#i am probably missing other errors left and right

[bliss-wily]

Caught a small error! He lost a sock.

Or whatever we are classing it as.

But it gets fixed!

[itoshiierae]

when you accidentally say you hate them #2 ⊹˚.

──★ ˙🧷 ̟ !!

ᡣ𐭩 ft: rin itoshi, sae itoshi, oliver aiku, nagi seishiro, isagi yoichi

ᡣ𐭩 notes: here’s part one. and once again, this is not proofread HAHAHA. i probably rushed this a little bc i didn’t wanna keep y’all waiting too long, so pls forgive any errors :c but anywayy, here’s part 2. enjoy!!!! <33

ᡣ𐭩 cw: angst (at first), then fluffff <33, you & oliver’s relationship dynamic is wayyy different from the others HAHAH, not isagi being the ONLY confrontational king among the 5 😵‍💫

extras: but let’s be fr, the rest of them are NOT the ‘let’s-talk-it-out’ type unless they’re being cornered lol 💀😭

──★ ˙🧷 ̟ !!

౨ৎ RIN ITOSHI ౨ৎ

the hallway feels emptier without the quiet drag of his footsteps. no soft shuffle of socks, no keys clinking lazily by the door, no sleepy voice mumbling about coffee. just a note, carefully written and left on the coffee table — too neat for how much it hurts.

[“didn’t know if you’d want me around today. left early. don’t worry about it.”]

the kind of sentence that pretends it doesn’t ache to write. you sat with it for what felt like hours— long enough for the coffee to go cold, long enough to wonder if maybe staying silent was worse than saying the wrong thing. the note didn’t move but your thoughts circled it like grief.

you just sat at the table, phone in hand, trying to type the right words.

sent 09:42am: [ i didn’t mean it. ]

sent 09:42am: [ please talk to me. ]

sent 09:43am: [ come home rin. ]

none of them delivered. or maybe they did — and he just didn’t want to answer.

──★

the lock clicks just past midnight. long after you gave up checking your phone, almost as if he came back only when he was genuinely sure you’d stopped waiting for him.

your body jerks awake where you’d accidentally dozed off on the couch — curled up, blanket barely pulled over your legs.

he stops mid-step when he sees you.

he doesn’t say anything at first. just stands there in the doorway, keys still dangling from his hand, his silhouette washed in dim light.

“why are you—” he stops. voice flat. “...you shouldn’t sleep out here.”

you blinked hard, still groggy, heart pounding too loud to answer right away.

“i was waiting for you.. rin,” the words slipping out like a confession you’d rehearsed too many times to forget.

his eyes flicker — sharp for a second like instinct, then soften, like he almost let something show. but just as quickly, it’s gone again. like as if he’s rebuilding the walls even as he looks at you.

“you said you hated me,” he says quietly, not like an accusation but like a memory he hasn’t been able to stop replaying.

“i didn’t mean it,” your voice breaks.

“i was tired. upset. i just… i mean i say things when i’m scared.”

he exhales, low and steady, like he’s trying not to feel too much at once. like he’s caught between staying mad and missing you at the same time.

“you were scared,” he repeats, eyes narrowing just slightly.

“and i was what??? something safe to push?”

after he said that, the silence between the both of you is thick again. but this time, it feels more like a storm circling — not a goodbye. your head dips, slow, as if the guilt weighs heavier than the words did as you gave him a silent nod but not a proud one, more like regret dressed in silence.

“i was scared of losing you. and i still am. i missed you so much rin..”

his shoulders ease, just barely like he’s still holding onto the edge, but some part of him is tired of fighting.

“don’t say things you don’t mean,” he mutters.

“not to me.”

and then, so soft you almost miss it:

“i missed you too… come here now.”

౨ৎ SAE ITOSHI ౨ৎ

you still haven’t fully processed what just happened.

he didn’t yell. he didn’t slam the door, but it still stings. the way that you never truly got to talk it out with him before he went off.

you stood in the middle of the apartment like the argument was still ringing off the walls.

“i hate when you act like this — no… i hate you sometimes.”

and the worst part? you’re not even sure if you meant it. or if you just needed to say something loud enough, cruel enough, real enough just to make him feel something back.

but now the apartment felt empty. almost as if, he took the noise with him when he left.

and you couldn’t stop staring at the door. like if you watched long enough, maybe he’d walk back through it, maybe he’d say something to make it all okay.

but he didn’t.

──★

you sent two texts. one asking if he was okay & another one trying to undo what you said.

he never replied.

but you stayed near the door anyway, just in case the silence meant something other than goodbye.

──★

he came back at midnight, hours after you’d given up sitting by the door, hours after you’d replayed the fight for at least a hundred times in your head. you were curled up on the couch, half-asleep under a throw blanket when you heard the key in the lock.

you didn’t move at first. you weren’t sure if you were supposed to. the door opened with a quiet click — then shut just as softly.

you sat up slowly, “sae…”

he paused, still facing the door as he took a breath.

“i’m tired,” he said, flatly.“can we not fight again tonight?” the words hit like a plea dressed as indifference.

you rose slowly, like the moment might break if you moved too fast.

“we’re not fighting,” you said softly. “not anymore”.

after a pause that felt heavier than silence, you continued, “you know… i didn’t mean what i said.” you whispered.

silence.

and then without turning he said, “then why’d you say it?” his voice so quiet it almost felt like a thought, not a question.

your throat tightened, like the words were scraping on the way out.

“… because i was scared. and hurt. i thought maybe saying something ugly would make you.. i don’t know?? …look at me again??”

he finally turned around to face you, but not fully.

“wait… you think i don’t look at you?” his voice didn’t rise, but it cracked around the edges like that was the one thing he never thought you would doubt.

“not when it matters,” you said.“not when i’m falling apart in front of you.”

for a long moment, he said nothing then —

“i wasn’t ignoring you... i just didn’t know what to say without making it worse.”

your voice snagged on the ache in your chest. you tried to say something, but nothing came out. and then finally— finally he stepped closer towards you. no apology in his expression. no grand gesture, just a tired man standing in a dim-lit living room, looking at someone he wasn’t ready to lose.

“i’m still here,” he said quietly, staring straight into your eyes.

“even if i don’t always know how to show it.”

and the second those words left his mouth, you threw your arms around him like letting go wasn’t an option anymore.

he stayed still, the weight of you in his arms settling over him, something he hadn’t realized he had been missing. and then his hands found your back, unsteady, almost as if he wasn’t sure he deserved this.

“i hate you,” you whispered, half-laughing, half-crying.

“not really... but kind of. but not really.”

you felt his chest rise with the smallest exhale.

“whatever,” he muttered.

“you’re annoying.”

but he didn’t let you go.

౨ৎ OLIVER AIKU ౨ৎ

he didn’t come back for three days.

there were no missed calls. no texts. not even a missed story view. he was gone — just like that. for a moment, it almost felt like the two of you had never been in a relationship at all. you almost wanted to call him but you stopped yourself.

and then on day 4, he walked in like nothing happened.

like you hadn’t screamed that you hated him infront of everyone, like he hadn’t just straight up ignored you & then laughed too loud at another girl’s joke right after you said it. like his silence hadn’t stretched for days and made you question everything.

“yo,” he said casually, tossing his keys onto the dining table.

you stared at him. and he stared right back at you almost as if it really was just another random tuesday morning.

“so… did you make breakfast?” he asked casually.

“yeah… you want some?”

“nah,” he shrugged. “just checking if you still love me.”

you almost felt a laugh rise, but it got lost somewhere between your chest and your pride.

──★

the rest of the day passed like nothing happened. the two of you talked and joked like always. he picked an episode of something he knew would annoy you and you watched it anyway.

halfway through the movie, he even made popcorn, stole your favorite blanket, acted like everything was okay between the both of you.

and maybe for a while, you let yourself believe it was.

but underneath it all, it felt too easy. like walking across a floor made of glass while pretending you didn’t hear it crack. neither of you mentioned about what happened that day. until it happened.

your fingers grazed his when you handed him the remote and you recoiled before he could react. but he didn’t move at all, almost as if your touch didn’t scare him the way his did to you.

neither of you spoke for a while. not out of peace, but tension. until you finally broke it with:

“sooo like… are we really not gonna talk about what happened that day?” your voice tried to stay light but the tension bled through anyway.

“talk about what, exactly? the part where you screamed that you hated me in front of like… twenty people?”

the air between the both of you thickened, dense with the tension that was slowly filling the room.

“i was just… jealous,” you admitted. “i felt invisible. and i wanted to make you look at me.”

afterwards he shifted then, his eyes finally meeting yours.

“but i always look at you,” he said quietly.

“you just don’t always notice it when your head is full of every reason you think i shouldn’t.”

you couldn’t even meet his eyes after he said that.

“so… do you hate me now?”

you swallowed against the tightness in your throat, your voice trembling with something between fear and relief. like you’ve waited too long to have this conversation with him and now that it was here, it barely felt real.

“of course not,” he said without hesitation but his voice carried something heavier underneath.

“but hearing you say that shit… yeah, it did hurt.”

his voice dropped, like he couldn’t believe you would even ask him that question.

you leaned a little closer, gaze fixed on him like you were waiting for a sign or something to prove he still felt it too.

“and knowing you,” he said, a half-smile tugging at his mouth,

“you’ve probably been wondering where i’ve been for the past three days but chose not to ask on purpose.”

he let out a quiet chuckle before continuing,

“… don’t worry, i was at sendou’s… infact, he saw how miserable i looked and almost called you himself until i stopped him & begged him not to.”

you tilted your head and blinked slowly, a silent ‘really?’ stitched into your stare. like you genuinely couldn’t believe that he disappeared for three days, and that’s what he was doing? sulking in someone else’s living room while missing you in silence?

“you’re literally so annoying, you know that?”

and just like that, everything finally felt at ease again.

your relationship with oliver had never been conventional. it’s always been messy, loud, sometimes a little too raw but you’ve always known how to live in it, how to love in it. and you embraced it anyway.

“yeah… i know,” he said, leaning his forehead gently against yours.

“…but please don’t ever say that you hate me again,” he whispered. “even if you’re mad… especially not in front of twenty people.”

you nodded, then let out a quiet laugh before saying,

“then maybe don’t make me feel like i have to scream just to be seen… idiot.”

౨ৎ NAGI SEISHIRO ౨ৎ

the thing about hurting someone like nagi was that he never told you where it hurt, he just stopped reaching for you.

same as before, during all your previous outbursts — he’d go silent, then walked off without reacting. no raised voice. no screaming. just quiet acceptance that stung more than yelling ever could.

after an argument, he’ll head straight to the bedroom and collapse into his blanket like he always does. but that night, he didn’t scroll on his phone. didn’t ask if you wanted to order food. and didn’t say anything when you got into bed beside him either.

he just laid there, back turned to you, face buried in his pillow.

and maybe that would’ve been fine if it weren’t for the way he kept his hands to himself. the fact that he didn’t reach for you like he always did. no sleepy mumbling or quiet complaints. and not even a half-whispered “come here.”

just complete utter silence silence.

you didn’t realize how loud the silence could be. the absence of him & the way it echoed in everything he didn’t do. now you’ve finally had enough of his silent treatment, so you broke first.

“sei…”

but he didn’t answer.

“i’m sorry,” you whispered. “i didn’t mean it earlier.”

the silence lingered long enough to make your chest ache & it even made you wonder if he even heard whatever you just said.

and then finally… he sighed. rolled over slowly, eyes tired but open now to fully look at you.

“then don’t say things like that,” he murmured, voice low. “hurts too much.”

you almost cried then.

but he reached out first — pulled you into his chest, lazy in the way he moved but tight in the way he held your body. and his head rested on top of yours, like that’s where it belonged all along.

“’s okay now… just please don’t hate me.”

and you didn’t know if it was the way he said it, or the way he held you and suddenly, the silence didn’t feel so loud anymore. it just felt like home.

౨ৎ ISAGI YOICHI ౨ৎ

you didn’t know how long you stood there after he left — the door closing softly behind him, like even it didn’t want to make a sound.

your eyes drifted around the room, tracing the path he took when he left almost like if you followed it closely enough, you could walk it backwards. back to the moment before it all went wrong between the both of you.

──★

three hours have passed.

then six.

and before you know it, it was already midnight. you could’ve texted him, but you didn’t. infact, you didn’t know what you would have actually said.

“i didn’t mean it.”?

“come home.”?

“i’m sorry.”?

as much as you didn’t mean it when you said that you hated him, a small part of you still held onto the anger because deep down, all you really wanted was to feel loved by him again. you missed the way he used to show up without needing to be asked.

so you kept your hands busy; cleaned the dishes, folded the laundry, did everything you could to distract yourself. and once it’s all down, you sat on the couch just hoping that the silence would quiet down before your internal thoughts got too loud.

and then, around 2AM, you heard the lock click.

you turned your head so fast your neck cracked and there he was, hoodie pulled over his head, eyes tired but still the boy you’ve never quite stopped looking for.

“… yoichi—” your voice barely made it out before he raised a hand — quiet, but firm.

he didn’t speak, just went straight to the bedroom, dropped his bag, then came back to the living room where you were still frozen on the couch.

and that’s when he finally said it, voice quieter than you’ve ever heard it:

“so… you really meant it? that you hate me?”

you shook your head immediately. “no… no, i was just frustrated.. i was tired and i know it wasn’t fair... trust me, i didn’t actually mean any of it.”

his gaze dropped. “then why did it sound like you did?”

you got up without a word, walked towards him, and gently reached for his hand.

“… because i was hurting, not because i stopped loving you. and maybe i was selfish… but i just wanted your attention.”

“just wanted to feel like i still mattered to you.”

the silence stretched between the both of you. and just when you thought he might let go, he squeezed your hand back and said, “… okay.”

“… and i’m also sorry, for ever making you feel like you came second to practice or winning. you didn’t & you never did...”

afterwards, he leaned forward, slow and steady until your forehead met his chest, like the rhythm of his breath was the only thing keeping you calm.

“just remember this okay?? you’ll always matter to me… you always have. so let me make it up to you… wanna go on a date tomorrow?”

you almost cried right then barely managing a soft,

“yes… i’d love to.”

© itoshiierae 2025 𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅ please do not modify or repost my content onto any other platforms.

[vanteguccir]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤSLEEPLESS NIGHT * SPENCER REID

SUMMARY　::　Where Spencer finally has a night to sleep at his apartment with his girlfriend, but the current case doesn't even let him close his eyes, leading him to study the files until ungodly hours. But who said that Y/N can sleep away from him?

FEATURING　Spencer Reid x reader　　REQUESTED?　no.

WARNINGS　::　Slightly mention of age gap (reader is still in college), tooth rotting fluff.

AUTHOR'S NOTE　::　that is my work, I DON'T authorize any form of plagiarism; copy, "inspiration" or translation! | english isn't my first language, so I'm sorry if there's any grammar error.

Spencer hated bringing work home, and he had two very specific reasons for it. First, he loathed the idea of mixing his work life with his personal life. The BAU was a constant source of darkness; gruesome crimes, twisted minds, and the unrelenting pressure to solve the unsolvable.

His home was the opposite: a place of light and warmth, a refuge from the horrors that haunted him on a daily basis. But more importantly, home was where Y/N was. She was the one person who could pull him from the depths of his thoughts, her mere presence offering a calm that he couldn't find anywhere else. She was his life, his anchor, and his sanctuary.

Their time together was sacred, especially with the demands of his job taking him away so often. Whether he was chasing unsubs across the country or spending endless hours poring over case files at the BAU, being away from Y/N was the hardest part of his job. When he was home, he wanted to be fully present, to make up for the time he lost while he was away.

He cherished the quiet moments, the lazy evenings where they could simply exist together without the weight of the world bearing down on him. He wanted to give her every ounce of his attention, to make her feel just how much she meant to him.

But then, there were nights like tonight, when the case followed him home despite his best intentions, forcing him to divide his focus in a way that always left him feeling guilty.

The bedroom was bathed in the soft glow of moonlight, filtered through the sheer curtains that hung over the windows. The clock on the nightstand read 2:37 AM, its gentle green glow a quiet reminder of how late it had become.

Spencer lay on his back, his eyes trained on the ceiling, though his mind was far from still. It raced, chasing the loose ends of the case, replaying details, searching for the missing link that could unravel everything. The unsub was smart, meticulous in his planning, calculating in his movements. It was unnerving, the way this case was so close to home, right here in Quantico.

Hotch had granted the team a rare night to return home and rest, knowing the work would pick up again with relentless intensity in the morning. Spencer knew he should be grateful for the chance to sleep in his own bed, to hold Y/N close, and let her warmth lull him into rest. But sleep felt impossible.

Beside him, Y/N slept soundly, her body curled against his. One arm rested across his chest, her hand fisting tightly the fabric of his white shirt and her hand tucked beneath his shoulder, as if even in sleep, she sought him out. Her breathing was soft and even, the slow rise and fall of her chest a soothing rhythm against his side.

Spencer turned his head slightly, watching her. She looked peaceful, her face relaxed in sleep, the faintest hint of a smile still lingering on her lips, probably remains of a dream. His heart clenched with love, a wave of warmth and tenderness washing over him.

With a soft sigh, Spencer slid his right arm beneath her, his hand resting gently on her back, the warmth of her skin seeping through the fabric of the sweater she wore - his sweater. He brought his other hand down to her bare leg, carefully shifting her until her right one draped across his thighs, her body instinctively curling closer to him, almost laying fully above him.

His fingers trailed softly along her thigh, the smooth skin warm beneath his touch. The gesture was soothing, grounding him in the present moment, in the feel of her against him. His thumb stroked lazy circles on her flesh, his touch light and reverent, as if he was trying to memorize the feel of her - as if he already didn't had each part of her craved inside his head.

He leaned down, pressing a tender kiss to her forehead, lingering there for a moment as he breathed in the familiar, comforting scent of her hair. It was a mixture of her shampoo and something uniquely hers, a scent that had always brought him comfort. His lips brushed against the delicate skin of her closed eyelids, another kiss pressed to her temple. She stirred slightly but didn’t wake, her hand tightening its grip on his shirt.

His right hand traveled across the fabric of his sweater, slipping below it, his fingertips sliding higher, brushing against the bare skin of her back. She was so warm, her skin so soft, and the feel of her made something inside him settle, if only for a moment. He continued to stroke her thigh with one hand, his other one gently massaging the muscles of her back, feeling the way her body relaxed further into him.

He stared at her for a long moment, his mind flickering between her and work. He didn’t want to leave her alone in bed, didn’t want to let it drag him away from her. Spencer knew Y/N deserved a good night's sleep more than anyone. She had been tirelessly studying for her college finals, always the most academically involved and dedicated in her class, which caused her to staying up late, buried in textbooks and research papers - just as he spent sleepless nights away on cases.

But even as he held her close, the details of the case gnawed at the edges of his thoughts, refusing to be ignored.

With a reluctant sigh, he carefully began to shift, his movements slow and deliberate, not wanting to disturb her. His hand on her thigh slid away, and he gently eased her leg off his hips, tucking it back beneath the blankets. She mumbled softly in her sleep, her body instinctively moving toward his warmth even as he slipped out from under her.

Spencer sat up, pausing for a moment as he watched her stir. Her hand reached for him in her sleep, her face burrowing further into his pillow as if searching for his scent. The sight made his chest tighten with both affection and guilty.

With one last glance at Y/N, Spencer stood, moving with the quiet precision of someone who was used to slipping away in the dead of night. He padded silently out of the bedroom, the soft sound of his footsteps muffled by the thick carpet beneath his feet.

The apartment was shrouded in a heavy, comfortable darkness, the only sound breaking the quiet being the distant hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen. Spencer moved with practiced silence, stepping lightly through the familiar space until he reached the small room they’d turned into a makeshift office. It was cluttered with his books, scattered papers, and, more recently, case files.

He flicked on the desk lamp, casting a soft, amber glow across the cluttered desk. His movements were slow, careful not to disturb the serene quiet that enveloped the apartment as he sank into his chair, rescuing his folded glasses from between all those papers.

In front of him lay the case file, the photographs of the victims staring back at him as if mocking his inability to piece it all together. He scanned the reports for what felt like the hundredth time, his brow creased in thought, eyes darting over the details.

Minutes bled into an hour, maybe more. His glasses had slipped halfway down his nose as he leaned in closer to the desk, his fingers absentmindedly tracing the outline of the crime scene photos. His other hand tugged at the cuff of his pajama sleeve, lost in the rhythm of his restless thoughts.

Just then, the sound of soft footsteps padding across the wooden floor reached his ears, the faint shuffling of bare feet snapping him out of his thoughts. He barely turned in his chair before he saw her; a sleepy, disheveled Y/N standing in the doorway, her figure backlit by the faint glow of the hallway light. The sleeves of his sweater were falling over her hands, causing her shoulders to become exposed, and her eyes were heavy with the remnants of sleep.

"Spence..." She mumbled, her voice raspy and thick with drowsiness. The sight of her tugged at his heart in the most tender way.

Spencer’s face softened instantly, guilt creeping in at the edges of his thoughts. He’d woken her.

"Hey, sweetheart." He murmured, pushing the file aside and giving her his full attention. His voice was quiet, filled with concern. "What are you doing awake? You should be asleep."

Y/N blinked at him, the bleariness in her eyes making her seem even smaller and more vulnerable. She swayed slightly on her feet, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand.

"I woke up... and you weren’t there." She slurred softly, taking a small step toward him, her expression confused and sleepy.

His heart clenched at her words, a wave of guilt washing over him. He hated that he’d caused her to wake up, especially on a week that she spent too much time studying and having little to no rest. He adjusted his posture above the chair, motioning her closer with gentle hands, but Y/N was already moving on her own, shuffling across the room with slow, sleepy steps, her gaze never leaving him.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you, dove." He whispered as she reached him. He reached out with his hands as she practically fell into his arms.

She pushed his arms open with little effort and maneuvered herself onto his lap, pressing against him as if seeking out the warmth she’d missed. Her legs straddled his thighs, her knees resting above the sides of the chair, her body curling around his like a koala hugging a tree. The weight of her felt perfect, grounding him as she nestled closer, her chest rising and falling softly against him.

"Spence, don’t apologize." She murmured, her breath tickling the skin of his neck as she shifted, her nose nuzzling into the curve of it, seeking his scent. She pressed her face against him, her lips brushing feather-light against the sensitive skin just below his ear as she planted a sleepy kiss. "You know I just can’t sleep well without you."

Spencer let out a shaky breath, the soft, familiar feeling of her lips against his neck sending warmth coursing through him. His left hand instinctively found her back, his fingers running to the hem of his sweater and lifting it slightly, making room for hand to enter under the fabric and meet her skin, spreading his fingers as he began tracing lazy circles along her spine, soothing her.

Y/N sighed in pleasure, her left hand gently crawling up to his face. Her fingers softly traced the rough stubble along his cheek before instinctively pushing his glasses back up to their proper place, her fingertips grazing the bridge of his nose in a familiar, soothing motion.

He smiled softly, his guilt still lingering but melting slightly under the comfort of her touch. She was so close, so vulnerable in her half-asleep state, and it made him feel even more protective of her.

"You should be in bed." He whispered, his voice low and affectionate, his hand continuing its gentle caress. "You have finals tomorrow... and this position’s going to make your back hurt in the morning." He tried to sound stern, but the amusement in his tone betrayed him. He couldn’t help but laugh quietly as Y/N shifted again, her hand leaving his face and meeting the other side of his neck, her right arm tightening around his torso in silent protest.

"I don’t care." She mumbled into his neck, her lips brushing against his skin as she spoke. "I love you. I want to be here."

His heart swelled at her words, an overwhelming wave of love flooding him. He turned his head slightly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, breathing in the comforting scent of her.

"I love you more." He whispered back, his voice barely audible as he nuzzled his cheek against her hair. His hand never stopped its rhythmic movement along her back, his touch gentle and tender.

Y/N hummed in response, her breathing already slowing as the warmth of his embrace lulled her back toward sleep. Spencer could feel the way her body relaxed against his, her weight becoming heavier as she melted further into him. She was so peaceful, her soft breaths brushing against his skin in a steady rhythm.

Spencer's eyes drifted to the case file still resting on the desk, his mind unwilling to let go of the details he was trying to piece together. His hand continued to trail soothing patterns on her back, and he tilted his head down, pressing another kiss to her temple, noticing how her body was giving way to sleep again.

"Let me tuck you back into bed, sweetheart." He whispered against her skin, insisting. "You need the proper rest."

But Y/N shifted in his lap, shaking her head, clearly unwilling to move.

"No." She mumbled, her voice soft but convincing. "What I need is to be with you." She burrowed her face deeper into his neck, pressing her nose against his skin and nuzzling him like she was trying to become a part of him. "Let me stay here. Please."

Spencer sighed softly, feeling torn between the the case and the warmth of Y/N in his arms. He glanced back at Y/N, her soft breathing and her peaceful face pressed against his neck, shaking his head with how stubborn she could be.

Wrapping his arms fully around her, he held her close, one hand still caressing her back while the other pulled the case file closer to him again, reopening it and going back to the first page.

© vanteguccir

[pearsandrust]

Aventurine and the Rule of Three: Past, Present? and Future

Disclaimer: I did not edit this post very well, and it has not been beta-read. Please let me know if you see an error.

IT'S AVENTURINE ESSAY TIME!!!!!! While I previously planned to expand on my original post on this topic, I realized that things actually go a lot deeper with Aventurine.This post is therefore going to address a different interpretation of the motif of "threes", one that will hopefully be more interesting when explored in detail. My thoughts on this have been so chaotic that this will feel more like a rant than an essay, so sorry in advance!

Thanks to everyone who reblogged my original post to point out that Kakavasha, Aventurine, and Aventurine's future self also make a trio in the 2.1 quest. I owe you a trillion credits. (i think the first person to mention it was @onceuponaladye -- thank you so much!).

Alright, I'll stop yapping. Words below the cut. As usual, I'm not sure if any of this is coherent.

INTRO:

Aventurine's lore is completely intertwined with the number three. Three dice. Three slots. A goddess with three eyes. And not to mention all the other instances where it appears:

Three spade-like symbols on his coin

Three screens behind him in his boss fight

Three stages of his life (life on Sigonia-IV/life as a slave/life as a Stoneheart)

Three Cornerstones gambled for Penacony

Three parts in the prayer to Gaiathra Triclops

... and probably a lot more I'm missing! Feel free to point more stuff out :)

Notably, the writers use the motif of threes as a narrative device in the 2.1 quest segment "All the Sad Tales", in which we see three versions of Aventurine: Kakavasha (his past self), his current self (who I will be referring to as Aventurine), and his future self (who I will be referring to as Future-Aventurine). This gives us a framework for thinking about the other instances of the rule of three. IN THIS ESSAY I WILL! ... try my best to dissect two very prominent instances of the rule of three in the Penacony 2.1 quest, and elaborate on how each acts as an analogy for Aventurine's past, present, and future. The interesting thing, however, is that Aventurine's present self stands out among these three versions of him. While his past and future selves have very distinct identities and morals, present Aventurine doesn't. He's conflicted, insecure, lost. He's caught between the weight of his facade and the burden of his past. And while we already know this from the story, it's pretty cool to see just how much subtle symbolism there is in his lore.

Note: Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the 2.1 quest.

SECTION 0: Preliminary Thoughts on Kakavasha and Future-Aventurine (mostly a preface -- skip if needed!)

Before I start my analysis, I'd like to point out that Kakavasha and Future-Aventurine are both complex and well-written characters in their own right, and I am definitely not going to do them justice in this essay. Both of them have incredible depth; each has their own opinion on justice, luck, power, preservation, and so much more. However, while looking through Aventurine's lore, I found that their characters are best represented through sets of two, like the pieces of jewellery Aventurine's mother left behind or the paired quest descriptions in "All the Sad Tales". I'd like to do a complete analysis of them someday, but I will be oversimplifying them a bit in this essay, and I'm sorry about that. Kakavasha and Future-Aventurine specialists (if any of you are out there), feel free to correct me in the notes.

My best analogy for the relationship between past, present and future Aventurine is that Kakavasha and Future-Aventurine are two sides of the same coin, and current Aventurine is the edge of that coin. We usually approximate a coin toss to two equal and opposite outcomes: either heads or tails. The third option -- tossing a coin and having it land on its side -- is rarely acknowledged due to its near-impossibility. However, Aventurine is exactly the kind of person to toss a coin and have it land on its side. It should be impossible for him to hold onto both his past and his future given how much they conflict, but he tries anyway.

SECTION 1: The Three Cornerstones

One of Aventurine's biggest feats is choosing to gamble not one, not two, but three entire Cornerstones on Penacony. Furthermore, Aventurine tries to make both Topaz and Jade's stones seem like they're his own. This mirrors how both Topaz and Jade both share distinct similarities with Aventurine, which allows for us to interpret the three Cornerstones as symbols of the stages of his life:

Topaz represents his past.

Aventurine represents his present.

Jade represents his future.

I'm going to go through the Topaz and Jade sections first, as they're a bit easier to explain.

The Past: Topaz and Kakavasha Topaz and Aventurine share a similar origin. Like Aventurine, she also comes from a desolate home planet, and like Sigonia-IV, that planet was also targeted by the IPC. However, the most important similarity between Topaz and Kakavasha is that both of them believe that human lives should come above all else. When Kakavasha's sister tells him that the rain is a gift from Gaiathra, allowing them to turn the tide in their fight against the Katicans, he says this:

But… but people will die, and you will be in danger… How is that good fortune? Why are you all doing this…

Kakavasha has never cared for the politics of Sigonia-IV, and he also seems to question the traditional belief that poverty and suffering are just the trials of Gaiathra Triclops. In his eyes, all of the ideas that his family taught him (that he should appreciate poverty, that defeating the Katicans is important) have only led to more senseless deaths. To him, his family's survival is the only thing that really matters. Topaz expresses a similar (albeit more twisted) belief to Bronya:

I know freedom is precious to people, but in reality there are things of much greater value… such as survival.

In addition, Topaz states that she works in the interest of the common people, and she's known for not caring much about wealth. In this regard, Topaz and Kakavasha have similar ideals.

Topaz also seems to be one of the most honest IPC employees. It's even mentioned in her Character Stories that the one exam she failed was business etiquette, suggesting that she never really puts up a facade for the sake of making a deal. Accordingly, Kakavasha is the only version of Aventurine that isn't acting. He lives as himself: questioning the world around him, grieving what he's lost. The other versions of Aventurine do not have that privilege.

The Future: Jade and Future-Aventurine As we know, Jade was essential in recruiting Aventurine to the IPC in the first place, and they've worked together on many missions. Both of them are experienced in making high-stakes deals, often using lives as bargaining chips (although Aventurine only ever bets his own life -- I'll get to that). These are traits that become more and more central to Aventurine's character as he tries to bury his past and commit to his Stoneheart persona. In the 2.1 quest, Future-Aventurine fully embodies this facade: he's cynical, manipulative, materialistic. Good at sweet-talking in a condescending way, to the point where he sounds a little too much like Jade:

Which is why once you step into the hotel, you remove your high hat and beg everyone you come across for help, like a hyena scavenging for scraps in the desert. - Future-Aventurine, 2.1 quest Unfortunately, there are no more Avgins in Sigonia. You're the last lucky dog. - Jade, Aventurine’s Character Story III

They both speak to Aventurine in the same patronizing manner, and they both refer to Aventurine as a kid/child/young person at some point.

(Side note: When Aventurine is "in character" as the confident negotiator that his future self seems to be, he also acts a lot more like Jade. For example, in Aventurine's animated trailer "Non-Zero Sum Game", he swirls a flute of champagne around the way Jade swirls her wine. Pretty neat detail.)

Future-Aventurine and Jade also share a trait that neither Kakavasha nor current Aventurine possess: the willingness to put other people's lives on the line. Future-Aventurine points this out himself:

In your hands, those who follow you could've become joker cards. They're far more useful that way. - Future-Aventurine, 2.1 quest You will become the IPC's agent in the Silverchain Galaxy. From this moment on, every huff of your breath and every minute of your life will contribute to the Amber Lord's great cause... - Jade, Jade's Character Story: Part I

Future-Aventurine and Jade are both willing to take advantage of people's desires, ultimately using lives themselves as betting chips (or "joker cards", as Future-Aventurine says). It's important to note that Future-Aventurine specifically mentions "those who follow you", which perfectly parallels Jade's ideology towards deals. She waits for those who need her to come to her first.

So, if Topaz represents Kakavasha's innocence and hope, and Jade represents Future-Aventurine's unapologetic, cunning nature ... Where does that leave present Aventurine, represented by the real Aventurine stone? Luckily for us, Future-Aventurine has the answer to that:

The Present: A Fractured Sense of Self?

...Just look at it, tsk. Shattered, just like your life. Poor thing. A humble pebble coated in the most lustrous sheen.

See, the irony of Aventurine's Cornerstone plan is that the two stones he surrendered to the Family -- Topaz and Jade's -- are the ones that make it out unscathed. His own stone is not so lucky. And like his future self says, it's a perfect representation of his life. Because Aventurine's current self is fragmented. His identity is a mosaic of every life he's lived before and every life he'll live after, patched together with escapism and a proficiency for acting. He is the facade and the person under it. He's Kakavasha, Future-Aventurine, both, and neither.

To explain this better, I'd like to look a bit closer at the phrase "a humble pebble coated in the most lustrous sheen". This phrase is especially important because Acheron basically says the same thing of Aventurine, and she knows him especially well after everything that went down in 2.1.

A shattered emptiness draped in the guise of desire... his existence is strikingly powerful, yet the self beneath is extraordinarily faint. - Acheron, "About Aventurine"

(Side note: I find it funny how Acheron just occasionally just drops a Very Accurate Statement about Aventurine and then refuses to elaborate. She's so real.)

"A humble pebble coated in the most lustrous sheen" can be interpreted in two ways:

The first interpretation describes Aventurine's relationship with his past. Kakavasha grew up on a desolate planet, living mostly in poverty. In this situation, he is the "humble pebble". Aventurine's origins make him somewhat of an oddity among the employees of the Strategic Investment Department, and many people were against him being selected as a Stoneheart in the first place:

"And let's not forget the letters from the councilors of the Sigonian Sovereignty. They denounce his tribe for once breaking agreements and sowing discord, leading to significant changes in the balance of peace between the tribes, resulting in repeated delays in the signing of agreements between Sigonia and IPC. Allowing such an employee to join at the IPC would be a severe detriment to public relations..." - Aventurine's Character Story: Part I

Regardless of what others say of him, Aventurine's success in the IPC has given him a great deal of wealth and status, which he uses to mask his difficult past. This is the "lustrous sheen"; the "strikingly powerful existence" that hides his suffering beneath it.

We can tell from the story that Aventurine has never forgotten his past. The "sheen" that the IPC affords him only exists on the surface; no matter how much wealth he has, he cannot use it to erase his previous suffering. And on top of that, Aventurine usually has to conceal his past to maintain his power. But even if he didn't ... the IPC destroyed Kakavasha's home. Aventurine can't bring himself to reconcile with his past identity because of the guilt it causes him, knowing he's now on the enemy's side. In fact, he already thinks of Kakavasha as someone as someone who'll be better than him:

"Kakavasha": Awesome, I hope I can become as good-looking as you when I grow up. Aventurine: Of course you can. Aventurine: You'll be better, and stronger than me.

What does one do with a past they can't return to? It is a problem with an impossible solution, and in the end, it leaves Aventurine stuck between acknowledging his origins and burying them. He knows that Kakavasha will always make up a part of him, but he can't bring himself to accept that -- not when the very company he works for caused his younger self so much pain.

So if present Aventurine both is and isn't Kakavasha, then what about Future-Aventurine? Could Aventurine become him? Could he commit entirely to the facade, living off of deals as Jade does? Could he, perhaps, acquire enough power to be truly free?

This is where the second interpretation of the phrase "a humble pebble coated in the most lustrous sheen" comes in. Because interestingly enough, aventurine is often used as a substitute for jade.

??? (Future-Aventurine): This type of stone isn't rare, but its hue is very similar to a certain gem. In fact, it's often used as a substitute. And that more precious gem is... Aventurine: ...Jade.

A "humble pebble coated in the most lustrous sheen" can also be an act of deception. It can represent Aventurine using glamour and frivolity to make himself seem more confident, daring, valuable -- more like Jade, who has always had more power than him.

I mentioned already that Future-Aventurine is very much like Jade. He's willing to throw away a lot of things for success. In fact, he tells the present Aventurine that (like Jade) he should have no problem putting other people's lives on the line:

In your hands, those who follow you could've become joker cards. They're far more useful that way.

But Aventurine refuses. In all his endeavours, he never gambles away anybody else's life; he only ever stakes his own. That's something he's unwilling to budge on, because he knows what it feels like to be treated as a bargaining chip. And tragically, that's what prevents him from fully realizing his potential as a Stoneheart -- from fully becoming Future-Aventurine, who is so much like Jade. Because Jade's entire business operates on the principle of using lives as capital. Therefore, Aventurine can never become equivalent to Jade if his morals stay as they are now; he can only be a "substitute", a less valuable version.

The present Aventurine is a study in irony. He can't forget his past as Kakavasha, but he can't fully acknowledge it either if he wants to be a Stoneheart. And yet, the pains of that buried past are what prevent him from truly reaching the top of the IPC. He is truly just as shattered as his Cornerstone, made of bits and pieces of other people. People that he once was; people that he might eventually be. And yet he himself is close to being nobody (the self beneath is extraordinarily faint).

Although the Cornerstones are arguably the best representation of the relationship between the three versions of Aventurine, there is another set of three that represents him very well. And although it'll feel a bit repetitive, I'd like to address it too.

SECTION II: The Prayer to Gaiathra Triclops

May the Mother Goddess thrice close her eyes for you … keeping your blood eternally pulsing. May your journey be forever peaceful … and your schemes forever concealed.

You guys probably know what I'm going to say in this section, but this is one of my favourite things about Aventurine ever, so I'm going to say it anyway. The prayer he and his family say to Gaiathra Triclops is yet another example of a set of three: it contains three wishes, each corresponding to one of Gaiathra Triclops' eyes. And like the Cornerstones, these three wishes seem to perfectly align with the stages of Aventurine's life. Again, I'll start by talking about the parts that coincide with his past and future identities, as those are a bit more straightforward.

The Past: "... keeping your blood eternally pulsing." When interpreted literally, this phrase parallels Aventurine's childhood fairly well. Of course survival would have been a priority for Kakavasha -- he and his family were living in terrible conditions on a conflict-ridden planet. There wasn't room in their lives for much else. However, "blood" can also refer to one's relatives, giving this phrase a double meaning; Kakavasha's primary goal was not just survival, but also the survival of his family. Despite his sister emphasizing that he was the blessed child of Gaiathra Triclops, that he would be the one to survive, Kakavasha always thought of his other family members. In his mind, their survival was just as important as his own.

There is also a third interpretation of this phrase, which Kakavasha's sister brings up in their final moments together:

As long as you are alive, the blood of the Avgin will never run dry.

As Kakavasha's sister told him, he was the hope of the clan -- the one who would lead them to happiness. If anyone could make it out, it was him. And so the burden of preserving the Avgins' memory falls entirely onto his shoulders.

One of the reasons Aventurine cannot let go of his past is because of this responsibility. If he truly lets Kakavasha "die", then the history of his people will truly be lost, reduced to only what the IPC was willing to say of them. And Kakavasha will die as soon as Aventurine truly loses himself to his facade.

The Future: "... and your schemes forever concealed."

You're a natural, kid. You don't stop at fooling the audience — you fool yourself too. - Future-Aventurine

I (hopefully) established in the last section that Future-Aventurine is every bit the cunning gambler that people think he is. He's deceptive, condescending, always taunting Aventurine. He even acknowledges himself that he has very few likeable traits. He has no qualms with playing dirty, using others as chips for his deals. He even tells Aventurine he should've sold his mother's lucky charm, completely ignoring its sentimental value (he is both right and wrong about this, but that's a story for another day).

In the context of his character, this part of the prayer is bittersweet. On one hand, it's a sigh of relief: Future-Aventurine has the power he needs. He no longer has to wish for survival. On the other hand, it's tragic, because it means that Future-Aventurine really does completely fool himself. It means that he buries his past, his fears, his suffering. All he's concerned with is his schemes.

(If you need further proof that Future-Aventurine, this phrase, and Jade are connected, Jade repeats "May your schemes be forever concealed" to Aventurine at the end of their first meeting.)

However, for Future-Aventurine to exist, Aventurine must first completely fool himself into believing his Stoneheart facade. He has to convince himself, again and again, that it's worth it; that he can abandon his past and commit fully to the act. And that is the ultimate scheme that he wishes to conceal. Future-Aventurine is a product of Aventurine successfully deceiving himself, and that's tragic. Because even though Future-Aventurine finally has enough power and influence to save himself, there is no self left to save.

The Present: "May your journey be forever peaceful ..." Finally, we get to the last section of the prayer (and the last big section of this post!) Of all three parts of the prayer, this is the least specific. The concept of "peace" isn't as concrete as those of survival and deception, and the idea of a "journey" is equally vague. This aligns with Aventurine's uncertain present; he doesn't truly believe in the IPC, and he doesn't solely desire wealth or fame. He has no way of saving his past or future selves. Then, what does Aventurine want? He questions this himself in the 2.1 quest:

Even if I overcome this difficult trial, what would come next? What awaits me after this glorious gamble... an even more glorious one?

Aventurine is always looking for the next deal, the next gamble. This is his journey -- he goes from one opportunity to the next, never settling too long in one place. He needs the thrill of danger to distract himself, and yet anxiety underscores every bet he makes. He can't win without wondering when his lucky streak will end.

What Aventurine truly lacks is peace. He wants closure; he wants a purpose; he wants answers to those impossible questions (Then how bad were our sins? / Then what did we do to deserve living in a world like that?). He remembers enough of his past for it to haunt him, but not enough to feel whole. And of the million lives he's lived, not a single one has been truly fulfilling.

To tie it all together, this is the description of Aventurine we get at the end of 2.1, which parallels both his need for peace and the concept of his "journey":

His life knows not quietude. His fate yet demands him to win them all, to weather tempests, one after another... til mire enshrouds his very breath. And now, in the unfathomable depths of dream, the once falling die... has at last landed on its earthly rest. Quietly, peacefully, it at last landed.

"Quietly, peacefully, it at last landed". At the end of 2.1, Aventurine does find some semblance of peace, which is a writing decision I am infinitely grateful for. For at least a moment, Aventurine's needs are fulfilled. For at least a moment, he's okay. I very much hope it's not the last.

FINAL THOUGHTS (it's 3AM)

If you made it here, congratulations! Or "I'm sorry"? It's been years since I've written something like this, so I'm not entirely sure which is more appropriate.

In any case, thank you for reading! I love Aventurine and Penacony so much that it was hard to really express my thoughts on them. Most of the time I spent working on this essay was just me staring at my computer with a vague ache in my chest. Penacony is all about illusions and deception and false identities, but I still think it's neat just how well the characters embody these motifs. Aventurine is not who we think he is, and he's definitely not the person he once was. But none of those versions of him were wasted, because they all contribute to the strange, messy, wonderful character we know. I hope I did him at least a little justice with this rant.

Thanks again for reading, everyone!!

[cirilla-fiona-riannon]

𝐌𝐢𝐭𝐬𝐮𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐞'𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐥 - 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐄𝐧𝐝

Translations may not always capture the exact nuances or tone of the original text. Expect grammatical errors and inaccuracies.

Spoilers ahead.

Nobunaga: "Mai, Tell me everything."

Mai: "That's..."

The words caught in my throat before I could say them.

(No, I can't. I just can't say it.)

(If Mitsuhide were to disappear from history, I would be saved, but…)

(If I explain everything, it will only bring suffering to everyone in the Oda army.)

(To save him would mean abandoning me.)

I couldn't put such a cruel choice on the people who feel like family to me.

Nobunaga: "Mai, answer me."

Hideyoshi: "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Mai: "............"

I'd been praying that my voice would reach them every time I opened my mouth, but that wasn't the case now.

(Since I came to live here, I've grown to love everyone in the Oda army.)

(I treasure them deeply, without question, and I know they treasure me too.)

(Which is exactly why I can't bring myself to ask for help, no matter what.)

(I'm the only one who needs to suffer.)

I finally understood the loneliness Mitsuhide must have felt.

Ranmaru: "Lady Mai? You're still here, right? You can still hear us?"

(My voice still reaches them for now, but…)

I clutched the bell in my palm to keep it from making any sound and quietly stood up.

Masamune: "It's fine if you can't reply right away. You can write it down and send it to us later."

Ieyasu: "You should do that. It's more of a hassle if you try to carry it all by yourself."

Mitsunari: "Lady Mai, we're here for you. And of course, Lord Mitsuhide, too."

Hideyoshi: "That's right, Mai. So don't worry about it."

Keiji: "You're cherished, Mai."

(Yeah, I really am.)

I gazed at each of their faces, engraving them into my memory.

I knew that after this, I'd never be able to meet their eyes again.

(Thank you.)

(And...)

(I'm sorry.)

Swallowing the words I couldn't say, I left the hall.

When I got back to my room, I tried a few times before I finally picked up the brush.

(Sending a letter would interfere with people from this time, so this is probably my last chance.)

(While I can still connect with them, I need to make sure they know this.)

Even though I was freaking out, I took my time with each word, trying to keep my handwriting neat as possible.

(If I disappear, Mitsuhide will have no reason to fight against everyone.)

One of the reasons he raised his army was to have himself defeated to save me.

(I need to tell them that I'm gone and that they should stop him.)

I would beg them to welcome him back into the Oda army and not punish him.

And then I wrote my apology and gratitude to everyone in the Oda army.

Hideyoshi, thank you for always being so kind and considerate. I can't even begin to explain how much your kindness has saved me.

Masamune, the way you carry yourself has always inspired me. I'll always pray that your path will be a glorious one.

Ieyasu, thank you for always encouraging me with your stern words. I'll really miss hearing your blunt but caring voice.

Mitsunari, your smile is really like that of an angel. Please continue to light up everyone in Azuchi with that smile.

Ranmaru, being with you was so much fun. You're an important part of my life, and that won't change even if we're apart. We'll always be friends.

Keiji, although we've only known each other for a short time, your cheerfulness gave me so much strength. If I could have stayed in Azuchi longer, I'm sure we would have gotten even closer.

Lord Nobunaga, thank you for welcoming me into the Oda army. Thank you for everything. Please, please, take care of yourself.

Mai: "Phew."

I finished writing and immediately started on the last letter.

(What should I do? I don't have much time.)

(I have so much I want to say, but I can't fit it all in.)

As I thought of that person, tears began to fall, soaking the paper, and my hand, holding the brush, remained still.

The emotions were so overwhelming that I felt like my chest would burst.

(I won't blame you for your choice. Just let me make the same one.)

(I'll take all the divine punishment upon myself.)

I will not drag you into hell with me.

(I'll go alone, so you must survive in this world.)

(That's my final and only remaining hope.)

I managed to move my hand just enough to write a brief letter.

Eventually, night arrived.

Ranmaru: "Lady Mai, are you here!? You haven't responded since earlier. Where are you?"

Ranmaru: "What the hell is this letter!?"

Ranmaru: "..........."

Reading the letter left in the now empty room, Ranmaru froze for a moment before bolting out of the castle.

And just like that, Mai vanished from Azuchi Castle without a trace.

The following morning, the Oda army clashed head-on with the rebel forces.

Mitsuhide: "Do not falter. Forge your path forward! We will take Nobunaga's head!"

Rebel soldiers: "Yeah!"

Samurai, ronin, bandits, townsfolk, and villagers—all soldiers of different backgrounds, with their flags raised, charged forward under Mitsuhide's command.

Meanwhile, Nobunaga, glaring at the approaching large battalion, surveyed the battlefield from the rear of his army and coldly issued his command.

Nobunaga: "Scatter them."

Masamune: "Understood."

Masamune drew his sword and spurred his horse into the fray.

Keiji and Ieyasu quickly followed behind him.

Masamune: "Too soft! Bring them all at once!"

Keiji: "If you're gonna run, now's your chance!"

Ieyasu: "Move! Get out of my way."

The thick wall of enemy soldiers was quickly shattered.

Rebel General 1: "L-Lord Mitsuhide, what should we do?!"

Rebel General 2: "At this rate, it's only a matter of time before the enemy reaches our rear command!"

Rebel General 3: "What's with their strength?! These guys are monsters!"

Mitsuhide: "I don't remember giving you permission to retreat."

Rebel Generals: "!"

Mitsuhide: "Advance. Only forward."

As the sun began to set, the peaceful fields transformed into a hellish scene.

Swords and the bodies of the fallen lay scattered across the field.

Rebel General 1: "Move! We can't hold on any longer! I'm escaping!"

Rebel General 2: "Wait, you're not getting away ahead of me! I'm going too!"

The rebel forces, now scattered, began to flee in confusion.

However, the Oda army's rear guard wasn't about to let them escape.

Mitsunari: "I wouldn't advise turning your back. Don't waste your life."

Hideyoshi: "Don't think any of you are getting away. If you want to keep your head, drop your swords now."

Rebel soldiers: "H-Huh?!"

One by one, the enemy soldiers were overwhelmed by Hideyoshi and Mitsunari's forces.

The main force of the rebel army, which had been holding its ground in the center of the battlefield, was steadily worn down by Masamune, Keiji, and Ieyasu.

Eventually, the unit directly under the command of the generals was left exposed before the Oda army.

Rebel General 3: "I-It's over. I'm retreating!"

Rebel General 2: "You think you can escape alone?!"

Rebel General 1: "P-Please forgive me! I was just manipulated by Mitsuhide Akechi!"

Ieyasu: "I'll listen to your excuses in prison."

Masamune: "You guys are not even worth cutting down."

Keiji: "What a pathetic bunch. How the hell did they even become generals?"

The defeated soldiers bowed in surrender, and after the rebel generals were captured, the battlefield, heavy with the scent of blood, fell into an eerie silence.

Then, the two commanders faced each other.

Mitsuhide & Nobunaga: "..........."

Mitsuhide didn't lower his head. Instead, he raised it and smiled.

Nobunaga: "This reunion came sooner than I expected, Mitsuhide. Though, it seems you didn't anticipate this outcome."

Mitsuhide: "What are you saying? I misjudged the strength of the Oda army. I underestimated your true power."

Nobunaga: "Oh? So even a man like you can get his calculations wrong?"

Mitsuhide: "Yes, I've been overestimating myself for quite some time."

Mitsuhide: "It's a real shame, but it seems my fate has finally come to an end."

Nobunaga: "I see."

Mitsuhide lightly lifted his chin, exposing his throat to the setting sun.

Mitsuhide: "I've long accepted my fate."

Nobunaga: "Is that so?"

With a sharp sound, Nobunaga unsheathed his sword.

The gleaming white blade glinted as its tip pointed directly at Mitsuhide's throat.

Then—

Nobunaga: "Ranmaru, bring it here."

Ranmaru: "Yes."

Mitsuhide: "............"

Without showing even a hint of confusion, Mitsuhide silently observed the events unfolding before him.

Ranmaru approached him, anger blazing in his eyes, and shoved a letter addressed to the Oda army into Mitsuhide's hands.

Ranmaru: "Read it, Lord Mitsuhide. I don't need to tell you whose handwriting it is, yeah?"

Mitsuhide: "............"

Mitsuhide: "............"

Mitsuhide: "............"

Mitsuhide: "Mai. Why?"

As if his soul had left him, Mitsuhide collapsed to his knees.

Standing beside him, Ranmaru trembled and clenched his fist tightly.

Ranmaru: "You're such an idiot! Both you and Lady Mai."

Ranmaru: "How could you shoulder everything alone and plan to disappear like that!?"

Unable to continue speaking, Ranmaru just stood there.

Beside him, Nobunaga quietly sheathed his sword, and the Oda warlords approached.

Masamune: "Throwing away your lives for each other… you two really are alike."

Mitsuhide: "............"

Hideyoshi: "I'll never forgive you. Not for raising your army, but for making Mai cry!"

Ieyasu: "Don't think you can get away with an easy punishment like being cut down."

Mitsunari: "There's work we expect you to carry out, even if it takes a lifetime."

Keiji: "Well, even if we didn't tell you, you'd probably do it on your own."

Nobunaga: "Leave, Mitsuhide. You're expelled from the Oda army permanently."

Mitsuhide: "Lord Nobunaga…"

Nobunaga: "Leave, and do what you must."

Nobunaga: "Even if it takes the rest of your life, find Mai."

Mitsuhide: "............"

Life slowly returned to Mitsuhide's eyes.

Ranmaru: "There's one more letter. It's from Lady Mai."

The letter contained only a single sentence.

Mitsuhide: "............"

Clutching the letter to his chest, Mitsuhide sank further to his knees, his face hidden from everyone.

Masamune: "That girl isn't the kind to throw away her life so easily."

Masamune: "Even if she becomes invisible to everyone, she'll keep on living, as long as her sanity holds."

Keiji: "That sounds like a living hell to me."

Mitsuhide: "No, I won't let it come to that."

Masamune and Keiji: "!?"

Mitsuhide lifted his head, his bloodshot eyes reflecting both endless despair and a glimmer of hope.

Mitsuhide: "If she's going to hell, then I'm going with her."

That night, news quickly spread throughout Japan that Mitsuhide had been killed and his rebel army had fallen apart.

Motonari: "Tch. Your prediction came true. How boring."

Kicho: "Don't complain. If that's how it is, we'll simply move on to the next step."

Motonari: "Hurry it up, then. I'd really prefer not to be bored to death the second time."

Motonari: "So? What happened to the mastermind who hijacked our plans?"

Kicho: "They haven't found Mitsuhide's head."

Motonari: "Being ripped apart in battle and disappearing without a trace? That's such a boring way to end, don't you think?"

Kicho: "There's no need to worry."

Kicho: "He's a man who treats others and even himself as mere pawns, but he wouldn't throw his life away for nothing."

Kicho: "Where he's gone, though, is anyone's guess."

And so, the seasons passed.

Mitsuhide: "The sun's coming out."

Watching the drifting clouds fade into the distance, Mitsuhide, dressed as a traveling performer, reached into his belongings and pulled out a bamboo flask, taking a small sip of water.

He closed his eyes and listened, just as he once did when he traveled with Mai.

Now, he was alone, searching for the sound of the bell that must still be ringing somewhere in this world.

Mitsuhide: "............"

He opened his eyes and smiled bitterly without meaning to.

No matter how many times he looked back or how many years had passed, the memories of the days they spent together never faded.

If anything, they had grown more vivid, deepening the emotions that continued to well up within him.

Mitsuhide: "Mai."

The name he'd said so many times on his journey slipped from his lips again today.

His only clue, the faint sound of a bell, led him on a search with no clear end in sight.

Mitsuhide reached into his robe, pulled out a letter, and carefully unfolded it in the sunlight.

He traced the familiar handwriting, achingly nostalgic, as he reread the letter for the umpteenth time.

The letter contained only a single line:

Mitsuhide, you're my light.

Mitsuhide: "You truly were an incredible teacher."

Mitsuhide: "You dragged out every emotion I had locked away just like this."

Mitsuhide: "Thanks to you, even traveling alone has been anything but dull."

The wound of their parting still bled, still brought him searing pain, yet, even that pain had become precious to him.

Mitsuhide: "What am I supposed to do, Mai?"

Mitsuhide: "The joy, the sorrow, the fear—I don't think I can let go of any of it now."

Even now, Mitsuhide clung to the memory of that happiness.

Ring

Mitsuhide: "............"

Mitsuhide looked around and a cool breeze rustled the grass and flowers.

Mitsuhide: "Are you there?"

Ring

The bell chimed softly.

Mitsuhide: "............"

He reached out his arm, grasping at the air.

It was as though he was trying to embrace the entire world—a world where Mai still existed.

Mitsuhide: "Mai."

He'd decided to chase her endlessly.

He'd decided to believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that Mai was alive somewhere in this world—even if he could no longer see her, hear her voice, or touch her.

He chose not to despair. He chose the hope that burned like hellfire.

Mitsuhide: "............"

The sound of the bell quickly faded away along with the wind.

Mitsuhide: "A game of tag, huh? Fine by me."

Mitsuhide: "I'll catch you without fail."

Mitsuhide: "I'll spend my life saving you."

Mitsuhide: "Mai. You are, without a doubt, my light."

And so, Mitsuhide began walking again under the gentle sunlight with a genuine smile on his face.

🦊 Previous Part

[thytaenic]

⊹˚︵‿₊˚ʚɞ˚₊‿︵˚⊹ ʚɞ ～ ❝ 𝐬𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 ❞ ╰‧₊˚ haikyuu : akaashi keiji x f!reader

╰‧₊˚ not proofread ! disregard my grammar error

"i think we should break up."

"keiji, w-wait.."

"WAIT!" your body jolted up, an arm stretched out as if you're trying to grab onto nothing. you were awakened from the dream you just had, sweating and breathing heavily. your eyes started to scan the room you're currently in, still breathing heavily. you noticed the room layout; it is indeed your room. a heavy sigh escaped your mouth as you replayed the dream over and over again like a video tape of a bad memory, constantly on loop and hunting you. it's not the first time you've dreamed of the same situation and it seemed to be engraved into your mind ever since the day it happened.

right when you were about to pull the comforter over your body, you heard a soft knock on the door of the room. fear started to engulf you as you recalled, you've been living alone for almost a year so who could that be? and at 2 am that is. suddenly, the door knob was turned and the door was pushed, revealing a silhouette of a familiar figure.

"i went to grab a glass of water, did i wake you up?"

you weren't sure how to react to the sudden reveal. it was none other than your friend, Akaashi Keiji. but he looked different, way more matured to be exact. questions filled your mind, what is he doing here? how did he get here? what is happening?

"k-keiji .." you muttered, eyes nailed to the male with a glass of water in his hand. "w-what are you doing here?"

he looked at you weirdly, but then a smile appeared on his face that you've missed so much. for years you've been waiting for his return after he left to further his studies. he walked closer to you, closing the gap between the two of you as he sat next to you on the bed, handling you the glass of water to which you gladly took.

"nightmares again? you really should stop watching horror movies before bed time, love." he chuckled, his hands now slowly making their way to yours, slowly and gently holding yours in his.

you're more than confused at his answer. love? you felt overwhelmed by the current situation as you felt a stream of tears rolled down your cold cheek. you wanted an explanation from him, you wanted more than just his presence there to soothe the stabbing pain in your heart. and so you bravely asked him.

"keiji, i don't understand. why are you here? a-and why are you in my room?" you bombarded him with questions, getting frustrated at the amount of unanswered questions in your throbbing head. you clenched your fist at your frustration and your sob grew louder as your head hung low.

akaashi was taken aback by your sudden outburst. he didn't know what has gotten into you. but he remained calm, his thumb caressing your clenched fist. this is all so wrong, you thought.

you raised your head only to meet his confused expression, probably not understanding why're you acting so weird. you had realised that your sudden tantrum put him in a position where he's questioning your sanity.

"y/n, i think you should sleep first." he tried to calm you down, gently pushing you to lie down but you remained frozen.

"but keiji , where are you going to sleep?" you hesitantly asked.

again, he was confused. he didn't know why were you so clueless considering that he remembered how you were completely fine before you went to bed. "what do you mean 'where'? of course i'll sleep next to my wife right here."

"h-huh..?"

your pace quickened when you noticed that you're running late to class. 10 more minutes before class and you're still on your way walking to the school.

"come on, come on. why are there so many cars today?" you cursed out, frantically tapping your feet on the ground.

not long after that, you felt a sudden gush of wind washed all over you. you glanced to your left side and your eyes met with a teenager on his bike trying to catch his breath from possibly the frantic cycling he just did.

"akaashi?!" you exclaimed.

the male turned his head to face you. his tie hung loose with the first two buttons of his shirt were left unbuttoned. you couldn't help but admire the sight before you, how his sweaty hair swung effortlessly from side to side and that good-looking face. who would've thought your childhood friend is actually a handsome young man despite his nonchalant side. but akaashi looked distressed, and in a hurry for sure.

"y/n? why are you still here?"

"seriously, that's your concern? you should look at yourself."

his eyes dropped to take a look at what you mentioned but he only sighed. he raised his hand and his watch stated '8.26'. that's 3 more minutes before the morning bell rings.

"get on."

"w-what?"

"i said get on, we're running late." he pulled your arm to the back of his bike to signal you to get on. and so you put your bag onto the empty seat behind him before sitting on the bag.

"just so you know, this is my first time ri- AAAA!" you were adjusting yourself to sit comfortably so you won't fall when he started cycling later, but that didn't really work when he suddenly sped up, causing you to quickly hug him from behind, holding onto your dearest life.

akaashi's smile turned into a smirk, one hand stayed on the handle while the other grabbed yours which were tightly wrapped around his torso. he didn't say anything but his gesture of caressing his thumb onto your forehand somehow reassured you that you'll make it before the bell rung.

soon after that, the two of you arrived exactly before the bell rung as you waited for him to parked his bike under the roofed area. you were about to leave to your class when you felt a strong grip around your wrist and you turned around to see akaashi smiling at you. your cheeks grew warmer when his face was just inches from yours, causing you to look away to avoid his gaze.

"see me after class?" you didn't get to answer when he suddenly walked past you, leaving a trail of his strong cologne lingered. from far, you can see him being dragged into the school entrance.

it's not the first time he had said that to you but these days, the two of you had been exchanging 'overfriendly' remarks. one that is not normally said between friends. it even sparked some rumours among his volleyball teams. but you've known him for years, even since the two of you were still in diapers. of course this was nothing more than just a normal friend hangout. or so you thought.

part 1 , part 2 , part 3

author's note : hello , i've nothing to say . but i hope youre enjoying this short series of my first haikyuu fic ! will update part 2 asap . feel free to reach me out at the chat section

[bengals-barnesbabe]

Pairing: Joe Burrow x Singer!FemReader

Summary: From the LSU Tigers to the Cincinnati Bengals, their friendship never faded. Their feelings, however, grew stronger and even more oblivious. So obviously this was the job for Venus’ closest friends. Or will 3 years of dancing around each other crash down in 3 days?

Chapter 17: Operation Tiger

#Track9 Masterlist

Warnings: men with feelings, lots of feelings, all the feels, foul language, oblivious characters, angst with a happy ending.

A/N: ITS OUT! I DID IT and now I'm never reading it again, but y'all enjoy. If there are some grammar errors blame Grammarly (we got into a fight at 4 am). Also I edited this while having a dumb allergic reaction to my cat.

Word Count: 5.6k

Part Six ��

Friendships are a beautiful thing. Friend groups should be cherished for what they’re worth. These groups are rare, not because they’re hard to make but because they’re hard to keep. All friend groups have rules to keep the status quo for everyone involved. Team Shiesty even had some before they were ever known as Team Shiesty. An unspoken rule that they shared with all other friend groups was:

No one in the group should date anyone else in said group.

Fortunately for them that rule had yet to be broken.

Unfortunately for them two of their founding members had fallen for each other before the group could fully assemble. Which leads us to Operation Tiger. Our quarterback and Venus had been dancing around each other for far too long so the Atlanta natives of the group took it amongst themselves to create a new rule.

If your best friend is hopelessly in love and extremely oblivious to her suitor’s feelings for her, you HAVE TO INTERVENE.

˚₊‧ʚ♡ɞ‎‧₊˚

“If there’s one thing I don't miss about Atlanta, it's that damn traffic.” Venus lays back in her seat as the calmness of the suburbs settles in around her. Joe sat beside her in the driver’s seat, one hand on the wheel and the other tapping the hood as they came to a traffic light. He can’t help but smile at the look of pure boredom on the girl's face.

“I don’t understand why you wanted to drive 2 hours through awful traffic when you could've just hired a driver.” 

“Some of us like driving, you know. Plus it wasn’t that bad.” He shrugged as she pointed out the entrance to her parents' subdivision. 

“Yea yea, take your next 2 lefts then the first right and we’ll be at the house.” He nodded, following the directions through the never-ending neighborhood. 

“I remember absolutely hating it when we moved here. Part of that was just because I was in middle school, so I hated just about everything.”

“You think we would’ve been friends back then if we somehow went to the same school?” He asked jokingly before taking the last right. 

“Honestly J? Maybe? I was an emo chorus girl, but I wasn’t really afraid to talk to anyone if I needed to. I was also kinda nerdy so there’s that.” She shrugged. Soon they reached the cul de sac next to her house and he parked at the end of the driveway.

“Well I was the nerdy jock going through a very awkward puberty stage, so you would have never talked to me. You were probably too cool for me.” He smirked.

Venus playfully smacked his arm and shook her head, “I don't know what Mars told you, but I was not cool, I just talked to people.” Looking up at the light maroon house before her, the hidden anxiety about Joe meeting her parents crept its way back to her mind. 

‘But you were just friends, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, right?’

“You okay?” A shiver made its way up her spine before turning to the baby blue-eyed blond. “Take as long as you need, but I’m pretty sure someone saw us pull in.” He smiled. Blinding.

She attempted to match his expression, “I’m good. Just mentally preparing for the drama film that we’re about to walk into.”

Joe chuckled while pulling the key from the ignition and softly caressing her fidgeting hand. “Let’s go make you the main character then.” She let out a jittery laugh and attempted to shake the nerves off, but her fingers tangled with a loose string of her shirt. ‘Maybe this set wasn’t the best idea.’

Slowly her door was pulled open revealing Joe there with his hand out. Venus took a deep breath and let her friend guide her towards the door. Before either of them could knock or ring the bell, the door was yanked open by a girl with shoulder-length locs.

“Fucking finally! Come here.” Venus squeals as her best friend crushes her in her arms. A fruity but earthy perfume and castor oil fill her senses, images of the days when they walked around the mall complaining about their parents and school teachers flashed in her mind.

“I missed you so much babes.” They break away to wipe away the stray tears that had been shed.

She cupped and smushed Venus’ cheeks with her hands. “I missed you more, you’ve been held hostage by Louisiana long enough. I almost forgot how short you were.” Venus gasped and punched her in the arm.

“I take all of it back, I hate you.” She smirked.

Mars smiled while rubbing her arm, “damn, I forgot how hard you hit.”

“Can y’all move away from the door, so I can see this bitch?” A voice pleaded from behind them.

Mars rolled her eyes then moved over so the curly haired Latina could have a turn. “RiRi.” 

“Oh good, you still look how we left you.” She smirked before pulling her old roommate into a hug. 

“I’m going to try and not take offense to that because I’m excited to see you.”

“What? It’s nice to know that Louisiana or anyone else didn't change you.” She says, eyeing the man behind her.

“Yea speaking of height, can we address the giraffe in the room?” Mars winks, tipping her head like an imaginary hat.

Joe chuckled then ran his hand through his hair. “Guys, this is Joe. Joey, these are my best friends in the entire world, Riana and Mars.” 

“Hey, you can call me Joey if you want. It’s really nice to meet you.” He smiles and awkwardly waves.

“Ohhh I see the appeal now. You’re the silent awkward athlete who likes to surprise people with his abilities.” Mars points out.

“Really? I can see some fuckboy tendencies from here.” Riana replied. 

Venus was dumbfounded, “you just met- can yall bitches be nice, damn?” 

They shared the same smirk before properly introducing themselves to the quarterback, then winked at their friend before retreating into the kitchen. 

“I’m sorry about-

Before she could finish her dad walked into the room. His eyes went to hers, Joe’s then right back to hers with a smirk, he shook his head and grabbed a jacket from the coat rack beside him. Oh fun.

“Y/n, my daughta! Who have you brought into my kingdom today man?” A loud off-key Jamaican accent fills the air as he pulls on an Atlanta Falcons bomber jacket.

Joe stifles a laugh as Venus’ face deadpans. “Joe, this is my father- don't take him seriously. Dad please.” 

The man raised a brow and smirked. “I know not of what I’ve done to earn this treatment oh! This man of anotha tribe threatens my position, I must take charge.”

Venus leans back with her arms crossed. “Did you and Malik watch Black Panther again? Cause your M’Baku impression isn’t any better, probably because you were raised in New York and not Wakanda.”

Her father shrugs and pulls her into a hug. “Maybe I just wanted to embarrass you in front of your new boyfriend, you know show him who’s boss around here.” He winks in Joe’s direction.

As he kisses her head, she pulls away and thumps him on the back of his. “Well, you’ve succeeded- with the first part! Everyone knows I’m the real boss around here.”

The old man snorts. “Yes, yes I know. She’s been bossing me around since she learned to walk, so I’m excited for someone else to take that place.” Making his daughter roll her eyes as he winks again.

“She does have a nook for making sure things go her way.” Joe chuckled.

Venus whirls around a smacks his arm. “You two are not supposed to be ganging up on me, you’re not even supposed to like each other right now.” 

Joe rubs his arm feigning an injury. “I can’t even play anymore, I should see a doctor.” 

While her dad punches the air. “Yes, finally a win for my Falcons. I’ve been waiting for this day for so long. I’d like to thank my wife for agreeing to go on that date with me, my daughter for injuring her star quarterback boyfriend-

Venus gapes at the dramatic men, then shakes her head and walks away. “I can not believe this is happening, he’s not even my boyfriend. How do I find these ridiculous people?”

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

After meeting the rest of Y/n’s family, Joe was finally able to shake some tension off his shoulders. For the past few days, all he could think about was this moment. Football he could practice, he knew the expectations on that field. But this, meeting the parents of the woman written all over his heart, was anxiety-inducing. No amount of preparation could prepare him for how it will all eventually go down. He hoped they’d be overjoyed and give him their blessing and by the way it’s going, he’s more than hopeful for this outcome. 

The plan leading up today today was she would catch a flight to Cincinnati Thursday night and then fly to Atlanta together the next evening. Nowhere in the plan did it say that Y/n could show up Tuesday night completely unprovoked and surprise him after he got back from practice. 

Even though they had been friends for years, he had never been so nervous to be around her for those 3 days. He tried to remain as calm and normal as possible; they joked around, cooked together, and shared the same bed as they normally would. 

Joe wasn't a total idiot, he knew their relationship was tiptoeing along the lines of something more. But after a year of helplessly pursuing her in college, he thought it’d be better if they were just friends. Eventually, he gave up on that idea altogether because, with the feelings he was harboring for her and Ja’Marr’s constant need to nag him about how dumb the situation was, the only one that needed convincing was her.

But this weekend was what he was playing the long game for, it’s his final chance to come clean about how he truly felt. And he hoped those feelings were reciprocated or the entire weekend would be a bust. And he definitely wouldn’t be playing the best tomorrow.

As soon as she left the room the temperature felt like it had been dialed to 100, Joe had never wished he had his headband so badly without being in the middle of a grueling practice. Her father gestured to the white couch behind him and they took a seat. 

“Your home is beautiful.” Joe starts as he’s trying to conceal his nervousness, but the constant wiping of his palms on his jeans tells another story. 

“Thank you, I assume Y/n told you that she hated it when we first got it.” Her dad chuckled trying to lighten the air. 

“Oh yeah, the whole moody middle school bit too.” He could only imagine what she was thinking about this interaction and how wrong it would be when it was revealed. 

“If someone had told me that kids didn’t like moving so close to their school, then maybe we wouldn't be here. But that’s not what I want to talk about and I doubt you’re here to hear about how much I don’t know my daughter.” The older man smirked.

“How’d you guess? But yeah, there’s something I felt would be best to talk about in person, if that’s okay with you, sir?” The quarterback clasps his hands together and straightens his spine.

“I thought so. How long have you been in love with her?” Joe’s eyes widen and his mouth dries as the gentleman relaxes his stance.

“F- shit sorry, wasn't expecting you to- wow um how did you know?”

The dad lets out a dry chuckle, “I’ve been in your spot before. I know what a hopeless man in love looks like and you didn’t take an eye off of her until she was completely out of your sight.”

“She seems to be the only one that hasn’t noticed it, but as cheesy as it sounds I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with her. I’ve never been one to believe in myths like ‘love at first sight,’ but there’s no other way to describe it. I transferred to LSU for a fresh start, I just wanted to play football then when life finally started working out in my favor, she walked in. She’s funny, beautiful, smart, talented- the whole package. I’m kinda glad we didn’t date back then, I know it was only two years ago but I wasn’t ready for a woman like her.” He smiles fondly as the memories of them flash through his mind.

“And what about now, do you think you’re ready to start a relationship with my daughter that could potentially last a lifetime?” For the first time, Joe looks your father in his eyes with no fear or anxiety.

“Sir you don’t understand, I mean you do, but I’ve pictured Y/n as my future since we met. I grew up pretty well off, but I wanted to put in the work doing something I love so I could provide what I had for my future family. After a year in the league, there’s only one thing missing from my life, and it’s her. I mean I spent 3 days with her just in the house and I felt like I could do that for the rest of my life. I’ve known that she’s the one for me since we met, now all I need to do is finally tell her that.” 

The old man smiles as a few tears streak down his face, he wipes them away and then holds out his hand to the young quarterback. Joe takes his hand and gets pulled into a tight hug. “There’s nothing that makes me happier than when someone shows the same love and devotion to my little girl that I’ve been trying to show her for years. As long as you promise to keep a smile on her face and love in her heart, you have all the blessings in the world from me. Thank you, Joe.”

They let go with permanent grins on their faces. “No need for that, I’d do anything for her.”

“Good. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”  

“So, you think she believes that we’ve been talking about ‘ball this whole time?” Joe joked.

“As long as she stayed out of this room, 100 percent. She’s clueless when it comes to it, so we could make up a term and she’d be convinced.” The men share a laugh before a head pops out of the kitchen.

“Hey, you guys hungry? Food’s ready. Let’s eat everyone!” Her mom announces.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

As the food is going around the table, Venus sneaks off to grab her purse. By the time everyone is settled, she clears her throat and stands next to her father. 

“So, I have something to tell you guys. No, I’m not pregnant, dating, engaged, married, or dying; before you start to conjure up some random assumptions.” She glared at Malik, her younger brother, who was holding in a laugh.

“First, I just want to thank everyone for coming. I know the last 2 years apart were hard but ‘time makes the heart grow fonder’ says some random dead guy.” Most of the table chuckles. “But seriously, I’m glad all my best friends could meet and hopefully talk about how much of an amazing person I am.”

“Venus keep talking and I’ll tell him all about how amazing you were in high school.” Mars smiles as the girl’s eyes slightly widen.

“Okay, as most of you should know, there’s this little game happening tomorrow. Nothing big or fancy, and I definitely didn’t bring one of the players to dinner, but I digress.” She shrugs extremely unbothered, causing her father and the quarterback to snort.

“Since I now hold the title of Assistant Physician Technician at Baton Rouge Clinic, I still have no money thanks to my glorious student loans. But y’all should still thank me for becoming best friends with some random football guys because everyone will be attending their first NFL game tomorrow night.” She cheesed fanning herself with their game day tickets.

Joe smirked as she sat down after handing over the passes. “Wow, and you said they were dramatic.” 

“Did you or did you not say that I was gonna be the main character when we walked in? I’m just doing your expectations justice.” Joe shook his head and draped his arm over her chair while pulling her a bit closer with his leg.

After dinner, all the women, except Venus per her mom’s request, help clean up the table and take the leftovers to the kitchen. 

“I don’t understand why we can’t drag Y/n over here to help.” Riana scoffs. 

Amina, Venus’s mom, shushes her and pulls the two girls into the empty dining room. “I’m having Malik distract her so we can talk about what is going on between my daughter and that footballer.”

The girls share the same knowing and scheming expression. “We may have an idea about that.” Mars starts.

“Yes, and what is it?” Amina crosses her arms.

Riana glances into the living room to make sure no one is eavesdropping, “ok they really are just friends right now, but we know that they have really strong feelings for each other. I came up with a plan to finally get V to do something about the tension and I’m very proud of it.” She smiles.

Mars rolls her eyes and rubs her temples. “Her plan is absolutely ridiculous, but we know it’s going to work because we’ve been friends long enough to know what makes that girl tick. So it involves his ex, a woman she hated more than anything when they were dating.”

The African mother nods but sucks her teeth, “why hasn’t she told me anything?”

“Cause you’re scary. Ow-” Mars elbows Riana before butting in. 

“She didn’t even want to tell us until we kinda forced it out of her. She doesn’t want to let herself revel in it for too long because she doesn't want to get her heart broken again.” She stretches the truth just a bit, the older woman did not need to know how their relationship actually worked. 

“That makes sense, ok go back out there.” The girls let out a much-needed breath as they were dismissed. “Wait, what do you mean again!”

Back in the living room, your brother is sitting on your dad’s armchair flipping through a photo album dedicated to your childhood. The three-seater next to him is now occupied by your mom and friends, while you and Joe are sharing a two-seater on the other side of the armchair. After learning the truth about you, your mom takes special notice of the fact that you’re sitting with your legs across Joe’s lap and one of his palms wrapped around your ankle.

“Oh look here’s a pic of Y/n trying to catch balloons while her pants are falling down.” Malik attempts to show J before you yank the book out of his hands.

“Ok, that’s enough, let’s put the album away now.” 

“Hey we were getting to the best part, I was in the next frame.” He fake pouts.

The scowl painted on your face causes him to break out into another laughing fit. “I despise you.”

“Come on babe, it wasn't that bad,” Joey smirks, then looks down at his phone. 

He just called me- which doesn't matter because you’re best friends duh. 

“Shi- it’s almost 7, we gotta go. I have to meet with Taylor in like an hour.”

“Why so late?”

“Who’s Taylor?”

“Taylor Swift?”

“A meeting past 5 pm is a criminal offense.”

“Y’all are so unbelievably nosy.” 

Joe throws his head back laughing. “I love your family, I don’t know why you didn't introduce us sooner.” Yea.. I definitely don't know.

“Zac Taylor’s his head coach. Remember there’s kind of a game tomorrow.”  

“Yeah and I may have ditched a meeting so we could drive up here,” J says sheepishly, once he’s done dying of laughter.

During his fit of laughter, some of his hair flung out of place giving him a more shaggy look. “You didn’t have to come if it was gonna get you in trouble.” Forgetting where you are for a moment, you begin to fluff out the front of his blond locks, then rake your fingers through the rest before settling on the back of his neck. 

His fond eyes meet yours. “I wanted to, plus you were just gonna make the trip yourself or end up ranting about not going while I’m trying to sleep?” 

You squinted and shrugged. “Touché.”

“Wait, you’re sharing a hotel room?” Your brother’s voice breaks you out of your bubble. When you look up, everyone’s eyes are glued to you. You’re now hyper-aware of your hand that’s been gently scratching his neck, your legs that somehow always end up in his lap, and the cautious hold he has on them. 

Removing yourself from his space, you begin to gather your stuff. “Um yeah, there was an empty spot that was already paid for and J offered me the bed.” 

There were no prepaid rooms left. 

“That’s very nice of you Joe.” Riana winked. 

A deep flush crept up his face, “It was nothing, what are friends for.” 

Mars beamed, “Exactly. He knows the real value of friendship. I mean look at him, breaking preset rules about boy-girl friendships.”

Your brows furrowed as you studied the two women. “Okay? We’re going to go now. Thank you for everything and I’ll see y'all tomorrow at the game.”

Your mother’s face brightened as you hugged then walked towards the door. Joe dapped up your dad and brother following your exit. “Thanks for the chat.” He smiled, then joined you in the rental. 

“That went really well.” You relax buckling your seatbelt

“Mhmm, told you you were anxious for no reason. Shit I was worried for no reason.” Joe says as he puts the car in reverse.

“You were anxious, really?”

He nods. “Oh yeah, more than you think.”

“Huh, I couldn’t tell. Hey if this NFL thing doesn’t work out maybe you should try acting. Today’s performance was outstanding.” You chuckled.

“Yeah absolutely not, I can barely do commercials and they want me to ‘be myself’ or whatever that means.” He shakes his head as your laughter bellows.

The ride back to the hotel was peaceful, the roads were clear, and the sky filled with stars, it was the perfect night. Until Joe’s phone started buzzing every 5 seconds. He tried to ignore it by listening to cars zooming by, but whoever it was really wanted his attention.  

He sighed. “Could you get that for me?” 

“You’re very popular tonight.” You snorted, then picked up the phone. Your face dimmed as you read the series of ‘I miss you’ texts all coming from the same number. It was unknown but you could tell they weren’t from some random fling. Your gaze was locked on each message, you could bet money on who they were from. She used to be obsessed with the idea of him. He gave her a chance for a few months, she started changing him into someone else. He stopped hanging out with you as often and-

“Who is it?” 

“If it’s Zac just tell him we’re on our way.” His words floated around unanswered. 

“Y/n?”

You broke out of your trance and looked over at the man driving before quickly turning your attention to the world outside the window, “it was nothing. Wrong number.”

The phone was placed on ‘do not disturb’ and forgotten about for the rest of the ride. 

The atmosphere in the car didn’t change from that moment, a perfect silence was replaced with a frigid one. You spaced out for the remainder of the ride, not wanting to show how it affected you. Joe noticed the odd silence but dismissed it as fatigue from the long day. Which it was, that could never ruin the comfortableness of their surroundings.

The car finally pulled into the Hilton valet entrance around 10, you unbuckled yourself then sunk into the seat. The late hour meant you had to wait for someone to come outside, in the meantime you attempted to lose yourself in the night sky. The antsy feeling bubbling under your skin was beginning to eat away your patience. Joe, finally able to get a good look at you, watched the way your knees bounced, the way your hands were picking at themselves and the lack of attention towards him.

“Ok what’s wrong, you were fine all night until you saw my phone. So what’s bothering you?” 

You scoffed, it’s just like guys to identify the problem not even realizing it was the problem. “It’s nothing, I’m fine.”

“Fine, if you aren’t going to talk then I will.” Your gaze was unwavering from the doors of the Hilton.

“Damn okay, look I feel like I’ve been trying to say this for the last two years, clearly I haven’t been very successful. Y/n I don’t like us being so far apart. I mean, location wise and relationship wise- yea. Fuck. Joe just do it.” Some part of you would’ve laughed at his inability to coherently express himself, but you couldn’t get past the irony.

“I really like you Y/n, I have for a long time and-

Shaking your head, you can’t help the words that start flying out, “bullshit. How can you say that when Megan or some random bitch is constantly blowing up your phone?”

“Megan? Y/n there’s nothing going on between us anymore, that ended over a year ago. You are the only woman I have feelings for, I don’t care about whoever’s in my DMs or calling me up.” As he went on the feelings of doubt still lingered.

“I somehow don’t believe that Joe, call me fucking insecure but if you wanted me to believe that you would’ve blocked the numbers. It’s like you wanted to know that they’ll always want you and you can go back whenever you want.” Your vision began to blur with unshed tears. You don’t believe the words falling from your lips, this has never been a problem between you. But this is more than just a fight with your best friend.

“I don’t know what I can do to convince you that you’re the only one I care about.” He huffed laying back in his seat. Then his eyes widen, “wait you wouldn’t feel this way if you didn’t also have feelings for me.” A bit of hope fills his chest.

“So what?” You finally meet his crystal blue eyes. “You clearly have other priorities, so let’s just leave it at that. I’m tired so let’s just talk tomorrow.” With that, you left the car and entered the hotel.

“Y/n! Wait!”

The next few minutes are a blur, the bellhop rushes past you to help with the bags as you hand the lady at the desk your ID. Once she hands you your key, you b-line to the elevator, not waiting for a second. By the time Joe gets to the desk, you’re already in the room.

The lady at the desk confirms his identity and reminds him of the meeting he has with Taylor, but all he can think about is how this night went so bad so fast. He takes the elevator to the 12th floor where both their room and the meeting are and enters the one cracked open while his bags are wheeled further down the hall.

“Well look who’s decided to grace us with his presence. You were supposed to be back over an hour ago.” His manager, Dan, presses.

Joe takes a seat at the opposite side of their round table and runs his fingers through his hair. “Shit happens, can we start now?”

Coach Taylor takes a note of his behavior and quickly runs through everything he needs to know. He lectures for a total of 20 minutes and answers questions for 10 before he runs out of material. The entire time Joe took the sloppiest notes of his life and couldn’t care less about what the chicken scratch said. “Well that’s it, any other comments, questions or concerns?”

“How do you make a girl listen to you?” 

That raises the older mens’ attention just as quickly as when he walked in.

Zac speaks up first, “in my experience you need to have something to say that’s worth listening to.”

“I told her that I love her.”

Dan’s eyes widened. “Y/n?” The player nodded.

“And she didn’t believe you?” He nodded again.

“What happened before you said it?”

“Nothing, she was quiet the entire ride but something changed during the last 10 minutes. I got some spam texts from an unknown number and she got awkward. Then when we got here she brought it up again, but it didn’t make sense. She had no reason to be upset.” He huffed.

The older men looked at him amused. “What?”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Did you read what the messages said?”

He shrugged. “No, why would I?” 

“I don’t know man, maybe because she read them and got upset.” Zac pondered.

“Give me your phone.” He hands over the device per his manager’s request. The man quickly goes through the messages before putting the phone back in his eye line. “Read it, aloud.”

“I miss you….. Why was she replying? She doesn’t compare….leeching off you…taking advantage. What the fuck?” His brows knitted. 

“Now do you see why she was mad?” Dan smirked.

“Fuck, I need to fix this.” Joe gets up and marches towards the door. “Oh and thanks for the help. I’ve been saying that a lot today.”

By the time Joe enters the room, he’s got a full speech in his head that he's gone over several times and he’s prepared to unleash it immediately upon seeing you. Except there’s no trace of you in the room. Your bags are gone, your phone isn’t near a bed, neither of beds even look like they’ve been touched. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck. There’s no way I messed up for a third time.” 

He starts pacing the room. This was supposed to be his chance, this was going to be the story he tells the grandkids. They were supposed to hear about their great love story and carry on his legacy. But instead he’s going to die that weird uncle that’s obsessed with cartoons and UFC. 

He finally sits down in the chair next to your bed facing the downtown skyline replaying the day’s events in his head and completely ignoring the door next to his own.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

The second you got to the room all you wanted was a hot shower to help relieve some of the stress and tension from the car. It only took about 5 minutes for the young bellhop to come to the door, you gave him his tip, grabbed your duffle and went straight to the bathroom. You oiled your scalp then placed a shower cap over your hair and spent 30 minutes underneath the boiling water. 

After doing your much needed self care routine, you left the bathroom steamy and with 40% less stress than before you started. You softly shut the door then turned around to see a figure sitting next to your bed.

“Joey?” He gets up and slowly turns around, the sight of his red eyes, tear stained cheeks and messy hair makes you crumble.

“Oh my god, what-

Before you could finish he takes a few long strides towards you and pulls you into him. “Baby what happened?”

“I can’t lose you again.” He croaked. “Y/n, it’s always been you. I love you more than anything. Nothing she said in those texts was true, I’d give you the world with everyone still on it. You’re my biggest supporter, you’re the only one that knows me on a deeper level than -fucking- myself. I don’t wanna go another minute without you knowing how much you mean to me, how much I fucking love you and how much I’d do anything just to make you smile. I’m sorry I waited so long to tell you. I just wanted it to be perfect, I wanted to have a story that would transcend galaxies. I-

“Joey!”

He finally stops and stares into your eyes. “I always loved how rich and glittery your eyes got when you’re in the light.”

What a goof.

You rolled those glittery eyes, pulled him down by his collar and crashed your lips against his. After the initial shock wears off, he returns it making you sink into his hold. His hands dig into the softness of your waist and your arms wrap around his neck with your fingers immediately finding their home scratching and running through his hair. His hands wander further down mapping every inch of your body before one softly grips the meat of your ass causing a ‘gasp’ to leave your lips giving him the opening to allow his tongue to explore more of your mouth. Your bodies rock together until your knees hit the edge of his bed and you fall into it without breaking apart your lips. He grabs a hold of your thighs and flips you over so you’re on top. A sharp tug at his roots releases a deep vibrating groan that causes flutters in your lower stomach. 

“Joey.” A whine finally breaks you from the heat of his mouth. You open your eyes to his dazed eyes and smiling bruised lips. “Yea?”

“I love you too.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Main Masterlist

Taglist: @light-yagami-l

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A/N: As always: likes, comments and reblogs are appreciated and welcomed.

[approximatelynothereorthere]

The Oh So Honourable Liam Mairi

Liam Mairi x OC (Leila Etheridge)

OC masterpost ☆ Masterlist

2.5k words

This was gonna be up way sooner but life decided to happen today. Anyway they're here now!!

This was written for @empyreanevents Liam week Day 1! (this is the first time I have participated so I'm a little nervous)

Warnings: angst, Leila likes to swear a lot, arguing, probably a lot of grammar errors (I will go back and check another time)

(please let me know if I missed anything)

“I don’t need you defending my honour. That’s not your job. I know I won that match fair and square, so do you and so does Nelson.” Liam’s usually calm eyes are flaming, he’s angry. He rarely gets angry. I am so fucked.

“If he wants to claim I cheated and make a fucked up comment about this,” he gestures wildly at the black swirls that climb up his rigid arm “that says more about him than me or any of us. You coming in and challenging him helps us in no way whatsoever.”

Right, us, because we’re supposed to be a team, me and him, Leila and Liam. The alliance formed between two anxious eighteen year olds over a stolen bottle of wine from the cellar.

It was conscription day. Xaden’s conscription day. Or it had been if it was past midnight at that point. We already missed him like hell and it’d only been two days since he left for the college equivalent of a death sentence. This was the first time we’d been without him since the apostasy and, evidently, we were not dealing with his absence well. My nails had been bitten down to the quick and I had started to pick at the skin around them. Liam was quieter than usual and most times I tried to meet his eyes, they appeared cloudy and unfocused like he was lost far away in his thoughts. Anxiety built up in both of us and that night we did what all stressed eighteen year olds do best, attempt to drink our problems away. We were on the floor in his room. I was lying on my back staring at the ceiling, wishing it was the night sky so I could feel the false sense of freedom an endless sky gives me, just to escape for a little. But we were probably too drunk to make a successful attempt at sneaking out past curfew so a ceiling would have to do. Liam was sat cross legged against the wall, one hand clutching our half drunk bottle of wine, the other fiddling with the fingers of my hand that lay in his lap. I sat up very suddenly, placed my hands on his knees and told him I had a proposition. I would have found the look of alarm on his face hilarious if I hadn’t been taking myself very seriously. The proposition was that we would look out for each other no matter what from now until we graduated. I said it was to help Xaden so he didn’t have to worry about us when we joined him, he’d have enough on his plate. I didn’t say that it was because he might not be there when we arrive and I definitely did not say it was because I was starting to realise I cared about him more than I should. He put his hands over mine and wrapped his fingers around my wrists. His eyes had sharpened then, Liam was back no longer swimming in the sea of his thoughts. He agreed almost immediately then raised his right hand for me to shake. It was official. We made a promise to look after, protect and fight for each other. That was also the night I realised I was irrecoverably falling for Liam Mairi.

But right now, we’re arguing about how best to keep our promise.

“How can you think that? That not retaliating will help us?” I yell. “You might as well put a sign round your neck that says please, feel free to kill me because I’m weak and won’t retaliate when you try. We have to sh-“

He cuts me off, eyes widening in outrage as he takes a step closer to me “I’m being the better person, showing them their stupid taunts can’t get to me-”

“Because being the better person worked out so well for our parents?”

It slips out before I can even think. That’s a low blow, even for me. My question echoes around the classroom and Liam goes still. His eyes lower from my red hot glare that I seem to be stuck in despite the fact that everything in me wants to run to him and apologise until sorry sounds funny from saying it so much. We stand there in tense silence, not one of us daring to move. He’s in control now. I clearly can’t be trusted to fight fairly in this. Liam is staring hard at the floor and he flexes his hand at his side before clenching it in a tight fist which… fuck. I shift slightly where I stand, watching, waiting for him to make a move, to yell at me, to just leave all together because he can’t stand to be near someone who would make such a comment as vile as mine. Panic is rising within me as the silence stretches on. If this keeps going it will all bubble over and I’ll either snap in a blaze of anger or break down into a sobbing mess. Neither is ideal.

Finally he raises his head to stare in my general direction. He won’t meet my eyes. Instead opting to gaze vaguely at my left ear. He’s somehow calm. Far too calm for the words I just spat at him. I feel so fucking tense and he looks like this is just a regular Tuesday for him.

“Because we’re not going to turn into what they want us to be.” His face looks neutral but the slight tick in his jaw and the venomous bite in his word tell me he is fucking livid. And he deserves to be, after that sentence equivalent of a bomb I just dropped on him but I’m not backing down. My glare hasn’t wavered and now I really mean it. He needs to know. He needs to understand that I can’t just stand there watch these fucking idiots say all this bullshit about the swirls that brand his arm. That’s not part of our agreement.

“Oh give up the honourable bullshit Liam. We’ve already been fucked over so many times and I’m not gonna stand by and watch you get kicked around because you’re so hung up on the being the better fucking person.” I’m breathing hard now, my chest rising and falling as if I’ve just been running. I can’t tell if it’s from anxiety or anger.

His voice is full of desperation, for what, I don’t know but I’m not waiting to understand. I need him to listen, understand me, see why I talk back to the fuckers who call us traitors, tell us we’re better off dead. So I cut him off.

“But what if one day someone decides that’s a weakness and then your mark is just an easy excuse for them to target you. I’m not doing that Liam, I’m not losing you. I refuse to have to burn all your shit because you want to take the fucking high ground.” I feel my voice break slightly and Liam stops in his tracks and finally meets my eyes. Only now, I can’t do the same so I focus on a point on his chest as I continue.

“We made a promise and I do not intend on breaking it. I will defend you because that is me looking out for you, that is me keeping our promise and if you don’t like it well, too fuc-“

In two strides Liam is directly in front of me, his hands reaching out and cupping my face as he tilts his head and leans down.

“Shut up. Just… shut up.” He mutters mere millimetres from my face, so close he’s practically saying it into my lips. Then his lips are on mine and he’s kissing me. Liam Mairi is kissing me and I’m kissing him back. My hands are clutching at the fabric of his shirt, pulling him in closer to me and Liam Mairi is kissing me. His hand is moving to the back of my head and his fingers are threading into my hair. I can’t think, I can barely breathe but I couldn’t care less when the most beautiful man on the continent is kissing the shit out of me. I need him closer. He’s breathing fucking life into me. Liam Mairi is… Liam is kissing… but I’m mad at him… I… what was I just…? Oh gods.

“What the fuck?” I pull back and his hands fall from my face. His nose almost touches mine though and despite his face just being on mine a second ago, it feels far too intimate. I release my fists from his shirt and jolt backwards like I’ve been electrocuted. It turns out Liam was half a second from backing me into a desk because I immediately bump into it as I move away from him. Liam’s face looks like he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t have, which, depending on which version of me is making the argument, may well be the case.

“We- no. What the fuck? You kissed me. You fucking kissed me.” My tone is accusatory but I the only thing I feel is shock, like I’ve just fallen from a fucking endless cliff and the adrenaline is still coursing through me. I wonder if this is what riding a dragon feels like?

“To get you to shut up…” he mumbles.

“Tell me then. Don’t… do that.” I snap at him which- whoa I did not mean to do that. I need to sit down. I need to breathe. I need to think and I cannot think about anything other than how fucking perfect his lips felt. I fall back to rest on the desk behind me and take a deep breath that does nothing to help the not thinking about his incredible- no no no. Stop thinking thoughts.

“I’m sorry.” Liam whispers. I look up at him, standing about a metre away devoid of the air of confidence he usually wears. He suddenly reminds me of the shy and small fourteen year old I met six years ago. I give him a small half smile, a peace offering, and pat the desk to ask him to sit with me. He moves quicker than I expected and sits at what I’m guessing he deems to be a safe distance.

“What happened to the oh so honourable Liam Mairi?” I joke though it doesn’t seem to land given his lack of any reaction whatsoever.

“I- what?” He splutters, turning to face me fully. I stay focused on picking at the skin around my fingers because I don’t need or want to see his reaction to the next thing that comes out of my mouth.

“Well, kissing someone without their consent isn’t very honourable.”

Silence. And then,

“I’m sorry.”

“I know. You’ve said.”

More silence. We seem to be stuck in a conversation that won’t let us break out of the cycle and finally address what we’ve just done. Liam shifts slightly next to me. I stay perfectly still in fear that I might do or say something incredibly fucking stupid. I can feel my heart practically beating out my chest. I need to say something before I combust.

“What would you have said if I asked?” He beat me to it. Liam’s words are soft but the question is loaded like the packages of explosives my mother used to make.

“Asked what?”

I know what I just need to check. Just in case. Don’t want to start a streak of making a fool out of myself.

“To kiss you.”

My head snaps towards him so I’m staring straight into his sky blue eyes. Okay, cool that’s what I thought. Good to have confirmation though. Holy shit. His shoulders are tense, his jaw is clenched but he’s not backing out of our eye contact. He’s serious.

“We were arguing. I would have told you to stop being stupid.” And unfortunately I am still in denial.

But he pushes on because Liam Mairi is nothing if not determined.

“Okay, in another context then. Where we’re not arguing?”

His eyes are soft, honest, pleading with me to answer him. How the fuck is this the conversation we’re having? Good gods I can’t lie my way out of this one, can I? I’ve never been able to lie to Liam well. It would be so much easier if we could just go back to arguing but no.

I turn my body to properly face him and take a breath. It’s shallow, if it was any louder it would’ve sounded like a gasp. My lungs do not want to give me much oxygen it seems. He’s still there, still fixing his soft blue gaze on me. I go to open my mouth but no sound comes out. Gods help me.

Instead, I give him a small nod. He freezes.

“Yes.” I somehow manage to whisper. “I would’ve said yes.”

My hearts is going five thousand miles a fucking minuet and he’s just sat there frozen. Then he blinks as if he’s coming out of a daze. His hand is reaching for my face and brushing a stray strand of hair out of the way before moving round and holding the back of my head. Now I’m frozen.

“And,” he breathes out. “if I asked now?”

It takes a fraction of a second for my brain to hear that and just decide to fuck it. I could be dead in a month, what’s stopping me?

I’m holding the sides of his face in my hands and tugging him down to meet me. Our lips meet once again, his fingers are threading into my hair once again only this time he let out an adorable little gasp against my lips. I’m fucking melting into him, he’s so soft and yet he’s causing sparks to shoot up my spine.

Liam suddenly pulls back and it takes everything in me to not whine at the loss of his mouth from mine. I’m still holding his head, my hands were starting to tangle in his hair. He puts his forehead against mine and closes his eyes.

“That is a yes, right?” He chuckles.

I fight the urge to pull away from him just to spite him. Instead I opt to peck his lips quickly and grumble a “yes” at him.

His other hand comes up to rest at my waist and he pulls his face away from mine slightly to look at me like he’s checking to make sure I’m definitely still here.

“Does this mean I can kiss you honourably now?”

I huff at his question despite the smile that adorns my face and he just grins at me. I begin to lean in again but before he can turn my brain to mush again I whisper, “Just so we’re clear, I am still mad at you”

“Same here. But we can agree to kiss now, argue later right?” He mumbles.

I don’t get the opportunity to respond.

Thank you so much for reading :)

Please let me know if you liked it and happy Liam week!!!

[the-nosy-neighbor]

What is up with the grammar on awayfrompryingeyes.net? (Specifically 4/12/2025)

On the secret website, the grammar is strange, especially when compared to the main site.  It is leading me to think that there is something going on with W, almost like W is 2 people or their mental health is suffering. 

On the main website, spelling and grammar is mostly error free (not counting random capitals, which I think is a style thing with Clown.  Someone probably needs to gather them to look for clues).  On AFPE, there are missing words, incorrect punctuation, and some examples of what could be considered the wrong word.  These items (from April 12, 2025) are listed below:

Error:  missing comma.  “The other website is safe too.”

Error:  use of nor without neither.  This is a common rule, but one I wouldn’t expect a lot of people to know or adhere to.

Error:  missing comma, missing words.  “This will be the first of many entries both my findings and my head.”  There are some holes there toward the end, and a missing comma after “entries.”  If I had to correct it in the simplest way, I would use:  "This will be the first of many entries recording both my findings and my thoughts.”  Or “mental state,” depending on W’s meaning.

Error:  missing comma.  “It will help me keep track of days so I don’t disappear into my work too.”  This could be a characteristic of the author, with multiple examples of a missing comma + “too”

Error:  wrong word used.  “Swathe” didn’t really jump out at me until I was looking at the grammar, but the word is not quite right.  I took it to mean a large thing, and that’s close to the right meaning, but the technical definition is related to the scything of grass, specifically to the area cleared by cutting grass in this way or the motion of cutting grass with a scythe.  Eventually, it is used to indicate area without the scythe connection, but it is always used to describe land.  There is also a meaning that is related to binding the body or using a belt.  Neither definition works for the use here, which was to indicate a large number of boxes left on their doorstep.  Given how technical this is, it could be a use of a word that someone thinks they know the definition to, but it is off a bit.  I include this specifically because of the use of the scythe in the meaning.  There are lots of connotations to a scythe.

Maybe not an error, but notable.  W uses “pungent” when describing the boxes:  “When I opened my front door to see them, the smell was pungent.”  Pungent means pointed, sharp, irritating or intense, but not necessarily bad.  It seems odd that the way this is described, as if they only realized this after the fact, but felt it was noticeable enough to think about later and include. 

Error:  repeated word.  "I think I was too overwhelmed to really acknowledge any of that that when I saw them."

Error:  strange wording, wrong tense.  “I’ve considered things like myself being watch.”  The obvious error is watch needing to be “watched.”  But “considered things like myself” is phrased in a way that most people wouldn’t phrase it.  “I’ve wondered if I’m being watched” or “I find myself thinking that I am being watched.” 

Error:  strange wording.  The sentence:  “Then I have thoughts akin to the possibility that someone could break into my home and take everything away from me” feels off, and I think it is the “akin to.”  People would use “like” most often.  “Akin to the possibility” is even stranger, as most people would say “I have thoughts that someone might break into my home” using the equivalent to “like” isn’t even necessary. (also, they use "akin to" very quickly after this)

Error:  wrong word.  “I was chosen to do this work, but the idea if it being torn away makes my chest tighten.”  Should be “of” not “if”

We don't see this kind of error anywhere else in the website. The main website has very solid grammar/spelling, and AFPE has consistent good grammar otherwise. They also use "our" and "my" in different places on both websites, which doesn't give us a clear picture of how many people are involved. Based on our recent clues, it feels very much like W is alone in this (other than the period of collaboration with the QA). But we see things like the statement that they wish they could have access to a bottle of Joy on the main page, despite the fact that we have them gloating on the secret page that they have one. So does that mean we have more than one person, a person that is divided in some way, or are feeling smug or sneaky about having the soda?

We also had the news item posted for the Homewarming update with some interesting use of me/they:

"I apologize about the date on the most recent news post. I assumed it was still December. I’m not sure how this could have happened. The individual who posted this must not have been paying proper attention. Please pay it no mind, have a wonderful day! Happy spring! Almost as good as Homewarming! Please remember to wave!"

In this excerpt, we have the writer admitting to losing time, making it solidly W, but blaming an individual for not paying attention. This could be W not accepting responsibility, or keeping up the facade that there is more than 1 person on the team, or it could be that W is not posting these things directly, which means the comment about the soda could be true, for the two separate people involved. Also, the sign off is wrong this time. Generally, it is "don't forget to wave up high." Is this a symptom of panic? Could it be miscommunication between the two?

There is also some information in this journal entry about W's excitement about the massive amount of information that was just dropped off, and a very possessive attitude about it. Could it be possible that W is receiving the information and passing it on to another team member as they see fit? This would explain the discrepancy between the two sites and some of the strangeness in the Playfellow Exhibit partnership refusing any attempts at conserving the items. W refuses to cede control of the items.

I could be overthinking here. It is still very possible that W is attempting to keep up the appearance of a team of people working on the project. I can imagine that it makes more sense for them to limit the number of people involved and maintain a sense of legitimacy with a team, rather than a lone person drinking 50 year old soda in their garage. They may also be doing this to keep up appearances with their benefactor, as we know the secondary page is to include information that they are afraid would scare off their contact with the Welcome Home information. We should consider the possibility of a second person, and a potential conflict between the two.

[importantgalaxyrunaway]

the snap (Matt Murdock x fem-reader )

Summary: after the blip Matt was blipped away. But what happens when he shows up after everyone comes back?

Part 2 Warnings: angst, I mean it this time ok? I teared up writing this. But with fluff it has a happy ending trust me. Im dyslexic so there are probably/definitely going to be spelling errors. (I’m trying yall. Let me know how I did my first fic for Matt I think I’m going to make a part 2. Please comment if you can and reblog are appreciated if you want ❤️) mentions of pregnancy and childbirth and children

My eyes take in the childrens bedroom. It was small and quant but cozy. The nightlights lit up the room and my five year old daughter was layed down on the soft pastel blankets. I sit down on the side of her bed. She was so beautiful, her sweet brown eyes and brown hair. Her name was angel Murdock, She resembled Matt so much, sometimes it even hurt to look at her. It showed his best attributes on her. Even though she was only five years old she was already fearless, the teachers at the preschool always say she’s already getting in fights with the bullies in the class, no fist fights yet thankfully. It was her bedtime so you were finishing up reading a story to her about a princess and prince who fought a dragon.

“And they lived happily ever after the end” I kiss her forehead. And get up from her sleepy form.

“mommy, why do all the other kids have dads?”

Her question struck me in the heart. Leaving a wound size I couldn’t even patch up after patching up so many of Matt’s wounds. But I remain calm and collected like her words were just a simple question. Which they were, she’s just a curious child, there is no way that she knows how deeply I am affected by them. I twist my diamond ring on my finger and bite my lip trying to figure out how to answer this question without terrifying her. I can’t lie to her, I promised I would never lie to her.

“Angel, your father….went away. Hes gone he went with another half of the universe”

“will he be comeback?”

“no, no he won’t” I answered quietly trying to keep myself from sobbing. God I feel so weak, it’s been five years! Fiver years and I still can’t get over his death

“did he leave because of me?”

“no! No, he never knew about you sweetie. He was taken before he knew”

I take a shaky breath and kiss her on the forehead “goodnight” I leave her now asleep form and creep to the kitchen. I look down and the sink and I can’t take it anymore. Grief racks my body as sobs come out in waves. Why? Why did you have to leave I know you didn’t do it on purpose but why? It’s so unfair. Mathew I miss you. I know The city needed but mainly I needed you. I bring my knees up to hug my chest. I feel so weak, so fucking weak it’s been 5 years and I still haven’t recovered. I tpull myself together and wipe my tears mainly because I hear noises outside. A lot of noises. Screams, cries, laughter, sobs. I run to the window and open the curtain. Hundreds and hundreds of people are flooding the streets. Some are hugging, kissing, others are just staring in disbelief. Poeple are running in all directions and so so many of them are confused. Who are these people? Where did they come from? Could they he the ones who were snappe—

Knock! knock! knock!

the noise of someone at my door shattered my trail of thoughts like a broken mirror, breaking me of my trance. Who on earth. Or any planet for that matter would be calling to me at this hour? I tentatively get up. Cross the room and open the door, I was not prepared.

there. Right there stood my husband dead for 5 years after the blip. He stood in his lawyer suit in the doorframe. Just as he was before he left. He’s exactly the same. To him no time has passed at all. But I’m sure he’s heard it’s been 5 years on the streets. My body is rigid from shock utter shock. He takes off his red glasses so I can see his face again. A small gasp escapes my mouth as my eyes lay upon him again. Hes so gorgeous it actually hurts. Makes my heart ache. To say I felt conflicted would be an understatement I was downright a wreck inside. He so damn pretty. Was all I could really think. my shaky hand reaches up and caresses his face as if feeling he’s actually there and this isn’t some hallucination.

“sweetheart, I’m real” he smiles

“I-i Matt you were dead—you-you—oh!” I choke out in sobs

I seizes his head and he walks closer to me closing the door. I kiss him desperately like a woman starved. The kiss is searing and leaves us gasping for air. As soon as we break the seal we dive into it again and I let out a small whimper that allows him to slip his rougue into my mouth. I immediately submit to him and let him take the dominance. After sometime in a log swaying kiss. We stumble towards the couch where he tries to explain to me what happened but with me kissing his neck desperately it’s hard for him. In the five years he was gone I never took a lover. I couldn’t bring myself to. I was always thinking about Mathew even if he was just in the back of my mind. Especially as I walked down the more dangerous streets of Hells kitchen without him.

“sweetheart—sweetheart— “ he lets out a small groan that is music to my ears “are you going to let me know what happened or let me explain” he laughs.

I pull back and bip my lip “sorry”

”I know five years have passed someone on the street told me that after they did I ran to find you I’m sorry—“ his head tilts to the side as if he’s picking up something “there’s another heartbeat in the apartment”

I take his hands “Matt this is a lot to take in I know but….”

“y/n you can tell me anything” the way my name rolls of his toung sounds like honey. He runs his finger over my silk nightgown, his favorite fabric. He takes his time training my figure and them cup up to claps both my hands again “anything”

Reassured now I start my tale “the day of the blip was also the day I found out I was pregnant. Turns out half the universe was blipped away. You’ve been gone for five years now. The pregnancy was hard, half the doctors were gone, you were gone. Without many people to support it was hard but, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who looks so much like you. I named her angel Murdock.”

he’s silent for a bit. I feel sorry I know how much it is to take in “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you sweetheart. I left you and everyone behind. God I feel so guilty.”

“Mathew there is nothing to apologize for! You couldn’t control it!”

We’re silent for a bit and I wonder if he’s listening to angel’s heartbeat. He beams “I can’t believe I’m a father.” He laughs “ironic isn’t it?”

“what is?”

“the devil is the father of an angel” he muses. His face is bright and happy

“I never thought of it that way” I ponder “she’s already fearless like you”

“Hm, maybe not a good thing. But she sure has the Murdock fighter genes. I’m just sorry I missed the pregnancy and everything”

“well we could always try again?”

“I’d love that” he purrs into my ear in his deep voice. And his head rests in the crook of my neck as he leans into my body. And I’m so so starved for touched after all these years I hold onto him like he’s the last thing in the world. I practically melt into his touch as I haven’t been intimate like this in so long.

“don’t leave me” i whisper

“no sweetheart” his strokes my hair “im never leaving you again”

it feels so comfy with his bodyweight on mine on the couch we don’t even bother to move to the bed as we fall asleep there that night not wanting for a second to leave each other’s arms. It would be hard to explain to to angel who this man she never met was will figure that out in the morning. Things are always better in the morning. No things are always better now that’s he’s back. Everything seems fixed, my whole world.

[transtalesofdoom]

One year of Being Trans - A Review

If I timed this right, this post goes up exactly one year after I realized I was trans. Like, down to the hour. A lot happened since then.

I did some trial and error with labels, decided none really fit me, but settled on nonbinary transmasc to communicate it to others.

Picked the world's most stereotypical trans name for myself.

Came out to friends pretty much immediately, family to come soon.

Tried on a binder and fucking hated it.

Made this blog to organize my thoughts.

Deliberated on pronouns and how I want them to be used.

Came out to my therapist. Got a written confirmation for being trans. Scheduled an HRT consultation. Came out to several more doctors.

Developed a new, different kind of body image issues. Possibly dysphoria? Maybe just internalized fatphobia but for a different gender.

Worried about whether this new, more authentic, me might be unlikeable especially to my friends.

Looked at pictures of top surgery results and almost cried.

Hated my periods more than ever before.

Managed to schedule a top surgery consultation (one year in advance because waitlists are crazy like that)

Scheduled a different HRT consultation because the original one cancelled on me.

Learned a lot about trans issues and the hurdles in Germany.

Watched a new law pass to enable easier changes of legal name and gender.

Officially and legally changed said name and gender through said law!! Got a new ID, too. Started changing my name on all sorts of official documents.

Cried to at least one Philosophy Tube video.

Cried a lot, in general.

Watched a verdict take effect that allows health insurance companies to deny gender-affirming treatments.

Fought with my Health Insurance. Fought with the Committee that has the power to change these regulations again. Oh yeah also watched my government fall apart in real time and next up is eternal conservative leadership forever lol. Fought with my health insurance some more.

Wrote more goddamn emails than any person should have to in a lifetime.

Overheard my roommates talk about me with my new name and pronouns, several times.

Discovered a near eternal amount of bizarre gendered concepts hidden in my brain. (did you know hair is girlier if it curls right instead of left?)

Stopped hating my reflection. Started hating my reflection, but for other reasons. (Honestly I'm pretty sure that one's a depression thing)

Learned a lot about myself.

Fully moved past the concept of gender as it's enforced today.

Played a Pokemon game with my real name for probably the first time since I was 9.

Learned an absurd amount of platypus facts.

Felt so drained and tired almost every day, fighting for my basic rights and personal fulfillment.

Lived more as myself than ever before in my whole life. Finally took an interest in the person I am. Finally took my existence into my own hands. Finally dared to become someone, rather than just be.

Overall score: 9/10, wouldn't miss it for the world.

[roodles03]

The Art of Alastor's Expressions: An Analysis by an Profressional Cartoon Artist and Current Animation Student

This is not related to TOH but I wanted to bring this up because the art how they animate Alastor's facial expressions deeply fanisnates and heavily impresses me. And also because I'm an animation nut and I am currently in animation school and I heavily appreciate the art of animation.

In Dad Beat Dad, during the scene where Husk confronts Alastor about Mimzy, directly after when Husk says, "You've been gone a while, and it's not like anyone knows why," there is exactly THREE frames where Alastor's pupils turn into dials as he eyes away. (Being most noticable on the first)

Now I gurantee since Husk was talking, there was a good amount of viewers focusing on him as the focal point, over Alastor, despite this shot being from Alastor's POV. Meaning a lot of people probably missed Alastor even eyeing away at all on their first viewing. But this is noticable on a rewatch and if you just focus on Alastor as the focal point.

But I have never seen anyone point out that his pupils actually turn into dials here. And you definitely wouldn't even notice UNLESS you spefically paused on one of those three frames. To give you an idea of how truly fast these frames go by, typical 2D animation runs at 24 fps. These three frames only last 20 milliseconds together. And since the detail is so tiny it is nearly impossible to notice when the shot is running normally at 24 fps. Its even hard to notice if you pause on these three frames because this detail is so small.

Whoever animated this added this detail despite the fact nearly no one would notice just to truly show Alastor losing his compsure. And as one of my animation profressors said "Every detail in animation is intentional since you create everything from nothing," (Unless it is an animation error) And as someone who is currently in a hand drawn 2D animation class, yeah, you spend a while on every single frame, knowing its only gonna be shown for a few milliseconds and the overwhelming majority of people will never notice or even care to notice. But You can slip in tiny details like this that add an incredible amount of insight to the very slim margin of people who will dissect your animation looking for details, or even just looking for funny inbetween frames or animation errors and they happen to discover a cool detail you left.

Back on the topic of Alastor. People have noticed that often Alastor's eyes give away how he's truly feeling through the mask of the smile he puts on. And they're absolutely right. But ive never seen anyone talk about this moment.

And in these brief three frames he loses his compsure for just a BRIEF moment upon being reminded of his deal. In fact, look at his expression in both the key frames right before these three inbetween/extreme frames

Overwhelmingly confident after he says "Who in their right mind would cross me?"

Doubtful of Husk after he says "You've been gone a while"

Losing his compsure when Husk reminds him of his deal after he says "And it's not like anyone knows why,"

Then puts on his classic mask, with that look in his eyes completely gone, saying "They don't need to know," (about why he was gone)

It's incredible how much three frames of showing Alastor losing his compsure adds to his character and this scene.

Also, This is not the only time where Alastor has an expression where it's clear that his deal is some sort of trigger to him, either. (Outside his verse in Finale which is obvious) Just look at these frames when Zestial simply comments that he's be gone for a while and there were rumors that he fell to holy arms

(wasn't able to include the other frame of his eyes going side to side damn you tumblr)

He also clearly looks away from Zestial as well, avoiding eye contact or even facing him when Zestial questions why he's been gone, indirectly reminding Alastor of his deal.

I love these such tiny details about Alastor. Its clear he is often hiding so much behind his smile. And since I can't add more pictures (thanks tumblr), I cannot even go into the two frames where he actually does frown, or another two frames where it's up for debate if he frowns. But I feel like there's more to say here where his eyes give away everything despite his smile, even if its just for a few frames, rather then the four frames where its either up for debate if he is frowning or he is clearly frowning.

I also want to mention that accomplishing expressions like like this is incredibly hard. Drawing is hard. Animating is even harder And despite expressions being my strong point, expressions are still hard as hell.

Most and sometimes all parts of the face go into making the right expression. Eyes, eyebrows and the mouth are the main factors, but you can even use the nose for extereme negative emotions (often used for extreme anger, hysterical ugly crying, or intense disgust. Hazbin actually does this for Alastor in one shot to my memory When Carmilla says she wasn't wondering where Alastor has been for the past 7 years) And depending on the character design, you can also even use their ears (positive emotions they perk up, and negative emotions they flatten. Most commonly seen in characters with animal ears but humanoid characters with pointed human-like ears can do this too. Like the witches from The Owl House for example the use of Ears also apply to Alastor when he experiences EXTREME negative emotions... Or Susan)

But when you take away a major part of the face, mainly eyes or the mouth, making the proper expressions becomes a lot harder. But it is possible. think Let Me Explain Studios or character's with hair covering both or even one eye. But Alastor is the only case I've seen where he actually does have ALL the facial features for expressions available, (including ears which is not common!) BUT one of them is actively working against the others parts of the expression, which is the fact that he is REQUIRED to smile. That means you must always draw him smiling, in every single frame, but try and use his other features (mainly his eyes and sometimes his nose or ears) to try and hint at his true emotions. Take a moment to think how HARD that is. That is insane.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my Ted talk about Alastor and his emotions lmao.

[dilxcc]

chapter three

summary. in which two friends who desperately clings to each other until the other slips away . . .

contains. fem!reader, friends to lovers, angst, fluff, slowburn, cussing, grammatical errors . . .

note. i am so very sorry for updating late 😭 i forgot to write this. i hope that this chapter is good enough :))

previous chapter

shoko puffed out the smoke before turning to face you. "how was it?" she suddenly asked. you tilted your head slightly. "how was what?" you asked her back. "well, talking to satoru," shoko muttered, staring up at the setting sun. you scoffed slightly, taking another swig of the alcohol. "like normal. what are you expecting?" you chuckled, causing her to laugh a little. "he's always been a good liar. but you? not really. i know you," she smiled slightly, now looking back at you again.

"i guess... it felt weird," you shrugged. "how weird?" shoko asked, putting out her cigarette. "we haven't talked in a year shoko," you let out a bitter chuckle. "i... have to stop dreaming,"

.

"good evening, everyone. i'm your new teacher. you can call me miss y/n or miss l/n. whichever you prefer," you introduced yourself with a bow. "while i will not be teaching you guys anything cool― i'll leave that to nanami and gojo; i will be teaching you guys every basic survival skills," you explained.

"though, i'm sure that most of you have experiences already," you added; to which itadori shook his head. "what? not even one mission?" you asked. "is that bad?" he asked, scratching his head in confusion. you sighed and shook your head. "not at all. everyone got to start somewhere,"

"you're really good at this teacher thing,"

you stumbled forward slightly. "wha- gojo satoru!" you grumbled. "will you stop doing that?!" you scolded him, your hands automatically throwing punches at him ― which he easily avoided. "are they dating?" nobara whispered in itadori's ear. "they're not, apparently," the boy shrugged.

you huffed out in frustration, gaining your composure before returning your attention to the students again. "well, i'll be observing you guys on every mission. unlike someone who would leave their students," you rolled your eyes.

"alright, kids! class is over. i'll be borrowing miss y/n for a bit," the white-haired winked at his students before grabbing you and warping to... somewhere. you immediately get out of his grip and scowled. "seriously? what now?" you crossed your arms together. "just wanted to hang out with you. like the old time," he shrugged. "are you seriously going to act like nothing happened?"

you were baffled by how he tried to act like nothing ever happened. like the two of you never had any problems. "what... happened?" he tilted his head. "you asshole!" you tried to push him back which he quickly caught your hands. "you're asking me what happened?" you whispered, your eyes getting watery as you stared at the grass. "i'm the one who's supposed to ask what happened!" you raised your voice, tears gradually falling down your cheeks the moment your eyes met his blindfolded ones.

"you're a coward... you won't even talk to me... you won't even look at me straight in the eyes..." you sniffled, your gaze fell to the ground. he pulled the blindfold and shoved it in his pocket. his right hand caressed your cheek before making you face him again. this time, straight in the eyes. "i'm sorry. you were right. i'm a coward. i didn't tell you what was wrong. i left you when you probably needed me too," he said softly, wiping away the tears from your cheek. he pulled you into a hug, caressing your hair to try and calm you down. "i wanted to pretend that everything was okay... i'm sorry," he muttered.

"i'm sorry..."

.

gojo stared at the plastic bags in his hand for a while before sitting down beside you on the hill. after you had calmed down, he told you that he was going to buy the steamed buns that the two of you used to eat together during weekends. "they didn't have your favorite," he muttered, handing you one of the plastic bags.

now that you were finally calmed, you could feel your heart picking up it's pace. you were here alone with satoru. that thought had just hit you. the wind that blew at your face didn't do you justice to calm your racing heart. you felt like an idiot for a bit. for feeling like your heart might fall out of your chest soon. "satoru-" "y/n-"

you stopped and stared at each other before bursting out laughing. it got to the point where both of you are laying on the grass. you let out a few chuckle before your laughter finally died down. "y/n," he calls you softly, his eyes staring at you with unreadable emotions. "i... i missed this," he smiled. you could feel your heart skipped a bit. how could you still be feeling this way for him? he's your friend...

the white haired male could also feel the same way you were feeling. though, he would say that his feelings are probably stronger. without needing words to say, the two of you kept quiet and stared at the sky. or so you thought. gojo satoru is a greedy man. he couldn't help himself. why would he need to rip his eyes away from this precious sight just to stare at the stars and moon? he could just see it from the reflections of your eyes.

taglist: @instantmusico @wooasecret @charisthemaniac @tw0fvced

masterlist

[a-book-of-creatures]

The Deinotherium from Paris Avant les Hommes. Why does it look like a giant mole? Well, turns out this is reasoned out within the text, and since at least one person wanted to know it here it is (any translation errors are mine). @glarnboudin hope this answers all your questions!

...

"Since we are on the chapter of singular animals, I shall let you see another one from the quaternary epoch, whose history is no less strange. It shall serve as an introduction to antediluvian mammals, although it belongs, I believe, to the molasse which, according to Beudant, succeeded the Parisian chalk wherever it is missing. Look, there it is showing up; but it disappeared behind that hillock. Let's see, let us sit beneath this tree and it might come back. In the meantime, let us chat".

"Parbleu, I recognized it perfectly: it is the dinotherium giganteum. I had seen in the Rue Vivienne, its bones shown to the public for a bit of money, for scientists have to be industrious, one way or another, to avoid dying of hunger. Whatever the case, they showed me an enormous fossil head, 1.30 meters long and 1 meter wide, that is to say bigger than the biggest Indian elephants. It had two tusks located, against all analogy of what we know of animals alive or fossil, not in the upper jaw, but in the lower; not in the place of the canines, but in the place of the incisors; not pointing skyward, but lowered towards the ground; not sticking out of the mouth, but emerging from two holes that had to have been in the lower lip. Truly, I said to myself, this is enough to embarrass a wiser man than I, and, after many contradictory thoughts for half an hour, I finally took a side. Well, I said to myself, the die is cast: despite all my misgivings, one must have to make of this dinotherium giganteum a walrus or a seal, like Mr. Buckland said; or an elephant, as presumed Mr. de Blainville; a tapir or a pangolin, as G. Cuvier wrote; or a whale, as some German paleontologists think, and yet these animals have no analogy among them. Let's see, let's decide, I said to myself: this shall be…"

"A mole", said the genie in a small, acerbic, and mocking voice, and accompanied these words with a long peal of laughter that disconcerted me.

"A mole! But good sir, a mole hasn't the least connection, the least resemblance with a tapir, a whale, an elephant; and what would the authors I just cited say of this?"

"Your authors can say what they want; but I shall insist that the carcass that you had seen was that of a mole".

"That's impossible! See, here are the engravings they gave me at the door, judge for yourself".

The devil put his walking stick between his legs, put his glasses on his nose, took my images with his thumb and the other fingers of his left hand; then, running the index finger of his right hand on the figure representing the animal's head, he said:

"And first of all, my dear scholar, you will see that this head is 1 meter 60 centimeters at its greatest length, and 92 centimeters wide; so therefore it could not be less than 1.32 m long and 1 meter wide when it was covered with muscle and skin. But the average size of the head of a mammalian quadruped is at least a quarter of the length of its body. The dinotherium therefore was at least 5 to 6 meters long, which equals the size of the largest elephants. I am being conservative in choosing those dimensions; and I suppose that this carcass found on the banks of the Rhine by Professor Klipstein is not the biggest dinotherium the species provided, which is more than probable, since we have a few other fragments that are proportionally larger, and which suggest that the animal keeping us busy must have been longer than 6 meters".

"And you conclude from there that it should have been a mole?"

"One moment! Notice the enormous cavity destined to receive the bones of the nose".

"Yes, of the trunk".

"Who said anything about a trunk? Where do you see a trunk?"

"Scientists..."

"Why do you want to see a trunk instead of a nose? Take the skeleton of a pig or that of a mole, you will find at the same place enormous muscle impressions. Would you then conclude that the pig or the mole has a trunk? So the dinotherium has a nose, but a long nose, mobile, thick, powerful, good for searching in the earth; in short, a mole's nose. Do you deny that? Is it more unrealistic that an animal has a nose like any other animal's, than to have an anomaly instead?"

"It is true that by coldly calculating probability, one must believe more easily in analogies than anomalies, this seems more logical; but a mole!"

"Notice, my dear, that the orbits or holes of the eyes are extremely small in comparison to those of all known animals, and that they do not close in the posterior part; and, in fact, why would the dinotherium have eyes proportionally larger than those of a mole since, having to live in the darkness of a subterranean home, these organs would have been no more use to it than to the mole. As animals who are forced to push soil in front of them and by digging with their head, the frontal bones are short, but strong and very thick; the face of the occiput, of great dimension, forms with them a 130-140 degree angle, which you only see in whales. The prodigious muscles that move this colossal head gave it crushing strength. The chrysochlore, or Cape golden mole (talpa asiatica, L.) alone can offer you some analogy with the dinotherium in this aspect. You conceive that an animal forced to fray itself an underground passage, three or four meters in diameter, will need that prodigious strength in the neck muscles, strength that can conly compare, as I said, with that of a whale. And despite that it must have often encountered obstacles, stones, tree roots, despite living in the soft and deep soils, and the earth that the rivers, such as the Rhine, and the great flows of water carry and accumulate with the centuries in the basins that they run through and inundate every year. It would have been stopped dead in its tracks if nature had not given it a pickaxe to tear out those obstacles. This pickaxe, there it is: these are the tusks emerging from the lower jaw and directed earthward. They resemble, my word, those forked hoes that vineyard-keepers use in rocky or freshly cleared earth. There, look, they must have had terrifying strength, if we can judge by the deep depressions carved in the temporal bones to lodge the muscles that moved and directed the lower jaw. Besides, these tusks or teeth offered, relative to their shape, and especially in the place that they occupy, an example of a structure unique in all creation”.

“As for its other teeth”, added the demon, pointing his finger at the figure depicting them, “you will see that they are five in number. The first is cutting at its anterior part, the third has three hills, and the other two; from that one must conclude that the animal lived on roots, rhizomes, and tubers that lived underground. But, I ask you, what good would a trunk be for it? It would have certainly been a hindrance, and that is all”.

“I concede that this head is very good for digging in the ground, but that does not prove that the animal lived underground”.

“Let us examine the other fragments”, said the genie. “The scapula is long, narrow, and looks entirely like that of a mole. Observation has proven that all animals who have it in this shape use their forelegs in constant, painstaking motions, requiring great muscular strength. Thus this form of scapula, rare in mammals, is very common in birds, because the latter need great wing strength to remain aloft.

Now on to the second phalange of the front foot. You will notice that the articular facet of this bone is completely different from that of other animals. As an indispensable result of this very superficial articulation, the dinotherion could not walk on the tips of its fingers, and it would have to drag itself on the exterior edges of the hand, like the mole. This last animal is still is still the only one that presents in this phalange an analogy of form with our fossil monster”.

But here is an even more conclusive fragment; it is the first phalange, or inguinal phalange of this same front foot. Look how it is deeply notched in its anterior part. This incision exists in mammals only in three kinds of animals, all three of which dig in the ground and live in burrows; it gives their claws the prodigious strength that they need. The pangolin, the chrysochloris or Cape mole, and the common mole are the only living animals that have the same conformation, and, remarkably in the mole, the character is less pronounced than in the dinotherion.

And so, my dear, what must we conclude of all this? It is that, as naturalists have sworn, the dinotherion has no analogy with any animals other than those I have cited and, having the head of a mole, the scapula of a mole, and the hands of a mole, must, it seems to me, resemble a mole more than a whale. It is true that the great anatomist Cuvier made of it a giant pangolin, but he hadn’t seen the head”.

“I admit, lord demon, that most analogies are in favor of your opinion, and yet, here are teeth that…”

“That look nothing like a mole’s, I agree, because the jaws of the dinotherion lack incisors and canines, but they are no less suited for grinding roots and even mollusks and insects that it could find in its excavations. Besides, my dear, this anomaly, if it is one, has many examples in living animals. For example, if you ever go to New Holland, you will find a large family of marsupial mammals whose species have so many analogies that it is difficult to separate one from the group it forms, and who differ as much as possible by their dental system. Among these heterogeneously-toothed species, the opossum (the only genus not from Australia) represents insectivorous carnivores, like tenrecs and moles; the rat-kangaroo has teeth adapted for a frugivorous diet, like the hedgehog; the giant kangaroo lives on vegetation, lacks the upper canines that characterize the preceding and only has canines that are transverse to its jaws, which bring it closer to our herbivorous pachyderms; finally, the wombat is, like the hare, a veritable rodent by the teeth and by the intestines. And yet no naturalist has tried to separate these marsupials to put them in the great divisions where their teeth would have rigorously classified them. I intend therefore to make of the dinotherion, if it is not a mole, at least a related genus that I would place with the desmans, the moles, the chrysochlores and the tenrecs, all subterranean animals like it. And besides, if you aren’t content, you can place it elsewhere, but in this case you would have to, according to your principles, create not a genus, a family, or even an order, but a separate class that it would occupy by itself, and this necessity would be the bloodiest critique that you could make of the so-called natural method of your scientists”.

Despite the high opinion I had of my irascible demon’s merit, he had so filled my head with pangolins, seals, tapirs, whales, and elephants, that I could not in any way accept his mole, and a small smile of vanity and disapprobation came over my lips. He noticed, and cried out!

“Ah! Ah! Mister Incredulous! Have I not employed to convince you the same analogic arguments that your sagest paleontology professors use every day; but it will take more than reason to convince you, from what I see. Well then, morbleu! I will convince you with your own eyes or I shall lose my devilry”. He pounced upon me and seized me by the arm, which took away my desire to laugh; he threw me behind him astride his crutch, like a witch heading to the Sabbath on a broomstick, and together we flew into the air, we took off like a crossbow bolt. The speed of our voyage dizzied me so, that I cannot positively say how much time we took to make our way, nor where we passed to find ourselves on the borders of the Rhine, but what is certain is that we were traveling faster than on a train or on a steamboat.

When I came to, I was laid out on a bed of moss shaded by a tree at least thirty to thirty-five meters tall. I asked the genie which country we were in.

“We are”, he told me, “in this country that will be named, in a few thousand years, the Rhenish province of the grand duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. This great lake that you see there in the East will dry out, and on of the most beautiful rivers of Europe, the Rhine, will cross its ancient bed in its entire length. The place where we are now will be the burg of Eppelsheim and further the city of Alzéi. If you remember the first voyages we made during the other periods, you will notice how much the vegetation has changed, and you will recognize the tree under which we are as a walnut tree quite similar to the common walnut tree, but with more angular nuts that end in a sharp point”.

Suddenly a low but horrible roar made me shiver to the very bone. I looked around in fear, but saw nothing. This horrible cry resonated in my ears a second time and I felt the earth shake under my feet. The idea of underground noises that you hear before an earthquake or rather before mountain upheaval, following Élie de Beaumont, or the sinking of a province according to Beudant, brought terror to my heart, and I thought for a moment that I would be lifted up at the top of a new chain of Alps raising from the depths of the Earth, or sinking into the central fire of the globe in a collapse. I got up quickly and started to run as fast as I was able. But I hadn’t made two hundred paces before my demon grabbed me by my arm, sat me down on a fragment of rock, and, with his finger, indicated the place under the tree where I had been where the most extraordinary scene unfolded.

The earth shook convulsively, and its movement was communicated by the shaking foliage of the walnut tree, which shook and balanced in the air as if a whirlwind had gone into its thousand branches. The tree bent over and straightened several times, then finally, it fell over with a crash, and the earth rose in a great cone seven meters high, opening up at the top of this singular molehill.

“Parbleu”, I told the genie, “I could swear you’re showing me the formation of the new Pyrenees in miniature”.

“In miniature!” he answered, “by my word, that’s quite the miniature! There, there it comes out of its hole”.

Indeed, I saw, coming out of the hole that had opened at the top of the cone like a volcanic crater, a monstrous head three times bigger than a barrel, then an even thicker neck; then a massive body, about three meters in diameter, that is to say as big as the biggest elephant; and finally, a strange animal, five to six meters long, with a terrifying appearance, and dragging itself clumsily on four very short, very thick legs. Its whole body was covered in long, silky hairs, green and shifting in hue from copper to bronze, offering, like the Cape chrysochlore, beautiful metallic reflections. Its very large nose, about sixty centimeters long, ended in a sort of mobile snout, bristling all over with sharp and keratinous tubercles, suitable for opening up the inside of the earth. Under this nose was an enormous lower jaw, prolonged anteriorly in a long chin pointing downwards. At the end of this chin, two tusks almost touching at the base, more than two feet long, emerged through the skin of the lip and directed their points perpendicularly earthwards, yet with a light curvature towards the forelegs. I saw that this monster was using them to help it crawl, by stretching its head out, sinking them into the soil, and pulling its body forward. Its eyes were so small that you would not have seen them through the long hairs surrounding them, if they did not gleam with a dark and red fire like two sparks. Its ears were very small and the concha was barely apparent. Its hindlegs were rather short and armed with very strong claws, but its forelegs ended in two enormous hands absolutely similar to those of a mole, and they were used to push the earth to the right or left as it used its nose to dig an underground tunnel.

The formidable animal descended from atop the monticule it had created; with a lot of agility, it crawled a few meters, then made a cry so sharp, so noisy, so extraordinary that I cannot compare it to anything that human ears have ever heard. The demon saw me shudder and reassured me, telling me that it was calling another animal of its species, and it would move away from us if it heard a response. It continued to make a sharp cry from time to time, moving to the edge of a great forest covering the flanks of a hill, and where I saw a few monticules similar to its own. Meanwhile, I observed a few of those animals a bit smaller in size, and I pointed them out to the genie.

“You are not mistaken”, he told me, “for the paleontologists know in fact, under the name dinotherium bavaricum, another species of this kind, but a bit smaller. What is most unusual in the history of these two dinotherions is that the scientist, G. Cuvier, took the bones of the great dinotherion to be those of a giant tapir, equal in size to the greatest Indian elephant”.

[n0tamused]

Jien lore rambles - Amphoreus

Written prior to 3.3, probably lots of grammar errors

Lots of things are subject to change

This is just a big word vomit since I am waiting until more lore until I can wholly shape Jien's role in the Amphoreus arc, but I still wanna yap about my girl <3

So in this post I left off at her being "accepted" under Talanton's wing. Now, that may not be the most proper word to use since it's not as if Talanton just took her in out of mercy - they're not that kind of titan per se, but how they are like is that they do not tolerate injustice and do not do favoritism. In the case of my girly Jien, I'd say she was done a great injustice.

Long story short- if she was a canon character, the last update we would have had was during the Xianzhou Wardance, when the whole deal with Proxy would be revealed. tdlr - Proxy has done heinous crimes, almost all 10 unpardonable sins on Xianzhou and all with the end goal to make Jien suffer as much as possible since she blames Jien for her own pain. Jien was thrown into jail and was about to face the court and probably would have been served the death sentence since Proxy was so diligent at making sure Jien could not prove it wasn't her who did all this yk. Proxy looks almost identical to Jien soo-

Anyway back on tract - Jien absorbs Proxy and now the question is - how would Proxy answer for her crimes if she is now absorbed by Jien? Who should be held accountable? How?

Talanton does not have the answer now, so the best they can do is basically put Jien under some state that would perserve her until something could be done - but that would be just being put in a prison. So they also give her the right to do legal business within the temple Tithemi during a set amount of time before having to go back to a statue-like state. So not wholly freed, not wholly imprisoned - it is manageable.

Fast forward to more recent times- the whole countryside around temple Tithemi is swallowed by the black tide. Somehow, the temple still remains, perhaps it is Jien doing what work she can in some short periods of being "awake" or it could be the river Exculpate/Gates of Return doing some magic, no one outside knows for certain.

Aglaea, in dire need of more allies, and having met the Executor of Justice(Jien), sends Mydeimos to Temple Tithemi to see if she is still alive. She has sent letters before, even Tribbie but for some reason none of those prior attempts worked.

Mydei arrives and sees that place swarming with the black tide, the temple stands on a cliff higher up like a little beacon of light.

Mydei advances and does eventually get inside the temple and finds Jien as a statue - recites some words Aglaea told him about which would wake the Executor from stone. Jien isn't too happy now, but hears him out - it takes a bit but she agrees to come with him and is surprised nothing happened when she left Tithemi. She thought she'd turn to stone again but she doesn't.

She talks with Aglaea, hears some fading whispers of Talanton in the Vortex of Genesis, and settles in Okhema as some extension of Talanton - basically continuing her duty as the Executor of Justice. Slowly, Proxy awakes too. She is lingering, a thorn in Jien's side and is trying to corrupt her from within now. She may lack in a physical form, but she does not lack in schemes. Jien avoids reflective surfaces and doesn't hang out much outside of court with people. Proxy sometimes puts a bitter lens over Jien's eyes to disrupt her work and view of others - but for now Jien has it under control- she can tell apart Proxy and herself and her own thoughts.

She spends her time in her little apartment(?) going through books and scrolls and doodling away. Or she's at the library and learning about the history she missed, or she's at the gardens, enjoying the light. Side note: before absorbing Proxy, Jien was able to draw objects and manifest them to reality. But after absorbing Proxy she was either rid of that power or she refuses to use it since she doesn't want to risk Proxy learning how to do that. So she's just chilling

She talks with Mydei, gets close to him and they're often seen tending to Mydei's droma.Jien has taken quite a lot of fascination in the dromas and is often seen there too, tending to them or simply observing from afar. She loves dromas a lot. She hates the propaganda against Kremnoans, she gets so pissy when she sees any propaganda tbh and lowkey has beef with Verax Leo but at the same time she does take some satisfaction in grilling the lion head. Phainon approaches her cautiously first - he has heard of how ruthless the Executor can be, but hey she's chill and he's respectfully curious. Jien has taken quite a lot of fascination in the dromas and is often seen there too, tending to them or simply observing from afar. She loves dromas a lot.

TB and Dan Heng come in and it's simply been way too long, she doesn't believe it. She pretends she doesn't recognize them. Later she'd run into them when they were chasing Damnios or whatever that guy's name is. She doesn't tell them much then, but she expresses her joy to see a familiar face.

She is keeping everyone at arm's length and so many years of containment have weakened her resolve and her own neegativity is surely feeding Proxy - not good.

A small shift does happen when she learns of the fact about Aglaea interrogating TB and DH, but it is a small shift, a moment, no one seems to notice. Jien does and she is eating herself from inside.

Now this is the part where it gets muddy for me, I haven't gotten too in detail here yet, but she does play her part in protecting the city and guiding DH and TB around or whatever while keeping a good distance from them too. She's there when Nikador is finally defeated and lingers with Castorice for a while.

Phainon does seek her out for a few words of advice or any insight before he goes into the trial himself. And this is the first time the two of them have a lengthy conversation and a rather deep one. She wishes him all the luck in the end and said she'd see him off at the Vortex. But when lady Aglaea asks her how she thinks it will end, Jin doesn't give a overly positive response.

She does linger by the Vortex the entire time, gazing at the lit up constellations and thinking about the past. DH thinks of questioning her, but he chooses not to. She is lost in thought. She seems somewhat at peace. Perhaps the voice inside her head is quelled by the night-like display of the Vortex. (IX is that you- COugh)

After they all get Phainon out, Jien goes away to get back to the city. She runs into Krateros. And here I was thinking of whether he should know her - perhaps he wandered into the temple when he was younger and knows how she looks. I'll see about this. She sees him when he was grilling Verax Leo. And one thing I like or would like to keep within Jien's story overall is this theme of being a witness to things, from small mundane stuff to larger scale events. She doesn't have to interact - just be there. And this witnessing thing would later enforce her will in this one big moment - but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's for later hehe. Think of how Neuvillette has grown closer to humanity by doing his work for so long and how this was what Focalor had in plan for saving the people of Fontaine in the end.

Mydei runs into her as she's leaving, they quickly greet eachother and her ask for a chat later. She agrees and after he is done talking with Krateros he finds her at their usual spot near the dromas. Mydei opens up to her about his conversation with Karateors, and Jien does not really hide her distaste for the old man's odd animal analogies, but she does use them herself to explain her view on the situation better. The sound of the droma is calming, the dull purr and crunch as it fed. The situation is not all black and white and Jien has always been the one to hold the spot in that gray area in the middle, both in work and outside of her work. Perhaps that is why Mydei approached her for advice too, as many others too.

She has seen both sides in one way or another. Any hey maybe he does like her more than he should shhh. There is mutual respect on both ends and a silent understanding that just feels like a break from the world, all while tending to the droma together.

I am still working out how Jien could play into the whole Flame Reaver thing, so I'll skip that over in this post. I think it be an interesting thing when the gang TM realizes Jien is also an foreigner from beyond the sky.

Jien would later grow a big interest in Anaxa after she finds out about his soul research thing he has going on since it could hold answers for her too. But in 3.1 I don't think they'd have too many interactions besides Phainon introducing them.

Side note I think her and Ciphera would have a pretty silly dynamic with Ciphera being all mischief and Jien doing all the "law&order" thing lmao I love thinking about it. Tall dragon lady and short cat woman

Anyway, I'll leave this ramble off here until I figure more out :p

[bibbityboppitybillyharvgrove]

Always There - Chapter Six: S.Snape

Summary: Y/N Potter was left with a baby to care for after her brother and sister-in-law were murdered by Voldemort. One person was there for her, a person she didn’t expect but soon became her comfort person, Severus Snape. During Harry’s third year at Hogwarts and her third year as Herbology professor, a few old friends come around again. Y/N has to handle the feelings of these old friends being around again as well as handle her feelings for a certain potions master all while she tries to hide these things from her godson.

Series Masterlist

My full Masterlist

Pairings: Severus Snape x Female Professor Reader, Potter!Reader x friend!Remus

Chapter Warnings: Female Reader, Potter Reader(No physical description of reader) probably shitty writing, Harry growing up in a loving home, Happy Snape, sappy Snape

Series Warnings: Female Reader, Potter Reader (No physical description of reader) probably shitty writing, OOC Snape, Harry grows up in a loving environment, mentions of death and murder, poorly written angst, Remus is a shitty friend, poorly written pining,

Please let me know how I can improve my writing and being more inclusive to POC as I am whiter than white. Please also let me know if I have to add more to the warnings! My messages are open as well as my asks!

I am starting a taglist so leave either a comment or something in my asks if you would like to be tagged in any of my works or just this series!

Author's Note: I am going through a bit of a writers block at the moment so please bare with me. If anyone has any ideas they can give me I will gladly take some to see if I can get over this writers block.

Please let me know how I can improve or if you find any errors! Correct me, don't be afraid to! I want to improve my writing and become a better writer so any feedback or advise is welcomed!

Word Count: 1698

My asks are open for questions, suggestions and feedback!

Feedback is welcomed and encouraged!

Enjoy!

not my gif

not my gif

It was barely 2 hours after Severus had left the Burrow, Y/N sitting in the kitchen with a cup of tea that had gone cold, Molly beside her in quiet comfort. All of the kids had gone off to bed not long ago, however, Harry had stayed beside his aunt, falling asleep at the table, leaning onto her shoulder. 

A flutter had come through an open window, a letter being dropped in front of her, the barn owl landing right in front of her letter. She gave the bird a gentle pat before grabbing the letter and opening it.

“Whose it from?” Molly asked.

“It’s from Albus, he needs me at Hogwarts tonight if possible,”  She replied, “That man is so vague.” She handed Molly the letter.

Dear Miss Potter,

You are needed at Hogwarts as soon as possible, tonight preferably. Severus is safe and well. 

With Pleasure,

Albus Dumbledore

“I’m assuming you’re going tonight then?”

“Probably, I can’t not go. I’m sorry you’ve had Harry most of the Summer, I promise you I will take Ron, the twins and Ginny next summer.”

“Don’t worry about it dear, Harry is an absolute joy to have around. He’s so helpful, you’ve done a great job,” Molly praised. It brought tears to her eyes and before she knew it she was crying. “Oh, my dear, what’s got you upset?”

“I don’t know, I’ve just never been told I’ve done a great job raising Harry. I miss James so much and I look at Harry and all I see is him and then I’m reminded that he’s not James and that James is dead and I have no family left other than Harry,” She vented as tears clouded her vision. 

“You have us and you have Severus. I can only imagine the pain you feel everyday, especially looking at your brother’s clone everyday. It’s uncanny really,” The Weasley Matriarch told the other woman, her voice trailed off in wonder causing Y/N to let out a watery laugh. The movement of her shoulders had caused Harry to wake up from the movement.

“Aunt Y/N? Are you okay?” He asked sleepily.

“Yes, my love, I’m okay. I have to go to Hogwarts tonight. I’m gonna put you to bed like old times and then I’m going,” She explained to her sleepy nephew.

“Can I stay on the couch, Mrs. Weasley? I don’t feel like walking upstairs,” Harry asked Molly who agreed with a chuckle. 

The two women lead the boy to the sofa, Molly excusing herself to let the Potter’s have a moment alone. Y/N took the blanket that was hanging on the back of the sofa and covered the boy with it, once he was covered, her hand went to his hair and played with the long stands. “You need a haircut, bub,” She pointed out, “Are you comfy? Need another blanket?”

“I’m okay, can you stay until I fall asleep? I feel safe when you’re here,” the boy admitted.

“I won’t move until I know you’re asleep, I promise.” And she kept her promise, she sat on that floor until she knew Harry was asleep, she knew he was asleep only because his nose twitched quite a bit and he would occasionally say something in Parseltongue. She stayed there for a few more minutes before planting a kiss on the boy’s head, making sure he was covered with the blanket and with that she set off for the kitchen where Molly was still sitting waiting for her return. “I’ll send you an owl in a few days, thank you again Molly, really. I appreciate you willingly taking Harry for the summer 2 years in a row,” Y/N said to the woman. Molly got up off her chair and pulled the lone Potter into a tight, motherly hug. 

“Don’t thank me, as I said, the boy is a pleasure. Stay safe, my dear. Harry is in good hands here.” The woman nodded at the Weasley before reluctantly ending the hug and walking out of the door. She knew if she had looked back, she would have stayed but she was needed back at Hogwarts. She apparated just outside of Hogwarts and began her walk to the castle, taking in the forest around her as she did. As she approached the gate to Hogwarts, she was greeted with a familiar face.

“Minnie! How was your summer?” Y/N asked the woman excitedly.

“Hello Y/N! My summer was well, how was yours? Anything new happen? Anything official?” Minerva teased the woman as they walked closer to the castle.

“Oh ha ha. It was the same as always pretty much. Sev and I did things we always did together. Harry spent the summer between Sirius and the Weasleys,” She explained.

“That’s no fun, you seriously didn’t go on any dates? Nothing is official? I need to tell Severus to wise up and get to it!”

“We went on a couple dates, nothing big, just trying different tea shops and going to greenhouses and apothecaries. We are official, as soon as summer began Severus wanted to make our relationship official, we just aren’t putting a label on it. I love him, he loves me and Harry and that's all that matters,” Y/N elaborated as they walked through the doors of the castle. 

“Gossiping as always Minerva?” A masculine voice interrupted, “I never thought you would have dragged Y/N into this. And my love, I can’t believe you fell into her trap!”

“Oh quit it, we were just catching up and if I remember correctly, you were a big gossip this summer,” Y/N teased the man before her, Severus giving her a pointed look.

“I didn’t gossip this summer, I merely told you about information I had overheard around the school.”

“That is gossip, honey. But nice try getting out of that one. Now excuse me, I need to see the headmaster.” Before she could walk away, a hand grabbed her wrist firmly but not rough, pulling her body into another. 

“Not without a proper greeting my love. I’ve been deprived, I’m like a man starved for you.”

“That is my que to leave, have a nice night you two,” Minerva excused herself, walking away from the pair. The couple shrugged and greeted each other with a loving kiss, Severus’ hand caressing her cheek in a featherlike touch, Y/N’s hands looped around his neck, fingers playing with the ends of his hair. Once pulling away, they went about like nothing had happened, Y/N making her way to Dumbledore’s office and Severus making his way to the dungeons.

It was a long walk but she had finally made it to the headmaster’s office, letting herself in and walking towards the desk in the back of the room. She greeted Fawkes with a gentle pet under the wing as she waited for the man who had sent her an owl. “Miss Potter, what a surprise seeing you here,” A voice startled her, the very same voice that used to torment her in her days at Hogwarts. It sent a chill down her spine as she turned around to meet the eye of the man she had dreaded seeing whenever he was at the castle.

“Mr. Malfoy, hope all is well,” She said politely. Lucius went to say something but the door to the office had opened before he could speak. The professors and the Minister of Magic filing in, Dumbledore trailing behind them. She sent a look of question to her partner, who shrugged his shoulders.

“Seeing as we are all here, we can start discussing what I called you all here for. Mr. Malfoy, what do I owe the pleasure?” Dumbledore spoke, his voice curious as to the extra person in the room.

“I was hoping to discuss my son’s grades from last term. He received a P Herbology and received an A in Potions when I know he should have gotten an O,” Lucius ranted to the man, giving a pointed look at the Herbology professor.

“He received a P in my class because he never tried, he fooled around with his friends instead. His essays were always half-assed as were all of his homework assignments, every plant of mine that boy touched ended up dying. He received the grade he deserved,” Y/N defended her grading.

“I agree that he should have gotten an O, however, Professor Potter has a point, he tends to play pranks during class time and his essays are either fantastic or they are terrible. He may have done better if he would behave,” Severus added.

“I think my son failed this class because Miss Potter dislikes me and my family. She doesn’t like the fact that her brother and I never got along so she is taking it out on my son!” Lucius accused.

“Excuse me! Your son is not you, however he inherited your awful attitude as well as the need for everything revolving around you and nothing else! How dare you!”

“Mr. Malfoy, you have made a mistake, a large mistake. I don’t appreciate what you are accusing my professor of doing. You may leave,” Dumbledore dismissed the man who was awestruck. 

Severus gave her a look, making sure she was okay and when she nodded he felt like he could relax a bit. Even though he was able to relax slightly, he was still worried that Lucius would make a bigger deal out of it even though his accusations were false. Once Malfoy had left, Dumbledore had broken the news to all of the professors. The Triwizard tournament would be held at Hogwarts that year, the ladies of Beauxbatons and the gentlemen from Durmstrang would be joining them that year. He had also told them that there was an age minimum this year, that no student under the age of 16 would not be able to put their name into the goblet. 

Y/N felt like something was going to go wrong during this tournament, she didn’t know why she felt this way but she did. Something was off, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. 

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