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a-killer-obsession · 25 days

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Wanna say real quick if you're a fanfic writer and you're looking at my page like "ohhh they hit 500 followers so fast and they have a upload schedule and post twice a week, maybe i have to post twice a week to get followers" - Stop

This turned into a whole guide for newbies so more under the cut

Please do not use me as an example! Im disabled and unemployed which means i have time to write two chapters a week, please do not put that sort of pressure on yourself!!! I only let myself have a upload schedule because i keep a small backlog of chapters, meaning i have some buffer if my health is bad or i get writers block, and as yall saw recently i will take a break if i loose that backlog. If i was forcing myself to write two chapters a week on a strict deadline i would absolutely loose my shit and probably burn out very quickly. And to be entirely honest, I haven't seen much difference in follower growth now that I have a schedule versus when I was just posting whenever I remembered to. I really don't think a schedule makes a huge difference, I just like having one because it gives me some sense of routine now that I'm unemployed.

What im trying to say, especially if you're new to posting fanfics, is please dont stress yourself out by thinking you need a strict schedule for anyone to like your fic or follow you. You shouldn't be writing for followers anyway, write for yourself! Write because YOU want to write. And if you fall out of love with that writing, dont feel like you need to force it just to make others happy! When i get burnt out writing Wavelengths, I keep going because *I* want to get to the ending, I've been excited to write it for months. Its another reason i dont start writing new long forms until i have a generic plan of where im going, which is something i highly recommend. Having a chapter you're excited to write really helps when you're trying to find motivation.

While I have you here, let me lay down some general tips for new fanfic writers, especially for those who post on tumblr:

Write because you want to write. Don't ever feel like you need to cater to someone else, that's a sure fire way to get burn out

If you do get burn out: don't worry about it, either it'll pass or it won't. Maybe you'll drop that idea all together and move to something new. Don't sweat it, write what makes you happy. Forcing yourself will only make it worse and it'll show in your writing. Writing fanfics is a hobby, it should be FUN. Sure someone might come across your fic years from now and be sad that it's not complete but they'll probably only be sad for a few days at most and then they'll forget about it. Its not a big deal. Who knows, maybe you'll find inspiration years down the line and make someone's day by randomly updating after years of hiatus. It happens 🤷

Dont worry about how much engagement your fic gets. I know absolutely incredible fics that get barely any engagement, and some frankly hard reads that have a ridiculous amount. Its all just dumb luck really. Again - write because you want to

Don't sweat typos too bad. I recommend finishing your chapter/one shot, giving it a day or so, and THEN come back to proof read. I find doing this gives me fresh eyes and I often find a lot of ways to improve the chapter while I'm fixing typos. If you accidentally leave typos in there, don't worry too much. As long as it makes enough sense for people to understand what you meant, people will still read it. Just look at the first few chapters of Wavelengths for example, they're riddled with typos from swapping from 3rd to 1st person, but people still read them (I'LL FIX THEM SOON I PROMISE LMAO)

Don't worry about being cringe. Cringe is dead, make your characters as self inserty and over powered as you want. CRINGE IS DEAD. If you think its fun to write powers and tropes that you're worried will be cringe, fuck it, write it anyway. As long as YOU have fun writing it. Do you know how many "whoops accidental pregnancy" trope fics I've written? Every single one of my long forms has either had it, or planned to, because I like that trope! I don't care if its cringe, I will continue to get my characters knocked up

Some quick accessibility things:

Please left align your fic! I've seen people posting center and right aligned because it "looks cool". These alignments should be used sparingly! As well as things like italics and different fonts/font sizes/colours! They should be used to highlight small sections only! Otherwise they can make it very difficult for people with reading difficulties to read!

If you're posting on tumblr:

Make sure the majority of your fic uses the default black font. Some people set the whole thing to a different font or the "small" font or a different colour and I literally can't read them, and it makes me so sad! I'm sure I'm not the only one with this issue! Its okay to use other fonts for things like headers and descriptions, but for the bulk of your fic use the default! Theres a graphic designer out there somewhere who spent a long time picking the best font for the body text on this website for a reason!

If your fic is longer than a few paragraphs, use the READ MORE function!!! Either cut under a description or the first few paragraphs so people get a preview of your fic. You may think it's silly to hide most of your fic, but if someone, especially on mobile, comes across your fic automatically trimmed on the fyp, and likes your stuff, and they go to your account to see more and have to scroll for a million years just to get past your newest post, they're quickly going to give up trying to read your other stuff. Using the read more function makes it easy for people to browse your blog and check out more of your works!! It also makes it more likely people will reblog for the same reason.

Along the same lines: have a masterlist. This can be as simple as a pinned post where you add a link every time you post something new. This makes it super easy for people to check out more of your work!

If you have a long form/multi chapter I also recommend going to the previous chapter and adding a "next chapter" link when you post the next one. Not 100% needed though, if you have a masterlist that can be enough on its own, people just appreciate having that next chapter link for binge reading. PUT IT AT THE BOTTOM PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING. I hate when I finish a chapter and have to scroll for a million years to get to the top for the link

Feel absolutely free to use the way I format my fics and masterlist as example, but like I said, it can literally be just as simple as a list of links. I recommend listing the links at bare minimum as the title of the fic, and the pairing people can expect (including if its nsfw is a good idea too)

Speaking of NSFW: if your work isn't suitable for minors please make that clear! Even just a 'minors DNI' at the start of the post is good! If you wanna get fancy there are lots of creators who make lovely 18+/minors dni banners you can use for free, just google it and plenty will come up. If you're not adding a cut before the NSFW content then make sure you mark the post as for mature audiences (idk how you do it on the computer because I'm mostly a mobile user but on mobile you can find it bottom right, the icon with the two people). Not appropriately censoring your posts can result in tumblr restricting and possibly banning your account.

Finally, and this one is oddly specific to people who use google docs, but you can use a copy of this google doc to automatically add all the html to your writing so you can just copy and paste it into tumblr or AO3, instead of having to manually fix all the formatting. Do not just copy and paste AO3 html into tumblr, for some reason it has major issues with italics and will cause you a major headache. Just use the linked doc, its a super time saver, I've been using it for ages now

Okay thanks for reading bye

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helloquotemyfoot · 1 year

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Book Backlog Busting Reading Challenge!

The only thing I love more than reading books is buying books. Unfortunately it is a lot easier to buy a book and promise myself I will read it soon than it actually is to read the book soon. As a consequence, I have a lot of unread books on my shelves, some of which have been there for years. So here's the challenge:

I will not be buying any more books until I have read ALL of my backlog, currently standing at 110 books.

Yeah no it really is that many. No I do not have a problem. (Unless the problem is lack of bookshelves. I might have that problem.)

Rules of the challenge!

Books do not have to be completed! If I don't like a book and don't want to finish it, that's okay. As long as an earnest attempt was made.

There is an exception to the "no buying" rule for sequels to books I already own, because honestly, I would just ignore the rule anyway if I needed to read them badly enough, so we will build it in instead.

Being gifted or lent books does not count as "buying" them (although most people don't by me books anyway, because they can't keep track of the ones I own).

Keep people updated on my progress week to week! I will talk a little bit about the books I am reading and give mini reviews if I feel like it, or sometimes just post pictures of my progress.

I gave this challenge an Official Title™ because I thought it might be fun if other people joined in, so reblog this, tag me in your own reading backlog posts, whatever. My own backlog is mainly history and fantasy because that's what I primarily read, but I'd love to see what other people have been putting off for a long ass time!

Most importantly, wish me luck!

First up on the list, we have

The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain by Ian Mortimer. Like the others in Mortimer's series, this is a fun and accessible read dealing with a lot of day-to-day questions about clothes, travel, and social etiquette that don't make it into most history books. This one is an existing WIP since I've been getting a lot more into writing Pride and Prejudice fic recently, so I'm already about 50% of the way through.

Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #6). WoT is one of my partner's favourite series of all time, and after watching and loving season 1 of the amazon adaptation, I finally started reading the series late last year. Favourite characters so far: Nynaeve and Lan. This is partially why a sequel exception was written in.

Queens of the Age of Chivalry by Alison Weir. My unwritten rule of reading is to have one chonker history book ongoing at a time. I didn't study much medieval period at uni, so this is something I've tried to correct on my own time, but a lot of general histories do not go into much depth about individual women - hence my interest in this book.

#book backlog busting reading challenge #bbb reading challenge #reading challenge #reading #books #history books #fantasy books #reading backlog

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softlighter · 11 months

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Twenty questions for fic writers!

thanks for the tag @wyrd-syster

1. How many works do you have on AO3? I just posted my 100th (!!!) work this morning! I might be taking some off soon, as they're more for my dnd group than for anything else, but yes, 100!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 643,987 since 2016!

3. What fandoms do you write for? I primarily write for RWBY and Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, but I also do write fanfic of my dnd characters. Because why not!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

fucking in love, a collaboration with @set-wingedwarrior, RWBY, Bumbleby, "but they were both porn stars" au! WIP.

something to carry, RWBY, Bumbleby, my beloved soulmate au! finished.

From the Heart, RWBY, Bumbleby, my 2020 @bumblebybigbang fic and with chapter headers and comic by the lovely @yourfriendlele! a bakery au, finished.

The Roommate, RWBY, Bumbelby, a "oh my god Blake's a kitten and Yang adopts her" one shot, finished.

doubt the stars, RWBY, Bumbleby, a "Blake is a witch and there's Magic" au. WIP, but I actually have been tinkering on it in the background recently.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I used to, but, after letting too many lovely and generous comments pile up and feeling as though I need to get through the backlog before responding to any new ones, I've since stopped. Also, I'm in grad school and writing a lot, so taking the time to thoughtfully respond as I want to isn't always realistic, time-wise. I'm still sorting out my approach going forward, but I sincerely appreciate everyone who takes the time to leave me such kind words.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't really write pure angst, but my series Liberation has a lot of angst interspersed and does have an angsty ending for the first fic. The series is incomplete, but both fics are completed. I usually try to write angst with hope!

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I'm not sure how to measure happiest, but I do love the ending for something to carry, it's definitely something that brought me a lot of joy to write.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I've started to moderate my comments and turned off guest comments to get ahead of the curve, especially as my works as of late have been exploring dynamics that do attract a lot of hate. I've only ever received seemingly well-intentioned comments that have come across poorly to me, but I can't remember a distinct hateful message.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Heh. So much. Logistically, I write a lot of BDSM and dominance/submission dynamics, and I mostly write monogamous sapphic or hetero couples, although I do write other pairings and dynamics as well. I find that I write smut as a kind of psychological catharsis, and there's an examination of the dynamics at play there, but not all the time. All the time, it is horny.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I do not! The closest I've come to a crossover is doing AUs, but I like my ducks in a row and my media separated.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my awareness, thank goodness!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not that I'm aware of!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Yes! @set-wingedwarrior and I work on Fucking in Love together, and Wings is lovely.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Gosh, don't make me choose! I think something that will always make me smile is Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, but part of that is sentimentality. I think Yang and Blake will always have a special place in my heart as getting me writing not only fanfiction again but for getting me writing again, not to mention helping me find my girlfriend of three years and for getting me to write sapphic love.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Don't perceive me, but I doubt the Liberation series' fic three will ever be written any time soon. I have other fics I'd rather work on. Everything else, I have intent to finish, but I've kind of let myself off the hook for Liberation.

16. What are your writing strengths? I have writing strengths? In all seriousness, I've been told I write grief very well, and I think that writing the intensity of emotion along with the spectrum of feelings from experiences is a strength of mine. I describe feelings well and can evoke emotions, and honestly, that's a point of pride for me.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Plot. I hate plot, because I want to write stories about feelings, but feelings require things that have happened and I'm just not as invested in plot as a literary device as I am anything else. I can get lost in the sauce of writing feelings and then forget to make anything happen, whoops? Also, I think that making voices distinct and making sure my sentence structure isn't (unconsciously) repetitive, and trying to provide variation is something I actively work at.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I do it sometimes, like in in the mouth of the wolf (good luck) because the reader doesn't need to understand Italian to know what's going on. I try to use it sparingly, both because my grasp of languages outside of English is barely passable at best and because I don't want to deal with translation when I am only fluent in one language.

19. First fandom you wrote for? First published fic was a Merlin fic! I wrote some Merlin x Morgana back in the fanfiction dot net days.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written? Until recently, I would've said something to carry, but I'm working on something right now that I think will overtake that. stc was a labor of love, literally and figuratively, but what I'm writing now is an exploration of themes that I've wanted to explore for years. When it's published, I'll update this post, but for now, a little suspense never hurt. ;)

tagging @set-wingedwarrior @blake-belladonna-defence-force @dandelionsknight @myrsinemezzo @patchodraws and anyone else who wishes to be perceived!

#my writing

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inkblackorchid · 1 year

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With the next one of Aki’s stories being a long one, is it something you are planning on finishing before you start publishing chapters, or publishing as you go along? Just curious what your approach is for the longer fics

Ok so as I've said on tumblr (and I think maybe also in the author's notes on ao3?? I forget) before, I at the very least want to finish the first portion of this fic before I start uploading anything. (That portion's end being marked by a particular duel.) From the way my outline is looking right now, that means I'd probably write until chapter 5 or more before I might consider publishing a chapter (there are currently a total of 14 chapters planned). And as of right now, I'm about to finish the first draft of chapter 3.

...But. But. See, the thing is, this fic, due to being extremely plot-heavy, needs to be super tightly written. Like, this thing needs to work. And all the duels in it (yes, multiple) really need to hit the mark, or else this story loses some of its emotional impact. In other words, I'll definitely be extra thorough when it comes to editing this one, too. So at least where this particular fic is concerned, I'm kinda shying away from the "publish as I go along"-approach, because there are too many moving parts here and I want this to be as coherent as possible. So it's a bit of a tossup atm. If I feel confident enough in how fast I'm progressing with the story by the time that first portion is written out, I may start publishing before all the chapters are done. But if there's a chance that I might deviate from the outline later in a way that would require me to go back to a previous chapter to add some setup there? I'll hold off and wait until at the very least the first draft of the whole story is done.

As far as longer fics in general go, though, I'm always more the type who likes to write a bit in advance before publishing. Even with To Be of Use, which had little to no plot and was the only work I've genuinely published as the chapters got done so far, I didn't feel entirely happy throwing the chapters out as I had them. I'm a huge fan of setup and payoff, and callbacks, and foreshadowing, etc. and the thing is, even if you're a very practiced writer, as soon as you're writing a plot-heavy story, you'll encounter moments where you come up with an important thing you want to happen a little later in the story than you meant to, and suddenly need to go back to actually set that up, because you didn't in the first draft of an earlier chapter. (At least this is my experience, your mileage may vary, writing styles differ, etc.) So to write the best thing I can, I usually like to give myself the time to write the entire first draft, then revise that first draft, then do the final edit of each chapter just before publishing it. (This was also my modus operandi for basically all my 5Ds fics prior to Fields of Arcadia. Even if I didn't have the entire story edited and polished yet, the first draft was always complete before I ever started publishing. It's only now that my backlog of pre-written first drafts has caught up to me and I'm forced to keep y'all waiting as I prepare the next big thing completely from scratch in real time.)

#yugioh 5ds #fic writing updates #current wip #probably a longer answer than you expected but I figured I may as well put it out there for anyone else who might be curious too #for the folks who want to know how I'm progressing and so on #the thing is I'm certainly a perfectionist to a degree when writing #so that definitely bleeds into how meticulously I prepare stories before uploading them #as far as the upcoming fic is concerned however #I may either go back and edit and start publishing once I've completed chapter 5 at the earliest #or I may hold off and complete a whole first draft as usual #it very much depends on how I feel after chapter 5 is done #ask the orchid #orchid rambles #thanks for asking hope the wait isn't annoying you too much!

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oathena11-writes · 1 month

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Relieved that the Acolyte is cancelled for more than one reason. Yay, no more Jedi critical stuff to worry about.

But also, now I don’t have to worry about new information and my brains annoying need to keep canon in mind even if I’m utterly breaking it. No additional little details to keep in mind in the future.

I am writing fanfic for the Acolyte, after all. Yord is my new blorbo and I have been having fun writing fic with him. Definitely planning on having some fun writing whumptober prompts- including Yord being stuck in a time loop. Of course further planning has to wait for whumptober prompts to actually drop next week.

Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t have other fics I’m working on… last I checked my backlog of completed but not posted oneshots was somewhere between 30 and 40.

I just… have a new fixation on putting Yord in situations. Hoping to finish those soon so I can post but life happens, so we’ll see.

#star wars #my writing #fanfiction #yord fandar #the acolyte

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tridentqueen · 7 months

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I don’t want to give rise to anything now but have you ever felt completely burnt out? (Asking for aadd specifically but also in general). Like, I will have everything about a story planned out but I just can’t finish anything. Either I loose the motivation to write for that story or I just don’t know how to continue writing/ don’t have it in me to do so. And that happens when I'm around maybe 20k max. Embarrassing. You are nearing 300k (!!) and still going strong, I admire that hahah. Do you think you'll be able to continue giving us chapters till you finish this beast or do you feel like you need a break soon?

Pls if you have tips on how to avoid feeling burnt out or lose motivation and how to not take forever to continue a stroy, tell me 😩.

I normaly don’t read wips that may be left unfinished, I mostly read complete storys so I can be sure it does not include things I may not like (like a sad ending or sth) and I also just enjoy reading something with an actual ending. So I do get why people may get frustrated when I just abandon a fic, especially because its not 'life getting in the way' but just my lack of motivation. But I am sad too (very sad!!) when I notice writing a certain fic is not as fun anymore and feels more like a chore. I haven’t posted anything since almost a year because I have not managed to finish one single work, and I wanted to start posting my fics only if they are complete.

Very sorry for my rambling, I really really hope that you are gonna have fun writing aadd until the end! Love you 😗

Hi! First, nothing to apologize for! ♥️

I have absolutely felt burnt out both in general and writing aatdd, so you are not alone! And it’s not embarrassing at all to get to 20k and not be feeling it anymore. It happens!

One thing I remind myself when I get tired of working on the fic is “I’m not bored of the idea, I’m bored of this chapter.” And I’m sure you and any other writer can relate - some scenes/parts are just more fun to work on than others. When I do feel like I need a break, I take one! I either work on another idea or spend the evening doing something else. Sometimes you just need to not think about it.

Another thing that keeps me motivated is interaction from readers. It feels good to know people are enjoying my work, that people are waiting for me to update, and they’re excited to read a new chapter. I totally get that you don’t want to post until you’re finished, but getting nice comments really does provide motivation! I have a backlog of chapters (which is how I’m able to update so consistently), and I would recommend that for a lot of different reasons.

A good piece of writing advice I once received was “put it on the back burner, but don’t let it get cold.” Have you recently revisited a few of your fics? Sometimes time away can work wonders and you find that the idea excites you all over again.

For feeling like you don’t know how to continue, whenever that happens I skip the scene that’s giving me trouble rather than force myself to write something. That can help a lot, as well!

All that being said, you are never obligated to finish a work if you just fall out of love with the idea or have a lack motivation.

Did this help at all? I feel like my answer is a bit rambling.

#asks

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wildwood-reader · 2 years

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Reading Update #7

November 13, 2022

Currently Reading

BOOKS

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson (with illustrations by Cassandra Jean)

Edition: Paperback

Progress: 38/507

Re-read

Thoughts: After a ton of DNFs in the last week I felt like I need to read something I'm familiar with and that I know I'll have fun reading, so I've made the decision to do a complete re-read of the Shadowhunter Chronicles. In chronological order, though, which is why I'm starting it with Magnus's adventures (even though a lot of the stories in it take place during the other series in the franchise, but whatever, it's listed as the chronological first on Goodreads, so that's what I'll go by 👻). I'm not very far yet but I'm already enjoying it a lot more than what I've been trying to read in the last several weeks. 😤

FANFICTION

Pain is only a Pulse by ReyloRobyn2011

Fandom: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

Progress: Chapter 4/?

Up-to-date? Yes

Kudos: ✅️

Thoughts: No new chapter since last week, so just sitting here patiently, waiting. 👀✨️

Heaven Has A Road But No One Walks It by Silvestris

Fandom: The Untamed

Progress: Chapter 48/48/?

Up-to-date? Yes

Kudos: ✅️

Thoughts: Ooh, there was so much good stuff in the new chapter, I had such a great time. 😋

And that's it for current reads! Nothing I've finished since last week. 😮‍💨 Unfortunately, since I still haven't continued Fall of the Crimson Flower, I moved it to my backlog for the time being, but I definitely want to pick it up again soon.

DNFs and my backlog are under the cut.

DNFs

BOOKS

Magic of Thieves by C. Greenwood

Edition: ebook

Stopped reading at: 64%

Thoughts: The writing wasn't bad and the story seemed very intriguing at first, but the more I read of it, the more monotonous it became. It just never felt like the plot was moving forward. To be honest, it didn't feel like there was much of any plot at all; if anything, the whole 64% of the book I read felt like it was a premise building up to a story, but without the pay-off. I read the last chapter, just to see if the book was leading anywhere, but it was pretty much still the same, so there's really no point in finishing it. A pity, really, I had high hopes for this one.

BACKLOG*

BOOKS

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

Edition: Paperback

Progress: Page 102/341

Current Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thoughts: This is a buddy read with my bestie, and right now it just doesn't fit the autumn vibe. We'll probably pick it back up some time after Halloween.

FANFICTION

Red Azalea by CeNedraRiva

Fandom: The Untamed

Progress: Chapter 112/135/?

Up-to-date? No

Chapters Behind: 23

Kudos: ✅️

Thoughts: The stars are still not aligned for me to continue it just yet, but I'm really excited for everything that's coming. 👻

Setting Fire To Our Insides by StarsAlignNomore

Fandom: The Untamed

Progress: Chapter 14/22/?

Up-to-date? No

Chapters Behind: 8

Kudos: ✅️

Thoughts: Y'know what, I think I will be ready to continue it soon; it fits my vibe hunger just enough, so we'll see. 😋

Impossible Life (Series) by Comfect

Fandom: The Untamed

Progress: Part 1/3

Finished Reading? No

Parts Behind: 2

Kudos: Part 1 ✅️

Thoughts: Not sure yet when I'll continue this, but I'm looking forward to Part 2.

Fall of the Crimson Flower by AkatsukiShin (in artistic collaboration with brilcrist)

Fandom: Word of Honor

Progress: Chapter 2.5/7/?

Up-to-date? No

Chapters Behind: 5.5

Kudos: ✅️

Thoughts: I want to continue it soon, I promise! 🙈

*Backlog refers to books and fic that I've started reading but have since put on hold due to various reasons

#jengupdates #books #fanfiction #reading #booklr

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jinxiann · 3 years

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Late Nights | Jinx x GN!Reader

Summary: A late night visitor interrupts your work, for better or for worse.

A/N: wowwwwie, this fic is kind of a mess bc i haven't written in months but arcane has inspired me to take it on again!! sorry about the quality, i'll get used to the flow again soon i swear. i created a new sideblog just for this - feel free to make requests and i'll get to organizing the blog soon.

WC: 1k

An old lamp casts a strong light onto your workbench, allowing you to spot the minute differences between the intricate pieces that lay before you. You try to steady your breathing as you hold two minuscule parts that are supposed to interlock and form a joint. If you could just reduce the shaking of your hands and be delicate enough the parts should join easily enough, but your body lacks sleep and refuses to listen to your already muddled mind.

As you continue to work on your project, your focus is suddenly disrupted by the sound of your door chimes going off. With a sigh you yell out, "We're closed for today. Come back tomorrow". Much to your disappointment, the patron doesn't leave. As the sound of footsteps and a swaying belt near you however, you realize that it isn't just any old customer coming in.

"Why's there no music? Can you seriously focus in the quiet like this?" Jinx complains as she approaches your left, taking a seat on the edge of your workbench.

"Stereo broke." You state tiredly. You tilt your head to the counter where it sits. "It's probably something simple, haven't been able to look at it though. I have a huge backlog of orders."

"Hm." She hums in response. From the corner of your vision you see her get off your workbench and walk over to the counter. You hear rustling from behind you as Jinx rummages through all your drawers and boxes. She eventually sits besides you again, taking a crack at your stereo. You allow yourself a quick glance at her. Secretly, you enjoy the way she bites her lip in focus, the way her eyes glimmer at the problem in front of her, and the expressiveness of her eyebrows.

Your gaze doesn't linger for long though, and you quickly force yourself to work again. You're used to this scenario already. For the past year Jinx would always appear at random times in your shop. Sometimes you two would talk, other times, like now, you'd spare no words. You quite like how easy it is to exist next to her. Something about her allowed you to perform better, and soon enough you realized you had completed the entire order for your customer.

You set the stuff down and inch away from the bench. Now your focus shifted to the infamous personality sitting next to you. When the two of you first met, you didn't know who she was. All you knew was that a gun was pointed at you and the person holding it was in desperate need for some rare parts.

Thankfully that night did not end in a robbing. Apparently your personal projects behind the counter had caught the woman's attention and spurred her to rush and inspect your work. The two of you garnered mutual respect for each others' inventiveness as discussion ensued. You also came to learn that she was indeed the infamous Jinx, yet you could hardly see the negatives that she was supposed to tout. The only thing you see, and the thing you love appreciate about her the most is her mind. Her eccentrics do not scare you, but rather freshen your perspective, and perspective is always important for an inventor.

Someone like her is absolutely magnetizing for you.

You're quickly pulled out of your thoughts as you hear your favorite song begin to play. You look over to see Jinx with a wide grin and a fully functioning radio beside her.

"Who's the best?" She asks as she jumps up, arms wide and thumbs pointing to herself. You chuckle and decide to not answer her question. With her loud gesture you remember that you have something for her.

"Oh, I finished this for you by the way." You roll the chair you've been sitting on to a cabinet and pull out a fake shark head. Jinx looks excited as you throw it her way.

"Owah!!! He's perfect. I can't wait to put him on, then the launcher will be complete!" She hugs the metal piece tightly, cradling it like a baby.

"That's what you came for right? Sorry for keeping you." You laugh at your own thoughtlessness. "I should've gave it to you earlier. Thanks for the stereo, by the way."

"Psh, just think of it as payment for the fish head. Fishhead? Should I name him that? No, wait, how about Fishbones?" Her face contorts as she seriously ponders her name choice. You smirk as you see her feet bounce from the focus.

"Well," you begin to say, but your tongue suddenly hangs loose.

You know you should send her off since she's gotten what she wanted, but a part of you wants her to stay. You want to talk more. Talk about everything and nothing, anything to give you a better understanding of her. You wish you could hold her voice in your mind forever. No, you don't even have to talk more. Just being by her is enough to energize you. Or maybe you can stare. Stare a bit more longingly. You want to learn how to appreciate the freckles on her face and the blue of her eyes.

But how are you supposed to say that?

"Well?" Jinx asks confused. It seems that you've held onto your words for too long. You close your open mouth, still mulling over your words. Jinx has never been a patient person though, and she breaks the distance between you and her. "Are you gonna tell me what you're thinking 'bout?"

"Ehhh..." You grimace as her face nears you. She's so close that your noses almost touch, and you're fighting against your desire to look at her pouty lips. "I don't think so." Shit. You looked at her lips.

"Well, I'll tell you what I'm thinking." Jinx suddenly has a shit-eating grin on her face, eyebrows raising as if she understands your mind. Her voice lowers as she moves towards your ear. "I'm thinking you're kinda cute, toots."

Your breath escapes your body as you feel the warm press of her lips against your cheek. Before you can even gather your thoughts she's at the door. "I expect repayment for that!" She yells with her back towards you and a gives noncommittal wave.

As the door closes you spin aimlessly in your chair. Stunned, you wondered how you're supposed to focus on the rest of your orders. And as you made way towards a hand mirror, you wondered if her lipstick stayed.

#jinx x reader #jinx arcane #arcane jinx x reader #arcane imagines #arcane netflix #arcane jinx imagines

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just-here-for-the-moment · 2 years

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Tumblr Writers Q&A

Thanks for tagging me @javierpinme @toomanystoriessolittletime and @katareyoudrilling! I hope everyone enjoys this tour of my CHAOS.

1) How many complete fics/one shots do you have that you have not published (yet)?

Zero... I write, and then as soon as I'm done I fling it out there. I never save any finished fics past the time I think they're done. I also don't post on a schedule, I just finish and toss it out there.

2) How many WIPS do you have right now?

Uhhhhh.... more than I'd like...

3) Do you take writing requests or write original ideas, or both?

Both. Requests are temporarily closed while I work through a backlog, but they'll open soon.

4) If you do take requests, how many do you currently have?

20.... don't look at me!!

5) How many fandoms do you write for?

Pedro Pascal characters and I wrote a one-off of Frank Castle once

6) Are there any fandoms you wrote for in the past that you no longer write for?

Nope. This is my first rodeo.

7) Do you write for ships, reader inserts or other?

Reader inserts.

8) Niche fandoms/characters you write for?

Everything is pretty "mainstream" as far as this fandom goes.

9) Do you read fics as well as write them?

Good lord, yes. That's how I got here in the first place.

10) What is your favorite genre to write for?

I play in the smutty end of the pool 90% of the time.

11) What is your favorite trope (to read/write)?

To read: I'm a SUCKER for a good slow burn/anticipation/how stuff begins fic. I don't know if I have a favorite trope to write, but anxiety is a theme that shows up a lot in my writing.

12) What do you do to get motivated to write?

Some goddamn peace and quiet. And coffee. And mutuals who encourage my shenanigans.

13) Is there a trope/genre you like to read, but not write?

I'm struggling to think of one....

14) Any characters/fandoms you want to write for that are never requested?

Nah.

15) How long have you been writing fanfiction?

Less than a year... 334 days to be exact.

16) Did you read fanfiction before you started writing?

Yes, for like 6 weeks.

17) Do you only post on Tumblr, or any other sites as well?

I only post fanfic on Tumblr.

18) What do you personally consider the word counts of “Drabble”, “One shots” and “fics”?

Drabble = 1>500 words One shot & fics are the same to me = 501>10,000+ words

19) Which do you prefer to write more? HC, drabbles, oneshots/fics, multi chapter stories, other?

I prefer fics of about 1000-5000 words, but so many of my one-shots have the allure of "just one more" installment and I get carried away.

20) Are there any stories you have discontinued? If so, why?

Not discontinued, only paused to write something else and haven't gotten back to them yet.

21) What is one of your main “pet-peeves” as a writer on Tumblr?

Tags never work around here.

22) Do you write at a particular time of day?

Whenever I can get some goddamn peace and quiet around my house.

23) Do you listen to music, ambiance/noise, etc. to write or do you need silence?

Either silence or this track on YouTube.

24) Do you outline your fics at all before writing?

Oh god, no. I'm totally a "pantser" - I just start with a seed and write and write and write and then edit a bit and write more and edit more and write a little more and finish it and then I'm done. Outlines... not really sure what those are.

25) Do you post your writing as soon as you finish it, or do you schedule it to come out at a specific time/day?

As soon as it's "done" to me, it's ready to post. I save nothing back.

---

Wanna play along? No tags for this one, just do your own!

#writer q&a #get to know your local smut peddler #JHFTM in a nutshell

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lady-wallace · 3 years

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Whumptober Day 29: JJBA

Here’s some overworked Rohan for today’s prompt

~~~~~~~

Day 29: All Work and No Play

Prompts Used: overworked

Fandom: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 4

Character: Rohan

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Read on Ao3

Read on FF.net

You can also find me on:

Instagram or if you’re enjoying my fics this month, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-fi (I also do commissions!)

~~~~~~~

Rohan had a very bad habit of working to excess. At least, that was how other people tended to see it—not him. He considered it a virtue to add to his talents. It was a lot of work plotting manga, making sure the story-lines would work, and then drafting, writing scripts, and finally drawing the official pages. He would often finish weeks in advance so he could take time to research and travel or work on other one-shots.

The fact was, Rohan liked to be busy. He had never been fond of sitting around doing nothing. If it looked like he was doing nothing, it was because he was contemplating plots, often muttering to himself, even in public, trying to figure out where to go with the next arc of Pink Dark Boy. Boredom was the only thing that really scared Rohan. He didn't like to be left alone with his and only his thoughts, trying to poke at childhood traumas he would rather not recall in detail.

That certainly didn't mean he never overworked himself though, and sometimes, even Kishibe Rohan bit off more than he could chew.

Like needing to finish up five chapters of Pink Dark Boy in a week in order to have enough time to finish a one-shot (for a special edition that would be in full color on top of that) and then the publisher had also asked him to do the cover for the month so he had that on top of everything else.

His desk was completely covered, the script for both his manga and one-shot sitting in semi-neat piles, the thumbnails for the cover set to one side where a large Bristol board sat for him to start working on as soon as he was ready for that. As soon as he finished up the pages for the chapter he was working on. After this one, only three more to go.

Rohan's hands were covered in ink; he was starting to feel an annoying cramp in his thumb and wrist, which he ignored. He had been working since early that morning and it was nearly night and—when was the last time he had eaten?

It didn't matter, just one more page to go…

The phone rang and he almost didn't pick it up but when the message machine started playing and he heard the voice of his editor, Rohan growled and grabbed it.

"What?" he demanded.

One of the other mangakas featured in the monthly bind-up had injured their hand and would be going on hiatus. Did Rohan have another chapter ready so they could insert an extra one instead?

Of course he had one ready. However, that meant he would have to do one more chapter for his own backlog.

Rohan grunted in annoyance as he slammed the phone back in the cradle. Rubbing his eyes. They were feeling quite dry and strained. He would make more coffee perhaps. He would pull an all-nighter. He was quite used to those and there was no problem at all. He would get his work done like he always did.

He pulled out the second chapter for the week and started doing the lettering.

It was a monumental task to some, yes, but he was Kishibe Rohan. He would get it done if it killed him.

XXX

The next time he looked at the clock it was around eleven the next morning. His hand felt swollen. His eyes heavy, and yet, there were deadlines he had to meet. His editor was expecting the first draft of his one-shot that day, and he had only just started to work on that.

His back ached, but he just shifted in his seat. He should probably break to eat at some point, his hand was starting to shake too. Annoying thing being human, sometimes. After he finished the thumbnails for the one-shot he would take a break for lunch. And maybe a nap later if he had the time.

Otherwise, he would just grit his teeth and keep working no matter how much his hand cramped. It was only a little longer.

XXX

Josuke groaned as Koichi dragged him and Okuyasu toward Rohan's house on their way home from school.

"I don't see why you have to run errands for him," Josuke grumbled. "Is he paying you?"

"No, I'm doing it as a friend," Koichi said. "Rohan asked me to pick up some groceries yesterday. He's really busy working on multiple projects so he doesn't really have time."

"Whatever," Josuke sighed, stretching his arms over his head.

When they made it to the mangaka's house, Koichi rang the bell, but they got no answer. He knocked a couple seconds later, and Josuke was already getting impatient.

"Just leave it on the porch, he's probably not going to disturb himself enough to come to the door unless he's ready."

"Yeah, I gotta get home," Okuyasu added, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Hold on just a second," Koichi pleaded and summoned Echoes. "I just want to let him know I got the stuff."

He sent his Stand up to the window on the second story where Rohan's office was and tapped on the glass. Josuke was already leaving the porch when he saw Koichi's eyes widen.

"Josuke! Okuyasu! I think something's wrong!"

"What do you mean?" Josuke asked with a sigh.

Koichi reached for the front door, finding it unlocked and hurried inside, throwing the groceries down by the door.

"Koichi!" Josuke said, having to follow now out of curiosity if nothing else.

Koichi ran up the stairs with the others behind him and when they got to Rohan's studio, Josuke finally saw what had gotten Koichi so worked up.

Rohan was lying on the ground, his chair tipped over, a pot of ink spilled across the floor beside him.

"Rohan!"

"What the hell?" Okuyasu asked as the three of them rushed forward, crouching around the mangaka.

Koichi checked his pulse. "He seems to just be unconscious, but…I wonder why?"

Josuke frowned. Rohan did seem to just be sleeping, his breathing was regular and everything, but he looked awful. His skin was pale—paler than usual since he never really went out into the sun—and he had bruise-like circles under his eyes. Looking around further, there was no evidence of anything but work. Papers strewn in what looked to be a haphazard manner and a copious amount of used coffee mugs but no food to be seen.

"If I were to guess, I'd say he overworked himself," Josuke said grimly.

"We should get him into bed," Koichi said and shook his shoulder. "Hey, Rohan? Rohan!"

The mangaka's eyes flickered open, giving all of them a little relief and he let out a soft groan. "Ko-Koichi? Did I….fall asleep?"

He started to push himself up and winced, pulling his right hand to his chest, cradling it. "Shit," he muttered before he swayed slightly.

Josuke and Okuyasu swooped in to help keep him upright. "Whoa, hold on, you look like crap, Rohan," Josuke told him honestly, no malice this time.

Rohan glowered at him. "You're one to talk. Help me up."

"Rohan, you need to rest, it looks like you passed out," Koichi said.

"I'm fine," the mangaka snapped but as he got to his feet, his wobbled, eyes rolling slightly, causing the others to have to grab hold of him again.

"I really think you should rest," Koichi said insistently. "How long have you been working?"

Rohan glanced at the clock and calendar. "What day is it?"

"Friday."

Rohan paled even further. "About…three days?"

"Without sleep?" Koichi demanded.

"I had work to finish, I don't have time for sleep," Rohan protested.

It did little good. The three teenagers practically carried him to his bedroom and installed him in the bed that looked like it hadn't been used for a while. After finding out Rohan had hardly eaten anything in about as long, Okuyasu hurried out to pick up something from Tonio's while Koichi found Rohan's brace for him to wear to help his wrist.

"Can't you fix this, Josuke?" the mangaka asked in annoyance.

"I don't know if I should," Josuke said, folding his arms. "At least not until you eat and get some decent rest."

Rohan ground his teeth at him, but slumped back against the pillows. "It's called work ethic. Not that I would expect you to know what that's like."

Josuke plopped down at the foot of the bed. "I know when to take a break to eat and sleep."

"I have too much to do, I can't sit in bed all day," Rohan protested, sounding desperate now. "I still haven't finished the thumbnails for my one-shot and they're due today! I have ten pages left!"

"Well, what if we help?" Koichi asked.

Rohan snorted. "You?"

"Yeah, they're just thumbnails, right? They just need to give an idea of what's going to go on the page and how to set it up."

Rohan narrowed his eyes, but Koichi was already heading into the studio and he came back a little while later with the previous pages, extra paper, and pencils. "We'll help."

When Okuyasu got back with some warm, hearty soup Tonio had sent for Rohan, they all sat on the bed and, per Rohan's instructions, took turns sketching out the thumbnails with varying degrees of artistic talent.

Rohan groaned tiredly as they finally finished the last page. "I cannot believe I'm actually sending this to my editor…"

"You met your deadline though!" Josuke said with a grin. "Just say you have some new assistants."

Rohan groaned again, throwing an arm over his eyes. "Let's not make a habit of this."

"Maybe you should worry about taking better care of yourself then, and we won't have to," Josuke told him.

Rohan snorted, but peeled his arm back enough to look at all of them with one eye. "I guess I have to say thank you."

Josuke grinned. "No problem."

Rohan sighed tiredly. "Just leave the envelope with the thumbnails on the porch with a note. My editor is used to picking up my stuff like that."

They nodded and got ready to leave, making sure there was food clearly left out in the kitchen for Rohan to find. He had been asleep before they left his bedroom, and Josuke, as promised, had Crazy Diamond heal his hand before he left.

He had a feeling that Rohan had hopefully learned his lesson.

#whumptober2021 #no.29 #all work and no play #overworked #jojos's bizarre adventure #diamond is unbreakable #fanfiction #rohan kishibe #jjba part 4 #josuke higashitaka #okuyasu #koichi hirose #tired rohan

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silentauroriamthereal · 4 years

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Author interview tag

I was tagged by @therealsaintscully! Thanks, you! :)

Name: SilentAuror

Fandoms: Just Sherlock, though I also follow some Old Guard blogs. :)

Where you post: AO3. Though I was almost knocked over the other day when I got a comment on an old HP fic over on skyehawke.com! It’s been literal YEARS since I got a review on anything over there! :P

Most popular multi-chapter fic: Against the Rest of the World for sure. :)

Favourite story you’ve written so far: With 87 posted fics and 2 more currently on the go, I can’t possibly answer that. That’s cruel. Lol.

Fic you were nervous to post: This, on the other hand, is easy, haha! Three stories, all for very different reasons:

1. The A.G.R.A Complex. This was my first Freebatch fic and I thought I might well be burnt at the stake for even writing any RPF. The notion for this story caught my muses’ attention, though, and they eventually forced me to write it against my will. I can’t be held responsible. Lol. It still amazes me that people continue to read it to this day. The notion: Martin and Benedict are friends. There’s a car accident and Martin suffers a fairly mild brain injury. While in his coma, dreams the entire first three seasons of Sherlock, which in this universe, haven’t happened. The nature of the brain injury is such that he keeps shifting mentally between the reality of who he and Benedict (and Amanda) are, and seeing himself and everyone else as their characters in the Sherlock universe. When I posted it, I intended it to be left up to the reader whether to see it as kind of an AU to actual reality, or else a prequel to the filming of Sherlock. When I finally decided to write a sequel, it meant that I had to be the one to make that clear, which made it a prequel. It became a three-part series, with the second part set during and just after the filming of series 3 (the dodgiest in the moral sense, since it dances around and into real life events), and then the third story takes place ten years later.

2. The Final Proof. Why? Easy. Major character death, and it’s Sherlock. That’s clear from about the first sentence, I think. I had written At the Heart of it All, which features Sherlock running an experiment using the hearts of people who lived lives where they had loved and been loved, and people who hadn’t in an effort to prove his own ability to love to John. He says something at the end of that story about wishing he could see his own heart at the end of their life to see which of the hearts his own resembled by then. And then my muses, my terrible, terrible muses said, “hey... you could write that: you know: Sherlock at the very end of his life, making John promise to look at his heart after he’s died, and complete his experiment.” I, like, teared up just at the thought, and honestly, I cried for most of the writing of that story. I’m assured that about 99% of the people who have read it have also cried throughout, so... sorry. Yeah.

3. Scars. Why? Easy, again: the entire story is riddled with gaslighting and other types of emotional abuse and mind-fuckery, and an actual rape scene. It was painful to the point of being interally corrosive to write, but I still felt it was a story I needed to tell. I did my homework on this one, consulted multiple therapists who work specifically in the field of men who have been absued (emotionally, physically, sexually) by female partners. I thought no one would read it. I thought I might lose half my followers on tumblr. But I still wrote it. It still amazes me that people read it, even more when they actually like it, and still like me after. Lol.

How you choose your titles: Hmm... each title genesis is different, I would say! Sometimes it’s a general theme of the story, sometimes it’s a specific concept or single word, occasionally (but not often) it’s a song title. Sometimes it’s another language, particularly Latin. In The A.G.R.A Complex, the title of the story is also the name that the neurologists given to the brain injury Martin experiences. Vena Cava is titled for the name of the vein that Mary’s bullet punctured in Sherlock’s heart, based on a medical analysis I had read. Scars takes its theme from both Sherlock’s external scars from what he went through during his time away, and John’s internal scars from Mary’s emotional abuse. I also have a whole series of (unrelated) flower-themed stories: The Green Carnations comes from ACD era coding for homosexuality. The Yellow Poppies is the story I wrote after the deleted scene about Magnussen’s hospital visit came out, which features both he and Mary as dual villains, and yellow poppies placed in Sherlock’s room as a threat from one or the other of them. The White Lotuses has a leitmotif of Hinduism and slow-blooming self-awareness and romance. The Red Roses is a Molly POV where she helps Sherlock and John get together in spite of her own feelings, and The Wisteria Tree is an amnesia story that has Sherlock forget the past six years of his life, including the five years that he’s been married to John, and how they find their way back together in spite of that. Rosa Felicia - bonus, both a flower name AND Latin, lol! - is a coming-of-age story about Rosie at the age of 19. Where My Demons Hide is a mid-series 4 story that I wrote after The Lying Detective aired, but before The Final Problem did, and is the title of an Imagine Dragons song. Pater Noster is Latin for the title of the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, but also quite literally just means “our father”, and is a story that centres around the events surrounding the death (murder) of John and Harry’s father. You get the gist.

Do you outline: I always say that one should know how a story begins, how it ends, and at least a few of the major points between those two events. So yes, but loosely. I think that over-plotting kills creativity. It’s not an essay. But even essays need space to grow.

Complete: 105 stories back in my skyehawke days, the vast majority of which are HP, totalling in about 1.5 million words. 87 stories in the Sherlock fandom (though those include my 4 Freebatch fics), totalling in over 2.3 million words now.

In progress: I have two stories currently pending: a Christmas story called The Secret of Hazel Grange, and a trauma-based, co-sleeping fic called Nocturne.

Coming soon/not yet started: I never comment about fics I haven’t yet started. Might curse the entire process, lol.

Do you accept prompts: No, alas. Neither prompts nor commissions. While I’m constantly desperately poor, it takes something out of the writing process for me once it becomes a job. I just feel like that’s not what fanfic is about for me. No judgement to anyone else who does write for commissions, whatsoever - we all have our own process! For me, I’m happy (make that incredibly grateful!) to have donations or supporters through my Patreon (eep: x), but writing to order just doesn’t quite jive for me. I also don’t take prompts, not because I don’t want them, but because I have such a huge backlog of my own ideas that I’ll never get to as it is. There will never be enough time to write all the fics I want to write! That said, don’t think that you can’t still suggest your ideas. My “official policy” (lol) is that I don’t take prompts (for the aforementioned backlog reason), but that doesn’t mean that if you do send me one, my muses won’t seize upon it and force me to write it. You never know. I certainly don’t, at least. :P

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: I’m super excited by the notion of actually getting my Christmas fic finished by Christmas. Lol. Here’s hoping!!

Tagging: Anyone who reads this and is a writer, or thinking about becoming one. You’ve been tagged!

#writer stuff #memes and things #sherlock #johnlock #silentauror

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kuriquinn · 5 years

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Wait For Me

Blanket Fic Disclaimer

Original Prompt by: @toscafan

"Olá. Você poderia escrever uma fic onde após Sasuke voltar para a vila, Sakura vai em uma missão e é gravemente ferida. Então Sasuke percebe que seus sentimentos por ela cresceram quando ele a vê ferida no hospital. Talvez com um pouco de Naruto preocupado também. Eu imagino isso entre o período que Sasuke volta para Konoha e antes de eles partirem juntos em suas viagens. Suas histórias são maravilhosas :) eu sinto muito não escrever em inglês :( “

[Roughly: Hello, Could you write a fic where after Sasuke returns to the village, Sakura goes on a mission and is seriously injured. Then Sasuke realises that his feelings for her have grown when he sees her injured in the hospital. Maybe with a bit of Naruto worried too. I imagine it between the time Sasuke returns to Konoha and before they leave together on their travels.]

Author’s Note: As promised during Evil Author Day, I am trying to finish some of my WIPs. I actually managed to finish this one (Prompt # 4), which is a total miracle given how I’ve been feeling lately. And the fact I think this one is like...two years old. So yeah, major backlog of stuff that needs writing. Enjoy!

Beta Reader: None but me and my editing software :)

________________________________________________________________

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

It shouldn’t have happened.

The words repeat themselves on a loop in Sasuke’s head, like a record player tossed asunder, skipping unerringly back over the same line in a song. In every momentary pause where the words begin to repeat, there is a breath, an extended moment of tension where his chest feels tighter and tighter.

She hasn’t been on active duty rosters since the war. Her field is medicine, not defense or combat or infiltration, and as strong and talented as Haruno Sakura is, she’s still human and prone to mistakes. Shinobi work isn’t like riding a bike. You have to continue to exercise your particular skillset daily, or mistakes can be made, leading to mishaps, leading to—

It shouldn’t have happened.

サスサク

When the call came in for a relief-force of medicnin, it wasn’t unusual. War or no, there are still major medical emergencies and disasters. In this case, reports reached Konoha of an earthquake 350 miles away. Though the village had barely experienced a tremor, the quake had apparently devastated the shepherding community living at the base of the mountain.

As a rule, Sakura should have stayed behind to coordinate everything from the village; with Tsunade on another of her gambling jaunts, she was the most senior healer.

But the devastated town was without its own medical corps, and the number of injured was overwhelming. Every able pair of hands was needed and naturally, Sakura volunteered herself for the mission.

“I can do the work of a dozen medics and they might need someone to lift debris,” she informed the Sixth Hokage when he seemed likely to protest. “I also trained the latest group of emergency medics going out there; they’re still relatively untested in the field. Better they take their orders from me than some random jounin that you assign.”

Kakashi knew better than to argue with his former student, but he was reluctant. For some reason, he was uneasy. There was little reason for it that he could discern, but after all his years as a shinobi, he had learned to heed his instincts.

“Please, Lord Sixth, there are many large families there, with children.”

Against that—with no concrete reason to give—he could not say no.

“Do you need anyone else beyond the emergency medics?”

“Any civilians with basic first aid training,” Sakura replied, pleased at the response. “Whichever doctors and staff can be spared. The general surgeons, perhaps, but no one with specialized training or technique that we would supper from losing.”

Kakashi nodded and made a gesture she recognized to mean an official granting of the request.

“Ideally, you’d send Naruto as well. He could use the Nine-Tails chakra to mass-heal the simplest injuries. It would make triage a lot faster.”

“That’s not in my power. I’m already on thin ice with the Elders for my executive order to pardon Sasuke. I doubt they’ll want him leaving the village any time soon.”

Sakura scowled.

Under normal circumstances she would argue—she had long ago made clear her dislike and distrust for the village Elders—but every minute spent arguing was wasting crucial time.

“Can you try to convince them?” she asked as she turned to leave the office. “We should be sending out best for this.”

“We already are,” Kakashi said with ease, and there was a smile in his eyes. The one Sakura returned was only a little strained, mind already on her future patients.

サスサク

Sasuke was on a short, probationary mission at the time, in the complete opposite direction from the disaster zone. He didn’t even hear about the earthquake until two days later.

While handing his mission report to Kakashi, he may have been somewhat surprised to learn Sakura would not be around to greet him the way she usually did—and Kakashi’s eyes had a far too knowing gleam in them when he mentioned it—but it never occurred to Sasuke that she would be in any kind of danger.

At least, nothing she wasn’t capable of handling for herself.

For those two days, Sasuke carried out his usual routine, slowly acclimating to being back in service to the village. It still wasn’t his preference to be around so many people, and there was a constant sense of discomfort that lingered at the back of his mind. The sensation of eyes on him from all over, ANBU and civilian alike, heavy with judgement and fear. The only time that feeling abated, even for just a little, was when he was around Sakura, Naruto or Kakashi.

Still, he wasn’t willing or able to seek any of them out. They all have busy lives, and he earned that judgement and fear from the village. It would be an easy feat to leave and never return, but he didn’t deserve easy. Remaining here was part of his punishment, and so he would learn to live with it.

At home, when the constant surveillance became too much, he went to an empty training ground and put himself through various sword forms or engage in other exercises. In two years, he’s grown used to living and fighting with only one arm, but it’s the constant practice that keeps him lethal.

On the morning of the third day he is going through one of his complex sword kata in the training ground where Kakashi made them genin. He tells himself it’s coincidence and not sentimentality that brought him here this morning, even as the three posts stand vigil over his training like towers of memory.

Today he is working only on form and movement, not using any techniques requiring chakra, just trying to sharpen his movements into their usual lethal grace.

As he uncoils from a low final arc of his sword, returning to a resting position, there is a sudden cracking noise; his gaze snaps toward it, and he watches as—apropos of nothing—the wooden post to his far right splits right down the middle.

Sasuke immediately goes still, focussing his awareness around himself and the area, scanning for danger. There is no one in this place foolish enough to try something—even if he wasn’t lethal on his own, the ANBU escorts hidden in the shadows would have been alerted.

The wind continues meander, sending leaves rustling; the sound of birds and the distant crash of the river do not change. There is not threat that he can detect, nothing but a growing sense of foreboding.

And then the ground begins to shake.

As far as earthquakes go, it’s not the worst he’s experienced. He has no problem remaining on his feat as the ground roils and trembles. Even the trees surrounding him show no sign of shuddering.

It’s small and innocuous, nothing on the same level as the one Sakura was sent to help with.

His eyes drift, lingering on the cracked post.

Memory conjures an image of a gawky twelve year old with too-long-to-be-practical hair and luminous green eyes betraying strain and discomfort as she feeds their third teammate tied to the middle post.

It’s probably nothing.

But for some reason his focus on his exercises vanishes, replaced instead with a growing disquiet in the pit of his stomach.

It only grows with every moment as he returns to the village proper and, without knowing why, makes a beeline for Hokage Tower. All around him, people talk excitedly about the tremor, laughing it off and telling one another what they were doing when they noticed it. It’s just a facet of their day, something that—while uncommon—is not dangerous enough to merit panic.

So why does he suddenly feel uneasy?

サスサク

Sasuke arrives at the Tower at the same time as Naruto, a face which causes his inexplicable agitation to ratchet immediately higher, especially given his friend’s uncharacteristic frown and the absence of his usual joking greeting.

Without exchanging words, they enter Kakashi’s office and are immediately treated to the sight of their former instructor pacing by the window, a frown drawing his brows together. The coiled cord of the telephone stretches and relaxes with his back-and-forth movements. It’s so in contrast to his usual demeanor—lazily slouched in his chair—that Sasuke’s spine stiffens in response.

Kakashi eventually hangs up the phone and faces his students.

“There was a second earthquake,” he tells them gravely. “Right next to the refugee camp we set up. According to reports, about 180 million tons of mountainside have crumble down onto the camp. They don’t know if there are any survivors.”

Sasuke’s fist clenches and Naruto’s eyes blink into slits as he activates his senjutsu.

“I can’t sense Sakura’s chakra,” he says, a panicked note in his voice. “Usually I get a definite flicker from her, even at this distance…”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Sasuke tells him. “She masks her chakra when she’s on medical missions to avoid presenting a target.”

He’s not sure how he knows this, since he can’t recall if she mentioned any such practice in their conversations since he’s been back, yet he knows it to be true. Still, this knowledge brings no comfort with it, because the uncomfortable pit in his stomach remains.

“She would be healing everyone after a huge disaster like that,” Naruto protests. “I’d definitely sense that. But I can’t.”

Which, admittedly, worries Sasuke a little despite his unshakable faith in Sakura’s abilities.

Naruto turns to Kakashi, his shoulders squared as if in preparation for a fight. “I’m going to check on her. Even if she’s fine, they’ll need help digging survivors out. I can definitely help with that.”

“Fine,” Kakashi says. The fact he doesn’t argue or mention the concerns of the Elders is telling. “If you leave now, you should get there within—”

Sasuke doesn’t stay to listen.

He’s already climbing the stairs to the roof where there is more open space.

He is by no means an expert at using his Rinnegan yet—every day heralds a new ability or application—but he has more or less figured out how to travel between far distant locations instantly.

“Oi! Sasuke! Wait up!” Naruto shouts from behind as Sasuke focusses himself on creating a pathway. He glanced the coordinates he needs on the papers covering Kakashi’s desk, knows where he’s supposed to go—

The space in front of him crackles, displacing the air, and then rips open, forming a portal of swirling violet energy. On the other side, he can discern a giant wall of rubble.

He wastes no time slipping through, trusting Naruto to follow directly behind him.

サスサク

The sight before them is a grim one.

Sasuke hasn’t seen destruction on this scale since the war.

Mountains loom around them, the closest one looking misshapen due to the giant shelf that has vanished as if scraped off with a giant chisel. Its remnants spill out in front of it, creating a smaller mountain of churned earth and rock, uprooted trees and other debris.

People gather around, civilian and shinobi alike, covered in dust and digging frantically at the rubble. Likely the lucky few who were far enough away when the second quake hit to avoid the harm.

There are almost no Konohanin, medicnin or otherwise, that he can see, suggesting a grim truth to him: they are all underneath the remains of the mountain. Dead, most likely, or trapped and dying as the seconds pass.

But where is Sakura?

She could survive being buried under such weight, and should have dug her way out by now. Stone and rock are like cottage cheese to her strong fists.

“Naruto!”

The two newcomers glance up as a Konohanin scrambles toward them. As he gets closer, Sasuke recognizes him as the kid Sakura has taken on as an assistant. Ando something or other.

“We need help!” the kid gasps when he arrives in front of them, dust-covered and exhausted. “We can’t shift the earth using doton because it could hurt the people underneath.”

The jinchuriki is already forming the signs to summon up shadow clones. If this has to b cleared by hand, he’s the best man for the job. “Don’t worry about it, kiddo.”

“We’ll get through this without a problem!”

“Believe it!”

The clones are already spreading out across the landscape, like a sea of orange washing over the scene.

Sasuke stares down at the boy. “Where is Sakura?”

Ando goes pale beneath the fine layer of dust, eyes pained. “When the earthquake stared, she was trying to get everyone in the medical tents to safety. When she realized she couldn’t, she tried to create barriers to stop the worst of the damage using doton. But it was coming on too fast, and so she tried to slow down the avalanche—"

“Of course she did,” Sasuke murmurs to himself, teeth gritted.

“—but it wasn’t enough! The last I saw, she was destroying the rocks coming at her, but then she was buried.”

“And where were you in all this?”

There’s an accusation in his words that has made stronger men tremble, but Ando merely shudders and clenches his fists. No shrinking violets working with Sakura, that’s for sure.

“I was on water duty. The rivers here were all polluted by the first quake, and so I had to travel far. I saw it all from that cliff up there and hurried down here as fast as I could to help, but…”

He gestures ineffectively, clearly not knowing where to start.

“Sasuke!” Naruto yells all of a sudden, and Sasuke’s head whips toward where he is helping a woman with shredded clothing to climb from the rubble. She is remarkably stable on her feet, considering the situation, and Sasuke understands a moment later when he sees the white creature attached to her shoulder.

“Lady Katsuyu!” Ando cries and hurries over, followed closely by SAsuke.

“Where’ Sakura?” Naruto demands as the younger boy helps the quake victim to sit down. “Is she okay?”

“She’s at the very bottom,” Katsuyu says fretfully. “There’s an airpocket and she’ll still have air for a little while, but she’s gravely injured. Her entire lower body is crushed.” Sasuke’s heart constricts painfully. “I tried to help, but she insisted I attach myself to all the refugees, to keep them alive until help arrives. I fear she won’t be able to keep it up very long. Even my healing can’t save the people buried so long without oxygen.”

“Little fool,” Sasuke growls, the viciousness of the words surprising him more than the situation. Of course she’s more worried about the survival of her patients and the others instead of herself.

“We’re getting her out,” Naruto declares, summoning more clones. “We’ll get her and everyone else out!”

And Sasuke finds himself hoping this is another miracle that his friend’s mere presence and stubbornness will help pull off.

サスサク

The task is arduous and time consuming.

Sasuke is bizarrely conscious of the speed at which the time passes—too fast. They continue dragging survivors out from beneath the rubble—all unharmed, but looking more and more shambled as the rescue efforts reach deeper into the rubble. Every so often, there is a red glow, and the unearth another person being Naruto has managed to sense and enfold in his healing chakra cloak.

Sasuke uses his snake summons for the first time in years, sending them from his sleeve to slither around and crush rocks blocking their path. He digs one-handed while Naruto and the clones make quick work of their chosen debris fields.

They have yet to find Sakura, or a person that as died of their injuries; all of them so far have had a miniature clone of Lady Katsuyu attached somewhere on their bodies.

Yet he can’t sense Sakura.

“Her chakra signature is everywhere,” he frets. “She’s channelling it through Katsuyu to keep everyone alone. I can’t get a proper read on her.”

“And you won’t,” Lady Katsuyu says in a tremulous tone. “The byakugou has disengaged—her strength has finally run out.” She shudders. “We’re too far away. There’s no way we’ll make it to her in time. And I can only linger here a few minutes longer without her sustaining me.”

“We’ll make it!” Naruto growls, tone and eyes harsh like that of a cornered fox. There’s a panic there, belying his words, because he clearly has no idea how they’re going to do that.

It’s that panic more than anything so far that makes Sasuke’s guts roil and a sickening nausea of fear well up within him. Because Naruto never gives up, he always has hope and he always has some kind of harebrained plan to fix a bad situation.

And if he doesn’t have one in this case, it means Sakura’s fate is sealed.

Which—

No.

“You have a clone with Sakura now?” he asks Katsuyu.

“O-of course,” the snail replies, almost surprised at being addressed so directly.

“You can share your chakra between one another. Can you share the chakra of someone else the same way?”

Naruto’s eyes widen as he catches on. “Yes! If I share my chakra with you and your clone, I’ll able to sense where your clone is and we can find Sakura faster.”

“We don’t have that kind of time,” Lady Satsuyu replies mournfully. “And besides, I can’t share your chakra, Naruto-kun. The chakra of biju is too volatile, and unless a blood contract has been made, like yours with the toads, it would become too volatile.”

“You wouldn’t need a contract with me,” Sasuke says. “My chakra is entirely my own.”

The slug’s head bobs to one side in consideration, and then she makes a noise of assent. “We can try.”

Sasuke holds out his hand, allowing Lady Katsuyu to inch closer, pressing herself up against his palm. There’s a beat of tense silence as they both concentrate, Sasuke infusing a burst of chakra in the tiny creature’s body.

She shudders from the force of it, her energy signature changing to a mixture of her own and his.

“It’s done,” she says, and he can feel a tiny twinge in his senses calling from far beneath the crumbled mountain.

Sasuke nods and begins to back away from the rubble. “Get beneath her.”

“I don’t understand,” Ando is saying. “How will that be any different from before? Lady Katsuyu was already able to direct us to Sakura.”

“He’s not just looking for Sakura’s location,” Naruto says with a grim smile. “He needs to know exactly where she is.”

“But why—?”

Sasuke tunes out the useless questions as he positions himself somewhere with a decent amount of clearance all around him. Bracing himself—he’s never tried this particular gambit before—he activates the Sharingan and reaches deep within his chakra reserves.

Instantly, violent purple energy manifests, bones and muscle and armor, as Susanoo encompasses him all around. The burning, ripping pain of it has almost become distant by now, and he focusses past it, still holding onto that shred of his chakra beckoning him from wherever Sakura is.

He turns his head, concentrating on the space in front of Susanoo’s empty right hand and activates the Rinnegan.

A portal twists into being from thin air, and Sasuke hardly waits before raising Susanoo’s hand and pressing the limb through the portal. He can distantly feel the weight of her against the flat of the hand as it materializes directly beneath her body, and then pulls her backward, shutting the portal immediately after extracting her to ensure none of the rubble baring down on her might follow.

As gentle as he can, Sasuke lays Sakura down upon the ground, Susanoo vanishing as her body touches the earth.

サスサク

Everyone is already kneeling around her when Sasuke touches back down, the chakra giant vanishing once more. Lady Katsuyu vanishes, no longer having Sakura’s strength to draw on, and Naruto is snapping something at Ando, probably to get help.

All of it washes over Sasuke in a meaningless, soundless wave as his eyes fall upon Sakura. His lungs tighten as he takes in her broken body.

Her legs are bruised and battered, crushed inward in some places and bones poking out of other places; it’s the same for her hips and several ribs. Her eyes are open and staring, a trail of blood leaking from the corner of her mouth and nose.

The sight is terrifying.

For a short yet eternal moment he is back in the streets of the Uchiha district, surrounded by the bodies of his family. Just as he was then, he is frozen now—inutile and incapable of doing anything.

“Naruto…” he begins, not knowing exactly what he’s trying to ask.

“This is bad,” Naruto says, voice strained. His eyes are slits once more, his sage mode active as a red film covers Sakura’s body. “I can heal the big stuff, but so much has been pulverized…” He swallows as if in physical pain; Sasuke knows the feeling. “She needs someone that can do surgery at the microlevel. If I heal her right now, like this, I could do a lot more harm then good.”

It’s a measure of how far Naruto’s come that he recognizes this, that he knows not to simply ram through his power and hope it helps.

Sasuke doesn’t know what will help now.

Scenarios and plans speed through a mind more suited for battle tactics than life-saving measures, as he tries to think of any way that he can help her and wishing for the first time in a long time that Karin were here.

Wishing he had ever taken the time to learn more about the healing arts than how to kill.

All the while, the sight of Sakura’s shattered limbs taunting him as her blood seeps into the sand.

Sasuke blinks.

Sand.

The memory hits him out of nowhere, the way many of his recollections from before do. Waking in a hospital, distantly hearing people talking about a fight—sand versus strength.

“Tsunade,” Sasuke says, remembering how the Fifth Hokage dealt with something similar. Right around the time she healed his mind from Itachi’s merciless assault on it, she saved Rock Lee from a life of paralysis.

Naruto is frowning, once again on the same wavelength as him. “No one knows where she is.”

“I’ll find her. Get Sakura back to Konoha—”

“No…”

Both of them jump at the pained, feeble voice and glance down.

Sakura’s eyes are closed now, clenched as tight as her jaw when she speaks through gritted teeth. “There are still…people…” She tries to raise a hand, gesture toward the rubble. “Naruto…stay and…help…”

“Sakura, no!” he snaps. “You’re in a mess right now, I need to keep you going until—”

“…Too much…damage…wasting your…chakra…”

“Sakura,” Sasuke says tersely, and her eyes shoot open toward him. Awareness flickers behind green irises, along with some surprise, as if she didn’t realize or expect him to be there.

“Sasu…ke…”

He shivers.

There has never been a time in his life when he and Sakura haven’t been aware of the presence of the other. The fact she didn’t notice him is telling in the severity of her injury…as is her not expecting him to be by her side.

After all, when has he ever been?

What has he ever done for her?

“We have to get her out of here,” Naruto says. “Do you have enough strength for another portal?”

Sasuke nods, though he isn’t sure; he’s used his abilities twice now in quick succession. But for Sakura, he’ll try.

The space beside them rips open, once more opening onto the familiar rooftops of Konoha as seen from Hokage Tower. All they need to do is step through, and so Naruto goes to pick Sakura up, only for her to scream in sudden sharp agony.

Sasuke’s heart stutters, his concentration wavering slightly, allowing the portal to shrink and contract worryingly.

“She’s too hurt,” Naruto says, panicked. “We need to keep her on her back or…I might sever something important.”

There are no stretchers here, no immobilizing aids to move her. If he had any idea where Tsunade Senju was, he’d seek her out and return her here instantly, but he doesn’t have that time and neither does Sakura.

“I’ll bring her,” Sasuke says.

“But—”

“You stay here. Help the survivors.”

There’s something on his face that keeps Naruto from arguing further, but Sasuke is no longer paying attention. Once again, he centers himself, trying to divide his power between the portal and call up Susanoo in just the right manner.

It takes searing concentration to manifest Susanoo’s hand in the space between Sakura’s body and the ground, letting the chakra fill in beneath her and keep her steady and supine.

Sakura’s eyes are wide, trained on him in something like desperation, before they roll back and she lapses into unconsciousness.

Sasuke’s lungs constrict, but he forces himself to work through it, to slide Susanoo’s hand straight through the portal until Sakura is no longer lying among the debris of the dead but in the safety of their village.

Sweat breaks out across his forehead and the back of his neck, and he tastes blood in his mouth, but he manages to retract the chakra within him. He’s about to step through when—

“Wait!”

He grits his teeth, eyes darting back to the kid—Ando—who has returned.

“Let me come too,” he says. “I can keep her stable, or—or go get someone from the hospital, or—”

“Go!” Sasuke snarls, half from effort and half from irritation the boy is taking up valuable seconds.

A terrified expression breaks over Ando’s face for a moment, before he throws himself headlong through the portal.

“Find Tsunade,” Sasuke tells Naruto as he follows. He doesn’t have to hear the response to know he will.

サスサク

He has no right to be here.

The intensive care wing of Konoha’s hospital is a flurry of movement as doctors and nurses and medic-nin rush in and out of the surgery where they are working on Sakura. He lingers outside the doors, his own self-recrimination keeping him out here more than the ‘Staff Only’ sign on the door.

He doesn’t deserve to be here, to hear news of her condition. He left—he’s always leaving—and she’s always waiting. She’s always here and he realizes with a sudden disbelief that somehow, somewhere along the line something in him has taken that for granted.

Ever since the War, ever since watching her blossom into her abilities and to demonstrate power that makes her neigh indestructible, he’s been thinking of her as if she is. As if she’s a constant that will never change, that will always exist.

Like she’s immortal.

Except she’s not, she can die like anyone else.

It’s something taken for granted in their line of work, but medic-nin die the same as anyone else in the service. And Sakura would be the first to insist she is no more important than anyone else, that her life is the same value as any of their comrades. He knows if given the choice she’d sacrifice that same life without any regret—hell, he watched her try to do just that today.

That knowledge—and the reality of what is happening behind that door in front of him, the image of the light in her eyes dying—steals his breath.

Will that be his last memory of her? A broken body pulled from a wreckage?

Very real terror grips him then, something he hasn’t felt in years. A close, clawing sensation and his lungs constricting as something jagged forms in his throat. Nightmares of blood in the streets, blood in his hands and the rush of a waterfall in the background, the chirping of lightning in his ears—

“Sasuke.”

His head jerks up, the world around him returning, senses no longer going haywire to stave off the incoming panic.

Kakashi is standing beside him—when did he get here?—eyes somber. There’s a beat before he reaches out, hesitant, and lays a hand on his shoulder.

It’s as if a current is going through him, memories from long ago, that same hand on his shoulder. It’s the first time Kakashi has reached out to him since he left Konoha as a child.

“I’ve had news from Naruto,” his former instructor continues. “He’s found Tsunade.”

And somehow with those three words, every bit of tension in Sasuke’s body evaporates. He realizes he hasn’t been breathing and tries his best not to gulp for air, forces himself to inhale slowly through his nose, to not lose his composure.

Kakashi, of course, is not fooled. “Sakura will be alright. She’s strong.”

Sasuke wants to reply that he knows, he’s always known, but his tongue is still frozen. Instead, he returns his gaze upon the door, trying to sense what is happening beyond it.

He feels Kakashi remove his hand, but the man’s intense stare remains on him.

“I should go,” he eventually manages to say. Yet his legs refuse to move.

“You should stay. You’re exactly where you need to be.”

“I’m not—”

“You’re exactly where she needs you to be.”

Sasuke’s protest dies before it was truly born, and he goes back to trying to breath. Inhale and hold; exhale and repeat. It doesn’t matter what he needs or wants, after all.

Why?

Sakura is Sakura. Yes, they have always had a connection, a bond, but it’s the same connection he’s had with the rest of his former squad. You can’t go on missions or into battle with one another without developing a synchronicity. Even if the connections are different.

With Kakashi it’s the kindred spirit of someone who has lost everything almost the same as he has, with Naruto it’s a bond that can never be replicated for the most complicated of cosmic reasons.

And yet…with Sakura, there’s something different there.

He always thought it was nostalgia, the last lingering remnants of a weak child desperate for whatever scrap of affection was offered to him after losing his parents. Every moment he’s ever spent with her, he pretended like it didn’t affect him at all; and yet, there was always that eagerness he had to tamp down, wanting to see the smile on her face because he knew he didn’t deserve it.

A smile he missed in the years training with Orochimaru, then wandering the world in penance. He knows she’s had feelings for him since they were children, and has has spent most of his last years hoping against hope that she’ll let him go and move on.

That she’ll find someone else, someone worthy of her, someone who will keep her safe and guard her heart against pain. Because that’s all he can give her is pain; tht, and a soul that will never completely heal.

Except it wont matter, will it, if she dies?

She’ll be gone, and he’ll be empty again. No matter where he goes, he’s always known that somewhere, Sakura is out there, keeping him in her heart. He knows that even if she does find another, there will always be a part of her that thinks of him, just like he will always have a part of him that thinks of her.

But if she dies…if she doesn’t make it through this…

Suddenly he can see it.

Years stretch out in front of him, bleak and empty and gray. Visits to a gravestone of a life that could have been. Regrets and pain and an endless void of existing instead of living.

More of everything he endured as a child, only this time, without the tiny ray of sunlight that Sakura willingly gave him.

And suddenly, he realizes he doesn’t want that.

A world without Sakura in it, is not one that he wants to be a part of.

He wants her—needs her—to be happy. And if her happiness is him…if he could ensure that happiness somehow…

Well, he’ll do whatever it takes.

Sasuke takes a shuddering breath at the realization.

It feels sudden, like a switch has been flipped with realization, and yet at the same time he knows it has always been this way.

He’s in love with Sakura.

The world returns then in sharp focus, ignorant to the realizations he’s just made. Kakashi is still eyeing him with concern. Perhaps wondering if he’s going to have to talk him out of leaving the hospital, even though Sasuke knows that he’s not going anywhere until he can watch her open her eyes again.

Until she smiles at him again.

Maybe not even then.

“I’ll wait for her then,” he says, shaken but still somehow managing to control the timbre of his voice. He leans against the wall, eyes once more resting on the door in expectation.

I’ll wait for her forever.

終わり

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I want to know what you think of my story! Leave kudos, a comment or if writing comments isn't something you're comfortable with, as many of these (or other emojis) as you want and let me know how you feel!

❤️️ = I love this story! 😳 = this was hot! 💐 = thank you for sharing this 🍵 = tea spilled 🍬 = so sweet and fluffy! 🚔 = you’re under arrest! the writing’s too good! 😲 = I NEED THE NEXT CHAPTER 😢 = you got me right in the feels 🤯mind blown 🤬god damn cliffhanger 😫 whyyyyyyy?!?!?

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#sasusaku #ssm18 #ssm18day14 #prompt: wait for me #fanfic prompts/requests #kuriquinn #one-shot #sasuke uchiha #sakura haruno #naruto uzumaki #kakashi hatake #drama #romance #realizations

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pebblysand · 3 years

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[AUGUST ‘21] - THE LIFE/WRITING UPDATE NO ONE ASKED FOR (AND SOME QUICK LINKS)

kids, bonjour/bonsoir, i hope that you are well and enjoying our well-deserved summer, if you are in the northern hemisphere. i am personally writing to you direct from france, where i’m spending the next five weeks, sitting on my mother’s balcony enjoying the sunshine. i wish you all the best!

Anyway, before diving into more life/writing updates, here are some quick links to different blog pages you might not see on mobile :

to read my fics

to read my original work

fic recs

to read my tumblr rants about stuff [updated]

[NOTE: i am currently not accepting prompts. i already have a backlog, folks.]

Castles (chap 9) ETA: We’re probably looking at sometime between the 1st and the 15th of August. Fingers crossed, sooner rather than later. hahahahaha, that took a turn for the worst, didn’t it? i’ll go into more detail about this below but while i’d love to promise an update mid-august, that’s rather compromised. september is more realistic.

links extended a/n-s: chapter v ; chapter vi & vii ; chapter viii

[more life/writing updates under the cut]

what i’m working on/writing right now:

right now? nothing.

well, no, that’s not true. you may or may not have missed this but after a very creative start of the year, my brainwaves just completely dried up around mid-june. i think writing helped me survive a very tough moment in my life what with the pandemic, unemployment, a family health crisis and just a whole lot of stuff that piled up but when things got better, i was just so exhausted that i just found myself incapable of doing anything anymore. i honestly tried to battle through it until mid-july but for the life of me, i kept writing and writing and writing but didn’t actually enjoy a single word i was putting down. everything i worked on felt bland and strikingly unimaginative, driving to outward hate my own stuff, probably unjustifiably so. i wrote more about this at length in this post, but basically, i came to the conclusion that i needed to just take some time away from my own words and from living in my own head, to get my mojo back.

i’m honestly so glad i did. i feel so much better already and was even able to get back to writing a bit recently, without cringing or wanting to pluck my hair out. i wrote a little ficlet for the hinny birthday discord ficfest, which should be posted between now and the 11th of august. it’s only circ. 2,000 words and doesn’t really have a deeper meaning so i’m finding it below my usual, self-imposed standard, but i hope that you will enjoy it either way. not sure when it’ll be released (i’ll let you know as soon as i find out from the fest organiser) but it’s on the shorter side so most likely, it’ll be a tumblr exclusive. it’s called: pick me, choose me, love me, and is a little bit inspired by grey’s anatomy (you’ll see).

now, regarding other projects, i am slowly going to ease myself back into writing, but i’m also being careful not to force it/overdo it, and only write whenever i feel like it. this summer has been a good one for me so far, but a very busy one (and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down *sigh*). so, i’m taking this slow, recharging my creative batteries and gearing up for autumn. as such, i don’t have any precise eta to give you this time around but do know that i’m doing well and am getting back into the mood!

i have three half-written projects at the moment: a hermione one-shot, a seamus one-shot, and castles. all three are done at about 30% completion. i know that you probably care more about castles but for me, all three are equally my babies and i’m interested in all of them so what i would like is to finish one of the three by the end of august. no pressure, though. the rest will wait september.