#hopefully the text is clear TT

[kkelsey--spring]

trouble at the top

[an-spideog]

Don't Use Duolingo if You Really Want to Learn Irish

That title is a bit dramatic, but I really don't think that duolingo is a useful tool for Irish, especially in its current state, so I want to talk a bit about why, and I'll also talk about some alternatives.

Pronunciation

The first and most egregious issue is that at some point recently-ish, duo decided to start using Text-To-Speech for their Irish course, rather than recordings of a native speaker. The problem here is that their TTS is not trained on native speakers of Irish and pronounces words incorrectly. It doesn't make consistent distinctions between broad and slender consonants for example.

Irish has no standard pronunciation, so I understand how it can feel weird to choose just one dialect for the purposes of pronunciation (the old recordings were from a speaker of Galway Irish), but having just one dialect is much better than TTS which sounds like a learner, imagine if they had TTS for the French course which sounded like an anglophone schoolkid trying to pronounce french, and claimed they were teaching you how to speak french!

Grammar

Duo tends to be correct on grammar at least, which is a start. But often people using it get very confused about the grammar because duo doesn't explain any of it. I think there's a place for immersion in language learning, and I don't think everything has to be explained like that, but within duo's system of sentence testing and exercises like that, not having any explanation for why it's "mo chóta" and not "mo cóta" can be really confusing. Duo used to have more grammar information, it's a shame that they removed it, I wonder why they did it.

Money and Motivation

Duolingo is a business, and their motivation is not to help you learn a language 'fully', but to keep you using their app and hopefully have a higher chance of sharing it with others, competing with others, buying or causing others to buy memberships or lingots or any other in-app purchases.

I don't want to make it out like duo is some big conspiracy and they're tricking people, I don't think that's the case, but it's good to remember that their primary motivation is to keep people using the app, rather than help people move to a level in a language where they don't need the app anymore.

Keep this in mind whenever you see people trying to sell you stuff for language learning.

Why do people use Duolingo

I do get it, and I don't want to make anyone feel bad for using duo, there's a ton of reasons people tend towards it at first 1. It's really well known, so especially if you're learning a language and haven't heard of other resources for it, you'll check duolingo 2. It's very motivating for a lot of people, checking in every day and forming that habit is a really good way of sticking with a language 3. It's fun, people enjoy it

If you use it for reason 3. and you still like it, then don't worry about this post, I'm not trying to yuck anyone's yums, keep having fun!

If you use it for reasons 1. or 2. you can still keep using it if you like, but I want to suggest some other things which you might find helpful in trying to get to a higher level in Irish.

Other Resources

To address the pronunciation issue, I'd heavily recommend you disregard the pronunciation in duolingo, if you're looking for more reliable sources of pronunciation, I'd look towards recordings of native speakers, you can find that on:

Teanglann and Foclóir (they use the same recordings)

Fuaimeanna

and a really useful and underused one: https://davissandefur.github.io/minimal-pairs/ where you can hear the difference between similar sounds that English speakers often mix up in Irish.

A lot of people like duolingo because it's nice to have a clear path forward, a progression that you can get into without too much decision-making. For this I recommend getting a good textbook or course and working through it, the ones I'll recommend also have native speaker audio on them.

Learning Irish by Mícheál Ó Siadhail, this book teaches Galway Irish, not just in pronunciation but in grammar too. It's quite dense but it's well thought out and well explained.

Teach Yourself Irish (1961) this book is available for free online, and is a really good option if you're interested in Cork Irish (Munster), and have some experience with grammatical terminology. I used this book myself and really liked it, but it's very intense and not for everyone. (If you do end up using it, feel free to skip the appendices at the start, they're more of a reference and sometimes put people off from actually getting to the first chapter. Also if you have any questions about it or need any help just let me know.)

If you want a video course, there's a great course called "Now You're Talking" which is available for free online, along with audio files and worksheets here. It features Donegal Irish and leads into the more intermediate level course called Céim ar Aghaidh also available online.

There's other textbooks that I have less experience with (Buntús na Gaeilge, Gaeilge/Gramadach Gan Stró, etc.) but if they work for you, stick with them, there's nothing worse than not making progress because you keep switching resources trying to find the "perfect one"

Whether or not you continue to use Duolingo, I would really really encourage you to try engaging with media in Irish. People often shy away from this when they're learning because they don't feel like they're "ready" yet. But you basically never feel like you're ready, you just have to try and find something near your level and try to get comfortable with not understanding everything. This is where you learn a huge portion of the language, you hear how things are pronounced you see what words mean in what contexts, getting input in your target language is so important!

I know content can be kind of hard to find, so I'll make a few recommendations here: There's a wealth of content available for free online (more if you're in ireland but some internationally) on TG4 If you're still starting out, I'd recommend trying to watch some kids shows since they'll have simpler language and will be easier to follow. I wouldn't recommend using English subtitles when you watch them. Some good options include:

Dónall Dána: an Irish dub of Horrid Henry, silly and childish but the actors have good Irish and importantly the show has Irish language subtitles, they don't always match but if you're still beginning and can't necessarily get everything by ear, they're really useful. (Mostly Galway Irish)

Curious George: another dub, again with Irish language subtitles (I can't remember what dialects were in it off the top of my head but I'd assume mostly galway again)

Seó Luna: No subtitles, but a good option if you're aiming for Munster Irish, the lead character has Kerry Irish

Miraculous: No subtitles but a better show than most of the other kids' ones and more bearable to watch as an adult (Mostly Galway Irish)

Ros na Rún: Moving away from kids shows, a long running soap opera, this has Irish subtitles and a really good mix of dialects within the show. If you're finding the kids shows boring or too easy I'd really recommend it, but it can be complex because of the amount of characters, dialects, and plotlines. I'd recommend starting at the beginning of a newer season and just trying to catch on to what's happening as you go.

There are a lot of books, if you live in Ireland you can get nearly any Irish book for free from a library, so please check out your local library or request some of these from other libraries in the system:

There's a series of fairytales (Rápúnzell, Luaithríona etc.) by Máiréad Ní Ghráda which are illustrated and for children, which are a really good option for when you're just starting out reading

There's kids books about Fionn and the Fianna by Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin

There's a cute little kids' book in Kerry Irish about a cat named Mábúis

Leabhar Breac has a lot of graphic novels, some of them based on Irish mythology, some on other stuff. The fact that they're illustrated can make it a lot easier to follow even if you don't understand all the words at first.

Gliadar has just released their Scott Pilgrim translation

If you're looking for something a bit more advanced you can look at some of the books for adult learners by Comhar, they contain simplified language and glossaries but have full original adult stories.

And if you're wanting full, natural, native-level Irish there's a load of books by those same groups, and others like An Gúm, Cló Iar-Chonnacht, Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, Éabhlóid, Coiscéim, and more.

And don't shy away from older books written in Seanchló either, they can be more challenging but it's a whole extra world of books

If you're trying to improve your listening comprehension, I definitely recommend listening to shows on Raidió na Gaeltachta, hearing native Irish speakers talk at full speed is really good practice. But I get that it can be overwhelming at first. Here are some things you can do as you build up to that:

Watching those same TV shows I mentioned without subtitles is a good way to build up listening skills.

Vifax is a website where you can practice listening to short news segments and answer questions on them, then getting to look at the transcript with notes afterwards.

Snas is kind of the evolution of vifax, now using clips from both the news and Ros na Rún.

I really hope that this post can help people move away from duolingo if they're looking to take their Irish learning to the next level, if you've got any questions, just let me know!

[springtrappd]

kellen goff (voice of glamrock freddy, the daycare attendant/sun/moon and funtime freddy) has spoken out on twitter re: ai replicas of his voice. if you continue to produce or consume ai reproductions of his work, you are not only explicitly violating his boundaries, but you are contributing to a culture that will make it more difficult for him to continue to gain sustainable work in the future. now that he's made them known, let's please respect his wishes regarding the matter.

full text of thread beneath the cut for brevity:

I do not consent to any AI reproduction of my voice. I respectfully ask any who provide AI TTS services to delete the voices of those who didn't consent. Will that stop anyone? Hell no. Why would it? It's not illegal. It should be, but it's not. Hopefully someday, but not yet. People are a-ok violating others. They'll justify it any way they can. We've seen it time and time again, and we've seen that again today. I'm so sorry, Erica. You did not deserve the onslaught that came from setting up a boundary. Maybe one day, we'll get legislation on it. Maybe not. In the meantime, let me make this clear: If you use AI text to speech that originated from a VA that never consented to it, my opinion of you will lower significantly. If that doesn't matter to you, oh well. Can't stop you. But if you respect what we do and how hard we had and have to work to get here and keep it going, please reconsider. It really makes us uncomfortable, and encourages companies to devalue what we do more and more. Look at Secret Invasion. It's already happening. You can say no. I already see Glamrock Freddy covers of songs on YouTube and TikTok. You may think it's harmless fun, but in the long run, you're going to see more and more VAs disappear. If that's your goal, well done. You found the way. If it isn't, I encourage you to help us push against it. Anyway, that's my word on it. I tried to state it respectfully as I could. I'm a firm believer in treating others the way you want to be treated. We'll see how many hold that same principle I guess.

[waitlifted]

(( since its getting talked about in the tangled fandom, I wanna say:

while I probably have a reputation by now for defending tts/rta from criticisms, and indeed take a hard opposition to a lot of popular criticisms of the show, that isn't a blanket statement of "everything in the show is good and the haters are wrong". in fact, there is a lot wrong with the show, from the more petty annoyances to some more serious issues with its implications.

I defend it because 1) I don't necessarily think a text being problematic/having problematic elements in itself negates the worthwhile elements in it, and 2) most of the criticisms I see leveled at the show (and thus go on to defend against) are not the kind of criticism I see as valid, but instead are misreadings/oversimplifications/bad faith arguments that I want to counter, particularly in regards to cassandra.

but defending those bits doesn't mean I'm blind to the actual issues with the show. in fact, I try to be actively conscious of them and adapt my writing to accommodate for/fix it. and I just want to be very clear with that. as my writing with cass herself should hopefully prove, I know that things can have both good and bad elements at once, and believe we can't really ignore either half if we want the full picture. ))

[morgansunflower]

Baby Girl

Dick Grayson/Barbara Gordon & Daughter!Reader

Warnings:non

Words:1460

This was a request on wattpad thought y'all might enjoy! Y/N Grayson is 18 sister of Damian who is 19, and John who is 10. Y/N, trying to cope with her father's death. Only to soon find out that he's far from dead. Dick, fakes his death the only way to keep his daughter and family safe

Wearing my uniform and mask. My tears run down my face my knees trying to give out from complete shock. I shut my eye's unable to withstand seeing my dad on the jumbo screen dead. My ten year old brother John buried his face in my abdomen his arm's tightly wrapped around me, his small hands clinching my shirt. My heart drops, I feel out of breath and I feel sick. I look seeing my older brother Damian sitting by me. Sweat dripping down his face, he breaths through his mouth. Damian, shuts his eye's inhaling sharply. This can't be happening, this is a horrible nightmare, and I want to wake up. What scares me is that this isn't a dream. That my dad is really gone. I drop to my knees John hugged my neck his tears making my uniform wet where his laid on my shoulder. His left arm over my neck and other across my hip. I held him tight unsure if he needed more comfort or if I did. Cassandra, placed her hand on my shoulder. I need to get up mom needs to see us, I need to see her. I cleared my throat and stood still holding my brother. Damian, stood up and stood next to me his fist clinched. We look at each other both of us had dad's eye's. His eye's swell he wouldn't let himself cry. Damian, never would let his guard down. Unless he was only with me, Mom, Dad or his girlfriend. Damian's my best friend. I know he feels as broken down as I do.

"let's get you guy's--" Damian cut aunt Steph off

"I can handle getting them home"

"kid's" mom said her voice breaking

Damian and I moved our heads to the comforting sound of our mother's voice. I see, Mom she walked to us tears running down her face. John, let go of me and held onto mom. She held him and hugged Damian and I. The next day the funeral wearing my black dress, only waterproof makeup wearing anything different would be a awful mess and wearing my nice shoes. My family by my sides but I feel so alone. I just feel nothing but pain. We were all in the living room. My aunt's, grandad Bruce, uncle's, cousin's, Wally, Artemis, Clark, grandpa Jim and close friends. I need a break from having to lie and say 'I'm ok'. I need space or I'm going to blow. I left the Manor going to the circus my dad owned. In my gymnast uniform I had left here last week. I left my phone in my purse on the ground and walk up the ladder. I swung across on the trapeze holding the bar, below me a net. I feel the wind and feel my heart race. I remember my dad telling me about my biological grandparents John and Mary Grayson. He told me how they died that night. My dad had something in him that allowed him to heal from that pain or learn to live with that pain. I didn't inherit that from him. I don't think I will ever be able to heal from losing my dad. I remember him teaching me to ride my bike. The first time I put on my uniform and went on my first night of patrol. My first period and dad bringing me my favorite dessert. He was always there for me, and now he's gone. I swing and flip grabbing the other bar. I move around facing the opposite direction I was and swing

"dammit, Y/N" Damian sighs

I let go falling onto the net I see my older brother still in his suit and tie. His demeanor stressed and tense.

"you're mad at me"

"mad? I'm infuriated you could have at least told me where you were before you left without telling us. For all I knew you could have been hurt or.... Just get down and let's go home"

"ok, you don't have to be so grouchy Dami"

"don't piss me off more, Missy" he threatened

I got down I grabbed my purse and looked at my phone. 5 missed calls from mom, 2 from John and 1 one Damian. As well as 4 text messages. I texted my mom telling her that I'm ok. Damian and I walked out of the tent. I see the, car and looked at the barn. I take a shaky breath so many memories here.

"I'm going to go check on Zitka, and the cubs"

"tt I'll come incase you decide to do something reckless"

I roll my eye's at my older brother's remark. We walk to the barn. I looked in our elephants stall. She lifted her trunk and sniffed my hair. I softly smile I pet her long trunk

"it's good to see you Zitka" my voice pained with grief knowing dad isn't here, the one who started this

I hear growling from the lion cubs I look seeing Damian pulling their rope with a knot on both ends. Both cubs had their teeth locked on the nots pulling it away and Damian pulling the middle. Damian, takes a deep breath letting go of the rope

"your performance on the trapeze has gotten a bit better"

"Damian are you giving me a complement?" I sarcastically asked

He rolls his eye's "tt it's getting late and cold, we should be heading home so you don't get sick"

"oh please me getting sick that does not happen"

"you are a, horrible liar"

"yeah you to"

I walked to my older brother I hugged him. Damian's always been taller than me. It felt like hugging a, giant bear. Damian, wrapped his large arm's around me. We stayed there for a moment. I started crying.

"It's my fault dad's gone I'm sorry, Y/N" his voice breaking

"Damian" I parted from him I grabbed my arm's shaking my head "no, don't you dare say that, Dami" I shake my head again and hug him "I won't allow it"

A few months later still feels like yesterday dad and I were swinging on the trapeze. Grandad Bat's is missing. We all went to Gotham to keep it safe until hopefully we find grandad breathing and in one piece. I went on patrol I see a group of men in a abandoned building countless of gun's on the foldout table's. I can tell by the model of the gun their illegal. I silently drop in landing on the floor.

"did you hear that?" one asked

"probably a damn rat" another answered. A rat seriously. I need to work on my stealth "we our going to make a grand on the black market"

I extended my arm to throw mini Gass bombs at their feet.

"not if I have anything to say about it"

"it's Batman!" one exclaims grabbing a gun

"shoot the bastard!"

I nearly gasp and fainted seeing Batman! Wait that's not grandad. They shot at him he threw batarang at the barrel of some of the guns. I punch the man with a shotgun. I snatched his gun and hit his gut with the end of the gun.

"had a feeling you'd show" one said and grabbed a square box on top a red trigger

I swiftly grabbed my batarang I changed with my own design and threw it at his wrist before he could set the bomb. With all the men tied together in a circle I hear GCPD. Batman and I shot our grappling gun's leaving. We both landed on a building. I hear, movement seeing my brother's. I feel myself shaking with shock. I don't believe my eye's it could not be him. He's dead! I feel my hands shaking

"you found grand--who are you?" John asked

Batman, took his cowl off I gasp out of breath. John, began to sob. He ran into dad's arm's. Dad, began to cry rubbing John's back.

"I'm so sorry son" he mumbled

After John calmed down dad put him down and kissed his head. He stood in front of Damian. Damian's fist clinched his tears falling dad put his hand on Damian's neck. Damian hugged him. Dad, rubbed his back.

"no lecture" dad asked Damian chuckling

"I'll leave it to mom" Damian cried

Dad and Damian parted. Dad kissed his head with tears.

"I'm sorry for what I did son"

Dad, walked to me I shook my head fighting my tears. I hit my foot on the ground. Dad, hugged me I broke down sobbing. I clinch his cape burying my face in his neck.

"I'm so sorry baby girl"

"don't ever do that to me, again" I sobbed

He kissed my head "I promise you I won't. I missed you kid's so much"

[whereflowersbloom]

Hypermarket adventure

When Tim Drake woke up that morning he had no idea he would have to buy a new coffee maker because the one they had was unusually broken. Damian Wayne. Tim massaged his temples, exhaustion sinking deep in his bones, and wonders how long it's been since he had more than four hours of sleep. Damian was responsible for this, one of his secret schemes to make him stop consuming caffeine. Tim was sure it was his fault, so the broken coffee maker refused to give him the fluid of life and he had lost it...and maybe Tim destroyed it with vicious vengeance. In his defense, he had been up for more than twenty hours, before taking a nap of two hours. Sleep later coffee first.

So naturally he announced to Alfred he would be making a quick trip to the store to get a new one, politely asked the British man if he required anything from the store. Alfred seemed to consider the offer for a solid minute before asking him if he could get some groceries and essentials on his way back home. Handing him a list. Before he walked out of the manor Dick volunteered affably to accompany him, convincing a grumpy Jason, who was comfortably sitting, reading a wrinkled newspaper to tag along. Jason surprisingly agreed, with the condition he was the one driving. Alfred rapidly suggested to take the demon spawn with them, he could use some frest air. Now things could only go downhill from this point. This piqued Steph’s interest, who casually commented she had nothing better to do. Soon they were on their way to the closest hypermarket.

Dick was there to make sure Damian didn’t behead anyone and get enough boxes of cereal he could hide before Alfred looked at him with disappointed eyes. There’s nothing worse in this world than Alfred’s disappointed eyes. The old man claimed ‘It’s not a proper meal or healthy if it contained high levels of sugar’, but the companies also tended to fill them with vitamins, calcium, iron and folic acid. Therefore it was a fortified food! It had everything he needed for a balanced meal in Dick’s opinion. The extra sugar was even good for him considering how many calories he burned.

“The sword stays in the car, Damian.” Dick commanded, taking away the blade from twelves earth-old before he sets a foot out of the automobile, which was responded by a low ‘TT’.

“Did we really have to bring shortstack?” Jason complained, voice etched with irritation, index finger pointing at Damian.

“As if I would agree to lower my nutritional standards because you fools failed to purchase the provisions Pennyworth demanded which is why I have it in my power.” Damian logically explained, grinding his teeth and waving the list at Jason. Tim rolled his eyes, focus on the reward, coffee, he mentally told himself.

“Don’t stab anyone.” Dick ordered with authority.

“I make no promises, Grayson.” Damian muttered dryly crossing his arms over his chest.

Damian cannot comprehend why would Pennyworth think he was needed to carry out such a simple task, he supposed if his siblings lacked the basic function acquire the list of edibles Alfred gave them and simultaneously behave in public, then he could supervise them. He was already here, nothing to do about it.

“Did anyone asked Cass if she needed anything?” Dick questioned them, clear blue eyes looking at them expectantly. Cass was probably still in her bedroom resting, after staying up with him analyzing some cases.

“Oh how thoughtful of you. You weren’t that nice to me, not even after I died.” Jason commented, his voice dripping with sarcasm and bitterness.

“Jay, you gotta stop bringing it up.” Dick reasoned as he placed a hand upon Jason’s shoulder, offering a small apologetic smile.

For once, Damian was quiet, observing the older brothers bicker over such a insignificant matter. Stephanie stifled a snort at their immature antics. A muffled ‘crybaby’ escaped her mouth, but only Tim, standing next to her was able to hear it.

It took everything Tim had not to roll his eyes and simply walk away. Why was he here with these troublemakers? Right. Coffee. The things he had to endure for a cup of black coffee.

“I texted Cass. She wants pop tarts.” Stephanie supplied, eye glued to the screen of her phone.

“If you get lost. I’m leaving you here, losers.” Jason threatened with narrowed eyes, a faint glow in his blue-green eyes. Five minutes after parking the car, the siblings marched inside the hypermarket. Tim sighed wearily, silent calculations running through his mind, how long it would take them to leave the store with the groceries

~~~

Jason Todd was ready to shoot Dick Grayson if only he had a gun between his hands. Why the fuck did he even agree to come with these lil shits? Clearly, he wasn’t in his right mind. He was doing this for Alfred and Jason could never say no to Alfred. It was an easy task: read the list of essentials Alfred wrote down, grab the items, deposit them inside the fucking cart and pay for them. Piece of cake. But here he was in the middle of dairy aisle, listening to Dick asking him all sort of stupid questions. His patience dangerously wearing thin.

“Why is milk five dollars a gallon?” Dick exclaimed with shock as he examined the dairy product’s label.

“Who cares? You’re rich, money shouldn’t be a problem, dickhead.” Jason replied annoyed, there goes ten minutes of his life, stuck in the dairy aisle with this enthusiastic fool. Where did Damian and Steph go? Dick had thrown several boxes of cereal inside the cart, including: Cheerios and Waffle crisps, the latter was Steph’s petition. Who in the bloody hell needed fifteen boxes of cereal? Wait a minute, is that coffee flakes? That one had to be Tim’s idea.

“How do you exactly milk an almond though?” Dick asked with furrowed Brows, concentrated on the product, as If he was trying to decipher a secret code.

The desperation and bewilderment in Dick’s voice made a Jason raise an eyebrow. He would kill for a quick smoke. Not like he was seriously considering smoking inside the store. He could wait a few more minutes.

“I’ll explain out to you when you finally become a functional adult.” Jason Breathed.

“Who wants bacon?” Stephanie came out of nowhere, asking with a juvenile glee in her eyes.

Hopefully I can finish this oneshot today 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

[incorrectbatfam]

I am entirely new to writing action sequences and I have no clue where to start. Do you have any advice and/or resources I could check out? Tysm 💕

Action scenes are among the most complex things to write as they extend far beyond some kung fu moves or explosions. When people think action scenes, they probably think something out of Mad Max, but really an action scene is anything that happens quickly. Could be a gunfight, or it could be something nonviolent like running to class or making love or what have you.

The most important element of a good action scene is pacing. Know when things happen quickly and know which moments to slow down just a tad.

One of the BIGGEST mistakes I see is people writing long paragraph expositions. I’ve seen people try to detail characters’ inner thoughts or maybe describe the environment and let me tell you, that is the worst way to go about it when you’re writing action. Big text blocks impede the flow when a scene is supposed to move quickly. If you want to give your readers a gauge of what your characters are experiencing, break up descriptions into short sentences that are mixed with movement and dialogue. 

Delete filler words like “seemingly” or “felt like”, they only make things longer and take away from the intenseness that action is supposed to be. Keep it clear, keep it concrete.  

>> Also, don’t detail every single blow—it’s boring and readers don’t like being treated as stupid. Show them what they need and let them infer the rest.

The second thing, especially for fight scenes, is they need to have a purpose. 

Action scenes should show us who your character is and/or drive the plot forward. They shouldn’t exist just for gratuitous violence or to flaunt flashy moves. 

Make sure that each scene differs in some way. Take into account not just your character’s fighting style, but who they’re going up against as well as time and place. Surroundings majorly influence decisions. Facing a pack of hungry wolves in the Arctic is going to be different from chasing a puppy through a park.

For plot, the rule of thumb is pretty simple: delete the action scene. If the scenes before and after still flow and make sense, then you didn’t need the action to begin with. If it caused any sort of transition, keep it.

For characterization, think about the reason behind every move they make. Why do they reach for a staff instead of a sword? What drives them to keep fighting and what would it take to make them surrender? Does the scene bring them closer or farther from their goals? What is there to gain or lose? Actions are carried out by their body but should give insight to who your character is.

>> Note that introspection usually happens before or after action, not during, so leave those innermost thoughts for the aftermath.

I’m not gonna write a violent scene because of what this blog is, but I wanna give you a rough example of what it should be like. It’s not perfect but hopefully it touches on the main points. Remember: the key is pacing and purpose.

“Dami, over there!”

“No real names on the field.”

“Doesn’t matter, are we gonna let it get away or not?”

Before Superboy even finished his sentence, Robin already hit the ground running. 

Asphalt eroded at rubber soles. Their target sang cheerfully, as if taunting them with, “You can’t catch me”. The thing—a colorfully painted truck—showed no signs of slowing at it approached the intersection. Robin reached for his grappling hook, ready to shoot towards a building when something grabbed him from behind. 

“It’s easier this way. We’re already in costume.”

“Tt. Fly faster, Superboy!” 

The Kryptonian didn’t need to be told twice. He wrapped his arm tightly around Robin’s midriff, determination in those ocean blue eyes.

WHOOSH! 

Off they went, chasing the speeding vehicle. It turned a sharp corner. Superboy followed in suit. 

“Tell me when to drop you off,” he said.

Robin waited, calculated. Eyes squinted behind the green domino. 

“Now!” 

Superboy let go of his partner. The Boy Wonder made a rolling landing on the sidewalk and ran all the way up to the front of the truck. 

“Stop right there!” he yelled, catching the driver’s attention. 

The truck came to a screeching halt as a burly looking man stuck his head out the window. Superboy landed beside Robin resoundingly, shaking that entire segment of the pavement.

The man gave them a toothy smile. “What can I get you boys?”

Superboy stepped forward with bravado, truly a replica of his father. 

“Two double fudge sundaes, please.”

[heyitsani]

Feel the Adrenaline Moving

Keep on Truckin’ AU Part 1

Word Count: 2494

Rating: Teen and Up

Warnings: Robincest (obviously even if they’re not siblings in this au), mentions of gunshot wound, mentions of past child abuse by a bad parent

Pairing: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd

Summary: Food Truck Owner!Jason and Police Officer!Dick have spent the last couple of months flirting with each other the few times a week Dick orders food from Jason's food truck. When they finally decide to go on a date and Dick stands him up, Jason is left wondering if he had been wrong about the other man all along.

Notes: This idea stemmed from the idea of a no capes AU where Jason owns a food truck with Artemis and Dick is a GPD officer who is obsessed with his food.  Dick and Tim were both adopted by Bruce and Damian is still his son through Talia, a failed relationship years prior where she never told him she was pregnant.  I have not introduced the other members of the batfam (though Babs is an exception because she’s mentioned as an ex and still friend in the current installment I’m working on), but have their introductions to the story already planned out.  

Jason is softer in this AU because while he has some childhood trauma, it’s not nearly as bad as his canonical trauma.  So I’ve been exploring the side of him that could have been, if you get what I mean.

Also, if you do not like the pairing then just move along.  Or block me.  I can and will block any rude or hateful comments.  I have both traditional and nontraditional siblings and don’t need to hear about how I don’t support adoptive families.  THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION.  Just because I write murder doesn’t mean I support murder.  Capisce?  Good.

You can also read this on AO3 here

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

“This is stupid.  How do we even know this is the right truck?”

“Don’t play stupid, Harper.  He was extremely specific.  Egg rolls made with things like bacon mac or Reubens.  Hot guy, dark hair, white streak in front, and arms to die for.  This is obviously him.”

Jason raised an eyebrow at the two arguing redheads, curious why they were looking for him and his truck.  Thankfully, the rush had passed and now it would just be the stragglers until they closed up shop for the day.

The pair turned to face the order window to find Jason there, arms folded on the counter and an amused smirk on his face.

“Jason?”

“So it would appear.  That was an oddly specific description.  Can I help you guys?”  He watched the pair exchange a look before the more rugged looking of the two stepped forward.

“We’re here because of Dick.”  And of all the scenarios running through his head, Dick had not been involved in any of them.

“I see,” Jason said sharply, smirk fading to a scowl.  “He has made his point perfectly clear without sending his harem of redheads to clarify.”

“What point?”

“Harem of redheads?”  But Jason just raised an eyebrow.

“Ah fuck, Wally.  Dick was right.”  The man looked to Wally and then back to Jason.  “Look, I’m Roy Harper and this is Wally West.  Dickie is our best friend and whatever point you think he’s making, he’s not.  Trust me.”

“He’s in the hospital.  Got shot in the chest on the job two weeks ago and just regained consciousness yesterday,” Wally relayed, and Jason had to grip the counter to keep upright.

“He…Is he going to be okay?”  And wow did he feel like an ass.

“Yeah.  Doctors said maybe two more days before he can go home.  It was bad there for a while but they kept him in the medically induced coma so he could heal without his usual bullshit of getting up too early.  But look,” Roy crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at Jason, “You need to come to Gotham General.  Once he was fully awake, he started freaking out about you.  Something about a date, missed calls and texts, and you hating him.”

“Jesus, Roy.  Dickie said to just tell him what happened.  Not to guilt the guy into a visit.”  Wally smacked Roy’s upper arm with the back of his hand.  “Though, yeah,” he turned back to Jason, “Dick would probably weep tears of joy if you showed up.  He was pretty wrecked.”

Jason wasn’t quite sure what to say, still working the fact that Dick had been shot and hadn’t just ditched him.  He had spent the last two weeks wondering what it was he had done.  He had gone over that last in-person interaction and the text message thread, wracking his brain for any kind of hint.  And the first week had tried to text and call but had been met with silence.  So, the past week he had convinced himself that Dick had just been fucking with him all along and never meant any of it.  Now he was hearing the other man had nearly died and Jason had been the ass who had thought the man was just ghosting him.

“Did we break him?”

“Shut it, West.  Look man, he’s in room 212 at GG.  Give us a last name to go with Jason and we’ll put you on the visitor’s list.”

“Visitor’s list?”

“Comes with being Bruce Wayne’s son.”  Jason gave Wally a weird look.

“His last name is Grayson…?”

“Yeah, but Bruce adopted him.  Took him in after-“ Roy covered Wally’s mouth with his hand and glared at the other man.

“Shut the fuck up, West,” Roy growled and hell if that didn’t just pique Jason’s interest.  “Now give us an order of whatever is Dickhead’s favorite so we can get a smile on his pathetic face.”  Jason stood frozen for a moment before waving away Roy’s credit card and hanging the closed sign.  He quickly whipped up an order of the bacon mac ‘n cheese rolls and an order of churros before bagging it all up.

“My last name is Todd.  Get me on the list,” Jason said as he stepped out of the truck and handed the bag of food over.  “I gotta clean this shit up because hazard and all that, but I’ll come by after I’m done.”

“Good,” was all Roy said as he grabbed the bag and turned to leave.

“Nice to meet you man!  See you around, hopefully,” Wally called out as Roy grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

Jason wasn’t sure what he had been expecting once he finally got to Dick’s room at the hospital, but a fancy and very private suite was not it.  And even less than that, a fifteen or sixteen-year-old kid fussing over Dick while Dick just smiled at the kid fondly. 

“Dames, stop,” Dick laughed softly, reaching out to stop the kid from messing with the pillows again.  “I’m good.  Just go meet Jon already.”

“Tt,” the kid responded before turning to grab his bag from the chair next to Dick’s bag.  When he tensed all over, Jason knew he had been spotted.  “Who the hell are you?  This is supposed to be a private room, not some free for all.”  Wow. 

“Jason,” Dick’s surprised voice cut in.  Jason looked from the kid to Dick and practically melted at the look on his face.  Surprised, yes, but the warmth was there and god if Jason didn’t want to just cross the room and press his lips to the other mans.

“Dick, I’m so glad you’re okay.”  He took two steps into the room before the kid was standing in front of him, almost the same height as him but much leaner compared to Jason’s bulk.  Raising a brow, Jason stared the kid down and waited. 

“Dami, stop.  This is Jason, my friend who owns the food truck.”  The kid didn’t move or acknowledge Dick’s words.  “Damian, knock it off.”  Authority slipped into Dick’s tone and Jason wanted to smirk in victory when Damian tensed but backed off.  “Jon is waiting,” Dick reminded him gently and with a grunt and one last glare sent to Jason, Damian was storming out of the room.

“Fun kid,” Jason commented, looking back toward the door before closing the rest of the space between him and Dick’s bedside.  “Jesus, Dick.  I almost dropped when Roy and Wally told me what happened.  I’m so fucking glad you’re okay.”

“They didn’t guilt you into coming here, did they?  They can be a bit much at the same time when you don’t know them.”  Shaking his head, Jason tugged the chair closer to the bed and sat down.  Without allowing himself to overthink it, he grabbed Dick’s hand in his and held it with both of his.  The smile he got in return was well worth it.

“Nah, they just told me what happened.  Said you’d like it if I stopped by and asked for my last name.”  Dick nodded and sunk a little deeper into the pillows piled up behind him.  “So, Damian is your…?”

“Oh.  Brother.  I know those idiots let slip that Bruce Wayne is my adoptive father, but Damian is Bruce’s only actual blood son.  Tim and I were both adopted after our parents died.”  Jason wanted to know more about that, but the look on Dick’s face told him he wasn’t quite ready to let him in on that darkness.

“He’s a very intense kid.  How old is he?”

“Sixteen going on sixty,” Dick laughed.  “He’s a good kid, despite the glare and protectiveness.  He didn’t have the easiest beginning.  B didn’t even know about him until he was eight.  Lesson learned: protection is never a guarantee.”  Jason laughed at that and shook his head.

“So, his mom was not a good parent?”

“The only person worse than her was her father.”  Dick’s face turned from amused to angry faster than Jason realized he could and he was surprised at the fire there.  “When LA Social Services called and told Bruce about Damian, he was…it was bad.”  Jason squeezed Dick’s hand and the other man gave him a thankful smile.  “Tim and I came from homes that knew love.  Damian, I don’t think he had ever known love of any kind until he came to Gotham.”

“Poor kid.”  Dick nodded sadly.  “But he seemed pretty fond of you in the few seconds before he noticed me.”

“Yeah,” Dick agreed, and the smile was back on his face.  “Bruce is a great man and a good father, but he’s not the most emotionally available man.  He struggled with Damian when he came to live with him.  Tim was a teenager already and I had moved out on my own, so B was pretty much on his own.  But then he called me one night and begged me to help because he didn’t know if he was just screwing up Damian more than he already was.”

Well, fuck.  How shitty was it that a man could tell he was not the best option for his own child’s mental and emotional health but that his older son was?  Jason couldn’t imagine feeling so poorly about himself and that said something because he didn’t like himself most days.

“I moved back home and took a sabbatical from work in order to help.  It was hard and there were plenty of times I would shut myself in my room and ask what the hell I was trying to accomplish, but Damian eventually improved.”  Letting out a sigh, Dick looked down at Jason with a hint of sadness.  “I think sometimes B wishes he hadn’t called me in.  He and Dami…they’re not close.  They respect each other, and B loves him like he loves Tim and me, but when Dami does something to be proud of it’s me who he comes to.”

“He views you as a father more than his actual father.”  Dick hummed and looked over toward the window, avoiding commenting on it.  “Is that a point of contention between you and Bruce?”

“Not really, at least not that he allows it to be.  But like I said, he’s not good with the emotions.  Its just, sometimes I can see regret so plainly written on his face when I’m talking to Dami.  It’s hard to miss sometimes.”

“And that makes you feel guilty.” A statement, not a question.

“Yeah…”  Dick’s voice is quiet, but Jason knows him well enough now to hear the regret.

“Have you talked to Damian about it before?”  Dick shook his head and looked back to Jason with a curious look.  “I was just wondering what he thought of it all.”

Jason can tell Dick is mulling over the idea of asking Damian about the fact that he viewed Dick as his dad and not Bruce, but he can also see the moment when Dick rejects the idea for now.  Not that Jason blames him.  The kid had been intense, and he had come across as smart, so part of him probably knew.  If it had been Jason in Damian’s place, he probably would have some resentment toward his actual father for basically pawning him off to his brother when it got to be too much.

“This was so not the conversation I thought we would have when I came,” Jason offered as an out of the current topic.  He could see the appreciation in Dick’s smile and the slight shift of his shoulders as he relaxed.

“What did you expect?”

“Profuse apologies because your redheads had made it seem like you were pretty worried that I hated you.”  Dick laughed hard, holding his middle where Jason assumed were some of the wounds that had caused this whole mess.

“They made it clear that you weren’t mad.  I figured I could save the apologies for when I wasn’t laid up in the hospital.”

“Fair enough.  Though,” Jason leaned forward and looked at Dick closely, “you don’t owe me any apologies.  This situation isn’t anywhere near being your fault.”

“Still upset I missed our date.  I had the whole thing planned.”

“Well, you can go through with that plan when you are back to full mobility.  Until then, I’d be happy to accommodate to your situation.”  Dick’s smile was practically blinding, and Jason squeezed his hand.  The intense desire to kiss the other man hit him suddenly but not too surprisingly.  “I’d really like to kiss you right now.”  The words came out before he could stop them.

“I’d really like you to kiss me,” Dick responded, smile growing even brighter.  And Jason wished he could figure out how he managed to be so beautiful.  But he would have to try and figure that out later.  For now, he just focused on releasing Dick’s hand and pressing a palm to his cheek as he leaned forward and pressed their mouths together.

And god if it didn’t feel like coming home after being gone for years.

Dick’s lips were slightly chapped from the dry, hospital air and his breath was a little stale but the whole thing was so utterly perfect that Jason could feel his chest tighten with the emotion.  Keeping in mind his still healing chest, Jason ended the kiss sooner than he would have liked.  Pulling back, he pressed one quick kiss to the corner of Dick’s mouth before pulling back even further to look at the other man.  What he found made him want to ignore the chest wound Dick had and just dive right back in.

Dark lashes fluttering against golden cheek bones and lips parted just slightly.  He hoped he never forgot this image.

“I can’t wait until this heart rate monitor won’t alert everyone to just how much you affect me,” Dick muttered, opening his eyes to reveal sapphire rings around black pupils blown wide with lust.

“Just focus on healing that chest wound.  Then I’ll happily let you figure out just how much of me you can and can’t handle.”

“Deal,” Dick whispered, pushing up to press their mouths together one last time before falling back into the pillows again. 

Jason chuckled and ran his fingers along Dick’s cheek bone before dropping back down into the chair he had previously been sitting in and letting his hands fall into his lap.

“So, Wally and Roy aren’t my only redhead friends and the fact that you called just the two of them a harem was so accurate I thought I had pulled my stitches from laughing so hard when they told me.”  Jason looked at him for a moment before laughing loudly and shaking his head.

“Well then the name is definitely sticking around.”

“I’ll be sure to warn the others.”

And Jason couldn’t help but chuckle as he reached for Dick’s hand again.

[eirenical]

F, I and N, I love h/c and I'm looking for some new writing ideas so I might try out something that you want ❤️💛💚💙💜

F: Care to share a favorite hurt/comfort fic?

OK, so this is becoming harder than I expected, so instead of a comprehensive list, I will just pull out a few favorites.  I know I’m leaving things out, but my brain is not quite up to the monumental task of listing all my favorite hurt/comfort fic tonight.  O_o;;;

then burn the ashes by @kvothes

Maybe they differ the most in their dispositions, in the way they react to injustice. Where Feuilly bruises, Enjolras bleeds.(Enjolras x Feuilly)

The writing and characterizations on this are just flat out gorgeous.  Enjolras texts Feuilly to ask him to look after his plant for the night.  Feuilly does so and finds himself still there when Enjolras returns in the morning, a bit shook up and bruised, but still somehow relieved to find Feuilly there.  Comfort and adorableness ensues.  ^_^

OK, I could probably just add: EVERYTHING EVER BY @takethewatch to this list and not be lying.  ;D  But a couple of specifics…

Carry On and the ensuing “fix-its/follow-ups”

Feuilly moves to a new city to start over. He plans to keep his head down this time, to work an 8 to 5 job and keep to himself and settle for getting by. His hopes are modest, reasonable: He hopes to keep up on his loan payments, to get along with his coworkers, to get through another Christmas alone.  

He doesn’t plan on getting sucked into a group of literacy activists who care way too much, on getting involved in trying to fix the world again, on stumbling into people who actually seem to care about him. He doesn’t plan on being happy.

I really, really need to do a re-read of this series.  It’s one of my favorite Feuilly stories EVER and a part of why is because of all the glorious hurt/comfort.  ^_^  But seriously, this is my favorite ever Amis Origin Story.  *_*

the best medicine 

Five times Joly took care of his friends, and one time they took care of him.

I am weak, ABSOLUTELY WEAK for competent!joly fic.  And here we have him taking care of everyone and then getting taken care of and just GOSH I LOVE JOLY.  *_*

A Passion for the Absoluteby @amarguerite

Courfeyrac gets severely injured and turns to Enjolras, high priest of the ideal that he is, for a little illumination. Courfeyrac enlightens Enjolras in return. Featuring terrible puns, romantic and Romantic excesses, and the Battle of Hernani.

Holy, oh my goodness, THIS FIC.  *falls over*  This is possibly my favorite ever canon era fic.  I don’t even have WORDS for how much flail I’m still in over this fic, even years later.  This is the fic that made me utterly and completely fall in love with Enjolras and Courfeyrac, as friends, as lovers, as EVERYTHING.  And there’s just SO. MUCH. BEAUTIFUL. HURT/COMFORT.  TT^TT  I LOVE IT SO.

The Peace of Wild Thingsby @ariadneslostthread

Series of vignettes featuring the Chief, the Guide and the Centre. And an obscene amount of h/c.

1. “Good.” Enjolras says with finality. “Now, if you will all excuse me, I’m going to lock myself in a darkened room for a few hours.”

2. Combeferre sighs as he looks from Courfeyrac to Enjolras and back, “I don’t feel entirely myself tonight, to be honest.” He smiles weakly.

3. It is a quiet, reserved sort of concern and love which entirely suits Enjolras so he is happy to share the sofa and pile of blankets with Courfeyrac, their legs tangled together like some sort of two headed, phlegm-ridden blanket monster, coughing and sniffling to his heart’s content without feeling self-conscious.

4. Courfeyrac. It isn’t until he’s retrieved his toothbrush from inside the bathroom cabinet that he catches sight of himself in the mirror, and lets out a horrified scream.

This is honestly one of my most self-indulgent favorite h/c fic.  It’s one of the ones I come back to over and over and over, especially if I’m in need of comfort, myself.  I just love these three so much and I love how deeply they care for each other in this fic and just EVERYTHING.  *_*

All I Have Known by @whimsical-in-the-brainpan

Grantaire’s motto has always been “it only hurts if you care.” Of course, Éponine knows that secretly he’s always cared. But it’s just easier for him to play the strawman than to actually let himself believe. It’s safer.

This is an epically long series of slow-burn e/R that focuses on Eponine and Grantaire’s amazingly co-dependent friendship and JFC, it’s still one of my favorites even though I’m not really on the e/R bandwagon anymore.  It just packs SUCH an emotional punch throughout the entire thing and I love it SO MUCH.  I really need to re-read it, too.  ;D  (Side note: I especially love the characterization of Cosette in this fic.  It’s one of my favorites, to this day. ^_^)

I Know How to Love Only When You’re Holding Meby @kingesstropolis

Courfeyrac and Enjolras grew up next door to each other, with their families so close they might as well be related at this point. So when Enjolras’s older sister gets engaged, Courfeyrac knows he’ll be attending the wedding–which isn’t a problem until it becomes clear he’s supposed to bring a significant other to the wedding. Not having dated anyone in the years since his last disastrous relationship and unable to tell his mother why he’s given up on romance, Courfeyrac does the only logical thing–he brings along his new fake boyfriend, Combeferre.

OK, so this one may not TECHNICALLY be h/c, but it involves a lot of angst and emotional h/c, so I SAY IT COUNTS.  Featuring an ace!Courfeyrac who has put himself through hell and back to get to that conclusion and faces an even steeper uphill battle to accept that he’s still worthy of love and that someone could love him.  And it’s just so lovely and painful and ^__________^.

@thecoffeetragedy always writes really good hurt/comfort, mostly on tumblr, like this really lovely little Combeferre & Courfeyrac ficlet she wrote for me, but you can find a bunch of them here on AO3, too.

I also have a ton of other h/c recs, like I’m sure I’m going to think of a million more that just HAVE TO BE on this list as soon as I post this, but THIS IS A GOOD START, HOPEFULLY, Y/Y?  I also have a ton of others in other fandoms, but I think you are Love, Simon AU nonny, so hopefully these were all relevant to your interests.  ^_^

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures.  I thoroughly enjoy all my pleasures, no shame attached.  ^_~  I absolutely love H/C and sick!fic of every flavor and variety, but I feel absolutely no guilt or shame about that whatsoever.  BRING IT ON.  *_*

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

And I just answered this one in the last ask, so a little c/p wouldn’t hurt…

Pfft.  There’s a part of me that really wishes someone would finish FYFM for me at this point, but not too seriously.  I’m too much of a control freak for that.  -.-;;;

As for stories I wish someone would WRITE for me?  *evil grin*  Anything in any of these tags:

dear yuletide author

dear miserable holidays author

dear not for primetime author

dear pr femslash ficathon writer

dear rare pair fest writer

dear trick or treat writer

HAVE AT.  SERIOUSLY.  *chinhands*  ^___________^

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG, NONNY.  Hopefully you see this.  ^_^

(Anyone else want to send some?  ^_^)

[mygoateecreation]

Top Rated Text To Speech Software For Mac?

The Best Free Text-to-Speech Software app downloads for Mac: Voice TextSpeech Pro Elements Toau SpeechMirror Speechissimo Listen Later. The Best Free Text-to-Speech Software app downloads for Mac. There are many free text to speech software available in the market. Most of these software work almost the same way – basically convert to speech. They differ in the type of documents that they support, and in ease of conversion from text to speech. If your OS of choice is Mac OS X, and all you need is basic but extremely solid text to speech (TTS) functionality, you don’t even have to bother with a third party software application, as the OS’ native Text to Speech feature has you covered.

Top Rated Text To Speech Software

Mac Text To Speech Online

Free Text To Speech Software

In years gone by, text to speech software was rather expensive, but these days there are excellent text to speech tools available free of charge. We're here to help you find the very best tools that will make converting written documents to audio files as easy as possible.

Text to speech software can be enormously helpful for anyone who's visually impaired, or has a condition like dyslexia that makes reading on screens tricky. It can also help overcome language barriers for people who read a language but don't speak it, or are in the process of learning.

Text to speech software is also ideal if you want to listen to a document while doing something else, if you find it easier to retain information you've heard, or if you want to sense-check something you've written.

Here's our pick of the best free text to speech software for reading either individual paragraphs or whole documents aloud.

1. Balabolka

Save text as a spoken audio file, with customizable voices

Lots of voices to choose from

There are a couple of ways to use Balabolka's free text to speech software: you can either copy and paste text into the program, or you can open a number of supported file formats (including DOC, PDF, and HTML) in the program directly. In terms of output you can use SAPI 4 complete with eight different voices to choose from, SAPI 5 with two, or the Microsoft Speech Platform if you download and install the necessary files. Whichever route you choose, you can adjust the speech, pitch and volume of playback to create custom voice.

In addition to reading words aloud, this free text to speech software can also save narrations as audio files in a range of formats including MP3 and WAV. For lengthy documents you can create bookmarks to make it easy to jump back to a specific location and there are excellent tools on hand to help you to customize the pronunciation of words to your liking.

With all these features to make life easier when reading text on a screen isn't an option, Balabolka is best free text to speech software around.

2. Natural Reader

Free text to speech software with its own web browser

Choice of interfaces

Natural Reader is a free text to speech tool that can be used in a couple of ways. The first option is to load documents into its library and have them read aloud from there. This is a neat way to manage multiple files, and the number of supported file types is impressive, including ebook formats. There's also OCR, which enables you to load up a photo or scan of text, and have it read to you.

The second option takes the form of a floating toolbar. In this mode, you can highlight text in any application and use the toolbar controls to start and customize text to speech. This means you can very easily use the feature in your web browser, word processor and a range of other programs. There's also a built-in browser to convert web content to speech more easily.

3. Panopretor Basic

Easy text to speech conversion, with WAV and MP3 output

Top Rated Text To Speech Software

Exports in WAV and MP3 formats

As the name suggests, Panopreter Basic delivers free text to speech conversion without frills. It accepts plain and rich text files, web pages and Microsoft Word documents as input, and exports the resulting sound in both WAV and MP3 format (the two files are saved in the same location, with the same name).

The default settings work well for quick tasks, but spend a little time exploring Panopreter Basic's Settings menu and you'll find options to change the language, destination of saved audio files, and set custom interface colors. The software can even play a piece of music once it's finished reading – a nice touch you won't find in other free text-to-speech software.

If you need something more advanced, a premium version of Panopreter is available for US$29.95 (about £20, AU$40). This edition offers several additional features including toolbars for Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, the ability to highlight the section of text currently being read, and extra voices.

4. WordTalk

An extension that adds text to speech to your word processor

Customizable voices

Developed by the University of Edinburgh, WordTalk is a toolbar add-on for Word that brings customizable text to speech to Microsoft Word. It works with all editions of Word and is accessible via the toolbar or ribbon, depending on which version you're using.

Mac Text To Speech Online

The toolbar itself is certainly not the most attractive you'll ever see, appearing to have been designed by a child. Nor are all of the buttons' functions very clear, but thankfully there's a help file on hand to help.

There's no getting away from the fact that WordTalk is fairly basic, but it does support SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 voices, and these can be tweaked to your liking. The ability to just read aloud individual words, sentences or paragraphs is a particularly nice touch. You also have the option of saving narrations, and there are a number of keyboard shortcuts that allow for quick and easy access to frequently used options.

5. Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader

A great choice for converting text from websites to speech

Good file format support

Despite its basic looks, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader has more to offer than you might first think. You can open numerous file formats directly in the program, or just copy and paste text.

Alternatively, as long as you have the program running and the relevant option enables, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can read aloud any text you copy to the clipboard – great if you want to convert words from websites to speech – as well as dialog boxes that pop up. Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can also convert text files to WAV format.

Unfortunately the selection of voices is limited, and the only settings you can customize are volume and speed unless you burrow deep into settings to fiddle with pronunciations. Additional voices are available for a US$25 fee (about £20, AU$30), which seems rather steep, holding it back from a higher place in our list.

Update (July 2018): Please refer to our full article on free speech to text softwareThe Best (Free) Speech-to-Text Software for WindowsThe Best (Free) Speech-to-Text Software for WindowsLooking for the best free Windows speech to text software? We compared Dragon Naturally Speaking with free alternatives from Google and Microsoft.Read More.

I’m writing lots, and frequently getting arm ache. Are there any free good speech to text software programs available to download? I just want to up notepad and start talking, and have my voice translated into text and typed into notepad.

Free Text To Speech Software

What is the best stt software then?

good

Windows 7 has speech recognition which is good.

Great Question. I am looking for the same thing but I don't have windows 7 or vista. Or any money.

Free text editor for mac free download - VideoPad Free Video Editor for Mac, Plain Text Editor, MovieMator Free Mac Video Editor, and many more programs. The Best Free Text Editors for Windows, Linux, and Mac Lori Kaufman April 28, 2012, 12:00pm EDT We all use text editors to take notes, save web addresses, write code, as well as other uses. Free text editors for mac os x. How can the answer be improved? The best free and paid text editor programs for Mac whether you're a web developer, programmer, technical writer, or anything in between! Text editors are an entirely different story. Text editors are much more helpful if you're editing code, creating web pages, doing text transformation or other things for which a word processor is just overkill.

just found this i hope it work as well as they say, [Broken Link Removed]

I'm no big Windoze fan but the speech to text in Windows is every bit as good aS Dragon as I use them both. In ANY speech to text you have to be aware of mic positioning and extraeous noise. Work on those two things and the text will take care of itself.

i found the speach recognition software on my computer, but i need the speech to text and now i can only find text to speech! someone can help?

Dragon naturally speaking software is the best one.

I'm a special ed teacher who needs a Speech to text software (hopefully free) for 12 students with great ideas but few or no writing skills (K-1).

I haven't read where anyone has mentioned Talk It Type It yet. It is very economical. I bought the basic software about 6 years ago. I paid aprox 20.00 for it. Much cheaper than Dragon. TITI does have higher priced editions but I only needed the basic. I had to train it to recognize my voice, but you will have to do that with any of them. Google them to ck them out. I haven't checked recently to see if the co. is still in business. I say that because I haven't heard any ads about the software like they had a few years back. It could be worth checking them out? I like mine.

Just started using the Windows Speech Recognition and it seems to work well, but needs a lot of patience in training the computer to recognise your voice. Wanted a free option to start with and didn't know I had this on my computer all this while.. Anyone know how I can access the dictionary so as to add a few words? Or does it work with the standard windows dictionary, so I edit my words there. Still getting used to it..thanks to all who recommended this!

Of that I'm not certain, but it may be a great question to ask on MUO Answers..

Text plus for mac. With textPlus for smartphones and tablets, get a FREE number and start texting and calling today! With textPlus for smartphones and tablets, get a FREE number and start texting and calling today! Home Features News. Free unlimited text. Calls for 2¢ / min. TextPlus for PC is a free video, voice & text messenger. Free download Text Plus for Computer/PC Windows 10/8.1/8/7 & Mac Laptop. Textplus for PC is now available and can be easily installed on a desktop PC/Laptop running Windows XP/7/8/8.1/10 and MacOS/OS X. Let’s learn a little bit about this all new app and then have a look on the installation method via BlueStacks or BlueStacks 2.

Fortunately, this is MakeUseOf Answers. :)

What Ryan means though is, please ask a new question! The above is many weeks old and it will take a while to get an answer. If you post a new question, however, you will receive an answer within hours.

Beware Dragon, works fine but when you upgrade from say XP to Vista or Vista to 7, the version of Dragon no longer works, and they want you to buy it again.

If you have a reasonably fast computer running Windows 7, the speech recognition which comes with windows works pretty well.

The latest stable version of Google Chrome 11 has been released sporting the new flat icon with improved security and with the speech-to-text support through HTML speech input API. The first official Google service to make use of this service is Google Translate.

Once after downloading and installing Chrome 11 you can head over to Google Translate page to check out Speech-to-text translation. Right now Google supports only English to other languages. If activated you will see a microphone icon turn blue when you hover over it and the Speak Now speech bubble appear. When you have finished speaking and Chrome 11 speech input API has successfully converted voice to text, Google Translate service steps in and translates language. Hit listen button to heart the translated word.

I'm in Australia and they didn't have the icon you described. Maybe this feature is only enabled in particular countries? Just a thought.

Make sure that you have the source language set to English.

Replying to Bill in reply to Robert Aussies have to be careful to recognize that Strine is not English, which is not spoken in Aussie except by English-Speaking visitors -- and that they tune to International (IE: American) English. <]:^)-<

and you, mr. or ms. anonymous, should be careful as well, since strine is as 'english' as 'american english', both a dirivative of the TRUE original British english, which when you come to think about it is closer to strine than it is american english.

Thanks, it works..

hi, can You help me? I need from my phone iPhone from voice recorder translate it to the text in word. It is somehow possible? And it will be perfect if is for free. Thank Ypou so much. I am not talent for technology so I do not know how to do it.

What about any speech to text for Windows XP?

Marylou above recommended Dragon Naturally Speaking. Did you try that one, yet?

It's a bit pricey and I haven't tried it yet

Try using a bit torrent site with peerblock installed and running.

stop going on about dragon

does not work very well on windows 7 home premium thats what i have and it didnt get one word right

that is for windows 7

Dictating textWhen you speak into the microphone, Windows Speech Recognition converts your spoken words into text that appears on your screen.To dictate textOpen Speech Recognition by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Windows Speech Recognition. Say 'start listening' or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.Open the program you want to use or select the text box you want to dictate text into.Say the text that you want dictate.

Might try [Broken Link Removed]. There is a zip file installer available at [Broken Link Removed]. The trial is fully functional, and I tried this on Windows 7. It seemed to act as a front end for MS Speech Recognition, but I am not sure. Worth a shot, though.

free good speech to text software programs available to download http://www.tazti.com/

Thanks for this info although, the term, 'if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is'. I checked out the website in your comment & found that it is free, but for only 15 days. After that, it's $29.95. which is a good price but, I'm afraid the term, 'you get what you pay for' may apply.

So Harry, you went on to check some free software, it wasn't free, and now you're complaining that it's too cheap. Did I sum it up correctly?

I use the Microsoft inbuilt version and it works fine. The trick is to slowly train the program to understand your voice and practice until it does. Accuracy for me is now about 85 to 95%. Its no good expecting speech to text software to work out of the box, although dragon is faster than the others to do that as I have used both. I will upgrade to Dragon 11 later but for now I am using Microsofts version and I write articles from it, so it does work.

Andy

People just don't seem to understand the English language anymore do they??? HUGE difference between 'text to speech' and 'speech to text' .. But if you're reading carefully and not just jumping in because you think you know what you're talking about, it's pretty easy to catch..

Did u guys just use google to find this website : hope it will help u ppl ;) http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm from : softlogik

you did not read carefully. they are looking for speech to text NOT text to speech. BIG difference.

i,m in a fix guys. i dont have a card yet and cant buy any? isnt there any freeware?

I have just switched on Windows Seven speech recognition and am trying it out for the first time. With a bit of juggling it seems to be going quite reasonably, but I can see that there is a pretty steep learning curve, especially as I have a quite pronounced lisp (and wasn't that fun to have to spell out).

Still for a first try it's not going too badly and I can see me having some fun playing with this to see if I can get anywhere near my not very impressive typing speed. One interesting thing that I have noticed in my short acquaintance with this program is that less common words seem to be recognized easier, a not unsurprising result all things considered. One thing, I am using the microphone built into my web cam, perhaps with a better quality microphone there would be fewer errors, although I'm not sure if a better microphone would be more susceptible to ambient sound. A secondary issue, and one that might not bother others, is I like to have music playing in the background whilst on my computer, either from my sound system or the computer itself, and that would have to go if I were to use speech recognition as more than an occasional thing. tempersfugue

I use a MacMice Microphone with Vista and it's great. I also use it with my favorite MacBook Pro and one of the newer versions of MacSpeech. The mike is a goosenecked usb item that works well up to 2 feet from my mouth. I can use headphones if I don't want music to interfere as ambient sound. Works with PC or Mac. I've been trying and using speech programs for years. The Vista one trains in about 7 minutes. What has to be done though is corrections, otherwise if it practices mistakes, it gets better at them. My son also uses Dragon Naturally Speaking on his XP and just likes it better every time he uses it. Mike is plug and play, look here: [Broken Link Removed]

I use Google Voice, a free service, when I want speech to text. I use it with my Android cell phone and call my own phone number to leave a message. Google does a good job of transcribing my voice message to text and emailing me the text to my Gmail account.

How to edit text in a pdf. I'm pretty sure Google Voice works with any phone. You don't need to own an Android phone to use it. The service is now out of beta and is open for anyone to use.

Hope this helps.

The built in speech recognition works reasonably well IF you have the right mic and sound card. Wrong mic or sound card and you won't get good results no matter what software you use.

Dragon is better than the built in software, particularly Dragon 10 & 11. I use it all the time. I blogged about it here: [Broken Link Removed]

Wade Hatler

if you have broadband, use [Broken Link Removed], just copy/paste your text and hit the play button. (it was mentioned in makeuseof directory)

the question is about free 'speech to text' software. not 'text to speech'. that's a whole different question. but a useful piece of software nevertheless.

SPEECH TO TEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPEECH TO TEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT TEXT TO SPEECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yo y u wearin a rag, n wat color is dat.. looks lik dark brown, i wanna say blacc.. u folk?

Irrelevant, Jonathan P.

Hi Massey Speech Project [Broken Links Removed]

possible it can do what you want, mostly freewares will not be good and sharewares like viavoice and dragon are little expensive

It also looks like Dragon is for 32 bit computers. mine's 64bit.

If I ever get a copy, i will be sure to post here and give my verdict, but still think the price is too steep.

this topic is best FREE SPEECH TO TEXT dragon is not free and all the other crap is not speech to text like what theyre looking for not just for commands but to write with

Mango - I'm in the same boat as you, I've been searching for not only a good speech to text program, but also decent API to use in some of my programming. But it appears that speech technology is one of those things that's a bit too advanced to get for free. I'm leaning toward Dragon as well, especially now that a couple people here say that it performs well. My own fear was buying it and then seeing that it doesn't perform any better than the free ones!

If you do buy a copy, let us know how you like it!

Tried Dragon and it did not work well at all

Dragon is great! Here is ver10 and $ 59.00 @ [Broken Link Removed] It is the last version but performed very well. Hope it helps.

@Eduardo I just found the inbuilt voice recognition software in windows 7, and tested it out. it is very poor quality, and even with a microphone, it's unable to get sentences right, so I'm afraid I'll have to pass on that one.

@ha14 I don't have microsoft office installed. i use notepad++ or openoffice.

@Aibek, dragon looks ok, but far too expensive, I was hoping for something completely free. have you had any experience using dragon?

I tried for a few days about 5 years ago. Back then I was mainly looking for a program that would let me use my PC using voice commands. Dragon did fairly well but required user to train it first. Because I wanted something quick I uninstalled it:-)

I heard lots of positive feedback about Dragon Naturally Speaking, http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm Mac os find file.

Unfortunately it's a bit pricey.

Hi

[Broken Link Removed]

If you are using Windows Vista or 7, you may have access to the built in voice recognition program. Look for it in the Star menu. Note: I think you have to be running Home Premium or superior to use this feature, though I'm not completely sure.

isnt this just for voice commands to mover around on your computer????we are looking for somethiing that takes your vocals and types them into text!!!!!!!!!

Windows 7 speech recognition does both - controls the computer, and takes dictation. Like most speech to text programs there is some learning to be done on your and the computer's part. If you want punctuation you'll need to say that (period/stop, comma, etc.) If you have a decent microphone then you are all set.

I guess almost all Vistas, Windows 7 and higher specification XPs have speech recognition. In Vista, go to control panel, then Ease of Access, Follow, Speech recognition and you are set.. The tutorial is easy and the best adive is do not get a cheap microphone.

more punctuation does not the answer change -_-

Sublime text 3 for mac. Sublime Text is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform. Sublime Text 3 may be downloaded from the Sublime Text 3 page. This is the recommended version of Sublime Text to use, and is available for Windows, OS X and Linux. This is the recommended version of Sublime Text to use, and is available for Windows, OS X and Linux.

dear Eduardo, lot of merit to you. I was looking for voice recognition software without knowing it is with me installed in computer. thank you

nanda

Btw y has no one noticed that there is no such thing as Windows superior

read better, he meant windows home premium or better!

Ha, that was funny.

I think he just meant home premium or better

there is actually windows superior. its just not a 'legal' copy of windows 7, the product has been modified to suit the user and the pc in usability and response times. my supervisor was talking about it in work when we were discussing upgrading the OS's in the office computers.

Hi, have experience using the Microsoft Speech to Text software built into Office XP/2002. First computer was Compaq AP200, PII400, 512MB PC100 SDRAM. Headset with boom mike turned out to be the problem. Changed it to Logitech USB set. Ran nicely on USB 1.1 at its rate. Worked amazingly better on the new OptiPlex 745 with its Pentium D dual core and 2 GB of specified RAM - 533 MHz. End of buzz and fuzz, beginning of virtually perfect translation of speech to text paragraph after paragraph. Customer agreed to invest her time and effort in training with her 19' LCD monitor. Good luck, dc

Thanks for sharing your experience, Dick!

[unshiusomnibus]

#1 - What's Up.

Welcome!

I'm starting this to hold myself accountable to progress in certain goals and projects I have over the next few years (until 2027); less thought, more action forward. Even if the initial results are subpar, there will at least be something on the table to mold into a better product in the future. I don't know how long this series will be kept up for; normally I have a track record of dropping all but a few things, so will see what happens. Some posts in the future may not be very clear due to missing context, but I will try to clear those up as I go. Expect an unstructured mess, I suppose.

There are 3 main projects, currently; all of them are games that operate off the same Unity codebase (named 2D Isometric Boilerplate for now), just with differing assets and gameplay styles. Because a large majority of the code is shared across all 3 projects, the amount of work needed to finish them all isn't as large as it could be; most of the effort is in the game design and asset creation.

Project #1: Yugu. A single-player RPG with a connected world and a tactical turn-based combat style. The story is planned to take place over 4 in-game years, following the adventurers of the 12 characters in the main cast (3 groups of 4) across around 10 story arcs. Driving motivation for this project is the story.

Project #2: GFW. An online game with a focus on PvE, exploration, and social interaction; gameplay is action combat style. Driving motivation for this project is nostalgia that I have for various games, most of them being MMOs.

Project #3: Science. A mobile idle/incremental game where the player customizes units with various equipment types, and slots them into one of many teams to collect more materials to power up the units and equipment. Driving motivation for this project is the world's aesthetic (luxury).

The driving motivation for each project is slightly different, I think the common motivating theme across all 3 would be the visuals and sound. Yugu was the original idea that I had in the summer of 2018 (that in itself sprouted off another idea for a tactical PvP game I had a few months prior), while GFW and Science were other ideas that I developed upon to not sidetrack the scope of Yugu.

If these 3 reach a completed state in the future, I have thoughts for other games I could try making, but for now anything outside of these will most likely stay as thoughts on paper (or text on a screen, I suppose).

Properly getting these done will most likely take years; if I can finish them before 2027 arrives, then I'll consider it a success. If they go well, then hopefully I'll be able to make more games with the revenue... but for now, I would rather not focus on money (althought it would definitely be required in the future for things like hiring and server upkeep), as it feels like I've definitely been burned every time in the past when I focus too much on it.

Aside from these projects, there are also some skills that I want to learn/get better at, in approximate order of personal importance:

Programming. It's important for me, but for the most part I feel as though I've already done the heavy lifting in terms of what's needed to know for programming; however, there's still things that I need to learn and explore, primarily around systems design, networking (reducing impact of lag in online games) and game engines (for the future).

Illustration. I've been trying to study this since April 2018 primarily to be able to illustrate for Yugu, but it still feels like there's a long way to go... when I originally started, I assumed that it would take at least 5 years to reach the technical proficiency that I wanted; I still think that's about accurate, but the types of roadblocks I've experienced while studying is something that I could speak for ages about. In short, I'd like to take it easy here and focus more on enjoying the process of drawing at this stage, rather than being overly self-critical and constantly trying to deliberately improve.

Music composing. I don't currently know this, but I'll be attempting to learn it over the next few years. I think that it'll be difficult to do just like illustration, but much like illustration as well, I like the emotional impact that music can have.

Creative writing, storytelling. For the sake of Yugu; there are more stories that I would like to tell across different time periods and locations in the universe of Yugu, and I would like for people to respect them as good stories, and to adore the characters and world.

Animation. Like illustration and music, I feel that it has high emotional impact (and a useful thing to know for making games).

3D modelling. Normally, I don't prefer 3D models over 2D sprites for a variety of reasons, but in the future I'd like to learn more about them to see if I can make something that I have no issues with, among other things. I think that knowing more about 3D is a useful skill to have if I'm getting into games, even if I don't end up leveraging it as much as other things on this list.

Language learning; specifically, JP, KR, CN, FR. This is mostly just grinding Anki decks, which is overall quite passive compared to mostly everything else on this list. A lot of the media that I consume is in these languages (except for FR, but that one is just a language that I would like to know, rather than any particular reason/material that I would want to read in that language). My goal is to at least pass the top of their proficiency tests (JLPT/TOPIK/HSK/TCF).

There's a lot on this list; I don't really know how far I'll be able to go in each specific category, but I would like to at least try before deciding to concede or not. I don't intend on trying to be a master of any of these for now, but rather to just become proficient enough in them to be able to "cruise" and slowly progress without too much effort required.

Every week (Sunday), I will post a weekly progress update for each one of these things:

2D Isometric Boilerplate codebase.

Character design visuals. Trying for at least one clearly defined character per week, but will most likely have scraps of multiple.

Area design visuals. Trying for at least one area per week, but will most likely have scraps of multiple.

Yugu story progress. Trying for at least one character fleshout (biography/backstory/role in story), and 1-6 acts (at least 1 act, aiming for 6 acts) of cutscenes/game flow.

I may occasionally do other posts about other things on the mind, or posts to clarify information described in previous progress reports if context was lacking. Normally I do write notes of thoughts or plans that I have so I don't forget them, even if I don't end up putting all of them to use; since there's also times where I think of something but can't remember fully what it was weeks or months later... the notes that I have are normally quite unsorted, so this could be an opportunity to properly categorize my thoughts and notes.

If I can find a good TTS voice, I may try uploading certain posts to YouTube as well (as it currently is, I prefer not talking myself). If I can think of proper incentives, will most likely set up a Patreon also.

[runningwitches]

Buddy and Ummi: The Beginning (Damian Wayne x Mother Figure! Reader)

Summary: As Dick Grayson’s girlfriend, you meet his new younger sibling, Damian Wayne. The young boy doesn’t know how to express that he needs a mother figure, but once you figure it out, you’re happy to be just that. 

Request?: Nope

Word Count: 1221

A/N: I had this idea where Dick’s Girlfriend becomes like a mom to Dami and maybe Tim? (which I know isn’t actually original but ?? Give me a break. I really wanted to write it) This is gonna be a series and I already have the first three and a half parts written out so ? Hopefully it’s good. I’m going to try to update it at least once a week for now? I can’t guarantee that I’ll stick to that though! Anyways, Hope you enjoy! If you want to be put on the taglist, send me a message or an ask, and i love hearing your feedback!

Series Masterlist

“So you’re telling me, you’re Nightwing, your dad is Batman, your younger brother is Red Hood, your other brother is Robin, and now there’s a small child who was raised and trained by assassins that will most likely want to kill me. And I’m meeting them all right now?”

“It’s not like you didn’t know about my nightly activities babe,” Dick stated, grabbing your hand.

“Yeah but it’s a little different now that one of your siblings could kill me and will probably want to.”

“We’ve known of Damian for six months and he’s only attacked Tim four times, Jason five, and hasn’t killed anyone since that one day. Plus, he’s starting to learn boundaries and you’re not a threat to him so he won’t have any reason to want to hurt you.”

You rolled your eyes but before your conversation could continue, the door opened and you were greeted by an older man who you presumed to be the butler Dick had told you about. “Master Dick, it’s wonderful to see you again, and this must be Miss (Y/N)? It’s so nice to meet you,” he greeted.

“Yes, hi, it’s nice to meet you too. You must be Alfred?”

“Yes, that’s me. Well, where are my manners, come on in, dinner is almost ready, but you can wait in here while I finish it up and go grab the rest of the family.” You thanked him and turned to your boyfriend who had made himself comfortable on the sofa.

As you sat down next to him, you made sure your legs were crossed and your posture was perfect, and you turned to look at Dick. “Stop being so nervous,” he said, sitting up and wrapping his arms around your waist. You leaned into him, abandoning your attempt at perfect posture and rested your head on his shoulder. “I don’t even understand why you’re so worried, they’re going to love you. And even if they don’t, I’ll still love you.”

You closed your eyes and sighed. You had been dating Dick for 10 months now and both of you were so happy together. You had date night every Friday, when Dick would get one of his brothers to cover his patrol, you had breakfast together every Sunday, and you spent every moment you weren’t together texting each other. He reassured you multiple times that his family would love you, and so when he was ready for you to meet them, and you hesitantly agreed, the family promised to set aside one night to have dinner with you. You were so nervous, and honestly, you had every right to be. Not only were you meeting your boyfriend’s family, which in of itself is already nerve wracking, you were also meeting Bruce Wayne, one of the richest men in Gotham (and that’s putting it lightly), Batman, the fucking vigilante who ran around saving people (who was the same person as Bruce Wayne which for some reason made it even more intimidating. How could someone be so refined and yet run around the city at night in a bat costume and kick crime’s ass?), Red Hood, the vigilante known for taking over gangs and drug trades and killing people (terrifying? definitely.), Robin, the third boy wonder (he wasn’t quite as intimidating as the others, but you heard he was pretty much a genius and you weren’t about to underestimate him), and a small child who was trained by assassins (what the fuck? He’s 10?), and your boyfriend was telling you not to be nervous. Is this a joke? Either way, you sucked it up because you loved him, pressed a kiss to his cheek, and plastered an uneasy smile on your face as the first member of his family entered the room.

Jason Todd, Dick’s younger brother who died and came back to life, and now loved to get on his siblings’ nerves. He stood in the doorway and ruffled his hair with his hand and just looked at you. Your boyfriend was the first to speak. “Jaybird, it’s so good to see you,” he said, standing up to give his brother a hug, “This is (Y/N), my girlfriend.” You gave a shy smile, still uneasy about what was to come, and said hello.

The next to enter the room was Tim. Tim Drake, he was, interesting. He had bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept in days, and according to what you had heard from Dick, he probably hadn’t. He didn’t even spare you a second glance when he said hello, moving directly from the living room to the dining room. “Don’t mind him,” Jason said, “He doesn’t like anybody who isn’t giving him coffee.” He followed that statement with a hearty laugh that showed he was joking, and sat down on the opposite side of Dick, who now had his arm around your shoulder and was smiling at his brother.

The last two to enter came in together, Bruce Wayne was practically dragging his son Damian, who had a hard scowl set on his face.

Dick stood up to say hello, and you followed suit, introducing yourself to the older man and shaking his hand. He insisted you call him Bruce instead of Mr. Wayne, and you turned your attention to the younger boy. Taking Dick’s advice and treating him as if he were just a person, and not a person who could easily kill you with his bare hands, you said “Hi, you must be Damian, it’s nice to meet you,” and you held your hand out for him to shake.

“Tt, I do not wish to shake hands with a harlot such as yourself.”

Slightly taken aback, you placed the hand you held out on your hip and looked down at the boy. A quick glance at Dick and Jason and a raised eyebrow at Bruce told you that this was commonplace behavior for the former assassin. You cleared your throat before asking, “Excuse me?”

“If I have learned anything from my time spent with this family, it is that women are often no good and only want to date people of our status for their money.”

You nodded along to his explanation before adding your input. “I can understand where that observation comes from,” you told him with a sideways glance at Bruce, “however, there are exceptions to every rule.” You bent down to his level to relay the next bit of information, “and I suggest you stop and think before throwing around terms like harlot and gold-digger,” and then added, “especially if that person is in a long-term relationship with your brother.”

“He’s not my brother,” the younger boy scoffed.

“You say that now, but you’ll regret it later.” You turned back to your boyfriend, and before things could get more awkward, Alfred came in, announcing that dinner was ready. You shot him your winning smile, the one that Dick fell in love with, and gave him a sincere “Thank you.”

You took two quick strides and grabbed your boyfriend’s hand, and before leading you into the dining room he pulled you closer and whispered in your ear, “you handled that very well.”

You muttered a response under your breath, “He’s probably going to kill me now.” Dick couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.  

[feelingsinwinterold]

Under the rain (I met you)

A lot of thanks to @arwenxs (which I still can’t tag why the fuck TT) for their help on this story and every story since I met them. I’m so grateful, so fucking grateful. You’re amazing and supportive and I’m so fucking lucky, I swear. Lots of love, dear! *hugs tightly*

Bucky expected a lot of things when he left his apartment for his favorite coffee shop. A warm, delicious coffee. Meeting his friend Steve there and bitching about pretty much anything and everything. Enjoying the warm, familiar atmosphere of the shop while wrapping his hands around a hot cup. Licking the chantilly off of it and smiling like the cat who got the cream. Because he fucking did, after all, and that chantilly would be the death of him.

However, Bucky wasn’t expecting the rain. It wasn’t a real problem though. He had his leather jacket on and a thick hoodie underneath with the hood to protect his hair. His jeans were a bit more of an issue but, well, not so much. After all: coffee, warmth, best friend. What else? Even if he was to suffer through sticky wet jeans, it wouldn’t be a problem as soon as he had the smell of coffee surrounding him.

Bucky had expected a lot of things, indeed. He hadn’t expected to come across the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

All around, everyone was rushing to the nearest shelter, holding bags, purses and umbrellas above their heads to protect themselves from the rain. Except for one person.

Standing still under the heavy rain battering the sidewalk, the man had his head tilted toward the sky, eyes closed and smiling the softest smile. The water was running down his face, catching on long eyelashes, dropping off of his nose and tracing the kind of cheekbones Bucky would gladly die for.

[Beware the read more ! <3]

He was soaked to the bone, clothes plastered against his small frame, hair dark and falling around his face, sticking to his skin. When someone pushed him out of the way, his eyes opened to reveal warm, shining brown. His smile never wavered, remaining as heartbreakingly soft as it had been a second before. He just looked after the rude man until he disappeared into the nearest shop.

Slender hands raised, carding thin fingers through drenched hair, pulling them out of the way, and the stranger turned his head, bright warm eyes now looking at Bucky. The smile just grew ever so slightly, one corner climbing higher than the other, creating a small, perfect dip and Bucky felt his heart plummet to his feet.

“Coffee,” Bucky blurted, voice raspy and wavering.

The stranger blinked, drops of water clinging to his unbelievably long eyelashes and Bucky wanted nothing more than to cry. The smile grew and the man tilted his head sideway, looking at Bucky from under his eyelashes, his smile turning mischievous. And ok, maybe this time it was Bucky’s blood running south that reacted first, quickly joined by his madly beating heart.

Clearing his throat, Bucky pointed at the coffee shop he had intended to go to, which was right behind the stranger, shining bright through the grey haze of the rain.

“What do you think about a coffee,” he asked, clarifying and smiling awkwardly. “You’re not wearing the warmest clothes and you’re soaked.”

“Smooth,” the man said with a laugh.

It didn’t take much from Bucky to convince him to come in the coffee shop to sit with him and enjoy the warmth. As soon as he could, keeping an eye on the soaked man, Bucky pulled out his phone and sent a text asking Steve to bring clothes with him.

In a matter of minutes, the man had his hands wrapped around a large cup of coffee, shaking like a leaf in the wind, and introduced himself has Tony.

Tony was the cutest, also the most handsome, Bucky couldn’t chose. It was hard to tell which one fitted Tony the most.

“So… what were you doing out there?” Bucky asked finally, once his own coffee was steaming in front of him, burning his palms and pushing warmth all the way up his arms.

“What, a guy can’t enjoy the rain? I thought you enjoyed the view.”

Tony was staring at him with half-hooded eyes, chin propped up on his hand. For a second, Bucky had to fight not to blurt  out the most embarrassing statement of his life. Like how Tony was the most beautiful man Bucky had ever known and how he wanted so badly for Tony to keep smiling at him.

At the moment, Tony’s smile was shy, or would have been if it wasn’t for the twinkle in his eyes.

“Sure did, doll,” Bucky drawled. “but I ain’t the one catching a hell of a cold for standing under the rain like a dumbass.”

That startled a laugh out of Tony. He straightened, smiling brightly, and took a careful sip of his coffee, his hands shaking too much for him to hold the cup for too long. Apparently, nothing could stop Tony from drinking his coffee though. The next thing Bucky knew, Tony was bent awkwardly forward until he could slurp coffee out of the cup without touching it.

Noticing Bucky’s stare, Tony shrugged and smiled playfully: “If I can’t bring the coffee to me, I wll bring myself to the coffee.”

Snorting, Bucky took off his hoodie and handed it to Tony.

“Here. Take off your t-shirt and put that on.”

“Not one to waste time, are you?” Tony replied with a roguish smile, his eyes slightly widening as he glanced at the offered thick and warm hoodie.

Tony winked at him as he took off his soaked sweater and pulled on Bucky’s hoodie, hopefully missing Bucky blushing like he hadn’t in years.

“You can’t blame me for preferring my date safe and, most importantly, alive.”

“So it’s a date?” Tony’s head popped out of the hoodie’s collar, disheveled and amused.

Bucky’s blush deepened when he heard the pleased purr Tony emitted as he wrapped himself in the remains of Bucky’s heat.

“Only until my friend Steve arrives, he’s bringing dry clothes,” Bucky forced himself to say, snapping out of his staring and satisfied by his steady voice.

Tony’s smile faltered for a second as he blinked at Bucky, looking confused and taken aback.

“But... “

Bucky shrugged: “I was meeting him here and I always come earlier to grab a table for us when he arrives. I just texted him to bring clothes. It’ll probably be too big for you but it’ll be dry. There’s a bathroom in here, you can change there and at least you won’t have to come back home looking like you took a dip.”

“Thanks, I guess. You’re not gonna murder me later, right? Or ask for favors and hunt me down like a madman?” Tony asked, squinting at him.

“What th-no!” Bucky caught himself at the last second but quickly changed his mind: “What the fuck, Tony. Just give the clothes back when you’re done with them, that’s fucking all. What the fuck?” he said again, disbelieving.

Tony shrugged, crossing his arms and shivering, tightening his hold on the hoodie, trying to keep the collar from falling off his shoulders. Tony wasn’t exactly frail and had a strong build, but he was no match for Bucky’s. It shouldn’t be as cute and endearing as it was but Bucky had trouble not cooing at him and cuddling him in his arms to keep him warm and safe.

“Just being careful.” Tony said, still peering suspiciously at him. “Just so you know, I have bodyguards and they’ll take you down if you try anything.”

Tony eyed Bucky, seemingly judging Bucky’s build and Bucky smirked knowingly as Tony’s certainty seemed to decrease.

“Yeah, can’t say they did a good job at keeping you safe so far,” Bucky drawled with a small sneer.

Tony blinked at him again, looking surprised of all things, and curled his hands back around his cup, sighing when the warmth spread through them.

“So… Just enjoying the rain, uh?” Bucky pressed with just a hint of humour.

Tony chuckled and was about to answer him when Steve walked through the door, hard to miss, and joined them in a few long quick strides, looking from Tony to Bucky. Steve handed the backpack to Tony, smiling and overly friendly:

“There’s clothes for you in there.”

Tony gaped at Steve for a handful of seconds before muttering a “thanks”, throwing a glance at Bucky and all but running to the bathroom. Steve watched him until Tony had disappeared behind the doors and turned to Bucky with a smirk:

“And I’m the sucker for a pretty face, hun?”

“Shut up,” Bucky mumbled with a frown.

“I’m gonna get a co-oh.” Steve’s low voice caused Bucky to look at him and raise an eyebrow: “I hope your stray kitten isn’t a thief because my wallet’s in the backpack he ran with.”

Bucky started giggling, it quickly morphed into a full laugh, stress bleeding out of him as he relaxed, smiling gleefully at his friend. The pain from Steve’s annoyed punch was totally worth it.

When Tony came back a few minutes later, wearing a rolled up sweatpants and Bucky’s hoodie despite the warm, dry sweater Steve must have brought too, Bucky felt his insides melt. Steve elbowed him, a knowing smile on his face, but Bucky couldn’t even bring himself to care.

He was going to woo Tony, one way or another.

[prophetparadox]

Birds of a Feather Chapter 1: Silver and Iron (A Prompto x OC Soulmate AU)

Prologue <-/AO3/-> Chapter 2

Word Count: 2,510

Hooray! I managed to get the chapter done before Episode Prompto came out (or before I was exposed to the spoilers because it’s out in Japan) and I became a wreck of emotions! 8D

So here’s our introduction to the lucky lady, Katia Ferrum! I needed to get her information out of the way, but she’ll be interacting with Prompto and the guys in no time! Speaking of, I’m not used to writing for all the Chocobros just yet, so hopefully I did a good job on them here! I’m sure I’ll figure it out by the end of this thing if nothing else! Also, get ready for me to put this girl through a lot, I have a tendency to make my OCs suffer, and Katia’s gonna go through that by the end of this. There’ll be a happy ending though, promise.

Tagging @themissimmortal @blindbae @cupnoodle-queen and @nifwrites because this is still their faults. Also @takuahijackedthetardis and @mini-moogle-queen. If anyone wants to be tagged in future updates, let me know and I’ll be happy to do so!

"What do you mean the boats aren't running?!"

"I'm sorry miss, but there are no boats running to Altissia at this time. There's nothing I can do about it."

"You've got to be kidding me. Any idea when they'll be running again? I need to get to Altissia and fast."

"No, I'm sorry. There aren't even any boats coming from Altissia right now."

"Great. Juuuuust great. Now what am I supposed to do?" The young woman sighed, taking a seat in the restaurant as she rested her arms and head on the table. Her entire plan was ruined. How was she supposed to make it to Altissia now?

Katia Ferrum had lived in the Crown City of Insomnia for as long as she could remember. She'd never even seen the world outside the city walls. In normal circumstances, coming to a place like Galdin Quay would be like a dream come true for her, but as things were she wished she could head back. She had no money (she didn't know what gil was until today and had stupidly left the city with currency she couldn't use), she had no way to get home unless she ran into another friendly driver who didn't mind her tagging along, and now her surprise plan was in pieces.

She tried to stop her thoughts, didn't want anxiety to get the best of her and make her start crying while she was out here in public, as she twirled a strand of her shoulder-length brown hair in her finger. She wasn't completely screwed, not yet. The boats were sure to be running again soon, what with the upcoming wedding and all, so she was bound to get out of here soon if she was just patient. However, she didn't have a place to stay until then. She had no camping gear, so the nearby heaven was useless. She had no gil, and even if she did there was no way she'd be able to gather enough to stay here at the hotel. Maybe she was screwed. She banged her head against the table. Could things possibly get any worse?

From the pocket of her jacket, she could hear her phone ring. She pulled it out, looking at the text notification. She smiled, opening up the messenger and reading the text.

Hey Kat! We're about to head out 2 Altissia! Why don't you come see us off? I'd like to see you before we have to go. :(

She giggled a little bit. Of course it was Prompto. She'd been best friends with him and Noctis since high school, they'd been an inseparable trio, always hanging out together and spending time at the arcade after school. These days, she didn't spend as much time with them as she used to. She'd started training to be in the Crownsguard shortly after graduation, leaving less time for her to spend with them. She always made sure she'd spend time with them, but her training and wishing to keep it a secret meant they spent less and less time together. It made her feel bad. Every time she had to text Prompto saying she couldn't make it, she'd feel a sinking feeling in her chest that just persisted. It made her feel lonely again.

At least all that work had paid off, as six months ago she was officially brought in to the Crowsguard, and she even had the clothes to show it. She couldn't help but wear it now, it was part of the surprise she had planned.

Speaking of the surprise, she read the text over again. They were leaving already? Katia groaned, now how would she make it to Altissia before they did? It'd only take them a few days to get here, and the guys would be able to spot her easily! She took a deep breath, first she had to respond to Prompto.

Sorry, I can't make it. I really wish I could, but I got other plans right now. TT^TT But don't worry! I'll be sure to hang out with you guys soon! Noct being a married man isn't about to keep him from being our friend! I'll see you guys soon though, I promise! I'll make it up to you then!

She hit the send button for the last text, she hated having to lie about it but it wasn't like she could walk back home to see them off. Especially since she'd planned on surprising them by beating them to Altissia, though that didn't look like an option any more. About a minute after she sent the text, she felt that sinking feeling again. The sadness, no, disappointment that she always felt in times like these. It wasn't even her fault this time though, she wasn't in the city at all. Oh well, like she said she'd make it up the next time she saw them.

She put her phone away and sighed. Back to the matter at hand then. She needed to figure out if her plan was still salvageable. Making it to Altissia before them wasn't possible now. It had taken her two days to get to Galdin Quay just by hitchhiking, and they were likely taking the car so it could take even less time depending on how many stops they'd need to make. Perhaps she could wait until they leave, head on the next boat, and just surprise them then? But there was still a matter of finding a place to stay. She'd heard about how daemons prowled the roads at night, and from what she'd heard she didn't want to risk running into one just yet. And since it wouldn't take long to get there, she needed to find some place else to stay for a while. Somewhere she wouldn't run into the guys and spoil the surprise.

She groaned, she forgot that she had no gil. Not only did she need a place to stay, she'd need to find a way to get food while she was out. She cursed herself for not planning this out better. There had to be some way she could earn money.

As if by luck, she managed to remember a poster she'd seen back near the docks. Something about Kenny Crow and hunting? Maybe that was the key! She could do a couple of hunts in the area, preferably ones that didn't appear at night, and earn herself some cash to stay somewhere! But she'd have to leave Galdin before it got dark out, guess it was back to hitchhiking. Plus this way she could keep her fighting skills sharp. Being a member of the Crownsguard wasn't easy work after all.

With a plan in her head, she stood up from the table and headed towards the counter, if she was gonna get some hunting done before nightfall, she better get started now before it got late. "Hey, what are the local bounties in this area?" she asked.

The young woman behind the counter handed her some flyers, each one with the visage of some nasty creature. Surely there was one among them that she could handle. Her eyes darted around each one, taking in the details and ruling out the ones she didn't need. Finally, she found one that seemed right up her alley. Some kind of crab-like creatures it seemed. And it paid a decent amount as well. "I'll take this one." she said, holding up the poster and showing it off. The woman smiled and wished her luck. Well, the hunt wasn't going to take care of itself, so she was off.

As she walked down the pier back to the shore, she quickly looked around to see if anyone was nearby. The coast was clear, lucky for her, so she pulled down the wristband she wore on her left arm and looked at the marking on her wrist. It was a chocobo feather, at least it looked like one to her, and she'd had it as long as she could remember. Her father had told her it was her soulmate marking, and that somewhere there was a person with the same marking on their right arm. Katia would be lying if she said she hadn't hoped about finding a soulmate, but she'd never seen anyone with the same mark and she couldn't let it be seen so easily. But the mark itself gave her comfort, she'd stare at it with her brown eyes and stroke it with her fingers. It made her feel warm and strangely gave her a confidence boost. She never questioned it though, she just let it do the trick, hoping that her soulmate was a good person.

She quickly put the wristband back on, hoping that no one saw anything, and ran down the pier to begin her first hunt.

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

"So are you just gonna keep staring at your phone until it dies or what?"

Prompto nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden sound of Gladio's voice behind him. He'd been so lost in thought that he hadn't realized the muscular man was standing behind him. He scrambled to put away his phone as Gladio laughed at his antics. "Could you not scare me like that?" he asked, trying to hide the crack in his voice.

"It's hard not to when you space out like that," Gladio said, calming down his laughter. "So what's got you so mesmerized anyway? Waiting for a call from Cindy?"

"I doubt it," Noctis piped up. "If I know Prompto, he's still looking at that text he got from Kat yesterday." The prince smirked, as if he knew something no one else did. Prompto hated it when he did that, but he was right.

After telling him she wouldn't be able to see them off, and the disappointment had set in, he'd gotten another one from her asking to let her know when they'd made it to Altissia and to send photos. He'd told her it wouldn't be a problem, and hadn't heard a word from her since. It'd been a day now, the four of them having made it to Hammerhead and getting the car fixed up by Cid, and she hadn't said anything to him since then. It was strange that she was so quiet, she'd usually send him at least one message a day to see how he was doing, but the lack of communication was starting to worry him.

"So what if I am?" he asked. "Aren't I allowed to miss my other best friend, Noct?"

"You are, but the amount of times you've stared at your phone since the car got fixed is a little strange if you ask me." Noctis said, that smirk never leaving his face.

"I just wish she'd been there to see us off," Prompto admitted. "I mean, I've barely seen her these days, it would've been nice for her to be there when we left."

"She said she was preoccupied, there's nothing more that could be done," Ignis finally joined in. "I'm certain that Katia wanted to be there."

"Knowing her, she'd probably have begged to come with us," Noctis said. "She sounded excited about the wedding after all."

The idea popped into Prompto's head. Katia being there with them sounded even better. Having someone like her around would've made this trip even more fun. Though he wasn't sure if she'd be able to deal with the battles they'd gotten in recently. The Dualhorn they'd fought that morning hadn't been easy after all. Would she be able to have kept up with all of them? He didn't want to think about something like that. "You got that right." he said, trying to keep up his cheery facade. No reason for the others to know just how much he was missing her, something that he didn't even really understand. They were just best friends, so why did he feel so sad about all this?

"Besides, you got enough girl problems anyway. What with Cindy and all." Gladio said. Prompto looked away. The female mechanic of Hammerhead was certainly a sight to behold. She was beautiful, smart, just the kind of woman Prompto would want to be with. She didn't have the same mark as him, but he didn't care. But as much as he wanted to go after her, his self-doubts and fears got to him again. Cindy probably didn't want a guy like him, she was probably out of his league. And then there was the small pain he felt in his heart. He didn't get it, he thought falling in love would feel good, not painful. Maybe he had more to learn about love than he thought.

"It will take us some time before we arrive at Galdin Quay," Ignis said, changing the topic. "And it'll be dark soon. I suggest we stay at this motel for the night, so we may avoid any daemons that may be prowling about."

"Well, it's up to Noct." Gladio said, nudging the prince's arm with his elbow.

As the other three discussed what their next move was, Prompto felt a slight pain in his arm. It wasn't anything serious, but it was easily noticeable since nothing had caused this. He'd been feeling these minor mystery pains since yesterday. He tried to hide it, but to no luck as Ignis noticed him grab his arm. "Another mysterious pain in your arm, Prompto?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's another one." he sighed.

"It would seem your soulmate, whoever they are, has been rather reckless lately. Though considering the scuffles we got into yesterday and this morning, I'm sure that they're feeling the same way."

"What makes you so sure it's my soulmate bond?" Prompto asked.

Ignis pushed his glasses back up. "I'm no stranger to these pains myself, you know," he explained. "And considering neither you or I have wounds where these pricks of pain are, it could only be our soulmates getting into some kind of dangerous behavior."

"So it's settled then, we're staying here at the motel?" Gladio asked.

"No doubt about it," Noctis said. "If for no other reason than to keep Prompto from complaining about all the pain his soulmate seems to be putting him through." The smirk had returned.

"Cut it out, Noct!" Prompto said. Though he wouldn't mind staying in a nice warm bed tonight, he didn't want to feel like he was a burden. Without another word, he walked over to The Crow's Nest, his thoughts felt like they were all over the place and he needed a bite to eat.

The others followed him, deciding getting some food was a good idea. Noctis stayed in the back, the smirk gone as he sighed. Just what was that girl getting into? He hoped it was nothing too serious. He had enough on his hands as it was. Plus she had her reasons for doing whatever it was. He just hoped it wasn't going to kill her in the process. The last thing he needed was Prompto going through something like that.

[jo-the-schmo]

Breaking... Ch.17

Masterlist (will update for needed parts soon)

Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

A/N: Bet you weren’t expecting this so soon were ya? Aren’t I just full of surprises? I never sleep!!!!! Also I tried something new with the tags so hopefully it works!! I regret nothing

Wordcount: 2016 (neat)

Warnings: Fluff, cute, then blood

Tags!: @iamnotthrowingawaymyshit @renae-writes @deltablue202 @literally-melonkitty@meunicorn @favouritefighting-frenchman @demi-godamit @gum-and-chips@sweaterkitty-fluff@pinkyiger7@littlemissshortcakes@msageofenlightenment@unprofessional-inhumanbeing@fandom-panda-221@hummusandchips @spoopy-piineapple@ashwolfcub@myself-and-the-madman @sweet-fate@superwholockbooknerd526@frozengal2013@lmaodedhaha@itsmikayblr@sarmar29 @arya-durin-77 @phantastic-fandoms@hoshihime98@shinigamired @martapetrovic @robotic-space@iamnotthrowingawaymyshit2(lol) @asprinkleofmermaids @pinkyiger7(I’m tagging you twice my friend!) @satellitesuga @rose-coloured-nihilism  @okie-dokie-artichokeme (I love your URL omg)

 if anyone else wants to be tagged just send me an ask!

Breaking Agreements

Johnny tugged at the bottom of your dress, trying to get your attention.

“Mama says we should give your present now, I’ll go get my drum.” It took you a moment to realize what you were talking about. Aww I did say this would be better with a drum! Angie interlocked your arms once more.

“Come on everyone! TT, Mama and I have something to you in the music room!” AJ and Jaime got up off the ground and ran toward the hall where Eliza was already heading. You saw Johnny slowly going down the stairs, his little snare and sticks in hand, being careful not to drop anything. Wow, he got that fast! He must be excited! Angie pulled on your arm. “Let’s go TT!” Alex stood up and patted his daughter on the head.

“I’ll go with you, sunshine girl, follow me.” Alex winked at Philip who was standing behind you. What was that about?

“Okay, Daddy!” Angie let go of your arm, her and Alex walked off to the hallway, well actually, Angie skipped but not the point. You felt something touch your waist, the same thing press against your back lightly.

“Have you already forgotten about me, ma petite chou?” Philip whispered in your ear. You jumped slightly, turned yourself around, your face heating up all over again.

“Why you have to go and call me a cabbage like that?” You blurted out, he chuckled softly.

“You are quite radiant when you’re flustered, my star.” He smiled. “I have a gift for you as well, but you will have to find it after I see yours.” He turned you back around, keeping his hand on your waist while leading you forward.

“I have to find it? What does that even mean?” You asked with intrigue.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” He spoke softly. As you finished squealing internally you approached the music room door. The two of you walked in together, everyone already ready and waiting. Eliza was seated at the piano, Angie and Johnny were standing on opposite sides of her. Johnny already had the strap on his drum secured, the drum leaning on his side. AJ, Jamie and Alex were sitting on the small couch closest to the piano.

“Took you two long enough!” AJ exclaimed.

“What’s going on anyway?” Alexander asked.

“We just have something very special to show you all!” Eliza smiled.

“I’ll go stand by father.” Philip informed. You were suddenly struck with an idea, as he walked away you snatched his hat off his head once more. He turned around with surprise. “Do you have a thing with stealing my hats now?” He asked and you smiled deviously.

“I need it for something, I am about to do something great!” You laid the hat on top of your head and made it point up slightly. I shall now become George Washington; I’m going to make Chris Jackson proud! You trotted over to the middle of the room while Philip walked past you and sat next to Alex. You cleared your throat. “Is everyone ready?” You asked and were met with several yeses. Eliza got ready on the piano.

“Alright Angie, John; Un…deux…trois!” She stared with the first chord and you began your song.

“I was still older than you all now, when I gave myself a command. I may have led myself straight into a massacre, I have witnessed death first hand. I made every mistake and felt the shame rise in me. And even now I lie awake knowing history has its eyes on me.”

(Whoa…whoa, whoa…) Angie and Johnny sang along, Johnny tapping his drum lightly.

“History has its eyes on me���” You stepped slowly over to the couch, stopping in front of it and putting one arm behind your back. “Let me tell you what I wish I’d known, now that I know love and dream of glory. You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story!” You patted Jamie and AJ on the head, smiled at Alex and stepped toward Philip. “I know that we can win, I know that greatness lies in you! Because you’ve taught me from here on in, history has its eyes on you!”

(History has its eyes on you!) They held out. Everyone began to clap and Eliza turned her gaze toward you.

“That was our best run yet!” She exclaimed. You looked down at Philip.

“What’d you think, Sunshine?” He stared up at you, silent for a moment. “Philly?”

“I think…you have the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard in my entire life! And you look better in my hat than I do! And I look really good in that hat, so.” He stood up, brought his hands to both sides of your face, pushing the hair out of the way. His fingers grazed your cheeks and made your skin tingle. You saw his eyes dart from your right eyes, to your left and then down to your lips. Oh my God, is he going to…? OH MY GOD THIS IS HAPPENING! What do I do?! Do I lean in? Do I stay still?! His eyes kept moving in the triangle pattern as his face came a little closer to yours. Before you could actually do anything, you felt the hat on your head be lifted up. You looked to the side to see Angie placing it on top of her own head, it was far too big on her but the feather fit her style more than Philip’s.

“Oh, look at me! I’m Philip Hamilton! After all these years, I have found my beloved! Mon amour! Ma petite chou!” She put her hands on her cheeks and made teasing kissing noises. FUCKING SHIT! ANGIE I LOVE YOU BUT NOW WAS NOT THE TIME! “You know…I quite like this hat. It makes me look like a leader!” She put her hands on her hips proudly. She tipped the hat up and skipped away, sticking her tongue out as she went. Everyone else just sort of collectively looked at each other and got up.

“Well! Time to get some tea!” Alex clapped, almost signaling for everyone to leave, and they did, leaving you and Philip alone to stew in the awkward remnants of what just happened. Both of you simultaneously took a step back from each other, red faced and mumbling. It was terrible.

“Uh, so yeah um, that uh…”

“Yeah, um…so what did you say about needing to find a present earlier?” You laughed nervously, trying to change the topic. Make this torture end!

“Right! That! Well, you’ll have to find it! I’ll tell you which room it’s in but that’s the only hint you’ll get okay?” You nodded and followed him as he walked out of the room, into the hall. “It’s in the study, let’s go!” The two of you quickly made your way over to the study doors and let yourselves inside. If I were Philip, where would I hide a present? Considering you were the smarty pants that you were, it didn’t take much effort for you to figure it’s in Alex’s immense Shakespeare collection. You went over and examined the shelves scrupulously. All’s Well Ends Well, As You Like It, Anthony and Cleopatra, Cornelius, Hamlet, King John, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Winter’s Tale- You stopped. Wait a second. You took a second look and found what made you take a double take. Two copies of Midsummer Night’s dream. The one you recognized had gold text but the new one was more silver looking. You picked it off the shelf. “Damn, you found that fast, Star!” Philip exclaimed, leaning against the bookshelf.

“You…you got me my favorite…” You whispered in disbelief.

“Yes, I thought it must be a bit annoying not being able to take it over to your room… I was buying books for school, saw this and knew you had to have it…” He scratched restlessly. “B-But that’s not all! There’s a page marked in there! Well a few actually…Go ahead and open it!” You opened the cover and the pages bump up slightly, you flipped to where this bump ended and saw something. A pressed, slightly discolored pick of baby’s breath. You looked up at Philip.

“Is…is this…?”

“The same flower from our night in the garden? Yes, it is. But that’s not the best part, look at what I marked.” He instructed, you looked back down at the page, moving the wildflower out of the way.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover and the poet

Are of imagination all compact:

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,

That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

You looked back up at Philip, slightly confused. “A lover and a madmen are quite similar, what changes them is how they are written. You have faced many madmen, and they will be written as such. However, I will never be your madman. I will write and fight and shape what I am, if it would make you smile. Someday, you will blow us all away, because you blow me away every moment I’m with you.” You look up and see Philip’s face and he is helpless. And his eyes are just helpless. There were so many things you wanted to say, so many things you wanted to do in that moment… You felt a ping rush through your head. No…Not now! Not again! Your head was aching and you felt your pupils dilate over and over again. You felt your hands shaking and looked down at the holding the book. The pages were now old and withered, no longer brand new but the baby’s breath looked like it had just been plucked from the garden. Looking past the book you saw grass on the ground, the wood flooring completely gone. You dropped the book and raised your gaze toward Philip. The sight was familiar but that didn’t make it any less horrifying. There was a pistol in his hand, blood all over his arms and right side, his stare looked blank.

“Phil…ip…s-sunshi….ne” You tried to yell, to cry out, to do something but the blood in your veins was boiling and it made your head feel like it was burning alive.

“I held my head up high…” He said with a gaunt expression. There was a voice, you didn’t recognize it but it sounded masculine.

“Madman, madman, madman, madman, madman, madman, madman. Lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover. Change, change, change, change, change, change, change.” It kept bouncing around in your head, it pushed through your skull and back in again.

“But even before we got to ten…” Philip whispered again. You looked past him and saw figures in black, you couldn’t identify them because they were running back and forth but you could hear the voices. You always did.

“Where is my son?”

“Who did this? Alexander did you know?”

“Stop! You won’t take me! Philip! I need you! Help me!”

“Sept, sept, sept, sept, sept, sept, sept…” Philip mulled.

“Is he alive?”

A blood curdling scream.

“I am not traumatized! I love her! RoseMary! Save me!”

You felt something wet drip down your face and felt yourself lose sight from your right eye, then your left. In this black abyss, it is the only place you’re truly safe, a place of in between. There was nothing there, no one could hurt you, no one could harm those you loved. As long as you were in that Purgatory, nothing wrong could be done. But you always had to wake up.

[shitfics]

One of These Nights (4/?); jongyu; pg

Jinki knows that he’s gay. What he doesn’t know is how to handle a crush on someone as entwined in the music industry as he is.

part 1 - part 2 - part 3

and here’s part 4! ^^ i’ll try and get this whole fic up on ao3 sometime soon as well. this part goes through hello era, up to swc 1, and ends with jongyu having to say some goodbyes for a while since shinee is beginning their japanese debut (2011).

also, fun note maybe: i imagine that in this au, jong got the inspiration for one of his early songs from the last scene -- i kinda wonder if it’s obvious which one, but hopefully y’all can enjoy it! there might be a bigger gap between this part and the next than there was between 3 and 4, because i haven’t started editing the next bit yet. ^^; but i’ll try to keep it MUCH shorter than the gap between 2 and 3 was, lmao.

***

Jinki can’t decide if he has the best luck in the world, or the worst.

The next time he goes to see Jonghyun, it's ten past ten at night, and Jonghyun isn't answering his door. Jinki sends another text message and stretches out his back, opening up a random phone game and prepares himself for a wait.

Two levels later, when the door finally opens, Jinki looks up from his phone, eyes going wide. His greeting is stuck in his throat, somewhere between the realization that Jonghyun is shirtless and the realization Jonghyun is wet.

"Sorry, I haven't finished getting ready yet," Jonghyun smiles, inviting Jinki inside. "I found a good melody, and I got caught up writing, and then I was humming the song to myself in the shower, and--"

"It's fine, hyung, I’m used to it." Jinki steps past him quickly. His nerves prickle at the extra warmth radiating off of Jonghyun's bare skin from the shower. He's always wondered if he'd catch Jonghyun half undressed, considering he’s usually behind schedule, but he hadn't expected it to be today -- or for him to be so far behind that he was only wearing a towel.

In an attempt to imitate his usual actions, Jinki takes a seat on the couch and leans over the coffee table, pretending to be interested in the new stack of books -- anything to avoid looking up.  "How, uh -- how long do you think till you're ready?"

"Not long." Jonghyun trots in front of him, foiling Jinki’s plan to avoid looking at him, and glances down at the books. "Do you want to borrow one of these?"

Jinki grins stiffly. "No thanks. I can a probably read a few while you finish getting ready."

"I won't be that long." Jonghyun rolls his eyes and throws the towel from his hands over his head. "I just have to dry my hair and get dressed."

Jinki's eyes snap to the movement as if pulled by a string, face heating at every flex of Jonghyun's torso as he rubs at his hair. He tries to keep his attention up, on Jonghyun's face, or the little mole that rests between his collarbones, but the trail of dark hair leading from Jonghyun's stomach to the towel around his hips keeps pulling it downwards.

Jinki clears his throat and forces himself to look up, only to flush brightly when his eyes meet Jonghyun’s. He jumps for the first excuse he can think of for staring. "How is it that you work out more than I do, when I'm an idol?"

Jonghyun laughs, a pleased smile on his lips. "You're dancing all the time, you don't need to."

"Yeah, but that's cardio. You obviously lift, which I haven't really done much." Jinki sighs. "And Minho's convinced they'll want us to go shirtless for our next concept. I don't think I'll do it, but I'll still probably show my arms and shoulders more..."

"Hm." Jonghyun's eyes scan down Jinki's body. "You already have a good build right now."

Jinki flushes. "You think so?"

"Yeah," Jonghyun says. "I mean, if you're worried, you could always come work out with me -- I've been skipping way too many days to hang out with you since your rehearsals have started slowing down."

Jinki laughs. "I’ll think about it -- I’m just not sure I’d want to spend the time. I enjoy doing nothing too much."

"It's nice, isn't it?" Jonghyun grins. "Let me get dressed so we can get to drinking and doing nothing."

Jonghyun clutches his towel to keep it from falling as he walks back towards his room. Before he slips inside, he gestures for Jinki to follow, apparently not wanting to end their conversation. Jinki stops, hesitating at the threshold of the door until laughs. "You can come in, I’ll be dressing in the bathroom. There's nothing in here but my clothes and a bed."

That's the problem, Jinki thinks when he steps inside. My imagination has been bad enough without the details.

Even with that in mind, Jinki can’t help but look around the room while Jonghyun files through his closet. At least it keeps him from staring at Jonghyun while he’s shirtless.

The walls of Jonghyun’s room are dark, and the furniture is modern, the same simple mix of white and black that Jonghyun had used to decorate the rest of his apartment. An assortment of candles rests along the shaded window, with a select few placed on a small bedside table and the small set of dressers opposite the bed. If it were anyone else's room, Jinki might snicker at the deliberate sensuousness of the decorations, but in Jonghyun's, it just makes him smile as he imagines Jonghyun humming to himself as he pens new lyrics in the candlelight.

"Sorry again for making you wait," Jonghyun says, interrupting the image when he turns away from the closet back to Jinki. He throws a pair of jeans and a shirt over his shoulder and retreats to the bathroom. "I'll be right back, just have to put clothes on."

"Sure," Jinki says, throat tight as he watches Jonghyun leave.

The door clicks behind him, and he looks away from it quickly, unable to face it when he knows Jonghyun would be naked behind it.

He turns back to the rest of the bedroom. With Jonghyun no longer the center of his attention, Jinki's focus automatically shifts to the single point of color in the room, a large but simply composed photo resting on the mantle above the faux fireplace. The sunset shade of orange that predominates the image adds to the relaxing atmosphere of the room, but the subject of the photograph makes Jinki's heart race.  

The picture is nearly close enough for Jinki to touch, but he has to do a double take of the image to believe what he sees -- the frame is predominated by the bare back of a shirtless man, resting on his elbow as he looks at what appears to be another topless man opposite him. After looking over his shoulder to make sure Jonghyun hasn't left the bathroom yet, Jinki steps closer to the picture and squints at the corner to read what he assumes to be a title: boys.

Jinki swallows. His English isn't the best, but he can understand that. His thoughts race ahead of him. Did the picture mean something? There’s hoping, and there’s being desperate, but...an image like that isn’t the kind of photograph he would expect to find as a centerpiece in a straight man's bedroom.

Jinki jumps away from the piece when the bathroom door swings open, turning quickly to Jonghyun and putting on an innocent smile -- he hopes he doesn't look guilty.

Jonghyun grins back at him. "I told you I wouldn't take long, but I decided to wear my contacts today, and that was a bit of a struggle. You all ready to go?"

Jinki nods absently, still preoccupied with his thoughts.

"Let's go then, I don't want to miss getting a good table." Jonghyun walks backwards toward the door, pointing at Jinki in challenge. "I'm going to beat you at billiards tonight, you should watch out."

Jinki shoves Jonghyun's shoulder, sending him stumbling. Falling back into their usual teasing should keep from thinking any longer about the photograph on the mantle. But when Jonghyun asks him to shut the door behind him, he steals one last glance, pausing to take imprint the bare shoulders of the boys into his memory.

It doesn’t feel real. He can't shake the feeling that tomorrow he'll doubt he saw it at all.

***

realjonghyun85: Hello~ Hello~

majingki: ...Hyung

majingki: How long are you going to use that joke TT

realjonghyun85: Until you make me stop!!

majingki: Well, I couldn't do that to you he he

majingki: I'm too happy you like the song that much ^^

majingki: You've played it a few times on Blue Night already, right?

realjonghyun85: Of course I've played it!!

realjonghyun85: My songs are still on that album too...

realjonghyun85: Promoting it benefits us both he he

majingki: You're so greedy hyung

realjonghyun85: Only because I want to buy you meals~

realjonghyun85: But you know I'm playing

majingki: I can always tell ^^

majingki: How are you hyung?

majingki: I've barely gotten to talk to you since our repackage promotions started TT

majingki: I miss you

realjonghyun85: I’m good

realjonghyun85: And I've missed you too Jinki-yah

realjonghyun85: But you’re nearly done, right?

realjonghyun85: So we can meet more? ^^

majingki: Yeah we’re nearly done with our repackage

majingki: But I'm actually still kind of busy TT

realjonghyun85: Oh?

majingki: We're preparing something big...

majingki: I'm really excited for it

reajonghyun85: Something big?

realjonghyun85: Why are you being so vague...

realjonghyun85: Are you going to tell me what it is???

majingki: Hm...

majingki: Not sure

realjonghyun85: Jinki-yah TT

realjonghyun85: Please?

majingki: No ^^

realjonghyun85: You can't just leave me hanging like that TT

realjonghyun85: You have to tell me!

majingki: Of course I'll tell you eventually

majingki: But I'd rather tell you in person

majingki: I want to see your face when I do~

realjonghyun85: Hmph, fine TT

realjonghyun85: I'll wait till then

realjonghyun85: But I'm not buying you anything until you tell me what it is!

majingki: Really hyung ... you would blackmail me like that? TT

realjonghyun85: It's not blackmail, it's incentive

realjonghyun85: So you should tell me whatever it is the first time we meet again ^^

realjonghyun85: You want something delicious?

realjonghyun85: You're hungry after your promotions, right? How about steak?

majingki: Fine hyung ... I’ll tell you right away when I see you

majingki: Let's meet soon

majingki: I really do want to tell you ^^

***

"You’re having a concert?" Jonghyun blinks at him, excitement already bubbling through from under his shock. "Seriously? SHINee’s first concert?"

"Our first concert," Jinki repeats with a grin, leaning over the table to whisper. "The first show will be in Japan, the day after Christmas."

"In Japan?" Jonghyun's eyes widen as he takes in the information. "Not here?"

"I don't really get it myself." Jinki shrugs and sits back in his seat. "I'm sure some people aren't going to like it, but I guess it kind of makes sense. We're launching our Japanese debut right after, and it's a good way to start things off."

"Mm." Jonghyun's finger runs a slow circle around his drink. "I keep forgetting that's coming up...or I'm trying to forget about it." Jonghyun sighs. "Even though you're usually busy, I've gotten used to having you around, you know? I don’t know what I’ll do with myself."

"Yeah," Jinki agrees in a quiet mumble. The excited buzz that had carried between them dampens, and Jinki watches glumly as Jonghyun traces his eyes absently around the restaurant. The pessimistic part of him is already convinced that leaving will put Jonghyun in the perfect position to find a girlfriend. Spending nearly a year away from home for their new Japanese promotions would be hard enough without that worry hanging over his head.

Thankfully, Jonghyun cuts the silence short. "Come on, let's not make this sad just because of what will come after -- you brought good news. Your first concert! Am I going to have to fight for tickets, or are you going to get me some?"

Jinki tilts his head, confused. "Tickets...for the concert in Japan?"

"I can afford to go," Jonghyun says with a shrug. "I'll just fly out and book a hotel for the weekend. Unless you'd rather me not?"

"No, it's not that. We're just having Seoul concerts a few days later, and those would be easier for you to get to."

"But the one in Japan is special, isn't it?" Jonghyun grins. "I figured you'd be having one here too, but I'd rather go to your first."

Jinki smiles. He doesn't want to encourage Jonghyun to spend that kind of money, but he's having a hard time hiding that he's pleased. "You're sure, hyung?"

"I'm really sure." Jonghyun reaches over the table to squeeze his shoulder. "Besides, I have a new reputation as a fan to maintain."

Jinki raises an eyebrow. "You're really getting invested in that, huh?"

"Of course," Jonghyun says. He leans forward, looking around the near-empty bar before he switches his voice to a dramatic whisper. "So, about getting a ticket..."

"I'll get you one, I promise." Jinki pushes him back with a wide grin. "You'll just have to worry about getting there."

***

Exhaustion weighs on Jinki’s bones the moment he opens his eyes to his blaring phone alarm. His knees are still protesting from the test of their stage entrance, and his arms are sore from the fall he had to break when someone had left a cord in a dark corner of the stage -- but it's not enough to keep him buried under the covers. The excitement of the upcoming concert takes the edge off his aches, and the knowledge that Jonghyun would be meeting him that morning has him jump out of bed to claim the shower before Kibum can even grab his toiletry bag.

After a quick rinse-off, Jinki rushes through drying his hair and doesn’t bother to style it with more than a brief comb-through. That would be taken care of by professionals later, anyways, and he doesn’t want to missing a minute with Jonghyun. He needs to make the most of the time he has left with Jonghyun before the months where his schedule will force them apart.

Jinki takes the elevator down the ground floor and steals a bench in the lobby. His leg bounces impatiently as he waits. A variety of guests filter in and out from the doors at the entrance, smiles and travel-worn frowns peaking out over their high collars and bundled scarfs that protect them from the chilly weather. Gusts of wind slip inside to his seat on the bench, and he shivers, readjusting his jacket as he peers out at the crowds. Jonghyun had said he'd get here about now...

A familiar leather jacket catches his eye, and he stands up, squinting through the small crowd at the entrance until he recognizes Jonghyun. When their eyes meet, Jonghyun’s lips pull into a grin. He pushes through the crowd, rushing meet Jinki at the bench, and stops just in front of him to catch his breath. "See? Told you I'd make it."

"I never doubted that you’d show."  Jinki pulls Jonghyun into a hug. When he starts to pull back, he sees that the bags under Jonghyun's eyes are deeper than ever, and he can’t resist chastising him. "You didn't sleep at all, did you, hyung? You just stayed up all night before your flight."

Jonghyun shrugs. "I'll have plenty of time to sleep today while you're busy with rehearsals. I love Tokyo, but I've been here enough that I don't need to do sightseeing anymore."

"If you say so," Jinki says. He narrows his eyes when Jonghyun covers a yawn against his shoulder before stepping out of his arms. "...Just try not to fall asleep over breakfast, alright?"

"I won't, trust me! I'm starving. And I'm craving pancakes." Jonghyun fixes his bag over his shoulder and peers around the lobby. "Do you know where the restaurant is? They should have pancakes there...I did some research on the trip over."

"Yeah, we ate there last night -- I'll lead you there," Jinki says, eager to get out of the crowded lobby and sit so they can talk properly. Grabbing Jonghyun by the elbow, he steers him towards the restaurant, keeping his head down when they weave around the gathering bundle of travelers by the check out desk. He'd been so preoccupied with the thought of meeting Jonghyun he'd forgotten how public a hotel lobby could be, and he doesn't want to risk running into a group of fans without a translator to turn them away kindly.

Thankfully, they reach the restaurant without interference, and Jinki greets the waitress with his name and the time of the reservation he had booked last night.

"Wow, you planned ahead." Jonghyun's eyes crinkle in amusement, and he nods at where Jinki's fingers are still wrapped around his sleeve. "That excited to have me here, huh?"

Jinki snaps his hand back quickly, but can’t fight the flush that blooms on his cheeks. He doesn’t know why, but something about seeing Jonghyun in a new place is making it harder to keep his feelings in check and his hands to himself. His balance is thrown off, and in the lobby of the foreign hotel, the only tether to his usual life in Seoul is the pleasant buzz in his chest when he looks at Jonghyun. It's hard not to cling to that.

Now overly conscious of his movements, Jinki makes sure to leave extra space behind Jonghyun when he follows him to their seats. Jonghyun is his friend, and nothing more, so he needs to act like it -- he doesn't have liquor as an excuse this time, and he doesn’t want to ruin the memories of his first concert for a feeling he's already gotten used to ignoring.

But at the first smile Jonghyun gives him from across the table, Jinki's resolve weakens, and he smiles back despite the pinch it causes his heart.

After the waitress takes their orders, he places his hand near Jonghyun's to make sure he has his attention. "Thank you for coming to our concert. You know I wouldn't mind if you went to the one in Seoul instead, but you still came all this way...it means a lot."

"I wouldn't want to miss your group's first solo concert, Jinki-yah. It's worth it to me." Jonghyun leans forward and raises a brow. "And besides, I’ve heard rumors that you'll be singing some of my songs."

Jinki huffs and props up in front of his face to keep Jonghyun from reading his expression. "I'm not telling you anything, hyung. I want all the songs to be a surprise -- it'll be more exciting that way."

With a single finger, Jonghyun reaches across the table and tips down the front of Jinki's menu to stare at him until he's forced to look away to keep from laughing. Jonghyun grins victoriously. "Yeah, I can tell you're doing a song or two of mine. You're horrible at keeping things a secret."

"I’d say I’m good at it, actually." Jinki snaps his menu back up to hide his smile. Though Jonghyun probably expects that them to do one of the ballads he wrote for their last album -- and they were -- he probably wouldn't expect Jinki's solo song to be a cover of a song he wrote for a different artist years ago. That was going to be a surprise, he's sure.

The waitress returns a short moment later with their drinks and pancakes, and Jonghyun thanks her briefly. "How are you enjoying Japan? Are all the concert preparations going well?"

"We haven't really gotten to see much of Japan yet, we’re too busy," Jinki says. "And rehearsals are exhausting, but I’m not really noticing it as much as I thought I would. I'm too excited we're finally having a concert. I'm more bothered at spending Christmas night alone for another year...they always plan things right around it. I’d like to at least go see some lights or get a cake."

"You won't be alone though, right?" Jonghyun asks, plopping the strawberry perched atop his pancake into his mouth. "You'll probably still be rehearsing with your members."

"Yeah, I guess." Jinki frowns as he drenches his pancake in syrup. "But that's pretty much the same thing as spending it alone, you know?"

Jonghyun snickers. "Really? Spending Christmas with four handsome men can't be that bad, can it?"

Jinki freezes with his fork in his mouth. He stares at Jonghyun, then glances away, trying not to look uncomfortable as he hurries to finish chewing. It’s a joke, he knows -- Jonghyun had laughed while saying it -- but his pulse is still racing at the mere possibility that some part of him had given his sexuality away.

"Sorry, that was a bad joke, wasn’t it?” Jonghyun covers his mouth with his hand and clears his throat. “I shouldn’t try and be funny when I'm really tired. And the last person I talked to was my sister, and you know I have no filter around her."

"It's fine." Jinki shrugs, trying not to read too much into the wording of Jonghyun's apology. “I'm not offended."

Jonghyun looks up from his plate, stare suddenly serious. "You're really not?"

"Not at all." Jinki fiddles with his napkin in his lap to avoid Jonghyun's gaze. It's irrational, he knows, but he's afraid if Jonghyun looks at him for too long he'll realize the flush on the back of his neck is because the joke hit a little too close to home. Everything about the way Jonghyun had said his last question made it sound like a test.

Jinki fumbles for a change of subject. "So, hyung...you're heading back to Seoul right after the concert?"

"Yeah, the morning after." Jonghyun sighs. "I won't be able to go to your concert there, unfortunately. It cuts too close to Blue Night, and we're doing a New Year's special, and I have to do it live."

"That's fine, hyung. You coming here is more than enough. But you're at least coming to the afterparty, right?"

Jonghyun blinks. "Am I allowed to?"

"Of course you are! I’m inviting you." Jinki smiles. "I already told them I'd have a friend coming. My parents are going to the Seoul concert, so it really isn't a problem."

"I'll be there, then.” Jonghyun grins. “I can't stay too late, but I don't want to miss seeing you all excited after your concert...I'm sure that'll be fun."

***

Somehow, the lights in the hallways backstage feel brighter than the ones they had performed under. Jinki blinks away his last image of the crowd as he tries to adjust to the glaring white walls and drags a sniffling Kibum along with him back to the dressing room. 

After bowing at a dozen staff members, they finally reach the quiet room, and Jinki pulls the rag out of his pocket to dab at the the tears still on Kibum’s cheeks. "You going to be alright, Kibum? Don't cry too hard, we have to sing again in a few days."

"I'm fine...just happy we made it here." Kibum laughs and wipes at his eyes. "Shit, I hate crying like this."

"We deserve to get a little teary." Jinki squeezes his shoulder. "Better to get it out now than when we're celebrating."

"Yeah. I still can't believe we--" Kibum yelps when Minho and Jino suddenly surge up behind him with linked arms and grapple him until he's forced into the middle of their hug. With little luck, he tries to squirm out of it, but only manages to pop his head up from between them with a scowl. "What the hell is your problem?"

"You're crying so much, we wanted to comfort you." Kibum's expression softens slightly, and Minho lets him go with a grin. "We're going to sneak out the back soon with the managers. They already reserved that restaurant for us, so we just have to get in the van."

"It's gonna be great." Jino swings out of their huddle, but keeps one arm around Minho's waist. "We're going to drink so much."

"Hopefully." Jinki pulls out his phone and immediately pulls up his chat with Jonghyun. "We’re going to the same restaurant they were talking about last night, right? I wanted to invite Jonghyun along with us."

"Yeah, it's that one." Jino leans towards Jinki's phone to try and get a peak of his screen, but gives up when Jinki tilts it away. He sighs. "I still can't believe he came out all the way to Japan for our show, even if we are doing some of his songs. How'd you get him to do that?"

"You know we're friends...it’s not like I had to drag him here or anything," Jinki says, trying not to flush. "Working with SM just opened up a lot of opportunities for him, so probably means a lot to him that we were doing his songs live."

"Well, we'll sing them again for him once we're drunk. He'll never get a show like that in our concerts."

Jinki rolls his eyes, choosing to ignore that comment when he hears a ping from his phone to let him know that Jonghyun has responded. With the verification that Jonghyun will meet him there shortly, he tucks his phone away and allows the other members to drag him away to the van. 

As the adrenaline of their concert fades from his system on the ride to the restaurant, his nerves take over, and a part of him begins to worry that Jonghyun hadn’t yet given his opinion of the concert for a reason. What if he didn’t like the arrangement they’d used of his songs? Or thought Jinki breathed in the wrong parts? Or that his voice was too warm for the old song he’d chosen? 

By the time they arrive, Jinki’s palms are sweating, and he grabs the first seat he sees that will give him a good view of the entrance. Taemin sits next to him and chatters away, apparently not noticing Jinki’s nerves or the fact he keeps one eye on the door, but his presence is comforting enough that when Jonghyun finally arrives, Jinki manages to greet him with a smile.

Jonghyun pulls off his hat and gives him a small wave, then circles his way around the table to say hello to the other members and staff. After finishing his last introduction, he pushes his way back to Jinki to squeeze into the seat across him. "Looks like everyone already got started with the drinking, huh?"

"Most of us, yeah." Jinki reaches for the nearest bottle. "You want me to pour you one, hyung?"

"Sure, thanks." Jonghyun unwraps his scarf and pulls off his jacket. "Hopefully it'll warm me up. It’s about to snow outside, I can feel it."

"It'll help." Jinki keeps his eyes on the cup as he pours out the drink, still nervous -- Jonghyun still hasn't said a word about the concert. When Jonghyun’s fingers brush against his as he takes the cup, his stomach does an extra flip, and he finally meets Jonghyun’s eyes with a heated flush across his cheeks.

"Sorry for not talking about the concert yet, I wanted to wait to see you in person--" Jonghyun turns his head to take the drink in one quick swallow, then sets down the empty cup and grins widely. "You were amazing. The whole concert was incredible. I might have cried a little, at the end...and when you did my song. You didn't warn me about that."

Jinki shrugs, trying to play it off, and refills his glass for him. "I figured you'd know, since it was one of the ballads, and you already guessed that we’d be doing it."

"I expected you to sing one of my songs from the last album, yeah -- and you did really well at that -- but you know I mean the one you did for your solo. Why didn’t you tell me?"

"Oh, that one..." Jinki bites his lip. He's been anxious to hear Jonghyun's reaction to that one the most. "Did I pull it off well?"

"I loved it." Jonghyun beams at him. "I really never imagined you singing Love Belt, since I wrote it before I thought I had a shot at working with SM artists, but it was a perfect fit for your voice. You should have asked me before using it, though."

"Why? Are you going to sue me for it, hyung?" Jinki teases.

Jonghyun laughs. "No, of course not. I'm honored you did it. I just wish you had given me the chance to make a special arrangement for you.”

"Next time, maybe?"  Jinki smiles, heart fluttering when their gazes lock, but his attention bounces quickly back to the table when he sees his drink move. He frowns at the hand on the glass, recognizing it as Taemin’s, and pushes it back.  "Really, Taemin? You're going to steal my drink while I’m distracted?"

"If you're not going to drink it, I don't see why I can't," Taemin says. "You let me drink back at home sometimes."

"Yeah, but that's different -- we’re in a different country right now. I don't want to start our Japanese debut with a drinking scandal," Jinki says, fully aware that Jonghyun's watching the exchange. He's not sure if the amused smile Jonghyun's wearing is for him, or for Taemin, but seeing it softens him up -- it probably wouldn’t hurt if he let Taemin drink a little.

Jinki sighs and pushes the glass a subtle inch over towards Taemin. "I changed my mind -- you can have some. Just don’t make yourself sick."

"I won't." Taemin grabs the glass with a grin. After turning his head to drink, he sets the now-empty glass on the table with a loud clink and coughs, mouth staying open as his face puckers from the bitter taste.

When Jonghyun laughs, Jinki grimaces, already regretting his decision. "Please don’t drink at that rate. You’ll definitely get sick."

"I'm just trying to catch up with everyone else." Taemin huffs. "I drink almost as well as you do."

Jinki rolls his eyes, but decides not to dignify that with a response. He doesn't want to open up a chance for Jonghyun to talk about the times he hasn't handled his liquor as well as he'd promised. As if reading his thoughts, Jonghyun smiles at him knowingly from across the table and pushes his own glass towards Taemin. "Here, you can have mine too. I just realized I probably shouldn’t have much since I have an early flight tomorrow."

Taemin smiles, voice as polite as he can seem as he snatches up the glass before Jonghyun can change his mind. "Thank you, Jonghyun-ssi."

Jonghyun shakes his head. “You don’t need to be formal, since I’m close to Jinki. You can call me hyung."

A spike of jealousy stabs at Jinki’s gut. He pushes his foot against Jonghyun's under the table. "Hyung, do you want to go outside?"

A shout as Minho bests yet another manager at arm-wrestling snaps Jonghyun's attention away from him just as he blurts out his question. He blinks widely, then turns back to Jinki with an apologetic smile on his lips. "Sorry, what were you saying? It's a bit hard to hear."

Jinki flushes. Somehow having to repeat himself makes asking Jonghyun for a moment alone seem more serious than he had meant it to be. "I was wondering if you want to head outside for a bit? I know it's pretty loud in here, and I kind of want to see the city..."

"That sounds good." Jonghyun looks at him warmly and reaches back to grab his jacket. "A walk would be nice, and we can grab some street food. I'll slip out ahead of you."

Nodding in agreement, Jinki mumbles an excuse about the restroom to his manager and grabs his own jacket and scarf. Bundling them until he can hide them behind his back, he waits for the clamor on the other end of the table to distract the last of their managers before slipping outside.

When Jinki opens the door and steps outside, Jonghyun looks up from tugging on his gloves. "Not bringing anyone else?"

"No..." Jinki trails off shyly and begins to put on his jacket. "I kind of wanted some time alone."

Jonghyun laughs and steps away from entrance, putting them out of view from the inside. "A little tired of your members?"

"A bit, and I'll be stuck with them for the next few months." Jinki grins guiltily. "I've had enough of them in the past few days alone.”

"I can imagine, with rehearsals and everything. But it paid off, didn’t it? Your concert was incredible."

"You've said that already." Jinki laughs laughs as he pulls up his face mask.

"It's worth repeating." Jonghyun begins to walk, leading the way down the street towards a long line of food stalls. "It was really nice to hear you all sing the song I wrote live."

"You've said that already too, when we were in the restaurant with Taemin."

"Yeah, well -- I wrote it with your voice in mind, and you're my friend. So it means a little more just saying it to you."

Jinki stops in the middle of the sidewalk. "You wrote it for my voice?"

"I mean -- I considered the other members too," Jonghyun waves his hands defensively as he corrects his statement. "But you have a really distinct color to your voice, you know? It makes sense to focus on that when composing. Haven't I said that before?"

"Kind of, I guess," Jinki mumbles. "Maybe I'm just processing it differently because I'm drunk..."

Jonghyun laughs and wraps an arm around his shoulders, squeezing him tight enough for Jinki to feel it even through the thick wool of his jacket. "I know you're not that drunk, Jinki-yah -- you didn’t drink at all after I got there, and your tolerance is way too high for you have gotten drunk before I did."

“Maybe.” Jinki leans into the warmth of the contact just before Jonghyun lets go and sighs. He wishes he had gotten to drink more before they left, but he didn't trust himself to mix post-concert adrenaline and alcohol around Jonghyun -- considering they were alone now, he probably would have wound up doing something stupid.

"Is there anything you want to try?”  Jonghyun says, interrupting his thoughts. “I'll buy you something, since your managers covered all the food in the restaurant. I think you'll really like yakitori."

"Funny, hyung." Jinki rolls his eyes. "I know that's chicken."

"Well, do you want it or not?"

Jinki bites his lip and looks into the small little alley. Even out here, he can smell the food, which is more than tempting -- he'd only managed to get down small one plate of appetizers at the bar before he had jumped at the chance to sneak away with Jonghyun.

Jonghyun already looks triumphant before he opens his mouth, and Jinki sighs, knowing he's only adding to the long list of times he's chosen his favorite food over trying anything radically new. "That sounds good, hyung. You lead the way."

"I thought so." Jonghyun bumps his shoulder against Jinki's before stepping into the alleyway. As he walks ahead, he hums the last song from the concert, and there’s a small smile on his lips when he ends it just as they arrive to the food stall.

Inside the tarped entrance, there's not much room for space between them. The heat from the grill makes Jinki sweat under his bundled clothing the moment they step inside, but it's a welcome relief from the chill of outdoors. Jonghyun orders for them both smoothly in Japanese and pays, nodding politely and passing over his change when the cook hands them their plates.

Jinki waits until Jonghyun passes him the skewers to switch back to Korean. "You speak Japanese, hyung?"

"Just enough to get around," Jonghyun says, smiling widely at Jinki's shocked expression and picks up a skewer for himself and pulls a small piece of the chicken from the skewer with his teeth. "I’m not fluent enough to write lyrics in Japanese, but I can sell my songs here."

"You could have helped me with some of it before I came here. You know how bad I am with languages..."

Jonghyun laughs, covering his mouth. "Would you really want to spend our time doing that? Instead of drinking and everything else?"

"I guess not," Jinki admits. He pouts until Jonghyun gives a nudge that lingers long enough to feel more like he’s being leaned on.

His heart flutters light in his chest when Jonghyun finally pulls back to smile at him. He doesn't think Jonghyun had anything to drink -- he hadn't seen him order a single beer -- but this is touchier than he usually is sober, and it only makes him want more. Jinki takes advantage of the cramped space to press their knees together under the counter as they finish off their meal, and Jonghyun seems to accept that, because there’s a hand on his knee a minute later that feels warm enough to burn his skin all the way up to his cheeks.

There's no excuse to linger after their plates are taken back from them, but Jinki is reluctant to give up the contact. He keeps himself close to Jonghyun when they finally squeeze out of the stall and back into the alley, and his fingers dance nervously in his pocket when they turn onto the street and he stays just as close, shoulder half-brushing against Jonghyun with every step. He waits for a question, or for Jonghyun to move into the new space in the sidewalk, but all he gets is shy smile that strikes him quiet as they continue to back out to the street.

Neither of them mention heading back. Jonghyun walks them in circles around the same two blocks, humming an unfamiliar melody that Jinki assumes is a work in progress. There’s words stuck in Jinki’s throat -- words he can’t say, like how Jonghyun’s hair looks beautiful in the mix of moon and street lights, and words he can, like how much he’ll miss him and how he’ll text him often -- but there’s not nearly enough need to express them to force them past his throat.

All they'll have over the next few months is talking to each other, and what he'll miss the most is the simple presence of Jonghyun besides him. He has that now, and he doesn’t want to disturb it.

When a snowflake lands on his nose, leaving it cold and wet, Jinki stops. He reaches up to feel his hat, yanking his hand away when he feels that some of the knit is already damp. "How long has it been snowing? I somehow didn't realize..."

"Damn, is it? I wanted to stay out a little more." Jonghyun looks up at the sky and sighs. "I guess we should take you back to the restaurant, then...I don't want you getting sick before the Seoul concerts."

Jinki buries his face down in his scarf, hiding a frown. He wants to argue that he'll be fine, but he already knows he wouldn't win -- Jonghyun is too much of a worrier to let him risk his voice for a few extra minutes together. He exhales loudly in annoyance. "Do you remember the way back?"

"Yeah, I led us around the same routes for a reason," Jonghyun says. "I know how easily I can get lost."

They head backwards along the same path they’d been traced several times now, until Jonghyun changes a single turn to bring them back to the restaurant.

“Here it is.” Jonghyun says. He pulls his phone out his pocket and dials a number. "You can head inside, I'm calling a cab to take me back to my hotel. It shouldn’t be too long of a wait."

"No, I don't want you waiting out here alone," Jinki says. He crosses his arms and joins Jonghyun by the curbside. "It’s too late for me to just leave you here."

Jonghyun opens his mouth to protest, but decides against it when the service he’d been calling finally picks up. After giving his current location and the name of his hotel, he hangs up the phone and sighs. "If you insist on staying with me, I won’t stop you. Just go inside if your throat starts hurting, okay?."

"Sure, hyung," Jinki agrees, attention already on the street.

At every cab that passes, Jinki’s heart clenches, expecting each to be the one that will take Jonghyun away from him for the night. When he finally takes his eyes away from the traffic to glance at Jonghyun, he freezes, caught off guard.

There’s an expectant look to Jonghyun. Judging by the fact his eyes didn’t have to move at all to meet Jinki’s, he must have already been staring, and his lips are pursed, hands shoved fully into his pockets as he blinks away the snow dusting in his eyelashes.

He smiles warmly, half-shy, and Jinki smiles back. Jinki’s stomach flutters with hope -- he’s never seen Jonghyun smile quite like that before -- but it twists into a bitter knot before he can even think to do something with the emotion.

He tears his eyes away, biting his lip as he tries to gather himself again.

If he were a girl, he wouldn't hesitate to confess to Jonghyun, and he's even considering it still -- it's heavy on his tongue, held back only by a fear of what he might lose if he says them -- but he can’t say a thing.

He forces himself to meet Jonghyun’s eyes again, and this time, the smile Jonghyun gives him is stiff.

Jinki’s heart tightens again, and he tries to console himself with what he already has. At least he can enjoy the longing. At least he’s able to stand two-feet away from the man that makes him consider the possibility of risking his career.

At least he doesn’t have to worry about rejected, since he’ll never try.

He’s pulled away from his thoughts when Jonghyun inhales sharply and rocks back on his heels. "So, uh -- how long till I see you again?"

"We'll be back for our Seoul concerts, and I'm staying with my family for a bit." Jinki says. He looks down at Jonghyun's feet as he kicks them against the sidewalk. "But then we have recordings, and photoshoots, and interviews...a bunch of performances, too. It's kind of like we’re debuting all over again, so we’ll be busy."

“Ah.” Jonghyun bites his lip. "It'll really be a while till you’re back then, huh?"

Jinki nods. He's tried not to think about it or put it into numbers -- he hasn’t wanted to imagine going so long without seeing Jonghyun in person, and he hasn’t wanted to imagine what Jonghyun might do with his time instead -- but it really will be months.

A taxi pulls up besides the curb. Jinki’s heart stops. And suddenly, there’s arms around him, and he’s being squeezed from all sides as Jonghyun wraps around him in a tight embrace.

"You keep reading, alright? Don't forget the books I brought you. I’ll send you more if you get through them."

Jinki laughs, grinning wide to keep himself from tearing up. "Yes, teacher."

"Don't be a smart ass," Jonghyun grumbles. He pulls back and forces out a smile as his hands linger on Jinki’s arms. "I'm going to miss you."

"Me too," Jinki chokes out. He doesn’t trust himself with more words when Jonghyun's eyes are already brimming.

Jonghyun lets go, and steps into the open door of the cab.

"It'll only be a few months," Jinki says, hoping to lift the heaviness already weighing down on his chest.

"Yeah." Jonghyun nods and climbs into the back of the cab, now avoiding Jinki's eyes. He dabs at his own with the sleeve that peeks through the end of his jacket.  "Good luck with your concerts and your Japanese debut, Jinki-yah."

“Thanks."

The door of the cab snaps shut. Jinki bites his lip and steps back. The car takes off in an instant, and he watches the red lights of the cab with a hole in his chest until it disappears out of view.