly, & I think that's because my brain just, like, can't pick up on the rhythm & meter. Like it is completely indistinguishable from prose when I read it. This is a thing that makes me very sad, believe me. When I make my every few years attempts, though, I do enjoy Poe.

In terms of actual prose/not just stuff that reads like prose in my mind, my favorites are Poe & Salinger. Tbh, I don't do a lot of following authors & just pick up something if the synopsis slapped, & it's super rare for if I enjoyed a story/novel to color if I'm like "this author fucks & I need to read more specifically by them"

Favorite Singer: Florence Welch, my queen. I mean, I listen to a lot of stuff, but Florence Welch is hitting all the correct parts of my brain with 90% accuracy. Special shout out to my fave funky Finnish guy Käärijä, though: I've only had him for a year & I like his music a normal amount 👍🏻

Favorite Band: This is so hard? I used to have such an easy answer (it was Green Day, btw), but it's gotten so complicated in the last 9 years. I think, probably, my favorites at the moment are Beast In Black, Windrose, & The Amazing Devil. They're all scratching the correct itch in my brain (will always have a special place in my heart for Green Day, though. Very intense special interest back in the day)

Favorite Meal & Drink: Oh man, this is another one I have a hard time picking 😅. I pretty much just drink water, tea, & coffee; I guess my favorite drink is tea? Favorite meal is maybe chicken tikka masala? Or grilled cheese & tomato soup? One of those, maybe (at least right now)

Favorite Outfit/Aesthetic/Style: Man, IDK. Life is short, dress how you want. I will find the aesthetic beauty in almost anything because I love fashion. 60s medieval revival fucks, all the goth substyles fuck, cottage core fucks--it all fucks. All I know is that whatever I'm wearing, I'm not wearing jeans. I have not worn jeans for years & I am not going to start back up now. Skirts/dresses/leggings only. Also dramatic sleeves. I love dramatic sleeves.

Favorite Item You Own: The Sasha Bratz Rock Angelz repro. I waited for her for a good year? Two years? However long it took MGA to finally drop my girl. I got one of the last 4 in the city & my hands were shaking the whole time & its honestly a little silly, but sometimes healing the inner child is buying a doll of your favorite character from your favorite line & displaying her on your desk shelf.

Favorite Perfume: I used to be at least kind of into perfume, but I kind of got out of it. I honestly don't wear it a lot (I forget more often than not). You'd think I'd be more into perfume given how into, like, scented candles I am, but oh well I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️

Tagging (if you want, obvi): @vamprlestat, @cerseiwexler, @jotterjots, @loksthegreat, @mercurygray, @godswood-girl, & @toxicjayhoo

[forbidding-souda]

nagito, hajime, and izuru with a shsl florist s/o

nagito komaeda, hajime hinata, and izuru kamukura with a shsl florist s/o

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

here ya go! this one is pretty long, i got carried away writing for these three, they're just my absolute faves

i liked writing this, flowers and flower/color language are honestly one of my favorite things to look into! it's always really interesting and i would highly recommend looking into it as well

[ fun fact about color language: henry the eighth and anne boleyn wore yellow to catherine of aragon's funeral. it looks like a sign of respect to her, since yellow is the color that symbolizes grief and mourning in catherine's home country of spain, right? but, to most people now and back then in europe, yellow is considered a happy, bright color. so they were not-so-secretly dissing her, poor coa ]

- mod fuyuhiko

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

🍀 – nagito adores your love for flowers. even outside of him admiring you for being an ultimate, he finds something oddly soothing seeing you take care of such delicate, beautiful things.

🍀 – when you first became close, even had you started dating, he would refuse to be in the same room while you were taking care of your flowers; he was wholly convinced that him even being near you while you were working would cause some great disaster to happen.

🍀 – "ah.. the invitation to watch you work is always appreciated, my hope! while someone as below you as myself shouldn't have the right to deny you, i wouldn't want my luck to inconvenience you."

🍀 – it took a lot of convincing on your part.

🍀 – "no, nagito, a flower pot won't suddenly fall on my head."

"no, nagito, a flower won't wilt and die as soon as you step into the room."

"no, nagito, a flower won't grow into a giant carnivorous plant because of you. that's scientifically impossible."

🍀 – when you did manage to get him into your flower nursery, he was entirely in awe from how colorful it was. all of the flowers, sprouts, and buds were thriving and healthy. suddenly, nagito was more upset by the fact that he refused you for so long.

🍀 – you'd often ask for his help, with small things that he deemed simple enough not to mess up. whether it be grabbing something from a high shelf so you didn't have to get a step ladder, grabbing the sprouts that were in plastic containers for you so that you could transfer them into flower pots, things like that.

🍀 – once, you offhandedly told nagito that both flowers and people benefitted from talking to the plants. some things about carbon dioxide, improving mental health; nagito doesn't remember the exact details. he did keep it in mind though.

🍀 – you'd asked him to water the flowers while you went to go get new fluorescent lamps. it didn't take you long to return back to your greenhouse with five lamps in your arms, pushing the door open with your hip.

when you did, you saw komaeda crouched down next to the table that the sunflower sprouts were on. from what you could see, he has a fond smile on his face as he watered them. one, two, three, four, five seconds for each sprout; just as you'd told him. it made you smile a bit as well, seeing him so serene.

"you're so lucky to be taken care of by such a wonderful person." he hummed to the baby sunflowers. nagito didn't even notice you standing there, cheeks flushing as you watched him gush to the sprouts fondly.

"i'd pray to all the stars in the sky that they'd care for me as tenderly as they do you." nagito said, "it would be an honor for such a kind, gentle ultimate to treat me in such a way."

"i could."

he jumped, clutching the handle of the watering can as he twisted to stare at you like a deer in headlights. the way his cheeks flushed red was adorable as he exclaimed your name in a sheepish tone. "disregard what you heard, someone as worthless as me doesn't deserve to speak about you in such a way! please forgive me!" he rambled with an apologetic bow. it only made you smile wider as you strolled to stand at the other side of the table, letting the door to your lab close.

"it's okay, nagito. i meant what i said, though." you hummed casually, placing the lamps on the table and bending down to get the extension cord. you didn't see him blinking at you, flustered. "e-excuse me?" he asked, confusion evident in his tone. it made you giggle as you stood with the extension cord in hand. "i'd be happy to take care of you the way i do the flowers." you told him honestly, glancing at his blushing face as you plugged the fluorescent lamps into the extension cord.

nagito went to speak but you piped up again, knowing what he was going to say, "you deserve it. i love you and i'd love to treat you with the care you deserve, angel. anytime."

it made him stutter and make incoherent noises as he tried to find something to reply with, to refuse you with, but ultimately he just sighed and let a smile grow on his face.

"thank you, my clover."

🍊 – hajime enjoys your passion for your talent. watching you settle down and focus on what you're doing is somewhat interesting to him. it often leads to quiet moments between the two of you where you work under hajime's fond, adoring gaze. if you notice him staring, no you didn't, he doesn't stare. that's weird, and hajime's not weird.

🍊 – very early on in your relationship, hajime thought that all things flowers would be the best gift for you, given your talent. he'd gotten you flower themed clothes, flower plushies, flower themed jewelry, anything he laid his eyes on that was flower themed or had a flower on it. if you don't like the gifts he'll lay off, of course, but if you don't tell him to stop or tell him you like them then you'll be showered with gifts constantly.

🍊 – something that he noticed early on was how you'd look through a thick book as you were preparing people's flower arrangements. when he'd asked, simply out of curiosity,  he learned that flowers had meanings. that was something that intrigued him, so hajime made you sit down with him and teach him as many flower meanings as he could remember.

🍊 – the book you taught him from, and even let him borrow, was one of your own making. each page with contents on it was laminated and written in your distinct penmanship, a pressed flower next to a description of what it meant when you wore it or gave it to someone. there were even little doodles of the different colored variants of the flowers, and what those different colors meant.

🍊 – hajime kept his own notes from your book, studying it like a textbook. he'd thought it was.. silly, to give you flowers as a gift. but he was told you would appreciate it nonetheless.

🍊 – then, there was a box. medium sided and biodegradable, left in front of the door to your greenhouse. you didn't order anything, nor did you request supplies from hope's peak. and.. there didn't seem to be a note with it, either.

you brought it inside regardless of your confusion, placing it down on your work desk. curiosity killed the cat, after all. you used a pair of garden scissors to slice the tape holding the box flaps together, putting the tool to the side as you lifted one flap and peered inside the box. the first thing you noticed were the flowers, underneath a piece of paper that looked like it was ripped from a notebook. you picked up the note first, recognizing hajime's handwriting immediately,

' hi y/n, happy six month anniversary!

natsumi pressured me into getting you something big like this. she's a very intense person, as i'm sure you know. not that i wouldn't have gotten you something nice if she didn't tell me to, but i got nervous that she would make good on her threats to castrate me.

and you're probably not thinking it, but i'll say it anyway: i know it's kind of stupid to give the ultimate florist a bouquet of flowers as an anniversary gift. i hope you enjoy the gift regardless.

don't read further until you open the gift box. '

you smiled as you placed the note on the table, picking up the small bouquet of flowers. three pink roses surrounded by pink carnations, wrapped in baby pink cotton fabric and tied together with a red ribbon. you had a feeling that he put some thought into the flowers, given that he'd taken your book and still hadn't given it back yet. it made you laugh a bit, thinking about hajime being bombarded by your class to give you something.

you softly placed the bouquet to the side, reaching inside the box to get a smaller one. it was similar to the box people place rings in, only a bit bigger and wider. the velvet was soft on the pads of your fingers as you pried it open, a soft gasp escaping you as you saw the beautiful jewelry that lay inside. a necklace, golden chain connecting to a small pink carnation charm. next to it was a golden bracelet that connected pink roses to each other.

the flowers on the jewelry were beautifully carved and colored, looking very high quality. part of you wondered how hajime was able to get these, but then you remembered that he's pretty wealthy, given that he's paying to be in the reserve course. before you could get lost in your thoughts, you remembered to grab the note again.

' assuming you opened the gift box before reading this ( if you didn't you ruined the surprise ), i hope you like the jewelry. natsumi helped me pick it out, it wasn't that expensive so i bought it with my own money. i love you, but i won't become indebted to the yakuza for an anniversary gift.

anyway, from your book and a lot of googling, i learned that pink carnations symbolize a few things. admiration, fascination, and gratitude, most prominently. those things perfectly describe how i feel about you, how i've felt about you even before we started dating.

i admire how focused and keen you are when it comes to taking care of your flowers, it's fascinating watching you work, and i'm forever thankful that you chose to date me out of anyone else at hope's peak. anyone else in the world, really.

the three roses obviously mean love. you know that, everyone knows that. i chose pink ones to match with the carnations, as well as the fact that they have a similar meaning. flower meaning based on their color is interesting, thank you for teaching it to me.

and thank you for the best six months of my life. you've made things so much more enjoyable and comfortable for me, and i hope i ( somehow ) improved your quality of life the way you have mine.

i appreciate you. i love you.

i don't want to write too much more, i'm running out of space and my pencil is getting dull. i hope you enjoyed the gift, find me when classes are over so that i can give you your book back.

happy anniversary!

( p.s, natsumi says that you better like the jewelry or else you're insulting her taste, which she will beat you up for. )

sincerely yours,

h. hinata '

🍎 – izuru was intrigued by you, for the simple fact that you managed to find solace in such a mundane task like taking care of flowers. flowers were hard to come by during the tragedy, any good things were hard to come by, but you still managed to keep and take care of such fragile life.

🍎 – he likes to think it was his ultimate luck that made him able to find you, such a simple person. you had much more patience than him, to be able to tend to plants in the same way and wait the same amount of time for them to grow every time, just to have them around. though you did use some to eat or use for medicinal purposes, most of them just sat in their pots or vases looking pretty.

🍎 – izuru inserted himself into your life, just to observe you like you were a guinea pig in a cage. why did you tend to the flowers, why that out of the many much more interesting things to do during the apocalypse? kill, steal, destroy, out of everything, why flowers?

🍎 – he didn't understand how it could just… be enough, for you. to watch life grow during such a terrible time, to keep something alive and nurture it while everyone else was focused on murder and destruction. it made sense to him, but it didn't at the same time.

🍎 – so, izuru decided to be a bit more hands-on with his observation of you. he'd stay with you and help you tend to the flowers, see what you found so much interest in. and after about a month of this, he was starting to see the appeal. not in the tending of the flowers, but with you.

🍎 – he didn't think he could experience emotions such as love, fondness, or care, but izuru was proven wrong when he spent time with you caring for the flowers. watching you water them, keep them alive, talk to them. sitting with him and letting him quiz you on flower meanings and care steps from your book, it was so.. domestic. the actions themselves were not at all particularly interesting, quite repetitive, but he was interested by the feelings they brought him.

🍎 – he'd suspected that the people who performed the surgery on him didn't do their job properly when he first noticed feelings of disgust instead of indifference before meeting you, but he didn't know they did things this inefficiently; to the point where he could say he was falling in love with you. albeit diluted, definitely not as intense as normal people, izuru could pinpoint all of the feelings you made him experience.

🍎 – you cared for him almost as kindly as you tended to the flowers. one of your favorite things to do was pick some, ones that had heartfelt meanings that almost made him flustered, to braid into his hair. it was pointless as they'd just wither and die, but it calmed you and was therapeutic for izuru, so he let you.

🍎 – the latest time, you'd braided red peonies into his hair. izuru knew you didn't take your flower choices lightly, and from memory he knew red peonies conveyed love and respect, among other things. it didn't surprise him that you chose those flowers to put in his hair, but it still made him feel nice.

you weren't awake, it was too late at night for you to be. izuru didn't sleep well, he was plagued with sleep problems and nightmares that annoyed him enough to keep him awake in an attempt to stave them off. to occupy himself this time, instead of simply watching you sleep or getting up to pace the house you two made your sanctuary, izuru sat on the edge of the bed and began taking out the braids you'd put in his hair.

it was a tedious process, given that he was moving slower than usual. izuru moved his fingers delicately to unweave the flowers from the braids, slightly smooshed but still alive, if not a bit wrinkled. he laid them on the bedside table as he took them out, simply shaking his head a bit to get used to his unbraided hair again. izuru never attempted to smooth his hair out again; that was something he left to you.

grabbing the flowers, izuru got up and spared a single glance at you before he strolled out of the room and into the kitchen.

he set the flowers on the counter, opening a drawer to grab a few things. a red ballpoint pen, scissors, tape, and the thin sheets of plastic he'd scavenged from an abandoned crafts store. returning his attention to the book, izuru flipped past the pages already filled to the first blank one.

grabbing the peonies off the counter, he ripped most of the stems off and placed the flower heads meticulously onto the book's page. then he cut one plastic sheet to the appropriate size, placing it over the flowers before closing the book on top of it. he pushed it with his hands until it was as flat as he could get it, proceeding to neatly tape the plastic sheet to the paper.

picking the pen up and clicking the point out, he began writing.

' red peonies - love, respect, honor, passion.

genus: paeonia.

family: paeoniaceae.

withering time: two hundred eighty-eight hours / one week and five days.

their flower choices are as predictable as always. however, they didn't do one large braid this time, opting to do smaller ones throughout my hair. it felt nice, the moment was peaceful.

i find that i have biases toward them that i cannot explain. they wear a necklace with a pink carnation on it as well as a bracelet with roses on it. seeing those simple pieces of jewelry on them makes me feel something warm in my chest.

at this point it is safe to say that they had a relationship with the previous occupant of this body, and that the scientists who performed my surgery didn't cut off all connections to past memories and emotions. expected of those without the proper talent to be able to do so properly.

despite the confusion this causes me, i never find myself particularly bored or annoyed by them or their actions, or the things they make me feel. most likely due to the existing bias, but i can say certainly that i am fond of them at this point in time.

i. kamukura '