#how do you know that I love opal out of all gems

[luciddreamingcrow]

The gem mermaids x maid/butler! reader + ART!

Cw!: THERE IS NO AGE GAP! this fanfic is not intended to be read as you and the characters having a age gap it's clearly written for you two to be the same age! I just wanna make this clear because I don't want people to misinterpret the dynamic of this fan fic. And it's not proofread!

Characters present: Crimson Coral cookie, Mystical Opal cookie, Golden Citrine cookie and Aquamarine cookie

Dynamics present: childhood friends to lovers, fluff, confessions, before dating,

⋆⭒˚｡⋆Introduction⋆⭒˚｡⋆

Ah the gem mermaids, so majestic and all of them can take your breath away just by looking at you but it just so happened that you are their favourite <3

When you were as young as them, your mer parents explained that you are the young gem mermaids source of happiness, they trust you and cherish you, and as you two grew up they still feel how their heart is captured by you and only you <333

.𖥔 ݁ ˖Crimson coral cookie.𖥔 ݁ ˖

"Just like you looked out for me when I was hurt, I'll always do the same for you"

✧When you just started to serve for the gem mermaids you were assigned to accompany the young crimson coral cookie

✦When she would train and learn how to ride the sea horses you always kept a really close eye on her, you never wanted for your lady to be hurt after all!

✧And if she did get hurt in the process you'd always hurry to check if she was injured and if she was then you'd always have some extra kelp to patch up her wounds

✦Even if she was hurting she couldn't help but feel always way better when she would hear your voice, it calmed her down and brought her down to earth and distracted her from her injuries

✧As you grew older she always insisted that you take more frequent breaks because she hated when you'd feel burned out

✦As you were teens she had a rebellious phase and she often insisted on taking you on a ride on her sea horse and explore beyond Tearcrown, sometimes she'd even sneak out quality foods and sweets that only loyalty could eat so you can have at least a taste.

✧After growing up she accepted that she has feelings for you and sees you as equal, and one day as she took you to your childhood favourite spot and there she confessed in the privacy of your secret place, and as you sat there you two made two bracelets for eachother that represented your love for each other

✦And by her orders she explained to the guards that she would feel way safer if you'd join her for the night and that's how now you guys are cuddling close, to each others arms, and this action always brings crimson coral closure and piece

✧She really likes holding you and you holding her, her entire day schedule is filled with little to to physical touch, so, at the end of the day, having you in her grasp, just brings her so much happiness and just a calm feeling that drives her to a peaceful slumber.

Also if you are curious about how the sweets look like, they look like those muffins from the mermaid Barbie movie + that coral looking cake🤭

(she's shushing u so u two won't get caught)

Mystic Opal cookie

"To be honest, I wouldn't know what I would have done without you"

𖤓One thing she vividly remembers is this specific scenario from when she was younger:

𖤓'sat in front of the mirror, and some of her sisters trying their best to untangle her hair without it biting their arms off, so her hair would always be unstylised and sometimes tangled in which thay would make her quite insecure'

𖤓But when she heard that you'd be a sort of personal maid/butler for her she was kind of concerned how her hair would react because she didn't want it to intimate you or hurt you

𖤓But surprisingly it didn't really have a problem with you, it didn't have a problem with you touching it, brushing it and overall styling it. She was in awe when you managed to do it for the first time and from then on she insisted that you'd help her with this matter

𖤓Slowly by having hair styling sessions you two would talk with eachother and open up about past experiences, what you liked and didn't like etc etc.

𖤓And as time went by you two became inseparable, and because of her more closed off nature she really placed a lot trust in you, she'd always trust you with some more sensitive feelings of hers and she'd always appreciate the way you'd reassure her and your presence would always make her feel better.

𖤓After a while when she noticed she had feelings she mostly kept them to herself, of course you are the one that she trusts the most, but it felt like something so intimate that she just had to keep it in

𖤓But even if it was a secret, her actions weren't repressed one bit, now she'd subconsciously stand closer to you, her finns would flapp and rice up when she'd see you and the star that hangs at the back of her head would glow just a little brighter.

𖤓And Golden Citrine cookie teased the hell out of Mystic Opal when she caught up with her infatuation with you and by the end encouraged her to confess because by the end of the day she can't just hide her feelings forever

𖤓And she took het sisters advice at heart and the hole week she was preparing herself to confess but by the end of the week she was so stressed about confessing to you that she accidentally distanced herself away from you

𖤓And as you were preparing her hair for her night routine before bed you questioned if you did something to upset her, at that moment she realised she can't take it no longer and just let it all out

𖤓By the end, she ended up crying because it was never her intention to hurt you because you were so beloved to her but she was afraid how you'd react but by the end after comforting her and taking about it she gave you the most gentle kiss on the cheek

𖤓Even if that is one of her first relationships, she's actually a really good partner, she's calm collected and when you two are alone she feels so safe with you that she lets herself and her emotions to be vulnerable without worrying about any sort of judgement

𖤓She feels so happy and comfortable with you, she just wished she could give you all of the love of the sea just for you to have

Golden Citrine cookie

"Wanna join me on another trinket hunt?"

❂When she first met you the very first thing that she did was bring her to her room to show you the various golden trinkets that she found from those hollow whales!

❂They all looked to mesmerized undet the moonlight and their reflection could easily light up her room with a really soft golden light

❂She mostly would sneak you out Tearcrown so you'd have some time alone and find more trinkets for her to add to her collection

❂At these treasure hunting trips she'd be as exited to talk and rant about how some things tip her off, just like how crimson coral doesn't really get her sarcasm but she'd be as excited to hear more about you!

❂She'd always insists in you joining the rest of the gem mermaids everywhere because she considers you as family and deeply cares about you

❂Another thing you'd do together was cleaning up any dirty trinkets, because after all she wants them to shine brightly under the sun and the moon light!

❂She has a surprisingly good maintained hair! She just enjoys not having it tied up and letting it free so she never really insisted on having hair care sessions because it was so easily maintainable

❂The moment she realised she had feelings for you is when you two would on one of your treasure/trinket hunting adventures and you'd look so interested in her little rant on how much she loves her shiny jewelry, your expression was so focused and interested on what she had to say that she outright confessed right here and there!

❂Of course later on, around that night before coming back to Tearcrown she said that she genuinely ment it and that she truly really does adore you and asked you properly if you'd like to be her partner

Aquamarine cookie

"Today I found a new flower that never has seen before and I named it after you"

.𖥔 ݁ ˖Ooooo she remembers so clearly how when you first showed up she instantly just brought you to her garden!

.𖥔 ݁ ˖Aquamarines garden was a old greenhouse that eventually got sinked by the sea so she made herself a home there

.𖥔 ݁ ˖You'd mostly help out with different tasks in her garden like: caring out different types of sand/soils that her plants need

.𖥔 ݁ ˖Or she'd join you by going to far away markets to get new seeds for her garden and even when talking care of the plants she'd rant on and on about their properties, from where they originated, how to properly take care of them ect.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖One day she was sick so she couldn't attend the garden and you were nowhere to be found, she wanted to start looking for you because your presence comforted her but her sisters insisted on her resting

.𖥔 ݁ ˖But once everyone was asleep she sneaked out her room and started looking out for you, once she was ready to give up she decided to see how her garden was doing

.𖥔 ݁ ˖To her surprise she found you there! You were half asleep taking care of the last plant that needed care

.𖥔 ݁ ˖She felt as her heart quickened and warmed up, and as she gently swam at you and brought you to her embrace just to take you to her room for you to rest as well

.𖥔 ݁ ˖Having you near her while she was sleeping and in a vulnerable state she felt so safe, even if there was nothing to worry about she felt protected and she felt like she could protect you at any time

.𖥔 ݁ ˖Her confessing would be at her garden, it would be a lovely night where the moonlight would shine though the glass of the greenhouse giving you two a warm illumination just bright enough to be able to see eachother + some of her bioluminescent plants would be glowing too

.𖥔 ݁ ˖As you two took care of the last plants she took a deep breath and handed you over a flower in a glass sphere, it was so beautiful! It even had the ability to glow in the dark!

.𖥔 ݁ ˖As she handled it to you she took one of your hands and held it as she confessed how much she liked you and how happy you make her so she wanted you to have one of her secret flowers that she kept hidden so noone would steal it

.𖥔 ݁ ˖After getting to a relationship with her it because a tradition to the both of you to grow rare types of plants during the year so when your anniversary comes up you two can give it to eachother as presents in a glass sphere <33

A/n: as I said in my previous post that I'll be returning on writing regularly on October but inspiration just kicked around 2 am so here we are :D the art is kind of sloppy cuz I did it around 4 am so I'm sorry if it doesn't look the best 😭

[ladykailitha]

Oh For a Muse of Fire! Part 2

LOL! I love how much you guys are loving this. I took the idea for the names at the bar from a fantasy novel called The Lark and the Wren (I’m pretty sure) by Mercedes Lackey (only in that case it was a brothel).

Also guys: If I have you on my list but you didn’t get the notification for the tag it means one of two things: it’s a side or secondary blog and tumblr doesn’t tag those. Or and this far more likely you have it set that you’re undiscoverable through tumblr. Under settings go to your blog then scroll all the way down to visibility and make sure both are grey. (Or secret third thing that your blog is set to 18+ because tumblr hates porn.)

Part 1

*

Steve was trembling when he got to the apartment he shared with Robin. So badly that he was struggling to put the key in the lock. After the third failed attempt, he let out a sharp cry and sunk to the floor, his back pressed against the door.

He knew that he wasn’t the best person in high school. He did. But he had changed his senior year. Stopped hanging out with Tommy and Carol. Started focusing on his art. Meeting Robin.

Hell, as far as Steve could remember they hadn’t even gone after Eddie and his friends. He would like to say that it was because he had a crush on the guy. But no, it was just they ran in different circles and were just outside their purview.

He held his hands up and while they still shook, they weren’t as bad. He got up and tried again. With some effort he managed to get the key in the lock. He sighed in relief as the tumbler slid and allowed him to open the door.

As badly as Steve wanted to grab the six pack out of the fridge and down the whole thing, wallowing in self-pity. He couldn’t because he actually had work.

He had to train his replacement. He worked at an upscale bar close to campus, bar-tending. It was good money and he was able to work nights and go to school during the day. But if everything went according to plan, at the end of summer Steve would be starting his student teaching position. So the bar needed a new bartender.

He pulled on the black slacks and white button up that his uniform and his white sneakers. He rolled up his sleeves and checked his hair really quick in the mirror.

It would have to do.

He splashed water on his face to wash away the tears and clear his mind of cobwebs. He didn’t have the liberty of fucking up.

Steve grabbed his car keys and jumped into his BMW. The last remnant of his father’s hospitality. He had gotten the car when he was sixteen and the car was nearing its first decade. He kept his fingers crossed that it would last until he got his first full time teaching job.

When he pulled up the bar, he could see her waiting for him by the door. She was pretty blonde with bright eyes and a cheerful expression. She was wearing a short black skirt and high heeled shoes.

Steve shook his head. She was in for a rough time tonight if that’s what she was going to be wearing.

He trotted up to her. “Hey, you must be the new girl.”

“Yeah I’m C–”

Steve held up his hand. “If you’re going to tell me your real name, don’t. The boss doesn’t like us knowing each other’s real names, says it distracts from the ambient feel. I’m Garnet.”  

She blushed. “Right, right. He said. I’m Opal.”

Steve nodded. “Or at least at first hopefully by the time I leave you’ll be upgraded to a nicer gem.”

Opal fell instep with him as he led the way through the bar. “Have you always been Garnet, then?”

Steve licked his lips. “Yeah. It’s something of a running joke now. I’m the best bartender this bar has ever had and I’ve never been upgraded to Ruby or whatever.”

She nodded.

“Truth is Diamond respects me, but he sure the hell doesn’t like me,” he explained.

“You think Diamond is his real name?” Opal asked eagerly.

Steve shrugged. “Could be.” He grabbed two aprons from their hooks and tossed one at her. “This will help prevent you going home smelling like the bar.”

She nodded, tying it deftly around her waist.

“Diamond said you’ve done this before?” Steve asked, pulling out two white towels and tossing her one.

Opal nodded. “At my last job. It closed up because the owners retired.”

Steve nodded. “So then this won’t be too difficult. This will just be me showing you were everything is and showing you how to make the house specials.”

“Pretty much,” she said cheerfully.

Steve looked down at her shoes. “Your last place make you wear heels to tend in?”

She looked down at her feet. “Yeah, said I was too short to see over the bar otherwise.”

He cocked his head to side. “But you aren’t that short...”

Opal laughed, clear as a bell. “Oh I know. He was just a misogynist pig. I do have flats with me since I take the bus.”

“Put them on,” Steve instructed. “We move way too fast for you to be in heels. I don’t want you breaking your ankle or have blisters by the end of the night.”

She nodded and pulled out a pair of black flats and slipped them on, shoving the heels back in the purse.

“You’ll want tennis shoes or any other comfortable shoe from now on,” Steve explained. “You’re also allowed to wear slacks if you want. The patrons aren’t going to see below your waist and the apron covers your chest. Your tips will come from you being fast and good.”

Opal saluted. “Aye, aye Captain!”

Steve laughed. “Yeah, I think you’ll fit in just fine.”

“Garnet!” a uncoordinated blur shouted and jumped into his arms. Steve caught her deftly and shook his head.

“Hey, Pearl,” he said with a grin. He set her down. “Say hi to the new girl.”

Pearl turned slowly to see that yes, someone was with Steve.

“Uh, hi,” she said, shyly. “Garnet’s my best friend.”

Steve gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Yes, you are. Pearl, this is Opal. She’s my replacement come August. Opal, this gangly giraffe is one of the best waitresses the Queen’s Crown has to offer.”

Pearl smacked Steve’s arm. “Pay no attention to him.”

Opal laughed. “Kinda hafta because he’s training me.”

“Well besides that,” Pearl said. “He’s just a big dingus with a bigger heart.”

Steve blushed.

“Aww...” Opal said, “you two are cute together.”

Pearl made a fake vomiting noise. “We’re just best friends. Platonic with a capital P.”

Steve shook his head. “Ignore her.”

Opal laughed. “Five minutes in and I’m already ignoring everyone. This must be quite the friendly place.”

Just then a large man came out of the back and threw his arms wide open.

“Opal, my pet!” he boomed. “You made it. These two haven’t been giving you a hard time, have they?”

Opal shook her head. “They’ve been sweet.”

“Good, good,” Diamond said with a grin. “The bar opens in an hour. Garnet will show you everything you need to do to get stared.”

He gave them a wink and lumbered back into office.

Steve cleared his throat. “Right. So everyone pitches into to step and take down everything. Take down will include wiping everything down and sweeping and mopping the floors. Even Diamond comes out and helps wash glasses.”

Opal’s eyes went wide. “Seriously?”

Pearl nodded. “He’s kinda a if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself kind of guy. Not always, he does trust us to do our jobs, but he’s  very hands on.”

“But he doesn’t help set up?” Opal asked,

Steve looked back behind him and then back at her. “He gets the drawers ready for the day. He counts it all before hand and then we count our drawers with him after. He also counts the tip jar in front of everyone and gives everyone their percentages.”

Opal’s jaw dropped and she stared at them in shock. A man came out of the back dressed similarly to Pearl in a black button up and black slacks. While Pearl had black boots, this guy had white sneakers.

“This is Topaz, one of the other waiters,” Pearl said as the guy came up to shake her hand. “This is Opal, Garnet’s replacement.”

The guy lifted an eyebrow. “That’s some pretty big shoes to fill.”

Opal blushed. “I’m just surprised you guys are hiring six months out for that.”

Topaz shook his head. “That’s Diamond being a worry-wart again. If you don’t work out, he wants time to hire someone else.”

“You know,” Opal said, putting her hands on her hips, “for someone who insists everyone go by gem nicknames Diamond is sounding more and more like the perfect boss.”

The other three laughed.

“Pretty much,” Pearl said, “He may be an annoying hipster, but he’s good boss and he’ll take care of you.”

Topaz hip checked Steve. “Unless you’re Garnet, here.”

Steve pushed him playfully. “Shut it, man.”

Topaz laughed. “This idiot accidentally hit on Diamond’s daughter.”  

Pearl grinned. “In front of her fiance no less.”

Steve threw his arms in the air. “No one told me who they were. I had been here for like a week. And every signal she was sending me was that she was interested.”

Topaz patted him on the back. “You keep telling yourself that, man.”

Steve shook his head. “Let’s get to work before Diamond comes out and starts yelling at us.”

Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6  Part 7 Part 8 Part 9  Part 10  Part 11  Part 12 Part 13  Part 14  Part 15  Part 16 Part 17 Epilogue

Tag List: @artiststarme @allbymyselfexceptformycactus @spectrum-spectre estrellami-1 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @itsall-taken @m-owo-n @zerokrox-blog @runyousillydetective @grimmfitzz @wonderland-girl143-blog @sapphirecobalt-1@scheodingers-muppet @victor-thee-corvid @apricottree @bookbinderbitch @sleepyboosstuff @biatcgh @pixiefallingupthestairs @grtwdsmwhr @thepainisspicy @carlyv @eboyawstenn @bisexualdisastersworld @bidisastersworld @abstractnaturaldisaster

[that-disabled-princess]

Prompt from @hoothalcyon: "the stages of runaan opening up to ethari enough to start to unmask"

The quickest way to a man's heart is infodumping.

Tags: neurodivergent ruthari, disabled ruthari, getting together, first dates, infodumping, tiny bit of angst

~~

Ethari said yes to a date with him. Ethari Ethari. The craftsman apprentice. 

Runaan paces his bedroom as he chooses his outfit, a pile of discarded clothes slowly growing on his bed.

Style over comfort, wouldn’t want to make a bad impression. The knee support sleeve will do today instead of the brace. Don’t forget your compression gloves.

Don’t stim. Keep your hands still when talking. Be polite. Make eye contact. Watch your tone; Lain is always reminding you of that one.

Lain was the one who introduced Runaan to Ethari in the first place. He and Tiadrin knew him from a project they did together, and invited him into their friend group. Runaan was wary of the change, but his friends said nothing but good things about Ethari, so Runaan was willing to give the change a try.

And now they’re going on an actual date.

He doesn’t know enough about Ethari to feel comfortable unmasking. So far, they only interact when Runaan goes to him for weapons, or when Ethari comes down to the training field to make notes.

Don’t fidget with your cane. And whatever you do, do not infodump.

Taking a deep breath, Runaan pulls on the clothes he’s decided on—a long-sleeve blue crop top and pants with thigh slits—and throws open his door. 

He grabs his cane and bag, and leaves for his date.

~

The date is going well. Runaan smiles and nods as Ethari talks about his work, interjecting in all the right places. He can’t talk about his work. Ethari wouldn’t stay if he remembered he could lose Runaan at any moment. If he realized he would have to risk heartbreak every day.

Besides, murder isn’t exactly a romantic first date topic.

Ethari laughs at something Runaan says about magical gems, and Runaan smiles, subconsciously wiggling his hips a little.

“What’s your favorite type of gem to work with?”

“Oh, how could I pick? They’re all so good for different things and have so many different uses! Some are better for weaponry” —Ethari winks at Runaan, who blushes— “others are better for home items, and others still are good for adding something extra to jewelry! And that’s not to mention their magical properties! My favorite would have to be ocean aquamarines, though; they’re harder to come by around here, but produce the most beautiful magic. Moon and ocean magic work so well together—I mean, the moon and the ocean themselves work in harmony! I’d love to get my hands on a rock from the moon one day...”

Runaan is full-on stimming now, rocking back and forth, recognizing this as infodumping.

Moon, that’s attractive.

“What would you do with a moon rock?”

“I would compare it to a moon opal and see how it reacts with it. And see how my arcanum reacts to it, that would be fascinating! If we can connect to the moon when it’s thousands of miles away, imagine how we would react if we had a piece of it right here with us! Imagine the magical properties!”

Ethari pauses, struggling to catch his breath. He’s breathing heavily as he reaches into his bag for what Runaan recognizes as something that helps check your heart rate.

He isn’t the only one with an emergency medical bag.

For the first time, Runaan also notices the cane resting by Ethari’s feet.

All the revelations about Ethari today make Runaan feel more comfortable. He relaxes as he realizes that Ethari is just like him.

~

They drag out the walk back to Runaan’s place as long as their bodies let them, Runaan infodumping about moonstriders.

They’re holding hands. Runaan’s heart flutters every time Ethari runs his thumb along the back of his hand. 

“Moonstriders are amazing creatures, aren’t they?”

“They are! And they’re fiercely loyal once you bond with them.”

Runaan blinks when he realizes they’ve reached his house. He turns to Ethari. 

“Thank you for walking me home. I would love to do this again.”

“Me too! Same time next week?”

Runaan smiles. “Sure.”

He rocks back and forth, unable to express what he wants. He’s not even sure what he wants.

Ethari lets go of Runaan’s hand and raises his hand to Runaan’s face, watching him for any sign of hesitation.

“Can I kiss you?”

Runaan answers by leaning in, Ethari meeting him halfway as Runaan slides his arm around Ethari’s waist. Their canes clink together, and Runaan drops his to bring his second hand up to Ethari’s neck.

It’s a chaste kiss, soft. Runaan moans softly when Ethari’s thumb brushes his ear.

Runaan only draws back when Ethari starts swaying where he stands.

“Are you alright?”

“Um...” His eyes are unfocused as he brings his hand from Runaan’s cheek to his temple. “I... need to sit down.”

“Come inside. I’ll make you something to eat.”

“Okay.”

Runaan picks up his cane and unlocks his front door, letting Ethari in.

[princessozera]

Actually,

I will elaborate because I finally had the time today. Yes the "burn him at the stake" was still residual from Satan's original valentine card so lets go through a rewrite/ different pov shall we.

Notes before you read: for an insecure MC that also overthinks

Light angst (??? Another middle-of-the-road feel so I'll let you decide)

GN MC (They/Them, 3rd ppov)

No word count bc im mobile.

❤️💔❤️💔❤️💔❤️💔❤️💔❤️💔❤️💔❤️💔❤️💔

Had Satan not asked MC about holidays from across the human realm, they would have never noticed that next week was Valentine’s Day. They didn’t care either way for the holiday, and since it wasn’t widely celebrated in the Devildom, they hadn’t planned on doing anything to commemorate the day passing.

However, in these few weeks since getting Satan’s pact, he’s taken a greater interest in all things human. Satan has been spending more time in their room, much to Mammon’s annoyance, and most of their conversations these days revolve around Satan asking MC a ton of questions about the Human ExperienceTM and MC trying not to generalize too broadly. His interest is endearing, and perhaps that’s why MC ended up agreeing to a small gift exchange and hangout with Satan for valentines day.

" Actually even as a demon-"

MC thinks back to his startling words while they shop for his gift. They hadn't necessarily considered Satan more than a friend before, but his interest was flattering. His excitment had grown on them and made them excited for the exchange, knowing that they'd love whatever he got them. There were so many oddities in the Devildom, what would this little cat bring home?

.

.

.

Woah.

Maybe there should have been a price limit. But how could MC have expected Satan to hand them an intricately carved box, inlaid with opals and filled to the brim with other jewels? They turn a few in their hand and fight down the urge to feel stupidly inadequate- the leather diary in their bag feeling as heavy and unappealing as a brick in this moment.

There isn't much time to linger in their embarassment- they had to choose one gem fast before Satan assumed they would want all of them and think them greedy. Maybe, had it been someone else, they would have saved the gem for the year then sold it in the human world to pay off a few bills. But this was a gift from someone MC had grown to care about and consider a friend. Anyway, how would they keep it safe from Mammon for a year? What could they even use a gem for, a paper weight? That seems almost as disrespectful as selling it for rent. Something useful... could pure emeralds be used as crystal balls?

Ah.

Right.

And just like that, MC is hit in the face with the reality that they overstepped. All it took was a few sweet words and they had gotten too comfortable. Their confusion turns into a bitter taste in their mouth as they drop the gems back into the box. This wasn't a gift exchange between friends or a possible love match, MC was just a novelty and this was an experiment to expand Satan's worldly (or other wordly)- ness.

Embarassed and reeling, they hand the box back over to Satan, mumbling "That's not necessarily true for everyone." He tries to shove the box back into their hands, looking ready to drop it just to force MC into grabbing it.

Right. More items of prestige and ridiculous status because "you're all the same." Of course he would't have any qualms about obtaining and departing with an entire box of gems. He's a demon, and a lord to boot. MC doesnt bother wondering how many lifetimes of work it would take them to get him something of equal value.

Okay maybe hold on to that idea-

Nope, no. Mc shakes their head, both to turn him down and ignore their calling as a super villain. After Satan has taken the box again, they pull out their gift, subtly trying to flatten out the wrinkles in the box and wrapping paper with their thumbs. Satan tucks the box under his arm and opens the gift. He's quite for a moment, turning it and inspecting every detail. His fingers run down the spine and MC feels as if he could see the giant "For Sale!" sign the book had been under. Before MC could defend their choice, Satan turns and tossed the box -probably worth 8 cars- casually on his bed to free up his arm and take a look inside the journal. The outside has been plain brown leather with a few pretty markings, but the pages inside where a green not to far feom Satan eye color, the bottom border lined with trees and a few cats on every page. He takes another minute to admire it before looking up.

Satan is smiling at MC, but it dips and he looks back down at the book. He flips through the pages quickly, and when he looks back up this time, he was pursing his lips. He looks between MC and the book for a few times and MC could swear they heard the gears turning in his head.

Mc's chest isn't quite so tight, knowing that Satan liked the journal. And having him understand why they turned down his gift without having to talk through it was an even bigger relief.

"You're all the same".

It would keep them up on bad nights, but Satan's apology in this moment made it okay for now. He was apologizing over and over again, promising to get them a better gift, that he knew MC wasn't shallow or conceited- it was starting to feel like over kill. To draw the attention away from themselves, MC points out that it's still valentines day. They don't need a present, but how about spending some time cooking together? It was their night and they could use a little help. Satan disagrees on the first part, but with MC's permission, takes their hand and follows them into the kitchen for the second. He's a good debater and convinces MC on a compromise- he helps them cook for the brother but also cooks something for only them 2. He tells them where they'll take their little picnic, a hill overlooking the Devildom, and as he seasons a few steaks he tells them about the bioluminescent flowers that grow there. Satan takes all the prep and cleaning work from MC, still feeling embarassed about his gift slip up from earlier. MC had their hands full watching the stove, they didn't even notice Satan cooking a full 3 course meal and packing a basket while MC finished plating the food for the others.

A light breeze and the smell of ripe apples followed them up the climb to the top of the hill. Satan lays out a meal of fruits, cheese, crackers and steak, hiding the little tiramisu cups he'd bartered off Beel for dessert. The light of flowers was soft but enough to see by. Away from the brothers and with some fresh air in their system, conversation wasn't forced and the moments in silence were also comfortable. Satan opened the journal MC got him and explained in detail how he'd format the pages when writing, talking about the different styles common in the Devildom, and why he'd recently switched from a different format. He encouraged MC to talk about their interests, trying to recall the books on their shelves and the items strewn about their room. Satan even took a page from Asmo's book, asking to compare phone wallpapers and joking about taking a photo right now so thsy could match.

Satan has always been a bit loose with words, influenced by his years of reading both romance and fabtasy books. He hadn't thought much about how he'd implied that he'd woo MC even as a demon. He hadn't thought much about this suggestion of matching wallpapers, it had just flowed into the conversation. So he's surprised to feel his heart beat speed up when MC agrees and curses himself for not taking Asmo's perfect-photo-angle advice more seriously. While it was cute to have matching backgrounds, he couldn't stop himself later that night from changing it to just show MC.

[starlightkun]

❧ word count: 20.1k

❧ warnings: cursing, mentions of death/dead people but as a moral quandary, definitely more legal jargon than there should be i am so sorry (if it doesn’t make sense then it wasn’t important), oh there’s a short scene with a weirdly graphic depiction of eating fruit sorry if that gives you the ick, it gets very existential and kind of angsty at some points in this one in terms of morality around death and reader’s job

❧ genre: fluff, no literally so fluffy it probably should have been in the warnings actually, established relationship, greek gods/goddesses au, hades jaemin, human reader, nades au, paralegal reader, bit of a ham-fisted persephone allegory, inspired by the gods/goddesses assigned to the work it unit in 2020 for this video, appearances by aphrodite johnny, bestie jeno, coworkers kun and sicheng, and galactic-threat level menace yangyang

❧ extra info: this is the sequel to obsidian black, it cannot be read as a standalone!!!

❧ spotify playlist

⤷ series masterlist

Your fingers were still caressing his cheek, softly, he was still holding you with a hand on your back, and he was beholding you with a yearning that made your heart lurch against your ribcage; and you knew in that moment if you asked him for his own heart he would have reached his hand into his chest and given it to you, the organ still beating and dripping crimson.

“Hi, honey, how was work?”

Jaemin was already in your apartment when you got home that night, sitting in his favorite spot in your armchair, book in hand. As you walked around in front of him, you saw that this time his pick was Dracula by Bram Stoker.

“It was alright, lots of revising briefs,” you stretched your neck out. “And what exactly do you do all day while I’m at work anyway?”

“I do own a business, you know.”

“The Underworld is an LLP?” You joked as you stretched your shoulders next.

“An LLC actually,” he quipped back as he flipped to the next page. “But I meant one on Earth.”

“Glad you’ve got something to keep you busy aside from dead people,” you twisted around to crack your back, letting out a groan when you heard a satisfying pop. “Dinner?”

“I know a place nearby.”

And just under forty-five minutes later you were sat beside Jaemin in a private booth at a nice restaurant, drink in hand and food on the table.

“By ‘know a place’ you meant you had surprise reservations,” you declared, affectionately bumping his knee with yours.

“Maybe so,” he grinned, resting an arm over the back of the booth. “Did it work?”

“Depends, what were you hoping it would do?”

“Oh you know, woo you, make you fall madly in love with me, the usual.”

“Hmm,” you pretended to scrutinize your surroundings. “I guess I’m feeling mildly wooed.”

Jaemin suddenly leaned in, and you watched him, breathless, eagerly awaiting his next move. You always enjoyed your back-and-forth, the seamless way you two went around each other, the mutual pushing and pulling. With him this close you reveled in the smell of cedar, cinnamon, and bergamot wafting around you, drawing you in even closer.

“Well then how…” his arm that had been resting on the back of the booth now wrapped around your shoulders, the fingers of that hand gently gracing over the shell of your ear “…about…” his cool fingertips brushed over the back of your neck, raising goosebumps in their wake to then caress over your other ear, “…now?”

Suppressing a giddy smile, you lifted your own hands to feel at your earlobes. You hadn’t been wearing any earrings when you got to the restaurant, but now you could feel jewelry there.

“And what are these?” You asked as you felt over the smooth gems dangling from your ears.

“Opal.”

Your enamored grin finally took over your face, “Okay, I’m officially wooed. The magically appearing earrings got me. Thank you, Jaemin.”

“Success,” he murmured before giving you a fond peck.

His hand stroked up and down your back as you leaned against him, enjoying the quiet that the private booth afforded you.

“You looked tired when you came home, Y/N,” Jaemin commented, and you could hear the hint of worry coloring his tone. “More tired than just proofing briefs.”

You sighed, reaching for your glass to take a sip of your drink, “It was the content of the briefs. I’m usually pretty ambivalent about the morality of the stuff we do at Kim & Moon. But the one that Ms. Haseul had written on this medical malpractice case…”

Your date didn’t speak as he let you find your words.

“The argument she constructed… it was the first time I genuinely just felt… gross about the work I was doing, and all I was doing was proof-reading the thing! I didn’t even write it! And I know Ms. Haseul doesn’t actually believe in what’s in that brief, it’s just a legal argument, it’s all putting together precedent and logic and interpreting the facts of the case. She doesn’t even think it’ll work; she just has a responsibility to try every avenue she can for her client. But… I don’t know. Someone died in this case, Jaemin.”

“They did?”

“Yeah, and I can’t say for sure whether it was because of anything our client did or didn’t do. But the crux of Ms. Haseul’s argument is that our client, as this patient’s medical provider, didn’t owe a duty of care to the patient because the provider wasn’t technically an employee of the hospital due to a bunch of legal stuff, even though our client directly treated them. She said our motion will definitely be denied at the hearing but… it’s scary.”

“Death?”

“Hm?” His question threw off your train of thought for a moment.

“Death is scary?”

“I meant that Ms. Haseul’s duty to her clients involves arguing that medical providers don’t have a duty of care to ensure that their patients don’t die. And that my job involves helping her do that. But yeah, I guess that involves a want to not die. I don’t think not wanting to die and being afraid of dying are the same thing, though.”

“Are you afraid of dying?”

“I… don’t know,” you frowned thoughtfully as you looked down into the mouth of your glass. “I think most people who are, are usually afraid because they don’t how they’ll die or because they don’t know what happens after they die. They’re afraid of the unknown. Which is a pretty good thing to be afraid of. But I’ve been to the Underworld with you, I’m dating Hades himself, for fuck’s sake. I’ve got a fairly good idea of what’ll happen to me after I die. And… I don’t know if I’m afraid of dying.”

“That’s fair. You know more about it than most humans do, but not enough about what your specific experience of dying will be like to make a determination.”

“Really though, I just couldn’t stop imagining living in a world where I could go to a doctor who doesn’t owe me any duty of care, who doesn’t legally have to give a shit if I lived or died,” you sighed, then took a long swig of your drink, well aware that it was mostly diluted by the melted ice by now. “And I don’t want to contribute at all to making that world a reality. I don’t want any part of that, big or small. Even just proof-reading a legal brief. It just… grossed me out.”

You set your glass down on the table a little too harshly, the garish bang making you jump a little.

Looking up to meet the dark eyes that you could feel watching you, you searched them for something, “Jaemin, do you think I’m a hypocrite? I-I have all these opinions, but when it comes down to it, I’m at this job, helping attorneys to write briefs that say all this horrible stuff.”

His gaze was steady as he answered, “I think that if you had to find a new job every time your boss asked you to do something that went against your morals in the slightest way, you’d be spending so much of your time trying to find new jobs that you’d never have the time to actually impact the world in any meaningful way.”

“So that’s a yes.”

“That’s a ‘you proof-reading one brief isn’t going to bring about the end of The Hippocratic Oath and all morality is relative anyway.’”

“Damn, moral relativism…” you clicked your tongue. “Intro to Philosophy flashbacks aside, you might be making some points, Jaemin.”

“Thanks, I try,” he chuckled. Tilting his head to the side, he brought a hand up to grace over your new earrings again, tender but contemplative gaze in his obsidian eyes, “Y/N, do you think I’m a monster?”

His voice wasn’t sad or forlorn, just curious, inquisitive. You took his hand in yours—the one that was looking over the jewelry he’d just gifted you—and squeezed it. It was really more self-soothing than anything else, and he ran his thumb over your bejeweled knuckles in response.

“And where’s this coming from?”

“Humans have a lot of monstrous ideas about death and the dead. I want to know what you think.”

“In my ghost lit class, one of the concepts we discussed was the difference between the monstrous and the divine. I argued that there is no line between the two, that it’s up to how one chooses to interpret what they’re seeing or experiencing.” You brushed the back of your fingers over his cadaverous cheeks, taking comfort in the familiar cold against your skin. “So no, Jaemin, you’re not a monster. Not to me.”

You finally found what you’d been searching for in his eyes, that warmth of evanescing embers that compelled you to keep looking lest you miss the moment the ephemeral glow finally died. Your fingers were still caressing his cheek, softly, he was still holding you with a hand on your back, and he was beholding you with a yearning that made your heart lurch against your ribcage; and you knew in that moment if you asked him for his own heart he would have reached his hand into his chest and given it to you, the organ still beating and dripping crimson. Surging forward, you claimed his lips with your own. He reciprocated your kiss with one that made your head spin and your very bones ache and burn with a craving to both embower him and be consumed by him. Jaemin, god of the Underworld, your Hades.

“Hey, Y/N, I need you to draft a—”

“I’m going on lunch, Sicheng. I can in sixty minutes.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Y/N, will you please help me research this—”

“Qian Kun, the clock just struck 5:00 p.m., the work day is over. I’m going home and you should too.”

“God, sorry, I didn’t even realize. Yes, go home. I still have so much to—”

“I say this with the best intentions and all the platonic, workplace appropriate, and professional love in the world: Don’t make me go into your office and turn your computer off without saving your files.”

“…5:30?”

“Fine. And you know I can check your billing logs in the system, right? I’ll be able to see if you’re here even a minute past 5:30.”

“I know that now.”

“Uh-huh. Goodnight, Kun.”

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

And so went your days at Kim & Moon, helping to conduct the three-ring circus that was Kun, Sicheng, and Yangyang. Despite the legal assistant initially seeming like a trustworthy and responsible ally on your first day, you soon found that he was an accomplice to the madness, or more often than not, the instigator. He was good at his job, and you could rely on him to make sure things got done by deadlines. But when it came to making the workplace itself run smoothly and ensuring your day-to-day lives were stress-free? Absolutely not. He knew exactly how to make his attorneys tick in the worst ways.

Dong “dumber than a box of rocks” Sicheng was the current victim of Yangyang’s boredom today. How he could even get bored with your workload was just a testament to his efficiency, but it irked you that instead of using this free time for good he instead used it to be the menace of the millennium.

“Isn’t that right, Y/N?” Yangyang’s voice suddenly cut into the recording of Ms. Haseul’s voice that was playing into your headphones. His tone clearly begged for you to agree with him.

“Hm?” You took the headphones off and paused the dictation.

Sicheng was standing at Yangyang’s desk, a stapler in his hands. You raised an eyebrow to look between them. This seemed somewhat normal so far.

“All the new staplers now have a safety mechanism so that they won’t staple fingers because a kid stapled all the way through his finger and his parents sued the stapler company for like millions of dollars,” the assistant said with the right amount of casualness, sincerity, and almost disbelief that Sicheng didn’t know this ‘common piece of knowledge.’ “They rolled out the new ones what—ten years ago?”

“You seriously interrupted my transcription for this?” You rolled your eyes. You were about to put your headphones back in when you saw Sicheng tentatively reaching his index finger towards the mouth of the stapler. “No, Sicheng!”

You lurched forward to take the stapler from his hand before he could test the ‘safety mechanism’ on himself. Yangyang had to bury his face in his arms on his desk to stifle his laughter.

“He was lying, wasn’t he?” Sicheng was catching on quicker to when Yangyang was teasing him these days. Not quick enough that you didn’t have to intervene every time you saw it happening, but you had to give him credit somewhere at least. Sometimes you didn’t have to explain to him afterwards the fact that he was being had.

“How did you even become a lawyer, Sicheng? How did you get through law school?” You waved the stapler at him accusatorily. “And I don’t mean grades, I’ve read some of your briefs, so I don’t doubt your 4.0 GPA. I mean how did you not die before you ever got there? How did you not stick a fork in an electrical socket, or eat candy with razorblades in it, or get kidnapped before you met me? I’m convinced you should be dead in a ditch and yet here you are.”

“It’s because he’s pretty,” Kun walked up to your desks then, setting down the papers in his hand to pinch Sicheng’s cheek, and the other attorney swatted his hand away. “People want to do stuff for him.”

Yangyang had sobered up from his laughing fit, teasing glint in his eye now focused on his other attorney, “That why you followed him to Kim & Moon, Kun? To make sure the big bad lawyers here don’t be mean to your pretty Sichengie?”

“So all sense of professionalism and decorum is just out the window right now?” Sicheng scoffed.

“That is not how it happened, Yangyang, and you know it,” Kun rolled his eyes.

“Did you two know each other before you worked at the firm?” You asked, realizing that you didn’t actually know anything about how the two associates had started at Kim & Moon, even after working at the firm for six months now.

Kun took it upon himself to explain, “We were friends in law school. I was a year ahead of Sicheng and after I graduated, I did a short stint at the prosecutor’s office. He came here straight out of law school.”

The other attorney finished the story, “When Kun figured out being a prosecutor wasn’t his thing after a couple years, he came to Kim & Moon as well.”

“That’s cute. Besties who litigate together, stay together. Right Jeno?” You tossed the last question over your shoulder at your friend who was working at his own desk. Jeno gave a thumbs up back without turning around, and you could see that his headphones were definitely in. Returning to the other three men with you, you looked to your fellow assistant, “And what about you, Yang? When did you start working here?”

“Oh you mean the worst day of my life?” Yangyang sighed melodramatically.

“One of these days I’ll record you with my dictaphone when you say that, play it for the senior partners, and you’ll be out of here you little demon,” Sicheng narrowed his eyes at his assistant.

“Anyway, I actually started out as an intern like…” Yangyang craned his neck around until he spotted a tall, lanky figure carrying probably too many boxes of copier toner into the copy room. “Like Sungchan over there. I got an internship here in undergrad because one of my professors knew Mr. Jeong, and I didn’t have anything better to do. Then once I graduated, I had no other plans and was offered a full-time legal assistant position working with Yejin. She was Ms. Haseul’s paralegal before you, Y/N. She used to do all of Ms. Haseul and Sicheng’s work by herself. They wanted to have Kun start medical malpractice too, so I came on as more support.”

“And when was that?”

“I came on full time a little before Jeno started I think?” Yangyang grabbed a pen from his desk, spinning his chair around and throwing the pen at said man. It missed Jeno’s head, thankfully, smacking against one of his monitors and clattering onto his keyboard. Your friend whipped around, immediately focusing in on your chaotic coworker as the source.

“What?”

“When was your first day at the firm?”

“I don’t know, summer like two years ago now?”

“Sounds about right. Thanks.”

“I’m keeping the pen, asshole.”

“I have more.” Yangyang shrugged, once again turning back to your conversation. “So I started full-time probably May that same year.”

“You are a galactic-threat level menace,” you shook your head. “You know that, right?”

“Don’t compliment him, Y/N,” Kun sighed.

Laid in Jaemin’s arms one night, feeling full, warm, and content, you couldn’t think of anywhere else you wanted to be in that moment. Dinner had been exceptionally delicious that night, and when you got back to your apartment you wanted nothing but to curl up with him on your couch, which he easily indulged you in. He picked a couple books off your shelf, plopped down onto your couch, and pulled you down on top of him. You nearly melted when he tucked you under his chin, and had been in a hazy state of half-consciousness since. Your eyes would occasionally flutter open or shut as you listened to his heartbeat under your ear, the sound of his fingers running along the pages as he turned them, and felt his chest rise and fall with his breaths. His arms were wrapped around you enough to read the book behind your head—The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, you’d caught a glimpse of the cover. You knew when he’d found a passage that he was exceptionally taken with or wanted to ponder, because one of his hands—the right one, specifically—would fall to the small of your back just under the hem of your shirt, his middle finger drawing mindless circles along your skin until he was ready to move on.

This particular part seemed to be stumping him, though, as his fingers ruminated on your back for much longer than they had before. Before you could comment on this, you let out an embarrassing noise at the sudden feeling of his cool fingertips working their way up your spine then along your shoulder blades, caressing your skin and pressing on your body playfully.

“Jaemin!” You coughed to cover up the squeak in your voice. “What are you doing?”

“Just checking for wings, I know they’ve got to be around here somewhere,” his words hummed against you as you continued to wriggle away from the ticklish feeling.

His book had apparently been set aside at some point, as you felt both his hands on you. When you’d finally managed to twist yourself onto your back, albeit still on top of him, he gave up his ministrations.

You couldn’t help the tiny bursts of laughter that continued to bubble up out of you at the pure cheesiness, “After thousands of years, you still can’t get better lines than that?”

You grabbed his hand, holding your linked hands to your chest, a fond smile on your lips as you looked down at his fingers between yours. He kept you tucked under his chin, wrapping his left arm around your waist as you had already claimed his right.

“Why would I want to when they make you giggle like that?” He then splayed his right palm over your chest, and you could feel your heartbeat thrum up against it as if your heart were trying to leap into his waiting hand, “And make your heart race like this?”

Another few moments passed by of the two of you quietly listening to your heartbeat before you spoke up again; softly, absentmindedly, the words leaving your mouth as soon as you thought them, “Sometimes I feel more like Icarus with you, actually.”

“How do you mean?”

“I swear sometimes it feels like it’s just too good to be true, like I’m too happy and if I’m not careful it’ll all melt away and I’ll fall into the ocean.”

“You do remember the other part, right? Icarus was warned that if he flew too low, the seawater would weigh down his wings.”

“…You’re right.”

“Of course I am,” he said, and you could hear the smug smile in his voice, annoyed that it actually kind of made you feel better. The fact that your Hades was so confident about something, it made you want to believe in it too. His right hand moved from your chest so that two of those fingers could lift your chin. Once you were looking up at him, he continued, “Besides, you don’t have beeswax wings anyway, you have angel wings, remember?”

You let out something between a scoff and a chuckle, both in disbelief that he was still on about that, and also absolutely smitten with him as usual.

Knowing that he didn’t have you convinced or cheered up enough for his liking, Jaemin’s other hand snaked to the space in between his chest and your back, fingers playing at the bones of your shoulder blades once more. “Aha! I’ve finally found them, Y/N, they’re right here! I told you you’ve got angel wings!”

The longer he went on the more his fingers drifted around to your sides to tickle you instead, and you squirmed in his grip as both his hands participated in the assault, you soon falling from your previous spot on top of him. His arms darted out to gently guide your tumble, twisting himself around to make sure that you landed on the couch cushions instead of the ground.

“Jaemin!” You yelped out as the breath was being squeezed from your lungs.

He quickly let up his tickle attack, now hovering over you, supported by a hand on either side of your head. You looked up at your Hades with a bright grin that surely mirrored his, reaching up to grab his face with both your hands and kiss that smile right off him.

“Anything else on the agenda, Y/L/N?” Ms. Haseul prompted you.

“No, ma’am,” you shook your head, having crossed off the final thing. You’d just concluded your monthly team meeting for everyone under Ms. Haseul’s purview at the office.

“Does anybody have anything to add?”

At the other three shaking their heads, Ms. Haseul dismissed everyone, already efficiently packing up her supplies in her briefcase.

“Y/L/N, don’t forget to send that memo to Mr. Moon and Lee Donghyuck,” she reminded you on her way out, referencing the managing partner and his trusted paralegal.

“Of course, Ms. Haseul.” You nodded, but she was already out the door.

The other four of you were a little slower to leave. You cracked your back as you stood, “Alright, I’m going to the break room to grab a cup of coffee, anybody coming with?”

“I have to jump on a conference call in a couple minutes, but could someone get me a cup?” Sicheng asked from the threshold of the doorway. “The orange K-cups, two sugars.”

“Sure, Sicheng, I’ll grab you one,” you nodded for him to go ahead, and he immediately disappeared down the hall.

“Y/N, what did I tell you about telling him no?” Yangyang chastised you as he tucked his pen behind his ear. “All those suffragettes didn’t chain themselves to stuff for you to give in to the patriarchy so easily.”

“Yangyang, I’m really starting to think that you’re just one of those guys who took a singular Women and Gender Studies class in college and hasn’t shut up since.”

“I think Yangyang is one of those guys who was born and hasn’t shut up since,” Kun scoffed under his breath.

But your fellow assistant wasn’t letting it go, “Y/N, seriously—”

“Liu Yangyang, it’s a cup of coffee, and I’m already going there anyway. If you asked me to make you a cup and I was already going, I’d say yes too. If Sicheng asks me to wash his car or clean his apartment, I promise I’ll say no.” You rolled your eyes. “Anyway, are you coming with to watch me singlehandedly take away my right to vote by making a man a cup of coffee or not?”

“Yeah, fine.”

“Can we go then?” Kun asked sternly, clearly waiting by the door for the two of you to stop bickering. The twitch of his hand belied that he was itching for his caffeine fix. Presumably his fourth or fifth cup at least. He must have pulled a late night or early morning. Or both.

“Oh and we’ve even got Kun to witness the downfall of gender equality as we know it!” You cheered in mock enthusiasm.

“Do I want to know what the hell you two are talking about?”

Jeno was already in the breakroom when you got there, pouring creamer into his own cup of coffee. He stepped aside for the attorney to use the machine as you and Yangyang struck up conversation with your friend.

“Did you guys see that email Mr. Jeong sent to all the support staff this morning?” Jeno asked, shaking in some sugar.

“About the Administrative Staff Appreciation Lunch tomorrow?” You confirmed. “Yeah, I’d feel a lot more appreciated if they could get somewhere nicer than the pizza place down the street to cater.”

“Or just get an open bar,” Yangyang snorted. “No lunch necessary.”

As you and Jeno groaned out your agreement, Kun had finished making his black coffee, freeing up the machine for you to start on yours and Sicheng’s.

The attorney was on his way out but slowed to a stop in the threshold of the doorway, turning and lowering his voice to address the three of you, “You didn’t hear this from me, but all of the associates were taken out for an appreciation lunch just last week at Nobu. You all deserve much more than pizza.”

And with that, he left the break room.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jeno spat out, setting his cup down and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oh now I definitely need a fucking drink,” you sighed, violently snapping Sicheng’s orange K-cup into place.

“I’m going to key somebody’s Tesla,” Yangyang whispered resolutely, curling one of his hands into a fist.

“No, Yangyang.” You shook your head, grabbing the two sugar packets you’d need in a minute. “No property damage. Or no property damage in our parking garage with cameras. Lord knows I’m not paying your bail.”

Your best friend took over, “What we need is a drink, or five. Tomorrow after work?”

Yangyang grabbed a coffee stirrer and gestured around wildly as he spoke. “Oh yeah, especially after that fucking insulting pizza party they’re throwing us.”

“We can invite all the support staff. At least the ones we actually like,” Jeno suggested. “Us three, Lee Donghyuck, Osaki Shotaro in Billing, uh, Sungchan the intern…”

As he trailed off, you all looked at each other.

“And that’s it, right?” Jeno asked.

“Our coworkers kind of suck, don’t they?” Yangyang mused, chewing on the plastic stirrer.

“Or are we just assholes?” You locked your own K-cup into the coffee machine.

That night you were sprawled out on your couch, legs propped up in Jaemin’s lap as you anxiously scrolled through restaurant recommendations on your phone. Every Saturday night you and Jaemin tried a new place, and this week it was your turn to pick, but you were yet to find one, fearing that the two of you had finally ran out of restaurants in your city. Jaemin, meanwhile, was reading another book from your ghost lit syllabus, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. You swore he’s read more of those books than you ever did, and you actually paid to take the class.

A text popping up on your screen from Jeno caught your eye.

[make it double: you’re DD tomorrow, right?]

[you: i am. might have other plans though, let me double check]

[make it double: don’t make me pay for an uber please]

“Jaemin,” you called out his name softly.

“Yes?” He put his thumb in the novel to hold his place as he looked over to you attentively.

You’d think that you’d get used to this, your Hades’ full attention on you, head lolling to the side as his gaze drank you in, black hair falling into his eyes, and fingertips messing with the edges of the pages absentmindedly. But you still weren’t, your breath hitching in your throat for a moment, your question being momentarily forgotten.

After a beat, you finally regained your speech and were able to say, “Some of my coworkers want to go out for drinks after work tomorrow, but I know that’s your time that I gave you.”

“I can come a couple hours late and we’ll add an hour each to Saturday and Sunday,” Jaemin suggested.

“Here’s the thing: tomorrow is a Friday, and Jeno and I have been taking turns DD’ing whenever we go out since college, and it’s my turn.”

“You’re anticipating a late night.” He surmised.

“I’m anticipating taking care of a drunk Lee Jeno until midnight then passing out as soon as I get home. I can’t imagine I’ll be much fun to be around after.”

“And you want to go get drinks with these people?” He clarified with an eyebrow raised.

“I know I’m not making it sound appealing but yes, I promise,” you chuckled.

“Just checking that this wasn’t a cry for help.” Jaemin tucked his bookmark in the novel to fully set it aside. “How about we move those eight hours to Saturday or Sunday then? Instead of arriving at six p.m., I'll get here at ten a.m. and we can spend the day together too.”

You squinted skeptically at him, “Can you even go out during the day? Won’t the sun burn you or light you on fire or make you glitter or something?”

“I’m the god of the dead, angel, not a vampire from a teen movie.”

“I know, just teasing,” you snickered.

“And I know you were just teasing. I love to see the little smile you get on your face in the middle of one your bits. Too adorable.”

He grabbed your free hand, and you watched him fondly as he kissed your fingers before letting your linked hands rest over your stomach.

You continued your weekend planning, “I’ll need to recuperate from Friday night and run some errands on Saturday, so a Sunday date sounds perfect. For sixteen hours straight, you’re mine.”

“I’m yours all the time,” he squeezed your hand.

“You know what I meant, you sap.” You rolled your eyes despite how warm his words made you feel inside. With the daytime suddenly available to you, a destination immediately popped into your mind, “And no making big romantic plans, I’ve got it this time; I know exactly where I want to take you for our first daytime date.”

“Understood. I can’t wait.”

Sunday morning you were practically skipping through town, relishing in the warm sun on your skin and the feeling of Jaemin’s fingers laced through yours. You came to a stop at an intersection, waiting impatiently for the lights to change so you could cross. Bouncing on your heels, you could feel your Hades’ gaze on you, even through the dark sunglasses he was wearing.

“What?” You asked, taking your eyes off the crosswalk signal to look over at him.

“Nothing.” He was grinning at you, hair getting blown around by the passing cars. His shirt was made of a loose-fitting, flowy material with a deep-cut V-neckline, showing off an assortment of fine silver chains with pendants and gems. Even the leather belt around his hips betrayed a subtle expensiveness, the impression of a designer brand’s logo on the buckle.

He pressed a chaste kiss to your cheek, making a smile spread across your face in turn.

“Oh, signal’s changed,” he pointed out.

The rest of your walk didn’t take long, and finally you had arrived.

“Art museum?” Jaemin questioned as you tugged him towards the front doors.

“Yep!” You were buzzing, and fought to keep your voice down once you passed the threshold into the quiet building.

He bought your tickets, and you accepted the informational pamphlet from the worker behind the front desk that listed the exhibits, quickly tucking it into your handbag.

The first gallery was just behind the ticket counter, and was one of the largest, mostly for paintings. You stopped Jaemin at the very first one by the door.

“I brought Jeno here exactly once,” you whispered. “You see how big this gallery is? He cleared the whole thing in like two minutes then waited for me at the door literally tapping his foot.”

“There’s like a hundred paintings in here,” Jaemin pointed out in disbelief, looking around the gymnasium-sized room.

“I know. I’ve been back by myself and spent over two hours in just this gallery alone. Saw the docents switch out like four times.”

Looping your arm through his, you leaned against your Hades to look over the first painting. You liked to just absorb the piece in front of you, ruminate on it, really ground yourself in what you were looking at. Sometimes you read the small information card next to it about the artist and the piece. But mostly you looked at the subject, the brush strokes, the colors and how they blended into each other—or didn’t. It was relaxing. Sometimes the paintings made you feel things, and sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they were just pretty to look at.

Jaemin was quiet for the most part, occasionally commenting when he especially enjoyed a painting, or to respond to something you said. But generally the two of you were silent, and you were satisfied that you’d found the perfect art museum companion. He never dragged you from a painting before you were done with it and even wanted to stay with some longer than you did.

The museum had three levels, the second was split into two smaller galleries, this time with sculptures, drawings, and etchings. After you and your Hades were done with that one, you found it difficult not to practically run up the stairwell to the third and final floor, knowing exactly what was waiting for you there.

“Okay, Jaemin, so this museum has something kind of special,” you forewarned him, pressing your lips together in an attempt to fight off your excited smile. “Or, I hope it’ll be special. I think it’s special, you know, for you.”

He tilted his head curiously at you as the two of you reached the top of the stairs, “Okay. It’s up here?”

“Yeah, yeah, come on,” you took him by the hand to pull him towards the entrance door to the final gallery.

The gallery you had entered was void of other patrons; and sectioned up into several smaller areas, many stark white pedestals displaying vases, urns, trinkets, with a large marble sculpture of a woman at the center as the focal point. Your focus was entirely on Jaemin’s face as you held your breath, waiting for his reaction. His eyes widened as he scanned the contents of the room.

“It’s…”

“An Ancient Greece exhibit,” you finished his sentence, drawing his eyes back to you. You fidgeted with your ring nervously, “What… uhm— Do you like it? Like, do you want to look around? This isn’t weird, is it?”

Jaemin brushed a piece of your hair back from your face, the tenderness of his touch making your chest swell. He pulled you closer, kissing your forehead before pulling back to look you in the eye.

“This is great, angel, thank you.”

At his words, you let out an audible sigh of relief. Your Hades’ obsidian irises were twinkling in the museum fluorescents as he looked at you with pure adoration.

“I love you,” he declared simply, earnestly, for the first time. “And, I’ll never love someone exactly like this again.”

You nodded in understanding, “I love you too, Jaemin. And, I believe you.”

He was still holding you, and despite the emptiness of the exhibit you were currently in, you were aware of the fact that it was a public museum that you two were in.

“Jaemin…” you murmured, listening to the docent’s footsteps in the other room. “Don’t you want to look at all the stuff?”

“In a second,” his tender gaze roamed your face. “Right now I’m looking at something more beautiful.”

“Oh God, you’re so chee—” Your retort was cut off by Jaemin finally pressing his lips to yours.

Blearily looking around your room, you realized that it was vacant in the only way that mattered. Jaemin was gone, and you didn’t remember getting into bed last night. You were pretty sure you had fallen asleep on your couch with your Hades after getting back from your long day out. Half-sitting up against your headboard, you grabbed your phone from your nightstand to check the time. You still had five minutes until your work alarm went off. Flopping back down, you were fully intent on dozing back off, and rolled over to face the empty half of your bed.

Except it wasn’t quite empty. Atop the second pillow was a small black box. When you reached out to grab it, you felt the velvet that encased it, and pushed yourself up onto your side, held up by an elbow. It was a jewelry case of some kind. Flipping the lid open, you took a sharp breath in. Inside was a gorgeous necklace; a teardrop-shaped gemstone the size of your thumbnail in a deep red shade, surrounded by smaller white diamonds, and hanging from a dainty silver chain.

Clicking on your bedside lamp, you were able to get a better look at the center stone. It was a dark, cool red, with just the slightest tone of purple when you held it up in front of the light. Outside of direct light, it was so dark you couldn't even call it blood red. Pomegranate red, you thought to yourself. It was the color of fresh, bursting pomegranate seeds.

Unlatching the hook, you carefully clasped it back around your neck. The crystal wasn’t obnoxiously weighty, but you could feel the subtle pressure of it as it rested against your bare skin.

“Thank you, Jaemin,” you mumbled, eyes trailing over the unoccupied sheets longingly. “I love it.”

“Damn, Y/N,” Yangyang whistled lowly as you walked into work that morning, eyeing the gems adorning your fingers, ears, and now neck. “Did you get a sugar daddy or something? You’ve got an entire jewelry shop on you.”

“Oh, uhm, no,” you shook your head, warmth spreading across your face. No sugar daddy, just the god of the Underworld.

“Mind sharing with the class where all the new bling is coming from then?”

You looked up from where your fingertip had been gently gracing the pomegranate red gem that hung from your neck to stare Yangyang directly in the eyes as you scoffed, “Actually, I would mind, thanks.”

“Bet she’s moonlighting as a cat burglar,” Jeno teased from his desk.

“Ooh, that’s a good guess,” Yangyang nodded, eyes gleaming as he continued that avenue of jibes. “Mafia boss’ daughter maybe? Y/N, what does your dad do for a living?”

The ringing of your desk phone saved you from having to respond to that. It was your boss.

“Y/L/N,” she was as monotone as ever, voice giving no indication as to her thoughts or intentions. “My office, please.”

“Yes ma’am,” you assented before placing the phone back on the receiver.

Standing from your seat, you gave Yangyang and Jeno a professionally concealed middle finger down by your thigh, earning giggles from Jeno and indignant protests from Yangyang. You coolly dropped the offending gesture to grab your company tablet, a notepad, and pencil before departing the open floor for the hallway of private offices.

You stopped in front of one partway down the hall, in the midst of the junior partners’ offices. ‘Jo Haseul’ was engraved on the nameplate in an elegant font, and you rapped your knuckles below it on the solid wood door.

“Come in,” the familiar voice of your boss called out from within.

Gently turning the handle first, you then pushed the door open.

“Good morning, Ms. Haseul,” you bowed your head politely to her.

Junior partners at the firm allowed the assistants and paralegals to address them by a formal version of their name, the associates were just addressed by their given name, but senior partners and the managing partner were of course always addressed in the most formal vernacular, Mr./Ms. Surname. Not that you really interacted with anybody higher up than Ms. Haseul anyway.

“Good morning, Y/L/N. Please, sit.” She gestured to one of the two armchairs in front of her desk.

“Thank you,” you replied quietly, taking the seat she had indicated. You quickly opened up your tablet to view her calendar and readied your pencil over your notepad. Ms. Haseul typically had a sit-down meeting with you every Monday morning to discuss the upcoming week: deadlines, hearings, meetings, etc.

Ms. Haseul took a moment to click a few things on her desktop, “Looks like we have those Hwang discovery responses due Thursday. I’ll finish dictating those this morning and you can get started on transcription today. This morning I have my hearing on the Motion to Dismiss in Lee that you filed last month. Mediation on Wednesday for Alpine Products, we sent out those letters on it, right?”

“Yes, ma’am, two weeks ago,” you confirmed, scribbling down the key events. “You also have a teleconference with the insurance company for that file this afternoon.”

“Yes, I see…” she mused, a twinge of annoyance in her tone that was only discernable to the trained ear—i.e., yours. You knew she didn’t like the insurance rep assigned to that case, he tended to be a pain in the ass constantly asking for updates. “Where are we at in scheduling the expert witness depositions for Peng?”

You filled her in on all your progress in various matters, attentively writing down her directives in response to your reporting. Finally, you had finished out the calendar for the week, as well as your works in progress.

“One last thing before I let you go, Y/L/N,” she cleared her throat.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“I have a new client meeting tonight.”

“You do? I don’t remember scheduling one,” you flipped through the calendar on your tablet in mild panic. You hadn’t booked a conference room or let building security know about an evening meeting.

“You didn’t schedule it, don’t worry.”

Your boss’ words immediately made you let out a short sigh of relief. It wasn’t long lasting, as you still needed to handle arrangements on your end, “How many will be in attendance? Will you want Jade Conference Room or Malachite? Would you like me to stay to scribe?”

“It’s a dinner meeting, so the conference room won’t be necessary.”

“Understood.”

“I would like you to come, though, Y/L/N.”

You felt your eyes bug out, stylus slipping from your fingers. Ms. Haseul never asked you to come to meetings outside of the office. Sure, you would act as scribe for some of her meetings in the office, but you’d never accompanied her to a lunch or dinner meeting.

She continued, “This will be a general corporate client, and I anticipate having them on for quite some time. You’re familiar with corporate matters, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am, that was my concentration in my paralegal studies, and you of course have several corporate clients currently.”

“I plan on having you act as case manager for this client. This dinner will be a good way for you to be introduced.”

“Of course, I’m honored, Ms. Haseul.”

The corner of her mouth quirked up just the slightest, “Good. The meeting is at Nobu in downtown. We will leave from the office at the end of the day. Change on your lunch if you need to.”

You looked down at your outfit, your typical office wear. The office’s dress code was business formal, which you made sure to follow to a T. She wanted you to wear something else?

“A little dressier but less formal,” your boss spoke again, as if reading your thoughts. “Think office Christmas party.”

An image of a suitable outfit flashed in your mind, and you nodded, “Right, thank you. I’ll change on my break.”

“That is all I have. You’re dismissed for this morning, Y/L/N. I have to prepare for that hearing now. I'll be leaving at 9:00 a.m.”

At her dismissal of you, you got back onto your feet, bowed your head to her again and departed her office. The heavy door closed with a soft click behind you. You held the pencil, notepad, and tablet in one hand as the other reached up to play with the jewel hanging from your neck. Looks like you wouldn’t be seeing your Hades until tomorrow night.

You stepped out of the company car that Ms. Haseul had driven you there in and followed her towards the restaurant. Nobu was a high-end sushi restaurant downtown, much out of your everyday dinner price-range, but you figured she’d be paying with her firm credit card since this was a business dinner.

The hostess greeted you brightly, to which Ms. Haseul informed her of your reservation.

“Of course, right this way,” she grabbed four menus before guiding you further into the restaurant.

You two were brought to a private room, and the hostess slid the door open for you. As you sat down at the table that was within, you marveled at the aesthetics of the restaurant. It fused traditional style with modernism in a way that was effortless. The menus were set down in front of each of the four chairs at the table. Your waiter came by soon, and Ms. Haseul put in an order for four waters while you waited for the clients to arrive.

The door suddenly opened again, and two men entered the room. Your eyes were first drawn to the taller of the two, who entered ahead of his colleague. He had roughly shoulder-length wavy blonde hair that was half pulled back from his face, and he was so stunning you could hardly believe that he was anything other than a model. He was wearing an all-white suit, a bold move for a dinner. When your gaze moved from the gorgeous man to his companion, you choked on your own throat. Black hair, dark eyes, silver and gems glittering across his ears. Jaemin cocked an eyebrow at you when you made eye contact with him. He was in a similar ensemble as to when he first appeared to you: black slacks, black suit jacket, and black vest. This time, however, he did have a dress shirt underneath the vest, the top buttons buttoned up as the silver chains that hung from his neck rested atop the crisp material.

Thankfully your boss took the lead on introductions, allowing you a moment to attempt to compose yourself. She stood up from her chair to greet them, as did you.

“Thank you both very much for coming, I’m Jo Haseul,” she bowed to both of them, and you rushed to follow suit from your position beside and just behind her. Ms. Haseul then gestured for you to come forward, “Mr. Suh, Mr. Na, this is my paralegal, Ms. Y/L/N Y/N. She will be your first point of contact on all matters. She’s incredibly capable and reliable. So please, reach out to her with whatever you need.”

While the open and high praise from your boss should’ve made your chest puff out with pride, instead it practically went in one ear out the other. Jaemin, your Hades, was standing right in front of you. It took everything in you to draw your eyes from him and to the floor to once again bow appropriately to him and the other man.

“Yes, please contact me with anything at all. I will do everything I can to assist you as treasured clients,” you declared respectfully before standing back up straight.

“Thank you, Ms. Jo, and of course thank you very much too, Ms. Y/L/N,” Mr. Suh was the one who acknowledged your words.  “We will be sure to contact you as needed. I’m Johnny Suh and this is my business partner, Na Jaemin.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Suh, Mr. Na.”

“Shall we eat, then?” Ms. Haseul suggested, prompting all of you to sit at the private table.

You took the same seat as you did before, a prick of disappointment in your chest as Johnny, not Jaemin, sat across from you. It took everything in you not to scoff and roll your eyes at yourself. What exactly would Jaemin sitting across from you accomplish? It’s not like you could do anything that indicated your knowing him prior to this meeting, especially not in the way that you do.

After drinks had been brought out and your appetizer orders were put in, Ms. Haseul began pushing her chair back, “Excuse me for a moment; ladies’ room.”

A few silent moments after she departed the private room, Mr. Suh had already finished off his drink and grabbed his empty glass. He shook it to make the ice inside clink, “I’m going to get a refill at the bar. Ms. Y/L/N, Jaemin, anything for you two while I’m there?”

“Oh, no thank you, Mr. Suh,” you hurriedly shook your head, nervous fingers twitching around your own half-full glass.

“Jaemin?”

He waved off his business partner, “I’m good, Johnny. But thank you.”

“‘Course,” he too, then exited the room.

Leaving just you and your Hades.

You finally spoke to Jaemin for the first time since being introduced, leaning forward to ask quietly, “Jaemin, don’t take this the wrong way but what the fuck are you doing here?”

A smirk came to his lips, “I told you I own a legitimate business.”

“You’re not expecting me to believe that this is an honest coincidence, are you?”

“No, of course not.” Any teasing immediately dropped out of his tone. “I obviously know what firm you work at, the best in the city. Why would I not hire the best firm in the city for my business? It would be irresponsible not to.”

“Did you request Ms. Haseul be your attorney?”

“No, she was recommended by the managing partner. And again, it would be irresponsible of me to not heed the recommendation to the best, most promising junior partner who specializes in corporate matters.”

With your worries somewhat placated, you relaxed back in your seat, “Fine. Thank you for telling me the truth.”

“Of course,” Jaemin reached across the table to brush his fingertips over the back of your hand. His fingers sparkled even in the dim light of the restaurant from the multitude of rings across his knuckles, as did yours. “I’m sorry. Does this make you uncomfortable? I’m sure we can use another attorney at the firm if you’d like. Mr. Moon mentioned a different partner too, uh, Ms. Kang?”

“And let Lee Jeno be your case manager? Absolutely not.” You retorted.

He chuckled at that, switching to smoothing circles into your skin, “Thank you, Y/N.”

“Yeah, yeah. So, your business partner, ‘Mr. Suh,’ is he... another god?”

“Smart, as always. Aphrodite.”

“I thought Aphrodite was a woman.”

“Sometimes,” he shrugged nonchalantly. “He seems to like this form right now. Changes it up every century or two.”

You mulled over this information in your mind. It certainly explained your initial idea that ‘Mr. Suh’ must’ve been some kind of model. And yet, as you looked over Jaemin’s features, you came to the conclusion that the goddess of beauty had nothing on your Hades and his haunting elegance.

“I see that you got the necklace,” he changed gears in the conversation, nodding towards where the jewel sat on your chest, easily seen with the top you were wearing.

You reached up to touch the jewelry in question, “Yes, thank you. It’s beautiful.”

“It looks even more stunning on you than I thought it would.”

“Jaemin...” You were supposed to have said his name in warning, but as your skin grew hot with equal parts embarrassment and giddiness, it came out as more of a whine.

The sound of heels clicking outside made you jerk your hand back from his, placing both of your own in your lap just a moment before Ms. Haseul opened the door. Your Hades nonchalantly picked up his drink again.

Ms. Haseul took stock of just you and Jaemin in the room, “Where’s Mr. Suh?”

“He went to get his drink refilled at the bar,” Jaemin explained as your boss took her seat once more. “Should be back soon.”

Right then the door opened once again, and the blonde man entered, amber brown drink in hand.

“Ah, speak of the devil,” your Hades let out a short laugh. “Were your ears burning, Johnny?”

“Oh, you all were talking about me?” The man grinned. “I hope you weren’t poisoning them against me, Jaemin.”

“Only bad things, John, you know that.”

“Why must you wound me at every opportunity?”

“Because you give me so many.”

You giggled at their banter, feeling yourself become a little more comfortable with your Hades there.

At the end of the dinner, after Mr. Suh had paid the bill at his insistence, the four of you were stood at the front of the restaurant.

“Thank you again for paying, Mr. Suh,” you bowed your head to him.

“No worries, I was happy to,” he waved off your thanks.

“It was a pleasure to meet you both, Ms. Jo, Ms. Y/L/N,” Jaemin spoke up, dazzling grin sweeping you off your feet for a moment. “We’re looking forward to working with you and your firm.”

“As are we,” Ms. Haseul said graciously. “I’m afraid we must be going. I have to take Y/L/N home before attending to something urgent.”

“Oh Ms. Haseul, you can go take care of whatever you need to, I’ll take a cab,” you assured her. “Please, you’ve done so much for me tonight, I can worry about getting myself home.”

“Very well, if you’re sure. Thank you, Y/L/N. See you in the morning,” she gave both you and the two gentlemen with you a final wave goodbye. “Goodnight, everyone.”

She hurried to the black company car that was parked just a little further down the block.

“I’ll go get the car,” Mr. Suh said to Jaemin. “Jaemin, if you could assist Ms. Y/L/N in hailing a cab.”

“Of course.”

And with that, Mr. Suh took off around the building towards the parking deck on the other side of the restaurant. And for the second time that night, you were alone with your Hades.

He stepped up towards the edge of the sidewalk, holding out a hand to passing traffic. You took the quiet moment as an opportunity to observe Jaemin, letting yourself bask in his presence. That same stubborn lock of his black hair had come out of place during dinner was now falling in his eyes. A nearby streetlight illuminated him from above, his unearthly features awash in a soft glow. Jaemin was stoically focused on the task at hand, a satisfied smile crossing his face as a taxi pulled over and stopped right in front of the two of you.

Wordlessly, he opened the back door for you.

“Thank you, Jaemin,” you stepped up to the vehicle.

“See you in a few, angel.”

“Right. See you.”

You climbed into the taxi, Jaemin’s cool hand on the small of your back as you did so. He gave you a wink before closing the door behind you.

The cab stopped in front of your apartment building, and you quickly paid the driver before getting out. Your apartment door swung closed behind you, and you locked up before making your way further into your home. Knowing that Jaemin would be arriving soon, you quickly kicked off your shoes and went to get into your pajamas.

Right as you walked back out of your bedroom, you heard your name being called from the living room. Turning the corner, you couldn’t help the smile that immediately came to your face when you saw your Hades standing there. He was in the same outfit as dinner, and your heart started thudding at the image of such a handsome man being there, in your living room.

“Jaemin,” you said his name in delight.

He’d just turned around before you got to him, catching him in a hug. Jaemin’s arms immediately wrapped around your waist, pulling you flush to him. Yours were around his neck, squeezing him tight, happy to just feel him there in your arms.

“Well, hey there,” he laughed. “Did you not just see me ten minutes ago?”

“I know, but I couldn’t do this ten minutes ago.”

“You could’ve, but your boss might’ve had a couple questions.”

“And she’d probably have a couple more if I did this.” You pulled your head back from where it was resting in the crook between his neck and shoulder, so that you could be face-to-face. With no hesitation, you threaded the fingers of one hand in the back of his hair and pulled his mouth to yours.

Your Hades smiled against your lips, thumbs rubbing circles into your hips. With his grip on your waist, he could easily guide you with him down the hall towards your bedroom, mouth still locked with yours.

You were sat on your kitchen counter later that night, passing a spoon back and forth with Jaemin to polish off the last of your ice cream.

“Does Mr. Suh—? Aphrodite? What should I call him?” You cut yourself off with a thoughtful frown, stumbling over what exactly to call the god-slash-client you’d met tonight.

“Johnny is fine since it’s just you and me right now,” Jaemin accepted the spoon you held out to him.

“Does Johnny know? About me, and what we actually are?”

Your Hades swallowed the spoonful he’d just popped into his mouth, returning the utensil to you, “No, I had no reason to tell him when you and I first made our agreement and now… if I told him he’d think I made the deal for your soul, no matter what I said. He likes to think that he gives me the benefit of the doubt, but he doesn’t.”

“Mm… Alright, I trust that you know him better than I do.”

“Yeah, for thousands of years. He’s a good business partner, but he can be a condescending little bitch.”

You couldn’t help but snicker at this, “Really?”

“Yeah, Johnny usually handles the client-facing side of the company while I do the back-office stuff, because according to him I ‘give clients the heebie-jeebies.’”

“You are the god of the dead, Jaemin,” you reminded him with a giggle, wiping away a stray drop of ice cream at the corner of his pout.

“I know, and that’s what makes us great business partners. I don’t want to do client meetings, I’m not good at them, he loves them, he wants to do them. Vice versa for the back-office things. But he said that like I didn’t know that already when this whole operation was my idea anyway. I factored my heebie-jeebies into the plan. The heebie-jeebies were accounted for long before he ever came into the picture, and he gently put his hand on my shoulder like he was the first person to ever explain this to me.”

“Oh of course. The audacity, to underestimate your business acumen and foresight to calculate for heebie-jeebies.” You nodded, putting on your best serious face despite the urge to laugh.

Jaemin looked you dead in the eye, then sighed, “You can laugh, Y/N.”

You immediately let out a round of giggles, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, hearing you say heebie-jeebies so much, and so seriously I just—”

“You’re right, it’s a bit juvenile,” he shook his head, face finally cracking into a smile as he plunged the spoon back into the ice cream container.

“A warning would’ve been nice, by the way.”

“A warning?” Your Hades asked through a mouthful of ice cream. “For what?”

“That you were hiring Ms. Haseul as your attorney. I understand why you’d want to use her, but not why you chose not to give me at least a little heads-up.”

He shrugged, “I thought it’d be a fun surprise.”

“Fun for you or for me?” You scoffed.

“Would you believe me if I said you?” Jaemin dug up another big spoonful of ice cream, holding it out for you this time.

“Would you believe me if I said I believed that?” You rolled your eyes, but opened your mouth for him to feed you anyway.

“No, not at all.”

A glance at your microwave clock made you sigh. It was late. You should be getting to bed, you still had two more days in your work week.

Jaemin had just turned to throw the empty ice cream carton in the trash, and thinking of work reminded you of plans you’d made with your coworkers.

Swinging your feet lightly from your perch on your countertop, you spoke up again, “Heads up, Friday is after work drinks for the support staff again. My turn DD’ing for the Terrible Two.”

“Noted.” Your Hades walked back over to you. You reached out for his forearms, dragging, pulling, and rearranging him until he was standing between your knees, allowing you to wrap your arms around his neck, hugging him tightly to you, surrounded by the warm scents of cinnamon, bergamot, and cedar. Jaemin kept talking as he looped his arms around your waist, voice low, quiet, and right beside your ear, “Also, isn’t that phrase supposed to be ‘the terrible twos’ and refer to toddlers who throw tantrums?”

“Yeah, but it was one of the nicknames Jeno and I got in undergrad from a professor of ours. The full title was specifically ‘The Terrible Two of You.’” You hummed wistfully at the fond memories that cropped up, eyes fluttering shut as your muscles relaxed more and more in your comforting position. “Dr. Go, one of the best professors I’ve ever had. We ended up taking like three or four of his classes, and I had one more in grad school.”

“Sounds like you two were nuisances to the poor man for four years straight.”

“He was one of those professors that treated students like actual human beings, and you could joke around with. Hence, the nickname. I promise we were good students and the man adored us. Well, me, at least. Jeno on the other hand…”

“You always say the meanest things about that guy and he’s never around to defend himself,” Jaemin clicked his tongue teasingly. “So it sounds like I’ll be bringing bagels Saturday morning then?”

“Please?”

“Of course, angel,” he murmured, rubbing a hand up and down your back.

“Okay Jeno, here you go,” you patted your friend’s back before taking his arm off from where it had been looped around your shoulders, giving him a gentle push to deposit him face-down onto his bed.

Getting him up to the third floor of his building wasn’t so bad this time, he was able to support his own weight for the most part and needed you primarily to make sure he didn’t veer into a wall or trip over his own feet. But he did seem to think that knocking his apartment key from your hand while you tried to unlock his front door was a fun little game.

“I recommend changing into pajamas before going to sleep,” you said from where you stood at his bedside, looking down at him as he twisted around to squint up at you.

“Good idea, Y/N,” Jeno nodded, sitting up in his bed. “That’s why you… why you got that degree.”

“Of course. I got my Master of Legal Studies solely to give you sage advice when you’re drunk.”

As Jeno grabbed at the hem of his shirt, presumably to take heed of said sage advice, you quickly turned, shielding your eyes and heading for the bedroom door.

“I’ll grab you some water and medication. Let me know when you’re done.”

After filling up a water bottle and grabbing medication for the imminent nausea and future headache, you waited in the hall outside your friend’s room. He yelled out something that sounded like a ‘Ready!’ and you hesitantly tried the door handle. Opening the bedroom door again, you were relieved to see that Jeno was at least decent. Sure, his t-shirt was on backwards, but he was wearing pants, which was your main concern. No need for a repeat of Nu Kappa Theta’s Halloween party your sophomore year: plastered Jeno, DD you, and a missing pair of boxers. Needless to say, you were scarred for life, and Jeno couldn’t remember anything from that night past arriving at the NuKapp house still fully clothed. Lucky bastard.

You set the water and meds down on his nightstand to guide him back over to sit down on the edge of the bed. Kneeling on his bed behind him, you prepared to turn his shirt around the right way.

“Come on, arms up.”

He did as you asked, and you only took it off his arms, flipping it around at his neck before working on getting his arms back into the sleeves.

“Arms down.”

And his arms flopped back down obediently in his lap.

“Are you 23 or 3, dude?” You snickered.

“I can put a shirt on, Y/N!” His voice was practically a whine, but his movements had no umph to them as he let you manhandle him like changing a child.

“Apparently not, Jeno.”

He was quiet as you finally got the other arm in, and he straightened out the torso of the shirt himself.

“Alright, there you go.” You patted his shoulder before climbing off his bed to grab the water and medication once more. “You didn’t drink enough that I feel concerned about alcohol poisoning so I’m not going to make you puke your guts out tonight.”

“I ‘preciate that.”

“Me too. So, pills for you to keep it all down… and pills for the bitch of a headache coming your way in the morning,” you pointed at each in turn as you held out the tablets. After he grabbed those, you gave him the bottle. “And water. Wash them down then have a few more sips before going to sleep, please.”

“You’re the best,” Jeno mumbled before putting the tabs in his mouth. He knocked them back with the water then started to lay down in bed, “He’s lucky to have you. And I’m lucky to have you, too.”

Your friend had been trying to pull the covers up over himself, except he was also on top of them. Amused, you began assisting him as you entertained his drunk ramblings, “He who?”

“Th’ guy you’re seein’, duh!” His words were slurring together at this point as he let you tuck him in. “Th’ one with all th’ rings ‘n stuff. We’re lucky t’ have you, Y/N.”

“Thank you, Jeno.” You sat beside him on the bed to brush some of his hair out of his face as his eyes started fluttering shut.

“Even if… even if you won’ let me… meet ‘im. ‘M lucky… t’ be your bes’ friend.”

You let out a bittersweet sigh at that, your hand coming to stillness on his head as he completely fell asleep. He knew you were keeping something from him and was letting you bring it to him at your own pace, and you loved him for that. And he really was your best friend, you’d seen each other through everything of the past nearly six years. The Dynamic Duo, Trouble and Make it Double, The Terrible Two of You. You’d sign up for classes together to make sure you’d sync up your schedules as much as possible, pulled innumerable all-nighters in the library together, were roommates in your first off-campus apartment, done your undergraduate research together, you were there when he got the news of his grandfather passing, and you were certain he’d kept creepy guys off you at parties more times than you’d ever know.

“And I’m lucky to be yours, Lee Jeno,” you said quietly to his sleeping form, watching his even, shallow breaths.

Usually everything was simple with Jeno. Your friendship with Jeno was always simple, even the stuff that felt complicated or heavy at the time, the solution was simple: talk to him. When you’d dropped his phone in the street and it got ran over, absolutely shattering the screen; when you’d forgotten to pay the power bill for your shared apartment one month and your electricity was turned off for a day; when it was his turn to DD at a party, you were a little more than tipsy and ended up making out with his brother Mark. It all worked out because the two of you had talked.

But this time… you were dating a client of the firm. A client of your attorney. A client who was a god. Admittedly, you’d started your relationship before he’d become a client. But again, he was Hades. Then there was how exactly you’d met. Even just thinking about which parts to tell, how much to tell, and what you’d inevitably have to bend, twist, or straight up lie about to Jeno made your head spin.

There at least was nothing you could do tonight.

So you gave his hair one last ruffle before standing up and walking over to his dresser. Your plans had initially been to go back to your own apartment, but you didn’t want to traverse the streets all alone this late at night. Is at least what you told yourself. Really, you’d been missing your best friend. After grabbing a couple articles of clothing that could serve as pajamas, you also stole the second pillow from his bed and a spare blanket before heading out of his bedroom.

You quietly shut the door behind you, setting the bedding down on the couch and changing clothes in the bathroom. After going around to turn off all the lights in the apartment and double check the locks on the front door, you finally laid down for the night. In the low light, you found yourself looking over all the rings and things adorning your hands and wrists. They were all gorgeous, but you still favored the simple silver band, the first one Jaemin ever gave you, to seal the deal you had made the night he appeared to you.

A robotic melody took your focus away from the document on your monitor that you had been drafting. You glanced over at the screen of your office phone, the source of the ringing. ‘RECEPTION’ was emblazoned across it in all caps.

Holding the receiver to your ear with your shoulder, you grabbed for your telephone notepad and a pen, “This is Y/N.”

“Hey Y/N!” The bright voice of the firm’s receptionist, Somi, greeted you. “There’s a Mr. Johnny Suh on line 1 for you.”

“Great, I’ll take him, thank you!”

“No problem.”

You scrawled down Mr. Suh’s name and number from the caller ID on your notepad before pressing the button for his hold, “Thank you for holding, this is Y/L/N Y/N.”

“Hi, Ms. Y/L/N, this is Johnny Suh, how are you?”

“I’m good, Mr. Suh, thank you. How are you?”

“Only thing that’s changed is the weather, you know?” He chuckled.

You gave a short laugh, not entirely sure what he meant by that but needing to build your rapport anyway, “And how can I help you?”

“I am looking to schedule a meeting with you for us to discuss some assets. When are you available next week?”

“Let’s see…” You pulled up your calendar. “Just myself or Ms. Haseul as well?”

“Just you, Ms. Jo has assured us of your capabilities.”

“Oh, thank you, Mr. Suh,” you were warmed at the indirect praise. You couldn’t believe how much Ms. Haseul had apparently talked you up to these clients. “I’m free next Monday afternoon, Tuesday until 1:00, and all day Wednesday and Thursday.”

“Wednesday should be fine. 10:00 a.m.?”

“Yes sir, I have you down for Wednesday at 10:00. Will it be just you in attendance or is Mr. Na coming as well?”

“Actually, it will just be Jaemin. I have prior arrangements that day.”

“Understood,” you made the correction on your notes. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, that is all I needed from you, Ms. Y/L/N. Thank you for your time.”

“Of course, sir, thank you for calling.”

“Have a good day.”

“You too, goodbye.”

With that, you hung up, immediately pressing the quick-dial button for reception.

“Hey Y/N!” Somi was as cheery as ever when she picked up.

“Hi, Somi, what do conference room bookings look like for next Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.? Just two people in attendance.”

“Obsidian is open, or—”

“Obsidian will be fine,” you immediately jumped at her words. “I have a client meeting: Mr. Na Jaemin from Olympus Investments.”

“Okay, you are all booked for 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday.”

“Thank you very much, Somi.”

“You’re welcome, Y/N. Is that it?”

“Yes, thanks,” you put the phone back on the receiver in order to use both hands to enter the details in your calendar.

‘Client Meeting w/ Mr. Na Jaemin; re: assets; Obsidian Conference Room’

“Oh shit,” Yangyang frowned, tossing the coffee cup he had just picked up into his trashcan. “I’m out of coffee. Anybody coming to the breakroom with me?”

Jeno pushed his chair back from his desk with a groan, “Sure, if I don’t take a lap before replying to this email I just got, somebody’s going to get their feelings hurt.”

“Y/N?”

You shook your head, eyes still on your screen as you printed off a couple copies of the documents you’d need, “Would if I could, but I’ve got a client meeting in a few minutes.”

“Who?”

“Uh, Mr. Na Jaemin, CFO of Olympus Investments. General corporate client of Ms. Haseul’s.”

“Gross, sounds boring,” Yangyang wrinkled his nose. “I’ll keep you in my prayers.”

“Thanks, Yang,” you rolled your eyes.

Just then, your desk phone rang, and you grabbed it without taking your eyes off your screen as you printed a couple more things, “This is Y/L/N Y/N.”

“Hey Y/N!” It was Somi. “Mr. Na Jaemin is here for his 10:00 appointment with you. I’ve gone ahead and set up Obsidian for you two, he’s waiting in the lobby.”

“Can you let him know I’ll be there in just a couple minutes?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks, Somi!”

You hung up, standing and grabbing all your materials from your desk, then off the printer. Momentarily stopping to organize your papers, you then made your way to the reception area, flashing Somi a smile before your eyes landed on him, on your Hades.

Keeping a straight spine and formal bow of your head, you greeted him politely, “Good morning, Mr. Na, it’s a pleasure to see you again. Welcome to Kim & Moon.”

“Good morning, Ms. Y/L/N. Thank you, thank you,” Jaemin bowed back, flashing you a dazzling grin once he’d stood back up. “Shall we?”

“You can’t do that.” You shook your head at the business proposal you’d just heard from Jaemin. The two of you were deep into your meeting about reviewing Olympus Investment’s plans for renegotiating assets in the next quarter.

Jaemin’s brow furrowed in confusion, shifting forward in his spot across the table from you as he pointed to some numbers on his paper, “Of course we can, there’s plenty of assets to pull from—”

“Doesn’t matter, courts say no you can’t. There was a ruling ten, fifteen years ago now that’s been used as precedent in a swath of multi-billion dollar cases since. I actually studied this particular case law quite a bit because—hey!” You cut off your own excited rambling with a snap of your fingers in the space created by the table between yours and Jaemin’s faces.

Jaemin blinked at you innocently, “What?”

“Stop admiring me with that lovestruck grin on your face and listen, this is important.”

“I’m admiring and listening, I can multitask,” he countered teasingly, picking up his pen again. “Anyway, continue.”

“I studied this particular piece of case law in depth because I had a professor who was one of the attorneys who argued the original ruling. It’s a common thing that companies looking to redistribute assets will try to do. And you can’t.”

“You’re right.” Your Hades was beaming at you.

“About this? Of course I am,” you snorted, flicking through your papers to find what you needed to review next.

“Well yes, but I meant about you being good at your job.”

A smile crept across your lips as you continued busying yourself with looking for your papers.

After your meeting had concluded, you walked Jaemin back to the lobby, giving him a final business-appropriate goodbye before turning around to make your way to your desk. You nearly jumped out of your skin when you saw Jeno seemingly waiting for you back behind the reception area. Suppressing your lovestruck grin, you approached your friend and started meandering back to your desks with him.

“Who was that, Y/N?” He nodded back towards the lobby.

“Mr. Na, the corporate client of Ms. Haseul’s I was telling you about earlier,” you desperately tried to keep your voice level and nonchalant as you talked about Jaemin. “I said I had a client meeting this morning.”

“And I was expecting like an eighty-year-old man,” Jeno snorted. “That guy looked like he was—I don’t know maybe five, ten years older than us at the most?”

“I’m… sorry to disappoint you?”

“But like something was… off about him. Right?”

“What?”

“You know how people say that one actor looks like a haunted Victorian doll?”

“…Yeah.”

“He kind of looks like that but— what’s older than the Victorian era?”

“I don’t know? The Dark Ages?” You suggested, looking at him with a raised eyebrow as you could only imagine where the hell this conversation was going.

“Yeah!” Your friend’s eyes lit up mischievously. “He looks like a possessed doll from the Dark Ages that’s had like five unsuccessful exorcisms done on him.”

“Oh my god Jeno.”

“Oh come on, you can’t say I’m wrong!”

“I can say that this is an extremely unprofessional thing to be saying about a client.”

“Oh look at you Ms. Professional Paralegal who isn’t disagreeing with me,” he snickered. “Anyway, you seem to have good rapport with him.”

“What do you mean?” You could feel your back stiffen with alarm. How long was Jeno standing there in the lobby watching you and Jaemin? Had you done anything that belied the true nature of your relationship? If you did then Somi would have seen it too. God, you did not need to be the next topic of office gossip.

“Ms. Haseul let you have that client meeting on your own. Both she and the client must trust you lots. Congrats.”

Immediately, your shoulders relaxed, “Oh, thanks. Yeah, it’s going well.”

Monthly after-work drinks with your coworkers—the one you actually liked—had become part of your routine, one that you looked forward to. Almost as much as you looked forward to the myriad of ways Jaemin insisted you “made up” the missing time that you “owed him.” This time, he was preemptively making up the forfeited time, as he had spent the night before and was now staying the morning of.

Somewhere between starting your coffee maker and putting the last dish from breakfast away in the sink, you had been pinned between Jaemin and said sink, a warning not to mess up your work clothes breathed out in the narrowing space between your mouths. Your Hades hummed out his acknowledgement against your lips, kissing you so delicately your eyes nearly rolled out of your head. Of course he had to listen to you this time.

You pulled back from kissing Jaemin as you were about to make something between a quip and a complaint when you heard a click from your front door.

“Y/N!” A familiar voice called out for you.

It all happened too quickly for you to attempt to do anything other than stare in horror at the scene unfolding before you. Lee Jeno stepped through your front door, turning around to close and lock it behind him. He was dressed for work in navy blue slacks and a light blue button up, looking down at his phone as he walked towards the kitchen. In your periphery, Jaemin looked between you and your friend with an eyebrow raised, not moving, but you couldn’t answer his unspoken question. It felt like you were outside your own body, watching a car crash about to happen and you couldn’t look away.

“I’m here! Ooh, something smells good, is that—” his words were cut short when he finally looked up from his screen just shy of the threshold to the kitchen, where you were frozen in place. Your rather lascivious place between Jaemin and the counter.

It took him an entire second to compute what was happening in front of him. Then he let out a yelp, which made you let out one of your own, a little less grating in pitch, but no less distressed. Your body was finally unpetrified, and you rushed to stand between your friend and your Hades.

“Jeno!” Your voice was half chastising and half bewildered. “What the hell are you doing in my apartment?”

“You told me where your spare key is, said I could use it any time!” His voice was still raised and pitched up in surprise.

“I figured that’s how you got in; I’m asking why the hell you’re in my apartment right now!”

“To pick you up?” He jangled his keys that were in his hand, his car fob being on the key ring, “I’m DD for tonight.”

You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose, “No, Jeno, I'm DD tonight.”

“No, I'm DD.”

“I am.”

“I’m— Wait this isn’t important, that’s Mr. Na!” He pointed behind you accusingly.

With a very visible grimace, you turned to looked behind you. Jaemin was leaning against your kitchen counter, hands resting on the edge on either side of him. With the focus now on him, he lifted one in a casual greeting, “Good morning, Jeno. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot of good things, from Y/N.”

“Jeno, this is Na Jaemin. I’m seeing him,” you jumped in to do introductions, well aware that your voice was noticeably tight and tense. “Jaemin, this is Lee Jeno, my best friend since… it feels like forever at this point I guess.”

While your friend’s features did soften a little at how you had described him, when he had to reciprocate your Hades’ offer of goodwill, he turned suspicious again.

“Nice to meet you... uh, yeah, nice to meet you.” Jeno tersely nodded at Jaemin once before his eyes went back to you, serious. He wanted to talk. And clearly, you had a lot to talk about.

“Well, time to go to work,” you announced. “Uhm, let me grab my shoes and my phone, then I’ll be ready to go, Jeno. You don’t mind carpooling since you’re already here, right?”

“Of course not.”

Your Hades spoke up again then, “My tie is in your room, Y/N.”

The two of you had to shuffle by Jeno on your way out of the kitchen and into your bedroom. In your room, you groaned as you rooted through your closet for a pair of shoes.

“I am so sorry, Jaemin,” you whispered as you slipped on your shoes. “I had no clue he was going to come here this morning. I wanted the two of you to meet so differently.”

“It’s okay, angel,” Jaemin reassured you quietly as he tied his tie in your full-length mirror. “You said he’s your best friend, and that you and he have been able to talk through everything before. I think the two of you have got this. One lowly god isn’t going to come between the Terrible Two.”

You’d finished putting your shoes on and slipped your arms around his waist to watch him do the final adjustments to the black silk tie.

“You really believe that?” You murmured.

“I do,” he patted your hands. “I still need to get a tie clip. Now go, you can’t keep him waiting or he’s going to think we’re doing something more scandalous in here than what he walked in on.”

You rolled your eyes and let him go, knowing that unfortunately he was kind of right. As you went to walk away towards your door, Jaemin caught you by the hand, lifting said hand up so he could press a delicate, cool kiss to your fingers before finally letting you depart.

“Have a good day, Y/N. I love you.”

“I love you too, Jaemin.”

You grabbed a purse by the door of your bedroom and braced yourself for what was waiting on the other side.

Jeno was by the front door, arms crossed over his chest. He narrowed his eyes as he appraised that you were alone, “Where’s Mr. Na?”

“He’s not ready to go yet, he’ll lock up on his way out,” you told him.

And thus began your lying, your carefully chosen words to make Jeno come to certain conclusions, your bending of the truth, your ‘well it’s technically true’s. Truthfully, Jaemin would make sure your apartment was locked from the inside before disappearing from here and appearing wherever he needed to be with his god powers.

“He has a set of keys.” Jeno spat out as he opened your front door for you.

Your tone was resigned as you started towards the stairs, “Is there a question in there, Jeno?”

There were a silent few seconds as he mulled it over, then sighed, his voice much less harsh, “No, that was me being bitchy. Sorry.”

“Thanks.” The two of you began the descent to the ground floor as you continued, “And I’m sorry too. Like... really sorry. I know that must have been a lot to walk in on, you have every right to be shocked and hurt.”

“Right. Thanks, Y/N.” And you finally got a Lee Jeno smile again. It was only a small one, and it passed you by far too quick as he opened your car door for you to get in. But you saw your friend’s delightful little eye smile again, and it made you think that maybe, hopefully, Jaemin was right.

Jeno pulled away from the curb, and you kept talking.

“I also know that I haven’t been forthcoming at all about what’s been happening in my life, about who I’ve been seeing.”

“About Mr. Na,” Jeno’s words were blunt but there was no malice to them.

“Yes, about Jaemin,” you confirmed. “I’m sorry about that too. Please, please know before like anything else that we were dating for a while before he was ever a client. Those two things happened separate of each other.”

“Oh.” Your friend’s previously white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel softened. “That’s... better.”

“Like, I know that I’m being kind of stupid, but I’m not that stupid.”

“You said it, not me.”

“I want to talk about this with you more, but I really don’t think now, driving to work, is going to be able to provide us with the time nor the ability to process it. Can we get together some other time?”

“Good to see all the money you spent on that therapist after your last ex paid off,” he snickered.

“Hey, I’m trying to be an adult here!” You protested indignantly.

“No, no, it’s good,” he attempted to reassure you through poorly-suppressed chuckles. “Let’s see if we can pencil in our emotional friendship discussion re: your love life for 1:00 p.m. tomorrow?”

“I’ll have to check my calendar once we get into the office,” you rolled your eyes. Despite the fact that he was teasing you, you welcomed the light jesting, knowing that meant he wasn’t too upset at you in that moment. And he was legitimately trying to follow through on your offer of planning to sit down and discuss your issues with him, albeit with some jabs at you of course.

“Hey, since it’s about you fucking a client, do you think we can call it a business lunch and use the firm credit card?”

With the mood now officially lightened you joked, “Yeah, I’ll put that on Ms. Haseul’s expense sheet for the week and see how that goes down with Billing.”

“Shotaro would get a kick out of it at least.”

Your apartment was quiet and dark when you got home. Jaemin hadn’t arrived yet. Pushing down your disappointment, you changed into pajamas before going to your kitchen to browse for something to make for dinner. If Jaemin wasn’t here yet, then he probably wasn’t planning on whisking you to the Underworld tonight. Fine by you, that made getting to work in the morning easier. The first night you’d spent with him in Hades had been the perfect start to your romance and you definitely didn’t regret it, but the next morning was something straight out of a rom-com.

It was difficult for your phone alarm to go off on time when time zones didn’t really exist in the literal Underworld. So you ran into work exactly on time with unwashed hair, followed around the office all morning by nosy comments from Jeno and Yangyang about that and the blouse that you were tucking into your dress pants as you were stepping off the elevator— which Jaemin had to magically poof you into, having no time to take public transport. Oh and the embarrassingly obvious love bites on your neck that you couldn’t cover up in your haste to get ready; a combination of no time to apply makeup, and carelessly choosing a top whose neckline was cut lower than the marks.

The memory made you shake your head fondly now, months later, as you opened your fridge doors. You’d barely done so when a familiar cool breath blew over the back of your neck and shell of your ear.

“Jaemin!” You exclaimed, immediately closing the fridge again then whipping around to face the god. He had a mischievous smirk already playing on his lips. “It’s been a while since you’ve snuck up on me like that. You must be in a good mood.”

“Yes, I am,” he confirmed.

You cocked your head to the side, “And why is that?”

“Because...” he took a step forward, and you instinctually took one back, quickly pinned against one of the doors. His hips pressed against yours, holding you there as his lips found yours, then your jaw, then your throat. You hummed as he continued pressing kisses along your skin, looping your arms around his neck, your search for food entirely forgotten. His hands on your waist only drew you even closer—if that was possible—fingertips brushing under the hem of your t-shirt and leaving goosebumps along your skin.

Your Hades finally detached his mouth from where he’d been sucking and nipping a mark on your collarbone, “I’m going to take you somewhere.”

“Huh?” You couldn’t help the stupefied noise that came from you.

He was standing up straight again, so close that your noses were almost touching, and you saw yourself reflected in his deep, dark irises. You looked ravished, your own pupils blown wide, mouth parted to let the deep breaths from your heaving chest out, the collar of your shirt askew to allow Jaemin access to more of your skin.

“I’m in a good mood because we’re going somewhere. Go get changed.”

You tipped your head back as you let out a groan, shaking yourself back to reality, “Why are you literally the worst?”

He chuckled as he stepped back, allowing you to push off the appliance, “Because I can be. Now go get changed. Doesn’t have to be too nice, just better than your jammies.”

With a final roll of your eyes, you left the kitchen to do as he requested. You reemerged in the living room in casual going-out clothes, “This good enough?”

“Perfect,” Jaemin offered you his hand, which you took without hesitation.

He gently spun you around, and a giggle tumbled from your mouth as you were spun right into his arms, your back to his chest. You closed your eyes on instinct as he swayed the two of you to a non-existent melody, and you drank in the sultry notes of cedar, cinnamon, and blood orange that surrounded you. His hair tickled your cheek as he started peppering light ghosts of kisses to your skin.

“Alright, you tease, come on. You said we’re going somewhere,” you lightly elbowed whatever part of him was by your arm. His rib, maybe, or that could’ve been his arm. From where you were all wrapped up in him, you couldn’t tell where you ended and he started. And despite your words of complaint, you hadn’t yet opened your eyes or even attempted to wrangle yourself from his grasp.

“I know, we’re here.”

Curiosity won out and you squinted an eye open. Holy shit, this definitely wasn’t your apartment. With wide eyes, you looked around the huge living room Jaemin had brought you to. Plush furniture, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows, large dining area that connected to a kitchen that was clearly built for entertaining. The entire place had an upscale mid-century modern feel to it, and you found your eyes drawn back to the huge windows.

“Where are we?” You questioned, still taking it all in.

“My place,” Jaemin said casually, and you could feel him shrug from where he was holding you.

“This isn’t the Underworld.”

“My new place on Earth. I just got it this week.” He took one of your hands to guide you over to the windows, “Come on, look at the view.”

Spread out below you was the entire city, all twinkling lights. If you unfocused your eyes they could almost be mistaken for stars in the night sky. Your Hades stood just behind you to begin pointing out landmarks, “There’s downtown, that’s the museum you took me to, your apartment should be over that way, and there’s the river way over there.”

“It’s amazing but… why did you get it?” You questioned him, turning away from the view to look him in the eye. He’d never expressed any interest in living on Earth whatsoever, any want to get a home here.

Jaemin walked back a couple steps to lean against the arm of one of the couches, bringing you with him by your hands, “Since Johnny and I have been doing more business up here, it’s good to have a home to keep up appearances.”

“And just how many business clients are you planning on inviting back to your place, Jaemin?” You raised an eyebrow, tone expressing your immediate disbelief.

He grinned up at you in your position standing between his legs, “You caught me. Just one, you.”

“I meant, why now?” You pushed on in the conversation, not so easily distracted. “Why get a place on Earth this week?”

“Jeno.”

“You got a penthouse for Jeno? How romantic, I’ll let him know.”

Your Hades let out a soft laugh at that, looking down at your hands that he was holding, his fingertips taking a moment to adjust your rings that were slightly askew. “The entire situation that happened with him really made me think about you, and about who I am to you. And I want to be more for you than I am.”

You frowned at his words, taking back one hand to cup his cheek and have him look up at you, “What do you think you are to me?”

“I’m a secret.”

“Oh, Jaemin…” You felt your heart breaking at the way he said it. Not in a fun, flirty way, but despondent, isolated. Before you could move to say more, hold him, do anything, he spoke again.

“That’s not passing any sort of judgement on you, angel,” he assured you, squeezing the hand he had in his. “I know the secrecy comes solely from who and what I am. I know there are some things that we'll never really be able to tell everyone. And I don’t think you’ll ever be able to fully understand how much I love and adore you for keeping that between us.”

You pressed a kiss to his forehead, afraid that if you tried to speak in that moment, you’d cry.

“But I still want to be someone that you can introduce to your friends, to your family. Someone that you don’t have to agonize over keeping secret from them. I want you to get to have at least some of that, and I want to do as much as I can to help. I figured having my own place on Earth wasn’t a bad start.”

“Oh… I understand,” you held his face between both your hands, taking a step closer to narrow the distance between you two. He now had to crane his neck up to look at you. Clearing your throat and blinking a couple tears away, you smirked down at your Hades, “You want to be shown off.”

“Maybe a little,” he admitted, not a hint of bashfulness in him despite the coy words.

“Gladly. Starting with a dinner party here I think.”

“I’ll cook.”

“Penthouse and you cook? Careful, it’ll turn from an honest meet-the-boyfriend into shameless bragging.”

His hands that had previously been resting in his lap now gripped the sides of your thighs, “Oh, we both know you’re as shameless as I am.”

“Maybe so. But we’re only inviting friends of mine, no coworkers other than Jeno,” you declared. “I may be shameless, but I’m not an idiot. Still need to figure out the work part.”

“Of course,” he acquiesced with a nod of his head. Apparently thinking that the conversation was over, he pulled you fully flush to him, mouth attaching to your collarbone. Seemed he wanted to finish what he’d started in your kitchen earlier.

But you couldn’t yet let yourself sink into the pleasure of your Hades’ lips, your mind was still ruminating on the previous issue, “And let me know if you have any bright ideas, by the way. It’s your fault I’m in this mess, after all.”

Jaemin pulled back from where he’d been kissing down your sternum, about to get to the neckline of your top, “I offered to work with another attorney, but you insisted we stick with you and Ms. Haseul.”

“You picked Kim & Moon in the first place.”

“I concede, my apologies,” he sighed, entirely removing his hands from you for a moment. “And I mean it.”

“Mhm.” Satisfied with his answer, you grabbed his shoulders and crashed your lips to his.

“But isn’t it just a little fun?” He teased, giving your bottom lip a playful nip. “Knowing that you’re—gasp—seeing a client? Sneaking around?”

You groaned at the interruption, attempting to tug his suit jacket off, talk, and kiss him all at once. “I was seeing you—” kiss “before you—” kiss “were—” kiss “a client.” Kiss. “But yes, maybe a little.”

“Good afternoon, Mr. Suh,” you greeted the goddess brightly as you crossed the room to sit across the conference table from him. “Just you today?”

The other half of Olympus Investments had called pretty much as soon as the firm had opened that morning, requesting a meeting with you as soon as you were available, and you did happen to be able accommodate him that afternoon.

“Jaemin doesn’t know I’m here.” He shifted forward in his chair, looking you in the eye so intensely you couldn’t hold the eye contact for long.

You were a little confused as you laid out your materials in front of you, “Okay... Well, what did you wish to speak with me about? Somi emphasized that this was an urgent matter. Was there something the matter with the documents I sent for your review yesterday?”

“I am so sorry, Y/N...”

Your eyebrows shot up at his words, the forlorn tone he said them in, and at the fact that this was the first time Mr. Suh had addressed you by your first name. “For what, sir?”

“That Jaemin’s done this to you.”

“I don’t understand. What has Mr. Na done?”

“Taken your soul.”

His words made you immediately sputter out, “What are you talking about? I’m sorry, I don't underst—”

“Dinner the other night wasn’t the first time you two have met,” the goddess in front of you declared, gaze piercing you as he changed from despondent to stern. “What did you ask for, Y/N? What was worth your soul?”

“I didn’t sell Jaemin my soul!” You sighed in exasperation, fully dropping all pretenses now. “All he wanted was for me to spend some time with him.”

“And what did you want?”

“A job.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s all I asked for.”

“I’m sorry about all this, Y/N. All the jewelry... I get worried.” His gaze was still appraising you, and you could tell that you didn’t quite have him convinced.

“Oh,” you twisted the plain silver band you’d first been given around on your finger nervously. “I mean, he did give me all this too, but I didn’t ask for it.”

“Why would he...” Mr. Suh’s eyes fell to the pomegranate jewel sitting below the hollow of your throat. “Ahh... I get it.”

“Get what?” You asked cautiously, now self-consciously fidgeting with the pendant once again.

“That’s a lovely color.”

“Uhm, thank you. But I can tell you mean something else by that.”

“Ha,” he chuckled, leaning back in his seat but keeping his eyes on your necklace. “He’s courting you, isn’t he?”

“Uh that might’ve been what you called it in 300 BC or whenever, but now we call it dating.”

“No, honey. I may be… old-fashioned but I know the difference between dating and courting. Jaemin does too. Do you?”

“What?”

He nodded towards your necklace, “Ask him about the meaning of that color next time you see him.”

Your skin prickled uncomfortably; you didn’t like that Mr. Suh apparently knew more about your relationship than you did. “Did you have any actual business for me, Mr. Suh?”

“Oh, no. I’ll get out of your hair now. Sorry, hon.”

You stood up as he did, showing him out wordlessly to the lobby.

Walking into work some weeks later, you saw Jeno, Yangyang, Kun, and Sicheng gathered around yours and Yangyang’s desks. Not too unusual of a sight, especially considering the matching coffee cups they all had.

“Good morning, boys,” you greeted the four of them brightly, setting all your stuff down on your desk.

When you looked up from where your fond gaze had lingered over your keys, the shiny new one to Jaemin’s place on Earth there, you were met with silence.

“What?”

“Here, uhm, it was my turn to buy coffee this week,” Yangyang handed you a cup from the shop down the street from the firm.

You took it, a little alarmed that he wasn’t doing his usual complaining about being “forced” to buy coffee for “the bourgeois” (Kun and Sicheng) when they could definitely afford it and truly he was just being “exploited” (despite the five of you all rotating out who bought coffee for the group once a week).

“Uh, thanks,” you took a sip, not liking his wide eyes, Kun’s pained ones, Sicheng’s inquisitive gaze, and Jeno’s knowing look that usually meant the two of you needed to talk ASAP. “Okay, what, you guys?”

“Ms. Haseul wants to see you,” Yangyang was still speaking.

“Okay…”

That wasn’t unusual, you were her paralegal, you frequently were called into her office by yourself to have discussions and they never garnered reactions like this from your coworkers.

Kun rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly, calmly explaining, “She told Yangyang to have you come into her office once you arrived regarding an issue on the Olympus Investments file. Said to make sure you knew it was urgent and severe.”

Your grip tightened on your coffee cup. Jeno’s jaw clenched as he gave you a very much ‘I told you so’ look.

“Then why the fuck did you guys make me play 20 questions with you if it’s that fucking serious? God, I have to go see her!” You set your cup down, briefly checking the phones to see if she was on a landline call. Her quick dial button wasn’t lit up, meaning that she wasn’t, and you grabbed a notepad and pen just in case. Maybe this was about something solely work-related, and not about you seeing a client and breaking company policy. One could only hope.

After speed-walking down the hall, you stopped outside her door to listen for a moment for any sign that she was on the phone or had someone else in her office. It was quiet, and you took another moment to inhale deeply through your nose, then exhale, composing yourself. Rapping your knuckles on her door, you waited for her reply.

“Come in.”

You opened the door, bowing your head respectfully, “Good morning, Ms. Haseul. Yangyang told me you wanted to see me regarding Olympus Investments.”

“Yes, sit, Y/L/N,” she gestured to one of the chairs across her desk from her.

You could feel her sharp eyes on you as you did so.

“I’m going to get straight to the point. Out of gratitude for the work you’ve done in your time here, I’m going to ask you only once and I of course expect the truth. Are you romantically involved with Mr. Na Jaemin?”

To your credit, your jaw didn’t drop. Part of you was expecting this, of course. You breathed in, taking a moment to think about how to phrase your response, “Yes, Ms. Haseul.”

She sighed, taking her glasses off and setting them on her desk. As your boss rubbed her brow and remained quiet, you felt anxiety creeping up through your veins.

Figuring that you were as good as fired anyway, you at least wanted to know how long you’d been made for, when and where you went wrong. “Ma’am? May I ask when— How long you’ve known?”

“Y/L/N…” She clicked her tongue and leaned back in her chair. “I’ve known the whole time. And I know you’ve been seeing him since before he became a client of ours as well.”

“I’m so sor—”

Your boss cut you off with a wave of her hand, “Don’t apologize, please. Aside from not telling me the next business day as you should have, you’ve been incredibly professional about this the entire time. Honestly, nothing about your behavior or work product is how I know.”

“Then how?” You asked, brows furrowing together.

“The first client dinner we had with Mr. Suh and Mr. Na. When we went to greet them, I caught a whiff of Mr. Na’s cologne, and it was remarkably familiar to me. Because you’d come in to the office in the mornings frequently smelling like it before that dinner.”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way but… why wait until now to address it?”

“Would you believe me if I said that I didn’t know how to bring it up?”

You were nearly speechless. It was hard to imagine Ms. Haseul not knowing what to do.

“I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

“Anyway, like I said, you’ve been the model of professionalism; your client relations—in the office—have been impeccable, and your work product is the same high quality I expect to see from my employees. We of course need to address that you did not inform me of this conflict the next business day as is firm policy, but I see no reason to take any further action than that nor remove you as case manager for Olympus Investments.”

“Ma’am?” Now your jaw was on the floor, your eyes practically bugging out of your head.

“Both Mr. Na and Mr. Suh report being incredibly satisfied with your work. Therefore, as long as that continues then I am fine with having you stay on as their case manager, with your conflict of interest being properly noted in the file, of course. But as soon as any issues arise or you feel as though your conflict is affecting your ability to do your job, you will report that to me. Do you understand, Y/L/N?”

“Of course, Ms. Haseul,” you bowed your head as deeply as you could from your seat. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re dismissed, Y/L/N.”

“Right. Thank you again, Ms. Haseul,” you leapt to your feet, bowing once more now that you were standing before exiting her office.

Walking back out to where your desk was, the guys were exactly where you left them, clearly pretending to be doing anything else other than waiting to see if you got fired. Jeno, however, immediately zeroed his focus in on you as you approached them, the others soon joining suit to varying degrees of shamelessness.

You gave them two covert middle fingers down by your sides, “Fuck you guys, I still work here.”

“Oh thank god,” Jeno breathed out as you fully entered the pod of desks, pulling you into a hug.

“Hell yeah!” Yangyang jumped to his feet to join in, squeezing the two of you with reckless abandon. “The Atrocious Trio lives on!”

“Did you just invite yourself into our friendship, Yangyang?” You asked incredulously as Jeno shoved him out of the group hug.

You had just finished relaying the news to Jaemin that night—that Ms. Haseul knew, and had known the whole time, about your relationship—over dinner at his place on Earth. He claimed he wanted to test out some recipes before you had your meet-the-boyfriend dinner with your friends there.

Truly, it was a relief to have this weight off your chest, but that didn’t make it any less mortifying to relive possibly the most nerve-wracking meeting of your career yet. If you never had to feel like that again for the rest of your life, it would be too soon.

“Your boss is quite astute, huh,” Jaemin commented as he picked up your empty plate to start cleaning up after dinner, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“Real bloodhound, that one,” you muttered, standing up as well to grab the drained wine glasses. “And I can see that smirk, Jaemin.”

“Damn,” he clicked his tongue as he began washing the dishes, fully letting his dashing grin overtake his features. “Nothing gets past you either, angel.”

“I’d say that’s why they hired me but—” you gestured at him vaguely.

“That’s why they keep you around, even after such a scandal.”

“You are so—” You cut yourself off with a sigh, feeling how big the smile was on your face as you came to settle in beside him, dish towel in hand, knowing that your words had no punch when paired with how adoringly you were looking at him.

You dutifully dried each dish he handed you until the kitchen was cleaned up. The two of you were in a comfortable quiet, your Hades humming softly as he finished washing up, then took the towel from you and dried off his hands. With your own hands free, your fingers habitually found the pomegranate red gem hanging from your neck. Johnny’s words bounced around in your head. You hadn’t brought it up to Jaemin after, wanting to mull it over with yourself for a bit longer first. Wait until you were in the right headspace to address what the hell that conversation was even about.

“Guess that means we’ll be having more guests then?”

“Huh?” You asked lamely, not following Jaemin’s sudden question at all.

“For dinner,” your Hades clarified, walking towards the bedroom, and you followed him down the hall as he kept speaking. “You didn’t want to invite any coworkers other than Jeno before. But since Ms. Jo told you she knows, you’ll be inviting coworkers, right?”

“Oh. Uh, I guess. Maybe the ones I get drinks with,” you answered absentmindedly. “Or just the team. I don’t know.”

“Think about it, angel,” Jaemin squeezed your hand briefly before dropping it and moving over to the dresser to grab lounge clothes. “Guess I should tell Johnny, then. Funny, goddess of love is the only one who doesn’t know.”

But you most definitely weren’t thinking about the guest list for some dinner as you two did your separate nighttime routines. Your mind felt like it was in another galaxy, wrapped up in flashes of dazzling obsidian black and pomegranate red, dancing in bergamot, cedar wood, and cinnamon sticks. Courting. You’d done your obligatory dictionary reading the same day as your meeting with Johnny: to have a romantic relationship with someone one hopes to marry. Not engagement, not dating, something in between, somehow less and more.

Your eyes got caught on the necklace again in the bathroom mirror, finishing up at your sink at the dual vanity.

In the bedroom, Jaemin was sitting up against the headboard, legs crossed at the ankle and the wall sconce on his side turned on to illuminate the book he was reading—a collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, borrowed from you.

“Jaemin,” you called out for him quietly, leaning in the threshold of the bathroom.

“Yes?” He looked up at you attentively.

You nodded to the book in his lap, “Which one are you on?”

“‘MS. Found in a Bottle.’” Your Hades patted the spot beside him, “You want me to read for you, angel?”

“In a second.” You reached for your pendant. “Gems have meanings sometimes, right? In different cultures. Other than just being an expensive status symbol.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Yes. Why?”

“What about this one? The necklace you gave me.” You held it up, watching the dark red stone gleam as it caught the light.

He tucked his bookmark into the tome and fully put it aside on the nightstand, “Johnny’s spoken with you.”

“He came to the firm the other day freaking out thinking you’d taken my soul in exchange for riches,” you admitted, feeling a little guilty. “Sorry I didn’t uh, tell you before.”

“It’s okay. Sounds like you two had an interesting conversation.”

“Yeah. I told him that I didn’t sell you my soul for the jewelry, but he didn’t seem to believe me until he saw this one. Said to ask you about the color.”

Jaemin chuckled, “Mm, of course he did. The ego.”

You walked across the bedroom, stopping by his side of the bed. Tilting your head inquisitively, you asked, “Are you going to explain or just keep making cryptic statements, Jaemin?”

“Third option: Cryptic question. What color do you think it is, Y/N?”

“To me... it looks like fresh pomegranate seeds. Pomegranate red.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking when I gave it to you,” your Hades nodded, a tender smile overtaking his more cynical one from when he was talking about his business partner. “The meaning that Johnny wanted you to ask about. According to one version of a myth, the first pomegranate tree came about from Aphrodite’s mourning of the death of a lover. Pomegranate juice came to symbolize love.”

“I already know that you love me, Jaemin,” you told him frankly, taking a step closer to the bed.

“Well good, something would be very, very wrong with me if you didn’t.”

“And I also know that we’re going in circles around the point right now.” Another step.

“We are.”

“He specifically used the word courting.” Another step. You were now directly beside him, at his nightstand, casting a shadow over his face.

Jaemin looked absolutely delighted to be cornered, both in conversation and literally. He always enjoyed your dialogues like this, as did you, or else you wouldn’t participate. The pushing and pulling, the back and forth, it was the nature of you and your Hades, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Because at the end of it, everything was always out on the table, laid bare, open and honest.

“You got me, angel,” he held his hands up in defeat. “I’m all yours, now and for eternity, if you’ll have me. And I don’t need an answer about eternity right now of course, but will you let me start trying to convince you?”

You wound the necklace chain around your knuckles thoughtfully, “I want you to tell me something, Jaemin, before I answer you.”

“An answer for an answer.” He was looking up at you with a familiar fond, tender smile, “Of course, angel, anything.”

There was something itching at the back of your mind, that never quite made sense to you, as you came to know your Hades better over all this time, fell in love with him, something that just seemed… out of place. Something he said that just hasn’t sat right every time you thought of it.

“Why did you want to spend time with me in the first place? Way back, the night we met, when you came to me to make our deal, I asked you why you would give me the job for just hanging out with you. Do you remember what you told me?”

“I remember everything about that night,” he admitted freely. “I told you I was tired of spending time with dead people.”

“And that was a lie,” you stated simply, softly, no anger or hurt in your words. Instead, there was a kind commiseration underlying them.

“Yes.”

“So, why did you want my time?”

“I was lonely.”

And you reached in front of you to grab your Hades’ hand, your lonely-no-more god, and you squeezed it tight between both of yours. “I owe you an answer now. Yes.”

Jaemin tugged you closer, making you momentarily lose your balance and fall forward onto his chest, your mouths just centimeters apart. Obsidian black was all that you could see, his eyes looking at you with nothing short of absolute devotion, divine worship, insatiable hunger. You pushed back that obstinate lock of jet black hair from his forehead before twisting your fingers in the strands at the back of his head and pulling his lips to yours. In the split second before your eyes fluttered shut, they caught the glint of a pomegranate red gem on his ear.

You were sat beneath the tree of golden fruit with your shadow man, the fruit you had picked still in your hands. With no hesitation, you dug your thumbs into the golden outer husk, splitting it in half. Inside were hundreds of bright red seeds, ripe, plump, glistening like rubies. Your mouth watered. Looking to your shadow man for reassurance, you were immediately given it.

You set one half down on your lap to dig into the other with your fingers. Bringing the first couple seeds you could get out up to your mouth, your tastebuds were immediately met with the ambrosial, saccharine, tart juice. They burst in your mouth, coating your tongue and dripping down the back of your throat. You went back in for more, eating handful after handful of the fruit’s plentiful seeds. Soon that half was emptied, and you grabbed the other that had been sitting in your lap.

You wanted more. Never had you ever wanted for something more in your life. Your fingers and hands were dripping red, and you could feel beads of the scarlet nectar running down your chin to your neck and down your sternum before disappearing into your top. But you still wanted more, wanted everything the fruit could give to you.

When you had finally finished the other half, you felt your want satiated. Your skin was sticky, and the white dress you were wearing had swaths of crimson red stains all over it. And your shadow man was still there beside you, and he finally touched you. His arm wrapped around your shoulders, encouraging you to lean against him, resting your head on his chest and letting out a sigh of relief.

His name tumbled from your lips then, something you’d always known. You’d always known him. An epiphany, a rite, a blessing, a hymn, a miracle, a prayer.

“Jaemin.”

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[francesminos-tt]

blind!joffrey au he and daeron fight for some reason (maybe a misunderstanding and lack of communication) but they make up at night :)

It turned out sillier than I expected, but I hope it’s still cute.

The most frustrating thing of being blind was that sometimes people acted as if you didn’t even exist. Joffrey knew this too well. He was right there, sitting in his favorite armchair and enjoying the warm sun on his skin, but the two chamber maids were gossiping to each other as if Joffrey was as deaf as he was blind.

Normally, he didn’t mind it too much. Some of the court gossips were entertaining, and Joffrey could use them to start a conversation with his husband during dinner. The thought of Daeron put a smile on his face. Joffrey brushed his fingertip against his wedding ring, feeling the cool metal band and the large gemstone in the middle. Daeron told him the gemstone was called opal, a soft brown gem that was the same shade of brown as Joffrey’s eyes. Joffrey had no idea what opal or the color brown was, but he appreciated Daeron’s gesture.

“Do you know Prince Daeron’s new hobby?” One of the chamber maids said in a hushed tone.

“What can interest the prince except for swords training and dragon riding?” The other maid chuckled, “I have never seen him pay attention to anything other than these two things.”

“Well, you are in for a surprise then.” The first maid paused, “I saw his grace with Lady Farman in the garden three days in a row!”

“Lady Farman? From Fair Isle?”

“The one and only. It is said that maidens from the Fair Isle all live up to their names. Let me tell you, Lady Farman surely does! She’s so pretty! Especially her brown eyes. Like melting chocolate.”

“But,” the second maid paused, “Prince Daeron is married to Prince Joffrey?”

“Oh, come on,” Her companion scoffed, “it’s a political union! How could someone as handsome as Prince Daeron be willing to marry a blind man? It’s to unite the two factions. Surely his grace wants someone who can actually keep him company.”

Joffrey bit his lip and tried his best to stay silent. What good would it do, if he reminded them that he had been listening to the conversation all along? That he was only blind, not deaf? That it was his husband they were talking about?

No. Joffrey didn’t think it would make any difference. Their words were not wrong. Joffrey had only taken on a stroll with Daeron in the garden once. He remembered that he clung to his husband the entire time, and Daeron had to keep telling him to mind his steps. It was a hilarious experience for them, and Joffrey had never suspected otherwise. But now, he wasn’t so sure. What if Daeron didn’t find it hilarious at all? What if Daeron found him annoying? What if Daeron was lying when he said he had loved Joffrey for years? What if Daeron realized that Joffrey’s unfocused brown eyes were not gems, and decided to find a pair of better ones? Such as Lady Farman’s pretty brown eyes that looked like melting chocolate?

The more Joffrey thought about that, the more he was convinced that Daeron had lied to him from the beginning. The maids had already moved on to other topics, leaving Joffrey to dwell on his thoughts alone. Joffrey tried his best to ignore the tug on his heart, the disappointment, the anger, the pain of being played like a fool.

When Daeron returned to his quarters, Joffrey was not there. Strange. Joffrey always welcomed him with a kiss and a bright smile. Where could Joffrey go? It was already dark.

Daeron put the gift he got for Joffrey down on the table before leaving the room again. He didn’t need to search for long, for Joffrey was seldom seen without him, the Keep’s servants were quick to tell him that Prince Joffrey had gone to the Dragon Pit.

What could Joffrey possibly do in the Dragon Pit after dark? He couldn’t fly, and today was not his scheduled day to see Tyraxes.

Daeron met Joffrey outside the Dragon Pit, the brunette trying to mount his black dragon but to no avail.

“Watch out!” Daeron rushed to Joffrey’s side, just in time to catch the boy falling off from Tyraxes, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Joffrey didn’t reply, only struggled to get free from Daeron.

“Joffrey!” Daeron’s voice hardened instinctively. His heart almost stopped when he saw Joffrey failed to grab the slick black scale. Tyraxes was young dragon, but it was still tall. Several meters fall was no joke.

“Let me go.” Joffrey hissed, keeping his head down.

“No. Unless you promise me not to do anything stupid again.” Daeron tightened his grip of Joffrey’s wrist, his heart still pounding in his chest, hard enough to hurt.

“It’s not stupid!” Joffrey struggled again, “I want to ride my dragon! I am entitled to do this!”

“You can’t ride a dragon, Joffrey! You are blind!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Daeron knew he had pushed too far. Joffrey hated to be called blind to his face. Daeron knew that Joffrey’s biggest regret of being blind was that he could not ride his dragon. Joffrey loved Tyraxes, and he felt guilty of robbing the black drake of the right to fly. Daeron had really hit a sore point.

“Is that what I am to you?” Joffrey said after a long pause, his voice cold as stone, “A blind man?”

“No, Joff, you know I didn’t mean it-”

“Fuck off.” Joffrey bit Daeron’s hand, and took the opportunity to run. He had no idea where he was heading, of course, but he had to leave. He couldn’t be with Daeron right now. How dare his husband say that word to his face? How dare Daeron dismiss his desire to ride Tyraxes?

If only. If only he was not blind, Joffrey could have flown away on Tyraxes by now. He wouldn’t stumble on some damn rock and fall to the ground like a sack.

Shit.

Joffrey groaned as he tried to get back to his feet, but a pair of strong arms wrapped around his waist and picked him up, the familiar scent unmistakably belonging to Daeron.

“Stop fighting, please.” Daeron said softly to Joffrey, “You will hurt yourself.”

“None of your business.” Joffrey murmured, too tired to struggle. He would never admit that he missed Daeron’s scent and his husband’s warm embrace.

“You are my husband, Joffrey. You are my business.” Daeron pressed Joffrey’s face to his own chest and began to walk back, “I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said the word.”

Joffrey sniffed, but remained silent.

By the time they arrived at their quarters, dinner had already gone cold. Daeron put Joffrey down on the bed and ordered the maids to bring something light and warm.

“And some candied almonds and honey cakes, please.”

Joffrey deliberately ignored the fact that Daeron had just ordered his favorite dessert. If Daeron wanted to sooth Joffrey’s anger with desserts, he thought wrong.

“Can I see your hand, Joff? I want to make sure you didn’t hurt yourself.”

“No,” Joffrey hid his hand behind his back, “I can take care of myself. I don’t need your pity.”

Daeron sighed heavily. On one hand, he was pleased that Joffrey acted so difficult around him. Don’t get him wrong. It was not easy to be on the receiving end of Joffrey’s temper, but Daeron was glad that Joffrey felt comfortable enough to act so free around him. But on the other hand, he didn’t know what had gotten to Joffrey this time, which made it more difficult to sooth his husband’s anger.

“I am not pitying you.” Daeron said gently and sat down on the bed as well, “I worry about you, Joff. You almost scared me to death when you fell from Tyraxes.”

“That’s what you want, isn’t it? If I die, you can finally get rid of me.” Joffrey said through clenched teeth, “You can be with someone else who is not blind.”

“What makes you think of such nonsense?” Daeron’s patience was wearing thin right now. He couldn’t stand someone belittling his love for Joffrey. not even Joffrey himself.

“You.” Joffrey said flatly, “Do you enjoy your time with Lady Farman, husband? Is she nice? Pretty? Pleasant? I bet she’s a delight to be with.”

Oh.

Oh. Daeron finally figured out where did Joffrey’s anger come from. Was Joffrey jealous?

“Are you jealous?” Daeron chuckled, kicking off his shoes and climbing to the bed. He settled next to Joffrey and trapped the brunette in his arms.

“What’s there to be jealous of?” Joffrey tried to get away, but the king-sized bed could not hold off his husband for long. He found himself surrounded by Daeron’s warmth before he even realized what was happening.

“There is nothing wrong to feel jealous.” Daeron tightened his arms, kissing the top of Joffrey’s head, “I think you are rather cute when you are jealous.”

“I am not-” Joffrey wasn’t sure which claim he wanted to deny, jealous or cute?

Fortunately, Joffrey didn’t have to choose because Daeron sealed their lips together in a tender kiss. Joffrey melted immediately, much to his chagrin, but he had yearned for Daeron’s touch whole day, now he couldn’t resist wanting for more. Joffrey moaned into the kiss, his hands finding their way into Daeron’s silver curls.

“Though I love seeing you jealous, you really don’t need to be.” Daeron whispered against Joffrey’s lips, “I am not attracted to Lady Farman and I will never be.”

“But you took her on a stroll.” Joffrey said, embarrassed by how ridiculous he sounded.

“That’s because I wanted to consult her something and keep it a secret.”

“You have a secret with her?” Joffrey’s unsaid words couldn’t be more clearer. With her? Not me?

“No, silly.” Daeron stroked Joffrey’s cheek before planting a small kiss on the brunette’s lips, “Here, have this.”

Something was pushed into his hands. It was a long, cylinder thing, smooth to the touch, with several holes on one end.

“A flute?”

“You said you wanted one, and Lady Farman happens to have a profound knowledge of this instrument.” Daeron helped Joffrey to put his fingers on each hole, “She also offered to teach you, but I refused.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t like the idea of you spending time alone with her.”

“Are you jealous, husband?” Joffrey asked, a phantom smile on his lips.

“Maybe.” Daeron pushed Joffrey to the bed and covered the brunette’s body with his own.

The gossip of Prince Daeron taking a liking for Lady Farman soon died down, replaced by a juicy tale of how Prince Daeron almost bent Prince Joffrey in half and pounded into the blind prince with abandon.

[jelliegirl]

10, 11, 12, and 13 for the oc ask thingy!! 💖

hehe thanks friend!! ill just answer for a bunch of ocs cuz im bored! 10. if they wear jewelry, what kind? do they prefer silver or gold? do they have a favorite gem? i just realized that every single one of my ocs wears gold jewelry except lucy hajdgs what can i say i have an aesthetic preference hmm lets see for gems ill kin assign them some lucy: pearl, opal lasha and solvin: sapphire atlas: black diamond, moonstone avarice: classic diamond, ruby billy: garnet him: amber, agate 11. what do they have in common with you? how are they different? would you get along with them? allll of my characters (except billy and avarice who are kinda singular because theyre from a vegas criminal campaign) have a nature theme, as well as backstories with social isolation and complex familial and/or romantic relationships. i think id get along best with him and lucy since theyre the mellowest lmao. lucy in particular is a very self indulgent character in terms of being a dreamy autistic fish girl so we would nerd out together <3 12. how long have they been around? do you know their birthday? is their birthday the day you made them or another day? what do they think of celebrating birthdays? im gonna give them zodiac signs since idk wtf calendars theyve got going on in various fantasy worlds but astrology is obviouslyyy universal billy: gemini, would go all out spoiling others on their birthdays, keeps his own under wraps and would be a little grumpy about attention if someone found out when it was avarice: aries, she is the birthday queen her entire birth month is her birthday shower her in gifts immediately atlas: gemini, has no idea wtf a birthday is but imo the fey have gemini energy him: virgo, best home-made gift giver, enjoys being god's specialist boy on his birthday and cherishes the gifts and attention, basically the one day a year where he can be a liiiittle selfish as a treat lucy: pisces, brings people pretty stones on their birthdays, would shyly enjoy being celebrated lasha: scorpio, another attention-loving birthday queen, dries flowers and plants throughout the year that remind her of her friends and gifts them on their birthdays solvin: cancer, how did you find out his birthday? that is privileged information! lightning zap x1000 13. what languages do they speak? how fluently?

in terms of fun fantasy languages him speaks druidic and lasha speaks elemental. also i realized the other day that common is definitely not atlas's first language and they would speak other ones more fluently 🤔 like sylvan and celestial. and Tree.

[spinchs-field]

PLEASE tell me about the mechanisms steven universe au. there's so many things that could mean? are the mechanisms the latest threat the crystal gems have to face (funniest option)? is it a character replacement au in which case jonny should be steven just for the pure comedy of it. or is it the mechs as gems au in which case PLEASE tell me what gemstones you think the mechanisms are

it's a Mechs as gems AU :3!!! im still not totally sure if they encounter the canon cast but you're right it would be hilarious (especially considering what we assigned Aurora). but do keep in mind while reading this that i only know SU lore through osmosis and the wiki and have never actually watched the show itself. i did get a ton of help from a friend of mine while conjuring this up tho so shoutouts to Brook my bestie. anyway here's the AU:

the gem list;

Jonny - snowflake obsidian Tim - brown zebra jasper Marius - bismuth TS - red pearl Ivy - rose sapphire Nastya - aquamarine Ashes - fire opal Raphaella - peach moonstone Brian - gold Aurora - black diamond Beta - pyrite Scuzz - onyx Carmilla - bloodstone Lyfrassir - koroit opal

YES Aurora is a diamond. because it's funny. YES she is still madly in love with Nastya. YES they fuse incredibly often. and YES Nastya is like a fucking ant compared to Aurora.

as for the story itself? all of the crew is from Homeworld. Carmilla started what was basically a mini uprising against the Diamonds that led to a SHIT ton of infighting. Carmilla travels around to spread the rebellion which is how she meets the Mechs (they all got fucked up* in battle in one way or another and she decided to take them in and care for them). eventually it turned out that Aurora, despite being a LITERAL DIAMOND, actually hated the place and helped everyone leave. now they've just kinda been floating through space and passing the time with music (originally used to keep Aurora entertained out of fear but now they’ve learned she’s actually really niceys and just do it for fun)

*i'm still debating on if the Mechs should have cracked gems or just have their gem be where their mechanism is (with the exception of Brian and TS, which will probably be a reversed case in which Brian's gem is over his heart and TS's gem is on it's throat)

but um. yeah! im gonna start designing them eventually. if u have any other questions feel free 2 ask..

[bassguitarinablackt-shirt]

*clears throat*

um. asher. hes such a silly little guy. i love talking to them and he's honestly so fun to interact with??

like. literally. percy is probably one of my favorite moots <3 i love talking to him and god sorry if i repeat that a lot i just. appreciate that i can talk to them, yk?

and nico is so silly and i just :3 its always fun to interact with it and send them asks and he's just. there, you know?

like, leo's just always . yeah. i love that i can scrumble their blog and to be honest thats probably one of the favorite parts of my day, going through his blog

i like to do it in the mornings; after i wake up and go through my notifs and discord and shit ill pull up thals' blog and go through its posts, yk? and honestly i love it when they go through my notifs, it makes me so happy to see star there :3

and i understand astro is sometimes not doing well, and i want to just. get rid of suns pain, because honestly they deserve the world.

and apollo is just. yeagh. it makes me so happy that i met him tbh. comet is just. i dont know how to describe it /pos

and will is so silly btw!! i love talking to him, god im pretty sure i said that a lot already but its true. so.

and piper is honestly so cool for having so many names, she's the reason why i have so many tbh. they're so cool and god i look up to lun a lot

also i love how their names are mostly either planet or pjo names :3 like, venus is so based for that??? like i love faer names so much tbh

also, to be honest, ive considered stealing a good amount of mars' names. not my fault though !! its names are so cool :3 and he shouldnt worry about having too many names, xe can do whatever they want forever

chase is also very pretty btw. like honestly, they pass like. really well. or at least, he passes a lot better than i do sjshjfdkd

its so silly to me how octavian and i share some names :3 also, i like using numbers to tell us apart (is that weird? sorry), like, tbh, i love calling him octavian 3.0, nico 4.0, etc :3 wait, would it be leo 3.0? did he take the name leo before me or after?

and nyx is such a pretty name tbh. all of luns are. you know who else is pretty. fae are.

and luke is just. god i love all his blog themes and talking to him and

yeagh sorry jason i just. get sappy at night ig. like. hes honestly so cool and im so fucking glad i met him, yk?

i love how i assigned him the name jackson, its so silly to me :3 they made an acronym, let me find it rq, AJBCNPNOLCEDRBOCI (assigned jackson by cat nico pluto neptune octavian leo calypso eris dysnomia rusty blue opal cerulean infinity), sorry i fixed it up a bit to add on my new names, i hope he doesnt mind :3

umm castellan is such a cool name tbh. the name reminds of me of . the sky. kinda. so it fits it really well :3 honestly, the name is pretty close to callisto, which im kinda thinking of stealing- ooh idk if he knows this, they probably do, but callisto is jupiters second biggest moon :33

grace is such a cool name tbh, ive always liked it, and they're cool too so it. matches. yk

and god, i love gem so much /no plato /no romo, ive said this before but im so glad crystal is in my life :3 they're just so sweet and fun to talk to and and and-

and sorry i broke this up into lines, its so i could keep track of every name switch

sorry idk why i typed this out im just. in a sappy mood ig :3

im actually gonna cry /pos i love you and talking to you so much and and- *explodes*

[secondsonaym]

The Vessel Project - Lord Verchiel Knows Best - [Kallamar 1]

(read on Ao3 here)

⚠ Major warning for child abuse [Physical and verbal]

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

Ah… My turn already? I would have thought Heket would go on for several more pages… But very well.

When Shamura had asked us to help them with detailing the past eight years, I was… Reluctant, to say the least. 

After all, once we secure the status of the Old Faith and unite the sects, we’re going to scrub all traces of those damn birds out of the Old Lands. 

I’ll finally be free of that damn bastard’s face…

Ah… My apologies. Shamura has requested we not complain about our experiences for more than necessary. This log is supposed to be as ‘objective’ as possible, as they put it.

So let me tell you how… Objectively horrible Verchiel was. Not that I knew it at the time.

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

“Not a word. ” Lord Verchiel spat as we sank down into the darkness. Xe had readied a portal as soon as we stepped outside, which was shortly after Phanuel and Heket had reached the bottom of the steps.

Even without Xer prompt, I wouldn’t have spoken. It was clear Xe was in a bad mood, so why risk making it worse? No doubt, anything I would have said would have just made Xem even angrier.

Michael must have made Verchiel very angry, if he had actually made Xem strike him with Xer talons. Xe hated fighting, and hated getting dirty. 

“Now I must throw this robe out!” Xe wailed as we finally stepped into the calm of Anchordeep. “Blood is so hard to wash, and this material is delicate! ”

Thanks to some ancient charm, one that had been in place before Lord Verchiel’s time, Xe could move and breathe just fine under the water. Most of Anchordeep’s inhabitants were aquatic in some form or another, but a few air-breathers had joined the population in recent generations.

“Opal,” Xe said, turning to me, “You don’t think I’m letting Anchordeep fall to ruin , do you?”

“O-Of course not!” I said. Was that what Michael had said? How insulting! “You take good care of the land, and everyone loves you for it.”

Lord Verchiel turned and let out a sigh. The blood on Xer talons was already starting to disperse into the water, adding a gross metallic smell to it.

It was hard seeing Lord Verchiel like this. Xe tried so hard, with Xer limited energy, only for the other bishops to throw it back into Xer face. 

“I know I shouldn’t let Michael’s words get to me,” Xe said. “But he is so irritating. Like a grandfather who has lost touch with the world.”

Xe began to walk again, and I hurried after Xem. We were nearing the temple grounds, which was easy to see even late at night. Various statues of crystal stood around the temple walls, so brilliant they reflected even the smallest bit of light.

“Grandfather?” I echoed. “He doesn’t seem much older than… Than the other bishops.” I knew better than to imply Lord Verchiel was past Xer prime. It was impolite, after all.

“Hah.” Lord Verchiel snorted. “Though we all took on the crowns at similar ages in our lives, Michael has been the bearer of the Red Crown for much longer than the rest of us. Even the bishops before us said he had been around for who knows how long.”

“It feels odd to think that there were bishops before you.” 

“Well, of course. We’ve been around for centuries. You mortals couldn’t possibly comprehend the full scope of our reigns. With any luck, however, I will be in charge for many centuries to come, so there is no need to worry about all that.”

“Of course, My Lord.”

Soon enough, we had reached the temple. It was a large twisting spire made up of carefully grown coral, with countless embeds of pearls and other small gemstones. Even in the middle of the night, fluorescent lamps shone so that several of the gems could reflect the light, giving the temple an ethereal shine about it.

“Ugh, I can’t believe that Raziel! Keeping me up past my bedtime like that. The vessel project is certainly the first interesting idea she’s had in a while, but her consideration for other people’s schedules is abysmal!” Lord Verchiel spat as Xe signaled to one of the guards to open the door.

“Well, now you can get to bed as soon as possible.” I said, doing my best to lift Xer spirits. “No more interruptions until tomorrow!”

“Yes, yes, you are quite right. I will look forward to going back to my usual routine.” Xe agreed, stepping through the doorway. “Plenty of rest, like I deserve, and no need to worry about anything~”

At this, I couldn’t help but slow my pace a little, confused. Usually routine? But, now that the other bishops were aware of my existence, wouldn’t it be important that I begin training for my role? I wasn’t sure about the others, but certainly Raziel wouldn’t be above assassination or similar underhandedness…

“W-What about my training?” I asked, causing Lord Verchiel to glance back at me. 

“Hm? Oh, yes, yes, that, well obviously I won’t be managing that.” Xe said with a wave of Xer wing. “Chosen disciple or not, I am very busy with managing the order as a whole, Opal. Surely you didn’t think I would be training you personally ?”

“Ah… Well…” 

Lord Verchiel let out a laugh. It was slightly melodic, but fragile, like the tinkling of glass chimes. I had always liked Xer laugh. 

“No, no, my dear, one of the acolytes will help you. Chambersite, maybe, he’s quite skilled with combat. You’ll pick things up from him in no time.”

“Oh… Chambersite?” I mumbled before I could stop myself.

Chambersite was one of the more involved members of the order, a middle-aged eel who was always at Lord Verchiel’s beck and call. He was alright, I guess, but… Well, let’s just say in the brief moments we had spoken before Lord Verchiel and I had left for Raziel’s temple, Chambersite had made it quite clear he did not approve of Lord Verchiel’s decision. 

“A little runt like you’s got no business being in such a position.” He had grunted at me when Lord Verchiel was distracted with something else. “Xe should’ve chosen somebody who’ll actually know what they’re doin’.”

“Is something wrong with my choice, Opal?” Lord Verchiel asked, bringing me back to attention. When I locked eyes with Xem, I went rigid, feeling the steely looking Xe was giving down to my very core. 

Had Xe noticed my color change? I tried my best to control it, but it was still hard at times, and flashes of color still passed along my skin when I was particularly stressed. My whole family could read me like an open book because of this, and it was hard to mask how I really felt.

But it had been these same color shifts that Lord Verchiel had taken notice of, had complimented me for. I certainly wasn’t the first squid with these abilities, but Lord Verchiel had called mine ‘unique’, of all things.

“I have an eye for these things, dear.” Xe had said. “I know quality when I see it. I know best.”

Right, why was I worrying so much? 

Lord Verchiel knew best. 

Chambersite was perfectly fine.

“N-No, not at all.” I stammered, shaking my head. “I think Chambersite will be an excellent teacher.”

“Good, good. Now, I am off to my personal chambers. I trust you know your way to your own quarters?” Xe asked.

“Y-Yes, Lord Verchiel. I wish you a good night. And… Um…”

“Spit it out, Opal.” Xe said, a clear note of impatience entering Xer tone.

“I just… Wanted to thank you. For the opportunity. It’s an honor.”

“The least I could do to express my gratitude to my followers.” Xe said with a smile before turning and continuing to walk. “Sweet dreams, little Opal.”

I watched Xem go, vanishing down one of the decorated archways. After a few more moments of staring, I made my way to the hall that led to the acolytes’ living quarters, to find the room that had been given to me when I had first been brought here.

Unlike the outside, there were no lamps in the halls, meaning I would have to be careful as I navigated the area. I gently placed a tentacle on the wall as I walked, keeping myself steady as I moved in the darkness. 

Reaching my room wasn’t particularly difficult, as it was near the end of the hallway, but I paused with my hand on the door, thinking for a moment.

The other children I had met had been quite… Different. 

Heket was so nice and bubbly; Leshy was quiet, but observant; Shamura was… passionate, about their devotion to Raziel. And Narinder…

I recalled how the cat had started crying after we spoke about sacrifice. I hadn’t said anything at the time, but I did find it rather upsetting. I just wanted to share how the Pestilence sect handled sacrifice, not to make him upset…

Then again, why did I care? He was an enemy now. If it came to it, I would have to… Kill him…

Kill… Him…

Why did that idea stir something in me? Why did my stomach twist and my legs went weak at the thought of facing him--or anyone , really, in battle?

…

I was probably tired, that’s all. It was late, and I really needed to sleep.

So without any further delay, I stepped into my room, changed into my evening robes, and settled into my hammock. Almost instantly, exhaustion swept over me, and I closed my eyes.

It was tomorrow when things would change… 

Unfortunately, for the worse.

----------

I woke the next morning to a heavy banging on my door, which startled me out of my hammock and onto the hard tile floor. Just who was that, and why were they so loud??

My question was answered as the door swung open, and Chambersite’s leering face looked down at me. 

“What are ya doin’ on the floor?” He snapped. “Get up and get dressed, it’s time to get to work!”

“Y-Yes sir.” I managed, hurrying to my dresser as he closed the door to wait for me outside. Oh, I must have overslept! As Lord Verchiel always said, maintaining a proper schedule was important.

Once I had a fresh change of clothes on, I stepped outside, almost bumping right into Chambersite, who had barely stepped away from my door. He snorted as he stared down at me, but shoved something in my hands before turning around and walking down the hall.

“Eat, and let’s get to the battlegrounds.” 

I stumbled to keep pace with him for a moment before looking down at what he had given me: A small pouch of mixed fish and cauliflower. 

“Oh…” I mumbled, my beak twitching a bit. “Um, I don’t actually like--”

“Yer not gonna to get the luxury to be picky out on crusades, ya know.” He snorted, not even turning back to look at me. “‘Sides, it’s good for you.”

Good for me. Right. I couldn’t argue with that, really. I needed to be healthy and strong if I were to fight in Lord Verchiel’s name, so even if I didn’t like it, I just had to endure.

“Where is everyone else?” I couldn’t help but ask between bites that almost made me gag. “It’s so quiet…”

“That’s ‘cause it’s 5 AM.” 

5 AM? But then that would mean I had only slept for… W-Why was I up so early???

“Lord Verchiel delegated the responsibility of yer training to me.” He continued, now glancing back and taking note of my confusion. “So I decide yer schedule, and you follow along. Got it?”

Ah. Right. Lord Verchiel had said as much last night, I remembered now. Whatever Lord Verchiel said goes, and Lord Verchiel had essentially said whatever Chambersite says goes. Chambersite was my elder, after all, so what point was there in objecting to him?

I finished my food and disposed of the pouch as we passed a waste bin. We were almost to the far side of the temple’s interior, and I could see Chambersite heading to the doors that led outside.

The battlegrounds weren’t used too often, from what I could recall. Lord Verchiel didn’t have many acolytes skilled in combat, and Xe detested having to fight. 

So when we stepped onto the clear space, a circular field cleared of debris so only fine sand shifted under our feet, it felt… Strangely cold. Not cold in terms of temperature, but just that… Without regular activity, the space didn’t feel as inviting as others.

Chambersite either didn’t notice or chose to ignore my hesitance, walking to a small shed that stood next to the temple wall. He took out two long wooden poles and unceremoniously tossed one to me. 

“We’ll use these until you can handle an actual weapon.”

Though I tried my best to catch it, I hadn’t been prepared, so it flipped between my hands for a moment before hitting the ground with a sad thump. I heard Chambersite grunt something as I bent down to pick it up, but my embarrassment made it hard for me to realize what it was.

“Yer pathetic.” He scoffed as I made my way to him on the field. “But that’s what training is for.”

He gestured for me to take a few steps back, then adjusted his stance so he looked ready to fight. He looked at me expectantly, but something bothered me…

“Um… What about your jewelry?” I asked, gesturing to the various loops and chains that adorned his neck and arms. “W-Won’t they get caught on something?”

Chambersite snarled, gripping his weapon tighter.

“This jewelry came from Lord Verchiel Himself! It is a sacred gift! To take it off would be an insult to Him!”

Ah… Why didn’t I realize that? Everyone else in the temple had various forms of jewelry and piercings, so it had to have been part of the upper ranks of the order. 

“Do well enough, and you’ll get your own, eventually.” Chambersite continued, gesturing for me to make a move. “But that’s dependent on you. ”

I froze up when he said this. Me, get my own jewelry? My own adornments? Well, such a thing would have certainly been a honor, but… How come the idea of that scared me? It was a blessing from Lord Verchiel, so it was good. And yet… The idea of going around covered in shiny metal and gems did not sit well with me…

Oh, enough with the worrying! I was just nervous, that was all! Nervousness at new things was perfectly normal, and I’m sure in time, I would warm up to the idea. Besides, it wasn’t like it was going to happen any time soon.

Lord Verchiel knew best.

“C’mon, kid, let’s just get this shit over with.” Chambersite barked, pulling me from my train of thought once more. 

With a quick nod, I brandished the pole I had been given and ran towards him--like I had read about in books! Brave warriors charging headfirst into battle to slay their foes, yeah!

I was gonna smack Chambersite in his ridiculous face, and he wouldn’t be able to get upset because it was part of training and--

DONK.

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, in a crumpled pile with my face being poked by my own weapon. Chambersite had swept his pole under my legs, sending me falling and causing me to bonk myself in the face. 

“What a great start.” He grumbled as I pulled myself up. 

I brushed the sand off my front and rubbed at where I had hit myself. It didn’t hurt too much, thankfully, but it was still embarrassing to have done that. Ripples of pink and red flashed across my face, displaying the shame I was trying to keep quiet for all to see.

“C’mon, back to it.” He ordered, readying his stance again. “Crusaders don’t get time to cry.”

Had I looked ready to? Oh dear… 

“Um… Do you think you could actually… Show me some moves?” I suggested between slow breaths--A technique one of my dads had taught me for whenever I felt overwhelmed. “It would help if I knew what to actually do, rather than charge straight ahead…”

“You learn by doing. ” Was all Chambersite growled in response, before gesturing again for me to move.

Well, I couldn’t see any issues with that, really. If I kept at it, I would learn where I was making mistakes, and then correct myself.

As worried as I had been when starting this training, it started to ease up a little bit. Sure, Chambersite was a bit rough around the edges, and probably wasn’t very happy he hadn’t been the one chosen, but he was taking the time to teach me. That was actually pretty nice of him.

We continued to train, with me charging at him from various angles and him continuously parrying my strikes, sending me tumbling over. It wasn’t long before my robes were a mess of sand and shell fragments, and I could feel a distinct soreness in my arms.

I didn’t really know how long we had been going on like this, but after I had fallen for the some-dozenth time, I found it hard to get up again.

“Again.” Chambersite ordered, as he had taken to between the bouts. He hadn’t been hit once, and stood as imposing as ever.

“I… I’m starting to get tired, Chambersite, sir.” I mumbled, only managing to bring myself to my knees. “Could we take a break?”

“No.” He answered simply. “There’s no breaks when yer fighting for real.”

Well, of course, I knew that, and he was right, but… This wasn’t real. So couldn’t I catch my breath for just a little bit?

“I don’t think a little rest would hurt…” I said, but the shift in his eyes made me regret speaking.

“You think you know better than me, then?” He growled, taking a stomping step closer to me.

“N-No!” I insisted, shaking my head. “I’m tired, is all!”

“You keep going anyway.” He said as he stood over me. Without warning, he grabbed my arm, and tried to pull me up to my feet.

It hurt. His grip was hard and rigid, and he pulled me in a manner that was far from careful. It let out a yelp from the pain, and buckled back down to the ground. Chambersite didn’t let go, however, and stood over me while I tried to pull my arm away.

“Get. Up.”

“I can’t.”

“You’re just not trying hard enough. GET UP.”

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to get up, especially with Chambersite so angry now. But if I stayed on the ground, he would surely get even angrier. Oh no… Oh no, oh no, oh no…

“What’s going on out here?”

That voice--Lord Verchiel!

I raised my head, seeing Lord Verchiel poking Xer head out of the doorway and looking at us with a curious expression. After a moment, Xe stepped fully outside, Xer robes of the day a luminous shade of blue-green. 

“Apologies, My Lord.” Chambersite sighed, letting go of my arm. “Just havin’ some difficulties with trainin’.”

“On the first day?” Lord Verchiel asked in a disbelieving tone, widened eyes flicking to me. “Opal, dear, what’s the matter? Why are you making things so difficult for Chambersite?”

“I… Um… Well…” I stammered, trying to get the words out, but Lord Verchiel’s gaze made them catch in my throat. 

Part of me had hoped Xe would say something to Chambersite--That he was being to harsh or rough or that he shouldn’t have grabbed me like that. But Xe didn’t. So I was at a loss.

“He says he’s tired.” Chambersite then explained, making me shrink into my shoulders.

“Then why not let him rest?” Lord Verchiel asked, now looking to Chambersite. “Hard work is one thing, Chambersite, but surely you don’t intend to shatter my little Opal, do you?”

At these words, my heart soared. So Xe wasn't just going to let Chambersite get away with it! Truly, Lord Verchiel was a benevolent bishop, caring for all who served under Xem. Why did I ever have any doubts? It disgusted me to realize I had even considered Lord Verchiel would just sit by and let something like this happen.

Chambersite was quiet for a moment, glancing down at me. Lord Verchiel’s words seem to have gotten to him, because his jaw was visibly tight now.

“He won’t get better unless he keeps at it, My Lord.”

“It’s not a race.”

“But, My Lord, the other bishops’ll surely--”

“Don’t! Remind me! Of the other bishops on temple grounds. I admire your dedication to pleasing me, Chambersite, but a stone is polished with patience. He is a little gem to be buffed steadily, not a disgusting geode you smash with the first hammer you have available.”

Chambersite did not speak for a long while again, and then offered his hand to me. After a pause, being confused by this gesture, I took it, and he helped me to my feet properly this time.

“Forgive me, My Lord.” He said in a low voice.

“Now, I think I will take Opal with me for a bit to have lunch. You, meanwhile, can take some time to visit with Lazuli and see how her current sculpture is coming along. Is that alright?” Lord Verchiel asked.

“Of course, My Lord.”

“Come along, Opal!” Lord Verchiel said, turning around so fast Xer tailfeathers almost smacked me and Chambersite. I wasted no time hurrying after Xem, but when I turned to close the door behind us, I couldn’t help but lock eyes with Chambersite as he remained where he was on the field.

His eyes were cold and hard, staring at me intently with a rage I had never seen before.

“I do hope Chambersite wasn’t too harsh.” Lord Verchiel called, prompting me to finally close the door and rush to catch up with Xem. “He can be quite a mean individual if not kept in line.”

“Um, well, it was rough, but… I think I still learned a lot.” I admitted, rubbing at my still-sore arm. “I can’t wait to get better.”

“In time, in time.” Lord Verchiel said. “But that aside, there is another reason I wanted to get you alone. It’s about your family. I meant to mention it yesterday, but then the summons for Raziel threw everything out of order, and I forgot!”

Huh? My family?

“A-Are they alright?” I couldn’t help but ask. 

My family--My three moms, two dads, and literal dozens of siblings--they were all important to me. I had been staying at the temple for some time now, but every few weeks I had been allowed to go and visit them for a while. The last time I had seen them had been the day before yesterday, and everything had seemed fine then, so… Had something come up?

“Yes, yes, they’re all okay.” Xe said with a wave of Xer wing. “But I’m afraid that, if you are to start your training full-swing, then I can no longer allow you to visit them. You need to stay here, in the temple.”

What? Stay… In the temple? 

“But… Wh… Why?” I said, voice trembling with surprise. My stomach started twisting, but at the time I had chalked it up to not liking the disgusting breakfast Chambersite had given me.

“You need to stay focused, my dear.” Xe explained simply. “We can’t have you getting soft by taking breaks just to see somebody. I’m not saying you can’t contact them at all, no-no, weren’t you also sending them letters? It’s just that we cannot spend time and resources escorting you to and fro so much anymore.”

“Oh…” 

Just as quickly as my heart had soared at Lord Verchiel's rescue, it began to plummet at this news. My family had been so proud of me, being selected as Lord Verchiel's disciple. They had become the talk of my hometown, and business at the restaurant had been picking up, all because they could claim that Lord Verchiel's disciple came from their family. I was so happy to see things improve, little by little, each time I went to visit. And now...

“Opal, dear, whatever is the matter?” Xe asked, turning back to look at me with a slight frown. “Surely you would have expected something like this, yes?”

“I mean… I suppose… Especially since I live here now, but… But… I don’t know…”

Tears started to well in my eyes, and before I could stop myself, a few light sobs escaped me. Oh, how embarrassing it was, to be crying in front of My Lord! Especially since, like Xe had said, it was an improper use of resources, anyway. I shouldn’t be so selfish!

So then… Why did this hurt so?

“I’m… I’m sa-sad, though.” I explained. “I do-don’t know w-w-why. I understand why it… It can’t… But I’m.. I’m still--”

“My dear…” Lord Verchiel now turned around completely, kneeling so that Xe was eye-level with me. It was such a kind gesture, considering Xer status… 

Xe gently took my face in the tips of Xer wings, lifting my head up so I could see Xer kind smile.

“What do we always say in times like this?”

“Lord Verchiel… Knows best.” I managed between hiccups. 

“That’s right. The harsh training, the distance from your family--It may be painful now, but trust me… This will be better for you in the long run. Now, how about we go get something to eat, hm?”

I nodded, and Lord Verchiel stood up, turning and leading me off down the hall. I resumed walking as well, silently rubbing at my tears with the sleeve of my robe.

My family would be fine. I just couldn't see them in person anymore. But it was all for the sake of my training, so as not to be a burden on the temple.

As I followed after Xem, I repeated that phrase in my head so I would be sure not to forget it.

Lord Verchiel knows best.

Lord Verchiel knows best.

Lord Verchiel knows best.

[frostbite-the-bat]

WHAT AN AMAZING COLLECTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love the dragons protecting the display OOOOOOOUGH SHARKS TEETH YEAAAAAAAAA Do you have any specific favorites? (& What about them said Pick Me to you? (i love rocks sm but have none space so i only have a lil bag of my own) )

YESS!!! THANK YUOU!!! and ofc i gotta have dragons B)

and HMMM OKAY lemme THInks

so *now* pick and buy gems at trinket stores whenver i go travelling and see any tha i just dont own yet (or if theres a piece that's really pretty to me that i DO have, but it's just unique and cool and i want it)

but back then id just..! buy whatever was Cool to me . id always buy so many at once my god

my favorites are defo my extra silly fancy lookin gems!! lemme show em here (older pics) (some are fancier bc i took them for my personal collection list google doc)

bismuth!!

these quartz! i was told they are some type of quartz! these are special to me because i got them a year ago during a school trip to germany - i only had a few euros on me and i ended up spending it all on gems. we checked out the christmas markets and there was an friendly old fellow who was selling gemstones and other things! he even had a cutter and could speak english. we chatted a bit and i listened to him talk about things (like how these lil fellas are formed. i know nothing about chemicals but i just think these things are interesting!!!! i actually get most my gems from giftshops near cave tours because i love visiting them and think it's interesting ^^

anyways he had a little box of various "rocks" that could possibly be geodes that he'd cut and see if they are! the price depended on their size. he said that i could guess with the weight and feel of the "rock" and let me pick from a few that could possible be ones. i said it didn't matter to me if it's gonna be hollow or not, since it's cool to me anyways!

so while my classmates waited and stared at me i just watched this guy cut it nicely in half like this - and he then even cut the smaller flatter piece of it, too. it was very nice! it's also where i bought the tooth, the bismuth, and some other things that i forgot as well... oops. i got a lot of gems

this shimmery pretty goldstone / aventurine glass ! wacky picture quality but i don't feel like getting new pics (+ im on pc now) (lie: i ended up getting new pics later)

. it's a man-made lil' mineral, but it's very lovely regardless! i honestly only care about the "realness" only i it's a scam of some sort. any rock, trinket, gem or mineral, man-made or not is very niceys to me. (i still want an opal tho i only got an opalite which was mislabeled. i dont think on purpose since these stores sometimes accidentally mislabel or misspell things. or use czech names which gets confusing. yeah i may have inaccurate names for some of my gems but i try my best to be accurate. im no pro im just a collector little beast)

some type of peacock ore! (either treated chalcopyrite or bornite, as i've previously written down. i'll trust my past self)

aura quartz! one of my first 3 pieces ive ever gotten that sparked my collection

all of these little fellas i bought at the same place for really cheap! filled my lil collection quite a bitso. i loves tghem. theyre like cereal To Me

in order: garnet, carnelian, emerald, tusquoise (why isnt this one in my list. oh my god how many gems did i miss. i still have a few to add that ill list on the list later that i need to re-check what gems they are. lord.) opalite, chalcedony, snowflake obsidian, obsidian (?), onyx. + not pictured an aquamarine which...? i cant find? im not checking if i put it behind a bigger gem and i cant FIND IT.

i really need to do a new and better gem list . oops. i cant always rely on my memory for these names

my EYES! in order: tiger's eye 2x, hawk's eye, bull's eye

my funny silly mosly multicolor fellas idk they fit the Vibes. i likes thgem (appreciae this secion i had to make sure and like re-identify half of these but i still could be incorrect)

in ORDER... lapis lazuli, sodalite 2x, elbaite (most likely), chrysocolla, rhodonite, blue apatite, amazonite, kyanite

dalmatian jasper and unakite

...some kinda jasper?

so ya!! thats some of my Rocks. this took a while bc i had to look what some of these are again @_@ i loaves them . todays guzma enrichment: this

[thehaemanthus]

Recently Read

I was waffling on doing “this is what I’ve read recently” posts but then @separatist-apologist said she would appreciate it and my relationship to her is basically the “anything for you, Beyoncé” vine so--

Not an exhaustive list of everything I’ve read in the past few months, but some of the fun stuff!

The Galactic Zookeeper’s Guide to Heists and Husbandry, A.C. Huntley Sci-fi comedy

I’m signed up to receive ARCs from Hidden Gems in exchange for reviews, and this was one of those books. Very fun! A zookeeper stumbles upon an opportunity to smuggle a rare animal to a mob boss for a bunch of money and proceeds to try and do so-- with very little planning or idea of how she’ll do it. She’s winging this thing, and once you get used to her occasional idiocy and the stress, it’s pretty funny. The author threw in romance, but it was meh. Read for the shenanigans, but don’t expect too much. I thought the author could have made our protagonist’s backstory a bit more tragic and angsty, but y’all know who I am lol.

A Soul to Touch, Opal Reyne Monster Romance

Third book in the Duskwalker Brides series. This is for the monsterfuckers out there. I love these books for the well-developed, unique characters, the interesting world, and solid plots. And yeah, there’s explicit monster fucking. A Soul to Touch was an enjoyable continuation of the series, I think I liked it more than the second book? What stands out is that our monsters are all VERY different, which sometimes doesn’t happen with love interests. But these monsters have unique personalities, problems, wants, and ideas of how the world should be. Same with our female protagonists. If you don’t mind some explicit sex with monsters (or are, in fact, in search of that), try this series out. It's not all sex though, I promise. 

Class Five Series, Michelle Diener Sci-Fi Romance

I did post about this before, but I’ll do it again. I’ll start out by saying that in contrast to the series above, the love interests in this series are a bit cookie-cutter. But if you can get past that, this is a sci-fi series with some politics, AI (like, real AI), romance, aliens, and moral dilemmas. It can be cheesy, the romance can feel rushed, and the alien love-interests are quite human. But I freaking loved the world-building. The books would be better if the love interests weren’t all space military men from the same species, but meh. Still entertaining. 

The Intersolar Union Series, Etta Pierce Sci-Fi Alien Romance

Notice I say “alien” this time because these guys really are aliens. If Class Five is too simple for you, this one has more violence, explicit scenes, higher stakes, just overall feels more mature. Over 1000 humans are kidnapped from Earth for sex trafficking, and in the first book our main character works with the Alien Special Forces (sort of) to save them. Different couples! Different aliens! Angsty at times, steamy, and there are occasionally tentacles if you are into that. Lots of work went into this world building and the characters. Still need to read the latest book but I’m super excited for it. 

Mont Blanc Rescue Series, J.R. Pace Action and Adventure Romance

A new genre for me, got introduced to it through some ARCs. I find the military-love interest books hit or miss, but this series follows a group of people who are part of a search and rescue team so like. Less opportunity for cringe, plenty of action and guns and peril because ya girl needs that sometimes. Relatively simple and tame books, but fun super quick reads. The author is good with details and knows their stuff. I would like to go to the mountains now. 

[ladykailitha]

Oh For a Muse of Fire! Part 7

I love writing this story so much I am constantly going back and rereading my favorite parts. And when I write really, really good bits I want to put it up immediately so you all can squee with me. But I also know that it’s better to give each part some time between each one so the chapter can get the love it deserves. It’s ongoing battle I tell you.

This is the start of what I’ve been calling in my head the dark chapters. This is where we get to the tragic backstories that drove these two boys apart. TW: for panic attack in this and brief mention violence.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

*

Chrissy came over to where the boys had sat down with Wayne after they had put their equipment away. She slid the beers over to each of them with practiced ease.

“So...” she began. “You’ve got history with my boy, Garnet.”

“Who the fuck is Garnet?” Jeff asked.

Chrissy giggled. “My boss is weird hipster who has all off of us go by gem names to keep up the mystic of the place. Jewels of the Queen’s Crown as it were.”

Gareth laughed. “And what do they call you?”

“I’m Opal for now,” she explained after taking a swig of her beer. “But Garnet says that before he leaves, I’ll probably be Sapphire or Emerald.” She thought for a moment. “Considering Diamond’s sense of humor? Probably Sapphire.”

“Why Sapphire?” Eddie asked, frowning in confusion.

Chrissy laughed. “Because I’m a lesbian?” The boys just stared at her with blank faces. “Sappho is the first lesbian? Another word for lesbian is sapphic? Sapphire, sapphic?”

Suddenly they got it and started nodded.

She turned to Eddie. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you avoiding the question. You and I are going to have nice long talk about it later.”

Eddie straightened up and looked guiltily at his beer. “We just aren’t in the same universe is all.”

Chrissy looked over at Garnet and sighed. “I think you guys are closer than you think.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eddie growled. “In what multi-verse are me and that man even in the same hemisphere?”

Chrissy sighed. “I’m not one for spreading rumors around but from what I’ve heard, Garnet’s dad threw him out when he came out as gay.”

All four boys turned to look at Steve slinging cocktails like he was born to it in shock.

“He’s gay?” Jeff asked. “There’s no way. He was a known ladies’ man in high school. Him and his girlfriend were like the king and queen of Hawkins.”

Chrissy just hummed. “Trust me when I say that I’ve been working with him for almost two months now, and the dude ain’t straight. He never flirts with the girls. Like ever. And yeah, sure some of it can be marked down to Garnet being a consummate professional. But when guys flirt with him, he gets all flustered and turns pink.”

Eddie sat back. “Huh.” He shrugged off the gnawing feeling in the back of his mind of what it would have been like if Eddie had known that sooner. “Still, I wouldn’t have thought that pretty, rich boy Garnet would deign to work at a bar, even one as upscale as this one.”

“What the fuck you talking about, boy?” Wayne growled, speaking up for the first time. “I didn’t teach you that classist bullshit.”

Eddie ducked his head. “Sorry, Uncle Wayne.”

Wayne jutted his chin Steve’s direction. “I know you’ve been calling him something different because of the rules of the club or whatever, but if you lot are talking about that boy at the bar, then you need to check your bias. He worked at the plant for a year on the weekends trying to save money for college.”

Everyone turned to Wayne in shock.

“He worked at the plant?” Gareth said. “But I thought he was earning money babysitting. He used to babysit my sister Clara after school when I had to work or had band practice.”

Jeff shook his head. “Nah, man. He was working at Family Video that year. My mom would gush about how sweet and helpful he was when she was trying to find a good family movie.”

Wayne took a sip of his beer. “That boy did all three at the same time. He told me he’d work the video store during the time the kids would be at school and then babysit after. Then he’d work weekends at night at the plant.” He glared at Eddie. “Did such a good job, Ken wanted him to take over as foreman of the night shift when he retired.”

Eddie looked over at Steve and furrowed his brow. “Sorry, Uncle Wayne,” he repeated with more conviction.

Wayne nodded and the topic changed to what songs they should preform next time and in what order.

Sometimes Eddie would catch himself looking over at Steve in a new light.

*

Steve was having a bad week. There was no getting around it. He was trying to get to class, but the beemer wouldn’t start.

It ground and ground, but wouldn’t start.

“Fuck!”

He pounded on the steering wheel. He was going to have to take the bus, which meant he was going to be late.

He threw open his door and popped the hood. Maybe he figure it out. He checked the oil and the other fluids, but they were all at least decent levels. He check for any loose cables but everything seemed to be connected.

Steve was about to slam the hood back down when someone stopped him.

“What seems to be the trouble, Harrington?” Eddie asked, hand on the hood preventing its closure.

Steve sighed. “No fucking clue. And I’m going to be late for class. And since the midterm is due today, if I’m late, I’m fucked.”

Eddie hummed. “I’ll call someone to come get the car and I’ll drive you in.”

Steve stared at him wide-eyed and slack-jawed. “Why? You don’t like me.”

Eddie cocked his head to the side. “No, I don’t. However, I’m not going to let someone like you mess things up for Joyce.”

Steve wanted to protest and scream but he knew that’s what Eddie expected him to do. So he just shrugged. “Whatever, man. Just get me the number for this auto shop of yours and we’ll consider the transaction complete.”

Eddie slammed the hood down and Steve went to pull the keys out of the ignition. He kept the windows rolled up, but the door unlocked. He placed the keys under the visor and then grabbed his bag.

“The tow truck will be here in five minutes,” Eddie said, putting his phone back into his pocket, “so it shouldn’t be too long.”

Steve sighed heavily and followed Eddie to his van.

Once they were on their way Steve turned to him. “What did you mean that I might mess things up for Joyce?”

Eddie looked at him briefly before turning back to the road. “I thought you knew her.”

Steve sighed again. “Yeah, four years ago. Which is what I tried to tell Dean Ortega. Yes, I used to babysit her youngest son. Yes, I did that for a year. No, I haven’t spoken to her in the last four. Been kinda busy, you know, going to school.”

Eddie hummed. “There’s been so much trouble with the course the college is thinking of dropping it. And if that happens...”

Steve threw his head back against the headrest. “Then she’s out a job. Great. I was there for those two major fuck ups. I don’t know what happened with the last teacher, but the first professor was a real piece of work.”

Eddie licked his lips thoughtfully. “According to Joyce, Professor Martin was found sleeping with the live model.”

Steve blinked. “The basketball captain?” he asked, his voice squeaking in shock and outrage. “Holy fuck!”

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed. “Joyce said that she was surprised that they even gave the class one more chance.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, I guess. Jesus Christ.”

They got to class and Joyce looked at them with a big grin on her face. “Oh, I didn’t know you guys were friends!”

Eddie and Steve shared a glance.

“Oh we’re not,” Eddie said and Steve winced.

“We just live in the same apartment complex and Eddie came to my rescue when my car wouldn’t start this morning,” Steve explained.

Joyce smiled fondly. “That was sweet of you, Eddie dear.”

Eddie blushed and turned his head. “I was just being a good Samaritan.”

“Well, thank you,” she murmured.

Steve nodded. “Yeah, thanks Eds.”

Eddie bit his lip at the new nickname. “You’re welcome.”

Steve grinned and went to sit down.

Eddie blushed and got into position, striping down to his underwear. He kept his eye on Steve like he always did. But today, instead of the count of one, two, three and look away, Steve’s gaze lingered, drawing in shorter spurts and longer looks at his body.

He didn’t know how he felt about that, or rather his brain didn’t. His heart and libido were one hundred percent onboard with the heated regard. His brain told them to shut up.

*

It was an unseasonably warm day for March. The sun was finally starting to do more then hang in the sky and look pretty. Robin and Steve were on their way back to their apartment after a rare Sunday meeting at the bar. They were dressed for work. Robin all in black and Steve in his white button up.

They were a block and half from their place, having had to take the bus with Steve’s car still in the shop, when suddenly a storm rolled in and opened up above them.

Instantly they were drenched to the skin. Robin broke into a run to try to get to their apartment faster, but soon realized that Steve wasn’t with her. She looked back to see that Steve had sunk to his knees, his arms wrapped around his shoulders. As if he was trying to cover his back.

“Shit!” Robin hissed and ran back to his side. “Steve? Come on, Steve. We’re almost home.”

He shook his head and began to rock back and forth. “They’ll see! They’ll see.”

“Steve, there’s no one around,” she reasoned. “I’ll even walk behind you if that will make you feel better. But we can’t just sit out here in the rain, dingus.”

But try as she might, she knew it was futile. Steve was firmly locked inside his head and she didn’t know how to get him out. Even after years of seeing him like this, she hadn’t found a tried and true way to make him come out, except to wait them out and hope it didn’t take too long.

She sat on the cold wet pavement and settled down to wait out this nightmare.

Just then a van slowed down beside them and Eddie called out, “Hey, Buckley, everything okay?”

She looked down at Steve and then back at Eddie. She had a choice to make and it wasn’t an easy one.

“No,” she said, forcing out the best response for Steve in that moment. They needed help and if Eddie was willing, she’d be a fool to turn him away.

The van came to screeching halt and Eddie was out onto the pavement in an instant.

“What happened?” he asked, not sure if he should get close in case it was seizure again.

“It started to rain and his scars started to show through the white fabric,” Robin explained.

Eddie walked around to Steve’s back and cursed. “What the fuck?!”

Robin frowned. “How the hell do you not know about Steve’s scars? Like literally everyone in the whole god damn country knows how he got them.”

Eddie’s head reared back. “Um...not me. When did it happen?”

Robin stared at him aghast. “What do you mean when did it happen? It was literally a nine day wonder on all news outlets.” When Eddie just continued to stare at her as if she was mad, she said. “His senior year of high school? He was gone for like a week, how did you not notice?”

Eddie pursed his lips. “Probably the same reason you never noticed I was gone for that same fucking time period.”

She looked down at Steve who was still rocking back and forth. “Steve, hey can you hear me?”

Steve just continued to be lost in his own world.

Eddie took a step closer to see if he could help but Robin held her hand up. “Stay back! When he gets like this his fight or flight response is heightened and he’s been known to pack one hell of a punch.”

Eddie blinked rapidly. “Come again?” His hand came up to his jaw instinctively.

Robin rubbed circles along Steve’s back trying to get his to calm down. “There was once he had a panic attack in public and this guy came up and tried to help him, thinking he’d fallen or something,” she explained. “Steve lashed out not knowing what was happening. He said he woke up with a vague memory of the hit and bruised knuckles. Of course by then, the guy had booked it.”

Eddie took a step back. “That...that was me.”

Robin’s head shot up. “Oh fuck.” She looked back down at Steve. “You thought he hit you because you tried to help him.”

Eddie snarled, “He dislocated my jaw. I couldn’t sing for six months.”

Robin was on her feet in an instant. “Shit, shit, shit. He doesn’t know what he’s doing when he’s like this. That incident haunts him.”

Eddie took another step back. “It haunts me too.” He yanked off his jacket and threw it at her. “For his modesty. He can return it at the next class.”

He turned on his heel and ran to his van. He peeled away from the curb, like the hounds of hell were on his tail.

Robin stood there watching Eddie go, her tears blending with the rain. She didn’t even bother to wipe her face. She walked back to Steve and put the jacket around his shoulders.

The combination of the warmth of the jacket and the covering of Steve’s scars, he slowly came out of his panic attack.

She helped him to his feet and the made it the rest of the way to their apartment. She let him have the first shower and put him to bed.

They were going to have to have a long talk when he was sane enough to handle it.

Part 8 Part 9  Part 10  Part 11  Part 12 Part 13  Part 14  Part 15  Part 16  Part 17  Epilogue

Tag List: @artiststarme @allbymyselfexceptformycactus @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @itsall-taken @m-owo-n @zerokrox-blog @runyousillydetective @grimmfitzz @wonderland-girl143-blog @sapphirecobalt-1 @scheodingers-muppet @victor-thee-corvid @apricottree @bookbinderbitch @sleepyboosstuff @biatcgh @pixiefallingupthestairs @grtwdsmwhr @thepainisspicy @carlyv @eboyawstenn @bisexualdisastersworld @bidisastersworld @abstractnaturaldisaster @evix-syne666 @nerdsconquerall @lololol-1234 @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @a-little-unsteddie @val-from-lawrence @i-must-potato @elluminis @tailsfromthecrypt @danili666 @plyerice27 @alittlegreyfish  @n0-1-important @no-upper-limit-to-stupidity @maya-custodios-dionach @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @heaven428

[realityescapee01]

Opals and Rubies (part 2)

part 1 here | part 3 here

Ominis Gaunt x Garreth Weasley

Garreth is obsessed. Obsessed with his experiments with potions and on getting ingredients for them.

But there is another thing he is obsessed about: opals.

Care of the Slytherin student: Ominis Gaunt's eyes.

"Wha-no! No, no, no, I'm not!" -Garreth panicked and denied.

But Professor Garlick knew better.

"Ah, youth. You don't have to be shy. Mr. Gaunt is very pretty."

"I-I, Professor..." -Garreth was all red by now. No use denying. So he opened up to Professor Garlick. "Y-Yeah. I like Ominis. A lot."

Garreth started telling Professor Garlick about everything. It just all came out. This is the first time he had someone to tell about Ominis.

He shared to professor how long he had liked Ominis. And his worries. The Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry situation. The judgement that would follow it. The Ominis being a pure blood situation.

Everything. Garreth felt relieved and glad that finally, there is someone he could talk to about Ominis now.

"Oh, is that why you always fiddle with that opal gem before the start of class."

"Y-You notice that, professor?"

"Yeah. I take it the gem reminds you of his eyes."

"Yes. Yes, it does." -Garreth takes the opal out of his pocket and stared at it. Remembering Ominis looking at him just a while ago.

Garreth continued talking. He told professor how scared he was when he realized he has a huge crush on Ominis. He doesn't know how to approach the Slytherin.

He also told her what happened a few days ago. How lucky he got. Approaching Ominis. Talking with Ominis. Holding hands with Ominis. And making Ominis like the chocolates.

"He was waiting for Sallow that time... Speaking of, are they together?!?" -Garreth sounded so jealous.

"I am not sure, Mr. Weasley."

"They're always together! And they seem so close! Very close. I'm so... I want that to be me."

"I think it would be wise for you to find out first before you further your courtship of Mr. Gaunt."

"You are right."

Garreth left the herbology classroom feeling uplifted. Now he has someone to talk to about Ominis.

This year, he is in the same history class as Ominis. And he loves it. Because Ominis dozes off in history class.

'Ahh, how cute!' -Garreth sighed as he watched Ominis sleep on his desk.

And Garreth tried real hard not to let out a loud giggle when Ominis was woken up by the chill of their ghost professor passing through him.

Garreth was really happy today.

End of classes arrived and most of the students were on their own way. Some to the library, some back to their dorms, and Garreth was back in potions class. Professor Sharp had him cleaning the desks as punishment for his previous class mischief.

He doesn't mind though, because he could swipe some leftover potion ingredients that he could use for his own potion mixes.

He was in the ingredients room, resting for a few minutes, before he let the professor know that he's finished.

He sat on a stool there and took out the opal gem in his pocket. He stared at it for a while. And thought how Ominis is doing right now.

"Mr. Weasley, are you done in there?"

"Prof. Sharp, yes, just a few seconds." -Garreth hurried out of there.

Garreth strolled through the castle, he doesn't want to go back to his dorm quite yet.

As he was making his way down a staircase, he saw Ominis at the back, pacing back and forth; looking very upset.

Garreth approached him.

"Ominis, are you alright?" -Garreth was very concerned.

"Garreth?" -Ominis was a little panicked because he is standing in front the entrance to the Undercroft.

Garreth walked closer to him. Ominis was worried Sebastian could walk out the Undercroft any minute now and expose their secret space.

"Ominis-"

Ominis didn't wanna risk exposing the Undercroft so he reached for Garreth, wherever his hand landed, which happened to be on Garreth's chest. And he started pushing them away from the Undercroft.

"Ominis? Why? Are you okay?" -Garreth was confused of Ominis' pushing.

"Not here."

This time Ominis started pulling Garreth, by his arm, out of the tower. Garreth just went along.

"Here is better to talk." -Ominis let go of Garreth.

"Alright. Are you okay, Ominis? You looked upset back there."

"Sebastian kept asking me about something I don't wanna talk about and I am frustrated with him!" -Ominis said, his emotions obvious in his voice.

"Oh, did I stumble on a lovers' quarrel?"

"What? No. Sebastian and I are just friends. He's one of my oldest friends. Probably, one of my only friend now." -Ominis sounded sad now.

Garreth remembered Anne, and that she got sick, that was all he knows.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought... anyway, I supposed you're not gonna share what that thing Sebastian kept asking, aren't you?"

"Yes, I would like to keep it between me and Sebastian."

"I understand. Is there anything I could do to make you feel better?"

Ominis was quiet for a while. "Perhaps, the chocolates would do." and then he smiled.

That smile, paired with those opal eyes, almost melted Garreth on the spot.

"Of course! But I'm afraid I ran out. If you like, we could go to Hogsmeade right now."

"Sounds fun."

"Alright. Let's go." -Garreth smiled widely.

On their way out of the castle, they ran into Amit.

"Hey, why are you back early?" -Garreth asked because Amit said he is going to Hogsmeade too.

"They closed Hogsmeade to students because of the troll incident a few weeks back."

"Oh, no chocolates then." -Ominis was disappointed.

"I'm sorry, Ominis. But I won't give up. I'll send you an owl."

"Alright."

And with that, they went back into the castle. Ominis back to the Slytherin dungeon and Garreth to the one eyed witch statue. The secret passage to Honeydukes. He is determined to get those chocolates for Ominis.

Garreth made his way through the passage. Coming across some spiders on the way. But he got through and was able to get -or rather- steal the chocolates.

Ominis was in his dorm room when he got an owl from Garreth. Asking for him to come out.

Ominis did and sensed Garreth waiting by the Slytherin entrance.

"How brave. A lone Gryffindor in the Slytherin dungeon." -Ominis teased.

Garreth let out a nervous laugh. "Don't make me anymore nervous."

"Well, why did you ask me to come out?"

"I got you your chocolates." -Garreth handed Ominis the box of chocolates.

Ominis smiled and took it. "Thank you. I appreciate this."

"I hope I made you feel better."

"You did."

Garreth smiled and they stayed quiet for a while. Until Sebastian came.

"Ominis."

Ominis' mood changed. "Sebastian, I'm still upset with you! And where have you been? Don't tell me it is still... I told you, just let it go!"

"I know. I'm sorry, Ominis. Can we talk more about it?"

Sebastian kept talking, completely treating Garreth as invisible.

"Alright. Inside then."

And that was Garreth's sign to leave. "Goodnight, Ominis."

Ominis just nodded, him and Sebastian then went inside the dorm.

Garreth could still hear Ominis being upset with Sebastian as he walked away.

But he is glad that he cleared it now. Ominis said that Sebastian and him are just best friends.

Now, the path is clearer. Garreth thought as he flicked the opal gem in his pocket.

-+-+-+ ( to be continued ) +-+-+-

part 1 here

part 3 here

thank you. more on my master list here

I also have an AO3 account

my art/design shop here (for fanart and other things I do)

Like the gifs used here? See source under them. Reblog, do not repost. Thank you all gif creators here ♥️

[bruinhilda]

Ah, rock shows. The mix of serious gem and fossil sellers, amazing crafters, random jewelry sellers, and woo-woo crystal magic followers.

One booth owner assured me all the jewelry was infused with Reiki energy and that music bowls were involved and so forth. To me, this is code saying, "all wares are marked up because magic," so I moved on pretty quickly. The next booth had wonderful prices on simple carvings and random tumbled/polished stones. I dropped some money there, while listening to a family discuss the magical properties of various stones while they tried to decide what to buy. At one point, the booth owner was asked about the particular magic abilities of a particular stone, and I'm impressed at how she refrained from rolling her eyes as she recommend they look it up on google. Her booth was NOT selling magical items, so I'm not sure why this group thought she'd know whether serpentine has healing energy or whatnot.

Upon reflection, I probably should have gone back and bought more from her. The agate dragon heads were pretty cool.

I guess I just find it weird because back when I was into all things occult and mystic, "crystal magic" was explained as, "the rocks aren't actually magic. Some rocks are just good at focusing and amplifying certain energies, so they make good tools for doing magic." As in, any magic going on is coming from you, the rock is a rock to anyone else. And these days practitioners insist that the rocks are full of magic energy and just holding or wearing such and such stone will heal all your ills! Funny how there can be bins of $5 quartz readily available in a lot of places, but people still die of cancer, huh?

It's also possibly irritating to me because a lot of my selection IS based on personal vibes, and I don't like people blathering about magic that they haven't even researched properly while I'm trying to decide if this piece of jasper I'm holding will make me happy when I roll it around in my hands and study the abstract pictures in it. "Do you like rock? Does rock make you feel happy when you hold it? Buy rock. Don't expect rock to cure love life. Rock only bring love if you trying to attract geologist."

Which brings us to the multiple bins of penis carvings. The ones with little feet were charming, but most of them were just, "here's a bunch of dicks carved out of onyx!" Not that I'm objecting or anything. I fully understand why you might want a stone dick on your shelf or endtable. It's just with the magic talk floating around, I suspect some sellers would be giving me a lecture on how the carving will cure a person's erectile dysfunction if I showed any interest.

I don't know why the most common carving throughout the show was mushrooms. Except that it's probably a really easy thing to carve. I did consider buying one of the carved t-rex heads that were next to the dicks, but I would have had to risk using a downtown ATM to afford one, and that always gets my cards locked due to "suspicious activity."

I ended up with a bag of angelite that I'm going to try my hand at carving, a bag of I don't know what but they were pretty and the deal was for two bags, and I didn't need TWO bags of angelite, two nice tumbled pieces of ocean jasper that had interesting eye-like patterns, a crude sphere of I don't know what stone, but it looks neat, some beads that were on severe discount, a little bag of little fossils meant as a collector's starter kit, four cut pieces of quartz that were in the bargain bin because they were cloudy and full of inclusions (which is how I prefer them), and one rough opal that I couldn't take my eyes off of. I regret passing up some of the affordable carvings, but I don't exactly have display shelf space, and the cats routinely send everything they encounter crashing to the floor anyway. Maybe next time.

[echoingvoice]

Time for some more GORON LOREEEE

first off some things i forgor to mention in my first post:

Before the gorons knew what weapons were, before they were even above ground (we'll get the that) gorons evolved to use there tails as weapons and tools. They also evolved for there horns to glow so they can see in the dark better.

Okay i can't remember anything else i missed in my last post and if i do ill update this.

Okay so gorons used to live under ground, just below death mountain (wich explains the fire temple) but then one day *looks up how volcano's are made* that... happened and the gorons explored the "big hole in the sky" some gorons thought it was a portal to another world. Some gorons manged to get to the top, and saw all of hyrule.... well they had to wait a hot minute cause you know... being underground for thousands of years does thinga to your eyes. The gorons explored and some even decided to live above ground.

Then one day the undergrounds under death mountain started filling with lava. It took about 3 days for the whole mountain and underground to fill with lava. most gorons made it, others however... didn't...

Once they started living above ground they learned to mine in the caves and chasms, one day the gerudo came to them asking for there help.

Ya see since back then gerudo town was just made of sand blocks, if didn't stop the town from being over heated. And they heard the gorons knew how to control temperatures with just gems (gorons know a lot about gems a jewls and used to help people who need heat here, water there, etc etc) so the gorons built sapphires into the walls of gerudo town and even cracked open opals to give them water.

Now the gorons and gerudo have a strong alliance, the gerudo are permitted to have any gems they'd like, and the gorons may pass through the gerudo town gate despite being voes and againts to laws to pass through.

So yeah theres a bit o goron history for yall.

Onto some fun facts.

Daruk has a diamond tail but his ghost has none, this due to the fact that in the fight with fire blight ganon, fbg litterally tore daruks tail off of him so he couldn't fight with it.

Since yunobo had his soft tail till he was 3 (wich is pretty long) some other younger gorons got jealous and tried multiple times to pull his tail off. They got really close the first time but an adult stopped them, now yunobo has ambers scars with bits of opal in it.

The reason why yunobo has a broken horn is because he was tired of being called a coward and so he tried fighting a group of lizalfos, he chickened out the last minute but triped and fell with got they're attention.

Two gorons safed him but he was also beaten to death, it was a shock when his broken horn was the only permanent damage. Now hes really self conscious about his broken horn since he sees it as psychical proof of his cowardice.

On a more lighter note ake (another charecter ill get into at some point) loves it, she'll climb into his lap and just sorta fidget with his broken horn, he used to hate her doing that cause he thought she was judgeing him but once he found out she just liked touching it he started liking it more and now its something she does to calm him down.

Daruk, the fire sage, and yunobo all have an appreciation for cat. If they see a cat. They. Must. Pet.

Ever since ake heard the fire sage call yunobo 'little rock' shes been teasing him by calling him little rock.

Yunobo has always wanted a sapphire or ruby tail since he thinks they look pretty.

Gorons wag there tails like dogs :]

Gorons also feel cold when they've gone from death mountain to hyrule really quickly.

Alright i think thats all i have, next up should be gerudo! Once I've got some art of theyre designs and headcanons and stuff.