#he took twitter from us so the least I can do is take a few pennies worth of ad revenue from his bottom line

[mxgoldenwood]

I still haven’t uninstalled the Twitter app from my phone even though I haven’t actively used it in almost a year— just got a mini jump scare from the new icon sitting there amongst my shortcuts and honestly that might be the thing that pushes me over the edge to get rid of it for good already ❌

[viennakarma]

Satisfaction [Part 1]

Lewis Hamilton x reader

Summary: Four times you tried to befriend Lewis, and one time you didn't.

Word count: 2.1k

Tags: female!reader, asshole!Lewis (he will get better), physiotherapist!reader, no romance yet, Lewis is being rude, reader is trying, cursing, a bit angsty, not beta read

Note: Lewis is being kind of an asshole, but I promise he will grovel a lot. This is a two part story. Gentle reminder that english is not my first language (so please bear any mistake), I'm also taking requests for F1 drabbles and oneshots (at this moment I'm writing for Lewis, Fernando, Max and Toto Wolff).

Find me on Twitter!

I.

You drank the rest of your iced tea in one gulp, pushing the nervousness away. It wasn't exactly anxiety, but more first-day jitters at a new job. Adjusting your ponytail, you stood up as one of the team approached.

“Y/N? It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Ellie from the HR team, we spoke on the phone. Lewis is around, so we thought we’d introduce you two now, okay?”

“Of course, of course, it’s nice to meet you, Ellie.”

Ellie showed you around, giving you a tour of the entire motorhome. You were aware that it was difficult to join a team after the season had already started, especially to take the place of a person who was very loved by everyone and who had been there for several years, but you were willing to do your best to get along with everyone.

Finally, Ellie took you to a training room, where Lewis was inside. He was sitting in an armchair, drinking water from a bottle when Ellie introduced the two of you. You smiled and offered your hand for a shake, but he just ignored his hand with a blank stare.

“Lewis, this is Y/N Y/L/N, your new physical therapist, you'll be seeing each other every other day” Ellie introduced them, not seeming to notice the cold way Lewis greeted you.

“Nice to meet you,” you murmured, trying to ignore the awkwardness between the two of you. Lewis just nodded his head briefly and turned to pay attention to his own cell phone.

Ellie then went over your entire routine for the next few weeks, as well as giving you a short guide to Lewis's physiotherapy sessions over the past two years, and required exercises from fitness to pre-race and post-race.

Your official working day began the following Tuesday at seven in the morning at one of the Mercedes workstations in Brackley, where the entire team was gathered. You needed to be there to look after Lewis' fitness as he had team meetings, and you needed to follow him wherever he went to be able to do your job. Honestly, it wasn't a big problem since you used to work with the Real Madrid football team, so you were used to the traveling routine.

As soon as you entered the building's small gym, Lewis was already inside, tying the laces on his shoes.

"Good morning!" You walked in with a smile, setting your bag aside and holding the two glasses of iced tea you had purchased on the way, “the weather is kind of warm today, huh? I bought iced tea for both of us.”

“No thanks,” Lewis said, standing up, “can we get started?”

The sharp tone left you speechless for a moment, but you soon recovered, tying your hair into a ponytail. You had hoped that the mood on the day you met Lewis was just because he was stressed or had some problem on that specific day. But it seems that today he also wasn’t very interested in being polite to you.

You took a deep breath pulling your iPad out of the bag where you had prepared the day's entire session. Okay, you were patient, you could win him over with time and maybe you could even become friends, or at the very least, on friendly terms.

“Alright, let’s start today’s session with some intense stretching to prepare your body for the intensity of the next few days’ sessions,” you murmured, pointing to the mat on the floor.

“Angela didn't use an iPad during our sessions,” he commented casually.

“Because Angela had been with you for years and had already memorized her exercises. Can we start?"

II.

“Hey, I’m sorry I’m late,” you said, entering the gym, plopping your bag on a nearby table.

“You could have a little more respect for other people’s time,” Lewis said, suddenly. You froze in place, your eyes fleeting to the watch high on the wall, that showed you were barely ten minutes late for the session.

“Yes, I’m sorry,” you repeated, pulling your iPad open.

You were a few weeks into your new job, and acquaintanceship with Lewis had not gone better in the slightest. If anything, it had gone even worse. Lewis was adamant in not opening up to you, not even in the professional sense of your work relationship. Every time you tried small talk, or even professional talk, he had shut you out barely politely. He was constantly annoyed by your presence, and didn’t engage in anything other than the exercises you were helping him with. You noticed his performance was going bad in the season, and you attributed his bad mood solely to that. That’s why you usually brushed off his rude remarks and his questioning of the quality of your work.

“We’ll do core strength today, Lewis.”

You spent the next two hours walking him through every exercise you had for the day. Sometime during your session, you tried to help him fix his posture by pressing a hand on his shoulder, but he brushed you off, only saying he was able to do it himself.

By the end of your session, he was visibly tired, and you reached in your purse to your small stock of protein bars. You grabbed two and tossed one to Lewis. He caught it in the air, staring at it with a frown.

“It’s a protein bar. It is healthy, vegan, and doesn’t taste like cardboard, for once,” you giggled, trying to strike up conversation, “honestly, I found this small brand from Hungary out of sheer luck and my life hasn’t been the same ever since, now I just order like this crazy-”

“Are we done?” He cut you off, you stopped smiling.

“What?” you said, staring at him going to his bag.

“Is our session done?” he insisted.

“Yes,” you said, deflated. Lewis walked away, and on his way to the door, he dropped the little protein bar you gave him in the trash.

You felt a lump in your throat, defeated. You had never had a client so difficult to deal with. Most of them were usually standoffish in the beginning, but they became friends with time, some of them you had a great relationship even now, years later.

Lewis just- he just hated you for apparently no reason, and it was making your professional life pure hell. It was hard not bonding with someone you work so physically close with. And honestly, you had tried everything in the book to help him acclimate to you, but he was just- immune. He didn’t like you, you had no idea if he even liked your job because he refused to give you any feedback whatsoever.

You refused to go to HR because it would make you look like a kid throwing a tantrum because the other kid doesn’t like you. What would HR do? Force Lewis to tolerate you? He would probably hate you more if that happened.

You just sighed, swallowing the tears as you left.

III.

“I was considering adding pilates sessions once a week, we can do reformer and clinical pilates alternating” you told Lewis as he did the final stretching of the session.

“I don’t like sudden changes in my exercise routine,” he said, getting up.

“Well, I believe it would do you good. And we can start slowly for you to adapt better. Does every other week work for you?” You taped your schedule on the iPad.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he muttered, visibly annoyed now.

“I can forward you a few articles I have been reading to show you, why I think it-”

“No, I don’t want that,” he shut you off completely, “can I go now?”

You sighed, enough was enough. You were pissed at him, being difficult, being annoying, fucking up your routine by being rude and being a fucking asshole.

“No, you can’t,” you said, voice firm, which kind of surprised him, since it was the first time you ever used that tone with him, “what is your fucking problem?”

“What are you talking about?” He folded his arms.

“What is your problem with me? Is it something I did? Or maybe something I said?” You pressed, walking towards him, the closest you have ever been to him.

“I have no problem with you,” he said and you scoffed, “we are not friends, you’re just my physiotherapist, nothing more, nothing less.”

You felt grateful he left as soon as he said that, otherwise he would have seen the tears filling your eyes.

IV.

“I went back to therapy, because I’m feeling like a failure,” you told Angela over the phone.

“Is he being so difficult?” She asked, sounding worried.

“You have no idea…” you whispered, pressing your temples.

“You want me to talk to him?” Angela said, concerned. You stared at your own reflection in the mirror inside the gym, seeing the dark circles under your eyes from lack of sleep. The last encounter with Lewis was enough to take a toll on your mental health and trigger a bit of insomnia.

“No, I think it would make it worse, but I appreciate the offer,” you sighed, exhausted, “I’ll work around these difficulties, and if it gets any worse, I’ll call you so you can talk to him. Deal?”

“Deal. Just- Don’t burn yourself out, ok? I know how he can be hard to deal with. Let me know if you need anything.” Angela offered, and you wanted to cry with the kindness in her voice.

“Yes, of course. Thank you very much for letting me vent, yeah? Talk to you later” You said, and noticed how Lewis entered the gym, seemingly surprised that you even were there.

That would make two of you.

This time you went through your training session in complete silence, only talking about his physicality and the exercises. You didn’t joke with him, nor did you make commentaries on the session. You just did your job silently, staring at him with a blank face.

As you finished, you packed your bag and left without a word, going straight to HR to put in your resignation letter you had written during your day off.

V.

Lewis noticed your absence as soon as he entered the gym for your session. You hadn’t been late ever since that time he called you out the first and only time you were late. Since then, you were always there when he arrived. But you weren’t there and he felt something was off. Maybe you had a cold or something and HR forgot to tell him.

He walked up to Ellie’s office, knocking lightly before entering.

“Hey there, Lewis! Can I help you?” She asked, putting away a few papers.

“Hey. Where is Y/N?” He asked, sitting down.

“Oh, I thought she had told you… She resigned two days ago.” With Ellie’s words, Lewis felt his stomach drop, but Ellie just continued talking, “she said she didn’t adapt very well to the routine, which is sad considering she is such a big fan of Mercedes and Formula 1. And, you know, since she was a recommendation from Angela Cullen, I really thought she would fit perfectly with the team.”

Lewis felt his mouth go dry. He didn’t know any of this. He didn’t know you were a fan of the team, as he didn’t know Angela had put you in her own position after leaving. He felt so, so bad, he was suddenly nauseous.

“Did she say exactly why she was leaving?” Lewis asked, heart beating in his ears.

“She said she wasn’t adapting to the traveling routine and it took a toll on her. She also apologized profusely, but I told her it was alright, it happens more often than she thinks.”

Lewis knew exactly the reason you left. He had made you go through living hell by being a stubborn asshole. You tried to befriend him, to be nice, to start small talk, to be kind and his only response to your attempts were flat out rudeness.

“Well, these things happen, right?” Ellie shrugged, sympathizing with you more than Lewis ever did. “So, while we find someone to fill her position, you’ll do your pre-race and post-race with George and his physiotherapist.”

Lewis didn’t hear any of the other stuff Ellie said, guilt eating up at him with such force he was out of breath. He didn’t even think before treating you that way, his brain just turned to that everytime he remembered he was alone now, that he had lost his best friend and confidante. Stress of the season had also caught up to him making him more irritable than ever.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he whispered as he left Ellie’s office, he needed to do something.

He called your phone, but you had blocked him already.

“Fuck, I need to fix this.”

[Part 2]

[suguruisms]

𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱

pairing: bf!toji x fem!reader

warnings: mentions of choking, consensual unprotected sex, spanking, oral sex, hair pulling.

summary: toji can't afford to stay in a motel during a job, so he goes to stay with you for the night. but you didn't know he also didn't have money for a condom.

a/n: so this was very loosely inspired by an art by user yunonoai on x (twitter) - i subscribe to their patreon and it was posted in june where they had toji say he didn't have enough change for a condom and that really took me out and inspired me to bring me here! also send me an ask on who i should write for next!

 When it comes to you, Toji is insatiable. He can’t get enough of you, if it were up to him he’d make a career of being buried in your tight cunt every single day; feeling your pussy squeeze around his cock and milk him dry. The way your eyes roll back in your head as he fucks you, the way his large hand rests on your neck as he squeezes your throat, your breathy gasps and moans. If Toji didn’t need money (and need money badly) he’d just stay home and fuck you all day.

But he can’t. It’s been too long. It’s only been a few days, but for him? That’s just too long. He’s been busy with work, tracking his targets, and some gambling maybe. He needed a way to relieve stress if he couldn’t come home and take it out on you, so gambling is a close second. Winning that winning bet is a close second to feeling your pussy around his cock. He’ll take what he can get, Toji reasons. But his job was running cold. He was too broke to afford another night at a motel, so here he is, at your apartment.

“Toji!” you answer, a wide smile on your face.

“Y/n,” he says quietly and his hand slides to your cheek to walk you backward inside as he kisses you.

Toji always kisses with purpose. He has a defined goal when he kisses. Toji isn’t one to kiss leisurely, he isn’t a very touchy-feely person outside of more intimate matters or a grab on the hip out in public to keep you close. You know what’s on his mind from the second he backs you up against a wall. Your hands hold his hair as his lips move slowly against yours, deepening the kiss once his tongue prods inside your mouth. A soft sigh emits from your mouth and his hands slide to your waist to keep you up against the wall.

“Close the door,” you mumble in between kisses and Toji chuckles a little against your lips.

“Sorry babe,” he says.

He doesn’t pull away just yet to do as you ask. He’s taking what he wants first. He always takes what he wants before anything else. It’s the type of man he is. He rubs his tongue against yours as the kiss grows a little messier, more heated. His hand squeezes your breast over your shirt and only when you make a little moan does he pull away and smirk to himself. He shuts the door and looks you over. Blushing, catching your breath as your head tips back against the wall.

“Miss me or what?” He asks with a playful tone, making you roll your eyes.

“You already know the answer to that. I don’t need to stroke your ego,” you say and push yourself off the wall to walk back into the bedroom where you are folding some laundry on the bed.

You didn’t expect Toji back so early, but you didn’t need to ask to know that this job he took wasn’t going so well. You also don’t need to ask to know that he’s broke, but at least he’s spending time with you. He’s your boyfriend, but he hates labels, so he doesn’t use them. But you know he’s your boyfriend.

“I have something else you can stroke,” Toji says as he follows behind you and it prompts you to roll your eyes again.

You stand in front of the bed, his warm chest resting against your back as his hands start on your hips, moving up your waist, before squeezing and playing with your breasts. You bite your lip, holding back a soft noise as his fingers pull down your bra a little to pinch your nipples over your shirt.

“I missed you, baby, you and your pussy,” Toji says as he presses a kiss against the back of your ear, “let me have what I want.”

You never tell Toji no, sex is always so good with him. It’s just as much of a treat for you as it is for him. You move the clothes out of the way; you aren’t letting him fuck you on top of your clean clothes.

“Take what you want then,” you mumble.

Toji isn’t one to ask for permission twice. He turns you around and presses a deep kiss to your lips. It’s hungrier than the one he gave you upon walking in, needier. He isn’t as slow and neat about it this time. You can feel his hands slide underneath your shirt to touch your breasts again that are spilling out of the cups of your bra and he sighs softly, feeling your warm skin against his cool hands, making you shiver with a small sigh into his mouth.

Toji is the one to break the kiss and press a kiss against your neck, biting your skin and sucking against it. He relishes in the sound of your moan against his ear and it shows when he rolls your nipple between his fingers.

“Let me fuck your mouth,” Toji says, and he waits for a nod before he pushes you down on the bed, flat on your back.

His hands are quick to take off your shirt and jerk your bra down to rest on your midriff, and before he does anything, he licks over each nipple.

“Miss these,” he says more to himself, but it makes you sigh softly in pleasure and whimper softly when his teeth drag against your nipples.

Toji pulls your hair to keep you flat against the bed and he takes off his sweats and boxers, freeing his cock. It always makes your mouth water to see it. Long and girthy, there’s no curve to it, but it has such a pretty mushroom tip to it. Toji argues that your lips around it make it look prettier.

“Eyes on me,” he says, his voice a demand now. He got all the consent he needs, and he knows how you like to be treated in bed.

Your eyes meet his and he smiles, a smug smile. He always loves how obedient you are. “Good girl,” he says beneath his breath.

He grips the base of his cock and pumps it slowly as he straddles you; knees tucked underneath your armpits, making your hands rest on his thighs.

“Open, tongue out,” Toji says, and he watches as you open your mouth and lay your tongue flat. The smug smile doesn’t leave, tugging towards the left side against his lip scar.

He taps the tip of his dick against your tongue a few times, rubbing the pre-cum bead against your tongue, making him groan out softly at the sight of it sitting against your pink tongue. He pulls back a little, stroking himself slowly. His pre-cum tastes a little salty and sour, but it’s not bad. You don’t flinch at the taste of it.

“Swallow,” he commands and watches as you do as he asks. Your cheeks flush a soft pink as you stare up at him, and you open your mouth again to show that it’s gone. Your fingers squeeze his thighs and he hums in satisfaction.

“Good girl, now relax,” Toji says, and he guides his cock past your plush lips and into your mouth.

He groans. Your mouth is always so wet and warm. It doesn’t feel as good as your pussy, but it feels great to get him going. Toji’s cock always fills your mouth so nicely, it makes little tears prick to the corner of your eyes when he pushes his cock deeper into your mouth and hits the back of your throat. Spit always gets everywhere when he fucks your mouth, but he likes it messy, and you don’t seem to mind when you see the wild look in his eyes when he takes what he wants. You can smell his natural scent as he pushes his cock in, taste a bit of sweat from the day on his cock, but it tastes good. Toji always tastes good, and the weight of his cock in your mouth is always welcome.

His hands find your hair and he grabs it, lifting your head back and forth to move on his cock. Small grunts and groans leave his lips when the tip touches the back of your throat and you gag a little around it each time. He always starts slow, letting you get used to it and breathe through your nose. Your tongue presses against the shaft of his cock with every thrust into your mouth and it makes him groan.

He lays your head down now and adjusts himself so his hips fuck into your mouth. Your jaw slacks, making a wet noise from your throat as he fucks your mouth. Toji holds your hair to pin you there, but soon his hand finds a new position. One hand is around your neck, and the other is still in your hair. He squeezes your neck, making your throat tighten around his cock with each thrust, and he groans.

You whimper softly around his dick and it comes out muffled and whiney. Saliva slides down your lower lip and chin as he goes faster and hits the back of your throat with every single thrust. The only sounds coming from you were gags from his cock, heavy breaths coming from your nose, and soft whimpers that were quickly muffled by the wet noises of his dick in your mouth.

“Good girl, you always take my cock so fucking good,” Toji says breathily as he watches your eyes water, face flush, and how messy you look because of his cock. Toji groans as you tap his thighs quickly, needing air, and he slides his cock out of your mouth and releases your neck. Spit coats his cock as he holds it over your lips, letting you take deep breaths.

Your throat feels sore from how fast he was fucking your throat and hitting the back of your mouth every single time, but you love the feeling. You nod slowly and open your mouth again, even if it is feeling a little sore. Toji grins and rubs his tip against your red, swollen, puffy lips.

“Are you on birth control, baby?” He asks instead, making your eyebrows furrow.

“Yes?” You respond, your voice is hoarse, and it makes Toji chuckle.

He gets off of you and gently rolls you over to take off your bra in comparison to the rough, brutish way he was fucking your throat.

“Mind if I cum in you, then? Didn’t have change for a condom,” Toji asks as he moves down to your sweats and spreads your legs so his fingers can rub over your clothed pussy.

A moan emits from your lips when he touches you, but your face has a bright blush on your cheeks. The question would be comical if his cock wasn’t throbbing in front of you and he was rubbing your pussy. You can’t think if you have any condoms here, but birth control is fine. Besides, he’s always wanted to cum in you and you’re protected enough.

“Go ahead,” you say breathily.

Toji looks surprised when you agree. He expected more questions, making fun of him, something.

“You sure?” He asks, and his fingers rub a little firmer, directly where your clit is. His eyes watch your every reaction.

You giggle softly, seeing how confused he looks, and your hips rock against his hand.

“Yeah, fuck me. We can discuss budgeting for a condom fund after you make me cum,” you say with a little smile and you watch as he rolls his eyes, but a little smile grows on his lips at your jive.

Toji slides his hands now to pull off your sweats and panties. He sees your wet spot on your panties, and he knows prepping you won’t take too long. He just likes to see you beg for it. One finger rubs your entrance, feeling how wet you are. It always leaves Toji so impressed to feel how wet you can get for him. Your body writhes a little as your hips rock a little and you whine softly.

“Toji, you can just fuck me,” you whimper softly, your voice breathy and pleading.

He presses his finger inside, feeling your wet gummy walls as he pushes it into the knuckle. He curls his finger inside before slowly pumping it in and out of you.

“I don’t know, I don’t think you can take it,” Toji says nonchalantly, as if he’s not doing anything special, as if he’s not watching his finger slide in and out of your pussy.

You can feel his finger. It’s thick and long, and when he curls it inside intermittently in between slow lazy pumps, it makes a whimper leave your mouth.

“Don’t be a dick,” you manage out through a soft moan and Toji laughs, moving his other hand to give your clit a pinch and slaps it gently, making you yelp.

“Don’t be a brat, you know how to get what you want,” Toji replies with a cocky smug smile on his lips and you wish more than anything you could wipe that fucking look off his face but there’s something about it that always attracts you. He knows he’s got you wrapped around his finger.

You go to speak when you stutter out a moan once Toji pushes another finger inside you. You can feel his fingers pumping in and out of you, scissoring inside your pussy as he curls his fingers upwards to hit your g-spot. His fingers are in so deep his knuckles are wet from rubbing against your entrance. You just moan, pleadingly.

“Come on baby, use your words,” Toji taunts and he laughs a little as his other hand rests on your mound. His thumb rubs your clit in small circles, making you whimper.

“Please Toji, please fuck me,” you whimper out and look at him with a desperation in your eyes that makes Toji’s face light up.

On a normal day, Toji could have you begging and edging you for an orgasm, but he’s fiending for it too. “Good girl,” he says and pinches your clit again for good measure to make you yelp.

You flash him a glare as he flashes you a smug smile. Toji looks you over and he pats your hip. “All fours,” he says quietly.

You nod and roll over to your stomach. You push yourself up on your knees and elbows, arching your ass upwards towards him. Toji grins and spanks your ass, making you whimper and enjoy the faint sting that comes with it. He grips his cock and lines the tip up with your hole and slowly pushes in.

Your moan fills the room, your forehead drops down against the soft comforter and you whimper as your fingers grip the sheets as Toji grunts quietly and bottoms out inside you. His hands grip your hips as he pushes you back and forth slowly in time with his thrusts to make the thrusts go in deeper at his slow pace.

“I missed your pussy, baby,” Toji says under his breath. He moves one hand to your hair to yank your head back, making you whimper.

You can feel his girthy long cock in his slow, smooth, deep thrusts inside you. You can almost feel it in your stomach with how deep he goes. His pace starts to quicken, making you moan louder and your hands grip the bed sheets. The grip on your hair stings but feels so good as Toji moves faster, harder. You can hear his skin slapping against your ass repeatedly.

“Look at this pussy, taking me so fucking good, sucking me in,” Toji says in between heavy breaths, “fuck baby, your pussy was made for me,” Toji grunts.

He raises his other hand and spanks your ass before gripping it, making you let out a startled moan. It stings more than the last one, but in a pleasurable way. You whine softly, whimpering and moaning as your body takes every thrust Toji gives you. You’re never the one to talk during sex, but Toji doesn’t mind, he loves how your cunt squeezes around him when he says filthy things to you.

Toji bullies your G-spot relentlessly and he lets go of your hair to grip your hips, keeping the same fast brutal pace right against your G-spot. Your moans turn into cries of pleasure, and you can feel Toji’s grip tense on your hips as he fucks you and his hips start to sputter. He spanks your ass one more time and grips it with a deep thrust against your g-spot and you cry out Toji’s name.

Your body tenses and you cum with a loud high-pitched whine of Toji’s name. You feel your body sag against the bed as Toji fucks into you a few more times before he cums inside you. He groans low, and his cock jerks inside you as it fills up your cunt. Once Toji pulls out, he watches his seed fall against your pussy and down your thighs.

He guides you to lie down and presses a slow kiss to your lips, and when he pulls away you smile. You’re out of breath as you watch him grab a clean hand towel from the floor and wipe it between your legs and thighs.

“So about that condom fund,” you say breathlessly.

Toji flashes you a playful glare. “Don’t start.”

[samkerrworshipper]

togetherness | pt.2

part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5 |

longawaited and has been sitting in my drafts for weeks now cause i wasn’t quite sure if i liked the direction it’s gone in… but highliting different issues n stuff so i hope y’all enjoy! again i’ve edited this on my phone whilst reading from my kindle lol so not going to lie i’m aware that the editing could be shocking… there’s a few more parts sitting in my drafts so lmk if y’all want more

warnings: child exploitation, themes of sexual assault of minors, just general hurt with protective n supportive tillies

“Now that we’ve settled that, is there anything, anything at all that you’d like to tell me that I could help you with?”

I gulped, there were about six things I could think of just off the top of my head. I was tentative though. I could feel tears starting to form in the back of my eyes as I tried to make the decision in my head.

“No judgement?”

Sam’s immediate nod in response was comforting and apparently enough to get me talking.

“It’s going to sound stupid and I don’t even know what you could do about it considering that I’m probably somewhere in the wrong with it as well.”

Sam looked like a mixture of intrigued and perplexed.

“Y/n, even if I can’t do anything about it, you look like you just need to get it off your chest, I can be that for you as well, just tell me what’s been bothering you so much.”

I sniffled and nodded at Sam, this situation was so abnormally vulnerable for me.

“You know that I was rough around the edges when I got here, I know you haven’t heard the whole story, to put it simply I went through a rough patch when I was 14 and 15, before I got here. I’d just had spine surgery, I thought that I was never going to walk again, let alone play football. I turned to a lot of things, drugs, alcohol, anything. I ran away when I was 14, I don’t remember much of it, just that when I returned home my parents had had enough and they sent me off to the AIS for Tony to train me. Anyways, I’m rambling. Somewhere along the road I sent some explicit videos, photos and texts to my ex boyfriend, graphic ones, there’s a lot of them. He’s been posting them on reddit and twitter and they haven’t gotten any attention yet but with all the media coverage and bad press I’ve had recently I’m worried they are going to be brought up and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Sam’s expression was one thing, completely deflated and shocked. She was typing furiously into her phone whilst she was listening to my story. It took a few minutes of silence for her to reply to me.

“First off I want to start off with telling you how grateful I am for you sharing that information with me, it can’t have been easy and you are incredibly brave for telling me. I’ve got some follow up questions that I need to ask, you don’t have to answer them, I’d just appreciate it if you could try your best, okay?”

I nodded quickly in reply to Sam.

“Okay. How old were you when you sent these videos and how old was your boyfriend at the time?”

“I was 14 or 15, he was in his mid twenties.”

“So that puts him in his late 20s or early 30s right now, if my maths is correct. Did you take these photos and videos or did someone else?”

“I took most of them but he took some.”

Sam nodded at me again.

“Okay based on that question I can tell you that this ex boyfriend of yours is legally in possession of child pornography, that’s an indictable crime. If you want this to well and truly stop then we can go up that path. I want us to talk about this with Tony, it’s ultimately your decision but I think it would be very sensible to take this up with him at the very least. Y/n, you have done absolutely nothing wrong, I need to stress to you how important it is that you understand that. No one is going to blame this on you, because it isn’t your fault, you are a victim of a crime. That isn’t something light. I promise you that I have your best interests in concern when I’m telling you this. I have to ask, have you talked to anyone else about this? Your family? A therapist? A friend? Leah?”

Leah Williamson, my arsenal team captain and my best friend/mom/girlfriend. I shook my head at Sam, I’d wanted to tell Leah, she was the only person I probably trusted enough to tell but I hadn’t seen her in weeks.

“Do you want to talk to someone about it?”

“I was going to talk to Lee about it, eventually. Just with her ACL and us being in different places it didn’t make much sense, plus this stuff is so fucking stupid I didn’t want to bother anyone with it, I’m sorry for bothering you with it, Ellie was right I’m being fucking selfish.”

Sam’s face was unreadable, it was clear she was pretty deep in thought. She sat across from me for a few minutes, in thought, before she stood up and walked around the table, sitting herself down beside me.

“Can I give you a hug?”

I nodded and relaxed a little bit as I felt Sam’s arm snake its way across my shoulders, inevitably bringing me closer to her and into her chest.

“Williamson would want you to tell her, she’ll probably be mad that you didn’t tell her earlier. You are not being a bother to anyone, you have human emotions and this situation you are in is a hard one. You aren't being selfish, you are asking for help, which is a very human thing and you very clearly need it right now, there is nothing wrong with that. Now, how about I call Williamson for you, I’ll see you if you can get down here? I’m going to call Tony down here, I’ll brief him and he’ll help, okay?”

“I don’t want to tell Tony, he’s going to be mad and he’ll probably tell me this kind of behaviour isn’t wanted on his team and then I’ll get sent home.”

I could feel the material of Sam’s jumper that she must have thrown on after training soaking up my tears, that was embarrassing.

“I know you don’t want to, and I can promise you that Tony is going to be nothing but supportive, you’ve done nothing wrong. There is nothing illegal about what you did, now or then. Tony is not going to send you home, I promise. Now, do I need to call Williamson or can you do it?”

Realistically I probably could have, but I really didn’t want to.

“Can you?”

Sam nodded at me immediately, which comforted me a little bit.

“I wouldn’t have offered it if I couldn’t. She should be in Sydney right now to watch the Lionesses play tomorrow night, yeah? I’ll talk to her and we’ll see what we can work out for you. I don’t have her number though, so can you call her on your phone and I’ll talk to her.”

I nodded quickly, shakingly pulling my phone out of my pocket and pushing it out onto the table. I very quickly pulled Leah's contact, I’d called her last night so it wasn’t hard to find. She was the only person in the world that I could talk to when I was at my lowest, the only person who actually cared about me. So last night, whilst I was mid panic attack, on Ellie's and I’s ensuite floor I called her and she’d talked me through it. I should have told her then, it probably would have saved me this whole interaction with Sam, but I hadn’t wanted to worry her anymore, so I blamed it on pressure of being selected to start this week and she’d accepted my answer.

We’d been texting most of the morning, her asking me if I’d gotten sleep and if I was feeling alright, I’d answered shortly with an array of 'yes', because I didn’t want to worry her anymore. I passed the phone over to Sam once I found her phone number and she clicked the call button before pressing the phone up to her ear and standing up from her seat, starting to pace between the seats.

“Hey Leah, this is Sam, Sam Kerr, from the Matildas. Look, I’m here at our Sydney training facility with Y/n, we’ve just had a pretty serious conversation with her about some problems that she’s had recently and I was wondering if you were around so you could be here for her.”

Sam pulled out her own phone again as I assumed she listened to Leah’s response. It amazed me as to how fast her fingers danced across her own screen, it was a different kind of multi tasking.

“Yup, Mmm. Alright, I’ll send you the address, it’s not far from you guys hotel from recollection. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you being able to do this for her, I’ll see you soon and we can talk about it then.”

I gulped as Sam said her farewells and then hung up the phone before walking back over to me.

“She’s coming down, should be here in fifteen or so. She sounded worried about you, mentioned something about you having a panic attack to her on the phone last night and that she was concerned about you. I’ve texted Tony, he’s finishing up with Ellie and then he’s going to be down here. I’m going to get Steph to meet Leah downstairs when she gets here and she’ll bring her up, Y/n, we’re all here to support you however you need, alright?”

Me and Sam stayed silent in the room until about ten minutes later there was a distinct knock against the door.

“Sam, it’s me, unlock the door.”

Steph’s voice was pretty distinct, even through the heavy door. Sam stood up almost immediately, walking to the door and unlocking it before a grumpy looking Steph and a flustered version of Leah made their way through the doorway before Sam had the opportunity to relock it. Leah’s eyes went straight to my own, her whole facial expression was very controlled, she could command an entire room with that face, I knew from experience.

“Are you okay?”

Her words were directed at me, and only me. I pressed my tongue against my front teeth and lip, trying to decide how to answer the question.

“There’s some stuff that’s been happening that I haven’t told you, I’m not in trouble, or at least that’s what Sam is telling me. It’s some stuff from my past, when I was a kid. Explicit images and photos, on the internet, from when I was a kid. They popped up a few weeks ago, starting when I was in Spain with you before we came here. I didn’t bring it up because I thought I was at fault for it as much as the person who has possession of them. Sam told me that it isn’t, that I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m sorry, I know it was fucking stupid and I should have told you about it or not done it, I don’t even remember taking any of the photos or videos, it just happened and now I don’t know what to do because I don’t want it getting out to the public and I just, I don’t know how to deal with it.”

Leah’s face relaxed a little bit as I progressively talked and rambled. Once I was done she walked over to my spot, seated on one of the chairs and wrapped her arms around me.

“Hey, it’s alright, we’re going to sort this out. She’s right, you didn’t do anything wrong and you should have told me earlier but I am so grateful that you are telling me now, yeah? You are so brave kiddo, that’s child exploitation and whoever has possession of those materials is the one who’s in the wrong, okay?”

I nodded into Leah, Steph and Sam were whispering between each other behind us.

“You have to take legal action though.”

Those words made me feel like I’d been stabbed and my guts had been ripped out of my body cavity.

Leah let go of me very gently and pursed her lips.

“Because this isn’t going to go away if you don’t, and I know that you are strong but you aren’t going to be able to live if you know that this person who has possession of these materials is still out there. You’ve been checked out for weeks now, since before Mallorca. You aren’t going to check back into your life until this goes, I know it. I need you checked in, I need you to be my girl, not the skeleton of your own body that you inhabit as a coping mechanism when something bad happens.”

I think Leah would have said more if it wasn’t for the incessant knocking against the door that came again. Sam was the one who went to the door again, letting Tony in. He looked flustered as well, and a little bit worried. I’d known the man since I was 15, he’d seen me in some pretty interesting situations. Sam intercepted him before he could say anything, pulling him aside and giving him what I assumed to be the rundown of the last hour.

“I don’t think I can handle this getting out, it will, if I take legal action this is going to get out and then I’m going to be Y/n Y/l/n, the Matilda’s exploitative rookie and I’ll never be back here. My career will be over, Jonas won’t want me back, everything I've worked for will be done.”

Leah took a deep breath before wrapping her arms around me and working her hands through my scalp and hair.

“If you take legal action you will be supported, I’ll make sure of it. We are a part of a community of women that uplift us for everything you do, this won’t be any different. There will be some who judge, there is always going to be someone there to judge you. Y/n, you need to do this for your sanity, I won’t lose you to your mental health again, not like last year. Kerr has done the right thing here, bringing this up, it shows me that she cares a lot more about you then you think, it also shows me that she knows what’s best for this team and you. She wouldn’t be doing this if she didn’t think this was the best course of action.”

I nodded into Leah, trying to convince myself that her words were correct. Eventually, after Sam had given Tony the full rundown he sat down across from me, exactly where Sam had been beforehand. Sam and Steph both stood behind me and Leah, Sam’s arms resting gently on my shoulders, it was grounding.

“Sam’s told me about what’s happening. First of all I want to say how sorry I am that you are going through this, it’s not something that anyone should have to deal with, ever. Second of all I want to let you know that this team, this whole nation is in support of you. Look, it’s too late for me to take any action now. I’m going to get the police to come down tomorrow morning, you aren’t in trouble. I just think that they are going to have a better understanding of this situation than any of us could. They’ll come down, we’ll have a talk about all of this, they’ll ask the questions they need to. We don’t need to make any decisions now, we’ll talk to them, Sam and I will be there to advocate for you. After that we can make decisions about taking legal action and whatnot. Otherwise I just wanted to tell you genuinely, from the bottom of my heart how much we all care about you and value you here, we are all going to be here for whatever you need in the future, you are a valued part of this team and family and we are all here to look out for your needs, okay?”

I gulped, I could feel fresh tears springing to my eyes again. I was petrified of the police, to say the least, but Tony’s voice was so reassuring. He was the father that I’d never had and when I was 15 and he’d met me I’d been in a bad place, I’d needed him to be that figure in my life and he had been. He gave me a routine, gave me something to wake up for every morning. I probably wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for Tony. He’d given me a chance when no one else had been prepared to and for that I would always be in debt to him for.

“Okay, I’ll get in contact with the police, we’ll get a constable down tomorrow morning and we can have an open conversation with them about it, you are not in trouble, nothing is going to happen that will end in consequences for you. I think though that you need to head back to the hotel and get some proper sleep, your body needs it. So head back, don’t worry about any of this, because I’m going to sort it out and we’ll talk about it in the morning with a clean slate and mindset, alright?”

I nodded at Tony, I didn’t really have much to say.

“Thank you Coach.”

He nodded at me, before standing up and walking around to the other side of the octoval table and giving me a pat on the back.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, don’t worry about this anymore, it’s going to be okay. Get back to the hotel, we’ve got an early wakeup tomorrow.”

I nodded at Coach, watching as he left the room just as quickly as he’d entered it.

“I’ve talked to Steph, her and I are rooming together so we’ll switch, she’ll stay with Ellie and you can come and room in with me, I think we’ll keep it that way for the rest of the tournament.”

I looked over at Sam, nodding along with what she was saying. Leah reached her arms around me, a big bear hug.

“And I am here, I expect you to check in with me, at least twice a day. When you guys head off to Melbourne or Brisbane I’m not going to be able to be there, so I need you to stay in contact with me, okay? Anybody does so much as look at you wrong I want to be the first to know, okay?”

I nodded at Leah, half in fear, half in adoration. She was the only person in the world that I actually trusted in. Our bond had been forced, when I’d moved to London to play for Arsenal I’d been moved into the spare room in her apartment and in a very short amount of time we’d created a bond that extended beyond the realm of friendship. I loved her, she was the first person besides Tony to give me a chance and he was obligated to give me on, Leah had chosen to fight for me and to stick by my side even when it wasn’t easy, she was a good person, better than I was sure I’d ever be.

“We’ll drop you back to your hotel on our way home Williamson, it’s the least we could do considering you got here so quickly, can you just give us five minutes to grab our things from the locker room?”

Sam’s voice held no room for argument, she was insisting on giving Leah a ride home and Leah didn’t try to object.

“Please, call me Leah and if it’s no trouble I would really appreciate it. I can meet you guys down in the foyer in about five, I need to go to the loo, so whilst I’m doing that how about you guys go and get your stuff together?”

Sam, Steph and I all walked back down to the change rooms in a comfortable silence. It was when we actually made it back to the rooms that I realised I still had my boots on, the cleats that were spotless from not even getting any wear at training. The cleats that a few hours ago had seemed impossible to tie up. I made quick business of pulling them off of my feet, throwing them into my kit bag and pulling out the pair of Nike dunks that I’d worn in earlier when we’d all come down here for our match analysis. Sam and Steph both made quick work off slipping out of their training kits and changing into sweat pant duos that matched with me. After they’d gotten changed and refreshed we all grabbed our bags and whatever other things we had lying around before making our way down to the foyer.

Leah was waiting for us, tapping her foot violently against the marble floors. When she spotted the three of us out of the corner of her eye her stress ceased almost immediately. I’d learnt a lot about Leah in the amount of time I’d known her. One thing about England’s captain was that she was not as fearless as everyone credited her as being, she put on a brave face, a bloody good one, but she was just as human as everyone else and sometimes it showed, especially when she felt uncomfortable in a situation or she didn’t think she deserved to be where she was. I’d moved in with her initially just before she'd led the Lionesses to their victory at the euro’s, and at the time Leah had been a basket case to be nice. I think that was how we’d bonded, through our similar insecurities of not being good enough to fill the shoes that had been passed down to us.

“C’mon cap, let’s get going.”

Leah smiled at me and nodded. We’d been keeping our relationship under wraps for a few months now. Neither of us were insecure in our situation and we were happy to enjoy our private, happy and blessed life together. Plus we hadn’t really seen much of each other in the past month or so, being caught up with our obligations to our national teams. Leah was also very committed to her rehab and I couldn’t be there for every step of that so we’d spent some time apart. We’d both agreed when the new Arsenal season rolled around that we’d tell the team, but still keep it under wraps from the public for as long as we could. Neither of us were worried about the public finding out, I was out, had been since I was 14. Leah wasn’t officially but she’d also never dated a man and in the eyes of the female soccer world that pretty much means you're gay. It would come out when it did and we were prepared for that to happen.

We walked out to Steph’s car, piling all of our bags in the boot before Sam and Steph slid into the passenger and drivers seats whilst Leah and I both took seats in the backseat. Somewhere along in the drive her hand made its way to my own, resting gently on top of my knee cap. I interlocked our fingers and smiled up at her, this was the part of a secret relationship that I liked, getting moments just between the two of you that only the two of you understood. The sweet nothings. I felt my heart plummet a little bit as we arrived out the front of Leah’s hotel and I realised that I was going to have to say goodbye, potentially for a few more weeks. That was the suckish part of being a professional athlete messing around with another professional athlete, there wasn’t always a timeline on when you’d see each other next, sometimes it was just situational.

I made the call to walk Leah to the door of the hotel, when we got to the doors I gave her a hug, a big, long hug. She hugged me back, tightly. Leah was good at hugs. When we finally had to come apart I looked up at her, with my big green eyes and apparently she couldn’t resist because she reached down and honoured me with a peck. It was nothing more, a small gesture but to me it was everything.

“I love you okay, be safe, text me, call me. I am always here for you, don’t keep me in the dark on things that you think are going to burden me, they aren’t, call your therapist, please.”

I nodded at Leah, she was using her captain's voice with me that she knew I couldn’t refuse.

“When you get back to the hotel I expect you to eat some proper food, not of those bloody granola bars that you insist are nutritional, proper food. Hydrate, at least a litre of water. Sleep, you deserve to sleep, let yourself sleep. Call me in the morning and tell me how you are feeling, okay?”

I gulped and nodded at Leah, an action that I was becoming aware I might have done too much of tonight.

“Love you too, thank you for being here for me.”

“Anytime, I’m only ever one call away, now go home.”

I gave Leah one final look before walking back to the car, closing the door behind me only to be bombarded with googly eyes from the two co captains sitting in the front of the car.

“You and Williamson?”

Sam’s voice was the first one to break the sound barrier, it scared me a little bit.

“Yeah.”

I made it sound like it was a non fact, like every person on the planet knew that I was in the bed sheets of the Lionesses Captain.

“Fuck, I knew it, McCabe owes me fifty quid.”

Steph’s voice was steadier and surprised me a little bit.

“We all had bets, how long have you guys been together?”

“We’ve been dating for 6 or 8 months, fucking around with each other since I joined Arsenal so about a year or so.”

Steph’s eyebrows rose to the top of her forrid, obviously very surprised by my answer.

“You're trying to tell me that you and Lee have just casually been hiding a relationship behind closed doors for months.”

“I mean we’re roommates, it wasn’t that hard to hide, plus we just aren’t rabbits who need to fuck on every surface unlike Sam and fucking Kristie, I’m never going to be able to mentally burn the image of you two getting at it on the pool table after the olympics, that was fucking traumatic.”

Sam’s face had flushed, we constantly brought it up with her. After our bronze loss to the US in the olympics a lot of the team had gone out in celebration with the Americans, what I hadn’t expected to find that night when I’d walked into the room that I thought was the bathroom was Sam eating her secret girlfriend out on the table. It had messed with my brain permanently.

“Hey you're the one who’s always bringing it up, maybe you were secretly into it, secret fantasy between you and Williamson.”

I loudly gagged from my spot in the backseat, extremely displeased by Sam’s imaginative imagery.

“Nobody thinks that Sam, it’s just you and all of your lost brain cells.”

There was something so comfortable about the dynamic between Sam and Steph, something so sisterly and bonded. They were like family, they messed around with each other and pushed each other but they loved each other and the both of them knew that at the end of the day. They might not have been the closest on the team, they weren’t each other's best friends but they were family and that was all that mattered.

“Whatever you say Stephy.”

[svnnw]

AT MIDNIGHT — chapter 1

1) song kang >> cha eunwoo

"why are we even going, you said i should rest at home-"

"yeah but not for a whole week, theres this party sungchan, yeji's boyfriend, is throwing right now"

it has been a few days since your ex boyfriend broke up with you. to say the least you haven't been taken care of yourself that much which made your friendgroup really worried about you. thats why karina is now forcing you to go to a party with her.

you immediately covered your ears due to the loud music but adjusted to it a few minutes later.

while you were walking further into the house, you decided to settle in a corner to avoid having conversations when all of a sudden you heard a deep voice behind you.

"do i know you?" you slowly turned around to see a welcoming smile greeting you.

"no, have we met before?"

"im not sure, but you look really familiar i think i saw you on yeji's story before. my name is mark." his voice had a hint of excitement to it which made you smile. you introduced yourself and slowly you guys started a conversation.

from a distance you could see your friends looking at you and giggling because they were hoping you would distract yourself from your ex boyfriend but the mere thought of him made your blood boil again.

as time passed you guys official became friends and you and mark promised that you would sit next to each other after you found out that you were both in the same class for accounting.

"wait shit i forgot that we had to do that accounting assignment for tomorrow." mark exclaimed with frustration knowing it would affect 10% of his grade.

"its fine you can use my worksheet for help."

"i would appreciate that so much the only problem is that i was going to study with my friend at the library tomorrow. would it be okay for you to be with us."

"oh yeah sure i would love to meet your friend !" you tried to act cool about it but in reality you were scared to meet the 'mysterious' guy mark was talking about. when you were exchanging numbers mark told you about his friendgroup by showing you their twitter accounts while you silently gasped every time he showed you his friends. as he was showing you more profiles the infamous haechan seemed to have caught your attention due to a previous rumor being spread about him which you cant quite remember anymore.

"im actually gonna go. i have to take care of my friend who's extremely drunk right now. lets discuss it when we'll meet later!"

"sure, i'll text you later!"

as soon as mark left your sight your best friend karina took a seat next to you giggling as she does.

"i'm tired lets go home" you said drained out from the loud music in the background.

"nah you have to meet this girl i met she's so sweet!!"

masterlist – profile 2 – next – playlist

a/n – please ignore any grammar mistakes i'll fix them soon 😭

wordcount : 0.5k

TAGLIST — open @replayenthusiast

[haveihitanerve]

These Aren't Guards-

“Bruce? Your phone is ringing.” Dick Grayson called, not bothering to move from his place on the couch. Bruce sighed, but ambled downstairs, picking up the phone. “Yello?” he asked, pressing the phone to his ear. “Now?” dick frowned, setting his own phone down and glancing over. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes. yes of course ill be there in a bit.” he sighed, hanging up. “Dad? Everything alright?” DIck asked in concern. Bruce waved him off. “Clark called. Theres a League meeting. Lantern needs some help with these-” he waved a hand, trying to find the words. “This other alien species i guess, and the other Lanterns are refusing to help because its not technically a threat. yet.” Dick frowned. “Huh. need backup?” Bruce cocked his head. “You don't have anything better to be doing?” Dick shrugged. “Not today not really no.” Bruce shrugged. “Okay. You’re welcome to join me if you wish chum. At least then the meeting wont be a complete waste of time.” Dick laughed and stood, following his father down the stairs to the Batcave. “Hey B. Dickwad.” Jason greeted, sitting on the table, cleaning his guns. “Is that my rag-?” bruce groaned. “You know what? I don't even care anymore.” Jason grinned, dropping the rag, and whispered in a staged voice. “I finally win.” Bruce rolled his eyes, moving to his suit ti get changed. “Woah whats going on here? A daytime patrol? I thought we have duke for that.” Dick laughed. “We do. B has a League meeting and i volunteered to come along.” Jason jumped off the table. “Wait- for reals? I wanna come.” Bruce arched a brow, slipping on his suit. “You do?” Jason nodded. “Hell yeah. I haven't been up there since i was robin.” Bruce shrugged. “Alright. Suit up.” Jason grinned. “For real old man?” Bruce shrugged. “The meetings probably going to go in circles for a while, useless bickering, getting nowhere and achieving nothing, if you want to provide me with some entertainment while we’re there, then by all means.” Jason laughed. “Bet.” They suited up quickly and Bruce led the way to the zeta tube. “Jason, you made a fair point. Neither one of us has been up there since we were last robin. And most of the heroes don't know us.” Jason grinned as Bruce groaned. “Oh this is gonna be fun.” 

“I called Batman, he should be here shortly.” Superman informed the other few members of the justice league that had arrived at Lanterns call. Wonder Woman nodded. “Good. then we can begin-” “they just showed up in the tube.” Flash informed them. “They?” Lantern asked, walking over. Barry frowned, but nodded. “Yeah. They.” The other JL members frowned, leaning over to see the monitor and what Barry was looking at. To their surprise, Batman was accompanied by two other men, both around his height, flanking him. “Is there a new bounty on Bats head we don't know about?” Green Arrow joked. “Whats he need bodyguards for?” The others shrugged. Before they could discuss it further the doors slid open and Batman walked in. “Is everyone here?” he asked without greeting. (although technically that was his greeting) “Yes. We can begin.” Superman nodded, and his eyes drifted behind him questioningly. Batman ignored all of their inquiring looks and took his seat, the two men taking their places behind him. “Um, we can get more chairs, for your um, guests.” Diana offered. Batman shook his head. “They'll stand. Its fine. Lets begin shall we?” The JL exchanged glances, but shrugged. 

“My legs hurt.” Jason murmured into the comm. Dick huffed a laugh. “Shut up jason.” he muttered. “Code names dickie.” Jason twittered back, his moving lips hidden by his red hood. (who'da thunk it) “Not super necessary.” Bruce murmured, without moving his lips. “I've designed all of our comms to be unhackable, and managed to make it so Clark can’t hear us through them.” Jason raised his eyebrows, though neither of his companions could actually see that. “Impressive daddio.” Bruce fought hard not to roll his eyes and settled instead on casually flicking his leg. Jason smirked. “Both of you focus.” Dick hissed at them, but they could hear the smile in his voice. He was enjoying being here. And, bruce found in spite of himself, he was enjoying himself too. It had been far too long since he had brought his kids with him on League things, for good reason, but seeing as he shared everything League related with them anyways, and meetings rarely ever had direct danger, there really wasn't any reason not to bring them more often. “What do you think Bats?” Oliver asked, his hand landing on Bruces shoulder. Bruce felt rather than saw Dick and Jasons contempt for the action, so much so that he truly didn't know how he felt about the casual touch. Jason stepped forward and in one move had wrenched Olivers hand back, pushing him away. “Back. off.” he snarled. Dick was at his side, none of the Nightwing ease in his stance, no easy smile. No, it was all Jason, Red Hoods anger seeping into his posture, making him glower rather than grin. “Okay.” Oliver lifted his hands in surrender, taking a ste back. “Geez.” he added. “I just wanted to know what you thought Bats. You didn't need to sic your dogs on me.” “birds.” Bruce muttered. He felt Jason's anger flicker slightly. He had amused his second son. Bruce fought his grin. “Its a solid plan.” he admitted. “I think if you use Superman instead it would go over better though. He has the reputation as Earths defender. That will earn him respect.” the others nodded. “Okay. So its settled? Kal will fly out with Lantern?” The league all murmured their agreement. “Good. Then i hereby declare this meeting adjourned.” Bruce stood, and Dick and Jason backed up a few steps, allowing him to move away from the table. “Is that all?” he asked. The others nodded, watching him and his birds with curious eyes. “Good. Ill see you at the next meeting.” He turned for the door, Jason and Dick falling into step behind him, when Barry spoke. “You know we’d protect you Bats. You didn't need to bring your own guards.” Bruce could feel Dick and Jason's glee. He fought his own smile, turning back. “Guards?” he frowned, looking at Jason, then Dick. “oh. These aren't my guards.” he smiled, knowing how unnerved it made the others. “These are my kids.”

[sordidmusings]

Tender Love and Care - Hair Care (Buggy x amab!Reader

Art by ijessbest on Twitter (refusing new name still) I believe they also have a tumblr by the same name!

A/N: Sorry I took so long to post this and thank you for your patience! I had thought I put it up earlier but noticed that wasn't true while doing some organizing. The differences are pretty subtle but I hope they are meaningful for your immersion and help you feel seen! If there's something I can do better (I am cis fem so I'm sure there's much my experience has me missing about yours) please let me know! I'd like to help y'all get your escapism too 🤍

From the original a/n - "Ah yes, another 'taking care of Buggy's head' fic to take up space on the internet. Just gotta indulge in giving this man some tlc. Did I write four thousand words of simping for the cringefail pirate clown's hair? Yes. And I'd do it again >:p"

Word Count: ~4k

Warnings: masculine leaning amab!reader (no pronouns or gendered titles), Lots of Feelings, yearning, possibly angst?, probably hurt/comfort?, waxing very poetic, Buggy being a prickly bitch who doesn't know how to receive affection, Buggy also being a delusional bitch who immediately latches on to that affection

afab!Version

~ ~ ~ ••• ✦✦✦ ••• ~ ~ ~

“Touch the makeup and I’ll bite your fingers off!”

“I’m quaking.”

“...I’ll spit in your face.” His eyes narrowed while you blanched. “I’ve got damn good aim too so you better watch those big ol’ eyes.” Almost a compliment? Progress.

“To save us both from catastrophe, I’ll let you keep your grease-face,” you promised. After a few more seconds of giving you the stink eye (really, you should be taking notes because his form is exemplary), Buggy finally settled back into your hold. His stubble scratched lightly at your palms and you allowed your thumbs a scant few passes from his cheek bones to the back of his jaw. That was easy enough to play off as mindless movements while you examined him for the coming wash. Hopefully.  You were at least putting in the effort to keep the affection in your chest from blooming into a wide smile on your face, lest he begin spitting like a wet cat again.

After placing him down on your clothes chest, you began gathering together the things you’d need to clean him up. You had already prepared a large basin of steaming water before you had grabbed Buggy from Zoro for your night shift with him. If he had truly protested against you then you’d just have extra water to spoil yourself with for your nightly routine. What a loss. While you flitted around grabbing a cup, a pile of towels, and care products, Buggy took to commenting about whatever his eyes fell on around your room. Your half-assed replies did nothing to discourage his gentle roast of your safe space. He only shut up when you picked him back up and brought him over to the basin.

You were taken by surprise when you took off his bandana.  You had guessed that his hair was thick from the pieces that framed his face, but you hadn’t expected long locks to be wrapped up in there. They slipped and fell down like silk despite being in clear need of a wash, and you started to become a bit excited to see how they would come to shine under your care.

“What’s wrong with you? Never seen hair before?” There was a bit more bite to him all of a sudden and it hit you that he may be self-conscious from your staring.

“Never seen yours before, duh,” you teased. “You should wear your hair out as a power move against all the scrangly ass men in these waters.”

Buggy took a blank-faced moment to process your words. Probably weighing your sincerity against the backlog of insults he’s heard in his life. Unfortunately, one joking compliment never stood a chance.

“Whatever, just do your job.” His bitter tone made you keep your mouth shut and drop the topic. For now.

Seeing how he had a lot more hair than anticipated, you got up again to grab yet another towel so that you could use it as a cushion. Finally settled, you grabbed Buggy in one hand, the cup in the other, and got to work. You had laid a small board across the basin so you could rest Buggy on it instead of having to hold him up the whole time. You may have gotten strong in this life, but you were not masochistic enough to try holding him up throughout this process. You made sure to be extra gentle when you put him to rest on the back of his head, mindful that the hard plank wasn’t the most comfortable.

Wetting his hairline was taking longer than you thought. The soft noises from the pouring water hitting his scalp and trickling through his hair into the basin below felt loud in the stillness of the room. Everything had a languid air like you could breathe freely without thought or time to measure the passing of each exhale. Wanting to check in, you looked down from your task and into Buggy’s face. Despite all his past showboating, Buggy was having difficulty keeping his gaze anywhere near your face.  You decided to take pity on him in his discomfort but not too much. “So how’d you get your damn good aim?”

Silence.

You’re beginning to think that him looking at you like you’re stupid is his comfort zone.

“You know, that ‘damn good aim’ that makes my ‘big ol’ eyes’ easy targets?” you supplied.  At first, you thought he would roll his eyes and make more digs at you, but he finally caught you off guard.

“It’s a trade secret,” he said with a growing smile and a glint in his eyes. His face grew even more pleased when you smiled mischievously back at him.

“Clown trade?”

He hummed out an affirmative. You saturated the last of his hair at the front and sides and now needed to dunk the rest in the basin. The sheer amount of long blue locks that this pretty, pretty man had may cause it to overflow, but you supposed that’s just a workplace hazard when becoming a glamor clown’s hairdresser. You paused in lowering him to look around quite dramatically (squinty eyes, pursed lips, and all) before leaning slightly closer to stage whisper, “You can tell me; I ain’t no snitch.”

You barely caught the laugh that he choked short in order to keep up his serious facade. He let his eyes wander the room to double check your surveying and pretended to be in thought. He let out a heaving sigh and said, “Okay, okay, but you have to lean in close. Can’t have this getting out.”

Ever obliging, you turned your head and leaned until you felt his warm breath on your skin and the roundness of his nose tickling to top of your ear. You were thankful he couldn’t see the little shiver down your spine or the goosebumps spreading down your neck. He was thankful you couldn’t see him close his eyes to savor the scent of your aftershave. All was still for a few breaths too long.

“The secret?” you prompted, thinking he was waiting for your urging or that he was just trying to make you squirm. You didn’t see his eyes flutter open while he forced thoughts other than your closeness back into that head of his. Okay, he really needed to do something to reel himself back in and get some control of the situation.  Easier said than done when he’s only a head.

You felt as much as you heard him take a deliberate inhale… only for a loud raspberry to be blown right next to your ear.

Nearly dropping him in shock, you quickly pulled your head back and held him at arm’s length like a misbehaved puppy. Through his canting cackles, Buggy met your wide eyes with a proud grin. It didn’t even need the help of his makeup to split his face. Damn, you could stare at that forever. He had just the prettiest eyes you think you’d ever seen. The way they shifted color under the low lights and sparkled with his smile had you feeling entranced. It had the same commanding presence and addicting warmth as flames with their own swirling colors and sparking embers. You thought your poetic idioms for him would always center around the sea, especially for his blue-green eyes, but here we are.

The corner of his smile started to twitch downward under your stare until wild and cheerful laughter burst from your lips. They were the kind to shake your shoulders and scrunch your cheeks up into your eyes and he’s now certain that he has fucked right up. Buggy felt alarms blaring in his mind as he took in your joy and was certain he would make an absolute fool of himself in any and all ways possible to keep getting hits of it. Between your settling chuckles, you managed to say, “Don’t worry, I’ll bring that wisdom with me to my grave.”

Readjusting your grip, you moved forward and dunked the back of Buggy’s head fully into the water. He sighed out at the sensation, but he fully melted when one of your hands went to support the back of his skull and the other flowed through his tresses to make sure all of them were wet. You let yourself take your time, both to make sure you were thorough and to indulge yourself in the comfort of the moment. A tenderness spread through you when you saw that this was also indulging Buggy. His breath was slow and steady, and his eyes were resting closed to better focus on the sensations coming to him. You truly were a people pleaser at heart and seeing someone so bedraggled and affection-starved accept your care made your heart and head feel fuzzy.

You slowly leaned him more upright and used your other hand to wipe out some of the excess water. Buggy felt you shuffling around, and his eyes opened to see what you were up to. After you moved him to rest on the flat bottom of his neck on top of the softest towel that he’s felt in ages, he realized that you went through the trouble to try to make even that wooden board comfortable for his sake. He was starting to feel even more uncertain and out of his element.

Careful fingers carded through and spread out his hair behind him while an equally careful gaze watched over their work. After lathering your hands with a shampoo bar scented by vanilla and spices, you set to work giving him the scalp massage of a lifetime.

While focusing on doing the best job possible and maybe also the beautiful color of his hair was keeping you from thinking about anything else, Buggy had no such luxury. He had nothing to direct his nervous energy at - didn’t even have fingers to fidget with! - so he closed his eyes and tried to keep his face neutral. Everyone enjoys a good scalp massage or at least some kind of pampering so it wouldn’t have been weird for him to visibly enjoy it, but something watery and vulnerable was pressing at his throat under your tender care. His mind and body (well… head) were at odds. While his train of thought spun every which way only to be tethered back to the word ‘why’, his muscles melted until they were soft and pleasantly limp. Has his brow ever been so smooth? His jaw so loose? His lips so softly set? Oh God, you must have noticed the stubborn stiffness in his neck because your fingers abandoned his hair to firmly rub from the base of his skull to where he met the towel and that was truly his undoing.

With a rumbly hum, Buggy finally gave in to temptation and tied his mind to your movements. He let himself imagine affection there - imagine that this was special and just for him. You’ve never tended to anyone else like this. You offered because you simply had to know what his hair felt like. You just wanted to touch him. You wanted it much more than you ever wanted to touch anyone else. If he opened his eyes and looked up at yours, he would see them pouring with love, just like your hands were, and you would look sweetly down at him with your gorgeous eyes and handsome smile and say lovely things and you’d love him-

You’d love him.

Fuck.

You noticed Buggy suddenly flinch under your hands and you tensed up.

“Are you okay? Did I snag your hair?” You hadn’t felt anything tug but you supposed you could’ve missed it.

Buggy cleared his throat before stiffly responding, “No. Keep going.”

Something thick in his tone caught your attention and you looked to see his expression was tense instead of the blissed out one you had admired not too long ago. That won’t do. You went back to the tried and true pressure points on the scalp that you knew from experience eased anyone up. Checking his face again, you noticed it was more relaxed but still too guarded for your tastes. Deciding he must be getting antsy, you switched to working the shampoo down his hair after getting a touch more product on your hands. The time it took to get it properly sudsed and rinsed was calm, despite the fact that there was some undercurrent to the air that felt charged. Maybe it was just from seeing the talkative and bratty clown be so subdued. As you began spreading conditioner through his hair, you decided that it was time to engage him again.

“This bar is my favorite; nothing makes my hair softer,” you said. Already, his hair was relaxing to glide even more smoothly between your fingers. You weren’t ready to give the feeling up, so you spent the entire time that the conditioner was setting to run your fingers through his hair.

Buggy couldn’t do anything at the moment to judge your claim, but the smell alone made him understand why it was your favorite. It matched that of the shampoo bar, but the richer ingredients in the conditioner highlighted the comforting tones of the vanilla and the sensuality of warm spices and wood. He relished in it on every inhale, hoping to unravel and memorize its every undertone. Was that a touch of amber in there? A little pink peppercorn? Maybe some incense and oud at the base? Buggy suddenly felt ridiculous. He was never one to give much thought to fancy perfumes, yet here he was trying to dissect your scent like a sommelier tasting a new wine. 

You made quick work of rinsing his hair this final time and gently pushing and squeezing any excess water out. You set Buggy back on a towel, this time one that was spread on the floor. It was the one that you had just been sitting on. Buggy was embarrassed that he noticed and enjoyed the fact that he could still feel your body heat on it.

“How many of those things do you have?” Buggy scoffed as you pulled yet another towel over to dry his hair. You flicked his forehead in warning against further sass.

“You can never have too many. It’s something that you use daily and they come in handy during emergencies,” you explained.

“Oh yeah like what?”

“Well, I was thinking of situations like having to soak up a spill or blood, but the state of your hair definitely qualifies.”

The outburst was immediate.

“I KNEW YOU WERE MAKING FUN OF ME YOU DAMN LIAR! HOW DA-”

Good thing you were prepared for this and stuffed some of yet another towel into his screaming mouth. He bit down on it harshly and glared at you with all his might. Snarls and grumbles still made their way through the cloth, letting you know just how displeased he was. You were a little shocked to find that despite being gagged and despite just being a head that his glare still actually intimidated you. The time spent with the crew treating him like a harmless little pest had helped you forget that, when push came to shove, he could back up his talk with violence.

The brief glimpse of fear in your eyes gave him a twinge of satisfaction but mostly felt a lot more hollow than he’d expected. Wasn’t this what he wanted? 

When you reached back out to continue drying his hair, you were more tentative than he had ever seen you and his mood dropped even further. Even with your caution, the way that you moved the towel over his hair and gently squeezed more water out of it was filled with care. The whole thing felt very foreign to him. Buggy usually rubbed his towel through his hair chaotically like the more forceful he was the sooner he could get done with the bothersome task. You were working over him like any undue force would be an insult. Like he was something precious. That watery feeling started pressing on him again.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” you started quietly. “I just meant to poke fun, not make you actually feel insulted.” After a few more soft pats with the towel, you slowly removed his makeshift gag. He took a moment to wiggle around his jaw and get the dry feeling out of his mouth.

“Yeah, well good job, dumbass,” he bit. You winced at the hurt in his tone. “Just finish up.”

You took a moment to recenter yourself while you grabbed your comb and brush. This was not how you wanted this to go. One wrong comment had sent this whole interaction spiraling and it made you sad. Sensitivity like that was usually built up from years of feeling the same hurts over and over again, and you didn’t ever want to be someone to aggravate an already festering wound, especially not on someone who you genuinely enjoyed. Not on someone who you were increasingly craving affection from. This needed to be fixed. Steeling yourself for the resistance you were about to meet, you began combing the ends of his hair and spoke, “The blue color is pretty.”

He ignored you. As expected.

“It was one of the first things I noticed about you.” He still wouldn’t even glance up at you. “Also how it brings out the color of your eyes.”

He snorted dismissively in a way that very clearly told you he wasn’t believing a word you said. Also expected. You’re just going to have to soldier on until this eventually worked… maybe worked… hopefully worked?

Just as in the rest of the process, you were slow and thorough when combing his hair. You murmured compliments to him about how soft it is; how thick and how beautiful. By the time that you had switched to using your brush, he was showing signs of being worn down by your flattery. His face was more relaxed and he let himself look around instead of trying to burn a hole through the floor. All you could focus on, though, was how downcast and tired his eyes looked.

“Alright, I’m all finished up,” you told him. “I’m going to put you in the hammock for a minute while I get ready for bed.”

After placing him in the middle of your bedding, you disappeared behind a dressing screen. The routine of bathing  yourself with a washcloth and bowl of soapy water eased you. Since you had taken so much time tending to Buggy, the last bowl of fresh water had become lukewarm. Despite this, the final wipe down had you feeling refreshed and ready to jump into bed. It was no soak in the tub, but still left you feeling much better after a long day of helping work around the ship.

You had set about your routine briskly so that you didn’t leave Buggy waiting too long. Little did you know, he didn’t mind the time of having nothing to do besides enjoy the soft blankets you curled up in every night. He was trying to soak it in before you inevitably put him back down on the floor. If the night had taught him anything, you’d at least put him on one of those fluffy towels instead of throwing him back in the bag like the others did.

You came over to him on the hammock and he admired how you looked, now clean and fresh. His eyes poured over your shirtless chest and the thin sleep pants moving around the shape of your legs. When you picked him back up, your face and body language were as placid as he had ever seen them and he was surprised at how content that made him feel. He readied himself to be moved away, left cold and forgotten, but he was astonished when you plopped yourself in your bedding instead with him still in your hands. The shock must have shown on his face because you chuckled at him and gave him a bright smile. Even with the bumpy road that the night had been, your smile made him soft and content. He was realizing with more and more resignation that your smile and laugh would let you get away with anything when it came to him.

“So no floor? Trying to bribe me with favors?” His voice was mostly back to that sarcastic lilt you’ve come to adore.

Content that he was feeling better, you answered, “Nah, just using you so I can have a teddy bear. Haven’t had a good one in ages.”

Making good on that promise, you made sure that he was securely nestled into your neck and shoulder. You used both of your arms to cradle him there and both hands to continue your worship of his hair. It was just barely damp and the coolness felt nice on your hands, especially in contrast to the cozy heat emanating from his head. His long eyelashes tickled at your neck every time he blinked, just like the light scruff on his jaw teased at the skin on your chest. His big nose felt cozy rested on your clavicle, and you had to resist the urge to reach down and trail your fingers on it. A giddy and victorious feeling flushed through you when you felt him close his eyes a final time and sink into your embrace.

Buggy should have known that he was doomed from the start. He was having a hell of a time trying not to moan at your fingers scratching and massaging his scalp, both during the hair care and now, when he was held in your arms. The feeling of being rested on your bare chest sent his heart racing. He couldn’t stop his little movements to nestle into you and get just that much more of your warmth and touch. If he thought that he loved the smell of you before, he was absolutely intoxicated now that he knew what it was like when it floated over the two of you while wrapped in body-warmed sheets.

He wanted to ask you why you were doing all of this, but he didn’t want to know the answer. Not right now. Right now he was going to let himself go back into that place in his head where you lo- cared about him. A place where each night he would crawl into bed with you and, no matter how the day went, you would be there to empty his mind of anything but the two of you. You’d greet him with a kiss or a laugh or an embrace and you would shine with so much joy because he’s next to you again. He’d know what your love felt like, how it felt to be under your hands, how your skin felt under his lips. All these daydreams swirling in his head started to make him sick with want, and he needed to know at least one of them. He couldn’t handle all of them staying forever in his mind.

The tiniest increase of pressure from his lips brought your attention to where they rested below your collarbone. The almost kiss was so heartbreakingly shaky and hesitant that you felt your eyes burn with the threat of tears. To reassure him, you dragged your cheek across his temple before turning to leave a deliberate kiss there. Buggy relished the contact, the satisfied sigh you let out afterward, and the gentle weight of your cheek as you snuggled back into him. Your reward came in the form of a grinning cheek pushing into you.

All his humor and posturing certainly caught your attention in the best way and even his explosive temper was something you couldn’t say turned you away. This gentleness, though, this uncertain and wounded place, had you bursting with affection and you were hoping to keep experiencing it. You’d meet it each time with steady affection until it turned into something he embodied with the same surety that he had in his beloved spotlight.

Both of you slipped more sweetly into dreams, curled up together as you were, and with more peace and ease than the years before had allowed. Neither of you would let the years to come be absent of this sweet treasure, either.

[jimmy-dipthong]

I'm a big fan of localisation. I believe the goal of a translation should be to keep as much meaning and nuance as possible from the original. Localisation is key to this. Language and culture are inextricably linked, which means you must engage in cultural education and/or localisation to successfully translate. Cultural education is preferable, but in many cases it is not appropriate (not great having to pause every few seconds to read a translator note when you want to turn your brain off and watch a show). However, I think sometimes, translators take the wrong approach to localisation, and I want to talk about that here.

There was an example of "bad" localisation given by a twitter user in this Sarah Moon video: the example was anime characters subbed to use zoomer slang like "sus" and "cringe". I actually think that is an example of good localisation. I am not talking about that kind of thing.

This scene from 深夜食堂 (Midnight Diner) made me want to write this post. パチンコ has been translated as "pinball". I'm sure there are people reading that translation and cringing, just like I did! I tried to put my finger on what irked me so much about it and I realised: this localisation is localising the wrong part of the meaning of パチンコ.

Part of localising is choosing the closest cultural equivalent of a concept. This inevitably means losing some of the specific details of the original word, but usually those details aren't important (if the whole cultural concept is important, you should probably just use a translator's note IMO). For example, the word パチンコ has lots of bits of meaning in it: "gambling" "played on a machine", "time killer", "uses small metal balls", "generally played by older men", "big flashy lights", "money sink", and so on. In this context, the character is talking about "winning money" from パチンコ, so you'd expect at the very least that the localised word would preserve the "gambling" and "money sink" bits of meaning. However, instead they chose to preserve the "small metal balls" and "big flashy lights" bits of meaning (まさかの！). This is a very silly choice because those bits of meaning don't have a shred of relevance to this scene, or any other scene in this story at all. I can see a context in which "pinball" is the best possible localisation for パチンコ. But this was not it, and not even close. I've never heard of anyone winning money from pinball.

I think if I were a translator, my process for localisation would be to break down the word into those bits of meaning, then rank the bits of meaning in terms of relevance to the line/scene/story, then pick a localised word that hits as many of the higher ranked meanings as possible. In this case, there are many better localisations (read: localisations with meanings more relevant to the scene). If I were localising it, I would probably do this: "He took all the money I won from the pokies." but I am aware that pokies is an Australianism. Assuming I was localising for a global english speaking audience: "He took all the money I won from a slot machine".

(TBH though, I don't think パチンコ needs to be localised because the english equivalent loanword, pachinko, is already well known enough to be used in english subtitles imo)

[entomjinx]

Strawhat polycule (+Vivi and Law) HCs

I was asked for some on twitter and I popped off there, so here they are! I have a ton more but this is what I'm posting now. Feel free to add more in the replies/reblogs!

---

-at first it was completely unspoken! No one called it a relationship or really talked about it, they just existed together

-(also Chopper is like. Collectively everyone's kid/little brother like figure so he is not a part of the poly, but he's definitely a part of the cuddle piles!)

-Zoro Luffy and Nami got together first. They were in that dinghy together for so long and they knew so much random bullshit about one another by the end of it. It's part of what absolutely crushed Nami when she left to go back to cocoyashi, because even though it'd never been said out loud, she'd come to care so much for those two, and she was starting to care so much for Usopp too.

-Usopp was pulled into a cuddle session on the deck of the Merry within two days of joining, and he'd never felt so safe and cared for. He's hesitant to join in without being directly invited each time until post water 7, but Luffy has no problem just dragging him in every time.

-Sanji was the second hardest to get to join the cuddle piles. It took at least a month, and Nami dragging him in herself. She stuck him right between her and Zoro, and well. While Sanji won't say it to his face, Zoro is very very comfy to lay on, and waking up being held by him and Nami made him feel so cared for.

-Robin takes the place of most difficult strawhat to snuggle- until post Enies Lobby. After all they went through, after realizing that's it's okay to want to to live again and to want things for herself? She will just go and sit against whoever is still at the moment to read.

-Jmbei and Franky are always down for the cuddles piles too. Franky will wrap blankets around his metal parts to make them more comfortable, and Jimbei is big a huggable always!

-Brook loves the cuddle pile tradition and any and all physical affection. He was alone for so long that he was dealing with touch starvation... he cried during that first crew cuddle pile... or he would have if he had eyes! Yohohohoho skull joke!

-Vivi! Vivi sits with Nami while she draws her maps! Nami helps do her hair in the morning!

-Vivi likes to sit in the kitchen with Sanji and tell him about dishes from Alabasta! He makes them as similar as possible without the needed ingredients, and when they get to Alabasta, those are some of the first things he buys.

-Zoro teaches Vivi knife tricks to use with her peacock slashers, and how to properly use weights to train with. She chews him out for pushing himself too much when he does things he told her never to do. She's one of the few people who can actually get him to rest.

-Usopp and Vivi share stories! Vivi tells him all about Alabastan myths so he can use them in the tall-tales and he tells her the stories of East blue, both exaggerated and non-exaggerated!

-Luffy teaches her how to throw a proper punch after watching her hurt her hand practicing. What she was doing was working, but it wasn't super sustainable.

-One Time she and Luffy have a conversation about ruling. She will be the queen of Alabasta, and he the pirate king, so it felt fitting to talk about it. Goa gets brought up, and Luffy tells her she'll be a much better queen than Goa's ruling family because her people will be free under her. Because she cares about them.

-leaving Vivi behind in Alabasta hurt them all so much. They sneak letters and denden calls back to her as often as possible.

-Zoro and Sanji still bicker like an old married couple and have their rivalry but they tend to sleep closer together than most. Zoro's a walking heater and Sanji gets cold in his sleep so.

-Sanji pays very close attention to everyone's favorite foods so he can make them as often as possible, but he also pays attention to their comfort foods so he can make them when they're feeling down.

-Zoro pretends he doesn't like sweets. He does, but if he eats them he HAS to brush his teeth after because the thought of his teeth weakening too much to hold a blade concerns him greatly.

-When Sanji notices, he starts making some dishes that taste sweet but have less sugar in them for Zoro.

-Makino used to buy Mikans all the way from cocoyashi, and when Luffy realized that Nami's Mikan Juice recipe is the one that Makino got from the person she bought mikans from, he got so excited. He gets so excited when Nami makes it.

-Nami and Zoro go out drinking with one another in ports all the time. Zoro watches her back while she cheats at cards, and he helps keep creepy guys away. Nami flirts with all the women who try to flirt with Zoro. He's bisexual as all hell, but sometimes women can be creepy too. They will challenge people to try and out drink them, and people loose that bet all the time.

-Once Nami realized just how into Fashiom Sanji was? Endgame. She drags him shopping with her all the time, and once she made him understand that he could be honest with her when it came to clothing instead of just complimenting her, it's phenomenal. He knows so much about different brands, how to spot fakes, and he's just as good at bargaining as she is.

-Robin steals maps from libraries for Nami to compare hers to, and then make better versions of. She returns them after, of course, but not without a copy Nami's notes neatly placed with them. Robin's also really good at finding places for Nami to sell her maps.

-Everyone finds out Zoro can sew pretty early on. He's constantly fixing tears in his clothing, and he eventually starts offering it to the others too. And if he can't fix it nearly, he'll embroider something over it to make it look like it's part of the design. He claims he learned because needles are just "tiny swords."

-Luffy and Zoro take naps together all the time. They're not allowed to go all out with sparing unless their on an uninhabited island though. They don't want to hurt the Merry or the Sunny too much.

-Luffy has taught Nami a couple bo staff tricks he learned from Ace and Sabo as a kid.

-Luffy LOVES to listen to all of them talk about things their passionate about. He may not understand it all, but he doesn't mind listening to the same things more than once or different explanations either.

-if someone talks about a problem near Franky and Usopp, it's solved within a day. They'll build something to fix it or help at the drop of a hat.

-once Nami learned that Zoro was good at math, she asked him to help keep track of all the finances.

-Luffy nuzzles them a bit like a feral animal sometimes. He grew up in the jungle, and you can take the boy out of the jungle, but not the jungle out of the boy.

-Luffy will sit in Usopp's lap while he tells stories if it's just the two of them. They fish together a lot too!

-Brook can play anything he's ever heard, so he collects everyone's favorite songs like pokemon.

-they have a board full of little things they've said to one another that they don't want to forget in the library. It has everything from compliments to cursed things to the completely random and mind blowing things their captain says once in a blue moon.

-Luffy kisses people's foreheads and cheeks to tell them good night. It's one of the best parts of everyone's nights.

-Sanji likes to kiss people's hands, especially if they have to be bandaged for any reason. He only did this with Nami, Robin, Vivi, and Chopper at first, but it quickly spread to Luffy and Usopp. He even does it for Franky, who can't feel his hands and will just remake them instead of bandaging them up.

-the first time someone did this back to Sanji (it was nothing more than a papercut), and it was Zoro. It flusters him so bad that everyone started grabbing his hands to kiss them just because they feel like it.

-there are very few occasions where Zoro sleeps in a way where his back isn't covered. It's almost always when one of them is injured and he's guarding them.

-Luffy loves to talk about bugs to Robin and Usopp, but the second Nami or Sanji come into the room he immediately stops because he knows they're afraid of bugs. Nami eventually tells him that hearing about them doesn't really spook her, and that there are some bugs she likes. The pollinators for her mikan trees, for example. The bees and the butterflies. So Luffy talks about those with her instead. Sanji's infinitely grateful that his captain doesn't mention the creepy crawlies to him.

-Franky and Usopp like to make little trinkets for people, and when they work together, the trinkets come out beautifully.

-Franky and Brook got into a pun war once. It lasted for days. They decided they were equals in tomfoolery because if they didn't they may have driven Nami mad.

-Robin and Sanji are the most verbal about complimenting the others. They work together to pull the others out of bad headspace's when necessary.

-Zoro convinces Usopp and Nami to do some exercises with him. They thought he'd push them the way he did himself at first, but he could never.

-Zoro is one of the biggest softies of the whole group. He just pretends he isn't. They all know this.

-After they all trauma dump at some point, Usopp makes sketches of the people they've lost, so that if they don't have any photographs, they can have this. They have all sobbed to Usopp after receiving one of these sketches.

-Usopp's room is full of drawings of the strawhats doing different things. Some of his favorites are of Nami picking mikans, Sanji teaching Chopper the steps to a dance in the kitchen, Brook playing violin in the moonlight, and Luffy asleep on the Sunny's figurehead.

-Franky had never considered letting anyone help fix and tamper with his insides until the Strawhats. But he feels so safe with them that he has no problem explaining how he works and what to do to upgrade the slots he has trouble reaching.

-Brook and Zoro spar against each other often. they start interweaving parts of one other's styles into their own as they learn them.

-They started acknowledging it all more post TS.

-one of the first things Luffy did was tell them all he loved them. One of the few things he regrets is not telling Ace that enough, and he's not gonna make that mistake again. It starts a chain reaction, and they all start say it out loud, some more than others.

-all the Strawhats knew Luffy had nightmares even before the skip. He never said anything about it, but he'd sneak to sleep with one of them even on non-cuddle pile nights. It's more noticeable post time skip. They don't ask.

-Sanji comes back with long hair and wearing heels, and no one questions it. Good for him. His kicks hurt more and they missed his food dearly. Nami and Robin now get to help him with his hair too!

-Brook adds most his earnings as Soul King to the treasury for the crew. He also came back with gifts from all over for all of them.

-Zoro learned even more stuff about sewing from Perona, and when he finally gets to fix something for Nami and Robin with an intricate design he learned, he looks so excited to be doing it. One of them snuck a photo and it's the first photo on the photo board they added beside the quote board.

-everyone loves to sit in the Galley and talk with Sanji while he cooks. Sometimes he'll sing if they're all quiet.

-Robin likes to play with people's hair when she's reading, and she likes to read aloud just as much.

-Sanji and Usopp cut and style everyone's hair.

-Jimbei is overwhelmed by how welcoming the Strawhats are before he's even officially joined them. He knows what to expect by the time he makes it to Wano though, and he's so excited.

-Luffy saw right through Law in Punk Hazard. He saw the same look in his eyes as he's seen in Robin and Ace and a lit of his crew. He felt in his gut that if he didn't help Law he wouldn't live past whatever he was planning.

-he knew that telling his crew that Law saved his life would mean them learning that he almost died, but it doesn't stop him from doing it.

-even with that information they're hesitant to trust Law at first, but they fold pretty quickly as they start to see the same thing Luffy did in his eyes.

-Chopper asks Law what happened after Marineford because he's Luffy doctor and feels like he should know... and Law tells him. Everyone else listens from around the corner, heartbroken to hear that after the canera's cut, Luffy's brother died taking a hit for him. That Luffy was so exhausted and full of poison that Law knew he had to have been tortured in some way. That the surgery to save him took everything he had. That Jimbei was the one to bring him back to his senses while he was upset.

-Law tells him about what he needs to know so bluntly... but he leaves out how Luffy's scream for his brother never left his mind, reminding him of the way he lost Corazon. He doesn't tell Chopper that Luffy tore some of his wounds back open as soon as he was awake, desperate to try and find his brother.

-they all keep very close eyes on Law to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid after that. If nothing else, they won't let the man who saved their captain's life die.

-Sanji sneaks more food onto Law's plate whenever he's not looking because there's no way he's eating enough.

-Zoro starts spars with him to keep him out of his head.

-Robin shares knowledge back and forth with him, debating on simple things to pass the time. She accidentally picks up on all the signs that he too, survived a genocide. A tiny mistake in covering his accent while he was mostly asleep is what gave her the final clue to which one.

-even though he tries to hide it, Law is fascinated by how Franky kept himself alive.

-Nami asks about how they navigate under the ocean, but Law doesn't have all the answers for her. He tells her she should ask Bepo when they all meet up, and Nami is the first to get him talking about his crew. He doesn't even notice everyone else listening at first, but his clear love for them is what chases away that last little bit of suspicion.

-when they realize Law is just a dork underneath the fake moody attitude, they ask as many questions as they can to get that side of him to come out.

-Law has to bite the inside of his cheeks to not laugh at Brook's puns when they catch him off guard

-Nami trades him rare coins for regular ones when she sees him looking, but if he already has it in his collection, he'll tell her how much it's worth to sell.

-Usopp and Franky build him little models of the Germa 66 comic characters. They sit on display in the Tang.

-Law finds some old music from Flevance, and he trusts Brook to copy it down when he can't.

-Luffy manages to pull the childishness that he thought died more than a decade ago right back out of him. He finds himself in so much ridiculous bs, but it feels so nice to just let go.

-Robin explains how weapons from different cultures work so Usopp can rebuild them with Franky!

-Robin absolutely lies about it sprinkling rain lightly to cover up the fact that Law sheds a few tears when Doflamingo goes down.

[kanmom51]

JK live 12 June 2023 7:02 am KST

Cr./ to creators of media used in this post.

JK came to us early in the morning, brought us into his bedroom, into his bed, to be with him as he falls asleep.

This was intentional, not a fluke.

JK knew he was going to fall asleep with us, and he also knew what the company's thoughts were on the matter, and he just didn't give a flying fuck.

One thing you couldn't see in the twitter translations was that cheeky smile, lol.

Man knew what he was doing.

He knew it. He just did. Fact: it took them longer to turn off the live this time than last time, lol. What was it? 6-7 minutes more or less?

JK tells it how it is.

He is gentle and genuine and just so real. When he tells us he's a human being he also shows it to us. He's not flawless and he isn't afraid to show us that either. He is a superstar with a heart of gold and some child like mannerisms. A pure soul. And I think that is partially the reason that millions of people will just sit there and watch him sleep for over 20 minutes.

Did he cut his hair again? Please no.

A summery of JK's live:

JK greetings to army.

An infomercial for the neck pillow, which is by now probably sold out.

"There are times when I snore and times when I don't...but I think I will I snore today."🤣

How can you not love this man? He literally turned on the live to fall asleep while telling us he missed us.

He tells us since he doesn't do IG, he doesn't do SM, so there aren't many ways to communicate with us. So he keeps looking for Weverse. Well, all I can say is "please don't stop".

Calvin Klein promotion from the worlds best brand ambassador ever.

Disappearing for a couple, talking to himself (most likely) in the background. I guess that answers his question if he talks to himself a lot.

Glasses on.

Glasses off.

Humming...groaning, lol.

Looks like maybe he fell asleep and then he comes back to us to tell us he was thinking just as he was about to fall asleep, that if he falls asleep: "If I really sleep I also think and imagine things that I don't want to think about. It's so fascinating..."

He ends with: "anyway, army you can't get hurt. I had a dreamlike thought about how you guys can't get hurt. We must be careful all the time. We can't get hurt."

I love his philosophical discussion with himself while half asleep. Granted, those are the times we are most likely to have our eureka moments. That is a fact. Lol.

I love how he is sharing these thoughts with us. I do hope that fans understand just how lucky they are for him to be doing this (yeah, that's wishful thinking, I know).

And from there on we have 21 minutes of JK playing sleeping beauty.

Live cut off by whoever it was in the company trying to figure out if and when they need to cut the feed off.

Well, at least they didn't have too many subs to add, hence the live being up and translated in a just a few hours.

Half of the subs for the live:

An almost perfect description of JK's live in 17 seconds:

JK's Weverse post 12 June 2023 14:34

You have got to love that man, lol.

Let's take a quick look at the numbers for a sec, again, just for fun.

JK's live was at 7:02 12.6.23

7+2+1=10

2+6+2+3=13

13/10

JK's post 2:34 pm 12.6.23

2+3+4+1=10

2+6+2+3=13

13/10

I think we have a few interesting weeks ahead of us.

I do hope that with everything going on we will still get to see this amazing so so special young man come to us to be with us.

And just before I go, I will leave you with this:

Oh Jiminah, you lucky bastard...

Also, love it when he has that JM out for show...

See you soon JK...

[thomotomo]

Accidental Reveal - Faker x Male Reader

A/N: Once again coming back from the dead to drop you a lil something~ My current hyperfixation is Faker (and T1 and the LCK as a whole too) and I have a few more ideas in stock so maybe I'm gonna drop some more stuff soon! If you wanna request for any League player don't hesitate, I'm absolutely down :D

You were a rather well-known streamer, mostly known for playing Osu and a variety of games such as sometimes league of legends. You had been dating Lee Sang hyeok, better known as Faker, for the past 3 years. The two of you had recently decided it would be good to start living together and for the past two weeks you had slowly been moving your stuff to his house.

You hadn't been streaming during that time, chilling and hanging out with your boyfriend whilst installing your stuff. You had been lucky it was the off-season so could spend most of your time together.

But today, Sang Hyeok had went out to meet up at T1 Headquarters for some work so you decided it would be nice to stream so you had spent most of the afternoon catching up with your chat, telling them about your move with your partner (obviously omitting with who and where exactly you had been moving).

You had been playing Osu, it had been a while and you had been itching to try out new maps so you were rather happy to be able to do so once again. You were having so much fun that you hadn't noticed your phone going off quietly so you jumped, when, right after you finished a song with a nice grade.

You took off your headset as you saw your boyfriend grinning face. You exhaled loudly before standing up to greet him, giving him a peck, completely forgetting that you were live,so in the meantime, your chat was going wild, even though your camera's angle wasn't super wide, they still had seen Sanghyeok's face.

You were in the midst of telling to him what you were doing when suddenly your face decomposed as you realised that you were live and that people now most likely knew who you had moved in with.

"I was streaming...", Sanghyeok's face froze too and you winced before quickly seating back on your chair.

"Hey everyone thanks for stopping by today, I er... gotta go do something quick so we'll see each other very soon! Bye."

You waved at the camera and ended the stream, keeping an eye on the chat, who was still yelling and typing "FAKER?!?!?!!?", you knew you had fucked up. You shut down everything and turned towards your boyfriend, after all he was the bigger celebrity out of the two of you. You knew that you weren't 1000% in the shit as T1 and the management alongside both of your respective families already knew about your relationship so it wouldn't come off as a surprise to them but to the rest of the world and especially to the whole country, it was another thing.

"Fuck Sanghyeok I'm so sorry. I was happy to see you and I forgot to tell you..."

"No it's okay I should've knocked." He said as he sighed and shook his head. The two of you stood there in silence, you were dreading the panicked phone call that would ensue. You stepped towards your boyfriend, kissing his cheek, trying to soothe him at least a bit.

"Hey, we can't do anything about it at the moment. Do you wanna eat something? We can order."

He nodded quietly, he was still frowning, you could feel that he was stressed by everything that was happening. You took out your phone out and, ignoring the DMs coming from some of your friends, you ordered comfort food for the both of you and waited for your order to arrive.

You could see that he was glued to his phone and you could only guess what he was reading. As if he could read your brain and hear your worry he spoke up.

"Don't worry it's just the groupchat with the guys. They're worried about us."

You couldn't help but let out a quiet breath. At least he wasn't letting shitty comments online get to him. You were itching to take a look at Twitter but you knew it wouldn't be good, looking at the timer for when your food would be delivered, you couldn't help but bite your lip in worry. Sanghyeok chuckled quietly and grabbed your face, peppering it with gentle kisses.

"Stop frowning and worrying we're going to be okay. Even if people don't like it. What do you want to watch?"

You smiled softly at him and both of you checked Netflix to see what show you'd be watching tonight. Soon after you had started the first episode of this show you had been wanting to watch the delivery person called you up. You went to fetch the food and as soon as you came back, the both of you settled and dived into your dinner, opting to enjoy it quietly and ignoring the storm you had created. Once you finished cleaning up the dinner the two of you laid down on the couch, him laying down on you.

Whilst you were really into the show you had turned on, you had moved to replying to your friends and family who had discovered the situation or were worried about you, reassuring them that the two of you would be okay.

Once that was done you turned back your focus on the show and on Sanghyeok, caressing his hair gently. You were just basking in the presence of each other, after all you it was late at night and worrying about what had happened was useless and you would deal with the consequences tomorrow.

[ge0rg1ewaa]

"They set it up!" - Neymar jr

A/n : this is so confusing and idk if it makes sense. I just wanted to post something, anything. hope u still enjoy it :)

[Third person pov]

The smell of freshly prepared pasta wafted through the corridors of the apartment. The atmosphere was soothing with a blanket on the couch & a favorite movie on the TV. The setting sun and its last rays were the only thing that could be seen through the window.

Today was Y/n's day off and she decided not to bother going out, to be honest, she wasn't in the mood either. Yesterday, she broke up with her boyfriend of a year and a half because she found out he was cheating on her. She didn't do anything all day. In the morning she went out to do the shopping, but since then she has been at her place, reading the unfinished book and finishing watching the last few episodes of the series she has been bingeing on lately.

After pouring herself a portion of the pasta, she headed to the sofa, taking her phone from the charger. The girl had not yet checked her social media, her phone flooded with messages from Instagram, Twitter and Messenger. There was nothing interesting in the internet world. There were no dramas at the moment, or at least Y/n hadn't run into them. One of the messages was from her boyfriend well ex now, Neymar jr, and read 'I'm really sorry. I promise you, I haven't done anything. You know I would never touch anyone else expect you. I love you. Baby please answer me. ' and stuff like that, but Y/n just blocked him. Less than a minute later, her phone rang. As soon as she saw that it was Neymar, she let him ring, but as soon as she realized that he was not going to give up so easily, she picked up the phone, but remained silent, letting him speak.

"Hi meu amor. I know you are there, but you are silent because you want me to speak, so I will speak and tell you everything. The other night after we won the game we went out for a treat but we got drunk and I don't even know how I got home. I swear to god I don't know the girl who was next to me. They set it up! We haven't done anything, I promise you. I know the pictures you saw don't do justice to my words, but I have a video where she is paid to lie next to me half naked. I'll send it to you so you can make sure too. Eu te amo muito. Eu nunca faria algo assim para te machucar. Você significa muito para mim. [ I love you so much. I would never do anything like that to hurt you. You mean so much to me.]" After he explained everything to her in one breath, Y/n unblocked him to send her the video. And he was right. The girl could be clearly seen haggling for the amount of money and eventually getting it, before taking off her dress and laying down next to the sleeping Neymar. But how did she get into his room?

"You can see for yourself what it's all about. I still don't know how she managed to get into my room and who helped her and why they took pictures, but at least I can rest assured that you know the truth." Neymar sighed, his red eyes filled with tears once again. He doesn't know how he let things get here. Only a day since the love of his life left him, but he doesn't know what is happening around him. At least now that Y/n had let him explain the ugly situation, he hoped she would return to his arms. He missed her, her touch, her kisses, her voice, her laugh, her presence in general. He was so deeply madly in love with her that he was ready to leave his family and end his career for her, and we all know how important family & football are to him.

He was just about to hang up the phone when her soft breaking voice called. "Ney, im so sorry. I should have let you explain earlier, but because of my stubborn head, I didn't and hurt both of us. I wish I could hug and kiss you. I miss you." Y/n said, her voice quiet but understandable. She knows that's not possible because of the miles that separate them every day.

" Se você descer e sair, seu desejo pode se tornar realidade. Se você descer e sair, seu desejo pode se tornar realidade. " [If you go downstairs and go outside, your wish may come true.]" Neymar replied with a small smile that could be heard in his voice.

He was here. He was finally here. Her smile shot across her face. Y/n would finally see him. She was so excited that she didn't even bother to get a jacket and flew down the stairs, opening the front door as quickly as possible. And here in front of her stood Neymar. With his classic smile and different hairstyle. He opened his arms and Y/n ran up and jumped on top of him. Her legs wrapped around his hips, his arms around her back and under her thigh to keep her from dropping to the ground. She nuzzled her face into his neck, smelling his fresh scent & he buried his face in her hair, inhaling her shampoo, which smelled of vanilla and cinnamon.

They pulled back and smashed their lips into each other's. Their lips seemed to be made for each other and fit together like a puzzle. Ney couldn't seem to enjoy Y/n's cherry lip balm & her hands were tangled in his curls.

"I missed you and I'm so sorry I didn't believe you at first." Y/n whispered, forehead pressed against Neymar's.

" Tudo está bem agora. Eu te amo." [ Everything is good now. I love you.]

" Te amo mais." [I love you more.]

[dragonwritersblog]

Royally Screwed!

Read on AO3

1/2/3/4/5

Wow that was some hiatus. But we're officially back! And hopefully we'll start to update more frequently as well, but I can't be too sure because of college and (if you've been following me on twitter and tiktok) I'm also voicing Jane Doe in 'Birds Of Paradise' by Rosetta Sun on tiktok. I really recommend going to her kofi as the rest of the cast and I are doing commisions to voice your oc's! We all have a large range of voices so if you want go to the link of Rosetta's tiktok bio and go to her kofi and see which voice would best suit your oc! Besides from that, hopefully I'll be writing more too, especially with a certain sequel everyone has been waiting for 👀.

Also, the beginning of the chapter does go into detail about Pomni's past and how she was treated by Caine, it wasn't great to say the least. I don't want anyone to feel triggered to like always, I will label (1) when the flashback starts and (2) when it ends. If this is something that you're not comfortable reading, please always feel free to skip this fic.

Anyways, enjoy!

4. Anything, Anything, Anything

(1)

Pomni panted as she stared at the ground below, clutching onto her aerial silk. She didn’t know how long she had been practicing for, only that she was completely exhausted. But rehearsals weren’t over yet, she had to keep going. The ground looked so far down below her, sure she was up high but for some reason the height was giving her vertigo. She never gets vertigo.

“Pomni?” Kaufmo called up to her, placing down a pie he had for his act. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Pomni took a breath, “I’m fine Pa! Just lost my focus, that’s all.”

The clown didn’t seem to buy it, “I don’t think so kiddo, start climbing down slowly, you look exhausted.”

It was true. Her eyes were red with bags underneath, she seemed paler than normal and she was concerningly thin from what Kaufmo could see. But she didn’t want to worry him, not when there were worse things at play, “I’m fine Pa! I promise. I…”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence, her vision blurring and her head pounding with the force of an unexpected headache. Against her control, she slipped into unconscious, letting go of the silks.

“POMNI!” Kaufmo screamed, running to where she was falling. The rest of the cast gasped, halting their own practice as they raced to the collapsing jester.

She was lucky that her father was there in time, catching her in his arms before her body hit the floor. Kaufmo didn’t even want to imagine the type of damage she could have taken. “Ragatha,” he turned to the ragdoll, “Go get her some water, she’s skipping practice for the rest of the day.”

“Now, now Kaufmo,” a low voice drawled, making everyone’s skin crawl when the ringmaster floated into the tent. His eyes sharpened in on Kaufmo and the fainted jester in his arms, “I don’t believe you have the authority to make those commands.”

“Pomni fainted Caine,” Kaufmo hissed, his own tone cold and unafraid, “It takes the slightest bit of human empathy to recognise that she’s being overworked!”

Caine went still, his feet planted on the ground, unhappy with Kaufmo’s attitude. Ragatha’s lions immediately circled round the clown and jester, shielding them from the ringmaster’s unknown wrath, “She’ll be fine, she just needs to keep practising.”

“She needs rest.” Kaufmo spat, “The only reason why she fainted the way she did is because you keep working her to the bone to the point that she can’t even stand. Not to mention the fact that you’re sucking the literal life out of her every day just so you can fulfil your ‘precious’ ego! So excuse me if I find everything that comes out of your mouth to be complete horseshit!”

The clown panted, not tearing his eyes away from Caine even for a second. The next few seconds were nothing but aching silence.

Kaufmo had been used to Caine’s torment for years. The pair of dentures forced him to endure each performance no matter how much pain he was in. As long as the audience was satisfied, he couldn’t care less if the clown had a few broken bones. But Kaufmo would be damned if he was going to let the ringmaster inflict that same pain onto his daughter, not if he could help it.

The clown turned his attention away from Caine when he heard a small whine, turning to look down at Pomni fluttering her eyes open. “Pa?” she whimpered, “What happened?”

“Hey there kiddo,” he rocked her lightly, like he used to do when she was younger after she had a fright or a nightmare. “You fainted, you’re lucky I was there to catch you.” He put a hand to her forehead, wiping away a bead of sweat, “You’re burning up, come on you need to lay down.”

“I didn’t give out that order,” Caine intervened.

“And I don’t care!” Kaufmo snapped, “You’re not pushing her to the brink today Caine! Do what you want with me but leave Pomni out of this!”

“Here,” Ragatha rushed back, a cup of water nursed in her hands as she held it to Pomni’s lips. “Oh sweetheart, you look as pale as a ghost.”

Pomni gulped down as much of the liquid as she could, she didn’t realise how thirsty she was until the water hit her throat. Her head buzzed with a light ache, pressing her hand to it when she finished the water. She really had been overworked, hadn’t she?

“Easy there, kiddo,” Kaufmo raised her upper body into a sitting position, “Let’s get you back to your quarters.”

Caine cleared his throat condescendingly, “I believe I told you that I didn’t give out that order Kaufmo.”

“And I believe I told you that it was complete horseshit,” the clown retorted, not taking his eyes off Pomni as he helped her to her feet.

“I guess you need a gentle reminder,” the ringmaster spoke softly, contradicting his words with the next action he was about to do.

He flicked his hand, a red mist contrasting Pomni’s usual blue appearing. It extended like a chain, wrapping round Kaufmo’s neck and pulling the clown towards him, forcing him to drop Pomni as she landed back onto the ground with a thud. “Pa!” she cried out, the others surrounding her.

“Let me make this perfectly clear Kaufmo,” Caine hissed, the chain tightening around the clown’s neck, suffocating him. “You are under my rules, you obey me. If I say jump, you jump. If you are tied to the back of a carriage while being dragged around on a rope, you will do just that. If you had to bleed out for an act with no one to assist you, you will continue with a smile and be damn pleased about it.”

Kaufmo coughed and spluttered, pulling at the misty chain to get the smallest breath of air, but Caine was too strong.

“Caine, stop! Stop please!” Pomni screamed, the others holding her back, “Let my Pa go!”

His eyes darted to the jester, his gaze making her feel tiny. He threw Kaufmo at a box of crates, the clown grunting at the painful impact. Pomni let out a cry, her hand reaching out to him.

Caine flicked his fingers again, lifting up the others and leaving Pomni on the ground to watch in terror. “You did this, you know,” Caine tsked.

Pomni’s eyes widened with terror, “W-what?”

“They all suffer because of your incompetence,” he growled, “You’re lucky you have a bit of talent and that little magic of yours, otherwise you would be a nothing-filled waste.”

“Caine, let them go, please,” Pomni begged, her lip quivering.

He rolled his eyes, letting out a chuckle before throwing each member in different directions of the tent. Sun hit his head against a pole, Ragatha tore one of her stitches as she landed on her knives and Gangle ribbons were tied up in knots when she landed face first on the ground, putting a crack in her mask.

Pomni covered her mouth, trying to stand yet her legs give way once again. She was too weak.

“Caine, what is the meaning of this?” Moon’s startled voice echoed throughout the tent, gasping when she saw everyone scattered around and furrowed her brows when she saw Pomni’s dishevelled form on the ground. “You have to put a stop to your madness, look at what you’re doing to everyone! Look at what you’re doing to that poor girl!”

“This is merely discipline, Moon, I’m doing whatever it takes to make sure a circus is successful,” Caine muttered, barely paying her any mind.

Moon could even barely recognise the man in front of her, “What happened to you Caine?”

He turned to her slowly, “Come again?”

“What happened to the man I fell in love with?” she continued, “What happened to the promises you made to make this circus amazing? What happened to trying no matter what? What happened to the man I fell in love with?”

Caine scoffed, “I did what I had to do in order to make these dreams happen. You could never understand sacrifice Moon, you believe what you want to believe but this is the way things are.”

Moon’s eyes darkened, she started stomping towards him, “You…you vile, disgusting, monstrous-!”

He snapped his fingers, an axe appearing in his hand as he held it to her chin, daring her to come closer. “Just because I’m soft on you Moon, it doesn’t mean that I won’t take precautions for you stepping out of line,” he glared at her.

But Moon was unflinching, staring him down with the same coldness he gave her, “Do your worst.”

Caine hummed, giving her a shrug, “Fine.”

He waved his hand again, sending the axe into her shoulder. An agonised screech echoed throughout the tent as a group of his masked men rushing in and pulling her away. “You’re lucky dear, this is me sparing you,” Caine sneered, “But make no mistake, I will be dealing with you accordingly.”

Moon screeched as she was dragged away, her eyes looking on with worry at the frightened Jester. “Run Pomni!” she screamed, “Run!”

She wanted to, Pomni really wanted to. But fear had paralysed her when Caine set his eyes on her again. Tears leaked from her eyes, feeling like the five-year-old girl he grabbed from the street the moment he caught of whiff of her power. “Caine, don’t do this,” she sniffed, “I’ll be better, I’ll practice more, I’ll stop singing just please don’t do this.”

“You know, I never did understand your silly little songs,” he mumbled, “You waste so much time on them yet you know the real reason the audience comes to see you, and it isn’t to hear those tacky lyrics of yours. You know exactly what you’re good for.”

That part stung. Yes she knew that her skills as a trapeze artist and her abilities was what got tickets to sell, but her songs were her passion. Her songs were her, something that Caine hadn’t been able to take away yet. She wanted to scream at him, to tell him that her songs were everything! But she was still too frail, and she was certain that it was only going to get worse.

“Caine please, I’m still recovering from last time and we have another show tonight!” she back away, kicking her legs as she crawled backwards on the ground. “Please don’t do this it…it hurts.”

“All good sacrifices come with pain Pomni,” Caine told her, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out the amulet. “You should be thanking me for using this gift, I’m the one who’s actually putting it to good use.”

He held the amulet in front of him, Pomni’s eyes pleading for mercy. “Now my little possession,” he grinned, “It’s time for me to receive my gift.”

The amulet glowed, a loud whine leaving its source.

Pomni could feel her blood boiling, her head pounding and every part of her body shattering with pain when she felt her energy being ripped away from her. Her blue mist was forced away from her, being sealed away into the amulet as Caine looked on with greed.

It hurt, it hurt so much. Her skin was burning as though she had been lit up into a thousand flames, her hair being ripped from her scalp, and she was bleeding out of every pore of her body. She wanted it to stop, it hurts, just stop, please stop, STOP, STOP, STOP!

A pained scream ripped from her throat.

(2)

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Pomni woke in a cold sweat, her heart pounding in her chest. Her head whipped from side to side, scanning her surroundings in a dazed panic. She wasn’t in that lifeless tent anymore with that cruel ringmaster. She was in the castle, she was safe, and she was far away from him.

She let out a sniffle, bringing her knees up to her chest and hugging them tight as she buried her face into them. A few stray tears leaked onto the sheets, her sobs muffled against the blanket. That was the worst thing about her nightmares, they weren’t just that but memories too. It was real and it had happened. All they did was make her relive it over and over again.

Kaufmo told her many times that it wasn’t her fault for what Caine did, that his actions were his own doing. But seeing the repeated moments of her family being hurt over and over again just to protect her only made her guilt increase. Maybe Caine was right. Maybe it was her fault.

She took a deep breath, sitting upright and wiping the wetness off her cheeks. That was the past, there was no need to be self-pitiful about it now. She shouldn’t waste time fussing over stupid memories that only brought everyone else down the longer she thought about them. She just needed to get up and go throughout the day, push everything back until she’s able to manage it on her own.

Pomni swung her legs over her bed, going over to clean herself in the sink inside the connected bathroom, before moving behind the screen the maids gave her to change into a new dress she was given. She first pulled over a simple cream shift over her head, the silky fabric gliding over her skin. Next was a simple blue stays and puffy skirt, with two red hearts on each side of the skirt and ribbon of the same colour in a criss-cross pattern in the middle of her stays, with the bottom of the skirt being layered with red and white trim.

She did a onceover in the mirror as she pulled the strings off the stays shut, giving herself a quick nod before finally exiting her room.

Part of her wanted to bury back under the soft sheets of her bed, to hide whatever the day had to await her, her nightmare clawing at the back of her mind. But the moment she saw Prince Jax outside her door waiting for her, all doubts instantly vanished as a true and natural smile tugged at her lips.

“A good morning to you Prince Jax,” she greeted, giggling as Motley immediately jumped into her arms and climbed onto her shoulder, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Only your smile little lady,” he grinned, eating up the little blush that dusted across her cheeks. “But that’s not the only reason I’m here. My parents asked me to collect you, they have an announcement for you and the rest of your family in the throne room.”

His brows were furrowed and face serious, this had to be a serious matter.

“Oh, lead the way then,” she said, anxiety started to grip at her again.

Jax sensed her apprehension, scooping her arm up and linking it with his, “Don’t worry, no matter what it is we’ll be able to figure it out. Promise.”

How does he do that? How does someone with the type of reputation that made her want to keep the farthest distance away from him as possible, say the simplest yet heartwarming things that might her heart spark? And how did he say it so honestly that she had to believe him? She cleared her throat, giving him a little smirk, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep Princey.”

His eyes were unchanging, still soft as he placed his other hand over her and rubbed his thumb over her fingers, “I don’t. You’re too important to risk.”

Pomni felt her heart skip a beat. If it weren’t for Motley purring against her ear, she wouldn’t have anything to ground herself from floating up to cloud nine. Her grip on his hand tightened, whispering, “Good.”

With a gentle smile and a steady hand, he led her out of the hallway and made their way to the throne room. Neither of them felt the need to run down the halls like they usually did, that experience would be for another type of day. For this day, the slow steady pace down the long halls of the palace was what the two of them needed. The comfortable silence of each other’s company was enough for both of them, not a single word had to be spoken. Was this what it would be like for Pomni if she were to stay? Just peace? No worries about what or who could come after her? That she could be free to express herself in any form she wished for, song, dance, art, speech? Where her powers would be hers and hers alone without the fear of them being used for someone else’s selfish exploitations? And where she could finally allow herself to open up to the idea of love? To spend her days with someone who would listen to anything and everything she had to say. To feel safe in the loving embrace of another. And she and Jax could live their days in nothing but peaceful bliss…

…Oh…OH!...oh…

Electricity struck through Pomni as the realisation dawned on her.

She had fallen in love with the prince.

Jax looked down at the jester once he felt her grip loosen on his, concern curling through him when he saw the worried look on her face. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said soothingly, capturing her attention as she blinked up at him. “I know that this whole ‘being called to the throne room’ thing seems pretty daunting, but trust me, there’s nothing to be afraid of. My parents always have a plan, so no matter what happens, I’m sure it’ll be alright.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” she nodded, giving him a soft smile before they continued walking. How she wished that were the reason why she suddenly felt so down. But no. She loved Jax, she had fallen so hard for him. But she didn’t have the luxury to stay with him. Someone like her couldn’t afford to love.

Bury it down, she inhaled deeply, don’t ruin this, not like everything else.

She wanted to enjoy this as much as she could before anything else could happen.

The throne room already had a small audience, consisting of the rest of the circus while Kinger and Queenie sat ahead of them on their thrones. The king and queen shared a nervous yet hopeful look, two emotions that could go either way depending on what the topic of conversation that were about to have. It only made the prince and jester all the more nervous.

“Thank you for joining us Pomni, I’m glad that our son is being a good host to you,” Queenie greeted, bowing her head to the girl.

“Well, he has become a very good friend to me over the past few days,” Pomni gave the prince a smile before focusing back on the queen, “If you don’t mind me asking your majesty, but why have you summoned us all here?”

“Hey, it’s okay kiddo,” Kaufmo walked up to her. Pomni detached her arm from Jax’s to put her hands in her father’s, the rabbit already missing the warmth of her touch. “They’ve already informed us that there is nothing to worry about.”

Pomni exhaled shakily, nodding. Though her nerves would get the best of her at times, Kaufmo’s voice was always something that kept her slightly grounded ever since she was a child. Even Motley’s purring added to that as well. With a final breath, she turned to the king and queen, ready to hear whatever they had to say.

Kinger cleared his throat, rising from his throne, “As you know, we’ve had our guards roam outside of our kingdom to make sure that Caine or his men haven’t been planning another invasion. Well, we’ve just had a report back and they’ve told us that the outer realm has been clear of them since the last attack.”

“We’ve told them to do one last surveillance before their final report, just to make sure that Caine isn’t lurking,” Queenie continued, “However, since there’s not been any sightings, we believe that it is safe for you to continue with your travels.”

 “So, how long do you determine that we stay in the castle?” Ragatha asked, “During the last surveillance.”

“Unless anything else comes back, I’d say you should stay at least one more week before you believe that you should go,” Queenie confirmed.

Several of the cast members let out a sigh of relief, the anxiety of Caine’s lurking washing away at the thought of being free to travel again. Though a bittersweetness hung in the air. The kingdom had been nothing but supportive and accommodating to them in their time of need. What was supposed to be a short time here to entertain the subjects here had turned into the kindest experience any of them had ever received in their entire lives.

For Pomni? While the thought of seeing new places (and being as far away from Caine as possible) thrilled her to her core. For the first time in her life, she actually wanted to stay. Don’t get her wrong, she still had her dreams of travelling the realms, to let audiences hear her songs - not watch her acts or witness her powers, but to listen to her songs. To listen to her singing. To listen to her.

But if she closed her eyes for a moment, only a moment, she wanted to let herself pretend. Pretend that she had a place here, to wake up in the morning and plan to do whatever she pleased, to go out into town and greet the other people of the kingdom as though she were one of them too. To sing in the town centre for whoever wanted to stop and hear her.

And perhaps, in the far back of her mind, she would go up to the castle and be greeted by a pair of yellow eyes and a Cheshire grin. Where he would take her hands into his and ask about her day, stroll in the gardens with her as he listened to whatever plans she wanted to venture. To listen to the songs that she only reserved for him and him alone. And until the midnight sky, watching the stars twinkle amongst the inky blanket of the nightly heavens, he would hold her in his arms, a silent promise that he would always love her. No matter what.

But now, she realised that there was no way to have that fantasy be real. Yes, Caine wasn’t spotted by any of the guards, but it didn’t change the fact that he was still out there. Still waiting for the chance to strike and get his hands on her and her powers. As long as Caine was after her, she could never have the life she dreamed of living.

Jax looked over the side of his shoulder, worry striking him when he saw Pomni’s crestfallen expression and the glazed look in her eyes. While he was sad that she was leaving (and deep down prayed that she could stay), a part of him believed that there would be some joy in the fact that she could finally be free to leave. He knew that something was wrong, “Pomni, what’s wrong?”

Pomni wanted to cry right there and then at how kind his words sounded, at how far the prince had come from the stereotype she expected from him. Why couldn’t she just keep hating him, why did he charm and endear her so much that she had to fall in love with him! It could have made everything so much easier. She wanted to tell him how much she wanted to stay, tell him all of the potential plans she could have had here, and how much she wanted him to be part of them. But the words kept getting stuck in her throat, as though an invisible hand had wrapped around her neck, silencing her from making any word that would ruin Jax too.

“However,” Kinger’s voice rang through the room. “There is one last thing we would like to do before you all take your leave.”

Pomni didn’t know whether to feel eased or frustrated at the sudden interruption.

“We would like to host a ball in your honour near the end of the week,” Queenie announced, “To thank you for all that you have done here.”

“For what we’ve done?” Ragatha titled her head in confusion, “Your majesty, you and your family are the ones who took care of us in our time of need?

Queenie eyes softened, a glimmer of a smile flickering in her gaze. A kind look that Jax knew all too well from his mother. “Yes, you and your family may have been under our care,” Queenie confirmed, “But it does not take away from the fact that you have all been an incredible presence in our kingdom. You have brought smiles to everyone, not just from your performances, but by simply being your best true selves for everyone to see. Even if you didn’t bring your tricks or talents, the moment you stepped out into town you all saw the world as authentic and beautiful, that’s what brought our subjects to you. That mind view is an incredible ability to possess, you’re lucky. Many people lack it. That’s why we want to celebrate you, for all of you cherishing the kindness that our kingdom was built upon. Doing that is the greatest thing our foreigners and travellers can do, that is why the entire kingdom is invited, so they can say one more final thank you and goodbye for all that you have done for us.”

Each member looked to one another, like a sparkler had been lit within their souls as they grinned at the prospect of a ball. Neither one of them had been to one before, mostly they would stay as long as they would need to in the town they were performing in, do the performance they rehearsed day and night to do before finally leaving up the time their shows were finished. They had only heard what happened at balls through whispers of stories from the other common folk. And now they could finally be a part of one.

Excited murmurs broke out between them, wondering what they could wear, where they could get their garments, what colours they should choose, what type of jewellery they would wear if they decided to wear them at all. There was just so many choices in so little time! It was all so amazing!

Pomni felt herself smiling. A ball. Like everyone else, she had never been to one. But Kaufmo’s fairytales left so many fantasies in her mind. When she was a teenager - after a rough night of performing and dealing with Caine’s wrath - she would dream about being at a ball, wearing the loveliest gown while dancing under the stars. Sometimes those dreams would include a handsome prince or princess sweeping her off her feet, taking her far away from all that hurt her.

She looked to Jax. She may be leaving after the end of the week, but it was still one night to have all her dreams come true. Even if it would only last for so long. “So,” she lightly nudged Jax’s shoulder, “I’m guessing you already have a plus one to bring to the ball. A princess no doubt.”

“Well I am planning on asking someone,” Jax confirmed. Pomni felt her face fall a bit, a little piece of her was hoping he would ask her. Huh, she never expected that thought to enter her mind. “She might not be a princess, but she has the spirit of one for sure.”

“Oh,” Pomni fiddled with her ring finger, “Well, she’s lucky if you’re the one who’s wanting to ask her.”

“I’m the lucky one if she says yes little lady,” he grinned, “Or rather, if you say yes.”

Pomni’s head snapped up.

“You really think I wouldn’t be asking you?” Jax chuckled, “Did you not see what I was like when I met you? Maybe you hit your head harder than you thought before I heroically saved you.”

“Shut up,” she shoved his lightly in the chest, unable to stop her own laughter from joining his. “I’ve never been to a ball hosted by royalty, I thought since you’re the prince that it was required for you to ask a princess or a noble to join you.”

“Maybe in other kingdoms,” he nodded, “But here, you’re the only lady I want by my side that night.” His breath wavered as his face went serious. His hands slightly shaky as he prepared himself for his next question. Years of his ego being his defining personality trait, to be able to get away with the most rioting pranks and wild parties, it all melted away when asking the girl of his dreams to a simple ball.

And this was the same prince who revelled in the promise of danger.

“Pomni,” he began, taking her hand still on his chest into his own, lacing their fingers together. “Would you do me the honour of accompanying me to the ball?”

She squeezed his hand, her stomach doing an excited little flip as she answered, “I’d love to.” The jester heard a disgruntled cough coming from behind her, and by Jax’s pale expression, she could tell who it was. She turned, coming face to face with Kaufmo, Ragatha and Moon, each of them wearing a stern look on their faces. “Pa, it’s okay. He asked and I agreed.”

“Don’t worry kiddo, I know you did. I trust you,” Kaufmo replied reassuringly to his daughter. “I just have a warning for the prince.”

Jax gulped at the three cold stares coming from the trio, if looks could kill then he was fairly sure he would be singing with the angels right about now. “Let me make this very clear,” Kaufmo began, “If Pomni is even slightly sad at the ball because of you, then I have no hesitation to let Ragatha use you as cat food for her lions.”

The ragdoll nodded, glaring at him with all her might. Moon didn’t even have to say anything, but the way she stood with Ragatha was enough to tell him that she had no problem assisting the redhead. He whipped his head to his parents, who hadn’t uttered a word during this whole ordeal.

“Don’t look at me,” Queenie put her hands up. “I’m not the one to judge a father for being protective over his daughter. Besides, he has a right to be wary of you darling.”

Jax shrugged with a nod, he couldn’t disagree there. He looked back at Pomni, her cheeks slightly flushed with a humoured smile on her lips after that whole interaction. How did she manage to look so beautiful in every way? He probably had a lovesick look on his face again, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care because this was her, nothing else mattered. “Well in that case,” he picked up her hand again, revelling in the way her cheeks flushed even more, “I can’t wait to see you there, my little lady.” He pressed a gentle kiss on the back of her hand, forcing himself not to laugh as he heard a silent squeal erupting from the back of her throat.

“A-and, I-I,” Pomni cleared her throat, straightening her back again and regaining the calmness she had before. “And I you, your highness.” She then enclosed his hand in both her palms, with the upmost gentleness she started running her thumb over his fingers, like he had done so with her hand earlier. All without breaking eye contact with him, she smirked when it was his turn for him to get all flustered.

She let go, giving him a small curtsy, “Now if you don’t mind, I’m fairly certain that the rest of the ladies and non-gender affirming friend are going to drag me to help them find ballgowns soon.”

Jax spluttered, trying to find the words that were in his head a few seconds ago. How on earth did this tiny powerful woman have this much of a hectic effect on him only from touching his hand?! “Y-yeah, I’m pretty sure my father will be doing that but for me,” he wasn’t able to focus on anything but the faint tingling of where her fingers had been on his hand, sending little shocks up the nerves on his arm. He flexed his hand, letting his fingers stretch to see if it would make any difference. The tingling only increased, his fur fluffing up at his neck at the reaction. He huffed fondly, worth it. “I look forward to seeing how beautiful you look.”

She raised her brow at him, rolling her eyes as he chuckled. He was always just so him wasn’t he? But it’s also why you fell in love with him, isn’t it? She sighed, yes, it was. In the amount of since she met him, he had become a far cry of what she believed him to be from the tales she heard. He had proven to be kind, noble and brave. Though still a little bit of a trickster, a good man and a good prince with a tender heart was all she could see. And soon she would have to leave all that behind.

She opened her mouth to say something, she wanted to say something, but she found herself being pulled away by Ragatha, Moon, Gangle and Zooble. Just like she had suspected, they were pulling her away to start dress shopping. “I’m afraid we’ll have to continue our conversation later!” she called out to Jax, looking over her shoulder while Motley jumped out of her arms and trotted back to the prince as she was dragged out of the ballroom.

Jax laughed at the scene in front of him, picking up the kitten and placing him on his shoulder, “I look forward to it.”

Pomni gave him one final smile, before joining in with the excited chatter with the rest of the ladies and Zooble.

However, once she was out of sight, did Jax let himself frown. The girl seemed so strangely down all morning, quieter and more reserved, less of the usual spunk than he had come to expect. Had something happened? Did he do something to offend her? Whatever it was he should at least try and make it up to her.

“You’re overthinking,” A familiar voice murmured. Jax turned to face his father walking towards him.

“I inherited it from you, old man,” the prince snickered. Kinger’s face didn’t move an inch, not willing to change the topic of conversation just yet. Jax sighed, “I’m worried about Pomni. She hasn’t really been herself much this morning. I didn’t want to pry into what it is cause its none of my business and I don’t wanna push her, she already felt pretty stressed out when she told me about her past. I don’t wanna add anymore onto that. But I can tell that something’s wrong, and I hate feeling helpless. I just want to protect her.”

Kinger hummed. He had heard this monologue many decades ago from when he was around Jax’s age. He should know, for Kinger was the one who said it too. “When I fell in love your mother, I was a wreck,” the king began. “Despite going round in circles to think of a way to win her heart, I also had other thoughts in my head as well. I worried that I could never protect her the way I wanted to, she could be sad for only a moment and I would panic that I had done something to hurt her. But when he married and grew together, I had to realise that I wasn’t a magical knight from a story book. Even with my crown I was only a man who loved his wife deeply. It hurts when we have to come to turns that we cannot protect everyone – including the ones we love – but no matter what we still try. We try because we know that it’s better for them to be in our lives than to lose them. We can do what we can and that’s all right, for what is love than the desire to guard what we care for the most?”

Clarity never hit Jax harder than it did right here in this moment. He lifted the hand that Pomni touched again, shifting his fingers where hers had been. His father was right. Even the biggest dam in all of the world would never be able to stop a crack, letting a flood release. And even if he wanted to, he knew that there were bigger forces out there who would do nothing but take Pomni for themselves. He squeezed his hand into a fist, but they would have to kill him first before ever hurting Pomni ever again. Even if he were to fall, her safety would forever and always come first for him. “Yeah,” he nodded, “It is.”

Kinger felt warmth radiate through him, it had been so long since he heard that part of his son speak so earnestly. He missed him, “Come now, it’s time we get you fitted. I’m sure you’ll want to look your best for your lady-friend at the ball.”

He snickered as he heard his son’s splutters, it was fun getting under Jax’s skin sometimes. A little petty revenge if that’s what you want to call it.

From the side, Kaufmo stood, hearing everything they had just said. For the first time, since Jax saved her, he was able to see clearly about what Pomni saw in the prince.

.

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Pomni was panicking. Which wasn’t a complete shock. Tomorrow was the ball and she had spent the entire week helping everyone else pick out their gowns expect for herself. The ladies had insisted on finding what colour would flatter her the most, but she had turned away in favour of finding something for them, insisting that she would find a garment for herself soon. And yet, here she was. Gown-less and nearing a mental breakdown.

She groaned, honestly she blamed herself. She had been so caught up in the nightmares that she had and the future aftermath of the ball. Caine would always be breathing down her neck, something she would never be able to shake away even after they escaped from him the first time, and soon she would be returning to that fear. When she met Jax, somehow his foolishness and change in behaviour had been able to forget about her worries for a while, despite their first meeting. He only had to say one word and the rest of the world didn’t matter, it was just bliss. Soon, she wouldn’t have that anymore. She’d soon return to surviving for herself and her family, looking over her shoulder constantly to make sure a pair of blue and green eyes wouldn’t be staring back at her.

She just wanted to be selfish, just once and stay here. Stay with Jax, stay in the kingdom, stay in the life that she oh so wanted to have. But the thought of Caine harming Jax because of his obsession with her powers was a risk that she never wanted to take…after all, it was the same risk that her village was raided and burned to the ground.

How dare you think of that, how dare you even think about staying. You could lose everything just because of your entitlement you stupid girl! Pomni felt tears well up in her eyes, You’re selfish! Selfish! Selfish! Selfish! Selfish-

A knock at her door broke her away from her panic, wiping away her tears and smoothing down the fabric of her skirt. “Just coming!” she hoped her voice didn’t give away the fact that she had been crying.

She had expected either Ragatha or Kaufmo to show up at her door, so it was quite the shock when it was Queenie who had appeared, holding a large yet flat box under her arm. “Apologies, I don’t mean to intrude Pomni but I…Oh darling, what happened?” the queen asked, her brows furrowing with worry.

Pomni wanted to rub at her eyes again, to hide any evidence of her tears. But the queen had already put the box down and took the jester’s hands into hers, leaving Pomni unable to hide. “It’s nothing, your majesty,” Pomni brushed off her worries, “Please, don’t mind me, I’ll be okay.”

“Oh honey,” The queen wrapped her arms around the girl, “This is a safe place, your tears aren’t nothing. Whatever it is you’re feeling, don’t ever be afraid to say it.” 

Pomni typically wasn’t one for physical touch, usually it was reserved for those she was close with like Kaufmo or Ragatha – and now it included Jax. But this was different. Queenie’s warmth reminded her of a familiar touch that she had not received in a long time. A touch of a mother reassuring her child that everything was going to be okay. And though Pomni couldn’t remember her face, that small yet significant warmth from her mother stayed with the girl throughout her life. And now, she was receiving the same touch from Queenie, another mother who fiercely loved her son.

Pomni clutched onto the queen, her small body shaking with silent sobs. Queenie was patient and gentle the whole time, rubbing her hand up and down the jester’s back, shushing in her ear like how she did with Jax when he was young whenever he got scared or bruised his knee. She had only heard snippets from Jax about what the girl’s childhood what like, he didn’t tell her everything, after all, only Pomni could be the one to detail her past to another. But what she heard was enough for her to know that this poor girl had went through hell and back. She wasn’t surprised to see Jax so protective over her after their day at the village festival, whatever Pomni had told him there was enough for him to guard her with everything he had.

Once the girl was quiet, she pulled away, leaning into the queen’s touch when the latter lifted her hands to Pomni’s face and brushed her tears away. “Are you okay to tell me what wrong my dear?” Queenie asked, as kindly and patiently as she could.

Now Pomni understood how Jax was able to show kindness the way he did. “Is it…is it wrong for me wanting to stay?” Pomni spoke softly, as though a single wrong word would make everything crumble. “I love my family, and I’m so grateful for the hospitality that you’ve given us and I can’t wait to get back on the road again, but...I never had a real home in so long. That isn’t to mean Kaufmo and the others aren’t! They have always been my home. I’m just…I’m so tired of running. I’m tired of not being able to live a normal life and pursue my dreams because of the threat of one man. Your kingdom, that has been a home for me after so long. For the first time in my life I didn’t have to run, I could be safe in the knowledge that I was protected…and Jax. Your son has to be one of the sweetest people I have ever met, despite his reputation. But the thought of leaving here? It already makes me feel homesick thinking about it…I-I’m sorry your majesty I didn’t mean to overload you with all of that!”

Queenie had not spoken a word, letting Pomni take the time she needed in order to let out everything that was tying her down to the ground, like releasing her from being chained to a boulder. Pomni had more pages than the heaviest book in the world, each piece unfolding a new layer of her that made the queen’s heart ache for the girl. “My darling, I am queen of a kingdom where people need to unload on me,” Queenie told her. “It is my job to help those who cannot help themselves. Do not apologise for letting yourself feel. You might not be my subject, but that does not mean I will not take your problems seriously.”

Was this what having a mother was like? She wouldn’t trade Kaufmo for the world, but that never stopped the lingering curiosity of what her own mother would have been like. All she had left of her mother were blurry images in her mind, the powers she shared with her, and her love of music. If her mother was still here would she offer her the same comfort and security that Queenie did for her in only a few short moments? It was times like this, times her soul twinged with sorrow and doubt when she wished that her life was different. That it could be of her own making. She would be in her village, under the care and singing day and night with her mother, only traveling when she wanted to find new places to play her songs, meet the other members of the circus under different circumstances, and fall in love with Jax without having to worry about leaving him.

Why did life choose her to be so cruel to?

“Thank you, your majesty,” Pomni bowed her head in appreciation, “I’m sorry again for such a heavy topic.”

“You must learn to stop saying sorry, dear,” there was a joking tone in Queenie’s voice as she wagged her finger at Pomni, “Otherwise I’ll have to make a rule to ban you from saying it.”

Pomni laughed at that, tears of mirth pricking in the corners of her eyes instead.

Queenie’s eyes smiled, softening as her hands encased the jester’s again, “Not every bad thing that happens is your fault. Please hold onto that information for when you travel again…Pomni, it’s not my place but if you were to stay, we would be more than happy to protect you from Caine.”

Pomni’s face fell, “That’s the thing your majesty. Caine always comes up with new plans, if I stayed he wouldn’t stop terrorizing this kingdom until he gets what he wants, No one is powerful enough to stop him.”

“He managed to get arrested once,” Queenie pointed out, “He can be again.”

“He also managed to escape,” Pomni said, her face saddening once again. “You’d think someone with powers like mine that I could be able to do something. But even now, he still has a hand around my neck. I could be the strongest person alive yet I’d still be too scared to face him. You have…you have no idea what he put us through.” Her heart squeezed, she felt so damn pathetic.

“I don’t know what he’s done, but I do know that you didn’t deserve it,” Queenie told her. “Never feel ashamed for feeling afraid because of what that monster did to you. Do what makes you feel safest my darling, and if you ever want to come back our castle doors are always open.”

Pomni sniffed, a smile brightening her face once again, “Jax is lucky to have you.”

“And he’s lucky to have you too,” the queen teased, humming laughter as the jester started gasping and stuttering. “Now, speaking of Jax. I understand that he asked you to be his plus one for the ball. I hope it’s not inappropriate but I do have something that you could wear. If you don’t already.”

“I-I don’t,” Pomni’s jaw fell a little in surprise at the kind gesture. “You didn’t have to do that your majesty, not for me.”

“Nonsense,” Queenie shook her head, picking up the box from the ground and bringing it over to Pomni’s bed. “Every girl deserves to have something nice for themselves. Besides, I was hoping you would wear this.”

Pomni bit her lip, the queen had a pleading look in her eyes. Whatever was in that box, it was enough to convince the jester that whatever was in it held significant importance to the royal. “Okay, um, I’d like to look at it,” Pomni answered, fidgeting with her hands for a moment.

The queen lit up, like a sun shining in the jester’s direction as the chess piece’s fingers went lift up the lid of the box. As soon as it was removed, Pomni’s breath hitched at the contents on the inside. What laid in the box was nothing short of the twilight sky stitched and sewn together into a ballgown. It was too much, “Your majesty, I can’t have this! Someone like me shouldn’t wear this!”

“Someone like you is perfect for this gown,” Queenie stated. “It was a gift to me in my younger years, from a good friend of mine in another kingdom. She wanted me to wear this, saying that it would be worn when I was with my true love. I never had a chance to wear it, after all Kinger was already courting me and I didn’t feel good enough to wear it. Ironic, I know. However, something tells me that this dress wasn’t meant for me.” She looked away from the gown to face Pomni again. “But perhaps it was for you.”

“I…” Pomni was speechless, truly. The gown that laid in the box looked as though it was worth all the gems in the realm, if she were to wear that, she would literally be wearing that costed millions. Yet the queen believed that it was perfect for her. She had said it so earnestly that Pomni couldn’t find it in herself to turn it away. “Thank you, your majesty,” Pomni bowed, “I promise to take care of it during the ball.”

“As long as you’re having fun as yourself, then that’s all I care about,” the queen told her. “Now, let me help you get ready. I have an idea on what makeup would go well with that gown.”

Pomni giggled as the queen rushing over to her vanity at the other end of the room. Pomni ran her fingers over the gown’s fabric, perhaps she was worth more than what she believed.

.

.

.

Jax pulled at the collar of his shirt. His suit was nowhere near uncomfortable, but it didn’t stop the anxiety coursing through his veins. The suit in question was consisted of a long navy-blue waistcoat, with ruby embroidery along the lapels and cuffs with matching trousers with the same crimson detailed design. Underneath the button coat was a white blouse with a ruffled collar and a pendant on top, with the final addition of his outfit being a red rose tucked into his breast pocket.

Why was he so nervous you ask? It was all because of Pomni. She had yet to arrive, and though the ball hadn’t started yet, both guests and the circus group had already flooded the ballroom. He hadn’t seen any of the nobles yet, well, the nobles that he normally couldn’t stand. When asking his parents about the matter, they had merely shrugged with a mischievous glint in their eyes, yet it told Jax exactly what they did. And they’re still surprised by the fact that I turned out to be a trickster he grinned to himself.

His hands were shaking. What if something happened to her while she was getting ready? What is she hurt herself and wasn’t able to attend? What if Caine somehow managed to get into the castle and swiped her away?! Oh god he had to go get her-!

“Relax prince boy,” a hand grabbed him by the back of his coat, dragging him back before he could run off. He scowled, turning to see who did that, when he came face to face with Gangle and Zooble. The girl he had rudely pushed upon their first meeting, and her justifiably angry partner. “Pomni’s fine, Gangle went to check up on her a while ago.”

“How did you know I was thinking about Pomni?” he questioned, raising a brow.

“Gee, it’s not like you’ve been spending every waking moment glued to her side ever since she came here,” Zooble replied sarcastically, rolling their eyes at the rabbit’s question.

“Zooble,” Gangle hissed, “Be nice, please.” The body of ribbons looked back at him, not as upset as he thought she would be after their interaction when they met. She was wearing a sleeveless gown the same colour as her ribbons, with a full skirt and rubies sewn atop of it. Zooble was wearing a suit of the same colour, no doubt wanting to match his sweet girlfriend. “Pomni will be here soon, your mother kinda overwhelmed her while getting ready.”

The prince sighed. “Of course she did,” he shook his head fondly at Queenie’s direction, the woman was laughing with her husband at whatever joke he had come up with. He looked back to Gangle, who was looking up at Zooble with nothing but love in her eyes, the other doing the same. He hadn’t apologised to her for what he did, yet she still talked to him as though he had only brushed her shoulder on that day. He wouldn’t blame her if she were to be as upset as their hot-headed partner, yet she didn’t. That only made the guilt sting all the more.

She deserved an apology. “Listen, uh, Gangle right?” he asked, making the ribboned lady look up at him with worried eyes. She probably thought that he was going to be mean to her again, it only rubbed more salt into the wound. Jax was sure Zooble was going to kill him right there and then with the way she was glaring at him. He gulped, “Listen, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for how I treated you when we met. It was ignorant and entitled of me to do that to you and how I treated Pomni as well. I genuinely care for your friend and I’m extremely ashamed of how poorly I was to you. I deeply apologize.”

There was shift in the way Gangle looked at him, she didn’t look as worried as she was before, her posture was straighter as she gazed at him with intent in her mind. “Thank you for your apology your highness,” she replied, “Though I’m still not happy with you pushing me, I’m glad you’re able to realise the error of your ways.”

“Of course,” he nodded, “And please, call me Jax. If I’m going to make a fresh start, I would like if you could call me by my name.”

Gangle smiled, a new determination flickering when she saw this new side of the prince, “Very well, thank you Jax.”

“I’m still onto you,” Zooble growled. “But…I’m glad you’re not a total dickhead…you’re still pretty dumb though.”

“Zooble!” Gangle hissed.

A snort escaped from Jax, surprising the couple when a loud belly laugh boomed throughout the ballroom. The laugh lacked any type of maliciousness or was mean-spirited, it was just a hearty yet a pure and honest carefree laugh. “They-” he snickered, “They aren’t wrong! I haven’t had the brightest ideas in my lifetime.”

Both the body of ribbons and the assortment of shapes were a little surprised by the prince’s reaction. They were fairly certain that he would have made some sort of passive aggressive comment or even get angry at Zooble. But no. It was the same sort of laugh that one of them would have whenever Kaufmo told one of his better jokes or when they all had fun as a family. Zooble smirked, “See Gangle, princey doesn’t mind.”

Gangle groaned, rolling her eyes, “What am I gonna do with you?”

“Hmmm, love me forever?” Zooble retorted cheekily, wiggling his eyebrows.

“If I have to,” Gangle couldn’t keep the grin off her face, resting her head onto Zooble’s shoulder.

Jax’s laughter ebbed away, a softness lacing his heart. That tenderness and comfort the couple shared with one another, he couldn’t help but imagine it with him and Pomni. To let her feel safe with him no matter what, to share sweet moments with him with no other prying eyes. But after tonight, she’ll be gone, along with his wish for all of that. All this because of a power-hungry man who kept her in a state of fright ever since childhood, it wasn’t fair for someone as sweet as Pomni.

“Ah, I see the prince has graced our presence,” a soft voice spoke. He looked up to see that it was Ragatha’s voice he had heard, with Sun and Moon by her side and Kaufmo trailing behind her. She looked towards Gangle and Zooble, “He hasn’t given you two any trouble, has he?”

“Quite the opposite, actually,” Zooble said, “He came over to apologise to Gangle.”

Ragatha raised a brow, shifting a little bit in her place, as if this were a small shock to her. “Did he know?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Zooble nodded, what they said next made it look like they were going to hurl just having to form it into words. “I guess I was…wrong about him. Oh god I hated saying that.” 

“Oh,” was all Ragatha said. The doll in question was wearing a backless gown of midnight blue, sleek and sparkling, no puffiness in sight as long skirt trailed behind her. She wore long silky white gloves and half of her curls were pinned up into a bun while the other red locks pooled around her shoulders.

Moon was wearing something similar, though hers was pure black with little stars stitched onto the fabric, with a double leg slit and a feathered scarf around her shoulders. Sun was wearing a red and yellow striped waistcoat and trousers, along with a simple white blouse and a black bowtie wrapped around the collar.

Lastly was Kaufmo, whose waistcoat and trousers were sewn with a fine grey silk with what seemed to be music notes embroidered into the lapels and cuffs. He pulled at the collar a few times, he hadn’t worn something like this before so it was a bit new to him. But he looked happy with his new attire.

“Well,” Ragatha’s voice broke Jax out of his trance again, “I’m glad you weren’t up to anything foolish, after all I still have two very hungry lions.”

“Don’t forget the meat cleaver you have darling,” Moon pointed out, “It would be such a shame to see such a lovely tool go to waste.”

“Uh…and I’m here!” Sun cheered, not wanting to be left out. While it did relieve some of the tension, it didn’t stop Jax from shrinking under the glares of the women.

“While I support your protection over my daughter,” Kaufmo interrupted, placing a hand on Ragatha’s shoulder, “Let’s wait until the prince does anything before charging headfirst. Besides, something tells me that he would want to join in with that protection as well.” The clown gave Jax a knowing wink. “But make no mistake, you hurt her and not even the guards will stop Ragatha and Moon with what they want to do with you.”

Jax gulped, “Understood, sir.” Despite the obvious threat, the fact that he had Kaufmo’s acknowledgement about how much he cared for Pomni made Jax want to sing. The clown trusted the prince, and Jax wasn’t going to let him down. Pomni mattered to him just as much as she mattered to Kaufmo, there was no way he was going to break that trust.

“I’m surprised that little Motley cat isn’t with you,” Sun said, “Other than Pomni, you two are practically glued together.”

Jax was about to open his mouth to say another word, until a small mew interrupted him. The group looked at him with wide eyes, the sound not going unnoticed. The rabbit sighed, reaching into the side of his coat pocket and pulled Motley out, the little kitten wearing a blue bowtie around his neck.

Everyone’s mouth fell open, it was quite the sight indeed.

“This little bugger insisted that he should join me tonight,” Jax defended.

“Right, a non-speaking animal somehow managed to convince you to let him come to the ball,” Zooble drawled with doubt.

Jax frowned, though he didn’t feel mad. So far, everything was going well. The guests were happy, he had Motley in his arms, there were no sign of the nobles, the music was lovely, the food was delicious, his parents were delighted and he had won over the favour of the circus group. All that was missing is-

“-Pomni,” Kaufmo’s eyed widened as he gazed up to the staircase leading out of the ballroom.

The rest of the group followed the clown’s eyes, their own jaws dropping when they say who he was looking at. The rest of the ballroom had gone silent as well, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Jax whipped round, wondering why everyone was reacting the way they did…oh…he understood perfectly now.

Pomni stood at the top of the staircase, the only way to describe how she looked was breathtaking. Her gown was the most beautiful shade of purple, startling at a light pinkish lavender at the top as it faded into an amethyst shade in the middle before finishing in a plum shade at the bottom. Her skirt was full, layered with organza, rippling like raindrops on a pond. The top of the gown had off-the-shoulder sleeves with a sweetheart neckline, with glistening gem at the centrepiece. And the whole gown twinkled with little diamonds stitched into the fabric. She wore simple makeup, with her normally short hair curled and now reaching her shoulder as it gleamed under the chandeliers.

She clenched her hands, there were so many eyes on her. She didn’t have the façade of her jester persona to help her out, it was only her they were all looking at. Gathering herself, she managed a small curtsey, the shimmering layers of her skirt pooling around her. She stood again, her gown swishing as she made her way down the steps.

Jax couldn’t wipe the awestruck grin he had on his face even if he tried. Not even the stars could compare with how beautiful she looked. He handed Motley over to Kaufmo, “Sir, if you may. Could I please lead your daughter for the first dance?”

Kaufmo smiled, running his hand over the kitten’s back as he purred, “Go on, give her a dream come true.”

Not wasting a beat, Jax turned back to Pomni. He wasn’t sure if he saw him yet, so ever so slowly, he made his way towards her, the rest of the guests parting to let him through.

They had done the same with Pomni, giving her the room she needed yet not being able to take their eyes off her. A little part of her liked the attention, they weren’t drawn to her for powers or the act she had to put on, they were drawn to her for simply being her. This new feeling was strange, but nice…really nice.

She let out a small gasp when she finally saw Jax, how handsome he looked in his garments and how he looked at her as though she were the only person in the room. Her heart fluttered seeing him, making her way towards him as he did the same. Finally they met in the middle of the room, the only ones in the middle of the ballroom floor, their eyes locked onto one another.

“Prince Jax,” she breathed.

“My lady,” his voice held nothing but adoration for her. “You look absolutely exquisite.”

“I’ve been praying all day not to trip in this,” she whispered, “I think I would perish if I ruined something as lovely as this.”

  “That would be a shame, you look too beautiful in it,” Jax murmured, “Um. Pomni, would you do me the honour of letting me lead you through this first…” he trailed off. Could you blame him? She was positively stunning.

“…Dance?” she finished for him, a small grin forming on her lips.

“Uh, yes of course, dance,” he stuttered, laughing awkwardly.

Pomni took pity on him, nodding excitedly. Call her childish, but it was nothing short of magical that she actually got to dance like the princesses she read about in fairytales.

Jax’s face fell, a serious look took over yet his eyes were still soft as he brought his hand forward, pulling Pomni closer to him. The girl’s breath hitched, with these newfound feelings she had for Jax, it made this touch all the more significant. A shiver ran down her spine.

The music of the orchestra began, filling the ballroom with the sounds of the many violinists and pianists’ instruments, a soft yet heavenly tune echoing in the room. Ever so gently, Jax began to sway, with Pomni repeating his movements. Pomni gulped as he led her further into the dance, she could feel everyone’s stares despite having her back to them. Who wouldn’t? After all, she was the prince’s choice to lead the first dance with. “They’re all looking at you,” she whispered.

“Believe me,” he grinned, “They’re all looking at you.”

Normally she would have panicked at that sentence, but the gentle grasp of his warm hand on her waist kept her attention on him. He picked up her forearm with his, letting it glide up and down, “Just focus on me, okay? And follow my lead.”

Pomni nodded, her once quickening heart slowing down as she gazed into his eyes. He took her hand, carefully spinning her before she held she gently grazed the knuckles of said hand against his cheek. He threaded his fingers through her, spinning her again as the skirts of her gown fluttered around her, giving her the appearance of a butterfly.

The repeated the range of movements a few more times before Jax wrapped his arm around her waist again, pulling her closer than he did before, their noses inches from each other as he clasped his free hand into hers again. Pomni’s breath stuttered as their feet travelled around the empty space, never in her life had she felt anything so surreal, so euphoric in all her life. A carefree laugh escaped her lips as both she and Jax spun again, the prince doing the same as the picture of her lovely smile imprinted into his mind again.

He released the grip on her waist to twirl her onto the empty space on the floor, the rest of the crowd aweing at the way her gown glittered each time she spun left and right while holding onto Jax’s hand.

Not even the rest of the circus troupe could erase the butterflies they were having just by the way the prince and the jester looked at one another. It was right out of a love story. “I can’t disagree, they would make a beautiful couple,” Kaufmo remarked, with Motley letting out an agreeable mew in his arms.

“I suppose so,” Ragatha nodded, “As long as he doesn’t hurt her.”

“Don’t worry my dears, rest assured that my son would never do the following,” Queenie told them as she and Kinger snuck up behind the group.

“Your majesties,” Ragatha gasped, the rest of them quickly bowing, “Please forgive me for saying that.”

“Oh that’s alright,” Queenie snickered, “Jax has caused one too many incidents to have a reputation that’s worth your worry.”

“Though I will say, your Pomni has him wrapped around her finger,” Kinger mused as he watched the due dancing on the floor. “I haven’t seen this side of my son in so long, until your daughter arrived Kaufmo.”

“Pomni has always found a way to bright the best out in others,” Kaufmo told them, “Whether they know she’s doing it or not.”

Kinger hummed in agreement, “I can confidently say that without a doubt, this is the best ball this kingdom has ever seen.” Kaufmo nodded, the two fathers turning to look back at their children, smiling at seeing how happy they were together.

Jax had twirled Pomni a few times, still holding her by the waist until he picked her up in both arms and held her high up above him, twirling her in the air as the crowd oo’ed and clapped for the sudden display. Though it was silent compared to the chimes of her giggles at the sudden motions, bringing her back down to face level. Neither of them could stop glancing at each other’s lips, the temptation to swoop down and capture them growing stronger.

Before he could give into it, he saved himself by dipping Pomni once more time as the music slowed. It was for the best, she would be leaving tomorrow. He didn’t want to sour things more for her, not when they had come so far. He could tell by the way she was looking at him that she was silently agreeing, what they had right now was good, good enough in fact.

The music slowed to a stop, with Pomni curtsying and Jax bowing respectively as the crowd thunder into applause. The first dance of the night was a success.

They allowed themselves to breathe for a movement, unable to take their eyes off each other before the music started up again, more fun and livelier than the last. More couples ran onto the floor, including the king and queen as they chortled together while reminiscing how they used to dance when they were younger. Gangle had pulled Zooble onto the floor, squealing with excitement at the thought of dancing with her partner. Even Moon and Ragatha had decided to dance together, the latter shocked when her friend took her hand and led her into a dance.

Pomni and Jax were still together, and quite frankly, they didn’t see themselves dancing with anyone but with one another. And so, they danced again. And again, and again, and again…

After a few songs, they did have to stop eventually, panting heavily and needing food as well as drink. “I must say, you dance pretty good for someone so short,” Jax snickered, handing her a glass of water.

“Shut up, I’m just glad you didn’t stand on my dress,” Pomni retorted, giggling into her glass. She gulped down as much as she could, especially with what she was planning to do next. “Do you mind waiting for a second? There’s something I need to take care of.”

“Oh, of course, is everything alright?” he asked as she handed him back her glass.

“Yes, everything’s fine,” she reassured him, “There’s just something that I need to do.”

“Well, whatever it is, you take care of yourself,” He told her, “Alright?”

Pomni nodded, patting his hand reassuringly before disappearing into the crowd, Jax sighing fondly as he watched her walk away. He nearly jumped when he felt something rub against his leg, looking and scoffing when he saw that it was Motley. “Of course it’s you, you little shit,” he muttered, scooping up the kitten with one hand, “Alright, you had your fun. Now you’re in time out.”

“Well I must say,” Jax turned when he heard his mother’s voice, “I think this is the most you two haven’t been able to keep your hands off one another.”

“Mom!” he groaned, his ears flopping down and pressing against the back of his head as his cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

“What? I’m just making an observation,” she shrugged, “It does make sense though, with her leaving tomorrow.”

His ears perked back up at the mention of that, his tail twitching in discomfort. Although that statement would ring true every time he heard it, it didn’t mean he liked it. He wanted to get on his knees, beg Pomni to stay with him, stay in the kingdom where she would never worry about feeling afraid ever again. But he knew that it wouldn’t be fair for either of them. He knew as much as she wanted the freedom of her own life, the freedom of this choice was all she could have. And he didn’t want to make her feel guilty about having to travel again. Even if it meant she would be further away from him.

“I…I really love her mother,” he said, earnestly and honestly. “I have become an ocean and Pomni is a storm, raining down on me strongly without resistance, but my waters are able to take her strengths, faults, everything. But I know that…I can’t have her.”

Queenie’s face fell, her son had never looked so vulnerable in that moment. It reminded her how she felt when she fell in love with Kinger when she was her son’s age. “Oh darling,” she murmured, cupping his cheek in her hand. Even Motley had climbed up onto the prince’s shoulder, rubbing his fluffy face against Jax’s face to comfort him.

The queen was going to say another word when a single strum of a guitar made the room go silent. Both the queen and prince turned, for on the stage with the rest of the musicians was Pomni, holding onto her guitar as she looked out onto the crowd. She looked positively petrified, there were more people here than there was at the festival, the confidence slipping as doubt crept into her mind.

But when her eyes caught Jax’s, and as he smiled at her with the upmost reassurance, the doubt started to melt. She could do this, taking a breath as she faced her new audience, “This is a song that I wrote during my stay here. It’s a little bit different than what I’ve written before but I hope you all enjoy.” Her fingers pricked at the strings of her guitar before her voice rang like a bell as she began to sing.

Honey, I hate wine

But I’d gladly down a bottle of your name

Just to get another taste of you

A single drop not on my tongue would be a waste

The audience seemed to be enjoying so far, leaning next to their partners or spouses as Pomni continued to sing.

And I hate mornings

But I like waking next to you

You always wake up before I do

So I can sleep in your embrace

We burn like gentle firewood

We yearn like vines and leaves

And we settle in the comfort of

The bones that rest beneath

And I’d start drinking wine and sleeping at night

To keep your soul with mine

I’d do anything, anything, anything

Anything, anything, anything

Pomni could hear the distant murmurs in the crowd, murmurs of praise and how much they enjoyed her simple song. Her heart nearly skipped a beat form excitement as the rest of her doubts faded away. People liked her songs, people liked her. Her songs meant something!

Honey, I hate travel

But I’d man a boat to glimpse you at the shore

No stretch of miles would ever mean more

Than feeling my hands wrapped around your waist

And I hate time

The minutes shared will never last enough

No amount of time will ever be too much

And parting leaves a bitter taste

At that last word, Pomni turned her attention to Jax, who was patting the side off his leg at each beat of the song. She thought she would hate him, she despised him when hearing about all the rumours that built over the years. But now, nothing tasted as sour than the idea of leaving him tomorrow.

We burn like gentle firewood

We yearn like vines and leaves

And we settle in the comfort of

The bones that rest beneath

And I’d stop staying home and wasting time

To keep your soul with mine

I’d do anything, anything, anything

Anything, anything, anything

She would. She would do anything to change the fate that life had given them. She wanted to have that choice to stay. Jax’s eyes never left hers, not even more a second as he smiled with all the warmth he could muster. If this was truly their last night together, she was going to make it count.

And I love rain

But I’d ruin every cashmere coat I own

Before I let it wash off any kiss you stole

So they’ll keep us dry as I walk you home

We burn like gentle firewood

We yearn like vines and leaves

And we settle in the comfort of

The bones that rest beneath

And I’d lose every penny that I find

To keep your soul with mine

I’d do anything, anything, anything

Anything, anything, anything

With that final strum of her guitar, she finished her song. There was a beat, it felt like years to Pomni as she waited to hear the crowd’s final thoughts on her song. Suddenly, the audience erupted into applause, grins nearly splitting their faces.

She let out a sigh of relief, they really did like it. She placed her guitar backstage as she walked away, letting the band strike up again. She strolled towards Jax, determination set in her mind, she meant it when she said she was going to make this night count. “Another dance your highness?” she asked when she got close to him, holding out her hand, “Or are you afraid I’ll look better than you?”

Jax took her hand into his, his smile matching hers, “Little lady, you could trip and you would still look better than me.”

Pomni hummed, “You’re right, I would.”

They snickered as they want back to the dance floor, dancing the night away until the ball came to an end. It was the most magical thing Pomni had done without her powers.

.

.

.

Jax groaned as he sat up in his bed. He had been trying to get to sleep for the past few hours, but he could still feel the tingles of where Pomni’s hands had been on him while dancing. That night was going to be burned in his brain for the rest of his life. He wished she was here right now, to hold her while she ran her fingers through his ears, his fur, wherever she wanted as long as he felt that simple lingering touch.

The prince sighed, shifting as he reached his hand to find Motley, onto to find that the feline was nowhere to be found on the bed. Don’t tell me that little cretin went back down to go ham on those leftovers. He threw the sheets off his bed, ready to exit the room when there were three soft knocks on his door.

Strange, the servants didn’t use that knock and neither did his parents. He opened the door, it was Pomni holding a purring Motley. “I, um, thought I’d return him,” she spoke quietly, her voice breaking slightly, “He woke me up.”

Jax didn’t take him just yet instead leaning in slightly closer to inspect Pomni’s face. His heart plummeted when he saw dried tear stains on her cheeks, “Have you been crying?”

“W-what?” Pomni stammered, “N-no, of course not! I-it’s probably-”

“Pomni,” he spoke sternly, “I know when someone had been crying, I’m not that dumb. Please, tell me what’s wrong.”

She took a breath, walking into his room as Jax shut the door behind him. She sat on the edge of his bed, the prince sitting next to her as she cuddled Motley closer. “I sometimes have really bad nightmares,” she told him. “Well, I’ve always had them but they got worse when we escaped Caine and he came after us. Some of them are about ways on how he’d find us and how he’d make us suffer, others are…well, memories of growing up in the circus…”

Jax brows furrowed as the girl curled in on herself, making her seem smaller than usual, “And I’m guessing you had one now?”

She sniffed, nodding her head as Motley pushed his face into her neck, purring as much as he could to give comfort to the girl. Jax brought her into his arms, she let out a surprised squeak as he rubbed a hand up and down her back. “It’s okay, you’re safe here,” he told her, “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I know,” she whimpered, easing into his touch, “But I won’t be here tomorrow. And I know no one has seen Caine, but it doesn’t stop the fact that he’s still out there looking for us…looking for me.”

Jax wanted to kick himself for saying that. Why her? Why did the universe make her go through the hardest trails life had to offer? It wasn’t fair. “I know what you’re going to say if I asked you,” he ran his fingers through her hair, “But I wished in another life, you could stay.”

“Jax, I…I wish I could too,” she cried, burying her face in his chest.

“I’m sorry,” he sighed, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that. But, just for tonight, stay…with me?” She peered up at him through her lashes, his fingers wiping her tears away. “For one night, please…be mine?”

She wrapped her hand around his, bringing it up to her face to cup her cheek, “I am yours, as you are mine.”

“For you Pomni,” he mumbled, carrying her over to the middle of his bed and laying her down, “Always.”

That night, they slept in each other’s arms. That night, they pretended tomorrow didn’t exist. That night, they weren’t Prince of Laphria or jester of the traveling circus. That night they were Pomni and Jax, two people in love.

.

.

.

Kaufmo let out a grunt as he closed the door of the trunk connected to the circus carriage, “I think that’s everything.”

“I’ll say,” Zooble whistled, “I feel like we have more than we did at the last place.”

“Well we were here longer than we have been in other places,” Pomni pointed out.

The circus troupe was outside the palace doors, finally ready to leave. The king and queen had guards to travel with them to their next location, to make sure they would have the extra protection they needed in case Caine was nearby. It had been a wonderful dream here, but like all dreams, it had to end.

Pomni was wearing the same dress she wore when she first came to the kingdom, her simple blouse, corset and pink skirt. She gave the palace one more look, out of all the places she had been to, this one was her favourite. And now she had to leave.

“The king, queen and prince had already given us our goodbyes,” said Ragatha, holding onto Moon’s hand. “Our we ready to go?”

Kaufmo looked to his daughter, “What do you say kiddo? Ready to go?”

Pomni sighed as she turned to her father, he frowned as he saw her downed expression. He hated seeing her like that. She was going to open her mouth to speak when-

“-Pomni!” Jax, it was Jax. She whipped round and saw the prince running out the palace doors and towards her.

“Jax? What’s wrong?” she asked, running over to him.

“I know we already said our goodbye inside,” he explained, “But I needed to do one more thing before you leave.”

Pomni nodded, looking back at the rest of her family, “I’ll be a minute, you finish packing.” The rest of the circus gave each other knowing looks, doing as they were told when Pomni gave them a glare. When they went back to packing, she turned back to Jax, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” his voice sounded nervous, “I just…I want you to have Motley.”

She gasped as she looked at the kitten held in Jax’s arms, the little feline already jumping into hers, “Me? Why?”

“Little monster likes you better than me, traitor,” he frowned at Motley.

Pomni stifled a laugh, “He’s a sweetheart, admit it. Plus, he loves you too. I can’t separate you too.”

“Hey, I’ll be okay,” Jax told her, “Besides, it’s better if he goes with you, to let him be a reminder of this place and…of me.”

Her breath was caught in her throat at those words, nothing could ever make her forget all that he had done for her. “Are you sure?” Pomni asked, scratching behind Motley’s ears.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he bent his knees to be eye level with the kitten. “Listen here bud, you’ve got an important mission. In case Pomni gets into trouble, I want you to protect her. If you need backup, you know where to find me. Understand?”

Mew

Motley lifted his paw, it hit Jax directly on the nose.

“Good,” Jax straightened his back, “So I guess this is my final goodbye.”

Pomni bit her lip, reaching up to kiss Jax’s cheek one last time, “Thank you for reminding me how magical life can be.”

Jax’s breath hitched. He could barely recover from her hands, how could he recover from her lips?! She gave him a tiny grin, that jester was going to be the death of him, “You’re welcome Pomni.”

With that, she curtsied once more before running back to the carriage and hopping inside. There was a call from Kaufmo upfront as he pulled on the reins connected to the horses on front, giving them the command to walk as the guards followed on their own horses.

Jax watched as the carriage was pulled further away from him. And further, and further, and further. Then, it was gone. Pomni was gone.

He sighed, lifting his feet and going back into the castle. He didn’t retreat to his room or to his studies though. In fact, hours after the circus had left, he had been pacing back in forth in the throne room, his arms crossed behind his back while the prince was deep in thought. It caused the staff to alert the king and queen at once, leaving the royals to watch their son as he continued to pace.

“Oh the poor boy,” Queenie cooed as she peered through the crack of the door, “Pomni must have left quite the impact.”

“Tell me about it,” Kinger agreed, “I’m fairly certain that his brain has never worked that hard in its life.”

“Shush,” Queenie whacked him lightly on the shoulder, “This is a good thing. It’s not the bad type of thinking he’s having.”

“Then what exactly is on his mind then?” Kinger titled his head to the side.

“Well there’s only one way to find out,” she took her husband’s hand leading him into the throne room. Jax didn’t even notice them come in, still pacing back and forth as his mind kept storming. “What are you thinking about darling?”

The prince let out a yelp, jumping a few feet before facing his parents with a hand to his heart, “You have to stop sneaking up on me like that!”

“I apologise, but you’ve been so caught up in your head for the past few hours,” Queenie told him, her brows furrowing with concern, “We were worried.”

“Please,” Kinger went up to his son, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Tell us what’s on your mind.”

“Well I…,” Jax sighed, clenching and opening his fists, feeling slightly anxious for what he was going to say next. He hadn’t said or done anything that he was thinking about right now, only hoping that it was the right thing to say and do. “I’ve been having a lot of perspective for the past few weeks, about my place in the world and my role as prince. Even since I was young, I was told that I didn’t belong, that I never deserved my title and I started to believe it. I pitied myself for so long that it blinded me to the potential that I had for myself and for the people of my kingdom. When Pomni came into my life, it opened my eyes to see how fortunate I actually am and what I can be able to do. Knowing what she went through, it made me realise just how privileged and lucky I am, and how I’m able to use my power do help people like her. The nobles were wrong about me, wrong about my dreams being too childish, there is nothing childish about wanting better in this kingdom.”

He took a deep breath before continuing, “That’s why I wanna open a home, a home for people who need to seek shelter if they don’t have it, whether they are from our kingdom or somewhere else. To protect them and give them a life until they can stand on their feet again. I want to give them the safety and security that they were denied. I know that I’m able to do this, I want to do this. I am worth the title of Prince and Heir of Laphria.”

Both Queenie and Kinger were speechless, never before had they heard their son speak with the most graceful confidence. This wasn’t like the times when he spoke with arrogance, no, nothing that he had said held no vanity or selfishness. For the first time, he was speaking like a true prince. “That’s a wonderful idea Jax,” Kinger beamed, sharing a pleased look with his wife, “And you doubted that you’d be a good king.”

“Look at my baby growing up,” Queenie cupped his cheeks in her hands, pressing little kisses to his forehead and cheeks as the rabbit flushed.

“M-mom!” he tried not to grin at the attention, but his wagging tail gave him away.

Mew

He froze at a familiar meow, facing the window when he heard something scratching at it. There was a small little blob on the other side, is that? Jax opened the window, Motley immediately jumping into his arms. “Woah, woah buddy what are you doing here?” he checked him over, his front little paw was bruised as the poor thing was shaking, “What happened?”

The doors of the throne room slammed open, two guards panting and bleeding as they staggered through. “Oh goodness! Someone assist them and get them some water!” Queenie demanded to the nearby maids, the royals and servants rushing over to them. They were led to one of the nearby sitting rooms, urged to sit down and drink until they could get their energy back to speak. One of the servants had brought an ice pack for Motley, Jax immediately took it and held it to his paw while another servant wrapped his paw.

“Easy buddy,” he whispered to the kitten, still trembling in fear. “You’re okay.”

“Don’t force yourself,” Kinger instructed when one of the guards tried to begin speaking, “Tell us what happened at your own pace.”

“We…ugh…we were leading the circus through the forest, there was no sign of danger so far,” the guard began to describe the scene. “But they appeared out of nowhere. We tried to fight back but they were too strong, as though they were having some assistance.”

“What are you talking about? Who attacked you?” Jax was starting to panic. The circus had been promised safe travel and if anything happened to them…he didn’t want to imagine it.

“Caine,” the guard continued, “He and his men jumped out and attacked us. We had the upper hand but then there was this red mist and…” he trailed off, his pupils shrinking as he remembered the horrors of what his mind had deceived him with.

“Easy, easy,” the queen soothed him. “The circus, are they alright?”

“We don’t know,” the second guard spoke up, “We were lucky enough to escape to come back and warn you, but…”

“But? But what?!” Jax raised his voice, he didn’t mean to but fear was rushing through is veins. If anything happened to-

“Pomni,” the guard said, making Jax’s heart stop. “Before we escaped, Caine took Pomni.”

Song Credit: Anything, Anything, Anything by Madds Buckley

[itisbop]

And now... the moment you've all been waiting for (or not, which is fine)! Let's talk Brawl Talk because OH BOY am I excited.

This is gonna be a pretty long post, so bear with me! I'll go over one section at a time and go over what I liked and disliked. Spoilers ahead! If you haven't watched the latest Brawl Talk, go do so! One more reminder, these are just my thoughts! You don't have to agree with me!

Without further to do... let's talk!

New Brawlers (Angelo and Melodie)

Now, when I first saw Angelo, I immediately went, "HE'S UGLY LMAO." After getting used to him, though, he's actually not that bad. His design is really good and is somewhat of an anti-cupid (perfect for a gal like Willow). Also, his voice actor did such a good job so much energy was put into him.

He doesn't seem like he's gonna be incredibly busted, but he is gonna be good in the right hands (while I'm at it pay your respects to Mortis Mains ya'll, they just took a major l with this guy). Sorry Larry and Lawrie, but you two are gonna have to step aside, I NEED this man as much as I need the next brawler.

I. LOVE. MELODIE!!! I did think she was a League of Legends character at first, lol.

Apparently, I've heard people say she is the first female assassin, which is very interesting! Out of the two, I feel she poses more of a threat. She might be broken, though her main attack is WEAK.

I've been through the Reddit and have seen so many people talk about how she looks like Janet, and I'd like to take the time to bring up a little theory... what if she was Janet and Bonnie's mom? I would go into this further, but we have to keep going!

Overall, I really like these two! Their designs are really good, and the character designers did a great job! Their pins and profile pictures show SO much personality! Expect some art of these two soon! However, if I may say something, I wish their skins were cooler. Why couldn't Angelo have a Sands of Time skin too? 😭

Speaking of Sands of Time...

Sands of Time and Ragnorok + Skins

Out of both seasons, I'm very hyped for Sands of Time. The "Sands of Time" is a very interesting concept that can be used very creatively. Can't wait to see what the animation brings! Though I think we all know why I'm hyped...

My best guest was that this skin was gonna be a Epic/Mythic skin, but a LEGENDARY?????? WHAT?????? Chuck fans we just fucking WON. I've seen the sneak peaks and heard his voice lines, Nicolai did an INCREDIBLE job as always. I'm am SO READY to go broke for this skin, but first, I must purchase some seasonal skins since they've been on my agenda for a while.

Loki Chester has to be the one I'm looking forward to getting the most for the Ragnorok seasons/skins. Plus, it's free! (If you have good luck).

Side note and honorable mention, Thor Bibi was just the icing on the cake for Bibi Mains this update. While I feel like a few more details could be added for this skin to make in truly "legendary," everything else about it great, including the voice acting! Poor Bull, he's the only one in his yet to get a Legendary Skin.

Ranked and The Report System

Okay, not related, but I love how they disses on the community a bit in this section, LOL. They know what, at least Reddit and Twitter are doing (and let's keep it that way, they don't need to know what's going on over here lol).

Anyways, while I'm excited (and scared) for Ranked with modifiers I wanna take this time to talk about a concern... the report system...

Now, I know there's a reason why we have 10 reports; but what's gonna stop so angry guy from reporting me if I didn't do anything? I feel like there's a chance this could backfire, that's all.

Hypercharges and Balance Changes

No Mortis or Poco hypercharge :(

Cordelius was definitely unexpected and very scary. Getting slowed in the shadow realm is a death sentence.

I wish Belle got a little more this update, but I'll take the hypercharge.

Move over Charlie, there's a new spider person in town, and he's a DINOSAUR.

Onto to balance changes. 84???? GOD DAMN. Adrien wasn't fucking around this update. Edgar is dead (and rightfully so FUCK HIM) and Doug might actually stand a chance in this Meta. I'll miss the days when Hypercharges were game breaking just for the community's rage, but it's probably for the greater good.

Whatever the Fuck the Random Skins Were

Now Primo Shark, I can take (though I'm definitely not gonna be able to take Baby Shark as a in game theme, I'm muting music for that entire time period). Pitcher Fang is a good skin too. Squeaky note is very... meh, but it's a rare skin so you can't expect much.

BUT POOP SPIKE.

POOP SPIKE.

What

the

FUCK?

It was tolerable until I saw the losing animation, and to that, I say EWWWWWWWWWW 🤮🤮🤮. WHYYYYY!?!?!? THAT'S SO NASTY!!!

I get that this is an April Fool's skin, but WHYYY THAT??? Thank GOD this skin is expensive. If I catch any of you with this skin, I'm gonna need to ask if you're okay. I don't wanna show a picture of this skin to you all, or else I'm pretty sure Tumblr would kick me to the curve. This is easily what I was least excited for for this update.

Overall Rating and Final Thoughts

Now, it's time to throw the final ratings on screen and say anything else that's on my mind.

New Brawlers - 9.5/10, definitely getting both! Let's hope they get some cool skins soon!

Sands of Time - 7/10, the concept and Chuck carry this season don't fight me on this. /j

Ragnorok - 6.5/10, I'm not as hyped, but I will grind for that Chester skin!

Ranked - 8/10, now I have a reason to actually play this mode. Hopefully, the report system is fair enough...

Hypercharges - 6.5/10, again not as hype, but I will be snatching that Belle Hypercharge since she's the only one out of the 6 I maxed out. She deserved more, though. :(

Balance Changes - 10/10, bye Edgar begone. F for the twins, however; I liked them.

Random Stuff - 3/10, not even Pitched Fang can save us from whatever the devs were on.

Overall Season 24/25 is...

8/10! (Poop Spike ruined it >:( )

And that's it. For those who have read to the end, thank you so much for heating me ramble it means so much. Expect some headcanons and more little theories soon (as in some time this week). Until then, ciao!

[atthebell]

it's really interesting that you say that vodwatching is harder for you to summarize/liveblog cause i find it so much easier :o at least when i've been working through phil's blogs for the wiki. i think it's cause i already know where the story is headed that I have a clearer idea of what I'm looking out for (well and also, qphil isn't steeped in quite as much federation/enigma/etc, so i do think you've got much more complex things going on than me)

that being said ur killing it on the cellbit wiki stuff :] really glad you're in on this project too!

i wrote like a few paragraphs of cellbit's wiki page yesterday and it took me. five hours? that's with irl stuff getting in the way and i am VERY particular about how i cite and how to summarize so things aren't super crowded (since that can go in the day-by-day history instead) but like i have to reference SO many vods to talk about stuff and because of how long he streams, all the stuff he's involved in, every investigation he does, and especially just how busy his early days were (and the sprint really didn't stop until the eggs disappeared) it means there is SO much content to cover so i end up hopping across so many different vods to grab details, and i'm also trying to vodwatch as like. a fun activity for myself, so i don't want to burn myself out.

i also take very quick notes and can note down timestamps far easier live than when i'm rewatching a vod and trying to find a specific moment, because then i'm having to scrub through and try to figure out what moments are important and what are just him fucking around in a google doc. like i cannot stress enough cellbit used to stream qsmp for at least 4 hours 5 days a week that's SO much streams to trawl through (best wishes to bbh wiki folks, although at least he's not doing a ton of detailed investigation). and it's a lot of catching up, because i didn't use to keep detailed notes and so now i have to find things that i only half-remember (picture me sprawled over my desk with my head in my hands, that's me considering whether it's worth it to search twitter for an update tweet to cross reference for a timestamp)

cellbit has so much content honestly a huge part of the work is the condensing it element, wherein deciding what is important enough to go on the regular history vs. what is too detailed takes quite a while. i have two separate google docs for his lore, one that's personal and one that's specifically for the wiki, and i spend ages just going through and making sure things aren't me going on and on about something that isn't necessary for a brief summary. and i want things to be easy to understand and possibly catch up on for folks who missed a lot of his earlier stuff, which means explaining it well but not with like. essays and essays about his character progression, and keeping it as factual as possible-- once again, meaning a lot of vod citations.

also i think a lot of folks don't realize how much cellbit's investigations tie in with larger server lore-- he's debunked a bunch of theories about the federation and found out SO much info about them and the eggs and things like that, and a lot of that info gets lost over time. so documenting everything he's found means documenting quite a bit of overall server lore with sources. i'm like very lucky that i have a pretty good memory, especially for mysteries, so i know that i do need to find that stuff, even if i don't remember exactly when it was.

anyway back to your original point yeah i just find it leagues easier when i'm not having to go back and find a specific moment in a 9 hour vod and instead i can just have a google doc open jotting down everything important, and then later on all that info is just there for me to pull from. it makes the writing element easier along with everything else

[w33nies]

Qué Maravilla - CH.7

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

Miguel O'hara x SpiderReader rating: E for Everyone bby warnings: none? lots of angst tbh summary: desperate times call for desperate measures art is not mine !!! @xia_finger on twitter!!!

------------ Ch.7 - The Rhythm and the Blues -----------

Miguel sat in a low crouch while investigating the wreckage in the abandoned warehouse. He cradled his aching head in his hands. He had never gone this long without a rapture dose before and the withdrawals were proving to be horrendous. He was irritated beyond belief and all this running around was pushing him to his limit. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could last. Doing math, the last dosage was about eight hours ago, he had four hours. Maybe five before any serious consequences start arising. ‘I can make that work,’ he assured himself stubbornly, ‘All of this will be taken care of by then.’ He groaned quietly while fighting another incoming headache.

“For all we know this could have nothing to do with Miles” he stood up so quickly he got light headed. He managed to catch himself on a nearby broken pipe and took a few moments to steady himself, “And we don’t have time to investigate every crime in this city.”

Unperturbed, you keep looking, rummaging through piles and piles of debris and damaged infrastructure until finally, after moving a large piece of concrete covering the brick wall, you find a major clue. “Nobody from this place could’ve done this. Look. '' Fighting dizziness, Miguel immediately gets up and walks over to see where you're pointing. Covering the wall are scores of organic spiderman webbing.

“Hasn’t begun dissolving yet,” Miguel took a few steps closer to get a better look at the material, “has to be recent.” You release the tension you had been holding in your shoulders, briefly catching Gwen’s look from the dirty window she had established as her vantage point. 

Brooklyn was big, but at least now you knew you were on the right track. “It’s a start,” you said in a low mumble to yourself, running your fingers along the webs then pulling away to fiddle with a small sample between your thumb and pointer finger. 

Miguel turned away from the evidence to scan the disastrous scene before the two of you, “Yeah,” he whispered absentmindedly, “If we can figure out what the hell went down here…”

“...Then maybe we can find Miles,” you finish making eye contact with Miguel just as he turns to face you. 

Before either of you can speak, your body visibly tenses once more. You knew this feeling all too well. A shiver travels down your spine and a tingling feeling draws at the back of your head. The best way you could describe it was like an out of body experience like a fly, or a spider, on the wall. For a moment you could see yourself, but most importantly you could see the shadow that had just made its way to the door. 

“The door.”  

“What?” Miguel asks, slightly thrown off. 

“Someone’s coming.”

You both quickly turn toward the door ready to fight. Through it walks Aaron Davis with a cigarette in his mouth and distractedly texting a message on his phone with his free hand. A second later he looks up and is immediately taken aback by the sight of what were essentially two strangers in decorative morphs suits standing in his damaged hideout. 

“What the hell!?” He points his phone back and forth between the two of you, “ Who the hell are you guys!?” 

Miguel immediately takes the reins, “I’m sorry sir. I know this is weird. But there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this-” 

“-Okay?” Aaron stood in such disbelief he almost seemed to be on the verge of laughter,  “Floor is yours.” 

“This may be a lot to take in, but we’re from alternate dimensions and we-”

“-Oh so there's more of you now?”

“More?” Both you and Miguel inquired at the same time, taking a moment to share a look with one another. 

“You saw another one of us?” You asked hopefully . 

“Yeah.”

Miguel brought a hovering hand to the side of his own shoulder, “Was he about yay high, black spider suit, one that kinda looks like he was bleeding out his armpits?” 

“...Um,Yeah.” Aaron straightened his posture and lifted his chin, taking on a sudden wave of defensiveness. “What about him?”

“It’s important that we find him.”

“Why?” 

“Because-” Miguel stops the urge he always has to ramble about the importance and sanctity of the multiverse whenever asked, “That’s classified.But-”

Aaron interrupts with a scoff, making his way to the heavily dented workbench,“-Look I don’t know who you think you are or what you think you’re doing here,” he spoke while rolling up his sleeves before carefully equipping his mechanical claws, “But I don’t appreciate people trespassing in my shit.” He finished, methodically cracking his knuckles to further illustrate his point. 

“Trespassing?” Miguel looks around in shock, “There's a hole in your ceiling.” 

“So? Is that supposed to be an invitation? What's the matter with you?”

“Look, this is way bigger, way more important than you could possibly imagine…” Miguel then falls into his bad habit of prattling on about “the need to preserve the sanctity of the multiverse” in an almost cultish fashion.  Aaron, thoroughly unmoved, makes a show of mockingly nodding his head taking care to throw in a couple of sarcastic, “Uh Huh” or a “Wow, really?” for extra effect as Miguel continued to ramble, “Either you help us out or-”

“-Or What?” 

Miguel takes a threatening step forward, “Do you really wanna find out old man?” 

“Miguel,” you tap him on the shoulder and loudly whisper in his ear “You're not helping? You’re actually making it worse.” 

“Old man?” Aaron follows suit with a sneer, “You wanna run that by me one more time?” 

“Okayyy,” You desperately wedge yourself between the two of them in an attempt to de-escalate, “Let’s all take a moment to calm down. Believe it or not, we’re all on the same side here.” 

“No we aren’t.” Miguel spat towards you, without taking his eyes off Davis. 

“Excuse me?” 

He fully turns his attention to you, “What are you gonna do when you find Miles?”

“What does this-?”

“-You can live in fantasyland with your heads in the clouds where we have everyone gather around the fire singing fucking ‘kumbaya’ on any other day, but right now the multiverse is in real danger. As much as it sucks to believe, there are real consequences if Miles saves his father. Are you going to detain him like I asked? Or are you gonna let your stubborn idealism get the best of you?”

“Detain? Consequences?” Aaron interjects while you stand taken aback, “What the hell are yall talking about?” 

“¡Cállate!” Miguel snapped his head towards Davis,  “This doesn’t concern you.”

“You think you can talk to me like that?” 

“Look old man, tell us where the kid is before we make you.” 

“Call me that to me one more time.” Aaron lifted a finger in Miguel's face which he immediately swatted away.

“Miguel!” you yell in an attempt to retain some sense of decorum, “We’re here to find Miles, not get into dumb fights.” 

“He started it!” Both men proclaimed loudly in unison. 

“Oh my god.” You drag your hands slowly down your face in frustration. “You’re being so-so-”

“-So what?” Miguel challenged. 

“Impossible.” 

“Impossib- Can you just let me handle this?”

“Can you just listen for one second?” 

 “Can you two get a room?” Aaron yelled exasperatedly “Damn!”

“I’m not going to ask again,” Miguel turned towards  Aaron, resuming his towering stance, “Tell us where he is.” 

“Over. My. Dead. Body.” Aaron made sure to hiss every syllable directly into his face. 

Miguel huffs annoyedly, “You’re gonna regret those choice of words pal.”

“Bruh,” you sigh defeatedly. “Like I said. Impossible.”

Amidst the kerfuffle your comrades assess the scene unfolding before them from their respective hiding spots, practically cringing with second hand embarrassment. 

“Yikes” Spyder-Byte said with her teeth chipping away at her holographic nails. 

“I can’t watch,” Porker turned away, attempting to cover his large comical eyes with his tiny hands. 

“What are they doing?” Peter gripped his hair in his hands anxiously.

“Should we jump in?” Pavitir asked, positioning himself in a low crouch ready to interfere at any moment. 

“Wait, give them some time.” Gwen whispered panickedly, “I’m sure they’ll come around.” With a focused sigh Gwen closes her eyes and drums her fingers methodically, yet softly on the glass. ‘I guess desperate times called for desperate measures’ the girl thought to herself. 

Hobie watched in confusion “What are you-”

“Shhh. I’m trying to focus.” She bit back.

You’re not exactly sure how it happens, but your annoyance seems to melt away. Your anger seemed to vanish. Just as soon as you got upset, the feeling subsided to neutrality. Miguel and Aaron seem to feel this wave or this clarity as well. Both now awkwardly avoid each other's eye contact, shuffling a few steps away from one another. Aaron sighs into a more relaxed posture, awkwardly tugging his shirt collar while Miguel looks to the ground and rubs the back of his head with his hand, clearing his throat. 

You turn your attention to the smaller of the two men in front of you,  “Aaron Davis, right?” The man looks at you startled before his face becomes a cross between skepticism and intrigue.  You take a deep breath and decide to keep going. 

“In every universe except yours, there are spider-men and women.” You motion to Miguel and yourself, “A group of vigilante’s with spider based superpowers who work to protect people. You were supposed to have a spiderman, but the spider that was supposed to bite someone from here ended up in a different universe and bit Miles, your nephew. Well not him but him in an alternate universe. Anyways, Miles was sent here-”

“-Earth 42-” Miguel interrupts.

“-Earth 42, by accident. We’re trying to get him home. And well…,” you gesture to Miguel for him to speak his piece. 

“We have…Let’s just say, different views on this issue,” he starts. He shoots you a glance as if to seek your approval, so you nod to encourage him to keep going, “ But it's important that we find him. Lives are at stake. For everyone, everywhere, including your nephew… So please, Just tell us where we can find him then we’ll be out of your hair, uh-” He uncomfortably glances at Uncle Aaron's bald “-Way. We’ll be out of your way.”

Uncle Aaron softly chuckles to himself, taking a moment to look despondently out one of the shattered windows. “Jeff. His father…,” he began, “What’s going to happen to him?”

“He’s…He’s supposed to die in the line of duty.” Miguel spoke grimly, “Similar to your own-.” 

Aaron interrupts him with a heavy sigh “Yeah that- that sounds like Jeff,” he gave a disheartened laugh while attempting to rub away the sadness from his eyes, “And Miles?” 

“We’re working on it,” you attempt to reassure him. “But the only way we can look after your nephew is if you tell us where he is.”

“One thing.” Aaron said, “Promise me you’ll keep them safe?”

“They? You mean Jeff and-”

“-No, Miles. Both of them,” he asserted “Mine and yours.” 

“Both Miles? Together?” Miguel asked with newfound intrigue, "Where are they?” 

“I need you to promise me man. Promise me you’ll look after them. I would do it myself but-” Davis swallowed hard, shutting his eyes to fight off the emotion in his voice, “Please. I can't afford to lose any more family.”  

Miguel sighed  “I’ll…I’ll be sure to do whatever’s best. For both of them, but you have to tell us where they went.” 

Aaron takes a moment to mull over Miguel's answer, “They’re at the Alchemex lab.” He speaks softly, examining the claw on his hand before slowly removing it and tossing it on the ground. “Under Fitz Tower. ” 

“Why?” 

“For the collider.”

You and Miguel share a look, lightbulbs simultaneously going off in both of your heads . “Thank you, this helps a lot.” you tell him, “ Really.” 

“Yeah,” Aaron Davis whispered dejectedly, never taking his eyes off his fallen Prowler glove. “...Glad I could help.”

You put your hand on Davis’s shoulder and he looks up at you with glossy, remorseful eyes. The best you can think to do is give him a sincere,reassuring nod which he reluctantly returns. You and Miguel then immediately depart through the hole in the ceiling in which you made your initial entrance. 

Aaron Davis, however, remains in place, completely lost in thought. He removed the cigarette from his mouth that he had all but forgotten about and examined it. ‘Was this really all he could do?’ He then threw the cigarette butt down on the ground, stomping it out with his shoe. Then grabbing his Prowler glove, he made his way over to his workbench and began diligently tinkering away at his arsenal. 

“What…just happened?” Porker asked dumbfounded, “Weren’t they just fighting?”

Pav let out a loud gasp of realization, “Guys don’t you see. Through the power of empathy, compassion, and friendship they were able to-”

“-Doesn’t matter.” Gwen said hurriedly, “We gotta get moving, before Miguel gets there first,” Before she can take off, Hobie stops her in her tracks with his arm placed out in front of her.  

“You changed the rhythm” He said matter-of-factly. 

“What?” 

“They were arguing before you drummed your digits.” 

“Yeah….”

Hobie raised a knowing eyebrow, “...So, you changed it, didn’t you?”

 “...Maybe a little,” She finally conceded. 

Hobie slowly breaks into a grin then he wraps his arm around Gwen’s neck so he can give her a playful noogie, “That’s why you’re my drummer, mate.” Then they, along with the rest of the gang, jump off into the night.

---thanks for reading, few more chapters to the end