#i got a substitute scene back when i was collecting scenes but i decided i absolutely cannot make a kit and ty fanvid without this

[livvyofthelake]

i mean i know there ARE other technically easy ways to get scenes for this video besides screen recording from youtube but screen recording from youtube is very easy. except for when i can’t find a high quality video of the one scene that i desperately need. ok fine time to resort to other measures

[talentforlying]

thinking about john's multitude of short-lived, often quickly-abandoned apartments for some reason, so a couple details:

although you might expect to find a very wizard-y interior to any place he's currently living at — you know, grimoires, skulls, dust, clutter, etc. — his flats actually tend to be fairly spartan in terms of decor; they've even been accused of looking modern, here and there. he just moves too frequently to really settle in & accrue Things, and has so often had to simply up & leave everything he currently owned behind (with very little chance of getting any of it back) that he no longer attaches much meaning to household objects.

besides the consistent presence of at least one bookshelf with at least 12 books on it, and a sad sprig of garden sage that miraculously hasn't died yet, the one exception to his lack of personal touch is his extensive collection of records + tapes, all of which he has repeatedly & methodically tracked down and bought / bid / traded / stolen / threatened for / blackmailed for / simply taken back whenever an enterprising landlord or new tenant left him the opportunity to do so. his record player itself has never needed to be taken back, since it has always mysteriously vanished from whatever flat he's leaving and mysteriously appeared wherever he's staying; it's convenient like that. his 10th anniversary walkman, however, frequently goes missing, only to turn up again later in a place he KNOWS he checked when he's least expecting it.

lack of home decor isn't to say he doesn't own much, mind: the bulk of his personal possessions — assorted occult paraphernalia, blackmail documentation, miscellaneous crap from his mucous membrane days, and anything he is able to take with him from past flats — are usually stored off-site, in a secure location that can't easily be tied back to him. this guy's been accused of being a satanic killer on multiple occasions, he knows better than to keep all the real shit out where anyone can just swan in and see it.

currently, this storage location (which i lovingly call occult shit central) is an abandoned inner london storefront + adjoining flat that was formerly his old friend ray monde's shop and home, called brick-a-brac antiques. it's decidedly cozier than the last place, (in that there are chairs, plural,) and has fewer bear traps laid out in anticipation of unlucky thieves; in fact, if a person were to visit without already knowing where constantine actually lives, it'd be easy to mistake it as his expectedly-wizardy flat. it's not an ideal location for an occult shit central, too close to the heart of the city and too close to people to avoid drumming up suspicion should constantine attempt any sort of ritual inside, but until chas finally quits ducking the paperwork and signs over his storage lot (which he may or may not be dragging his feet on out of pure resentment for having to do it at all) ray's place is the best option there is.

constantine's previous (and future) storage location was a lock-up in streatham that chas had been letting him use (see: all but surrendered to him entirely) since he got out of ravenscar, but after constantine's sister died, john decided he was done with magic and, in a spontaneous fit of rage, burnt the place down with everything but a few necessities still inside. he regretted this later, when he inevitably returned to the occult scene after just over a year away, and spent a lot of time calling in favors / hypnotizing arson inspectors to try and put together an inventory of everything he'd lost.

in the nearly 20 years since the fire, he's managed to replace or find substitutes for about 2/3 of what he had (occult-wise), and gather enough fresh dirt / do enough favors / orchestrate enough compromising situations to accumulate a little over 1/4 of the political / interpersonal power he once maintained. ( the lack of success in the latter being, in part, because people now in power aren't as familiar with his name & reputation as they once were; in part because people just don't believe in magic as much as they used to, or were otherwise bought by hell / heaven / other parties a LONG time ago; and in part because he's come to absolutely fucking despise most politicians / people in power more than he is willing to work with them, or more than he is able to plausibly believe they won't try to drop him at the first opportunity. )

you would be hard-pressed to find a landlady/landlord that speaks kindly of this man. if he wasn't kicked out for suspicious smells / disturbing noises / sudden infestations / suspected satanic activity, then it's likely that he abruptly up and disappeared in the middle of the night, with no warning and no rent. (on a few occasions, this vanishing act also coincided conspicuously with a gruesome death on the premises, sometimes of the landlady/landlord themselves, although no one's ever been able to prove anything.) frankly it's . . . magic, that people still rent to him.

due to these aforementioned bad ends, he's incredibly lucky if he gets enough time or leeway to take any sort of furniture with him from one place to the next. however, there is one incredibly comfy, wing-backed, sapphire-blue armchair that's miraculously managed to survive every move in the last ten or so years without being reported stolen — even though it has survived every move because it has, in fact, been stolen in the dead of night nearly every single time, by john and at least one of his buddies.

[is-the-fire-real]

There's one shop in town that's a farm supply store. It's where I bought my scythe and other farming tools. They sell substitute milk for animals, especially this time of year.

My wife and I went there today for more substitute milk for the rescue pups. (We are calling them, collectively, "the snacks" because they are very small and we have given them food names. Also because Pitchfork Guy referred to them as "patatas fritas"/French fries when he saw them.)

Additionally, we got tomato and eggplant sprouts. The eggplants are for us. The tomatoes are also for us, but possibly will feed the hummingbird moth caterpillars instead. We aren't picky.

Anyhow, the shopkeep was extremely invested in learning more about the snacks. It turns out that she had seen them on the road, assumed they were dead, and drove on. It wounded her to find out that they were alive and she'd driven past. It brightened her day to learn that all of them were still alive in our care.

We had to reassure her several times that, yes, all of them lived.

She was blown away. Delighted.

We asked how much she wanted for the milk and the plants.

"Do aiyuro." Two euros.

"For all of that?" I said in English.

She said something to my wife, who smiled and said: "... she's giving us the milk powder for free."

I was like, no, she runs a business and should be paid, that's a whole dang kilo of milk powder and it must be worth something. But once an Andalusian has decided to give you something for free, not even Hashem can get them to take the money.

Once I saw a local shopkeep deliver food to an elderly lady around about Christmastime. The elderly lady asked how much for the delivery. The shopkeep went "No, no, es la Navidad," and the elderly lady insisted on getting her wallet to pay... and while her back was turned, the shopkeep (not much older than her) turned on her heels and fled the scene as though she were committing a crime.

So I give up and pay two euros for our seedlings.

The shopkeep gave to the puppies, anyhow, not to me. Just like I will give my tomato plants to the hummingbird moth caterpillars, should we get any.

[pokemuseum]

Hello, my name is Tessa and I work at the Hoenn Museum of Nature (or the Museum of Natu according to some of our younger kids.) We're just off of route 120, feel free to pop in and see our exhibits.

I often work behind the scenes with our collections, taking care of all sorts of specimens, but I've recently been coming out of our lab more often, organizing exhibits and doing outreach with children.

Much of our outreach is about teaching people the importance of conservation of more "uncharismatic" pokémon, and helping to clear up some of the misinformation out there. My "oldest" partner Sol is an absolute asset in that respect, even if he's not a traditional battler.

I've travelled quite a lot over the years and I've been pretty much everywhere, helping restore all kinds of collections all over the world. My passion is for bones and fossils, but I've been known to dabble in pottery restoration (as Arsenic can attest to)

Most of the pokémon that I have are actually registered to the museum, and work as wildlife stewards. I've also trained some service pokémon in my time, having unofficially started with my own Umbreon back when I was a child.

My "team" are more companions than anything else, but they're trained to battle...even if the "battles" they do are mostly against substitutes in order to exhibit their natural behaviours to the kids, or occasionally to have a fun little battle with one of the youngsters.

More under cut

My personal Pokémon:

Ve: My Espeon, who's been with me since I was a little girl. Ve helps me with sensory issues and is an absolute delight. I can always count on her to ground me, and to make sure that I remember to eat.

Sol: My absol, the first pokémon I ever caught myself. Has been helping dismiss the myths of them causing disasters ever since I had him. He's definitely not a young boy, he had already been old when he saved my younger self from being lost in the mountains, but he's now settled in to a comfortable retirement with all the berries he can eat.

Arsenic: Sinistea. I can't call her "mine" because she doesn't seem to like it, but she's a real character. I found her when I was in Galar to help with some of their specimens, having a massive crack in her poor body. I spent hours repairing her cup with techniques I had found on omanyte care forums and stuff from my classes, and now she is my favourite little menace. 11/10 would be haunted by again.

Some of our museum Pokémon:

Natu: Natu. He just wandered in one day and decided to never leave...so he lives here now. Only has a pokeball because we had to take him to the center for a check-up, but he's never in it, instead roaming the museum.

Three: Wurmple, our current bug steward. His full name is 0118-999-881-999-119-725...3 after the phone number in that one Galarian comedy, because we got tired of our temporary pokémon having boring numbers. When he finally pupates he will be released along with all the other beautifly that are part of our current exhibit on metamorphosis.

Yam: Yamper, failed service pokémon who flunked out due to being too friendly and easily distracted. She now helps show our kids some of the possible tasks preformed by a service pokémon, and helps out in our school visits.

//sideblog, same mun as hauntkid, will follow from orphanedshadow.

[glapplebloom]

These came before Forgotten Friendship, so I should have done these a week ago.

There’s a bunch of shorts to go through, though it is pretty simple. I’m guessing these take place at random times between the first movie and Forgotten Friendship. Like it honestly feels like some of these shorts were during Pony Twilight’s time in the Human World. Specifically the first three shorts. I’ll let you decide if that’s the case or not.

First is Make Up Shake Up and Rarity gets to apply makeup to Applejack. On the night of the Fall Formal. In their first movie outfits. These are some of the shorts I think were during the first movie. After a while, Applejack got makeup on, but after AJ suggested removing some it basically is back to no makeup. 

The second short is Raise the Roof where it's Applejack Vs Rainbow Dash in a Dance Battle. You know how it goes. The winner of the Dance Contest is Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. The animation kind of looks more fluid than the movies. Like if it was animated like the movie, using the Equestria Girl assets. Maybe it's just me. 

After that is A Photo Booth Story. The girls try to take a picture together, but Photo Finish is Photo Finish. You know how that goes if you saw the last Equestria Girls short with her. With a recreation of the Sonic Rainboom episode. After that is Steps of Pep, where Pinkie Pie cheers on any group, regardless of sport or activity. Fluttershy is also there so you can guess how these shorts go. Also, Rarity is in the Wondertones, as well as the Rainbooms...

I’m gonna save the music videos for last so I’m skipping them for now. So Pet Project is next and the girls are gonna take pictures of their pets for a Charity Calendar. Sunset Shimmer can’t participate since she doesn’t have a pet. But seeing them all with pets makes her want one. And when Fluttershy hears this, she drops everything to get Sunset one. She picks a lizard and Ray joins the Pet crew.

Subs Rock is next and Celestia tries to be a substitute teacher, but she keeps getting interrupted. By the time everything is settled, the class is over. Poor Celestia. The Art of Friendship is next and Pinkie is trying to figure out what to paint. Sunset makes a suggestion about finding inspiration and Pinkie tries to. She eventually decides to paint Sunset. Very similarly to Izzy in G5 when she gets in the creative streak. 

The Canterlot Movie Club, likely taking place after Mirror Magic, The CMC just saw the Daring Do movie 5 times and want to see it a 6th time. But Gummy is missing and Pinkie is asking them for help. They find Gummy in the Crane Game and win him. Again, some scenes seem a lot more animated than normal. Leaping Off the Page is Rainbow Dash reading a book and fantasizing about being Daring Do. Shame she forgot she was supposed to hang out with her friends. 

Next is Epic Fails and it's basically a collection of embarrassing moments with the seven. And that’s the last of the shorts. Now for the music videos. There are six of them this time. Mad Twience is about building Spike a Girlfriend while she sings about trying to figure out love. It's alright, but not really my cup of tea. But do you know what is my cup of tea? No, not a cup of tea.

Monday Blues is a really good song in my book. And the Music video is really nice as it is Sunset and Twilight trying to go to school in their own ways. All the while things don’t go their way. Shake Things Up is an Applejack song when she’s on the job. It's pretty good. Get the Show on the Road is next and it's with the Rainbooms. They got to fix up a bus so it can be their tour bus. It's alright. Again, not my cup of tea. 

Coinky-Dink World is a Pinkie Song about her working her job. It got an old school vibe to it. I think it is fine. Not on my i-pod but still pretty good. I doubt I’ll listen to this again on my own though. And our final song is Good Vibes. It's a Rainboom Song and shows how kindness can spread. It is really nice. Maybe I’ll add it to my i-pod if I find a clean version. Still, Monday Blues is my favorite out of these music videos.

Overall, they were simple but nice. Perfectly harmless. Though if you’re like me, you may notice the increased animation in some of these shorts. I wonder what the story is behind those. Like maybe more frames of animation or trying to be more dynamic. These should be fine to include in GLAB’s version of Equesira Girls.

[sokkas-honour]

i have an idea if that’s fine ! how about headcanons for spending christmas with keith kogane (and giving home the best christmas ever because this baby deserves it) tysm !! 💕

he does deserve an amazing christmas, but he got my space christmas instead.

tis the season - keith x reader

pairing: keith x reader (gn)

warnings/notes: this was long

okay so, post show finale, keith is very often off earth, going from planet to planet to help those who had been affected by the galra empire. you tagged along, helping him have a partner that he could count on light years away from his home planet.

keith had been away from earth for years, meaning he hadn’t even remotely celebrated holidays in general, much less christmas.

so when you joined him in space, you made a point to keep track of the days on the gregorian calendar so you could be sure to celebrate christmas on the right day.

as the holiday soon started to roll around, you discreetly started to collect things to try and make the holiday as traditional as possible but being this far away from earth did make it hard, but you did what could with what you had. you were smart enough to bring cookie dough for christmas cookies but who knew if the ship had any sort of kitchen. (spoiler alert, it did!!)

so, you talked with a few of the blade of marmora members on if you could somehow get some sort of tree esque alien plant to use as a substitute christmas tree.

thankfully for you, axca mentionned of some sort of a small tree on the next planet you were set to settle in for awhile, having just restocked on supplies.

so as soon as you guys landed and had some free time, you eclipsed yourself from the group and tried to talk to the local population in order to find a way to procure one of the trees for yourself, christmas being a little under two weeks away. and they were extremely useful, helping you pick the best one for your limited decorations.

so you picked one of the storage rooms that no one used, them being there in case of excess supplies and decided that was the room where you’d set everything up so in the room the actually not that small, small tree being placed on top of one of the empty crates.

for decorations, you just scavenged for loose string all over the ship and the alien planet, anything that could either hold your decorations or you could use as a garland.

you ended up only finding cool rock looking rocks of various colours to use as ornaments but it’s the thought that counts. you managed to pierce the rocks to put the string through, meaning you could just tie a not at the top of the loop and set them strategically around the surprisingly many branches of the tree.

for the garland around it, you managed to find some vines on the planet which got you excited, you finally found something very green for the green and red theme you were trying to have to fully emulate christmas.

lucky for you, you found red flowers on the planet you were currently on and picked a few to put around the tree and thread the stem of it through the hole you had punched in each rock.

the night of christmas eve, you slithered out of keith’s arm that was draped over you while he slept, going to the kitchen in order to start baking them so hed have fresh cookies in the morning (and maybe the rest of the crew but they had to deal with the alien substitutes)

so you spent the early hours of the morning in the kitchen, managing to find what you thought was a galran cookbook that included their own form of cookies so you made a couple of batches for the crew while you cooked the cookie dough you had sneaked onto the ship.

getting a bunch of unique gifts while you’re travelling is hard but you somehow managed to find a uniquely carved knife by some of the local population. you nearly wrapped it with whatever paper you could muster and placed it right under your makeshift christmas tree.

now keith had gotten a bit suspicious when he looked for you during down time and was unable to find you, getting a simple “i was exploring” excuse more than once definitely didn’t answer his question.

it was even more confusing when axca mentionned that you hadn’t been present much during a time dedicated to helping rebuild houses but unbeknownst to them, you had already finished the ones you were assigned and were currently conversing with the locals on local delicacies/objects to maybe gift keith.

he wanted to confront you about it but for the last two weeks, it seemed to him that you were ignoring him and it definitely brought his mood down.

you had also somehow managed to find voltron merch used from back when they were basically superstars. you grabbed a standard voltron formation stuffed animal as well as a red lion, hoping he wouldn’t mind you getting his first lion as well as the color of his previous suit. (which you also wrapped in scrap paper).

while you were in the kitchen, taking cookies out of the oven, you were surprised to find keith looking at you from the doorway.

“why are you making cookies this early in the morning?” he was only half awake as kosmo passed him, coming to sniff the cookies.

“you’ll find out in a second, want one?” you extended the fresh out of the oven sugar cookies to him which he gladly took, surpise on his face as he realised they were from earth.

“you had cookie dough from earth and didn’t tell me?”

“that’s not the only secret i kept, come on.” you grabbed a cookie for yourself then grabbed his wrist to drag him to the storage unit.

and when you opened the door, his face lit up at the little makeshift christmas scene he saw in front of him.

“merry christmas keith!” you exclaimed, still waiting for a vocal reaction as keith almost seemed frozen on the spot.

“you did all of this?”

“yup, i even have presents, open them!”

this man felt his heart swell immensely, not believing he had someone who cared so much about him that they recreated a holiday he hadn’t celebrated in ages, a signifiant other that thoughtful.

he feels so guilty that he didn’t get you anything but it beyond thankful.

he spots to makeshift mistletoe and he smirked, grabbing it and placing it over your heads so you two could kiss, having your first christmas morning kiss together.

“you didn’t have to do this y/n.”

“well i wanted to, i was so excited to spend christmas with you on earth but it probably wouldn’t be possible for awhile so i brought christmas to space!” he thought your reasoning was just adorable so he kissed you on the forehead.

“merry christmas y/n.”

“merry christmas keith.”

people i tag for voltron: @alteasmoon @biqherosix

[yannowhatigiveup]

My One And Only - Chapter 17

Previous | Next | Master List

I have posted this chapter and I have had as much sleep as an insomniac can get. After next chapter, maybe, I’ll get to the scene that I have been wanting but also dreading to write so that’s something.

"...You're Ladybug, aren't you?"

————————————————————

Marinette's eyes widened, she didn't expect Alya to come to that recognition but as she gave it a second thought, it made sense. Luckily the pain in her chest had subsided so she could think clearly. The bluenette turned away from her best friend, nodding her head.

"Oh my god. You're Ladybug, my best friend is Ladybug!" Alya gasped, the situation truly hitting her, "Oh god you're Ladybug, the same Ladybug that got stabbed! Oh my god Mari are you okay?!"

The bluenette took a few long breaths before answering. "Yeah, I will be"

The aspiring reporter shook her head, "No, what happens if that happens during class? You might not have enough energy to stay conscious! I'll go tell Miss Bustier to let us off for today then we go to Damian's since he's the likely candidate to be Noir" Marinette knew not to underestimate her best friend's capabilities but she couldn't help but be stunned at her accurate conclusion. Hesitantly, she agreed and only after the bluenette was safely escorted out of the bathroom did Alya make her way to their classroom. After what felt like an eternity, though was probably only a few minutes, the amber-haired girl returned. "Come on, let's go get your stuff"

Once her belongings were collected, the two left the school building and towards the Grand Paris. While one hand was steadying the bluenette, Alya had her phone in the other. 'Texting Dami probably' The walk completely silent, but it was a comfortable silence. The aching in her chest would certainly appear in her voice and she didn't want to worry her best friend more than she already was. Marinette also knew that Alya was waiting to reach to hotel room before she asked questions, a good hero never discussed trivial matters out of the mask when it wasn't necessary, and Alya was definitely a good hero.

Soon enough, they arrived at the hotel and made their way to Damian's room. The green-eyed boy greeted them as they went inside, taking Mari from Alya so that she could lean on him. Once all three occupants were safely secured in the room, their three kwamis came up to check on their guardian.

Tikki's voice came first. "Marinette! Are you okay? I tried healing it but it didn't work I'm sorry"

"It's not your fault Tikki. It's oka-"

"No! It's not okay, Marinette! You're in pain! Plagg, Trixx is there anyway to get rid of it?" The red kwami anxiously floated towards her fellow companions.

"It's was caused by Hawkmoth" Plagg supplied. "Only Nooroo can remove his magic"

Damian hummed thoughtfully while Alya, though less panicked, was still slightly alarmed. There was still one question that left unanswered. What were they going to do now? Marinette's train of thought kicked in. 'We might have to expand our team sooner than expected...'

"What's the plan?" It was Alya who spoke, the reporter recognised the look of thought on her best friend's face.

"I think... I think we need to bring in more heroes" the bluenette replied hesitantly. "I'll give it some more thought before we bring anyone in"

Alya nodded. "Say, do you think I should practise my illusions? I could try to make them more fluid and realistic" Marinette approved for Alya to practice and watched Rena Rouge jump from rooftop to rooftop. The bluenette turned to her boyfriend.

"I'll look at the copy of the Grimoire, maybe it'll reveal a way to heal me, or subdue the pain at least." The blue-eyed girl blinked as an idea popped in her head. "Why don't you join me? You tend to pick up on things quite quickly so maybe I could teach you how to read the language of the guardians"

Damian sat on the chair, gently pulled Marinette on his lap and peered over her shoulder, looking at the digital copy of the book on her phone. "Learning an ancient language could be interesting"

~~~

The green-eyed boy chuckled ever so slightly as the bluenette kept whining about how he managed to pick this up much faster than she did when Master Fu taught her. After some time, Marinette decided to go check on Rena Rouge in her hero persona, she took one of Damian's hoodies before leaving, though. This went unnoticed by the owner but not by his kwami. Plagg snickered at Marinette's sneaky antics before asking, demanding, for some Camembert. Damian ordered a selection of cheese to see if there was a substitute to the stinky cheese, there was no way he would go around smelling like a used sock. The black kwami didn't complain since it means he would have more cheese. As Plagg was eating somewhere in the hotel room, a ringing sound came from Damian's phone. Thinking it was one of his annoying brothers, he left it idle for a moment before reaching to answer the call. It was a face time request. From Jon. Pressing the accept button, Damian placed his phone on the coffee table while waiting for the call to connect.

"Hi Dami!!" Was what was first said when the call finally connected. He didn't necessarily like the nickname, it was reserved for Marinette and Marinette only.

"Hello, Kent" he replied, his eyes briefly glanced over to the black kwami in his room. Then he remembered something that Marinette had mentioned momentarily.

Marinette had pulled her phone out from her purse and pulled Damian in for a picture, Tikki on her shoulder and Plagg on Damian's head. Wanting to make her happy, Damian let his lips twitch ever so slightly, having a small smile, one that his family would scarcely see, on his face.

"Don't the kwamis appear on camera?" He asked when she had finsihed. The bluenette turned to smile at him.

"Their magic prevents them from being recorded or heard on camera, so no" Marinette grabbed her phone back from where she returned it. She handed it towards him where the picture was shown and sure enough, there were no kwamis insight.

"Magic never fails to impress me"

The bluenette giggled. "I know"

"So how's the City of Love? Found anyone yet?" Jon's tone wasn't in a teasing manner, like most of his brothers would usually have, instead his voice held genuine curiosity. Again, Damian noted how much Jon would act like an excited puppy.

"It's adequate" He stated simply, he purposefully didn't answer the second question. Unfortunately for him, Jon managed to pickup on the fact.

"No. Freakin'. Way. You found someone! What's their name? What're they like? Do you have a crush or you and them together? Wh-" His voice was cut off by the sound of Damian's hotel door opening. He was thankful for the interruption before realising it was Marinette who entered, wearing his hoodie.

Completely forgetting that Jon was on call, Damian turned to the bluenette. "Is that my hoodie?"

Marinette, noticing Damian was speaking in English, switched to English as well. "I may have taken it as I left but you have no proof" She made her way to the couch, hugging her boyfriend from behind before noticing the boy on the phone. "Oh hello!" She greeted.

"Woah! Hi! Are you Damian's girlfriend by any chance?" The big wide smile that appeared on his face when she confirmed his suspicions, could rival her own. "What's your name?"

"Marinette"

"It's nice to meet you Marinette! I'm Jon, Dami's best friend!" He reminded her of Adrien, both had excitable personalities and they were both enthusiastic rays of sunshine.

"Self-proclaimed" Damian muttered under his breath.

Marinette, though having a smile on her face, jabbed the green-eyed boy in the ribs with her elbows, "Be nice, Dami"

"My name and nice are not usually in the same sentence" He smirked at her offended expression.

The bluenette huffed as she folded her arms across her chest. "Well when you're with me you're much more than nice"

"Well you are my girlfriend, it's hard not to" Marinette shot a playful glare at Damian, which was by no means intimidating in the slightest. "Such as right now, I feel like I'm being intimidated by a cupcake"

The blue-eyed girl's cheeks dusted with a light pink before she turned her head towards something in the room, muttering incoherently. Damian couldn't pick up what she was saying so he pulled her into his body, her begrudgingly leaning into the embrace.

Jon could tell that Damian had gotten soft and was completely smitten for the noirette. In all honesty, he was happy he could find someone like her. Despite only briefly talking, he could tell she was a pure soul. "Well I gotta get going. See you lovebirds later!" And the call disconnected.

"You're best friend seems like the cheerful type"

"Self-procla-" A soft pair of lips on his own cut off the words he was about to say. He didn't mind, he was just annoyed that this was a very convenient way to get him to shut up.

"Self-proclaimed or not-" Marinette began after she pulled away "-you still care about him greatly, much like you do with your brothers."

"You always try to think of the best in others" He muttered, his voice muffled as he placed a kiss on her temple. "Where's Cèsaire?"

"She returned to school, hey do you want to get something to eat while I'm still here?"

"Sure"

~~~

The two had sat down in the dining area, both scanning the menu for something that caught their eye, when an akuma made it's presence known. The couple quickly came to the the scene, the Akuma seemed to be a ten year old girl. Le Chien and Rena Rouge were quickly to arrive as well, with Le Chien providing the information on her backstory.

"Apparently, from what I heard, she got ridiculed for getting a participation reward" The dog-themed hero supplied, eyes dropping ever so slightly. "Poor her"

"If we deal with this swiftly, we'll be able to help her" Ladybug called upon her lucky charm and was given a long, spotted javelin. The spotted heroine noticed how the girl's weapon was also a javelin, just with a more pointier end. Her eyes darted all over the scene, first to Noir who was duelling the Akuma, then to the two heroes at her side. Quickly formulating a plan, Ladybug turned to Rena Rouge. "I'll need you to create illusions of the two of us, we'll able to confuse the Akuma and while it's confused-" The spotted heroine turned to Le Chien. "-you'll be able to identify the akumatized object"

Rena and Chien nodded while positioning themselves to attack. Ladybug, javelin in hand, joined Noir in the duel. Rena joined too after a music note was played and many clones of the hero team were created. The Akuma, however, was tactical and had managed to narrow it's opponents down to the original trio. This was when the main part of her plan was to take place. Ladybug slowly distanced herself from the fight, sending a signal to Noir to get him to do the same.

Once noticing her signal, Noir took action. "Rena, fall back" The fox-themed heroine shot a shocked look at the black cat hero before hesitantly obliging. With all three heroes equal length away, the Akuma struggled to decide who to get rid of first, Ladybug had other plans. Using the moment of uncertainty to her advantage, the spotted-heroine charged at the Akuma, knocking the Akuma's javelin out of their reach with her own. While Ladybug was in the air, jumping over the Akuma, Le Chien had not a moment to spare.

"Fetch!" His boomerang lit up and he threw it at the Akuma with great force, the glowing boomerang snatched one of the many medallions resting on the Akuma's body before returning. A purple butterfly emerged as the dog-themed hero threw the medal on the floor.

A spotted yo-yo was quick to capture the fluttering creature. "Gotcha. Bye-bye little butterfly" Once freed from it's magical imprisonment, a white butterfly emerged. Javelin in hand, Ladybug threw it in the air, erupting into many magical ladybugs. "Miraculous Ladybug!" Once the ladybugs subsided, all four heroes fist pumped.

"Pound it!"

They were interrupted by the sound of three miraculous beeping. Sharing a chuckle, the superhero team parted ways, Ladybug and Noir leaving together of course. They arrived to the sound of Damian's phone being bombarded with notifications. With a sigh, the green-eyed boy went to check what the messages were while Marinette brushed through her hair. He hummed.

"What is it?" The bluenette asked, placing the brush down on one of the cabinets.

"Your uncle released his album, the song you provided the vocals for has already reached number one in a few countries" Marinette blinked in astonishment.

"I- already? Wow..." She couldn't really figure out what to say. In her defence, what do you say in reply? "Hang on, wait I'll be back" The girl left and Damian decided to occupy himself by rereading the digital copy of the Grimoire that his girlfriend had sent him. It was quite a simple language once you get used to it, most of the symbols were shaped similarly and it was quite an easy concept. Around twelve minutes later, Marinette returned with a few boxes. "I brought some of the things I made for your family. I thought it would be best to give it to you now before I forget"

Damian removed the weight in her arms while smiling. "Thank you, Angel"

"Anytime, also-" The bluenette took something that was hidden behind her back, since she had an oversized hoodie it was easy to. "-I made this for you" It was a hoodie of her own design, ever so subtly Robin themed.

Putting the boxes near his suitcase, Damian walked back over to Mari, delicately handling the woven fabric almost as if he were in fear of ruining it. The green-eyed boy slipped in on, it fit like a glove with a little bit of leniency to provide warmth. Turning back to the bluenette, Damian found her analyzing the piece of clothing in him, as if looking for mistakes needing to be fixed.

"Does it fit okay? Is it comfortable? Do you like the design?" Marinette kept rambling on with questions about the artwork that he was wearing. Walking closer, he enveloped the bluenette in a hug, her face buried in his chest while he stroked his fingers through her midnight hair.

"Thank you, Habibti. I am very grateful for this gift, but you really didn't need to make me one"

She looked up at him and huffed. "I wanted to and besides-" her arms snaked up his chest and made their way around neck, her fingers lightly tugging on the hairs on his nape. "-it looks good on you"

He hummed, his hands trailing down to her waist, "if it was made by you, it's bound to be" The green-eyed boy placed a slow but heartfelt kiss on the forehead. "I'm not sure about you, but I'd like to listen to the completed song"

Marinette whined but went to get her phone anyway, Damian chuckled at her antics before returning to the pages of the Grimoire he was reading. In the background, he heard the plucking of a strings instrument followed by chimes from what could've been a triangle. The genre itself wasn't what first came to mind when someone mentioned 'Jagged Stone' but the man was fully capable of creating great songs in any music style. His point was further supported when Marinette's voice echoed through the music. Damian unknowingly smiled as he listened to his beloved's voice, but something else caught his attention. Flicking through the pages, the green-eyed boy came across a page relating to both the Ladybug miraculous and the Butterfly miraculous. Briefly scanning the ancient letters, he caught the bluenette's attention.

"Angel, did I translate this correctly? If I did then..."

Marinette, intrigued, came over to peer over her boyfriend's shoulder and found him looking on a page she hadn't seen before. She scanned it hastily, her palm covering her mouth as she finished. Damian looked over at her expression, meaning that he had translated it correctly.

"...I believe I found a way to subdue Hawkmoth"

———

Taglist: @little-bluestar,@miracleofadisaster,@frieddonutsweets,@jjmjjktth,@genderfluidmoma,@starlit-dreaming,@icerosecrystal,@lolieg,@kashlyn, @mochegato,@eggadoodle,@walkingthroughonautopilot, @toodaloo-kangaroo,@lady-bee-fechin,@weebjai1

[illfoandillfie]

Pet Names, Double Dates and Other Fiascos

READ PLATONICALLY

Request:  SECOND ARO FIC OH MY GOD !!!! maybe them getting a lil dirty and ben really does a number on reader, so he takes her to mcdonalds or sumn and the waiter says something along the lines of “you’re such a cute couple!” and reader gets really uncomfortable with it maybe??? and ben being taking her home and cuddling her PLATONICALLY and he’s like “it’s ok we don’t need to let anyone else’s opinions affect us”

Pairing: Aromantic!Fem!Reader x Ben Hardy

Summary:  It's (nearly) all fun and games until someone assumes your relationship is romantic.

Warnings: Smut, kitchen sex, floor sex, oral sex (f receiving), a mild hint at choking, vaguely dom!Ben but not intentionally lmao, discussions of aromanticism and queerplatonic relationships, not as dialogue heavy as the first part though. 

Words: 7, 264

A/N: Happy Arospec Awareness Week!! Big thanks to the anon who sent in that request when I asked for ideas for future chapters. I put a little bit of a twist on your idea but it’s fundamentally the same. Also the last scene is one that I’ve been thinking about for literal months now and I finally managed to fit it into a fic! 

As always, if you’re curious about anything to do with aromanticism I am very happy to talk about it and answer questions! 

Taglist:  @atomic-watermelon @kellypenac @labessieisallama​ @deakyclicks​ @jennyggggrrr​ @drowseoftaylor​ @hannafuckingsucks​ @i-cant-hangout-im-drumming​ @queenmylovely​ @ilovequeenmorethanyou​ @johndeaconshands​ @borhapbois​ @stardust-galaxies​ @cherries-n-rocknroll​ @scorpiogemini

The day had started off well. You woke with Ben tucked up under your arm, his legs curled up towards his chest since you’d stole the covers as you’d slept. Your face was pressed against the back of his neck and you felt him shift as you sighed sleepily and tried to keep from waking. Squeezing your eyes shut and pretending you hadn’t stirred must have worked because the next thing you knew was waking up to an empty bed and tinkly tapping sounds from somewhere else in the apartment. Groggily you shuffled out from the inviting comfort of the mattress, stretched, and pulled down the hem of the shirt you’d slept in to better cover your otherwise bare thighs before following the noises. You found Ben, still in his pyjamas (well, his boxer briefs) in the kitchen, dropping a couple of toasted waffles onto a plate, humming to himself.

“That for me?” you asked, stifling a yawn. “It can be,” he said, passing the plate to you with a quick kiss on your cheek, “There’s some cut up fruit and the maple syrup out on the coffee table and there’s coffee brewing over there,” “Thanks Benny,” “You’re welcome, Puddin’,” “Puddin’?” “I thought it was cute,” “Very cute.” You laughed as you reached for your coffee, unable to help but smile as you left the room. The first few months of your partnership had taken some adjusting and one thing Ben had decided he would do to make you both feel more at home with the dynamic was to come up with some non-romantic based terms of endearment for you. You’d vetoed things like baby and honey straight away, all of them a little too heavily skewed towards romance, or just reminders of past relationships you’d tried to force yourself into, for you to enjoy them. But, as Ben had said, he liked a good pet name, and he’d seemingly been determined to prove as much, constantly coming up with new things to call you. You, never really one for pet names anyway, mostly stuck with Benny or Benjamin if the situation called for something longer but you had a few other go-tos – things like Pet and Blondie as signs of affection, or Handsome and Tiger when you wanted to make him blush.

A few minutes later Ben joined you on the couch, placing his coffee down beside yours, almost spilling it as he watched the news story that was playing. “Remember we’ve got that double date with Jill and Martin this afternoon,” you said, the memory only just coming to you yourself. “Yeah, what time was that?” “Hang on, I’ll check the chat.” You scrolled through the messages on your phone with one hand while you ate with the other, “uhhh right, yeah, meeting at the bowling alley at 1.30.” “Bowling? Good, better than another shitty movie,” You laughed, “hey the last one they picked wasn’t too bad.” “Yeah I know, just not in the mood for it since I’ve been on set all week. I know if I went to the cinema now I’d just get distracted thinking about all the behind the scenes stuff which isn’t ideal for becoming invested in the story. Plus they’re always choosing romcoms, doesn’t that get annoying for you?” “Not really,” you shrugged, “I mean, do I sometimes wish they’d branch out? Sure. But I enjoy romance in fiction I just don’t need it in my real life. Don’t get me wrong though, very happy to do something different this time.” “How long d’you think we’ll be out?” You shrugged, “A few hours maybe?” “We should pop to the shop on the way back then. You need milk and we could get something nice for dinner.” “Sounds good. Does that mean you’re staying over again tonight?” “I was planning to, yeah. Barely saw you last week so I was hoping to spend all weekend with you to make up for it.” “Bet you regret agreeing to go out with them now,” “Kinda. S’pose it’s too late to cancel though,” “Nah you still could but you know they’ll get stroppy about it and we’ll have to go out with them next week. They don’t have any other couple friends since Neil and Percy split and Bianca took her fella overseas.” “Yeah, wasn’t seriously suggesting it.” “What would the plan have been if we did cancel?” Ben chewed a mouthful of fruit thoughtfully, “you, me, your bed. No need to be too quiet since Sophie’s still out,” he glanced at your roommate’s bedroom door, his eyes swinging back to you as he continued, “Or y’know, we could do a puzzle and listen to music all day, have a cat nap after lunch, whatever.” “You’re cute when you’re being all lazy,” “There would be nothing lazy about it thank you very much,” “Cat naps aren’t lazy?” “You know that’s not the part I was talking about,” “It wasn’t? Then what won’t be lazy,” you tried to hold back a giggle in the middle of your faux confusion but broke when Ben blew a raspberry at you in response.

Nothing more was said about cancelling as you finished your breakfast, though truthfully you probably wouldn’t have minded if Ben had cried off sick and rescheduled the double date. But you both decided that Sunday would be a day for just the two of you to make up for having to spend Saturday afternoon with others. Instead, you spoke of the week just passed and commented on the news still playing on the TV. When you were finished (Ben using the last corner of one of his waffles to swipe the remnant syrup from his plate) you stood and stacked the sticky dishes in your arms. Ben collected the coffee cups and a few other assorted dishes from the previous night, leading the way towards the kitchen and the dishwasher. He loaded his small collection onto the shelves before turning to grab the top plate from the pile you held. A noise of disgust rose from his throat as you held the plate out and he miscalculated the trajectory, his palm landing in a puddle of syrup and fruit juice. You were torn between laughing at his expression and taking the opportunity to toy with him a little but, always ready to tease him, your desire to see him blush won out. Trying not to smile too much, you reached forward and wrapped your hand around his wrist, pulling his palm closer so you could lick the sweet syrup from his skin. Predictably his cheeks turned pink and he pulled his lip between his teeth as you let him go with a laugh. “Bet you’re really wishing we didn’t have to go out now, huh Tiger?” Ben didn’t respond but he did react, his eyes locked on you as he swiped his fingers along the same plate and held them out in offering. Not quite sure where things were heading but very keen on finding out, you leaned forward and let your lips part slightly. He took the action for what it was, an invitation, and trailed his fingertips across your lower lip before slipping them between the two. He watched closely as you sucked his fingers deeper, using your tongue to lick up the sweet residue. There was still an element of novelty with this aspect of your partnership. Still part of you that was intensely aware that it was Ben’s fingers in your mouth. There wasn’t any hesitation though, hadn’t been since that first time when you’d both had to psych yourselves up to actually look at each other naked. But there was a part of your brain that was almost surprised when you found yourselves at the edge of a sexual situation. You suspected he was similarly discombobulated by how easy it was for you to end up there, how frequently playful teasing and friendly jokes turned into hands grasping at bed sheets and breathless moans against sweat-slick skin. He pulled his fingers free from your lips, unwilling or perhaps unable to shift his gaze away from the thin string of saliva that connected them like some kind of erotic spider web that you were both already caught in. You waited to see what he’d do next, feeling your heart race in the pregnant pause so full of potential. And then he moved. You laughed as he grabbed you around the waist and lifted you at the same moment he stepped towards the bench, your legs instinctively wrapping around him. He kissed you too, hungrily, as if it were impossible to resist. You’d looked down at him and suddenly been pulled towards each other, lips meeting with all the force and attraction of a magnetic field. Usually, he would have had a hand against the back of your head or your jaw but carrying you meant both his hands were already occupied so instead you substituted your own, tangling your fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck to keep him from pulling away too far. As soon as you were safely positioned on the edge of the bench though his hands were free to fall elsewhere. One pressed against the small of your back as the other squeezed your thigh, encouraging you to keep your legs spread. Not that you could have closed them with Ben standing between them and not that the thought had even crossed your mind.

If you’d had all day Ben probably would have taken his time with you. Despite what he’d said earlier, you’d discovered Ben had a soft spot for slow and sensual intimacy. Making out that gradually built to passionate kiss-filled sex, foreplay that included soft caresses and whispered praise, anything that let him explore your body in intricate detail with his hands and lips. You’d been with guys like that before and had hated their insistence on linking hands and kissing you slowly. Those relationships never lasted long but with Ben it felt different, it felt good. Maybe it was because he knew you weren’t on board with overtly romantic acts and respected those boundaries you’d talked about so you never felt as if he were pushing you into a roll you didn’t enjoy. Or maybe he was just a better lover than they had been. Either way, it came to same result. You still preferred something less gentle and more energetic, though you felt you better understood the appeal of being held so close and kissed so tenderly. But with only a few hours before you’d have to start getting ready, Ben was inclined to speed things up a little. His hand quickly slipped up your thigh to press against your pussy, the cotton knickers you’d slept in the only thing keeping him from direct contact. You broke the kiss suddenly, the smacking sound loud in the small room, and dipped your head to press your lips to the notch between his clavicles. In response, Ben lifted his chin, exposing more of his throat to you and you took the chance to playfully nip at the junction where his neck and shoulder met. “Oi, no marks,” he said lwoly as you moved to kiss back up towards his jaw. “Afraid I’ll brand you with my initials?” “If you could legibly write your initials in hickeys I’d put up with whatever teasing the makeup ladies gave me,” “I’ll give it a crack then shall I?” Before you could so much as flick your tongue over his skin, Ben had raised a hand and placed it over your mouth to keep you from testing our your writing abilities, “Don’t think theres enough time, Sugar, but if you really want to I’ll let you try tonight, on my thigh where no one is likely to see it.” “Make it your arse and you’ve got a deal,” you said though it was a little muffled by his palm. “Fine,” he laughed, drawing his hand away, “But then I get to try it on you too,” You nodded, grinning, and then both fell into giggles, leaning against each other’s shoulders. This was what you’d hoped for when Ben had first approached you with the idea of being partners, what you’d been afraid you’d never actually find. Someone who would follow your tangential jokes even if it delayed sex. Someone you could be yourself with. You were distracted from the thought as Ben pressed his lips to your shoulder over the sleeve of your shirt. “Should I continue?” he asked, still smiling though softer, his fingertips lightly dancing over the crease of your thigh. “I’d be offended if you didn’t” “Can’t have that,” he leaned in to catch your lips once again, at the same time resuming stroking you over your panties so that you felt all the air leave your lungs in a rush. It felt good but you need more and so shifted your hips, trying to press yourself harder against his fingers. To get more leverage and better brace yourself as your centre of gravity changed, you dropped a hand behind you. Intuitively, Ben shifted the hand on your back higher and closer to your side to help keep you steady, the other still drawing lines along your clothed slit. You gasped as his thumb took up residence against your clit, rubbing it firmly so a visible damp patch began to form on your panties.

Ben grinned at you as your breath came harder and dragged his thumb back down away from your clit towards the leg of your underwear. Still watching your reactions, he twisted his fingers up under the material, gently tracing them along the same path they’d just followed only now he could feel your wetness directly. “I’ve got an idea,” he said, leaning close to your ear, as he circled your entrance with a fingertip before pressing it into you, “of how I’d like to fuck you right now. It might take a little flexibility on your part though. I mean, nothing too much, just getting your legs up on my shoulders.” Curious, and more than a little distracted by the addition of a second finger inside you, you nodded, “Sounds fun.” “Knew you’d say that. Just tell me if it’s too uncomfortable,” “Will do.” You leaned forward as Ben moved back a little, taking his fingers with him, giving you enough room to drop your hand to his crotch and grasp his stiff length through his undies, “Just get on with it.” “Puddin’ was too nice a nickname for you. Sugar too.” he gasped as you dragged your palm along his length and back again. “What’s the matter, Tiger?” “Maybe I should call you Tiger, if you’re going to keep grabbing my cock like that,” You laughed and let him go, leaning back on your palm again, “Tigress? Whatever, doesn’t matter. Are you going to fuck me or not?” “No I just wanted to get my dick hard for no reason,” he said sarcastically, poking his tongue out at you as he pushed his underwear down. “You’re such a –” you broke off with a sharp gasp as Ben tugged your underwear aside and pressed into you without warning, “dork.” Ben chucked and leaned in to kiss you quickly before readjusting your position a little by pulling you closer to him so your arse was right against the edge of the bench. Slowly he rolled his hips against you, pulling back and thrusting forward again, finding a rhythm that worked. You leaned back on both palms as Ben grabbed you by the waist, the other resting on your knee to keep it pressed against his side. “This feel alright?” he asked as he gave another thrust, hitting a spot deep inside you. “Mmhmm,” you nodded, able to feel yourself growing wetter with each stroke of his cock. “What about this?” Ben shifted first one of your legs and then the other to his shoulders, encouraging you to bend them at the knee. His hands moved to your sides, fingertips digging into your back as he pressed you even closer. The effect was that you felt as if you were almost folded in half but it wasn’t too uncomfortable. There was an almost weightless feeling to it and any slight awkwardness you felt with your chest meeting your thighs was a small price to pay for just how good Ben felt once again moving inside you. You tightened your fingers against the benchtop, wishing there was something you could grab onto as your whole body rocked with each of his thrusts, the position allowing him to penetrate you deeply, continuously brushing against a number of spots that sent electric spikes of pleasure through you. “Fuck,” was about all you could think to say. “That a good fuck?” Ben questioned, voice gruff with his exertions. “Yeah, yes, fuck, so good,” “So you like when I do this?” You let out a soft moan as he roughly fucked into you again, timing it just right. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he half laughed, turning his head to kiss your leg before leaning forward to catch your lips again. After that there wasn’t much room for talking. Ben, having assured himself that you were happy, speeded up his rhythm, clutching you tightly to keep your legs from slipping off his shoulders. His breathing became rougher, matching your own, as he drove into you, though he still kissed you as much as he could, panting against your lips, swallowing your moans and pushing whatever air he had into your lungs.

You could feel your orgasm bubbling up, like a pot of water on the verge of boiling, but knew Ben would reach his first, recognising his expression as the one he wore when he was trying to hold back from the edge. “Fu-ck you’re s-so tight,” he grunted, squeezing his eyes shut as he leaned his forehead against yours, “gonna have to pull out soon,” You could feel him pulling away and tightened your calves on either side of his neck in an effort to stop him, needing just a little more to reach your own release. “Not helping,” he groaned, suddenly unable to hold off any longer, “Shit. Y/N.” You whined as he stilled to shoot his release over your walls. “Jesus,” he said a little breathlessly, as he pulled out, your underwear slipping back over you, and rubbed his neck absentmindedly, “Didn’t expect that to finish me off. Did you…?” You shook your head, letting your leg slip to be caught in the crook of Ben’s arm. “Well let’s fix that, shall we,” he said, already letting you go to bend forward, his face right between your thighs. You felt a puff of his hot breath against you as he hooked his index finger into the crotch of your knickers, pulling it aside, and then his tongue was on you, lapping up your arousal and coming to rest against your clit. He set up camp there, focusing all his attention on the small nub. You let yourself drop back so you were holding yourself up on one elbow, your other hand on the back of Ben’s head, tugging on his hair as he drew a series of moans from you. With a particularly firm suck, you felt your cunt pulse and something warm and wet ran from you, dripping over the edge of the bench onto the cupboard door. You had an idea what it was so it surprised you when Ben released your clit to lick between your lips, catching it with his tongue and spreading it along your slit. “We taste good together,” he mumbled, going in to trace the same path over again, greedily licking up the mixture. You swore under your breath, feeling yourself right on the edge of your orgasm, unspeakably turned on by Ben lapping up the load he’d just left in you. Sensing how close you were he dragged his tongue over your clit again, quickly sliding two fingers into you to help you along. You whined his name as he pushed you over the edge, continuing to pump his fingers into you as he again sucked at your clit, not stopping until he was sure it had worked. “Thank you,” you said as he straightened up again, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “You’re such a dork,” he laughed as he kissed you again, tracing his tongue over yours. The man clearly wanted you lightheaded from lack of air. “Shut up,” you pushed yourself to sit up straight again, expecting Ben to step away and let you hop down from the bench. He didn’t though, instead absentmindedly toying with the leg of your underwear as his gaze fell to your lips. “Seriously?” Ben shrugged, “Eating you out made me hard again. And,” he quickly ran his fingers along the edge of the bench, collecting some of the mess you’d left there, “I think it’s only fair you should taste us too,” If he’s said it less earnestly you might have batted his hand away and laughed off the suggestion but something about his tone made you grab his wrist to pull his fingers towards your mouth. He hadn’t been wrong, the mix of you both did taste pretty good, though you’d already got a hint of it as he’d kissed you. “Good girl,” he breathed out, eyes heavy with lust, “think you’re up for more?” “Can we move elsewhere? The edge of the counter is digging into me.” “Okay,” Ben began tugging your underwear down and kicked off his own before pulling your shirt over your head, making you laugh. He Helped you stand and then immediately pushed you to the floor. For a moment you thought he was suggesting you give him a blowjob and were about to question him but half a second later he was following you down, laying down and pulling you on top. “I meant like the bed or the couch at least,” you said somewhere between incredulity and amusement. “Too far,” he grunted, bucking his hips to encourage you to mount him properly, “need you now.” You rolled your eyes as you sank down onto his dick, “Do I actually get to cum this time or…?” “Only if you move,” Ben growled as he grasped your hips and pulled you down onto him, making you cry out at the unexpectedly sudden sensation of being filled. He let you ride him for a bit, alternating between squeezing your thigh as he rubbed his thumb over your clit and cupping your breasts, teasing your nipples as he encouraged you to fuck yourself on his cock faster. You kept to the same steady pace though, intending to drag it out a little, make him wait. But it wasn’t long before he got fed up with the deliberately slow pace you’d cultivated. Without warning you found yourself on your back, Ben grasping your thighs as he kneeled over you, pulling your hips up a little so he could fuck you the way he wanted. Your voice shook as you moaned and writhed in his shadow, your own fingers dancing over your clit to keep building your orgasm. “Isn’t that better?” he said roughly, laughing a little as you nodded your agreement, “Making me wish I had cancelled our plans. Could stay in your pussy all day.” You whimpered and rubbed your clit harder. “C’mon Pumpkin, so close aren’t ya,” You squeezed your eyes shut, moaning when you finally tipped over the edge. But that didn’t stop Ben. He waited until your orgasm had subsided and then pushed your legs wide and up into the air so he could lay directly on top of you as he continued to pound you. Your voice shook as a moan was pulled from your throat and you squirmed beneath him, feeling yourself once again being drawn towards release. There was something about his weight pressing down on you, his breath against your ear. Something about how close he seemed, almost panting as his hips stuttered in and out of the rhythm he was desperately trying to hold on to. He mouthed at your neck as you tilted your head to accommodate him, reaching a hand down to squeeze his arse cheek. You were sore from every other way he’d fucked you, tired from the two orgasms he’d already wrung from you, and yet the thought of stopping him, of ending the incredible pleasure you felt at his hands, was the furthest thing from your mind. A scream caught in your throat as he seemed to press you even harder into the floor, your legs shaking in the air as he grit his teeth and grunted with each harsh drive into you. And then he came, gasping against your throat as he felt you cum too, finally releasing the scream you’d been holding onto until the noise turned to breaths so ragged they felt like sobs.

Ben kissed your throat and then your jaw as he came back to earth, still laying on you. “How was that?” he asked softly when you’d remained quiet for a while. You drew in a deep breath, “Pum-Pumpkin?” “What?” “You called me fucking Pumpkin of all things, while trying to get me off?” “So?” “Jesus Ben,” you half-heartedly swatted at his side, “you’re lucky I was so close that it didn’t matter otherwise I might have laughed and completely lost the orgasm.”   Ben joined in your laughter, the sensation of his shaking body on top of yours slightly odd but mostly quite comforting. Until he shifted his hips without thinking and made you wince. “Sorry,” he said, pressing his lips to yours again as if to kiss away the discomfort before he gingerly pulled out of you and sat back on his knees, “But you did cum that time, right?” “I think you know I did,” you sighed, already able to see what was coming, as you let your legs drop to the floor. “So wait, how many times exactly?” You sighed and shook your head slightly. “Because if my maths is right, I think we got you to three times. Once on the bench and twice on the floor. One plus two is three, yes?” “Yes that’s how basic addition works Ben,”  “And who was it again that got you to three orgasms? Was it,” he pointed a finger as his one chest, “Moi?” “Alright asshole, you’re very impressive and a somewhat decent shag,” “I think you could be a little more grateful considering that performance. Might have been my best ever moves,” You pushed Ben in the middle of the chest, exaggeratedly rolling your eyes but, truthfully you were inclined to agree that it had been his best performance yet, at least in your experience. “Here let me help you,” he chuckled as you tried to stand, almost falling over as your legs shook. Quickly, Ben pushed himself to his feet and then offered you a hand up too, wrapping an arm around your waist to keep you steady. “Thanks,” “I hope I haven’t made it too hard for you to walk. Wouldn’t want to throw off your bowling cos you were fucked so right.” “Jesus Christ,” you couldn’t help but laugh.

The rest of the time you had before you had to leave was spent tidying up the kitchen, cleaning up the evidence of the mornings activities in case your roommate got home before you, washing up and getting ready to go. Which is really when things started to go downhill. If you’d realised you might have told yourself to stay home, come up with a quick excuse to get out of it and just played video games with Ben for the rest of the day or something. But there was no way to know what was coming so you didn’t. You talked happily as you got into Ben’s car (which was already parked on the street), excited to see your friends and looking forward to the afternoon.

The double date itself was quite fun, although draining. There was always an element of playing pretend at these sorts of occasions. Not that you minded so much. It was either play up the romance of your relationship or have to explain what you were to everyone and a few hours of pretending Ben was your boyfriend was honestly much simpler. At least bowling was better than the cinema. The first time you’d gone on a double date to a movie you’d sat down beside Ben, the popcorn you were sharing balanced on the arm rest between you. Martin and Jill had raised their armrest and were virtually sitting on top of each other, hands entwined. Which would have been fine except Martin had leaned over and said, “you know these things move” and looked expectantly at you. Ben and you had shared a glance and then tried to say you were both fine with the space but they’d given you matching looks that said they thought you were being weird or prudish or judging their willingness to cuddle in public. So you’d relented and shifted the armrest so you could spend the next two hours sitting with Ben’s arm around your shoulders, both of you more tense about the situation than you ever would have been if you’d just been allowed to sit in your seats like normal. Things had improved a bit since then. Ben had told you that one night when you’d gone out to a bar together, Martin had pulled him aside as asked why he never kissed you properly. Ben had shrugged and said he didn’t like PDAs, that he didn’t want photos to spread or anything like that, especially since it was still so new, and Martin had accepted it. They began to see that your ways of being affectionate were quieter, stealing sips from each other’s drinks, a warm hand against a knee, dumb nicknames that made you both laugh. Even if Jill did sometimes still try to convince you that there was nothing wrong with snogging in the middle of a busy street. Nonetheless you never felt fully able to relax when it was just the four of you. Always conscious of how they saw you, always worried that they’d decide you weren’t being affectionate enough and would tell everyone else you were going through a rough patch which would lead to more scrutiny. While at the same time worrying that one of them would start asking how serious it was between you and Ben, were you thinking about the future? Could you see yourselves moving in together? Was he the one? And it took a lot of energy to constantly be alert about what you were saying, always careful to not accidentally give away the secret truth of the situation. Bowling was fun though and less pressure than other double dates you’d been on. You could get away with not holding hands or sitting on Ben’s lap since everyone was standing up frequently and it didn’t make sense to be on top of one another. You could share small pecks on the lips or else tight hugs to celebrate strikes. And Ben made sure to tease you for missed pins, just like he always had, with a few added silly nicknames. He called you his sweet little hotdog after a particularly bad gutter shot which had made you laugh so hard you choked on your drink, and made Jill give him a disapproving glance. He’d smoothed it over by letting her overhear him saying he loved you, whispering the platonically just for you.

By the time Jill had been declared the winner of the game, you were ready to head home and spend a night forwarding Ben weird videos and dumb memes. Ready to be allowed to just exist without needing to be romantically linked to anyone. But it wasn’t quite to be. Martin made the suggestion that all of you should head to McDonalds for dinner and before you knew it you were standing in line, waiting for the kid at the cash register to serve you. You leaned your head on Ben’s shoulder as you stared at the menu, and vaguely wondered how someone working in a fast food joint could be so bright and bubbly. Right up until Ben nudged you and asked what you wanted. “Um, can I get a quarter pounder and a frozen coke, thanks.” “And?” Ben supplied. “And what?” “Y/N I know you want dessert, get dessert.” “And an Oreo McFlurry,” you smiled and bumped Ben’s shoulder with yours as he laughed and finished paying. “You guy’s make a cute couple,” the girl who’d served you said, eyes following the path of Ben’s gaze to you, still smiling. She seemed to realise what she’d said, her ears turning red, but Ben thanked her and added, “I think I have to agree,” as he squeezed your hip, before moving away so Jill and Martin could order. You’d smiled at her too but it wasn’t quite genuine.

It wasn’t that you weren’t used to it, people assuming you and Ben were in fact a couple. You were. One or two weeks after you’d first agreed to try out being queerplatonic partners, most of your friends had put two and two together and worked out that something was going on between you. Of course they didn’t know you were aromantic and they probably didn’t have any idea what a QPR was so they’d really added two and two and got five but you weren’t about to correct them. As you’d said to Ben, it was too much too soon to do that. Maybe if the QPR thing worked out long term, maybe then you could tell them. And besides, they weren’t exactly wrong anyway. They’d originally assumed you and Ben were just hooking up after Martin had dropped in to pick up something he’d left at Ben’s and had seen you spread out on Ben’s couch with sex hair and a rather large hickey on your neck and Ben’s sweater hanging off your shoulder. He’d asked Ben who’d just shrugged in response and said it wasn’t a big deal. You estimated it took about a minute and a half to reach everyone else. The next time you’d gone out as a group you’d felt them all watching you and Ben closely, trying to determine if Martin with bullshitting them all or not. They’d all decided it was just sex though. Until you were clearly still together a month later and they decided it had to be serious since Ben had never successfully fucked a girl for that long without catching feelings. That was when they started referring to you as boyfriend and girlfriend. That was also when the comments about how cute you were or how they’d always known you’d get together had first started. The first few times you’d heard it, it felt weird but you figured that was just because it was you and Ben and you were still working out how to be partners without the romance. You’d been in relationships before though and didn’t have any major objections to anything they said so you found it fairly easy to deal with and mostly you didn’t notice it anymore.

Except now it was bothering you. Something about the girl’s comment had rubbed you the wrong way. Which made you feel bad because she was just a kid with a shitty minimum wage job who didn’t know you from Adam. She had no idea. She was just trying to say something nice to a couple of strangers. You supposed your dislike of the comment probably had something to do with spending all afternoon putting on the romantic act for the benefit of your friends. Maybe even something about the sex from earlier. Probably just exhaustion from everything, a shorter fuse. It could even just be PMS though you’d have to check how far off your next period was to be sure. Whatever the reason it felt…not wrong exactly just off. You stayed quiet during most of the meal, aware you weren’t being great company and aware that Ben had realised something was wrong since he kept glancing at you when the other two weren’t looking. “Y/N,” Jill’s voice cut through your thoughts, “Still with us?” “Yeah,” you said, pulling a smile onto your face, “sorry, just a bit tired. Didn’t sleep well last night,” That statement was met by high pitched oohing noises and Martin jokily reprimanding Ben for keeping you up. You forced yourself to laugh with them, “Not like that you pervs. Ben was filming a night scene yesterday so didn’t actually get to mine until what,” you looked to Ben for confirmation, “One-thirty was it?” “Something like that. I don’t know I fell asleep almost as soon as I put my head down.” “Me, not so much,” you shrugged, “It’s all just catching up with me now.” They accepted that excuse without question and didn’t aim too many more comments in your direction, letting you finish your food without having to keep your mind on their conversation. And pretty soon you were hugging them goodbye and promising you’d organise the next date as Martin told Ben to get you home to bed before you fell asleep in your ice cream.

Ben waited until you were safely back inside your apartment before he asked if you were okay. “We were meant to get milk,” you sighed, trying to push away the annoyingly persistent discomfort. “I’ll go out later and get some. Or we can get Sophie to bring some back when she comes home. Are you okay though?” Unsure if this was a situation where you’d want space, Ben hovered at a respectful distance until you stepped in close and leaned your head against his chest. As soon as he knew you wanted him there he wrapped his arms tightly around you, “What’s wrong?” “Not sure. Think it all just got a bit much.” “How do you mean?” You shrugged as much as his embrace would allow and talked against his chest as you tried your best to explain how flat you felt, “I think the girl who served us was just like the straw that broke the camel’s back, y’know.” “Did me agreeing with her make things worse?” You shook your head, “Don’t think so. I knew you meant it in a different way to her. Besides, the other two were in earshot so there wasn’t much else you could say.” “You know that what everyone else thinks of us doesn’t change anything about what we have, right, or what we mean to each other. It doesn’t change who you are.” You didn’t mean to say it but the words had escaped before you could stop them, “Wouldn’t it be easier if it did though.” “But then you wouldn’t be you and I love you, platonically.” You smiled and nodded as you stepped back a little, though Ben’s arms wouldn’t let you go too far, “I know, thank you. And I’m fine, just having a bit of an off afternoon.” “Are you sure? Is there anything else I can do to help?” “No, you’ve been perfect.” You leaned up to give him a quick kiss, “And I know I’m being stupid about it. I knew what I was signing up for when I decided not to come out to them. Besides, being back home with you has definitely made me feel better already.” “Do you want a cuppa or anything?” “Nah, think I might just go lie down and read for bit. Decompress a little, y’know.” “Okay. Give me a shout if you want anything, yeah,” he pressed a kiss to your temple and give you an extra squeeze before he let you go.

Slowly you headed to your bedroom, kneeling down at your bookshelf and running your fingers along the spines until you found the one you wanted. That particular book had seen better days. It’s spine was cracked, the image on the cover peeling away from the cardboard underneath. More than one page had begun to fray around the edges like an ancient treasure map in a cartoon, with little triangles missing and the corners permanently creased where they’d been dog eared a hundred times. But as you settled into the bed, Ben’s pillow still smelling faintly of his hair pomade, you began to feel more yourself. Ben was right. What other people thought of your relationship didn’t matter. He was still your Ben, the same Ben who’s hoodie had been living in your cupboard for years now because he spent so much time at yours anyway it just made sense to keep a spare there. The same Ben who’d bought you your favourite pair of sunglasses when you’d left your old ones at home by accident. The same Ben who’d gradually been reading his way through your entire bookshelf rather than buying his own paperbacks. You had too much history there and too much love for each other for anyone else’s opinions to matter. And your partnership was good. It made you happy so it had to be good.

The time passed quickly as you read so when you looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps and saw that a couple of hours had passed, you were a little taken aback. Ben poked his head round the corner and then stepped through the doorway when he saw you looked better. “Nice to see you smiling again,” he said softly as he crawled up beside you. Without thinking you lifted your arm so he could snuggle against you, his head on your chest. “What’re you reading?” “First Test by Tamora Pierce. First book in her Protector of the Small series.” “What’s it about?” “A girl training to become a knight. Gran bought it for me as a kid while we were on a holiday at the seaside.” Ben glanced at the worn pages, “Do you reread it a lot?” “Yeah a bit. The main character, Kel, is like the only aromantic character I know of so she’s kinda important to me.” “The main character’s aro?” “I mean, not explicitly. It was published in ’99 and the terminology to describe aro experiences didn’t really start being used until like the late 2000s and even then only in certain communities online. But Tamora Pierce did answer some questions on her website and said that as she was writing the series Kel became less and less interested in romance and sex so even though she didn’t have the words for it back then, she would consider Kel aro and probably ace too. And I mean, rereading them I definitely feel an aro sort of reaction to a lot of the romance stuff, even when Kel does start kissing boys and all that.” Ben leaned back to better see your face, “Will you read to me?” You leaned down to kiss him, unhurriedly, softly, letting your lips linger on his. “Is that a yes?” “That was a sorry I’ve been weird this evening kiss actually.” “Don’t worry about it,” he said simply, snuggling back down, his head once again resting on your chest and his arm thrown over your waist. You adjusted your grip on the book and began to read from where you’d left off, one hand running absentmindedly through his hair, both of you sighing softly as you relaxed into each other.

[masterjedilenawrites]

Blueberries and Cowboys: Chapter 4 (Cowboy Path)

A choose-your-own-adventure style fic. Refer to this Masterlist for previous chapters and alternate paths.

Chapter 4: The Party (Cowboy Path)

Pairing: Eli x reader

Content: Drinking, some angsty pining

Length: 2.4k

AO3 Link (In case you like it better over there, it’s okay, no judgement)

The gala was as elaborate and ostentatious as you would expect of a formal event at the Imperial academy. It was like the whole ballroom shimmered as glasses of drinks were passed around and ornate dresses swished about in dance. You'd certainly never been a part of anything so grand from your home world before.

The sight made you pause as soon as you entered through the doors. It was breathtaking.

You let Thrawn guide you around the ballroom, barely registering his path as you took in all the shiny and expensive details around you. You were especially enchanted by the handful of couples circling around the dance floor, seemingly floating along with the music. You hadn't danced in so long... properly, anyway. Shimmying around your room in your underwear after a shower did not count.

"The music is quite pleasant," said Thrawn from beside you. For a moment, you forgot that part of the plan for the night was to substitute the names of your targets for other subjects, so any potential eavesdroppers would be none the wiser to your true intentions. Anything related to music was supposed to symbolize one half of the plan: Eva and Arden. But because you were so caught up in the spectacle around you, and your inner longing to genuinely engage with it all, you didn't immediately pick up on Thrawn's true meaning.

"It is," you said with just a hint of wistfulness. Your eyes happened to be watching one of the more gracefully dancing couples, the only signal to Thrawn that he needed to help you refocus.

He cleared his throat just loud enough to get your attention and then flicked his eyes toward the entrance of the ballroom meaningfully. You followed his gaze to see Eva and Arden had now arrived. Eli would be keeping an eye on them, while you and Thrawn would track Burdick. Your heart sunk as you were reminded, yet again, that you were not here for a good time. Tonight was about Thrawn's mission.

"Do you think Eli has noticed? The music?" you quickly supplied, hoping Thrawn wouldn't doubt your support.

"Yes, he seems to be enjoying it." Thrawn then looked to a different part of the room, where Eli was standing next to his date. Sadie. She was a tiny thing, with perfect proportions and well-styled hair and wearing a dress that left nothing to the imagination. You suddenly realized who she was, not having connected the dots before. She was in a few of your combat classes and had this weird habit of pumping her fist in victory every time she landed a good hit. You and Eli had made fun of her together. Why was he now going out with her?

"Yeah, he does..." you said absentmindedly as you watched your friend. Eli was making a show of casually looking around while really paying extra attention toward the couple by the entrance. But then Sadie linked her arm in his and looked up at him with a sweet smile, and he returned the gesture with a smile of his own. Your previous feelings of awe and fascination over this event were quickly turning into something much more sour.

"Did you also notice we have an assignment due soon?"

The comment from Thrawn made you blink away from the troubling scene in front of you. The Chiss had not been watching Eli, actually sticking to the plan and scanning the crowd for the other person of interest. Commander Burdick, who would be referred to by discussions of homework, another innocent topic. Thrawn had finally spotted him over by an hors d'oeuvre table.

"Thanks for the reminder," you muttered. A tray of drinks passed by, held aloft by a protocol droid, and you took the opportunity to swipe at one and down its contents in one go. You could see Thrawn eyeing you curiously from your peripheral, but you made it a point to not look back.

"Perhaps we should stand out of the way," said Thrawn, taking hold of your elbow and guiding you through the crowd and over to an area where several tall cocktail tables were set up. You set your empty glass on the surface of one of them and leaned restlessly against it. Your eyes kept wandering toward the commander as he munched furiously on some kind of cubed meat, glowering at all who passed by. Eventually you'd have to help make sure he was glowering at Arden long enough to maybe get some ideas, but right now, with the night only just beginning, there didn't seem to be much need for you to linger.

"This is a fun song. Maybe we could dance for a bit? Pass the time?" you asked, swirling your empty glass around in a bored manner.

Thrawn stared at you for a moment, most likely trying to determine if you were using the special code that you were supposed to or if you were actually talking about music and dancing.

"I think we should discuss the assignment that is due," he said, almost in a reprimanding tone. "It is rather important."

You swiped at another tray of drinks passing by, muttering over the rim of the glass, "Who goes to a party to talk about homework?"

You were being salty; you knew that. This mission was important and you cared about it. You cared about your friends and what this meant for them. But it seemed the more alcohol you took in, the more annoyed you grew toward those friends. Thrawn was such a stick in the mud, and Eli was apparently a big flirt. Was this really the best way to fix their problem? Was it really worth missing out on a fun evening?

Thrawn didn't seem too pleased as you downed your second drink in a matter of minutes. He cleared his throat in that way he did when he was about to lecture you. You cut him off before he got the chance.

"So what was that surprise you were talking about earlier?"

He blinked at you. "I never mentioned a surprise."

"Yeah. You said you didn't disappear, you were working on something, and that I'd see soon enough. Well? What should I be seeing?"

He reached across the table and gingerly took your empty glass from you with a frown. "You hadn't noticed? There is only one assignment."

It was your turn to blink at him. He sighed and jerked his head to where Burdick was still standing.

"I made sure his date would be delayed in arriving," he said very quietly; you almost couldn't hear him above the din of the party. "So he wouldn't be distracted."

You looked over at the Commander, not very subtle in your observation of him, so it was no surprise the man noticed your staring and frowned even more deeply.

The sound of your name caused you to snap back to Thrawn, who was circling the table to lean in closer. He seemed upset; or, as upset as Thrawn could ever seem through his calmness.

"If you have other things you wish to be doing, I would much rather you leave for them, instead of staying and causing problems." His voice was low in your ear. You sighed at his words, feeling bad for how you'd been behaving.

Just a little bit.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite student," came the voice of Commander Burdick. The man had apparently decided to come over after discovering you'd been staring at him, however, he was very clearly addressing Thrawn and not you. "I'm surprised you'd even come to an event like this."

"The Academy has provided a generous occasion tonight," Thrawn slipped out of his scolding of you and into his usual demeanor without missing a beat. "It would have been in bad taste for us to not attend."

Though it had been your staring that'd called him over, it was only when Thrawn referred to you collectively that Burdick finally acknowledged you. He gave a grunt as a sort of laugh.

"What about that scruffy little friend of yours? He doesn't care about taste?"

"Eli's here..." you heard yourself saying. You also felt Thrawn tensing beside you. You tried to give him a reassuring look as you turned to point out your friend behind you, moving about on the dance floor with Sadie. And just beside them was Eva and Arden, as you knew they would be. The two couples seemed to be trying to one-up each other with their dance moves. You quickly turned away so you wouldn't have to register how exciting and intimate it all was.

"So I see," Burdick hummed. You couldn't tell if he still had the same frown from before, or if it was a new one in response to seeing his ex with a student. "You're not a dancer, Thrawn?"

"Only when the mood strikes, sir."

"Well if you don't show your woman a good time, someone else will." Burdick took a step forward and held out a hand toward you. Your eyes grew wide, panicking. That was certainly unexpected.

Thrawn quickly, and smoothly, jumped to your defense.

"Sir, I'm afraid she is not feeling well. I have simply been keeping her company."

Burdick looked between the two of you, and then briefly beyond at the dance floor, before giving an odd smirk and retreating.

"Very well. Enjoy your... company."

The Commander turned on his heel and disappeared into the crowd. As you watched the back of his head, you couldn't help but wish you hadn't frozen and had accept his offer to dance. It was probably going to be the only offer you got all night.

"What... were... you... thinking..."

You looked over at Thrawn, surprised he was still upset. He was pinching the bridge of his nose and scrunching his eyes.

"Huh? I made sure he noticed Eva," you defended yourself. "He asked me to dance, probably to make her jealous, but since that's not happening, he'll be able to focus his revenge on Arden now."

"That is quite the assumption, based on absolutely no evidence."

"There is too evidence--"

"And apparently we've abandoned all secrecy and discretion, too. Might as well announce what we're planning to the whole ballroom while we're at it."

Thrawn's piercing eyes looked down on you, looking more like fire than they ever did. You bowed your head for a few seconds, needing to escape the heat and cool down.

"I'm sorry," you said, finally looking back at him. "I didn't mean to... mess up on the homework."

You offered what you hoped was an endearing smile. Thrawn only left you hanging for a second before he relaxed just a little.

"You did not mess up," he stated, returning to his side of the table and finally taking up the drink still left sitting there. "But perhaps you should just observe for the rest of the night."

And observe you did. The rest of the evening seemed to both pass by in a shimmering blur, and crawl forward at an unbearable pace. You observed couples dancing, laughing, even kissing. You observed how the energy of the ballroom shifted from eager liveliness to unhurried intimacy as time drew on. You observed the hors d'oeuvres dwindle and the champagne lose its bubbles and the lights dim ever-so-subtly.

Occasionally you actually observed the "homework," whenever he happened to pop out from the crowd. Thrawn did most of the note-taking, pointing out under muttered breath how the commander was still fixating on his ex, how his frown seemed to change from grumpiness and anger to determination and craftiness. Whatever that meant. You couldn't ever pretend to notice half the signs Thrawn did.

But most importantly, you observed a certain shaggy-haired boy from Wild Space.....

The way he danced, somewhat stiffly, but not as clumsy or awkward as one might expect from someone who couldn't figure out a tie.

The way he seemed to so effortlessly keep an eye on his despised classmate while still paying attention to his date and all her friends.

The way he casually hung out with her friends in between dances, as if he'd always been a part of their group.

The way he held her.

The way he looked at her.

At some point, you'd finished off your fifth glass of champagne, and you were definitely feeling the effects of it. That was what you were feeling, you told yourself. Your stomach was in knots and your brow was feeling warm and your heart was beating in your ears, all because of the alcohol. It didn't have anything to do with your guilt from upsetting Thrawn earlier, or the fact that even though Eli had nodded your way a few times in acknowledgement, he hadn't once come over to make good on his promise to save a dance for you. Nope. It was the alcohol and nothing else.

"Thrawn," you said quietly, breaking the Chiss's concentration on something-or-other across the way. "Do you mind if I call it a night? I'm pretty tired."

His eyes flickered over at the amount of empty glasses you had collected beside you, but he didn't comment on it. Only nodded in understanding and returned back to his mission.

You sighed as you picked your way through the crowd that remained. Quite a few students and teachers had already left for the night, but plenty still remained, and it baffled you just how many were hoping - and fighting - to earn to a place in the Empire.

And then something caught your eye just as you made to push through the doors and out into the night. One last thing to observe.

Eli and Sadie were swaying to the slow song playing, just off the actual dance floor. It was like they were in their own world. Her hands rested against his chest, and his chin laid atop her head, and they turned in slow circles as they rocked back and forth, holding each other close. When Eli's face finally turned toward your view, you swore your insides were threatening to crawl up your throat and spill out all over the shiny floor.

His face was relaxed, content. His lips were turned upward in a pleased sort of smile you'd only seen a few times on him before, usually after he'd told you a nice childhood memory, or after he finished a hearty meal. This wasn't an act; this had nothing to do with the mission or your purpose here at this dance. He was happy, holding her.

Just as his eyes wandered from whatever peaceful place they'd been resting and locked onto yours, you finally pushed through the door and left.

[sunsumu]

Surprise!!

Inarizaki x Team Manager!y/n

Genre: fluff scenario

a/n: someone sent in a birthday req for inarizaki, i think they deleted their req tho ))): anyways today is (or at least in my time zone) is their birthday! i kind of rushed this because i didn't really know what to write..BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!! happy birthday!! sorry this is kinda of late. i didn't really get specific with the present y/n gets or the cake she eats because you guys can substitute it with what you like. this isn't my best best work, but i tried..anyways hope you enjoy!!!  -admin oli💫

“She’s turning the corner annnnnd.....SHE’S GONE! Alright guys, what’s the plan?”

It was their manager’s birthday in two days, so the team decided to plan a surprise party for her. They wanted to show her their appreciation for all she’ve done for the team.

“So Osamu will make the cake, we already got permission to keep it in the teacher’s lounge. The rest of us will do the decorations,” Kita explained.

As he continued he looked up at Atsumu.

“Atsumu, you have the most important part, you think you can handle it?”

“Pfft I can handle anything ya throw at me,” Atsumu answered with a confident smirk.

“You can’t even do ya own laundry without mom hollering at you ‘Tsumu,” Osamu said.

“Oi no one asked ya, ya ugly piece of shit!!”

“We have the same face dumbass.”

“You think I’m the dumbass?? What about-“

“Can both of you shut the fuck up??” Suna interjected. Hearing the twins bicker usually amuses him but this time it pissed him off.

The twins stopped fighting when they saw the look on Kita’s face.

“Anyways, Atsumu you will have the job of distracting y/n until we give you okay to let her come in.”

“Easy, I’m her favourite ya know.”

The whole team stares at Atsumu with disgusted looks on their faces as Atsumu gave a pleased, closed eye smile.

“I knew he has an ego but I didn’t know it was this bad,” one of the members whispered.

“Alright! Let’s do this Opperation y/n is now under go.”

“You’ve been watching too many spy movies, Aran. It’s making you meta,” Suna pointed out.

“Shut up eagle 2.”

Osamu makes eye contact with a make believe camera.

“People think Aran is the mature one but he’s lowkey a geek.”

“Where the fuck are you looking at and who are you talking to-“

“If you’re asking me Osamu is the meta one,” Aran added.

“JUST CUT TO THE NEXT SCENE ALREAD-“

The next day, the team was on their toes. y/n couldn’t help but notice that they were acting a little weird.

They were gathered together and kept whispering to each other. They kept looking behind them as if someone was following them.

She poked her head into their little huddle.

“So what we talking about boys?”

“AAAAAAAAH!!”

“SCATTER SCATTER CAT HAS ENTERED RUN. PISS HAIR PROCEED DISTRACTION”

With that the team scattered with a few rushed “hey y/n!!” and nervous laughter. Atsumu was left standing in front of you, staring at his team in disbelief.

“Did they just abandon me?? I mean it is my job to distract her but they wouldn’t even tell me what they got her for a present...” he mumbled to himself. 

“Jeez what’s up with them? Wanna go buy some bread from the cafeteria Atsumu?”

“Huh? What Oh yeah yeah sure,” he replied distractedly with a slight pout on his face.

He followed in y/n steps toward the cafeteria.

“Well that’s weird but then again it’s Inarizaki. People think we’re intimidating but they’re kinda off...” y/n thought to herself.

She decided to ignore their behaviour for now. Maybe if she messed with Atsumu he’ll spill the beans, but right now all she wants to do is go home and sleep.

At practice things were a little off. It was shorter than usual and the team seemed distracted.

“Alright, tomorrow’s practice will begin later than usual, so you guys don’t have to come early. That goes for you to y/n.”

“Will do captain!!” y/n replied cheerfully.

The team was in an awkward silence. The guys suddenly stared up at Atsumu. It took him a hot second to figure out what they were signalling.

“OH HEY Y/N!!”

“We’re standing next to each other you don’t have to yell-“

“Let’s go to this uhh place yeah this place after school tomorrow!! Since we have time before practice starts.”

The team collectively let out a small groan.

“hmm...sure! I got nothing else to do. Anyways I’m gonna leave first, see ya tomorrow!!” y/n said tiredly.

y/n walked out of the gym to head home, where her bed is waiting.

“This place.’ Nice one ‘Tsumu,” Osamu said sarcastically.

“Hey, it worked and she didn’t question it, so it’s FINE. You try to improvise on the spot.” he retorted.

Kita grabs the team’s five second attention span.

“Okay so tomorrow we meet up usual time. Atsumu you keep her with you at all times. We’ll bring in the cake and decorate the gym,” he said.

“What about the present?” their libero asked.

“I got that. I’ll bring it tomorrow and we can wrap it here too. It would look to suspicious if I walked into school with a present in hand.” Suna said.

“What did we get her?” Atsumu asked.

“Can’t tell ya. Ya mouth is gonna run loose.” Osamu replied.

Atsumu frowned, knowing it’s true.

“Okay, we all set for tomorrow? Everyone understands their roles?”

“Yessir!!” the team answered in unison.

“Day 2 of Operation y/n begins now.”

“Shouldn’t you be saying that tomorrow?” Suna questioned.

“Oh shut up with your technicalities.”

y/n’s whole day was the same as usual, ignoring the fact that the team has been weird lately. She feels like she forgot something though. Today feels like it should be more special but she doesn’t know why...

“Hey y/n let’s go!” Atsumu called from the classroom door.

“Coming!!”

Atsumu and y/n walk out of school together.

“So where are we going, Atsumu?” y/n asked curiously.

“It’s a surprise!” he replied with a wink.

The road they walk on slowly turns into dirt. Atsumu suddenly puts his hands over y/n’s eyes.

“Oh god, I always knew you’d be the one that kills me,” y/n said with a gasp.

“What the fuck are ya on?? No, I just want you to be surprised.”

Atsumu guided y/n forward and turned her. He released his hands from her eyes. In front of her was a field of flowers.

y/n’s eyes lit up with excitement and wonder.

“WOAHH ATSUMU HOW DID YOU FIND THIS PLACE?? ITS SO PRETTYY!!” she exclaimed.

“I have my ways. I knew you’d like it.”

He winked again.

The two of them spent some time wondering the field, being careful to not trample any flowers, and taking pictures.

Atsumu’s phone went off. It was a text message from Kita.

[Captain Kita: get y/n here in 10 mins.]

[Tsumu: will do boss!!]

“y/n!!! practice is gonna start soon let’s head back.”

“awww but it’s so pretty hereeee...can’t we just stay a little longer??” she pleaded with a pout.

Atsumu chuckles, “We can come back tomorrow if you want.”

y/n eyes are lit up with the excitement of a child.

“REALLY?? YOU’RE DA BEST ATSUMU!!” she exclaimed while hugging him.

The both of them walked back to school, talking about their plans to come back to the flower field.

[Captain Kita: you can bring her into the gym]

[Captain Kita: everything is ready👍👍]

“y/n you go to the gym ahead! I need to uh go to the...restroom! yeha i need to go to the restroom real quick!!” Atsumu said as he ran off in the opposite direction of the restroom.

y/n walked up to the gym doors. She slowly opens them. She is welcomed with darkness. The lights are off.

Suddenly they flash on.

“SURPRISEE!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Y/N!!”

y/n was shocked. This was what they were doing? Planning for a birthday that she forgot she had and NOT her murder?

“oh my god...y-you guys didn’t have to,” she stuttered.

“We wanted to show you how much we appreciated you!! You do a lot for the club, y/n,” Kita replied.

“NOW OPEN YA PRESENT, I’VE BEEN DYING TO KNOW WHAT IT IS,” Atsumu yelled, kind of out of breath.

“Where did you come from-“

“Took the long way around,” he replied.

y/n takes the nicely wrapped gift into her hands. She immediately starts shaking it.

“y/n you’re gonna break it, just open it-“

y/n carefully takes off the wrapping paper. It was too nice, she didn’t want tear it up. What she saw made her so happy. It was something she has always wanted!!

“Oh my god, THANKS GUYS!! How did you know that I wanted this?”

“You’ve mentioned it a couple of times and I saw you looking at them on Amazon during our free time,” Suna answered.

Osamu turned to y/n and handed her a slice of cake, “Have some cake y/n. I spent all night baking it.”

y/n took a bite of her favourite flavour cake.

“THISHH ISH SHOO GOODJS OSHAMYU!!” she exclaimed with her mouth full of cake.

The rest of the team got their slices and sat down eating it. They were making jokes and laughing. All in all they were having a good time together. Opperation y/n was a success.

[sepublic]

Eda and Loss

           Even if Young Blood, Old Souls helped remedy the pain from Agony of a Witch… It also really added to it too, in a lot of other ways! Specifically, how Eda still insists on being selfless, but is also just sort of resigned to her fate… Because so many terrible things happen to her that to Eda, she figures it must just be her inevitable fate, the way things are. That bad stuff happens to her and that’s just how it is, and all Eda can do is ensure that others like Luz or King don’t have to suffer like her…

           Like, Eda barely survives petrification, and realizes she’s lost all of her magic- And her only reaction is a tired, used-to-this, acknowledgement of what happened before immediately moving on! It really saddens me how Eda is just used to this, to suffering and loss… She can’t even take the time to wallow in self-pity and misery, because she’s always got something else to deal with, or this is a step up from what she was resigned to; Even if it’s still a step down from what she once had! And obviously it’s so Eda doesn’t fall into despair, obviously she developed this coping tactic after years of bitter loneliness and ostracization after being cursed, no doubt an intense period of depression- But still.

           Eda deserves to feel bad for herself, and to have people comfort her and agree on this- And now she does, she has Luz and King and even Lilith! Eda has the right to scream and vent about the injustice that she regularly goes through, I just want to see a one-shot or even a canon scene where she finally just loses it and breaks down, as it all catches up to her the realization of the unfairness of it all… I want Eda to cathartically soak in those feelings of bitterness and anger and despair, as she just lets it out and admits that she is NOT okay, that this is terrible and she doesn’t deserve this, she deserves better and yet others way worse than Eda get good things in life… And she HATES it!

           Eda’s played the bigger person for so long, but you know what? She’s tired of that, what has being mature reallygotten her in the end, things just keep getting worse for her as Eda keeps losing things so what’s even the point, may as well only care about herself, HUH!? Just like Lilith…! And then Luz and King… They comfort and reassure Eda quietly, supporting her righteous anger and self-advocacy. And they tell Eda that she DID get something for all of her efforts, she got the two of them. She got the defense of all those people back in the Conformatorium, and obviously it’s not right that Eda has to actively work for that kind of dignity from others when that’s something she’s naturally due and owed as a person who never did anything wrong… But at least she has it, and Eda DID succeed in getting it. She got that for herself, Eda DOES accomplish things and she doesn’t have to worry about losing them- Luz and King aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon… They’ll always come back for her!

           Maybe that played a big role in Eda’s rage when Lilith kidnapped Luz- Eda had been resigned to loss, but then she gained Luz… And when Luz was threatened, Eda decided this was the ONE thing she could not take standing, the one loss she couldn’t bear nor allow- This was the one person she’d hold onto no matter what, she doesn’t care what others say, she doesn’t care if this is the divine order of the Titan or anyone else; Especially since Luz is a PERSON, not a thing! Eda already lost Lilith, she is… She is NOT losing Luz, not if she can help it!

          She’s sick of losing people and Eda has gotten enough self-love from Luz to recognize that she at least deserves to have this kid in her life… And then of course the truth of Lilith cursing her shatters Eda’s self-confidence, because her sister already took this happiness and magic from her, Lilith took herself from Eda, and now she’s taking Luz too?! And Eda becomes resigned to her fate, and is just glad that at least Luz is safe… When really Luz insists to Eda that she should ask for Luz’s safety AND presence alongside Eda.

           And Lilith, I think the tension between her and Eda would really spike in such a cathartic moment of release, when Eda is allowed to vent about her frustrations in life. But Lilith would AGREE with Eda’s sentiments that she deserves better, and cite how she spent most of her life trying to cure the curse because she thought Eda shouldn’t have to deal with it, shouldn’t have to suffer and hurt. Lilith messed up in many ways, but she DID do a lot of terrible things because she thought they’d be the best course of action for Eda… Lilith, as misguided as she was, was motivated by the belief that Eda was better than her, deserved better than her, or at least deserved better than this- Because Eda is the world to her.

          Lilith, who hurt her more than anyone else, agrees that Eda doesn’t deserve this, and… it must be so validating, that this enigmatic curser, their unknown reasons, which must’ve haunted Eda as she wondered why she did this, if there was a justification for her suffering the way Luz or Amity wondered the same… It WASN’T valid, Eda’s reaction and hatred for the curse was 100% right and basically the world is agreeing with her considering that entire crowd and her own curser agree! And it’s scary to consider the idea that there isn’t some divine reason for your pain, that it was all meaningless and unnecessary… But once you get the worst out of the way –and Eda is USED to that- it can really open the avenue for some self-love, and accepting good things for yourself and working for them, too! Demanding those good things, being rightfully entitled to them, and reclaiming your dignity!

           So Eda has to admit, get it off her chest this one positive thing, because she’s already unloading these negative feelings… She has to confess to Lilith that her sister’s return to her side means everything to her, that it’s one thing she lost and DID get back, and then the sisters just cry and sob into each other’s shoulders because they’ve messed up, they’ve lost so much and only had each other, and they almost lost that too… But now that bond is back, and if the sisters got their friendship back, maybe they can get MORE back from this world that they’ve lost… And if not, then what they’ve taken back and even received is just fine as it is, because having each other is all they ever needed as kids; Lilith never needed the Emperor’s Coven and she realizes this. And not only that, but they have Luz and King with them, too!

           Maybe this sensation of loss plays a role into why Eda collects human trash; She’s materialistically hoarding stuff, not just as a reflection of her Owl nature… But maybe it’s also a way to cope with the losses of the intangible things in life that TRULY mattered to Eda, by making up for it with random trinkets and treasures from another world- Giving herself a kind of compensation to make up for the one she was owed but never given by others. Of course, Eda would never substitute her treasures and trinkets for actual interaction with people, and she maintains her connections with King and Luz well… But it also helps to have that AND her stuff, you know?

          So it’s only all the more tragic that Eda ends up losing her human-trash business, because she loses the portal as well; But at least she got back her sister Lilith, and that’s a sacrifice she’s glad to make. Besides, it’s no different than being resigned to being dead, and NOT having anything in life because there is no life to begin with! However, Luz had to lose her way back home, and thus her mother Camila… and I think that’s something that could bother Eda later down the line, as she feels like she failed her kid and couldn’t protect Luz from the loss Eda’s always accustomed to. Eda got back Lilith, but would she have jeopardized Luz and Camila’s connection to do so?

          But I think Luz can reassure Eda that not only is she putting too much blame onto herself for something Belos was responsible for –and that’s a recurring theme of abusers making victims feel wholly responsible for things beyond their control- but Luz doesn’t HAVE to lose Camila… It’s not hopeless. Eda thought she lost Lilith, and now she has her back… And it hasn’t even been an entire year yet, Camila and Luz don’t have nearly as huge of an emotional rift between them because of another’s mistakes… Their separation is physical, but it’s not hopeless. If Eda can get back Lilith, and gain Luz and King, Owlbert and Hooty… Then Luz could get back Camila, too- And maybe Eda could get to meet Luz’s mom, too!

           Just… Eda deserves to be petty and immature and self-serving after everything life has thrown at her and she knows it… But she doesn’t take this one thing she’s at least due, because Eda’s so focused on giving to others. Eda doesn’t make her resentment Luz’s problem, she doesn’t let her grudge against the system prevent Luz from enrolling in Hexside… And Eda knows that the girl needs guidance and maturity, and so for Luz’s sake, Eda will steel herself and be the mentor she needs! Eda doesn’t want anyone to suffer and lose like she did, she’ll focus on giving things, even at the cost of herself, to others who arguably have it better than her, because they could get even more than what they have, and deserve to! She’s so selfless and strong, and Eda has invested so much into others even at her own sacrifice… So for once she deserves to go feral as a treat, to unapologetically beat up someone who makes a cruel remark about her curse.

           Eda has been so resigned, so used to loss that she just focuses more on minimizing her losses than actually keeping what she has, or even getting things back and earning new things along the way… And it’s until Luz comes along that Eda begins to change her stance, that Eda tries to hold onto Luz, even if this doesn’t last and that night ends with Eda sacrificing herself. Eda thinks loss is such an inherent inevitability of her, such a written-in-stone fate, that she basically tries to claim this on her own terms, by deliberately sacrificing things she knows she’ll lose anyway, by giving them to those who actually deserve it- Instead of letting those lost things fade away into oblivion meaninglessly.

          Eda is resigned to losing magic, so she figures she may as well lose it by protecting Luz, VS having it just dwindle away meaninglessly. She’s resigned to being petrified, so Eda figures she may as well throw herself into the beam to protect King and Lilith in the process. Eda is resigned to losing Luz moments before her execution, so she gives Luz the portal so Luz can at least go home. It’s like Eda knows it’s better to accept this than to fight it, so then she can take control and initiative of what she CAN change… If Eda accepts loss then maybe she can have a say in how it happens, and how it can also give to others as well. If she thinks that she loses everything and is given only pain in return, then Eda uses that pain to motivate herself to protect others from it.

          Maybe that played into why Eda chose to give Luz the Witch’s Wool cloak, initially meant to protect her! Perhaps Eda was resigned to eventually becoming an Owl Beast, to dying or being captured, and having that cloak taken from her… So why not give it to someone else who needs it more than her, a kid who has an actual chance at avoiding misfortune? Give it to Luz, who can make the most of this cloak and her own potential, and has been doing so; Unlike Eda, who had so much magical potential, but never got to properly explore it thanks to the Coven System and the curse.

          The worst part is that Eda WAS right- By reserving the cloak for Luz, it wasn’t confiscated with her when she was captured… And with the cloak’s protective abilities, Luz was able to succeed in rescuing Eda! So Eda’s kindness and investment in others does come around, and pay off… And the best part is that she never expects it to, she’s just being unconditionally kind! It’s always a pleasant surprise… Albeit because Eda’s expectations are always lowered, if not outright non-existent thanks to her horrific trauma.

          It plays into her cynicism, anticipating/assuming the worst and preparing for it… Such as thinking Luz will ditch her after finding Hexside as an alternate teacher, or after learning about the curse; So Eda tries to avoid getting too attached to this kid. Or when she’s afraid that Hexside will only traumatize Luz, so initially she tries to discourage her… While also giving Luz an out with that Quitter Badge on her first day, no judgment! Eda expects the worst for herself and so tries to protect others from it by offering a support network, a safety net to recover from mistakes and learn from them… So it really means so much more to her when good things happen.

           And Luz is such an excellent foil to this mindset… She’s positive, she’s still young and fresh, she righteously demands good things for herself and others and gets them, and Eda does everything to support this! Eda WANTS Luz to know that she deserves to get better things in life, she neither has to accept losses, nor minimize them… Nor just hold onto what she already has, Luz can make things better for herself! And Eda WANTS her to!

          Even when Luz lost the portal and her mother, she managed to hold onto Eda and her friends when she could’ve lost them as well- She got back Eda’s regular form, and got the help and companionship of Lilith as well. Luz even got people to protest against the Emperor’s Coven, on Eda’s behalf! Eda and Luz both make the most of a situation, sometimes even expand upon that- Luz is just a lot more hopeful and optimistic in that regard, and she’s got good support from Eda.

          It’s ironic that Luz’s name sounds phonetically similar to ‘Lose’, yet she’s gained so much for herself and others… And like Luz herself said; If she has to lose, she can make Belos lose a couple of things himself! Make the losses mutual, to deter them from anyone else who’d want to keep causing them, because they may not be as willing nor mature about handling sacrifice for such a selfish goal. Eda doesn’t have to lose anything, to give, and Luz wants to make her know this; That giving to others can, as corny as it sounds, be fulfilling in its own way, it can lead to one gaining a different kind of thing in life!

          Eda gave something as unconditional, as endless as her love and appreciation towards Luz, and Luz returned that tenfold… It’s sweet that Eda is resigned to loss and turning it into sacrifice for others, but Luz is here to remind Eda that she doesn’t have to just accept losing things anymore, just as Eda encourages Luz not to accept the status quo. If Luz can do it for herself and others, among them Eda… Eda can do the same for herself, after doing that for Luz and so forth!

          Like I said before- Luz is someone who asks why can’t she and others have it all, instead of just settling for the best option, and/or one of them… And she really learned that from Eda, who was normally resigned to loss, because she doubted her ability to get better things in life for herself, and thought she could only pass this opportunity on to others. Eda has always believed in the question of why can’t people have it all, she just began to see herself as the one exception… But no, why can’t EDA get in on this, too!? That’s something Luz can ask Eda to consider, and override any answer/justification she’s given, because Eda shouldn’t take no for an answer.

          She’s always questioning of authority, and been forging her own path, making her own things from seemingly nothing, finding value even in human garbage and creating her own meaning from them beyond whatever they were intended for… Just as Eda encourages others to make their own paths and identities beyond whatever anyone else, be it a Coven System or a Titan’s alleged will, ordains! You’re more than what others make/intend for you to be… Kind of like how the Blight kids could’ve been brought into this world by Odalia and Alador to continue the Blight legacy of ‘greatness and strength’, but the kids can choose to redefine themselves and make their own purpose in life, or how Luz shouldn’t settle for any ‘destiny’ and just make the one she wants for herself.

          Eda deliberately looks for and finds meaning in things, and if it’s not there she’ll make it herself; Like Luz’s own skills as a witch apprentice! Eda finds the inherent beauty in nature, and it’s an appreciation passed onto Luz, a philosophy to really pay attention and look, that leads to the discovery and reclaiming of lost glyphs! Eda finds something in rejection, in stuff and people considered outcast and detrimental, and it leads to her belief that fellow weirdoes really need to stick together, because they can find solidarity and happiness there, or create it anyway. People like Eda lost the approval of society, lost family members who rejected them… But from that rejection, they can learn and make a home for others to gain in return, as at least some compensation for their losses- A found family that could even more than make up for the blood family that had been lost! And if you can get back those lost familial bonds; The more, the merrier!

          Eda’s such a productive and efficient, headstrong person in regards to handling tragedy… But at the same time, just for once, PLEASE let her be unapologetically selfish! That’s something Eda was always due and owed, and yet she had to earn it… And Eda’s more than earned it multiple times over. I’m sure Luz and the others would be glad to provide, but just once I’d love to see some universal acknowledgement of how much Eda is owed, and actually give her something for once, without Eda having to fight and work tooth and nail for it. Eda doesn’t want others to suffer and fight for good things like she had to, it influences her kindness to Luz… Let her kindness come around to her! Eda is a GODDESS and deserves to be worshipped as such, she shouldn’t take “No” for an answer- Eda should take what she wants and is owed anyway!

[sanghyukstattoos]

Sincerely, aches and pains

Characters: Youngbin x Reader 

Genre: Fluff

Words: 2818

Summary: You always knew this time would come, as it does, however the pain was always the same- leaving you beyond exhausted at the most unexpected of times. Fortunately, you had the most caring and compassionate person to lean on, Youngbin ^~^

A/N: This was originally supposed to be a optional bias fic but after coming back to it in my drafts, all of a sudden I pictured Youngbin *giggles* Honestly, I was on my period when I wrote this so all those descriptions is my pain mirrored in my writing. 

It may have been winter, but the sun was still as unforgiving as ever in the morning. To battle the little demons that loved to disturb your sleep, you completely closed the curtains bound by a clip. Ridiculous you knew, but all in the good name of sleep. For this exact reason, the room was shrouded in darkness, however, something was amiss. At an unreasonable time, you threw off the covers feeling warm. From an unknown point, you sensed weak pain radiating to the surface. Snapping out of a daze, your eyes squeezed shut tightly as the pain powered through whatever was stopping it earlier. It must have been scientific, because the exact same pain was mirrored in the sides of your forehead. 

Moaning, you tried to move but could feel your bones creaking like a table with weak legs. Realisation hit you that you must have been on your period and the pain had exhausted your body even though you were asleep when the whole process started. Your first thought was to distract yourself from the pain so leaning over, you picked up your phone. Without the blue light filter, the harsh light illuminated the room and pierced through the safety of the darkness. Wincing, the lids of your eyes struggled to open so you just shut them and set the phone aside.

For the first time this morning, you recognised the pain. It was running its course in your body and the worst part? It had just started. Every other part of you was fine; your eyes would be better, your legs would be able to take you places and your hands would serve their function. However, the pain wasn’t just light, it took out whatever energy you would normally have in the morning. This left you frustrated since you couldn’t even do the simplest of things without feeling that discomfort lingering at a particularly large point in your lower stomach. 

Almost slipping back down, you found the last bit of remaining strength in your arms and pushed yourself up. Sitting up the pain intensified, however you couldn’t tell if you were just more coherent now to recognise the pain or if it had truly gotten worse within the last couple of minutes. Doubling over, you thought about Youngbin and wondering if he had any work today, debating whether to call him or not. Initially not wanting to worry him, the fact that he was supposed to be here at half past two came back to you. Fumbling around in the dark, your hands wandered the rough carpet, finding your phone. You made a spontaneous decision to just lay on the floor because even though it was a bit coarse, maybe the ground could make the pain go away. 

The continuous buzzing of the phone scared you because it wouldn’t stop. Not wanting to face the bright glare of the screen, you answered ‘’Hey’’ without knowing who was on the other end of the call. Under ricocheting pain, you felt a little annoyed that you had to speak to someone but that quickly disappeared upon hearing a familiar voice on the other side. ‘’Youngbin?’’ you recognised with a little smile in your voice. ‘’Hey babe, did I wake you up?’’ he spoke with a little tease following with, ‘’I’m sorry though’’ making you flush hearing the pout in his tone. ‘’You didn’t, I woke up pretty early’’ you said. With absolutely no warning, a pain struck down what you were about to say next. Unusual silence, Youngbin asked worryingly, ‘’Babe, is everything okay? Are you alright?’’, the latter question as a caution to soothe his worries. 

Hearing the sound of plastic rustling in the background, you tried to get back on the call saying, ‘’Yea, but today I woke up early because of my period’’. Alarmingly, he said, ‘’Oh no, you must’ve had a terrible morning then. In that case- please don’t tell me that you are on the floor right now. Sleep on the bed under the covers and by the way, I’m walking to your house.’’ and while you giggled at the first part, it was the latter that caught your focus. ‘’You’re in the area?’’ while asking him, you also felt excited. Finally, you didn’t have to wait for hours to get some cuddles and affection, something that happened on a daily basis but today you needed it more than ever. ‘’I wanted to surprise you but half way realised that you might not be awake but knowing that I’m closer now that you're in pain is a relief. At least, I don’t have to take two trains back’’ chuckling a little as he said the last part. ‘’Hey!’’ you say, straining, albeit a little softly. ‘’I’m kidding babe, kidding’’ he whispered trying to fake soothe you knowing that you got the joke. 

‘’I’m passing by a grocery, is there anything you’d like me to get you?’’ and you suddenly remembered the pool of crimson red blood collecting at the centre of your underwear. Wincing at the thought of the smell you were going to run into when cleaning that later, you pushed aside the thought and replied, ‘’Hmm, maybe chocolate covered peanuts and whatever else you want so we can have fake lunch together later’’. Fake lunch was basically lunch but with junk food as a substitute for real food and it had actually been Youngbin who first suggested it. It was your little thing and contrary to popular belief, you didn’t do it very often. Eating tons of snacks gave you the feeling that you were going to throw up but you could feel that today was something else altogether. ‘’Fake lunch sounds good. What about pads?’’ he inquired to which you responded, ‘’I already have pads at home. Thank you though, I can’t wait for you to get here’’. 

The smile on your face mirrored the smile in his voice when he said, ‘’I can’t wait to see you as well. Take care while I get there so sleep on the bed or try to freshen up. I know I’ll find you on the sofa anyways.’’ Coughing a little due to the recurring pain, you laughed saying, ‘’I’ll try, you know? It hurts so don’t forget, I’m waiting. See you from the sofa, babe.’’. ‘’Oh babe’’ you could hear the despair in his voice when he spoke knowing that you were currently in pain having witnessed it first- hand on multiple occasions. Immediately following his previous words he said, ’’Stay under the blankets and hold on, I’ll try to get there as quick as I can. See you soon babe, love you.’’ ‘’Love you too’’ you shyly replied as the call ended and setting the phone aside, you groaned over the amount of pain hitting your sides at full force.

Trying to roll over, you quickly realised what a bad idea it was as the left side of your body was completely engulfed in discomforting recovery from numbness from being on one side for too long. Deciding that enough was enough and that the pain wouldn’t stop, you stumbled as you tried to get up and walk to the bathroom (not forgetting to catch new shorts, underwear and a pad on the way) as you made your way there. Hunched over, you completed your business and swapped your stained clothes for new ones, mixing them in hot water and leaving them to sit in the bucket for an unknown period of time. A couple of hours should do for them you thought, as thoughts of resting immediately occupied your mind. 

Overwhelmed by the lack of energy, you decided to rest on the sofa, chuckling as your thoughts went back to the conversation you had with Youngbin earlier. Guess I’ll actually be on the sofa then. Going back to your room, you found the thick, fluffy blanket you slept with. Dark blue with circular patterns of white, grey and light blue, you carried it to the living room. Plopping on the sofa and finding the remote, you shifted through Netflix tired of seeing the same shows. Once you found a show, you developed a bit of an obsession for it and nothing else seemed right after that. It was also hard for you to find a show that you liked even though you loved plenty of genres. Moving over to Disney Plus, you watch Secrets of the Zoo from National Geographic which was interesting because it took you behind the scenes of the process with the animals and everything. Couple of minutes into the episode, you heard the sound of the door opening and it hardly took a second for you to know that he was here.

Excitement coursed through you as you debated whether to get up or stay on the sofa. In the midst of doing so, you saw a head peak into the doorway from the corner of your eye. Smiling as you turned, you greeted your boyfriend with extended arms and coming to you, he wrapped his arms around you, sitting the both of you onto the sofa. Into his embrace, you whispered a little, ‘’I missed you so much.’’ to which he instantly replied, ‘’I’ve missed you a lot as well sweetheart’’. Placing a delicate kiss to the crown of your head, he said, ‘’Let’s do something fun, okay? To take your attention away from the pain’’ and you nodded your head in agreement against his chest. ‘’Let me go get a hot bag for you’’ but you refused to let go of him as he tried to get up. Smiling at how adorable you were he said, ‘’It’ll only be a minute and then I’ll be back, I promise’’. A light bulb went off in your head as you looked into his eyes and said, ‘’It takes more than a minute to heat up the water and then carefully pour it into the bag, so don't make promises you can’t keep’’ with a lightness and hint of quip to your remark. 

A hand to his mouth to conceal his laughter, his soft hands reached to remove the hair covering your face, holding your face in his hands. ‘’So you don’t want it?’’ he lovingly questioned, cocking his head to the side. Giving up any strength and resigning your face in his hands, you spoke, ‘’I do but I don’t want you to go’’. Looking at the sadness in your eyes, he started to feel indecisive about letting you go or staying on the sofa with you but made the smart decision to get the hot water bag. It will only help her feel better, he thought. Plus, he wouldn’t be that far away in case you needed any help or felt any more pain. Squeezing his eyes in thinking of how much you were struggling right now, he removed himself from your embrace and tucked you into the covers. With a tender kiss to your forehead, he walked to the kitchen, grabbing the kettle and filling in water, setting it to heat. Finding the water bag in the cabinet across him, he set it down looking back over to you. 

His chest hurt, knowing that you felt exhausted even though you had just woken up. Not only that, your head must have throbbing in pain because you were covering your eyes, hoping the lack of light would ease the pain. It reminded him of the first time he witnessed you on your period. He always knew that it hurt but only realised the true extent after he found you lying on the floor, clutching your stomach in agony. You weren’t afraid of telling him everything about periods but also because he wanted to know in what ways he could help you and so he tried to find out a little about what he could do to relieve the pain. Feeling helpless, there were other things he could do like comforting you with affection, which you loved but he couldn’t just stay on the side lines and watch you in pain. Thinking about how much you loved affection, he laughed a little as his mind wandered to your reactions. You would turn a little shy and try to reciprocate whatever he did, especially your first time giving him a kiss. 

The sound of the switch turning off caught his attention and he gently poured the hot water into the bag, careful not to spill any and hurt himself in the process. Checking to see if the bag was leaking any water, he started to make his way to you when it didn’t. Crouching in front of you, he handed you the bag which you took, murmuring a ‘’thank you babe’’. Having laid your head on the armrest before, you shifted your position so that he could sit beside you. Taking a seat, you laid your head on his chest, seated in between his legs. His head immediately rested on the top of yours as he asked, ‘’What were you watching?’’. Taking his hands in yours, you played with his fingers asking, ‘’Do you know that show I told you about earlier, Secrets of the Zoo?’’. He nodded and you slowly continued, ‘’Yup that one and in this episode, they are celebrating Mac, the gorilla’s birthday and it's the sweetest.���’.

‘’That’s so cute. By the way, are you hungry? I bought some stuff to eat’’ he said, singing out the last part to bring up your energy. Attention on the bag, the corners of your eyes crinkled as you tried to reach for the bag that was on the table saying, ‘’Oh? I’m really hungry, what did you bring?’’. Smiling he reached for the bag before you, your fingers wiggled a little, inquisitive as to what was inside the bag. Handing over the bag to you, a bright smile lit up your face as you saw the crisps, nougat and chocolate bars, sweet bread, chocolate milk and Neapolitan ice cream. Seeing your smile even through the pain made him delighted as it meant that you were happy and at least that took away whatever power the pain had over you. 

Grasping the underside of your bare legs, he shifted them so that they were over his lap. Unable to bend that much, you removed your head from his chest and laid it on the sofa, so that you were now face to face with him. Tender and caring eyes met yours and without hesitation, the both of you met in a kiss. Warmth radiated throughout your chest, as his lips encased yours. Hands found your sides as your own gradually made their way to his cheeks. Earnestly, he caught your bottom lip in between his lips and the two of you settled in a pace of your own. If you were to describe it, it would be like walking through the fields in the midst of summer, the scent of buttercups looming in the air while the birds elegantly chirped away, busy in conversation. The sun’s rays were bright but not harsh; instead they gently caressed your skin as you moved from the shade and out into the open, unafraid. The miniature leaves, part of a larger plant, swayed to a tune of their own, every time the wind blew. Unapologetically, the wind and the plants and the trees made way as you strolled through the depths of nature. 

Leaning apart, the two of you softly caught your breath staring at one another with fondness and benign intimacy. Moving hair that has fallen into your eyes, his fingers lingered at the sides of your head and held the back of your neck. Overcome with the whirling combination of being dazed from the kiss that managed to make you ignore the pain, you captured his lips in an envelopment suddenly feeling the desire to show him all that you could give him. Returning your kiss, he felt that your love for him was intrinsic to the essence of your personality. You had so much to give, that in loving you, he felt encouraged to openly convey his feelings. When he first realised his feelings for you, it was your words that led him to confess knowing that you wouldn’t hurt him in any way. Seeing you in pain made him unhappy while your giddiness made him beam and feeling the need to protect you, he knew that he would stay by your side.

Breaking the kiss to take one more breath, you kept one leg on his while setting the other one on the sofa and leaning your head on his chest, feeling comfortable from the radiating warmness between you two. Arms wrapped around your centre, lacing his hands with your own as he held the hot water bag. He whispered into your ear, ‘’What about those chocolates?’’ making you giggle as you nodded your head in agreement. 

[sourbat]

“You’re not broken” from your choice to Pickles? :)

It’s late in the evening, and though there’s hardly a cloud in the sky, Mordhaus’ massive frame casts an imposing shadow that stretches across the empty fields. Winds blow the bitter, earthy aftertaste of strong weed. Nathan, resting on his balcony, catches a whiff and is soon drawn to the stream, a brook less than half a mile’s walk from the castle. He leaves the fortress as the sun continues to ease into the silent woods, turning the hazy orange sky into a dark, muddled purple.

The temperature drops quickly, though Nathan remains unaffected until he hears water wafting, and tastes the fresh crisp air mixing with the deepening stench of cannabis. When he catches wind of a certain voice, a smile emerges. He picks up pace, only coming to a slow once he notices the anxiety ridden in the voice, and halts when he spots Pickles on his phone, pacing from rock to the next.

“Well, yeah. Ya’ got a point, but–”

Nathan gets a glimpse of Pickles’ complexion. There’s a noticeable lack of color in his face, and despite the cold, the man looks like he’s been running laps. Nathan hurriedly counts the lines across Pickles’ brow, the speed and uneven step in his already quickened gait, and assumes it’s family. Weed gives Pickles the slight jitters, but the dark circles under the eyes can only be a product of a crazed narcissist looking to gain something from him.

Right then, Pickles’ stops. Whoever he’s talking to is unloading some serious guilt onto him. There’s a pile of stones being thrown on him, weighing Pickles down and forcing him to sink further into the earth, back bending and shoulder sinking as Pickles takes it all without saying a damn word.  The man’s receiving an invisible pummel, a repeated kick to the gut. Nathan sees the defeated expression and knows it’s Seth on the line.

Pickles sighs into the phone. “Right. Alright, then. Ok. I’ll do it.”

Pickles drops the call and shoves the dethphone as deep as he can into his pants without the sharp ends tearing into the fabric. He brings his hands behind his head and groans aloud, covering the gentle rolls of water. A few swears lets Nathan know it’s money related, as usual. Pickles going silent and reaching for the pipe he placed on a nearby stone warns Nathan that Pickles is definitely going to pay out and give Seth what he wants. Pickles shaking, blinking wide-eyed as he tries working his lighter tears Nathan from the shadows, and into the small clearing.

Nathan appears under the rising moon, right as Pickles takes a huff. “Hey, Pickles.”

A cough. Pickles pats his chest and brings his pipe down. “Shit, Nathan. Ya’ nearly gave me a heart attack.” 

“Sorry.”

Pickles shakes his head, raises his pipe to Nathan as he wipes a few tears from the corner of his eye. “Wanna have a go?”

Spurts of smoke spread over Nathan. The harsh taste of the air lets him know it’s some good stuff.  He glances around him, at the stream, the stars slowly coming into view, and the occasional glow of unknown wildlife hidden in the woods. It’s honestly not a bad place to get high, but after a shit call, Nathan isn’t sure it’s the right setting to do alone.

He takes the pipe, earning a nod from Pickles, who coughs and hacks up something wet. Nathan glances at the pointed ends of the phone sticking out from Pickles’ pocket. “You were on the phone with your brother?”

Pickles immediately frowns. “Ya’ heard that?”

“Yeah.”

Pickles carefully settles on a large rock near the water. His elbows fall on top of his legs. “What did ya’ hear?”

Nathan lights himself a smoke and inhales. “’Nuff to know you’re going to give him money,” he mutters into the darkening sky.

Pickles watches a jet of smoke spew and vanish into the night. His eyes twitch a nervous gleam, and he extends his arm outwards, ready to take the pipe. Nathan takes a step and hands it to Pickles, saying nothing as he searches around the damp soil for solid bearing, or a dry enough seat. The closest is a collection of rocks set a few feet away, but it makes sharing the pipe a bitch. Nathan decides to stand by, figuring he can handle whatever percentage of THC Pickles is dishing his way.

“Jus’ so ya’ know,” Pickles says after blowing a ringlet of smoke, “I ain’t gonna give him shit.”

“Uh-huh,” Nathan mutters as he watches the stars begin to glisten with various shades of intense white.

“He thinks he can jus’ call me and hit me up fer cash.”

Pickles takes another hit, breathing deep and not turning off the flame until there’s smoke filling the scene. Nathan’s standing, but tastes it. Bitterness wafts in the air, consuming his senses. The serene lap of water drowns in a nasty heat that Pickles spits out in another cough. Nathan feels his spine begin to tingle as Pickles starts to shake.

He rolls fingers through his thick dreads. “Thinks he can pull some ol’ cards on me. Family. Whatever, dood.” Pickles slumps forward, arm raised up to Nathan and offering him the still burning bowl. “He’s got nothin’ on me. Don’t give a crap ‘bout whatever debts he owes. People he pissed off.”

Nathan takes the pipe. His eyes shift between Pickles’ sinking form, and the developing blur that surrounds him, making him appear more a pale specter than man.  Nathan brings the pipe to his lips. “Surprised he had your number.”

Pickles shifts in his seat. Nathan hopes it’s the cold, or the poor substitute of a seat Pickles decided to rest upon. But there’s that deepening shadow around the eyes that irks Nathan, and from within Pickles’ shaky irises, Nathan’s positive he can detect that subtle hint of self-loathing and disgust.

“You ask him how he got it, right?” Nathan says midway through his hit. It’s a loaded question, and Nathan knows it. The damn remark implies Seth was smart enough to work the system and get his grubby hands on it, which, if past interactions with the jackass proved anything, wasn’t the case. Nathan flares his nostrils, letting the remainder of the smoke spill out.

“Well...”

“Yeah?”

Pickles tilt’s his head away from Nathan, right as he offers the pipe back to him.

“Nah.” Pickles slumps further. His lips push out into a defeated pout. “I, uhhh, ended up givin’ it to him durin’ the trip to Australia.”

Unmoving, Nathan asks, “Why?”

Pickles rests his arms on top of one another. He shrugs into the cold, and it goes silent for a while. For a few seconds, Nathan gets lost in the darkening scenery, the purple skies and whimper of frightened animals. Nathan sways silent, surrendering to the occasional frosty, breeze with a mild shudder.

Then, he hears Pickles sniff. “Well, you know…” he says, and although Nathan continues to stare upwards, can see Pickles wrapping himself up in a faux smile and using it as a blanket to convince himself it’s as good an excuse as any. “In case…”

“In case he needed money,” Nathan finishes for Pickles.

The silence returns, and again, there’s the gentle flow of water. The winds tear through the thick forests, sending out a low wail that, once it hits, causes both men the shiver in the dark. Nathan exhales the last bitter taste from his lips, then bends and drops the cold pipe besides Pickles. A minute passes, and when Nathan catches an angered growl next to him, drops his eyes and sees Pickles staring at the blackening roll of the brook, at his miserable reflection. 

“Fuck,” Pickles cries, shaking his head. He hits the stone underneath him. “What is wrong with me, dood?”

Nathan raises a brow as Pickles’ palms shift into fists, and repeatedly smash against the stone. When the pain’s too much to bear, he gets up, paces around some more, then swings his fists outwards with another sharp cry.

“They treat me like I’m dirt, but I keep handin’ them my number, answerin’ their calls and offerin’ them financial support?” Pickles kicks up dirt and rocks, sending bits flying and hitting the cold water with piercing cold splashes. Nathan steps back. Pickles kicks up more wet soil and stomps a foot into the mushy hole he’s made. “After everything they did to me! I can’t believe i'm still doin’ this crap!”

The scene goes on for a minute longer, with Pickles enacting a series of random kicks and flails, destroying leeks and bulrushes, and disrupting the life around the brook with flying pebbles, clumps of grass and screams. Nathan thinks to stop Pickles, in case a wandering gear decides to call Offdensen, and he thinks about joining Pickles and handing him larger stones to throw at some unlucky freshwater eels. He plays with the lighter and waits for Pickles’ personal flame to go wild and die out on its own, and for Pickles to return to him and the icy stone seat.

The weed really starts to sink in, and whatever will there was to fight is gone, replaced with heavy tranquility that leaves Pickles silent again.

The sky turns a dark blue, almost black and matching the water below. Stars twinkle and burst like lightning, keeping Nathan occupied long enough for Pickles to drown in the high, to stop stuttering and hitting the rock underneath, and eventually stand and join Nathan in the stargazing.  

“Sometimes I wonder if it’s me, y’know?” Pickles mutters solemnly. “Maybe it’s me that’s got it wrong?” 

The words cut through the silence. Nathan feels the tip of the blade lick his chest, threatening him with a fraction of the discomfort he knows Pickles is enduring.

Pickles covers the top half of his face. His open mouth exhales a cloud of hot air. “Times like these, I wonder. Like, maybe they’re all the normal ones, and I’m the one that’s fucked up. I’m the broken one.”

The words make Nathan visibly cringe. He shakes his head, offended. “Pickles,” he says, turning slightly and covering the man’s lanky shoulder with his hand. “You’re not broken.”

Pickles eyes glisten as he glances upward, offering Nathan only a slight nod.

In any other situation, Nathan would have figured that now is the time to be honest and remind Pickles of his views regarding the family. Pickles aside, everyone hosting that cursed surname was a grade-A narcissist. Everyone knows it, and yet it proves a sore subject to broach with Pickles.

The thought arises. It’s there and Nathan can feel the satisfying insults lining his lungs, ready to be expelled. He thinks to say it, but sees Pickles’ bared teeth, his exasperated frown, and he hears those words cut into him.

Broken.

An old, familiar sting returns, clearing through the drug’s influence, and settles on Nathan. He sees Pickles standing there, uncomfortable, hating himself, and the weed carries old sounds of laughter, fingers pointing and whispers aimed at Nathan.

“Pickles, you’re not broken,” he repeats, softer and forlorn.

Pickles glanced up at him again. This time, the stare lingers, catching traces of a different, though not completely dissimilar ache.

Nathan brings his arms up. “It’s easy to feel broken…” he pauses, eyes shutting as old memories arise. Ancient dreams that fill with the smoky haze of his high, but the pain is still there. The judgemental stares from adults that weren’t his parents. The classmates that refused to accept his silence. The doctors that snubbed any small improvement with his speech development, and instead focused on his shortcomings. “It’s… so easy to feel broken when everyone around you just… focuses on your faults. When they-” 

Nathan halts, watching the words slip from his grasp, float into the sky and be replaced with overwhelming anger and frustration. Something clogs his throat. Heat and pressure build as Nathan continues to stare up at the fading words, at those who demanded him to speak up, to say something, and then drops his stare to Pickles patiently nodding his head at him, getting it without ever finishing the sentence.

A lanky hand smacks the back of his shoulder. When Nathan settles, and can bring his arms down, Pickles is there, smiling crookedly through a half-chewed lip.

“Ya’ mind lettin’ me know my fault?” Pickles asks once Nathan finds himself back under the soothing flow of running water and crickets chirping. The weed recollects as he listens in on Pickles joking with him, telling him it must be his good looks or svelte figure. Nathan realizes things have shifted, and now it's Pickles trying to calm him down. Pickles putting his needs aside and trying to figure out what blew up in his mind, what sent his mind reeling.

“Your fault if you're good,” Nathan says quickly, and booms it over Pickles’ japes and snickers. “You’re too damn good for your family. You’re…the only good thing about your family, and they know it. S’not really a fault, but it makes you different. Makes you a–”

Pickles pulls Nathan close into a shaky, nervous half-hug. The gesture stops Nathan from finishing, and halts the blade from cutting any deeper.

He parts, eyes dropping for a moment, but rising once the cool air settles between them. “Thanks,” Pickles says, voice shaken, but appreciative.

Nathan gives a short nod. “I mean it.” 

“I know,” Pickles says, swaying under the guidance of a frosty breeze. He waits while Nathan looks up one final time, absorbing the abundant array of the night sky, and using the thousands of stars to smother the faint memories filled with excuses and fragmentation.

It goes silent again, and this time Nathan shuts his eyes. He listens to the sounds of wildlife and Pickles picking up his pipe to take a more controlled hit.

The two get lost and float in the gentility of nature and darkness. 

“Nathan?” Pickles asks after a while. 

“Yeah?”

Warmth returns. A hand rubs his lower back. “You okay, dood?”

“Just thinking… ‘bout stuff.” Nathan opens his eyes and faces Pickles, expression hardly indicating beyond the usual gruffness, though Nathan is sure Pickles is squinting because, like him, he can see the distant glimmer of a knife being pulled into the darkness, in the shadows of his irises. Nathan wrinkles his nose. “Y’know?”

Pickles grins, satisfied with what he sees “Yeah.”  

They stare a bit longer at the rolling water, and Nathan makes a few comments about some strange insect life Toki snuck into Mordhaus a few days prior. Pickles mentions seeing a weird beetle in the kitchen.

His dethphone rings.

“Ah, shit.”

Nathan waits until Pickles has it out before offering his hand to Pickles. “Lemme see that,” he half-demands. Curious, Pickles tilts the phone in his direction. Nathan snatches it and, without warning, positions himself and tosses the cellphone outwards, straight into the water.

The phone hits the surface with a loud plop, then sinks.

Pickles’ jaw sinks. He grabs at his dreads. “Dood!”

Nathan calms him down with a stare. It takes a second for Pickles to settle, but he does, and waits for Nathan to explain himself.

“Let’s agree to trash our phones every few months,” he states aloud, over Pickles’ hitched breathing and panicked expression. “For safety purposes.”

No talks about why in particular, or the fact that Seth is the living embodiment of everything wrong with society, but like the message before, it hits and translates perfectly with Pickles. He stares out to the water, at the rippling rings spreading and vanishing into the gentle current. His frown disappears, sinking to a silent, but approving daze.

“Sure thing, dood,” Pickles says, heading lowering as he stifles a chuckle, but even while under the influence, Nathan can see, read the red filling Pickles’ eyes as something more than just the effect of a good high.

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 79 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch is establishing the official United States of Fuck Imperialism which is like the UN but actually does stuff, plus he has to deal with the fact that CC’s lost her memory and is acting like a demure slave girl harem choice from a VN. Charles is still trapped in the Human Instrumentality Shadow Realm so everyone figures this is a great time to unify everyone against Britannia. Kallen beats the shit out of Suzaku for being a dick to her all this time and the Knight of Ten is making his rounds because they realize they forgot to give him any buildup and he’s going to be a miniboss later so they have to cram all his being a dick personality into like five minutes while all the Knights of the Round assemble to prepare for an attack on Japan once the National Federation is formed. Llyod and Cecile for some reason enhanced the Guren for Suzaku even though he’s clearly more used to the Lancelot but apparently they enhanced it too much and made it a death machine like the Talgeese in Gundam Wing so Suzaku has to stick with the Lancelot. Looks like the Guren will have to sit and collect dust unless a certain pilot is rescued and then immediately has a convenient upgrade. Amazingly all the countries go along with everything Zero says and give up their militaries and have the Black Knights be the official military of the Federation. I don’t know how that works given that the Black Knights have been struggling to fight off one nation’s military idk how it’s supposed to substitute for a dozen nations’ military but I guess they conscript support and troops from the other nations or something. Charles comes back on the tv after the Federation is formed and is all “Awww what a cute little UN you have, fuck off bro.” which you’d think this’d be the perfect time for him to just out Lelouch as Zero and wreck the Black Knights’ morale but he doesn’t for some reason and they’re just gonna fight. Lelouch is freaking out and knows that having everyone want to murder the Britannian royal family includes Nunally so he calls Suzaku who just straight up goes “Bro cut the crap are you Zero or not?” and after so much plotting and scheming Lelouch just comes right out with it. Suzaki agrees to protect Nunally as long as Lelouch meets him alone at the Kururugi Shrine where this all began.

Inuyasha: This is another one of those Modern Day filler episodes which are always fun. There’s just something about Inuyasha running around in modern Japan being Spider-Man and saving people and catching bank robbers on the way to deliver Kagome’s lunch that’s so thoroughly entertaining. Basically Inuyasha spends this whole episode jittery that everyone’s so chill and ready to relax after Naraku just got away and is probably an inch from death but after a big adventure in the modern era where Kagome is as usual unprepared for her test, he ends up passing out on the bed after insisting a little battle with Naraku wouldn’t exhaust him. It’s a really cute little episode to let everyone bide some time and reflect on the past arc now that we’re starting a new wave of filler before we get to the Band of Seven and Mt. Hakurei stuff.

Yu Yu Hakusho: The first match of the tournament is about to begin and Botan, Shizuru, and Keiko come in with Koenma who is sick of baby jokes and puts on his bishonen disguise to impress everyone. There’s some neat lore about how they gave Koenma the guest team every year to bribe him into not shutting down the tournament without giving him anything of value and how the bloody show of the Dark Tournament pacifies the demons so they kill fewer humans, so that’s cool. Since Yusuke is still passed out, Kuwabara is de facto Captain and decides on simple one on one matches while the other team Captain just kinda roasts an eight of the crowd to see if it’ll wake Yusuke up. Kuwabara’s in the first match versus Prototype Killua, complete with afterimages and yo-yo tricks. They size each other up for a while and Kuwabara shrugs off getting his fucking neck broken surprisingly well while they go back and forth with “Well I can track YOU better” for a while. Togashi really loves his yo-yos of death so those have Kuwabara on the ropes and turn him into a fucking kite ready to slam back down into the arena, so yeah, Kuwabara’s having a rough time of it.

Fate Zero: Waver’s been having strange dreams about Iskandar, and not the ones people usually have about him. So he goes to get a basic history lesson on the historical figure that’s been chilling on his couch for a few weeks and spending all his money on xbox live arcade. They also go through all the ridiculously obvious historical inaccuracies and Iskandar’s just like “idk bro, I’m here so the book must be wrong” which is hilarious because Fate also does this with more modern historical figures that we have pictures of and shit so they basically sit there saying all historians have no idea what they’re talking about and gaslighting the field of history as a whole. On the way back Waver’s upset that Iskandar’s so awesome that it basically takes any effort on his part to win and it won’t be an actual achievement despite the fact that they’ve taken out like… one servant, MAYBE, and most of the other historical figures are equally over the top. But still Iskandar says that if your aspirations are big enough it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, everyone’s tiny in the grand scheme of things and clawing at greatness you can’t truly perceive is what matters. Also Caster and his boy have found the wreck they made of their workshop of dead bodies and are kinda fucked up about it but also ready to fuck up more people because God sucks or some shit. So Caster summons a Bloodborne monster which you think more people would notice and mention during Shirou’s time, like nobody in UBW ever said “Hey remember like seven years ago when a giant Bloodborne monster appeared in the river?” so I’m guessing there’s some kind of perception blocking going on. But yeah everyone’s gonna jump on the Bloodborne Monster next time for the season premiere.  

Konosuba: So we pick up where we left off and Kazuma is working off his debt by… killing more toads. Wow this world really is like a video game, we get the same five enemies over and over again. However they’re fucked without Darkness throwing herself into monster orifices looking for a good time so Yunyun has to save them. We already met Yunyun in the OVA so it’s kinda weird to be re-introduced to her here in basically the same way but their relationship is basically like Gai and Kakashi if they only did the lame dorky challenges Kakashi suggested when he’s too lazy to think of a good one. Also there’s a cat now, I don’t think that really comes to anything, just a scene of Megumin going “we have a cat now” and everyone’s like “kay”. Kazuma and Megumin play Naked Chicken to see who can get more naked before the other backs down and end up taking a bath together because they’re both stubborn assholes. Also we get a quick snippet of Yunyun and Megumin’s backstories which you can basically make Yunyun’s the swing scene from Naruto (idk why Yunyun is bring out the Naruto references in me today) and Megumin is stealing bread like Les Miserables in increasingly bizarre and disgusting ways because she’s ridiculously poor or some shit.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So turns out that Usagi and Mamoru BOTH had their shots with the ‘fucks everything up’ sword with a pocketwatch and… the discarded gems of the four knights? Idk how that works given they were humans and also dead but what baffles me more is that both Usagi and Mamoru very obviously did not get hit by the sword but decided to fall down dead and not move for a couple minutes despite their shots very much being blocked and there being no blood. Anyway Queen Metalia has the crystal, bullshit is happening, 1000 years of darkness, you’ve seen Xiaolin Showdown, you know the drill. The remaining four Guardians get a cute little flashback of Usagi saying what she likes about them and then they give up their lives to revive her inside the dark energy blob of Queen Metalia and crystals and lights and shit happens and swords and wands are pulled out of nowhere and you know how a final boss goes, they beat it with the power of believing in themselves and shit like that. Also apparently the only difference between sealing Metalia away and killing her is hitting the giant bullseye on her forehead so yeah, hopefully she’s down for good this time. I don’t want to complain because this show was genre-defining but it’s hard to find things to say about something so generic and milktoast, it’s the Seinfeld problem where there’s been so many more interesting iterations that it’s just kinda “get on with it already” at this point. The only real markedly noticeable thing about it is how plainly and unashamedly it is about being a power fantasy for teen girls, and there’s something to that, harmless power fantasies can be fun but it just feels like the physical mechanics of this kind of progression being “She feels this shit REALLY HARD” is less exciting than some of the alternatives

Durarara!!: It’s the big Masaomi backstory episode and we get the whole deal of how he formed the Yellow Scarves and got into a relationship with Saki because Izaya wanted to orechestrate a gang war because that’s what Izaya does all day is orchestrate gang wars. It’s kind of amazing how many kids in this show are like “I don’t know how it happened but one thing led to another and suddenly I was at the head of one of the largest gangs in the city” like they kinda really yadda yadda over how that actually happens. But anyway Saki gets hurt in the gang war and Kadota’s gang has to save her because Masaomi’s adrenaline wears off at the last second and he can’t try and rush in and save her. I mean Dota’s van got there first anyway so how much he’d have been able to help would be doubtful but he feels bad about not even being able to try and Izaya says that fear and failure of his past will dominate his future actions which is exactly what he’s doing by letting his paranoia and frustration lead him to a war on the Saika army. Dota-chin tells him to face up to it and stop running or live with the shame of lying to Saki but Masomi can’t do that and his shame and determination to reverse the situation leads everyone into chaos as Anri discovers his secret.

[popculturebuffet]

The Legion of Super Heroes Reviews: The Legion of Substitute Heroes or Unsung Heroes

Happy 29th Birthday to Me! Yes it’s my birthday which means it’s time for reflection, griping about getting older and cake. And after an exausting weekend of grappling with a growth, i’m not going to go into anymore detail, I can finally, relax celebrate and get back to reviewing. And since i’ts my big day, that means I decided to dedicate today’s reviews to things that mean a hell of a lot to me and in one way or another shaped me as a person. A self indulgant way to reflect on my past, look to the future and show y’all some stuff I really like. So with that out of the way let’s talk about the Legion of Super Heroes.. and their oddball sub team I love dearly. 

This is also my first chance to talk about DC Comics on my blog. I’m honestly shocked that in the year i’ve been reviewing stuff regularly, the other half of the big two superhero comic publishers hasn’t come up. While I do tend to lean towards marvel, in part because Marvel is simply better at collecting their stuff and putting it on sale more often, it’s still the home of some of my faviorite properties: Justice League International, The Green Lanterns (Minus Hal), Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Oracle, Batgirl (All of them, particularly Steph and Cass), Young Justice, Supergirl, my personal boy The Martian Manhunter.. the list dosen’t go on by much but it indeed goes on. I”ve been reading dc comics since I was in middle school, and I haven’t stopped since and don’t intend to stop now and maybe in the next year I can get around to tackling some of their awesome cartoons and comics more eh? But yeah among these titans, including the actual titans, are the Legion, one of the most unique and awesome super team concepts in my humble opinon and , even for DC, one of the teams with the most tangled up histories. 

First created in the Silver Age by writer Otto Binder and Artist Al Plastino, The Legion of Superheroes is DC”s first successful teen superhero team, predating the titans by a few years, though I dearly love both wildly diffrent teams. The Legion is defined by their high concept: A thousand years into the future, three super teens from diffrent worlds who happened to be on the same ship with billionare RJ Brande, saved Brande from some goons hired by his crooked buisness partner. 

And exposed him. Inspirired by their courage, heart and skill, Brande latter called the three together to form them into a super team, one inspiried by the legends of teen hero Superboy. 

No not Conner though it was nice to get to show off my poster of him. While he was part of the second continuities legion, we’ll get to that, he’s not the superboy we’re looking for. He is damn great though and it’s good to have you back bud. 

Not Jon either, though I do miss this kid’s pre-bendis version and he was the inspiration.. for another version of the legion. (SIGH). Try. AGAIN IMAGE SEARCH. 

...... 

No not the cool bad boy turned troubled good boy, not the child who was inexpciably aged up by that bald smeghead, and not the great idea turned into a editiorial mouthpiece. I”m talking about THIS superboy. 

This is where the name came from: From the silver age till crisis on infinite earths, Clark Kent was active as a kid in smallville, and thus was Superboy, superman when he was a boy. He dealt with similar stories just with Lana replacing Lois, and Luthor as a ginger teenager. And it was these deeds as a teen hero on his own, one of the first honestly, that inspiried the legion and brande and forged the team. 

And it was naturally a super boy story where they were first introduced as the legion’s founders went back to recruit Superboy after putting him through some trials, and were intended as just one of many silver age one off concepts.. but caught on with the readers so much they were brought back, and had their ranks expanded and eventually not only added supergirl, yes the one your thinking of this time, to their ranks, and yes sometimes she and superboy were in the same place at the same time, Clark willingly had founding member and telepath Saturn Girl put a mental block in his head for any info he’s not supposed to know yet so it’s cool . But yeah not only that but they eventually became their own feature in Adventure Comics, where Superboy’s stories were published, but overtook him in popularity with time.  Over time a number of distinct aspects were established: The roster eventually got as large as 20 plus legionarres, almost all from diffrent worlds, and they eventually set up bilaws. Some are silly and dated such as “Legionarres marrying means they retire” which was eventually done away with in the 70′s, but others were simple logic: each member must have a unique power, no using weapons and such which rather than be super power snobbery is so said tech dosen’t fail and the legion later fully allowed Karate Kid, a martial artist, to join, no killing.. just common sense stuff that adds to it. And one of those is the centerpiece to today’s story, which we’ll get to in a moment.  Obviously given they’ve been around since 1958, there is a LOT more to the Legion’s history I will dig into at a later date: The short version is that Crisis on Infinite Earths, Dc’s first big reboot, fucked the team up badly by retconning superboy out of existance and dc editorial made it worse by shooting down EVERY solution the team came up with to fix the issue. So eventually things got so messy they nuked the whole thing during the event Zero Hour and rebooted fresh with Mark Waid taking the helm and updating the concept for the 90′s and being a more lighthearted, if still not without weight, comic in the sea of 90′s edge. Waid would reboot the team again due to sagging sales, a far weaker reason this time, with a more rebllion slant, the original team would be reinstated, and then ended for a while before recently being rebooted by Brian Micheal Bendis... who sadly is long past his creative prime from books like Ultimate Spider-man and alias and is instead stewing in his own toilet dinner these days and thus it’s not pretty.. well okay art wise i’ts VERY pretty, it’s just story wise it sucks dirty ass in thunder storms. There was also an awesome cartoon that sadly lasted only two seasons that I will DEFINTELY be digging into, especially since unlike x-men evolution, it’s not you know 50 some episodes and me biting off way more than I can chew but a slim 26 that still has fans to this day. I”ll get into ALL OF THIS, some ohter time hopefullly and I mostly outlined it since some of you might be familiar with another version or “Sigh” the reboot and this helps clear things up.  So yeah with all that out of the way we’re going back to the silver age and the first story I ever read of hte team, how I met them with “The Legion of Substitute Heroes” and a later subs story I genuinely love. I first read this story in one dc’s old expensive archives collections I got from the library. Oh how I miss the library. Your probably wondering who the legion of susbstite heroes are.. but since the first story covers that we can jump right in after the break!

So we open with a teen in a parka uniform disembarking from a spaceship from another planet, which a passerby notes is just like the airplanes people used to ride from country to country. 

But we meet our hero, Polar Boy, whose in a winter themed outfit and has come to try out. This is the tradition I was saving for now: The Legion Tryouts. Like a club or sports team would, but I like it because it makes sense: The Legion NEEDS to be as big as it is because while their headquartered on earth, their mission scope is anywhere in the united planets which spans GALAXIES. They could be called on any time and need their full force or need to have severa l members on a smaller mission and frequently having members away on a mission was cleverly used to reduce the cast to whoever was needed for the story. 

So it only makes sense to frequently look for new membbers to help strengthen their ranks... but given their teens and are recurting teens they need to be careful and need a logical way to reduce crowd flow. I mean you saw how many people used to line up for american idol before that died a justified death, people will do anything to be famous and they need to weed out those whose powers and skill just aren’t up to snuff yet, or those who are just dicks as, unsuprisingly, several stories have been built on assholes who applied and were rejected turning evil and attacking.. even though the Legion wasn’t even paticuarlly harsh. They also are more than fair as applicants CAN try again or if they prove themselves in other ways can be let in, as Bouncing Boy, my favoirite legionarre, was intially rejected for his power of .. well...

Yeah.. on paper inflating like a ball and bouncing around is kind of silly. In practice he can ricochet off enemies, walls, and obstacles and is fairly durable in that state. It’s why I don’t really brook mocking the guys power: yes it’s goofy.. but say that again when he hands you his ass. It’s the same with matter eater lad who yes is an actual character: While being able to eat anything is gloriously goofy.. it means he can chew through ANY substance and digest ANYTHING. Hell in the cartoon episode intorducing the subs they used both of these guys to great efffect: Bouncing Boy, who in the cartoon had to try out multiple times in his backstory, encouraged the future subs while Matter Eater Lad got in by EATING A FUCKING BOMB. He also had shades which I dind’t know he was missing but now I do. My point is the process is fair and well thought out and leads to some really fun scenes. 

But yeah joining the legion is naturally Polar Boy’s dream, as he walks down the avenue of heroes, basically a series of statues honoring the legion and hopes all his hard work paid off. We then cut to the auditions, where he apparently waited all night. What I like about this story is that unusually for the silver age legion where it was mostly a sea of powers attached to a bunch of cardboard, really the dc silver age in a nutshell and why marvel broke out so much for having more dynamic and realistic characters, Polar Boy has more of a personality. It’s not MUCH but he’s a dedicated, hard working kid who just wants to join his heroes and seems really in awe of htem, a feeling we can all relate to. We’ve all had people we’ve looked up to, admired, and we’ve all had groups we wanted to join as kids, teens or what have you. And of course.. we all know what it’s like to be rejected by someone or something you badly wanted to be a part of.  And that’s what happens to poor polar boy, who comes from a world with an intense sun thus his people developed super cold powers.. but he can’t control them well so while their impressive, they also freeze the legion. HIs powers are good... but due to their strength and radius he’s also a liablility. They give him an consolation anti-gravity belt.. they had these before eventually compressing them into the much cooler flight rings.. which I still desperatly want one of. I have the flash’s costume ring and a green lantern corps ring, but still no legion ring. 

Naturally this devistates the poor boy and he wonders around dispondent till nightfall, convinced he’ll never be one of them. He soon meets Night Girl, a fellow reject with super strength given to her by her dad’s formula.. but only in darkness as she’s from a world without sunlight. She also faces a “hopeless future” but it’s then Polar Boy’s true strength reveals itself: he decides screw giving up on their dream and if they can’t be in the legion they’ll start their own Legion. 

Though not to compete but to serve as a subtistute, in case the legion is ever incapacitated. So Night Girl gathers the other rejects the next morning. Cleverly one of them, Chlorophyll Kid was seen with Night Girl herslef at the tryouts behind Polar Boy. We soon learn about them and each of their origins: Stone Boy can turn himself into an immobile stone statue, as his world has half a year long nights and thus his people hybernate, Fire Lad who can spit hot fire literally and set anything combustable on fire and Chlorphyll Kid who can make plants grow rapidly. Each were rejected for resonable powers: Stone Boys powers too static, Fire Lad’s is too dangerous and Chorlpyl Kids toos pecific. But upon seeing all of this Polar Boy says they STILL have fantastic powers and still can help people and the legion. 

Thus the Legion of Substittue Heroes is born. And I love them as much as the originals. As a bit of a misfit myself I relate to these guys: They have strange specific powers, got rejected by the big team.. while that trope is nothing new at the time it was unique and even now it’s a nice and inspiring message. Instead of giving up they form their OWN team to do what htey can anyway. They might not be the best like the legion but they can still help and still do what’s right even if not on their scale. It’s a great concept and really makes them endearing. Again I have a thing for the underdogs but I still really like these guys. It’s why it annoys me they got kind of spat on with time: While I love Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz run on the legion, and feel it’s the best of that contnuinty it’s not without fault and the two basically spent a full issue mocking the team and split polar boy off from them before making their own subs with only ONE of the originals. It just felt.. disrspectful. And so far no continuity has used them again until the recent bendis run, which has them announced for the Future Slate special. It took BENDIS, who dosen’t get how to use the team properly and is up his own ass, to bring them back in a new continuity and I find that obnoxious. The subs are a great concept and deserve to be honored as such and as such are one of my favorite superhero teams. 

But their careers don’t start well as they doubt themslves, except for Polar Boy who boisters them along, and constnatly just end up going to missions the legion already has covered and when the legion go to fight some robot ships, they refuse the subs help.. which is fair though, as Brainy puts it they can’t risk putting untrained volunteers in harms way. Their about to just quit, in a really sad moment.. when CK, because I can’t spell cholophill and hate having to use spell check notices some odd seeds spread about.. and when he grows one a horrifying tree man shows up. They struggle with it till the setting son finishes it’s job, meaning Night Girl is at full power and whollops it and the subs spend the night destroying the seeds.  They  find out the next day the seeds came from the same planet as the robot ships, meaning the ships are a distraction for whoevers doing this and since they can’t just call earth, as the full force of the legion is needed with the robots and all it’d do is cause a panic, it’s down to them. Night Girl however is scared.. and I like that. It shows that while their regaining their confidence.. it’s sitll risky. Their a bunch of barely trained fanboys, and girl, going up against an alien invasion, with it down to them. They CAN save the world but it’s alright to be entirely terrified when your thrust into it this fast. 

They make their way to the planet, having built a ship earlier and lie low, finding out what’s going on: The plant men are fully intellegent, and grow themselves..though how they know to attack and go to the bathrom and what not out of the seed I don’t know but I assume it’s a genetic thing or they might be some form of hive mind. point is the seed plan is to grow troops all over the world via rockets for an invasion, and it’s a brilliant concept for one too. Aliens who simply GROW the troops right into battle, born with the knowledge to do so, and right where they can ambush them. It’s down to our heroes and Stone Boy, whose been the most pesemistic, valiantly dives in to provide a distraction so they can destroy the factory and the seeds. Turns out he is useful as the most the treeple have is a space lead pipe.. yes really. I love the silver age. But they’ll bring ray guns soon, so Stone BOy knows it’s a suicide mission and now our heroes have a timer. But luckily.. our heroes are stronger than they think. Night Girl punches a way in till Night passes, while Polar Boy and Flame Lad use their powers in concert to make an opneing.. but with time running out Polar Boy finishes things by having CK grow all the seeds now they have acess.. thus exploding the planets population, destroying several cities from the number of bodies, and thu discourguing the treeple from trying again. Stone boy is able to flee with the rest of our heroes and the day is saved. 

The heroes opt not to tell the public, as to take away glory for the Legion. It’s a noble gesture.. they do DESERVE credit, but they choose not to take it, preferring to let the legion get theres for stil lsaving the world from the robots. They stand firm, now confident they may someday make it to the big leagues.And it’s this that really makes me love them: Thier not the strongest or best, but they try anyway for the reasons a hero should: to help people, and not for the glory. THey remain unsung heroes and are fine with that.  Eventually the Legion WOULD find out about them, but naturally instead of being dickheads about it, fully accepted them, even offering them some contests for membership, but that’s a story for another day. THey’d remain stalwart allies and valuable backup in crisis situations for years to come until the bollocks outlined above. But they’d never leave my heart and thanks to them.. the legion never left either. 

Final Thoughts:  While I do love the story for it’s personal signifigance to me, It’s stilll a really good story for the time. A bit stilted as was the style, but still good, well paced and with an endaring cast of underdogs who prove themselves in the end. It’s something diffrent from the usual clean cut ahead in life wasps these stories usually followed at the time. While the team’s still all white and all that, their outcasts and misfits who just want to help and have trouble beliving in themselves. Their a good standard to live up to.. and a good inspiration for me and my constnatly self hating self doutbing self. And I hope you enjoyed htem too.  If you’d like to comission your own review, just dm me. It’s 5 bucks for individual issues. Later days. 

[newcaptainofsquad9]

The Shakespeare Substitute {1} Kim Taehyung x black! fem! reader(College AU)

Pairing: Taehyung x reader

Summary: When your Shakespeare professor happens to be absent for the week due to illness, a handsome, yet familiar man steps in to teach for him. This happens to be Kim Taehyung, an old friend of yours back in high school, and an old crush of yours. He can’t help but stare at you throughout class, leaving you an anxious mess until the fifty minute class period is over. 

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Romance, College AU, Smut(in later parts)

Word Count: 1, 973

Warnings: None for this chapter anyway

Author’s Note: I know, another series! This one will be short (at least three parts) I promise! I’m open for requests for BTS and EXO  hope you enjoy!

I did a double take on my phone as I blink back up at the doorway. It’s already 2:07 and Mr. Green hasn’t shown up for class yet. 

“Did he send an email?” I ask, turning over to my friends James and Stacy. 

James turns his nose up before running a hand through his mini fro. 

“Look woman,” he scolds, “I checked it four times, refreshed and everything-it’s nothing!” 

I frown at his tone. I can’t tell whether he’s being sarcastic or if there’s something upsetting him. 

“You good?” I ask, “can’t really tell if you’re joking or not.”

James sighs while pushing the glasses up on his face. 

“Sorry Y/N/N, I’m just a bit overwhelmed,” he says. 

I nod.

“Classes already getting the best of you?” Stacy counters. 

James shakes his head vigorously. 

“The classes aren’t the fucking problem,” he groans, “Valentines day is coming up and I’m trying to decide on the fucking venue for Cody and I to have dinner! Got it all planned out and everything.”

I deadpan at his words. Is he seriously this worked up over a God damn date?

“Are you for real?” I ask. 

James pops his neck at me. 

“Of course it is,” he growls, “I don’t expect you to understand Ms. I’ve never dated a guy in my life.”

Of course he exposes me like this. A few of the girls in the front rows turn, they look disinterested, yet I’d like to keep this in my enter circle of friends. This may be a university setting, however rumors still spread like a fucking plague. And here I thought the high school tendencies would cease, I had too much faith in humanity to even fathom that. 

“You want to tell the entire class,” I say, “keep your voice down.”

Stacy scoots her desk closer, a sly grin and a hand below her chin. 

“Is he for real, Y/N? You never had a boyfriend?” she asks. 

I open my mouth, then close it as James gives me a “yeah go ahead and lie, I’mma spill the tea anyway” look. I’d rather tell them something before Mr.Green arrives and class actually starts. 

“Technically no,” I explain, “I’ve never dated anyone, well there was this guy back in high school, but he was way outta my league.”

James rolls his eyes while Stacy gasps.

“Out of your league?” she exclaims, “he’s got to be a Greek God, because you’re gorgeous.”

I shake her complement off. 

“Thanks, but when I tell you he’s out of my league he is,” I say, “he was from Korea, and dressed like your typical international student: wearing Gucci and Chanel as if it were Nike for us.”

“I own a pair of Gucci slides,” Stacy says.

James chuckles. 

“That doesn’t count, you got rich ass grandparents!” he hisses.

“Anyway,” I say, “all the girls wanted him, those preppy white ones especially, no offense Stacy, but yeah-he was also a grade above me so..”

Stacy sips her latte in confusion. 

“That still doesn’t explain how he was technically almost your boyfriend?”she asks. 

And here I thought she’d forget. Curse James and his big mouth. 

“Yeah, about that, uh well, we kinda became friends over lunch and ah,” I pause, the memory hitting me extremely fast and abruptly. 

Taehyung with that boxy smile of his as it fell. My heart lurched as he rubbed my shoulder. 

“I-I’m going back to Korea,” he said. 

“S-So is it over? Did we even have anything?” 

I barely got to ask as Taehyung’s lips met mine. It lingered prior to him pulling back. 

“Yeah, we did, but I don’t want you to hurt if it doesn’t work while I’m away,” he said. 

“Um, Y/N,” Stacy says, breaking me from the painful memory. “she, good?”

James leans across his desk to take my hand. 

“I can tell the rest,” he reassures, “if you’d let me?”

I nod and inhale. 

“Ok, so!” James starts like the complete Drama King that he is. “this kigga had the nerve to admit his feelings for Y/N during prom while his date was making out with the Physics professor!”

“Physics professor?” Stacy asks. 

“It’s a long story,” I say, “he was like in his twenties, she was 19, but it was still weird.”

“Oh, so, did he like you or-”

“Aparently so,” I say, “like he could have told me that he was going away, uh, I don’t know a few weeks or months before graduation!”

James pats my hand. 

“It’s ok sweetie,” he says, “he’s out of your life now.”

“What’s his name?” Stacy asks.

“Kim Tae-”

My words are cut off as someone enters the room and it isn’t Mr. Green. Instead, taking Mr. Green’s usual spot behind the brown colored podium is someone more youthful, and taller. His hair is in unkempt, medium length and jet black, matching his black turtleneck, blazer and pants. 

I look to his face again as the breath gets knocked from me. Taehyung. I reach over and tap James’ arm, forcing him to break from his fixed glare on the familiar man that just walked in.

“James, James, snap out of it,” I urge. 

“W-What girl! Do you see this sexy man?” 

I try to answer but I’m interrupted. 

“Hello class!” he greets, “Mr. Green fell ill so I’m here to teach Shakespeare in his stead!”

A collection of groans fall throughout the class while I’m still in shock. How is he here? He’s a sub? How the fuck?

“Now, now, it’s nothing serious, he should be back next week, but I’ll ensure that your final lessons on Twelfth Night run smoothly-ah! How could I forget, my name’s Kim Taehyung, I’m your sub for the week, but you can call me Taehyung.” 

James’ smile drops as he turns to me. 

“Oh shit,” he says, “oh shit, Y/N!”

Stacy turns my way as I lean down into my seat. 

“W-What?” she whispers. 

James glances Taehyung’s way before at Stacy. 

“That’s Y/N’s almost ex,” he whispers. 

Stacy opens her mouth, then covers it. This is my life now apparently. 

“Taehyung!” 

A hand shoots up from the front, from here I can see the long strands of blonde hair. 

“Yes?” he asks. 

“Uh, h-how old are you, uh, I mean you look young enough to be a first year university student,” she teases, “I-I mean not to be rude or anything.”

James rolls his eyes. 

“Of course she fucking did,” he says. 

I shake my head and watch as Taehyung chuckles. 

“No, you weren’t, it’s a simple observation, I’m 24 and I’m currently working on my masters, thus being a substitute is great experience for it.” 

The class nods in appreciation while all of the women and some men in the classroom admire Taehyung. God, can this class period end any sooner. 

“But enough about me,” Taehyung says, “let’s go through roll.” He pulls out Mr. Green’s grading book, so he must know him personally, or at least got it through the school. My heart quickens as he goes down the line: James answers with an overly enthusiastic ‘here’  and Stacy with a sliver of one. My eyes go forward as Taehyung stops for a moment prior to calling my name.

“Y/F/N Y/L/N,” he says it as if I weren’t real, like he has a hard time believing I’d take a damn Shakespeare class. 

“Here,” I say and sink back down into my seat. 

Taehyung steps around the podium and our eyes meet. He wets his lips as if to say something, but I look away. I can feel his eyes lingering on me before he goes back to roll. 

“And, Jessica?”

The same blonde haired girl who asked Taehyung that question shot her hand up again. 

“Here,” she says rather softly, a little too softly for my liking. 

God, why am I caring? Taehyung and I were hardly dating, I shouldn’t care. 

“A-All right, so let’s pick up with Act IV scene one,” Taehyung says as he glances around the class as every pulls out their copies of Twelfth Night. 

He stares at me once more prior to moving over to the whiteboard to write out the characters names. 

“Ok, who’d like to read for the part of Olivia?”

Jessica’s hand shoots up again, of course. 

...

Fifty minutes manage to crawl by, leaving us finished with Twelfth Night. 

“That shit was sooo convenient,” Stacy groans as she tosses her bag over her shoulder. 

James nods.

“Right, like Viola was a dude the entire time and suddenly Orsino’s got feelings,” he says, “he’s got to be bi at least.”

Taehyung grins. 

“Thanks for being so cool about this guys! Start reading Hamlet for Wednesday!” he announces. 

Everyone floods to the door at once, of course Jessica flutters her eyes at him before leaving. James and Stacy push through next, I try to keep up, yet I drop my water bottle. 

Taehyung crouches down quicker than I can react, scooping my bottle up into his arms. Our eyes meet again, this time I hold his black eyes and notice the somber nature within them. He looked the same way during graduation, as if I was fragile, like I couldn’t handle what he was going to tell me. I didn’t at the time, but now I’m over it. 

“Y/N,” he says my name carefully. 

I glance back down at my water bottle in his hands. 

“Can we talk, please?” he asks. 

“Can I have my water bottle?” I counter. 

Taehyung glances back down at it, bites his lip and stares back at me. 

“Y/N, just five minutes of your time,” he says. 

“I-I don’t have that long, I-I got class,” I lie.

Taehyung smirks. 

“If you had a class next then why were you chatting it up when the period ended,” he teases. 

“For fucks sake, of course you were watching,” I groan. 

Taehyung moves to shut the door, leaving me to stare at him incredulously.

“C’mon, just hear me out,” he urges. 

“Ok, then,” I let out as I slump down on top of a desk, “let’s talk.”

Taehyung sits on the desk across from me, biting his lips again before running a hand through his dark locks. 

“God, it’s so crazy seeing you here,” he bellows, “I-I mean, how have you been?”

I shrug. 

“Living, classes are going ok, been to a few clubs on campus, nothing really life changing,” I answer simply. 

Taehyung shifts up from his desk. 

“Don’t be that way, can you look at me?”

I look his way and almost recoil at how close he is now, nearly hovering over me. 

“T-Taehyung-”

He leans down against my ear. 

“I missed you,” he admits, “I may have called it off, but I never forgot about you.”

Is he serious?

He pulls away and our faces are inches away, his smoldering eyes holding mine again. 

“Here,” he says handing me the water bottle back, “and this.”

Taehyung scurries back over to the podium, tears out a piece of paper and writes on it. 

“If you want to talk, here’s my number, “ he says, “if you want this to stay in the past, it’ll stay there. I’ll play the well behaved sub.”

His words bring a smile to my lips and I can’t help but make the connection.

“We only kissed once and now you want to be well behaved?”

Taehyung chuckles. 

“I wouldn’t jump the gun too far, Y/N,” he says, “does that mean we can talk, again?”

I bite my lip at how eager he is. I don’t think he’s ever showed me this much attention in the past. 

“Maybe, let me see how much time I got after homework,” I say. 

Taehyung grins, opening the door, allowing me to step out. 

My false sense of bravado disappears as I begin to panic.