#cuz I have observed for two years already-

[honeyuuyuu]

background from here because I was lazy to draw it- but hyeeeee i could not resist the temptation to draw a bit-

Instagram  ✎  Devianart  ✎ Reblogs help! ^^

[megu-meow]

family ties - gojo satoru

gojo x fem. reader

Summary: Satoru takes you to meet the in-laws.

The Gojo family members mentioned are named after the Zoldyk family, cuz Satoru is the grown-up version Killua. Argue with a wall on that one. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this one!

"Please, sweetheart! I've been begging you for four years, it's time..." Gojo implores, running after you in the hallways of Jujutsu Tech like a lost puppy.

"I told you already, Satoru, I don't want to do it. You said it was ok if I didn't because you don't care what they think anyway."

"I know, but now that I proposed to you, my family wants to see you. Especially Ojiisan, he wants to meet the woman who charmed his favorite grandson." he whines as the two of you stop in front of your classroom.

"Toru, you said it yourself, all of your clan members are obsessed with you marrying someone from the big clans. We both know they will not accept a nobody like me." you explain as you rub your forehead. It wasn't that you didn't want to meet Satoru's family, but he was the one to refuse to introduce you to them in the first place. He didn't like the way they treated outsiders and he didn't want you to experience how old-fashioned and downright disgusting their beliefs and traditions were. You were better off without ever crossing paths with them, you were sure of that. However, as soon as he proposed to you, his clan members started pushing the matter, because being Satoru's wife would mean that you would get your own responsibilities in the clan, like attending meetings representing Satoru, when he was away, you would get your own vote in different matters, and lastly, the one you refused to take into consideration, you would become clan head if Satoru would ever be unable to fulfill his duties as such. It was normal for them to wish to meet you, but that didn't make it any easier.

"You will only have to meet my mom, my dad, and my grandparents. They don't care about how you are or what powers you hold as long as you love me. They will not make you feel miserable, I promise." he looks at you with those cerulean orbs that shine like rhinestones, ones you cannot say no to.

"You pinky-promise?"

"Of course, sweetheart." he says and he shows you his pinky, waiting for you to link it with yours. And you do.

The day finally arrives, a sunny Friday in April, as the Sakura blossoms. Ijichi picked up the two of you from your shared apartment early in the morning to begin your hour-long drive to the Gojo estate in suburban Tokyo.

"So your father's name is Silva?" you ask your fiance as you observe the landscape around you.

"Yes. He's kinda scary at first glance, but he would do anything to make me happy."

"Your mom's name is Kykio, right?"

"Yes, good job sweetheart! She's a kind-hearted woman, she's gonna love you for sure."

"Okay, I think I know enough about your family tree." you sigh, you really want these people to like you. You don't exactly know why, Satoru said he doesn't care what they say, he's gonna marry you anyway, but you know he loves his parents and his grandparents. Contrary to popular belief, he grew up in a loving family, he was spoiled rotten by everyone, hence his insufferable personality. However, despite how Satoru claims his family not liking you wouldn't affect him, you know it would. These people are important to him, whether he admits it or not. So you're not going to screw this up by not knowing their given names. Or by anything else.

You get dropped off in front of a massive gate that Satoru opens with ease and you're met with a pebbled road lined with Sakura trees. They are in perfect blossom, there is a sea of pink in front of you. Satoru grabs your hand in his and starts walking down the road, leading you toward where you assume the Minka is.

"Three, two, ..." you hear Satoru count back under his nose and you look at him with confusion, but as you look back to the road ahead of you a person appears, bowing in front of your fiance.

"Gojo-san, welcome back!"

"Amane, long time no see! How are you holding up?" he asks joyfully and you remember him mentioning his name before. Amane was Satoru's best friend at the estate, his cousin on his mother's side of the family.

"I'm doing good. You didn't announce your arrival, the clan is in a meeting right now."

"I know." he smirks. He timed this perfectly and you take a note to yourself to scold him for slacking off. "By the way, this is my fiance, y/n."

"Hajimemashite, y/n-san! Welcome to the Gojo Estate."

"Nice to meet you too, Amane. Please leave the honorifics, makes me feel old."

"As you wish. Please do not hesitate to call for me if you need anything. I will make sure to prepare Gojo-san's bedroom for the two of you." Amane disappears right after finishing his sentence, you couldn't even thank him for his help.

"GOJO SATORU!" you hear a deep voice shouting from afar and you feel goosebumps covering your entire body. Whoever that voice belongs to is frightening as hell. "Not only do you not show your face to a clan meeting, but you have the audacity to not announce me about my daughter-in-law coming to meet me?" you observe the tall, muscular man in front of you as he approaches with inhumane speed. He has long, wavy hair with bangs, the color identical to Satoru's, and icy blue eyes. It is Gojo Silva, Satoru's father. The cursed energy around him has a crazy strong presence, similar to Satoru's when he lets his unleash, but this one feels rougher, slightly colder.

First, he steps to his son, yanking his left ear, which results in Satoru whining like a little kid. The whole ordeal is comical, you know that his father is just messing around. After that, he looks at his son with disapproving eyes, calls him a menace and turns towards you.

"Y/n, yoroshiku! I am Gojo Silva, Satoru's father. You can call me otousan." he bows and you return the gesture with a blush on your cheeks. Satoru giggles, enjoying his father's antics. Despite being a seemingly intimidating person, Silva seems to be just as much of a goofball as Satoru. He asks you silly questions like what is your favorite dessert, how much you can eat and whether you discipline his son when he acts like an idiot. The last one causes Satoru to chirp back at his father, claiming that he called him the other night to 'change the Google logo back to the original'. As you observe the dynamic between the two you have to remind yourself that you're in the presence of the heads of the Strongest Clan in Jujutsu history.

You finally arrive in front of the house and you are greeted by a beautiful woman with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. She looks welcoming in her flowery dress and with her wide smile. Her smile resembles Satoru's, it reaches her ears and it's vibrant, like there is nothing wrong in this world. Her cursed energy is low, even lower than yours, and you're not sure if it's because she is limiting it or if she simply doesn't have much to begin with. Her aura is stronger, it is familiar and welcoming.

"Kaachan!" Satoru exclaims as he walks up to her, embracing the petite woman in a warm hug. She pats her son on the back, her eyes sparkling with the motherly love she reserves for him.

"I'm glad you're finally home, sunshine! Please don't give your father any more headaches while you're here."

"I will not, mother!" he says curtly and he suddenly snakes his arms around your hips, bringing you close to his side "By the way, this is my fiance, y/n!" he introduces you and you bow in front of his mother politely.

"I am glad to finally meet you, Kykio-san!"

"Oh, please, sweetheart, leave the honorifics. You are family, you can call me Okaasan or whatever you prefer." she says with her warm smile.

They all walk you to the family dining room, claiming that you arrived in time for supper. You're being presented with a variety of traditional Japanese dishes and you're more than excited to try everything that you like. Satoru's parents are extremely nice and calm. They ask you questions about your family, your upbringing, about Jujutsu and your time in high school. They claim they already know about every single detail of your relationship with Satoru, apparently, you're one of his favorite topics to mention when he is back home. They tell you stories about their son, how he was while growing up, what he liked and disliked, and how much of a troublemaker he was. You listen carefully to these stories, you want to remember them, to cherish them for a long time. After you finish the dishes, they are serving desserts, a whole lot of them in different assortments.

"Satoru has got a sweet tooth his whole life. His grandmother likes to prepare all kinds of deserts, even western ones so he grew up eating a copious amount of sugar." Kykio explains.

"Y/n bakes too! She makes cookies for me all the time!"

"That's not true, Toru! I've been trying to reduce his sugar intake, so now I only bake once a week." you explain and his parents look at each other knowingly, as they start laughing. You look at Satoru in confusion, but he just shakes his head, signaling that he doesn't get it either.

"Sweetheart, Satoru has been teleporting back home every week to eat desserts from his Sobo." his mother explains and you look at your fiance in disbelief. He acts like he's innocent, smiling at you widely, mouthing 'i love you'. You roll your eyes, but mouth the words back, because otherwise he would throw a fit in front of everyone.

"Where is that grandson on mine? Always causing trouble." you hear a male voice from the hallway and a pair of footsteps. The cursed energy coming from their direction is unpaired, it exceeds Silva's, maybe not Satoru's, but it still makes you uncomfortable.

"Have some decorum, Zeno. That boy has done nothing wrong in his life." a woman's voice is heard and the male grunts in disbelief.

"Typical Sobo Gojo, she always thinks Satoru is perfect." Silva explains and he lets out an obnoxious laugh, very similar to Satoru's. Now you understand where he got it from.

The doors open and you observe the cute elderly woman and the man with hair pointing toward the ceiling on her side. What is it with Gojo men and their gravity-resistant hair?!

"Satoru, do you have any idea how long it took me to convince the clan geezers to let your lady off the hook this time?" Zeno questions and looks at his grandson with an authoritative gaze.

"I'm sorry you had to do that, Ojiisan. I promise that next time, y/n will meet them as well."

"Good! Now come here, my child. I wanna see if my grandson was telling the truth about you being the most gorgeous woman to walk on this earth." he says as he gestures for you to walk up to him. You oblige as he takes your hands into his, analyzing them carefully. "Huh, truly beautiful. Your cursed energy flows nicely and you have a lot of it. You are strong, I like that." he says, drops your hands, and walks towards the table. After that, you are greeted by his grandmother, who scolds you for trying to limit her beloved grandson's insane sugar intake. However, she compliments you on your looks and politeness.

You sit back down at the table afterward, enjoying the moment of being surrounded by the Gojo family. Despite their reputation, they are all nice people. The three generations of men keep teasing each other, grandpa Zeno is a savage, making fun of both his son and grandson, he has absolutely no mercy. They keep telling you stories about Satoru like the time his grandfather shot him in the eye with a Nerf gun despite aiming at his butt. Or the time he was playing hockey inside while his parents were out and he broke the glass on his mother's favorite painting. Luckily for him, Sobo was home and she had the glass fixed before his parents even got home.

You tell them about the time he encountered a cleaning curse and how he smelled like detergent for two weeks. Or the time he wanted to pick you flowers from the forest near Jujutsu Tech, but fell into poison ivy.

The night goes by like that, filled with laughter and family stories. Despite having your doubts about meeting Satoru's family, he observes how you fit right in. How everyone loves you and they accept you for who you are because the love you have for him is evident. As it should be. And he swears that his love for you skyrockets even more that night, despite him knowing that it's nearly impossible.

[demonpiratehuntress]

hi hello dearie, hope this finds you well <3 i’ve been reading some of your Ace content for DAYS cuz is ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT and i have a hyperfixation for the man.

i have this oddly specific request if you’re taking requests ofc asksnakxm

ace and the reader meet each other when he saved her from potentially being killed by some random ruthless and murdering pirate, she was in that situation because he had killed some of her friends but that’s not the issue AKSNWKSB the thing is she gets mad because Ace saved her so she said sum “i was content with the fact that i was going to die, i didn’t need your saving” and he’s just stunned cuz? he just saved her???? two days later she thanks him but she tries to escape many times from the ship and those many times Ace ruined her plans so after a week of trying she gives up. THEN two years later they confess their feelings for each other after a day of Ace following her like a puppy and teasing her nonstop until she gives in

ODDLY SPECIFIC IM SO SORRY 😭😭 but it’s okay if you can’t do it <3

hi! thank you so much 😊 also im so so sorry this took so long! I've just been really busy! but i hope you enjoy this! to everyone else, i am still working on the other requests! i have much more than i realised 😂 but i will get them out...eventually

taglist - @kabloswrld

stubborn

Portgas D. Ace x F!Reader

summary - the ask above! :)

warnings - mild angst

Run.

That's all you could think of, all you could do. There was no time or space to do anything else, and your body had already kicked into the fight-or-flight response. You weren't sure how far you could get, but you were desperate to get away.

The gory images of your friends lying sprawled out on the ground, drenched in blood, made itself a home in your mind. You would never be able to forget that, no matter how hard you tried. Swallowing back a sob, you sprinted towards the town as fast as your tired legs could carry you.

"Where do you think you're going, huh?"

A solid wall of muscle slammed into you from the side and sent you flying. You hit an actual wall with a sickening crunch, pain erupting throughout your entire arm. Dislocated shoulder or broken arm, you couldn't tell which one through the blinding agony. You screamed, more so out of pain than wanting someone to hear. You already accepted your fate, the minute he found you. But that didn't make it any less painful.

"I think I'm going to enjoy this kill the most."

A large hand grabbef a fistful of your hair, yanking you upwards to meet his cold, murderous eyes. He was grinning wickedly, taking pleasure in your pain, and watched you squirm in his grip helplessly.

"If you're going to kill me, just get it over with!" You spat, not knowing where the bravery came from because of the immense pain emanating from your injured limb.

He tutted, "No, you gave me too much trouble. I'm going to make this slow and painful, just for you."

"Now that's no way to treat a lady."

A bright orange light filled your vision, but you couldn't tell what it was as you were suddenly dropped, the man who'd murdered your friends letting out a pained yelp. You lifted your head, dots swimming in your vision, but you were able to make out the familisr form of flames dancing along the man's chest.

"Judging from all the blood on your clothes, I'm gonna guess you went a little crazy tonight," another man was saying, but he sounded childishly amused. "Well, too bad it ends for you right here."

You turned to look at the owner, just as he flicked his wrist and sent more fire the murderous pirate's way. Pretty soon he was engulfed in flames, screaming and pawing at his clothes while trying to extinguish them. You couldn't care less, observing the man who'd saved your life.

He was tall and muscular, pale skin lit up by the ball of fire hovering above his palm. No, wait, his hand WAS the ball of fire. He was shirtless, wearing nothing but black shorts, black boots and a red cowboy hat.

You'd seen him somewhere before...

"Ah, good. I thought that might take a while."

You turned back to the man who'd killed your friends and had been chasing you up until now, only to see a crumpled black heap on the floor a few feet away. Your eyes widened, before you were suddenly lifted up into a pair of strong arms.

"I didn't need your help," you blurted out, "I was ready to die! I didn't want to be saved!" Tears formed in your eyes. You had nothing left. You should have died.

Ace frowned, his heart sinking. Your words brought a familiar feeling back to him, one that he hasn't forgotten but had tried to push away after finding a family in the Whitebeard pirates. He knew what it was like to feel the way you did, and it tugged at his heartstrings to find someone else like that.

Someone who didn't want saving, but desperately needed it.

He's so shocked that he almost forgets you need medical treatment. When he finally remembers, he says nothing and hurries back to the ship with you, his mind racing.

-

Two days later, your arm is in a sling and you're walking around the Moby Dick looking for the raven-haired commander that saved your life. The crew was friendly enough to you, and Marco had suggested more bedrest, but you wanted to see and thank Ace.

It was true that you wanted to die, yes, but after facing the kindness of someone you didn't even know, your mind had slowly changed. You were starting to feel grateful towards him, grateful for being alive.

"Hey! You're awake!"

You turned at the sound of the cheery man, spotting him coming your way. You relaxed slightly, not sure why you were so tense to begin with but relieved to see him.

"Yeah," you breathed out, "Your doctor works wonders."

"That he does," Ace grinned, before eyeing you up and down, "You look a lot better. I didn't get your name, though."

"Oh, it's (Name)," you told him, "You're Portgas D. Ace, right? Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates?"

"That's me. Glad to know I'm popular with pretty women," he flirted, sending you a smile that knocked the air out of your lungs.

You blushed, flustered, "Well I-I just wanted to say...thank you. I hadn't realised it before, but I didn't really want to die. Just thought I had no one left, and nowhere to go. So thank you for changing that."

Ace's smile only grew, so much so you feared it would tear his face in two, "You're welcome! If I'm being honest, I was glad to play hero for a beautiful woman."

Your blush deepened, his charms affecting you in a way that nothing else and no one else ever had. You found yourself at a loss for words, but thankfully he was called away so you didn't have to say anything else.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

-

The first time you tried to escape, you didn't realise they had a rotational watch schedule. And you hadn't realised that Ace was the one who was on watch that evening.

"Hey, (Name)! Where ya going?"

He smiled at you innocently enough, but his eyes told you he knew exactly what you were trying to do. After all, he'd done the same thing back when he joined. You were just too similar to him.

"Uh...nowhere?" You tried to lie, but you sucked at it. You couldn't even convince a potato if you tried.

"Hmm," he clicked his tongue. "This won't do. Maybe I should just tell Whitebeard, or should I keep this to myself in hopes that it doesn't happen again?"

You agreed to the latter.

The second time, Ace was actually sneaking out of the kitchen with some food when he bumped into you. He raised his eyebrow as your eyes widened, your face giving away your intentions entirely.

He tsk'ed, "Again, (Name)?" He pouted. "You promised, you know."

You sighed and went back to your room, dejected. You could hear him laughing as he walked past your room, and you rolled your eyes as you laid back down to sleep.

The third time, Ace was prepared.

And he had made a trap for you. Which you fell right into, which is why you were now wriggling around in one of the smaller boats, wrestling with a net.

"This is getting old, you know," Ace chuckled as he loomed over you. "Trust me, I know all the tricks. I was you once."

After the fourth and fifth times, you gave up. Ace wasn't going to let you leave, and as the days went by and you got closer to him and the crew, you found your will to leave slowly sapping away. You eventually realised you wanted to stay, having found a family and healed - if only a little bit - with the Whitebeard crew.

One year passed, and you had almost forgotten about the man who'd tormented you. You'd had so much fun with the Whitebeard Pirates, Ace in particular, that you hadn't thought much of the incident. It was getting easier and easier to rid your mind of the gruesome image of your deceased friends month after month. Each adventure left you happier, lighter, and you soon found yourself finding happiness once more.

The pirate life was truly meant for you.

Two years passed, and your time with the Whitebeard crew had become the best of your life. They were practically your family now, and you spoke about and to them as such. You never forgot what happened to you, but you barely thought of it anymore. Not when your head was filled with thoughts about a certain 2nd division commander, with whom you'd fallen in love.

"Ace, stop!" You giggled as he scooped up some batter from the bowl you were mixing it in. You were baking cookies, but Ace was determined to be a menace and sneak in fingerfuls of batter each time you looked away.

"Can't help it," he whined, "It already tastes so good!"

"I haven't even baked it yet!"

"Well then imagine how amazing it'll taste after that!"

You knew he was trying to flatter you to get out of trouble, but you did not care because it was working. And you hated that it always worked, especially with him, because he made your heart race and gave you butterflies.

The days following that included Ace following you around, which you found a little strange since you didn't know why. He would never tell you the reason, always saying something stupid like "you smell good" or "im your bodyguard". You knew he was doing it to tease you, but you couldn't help feeling giddy over the fact that he was choosing to gift YOU with all of his attention.

"Okay, come clean for real this time," you finally approached him one night he was on watch, sitting down next to him. "Why have you been following me around? Teasing me all day, everyday?"

He turned to you, thinking for a moment before speaking seriously for the first time in his life, "Because I'm in love with you, (Name). I didn't want to tell you because I wasn't sure how you'd react or what you'd say, but that's what it is since you wanted to know so badly."

Your eyes went wide, heart thumping like a drum in your chest, "You...you're in love with me?"

He nodded, looking down at his shorts, "I am. These past two years, getting to know you...well, I never really considered the idea of love. But finding you changed that. We're so alike, but also different in ways that complement each other. If that makes sense, I'm not sure it does."

"It does," you smiled slowly, looking out over the water. "And that's really sweet. No one's ever said something so sweet to me before."

"Really? I find that hard to believe, you're so pretty and cute."

Cue the blush, "Yeah, well, I didn't really like anyone before you," you admitted. "Never paid attention to men much, until you barged into my life." You laughed. "You've made me feel so welcome, so comfortable, so happy. You've given me a sense of peace after what happened, and I'm so thankful to you for that. You saved me in more than one way, Ace, and I'm madly in love with you for it."

Your confession took a bit of time to register in his head, but once it did he was smiling goofily and grasping your hand in his. You rested your head on his shoulder, smiling as the two of you spent the whole night holding hands, watching the ocean, and - your favourite part - sharing many heartfelt, intimate kisses.

You were eternally grateful to and for Ace, the man who'd saved you without your permission but eventually earned your heart.

[dailyunstableeve]

Family issues

For comfort purposes-

(And also cuz I have fam issue so I thought it would be great if I write it out ;-;)

Hobie Brown x Fem reader

°:. *₊ ° . ° .•°:. *₊ ° . ° .•°:. *₊ ° . ° .•°:. *₊ ° . ° .•°:. *₊ ° . ° .

For this generation, it's already a normal case for you to have family issues and dramas.

And in the household, you were always the child who got bad mouth by anyone in the family so you always got into an argument with them.

You would slam your door so loud and push your shelf against the door so no one could come into your room.

You took out your phone, searching for the one person's name, Hobie.

You texted Hobie, a second later, he already replied.

"I'm on my way."

You and Hobie have been dating for two years, you and Hobie first meeting is when he decided to hit the school's studio, trying out his new guitar and you were just passing by. You observed him from the small window next to the door like a simp (aren't we all are-) you fell in love with him immediately because of his 'doesnt care about what other people say' personality while you were so caught up by your family.

"Pss pss," you heard Hobie from your window, you leaned out the window and found him hanging upside down on your roof.

"Hobie," you couldn't help but smile the moment you saw him.

"I'm here to pick up my luv, my doll," he smirked and gave you a kiss, "c'mon, I'm sure they won't know you're out."

"Well I did leave the shelf blocking the door," you chuckled and held onto Hobie, he had his arm around your waist, holding you tight as he swung you away from your house.

You rested your head on his shoulder during the whole swing ride, you felt him warm and you felt happy and safe with him.

Hobie would bring you to your favorite quiet spot of the city, so he could listen to everything you say, allowing you to rant about how awful your family has treated you.

Hobie's hand will rested on your thigh most of the time since his love language is physical touch (saw it appear in many hc so yea) and he would wipe away your tears if you feel so suffocated about your family issues, brushes your hair to side just to able see your whole beautiful face, aching his heart to see his angel in this much of pain.

Hobie would hug you if you looked like you needed one(which you always do), caressingly giving you head pats.

If Hobie has his guitar with him, he would play you a melody as he hums alongs it.

He would do anything to make sure you have a smile on your face, a smile that you truly meant, not some fake smile because he knows you too well.

Because Hobie is your boyfriend, you won't hesitate to bring him along when it comes to family gathering events since your siblings or cousin will be bringing their partners as well so you would ask Hobie to show up as well.

You and Hobie surely hated the family gathering event, because whenever they saw you and Hobie having fun together at the gathering, they would walk up to you and try to set you down, telling Hobie, he's better off without you, which makes Hobie snap at your family.

Hobie would tell them how perfect you are, without a second thought.

"What 'bout it? You're just jealous she's better than you."

That's what he would say because for him, you're better and perfect than anyone he knows.

"I love you Y/N, you gotta remember that, no matter what other people say about you, I will always love you, you got me?"

And when you're 18, and you're planning to move out, Hobie would gladly help you with it.

Masterlist

[14dyh]

hey! im the one who requested 17 with hange and loved it :) was wondering if u could write an other where hange catches feelings for reader, maybe from hanges pov? still angsty cuz hanges afraid of getting rejected, your choice on how it ends:)

Nebula | H.Z.

Pairing: Hange Zoë x gn!reader Summary: Hange recognizes their inner conflict about falling in love with you. Word count: 1.3k A/N: aaeegghh I'm glad you like it! sorry this took so long lmao but i already have that kind of part 2 in mind so here you goooo

Sunlight dappled Hange's desk from where you sat. It was a little too early to get up but you wanted to admire the nebula-shaped flower on Hange's desk. The shape, the edges, and even the colors imitating the swirls of light and the glowing stars and clouds that make a nebula made this flower so fascinating to look at. It felt like a cosmic wonder that could be held in mere human hands.

Hange remained asleep in your bed, cuddling your pillow close. They might have a hangover from last night so you were quick to make the both of you a cup of tea. Hange stirred slightly when you entered the room and closed the door behind you, two cups of tea in both hands before placing it on the table beside you. Hange noticed how much you admire that flower from where you're sitting.

"How long have you been growing this? It's beautiful," you mused, a finger hovering over the flower petals. Long ago, Hange's mind wanted to say but maybe you would ask how long would that be so Hange found a safe answer and said, "Certainly not as long as it would take to form a nebula, but it's been quite long."

Hange smiled, dragging a chair beside where you sat. They couldn't find the courage to tell you that the growing flower was there with every thought of you in mind. It was something that they planned to grow a year ago, convincing themself every day that it was just a testament to the admiration and friendship they have for you. Every day they would watch over that plant, waiting for it to bear a flower.

"It was something I planned a year ago," Hange explained, sipping on the tea you gave them. "Pretty quaint, huh?"

"It is... Looks like a nebula," you observed, looking at the flower from different angles and finding it beautiful all the same.

"That's what I'm aiming for. I'm glad it didn't turn out with a weird shape," Hange chuckled. There was a silent pause, and only the sound of the morning filled the room. Hange tried to tear their eyes from you but couldn't.

"Hey, Y/N?"

"Hm?"

Hange noticed that your eyes were still on the flower and thanked the heavens, you don't seem to notice how they're looking at you.

"Can we go to the ball together?" they asked. "I mean, it's not really our cup of tea but maybe we could have some fun and go to the art museum afterwards. What do you think?"

Hange saw your eyes brighten at the suggestion which made their heart leap.

"Sounds good to me."

Later that evening, both of you attended the simple ball hosted by the school to celebrate the patron it was named after. Hange would excitedly pull you on the dance floor, both of your movements rhyming up with whatever music played. But most importantly, you talked and talked, exchanging ideas one after the other until the event became too commonplace for the both of you. Hange held your hand and sneaked you two towards the exit, giggling to yourselves for successfully escaping the party.

A few people crossed by, sometimes art critics and sometimes lovers. Hange's eyes walked with them and wondered which of the two groups you would both belong to at the end of this night.

You walked together in the tranquil silence of the night. Birds would hum as if in a gentle serenade as Hange held your hand. Neither of you spoke until you reached the art museum you both longed to go to. Eventually, you stepped into the place, taking in the gentle atmosphere of being surrounded by beauty and color, the soft hues of red and pink settled on each painting depicting love and romance.

Hange still remembers the nebula-shaped flower whenever they look at you. They mused over how things in nature are bound to connect in one way or another and how such an infinitely strange world could be thought of just by looking at you. Everything sings and the world loves randomness enough to give it its unique pattern. Hange was deep in thought of you and the universe. They only snapped back in reality as they heard your gentle query.

"Hange, do you perhaps think that love has a place in every art no matter how tiny it may be?" you asked. Hange thought over your question as your head leaned against theirs. They observed how you sat beside them, eyes wandering over the painting before they spoke.

As you walked home together, Hange held your hand tighter this time. Their heart rammed against their chest, their mind broke itself apart by brimming with the thoughts of love, of the universe, of you— all the good things that make up their world.

"I think it is. Love has a place in everything, it is either too much of it or lack of it that makes up an object. And either way, it leads back to love," Hange answered softly. They speak of such love in a room full of romance paintings but they only looked at you with a smile etch across their lips. Your presence made them think of art and science — all the wonders and inventions born because one mind loved another. It may be an idea or a person but it all led back to passion.

This time it would hurt them to deny how much love they have for you from the beginning. Their heart held you dear too much but their mind refused for the sole reason that they don't think they deserve you enough to be in a special place in your heart.

All friendships and acquaintances they made so far flourished out of tolerance and need. People loved them through time and tolerated them because of that love, but it was never like this. To be loved and to be understood rarely comes along together. So Hange's mind racked itself and often wondered how you managed to give them both.

For a long time, their heart clammed up, tricking themself that they would love someone else, that they loved the girl who rejected them, and all because they wanted to avoid this situation. This very minute, they wanted to confess and recognized that their great fear came from being rejected by you. Given a day or week, they could get over any rejection from love or work but feared that your rejection would become their ultimate ruination.

And it was as though you could hear their thoughts as if their heart whispered their love to you. When you both reached the room you shared, Hange was taken aback by the sudden hug from you, their knees turning so weak that they had to grip the edge of the table. The nebula-shaped flower remained still on the desk as if watching things unfold.

The loving embrace you gave them just now triggered their desire to confess so they started slow.

"That flower... I must admit that it was for you. I made it for you," they let out before their throat could clam up. Hange finally found the courage to hug you back at this moment without trembling.

"And it means that I..." they tried to continue with much struggle. "That I..."

That I love you, it was so simple but they couldn't take it out of their mouth.

But somehow you knew, and it reached your heart nonetheless. You pulled away slightly to give them a gentle kiss, your lips careful around theirs. Hange freeze momentarily but something in them awakened their courage to kiss back and hold you tighter. Perhaps it was the relief that you love them as well, or perhaps it was the overjoy of their heart for letting themself open that love to you.

For a long moment, Hange refused to let you go and when they did, their mouth couldn't mutter anything but the love that tormented them for a long time. They wanted to cry or even scream in relief as all their fears became powerless to hold them back. Many things born out of fear ran through their head, thoughts of losing you or ruining the friendship they treasure the most but everything changed, knowing that you love them back. Hange wanted to ask how or why but realized that maybe your heart found true haven within theirs as well.

Hange's heart found delight when you let them embrace you throughout that night. And when the words “I love you too” came from your lips, Hange thought about the universe again and they were sure that right that moment, everything was in synchrony favored towards them. 

[hajiimes]

purple hydrangeas

pairing: suna rintarou x gn!reader tags: angst, hurt/no comfort, hanahaki au warnings: mentions of blood, surgery, and hospitals word count: 1.4k author's note: if this looks familiar at all that's cuz it's a repost from my previous blog (also hajiimes) from like 2-3 years ago lolol !! i revamped it and am reposting it here :D i'm sorry i was gone for so long it's been a wild time lol

masterlist

There’s a tickle in your throat and pain in your lungs. It’s been there for quite a while, so long that you’ve already forgotten what it felt like without the petals clogging up your lungs. You look at him, so unreadable, so unreachable . No one had told you that falling in love would hurt so much. 

It’s silly, you tell yourself. Childish. Dumb. Foolish. First love, a deadly fate. 

Suna Rintarou sits to your left in school and you cast glances at him whenever you’re sure that he’s paying more attention to doodling in his notebook than you. In your observations, you learn that Suna Rintarou dog-ears the pages of his textbooks to save his spot. You learn that he chews on the eraser at the end of his pencil when he thinks, leaving small indents in it when he pulls away to write. You learn that more often than not, Suna spends class time drumming his fingers on his desk, idly staring out the window instead of paying attention to the board. 

Suna isn’t the type to forget any pens or pencils, but he always forgets to bring extra paper. You couldn’t count the number of times he’d leaned over the aisle separating the two of you to ask for a sheet of paper, to which you’d happily obliged every time—always willing to lend a helping hand. Those reluctant smiles he sent you out of gratitude always seemed to brighten your day.

Honestly, it’s no surprise that you developed Hanahaki. 

He makes small jokes under his breath about classwork, little quips he doesn’t think anyone can hear. He offers you a pen whenever you forget one, accompanied with a small note stating ‘Give it back when you’re done’ wrapped around it. You end up keeping those notes, stuffing them between spare pages of your textbooks and notebooks. 

Suna is a boy of few words, but when he speaks you find yourself hooked on every one of them. Your friends call it puppy love. They call it a little kid’s crush. They tell you that in a month you’ll forget all about it and move on to some other guy. 

You don’t tell them that you probably won’t make it another month. 

The coughing fits become more and more frequent, each one right after the other. They get worse during school, during those hours when you’re near him. Purple petals litter your desk and pile into your hands, but you just discard them into your school bag with reckless abandon. 

Your friends approach you to ask if you’re okay. An easy, practiced smile stretches across your face and you wave them off like nothing is wrong. You tell them as much, you just have bad allergies! Nobody mentions that it’s not allergy season. You think it’s either out of mercy or pity that they leave you alone after that. 

Sometimes you think you can see Suna looking at you during class when you’re trying to discretely spit petals in cupped hands, but you always brush it off as a trick of the light. You think you can feel his eyes on you when you’re talking to your friends, watching as you carefully place your hands over the stray petals you forgot to brush off the desk. You smile and wave off your friends’ concerns like you always do. 

He never speaks up, never says anything about how your smile doesn’t reach your eyes.

Suna goes on with his life like nothing is wrong, pretending he doesn’t see you cough up purple petals into your hands out of the corner of his eye during third-period math. He pretends that he doesn’t see you each day in his peripherals, too preoccupied with your own impending demise to worry about the functions written out on the whiteboard. 

Even though things have changed so drastically for you, Suna stays the same.

You learn that he mumbles out the words when he’s reading something. You learns that he bounces his leg underneath the desk when you’re taking a test. You learns that he’s quiet, but that doesn’t mean he’s shy. When his friend—Miya Osamu, from the volleyball team—is around, he’s much more talkative than usual. You learn that he drops his bag on his desk loudly every day to wake himself up in the morning, the slamming of the books in the bag waking you up in turn.

It’s cruel, you think to yourself in those selfish moments you allow yourself to consider him between the last toll of the school bell and the beginning of club activities, watching as Suna packs his schoolbag and slings it carelessly over his shoulder. He spares you one single glance, his lips a flat line as he makes a beeline past his peers lingering at their desks and heads out the classroom door. You watch Suna walk away like he always does, sparing you a single merciful glance as you dump the last of the school day’s purple hydrangeas into the trash. It’s cruel that he doesn’t know the effect he has on you.

It’s getting worse. 

Your parents beg you to tell them who it is, and how they can stop it from happening. They offer to switch your school, to pull you from club activities, to move prefectures if it helps. Your mom begs you to consider surgery; she pleads that you’re too young to die like this. You don’t care—you would rather die in love than live without it. 

Each day you live with the disease is a day your body grows weaker and weaker. Your body runs cold and your head feels heavy every moment you has to hold it up. Your teachers, luckily, are merciful. They don’t say anything when you rest your head in class—they know your situation all too well. You can feel the pitying glances they send you during breaks and passing periods, their stares burning into the back of your head. 

It comes upon you suddenly, like a summer storm, during history class. Bile and flowers rest in your throat and, without a word, you excuse youself to the bathroom—just barely making it there in time.

Flowers bloom in your lungs, growing more and more until the petals fill your throat and spill out of your mouth. It hurts, you want to scream out, It hurts so much, but when you opens your mouth to speak, petals fall out in red, bloody clumps in lieu of words. You clutch at your throat and squeeze, hard, in a futile attempt to force the flowers out. 

It doesn’t work.

They find you in the second-floor school bathroom three minutes later. Petals surround you like a halo and, if it weren’t for the blood on your lips and the odd placement, one might think it’s some sort of art project. 

You remember what happened in flashes. You’re rushed to the hospital. The doctors call your parents. You’re rushed into the operating room. You fall asleep, Suna’s name on his lips. 

The flowers inside of your lungs are gone when you wakes, but a dull throbbing sits in their place. There are no flowers in the hospital room, no bouquets—something you find yourself grateful for. It’s funny somehow, the caution in which the people around you treat those silly little blossoms. It’s almost laughable, the way your family acts like you’ll break at the mere sight of a petal. Like you’re fragile.

It’s not long before you’re cleared to return to school, cleared to return to your fifth-row seat. People crowd you before class, each one asking if you’re okay, how the surgery was, and what it was like to have the disease. You wave them off with an easy smile, only saying that you’re glad to be back. 

There’s a boy who sits to your left. He holds his pencil tightly in his hand, plump pink lips wrapped around the end as he chews lightly on the eraser. His leg bounces with deep-rooted anxiety whenever you glance over at him. 

In the transition between second and third period, he passes a note with the words ‘Welcome Back’ written on it in hurried chicken scratch. You think it’s meant to be a joke. 

When you look up at the boy, you finally notice that his gray-brown eyes are watching you. You raise your eyebrows, watching as the corners of his lips turn upwards—an offering of the smallest of smiles. This classmate is familiar somehow, a creeping presence in the back of your mind. A gap in memory that should be filled, a cavity in your heart. You know that you’ve met before—it’s obvious in the way he’s looking at you. 

For some reason, you can’t remember his name.

[nattikay]

Shoutout to my mom who let me dump a bunch of spoilers on her so I could cry about Neteyam. Finally had the chance to get all that sobbing that dehydration robbed me of yesterday out of my system, and I’m feeling a little better now. I mean, the situation still makes me sad, but I don’t think I’ll continue to have my eyes suddenly start leaking every other hour like they did for most of today. :’)

so uuuhhh now that I’ve more or less gotten over that hurdle, I can finally sit down and make a post about all the other stuff from the movie! So here’s a list of some of the other thoughts and observations I had, not exactly comprehensive cuz this is all coming after 24 hours of grieving so I may not remember every single little thought I had, but here we go anyways (also tagging @tenebrius-excellium cuz you said you wanted to hear my thoughts):

-I just want to watch the first five or so minutes on loop for a while (although maybe without the cuts to Neytiri singing the songcord because 🥲, good golly the moment I saw that shot I, already being familiar with the lore behind songcords, was like oh NOOOOO), just the scenes of those ~14 peaceful years where the kids are growing up and the RDA is gone and everyone is happy together and it’s all just so sweet, this is the content I want, I want more of it, please pretty please, I know it’ll be a while before all the gif-makers are able to get a hold of those scenes but man as soon as they do goodness gracious I’m just gonna stare at it all for hours 😭

-While I was already assuming that the Metkayina didn’t actually know English and that we the audience were only hearing English for convenience, I was expecting that issue not to be directly addressed. So I was pleasantly surprised when it was subtly addressed with Jake’s voiceover about now being familiar enough with the Na’vi language to understand it as easily English as the audio of the kids bickering swapped from Na’vi to English. Theory confirmed!

-Speaking of the Na’vi language, I did feel very excited because I was able to understand some of the unsubtitled lines, which was a goal! so yay!! I mean, I didn’t understand every Na’vi line spoken (some of the longer ones I’ll definitely have to listen to more than once to piece together), but to even understand any of it at all, especially the ones without subtitles, felt very awesome!! dopamine rush babey!!!

-And on that note, the fact that Quaritch of all characters was making an effort to learn the language really surprised me! He struck me as the type of character to not give two craps about that sort of thing but hey. I definitely got a kick of out of Spider absolutely roasting him for his lack of skills hrh (note, I very most certainly do not condone actually mocking new learners making mistakes, obviously, but seeing as this is Quaritch we’re talking about...^^”) Spider’s line here was also a place I even managed to catch a subtitle discrepancy -- iirc, the subtitles read “You sound like a three-year-old!” but the actual line was nga plltxe na ‘eveng ahì’i! you speak like a small child! Which, I mean, y’know, same gist, but it was cool to be able to understand the actual words!! I also greatly enjoyed Spider trying to teach Quaritch the distinction between na and nga, just because man that’s one of those things every learner has been through, idk it was delightful to watch it go down between canon characters hrh

-Speaking of Quaritch and Spider....wow, I was surprised just how early they dropped the “Quartich’s son” bomb. That had been a pretty popular and plausible theory for a while, but I was expecting it to either be left up to interpretation or used as a bombshell later in the film. But nope, from the get-go it’s pretty heavily implied that not only is Quaritch Spider’s biological father, but that they’re both aware of this. So. Yeah, that was certainly a surprise.

-Kiri “I would rather drink acid than have Norm be my biological father” good gracious girl! like I mean yes the idea that Norm and Grace were secretly hookin’ up is obviously preposterous, but what did Norm ever do to you to deserve that reaction ^^; haha

-I mentioned in my High Ground post the three primary theories on Kiri’s origins. Having now seen the movie, I now think the mystical-Eywa-conception theory is by far the most likely. However, canonically it still remains a mystery/up to interpretation. Perhaps we’ll get more answers in movie 3...

-Y’know what, vulgarity is not typically my type of humor, but Lo’ak flippin’ Quaritch the double bird when asked to let him see his fingers did get a chuckle out of me hrh

-hey um yo the Metkayina kids were absolute JERKS, what the heck?? like good golly heckin’ rude. Except for Tsireya she’s chill I like her :)

-Personally I don’t think the story of this movie is a total rehash of the first one overall, but I can very mostly definitely see how people would consider it so. There were several lines in two scenes in particular, the one where the Sullies arrive at the Metkayina clan and the one with the tulkun hunters, that were just soooooo similar to lines from the first movie, not quite verbatim but certainly awkwardly close. I can absolutely see this becoming a common complaint from internet critics.

-Tuk pretty much solely exists to make the audience go d’awwwww!!, and y’know what, that’s ok because boy did she succeed :’)

-unfortunately, Quaritch’s ikran has by far the coolest design of all the ikrans, like bruh that color palette is heckin’ dope. what a shame ur now stuck with this jerk lol. Though I did snicker at Quaritch feeling the need to bond with the ikran “the hard way” solely because he couldn’t stand to be outdone by Jake lol

-I liked Lo’ak and Payakan’s friendship, it was very sweet. Also very interesting design-wise that a tulkun’s queue is in his mouth, and that the mouth has more of those bioluminescent patterns on the inside.

-The fact that the tulkun hunters are 100% aware that the species they’re hunting is fully sapient feels very ick to me. Sir that’s...that’s murder. Good gracious. and um “tulkun brain juice stops human aging” wh...what?? can uh...can we get some more explanation on that??? like is that gonna be somehow relevant to later movies or is it just some arbitrary thing to make the brain juice valuable, valuable enough to attempt to justify murder idk but uh....yyyyyyeah 😬

-minor thing, but I was surprised that the swimming baby from the trailer was, in fact, not Ronal’s. In fact, we never actually meet Ronal’s baby, which, again, surprised me. Why make her pregnant if we don’t get to see the baby, it feels kinda random ^^; to link her to her spirit tulkun who just had a calf I guess?? idk. once again, maybe it’ll become more relevant in movie 3.

-until proven otherwise, I am heretofore declaring that final “a son for a son” line to be Spider’s official adoption into the Sully family 😭😭😭

anyways, I guess that’ll do for now. I’m sure there was other stuff but I’ve been sitting here typing for over an hour already. Perhaps later I’ll come back with more comments, idk. I’ll be seeing the movie again next week with the rest of my family, so maybe I’ll notice different things/remember stuff that got swallowed up in the feels. Will I cry more than I did on my first viewing because I’m gonna try not to go in dehydrated again, or less because by then I’ll have had a week to process and accept everything? I have literally no idea. Guess we’ll have to just wait and see...

[sephirothsplaything]

DNA| Sec.80 high power-chapter 8

a/n: we've made it all. Lock in and pay attention cuz there's a lot of words here! This one goes out to all you Aemond wives! From here on out he's going to be a problem.

CW: mentions of sexual happenings but nothing super explicit

anyways<3

word count:3397(its worth it trust me)

below is a little gif I made with the edit version of Rhaella!

The halls of the Red Keep were something Rhaella was beginning to grow accustomed to.

The bustle of lords and handmaids alike filled the castle with traffic. Rhaella waltzed by, easily ignored by others.

Rhaenys had left Rhaella to her own devices, seeking out conversation with the king, possibly for the last time.

“I should let the guards seize you, after what you did to me.” A voice snided.

Turning around, Rhaella was faced with Aegon. 

How unpleasent.

“I’m shocked you aren’t drunk at this hour, cousin,” Rhaella said. 

It was mid-noon at the time of her arrival. From what she’d heard, Aegon was typically in a drunken stupor come morning.

Aegon laughed at her words, taking the liberty of stepping closer.

Far too close for Rhaella’s comfort.

“I assume you’re looking for my brother?” Aegon questioned. Rhaella averted her eyes at his gaze. He never failed to make her uncomfortable, even after all this time.

But Rhaella refused to make this known, she took a step forward in earnest.

“I’m looking for your sister, actually,” Rhaella said. This did little to alleviate the smug expression that seemed to be burned onto Aegon’s face.

“Where might she be?’ 

Aegon rolled his eyes, accompanied by a groan. Rhaella had already grown tired of his presence.

“ Am I my sister’s keeper?” Aegon said.

“One would think you’d care to know the doings of your wife,” Rhaella said.

Aegon grimaced at the use of the word.

“You may have my brother pussy drunk,” Aegon said, a slight slur noticeable.

Perhaps his drunkenness had finally seeped in.

“But I will not have you speak to me anyhow,” Aegon said.

Rhaella’s lips pursed slightly in annoyance. Disgusted would be the defining word for how she felt towards Aegon, but never fearful.

Fearful of what? His drunkard breath? Perhaps.

“I will speak to you however I please. “ Rhaella said. And with that, she walked down the halls.

Aegon could go pass out in a brothel for all she cared.

Arriving at one of the rooms, there sat Helaena’s son, Jaehaerys. The young boy was too occupied by his playthings to notice Rhaella’s footsteps.

She took a moment to observe Jaehaerys, the boy was only six years of age. Rhaella recalled holding his frail body at the time of his birth. It felt strange to hold a babe. She did not relish the feeling.

“Where is your mother, little one?” Rhaella asked softly. Jaehaerys looked up from his toys briefly before continuing.

“In her room, I think.” His little voice spoke. Rhaella thought about brushing the boy’s hair with her hand, as her mother used to do to her.

Rhaella decided against it. She made her way to  Helaena’s quarters. The door was slightly ajar so she refrained from knocking.

“Cousin?” Rhaella called to Helaena. 

Helaena looked up from her patchwork to see her beloved cousin. A warm smile spread onto her face, cheeks rose in color.

“Rhaella!” Helaena ushered her to come sit. Rhaella obliged her cousin, taking the seat next to her.

“Another embroidery?” Rhaella asked, eyeing the handiwork of her cousin. 

Helaena hummed in confirmation. “It’s a spider.” 

“I never had the patience for such things,” Rhaella said. She was one for histories and lectures from the maesters and septas. Rhaena was the one who excelled in sewing, arts, and music,

“It isn’t all that hard, just practice,” Helaena said. The two cousins fell into a silence familiar only to them. Rhaella watched Helaena work diligently.

“Ah!” Helaena exclaimed suddenly. Rhaella slightly jumped in surprise.

“It will be your name day in a weeks time.” Helaena said. In truth, Rhaella scarcely remembered herself. She had not celebrated the day since the death of her mother.

Rhaella watched as Helaena swiftly moved across the room, grabbing a garment into her hands.

“I had this made for you,” Helaena said enthusiastically.

Rhaella unfolded the garment. It was a dress. Rich purple silk, with gold embellishments stitched into the bust of the dress. The sleeves were long and elegant.

It was the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen.

“Helaena...this is beautiful,” Rhaella said finally.

“I recall purple being your favorite color,” Helaena said eagerly. Only her sweet cousin would remember such a thing.

“ I did the gold bits myself, I know you prefer simple gowns,” Helaena said.

“Thank you Helaena, truly.. this is.” Rhaella was not sure how to place her gratitude.

Helaena smiled anyway. She knew Rhaella was thankful, it was more than enough for her.

“When Princess Rhaenyra is queen, I shall move into the Red Keep for you.” Rhaella decided. Originally, Rhaella had half a mind to sail back to Pentos after the princess ascended the throne.

Jace and Luke would marry Baela and Rhaena, her father would become king consort; There would be no place for her any longer.

But no more. She would not abandon her cousin to the predator that was her husband.

Helaena’s eyes glossed over with emotion. Rhaella felt compelled to continue, feeling uncharacteristically soft at the moment.

“ If I am there, Aegon wouldn’t dare to touch you.” Rhaella convicted sternly. 

Helaena shrunk back slightly.

“There is a beast beneath the boards,” Helaena muttered.

Rhaella sighed. She supposed her cousin had not outgrown the bouts of incoherent musings.

“I hope to never marry, much less to a man like that,” Rhaella said, moving along.

Helaena glanced at Rhaella in confusion.

“You do not wish for a husband?” Helaena asked.

Rhaella shrugged. “There is no lord in the realm that would suit me.” She said.

Helaena smiled slightly. “No lord, perhaps a prince?”

Rhaella felt her brown cheeks grow warm. She understood the implication.

“I wouldn’t marry Aemond, I know him far too well,” Rhaella said.

Helaena hummed in thought.

“Is it not preferred to be bound to one that understands you?” Helaena asked. 

For the first time, Rhaella had no answer. No profound thoughts or complex answers.

It was not a matter of understanding. It was her fear of being so known by him.

“He is not the same,” Rhaella said.

Helaena’s eyes softened. “ He still cares for you, if you’d only allow it.”

If she only allowed it. Perhaps, no harm could come from allowing such a thing.

There was no use fighting the issue any longer.

Rhaella abruptly stood, mind made up. No more games. No more control. She’d release it all.

“I’ll be seeing you, Helaena.” 

Rhaella rushed out the door, Helaena’s gift in hand. 

She had not the faintest clue as to what she intended to do when she saw him.

It was not like her to confess her feelings. And Rhaella knew Aemond was the same.

The same as her.

Rhaella found herself in the library. The crux of all this bother.

And Aemond was there. Naturally, she knew he would be.

Rhaella approched with caution. Aemond found refuge in the couch‘s velvet seats, book in hand.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Rhaella said. Aemond did not break from the pages of his book; He did not need to. The sounds of her voice did more than enough.

“Desperate to see me, I gather?” Aemond said. Rhaella’s hands suddenly became slick with sweat.

The enormity of her desire disgusted her.

“Believe what you’d like,” Rhaella said. She took a seat by him, peering at the book that contained his attention.

Aemond couldn’t fight the half-smirk on his face. Even in her admission, she managed to remain so haughty.

“It has only been a weeks time, yet you’ve found yourself at the Red Keep once more,” Aemond said.

“I did not come here for you, cousin,” Rhaella said. However, she would be lying if the prospect of seeing him again wasn’t half motivation for accompanying her grandmother.

Aemond hummed in response, clear disbelief. 

“I was at Driftmark, my grandmother wished to visit your father and brought me along,” Rhaella said. She couldn’t be too honest, it was far too embarrassing.

“And here I thought it was my letter that brought you here,” Aemond said.

Rhaella looked up from her lap in surprise.

“You actually wrote to me?” 

Aemond placed his book to the side, amusement all too apparent.

“That was your demand, was it not?” Aemond reminded. 

Rhaella briefly recalled her words from before. She was hardly serious at the time.

“It must’ve arrived after I left,” Rhaella said.

Aemond looked at the dress in Rhaella’s lap, his hand brushed over the silk.

“Where’s this from?” He asked.

“Early name day gift, from your sister,” Rhaella said.

“In a weeks time, was it?” Aemond said. 

Rhaella could hardly contain her girlish smile. Even after all this time, it was as if they had never left the Weirwood tree.

“In truth, I’m shocked you remember,” Rhaella said, deciding against expressing her excitement.

Aemond chuckled at Rhaella’s shock.

“As I recall, there was a time when you’d never let me forget the fact.” He said.

Aemond was older than Rhaella by a year and one. As children, Rhaella maintained that seniority meant nothing, as she’d always know more.

“ I shall be ten and eight years of age, same as you,” Rhaella said.

“Then I suppose I owe you a gift as well,” Aemond said.

The two maintained eye contact for what felt like a fortnight. Rhaella felt herself growing warm at the implication. She doubted she’d have the restraint to stop him this time.

Abruptly, Aemond stood up. 

“ Come on then,” Aemond said.

Eager as she felt, Rhaella took her time in following Aemond out of the door.

They walked into the courtyards, passing by the doors.

Criston Cole, the queen’s sworn protector, stood on guard.

The buzz that Rhaella had been feeling was muted in an instant. She reverted to her ladyship state, hands folded in front of her and a bored expression on her face.

“My Prince.” Cole greeted. His eyes shifted to Rhaella with an unreadable expression. Rhaella did not have to think too hard as to who Cole would rush to report after the fact.

“Are you going somewhere?” Criston Cole asked again, completely disregarding Rhaella. 

And she was thankful for it. Rhaella feared she’d be unable to control her tongue if provoked.

“I’ll be taking Vhagar, no need to follow,” Aemond said.

Rhaella supposed that was her gift. 

Ser Criston bowed again, leaving them to continue.

Approaching the valleys, Rhaella made her discomfort known.

“I don’t like him.” She said. 

“Ser Criston is an honorable man,” Aemond said. Rhaella rolled her eyes.

“Perhaps your version of honor is skewed,” Rhaella said.

Aemond didn’t grace Rhaella with a response.

Vhagar came into view. Her enormous body rose and fell as she softly slumbered. Rhaella paused as Aemond approached the dragon.

How long had it been since she had seen Vhagar? Since her mother’s funeral maybe.

Flurries of memories hit Rhaella at once. Her late mother had loved Vhagar with her entire being. Their bond was truly special. As a proximate, Rhaella had grown to care for the dragon as well.

When she was younger, Vhagar had always been especially soft with her. Laena had taken care to introduce baby Rhaella to Vhagar.

But that was years ago. And Vhagar had grown with a new rider.

“Well?” Aemond called out. “Get on.”

Rhaella was not so arrogant as to hold onto past memories regarding Vhagar. She was practically a stranger to the dragon.

Carefully, Rhaella made her way to the dragon, who had since woken at the appearance of her rider.

“Gaomagon ao gibigon issa?” Rhaella spoke in a gentle voice. ‘Do you remember me?’

Vhagar groaned slightly, fixing her gaze on Rhaella. Despite her fear, Rhaella stood her ground. Vhagar was her favorite after all.

“Lykiri,Vhagar,” Rhaella said. Her hand eased its way to brush the dragon’s nose, an act she had done many times as a child.

The act must’ve brought a memory back for the beast as well. Vhagar nestled into the touch. 

Rhaella fought the tears forming in her eyes. Vhagar remembered her mother. Remembered her.

“Sȳz riña.” ‘good girl’ Rhaella praised. She took the liberty of using both hands to rub the scales of Vhagar all over.

“How have you been, old girl.” Rhaella cooed. “Has this one been treating you well?”

Aemond had been silent in the exchange. It was a nice moment, although he couldn’t fight the envy. Vhagar had nearly burnt him when he had first met her.

“Show off,” Aemond said simply. His hand reached out to Rhaella.

“Your jealously is known, cousin,” Rhaella said. Grabbing his hand, Rhaella was pulled onto the back of Vhagar in one fluid motion.

Aemond’s hand lingered on Rhaella’s waist for a moment before grabbing the reins.

Rhaella’s arms wrapped themselves around Aemond’s waist, admittedly hastily.

The action did not escape Aemond’s notice.

“You seem eager, my lady,” Aemond said, teasing.

Rhaella scrunched her nose at the unnecessary formality. She delivered a sharp pinch to his side.

“I have no desire to plummet to my death,” Rhaella responded, opting to ignore his tone.

Yes. She was all too eager.

Aemond took Vhagar up towards the evening skies. The wind whipped all about them, loose wisps of curls moved along Rhaella’s forehead.

Rhaella’s careful violet eyes observed the way Aemond moved in front of her. His grip on the reigns were tight as he directed Vhagar through the air.

Her mother had always used a looser grip when she mounted Vhagar. Perhaps it was a difference in bonds.

Rhaella leaned forward, chest pressing up against Aemond’s strong back.

“Where are you taking me?” Rhaella asked. Her voice carried straight to the proximity of Aemond’s ear.

“You’ll see,” Aemond responded simply. Unbeknownst to Rhaella, Aemond’s lack of words was a result of his carefully hidden flustered state.

Rhaella looked down at the passing scenery, not recognizing any of it.

“What?” Rhaella said. “Do you intend on holding me for ransom?”

Aemond couldn’t help but laugh. “If that’s what you’d like,”

Soon after, Vhagar landed in the tall grass, the vast sea in view.

Jumping down, Aemond reached up to carry Rhaella.

“I’m quite capable of getting down myself,” Rhaella said, causing Aemond to roll his eyes.

“Perhaps I should let you fall to the ground then?” Aemond said.

Rhaella glanced down at the grass. It was a way down from the massive dragon.

“Fine.” Rhaella shifted her weight as Aemond held her waist, carrying her down, causing her dress to hike up slightly.

Somehow, shame was not an emotion she found herself with. They had been in much more compromising positions previously.

Aemond did not release his grip and Rhaella couldn’t find it in herself to pull away.

“Nervous?” Rhaella asked.

“ Is that your intention?” Aemond responded.

So quick-witted, he was. One of the many things Rhaella enjoyed.

Pulling away, Rhaella sat herself on the grass. Aemond followed suit.

“Your father doesn’t have much time left,” Rhaella said. It was the first thing that came to mind.

“I suppose,” Aemond said, tone flat.

Rhaella turned to him, curiosity peaked.

“You will not mourn him?” Rhaella asked.

Aemond’s thoughts mingled together. He supposed there would be no harm to be honest.

“He was no father to me, just a spineless king,” Aemond said��

Rhaella hummed. She understood.

“My father holds many things above me, I think,” Rhaella said.

Aemond’s hand found Rhaella’s in the grass, fingers brushing the top of her hand.

“He is feared in the realm,” Aemond said.

Rhaella scoffed. Daemon was the Rouge prince to all,but the Rouge father to her and her sisters.

“You admire him,” Rhaella said. There was no room for suggestion.

“Maybe I wish to be respected,” Aemond said.

Rhaella raised an eyebrow at that. She knew Aemond to long for something that affirmed his place in the realm. And she was the same.

“You wish to be a king,” Rhaella stated.

Aemond tilted his head at the statement. It was as if she was in his mind.

“You do not think I would make a good one?” Aemond said.

In truth, Rhaella did not. There was a growing darkness around Aemond that she couldn’t place. Given the opportunity for war, Rhaella was sure that Aemond would throw himself into it.

“In the way I’d make a good queen.” Rhaella scoffed. 

“We would bring stability to the seven kingdoms, together,” Aemond said.

Rhaella smiled. The grin grew larger and larger until she could no longer contain her amusement, laughing loudly.

“I didn’t know you’ve taken up jests.” She said.

Aemond smiled slightly. He was serious. It escaped Rhaella’s notice.

Rhaella fell back into the grass. 

“The princess will make a fine queen I think,” Rhaella said, after a while.

Aemond had no response. Perhaps he didn’t agree.

Instead, he took in the sight of Rhaella. The silver-white curls of her hair cut through the grass. Her eyes were closed, withholding those all-knowing eyes he cared for so.

Rhaella’s face was rather gentle when relaxed, one could compare her to a fawn. She scowled far too often for one to take notice.

“Rhaella,” Aemond said. His tone was calm. He had already made peace with what he was allowing himself to feel.

Rhaella sat up in response, directing her attention. 

Then he kissed her. Like a man starved. The lengths of his repression no longer held weight.

And Rhaella responded. They did not need to confess what others might. It was known between them. As it was, the way it always would be.

Aemond’s body pushed Rhaella back into the grass as they continued. Somewhere along the way, the fitted corset on Rhaella’s body came loose.

The intensity of it all, there was nothing Rhaella could compare it to. Her lips found his once more, the ambiance of the surrounding area blocked out.

It was only when Aemond slid a hand underneath her undergarments did she slightly came to.

Maidenhood be dammed. It was a long time coming anyhow.

The two lay out in the grass, garments half covering their nakedness—Rhaella’s once neat braid and been reduced to messy frays. Aemond was no better, his hair was uniquely wild.

It was late into the hour of the wolf. Rhaella sat up slowly. Her fingers tangled into her hair, letting all the curls loose.

Aemond retrieved his clothing in silence however there was a self-satisfied smile on his face.

Rhaella was his.

“We should go, lest they send out the king’s guards,” Rhaella said. 

Aemond hummed in agreement. He noticed that Rhaellas corset was loose. He pulled her back slightly, quick fingers lacing the backing up.

“Where’d you learn that?” Rhaella said.

“Helaena,” Aemond responded. 

The pair mounted Vhagar once more. This time, Rhaella’s arms wrapped around the whole of Aemond, chin resting on his shoulder.

She couldn't deny it. Happiness had consumed her, nonchalant as she tried to be.

She need not the pact of marriage. Aemond could betroth anyone and she would not care. They’d now be tied forevermore.

They arrived back in Kingslanding. Entering the Red Keep once more, they were reluctant to part ways.

“That was an interesting gift,” Rhaella said, mirth in her voice.

“It crossed my mind to get you jewelry of some sort, but I recall you not caring much for it,” Aemond said.

“My prince?” A voice called down the hall. Ser Criston Cole. He seemed to appear anywhere she was these days.

Aemond’s hands moved away from hers. She did not protest. Their situation was...not ideal for public knowledge. 

“There is something I must speak with you about..now,” Cole said. There was clear urgency on his face.

Aemond turned back to Rhaella, she wouldn’t be remiss to see the slight apologetic look on his face.

“I’m coming,” Aemond responded to Cole.

Rhaella became all too aware of the empty halls. 

“Ser Criston?” Rhaella spoke. Criston Cole turned to face her. His expression was that of pure judgment. Suddenly, Rhaella felt rather self-conscious.

“Have you seen the Princess Rhaenys?” Rhaella asked.

“No,” Cole said, rather bluntly.

Aemond and Cole walked off to discuss matters unknown to Rhaella.

Rhaella carried herself back to her quarters, stripping down completely save for her underdress.

In the quiet moments between her drifting in and out of consciousness. Rhaella resolved that she would return to Driftmark on the morrow with her grandmother.

And with that, Rhaella lay limp in sleep.

[luffyvace]

Hello there, could I request Feitan with a (female)reader who has hemokinesis abilities?

Also she has a pretty harsh backstory that lead her to hate most of humanity, giving her trust issues, trauma and being very secretive before actually warning up to someone

Also she's a sadist like him =)

She too is part of that organisation I mentioned in the last ask-

P.S. I love how you write! 〜(꒪⁠ヮ⁠꒪)〜

ohhh okay so reader is female! OUUU blood control is such a smart idea for a sadist s/o w feitan!! Your so creative!!

Reader been through the ring of fire huh? WELL WHAT Y/N HASN’T!! 🤪 Ohhh I see I see~ Organization pt.2~

thank you! I love your creative requests! <3

ngl your backstory is practically his

so you guys relate on a deeper level seeing as though you pretty much grew up the same way

in fact you may even be from meteor yourself

i wouldn’t be surprised if you were

either way your childhood was trash so a lot of healing must go underway if you want to be a better person…

buttttt you don’t :)

in fact your a absolute sicko and sadist

quality time torturing definitely happens

And your hemokinesis 100% gets used during that 😋

draining them of all they’re worth only to pump them full a blood to the point where they think they’re going to explode

Its so funny! 😂😂

you and feitan really bond over this

its so cute💗

both you and feitan are secretive and don’t trust easily

Especially since you two are in two different organizations and such

you always sleep with one eye open in case one of you betray the other

it takes years for you two to find out even basic facts about each other

and I mean that seriously

two introverted people with trust issues and trauma?! 😆

that sounds like the ultimate slow burn 🤗

In all seriousness idk how you guys came to trust each other/open up honestly

like it probably happened with time and the fact that neither of you actually ended up betraying the other 🤦‍♀️

like you love each other! But if your unfaithful I’ll rip your heart out your chest<3

🙂

and that’s fine right?

cuz that normal love 💕

no honey, you two probably won’t ever have normal love but at least y’all happy

about your organizations they may look at you side ways for bringing love into this for one

and two if one organization tricks the other your immediately getting blamed

LOL

if it works out they’ll think you have a good eye for partnerships tho

so that’s a plus

if your organizations don’t meet and stay separate?

yeah you and feitan will prob keep things under wraps about you two

you already have trust issues

and you didn’t even trust each other for the longest time 🤷‍♀️

so if feitan introduces you to his people he doesn’t want you to be wary

but he gets why you are

he warns you about hisoka tho..

he knows you can handle yourself so he isn’t protective or anything

but he warns you about what a weirdo he is and how unloyal he is as well

He will never trust him

oh and by the way if you give in to temptations and like cheat on him or something the person you guys have been torturing y’all basement is getting switched out for you🧍‍♀️

ngl you think touché if you don’t get to him first

😜

the troupe is split between thinking partnering with you is a bad idea and a good opportunity

Either way chrollo ultimately decides you could be a useful ally

so you stick around occasionally

doesn’t mean you trust the troupe tho

you shoot the ones you dislike glares

you probably get along with machi or pakunoda first

but you sense something fishy about shalnark’s fake smile

Chrollo thinks your okay tho!

even though you don’t really trust him because you can never tell what he’s thinking

your intelligent, it’s just that he always has this unreadable expression on his face…

if the troupe gets introduced to your organization

chrollo and your boss will likely talk to each other

And the rest of your members and the troupe either mingle or observe from accross the room

feitan will observe

he doesn’t really interact much

you could try to introduce a co worker to him but he won’t go out of his way to be friendly or anything

if any of your co workers ever betray you..

it’s time for quality time torturing!!

and this ones’ a special guest~ ;)

my apologies dear! These are rather short but I hope you enjoyed them regardless<3

[callsign-bunnie]

Hii again I hope you don't mind two asks in one day, but I was wondering if maybe you could write a comfort follow up to that hurt Roach? Doesn't have to be today cuz it doesn't quite fit angst Tuesday but I'd appreciate it alot <3

Sorry this took so long! Part 2!

--

Coming back and helping had been the hardest decision of Roach's life. Having to watch Ghost and Soap interact had been the hardest thing Roach would endure.

Which was really saying something at this rate.

They were so sweet together and that just made it worse. Roach and Soap were so different, too. Would it have been better if they were the same? Would Roach have felt so much pain?

Maybe it would have felt like Ghost was honoring him, still, somehow.

Whatever, it was over now. Roach was legally dead, so he could just move on. He wasn't sure what he'd do but... he could do something else. Anything else.

As long as it was far away from Ghost.

Roach crouched down on the roof of the base. Los Vaqueros were already rebuilding it, and the 141 were staying for a little bit while Price found out the next move. Roach was trying to figure out where he was going from there.

"Roach."

Roach closed his eyes and sighed, softly. He really didn't want to have this conversation. He didn't respond, he knew he didn't need to.

Ghost came over and sat down beside him. "You're alive."

So you've pointed out before. Roach nodded, finally sitting as well. You've always been so observational.

"You're angry." Ghost was blunt. He had always been able to read Roach so easily.

Yeah, I guess I am.

"Why?"

Roach wasn't sure he should dignify that one with a response. Why else? I woke up alone, almost dead, and then I find my... friend... has moved on. Only a year after I supposedly died. Hard not to be angry.

"Roach, when I left, you were dead. I don't know how you survived, but I checked your pulse. You were dead." Ghost shook his head. "Fuck, I knew I should have stayed. You've survived worse but I was so sure you'd died."

Roach looked away. This all sounded like bullshit. Alright, but you're not going to address that you already moved on?

"You're right." Ghost sighed. "You should meet him. You'd like him."

Does he know about our history?

"He does now." Ghost nodded.

Roach sighed. I don't really want to meet your new boyfriend.

"Roach, please." Ghost looked at him and Roach sighed.

Only because you never say please. He signed. Ghost seemed relieved and stood, helping Roach stand as well.

They went down to Ghost and Soap's shared quarters and Ghost seemed slightly nervous. He pushed open the door and Soap was sitting on the bed.

Roach frowned, noticing how nervous Soap looked as well. But, he gave Roach a big smile when they came in, standing immediately. He came over. "Ghost talks about you. So much."

Roach flushed and frowned. You do?

"More than I should." Ghost nodded a bit.

Soap smiled. "I... Look, I know you guys had something before me. I will back off if you want but... I am fine with a threeway." He joked and half grinned.

Roach had to admit he was slightly startled. A threeway?

Soap shrugged. "You're cute. I like you."

Roach flushed, flattered, but still confused. I've never been in one before. But... I'm willing to try it. It was honestly the best solution, reluctantly.

Soap grinned, "good." He turned to Ghost, who seemed relieved. Roach moved closer to them both and relaxed, smiling.

Ghost could make up abandoning Roach, later. Roach would forgive him, obviously. But, right now, Roach was relieved. And Ghost was right.

Roach did like Soap.

[darklydeliciousdesires]

Lost & Found - Chapter Sixteen.

First update of the week is here again! Big thanks for all your engagement, my lovely little audience :)

Previous chapters - One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen

Words - 3,448

Warnings - 18+ content throughout, Minors DNI. Recounts of kidnap, child trafficking, physical/verbal/sexual abuse.

New relationships. For the most part, the new voyage with a brand-new person is taken upon a calm sea of getting to know one another, hanging out, having fun, and a copious amount of sex. Occasionally, though, the sea gets a little choppy.  

Especially when said new relationship involves living together right off the bat.  

Even more so when person A has been recovering from a hellish life, and person B has been tiptoeing around them because of this, perhaps taking a little more in the way of selfishness than he should have.  

Lee already had a tension headache that morning. Hearing Emma and Guero going at one another with the kind of decibels that made her brain feel like it was rattling in her skull didn’t help. She’d be lying if she’d stated that she hadn’t been wondering when this might all blow up, from the little observances she’d noted between the two.  

“You know, if things ever go south with me and Bish, I’m fuckin’ marrying you,” she spoke, a look of bliss on her face, Angel standing behind her squeezing the tension from her neck. It was always the cause of her headaches. That and she refused to wear her glasses as much as she should.  

“What, just for my massage skills? ‘Cuz if you think my hands feel great on your neck...” Looking down, she saw them hovering above her boobs, Lee nudging him with a soft elbow.  

“Quit it!”  

He laughed returning them to her neck, both of them distracted as the clubhouse door flew open, the small hurricane of a very pissed off Emma flying out, Guero following. 

“Em! Get the fuck back here!” 

“No way, not after what you just said!”  

“Damn,” Angel winced, “she’s getting sassy.” 

“Yeah, she’s pushing back,” she observed, sipping her coffee. “Now that she actually can.”  

“How’d you mean?” 

Lee circled her neck a little, a few clicks sounding. “She had nineteen years of never being able to fuckin’ argue against anything. Don Lombardi said jump, she asked how high. Now she knows she’s not gonna cop a beating or a hot knife against her, she’s learning to speak up. 

“I think she’s pretty fuckin’ sparky by nature, but it’s been supressed for a long fuckin’ time and poor Guero, he ain’t used to it. He’s gotten used to this sweet, meek woman who didn’t disagree with nothing, you know? To be fair, though, he’s also let her get away with it, wanting her own way now she realises she can, and him suddenly not letting her ain’t fuckin’ sitting well with Emma, being told no.” 

Angel marvelled at how, as usual, Lee truly was the all-seeing eye of the MC family, her assessment making a lot of sense to him, even if he hadn’t really noticed any details beyond the fact the young couple had been yelling at one another for the last twenty minutes. “They should just go bang it out, man. Always works for me.” 

Lee leaned back, viewing him upside down with a raised eyebrow. “And when was the last time you had a healthy relationship from those avoidance tactics, hmm?” 

He thought for a few moments, moving his hands to the base of her skull. “Hmm.”  

“Exactly,” she grinned, winking.  

“Yeah, yeah, alright,” he laughed, shaking his head. “I guess me and women don’t exactly go hand in hand like that.” 

“Nope, because you only ever keep ‘em at arm's length. Or dick’s length, never really let ‘em in, do you?”  

He had no comeback for that, the truth of his lack of confidence in relationships presented to him, tugging a tiny piece of her hair before he continued his pinching. “Whatever it is, I kinda hope they’re done soon. It's too early for all this loud bitching.”  

“And if we agree on one fuckin’ thing, Reyes elder, it’s that!” she sighed, the shouting from across the yard not showing any signs of abating just yet. At least one good thing had come from it, she guessed. Emma now realised that anger wasn’t the ultimate precursor to anything bad happening, she didn’t recoil from a raised voice and tremble in fright. Quite the opposite, in fact.  

Expressing angry emotions instead of bottling things up was healthy, but perhaps in that moment they both needed to walk away and calm down, Guero finally doing that, storming back into the clubhouse while Emma tore a path back to the workshop with heat in her heels, her jaw set.  

“The absolute fucking nerve of him!” she muttered, picking up a spanner, beginning her work again. 

“Hey, no rage while you’re working with brake cables,” Lee instructed, pointing across the shop at her.  

“I can’t help it! Jesus fucking Christ, he’s got me so damned mad!” 

“While you’re in my workshop, yeah you fuckin’ can. I’m technically your boss, so I can tell you what to do, and you can either like it or leave, Emma. If I say no rage, then you gotta calm your fuckin’ shit down before you work on brakes. We clear?”  

She chewed the inside of her cheek with annoyance, placing the spanner down and sighing, counting to ten. “Yeah, yeah, we are. Sorry.”  

“Good.” Lee watched her carefully, taking a few moments to cool off, sipping at her cherry Coke while she calmed down, moving back to the huge Harley and continuing with her task of fitting the new brake cables. She left it about ten minutes before speaking again. “Alrighty, now boss Lee is done, friend Lee is here. Whassup with you guys? You wanna talk about it, chat it out, spill all?”  

“Lots of little things,” she began, her nostrils flaring as she took off her gloves, leaning on the handlebars of the bike before her. “It’s all compounded and he’s basically calling me selfish for always wanting my own way, but I’m not! He isn’t being fair!”  

A few more details were revealed, the main bone of her contention being that he refused to travel nearly two hours away to see a used car she liked the look of, his refusal not being met by anything close to grace. Most of her other gripes were of a similar pattern, which if Emma took ten seconds to breathe over rather than losing her cool, she’d see she was being a little unreasonable about. Lee knew why she was struggling with that, though.  

In truth, this was her first real relationship with someone, and even though a fully grown woman at twenty-nine, her expectations were quite childish. She expected her own way because Guero had so far let her have it, and maybe that was his fault, setting a standard that wasn’t realistic. Emma experiencing this sudden hostility was likely triggering of her past, though, never being able to have her own voice, being dictated to as well.  

It wasn’t really her fault; she simply didn’t know how to handle conflict, how to compromise, since she’d never experienced give and take. Likely, she thought that compromise meant she was being ordered around again, when that simply wasn’t the case. It really didn’t help that Guero too only had two modes, calm and easy, or flying off the handle. He was just like his dad in that respect; there was no in between. Either way, Lee knew she had to handle her reply very carefully.  

“Okay, I’m not saying all, but a lot of this is boiling down to you not liking hearing the word no, because it reminds you of a time when that was all you did hear. I also get it that you want to ask for things, now that you actually can. You deserve ‘em, sunshine! Ain’t nobody who does more than you after all you fuckin’ went through, but there’s a but here.” 

“And that is?” she asked, Lee pulling her cigarettes out and lighting up. 

“You gotta see you can’t expect everything to go your way. Guero is entitled to have his own opinions and if they don’t mesh with yours, you can’t fuckin’ blow up and demand of him. He isn’t Rocco, babe. Yeah, he can be bad tempered, but he ain’t trying to clip your wings, hold you down, bend you to his will, which is the way I think you’re taking it.” 

“Let’s use the car thing as an example. Him not wanting to take you all the way up to Anaheim to see a used car you’ve found, a near two-hour journey each way isn’t him being an asshole. I mean, you haven’t even fuckin’ got your learners permit yet! There’re stacks of cars closer to home for sale, too. That’s where you have to meet him halfway and compromise. It’s his time off, he doesn’t wanna spend nearly four hours of it on a fuckin’ motorcycle again when he could be just chilling out, enjoying his time with you in any number of other ways. C'mon, surely you can see that?” 

It wasn’t the reply she’d been expecting, but if Emma was brutally honest with herself, it was the one she needed to hear. Lee’s usual calm pragmatism, delivered in her no-nonsense, yet gentle fashion put a hole in her armour, one she needed to actually let in a little bit of sense. Butting heads with Guero, especially how fiery he was when pissed off, had done nothing but make her build a further wall.  

Emma realised she was being overly defensive and thus his perfectly reasonable refusal to let her have her own way wasn’t being met by any fairness from her, because it wasn’t getting through. She cringed internally at herself as the realisation of it smacked her.  

As if reading her thoughts, Lee continued. “I’ll add here too that you’re not solely in the wrong. Guero and his crazy little temper should know that yelling at you isn’t gonna solve shit. You’ve had too much yelling, but he struggles hanging onto his fire. He needs to dial it back, though.” 

The uncomfortableness began to subside, Emma realising it was time to put on her big girl pants. “I’m being a bit of a princess, aren’t I?” 

“Yup!”  

Moving out from behind the bike, she looked over to the clubhouse. “Think I might need to go apologise for my part.” 

Lee nodded. “Humble pie don’t taste too good, huh, sugar?”  

“Pretty damned bitter, buddy.” Lee threw her head back, pushing a soft fist against her shoulder, Emma walking over to the clubhouse. Angel and Bottles were outside, both looking at her with slight scepticism.  

“Is this about to be round two? Cuz’ my ears can’t take it,” the former asked, Emma shaking her head.  

“Nope, off to extend my apologies. Sorry to you guys, too, having to bear witness to our drama.” 

The men shared a sharp head turn in one another’s direction. “Yo, he gotta woman who says she’s sorry? Damn. Where’d I find myself one of those?” Angel announced, Bottles laughing as Emma crouched next to where they were loitering on the steps. 

She rested her head on his shoulder, sighing. “You might have one right here if he tells me to go fuck myself.” 

Angel snorted, reaching to pat her arm a few times. “He ain’t gonna do that, shut up. If he does, though...” He winked at her with a click of his tongue, Emma laughing, kissing his forehead. She really liked Angel. For all his wise assed bravado, he was actually one of the least threatening of the guys, one she gelled with more than others. Him, Gilly and Bottles were her people, she’d found in the six months she’d been in their lives for at that point.  

“Just kick him in the nuts if he starts yelling again, babe,” the latter spoke, Emma shaking her head and standing. 

“That isn’t conducive to calming things down.” 

Bottles sniffed, turning his head back to grin at her. “No, but it’d make me laugh.” His words made a little bit of the tension she carried melt, turning back to the doors and taking a deep breath before letting herself in.  

“I swear to fucking god, if you’re here to scream at me some more,” Guero began, turning from where he was sat at the bar with Bishop and EZ.  

“Can we talk?” 

He raised his eyebrows. “I can, but you just wanna fucking embarrass the living hell out of me with your yelling, so if it’s more of that, then no.” The two men he was sitting with slowly slinked away, not wanting to be right in the way of things if they blew up for a second time, Emma waiting until they’d retreated.  

“I’m sorry,” she began, reaching to stroke his forearms. The muscles stiffened on contact. “I’ve realised I was being a princess about things and not being reasonable. I need to compromise more, I see that now. I’m sorry I yelled at you, too. I love you, let’s get past it.”  

“Mm,” he hummed, rolling his tongue around the inside of his mouth, his jaw flexing. “And you need to stop looking at me and seeing that dick who took your life away. I know that’s what you’re doing, and it offends the fuck outta me.” As it would, she thought, since her boyfriend was the very antithesis of Rocco in the way he treated her. “Alright. We’re good.” 

He looked and sounded the furthest thing from it. “No, we’re not. It’s written all over your face, how mad you are at me.” 

He shrugged with nonchalance. “Maybe that’s for you to deal with.”  

Oh, he wasn’t budging. When her man held a grudge, he truly did hang onto it with both hands and every single one of his teeth.  

She rolled her eyes, turning away. “Mother fucking Mary, you’re so stubborn.”  

Rather than fight against it because she didn’t like it, she decided to leave him to it. He’d calm down in his own time, she figured. Being an adult and accepting that was part of the process of being in a relationship was all she could do. She’d apologised, now it was up to him to either take it on board or need further time to simmer down a little more.  

Until then, she had bikes to work on, and outlaws to keep her entertained, especially later that afternoon when she stopped for a break and a cold beer. Angel, Bottles and Downer were her source of relief while she sat studying a Harley Davidson manual, familiarising herself with the set up. 

It was while she was reading about the engine configuration that Angel broke her concentration with his request. “You’re fuckin’, you’re... hey yo, Emma! Gimme a fancy word for rude.” 

“Impertinent,” she offered, Downer snorting. 

“Ain’t that when a dude can’t get his dick up?” 

Oh, he was walking right into it. “No, buddy. That’s impotent.” 

“Yeah, he’s that, too,” Bottles offered, his face alight with mischief. 

Angel laughed hard, swigging his beer. “Ain’t got shit to say to that, huh dog?” 

“You wouldn’t be nothin’ without your lil’ blonde dictionary over there! Bitch ass probably didn’t even finish high school!” 

“Fuck you, man. I finished!”  

“I didn’t, though. Didn’t even go, you know, with the whole kidnapped thing.” All three stared at her in disbelief. 

“Then how come you’re so well spoken?” Bottles asked, Emma shrugging. 

“I read books. Lots of them.” Just then, she felt a body slide behind hers, two familiar tattooed arms draping around her.  

“You know what one of those is, right Angel? Primitive version of Netflix.” After his amusing comment – with Angel not so amused by his sarcasm - Guero then leaned in close to her, tightening his arms and kissing her cheek. “I’m sorry for being a bad-tempered ass, wasn’t all just you, baby.”  

Her hands clutched onto his forearms, stroking them as she turned to offer a kiss. “I appreciate that.” Her smile warmed him where he'd been feeling frosty, knowing that for his part, he needed to actually accept when someone was sorry instead of holding onto his grudge; even if that holding had only been for a couple of hours.   

As for Emma, she recognised it as an important part of her leading a normal life, not letting her past influence her present. It would be easier said than done, she supposed, not to let it happen, not to immediately think that every objection Guero made was an attempt at control. At least now thanks to Lee’s advice, she could see when she was doing it.  

Later that night, they spoke about it, Emma lying at one end of the bathtub, him at the other.  

“See I kinda think you’re still pissed at me, giving me the tap end of the tub,” he commented, Emma raising an eyebrow. 

“Excuse me, who decided to encroach on who’s bath time?”  

She had him there, Guero biting his lip as he pulled a face that made her giggle. “Yeah, alright.” Grabbing one of her feet, he began to rub them for her, a gesture appreciated since she’d been on them all day, running around the yard. “I meant what I said about you seeing me in the same light as that slimy fuck from your past, though. We can disagree without you immediately thinking I’m behaving like him. I get that it’s hard for you, but yeah. Try not to go there, alright?”  

“I will. Promise I will, honey,” she vouched. “I have a lot of shit to process, I guess. You’ve been so patient with me, too. I don’t blame you for getting pissed off.”  

He shrugged. “I ain’t perfect either, and I say I get it, that you have shit to process, but I guess I never really will truly understand it, what you have to deal with. I’m not pretending I will either, but yeah. I’ll try not to lose my shit and be so bad tempered with you while you do. Speaking of that, I gotta say it! You’re nearly as fucking explosive as I am. It’d be a turn on if it wasn’t directed at me.” He went to bite her toes, Emma snatching her foot away with a squeal. “I gotta new type, apparently. Sparky blondes. Sparky blondes whose feet I’m gonna bite.” 

“No!” she squeaked, Guero going for the other foot. 

“Yeah? Stop me.”  

Half the water in the tub was lost to the pursuit of bitten toes, Emma scream laughing, wrapping her legs around him eventually to prevent his onslaught, giving him a defiant look. “Now what are you going to do, hmm?”  

He looked her up and down, eyebrows fluttering suggestively. “You.” He leaned to kiss her, his body covering hers, more of the water sloshing out onto the floor. “Today started bad, let’s end it better, huh?”  

It ended a lot better, that was for certain. Even though the bathroom floor resembled that of a swimming pool once they were done.  

Later that night, as Guero slept at her side – and quietly for once – Emma lay back and played the day over in her head. While medication had eased her anxiety and worked to relieve her of the nightmares that had plagued her, there was much more work she needed to do on herself. While physically, she was far from Staten Island, mentally she was still there in how she was handling conflict.  

Turning to her side, she could just about make out her love from the light filtering through the tiny cracks in the blinds, both too busy enjoying one another some more once they’d made it out of the bathtub to bother closing them properly. He was her safe person, the one who’d literally found her, and the one who’d made her realise he was different to all she knew. She owed it to him to believe that, believe him.  

Speaking of Staten Island, while she and Guero slept, not two miles from their location a call came in from a resident of that very New York City borough.  

“Ezekiel, Rocco Lombardi.”  

Standing up, EZ walked from the clubhouse out into the quiet of the yard to take the call, the cooler night air wisping gently against his face, listening as he continued. “So, it’s been almost a year since our arrangement commenced, and things are running well. I’d like to propose a meet with you and your VP again, discuss something extra I intend to move along with our current consignment.” 

There it was. The other shoe Bishop had warned him about – and the same one Emma had spoken of months before - had finally dropped.  

[fhrlclln]

Hii, can I please request a fic with Eddie where he’s in a love triangle with the reader and Chrissy (for the purposes of this fic, Chrissy didn’t die) and can’t figure out who he wants to be with until the reader confesses to him that they’ve been in love with him for two years and didn’t know how to tell him, then Eddie realises he likes the reader more than he liked Chrissy and has to somehow tell Chrissy he’s just not into her like that without letting her down? Idk if this makes sense but

bottled up | eddie munson

SUMMARY : hellfire’s leader has been ditching them a lot lately. confrontation ensues as well as hidden feeling are brought out and eddie is left to choose in the end.

eddie munson x gn! reader

masterlist

GENRE : angst & fluff

WARNINGS : unrequited crush? self-hatred, heated arguments and confessions

WORD COUNT : 3,896

a/n: it’s drama time and damn i made eddie a annoying piece of shit (which i think canonically he is). hope this satisfies you, anon. ^_^

likes, reblogs and comments are greatly appreciated !! <3

enjoy !!

you didn’t know how or when did this unusual occurrence happened.

“he’s hanging out with chrissy. chrissy fucking cunningham!” gareth complained, pacing around the club room in anger. all hellfire club members including you sitting in silence and disappointment the dungeon master was no where found, an hour or two already had passed. it was supposed to be the usual campaign night, at least hours of playing yet tonight, gareth was fed up having their leader miss countless sessions just because of his new ‘friend.’

“maybe he’ll show up? you know how sometimes he can get late…” you reassured him, yet everyone’s face knew that wouldn’t happen.

“he almost ditched us for two straight nights and missed band practice cuz he was out with little miss princess, y/n. open your eyes please! he’s not coming.” gareth grumbled, you shake your head at how gloomy the room was now. he was right, eddie had been missing frequently. late show-ups that ruined the mood for the night. it was no secret he and chrissy had been seen talking to each other these past few weeks. walking together in the hallway, laughing and whatever you could call what best friends do. except it was not, the noticeable attraction between the two were there. based on your own selfish observation.

“let’s just… call it a night. let’s try again next week.” jeff offered as all nodded their heads, bummed out that they missed a hellfire night. you frowned, everyone getting up. their heads bowed and their faces scrunched in disappointment.

“guys? hey, we could always play without him. i could get his notes and we could—“ you stopped yourself, the atmosphere unpleasant as dustin gave you a tight small smile just to know the mood was killed.

“it’s ok, y/n.” mike breathed out, even though he was annoyed as gareth is. “just fucking tell him if he ever shows up, to cancel hellfire beforehand than making us come here for nothing.”

“i agree. goodnight, y/n.” dustin shrugged, your frowned deepened seeing him so sulked. you nodded silently as they all exited. you were left to stand alone in the room. you waved them off as you let yourself ponder how everything in hellfire was going into shambles. you shut the door with a thud, aware the table still had the set-up. you cleaned it up, trying your best to not let today’s disappointment ruin your night.

well it did eventually. your chest tightened at the thought of him spending more time with the hawkins high’s queen. it was surprising, that one day he had told everyone in the club that he got chrissy cunningham to speak with him. you, of course, listened to him in silence. watching his smile grow wider with every spill of her name coming out of his mouth that led to this sudden distance you had with him because of it. you and eddie were sort of close friends, he met you the day you were all alone in the cafeteria, offered you to join their club despite knowing nothing of DnD. everything went great that day. though two years had passed, you considered him a great friend to be with.

just friends. that was all you thought the two of you will ever be. having a crush on him from the day he had approached you, the day he declared you as one of the members of the hellfire club. and the day he made you more happier than ever. you cursed at yourself, for being so afraid to tell him how you feel. how you just wanted some kind of answer that could rest your poor little heart. the hidden affection you had for him slowly eating you up. and the consequences of now having to watch him do the things you fantasized with him with another girl. all bullshit to you.

“hey, did everyone go home now? shit.” you jumped suddenly hearing eddie’s familiar voice. you turned around sharply as the dim lights of the room shined before him. you gulped, the sound of your thumping heart in your ears. he looked good, hair still a mess, eyes doe and his lips in a confused frown. you missed him. a bubble of annoyance burst inside of you, replacing the familiar fluttery feeling. remembering the words of gareth inside your head.

“yeah. you should’ve just told us you’d be busy or something, eddie.” you trailed, the displeasure in your tone. “the others are mad.” you added, picking up your bag, avoiding his confused gaze. you were about to leave as he stuttered something out, clearly baffled no one waited for him.

“hey, hey, hey, woah. what do you mean they’re mad? i got caught up with chrissy and everything.” eddie clumsily stood in front of you as you were about to leave.

you sighed at him. “you’ve almost missed two nights of hellfire, edds. the others are fed up with it. could’ve at least told us that you’d cancel and we wouldn’t be waiting for you for like an eternity in here.”

his eyebrows raised. “cancel? no, i don’t and i won’t cancel a campaign. maybe if there still here somewhere we could call them back. i promised you guys i’ll play. we’re getting close to the cult of vecna!”

“eddie. it’s ok.” you reassured him, seeing the frown on his face made you pity him. “there’s always next week.”

“are they that shit mad? are you angry?” he quietly asked, feeling guilty he had let them down. hellfire was his family, his own little clan of freaks that bonded together despite the school’s harsh treatment on them. of course he felt severely bad that he had just ditched them again. and you…

“i’m not.” you lied, he smiled as he nodded. “and…yeah.” you shrugged, his face dropped completely as he nodded his head. “you’ve been hanging out with chrissy a lot lately and gareth was the most fed up about it.” you added, not helping yourself as the annoyance had for him wouldn’t go away.

“what?” eddie’s head sharply met your gaze. you jumped a bit at the sudden rage in his expression. woah. “what’s chrissy got to do with this?”

“eddie, he knows you’ve been ditching us for chrissy. it’s no problem at all and you can understand how gareth feels when you hang out with someone new.” you explained, wishing you had just gone out than comfort him. your tiny heart slowly cracking up at the mention of the girl.

“bullshit. they’re more mad because i just hung out with someone new? is that it?” he accusingly asked. you blinked, a tingle in your chest that had your brows scrunched together. obviously! you wanted to shout, open his stupid head.

“they’re upset that you almost ditched us, eddie.” you firmly stated. “there’s no problem with chrissy, gareth was just upset that you had missed some practices because you—“

“—of chrissy. i’ve clearly fucking stated that nothing was going to change with chrissy with ‘em.” he let out a sharp sigh. the vein in his forehead bulged. you closed your mouth, shocked at how defensive he is with the girl. does he really like her that much? you thought, the mild jealousy ticking in your emotions. cracks of annoyance slowly showing in your face. you gulped, uncomfortable how you were trying not to let your own feelings get in the air.

“they’re just upset.” you offered softly. “it’ll come and go. just… just try and not make them feel left out, you know? chrissy’s always welcome in hellfire.”

“how’d you know that?” he let out a not so amused laugh, still shaking his head at how angry he is that gareth mentioned chrissy. “you already told me gareth was talking shit about chris’. you think the rest would welcome her?” his voiced raised a bit, your heart clenched at the sudden throw of emotions.

“i was just trying to help you understand how upset the rest are.” your throat constricted, glad you maintained a steady voice in spite of the overwhelming emotion creeping in the back of your head of how he’s taking his anger out of you.

“well it’s not fucking working.” he mumbled, loud enough for you to hear. your eyes widened a bit, the heat of the stage lights shone before you, a burst of something encouraging you to just—

explode.

“for once, i was just trying to tell you that you could’ve had the decency to tell us you’d be hanging out with chrissy and not fucking making us wait two shitty hours because you were busy with someone else! is it that hard to understand your friends are upset because of it?!” you almost shouted, your chest huffed as eddie stared at you with big eyes. audibly very shocked how you bursted.

“wow.” he scoffed. “wow. why does it matter to you? you said you weren’t mad. i expected—“

“you’re not listening to me. it’s not chrissy, it is not about her.” you huffed, rubbing the bridge of your nose in utter irritation.

“—i expected you’d back me up here, y/n.” he finished, evidently his own irritation taking over.

“i’m not backing up anyone.” you openly stated, hands clenching each side. feeling defeated as you looked away, fed up and tired before taking a step away from him to leave the club room. humiliated you lost your cool, seeing how eddie’s eyes seem to catch something as you offered softly. “please just let this go. goodbye, edds.”

“no.” he roughly grabbed your arm, your eyes widened as you froze in his tight hold. looking at him with furrowed brows. “i’ve had enough of this bullshit. tell me, tell me for fucking once this is not because of gareth and the others. tell me.”

a moment of silence transpired, what was he on about now? dazzled you are, you roughly shove his hand off your arm. “what are you talking about?”

“don’t bullshit me anymore, please.” he pleaded, his eyes shined leaving you baffled. what?

“i don’t understand.” you breathed out, nervous how close he is to you. towering your presence with his seriousness. “what bullshit are you talking about?”

“chrissy. me and chrissy. tell me.” shit. of course, of course he had seen you clear as day. as annoying as he is, eddie was conflicted in the inside. his head was reeling the thought of your distance with him. he didn’t meant to actually hung out with chrissy, surprisingly the cheerleader found him with his head stuck in a hole because of you and offered him comfort. he did like her, the way her presence had made him feel something, the way her kindness had saw through him instead of hawkin’s freak. for once, he felt like he was worth it because of her.

but you, who had been running in his thoughts for most of the time was killing him, you who had silently stuck with him since he had found alone in the cafeteria. you, who had been making his whole head hurt if you two were more than friends. and now he had seen the way you reacted, the subtle glint in your eyes as guilt fed him up when the day he told everyone that he had been hanging out with chrissy. and the distance between the two of you urging him to know what the hell was going on with you. and what the hell was he supposed to do?

“i—“ you started, words you wanted to spit out in a hold on how you were put on the spot. were you really going to say this to him? you contemplated yet coward back as usual. “what do i got to do with you and chrissy? eddie, if you l-like her, you don’t have to ask—“

“you’re driving me crazy here, sweetheart.” eddie let out a sigh. “you put a wall between us since i told everyone about chrissy. what the fuck is going on?”

“fine.” you decided, the bottled up emotions of how fucking jealous you are for the sweet girl he had been with. “fine, alright, i like you! there, is that better? i liked you for two years, munson. and i hated it when you hung out with her. does that answer your question?”

silence filled the sudden void. the cold temperature of the room run a shiver down your spine, you could see his eyes widen at the sudden confession. your chest huffed as you felt so disgusted with yourself at how fucking pathetic you just told the boy you’d longed for him in such a stupid confession. and not to mention he had a girl he liked that was way above you. who were you to compete with chrissy cunningham? ending up all cringing in the inside when he just stayed silent, a silent answer you took as your heart bursted into shards. your vision blurred as wet tears drip down your cheeks, you turned away quickly, hiding back the pathetic sob before eddie could call you back, snapping out of his surprised state. the door slammed shut, the dungeon master watched your figure leave him as he cursed loudly.

“great fucking reaction, munson!” he muttered to himself, rubbing his face with his hands up to his bangs in irritation at how stupid he just stood there seeing you cry. he fucked up. he always fucked everything up. the answer he had been waiting for in front of him. you liked him. finally, you liked him! and he just stood there like an idiot. his mind was in shambles as he exited the room. the thought of you and chrissy circling in his mind like wildfire.

what was he going to do?

•••

eddie walked out of the school, pacing around in the parking lot. it had been an hour or so he’d been biting his lip in frustration, trying to think of ways how to actually fucking get you back to him. the stars shined in the sky, he kicked a pebble harshly, muttering curses as he fished out his cigarette pack to smoke. he lit it with ease, the nicotine running in his lungs as he blew out with a sharp sigh. fucking idiot. the constant degradation towards himself never ceased to stop since he had saw that hurt look of yours that made him want to jam his head on the street light pole. too late, he declared to himself, you hated him now! what was the point of thinking how he’d win you back when he can fuck it up again?

“eddie?” eddie jumped in surprise as he lifted his head up, the cigar ashes falling to the ground to see chrissy waving at him with a confused look. cheer practice must have been hard if they had finished just now, knowing he had purposely made her late a bit when they had hung out a while ago.

“oh, hey, cheery practice done?” he asked, blowing one last smoke out as he threw it to the ground to smash it with his shoes, making a gesture of a pom-pom as chrissy smiled and shake her head walking towards him.

“yeah. pep rally’s coming in closely. your club session just ended?” she curiously asked, hands a-front, clasped together as she shyly smiled at him. eddie leaned back on his van, gesturing as he shook his head.

“nah. they all got home before i could make it back— “ he let out a nervous laugh. “—i fucked up big time.” getting another cigarette shakily as chrissy’s smile faded into a concern frown.

“what do you mean? did something happen? you can tell me.” chrissy offered, eddie studied her for a moment, gears clicking in his brain as the question of who he had liked punched him in the face. did he really like chrissy romantically? or was it he was obsessed with the idea of the most popular girl had payed interest to him? he’s a utter shitbag he just realized.

“well, i, shit, i just…” eddie trailed, angry again at himself. “i’m not good at this confession thingy so i kinda made someone think i didn’t like them and just fucking stood there, watched them c-cry.”

“woah.” chrissy eyes were a bit wide, mouth forming a perfect ‘oh’. truly, chrissy might of thought him as the most idiotic person ever.

“and i don’t know what to fucking do.” he whispered, inhaling the cancer of a stick in, the smoke filling his lungs with momentary relief.

“well, do you like them?” she asked, titling her head to the side as eddie looked at her with sad eyes. he thought about it, the word ‘yes’ immediately answering in his head. yes, of course he liked you. he liked you since he had met you, stubborn him not acknowledging himself that it was you who made him fucked up in the head every night, wishing something more would happen between the two of you every day. yes, he likes you. and fuck it, he loves you for goodness sake.

“well?” chrissy asked, seeing his eyes stare into a void, clearly he knows his answer as he relaxes his shoulders. hesitant knowing chrissy may had shown some interesting in him a couple of times.

“yeah.” eddie shrugged, cheeks turning red at the thought of you. “more than anything.”

“you’re a stubborn idiot, munson!” chrissy slapped his arm. eddie jumped at the sudden outrage. “well what are you standing here for? if you like them then tell them!” she demanded, supportive as ever.

“w-wait, i thought you’d be mad—“

“eddie.” chrissy sighed. “yes, i like you. well i thought so but i just think…”

“we’re just friends?” eddie asked, not faze chrissy had thought of the same thing. knowing this messy break-up she had with jason, not knowing the details well enough to know if she still loved that annoying jock. and that the reason they had been close is just because of a shared comfort. conflicted feelings.

“best friends i think.” chrissy laughed but pinched the cigar out of his hand in surprise to toss it away. “come on, if you still have the time. maybe y/n can forgive you.”

eddie’s brow rose. “how the fuck did you know—“

“it’s so obvious, eddie. just shut up and go to them!” chrissy pushed him to go to his van. eddie yelped as he nodded, quickly hopping in, waving back to the cheer captain with utter graciousness with her kind advice. time was ticking, he sped up not caring if the cars honked at him. chrissy watched him go, shaking her head at how oblivious he is, wishing him the best of luck.

•••

you sniffled, laid back on your bed, staring up to the ceiling of just plain hurt inside your chest. as the constant play-through of his expression when you had embarrassingly spilled out those words made your tears drop down your cheeks faster. the scrunch of his eyebrows, mouth slightly agape, the expression of disgust you guessed. you felt like you wanted to sleep for an eternity and forget how this all happened. how any of this would’ve not happened if you had just stayed silent. but here you are, guessing your relationship with him is ruined. two fucking years of friendship down the drain.

“helloooooo??” a muffled voice outside your window made you sat up quickly following the loud banging on your window making your heart jump in fear. you glanced to it, aware a shadow of a figure loomed over your own window. the banging continued as you hastily stood up and cautiously opened it, ready to smack someone with the nearby object if ever it was a intruder.

“eddie?” but it wasn’t an intruder, the same brown locks of hair appeared before you as he stumbled into your room. you backed up, looking down on the clumsy metalhead seeing sweat glisten his forehead as he let out a huff of air, doe eyes meeting yours, glistening under your lamplight.

“y/n.” eddie breathed out, chest huffing, tired he had climbed up your window just to discreetly get to you without your family knowing. you were speechless, not knowing what to do or what to say or either smack him but he was here. eddie observed your facial expression, suddenly nervous as he straighten himself to spit the words he’d been reciting in his head while driving towards your place. you stood in front of him, expecting, waiting and he stuttered it out before you could tell him to piss off.

“about… about a while ago. i wanted to say—“

“it’s fine.” you cut him off, drained already to hear the rejection from him. “none of that was supposed to be heard. i-i’m sor—“

“no. no. what i’m trying to say is— i fucking like you too.” he let it all out, stepping closer, not wanting you to leave him again. “i like you.” he whispered, tone so sweet that it was too good to be true for you.

“you’re lying.” you accused, the tremble in your lip wanting to make you cry. he had chrissy, and now why you? eddie shook his head again, you were stubborn as well as you averted his gaze, ashamed again. “you’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“and you don’t think i know who i fucking like? i’m not bullshitting this, i like you, sweetheart.” he gently held both of your hands in his, thumb circling your fingers as you stared at it. the metal of his rings digging lightly on your skin. you hoped, severely hoped that this wasn’t a dream or some other fucked up shit happening. his ring cladded hand softly placed one of your hands on his chest, above his thumping heart. “i’m sorry for not saying this sooner. but i do fucking like you a lot— love you actually more than you think. ever since you first smiled at me that got me big time. i’m just an idiot for realizing it now. it’s not chrissy, i want you.”

you blinked again, your cheeks heating up to your ears. blood rushing in your head making you feel slightly dizzy as you exhaled the breath you were holding. not believing this was happening. eddie patiently waited as you finally looked him in the eyes again, that frown gone replaced with dazzlement. the hand on his chest gripped his shirt for a moment, making him think if his confession was cheesy as shit. well it was, then again he wasn’t good at feelings.

“we’re both idiots then.” you spoke, a smile tugging your lips as eddie’s heart thumped in anticipation. in one swift moment of his impatience taking over, he leaned in to lock your lips to his. you stumbled in his hold as you gripped his shoulders as he cupped your cheeks. realizing his actions, he broke it with mumbles of apologies, resting his forehead against yours. you laughed, seeing his embarrassed face as he smiled now, embracing you in his hold.

“am i forgiven?” he asked eagerly.

“i think you owe everyone first tomorrow a annual hellfire night, edds.” you chuckled, pecking his lips. “and you owe me a date for waiting for two fucking years for you.” eddie nodded, hugging you tight making you squeal, feeling his chest flutter.

“anything for you.”

hey, sometimes i like cheesy confessions 😩✋

[bcbdrums]

Hope

A Soul Eater fanfic. Read on: AO3 | FFn

Third in a series of 31 prompt-based one-shots. Prompts from this list.

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

A/N: I do not like the name Kami aesthetically, but it seems so deeply rooted in fanon that I don't know what else to call her. So that's it for now... Or Kamiko because it can be a name or an affection, since the suffix -ko means child and it's often added to Japanese names... Also do like the translation of Kami to English, it's fitting given the context and some personal headcanons about her... Eh. Anyway. Oh yeah, this is like...based on manga canon but can be applied to anime cuz we know nothing about this scenario in anime. But we do in the manga... No spoilers. Enjoy. Fanart for this story here. 3. Love begets love

"...And she has ten toes, and ten tiny toenails... They're perfect. Oh! And her hair is the softest you've ever felt, I've never felt anything like it! Except her skin, and her eyelashes. Did I tell you about her eyes? I think they're going to turn out green. They're so perfect and pretty, my little Maka..."

Stein stared at the weapon as he all but pressed his face against the glass of the hospital nursery, looking in to where there were well over a dozen identical bassinets containing to Stein's eye identical babies but for the blue and pink blankets they were each wrapped in.

"Why isn't she with Kamiko?" Stein finally interrupted to ask, unfamiliar with this practice of displaying babies behind glass like specimens to be observed in a laboratory.

"So she can recover from the delivery. And so I could show you Maka as soon as possible," Spirit said, finally turning his bright eyes onto Stein. His breath had fogged the glass and Stein watched the spot rapidly vanish in the cool of the hospital air.

"To show me?" Stein said, genuinely surprised.

"They want to protect the newborns from germs, so they have the nursery to show them to visiting family."

'Family...?' Stein thought.

Spirit had finally gone silent, his nose nearly touching the glass again as he stared inside at one bassinet holding a pink-wrapped tiny bundle. Stein wasn't sure which one the weapon was staring at, but he wasn't going to ask.

The day had already been confusing enough, first with Spirit's frantic phone call not twenty minutes after returning from their assignment that Kamiko was in labor and that he needed him, Stein's genuine panic and confusion over the various implications of those words and the request that he meet them at the hospital, and then everything culminating in his holding Spirit's hair back as he vomited into a trash can in the hallway after witnessing the birth, his own hair still wet from the shower.

The eighteen-year-old new father had clearly recovered from the initial trauma and had been babbling for at least ten minutes straight after he'd come back out of the delivery room and the baby had been moved into the nursery. He had described every one of the newborn's features at least twice and proclaimed it perfect, and Stein simply took in this new and unique behavior from his former partner of five years. He had never seen anything like it, and it was something that at least deserved observation.

It was also an acceptable distraction for the moment over the fact that with this birth, any hope he had of reclaiming his weapon partner was well and truly lost. Nothing sealed two people together like a baby did, and he was honestly surprised that Spirit had asked for him to be there at all. Especially considering the animosity between he and Spirit's...wife.

The word turned his mouth to cotton even in thought, but he ignored his own feelings as he always did and refocused on the young man next to him whose excitement suddenly buoyed again.

"We can go in! Do you want to hold her?"

If Stein hadn't been partially wrapped up in the turmoil of his own emotions, he may have said yes simply due to the infectious joy in his former partner's eyes and voice.

"Some other time," was what he managed before Spirit whirled around and practically skipped through a door adjacent to the nursery, and Stein stared into the blank space left in the weapon's wake. The still, silent air seemed somehow to lack oxygen without Spirit's presence, and Stein knew from experience that his mind would quickly fill the void with static if he didn't seek distraction soon.

However, distraction was provided for him within moments as Spirit and a nurse, the former now wearing a mask and gloves, emerged from the side-room but within the nursery this time. Spirit's stride was quick, and he reached the bassinet before the nurse had closed the door behind them and was reaching down to pick up the pink bundle. The nurse said something that Stein ignored as Spirit hurried back to the glass where Stein was waiting, holding up his tiny prize so that the meister could see her face.

The baby was asleep, and swaddled up the way she was all that Stein could see were chubby cheeks, well-formed and startlingly familiar bone structure, and wisps of flaxen hair from beneath the pink cap the infant wore.

"Isn't she perfect? She's so beautiful!" Spirit said, his voice muffled but spilling over with excitement as Stein gazed down at what was the final nail in the coffin of his and his weapon's five years of partnership.

At that moment the infant's rosy lips parted, pressed together briefly. And then dark lashes lifted to reveal eyes exactly like Spirit's.

A choked sob drew Stein's attention upward, and he watched the hospital mask Spirit wore begin to stain with tears that streamed down the weapon's face as the nurse hovered nearby saying something that Stein filtered out almost entirely, seemingly scolding the very young father for his emotional display due to the potential contamination. But Spirit's happiness couldn't be contained, nor could Stein ignore it.

He looked down again into those dilated, teal eyes that seemed to be gazing back into his and forced himself to relax in order to really look at the baby. And of course, there cradled in Spirit's arms and held protectively between his hands, was a tiny soul. It was bright, fresh, and new... The little wavelength seemed to reach outward in every direction, searching blindly, but without fear as she remained safely under her father's protection.

Stein looked up from the tiny spark in the baby's chest to her eyes again that somehow seemed to see through him even though it was impossible for there to be a cognizant thought in her head.

"I, ah...don't tell Kami, but I... Would you... Stein I'd like you to be her godfather," Spirit said through his messy tears.

Stein looked up to the weapon's face.

"It's not actually a religious role or anything, just...just someone she can look up to, and count on... To help teach her. To be there for her," Spirit continued. His voice had leveled out and his eyes were unblinking as he stared down at Stein, the younger meister still shorter by a few inches even though he was fast catching up.

Spirit fell uncharacteristically silent, and Stein replayed the words in his mind over and over, unsure he'd heard them clearly.

'Someone she can look up to, and count on...'

For all those things...for his child, Spirit wanted him?

Stein looked with his soul's sight again at the tiny, pure wavelength in Spirit's arms and then beyond to the soul as familiar to him as his own. Spirit's wavelength was radiating joy and warmth greater than Stein had ever seen, and while most of it was due to his daughter, there was a good deal of it directed at him.

He hadn't dared to hope any longer for his own happiness...

"I...accept," he said, the words coming out almost as a question.

Relief flooded out across Spirit's wavelength, and Stein was perplexed. He knew he could get answers to all of his questions and that Spirit would give them. It would take but a breath to touch his wavelength to his former weapon's, meet him in the resonance that had been abandoned and had left his soul starving for months.

But he couldn't. Not with her nearby. She would know.

Stein could feel the other meister's soul now that he was looking properly, and even from another room in the hospital he could sense the massive tangle of her wavelength. He supposed it probably happened to many women after a trauma like giving birth. But then again he'd always found her wavelength to be erratic.

He let his vision of the souls in front of him fade as he looked down at the infant, unable to meet Spirit's eyes anymore. His chest had gone tight, and he was certain that to actually see the love in the weapon's eyes that he felt radiating out of his wavelength would be his undoing.

He had to stop being selfish and think of his friend.

"Thank you," Spirit said gratefully. "I'll...keep working on Kami, but..."

"You're right," Stein interrupted before Spirit could say something else to send his emotions spiraling even further out of control. "She's beautiful, Senpai."

Spirit blinked and looked down at his tiny daughter, who still seemed to stare at Stein. The young meister lifted a single finger toward the glass.

"Welcome to the world...Maka Albarn."

[arileartist]

hello! can i please request a drabble about Haruka Nanase where he stumbles upon an old friend of his childhood after years and he realized he liked her after all these years and he was the one to confess first and he goes on a date with the reader.

thank you so muchh 🫶 (sorry if it was confusing 😭)

Hehe~

One ask coming right up~

This is a oneshot cuz I am trying to find time here😭😭😭

Sorry if it's too short🥲🥲

“Ripples of my childhood”

(Haruka Nanase, a now renowned swimmer , has had many a trouble on his journey to his dream. Fragments of his past teenage years scattered everywhere, but still inside him, making up his present. Of course he was proud of himself, but tonight…. Just tonight…it felt like one of those fragments shone brightly in front of him. Her beautiful locks and unmistakable eyes caught his attention)

“Y/n?....” He whispered under his breath. He walked up to her, while she was sitting on a table in a corner, reading a book. She looked at him, surprised. Although it was clear that she didn't recognize him at all. “Yes? May I help you?” She responded kindly, yet, there was confusion in her eyes. She thought hard, that where has she seen those calming ocean eyes before….

“Y/n…. is your name right?” Haruka asked the girl. She nods, keeping her book aside. “Oh…yeah that would be me..” she looks a little embarrassed, because she too is trying hard to remember this dolphin like man. Wait…dolphin….? Dolphins…where had she heard that? She jumps up in surprise, making Haru stumble a little. “OMG!!! HARUKA NANASE?? FROM…FROM IWATOBI??” she exclaims. Haruka smiles and nods. “It's been a while…you've grown into a beautiful woman…” he says, happy to be reunited with an old acquaintance. “Please, join me!” She says, laughing. “So what brings you here?? How did you recognize me by the way? I thought I changed my appearance a lot!” She says. Haruka observes her carefully and then replies, “ah…those kind eyes of yours, I would recognise them anywhere…. Plus you were the only girl in the school with your accent. You weren't Japanese… but when I spoke to you right now, you have the same English accent as when I first spoke to you ... .I was sure after that…”.

The two chat away for a while, catching up with each other before Haruka receives a call. “Hmm…why is Rin calling me..” he ponders. Haruka gets up and looks at y/n. “I have to go…but..I liked talking to you” he said. Although he meant that he enjoyed catching up, it came out dangerously. “Oh-! Huh?? Uhmm.. Okay…I also liked talking to you …I guess…” y/n wasn't sure if Haru was trying to get her or if he was just messing up his English. Either way, she couldn't confirm as he had already walked away, phone in his hand. Y/n sits back on the chair and looks at him as he walks out of the restaurant, into the street. She stirs her drink gently and sighs. “What if he took a liking to me? After just one meeting too…jeez….”. Y/n finishes her drink, picks up her book and bag, walking out of the restaurant and heading off. Meanwhile, Haru is back in his apartment, going over the pictures of his middle school. “Oh…it was her…I totally mistook her for another girl…” he sighs. “It…could've been much worse”he says. Only he knew that he made a mistake. Y/n was not the girl Haru thought she was. He was thinking of someone else in his class, but thought that the girl's name is y/n. However…he didn't realise that y/n was actually someone completely different…. Someone that he once saw as a beautiful wave, gliding over the coast of a beach. Y/n, back in the day would be rather popular, and all of Haru's friends knew her. They'd easily go talk to her because she herself was shy, even though a lot of people liked her for one reason only. The reason why Haru was captivated by a girl for the first time in his life. They had a field trip that day, and in the end, they were visiting a waterfall. Of course, Haru sneaked off to swim in the cold, captivating water of the falls, only to find a beautiful girl already breaking the rule and beating him to it. She laughed and jumped in and out of the water like a wingfish. Haru was enticed by waterfalls and mesmerizing oceanic views, but this was something else…. His heart fluttered when she caught the sight of him. She immediately placed a finger on her lips. “Shhhh~ it's our secret ;)” she said.

Haru blushed at the memory and smiled. He took one last look at the class photo and traced his finger over her face. “She's become more mature…and even prettier now….” He thinks. He decided that the next day too, he would go to the restaurant, just to try his luck. Being a fickle thing, luck was definitely on his side as he spotted her sitting on the bar stool by the counter today. “Ugh…I'm too lazy to cook after coming back home from a day of University. Don't mind me groaning, grandma” she says. An old lady behind the counter laughs in response. “Well why don't ya hire a maid then?”she asks. Y/n shakes her head. “No, maids are rather expensive. Also I'll need to keep a watch on her. Who knows if she'll steal food or money while I'm not paying attention…. Too much work and all I wanna do is stay in bed and read my books” y/n says. Haruka smiles as he hears that. He gathers up the courage to bump into the conversation and walks towards the two near the counter. “Y/n, hi!” He greets. Surprised, she looks at him and smiles. “Hiii, you're here again today?” She asked. Haruka nods and smiles. “I actually wanted to find you…and I heard your conversation. If you don't mind… I can make dinner for you…(whispers) every time you want me to…” he says. “Hmm? Sorry I didn't catch the last part” y/n says. Haruka shakes his head and looks away. “Nothing…would you be interested in joining me for dinner from tomorrow?” He asks. Y/n is baffled by the offer. “Uhmm….I mean..” she stutters. The grandma laughs and walks into the kitchen, saying, “young girl, this is your chance. Take it or it might slip away~ (whispers) he seems like a good kid too~”. Y/n looks at Haruka and sighs. “Alright, sure why the heck not?” She replies, smiling. Haruka seems visibly happy. He blushes and takes her hand. “Hm?” Y/n hums, observing his actions. She smiles, “are you trying to actually make a move on me?”. Haruka blushes and retracts his hand. “Sorry…I was trying to…-” before he finishes his sentence, y/n winks at him and whispers,”don't worry, I won't tell anyone~ it'll be our secret ;)”. Haruka’s eyes go wide and he starts smiling. He holds her hand confidently and says, “y/n…can we be something like…friends? But…not friends..” Haruka tries to knit together a sentence that delivers his feelings, but funnily, to no avail. Y/n laughs and nods. “I catch ya~ here, I'll give you my number~” she says, handing Haruka her phone. As they sit down together at the counter for dinner, y/n sneaks in a question for him; “so, if you want, you can call this a date, right?”. Haruka spits out his food, coughing as he realises she hit his feelings right on spot. He blushes and looks away, making a pouty face. “Date…. Yes…” he murmurs. Y/n leans over teasingly and pokes his cheek. “Awwww, someone's shy~” she teases. Haruka, though frowning, knows that deep inside, this will be an adventure for him. One that he's curious about….

[courtofmatchups]

ooo could i possibly get an obey me matchup? :) i’m an aries, entp, bi, she/they pronouns

i’m about 5’8 with shoulder length hair that’s relatively straight. i like to wear crop tops and high waisted stuff, my fashion taste is pretty androgynous overall and is kind of an 80s/90s vibe. i almost never wear makeup or do my hair. and i’m always bumping into things so i have several bruises at any given time

i make comics and i’m a grad student TA. i have a caffeine addiction and the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy. i’m known for my ability to remain calm and optimistic, and also for being relatively quiet but when i do speak it’s always something out of pocket. i’m not shy i just don’t got shit to say. i love to help people and also make them laugh and/or cry with my art

hobbies/interests/likes: gossiping, funny movies, making playlists, singing/karaoke, acting, writing screenplays and songs, drawing/animating, traveling, going on walks/hikes, sending cursed images in the groupchat, and every animal in the world except dogs and spiders. love any excuse to wear some sort of costume or goofy outfit

dislikes: i hateeee cooking it’s so boring. also hate being dirty i can’t function when i feel gross. not a fan of loud music or weed/cig smell either so i don’t go to parties/clubs often. i have massive sensory issues when it comes to bad smells. i dislike routine too i love change and challenging norms. i couldn’t be with someone who gets secondhand embarrassment easily cuz i’ll be weird in public and not care. in fact i’d hope that my partner would join me

my red flags are i’m terrified of aging and being undesirable and there is not a single body part that i haven’t been insecure about at some point. i’m stubborn and i’m a complainer i love kvetching about random shit. i am rather skittish and look scared/confused all the time like a wild rabbit. i don’t bring much to the table tbh but i can make you laugh i am always eager to try new things and my heart is true. i imagine i’d be pretty low maintenance in a relationship, as long as u are nice to me and don’t cheat on me we’re good

It seems to me you have captured the heart of...

The Scummy Second-Born,

Mammon!

:0

Someone who is chaotic as he is?? And smart as hell?? He's already interested. And as he learns more about you, that interest soon spirals into infatuation. But Mammon, being the tsundere he is, will try to deny these feelings, and ultimately fail. You're just *that* charming

Your sense of humour is what stands out to him the most. It's a little juvenile, but that's what he likes (Lucifer, prepare yourself for some bad joke induced migraines). And your calm and optimistic nature is something he can get behind. And when you say something completely unhinged, it might take him aback at first, but it'll grow on him

A lot of his interests line up with yours, like karaoke and movies, so you can expect him to take you to karaoke palours and to movie theatres. If it ever gets to crowded or too noisy, he'll get you someplace calmer and quieter as soon as possible. He'll notice it pretty quickly, as he's pretty observant, especially when it comes to you (in a wholesome way that doesn't make you feel like you're being viewed under a microscope, that is)

Whenever the two of you are apart, you can expect him to send you lots of cursed images to you also. Of course, you cannot forget about the unhinged yet wholesome texts you send to each other

You draw comics? Mammon LOVES that about you too, so please, draw a silly little comic about your misadventures. He's not gonna sell them though. You made those comics especially for him. As money-hungry as he is, those comics hold a special place in his heart.

He can understand your distaste for being dirty (he lives with Asmo after all), so he'll send you care packages with cute little soaps, shampoos, and different body lotions

You don't have to worry about Mammon ever cheating on you, as he's clingy as hell

If you ever overwork yourself from a caffeine-induced high (being a grad student TA is no walk in the park), he's gonna drag you to sleep. Please do not resist

In a nutshell, your relationship would look like this:

[nateriverswife]

24 and 29 for fic writers asks.

24. Share a moodboard for (one of) your current WIP(s).

Going with:

24 Hours – basically, there’s this person that in 2000 decides to challenge L and gives him 24 hours to find them. Each hour they broadcast a new crime. Funny thing, which is immediately known so it’s not a spoiler, is that they are in the same building as L, pretending to be a plumber and they plan to blow up the building with both of them inside. They are so unhinged, and I love them so much. They literally plant a bomb under the kitchen sink in L’s apt, when he’s present, cuz they have a plan B: shoot him right there. Straight to the point. They don't care about the challenge itself, but to ruin L the detective and him not doing anything gives him a bad rep.

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.)

Okay, this death note fic idea is a weird one. I started writing it in my italian literature class, because I was bored. I wrote just the beginning bcause the class bell rang and I forgot about it. I don't intend to continue it lmao

Basically it's a case in which are involved poems by Giovanni Pascoli, that I was studying at that time. Nothing too elaborate and I didn't get all the details down, so yeah. Under the cut, the first part of the first chapter. L was supposed to appear after this scene, pretending to just take a walk in the graveyard, as someone does (he noticed the FBI cars from his apt and wanted to know more about what was going on, and Watari wasn't around).

The relentless clicking of the heels of the young Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Jessica Parker caught the attention of most of the forensic workers. They followed her parade down the central driveway with judging eyes. They knew why she was there, since they had witnessed the heated conversation that had taken place shortly before between her and team leader Flavius Bennett on the phone, but her short white strapless dress, decorated with pinkish lace and little flowers, and her pink handbag were, apart from being unusual, not appropriate for a place like that. And they did not refer to the cemetery they had found themselves in, but to the work she had to do.

"Finally!" Bennett exclaimed as soon as he laid eyes on her.

He passed the officer he was talking to and walked over to her.

"You could have worn something else..." He commented, eyeing her from head to toe. 

"You could have not called me on my day off."

He handed her his clipboard and took off the jacket he was wearing, arranging it, then, over the girl's shoulders. He took the item back and signaled for her to follow him.

"I wouldn't have called you if it hadn't been directly addressed to you." He replied. "I'll briefly explain what happened, then, there will be Marlinson to tell you about details."

Jessica rolled her eyes and bit her lower lip, lest her disappointment at having to work with him be felt, but Flavius could sense it, nonetheless. 

[...]

They reached the crime scene but remained quite far away so as not to get in the way of the forensic team's work. Jessica was able to observe the three corpses, anyway, lying side by side and carefully arranged. There was no visible blood or signs of any injuries at first glance, but she decided not to be immediately swayed by the sight, not knowing any further information about the deaths. 

"We think it was a murder. The victim is Johanne Nelson, female, 24 years old, white, American, has no children and no boyfriend. Lives downtown on Northwest 10th Street. She attends Georgetown University, a thirteen-minute drive from her home. The car in her name is a two thousand nine BMW fifth series." He glanced quickly down the page and looked at the next one. "That's it. Any questions?"

He turned towards the woman, who was busy observing the crowd of people and her surroundings. 

"And the two bodies at her side?" She asked, pointing at the corpses. "They look like they've been dead for quite some time."

"Because they are. They are the victim's mother and father. They were pulled out of their graves and laid out like that." He took a pause as he searched through his papers for a photo. "On the gravestone, it says this." He handed it to her.

The red writing, probably done with a felt-tip pen, because there were no smudges or lighter strokes, as would have happened if blood had been used, read:

“Io vedo, vedo, vedo un camposanto,

oscura cosa nella notte oscura:

odo quel pianto della tomba, pianto

d’occhi lasciati dalla morte attenti,

pianto di cuori cui la sepoltura

lasciò, ma solo di dolor, viventi.”

"Is that a verse from a poem...?" Jessica asked, shaking her head, confused. 

"Not just any poem. It is by the Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli, who lived from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. It is the first poem in the collection Myricae." Flavius explained, handing her an impromptu translation of the text. 

"Day of the Dead...? I think I read it years ago."

"Exactly. It talks about Pascoli's family unity that seems to have created a new family in the cemetery, much more united than the one that existed when they were alive, and to be condemning, in some way, the survivors." 

"Are you telling me that, perhaps, it is a relative who has done this?"

"Probably. However, we asked the head of the cemetery if there are any other relatives in the area, but he said no."

"And, even if they were to be outside Washington..."

"They would have no way of having gone far, because we believe the crime took place between four and six this morning. And now, it's..." He looked at his watch. "Half past one, which doesn't explain this evening attire of yours."

"It's not evening, it's formal." She corrected him. "And that's not important, I'm here about a murder, not the death of my private life because of you." 

Flavius chuckled, but Jessica did not find it extremely hilarious. [...]

"You can always..." Flavius pointed her gaze at Marlinson's curly blonde head, intent on checking the various pieces of evidence in the bags being brought to him.

"Forget it."

"I meant to make yourself useful and not waste time. Go talk to him." He put a hand on her back. "We have a murder to solve, go." He pushed her, risking knocking her to the ground.