#bc most of them heckin deserve it

[tenacquity]

his voice is too cute sometimes i just

[kyberblade]

Back To You - (Din x Reader) Epilogue/Prologue for Close To Home

A/N: IT IS HEREEEEEEE!!! So sorry it took so long. So much happens. I was going to divide this and then I thought, “Hmmmmm…. No.” As one does. Another note at the end to avoid spoilers. Seriously. Don’t read it until you’ve read the whole thing. You’ve been warned. I have spoken. This is the way. Yada yada yada. …..You just jumped forward and came back didn’t you? 🙄 Also, once again, there is some lore in this that @writerlyhabits​ wrote in a fantastic short, and I loved it so much, I asked if I could use it.

There are parts of this you won’t understand if you didn’t read the Dincember 2022 Drabble Carry You With Me, but they are very small mentions, you will be fine as a whole if you don’t want to read it. But why wouldn’t you? 🥺

(This takes place two years after the other one, and goes to the beginning-ish of episode 1/5 of TBoBF, Return of the Mandalorian.)

I do not own Star Wars or it’s characters. Sadly. But I carry them in my heart. Does that count for something? My soul says yes.

Warnings: Tooth rotting fluff, Grogu being the cutest thing you ever did see, (Nobody touch me he’s still here okay?) and Din is once again a warning in and of himself in this one. Helmetless Din. What? Who said that? 😬 Typical show violence. Swearing. Space swearing. Grogu is a menace. Arguing? Mando’a. Show dialogue, so spoilers? (But if you’re here, you know how this works.) Return of past characters. Tears. Shenanigans. Lots of banter. Throwback to chapter one with dialogue repeats but in the best™️ way, and copious amounts of me trying to work in back to you as a normal thing in a sentence bc why not.

Word count: 16,655 (I said what I said.)

As always, thanks to @grippingbeskar for encouraging me, looking over this for me, and being the one to introduce me to Din fanfiction in the first place, getting me hooked. You are fantastic and I always love our chats.

And for @fordo-kixed-rex, you deserve so much more than a shoutout for reading all 75 million iterations of this massive chapter from start to finish, and helping me in between. You’re a real one, friend. This series would not have gotten this far without you.

Also a shoutout to @what-the-heckin-heck, @dontletyourchildrenwatchthis, @lloweryourstandardss, and @littlemisspascal for being a sounding board for me over this whole process. (Also to @deceiver-of-gods for all of your help over all the chapters with the Mando’a. I hope I got it right in this one.)

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Xxx

Two years later….

Tatooine was bustling. As always. Vendors with their wares, smells and brilliant sights everywhere you turned. Something new and exciting to pull you in and suck all your credits dry just like the planet's heat stole every drop of moisture…. 

But it was all nothing without the kid. It was dull and drab without Grogu at your side. His soft babbles, the odd ‘Patu’ he’d throw at the next snack he’d like to steal…. 

Dank farrik! Turning away from the hanging frogs at the nearest vendor, you swiped at the most recent batch of tears rising to the surface. Sniffling loudly, you melted into the warm hand that came to rest on your back, eyes fluttering shut.

“It’s okay, mesh’la. I miss him, too.” The modulated voice at your ear carried unspoken sorrow of its own, sadness it’d never dare to even whisper into the universe, lest that make it real. If he kept it hidden, secret…. Like his face, nothing in the galaxy could use it against him. Somehow it made him stronger. And you both resented that and wanted to squeeze the life out of him for it at the same time. 

“It’d be nice if you’d show it once and a while….” You grumbled, turning toward him but keeping your eyes cast down to stare at the sand.

His hand fell to his side slowly. “What?” Head tilting to the side as he peered down at you in question, barely any space left between you, it leaned the other way when you shook your head with a sarcastic grin.

“Nothing. Forget it.” Your eyes lifted up to meet his visor finally, squinting against the glare of the twin suns. “Got everything?”

Din nodded. “Almost. Just need the-”

His words were cut short when the satchel across his chest suddenly dropped to the ground, the strap cut inconspicuously by a passing Rhodian seeming to casually bump into the Mandalorian only moments before.

You turned to try and find the culprit but Din tugged on your upper arm. 

“Forget about him. He’s just the-” Both of you looked down at the ground to find the satchel missing, “-distraction.”

You smirked. “I see.”

As Din’s head began to swivel in search of the thief, you attempted to reach out through the crowd with the Force, searching for the familiar signature of the contents in the satchel.

“How did you not get an alert?”

Now your head was on a swivel. Directly to the Mandalorian. “A what?”

“You know.” He wiggled his fingers like Cara always did when referencing the Force. “Why didn’t you know?”

You rolled your eyes with a sigh, looking back to the crowd. “It doesn’t work that way.” The world weary words you’d said a thousand times felt like a mantra at this point. Then after a moment you added, “I’m not a security system.”

“Well that would be handy,” Din said offhandedly, beginning to walk purposefully in the direction the two of you had come not minutes before.

Stumbling after him, your face scrunched like you’d eaten something sour, you pulled on his upper arm to try and turn him around, but it only stopped him, his head still on a swivel. “Wait, what?!”

Din sighed in frustration. “I don’t know. I’m just looking for the thief. That bag has something impor-”

“Your old armor, I know.” Din’s full attention was on you now, his head tilted slightly in question. “Everything has an energy, that’s a really simplified way of how the Force works. Right now I’m trying to track the signature of your armor.”

“What is it?” He asked hesitantly, his weight shifting to one side.

Smiling softly, you took a step forward, grabbing his hand and pulling him down a side alley toward where you felt the signature grow stronger. “Nothing but goodness, Man- Din. Light and strength.” You stumbled over his name, still not used to using his actual moniker in public.

He chuckled at your fumble, shaking his head in disbelief. “From that dingy old stuff?”

“It’s not the quality of the armor that I’m reading.” You looked at his visor over your shoulder, eyebrow raised. “It’s the quality of the warrior who wore it.” Turning back forward to navigate between the street crowded with lifeforms, one side of your mouth lifted in amusement. “That type of thing leaves an impression.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” he finally grumbled quietly. When you looked back at him once again, your brow arched higher than before, he huffed. “How did you know it was there?”

Smiling softly as you held the gaze of his visor, you turned back to face forward, moving a bit faster. “You’re about as subtle as your new armor.” Din let out a soft, annoyed groan. “I saw you packing it back in Peli’s hangar.”

“I can be subtle,” he groused, slowing his steps slightly.

With your own groan, you turned to face him with a toss of your head for emphasis. “Yes. So subtle, Mandalorian. My big, shiny tin can. Now come.” Grabbing his hand once again with both of yours, you began to walk backwards, pulling him along with you. “We have a thief to catch.”

The alley had quieted down, the masses of beings thinned out so it was basically only you and Din, and maybe a handful of beings milling about, using the cross way as a shortcut to somewhere else. No one was lingering, their faces streaking by as they hurried to move on with their day.

“Hold that thought.” Din pulled you to a stop, planting his feet as he turned his head toward a crate on his left. On top of the box sat his satchel, untouched, his armor still causing it to look awkward and lumpy. “We may have just lucked ou-”

A surge of panic behind you caused you to turn toward the source, a small figure darting out of your line of sight as a familiar small voice muttered, “Oh shi-” before spinning around in Din’s hold, his grip around their forearm holding them tight.

“Okay, you little nerf herder, nice try- Sola?” Din’s voice dropped on the name.

You turned to fully face the pair, eyes going wide on the small girl now a young adult, maybe twelve, possibly thirteen years old now. 

She looked between the two of you, her expression a mirror of your own, as her body deflated in Din’s hold, her weight going slack in his grip while she cried in disbelief, “It’s you?!”

You couldn’t help the highly intelligent thing that tumbled out of you next. “It’s you?!”

Sola sighed a sigh worthy of a Mandalorian before she grumbled, kicking one foot at the sand path of the alleyway. “I knew I recognized that armband.”

Reaching up, you traced over the ribbons on your left bicep with the tips of your fingers on your right hand, eyes darting down to look at it briefly before they pulled back up to level a stern glare on the girl.

Before anything else could be said, heavy footfalls came racing up behind your little gathering. A female stumbled the last few steps, coming to a stop and collapsing, slapping her hands onto her knees before you could see her face, struggling to catch her breath. You opened your mouth to greet the newcomer, but she held up one finger before you could utter a sound. 

Din finally muttered in disbelief, “Cara?”

Your head whipped over toward the figure, eyes wider still. “It’s you?!” A hand came up to rest on your forehead, massaging back and forth as if that would help things sink in and make more sense. Your brows practically knit together in confusion with this new information, one arching up as you stared at the woman. “I’m so confused.”

Standing up, with one last heavy breath, Cara offered the two of you a tired smile. “Following up a lead.”

She held up a hand to stop Din before he could even ask, her eyes closing in mock annoyance. “Long story.” She opened them once again to land directly on you with a wink as Din sighed in exasperation before her attention turned onto Sola, her hand falling to gesture to the adolescent before landing at her side with a graceless slap. “And this little womp rat stole my commlink.”

Din looked down at the girl, giving her arm still in his grip a little shake. “This is Sola.” 

The girl shrunk under the stare of three adults. 

Cara’s gaze flicked up towards his visor, almost accusingly. “Friend of yours?” You nodded, and she sighed, hands going to her hips, weight shifting to one side. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Sola,” you tried calmly, going over to grab Din’s satchel before it was forgotten in the chaos. “Explain, please.”

“Nothing. It was nothing. I just grabbed hers by mistake, that’s all.” She shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant.

Cara leveled a look on the girl, her tone dry. “Off my belt?”

Sola tried a grin. “Whoops?”

The Marshal lifted the look to Din. 

“Don’t do that to me,” he complained. “I didn’t teach her that.”

“Don’t even pretend to look at me next, Cara,” you held up your hand to stop her before she even tried. “I only taught her good things.”

Sola rolled her eyes and tried to tug out of Din’s hold, but the Mandalorian easily held her in place.

“Have a seat,” you offered sweetly, pulling the crate the bag had been on toward you with the Force, and giving her a nudge to sit. “Talk.”

She stared over at the wall behind you, grinning in disbelief. “It was a dare, okay?” Her eyes pulled up to meet yours, their hard stare melting slightly once they did, revealing something vulnerable, something broken. Her voice softened just slightly, but still held the mock vibrato she started out with, making you huff as she continued. “Some kids dared me to take someone’s bag, and I was just unlucky enough to choose you.”

“And my comlink?” Cara tried.

Sola turned to her with a cheesy grin. “That was just bad luck on your end.”

“I’ll show you bad luck,” Cara grumbled, stepping closer to the teen.

You stepped between them. “Cara.”

“What?” She barked, trying to peer over your shoulder at the girl before looking you in the eyes.

“No.”

“She stole-”

“She’s a kid,” you corrected. “Tell me you didn’t do dumb stuff when you were her age. Hell, you do dumb stuff now.”

“You’re one to talk,” Cara grumbled.

You smirked, arms crossing over your chest as your weight shifted to one leg. “Ah, but I travel with a Mandalorian. What’s your excuse?”

Cara scoffed. “I knew him first, if we’re going that route.”

“I’m right here,” Din said, somewhat offended, reaching out to gently push Sola down by the shoulder without a second glance when she went to stand up.

You kept your voice even, mildly distracted as you spoke somewhat flippantly. “Mandalorians who shot their partner in the leg don’t get to talk right now.”

“I didn’t shoot you!” He protested, voice going up at the end in agitation.

“You shot her?” Cara asked at the same time Din spoke, turning to look at him with raised brows.

“I didn’t shoot her!” Din corrected before Cara could even finish, his visor swiveling back to you. “It was a ricochet.” His head tilted to the right as he stared at you. “On Gideon’s ship. The bolt bounced off the droid when she launched at it, and-”

You waved your hand dismissively, gaze landing on nothing in particular across the street. “Same thing.”

“It is no-”

“Ugh!” Sola threw her head back and groaned, staring at the sky with wide eyes, her voice went up with each following word. “This is torture!” Her head lowered back to look between the three of you, eyes narrowed to slits before they fluttered shut and she heaved another heavy sigh. “Fine. I’ll talk.” She leaned back on her palms on the crate, her face finally relaxing to something more neutral. “Just…. Stop whatever…. This,” she gestured vaguely with one hand while her nose scrunched up slightly in disgust, “is.”

You turned back to face her, nodding for her to go on, but Din interrupted.

“Later.”

You rolled your eyes as he waved his finger at you in admonishment before landing them back on the girl, smiling softly. “Go on, Sola.”

She hesitated before taking a quick breath and letting it all out on an exhale, speaking quickly. “My parents are diplomats from a planet in the Mid Rim.” 

“Woah, woah, woah, slow down, kid!”

Sola glared at you, taking an exaggeratedly deep breath before speaking overly clearly the rest of her explanation. “We’re here to broker peace between the different ruling houses and our world.”

“Hey, if you’re going to have an attitude, we can just leave,” you warned.

“Great!” Sola beamed. “Bye!” She went to rise from the crate but both Din and Cara pushed down on a shoulder on each side respectively, earning a soft oomph! from the teen. 

She sighed resignedly before going on. “But as you can probably guess, that goes as smooth as sand in a hyperdrive.” She took a deep breath. “I’m not allowed to do anything. I have to keep up appearances, and stay inside most of the time now because we have gotten death threats after a deal gone bad recently.”

Din visibly stiffened beside her, Cara, too. A chill ran up your spine as she continued.

As she relaxed further back into the crate, her words seemed almost lazy, lackadaisical. “So I started sneaking out. Nothing major, just needed some fresh air, well, it’s Tatooine, so, air.” Her tone went rigid with her posture, the spark in her fading to a dull ember as her volume faded to a mere murmur. Her index finger traced lines along her knee as her eyes followed the invisible trails it made. “Then I met them.”

“Who?”

Sola met your eyes, almost startled when you asked, like she’d forgotten people were listening. She shrugged one shoulder, her eyes dropping back down to her lap, her tone still soft. “Doesn’t matter. A group of kids. They do petty crimes and stuff, I wasn’t going to do anything, but they said they were going to tell the people who had been sending death threats how I was sneaking in and out at night.” Her hand stilled, then began poking at the ankle of her foot tucked up under her absently, her eyes cast down at the ground. “They had been watching me, I guess. Let them know all our weak points in security. If I didn’t do a job for them, then they’d tell….”

“And one job turned into more….”

She nodded at your comment. Her eyes flickering up to meet yours for only a second before they pulled down again.

“Why didn’t you just tell your parents and beef up security?” Din’s voice was in planning mode.

Sola peered up at him, squinting against the suns’ light. “And prove I’d let them down?” She looked down at her lap, fiddling her thumbs. “Sneaking around, been committing petty crimes? Would you have done that?”

Din looked at the ground, his voice quiet. “Probably not.”

“Give me my comlink,” Cara said, holding out her hand toward the girl.

You huffed, arms crossing over your chest. “Really, Cara? You hear all that and you’re still banging on about your damned-”

Once the device was in her hand, she took a few steps away and spoke into it in a professional voice. “This is Marshal Dune. Please call off the search. It wasn’t stolen, I just dropped it. Sorry for the confusion.” A male voice you couldn’t quite make out garbled over static on the other end. “Yeah, I’m fine,” Cara replied, turning to face the three of you. “Also, I’m going to take off the rest of the day. Found some booths I want to wander through. We’ll pick up our meeting tomorrow. Yeah. See you then.”

She made her way back over, clipping the comlink to her belt. “I just bought us about twelve hours. What’s the plan?”

“Plan?” Sola looked between the three of you with wide eyes.

You smiled. Her gaze was up and off the ground for the first time this conversation. And it was full of hope. 

“Of course,” you said, smiling gently. “Nobody messes with a member of our family and gets away with it.” Sola grinned at your words. You’d do pretty much anything to keep it there. “Now, let’s go scare some thugs, shall we?”

Xxx

“Now, I know that you packed it,” you said, standing in the fresher of the Crest, voice jiggling as you hopped slightly to pull the armor higher up your chest. “But I don’t know why.”

“Oh, the Jedi is stumped, is she?” Din’s sarcastic amusement was muted through the door, making you roll your eyes. 

Setting your weight to one hip, you pressed the button, and the durasteel barrier hissed open to reveal your Mandalorian leaning against the frame. His arms across his chest as he waited for you, his posture easy and relaxed, he looked like a growth on the walls of his ship.

Cara and Sola were out in the hangar with Peli, their voices faintly heard along with the annoyed bleeps and bloops of R5 as they echoed off the stone walls and up the open ramp. 

“Not stumped,” you countered quickly, walking around him to the middle of the cargo hold as you pulled your gloves on, chin held high as you chose your next words with care. His visor followed you as you went. “Just…. Curious.” You finally landed on with a huff, looking down at your hands as they fiddled mindlessly before adding on a mumbled, “And I’m not a Jedi.”

Din pushed off the wall, his head shaking gently in disbelief as he walked toward you slowly. “I was going to have Boba melt it down and forge it into something better.” He stopped somewhere behind you. You were purposely not paying attention, trying not to get distracted and make sure your armor was set up correctly, only faintly registering the absence of the soft thud of his boots on the metallic floor of the Crest right behind you before he went on. “I don’t know where the armorer is right now, and it’s not full beskar anyway, so any smith could do it, but I trust him.”

“Something better?” You turned to face him, head tilted to the side as you clicked your vambraces into place, their gears whirring to life. Stumbling back an inch as you startled, his chest plate brushing against your nose he was so close, you reached out to swat his arm lightly in annoyance, muttering a Don’t do that and shaking your hand out to the side with a grimace after it pinged off his beskar. Craning your head back to look up at him properly, you couldn’t help the small grin when you found him already peering down at you. “Like what?”

Din’s head tilted just so to the right. “Something for you.” He didn’t miss a beat. 

Your eyes widened slightly before they narrowed to slits. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

He was smiling. You could tell by the lilt in his voice as he leaned into the tilt of his head, his body following and started down the ramp. “You know me so well.”

Reaching out, you grabbed his cape. “Nu-uh. Not so fast, Tin Can. Hold up.” Pulling him back to you, though he gave very little resistance, you leaned around to look into his visor when he was a few inches away, his hands on his hips in mock annoyance. “You don’t have to do that.” Your voice had gone soft. He turned to face you fully. “I know that armor is important to you.”

“So are you.”

You grinned. “Smooth, Shiny. Real smooth.”

Din shrugged one shoulder, his hands falling to rest at his sides loosely. “I have my moments.”

You nodded, starting down the ramp, and talking over your shoulder. “And they are few and far between.”

Din scoffed. “Lucky for you. You couldn’t handle me at full throttle.”

Grinning, you looked down at your vambraces and twisted them a bit. “That sounded like a threat.”

“It’s whatever you wanted it to be, mesh’la.”

“You look like a Mando.” Sola’s voice pulled your attention away from the man at your back before you could reply. 

“What? In beskar?” You gestured to the armor down your body. “No.”

The young girl rolled her eyes at you.

Grinning, you reached up to adjust your scarf tucked in to make the armor fit a bit better, and noticed her posture go rigid.

“You kept it,” she mumbled, pointing lamely toward the blue material around your neck.

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not that. It’s just….” She pulled at her flowing poncho, revealing her bright pink scarf, still vivid as ever, tucked away underneath, close to her heart. “I have mine, too,” she amended softly. “I keep it hidden so it doesn’t get dirty or torn.”

“Kind of like my armband….” You mumbled, closing the last few steps between you before reaching out to softly roll the fabric of her scarf between your thumb and index finger as she traced the ribbon on your bicep with the tips of her own.

“I still have no idea what hyperspace looks like,” she mused, staring at the glittering fabric with a sad smile. “I was so little when we came here, and my parents wouldn’t let me anywhere near a cockpit. I’ve only ever been in a cabin while the ship was moving. No viewports….” She met your eyes again, hand falling to her side. “Supposedly we flew beside some purrgil and even then they wouldn’t let me look.”

Letting your own hand fall to your side, fiddling with the air aimlessly, you held her gaze. “Why not?”

Sola shrugged. “Not sure. They said something about safety at the time, and I just never pressed it, but now it just feels suffocating.”

“I know it’s annoying,” Din chimed in softly from behind you, his shadow looming over the young girl in the dying sun’s light, “but I would give anything to have my parents be overbearing one more time.”

Sola’s eyes flew up to the Mandalorian. “What happened to them?”

“A story for another time,” he said stoically, turning to the right and going deeper into the hangar. “Let’s confirm the plan.”

You turned with Cara and Sola on your left to head that way, Peli falling in step on your right as the droids followed along behind.

“They aren’t around anymore. It happened when he was very young, about the same age as when we met you. That’s why he became a Mandalorian. That’s all I’ll say,” you offered quietly. “The rest is his story to tell.”

The first stars were twinkling overhead as the sky said good night in brilliant shades of red and orange. 

Once your party had circled around one of Peli’s many cluttered tables off to the side, the top of it littered with ship parts, Din turned to you. 

“Gar beskar'gam jate slanar?” (“Your armor good to go?”)

You nodded. “Elek. An jate.” (“Yes. All good.”)

Sola turned her head slowly up toward Cara, one brow arched in confusion.

The Marshal slowly shook her head, eyes closed. “They do this….”

“Do what?” You asked, brows knit toward your friend.

Cara leveled you with a look. “Start speaking in any one of a thousand languages none of the rest of us know.”

R5 started beeping animatedly, trilling as he wheeled back and forth on his treads excitedly, and ended on a raspberry, making you and Peli laugh.

“Oh, great,” Cara rolled her eyes, “even the droid’s are in on it.”

BD and Treadwell made their way into the circle, the Pit droids not far behind, all of them chattering away as they approached you until Din sent a blaster shot pinging off of a piece of scrap pipe over in a corner.

The droids all screeched before going silent, freezing in their steps as Peli cried in protest, “Hey! Watch it!”

“Yeah, we don’t want another ricochet,” you mumbled, adjusting your armor for no good reason besides looking down and away from his judgemental visor.

Cara and Sola snickered from their spots across the table from you, the weight of Din’s stare beside you nothing short of stifling.

“If you stare any louder, Din, they may ask you to be quiet all the way on Coruscant,” you muttered quietly, adjusting your vambraces needlessly for the umpteenth time to hide the growing smirk across your face.

“I’ll just tell them it’s because of you, they'll understand. Garner sympathy.”

Only your eyes lifted up to glare daggers at his visor, his head tilting to the side teasingly as he held your gaze.

“The plan?” You groused, looking across the table with a sigh as your weight shifted to one side - away from the Mandalorian. 

His tone was light, as if it held a smile, while he laid out the steps of the plan one more time. “Sola said they would be meeting her back at the market in an hour. She meets them as planned. The three of us follow her, and stick around in the shadows, as inconspicuously as possible-”

“Says the man who’s a walking mirror.”

Din didn’t even bother to look at you, only sighing at your remark, his shoulders rising and falling with the effort before he went on. “From there, we follow them back to their base of operations. From what we’ve heard, shouldn’t be too hard to get into. We get in, cause a little chaos, get them to release Sola from this…. Contract, then we leave as quietly as we came.”

“No one dies.”

Cara nodded at your words, Din nodding once in agreement, his body going stiff at your next statement. 

“Even if we run into a Jawa.”

He took a deep breath to begin to protest, but you held up a finger to stop him, mocking his words from earlier.

“Later.”

Xxx

Spotting the culprits was easy enough. They weren’t sly about anything as they paraded through the streets with their puffed up chests, smirking as people scattered from them should they get too close. They hassled a vendor or two, shaking them down for a payout, and Cara grumbled beside you, gripping the buckle that showed she was a Marshal tightly through her poncho she wore to conceal it.

Before you could do anything, Din was hot on their heels, handing the vendors a stack of credits to make reparations as soon as the thugs’ backs were turned. They would try and insist he keep it, lightly shoving the money back into his hands, but Din somehow managed to sweet talk them into accepting every time, his head ducked down slightly, hand over theirs in a calming gesture. You wished you could hear what he said.

“I’ve never seen this side of him,” Cara muttered offhandedly. “Caring, soft almost. It looks good on him.”

“Yeah, it does,” you agreed softly. “That’s how he is with the kid. Grogu brought out a side of him I don’t think would have seen the light of day otherwise.”

She elbowed you. “Oh, I dunno. You’re pretty persuasive. Think it’d’ve come out eventually.”

You slid only your eyes sideways to look at her. “Why must you shit talk me?”

“Because if I don’t I’ll simply fade away. It gives me sustenance. I could go days without food, but teasing you? That simply wouldn’t do.”

Turning your head to peer at her incredulously, you spoke in a low voice after a long moment of silence. “I’m going to go stand over there,” you pointed behind you, “as far away from you as possible right now.”

Cara scoffed. “Good. Go. Your beskar'gam is drawing too much attention, anyway.”

With a grin, you began walking backwards down the street, keeping to the shadows. “Aw, you paid attention.”

Your friend glared at you. “Don’t make me regret it.”

A shit eating grin was across your face. “You’re speaking Mando’a….”

Cara huffed, her attention turning back to the street as she mumbled, “Last time I make that mistake.”

Stopping short, you stood up straight. “Aw, don’t be afraid to show your feelings, Cara. Feelings are a good thing. They make us human-”

“If you don’t stop talking-”

“Are you two done?” Din’s voice across the alley from the two of you pulled both sets of eyes his way. “They left a few minutes ago, but I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, what with your bickering.” His head swiveled between you and the Marshal, judgment heavy through his visor. “Sola is with them, I gave her a tracker, slipped it to her when no one was looking while someone,” he looked at you pointedly, “wasn’t paying attention.”

“I was paying attention,” you groused, voice lowering as you kicked at the sand below your feet. “Just not to that.”

“She was talking about you,” Cara tattled, stepping out of the shadows and into the moonlight, stretching like a loth cat.

“So were you!” You protested, also stepping into the nightlight, making Cara squint as she held up a hand as if to block the glare of the reflection off your armor. Swatting her hand down, you knit your brows at her. “It’s not that bright out here, don’t be dramatic.”

“Children. I’m surrounded by literal children,” Din muttered, turning and walking away exasperatedly.

“There’s no need to be rude,” you grumbled, following after him.

“Then prove me wrong,” he called over his shoulder. “Right now you’re worse than Grogu.” You gasped. “When he needs a nap.” Cara gasped. “And he’s hungry.” You both gasped.

“I take it all back,” Cara stormed past Din, her words brusque and aloof. “You’re the meanest person I know.”

“Person?” Your tone was incredulous as you sped up to fall in step with her ahead of the Mandalorian, head swiveling to land on him with a sly smirk over your next word. “Droid.”

Din stopped in his tracks and sighed, head tilting back to the sky just slightly with a gentle shake. “Oh, this mission is off to a great start.”

When both you and Cara kept walking ahead of him, the bounty hunter finally called out on a hiss, “Hey! Are you two done?”

“I don’t know, are we?” You turned on your heel to face him, hands on your hips as you planted your feet and arched your brows in question, almost accusingly. 

Din bit his tongue before he turned this into a whole something else before this entire endeavor even got off the ground…. again. For the third? fourth? time. He’d lost track of how many times they’d gotten off track in the last five minutes alone, let alone today as a whole.

With a jut of his thumb to his left down a narrow alley, he tilted his head that way for emphasis. “Thugs’re that way.” 

Both you and Cara hesitated for only a moment, weight shifting slightly from side to side before you dropped your hands from your hips with a huff and headed toward the alley, your Marshal friend in tow.

As you passed by Din, he muttered a low and amused, “Oh wise one.”

“I’ll tell Sola you said so,” you shot back in a low murmur. “She already knows I’m the smart one.” The alley was so small you had to form a single file line, and somehow you were in the front with Cara behind you, and Din pulling up the back. 

“She just lets you think that’s what she thinks,” Cara hummed. “We all know it’s me.”

Din snorted. “It’s neither of you.” He shook his head at the two sets of eyes shooting daggers at him over their shoulders as they came to an abrupt stop in front of him. “I’m the one with the map and the tracker, remember?” He tapped the right side of his helmet with his index finger.

“Oh, will you just get in front and lead, you overgrown Tin Can?!” You hissed, flattening yourself against the wall to let him pass, the heat of the day still clinging to the wall at your back.

Cara rolled her eyes as she squished herself, allowing him through, but it was still a tight fit all around between the three of you. When Din passed her, his back against the opposing wall, she grimaced though he moved quickly. “Will you just get out of my face, Shiny?”

“What, you mean you don’t want to get to know me this well?” Din relaxed his weight a little, leaning into her slightly. “I thought we were friends.”

Cara shoved him with one arm toward you, making him laugh as he kept going, stumbling slightly from the impact. “We won’t be if you keep on that thread of conversation, Mando.”

Din stopped directly in front of you, tilting his head sideways as he muttered softly, “Hi, mesh’la.” Leaning his forehead into yours, he chuckled softly at Cara’s over exaggerated gag in reaction.

“I’m trying to be mad at you,” you grumbled, fisting one hand into his cowl as you ignored Cara’s groans, elbowing her in the ribs with your free arm when she continued.

“What was that for?!” She cried in protest.

“Just because I’m happy, doesn’t mean you need to moan about it.”

Her face scrunched in disgust as she looked away at the wall across from her. “Go be happy somewhere else. We have a job to do.”

Din sighed. “She’s right,” and pushed off the wall to get in front.

You held on to his cape from behind him. “No. No, she’s never right.” Cara landed a swift kick to the back of your boot. “Ow! What was that for?”

“For being so wrong all the time!”

“Don’t make me speak Mando’a to you,” you grumbled. “Or how about Huttese? I also know Shyriiwook now, too.”

“How about you speak silence.”

Din snorted at the Marshal’s words from his spot in front of you, Cara huffing out a laugh from behind.

“When all of this is over, you both are gonna pay.”

“You don’t scare me,” Cara scoffed.

Looking over your shoulder, you arched a brow, holding up one hand by your face and wiggling your fingers. “Well maybe I should.”

Her face went pale, her steps faltering slightly as understanding dawned on her features. “You don’t scare me,” she repeated, her voice softer after she swallowed roughly.

You chuckled, turning back to face Din’s cape once again. “The Force works in mysterious ways.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Before you could answer, Din cut in, without bothering to turn around, “It's just her way of threatening to trip you. Don’t read into it too much.”

He no sooner said that than he was stumbling forward down the alley, reaching out to brace himself on the walls with his forearms.

“Look at that? My boot also works in mysterious ways.”

“What happened?” Cara asked, oblivious to you tripping Din with the toe of your shoe.

“Gravity. Don’t read too much into it.”

Grinning up at the back of the Mandalorian’s helmet where he had stopped in front of you, you let go of his cape still in your grip. “Careful, Din. There’s gravity there.”

“What did he even trip on?” Cara’s voice was incredulous.

“Air? His ego? Pride…. The options are endless….”

“The foot of an over eager Jedi that’s about to be in her mouth if she keeps talking,” Din hissed, barely looking over his shoulder at the two of you, arms falling from the walls to his sides.

“How do you mean?” You scoffed, following after him as he began to move down the alley again.

“We’re here,” he said with a flourish, the small avenue opening up to a wide street brightly lit with several buildings that dead ended down on the right. With a swooping gesture, he moved to the left, making room for the two of you to step forward beside him, his visor following you closely before tilting to the side. “You’re welcome.”

“She’s right,” Cara mused quietly. “Your ego is big enough for all three of us to trip on.”

“At least it’s well deserved,” Din groused. “I got us here, didn’t I?”

“You followed a map. That was attached to a tracker. A blindfolded bantha wouldn’t have had a much more difficult time….” You said offhandedly, surveying the area.

Din stared at you for a long moment. “That armor makes you mean,” he grumbled.

“It makes me wonderful,” you countered, eyes across the street on a conspicuous crate, narrowing when it jostled slightly. “You’re just jealous that it looks better on me than it ever did on you.”

“Yeah. That’s it,” Din agreed sarcastically, his weight shifting to one side as he followed your line of sight. Pressing the side of his helmet, he immediately went into planning mode. “I’ve got two heat signatures.”

“Matches up with what I’m sensing. Two life forms. A whole mess more inside.” You took your blaster from its holster, its gears whirring to life. “Everyone set to stun?”

Hums of agreement came back at you along with nods in your peripheral.

“I’ll go in on the right while you two take care of whoever is lurking over there,” Cara gestured across the street with her blaster. “Sneak in that side door and start clearing until I find Sola and slip her a blaster, then we’ll find this boss.”

“I’m in,” you agreed, while Din nodded in agreement beside you. “Let’s go, Tin Can. We have some thugs we need to introduce to beskar.”

Xxx

Storming the place was easy. These thieves didn’t know the first thing about defending their home base.

Getting out on the other hand…. That was proving to be more difficult.

You pulled up behind a wall, tucking your arms into your chest as tightly as possible to make yourself a smaller target, your blaster held between both hands at the ready.

“You said this would be easy!” Din yelled from his mirror position across the hall. Well, almost mirror. He leaned on one shoulder, blaster held up in the opposite hand near his head. His whole body looked just on this side of casual. 

“I said no such thing. You did,” you countered, trying to mimic his posture subtly. “And on that note, Cara was the one who said you and I should go in together, so this is all-”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Cara’s voice carried from down the hall, the first word elongated as she slid across the floor on her hip to avoid flying blaster bolts to finally land next to you before popping up. “Don’t you dare drag me into this lovers tiff. Nuh-uh.”

Both you and Din spoke in tandem, “This isn’t-”, “We’re not-”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sola said dismissively, jogging up easily behind Din, a singe mark on the shoulder of her poncho. 

Din stood up straight in an instant, took her arm in his hold gently to examine it, turning her every which way to get a better look. “What happened?”

“Told the boss I quit.” She grinned proudly before it melted into a grimace. “He didn’t take it so well.”

Blaster bolts zinged down the hall between the four of you, streaking the air in vibrant shades of purple and red, even an errant green here and there.

“If I could just use my saber-” you started, cut off by the unanimous voices of your friends.

“No!”

Letting your head lull back against the wall with a gentle thump, you rolled it in aggravation before facing the others again. “And why not?! I’ve saved your asses so many times!”

“Close quarters!” Cara was gesturing with her hands while she spoke, referencing the hall. “Too many people!” She gestured between the four of you. “Laser sword very bright! Very hot!”

You narrowed your eyes at your friend. “I singed one corner of your tunic. One!”

“And that was one too many,” Din countered, popping around the corner to let off a barrage of shots before coming back for safety.

“This was my favorite,” Cara said forlornly, looking down at the smoldering fabric. 

“I’ll buy you another one.”

“No you won’t,” Cara scoffed. “You can’t afford my tastes-”

“Can we please focus on getting out of here!” Sola’s annoyed voice rang out louder than the blaster fire, pulling all three gazes her way. 

Din was the first to break, turning back to lay down cover fire once again around the corner. “Kid’s right,” he grunted, before letting off a shot that was accompanied by a pained scream at the end of the hall.

“I thought we were set to stun?” You hissed.

Din looked down at his blaster and shrugged meekly, flipping it back to stun. “Sorry. Old habits….”

“I know I am,” Sola said matter of factly, pulling you back to the topic at hand. “Now what’s the plan?”

Stepping a little closer to the corner you were tucked behind, you holstered your blaster. “The plan is for you all to eat your words tonight.”

“What are you doing?” Cara’s worried tone sounded at your back, Din’s incredulous one to your left. “Mesh’la, come on, don’t do something-”

“To save our skins?” You finished for him, looking up into his visor with a determined glint in your eye. “Watch me.”

After taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes and stepped out into the hall where the blaster fire had died down just slightly. The few earrent bolts bounced away from you as if they were hitting a force field. Confused whispers from the enemy preceded a pickup in the rapid fire, bolts flying at a new frenzy, none of which came anywhere close to touching you or your friends.

Lifting your hands in front of you, the bolts began to stop, hovering in mid air inches from your face, your hands, some several feet from you. The room glowed with multi-colored plasma bolts hovering above the floor. As the shots died out, silence filling in the blanks left behind, the corner of your mouth twitched up in an amused smirk.

With a small twitch of your index finger, all their blasters were disabled with a tink. 

When you opened your eyes, the blaster bolts that hung suspended all immediately flew the other way, back toward the senders, but in such a way that they wouldn’t hit anybody. 

Within an instant the group of thieves at the end of the hall were left cowering, curled away from the stranger approaching them from the opposite end of the hall. Some blinked wide eyes while others scrambled back, all of them surrounded by smoke swirling around from the black scorches left behind from the blaster bolts.

“I think we win,” you said calmly, walking toward them slowly.

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” One rogue thief said, jumping to his feet, blaster aimed at you.

“I wouldn’t do that,” you warned, not even looking at him.

When he pulled the trigger and nothing happened, he looked at his blaster in confusion, pulling the trigger a few more times before shaking it incessantly. “Oh, well.” He shrugged. “I have this.” He pulled a spare from the back of his pants.

In two seconds flat Din had stepped forward and shot him with a stun bolt, dropping him to the ground.

“Like I said,” you pulled the active blaster to you with the Force, disengaging the firing mechanism like you had the others before tucking it into the back of your own pants. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“You don’t need another one,” Din groaned. “That makes what, seven now?”

You scoffed. “Not nearly.” With a dry chuckle, you shook your head. “Try three.”

“Including the knife?”

“Oh, yeah! The knife. No, that’s four.”

“Guys!” Cara cried, walking up to stand on the other side of you. “Seriously?”

“What?” You looked at her a moment before cutting your eyes toward the thieves still looking on in silence. “I’m just recounting the weapons I’ve won from our various missions! I see something I like, I take it.”

“These guys don’t care.” Cara gestured to them with her blaster.

“No…. But I do.” You turned to look at the punks with a broad grin. “And something tells me they want to keep me really happy. Right?”

They all nodded vigorously. All but one. He got to his feet as he said, “Oh, kark this!” He was no sooner on his feet than Din had hit him with a stun bolt, dropping him into a heap of limbs where he stood.

“At least you remembered to use stun this time,” you threw over your shoulder towards Din, never looking away from the band of thieves still looking on wide eyed at your little party of four.

“Yeah…. But I’ve been known to forget things real fast,” Din mumbled, shifting his weight just slightly to rest easily on one leg. The way he held his blaster would make anyone think he’d gone soft, but you knew if someone made a wrong move, they’d be down in an instant.

“Here’s what's gonna happen,” Cara stepped forward, her Marshal voice in full swing. “Sola over here is out. I don’t wanna hear of any of you within spitting distance of her ever again, do you hear me?”

Most of them nodded, wide eyed at the Marshal. All but one. It’s always one, you thought with a smile and gentle shake of your head. 

“And what’re you gonna do about it? Marshal?” The way the punk said her name dripped with so much sarcasm and venom, you were surprised Cara was still standing. If looks could kill, she’d be dead right now. “You don’t even live here, so how are you going to enforce anything?”

To his credit, he looked slightly afraid when you and Din took measured steps forward while Cara spoke.

“I have friends all over. I don’t think you want to find out just how far my reach can go…. Young man.”

Cara winced slightly on the last words and it took everything in you not to burst out laughing. The way her eyes darted over to you, however briefly, with a mighty rise and fall of her shoulders told you she knew she’d never hear the end of this.

He scoffed. “Like I’d believe any of that.”

“But you’d believe blaster bolts levitating in space then flying the wrong way?” You challenged, taking another small step forward. 

The kid scoffed again.

“You believe this?” Din was striding forward, his vambraces whirring to life as the flame thrower charged up.

Reaching out with the Force, you disengaged his vambrace as the wall of fire just started to lick at the toes of the boots of the insolent kid.

“Not now, Mando. I think he gets it.” Shooting your eyes over to the kid before looking back into his visor, you saw him glance over to find the teen cowering behind the others, mumbling apologies.

Din strode over to you, keeping his body facing the group of adolescents to make them think he was still a threat, which he was, but you knew him well enough to know he was looking at you now and not them, his head turned just slightly.

“Turning off my vambraces now, huh?”

You shrugged. “What can I say? You shouldn’t be frying teenagers, Din. It’s not nice.”

Leaning closer to your ear, his voice hummed through the modulator, something in his tone different this time. “Later,” he promised again.

You grinned, winking at Cara as she rolled her eyes and walked off with an over dramatically gagging Sola. “Can’t wait.”

Xxx

Back at the hangar, the four of you tried to move as quietly as possible, to not wake a sleeping Peli. 

“I can’t thank you enough. I don’t know how I could ever repay you-”

Placing your hand on Sola’s shoulder, you smiled down at her when her big eyes looked up your way. So much like the first time you met her all those years ago. “There’s nothing to thank. That’s just what families do.”

“We help each other,” Cara agreed, stepping up behind Sola and putting her arm around her shoulders. Tilting her head to the side in thought, she added with a grin, “And yeah, sometimes we want to murder each other, too, but….” She looked at Din. “It comes and goes.”

“Mostly comes,” the Mandalorian muttered, adjusting his belt before walking off toward the ramp of the Crest. He stopped at the foot of it, withdrawing a vibroblade from his boot before he turned around and walked back. “Hey, kid.” He offered Sola the blade. “Take care of yourself.”

“You bet I will,” she mumbled around a grin, flipping the blade in her palm with expert precision that had your brow arching. Upon closer inspection, she saw a mudhorn upon the hilt. “That’s the same symbol that’s on your armor….” She looked over at your saber. “And your….” 

“Like I said,” you pulled her into a hug. “We take care of family.”

“Where’s my mudhorn?” Cara groused.

Din extended a blaster with a freshly etched mudhorn he had tucked into the back of his belt to Sola as he looked at Cara, head tilted just so. “Hidden with your act of valor. Go find it.”

“You’re mean,” Cara shoved his shoulder.

“You’d get tired of us anyway,” you mused in response to Cara, wrapping your arms around Din’s waist in what seemed an innocent manner, then lightly pinching his side in admonishment, smiling at his slight groan in response. Before he could get his own arm around your waist in retaliation, you pinned it to his side with the Force, smiling up at him smugly when he grunted in unamusement. 

“I already have,” she agreed, looking down her nose at the two of you.

“No you haven’t,” Din countered tiredly as he turned back toward the ship, heading up the ramp.

“What do you know?” She called after him.

“Everything!” His voice came from inside the ship overlapping your muttered, “Nothing.”

“Not enough,” you amended with a grin, meeting Cara’s eye as she returned your smile. “He doesn’t know nearly enough.”

“It’s a good thing I love teaching, then.” She laughed, offering you a hug before she turned to leave the hangar. After a few steps, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “You coming kid?”

Sola hesitated in her spot in front of you. “But I don’t…. I don’t wear armor.”

“Verd'ika….” You reached out and rested your hand on her shoulder. “Ad’ika. Cyare'se. Daworir’ika. Ka’ra’ika…. Almost all of my nicknames for you had something to do with little.” (“Little soldier. Little one. Loved ones. Little stink. Little star.”)

“Not so little anymore.”

“I can see that,” you smiled softly. “Tal tomad.”

She pulled a face. “Do I even want to know?”

“Blood ally.” You reached out and pinched her scarf between your finger tips. “Verd ori'shya beskar'gam.”

“What…. What does that mean?”

You smiled. “I need to come with a protocol droid….”  She laughed. “Warrior greater than armor. It means armor isn’t everything.” Moving your hand from her scarf to rest on her shoulder once again, you felt Din come to stand behind you, his reflection beginning to morph in Sola’s watering eyes. “It’s who wears it.” 

Xxx

As you watched Cara and Sola walk out of the hangar, Din pulled you to the side gently.

“Speaking of armor, you don’t have any now, either.”

Looking down at the armor still very much on your frame, you looked up at his visor and blinked at him once. Twice. “Excuse me?”

He shifted his weight, hands resting on his belt in his default I already explained this pose. “I’m about to meet up with Boba in a few minutes. Need the armor so I can give it to him.”

You matched his posture, ignoring his indignant head roll. “Oh right. For this super secret thing for me I can’t know about.”

Din nodded once. “You got it.”

Shaking your head in disbelief, you turned and made your way up the ramp of the Crest, not bothering to turn around as you grumbled, “You’re awful.”

“I know.” His tone was nothing short of beaming.

Xxx

The next day, the two of you were up with the suns and beginning work on the Crest with a handful of Peli’s droids. 

The woman herself had appeared after a while, but she obviously was not intended for morning hours.

Peli had disappeared into the shaded depths of the hangar, citing paperwork of some sort, but her snores could be heard from the main landing area. 

One thing led to another, and the work on the ship was forgotten in favor of brushing up on footwork with two chosen weapons.

The hanger sung with the clashing of beskar on kyber, his spear standing resilient against your purple blade.

The pit droids were hard at work on the Crest to try and cover up the cacophony of battle sounds rising up into the air.

As it hit a new fever pitch, you and Din drawing close together after some particularly fancy footwork, the glow of kyber straining against beskar painting your faces in a soft illuminated glow as you pulled closer still, you smirked. 

“I think that means I win, Mandalorian.”

Din scoffed, his modulator popping with the sound. “Nayc. A’nuhunla,” he drawled, his voice low. (“No. But funny.”)

Pulling back from one another, you huffed out a chuckle as you began to circle each other in assessment, waiting for the other to make the next move. “Give it to me in Basic, Mando.” Disengaging your saber, you stopped dead in your tracks, arms dangling limply by your sides. “I’m too tired to fight and translate at the same time.”

“Gar Jetii’kad,” Din pointed to the now bladeless hilt in your hand. “Nau’ur kad.” (“Your lightsaber.”) (“Light up a saber.”) 

“Din-”

But he didn’t let you finish, his hands tightening around his spear as his weight lowered, ready to charge. “Kad’au, Jetii.” (“Lightsaber, Jedi.”)

“Ne'johaa,” you mumbled, igniting the blade and lowering yourself into a ready stance to match. (“Shut up.”)

Once you were set, you stood straight up again, smiling softly when Din let his lowered weight relax as well in aggravation, his modulator hissing in annoyance. “This was just supposed to be for fun. Some training, maybe. Not-”

“Kad,” he almost barked, before launching at you. (“Saber.”)

“Mir’sheb,” you hissed through gritted teeth as you blocked an overhead blow from his spear, squinting your eyes as sparks flew from the impact. (“Smartass.”)

He took a minuscule step closer, pressing his weight into you and making you bend back slightly. His voice was low and mocking, but strained to show his struggle against your strength as you continued to push back. “Only for you.”

With a shout, you pushed him off of you with a last reserve of strength.

“That’s it. That’s it. I’m done.” You held your hands up by your head. “No more.” Twirling your saber as you stretched your wrist, you tilted your head from side to side. “You’ve got some unresolved issues with only using the stun back there at the hideout or something,” gesturing to him with a swooping hand gesture, you ignored his snort and slight shift of weight, “but I’m done with all your nonsense.” Turning away you took a deep breath and disengaged your saber, mumbling under your breath, “Ni copaani buy'ce gal.” (“I want a bucket of booze.”)

The next thing you knew you were flat on your back, sand flying out around you as the Mandalorian stood over you, flipping his spear back to its resting position with a flourish. All you could process as you blinked up at the cloudless sky was heat, grit, and what?

“I think that means I win…. Manda Jetii.” (The state of being Mandalorian in mind, body and spirit.)

Eyes flying to his visor, you had to squint at the glare of the suns off the brilliant metal. You could only blink up at him, taking his hand when he offered it and helped you up. After a shared moment of simply staring at one another, he turned to survey the hangar, repeating your words from earlier. “Ni copaani buy'ce gal.”

It was at that point you noticed Peli’s face. 

Her very, very, very distraught face. 

Following her line of sight, your eyes went wide as you took in the Crest over your shoulder. Sparks flew, singe marks lined the hull. Did I do that?

A poor little astromech Peli had just acquired was trying to tune up something near the ramp of the ship, and Din, once he turned to survey the damage for himself, spying an unfamiliar droid linking into his ship, let his spear loose without a second thought. 

If you hadn't had the mind to divert it midair with the Force right before impact, the droid would be a pile of steaming wires right now instead of a trembling pile of bolts.

The screech of terror it let out as the spear made impact right above its head made you want to laugh, but you stifled it into your hand, turning a disapproving glare on Din when he asked why you did that.

“We don’t murder innocent droids.”

“No droid is innocent,” he grumbled, looking over at the scrappy little astro unit. 

“They are until proven guilty.”

“I don’t need any proof,” Din mumbled. “Have all the proof I need.”

“You have nothing.”

Before he could say anything else, the angry mech was rolling toward the bounty hunter with an electrified arm ready to zap him, but you held it at bay with the Force. You also held Din back, snorting when he turned a look on you. 

“No.”

Peli somehow materialized beside you, everything about her bewildered and distraught. You let the two arguing tin cans go as you turned your attention to your friend, the final zap from the droid to Din’s thigh before it rolled off not going unnoticed. 

Pointing every which way with each new statement, Peli began to protest. “I was- They were- You just-” Her hands slapped down to her sides, her face pulled determinedly. “That’s not fair!”

She turned to her pit droid crew. “Why do I get all the defective droids in this town?” They began to prattle but she cut them off. “You guys couldn’t fix the wrong side of a bantha.”

Reaching out with your mind, a twitch of your foot sideways ever so slightly, and one of the compartments at the back of the Crest flew off, the wiring inside plopping out like the ship had drunk too much spotchka the night before and now had something to prove.

“It’s alright, Peli. It wasn’t all you.”

“You bet your beskar it wasn’t!” She turned a look on Din. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that massive spear sticking out of the side of my ship.”

Din had the decency to look sheepish, turning his gaze to stare across the hangar, hands on his hips.

“Now I’ll have to track down the Jawas to find enough ancient parts to fix this hunk of junk.” She smacked the hull closest to her with her palm, her eyes fluttering shut as a panel fell off to her right with a clatter.

Leveling her gaze on you, a shudder ran down your spine as Peli stared at you in silence. Finally she spoke again. “You. You’re going to help.”

“And you,” she pointed at Din. He pointed at himself in question and she nodded, maintaining the accusing jab of her index. “Yes, you. Mandalorian.” Din tilted his head curiously. “You are going to go to the cantina to look for a job to pay for all of…. this!”

Peli gestured wildly to the sparking Crest behind her. 

You winced at the singe marks left behind by your saber, beside the puncture mark from the spear as it had let loose from his hands and flown across the hangar. Its beskar body still stood proudly from the hull, glinting in the afternoon sun.

Reaching up high above her head, Peli jerked it from the body of the ship with a grating screech of metal on metal. Green goo began to shoot from the new opening, coating the sand of the hangar around her feet in several inches in a matter of seconds.

She looked down at it before bringing menacing eyes up to glare at Din.

“I’ll be at the cantina,” he mumbled, turning to leave without anymore fuss.

“I’ll…. Be here, I guess,” you mumbled, catching Peli’s death stare out of the corner of your eye. “Pick me up some of those blue cookies on your way back?”

“Really?” Din stopped, cocking his head at you.

“Yeah!” You shot back. “The kid isn’t here, so I don’t have to share them.”

“Who says I don’t want some?”

You scoffed. “Experience.” Crossing your arms, you stared at him. “Besides, who says I’m sharing regardless?”

Din took a step back toward you, his voice lowering playfully. “I could make you….”

“Cantina!” Peli hissed.

You’d never seen Din move so quickly.

Xxx

Peli had dragged you out to the large rolling fortress of the Jawas after she had given her pit droid crew a stern talking to. 

You couldn’t make eye contact with them as you stood just behind her and listened to her admonishments. Their judgmental stares from their single ocular lenses could be felt even across the hangar. 

Looking over the wares, you were just glad Din wasn’t here. Jawas would be dropping like flies if he were. He really had a problem.

Bringing your scarf up to cover your face, wrapping it around your head to keep it secure and protect you just a layer more from the suns beating down and sand blowing in the rough winds, you squinted at an old astromech tucked away in the back near the ramp.

“What about that one?” You asked, pointing to it.

The little hooded figure helping you turned, exclaiming something when he realized what you were asking about, then began talking a mile a minute and gesturing even faster.

Holding up your hands, you cut in, “Yeah, yeah, hold on little guy,” your new Jawa friend grunted at the name as you turned to call for help. “Peli! Get over here!” Waving your hand to gesture her over, you hoped it’d help her find you a bit faster.

You saw her curls before you saw her, turning your way and quickly weaving through the junk as her grumbling got closer and closer, but the exact words were never quite clear enough to understand. “What?” She finally asked in exasperation when she was about ten feet away, a power coupling in one hand and…. Something else in the other, you didn’t know what it was, but it had a lot of exposed wires and reminded you of an eyeball on a stick.

Pointing to your little robed shadow, you smiled at her. “Translate. Please.”

With a roll of her eyes, she focused on your small companion, nodding as he went along. “He says you want that R2 unit.” She turned her focus back to you, hands on her hips, eye on a stick still tightly grasped in one hand, “Any particular reason? I have plenty of good droids back at the hangar….” R5 started tweeting and blipping in concern, making her roll her whole head over to look at the droid on her left. “Oh, keep your dome on. I didn’t mean you.” She gestured to the droid with the eye-stick lazily before her eyes cut over to you. “Unless….” R5 let out a mighty whoop before rolling away.

Chirping and blooping from the R2 unit pulled your attention back to the matter at hand, watching in amusement as it rocked from side to side quickly on two of its three legs. Its shiny dome twisted back and forth as it let out shrill beeps and whistles, a lone raspberry cutting off the tirade before it focused on a Jawa coming up to stand beside it. 

As the tiny cloaked figure reached out to adjust the restraining bolt on its front, one of the droid’s front compartments sprung open in the blink of an eye, a surge of electricity arcing through the air and making the Jawa scream. The little scrapper jumped back, stumbling as its cloak began to smoke, strings of Jawaese getting lost in the wind as the tiny thief marched back over to the droid and swiftly kicked it near its treads.

“Stop!” You ran over, holding up your hands to try and intervene, turning to Peli with a pleading look on your face.

She tossed the junk in her hands onto the ground, doing a double take for the eye on a stick before deciding against it and made her way over to you, thrusting the odd part into your chest as she passed by. With a roll of your eyes, you tucked it into the bag of parts to make its way back to the hangar that was slung across your shoulders. 

The bag was over half full, and getting heavier by the minute, but you’d yet to see anything resembling a part you recognized go into the satchel. At this point you think ninety five percent of what she had picked up wasn’t even for the Crest, she was just exacting her revenge on Din. And you had no problem with that.

Peli tilted her head as she listened to the Jawa go on a tirade. Eyes flickering between the tiny robe with eyes and the droid, she finally looked back over her shoulder at you. “He said this droid is just a problem. It’s memory hasn’t been wiped in too long, so it’s developed an…. Ah, well,” she quirked her eyebrows, her hands landing on her hips as she studied the droid. “A strong personality.”

The R2 unit blooped before zapping the Jawa again, a warbling whistle following after in what almost sounded like a taunt for more.

“Stop,” you said again, taking another step toward the feisty astromech. It was very hard to not smile as you studied the round dome, its light blinking red and white at you rapidly as it scanned you up and down, finding something it trusted enough to calm down. It didn’t zap a third time, but it kept the utility equipped, sending a surge down the line when the Jawa got too close again as a warning.

It reminded you of Din. It even kind of looked like him. You had to really try to contain the smile as you thought of his reaction if you said that out loud.

The head tilt.

The finger.

“Later.”

The body was the typical white of most R2 units, though obviously worn and aged, some pockets of rust peeking through here and there along the edge, along with carbon scoring like it’d seen some firefights. With a darker silver dome, close to the color of your vambraces, you could tell it had received repairs along the line, the contrasting metals denoting different eras in its lifetime. 

The bands along its body that contained the attachments and along the sides of its legs were a warm coppery color, while the panels along its head were a dark gunmetal gray that reminded you of the Crest. 

Altogether it was a patchwork of parts, but it made something beautiful to you. Like when the suns hit the sand just right and caused a reflection in the distance. This droid was a mirage, a shadow.

“What’s wrong with it?” You interrupted the Jawa currently on another tirade that made Peli look like she was struggling to keep up. Getting down on one knee, still a good distance from the droid, you stared into its lense as it studied you once again.

Your friend turned to face you more fully. “What do you mean, they just told you. It hasn’t-”

“No, why hasn’t it moved?”

Peli asked the question, turning to look at the droid as she listened to the answer, its lense now turned on her.

“He said the tread on the right foot is broken. They have it out here because someone is coming to pick it up to wipe the memory. Its-”

“Not anymore,” you said quietly. “It’s coming with me.” Getting to your feet, you began to walk away, stopping when several Jawa voices began to follow after you, each more insistent than the other. You looked at Peli, brow raised in question.

“They say you can’t do that. It’s already a done deal. Now they’re asking if you want any of the other droids, they have an-”

You turned, looking at the gathering of red glowing eyes blinking up at you expectantly. Keeping your voice even, you made eye contact with each pair as you spoke. “You will release the droid into my care.”

A string of Jawaese was mumbled back to you, which you assumed was just them repeating your words, so you went on.

“Remove the restraining bolt, load it in the speeder, and let us go on our way.”

As they mumbled again, they broke off into groups to do what you said. 

Tapping the leader on the shoulder, you held firmly when he turned to look at you. “And it won’t cost anything.”

He nodded before going to join the others.

“How did you….” Peli’s voice dripped with amazement. “Can you-”

“No.”

“You didn’t let me-”

“No, Peli.”

“Fine,” she huffed, crossing her arms and facing the Jawas as they loaded the droid who whistled happily while they worked. “I’m just saying-”

She stopped when you slowly turned to look at her, brow arched.

“Yeah, no, forget about it. Not important.”

Xxx

As you unloaded the droid at the hangar, once it was down on the ground, you knelt down slowly to inspect its injured foot. 

“I’m just going to tilt you a little bit to get a better look, okay?”

The pit droids began lowering some type of harness down to help you, but the droid began to rock back and forth, protesting loudly as its dome swung back and forth.

“Okay, okay,” you held up your hands placatingly, gesturing for the other droids to stop. “No lifts. I’ll do it myself, but you’ve got to trust me. It’ll feel a little strange, but you’re completely safe, I promise. Alright?”

The droid bleeped in agreement after a moment of hesitation, and without further hassle, you nudged it slowly onto its side, floating at the proper angle, held just right by an unseen force. As it moved into the proper placement, the R2 unit blooped an amazed sound.

After poking at the tread for a moment, you wrinkled your brows. “This isn’t broken. What did they mea-”

You were cut short when the tread on the other foot whirred to life where it still rested on the ground, spitting sand in your face in a rapid fire. As you drew back quickly, swatting at the sting settling into your eyes, you just caught a glimpse through your squint of the droid falling the rest of the way to the ground with a screech, your concentration broken.

Before you could really react properly, the R2 unit had popped upright, all manner of Binary curses and colorful language beeping and whistling as it whipped out the zapper it had used earlier on the Jawa, sending a warning jolt down the spine while rotating in a circle to keep all the advancing droids and Peli at bay. 

Then it started to lift off with some sort of propulsion, a victorious squeal echoing off the hangar walls that was all too soon followed by the sound of sputtering exhaust. Its lense pointed down, watching it all unfold, a quiver of fear warbled out of its voice box. The flames keeping it afloat flickered then died, sending it hurtling to the ground with a scream.

You were just able to stick out a hand, focusing enough to catch it inches from the ground. “I got you!” As you lowered it the last few millimeters back onto the sand, you let out a heavy sigh, relaxing into the warm earth beneath you with a quietly muttered, “I got you.”

“Well, that was a first,” Peli announced loudly, amused, as the R2 unit looked at you, a spurt of oil suddenly spewing onto the ground as it moaned in distress.

“It’s about right on track for me, honestly,” you huffed, laughing as you got back to your feet. 

The droid quaked as you got closer, worried coos softly filling the hangar.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you,” you spoke softly, coming back onto your knees a few feet from the R2 unit. “That was actually kind of impressive.” You smirked, watching as the trembling stopped. The droid was silent and you smiled a bit broader. “I would expect nothing less, honestly. It’s what I would do in your situation. Hell, I have done it a few times….” The droid whistled softly in amusement.

You laughed, feeling victorious when it wheeled a bit closer to you.

“I have, too. I live a very extraordinary life, my friend.”

A questioning bloop.

“Yes, I said ‘friend’. I consider you that, not anything less.”

A series of beeps and whistles, the red light blinking much more slowly now.

“I do speak Binary. Very observant.”

A raspberry.

You laughed, and it was followed by the closest sound a droid can make to the sound, a series of trills.

“Can we start over?” 

The droid wheeled closer, bumping its front foot into your knee gently before wheeling back slightly as if to say, ‘go on’.

You introduced yourself, reaching a hand out toward the droid. A panel sprung open on its front, the zapper coming out without a charge, making you arch a brow at the unit as it tittered playfully. The panel closed before another opened, and a small three pronged metal hand extended, closing around two of your fingers and shaking them in jerky movements as it beeped and blooped away.

“R2-B4?” The droid whistled in confirmation, releasing your fingers and closing the panel. “Can I just call you Bee?” A beep that sounded like ‘yes’ and also meant ‘yes’ in Binary chirped happily, filling the hangar. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Bee. How about we get you tuned up, into a nice hot oil bath, run a few diagnostics to make sure you’re running as optimally as you can be, then starting tomorrow we can-”

Some angry bloops and bleeps filled the air, while she rocked back and forth on her feet.

“No, no, no! No memory wipe! That’s not what I meant! I wouldn’t do that to you.” She stopped rocking, but her lense scanned you up and down rapidly, her light flashing between red and white faster than you had seen yet. “You don’t know me yet, so I don’t blame you. But I’m not going to do that to you. That won’t happen so long as you are here. With me. With us. That makes you you. I don’t want just a droid, I want you, Bee.”

Reaching out your hand, you rested it lightly on her dome and an affectionate beep came out quietly.

“I just meant to make sure you’re running as optimally as you can be. You deserve it, friend.”

It was at this point Din came walking back into the hangar. He stopped short when he saw the new astromech snuggled up so closely with you, the disarray of the hangar floor with the spilled oil and obvious scuffle, and Peli with her army of droids behind her and new eyeball on a stick waving around animatedly as she greeted him with a smile.

“Mando! Finally!” She walked toward him. “You will not believe the day we’ve had.”

The look Din leveled on you through his visor was nothing short of stifling. “Try me.”

Xxx

Once Din had calmed down enough to not shoot the new droid on sight, and Bee had calmed down enough to not zap the Mandalorian on sight, you sat down to explain the situation to Din as the astro unit underwent an oil bath.

“I don’t know, Man- Din.” You pulled a face at yourself as he chuckled at the slip up. “It just felt like I was supposed to, and she….” You looked straight into his visor. “The voices stopped when I saw her. Everything did. I don’t know.” Looking down to the table top to your right, you began to fiddle your fingers aimlessly. “I swear you won’t have to-”

“Okay.”

“Now don’t just- what?” You shook your head to dislodge any sand that may be plugging your ears and causing you to mishear because you could have sworn he said…. “Okay? ….Okay? Did you just say okay?”

Din laughed softly. “Yes.” He nodded. “Fine. I trust you.”

Narrowing your eyes, you leaned forward onto your knees, getting closer to him and peering up with scrutiny for an agonizing minute. “What did you do?”

Leaning back in his chair with a sigh, he rested his hand on his thigh. “Got you a present.” His head tilted to the side as you sat up a bit straighter. “Still gonna look at me like that?”

Eyes going wide, you sat back and matched his posture.

“That’s what I thought,” he said with a snort. “I met up with Boba last night, as you know, and after going to the cantina, he caught up to me with the finished product.”

Din reached over and pulled a tarp off a crate to his right, how you’d missed it you had no idea, especially since the item before your eyes still sang with the same signature as his armor had. 

A jetpack.

Raw beskar and durasteel glinted under the twin suns, polished to perfection and ready to earn their first scuff marks.

“Din…. No.” You looked at him in disbelief. “You didn’t.”

Reaching for the pack, he groaned slightly with the effort, sighing once it sat in his lap. “I couldn’t look at you in that horribly fitting armor one more time, and it was just taking up space on the ship.” He set the heavy gift in your lap. “Now I don’t have to lug you around anymore.”

Scoffing, you leaned in closer to him, batting your lashes. “Don’t lie, you like lugging me around.”

He tossed his head side to side. “It has its perks, yes, but now….” He gently nudged you back with a finger to your shoulder so you were sitting normally in your seat again. “Lift yourself, mesh’la.”

Sitting up straight as you held the jetpack in your lap, you traced its curves with your hand. “I don’t know whether to be offended or say thank you.”

Meeting the gaze of his visor through your lashes, he simply nodded.

“That’s all I needed to hear. Now, let’s get you fitted and flying - but first, I have to sync them with your vambraces, or else you might-”

“Let me guess,” you sighed, relaxing back into your chair with a thump. “Or else I might blow something up?” Din nodded once in confirmation, and you mirrored him. “Some things never change.”

“And some things change all the time….”

“Well that was cryptic.”

“Fennec found a contact for me that might know where the Armorer is. Where the covert moved to.”

Your eyes went wide and you froze, halfway to attaching the jetpack between your shoulder blades. “Excuse me, what?”

“It’s a job, but I head there in two rotations-”

Your face fell flat, along with your tone. “Excuse me, what?”

“Are you broken?” You arched a brow in question at him. “You haven’t moved since I mentioned the Armorer and you’re repeating yourself.”

With a huff of disbelief, you let the jetpack to the ground beside you with a gentle thud, and faced him once again. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s because you’re insane?!”

“Excuse me, what?”

“See?” You gestured to him. “A perfectly valid reaction.” Din huffed, his head tilting to the side in annoyance as you went on. “First off I was excited for you, but then you go and say something crazy like you’re going alone?”

“Well I just assumed….”

“Go on,” you deadpanned, smiling slightly when he trailed off, swallowing roughly.

When he never did, you sighed heavily and forged on for the both of you. “Since I’m your wife,” you began, eyes cast down to the sand, ignoring the way he tossed his head back with a groan, “I think it’s only right I go with you.” You looked up to meet his visor. “Not to mention I continue to save your skin daily.”

“One time. I….” He held up one finger. “That was. I let that slip one time with Peli and it was an accident.” He huffed, staring at you for a long moment. “You're never going to let me forget that are you?”

You grinned. “No.”

Xxx

The two of you landed at the front of Peli’s hangar when you saw an unknown droid approaching in the street from where you were training in the air.

“Oh! Pardon me!” The courier droid raised its hands up in surrender. 

Reaching out, you lowered Din’s blaster. “You have a problem,” you mumbled. “You need to ask questions first, shoot later.”

Din grunted. “That’s not how I work.”

“Well, maybe you need to upgrade your circuitry, Tin Can.”

Both Din and the courier looked at you.

“Beg your pardon, miss, but that is a Mandalorian, not a droi-”

You couldn’t help your snort of laughter. “What’s the message?”

“Oh. Yes.” The droid reached into a bag fastened to its hip. “You have a holo from a Greef Karga? It’s marked sensitive/eyes only. I suggest you watch it someplace private.” Leaning around to look behind you into the vacant hangar, the only other soul being R5 rolling past with an offensive blip, the droid then looked back at the two of you. “Or just stay here.”

Taking the device from the droid with a smile, you were surprised when it didn’t just leave.

It reached back into the satchel and procured another device. A puck. And handed it to Din.

“What’s this?” The Mandalorian asked dryly, looking at the small device in the droid's hand as if it were the most confusing puzzle in the galaxy.

“Courtesy of Greef Karga…. once again.” When Din made no effort to move, the droid looked between the two of you. “They go together. I assume they offer some explanation. Otherwise, I have nothing to tell you about them.”

Din sighed, taking the puck and shutting the hangar door before the droid could say another word.

A muffled, “Oh. Well, good day, then!” Came through before the retreat of mechanical footsteps was heard.

“That was rude!” You mumbled, turning to go deeper into the hangar, but freezing when you saw the info spinning above the puck in Din’s hand. 

No.

No it couldn’t be.

Quickly activating the comm, you let Karga explain what you already feared.

“If you’re playing this message, you’ve already opened the puck. Yes. I know. I was just as shocked, too.”

There, in letters as big as day was your name.

“It was issued by the head of some small town crime group on Tatooine. Said you decimated their numbers yesterday?”

Din grunted. “Nobody died. What do they mean decimated?”

“I’m not issuing the puck to anyone, but be on the lookout. It could make things…. Difficult.”

The comm went dead, and all you could do was stare at the puck in Din’s hand, the info being presented to you but truly not being absorbed as all you could do was watch and blink.

The puck displayed your picture, slowly spinning with all your details next to it. 

Name: Eesra Kesyk

Last known location: Tatooine

Known associates: Din Djarin, Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, Peli Motto, Sola Kei, Cara Dune, Greef Karga, Mythrol, Bo Katan Kryze, Ahsoka Tano, Luke Skywalker

Karga, Mythrol, Bo Katan, Luke, Ahsoka? For some small time group on Tatooine, they had really gone out of their way to find info on you….

Your gut sank. 

Unless….

You shook your head. There’s no way this went beyond a small town crime lord on a backwater planet. No way.

Focusing back in on the list, you squinted to read the fine print it was in to have everything fit on the little readout.

The rest was just details, date of birth, previous work…. reason for bounty.

“Are they serious?”

Unlawful use of star cruiser in restricted airspace, failure to comply with law enforcement, breaking and entering, damage to public property, battery and assault….

Din thought this was all very funny. He was practically giggling by now, snorts of laughter trickling out of his modulator as he stood to your right.

He’d tried to stop under your glare, he really did, but it just wasn’t possible, little snickers escaping here and there. 

“Who knew I married such a horrible person?”

He did this from time to time. Brought up his little misstep with Peli where he’d called you his wife, leaning fully into the absurdity and embracing the silliness you often tried to pelt at him mercilessly by saying it himself first.

Rolling your eyes, but unable to contain the small grin climbing up your face,  you looked back at the puck and crossed your arms firmly over your chest. “You knew what you were getting yourself into, Tin Can.” Tilting your head at the readout, you pursed your lips. “And we’re not actually married, no matter what you said to Peli. You’re not ready for all of this.” Making a swooping gesture to yourself, you ignored his mocking snort of amusement. 

You stared at the list for another loaded minute of silence before going on. “Besides, half of these aren’t even true!” Gesturing to the list with one hand, you turned to look up at his visor, brows raised. “Unlawful use of starcruiser…. When did we even leave the planet?”

He was still chuckling warmly as he turned to you. “Did I? Know what I was getting into, I mean? I don’t know about that, mesh’la.” His chuckle grew louder as your face fell into unamusement. “And are you sure? Only half?”

Turning to face him fully, you raised one hand to wag a finger in his face teasingly. “Hey, you’re the one that keeps coming back.”

Pulling you into his arms, he hummed contentedly. “And I always will come back to you.”

Copying his hum of satisfaction, you reached up and grabbed his cowl like always, tucking your face into the fabric and taking a deep breath before turning to the side to look at the holo once again with a sigh.

“They got my name wrong, though.”

“Did they?”

“Mmm-hmm.” Tucking your face into the crook of his neck, you smiled. “Eesra Djarin of Clan Mudhorn…. That’s so much better, don’t you think?”

He groaned softly. “I-”

Bleep!

Din grunted in mild annoyance as Bee rolled up the ramp, stopping beside the two of you and trilling animatedly. “Not now, Scrap.”

Bee let out as close to a matching grunt of displeasure a droid could make, flipped out the electrified arm on her front, and waved it at Din in warning. 

“See? This is why I don’t like droids,” Din grumbled.

Rolling forward bit by bit, backtracking just slightly in between, she pried her way into the small amount of space between the two of you, making you step back just slightly to make room.

“Well, hello there,” you mused quietly to the metallic dome whose lense was looking up at you, smiling back at the tiny bloop in greeting. “May I help you?”

She babbled away in Binary animatedly, charged hand still extended toward Din in warning as she rolled ever so slightly closer towards you, tilting forward just a bit and causing Din to grunt as the forward motion pushed the bottom of her housing into his shin guards with a ping.

“I’m sure R5 didn’t say all that. What are you getting at?”

More beeps and whistles, this time containing squeals as her lense switched between red and white rapidly, almost faster than her sounds, as she animatedly continued her story.

“Wow,” you finally said when the droid stopped, staring at you expectantly.

“What did she say?” Din tilted his head at you.

“No idea.” You looked up into his visor. “All I caught was something something BD said and then Peli, Jawas….”

Both of you started to chuckle softly, Bee looking between you as she rotated her dome back and forth, a bloop of disappointment before a raspberry of annoyance, and you couldn’t shake the growing grin on your face if you wanted to.

After a moment she reached out just a little further and zapped Din with the electrified arm, tittering a laugh as she rolled away at speed as Din chased after her after crying out in pain. “Ow! Get back here, you rolling scrap heap!”

Crossing your arms, you leaned against the opening of the ramp to the Crest, and watched the scene unfold in Peli’s hangar.

Droids, a mechanic, and a Mandalorian all running in circles after a goal you weren’t quite sure of. All that was clear was Din was losing.

You were home, with the people you loved.

Looking to the side, you saw the bunk of the Crest open, the child’s hammock still strung across the top. The corners of your mouth pulled slightly down.

Well, almost everyone.

You were a clan of three.

No, it was more than that.

You were also a family.

And someday, you’d all be back together again.

Someday soon.

You’d find a way to bring it all back to you.

Adjusting your weight slightly, you bumped something on your vambraces in the process causing the jetpack between your shoulder blades beginning to whir with an increasing hum. Flames began to sputter at its base with a growing roar, sending a wall of heat down the backs of your thighs as it prepared to lift you into the skies once again.

“Din?” You called, quietly at first, staring over your shoulder at the new death trap strapped to your spine, then more urgently, “Din!”

He was already jogging up the ramp toward you, his posture easy and relaxed. “Calm down.”

A quick glance behind him showed an amused Peli and her circus of droids, all of them tittering in amusement. Bee rocked back and forth in glee at the foot of the ramp before rolling back to the others. 

“Calm down?” You repeated in bewilderment, watching him disengage the jetpack from your vambrace with a single button push, as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Calm down?!” He began to chuckle, his hand skimming up the inside of your forearm to lightly grab your elbow and push you further into the ship as you went on. “I was almost a flying projectile and you-”

You hadn’t noticed the way he’d nudged you backwards completely out of sight of the rest of the hangar until your spine sealed along the bulkhead by the weapons locker, the lights of the cargo hold going to half brightness with a deft swipe of his hand over a control pad to your left. 

Half, but still plenty bright to see.

“Din?”

Taking in your new surroundings, you looked back up to see him taking his gloves off and tucking them in his belt. His helmet came next, the quiet hiss of the mechanism causing you to screw your eyes shut. The familiar sound of beskar thunking onto the metal floor of the Crest made them close even tighter.

Din chuckled softly, the unmodulated sound tickling your face with his warm breath. “Open your eyes, mesh’la.”

“Oh, yeah.” Slowly you blinked your eyes open, looking up to see warm brown eyes, and the sweetest smile waiting to meet you. “I still forget.”

Winding your hands up into the curls at the base of his head, you smirked when he let out a contented sigh through his nose. 

After a moment of simply holding the other’s gaze, you muttered quietly, “Hello, brown eyes.”

Din was on you in an instant, his groan of annoyance muffled against your lips as you laughed softly into the kiss. 

“You always have to ruin it,” he mumbled, crowding you further into the wall, his bare hands coming to cradle your face and making your eyes slip shut at the contact. “Nu-uh. Open your eyes, mesh’la.”

Fluttering them open, you tried very hard to keep them that way. “Sorry. It’s not every day a Mandalorian is half naked in front of me. I’ll try harder.”

“Half naked?” He tilted his head, the tip of his nose bumping against yours, one brow arching up in question. 

“For you, a helmet and gloves is the equivalent of a-”

Din was back on you again, this time growling in mock frustration against your lips as you laughed a bit louder. The upturn of his lips gave his amusement away, though.

Pulling apart just enough that only your foreheads rested against one another, the two of you held that moment together for quite a while. Simply breathing the other in, and existing in this quiet moment before the storm. 

Before you left to find more Mandalorians. 

More Mandalorians. 

Now that was going to be interesting. 

After a moment, you rolled your head to the side slightly and peeked up through your lashes to find his eyes closed.

You opened your mouth to speak, only for you both to speak in tandem, “Open your eyes.”

“I will if you will,” you were quick to retort.

Warm brown eyes met yours once again as the setting suns’ light poured in through the open ramp somewhere behind him, painting the cargo hold of the Crest in vibrant shades of gold, orange and red.

Din smiled softly, pressing his forehead further into yours, using his hands at your cheeks to maneuver your head back a bit and into a better angle for him to lean his forehead into. “Only for you.” His fingers began to move up and thread into your hair. “Always for you.” It was hard to tell where he stopped and you began. “Gar cuyi ner aliit. Ni kar'tayli darasuum gar. Gar cuyi ner mir'sheb bal gar utreekov kar'tayli darasuum gar, cyar’ika.” He pressed his forehead even further into yours, his lips ghosting over your own with each word. (“You are my family. I love you. You are my smartass, and your idiot loves you, darling.”)

“Gar cuyi ner yaim. Ner yaim'ol. Ner yaim'la.” The light of the day was fading, much the same as the two of you were melding into one another, practically becoming one being, all his hard edges blurring where your soft lines began. The Crest began to fill with long shadows as the lights in Peli’s hangar kicked on, filling the cargo hold with just enough extra light to see. (“You are my home. My homecoming. My comfortable.”)

Reaching up, you cupped his face in your hand, and he melted into it, his eyes fluttering shut as he leaned into your palm, his voice a low rumble. “Ni ratiin yaimpar gar.” (“I always return to you.”)

In the quiet moment, you rubbed your thumb over his cheek bone slowly back and forth before finally whispering with a smile, “Open your eyes.”

Once he was looking at you once again, you pulled your head back just a bit and tilted it to the side. “So, where are we going to find the covert?”

He went stiff. “We?”

You sighed, laying your head on his pauldron. “It’s been how long, and you still haven’t learned that I’m always going to come with you?”

Din looked at you with a matching sigh. He tilted his head at you, his weight shifted to one leg, his hands on your waist moving you along with him. “You sometimes stay here when I go out on a job and help Peli work on the ship. It’s almost done after what Gideon tried to do- er, it was until today.”

“Exactly. So after this last massacre, I don’t think Peli wants to see my face around here anymore,” you laughed, making him shake his head and let out a huff of laughter. “I think Boba would give us a lift to wherever.”

“And then how do we get back?”

You smiled as you closed the small space between you, speaking softer as the situation began to feel more delicate. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Why are your ideas usually half baked or somehow involve fire?”

You closed the distance between you yet again, wrapping your arms around his neck tightly, and pressing your forehead into his. “And yet they always work….”

“You get lucky sometimes,” he groused half heartedly before he returned the gesture, a warm ungloved hand spread across your back, the other moving up to the back of your head to tuck your face securely into the crook of his neck.

You weren’t about to pull away as he held you there gently. Turning your face towards him where it rested on his shoulder, your nose brushed against his neck, and his grip grew tighter. Glancing up towards his face, you thought back to a time in the bar when this all started when all you could see before the helmet obstructed your view was a small sliver of skin that bobbed as he swallowed roughly. 

Now you had an unobstructed view….

….Of unruly dark curls long overdue for a trim….

….Golden skin dusted with a light facial hair that had the slightest hint of grays peppered in….

….Kind, warm brown eyes that looked at you with so many promises….

….A nose that had definitely been broken once or twice….

….And a smile that took your breath away.

You turned your head up fully towards his face as you pulled away just enough to look at him straight on, and he turned his gaze down to meet you with a slightly playful tilt of his head like before.

“I’m just that good.” Your hands fell to rest on his chest plate. “Now let’s go find your people.”

“Let’s go find our people,” he corrected.

With a gentle nod, you pulled away slowly after a moment, turning towards the ramp with wide eyes as what just happened sunk in.

Our people.

Din walked past you, looking over his shoulder once he was on the ramp. “Are you coming?”

Our people. 

Turning your head slightly to the left, you saw he had stopped, helmet back on, gloves securely fastened, and every bit the Mandalorian you had met all those years ago, only now he stood waiting for you, hand outstretched in invitation.

Mine.

You smiled, walking forward and taking his hand. “Moff Gideon couldn’t keep me away.”

Xxx

Yes, I gave her a name. Eesra Kesyk. (Ee-sruh Keh-sick) Let’s face it, Mesh’la is still what’s going to be used 99.999999% of the time, and “you” the majority of the rest. But we’re going into a part of the story with a whole lot of other new players and I wanted to have something to call the reader besides “you” and nicknames. I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and I’m sorry. But, it’s my story, and that’s what I chose to do. I have a plan, so if you’ll bear with me, thank you, and I hope we can see it through together. ❤️ Plus, Din still just calls her *sigh* or “stop it!” 99% of the time, so…. 🤭

Xxx

Tags to come!

[chvoswxtch]

Hello my love! I love the way you write Frank (AND Matt, but im in a Frank mood tonight). I’m not sure if you’re taking requests rn, but if you are, I love to submit one!! Tbh I’m so sick of how douchey guys are these days on apps, and the “oh you just wanted a free meal” behavior and dating rn is the fucking worst. What’s your take on a situation where you’re friends with Frank and you complain about how badly men behave these days, and he offers to take you on a real date and treat you right? Bc I could use a Frank to rescue me and treat me right rn 😫

hello my darling! thank you so much, omg. you're too kind🥺

ok first of all when I say you are PREACHING to the damn CHOIR !!! I tried a few dating apps and I loathed every single one of them. straight up was not having a good time. it was an absolute travesty, so I feel for you so hard right now angel.

this is my first time doing a headcannon so this is super exciting and i'm happy we get to do this together!! because you absolutely DESERVE a frankie to rescue you and treat you right because you are a goddamn CATCH you are a GLOWING GODDESS and anyone should be so heckin LUCKY as to go on a date with you ❤️

headcannon is going to be below the cut bc y'all know I get carried away, especially with my baby frankie

frank castle & dating apps

first things first: frank castle is very old fashioned, so the idea of a dating app probably not only confuses the fuck out of him but also makes him grimace. like the man without a doubt hates texting, preferring an actual phone call instead, and most likely comes up with a million different threats to your security and worst case scenarios when you teach him about online dating

"don't you wanna meet someone the old fashioned way? how can you tell they're not a complete asshole just by a picture and a few words? what if they ain't who they say they are? you still got that knife I gave ya?"

frank already made you share your location with him a long time ago for safety reasons but now makes you text him the address of wherever it is you're going on these "dates" as well as check in with him every hour

he would probably be adamant about coming with you and sitting in a corner somewhere so he could keep an eye on you but you quickly shot that down bc it's frank and he's very hard to miss and you would have a hard time explaining to your date why that big guy across the room looks like he's seconds away from committing murder (you know exactly which look i'm talking about)

frank requests you send him a picture of whatever guy you're meeting just in case he needs to hunt him down find him if you don't check in or something happens, and never hesitates to offer a look of utter disdain and merciless judgment when you finally send it

"really? you're goin' on a date with this? the options on them apps that goddamn bad, sweetheart?"

frank is extremely shameless in verbally eviscerating every single guy you show him or tell him about and never misses an opportunity to make his opinions known

one night you storm into his apartment without knocking (a common occurrence he's finally gotten used to) and plop down next to him on the couch with a glass a wine (he made a mental note to keep the kind you like on hand at all times) and start to vent about your latest disaster date

the guy made you drive nearly an hour out of your way to meet him at a sketchy dive bar, spent the whole night talking about himself and cutting you off every time you spoke, and then had the AUDACITY to ask you to cover the tab because he "forgot" his wallet at home (this actually happened to me once)

frank can't take it anymore. this online dating thing has been going on for months and every time you vent to him about these assholes, it gets harder and harder for him to control his feelings for you because he's supposed to be your friend and the guys you've been going out with look nothing like him and as much as he wants to be with you, he's scared to ruin the one good thing he has. so, frank hatches a plan

"alright, I can't take this shit anymore. don't make plans friday night. we're goin' out."

he says it so nonchalantly, you almost don't catch what he means. you splutter out your wine, staring over at frank because there's no way he just asked you out on a date??? frank catches your look and offers a timid smile, reaching over to squeeze your knee gently

"relax. i'm just gonna show you what a real date should be like. you've been on so many shitty ones, I don't even know if you know what a good one is. let me help you raise your standards a bit."

let me tell you something, frank castle knows a thing or two about romance. this man goes ALL OUT. picking you up at your door (on time, early even), flowers in hand (your favorites bc he actually listens when you talk), is the most dressed up you've ever seen him (it's a dress shirt and jeans but he's usually covered in blood so), opens all the doors for you and pulls out your chair, takes you to a restaurant he knew you would love bc he knows your favorite dish & dessert, spends the whole night asking you questions about things he's always wanted to know about you, makes you laugh with silly jokes and stories, and tells you several times throughout the night how beautiful he thinks you look

you've always had a crush on frank (how could you not honestly) so you were a nervous wreck about the whole thing and what it meant for your friendship and if he was just doing this to be nice because he felt sorry for you or if he actually liked you back

but the date is not only the best one you've ever been on but also the easiest because it's frank and he's your best friend and you've never felt more comfortable or at ease with someone and when the check comes it makes your heart sink because you never want this date to end, even if it isn't real

the entire walk back to your apartment there's a palpable nervous energy between the two of you and his hands are in his pockets but you desperately wish they were holding yours and when you stop at your door there's a million thoughts racing through your head that you wanna say but the look in frank's eyes steals the oxygen straight out of your lungs

"listen I uh...know I said this was just to show you how a real date should be and what not, and I did mean that but...I really just wanted to show you how you should be treated ya'know. how...how I would treat you, if you'd let me. i'd give you the goddamn world if you asked, sweetheart. I don't know if I read tonight wrong, but I know I could be the right man for you, and I think you know that too. at least, I hope you do. there's nothin' I wouldn't do for you, honey. I understand if you don't feel the same way-"

you don't even let frank finish that sentence before you're dragging him down by his collar and crashing your lips together because holy shit frank, your frank, wants you just as much as you want him

needless to say you invite him up and show him just how much you want him despite his weak attempt at trying to continue to be a gentleman

"sweetheart, we can take it slow. I don't mind-" "frank I swear to god if you don't take your pants off right now, i'm never kissing you again." "yes ma'am."

[scary-senpai]

I saw the “first ten lines” game making the rounds and I felt like I deserved a treat.

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

I’m not tagging anyone but if you see this and you are so inspired, I’d be curious to read yours so feel free to DM or tag me even though I’ve already gone

1. When Saitama returned home from grocery shopping, he found his front yard looking significantly different from the way he had left it.

Fic: Holiday Hijinks

Fandom: One Punch Man.

Genre: Promptfic / Comedy of Errors.

2. “If you’re going to wear my clothes, at least wear them properly.”

Fic: everything’s pushing up daisies

Fandom: jujutsu kaisen

Genre: Promptfic / comedy of errors / flowershop + mafia AU

3. “…Garou?”

Fic: Collateral Damage

Fandom: One Punch Man

Genre: angst, cut with some dark humor because Charanko and Garou have like one brain cell between them when it comes to handling emotional situations with tact

4. How stupid he was, to grieve a scar of all things.

Fic: scars

Fandom: One Punch Man

Genre: angst, character study of Garou and Garou’s mom

5. You wake up with a stuffy nose, and the vague sensation of being watched.

Fic: Trolling for Soup

Fandom: Jujutsu Kaisen

Genre: humor, sfw sickfic (Gojo Satoru x Reader because I have a thing for white haired gremlin anime men)

6. Around 11:30am, Garou woke up because he was cold.

spoiler alert: he is cold because Saitama stole all his blankets to make a blanket fort.

Fic: I’m not that guy

Fandom: one punch man

Genre: comedy of errors, crack treated seriously, light angst bc my only superpower is existential angst it’s not abandoned but sometimes I look at it and think “bitch you wrote what???”

7. The wind whistled down the deserted alleyway, scattering trash in all directions.

Fic: “I knocked him unconscious, can I keep him?”

Fandom: one punch man

Genre: comedy

Aka the “Who put Garou on that pile of trash bags? And why is their garbage so heckin' tidy?” Fic spoiler alert: it was Saitama

8. “For the last time, did you put glitter in Bakugo’s cannons?”

Although my favorite line is probably the one in the ao3 summary (“Garou, every time you break into my house that is literally trespassing.” “No, Mr. Aizawa, that is literally Plus Ultra.”) it continues to be one of my favorite jokes I’ve ever written..

Fic: be the trouble you wish to see in the world

Fandom: one punch man / my hero academia crossover aka Garou is the first Quirkless student accepted by the Hero Department, and coincidentally the most mischievous student U.A. has ever seen.

Genre: comedy of errors

9. “Hold this.”

Fic: …and that was the Hero Association’s First (and Final) Festivus

Fandom: one punch man

Genre: comedy of errors, Promptfic, Drabble (kind of—4 chapters x 250 words each)

10. There are many Christmas monsters.

Fic: my favorite Christmas tradition is werewolves

Fandom: one punch man

Genre: comedy, drabble , Promptfic, I guess maybe you could say parody but more like what I feel to be a truly honest representative of the kind of homework assignments Garou turned in during primary school

[wtf-amiru]

here you go

Okay you little shits I guess I'm posting my incredibly self indulgent little fic here now so here it is. It references a lot of other writing i've done for myself before this that i'm real hesitant to post bc it's just a lot of ancient smut, i'm not even sorry. This one's mostly fluff and I'm removing the smut from it bc it's so little, the other one is mostly smut with some fluff sprinkled through and i won't apologize for it lmao but i'm not going to post it either, just pretend you understand the references or ask if you really can't figure it out, I can quote most of the references made, but the majority is heckin PRIVATE lmao

also fair warning that this is fully not even what i would consider first draft material, this is rougher than rough draft lol there's a ton of repetition and the like.

Anyway, here you go, it starts after Elpis, rambles on and on and doesn't fucking end bc i'm actually the worst :)

Returning home after Elpis was harder than she expected, doubly so having to see the first final days and those friends she was instantly so close to ripped away. It left her with that familiar feeling of empty helplessness that had plagued her when she were in Ishgard, she knew this time she had people to help but that didn't stop the pain.

Being shipped off to Garlemald to help fight abominations was a welcome distraction but the flight home was too long and too quiet. Her hands start to shake and her jaw clenches, she just had to make it back to the annex she reminds herself.

G'raha's keen eye notices her shaking hands and stiff back, "hey, are you okay?" He whispers as he wraps an arm around her and pulls her close. She shifts so that her ear is pressed against his chest as she shakes her head; his heart beating loudly in her ear helped calm and ground her but did nothing to ease the pain in her heart. He kisses the top of her head and holds her close as he gently coos to her. He knew the middle of the airship with 25 loporrits and the rest of the scions was probably not the place to help her with whatever had her so rattled and instead just..."let me help.....hold your mess together" Hades' voice echoes through her head and knowing he ended that day not knowing who she even was felt like getting shot. Tears stream down her face as she tries to hold the tide back and G'raha gently rocks her.

Nearly despondent, she lets him lead her back to their room in the annex once they arrive in Old Sharlayan. He gingerly removes her winter clothes and armor and puts her in one of his bigger t-shirts as she sits and sobs in bed, finally letting herself feel all the things she had to witness on her way home through time. He gently crawls in behind her and pulls her into his chest as she chokes out the events of the last few days. All the bad stuff first, the last day, Hermes wiping their memories, the meteia twisting into creatures of nihility, having to see those people walk out of that building not knowing who she was in the slightest and everything she saw on her journey home. Hythlodaeus walking away from Hades for the final time looking so sad and resigned, a people scared and running, unable to accept or acknowledge the growing discontent they were feeding meteion, and Venat, strong and tall, trudging through time and hell to prove that mankind, despite all of his shortcomings and faults, deserved to live.

He blinks back the tears that well in his eyes as he holds her tight, it was so much more than he had expected. Knowing the truth of the final days and the truth of the villains they had faced since, the truth of the ascians and the truth of Emet-Selch. "You are not alone or helpless, you know that right?" His voice was gentle but grounded and firm, there was no wiggling out and trying to carry this alone despite that being her first reaction. She nods and tries to take a deep breath but it hitches and only serves to drag out another sob. "She loved them so much, it hurts so bad, it feels like Ishgard all over again" she pulls at G'raha, pulls him around her, letting his warmth and scent flood her senses and remind her that she's herself again as she tells him of the better things. Meeting Hythlodaeus and Hades, feeling that love so strongly for the first time, really feeling Azem show up as a separate and distinct set of feelings in that place and he's fascinated. The only person in the world right now with any knowledge of how it felt to have two souls who maybe had separate thought processes and urges. He's proud of her for letting herself follow Azem's instincts to the end, knowing it was quite literally the only chance she'd have to see those people again for some long while. She struggles to comprehend and reconcile all of her feelings for Hades and Hythlodaeus and words fail her for a moment as she slips into her head, but he catches her and pulls her back out, "you don't have to figure them out right now, you have time, you have time."

He gently rocks her like Thancred used to when she had the shakes so bad in Ishgard and she notices the similarity. "...have you been hanging out with Thancred?" She asks quietly and hears the soft burst of a laugh in response, "you're sharp, we got sent off to help Corvos together with Estinien". With everything out of her she felt empty, hollow, the storm having raged through her. "You said he and Estinien helped you the most during....my time away, so he's been filling in the gaps while you've been gone and we've been traveling. I hope that's alright," and she is quick to nod her assurances before he can continue, "of course it is." Thancred was probably the best source of information when it came to her, probably better than she was herself.

Time came and went as she laid there in G'raha's arms but the cold ache in her stomach didn't lessen and the gnawing at the back of her mind wouldn't stop. "I'll be right back, I need to talk to him." She finally says and pushes up off his chest, or tries to, but his arms push her back down "he can come here, you're not going anywhere right now." He touches his ear and says a few words and she has to just let him care for her this time. She'd gotten so used to caring for him in the first as his body slowly turned to crystal, and helping him recover once he was back in the source. More than a few times he'd had to remind her that he's fine here, that's not going to happen to him here.

There's a soft knock at the door and Thancred's head pops through. He seems surprised to see her looking so devastated and she remembers that he wasn't there on her flight home, this was the first time she'd seen him since she got back and he manages to gently stride over and crouch in front of her at the edge of the bed. "Hey, is everything okay? You look like shit." She snorts as G'raha lets her off his chest to hug Thancred and she explains the familiar creeping chill in her chest, that too familiar pain. "Okay, well no more drinking of course, we should all try to refrain. I'll let the others know. Thank you for being so quick to catch this, we'll see you get through this like always." His words are soft and gentle as he ruffles her hair and she closes her eyes a moment. He stands back up and she lets herself fall back onto G'raha again as Thancred gives him a nod and leaves again. 

Now she could actually relax, wrapped in G'raha's arms as a quiet purr shakes out of her intermittently. "He means a lot to you," she nods her head, he did. "He's known me since I was a ratty little teenager" and she feels G'raha's chest shake with laughter behind her head, "I'll have to ask him about that, I have a hard time imagining you as ratty ever" he says, "you should, I was a little shit head" she smiles thinking about the several times she had tried to take a swing at Thancred in anger and how when she was a teenager he could literally just palm her fist away.  "Do you love him?" The question was honest and not the least bit accusatory and the smile falls off her face as she's forced to actually contemplate it. The silence that falls over the room is one without pressure or expectation. "In a way, I think I do" it comes out of her as almost a question. She'd absolutely be lying if she said she didn't, of that she's sure.

It's quiet and she shifts to look up at G'raha to see him smirking, hand moving to his ear, "you owe me 20 Gil" he whispers quietly with growing concern and panic as her eyebrows furrow and her mouth falls open in shock. "Raha Tia of the Gryphon tribe, what is the meaning of this?!" She feigns anger and shock but it was nice to see him giggling in a fit if she was being completely honest, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Ah! Hey!" He laughs as she pushes him into the bed under her. "I told you we had been travelling together! I wanted to know more about Ishgard and the more he told me, the more he spoke in general honestly, the more I couldn't shake the feeling that you had to have some feelings for him, the way you trust him to know what's best. He insisted no, because of course he did, but I knew you wouldn't hide it from me if I just asked you." His eyes stare up at her in sincerity and she lets herself deflate onto his chest once again. Today had been a lot, but she couldn't deny she felt lighter for it. "I really have to stop thinking I can hide anything from anyone ever, even if I don't even know it yet." She hears a soft chuckle as G'raha's arms wrap tight around her, "you sure have gotten bad at it, that's for certain. I remember not knowing a damn thing that was going on in your head when we first met." She snorts and lets her face squish against his chest, "I was a different person back then," "we both were."

She thinks back to those crystal tower days, to being so frustrated by her distracting emerging feelings and taking it out on G'raha in response, to listening to him tell her tall tales of Allagan history, and to falling asleep against him in the ruins as he spoke. "G'raha?" She keeps her head down but feels his lift to look at her, "I'm hungry" she replies quietly and holds her laughter in until after G'raha had burst out laughing. "Fair enough, let's head over to the last stand then."  She whines at the thought of putting clothes on to go outside but pulls shorts and sandals on, keeping G'raha's soft t-shirt on; she wishes she had Thancred's jacket but she doesn't have it in her to figure out those feelings right in this moment, she just wanted something to eat and to rest.

Over their visit to the Last Stand both Urianger and Y'shtola stop by, to check on her she suspects; Urianger brings a thermos of tea and one of his worn cardigans, her favorite, and she slips into it immediately.  When they're done eating and visiting, G'raha walks back to the annex with her but sends her into their room alone, he was going to talk to Thancred, who they both agreed was probably loosing his mind after G'raha's cryptic message from earlier trying to figure out what it meant. She kisses him before he goes and retires into their room, flopping into bed and staring at the ceiling. A lot had happened in the handful of hours she had been back and she goes over it again in her head.

Thancred and her feelings for him. They're not the same as the feelings she has for G'raha. If G'raha was her calm point in the storm, Thancred was her mooring line keeping from straying too far into the storm. He reminded her of Hades that last morning she was in Elpis, strong walls to keep her safe.

She crosses her arms over her face and groans, the world was ending and she was wondering what it'd be like to kiss her friend. "Hey, none of that now." She hears G'raha's voice from the door and just groans louder, curling up on her side as he laughs at the spectacle. She peaks out from her crossed arms and checks the door, no Thancred; probably good, she just wanted to rest tonight, not sort the mess in her head. "He needed time to process, you do too. No thinking, the doctor is prescribing only rest." He kicks his pants off into the corner and slips out of his shirt before dimming the lights to only the lamps within reach of bed. He crawls into bed and pulls her with him, curling her into his arms. "I missed you," she says quietly into his chest and already her eyes felt heavy. She feels soft lips on her forehead and reaches up to sleepily kiss G'raha, hand on his cheek.

Kissing him was like following a path back to herself, reminded her that she was herself, not Azem; she was in control of this body and mind. She lingers in the kiss, lips barely touching as her eyes drift close. "Get some sleep A'miru, I'll be here when you wake." He whispers as he pulls her in. "Tell me stories, like you used to in The Find" She says quietly and hears the sound of a soft chuckle, "of course..."

Sleep takes her almost immediately as G'raha starts talking and as a mercy she doesn't dream at all that night. For once sleep is peaceful and restful. She wakes the next morning fully sprawled out across G'raha who's already awake but just barely. She loved seeing him sleepy, it was one of her favorite things, it was so cute but she was never up early enough to see it. She reaches up to touch his face and his hand holds hers against his cheek as he purrs under her. "Did you sleep well?" He croaks, voice thick with sleep still. She nods and gives him a small kiss before snuggling back into his chest, "hey now, no no no, we're waking up, not going back to sleep." He's laughing as she groans and wraps the blankets tight around herself, refusing to let go as he tries to uncover her. "Come on," he grunts as he pushes her up to sit and she lets out a huff as she admits defeat. "Fine..." She yawns, stretches and seriously gives thought to just laying back down now that he was up and out of bed. "Coffee and breakfast will be waiting in common room." He reminds and she perks up, "coffee...they didn't have coffee in Elpis" G'raha laughs, "that must've been rough."

He's already clothed with his hair combed and braided by the time she finally gets up off the bed, not bothering to get dressed before being half pushed out of the room in her pajamas by G'raha, his hand on the small of her back.

Breakfast that morning was just coffee, warm and creamy and sweet. She leaves the common room feeling more awake and mostly herself again. Back to work. Back to figuring out these feelings of hers. Speaking of, Thancred was suspiciously absent from breakfast and she wonders if he's ok or if yesterday really has him rattled today. She should check on him. She stares at his door just a few down from hers, building up the courage to go knock on it, what would she even say? She contemplates it as she stares at the door, which opens, snapping her out of her inner monologue. She groans maybe a little too loudly and rushes into her room as Thancred steps out of his. Stupid feelings making her stupid and spacy again, why couldn't she just say it? She never was good with words though, picking the right ones took more time than she'd like and it was frustrating.

Thancred stands in the hall just outside of his room slightly stunned and very confused. He could've sworn he just heard a cranky A'miru rush into her room as he stepped out and wonders what that might be about. He shrugs it off though and continues down the hallway and outside. Once outside he wanders off down the path to quietly figure out how he felt about the information G'raha had so casually given him.

He felt....conflicted in a way, caught between his feelings and his responsibilities in a way that was not unfamiliar to him.

He thinks back to when he first met her. "Met" wasn't exactly the right word, more like caught. A frantic chase through the streets of Ul'dah as she ran from him after pick-pocketing someone's coin purse right out from under their nose without anyone but him even noticing. He'd chased her into a corner in a back ally and grabbed her as she was attempting to literally climb up the side of the building onto the roof. Reminded him of himself.

He'd pushed her against the wall with one hand as he took the coin purse from her and she'd kicked and growled at him. He'd noticed how rail thin and dirty she'd been and unpocketed the coin purse, giving her a handful of coins from it. "Get something to eat, visit the baths and save the rest. I catch you doing this again and it's going to be bad for you, don't make me regret this." He'd growled at her before walking off again.

Except she did. More than a handful of times over the next few months he repeated much the same chase through the alleys of Ul'dah, each time getting longer and longer as she corrected her mistakes and found faster routes out of sight and up high. Until finally he caught her stealing the most garish hat and dragged her kicking and screaming to the rogue's guild leader in Limsa; that was not a fun flight. "Jacke, she's making my life hell but she's good. Please, for the sake of my sanity help me out here."

He wasn't sure it was an improvement but at least in the guild she was given a reason to use those skills, and it seemed to work. When she came back to Ul'dah he spent less time looking for that little shit head thief and more time spotting her actively at work.

The day he saw her hit the bricks because of the echo he was surprised and also not at all surprised; she'd had all that natural skill since day one, of course it was her.

And the rest was history, sort of. She became part of the scion family so to speak, never really attached to anyone closely, like this was just another job for her. And so that's how he treated her, like a new co-worker, showing her the ropes.

Thancred wanders aimlessly away from the annex vaguely towards Neumenon and finds himself on a bench under a tree overlooking Sharlayan's harbour, cool sea breeze on his face.

When did it start? If he could pinpoint when he started feeling the way he did about her he could figure out the why of it, or at least that's what he told himself. He pulls his hands over his face and groans, admitting that they'd festered there for too long to know. At some point she had attached herself to him so firmly, he was her best friend and she was his. He'd grown to know her so well as to be able to read her emotions and troubles from across the room.

He'd watched her fall in love for the first time with G'raha in Mor Dhona, proud that she had finally found her person. And he had watched her fall apart in Ishgard, helped her pull herself back from the depths of pain and heartbreak. Was that it? The adamant refusal to sit and let her wallow and stay in that place, the refusal to see her hurt that bad again. Was that when it started?

He sighs and looks up at boughs above him. It had hurt his heart so much last night to walk into that room and see her drifting back to that place; whatever she had seen in the first, or wherever she had gone this time, must've been bad if it sent her back there but he was glad G'raha was there to catch her.

But she called him. She had called for him as soon as she felt it creeping back in; it was him that she trusted her weaknesses with, to know what the right thing to do for her wellbeing was. That had to mean something; he had to admit the paths were there if he had a mind to look for them.

All the time he spent regretting staying behind so she could escape, leaving her lost and alone in Ishgard. What would have happened if he'd been there to help her and keep her out of the bottle? But then would she be here calling on him at the first sign of trouble, would she trust him as much as she does? Did she need to break to be the vibrant shock of life she is now?

The questions piled up in his mind under that tree until he heard footsteps approaching. Turning, he spots G'raha walking up, two to go cups in his hands. "In the famous words of...well you, you look like shit." G'raha sits next to him, handing him one of the cups. "Nice view," he comments taking in the view of the harbour. "I hadn't noticed" Thancred quietly replies as he leans forward , resting his elbows on his knees. G'raha sighs and takes a long sip of his coffee before speaking, "you're thinking about it too much." "That's rich coming from you" Thancred snorts in reply and G'raha laughs wholeheartedly. "Yeah, that's fair, but learn from my mistakes, don't make it complicated. If you love her, and she loves you that's all the information you need, isn't it? We can figure the rest out as we go." Thancred sits back on the bench and turns to G'raha, "how are you so blasé about this?"  G'raha laughs and looks into his coffee, "being over 300 years old and dating, well, a chaotic gremlin, I'm learning to roll with the punches." He contemplates for a second, eyes still down in his coffee, "plus it's not like you're hard on the eyes so what am I complaining about." He says it so calmly, you'd never know his stomach was doing summersaults. G'raha takes a drink of his coffee and stands before Thancred can say anything, "well, I'm off, think about it. Or rather don't, we don't know what we're doing either and it's not like we're going to be afforded a surplus of time these days ."

And off he walked, just like that. That hadn't helped at all, he thinks as he sinks down into the bench. He did make one good point though, with an event literally called the final days actually happening right now this may be one of the last few times they had the opportunity to admit their feelings. If not now, when?

Time and time again life had proven that good things do not always come to those who wait and wonder, they come to those who act.

Maybe just once, he could let himself have this one thing.

With quiet resignation and no small amount of fear and trepidation Thancred sighs and gets up from the bench. This was not going to be resolved by waxing poetic on a park bench, or over analyzing every tiny detail.

***

(PLEASE PRETEND THE ROOMS HAVE A SMALL BATH AND A LIL HEARTH PLEASE THANK YOU)

The door squeaks as G'raha pushes through it and slips in while she's in the bath, "oop, I'm so sorry! I'll give you the room." He still got flustered and panicked sometimes and it was very endearing. "Don't even think about it, I'm almost done anyway." She sinks down in the water as he comes to sit beside the tub. She was done and had been for a while now but the water was warm and quiet and still and helped her sort through your mind. "How are you feeling today?" His voice is quiet and soft like a cloud as he sits on the floor next to the tub and rests his head next to hers. "Good, tired but better. Like I poured my entire self out last night and am slowly filling back up. Still trying figure out what to say." She stares at a tiny spot on the ceiling, if she could figure out the right thing to say to Thancred she could relax and just tell him how she felt. But what were the right words, they never come to her like they do G'raha, they require careful planning. "God's you two are exactly the same. YOU taught me to follow my heart, to speak up and reach for the things I want, yet neither one of you can get out your head enough to do it yourself." She pouts and opens her mouth to protest "that's -" "RICH COMING FROM ME, I KNOW." He's almost shouting in frustration and something about it makes her smile. "I was going to say mean, but you're not wrong." She laughs and gives him a peck on his forehead.

"Do you remember back in the Find? All those times I'd have to leave to go be the champion of Eorzea" G'raha makes a face, like he doesn't understand what this has to do with anything. "Of course, you'd always come back grouchier than you left" he laughs, remembering all the harmless terror she had inflicted upon him those days. "I'd always come back after I had rationalized my feelings away, convinced myself that they were anomalous, or just plainly not real. I'd come back and all that work I spent convincing myself would shatter as soon as I was back and it pissed me off." She smiles, the memories were fond now, no longer painful reminders. "All of that to say you're right, I know, I should talk to him." His face is soft as he watches her blink up at the ceiling. "You always say choosing the right words is hard, but I think you are very good at communicating how you feel. You just did now, you did last night when you got home and when I called Thancred in for you. Why is it you can tell him about that cold clawing in your stomach but not the feelings in your heart?" She groans and lets herself slip below the water, he reminded her of Hythlodaeus that first day. "I wish to understand your hesitation" it echoes through her mind and stills her for a moment. Just be honest, like she had been in Elpis, like she had been last night and every other time she'd leaned on Thancred to stay okay, it didn't have to be any more complicated than that.

She bursts out of the water, startling G'raha, and only splashes a little bit of water on him as she leans over to kiss him quickly before grabbing her towel and standing, wrapping it around herself. "As usual, you're right, I should go talk to him. Thank you." She kisses him one more time before striding towards the door. "I don't think having that conversation naked is going to end the way you think it will," she hears from behind her and without breaking stride she wheels around back towards the bed; right, clothes first then courage. G'raha laughs from the table as she quickly dresses and throws on her boots before turning to look at him "go" he urges with a smile and shoos her out of the room.

She can't stop moving, if she stopped she'd never get herself going again. The problem was it was already mid-morning and she had exactly 0 idea where Thancred would be. She manages to ask Ojika if they've seen him on her way by and only gets that he'd left quite a bit earlier and hadn't been back since; must've been when she had seen him in the hallway. Well shit. She picks up the pace, jogging towards the door to swing it open. Except it's already moving and she slams into Thancred's chest as he walks in from outside. "I found Thancred," she hears Ojika announce with a laugh from behind her, "mhmm, thanks Ojika" she grumbles weakly as she peels herself off of Thancred's armor. "Looking for me?" He says with only about half of his usual cockiness. "Yeah, actually. Can we..." She points outside and he nods, "yeah" and follows her out.

He lets her lead him through town to a tiny ledge overlooking one of the rivers without question or hesitation and a silence falls over them as they sit listening to the water.  "I don't know how to start this," she whispers quietly in defeat and Thancred snorts, "don't look at me because I don't either." A soft chuckle escapes her, "at least we're on the same page there....are you okay?" She stares up at the one whisp of a cloud in the sky as it drifts, "Am I okay? Really? You just got back from time traveling and you're asking if I'm okay?" She laughs out loudly, point taken, "shut up and answer the question already." She pushes his shoulder and leans back against the cliff behind her. "Yes, yes, I'm okay if a little taken aback is all. I didn't believe G'raha when he posited the theory, I couldn't. But he was so calm and clinical about it, no jealousy or anger, just an astute observation in your pattern of behavior...he loves you a lot you know?" It wasn't often Thancred spoke like this, even to her so she stays quiet and listens, only blushing and nodding when he speaks of G'raha's love for her. She pulls her knees up to her chest and leans her head against them, looking at Thancred. "When? How?..Why?!" He's exasperated trying to figure it all out. "Thancred I just spent 5 days in a place where there are no rules around relationships because they lived so long. Azem had two partners there and I met them both, felt their love for her. That kind of carefree love that comes easy because there are no expectations. It kind of forces things into perspective when you leave that to return to something so finite and on the edge that you don't know if you'll even see tomorrow. These feelings had been there a while, I never thought to look for them until G'raha brought it up and I had to admit I'd be lying if I said no. When is the better time when time is not guaranteed?"

G'raha had pretty thoroughly gone over what she had been through in the first, in Elpis, last night but hearing her say it made it true, real. He wanted to kiss her so bad, to fold her into his arms and keep her safe. She did too much, gave too much too easily, but he swallows it down, tucks it away from sight like he was so used to doing with everything he wanted. "G'raha said much the same thing when I saw him this morning, and I can't deny the truth in it. Even now tomorrow is not guaranteed, we could wake up to the sky on fire." He's quiet, pensive, like he's arguing with himself and she's only seeing half of it. She reaches out and touches his wrist, gentle, like he'd do to her those nights she got so lost in herself, and his head snaps up to her. "It's okay to not know Thancred, there doesn't always have to be an answer to all the questions. I'm telling you, it's okay."

He turns to her, brows furrowed and eyes soft, and his hand touches her cheek, guides her up to him like he was finally going to kiss her but he pauses. He lingers there, breathing...thinking "Thancred...if you have feelings for me at all you better kiss me right now or I'm-" his lips press against hers tentatively and softly like he wasn't sure he was doing it correctly or...like it was important, like he didn't want to mess it up. It makes her smile, "I didn't expect you'd be so shy, mister ladies man." She smiles against his lips as he fully deflates in an instant. "Don't, I hate that coming from you" he groans and she laughs, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I'm going to be honest, I fully don't know what I'm doing." He leans back against the cliff, taking her with him. "I never know what I'm doing, especially when it comes to this stuff," she says quietly "I'm not sure that's a comfort." And she can finally hear him smile again as she gives him a shove and he lets out a small chuckle.  "I do know that I don't want to do this without you and G'raha with me, and I'm trying really hard not feel selfish." There's a beat of silence, "I think he called me hot this morning," Thancred says quietly and she bursts out laughing, "aww I'm so proud, he must've been dying inside." She'd spotted the affection in his words as he explained himself under her the night before and had wondered if maybe she'd had been imagining it. Guess not. "I don't know, he was pretty calm about it."

"did he leave immediately afterwards?"

"pretty much"

"dying inside"

Thancred finally let's himself laugh and she enjoys it, he needed to relax more. "It doesn't bother you?" She knew it didn't, she just wanted to hear him say it. "You know the answer to that already...in fact....didn't we talk about this one time after you first met him? When we were really drunk?" She snorts and laughs as she recalls the night in a Limsa pub he's talking about. Both trashed after a job and dishing on her new crush and how frustratingly attractive he was. She retreats into herself a moment and like a trained professional Thancred immediately spots it. "Oh, hey, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be bringing that up right now" but she shakes her head, "no it's fine, it was just...it all seemed so big back then and now look at us. Literally at the end of things....with rabbits from the moon....", "I still can't believe it, especially the rabbits part." He wraps an arm around her and pulls her closer. "We can figure this out as we go..." he quietly confirms and she laces her fingers through his as they sit there listening to the water rushing below.

G'raha was off at the library today, in the parts she was not allowed to go and Krile had ensured that her schedule was remarkably empty so she 'settled' for following Thancred and Urianger around, sprinkled with intermittent naps against Thancred as he went about his day. Time travel really knocked it out of her, she hadn't felt this tired since she came back from the first, at least that's what she told herself. So she takes the time she's been given and lets herself rest while tagging along. It was nice to get out and also rest and also get to spend time with Thancred without any pressure.

By the end of the day she'd stolen Thancred's jacket and a cardigan from Urianger and was lounging around in her gown of warm comfort in the main hall of the annex. "You look comfy," G'raha was back from the library and she makes her way over to him. She wraps her arms around his waist and lets her forehead thud against his chest as Thancred watches from the other side of the room. "I'm so tired, never make me time travel again," and a laugh bubbles out of both G'raha and Thancred. "I wouldn't dare," he laughs and ruffles her hair. "Have you had dinner?" The question isn't directed at her, she looks up to see it's directed at Thancred and he shakes his head at the same time she does.

The decision is made to pick up food for dinner instead of going out and Urianger and Y'shtola decide to join, then the twins and Krile, and finally Alphinaud drags Estinien in against his will, making it a crowded and full night in with the scions in their room.  She falls asleep surrounded and comforted by her closest friends, against Estinien's arm as Y'shtola talks about something that she was researching. 

No one notices at first, she'd been quiet since she had gotten back and often was anyways. Estinien gently places her into bed and the rest of the scions finish their food a few decibels quieter and take their leave, leaving just G'raha and Thancred.

"I take it you talked finally?" G'raha was contented, if a bit worried at how tired and sleepy she appeared to be today. Thancred nods and glances at the sleeping body wrapped up in his coat, it'd been such a strange start to an otherwise normal day. So many things ran through his head, all of the information he'd processed today and it was actually allowing himself to have this thing he'd wanted for so long that rattled him so hard. He'd tucked those feelings away for so long he'd almost forgotten they existed.

Thancred blinks and pulls himself out of his own head to look at G'raha again, he notices the peaked furrowed brow and look of concern being cast toward her. "What's got you troubled?" He asks and G'raha glances back at him. "Should we be worried about how much she's sleeping? It seems an awful lot..." Thancred hadn't expected such an honest answer, though he wasn't sure why. "No..." He starts, he places a hand on G'raha's back, "it's how she processes grief," he feels G'raha's shoulders slump, "she would have been much worse had you not been there for her, G'raha. We can't protect her from feeling." It was a lesson he'd struggled to learn himself over the years and seemed pertinent now especially. "She'll be okay, just wait, she'll be kicking my ass soon enough." G'raha snorts. The words made sense in his head but he couldn't help but worry a small amount. He was glad Thancred had agreed to be pulled in to this, he knew so much about her, had known her so long that if he said she'd be okay G'raha could trust that. Thancred had been there before and while he had been away, he'd seen her at probably her worst. He was someone G'raha could trust to know when she was and wasn't okay and it was comforting to have him around since G'raha had to admit he was prone to worrying. "We should get her out of that coat..." And Thancred snorts, "honestly not sure how she's sleeping it, it's kind of a lot." Together they manage to get Thancred's coat off of her without waking her and decide she can keep the long cardigan from Urianger on.

G'raha's in bed before Thancred, leaving him to crawl in against the wall, almost feeling like an intruder. He lays there with his back against the wall looking at her barely lit by the moon through the open window, with G'raha's broad shoulders behind her and his arm over her waist. He had a certain...reputation, he'd earned it over the years and had never regretted any of his decisions but he'd developed certain habits; staying the night wasn't usually one of them, not sober at least. He didn't want this to be like that, she was important, he couldn't just run away from her in the middle of the night. "Thancred get out of your head and c'mere." Her eyes are still closed but her arms are outstretched towards him so he slides over, lets her pull him close and rest her head on his chest.  "We'll be here when you wake" he hears G'raha whisper quietly before a purr rumbles out of her followed shortly by a deeper rumble from behind her and together the white noise pulls Thancred to sleep as well as he contemplates how quickly all of this had happened.

When he wakes next the room is much lighter and G'raha is slipping out of bed, rolling A'miru onto him as he does. Thancred makes a sleepy, half awake noise as he pulls her closer and looks up at G'raha and he had to admit, Thancred was adorable when he was sleepy like this, "I'm just going for a shower, if someone's not here when she wakes she'll panic." Thancred nods and quickly goes back to sleep holding her close as G'raha slips out of the room.

Thancred is awoken again some time later by a stirring in his arms as A'miru barely wakes and pushes against his chest. "Mmmm, where's..." She groggily pushes away from him and looks around. "He went for a shower, he's fine," and he has to smile as she nods and is back to sleep before she's even laying down again. "Should be waking up," he coaxes and she whines into his chest her disagreement. He can't help it, he can't argue with her like this, sleepy and curled up and adorable. It was too new, too cute, it felt like a gift just for him, so he pulls her close and holds her tight as they drift back to sleep. For a moment at least, until he remembers that today the forum was finally taking them underground. He groans, they have to get up. "Hey, hey we have to get up" her face scrunches up and she pulls the blankets up around her. Thancred laughs and peels the blankets back off of her, "come on, they're taking us underground today, we can't be late." He pulls her face out from her arms, he wants to kiss her, slow and soft until she's awake, but he's not there yet, he's not used to letting himself have this thing he wanted yet. So he settles for kissing her forehead, having to push her bangs out of the way. "Your hair is....wild." he laughs and glances at the mess as she stirs, "oooh I fell asleep before I could braid it" she whines and finally blinks open her eyes to look at him. "Good morning," she smiles at him, smiles because of him, and doesn't hesitate as she pulls him in for a kiss and he follows her. Let's her lead him down that path before she pulls away, smiling with his face in her hands. "I could get used to this," he says quietly against her lips and she laughs. "Did you sleep okay?" She sits up, rubbing her eyes and stretches as he follows close behind, pulling himself to sit beside her on the edge of the bed. "Yeah, once you and G'raha were purring the drone knocked me right out." She rests her hand on his leg next to hers and Thancred rests his hand over top. "It's a lot for you isn't it," her words are quiet, almost ashamed. "Yes, it is" he admits and she looks up at him concerned. "but none of this is new to me," he smiles at her comfortingly and wraps an arm around her. "I am fine, I'll be fine. None of this is new, just unpracticed." He kisses the top of her head before getting up and finding his clothes.

Unabashedly, she watches him dress. This wasn't the first time she'd slept in the same bed with Thancred. During the dragonsong war and in Ishgard she used to slip into his bed in the middle of the night when she couldn't sleep. It kept her home, out of the pubs and taverns. She had needed another body to feel okay, someone to keep her accountable. It wasn't romantic, or sexual, she'd sneak into his bed so that he'd stop her from going out or when she hurt too much to sleep and needed to know she wasn't alone.

She's up on her feet, striding over to him before she knows it and is wrapping her arms around his waist. "Whoa, hey, hey...." Thancred softens as she hugs him with her head on his chest and he let's himself reciprocate. "Everything alright?" He chuckles down at her and she nods, "I'm really happy" she admits so plainly it almost catches him off guard and he lets himself smile, "hey," he hooks a finger under her chin and pulls her face to look at his, "I am too," he says quietly before kissing her.

Thinking of the actions was different than actually doing them himself. He'd spent the last day wanting to make the move to kiss her and hesitating, so used to not being allowed to act on those feelings that this one small kiss felt like a type of victory he'd yet to taste. It felt right.

"Well at least one of you is dressed," G'raha's in the door with damp hair and a tray of to go cups. "Coffeeeee" A'miru excitedly groans and hurries over as both Thancred and G'raha laugh. "Gmorning babe," she presses onto the balls of her feet to kiss G'raha's cheek as he hands her the coffee that likely has "too much cream and too much sugar" according to other people. "Sleep well?" He asks her as he hands Thancred the third cup, setting the tray down on the table, and she nods with a small "mhmm" into her coffee. "And you?" He looks to Thancred who seems only slightly surprised, "oh, yes" he nods as A'miru hurries off to get dressed and G'raha gives him a quick smile. 

"Sorry to leave you with the hardest job first thing in the morning," G'raha laughs as they move to sit down at the table and Thancred shakes his head. "Oh, she wasn't that bad this morning, really." There's laughter from behind the changing partition, "don't listen to him, if he hadn't remembered where we were going today we'd absolutely still be sleeping," Thancred slumps at the table with a sigh, "she's not wrong..." He admits and G'raha bursts out laughing. "Yes, that sounds about right." He agrees with a laugh as she emerges from behind the screen dragging a brush through her hair before tying it up.

Seeing her emerge and grab her coffee, Thancred and G'raha open the door and head out. They make it a few steps before they notice that A'miru had stopped in the doorway, passing her coffee cup slowly from one hand to the other as her tail swishes back and forth quickly. "Miru?" G'raha calls and using her short name snaps her out of it but she looks concerned. "What's wrong?" Thancred's quick to follow up. She looks back down at her hands, and the others do as well. "I don't have enough.." she says quietly, staring into her coffee to hide the flush from her face and the two males look at each other in confusion, "enough what?" G'raha asks gently, moving to put a hand on her back but she just bristles and glares up at him, "I don't have enough hands!" She blurts out in frustration and it takes a second before Thancred bursts out laughing. "Can't hold your coffee and both of our hands, can you?" He's answered by a glare, which only makes him laugh harder as G'raha giggles and solves the problem by throwing his arm around her shoulders and Thancred grabs her free hand. "Problem solved." G'raha says and kisses the top of her head and she huffs as they make their way down the hallway and towards what was sure to be an exciting day of discovery down below the actual city.

And boy what a day was, when A'miru got back to the annex her whole body was tired and she was starving. "I need foooooood," she complains as she drags Thancred back out of the annex toward the Last Stand and he smiles.

Kokkol had kept G'raha fairly busy at the forge so he had decided to stay in a room down there so he could finish what he needed to quicker, the lifts did take a while to traverse. Normally she would have just stayed down there as well but G'raha had encouraged her to spend the night at home, he hadn't wanted to risk waking anyone with any odd hours, he wanted her to get good rest right now and after she had told him what Thancred had said that morning he figured it would be a good opportunity to have some quality time with him, make sure he was handling things okay and she'd agreed; he'd seemed overwhelmed.

At the last stand they find a quiet table in the back corner, order their food and, as always, Thancred is surprised at how much A'miru can pack away.

"Can we go for a walk or something? The sun is still out."  She's looking out over the water at the sun that's lazily making its way through the early evening sky and Thancred nods his head, "yeah, I've got an idea, come on." He says with a mischievous smile as she slips her hand into his on the way out.

He leads her away from the last stand and back towards the annex, past it towards Neumenon but past that too, to a fence.  With a quick glance around to make sure no one was looking he hops up and over the fence, "come on, before someone sees" he and with a grin she hops the fence, making it look easier than he had. "Where are we going?" She asks quietly as they walk away from the fence, "somewhere I used to sneak away to when I was younger," he smiles. A'miru had forgotten he had all but grown up here in Sharlayan, she'd met him in Ul'dah and found him again in Ul'dah when she'd returned from Limsa, he was so transitory and good at settling in she forgot he wasn't actually from Ul'dah at all.

Thancred leads her around some buildings, through an overgrown meadow and a ridge of trees to what looked like an abandoned yard. They jump over another fence, stone this time and wind their way back along the edge of what appeared to actually be some sort of abandoned park, or garden. She could see the vague outline of a fountain under all the brush and there were paving stones peaking out here and there. "Thancred, what is this place?" Her steps slow a moment as she takes in her surroundings. "It's an old public park that was closed...gods, a while before master Louisoix brought me back here. Someone purchased the land and closed it for work or something, but never did anything with it for whatever reason, but come, this isn't our destination." He cracks another mischievous smile before turning and pulling her along with him.

Finally, he pushes through a small opening in the brush and holds the branches out of the way so that she can follow. "Admittedly, it was a lot easier to get out here when I was smaller..." He trails off as he watches her emerge and take in her surroundings.

What A'miru sees is remarkable. Her mouth drops open slightly as she steps away from Thancred. "Thancred this is..." She hadn't realized how far up they had gone. Stepping out from the walls of the garden she had emerged next to a beautifully overgrown gazebo on a grassy cliff looking out over the ocean as the sun set. She couldn't see or hear the city anymore, only the wind and the ocean below.

"I used to come here when I was younger and needed to clear my head...which happened to be frequently." He chuckles softly as he follows her out into the sun again. He touches the small of her back and she turns to him, eyes wide like this had been a surprise he'd been planning for days. "It's beautiful..." She moves away from him, slipping her hand back into his and pulling him with her towards the vine covered gazebo with a broken roof.

"Here..." he lets go of her hand and slips his jacket off, placing it on the warm sunny patch of the gazebo floor before sitting down and pulling her with him. She settles in between his legs and leans back against him as he wraps his arms around her.

They sit in silence like that, watching the sun gradually dip in the sky before she speaks again, "I know I keep asking you this but," and Thancred exhales with a sigh, knowing what was coming, "are you actually okay?" She shifts to look up at him as he gazes out over the cliff. "I don't know how to explain my....apprehension isn't quite the right word...a good portion of my life has been spent around you." He glances down at her in his arms, kisses her forehead, "It's funny how you can have feelings for someone and not really realize it until someone asks you if they exist." "Tell me about it," she says with a wistful smile, intimately familiar with that feeling right now as well. "I'm okay, I promise you, I am. But you know me, you know I've not been one for real relationships for...well...not really ever." He glances down at her blinking up at him, no judgement or prejudice directed his way. "Never?" She asks quietly, "once, it didn't end well, it was my fault." Of course he'd say it was his fault, she thought to herself, he had always blamed everything on himself, too loyal to see fault in anyone else in those situations. She shifts and turns in his arms so she's facing his right and he doesn't even need to shift to support her back against his arm. "I'm not accustomed to..." He pauses trying to figure out the words but A'miru continues for him, "having what you want?" and the look that Thancred gives her is both confirmation and confusion, "I've known you for some few years too, Thancred. I've watched you do nothing but turn away from the things you actually want since I met you." Hearing someone he cared about point it out so plainly hurt, but in a way that almost felt good, like if he admitted it now he could finally move past it. He nods, "I had a job to do and relationships were...complicated, more complicated than I had the time for. No, than I would give time for. It was really easy to explain away at the time." He trails off as he stares at a slowly drifting cloud.

Thancred reminded A'miru of herself before she met G'raha. Before he broke away the exterior and found her, showed her passion for life and people. Except Thancred wasn't aloof and closed in like she had been, he was outgoing and had been with partners before, he wasn't shy about it either, she'd watched him wander off with tavern goers on several occasions. She'd watched him with Minfilia, unsure if there was love or obligation there, perhaps both. Whatever it was or wasn't she'd watched Thancred torture himself over it, even more so after she had gone and he was left to look after Ryne before she was Ryne in a completely different world.

They had both been very practiced at explaining away their feelings.

"I think at some point I just stopped trying, not sure you could say I ever was trying. It became too big a thing to consider, too much effort, so I just kept on doing what I knew and what was easy until that banquet in Ul'dah. That kind of..." He trails off as his eyes close and he exhales. "Yeah, I know" Her voice is quiet, almost a whisper as she rests her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest. That night was bad for both of them, for all of them. The night Minfilia was truly plucked from them and scions were scattered to the winds. "I'm so sorry I sent you off on your own..." She's already shaking her head and pushing off his chest before he can finish, "Thancred don't. Don't you blame that on yourself, no one had a plan for that situation, no one knew the right thing to do. You don't get to put that on you. Hey," She touches the side of his face, directs it towards her so he has to look at her. "That wasn't your fault, you saved my life that day, and Alphinaud's. What happened after was not your doing." His eyes are sad as they look into hers, as she pulls him in to kiss him. "Please don't blame yourself for what happened to me, no one could have done any better." She lays back on his shoulder, one arm behind him. "I'm not proud of my actions in Ishgard, it's a mercy Estinien is as stoic as he is that he doesn't ever mention any of it. That being said, I'm glad, no, that time doesn't make me glad, but I'm not sure I could have survived the first if I hadn't gone through that. I knew that was G'raha as soon as I saw him, he's a really terrible liar." That makes Thancred chuckle, "He really is." "But watching him get shot, everything that came after, watching him turn to crystal, even the liberation before that, I don't think I could have done it had I not been through that shit in Ishgard with you guys. You saved my life so many times over that day." He holds her close and rocks her as the sun sets, setting the ocean on fire with yellow and orange reflections. "You saved my life in Ul'dah too. You've been saving my ass since day one." She lets out a laugh as she realizes the truth in her words. "You were a little shit in Ul'dah," He doesn't look at her but she can hear him smiling. "I know, G'raha doesn't believe me." He looks down at her, smiling, and she takes the opportunity to steal a kiss. "You made my life a living hell in Ul'dah you know." She laughs and looks at him sheepishly, "I did it on purpose so...yeah." Thancred can't help but laugh as he rolls his eyes, "of course you did, why am I even surprised." She giggles and cuddles into his chest. "You were the first person to show me any sort of kindness that first day you let me go and...I don't know how to explain it, I had to keep seeing if you'd keep doing it, if you'd keep letting me go or finally take me in....plus you were cute." He snorts, "Were? You wound me." And she can't help but laugh, there he was again, the Thancred she was used to. "Oh no, now you are very handsome, not cute at all." With a smile she reaches a hand up to pull him down to kiss her, long and slow.

When he finally pulls away, just barely, he's panting; he doesn't want to do this here, not yet. Not while he was still getting used to giving himself permission just to have her, it still felt like stealing. "Not now, I can't -" She presses her lips against his softly one last time before letting him go to look up at him. "Take the time you need, Thancred. I'm not going anywhere any time soon, unless you want me to?" His arms tighten around her and she smiles as she lays against his chest, "I'll take that as a no." She could hear his heart racing, could practically feel it against her arm, but it slows to it's regular pace over time as the moon rises behind them.

"We should head back," A'miru pipes up finally after almost nodding off while they pointed out made up constellations to each other, she'd forgotten how tired she still was. "Yeah, it's getting late, c'mon." He helps push her up onto her feet and stands up after her, slipping back into his coat.

Together they make their way back to town, only he leads her not to the annex but past it. "I-...but-....okay" She doesn't put much effort into her protest despite her growing exhaustion. He leads her through the dark town and to a building she'd never been in before. Warm, humid air hits her at the door, "Oh I am going to fall asleep in here, we should have come back way earlier for this." she smiles up at him. She was going to have a bath back in the annex, she needed one after today's busywork, but the baths there were admittedly very small. "At least try not to, we'd hate to lose the vaunted Warrior of Light to a bath incident"

The one attendant still working lets them through to the back change rooms with a look that clearly communicated that she didn't care who they were, there were to be no shenanigans in the baths. A'miru was too tired for any sort of shenanigans anyway. Thancred had to keep her from dozing off more than a couple of times before she got herself washed and rinsed, they really should have come back earlier he thinks. She swats at his hands as he catches her leaning a little too far to the side and he laughs, "I'm awake, stop it." He can't help but just watch her and smile, always so stubborn. "Are you going to be able to stay awake long enough to get yourself dressed?" He asks as she wraps her towel around herself and shoots him a glare, "I'll. Be. Fine." She declares before she stomps off into the changing rooms. A short while later they both emerge from the changerooms. She'd left her hair down, too tired to bother tying it up just to go home to bed.

He pulls her in under his arm and she slips hers under his coat as he practically has to guide her back to the annex and into her room. He offers a piggyback or to carry her but she insists she fine walking. Once inside she sleepily pulls a large t-shirt out and throws it past Thancred to the bed as he kicks his boots and pants off with a "Hey!" as the shirt whizzes past his head. On her way from the dresser to the bed she pulls her dirty clothes off, tossing them wherever they land, and pulls the t-shirt on before flopping nearly face first into the bed...sideways. Thancred's surprised laugh makes her smile, "That's not going to be comfortable for either of us, you're supposed to face the other way." At this she whines and flips onto her back, "Nope, not like that either, c'mon you." He laughs so genuine as he pulls her back up to her feet so he can slip in before her that it makes her stop for a fraction of a second, that was a nice sound. He holds the blanket back for her as she crawls in and then very quickly crawls out, runs to turn off the lights, and slips back in, only running into the table once in the dark.

"Oh your hair..." Thancred whispers, remembering her lamentations from the previous morning as his fingers get tangled in it, "roll" he whispers as he rolls her so that she's facing away from him and she whines. "Lift" she does as he says and he pulls her hair out from under her to quickly braid it, albeit a bit messily. "I didn't know you knew how to braid," her voice is already heavy and sleepy as she rolls back over. "Ryne," taught me, was what he had intended to say but she pulls him down and kisses him before he can finish. "Sorry, I just like kissing you," he can see her sleepy smile and her eyes blink so slow he's not sure they're going to open again as she drags a thumb across his bottom lip. "I'll stop...nope, one more," she kisses him again slower than before and he smiles against her lips. "Get some rest."

He remembers what G'raha had said when he'd told him he was staying down by the forge; "I think she sleeps better when I say it." He looks down at her head on his shoulder, tilted slightly up towards him. Her eyes were closed already but for reasons unknown he was hesitant; it wasn't any sort of declaration of love or anything big like that, but something about taking over this part of her routine felt important. Like it was another thing that grounded it reality; like he was fully and actually agreeing to this relationship, like this was the point of no return. If he said he'd be there when next she woke that was it, he'd be there when next she woke every day that he could be from then on. She shifts and curls into his side, arm across abdomen. "I'll be here when you wake," He finally says quietly, more to himself than to her. He was certain she was asleep already anyhow, but her soft purrs kicks up shortly after like it had the night before, and like the night before the white noise of it pulls him to sleep as well.

When he wakes next she's not in bed. The shutters had been closed when they went to bed but even without opening his eyes he could sense a light source in the room that shouldn't be there. His fingers curl around the small knife he'd stashed under the pillows against the head board as he slowly opens his eyes.

But all he sees is A'miru sitting on the floor in front of a small fire in the hearth. He furrows his brows, "A'miru?" He calls out quietly and her head snaps around to face him. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't want to wake you." He slips out of bed to join her in front of the small fire and the kettle that hung over it. "Everything okay?" He asks wrapping an arm around her. She had on Urianger's cardigan, he noticed. "I'm okay, I'm just not used to...." She takes a deep, laboured breath before continuing. "I woke up and G'raha wasn't there and I didn't realize it was you quick enough to stop myself from getting freaked out." G'raha had told Thancred about the nightmares she'd had after he got back to the source as they had been travelling together. That she had been terrified she'd wake up and find it all a dream, that he wasn't really back and she'd dreamt it all. He rubs her back and pulls her against him. "I'm sorry," her voice is sad and he knows she's upset because he's there and she'd freaked out because G'raha wasn't, like she doesn't want him to think he's not enough.

Thancred shakes his head, "no need, I understand completely," he kisses the top of her head and smooths down her hair. "I just wanted some tea before I went back to bed," she sniffles, she'd been crying. "A'miru, you're allowed to wake me up when these things happen, I'm not going to be upset at the reasons. I know how important G'raha is to you. I know about your fears and nightmares. Hey," he pulls her chin to look up at him. "We're different people, G'raha and I, but we both care about you greatly, okay?" She nods, closes her eyes and leans into his palm.

"I guess I don't handle change all that well." She says quietly and Thancred fully laughs, "welcome to my world." She leans forward out of his arm and grabs the teapot out from the hearth but stops as she looks down at the one mug she had prepared, "I only have one mug..." Thancred snickers, "it's fine, I don't want any. Tea's not for me."

She pours herself a mug of tea and snuggles back against Thancred with it in her hands. "We okay now, though?" He asks folding her into him and she nods. "Yeah I'm okay now, it was just a momentary panic before I remembered what was real." She confirms as she sips at her tea. Thancred didn't get to see this part of her often anymore, not for a long time had he woken up to her distressed. He'd forgotten that she wasn't always okay, even with G'raha back. "If anything happens again and I don't wake up, can you please wake me?" He pulls her chin up to look at him again and she nods with watery eyes and peaked brows. "Hey, none of that, now." He wipes the tears that hadn't fallen yet from her eyes and kisses her forehead, and then her nose and he pauses for a split second before kissing her lips. This was allowed, he could let himself have this much. She follows this time as he kisses her softly, like his lips were a lantern in the dark leading her home, and she tasted like warm tea.

He pulls away slowly, reluctantly, and kisses her forehead before tucking her back into his arms while she finished her tea. The past three days had been chaotic to say the least, but when he got down to the bottom line of it all, it really wasn't much different than before. Except he was allowed to acknowledge those feelings and act on them. That was the biggest change, daily life wasn't much different than it had been before. His whole world felt like it had been flipped but in actuality it hadn't changed much, most of the change was mental. He could get used to this.

"c'mon you..." He says quietly, noticing her head start to droop. He slips an arm under her knees and picks her up as he stands. She doesn't squirm, or make any comments as he does, just leans against his chest quietly. "I'm just going to put the fire out," he whispers as he places her into bed, her hand reaches out for him as he turns away from the bed to douse the fire.

He returns and even in the dark he can see her open eyes as he slips in next to the wall. She rolls away from him and scoots back against him, pulling the arm slung over her waist up and hugging it to her chest like it was a stuffed animal. Except she doesn't like looking out over the dark room whenever her eyes open, despite the warmth behind her it made her feel alone. With a small whine she rolls back over and makes herself as small as she can as she buries herself in Thancred's chest. She can feel the quiet chuckle from him, "comfortable now?" And she nods, nearly fully under the blankets. "Goodnight" he hears from the small ball of a person in his arms and it feels like he has to go digging to find her chin and tilt her face up to him once more as he kisses her again, no hesitation this time. "Goodnight," he whispers as he pulls away and she snuggles back into his chest. "I'll be here when-" "did G'raha tell you to say that?" She interrupts looking up at him, "well, not in so many words. He just said you sleep better when he does." She nods, she did, it helped remind her he was real before she fell asleep which helped keep the nightmares at bay. "Do you not want me to?" She shakes her head and shrugs, "not that it's not comforting, but G'raha started saying it because I was scared I would wake up and he'd be gone, not left, but gone." Thancred nods and squeezes her tight, "I understand," he presses a kiss against her forehead, "I'll leave that for him."

There's a long silence before he hears "goodnight" again against his chest, much quieter and heavy with sleep this time. "Goodnight, I'm here, you're safe" he replies in a quiet whisper, testing out the words, and the purr that pours out of her is loud this time in it's approval.

She'd defeated gods and dragons, saved the world countless times but still needed to be reminded she was safe at home, maybe because she had defeated gods and dragons and had to save the world. It hurt his heart but it was a relief to know exactly what she needed from him, outside of just his love. G'raha had his own set of fears and worries to calm, Thancred could handle making her feel safe, that was well within his abilities and it relaxed him to know that. He holds her tight as he lets the loud drone of her purr pull him back to sleep.

HERE BE SMUT, but like, light, soft smut. Use your imagination, or don't and carry on, I'm not your mom.

"C'mere," she sits up and pulls him back into bed with her. "No, hey-" he fakes a scowl at her, "we should be getting up," but it dissolves into a smile as she laughs and curls up on his chest. "Did you sleep okay after you got back to sleep?" He asks as he pushes his fingers into her soft hair and gives her ear a rub. She nods and tilts her head into his hand, "like the dead, sorry again for waking you." At this he gives her ear a playful tug, "did I not specifically ask you to please wake me up next time? No apologies." "Ah! Hey!" She swats at his hand and laughs. "I wasn't aware you struggled with any of that still," he says softly letting her nuzzle into his hand and running a thumb across her cheek as she nods. "It's not as bad anymore, I can usually calm myself down if anything does happen. Routine helps a lot, which is...well-" "not your strong suit?" He interrupts with a knowing smile, she smirks and shakes her head, "never has been, no." "It'd be absolutely terrible if Alphinaud were to find out that's what helps..." The implication clear in his voice, "Don't you dare! He'll schedule my entire life!" She pushes up onto his chest to look at him, "Then you should probably get out of bed and get dressed," his eyebrows raise and he's unsure if she'll enact physical violence upon him for his threat as her face goes from pleading, to shocked, to glaring at him through squinted eyes. "You win this round, Mr Waters" she scowls at him through squinted eyes as she pushes up off his chest to sit up. He can't help but laugh as he follows behind her, pulls her chin up and kisses her again. "I thought you were trying to get me out of bed," she says breathlessly against his lips as he lingers in it just a little bit longer, "sorry, I just like kissing you," he repeats her words from the night before, a soft smirk on his lips as he finally pulls away.

Something had clicked for him last night. Their talk in the gazebo and in the middle of night had made him acknowledge some things he hadn't yet, and finding the words that put her at ease, his special words for her, had given him a sort of purpose he hadn't felt in a long time. He wouldn't be there every time she woke, he was often out on recon or stealth missions, being there and being real, calming those fears was for G'raha. Making her feel safe and protecting her when she wasn't protecting the world? Well, he'd been doing that for years already, he was old hand at that, that was easy. Everything else just kind of fell into place and clicked. Now he just wanted to kiss her all the time, wanted to have her on every flat surface he could find, wanted to make up for all his lost time holding back and denying his feelings. It didn't feel like stealing anymore, like he was taking something so big and important to the world for himself. She was still just his best friend, that little punk that'd made his life a nightmare before all this hero business had started. She could be his and they save the world, together, it didn't have to be one or the other.

They get dressed and ready for their day, albeit slower than usual since Thancred can't keep his hands to himself now that the pieces of the puzzle had clicked into place and he had reckoned with his own hesitation.

He presses her up against the door of the room before she can open it to leave as he kisses her again and she gropes behind herself for the handle. She finds it and they tumble out into the hall, almost taking out Y'shtola in the process  "You two sure are lively this morning," she comments on her way by without stopping. A'miru's face immediately turns red. She nods, smooths out her clothing and finds her composure, resisting the urge to devolve into giggles. "I can't believe you had the audacity to blackmail me out of bed this morning," she scolds Thancred under her breath as they follow a ways behind Y'shtola. "What happened between last night and this morning, hey!" She swats Thancred's more inappropriate touches away and gives him a look that says she'd gladly kick his ass right there in the hallway if he doesn't cut it out. He laughs and gives in, slipping his hand into hers instead of the cut out sides of her shirt like he had been thinking of doing. "Last night happened. You helped me figure some things out." He pulls her in under his arm and kisses her one last time, "thank you," he says quietly against her lips. "Oh, come on! Get a room!" They hear from behind them, "We just left our room!" Thancred shouts back without looking as Alisaie stomps past them, "then stop making out in the hallway!" The young Elezen is walking backwards as she continues walking so that she can scowl at Thancred, "honestly your going to ruin everyone's appetite before they even get to breakfast." She grumbles under her breath as she turns and continues down the hallway. A'miru and Thancred watch her go in silence before looking back at each other and bursting into laughter.

 They continue walking as she speaks again, "well good, I'm glad, I think" she shoots a look up at him, "G'raha was worried about you." They don't stop in the common room on their way out of the annex and A'miru was secretly glad for it, Y'shtola and Alisaie would have told everyone by now and neither would let her escape without a decent amount of teasing. "Yeah? Maybe I should talk to him today then."  They quickly pick up coffee for themselves and G'raha at the last stand before heading towards the lifts underground. "You should, I probably should too. Two partners in your first relationship is a lot." She's musing to herself mostly, thinking out loud, but Thancred almost spit takes into his coffee, "first?!"

If A'miru thought about it, she could see how no one else would have had that information about G'raha, but she'd honestly never thought too hard about it before.

She looks up at Thancred as they ride the slow lift down into the ground, "uh...yes?" She raises an apologetic eyebrow at him. "God's be good A'miru, that poor boy. You as his first girlfriend?" She slaps his stomach with a playful scowl, "hey!" and he laughs.

He and G'raha had spent no small amount of time together. Thancred had been the first one called to the first by him, and G'raha had approached Thancred on A'miru's advice after finding out about her struggle with alcoholism. He'd helped him set his guilt aside and stop blaming himself for it, A'miru had found this highly ironic since that was typically what Thancred did to himself. He'd helped him understand a lot of the things that had happened to her while he'd been gone, helped him take the information in without letting it hurt him and helped him learn how to best help A'miru when or if she stumbled while they were dispatched to Corvos most recently.

It was no secret they had grown close since G'raha had been back. Now it was Thancred who was worried for G'raha. Two partners in your first relationship was a lot. Rolling with the punches was one thing, not getting trampled by them was another.

"He handles you well for it being his first relationship,"   Thancred teases gently and A'miru can't even muster a scowl because he was right, he did. A'miru's own words from her time in Elpis echo in her head, "I am not easy to love...". She hadn't meant it in a self deprecating way, really, but her job as Warrior of Light alone made her life chaotic, let alone being prone to chaos on her own. Mix in all the trauma and nightmares and what have you and it was just a big job for anyone to handle and G'raha managed it with grace. "He was my first, too....back then." She leans her head against Thancred and feels his hand on her back. "I remember, you used to get so mad."

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

x-files 👀👀👀👀

- blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

probably Scully tbh but I consider Mulder more of a blorbo-from-my-shows for some reason??? BOTH OF THEM

- scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

zhdjdhsh tbh Mulder

- scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

SKINMAN MY BELOVED. Skinner deserves more love tbh, he's the best. also Scully's entire family, i ADORE Maggie and Melissa deserved so much better. Bill Jr. is on thin ice, I tolerate him bc I can understand why he's Like That but I wish he would be nicer

- glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

...ok this is more about the actress, bc for some reason I got very attached to her, but clone!Samantha from Colony/End Game, Redux II, and The Sixth Extinction.

but also I do adore Agent Pendrell, rest in peace my beloved boy 😔

- poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

ALEX HECKIN KRYCEK

- horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

....Diana Fowley

- eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)

Cigarette Smoking Man

[ziracona]

T2 was okay and it could have been really good—had some real moments. But it needed more script iterations, and it was too goofy. Goofy is fine in general, but Terminator works best as a sci-fi action-drama-horror mesh. That’s the peak atmosphere. Also just, they gave their new Terminator scary powers to keep him relevant, but there’s just...no way to really make anyone on screen look like a threat to Arnold Schwarzenegger you know? And they never overcame that and it throws off the whole underdog atmosphere. He just. Wasn’t scary. Not when he was trying to kill heckin Arnold the brick house.

I’m not gonna talk about T3 bc I feel like I don’t need to and I think I have a lot of support for that in the fandom, and I’m not gonna talk any Genysis bc no one ever should, and I know I have support there.

Dark Fate was fine, but I felt like they really didn’t have to kill off their Kyle expy like at this point the surprising thing and interesting one would be /not/ to kill him. That role has died in /every/ other film. Like we get it. But plot rehashes are only good if you have some kind of spin. Mostly though I just...would have liked T800 man’s personality in another context but you couldn’t ever sell me on him after watching him gun down a 10 year old in the open. Like what, he found a soul by being...bored? If you want to convince me of fundamental change in a person, you /gotta/ motivate it better. Show me. Don’t tell me and expect me to take your word. And there just wasn’t enough meet in some spots. I wanted more firm lore and a little less action. Like I’m not even a science-heavy leaning sci-fi fan but it still wasn’t enough. I liked it more than most of the others but it just wasn’t quite...meaty enough. Sarah still a queen. But T800 man didn’t sell and that was a real weak spot, and so was expecting us and Sarah to just...like and forgive him bc he had accrued a family. But also like. I enjoyed having a new protag, but feeling like so much, no, /all/ of the work and suffering of everyone in other Terminator films was for nothing bc it’s not even Skynet anymore it’s some other robots?? It kind just...didn’t really work. It makes everything more hollow like it’s not even Terminator anymore there’s no more Terminators. They should have just had it be Skynet but a different rebel leader, or more. Sarah goes on to mentor Dani instead since John is dead, /something/ to make it more the same franchise and not so hollow. Or if it’s gonna be gutted, go all the way and let us feel that, don’t blip it as a plot point once and keep rolling. There’s decades of character attachment for fans; either make that matter, or make it mourned because it’s dead. Don’t skim it and make it cheap. Also on a meta level it was kind of weird how they handled time travel compared to the norm for the franchise but I’m not going into that.

BUT. The Terminator? A cinematic classic. It’s just...such a good film. The characters work is solid the whole movie, and Reese and Sarah are both truly excellent protagonists also given ample time to explore and exhibit that. There’s so much you get in moments that show tiny things about them. The way Sarah handles getting canceled on and goofing with Ginger, her having a pet iguana she loves to cuddle, talking to the statue at work? And she’s smart and normal (I mean normal in a very complimentary way). Kyle is introduced almost immediately running from the cops, but even in the middle of a chase scene, he’s stealing clothes in a mall while evading flashlights, and little things like hopping while he runs to check shoe sizes give you so much right away. He’s clearly out of his depth but he’s smart and methodical and he holes up in a car he hotwires and has a ptsd moment waking up from a dream because of some heavy construction machinery. You don’t have him say much about himself at all but you get him taking a second to be nice to the kids and guard dog on his way back before a T800 attacks. Even though if you’re watching it classic, you have no spoken goal for Reese and all you know is he’s armed and /also/ looking for Sarah, like the man who has killed three people already is, you kind of aren’t very scared of him by the time he’s creepily following her into a night club. That scene is iconic too damn. Anyway. Her reactions to everything are so great. Only film I ever saw where I 100% felt the person on screen was reacting like anyone would to almost being killed and then getting kidnap-saved by some other guy claiming to be from the future like I’d bite him too, but you know, I’d also be pretty happy he saved me and also decide he was crazy and not like, dangerous, and try to keep the cops from killing him. It’s so cute he thinks anyone is going to believe him like hang in there Kyle baby, king. Love as soon as the Terminator hits the police station, he breaks out and goes to find Sarah, and she’s immediately like ‘so fuck this actually’ and looking for him too. The deleted scene in the motel woods. The slow character build. Him falling in love with her because of the picture where she always looked a little sad and he wondered what she was thinking about and you don’t find out till the last scene it’s him she was thinking about in that picture. A family can be two complete trauma disasters making pipe bombs in a motel. The top 5 cinema shots moment where you think they won and they think they won and they’re both injured and stagger to each other and collapse laughing and crying and hugging and it holds for like ten seconds before that fucking thing gets up and you see the rubble in the fire shift and Kyle sees it first. And the hopelessness and despair. Sarah just screaming no in rage because it’s so unfair. The little scaffolding fight?? Kyle doing what he does? Sarah winning with a broken leg? The picture? The heartbreak? A work of art.

Also just. They’re both attractive but like, they are not remotely airbrushed Hollywood pretty. Kyle’s got that big scar on his lip and they’re both sweaty and bloody and dirty and gross the whole film??? God yeah.

Terminator Salvation? Also a classic. You have a film not about the core cast exactly, but it’s very ensemble. You get early days war. And it’s from the very open a solid narrative about second chances and what it means to be human and they really do explore that the whole runtime. Markus dies and comes back more confused than you are in the apocalypse. Baby Reese is absolutely perfect. You get formerly executed for murder Markus somehow adopting like 20 year old Reese and 13 year old kid Star and they’re amazing. Rebellion drama, lore reveals. Reese’s devout faith in the cause and how fast he looks up to Markus and starts learning and Markus is like :[ but then he’s like ... :] because he god assigned two family members now. The tag team fights—how incredibly talented Star is. Guilt trip on a look to dropping cars, she’s super effective. Tbh Markus is just O_O to >:-[ the whole movie as soon as Reese and Star are taken and I feel it. You’ve got a guy who was killed for straying too far from human, come back as a machine, but he doesn’t know it, wondering if he deserves another chance and if he can change, and it’s really neat the way it unfolds. Even after losing so many friends to Terminators that look human, Blair refuses to believe he isn’t a human even if he’s also a machine and risks her life to save him, when they barely know each other. Markus getting like, tortured by the rebels, and still choosing to help them and be who he has decided he wants to be this time, even towards John. Even with better alternatives. And you have Star never having a moment of doubt, or Reese, and him getting to save them both, and them trying to help the other humans in line for extermination before he arrives. The hand hold with Star when his hands just metal. And he decides to die for someone he doesn’t even /like/ and who has personally hurt him a lot of times, because he knows the rebels need him to win. Anyway death row to death row but completely different people in the same body facing that same death differently are amazing if done well (see TWDG I mean ow) and it was a very simple core theme to latch to and very enjoyable executed and it got snubbed by fans when it’s the best sequel Terminator ever had.

[diaryofriversong]

SCONGO STORIES RANKED

ok so i like ranking things & i wanted to rank my fav Scongo stories bc he’s the best Doctor Who villain & he’s got some really amazing & iconic stuff!!!!! 

10) the scongo experiment

this is just a really good story!!!!! idk like it’s really fun to see him with a doctor like Two, like they just work so well together it’s hilarious. it’s also wild to see the foreshadowing for birth of the scongles like HELLO????? it’s so well done & it’s so interesting & dark & i love it. also two dragging scongo will always be my absolute favorite thing we stan

9) birth of the scongles

i’m normally not a big fan of stuff involving clones bc i just find it annoying tbh but it’s just so GOOD like the way it takes everything that’s been established in Scongo’s past & what it means & how it connects, & the way it sets everything up for the future. the scongles are genuinely so funny & definitely deserve their title as the second best villains in doctor who’s history, & i think it’s so impressive how clever their beginning is!!

8) scongo vs. the universe

this one is really ,,,,,,, unique skdnfjksnf honestly i think it might objectively be bad, but it’ll always have a special place in my heart. i think the overall message of it is really good, & just like seeing everything Scongo’s gone through?????? i think it’s really important that we don’t know everything about his past & why he’s the way that he is bc the mysteriousness helps adds to how scary he can be & also it leaves room for headcanons & stuff, but i Really liked seeing how all that stuff helped shape who he is today. all the bits about the Wibbler, Chad, & Brian made me emo & it was really amazing seeing all those flashbacks. also the differences between his regenerations is so cool!!! anyway i think this one is really personal to me & i really like what it says about how the universe can affect you & how it’s okay to ask for help if you need it

7) the wibbler

i don’t think i’d be able to make this list without including SCONGO’S FIRST EVER APPEARANCE. it’s p cool to see him & the Wibbler before their storylines were fully thought out, & it’s just FUN like not knowing who either of them are????? the reveals???????? truly god tier, this story will Never get old omg. we stan <3

6) the age of scongo

this was the first Scongo story i ever consumed!!!!!! it had me laughing the entire time & it made me want more, the voice acting is amazing & it’s truly amazing to see Scongo, the Doctor, & Nardole interact. this would probably be the story i’d recommend to everyone as their first Scongo story to listen to too :)

5) the siblings of terror

ok i’m gonna be honest ,,,,, this one made me cry. IDK i think there’s something just so special & touching about this one, it’s SO emotional to me. we all know i’m a sucker for found family stories & this one sends a huge message about that, like Scongo vs the Wibbler vs Nardole, it’s just so complex like there’s so much here to unravel. the morality of Time Lords is something we know isn’t uhhhh that great, & obviously Scongo & the Wibbler are villains, but i really liked seeing how not everything is in black & white. like Scongo chose to believe the best of his brother even tho he KNEW that wasn’t actually how things were, but he just couldn’t admit it to himself. & that is singlehandedly the cause of all the problems here, bc he wanted to trust Nardole even tho he & the Wibbler knew that was never gonna work. i feel kinda bad for Scongo but it was really interesting seeing the consequences of his misplaced trust, & i think Everyone would feel something after this story

4) mutation of the skengle

so this one is like . so weird bc of the metamorphosis stuff & the weird time stuff, but it all makes it that much better. i think we all know by now how dark Scongo can get, & we REALLY get to see that here. honestly i spent half the time physically cringing, it is WILD. but it’s so good, & i think there’s multiple defining moments for Scongo. it’s literally partially why Scongo deserves to be the best Doctor Who villain. also we stan the Doctor & Scongo’s banter!!!!! 

3) revenge of the wibbler

i feel like this is a common fav ep among Scongo stans, & it is WELL DESERVED. i loooooove what it means for the Wibbler’s character, & how even tho he & Scongo are really close, they’ll always clash. i think it’s really well done & honestly it’s a really fun story overall. i really think we need more stuff that focuses on the Wibbler more!!!!!!!

2) scongoland

ok this one is quite possibly the most bizzare thing i’ve ever seen asknfskdnf it’s literally just so FUNNY. like first of all the Master being jealous of Scongo????? like ok Master we get it, the Doctor is YOUR enemy, ONLY you can kill him. i’d ship Doctor/Master/Scongo if Scongo/Chad/Brian didn’t already have my entire heart ksdnfjsd but anyway i actually wanna go to Scongoland like who would make an entire THEME PARK as a secret headquarters????? that literally sounds so cool omg. i spent the majority of this story laughing & it makes me really happy, it’s really neat seeing Scongo’s really heckin weird plans being put into action & the fact that it’s with Three & Delgado!Master just makes it all even better

1) the bongos of scongo

BEST STORY BEST STORY BEST STORY BEST STORY BEST STORY BEST STORY I DO NOT CARE IF PEOPLE THINK IT’S OVERRATED. IT’S LITERALLY AMAZING Y’ALL ARE COWARDS. IT’S TRUE ART

also honorable mention to the resurrection of scongo bc scongo fully eating a whole tree will always be ICONIC

[sweetestrequiems]

appreciation post

local jane seymour here. i wanna give some of my favorite people love and support bc they’re wonderful. and you should go love ‘em too!

y’all know the drill! look under the picture of the broadway queens.

@watercolored-lemonade: joey is a literal godsend. the nicest person you will ever meet. talented writer, talented human being overall. my closest confidant, and also the katherine howard to my anne boleyn. i’d punt anyone across the map for them with no hesitation.

@musical-stan-first-human-later​: chaos sometimes comes in the form of bella. and let me tell you, chaos is good! very good, actually. she’s a true sweetheart, and will take time out of ‘er day to just check up on you. did i mention she’s talented? i’d also punt anyone across the map for her.

@theatergirl06​: phoebe is also a result of chaos, but we love chaos in this house. the girl’s a total sweetheart too! and as many greats would say, she’s got talent. talent and the confidence to showcase that talent. i will also punt anyone across the map for her.

@parrlyndreams​: so if you want the funniest things being posted at the most unexpected times, mira’s your gal. she’s got a good sense of humor. but, her unexpected wit also goes into her writing. and let me tell you, i get excited to read all of her stuff. i will also definitely punt anyone across the map for her.

@silverpetals97​: art comes in many forms, and of course, visual arts is a very pristine art. silv’s got you covered on that front! give the girl a pen or a brush, and she’ll turn a blank canvas into something that is to be admired. did i mention she’s really nice? now i did. i will also definitely punt anyone across the map for her.

@bchcadcd​: she’s a hufflepuff. but in all seriousness, ava is one of the very first people to have made me feel welcome in the queendom. she’s really someone who will do anything for the people she loves, and it shows. and i wouldn’t ask for anyone else to consider a little sister. i will 100% punt someone across the map for her. 

@timetoriseabove​: i know i literally just met lilac like a few days ago but i would punt someone across the map for her in a heartbeat if she asked me to. she’s extremely nice, and so heckin’ talented! she’s really well spoken, and isn’t afraid to ask questions either. and that is a good thing. trust me. always asking questions is a good thing.

TL;DR: everyone mentioned here is VERY talented and deserves nothing but love and appreciation and the whole world because they deserve to be happy. 

[artnerd1123]

*softly* scream about the spooder son... bls...

Hfjdjskks took me a minute to get to this but yell heah I can—

Heckin!!! Ruffy!!! He’s the spooder son and he’s v good!!! Loves to knit and read and snuggle!!! He deserves much more love and Im gonna partly blame the lack of it for the fact that his entire existence is technically a spoiler. Yea that’s right!!! This spider boi whom we cherish??? He’s a spoiler. I mean. I already spilled the beans way early, but like. Still. He pops up RIGHT in the middle of spoiler territory, so I can’t quite spend as much time with em as I’d like due to story circumstances gettin... wiggly.

Still!!! I love him nonetheless. Did u know he’s kind of a miracle familiar? Without getting into too much also spoiler stuff, Journ almost didn’t have enough magic to make the dude. And he’s missin magic chunks cuz of it. Poor dude can’t heal right n has a wonky arm n no real mouth. But!!! It doesn’t bother him for the most part! And when it does, his frens n his knitting skills are there to help out. He taught himself to write, and his originator can understand his clicking sounds jus fine. He’s also, like, the king of charades. Anyways yeah he’s knit himself socks to keep his feet safe, and he likes to knit soft things bc... soft textures... good. And making things also good!!! It makes him super happy, and he loves showing off his latest pieces n jus knitting the day away. Oh, and he loves to be in small spaces as well!!! They feel comforting! Small spaces and a bit of weight on em help a lot. Hence he gets himself a lil nook in/behind the bookshelf, and Journ buys him a weighted blanket.

Yea,,, spooder has,,, many needs,,, but he gets em met as best he’s able! And he’s jus. A big ol sweetheart. He’s v v v shy around strangers at first, but once he’s warmed up??? Dude, he’s a cuddlebug. A massive cuddlebug. He loves hugs and being patted and jus. Sitting near people. He likes them in general. While he doesn’t really like being the center of attention for, like, a whole room??? He does enjoy spending time around em, and being in crowds. He’s normally v quiet unless he’s around ppl he’s familiar with tho. Then he’s quite chatty. Chatty happy lil dude who wants to tell ppl all the things!!! Especially abt his interests!!!!!! Knitting n spiders are his two big ones. He could chatter abt em for hours, and he’ll never get bored learning abt em.

I jus. He’s so wholesome I love him

[svtskneecaps]

1~33 :b

babe i don’t deserve you

1. How long have you been stanning SEVENTEEN?

just over 2 years, I think, I remember wandering around carat tumblr towards the end of 2017

2. How did you start stanning SEVENTEEN?

ok, so i used to be active on this wattpad-esque website and a mutual made a fic about them that i read, despite knowing nothing about them. later that summer me and my little sister were wandering around on youtube at our grandparents house, where i saw Don’t Wanna Cry on the homepage and, recognizing the band from the fic, i clicked. then we watched Boom Boom, and then i looped that mother heckin video for the next six hours

3. First impression of SEVENTEEN?

oh god, it’s been so long idk if i remember quite right. i think i thought they were a bunch of talented nerds tbh; even back then i remember being really impressed by the choreography

4. How long did it take to memorize names and faces?

well i wasn’t working on it constantly, just sort of whenever posts ran across my tumblr dash, but i’d say by the end of about a month i had most of them down consistently

5. Bias(es)?

ok i don’t bias, but most consistently, i’ve leaned towards the8, more recently jeonghan started whacking at my attention, and recently but not MOST recently, jun was getting my goat, but it really depends on what video i watched last (like i watched the camping thing recently and jeonghan and hoshi searching for bugs + jeonghan getting all flustered when the members were talking about how he said he loved their team really got me)

and watching the call call call video gets me swinging worse than a compass that can’t find north so ??? it changes; i love them all but if i went off listing everything i loved we’d have a 13+ paragraph essay and that defeats the point of the question

6. Biaswrecker(s)?

no biases so no biaswreckers, n e r d s

7. Which member first caught your eye?

woozi, actually; i thought he looked good and was neat, and i saw the whole ‘woozi coming at you with a guitar’ and loved it, and then minghao got the black mullet and it was ALL OVER FOR ME

8. Which member did not turn out who you expected him to be?

oh boy. maybe jun? he looked really like yknow strong and silent type? and then he’s this sweet lil flirty dork and idk i love him

9. First song heard by SEVENTEEN?

it was don’t listen in secret actually, i think, there was an audio post of it ‘playing in another room’ but i didn’t realize that was what it was or that it was seventeen until a while after i started stanning.

10. First MV seen by SEVENTEEN?

don’t wanna cry! but the first one that reeeeeally got me was boom boom. wonwoo with the mint hair convinced me to learn their names and it was all downhill from there (have i mentioned recently that mint is my kryptonite?)

11. Vocal, Hip Hop, or Performance Team?

i love them all,,,, but performance team

12. Have you had any dreams about SEVENTEEN?

i have, actually, but i don’t remember it right now. i just remember they were in it. dreams suck like that.

13. What concept would you like to see SEVENTEEN try?

i honestly don’t know. they keep coming up with amazing stuff and i just drink it all in. (if they did another call call call esque concept though THERE WOULD BE NO COMPLAINTS FROM ME)

14. What hair color would you want to see on a certain member?

MINT. ON ANYONE. LITERALLY ANYONE. OR PURPLE, I WOULD BE DOWN FOR MORE GRAPE MEMBERS.

15. Which members do you think look better with their hair up?

if you mean like ‘hidden’, i don’t know. honestly i think they all look great no matter what, hair hidden or not.

16. Have you seen SEVENTEEN live?

.....nope :( i live in nebraska so they aren’t coming close enough for me to be able to see them unless i took a weekend trip to do it, and honestly concerts stress me out a little, so. maybe someday?

17. Which member do you think is the most “boyfriend material”?

oh god. maybe jun. maybe mingyu. maybe jeonghan. maybe s.coups. honestly i never really thought about it. i think they’d all be good tbh (WHEN THEY DATE Y’ALL BETTER KEEP IT TOGETHER IF I SEE A SINGLE PERSON SAYING THEY’RE UNSTANNING, HEADS ARE GONNA ROLL)

18. If every member were hanging off a cliff, who would you save first?

i plead the fifth on that one my dude

19. Which member do you think is the most savage?

minghao has some good zingers tbh

Favorite…

20. song?

atm i’m listening to fear, call call call is my go to hype song, and smile flower makes me cry (in the best way)

21. choreography?

god just anything i mean really their choreography is absolutely breathtaking and THEY’RE ALL IN SYNC but like ig the fluidity of Home really gets me like when the chorus starts going and they all knock into that footwork idk if i’m describing this right but that. just. chef’s kiss. the good shit.

22. era?

i’m still not 100% about what ‘era’ refers to in its entirety, but CALL CALL CALL

23. song cover?

honestly i haven’t listened to many covers so i can’t talk

24. Unit?

booseoksoon

25. OTP?

ot13 just their friendship as a group like i absolutely adore it

26. reality show?

i don’t know if going seventeen counts. but going seventeen.

27. performance?

i don’t watch a lot of performances bc i am Fake Fan but the one i’ve seen the most, in all honesty, is the Pretty U performance that i slapped mariah carey’s all i want for christmas is you on top of

28. meme?

Which member would you like to…

29. have as your brother?

vernon could honestly already be my cousin (WHERE DID THE FUCKING NEBRASKA SWEATSHIRT COME FROM VERNON) so him

30. have as your best friend?

hoshi or like seungkwan are definitely like lit bestie material, or like 

31. go to school with?

wonwoo just cause he reminds me of a friend of mine a lil, or maybe jeonghan? just bc of the vibes i get idk why

32. have as your boyfriend?

i feel like dk would be like an amazing so; i’ve never thought about like who i personally would have so idk honestly

33. have as your husband?

hm. i never really thought about it. i guess maybe like joshua?

alright @allmyuwuswerestolen YOUR TURN i spent MANY A LOT OF HOURS trying to figure out the last 5, MY BAD

[ambitionsource]

001 for Maggie!! About Rucas!

werk werk werk lets go lets go lets gooooo!

Riley & Lucas James

When I started shipping it if I did: okay so like… technically I cannot answer this question because I… like… made the show so fkdsjhgkjdfgd BUT. interestingly enough i’ve actually said before that if I were a viewer of AAA and not the creator, i would be very cautious about RL. like i think it would take me a while to warm up to the possibility of them (as well as lucas, bc i think the “seemingly broody snarker with a heart of gold and is secretly soft” can be HORRIBLY done), but i think around 103 i would start to change my opinion about lucas (and then would be definitive about him after 105 from the way he is with isa), and then i think i’d really lock into RL at the end of 107 with their convo in the aud where she’s like “maybe you don’t have to do everything alone” and hes like “… no maybe not.” that’s my genuine honest feeling on how i’d approach it as a viewer

My thoughts: many thoughts… many thoughts head empty… i guess like the entire show are my thoughts FJDSKLGFDG but i will say i’m very excited for the rest of S2 for them, as well as going into the next season. it’s gonna be really fun to see y’alls reactions and hopefully we’ll come out on the other side together ✊🏻

What makes me happy about them: oh so much… how riley is so skilled at catching lucas off guard and seeing through his defenses from like day 1 (and evidenced early on i.e. the way she just plops down at their lunch table and he literally stops eating gkfdhgkjdsfh), how deeply they respect one another and see the other for what they are capable of rather than how they view themselves with all these imperfections and limitations, how lucas encourages riley to stand up for herself and be empowered and not downplay herself, and conversely how riley is slowly but surely changing lucas’s perspective on the world and what he deserves from it and that romance can be real, touch can be soft and non-threatening, love isn’t inherently a weakness to be taken advantage of but something delicate and lovely and a source of power (i.e., i think that lucas’s growth and interactions with riley also influence how he reevaluates his friendships with like dasher and stuff like that – something you’ll definitely see evidence of in 209)… could go on probably

What makes me sad about them: oh well like. how self-destructive lucas is at this point and how he literally cannot fathom that people care about him – let alone romantically that’s like a whole other ballpark. how their own insecurities allowed external opinions to detour their dynamic, although understandable. the trickiness that exists currently where riley, just being a generally forgiving and optimistic person, is constantly being told that she needs to give up on lucas and that there is a sort of question she and probably us as viewers start to wonder of like… is it even worth it? whether lucas deserves riley’s devotion is certainly up for debate, and it’ll be interesting to see if he addresses the mess of the last few months moving forward… but then it’s tricky too, because much like the position dylan was put in, i think in some ways riley does need to still have faith in lucas, because if she doesn’t then who will, and it’s kind of like… very complex. very messy, much to analyze and pick apart and perhaps account for at the end of the day… but that’s the kind of complexity i love in relationships (provided steps are taken to amend them to the best of their ability and respect always remains intact), so it’s no surprise they have all this fkdshkfjdhgkjdfshdh. 

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: well obvious fanfic doesn’t really exist, but i’ve been in fandom long enough to be able to say EXACTLY what would happen if ambition were a huge fandom like tw, glee, etc. the first thing that would annoy me the most would be an exaggeration of rl’s worst traits to make them like a pairing that they aren’t – key being making lucas more aggressive, dominant, and like genuinely disrespectful, and then making riley like an innocent wallflower pure goody two shoes or whatever. like that kind of characterization really strips down their complexity as characters (and is also like just wrong FDJSKFDSLG like one thing i’m excited for in S3 is the chance to really explore what they’re actually LIKE when like… depression isn’t warping their personalities FJDSKFLDSGJ and also how they bring out certain traits in one another). i also feel like any sort of like… overt tooth-rotting romanticism would feel really ooc for them; they are quite romantic in how they treat one another and see one another, but both of their personalities in a relationship together i think create a romance built more on realism and appreciation and a sort of grounded display of love than anything even remotely Cheesy. that’s one thing that really changes about riley from The Former Source Material to AAA is that she’s far more grounded given how her parents have… spun out let’s say

Things I look for in fanfic: i do think often about how nice it would be to just go on ao3 and scroll the ambition tags… find a good rl zc or da fic to peruse… oh there’d be garbage undoubtedly but the good fics… i would like to see it 😔anyway lmao i think if i were looking for rl fics in aaa i would look for ones that a) retain their core character traits and b) strike that perfect balance of grounded yet uniquely soft in the way rl are with each other that they aren’t with anyone else – i wouldn’t want to see their integrity thrown for the sake of being uber fluffy. but that’s like just a complete personal pref.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: hmm… obviously this is all conjecture, but in terms of CANON, i cannot see lucas ending up with anyone else. like i just do not think it’s on his radar at all – it wasn’t before riley showed up, and if she floated away, he’d go back to just forgoing it entirely (it’s not entirely a joke when we joke around that lucas is rileysexual fkjdhsgk). riley i think like, zay would treat her nicely if they were ever to go past best friends. fanon wise just going by dynamics and personalities, i have a really special place in my heart for lucas x charlie (oh, and how fun it will be to share that dynamic with y’all in the future bc reading that rn i’m sure y’all are like HUH JFGDKLJGFLKSJHKLDSJHLJFDHL valid!!). could also probably enjoy a riley x isa fic or two. i also love digging into the relationship between lucas and asher (especially given that asher was lucas’s first crush… he he he) but as for them actually being a relationship i couldn’t because i’m 10000% sure they’d kill each other. even dylucasher wouldn’t work romantically, because as nice as it all is if lucasher didn’t kill each other, dylan would end up killing them both after mentally Snapping from playing mediator one heckin time too many. so. yes. fDSJKGLDFKLHFKLDH

My happily ever after for them: i can’t really say specifically because spoilies!! but i just want them to feel… settled. they’re constantly in worlds of turbulence right now, and i can’t wait for the day that they can just be together and get away from the city (because i firmly believe lucas hates living in the city) and just. start a life on their terms. that will be so beautiful :’)

Who is the big spoon/little spoon: i’m inclined to say lucas is the big spoon, but i don’t think it’s set in stone at all. like you know, if there’s a particularly rough day and lucas really needs that Comfort, then riley will by all means be the big spoon and hug him real tight. it’s what they both deserve!!

What is their favorite non-sexual activity: i love that this question specifies non-sexual specifically FDJSKFDKLSGJFLDKH like are there couples who truly enjoy sex with one another above all else…………. but i will say i think one thing that is nice about RL is the most important thing to them is just being together. like i think they’ll happily spend hours in the booth together not like, actively doing anything and focused on their own things (homework, production work, what have you) but just the other person’s presence there with them is comforting. you kind of see this in 109 when riley takes refuge in the booth, and i think this is core to their relationship. they don’t need to be talking or actively doing much – just maybe like, riley is tapping her foot against his knee absentmindedly or has her feet up in his lap. if they’re sitting closer, lucas is rubbing her knee with his thumb. you know what i mean? presence and the knowledge that they’re together is more important than any sort of sense of Action if that makes sense. but some others to list would be getting out of the city and going exploring in the Fresh Air away from… everything and everyone else lmao, and going to the animal shelter!!

send some winter hiatus asks !! :)

[minijeong]

i was gonna be lazy and go back to sleep but then i saw this ask and got excited 😄😄 thanks for sticking around and enjoying my content anon 🥰🥰my content wouldnt go anywhere without ppl who support!! 🥰🥰 i’d actually love to give thoughts on each of them haha so... under the cut!

wonyoung: she’s baby lol– i feel like a lot of people always forget how young she really is and how emotionally naive and vulnerable you can be at that age, so i wish the internet would be a bit kinder to her :ccc // there’s a lot of controversy around her being centre and people saying that other people suit centre more, but i think wonyoung is doing a fine job. she might not be as good as other members in singing or dancing, but i think she really has a talent in stage presence. // i think that centre wonyoung actually works to bring the team together which i appreciate - she prob relies on all the other members since she’s the youngest (and knows she’s not as experienced in singing/dancing) which, i think, lessens the focus on their rank and brings them together // i love how she loves learning! extracurriculars, instruments, languages, etc.

sakura: respect. hella popular, hella humble, extremely hardworking. to be honest i do not think she has much natural talent for dance, which means she puts a LOT of effort into practicing, and i appreciate that. // she’s been in the industry since a young age so i feel like she’d be able to help wonyo and yujin out so that’s nice to know. // huge fanbase and popularity since before pd48 but i never ever got the feeling that it influenced her ego at all—respect.

yuri: heh // ccc: // an entire baby that hair flipped my soul into oblivion in violeta lol // probably the most baby of ‘01 line lol // clumsy as hell and easily a nervous wreck lol // hearing her sing brightens my day with a 100% probability lol // seeing her rebound after going from A to F class --> this is SO hard and could easily destroy any performer to the core // her busan accent is so cute lol // when she did ayayaya i thought it was cute bc she was an entire baby among unnies lol // but also her voice MADE ayayaya so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

yena: LOL // she’s so lame and such a loser in the most freakin endearing way (because i just made a gifset of her getting sassed nonstop by chaewon) // love her voice sm // boyish/rough (? idk word in english) as hell one second but her performance style is really feminine (from her background in ‘girls’ hip hop) and that plays with my heart // stage presence 100 but she keeps using the same hand movements in non-izone song stages LOL cute // if i watched pd48 before lver, she woulda been my one pick // improved a lot since pd48 // tsundere #2

yujin: she’s heckin mature for her age LOL and i think, out of all the members, she has the highest potential esp since she’s so young. tbh did not notice her much during pd48 but after watching her more i realized she’s an all rounder and really reliable on stage. // she’s been improving her stage presence recently and she also has the cutest eye smile and dimples // seems really outgoing but im glad she’s comfortable with the unnies so she has someone to lean on when things get hard

nako: otr pls let her sing lol // i always get surprised at her height lol (im taller than wonyoung by almost 5cm) // super impressed by her korean // i dont like this and i hope she feels different now :( // nako song gets stuck in my head every now and then and idk what to do with myself LOL // seems to support others well (yuri @ nako : “if i didn’t have you i wouldn’t have made izone) and i respect that a lot // hopefully she’s able to/allows herself to receive as much support as she gives // if anyone badmouths nako i’ll fight

eunbi: most respect for eunbi. takes care of all the babies. tbh whenever i think about it, i wouldnt put her in my bias list at all bc she’s kinda on a diff level? i look up to her as a leader and as someone who went through a lot of ‘failure’ to reach her success // right now im studying to bring myself closer to my dream career and i always remember eunbi when i feel like giving up! // i appreciate that she called chaeyeon izone’s pride bc i feel like chaeyeon needs to be gassed often // it can be discouraging when you see a lot of young talent achieve more than you but eunbi either doesnt feel that or doesn’t let it show and i respect that

hyewon: im guessing you saw my post!

hitomi: deserves more screentime lol it was so hard to gif her in buenos aires // one of the sassmasters of izone // side bangs / bangless tomi is the cutest // her dancing is really refreshing to watch bc cheering background // stage presence has improved // tbh has been winning my heart recently // blond tomi + boyfriend jeans tomi 😭😭😭

chaewon: my one pick in pd48! (my #1 bias was actually chaewon until violeta and my url used to be kchaewons lol) // i think out of all the members, chaewon is the one that was most meant to be an idol... it’s like she BELONGS on stage in all aspects and it’s so captivating // she gives me chungha vibes but everyone says im crazy when i say that // she’s sassy and i love it // chaewon on knowing bros // amazing dancer but i can tell she didn’t learn dance foundation from bottom up, so she must have hella talent for it // probably has the best dance textures in izone which is really impressive esp since her team got roasted to hell for it during pd48 to reach you

minju: hands down has had the greatest amount of improvement since pd48 and im v proud // v v v v v proud // can you believe she’s the same age as yuri //  민주가 또오~?!?! // i think part of her improvement can be attributed to the fact that she always thinks the other members are so amazing (from pd48 to now... izone’s #1 fan...) 💯💯💯respect

chaeyeon: tsundere #1 // dance senpai // maybe the member i connect to the most? esp after seeing her break down from byj in 1000% // deserves all her success and more // if u ever watch dance class footage and hear ppl make weird sounds when something cool happens // thats me whenever i watch chaeyeon dance LOL // i honestly dont know how she dances like that (feather) bc i have honestly nEVER seen anyone dance like that in my life lol

tbh none of them would be the bias we love without the support from the rest of the team, so having appreciation for all of them is important to me!

[moonjima]

Questions cause u are my fav blog about my dog and I love you! 1. Fav Majima's quote 2. Fav part about the hole saga 3. Fav Sunshine's girl 4. Fav Majima's body part 5. Most dramatic/cry time in the saga xooooo

OUGHHGHGHKSKFDFJLD CRIES THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY THANK U ANON I LOVE U TOO AAAAAAAA Q//////Q

IM SO HAPPY WE CAN ALL STAN MAJIMA TOGETHER SOBS

ALSO GOOD QUESTIONS ooo funnn lets relive some pA I N….

1. Fav Majima’s quote

gOD I WAS DEBATING ON A FAVE FUNNY LINE OR A FAVE MEANINGFUL LINE BC HE HAS SO MANY BOTH KLSJDGH but if im being honest thIS QUOTE is the one i think of on an almost daily basis and it really helps me get thru when i need it!!

MY BESTIE EVEN QUOTES IT @ ME WHEN IM HAVING A HARD DAY AND FEELING INADEQUATE COMPARED TO OTHER ARTISTS HAHA so yeah this is def the fave ;;U;;

2. Fav part about the whole saga

OUGHGH WELL i havent actually seen the whole thing yET SWEATS

ive only seen up to kiwami WE’RE GONNA START KIWAMI 2 SOON THO we just been rlly heckin busy ghgh (( ”we” meaning me and @absolute-mad-dog !! FOLLOW EM IF UR NOT ALREADY!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!! )) but between 0 and kiwami hmmMM gOD THERES SO MUCH,,,GREAT,,,AMAZING ,,,SCENES hhhHHH!!! actually!!! the answer to this is the answer to the cry question sO IMA GET BACK TO IT

 3. Fav Sunshine’s girl

YUKI YUKI YUKI YUUUKKIIIIIII!!!!!! she spicy and i love her and mister majima MAD DOG OF DOJIMA can not handle her bLESS 

4. Fav Majima’s body part

LKJLGOIFUIODHGFHJGL nOSE,,,PROFILE!!!!,,,HIM NOSE ,,,,,,v go o d…best nose in all of yakuza,,,

5. Most dramatic/cry time in the saga 

ITS IMPORTANT FOR U TO KNOW THAT I AM A SUPER EMOTIONAL PERSON AND I CRY A LOT AND AFTER I FINISHED Y0 I CRIED FOR TWO DAYS STRAIGHT ANY TIME I THOUGHT ABOUT MAJIMA and i was telling my mom the story while i was watching aND I TRIED TELLING HER THE ENDING AND I COULDNT STOP CRYING AND SHE WAS LIKE ISNT THIS A GAME??? ARENT GAMES SUPPOSED TO BE FUN?? HAHA

SO TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION THERE WERE MANY SCENES THAT MADE ME CRY VERY MUCH

BUT THIS MADE ME SOB THE MOST BC I WAS SO PROUD OF HIM

SO HAPPY FOR HIM sO M U CH I CANT STOP CRYING AND SMILING AND MY HEART IS FULL AND IM!!!!!! sO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!! tHE THING I WAS WAITING FO R MOST THE WHOLE GAME MY BOY IS FINALLY FREE!!!! HES FINALLY FREE!!!!!!! 

HE CAN fINALLY MAKE HIS OWN DECISIONS AND THE CHOICE HE MAKES FIRST IS HES GOING TO HAVE F U N AND GOD I LOVE THAT

HE DESERVES IT

GO BE FREE YA MAD DOG

also honorable “I Ugly Cried Really Loud” mentions:

GORO MAJIMA’S HEART TOO BIG FOR HIS GOT DAMN BOOTS 

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH AND HE DESERVES BETTER THAN WHAT HE GETS ALL THE TIME FLKSAJDHG CRIES

[celestialsoft]

⤻   *       GREETINGS AND HELLO !!!! :   IT IS I   ,   ADMIN EDIE !    HERE ONCE AGAIN HERE TO POST AN INTRO  :~))))  

this time i’m here to introduce you to my tenderhearted wee bab of an angel who clears my skin and grows by crops tBH, FRANK KANGDAE LONGBOTTOM, my lionhearted boi who deserves e v e r y t h i n g ( literally ; empty out your pockets and give EVERYTHING u have to frankleface longbooty—— he . deserves . it . all . !!!!! ) if you’d like to plot, please like this post or hmu in my im’s & without further ado —— here’s frank ! pls love him

⤻   *       APPLICATION   —— !

* ╰    ( KIM YOUNGKYUN )┋have you met ( FRANKLIN KANGDAE LONGBOTTOM ) ? ( he ) reminds me of ( deep loneliness and deep kindness grown in equal parts —— and he speaks, so overcome with love, that i forget we are at war. he grew up hanging lanterns on hilltops to make sure the moon could see at night ; and practiced catching droplets of rain with his lips —— because even the clouds deserved a little romance. ' i infinitesimal being, drunk with the great starry void ' —— tenderhearted boy , luminescent boy : boy frightened , boy destroyed. unravelled by kindness ; compassion consumed —— on the precipice of supernova , he burns brightest in the darkest hour. he looks to me as if he were a man forged entirely of tenderness and the sun ; yet he is the sweet nocturne that plays despite how the beginning of the end has begun ). a ( twenty-one ) year old ( tenth ) year ( gryffindor ), the ( paladin ) is known to be ( + tenderhearted & + clement ), yet ( — oversolicitous & — pensive ). that explains why they’re majoring in ( healing ). rumour has it, ( frank ) is siding with ( the order ) in the solemn war that blazes beyond the castle walls. ( edie, 22, aedt, she/her )

⤻   *       ABOUT FRANK  ——   !!

ahhhhh, frank longbottom —— where do i even start ????? if there’s just one thing that you should absolutely know about frank longbottom, it is that he is a gosh darn heckin’ angel. his heart is ??? so ??? genuinely pure ??? just thinking about it makes me want to tear up tbh

frank is the kind of boy who will charge straight into the carnage and chaos of the whomping willow to save a cat. he’s the kind of boy who hangs out by the edge of the black lake, worried that the giant squid is feeling lonely. he’s the kind of boy who sees the potential for good in everyone & everything, and is genuinely confused and appalled by acts of unkindness and malice when they occur. he chooses the path of benevolence, always, and he wants to keep everyone he loves safe so he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and feels like it is up to him, & him alone, to SAVE THE WORLD and make it a better place. i repeat for you my fronds : frank longbottom gosh darn heckin’ angel. but my god, is he a broken one.

⤻   *       BACKGROUND   ——   !!

frank was born into a sacred 28 pureblood family who cared very little for blood purity, but a whole lot for social justice & fighting for what is right. thomas and augusta longbottom first met at the ministry of magic, where their ‘ left-wing ’ progressive ideas about wizard / muggle / magical creature relations brought them together. their love brought frank longbottom into the world ; a child who was, from an early age, exposed to concepts of in/equality, systematic oppression, privilege, biased public policy, and injustice through his parents.

under the steady & tireless virtuous guidance of his mother and father, frank longbottom bloomed from infancy into childhood with a strong sense of egalitarianism & selflessness that most children only learned well into adolescence, and he had an awareness of the injustices of the world that many people did not gain even well into adulthood. yet despite his parent’s rather strict & heavy hand in discipline, there was always a remarkable air of benevolence and incorruptibility about frank that refused to be befouled.

nevertheless, frank was a terribly lonely child. he was homeschooled by a thoroughly screened, left-wing half-blood governess, and she was just about his only connection to the outside world. it goes without saying that sacred 28 pureblood socialising events & parties were off-limits and out of the question for frank, and since the longbottoms lived in suburban muggle england, frank was always too scared to socialise with many of the children in his neighbourhood, fearful that he would accidentally expose his magical lineage & incur terrible consequences for his folly. shut away in a house of absolute virtue and morality, frank longbottom was a victim of utter loneliness & never got to experience the world his parents adamantly taught and trained him to save … until his letter from hogwarts arrived, that is.

⤻   *       HOGWARTS   ——   !!

frank was a heckin’ confusing four-way house hat stall during his sorting. the hat sensed the resolute loyalty and benevolence of hufflepuff in him, the love and respect for knowledge and learning of ravenclaw in him & the tenacity and ambition to achieve his goals of slytherin in him, but ultimately, the sorting hat settled on “ GRYFFINDOR ! ”, declaring its choice with a booming roar. above all, the sorting hat sensed frank to be brave —— willing ( & desperate, even ) to fight for what is right. it’s a shame that frank, to this day, doesn’t seem to see this bravery in himself. but by the warm beacon of the gryffindor common room fireplace, under the twinkling candlelights of the great hall, and at the top of the astronomy tower ( the stars and galaxies at the reach of his very own fingertips ), frank, at hogwarts has grown to be exactly the kind of person his parents have always wanted him to be : stalwartly true ; combatting hate with kindness, and enveloping cruelty with warmth. he loves deeply and vastly, and he honestly radiates this other-worldy quality of brightness ??? he’s the light in the dark, and oh how he shines. 

however —— the fact that he’s already grown into someone that his parents are proud of doesn’t stop frank from still wanting to be better, and wanting to save the world. what frank doesn’t realise is that he can hardly save the world if he can’t first save himself. he’s constantly emotionally and physically exhausted ; spending every moment of his time helping those around him and making sure to change to the world one kind act at a time. slowly but surely, frank’s bleeding heart and compulsion for kindness is coming to the point of being harmful to his own health and wellbeing. 

so yeah … … . though frank is falling apart, he never lets this show & he really tries to never make this anyone else’s problem. through the haze of responsibility and moral duty that has always clouded frank’s life, there’s still a profound tenderness and warmth about him ; and among all his advocations and efforts towards justice & peacetime, it’s difficult to discern just how deeply scared, lost, and confused the boy is in a world that refuses to cease changing right before his very eyes ; an inevitable war upon the horizon. 

⤻   *       LITTLE HEADCANONS   ——   !!

frank has always been V MAGICALLY GIFTED. he showed his first signs of magic when he was just one and a half, when he had a terrible nightmare & woke up screaming in the middle of the night. instead of waiting for his parents to come and calm him down though, frank simply closed his eyes & focused on his breathing. when his parents stumbled into the room ; sleep hazy in their eyes, they could hardly believe what they saw : the entire room, covered in flowers and lush foliage —— something that frank had somehow conjured up to keep himself calm ( b/c untamed childhood magic be CRAZY ). frank is now able to command wandless magic, which is a GODSEND tbh b/c he’s such a sleep-deprived mess & he loses his wand c o n s t a n t l y istG

being a sacred 28 pureblood with quite advanced magical abilities, frank has always been in high demand for pureblood partnership through an arranged marriage. his parents, have always hastily shot down offers ( bc they aren’t all up in that pureblooded nonsense ! ), but that hasn’t stopped pureblooded parents from reaching out anyway :/ yIKEs :/// 

frank is part of the slug club ,,,,,,,,,,,,, and like ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, every single other club / extracurricular. baby longbottom is an OVERACHIEVER EXTRAORDINAIRE —— YA BOI DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO CHILL. it’s not that frank is driven by any sort of particular ambition and self-interest, though ?? rather, frank’s heavy involvement in every aspect of school life stems from the aforementioned incredible pressure of his parent’s expectations ; frank applying himself to every possible aspect of school life and extracurriculars in the hopes that he will make them proud

frank has so little chill that he’s actually started sleepwalking … yikes ????? it probably doesn’t help that frank is involved in almost every sport club tbH, & he is also gryffindor quidditch team’s seeker. the thing is that he could never give any sport up. sport is so cathartic for frankie my boi, because it helps him forget his worries & his responsibilities. while he’s playing sport he is just a body —— he is pulsing blood, deep breaths & he is free.

⤻   *       OTHER FUN FACTS / GENERAL SUMMARY DOT POINTS ABOUT FRANKLEFACE LONGBOOTY   ——   !!

THE MOST CLEAN CUT KID OF THE YEAR AWARD GOES TO : frank longbottom, OFC. innuendo is lost on the kid ( he is v v v lost every time someone uses the word ‘ wand ’ as double entendre ), and has only consumed alcohol once in his life —— and even then, it was by accident ( it was in a spiked cherry berry trifle at an end of year christmas party back in first year ). 

LATELY, THOUGH, frank has taken up smoking. he does it in secret ; one cigarette every night in the astronomy tower, or by the black lake. if anyone ever found out about this frank would be MORTIFIED & would legitimately probably DIE of shame, so ………….. *coughs* someone pls walk in on him smoking one day. 

it’s so strange, because frank is incredibly in touch with the real travesties and injustices of the world, but in many ways he’s completely naive and lacking in real life experience. he is such an experientially sheltered kiddo, someone pls take him out and get him RAGING DRUNK bc he needs to chill out tbH

#mumfriend

takes literally 15 minutes out of each of his days to have a few conversations with a few of hogwarts’ cats ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, what a loser ??

gets excited when people ask him for help with their homework ( hELP ME ???? )

excels at all his subjects, but has a particular soft-spot for astronomy, herbology and care of magical creatures :’)

LOVES KNITTING —— stress knits a lot . he’d like to just knit the entire world up into a snug lil blanket and keep it safe and warm 

wants to single handedly save the world

did i mention ????? babe is a gosh dark heckin’ angel

in the mirror of erised, frank would see all his friends and family happy and smiling —— but he wouldn’t even be in the frame. mY HEART BREAKS OVER THIS HEADCANON TBH

frank has a cat named alexis de tocqueville 

i’ve run out of things to dot point & this is probably WAY TOO LONG ALREADY ANYWAY ??? so i’ll stop :o :o :o but please come and interact with my son ?!!!!!!??!? i love yall peace out

[cinnacola]

🍎🌪!!

🍎 (favorite foods)

watermelon is probably the all time fave tbh!!!! Summer vibes and sweet

Kotoko basically exclusively eats candy/other sweet stuff

Suzie is very adamant about eating healthy but she hates meat

The kids looooove cinnamon rolls, like, we don’t eat them ever but when we do it’s gonna b a good day

Nudge heckin. Loves those biscuit thingies like again we don’t eat that stuff often but she would cry for them 

Overall we kind of have to be open to anything, peanut butter and general fruits keep us going

🌪 (protectors)

I’ll go by the active ones!

Hilda is our oldest protector, and one of the oldest active alters in general. Granted she doesn’t front much, especially for defensive situations, just because she deserves a break gjhghdj but she is a physical and emotional protector, plus she occasionally does schoolwork. She is the only reliable one to do so

Vi is a very angry physical protector, like she’s not a persecutor but she will not hesitate to slam you too the ground if you threaten the body in any way. But she’s also very sweet!!!

AJ and Dashie are both emotional protectors, the former not giving two shits about any irrational emotion or person and the latter is just a Cool Dude

Snow and Mikan are protectors of a specific thing I don’t wanna say ;; Snow is very laid back, i don’t think I’ve ever seen her angry. Mikan, on the other hand, can go from 0-100 faster than you can say “hand sanitizer”. She’s also a medical protector bc heck does she love literally anything to do with cleanliness and wellbeing

Kotoko is an emotional protector, because she doesn’t take verbal abuse seriously, as in, she will laugh about it and go back to posting pink things on her aesthetic blog

Iruma is “big sister” we love them

Yahtzee and Cilan work in the psychosis/intrusive thoughts department. Cilan will do anything and everything to make sure the body is safe during attacks, and Yahtzee responds to nasty intrusive thoughts with the most bitter and lethargic attitude I have ever seen, system-wise or outside it.