#i can only apologise for the cliffhanger

[loveinhawkins]

The problem is that a part of Steve knows the spider isn’t real.

But it’s the suggestion of it, right? Cobwebs in his hair, movement just out the corner of his eye; it’s all enough to convince him that there’s something crawling on his skin, to let out a panicked whisper to Nancy, there was a spider. It’s a black widow.

He tries to disregard it as a one-off. It’s an old creepy house. Just got him spooked for a bit, that’s all.

But then… diving into Lover’s Lake. Bats biting into his flesh. Overwhelming dizziness.

Nancy wrapping torn strips of clothing tight around—there’s something crawling, crawling underneath his skin, no, there isn’t, no, there—a bike ride through The Upside Down; one hacking cough, pushing through it, pushing through it—

Swallows it all down. Ignores the sweat, the tackiness around his bandage. Shh. Calm, calm.

Drives the RV. Doesn’t know how he’s even moving, is just grateful—grateful that his mind on autopilot seems to still function.

The War Zone. In and out. Parked. Sun in his eyes. Kids outside.

The feeling comes back. Something. Something under his skin. (In his blood, in all of him—)

“S’there something in my hair?” he asks Eddie, who’s mid-step out of the RV.

Eddie turns back with an air of amusement. “Nope,” he says. “Looks perfectly coiffed to me, man.”

“Can you—can you just check?”

Look closer, something’s wrong, something’s wrong.

“Uh, sure,” Eddie says, bemused. He sits next to Steve and tilts his head before lifting a hand uncertainly. “You want me to, uh?”

“Yeah, thanks. Just… there was a spider on me.”

It’s not what Steve wants to say at all, but there’s a sudden, terrifying disconnect between the thoughts in his head and what actually comes out of his mouth.

“Oh, you don’t like them, huh?”

Eddie’s not even teasing, just sounds understanding; he lifts up a few sections of hair carefully, taking his time. He’s so kind. Steve abruptly wants to cry.

“Yeah, I don’t blame you,” Eddie continues. “I have the same thing with mice. The way they move. Creepy little feet.” He shudders dramatically.

Steve wants to laugh at that. Can’t.

Eddie runs his fingers through Steve’s hair a couple more times, gentle.

You don’t have to, Steve thinks. Make it hurt. Get it out. Did you find it? Please say you found it.

“Good news, you’re officially spider-free, Harrington.”

Eddie claps him on the shoulder, stands up.

Steve doesn’t move.

Eddie pauses again, halfway out the door. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah,” Steve says. “Just need some air.”

He goes through the motions of prepping for the fight. Chats with Robin. She talks about a terrible, gnawing feeling, and he wants to scream yes, I know, I know, but he can’t tell her, why can’t he tell her?

Shh. Calm, calm.

Drives the RV. Forest Hills.

He brakes with no warning, sends bottles of alcohol rolling across the floor. He’s mad suddenly that they didn’t smash. He’s so—

Slip away.

Eddie’s trailer. Lets himself in.

Bathroom.

The wound on his stomach pulses. He doubles over the toilet. Throws up.

His skin is crawling.

There, in the back of his mind, a creeping coldness. A thought that is not his own.

I will kill them all. And I will make you watch.

Oh, God. Oh, God, he’s been so stupid.

-

Eddie finds him first.

He picks up one fallen bottle of alcohol before a gut feeling pulls him out of the RV—because Steve Harrington is a good driver, and he’d only brake like that if he had no choice.

“Steve?”

But Steve’s not waiting for them on the porch, he’s not even by the Gate.

Clattering; a strangled cry.

Eddie’s stomach lurches.

He runs towards the noise, opens the bathroom door and is instantly hit by the acrid smell of vomit.

“Steve! Jesus Christ.”

Steve’s pushed up against the cistern. There’s a damp patch all across his stomach, and his chest is heaving.

“Oh my God, Steve, what’s—”

Eddie reaches for him instinctively, and Steve flinches as if he’s been struck.

“No, don’t!”

“Jesus, you’re burning up,” Eddie whispers, drawing his hand back; Steve’s skin is feverishly hot, slick with sweat. He looks around frantically for a cloth, turns on the cold water. “Gotta get you cooled—”

Something slams into him; he’s pinned against the sink, Steve’s hand clamped around his throat.

“No,” Steve repeats. “Don’t.”

“Okay,” Eddie manages. He chokes on a swallow. “S-Steve, you’re—you’re—”

His hand flails, trying to pry Steve’s fingers off.

Steve’s grip loosens ever so slightly. His eyes are wide, bloodshot. Pleading.

“Eddie,” he says through gritted teeth. “You need to hurt me.”

With the last of his strength, Eddie gets his knee up and jabs—it’s barely anything, but it works enough to break Steve’s hold.

Eddie staggers; his back slams against the door. He’s shaking.

Steve stares at him. He’s gripping onto the sink so tightly that Eddie thinks it’s a miracle that it doesn’t crack.

And then there’s a horrible, guttural noise like Steve’s started to choke too, like he’s at war with himself.

Barely audible, he says, “Get… get Nancy.”

Eddie runs.

He nearly falls into Nancy as he opens the front door. He’s breathless, can’t think of what to say, save from—

“Wheeler, he needs you.”

It happens in an instant: Nancy’s brow pinches, and then she goes very pale, and she’s shouting for Robin and Dustin to stay in the RV, like she can turn on a dime, launched into an unknown crisis.

She pushes past Eddie, and he follows her, back into the bathroom.

The cold water is still running.

Steve’s got his hands in the sink. He looks at Nancy desperately.

“S-stop me.”

Another choking sound is ripped from Steve’s throat; Eddie realises that it’s actually a dry sob.

“Nance,” Steve says. It’s half her name, half a pained whine. “Fuck. I’m sorry. I—I know everything.”

And then he’s suddenly launching towards them—it’s only the fact that he’s so completely freaked out that makes Eddie move in time, saves him from getting strangled again.

He grabs Steve’s wet hands, pins them behind his back and tries to hold him still.

“Jesus! Wheeler, what the fuck is going—”

“Do you have anything that can knock him out?” Nancy says.

“What?”

“Drugs, Eddie!”

“Are you crazy? There’s no way—oh my God, what are you—”

Crack.

Nancy’s grabbed the cistern lid, brought it down upon Steve’s head. Eddie looks at Steve lying eerily still on the floor in abject horror.

There’s blood in his hair.

Eddie feels sick.

But Nancy just watches, as if to confirm that Steve’s not moving. She looks Eddie in the eye.

“Come on. That’s only gonna work for so long.”

Eddie just follows her out, too shocked to even attempt speaking.

It’s chaotic at the RV; Dustin sees them coming, leaps out of the door as Robin yells at him.

“Where’s Steve?”

“Get back inside.”

“Nancy, where the hell is he?”

“We can talk inside.”

“Bullshit, I’m—”

“Dustin, he’s Flayed,” Nancy says, her voice breaking, and all the fight goes out of Dustin at once.

“No, that’s—he can’t—”

Eddie finally finds his voice. “Can someone tell me what the fuck you’re talking about?”

Nancy doesn’t speak, not until they’re in the RV, the door locked behind her.

“I think it’s the—the bites—”

Robin swears, a hand over her mouth.

“Flayed?” Eddie persists.

“The Mind Flayer,” Dustin says numbly. “It’s what we—it’s a part of The Upside Down. It—it used Will to… to spy on…”

“And what, it’s—” Eddie swallows. “It’s inside him?”

“Like a virus. He’s part of the Hive Mind,” Nancy says.

Eddie’s knees feel weak.

“Fuck,” Dustin says. “He knows where we are, he’ll know—”

“It’s too late to change that,” Nancy says. “We just have to—at least someone needs to stay with him.”

“I will,” Robin says instantly, eyes blazing.

“Me too,” Dustin says.

Nancy glances at him, shakes her head—firm but apologetic. “You can join Erica.” And as Dustin opens his mouth, no doubt to argue, she adds, “I’m sorry, Dustin. It’s just—we might need to… to fight him.”

Dustin doesn’t reply, but looks so utterly devastated that Eddie wishes he’d insisted on diving first, that the bats had torn into him instead.

“Keep him warm,” Nancy tells Robin urgently. “And I don’t mean just—it’s got to be unbearable.”

Robin nods, ashen-faced.

Nancy catches Eddie’s eye. “The one thing that fucker can’t stand is heat.”

She paces up and down the RV, checking for stray bottles. Then she comes to a stop right in front of Robin.

“He—he might beg,” she whispers. “And it won’t—it’ll sound like him. Like he just wants the pain to stop.”

Robin’s eyes look glassy. “Nance, I don’t—don’t know if I can—”

“I’ll do it,” Eddie says.

He feels everyone’s eyes on him, but he just looks at Nancy, at the determined set to her jaw.

He doesn’t know when he made the decision, if he can even pinpoint a conscious moment of thought—but now that the words are out, he feels the vow he’s made, deep in his chest.

Nancy hands him a bottle and cloth.

A lighter.

She fixes Eddie with a piercing look. “It’s going to look like you’re killing him,” she says.

Eddie nods.

He turns, offers Robin his hand.

“C’mon, Buckley. Let’s get that bastard out of him.”

[kingconia]

Hello I js read ur MC who takes inspriration from the protag of their stories and if you're still taking requests, is it possible to do a part 2 for it?

A/N: You are welcome. I pondered a little about the continuation of this concept, and figured out that Leona & Vil had the most potential for the second part, since I left a cliffhanger in their stories. Others seemed quite cliche or obvious—Riddle has a crush, he can easily deal with, and same goes for Malleus, Azul & Idia. I hope, you don't mind.

The first part can be found here. Obviously, read it first for the context.

LEONA KINGSCHOLAR & VIL SCHOENHEIT WITH THE READER, WHO IS INSPIRED BY THE PROTAGONIST OF THEIR STORIES.

Leona Kingscholar. 💛

— Leona is bad at admitting aloud that he made a mistake, but it doesn't necessarily mean he has no realisation of it. He knows, he hurt you. That is obvious;

— He starts paying more attention to you in the school, since he hasn't figured out how to fix your relationship yet. And that is when he notices that... You are actually not as cheerful as he remembered you to be? Most of the time, you sit away from other students of Savanaclaw?

— When he asks Ruggie about that, he shrugs. He tells Leona that you were always like this, and they even call you ”the sombre heir” among themselves, since you are not quite fun to have around. Leona is surprised. You were so different with him...

— In the end, Leona simply decides to speak with you honestly. He has this feeling that you will accept him either way. You always did before. But, oh, seems like he is not on your good side anymore, isn't he?

•

”Oi, kittie, watcha doin'?” Leona plops in front of you, putting his elbows on the table.

He is nervous, he will not lie about. It is the first time he feels such an overcoming anxiety before someone alive, and that is strange. It is just you, after all. Right?

”Dunno,” you answer slowly, putting a slice of meat in your mouth. ”Thinking about my family, who died so yours could take our throne away. You, Leona?”

Well, you definitely are not planning to forgive him so easily.

Leona shifts uncomfortably as he tries to catch your gaze. Without a luck.

”I accept my fault,” he murmurs quietly, hardly audible. ”And if anything, I understand your pain. I, too—”

A sudden laugh from your lips makes him stop in the tracks. As you wipe your mouth with the napkin, you smile suddenly. And when you raise your eyes on him, Leona almost flinches. Because there is nothing kind or gentle in these orbs now. Instead, they are cold. They are cold, and at the same time, they are awfully mad.

”What would you know about it, golden boy?” Your voice shift in a condescending tone as you shake your head slightly. ”Kings like your brother, Leona, they have honour. And princes like you or your little nephew have a bravery and heart. But people like me, Leona, the fallen ones, we only have rage. So, excuse me, but I don't think we are at the same page, kittie.”

You are hissing your last words, hand coming to grab Leona by his chin, tip of claws scratching his skin. He wants to back away, he intends too, but he is suddenly strangely fascinated by you. Intimidated, even.

”If you want to apologise, Leona, then do it properly. With falling on your knees, at least,” your fangs flash in a carnivorous smirk. ”And until then, have your dreams. Sweet or not—we will see in which mood I am going to be today.”

Leona gulps as he watches you leaving, eyes fixated on your back.

Perhaps you ignored his existence until now, willing to forget his rudeness. But now, it seemed, he lost the last pieces of your mercy.

...And he needs to figure out how to have your forgiveness really quick.

Vil Schoenheit. 💜

— Vil is not surprised when headmaster warns him, that someone from his dorm attempts to take away his housewarden title. He already knows who it is, and he is not surprised to see your face, when he enters the main hall;

— He had a bad week already: his hair products worked awfully, your number of followers outnumbered his own, and Neige practically took the role that was his in the very last moment. It is only logical that in the same week you attempt to take his title;

— And, of course, you succeed. The poison you created can be only worth of the Pomefiore housewarden, and no one can deny that. Even Vil. In fact, he always acknowledged your brains and wilt, so of anything, he feels it is fair win;

— What makes him stop frozen, though, is the person you want to see as your vice. Originally, Vil thought that you will take Rook—he is quite aware of his attraction towards you—but then... You chose him? Why? Why would you do that?

•

”Well,” Vil says, when the two of your are left in the room alone, and there is no need to act as you were friends anymore. ”What else are you planning to do with me? You are the housewarden—you won. Why making me your vice?”

You turn on your heels to face him, a big and shiny smile plastered on your face as you step closer to him.

”Don't be so mean, Vil-sama. Why do you act as if I hate you? I don't,” you put yours hands on chair handles he is sitting at, invading his personal space gracefully. ”I cannot hate a person, who helped me to understand what my signature spell is.”

Vil furrows, pressing his back to the chair more firmly, not trusting you coming close to him. Yet, it hardly changes anything—the tips of your noses are practically touching.

”I apologise, but I cannot recall such a thing.”

He had never helped you with anything in your life. Now, Vil is ashamed that he didn't.

He remembers your first day in the dorm. How you clinged to his side, with stars shining in your eyes, asking him about this and that. How you attempted to befriend him. How you only originally started to speak with Rook to understand him better.

Vil failed the little student of his.

And the person in front of him didn't want his acceptance now.

”How come?” Your hands are suddenly on his head, fingers wrapped around his favourite diadem, taking it off slowly. ”After all, you were the first beast I spoke with.”

He flinches, and you carefully kiss him on the cheek before putting the diadem on your own hair. It looks nice.

Vil hates that.

”I miss the kid you were,” he murmurs against his best judgement.

You hum.

”Bear the monster you created, instead.”

You left him on the vice position so it could be a remind for his mistake. For his cruelty. For his arrogance. He realises it now. You don't need to do anything special to hurt him, if he does it to himself, working under your command on the daily basis, seeing you shine, when he burns out.

You are beautiful, Vil accepts that. Your revenge is a charming one, too.

”I heard Neige got that role?” You ask suddenly, when he reaches doors, unwilling to turn back. ”Such a shame. Something must happened.”

He grits his teeth.

Vil hates himself for making you like this. Yet, he can't help but feel proud. Whatever he created you as—you would take what is yours, with blood and sweat. He can admire that about you. And deep inside, Vil thinks you do that, too. Deep inside you enjoy it as much as you hate it.

”Yes. Something.”

After all, there is truly nothing Vil can do, but accept his defeat.

The king is dead. Long life to you.

A/N: Based on protagonists or not—they had some darkness in theirselves as well; just as Simba was quite ruthless, when the situation required of it, in many interpretations of the tale, Snow-white learned how to be cruel, too. I think it is enamoring how these said protagonists can be just as their villains, especially if they were growing up around them in one way or another.

[t9fi]

allure. — ryomen sukuna.

pairing. True form, lord!Sukuna. Fem!reader.

warnings. Reader is a virgin. Innocent kink. Fingering. Dirty talk. Sukuna being a little soft. Traditional roles. Sukuna is so manly in this - like he’s giving husband material. Little bit of misogyny if you squint. lil lord kink. Reader has long hair. Lil daddy kink at the end (will continue next chapter winkwink)

word count. 1.6k

notes. Guysguysguys, so this is probably my favourite chapter like UGHH!!! Sorry for the cliffhanger at the end i just had to do it - spicy spicy stuff in the next chapterrr

ch. four.

The initial rays of morning sunlight gently penetrated the room through the blinds, casting a warm glow on everything it touched. As you awoke from your slumber, your eyes opened to the tender illumination, creating a serene atmosphere.

In that dreamy space between sleep and wakefulness, you gradually sensed a presence beside you. Turning your head slightly, there lay Sukuna, peacefully asleep. His tousled hair partially obscured his eyes, his lips plump and rosy, and the rhythmic pattern of his breathing infused an unexpected tranquillity into the once-feared king's presence.

A soft smile played on your lips, a gentle blush colouring your cheeks and nose. Sukuna, in this rare moment, appeared so serene and gentle. Your smile widened as you observed the delicate freckles scattered across his cheeks.

In this instance, you wished time would stand still, as witnessing the beauty before you felt like a privilege not everyone had. Still focused on Sukuna, your attention shifted as you sensed his gradual awakening.

Light stretches and subtle movements accompanied his stirring. How could a supposedly malevolent king appear so endearing when waking up? Sukuna's eyes fluttered open, meeting yours.

"What are you doing?" he scoffed, using a hand to guide your chin away, interrupting the moment.

You sighed, "Apologies, my Lord."

Sukuna's hands encircled your soft waist, drawing you closer into the shelter of his chest. In his touch, you felt diminutive, enveloped by his robust arms, and the rhythmic inhales against your hair intensified the closeness.

"No need to apologise; it was cute," Sukuna reassured, his thumb delicately tracing the curves of your hips. Proximity heightened as his lips neared your ear. "You know..." he began, his tongue flicking against your earlobe, "I miss your pretty moans."

A jolt of surprise coursed through you. When did Sukuna start missing you, let alone your moans?

The atmosphere thickened as your thighs involuntarily pressed together. You couldn't let him affect you, especially not this early in the morning. Sukuna's subtle touches induced a fog in your mind, blurring your vision.

Sukuna's hand glided down from your hips to your blushing thighs, gradually coaxing them apart. 

Why were you allowing him to do this? Why were you succumbing to him so effortlessly?

"Wish i could just fuck this pretty little cunt, but I can’t," he pouted, his fingers teasingly grazing your clothed pussy. "We have to wait for the wedding night."

Sukunas large hand kept one of your legs open as the other rested on the bed. You felt exposed and vulnerable, but so fucking wet.

His large fingers playfully tease around your clothed clit, "I just want you to cum on my cock."

His words send a shiver down your spine, and you can't help but cover your mouth in embarrassment. 

Sukuna chuckles at your reaction, "Yeah? You like it when it talk to you like this?" He taunts, sliding your shorts off your hips. You can only nod, his touch driving you wild.

"Let me see that pretty pussy"

You allow Sukuna to remove your shorts, now left in nothing but your pink panties. His thick middle finger slides your panties to the side, "Fuck, so wet," he remarks, dragging his finger along your slit.

A small whimper escapes your lips, still muffled by your hands.

"Didn't you hear me earlier?" Sukuna growls, taking his other hand and forcefully removing yours from your mouth. "Your King wants to hear you struggle as you take his fingers into you pretty little cunt."

Fuck, you've never experienced anything like this before. You've only pleasured yourself with your clit, and even that was a bit challenging.

"M-my lord," you cry out, trying to convey your inexperience. "I've never done this before," you choke out, feeling dirty from his actions.

You can sense Sukuna smirking behind you, reveling in the fact that you've never been with another man, never been touched so intimately, and that you're still so innocent.

"Don't worry, princess, I'll take it slow for you," Sukuna assures, gently rubbing circles on your sensitive clit.

Soft moans and whimpers escape your lips as your King's fingers play with your dripping pussy. "I need to get you nice and wet. Can you do that for me?" Sukuna asks, his hands lifting your chin to meet his gaze.

You nod, lost in his lustful eyes.

"Good girl."

Sukuna's finger glides up and down your slick slit before finding your throbbing entrance. "I'm just going to put the tip of my finger, okay?"

Fuck, why is he being so considerate?

Slowly, the tip of his finger eases into your tight hole, causing you to let out a gasp, “You’re doing so well princess, just a little more’

In a slow and deliberate manner, his lengthy and robust middle finger gradually made its way inside of you. The sensation of being filled by just his finger was overwhelming, making you wonder how incredible it would feel if it were his cock instead. As the thoughts of him thrusting into you consumed your mind, a haze began to cloud your thoughts, causing your eyes to roll back.

"Please," you whimpered, desperately trying to maintain eye contact with your Lord. And he revelled in it, relishing in the way you struggled with the mere presence of his finger. "Keep looking at me, my princess. I adore your pathetic expressions," he whispered, his voice dripping with desire.

His finger continued to slide in and out of you, eliciting louder moans from your lips. "Fuck, please," you pleaded, feeling your body tense and coil with anticipation.

Without uttering a word, Sukuna positioned himself on top of you, folding your legs up to your chest while still pleasuring your tight entrance with his finger.

This new angle allowed his finger to delve even deeper inside you, causing you to cry out in pleasure. The vulnerability of this position only heightened your arousal, despite any feelings of embarrassment. "So fucking hot," Sukuna murmured, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip.

The room was filled with your loud moans, causing Sukuna to thrust even faster into you. To you, he looked so strong, so fucking big it drove you mad. His veiny arms and big shoulders caused you to clench around him, and oh did he notice.

“Fuck you like this? You like when I finger your sloppy little cunt like this?” You only nodded, becoming a bartering mess underneath him. 

“I can feel you princess, you’re close aren't you?” Sukuna teased, taking one of his other hands and rubbing your clit. This made your body jolt in pleasure, your back now arching off the bed. 

“P-please ‘kuna” you began, looking into his eyes, “please can i cum?” You asked with permission and oh did he love that, he didn’t even need to teach you.

“Cum for me, cum for your lord” And you did, your body shook with pleasure as the wave of your orgasm took over you. Whines and whimpers left your lips as Sukuna’s finger was now slowly thrusting into you. You were so sensitive.

“T-too sensitive ‘kuna” You whined, trying to take his hand around from your cunt.

“So cute” Sukuna obliged, taking his finger out of your now soaking wet pussy. 

His eyes pierced into yours as he took his finger into his mouth, licking up all your juices.

“Good girl”

You couldn't believe this.

Standing beside your soon-to-be husband, organising your wedding day.

Well, Sukuna is the one planning your wedding day.

You stood next to your King, not uttering a word, and oh, how he adored this. He loved how effortlessly you embraced your role as a wife. Allowing him to handle all the work while you simply sat there, looking beautiful.

Dressed in your elegant kimono, with your face adorned and your hair cascading down your back, you smiled at the maid who was presenting various designs for your wedding dress, the decorations, and the reception. To you, everything seemed perfect - but to Sukuna, nothing seemed right.

"No, no, no," Sukuna complained, frustration evident as he ran his hand through his hair. "This is supposed to be perfect, and nothing about this is perfect."

You glanced at your king, concerned filling your eyes, not for him, but for the maid - she was doing her best. However, you knew that any interference on your part would result in another punishment.

Sukuna pointed to one of the wedding dresses laid out on the floor. "My wife will not wear this. It's hideous, isn't it, woman?" He turned to you, awaiting your response.

Fuck, you didn't know what to say or do. What if your answer wasn't what he wanted to hear?

"If you dislike it, my Lord, then I won't wear it," you hesitated, anticipating his reaction.

A smirk formed on his face - the perfect response.

While the maid continued to apologise profusely, Sukuna seemed unfazed as he approached you. His chest pressed against yours as he leaned down, his voice low in your ear. "Perhaps I should make you cum every morning so you continue to behave like this," Sukuna teased, "behaving like my obedient little girl."

A blush rushed to your cheeks. "S-Sukuna."

Feeling a sense of unease, you couldn't help but recall the morning when Sukuna had you contorted beneath him - making you moan and writhe with just a single touch.

He chuckled, his hand sliding to your waist, pulling you closer. "My perfect girl."

Your heart raced, wondering if the wicked ruler was actually flirting with you. It was hard to believe that today, of all days, Sukuna was being kind to you. But deep down, you knew it wouldn't last. One wrong move and his true nature would emerge once more.

You had to seize this opportunity, to prove your confidence and devotion to him. "Only for you…" you whispered, biting your lip and batting your eyelashes.

"Daddy."

[x-bluefire-heart-x]

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

Okie dokie my lovely readers! Here is chapter Five of Dating App now it does end a little on a non suspenseful cliffhanger and I promise that the next chapter will be worth the wait!

So there is also about a three week timeskip at the start and about three days around the half way point of this chapter.

Warnings: Masturbation. Dirty minds. Semi public (in office behind a closed door).

Master List

Prompt List

One , Two , Three , Four , Six

It had been almost three weeks since you had been able to see Rafael, the two of you had messaged back and forth every day. You had learned a lot about the man, such as the fact that he needed at least three coffees a day more often than not that was the minimum requirement, one of them had to be as soon as he wakes up otherwise he is a little grumpy, and he can be a little petulant when you mention how adorable you thought he was as he complained to you about the coffee at the court house.  He even sent you a photo of himself pouting, you saved that straight away.

Rafael always messages in full sentences, with near perfect grammar and punctuation. However, you learnt that when he was beyond tired after a day of court and then spending hours preparing for cross the next day he could become adorably nonsensical with some of his messages, the perfect grammar and punctuation slowly leaving as each hour passed. The petulance would come back in full force if you gently told him that he had to go to sleep, you worked out two ways to get him to sleep, one that if you promised to give him lots of kisses when you next saw him he would go to sleep. Or you hoped he did, he stopped responding to your messages at least. The other was video calling him, and you preferred this option as it allowed you to see that he did actually go to bed and sleep, as you wouldn’t hung up until he was asleep. You were also shown the petulance in its full glory as he tried to negotiate with you, thankfully you weren’t bound by law or court etiquette so you used all the weapons at your disposal to get him to relent. Including promises of more than kisses and perhaps a continuation of what happened in his office. That would sometimes backfire, as Rafael’s eyes would darken and his voice would become a husky grumble, still tinged with sleep as he asked for evidence of these promises. In the end it still resulted in him falling asleep but it was harder to get him to agree.  

You also learned how to tell when he had been having a good day in court and when he’d had a bad day. You made sure to do whatever you could to do make his day better when court had been tough, by sending him updates of everything going on in the library, sending him photos of your different outfits and makeup for the day, as inspired by different gods and goddesses. Even though you hadn’t been unable to meet up with him it hadn’t changed how you felt at all, in fact you think it only helped your feelings grow. Although the two of you couldn’t do exactly what you guys promised on your second date, Rafael insisted that you still read the amber quartet series to him over the phone. He claimed being able to listen to your voice helped to relax him after a tough day, hearing that you were all too happy to read him a couple chapters a night.

Rafael showed that he could be romantic even without seeing you, he had sent flowers and even chocolates to the library twice since your lunch, both thanking you and apologising for not being to be meet up with you. Not wanting him to be the only one being romantic, you sent him some flowers back, with a hidden meaning. You sent him a bouquet with peonies, matthiola incana, red chrysanthemum, and carnations, trying to portray that you could see yourself falling deeply for him. Something that was already happening. The response you had gotten from that had been endearing as hell, Rafael called you right away after he got them, he stumbled over his words and he sounded flustered, you really wanted to see if his cheeks were red, because that would have been the most adorable sight.

That had been three days ago, the messages had been fewer but Rafael had told you that the court case had just gotten difficult and so he might not be able to message you. You stared at your phone and the message sitting in-front of you.

‘So, I know that your case is difficult at the moment, but when it is over I was wondering if you would like to come over to mine for dinner? And maybe, if you wanted to of course, you could stay the night.’

You hadn’t sent it yet the nerves in your stomach stopping you. Of course you knew that he wouldn’t have an issue with it, in the past few weeks there had been plenty of indications that the both of you wanted to be more intimate with each other. But there was still that small part of you that was worried he would say no, that was nervous about taking that step with him.

“Come on, pull on your big girl pants and send it,” you groused to yourself. You took a mouthful of your wine, swallowing it while closing your eyes and hitting send. “Okay, so I did that. It’s fine, it’s so totally fine.”

You drained the rest of your wine as you grabbed the bottle to pour yourself another glass, to wait for Rafael’s response. It was late but you weren’t working tomorrow so you figured you could get away with a rare late night wine session. You bit your lip as you looked through some of the photos Rafael had sent throughout the weeks. A lot of them were similar to the first one he ever sent, dishevelled appearance with more and more of his shirt buttons undone. You paused on a few of the ones he sent when the two of you had been messaging late at night when he was grumpy. He had angled the phone to capture his strong thighs clad in his suit pants, with the zipper undone and his cock tenting his boxers. You felt a curl of pleasure in your lower stomach as you stretched out on the couch, your bare legs bent and spread. You flicked through some more photos of the same vein, one with his hand cupping his cock through his pants, another showing his entire body as Rafael bit his lip and grabbed himself.

Images of what could happen the night he stayed over played through your mind as you remembered how his cock felt as you sat on his lap kissing him, his hands grabbing your ass. Your mind played out what could have happened if you hadn’t been interrupted, you imagined Rafael manhandling you until you were laid out on the couch, as he buried his head between your thighs, drawing moans and whimpers from you. You imagined him hovering over you as he slowly pushed himself inside of you. As these images played through your mind, you trailed your hand down your stomach, slipping under your panties and swirled your fingers around your clit.

--

Rafael could feel another headache starting just behind his eyes. This case was almost over, maybe another two days and it would be closing arguments, the defence was just throwing character witness’ at the jury, one of which had opened up a can of worms but the detectives had dug a little and hopefully found something he could use tomorrow when he cross-examined this witness. He had always had an issue when defence would have an insane number of character witnesses, but he especially felt it with this case. It had been almost three weeks, three long weeks since he had been able to see you, see his Chica. The messages and video calls had been amazing, you showed a clear concern for his health, bartering with him to get him to sleep, it was adorable to see you negotiate with him. You of course had an advantage, he was finding it very difficult to say no to you. He didn’t want to disappoint you, and it was slowly becoming clear that all you had to do was flutter your lashes, pout a little at him and use a tone that was a mixture of coy, shy and seductive.  

He was pleasantly surprised when you had sent him flowers, along with a cute little note stating that you thought men should get flowers and that you were giving him a little test to work out the little message the flowers had. He had brought up a flower language website so fast, the flowers were all about adoration, romance, bashfulness, happiness, passion, fascination and new love. Rafael didn’t think he had ever felt so flustered when he read the meanings of the flowers, nor had he ever stumbled so much over his words when he rang you. Nor had he ever felt so adored by someone before. He had worried that you would lose interest in him, finally see that a relationship with him meant going potentially weeks without being able to see him, that it would involve making plans for dates but having to cancel them and not even being able to have you come to his office. But you hadn’t shown any sign of that, you always sent him a good morning and good night message along with ones spattered throughout the day, trying what you could to help him relax.

Rafael sighed, a groan of frustration leaving his lips as he slumped into the couch at his office. He knew he should probably go home but he needed to be focused for the cross tomorrow, plus he had to go over the evidence of other cases and start on warrants for the detectives. Liv and the others had done what they could but even they couldn’t prevent how much work could pile up on his desk. His phone vibrated on the desk drawing his eyes from the papers in-front of him. God he hoped this wasn’t a message telling him one of his cases was about to blow up. Again. But all the exhaustion and frustration of the day disappeared when he saw your contact name.

‘So, I know that your case is difficult at the moment, but when it is over I was wondering if you would like to come over to mine for dinner? And maybe, if you wanted to of course, you could stay the night.’

Rafael stared at the words on the screen. He swallowed as heat coursed through his body, you wanted him to stay the night. He thought that you might be interested in moving things forward from the conversations you had had, including some of the incentives you had given him to get some sleep. And you weren’t necessarily shy, although you could ask for what you wanted he found that you would get a little bashful about asking. He wondered how long it took for you to send this message.

‘That sounds like a fantastic way to celebrate the end of this case. And there is nothing more I would like to do then spend the night. Hopefully, this case should be over in about three days but I will keep you updated, of course.’

He sent through his response, adding a heart emoji onto the end of the message. And with that Rafael couldn’t focus on his trial prep, all his mind could think of was spending the night with you. He tried not to let his mind get away, but after some of the video calls the two of you had shared he found it incredibly difficult. He knew what you would look like above him, but now he was imagining what you would look like underneath him, stretched out head thrown back in ecstasy and what noises he could drag from your lips. He felt himself harden, his cock straining against his pants as the images played through his mind. He felt his body heat as he palmed himself to relieve some of the tension, a soft groan slipping from his lips, he glanced briefly at the door trying to remember if he had locked it after closing it.  

“Fuck it,” he muttered deciding that it was too late for anyone else to still be around. He quickly unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants to pull his aching hard cock out.

He didn’t have any lube available so he closed his eyes and licked his hand, imagining that it was you licking his hand, sucking on his fingers. He wrapped a hand around his cock slowly stroking himself as he allowed his mind to go where it wished to. He saw you on your knees in-between his legs as you teasingly sucked on the head of his cock. Your gorgeous eyes staring up at him, a beautiful red flush on your cheeks. He bit down on his other hand in an attempt to quiet the noises coming out of his mouth. His phone was beside him on the couch ignored as he focused on his pleasure until it started to buzz consistently. He wanted to ignore it but he vaguely recalled having messaged you and he didn’t want to ignore you, even for his own pleasure.

­--

You had just considered getting up to get one of your toys when your phone buzzed.

‘That sounds like a fantastic way to celebrate the end of this case. And there is nothing more I would like to do then spend the night. Hopefully, this case should be over in about three days but I will keep you updated, of course.’

You grinned at Rafael’s response glad that he was excited at the prospect of spending the night. Your pleasure hadn’t ebbed away when you read his response, it instead grew as the possibilities you had played in your mind as you fingered yourself suddenly became a lot more possible. You dragged yourself up from your couch and travelled to your bedroom, glass of wine in one hand and your phone in the other. You quickly set up your room, lighting some candles and turning on the fairy lights you had strung up over the canopy of your four poster bed before you dug around in your drawer for your external vibrator. The wine had gone a little bit to your head, as you took a photo of your bed and your room all set up to send to Rafael. You sent another one with a towel and your toy sitting on top of it. And then other one after you had changed into a green set of lingerie that you thought would be perfect to wear for your first night with Rafael. You had purchased it as soon as you saw it, as you believed it would almost match his eyes.

‘I thought a little preview was in order. A little gift for you. My poor man is working so hard.’

--

‘I thought a little preview was in order. A little gift for you. My poor man is working so hard.’

“Fuck Chica,” Rafael groaned his hand speeding up as he stared at the photo of you in the most gorgeous set of lingerie he had ever seen.

A gorgeous green, with lace trimmings and a sheer, gauzy material that almost showed everything but it was designed to hide the parts of your body that he longed to see. His stomach tensed as his pleasure reached its peak as he imagined you laying under him in that lingerie set as he mouthed at your breasts and teased your clit through your panties. His cum covered his hand, some drops on his pants that had it been a different situation he probably would be frustrated but he didn’t care. He cleaned up the mess his cock had made before he took a photo of his face showing his flushed skin, lips red from his teeth having bitten them.

‘Chica, you are going to drive me insane.’ He attached the photo and sent his message off before he saved all the photos you sent. Your bedroom looked exactly how he thought it would, cozy and romantic. And he desperately wanted to see it in person. He would actually consider murdering the defence if they did anything to make this trial go any longer than three days. But he would kiss them if they stopped calling witnesses and allowed the trial to end earlier. He decided to call it a night, he wouldn’t be able to concentrate at all now.

--

You stared at the photo that Rafael had sent you and a part of you just knew that he had taken this photo after he had cum. His cheeks were flushed just so and his lips looked bitten and his eyes, god his eyes were burning and had a satisfied look in them that you desperately wanted to see as he hovered above you.

“Oh fuck,” you groaned as the heat inside you built, you held the vibrator against your clit, hips rolling in pleasure. You sat your phone done so you could tease your breasts altering between them as you pulled at your nipples.  You imagined Rafael above you, thrusting inside you and biting at your neck, the imagine was all you needed as your pleasure reach its peak, your walls fluttered as your clit throbbed as your orgasm flooded through you.

You breathed deeply allowing the last thrums of pleasure to roll through you before you removed the vibrator. Humming you opened your phone again to the photo Rafael sent, bit your lip. You weren’t a religious person but you prayed that the case would be over in three days or less. The need you felt for Rafael was like nothing you had ever felt before, it grew and grew every single day.

--

“Girl you need to get laid,” Lily muttered after you had snapped at some teenagers making a mess.

“I’m trying to,” you snarked.

“Wait…you guys haven’t?” Lily walked beside you on the way to the break room.

“I haven’t seen Rafael in three weeks, this current case apparently become a shit show,” you shrugged. “He’s going to stay the night after the case is over.”

“And that is?”

“Hopefully tomorrow night,” you groaned. “Lily, that man is making me feel things I haven’t felt for someone before.”

Lily grinned wrapping an arm around your waist as she pulled you close.

“And what about Rafael? Any indication that he feels the same?”

“Yes, I think so at least,” you nodded, a soft smile pulling at your frown as a soft blush swept up your neck to your cheeks. “We’ve messaged a lot, including video chats and he is definitely interested. I had a bit too much wine the other night and may have sent a spicer photo then normal and he definitely enjoyed that.”

“Ooh girl, who are you?” she teased.

You shrugged grinning at Lily as you briefly wondered that yourself. You have never sent a photo like you did to Rafael, you had never felt comfortable enough for that. But Rafael made you feel comfortable and safe, you couldn’t explain why after only a short time you felt that way. But honestly you didn’t care. You liked how Rafael made you feel, and you didn’t want it to go away.

“I don’t know but I kinda like it,” you giggled.

“Well, let’s  hope you get laid tomorrow cause you seeing you death glare teenagers dressed as Athena is a little terrifying,” Lily patted your head. “And we can’t go scaring people from our library.”

“Hm, let’s hope,” you hummed in agreement.

--

Rafael barely waited long enough for the Judge to leave, barely waited enough for the victim and their family to thank him before he rushed out to the courtroom and to his office. Ignoring the detectives, he briefly waved over his shoulder when Liv called his name.

“Can’t stop, dinner,” he rushed out. His pulse was thundering as he quickly packed his office, telling Carmen to not interrupt him under any circumstances for tonight and tomorrow. Maybe even the next day, he hadn’t quite decided that. He paused only long enough to send you a text message letting you know that he would be over to yours by 6 at the latest.

‘I can’t wait to see you Rafael, I’ve missed you.’

Rafael grinned at your reply as his uber arrived, he continuously tapped his leg in a little anxious pattern until he arrived at his apartment. He didn’t think he had ever rushed quite so much packing a bag as he did tonight. He debated having a shower and changing but after a quick look in the mirror he decided against it. He knew you thoroughly liked how he looked dishevelled in a suit and figured he could have a quick shower at your place, maybe with you. That would be incredibly enjoyable.  He ordered another Uber to get to yours, stopping to pick up some flowers on the way.

In what felt like hours he arrived at your apartment. Taking a deep breathe he keyed your apartment number into the buzzer and waited for you to answer.

--

The sound of your intercom going off set your heart racing. You hesitated briefly before answering.

“Hello? Rafael?” you asked, there was no-one else it could be.

“Hey Chica,” Rafael’s voice soothed something inside of you. The nerves calming a little.

“I’ll buzz you up, I’m the fourth floor, left after you get out of the elevators and near the end,” you breathed hitting the unlock button.

“Thanks,” Rafael said before you heard the sound of the door opening.

You rushed to your room, checking yourself one last time in your mirror making sure there wasn’t anything out of place. Your hair fell loosely down your back, you decided to forego make up tonight, and chose a formfitting dress with just the peek of green lace showing at the top. In a short time a knock on the door had you wondering back to the entrance. Your eyes cast over the candles that you had lit throughout your apartment, the kitchen table set for two, a bottle of wine and a glass of scotch waiting. You also had your aroma diffuser going with the scent of cherry blossoms. You smoothed down the front of your dress, taking one last breathe before you opened the door. And that breathe rushed out of you the second your eyes saw him.

It looked like he had run here straight from court. A bag held in one hand and white rose held in his other. His green eyes simmered with a heat as he took you in, the simmer growing when he saw the green lace peeking out the top from your dress. He was man enough to admit that he struggled to pull his eyes away from your cleavage but he managed to if only because your eyes caught his.

“My eyes are up here, Sir,” you teased opening the door wider to allow him in. “Come on in.”

“Thank you Chica,” he grinned, as he passed you he pressed a kiss to your cheek. “You look ravishing tonight.”  You smiled ducking your head a little as pink dusted your cheeks.

“So do you,” you tried for a similar tone in your voice that Rafael had but you didn’t quite succeed. Your voice was breathless, because Rafael did look…delicious. With his suit not quite perfect, the tie loose and buttons undone. His hair ruffled and messy.

You watched as Rafael took in your apartment, you kept it clean and tidy. You had bookshelves along the back wall of your open floor plan, the shelves had fairy lights and fake plants decorating them. More fake plants decorated your coffee table and other little nerdy items were scattered throughout your apartment. You felt comfortable and happy in your apartment and never second guessed any of your choices for decorations. Rafael did a small circle noting a glass of scotch waiting beside a plate on the table, you grinned as you noticed the slight hitch in his eyebrow and the soft look on his face as he took everything in.

“You have a lovely home,” Rafael walked towards you. “I picked these up for you.”

“They’re gorgeous Rafael, thank you,” you said reaching out to take them from him but you didn’t step away from him right away. You stepped closer, looking up at him through your lashes, before looking down at his lips and then back up to his eyes.

“Is there something you want carino?” He asked hands taking hold of your hips and tugging you softly.

“Hm, I thought it was you who wanted something,” you countered. “Last I checked it was you who petulantly begged for kisses.”

“Petulantly begged?” Rafael whispered lowering his head until his lips hovered over yours.

“Mhmm,” you nodded. “You going to deny it?”

“Do I get a kiss if I agree?” he asked.

“Well, I mean you did bring me gorgeous flowers,”  you started, purposefully biting your bottom lip. “And I heard you won your case as well.”

“Oh, does winning get me a kiss then? Even if I deny that I begged?” Rafael grinned.

“We both know that you did beg but I will still give you a kiss for winning,” you nodded. “Plus I haven’t seen you in three weeks.”

“Which is just far too long, I’m sorry-”

“Ah no, there is no need for that Rafael,” you smiled cupping his cheek with your free hand. “I was fully aware that this could happen. You’re here now.”

He opened his mouth, probably to try and apologise again but you were not having it. You decided the best way to get him to stop and to distract him from even thinking about it was to kiss him. You pressed your lips against his, causing him to startle a little at the sudden contact, a huff of air escaping him as his lips curled up into a smile, before he started kissing you back. You pulled away before it could get too heated, as you had cooked a rather nice meal and as much as you wanted to finally get him naked you wanted to have a nice meal and talk with him first.

“You hungry?” you asked pulling away, Rafael followed your lips for a second before he opened his eyes a soft whine leaving him.

“Starving,” his green eyes no longer just simmered with heat, they burned.

“Later,” you promised, a similar heat burning through you, and your eyes telling Rafael that you wanted him just as much as he wanted you. “I made Casareccica Alibrandi, and I got you some scotch. I hope it’s one you like. Also please make yourself at home, you can put your jacket on the coat rack just over there.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Rafael watched as you pulled out a vase to put his flowers in before sitting them on your coffee table, his eyes were glued to you as you walked back past him into the kitchen. It was only when the rest of your sentence entered his brain that he looked over to the a little nook in the wall just after the entrance into the apartment. He quickly took off his suit jacket and tie hanging them up and leaving him in his shirt and suspenders. He undid a few more buttons and rolled up his sleeves.

 “I know, I wanted to though,” you smiled over your shoulder at him as you pulled the pasta dish out of the oven where you had placed it to keep to warm without overcooking anything, feeling your throat constrict a little when you saw him rolling his sleeves, exposing those forearms of his that you had dreamed about. You forced your eyes away and tried to remember the rest what you had wanted to say. “You’ve had a tough three weeks and I wanted tonight to be as relaxing as possible for you.”

“Carino, you are something else,” Rafael whispered as you served up the dish gesturing for him to take a seat. The first thing he did was try the scotch, he wanted to assure you that the scotch was good. And it was, it was really good. “This scotch is really good.”

“I’m glad, I hope the food is good,” you smiled shyly placing a bowl down in-front of him.

“It smells delicious and looks it too,” Rafael caught your hand before you could move to your chair. He brought it up to his mouth to place a kiss on your knuckles. “Thank you Carino, this night is exactly what I need. You are what I need.”

“Rafi,” you whispered squeezing his hand, leaning to place a kiss on his cheek before slowly dragging your hand from his and taking you seat. You stretched your legs out entangling them with his, not wanting to stop touching him.

Rafael smiled at you, taking a bite of the food and could barely stop the groan of appreciation that left his mouth the minute the tastes hit his tongue. It was amazing. Your eyes were stuck on his mouth, as he took another bite, tongue darting out to catch a drop of the sauce. Another hum leaving him. Your body heated as you noticed that his tongue would poke out a little as he took a bite of food.

“Chica, this is amazing,” Rafael focused back on you to see that you hadn’t taken a mouthful yet. “Chica?”

“Hm, what?” you shook your head trying to clear away the images that had taken up residence there. “Oh, um, good, that’s good, I’m glad.” You quickly took a mouthful trying to pretend you hadn’t been staring at him this entire time.

“A bit distracted?” Rafael teased he slipped off one of his shoes and lightly ran his foot up your leg that was entangled with his. You gulped down some wine at his action, surprised at it. “Because I have been distracted by you since you opened your door. Seeing that lacy bra peeking above that gorgeous dress that hugs your curves. Those curves that I have been wanting to kiss and run my tongue all over, tasting you.”

“Rafael,” you gasped, a shiver running through you, your heart picking up at his words.

“My desire for you has grown Carino,” Rafael stood up from his chair, placing one hand on the back of your chair and the other on the table beside your bowl. “Carino, look at me.”

Your eyes trailed up his arm, his throat until you finally looked him in his eyes. The green in them was darker then normal, you were taken back to the day in his office when the two of you made out on his couch like teenagers. You wetted your lips, subconsciously pushing your chest out a little, you felt a little surge of pride and victory when you noticed Rafael’s eyes darting down to stare at your chest before he looked back to your eyes. That small little victory you felt however, withered under the look on Rafael’s face. The hand that had been on the table moved to trail up your stomach and over your chest and up your neck before he gently cupped your face. His touch was the complete opposite of the hungry look on his face, a look that was almost feral. A look that finally made all those descriptions in your fantasy books seen possible. The plan for a nice slow evening had gone out the window and you found that you didn’t quite care as much as you thought you would. You could always talk with him in the morning.

“Ask me,” Rafael demanded as he slowly lowered his face to yours. “And tell me to stop, tell me if you don’t like anything I do.”

“Rafael, please kiss me,” you voice was quiet.

“And?” Rafael insisted, you smiled up at him you hands reaching to grab hold of his suspenders.

“And I promise I will tell you to stop if I need to and I will be clear if I don’t like something,” you responded.

“Good. Girl.” Rafael cooed just before his lips took yours.

[bibibbon]

MHA chapter 419 rant

What the actual hell is this chapter ?!?!?!? What is going on horikoshi?!?!??

So suprise AFO IS BACK👎👎👎 seriously what the hell I knew he was gonna come back but he is so boring and I hate him as a villain like wdym you only pulling up with a plan that failed multiple times cos you have thing for your brother like!?!? The doctor and the hero comission could of been better villains. My point still stands AFO being the main bad guy even though this mf was killed and injured by everyone is lame and stupid 😭. Like can AFO just disappear out of existence already like?!?! Also I really doubt that dfo is true considering this guy just loves to act like a season 1 bakugo and call Izuku useless every breathing moment he gets. Also at this point afo out here using shigaraki like a wet human suit thing and that's it

Shigaraki is dead?!?!!!? Vile. Y'all telling me that shigaraki is basically dead this guy basically killed himself after a little fight (it wasn't little that's a hyperbole it was huge he deserves better than this disservice) sigh so shigaraki died with all his memories and the truth of his own origin which is completely sad and wow the amount of retconning for this is insane. Wdym to tell me that AFO needed someone emotionally weak to take advantage of so he chose kotaro, befriended the guy and manipulated him into having Tenko and then used Tenko as his little thing to make the perfect vessel!?!???!? DAM SHIGARAKI IAM SORRRY HORI DID YOU LIKE THIS

Izuku lost two arms and is getting the worst end of the stick as always. As an izuku Stan this isn't it for me like what are you telling me that HE LOST TWO ARMS AND THEN PEOPLE DO COME BUT I AINT SEEING NONE TRYNA HELP THIS GUY. ALSO IZUKU IS NOW ARMLESS AND QUIRKLESS WHATS GOOD ON HERE??!?????!?!? Also looks like izuku out here being the only one who doesn't actually get a full heart to heart with their villain at least ochako and toga were treated better and got that little sob scene where they called eachothers names out and what not but izuku and shigaraki gotta be sentenced to pure suffering for no reason 🤦‍♀️. Also the whole page is Hella and I mean Hella creepy and off like wth is this it's too gory (I know that's not valid criticism but this is my opinion) Izuku out here being the only one who can't be a proper hero like the guy couldn't even stand up to AFO unlike bk this is just mountains and mountains of disrespect and disservice . SOMEONE CHECK UP ON POOR INKO AND IZUKU

The quirks the backstory the things?!?!. So basically overhaul had the oh quirk or whoever the guy in the picture manga panel thingy which looks like OVERHAUL. This guy had an op quirk like he had the power of destruction and reconstruction but then afo takes that away and then has the doctor somehow somehow genetically modify it ( istg i still dont know how that works or how he could do that) and then TOOK SHIGARAKIS OG QUIRK WHICH (what was his og quirk we arent ever told) and then proceedes to set this child who wanted to be a hero for pure failure. Also what is going on with AFO and kotaros relationship and why does the description of kotaro being mentally/emotionally weak heavily remind me of inko midoriya. Also the RETCON LIKE OH AFO IS LIKE HAVE A KID FOR ME OR SOME BS AND HE HAS A KID AND THEN KOTARO APPARENTLY FULLY LOVES HIS FAMILY HOWEVER IT LOOKS LIKE KOTARO LOVES AFO More THAN HIS FAMILY

Eraserhead making a comeback and finally apologising (or not). I mean at least Eraserhead is back and apologising to his student for failing to be a teacher to him which ok cool cliffhanger I guess. Also where is mic I don't think I can take it if mic is secretly off screened especially cos Eraserhead is crying why is the guy crying like is he crying for izuku which dam as he should your student is dying but he was legit shouting left and right for bakugo 🤷‍♀️. Also Eraserhead has a lot of apologies for izuku considering how he treated the poor dude. ALSO DOES THIS MEAN OBORO IS BACK TO THE PLOT SOMEHOW ( I love oboro) but how does this work how did it happen how did he break free Iam so confused did much due for oboro or something.

Sato, ojirou and sero out here coming in clutch. but none y'all running to see if izuku ain't gonna die from blood loss or something. Cool entry I guess everyone can take a good fight with AFO but Izuku because hori doesn't like izuku and izuku just sucks!!!. I get it 1A is too big so hori out here needing to give everyone their little moments but like?!?! This just makes afo seem so weak it first went from only all might being the one to even fouch and defeat afo and now its everyone thats not the ofa users which great (sarcasm if you couldn't tell). ALSO THIS MOMENT DONT WORK BECAUSE IZUKU LACKS DEVELOPMENT AND SO DOES 1A and their whole dynamic?!?!?!!!!!???!

I Have ALREADY SEEN THE SHIGARAKI MIGHT COMEBEACK COS AFO CAN HEAR HIS ECHO BUT I DONT WANT HIM BACK AND IF HE DOES HE SHOULD DIE WITH IZUKU COS I GENUINELY GIVE UP

In conclusion, I hope both izuku and shigaraki die and izuku to be remembered as the greatest hero and that's it honestly!!

[miloformula123fan]

hi! can i request a combination of 23 and 59 with oscar??

Hi!!! I honestly loved writing this, although I apologise for the small cliffhanger I left it on.

Please keep requesting - y'all have awesome ideas we agree on a lot of stuff :) - my guidelines are here, and if you want some prompts, they are here.

also feel free to come in and start chatting to me in my asks, would love to get to know y'all better

Oscar Piastri x Reader: (CW: f1 crash (non descriptive), angst, fight)

One day you’re gonna need me and i’m not gonna be there to fix it

Keep fighting, i can’t lose you.

---

“Oscar!” Y/N called from the bedroom. “Can you come here a minute?”

“Sure, darling, what’s wrong?” Oscar walked into his bedroom that he shared with his partner, smiling when he saw them on their phone in their bed.

“I saw Alpine’s announcement. Congrats! Can’t believe I’ve signed so many NDAs and you still couldn’t tell me!” Y/N looked up with their excitement evident. Working as an Alpine race engineer meant that they couldn’t wait to eventually be talking to their boyfriend over the radio.

“What? What did Alpine announce?” Oscar looks so confused. Yes he is the reserve driver for Alpine, but he hasn’t extended anything with Alpine, unless it was a sponsor announcement, but he didn’t think he’d announced any of those either.

“Oscar…what… Alpine announced that you’re driving for them to replace Alonso. I’m going to be your race engineer! What…why are you looking at me like that?” Y/N’s smile started to fade, their confusion evident. They could see that Oscar wasn’t comprehending what they were saying.

“Because… I’m not driving for Alpine next year. I’m driving for McLaren.” Oscar looked at his partner in confusion. What was Otmar on? Yes there had been some contract negotiations and honestly Oscar and Mark hadn’t been able to find any fault in the contract. It was just that what McLaren had offered was a lot better. And their data looked better.

“But…both Daniel and Lando have contracts for next year and Alpine just announced the damn thing. What do you mean you’re leaving me for McLaren?” Y/N’s face looked like they were about to cry

“I haven’t signed any contract with Alpine… I- I need to talk to Mark, I need to sort this out.” Oscar pulls his phone out of the charger and sees that he’s already had about 10 missed calls from Mark - considering it’s about 5am where he is, this is a slight surprise. Although maybe not, considering how big of a fuck up this is. Then Y/N’s last words dawned on him.

“I-I’m not leaving you for McLaren. You’ll always be my girlfriend, regardless of what team I’m driving for.” Oscar started panicking as he saw tears starting to fall down Y/N’s face as they furiously tried to rub them away. They then got up from the bed and started repacking their suitcase, not too hard considering they’d only arrived here last night.

“Really? How am I meant to make sure you’re safe when you’re driving for another team? Oscar, listen to me, one day you’re gonna need me and i’m not going to be there to fix it.” Y/N finished zipping up their bag and looked at Oscar. Both of them had tears streaming down their faces that they looked at each other before Y/N kissed Oscar softly on the lips and walked out.

—

Y/N saw the crash from the pitwall, but didn’t fully register what had happened until halfway through her message to Gasly ‘Box, box Pierre, red flag, it’s Oscar… sorry, it’s Oscar off.’

“Is he okay?” She could hear Pierre’s worry through his voice.

“No response yet, the team is working on it and the marshalls are working on getting him out, but his vitals appear okay, likely just unconscious from the crash.”

“Okay, copy, box box.” Similarly she could hear his resignation and determination as he came into the pitlane.

Y/N just sat there, listening to the rain pattering on the roof of the pitwall, feeling the tears fall down her face rapidly and her breaths becoming shallower. She could feel some people giving her a little comfort and rubbing her shoulders, nearly everyone had known about their relationship last year and nearly everyone knew how it had ended mid last year due to the chaos of Oscar’s contract woes.

Pierre came up and comforted her, but she refused to take her headphones off until she heard through the radio that the race had been abandoned to unsafe conditions, as it should’ve been hours ago.

When Y/N heard this she ran from the pit wall towards the medical centre. Everyone got out of her way, the exception being Mark, who had clearly been waiting outside the garage for her appearance, who also sprinted through the paddock with her to the medical centre, where a quick check of IDs had granted them access to Oscar’s room, where he had been left and they had been told to call a doctor or nurse should he wake up. Y/N pulled up the plastic chairs and sat next to Oscar’s bedside, as Mark excused himself to grab them both some coffee. She looked at Oscar and whispered, half choking on her words, voice cracking ‘Keep fighting, please Osc, I can’t lose you.’

[icantlivewithoutdreaming]

Hello there!

I’m here cause I’ve just woken up and I need to talk to y’all about the dream I’ve had about the series finale.

On Tuesday (before ep 14 aired) I dreamed that everyone died on Tantiss and I was a mess (the Kiner’s cryptic tweet messed with my psyche).

Some things are slipping away from me, but I swear it was SO GOOD.

.

The dream starts with CX-2. He is at Tantiss and there is a clone rebellion going on. I don’t know if Rex got there with some of the boys, but the place is a mess.

He realises that there is something he needs to do, so he grabs Scorch and Wolffe and takes them to the top of the mountain.

There, he is having an identity crisis and he is trying to explain to them that they are working with the bad guys. Wolffe and Scorch don’t understand so CX-2 removes his helmet…

It’s Tech.

At that moment, in the middle of a panic attack, Omega and Hunter reach the top and they see him. I don’t know why, but I think that’s the only way they can escape Tantiss.

Omega starts crying and Hunter is frozen.

No one moves.

Wrecker arrives.

Then Echo.

And finally Cross.

No one moves.

When Cross sees him he starts crying, apologising. If he had known that Tech had been on Tantiss all this time, he would have never left him behind.

Everyone is too shocked to do something, but at that moment Hemlock (I don’t know how but he is on an Imperial Cruiser, same as Rampart in season 1) starts bombarding Tantiss.

Hunter reacts first. He can feel it coming. He grabs Omega and Tech and hugs them.

Wrecker moves next. He embraces the three of them.

Echo gets to them as well. Then Cross.

They all hug while Tantiss shakes, explosions all around them…

And I “wake up”.

(I know this may seem like an awful ending… but wait because there is more. I’m still dreaming, though at the moment I thought that I wasn’t.)

I “wake up” and I’m extremely happy because I realise 3 things:

1. We were not Delulu. Tech’s alive and we got him back.

2. The episode was 89 minutes long.

3. That can’t possibly be the ending. That’s a cliffhanger and they are about to announce season 4.

I get up, prepare breakfast and my sister comes home. I start crying and telling her about the finale (she is not a star wars fan, hasn’t even watched the movies, but I’m a mess and I need to tell her how the season ended).

She starts recording me while I sob and talk about the season finale and I think: this is nice cause then I can post my reaction online so that I interact with all of you, cause it’s impossible that I’m the only one having meltdown.

That’s when I wake up, for real.

And I realise that:

It’s Friday.

The episode hasn’t aired.

My sister hasn’t recorded me.

And Tech’s gone.

(I won’t give up on him. There is one more episode to go).

I needed to write this down as soon as I woke up cause I was going to forget everything.

I hope that at least I entertained you.

4 days and 20 hours to go.

LET’S GO.

(That group hug cleansed my soul. I swear. You had to be there 😂😂😂😂).

Love y’all. Interacting with you is the best part of this journey. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[floralseokjin]

⤑ 9 months to fall in love 12.

It seems like everyone around you is either already in love, or in the process of falling, and while normally you couldn’t give a damn, finding out the co-worker you’ve had a teensy crush on is dating someone else at the office seems to sucker punch you right in the gut. It’s stupid, and you’re irritated at yourself, but you can’t seem to shake out of the funk you’ve fallen face first in.

Feeling lonely and heartsore, and mad for no reason, during drinks with your best friend you spot a man at the bar. Tequila confident, you make your way over to the stranger, and successfully one thing leads to another. The next morning you leave before he’s woken up, feeling satisfied in one way, but still as discontented as ever. Telling yourself it was an inebriated mistake, you quickly try to forget about it.

Only, three weeks later that night comes back to haunt you – in a very unescapable way…

pairing; kim seokjin x f reader au/genre; unplanned pregnancy, strangers to lovers, slow burn, romance (dare I say romcom in places), smut, angst, (melo)drama, dual pov words; 7,404

warnings/includes (!) healthy communication, we love to see it, a “first” date, and I’m sorry, but I’m hitting you with another cliffhanger (next chapter I will make it up to you I PROMISE 👀) 

⟶ ao3 link

*inspired by the manhwa ‘Positively Yours.’

↪︎ series index

SEASON TWO ⇤ previous | next ⇥

You regretted them immediately, but you couldn’t exactly backtrack. 

Seokjin only stared at you, his face contorting with confusion. “Have I done something wrong?”

Ugh. Such a male question.

You folded your arms across your chest, feeling defensive. “I don’t know. You tell me.” 

You were acutely aware of how childish this argument was, like some kind of high schooler upset that their boyfriend hadn’t messaged them before going to sleep – in fact, you might have even had this argument with a boyfriend in high school… Seokjin was silent for a few moments, his face now unreadable. “Are you angry because I went on the date?” He was speaking quietly and calmly, but there was a sharpness to his tone. “Because if so, ____, you’re the one who told me to go on it. I didn’t want to.” 

The guilt you felt only made you even more defensive. “I’m not angry about the damn date, Seokjin. I’m angry because—” You stopped yourself with a huff of frustration. You were angry at yourself, so you were taking it out on him. 

“Because I didn’t message you last night?” Seokjin surmised, the edge in his tone gone. “The only reason I didn’t was because I know you’ve been falling asleep before 10 lately. I didn’t want to risk waking you.” 

You let out a shaky breath. His reason was simple, thoughtful, yet you had let yourself overthink things yet again. 

“I didn’t think about how it might be perceived,” he continued apologetically. Then, holding your gaze, he swore: “____, nothing happened last night.” 

You nodded slowly, unfolding your arms. You believed him, not that you’d ever believed something might have happened. You sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted. “I know. I trust you.” 

His face flooded with relief, but then he hesitated. “Then, what’s all this about?” Noticing you struggle, he stepped closer. “Talk to me, please.” 

“I can’t right now, I’m at work.” 

He glanced at his watch. “There’s ten minutes until lunch. Can’t you leave a little earlier? We can find somewhere close by to eat—”

“I can’t just make my own rules up. I’m not my own boss like you.” Your words came out spiteful, and hurt flickered across his face. 

Before you could apologise, he nodded his head. “I didn’t think. I’ll wait for you outside?” 

“Okay,” you murmured, turning around to use your key card on the door. 

It was like your mouth and body were acting without you. You knew that Namjoon wouldn’t mind if you left early for lunch, and you knew that Seokjin was confused and probably a little upset right now because of your puzzling behaviour, yet for some reason you were putting a barrier between you. You needed to talk to him, wanted to, just to get out of this mess as quickly as possible, yet you were being stubborn. 

“____, what’s going on?” Mari asked as you walked back inside. “Is everything all right?”

For a moment, you worried that maybe she’d overheard, so you plastered a smile on your face. “Yes, of course. Everything’s fine. Seokjin’s just too punctual for his own good. He came early for lunch.” 

“Oh no,” she gasped, seemingly buying your lie. “Let him in, poor thing. He can wait in here.” 

“Oh no, that’s okay. He’s fine—” But she was already rushing past you, out the door and calling to Seokjin who was probably by the elevator already. 

She reappeared again with him on her arm, a massive grin on her face and her cheeks rosy. You didn’t particularly blame her, and if you’d been in a better mood, it would have made you laugh. Seokjin looked a little awkward, shooting you an apologetic glance before hoisting a smile on his face and greeting Soobin who had walked over to say hi. Leaving them at the reception desk with Yeeun, you went back to your desk, staring at your computer screen dumbly. You clicked on your email and started browsing it absently, your eyes moving to Namjoon’s office when you heard the door. Obviously his Seokjin radar had gone off. A couple of minutes later, you overheard them both organising a drink together, which for some reason annoyed you further. 

Dead on two o’clock, you stood and collected your purse, hovering behind Seokjin as you attempted to steal him away. If this carried on, one of them would try to invite themselves to lunch with you. Things were already awkward enough. 

“You could have left a little earlier, ____. I wouldn’t have minded,” Namjoon told you cheerfully when he finally noticed you. You refrained from glaring at him as he was oblivious to what he’d just done. 

However, Seokjin was too much of a bigger person to say I told you so, the two of you walking to the elevator in silence. “Where is Yoongi today?” he asked as you hit the ground floor button. “I didn’t see him around.” 

His question caught you off guard, but he sounded nothing but conversational, which meant he was making an effort. Attempting to gloss over the unresolved awkward tension between you both. A couple of months ago you’d have probably been thankful for the opportunity, to have the chance to overlook any kind of conflict, let off the hook if you will, but you knew better than that now. If you wanted to have something real and concrete with Seokjin you needed to be as honest as possible – even when your emotions were all over the place. Even though it was impossibly difficult for you sometimes. 

“He had a meeting with one of his clients,” you answered, feeling a little miserable. Seokjin was willing to forget about all this for your benefit. He’d wanted you to talk to him, practically begged you, and now he’d decided to let it go if it meant making you uncomfortable. 

“Where should we go?” he asked once you were outside. “That place I first met Yuna at?”

It had been drizzling this morning but had brightened up now, the sun hurting your eyes a little. You shielded them with a hand to your brow. “Okay.” 

The short walk was made in silence. Seokjin didn’t press for anymore and you didn’t help, too busy trying to work out what you were going to tell him. Your mind was whirring, even as you sat at a quiet corner of the Italian-style café and Seokjin went to pick out something to eat and drink. When he came back a few minutes later, placing the tray down on the table, he took one look at you and frowned. 

“____, I’m confused,” he said quietly as he sat down, his eyes finding yours, locking your gazes. Maybe you’d been wrong, maybe he hadn’t been trying to drop it. “Can you just please explain why you’re angry at me?”

Your chest grew uncomfortably tight. He truly thought you were mad at him? Mad at him for going on a date you’d forced him into. No wonder he was so confused. “I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at myself.” 

He didn’t respond, silently asking you to continue. You took a deep breath, trying your best to settle your thumping heartbeat. “I’m sorry. I should have never told you to go on that date. It was stupid of me.” Your voice was soft and contrite, honest. Even if it didn’t come naturally, being honest with Seokjin was often surprisingly easy once you started. There wasn’t a judgmental bone in his body. 

“Not only because I didn’t like the way it made me feel,” you admitted, “but because… You didn’t want to go but I forced you anyway.” 

You’d been replaying what he’d said back at Artkive over and over again. I didn’t want to. 

To your surprise, Seokjin’s mouth lifted at one side. “So you were jealous?”

“Seokjin, please,” you pleaded gently. You were trying to apologise to him and here he was making a joke to make you feel better. Unless… You watched his smile falter, realising something. It was a joke in an attempt to ease the situation as a whole, maybe even some sort of self-deprecating joke. Something Seokjin liked to do a lot. He often had a hard time taking compliments, you’d noticed, even when they were more than deserved, but now you were recognising that Seokjin didn’t like any attention on himself whatsoever – however good or bad. However trivial or serious. 

Serious like now… 

He sobered, taking a shaky breath, and you could tell this was a big deal for him. He was about to be honest with you too. 

“You’re right. I didn’t want to go,” he agreed. “I should have told you, disagreed with you. I see that now.” 

“Then why didn’t you?” 

He’d agreed without much reluctance, or maybe you’d just not wanted to see or hear it. You’d gotten the idea into your head, the date a great way to stall the baby news, and that was that. You’d been selfish, not taking Seokjin’s feelings into account in a bid to save yours. It was ironic now, because in the end you’d hurt your own feelings – badly. 

“I don’t know.” He seemed confounded at himself, so you didn’t press him. 

“I’m sorry for acting the way I did today. None of it was your fault,” you said instead. “It’s hard trying to keep a lid on all of these emotions, especially when they don’t make sense. Or when I’m the cause of them.” 

“You’re pregnant,” he said in a way of reasoning. As if you could get away with anything because you were carrying a baby. Murder? You could hear Yuna’s voice ask. 

“I can’t blame it all on pregnancy hormones,” you snorted softly. It was probably a multitude of things. The baby, this thing with him, the extra maturing you were trying to do. Ready for motherhood… Ready for a potential relationship with Seokjin… 

“Everything’s just confusing,” you confessed. “And I know we said this shouldn’t have to be complicated, but sometimes I think it is. Or I make it complicated—I don’t know—” You took a breath, not quite sure where you were going with this, but Seokjin suddenly grabbed your hand, his warm and clammy, interrupting you. 

“Hey, you’re not getting second thoughts about this are you?” He sounded uncharacteristically panicked, his eyes round and pleading. 

“No,” you breathed. “No, of course not.” You slipped your fingers through his, managing a smile. “Seokjin, you’ve been so kind and patient with me. For weeks now. Even when I’ve acted like this. I’ve been selfish. You can call me out, you know?” 

He pulled a face, almost making you laugh. “You don’t need calling out. What are you going on about?” 

You shot him a flat look. “I forced you on that date. Before that, I kicked you out of my house because of the whole Sera thing that I should have told you about beforehand. And you obviously want to tell your family about this pregnancy and I’m holding you back.” 

“O-kay,” he said slowly, processing all your points. “We already worked past the whole situation that Sera caused, so there’s no need to bring that up,” he began, a finality to his voice that you had to admit was sexy. “Yes, you told me to go on that date, but I could have refused. That’s on me and my issues. I’m a grown man.” 

You smiled a little at that, but he wasn’t done. 

“—and yeah, all right. I want to tell my family, but I’m not going to force you when you’re not ready.” 

You kept your smile, liking this Seokjin. “Maybe I need forcing.” 

His eyebrows lifted at that, picking up on your mild double entendre. “Yeah?” 

You nodded. “Maybe I need to be told what to do. Maybe I need to be told when I’m being stupid. That’s usually Yuna’s job, but you can help her. I want you to help her.” 

He still seemed a little reluctant. “You’re carrying our baby, the least I can do is be more tolerant.” 

“Tolerant?” you repeated, laughing. “Are you trying to call me intolerable?” 

He huffed his own, but shook his head, growing serious again. “What I mean is… Ever since I left you at the hospital, I’ve just wanted to make it up to you.” 

“This again?” He couldn’t feel guilty about that for the rest of his life, it wasn’t healthy. Your fingers had unlaced while you were talking, but your hands were still touching. You give his a squeeze. “You don’t need to pay for it the rest of your life. It’s forgotten. We’ve moved past that.” You tilted your head, making a joke. “It’ll be one of those funny stories we tell Glob about when they’re older.” 

It successfully made him snort, but when he stared into your eyes, his gaze softened, the brown of his irises rich and warm, reminding you just how beautiful they were. “I’m just trying to be there for you in whatever way you need it.” 

“And I really appreciate that, I do,” you told him sincerely. “You’ve been nothing but supportive and caring, but…” 

“But you’d also like it if I was a little more forceful,” he finished for you, an attractive smirk on his face. 

“Stop it,” you whined. 

“Stop what?” he asked innocently. 

He wasn’t getting off the hook that easily. 

“I just need you to understand that this is about both of us. Not only my wants and needs, but yours too.”  

This relationship, whatever the word meant in this context, was about both of you. Give and take, compromise. He shouldn’t have to hold back his thoughts and feelings to protect yours. You needed to share things, discuss things, understand one another… 

“Okay,” he agreed with a nod. “You’re right. When you irritate me, I’ll let you know.” 

“Hey!” you cried, then the both of you laughed. 

After that, you remembered you had food in front of you. Your hot drinks had now become lukewarm you’d been talking for so long, but you drunk it anyway, as you tucked into your focaccia sandwich. Either you were really hungry or it was just that good, because you were wolfing it down so fast you were forgetting to chew properly. 

“So, how was it?” you asked curiously after a particularly difficult swallow. “The date I made you go on?” you explained when Seokjin looked lost. 

He grimaced. “Horrendous. When I was talking about myself and my life, all I wanted to do was tell her about you and the baby, but I couldn’t. Obviously. That would have made it a really bad date.” 

You laughed sympathetically, but inside your chest was warm and fuzzy hearing his words. You’d been an idiot to doubt his feelings and reasons. It didn’t matter how you’d found one another, what mattered was that you had. You couldn’t imagine not having him in your life now, but it wasn’t a scary realisation. It was a comforting one. 

“Did you find her hot?” you asked, wiping your hands with a napkin. You were only curious… “Yuna found her on Instagram. She was hot.” 

Seokjin shrugged. “I mean, she was attractive but that means nothing really. Plus,” he added, looking over at you from under his eyelashes. “I know someone hotter.” 

You fought your smile, rolling your eyes playfully instead. You felt the opposite of hot these days, what with all that gas and your ever-changing body… But, you did believe him. 

“Yuna joked that you might end up accidentally impregnating her to.” 

“That should cut a little, but I’d already heard the same from Jungkook,” he admitted with a laugh. Then, with comical sincerity, he said: “You are the only one I want to accidentally impregnate.” 

Of course he got overheard. A woman had been in the process of leaving her table two away from yours, Seokjin’s voice unwittingly carrying over, and she shot him a strange look before grabbing her purse and walking off. You burst out laughing, snapping a hand over your mouth to mute the noise. Seokjin had flamed red, looking mortified and with an ‘awwh’ you reached over the table and cupped his face, kissing him squarely on the mouth. In its own way, it was the most romantic thing you’d ever heard. 

“But I don’t really like the word accident,” you confessed. 

Seokjin held your wrists, keeping your hands on his cheeks. “You’re right,” he murmured, kissing you this time. “Our baby was no accident.” 

Your smile grew impossibly large, and then the words were slipping out of your mouth easily. 

“Let’s tell your parents.” 

Seokjin let go of your wrists, staring at you in mild disbelief. It made you a little sad, but you shook it off. You needed to tell his family. You needed to tell yours too, but that could wait. One at a time. This was important to him. It was important to you too, you could work past your nerves with Seokjin at your side. 

His expression relaxed, the shock wearing off. “You’re telling me I didn’t even need to start getting pushy?” he teased, leaning back to see your face clearly. Then, serious: “You sure?” 

You nodded, sitting back in your seat. “I’m still nervous about it, but I know that’s never going to go away.” In fact, it would only get worse the longer you waited. “I don’t want you to keep this from them any longer. You should be able to share the news. To be able to celebrate it.” 

“We should be able to share the news, and we should be able to celebrate it,” he corrected, taking your hand. “We’re a team.” 

“We are,” you agreed. 

“So when are we going to drop the big news?” 

You took a breath, trying to think, but he was already speaking again. 

“Scrap that. I’m taking charge. This Sunday.” 

“Sunday?” Your eyes grew wide. 

“Yup. My mom invited me over for lunch anyway, what’s one more? Well, two if we count Glob.” 

“Okay,” you agreed, feeling a little overwhelmed but positive none the less. “Will you let her know I’m coming beforehand, or are we just going to drop it on her?” 

Seokjin laughed. “I’ll let her know Sunday morning that I’m bringing someone for her to meet. Any sooner and she’ll combust from excitement.” When you raised a wary eyebrow, he stroked the back of your hand with his thumb soothingly. Hey, it’ll be fine. You trust me, right?” he reminded you. 

“Of course I do.” 

With soft smiles, you both finished eating, chatting about this and that until Seokjin changed the subject. “Last night I realised something.” 

“Realised what?” 

“We’ve never been on a date before. Like an actual date.” 

‘Sure we have,” you insisted. “Laguna.” 

He shook his head adamantly. “Doesn’t count. You only said yes because you had to tell me you were pregnant. Then you fainted.” 

“Okay,” you chuckled. “The double date with Yuna and Jimin.” 

“Again, doesn’t count. Yuna spoke the entire time, I couldn’t get a word in edgeways.”

That was very true. 

“So, what do you say?” he prompted, sounding adorably hopeful. “Will you go to dinner with me tonight?” 

Tonight? That was very short notice – not that you were complaining. You’d seen Seokjin every day this week so far. You could get used to it quite very easily. 

“Where and when?” 

“It’s a surprise and, maybe around 8pm?”  

“How will I know what to wear if it’s a surprise?” you argued. Not that you had much to choose from anymore. Anything stretchy and floaty was your best friend, but you couldn’t exactly wear leggings out to dinner, could you? 

Seokjin hummed in contemplation. “Wear something fancy. I’m spoiling you.” 

“Very helpful,” you scoffed sarcastically. You would have to raid your closet, and even then you probably wouldn’t find anything that fit. Still, you were excited for tonight, desperate to know where he was taking you. 

When it was time to go, you walked back hand in hand, a bag of assorted biscotti in your purse for the rest of the office, and kissed goodbye outside the door. When he pulled away, he sighed longingly at the alleyway, making you shriek with laughter while simultaneously feeling mortified by the memory of this time yesterday. 

.

.

You spent the rest of the day with a massive grin on your face, the complete opposite of how you’d felt only this morning. It was a wonder your cheek muscles hadn’t started to ache. It really was true: healthy communication was the best thing ever. Your good mood didn’t even budge when you were tearing through your closet, searching high and low for something to wear, a few hours later. You decided on the black wrap dress you’d worn to Yuna’s engagement party, solely because it was the only thing you could control enough that it wasn’t exceedingly tight around your middle, tying it as loose as possible. You frowned as you pushed your feet into your favourite pair of black heels, not expecting the squeeze. Were your feet growing as well?! You hadn’t signed up for this. Before long you’d need a brand-new closet altogether. 

Seokjin picked you up at 7.30pm, finally letting you know where he was taking you. The fancy Wagyu beef restaurant he’d told you about weeks ago. He’d managed to get a last-minute reservation and bribe them into opening their outdoor seating area a few weeks before it usually opened for the summer months. A money bribe, although Seokjin insisted the only reason they agreed was because he was a frequent visitor and a valued customer. You didn’t know what was wrong with you, but knowing that he’d basically given the restaurant a backhander just so you could eat dinner privately was such a turn on. It got your blood pumping, put it that way… (and you tucked the piece of information away ready to tell Yuna at the next available opportunity.) Yet, you didn’t ask him how much that privilege had cost, deciding you didn’t want to risk fainting tonight. 

The outside area was stunning, much like the inside of the Michelin star restaurant, but there was something about the stone paving, the few tables that occupied the space canopied by vibrant green trees, golden string lights weaved through the branches and twinkling in the dusky sky, that took your breath away. Thankfully the rain hadn’t appeared again since this morning, although this place was so beautiful you might not have minded if it poured down right now. You were seated at a table for two under a wooden canopy just in case though, the waiter taking your drinks order and leaving you both to browse the menu. You tried to keep your eyes from not bulging as you spotted the prices, but Seokjin noticed and laughed, encouraging you to order whatever you wanted as it was his treat. His ‘treat’ was very generous. He laughed again when the waiter came back and you specified very clearly that you wanted your meat cooked all the way through. 

“I don’t know why you’re laughing,” you told him once you were alone again. “I swear to God if I see blood on your plate, I’m not kissing you tonight.” 

He raised one sexy eyebrow of his. “You were planning on kissing me on the first date?”

And that’s how you started playing a little game, pretending this really was your first date and you had to get to know one another. Seokjin laid on the charm thick, but something told you he wouldn’t be acting like this if he truly didn’t know you. He was too awkward, too shy. Then, you remembered how he’d acted at Laguna, and weren’t so sure again. He was an enigma at times, but that only made you more eager to fully know and understand him. Maybe you were the same for him. 

“So, anything exciting going on in your life at the moment,” he asked, his eyes focused on you, extra shiny with the help of all those string lights, and so believable it felt as though he really was clueless to all that was going on in your life. 

“Well,” you said casually, locking eyes, “I’m currently pregnant.” 

His lips twitched, not expecting you to lead the conversation in that direction, but he reigned in his amusement and continued the game. “Oh. Really?” 

“Yup.” You looked down, feigning regret. “Should I have kept that to myself?”  

“Not at all. In fact, I should probably say that I’m going to be a father in a few months.”

You gasped, unable to keep the laughter from your voice. You were both being ridiculous. “What are the chances!”

“Mmhm. I met someone at a bar, one thing led to another – it was her flirting. Some kind of sorcery.” You laughed some more, having the greatest fun. “I found out she was pregnant a month later.” 

“No way! That’s exactly what happened to me!” 

Seokjin shook his head in mock disbelief. “What was the name of the bar?”

“Hmm, I can’t remember. I think it started with a B…” 

Just as Seokjin was opening his mouth to reply, a grin on his face, two waiters entered through the door with your food. A blessing in disguise because God knows where that conversation would have ended up. You wowed at the presentation of your dish, mouth-watering, expressing your thanks to the staff before they left. Seokjin was watching you with a silent chuckle, obviously still very amused to where your game had led. 

“Behave,” you chided lightly. 

“You started it.” 

With a sigh, you relented. “I guess I did.” 

After that, there wasn’t much time to talk, you were too busy inhaling your plate. You had never had beef quite like this before, it practically melted in your mouth. Once you were (unfortunately) done and the table had been cleared, left alone to decide on dessert, you narrowed your eyes across the table curiously. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“Go ahead,” Seokjin shrugged, wiping the corner of his mouth with a napkin. 

“Give me your honest thoughts on my flirting skill.” 

He guffawed.  “How honest are we talking?”

“Painfully.”

He chuckled again. “Okay.” He paused, thinking. “Your technique? Interesting. Execution? Brave. Effectiveness?” He shot you a smile. “Works every time.” He successfully made you laugh, pleased with himself. “I’m not any better. I can’t flirt to save my life.” 

“I don’t know, it worked on me, didn’t it?” 

“Did it?” He sounded dubious. 

“You got me into bed very easily.” 

He laughed. “You’re twisting things. You got me into bed.” 

“Not true!” you exclaimed. “You suggested the hotel.” 

He paused, as if hesitating over something, then smiled. “Only because I didn’t want to risk getting us arrested if we fucked in the restroom.” 

“Seokjin,” you gaped, not quite believing your ears, and looking around as though there was a chance of him being overheard. Just hearing him say the word fucked sent a zap of desire through your body. He was being unfair. “Anyway, you can’t talk like that considering my very delicate disposition right now.” You were squeezing your thighs together under the table as you spoke. 

One corner of his mouth lifted. “You think you’re the only one struggling?” You watched him finish his drink in one long swig, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “It seems we like torturing ourselves.” 

“In more ways than one,” you agreed, thinking of that stupid blind date you’d sent him on. 

Reeling yourselves in expertly, you decided on a shared coconut pandan creme brûlée for dessert, though not expertly enough because you shuffled your chair over to his side of the table once it arrived, tucking yourself in at his side. 

“This seems rather forward for a first date,” he noted archly. 

“Haven’t you ever shared dessert before?” you asked, slicing your spoon through the creme brûlée, finding the crack of the hard sugar very satisfying. You brought it to his mouth with a smile. 

“Can’t say I have,” he answered before taking the spoonful, already picking up his spoon so he could feed you too. You continued eating like that, smiling and giggling at one another as you did so, Seokjin’s arm over the back of your chair, your bodies close together. 

“Hey, wanna do something tomorrow after work?” he suggested when you were finished. 

“A second date already?” you teased. 

With a smile, he leaned in and captured your bottom lip with both of his. “Sure. What do you want to do?” 

You considered, your thoughts moving to food very quickly. “There’s this pizza place at the mall food court I haven’t had in ages.” 

“You’re thinking about pizza after all that meat you just ate?” He sounded deeply amused. 

“Glob needs nourishment.” You tapped your stomach. “I need to be one step ahead at all times.” 

“Then we’ll go to the mall,” he concluded, his fingertips absentmindedly rubbing the back of your neck. “Maybe we can look at baby stuff while we’re there.” 

“That sounds cute,” you agreed. You hadn’t really thought about that yet, deciding you had plenty of time left before you had to think about getting ready for the birth. 

“We’re going to need so much stuff,” Seokjin chuckled. “A crib, stroller, car seat…changing table…baby clothes, diapers, wipes…”  

As he reeled things off, your stomach tightened. “Sounds stressful.” 

“It sounds exciting,” he encouraged, a big, eager grin on his face that had you smiling wide too. 

You felt lucky in that moment, proud and thankful that Seokjin was the one by your side. That he was the father of your unborn baby. You’d rocked up, tipped his world upside down and somehow, he’d taken it all in his stride. He’d been nothing but supportive and understanding and you wanted to be those things for him too. 

“While we’re at the mall how about we catch a movie?” 

You pulled a face. “Movie theatres smell weird. I think it’s the popcorn.” 

“You are so adorably strange,” he noted, kissing your wrinkled nose. 

“They really do smell weird!” 

“How about we watch something at my place instead then? Unless it smells weird too.” 

“Your television is pretty much the same size as a cinema screen, so sure,” you agreed, leaning into his shoulder. “But I may fall asleep halfway through.” You were feeling pretty sleepy right now if you were being honest, your belly full of food and baby. 

“That’s okay,” he murmured. There was a brief pause. “Maybe you can spend the night?” 

Your head shot up. “Really?” Then you immediately tried to control the surprise you felt. “I mean, if you want me to.” 

“Do you want to?” He was looking at you intently, as if reading your reactions carefully. 

“Um, yeah, okay. Yes.” you answered awkwardly, your mind racing a mile a minute. What did this mean? Did it mean what you thought it meant? Or had tonight frazzled your brain? You’d agreed to take things slow, yes, but that was a couple of weeks ago, and things seemed different after today. You were in a more stable place, on the same page, planning to tell his family soon. Yours too, although he didn’t know you’d decided that yet. 

Realistically, just because you were staying over didn’t mean you were going to sleep together, but something about his suggestion felt exciting, promising. 

“Yeah?” he smiled. 

You smiled too, nodding your head. “Yeah.” Then, as quickly as your excitement arrived, you remembered something, disappointed. “Oh, wait, I have lunch at Yuna’s parents house on Saturday.” 

“That’s fine,” he shrugged. “I’ll drive you there. Saves you getting the train.” 

“You sure?” 

He squeezed your shoulder. “Of course.” 

And that was that, you were spending the night at Seokjin’s apartment tomorrow. 

You were practically skipping your way to work the next morning. The sun was out, it felt like summer was here already, the birds were singing, everyone you past had a smile on their face, which was strange for city people, but you weren’t complaining. You’d listened to music while getting ready this morning, singing along as if you could hold a tune, Seokjin had called to ask if you had your things all ready for tonight. You were practically giddy. You didn’t know whether it was because there might be a chance you’d be having sex tonight, or if it was just because things with Seokjin were going so well you didn’t know what to do with yourself. 

After he’d driven you home last night, he’d walked you to your door and kissed you goodbye. Slowly and deeply. You’d felt it all the way down to your bones, a warm flush spreading over your skin, head to toe. He’d said bye to Glob and then kissed you again, giving you a goodnight, angel before he got back in his car. You’d replayed it over and over again before you’d fallen asleep, even dreaming of him giving you a foot rub. 

After work today you were going to walk to his building and then you were both going to head to your favourite mall. You had a bigger bag with you today, one that fit all your overnight things and you kept glancing at it hooked onto the coat rack near the door as you worked. You hadn’t had a chance to tell Yuna about the recent development, but that was probably a good thing, knowing she’d absolutely lose her shit if she knew you were sleeping over. 

The day dragged by painfully slow, and then half an hour before you were free, your phone started buzzing. When you got it out of your drawer, you saw it was Seokjin. A last-minute deadline had come up and he wouldn’t be able to leave the office early, but you could still walk over and wait for him and he’d try to get you to the mall as soon as possible. He was more than apologetic, but you didn’t mind, excited for a chance to see him in Business Mode. You’d seen his office once when he’d taken you on that after hours tour, but you’d never seen him work inside of it. It was bound to be a feast for your eyes, you were sure.  

You weren’t wrong. 

Somehow, he’d managed to keep the fact he wore glasses sometimes a secret from you. You acted as though it was the biggest betrayal, but he just looked baffled, thinking it was no big deal. He was clueless. The glasses took him from a perfect 10 to an out of this world 12. 

“Why are you staring at me?” he asked at just gone 6pm. You’d been sat at his side for nearly twenty minutes, in your element just watching him work. 

“No reason,” you replied innocently. Then you leaned in slightly. “You just look really sexy while you work, that’s all.” 

The tops of his ears immediately grew red and you suppressed your grin. He was too easy. You let him go back to the pile of documents he was reading through and signing – you didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but looking at him was fun – before whispering in his ear: “It’s the glasses.” 

He shifted in his seat, his chuckle sounding bashful. “They’re for eye strain. The unsexiest reason ever.” 

You nuzzled his jaw with your nose. “I beg to differ.” 

“Quit it!” His laughter was loud now, ticklish as he shrugged away. “This is going to take twice as long if you keep that up.” 

With a defeated whine, you listened, but only because you really wanted that pizza, throwing your head back to stare at the ceiling. Just outside his office you heard muffled voices. As they got closer, you managed to recognise Hoseok’s, which wasn’t surprising seeing as his office was just opposite Seokjin’s. The other voice was female. You didn’t know that one, but Seokjin did, because his head snapped up to stare at the door, just in time to see it thrown open. 

“Nonsense, Hoseok—” 

The older woman who had been speaking cut off abruptly as she noticed you by Seokjin’s side, her eyes narrowing in confusion, her mouth closing. 

“Sorry, Seokjin,” Hoseok said from behind her, his teeth clenching together in apology and panic, and then he slipped out skilfully, leaving you alone and confused. 

Seokjin stood up as if his seat was on fire. “Mom.” 

Oh, shit. 

Although, why you hadn’t realised, you had no idea. Seokjin looked exactly like his mother. The same straight nose, the same full lips, the same almond shaped eyes. The only difference between them both was that she had shoulder length dark grey hair and was a woman. 

You rushed to stand too, your heart thundering in your chest. The door slowly closed on its own, the soft click echoing in your ears. Sealing your fate. 

“Seokjin,” she said slowly, eyes finding you again. “Who’s this? A new assistant?” 

Nope. No assistant would have their chair practically glued to his. Well, unless there was something going on. There was definitely something going on between you, and the evidence was growing in your uterus. On that thought, you tugged at your top. Thankfully it was smocked, so your stomach was well hidden from where the fabric floated over it – not that you were very visibly pregnant to those who had no clue. 

“No, not my assistant,” Seokjin got out, his voice sounding different. “This is…uh…” He glanced at you, and you noticed he looked paler. He was panicked. 

You immediately felt bad for him, realising he didn’t know what to do right now. You forced a smile on your face and nodded encouragingly. You knew what needed to be done. It wasn’t how you planned it but what could you do? Pretend you were nobody and then turn up at his mother’s door Sunday with the pregnancy news? Insane. 

Seokjin relaxed a little, taking a deep breath as he turned back to his mom, who still staring at you both in complete and utter confusion. “This is ____,” he introduced you, wrapping an arm around your middle to bring you close to his side. “We’re having a baby together.” 

His mother’s eyes bulged. She said nothing for what felt like a painfully long time, and when she finally did, it was to ask a very simple question. “…What?” 

That was not how you’d envisioned Seokjin telling her. But then again, you hadn’t exactly rehearsed this, still thinking you had time to sort out your story. We’re having a baby together. So simple, so vague. 

You kept your nervous smile hoisted to your face. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Kim.” 

She didn’t say it back. You tried not to let it get to you as she kept her attention on Seokjin. “Seokjin, is this some kind of prank?” She finished with a laugh, mildly hysterical, as if he’d been successful in tricking her. 

“No. Not a prank.” He kept you tight to him, and you tried to make it reassure you, but you were starting to have a bad feeling about this. “We’re having a baby. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner, it was just we were waiting until everything was safe. Until it was the right time.” 

A protracted silence filled the room, deafening. You started to feel sick. 

“Wednesday,” she finally said, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. “The date with Mrs. Kang’s daughter.” 

Seokjin sighed, his grip of you loosening slightly. You couldn’t dare look at him. “We weren’t ready to tell you then, so going on that date seemed the best idea. Don’t worry, ____ knew about it,” he added. 

But his mom hadn’t been worried about your feelings, she was just very, very confused. 

“When were you going to tell me?” 

“S-Sunday,” he rushed. “We were going to tell you and dad on Sunday.” 

“I need to sit down.” For a moment, it looked as though she might pass out, but she found the chair shakily, her hand gripping the armrest tightly, her knuckles paling. 

“Mom.” Seokjin hurried over, kneeling in front of her. “Are you all right? I know it’s a bit of a shock.” 

“A bit?” she repeated, astonished. “Seokjin, I had no idea you were even seeing anyone! You told me you weren’t. You lied to me.”

Hurt flooded her features and you felt your chest tighten with guilt. You hadn’t wanted Seokjin to lie to his own mother. 

“No, mom, I didn’t lie,” he told her softly. “It’s…” He looked over at you, looking torn, then turned back to her. “It’s difficult to explain.” 

You tried not to let his words sting because you knew deep down that he didn’t find anything remotely difficult or complicated about you and him, especially after your talk yesterday. You understood what he meant. The situation you’d found yourself in wasn’t the norm, but it was everyone else who had to get their heads around it. Not you. Not him. 

“I want to speak to you alone.” 

His mother’s words cut through the air. Seokjin just stared at her, then shook his head, making his way back over to you. He took your hand. “Whatever you need to say you can say it in front of both of us.” 

You appreciated the thought, you really did, but if his mother wanted to talk to him alone then you shouldn’t get in the way of that. On top of that, you weren’t too sure you wanted to know what she had to say anyway… This was pretty much the worst-case scenario. 

“Seokjin, it’s fine,” you said softly, trying to sound normal. “I’ll go.” 

“No.” He held your hand tighter. 

“Talk to your mom. I won’t leave, I’ll just stay with Hoseok,” you reassured. 

It seemed to put him an ease, but he was still reluctant to let you go. “I won’t be long, okay?” 

You nodded, letting go of his hand, and forced yourself to smile at his mother on your way out, as if that would make things better. She wasn’t looking anyway, too busy watching Seokjin, her face tight. 

The few steps to Hoseok’s office felt like a few miles. You almost backed out when you met his door, but you knew that if you left right now it would just hurt Seokjin. No, you weren’t going to run away from your problems. You and Seokjin would handle this together. You were in it together. If his mom wasn’t on board, you would try as hard as possible to change her mind, and if she didn’t, tough shit. You were carrying her grandchild inside of you, whether she liked it or not. 

You knocked on Hoseok’s door, entering hesitantly when he called come in. “Hey, can I stay with you while Jin talks to his mom?” 

“Sure,” he nodded, shooting you a small (pitiful) smile. You stepped in and sat down on the chair opposite his. “Did you um, did you tell her?” he asked awkwardly. 

Hoseok wasn’t as talkative as Jungkook, but you found his presence comforting. You weren’t particularly talkative either. Especially now. So all you did was nod. 

“Do you want something to drink?” 

“Water, maybe.” 

A drink would help your dry throat, and you sipped it once he’d gotten it from the water cooler. Hoseok didn’t press you, just sat back down and started typing something on his computer. To your surprise, you were the one who spoke first. 

“What do you thinks going on in there right now?” 

You couldn’t hear raised voices so that was a positive. 

“There’s no need to be so worried, ____.” You looked up at him doubtfully. “Honestly,” he reassured. 

“You didn’t see her reaction.” 

“She’s had a shock. Anyone would react the same,” he explained reasonably. He was right you guessed, but it didn’t make you feel any better. “Once the news sinks in, she’ll be over the moon.” 

You took another sip of water, your free hand on your stomach, wanting to feel close to your baby. Seokjin had said pretty much the same thing, and Hoseok had known the woman his entire life. That had to count for something.  

You’d just have to ride it out and hope for the best. 

Tough shit. 

Written 2022. Please refrain from posting my work elsewhere. No translations allowed. © floralseokjin 2022

[inevitably-johnlocked]

i have a confession

recently i had some trouble and had to delete an email

problem is, i used the google docs there to write my fics. and i thought i downloaded them all, but only one of my major ones did, and i lost everything else

literally all of it

i am anonymous because i lost my tumblr acc but on ao3 i am veetheree, and i had this longer dilemma regarding my potterlock fic (pretty disillusioned with rowling and all.that, unsure whether to continue) but even so i saw that a lot of people subscribed to it and i wanted to at least see where the story leads, i had over 300k words apart from the 40k i published

and i domt hve it anymore :') i didnt check the process because it seemed okay and i had other uni and work stuff to take care of, and now i check it and :') it's gone :')) im not doing well, and i am going to delete the fic i think

i dont have the energy to maintain it and i dont want it to be left in the dust either - i have lost all hope for it, and this is just a punch in the gut. and i was proud of the plot and how i intertwined the 2 worlds too

this is mostly just a rant because i dont really have anybody else who can relate to the pain of fic writing and the challenges that come with it

also, as to why i had to delete the email - it's complicated, hacking situation and such, but it happened over 2 months ago so im not able to retrieve it and neither do i really feel like looking into it, im done with that fic for good 😭

that's all, thank you for being a safe space for me to go to, and i apologise to anyone who was waiting for that fic to be updated :(

Hey Lovely *HUGS*

OH GOODNESS, I'm SO sorry you had a garbage time with your email, and even more so, accidentally deleted fics from your Google Drive without saving all of them. I'm TERRIFIED of losing my own fics from my G-Drive all the time (I do actually write and have about 15 "snippets" of fics on there) and back them up religiously.

That said, I can understand how life can overtake literally everything and just make being online Too Much™ – happens to me all the time 💜🖤. And I know how disheartening it can be to just... not have the motivation anymore to continue on with something, heaven knows I've done that plenty in my 40 years, LOL. And Lovely, we have to remember to do what's best for us in the long run.

When I was a teen, I wrote a fairly popular Sonic fanfic series that I never completed, literally left it on a cliffhanger. This was back before even FFNet, and fics were distributed in the Sonic fandom on our Geocities pages via Webring, LOL. After life took over, it still remains unfinished over 20 years later. I recently found the original word docs of all 9 of the stories (with the 10th one half-finished) and while I cringe at my bad writing from back then, I still love immersing myself in that world. One of these days, maybe I'll finish it, because I do think it was a great concept and intriguing storyline that dealt a lot with humanity and sentience, just obviously written by a teenager, hahaha.

The point of that anecdote? We can still love the things we wrote, and still want to engulf ourselves in that world from time to time and not feel bad about it. And if you decide to come back to it a decade from now, that's okay too. You're only human.

And never EVER hesitate to come here for a friendly eyeball to vent to. I try my best to make y'all feel not so alone. Glad to see you are okay, Vee, truly. That's what's most important.

*SNUGGLE BUGGLE HUGGLE* I hope you have a beautiful, prosperous day. And I'm sure your fic-fans understand <3

[sofasoap]

Interlude : Fracturing heart 

Pairing : Din Djarin x f!reader.  featuring Grogu.

Summary: sequel  to Heartbreak,  Wrenching heart and  Mending Heart .

Reader’s past is catching up to her.  A short interlude. 

Slightly AU-ish, Din didn’t get N1 after Razor Crest got blown up.he got something similar.

Warning : Mature theme. strong languages. 

English isn’t my first language, so I apologise for any mistakes. 

A/N:For my sweet @groguspicklejar and @deakyjoe. sorry.I seriously did not expect this to turn into a multi-part story. Originally it was going to be one-shot.. But every time I get to the end of a chapter my brain goes “ BAH, let’s go for angst end and cliffhanger, so everyone can suffer! ( including myself )”

MASTERLIST for prequel and sequel to the series.

Warm wind, and sea of grass.

You close your eyes and enjoy the wind blowing across your face.  You can hear the sound of laughter not far away from you.

Opening your eyes again, you see Grogu and two children with curly brown hair running around amongst the flower field. 

“Cyar’ika.” A tenor voice whispered behind you as he pulled you into an embrace. Soft kisses peppering your face. His hand glided down towards your swollen stomach.

“I cannot wait to meet our ik’aad.”

You lean back into his chest.

You feel happiness. Love.

You want to turn around and see him. To see his face. The face of your beloved.

“Ret'urcye mhi”

Your eyes open.

Kriff, you've been having this exact same dream again and again for days, since your reunion with Din. Get over it! You slap yourself on the face. This man really will be the end of you. Is the kriffing Force trying to intervene again and tell you something?

Stop fantasising about him, Better get up and get on with your day. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Dragging yourself out from your cot and doing all your morning routines, you see Peli is already up and about, barking orders at her droids.

“OI! Don’t touch that screw…. Wait, I told you to move that over there yesterday! Oh hey, you are up.” Peli greets as she spots you.

“Sorry I slept in a bit.” putting down your caf on the crate beside the speeder, you start taking the panels apart.

“Bah, you need your rest. Besides, you've been working like mad lately for weeks,a bit of sleep-in doesn’t kill.”  Peli paused a bit, putting down her holopad. “ You know I can cope with the workload here by myself right?” Hinting at the excuse you have given to Din not to follow him straight away.

Putting your tools down, you pick up the cup of caf again. “ Peli, THANK YOU for your concern, everyone is trying to push us back together, even the force! But I am not ready yet.” Fiddling around with the cup, sighing. “I may have accepted part of his apology, but I just need time to get my thoughts together. He needs it too.”

Truth to be told, you want to follow him. The tuck between logic and heart, and logic is winning at the moment.  Downing the rest of the caf you got back to work.

Rest of the day went quite quickly, you and Peli plus the droid works well as a team, you like working here ( even the sand getting into little cracks of everything you own really annoys you ) You feel like the time back in Coruscant, happy again, doing what you are good at, your dream job.

Peli is a good boss, she is almost like an aunty to you. A loud mouth blunt aunty. But she is caring in her own way.

You heard a little coo sound coming from beside you, looking down you were surprised to see Grogu there. You swear this little green pea must have learnt some stealth ability from Master Luke. 

“ OH! Hello little Pea, I didn’t expect to see you again so soon!” You pick him up and give him a kiss on the wrinkly forehead. While scratching his ear, you see Din walking up to you from the corner of your eyes. 

Tilting your head, you are confused why he is here already. It's only been over a month since you two have the talk.  You did tell him specifically not to come back again for a few more months.

Stopping right in front of you, he opened his palm.

A bounty puck and a tracking fob? is that his latest gift for you?

You look back up at him again, with total confusion. 

The tracking fob started beeping like mad, he activated the puck, an image of your younger self, without scar, appeared.

Remembering what Din usually says to his bounty, 

“ I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold.”

Your blood just ran cold. 

Din you stupid ass.

Sorry this is only a short interlude. I feel this is a good place to break the story up and leading to the next bit.

Taglist

@frogtits1, @READINGFAN, @memester-png @jake-g-lockley @novaethecosplayer @foxgirl95 @gloryekaterina  

Thank you so much for reading, any likes, comments and reblogs are always appreciated! 😀

[therealvinelle]

Anon sex math here again. I’m not a genius, but my calculations don’t match yours. It took me a lot of time to do those calculations, but here they are.

First, let’s remember that Bella discovers her pregnancy on their 17th day on the island, which is pointed out in the book.

1. The first time was obviously on their first night on the island. Although we can’t say whether they did it only once or more that time, because SM mentioned somewhere (and Twilight Lexicon confirmed) that they had their first time in the water, but then there’s the fact that Edward bit pillows, which definitely happened on the bed, and he couldn’t bite it just without a reason, so… they must be doing something on the bed too. But without any other evidence, let’s stick with it being only once that night).

After that Bella wakes up bruised, and Edward promises not to touch her again until…

2. The second time happens after a week on being on the island, so presumably on the 8th day. Bella tries that lingerie on, has a dream, cries, begs Edward and there you go.

3. The next day (9th day on the island) Bella wakes up happy and unharmed, and they discuss that practice makes perfect. The cleaning crew comes and goes, and after that Edward drags Bella to the bedroom and there’s a cliffhanger (the end of the chapter Distractions). Although we never get the aftermath of it like we did in the previous times, but presumably it was their third time which they completed successfully.

The next chapter starts with Bella mentioning that they are on the island for 2 weeks already (which turns out wrong since it’s 17 days), and that they are very happy (or something like that), which presumably means that she finally got what she wanted and continued to get it during these days.

So, without counting the 17th day because it’s the day she discovers she’s pregnant, between the 9th and the 17th day they have 7 days that are not mentioned, but still can be taken into account. So we get at least 7 more times there (maybe more, but let’s presume they only did it once in a day).

4. So, adding this 7 times to the previous 3 (3+7=10), we get at least 10 times.

I agree with you that only 2 times were mentioned as a mission complete, but still we can do the assumption with the 3rd time, and those 7 days that were left to our imagination just couldn’t have been spent effortlessly.

So, in conclusion: 10 times (minimum).

I apologise if it’s too long; but math takes time. Thanks for your tolerance.

A legendary anon that I allowed to drown in my inbox. My humblest apologies.

Feast your eyes, ladies, gentlemen, and EdBella shippers: someone did the sex math.

I stand humbly (and horrifiedly) corrected. Jesus christ, Bella.

[torreshalstead]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea - Chapter 18

Summary - Hailey’s US visa was due to expire, which normally wouldn’t be an issue as the CPD would get it renewed but due to a backlog of paperwork, this wasn’t possible. This meant Hailey was faced with the real possibility of having to leave the country, her job and everything she held dear. That was until Jay offered up a solution which would allow her to stay in Chicago, in Intelligence, with him - they could get married. Getting married was a good idea, right?

Chapters - 18/21

Chapter Title - The Divorce

Notes - I’m sorry for last weeks cliffhanger and I guess I’m sorry about this weeks chapter too… but I promise next week will be good! See the AO3 notes at the end for a teaser ❤️ AO3 Link

‘Jay Halstead,’ Hailey said breathlessly to the first person in scrubs she came across. She didn’t know the nurse who was glancing at her with a puzzled expression but when she saw the distress on Hailey’s face she offered her a warm smile.

‘Let’s see if we can find him, hey,’ she said kindly, leading Hailey over to the desk in the middle of the Emergency Department. ‘Who did you say you were looking for?’

‘Jay Halstead,’ Hailey said, only a fraction more in control of her breathing now than she had been a moment ago. Her heart was still racing and she could feel beads of sweat running down her back underneath her shirt.

‘And your relation to the patient?’ The nurse behind the desk asked as she typed away, glancing up at Hailey in between keystrokes.

‘He’s my…’ calling Jay her partner didn’t seem right anymore, not in a situation like this anyway. ‘He’s my husband,’ Hailey said clearly, ignoring the tingle that shot through her at the word.

‘Okay, Mrs Halstead. Mr Halstead is currently under observation for a suspected concussion but you are welcome to go up and see him,’ the nurse said. Her tone was so calm it was like a breath of fresh air.

Hailey took her first proper breath since she had had a call from Adam to say that Jay had been taken to hospital. She should have asked him more questions, learnt the extent of his injuries before she came barging into Med, but with Jay’s prior history of being a bullet magnet, she didn’t waste any time.

She had jumped in her car, apologising profusely to the cadet she had been meeting for a coffee who wanted to learn more about the Intelligence unit - Platt had set it up. Hailey made a mental note to apologise to the desk Sergeant as well. She was certain she had broken a dozen traffic laws but hearing that Jay was in the hospital and she hadn’t been there to have his six, it was like ice water in her veins.

All she could think about was their conversation that morning, and everything that still remained unsaid between them. And how if something had happened to him, it would stay unsaid.

Jay had disappeared after shift, Hailey didn’t know where and she no longer felt like she had a right to ask. Yes, they were still married but that was on crumbling foundations right now. Hailey returned home alone to an empty apartment, glancing around and taking in all the elements of the place that had made it theirs. Her chest tightening unpleasantly as she looked at the photographs, the ones they had staged for her visa application but where her smile was real. His and hers mugs were sitting on the draining board, they both drank so much coffee they never made it back into the cupboard - even Jay’s neatness let that slide.

Without her realising it, their lives had become intertwined and she didn’t know what she would do when they called it quits. That’s what she needed Jay home to discuss. What happens next.

Her conversation with Will floated through her mind.

‘Talk to him’

And she wanted to. God, she wanted nothing more to talk to Jay and tell him how she felt, how he made her feel. But it wasn’t that easy, no matter Makayla had said.

She didn’t know how long she sat in the apartment contemplating her future without Jay. Though that wasn’t the truth, even if, when, their marriage ended, she wouldn’t lose him. Sure, he wouldn’t be there to crawl into bed with her. Wouldn’t be there in the middle of the night as a physical reminder that she wasn’t alone. But she’d still be his partner. He’d still be her best friend.

That would be enough.

It had to be enough.

She barely registered when a key turned in the lock and Jay entered the apartment.

‘Hails,’ Jay said and when Hailey turned to look at him she could tell it wasn’t the first time he had called her name but she had been so lost inside her own head that she hadn’t heard him.

‘Hey,’ she said. It was awkward. They hadn’t even had the conversation yet but it was already awkward.

‘We should talk,’ Jay said and Hailey felt a lump grow in her throat.

‘Yep,’ she said, swallowing it down with a small nod. It was on the tip of her tongue. I love you. It was only three little words, surely she could say three little words. They could change her life for the better.

‘I’ve done the research,’ Jay said, taking a seat on the couch. Hailey noticed he sat further away from her than he normally did. She frowned a little but Jay didn’t seem to notice as he carried on. ‘An annulment is unlikely given our prior history. No judge is going to believe it was a spur of the moment marriage when we’ve been partners for the last three years. So divorce is our only option.’

It was like he was reciting out of a textbook for a test, his tone was flat and empty and although he was sitting just inches away from her, it felt like he was speaking down the phone from miles away. It wasn’t like Jay. Not like her Jay.

‘Oh,’ she said blankly. He wanted a divorce.

She had been mistaken.

He didn’t want her.

‘A divorce,’ she said, blinking harshly to prevent any tears from forming and giving her away. Ignoring the fact it felt like her chest had been wrenched open, her heart open to the harsh elements. ‘Then…ummm… we should probably get the paperwork for that sorted.’

‘I called by my lawyer's office on the way home, he said we should fill in these and then he can start the process,’ Jay pulled a stack of papers out from where Hailey didn’t know. She hadn’t noticed him bringing anything in with him, she had been too preoccupied by the possibility of telling him how she felt. Like an idiot. An idiot in love with her best friend. Her best friend who clearly didn’t love her back.

‘Right,’ she nodded. He had a lawyer. He wanted a divorce, and he had a lawyer. This really was it.

‘I mean we don’t need to fill them out now,’ Jay said but Hailey shook her head. If it’s what he wanted, she loved him too much to not let him go.

‘No, we can do it now,’ she said with a forced smile. ‘No reason to put it off is there?’ She asked, it was a rhetorical question but one she desperately wanted an answer for. But when Jay responded, it was not what she had hoped to hear.

‘No, I guess not,’ he said quietly. Laying out the paperwork on the coffee table in front of her, he handed her the pen.

She didn’t ask him to get into bed with her that night and he didn’t offer. They both walked to their own rooms, leaving the signed paperwork sat on the table. He was called into work early the next day and she had a meeting with a cadet that Trudy had set up. Hailey didn’t notice if the paperwork was still on the table when she headed out the door, her head was all over the place which hadn’t been helped by the inability to sleep the night before.

Her head had been swimming with images of Jay and her and the life they could have had together but all the images were blurry, as if the photographs had gotten wet or fire damaged. For every happy moment she experienced with her eyes closed, one where Jay handed her divorce papers or told her he’d never loved her echoed back to her.

So many people experienced unrequited love, it was the subject of numerous books and movies and nobody ever died of heartbreak. But how many of those people, fictional or not, had to divorce from the person they were in love with? How many had to sleep alone in a bed they had shared with them the previous night, when it felt like everything was falling into place? How many of those people could survive that?

She followed the nurse through the corridors of the hospital, the events of the night before still replaying through her mind like a bad tv show. Even though the nurse had said he was okay, just being monitored, her heart was still heavy and her palms were still sweaty. She wouldn’t be okay until she saw him with her own two eyes, and then probably until she smacked him for scaring her.

The nurse gestured to a closed door up ahead, ‘your husband is in there,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’ll leave you to it,’ she winked and then left Hailey alone.

Her hand was shaking as she opened the door and was greeted with one of her least favourite sights - Jay in a hospital bed. Throughout their partnership they had already been through this too many times. But thankfully this time he was sitting up in bed and appeared to be fine, at least from the outside.

Hailey almost choked back a sob, she hadn’t realised just how worried she had been about him until she had seen him just then. Knowing it was probably inappropriate, probably crossed some kind of line that she no longer cared about, she crossed the room in just three steps and threw herself into his arms, burrowing her face into his neck and letting the tears spill. She might be holding him too tightly, might be causing him pain but she didn’t care, she just needed to feel him under her hands to know it was real and he was okay.

‘Hey Hails,’ Jay said concerned, wrapping an arm tightly round her back and smoothing her hair out of his face with the other, ‘I’m okay. I’m okay.’

Logically she knew that if that wasn’t the truth there would be a doctor here or a nurse, but logic was not the thing at the forefront of her mind. Her concern for him was overpowering any other thought.

Jay continued to murmur words of affirmation into her ear, that he was sorry, that he was fine, there were no bullets involved as Hailey continued to hold him tightly. She felt him press a kiss to her hair, like he had done when they had fallen asleep together.

Gathering herself she pulled back, standing up right and quickly wiping away any rogue tears that were marking her cheeks.

‘Have they done a CT?’ She asked, remembering that the nurse had said he was under concussion watch.

‘No but I’m fine, I promise,’ Jay said brushing off her question.

‘Unfortunately you are not the Halstead with a medical degree,’ Hailey said with a forced smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She didn’t feel in the mood to joke right now. ‘I’m going to speak to your doctor,’ she said and not giving him a chance to respond or argue with her, she exited the room in search of a doctor.

——————————————————————————

By the time Hailey returns to the room, unsurprisingly Jay had gotten back into his street clothes and seemed to be making a bid for freedom.

‘The doc says you don’t need a scan yet because you don’t have any of the necessary symptoms but if your head starts to hurt or anything else changes, we bring straight back to the ED and they’ll get you one,’ Hailey said, frowning slightly. She had had to argue with the doctor who had insisted that Jay would be fine and would remain under observation for the next 24 hours, he clearly had never met the stubborn Halstead before. There wasn’t a chance Jay was staying in this hospital for a minute longer than he needed to, doctors orders or not.

‘Great, so we can go home?’ He asked with a grin, but his use of the word home pricked at Hailey’s skin. How long would it be their home with divorce hanging over their heads.

‘We can,’ she said with a little smile. ‘I saw Will too and he’s going to give you a call later.’

‘To check up on me?’ Jay scoffed lightheartedly.

‘Because you always follow the doctor's orders?’ Hailey sassed back.

‘Touché,’ Jay chuckled lightly.

‘You going to make it to the elevator okay?’ Hailey asked, knowing there was no way Jay was going to say he needed help even if he had a limb hanging off.

‘I’ll be alright,’ Jay winked at her before heading to the door. ‘After you,’ he said with a smile, letting Hailey exit the room with him in her wake.

——————————————————————————

The car ride home was quiet and Jay couldn’t tell if Hailey was mad at him for getting injured, happy that he hadn’t been shot or if it was just the looming divorce affecting her emotions. Anyway, he was glad when they finally parked up and headed up to the apartment.

The divorce papers were still sitting on the coffee table, unmoved and untouched from where they had left them last night. He had thought Hailey would be happy when he returned with them, hadn’t she been the one to say there was no reason for them to be married anymore. He had thought letting her go was what was best. But as he remembered the way she had flung herself onto him at the hospital and he had felt her tears on his neck, he wondered if he had gotten the wrong end of the stick. Could he really have misread the situation that badly?

‘I’ll go pick us up some lunch,’ Hailey announced, not a moment after they had entered the living room. ‘I won’t be long,’ she said and headed back out the door before he had a chance to say anything.

Jay slumped down on the couch, thankful that the headache the doctors had mentioned may appear was still being kept at bay. His eyes kept being drawn to the stack of papers. They were papers that were going to change the course of his life and although he knew he didn’t want that course amendment, was perfectly fine, happy even with Hailey remaining his wife, he didn’t want her to be lumbered with a husband she had never wanted in the first place.

But then the memory of them in bed together floated to the forefront of his mind. She had kissed him hadn’t she? Sure, she had wanted him to support her, hold her close because of a bad case, those things could be attributed to friendship, a close friendship, but friendship nonetheless. But you don’t kiss your friends.

Before he could have another thought and risk actually succumbing to the concussion with the melay of thoughts floating round his head, his phone rang.

‘Hey Will,’ he said after swiping to answer the call.

‘Hey, how you feeling?’ Will asked, his concern evident even with the distortion down the phone.

‘I’m fine, no headache, no blurred vision, no residual pain at all,’ Jay reeled off, closing his eyes at the expected lecture that would undoubtedly follow.

‘That’s good,’ Will said and Jay was perplexed.

‘What, no you need to look after yourself lecture?’ Jay asked curiously.

‘I assumed Hailey would already have given you that,’ Will responded, his tone thick with sarcasm.

‘What? No, she drove me home and we didn’t talk, think she’s probably mad at me for getting hurt again,’ Jay sighed.

‘Well you do get hurt a lot Jay, can you blame her?’

‘Guess not,’ Jay ran a hand over his head, maybe he did give Hailey too much stress with his antics.

‘You should have heard her go off at the doctor though,’ Will chuckled.

‘Really?’ Jay sat up a little straighter, eyes wide open. That didn’t sound like something Hailey would do, out of the pair of them she was far more likely to stay calm and collected in a high pressure situation. She’d stepped in front of him on multiple occasions to prevent an altercation when he got too heated.

‘Yeah something along the lines of you don’t know my husband, that level of care won’t suffice. Seriously bro, she went full protective wife mode,’ Will said proudly. Jay hesitated, she had called him her husband, voluntarily? The day after they had agreed to divorce?

‘Wow…’ Jay tailed off.

‘I mean are you surprised?’

‘A little yeah, more that she called me her husband than anything else,’ Jay said a little bashfully.

‘Well you are her husband, idiot.’

‘Only until I file the papers,’ Jay said deflatedly.

‘What papers?’

‘For the divorce.’

‘Did she not talk to you about that?’ Will asked quickly and Jay could hear something else in his voice, concern perhaps? He couldn’t place it.

‘No, I came home with the papers last night and we signed them,’ Jay said.

‘Oh brother, you really are an idiot sometimes,’ Will huffed. ‘I’m going to say this once. You have had your fair share of accidents at work and as such I have seen Hailey more times than I would like speaking to your doctors. And not once, in three years, have I ever seen her more protective, more concerned or more on your side than I saw her today.’

Jay went to interrupt but Will continued on in earnest. ‘And today was probably your least serious ailment. But seriously. It was different today, and I don’t know if that’s ring on your finger, the fact that you two slept together-’

‘We didn’t-‘ Jay interjected but it didn’t stop Will’s verbal barrage. ‘Or the fact you’re both clearly in love with each other or what. But you cannot divorce her Jay.’

‘But it’s what she wants,’ Jay said flatly, ignoring the pain in his chest at Will’s words.

‘And you know that how?’ Will said angrily.

‘I just do,’ Jay said.

‘I think you need to consider that you might not be the only one with hidden feelings in this relationship, Jay. And consider it quickly. She won’t hang around forever.’ And with that Will hung up the call and Jay was left staring at a pile of papers that he suddenly had the most burning desire to set a light and pretend never existed.

[thelordofgifs]

hi! while I hate to enable procrastination, I am... kinda doing the same thing and would love to read a dissection of the stabbing scene 👀

also for @that-angry-noldo, @aurorafaann and an anon!! Ty all for indulging me hehe <3 (and sending procrastination solidarity!)

Ok SO. Preface that I figured out the stabbing would occur only after writing part 12 - hence why part 13 foreshadows it very heavily and parts 11-12 more lightly. This is also why I feverishly wrote and published parts 13 and 14 very close together; I was gripped. consumed. I had a VISION. For this reason, the stabbing scene is not actually my best work ever. But! I did put a good amount of thought into it and, a week+ later, I think it holds up.

(This is also a good point to say that I genuinely did not intend to write a really mean cliffhanger and then not update the fic for ages. And I am sorry about that. Frankly, the stabbing felt like an excellent twist and I was worried about how to move the fic on from there without somehow destroying the emotional arc of the last few parts, but I've managed to work it out in the past couple of days which is cause for celebration!)

Anyway, we start out the stabbing scene with Maglor, who has not been having a very fun time lately, just glad to see his big brother again - uncomplicated gladness, for an instant at the end of part 13, but now he slips into his normal mode of feeling Guilty and Inadequate and starts to apologise to Maedhros for losing the Silmaril. But Maedhros is deep in the whole delusional episode situation and reacts oddly to Maglor's apology - which Maglor notices pretty much immediately:

Maglor has made Maedhros his chief study for many years.

He looks at him, now, and understands.

Subtext: Curufin is an Idiot who does not notice thingss but Maglor is a very good brother and we love him <3

Then there is the quiet refrain of Maglor's Rules For Dealing With Maedhros In A State: he is very careful with him, trying not to startle him or contradict him, making sure not to touch him. He is doing everything right! It's just that Maedhros has been spiralling so badly that that isn't enough.

Sidenote, but: I love writing Maedhros and Maglor interactions. I am in the silm fandom to write Maedhros and Maglor interactions. They are my bread and butter. This is the first time the two of them have met since Part 3, the first time they've had a proper conversation since Part 1 (!!), and so in addition to having obvious plot significance I really wanted this scene to depict some of the essential elements of their dynamic as I see it. So: Maglor's guilt, a dollop of mutual caretaking, all that endless complicated love, and! a thing I like to do! Mirrored dialogue!!

OKAY now I get to talk about the dialogue in this scene, which is my favourite part of it.

The boys' last conversation in the silm is one of my favourite pieces of dialogue, like, ever. It has so much tragic weight behind it; and the way their lines build off each other, reflect each other, is just perfection. Maedhros: "Who shall release us?" Maglor: "If none can release us..." To me this sets them up as foils for each other SO perfectly. When I write them I try to incorporate a little of this dynamic - they are both good with words, they like to debate with each other, and they often good-naturedly turn the other's words back on them.

I couldn't do this overtly in the stabbing scene because, frankly, I was in a possessed haze and wasn't thinking that deeply about it. But it did come through a little: "No doubt it amuses you," Maedhros says, and Maglor responds with, "Nothing that hurt you could ever amuse me." (Also, more subtly: "If none of it was real at all--" -> "It was real, Nelyo, I promise.")

More intentionally, Maedhros and Maglor are using very different registers of speech in this scene. Generally in tfs I don't make too much effort to make dialogue sound Tolkien-esque, as I do in my other fic; part of the tfs style is rooted in informality, so that Fingon can make a veiled sex joke to Curufin, and Mablung can casually say "Sure is" in response to a question. Maglor is adhering to this "standard style", so to speak: he uses contractions liberally, splices his commas, and so on. Maedhros, on the other hand, is speaking very formally: no contractions, a slightly more archaic way of constructing sentences: "If he lives" vs the more modern "if he's alive". This is deliberate! They're speaking Quenya in this scene, the language of their childhood, but while Maglor is using casual, familiar tones, Maedhros has reverted to very formal, classical Quenya - the sort that's one step removed from being a language solely of lore. This is what Maedhros spoke in Angband (Sauron is a language enthusiast, after all!) - a conscious effort to demarcate himself the High King of the Noldor, and the son of the world's best linguist. But because he's in such a bad place he is also swinging between registers, dropping in contractions on occasion, stumbling over and repeating his words as he grows more overcome.

I do humbly think Maedhros went OFF with dialogue here actually. "You have overstretched your hand, Sauron. He cannot be both dead and alive. You will have to pick one." and “Well, then, which is it? If he is dead then you are only a wraith wearing his shape. If he lives – and – and none of it was real at all—” and "I do not, I do not want this anymore. It was – it was not so terrible, when I could still pretend – but now – you are only taunting me now, doing this. Let it end." HE'S SO UPSET

Another thing that's impossible to get through in English is the use of formal vs informal second person: unfortunately in modern English, "thou/thee" sounds hopelessly archaic, so I couldn't have Maglor use it without breaking the casual and familiar vibe I was going for with his dialogue. But, in my head, he is thou-ing and thee-ing the whole time, whereas Maedhros is using the crushingly formal "you" instead. A little of this came across, hopefully, through Maglor's repeated use of Maedhros' childhood nickname: he calls him Nelyo in pretty much every sentence he speaks, whereas Maedhros, importantly, does not address Maglor by name even once.

Okay I just spent five paragraphs talking solely about dialogue WHY are you people indulging me like this. Moving on. In terms of actual plot... well, I think how well the scene works depends on how overt you found the foreshadowing in earlier parts. Did anyone predict that Maedhros would attack Maglor? If so, I imagine a lot of the mounting tension in the scene is kind of pointless. If not... the fact that Something Is Wrong is hopefully obvious from the start; the reader knows, unlike Maglor, that Maedhros has been having a terrible time of it. By the time Maglor has failed a couple of times to make any headway in convincing Maedhros, I was intending you to grow steadily more stressed. And

(It's worth noting that, with the exception of the twins, Maglor and Curufin are the two sons of Fëanor who most resemble each other: they have the same colouring, and they're both slighter than their brothers, with the same long skilful fingers.)

(It is not implausible that a shape-shifter, tired of impersonating Curufin, might switch to Maglor's form without too much difficulty.)

This small break from the close, limited Maglor POV that most of the scene is in, to give a quick glimpse of what's going on in Maedhros' head, was intended to Freak The Reader Out. Maedhros has literally just planned to kill the thing impersonating Curufin in Part 13 - if he is now starting to suspect that it's here with him, that killing it is the key to breaking the illusion, shit is getting serious.

Maglor gets out of bed. MAGLOR WHY ARE YOU GETTING OUT OF BED. He is almost afraid of Maedhros. MAGLOR BE MORE AFRAID OF MAEDHROS.

Maedhros says, "It was – it was not so terrible, when I could still pretend – but now – you are only taunting me now, doing this. Let it end." He has spent some time debating whether or not he prefers the illusion to the reality of his captivity - and he wasn't sure - but now that Sauron is mocking him with the image of his dead brother, he has decided enough is enough.

Maglor's bad leg gives out. Before he can fall Maedhros catches him, putting his right arm around Maglor's waist.

This is partially cute. Maedhros still has his big brother instincts, even like this! He isn't going to let Maglor fall!

But alarm bells were intended to be Extremely Ringing here. Maedhros puts his right arm around Maglor. His left hand is still free. His left hand is still free–

And Maglor, who is still just absolutely not realising how much danger he is in, responds to this extremely worrying statement by saying, "Thank you, Nelyo," - was he not LISTENING?? Maglor!!!!

Then, of course, Maedhros stabs Maglor, Maglor's instinctive response is to comfort him (do I need to get back on the "Maglor is an excellent brother" soapbox or can we take that as given), he sings him a lullaby - callbacks to Part 1 and the Carcharoth encounter, Maglor has sacrificed himself for Maedhros more than once in this fic - before just sitting down to die. That was a clear image in my head for a while: Maglor sitting in a pool of blood, singing quietly, Maedhros' head in his lap and the Silmaril in his hand, and then the orc-horns sounding outside for extra cliffhangeriness. In fact this is probably my single favourite image of the fic. I just love them ok.

This is SO LONG and so procrastinatey but also an extremely fun exercise actually!! I am now fired up to go and work on part 15.

[sequinsmile-x]

Stained Glass Windows - Chapter Seven

Life was complicated, but they wouldn't have it any other way.

-x-

Thank you so much for the love on the last chapter...I'd apologise for the cliffhanger but we all know I wouldn't mean it haha

Just a quick note, any flashbacks going forward will be marked by the use of italics and the date. The regular timeline will now be anything post-Foyet and will be in order.

-x-

Words: 3.6k

Warnings: Description of canon-typical violence/injury.

A full list of warnings for the fic can be found on the Series Master List and will be updated as we go along

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

June 2008

She’d been nervous about their date. Anxiety she hadn’t felt since she was much younger thrumming under her skin, making her leg bounce up and down as she sat at her desk, waiting for the clock to tick down to home time so they could go to dinner. Aaron was insistent on taking her out before they went any further, their interactions since the night in the motel limited to stolen kisses in the brief moments they were alone. He always put a stop to it before it could go any further, softly kissing her cheek, or the tip of her nose, when he said he wanted to do it properly. 

Emily rolled her eyes every time, but it went some way to calm some of her fears that, despite his promise, this was nothing more than a rebound for him. That she was just there, a convenience. She felt awful every time she thought it, knowing that she knew him better than that. Underneath everything, all the seriousness, the sternness he wore like a mask, he was a kind man. One of the best she’d ever known. And she trusted him. 

She’s relieved when the date goes well. That the romantic undertones don’t change something they’ve done countless times before beyond his hand over hers on the table, and their chairs being slightly closer together than usual.  He kisses her next to his car and asks if she wants to go back to his, and her response is to nod before pulling him into another kiss, tasting the dessert they’d shared on his tongue. 

He lets her into his apartment, his hand gentle on her lower back as he leads her in and closes the door behind them. He leans down and presses a kiss to her bare shoulder, his fingers softly grazing the straps of her dress.

“You want a drink?” He asks, and she turns her head so she can look at him as he’s standing behind her. She kisses him briefly before pulling back and nodding, “Scotch?” 

“Sounds good,” she replies, stepping away from him as he walks past her, his hands ghosting over her hips as he moves to the small bar cart she’d bought him as a moving-in gift. She walks over to the couch and sits down, alone only for a minute or so before he joins her, a glass of scotch in her eye line as she takes it from him. “Thank you.” 

He sits next to her and she finds herself drawn to him, leaning into his side as his arm wraps around her shoulder like they are two puzzle pieces slotting together. It feels absurd, that it seems this simple. Both of them at ease in a way that usually came months into a relationship, not on the same night as their first official date. 

They talk about everything. Aaron tells her about Jack’s most visit, how he’s so fast now that he struggles to catch him sometimes as he runs havoc around the place. She tells him about a prank that Spencer had played on Derek, little tidbits about the team that he usually didn’t get to know about. She finishes her drink, enjoying the pleasant burn of the last bit of the scotch as she swallows it down. 

“You want another one?” He asks, and she looks up at him, shaking her head as she takes his empty glass from him, setting it and hers on the coffee table in front of them. “What do you want, Emily?” 

She smiles, biting her lip as she leans in to kiss him, her hand on his cheek as he deepens the kiss, holding him in place as his hand drifts to her waist, his fingers grasping at the material of her dress. She ends up in his lap, her dress shifting up her thighs as she straddles him, her arms looped around his neck. 

He holds her close, his hands firm at her lower back as he breathes her in, remembering every little thing he can. She rolls her hips against him and he groans, part of his brain that he’d successfully ignored all evening coming back online as he pulls back from her, unable to stop himself from smiling as she tries to chase his lips. 

“Em-”

“If you’re about to tell me you’re a second date kind of guy I might kill you,” she jokes, her words breathless as she smiles at him, her chest heaving slightly as she stares at him. 

“No,” he replies, smiling at her as he smoothes some of her hair back, “It’s not that it’s just,” he pauses, unsure how to phrase it, how to put into words the concerns that had kept him from going any further with her despite his entire body screaming at him, “You’re my best friend, Em.” 

She beams at him, impossibly more beautiful as she moves one of her hands from behind his neck to cup his cheek, her thumb delicate against his skin.

“You’re my best friend too, against all odds,” she replies, smiling when he chuckles at her attempt at a joke, “That’s why I think this works.” 

“I know,” he says, his hands on her hips as he holds her tightly, “I don’t want to lose you.” 

“You won’t,” she says simply like it was the easiest thing in the world. She knows it was her turn to take the jump, that he’d been the one to assure her in the motel room where they began and now he needed it in return. It’s how they’d worked since they’d become friends, the give-and-take that they both needed but had never found elsewhere, “I really want this, Aaron. I want you. We can figure out the rest as we go.” 

If it was anyone else saying it to him it wouldn’t be enough. He needed to know everything, to have control, but he trusts her. He loves her, he knows that already but won’t say it yet, afraid it was far too much too soon. So he accepts it, simply nodding in response. She smiles as she leans forward to stamp a kiss against his lips and he hesitates. 

“For fuck sake, Aaron,” she says, rolling her eyes at him. 

“I just want to know you’re sure, sweetheart.” 

The term of endearment makes any misplaced anger disappear as quickly as it had appeared, and she shakes her head at him before she leans back enough to pull her dress off, leaving her in the underwear she’d later admit to him that she’d bought specifically for tonight. For him. 

“I’m very sure,” she replies, leaning back in to kiss him before he can look at her properly, pleased when he immediately responds this time. His hands are scorching against her skin, his fingerprints branding her ribs as his hands drift over her, mapping out her hills and valleys.

Her skin was so soft he thought it might drive him insane, and he knows that later on he’ll take his time to memorise her, but right now his need for her overrides that. Desperate and overwhelming as he stops fighting the need to know how she felt everywhere. He runs his hand down her stomach, stopping as the texture of her changes, his thumb catching on some thicker skin. 

She pulls away from him as the need for oxygen takes over, her forehead pressed against his, and she feels his thumb tracing the scar on her abdomen, and she looks down at the same time he does. She swallows thickly as she watches him trace the whole scar, from just below her ribcage, moving outwards onto her belly in a backwards l-shape. It was faded now, the best it would ever be, and sometimes she managed to forget it was there. This was the first time she’d ever told someone the story behind it, coming up with lies on the spot for past partners as they asked curiously, and it felt oddly liberating as well as making her nervous in equal measure that someone knew all of her like this. 

“I know it’s not-”

“You’re beautiful,” he says, his hands drifting to her back as he shifts her closer, cutting off her self-deprecating comment she had ready, “So fucking beautiful.” 

He kisses her, and she gets lost in him, everything else but the two of them disappearing. 

___

Everything slows down, the only thing she’s aware of is her own breathing, impossibly loud in an otherwise quiet apartment. Time stretches out around her and she watches as Foyet lurches backwards, already partway to standing when the bullet hit his chest. He stumbles, the gun in his hand and the knife in the other falling to the ground just before he does, narrowly missing landing on Aaron. 

Emily keeps her gun trained on him, waiting for him to move again, to get up despite the gunshot wound to his chest. But he doesn’t. The myth of his monster, making him larger than life, terrifying enough to have a hardened cop make a decade long deal with him, snuffed out. Her hands shake every so slightly as she lowers her gun. 

Everything snaps back into place, into full speed, almost all at once. The ringing in her ears from the gunshot being in such a close range sharp, enough to make her shake her head slightly. 

“Em.” 

She looks down at Aaron, laying prone on the floor, blood seeping through his white shirt from multiple spots, a grim pattern she knows she’d never stop seeing. Her knees hit the floor hard, cracking even with the cushioning of the carpet as she reaches Aaron’s side. She’s grateful that Foyet has fallen clear of him, that she can try her best to ignore the body on the floor next to them as she focuses everything on the man she loved. 

“Aaron,” she breathes out, lowering her hand to his chest but stopping short, not sure where to start, “Fuck I’m sorry,” she mumbles, shrugging off her jacket so she can ball it up with one hand and places it on his chest, pressing down where the bleeding seemed to be at it’s worst, “I’m so sorry I was talking to Pen. I…”

She drifts off, unsure what to say as bitter guilt makes her chest tight, the taste awful and lasting on her tongue. She’d been talking, joking with her friend, a brief flash of light after days on the worst case they’d been on in a long time, when Aaron had been attacked. Defenceless as a man who had sworn revenge finally made his move. 

Aaron shakes his head at her, his hand shaking as he places it over hers on his chest as she grabs her phone from her pocket, doing his best to squeeze her hand in comfort despite the pain it causes him. She dials 911, desperately waiting for it to connect. 

“Is he dead?” Aaron chokes out and she nods, apologising under her breath as she presses firmer into his chest, his blood sickenly warm through her jacket. 

“Yes,” she says, casting a glance at the deadly still Foyet next to her, the blood stain coming from under him merging with Aaron’s, “He’s dead.” 

“Are you sure?” He asks, and she feels misplaced anger rise up, her nerves fried by the last few minutes and she tucks her phone between her ear and shoulder as she reaches over, screwing her eyes closed as she presses her fingers to Foyet’s neck. 

She’s not sure what it says about her, what it means when she feels relieved to feel nothing there. Deathly stillness where his pulse should be. She was supposed to protect life, not take it, but she was glad he was dead. That whatever campaign he was about to start against Aaron, and by extension, all of them, was over before it would start. 

“I’m sure,” she chokes out, settling back down next to Aaron’s side, placing her spare hand on his cheek, “He’s dead,” she repeats, smiling shakily at him as she sees him relax slightly, his eyes fluttering. As if he’d been forcing himself to stay awake until he knew the danger was gone, until he knew she was safe. She presses harder into his chest, oddly grateful when she gets a groan in response. A sign he was still awake. “Now please just stay awake ok?”

He grunts, his eyes still flickering, “I love you.” 

She grits her teeth, cursing that it was taking 911 so long to connect, “I love you too,” she replies, holding his chin firmly in her hand, forcing him to look at her, “But we aren’t doing that. You’re going to be fine.” 

“911, what's your emergency?”

She breathes out a sigh of relief at the answer on the otherside of the phone, her voice catching ever so slightly in her throat as she says the awful truth out loud for the first time.

“This is SSA Emily Prentiss from the FBI, I need an ambulance and the police,” she swallows thickly, pushing down the emotions she couldn’t, and wouldn’t, let herself feel until she knew Aaron was going to be ok,  “My boyfriend has been attacked by the Boston Reaper” 

___

She rhythmically picks at the cuticle of her thumbnail, her eyes fixed on the ground ahead of her as her leg bounces up and down. Her adrenaline still flowing through her, leaving her on high alert with a seemingly endless amount of energy making her body practically vibrate with it. 

“Emily? What happened? Are you ok?” 

She looks up at the sound of JJ’s voice, fast and slightly breathless as she reaches her side, clearly having rushed to her. Emily called JJ as soon as the ambulance arrived at the hospital, leaving her alone in the waiting room as Aaron was wheeled away to surgery. A partial explanation as to what had happened. That Aaron had been attacked by Foyet. That she’d walked in on it. 

“I’m fine,” she says, swallowing thickly, looking back down at the ground, “Aaron is in surgery.” 

“Em,” JJ says, sitting down next to her and putting her hand over Emily’s who immediately flinches, pulling away. She can’t bear the thought of someone touching her, every nerve ending in her body feeling razor sharp. JJ smiles softly, not looking offended in the slightest, well aware of how Emily functioned, “You’ve got blood on you.” 

Emily looks down at her clothes, darker patches on her pants and the sleeves of her shirt where she’d knelt in Aaron’s blood as she stayed close to him, eventually forced to move by the paramedics when they arrived. Her hands still looked tinged with it even though she knew it wasn’t there, that her hands were bright red from how hard she’d scrubbed them in the small hospital bathroom. 

“It’s not mine,” she says, “I didn’t…” she blows out a breath shaking her head at herself, “I was on the phone to Pen, I was outside,” she laughs slightly bitterly, “I was joking about sex as Aaron was being stabbed just a couple of feet away from where we fucked for the first time.” 

JJ frowns at her, her hand twitching as she stops herself from reaching out for her again. 

“Em-”

“Emily, JJ,” Derek’s voice cuts JJ’s admonishment off, and Emily is grateful for it, not sure she could bear to hear it. She looks up to find the rest of the team all arriving at once, all looking concerned in their own way. She sees Penelope’s gaze linger on her shirt, the stained sleeves, and Emily crosses her arms to cover them. “What the hell happened?”

“We got home, I left my phone in the car and I went back for it,” she explains, her eyes briefly meeting Penelope's before she looks at the rest of them, “I heard Foyet taunting him through the door.” 

“You should have called for backup,” Derek says, his hands on her hips, and she feels anger lick at her insides and she clenches her teeth. She forces it back down, not sure she has much space left for everything she’s stopping herself from feeling. Sure she could burst with it at any second, but knowing she can’t until she’s alone. Until she knows Aaron is ok. “Going in there alone was so dangerous-”

“So I should have done what? Left Aaron in there alone?” She asks bitterly, her voice tight, “Don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same thing.” 

Derek goes to argue with her, his mouth already open, but JJ stops him with a simple shake of her head. 

“Foyet?” Dave asks, a kind look on his face that Emily isn’t entirely sure she deserves. 

“He’s dead. I shot him,” she explains, not missing the relief on all of their faces. “Aaron is in surgery. The paramedics counted seven stab wounds. He was stabbed…seven times whilst I was on the phone.”

It’s a thought that keeps sticking in her mind, the thing she can’t get past yet. That if she’d simply remembered her goddamn phone she would have been with him, that if they’d both been there maybe they would have been able to stop Foyet before Aaron got hurt. 

“If you hadn’t got there when you did it would have been more,” Spencer says, his voice almost too quiet to hear before he clears his throat as they all look at him, “He gave himself nine stab wounds, it’s not outside of his profile that he’d give Hotch the same injuries.” 

Derek elbows him sharply as Emily visibly reacts for the first time since they’d arrived, the thought of what Foyet potentially had planned for them weighing heavily on her shoulders. 

A doctor walks into the room, cutting off any further conversation, and Emily is on her feet before she can talk.

“Family of Aaron Hotchner?” 

“I’m his girlfriend, Emily Prentiss,” Emily says, her hands tightly clasped together in front of her, “I came in with him and I’m his medical proxy.” 

She’s over explained it, and she knows it, the soft smile on the doctor’s face is the only evidence she needs, but she doesn’t want anything to stop her from seeing him. Happy to flash her gun and badge if she needed to. Or donate as much of her trust fund as it would take to fund a new wing of the hospital, anything to sit by his side. 

“He’s out of surgery now, I can take you to him if you want. Only one visitor at a time at the moment I’m afraid.”

Emily breathes out a sigh of relief, and she feels JJ’s hand on her shoulder, squeezing tightly as she turns around to look at them briefly. 

“Yes, please. I’d love that,” she says before looking at the team again, not even having to ask when JJ nods at her.

“We’ll get everything practical done,” she promises, and the rest of the team nods in agreement, “And I’ll hold off Strauss as long as I can.”

Emily flashes her a quick and grateful smile. There would be so much to sort out, Aaron’s apartment was now a crime scene. A man had died in there, and she knew there would be questions, things that had to be worked through. But for now, she didn’t care, wanting nothing more than to see him. She turns back to the doctor who directs her out of the waiting room. 

“Mr Hotchner had seven stab wounds,” the doctor explains, her voice almost too kind for the information she was relaying, “We were able to stop his internal bleeding, but due to the location of some of the wounds his recovery will take a little longer,” she says, coming to a stop outside of a room. Emily can see him through the glass, laying in his hospital bed, and it takes everything in her to not walk away, to leave the doctor where she was standing, “We did have to resect part of his liver due to the damage, but that will grow back.” 

Emily chuckles bitterly, the sound catching in her chest, and it’s inappropriate, “Sorry,” she mumbles, pressing her hand into her abdomen over her own scar, another grim thing they’d now have in common, “Yes I know it grows back, but he’ll be ok?” she asks, and she looks back over to his room after the doctor nods, “Can I go in now?”

“Of course,” the doctor replies, “He’ll be asleep for a little while, but you can sit with him until he wakes up.” 

“Thank you,” Emily says, sharing one more smile with the doctor before she walks away, her steps determined until she reaches the door, brief hesitation that she pushes past as she opens the door. 

The beeping of the machines indicating he was alive, his heart beating steadily, are loud. A melody she finds comforting, as she stands in the doorway before moving closer. She grabs the chair and pulls it as near to the bed as she can before she sits down, her eyes fixed on him. She can see the bandages sticking out from the hospital gown he had on. He almost looked like he was sleeping normally, the same peaceful look on his face that she loved to wake up to on the rare occasion he slept longer than her, his hair flopped over his forehead. 

She reaches out, ignoring the shake of her hand as she links her fingers through his. The warmth of his skin against hers fractures something inside of her chest. Everything she had kept in there over the last few hours breaking free, breaching the dam she had forced them behind. She sobs, her body aching with it, her ribs pulling around the sound. And she covers her eyes with her spare hand. 

She could have lost him, and she wasn’t sure how she would have ever forgiven herself if she had. 

-x-

Now the Foyet stuff is done, and we're moving into this fic's own version of events post Aaron's attack, as promised this fic will focus on different challenges than usual for our favourite idiots!!

-x-

Tag list:

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[nanasparadise]

And I had another dream I can share with you! It ended with a huge cliffhanger though.

TW: yandere, mentions of threats

I was transported to a palace sometime in the mid-19th century.

I was confused as to why I suddenly was in this place, but some of my friends were there with me as well, so I felt less scared.

We were in the front garden of the palace and since we heard some commotion from inside, we made our way to the palace to possibly find someone who could help us.

We quickly found out that there was probably a ball happening inside, since all the guests were dressed in a very chic manner. Said guests walked passed us and gave us strange looks, because we were dressed in trousers and modern clothes (we're all women).

Suddenly, a carriage drove past us and the man inside peeked out the window. He seemed to be of higher status, since no one else could get escorted to the palace's doors with a carriage and had to go by foot through the garden. We later found out through the murmurs of the crowd that he was the crown prince.

The prince kept looking at me and a surprised looked ran over his face. But his carriage moved on, so I didn't think too much about it once he was out of my sight.

We finally made it to the doors and went inside the palace. We decided to split up and look for someone or something that could help us explain the situation. But we promised to come back to the parlour in thirty minutes at the latest (we all had our phones or a wristwatch on us).

I walked down a candle-lit corridor in a lesser crowded area and peeked inside the rooms to see if there might be someone in the same predicament as my friends and I. However, I only saw the prince in one of the rooms, seemingly getting some finishing touches until he made his presence officially known at the ball.

Not wanting to interrupt him, thinking he couldn't help me anyways, I tried to continued my search, but he suddenly called me by my name.

I turned back, surprised as how he could know my name, and saw him shooting me a tender look, as if he had waited for me all this time. He coaxed me into the room and told me that I was his soulmate, that he always dreamt of me. I doubted him at first, but then he started telling me details about myself he couldn't have known.

I was perplexed and didn't really know how to act, so I asked him if he could help me find a way back home. His face turned sour and he said that he waited for so long for me to show up, how I could just dismiss his love.

I apologised, but insisted that I didn't belong here and needed to go back home.

His eyes darkened as he told me that he saw my friends were with me and he had no problem threatening and hurting them if it meant I would stay.

Out of instinct, I immediately ran away to find my friends. He didn't seem to follow me.

I caught up with one of them in the parlour and told her the story and she was just as confused as I was.

[joycieillustrations]

Hi! I don't have any questions but before this year end, I want to say thank you for all of your Rhaenys x Corlys story. I have read it all and enjoy it all.

2023 is a weird year for me and I just want to tell you that I'm grateful for your story. I initially plan to write in detail my favorite thing about each of your stories, how your stories are so wonderful and cleverly written, how some of your story is so heartbreakingly beautiful that I got this mini heart attack when you end the chapter with a cliffhanger (erhm, chapter 14 Ex Libris and that whole of Office Hours).

But English is my second language, and I get insecure on how to tell that correctly, so I thought just saying that Im grateful for your story will have to do. So again, thank you for taking the time of your day to write all of that. I do not know where you are from, but I’m from Asia and your story has reached me and entertained me and helped me. So thank you <3

Hi there @flawedreality! Let me first apologise for how long it has taken to reply to this message. I don’t know exactly when it was sent but I’m assuming it must have been some time in December. Let me assure you that I’ve only just seen this (I’m not sure what happened to the notification)!

Thank you for taking the time to send this, it really means so much to hear you’ve enjoyed my fics and that they have helped you. 2023 was a very strange year for me too, with lots of highs and lows, and Ex libris was one of my ways of coping with it all - I’m so glad it could help you through the year too. Sorry for the mini heart attacks, I promise things will be a lot smoother for Corlys and Rhaenys from now on in Ex libris (but alas, I can’t promise the same for Office Hours!)

Thanks again for this message, it has truly brought a smile to my face. Thank you as well for having the courage to send it in another language, I know how hard that can be and I wish I were as fluent in my second language as you are in English! Sending you all the best from the UK and I hope 2024 is full of wonderful things for you ❤️