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SULA’S SONG : Part 25 : THE END OF THE SUN’S DAUGHTER : A World of Sea tale

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SULA’S SONG : THE END OF THE SUN’S DAUGHTER

Part 25

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

123566 words presently written, WIP

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Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images.

All sorts of Fan Activity, fiction, art, cosplay, music or anything else is ACTIVELY encouraged!

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NEW TO SULA’S SONG? READ FROM THE BEGENNING.

PART 1 is HERE

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Jenna started by saying, “The first thing that I thought of is sort of a principle. If we are going to do a total refit for war, the needs of fighting have to come first. We can fit our people around what's needed for combat.”

Master Guliard interrupted, “That is very true. I . . .” he paused and visibly struggled to be diplomatic. “May I put that up in the boatshop for everyone to see?”

Mistress Culark amended that by saying, “We need it up in every shop, Ducky. Not just yours.”

Sula pointed back to the drawing and asked, “What do you think that we will need, Jenna?”

Jenna bit her lip and fearfully said, “I thought of several things. To be sure what I want to show you I need to know if we are going to use fire weapons, like the Borens are using?”

Mistress Culark confirmed, “We are, my little hawk. We are making some that we can throw by catapult.”

Jenna nodded thoughtfully to herself and then surprised them all by saying, “I thought so. Loading them will be dangerous, won't it?”

Mistress Culark looked at Jenna with a seriously dawning respect and said, “They will be safe enough to handle and fire from the catapults. If you mean filling them, you are right. That is the most dangerous part of using them.”

Now sure of herself, Jenna pointed at the drawing and suggested, “Make the Armory a lot bigger and put it right here in the middle of the section. It should use all three decks. Make the filling part on the bottom deck and make the floor easy to drop out if there is a loading accident. That will put both the burning stuff and anyone in there down into the water. That gives both the crew and the ship the best chance of living through the accident.

“Run fireproof corridors to magazines fore, aft, starboard and port. While I watched the battle at the Gathering, I saw how we used our catapults and how the Haghunter used theirs. We need our strongest ones up forward, and one or two strong ones astern, as well as the all of the regular catapults.”

Master Guliard thought for a moment and Sula was pleased to see him start to reject the idea and then get a grip on himself. Thoughtfully he looked and finally said, “We could do that. The amount of damage that we already have in the center platform means that we have to completely restructure it. It will need a lot of calculation to do this but the basic notion is sound. I especially like the idea for the weapon loading bay.”

Just as Jenna was relaxing some Sula said, “When I asked you to think of these things, Jenna, I didn't expect this. What made you think so deeply?”

Jenna's young shoulders began to shake. Tears came to her eyes and she sniffled before she was able to get a grip on her emotions. “Ma'am, I was out with you in your boat at the Starseeker wreck. All of those people were murdered. I knew and played with seven of their kids. I identified them all when we brought their bodies aboard. I knew children from the Morag, the Morgan and the Lucky Lady too.”

Even red and rimmed with tears, Jenna's eyes hardened and her back stiffened. “Ma'am, You gave me a chance to put a harpoon into those killers who have turned their backs on the Law and the Dragons. I want our ship to send as many of of them to Dark Iren as we can before we get sent to him ourselves.”

Master Guliard regarded the child before him and asked, “Why are you so sure that we will be sunk? We will be better prepared for war than they are.”

Jenna nodded, “True, Master. They not only outnumber us, we will be fighting in waters that they know. They may simply swarm us until we have nothing left to shoot at them or maybe they might trick us into shallows on a Dragon Tide.” Bleakly, she added, “Like the Strong Skin that killed my mother and father, they don't take prisoners or save survivors. Mirenda and Master Rokor are good foster parents but I don't expect to live long enough to have a child of my own. Perhaps I can keep the Borens from killing many other children.”

Sula nodded a sympathetic understanding, her own eyes tearing a little as she said, “I wish that I had your faith in Dragons to sustain me, Jenna. I won't try to hide the truth from you. I think that you are almost certainly right. On all points. We have to oppose the Boren fleet, even if we die in the attempt.”

After studying the rest of Master Guliard's damage reports and Mistress Culark's weapon designs Sula came to a decision. “This is all better than I had hoped for. Still, we now need all of the rest of the Masters in on the rebuild. We will have the meeting in the starboard mess room. Jenna, will you go to find them and let them know, please?”

With a brisk, “Aye, Ma'am!” Jenna left on her errand.

Master Guliard watched Jenna go and commented, “I think that child may be the most dangerous person on Sea. While the Borens figured out weapons to fight with and we worked on better ones, she was thinking about War, not just fighting. When she is old enough, if we live so long, I want her in my shop. She will probably wind up as an officer instead.”

The End of the Sun's Daughter:

For the next two weeks, Sula nursed her damaged vessel north. At last they reached 75 degrees North latitude and the legal safety of the Dragon Sea. The frigid waters teemed with schools of the twenty to sixty centimeter, eel-like gluefish. Boats put out to net the bounty of precious fish necessary to make the many specialized glue formulations needed to repair and rebuild the ship.

As the fishing proceeded, Strong Skins began to attack both the fish and the fishermen. The harpooners and catapult crews reaped fish after valuable and deadly fish. Their hides were necessary to make or repair almost anything.

It was quickly apparent that, in these latitudes, waiting for nightfall was wasted time. The sun never fully set, only barely kissing the southern horizon. The sun at nadir lit everything with a pale and ghastly light. Even at it's low laying high noon, it shed little to no warmth. The cooks needed far longer to get food ready with the big solar ovens.

Seeing that problem, Sula sat down to her big abacus and began to calculate. After a few hours, she took her results to the now very busy Master Guliard. He called over Willim, one of his journeymen, to look at Sula's design.

Rubbing his chin, Willim remarked, “Not too difficult. Tricky to get the first one to fit that curvature exactly, but then we can use it to make a mold and lay up the rest of them without any difficulty. We will need more Sidejumper scales to line them with than we have in stock at present.”

Sula said thoughtfully, “We just took three of them. Good sized ones, too.”

Surprised, Willim replied, “Three? They're usually pretty solitary.”

Sula nodded agreement. “I know, Willim. The way that things are going right now, I would almost say that the Great Dragons are helping us. Pity that I don't believe in them. I think that we have simply found what a sea untouched by human fishing is like.”

Willim closed and opened his eyes slowly, a respect to Blind Mecat, the Dragon of Wisdom, and said, “Perhaps, Ma'am, it's both.”

Sula grinned and said, “I can accept that. Now get on these new reflectors for the cooks. We need lots of hot food and the old reflectors aren't doing the job.

“We also need to process all of these gluefish and our old equipment is falling far behind the catch.”

Willim agreed, “With all of the repairs and refitting, we do need better equipment for the glue processing. I could take this plan of yours and make one two or three times the size. Those gluepots are big.”

Sula just said, “That sounds good. Do it. I will leave the work in your hands.”

On her way back to her cabin and some shred of warmth, Sula saw Nightwatch Allen hard at work. He was keeping the ship's children enthralled by some tale or other. Instead of words, he seemed to be conveying the story by gesture alone. The reason for that was obvious.

Neither he nor his charges were cold at all. They were swaddled head to toe in thick black garments that only showed their eyes. Even their hands were thickly gloved. In spite of their faces being fully covered, they sometimes interrupted . . . with gestures of their own. Nightwatch Allen always responded comically as if he were surprised or indignant. That always brought a flutter of hands from the children.

One of the children started to say, “But what was the Dragon's na . . .” and was instantly pulled back by a hand over his or perhaps her mouth by a child behind. Embarrassed, the silenced child raised a hand and made a series of gestures.

Those, Nightwatch Allen responded to with gestures of his own. As she watched, Sula began to realize that there was a genuine language being used. She wondered how he managed to teach it to the children so easily.

Back at her cabin door, Sula saw a small change. There was a ribbed plate attached to the panel. A small stick like a short chopstick hung from it by a string. Curious, Sula ran the stick across the ribs. The noise that it made was louder than she expected. Looking closely, she saw that there was a resonating chamber under the surface, making it a sort of small drum that used the door panel as one of its heads.

Sula went into her cabin. Since it was not her watch, Jenna was not there. Sula walked to the chart table and got some crumbs and spread from the dish that Jenna always left there for Little Peep. She fed him but before he would take any for himself, he first stuffed the craws of his four nestlings.

Sula tried to sleep but, as so often these days, her dreams chased her back to wakefulness. Apparently she got more sleep than she realized because Jenna was crouching beside her, tucking another blanket over her Captain. Sula could see that Jenna was smiling at her by the set of her body and head. Her cabin girl was fully covered by the same dark garments that Sula had seen on the other children at the storytelling session.

Reflexively, Jenna started to gesture at Sula and then said, “Sorry, Ma'am. Did you sleep well? You didn't toss as much as usual. I brought you a breakfast. It's on the chart table. I'm afraid that Little Peep raided your bread roll. I hope that you don't mind beak marks in it.”

Sula smiled and sat up, pulling her blankets close. “I don't mind sharing with Little Peep at all Jenna. May I have that breakfast now?”

Jenna managed to look guilty as she put a cover over the plate and set it on a small device. Sula grinned, “You let the little guy swipe my bun! What is that thing?”

As Jenna turned her head, her headcloth turned along with her gaze, the eye holes staying firmly in front of her eyes. “Yes, Ma'am, I did. He was hungry. This is a heating device that Mikal made. He is one of Master Guliard's apprentices. It has an oil reservoir and several wicks. It lights with this little bulb. See, I push the bulb and it lights the oil in the wicks with a tiny bit of anhydrous drier.” Sula watched with interest as her plate heated and steam began to rise from the cover.

When Jenna brought her the hot plate of food, Sula fell to with a will. Her flashing chopsticks made short work of the food while it was still warm. Replete, Sula noticed that Jenna had blown out the heater's lamps and covered the device.

Sula asked, “Jenna? What are those gestures that I saw you using?

Jenna paused and thought carefully about something before saying, “Ma'am, we children were sworn to secrecy by Mister Allen. Captain, I can only tell you because you are the biggest child on the ship. Mister Allen calls it Dayspeech because we can use it anytime that there's light enough to see. We children use it among ourselves so that we won't interrupt or interfere with all of the important work that is going on. Mister Allen uses it to tell us stories to keep us entertained and out from underfoot.”

Gently Sula pressed, “And how did you all learn a whole new language so easily?”

Jenna shrugged and fluttered a hand before replying, “We didn't. It's just Drumtalk.” She held her left hand palm up and placed the open fingers of her right hand into her left palm. “See? My palm is the drumhead. The first two fingers are the signal sticks, the third is the word end stick, the little finger is the pause punctuation stick, thumb is the exclamation and question stick and a short finger clench is a paragraph. A fist says that you are done.”

Jenna began to slowly and silently beat on her left palm, “It is Dayspeech when we take away the palm and hold the fingers up where we can see the beats.” She finished with her hand up, fist quickly clenched and released.

Smiling, Sula laboriously signaled back, “That was clever of Nightwatch Allen.

“Where did you get those warm looking clothes?”

Jenna clearly, by her body set, grinning, signaled back, Mistress Malein, the tailor and Mikal working together made them for us.”

Thoughtfully, Sula asked out loud, “Jenna, will you please find Nightwatch Allen, Mistress Malein and Mikal and have them report to my cabin?”

Jenna pointedly looked at Sula's hand. Sula returned another big grin and carefully, but already more quickly, signaled the request in Dayspeech. Jenna promptly signaled assent and scampered off on her errand.

Sula laughed to herself at the way that Jenna was including her as one of the ship's children. In an odd way, that inclusion helped her to deal with the emptiness that she felt where Davaros should be. Having the ship to distract her mind from her loss helped too. There was so much to be done. Thank the Dragons for so many details to attend to.

Sula was at work, redoing the ship's entire mast, rigging and sail plan, her big abacus's beads clicking rhythmically. There was a clear scratching rattle from the door. Sula clapped her hands in invitation and the door slid open. It was Jenna accompanied by Mistress Malein, Mister Allen and Mikal.

Sula offered them cushions to sit on and said, “I called you here because the three of you are connected in something that we need for the ship.”

Mikal looked puzzled. He asked, “What could that be?”

Sula pointed to Jenna and then gestured, “Come here, Jenna. They need to understand the importance of your outfit.”

Nightwatch Allen's eyes widened as he saw Sula's use of Dayspeech. He filled in, “The children's clothes are that important?”

Sula nodded seriously and replied, “They are. We presently have five of the crew, three women and two men, in sick bay being treated for frostbite or at least severe chill to the point of dangerously reduced body temperature. Clothes like these could prevent or reduce the problem.”

Sula turned to Nightwatch Allen and said, “Jenna tells me that you came up with the basic idea. Why black?”

Nightwatch Allen shrugged, “It catches heat easily. Besides, Mistress Malein has practically a hold full of black canvas.”

Sula chuckled and pointed out, “These are far more than just canvas. Whose idea was that?”

Mistress Malein said, “When Cole, um, Mister Allen, explained what he wanted I made up a layered cloth. There is the canvas shell, two layers of Master Stimm's thickest knit and a satin weave inner liner. That is why the clothes are a bit bulky. At least none of the children are getting very cold.”

Sula smiled her praise and said, “That is quite ingenious. When Jenna turns her head, the eyeslits stay in front of her eyes. How is that done?”

Nightwatch Allen pointed at Mikal and said, “His idea, Captain. The first time that I turned my head and wound up looking at the inside of the hood, I knew that we needed something. Mikal was off watch. Since he and I get along, I asked him about it. He made a small sort of mask out of black finished Strong Skin. It fastens behind your head and is sewn into the hood. Each mask is specifically fitted to the wearer.

“Jenna, take off your hood so that the others here can see how it works.”

Jenna reached up behind her head and untied the securing string. She then slid the whole hood loose. Blushing, she handed the hood to Sula. Sula thoughtfully asked, “Why are you embarrassed, Jenna?”

Ducking her head, Jenna replied, “You get used to being covered up really easily. It's cold without it.”

Sula replied, “I see. Mistress Malein, Mikal, this is quite well done. Can you do these quickly? We need to fit everybody aboard with these clothes.”

Mistress Malein said, “I have the other cloths in plenty for the task but we will need a lot more of the knit. It wouldn't hurt if it was even thicker or fluffier, somehow.”

Jenna almost fearfully raised a hand. Sula nodded to her and Jenna pointed out, “The knit cloth is easy to make. I made some for Master Stimms' demonstration. We kids could make it, if somebody set up the loom for us.”

Nightwatch Allen gestured something at Jenna, who grinned and fluttered her right hand at him. Sula gestured, “I caught that part about volunteering but what was the hand flutter, Jenna?”

Jenna gestured back, “That's how we laugh without sound.”

Sula promptly fluttered her right hand.

Mikal and Mistress Malein were looking on in bemusement. Sula explained, “Mister Allen warned Jenna that if she keeps on volunteering, someday somebody will put her to work. I will too. It appears that we have the answer to this whole problem. I will leave you to it. Mikal, if Master Guliard objects, tell him that I have assigned you to this task for now. Dismissed.

“Mister Allen, please remain. I have another task for you.”

After the others were gone, Sula said, “The Sun's Daughter sank three days after that squall.”

Nightwatch Allen looked about in mock surprise and commented, “How did I miss that? I think that I would have noticed it.”

TO BE CONTINUED

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#SULA’S SONG #Part 25 #World of Sea #WORK IN PROGRESS #Written by De Writer

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yunagalvan · 4 years

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Fred Weasley One Shot (with a madeup character named Haliwell Galvan)

Summary: Haliwell Galvan is best friends with George Weasley. After he finds out she had trouble sleeping sometimes he lets her sleep with him, but it seems as if their plan doesn’t work well on one night. Fred and Hali finds themselves unable to sleep without eachother.

A/N: New user to tumblr and I had been writing this in my free time just to make the days a little more fun. Thought why not post it I’m sure at least one person may enjoy it.

Warnings: None. Grammar Mistakes prob.

Word count: 6352 (A lot I know)

“Sleep well last night?” George questioned, sporting a lazy smile as he spooned some scrambled eggs into his mouth.

“Not at all actually,” She huffed, taking a seat next to him. She rubbed her aching eyes.

“Couldn’t you tell George? She’s got bags the size of Snape’s robes under her eyes,” Fred chuckled, leaning to catch a glance of Hali’s tired expression. George elbowed him in the ribcage.

“Ow! Git,” Fred muttered before turning back to chatting with Lee Jordan who was sat across from him.

George leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Even though you find me and my cold hands utterly repulsive, if you think sleeping next to someone will help you fall asleep, you can sleep next to me anytime. I know how much you need to sleep. And don’t bother waking me up, I’ll be grumpy,” He finished turning back to his eggs.

“You sure?” She asked. She wondered if they’d get in trouble or what kind of treatment his dorm-mates would give him if they found out, especially Fred. Of course, she knew either wasn’t a concern to him. She knew getting in trouble never crossed his mind and that he wouldn’t care what kind of jokes arose because they’d always been best friends, just best friends.

With no hesitation he answered back, “Of course.”

“What are you two whispering about over there?” Lee had interjected, an eyebrow raised.

“Nothing concerning you,” Hali responded, giving George a quick wink. Fred wondered what George had said to her and why she’d given him a wink, but figured he’d just get it out of George later.

That had happened during their sixth year, and George managed to keep his offer a secret between him and Hali. During their seventh year she had fallen asleep early on the night, and at that point, the noise of the storm outside had been bearable. Rain hadn’t been violently rapping against her window and the wind wasn’t howling fiercely. However, later in the night, a particularly loud rumble of sudden thunder woke her up from a nightmare she was having. The situation was now bittersweet for she had escaped her nightmare, but was now left to perpetually be kept awake by the ravaging storm outside. She turned over to her side, facing away from the window and shut her eyes. She feebly attempted to fall back into unconsciousness but her mind was racing. In a couple hours she would be tested in transfigurations and she’d only been able to complete the difficult vanishing spell a few times. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to do it tomorrow- well technically today- but she yearned for the few hours of thoughtless bliss sleep would provide for her.

After 15 minutes of tossing and turning in her four poster bed, she quietly moved her curtains aside and swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. Her body shivered as her bare feet contacted the cold floor. Her socks had been lost somewhere in her bed and she was too tired to feel around for them in the dim light. The storm outside provided some light, but her eyes were barely open. Her left eye remained completely closed, as her right eye struggled to stay open. As she straightened her back, and her hands flew to grip her biceps. She drew in a sharp breath, and rubbed her arms in an attempt to create some heat.

She gingerly tiptoed past her sleeping dorm-mates and began to hastily descend the cold, stone stairs which led to the gryffindor common room. As she made her way down the spiral staircase, her eyes adjusted to the bright flames each held by a sconce.

She rushed across the common room floor which would lead to the tower that housed the boys. She huffed and puffed as she walked up what seemed like an infinite amount of stairs. She was still bringing in sharp breaths and shivering when she reached the 6th years dorms. She easily navigated her way to George’s dorm as she’d gone there many times in order to retrieve some object he or Fred had stolen from her.

She quickly shuffled over to George’s bed and was able to slip easily under his covers and next to him since he was rolled away from her and was practically dangling off of the side of the bed. The light from the storm outside barely illuminated the back of his head but she rolled over to face away from him, pressing her back against his. She shut her eyes and relaxed at the feeling of his warmth behind her.

Although she always vocalized how much she hated when people touched her, she felt strangely serene, although she’d never tell anyone except George that.

Hali drifted off to sleep and woke up to a warm arm curled around her waist. She groggily wrapped her left hand around his wrist and removed his uncharacteristically warm hand from the skin of her stomach. She dropped his arm limply behind her and sleepily fled the boys’ dormitory.

She slept the remainder of the time in her own bed and when it was time to eat breakfast she plopped down in her usual seat next to George.

“Morning, ‘Hali,” George greeted happily.

“Morning George,” She smiled, fully rested.

“Got a good night’s sleep last night, eh?” Fred grinned into his bite of roasted potatoes. Although there was something patronizing about the way he said it, Hali's mind immediately thought he’d seen her in George’s bed. A heatwave of paranoia settled through her.

“Yeah… I did,” She answered giving George a wide-eyed suspicious look. He gave her a confused one back, but she ignored it and delved into her breakfast.

“Did you tell him?” She muttered to George under her breath.

“Tell him what?” George playfully asked.

“Our- sleeping agreement,” She quietly answered.

“Er- no?”

“Why’s he being so weird then?” Hali anxiously questioned.

“I mean- he’s Fred, he’s always weird. I think he’s just happy- said something about having a really good night of sleep this morning, but I thought he was just sayin that to annoy me since he slept in my bed last night-“

“He- He WHAT?” Hali vocalized earning a wide eyed look from Lee and Fred. Hali stood up and dragged a still-sitting-down George away from the table and out into the hall.

She dragged him around a corner as he stumbled and struggled to balance himself after being abruptly dragged across the dining hall.

“What’s wrong? You’re being mad right now!” George breathed.

“I slept in your dorm last night. And I thought I was sleeping next to you! Because I was in your bed!” She explained, obviously flustered.

“You- He- my bed?” George stuttered.

“The storm woke me up last night, and I thought I was sleeping next to you but- You know I knew something was off, you never touch me when you’re sleeping. His hands are way warmer than yours by the way,” She concluded, crossed armed.

“His hands? He touched you?” George said eyebrows furrowing.

“Oh come on- He was sleeping. Don’t get all big brother on me now against your own brother who was in your bed,” She deadpanned, seeing George agitated, “Why was he in your bed in the first place?”

George rubbed the back of his neck guiltily,” Alright well… We were playing catch with some dungbombs and you know- one exploded on his bed and I uh- I had thrown it of course. I cleaned it, but he swore it still smelled like dung so he said he wanted to trade beds until the stench was gone.”

She took a deep breath in and rolled her eyes.

“You guys talking about me?” Fred’s voice spoke from behind her. She threw an elbow into his stomach and then turned around to face him. He was doubled over, holding his stomach, a pained smile coating his face.

“Fred-“ George started an uncommonly serious look on his face.

Hali stopped George and motioned for him to go back into the hall, “It’s fine. I’ll handle it.”

Fred was standing up straight now, and waved sarcastically to his grumbling brother as he walked back into the dining hall. He was still sporting a wide grin when he turned to face Hali.

“Care to explain?” She began, tapping her foot.

“Explain what?” He eagerly simpered.

“You think you’re being so cute, hm? Stop smiling, you look like an idiot,” Hali spoke, visibly annoyed.

His smile faltered, “Listen, I didn’t know you and George were…”

“What? Sleeping together?” Her face dropped at her wording and his eyebrows rose up in surprise, “I don’t mean like that. I mean literally just sleeping. I only do it when I can’t sleep,” She explained.

“That’s a relief and weirdly understandable,” Fred thought outloud.

“What?”

“Well, who wouldn’t want to wake up next to a girl? It’s like the best surprise a guy could get,” Fred explained smiling down at her.

“Why you-“ She rose a closed fisted ready to give him a punch in shoulder which would at most leave a slight stinging sensation on his arm.

He grabbed her wrist before her hand met his arm, “Relax, Haliwell. I’m kidding- well not really but- I didn’t know about your ‘sleeping arrangements’ and I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I- erm- kind of thought I was in a dream to be honest. But after I woke up for a second time and you were still there I realized it was real. I’m sure you prefer George, you two have always been closer, but uh it was nice,” His voice got quieter as he went on, finally settling on a whisper when he reached the last sentence. His grip loosened on her wrist.

She didn’t know what to say, there’s no way he would have known she wouldn’t be able to sleep and he seemed genuinely sorry. She was skeptical of his behavior though, because he was being unusually expressive and helpful.

“I didn’t hate it, but your hands are much warmer than George’s so it was a nice change,” She admitted to him. She started to think about what he said about it being a dream. She decided it was her turn to bother him.

“You said you thought it was a dream?” Hali asked smiling slightly, “Why would you be having a dream about me in bed with you, Fred Weasley?”

The tips of his ears flushed a deep red, unfortunately not hidden by his fiery red hair since he had cut it this past summer. His flustered look quickly disappeared as he regained his false confidence and he leaned over to her ear.

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” He breathed, his breath tickling her ear. She felt a wave of heat wash over her chest, but quickly disguised her surprise with disgust.

She let out a disgusted scoff, “You’re so...“

He waited for her insult, “I’m so what?” Fred smiled seeing through her fake disgust. He saw how red her cheeks were and knew she was embarrassed.

“You’re so much better to sleep with than George,” She murmured looking up at him through her lashes.

“Really?” He questioned, thinking back to the feeling of her against him.

She placed her hands on the back of his neck and slowly brought him down to her face. He felt his heart rate increase. Was this a dream? He asked himself. He didn’t remember when he had put his hands on her waist, but he quickly became very aware of how close her face was to his. As she brought his face closer to hers, he shut his eyes.

Just as her lips barely brushed his, she whispered, “No.”

She let go of his neck and quickly walked past him and back into the dining hall. He let out a heavy breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He ran a hand through his hair, and even though she’d barely touched him, he felt completely disheveled.

How had he let his guard down so easily? She’d always acted so cold towards him and always turned to talk to George. The sudden change in behavior threw him off. He wasn’t complaining about it, just disappointed in himself for losing control so quickly

He composed himself and finished his breakfast in record time. George noticed his haste, but was just proud of Hali for putting Fred in his place.

“I would’ve expected him to tell you or wake you or something,” George muttered before gulping down the rest of his pumpkin juice.

She shrugged, “It’s alright, George. I handled it and he seemed genuinely sorry.”

Hali continued her day and noticed how the tips of Fred’s ears turned a scarlet red everytime she made eye contact with him the rest of the day. Of course, he would throw some obscene gesture or give her a silly grin back.

She successfully vanished her set object completely in Transfigurations class and glided through the rest of her school day in a good mood.

“So, how’d it go?” George asked before plopping down next to her. He had presumably just finished quidditch practice as she could smell the dirt and sweat radiating off of him. Usually she’d swat him away with a nearby textbook, but she was in an exceptionally good mood today.

“It was brilliant. I did it no problem!” She beamed as he removed his quidditch jersey.

“That’s great, Hali. Listen, off topic question but what the bloody hell did you say to Fred? He’s been off all day. Missed nearly every swing in practice. Wood’s gone mad,” George stated.

She narrowed her eyes at the portrait hole and rubbed them. Her eyesight had gotten blurry from straining to read the school work she’d been doing.

“He’s not gonna walk through there is he?” She questioned.

“Nope. I specifically skipped the showers in the changing rooms to give me time to ask you what the bloody hell you’ve done to my twin,” George explained, sweaty locks of hair coating his forehead.

“I mean- I just said his hands are warmer than yours and-“ She began to laugh. Her small giggles soon grew into roaring laughter and George furrowed his eyebrows in concern.

“Haliwell Galvan, what did you do?” He asked.

Her laughter only extended when he used her full name.

“Okay listen, you can’t tell anyone. But you know I thought it- okay since he hadn’t bothered to tell me he was Fred and let me sleep with him the whole night, I thought it’d be funny to mess with him a little. I thought If he was okay with me sleeping next to him he’s either a perv or he’s got a little crush, so I utilized my resources-“

“Oh Hali you didn’t-“

“No, I didn’t do anything to your precious brother. I just acted like I was going to kiss him, then I didn’t. I thought it’d be a good punishment, boys hate that. Been thinking about it all day he has.”

George lifted himself off of the couch, a small smile playing at his lips. He pointed a finger at her, “You’re evil you know that?”

She shrugged, “What can I say? It’s a gift really.”

George sighed and pressed his fingers to his temples, “Okay, he’s definitely going to kill me when he finds out I told you, but you know he had a giant crush on you first year right?”

Her eyebrows slightly rose and a devilish grin crawled onto her face, “You know- that explains why he was so irritatingly- just so evil to me first year. Poor Freddie didn’t know how to act, eh?”

“Don’t be so happy. You’re not out of the bushes yet. I reckon what you did this morning confused him. And from what I saw during practice and basically all day today, he’s very confused.”

“Oh he’ll get over it. He’s not exactly a one-woman-willy. And don’t tell me he didn’t deserve it because he did,” She pointed a stern finger at George.

“As a man, I can fully say he did not deserve that. What you did this morning- you’ve stolen his manhood you have. You need to give it back. I want my bloody brother back!” George dramatically explained, failing to keep a straight face.

“Are you telling me to kiss your brother?” She questioned her face contorting into a disgusted expression.

“Oh, don’t act so disgusted. We’ve kissed before; Just imagine he’s me. Shouldn’t be too hard,” George simpered running a hand through his wet locks.

“Okay, that was not real. It was for a dare and I felt like I was kissing my brother. It was weird,” She explained recalling how wrong it felt to kiss her best friend last year. Even though it was a short peck and lasted barely a second, she still couldn’t shake how peculiar it felt.

“Well, you better figure something out, Hal,” George laughed before trudging downstairs to the showers. Hali continued to do her ancient runes homework. As the minutes went by she heard more Gryffindor’s slip through the portrait.

Oliver Wood stepped through the portrait and casually strolled toward Hali.

“Oi, Galvan, figure you could replace Fred and be the new beater? I’m about ready to play his position for him after today’s practice,” He huffed, his clean scent replacing George’s previously sweaty one.

She chuckled, “Wood, you know my parents don’t want me playing quidditch anymore after I got my face smashed in my 5th year. Besides I was joking when I said I’d reckon I could be a better beater than Fred. I’ve got arms the size of a wand.”

He let out an exasperated sigh and moved onto the next unsuspecting Gryffindor in the common room.

The next person to walk through the portrait was Fred. She looked up at him from her book, a small smile growing on her face. He gave her his signature confident smile, but quickly broke his eye contact with her. He began to make his way toward her while peering at the now busling common room and she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Seat taken?” He asked peering at the cushion next to her.

She jutted out her bottom lip and shook her head. Fred quickly settled himself next to her and peered at the crackling fire.

“Wood reckons I should take your spot as Gryffindor beat, you hear?” She questioned closing her textbook.

“Oh yeah?” He asked, crossing his legs and setting his arm across the back of the couch.

“Yeah,” She looked behind her at his arm which spanned the pillow, “And I’m starting to think I agree. You’re looking a bit small there, Weasley.”

He laughed dryly at her attempt at insulting him.

“Seriously though, something on your mind?” She innocently smiled at him even though she knew exactly what had caused his lack in skill during the quidditch practice.

The smile on his face fell and he let out a cough.

“No, just had a bad day. Why, should something be on my mind?” He questioned coyly.

She gave him a toothy smile and leaned towards him once again, but not as close as she had been to him this morning.

She looked down at his lips, “No,” she whispered. She got up from the couch. He quickly wrapped his hand around her wrist, stopping her from leaving.

“It’s still storming out,” He told her, the light from the fire twinkling in his eye. She looked down at his hand on her wrist.

“Better keep your hands warm then, yeah?” She retorted walking up to her dorm.

This time Fred smiled to himself as she left him. He eventually caught up with Lee and George and spent the rest of the night thinking up ways to irk their classmates.

Eventually, they all fell in and went to sleep, but Fred’s mind was too busy to sleep. Yes, the rain pattering on the window didn’t help, but he expected his thoughts to slow down so he could fall asleep. It was 1 a.m. and as he laid flat on his back with his left hand tucked under his head, he couldn’t help but wait for Hali’s footsteps to enter his dorm room. His ears perked up at every creak and tap, but she never came. Eventually, he grew tired and his thoughts faded.

Hali had been fast asleep since 11 p.m. and didn’t stir at all that night. Despite the storm and the whipping winds, she slept peacefully. She did, however, wake in the morning to the cold air of her dorm room and couldn’t help but wish she’d felt the warmth of someone next to her.

She dismissed the thought and continued to sleep soundlessly for the next month. Her relationship with Fred returned to normal, with his occasional flirty comments and her cold responses. Every once in a while she threw him off, but never twice in a row did she allow his flirtatious actions.

During mid-december on a particularly windy night, the persistent tapping of her windowsill kept her awake and irate. The rate at which the tapping occurred gave her enough time to grow tired, then would rip her away from rest at the very last second. Frustrated, she grabbed a nearby jumper and her “Hogwarts: A History” book, which all those around her had seen her read at least once this past month since she was prone to read it whenever she found herself with free time.

While seeing a student who fell asleep in the common room wasn’t unusual, she always loathed the idea of being found in the morning with her mouth wide open and her hair knotted to oblivion. But right now, the mere idea of sleep was all the yearned for. She didn’t care about the situation she would get into, as long as she could sleep.

The universe has a sick sense of humor.

As she tiredly read the pages in her book, she heard the heavy footsteps of another half asleep Gryffindor clomp down the stairs.

He jumped at the sight of another student in the common room.

“Well, well, Welly” Fred said in a low groggy voice.

She craned her neck to face him and closed her book, folding the corner page.

“You’re half asleep, and still insist on calling me that god awful name,” She deadpanned.

He gave her a tired smile, “Trouble sleeping?” He asked, yawning.

She nodded, “You too?”

He nodded, “Came to get my mug,” He shuffled over to a wooden table on her left. On top of it, a slightly misshapen green mug sat. He scooped it into his hand before conjuring a stream of water from his wand.

He began to sip at the water and Hali went back to reading her book. She wondered if she should ask to sleep in his bed.

“You should come up with me,” He said slowly like he was thinking about what he was saying, “- And you know slip into George’s bed. Get some sleep, Welly.”

She smiled down at her book, and shook her head.

“Have you ever noticed that George is like a human fridge? Like I think he actually steals heat from me. It’s bloody freezing tonight,” Hali chuckled, pulling her sweater sleeves over her hands.

“Well, I think we’ve got an opportunity to solve both of our issues here,” Fred offered, his tone slightly more awake.

She sighed, “Fred Weasley, are you going to ask me to sleep with you?”

“I wasn’t going to say it like that. But- yeah. You did say I was warmer than George,” He reminded her before gulping down the rest of his water and setting it down on the table.

“Fine. But you don’t tell anyone. Not even George. I just- I’m so tired,” She yawned before closing her book once again, tucking it under her arm and walking past him. As her foot stepped onto the stairs leading to his dorm she turned around, “Come on then.”

He let out a small laugh, “That was easy.”

“You know, this is a one time thing right,” She informed him as they made their way up the spiral staircase.

“‘Course.”

Fred smiled to himself as the possibility of this happening again crossed his mind. And it did happen.. Again. And Again. Eventually, she found herself awake late at night when it wasn’t storming outside. And so on some perfectly quiet, peaceful, dry nights, Fred would wake up to a pleasant surprise which of course was Hali next to him.

The sun was beginning to rise when she woke up. Her hands were bunched up against his chest, her face nestled into the crook of his neck. She tried to slip away from him quietly without waking him up, but his arms wouldn’t budge.

“Fred,” She whispered pulling her face away from his neck.

“Fred, Let go. I need to leave.”

He let out a grumble, “Stay.”

“Freddie, I can’t.”

“You never… never call me that,” He muttered sleepily.

“Fred, please let go,” she begged but he tightened his arms around her waist.

She looked up at his face, his eyes still closed.

“I’ll let you go, only if you give me a good morning kiss,” He sleepily smiled knowing she’d have no choice but to stay locked in his embrace.

She slid her hands onto the back of his neck once again, leaving goosebumps on his skin. She softly pressed her lips to his, his eyes opening in surprise, but her lips were gone as soon as they came.

“If only every morning started this way,” He thought, his eyes fluttering back closed. He loosened his grip as he had agreed and presumably fell back asleep.

She left quickly and slept the remainder of the time before her roommates woke her for class.

When Fred woke up, he was unsure if he had dreamed the whole thing. Hali was certainly acting like he had. She was still giving George more attention than him. She still dismissed his flirtatious comments. She gave no indication that she had kissed him that morning. Nonetheless, Fred thought the next time he got her alone he should ask her. Hell, he’d asked her weirder things than that. If it hadn’t happened, she’d certainly just think he was hitting on her as usual and she’d dismiss him as always.

So, when classes were over and she was nowhere to be seen, he went to the place George said she spent the most time at. He hadn’t been to the library that many times in his past 6 years at Hogwarts. He felt strange walking around searching for her because he felt like everyone who knew him knew he never went to the library. He felt like he wasn’t supposed to be there, but maybe that was just because of what he was going to ask his brother’s best friend of 6 years.

He spent a few minutes wandering around the library peering around each bookcase, his eyes scanning for her. When he found her, she had her knees pulled up to her chest, he shins pressed against the side of the table. Her hands gripped the same book she’d been reading for the last 2 months. He was surprised she hadn’t finished it by now, but he assumed she had probably read it more than once at that point.

She noticed flaming red hair in her peripheral vision and looked up from her book.

“Frederick- In the library?” She whispered quizzically while turning the page of her book.

He didn’t respond. He hadn’t thought of what he was going to say.

“Thought you were George for a second, but you’re not. He’s got sadder eyes than you,” She quietly laughed pressing down on her eyelids so they were more droopy.

He let out a dry laugh, before taking a seat next to her

“What’re you doing here?” She asked before her eyes moved in Madam Pince’s direction. She knew how Madam Pince felt about disturbances in the library and Fred was about the worst disturbance there could be. Hali liked the quiet of the library which was why she only sat in the common room when most people weren’t there. She hoped Fred wouldn’t get her kicked out of the library, but his signature sinister look was no where to be found. So, she thought he had come to say something of importance.

“I’ve uh- got to ask you something,” He quickly muttered while scratching the back of his hand.

“Go on then, quick before Madam Pince catches us talking.”

“Did you… did you kiss me this morning?” Fred whispered his hand flying to rub the back of his neck.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, “Fred, I didn’t kiss you much less wake up next to you this morning. I slept alone last night.”

He felt his chest flood with embarrassment. It had all been a dream? She saw his mind moving at a million miles a second and decided to spare him the embarrassment.

“I’m only joking. So what if I did?” She simpered.

“So, it wasn’t a dream?”

“No. I’m not surprised you thought it was. You were half asleep when you asked me to kiss you,” She explained quietly.

“Well, I didn’t expect you to actually do it,” He answered, rolling up one of his sleeves. She glanced down at his forearm; she’d always liked his arms.

“Well, I needed to leave. And you had an iron grip so I was given a solution to an issue and I used the solution.”

“I didn’t want it to go like that,” He grumbled sitting back in the rickety chair.

“What?”

“It doesn’t matter. You know- you can’t just kiss someone and act like it doesn’t mean anything to you,” He whispered, obviously annoyed.

“People kiss people all the time. Hell, I see you kiss girls all the time. Does that always mean something to you?”

“Yeah, it does,” He quickly answered.

“Bullshit. It doesn’t and you know it,” She noticed his annoyed expression. While she’d observed his odd behavior towards her for the last few months, she was sure she was imagining it and her actions towards him barely crossed his mind. She was just a body for him to hold at night. Nothing more. “What? Does it bother you that I don’t worship you? That I’m not begging you to date me like all the others? Shouldn’t you be happy I know everything means nothing to you?” She spat forgetting about Madam Pince.

“No-I’m not happy,” He responded, his jaw clenched.

“What do you want me to do? Huh, Fred? ‘Oh Freddie let’s go to Madam Puddifoots and have a cup of tea’ I can’t do that for you because I know you don’t want that. You don’t date girls, you can’t committ-“

“Me? You’re one to talk. George has never told me about you having any boyfriends. I’ve never even heard you were dating anybody. The rumors are always about you and some ever-changing guy. It’s never the same guy.”

“Have you maybe thought for one second that George doesn’t tell you everything about me? Granted, I don’t date, but maybe if you asked me instead of pestering me about it I’d tell you why,” Her face was hot. She was angry at him for assuming things and speaking about things he knew nothing about.

“Fine. Why? Why don’t you date?”

“Did George tell you who my first kiss was?”

He shook his head not knowing what this had to do with anything.

“Roger Davies. I caught him snogging some other girl a few days after he kissed me. I really thought he liked me Fred, but we weren’t dating or anything. Maybe I overreacted but, after that I assumed that everyone just wanted their freedom, and I never assumed anything was special,” She explained more calmly, like she’d told this story before.

“That’s bloody stupid,” He concluded now feeling guilty. George never told him that.

“It’s alright. It was a good lesson I guess-“

“No- I mean. Kisses can be special, Hal,” He interrupted her, a sad look spread across his face.

“Well, every guy I’ve kissed doesn’t seem to think that. So, I think I’ll just keep believing what I believe.”

He got up to leave, but before he turned around he thought he could try to change her stubborn mind.

“You know, after you kissed me the first thought that popped into my head was ‘If only every morning started this way,’ “ He admitted quickly before leaving.

She furrowed her brows, turning back to her book. She tried to finish reading the paragraph she’d left off on but she found herself repeating the same sentence over and over in her head. If only every morning started this way.

For a second she thought that was Fred’s way of telling her he thought it was special, but she shook her head. For the next month, she slept alone every night no matter the weather. She hadn’t spoken to Fred much after their argument in the library. Fred assumed she wanted nothing to do with him, and she assumed Fred wanted nothing to do with her. The most they’d said to each other was “Happy Christmas” before leaving for the holidays.

On one particular night, it was snowing and she had been laying in bed for hours. She couldn’t sleep, and not because of any noise, but because she felt like something was missing. The words “If only every morning could start like this,” echoed in her head.

She was standing in his doorway before she knew it. He was facing away from her, on the edge of the bed just like the first time. There was plenty of room for her on the bed and she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d slept that way on purpose, in hopes of waking up with her there. She turned her wonder into courage and walked over to his bed.

She poked his shoulder, “Fred.”

He woke up at the sound of her voice. He hadn’t heard it since before break.

“Hali?” He questioned rolling over to face her.

She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, so she said the first thing that popped into her head, “Fred, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, Welly. It’s not your fault…” He sighed tiredly and rolled over to face her, “You just need to realize that sometimes that kind of stuff means something,” He responded pulling the covers up to his shoulders.

She sat down on the side of his bed, her back facing him.

“I know it means something to me. Sometimes it doesn’t mean anything to the other person. And it’s just easier to convince myself it means nothing,” She explained, her elbows resting on her knees.

“You don’t have to explain anything. Just- Just know sometimes the things you do matter to other people,” He murmured watching her back rise and fall with each breath.

She turned her head to face him, the moonlight barely reaching her features, “It meant something to you, didn’t it? When I kissed you?” She whispered.

The corner of his mouth lifted up, “Are you going to get in or what?” He asked, flipping the corner of his covers over.

“I’ll get in if you answer my question,” She responded, bringing one leg onto his mattress.

“Of course it did Hal. You were the first girl I ever loved,” He muttered tiredly.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, “Fred?”

His smile had faded, and his breathing had slowed.

“Fred, I know you’re still awake,” She said twisting her body so she could poke him.

“We can talk about it tomorrow. Just not now. I just want to sleep right now.”

She brought her other leg onto the mattress and flipped the covers over herself. He reached out and pulled her flush against him after hearing her shuffling noises subside. She would probably never tell him, but she had missed the feeling of his arms wrapped around her waist. She’d missed the feeling of his breath against the back of her neck.

She pulled him into the most isolated table in the library after quidditch practice the next day. She sat him down quickly before fixing a rogue hair that was standing up oddly on his head, his hair still wet from his recent shower.

“If only you’d been there with me, you could have fixed it before I left the shower,” He snickered, earning a slap on the shoulder from her.

“We’ll see who’s laughing in a few minutes when I remind you of what Sleepy Fred said last night,” Hali said, taking a seat beside him.

“No, no. I remember. Sleepy Fred always speaks the truth. I mean yeah- I loved you. You know whatever love means to a 12 year old, but I thought you were wicked,” He let out a short laugh.

“Thought?” Hali responded, an eyebrow raised.

“Still do,” Fred winked.

She gave him a toothless smile, “I like 17 year old Fred a lot more than 12 year old Fred.”

“Yeah, how much?”

“Enough to give him a good morning kiss, I reckon,” She shrugged.

He checked the time on his nonexistent wrist watch, “Well, it’s not morning, but I could go for an evening kiss,” He said leaning towards her with his lips pursed.

She swatted him away, “Oh, it’s not that easy Fred. You’re going to have to wait a bit longer for another kiss.”

“Yeah? Why’s that then?” He asked his chin resting on his own interlaced fingers like a child.

“Don’t you think it means more if you wait?” She smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

He shook his hand and let out a laugh in disbelief, “God, I’m so screwed aren’t I?”

“Yeah,” She faked a sad expression before popping up from her seat and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, “You’ll survive.”

#fred weasley x reader #fred weasley imagine #george weasley #fred weasley fluff #fred weasley #fred weasley one shot #harry potter

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Text

Breaks

Title: Breaks Category: Plays/Musicals » Les Misérables Pairing: Enjolras/Eponine Author: AliceInSomewhereland Language: English, Rating: Rated: T Genre: Drama/Romance Published: 05-24-13, Updated: 05-24-13 Chapters: 1, Words: 3,788 Originally posted: fanfiction.net

Summary: When Eponine trips over Enjolras and breaks her hand at a party, he's the only one who can take her to the hospital. But suddenly it becomes less about her hand and about so, so much more. e/é (fic war prompt on tumblr)

Original author’s note: Ok, here's yet another for the e/é fic war! This time, the prompt (from tumblr user stargazingandsunshine) is: "A very drunk Eponine accidentally trips over Enjolras, and she breaks her hand. He has to take her to the hospital. Bonus points if Eponine is a flirty drunk (not that she wouldn't be anyway, but... you know)."

Chapter 1/1

Enjolras isn't quite sure how he ended up here.

No, actually, he is sure. Courfeyrac and Grantaire.

Somehow those two morons always talk him into going out with them and the rest of the Amis, and for some reason, always against his better judgment, he gives them the benefit of the doubt and agrees to go along. Tonight is no different.

The party – yet another graduation party (they graduated from college three weeks ago, for God's sake!) – was at Bahorel's apartment, and it was loud, smoky, boozy, and just about everything that wasn't Enjolras.

So he went out on the balcony, where the breeze was cool and the air clean and the noise confined to normal nighttime sounds rather than the bad DJ skills of Jehan (he was playing "My Heart Will Go On" when Enjolras exited, and that was the last straw for many of the recent graduates).

He was surprised to find Courfeyrac out there with that girl, the one who was in love with Marius Pontmercy. She shadowed him – around campus, at parties, at bars, she was everyone. To his credit, Pontmercy seemed to genuinely like the girl, but he was too thickheaded to see her feelings for him.

Enjolras had no time for nonsense like relationships. He was headed to law school in the fall, and was going to make a difference with his life. Women didn't fit in to that.

But as he stepped outside into the cool night air, he realized he had interrupted Courfeyrac and what's-her-name. They were making out, of course.

Enjolras couldn't help but roll his eyes. Courfeyrac was a manwhore, and as far as he knew, this girl was a tease of a drunk. And given that Marius and his blonde girlfriend Cosette were inside canoodling on the couch, it was not surprising to find what's-her-bucket sucking face with someone kind of random.

According to Courfeyrac, they hooked up semi-regularly. But this was the first time Enjolras had seen it; usually, when she was with their friends, she was either following Marius like a lost puppy or "brochilling" with Courfeyrac, Bahorel, and Grantaire (at least, that was the word Courfeyrac gave it).

When the couple realized that they were no longer alone, Courfeyrac pulled away, grunting and wiping his mouth, glaring at Enjolras, who simply shrugged in return.

Then Courfeyrac actually high-fived what's-her-bucket and left. Enjolras rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe that these were his friends.

She turned to him. He could smell the liquor emanating from her person.

"Enjolras, right?" she asked, flashing a winning smile and flicking her dark hair off her face. He had never officially met her before (hence why he did not know her name), and had actually never been this close to her. She was much prettier than he had previously noticed, with a round face, olivey skin, and dark brown eyes. Her hair was thick and fell in easy waves around her shoulders; it was mussed in the back where Courfeyrac's hand had been anchored.

"Yeah," he said, uncertain of how to tell a woman he didn't know but had spent ample time around that he had never learned her name.

"I'm Eponine," she announced. He wondered if she had realized he didn't know her.

"Nice to officially meet you," he said formally, wishing that she would just go inside and leave him out here in peace.

"Not your thing?" she asked, jerking her head towards the party.

Enjolras shook his head. "Not really."

Eponine stepped closer. He noticed that, despite her sober manner, she tripped over her own feet a bit.

"It helps to be drunk," she offered.

He just looked at her.

"Ah, but that's not really your thing either, is it?"

Enjolras wasn't sure whether she was simply making an observation or teasing him, so he remained silent. Instead of answering, he busied himself with sitting on the floor, against the wall. Courfeyrac had moved all the chairs from the little balcony inside for the night.

Eponine sighed exaggeratedly, moving to sit next to him. It displeased him; he didn't want her company. She would most likely chatter drunkenly next to him for the remainder of the party, avoiding Marius and Cosette (though he was certain she would force him to talk about the couple for hours) and all the other people she could be making out with.

Then he wondered if she would try making out with him. The thought made him scowl. Women….

Eponine stumbled on her way over to him, and he belatedly wondered if he should get up and help her. But it was too late, because she went too far and tripped on his leg and–

She fell to the ground with a thud and an alarming, sickening crack.

"Shit, Eponine, are you okay?" he asked, reaching for her shoulders to help her up.

"Son of a fucking bitch, oh mother fucker that hurt!" she cried as he sat her up.

Enjolras caught sight of her wrist and hand, swollen and looking a bit… off. Eponine followed his gaze, and the impressive stream of cursing began again.

"Let me see," he muttered, reaching out for her. But when he gently touched her arm, she cried out in pain and alarm and wrenched away from him.

Sighing – this is not how he wanted his night to go – he ordered, "Wait here."

Eponine just nodded, hissing through her teeth in pain.

Enjolras went inside, looking for Courfeyrac. But when he found his friend, he was too busy vomiting into a trashcan. Grantaire and Bahorel were both too drunk to do anything, and the rest of his friends were either making out with random people, too drunk, or missing in action. Marius he didn't even bother; the boy made no effort for anyone else when Cosette was around.

He returned to the balcony, opening his mouth to speak, but stopped when Eponine turned away from him, sniffing. "Hey, you okay?" he asked her awkwardly.

Her good hand went up to her face, wiping her eyes. "Yeah, sorry, just a little painful is all," she replied, turning back and giving him a watery smile.

Jesus, now he not only had to deal with a drunk, injured girl, but he had to deal with a drunk, injured, crying girl, he thought. Just his luck.

Still Enjolras, ever the gentleman, offered her his hand. She took it with her good one, and he easily pulled her to her feet. "Let's get you to the hospital," he murmured, trying not to sound as irritated as he felt.

He held onto her arm as he escorted her to his car – which, when they reached it, Eponine announced she loved (it was a vintage red Mustang. He explained that he had saved his money for it for years, and had fixed it up himself. She replied that she loved a man who knew his way around a car, and that car oil on a man was extremely sexy, and a surprisingly good lubricant. He hoped the dark hid his blush).

When she was buckled into the passenger side, and he settled in and driving and trying to keep her from messing with his radio settings (though she seemed impressed with the classic rock station he had blasting), Eponine fixed him with a disconcerting stare.

"I never noticed how cute you were before," she informed him bluntly.

Enjolras flushed. "Oh… thanks."

"Yeah, I get why your friends call you 'Marble Man," she continued with a grin that was a little too mischievous for his liking, especially considering the very real possibility of a broken hand or wrist. "You know, with that chiseled jaw of yours and those text-book good looks." Eponine glanced at him sideways before sliding her good hand towards him. "Unless there's something else that's marble that might've earned you that nickname," she said, walking her fingers up his leg towards his crotch.

Enjolras jumped at her touch and did his best to squirm away from her. When did this car get so small? And how did he get stuck with the job of driving the drunk girl to the hospital? It took him a moment to realize that she was laughing at him.

"You're cute when you're flustered," she informed him.

He had no response. Nor did he respond very much to any of the other things she chattered about on their way to the hospital – it was a fairly short drive, thank god – other than to try and remove himself from her grip when she flirted with him. It didn't take him long to realize that she was teasing him so much because she was getting such a rise out of him, but he couldn't help it. He didn't have any experience with girls, didn't want any girls – especially not silly, drunk ones like her.

Enjolras was walking Eponine into the emergency room, her injured hand cradled against her torso, when she stopped short, just before the doors.

"Are you going to be sick?" he asked, already worn out from her antics.

She just shook her head, slowly shifting her eyes to meet his. She looked wary. "I just don't like hospitals," she said quietly. It was the first time all night, perhaps ever, that he had not seen her drunk or being loud and disruptive and trying to get attention. He wondered if it was because Marius wasn't here.

Something in her face, however, indicated that it was not just Marius' lack of presence that had her mood shifting. It almost looked like fear.

Enjolras walked up to her, gently grasping her shoulders. She looked up at him. "The sooner we go in, the sooner we get out, right?" he asked, not unkindly. He suddenly felt a little sorry for her, and was curious about the memories that had a girl that had always seemed so boisterous and fearless suddenly so small and timid.

Eponine nodded slowly, staring into his eyes as if she would find some sort of strength there.

He put his hand on her back, giving her a very gentle push through the door, and following her in.

"Your eyes are very blue," she told him. It was clear that she was trying to get back to where she was in the car, but her voice had lost its flirtatious edge.

Enjolras waited for her as the nurses took her back to take her vitals. It took only a few minutes, and she joined him in the waiting room almost immediately, still trying not to trip over her feet.

"I hate it when they know I'm drunk," she grumbled.

He wondered what that meant.

"Did they say how long we'll have to wait?" he asked, trying to stave off his curiosity about her experience with hospitals.

Eponine shrugged. "A few hours, anyway. They have to wait for an available doctor, then I have to get x-rays, then probably a cast. Damnit I'm stupid. Look, I appreciate you bringing me, but you don't have to stay. I'll be here all night, and I hardly know you. There's no reason for you to spend your night in the ER with a stranger. Go home, I'll figure out a way home later," she urged.

Enjolras liked the sound of going home, of crawling into his bed and passing out. But his conscience could not let him leave this girl here alone – not when she was drunk, in pain, lacking transportation and company, and obviously a little freaked out. Plus, he was suddenly a little curious about who she really was, apart from her infatuation with Marius, and he was eager to learn more.

"No, no, I'm not going to leave you here alone. Besides, this is like the last hurrah of college, right? My college experience wouldn't be complete without a night spent in the ER."

Eponine gave him a rather large, grateful smile. "Thank you," she whispered, taking his hand in her good one and squeezing it. She laid her head on his shoulder then, and was promptly asleep, her hand still clasped in his.

Enjolras had had the foresight to bring his backpack – which had been in his car during the party – into the ER, and as she dropped off surprisingly quickly into unconsciousness (where he hoped she would sleep off some of her drunkenness), he found himself digging around inside it to find his book (it was his third read of The Brothers Karamazov. He would never get tired of it). All the while, he kept his hold on her hand.

She woke up about eighty pages later, however long that was.

Enjolras felt her stirring against him, and realized that he was still holding her hand. He promptly tried to drop it, but she was clasping him as she came to with a groan.

"Good book," Eponine rasped.

"You've read it?" he asked, surprised.

"Of course, no book has ever taken me on such an emotional journey or made me question my faith the way that one has," she replied, sitting up with a whimper and rolling her neck. "God you have a bony shoulder!"

"So I've been told." Enjolras was incredibly impressed with her. "How are you feeling?" he asked. "Any less drunk?"

"Ugh, yes, now I'm hungover. And the booze was good to keep the pain from my hand away, but now that hurts like a bitch too," she responded miserably.

Enjolras realized their hands were still clasped, so he squeezed hers supportively.

They had been reading along together after Eponine woke up. She still would not let go of his hand.

"You read slowly," he remarked teasingly, grinning over at her. The more he learned about her, the more he liked her. She wasn't the obnoxious drunk girl he had always perceived her to be; she was smart, sharp-witted, funny, and extremely well-read. He had entirely too much fun distracting her from her hangover and the pain in her hand by debating different authors and books. Then they had settled into sharing his book.

Eponine shrugged. "I like to really soak it all up, you know? Each word and each sentence. Writing is so beautiful, and authors spend so much time and put so much of their souls into their work. I feel like I'm doing them a disservice if I don't take my time and let what they're saying really settle in."

"You sound like a writer," he joked.

Eponine flashed that beautiful smile at him. "I am a writer – or at least, I want to be one. Someday."

"Really? What do you want to write?"

Eponine was quiet for a moment, mulling over his question. "Happiness," she finally said, her voice seeming a little far away as she stared off into space. "And people," she added, shifting her gaze to meet his. "I want to write about girls who find their way out of their miserable lives and find happiness, about boys who overcome their obstacles and live the life they've always dreamed of."

"Those sound like good books," Enjolras appraised.

She just shrugged, looking off into whatever yesterday her eyes had previously been fixed on. "I used to believe that you couldn't adequately write about something without experiencing it. But I don't believe it anymore. Writers are observers. I don't have to have a happy life to understand what one is and to write well about it. I can be miserable and write about happiness very easily. And I'll get to experience it along with my characters, so that's something, right?"

The depth of Eponine's statement actually kind of shocked him. "You just graduated college, Eponine," he reminded her softly. She looked at him with eyes that were heavy and, surprisingly, a little teary. "What's not to be happy about?"

Eponine smiled patiently and squeezed his hand. "I'm happy to have graduated. It doesn't fix my problems, though. It doesn't fix my life or my past or my family. It doesn't even secure my future. So I'm happy, yes. But it's just a fleeting happiness, not a life changing kind." Her smile was noticeably sadder now.

Enjolras didn't know what to say. She was so much more than he had judged her to be, and he found himself suddenly wanting to find a way to make her happy. He was actually about to tell her as much when the nurse called her name.

Eponine stood with a groan, and he opened his hand to let go, but she pulled him along. "Come on," she murmured, waiting impatiently as he marked his page and threw the book into his bag.

"Eponine Jondrette?" the nurse at the ER door asked.

Eponine nodded. "This is my boyfriend," she said, utterly shocking Enjolras. "I'm bringing him back with me."

The nurse hardly gave him a second glance before leading them back to a curtained-off empty bed. He helped Eponine settle on it – she was awkward with only one working hand – before lowering himself into the empty chair next to her bed.

He waited patiently as the nurse asked Eponine some information – feeling very uncomfortable when they briefly discussed her period (though Eponine didn't seem the least bit distressed) – and then left.

"Enjolras," Eponine said, the humored edge back in her voice, "Your cheeks are red. Is discussing my period a little too much for you?" she teased.

She waited a moment or two, gleefully listening to him stutter, before sobering. "Sorry to drag you back here and call you my boyfriend and everything. I just – I just hate hospitals and didn't want to be back here alone," she told him.

"Why?" he asked, before he could stop himself.

Eponine gave him an appraising look, but did not refuse him the information. "I spent a lot of time in the hospital growing up. For injuries of my own, then when I would bring my little sister and brother. My parents – well, they weren't the most loving…." She trailed off, turning her head away from him as her voice strained.

Enjolras was fairly certain that all this meant that she and her siblings were abused as children. The thought sickened him. No wonder she acted like she did, with one personality for around her friends and another for when she was alone in the darkness. His heart broke a little for her, though he could hardly show it. Somehow, he knew she wouldn't thank him for that.

So instead, he stood up and took her hand in his while she was still turned away. He slid partway onto the bed next to her – it was fairly narrow, and as she was sitting in the center, he had to keep one foot anchored on the ground – and smiled as she turned to look at him in surprise.

"I'm here," he reminded her.

Eponine gave him a timid smile, and actually turned away, hiding behind her curtain of hair.

The potentially very awkward moment (or very touching) was cut short by the return of the nurse, who took Eponine for an x-ray.

An hour later, they were leaving the hospital. It was close to five in the morning. Eponine had broken the part of her hand between her pinky finger and her wrist, and was now grumbling about being in a cast for the next six weeks. Although, the cast was bright purple, so Enjolras suspected that, at least for the time being, she was somewhat content.

When they were back in his car, he dug around in his glove compartment. Eponine looked at him questioningly until his hand found what he was looking for. She smiled as he pulled out a sharpie.

"Might I be the first to sign your cast, mademoiselle?" he asked, smirking at her.

Eponine nodded enthusiastically, smiling as well, and offered him her purple hand.

He gently held it, twisting her arm to where he wanted to sign, then signed his name (and drew a smiley face) right over the break. For some reason, he wanted her to know that he would be there as she healed. He wanted her to know that he would always be there, breaks or no. That suddenly, he wanted to help heal the breaks in her soul in a way that he couldn't heal the break in her hand.

Enjolras let go and she twisted her hand around to look at it, smiling widely.

"You signed over the break! Are you breaking up with me?" she punned, wiggling her eyebrows.

He snorted. "Well, your hand has to heal before you can have that purple monstrosity taken off. So technically, it's like I'll be there, stitching you back together."

Eponine's smile faded from a teasing one to a rather shy one. "That's harder than it looks," she whispered.

He wanted to remind her that her wrist was already set, that it would heal no matter what, but he knew they were no longer talking about her physical break. And he did not hate the thought of healing her other broken parts, because maybe he had some of his own that she could help with.

Eponine was not the girl he previously thought she was, and he suddenly wanted to be there for everything with her, to learn everything about him.

"Challenge accepted," he replied, grinning at her.

Eponine just smiled back and slid her hand back into his. Enjolras' heart quickened at this; he had come to like the warmth during their night in the ER together.

Eponine cleared her throat – it would seem she did not like sentimental moments (even better, as he hated them too) – and said, "Well now I only have one working hand. So let's take a shower, I'll need someone to wash my hair!"

Enjolras felt his face flush and he started the car, hurriedly driving away as though he could leave her teasing laughter behind at the hospital. She was cackling, completely aware that she had succeeded in flustering him, and stroking his hand with her thumb where it was clenched in hers.

#reposting old fics until i die #thanks to the slow death of ffnet lolol #enjonine #enjonine fanfic #enjonine fic #enjonine fanfiction #eponine x enjolras #enjolras x eponine #e/e #é/e

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duhragonball · 3 years

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Battle Tendency Liveblog: JJBA Ch. 52-57

This is the first half of the Santana arc. I had planned to cover the whole arc in one post, but it’s kind of long and a lot of crazy visuals are involved, and I noticed Tumblr’s experimental post editor only lets you do ten images in a post. I have the Beta turned off for now, but they could implement the thing at any time, so maybe I should get used to working around that limit.

So I blew my first image on this cool shot of Joseph Joestar cruising around the deserts of Mexico on a sweet motorcycle. I also wanted to include the following pages where he stops at a town and accidentally drinks water out of a horse trough, but if I did that, I’d just be reposting the entire comic. So please appreciate my restraint.

Wait, how do you accidentally drink out of a horse trough? Joseph marches up to thing all large and in charge, but it’s not until he sees the horse next to him that he realizes what he’s done wrong. The joke is that he looks all majestic until he does something extra goofy, but I never stopped to consider how ridiculous that really is. How do you see such a thing and think it’s for people? Like, he just assumed they leave out a big open trough of water for weary travelers to drink out of. That’s stupid, Joseph. Those Mexicans were right to laugh at you, and you were kind of jerk using Hamon to threaten them into bringing you provisions.

Joseph’s in Mexico because Straizo told him that there was a spooky “Pillar Man” there, which Speedwagon had discovered before Straizo killed him. So Joseph wants to investigate, but what he doesn’t know is that Speedwagon survived. Straizo was so afraid of the Pillar Man that he got in a hurry to leave and dumped his victims in a river, but Speedwagon wasn’t dead yet, and then he was fished out of the water by Nazis.

What are Nazis doing in Mexico, you ask? Well, we’ll get to that, but what’s important right now is that they have an “information base” set up not far from where Speedwagon discovered he Pillar Man’s temple, and the commanding officer, Lt. Stroheim, is extremely interested in the Pillar Man. When Speedwagon comes to, he’s horrified to learn that the Nazis have removed the Pillar Man from the temple, and are planning to conduct experiments on it.

In preparation for these experiments, Stroheim wants a volunteer from his collection of prisoners. He demands that the prisoners choose one of their own to die for this experiment, and one brave lad heroically offers himself. Stroheim is impressed by this, and orders everyone else to be killed, except this one brave kid. So yeah, Stroheim is one sick fuck. That gets played down as the story progresses, but it’s never not true.

So, the Speedwagon Foundation discovered the Pillar Man, and while he looks like a stone sculpture carved into the column, he’s actually alive, in some sort of suspended animation. When Straizo killed all those guys, he found that the blood of his victims was being absorbed into the Pillar, feeding the Pillar Man inside. Now Stroheim has learned all of this, either through reading Speedwagon’s notes or by interrogating Speedwagon with truth serum, or perhaps through other experiments. So he used all of those prisoners to provide blood to the Pillar Man and wake him up. Speedwagon begs him to reconsider, but Stroheim is convinced that he’s taken adequate precautions. The pillar is being kept in a huge vessel with thick steel walls. I want to say 50cm.

Speedwagon is afraid because he knows how dangerous Dio was when he used the Stone Mask 50 years ago, and it looks like the Pillar Man is an even more ancient and terrible monster than what Dio aspired to become. It’s strongly implied that the Pillar Man invented the Stone Masks in the first place, so he’s got to be bad news. But Stroheim is convinced that the Pillar Man is just an immortal primitive. He may have strange powers, but he’ll be completely befuddled by the modern world. One of Stroheim’s catchphrases is “German Science is the greatest in the world!” The writings in the temple said that the Pillar Man wanted to become the ultimate life form, but Stroheim believes that humans have already claimed that spot, with his own countrymen representing the peak of humanity.

And you know, he might have a point. Dio was a big problem in the 19th Century, but Joseph did pretty well against Straizo using guns and grenades and mirrors. Once the Pillar Man received enough blood, he transforms into a flesh-and-blood being and pops out, only to seem completely confused by his surroundings. Stroheim writes him off as a dullard and decides to give the Pillar Man a name: Santana.

Stroheim’s next experiment is to send a vampire into the chamber. He explains to Speedwagon that they used a Stone Mask from the temple to convert one of the prisoners, and then starved him of blood so that he would attack Santana on sight. To everyone’s surprise, the vampire seems to win without a struggle. He just glomps onto Santana and bites him. I should point out that this is the only time in JoJo where we see a vampire use his fangs to drink blood. Everyone else always used their fingers.

There’s a bomb in the head of the vampire prisoner, so Stroheim considers detonating it to save Santana, but then...

Holy shiiiiiiiiit! Yeah, vampires in JJBA can absorb blood by sticking their fingers into your body, but Santana can top even that. All he has to do is touch a victim, and his body will absorb the victim’s flesh. So when this hapless vampire grabbed hold of Santana, he was actually sinking more of his body into danger. When he finally pulls free, huge chunks of him are simply... gone. The only reason he’s not dead already is because of his vampire physiology. But then Santana just grabs hold of him and pushes him into himself, completing the process.

Now that I think about it, what about that bomb that was inside the vampire’s body? Did Santana absorb that too?

Meanwhile, this German agent named Donovan is following Joseph as he makes his way through the desert. When Joseph starts to think he’s being watched, Donovan tries to ambush him, but Joseph lures him near a cactus and uses Hamon to make it explode in Donovan’s face. Then he interrogates Donovan and learns that Speedwagon is alive and being held captive in Stroheim’s base.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time on Donovan because I find his entire presence in this story confusing, but I do think he was one of the reasons Hirohiko Araki created the Stands in Part 3. Joseph vs. Donovan has a lot of the hallmarks of a typical Stand User battle. The good guy thinks something’s suspicious, then the bad guy reveals himself, and proves more dangerous than he seemed. He appears to win, only for the good guy to turn the tables with an unexpected application of his own power.

The trouble is that Donovan’s abilities don’t make much sense. He can walk without leaving footprints, and he seemed to be invisible at one point, so maybe he’s just really good at concealing himself? Also he has a weird knife that can unravel and function as a whip, but where the hell did he get that thing? And how was Donovan following Joseph? Joseph’s on a motorcycle, and Donovan appears to be traveling on foot.

Stand powers just make things easier. If Donovan had a Stand, it could just be a Stand that allows him to do all of these things without any further explanation.

So Joseph finds the base and attempts to sneak in by disguising himself as a Mexican woman bringing in supplies. The guards apparently have some sort of arrangement with the nearest town, but they harass all the women who bring them stuff. When they see through Joseph’s disguise, he uses Hamon to drop coconuts on their heads and kicks them in the face. Then he steals one of their uniforms, genuinely frustrated that his first disguise didn’t work. Well, I think you looked great, Joseph.

Inside, everyone’s panicking because Santana managed to disappear somehow. They only took their eyes off him for a moment, and then he was gone. So Stroheim plans to cut off the oxygen to the vessel and wait for Santana to show himself. In the meantime, he checks the security footage, which shows Santana jumping into a ventilation grate, and contorting his entire body to squeeze inside. Speedwagon deduces that he must have crushed every bone in his body to make that work. Dio had similar powers of bodily manipulation, but nothing like this.

And then Santana emerges from the vents and burrows into the body of one of the German soldiers. The poor bastard has a giant hole in his face where his eyes used to be, and he’s somehow still awake, even as Santana forces his body to expand in size. Stroheim orders his men to shoot, which kills the soldier but not Santana. Stroheim still clings to the belief that Santana is dumb enough to be controlled, despite his power, but then Santana starts talking, and points his finger at them. Stroheim initially thinks Santana is just imitating the act of holding a gun, but no. Santana can take all the bullets they fired into him and shoot them back out through his fingertip. Shit!

At this moment, a German soldier tries to move Speedwagon to safety, but Speedwagon refuses help, so the soldier just grabs some of Stroheim’s hair instead.

Turns out, it’s Joseph! He does some Hamon trick to make the hair all stiff and it deflects the bullets. Well, only the ones aimed toward Speedwagon and Stroheim. Everyone else in this room appears to be dead. Well, serves ‘em right for being Nazis.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #battle tendency #joseph joestar #santana #robert e o speedwagon #rudol von stroheim #donovan

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antihero-writings · 4 years

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Red and Gold (Ch1)

(Absolutely incredible cover art by _xstylyricax_ on instagram!! I’ll put a link to her profile in a reblog!!)

Fandom: Pandora Hearts

Fic Summary: Memories of a strange music box in Ada's occult shop intertwine with a present where she meets the equally mysterious pirate Vincent Nightray...

Notes: Originally written for phsecretsanta2018 for tumblr user @endoreon!!

I'll put chapter 2 in a reblog, and links to both chapters in a reblog too!

Chapter 1: Whispers

Ada placed an old compass on the shelf, between an antique sextant and a dull crystal.

She turned to face the rest of the shop, smiling and putting her hands on her hips, proud of her work; she had just finished tidying up the place, putting everything in order, and could finally have a moment to relax, and admire the way everything gleamed.

Outside the sun always shone bright, reflecting off the white sand, sending green shadows onto the ground as it sifted through the palm leaves. Inside, the low light that filled the shop, emanating from candles, lanterns, as well as a few crystals hanging from nets, (and the occasional mysterious object), bouncing off the wooden walls, creating an atmosphere of dormant animation in the darkened place. Almost like the shop itself was lying in wait for something to happen, like if you broke a single object, all the spirits would come spilling out, and the place would live.

“Mew!”

Ada knelt down to scratch her cats’ ears.

She had had this shop for a few years now; for a long time, she had tried to learn about the occult, in attempts to bring her brother back from the Abyss, and in the midst of her research, had become a bit of an enthusiast, and had collected too many occult artifacts for the spare Vessalius house to hold. She didn’t use all of them, so she decided to start selling them to interested parties. From there she started collecting things just to sell. When she was at school, or otherwise couldn’t man the shop, she had servants watch over the place, (she warned them not to tell her uncle, or anyone who might not approve, or start spreading rumors). She had also hired someone to find more artifacts—(at sea, buried beneath the sand, anything)—both for her own fascination, as well as the shop.

Those who knew of her knew that she wasn’t just some collector, she was very knowledgeable in the ways of the occult, and novice practitioners, or fanatics, would come to her for advice on spells, or the authenticity of the objects they had found on their own. Some of them genuinely shared her interests—(she could talk to them for hours if she didn’t curb her excitement)—but sometimes people came in who were more…creepy than anything. Of course, by the nature of her hobby, often she herself couldn’t tell the difference.

“Now, now, you’ll have to wait outside. You’re not old enough to take part in the ceremony yet.”

Ada gasped, spinning around wildly. “Who’s there?!”

“Mew!” Snowdrop responded.

She petted her cat once more, looking around.

No one. Wooden walls and a breeze.

She breathed out. It wasn’t exactly unheard of that objects such as these could give off strange visions, or spill voices into one’s ears, and she was no stranger to the dark and the dangerous. It was surely just a particularly powerful object, which was simply doing its job, and someone would buy it soon enough.

Despite her mind’s attempts to reassure her, she probably should have been listening more carefully.

For the next few weeks, intermittently when she was in her shop, whispers would tread the air around her. Simple words, cries, accusations, voices that—dare she admit it?—she recognized.

Her brother’s, her uncle’s, her father’s, and—somehow worst of all—her own.

Her own voice, sounding so pitiful, so lost, and tiny.

Did she still sound like that?

After a while, it wasn’t hard to recognize what they were: memories. Memories of a past calling back to her. A sad and empty past that she had tried to forget. A past in which the Baskervilles threw her brother into the Abyss, and that place kept him from her for ten years.

Was this just her mind playing tricks on her? Was it all in her head? Nothing real?

But, of course, these memories were real. She just didn’t think of them too often, because she didn’t quite like that fact.

What kind of an object could do this? Why would someone create such an object in the first place? What should she even be looking for?

She tried to block them, to find something else that would drown them out, to cover her ears, but the whispers seeped in through the boards she nailed over her mind’s doors, and the cracks between her fingers.

The murmurs followed her. They pooled in her brain when she left the shop, and didn’t drain away. They grew louder. There came a point when she tore apart her neatly polished shop in search of the offender, and found…nothing.

But as she turned to leave one day, she saw her reflection in the door window, and behind herself, the curtain to the back…She turned, and did something dangerous:

She started thinking.

Hidden away, back there, like a caged beast, was in an old chest, and within it, something she had been warned about, but whose purpose had never quite been explained to her.

Her hand shaking ever so slightly, she fingered the necklace she was wearing, pulling it from beneath her shirt, holding the end up before her eyes, twinkling in the low light; a tiny, old silver key.

*****

Ada walked out into the darkened school grounds. There was something about the cool night air that made everything seem less inviting, less pure. The person waiting for her, during the day, would—(if a little odd)—have been an ordinary student, but in the dark he was a figure, a mystery, harbinger of more mystic nights to come.

They weren’t supposed to be out after dark—and she was one of those adamant rule-followers—but there had been something about the plea to his voice earlier…

“Good evening, Leo-kun.” Her small, but strong, voice broke the silence.

Leo turned to her, half moonlight reflecting off his glasses, and bowed.

“Yes, Good evening, Miss Vessalius.” He smiled, though there was a twitch in the corner of his mouth that betrayed its reality.

“If I may, can I ask how you found out about my shop?”

He scratched his chin, looking around as if the courtyard had suddenly become more interesting. “I simply heard about it from some of our fellow students. You know how they can be prone to gossiping.”

Who knew about her? And why they wouldn’t say anything about it to her? How did they find out? How many people knew by now? Or, what if he was lying? If so, why didn’t he want her to know how he knew?

“Ah, I see.” She didn’t press the issue, but wasn’t completely satisfied with the explanation either.

She was surprised that Leo would even come to her in the first place; he only ever spoke to her through Elliot—and was always with Elliot in general—so she didn’t want to scare him off with extra, unnecessary questions. This was already the longest conversation they ever had. Though the question of who knew about her shop, and how, troubled her, what was important was this object he was giving to her. It was the reason for their meeting, after all. If she badgered him too much, he might decide not give it to her at all. Nevertheless, the simple fact that he had arranged this late-night meeting, alone with her—without Elliot—in the first place, meant that whatever he was trying to give to her was affecting him deeply.

Or maybe it was affecting Elliot.

“So…you have something for me?”

“Right.” He seemed relieved she wasn’t going to ask any more questions. He set his bag on the ground, and knelt down to fish something from it.

But once he retrieved it, the cloth-covered object gave her few more answers than questions.

She cocked her head to the side, leaning forward, puzzled, but intrigued, trying to keep her excitement from bubbling over.

Leo breathed out the answer to her unasked question. “It’s a music box.”

“Oh! I’ve heard of enchanted music boxes before!” her obsession started to peak through, “What’s this one called?”

She reached out her hand towards it, but he jerked it away from her.

He seemed to realize the suddenness of the action, and relaxed a little. “I…Sorry, I just…” the veiled agitation bled out from behind the curtain.

What was it that made him so jumpy? Usually he was quiet, but confident. Was it this object? Or could it be her? He didn’t seem very comfortable around most people who weren’t Elliot, so maybe her sudden movement just startled him a little? Although…if it was the object itself… should she be scared too?

She decided not to let it bother her. Once again, this wasn’t exactly the first time someone had acted strangely when trying to get an occult object off their hands.

“So…might I ask what its purpose is?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m…afraid I’d rather not say.”

“Eh? It’s going to be rather hard for me to sell if I don’t know what it does, you know.”

“Sell it?” fear came to the surface. “No, no, no, no, you can’t sell this! You can’t even open it!”

She blinked.

“So…you’re giving me something; you wouldn’t like to tell me what it does, and you…don’t want me to sell or use it? Forgive my rudeness, but why don’t you simply hide it yourself? Or destroy it?”

“I’ve,” he cleared his throat, “tried both.” He looked at the ground, rubbing the back of his neck, and she often wished she could see the look in his eyes behind those glasses.

“And?”

He stayed silent, but it was obvious both had failed.

“But you’re used to dealing with these sorts of things, right?” he spoke up again, “So I thought you might have methods of keeping it from…activating. Or be better be able to,” he mumbled the next few words, “tune it out.”

“I’m sure I can handle it!” She smiled, though she was losing confidence the more they spoke.

The same phenomenon seemed to be happening to him.

“Please listen to me, Miss Vessalius;” he placed a hand on her shoulder—and how afraid, how insistent, would the look in his eyes have been, if she could have seen it?—“I can’t force you to accept this, or teach you how to stop it. All I can do is give you a warning; do not open this. For whatever reason, if you start to hear things, cover your ears, if you see anything, cover your eyes.”

“Huh? But why?”

What exactly did all that mean? What sorts of things would she hear or see? Just how powerful was this thing?

He rubbed his temple as if that would keep his aggravation from spilling out.

“This is…dangerous. Maybe the most dangerous thing you’ve ever handled.”

“Well, I have handled—”

His expression shut her up.

“So…” She cleared her throat, trying to keep from getting annoyed herself. “Why do you have it in the first place?”

He shook his head, looking at the veiled box. “Just a mistake.”

He proceeded to pull on a chain around his neck, which ended in a small silver key. He pulled it over his head, pooling it in his hand, holding it out to her his head bowed (out of respect, or a desire not to look at it, she didn’t know)—though he did so as if it were a gun—“Please keep this with you at all times.”

This was more than she bargained for, or guessed the care of this object would entail. Usually if she got a call, even if it was something dangerous, they wouldn’t be so cryptic, and they often just wanted to get rid of it, they didn’t bother with warnings and precautions.

Still, nothing she couldn’t handle.

She nodded, taking it and slipping it around her neck.

He bit his lip, his grip tight around the box, his hands shaking a little.

“Please hide this in the most secure location you can find.”

He thrust the box towards her, though his death grip made it clear he didn’t really want entrust it to her. She wrapped her fingers around it, looking curiously at him as she felt his resistance, before tugging it away from him.

“I promise to take care of it.” she tried to reassure him.

“Promise me you won’t open it.” His voice was the most serious she’d ever heard of it.

She smiled, giving a curt nod.

“Promise.”

But what do people do when presented with a mystery, a curious object, and an unshakable warning about it’s volatility?

They do the very thing they’re commanded not to do.

*****

It was a few days later still, when she gave in.

She knelt on the floorboards in her back room, a battered chest before her, its hinges rusty, its wood splintering. The rug was folded back, and the trap door the chest had been heaved out of propped open.

Did Leo know, then, about the whispers? About how they nagged and poked and prodded at one’s mind? How they staked themselves there, laying claim to her heart? Did he know how powerful it would be? How much it would affect her life?

She told herself he didn’t.

When she knew full well he did; otherwise he wouldn’t have been so adamant, so tense.

The chest’s maw, creaking as she lifted the lid, revealed the veiled oddity sitting at the bottom. Waiting, like a black bride, for her groom.

Surely it wasn’t this object, so small and unassuming, that was capable of invading her thoughts so entirely?

It wasn’t such a big deal. Just one peak. Listen to a few notes. Keep the whispers at bay.

“Come on, Ada!”

She drew in a breath, and lowered her hands into the depths, as if into murky waters, and gently took the dark bride’s hand, pulling her from the waves.

It was light, as if she was holding the whispers themselves. Yet the longer the bride held her hand, the tighter her grip, the heavier the weight of their vows.

“Say, what’s Abyss?”

The voice was louder this time.

Just breathe.

It’ll all be over soon.

She pulled the cloth, unveiling the wretched face she was destined to kiss.

“Well it’s a sort of prison…”

The box was black, ornate silver designs, curls and borders on the sides and top. Other than that it was relatively plain. But holding it made her breath catch, and the room darker.

She told herself it was just her own fear.

Letting it sit in her hands for a moment, she weighed it, along with Leo’s words. Part of her brain begged her to listen to him, screamed at her to return it to its place in the ground.

But it was too alive to bury.

“for bad guys…”

A lump grew in her throat as she tugged on the chord to the key around her neck.

As curiosity often bids us, she did the very thing he demanded she never do. For the simplest reason as a few whispers, and a rickety past.

“Please, let me in! My brother’s in trouble!!”

She gasped, reaching her fingers gently to her lips, as if not quite sure if she had said it herself. The shout had sounded so real, less ephemeral, less there, more here…

Shaking, her hands sweating, glancing around as if someone would see her breaking into something that belonged to her, she fit the key into the lock.

Though the weather was perfectly calm outside, she could hear rain beginning to pound.

“Oz Vessalius, your sin is…”

The pronunciation felt like it was coming down on her own head, like the past-born rain.

She was that little girl again, soaked through with water and fear, begging to be let in. The rain breathed; it was talking to her with the fluttery voices of those she loved, and those she had grown to hate. Some words broke through the crowd—brushing shoulders and pushing others down, louder, stronger—but the memories were so many by now that the whispers seemed like a mob.

Hands shivering, shutting her eyes tight, she turned the key,

—It clicked—

Placed her fingers on the wood of the lid—

The rain was so loud….

“Your very—“

And lifted it.

The action was like a conductor bringing down his baton; those whispers, the breath of the wind and rain, were all simultaneously silenced.

She glanced around, as if she would be able to see their smoke dissipating in the air.

The silence was almost worse…Almost.

Because silence is empty, and can be filled.

When she tipped it open, no tiny dancer twirled around. No frilly art or pretty words decorated the inside. She could see the cogs beneath, like if a ship’s deck were glass, and you could see the rudders, all the working parts and windswept waves that kept it going.

Though the look of it was plain, and rather unexciting, the inside of the lid held a peculiar inscription:

To he who dares play this song

You may yet still know it wrong

If it’s for redemption that you’ve asked

And the answer, you believe, in long awaited past

Without map, without wind, in the end, no sign of treasure

Too late, the hands of time will show you your own measure.

Upon seeing the words, questions boiled in her thoughts. What could this mean? What was she looking for in opening it? If she wasn’t looking for redemption, did that mean it was safe to listen? What about the past? Why would she want to hear whispers of, look into, the past? But if she didn’t…what was she doing here? Could this be more than simple attempts to shut the whispers up? Was there real temptation behind her current actions?

Then, without warning, or winding, the music began to play.

Though the notes were slow and few, they plucked at her heart. They tugged on her veins and sent vibrations through her, like she was their true instrument.

She slammed both the lid and her eyes shut, breath heavy.

She peeked open an eye.

Just a music box. Nothing strange. Nothing to tell her it was capable of great and terrible things. Just an ordinary music box. No notes fell out unannounced.

Taking up the key to lock it again, she felt another presence in the room.

She turned to see—

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araxiis · 5 years

Text

Poison Berries- A Kuzupeko fic for @snoopsmcbee

Written for tumblr user @snoopsmcbee for the Kuzupeko Christmas exchange, organized by @may-we-have-peace .This is meant to occur during the Despair arc anime, when class 77-B are still in school :) This is definitely not my best work, but I hope it makes someone smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Kuzuryuu household had never been particularly fond of Christmas. The majority of the yakuza found the holiday pointless, a senseless waste of money that they couldn’t be bothered to celebrate. Though this was the case with most holidays, there was something about Christmas that simply rubbed them the wrong way. Perhaps it was the sharp chill of winter weather, or the calamitous crowds of frenzied shoppers, or the goddamned Christmas “music” that they could only evade in their own home. Whatever the case, Christmas simply wasn’t an enjoyable occasion for the household.

The younger residents of the manor didn’t seem to care much, either. The Kuzuryuu siblings considered themselves fortunate, if anything. A holiday dedicated to spending time with family? Sounded more like cruel and unusual punishment to them.

The swordswoman was a bit different. Though they never celebrated, Fuyuhiko and Natsumi still understood the traditions and symbols of the holiday. Peko, however, was left completely in the dark. After all, there’s no reason a tool would need to know about Christmas.

It wasn’t until their first year at Hope’s Peak that she truly began to understand.

***

It was the last day of school before winter break, and class 77-B was practically bursting with holiday spirit. Chiaki had quite outdone herself, transforming their once-average classroom to look like the set of a Hallmark film. Strands of sparkling lights hung in the windows, like stars in the middle of the day. Delicate wreaths and garlands had been hung in just the right places, with the attention to detail one could only expect from an Ultimate. The class was milling about casually, hands wrapped around paper cups of hot cider and tea. The air was filled with pleasant conversation and the smell of cinnamon and pine. A snapshot of the moment would be fit for the front of a Christmas card, save for one thing.

Hiyoko stood defensively in the far corner of the room, brandishing a broom like a weapon. Stood facing her was Teruteru, waving something green over his head. Peko watched the interaction, confused.

“What on earth is he doing?” She turned to Sonia, who was also observing the commotion.

“Pekoyama-san, have you never seen mistletoe before?” Sonia tilted her head slightly. Across the room, Hiyoko smacked Teruteru square in the face with the broom’s bristles, causing him to falter, though just for a moment. Peko watched them in confusion, her expression silently answering Sonia’s question.

“It’s a Christmas tradition!” Sonia’s eyes sparkled with elation. “See that plant he has?” She pointed across the room at Teruteru. “That’s mistletoe. If two people stand under it, they have to kiss!” She exclaimed, clasping her hands in front of her and grinning brightly.

It was clear that Peko was still quite confused, but Sonia was too distracted to notice. Despite how kind and caring the princess was, nothing could rival her love for the holidays. Peko shook her head briskly, a passive attempt to snap out of distraction. She took her seat, allowing her mind to adventure away from reality as class began.

***

By the end of the day, Peko had all but forgotten her exchange with Sonia that morning. The day had gone by quite readily, a blur of more holiday customs she didn’t quite grasp. She did her best to take part, even letting Ibuki tie sparkly red ribbons around her braids. But, as the sky grew darker, she was forced to remind herself of her purpose in the world. Indulging in such senseless celebrations was much too selfish. Such luxuries were reserved for those who deserved it. She pushed her shoulders and began to unweave the ribbon from her hair. In one swift movement she stood up, slung her sheathed sword over her arm, and let the ribbons fall to the floor. Feeling much more like herself, she made her way to the back of the room to stand with her classmates. She took her place next to Fuyuhiko, who was leaning against a counter next to Kazuichi, and the three of them struck up a casual conversation. Peko didn’t contribute much to the discussion, but she enjoyed feeling involved regardless (not that she’d ever admit that to anyone).

They chatted for a while, discussing anything that came to mind. The weather, their plans for the break (few to none), their coursework. It must have been quite a riveting bunch of subjects, considering they didn’t even notice the laughter of their classmates around them until Kazuichi noticed why they were laughing. Fuyuhiko caught his eye and glared at him, but a quick glance upwards would shortly curb his confusion.

Perched on the counter behind them, just between him and Peko, was Teruteru. He had one hand over his mouth, smothering his laughter, his other hand waving the same plant from earlier over their heads.

“Peko-chan, Fuyu-chan!” Ibuki spun towards them, all the energy of a toddler on Christmas morning. “Looks like you’re under the miiiistletoe! You know what that means!!” She nudged Fuyuhiko with her elbow, a sly, toothy grin spreading across her face. Their class was still tittering around them, causing Fuyuhiko to flush several shades of pink. What kind of sick joke was this?! He stared at a spot on the floor, unable to meet the eyes of anyone in the room. He had half a mind to spin around and deck Teruteru square in the nose. He very well might have, too, if not for the sudden shock of Peko’s lips gently touching his cheek. He jerked back, startling both of them significantly.

“Peko!” He spoke frantically. “What are you-” He cut off, face burning.

She regarded him quizzically. “It’s tradition, is it not?” She was confused. Had she misunderstood? Had she done it wrong? The look on Fuyuhiko’s face was enough to tell her she had. The reality of what she had done hit her like a ton of bricks. “I’m sor-"

Her apology was cut off by the school bell ringing, signaling the beginning of their break. Fuyuhiko was still staring at her, eyes filled with shock and confusion. Humiliated, Peko hid her face behind her hair and all but sprinted out of the classroom, leaving 14 confused students, and one startled yakuza behind her. The air hung silent for what seemed like years, only broken by the sound of Kazuichi smacking Fuyuhiko upside the head.

"Dude, what are you doing? Go after her!” Kazuichi shoved him forward by the shoulders. Fuyuhiko turned to him, mouth hanging open, but said nothing. Kazuichi jerked his head to the side, gesturing to the door, and raised his eyebrows.

You know what to do.

He was never quite good at picking up on social cues, but Fuyuhiko got the message. He inhaled sharply, nodded once at Kazuichi, and ran.

***

He found Peko in the same spot she always was after class, sitting on the edge of the stone fountain in the courtyard. They always met here after classes to walk home, though they never actually decided on it as a meeting spot. Perhaps it was his knowledge of her personality, or maybe just an instinct, but he had a feeling she would still be waiting for him. As he sat down next to her on the cold cement, he saw her posture stiffen, though she remained silent.

It was mid-afternoon, but the sky was already beginning to grow dark. Gray clouds shrouded the courtyard like a canopy, silently blanketing the city in a peaceful layer of white. Snowflakes had started to catch in Peko’s hair, barely visible in her silver braids. She sighed quietly, her warm breath forming a tiny cloud in the frigid air.

“I am sorry, young master,” she began, still refusing to look him in the eye. “It seems I have misunderstood another tradition. Please excuse my earlier behavior.” Despite the chill in the wind, she felt her face grow warm. Fuyuhiko said nothing, sparking yet another whirlwind of what-ifs in Peko’s mind. Perhaps her error was too grand to be amended by a simple apology. Defeated and confused, she reluctantly concluded that they should begin to head home, and hopefully pretend nothing ever happened. She planted her hands on the stone in preparation to stand, but quickly froze in confusion. Though her left hand was resting on the cold concrete, a soft, warm sensation had enveloped her right.

Fuyuhiko was holding her hand.

Cautiously, he turned his hand palm-up and wound his fingers through hers. He waited for her to flinch, or pull away, or pull her sword on him.

She didn’t.

He took the silence as a moment of opportunity. “It’s not that you misunderstood,” he began, heat trailing up his collar. “I was just.. surprised. I mean, usually that shit is meant to be romantic or whatever,” he saw Peko’s eyes widen in horror, and quickly continued. “It- it’s not like you woulda known or anything. Don’t worry about it, okay?” He turned to face her. Her expression of fear had shifted more into contemplation, like she was perplexed about something.

“If I am not mistaken, this is a tradition meant to force people into displays of romance?” She asked.

“Well.. yeah. Pretty much.”

“But why?"she cocked her head slightly. "Should it not be the choice of the participants? What good are emotions when they’re forced by others? This seems like a rather cruel tradition."

Fuyuhiko had never quite thought about it like that, but he quickly realized that she was right. "Yeah, it sort of is. That’s kinda why I hate the holidays. It’s a bunch of Hallmark bullshit, nothing is fuckin’ genuine anymore.”

He was still holding her hand.

“That’s one thing you’ve gotta learn about Christmas,” he continued. “You’re expected to do a bunch of shit, like following traditions and all that, but at the end of the day, you decide what you wanna do.” He tightened his grip around her hand, and he saw something soften in her eyes.

“I believe I understand now,” Peko stated. “Although, given the circumstances, I cannot say I fully disagree with my earlier decision.”

The meaning of her words was not lost on him. Quick as a dart, he leaned forward and kissed her cheek, causing them both to turn several shades of pink.

“Me neither.”

The sky was almost completely dark, neither one of them could tell you how long they had been sitting there. The snow had left patches of water on the lenses of Peko’s glasses, and Fuyuhiko had snowflakes stuck in his eyelashes. The stone was freezing, and the breeze had practically frozen Peko’s legs.

Strangely, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

#kuzupeko #kuzupeko fanfic #Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu #Peko Pekoyama #fuyuhiko x peko #otp: i heard your voice #kuzupeko christmas exchange #fuyupeko #christmas #danganronpa #danganronpa 2 #i don't really like this

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swampgallows · 6 years

Text

some of the tags on that 4chan post are so right, like... tumblr is extremely fucking sheltered compared to the shit i saw on 4chan at like 14 years old. i have infinite stories, some personal and some general. i had started visiting 4chan in late 2004—long before /r9k/ was even a board, back when /5/ was still a secret board and they had JUST taken /l/ down. that probably isnt even english to most people. basically i started visiting 4chan BEFORE i started playing world of warcraft. that’s how young i (and the site itself) was. i saw one of NCH85’s flash animations on deviantart and was directed to 4chan.

and that was even before 4chan became more “mainstream” after the “don’t mess with football” incident in 2007ish, when gaston and desu whatever became memes and all of a sudden there was some group of people taking “anonymous is legion. we do not forgive. we do not forget” to heart and very, very seriously, which is when all the v for vendetta mask shit started. before that it was just like “pool’s closed” and shit, which is a pretty innocuous but still incredibly offensive meme. the full phrase was “pool’s closed due to AIDS” from some homophobic fearmongering lifetime movie or some shit.

zippocat, cracky-chan, nevada-tan, and “babyfuck it’s awwright” were memes. shitting dick nipples was a meme. pedobear, “4chan party van”, and guilty gear’s bridget were memes. cockmongler and happy n*gro were memes. violent, homicidal, homophobic, transphobic, racist, pedophiliac, ableist, sexist, or just plain disgusting—it was regurgitated hundreds of times a day.

i think the average tumblr user would fucking faint if they saw half the shit i was exposed to on a daily basis as a teenager. AND THEY SHOULD. this isnt meant to be a posturing thing; it’s a testament to how fucking fucked up the place was/is and how white supremacy gaining real actual traction on the chons was pretty much inevitable. but even for “old” 4chan users, to genuinely care about anything on 4chan is also a noob move, and nazis are considered undesirables in that they are not in on the joke; the collective joke being that nobody on 4chan takes anything seriously or cares about anything, or, as the classic meme went, “Internet is serious business.”

overall 4chan’s focus was on desensitization to every degree. it made disenfranchised young dudes with zero power or skills or prospects feel like they were cutting their teeth in one way or another, upholding “lulz” as key currency. their naivete told them they were rational for hating everything, and their cynicism told them they were tough for being able to laugh at everything.

the infamous screenshot illustrating this is as follows:

“SMAP 01/23/05 [January 23, 2005] You COMPLETELY miss the point of /b/. /b/ is not Fark “oh hay guys i found a cute link ha ha.” /b/ is not Slashdot’s pseudo-intellectual discussion. /b/ is not LiveJournal, SuicideGirls, or HotOrNot. /b/ is a place for people to be monsters- the horrible, senseless, uncaring monsters that they really are.

Tsunami owns the Asian continent and we laugh. Psychotic emo takes his sickness out on a cat [zippocat] and we laugh. People mutilate themselves for no appearant [sic] reason [cracky-chan] and we laugh. Suicide, homicide, genocide- we laugh. Racism, sexism, discrimination, xenophobia and baseless hate- we laugh. We are mindless “me-too”ism; we are irrational preference; we are pointless flamewars; we are the true face of the internet.”

If you didn’t catch the date, this was in 2005. this mindset founded the event horizon for the descent into white supremacy.

“Anonymous [OP] 01/30/05 [January 30th, 2005] Why did you guys suddenly turn on Queen G? One day she’s one of you, the next you’re pouring on the h8. What’s up? What’d she do? Anonymous [1] SHE’S A FURRY Anonymous [2] FUCK FURRIES Anonymous [3] WE HATE EVERYONE Anonymous [4] INCLUDING OURSELVES”

there was a SHITLOAD of funny shit on 4chan, and that was part of the allure and self-aggrandizement as well; if you could stomach all of the shit, you were rewarded with the cream of the crop, top quality memes and lulz. a good chunk of the internet as we know it was defined by 4chan. people were saying epic win/fail in 2004 and then it started appearing on tshirts in 2008. rage comics, reaction images, and one could even argue image macros (the classic terminology for a meme) were started on 4chan. part of the mentality was that the lack of censorship or filter allowed ANY content to thrive, made by anyone and judged by all, and therefore only truly worthwhile content survived (especially on /b/, where you could refresh a thread and it would already be sage’d, or bumped down, by reams of new threads).

but we still weren’t truly aware of what we were laughing at, whether it was considered ironic or not, hence poor pepe the frog being stolen as an alt-right symbol. I remember having to stifle my laughter during a history of racism lesson in my junior year of high school (~2007) because they had slides of resist dot org racist cartoons. they are comics by a white supremacist, chiefly anti-black and featuring racist caricatures, but they had gained new life on 4chan as memes like “bix nood” and others. edits were made reappropriating racist cartoons like “around blacks, never relax” into “around snacks [W.T. Snacks, a 4chan moderator known for swift banning practices], never relax” and “around elves, watch yourselves” with the caricature edited to have long ears.

in our minds, we were laughing at the artist for his racism and moronic ideas, but the fact of the matter was that we were still consuming, and laughing at, racist cartoons. (cue “you are not immune to propaganda”.) much as dave chappelle realized his satire was being consumed straightforwardly by racists and used to reinforce the stereotypes he was making fun of, a lot of people on 4chan took these comics at face value, especially now that their messages had been “updated” in a language they understood.

i appreciate it for the wellspring of content that it was, but 4chan’s current users have forgotten its original cardinal rule of “Internet is serious business” and i feel like it now definitely needs to be terminated, especially now that moot has stepped down.

#slurs tw /#blathering #long post /#racism cw /#violence cw /#ok to rb

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holdyourbreathuntilyouseelight · 5 years

Text

The Bodyguard - Chapter 4

Summary: Magnus is a dancing popstar sensation whose popularity continues to climb. Alec, an ex-Secret Service agent, is hired on as a professional bodyguard in charge of Mr. Bane’s personal security by insistence of Magnus’ manager. Despite their initial differences, Magnus finds himself falling for Alec the more time they spend getting to know each other and relies on him for more than physical security as his safety gets threatened. Loosely based on the 1992 film The Bodyguard.

Rating: M

Genre: AU, Everyone is Human AU, Celebrity!Magnus, Bodyguard!Alec, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Romance, Eventual Smut, Mutual Pining

Author: holdyourbreathuntilyouseelight

A/N: I made up the instagram users so apologies if they belong to anyone! If you wish for me to remove any, please let me know. Otherwise - thanks so much for reading!!

Click here to read on AO3.

Previous chapters on tumblr: Prologue // Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3

Alec flipped through various articles as Magnus was quiet next to him. It wasn't entirely unusual during their flights but he often chatted with various members of the team about whatever he had on his mind, asked questions about their lives, or got them pumped about the next city stop.

It was his head lolling to Alec's shoulder, almost startling him, that made him realize his silence was due to Magnus being asleep.

He couldn't help himself from inhaling the sandalwood smell now that Magnus was so close to him. It was nice. Calming.

Alec continued his searching, trying to find someone who might make sense as Magnus' stalker. Someone who commented on every article or post or said things that implied they weren't stable. The police hadn't been much help from the Chicago venue, and the list Raphael and Magnus provided hadn't had any glaringly obvious suspects, so he was trying to take things into his own hands the only way he knew how–Internet creeping.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of 'thirsty' comments across the internet so it was tough to narrow it down.

Where the stalker clearly knew where Magnus lived, and had a lot of intimate photos that suggested they had learned his routine, he wondered if it was someone who knew him personally. Maybe even before the fame, so that now that they felt he owed them more than he did others. More attention, more gratitude, it was hard to tell.

Alec stopped on an article about 'Banecourt'. Seeing Magnus posed with Camille hanging off his arm made his stomach twist. His only experience with her was not a positive one, and he knew that wasn't going to change if he spent more time with her.

Even looking at those photos, he could see a tightness in Magnus' eyes that wasn't something he saw these days. The photos were dated months prior to their 'devastating' break-up. The biggest war between fans about Magnus was those who shipped the couple and those who didn't – the latter arguing that Magnus was clearly happier without her, and Alec was inclined to agree.

Did that mean Camille had stalker tendencies? She clearly wasn't a stable, sane individual, but that didn't necessarily translate to becoming Magnus' personal stalker. She was there that night, at the venue the message was left at. She knew where his dressing room was. Was it possible she snuck back in somehow, past security, and planted the message while Magnus was on stage?

If not her, maybe another scorned lover? Or wanna-be-lover?

Magnus stirred in his sleep, and Alec flipped articles to his win on the talent show.

"Mm, we there yet?"

Alec looked out of the window. "I'm still seeing only clouds, so I'd say we're still in the air."

"Smart ass." Magnus grumbled, but he left his eyes closed and snuggled into Alec's shoulder further. Alec automatically adjusted himself and swept an arm around Magnus' waist to hold him more comfortably, grateful they hadn't put the armrest down between them earlier.

Magnus must have been exhausted; he normally wasn't this touchy-feely with Alec. And Alec didn't know when they got to a point that they were comfortable enough with each other to sit like this, especially without bickering, but he supposed Magnus not talking much was a good help.

"Shouldn't be much longer. The plane map says just over half an hour."

"Good." Magnus replied, breath fanning against Alec's neck as he settled closer against his side.

Alec couldn't help but think of his phone call with Izzy earlier, when she asked if anything was going on. He could certainly say this was new territory for him. Obama certainly had never cuddled up to him during a plane ride.

But it didn't have to mean anything. After all, Magnus was a celebrity, not the president of the United States. The professional line was much less strict. And he and Magnus sharing a hotel room had certainly sped up their relationship some. He didn't aggravate him as much as he once did, and Magnus listened to him more than he used to. That may have been aided by the stalker scare, but Alec still took it as a win.

He was touched when Magnus genuinely confessed on Ellen to trusting Alec with his life. He had hoped he was making the star feel safer but hearing the words from his usually stubborn mouth was still satisfying.

Still, trusting Alec to essentially do his job did not translate to wanting to date him, despite what Izzy thought. And Ellen had basically asked him about having feelings for Alec and he denied them, but that wasn't much to go on either, as he doubted even Magnus would use a public setting to broadcast feelings he had yet to share with the person they were for.

Alec didn't know why he was stressing over this. He didn't have feelings for Magnus. He was just growing to like him as a… friend of sorts.

Yeah. That was all.

He pointedly ignored the swoop in his stomach when Magnus snuggled even closer in his sleep.

"You're not going to put her in a headlock if she tries to hug me, are you?" Magnus asked with a raised eyebrow.

Alec shot him an unimpressed look. "No, obviously."

"I wouldn't claim it as obvious – you have put your hands up to stop more than one fan from getting too close, no matter their age." Magnus reminded him.

Alec scoffed. "Forgive me for fearing for your safety when some stranger runs at you at full speed, reaching their hands into their pocket or coat. My mind is trained to assume the worst."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Well you can tell your mind to chill out. Raphael said the winner of the contest is young, around nine or ten, and she is a foster kid. I highly doubt a child, even in foster care, knows how to operate a gun or will pull a knife on me."

Alec put his hands up in mock surrender. "I'll keep my hands to myself."

Magnus typically was pretty involved with his fans, regularly hosting meet and greets, reaching out via social media, and, of course, holding contests. Most of his contests involved actually getting to meet him, whether it be VIP tickets to a show where he'd meet them backstage or pull them up during a song, or, like this one, they'd win a recreational day with him.

Magnus, as always, was thrilled to get a chance for one-on-one time with a fan, especially someone younger. It typically was teens or older who won these things, despite always being open to all ages.

"Magnus? Alec? Madzie just arrived." Luke told the pair, sticking his head into the room.

Magnus clapped his hands together excitedly before heading to the main room they had rented in the hotel to host the young girl.

A small, dark-skinned girl was standing shyly next to Dot, one of Magnus' back-up dancers. She was the one who had accompanied her in the limo as she also was part of the facilitators for the contests. Raphael wasn't much into running those types of contests, so she did the most of the work, including meeting up with them to bring them to Magnus.

"Here's Magnus!" Dot said excitedly, looking down at Madzie.

Madzie's little face broke into a big grin but she stepped behind Dot's leg a little to shield herself from his gaze.

Magnus' feigned offense, putting his hand on his chest. "Madzie! You don't have to be afraid of me. I've been counting down the days until I get to meet you. Are you ready for a fun day together?"

He crouched down several feet away, opening his arms, but leaving it entirely up to her to close the distance between them.

She only hesitated for a moment before running into his arms for a tight hug.

"Hi, sweet pea! Thank you so much for coming to see me today." Magnus told her as he let her go.

She was smiling brightly at him now.

"So! I have a few fun things planned for our day, but you let me know if there is anything you want to do, and I will do my best to make it happen."

He took her hand and led her out of the room, Alec following closely behind.

"Don't mind him. He's my bodyguard. He wants to make sure you and I both stay safe so he's going to hang out with us today too."

Madzie nodded and flashed a little smile over her shoulder. Alec smiled back easily.

They got into the hotel elevator and Magnus pressed the P button.

"Do you know where we're going? The P in this elevator does not mean Penthouse." Magnus leaned down to whisper. "I heard you like to swim."

Madzie's face lit up immediately, even if she hadn't said much yet, and Alec found himself smiling in the corner as they passed through the floors to their destination.

Magnus, thankfully, could hold a conversation all his own. He went on about all the places he wanted to swim someday, even fictional places, and Madzie giggled along and watched him like he hung the stars in the sky.

Alec could admit it was a little endearing to see Magnus so charming with children. He supposed he should have known, since he was charming with all people Alec had seen him interact with.

"So I have Dot bringing us down something special to wear, but this whole place is ours for the next couple hours!"

Madzie's eyes went huge as she looked around the large indoor pool, complete with a couple water slides and plenty of toys in the baskets along the wall.

Dot came in to the room a moment later, grinning widely at the pair. "So Madzie, I brought something for both you and Magnus to match if you're up for it. A swim suit, of course, but also… these!"

Madzie actually squealed this time, and Alec found his face breaking into a grin like the others. She was pretty adorable. This day would be more enjoyable than Alec had initially anticipated. He was expecting some spoiled child that would demand all of Magnus' attention and take advantage of the star. He was glad to be proven very wrong.

"Let's go get dressed and get this pool party started!" Magnus said, snatching the larger of the two mermaid tails from Dot's hands and bounding off to the change rooms.

Alec followed dutifully as Dot led Madzie to the girl's room.

"She is so precious." Magnus said, as he whipped his clothes off behind the curtain and pulled on swim trunks.

"She is." Alec agreed.

"I know you've noticed. I could tell even she melts your icy, Secret Service agent heart." Magnus teased.

"My heart is not icy. I just am focused on my work." Alec retorted. "Plus, I like kids."

"You do?"

"Yes. I grew up taking care of younger siblings, including my baby brother, who is ten years younger than me. And holidays at boarding school, I was always the oldest, so kind of the surrogate big brother."

Alec corrected his throat, realizing he was oversharing, but Magnus chose that moment to step out. Then his mind had to focus on not staring at Magnus' exposed upper body.

He had seen him shirtless plenty of times before. At his house, dancing on stage. A few of his numbers during his concerts involving no shirt or barely one, but being this close to him and in private made his head spin a bit.

"Izzy seems to think you're a good big brother. She wasn't shy about sharing how amazing she thinks you are, and I only talked to her for a few minutes."

Alec shifted his weight between his feet, looking away now.

Maybe recognizing his discomfort, Magnus changed the subject. "Time to swim!" He skipped past him and returned to his guest of honour.

Alec followed, reminding himself to be less awkward, and the pool party began.

It ended up being a pretty fun day, for all involved.

The swimming lasted a good couple hours, and Madzie started coming out of her shell more. She was giggling constantly, flipping her mermaid fin alongside Magnus' and having fun splashing and playing with the various toys. Magnus dragged her next to him through the water so she sped through it like a true ocean-dweller.

She even smiled up at Alec plenty, seeming to enjoy his and Magnus' banter back and forth, and preened under the compliment when Alec told him he liked her fins. She wagged her tail at him excitedly, and Magnus knew the mermaid tails were a good idea.

After swimming, it was time for eating lunch. Magnus had a whole kid-friendly buffet prepared and watched with glee as Madzie had fun picking different things to try and sample before loading her plate.

Following that, Magnus had rented out a private bakery kitchen and they worked on decorating pre-made cookies and cupcakes. Magnus insisted on Alec joining them, especially after seeing how much Madzie had warmed up to him in their short time together. Alec, apparently a sucker for her big brown eyes, agreed after she looked up at him hopefully.

Magnus' competitiveness came out as soon as they got down to business.

"I like lots of colours." Magnus was saying as he dolloped a blob of icing in spots on the cupcake he was working on while Madzie squirted wiggly lines on her cookie.

He opened his mouth to ask Alec if he wished there was a black coloured icing when he saw what Alec was working on.

"WHAT is THAT?!" Magnus exclaimed.

Alec startled at the attention, looking down at the cookie he was decorating as if searching for something he was missing.

"What do you mean?"

"That!" Magnus said, flailing a hand at it. "What, do you secretly run a bakery as a side job? Or go to Decorators Anonymous?!"

Alec laughed when he realized he was, in a back-handed way, complimenting his decorating skills.

"That last one doesn't even make sense, but is it really amazing or is it just because you can't even best a ten year old?"

Madzie seemed to love watching the two of them bicker, smiling to herself as she worked quietly, sporadically peeking up to watch the pair.

Magnus did not shy down from biting back a retort, accenting it with a flick of his wrist, but he unfortunately had the icing bag still in his hand and a spurt of it hit Alec's forearm.

Alec chewed his tongue for a moment, raising his eyebrows in challenge at Magnus.

"I… I swear I didn't mean to do that…" Magnus began, covering his mouth to hide a laugh.

"Oh? Is that right? I can see the deep-seated remorse in your eyes." Alec said, stepping slowly down the length of the counter, eyes locked on Magnus'.

Alec glanced towards Madzie, and his face twisted into a grin.

"Let's get him, Madzie!"

And with that, he grabbed a fistful of sprinkles from a bowl and threw it at Magnus. Madzie squealed and ducked behind Alec's giant form as Magnus shrieked and squeezed hard on the icing bag to send more in his opponent's direction.

And so began an epic food fight.

The clean up wasn't fun, but Alec told Magnus they had to do at least some of it so Madzie could see that actions have consequences. Magnus reminded him that Madzie was spending a day with her celebrity idol and wasn't there to learn life lessons but he felt too guilty leaving it all for someone else so he agreed in the end.

Magnus had a clean-up crew come in after them, shooting them a sheepish smile as he ushered the small girl out of the room, and Alec followed amusedly.

Next up was watching a movie in a recreational room the hotel had for rent – it was gigantic, a TV almost half as wide as the wall and nearly as tall. They had more snacks set up – bowls of candy, buttered popcorn and Shirley Temples.

Magnus, of course, proposed making a blanket fort with the provided puffy blankets and collection of pillows.

Once settled, with Moana playing on the big screen, Madzie sat between Alec's legs as he twisted parts of her hair into cute pigtail braids. He admitted his time with the Obama girls, when they were younger, involved requests like this during the more boring days at the White House, so he had some experience with her type of hair.

Once he had her feeling pretty, she scooted down to lay on her stomach to watch the screen intently. Alec and Magnus, laying outstretched against the couch, tossed popcorn back and forth at each other when the other wasn't looking. They kept trying to best the other by having the projectile land somewhere inconspicuous, like in the space behind Magnus' collar or the gaping pocket of Alec's pants.

The pair of them were downright giggly, which definitely was new for Alec. He blamed the ridiculous amount of sugar they had consumed aiding his hyperactivity.

The movie finished too quickly for any of them, and that was the finale on the day with Magnus for Madzie. Dot popped in the room with an apologetic smile.

"Time to go, Madzie."

Madzie pouted but jumped up obediently, hugging Alec first and then Magnus.

Alec was a little surprised but petted her hair affectionately, hugging her back, and when Magnus hugged her, he hugged so tight that he picked her up and swung her around.

"You were the perfect princess all day. Thank you for today." he told her genuinely.

"I'll miss you. Thank you for the best day ever." she said in her little voice, the most words she had strung together in a row all day.

Alec could practically see Magnus' heart swell in his chest.

Madzie hugged him a second time as a goodbye before following Dot out of the door with a final wave.

Magnus feigned fainting after that, pulling an unexpected laugh out of Alec.

"She is so precious. I would adopt her in a second if only I was looking to settle down with a family now. I don't know how no one has snatched her up yet." Magnus said as they started returning the fort materials to their rightful places.

"Well, is there ever a right time? Most parents get blindsided by kids coming around when they least expect it. I know my parents did."

"Yeah, I agree." Magnus sat on the couch. "I just… I feel like I need a partner. Not everyone needs one to raise kids, I get that, but I need someone who can reel me in when I'm tempted to spoil them rotten or going over-the-top. Honestly, I don't know if I'm father material. I didn't exactly have any parental role models growing up."

Alec looked sideways at him, getting comfortable on the other end of the couch. "Did you not see yourself with Madzie today? You're amazing with kids – I see it every day you interact with your young fans. You treat them like equals. Every one of them. You'd be an incredible dad. Madzie, or any kid, would be lucky to have you."

Magnus smiled, eyes on the carpet, and the softness in his eyes let the reality of what Alec said catch up to him. He hadn't meant to go on and on like that. He just wasn't used to seeing Magnus admit vulnerability, or fear, and it brought out his protective nature.

Magnus spoke after a pregnant pause. "You know, Dot said in the car, when she asked Madzie why she liked me so much, that she looked up to me because she said 'he's like me'. From foster care. I never really thought of inspiring those people when I set out to follow my own dreams, but I think I'd want to adopt someone from the system. I may have grown out of the system but I'd love to save another kid, or more, from having to endure that."

Alec watched him, heart warming at the thought. He forgot what Izzy went on about when she tried to give him the run down of what made Magnus so amazing when she heard he got the job originally. Now that he said it, he remembered that Magnus had lost his parents young. His mom died when he was eight, father was never in the picture, and step-father gave up custody immediately. Or went to jail. Or both, Alec couldn't really remember. But the point was, he got thrown into the foster system early, with no family. He was passed from abusive home to neglectful home until he turned eighteen and could stand on his own.

"I think that's a great idea."

Magnus seemed lost in thought, so Alec got comfortable at the other end of the couch. He pulled out his phone and saw a new message from Izzy, commenting on the couple posts Magnus had put up already.

"Izzy approves of your Instagram choices." Alec commented.

Magnus beamed. "I do know how to pick them. Speaking of, I should finish the series off."

He grabbed his phone and sifted through his photos from the day, selecting a bunch to post. He reviewed his Instagram story, unable to help smiling at the sight of Madzie playing in the pool and throwing food before using Alec as a shield against Magnus' projectiles. When Magnus had tried to hide, Alec had thrown Madzie on his shoulders and got her to pelt him with marshmallows while he cried for mercy.

He wasn't used to seeing Alec looking so playful and lighthearted. He didn't know Alec could even have fun, but there was no doubt he was when he saw the video evidence. The skin around his hazel eyes crinkled, and Magnus swore his smile could light a city, his laugh melodic in the background mixed with Madzie's giggles.

It seemed his followers appreciated the bodyguard being included in the day's recap too. The comments on his posts could be divided by the usual thirsting for attention or reply from Magnus, gushing over how cute and lucky Madzie was, and then a good chunk talking about Alec.

@baneisbae Why is Magnus' bodyguard hot af AND good with kids?

@bane_lover: Pretty sure no one wrote on the contest that they would get both Magnus AND his smoking bodyguard for the day. I demand a recount.

@magnusis2fab4u: Okay Ellen totally called it – Magnus and his bodyguard are definitely a thing, right?! Magnus – you can't avoid the question forever! We want #Malec confirmed!

Magnus looked over at Alec, who was on his phone still, no doubt continuing to text Isabelle about his day. He had learned how close the two siblings were once he started getting to know Izzy, and that Alec was just as close if not closer to their adopted brother Jace.

Magnus looked at the time. It was still early. And honestly, he didn't feel anywhere near ready to turn in for the night.

He spotted the game console and jumped to his feet, perusing the collection of games in the cabinet before turning back to Alec with a smirk.

Alec felt his stare and looked up. "… What is that look for?"

"Fancy a friendly game?" Magnus waved a plastic case at him.

Alec raised an eyebrow at him. "If you're thinking we're going to play that game, friendly is the last word I'd use to describe how it will go."

Magnus grinned. "Oh don't use that as an excuse to get out of me creaming you. Here." He tossed him a controller. "You're player two though. You need to get used to the fact that I'll always be number one."

Alec rolled his eyes at him. "We'll see about that. Game on."

"Alexander! Are you kidding me?!" Magnus shouted as they sped around the race course and Alec once again shunted him on his way by and knocked him into a wall.

Alec just laughed. "Be lucky we're not on Rainbow Road right now."

"Oh just you wait."

"Magnus!" Alec groaned. "Stop throwing those damn green shells in the tunnel!"

"Ooh sorry! Can't hear you over my streak of getting first place!" Magnus taunted, his car doing its victory lap after crossing the finish line.

It had been a couple hours of MarioKart and it had gone about as well as Alec predicted. Lots of throwing insults at each other back and forth and nudging shoulders from their spot next to each other on the couch.

It wasn't long into the next track that Alec got some revenge.

"Alexander! Don't you fucking dar—"

"Sorry!" Alec laughed maniacally as he sped by Magnus' twirling car.

"Stupid red shells." Magnus grumbled as he tried to get back up to speed.

They were naturally competitive so this type of game was the worst idea, but there was no doubt both parties were having fun. Alec hadn't heard Magnus laugh this much in all his time knowing him, and Magnus was a generally jovial person, especially on stage and show appearances.

"Bastard! You did NOT just banana peel me right there?!" Alec griped, watching the other vehicles speed past his stalled car before going the extra inch to cross the finish line and coming in fifth.

"Rainbow Road time! Prepare to lose. Again. You must be used to it by now." Magnus teased.

"Hey, you've only won about half. I've held my own, thank you very much."

Sure enough, Magnus found Alec was better than expected at the famously challenging track. He had fallen off the edge a couple times on the sharper turns and well placed holes while Alec had still not slipped once despite some close calls.

They were starting on their third lap now and Alec was miles ahead of the rest, Magnus back in fourth, and he knew Alec wouldn't let him live it down if he beat him on the hardest level.

So he did the only logical thing he could think of.

"Hey!" Alec cried when Magnus suddenly snatched his controller out of his hands and held it above his head.

"Oh sorry, did you need this?" Magnus sneered, waving it behind him as Alec practically climbed in his lap to grapple for it.

"Magnus! Stop being such a child!" Alec complained, wrestling with him properly now.

They had been too close to the edge of the couch cushions due to the intensity of the game, so of course, with the shift of weight, their tangled form ended up toppling to the floor.

The controller bounced a few inches away out of Magnus' hand when Magnus' body slammed on top of Alec's.

"Oof." Alec grunted, hands automatically gripping Magnus' waist to steady him and unintentionally slipping under the loose material of his shirt.

Magnus was breathing heavily from their battle, their bodies fully aligned, and he looked down at his companion in surprise at their position.

Alec's bottom lip was between his teeth, his body frozen, and his hazel eyes searched Magnus', waiting for some sort of reaction. Some quip or innuendo that was typical of the other man.

Magnus couldn't help but have his eyes drawn to Alec's lip, watching the soft flesh yield to his blunt teeth, and he was licking his own without thinking.

He couldn't help his mind drifting back to the comments made by his followers. Alec really was gorgeous, all dark lashes and porcelain skin and sculpted cheekbones. And, thankfully, not dating his sister. And good with kids. And supportive and kind when he wasn't being a bossy, pain in the ass.

"Magnus…?"

Just hearing his name said so breathily made Magnus' stomach flip. It had taken some time, but he finally stopped using 'Mr. Bane'. He liked the way his name sounded coming from the other man's mouth. Especially like this. So silky and unbridled.

Alec's thumbs were drawing slow arcs above his hip bones. Magnus wondered if he even realized he was doing it.

He could just lean down and kiss him. Pull that bottom lip in his mouth, suck and nibble and bring out a groan from Alec. Make him feel good. Make him give up control.

Fuck, what was he thinking? This was Alec he was talking about. He'd probably slap him silly for even trying. Alec may be kind but he still found Magnus infuriating—that much could not be denied.

Magnus corrected his throat and backed off of Alec so he could sit up, brushing his clothes and getting to his feet.

"Well, looks like we both lost this round." Magnus said, glancing up at the TV to see the other characters had long since finished the race and they were in 7th and 8th.

Alec got to his feet, and Magnus was disappointed to see he wasn't meeting his eyes.

"We should probably get back to our room. Tomorrow is another early one."

Magnus nodded and began packing up the gaming system, trying not to worry that his moment of weakness may have ruined their good, progressive day of friendship.

Alec lay in bed that night, staring at the ceiling, and tried to get the end of day's event out of his mind.

He had had a lot of fun that day, way more than he anticipated, and more than he ever expected as security detail. Taking this job on was certainly a change of pace, and it only was proven more every day. He didn't expect to end up actually liking spending time with Magnus, but today had proven him wrong. Especially after Madzie left and they still managed to have fun together.

And then Magnus had to fall on top of him and Alec had to feel every line of his body. Had to smell the warm, woodsy scent of his cologne. See every fleck of colour in his chocolate eyes.

Alec laid like a deer in headlights while Magnus stared down at him like he had never seen him before. Like he was some wondrous sight to behold.

But then, just as quick, he was getting off of him and referencing the failed game they had been playing, and Alec felt like an idiot.

Magnus had just been stunned by the fall, taken off guard. He hadn't been about to kiss him.

Right?

Continue to Chapter 5

#malec #magnus bane #alec lightwood #shadowhunters #malec au #malec fic #shadowhunters fic #the bodyguard fic #celebrity!magnus #bodyguard!alec

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tadmean-aa · 6 years

Text

YEP, HERE WE ARE FOLKS

so. this is a post i didn’t want to write, but here we are. if you’ve followed me for a while you know i don’t like drama / public discourse, but i genuinely have no other choice. i’ve tried to handle this privately to no avail. and while i’d appreciate the word being spread about this person, you’re welcome to block this post or blacklist the tags. i’m not here to tell you who to interact with or start a fight. i’m not here to discouse this or argue. the facts are the facts, and the facts are that this user has stolen from me repeatedly, even after being asked to stop, and has taken credit for intellectual property and an interpretation largely inspired by coping with trauma. massive drama under the cut. sorry folks. i’ve tagged it as ‘long post //’ as well for mobile users.

tl;dr? @cvffeinequeen (whats good?) ripped me off majorly. it’s driving me nuts. tw for ic abuse mention.

on one hand, i thought about not writing this because it’s literally just tumblr roleplay. on the other, writing coco this way, this very specific way, has been a way to cope with my own similar struggles, and the last straw was seeing this person getting credit for their “creativity”, aka the things they blatantly ripped from me. to see someone being praised by unknowing people for taking a story that i crafted from my own hurt, a story that they’ve gutted and repurposed so they can roleplay with it instead of coming up with something of their own, was the absolute final straw. not to mention that if they’ve stolen from me and gotten away with it, it’s not unlikely they’ve taken from other sources as well. maybe someone else will come forward, idk.

if any of the screenshots or links below are not conclusive enough, feel free to come to me and i will try to get you better ones / answer your questions. this is a long post, but i’m not about to call someone out for the first (and hopefully last) time without bringing some hard ass motherfuckin proof. my old blog (tadmean.tumblr.com, or tadmean-a.tumblr.com if the first doesn't work) is available multiple times on the wayback machine if you need to check some of these for yourself.

for context, i found this user in the coco adel tag through an edit. i always like to see duplicates (it gets lonely being the only coco), so i clicked the url to see what their blog was like and maybe follow if they were cool with that. immediately, something stank. on closer inspection, i realized their bio was ripped directly from mine and reworded—examples below. bear in mind that they have changed their blog background color since then, which is why some of the caps dont match the current blog; it used to be this shade of red (?), now it’s a brownish pinkish color. the bio has also since changed, but i’ve included the three different versions. i sent these screenshots to a close friend the night i found this blog, as well as to another friend a couple days later / a week maybe? so that’s why some of these are discord screenshots.

BIO POSTS: ( pt 1 ) ( pt 2 ) ( pt 3 ) ( pt 4 ) ( pt 5 ) ( pt 6 ) ( pt 7 ) ( pt 8 ) ( pt 9 ) ( pt 10 ) ( pt 11 )

screenshots in hand, i instant messaged them and let them know i saw what they were doing. screenshots below:

DM CONVO: ( pt 1 ) ( pt 2 ) ( pt 3 ) ( pt 4 ) ( pt 5 ) ( pt 6 ) ( pt 7 ) ( pt 8 )

NEW BIO AT THE TIME: ( pt 1 ) ( pt 2 ) ( pt 3 ) ( pt 4 ) ( pt 5 ) ( pt 6 ) ( pt 7 ) ( pt 8 ) ( pt 9 )

BIO AS OF NOW ( 11 / 29 / 18 ): ( PT 1 ) ( PT 2 ) ( PT 3 ) ( PT 4 ) ( pt 5 ) ( pt 6 ) ( pt 7 ) ( pt 8 ) ( pt 9 )

past this, we just agreed to be mutuals and that, i thought, was the end of it. sure, the bio wasn’t all that changed, but they’d seemed to realize the error of their ways and i was naively optimistic.

from here, it temporarily got better. then got way worse. whether it was formatting ( x, x ) ( x, x ), ( x, x ) the names of tags ( x, x ), ( x, x ), personalized tags ( x, x ), musings posts ( x, x ) ( x, x ) (these being just a few), etc. this user has mimicked my blog to a T. but this is all just context. the thing that i’m here to talk about, however, are headcanons. i started writing coco as a way to cope with my own trauma/abuse & personality disorders; it started from the thought that if a strong character like coco can manage it all, then so can i. and it’s not like we have a whole lot of canon content for coco that might lead people to the same conclusion about her life—coco is a character that has maybe? 30 mins to an hour (being very generous) of overall content? the things i’ve written about coco is not stuff you can conclude from her canon material. period. she’s essentially an oc based on five seconds of material. if you have any doubts, remember that: coco has essentially no canon content or backstory. almost everything on my blog is a headcanon. that said:

LIST OF A FEW STOLEN HEADCANONS:

stole coco’s troubled home life as an heiress ( x ) and how she runs away later in v4 ( x ). this is the biggest one.

coco’s father has been the main antagonist of her story (way before weiss’s bg was revealed, or jacques was really even a character). this person has not only ripped off coco’s bad home life, but ripped off her father being the particular antagonist ( x , x ). they’ve also mentioned the similarity to weiss’ story but i can’t find the post. however, because this is ripped off, there’s no reasoning for why he’s the worse of coco’s parents. this is a common theme with this person: they take a headcanon and remove the fat from it so it’s not as recognizable. this also removes the context and reasoning for the headcanon.

ripped off small bits and pieces off my page: like coco barely sleeping ( x , x ), often getting detention ( x, x ) (something that’s not mentioned in their bio), sweet tooth ( x , x ), scars ( x, x )

coco’s full name being something she only gives to people she trusts ( x , x ) or people who would have it off her record, since it’s a reminder of her family.

oh, the best one! i posted a headcanon post specifically to literally see if they would take anything from it, and they did! blatantly! here (hair hc: x , x ) and here ( x , x, x , x). a link to my post: x and theirs: ( x, x )

in their bio, they write that these are headcanons they’ve been writing for years. well, funny enough, lots of the things they’ve taken are things i posted and started writing about years ago. so i guess in a way, that was honest. throwback thursday!

let me be clear: if you’ve interacted with this person, or if you didn’t notice, or you noticed but didn’t say anything, you’re not the bad guy. in these situations, the bad guy is the thief. period. i realize to some people this might seem silly, but i’m extremely sick & disabled and cannot work or really do much of anything; writing coco convincingly and making her relatable has essentially been my job, my sole motivation, for these past 3-4 years. i’ve poured hard work into this interpretation, only for someone to come along, butcher it, and claim it as their own. to you, it’s not a big deal, but to me? it’s years of work, stolen.

i hate to make this post. i hate serious posts, i hate drama, i hate anything that might discourage someone else writing for coco. i love duplicates! i’ve never had any issues before! but this person isn’t roleplaying as coco; if anything, they seem to be roleplaying as a version of my blog. which, not cool but also, creepy.

so, yeah. please dont send anon hate their way, this person is still a minor. but being a minor doesnt make theft okay! apparently we still needed that said out here in the rpc. thanks for reading guys, peace

#call out post //#long post //#theft //#callout post //#ok to reblog #ooc.#drama //#is it ? idk

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riskeith · 4 years

Note

hihi! <333

it didn’t stay for long but then it started snowing a lot again and this time it seems like it will stick.. dude crazy how different our climates are rn.. i can only imagine how warm it is rn in aus. no worries! there’s always a tomorrow after today :DDD my days has been nothing but stressing over school and exams, watching haikyuu, playing genshin and thinking about you (sry i have to flirt can’t help it 😜) wbu?

i do have her, i meant hypothetically ! also THE DILUC COMIC IS SO SPOT ON gosh that’s so funny shhdkdhdjdjdj that happened with my boy bennett he just... can’t light those torches... bouken da bouken... 3: gotta bring out amber for that task tbh.

traveller is such a op!! from what i gather people sleep on them because they’re free and there are “more” exciting characters but traveller is a five star!!! put some respect on their name 😤 to each their own, but yk. underrated baby.

YEAH PRO BENDERS!!!!!!! well.. they’re on opposite teams and something happens at an important match of theirs so they’re forced to link up to survive and well.. yeah 😌 i’ve written about 20k words and i’m not even half done with the story help... i really wanna finish it though... anyway yes i do write shdksjdksjdk at first i was too shy to bring it up but you know so much about me already might as well.. 😶 i’ve written for years but i only started posting seriously again after years of not doing it in 2020... i have a couple out actually !! shsjdjhdjdjd not a lot of klance but some bnha ! 🥺 maybe someday i’ll share... 🥺

this connects a bit with this ^ part above as well i suppose. it was incredibly freeing ! it was actually the best thing i’ve done to myself.. idk i realized that that life was just dragging me down so much... always being connected and knowing everything all the time drained me so much. then i just cut everything out and found myself??? this sounds so generic but it’s true jshsjjsisjfj if it’s something you’ve thought about i truly recommend it!!! it takes some time to get used to the silence but god when you do it’s so relaxing. it’s like... so fun hanging out with yourself. i got into so many shows and watched so much movies and stuff by myself and made my own memories and i treasure that so much. shdhdkdhkssj this got so deep..... freelance writing do be like that. you can’t force it you just gotta let it come to you. but looking at your posting list you’re super consistent and it’s always quality fics so don’t feel too bad!! here’s an outside view telling you that you’re doing super well... <333

COUPLES THAT FIGHT TOGETHER STAY TOGETHER. yea they fucking do. look at us being todobaku kinnies... dhsjdhkshsksjdhdkd LMAO. GOD SERIOUSLY AAAA??????? wait 😭😭 venti baby is coming home..... he is coming home!! 😭😭😭😭 i’ve thought about it seriously and i’d happily pay money to have him his fighting style is just soooo good... 🥺 imagine if we had xiao and venti that would be so sexy of us. manifesting it all day every day. you know i would happily give some financial support for your xiao pulls... if it comes down to it <333333 i haven’t read anything either i haven’t thought much about shipping while playing tbh shksdhksshdk maybe someday for fun tho.. also i had no idea!!!! i’m def gonna check it out, is it on their website?

if they announced a movie and it was a prequel... i’d be so upset. like... so fucking upset lmao. there are so many unresolved loose ends it would be so annoying... but truthfully i don’t think they’ll do it. voltron took to hard of a hit for them to pull a move like that lmao .

hmmmm it’s true that studio ghibli movies end too fast.. one moment you’re like... in this amazing beautiful world and the next there are end credits. haku is BESTEST boy. dragon king.... <3333 you’re going on a studio ghibli marathon??? how beautiful of you. <3

🥺 ik but i love asking.... you know that tumblr post where the dude talks about how he keeps calling his wife ‘my wife’ because it makes him happy to remember that they’re married? that’s literally me.. ANYWAY AAAAA ! a one shot multichap sounds soooooooooo good.... i’d love to read it pls i’d be so honored. it’s up to you though i’d accept Anything i too have my whole heart open..

btw i’ve never asked but always wondered: what kind of music do you listen to? <3

*bernie voice* i am once again asking for your forgiveness. i keep sending these long ass asks i rly need to chill... goodbye LMAO :*

(‘read more’ again bc my reply got long fhksjfjds)

hi bb!

oooo nice! did you get to play in the snow~ and yeah ahah it’s close to 30 degrees rn! it was pretty shit earlier in the week but it’s gonna get hotter again for a bit. does it get pretty hot in sweden in the summer? or are you guys too close to the north pole or something for that to happen

that sounds good!! (other than the horrible thing that is school...) ahah you’ve got my heart going doki doki now please 🤪💓. in all honesty it seems pretty balanced tho i do hope you’re taking breaks from study and all!! hmm today i got up super late again and then i tried to go for a walk (it was too hot so i came back) and then i was editing a fic! and now i’m gonna play genshin bc i think a new event started, then hopefully maybe finally start studying fhksjfd

ahh ! AHHAHA nooooo rip :( but omg i still can’t believe you have bennett.. like i know that i haven’t tried for this banner and maybe i would have him too if i did but 😩😩 he’s so cute!! WAIT on that topic guoba does that too i swear i have to like make so many calculations and figure out the optimal spot to place him so he won’t go breathing fire in the wrong direction XD

i 10000000% agree!!! like excuse me they can also control TWO elements???? who else could ever 😩 i watched a video about geo traveller too some time ago and that made me stop sleeping on them like damn they did some damage!

hehehe that sounds so intriguing 👀 20k!!! that’s more than i could ever omg... sending you strength!! you’ve got this 💪💪 icb you were too shy to bring it up pls im losing my mind over here 😭 but aw that’s really nice <3 maybe 2020 did some good after all.. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pls whenever you’re ready i’m here... or mayhaps would you be okay with just plain copying a snippet into an ask sometime i promise i won’t look it up and try find you 😩 but i wanna witness some of your magnificence !

(also scratch that genshin co-op date idea um... fic collab instead?! could you imagine 😌)

yeah ugh i totally get the being drained feeling.. it’s like it doesn’t bring you joy you know? and you’re just still there bc you’ve just always been there and it’s too late to leave. !!! that does sound really tempting.. but i think i’m a bit too attached to the people i’ve met (you being one of them hehe) to fully let go. but if in the future i just need to take a break i’ll def do it! i was hesitant about doing that last year but now that i’ve done it before surely I won’t hesitate before doing it again (tho i’ve noticed that whenever i try to leave/take a break some new thing happens or releases and i’m losing my mind and can’t go fskjfhsd)

tysm marriage anon i appreciate you sm 😭💞 but yeah it’s easy to get lost in it sometimes but then i’ll look back and see how much i’ve actually done throughout the year and it’s like?? wow i did actually do and achieve a lot? so perspective matters i guess ahah

FHKDSJFH okay but todobaku who’s who? i like writing from bakugou’s POV more which makes me think I can relate to him more (like i used to write from lance’s pov a lot! that, and just bc we both love keith a lot 🤪) but i do write from todoroki’s pov quite a bit too.. hm.

and yes!!! honestly if venti is actually coming back i should invest in getting him too.. he can do so much !! the only issue i have is that i don’t really like bow users bc i’m shit at aiming hfkdsjfhjsd. waiting for the day we can live out our xiaoven dreams <333 FKJSHFKJSD and please don’t give me money for that fhsdkfjs!! spend it on yourself instead 😩😩 but also real talk i wasn’t gonna say this bc i’m uber paranoid that somehow someone will read it and hack into my account FKHSFKSJD but i have like... 12k primogems rn AHAHAH so i’m feeling good about getting him! ty for the offer tho but seriously, let that go to your own genshin funds first if anything fhksjfds get yourself a c6 venti. yeah honestly me not really shipping anyone is a big reason why i haven’t read anything either lolll. like the art is good and i’m fine but i’m not invested enough to read fics about it yet fdshfkjs. yup it is! in case you haven’t found it yet, here! (i saw that the prologue alone was 74 pages and yeeted out of there hfdsjf)

yeah i think dreamworks ended up kinda unhappy with it all FKJFHKDSHFS but honestly with how they ended the show i feel like in their minds all ends were tied so the only option would be for a prequel? idk. and also bc i feel like movies from shows tend to do that ahaha. or omg a spinoff with completely new characters and maybe we only get mentions or cameos of the old ones hfkdsjf

yesss i’m so excited to at least get through the most popular ones!! still haven’t started howl’s moving castle yet tho lol. can’t wait to finally understand when everyone talks about these movies 😩

no i don’t know that post?? but omg.. 💕💕 also is this an appropriate time to ask what your pronouns are/how you like to be referred to FHSDKFHSD i’ve been using non-gendered language as much as i could bc idk what you prefer!

okay i might.. post a link to that doc in an ask sometime soon then or hm.... what if i continued working on it instead... many different options hfskjdfd

i mostly listen to kpop!! ahah in recent years i’ve really said fuck western media and fully immersed in the asian stuff.. but yeah my ults are bts but i really got into seventeen in 2020 and i love them so much... they’re all so funny btsvt collab when HFKSFJS. hbu??

*bernie voice* i am once again asking you to stop apologising >:( please these are genuinely the highlight of my day LOL i am always looking forward to your messages!! pls do not chill >:((((

yours, c.r. <3

#marriage anon #wowclunaanswers #long post

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shithowdy · 7 years

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I realize this is a personal question from a rando stranger, but: do you mind explaining a little about what made you pull back from being a 4ch raider/participating in lulz culture? a friend of mine works for twitter's abuse dept and she is really struggling how to figure out the best ways to fight online trolling - any anecdote would be useful? (i recognize this is a big ask - feel free to ignore this if it's too much/private to talk about)

No it’s fine to talk about! I prefer to be open about my abhorrent behavior in the mid/late aughts since it was pretty impactful on both people I hurt and my own way of dealing with that kind of culture.

Trolling online these days is so much more organized, methodical, and scientific than it was back then. Social media was still a new concept, and websites had a lot more focus on niche audiences. Peoples’ online presences were scattered across several websites– their art would be on DeviantART, their private musings would be on their Xanga, their most social activity would be a forum attached to an anime fansite, and their different interests would be spread across several messageboards, LJ communites, Yahoo/MSN groups, etc.

Site names have changed and this isn’t 100% untrue now, but for the most part, segmented online presences are a dying breed. Most people share ALL of their work and thoughts on tumblr/instagram/twitter/reddit, all with one account, all very easy to learn about somebody. Things like DA still exist but are tertiary and not a primary method of interacting online. Reverse image searching, google maps, facebook, and people-finding tools also make hunting down someone to harass or impersonate them a lot easier.

I start by saying this because it’s important to observe the evolution of trolling, both in methods and intent. The internet is a completely different animal– before, to use an unsettling analogy, it was almost more about the hunt, now it’s about the kill.

Nothing in particular made me leave the subculture overnight. There was no conscious revelation that I could share in the hopes that others have it. I began roleplaying in World of Warcraft in 2009, and if I had to offer a turning point, that would be it. I went from being an angry little internet elemental to somebody meaningfully involved in a creative community that needed to work together to make each other happy instead of constantly trying to one-up one another. I played a character that was friendly, charismatic, and loved to help people. Between having to be in this constant mindset for roleplay’s sake and just in general getting to know people, I developed empathy for my fellow internet inhabitants.

As time went on it helped me explore more facets of myself, namely my very closeted queerness. RP communities are an extremely mixed bag and I encountered a lot of people openly sharing points of view I’d never considered about the world, eloquent people using a written platform where they can say everything they want to say in one place and consider it as long as they need before putting it out there.

I didn’t leave behind cruel behavior because I was stricken by shame. I just lost interest in it because I found more positive outlets, and listened to people with opinions counter to ones I’d held.

But how does this tie in to preventing abuse? I’m not sure that it does. Obviously there are plenty of cruel, manipulative, dreadful people in RP and other creative communities that have no intention of working as a team or considering others’ viewpoints, so it’s obviously not a result of the environment. But I think the empathy is an important factor– people behave as they do online because anonymity dampens empathy. Even if someone’s Twitter handle is their real name and their icon is their real face, their feelings are ultimately just a bunch of words on a screen, a person that in no way impacts your life. You don’t have to be privy to the devastation on their face as you tell them they’re broken and deserve to die. Bullying is a senseless but perpetual aspect of human nature and the emotional disconnect makes it worse.

Unfortunately empathy is not something Twitter, or any website, is capable of instilling in its users. That is something that needs to be addressed offline. People need to be made more acutely aware of their monkeyspheres, and be asked difficult questions like, “Why do you perceive X as unworthy of compassion? Who are they hurting? What is your goal? Why do you think that needs to be a goal?”And you can’t ask these questions online. You can’t make somebody uncomfortable with their worldview if they can hit backspace at any time and ignore it. But maybe asking the right questions often enough will eventually force them to think about it whether they want to or not.

Regardless, most people who bully do so because they have a perception of what’s “right”. This isn’t always a deep social issue such as racism; sometimes it can be something as simple as not liking how they spend their time, or the way they dress. One of my lowest moments in my teens was against a fanartist who traced various artwork to instead be their OC and a canon character. That’s it. That was their crime. But I was determined to make them stop doing it by any means necessary, and this meant impersonating them on /b/, alerting them to their existence. They figured out pretty quickly that it was me impersonating but they had already fixated on their artwork and I received no backlash, and they continued to hound them across various accounts. For what it’s worth, I did reach out a couple years back to apologize– but the damage remains.

Take that mindset and apply it to anything, from the notion that the bully has been denied something and is lashing out against a perceived cause, to a genuinely devoted moral crusade. The belief that they are “doing the right thing” (teaching a lesson, attacking somebody “bad”, thickening someone’s skin) is a unifying factor. Nobody sits there chuckling about how evil they’re being– they’re thinking, “this will show them”, and they get a rush out of having some control over this perceived slight.

What can websites do? They can take a more active role in moderating their community. They can ban hateful accounts and personally reach out to victims.

What can victims do? It fucking sucks, but don’t engage. I see a lot of debate on this but standing up to bullies online is a lot different than in real life. With a lot of media being based on “sharing”, retaliation opens up the potential for a wider audience of scum and they absolutely thrive on distress and watching people spend their time acknowledging them. You are not showing that bullying won’t be tolerated by refuting their words, you’re just giving them more shit to screenshot into their group chats before they roll in and call you more slurs that you publicize for them yourself by engaging. I say this from the perspective of someone who did that. A blocked/deleted insult is no fun. An insult with a “get a load of this guy cam” reaction image followed by several reblogs of people insulting the anon or saying how unacceptable this is is successful.

What can trolls do? Find a better outlet, you guys. Honestly. It’s a rush to feel like you have some kind of control and power over people by drawing reactions out of them but making people happy feels even better. Cruelty impresses only people that will have no qualms hurting you too.

#oh that got long #randomproxy

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saltpepperbeard · 7 years

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Let’s Talk About The Last Jedi

So I’m feeling So Pumped about this movie that I feel the need to do one of my giant reviews. The Internet had me feeling such mixed emotions going into this movie that I genuinely didn’t know what to expect. I half expected to come out of the movie seething and pissed at every choice made, and then I half expected to be utterly and completely #Shook. And I can genuinely and thankfully say that it was the latter. With that being said, I’d love to get into screaming talking about it for anyone who may have doubts about seeing it, or anyone looking for someone with similar thoughts.

So then! I’ll give a quick spoiler free review before I dive into the deeper stuff. The internet, tumblr especially, made me think that this movie was going to be completely different from how it actually was. I went into the theater expecting certain things to happen that never did. I went into the theater expecting to hate the character choices and never did. I was almost nervous really, preparing myself for this movie to be a Phantom Menace as opposed to a Return of the Jedi. But no, it was its own thing.

In retrospect, the plot had surprisingly very little going on. I feel like the other Star Wars movies take place across weeks, even months. But in this one, all the action felt like it took place anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. Despite this, it managed to keep me incredibly invested, never really slow down, and pack a lot into a short time frame. SO MANY THINGS WENT WRONG SO QUICKLY.

I kind of like that though. It shows how unpredictable and unforgiving war can be. It made it seem more real, more organic if that makes any sense.

Even the characters that were introduced had me quickly invested in them. There was a character who only had maybe 20-30 minutes of screen time, and she ended up being one of the characters who made me cry the most.

Everything was just nicely paced, characters were handled well, and it was overall just a really good movie. It made me laugh a lot, cry a lot, and come out instantly wanting to see it again. It might not be everyone’s favorite, but it definitely left a lasting impact on me. The amazing new characters, the action sequences, the answered questions, the lore, and the setup for a new movie completely locked me in. It’s re-watchable for sure, and will definitely be higher up on my favorite Star Wars movies.

...Now with that being said, feel free to follow be beneath the cut for more! Just a warning, there will now be Heavily Spoilers and Heavy Opinions™.

The Discourse™: OKAY. So I feel like this is the thing I need to address first since I’m an open air now, because this is what had me lowkey turned off from the movie in the first place. I went into this movie thinking there was going to be a romantic connotation between Kylo and Rey, and was admittedly bothered by it. Force Awakens clearly set up their relationship, with Kylo being drawn to Rey’s power, and Rey being utterly disgusted by Kylo’s actions. So to get it in my head that these two were going to be led in the direction of a romantic relationship had me cringing a bit.

I don’t have a problem with people who write fanfiction and kind of shift/manipulate their intentions for shipping purposes. But to have said motivations be canon would be...a bit concerning considering how JJ set them up to be.

And I can say that when I saw the movie, I was so relieved to see that it followed the arc that JJ introduced. I know a lot of people are holding on to the idea that Rey and Kylo were reaching out to each other, and were romantically/sexually invested in each other. But really, genuinely, I did not see this.

I saw Kylo wanting Rey solely for his power. I saw him craving power and craving leadership. His actions reminded me very much of, ironically, Darth Vader. I saw the same kind of motivations that I did with Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. Vader wanted Luke to join him in his quest to rule the galaxy, because he knew that having a very strong force-sensitive individual by his side would amplify his power. And I feel that was the same with Kylo. He knew Rey was force-sensitive. Hell, he got hIS ASS KICKED AND HAD A SCAR TO SHOW FOR IT. So he and ultimately Snoke both wanted her on the First Order’s side for that reason.

And then of course, Rey wanted Kylo on her side with the motivation of changing the war. I recall her talking about how beneficial it would be to have him in the light again. And that makes sense; having Kylo on the Resistance’s side would take a huge chunk of darkness/power away from the First Order. It would really change things the frick around if Kylo joined those he swore to defeat. So in knowing that there could potentially still be good in him, Rey pulled a Luke and attempted to bring him away.

Their little force connections were very interesting, but again, I didn’t sense any romantic longing. Any time Kylo reached out to her, he appeared to be attempting to corrupt her. I noticed that he would jab at her weak spots a lot, such as mentioning her loneliness and past burdens. And in knowing that channeling negative emotions such as those leads to the dark side, it can be pretty safe to assume that he was trying to get under her skin and get her to join his purpose.

Rey of course, resisted his dark intentions. She did however, reach out to him once. And I believe this happened because she saw potential good in him. She saw a supposed gate to reach his light side, and attempted to pass through it. She wanted so bad for him to be good again.

And of course when he appeared so close to be redeeming himself, only to shut it all down, she had no problem with shutting him out. She realized at that point that he was irredeemable.

Not to mention that Snoke had been instigating their little “Force Skype Calls” from the beginning anyway. He openly admitted to filling their heads with thoughts and tampering with their weak spots to break the both of them. So it never really was Kylo reaching out to Rey or vice versa anyway. It was all formulated.

SO ANYWAY, I was very much satisfied with the way their interactions played out. And just a PSA, I don’t really have a problem with anyone who ships them. If you like writing fanfictions and what not, imagining what could be, then you are definitely free to do so. I however, do not see any kind of romantic or sexual connotations in their relationship, so I was happy with how things were presented in this movie.

The New Characters: This is the part where I start screaming, bECAUSE H’OH MY GOD. I LOVE THEM????? WHAT GOOD KIDS???????? Rose quickly had me invested in her character with how smol yet heroic she was, and her chemistry with Finn was amazing. And then of course Holdo sjflksjdksds. Jesus CHRIST that woman. I cannot get over her character honestly. I was so frustrated with her in the beginning and felt like she was holding back the Resistance from achieving their goals. But then everything fell into place and her motivations were explained perfectly and??? The part where she sacrificed herself by slamming???? into the First Order ships at light speed in absolute????? silence?????? had me probably tHE MOST SHOOK I WAS IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE??????? AND SHE HAD SUCH A MINOR ROLE IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS BUT MADE ONE OF THE BIGGEST IMPACTS AND IT WAS SO UTTERLY INSANE

Rey: I have to admit, I was hoping that Rey would explore more of that “balance” between the force in this movie. She seemed to give into one side or the other pretty quickly as she attempted to figure out her purpose and who she was as a jedi. But I suppose ultimately at the end, she found her place and decided what path she was taking by shutting the First Order out and aiding the Resistance. I suppose I had it in my head that she was going to master both the light and dark side, becoming a Grey Jedi. I had images of her in my head wielding a double-sided red and blue lightsaber. And who knows; maybe she’ll explore more of this in episode nine. We still really didn’t get to see the type of Jedi she’ll become, and I guess that’s what I was hoping to see in this movie.

I did of course, really like to see her journey as she attempted to figure things out, and the small hints at how powerful she really is. I’M JUST SO READY FOR THIS LITTLE POWERHOUSE TO BECOME SUCH A POWERFUL FREAKING JEDI/FORCE USER.

Poe: I know a lot of people were complaining that Poe’s character was cut down, and he was made to be this “scoundrel” type of character. I even saw people going so far as to calling his character choices sexist because of how he disobeyed both Leia and Holdo. But honestly, I saw nothing wrong with his character choices. It was established pretty well in the first movie that Poe is very gung-ho, that he’s a bit cocky, and that he likes leaping before looking necessarily. And I think this movie only amplified those character traits.

I think Poe is our Han of the new trio. He tends to act before he thinks things through properly, and acts in the hero mindset. I think he would have disobeyed anyone who tried to give him orders, as he was so set on his plans and so invested in saving the Resistance in the way that made the most sense to him.

So he wasn’t problematic. Just a Good Boy who was trying his best and just wanted to save the day for his boyfriend fellow fighters.

Finn: FINNY-FINN-FINN IS BEST BOY. God, I love him. He’s just so good. His character is just so delightful, and I adore how he has the same fighting spirit as Poe. He’s willing to do anything for those he’s fighting for, and I swear to God, if he had flung himself into that charging gun, I would have flung myself down the theater’s stairs. Like I appreciate your sacrifice and character, bUT YOU ARE TO GOOD TO LOSE LIKE THAT SO YOU SIT YOURSELF DOWN. Also, while I love his dynamic with Rey, his dynamic with Rose was super cute as well. I’m glad he was able to establish a good relationship with her, and then also go to Rey in the end. My boy is surrounded by a lot of good friends, and I am So Glad.

Luke: So being overly dramatic must come from the male side of the Skywalker family. All the ladies have it together, but the mEN JUST LOVE THEIR STOMPING AWAY AND THEIR DRAMATIC CAPE FLINGS AND THEIR L’OREAL HAIR MOMENTS. But also let Luke rest, he is tired.

In all seriousness, this was actually another element the Internet had me real worried about. I was honestly expecting Luke’s character to be utterly butchered. Like, I was expecting him to not feel like Luke whatsoever. And admittedly, initially, I was a bit worried there in the beginning. He just seemed so cold and so unapproachable and so just...not himself that I was sitting there like ohgodohgodohgod.

But then I came to realize that Luke had been through A Lot; the poor guy was literally blaming himself for the entire uprising of The First Order. Like, despite Snoke being the one to seduce Ben to the dark side, and Ben ultimately failing Luke as opposed to the other way around, he could not see it as such. He carried the burden of starting everything.

And then I also realized that Luke has been a sassy lil dork since A New Hope. After all, he only wanted to go to Toshi Station to pick up some power converterrrssss! And then when he was learning the ways of the force with Yoda, he was impulsive and even quick tempered at times.

So really, he wasn’t out of character at all. Just really really really tired.

He also probably saw a lot of his younger self in Rey. And in seeing what he became, and what he thought his actions created, it made him shut himself out, and therefore her as well.

It was so amazing however, to see Luke come back in full swing. Good God. To see him finally warm up to training Rey, all the way to seeing him LITERALLY PROJECT HIMSELF ON THE ASTRAL PLANE TO WHIP HIS NEPHEW INTO SHAPE LOL. LIKE YES. THAT’S HIM. THAT’S LUKE SKYWALKER.

And his death didn’t feel too out of place either. The whole thing with him finally being at peace, and that friggin binary sunset symbolism bullshit that decided to show up and murder me was a great touch as well. It’s like his arc made a complete circle, so his death felt heroic, it felt like he was laying to rest and allowing the new jedi to take his place.

Leia: I couldn’t handle Leia for a few reasons. First and foremost being, I would tear up whenever I saw Carrie Fisher on screen for obvious reasons. Secondly, she’s always been one of my favorite characters in the entirety of the Star Wars franchise, if not my ABSOLUTE favorite. So I of course adored watching every aspect of her personality on screen. I love Leia in the sense that she never has time for anyone’s shit, but is also one of the warmest and wisest characters in the entire franchise. And probably one of the strongest too; your girl has been to every circle of hell and back and hasn’t ONCE been tempted by the dark side. I absolutely adore her.

But what had me really really REALLY shook with this movie was finally FINALLY getting to see her use her force sensitivity. Like of course we got to see her reaching out to Ben and Luke, something she’s demonstrated in Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Force Awakens. But tO ACTUALLY SEE HER SAVE HERSELF FROM THE DEEP DARK DEPTHS OF SPACE BY UTILIZING A FORCE PULL???? I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT.

I had actually spoiled that one bit unfortunately, because I couldn’t live with not knowing if Kyle Ron killed his sweet mother or not lol. But even in knowing it, I was still crying and in complete shock in seeing it. I’ve always wanted Leia to show her jedi tendencies ever since I was a smol Star Wars fan. And even though it wasn’t much, seeing her legitimately using the force on the big screen...I’M STILL MESSED UP JUST THINKING ABOUT IT

And also on a little side note, I want to cry every time I think about Leia being able to see and feel Luke when she was on Crait. Her being able to converse with him, and practically reuniting with him just...MURDERED ME. IT WAS LITERALLY THE ONE THING I WAS HOPING FOR, AND WELP THERE GOES LUKE KISSING LEIA ON THE FOREHEAD AND CAUSING MY SOUL TO AGGRESSIVELY ASCEND.

The Creatures: It honestly cracked me up to see how much the Porgs and Vulptexes were hyped up, and then to rECEIVE SO LITTLE OF THEM. Any time they were on screen though, they were very delightful. The one scene where Chewie had a cooked Porg, and he got guilt tripped into not eating it by these little puppy dog-eyed Porgs had me DYING. And also the Vulptexes were heckin’ good doggos. Brought the Resistance out of the salt mines 10/10.

Overall: I would get into even more detail, but considering this whole thing is getting to be a legitimate novel and I touched upon what was most important to me, I’ll just wrap things up by saying I thoroughly enjoyed nearly everything about this movie. I went in with lowered expectations, and ended up being blown out of the water. It definitely has re-watch value. It definitely stuck with me. It definitely kept my fandom spirit alive, and made me all the more desperate to see what happens next.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens now that Snoke is out of the picture, and now that there are other force sensitive users in the galaxy. Please see: that smol baby bean at the end of the movie. I’m very excited with everything this movie set up, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what Nine will bring.

#Jodi rambles #TLJ #The Last Jedi #Tlj spoilers #Tlj review #The Last Jedi review #Star Wars #Kylo Ren #Rey #Luke Skywalker #Leia Organa #Poe Dameron #Finn #I JUST HAD A LOT OF OPINIONS #AND I STILL DON'T THINK I'M ENTIRELY DONE #BUT THIS IS GETTING WAY TOO LONG AND I'M SO TIRED AND I'M JUST JKDLFJSLDS LOL #I'M EXCITED ABOUT TOO MUCH AND JUST NEED TO GET MY MAIN POINTS OUT #BECAUSE ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME KNOWS I WILL RAMBLE UNTIL IT KILLS ME

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5hfanfiction · 7 years

Text

We Might Be Like Spaghetti

There are so many things about Camila that no one understands. Like the fact that she can’t walk a straight line properly without falling. Or that she can be a confident little vixen one second and a timid, awkward girl the next.

So instead of wasting her time trying to come up with a reason why she is how she is, she’d rather use a vague definition if they ask her to describe herself.

Weird.

Not like, weird to the point that she has to go to a mental hospital (despite what her friends say), she’s just… different from other people.

I mean, for one, she has an obsession with bananas. And I guess, at one point in life, we all do get obsessed on something. But this is different, she just loves them too much that her parents literally had to pry the fruit away from her grasp. They’re just scared that she might have potassium poisoning (and by the amount of bananas she eats, they’re actually surprised she’s still alive).

She’s also dorky. A cute one though, not the annoying one. Well, maybe she does get on someone’s nerve at times, especially when she wakes people up with her annoying little random facts. A recent one was when she told Dinah facts about saliva.

Chancho [3.26am]: dinah

Chancho [3.26am]: china

Chancho [3.27am]: did you know that in our lifetime, we could produce enough saliva to fill 2 swimming pools?

Chancho [3.27am]: lets dig a hole and fill them up using our saliva. our verY OWN SALIVA POOL.

Cheechee [3.28am]: Bish, why you disturbing my beauty sleep? Go disturb someone else.

Cheechee [3.29am]: And why the hell would you wanna make a swimming pool with our saliva. You know we could use a hose or some shit right?

Chancho [3.29am]: that’s not the point Dinah.

Needless to say, she’s pretty weird.

That same night, she also texted her other friends with other facts. (She likes to spice things up, she doesn’t repeat what she tells the others)

Camila is also a bit artsy fartsy. And sure, in this world, a lot of them are. But this is different (Not really).

She’s always on tumblr, saving aesthetically pleasing pictures of the cloud or some shit and poetic excerpt Tumblr users post. She sometimes even sends them to Lauren after, probably cause she’s, too, artistic and she always treasures whatever Camila sends her.

An opening to talk about what really matters now.

Lauren. (Well, Lauren and Camila)

Lauren has been Camila’s best friend since middle school. She’s cute, loud, funny, irritable and just, weird, I guess.. A different kind but all the same length.

How they first met was a bit cliche, but hey… Cliche are cliches for a reason, they attract readers.

Lauren was in all of her class in 7th Grade, including homeroom. Camila didn’t think of anything at first. Just a girl with an inviting smile who is oddly alone in the corner of the class.

Why odd? Well, for one, Lauren is pretty. And when Camila thinks she’s pretty, it really means that she is. Trust her.

She’s the kind of pretty that makes her seem approachable. Her skin is soft and it looks beauteously white. Definitely a huge from Camila’s tanned skin tone. Lauren also seems social; Camila has heard her talk in front of the class before and she knows from there that Lauren isn’t a shy girl.

Secondly… honestly, I don’t even need to explain why it’s odd that’s she’s alone. The fact that’s she’s mesmerizingly captivating is enough.

Camila even knows that it’s not just her who finds her attractive. She’s heard boys in her class and even in the hallway talking about how they wanna ask her out. It never happens though, they’re too much of a pussy.

Except that one time when this guy Keaton asked her out and she said no in front of the class, making all the other guys immediately back off in fear of rejection.

That stunt intrigued Camila, if she’s being completely honest. No girl has ever said no to Keaton before.

Since then, Camila has always wanted to talk to her. But she’s too much of an introverted wuss to even look her way for more than 10 seconds. So they don’t talk.

Until one day, their science teacher put them as lab partners.

During the first 30 minutes, they didn’t talk. They either listened to the teacher –mostly Lauren cause Camila felt like she was deaf, she could only hear her heart beating loudly she’s surprised Lauren didn’t make a comment on it– or copy what the teacher had written on the whiteboard in front of the lab. Again, mostly Lauren because Camila’s hand is shaking as she wrote a simple P for the word Penis.

(No, she wasn’t shaking because of the word, penis. In fact, she flaunts that word a lot to her friends because her friends are still uncomfortable with the word and she likes to make people uncomfortable… See. weird)

“Are you okay?” Lauren’s sweetly raspy voice traveled through Camila’s ear and into her… well… whatever her ear is connected to and into her brain.(Can you blame her for not knowing though? Biology sucks)

“Uh.. Huh?” Camila jumped at the sudden noise, causing her pen to slide down the table. Camila’s reflexes kicked in and she frantically (and awkwardly) tried to grab the pen before it hits the floor.

She caught it and that’s when she noticed that she was awfully close to Lauren since she had to lean to her side.

She cleared her throats and studied the porcelain skinned girl. And again, she wasn’t joking when she said Lauren was really pretty. She feels the need to push that fact.

“You’re kind of shaking..?” She smiled worriedly a bit and it made Camila’s heart swoon at how Lauren seems like she genuinely cares for Camila.

Lauren doesn’t seem intimidating at all, Camila thought.

Psyche, Camila is still scared shitless.

Camila moved away and straightened her back. She looked over to Lauren’s hand and tilted her head when she noticed how it was trembling too.

The green eyed beauty followed Camila’s gaze and laughed. A really melodic one at that. It sounded soothingly cherubic to Camila. “Yeah, I shake too. But it’s more because of my genetics than anything else. My hand can never stay still.”

Camila nodded and smiled nervously.

“Do you talk?” She asked, just at the same time Camila realized that she hasn’t said one word to Lauren.

“Uhh.. Yeah,” Camila croaked out, internally hitting herself in the head for not clearing her dry throat first. She swallowed her saliva (damn it, she wasted that when she could’ve collected that for the swimming pool) and repeated what she said. “Yes.”

Lauren laughed once more and that’s when Camila begins to smile as well. She also thinks that it should be a good idea to record it and play it before she sleeps, just so she could have a good night rest.

“I’m Lauren,” she introduced, smiling cheekily with her hand extended for Camila to shake.

“Camila- Karla- I mean- Some of the teachers still call me Karla but I prefer Camila- And my friends call me Camil- But you can call me Karl- Or anything really- I don’t mind. Actually, scratch that, Kar-” Camila started rambling.

Fun fact; when she’s nervous, she tends to ramble and stumble onto words.

“Camila? Breathe.” Lauren grabbed both of Camila’s shoulders with her hands and stared at her brown eyes with her green ones.

“I like your eyes.” Camila pointed out without a second thought as she continued to stare at Lauren’s mesmerizing eyes.

“Thanks… I like yours too. It looks warm and welcoming.” She smiled bashfully.

After that, they started to actually warm up to each other through the next few hours in class. They realized that they have a lot more in common than they thought they would’ve, and it immediately made Camila like Lauren more (platonically of course). When lunch rolled around, she invited Lauren to eat with her other two friends, Taylor and Selena.

They instantly clicked with her, just as she had with Camila. And that made Camila’s heart swell.

So okay, anyway, their friendships started getting stronger then and they soon became the best of friends.

They hung out a lot and Lauren later revealed that her friends had, for a lack of a better word, dropped her the second they found new friends.

And Camila immediately despised Alexa (her current bestfriend’s ex-bestfriend). No, not because she’s jealous or anything, it’s just that she hates how she’d unfriend a girl like Lauren without actually having a reason to.

Okay, who is she kidding, maybe she is a bit jealous. Can you blame her though? They were childhood bestfriends and from the sounds of it, Lauren still treasured her like Alexa did nothing wrong. Alexa has done nothing to gain Lauren’s trust and yet, she still trusts her the most. Camila, however, worked hard for it.

The next year, Camila got lucky when she found out that she’s gonna be in the same class as Lauren again. It sort of calmed her anxiety since she was scared that Lauren might find a better friend than her if they’re not together 24/7.

And yeah, Camila got territorial there, but it was purely platonic. Definitely.

When they were in 8th grade, Lauren started dating this guy, Luis. He was very shy and they barely talked to each other during the first few months into their relationship. Camila was surprised when the raven haired Latina told her that they’ve went on 5 dates already and got official.

Camila was a bit tilted at that. But, it was mostly because she doesn’t trust Luis and she doesn’t want him to break someone as perfect as Lauren’s heart. It wasn’t because of the fact that she might’ve liked Lauren just a teensy bit.

It also didn’t help Camila to feel better when she found out that Alexa was the one who set them up. But what could Camila do, honestly?

After they got official, the whole school found out about it. While the others swoon at how sweet they seemed, Camila spent her time watching out for Lauren by stalking him in every social media he has. Just to make sure he’s not a dick.

And while they were together, Lauren still had a lot of time to spend with Camila. Camila loves the fact that she does. Really, she does. But she doesn’t like the fact that Lauren’s always talked about Luis this and Luis that. Never really about weird things like they usually talk about.

((Camila doesn’t really remember most of the contents of what they usually talk about before Luis came into their life, but one of the discussion Camila vaguely remembers was when she articulately described what would happen if she could jump high that she could just jump to the moon. And Lauren laughed hard at that, that was why Camila remembered it most amongst the rest. (She’d like to take a trip to the cloud to say hi to Jesus before continuing her journey to the moon)))

But yeah, ever since Lauren started dating Luis, every odd conversation they had was replaced by that ugly ass excuse of a human being.

So okay, maybe Camila does loathe him. But Lauren doesn’t know that and Camila is convinced that it’s better that way. Less questions to answer, she thought. She also feels like it’s better if Lauren talked about him rather than them not talking at all.

They didn’t last long though. If Camila remembers correctly, they lasted for about 3 months. (She forgets why, mostly because its irrelevant to wherever this story is going)

When they broke up, Lauren was a bit down. Not because of him per se, just the fact that she never get to have someone to text and call to everyday anymore. And yeah, Camila’s heart broke a bit because Lauren didn’t see Camila as a candidate to have her sole attention.

But nevertheless, Camila took it upon herself to actually text her goodmorning and goodnight everyday and in between, she’d send weird memes when they weren’t together. You know what, we’re all honest here, Camila even sends them when they’re basically hip to hip. Camila’s weird like that.

Okay, so they do text, and although Lauren hardly replies, it doesn’t stop making Camila to hyperventilate when she gets a notification from Lauren.

But again, they’re all very platonic feeling. Camila isn’t into girls, and as far as she knows, Lauren isn’t too. She just feels some sort of a connection with Lauren, like they’re always on the same wavelength.

The next year though, it was very different, to say the least. For one, Lauren was no longer her classmates. Like, at all. In fact, she was on a different building from Camila’s classes. She should’ve seen this coming though, especially since she got lucky the year prior. The universe likes to fuck people up by giving them hope, only to disappoint them after they’re in Cloud 9.

Okay, well, at least Camila still had break and lunch with her right?

WRONG.

At the very beginning, they did hang out. But just like any normal friendship, they didn’t have time for each other anymore.

Well, that was quite dishonest if you ask me.

It was more like Lauren didn’t have time for Camila anymore, especially since Lauren got in the same classes with Alexa, making them bestfriends after only a month of being classmates. That sort of sucked for Camila because she had grown attached to Lauren. I mean, a year and a half of being together and basically inseparable, it’s hard not to.

To Lauren though, she thought that she did nothing wrong. Because to her, Camila was just another girl from her class.

So yeah. It sucked but whatever.

Lauren even started dating someone from Camila’s class, Brad Simpson. Quite attractive, Camila figures.

At one point, she actually tried to be his wingwoman.

Brad knows how close Lauren and Camila were once upon a time and one day, he came up to her and asked about Lauren. He seemed genuine about how he feels for Lauren, so she decided to give him a helping hand.

A mistake on her part.

She went to Lauren during lunch one time and she said nothing but good things about Brad, hoping that she’d buy all that crap.

And she did.

They went out and started dating. Again, everyone envied their relationship and to Camila, even if it kinda sucked, she was happy that they were happy.

Why it sucked? Well, they never really thanked Camila or anything to show gratitude about setting each other up.

But Camila’s not that petty, she really didn’t expect anything.

So fast forward to High School.

Oddly enough, Lauren, Brad, Alexa and I went to the same school. But still, Camila wasn’t lucky enough to be in the same class as her again.

Brad and her even stayed together through their high school years. Until the day before their senior year start that is.

This is when it gets sorta depressing.

Camila never really knew how their relationship were like. So she lacked the details and she might mess up a few storyline. And yeah, fun fact; this is based on true events.

So, some time during Christmas, Lauren and Brad had a huge fight. And when Lauren’s mad, she tends to say (aggressive) things that she doesn’t really mean. And well, needless to say, she said pretty mean things to Brad.

He took it to the heart and eventually broke it off on text. Yes, on text. Not even a phone call goddamn.

The sad thing was, she got too attached to him already. And they’ve been together for fairly a long time for someone so young. It almost felt like forever to her.

That was what she thought. She thought they were gonna last forever.

Unfortunately, when something doesn’t go her way, she gets sad. The kind of sad that makes you wanna hug her until she’s happy again, no matter how long it takes.

Of course, Camila didn’t know how bad their break up at firs, it wasn’t like they were close that time, so she assumed that Lauren was fine.

What she found later though, it was the opposite.

In New Year’s Eve, Brad went to a party while Lauren was bawling her eyes out in her room. She saw him drinking and partying and flirting with other girls through a video her friend sent.

Trigger warning… She eventually got depressed that night and cut her wrist with a razor.

That’s not the worst part though. What’s worse was the fact that she actually took a picture and send them to Brad.

No.

Actually, the worst part was the fact that Brad showed the picture to his friends. How she knew? His friends actually texted her and asked if she was okay. Brad, however, told her to stop it. He told her to stop trying to make him pity her.

(When Camila heard this, she regretted ever trying to play matchmaker with the two)

So of course, what Brad said stung Lauren and it only made her more depressed. She barely ate. She stayed at home, juggling between crying and sleeping in her room. She wasn’t as social as she had gotten during the first few years in High School.

She was a big ball of mess.

Alexa, her so called bestfriend, was never there for her. In fact, she actually sided with Brad, saying that even if she and Lauren are friends, Brad is still her friend too. Which is totally malarkey because the only thing mutual they had was basketball.

Camila hasn’t even seen them talk.

It was just the fact that Brad was popular and Alexa have an obsession with climbing up the ladder, not caring about who she steps on along the way.

So while Lauren was blamed for their breakup, Brad was given the crown for ‘trying’ to stay 'cordial’ with Lauren (fun fact; she never told anyone except for Camila about what he said to her that night). Why she was blamed, you ask? Well, it was originally because of that one simple slip up on Lauren’s part about how stupid Brad is. Only that it had more colorful vocabulary than that.

Through senior year, Brad eventually got a new girl and Lauren was still struggling to look happy for her friends, not wanting to seem like a downer to them. (Seriously, what kind of friends are they?)

Senior prom came and Lauren got asked by Brad’s best friend, James. She reluctantly said yes at first, but she thought, 'Hey!! Why the fuck not?’ So after a few days, she gave in and they actually started talking.

But sadly, Lauren and dating never really go well, do they?

She found out that James was talking to another girl and they fought. James broke it off just a few days before prom and asked a different girl, a girl that Brad was dating no less, as his date.

James’ date was stupid to accept James and not Brad honestly, seeing as Brad was the one she’s dating with at that time. Wait, you know what? I’m bitter, it’s just plain stupid of her to say yes to any of them.

So Lauren, once again, got fucked over by two douches. But she’s hopeful. Too fucking hopeful.

Brad was baffled too. His bestfriend literally went under his nose and got the girl he was in midst of courting.

So he made a ridiculous plan. A plan that included Lauren. He asked Lauren if he wanted to go fuck James over by going to prom together.

She said yes.

And there they went, Lauren looking beautiful in a blue dress while Brad wore a matching tie, surprising everyone at the event.

Camila was also surprised, even if she wasn’t there. (Camila actually had a date and she sort of canceled on him last minute)

After prom, Lauren and Brad started talking again. And Lauren was stupid enough to think that it might work out again.

A few months later, college days came.

Coincidentally, Camila and Lauren went to the same college, Lauren bringing Brad with her.

And that was how their friendship starts to blossom once more.

During orientation, they sat next to each other and just talked and laughed together, mocking everything the people did on stage. They also started to go out together. (Of course, Brad was there and Camila became the professional Third Wheeler)

One time, they went to this resort, only to find out that it costs more than their budget. So since they couldn’t stay there, they opted to at least watch the sunset before they go, only to groan in frustration when rain started pouring down at the same time they sat down.

It was quite a shitty day for all of them, but Camila wouldn’t trade that memory for anything. Lauren looks cute when she whines.

((And it wasn’t like Camila was lonely. Actually, she started dating quite a lot of guys since they started going to college. But unfortunately, no one really caught her eye to make her stay))

Camila and Lauren, once again, became inseparable.

And through those first few months, nothing really sparked Camila’s feelings towards Lauren.

Well… actually, one time, Lauren stripped to her underwear when she was in the same room and it did make Camila internally gasp as she subtly watched her through the corner of her eyes.

But that was about it, Camila felt nothing towards Lauren. And maybe the fact that Brad and Lauren were always attached helped her a bit.

Until, of course, Brad decided to move to U.K. to study there.

It broke Lauren into pieces, but this time, Camila was there for Lauren.

Camila was there when Lauren ranted about how much it hurt.

Camila was there when Lauren got depressed. But before she did anything, Camila is already outside her door with fastfood and Ben & Jerry’s on her hands.

And since Lauren and Brad already broke up, her friendship with Camila got tighter. (It’s not that it wasn’t at first, it’s just that Lauren had to share her attention to two of her favorite people before that. And now, it’s solely on Camila)

After class, either Lauren or Camila would drag the other to watch a movie together. Just the two of them.

One of the memorable one was this Korean zombie movie. Camila complained about how she’s not up for reading subtitles throughout the movie. But Lauren gave her one puppy look and Camila melted.

Camila also hates ghost movie and she promised herself to never ever watch it. But alas, Lauren made her change her mind.

Yeah, Camila becomes a weak ass bitch when it comes to Lauren. Or you know… whipped.

So okay, everything was fine and dandy as Camila and Lauren battled college education together, studying (more like gossiping) in a local cafe when their exams are around the corner, eating junk food in Lauren’s apartment when the both of them are free. They practically did everything together.

But what Camila never really noticed (or she does but refuses to acknowledge it at first) was the fact that she might have felt something for Lauren. Something that isn’t platonic.

That didn’t last long though.

She first noticed that something was different when she slept over at Lauren’s one time. They just finished watching The Notebook and were lying idly on the bed. The 1975 were playing in the background as they stared at the ceiling, a comfortable silence encapsulating both girls.

It might be nothing, they’ve done it countless times after all. But something about the sudden intimate atmosphere made Camila notice just how much she loves doing this with Lauren.

She then realize that she wouldn’t mind spending all her life with Lauren like this.

Inevitably, she began to question why all she needs is Lauren. All her life, she had always wanted a romantic partner to accompany her as she grows up, but why does Lauren makes her feel… complete.

And that’s when she begin to register that maybe she wants that so called romantic partner to be Lauren.

Of course, being in denial, she shrugs it off at first.

But ever since that thought crossed her mind, there is this nagging voice at the back of her mind everytime she gets close to Lauren. It was like her mind, body and heart subconsciously want Lauren.

She starts pictures having dates with Lauren. She starts imagining how it would feel to kiss Lauren. She starts to think about how it would be living with Lauren 10 years later, doing domestic stuff at home like cooking and cleaning. She even begin to envisage Lauren walking at the altar towards her.

She realizes that she wants Lauren, not just as a friend.

And it scared her. There she is, 18, and turning 19 soon, when she found out that she might be falling for her bestfriend.

Another fun fact; Camila likes to run away from her problems.

So quite inevitably, she ran. Not literally of course, she doesn’t wanna fall just yet. But she starts to distance herself from Lauren. Not quite far, but enough for Lauren to make new friends.

Being the greatest friend that Lauren is though, she introduced them to Camila.

And gradually, they subconsciously formed a group amongst themselves. Lauren, Camila, Dinah, Ally and Normani.

But still, no one could beat Lauren and Camila, and that made Camila glad. At least she didn’t push her too far.

Camila eventually got comfortable with Lauren again later that year.

That wasn’t the only thing that changed though.

Lauren also started dating this rich prick, Noah. Noah was in her Art class and one day, he asked if she wanted to go out. Seeing nothing wrong with him, she accepted it.

Don’t worry though, her heart by then was guarded with millions and millions of bricks.

And ironically, that was epitome of their relationship problems.

She never really opened up to him like she should and it frustrates Noah to no end. Then, everything seems to trigger him. Like the fact that she always cancels their plans to go out with Camila. Or the fact that Lauren has a lot of guy friends. Or even the fact that she never really introduced him to her friends.

Can’t really blame him though, it’s true.

(Of course, Camila knew everything about their relationship. But the other girls.. they knew nothing of him, just that they were dating.)

While they were having problems, Camila was able to suppress whatever she was feeling towards the green eyed girl.

Barely.

Being the naturally possessive girl that she is, she starts to claim Lauren. Subtly, of course.

It starts from holding hands with Lauren as they three walk around campus. Then, it escalated to Camila claiming the seat next to Lauren everytime they all have lunch (Lauren always brings Camila to their date, for some reason). She does everything Lauren wants; giving her flowers whenever she finds them, knowing just how much Lauren loves a single rose instead of a bouquet (she chokes back a laugh everytime Noah brings Lauren flowers). She also knows that Lauren hates chocolate and with that, she couldn’t hold back the laugh bubbling on her throat when she sees Lauren’s nose scrunches subtly when he gave her just that.

“Why are you laughing?” Noah asks Camila with an annoyed tone.

“Nothing.. Its just that.. You know that Lauren doesn’t like chocolate right?” Camila says mid-laugh.

Noah looks back at Lauren expectantly and was irrevocably humiliated when he sees Lauren nod hesitantly.

Needless to say, they had quite an interesting screaming contest when he called her that night. What he didn’t know was that Camila heard everything he said to her.

It made her pissed but she couldn’t do anything.

But all that was temporary. After some time, she realizes that she couldn’t destroy their relationship. What she was doing was selfish and despite how shitty he is, he does make Lauren happy sometimes.

So she also started dating to this guy, Austin. If she can’t get the person she wants, why not move on and date a guy she assumes is the best for her.

Get ready to more confused, probably.

She first met him through a mutual friend’s birthday party, Zara Larsson.

The two immediately hit it off since they kind of have the same kind of humor. He was dorky and playful and it made Camila feel like someone finally gets her.

Don’t get her wrong, she knows for a fact that Lauren gets her. Its just that its mostly because they’re used to each other. In fact, in more ways than one, they’re quite different. But their kind of different is a positive one because they complete each other. What Lauren lacks, Camila fills and vice versa.

(Lauren, frankly, lacks sympathy while Camila has more to a fault. Camila teaches Lauren to take people’s feelings into account while Lauren teaches Camila to not let everyone in because most people are shit)

Theyre kind of like Yin Yang in a way. Or you know, the moon and the sun.

Anyway, Austin was nice and that definitely helped Camila’s decision to try dating him.

When they first interacted, Lauren was there. She saw how Austin was basically attached to Camila throughout the night. Like, one time, when they were all in the dining room, Austin actually came up to Camila and sat on the same chair she was sitting on.

While Camila send him a inquisitive look, he shrugs and smiles.

“There aren’t any more chairs to sit on,” he said.

“There’s a chair beside me Austin,” Dinah pointed out.

And if Camila looked at the right person clearly that time, she could’ve seen the person she’s in love with sigh in relief when Austin was basically forced to sit on the vacant chair.

But it didn’t mean that Camila wasn’t looking at Lauren. Hell, she probably looked at her more that a bestfriend should. She was always there next to Lauren, she remembers listening to Lauren laugh when she whined as her drink spilled because she danced around Lauren a tad bit much. She remembers Lauren dragging her to the toilet because she felt like it (she didn’t even pee).

But that night was apparently a long one. Because even if they were attached, Camila still had time to be singing in the karaoke room with Austin. She remembers walking to a vacant couch at a secluded area and Austin following after her (even if there were millions of seats he could sit on. Thats how she knows that Austin was somewhat interested in her). She remembers singing All My Life by K-Ci and Jojo with Austin and him looking at her as he sang. She remembers that it was pretty cliché and very High School Musical of them.

Two days after the party, Camila received a text from a random number in midst of texting Lauren.

(Camila was sending her this cute ass joke that made Lauren laugh harder than she should.)

Unknown [7.03pm]: Hey, it’s Austin. Ummm, from Zara’s birthday party.

Unknown [7.03pm]: I got your number from her. I hope thats okay?

Unknown [7.04pm]: I was just wondering if you want to go out with me sometime.

After she reads the text thoroughly for 10 minutes, she does the thing any normal girl does.

She asks her bestfriend.

Camz [7.16pm]: Remember that dude that sat next to me in the dining room for a sec?

Laur [7.20pm]: Yeah… Why?

Camz [7.22pm]: Well, he texted me.

Camila waited for a reply from Lauren, and she could see that bubble popping in and out when she did. But the text never came after ten minutes. Camila got tired of waiting so she called Lauren instead.

“Laur, what should I do?”

“Why are you asking me? He’s your problem, not mine,” Lauren says sharply, making Camila frown immediately at her shift in mood. Lauren seemed happy when they were texting.

“Are you okay?” Camila asks, and Lauren sighs defeatedly.

There were shuffling sounds before Lauren answers. “Nothing, Noah’s just pissing me off.”

“Oh,” Camila say, buying the excuse immediately. Though she was just hoping that Lauren was annoyed at the idea of Austin and her and little did she know that it was completely why.

(The difference between Austin and the rest of the guys she temporarily dated was the fact that Austin was the first guy Lauren knows Camila was mildly interested in after Brad left to go to UK.)

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Camila asks.

“It’s okay, it’s nothing you don’t already know,” she answers dismissively. Camila didn’t question it because she knows that Noah and Lauren always argues about the same thing.

“Okay well, since you clearly don’t wanna talk about him, what do you think I should do with Austin?”

Camila swears she can feel Lauren’s eye rolls through the call.

“What do you want?” Lauren asks. Camila could hear how strained her voice is, but she decides to not point it out since she doesn’t want to push her buttons.

“I don’t know. What do you think?” Maybe, Camila wants Lauren to convince her to not to associate herself with him. (And maybe admit that she wants Camila like she wants the older girl, but Camila shakes that thought off fast since she thought it was impossible)

“I don’t know Camila,” Lauren replies. Camila knows that she only says her actual name when she’s unhappy with her, “I mean, it’s not like you have feelings for somebody else, right?”

“Well… Um…,” Camila stutters, caught off guard with the question. “No.”

“Then why not?”

She hung up immediately after. And to say that Camila was hurt would be an understatement.

What she thought was that Lauren didn’t care about her. Not enough to talk about her current predicament with Austin. She’s been with Lauren through thick and thin. She had even gone as far as to drive her around in the middle of the night when she was sleepy as fuck because Lauren couldn’t sleep and was still hung up on Brad.

Anything that Lauren has a problem with, especially in terms of boys, Camila was always there to try to give her unbiased opinions, even if it kinda killed Camila a little bit.

She’s also selfless when it comes to Lauren’s happiness. For example, during Lauren’s birthday, she actually had a plan to surprise Lauren but last minute, she received a call from Noah that he already had a plan for her. Camila accepted defeat and took down everything she did. She even went as far as to help him surprise her.

Even if it hurt her.

Hell, she even canceled on a date she had with this random dude because Lauren wanted to watch a movie with her.

And now that she has something a dilemma she wants to fix, Lauren hung up on her.

It just sucks. So fucking bad.

At that time, she feels like Lauren doesn’t care about Camila like she does for her. Not gonna lie, even if it was improbable, Camila still lowkey hoped that Lauren has feelings for her, even if it was only a fragment of she feels for the older girl. But that idea was soon out the window and so, she accepted Austin’s proposal and they went on a date.

He was really sweet. They went on this Cuban restaurant and he did everything a normal gentleman would. They even walked around the streets for a couple of hours to talk about nonsensical things after dinner.

And for once in a million years, Camila finally felt like she could open up to someone romantically again.

So she went on a couple more dates with him.

Lauren… Lauren was somewhere. She sort of dropped from the face of the earth and if sort of made Camila worried.

Actually, she was more than worried.

She texted a couple times, only to receive nothing in return.

Just when she was walking to her car in campus, planning on going to Lauren to check up on her, she saw her walking with Noah with their hands intertwined and a huge smile plastered on both their faces.

It further aggravated Camila. While Camila was worried sick, Lauren was happy and having fun with Noah. She didn’t even bother trying to reply an “I’m okay” to her.

(And maybe, just maybe, she hated the fact that Lauren looked happy without her)

She wanted to talk to Lauren, but she didn’t want to cause a scene so she decided to wait for Lauren outside her apartment building.

You might be asking why Lauren has an apartment to herself and why Camila’s not actually living with her. It was actually because she already paid for my dorm room and she didn’t know that Lauren actually rented an apartment for the both of them.

She did say that Camila should make good use of the dorm that she paid for for a year and only then, she could move in with her. I mean, she didn’t oppose if Camila moved in early, but the campus didn’t accept refunds and the least Camila could do was try to stay there for her parents.

Camila waited for around two hours or so before she saw Noah’s sports car (he’s so flashy it’s annoying) stop in front of the building. Camila should’ve opted on texting her so she didn’t have to wait that long, but I guess she needed time to recollect her thoughts.

When Lauren climbed out of the car (he didn’t even get out of the car and open the door for her), her gaze immediately fell to Camila and to say that she was surprised would be an understatement.

“Cam-”

“I wanna talk to you,” Camila cut her off.

“Um, yeah sure. Hold on.” She turned around and waved at Noah before he drove off. “Let’s go up first.”

They rode up the elevator and into her home in silence, not sure of what to say. Camila wanted to talk about why Lauren seems to avoid her while Lauren didn’t want to talk at all, period.

But apparently, Lauren’s wish wasn’t granted when Camila asked her what’s going on the second they walked inside.

And Lauren being Lauren, she didn’t give in immediately.

“Lauren please, what’s going on? Did I do something wrong? I’m really sorry if I did. I just really miss you Laur.” Camila practically begged.

“It’s nothing about what you did. I promise. It’s just that I needed time to think about stuff and it just… I don’t know Camz. But I promise it’s not about what you did.”

“Do you wanna talk about it? You know, whatever it is that’s going on in your head.”

But for the first time, Lauren didn’t want to open up to her. And it bothered the brown eyed girl to no end.

But at least Lauren had the decency to try to divert the topic and just like that, it was enough to distract Camila from the tangible tension between the two.

And so they’re back to normal.

Only now, Lauren has Noah and Camila has Austin.

You see, Camila isn’t an oblivious girl like Lauren is in typical Camren fics. She knows that something’s going on in Lauren’s head.

Like, she knows that Lauren is annoyed whenever Camila starts talking about Austin. She also knows that Lauren hates it when Camila has to raincheck their plans because she already made one with Austin. Anything related to Austin just pisses Lauren off.

She is also almost certain that Lauren hates Austin.

But she doesn’t know why she does. She doesn’t know why Lauren always clings on Camila almost everytime now and when Austin is there, she doesn’t know why Lauren suddenly has somewhere to go or something to do.

Okay, so maybe Camila is a little bit oblivious. But hey, it’s kind of refreshing in a way, isn’t it? I’m putting an end on Lauren’s oblivious streak.

Anyway, Lauren had gotten quite hot and cold with Camila lately.

It gets weirder though.

Sometime in August, they were calling to check up on each other and Lauren pointed out that she doesn’t like it when Camila calls her by her name.

“I hate it when you call me Lauren or Laur.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know, it seems too formal. Like we’re close, why call me by my name?”

“But the girls call you by your name,” Camila reasoned.

“I know.. But you’re you. And they’re them. You’re different from them.”

“How?”

“I don’t know Camz.. I just don’t like it when you call me by my name.”

“Well, what do you wanna be called then?” Camila asked.

Lauren pauses.

“Baby,” she said cheekily, even giggling towards the end.

“What?” Camila said, a bit baffled.

“Baby, I want you to call me baby.”

“Why?”

“Cause I like it. It sounds cute. So why not?”

“Uhh..” Camila trailed off, not really convinced that she was serious. But for the heck of it, she said, “right, sure.”

“Say my name,” Lauren said suddenly.

“Uh- What?”

“Say my name.”

“Lauren?”

“No, not that. Say my name.”

“Umm.. Baby?”

Lauren giggled again when she heard Camila say it.

“Yes baby?” Lauren replied.

“You’re acting strange, but okay,” Camila deflected, a little bit uncomfortable. Sure, then flirting is a common occurrence, but this is just… weird. It’s making Camila’s heart beat faster than when Austin calls her baby. It’s making her stomach hurl because the butterflies are just flapping around the small space in her abdomen.

The next day, she didn’t think that Lauren would remember the conversation they had prior.

The girls, along with Ally, Dinah and Normani, had decided to have a study session in Starbucks after lunch.

Austin wanted to go out too that same day so Camila compromised by having lunch with him first then study with the girls after.

But then, she sort of lost track of time a bit and Camila realized that she was really late at the end of the lunch date.

So she opted to text Lauren.

Camz [3.52pm]: are you there already?

Laur [3.54pm]: I was, but since you’re not here yet, I decided to go home to change.

Laur [3.54pm]: I miss you :(

Camz [3.55pm]: Hehehehe, I miss you too.

Camz [3.56pm]: I’m on my way there though.

Laur [3.59pm]: Alright, Ill be there soon.

Again, it’s not that they’ve never flirted before. In fact, they do it so much that at one point, the three girls have asked them whether they were together or not.

They even joked about how hot they would be if they were 'lesbian-ing together.’ Their words not mine.

So the fact that Lauren just said that she missed her shouldn’t make Camila feel weird. But it does. Her heart did somersaults while the butterflies in her stomach for the same thing the day before.

30 minutes after Camila settled down and Lauren walked in with the brightest smile she has ever seen.

“Camziii,” she squealed, putting down her books to the table and hugged her.

“Lauren.”

“Wait, that wasn’t what you promised,” Lauren teased.

“Promised what?” Dinah decided to butt in, looking at both girls expectantly.

“I asked her to call me baby last night,” Lauren replied, her confidence unwavering. My heart started speeding up when she had confirmed it once again.

“Yeah, well then, hi baby..” Camila said awkwardly as she hugged Lauren again, still confused at what was happening with her bestfriend.

She just giggled in response and sat across from Camila.

That wasn’t the only weird situation Camila was put in that day. That same fateful night, Lauren asked something weird.

“If you were lesbian, would you stay in the closet?”

“Come again?” The pen cap Camila was biting prior flew out of her mouth. She thought she wasn’t hearing Lauren correctly.

“If you liked girls, would you stay in the closet?” The raven haired girl said slowly, making Camila’s eyes grow bigger.

“Oh.. Uhh.. Would you?”

“No.. Yes.. Honestly, I don’t really know.”

“Well, umm, I don’t think I’d hide my relationship. I think I’d actually flaunt her in front of everyone.”

Lauren smiled in response.

“If you could date any girl in your class, who’d you date?” Lauren inquired once more.

You, Camila thought. “Oh. Umm.. I can’t think of anyone right now. You?”

“Probably Ashley, she’s so artistic. It’d be cool.”

Literally, Camila could hear her heart breaking when Lauren said it. There goes her hope again.

Nothing weird really happened that week. And honestly, I don’t think Camila could handle it if Lauren were to continue whatever game she was playing.

The next few weeks, Lauren and Camila started being normal again. Maybe not normal like how usual bestfriends are, considering the tension, but it’s their kind of normal and that’s all that matters. They even continued on talking about boys again.

And then, she broke up with Noah.

That’s when shit started getting weirder between Lauren and Camila.

When Camila asked her why they broke up, Lauren vaguely answered the fact that she didn’t make time for him, and he got tired of it. (He actually noticed just how close Camila and Lauren were and he hates being out second)

Camila bought it.

Then, one time at lunch, the 5 girls went to this restaurant and they were getting quite rowdy.

Normani pointed out that she misses making out and that she’s desperate to find a companion.

“Since you miss making out so much, why don’t you make out with me?” Camila flirted with a wink.

That time, she and Lauren were holding hands under the table, and she could feel Lauren’s grasp getting firmer.

“I love you Mila, but I’d rather kiss Lauren.”

“Sori Mani, I wouldn’t kiss you if you were the last person on earth.”

Normani gasped and playfully threw a napkin to Lauren.

But the fact that Normani wouldn’t kiss her offended Camila, she pouted throughout the lunch time, not caring about what they were talking because she was disappointed. And that her ego was greatly bruised.

The desperate didn’t even want her, she thought.

Lauren saw Camila’s shift in mood and squeezed her hand to gain her attention.

“I’d kiss you Camz..” She whispered, making Camila’s body tingle with anticipation.

But lol, Camila was still with Austin.

A few days later, when Camila told Lauren about how she almost did it with Austin, Lauren literally said that she couldn’t handle looking at Camila and went off, leaving Camila alone.

Shits like that kept happening until at one point, Camila felt like she needed to talk to her about it. She was just so fed up with how Lauren was acting.

Even Austin mentioned about how flirty Lauren is to Camila. He asked her if Lauren was into girls or not. Camila asks why he’d think that and he said that he’s almost sure that the gazes Lauren throws at Camila was love.

Camila didn’t believe him.

Eventually, it caused them to argue. Camila argued that Austin was irrationally jealous and he got pretty pissed about that.

Then, they argued at the fact that Camila always sided with the raven haired girl if Lauren and Austin had were fighting.

Austin eventually gave Camila an ultimatum; Austin or Lauren. And Camila almost laughed when he asked that. Just thinking of choosing him over Lauren made her stomach hurl.

So they broke up after 5 months of dating.

And just then, Camila finally moved in with Lauren.

Throughout the week after Camila and Austin broke up, Lauren did the same thing Camila did to her after Brad. She brought back food and Ben & Jerry’s as Camila got sad over her break up.

(She wasn’t really sad, she just liked the attention Lauren was giving her)

Everything turned back to normal after. Camila being tortured by Lauren’s indirects and flirty comments.

And it throws Camila on a loop.

One minute, Lauren is talking about this cute guy she saw somewhere, the next she’s cuddling and saying cute shit like how she wants to live with Camila forever.

She was convinced that Lauren was playing with her heart. She thinks that Lauren knows how she has feelings for her, and now she’s just having fun toying her around.

So she decided that enough was enough.

“Laure-”

“Say my name,” Lauren cut Camila off with a smirk.

“Lauren.” Camila stood her ground. “What is going on with you?”

“Whatever do you mean?” She finally saw how serious the younger girl was and stopped reading the book that was on her lap.

“What’s going on with you?”

“What did I do?”

“You.. excessively flirting with me. What’s up with that?”

“I-” Lauren started. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do. I know you’re doing this on purpose. I know that you know that I have feelings for you. But you don’t ha-”

“Wait. Wait what?” Lauren perked up.

“I know you’re doing this on purpose?”

“No the one after that.”

“You don’t have to toy with my heart?” Camila asked questioningly, not sure where Lauren is getting at.

“No… no. Before that,” Lauren stood up then, walking over to Camila. Not that close, but close enough to hear Camila’s gulp.

“I have feelings for you.”

“Oh my God,” Lauren immediately wrapped her arms around Camila and hugged her for dear life.

“I’ve wanted to hear that since forever Camz.”

“Wait what? Really? When?”

“Uhh, I’m not so sure really. But after Brad, you were just so sweet to me and I couldn’t help but fall for you.”

“Hey hey now. No one talked about falling here,” Camila smirked. “I didn’t say that.”

Lauren laughed and she grabbed Camila’s face with her two hands, immediately planting a kiss on her mouth.

“I like you Camz,” The older girl admitted.

“I like you too Laure-”

“Ah! Say my name.” Lauren cut her off once more, the most cocky smirk plastered on her face.

Camila playfully sighed. “I like you too baby…”

Lauren immediately squealed and kissed Camila.

Finally, after years of trials and error, Lauren finally found the perfect guy for her. Only that it wasn’t a guy.

Sure, Lauren had her fair share of dating stupid boys. But needless to say, she wouldn’t change anything if it meant that she’d end up with Camila in the end.

And yeah, sure, there are still many things about Camila that they don’t understand, but at least now she can be sure of one thing.

It’s the fact that she’s not straight.

—

A/N

Lol. Idk.

I rushed the ending. Sors. But tell me what you think about the two.

It’s somewhat based on true story.

#UPDATE #one shot #AU #trigger warning #camren #humour #romance fluff #submission #We Might Be Like Spaghetti

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